mikeszekely

4 feet tall and an estimated price pushing $700 before shipping and tariffs? No thank you. I'm having a hard enough time finding space for the figures I do buy... like Load Warrior, DreamStar Toys version of Long Haul. Load Warrior's in a bit of a rough spot for me. Like, on the one hand, the overall aesthetic is a match for what DST's been doing so far. But also, could he be more generic? I mean, look at his chest. There's a purple cockpit door and, though they're green and blend in with the rest of the chest, vents flanking it that scream "GUNDAM!" Which isn't necessarily the worst thing ever, but there really isn't much visible alt mode kibble on him at all, aside from some wheels on his shoulders. Stylized though they were, DST's Scrapper was still very obviously Scrapper, and DST's Hook had very stylized bits that recalled the panels over Hook's shoulders. With Load Warrior, if I didn't tell you it was Long Haul, would you have recognized him? Things are marginally improved from other angles. He's got some kibble on his back that looks a like it could be part of his bed, and panels on the sides of his legs that definitely are. And despite the normal generic-ness of his upper body, his legs have a chunkiness to him that modern versions of Long Haul tend to have. Load Warrior comes with a number of accessories. We've got his gun, naturally. There's two rod-like parts, and a part that looks like another gun (with a nice metallic-red diamond painted on it) but isn't, and a pair of translucent red blades. There's also a pelvis and thighs. Open the front and you'll find a slot that you can slide the mushroom peg on the bottom of the Megatron torso that came with Hook. Sadly, Megatron's not whole yet, though, as one of his arms will come with Bonecrusher and the other with Scavenger. Load Warrior's head is on a ball joint with decent enough up/down/sideways tilt. His shoulders rotate and move laterally over 90 degrees, all on ratchets. His biceps swivel, and his elbows are double-jointed and can bend 180 degrees. His wrists swivel. His index finger is separate from the other three, which are molded together. All his fingers are pinned at the base with two additional hinged knuckles, while his thumb has a ball joint at the base and two pinned knuckle hinges. His waist swivels, and he's got about 45 degrees of ab crunch. His hip skirts hinge upward in the front, so his hips can go about 90 degrees forward, 45 degrees backward, and over 90 degrees laterally on some very strong ratchets. His feet don't have any up/down tilt, but his ankles can pivot about 45 degrees. You can actually push them to closer to 90, but you'll have to undo the gray armor behind his foot. The red light thingies on his back can swivel to be more visible, which I think helps give him some character. His gun has slots on the handle that are meant to connect to tabs on the insides of his palms. It works, but it's not the tightest fit and the vibrations from some of the ratchets can cause the gun to come loose while manipulating him even if you aren't touching that hand/arm. The rest of his accessories combine to make a huge axe. Which, I have to admit, looks pretty friggin' sweet. Weirdly, while there is a spot that has the slots to attach to his palm, there's only one, and it's on the bottom third of the shaft. For most poses, I imagine he'll be holding the axe by friction alone. I also can't help but notice some tabs and peg holes and a hinge. It makes me wonder if there's going to be some gimmick for all of this in combined mode. Time will tell. Load Warrior's transformation is less complicated than you might realize from the lack of obvious truck kibble. The grill of the truck was tucked into his backpack, which also makes up the spill guard. His curled up arms make the lights and cab, and then like any good Long Haul is bed is mostly made from his legs. What makes him a tad annoying, despite his seeming simplicity, is the need to have everything lined up in his legs just right, or things won't tab together properly. Also, the instructions are some of the worst I've seen, omitting some steps and, in one instance, continuing from the top row of one page to the top row of the next page, causing major headaches when you follow the numbers from the top row of the page to the bottom row of the same page then realize that you need to do other things first. Worst of all, there's a step for vehicle mode that they don't bother to mention until the combined mode, where midway through the instruction from truck to combined mode they guide you through that step, then promptly have you undo it because it's not part of combined mode. Naturally, I didn't realize that the weird "do this, now undo it" part of the combined instructions were missing vehicle steps until later, so guess what? My alt mode pics are mistransformed! This is pretty much the gist of it, though; what I'm missing are some panels that fold out from inside the shoulders to help fill in the sides and lock in the waist (you can see the green peg it should plug into in the side view there). This allows the front wheels to shift slightly back and tuck in a little more, so they don't stick out quite so far. That said... his robot thighs are still pretty visible, his rear wheels aren't as wide as the front ones, and there's that weird panel running up from the rear wheels on both sides, with a gappy rear and taillights at weird angles. So, yeah, all the vehicles in this set have been a bit stylized and not real-world vehicles, but Load Warrior seems a bit extra stylized. Load Warrior's accessory storage helps a little. Actually, I'd say his gun, which fits between his legs with the barrel pointing in toward the cab, fills in the rear a lot. Then the axe blades tab into the sides, and sure, they do help cover his thighs... but then you've got conspicuous translucent red blades on the sides of a dump truck. And the rest of the axe? Well, there doesn't seem to be a dedicated place to put that stuff. I suppose you can take it apart and stuff the pieces into his bed, which is a fairly solid and adequately deep bed, though one with some obvious robot kibble and one that can't actually tilt. Though the pieces fit, they do not lock down in any way. Although Load Warrior's instructions go from truck to combined mode, I think you're almost better off starting from robot mode. You have to reconfigure his arms an bit and tuck his head in, and bring up the front grill like you're going to truck mode, but his torso is mostly still in the robot mode position. As for his legs, you make him do a split, then shift armor on the backs of his thighs to the sides, which will allow you to open a panel behind it and unlock a joint that drops his lower leg back to vertical. Point his toes down, and that's it. Of course, on his own he doesn't look like much, but if you take the lower half of Megatron, fold out some flaps and move the side skirts to the front, shift the hips down so the legs peg together, then open the backs of the legs, you'll make an armor piece that plugs into Load Warrior's crotch and wraps underneath and fills out Devastator's pelvis. I think it's kind of good that they didn't release Load Warrior first... the robot mode's a tad generic, the alt mode is a little too far from a real dump truck, and the transformation is just a tad more annoying that the previous two releases. That said, with soon-to-be three companies competing for a G1 Sunbow-style MP Devastator, I do really appreciate that DST is bringing a unique aesthetic to their Constructicons, and doing so with gorgeous metallic green and purple paints, plenty of little tampographs, and cool accessories like a big ol' battle axe. If nothing else, I now have three Constructicons that look pretty amazing on a shelf together. If you can only get one Long Haul, well... I guess you'll probably want a more cartoon accurate one to replace ToyWorld's on your MP shelf. OK, but if you can do two, where one is more stylized... actually, I still prefer the Mecha Invasion ones, and they're much cheaper to boot. OK, OK, but if you still have a craving for Constructions that aren't perfect, but still look pretty dang cool, or are looking for something that's a bit better as a display piece than Mecha Invasion's, this is still shaping up to be a pretty good set.

I don't know if I'd rate it that low, but otherwise I agree with this take. It very much felt like the sort of plot that could have been a multi-part episode of the Justice League. It wasn't bad, I'd go so far as to say that I wound up liking the casting a good bit, but it lacked any real nuance (my wife even complained that even if she could buy that Luthor was that much of a megalomaniacal villain, she couldn't believe that all those people working for him would just go along with his scheme), and it was lacking in a cinematic, summer blockbuster feel that The Avengers movies had.

I think that's fair, but iirc Ignis' feet still have ankle pivots, and the chunky design is pretty accurate. Ignis definitely has his share of compromises due to the All Built-In gimmick, but I expected that after Onslaught. Ventus just feels unfinished, that's why I might give Ignis an edge. But there's definitely a gap between Ignis & Ventus vs the other three. I agree, but I'll go one further. If we're only comparing arms, I think Venus<Impetus (Vortex)<Volatus (Blast Off)<Medicus. Anything's possible, I guess (I just saw they're doing Godbomber armor for Optus Pexus), but since they're doing actual toy decos I wouldn't hold my breath. If you can make a combiner without any extra parts it's all-in-one. The shoes are optional for people who want toy/OX accuracy. I'll say this, though... I'm messing with Maximas Pro around the same time with Hasbro's Superion. And yeah, MMC's All Built-In engineering is super impressive, but I'm kinda loving the simple playability and all-around sturdiness of the Hasbro stuff. Completing Maximas Pro kinda makes me want a new Hasbro Defensor.

Looking forward to that, thought I'm debating on whether or not to pick up a few more of XTB's. Their Scrapper was pretty good. Speaking of MMC, I'm way late on this because it's been sitting in my stash waiting to ship, but I've finally got the last of MMC's Protectobots. This is Ventus, their take on Blades. If nothing else, visually Ventus is looking pretty great. I mean, at this level we've come to expect that they'd get details like the arm kibble, chest vents, knee pads, and color placement. But MMC got the two-segmented thighs, the line around the wrists, the circles on to the top of his torso, the indented section of his pelvis, and even managed to compress the kibble on his arms to better match his Sunbow self. Ventus is pulling all of that off with minimal extraneous kibble, too. Little cockpit and rotor on the back, like the G1 toy (can't recall if that bit of cockpit is cartoon accurate). The bulk of the tail boom is tucked flatly as an integrated part of the legs, with just a little of the tail near his heels breaking the illusion. Ventus comes with a pistol, two "rocket launchers," and a pair of alternate faces in cause you'd prefer to swap the stoic default face with an angry one or a slight smile. Note that he also comes with replacement faces for Incertus (Groove), as the stock faces were prone to scratching. Ventus' articulation is mostly good, largely on par with the other members of the team, save for one glaring flaw. His head is on a hinged ball joint that can look down a little, but has tons of upward and sideways tilt. His shoulders rotate and extend laterally 90 degrees (mind the kibble). His biceps swivel, and his soft-ratcheted elbows bend around 120 degrees. His wrists swivel, and his fingers are individually articulated, though they're molded into curves and only jointed at the base, with a ball joint on the thumb and hinges for the rest. His waist swivels, and he's got about 45 degrees of ab crunch. His hips, soft-ratcheted all around, can go 90 degrees forward, 45 degrees backward, and over 90 degrees laterally. His thighs swivel, and his knees bend 90 degrees. His toes can tilt downward... and that's it. In the year of our Lord 2025, when even Hasbro knows to put ankle articulation on a $25 Deluxe, MMC released a Masterpiece-style figure with NO ANKLE PIVOTS. Ventus holds his pistol well, but plugging the tab on the back of the handle into his palm/thumb area. The same cannot be said for the rocket launchers, which use small squarish tabs to loosely plug into ports on the sides of his legs. I guess MMC felt it was necessary to include, since the leg guns are part of Blades' animation model. Ventus' transformation is fairly straightforward once you understand what you're doing- part of the cockpit comes off his back to cover his head, most of the rest of it is in his chest and tummy. Moving his chest and tummy leaves a hollow void that you can fill buy stuffing his arms in there, but you gotta make sure you're expanding and arranging the kibble on his arms just right. His waist swivels so that his crotch is under his butt plate, his legs unfold into the rear of the helicopter, then he folds backward at the waist and bends at the hips and knees to stuff everything below the waist that isn't a helicopter into his back. The problem is, even when you know what you're doing, it's kind of a pain. You don't have a lot of clearance to work with in spots, his chest is clipped in place with c-clips holding onto metal rails that are also used for sliding his shoulders, and you need to collapse the lower half of his thighs over the upper half but the buttons to unlock the sliders are a pain. To be clear, compared to a lot of other 3P toys Ventus' engineering and transformation isn't really that bad, but considering how good the other MMC Protectobot limbs were I can't help but feel a tad let down. Fortunately, his alt mode is pretty worth it. I mean, yeah, he's a tad plain... I'd expect the toy-version to have black windows, a red chin, and maybe a stripe on the side. But the G1 toy didn't have any Rescue or Coast Guard markings or anything, and the cartoon kind of doubled down on Blades' plainness by coloring over the windows and much of the chin with white. Amusingly, the animation model kept the toy's little wheels on the landing skids, which a real Bell UH-1 definitely wouldn't have, but otherwise it's a pretty decent representation. In fact, I know you guys like to rag on aircraft having neglected bottoms, but even from underneath Ventus cleans up very well, with naught but a few seams to even indicate that it's a transforming toy. While we're under there, you'll notice a square hole in the chin. You can sandwich the piston's handle into it, and the barrel even swivels so that the sight is still facing upward. Cartoon accuracy also demands guns on the sides of a helicopter (because Blades will protect you TO DEATH!). For this, there are ports on the tail you can flip open and reveal little peg holes. The rear section of the rocket launcher folds down, which gives the launcher clearance to reach around the fuselage. Not much else to it... the main rotor spins, but the tail rotor kind of doesn't. You need to push it in and lock it to keep the blades aligned, otherwise one folds over the other. The wheels spin, but poorly, as they're not really big enough for the weight of the figure. Blades is, typically, my least-favorite of the Protectobots, so maybe Ventus always had an uphill battle, but he's definitely my least favorite of the set. Since MMC released their Vortex, it seemed like the engineering was getting better and better in each of their All Built-In limbs, but with a finnicky transformation and no ankle pivots Ventus seems like a big step backward for them. I have to stress, however, that's compared to the lofty standards MMC set themselves for this set. By most 3P standards, I think what you're getting here is mostly a cleverly-engineered toy with a solid, cartoon-accurate robot mode (minus the lack of ankle articulation) and good, if a little cartoony, helicopter mode. Ventus is a perfectly adequate MP-style Blades that will look good with the other MMC Protectobots on a shelf. But how about combined mode? OK, I'd normally do a second review for the combined mode, but I'd also go into some detail about how everything fits together with pictures and junk, and honestly, combining Maximus Pro (aka Defensor) was kind of a pain. First, I had to transform Ignis (Hot Spot), and again I'm reminded how MMC was maybe a bit too clever for their own good on this one, as I quickly realized that there was zero chance I was going to reconfigure Ignis' hips and thighs properly from memory. One video guide later (which also helped me to decipher the folded-up armature that becomes Maximus Pro's calves and feet Ignis was ready, but I had to attach the limbs. Doing the arms is super easy; there are latches on the shoulder ports, and you just have to make sure that the one for the right arm has the latch facing up and the one for the left arm has the latch facing down. Slot the arms in, and close the latches to lock them down, and you're good to go. Doing the legs was a bit harder, though. There's a hinged T-bar in the foot that has to be captured by the leg bots, then behind a black cover on the knees you'll find rails that square-shaped panels on the legs slide into. Capturing the T-bar is a pain, as you can't really see what you're doing. Getting Incertus (Groove) onto the knee rail wasn't bad, but Navigant's (Streetwise) panels are hinged, so they kind of want to move out of the way rather than slide in. The combined mode looks quite good, at least. Considering that the torso bot is a fire truck with a big ol' ladder, Maximus Pro is very clean. I know people collecting Zeta/Fans Toys/XTB/DX9 combiners will likely complain Maximas Pro is too short, but he's the same size as MMC's Bruticus with the upgrade kit (or slightly taller without), which is all that matters as far as I'm concerned. I very much appreciate how Incursus and especially Navigant are actually transformed, and not just tacked onto the leg frame. It makes the combination look purposeful while having the benefit of being cartoon accurate. Maybe a little too cartoon accurate... I'd prefer a little red on the abs. You can, at least, close Medicus' (First Aid) window if you want. You do have to leave Ventus' cockpit angled, though, as the rotor locks into it. You also have the option of opening up his back and folding out part of the ladder if you want to give him his toy/OX-style collar. I'll remind you that Ignis also came with an alternate head and faces, should you want a more cartoon-simplified head or a more expressive face. Maximas Pro's head can swivel, but that's about it. His shoulders swivel and can move laterally a little under 90 degrees, and sadly he's got Hot Rod Shoulders so the rotation is on the wrong side of the lateral movement. On both arms his biceps swivel, on the right he can bend his elbow a little over 90 degrees, but the left can only manage 90. His wrists have partial swivels. Each finger is individually articulated with a trio of hinged knuckles, while his thumb has an additional ball joint. His waist swivels, and he's got 60 degrees of ab crunch. His hips can go forward 90 degrees, but only a little backward and about 75 degrees laterally due to his butt plate. His thighs swivel, but look kind of weird because his front "hip skirt" is actually connected to the top of his thigh, not his pelvis. His knees bend a bit over 90 degrees. His feet can tilt up some, but not really down, and he's got about 45 degrees of ankle pivot. Larger handles fold out of Ignis' guns so that Maximas Pro can hold them. In his left hand they work like you'd expect; tabs on the sides of the handle lock into his palm. On his right hand it seems like the space in his palm is too large, so the gun doesn't lock in at all. It's just the friction of his fingers keeping the gun there. One of the things I really liked about MMC's Bruticus was how everything ultimately had a place. Even Vortex's pistol ultimately had a little cubby in Onslaught's back. I wish that kind of effort had been expended here. See, you can store Ingis' rifles on his back. Medicus' pistol stays in it's dedicated spot inside his door. Navigant's pistol I have tucked under his windshield, which works but doesn't lock in and always felt like more of an afterthought than planned storage. Ventus' pistol can remain in it's alt mode spot (take my word for it, I was not yanking him apart enough to tab the gun back in). You can plug Ventus and Incursus' leg guns into their usual alt-mode spots, but Ventus' especially look kind of out-of-place. But that still leaves no storage at all for Incursus' pistol. The spot where it goes in his alt mode is occupied by the T-bar that locks him into Maximas Pro's foot. The best answer I could come up with is to leave Medicus and Navigant's pistols where they're stashed, but to take all of Ventus' weapons and attach them to one of Ignis' guns, and take all of Incursus' weapons and attach them to the other. For Incursus, this works mostly fine. For Ventus, the white stands out from the black, but the real trouble is that the little square tabs that barely attached the rocket launchers to Ventus' legs in bot mode are even more loose when using them to attach to Ingis' gun. If this is how you're going to keep them (which is what I plan), then you're going to need to do something to thicken the tabs first. BTW, the poles or arms or whatever that came with Ingis, that only have a real use in a base mode you'll almost certainly never use? They can also attach to Ingis' guns if you like, but I prefer to leave them in the closet with the other optional parts I'm not using. I have mixed feelings about Maximas Pro. On the one hand, I think he looks darn near perfect (if Sunbow accuracy is what you're going for), and he's got good articulation for a combiner. MMC's All Built-In engineering continues to impress, even if they went a little overboard on Ingis. But for all the lessons MMC learned from their Bruticus I can't help but feel like Maximas Pro is two steps forward, one step back. Tolerances are off in places, mostly relating to Ventus, like they rushed him out the door so they could move on from this project. His feet, which are essentially several hinged flaps locked together around a centra core, don't feel particularly stable. And I'm definitely disappointed with how poorly their individual accessories are integrated. By the time all is said and done, this project that had me genuinely excited at first feels less joyful and more like crossing a character off the list. But which character? Because I actually think I like their individual modes better than their combined mode. So, I think that's my final recommendation. Ventus- yes, get him if you want an MP Blades. Maximas Pro? Maybe wait and see how XTB's Defensor shakes out.

Credit where it's due, two G1 combiners and the promise of getting some toys of deep lore figures like the Thirteen Primes has me more primed (pun intended) for the brand than the flagging waves of Legacy. But boy are they stingy! I had to check my notes, but wave 2 has no Leader-class figure (unless you count G2 Grimlock as wave 2 and not wave 1), only three Deluxes (one of which is a package refresh), all of which we're still waiting on, and two Voyagers. One was Heatwave, who came out a month ago. The other is just hitting stores now, and that'd be Sky-Byte. While I don't know that Robots In Disguise is all that fondly remembered, as it was hastily thrown together to fill a gap between the cancelled sequel to Beast Machines and the more Hasbro-involved Armada, the show still holds a place in my heart because I was so excited to see that, after years of Maximal gorillas named "Primal," Optimus was a Autobot truck again. It took a few episodes, but we got Decepticons, too, including Scourge, who'd go on to kick off an endless parade of evil black Optimus repaints in the West (even if Black Lio Convoy technically did it first). But the Predacons weren't all bad, and I (and countless others) developed a fondness for a certain poetry loving try-hard fishing for praise (pun intended) even as his boss only had eyes for the new guys. Indeed, Sky-Byte was popular enough to warrant a toy in Generations back in 2014, an appearance in the Cyberverse cartoon and a few toys in the accompanying toyline, and he's slated to appear in the new Cyberworld line. As for as Age of the Primes goes, this is a pretty great rendition of the character. He's got a lean, athletic build and aside from missing highlights on his shin details and a little blue on his inner biceps he's very cartoon accurate. Speaking of accuracy, he retains the shellformery nature of the original toy, which gives him large shoulder pads and a large chunk of shark for a cape. But it terms of both accuracy and overall design, I rather prefer it to the Generations toy's attempt to integrate the shark head into the chest details. Side note, in the above picture you'll notice a large square hole in his forearm. Please note that Sky-Byte's arm is actually turned around, and that square (necessary for his alt mode) should be on the inside of his forearm, not the outside. Sky-Byte comes with a little missile launcher. Unlike the original toy, it doesn't actually fire any missiles. It's been awhile since I've seen the cartoon so I'm not sure if it's accurate or not, but I'd have appreciated some paint on the missile tips nevertheless. As for the sprue, it contains his shark fins, but you have to cut them out yourself. Sky-Byte's head appears to be on a ball joint that can swivel and look up, but lacks any real downward or sideways tilt. His shoulder pads are hinged to wiggle up and down, and actually just pegged on so they can swivel to show more of the inside or more of the outside. His shoulders swivel and move laterally, though a tad shy of 90 degrees. His biceps swivel, and his elbows bend 90 degrees (forward and backward). Both his normal wrist and his claw wrist swivel. The blue and white fins on his claw can open and close, too. His waist swivels, though you're a little limited by his kibble cape. His hips can go 90 degrees forward and laterally, and close to 90 degrees backward (again, the kibble is a factor). His thighs swivel, and his knees bend a little over 90 degrees. His toes can bend downward due to his transformation, and he's got about 60 degrees of ankle pivot. You can peg the missile launcher into Sky-Byte's normal hand. When he's not using it, you can store it by tabbing it to the roof of the shark mouth on his cape. As for his fins, they end in pegs and you can also put them into his normal hand to act like bladed weapons. Otherwise, you just peg them into the kibble on his back; it's where they belong in alt mode anyway. Speaking of alt mode, transformation is mostly straightforward with a few interesting bits. His backpack lifts up to line up with his head, which pulls away from his body, and you're like 25% there already. His shoulders detach from his chest and swivel up into the area where his head was, but they use sliders so that the arm with the normal hand is under the arm with the claw. His feet fold down and tab together, then his shins fold back over his thighs, the backs of which lock into his back kibble. His shoulder pads swivel around to cover his face and upper arms, while the panels with his pectoral fins spin and shift to fill in the shark's sides. Finally, bring the shark's head down and lock it into place. Again, AotP Sky-Byte is much closer to the cartoon than the Generations toy, though with a bit of the original toy mixed in. Like you've got the cutouts in his dorsal and pectoral fins that were often colored as solid in the cartoon, and more emphasis on the mechanical details than the cartoon, but without all the colored circuits and wires of the original toy. He's got cartoon-accurate eyes, not the weird bug eyes of the Generations toy, and (best of all, if you ask me), he's fairly straight, not permanently curved like a dolphin doing flips at SeaWorld. That's not to say that he isn't posable, though. Having his arms stacked and his elbows bending both ways as the tail means that he's got a joint for bending his tail to either side. His jaws open, and there's a dedicated joint that allows his head to bend down, with some molded detail to keep his body solid. Speaking of jaws, he can store his missile launcher in his mouth. While you can leave it in the roof of his mouth if you want to keep it stored but out of site, he's got slots to tab it into his bottom jaw like the original toy/cartoon. There's not a lot to complaint out here. Sky-Byte doesn't have a ton of accessories, but what he has is appropriate and stores well in both modes. He looks good in both modes, solid and cartoon-accurate. He's decently articulated in robot mode, and even has some head and tail articulation in shark mode. What more could you want? I think the only thing working against him, at least in these parts, is that he's from a lesser-loved Transformers show. If you're G1 only, well, Sky-Byte's not it. But if you're even casually a fan of RiD or the character/toy, this is a fantastic update that's sure to please, and a major upgrade over the old Generations toy.

OK, one last upgrade kit (for now). We did the baddies, how about an upgrade kit for the good guys? This kit is DNA's DK-52 kit for the Studio Series Rise of the Beasts Maximals. In this kit, you'll find a hammer, two hologram balls, a head, two hands, and two sets of toes. There's also Return of Chunk. The head is for Optimus Primal. A complaint I had with the figure was that he had a cartoon-style opening in his mask with a mouth, but the final CGI model had just a mask. (You may even recall when I reviewed Apelinq, who had the full mask, that I wondered if switching their heads was a good idea, since Apelinq's robot face wasn't in the movie, but Yolopark revealed that Apelinq wasn't supposed to have a mouth, either.) The DNA head is basically identical to the stock head except it doesn't have a mouth. Swapping the head is as simple as yanking the stock head off the ball joint and pushing the DNA head onto it. As a simple head swap, it doesn't affect his transformation at all and does nothing for his alt mode, so we'll skip right onto the next one... ...which is a hammer for Rhinox. Who already came with a hammer. Arguably, the new hammer has a somewhat better sculpt and paint than the stock one, but they're about the same size. It's a tad snug, too. If the hammer stopped at being slightly prettier this would be a hard sell, but where the hammer really shines is alt mode. We have a little prep to do first, though. Once you have Rhinox in alt mode, open up his back and yank his head off at the indicated hinge. That'll give you a little more room to work. OK, in the back of the rhino head you'll find a hollow void. Grab Return of Chunk, and wedge it into the void so the u-shaped cutout is at the bottom. Once it's in there good, you can reattach the head. Now, take the hammer and fold the handle back like you would with the stock hammer. Then, take the top of the hammer and rock it backward on a double hinge, and flip out the two little winglets on the sides of the hammer. Turn Rhinox upside down and pull out his neck a bit so you can see Return of Chunk inside. The handle of the hammer goes into that cutout, with the hammer oriented so the top is facing the ground when Rhinox is standing up. The spikes on the face of the hammer get tucked into the top of his robot chest, and the top of the hammer lines up with the bottom of the rhino neck. This allows the hammer to fill in the void in the rhino chest between his neck and the robot chest (which became his rhino tummy). And I think it works pretty well! The mechanical detail sort of works with with the gappy machinery with lots of moving parts look the film gave the Maximals. And you know I love this sort of integrated weapons storage over the stock "just stick it on his back" look. Speaking of his back, this is a good time to talk about the hologram globes. The tops are different on each globe, but they can be removed and swapped between them. Which you might want to do, because one of the bases has a 5mm peg, which allows it to plug into Rhinox's back (since we don't have to stow a hammer there anymore). According to the instructions, the other has a 4mm peg. The instructions suggest using the globes with Airazor or Optimus Prime. I'm struggling to recall if they ever used a hologram in Rise of the Beasts, or if DNA just included them because a certain 3P included them with their versions of Optimus Prime... but that particular version of Prime was a modified KO of Lemontree's Bumblebee Optimus Prime, and that Prime did use a hologram globe... eh, not important, I guess. We're wrapping up this set with some parts for Cheetor. You're going to need to loosen the screws on the backs of his forearms. You won't actually remove them or take his forearms apart, just loosen them enough that you can pull the ball-jointed fists out and fit the replacement fists in. The DNA fists have the bulk of the alt mode paws on the backs of his hands, with just two claws sticking out. Near as I can tell, the CGI in the film doesn't have any paw, but it does have the two claws, so I consider this a moderate upgrade in accuracy. As for the toes, you need to yank the stock front half of Cheetor's feet off of the gray hinge, then snap the replacement parts on in their place. the replacement feet are a little taller, so you'll need to flip a heel out to lie against the cat paws on the back half of the foot. The new feet aren't as flat and short, with some silver paint for the toe spikes. And, yeah, the shape and the silver make the foot a bit more accurate, but I feel like you could have gotten most of the same benefit by getting a silver oil-based Sharpie paint marker and painting the toe spikes on the stock feet yourself. I'd also be remiss if I didn't mention that, even with the flip-out heels, he seems a little less stable on his new feet. Transforming Cheetor with the DNA kit is mostly the same. You have to fold the heel back into the front of the foot, but the foot still folds up against the back of the cat leg. The hands do a bit better. The paws on the backs of the hand double-hinge out over the claws, so that the claws become fingernails for the cat. Since both the claws and paws on hinged on the new hands, they function as well the stock paws in cat mode. Maybe better, since it looks like they can sit a little flatter, and the nails are all painted silver. As for the feet, you get the sense that maybe there was a reason the stock feet were so small in the first place. Perhaps I will just paint the stock feet and put them back on. That said, the globes and the feet are the only things I'm a bit iffy on. The new head for Primal is more accurate, and the I really like the new hands for Cheetor, though those things alone probably wouldn't sell me on a whole kit. Rhinox's hammer, though, is a different story. I love it. I love that it integrates into his body instead of sitting on his back in rhino mode. I love that it fills in a major gap in the alt mode. It's exactly what Rhinox needed, so much so that I'd recommend the kit just for that reason. If you have Studio Series Rhinox, this kit is a definite recommend. The fact that you can also upgrade Cheetor and Primal is just icing on the cake.

Yeah, a big chunk of my last shipment was DNA upgrade kits (although less than I expected, as there's at least two more kits that have been out in China but are still showing as not arriving until September here). So we'll keep rolling with DNA DK-49, an upgrade kit for the Studio Series Rise of the Beasts Terrorcons. This kit has parts for three figures- Battletrap, Nightbird, and Scourge. In the package you'll find a chain, a pair of blasters, two swords, two little wings, a forearm and hand, two shoulders, and two truck mode parts. We'll start with the easy stuff. The chain is for Battletrap's mace, and you attach it by sliding the big tab into the notches on the mace. From there, it's as simple as plugging the other end into one of his fists. The chain has a number of joints that could be used for cool poses, except that Battletrap's shoulders don't appear to have held up well despite being in storage in a box in alt mode. He can't support the weight of the mace/chain combo. The blasters, likewise, have pegs at the end that fit into his fists. For alt mode, you can store the chain by leaving it plugged into a fist, then you use the joints in the links to route the chain under the tow hook. The mace/wrecking ball winds up in basically the same spot. The blasters, meanwhile, can be stored by plugging the square holes onto the posts on the sides of the truck, where his arms peg into his torso in bot mode. All told, the blasters and chain are nice-to-haves, nothing I'd say majorly improves the figure but also nothing that requires any major alterations. Nightbird's similarly simple. Grab her tiny little wings and just yank them off their pegs. Then just pop the replacement ones on. The new swords are slightly larger but almost identical in sculpt. They're painted with yellow instead of black, which I believe is a better match for the film. The almost-identical sculpt means that they can still tab onto her hip armor. Really, the biggest improvement with the swords is that there's two here instead of just the one the toy came with. The biggest improvement is definitely the new wings, though. They're still a tad smaller than what she had in the film, but they look purposeful instead of the vestigial nubs she came with. Plus, they have hinges, so they're articulated in a way the originals weren't. Now, you might figure that the reason Nightbird came with such puny wings is because there's a lack of space to stow them when she transforms. But, DNA clearly figured it out. Swivel them and use the hinges to angle them just right, and they should curl under her cabin, right along her spine, just like this. If you got them situated right, the car should button up about as well as it ever did. As for the swords, again, the nearly identical sculpt means that you can tab them in exactly the same as the original. I think I even called out the fact that she had spots for two swords when I reviewed her and questioned why she only came with one. With the easy ones out of the way, we're left to upgrade Scourge, who you may recall already had one upgrade kit with a new right arm that sported articulated figures, a new weapon that wasn't permanently attached to his arm, a new head that's kind of ugly but has a much more solid neck and removable mask, a new claw arm with articulated fingers, some rib filler, and new armor parts for his thighs, butt, and shins. And that was all well and good, but in a lot of scenes he had neither an arm cannon or a claw, he had a normal left hand. What if you want that look? Well, DNA got you covered with an arm that's basically a mirror of the previous one, but with the peg hole for the peg stump that the claw and blaster use. I've seen concept art of Scourge with shoulder pads like the toy has, but the toy clearly wasn't working from the final design because that's not how his shoulders looked in the film. So DNA decided to replace them with more accurate ones, and we're going to have to do a bit of toy surgery to swap them. Begin by removing these two screws. Be careful, as caps will come off with the screws. Hang onto them, you'll need them later. With the arm off, you can slide the DNA shoulder onto the joint and replace the caps and screws. Pull the arms off the old shoulders at the mushroom peg and slide them into the new shoulders. Here you can see the new shoulder vs the old shoulder, with a screen grab of Scourge in the film. The new shoulder armor is much closer to the film... but you might be thinking at this point, "hey, weren't those old shoulder pads a major part of the truck's nose?" They were indeed! Which brings use to our final parts, pieces that replace the shoulders so we're not missing big chunks of the truck's nose. To attach them, you need to find these tabs on his back, and plug the parts into them. This is actually where his original shoulders would tab into the wheels. The fit, as was the case with the thigh, shin, and butt armor from the previous kit, isn't the tightest and DNA advises that you can use glue, but doing so will make it difficult or impossible to revert him to stock. There's a swivel in each of the DNA pieces, so once they're tabbed in you can kind of tuck them in a bit after you plug in his backpack. However, you shouldn't fold in the panels with the smokestacks first anymore. The spot where they're designed to sit is now occupied by the DNA parts. Once the backpack is in place, you can fold them in, but they're now forced to angle backward slightly and not really lock in anymore. That said, It doesn't look drastically different from how it originally went, and the friction in the hinges seems to be adequate to keep everything in place. More robot accuracy is good, but only if it still transforms. And he does, but with a little more finagling to get his arms past the wheels which now have chunks of the nose attached. You also have to take more care to line up the shoulder joints/air cleaner, since lining up the shoulder pads with the nose of the truck won't do it for you anymore. To make sure that the new shoulders sit under the hood you need to take the extra steps of sliding the ring-shaped joint coming out of the shoulder forward toward the nose of the truck while also sliding the new shoulder armor down toward the back of the truck. Once everything's settled the new nose parts should fit over the shoulders and mate with the strip of the hood coming from his backpack and the grill. Despite using new nose parts attached to his backpack that fit over his shoulders instead of making the nose parts out of his shoulders, the truck mode is basically the same as it ever was. His hands, whether you're using the clawed hand or the normal one of the left, still poke out of the back of the cab. If you're using the DNA kit, the blade still folds and clips onto the thumb, and you still kind of just wedge the blaster between his legs. Recommending this kit is a tough call... I think Nightbird is the most obviously improved by it, but is she improved enough? Blasters and a chain for Battletrap aren't pushing it over the finish line. I think it ultimately comes down to Scourge. Did you get the previous kit for him? That kit did quite a bit to improve his screen accuracy, but the shins and especially the thighs would come off if you looked at him funny, practically demanding that you glue those parts on. I think, if you got that kit, you might as well go all the way and give him the option of a normal hand and more accurate shoulders, and you might as well glue the new truck nose parts on, too. If you didn't get the previous kit, which goes a lot further in improving him than this one does, then there's really no point to getting this kit for him. And if you're not getting this kit for Scourge, then you can probably save some money and pass on this kit, too.

Man, I had to dig a bit to find this topic. Is it just me, or has 3rd party stuff been waning a bit in popularity since Hasbro's stuff has (mostly) improved? Or is it just that everyone's migrating to Legends, but no one talks about it? And now, when I am gonna talk about 3P stuff, it's 3P stuff to upgrade Hasbro's stuff. Because, yeah, I finally shipped my stash from The Chosen Prime, and it's mostly upgrade kits... starting with DNA's DK-51 kit for Legacy Nova Prime. Let's start with this image... this is Nova Prime as Don Figeuroa designed him for early IDW. For some reason, a lot of fans saw Siege Galaxy Upgrade Optimus Prime and thought, "hey, that'd made a good retool as Nova Prime!" (Perhaps due to a digibash of the original Cybertron Optimus making the rounds). I'm not sure I agree... Galaxy Upgrade Optimus isn't a particularly good Cybertron Optimus, let alone Nova Prime. The colors, plus the new head and chest, do a lot of the heavy lifting, but the new wings are too small, he's still got Optimus' ladder guns, and he's just entirely wrong from the waist down. So what's DNA giving us, and can it get us closer to the comics? The most obvious thing are new wings, but we've also got a sword, a pair of rifles, some filler panels, new fists, a new crotch, new shoes, and some parts I'll call Big Chunk and Little Chunk. The new fists are the only parts that actually replace anything, and the only parts that require a screwdriver. Remove these two screws on the inside of the forearm, and the inside of the forearm will come off. Swapping the fists is as easy as sliding the old ones out of the mushroom peg socket and sliding the new ones in, then putting the forearm back together. The new fists are slightly larger, which does make them a little more proportional with the armored mode. But the real improvement is that each finger is a separate part now, molded into a curve and pegged at the base. Because they're permanently attached, they're the only parts in the kit that go with the base robot, so if you haven't yet go ahead and armor him up. Now for the crotch. There's a pair of tabs on the back of the piece, they go into these slots on the original crotch. Grab Big Chunk, and split it in half. There's a tab that fits into the small gap between the core robot's leg and the armor booties. Just wedge that tab in there as snug as you can. Grab the shoes. While it looks like there's a clear top and bottom, we actually want to spin the toes so they're facing up, but the waffled part with the black peg on the long piece is also facing up. This peg plugs into the peg hole on the soles of Nova's booties. As near as I can tell, it doesn't matter which shoe goes on which foot. These filler parts are familiar to anyone who bought DNA's upgrade kit for GU Optimus. The ends fold down and they slide into the hollow side of the ladders/guns. If you're looking at the backside of Nova you'll notice a peg hole on the back of his wings. There's a corresponding peg on the DNA wings, as well as some tabs that wedge into the waffles. Finally, Little Chunk gets wedged into Nova's backpack. It doesn't really matter which side. Little Chunk plays a more important role later. For now, though, you'll notice the square-shaped indent on Little Chunk... you want that facing outward. The DNA sword has a pair of clips that plug into that square, allowing you to store the sword on his back. And here's our completed Nova Prime. The new crotch is much better, and the shoes give him more comic-accurate toes and arguably improve his proportions. The new hands aren't as necessary, but added articulation is appreciated. I do like that the fillers help hide the hollow sides of the ladders, but I'd just as soon do away with them entirely, since they're not accurate to the comics in the first place. Big Chunk gives him knee pads that are a bit more comic accurate, but they aren't as secure as the rest of the kit, and they don't really make up for the fact that the rest of his legs are very clearly still not a truck cab. I could take or leave the sword; he didn't have one in the comics, but extra weapons are still cool. Nova didn't really use any weapons in the comics, that I recall, but I do rather like the new guns. The star, though, is definitely the wings. They don't just make his wings bigger and more comic accurate; each of the four segments has a swivel and a double hinge, giving you a lot more freedom in posing them. I supposed, technically, you could still keep the holdover leg guns from GU Optimus (which themselves were a holdover from Siege Magnus, where they were meant to mimic the blue hinges on the sides of RID Magnus' cab)... maybe have the sword stowed on his back, the old guns on his legs, and the new rifles in his fists. But the new rifles are really meant to replace the old guns; they have pegs on the "magazine" that allow you to plug them into his legs. And, as we'll see in a minute, there won't be room for both the new guns and the old in alt mode. And to get to alt mode, you can leave the new fists and wings attached, but everything else gets pulled back off. So transform the core robot into his cab mode, but leave off the arm bits with the bumper and tires for a minute. Instead, get Big Chunk, put the halves back together, and attach it to Little Chunk like so. Us the peg on Little Chunk to plug the combined Chunks into the peg hole on the front of the cab. Now, take the arm parts that turn into the bumper and front wheels and attach them into the sides of Little Chunk. Get the shoes and turn the toes so that the waffles and black pegs are on the same side. Fold in the peg that goes into his soles, and fold out the peg in the toes. Use those pegs to plug the shoes into the peg holes just above the front wheels. This will help fill in the gaps that Hasbro created but moving the wheel parts forward made worse. And yes, the shoes are a little unsecured. We'll get to that. Put the trailer pieces together basically the way you normally do, and begin to attach it to the cab. Before we fold in and attach the wings, take all the segments and swivel them 180 degrees. Take the the bottom one (formerly the top) and fold in back in on itself. Now you can fold the wings in and attach them to the hooks on Nova's legs as you normally would. With the wings in place, you can now take the second-from-the-bottom wing segment and push it down over the shoe part. You might have noticed the little tabs on the sides of the shoes; they go into the bottom of the wing segment, which helps secure the whole thing in place. As for the remaining segments, the second-from-top tabs onto the segment we tabbed onto the shoes, and the top one tabs onto the second-from-the-top one. Now a few finishing touches. The new rifles plug onto the peg holes on the leg armor. You may have also noticed tabs on the hip skirts of the crotch piece. Use them to sandwich the crotch above the shoulder parts at the top of the booties. There's a peg hole at the bottom of the crotch, and you want to make sure it's pointing toward the front of the truck. We can plug the handle of the sword into the hole, and the sword will sit nicely between the ladders on top of the truck. Nova Prime's alt mode never properly appeared in the comics, but we have Don's concept art for it. Legacy Nova Prime was never really in the ballpark. The DNA kit does at least give him a long nose cab, and it helps cover the gaps in the original toy. It'd be a stretch to call it accurate, though. And I guess that's the dilemma... Legacy Nova Prime was a mediocre retool of a mediocre retool. While DNA's upgrade kit helps, it's kinda like putting lipstick on a pig. With Age of the Primes Hasbro's giving us toys of the original 13 Primes (aka the first 13 Transformers created by Primus, but I kind of hope they don't start there. I'd love for them to do the entire Lineage of Primes (aka the line of every Transformers to carry the Matrix from Prima to Optimus/Rodimus, which varies by continuity but I'd accept as Prima, Nova Prime, Nominus Prime, Zeta Prime, Sentinel Prime, Optimus Prime). I still hope for a brand new, comic-accurate mold for Nova. I've seen no sign that we're actually getting that wish, though. For now, Legacy Nova Prime is all we've got. Even with the DNA kit Legacy Nova Prime is still farther from the mark I'd like, the knee pads aren't super secure in bot mode, and the wings and shoes feel a little rickety in truck mode. That makes it a little hard to recommend the kit. However, I think the upgraded wings are what ultimately make me say yes, I do recommend this kit. They're bigger, they're much more accurate, and more dynamic. Just don't expect any miracles.

Sorry. It covers all the US toy releases through Action Masters, then has a big section covering JG1 from Headmasters through Battlestars, before going into G2. It finishes with an "oddities" section that includes a lot of various back-of-package, early concept art, Microchange and Diaclone art, unused G2 art (like Nacho Cheese Jazz, Watermelon Mirage, and Tiger Stripes Grimlock), etc. They mention the UK in the oddities section, but only to show off UK artwork for Grimlock, Slag, Snarl, Blaze, Piranha, Blitz, and Sizzle, plus art of Galvatron that was used for a jigsaw puzzle. That's it. It's like Euro G1 (and Machine Wars) didn't happen). Regarding Superion, well... I'll save it for when I do my final review. I will say, though, that it does make me wonder what they're going to do with Bruticus, though. I mean, I know they're doing the frames and the splitting alt modes for the arms (which I'd give a pass too, except it looks like Vortex will be upside down)*. They could maybe get away with plugging Swindle into the back of a frame, too, given how the Sunbow leg is basically a yellow lump with a purple stripe and not very Jeep or Swindle-y. But Brawl's turret is very obviously the shin, so... do they not do a frame? Do they remove Brawl's turret and plug it on the front side of the frame? Pass it through? I guess time will tell. *Nevermind. While this image from Vortex's instructions leaked: Mark put a photoshoot on Instagram with Vortex rightside-up on Superion's arm. EDIT: Actually, now that I think about it, I think they'll do the frame for the legs but backward, so that Swindle and Brawl plug into the front.

If you look at the Japanese prices he's closer to $120-130 in his home country (which was on the high end of doable for me). Prices in the States tended to be a little more; those importers have to pay for shipping from Japan before they ship it to us, after all, but this seems like a pretty hefty markup. I'm REALLY not trying to be political, but that's tariffs.

I'm not going out of my way to buy from a Japanese site, but if it turns up on Pulse for $120 or less I'll bite.

For me it's going to come down to price, where Synergenex has been all over the place. Like, I was in for the Godzilla Megatron and the Monster Hunter Optimus, but the Zoids Optimus was announced with a $300 price tag.

Ok see now I'm back in on this...

Optimus and the VF-19 clearly don't mix. It's a shame, though, because the Fighter mode doesn't look too bad. They WAY overthunk this one. This. I mean, I could make a distinction between this Synergenex stuff and Hasbro's "proper" Transformers Collaborative, but lately Hasbro's done Naruto, Sonic, and football helmets.