Congrats!

What did you end up getting?

No matter what, you're in for a treat. The Dianauts are really something special, and they've significantly improved my enjoyment of both collecting and customizing.

They're insanely addictive... as soon as you have some, you want more. Then accessories. Then vehicles. Then playsets. Then custom minifigures for them to interact with... it really never ends, hahaha.

Almost done with the custom Dianauts outpost I've been working on. It should be 100% done within the next day or two, but I might have it far along enough tonight for a teaser...

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I've been staring at diaclone Dianaut images in between custom vehicle designs for days now.

Got my guys today. I knew they were small....but for some reason, until you have them in hand, you don't realize how small. Not that its a bad thing.

On the counter where I opened the box, I had a 1/64 carnival food wagon that these guys had to hit first. Awesomeness. Now, to hit the man cave and try these guys with the Micromachine Star Wars vehicles.

Quick super-late teaser:



Dianaut inspecting the new outpost, while still under construction...

INITIAL THOUGHTS:

SOOOOOOO much cooler than I expected it to be! 100% honest, I really wanted this orange colorway Dianaut. Didn't expect to love the power armor as much as I do, but it's amazing.

When you open the box, the power suit looks smaller than expected (in a good way), but I didn't realize just how small until putting it in my display. It's about the size of a Mega Bloks HALO minifigure, and super-articulated. It's very well-designed and well-thought out to work as a standalone action figure... which just so happens to house a 1" microfigure in its chest.



More shots after I've slept...

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I've finally gotten my hands on a Dianaut figure in order to "sample" the line before committing fully.



Huh. This figure has given me a lot to consider creatively. On one hand the figure is TINY even when comparing it to a figure in the same scale (as evidenced by the picture above). The "KO Rambo" figure shown above is about the same height but thicker than the Dianaut. I've been scratch building micro figures (2.5'' or smaller) - scratch build parts, make molds, cast , etc. - for a decade + and i have never seen a "plastic" hinge elbow joint as small as what's on the Dianaut. EVER. There is no way that i'm adding a bicep swivel to the stock figure which brings me to my dilemma...

The stock figure is a dream come true. Tiny , in scale "true" 1'' to 1.5'' poseable dudes in powered body armor is everything i've wanted from a toy line. I'll buy one Dianaut 8 pack for sure. But GI Joe has made me demand the bicep swivel as a collector *and* i was building figures in this scale back in 2004/2005 and they had biceps swivel (the equivalent). So if i start building fully poseable little guys again am i really a toy collector ...or am i back to being a toy *maker*? DO i buy $150 worth of dianaut dudes only to supplement them with scratch built dudes in the same scale that can actually twist at the elbow / bicep? If so ...why not just scratch build everything? Would that make me a modeler? Have i been avoiding my true calling lol? IS flexible wire the true secret to micro action figure nirvana?



All i know for now is i have an in scale tank that needs to be converted....and that this figure has stirred a lot of toy collecting emotions.

Years ago, in a mythical time where TRU's were clearing out SW MicroMachines for stupid cheap, I built a squadron of TIE fighters. In recent years, as these TIEs have been relegated to the storage bins, I've considered getting rid of them. Now, with these Dianauts, I'm glad I didn't get rid of them as they are a perfect fit. Although I know lament not buying more A-wings and letting my son destroy the X-wings when he was younger. I also need to get out my MicroMachine Jawas to hang out with these guys. On one hand - great, more diorammas to put on my to-do list. However, its diorammas I can incorporate into my HO train set.



That was one of the first things I noticed when I started playing with these guys. Then, I realized I'm only really concerned about that if they could carry weapons. Based on that, I think I'll be able to live without the bicep artic.

Mentioned picking up some Skylanders subs on clearance the other day. Here are a couple shots with blue Dianauts posing as divers.



The colors work so well together that they could've been made for each other.

It takes some work to get the bubble off the sub, but when you do, the seat fits a Dianaut nicely. The chair is a little bit big, but not in a bad way, and definitely not ridiculously oversized.



If you can find these on clearance and have Dianauts, pick the sub up. It's a cool little toy in its own right.

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I've been passively searching for a die cast f1 style race car that will seat a dianaut (or other similarly scaled ) figure. Seeing the sub makes me want one even more .

I parted with a bunch of larger scale (4`` and larger) items . It was cathartic .
"Turning" those items into small scale Dianauts? Exciting and liberating.

A Dianaut crew with a droid assistant are soon to be manning my micro vehicles.

My local Toys R Us and CVS Pharmacy (oddly enough) have pretty decent displays of Dianaut scale cars of all kinds. Maybe they'll have your F-1 racecar?

Did a quick search on Amazon and found this:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B000MQKC ... 1+race+car

Listing says it's 5" long, which sounds about right. The driver looks like a separate piece. With enough "aggressive negotiations," I imagine it comes out pretty easy.

Since the scale for these little guys is wonky, I go with whatever eyeballs up correctly. I usually go for vehicles/robots that, might be technically a larger scale, but works well with Dianauts.


EDIT:

Did some photography outside while the light was good and took some shots of my Dianaut outpost. Gonna post more in my thread in Critiques, but here's a teaser:




LINK TO FULL GALLERY:

viewtopic.php?f=14&t=36142&start=360

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Wow, awesome pics. These little guys are just so much fun.

They really are a lot of fun, and they've become my favorite toys in the six months I've had them.

Personally, they are as important & influential to me as a collector and toymaker as GI JOE and Star Wars were/are. They've already inspired so much work, with a lot more on the way!

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This. Truly.

I've spent the last ...4 days working on a way to improve the Dianaut base figure not so much because they need to be improved but because i can't stop messing with the blue and black Dianaut . I've made same scale custom figures in that time (2.5 figures so far heh) that i've been fiddling with off and on the last hour or so and comparing them all. I'm revisiting small scale custom vehicle designs again ( I haven't done that for quite a few months). I finally have a reason to build this F1 inspired craft (*Thanks for the F1 car link btw Doc'*):



I'm not sure if i'll build a windshield for it or not yet but the fact that i'm even *thinking* about this ..wow.


The last time i was doing this type of stuff i was designing figures in Solidworks which proved to me just how inspirational these figures are for me personally. I'm buying R/C vehicles again solely due to these guys .

I'll still pick up Mega Bloks for custom figure work but for immersive play/building these are right up my alley.

All of this enthusiasm and i don't even own a Powered Armor set yet lol

For those of you watching the sci fi show Expanse....are you getting a Dianaut vibe from the Martian Marine Corps armor?

I'll start with the disclaimer that I've been too lazy to take and post any photos here....

Having said that, if anyone has the mini HISS that came out a couple years ago, the Dianauts fit perfectly in that guy. Maybe someone already posted that, but I don't remember seeing it.

Second, has anyone found a "news" site about these guys? I'm not wanting to get into the mechs, because of the price. However, I'd like to buy more of the figure packs. But, I'd like to see if they are doing another series, maybe in red, so I can have opposing sides. I'm hoping for a set of red ones to use with Autobot headmasters, and use these blue guys for Decepticon headmasters.