RavenHawk

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.

Yeah, they cut that element out of both the twins in the movie and Arcee, though it is still in the novel (well, Arcee anyway, haven't gotten far enough in the book to see if it's there for the twins).

No, that is not the definition of fanfiction that I've ever heard. By that logic, Batman Begins and The Dark Knight are fan fiction because they were not created by Bob Kane (just an immediate example that comes to mind, but we could do thousands of these).

I liked it a lot. Lots of action, though it's somewhat repetitive for the first few episodes. Plot got off to a slower start than you would expect, considering how quickly it ends. Would've like this one to have been 24 eps.

Cool Thanks for posting that

They're a different kind of kooky. Not anime kooky, more like '90s Image comics kooky.

VFTF1, Sorry, our messages are getting too long to quote, so I'll just reply more simply. I understand everything you're saying, definitely see your points, and agree with a decent amount of it. I guess, for me, what it boils down to is that: 1) G1 were engineered toys first, and animated designs second. Thus, while the engineering is impressive for that time, and even to a degree for now, it wasn't as much of a stretch. Henkei... well, I don't own any, so I don't know how cool they might be, though they do look cool, but it seems easier to me to do an updated and more modern redesign of an older toy. The movie, on the other hand, has designs drawn up by movie designers with no real thought as to how they transform. Even the computer animators have flatly stated they did a lot of cheating on the transformations. I think it was a MAJOR effort to take something that was designed first to look cool, and figure out how to make it work as a toy. Devastator, as you say, is a perfect example. It's not that he doesn't transform and combine (except for the EZ/Legends one) because the engineers are too lazy to design a toy to do that; he doesnt transform and combine because the way he was designed by the movie designers, it is physically impossible. Mixmaster cannot have that robot mode, and still turn into that head, etc. 2) I'm just not as disappointed by the toys as you are. I guess, for me, i look at a $7-$30 movie transformer that transforms and looks pretty much like he did in the movie, I can drop him on the floor or let my kids play with him and he's still fine, but he's lacking in tampo and other details... and compare that to my $200 Yamatos (which I love) or CMs or Megahouse or Toynami "toys" where the transformation is no fun, they break while transforming then, never mind if they tip over, but look pretty and are nice for transforming once then leaving posed up on a shelf. For all the shortcomings, I can't really fault a $15 transformer that is the same size as a $150 anime toy, but is actually fun to play with and is durable.

I'll try to remember to take some this weekend.