mikeszekely

Japanese G1, he was the leader of the Autobot Pretenders in Transformers: Chōjin Masterforce, and a toy we never got in the West. He was sort of like the main Autobot leader until Ginrai and the other Powermasters started turning up and the Pretenders were relegated to background characters. He's available for preorder at Entertainment Earth, with a January release date.

With the store exclusives out of the way, we're coming into the beginnings of the fourth wave of Legacy United. And so far they're all repaints/retools, so we can get them out of the way fast. Let's begin with the Leader-class toys, starting with Armada Galvatron. If you'll permit me a tangent, Megatron changing his name to Galvatron when all he did was change colors, despite Hot Shot, Starscream, Demolisher, and Red Alert also changing colors without changing their names, then going back to being Megatron when he actually gets revived in a new body in Energon, only to change colors and change his name to Galvatron again, is beyond stupid. The Japanese version did it better... he was Megatron, then Super Megatron, then was revived as Galvatron, then Galvatron General. So, yeah, to me this is just Megatron in a different colors. But, Hasbro did retool the head, and it's not just a new face. The horns are no longer removable, which is fine by me. I know Mark posed Megatron (regular Megatron) using the horns like daggers, but in my personal experience they come loose from his head too easy, and Super Megatron fixes that issue. The head is the only change, though, so the engineering and articulation is the same, the tip of his cannon can still be removed and used as a hand cannon, and he can still combine with bits of Titan-Class Tidal Wave to do the Burning Megatron thing. The colors seem to be accurate to the original toy/show. If you're an Armada fan and you liked Legacy Evolution Armada Megatron, this is basically the same thing in the colors he worn in the last few episodes of the show. Frankly, I think regular Megatron is probably enough, and knowing my G1-leaning audience here you're probably skipping both. Speaking of G1... The other Leader-class figure in this wave is Buzzsaw. Buzzsaw is a repaint of Laserbeak, specifically the one with the "normal" head that came with Netflix Soundwave. The red plastic was swapped for a mustard yellow, they painted the beak yellow, they replaced the gray plastic for the neck and feet with black, and they swapped the silver on the wings for gold. That's it. Frankly, we've gotten a ton of Micromaster tapes, and they've even started expanding into Core-class. I've got two Laserbeaks plus an SG one, plenty of Ravages, a Ratbat that's had a trio of retools, and both Micromaster and Core-class versions of Rumble and Frenzy, but it's taken us (checks math) FIVE YEARS to finally get the one tape G1 Soundwave originally came with. And, as far as the Micromaster tapes go, Laserbeak's mold was fairly decent, which helps a lot. But still... what makes a Micromaster balloon to Leader-class? Well, for starters, he comes with an entire Voyager-class figure, that being Soundwave. In fact, the packaging seems to suggest that this release is actually for Soundwave, and Buzzsaw is just a pack-in, but that can't be right. Anyway, unlike the still fairly-recent Legacy Soundwave, which really a package refresh of the Siege toy, Buzzsaw's Soundwave uses the previously Walmart-exclusive Netflix remold. The differences from the Netflix release are fairly minor. Silver paint details on his buttons, legs, shoulders, and face have been replaced with a light gray. The stripes on his gun and shoulder cannon use a thicker, more vibrant red, and that same red was applied to his forearms (so you don't have to do it yourself, like I did). Finally, the yellow paint on his chest door was replaced with a darker gold that better matches the gold on his knees and the blue part of his chest. Honestly... I kind of like the silver on the Netflix release, though I must confess that the gray better matches the unpainted parts, while the red paint and the better-matching gold are net gains for Soundwave. Buzzsaw does, of course, fit in Soundwave's chest, and in case you needed a reminder, you can fold his legs in and unfold a peg from under his body. That peg allows him to perch on Soundwave's (or Megatron's) arm. A Voyager and a Micromaster still isn't quite Leader yet, so we also have Ravage. As with Buzzsaw, Ravage uses the Netflix version of the mold, which has a doofier-looking snarling face. The silver deco and yellow eyes are carried over, but they put silver paint on his teeth, and like Buzzsaw the gray plastic used for the legs and 5mm peg have been swapped with black. Man... paint the forelimbs silver instead of the fangs, and swap the Netflix head with the Siege head, and this would probably be the best version of this mold... not that this mold was particularly good in the first place. From one side, this Ravage and Netflix Ravage are nearly identical, with just some hinges and a little bit of foot poking out to to indicate which is which. Flip him over, though, and swapping the gray plastic for more black leaves this new version an entirely black slab. Let's see now... Micromasters were originally two in a pack for $10, and a Voyager is $35, so we're only at $45. We need $10 more to hit that Leader mark... I think Hasbro could have packed in the Micromaster versions of Rumble and Frenzy, made you feel like you were getting all four Season 1-2 tapes. But I think they also knew that'd be a hard sell when we've got superior Core-class versions, and at $10 a pop for Core-class that meant they could only include Rumble. Deco-wise, Rumble is basically the same as the regular Studio Series release, but with darker blues and purples. These colors remind me of the original Japanese MP release. I feel like, if you only have the Micromaster version or no Rumble at all, that this one will do. However, the regular Core-class release strikes me as more cartoon-accurate. Rumble comes with all the accessories of the regular Core-class release- two non-functioning piledrivers I'd have gladly traded for elbow articulation, and two back lasers that can also be mounted to his forearms but not held in his hands. One last cassette-mode comparison picture. So, yeah. I think a lot of people missed out on Netflix Soundwave, and if you're one of those people I think this is a no-brainer easy recommendation to get a good Soundwave that turns into a tape deck plus Buzzsaw, even if you already have Rumble and Ravage. If you have Netflix Soundwave, though, then you definitely already have basically the same Ravage, and it's a lot harder to suggest paying a Leader price for just for Buzzsaw (especially when you can buy a better Rumble deco separately). That didn't exactly stop me from paying the Leader price just for Buzzsaw, though. Alright, after Leaders the next size down is Voyager. And... I'm not buying any Voyagers in this wave. One of them would be Animated Motormaster. I'm already not a fan of the Animated aesthetic, and Motormaster never appeared in the cartoon (the original Animated Motormaster toy was a Botcon thing). Motormaster gets a new head, and he swaps Prime's red, silver, and blue for black, purple, and more purple, as well as the yellow-painted lights for a neon green. But otherwise, he's the exact same toy as Legacy United Animated Optimus Prime, and once for that mold was enough for me. You guys do what you will. The other Voyager in this wave is Metalhawk, and he's got even fewer changes. I can't quite call him a package refresh, since they did tweak the colors from his previous Legacy Evolution release, but not a ton. Bascially, the blue is a little lighter, while the gold and silver is a little darker. The idea seems to be that Evolution Metalhawk is colored like the Masterforce animation, while the United version is colored like the original toy, except that the United version still uses the simple red bits on the chest and cartoon-placement for the Autobot insignia, and leaves the wings totally bare. If they were going for a truly toy deco they should have lowered the Autobot insignia to his abs and used more elaborate tampoes on his chest and wings to better mimic the stickers on the G1 toy. As it stands, if you missed Evolution Metalhawk then I would suggest picking up the United version. The Cyclonus mold is a really good one, and Evan did a really impressive job retooling it into a decent representation of Metalhawk. However, if (like me) you already have the Evolution toy, I can't see any reason to buy the United version. The differences are just too minor. I don't have any of the Deluxes, so let's skip to the only Core-class from the wave that I bought- Geocron. Geocron is a retool of Bouldercrash. He's got a new, uglier head, and sandier brown color, and he swaps some of Bouldercrash's red for purple. That's about it. Transformation is exactly the same. You may recall that I wasn't super into this mold the first time around. This is still true, plus on a purely subjective note I think that Geocron is the less-interesting deco. Most people should probably skip Geocron. I, however, wound up invested in my Infernac headcanon and just had to get that one extra minion for Queen Shard. And, if you must know, the other Core-class in this wave is Energon Galvatron, a straight repaint of an Energon Megatron that I didn't really like, so I'm not wasting money on the repaint. Give me Voyager or Leader versions, then we'll talk.

I skipped over the first two comic packs Hasbro released. The boxes with the classic Marvel covers were cool, and I did kind of want that Prime head that came with Shockwave, but I've already bought the Grimlock mold three times (regular, Shattered Glass, and yellow G2), I already have Siege Shockwave and the Shackwave repaint, and I'm really not a fan of the black scribbles. When Hasbro stopped putting the popular characters in the packs and started using them for obscure Marvel G1 characters, though, I was in. So up first we have Voyager-class Flame. Flame is extra-obscure, as he only appeared in the UK Marvel G1 run. The gist of it is that he was an Autobot scientist that wanted to build giant engines to turn the whole of Cybertron into a spaceship. Emirate Xaaron shot down the idea on the grounds that the reactors to power the engines were too unstable, so Flame went underground and spent a few million years developing the reactors, nursing a grudge against Xaaron, and turning dead Cybertronians into a zombie army. And the end of the brief arc where he's introduced he's killed, and that'd be that for him if not for some minor appearances in IDW's Transformers run. Anyway, Flame was made by retooling Studio Series Gamer Edition Megatron. He got a brand new head, most of his torso, pelvis, and thighs that are indeed quite Marvel-accurate The rest of him is straight carried over from Megatron, though. I think that's fine for his lower legs... sure, they're more angular and have some visible treads, but the colors are right and most panels didn't have his legs in them anyway. I wish a bit more could have been done with his arms, though. His shoulders have the asymmetric blocky shapes and the left shoulder kibble carried over from Megatron. That kibble doesn't even show in the alt mode, and could have been omitted. His forearms are similarly blocky, lacking the sharp elbows and layered orange-and-yellow fire detailing around his wrists, plus his hands are gray instead of red. In the comics Flame didn't use a weapon in bot mode, but he's got Megatron's cannon. The instructions would have you plug it into his arm, Megatron-style. Alternatively, he retains the gimmick where you can remove his forearm and plug the cannon directly into his elbow. However, I kind of like having him just carry it like a flamethrower. Flame's articulation is identical to Megatron's. He even has the unfortunate protrusions on the backs of his legs that severely hamper his knee articulation. As with Megatron, the protrusions serve no purpose and can be removed to improve his knee articulation. Flame's alt mode winds up looking like a Megatron's, but in mostly red and orange, due to the fact that the remolded parts are largely covered by the parts that weren't remolded. On the one hand, Flame's alt mode was a tank, and there's only so much you can do with a remold. On the other hand... it's not particularly accurate to the comics. As I alluded to, Flame had a grudge against Emirate Xaaron, another character Simon Furman invented for Marvel UK. Unlike Flame, though, Xaaron Furman carried Xaaron over to the US comics when Marvel tapped him to replace Bob Budiansky. So while it made sense for Habsro to package Xaaron with Flame, Xaaron was the figure I really wanted. On that note, Xaaron is a retool of Siege Refraktor. All Hasbro really retooled was the the front of the torso on the hinge and his head, and yet for a character who was actually modeled after Megatron in the comics it works extremely well. Frankly, that has a lot to do with the Xaaron's simple, blocky form in the comics; give him some rectangles for limbs and the head and chest are really doing all the heavy lifting. The head has Xaaron's Megatron-brown helmet and Ironman mouth, and the flat chest has a little scar on the bottom left. Those plus the vent on his abs and his gold color were really his only defining characteristics in the comics. It's actually the colors that I think let me down a bit... they copy the Marvel UK colors, which did give him silver thighs and a slightly darker gold for his pelvis. But his biceps really should have been gold. Xaaron never transformed in the comics. It actually became something of a running joke. Xaaron was also a politician, not a fighter. To that end, I feel like Hasbro could have included no accessories and made no reference to an alt mode for him. It would have been accurate, and if it really bothered you there would still be the option to fold him up into most of Refraktor's bullcrap "spaceship" mode. However, Hasbro made a whole new set of accessories or Xaaron. Instead of a shutter, a gun that becomes 1/3rd of a tripod, and a shield that becomes 1/3rd of a telephoto lens, you get an entirely different gun and shield, plus two treads. The shield can be worn on Xaaron's arm or carried on his back (though it limits his waist articulation a bit there). The treads can plug into the 5mm ports on the outsides of his lower legs. The instructions have him carrying the gun like a rifle, but I kind of like plugging it into his forearm. Yeah, for the guy that's a Megatron retool I want to disassociate him with Megatron as much as possible, but for the guy that's a retool of Refraktor I want to hammer home that Megatron connection. This all works fine, but I can't help but think Hasbro missed a beat by not devising a way for accessories to connect together and turn into a little drone that could follow Xaaron around. Articulation is identical to Refraktor. Well, like I said, Xaaron doesn't transform in the comics, but when even the Quintessons have to have some half-hearted transformations Hasbro went and made Xaaron another tank. Transforming Xaaron himself works identically to Refraktor- toes down, legs turn sideways with skids that fold out before tabbing together, waist rotates 180 degrees, head folds into his back, fists fold into the foreams, arms fold behind the back so the tabs on the forearms fit into slots on his butt, and his chest unfolds to reveal a little cockpit that locks into his legs. The rest of Xaaron's transformation uses partsforming with his accessories. The treads have both a hole and a peg; the hole fits onto the pegs sticking out of his waist, while the pegs fit into the holes on his forearms. The shield plugs into a 5mm port behind the chest panel, forming a turret, and the cannon plugs into the shield to form the barrel. It's the most awkward-looking tank I've ever seen, but it kind of fits with the notion that Xaaron is a guy who hasn't transformed in millions of years and needs help doing it now. As a side note, due to how little is actually remolded on him, you can use Xaaron with two Refraktor's (or a Refraktor and a Scrapface) to make Refraktor's camera mode. However, without a regular Refraktor's shield and gun you can't finish the telephoto lens or tripod, so you'd realistically still need three Refraktors (or two and a Scrapface), and wouldn't need Xaaron to complete the camera anyway. Voyager-class Straxus comes in a pack all by himself. Taking a page from NewAge's book, Straxus is a retool of Galvatron, however, I feel like Hasbro actually put more effort into their retool. He got a new head, new forearms, new treads on his forearms, new front of the torso, new pelvis flap, minor retooling around his knees on his shins... ...and a new backpack. The middle section of his torso, his sides, his shoulders and biceps, the pylons on his shoulders, and most of everything from the waist down is carried over from Galvatron. For the most part, this works fine, as I'd already thought NewAge had done a pretty good job with this assignment. He's arguably a bit more svelte than the chonker we see in the comics, and I do wish they'd at least painted red triangles on his thighs, but the colors are otherwise accurate (at least to issue #17... in #18, his shoulders and forearms were blue, his biceps silver, and the large red section in the middle of his torso was yellow, for some reason). As with Xaaron, Straxus replaces the original accessories that came with Galvatron with new ones. This time, we get a small cannon and Straxus' trademark pickaxe. The cannon doesn't really work as an arm cannon. You can plug it into his bicep, but it's too short. And his new forearms lack the 5mm port that Galvatron's have, so he can't mount it to his forearm. The instructions suggest simply having him hold it like a gun, or a blow dryer. Honestly, I prefer to simply plug the cannon into a 5mm port on Straxus' back and imagine it's like some kind of booster. If you lift the bit on the top of his backpack you'll also find a slot. This slow allows you to store the pickaxe on Straxus' back, however, doing so covers the 5mm port. In other words, you can store one or the other on his back, but not both weapons at the same time. Straxus transforms the same way Galvatron does, for the most part. The accessories even get parceled out the same way, with the cannon barrel plugging into the front and another part sitting on the back, though in Straxus' case you're not removing the back of the cannon. The other accessory is his pickaxe. The pickaxe serves a purpose, though, giving Straxus the fins seen in the comic book. The new cannon, forearms, and forearm treads also make for a good deal of comic-accuracy. It's not exact, but I think it's pretty impressive how close they got it (again, closer than NewAge with their retool). Then again, it's kind of weird how much Straxus' alt mode already resembled Galvatron's despite his first appearance being printed five to six months before Transformers: The Movie hit theaters. Perhaps the staff at Marvel had seen some early production material and were inspired by Galvatron in the first place? All-in-all, while not retooled as extensively as Ruckus, I think all three of these figures are certainly retooled well-enough and do a pretty solid job representing a slice of G1 that's often overlooked in favor of the cartoon. The value in these sets will likely come down to how much of an impact the Marvel G1 comics had on you. UK fans will likely feel more strongly about Flame than I do, since he didn't appear in the US run and I had to read up on him on the TF Wiki. However, I was into the original Marvel run, and I absolutely do remember Emirate Xaaron and Straxus. I think Straxus is a safe recommend; he appeared earlier in the US run (although he was a more important character in the UK), he had minor appearances in both the original and rebooted IDW continuities, and if you want him you only have to buy him. The other two are a bit more iffy. Like I said, UK fans might feel differently, but to me the biggest appeal of Flame is that he looks kind of cool. I have no attachment to the character. I bought the set more for Xaaron, and I think it's a harder sell to buy a Voyager and Deluxe two-pack when your primary want is the Deluxe. That said, I'm personally thrilled to have him, and frankly, I'd love to see Hasbro continue using this line to give us obscure comic characters. These new additions go great with Wreck N' Rule Impactor, Jhiaxus, Ferak, and the G2 Cybertronian Troopers. I'd love to see them do Rack 'N' Ruin, Spanner, Scrounge, Tusks, Fang, and especially Big Red.

Dang, I should have waited before I bought 4 of them.

The Mayhem Attack Squad... anyone remember that was the Amazon-exclusive line this year? Everyone was excited for Deluxe Insections, though perhaps not as enthusiastic for Breakdown and Windsweeper, when they all hit way back in June. Now I'm getting my Halloween decorations out and Hasbro's suddenly remembering, "Oh yeah, we're supposed to have one more two-pack in that line!" While ostensibly a retool of Legacy Evolution Beachcomber, Deluxe-class Ruckus is pretty much worth a review all by himself. Yes, they share some parts... they have the same thighs, hips, pelvis, the same hands, shoulders, and biceps, and the same wheels. That's basically it, though. New forearms, a new head and torso, a new lower legs with some crazy long feet practically make him a brand new figure. OK, so technically he has the same calf flaps, too. But really, if you saw these guys standing on a shelf and didn't know better, would you realize that Ruckus is a retool? Sure, it's pretty obvious that the engineering is going to be pretty similar, but that'd apply nearly as well to Titans Return Full Tilt. Just a few nitpicks, I promise. Hasbro put some incredible molded and painted details on his shins and forearms, as well as part of his backpack. These details are clearly meant to represent the stickers on the G1 toy, but they're a little off. The blue-and-silver details on his backpack and the outsides of his arms are fine, but the blue/silver/purple details on his forearms should actually be on his hips/pelvis. Not enough room, I guess, but it also suggests that Mark or the Takara team may have been working from an image that, as near as I can tell, was on the TFWiki until July of this year that had the stickers incorrectly places on his forearms. That doesn't explain, though, why the springs on his shins seem to be upside down vs the G1 stickers. The G1 toy also had spring stickers on his shoulders, but I supposed that wasn't an option when they recycled Beachcomber's. Alright, last time, I swear... Ruckus does come with the gun that Beachcomber comes with... but no birds of paradise! Instead, he comes with a pair of brand new guns. Ruckus' head is on a ball joint and can swivel, but up/down/sideways tilt is fairly limited. His shoulders rotate and can move about 75 degrees laterally when his arms are at his side, or significantly less if he raises his arm first. The fact is, Ruckus has a bit more bulk around his collar and backpack that the tires on his shoulders just can't clear. His biceps swivel, and his elbows bend slightly over 90 degrees. His wrists swivel, as does his waist. His hips can go 90 degrees forward and slightly over that backwards or laterally. His thighs swivel, and his knees bend 90 degrees (more, if you open the flaps on his calves, but the flaps will be visible depending on the angle). There was some fear that the new feet wouldn't have ankle articulation, and while it's true he lacks any up/down tilt, he actually does have 90 degrees of ankle pivot. It's just that the pivot is right below the springs at the top of the windows, giving him the appearance of wearing high-heel boots. Ruckus can hold the two new guns via 5mm pegs on them... ...but they also have 5mm ports on their backs. These plug into the 5mm pegs on little swiveling blocks on his backpack, giving you shoulder cannons that can flip behind him and tuck away in the backpack, just like the G1 toy. Well, not exactly like the G1 toy... they're not spring-loaded, you have to flip them out manually. But as a tradeoff they can fold out to be a lot closer to straight ahead than the G1 toy. As for the Beachcomber one, that's the gun that Ruckus should hold in his 5mm port hands. He's also go 5mm ports on the outsides of his forearms, the backs of his shoulders, and one in the center of his backpack that happens to be a great place for him to store his Beachcomber gun when he's not carrying it. He's lacking 5mm ports below the waist, which is unusual for a Legacy toy, plus the ones on his shoulders are effectively vestigial ports from Beachcomber rendered useless on Ruckus due to his large backpack covering them from most angles. Transformation is mostly similar to Beachcomber. You're still essentially laying him on his tummy, opening the flaps on his calves, folding his heels toward his toes, and folding his legs over his thighs. The pistol still plugs into the front to act as a grill for the buggy. Ruckus doesn't have the extending torso, though; you just turn his head 180 degrees and hope his backpack kind of hides it. His new legs don't really flare out the way Beachcomber's do, but instead have little protrusions that act like pockets to cover his hands. It's a bit of a pain to open his calves and fold his legs over enough to work the hands into the pockets without locking his legs entirely into alt mode, which doesn't leave you with enough clearance to get the hands into the pockets. I know they're both dune buggies, but it's impressive how faithful Ruckus is to his G1 toy despite being a retool of Beachcomber. A lot of this is because, in alt mode, aside from the tires you're basically looking at new parts. Well, the gun-grill is the same, but G1 Ruckus didn't have a grill, so you could really toss it and be even more accurate. Maybe his front end is a little too wide, and the vents beside the cockpit a little thin, but that's really about it. The new flip-out guns can even sit a bit more flush into the sides if I hadn't put them on upside down while taking pictures and not realized it until editing said pictures... Again, no actual trigger mechanism, but the guns do still flip out in dune buggy mode. If you really want, you could remove the grill and plug it into the ports on his sides (forearms) or roof (backpack). No bones about it, for a C-list late G1 character like Ruckus this is a very good toy that barely counts as a retool. It's so good that I'm retroactively disappointed that his fellow Triggercons Crankcase and Windsweeper got significantly less extensive retools that omitted their flip-out gun-gimmick entirely. If Ruckus were being sold on his own I'd definitely tell you to buy him, but to get him you also have to get... ...Voyager-class Bludgeon, a figure we kind of already got last year in Legacy Evolution. And even then, as a retool of Tarn based on Alex Milne's rendition of Bludgeon in later IDW issues, it was kind of a stretch. Like the colors were mostly in the right spots (in bot mode), but they didn't retool anything but his head so the sculpt was pretty far off. But at least Tarn was another Milne design. The new chest, crotch, and jawless head as well as the more green-and-yellow, less orange-and-red colors indicate that this is supposed to be Bludgeon's much earlier IDW Stormbringer design by Don Figueroa, which bears even less resemblance to Tarn than Milne's design. They messed up the colors, even, painting his face silver and wires yellow instead of the other way around, giving Bludgeon the unfortunate appearance of being in the middle of slurping up some noodles. Transformation is the same, and all the accessories are the same, which again just goes to make a tank mode that's straight up Tarn's and not any version of Bludgeon's. And this is where our decision becomes a lot tougher. Ruckus as a solo $25 Deluxe is a definite buy, but $60 for Ruckus plus another version of a Bludgeon retool that wasn't very good in the first place? If you don't have any version of Bludgeon, I suppose you can use this one as a placeholder and enjoy Ruckus. But the Legacy Evolution release, despite not being remolded nearly enough, is probably closer to what you have in mind when you think of Bludgeon, and still not as good as the old Revenge of the Fallen toy. I know that Bludgeon wasn't in the G1 cartoon, but he was a fairly major villain in both the Marvel and IDW comics and even made an animated appearance in Transformers Cyberverse. Bludgeon deserves a better toy. We deserve a better toy.

I guess people are buying them, and more power to them, but I don't see the appeal of the G1 toys in cartoon colors. Personally, I want G1 toy reissues to be as close as possible to the original releases, and when I want cartoon accuracy I'll buy newer Transfomers.

So, I'm pretty sure I already listed leaks for basically the entire Age of Primes line (though I'm not entirely sure what's going in what waves anymore)... at least in the Deluxe, Voyager, and Leader categories (it's possible I didn't get all the Leaders). I got word today that the Commander-class is definitely Silverbolt. That's probably not surprising anyone, given that four of the Deluxes were Aerialbots. But I also got word today that the Titan-class is Star Convoy, and that's a huge surprise. I thought for sure it'd be something like Animated Omega Supreme or something. At some point in 2025 we're going to get some G2 Dinobots through Pulse. It's one product number (G1375). My source says he's not sure if it's Leaders or Cores, but given that G2 Grimlock is already a mainline retail listing for Age of Primes and I really don't see Hasbro releasing a $275 five-Leader boxset the safe money is on Cores, maybe with some of the extra accessories in the Dinoking set. Walmart will have exclusive "retro-inspired" Deluxes, Brawn and Seaspray. Given that they're actually listed as Deluxes I don't think they're part of the same retro line that's been shoving out G1 reissues in cartoon colors. I'm guessing Brawn is probably the SS86 toy with a new toy-style head, but Seaspray? Hopefully it's a new mold, and hopefully it doesn't turn out to be a shortpacked nightmare to get like Cosmos was. As for Target's exclusives, they're going to fall under the Studio Series banner. SSGE WFC Optimus and Megatron are going to be part of the line, but they have the word "variant" in the listing. It's not clear what that means, if it's just variant packaging, if they're repaints, or retools. The other two are listed as Devastation Sideswipe and Devastation Wheeljack. Again, it's not clear if these are new molds (we know a Deluxe-class Devastation Optimus is also coming, but in the regular retail lineup), or if they're be repaints/retools of the Siege/Earthrise toys.

I think the Classics mold was pretty great for a Deluxe in 2006, and simply making it bigger and adding ankle articulation made for a figure that's not as bad off as some of Hasbro's more obvious modern missteps... like the Deception triple changers he's being packed with, who look ok in bot mode but drop the ball in their alt modes. But yeah, in the years since Classics we've had enough examples of what can be done with a Seeker mold, especially with a buffer budget, that I'd have to imagine they're on the short list for an SS86 do-over.

You must not have binged far enough for Emerald Force to have shown up. 😁 Add the VF-19F/S and I'm right there with you.

Sorry, I think I originally meant to post on Monday but I wound up getting super busy this week. But yeah, the last Hi-Metal R figure I got (for now) is the VF-4G Lightning III. In my personal opinion, the VF-4 is by far one of Kawamori's most interesting designs, because it's so thoroughly unconventional. So many of Kawamori's designs follow a similar plan... make the legs engines, stuff the arms between them, use part of the fuselage for the back, and leave the cockpit somewhere in the chest. The VF-11's big innovation over the VF-1 seems to have been using a shield instead of a folding backpack and having the arms swing over the wings instead of under. Even the YF-19/VF-19, with it's aggressive forward-swept wing design, still has the same leg engines, arms between the legs, and cockpit-goes-in-the-chest design. While the VF-4 does use (most of) its legs to form (part of) the engine nacelle, and the cockpit is in the Battroid's chest, roughly 60% of the Fighter mode is still basically in Fighter mode, and oriented exactly the same as it'd be in flight. Some have suggested that it's a bit fugly. To be fair, the VF-4 is certainly both top-heavy and back-heavy, with a good chunk of the engine nacelles covering its shoulders, which are set back from the centerline of the torso, barely-folded wings and stabs, proportionally short thighs and long shins, and quite a bit of kibble on the forearms. I'd argue, though, that all of that gives the VF-4 a very distinctive silhouette (which is certainly more than I can say for the VF-25/VF-27/YF-29/YF-30/VF-31). The HMR VF-4G comes with three pairs of replacement hands (left and right open hands, left and right closed fists, and left and right trigger hands), landing gear, open and closed intakes, a gunpod, a gunpod handle, an adapter for carrying the gunpod in Fighter mode, two leg covers, a stand, two stand adapters, and a pilot figure. Not pictured, because I already installed them (but you can see spots in the tray for them between the pilot and gunpod), are fin antenna that goes on the Battroid's head (which the non-G VF-4 lacks), and the ventral fin that sits on the Fighter's chin directly under the cockpit. Well... the VF-4's design doesn't lend itself to a ton of articulation. The head is on a ball joint that has a little upward and sideways tilt in addition to swiveling, and a hinge will allow you to make the VF-4 look down if you don't mind breaking the sculpt a bit. The nacelles on the shoulders limit the shoulder swivel to about 90 degrees, with only about 60 degrees of lateral movment. The biceps swivel, and the elbows bend a little over 90 degrees. The wrists are ball joints for swiveling and some in/out tilt, but they don't have much room for up/down tilt. No waist swivel. The hips can swivel over 90 degrees forward, about 90 degrees backward (due to wearing most of the fuselage as a backpack), but only about 60 degrees laterally. You have some play around the ball to use as thigh swivels, but no dedicated swivel about the knee like the VF-1 and VF-0. The knees themselves are double jointed, with the lower joint behind the shin. They'll basically combine to give you a full 180 degrees of knee bend. The ankles are ball joints, and like the VF-1 they're on sliders to give you extra clearance for the up/down tilt you'll need more for Gerwalk mode, and they do provide some swivel, but ankle pivot is still minimal at best. The tiny stock hands of the VF-4 do not have a cutout for holding a weapon, and while the gunpod is the same GU-11 that comes with the VF-1, it lacks the smaller handle. So, if you it wielding the gunpod, you have to swap the hands by yanking them off the ball joints and swapping different ones on. Truthfully, this bothers me less than on the VF-0, though, because the VF-4's main weapon is supposed to be the beam cannons in the forearms; one could simply ignore the gunpod and you'd have a perfect transformation... almost*. As for the stand, it's similar to the one that came with the VF-0, except it's clear and doesn't have any text. It has just the one arm segment, without the extension tube. To use it with the Battroid, you need the adapter that wraps around the VF-4's butt with hooks that wrap over the hip joints. Obligatory Gerwalk pic. Yeah, it's kind of just the Fighter with 70% of it's nacelles turned into arms and legs, but aside from the hips being set further back than most Gerwalks I think it mostly works. It doesn't have the gaps in the rear that craft like the VF-11 and VF-19 do. Most of the transformation from Battroid to Gerwalk is shifting the bulk of the fuselage and wings off cockpit and neck, straightening the nose, and swinging the hips and part of the belly back. The stand for Gerwalk has clips that fit into notches in front of the hips and over the gaps where the legs come out. From Gerwalk we just fold in the hands, slide the forearms into the kibble, line them up with the top of the nacelles, then bend the hips and knees to align the bulk of the legs with the undersides of the nacelles. Say what you will about the Battroid, the VF-4 still has one of the most gorgeous Fighter modes. It's a shame, then, that it's fictional appearances have been so dull. The super red and super blue of M30, the gray-on-gray from VF-X (which Yamato/Arcadia used on their VF-4G), and the white-and-khaki briefly seen in Flashback 2012 (which Yamato/Arcadia and Bandai both used for the non-G VF-4). That's why I'm thrilled that Bandai used this "what if" deco inspired by the fact that Hikaru flew Roy's VF-1S in the TV series. Like the VF-1, you have to remove panels from the underside to plug in the landing gear. I'd be lying if I said I wouldn't prefer internal storage (even if it meant simpler, less detailed landing gear), but it bothers me less a flight stand is included. Likewise, the canopy still has to be removed to insert the pilot rather than opening, but leaving the pilot inside means you never have to remove the canopy since it doesn't have to be parts-swap with a heatshield the way the VF-1 does. *So what, ultimately, spoils my perfect transformation? The intakes. Swapping them is easy enough... pull the leg portion of the nacelle down, and you cans slide the intakes in and out of grooves near the knee. But whichever you choose, you'll have to remove it for Gerwalk or Battroid mode because the knee has to go through that space. Bummer. Well, as long as we're partsforming, even though I don't think the Battroids thighs look too bad in the belly of the plane you can cover them up with the including covers to give the belly a smoother, more continuous look. And while you're down there, you might notice some slots. between the (chest) intakes. This allows you to attach an adapter that has a little notch on it. The notch allows the gunpod to tab in and sit under the VF-4's belly. Also while you're down there, you can attach the same stand adapter you used for Gerwalk mode. You'll notice that the clips have a u-shape down to the peg hole; this leaves enough space for the gunpod to poke through so it can stay on while the Fighter sits on the stand. When I got the HMR VF-1s I was honestly surprised by how much I liked them. They made me feel good about my decision to go in on this line. The VF-0, on the other hand, was a bit frustrating and was giving me second thoughts. Happily, though, the VF-4 puts me back in the "I love HMR" camp. Bandai did a great job capturing one of Kawamori's most unconventional designs, and they get big bonus points from me for serving it up in a deco I like far better than the the standard Flashback 2012 version (though that deco is also available in HMR, with a reissue due out soon). My only real complaint is that the intakes have to be removed to transform the legs; they were so close to a perfect transformation if not for that. The VF-4 itself might not be for everyone, but if you're a fan of the design like I am the HMR is an easy recommend.

Ah, three of the WfC/Legacy molds most in need of a Studio Series do-over in one pack.

Ghost of Yotei, a sequel to Ghost of Tsushima, was announced today. On the one hand, yay, GoT was one of my favorite PlayStation games and I'm excited for it to get a sequel. In the other hand, I wish Sony did simultaneous PC releases instead of making me wait two or more years after. I haven't touched my PS5 in probably a year, and I don't know that I'll dust it off for one game.

Took my daughter to see it this morning. It's definitely no '86 movie (which honestly still holds up), but it's definitely the best Transformers movie since then, and probably the best Transformers animation product since Prime (though I agree with @tekering that Transformers peaked with Roberts' run at IDW). That said, I hope there's a Transformers Two, because

Maybe? I mean, it comes out of the box in Battroid mode. I tried to jam the chest down, but didn't try the nose. Ultimately they're all staying in Fighter mode, so...

I tried. All that happened was that the entire chest came off.

Yeah, I mean, the art (box?) says Liolaeus Prime, but I believe Liolaeus is the Japanese name for Rathalos. Like I said, I don't really know much about Monster Hunter as I could never get into the games, but it's my understanding that Rathalos/Liolaeus is the iconic monster from the games, like the slime is to Dragon Quest. ...dang it, now I kind of want a Dragon Quest crossover that turns into a slime.

Excuse the crappy quality of the pics, but this is all I got so far. I don't know jack about Monster Hunter, but this looks like an extensive retool of Airazor to me. The general consensus is that this is already much better than the Godzilla collab.

Yeah, I kind of wonder if having spent the last nearly two decades collecting Transformers of the retail, Masterpiece, and unlicensed 3P varieties have colored my notions of toy engineering and expectations vs some of you guys who have been collecting Macross toys for that long (or longer!). At the very least, I hope my perspective makes for an interesting read for you guys, because I do have another Hi-Metal R for you tonight... Roy's VF-0S. Watching Macross Zero back in the day left me with the impression that the VF-0 was kind of like a rough-draft VF-1 (despite it having the pointed toes that came on almost every variable fighter after the VF-1)... same basic transformation, a little less refined, and traditional engines instead of reaction engines. I don't think I ever appreciated just how much bigger the VF-0 actually is until I had them side-by-side. Aesthetically, the VF-0 is similar to the VF-1, and I don't mean that in the sense that they're both sporting the Jolly Rodger. I mean that one again Bandai applied paint cleanly and effectively to bring out the appropriate details on an excellently-sculped figure that looks good from all angles... almost. From the side, the chest seems to stick out a bit, and you can see a bit of the cockpit's canopy poking out. It's almost like the inside of the heatshield isn't quite the right shape to cover the cockpit. Something else to note, where the backpack thrusters are just there on the VF-1, they retract up into the backpack on the VF-0. To properly deploy them, you need to move the tailhook to find a notch. You need to work a tool into the notch and push the thrusters out. Fortunately, Roy's VF-0S comes with a small tool for exactly that. You also get a gunpod, some leg armor, a second set of head lasers, two alternate sets of wings, four racks of missiles, landing gear, alternate intakes, a little pilot, two long pitot tubes (which are identical, one is just in case you break or lose the other), one small pitot tube, four sets of replacement hands (right and left closed fists, gun hands, splayed-finger hands, and relaxed hands), a stand, and stand adapters for all three modes. For the most part, the VF-0 has similar articulation to the VF-1. The head can swivel, and the swivel is on a flap, which is all necessary for transformation but the flap can be used to help the VF-0 look down. A ball joint where the head connects to the neck also gives the VF-0 some up/down/sideways tilt. The main issue here is that the neck kind of scrunches into the head for transformation, and to get the most out of the articulation you have to pull the head back up... which more often than not caused the entire head to pop off the flap. Moving on, the shoulders are ball joints that can swivel and move laterally 90 degrees, and hinges give them some forward butterfly as well. The biceps swivel, and the double-jointed metal elbows combine for 180 degrees of bend. The hands are connected via ball joints, which give you some up/down/in/out tilt in addition to swivels. No waist swivel. The ball jointed hips have limited forward/backward range due to the wings, but they again provide for about 45 degrees of lateral movement, while the Gerwalk hinge gives you 90 degrees of forward him movement. You can use the ball joints in the hips for some thigh swivel, but there's a dedicated swivel above the knees. Speaking of knees, they bend a little under 90 degrees. If there's one thing that's improved it's the ankles. They can slide out a little further than the VF-1, which doesn't really do much for the upward tilt of the feet, but it does give them better range tilting downward, a little more ankle swivel, and best of all at least some ankle pivot. Unlike the VF-1, the stock hands cannot hold the gunpod, so you have to swap hands if you want to use it. It's a bit of a bummer, since the VF-0's chest covers the cockpit without removing the canopy or replacing it with a heat shield made the VF-0 potentially closer to a perfect transformation. As long as we're partsforming, though, like the VF-1 you can pull the wings off and replacement them with smaller, fused wings for Battroid mode. The smaller pitot tube is also technically for Battroid mode... I guess so you can say it's there without actually seeing it (though, honestly, I'd just leave it off at that point). The leg armor uses a pair of tabs to plug into slots on the sides of the legs. And since the VF-0 comes with a stand, I can talk about it this time. For Battroid mode, you'll use this part to sit behind the nose, with the hooks wrapping under and cradling the swing bar. This is the only stand part that has a peg instead of a hole, so you'll have to use the long tube on the stand arm to change the stand's peg into a hole. Obligatory Gerwalk picture. Looks good once you get there. Gerwalk mode has it's own stand adapter. This one has a slot that fits over the tab on the swing bar (the one that plugs into the underside of the nose), while the rest of the adapter wraps around the metal part. This adapter has a hole, so you either don't need the tube, or you need to put the topper on the tube so it ends in a peg instead of a hole. Transforming the VF-0 is pretty similar to the VF-01... the nose unclips from the swing bar, a hatch opens on the back for the head to pass through, the chest rocks back to link to the back, intakes plug into the underside of the chest, the arms slide down, double-hinge in so they touch, then slide back up, backpack folds back, and the legs plug into the back, legs, and backpack. The thing is, subtle differences in clearance seem to conspire against you. The head lasers don't quite through the gap in the back, even after you swap them with the other pair, and my manipulations caused the head to pop off. The shoulders rub against the backs of the legs, and I popped an arm off from the slider. Rocking the chest back, I wound up popping it off, too. The vertical stabilizers also rub against each other in a way that feels like I'm forcing them past each other. They seem to slide out a bit to mitigate that, but I wound up sliding one completely off. All the parts that popped off go right back on, but after the mostly-pleasant transformation of the VF-1 the fact that any parts popped off, let alone that many, left me feeling frustrated. Worth it, though? Once you get it there and get everything plugged in, the VF-0S is certainly a good-looking Fighter. Again, nicely-painted details, sharp sculpt, etc. The painted exhaust fans inside the feet are a nice touch. Rather than removable panels like the VF-1, the VF-0 actually has flaps that open for the landing gear... but you still have to dig the landing gear out and plug them into the sockets. Ditching the removable panels feels like a step in the right direction, I just wish they would have gone the rest of the way and put hinged landing gear permanently inside. While we're under there, the tailhook moves, and the gunpod can mount to the fighter's belly. It works more like the Yamato/Arcadia- the handle doesn't come off, it slides up into the barrel and the barrel collapses. The bit that's left sticking out has a slot that sandwiches between recessed tabs on the VF-0's arms. Despite not needing to remove it for transformation, the canopy still has to be removed rather than hinging opened. You can sit your little Roy in the seat, and again I'm impressed with the paint and detail on such a tiny figure. The normal "closed" intakes can slide off, just like the VF-1, to be replaced with open intakes for atmospheric flight... which is the only kind the VF-0 was meant for, what with the traditional engines. (So... why does the VF-0 still have vernier nozzles on the nose, chest, and near the elbows?) The longer pitot tube is meant for Fighter mode, and you can attach it by plugging a tiny peg into a little hole under the nose. The leg armor can still be used in Fighter (and Gerwalk mode). It's not even necessary to remove it to transform. And again, like the VF-1, the "standard" wings are smooth underneath. You can pop them off and replace them with wings that are identical save for the raised peg holes on the underside that allow you to plug in the missile racks. The largest stand adapter has tabs that fit into slots on the sides of the intakes, cradling the legs but leaving a gap that the gunpod can fit through. As with the Gerwalk adapter, the bottom is a hole so you don't need the extra tube. Ultimately, I'm not sorry I got the VF-0S. It looks great in all three modes, and is going to make a nice display with my other HMR figures. However, I'm definitely glad the VF-0S wasn't my first HMR, because I might have assumed the frustration I felt with parts popping off during transformation was typical for the HMR line and just quit right there. As it stands, the VF-0 is my least-favorite HMR so far, but that's kind of ok, because the VF-0 is one of my least-favorite Valkyries anyway (the VF-5000 and VF-11 are more interesting takes on the basic VF-1 transformation, IMHO). I have stronger feelings for the VF-4, so as long as it's better...

Thanks for the love! Unfortunately I don't have too many left to review, especially since I don't plan on doing new VF-1 reviews every time I pick up another paint job. I'm saving for a VF-2SS, and crossing my fingers that Bandai retools their new VF-19 Kai into a VF-19F/S. Then I just gotta cross my fingers and hope that a VF-11, YF-19, YF-21/VF-22, and VF-17 are in the cards soon. To be clear, it's not like I'm saying the Fugu is terrible or anything (and I've got no experience with the Valkyrie Factory one, unless Fugu and Valkyrie Factory are actually the same people). But the plastic just (subjectively) doesn't feel as good as the plastic Bandai used on the HMRs, and the joint tolerances on the Fugu range from "I think I'm going to break this" tight in the shoulders to leaning over backward with FAST packs loose in the spaces between the ratchet detents in the feet. I also feel like Fugu uses thinner parts, or at least proportionally thinner parts. As an example, the post with the ball joints going into the hips on the HMRs are about the same size as the the ones on the Fugu, despite the HMR's only coming to the top of the Fugu's intakes, plus the entire swing bar is plastic on the Fugu while the HMR's use metal for the vertical part and have it more reinforced where it connects to the plastic horizontal part. If they weren't so expensive I'd like to try a Bandai DX VF-1 someday. The impression I get is that a lot of people here prefer the Arcadias, but I have a feeling I'd like the DX.

It's a thought (though I have a pair of Act 5 stands). I dunno, though, Kakizaki's TV scheme is so boring... the brown doesn't pop off the white the way Max's blue does. I actually prefer the cannon fodder scheme. Ironically, I'm not big on Hikaru or Max's DYRL VF-1As, but I'd buy Kakizaki's.

OK, like I said when I reviewed Fugu's Jetfire, I feel way more secure in my knowledge of Transformers than I do Macross, so I'm sure that there's nothing here you don't already know, and I'm probably missing something that you guys can point out to me. But after some friendly (I hope) teasing from @tekering for buying just about every Transformer Hasbro's released in the last six or seven years but not owning any Macross toys (despite hanging out on a Macross board), I picked up some Hi-Metal R figures and wanted to share my thoughts. We'll start with the VF-1. I got, specifically, the DYRL VF-1S Strike Valkyrie Focker type and Hikaru's VF-1J with GPB armor. As you can see (and probably know) the HMR's are a lot smaller than the Yamato/Arcadia (or KO of said) VF-1. The smaller size comes with a few drawbacks, with the most immediate and obvious one from the above image being the hands. However, I'm still impressed with the HMRs... the detail is quite good for their size. Both VF-1's feature more paint than most mainline Transformers, the sculpt is sharp, and the molded panel lines are accurate and realistic without crossing over into excessive greebles. While the HMR's do have some thin plastic parts, I'd go so far as the suggest that overall the materials on the HMR's feel noticeably better than Fugu's Jetfire. Alas, I don't have a legitimate Yamato/Arcadia to compare with. These figures come with a lot of accessories. Now, I know that Bandai's released a couple of different VF-1's at this point. Most of what I'm going to cover should apply, but aside from different decos or heads they may come with accessories these two don't, and these two surely come with accessories that they don't. That said, as you can see in these two trays, there's likely a lot of overlap. Both the VF-1S and the VF-1J come with two pairs of alternate wings, a gunpod with a small handle, a larger handle for the gunpod, a canopy, alternate intakes, stand adapters for Bandai's Tamashii Nations Stage Act 5 stands (not included), some landing gear, and replacement hands, albeit different ones (the VF-1S has DYRL-style left-and-right closed fists, L&R chopping hands, L&R gun-holding hands, a left open hand with splayed fingers, and a left cupping hand, while the VF-1J has TV-style L&R closed fists, L&R semi-relaxed hands, L&R gun hands, and left-only cupping and open-splayed hands). We also have, unique to the VF-1J, four racks of small missiles, two torso fillers, and one neck filler, while the VF-1S has some replacement head lasers on sprues. One pair is basically the same as the attached ones, just made from a more bendable rubbery plastic, while the others are straight instead of angled out like a 'V', and intended primarily for Gerwalk/Fighter modes. Since the VF-1S is billed as a Strike Valkyrie, it has a second tray with the arm armor, the two-part leg armor, two Super pack boosters, and a Strike cannon, as well four missile pods, two lone large missiles, and two doubled large missiles. Meanwhile, the VF-1J has a second tray with the GBP armor itself (chest, hips, pelvis, shoulders, forearms, legs, and boosters), more larger alternate hands, feet covers, a few missile parts, and a parts separator. There's also a replacement head. This is to reflect that while Hikaru's VF-1J normally has white around the "eyes," for some reason during the episode "Miss Macross" this area was sometimes colored gray. The HMR has fairly similar articulation to the Yamato/Arcadia, not too much lost going to the smaller scale. Heads are on ball joints that can look up a little, slight sideways tilt, decent downward tilt. The ball joint itself is connected to a swivel and hinge for transformation, and you can use that hinge to get a little more downward tilt (the swivel just puts the head off-axis, though). Their ear-lasers swivel. The shoulders are on metal ball joints that can swivel and move laterally 90 degrees. Like the Yamato/Arcadia they also have a hinge that doesn't really lock down in Battroid mode, giving them forward/backward butterfly motion as well. Their biceps swivel, and their double-jointed elbows bend a little short of 180 degrees. Their wrists are ball joints for swiveling and some in-out-up-down tilt. No waist swivel. The ball-jointed hips can't swivel very far forward or backward without hitting the wings, but they offer some thigh swivel. The joint can slide out a bit, but even extended you only have about 45 degrees of lateral hip movement. Hinges below the intakes can be used for 90 degrees forward hip joints. There's another swivel just above the knees, which bend 90 degrees. Fully-extended, the feet have some up/down tilt, and the front half even seems to have a little swivel, but like the Yamato/Arcadia a there's a disappointing lack of ankle pivot. The stock right hand has a space carved out of it that the stock handle can slide into. If you prefer bigger hands, the stock hands simply pop off the ball joints in the wrists, and the stock handle slides right out of the gunpod. Replace it with the bigger handle, which is made for the alternate hands. The alternate hands are kind of rubbery so the fingers bend around the handle with the index finger hooking into the trigger guard. As long as you're swapping parts, the wings use c-clips to grab rods inside of the back. You can yank them off and replacement them smaller ones that are fused together as one solid piece. These shorter wings are a better match for Kawamori's line art. And, as I said, the VF-1J comes with chest and neck fillers, like the Yamato/Arcadia ones. The chest fillers slide over the thin flat bits inside the chest, while the neck filler fits in the gap behind the Battroid head but also over some small gaps near the front of the chest. The neck filler has the door molded into it, but there's no alternate one with an open door. If you remove the handle from the gunpod and collapse it, you'll find that there's a bit that's left with a tab. That tab can grab a slot on the outside of the Battroid's right arm. What's more, the FAST pack armor for the right arm has the same slot, allowing for the same same gunpod storage in Super or Strike mode. Speaking of Super/Strike mode, the leg armor works a lot like the Yamato/Arcadia. First you use some tabs to connect the calf armor to the back of the leg, then pegs on the calf armor hold the armor in place on the side of the leg. The leg armor does not have a removable cover. The arm armor is a bit different, though. First it has a tab that goes into the back of the arm, then and another that kind of wraps over the lip of the arm near the elbow more like the old chunky monkeys. The boosters connect to the backpack directly, without the need for a middle part. They have tabs that plug into slots on the sides of the backpack, with an additional tab that braces against the inner edge of the backpack. The rear engine cover does come off like the Yamato/Arcadia, but the front missile cover does not. Instead, the entire front section can be pulled off and replaced with the Strike cannon. The cannon is, of course, hinged so it can angle and fire over the Battroid's shoulder. As for the GBP armor, first you need to remove the tip of the nose. The hip amor sits over the intakes, but it doesn't lock onto them. Rather, the backs of the hip armor have slots that fit tabs on the inside of the back behind the hips. The pelvis armor is actually four parts; slide the back over the Battroid's butt, then the front slides over to connect to it and capture the hips and part of the nose. The side skirts plug onto the sides. The feet armor isn't so much armor as it is parts that mimic the Battroid's regular feet but make them look bigger, and they just slide over the front and back of the feet. The shoulder armor simply slides over the Battroid's shoulders. The boosters clip into the backpack in a way that's very similar to the Super pack. For the arm armor, first you fold away the Battroid's hands, then you slide the back of the arm on and capture the forearm with the front of the arm. Again, the hands are on ball joints, so if you want him to hold his gunpod you'll have to swap out a fist and use the largest gunpod handle. The leg armor is actually four pieces per leg. The back of the legs use the same tabs and slots as the Super pack, and the outside of the armor plugs into the back of the leg the same way. But then the front of the leg armor plugs onto tabs on the outer leg armor, and you fully enclose the Battroid's leg by using four tabs on the inner armor piece to plug it into slots on the front and back armor pieces. Finish the whole thing off by attaching the chest armor, which simply uses hooks to grab the gaps in the top of the Battroid's chest. The GPB armor has missiles on the hips and forearms, plus doors on the outside of the legs, the backs of the legs, both sides of the chest, and inside both shoulders. For whatever reason the missiles are already inside everything but the shoulders, where they're on flaps in the parts tray. If you want you can even display the GBP Valkyrie post missile-spam. The missiles in the forearms and hips can be removed. The racks in the sides of the legs come out, then you can use the parts separator to push the missiles out of the racks. The ones in the shoulders, chest, and backs of the legs are molded in, so you have to remove the entire panel. There are replacement empty panels you can put into those spaces instead. One thing to note about the Super/Strike packs and GBP armor... there are no special modifications to these Valkyries. As near as I can tell, all the HMR VF-1s have the same slots on the arms, legs, and backpack, and the tip of the nose comes off on all of them. There's nothing stopping you from using the FAST packs or GBP armor on other HMR VF-1s. Heck, if you buy another VF-1 Strike Valkyrie you could even mix and match parts to make one Super Valkyrie and one double Strike. Here's a quick look at Gerwalk mode. I was able to transform the VF-1S from Battroid to Gerwalk with the FAST packs on. Not going to go into a ton of detail here- while Gerwalk is obviously an important mode, it's still an intermediate step between Battroid and Fighter, and we'll cover the look and accessories more extensively in Fighter mode. So, yeah, Fighter mode. I mean, Kawamori worked out how the VF-1 transformed, so there's not a lot of room for deviation. If you've transformed the Yamato/Arcadia, you've already done 95% of the HMR already. The only biggest difference is in the shoulders. Rather than fold in and swivel together to get between the legs, the HMR's shoulders swivel at the ball joint, untab from the back, move backward on sliders just to clear the intakes, double hinge inward so the arms meet, and then forward again. It's slightly more finnicky, since even slid out there's not a lot of room to move the arms around the hips, plus the arms are connected to the sliders via c-clips that can be a bit frustrating to clip back on if they pop off. The only other differences worth mentioning are that the swing bar for the legs just uses a pair of tabs to plug into the bottom of the nose in Battroid, so you simply unplug it to move the legs, no flaps involved. Also, the heat shield doesn't slide up into the chest. You have to pull it off completely, then replace it with a separate canopy part. It's not exactly a transformation difference, the HMR VF-1s do not have landing gear inside the nose or legs. If you want landing gear on them, you have top pry off little flaps to reveal some indents with holes. The landing gear partsforms on by plugging into those holes. Partsforming aside, everything I said about the Battroid applies to the Fighter. There's plenty of molded and painted details that make the HMR VF-1s look premium despite their small size. Everything fits together solidly, nothing's flopping around. If I dare say so, I think the heads are even tucked in a bit better than the Yamato/Arcadia. Both VF-1s came with pilots already in their seats. Despite being super tiny they're painted fairly well, with the VF-1S coming with a Roy in the DYRL-style flight suit and the VF-1J coming with Hikaru in his TV flight suit. To insert or remove the pilots, you have to remove the entire canopy; it doesn't open. The front of the hips can me removed and replaced with exposed intake fans for atmospheric flight. And if you want to arm them up in fighter mode, you can install the gunpod the same way you did in Battroid mode, using the tab into the right arm. Missiles plug into the bottoms of the wings in a manner identical to the Yamato/Arcadia, but with one caveat... the regular wings are smooth on the underside, no holes to plug into. So you gotta yank them off and replace them with ones that are identical, save for the fact that they do have holes underneath. Honestly, I'm not sure what's stopping you from leaving the wings with holes on all the time; it's how the Yamato/Arcadia's are. You can transform the VF-1 with the FAST packs on. The tabs that lock the legs into the fuselage plug into identical slots on the leg armor, and tabs on the inside of the legs that usually tab into the arms tab into the arm armor instead. I really like the Hi-Metal R VF-1s. It might not be fair to judge the Arcadia by a KO, but I'm going to do it anyway and suggest that I honestly think the build quality is better on the HMR. The HMR's while still priced like a premium adult collectible, is also more affordable, which makes buying repaints and variants a lot more tempting, plus the smaller size means you'll likely have more shelf space to display those variants. I myself intend to pick up Max's VF-1A at the very least. That said, I think my biggest gripes with the HMR VF-1 is that it's a tad too small. To compare to a Transformer, it's roughly a short Voyager/tall Deluxe in size (of course, given that the VF-1 is supposed to be significantly smaller than an F-14 or F-15, maybe it's not so out of place with Starscream and Maverick here). If the HMR was just a bit bigger (but still well shy of 1/60) perhaps we could still have enjoyed a quality build in a relatively small package but without the need for partsforming. Even with the partsforming, the HMR VF-1 is my favorite VF-1 toy (though I've yet to experience Bandai's DX Chogokin or ThreeZero's... whatever they're calling their line).

I'm not much of a whisky guy, can you compare with rum?

When I started I was thinking, "eh, I only need one of each model." But I could see myself doing the 1S Hikaru (that's really Roy's) and Max's 1A. Messer's 1S has a neat deco. I should probably get a cannon fodder 1A, too. Max and Milia's 1Js are too blue and red, respectively, and Kakizaki's 1A is too similar to the cannon fodder 1A. It's the same reason why I'm not really into Hikaru's DYRL 1A/1S (or Max's DYRL 1A... but ironically would do Kakizaki's). Also, it's kind of weird that I want the whiter TV 1S, but I see no need to have both versions of Hikaru's 1J. Not really interested in the VT-1 or the VE-1. Honestly, I don't really like the 1D, either, but at that point I'm sure some completionist brain itch will compel me to get one. I'm getting ahead of myself, though. Gonna give my wallet a little break, than start looking for a VF-2SS (while simultaneously agreeing with @Chronocidal that I wish Bandai would would put out a few newer molds. A YF-19/VF-19A and a YF-21/VF-22 would be high on my wishlist, along with a VF-11 and VF-17. Probably a pipe dream, but I'd go for the deep cuts like the VF-9 and VF-14, too.

Those Battroids look like they should be wearing gym shorts, tank tops, and backwards ball caps while calling other Valkyries "nerds."