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Post by rihia2k on Apr 18, 2018 3:02:15 GMT -6
I prolly prefer Outlaw to Rhino, then again, I've had little hands-on time with Rhino to truly compare. Outlaw does look sorta fugly in base form. Something which bugged me on Outy is the radar platform - i.e. no ladder or elevator. Nash n' Miles just had to sorta 'magically' fly up there. TBH bigger wasn't always better to me as a kid - my fave was simply the humble Condor. Thats partly due to the fact that Brad Turner is the coolest dudemanbro on the face of the planet.
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Post by Thor Laserpunch on Apr 18, 2018 17:13:08 GMT -6
We all know the frantic man-lusting Brad Turner causes, but you really drank the Kool-Aid on this whole Outlaw affair!
Vampire was my favorite so I getcha. Now I put Firefly and Manta at the top.
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Post by bowspearer on Dec 29, 2018 20:20:15 GMT -6
Actually Slingshot outperforms Rhino as a mobile base on virtually every measure. The glider has far more range and ability to navigate terrain than Rhino's ATV does, its anti-aircraft defenses are far more capable, it can simply vapourise what Rhino needs to bash in terms of what is in front of it and it has a far greater surveillance capability than Rhino through the wall-to-wall monitors it has.
As a couple of asides, Meteor was actually a part of the Racing Series, not the Split Seconds line. Also I completely disagree with your assessment of the Split seconds line. The aesthetics were no different to the rest of the late-80s/early-90s and in fact you can see that with both the GIJOE and Transformers lines around that time, which both shared the same design choices in terms of things like colour palettes. Likewise, given the engineering limitations of the time and what they were going for, which was 1 vehicle which slpit into two, I'd argue that at worst, the line was a very noble attempt, and in many cases a great success.
Barracuda works as both a cycle and minijet and in its combined form (yes the disguise is large, but from memory, some earlier motorcycles were that high), Detonator works as a VW, hovercraft and chopper, Afterburner works as a cannon/minijet and dragster, Skybolt works as a high speed vehicle/jet and jet, Vandal works as a minijet/atv and bobcat, Fireforce works as a glider/chopper and car and last but by no means least, Stilletto definitely works as a jet/helecopter and car.
Wolfbeast falls short if you consider the ground vehicle a tank rather than a mobile missile platform, but other than that works great as a mobile missile platform/experimental aircraft. That leaves dynamo. The go kart fails, but it fails because it was overengineered to be both a go-kart and 2 osprey-style helepacks, which actually do work really well in execution. Meanwhile the dune buggy and helecoper modes work really well.
In fact the engineering on these vehicles is some of the best the line had to offer, while the colours were the norm rather than the exception in the industry at this time, so I'm not really sure what your issue is with them specifically.
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Post by Thor Laserpunch on Dec 31, 2018 18:17:04 GMT -6
Gonna have to disagree with just about everything you said heheh.
I'm aware Afterburner's from the racing series. Imho, this idea of multiple separate vehicles or accessories from one, which really started taking shape with Afterburner & Buzzard, is what killed the line. Sacrificing aesthetics for this particular gimmick largely falls short of exciting. The only one that works for me on a purely visual level is Barracuda. But just about every one feels like two more or less empty shell pieces that don't add up to any given toy from the previous series. As a kid, I could see the play value in some of the designs, but as an adult it feels very insubstantial. That said, Wolfbeast I always thought had one of the funnest transformations of the Split Seconds series.
Slingshot to me is a nice toy. I have nursed several back from a non-working state and when it functions properly, it's pretty cool. It's a pretty basic platform though and doesn't have the playability of the other bases. But while there is some clever engineering to raise the AA gun and oscillate it and deploy the glider wings, it still just looks like a van with it's sides split in half. It also is not an icon of the brand like Rhino.
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Post by bowspearer on Jan 2, 2019 4:21:24 GMT -6
I'm aware Afterburner's from the racing series. Imho, this idea of multiple separate vehicles or accessories from one, which really started taking shape with Afterburner & Buzzard, is what killed the line. Sacrificing aesthetics for this particular gimmick largely falls short of exciting. The only one that works for me on a purely visual level is Barracuda. But just about every one feels like two more or less empty shell pieces that don't add up to any given toy from the previous series. As a kid, I could see the play value in some of the designs, but as an adult it feels very insubstantial. That said, Wolfbeast I always thought had one of the funnest transformations of the Split Seconds series. Firstly, your argument about sacrificing aesthatics is questionable at best. If you're talking colors, then you're simply taking issue with colour palette choices in the toy industry which were becoming increasingly common in the late 80s and were arguably the norm by the mid-1990s. Furthermore, if we are talking colours, then I'm guessing you aren't the biggest fan of the G1 Constructicons, given that unlike the realistic colours they had in the Diaclone line, they were now fluro purple and bright lime green (not to mention that they were from 1985)? As for physical aesthetics exactly what was sacrificed in physical aesthetics, color choices aside? Skybolt looked realistically like a jet fighter. Wolfbeast looked realistically like a muscle car. Detonator looked realistically like a souped up VW with a sunroof. Vandal looks realistically like a bobcat. Fireforce looks realistically like a Pontiac with a sunroof. Stilletto looks realistically like a Lamborgini. Dynamo looks realistically like a souped up dune buggy. Afterbruner is believable as a dragster. Likewise, Barracuda looks like a modern take on and homage to a 1920s Indian 402. Even then, all of what you might come back with comes down to engineering limitations at the time. Compare the engineering of the Split Seconds line to what was offered at the time with the likes of Transformers and you'll find that it is completely on par with it. Furthermore no one making a reasonable argument would argue that it would be fair to hold figures made in the 1980s to the same expectations we have for modern figures in terms of the engineering that is not possible, but simply wasn't back then. Condemning the Split Seconds line based on the engineering limitations of the day, is something that I would consider to be as unreasonable an argument, as say, condemning the entire 1989 Transformers toyline, because not one of the figures in the line had the engineering complexity of Car Robots Speedbreaker. Slingshot to me is a nice toy. I have nursed several back from a non-working state and when it functions properly, it's pretty cool. It's a pretty basic platform though and doesn't have the playability of the other bases. But while there is some clever engineering to raise the AA gun and oscillate it and deploy the glider wings, it still just looks like a van with it's sides split in half. It also is not an icon of the brand like Rhino. This argument simply doesn't hold up to its own consistency. Firstly, you can't judge the quality of a toy based on it being the logo for a brand. All that tells you is how much exposure it got compared to other vehicles. It's like, to draw on the analaogy of Pokemon, arguing that Arceus is inferior to Pikachu because Pikachu is the most iconic Pokemon character. It's a false analogy and it simply doesn't hold up to scrutiny. Furthermore, you say that Slingshot... still just looks like a van with it's sides split in half ..... yet by that argument, you could just as easily argue that Rhino "still just looks like a long-nosed semi with its sleeper cab extended and its smoke stacks pointed forward". In fact given that there's even less of a visible change to Rhino than there is to Slingshot in its attack mode, if anything it's more of a valid criticism of Rhino than it is of Slingshot. In fact there is far more of a change in the transformation of Slingshot to its attack mode than there is in the attack mode of Rhino. The front grill of Slingshot completely changes to a set of twin cannons, where the front grill of Rhino simply extends. The sides of Slingshot fold down to show wall to wall monitors (and yes it is a completely unreasonable argument to judge these figures base on how they look without decals applied), a massive AA-twin cannon, and a glider on a launch pad; Rhino's sleeper cab reveals a single computer and a solitary rocket launcher. Rhino's ATV looks like a shoehorned ATV hiding as the rear axles of a longnosed semi; Slingshot's jet-powered glider looks like a glider. Rhino looks like a pimped out semi; Slingshot looks like a mobile command center disguising itself as a camper-van. Likewise, the transformation is more complex on Slingshot than on Rhino. Rhino you slide the sleeper cab back and then manually have to drop the ramp and lift the rear flap; Slingshot pops the side panels open, extends the AA cannon and the glider's wings with the press of a button. Yes you have to flip the front cannons out, but you have to manually move the smokestacks forward on Rhino anyway so it evens out. Moving the vehicle back and forth pivots the AA array is a more interesting play pattern than a battering ram on a big bulky vehicle. Everything else evens out although I would say that Slingshot's glider is a superior vehicle to Rhino's ATV in terms of weaponry, range and maneuverability. If anything, Rhino is a more basic platform than Slingshot, which is how it should be. The fact is that more than a few of the 2nd year toys are superior in engineering to the 1st year toys in terms of what they pulled off, such as Outlaw, Slingshot, Raven and Hurricane, however that's what you should expect from a toy-line, with companies taking what they learned with the first lot of figures and improving on them in subsequent lines. In fact the one thing which arguably let M.A.S.K. down was that the ideas the designers had were limited far too much by the technological constraints of their time. Had those designers had access to the engineering of today, I imagine that where they were constrained, such as with Split Seconds, we'd see something far more advanced and along the lines of Transformers movie-line figures, if not Transformers Masterpiece levels of engineering complexity.
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Post by Thor Laserpunch on Jan 2, 2019 7:26:54 GMT -6
I try with you, I really do, but a wall of text like this does not help.
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Post by rihia2k on Jan 3, 2019 22:52:45 GMT -6
Aww, you guys are tearing me apart! Mostly cos I haven't as much experience with M.A.S.K. to form an educated opinion either way. I wish there was a quickfire decider where you both present a 02.30 minute YouTube vid of hands-on playability demonstrating your favourite M.A.S.K. toys. (But video quality & vocal "brrm brrm" noises don't count towards your final score). At the very least can we agree that Slingshot's pilot, Ace Riker has about the most enviable leather jacket of all 3" figures everywhere. (or I'm biased because I unintentionally cosplay as him on weekends) Anyways - get to making them YouTube vids, Bow & Thor - Spockoda can be judge, I'll be jury, and ... well, you all know Figure Collector.
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Post by rihia2k on Jan 4, 2019 0:57:38 GMT -6
... and because lifes ridiculous after I happened to post in a M.A.S.K. thread, I stumble across the M.A.S.K. Movie II VHS not even 30 minutes later (when I was actually looking for empty boxes in the garage). I'll chalk it up to a late Xmas miracle. I've never watched it, I'll put it on my to do list right? Boy howdy, it even has Goliath 1 on the cover art! I'm not sure if Matt's facial expression is selling it to me tho. Sorta' looks like he was halfway through a coffee and a bagel, suddenly needed to use the bathroom, then somebody started rolling camera. ... I will give Split Seconds 1 point for translucent figures (them's cool). But will deduct 1 point for Barracuda. Surely 2 unicycles woulda been better than that flimsy jet piece.
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Post by figurecollector on Jan 4, 2019 18:45:23 GMT -6
Aww, you guys are tearing me apart! Mostly cos I haven't as much experience with M.A.S.K. to form an educated opinion either way. I wish there was a quickfire decider where you both present a 02.30 minute YouTube vid of hands-on playability demonstrating your favourite M.A.S.K. toys. (But video quality & vocal "brrm brrm" noises don't count towards your final score). At the very least can we agree that Slingshot's pilot, Ace Riker has about the most enviable leather jacket of all 3" figures everywhere. (or I'm biased because I unintentionally cosplay as him on weekends) Anyways - get to making them YouTube vids, Bow & Thor - Spockoda can be judge, I'll be jury, and ... well, you all know Figure Collector. BEWARE THE EXECUTIONER!!!
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Post by Thor Laserpunch on Jan 5, 2019 0:09:56 GMT -6
My dog ate all my MASK toys and I have a note from my mother saying I can be excused from this thread.
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Post by figurecollector on Apr 5, 2019 18:48:27 GMT -6
Let's start over from here. Back to the toys.
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Post by Thor Laserpunch on Apr 6, 2019 13:08:34 GMT -6
But daaaaaad!
Back on topic: I want to be the first to announce that my company will be publishing rihia2k's latest coffee table book of erotic Hondo McLean art. Please join us for Ecto-Coolers and Ninja Turtle pies in the reception area to celebrate this momentous achievement.
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Post by figurecollector on Apr 6, 2019 18:33:43 GMT -6
But daaaaaad! Back on topic: I want to be the first to announce that my company will be publishing rihia2k's latest coffee table book of erotic Hondo McLean art. Please join us for Ecto-Coolers and Ninja Turtle pies in the reception area to celebrate this momentous achievement. At least you are not young enough to call me grandpa.
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Post by rihia2k on Apr 6, 2019 23:59:38 GMT -6
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Post by Thor Laserpunch on Apr 12, 2019 22:09:58 GMT -6
I’m really glad they were able to squash the beef.
But why does T-bob have his hands in his pockets all the time?
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Post by rihia2k on Apr 13, 2019 4:45:46 GMT -6
I’m really glad they were able to squash the beef. But why does T-bob have his hands in his pockets all the time? I really wondered if anyone would think 'bout Bob's arms (or lack thereof). I guess it's like an Agatha Christie tale. *Could that be part of Mayhem's apology? *Why is Mayhem reduced to public transport? *Is Ulk the Neanderthal really qualified to work with pre-schoolers? -------------------------------------------------------------------- Also I've been talking to Hondo about publishing that Erotic Coffee Table Art Book. He's hesitant. Particularly after 'Hondo Sweats', the photo collection of Hondo showcasing his own line of American knitwear. It wasn't as commercially successful as he'd hoped.
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Post by Thor Laserpunch on Apr 17, 2019 18:42:07 GMT -6
I mean if we were really dissecting the scene, Miles appears to be reading an extremely truncated phone book. I deduce this is a zen meditation technique. Clearly he is changing all aspects of his life into more positive endeavors and attempting to make amends for all his wrongdoings. Why would he just single out T-Bob? Clearly he owes apologies to many others.
Now if you'll excuse me, I have a sudden craving for Jell-O Pudding Pops.
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imj
Garage Sale Scavenger
Aug 28, 2019 11:32:28 GMT -6
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Post by imj on Aug 28, 2019 12:00:40 GMT -6
This is a great thread. About fifteen years ago I started a small eBay store that, at the time I was basically using to generate income for added money down on my first house. I sold my entire M.A.S.K. collection then. Most of the stuff that I move into other people's collections I am able to just let go. But from time to time I see a M.A.S.K. thread and it really makes me want to dig back into that area of the hobby.
I had a nice small set. But there was more M.A.S.K. that I didn't have than that I did. So I've got that sort of 30 year lingering curiosity about those pieces....
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