The Transformers Thread (licensed) Next

[Kuma Style]

Anyways, so yea... love that they gave Tarn so many aesthetic options between two masks abd the speakers. 

 

[sh9000]

Target online has a toy offer for $10 off $50 and $25 off $100.

[Alphahorizon]

I am a huge fan of Kuro Kara Kuri / Flame Toys. I am not a die hard "It better transform" either. I am also glad they are re releasing Tarn. Looks great Kuma. His hands look fully articulated rather then having multiple sets like the others then?

[M'Kyuun]

PrimevsPrime put up a video review for the upcoming commander class Sky Lynx. Up front, I've never been a big Sky Lynx fan, but this figure really caught my attention from New York Toy Fair coverage back in February. The articulation is really well done throughout, although, at least on the reviewer's copy, lacking in adequate strength in certain areas. Of note are the wing linkages, which have nice ratchets at the base, but friction joints on a knuckle that were very loose on PvP's. Hopefully, HasTak will get some feedback about that before they go into full scale production and that joint gets fixed. Given how much mass is on the end of that linkage, it should have a ratchet, too. The bird mode's legs didn't appear to have the best load strength, either, although more attention was paid to the wings. The Lynx mode is excellent, and my only suggestion to HasTak would be to improve the lateral range of head movement. Shuttle and to a lesser degree, carrier modes, are pretty well done, although the orbiter, with its rich detailing and NASA livery, stands out. The Lynx's carrier mode would be better served if the leg could somehow collapse, placing the faux treads in a more centered position under the legs, but it's more of a nitpick than a deal breaker. The orbiter is by far more important to me, and in that respect, I'm really pleased. It really shines a glaring light on what's wrong with Astrotrain's orbiter mode. Moving on, the the base mode is so-so- I'll likely put it in that mode once, and the rest of the time my copy will be in it's combined Sky Lynx pseudo-robo-apatosaurus mode, which , IMHO, is where this figure really shines. He's big and has just enough menace to be taken seriously, while packing a lot of articulation throughout, so the posing potential looks to offer a lot of range, which is rare, and fantastic on a figure this size. I've had mine Po'd for a few weeks, and what I see in this review only increases my anticipation.

[Kuma Style]

On 4/6/2020 at 1:19 PM, Alphahorizon said:

I am a huge fan of Kuro Kara Kuri / Flame Toys. I am not a die hard "It better transform" either. I am also glad they are re releasing Tarn. Looks great Kuma. His hands look fully articulated rather then having multiple sets like the others then?

Thanks and yea they are fully articulated BUT the fingers are prone to pop out at the ball joints  where they connect to the hand. It makes since because they're relatively thin and pop in a bit shallow but I wish it weren't the case because they're so thin that they could potentially be hard to find if they pop out and you aren't looking directly at where they go.

 

Edited April 7, 2020 by Kuma Style

[Falcon]

On 4/5/2020 at 11:46 PM, Scyla said:

I would say they are similar in some aspects like paint and materials used. And they are stylized versions of their original design. Both also come with their fair share of accessories and a stand (I prefer the MB stand though)

One the other hand they are totally different. Chemical Attack (the design team) takes great care into putting lots of engineering into how parts move on the toy. The joints on a Metal Build are much simpler in design most of the time.

Also all Kuro Kara Kuri toys come with a bunch of light-up features (that I don’t care about).

The Flame Toys stuff is also more expensive but that seems sensible to me since they are not Bandai and their toys are bulkier and have more features.

 

 

Thanks for the explanation. Really wished I got the Star Sabre when I had the chance- all of them look amazing!

[Kuma Style]

[sh9000]

@mikeszekely

https://tfsource.com/takara-tomy/transformers-generations-selects/super-megatron/

[mikeszekely]

6 hours ago, sh9000 said:

@mikeszekely

https://tfsource.com/takara-tomy/transformers-generations-selects/super-megatron/

Somehow that's cheaper than I expected from TFSource.

It's not a perfect Super Megatron, but it's better than their Star Convoy.  I'll see if Hasbro Pulse carries it.  

[M'Kyuun]

Looks like a lot of accessory parts-forming, a la Siege Shockwave, to accomplish his alts. His design is not really to my taste, but I am curious what it's from.

[mikeszekely]

8 hours ago, M'Kyuun said:

Looks like a lot of accessory parts-forming, a la Siege Shockwave, to accomplish his alts. 

I don't think so.  The figure looks to be heavily remolded from Titans Return Galvatron, which only used partsforming for the headmaster and the cannon.  It's possible that more partsforming is part of the remolding, but it doesn't look like it to me.  You can see where the majority of his body ends up in both alt modes, as it seems to do very minimal transforming.  Aside from laying down, his wings and his shoulder armor look like they do the most shifting.  The only partsforming I can see is his arm cannon moving from his arm to his back, but that's pretty normal for Megatron/Galvatron.  Interestingly enough, it looks like his big cannon splits open to expose the three-barreled Ultra Megatron cannon, which can be removed to sit on his shoulder.

It also looks like he's got some kind of face-swapping gimmick, and the alternate (inner?) face reminds me of The Last Knight Megatron. 

8 hours ago, M'Kyuun said:

His design is not really to my taste, but I am curious what it's from.

It's Super Megatron from a very short-lived toyline and manga series called Battlestars: The Return of Convoy.

It's the same line that gave us Star Convoy, although this is the first time (to my knowledge) that Super Megatron is being made.  As I noted when it was first revealed, it's not particularly accurate to the source material, but I think it's closer than Star Convoy.

As for the manga, I believe it's set to be reprinted in English as part of Transformers: the Manga Vol. 3.

EDIT: Super Megatron's up for preorder on Hasbro Pulse now, $5 cheaper than TFSource plus free shipping if you're a Pulse Premium member.

Edited April 9, 2020 by mikeszekely

[Scyla]

I just notices that it is a retool of TR Galvatron. These legs looked familiar.

That kills all interest in the figure for me. The Galvatron is so bad I wont touch any of his descendants with a 10 foot pole!

[mikeszekely]

23 minutes ago, Scyla said:

I just notices that it is a retool of TR Galvatron. These legs looked familiar.

That kills all interest in the figure for me. The Galvatron is so bad I wont touch any of his descendants with a 10 foot pole!

Was it really that bad?  People seemed to like Open & Play's Big Cannon, which was also based on TR Galvatron.  But I personally have no experience with the mold; I'm still rocking Mania King for my CHUG/Siege/ER Galvatron.

[tekering]

31 minutes ago, mikeszekely said:

Was it really that bad?

The head and flip-up helmet gimmick was.  Otherwise, not so bad.

But "Mania King" remains the gold standard for that scale.  

[M'Kyuun]

Honestly, having owned the original Galvatron toy, whose inconsistencies between toy and toon were vast, I thought the TR version was fairly well done. It's not without its flaws: the right arm can barely move due to the enormity of the cannon and its single peg hole on the bicep where it renders the elbow nigh pointless( another peg hole on the side, or an additional rotation joint here, would have ameliorated the pose-ability quite a bit, methinks); the shoulder pauldron also needs to be rotated almost 90 degrees (pointing straight up, which looks odd) in order to rotate the right arm at the shoulder with the cannon attached; unlike the G1 toy whose orange cannon barrel separated from the arm mount, the TR version's cannon and mount are one piece, but the mount is hinged at the center allowing the back half to fold 180 degrees, and it just looks odd hanging out under the orange barrel in space cannon mode; there's an orange canopy on the lower handle, a concession for the additional space jet mode that Takara added in there. Personally, I like the space jet mode, but YMMV. There are dark grey panels which fill out the inner lower legs in bot mode, but they hinge out 180 degrees and stick out past the legs in space cannon mode- it just looks tacky. And finally, as Tekering said above, the flimsy partial flip-up helmet piece, and headmaster gimmicks suck. I would rather they'd just given him a solid flip out head, and eschewed the headmaster gimmick for this fig, but it does make sense for the jet mode. Overall, though, for a retail figure to which they added an additional mode, the concessions aren't too bad; it looks enough like Galvatron in bot and space cannon modes to suit me. When I look at him in his space cannon mode, I can almost hear him say, "Here's a hint!"

[lechuck]

I wish they would have done Star Convoy and Super Megatron proper as MP, rather than repurposing mass retail toys.

[Scyla]

5 hours ago, mikeszekely said:

Was it really that bad?  People seemed to like Open & Play's Big Cannon, which was also based on TR Galvatron.  But I personally have no experience with the mold; I'm still rocking Mania King for my CHUG/Siege/ER Galvatron.

Since it already been stated that the Kuro Kara Kuri Transformers are the pinnacle of this franchise for me you know where my preferences lie.

TR Galvatron feels super flimsy with thin plastic panels. It feels like one of those shampoo bottle toys.

I was a big fan of the Universe Galvatron and it’s complicated engineering so the simplistic transformation of the Titans Return one did not bode well with me.

Lastly, which doesn’t apply to Super Megatron, he fails at being Galvatron. Terrible head and can’t aim his gun properly.

Maybe I should see if I can acquire Big Cannon and/or Mania King.

[mikeszekely]

10 hours ago, tekering said:

But "Mania King" remains the gold standard for that scale.  

No arguments from me.  My only complaint with him is that he doesn't have wrist swivels.

...but what cannon is that you gave him?

9 hours ago, M'Kyuun said:

Honestly, having owned the original Galvatron toy, whose inconsistencies between toy and toon were vast, I thought the TR version was fairly well done. It's not without its flaws: the right arm can barely move due to the enormity of the cannon and its single peg hole on the bicep where it renders the elbow nigh pointless( another peg hole on the side, or an additional rotation joint here, would have ameliorated the pose-ability quite a bit, methinks); the shoulder pauldron also needs to be rotated almost 90 degrees (pointing straight up, which looks odd) in order to rotate the right arm at the shoulder with the cannon attached; unlike the G1 toy whose orange cannon barrel separated from the arm mount, the TR version's cannon and mount are one piece, but the mount is hinged at the center allowing the back half to fold 180 degrees, and it just looks odd hanging out under the orange barrel in space cannon mode; there's an orange canopy on the lower handle, a concession for the additional space jet mode that Takara added in there. Personally, I like the space jet mode, but YMMV. There are dark grey panels which fill out the inner lower legs in bot mode, but they hinge out 180 degrees and stick out past the legs in space cannon mode- it just looks tacky. And finally, as Tekering said above, the flimsy partial flip-up helmet piece, and headmaster gimmicks suck. I would rather they'd just given him a solid flip out head, and eschewed the headmaster gimmick for this fig, but it does make sense for the jet mode. Overall, though, for a retail figure to which they added an additional mode, the concessions aren't too bad; it looks enough like Galvatron in bot and space cannon modes to suit me. When I look at him in his space cannon mode, I can almost hear him say, "Here's a hint!"

It really sounds like most of Galvatron's problems will be non-issues for Megatron.

5 hours ago, Scyla said:

Maybe I should see if I can acquire Big Cannon and/or Mania King.

Be advised that, while based on the TR mold, Big Cannon was scaled up to around the same size as FT's Galvatron.

Mania King is just slightly taller than Siege/ER Prime and Megatron, which makes him ideal for Hasbro's new "in-scale" CHUG stuff.

[M'Kyuun]

I wish they'd put Super Megs' bicep bits with that outward facing 5mm peg on TR Galvatron.  It would have helped the articulation of the right arm greatly. I have to say, Megatron's colors look good on that mold, as everything from the waist down, the shoulders, and the forearms are shared. I like the bot mode, but neither of the alts really grab me. It would have been nice if they'd found a way to hide the tank treads in jet mode- they look weird perched on the back of the jet. Ah, HasTak- you guys and jet modes.  Kawamori needs to hold a masterclass for those guys.

[tekering]

9 hours ago, mikeszekely said:

...but what cannon is that you gave him?

It's a custom I kitbashed years ago.  There's a red LED and three button-cell batteries inside.

 

[jvmacross]

Not sure if posted previously...but of interest to vintage transformers fans....

 

[jvmacross]

 

[Kuma Style]

 

[M'Kyuun]

4 hours ago, jvmacross said:

 

If Hasbro saw some of these commercials, I can see why they got excited about the potential of the Diaclone figures that became Transfomers.- stop motion makes these things seem much more dynamic than they actually are without resorting to special effects aside from flying them on wires. The car robot ones are great for selling the disguise element. The Dinobot ones are cool, too. Enjoyed the heck out of these, even if some were very repetitive.  That 'Di-a Crone'song gets stuck in your head.

I wish Hasbro had done something like this, rather than having kids do the transformations.

[lechuck]

For those that like Bayverse Transformers, MPM-10 has been revealed. I must say that I do like the stop motion advertising.

 

[derex3592]

Fighter mode looks absolutely terrible! What were they thinking??? Looks like a $15 dollar toy. 

[tekering]

13 minutes ago, derex3592 said:

Fighter mode looks absolutely terrible! What were they thinking??? Looks like a $15 dollar toy. 

The leader-class Revenge of the Fallen Starscream retailed for more than $15, but what you're seeing is literally a ten year-old toy with some new accessories.  I was shocked when TakaraTomy repainted a Hasbro toy and called it MPM-1, and I'm even more shocked to see them release the same toy -- again -- a DECADE later, and call it MPM-10!  

The Movie Masterpiece line is like a colossal joke to the Japanese.  

[M'Kyuun]

 Although similar, having done some comparisons to the leader class toy, the MPM appears to be a new mold that's not even as good as the old leader class. Two things that stood out to me were the light grey bar looking structure on the bottom behind the nose gear, which doesn't appear on the leader class fig, and the side transformation structures on the leader class were much more streamlined; that section behind the intake on the MPM looks gappy and the hinged structures are noticeably different.

But the end result is no different; it's yet another subpar transforming jet from HasTak.  I don't collect MPM, so it's not a big deal to me, but for those who do, it kinda sucks to get another crappy rendition where the F-22 alt mode has heavy concessions.

[anime52k8]

bot mode at least looks good and the articulation is improved over the original RotF leader.

[Sildani]

That looks terrible. LOVE the actual ad though. 

[sqidd]

1 hour ago, Sildani said:

That looks terrible. LOVE the actual ad though. 

With it showing the articulation and the voice I thought I was watching a JobbytheHong video.

[Mechapilot77]

its not the old mold.  i had that thing.....it was good for the time but this is more articulated for sure....jet mode is no better....probably worse.

[mikeszekely]

If you look at the physical dimensions of a Raptor against even a relatively low-profile car like a Countach the bulk of the Countach is thicker and wider than the Raptor.  There's just more space to hide the robot.  Plus, we're a lot less inclined to get bent out of shape if the underside of Countach isn't super clean and has visible robot kibble (as long as it's flat enough that it doesn't interfere with the wheels), but because we sometimes display planes on flight stands we want them to look cleaner from the underside.  Now take the fact that it's harder to make a robot out of a Raptor than it is out of a car and combine it with the fact that it's not just turning into a robot, it's gotta turn into the metal origami that passes for a robot in the Bayverse and, well, I'm no engineer but it seems like an impossible task to make a Raptor that looks good from any angle that turns into a movie-accurate Starscream.  So no, the Raptor mode isn't pretty, but I'm willing to cut them some slack for the metric ton of robot kibble chilling on the underside.

No, I'm actually more mad about the colors/paint/finish/whatever on the jet mode.  Look at Starscream in the movie (as best you can).

It's hard to tell with the action and the blurring, but from what you can see of him (and the Raptors he's chasing) he looks like two slightly different shades of gray, with a third darker gray for camo.  Definitely lighter on the edges of the wings and stabs.  Sort of like this.

Instead, it looks like the MPM is a sandy gray with very dark trim and very dark camo, almost blue.

No joke, the Studio Series version looks better.

[M'Kyuun]

4 hours ago, mikeszekely said:

If you look at the physical dimensions of a Raptor against even a relatively low-profile car like a Countach the bulk of the Countach is thicker and wider than the Raptor.  There's just more space to hide the robot.  Plus, we're a lot less inclined to get bent out of shape if the underside of Countach isn't super clean and has visible robot kibble (as long as it's flat enough that it doesn't interfere with the wheels), but because we sometimes display planes on flight stands we want them to look cleaner from the underside.  Now take the fact that it's harder to make a robot out of a Raptor than it is out of a car and combine it with the fact that it's not just turning into a robot, it's gotta turn into the metal origami that passes for a robot in the Bayverse and, well, I'm no engineer but it seems like an impossible task to make a Raptor that looks good from any angle that turns into a movie-accurate Starscream.  So no, the Raptor mode isn't pretty, but I'm willing to cut them some slack for the metric ton of robot kibble chilling on the underside.

Mike, I respectfully disagree; the F-22 is a rather large and very boxy fighter, which ameliorates the ability to hide robot parts, especially with some well done panel-fu. The F-15 is also a boxy jet, and we've gotten a number of decent seeker designs, mostly from third parties, but still, it's been done. The 22 is larger than the F-15, which is itself a large jet. I think where the issue lies is that, where it concerns Bayformers, from the beginning, the transformations were accomplished not as a matter of practical mechanical design, but by CG artists taking bits of alt mode willy-nilly and assembling them hodge-podge into a 'cool-looking' robot without concern as to how such arrangements make any logical mechanical sense. For an entity trying to make a working three-dimensional translation of such designs is challenging from the onset b/c they inherently, by design, make no sense. Ergo, the need for faux parts, either bot or alt mode; fudging the transformations to try to make some sort of visual sense from one form to the other; using panels in a variety of ways to facilitate the transformation; and making deliberate choices to prioritize one mode over the other.  Takara has a pretty good track record for making reasonably convincing ground vehicles of all shapes and sizes, but not so much with aircraft, specifically fighters, and I think that's a deliberate choice on their part. Kawamori's valks prove that a sleek fighter can turn into a nice looking robot. Takara, for whatever reason, just don't seem to be bothered to try.

Contrarily, they've done an admirable job with any number of rotorcraft alt modes: RotF Blazemaster, Incinerator, Voyager and SS Blackout, Bumblebee Movie Dropkick, and to a lesser degree,  DotM Skyhammer, to name the best ones that come to mind. Why can they fit all that bot into a reasonably realistic and accurate heli mode but not a jet? IMHO, they've been making poor TF jets since the eighties, they seem to sell regardless, so why change or improve? There's no incentive to try so long as people accept the lazy engineering and continue buying these things without meaningful protest or critique.

[mikeszekely]

1 hour ago, M'Kyuun said:

Mike, I respectfully disagree

You can disagree with the gist of my assertion, but you can also look at the numbers.  If you look at the ratio of the height to length both the Raptor and the Countach have similar ratio of around 1:3.8... at their thickest point.  For the Raptor, that's from the bottom of the landing gear to the top of the vertical stabilizers.  The bulk of the fuselage is maybe half the listed height if I'm being generous, and when the Countach is measured from the bottom of the wheel to the top of the roof, with the cabin roughly a third of the vehicle and rear only dropping a little from that it's still a fact that the Raptor is proportionally much thinner.  So yeah, it's a big, boxy fighter.  So's the F-15, but AFAIK even stuff like MP-11 is thicker in jet mode than an actual F-15, because neither are as boxy as a car.

Again, I'm not an engineer.  I'm not saying that it's impossible to make a robot that turns into a better, thinner F-22, but I am saying that it's a lot harder than making a robot out of a car.

1 hour ago, M'Kyuun said:

I think where the issue lies is that, where it concerns Bayformers, from the beginning, the transformations were accomplished not as a matter of practical mechanical design, but by CG artists taking bits of alt mode willy-nilly and assembling them hodge-podge into a 'cool-looking' robot without concern as to how such arrangements make any logical mechanical sense. For an entity trying to make a working three-dimensional translation of such designs is challenging from the onset b/c they inherently, by design, make no sense. Ergo, the need for faux parts, either bot or alt mode; fudging the transformations to try to make some sort of visual sense from one form to the other; using panels in a variety of ways to facilitate the transformation; and making deliberate choices to prioritize one mode over the other.

And that's why, while you could conceivably get a decent F-22 out of a robot if you started with the F-22 and worked backward to something boxy and G1-ish, I don't think it's ever going to happen with movie Starscream.

1 hour ago, M'Kyuun said:

Takara has a pretty good track record for making reasonably convincing ground vehicles of all shapes and sizes, but not so much with aircraft, specifically fighters, and I think that's a deliberate choice on their part.

They're definitely prioritizing the robot modes, but again I think it has a lot to do with the fact that fighters are thinner and not as wide (if you exclude the wings) than just about any other mode alt mode.

1 hour ago, M'Kyuun said:

Kawamori's valks prove that a sleek fighter can turn into a nice looking robot. Takara, for whatever reason, just don't seem to be bothered to try.

I don't think Kawamori's Valks are the best example.  Transformers have to figure out how to get robots out of real-world aircraft, Kawamori gets to design aircraft that are purposely designed to transform into robots with large engine nacelles to accommodate the legs.  And even at that, you'll notice that since they started using computer animation for the mecha instead of traditional cell-shaded animation that his designs have gotten a lot skinnier, especially in the limbs.

1 hour ago, M'Kyuun said:

Contrarily, they've done an admirable job with any number of rotorcraft alt modes: RotF Blazemaster, Incinerator, Voyager and SS Blackout, Bumblebee Movie Dropkick, and to a lesser degree,  DotM Skyhammer, to name the best ones that come to mind. Why can they fit all that bot into a reasonably realistic and accurate heli mode but not a jet?

Because, again, different proportions give them thicker vehicles that they can stuff the robot into, especially if you only measure from the nose to the base of the tail boom instead of the the end.  Also because three of those examples didn't appear on-screen, allowing the designers to work backward from the aircraft without trying to fit a particular CGI character.  Or in the case of Dropkick, because the robot is only passingly screen-accurate.

Edited April 16, 2020 by mikeszekely