M'Kyuun

Pugsx3, please use punctuation and capitalization where appropriate; it demonstrates maturity and discipline, as well as making your thoughts clearer. If you look closely, the head is 4 studs wide at the top, and angles to 6 wide at the bottom, plus additional width for the side plating. The head is 4 studs tall at the front, angling to 6 studs high at the aft, and is 9 studs long from front to aft. The head can easily accommodate a mini-fig, or 2 in-line. The body, from the angle of the photo, is undiscernable for width. Also, as mentioned, it's far too early to judge the set by these pics, as far as details and printing go. As I said before, it looks a bit smaller than its predecessor, but still pretty decently sized, as compared to the minifigs featured in the pic. I personally have no problem with the look of the legs; if they remain the same in the production model, then rejoice, b/c it's made of LEGO and can be modified rather easily, and without the mess of modifying something like an action figure, which might require drilling, sanding, painting, etc. I did notice that the lower legs are only 2 studs wide, while the top part is 4. The main body of the feet are still 6 wide, 8 wide including the "toes". Big feet, little legs.

I don't quite get the hate for the new AT-AT (or any new sets, for that matter). I was also hoping the new AT-AT would be a larger, improved set with space for 2 drivers. It's not what we're getting, but I can really find no real fault with the new set, except it looks a little scrunched compared to the original set (4483). I bought 3 of the original AT-AT set, just in case another was never produced. No regrets there. I've never cared for motorized toys too much, and the motorized AT-AT, while a neat concept, and fairly executed, still never appealed to me, and is one of only a handful of SW sets I don't own. Compared to 4483, it's meh. If I have any gripe about the new set, it's "Why C3PO?" Given the scale of the set, w/ no real base to mention, putting more snowies and Rebel troops to man the cannon would be ideal. (I love snowtroopers, and I dig the new Hoth Rebel trooper as well, so more of both is good) I'm actually surprised a snowspeeder wasn't included in this set, too. It'd be appropriate, and a chance to give us a new pilot fig, although the snowspeeder has been showing up alot in the last few years. The AT-AT and the snowspeeder are probably my two favorite vehicles in SW, and The Hoth scene in Ep V my favorite part of any of the OT. This could easily become a large battlepack.

I let myself get a little excited for a second, until someone mentioned the date. I'm anticipating the movie, and I think it'll do well, esp given the nostalgia factor for older fans who remember the original. I'd love to see sets, and moreso, a LEGO video game based on the old and new movies. Also, LEGO have produced some very intricate and complex circuitry patterns on figs in the past (UFO, for one), and with a little glow-in-the -dark paint, I think they'd be full of win. Still, if LEGO were making sets for this, I think we would have seen at least preliminary images. Hope I'm wrong, and we get a nice TRON-ful surprise this fall.

I like both, but I was more into vehicles than buildings as a kid. I didn't get into Castle or Pirates until I was an adult. I thought they looked neat, but I've always been far more into sci-fi, and Space sets filled my collection. Brickbeard's Bounty was my first Pirate set, and I also got the amazing Imperial Flagship. I love the Star Wars sets, and I have nearly every one of them, with a few exceptions. I've been, perhaps erroneously, of the understanding that, traditionally, vehicle based sets fare far better, marketing-wise, than building sets, due to playability. From that viewpoint, I've been making my arguments towards certain themes over others. My bias towards TRON over the POP movie is present, I'll concede. I think the POP sets look good, but the movie looks cringeworthy at best. However, if I were a toymaker, I would see more playability in a buch of futuristic motorcycles zooming around a futuristic landscape than in guys riding camels and ostriches. I make the same point when comparing Avatar and IGPX: one features very few vehicles , and most are medieval/steampunkish, while the other features a variety of sleek, stylish racing mechs. I would always bet on the racing themes over the medieval, but that's me. The medieval themes have been successful for LEGO, and I imagine they're easier to produce, design-wise, than something more stylised. Love it or hate it, I think the Star Wars line has definitely pushed design at LEGO to new standards, and I'd love to see them move into more challenging territory, say, perhaps, transforming mecha.

Don't get me wrong, I think the POP sets look amazing, and I like the architectural style. The minifigs are excellent, not to mention ostriches and camels. I'll probably pick one or two up. While the movie doesn't really grab me, based on the previews, the sets look great. I'm also very much an anime fan, esp of mecha, but I watch alot of non-mecha anime as well. I watched a couple eps of Avatar and couldn't really get into it. But then, I'm not really into fantasy as much as sci-fi, so I'm a bit biased myself. As far as the sets go, from all the things you mentioned, TLG could have produced a lot more sets for their Avatar line, but for some reason they didn't. I never picked any of them up, although I nearly snagged a Fire Nation ship for parts. Shyamalan's upcoming movie would possibly reinvigorate interest in the series, so I'm a little surprised that TLG didn't have any sets made from that as well. I never got the sense that the original line of sets did very well, as they warmed shelves in my area for a long time, and saw price reductions in the end. Moreover, there is probably different licensing involved. I intend to see Shyamalan's movie, and I might have to give the series another look. I think IGPX would have seen more popularity had there been a murchandise line here in the States, aside from a single video game. The mecha designs were very interesting and stylish, and would have made good toy and model fodder. Avatar, on the other hand, did enjoy a toy line in the US. Both shows came out around the same time, one on Nikelodeon, the other on Cartoon Network. From a merchandising point of view, IGPX should have been a no-brainer for an awesome toyline. I wouldn't call the show epic by any means, but it wasn't bad either, and it looked good (Production IG did the animation). Anyway, from the first commercials, I had hoped that TLG would produce sets from the show; not only did they not make toys, as far as I know, nobody did. It's odd, b/c robot toys sell well, in most cases, and the racing mech designs were certainly eyecatching. Getting back to the original topic, in addition to POP, I wish TLG would also produce sets from the upcoming TRON: Legacy. That way the fantasy and the sci-fi fans both get stuff. I think some cool sets could come out of it, and there'd be a lot of transluscent parts and cool styling to the various buildings and vehicles, not to mention the minifigs. I guess I'm a bit jaded, as TLG always makes sets from licenses that I'm not into, and the shows/movies I think are good and would offer plenty of LEGO set opportunities never come to pass. Also, someone mentioned TLG making sets from a show celebrating its first decde (the Tribe) and they were kinda shot down (I never heard of it either); Q:how long has it been since Disney's Atlantis, an ok film that has spawned little to no attention since its release, now a full-fledged theme in LEGO, albeit with designs mostly unrelated to the film outside of the creatures' designs? A: 2001, and 2003 for the direct to vid sequel. Just shows that one never knows what TLG will use for set fodder.

And though the sets do look good, to me anyway, I still wonder why TLG chooses something like POP, which is very building and specific scene oriented, and is more medieval based, with animals rather than vehicles, over TRON, which would yield some very neat figs, possibly transluscent, and a series of very stylish vehicles, esp light cycles, the solar sailer, and a tank. The light cycles themselves could be made as System , Racers (motorized), and as UCS sets. The prospects for a video game in the ever-improving LEGO-themed games would be high, as well, I think. I just think that TLG misses the boat on some licenses... I'm not very articulate this morning; my point is, traditionally, vehicles sell better b/c they offer more playability than building based sets. Buildings are generally more exciting to us adult s, I think, b/c AFOLs appreciate the building techniques employed, and the architectural details moreso than a 10-15 year old, in most cases, and the build is more exciting than playing with the set. I don't play with my sets, often , but I love building them. So I'm left to wonder whether Disney, or any licensee for that matter, gives TLG the option of choosing the movie/tv themes they want to make sets for from a list of productions, or if the licensees offer only this movie/tv property or that, and exclude certain properties altogether from consideration. Although I've never played, I understand that POP was a fairly mature, successful line of games, which Disney is now making into what will probably be a mediocre family-friendly adventure movie with lots of cheesy dialog, extensively choreographed sword fights, and slapstick physicality, similar to the Mummy movies. Given the choice between ostrich races in Arab medieval setting, or light cycles in a futuristic computer world for capturing kids' attention, my money would be on the light cycles 6 days out of the week and twice on Sunday.

I believe someone already mentioned it here, so I'll second the hope that TLG will produce some Tron sets , perhaps for the winter line. It'd be interesting to get some transluscent minifigs..most of the vehicles would have transluscent parts, and Tron, both original and the upcoming release, features several vehicles. What's more, the way the vehicles are depicted would lend themselves to a modular build and a "desintegration" gimmick for battle damage. I see more possibilities for this theme over say Avatar: the last Airbender, or Speed Racer. Even if they only made the primary characters and their computer world counterparts with the light cycles, as small release sets, I think they'd sell well. I saw Tron many years ago in the theatre, and I still remember how awed i was by the lightcycle races and just the overall look of the film. It was cutting-edge in its day. The new film has polished the old designs, but it still has a very cool look to it. A LEGO Tron video game would be pretty cool, too. Just sayin'. If Tobey McGuire and Warner successfully get the Robotech movie made, I think I'd like to see TLG get the license for that as well. Despite the fact that the filmakers probably won't be able to use the venerable VF-1 design due to Macross licensing disputes, it would still, no doubt, feature some sort of transforming jet fighter, and to see that realised in an official Lego set would be a life-long dream come true, not to mention it might open the door for TLG to try their hand at their own transforming mech theme. Although its time has come and gone, there was a co-Japanese-American produced anime called IGPX featuring racing mechs of very interesting designs. It came out about the same time as Avatar: the Last Airbender, and I remember thinking that the racing mech theme would have lended itself well to a series of LEGO sets. So, I was disheartened to hear they were making Avatar sets...I'd seen the show, and didn't see much there for them to realize as sets. Since the few Avatar sets have come and gone from shelves, I can't help but think IGPX would have sold better, and perhaps pushed TLG in a new direction with their mecha designs (for the record, the Exo Force sets were ok, but think we would have had much superior mecha sets if TLG had licensed IGPX and put a real effort into realizing the stylish looks and poseability of the various mecha from the series).

Thanks for the review, CopMike. This is the fig I want most, and it looks great by my reckoning. I do hope that some of the new accessories and parts will find their way into upcoming sets. Shame there's no back print, but the new gun and 3 wide light bar more than makes up for it. The new SP3 helmet looks nice in white, and I love the Classic Space logo on the front of his suit. Hoping I manage to snatch one on my first try as well. Still curious why TLG is marketing these in blind packaging. Guess they figure the die-hards like us will spend alot buying figs until we get the particular one(s) we're after.

Easily one of my favorite old school space sets, and one of my favorite themes. Unlike the reviewer, I loved the minifigs in this set...all the intricate detail, the cool helmets, the very alien faces, and the awesome robot. The ship itself was , as mentioned, chock full of moving parts and features. I'm a sucker for any large ship that carries smaller vehicles, and the stereotypical UFO aesthetic is great. Mine is still in mint condition, packed away (moved into a new house, and no room to put all my LEGO, so they remain cocooned in their cardboard boxes, for now) Thanks for the review. It's good to see some of the classics trotted out and put on display.

Lot's of complaints about the new , more detailed figs. I personally welcome them. I've been hoping for a Boba Fett upgrade to at least separate his helmet from his backpack. So when the clone troopers with jetpacks appeared in the Corporate Alliance Tank Droid set (7748), i kinda expected a new Boba wasn't too far away. Glad I was right, and my only gripe is that his arms and legs aren't printed. Can't have everything, I guess. And the new CW styled Grevous is much, much better than the original Grevous fig. At least you can tell who he is at a glance. I don't care for how the second set of arms are attached, however...kind of a copout design-wise. Given the success of TLG's SW lines, I would expect no less than more attention be put into the both the sets and the figs. The figs have become collectors' items in their own right, and LEGO is aware of that, so I certainly won't fault them for trying to make them better.

Along with Peppermint M, I'd like to see another mech theme, albeit, much more sophisticated and refined than the very simplistic Exo-Force, which was , IMHO, better in concept than execution. It took LEGO in a new direction, which is always good, I think, as it breeds diversity in thought and design. Furthermore, as has been my habit over the last few years when LEGO gives us the opportunity to offer our thought, I'd love to see a well designed transformable mech theme at mini-fig scale. There are plenty of examples floating about the net to illustrate well that it can be realized practically. I wish, like with Exo-Force, that LEGO would take a gamble and push themselves to try their hand at a transforming theme. For some good examples, search "Macross" on MOCPages. Macross-inspired mecha in LEGO would be a dream come true. On a more conservative note, my wife suggested that modular museum sets, sold as modular themed rooms capable of joining with each other, built on a 6x6 baseplate and perhaps 2 stories tall (by mini-fig standards), would be cool. My wife is only mildly into LEGO, so I was pleasantly surprised when she made the suggestion. I'd love something like this: it'd be great as parts packs, one could pick and choose the exhibits they wanted, it'd be more affordable than a large set, it'd enable the designers to pack more detail into the exhibits. Additionally, a doublesided facade with historical styling (Greek columns come to mind ) on one side and an administration office on the other could provide the entrance for the museum, or stand alone as perhaps a govt building. Even though I know how folks loathe stickers around here, a sticker sheet with various agency designations, i.e. town hall, library, museum, etc, would come in handy.

I'd love to see this theme expanded to become a future city type theme. A small this or that stand on a small asteroid style of sets as well as larger more developed sets, with domes and such, would be fantastic. Also, it'd be nice to see the alien figures placed in other roles besides bad guys. Aliens in construction overalls working on a fuel cell, or an alien in a chef's uniform working at a space diner would be interesting and add some diversity to the line. To make them fit with the current theme, every business set could have a small safe that could be stolen. I think an alien hawking hot-dogs from a little stand on a small asteroid would be awesome, fitting with LEGO's humorous style. There's so much potential for LEGO to make this much more than it already is, and it'd be something new and different for LEGO, with plenty of sci-fi references for inspiration.

Saw it, loved it. It was a nice departure from the usual Hollywood fare. The setting alone, Africa, with all the trash and impoverishment, set this apart from the usually clean look of most Western produced sci-fi. The political overtones are there, but the movie is never preachy; rather, the conditions, echoing the darker side of history in that country and many others throughout history, are merely a backdrop to illustrate the contrasts and comparisons between human and alien, and provide motivation for the latter to desire better than what they've been given. The alien exo-suit was just plain awesome. Cheers to Weta for their outstanding work, as often one can't tell what is a practical effect and what is CG. The aliens convey emotion believably, and the main protagonist was brilliant. I don't think I've enjoyed a movie this much since Iron Man, for all out action and laughs. People die terribly in this, and it's fantastic!

Congrats!

Good review. I have the set, and as you said, the gear, which have become something of a standard on LEGO shuttles, is weak. The wings are a bit floppy on mine, and would work a little better if a ratcheting joint like those used on the AT-AT legs was employed. Lack of cockpit instrumentation, even a sticker, is disheartening. The designers do a fair job in capturing all the various angles of the ship's exterior, but often times the interiors become decidedly spartan, and this ship is a good example. The various shooting/launching mechanisms are brilliantly executed, and I like the cockpit design and the exterior locks to keep the aft section in place. As someone else mentioned, this seems to me to me a fairly mod-able set, if one is so inclined.

Sorry for all the space 5150 and I have been taking up. As for a new serries, I've not heard anything recently. If there was something new in the works, I would have expected an announcement at the San Diego Comic-Con. I know there are no plans to make any more Animated episodes, but there should be a few more toys hitting shelves before Hasbro pulls the plug completely. If a new show is in the works, I hope it's being made in the West, as the Japanese imported shows, i.e RID, Energon, Cybertron, and Armada were all, well, terrible. BW and BM, along with Animated have been some of the best TF shows in the last 15 years. I wouldn't mind seeing a show based around the Universe Classics line, but I doubt that will happen. I think the next series will be a radical departure from Animated, to make it "fresh". I'd like to see a show done in the same vein as Justice League, an ensemble series with a more serious tone than Animated, a more realistic aesthetic, and well written dialog/plots depicting the Decepticons as both cunning and fierce. Bad guys are generally more engaging than good, so a show written from the Decepticon perspective would be an interesting change.

Sorry for the late reply. I wanted to have time toread through and be able to anwser propperly. I appreciate your thoughtfulness. I'm a bit more impetuous, although I do put some thought into my posts. With that, here we go. I couldn't agree more. I movie like this is perfect for the Military. I think your idea is a very good one at that. Though to be honest, it really isn't all that much different than the plot/story of the 2ND movie. Other than the fear the bots as a whole would turn on the humans, you pretty much nailed the purpose of the Nest team. You might actually like this movie. Thanks for the compliment. I think Transformers, aside from GI Joe, of course, is a perfect venue for making a military movie. I haven't see the the movie, so I can't make an honest critique of how the Nest was utilized. I like Josh Duhamel's character(Capt Lennox), and I would have been happy to see him as the primary human character. I've seen several of Shia's recent movies, and honestly, he's nearly the same character in every one. He delivers his lines nearly the same way, and generally plays a snappy teen/twentyish character with a fast mouth, delivering a quick spew of "witty" or sarcastic dialog. He obviosly has fans, but I don't count myself among them. I think he has the potential, if he stretches beyond the typecast part he's been playing, to be an excellent actor..I honestly do. Even Keanu has demonstrated some range. I think the "boy and his car" plot worked very well to show Bumble Bee and his compassion for the Humans. From helping Sam get close to Michaela, to protecting him through the movie. Then Sam showing his compassion when BB was captured. All relevant to the plot and well portrayed. I still don't understand why people saw Sam's character as annoying. I enjoyed him and feel he is a very capable actor. The hackers on the other hand, while relevant to expose the cons virus and introduce frenzy and Barricade, were dragged on a bit. After the Aussie chick found the virus there really wasn't any point to them other than the final fight with Frenzy. Though considering this was the first movie, that could be forgiven. Though from what i understand, that sense was added at the last minute when the decision was made to remove the scene were prime offed Barricade so he could be saved for the 2nd movie. (although he never made it to the 2nd move, so that turned out to be a bad decsion. Unless of course he turns up in the 3rd). Sector 7 again, while did help to tie things toechter, was again dragged on. I felt they were more for comedy relief than anything else. Again, this was the first movie, so it all was more less a test run to see how things would pan out for the first ever live action TF movie. I felt no connection to Bumblebee, really. I loathed, beyond any measurable quantity, the cheesier than cheesy speaking-through-the-radio gimmick. He and Sam could have missed a turn, driven off a cliff, crashed to the bottom in a whirlwind of flame, metal, and burning flesh, and , only then, would I have felt that the movie would have found its feet. Jazz, with his inappropriate "what's crackin' little bitches" line, his movements, and further dialog, were all stereotypical. Those things could have been left out. bay tried so hard to make these characters alien, but imbues them with human attributes that just aren't really fitting. Scatman Crothers' Jazz was a cool, awesome character. Jazz had some cheesy lines from time to time, but the Scatman could pull them off and make them at least a little funny. RIP, Mr. Crothers. The new Jazz was just, well, offensive. I work in a very ethnically diverse environment..people from all walks of life, races, cultures, and backgrounds. They all bring something interesting to the table, but everyone has a sense of what's appropriate to say and how to say it at different times. Bay is bankrupt of that sense, I think. Or his writers, but I'm thinking it's more Mr. Bay. The hackers would have been better, I think, if it wasn't the token hot chick in the room who solely picks out the signal. It's so pat and generally just a cheap reason to put another hot chick in the movie. I'm not against hot chicks by any means; in fact, I rather like them. However, that whole subplot could have been a 3 minute shot of some bean counter popping his head up and saying, "I've isolated the signal...technobabble, technobabble, potentially compromising all official classified communications.", to which our intrepid SecDef responds by putting all DOD and POTUS support assets on high alert. The signal is detected on the president's plane, due to security protocols. Now we get to Frenzy, who was a transformer in name only. Here is yet another character that could have been deleted entirely, and the movie would have been the better for it. What I like most about all the other incarnations of transformers is that at least the charcters look like they'll turn into something, as parts of the alt are generally recognizeable somewhere on their bodies. Not Frenzy, however; then to add insult to injury, the thing is artificially played up to try and match its namesake. It didn't work for me on any level. It wasn't funny, and it wasn't a transformer. It was Bay's immature sense of humor and alot of CG magic. This and the equally unrecognizeable Megatron, who should have instant recognition, diminished the movie greatly for me. Well, that and the plot, dialog, aesthetic, lack of Transformer character development, Decepticon screen time, and cringeworthy attempts at humor. I bought the movie, in fact, and the more I think about it, I'm not sure why. I don't like it very much. While I'm sure Transformers could have been darker, I'm not sure if that necessarily would have been good. A "Dark Knight" approach to TF would not have been good for this movie. TF is supposed to be a fun, relaxed action packed popcorn flick. Now i can't necessarily argue that Tf would have been a worse film had it taken a darker tone since we haven't seen that happen. But some of the series such as Energon had a more serious darker tone (though was still cheesier than the Pizza i had for dinner) and didn't seam to work. G1 was cheesy, but was fun at the same time. As was Animated. They were an escape from reality that while might have lacked at times in terms of plot and dialogue (there only so much talk of "servos" and "Processors") that one can take before its gets annoying and repetitive. And I've said this time and time before, that one that is a fan of a series does not mean they are fit to direct on the big screen. There are many other things that make a movie good than being "respectful" of source material. Good overall directing, well executed action sequences, exceptional fight scenes with attention to detail. It doesn't mater how much "respect" or a fan the director is. If the movie lacks of of these aspects, then it will fail. Speaking of which, i still fail to see how Bay, or the writers failed in "respecting the franchise" . I honestly don't see it. The stories were all based on TF mythos, Characters (while changed in design) were all based on originals. I will admit that although i liked most of there overall designs, I can understand that being a bit more recognizable (mainly mega tron). Although there are many series in the past that were they changed the overall design of the characters that differed from there G1 counterparts (Energon, Cybertron for example). So the Movie verse is not the only series that is guilt of this. Ok, I'll concede that the movie doesn't necessarlily have to be dark. Other than Beast Machines, which had a darker tone than any other TF series I've seen, the Transformers have always been light fare, with quite a bit of humor thrown in. That's fine. I really liked Beast Wars, which had a lot of humor while being mildly more mature than its G1 toon inspiration, and TFA was just great, with many a subtle nod to the original show. These nods, I'd dare say, had a lot to do with the series' success, as short as the series was. The show's creators certainly were aware of the older fans support, and the creators themselves demonstrated time and again their own fandom in subtle and sometimes not so subtle ways throughout the series. I admit, I, like many fans, was not a fan of the new cartoonish look at first, but the characters, not to mention the wonderful toys, reeled me in. I loved the show..it had a few clunky eps, but overall, I really enjoyed it. Bay's movie lacked everything that made TFA great, IMHO. As for the shredded appearance, I would have been fine with it, I think, much more if the characters had been more likeable, and if their dialog had been better. I didn't even care for Bay's Prime, even with Mr. Peter Cullen providing the voice. It's hard to put my thimb on it, but it didn't "feel" like Prime. I guess the movie's fans woll say it is a different Prime; so be it, I don't care for this Prime as much as his other incarnations. I remember reading a while back that one of the reasons Cameron didn't take on the role of director was because he knew it was a no win situation with fans. TF fans are picky to say the least, and many just aren't open to a different interpetation than what there used to seeing. Many being fans for the full 25yrs already have a set image in there mind of what they expect. If that image or expectation isn't meet, the fist come out. He didn't want that grief. Considering the crap Bay has recieved, i can't say i blame him. Well, I'd say you'd have to have some very thick skin to approach a license like Transformers for any kind of treatment, esp if you're looking to cover new ground. Kudos to Bay for having the guts to try. I just don't like what he did with it. Many obviously do. Good for them. No really, I'm not being facetious. If anything, I'm personally thankful to Bay for going the direction he went aesthetically as it's major impact for me was in the marked advancements in the toys. I imagine there were a few sleepless nights at Takara when the first movie concepts arrived, they saw the vehicle form and its corresponding bot, and just said, "how the heck are we going to make this turn into this?" I think bay's designs pushed the designers into new ways of thinking, and it's manifest in all the recent toylines from movie-based to Animated and Universe. I still lament that Cameron didn't leap at it, however, as he's always been something of a pioneer with new technologies, not to mention he is an accomplished artist himself and may have drawn up some interesting concepts for the characters. Regrettably, I guess we'll never know. Run's to corner to rock and sob uncontrollably. Unfortunately i just can't agree with this. While i like the Alternator line as they provide excellent vehicle detail inside and out, but lacked on the robot department. Optimus Prime as a Dodge Ram SRT-10 is perfect example of this. In robot mode from a side profile, he looks as if he wasn't even transformed. Like they just stood the truck up on end. And his feet... its the truck bed spilt in half. These are not Robots worthy of the big screen. While the current designs to leave open the question of integrity in mortal combat, again, you must understand that these designs are not just made for fans. But kids and the general Public. This is why you see the over done use of nitrous Oxide and wheelies in the street in "The Fast and Furious" movies. Not every movie (especially Sci-Fi) is going to make perfect sense. This were you need to That's not to say that you shouldn't have standards, but at some point we need to accept movies like this fiction and just sit back and enjoy the ride. You are so right on about Alternator Prime. It's by far one of the worst designs produced. My two favorite designs would be Jazz (Mazda RX-8), and Grimlock/Wheeljack ('05 Ford Mustang). Neither was perfect, but I feel in terms of the vehicle and bot, both modes had a great aesthetic, and the bot modes were some of the more articulated and poseable in the entire line. There were more bad designs than good in that series, I think. I'm a bot kinda guy and I want to pose mine. Alot of the figs had limited to nearly no leg poseability by virtue of design. Sideswipe (Dodge Viper) comes to mind. I lconsidered Alt Hound to be the definitive model until Universe Hound. However, using the few good examples with refinements to make them more poseable and a little less blockier, these designs would have worked well, pleased young and old fans with an acceptable aesthetic, and would have still provided some decently complex toys. The new Human Alliance toys are today's Alternators, actually. The pics I've seen look pretty decent. I tried to enjoy the ride in the first movie. I liked the opening, and a few scenes here and there. Blackout coming in for a landing and transforming in the city was a great looking scene. To me, this is where the money for CG effects should have gone; not Prime and co. stomping around in Sam's yard, but perhaps in showing the Decepticons being evil, or planning, or just doing something. Instead, they're little more than a footnote at the end of the movie. Not cool to leave out your title antagonists until the last 15 or so minutes of a movie, and then give them little to no personalities, dialog, or meaning to the plot other than a ferw minutes of fighting and "dying". I didn't like Bay's Megatron at all. He was not, and never will be in any form or fashion, Megatron to me. I'm not even really a big fan of Kaye's Megatron in Beast wars, although it's a different Megs from G1, and he takes the character in a very different, albeit humorously snobby, direction from the original. I love G1 megs; he was a great bad guy in the series, and awesome for the first half of the animated movie. There were some great lines in the showdown between Megs and Prime. Good stuff. Well to a point your correct. Depending on what view your looking at, you are going to see a different transformation sequence. And while not perfect, i felt they did an overall good job of keeping things uniformed, and again, learned for the next go around. ROTF really had more attention to detail this time around. You should really check out the new toys based of the new movie. Prime is a perfect example. Is is damn near identical to his movie design. Oh, ROTF Prime stands poised at the ready to take on Decepticons on my desk. He's a great figure, very close to his onscreen likeness, and a marked improvement over the '07 version, which I didn't buy for that reason. I still wish Prime was a cabover, and that the flames had been eschewed, but otherwise, he's at least recognizeable as Prime. I also picked up Breakaway (F-35 inspired, but a little off; interesting, quite poseable bot mode), Sideswipe( nice looking bot mode, except for the feet, great looking car mode), Ransack (sweet little biplane; decent bot mode), and Depthcharge (modern warship; great looking bot mode with weird knees). I bougt a bunch of the toys from the '07 movie. Ratchet's toy was probably one of my favorites from that line. he was big and chunky and solid. He was off alot from his onscreen likeness, esp in the legs, but still a cool, nearly classic transformer fig. I like Transforming toys, esp ones with a good bot mode, or a really off the wall transformation. They're little feats of engineering, and they're ineresting for that and other reasons. I really liked the Animated toys once I started picking a few up. Lots of character, and many are quite poseable. At last, finally a point in the Transfandom we can agree on! Hallelujah!! Regardless what you feel does, or doesn't make a great movie, in this case, the general public (as well as the fans as much to your dismay) have spoken. This movie was highly successful, despite the harsh reviews from critics. Though i do hope that they give the bots some more screen time and dialoge. They did make improvments in the 2nd movie. No reason they won't do the same for the 3rd. I haven't seen the second (will wait to watch on HBO 6 or 8 months from now), but I hope things improve. I've read a lot of spoilers and forum traffic concerning the ROTF, and I can make a fair assumption that I will agree with the critics, and I will not like it. Bay's humor is counter to my own, at least in this venue. I can and do speak with a certain lack of decorum often in my work environment. I'm shameless and extremely crass at times. I can turn it off, however, when the audience/environment dictates professionalism or appropriateness be observed. In a film about Transformers, I want to see Transformers plotting and fighting. I don't want to see characters like the twins, or sexual innuendo one could spread with a butterknife, or leg humping, or testicles on a robot, or any such juvenile attempts at humor. Only in another venue, like Robot Chicken, which crudely parodies pop culture, or family Guy, do these devices work. In a live action film aimed at the 13-14 year old audience, I can't see how these things are appropriate, funny, or necessary. I can say honestly, since my tastes haven't changed much since I was 13, that I would have hated Bay's movie as a teenager. Hell, I stopped watching the Transformers cartoon after the first season, with much lamenting, because it had been my favorite show of all time until the dialog, characters, and plots spiraled into ridiculousness from second season on. Drunk on energon, Seaspray, Powerglide, the red tank guy(name?), cosmic rust, Kremzeek, an on and on. The show completely lost the more serious and mature (for its time) tone it had maintained throughout the first season, and I stopped watching it. There are plenty of dumb scenes and characters in the animated movie as well, and I still cringe, but the scenes of Unicron eating the planets, and his transformation, as well as the fight between Prime and Megs, with Prime's subsequent death, were great. If Bay returns to helm a third movie, and I'm sure he will, as it's become a cash cow ripe for milking, I hope he tires of it and moves on. As I've stated, I hope someone else with some love for the characters takes the franchise and makes a movie closer to the roots of what made it grerat in the first place. I'd sleep a little better at night if, as icing on the cake, those movies honoring the original characters absolutely demolished all previous movie records by a factor of ten due to their awesome treatment of the Transformers, good plot, and minimal human interaction. I can only hope. As an aside, this the quote function is causing me much perturbation, as it continually after numerous efforts to ensure proper isolation and labelling of quotes from your post, insists that the number of opening and closing tags doesn't match. they do. I've checked and rechecked and checked again. I'm removing the quote tags altogether. It's no longer worth the hassle and I need to hit the sack for work tomorrow.

Beast Wars is arguably some of the better written of the Transformers series. However, I still consider the 3 part opening for the original series , as well as several other eps in the first season (the first Skyfire episode comes to mind) to be pretty well written, despite the animation gaffs and spots of cheese. Compared to its 80's counterparts, these can be forgiven, I think. It had a more serious tone than Bay's movie, and, though I generally can't stand kids in a cartoon, Spike was portrayed as a mature young adult working with his father on an oil rig prior to joining with the Autobots. Thereafter, his insights framed a human point of view of Prime and his gang. Even at 13 , i loved the more serious tone of this show compared to others at the time. I still love the first season, as it maintained a fairly serious tone throughout. Second season and beyond got silly, and I stopped watching the show. I didn't start watching Transformers again until BW, and of course, I was upset that they were animals instead of vehicles, esp since I'm a mecha junkie. That said, the writing and the great voice actors brought the show to life for me and I became a fan. What's wrong with a movie like this being military centric? Let them whine, I say. It's a far more realistic scenario to expect that our government would want to keep tabs on these Autobot aliens; their very dualistic nature would breed all sorts of miscontent and distrust, and it's highly plausible our government would want them shadowed or heavily involved with the military to keep tabs on them and to assist them if need be against the Decepticons. There would always be a looming fear that the bots would turn on us as a country, or as a species. To me there's a great movie in this line of thinking..serious, suspenseful, and dark. I think Bay could have made a movie like this; he has a good relationship with the military, and seems to admire and respect them. Unfortunately, at least to me, his movie looks like a car commercial interspersed with tidbits of overly-exaggerated inane, awkward, frenetic adolescence, or pointless subplots featuring cheesiness beyond laughability. I'm not a Mike Bay hater; I've seen "The Rock" and "Armageddon", both of which had cheese, but were more subtle with the humor, more serious in tone, and actually quite enjoyable. I didn't like his "boy and his car" approach in the least. It sounded terrible to me when it was first announced, and I felt vindicated when I finally watched it. I thought it was terrible, Shia's character annoying, the hackers unnecessary, and Sector 7 to be utterly detestable. Ah, but I can compare "Alien" to something like this. Until "Alien", alien movies were B-rated at best, looked fake and terrible, with such bad dialog and acting to match, disrupting any seriousness in tone that the filmakers may have intended. "Alien" changed that; it was scary, it was realistic, it was well written and directed, with never too much of the antagonist revealed to the viewer, heightening the suspense and power of the alien. With a different director, say Roger Corman, "Alien" would have been a completely different movie. I propose the same with "Transformers". A different direction, or director, or script, could have made this a far better, or a far worse movie. Imagine if Uwe Boll had won the bid because no one else in Hollywood wanted it? This is about the highest praise I'll give Bay's movie. I stick to my conviction that I hope, much like the Hulk, another director, one who lives and breathes Transformers, or at least respects the old and new, will make a more fan-friendly film. I believe Bay is only a fan of his own vision of the franchise..so the fandom who grew up with these characters will continue to be cheated as long as he helms the films. Fortunately, as a consumer and fan, I can buy those parts of the franchise I enjoy, and hold out for a live action treatment that speaks more to alot of us old G1 fans. Bay's movie for me is at best a "B" movie, despite the budget and artistry applied. The bots' insubstantial "shredded metal" aesthetic and CG magical transition from alt to bot look anything but real to me, and the characters and dialog leave much room for improvement. I still wish that James Cameron had jumped on "Transformers" when it was first offered. I think he'd have made a far, far better film. I disagree. So much of the vehicle breaks up that inside or out, the surfaces would be criss-crossed with seams under close scrutiny, regardless of how high tech they were. They'd pass muster at range, but they'd certainly look a bit odd up close, even if the tolerances were miniscule. In sunlight, they'd be quite visible. Moreover, millions of small pieces meandering their various ways upon an endoskeleton is unfeasible, impractical, and mechanically devoid of the requisite strength that would be needed on a large mechanism, unless one considers nano-tech to fuse parts at the atomic level, which I feel is an overused sci-fi crutch tantamount to magic. Of course, the blockiness of the 80's is unacceptable as well. I liked the Alternators: the designers used licensed vehicles and crafted some well designed, not as blocky, bots using, as much as possible, existing seamlines on the actual vehicle to form break points, while maintaining the integrity of the vehicle including interior details. Now, this line admittedly was an homage to the G1 aesthetic. However, with some variance in sculpting, the limbs of the bots could have been made to have a more organic or bio-mechanical aesthetic. This toyline was what made me feel that a truly realistic looking live-action "Transformers" movie could be made. And, honestly, they could have had symetrical and squarish surfaces; if the charcterizations, dialog, and plot were all enjoyable, I wouldn't have cared as much about the traditional aesthetic. As the designs go, in their attempt to make them look alien (as if bots that turn into vehicles aren't alien enough), I think they took the aesthetic a bit too far to the extreme, and their ablities to scan and become anything instantly as well as their magically morphing weapons kill any realism for me. I've worked around large aircraft too long to accept these designs as realistic. ILM eschewed realism for "coolness", or their approximation thereof. And Bay, who knew nothing of the franchise beyond "toy commercial" prior to helming the project and thus had no connection with the characters, would not accept the traditional depiction. As an aside, I think Macross, which is a transformable fighter series going back to the 80's with various incarnations spanning the last couple decades, culminating in last year's Macross Frontier, captures fairly realistically how a fighter could be realistically designed to transform. Shoji Kawamori is a talented mechanical engineer by education, and a fan of aircraft. He is also responsible for designing many of the toys which would become Transformers, as well as transforming and non-transforming mecha for many anime series. No fragmenting in his designs; there's a logic to the transforming sequence and many large structures; yet, esp in the newer Macross Zero and Frontier series where the transforming fighters, called valkyries, have fighting sequences, the conversion and movements of these things are swift, elegant, precise, and highly agile, along with being beautifully rendered digitally, giving them a cleaner more realistic aesthetic. None of the transformation sequences were uniform, nor did they follow any set sequences. Each transformation shot was created based upon the particular angle of the shot, according to the digital artists. Of course, the cartoons are much worse at depicting the transformations. but a live action movie, for the sake of realism, should have a set sequence for every transformation. However, the ILm guys used a more cut and paste approach, slicing and dicing the vehicle image and randomly placing the shredded images until a final image was created. All those moving parts kills the realism for me; I'd almost prefer something that transformed based on a toy, for at least there'd be some practical basis for it to work. Which brings me back to the Alternators. In all honesty, it wouldn't even bother me if the Transformers couldn't accommodate a human passenger due to the full interior taken up with robot parts...that would be more plausible to me. I agree with you about Prime's being a firetruck. He'll always be a semi to me. I didn't like any of the japanese imported Transformer series, anyway...just unwatchable. Sorry to all the folks that tried to make these shows work for English speaking fans; they were terrible despite their best efforts, artwork aside (I like the mix of traditional and digital artwork in a show like this for maintaining the integrity of the bots). The amount of money netted does not a great movie make. It's a reflection of the social tastes and willingness of that slice of society to spend money to indulge those tastes that have made Mr. Bay's movies successful. Personally, I believe if Bay's fans represent the current and future legacy of our planet, perhaps a great cataclysmic global cleansing of the Earth in 2012 isn't such a bad thing.

I grew up watching G-force (Battle of the Planets), bionic six, M.A.S.K. , Pole Position, Mighty Orbots, Transformers (first season; I didn't care for the direction the show took after), Batman:TAS (just excellent in all respects; laid the groundwork for a number of equally excellent WB properties like Superman and Justice League, which I place on par with Batman:TAS as the two all-time best American animated tv shows of all time in terms of characters, story, and animation, in that order). All grown up, I mostly focus on anime. However, in the recent past, Beast wars/machines were excellent, along with the interesting Reboot show. Great visuals in the latter. Few cartoons since have peaked my interest. I do watch the occasional Family Guy since it irreverantly lampoons pop culture, much of it 80's related. It makes me laugh. Anime choices are: Neon Genesis Evangelion, Macross and its sundry offshoots, Ghost in the Shell movie and Stand Alone series, Full Metal Panic, Code Geass, Full Metal Alchemist, Gunslinger Girl (great little understated series..no frivolity in this one, which is cool), Gilgamesh, Cowboy Bebop, Samurai Champloo, Ergo Proxy, Deathnote, Raxephon, and Last Exile. I'm sure there are a few I've left out, but these represent a nice smattering of anime I like. Generally, I favor anime over American animation, as the writing is generally richer and more mature, even for shows aimed at teenagers, than many American adult live action tv shows.

My apologies; for clarification, my search was limited to EuroBricks. While I'm sure that there are many great ideas and topics on LUGNET, I simply don't visit the site very often, preferring EB's layout and environment. However, thanks for posting the reference, as it's yet another resource for those of us with long wishlists for LEGO parts. Cheers, M'Kyuun

I've only seen the first, and I've eschewed the second having seen or read about the movie, just to get that out of the way. I didn't like the first movie, and i can make a fair assumption I'll not like the second, either. To argue that Transformers is cheesy can be said about nearly any sci-fi property. However, there have been a host of well written sci-fi movies dealing with far out subjects. I think Transformers had the potential to be a serious, interesting film, rather than a child-centric bawdy mess with little screen-time devoted to its title characters. I still hold out hope that another director, one with serious interest in Transformers and its various incarnations and history, will take the franchise in a different direction once Michael Bay decides he's had enough. Beast Wars was a really well done show. I talked my reluctant wife into watching it, and she loved it. Even Animated was much more enjoyable to watch than Bay's movie, IMO. I'm a bit perplexed that people enjoy his brand of humor...it's groan-worthy at best. Anyway, I can understand that people don't want over complex story lines and such in a two hour movie...I get that. Complexity works better in a series, or in a book where the complexity can be laid out in an expository format. But, on the other hand, when an animated show has more maturity, better writing, and far better character development that a $100 million plus movie, then something's wrong. I liked the beginning of of the first movie; had Bay maintained that tone and perhaps made our protaganist a young soldier witnessing the events and, in voiceover, given account of the movie's events through his eyes, the movie could have taken itself and its characters more seriously, but still with wit and smart humor. Shia's frenetic delivery and ridiculous lines along with Sector 7, and the pointless hacker subplot, and an unfunny Bernie Mac to boot, just made the whole thing far less than its potential suggested. I reject the notion that any sci-fi topic needs to be written immaturely, or that its characters be treated like novelty props simply because it originated as a cartoon. Iron man also came from a comic, but it was handled well, I thought. Star Trek, which has such potential to become camp, has been written to be engaging and thought provoking while still delivering some action, as well as "Alien", and on and on. Prior to the live action movies, there had been several commercials and self-made "transformer" videos proving the concept could be done realistically and believably, moreover without the rather unrealistic million-shifting-parts aesthetic employed. As a mechanic, I have to ask what moves all those pieces, as every part would have to have linkage of some kind to transition the configuration. Nano-tech is such a cop-out, and Bay's creations are more magical than mechanical. Had the characters and their toys been designed more in sync, with a defined set transformation sequence, I think the characters would have been far more believable. Well, that and if they didn't all turn into super stylish cars. After all, their alt is supposed to be a disguise to keep them from being noticed. I could continue in this vein, but I won't. I'm just simply exasperated by apologists for Bay's movie decrying any criticism of its immaturity and extreme simplicity by stating it's not supposed to be Shakespeare, or some such over exaggerated statement. Not even the fans want it to be that convoluted and involved; however, a little reverence toward the subject matter, plot, dialog, and audience would go a long way towards making this a much better movie that a lot more fans, as well as non-fans, would find much more appealing than robo-chicks with long tongues and robots with testicles.

While I realize comparisons with the 10019 UCS set are inevitable, the original was meant as a model, along with all the early UCS sets. Although they're not shown, by virtue of its design, this looks like a System set meant for mini-figs. Since these sets generally have low interior space, I wouldn't hold out hope for more than Leia, R2-D2, C3PO, Capt Antilles, and a Rebel Troop, or possibly a Rebel pilot. I expect about 5 figs. The Tantive IV set looks really good to me; it falls in line with the rest of the capital ship playsets in design and size. IMHO, it looks much better than the Venator, which looks fat and stubby, esp when compared to the ISD set, which maintained a sleekness despite its size and interior space. From the photos, the cockpit pieces look printed, although I have to admit that the stickers on box art/official photography always look better than the actual stickers. In a UCS set, I'd bet on printed parts for at least the upper cockpit pieces. I hope so; stickering cones and getting everything lined up is a joyless chore. As far as pricing, LEGO is an expensive hobby that has just become noticeably moreso in the last year. I don't like it, but nothing's going to change unless people stop buying it. I don't see that happening either; I love the stuff,(as do all of you, or you wouldn't be here ) and I can afford it, although I've reduced my buying considerably. I still buy at least one of nearly all Star Wars sets, along with a fair smattering of sets from other themes, but I've greatly reduced the number of copies I buy for MOCing.

I watched "Push" this evening. Not a great movie, and certainly not original, but a decent enough flick about a group of mostly young people with "gifts" being chased by a shadowy govt agency. The opening narration is a bit clunky...would have been better, IMHO, had the movie expounded on the characters' abilities through storytelling instead of through an explanation at the fore. The characters were likeable, the plot decent. it seems a bit long, but i liked it overall.

Oh, don't get me wrong,Deus Ex 2 was a great game; it indeed had alot of interesting ideas. Loved the competing coffee shops (Queequeg's vs Pequod's), as a wink to Starbucks. Despite all the great things in the game, it still felt a little flatter, I think, because of the dialog. I just loved some of the dialog in the original, and the overall feel of the first game. I liked JC Denton...and that brings a whole other dimension to a game when you connect to the character(s). DE2 took the concepts of the first game in a different direction. Still, it stands up well compared to most games that have come out since. I didn't know there was another Deus Ex game in the works; the original writers are not working on it, though (Google is a marvelous thing), so who knows if it'll retain the same feel. I had hoped Bioshock would be more like SS2, as the same guy was responsible for writing and producing them. You hit it it exactly for Bioshock..it just seemed like more of the same for most of the game. One of my favorite bits in the game, besides setting the bees on slicers, was battling the 'living statues'. I forget the level, but it was actually kinda creepy. Bioshock 2 is in work; you play as the first Big Daddy, only you have the power to use plasmids. While Bioshock is immersive and a hell of a lot of fun with a good story (with a twist), I'd like to see a return to a near future timeframe. I hope DE3 is good...they've got big shoes to fill. In Fallout, I have my partners wait alot, mostly b/c they're dumb and get themselves killed. I like Dogmeat too much to take him with me. He's one of the coolest ideas in the game, though. I've got Charon tagging along with me this time around. I had Sydney, then the Paladin chick(wanted to kill her myself on many occasions); and Fawkes at the end the first time i played through. Fawkes is pretty tough. They're good to have around when facing a gang of raiders. The history of Dave and his republic is pretty funny, if you visit the Museum of Dave. Stuff like that makes the game stand apart.

Deus Ex..now there's an awesome game. Loved the dialog and characters in that game. Deus Ex 2 was fun, but felt flat by comparison. System Shock 2 and Bioshock were also pretty great games in the FPS/RPG genre. Bioshock was cool, but SS2 was way cooler, IMO, despite the dated graphics. I'd love an Aliens vs Predator game set in a Fallout 3 open world format. What glorious fun to pick your species and head out into a future world filled with colonial marine outposts, colonists's buildings, forests, lakes, etc with wildlife and all. Having never played Fallout 1 or 2, I can't compare Fallout 3 to the originals, although I've heard good things. I got it for Christmas, and it's become one of my favorite all time games. Besides being a pretty good FPS with generally better voice acting than a lot of games I've played, it has enough options and is open enough to never be the same game twice. Most missions offer several options in which to procede. I simply love it. The game has a lot of atmosphere, IMHO. I haven't downloaded any of the mods..I've played it straight all the way through, sidequests and all. My biggest gripe is the stupidity of the sidekicks...no matter how many times you tell them to use ranged weapons, after providing them with said weapons and ammo, they still pull their melee weapons and get their megablocks handed to them. Infuriating! My other gripe is that you're not given the option to join the Enclave, which would add alot more to the game.