mikeszekely

Oof. $399 was pricey but doable, but $50 less than a PS5 for a console that might be as powerful as a PS4 is pushing it. EDIT: the $500 bundle with Mario Kart is looking like a better deal since Nintendo quietly announced that Mario Kart World will have an $80 price tag

Mario Forza Kart Horizon. Ah, so there will be a switch 2 version of Metroid Prime 4 after all. I may be the only person on earth looking forward to a new Daemon X Machina game. Yes to more Hyrule Warriors. I'm glad that the Switch 2 looks like it's going to have strong 3rd party support, it's just that most of it looks like games you could already buy on PS4/5/PC.

I get that, and fwiw I'd also rather have had Omnibots over Rescuebots, or for that matter fanfic rock guys, fanfic Junkions, fanfic dinosaur skeletons, and trying to mash Animated or Prime into a G1 style. All I'm saying is that Kranix is going in Studio Series, so he's like the one guy you can't replace with an Omnibots.

This better?

Most, for better or worse. Sadly, this means that Fireflight is likely going to wind up with his generic cartoon head, not the cooler masked toy one. To be fair, Omnibots aren't in the 86 movie so they can't wedge them into Studio Series. In AotP they're competing with all the other cartoons people younger than us claim get no love because Hasbro only likes G1.

I think that's fair. And I think, due to the way these things are designed, you can pretty much bet then that Skydive will be just as bad as Air Raid, and Fireflight will be just as good as Slingshot. Will today's review be as divisive? Maybe! It's Studio Series Deluxe-class Devastation Optimus Prime. The Optimus character model in Devastation was, arguably more than any of the other game models, pretty faithful to the G1 cartoon design. The only real difference was that the Devastation model was maybe a bit more athletic-looking. And that's really what we're getting here, a very G1 cartoony Optimus. Unlike the Earthrise toy, he's got all the yellow on his pelvis painted, as his the blue on his crotch, and the flaps on the sides of his legs are supposed to be his fuel tanks. His legs even have that tapered shape, and though they do peek out a bit at least some attempt was made to hide his wheels. His back has less backpack than SS86 Optimus or MP-44, though he does have some bumper and wheel kibble there. Prime comes with an unpainted Matrix of Leadership, and an energon axe with a molded "swoosh." Sadly, no gun. I get that the gameplay was more melee-focused, but I still would have traded the unpainted Matrix or even the axe for an ion rifle. Prime's articulation is decent enough. No real tilt on his head, but the flap it's on can be tilted up if you need to fake a little upward tilt. His shoulders swivel and move laterally 90 degrees, though they are sadly Hot Rod Shoulders™ again. I'll cut him a little slack for it, though, because the way he transforms means he's got a slight forward and plenty of backward butterfly. His biceps swivel, and his elbows bend 90 degrees. No wrist swivel, but due to his transformation his hands can bend inward. His waist swivels, though his wheel kibble can get in the way. His hips can go forward and laterally 90 degrees. They only go about 45 degrees backward, again due to the wheel kibble, but that's honestly enough for most poses. His thighs swivel, and his knees bend 90 degrees. His toes can bend down 90 degrees, no upward tilt, and his ankles pivot 90 degrees. His axe fits over his hand. Note that his smokestacks are pegged on, like the Legacy Deluxe, but they're smaller with a 3mm peg, so he can't really use them as accessories. His fists are, of course, standard 5mm fists. So, you know, maybe you happen to have another Deluxe-class Optimus that came with two rifles for some reason, and maybe Devastation Optimus can borrow one? As for his Matrix, his chest opens up, and the Matrix (which has a peg hole on the back) plugs into the peg inside. Since he's only a Deluxe his hands don't open, but there are grooves cut into his fingers and little tabs on the sides of the Matrix. You can slide those tabs up into the grooves in his fingers to get him to hold the Matrix. Barely. Prime's transformation is fairly G1, and for a change doesn't involve a fake grill. Instead, his lats fold back, as does his head. His hands turn inward, then his arms bend and tuck just like the G1 toy/cartoon. His waist rotates 180 degrees, though, and the wheels fold down to finish the front bumper. His heels and toes fold down, and a half of a hollow peg folds out from each of his shins before his legs kick up 90 degrees and peg together. The wheels fold down, and the fuel tanks on the sides of his legs fold up over his thighs, and that's it. You're done. The truck mode is... not the best. There's some seams on the front of the cap where his hands folded in, and a weird gap between the grill and bumper. The fuel tanks don't look as much like fuel tanks due to how Hasbro hollowed then out for some reason (and some red paint at the steps would have been nice). The back of the cab has a visible robot head, but ironically the same lats filling in the gap between the arms that the Commander-class toy does. And the back of the truck is still obviously robot legs, though I appreciate that they put molded taillights on the underside of Prime's feet. So yeah, not great, but I honestly don't hate it. I mean, aside from the Legacy one (which had an advantage of trying to mimic the G1 toy, not the cartoon), the last time we had a G1-ish Deluxe-class Optimus it had a far worse truck mode. There's a slot over one of Prime's knees. You might have noticed a red tab on the axe; that tab fits into this slot so he can carry it in truck mode. As for the fold-out peg, the hollow inside is a 5mm port. And the peg is at just the right height for Prime to work with the Earthrise trailer, which actually scales better with Devastation Optimus than it does Earthrise. When Devastation Optimus was first revealed, I think a lot of fans had a gut reaction along the lines of, "why does this exist, it looks so much worse than SS86 Optimus?" And, they're not wrong, but I don't think it's totally a fair comparison to make when SS86 Optimus cost almost as much as four of the Devastation one. He's a Deluxe, existing in a spectrum of Primes between the Core-class and the Voyager/Leader Earthrise one. He's clearly a much better figure than the Core-class one, and while there are things that the Earthrise mold does better there are, surprisingly enough, things that the Deluxe version does better. And, as I said, he's a lot better than the old Classics Deluxe. Really, he's not meant to be the definitive mainline Optimus, which is still SS86's role. He's overtly meant to be a smaller G1 Prime that can make the SS86 Devastator seem bigger (and I'm sure he'll scale nicely with the Deluxe-class Devastation Megatron when it comes, which I believe it should be later this year). And, less overtly, to get a(nother) proven product-moving character into the scale that sells the best and makes the most money. By and large, I think Hasbro was successful at what they set out to do. Devastation Prime isn't the best Prime, but he's a good Prime, one that's fun to just have on your desk and fiddle with. I can't quite call him a "must-buy" figure the way I did with SS86 Prime. If shelf space is limited and you're only looking for single, relatively in-scale representations of the cartoon cast for a display than Devastation Prime is not for you. But if Commander-class Optimus had too many steps in his transformation and you're looking for a simpler, fun Optimus to mess around with, Devastation Optimus delivers that in spades. I just wish he came with a gun.

I don't know that I agree with that, actually. I mean, yeah, they don't usually have their arms just dangling off the sides (though I'll refer you to Siege/Earthrise Ultra Magnus and his related molds, where the hands are very obviously sticking out the back), though I think the generally brick-ish shape of a car gives more places to hide the robot parts than a more tube-shaped plane (sans wings, which are too thin to hide anything). I disagree more with the the idea that cars always get more care. I mean, I've ranted many times about Breakdown not even being close to a Lamborghini. I could point out SS86 Jazz's visible feet, or worse, Earthrise Ironhide's. Maybe the fact that even Commander-class Optimus has a void on the back of his cab, or the fact that almost every Optimus's rear section is super obvious robot legs? But they kind of are, though, when they're not making even more changes like missing spoilers (the Lambros) or erasing curves (Wheeljack) or changing bumpers (the Datsuns) to avoid licensing. As a matter of fact, I happen to think some, like SS86 Bumblebee are better for it, as they look less like the real cars I was unaware of as a 5yo and more like the cartoon I watched as a 5yo. But then again... Whereas I had a poster of a Porsche 911 (930), and dreamed of owning a real Porsche someday (happy to say I bought a '23 Porsche Taycan😁). So I like aircraft, sure, but I'm actually going to look at cars with a more critical eye. And I've cut the cars some slack (except Breakdown). Because what Transformers fans demand, more than anything, is animation accuracy. And... And that's really the crux of it. The cartoon is based on the toys (which, in the Aerialbots case sacrificed even more than usual to the combining gimmick), and 40 years later Transformers fans want toys that look like the cartoon. Is it possible to make transforming jets with good alt modes? Heck no, Bandai/Tonka did it 40 years ago with Machine Robo/Go-Bots*. But is it possible for Hasbro, today, to make a toy that's slavish to the G1 Transformers cartoon while simultaneously making a realistic aircraft that's also got enough bulk to be a combiner limb, all on a $25 budget when some 3Ps can't manage in a toy with five times (or more!) the price tag? I'm afraid not. That's why, taken for what it is, I think Air Raid is flawed but better than Combiner Wars. And, taken for what it is, Slingshot is actually pretty good. *I still desperately want modern Go-Bots toys that scale with Generations.

I'd give that one to Karen Gillan.

Huh. I'd have never thought of it on my own, but I guess I could see her as Sayla.

Finally! I have a friend that does the book merchandising for several Walmart stores, so while the ones around me are still pretty barren he was able to find this guy for me at a store about an hour from here... Age of the Primes Deluxe-class Slingshot! This time the Age of the Primes figure destroys the Combiner Wars version. It's not even close. AotP Slingshot has the correct orange goggles, the line bisecting the top of his head, no unnecessary silver on his ribs or gold on his knees, his thighs are properly white, and his overall shape is much closer to the G1 cartoon. From the front, my only gripes are the tiny stripe of white in his tummy, and the fact that his black hips should probably be red. Viewed from the back his cockpit is folded in to a backpack and his wings are on his legs, as they should be. His tail doesn't connect to his backpack, though. Instead, they fold back into some pretty massive heels. It's not the worst thing in the world, though... I'm not sure how his tail could move to the backpack without partsforming anyway. Slingshot come with this pair of guns. They don't particularly match the G1 toy, but they seem to match the cartoon pretty well. Slingshot's head is on a ball joint. Not a ton of upward tilt and basically no sideways tilt, but he looks down surprisingly well. His shoulders, sadly, are Hot Rod Shoulders™, so they swivel with no issue and can technically move 90 degrees laterally, but because the swivel is on the wrong side of the hinge he can't do both at the same time. His biceps swivel, and his elbows bend 180 degrees. No wrist articulation. His waist swivels. His hips can go 90 degrees forward and backward, and over 90 degrees laterally. His thighs swivel, and his knees bend just a hair shy of 90 degrees. The front of his feet can tilt down, due to transformation, but no upward tilt. His ankles pivot 90 degrees. He can hold his guns pretty tightly via the standard 5mm pegs. He's also got 5mm ports on the outsides of his forearms, on his wings, and despite their squarish shape on his shins. Slingshot's transformation isn't complicated at all, mostly similar to the Combiner Wars toy/AotP Air Raid. However, there are two differences from Air Raid that make the engineering here much better. First, rather than turning his shin inside out and having his feet just dangle from the bottom, his feet and heels fold down to form the tail. Second, instead of just tabbing his arms against his sides, they actually curl up and tuck in to become part of the fuselage. Slingshot is not an accurate AV-8B Harrier, as he's a bit chunky and has only the merest suggestion of intakes. He's still mostly a jet with a block of robot on the underside. I really don't think he's that bad, though. As I said, the fact that his arms actually blend into the fuselage and his feet become part of the tail instead of just hanging out underneath make him much better than Air Raid. There's even a suggestion of the vertical thrust nozzles on the sides. And his blocky alt mode is, frankly, pretty cartoon-accurate, and overall thinner than the Combiner Wars toy. In alt mode, the guns plug into the 5mm ports under the wings. You can also see landing gear in the back of his head- yes, that landing gear does fold out. There's no landing gear on the wings (as a real Harrier would have), but some molded non-functioning wheels near the peg holes at the bottoms of his shins. That's not far off from the feet wheels of the G1 toy. Gonna be honest, this isn't a review I was looking forward to writing. Given MW's stronger-than-average love of military aircraft I'm expecting the bulk of the comments to be along the lines of "look at that big block of robot underneath, why can't Hasbro/Takara make decent jet transformers?" and "doesn't have an accurate FLIR blister on the nose, 0/10," as if a toy chasing cartoon accuracy without a licensed alt mode that also has to be a block of a combined limb was ever going to come close to being a realistic Harrier on a $25 budget. And here I am, trying to tell you that despite his flaws Slingshot is actually very good! Like, best wave 1 Deluxe good, and a major upgrade from Air Raid. I'm going to tell you that you should definitely pick him up, knowing full well that many of you won't because a Deluxe-class jet is automatically a non-starter. But reviews are ultimately opinions. You don't have to agree, but mine is still that Slingshot is very good and I'd recommend him.

They seem to have intentionally based it on MP-10.

I wouldn't go that far (trash would be the Siege Astrotrain mold)... I think it looks passably fine in both modes. But I otherwise agree; it's a tad blocky and lacking it articulation, and a bit disappointing that they basically recycled and upscaled the then 15-ish year old Classics mold. We've seen enough companies do better Seekers and both the MP and Legends scales, Starscream deserves a new an improved mold (that they can then milk anywhere between 5 and 20 more times. Aside from lacking a bigger handle and the scope, what was wrong with Shockwave? I thought, for a guy that turns into a gun that can't turn into a gun anymore, he came out pretty good. Better than Sunstreaker's too-wide, no-spoiler ER toy. Worth pointing out that the previous version was a Leader, and the 86 version is listed as a Voyager... While Kranix wasn't a Cybertronian (until/unless Lithone is retconned to be a Cybertronian colony), he actually did have an alt mode, and it appeared in the Marvel Comics adaptation of the movie. Just don't ask me how they're going to pull it off without some new alt mode kibble on the robot and/or robot parts on the alt mode...

Sorry, I only have info from Hasbro, and the MP/MPG stuff is all Takara.

Some 2026 leaks Deluxes: -Blast Off -Quickstrike -Smokescreen (doesn't say which one, could be a PR of Earthrise, a new G1 mold, Armada, Prime, etc...) -Powerglide -Swerve -Animated Ratchet -Prime Cliffjumper -Quintus Prime -Sureshot Voyagers: -Amalgamous Prime -Brawl -Animated Wreck-Gar -Armada Sideways -Nexus Prime Leader: -Big Convoy -Universe Razorclaw (Tigerhawk repaint, not the Razorclaw we actually want) Commander: -Onslaught Hmm... no mention of Swindle. I guess he's coming in 2025 now? I mean, he was originally, but I'd heard he got swapped with Vortex, who originally wasn't on the 2025 schedule. Oh, and Studio Series too. Deluxe: -Devastation Bumblebee -TFOne Orion Pax -TLK Barricade (yay!) -86 Windcharger (that'll wrap up Season 1) -86 Sunstreaker (new mold, or ER?) -86 Kranix -86 Cliffjumper (ER, or a retool of 86 Bee?) -TFOne Thundercracker -TFOne Airachnid Voyagers: -86 Skywarp -86 Thundercracker (probably the ER mold again) -86 Shockwave -TFOne Alpha Trion Leader: -86 Soundwave (PR, or new mold?) -86 Astrotrain (Dear Primus please let it be a new mold that doesn't suck) -86 Snarl (definitely a PR) -TLK Nemesis Prime (a repaint of the one I just reviewed I'm hearing that there will also be a retailer-exclusive line (thought which one, I don't know) celebrating the 40th anniversary of the 86 movie. Expect it to have a Deluxe-class Hound, Voyager-class Scourge, Voyager-class Hot Rod, and a Leader-class Optimus Prime. I'd be willing to bet that it's the Earth-mode hound from the multipack, the Scourge and Hot Rod we already got (maybe redecoed in toy colors, since Veloctitron was already supposed to have a toy-colored Hot Rod?), and Commander Optimus sans trailer and all his accessories save his rifle. Is it weird that I kind of want to buy the JP Menasor set (or rather, regret not buying the Hasbro one) just because I want Breakdown and Wildrider? I'd probably sell the other three.

I'm not sure what the logic behind MPG Prime is. It's giving me more OX/manga vibes, very different from the hardcore Sunbow look of MP-44. By itself that's fine, but they supposedly killed the regular MP line for MPG, and I wonder what that means for the characters that never had an MP release yet.