To add to the lighting problem..I have to agree with that.

I really DO appreciate Mike bringing us all the scoops, so thanks Mike!
BUT I do think people have the right to adress these problems, because it seems to me Mike runs a site dedicated to bring fans this kind of news/galleries, so saying "I was in a hurry" won't cut it for too long. If you want to do this kind of stuff, I think you have to be professional about it. Not that everything has to be picture-perfect, but a bit more quality wouldn't hurt.  

Let's face it, people will ALWAYS look at the galleries and videos if it concerns a new figure they want to know all about, so being the first to review it gives an advantage, but maybe a day will come when you're no longer the first, and if the quality of your 'news' is low compared to another reviewer, people will quickly stop looking at your videos and galleries...

Good example of this would be Peaugh. I know alot of people wait for his pictorial and video reviews, even if he isn't the first. Why? Because the man has a kind, easy to follow voice, gives a clear opinion (weighing pros and cons), shows the figures in a good setting (light and soft area), and in a way that's easy to follow for the eyes. But at the same time, he's still reviewing on a desk in what seems to be a computer room upstairs, with a children's tv show on the television in the background, and the constant hitting of the camera lens cap against the camera. Shows you don't need to be flashy or perfect and can still be professional.  

There has been a while where Peaugh reviewed new toys alongside Sean Long and Dbanks. Now guess why people kept looking at Peaugh's videos and not the other two guys... 

Mike, if you find these useful, some tips (ignore if you're feeling lucky):

-for the photo galleries, try not to use your camera's flash. It's way too bright and focused, it causes all the toys to look melting and overbright. A good idea would be to use some (desk) lamps, and cover them with something like white paper, then set them at the sides of what you're going to photograph.

What this does is gives you enough light to make a good picture of your toy, but in a much softer and more equal light (the bright light is diffused by the white paper in front)..maybe experiment varying on how strong the light is and how thick the paper..oh and don't set your house on fire!

-for the videos: I guess this has already been said..but yes, it's better to find an area with more light..but I think you already knew this because most of your videos ARE in better settings. Just got to make sure that you transform the toys onscreen and not half out of the frame, or with your hands obscuring it.   And maybe the tip with the desk lamps can be applied here as well.

 

I know, the non-transforming gun arm really kind of bums me out. I'm still going to get this guy, but he's just a tad less cool then I thought he first was.

 

facking sweet; please review mindwipe too!!!

 

When we all pay Mike I will give complaints....

Thanks GZ. I love this figure.

People who post vids of upcoming figures can do it for different reasons, Mike is one of those guys who does it cause he loves the collecting and he likes to show off the new figures for people to get excited about. He hasn't taken on some employed task or been voted into office for 'transformer guy.'

If you want to complain about it knock yourselves out. It won't change a damn thing and you know it. Offer your perspective if you like, but you get more flies with honey than you do with vinegar.

 

Cool, thanks for the great review Mike

 

Eh, he looks worse then he does in the pictures but, still awesome.

 

I'm excited to get him.....Jetfire is lonely on the shelf and I'm happy to get a definitive version of starscream since hes my favorite tf character

 

LOL, this guy should forever be banned from reviews, how could he do that to the poor innocent little voyager starscream? Makes you really think what the leader looks like truly transformed, cause this guy obviously guessed his way through, and wtf is up with him taking the gun off before transformation? Its obviously connected

 

Hard to see with all that black.

 

Thanks so much for the Vid review, but after seeing the awesome photos from a few days ago, I have a couple quams (Beware ZOMG some feedabck and opinions are about to be said)

I think the reviewer could truly care less about the toy as much as he leads on.

The way he was rushing through everything, and flailing the toy about. it almost seems he rushed through it just to get it up before anybody else. the black backdrop and the werewolf arms did make things hard to see but oh well reviews can't be perfect all the time. Peaugh will do a better review when he gets his I'm sure and I look forward to hearing what he has to say about Leader Screamer.

On a good note though, this is the first Leader Screamer Vid up so congrats.

 

AWESOME. I couldn't care less what the detractors say but as I was watching this clip together w/my 4 yr old nephew, both of us enjoyed it very much.

Bought on sight once it's released.

 

Kickass review! I especially found the Optimus vs. Sentinel animation to be quite hilarious too!  

 

Great review. Leader SS looks  

 

I'd love to see this review on a screen bigger than 1.5" x 1.5" and that doesn't glitch up on me, but from I did get to see, this is a definitive buy. It was when I saw the proto pictures from the 2nd dvd disk, but this just made everything I wanted about the figure better. I knew that the missile launcher wasn't going to be transformable like people were saying, but I would like to know if it can be placed on either arm. The stupid paint apps I can deal with as I can fix that on my own. But it would be nice if they would put them on there themselves as official apps. As for people whining... The guys doin the best he can within a limited battery life. Leave him alone.. If you think you can do better, find a way to get your hands on the figure, and do it yourself. Put up or shut up. Giving tips is one thing, bitching and complaining is another, and that's what a lot of everyones been doing with this. I'm not trying to point fingers at anyone, but be happy that he's getting these figure for early review. He doesn't have to do this for us. I just read 10 pages, and about 30-35% of what I've read was complaining about how bad the video was. Deal with it....

 

Good review GenZhao. You're right, it does make the Voyager one look like crap. I just may pick this guy up whenever I do see him.

 

The Fallen technically has no alt mode. the "jet" was tossed together by Hasbro. Not only that, but the Fallen was the worse rip-off of emperor palpatine (from Starwars) and other 80's villains ever. Not an ounce of originality in the character. I'm glad they chose Starscream. Better Starscream than the 600,000,000 versions of Bumblebee and Prime.

 

That could be, and I can understand if you were in a hurry to get this out there for us all to see.

The main problem with using auto focus in this particular review was that you were moving around so much and it wasn't focusing properly. My first thought was that turning it off and setting up your focus manually would have been the better option. Though now that I'm thinking about it more auto-focus might work well if you keep in mind how much you're moving around. The main issue was that things ended up being out-of-focus for most of the review and much of the detail was lost.

Having that context makes sense. This being the first review of yours I saw, it seemed like it was part of the KO Toys id segment and was really out of place being used so much.

Anyway, thank you for posting that video. It was good to see a review and I appreciate you sharing your opinion on the figure.  

 

Depends on how hungry I am, and how much I respect the person giving the attempt. If the McDonalds kid burns my food, there is hell to pay. If my wife burns the food, she still gets the wuvvin'.

I watched on a 15 inch monitor and my iPod Touch, and both looked good enough to get a good idea of the figure. Was it HDTV prime time quality? no. But again, I don't expect that of Youtube. Hell, when Youtube amateurs are concerned, I'm happy when the image doesn't shoot 5 seconds of ceiling or floor.
As someone who used to produce, shoot, and deliver weekly public access programming, I honestly think the reviewer did a damn good job. It's quite hard to keep a viewer's attention for more than 5 minutes in this age of ADD. He gave fairly good comparisons (almost every nerd has the movie 1 leader Prime), as well as the movie 2 'scream. Mindwipe was tossed in for (I'm guessing) either bragging rights or eBay item rights, but still gave a nice comparison.

The fact that prototypes are leaking all over the place, box images are everywhere, and stores are starting their preorders make me believe this character *might* show up on shelves by xmas. Either way, I sooooo need to get a bigger display case...

 

^^
Well said.  

 

I actually had to stop watching the review because I couldn't see what was actually going on.

I don't mind if people want to get their exclusive toys and put their reviews up first, but if you rush and do a crap job, people are going to notice and remember.

No one is forcing me to watch it, but if you put a review out in the public arena, prepare to be criticised. Nothing personal, but I'm going to wait for Peaugh's review.