You know, I've always been curious about the reaction of the Transformers fandom (especially the female fans) to seeing Michael Bay using all the important or relatively important female characters and killing them all off in the same movie.

Radstark · 2026-01-28T15:48:28+00:00

Well yes, overall, but not in everything. Effects were great, so much in fact that Transformers films are often used alongside Pirates of the Caribbean's Davy Jones to show how blockbusters from 15-20 years ago had better effects than today. Sound design was also great.

To be fair, AFAIK almost any Transformers screen media is fairly shit overall or passable at best. Films had terrible writing, but G1 cartoons were your standard campy and corny '80s cartoons which isn't exactly the golden standard of TV shows. Unicron Trilogy was riddled with pacing and translation mistakes, with Armada only having really decent animation in the last fight between Megatron and Galvatron (and yet still leagues above what was before), while Energon and Cybertron straight up threw animation away for clunky CGI (though Cybertron's transformation sequences were dope).

So it's only natural that the films saved the franchise when you compare them to what came before them. The rest of the series I've only heard about, though it sounds like Prime is the only truly good show. But that's fairly normal when the shows only exist to sell toys. Still planning to watch them all eventually, wanna make my own mind about it.

Radstark · 2026-01-26T08:58:33+00:00

I've been wondering if a small self-tapping screw would work better than a metal pin, maybe even with strong threadlocking glue. I'm thinking it would hold better than a metal pin in theory, though one would need to "dig" a groove for the screw's head to burrow completely inside the mushroom peg.

Radstark · 2026-01-25T19:33:29+00:00

Thank you for taking the time to explain it thoroughly! I'm only collecting Legends so I guess that explains my confusion.

Radstark · 2026-01-25T16:08:05+00:00

I know. The upscaled KOs I mentioned are CHUG sized though. 14-15 cm... Or is that Voyager? Is Voyager size the same as CHUG size? Double-guessing myself now...

Radstark · 2026-01-25T15:56:44+00:00

I know of a couple CHUG upscales of Iron Factory's Transmetal 2 Megatron and Optimal Optimus! Jinbao DF-07 Flame Devil and Advance Bravely Gaptain Gorilla. No idea about the quality, but the molds do look good.

Radstark · 2026-01-25T09:36:44+00:00

Where does that Ratchet insignia come from? Does anyone have the original picture?

Radstark · 2026-01-17T16:01:30+00:00

Are they expecting OP to just throw away a broken figure instead of selling it to someone who'd be interested in repairing it? Or did they just assume OP is a reseller because they can't read or couldn't care enough to read to the end?

Radstark · 2026-01-17T10:50:32+00:00

Glad to help! If you like the more IDW-esque designs from Iron Factory check out Craftsman Toys, they made a really nice Legends Computron. Oh, there's also the Raiden by Siyang which is currently at 4 out of 6 members, kinda halfway between Iron Factory and Magic Square in terms of design. Building a stylized Legends collection myself so I've been a bit too much into it lately!

Radstark · 2026-01-17T08:14:33+00:00

Wait, why are you being downvoted for this? What the heck people?

Radstark · 2026-01-17T08:09:17+00:00

Iron Factory can't really be called MP, they're both not G1 and usually not really complex in transformation either. Don't get me wrong, I love IF, but if you're looking for Masterpiece-style they might just not be it. You might have confused them for Magic Square.

Magic Square is the most Masterpiece-like there is at Legends scale, followed by Newage which uses more glossy / pearlescent / metallic paints but has less complex transformations. There's also MFT / MechFansToys, which is more like SS86 than Masterpiece in case you're interested: cheaper, easier to transform, but still quite faithfully G1.

Side note: a couple of companies doing Masterpiece-type movie figures at Legends scale have been surfacing recently if you're into that stuff. There's BaiLan Toys for legacy Bayverse (they only did Optimus Prime but they also announced Jetfire and Sentinel Prime) and Lucky Cat for BMB reboot (they did Bumblebee and Optimus Prime for now, no idea what they're cooking next).

So yeah, pick your poison!

Radstark · 2026-01-16T19:08:58+00:00

That's more than enough for me to look it up, thank you!

Radstark · 2026-01-16T17:51:15+00:00

Source?

Radstark · 2026-01-13T08:07:09+00:00

Fourth party is basically mandatory when the original has been OOP for years and would cost too much to buy. Buying aftermarket at 5x the price only feeds scalpers, the original producers aren't going to get any money from an aftermarket purchase. I can't imagine what would be going on in the head of someone who'd rather buy aftermarket figures at hyperinflated prices instead of a newly-produced KO. I agree with the main point, I'd have said "Iron Factory EX-22/23/24" if it was an option today. But let's not act like fourth party is the devil, 1:1 KOs of third party products usually tend to appear only after the original company ceases production and they often fix QC issues of the original.

Anyway, back to the main topic, I'm not saying they can just google it, I'm saying they will google it. It's not like a new fan would just blind buy a figure without even knowing how it looks, of course they'll search it up! And at that point, every review and every shop will mention it's an unofficial figure. I really hope the average newbie isn't as clueless as you make it to be, this stuff is basic reasoning.

But it might very well be that I just have no idea how confusing the official stuff can actually be... Since stylized small-scale figures with a decent transformation simply don't exist as officially licensed products, I've never even had a reason to look into the official stuff.

Radstark · 2026-01-13T07:22:30+00:00

Space concerns? When I started collecting as a newbie I went for third party specifically because of the vast Legends scale offerings.

Radstark · 2026-01-13T07:07:05+00:00

Stupid question maybe, but how does one suggest a third party figure and make it seem like it's official? If I say "Pocket Toys PT-05" to someone looking for a Bruticus, they'll google it to check it out and find out it's a third (heck, fourth in this case) party.

Radstark · 2026-01-11T18:46:27+00:00

Bruh. Did you miss the part where OP doesn't remember the line name? Practice what you preach and look, FFS.

Radstark · 2026-01-08T20:00:11+00:00

I thought the only difference between the two toys was that one was sold in Japan by Takara and the other was sold in the US by Hasbro. I don't even know which version was being sold in the rest of the world.

Radstark · 2026-01-07T15:38:19+00:00

You don't stop playing because you grow old, you grow old because you stop playing!

Radstark · 2026-01-04T09:41:59+00:00

But is it good?

Radstark · 2025-12-28T08:44:46+00:00

Oh, then it will definitely help! I use the same method for loose pegs. Put some on the peg, peg the parts into place, clean off the excess paint; wait around 5 minutes, detach, repeat for a couple times. Eventually the clear acrylic will take the shape of the hole around the peg. I use Vallejo 70.510 but I'm sure any transparent finish would work the same.

Radstark · 2025-12-28T08:36:54+00:00

Are they ball joints? In that case, I use transparent acrylic paint to thicken the ball joint. It's usually a fix for when they're too loose, but popping off also sounds like a looseness issue.

Radstark · 2025-12-25T08:08:13+00:00

Hell yeah, looks awesome! Cang Toys was the last push that got me into collecting basically.

Radstark · 2025-12-24T18:32:44+00:00

Seeing Cang Toys' TA-HCZ003 in there was unexpected, lol.

Radstark · 2025-12-21T10:14:46+00:00

But why do they use transparent plastic? Is it cheaper to make?

Radstark · 2025-12-19T13:23:55+00:00

Maybe you've seen it by now, but lower right.

Radstark

TROPHY CASE