Jump to content

JB0

Members
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    13140

  • Joined

  • Last visited

 Content Type 

Everything posted by JB0

  1. JB0
    The only one I ever owned was MP-01(until he did a front-flip off my shelf and broke a leg). I was impressed with the robot mode, but annoyed by how fake the truck looked and the complexity of the transformation(which doesn't seem that bad in comparison to, say, MP Megatron 2). That a lot of the complexity was there just so he could have a separate radiator for the truck and the robot didn't exactly do it any favors.
  2. JB0
    Ditto. But the fold-away windshield wipers on Transform Element are a cool touch that actually improves both modes(wipers aren't molded into the window on the truck, so they look like actual wipers.). ... Transform Element didn't paint the headlights? Is that a pre-production issue, or did they totally cheap out on paint at the last second?
  3. JB0
    Same diff. But yes, Striker Manus is a legally-distinct converting robot who just happens to bear an ENTIRELY COINCIDENTAL resemblance to a certain Autobot(tm) leader.
  4. JB0
    That alone makes Magic Square's offering the best magic square. If the truck parts aren't robot parts, the design is cheating. Looks like the Takara is the only one that doesn't use the truck windshield as the robot chest. Lame, but expected of them.
  5. JB0
    If I recall, they're trying to get a Porsche license so they don't get sued over Jazz. Unlicensed robot toys aren't worried so much about lawsuits. They're either a small enough production that Porsche doesn't care, or in China.
  6. JB0
    The fins behind them make me think of Manus' ax storage.
  7. JB0
    Looks a lot more like Prime. ... But looks even more like Striker Manus for some reason. I think it is the panels sticking out behind the smokestacks sending my brain that direction.
  8. JB0
    I admit, I like that the truck cab has seating. It ain't worth what they're asking though, even at the preorder price, given their engineering and aesthetic is getting farther and farther from my tastes.
  9. JB0
    The bigger problem is getting Congress to fund NASA on anything more than a shoestring budget, honestly. The volatile and unpredictable nature of their top-level planning with 4-8-year swaps is a secondary issue.
  10. JB0
    Actually, sitting president has made such declarations. As opposed to the last president, who did his best to gut NASA completely.
  11. JB0
    'S just you. Screwhead was awesome, Pathfinder was too cool for words, Bugbite was the only VW Bug robot toy you needed, Stacks was ... Umm, Stacks was... Errr... ... Okay, you can't win 'em all. Stacks was pretty awful.
  12. JB0
    The Honors of the Go-Bots.
  13. JB0
    Yup. I think New Horizons did it first, and it proved to be a very effective and low-cost PR move, so it seems like every mission is doing it now. The Parker Solar Probe launched in August is the most recent one(and I missed it entirely(though the names are simply written to a MicroSD card)). Looks like there are plans to do this with the Mars 2020 rover, scheduled for a 2020 launch. So they should be collecting names "soon".
  14. JB0
    Along with a couple million other people, yeah. https://mars.nasa.gov/news/8287/more-than-24-million-names-are-going-to-mars/?site=insight
  15. JB0
    My name's on the probe!
  16. JB0
    My understanding is they used ONE screenshot from the cartoon, and swapped it out due to legal issues. And Bandai doesn't own any part of the Hanna-Barbera cartoon, as I understand things. If they did, WB would be crediting them on the current DVDs as a legal necessity, and they don't seem to be.
  17. JB0
    Hasbro definitely DOESN'T own the cartoon Go-Bots. Those are Hanna-Barbara's, and their Facebook team actually got in trouble for using some Go-Bots cartoon screenshots at one point.
  18. JB0
    I don't think anyone actually owns the looks, aside from the cartoon versions. Generally speaking you can't patent a look, you can't copyright physical objects, and I'm pretty sure Bandai didn't trademark the designs and then maintain those trademarks to the present day(as opposed to Gundam, where Bandai has every trademark they can think of). The same reason Hasbro can't stop all the "third-party" Transformer toys is the reason Bandai can't stop this. In short, this had to go through Hasbro's legal department, and they know what they're doing.
  19. JB0
    Disagree. The scale of the galactic stupidity is massive.
  20. JB0
    Thoughts, based on the preview pages: 1. The oldschool comic book art is amusing, but it could get old fast. But at least they committed to it completely and colored the between-panel whitespace so the pages appear yellowed. 2. Did they just completely change the Go-Bots origin story like it ain't nothin'? I get that with Hasbro owning both brands and IDW publishing both comics, there's a desire to differentiate them so they aren't both "multimode alien robots from a wrecked machine planet" stories. But they just wrote the Go-Bots as tools without free will. I think this was a concerted effort to see how annoyed they could make people in five pages, in which case MISSION ACCOMPLISHED. 3. Space shuttle exploring a distant galaxy? Dammit, can we get past this whole "galaxies are like planets, and visiting one is a trivial effort" thing? It was stupid even in the 80s.
  21. JB0
    I stand corrected, and am left with new questions.
  22. JB0
    Same diff.
  23. JB0
    Me too. I get that "bootleg" has negative connotations, but... I prefer the term "legally-distinct converting robots"
  24. JB0
    He looked chubbier in the other photos. I retract the complaint. He's still much busier than I prefer.
  25. JB0
    Indeed. Even if one doesn't like it(which I don't), it seems like a cop-out argument, a way to dismiss it without having to make a real critique. Since I opened that can of worms, it is probably only fair that I share my take. Mostly, I think that it is kind of a panel-y mess, especially the backpack. It is a very "CG anime mech" look, and it is also a look I don't care for. (Though it is less of a mess than the Bayformers!) I prefer simpler designs with less-convoluted geometry. I also don't care for the proportions. I feel like the torso goes on past "beefy super-robot" and into the Tetsujin-28 or Getter-1 "iron potato" build. In all fairness, this does seem to be faithful to the original design rather than Flame Toys' interpretation, but given how many other parts veer away from that original design, why NOT make him a bit sleeker?
×
×
  • Create New...