Can we please stop with these busted legs that don't move backwards? I don't need my bots to be able to slav squat. You need some exercise if the range of rearward motion at your hip is significantly limited. I can do 45° easy. Try some forward leg lunges in your routine: *disclaimer: this shitposty image does not demonstrate the full, glorious, too hard for MS range of motion of the human hip, so you can save the 'well, if you look at your image the rearward bend is there but not that great' comment.
This excuse has always bothered me (in general, not just coming from you personally). If "mass shifting" is a thing, or in other words, Ant-Man powers, why doesn't EVERY character mass shift to whatever size that's convenient for them at any given time? Why bother with combiners? Scrapper himself can just mass shift to 64 feet tall. Or Optimus could mass shift to the same size as Devastator. Ravage could mass shift to the size of a beetle and spy WAY better. Why does Starscream mass shift to his detriment? So ridiculous. And while I'm "ranting", robot dinosaurs and giant robot bugs are terrible disguises.
Welp, the Dinobots weren’t exactly looking for disguises, we’re they? They were disguised when they landed on Earth 4 million years ago, but Dinobot explains in G1 he didn’t want to be disguised, and stayed as a T-rex because he wanted to be king of the jungle. The Dinobots are a panic button for the Autobots when they need backup, and by that point, disguises aren’t really needed, right?
Figure looks great and I'm excited to have him but, like others have said, that pale blue is awful. Silver sharpie is my go to for MST figures cuz it seems to adhere to the vinyl very well and it's a nice dull, almost flat, silver that fits well with their aesthetic, so that's what I'll be using. It may not demonstrate the full motion but, if we're using human flexibility as the template, we have to acknowledge that most of the rearward range of motion is in the pelvis, not the hip. Magic square figures have very good pelvis articulation, though it tends to break the sculpt. Despite that, I agree that TF figures ought to have rear hip movement but at the same time, I really like the way their recent figures have huge forward hip movement and they do it without ugly hip skirts sticking out. Unfortunately, this is the price we have to pay for that glorious forward motion and I for one am happy enough to pay it.
Per sunbow, dinosaur alt modes were chosen for sheer strength and resiliance, not disguising. I forget the theory behind the insecticons, but I think they "evolved" over the millions of years on earth to survive and took on buglike modes. How they were never noticed is beyond me.
i don't get why ppl asking for more articulation have to defend themselves each and every time it gets mentioned, or even why we need to keep referencing human anatomy as the standard of what a robot, or even a toy of a robot is restricted to for articulation. just cuz most humans can't kick their leg 90 degrees backward, does that mean we can't expect a robot or toy of a robot to do so??? most of our toys now can rotate their head's 360 degrees, so should we ask toy manufactures to restrict ball jointed heads to only rotate 180 degrees to be human anatomically correct???
As soon as we can stop using Sunbow animation as a reference standard, I’ll be happy to let go of my realistic expectations for humanoid robot articulation.
Were they though? If animals can visually recognize that other animals aren't of the same species, I'm betting dinosaurs could've recognized the ones among them that were angular and shiny metal. real dinos looking at the dinobots: They've ALWAYS been terribly disguised.
Normal hip extension for a human is in the 12-18 degree range. Not sure what you’re measuring. Perhaps you’re including rotation of the pelvis as well, but 45 degrees in the hip itself would cause dislocation. Back to MS Mirage— the sculpt is nice, but I agree with some other comments here that the colors are not desirable, particularly that pale blue. Given that Hound was reissued in a much better deco, what is the likelihood that Mirage would get a similar treatment? I didn’t think MS typically offered many repaints. I wouldn’t expect Newage “EX” levels of paint detail, but at least some silver might entice me to buy this.
i find it a bit ironic that the premier video heralds this as being the "first toy to give Mirage his proper G1 artwork and cartoon colours with the use of light blue. yet, just like the 1st release of Hound, MS is still inconsistent with the proper colouring for their "toon" look if that's what their intent is. on Hound it was his winch and rear rocket launcher they painted silver instead of being off white. this time Mirage has his rocket, engine and wheel rims in silver, which should be the same light blue that the knee pads, feet, gun, etc. if MS is going to commit to a specific "toon" colouring, i say they should at least do it properly. here's hoping MS issues a 2nd repaint with all silver instead of the light blue, which looks wrong to me, as quickly as they did with Hound. it's a shame that MS continues to do do these little annoying minor things that detracts from an otherwise fairly great engineered bot/alt.
I mean, the G1 toon car didn’t even have the engine block - I think when they’re designing something certain liberties have to be taken away from toon to have it look satisfying as a toy. I get that some on here don’t like the light blue, but I’m sure they try different things out during production and decide what works for them and what doesn’t. I don’t think this one is a “shame,” they just made choices not everyone cares for. I personally think the light blue with the engine and missile being metallic is fine. But that’s what repaints are for, to try and give different people what they want… but you can never please everyone.
I'm actually starting to like the light blues after watching his video. It'll be interesting to see how it looks in person. MS already said hound was painted to appropriately match MP hound not the animation model, which is why his silvers were off white. Not really ironic, they just caved to what was officially shown as "toon." Atleast their rectifying it and allowing us to chose what color scheme we want.
The Dinobots wouldn’t have been disguised as dinosaurs 4 million years ago anyway. Dinosaurs went extinct 65 million years ago…also, are we talking comic or cartoon continuity? Because if we’re on about cartoons, the dinobots weren’t around until 1984. If we’re on about comics, then yeah the dinobots were dinosaurs 4 million years ago due to writer error I guess. As for mass shifting, I always presumed that ability was extremely difficult to create or replicate, using some method that wasn’t easily replicated for reasons. Hence bots like Blaster and Soundwave and Perceptor probably came from a particular region of Cybertron where this tech was invented but not widespread. Wouldn’t be surprised if the mass shifting module was also procured by the Constructicons when building Megatron too, in order to give him that ability boost. At least, that’s how I headcanoned it.
heck, it doesn't even have to be silver painted. i'd be fine if they just dropped the blue tint and silver altogether, and just made everything "consistent" in a plain light grey colour.
I think the "defend themselves" thing comes from the transformers always moving and emoting like humans do. To pose them in ways that humans can't would deviate from how they were typically shown in the cartoons and comics (I say typically because I'm sure there were exceptions). But I suppose you're right - they're robots so human articulation isn't necessarily relevant. I guess that means the only relevant issue is why magic square articulates their bots this way. It's not to emulate human anatomy (though that may be their excuse since, again, they were never really drawn any other way). It's simply because of the way they do the forward movement. Very high kicking ability with no hip skirts. The high kicks are nice but I freaking love the lack of hip skirts. Other figures may be able to pull off poses that MST figures can't but MST will look better in their poses for not having the hip skirts. I will add, though, that it would be nice if MST were able to include some rear movement. You're never going to get much with the pivot so far forward (not without leaving a huge void at the back of the hip) but I think with a good design that uses a rounded hip fitting into a rounded cutout, you could achieve 10-20 degrees without compromising the sculpt or the forward movement.
I think what I most dislike about toon decos as applied to toys is the literal interpretation of colors originally meant to represent silver and chrome. Metallic surfaces tend to reflect what’s around them, so cartoon Hound’s silver/chrome was a given washed-out olive color while Mirage’s was made pale blue, imitating a reflection of their primary paint colors. At other times the artists just took the easier route with whites and greys. When these simplified representations are translated back onto toy figures, I want to see them return to silver and chrome— not the pale hues and white used in the animation cels.
