RavenHawk

I'm really looking forward to this one. Love transformers, people who recognize my name on here know I'm obsessed with variable bikes, and loved GIJoe as a kid, so there's no way I'm passing this up. The pricepoint will probably only be $12-16 too; compare that to what I've spend on my CMs, Megahouse, and Beagle MOSPEADAs... As for the person who mentioned a lawsuit, somebody mentioned this at Robotech too, and I really think no way. There are virtually no MOSPEADA similarities. The two wheels on the back are actually, I think, the front tire split up like Motoslaves do. In fact, if you spend some time looking at the parts and work out the transformation, I think it is actually VERY VERY similar to the Yamato BGC Moto-slaves, with the same combination of parts-forming and parts-moving. As for the modes, I disagree with someone's assessment above. I think the bike mode is what actually looks best. It looks very similar to a Confederate Wraith. The armor mode, on the other hand, I think looks terrible and poorly designed, but hopefully will look better in person.

This has always been my take on it. It provides a story that makes more sense, separates things nicely from the source material, and fits in with what the writers and Carl Macek have said numerous times in interviews. Many of the ideas that people complained about in the books were actually directives from or inspired by Macek himself. Plus, this take on this allows me to still reread and enjoy the novels, in a way that I haven't been able to do with Robotech in years.

Transformation sequence looks VERY similar to BGC, much moreso than MOSPEADA.

I'm still hoping for a direct-to-video release or something, though if it didn't get approval in the current era of 12 episode anime, it seems unlikely. Anyone more more about the details of this show being proposed and then rejected? I don't read any Japanese.

As for the three motorcycles, last word I saw was an interview that said that the third bike WILL be coming out next year, but that there will be no instructions on how to combine them. We're all, me included, assuming this means that the features to let them combine will be there, they just won't tell us how to do it. I've only seen one pic of someone trying to combine Chromia and Arcee (both of whom I have, but haven't had time to muck around with Arcee since I got her a couple nights back), I think on TFW2005. Can anyone point me to other pics of people's attempts at combining them?

If you already have one, then I think it's worth it, since they look gorgeous displayed next to each other. Just keep that in mind, you are likely going to display these, not really transform them a lot. Also, you'll probably display them in car mode, since the car modes look gorgeous. The robot modes are much worse, in my opinion, than the deluxes.

Re: Swerve The deluze class Sideswipe is actually my favorite figure from ROTF, so I picked up Swerve too and think I actually like him better. Just seems to fit tighter and everything seems to line up better. I don't know if there was an improvement in the quality control between when the two figures were made, or if I just happened to get a better Swerve than I did Sideswipe, but, either way, I like him a lot. Oh, I also just picked up Human Alliance Bumblebee and Sideswipe. I have to say that, while I love the huge size of both of these figures and the nice weight to them, the transformations just are much less fun than on the deluxe class versions. Biggest complaint: Human Alliance Sideswipe has so much kibble on his back in robot mode (virtually ever car component), he's probably second only to Jetfire's plane mode when it comes to pure kibble. The arms also look TERRIBLE, with a huge opening where the hands come out. The deluxe really does handle the transformation SO MUCH better. The car mode, on the other hand, is gorgeous! Gotta love the brake calipers.

No it wasn't. Numerous interviews with the ExoSquad writers all say that Robotech was never actually mean to have anything to do with season 3. The toys were marketed together, because they looked a little like they could fit in the same universe. The cartoon, sadly, had nothing to do with the other, and, fortunately, had NOTHING to do with Harmony Gold.

I've ordered from them about a half dozen times. Everything always arrived fine (except for a broken mug one time), but they take forever to send shipping confirmation emails, seem to ship by the slowest means known to man, and never ever reply to emails.

Nice pic. Similar to how I have all my variable bikes displayed, though I do tend to group them by scale. I agree that the Beagle, despite solid engineering and nothing breaking (yet) is more of a display piece. Then again, so are the various Yamato Garlands. My CMs, as much as they may be intended to be playable, are too fidgety and all of mine are just display pieces. The only ones that I really "play" with are my BGC Motoslave (don't know why people complain about these; I have the metallic Priss and it's fun and durable) and Transformers.

Gorgeous. I'm not familiar with this company though. I'm assuming it's a model, and a non-transforming one at that?

While I didn't like the new designs when the first movie came out, I absolutely feel that you have to have these "bayformer" designs to make the movie work. The old, boxy, G1 designs, while easier for a kid to draw from memory, just would not translate to live-action, as has been evidenced by several bad Transformers knock-offs. I really have come to prefer these alien-looking robots, who disguise themselves with vehicle modes, thus looking like an alien with some vehicle parts on their body. It's even come to the point where my kids (heavily influenced by me) only like the toys that look very alien and "bayformer" and not the universe and other more G1-like toys.

I wish I could get a poster of the cover... or see more of Aramaki doing updated versions of the Garland and MOSPEADA bikes, like on the cover.

Yeah. I was hoping for a normal bike scale like 1/18th, but when I did out the math a couple months back this came out to, I think, 1/24th or so, maybe even smaller. Really tiny for the price, though gorgeous and understandable considering what a niche product this is.

LOVE that Animation Bikes book.

That's the main character's manuever-blade from Viper's Creed. Liked the show a lot, GORGEOUS toy, but just can't justify $500 for it.

MEMO, why do you type all of your posts in all caps (capital letters)? You do it here and on Robotech.com too.

Very nice, thanks. I already had it in the list of variable bikes, but did not know that BBTS used to carry it. I've only seen it on Japanese sites and eBay. Time to post the updated list, I guess.

Hey Lonely, good to see you. I had totally forgotten about the streetfighter option. How about one of these two KTMs? First is the SuperDuke R, which is all street, second is the SMT, which is dual sport, so seems to really fit the bill, especially for Houquet.

I was thinking something along the lines of a KTM Super Duke, but with dual sport tires.

This brings up an interesting question (well, interesting to me... maybe not to anyone else), though a bit off topic maybe. Off-road bikes tend to be steered more by actual turning, plus leaning. Motards, a type of streetbike, are usually the same, plus some countersteering. Cruisers (street) are usually steered more by regular steering, and leaning, due to the speeds they are usually ridden at. Sportbikes (street) are steered by leaning, but, most importantly, by countersteering at any real speed. What kind of bikes do you think these are? They all have fairly slick tires, so seem likely to be streetbikes. Are they sportbikes? Motards? Aramaki's bike that they were inspired by was a standard (streetbike), though the look was based on a Katana, which is a sportbike. However, considering where they ride them, it seems like they would more likely be dual-sports (which are meant for riding on road and on dirt, though not too rough terrain), which also seems like a better idea for military applications and is more in like with the Kawasakis that the US military (not sure about others) uses in real life. Ok, sorry, probably too off-topic.

My pick was Nathan Fillion, like in the fan-made trailer on youtube.

I didn't do any Legends figures from the first movie, but am absolutely loving the Legends ones from the new one. So far I've picked up Prime and Jetfire (they do combine), Bumblebee, Sideswipe, and Springer. Springer is by FAR my favorite and I recommend him to everyone. Looking forward to the Legends Devastator (you know, the only one where the vehicles transform into robots, and can combine into Devstator too?) when it comes out in the US. Anyone else buying Legends with some recommendations? You know, I tend to be into the bigger and more detailed and complicated figures, but the Legends have something that almost all movie figures are lacking: They're actually FUN to transform!

Both my figures are very tight, but the bike is decidedly tighter on the Rand than on the Scott. Not just the new parts, either. I don't think they did any changes to make it like that, I think they just tightened up the tolerances.

I'm still waiting on RoboCrosser to materialize, which was supposed to be part of the Spring lineup.