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I don't think that's out in the wild here, yet. Who's carrying it in Europe? It's supposed to be a Target-exclusive in the US, and when I preordered it I used a $20 off $75 coupon, which I think makes the set a lot more palatable, but it's not due to arrive for another month yet. Leftover from Chase, likely. He's got "Hot Rod shoulders," that is, they used a transformation hinge for his lateral shoulder movement but it's on the wrong side of the rotation so he can't lift his arm and spread at the same time. If I remember right, he's got pretty shallow ankle pivots, too, and wings that are kind of in the way. Hmm. I thought it was impressive that they turned Mindwipe into Squeezeplay at all. I guess I'll see what I think when I have him in hand. Yeah, I mean, the regular release of Tarantulas was fine, just not super excited for a repaint based on a prototype. Curious what you mean about this. I mean, isn't the engineering the same as the regular Legacy release? I thought that Tarn was fine... I mean, yeah, not as good as Kultur, but about as good as I'd expect from a figure that cost a fifth of that. IIRC my only real complaints were the guns on his back popping off and the barrels of his double fusion cannon being hollow. Aesthetically, I agree, he looks terrible with all that extra red. He looks like he's wearing lipstick. In Hasbro's defense, though, Cyberverse Tarn has a bunch of glowing pink lines that they were trying to mimic.

Looks like stuff's starting to hit stores. Got a few store exclusives in-hand, and according to Amazon Wave 3 of Legacy United should be shipping to me soon (side note, maybe they would't have had to stretch United into a fifth wave if Wave three wasn't three Deluxes and one Voyager plus a package refresh of Strongarm). Up first we have Target Optimus Prime, which is (naturally) a Target-exclusive. As you can see, it's a redeco of Legacy Laser Optimus, and... well, I'm really not too sure about this one. Like, black is not a color I associate with Target, and the mix of black with the red I do associate with Target, especially the black head with red eyes, gives him a sinister sort of look. I think they'd have been better off complimenting the red with the usual Target white... or using a different mold entirely, like VNR Optimus. More on that in a bit. Anyway, here's where things really start to go awry. Target doesn't ship goods to their stores in tanker trucks, so Target Optimus comes with a redeco of the Earthrise trailer instead of Laser Op's. So it's got the same detachable chunk of the trailer ramp, the same little drone thingy, the same lack of Roller... but something is missing. Target Optimus does NOT get the Earthrise blaster. Moreover, while he's got the molded missiles in his shoulders and a removable Matrix like Laser Prime, he lacks the rest of Laser Prime's accessories. No gun, no axe thingy, no sword. That trailer drone is all he's got. Well, that and Bullseye. Bullseye is a redeco of Siege Ravage. Although, like Ravage and the other Siege Micromasters, he does have a flip out 5mm peg for Prime to hold, he doesn't really do much in his alt mode. Like, what is even supposed to be, with that artwork? A gift card? Regardless, he transforms into a robot... well, I guess he's supposed to be a dog, even if the face is still more cat-like. They painted his nose and the little bullseye around one of his eyes. An interesting artifact of this redeco is that while you can't help but notice how much he sucks as Ravage, you don't have that preconceived notion of a lithe cat body for Bullseye and subsequently I don't mind the mold so much as Bullseye. In any case, here he is in truck mode. The trailer definitely looks nice; it's the same deco Target uses on their real trailers as of writing. The thing is, the Earthrise trailer was always a bit on the small size, and it's exacerbated by how large the Laser Op mold is in truck mode. The red cab seems fine at first glance, but I found myself thinking that Target's trucks are usually white. I got to looking for pictures of Target trucks, and you know what? Yeah, some are white, but some are red, too. But, whether white or red, you know what they seem to have in common? They're Volvos. Which brings me right around to one of my first thoughts, and that's that they should have used the VNR mold. I'm thinking white where VNR Optimus's cab is red, and black where the blue parts are, and still mostly red in bot mode. As it stands, while I have a soft spot for niche crap like this, and I do frequent Target, this almost feels like the sort of advertising someone should pay me to take, not the other way around. A superior deco on the VNR mold might have sold it better, but this is what it is, and what it is is not recommended. Moving along, I also got the first of Amazon's Mayhem Attack Squad. Well, the second, actually, because the I got a notification saying that I'd get the other set last Monday, and some people were even getting that set before then... only for Amazon to turn around and tell me my order would be delayed until sometime next week. So glad I preordered right away so I wouldn't have to wait. 😒 Whatever. This set contains two figures, and the first one is Windsweeper, and he's Needlenose with a new head. Thing is, Needlenose with a new head actually kind of works for Windsweeper. The new head is spot on, and the rest of Needlenose's body is sort of sufficiently generic enough that simply swapping the colors for Windsweeper's is mostly enough. For bot mode, I think the only things he really needs are a different chest and his flip out guns (remember, he's a Triggercon), and I do believe Nonnef has a kit addressing those issues... Of course, it's a different story in jet mode. I mean, you can see some elements like the extra molded lines in the canopy, the horizontal stabilizers on the vertical stab, and the little canards that suggest that Windsweeper was a planned repaint before Needlenose was even finished, but Windsweeper simply shouldn't have delta wings. Oh, and since he's largely Needlenose with a new head, his weapons are Targetmasters, too, named Cleansweep and Ozone. They're entirely painted silver, I guess to try to evoke the look of Windsweeper's built-in guns. But, yeah, I'll probably look into upgrade kits. Also packaged with Windsweeper is Breakdown. Like everything else we've looked at today, Breakdown is a minimal-effort new head and colors on an otherwise unchanged body, and from what I've been reading I guess a lot of people are kind of mad about it. The thing is, I don't really mind it. I mean, Bulkhead's gun always had that option to attach like a shoulder cannon, and Prime Breakdown did have a shoulder cannon in the show. He comes with the Wrecker hammer that the Wreck-N-Rule version of Bulkhead had, and I remember remarking at the time just how much it looked like Breakdown's hammer. (Not that he needs he, but he's got Bulkhead's wrecking ball, too.) The colors are good, the new head is excellent. The cab front for a torso is more of a Bulkhead thing, but the flat shape is pretty Breakdown-esque. While I can see not wanting these rivals to be the same guy with different heads, I honestly do think that this mold does work for both characters. Heck, I might even like it better as Breakdown. Well, in bot mode, at least. The alt mode doesn't strike me as particularly Bulkhead or Breakdown (though if you squint I guess it's kind of like a realistic take on Animated Bulkhead's truck). Prime Bulkhead should be more Hummer-esque, and Breakdown more of an armored truck. I guess what's really frustrating is that they honestly could have been a little more visually distinct, and all it would have taken is replacing Bulkhead's tarp/shield thing with something else. Maybe something less faux tarp and more like armor. Maybe make them fold differently, so Breakdown has a spare tire on his back but Bulkhead's came up over his shoulders like the "wings" on Animated Bulkhead. I dunno. What I do know is that while there are lots of ports you can stick the accessories, if you ditch the wrecking ball that Breakdown doesn't really need, anyway, you can fit everything under his tarp, same as Bulkhead. So, yeah, Windsweeper and Breakdown are kind of minimal effort. And yeah, a lot of people are kind of miffed about Breakdown being the same figure as his rival. But like I said, Needlenose works pretty well as Windsweeper, and I think the Bulkhead mold still works for Breakdown. Windsweeper alone is the kind of obscure character that you could live without, but I think this set's worth picking up to give Bulkhead his rival.

Yeah, it, that IDW Rodimus, Bingo Optimus, and a reissue of MPM-03 are supposed to go up for pre-order next week.

Allow me. On the one hand, it feels kind of lame to see Hasbro doing Miner Megatron and IDW Orion Pax again so soon. I do kind of like that the deco on Megatron is more gladiator, like he exists in a continuum between the previous Miner Megatron and Siege Megatron. But honestly, the reason I'm likely to shell out for this set is that Pax. I like the remolding they did here, and the Gamer Edition Optimus always seemed like a better choice for this Optimus than Siege Hound. The set will be available to purchase in person at SDCC, with extras going on Pulse on July 28th.

The trunks are fine, the cape's fine, it's that the shirt's too loose and the material is bunching under his chest and around his elbows. And hey, is that Edi Gathegi I spy as Mr. Terrific? I like him in For All Mankind.

Got a bit of a double review for you guys today that connects Age of Extinction to the present. On the left, we have Deluxe-class Age of Extinction Premiere Edition Steelbane. On the right, we have the Hasbro Asia-exclusive Year of the Dragon Crimsonflame. Steelbane is meant to be one of the guardians who stole Quintessa's staff and fled to Earth (which is somehow Unicron... good thing he didn't eat himself in Rise of the Beasts, eh?) and did some stuff with Merlin and King Arthur. He is pretty accurate to the mostly indistinguishable armored knight-looking guys we saw in the film, given that he's shades of gray and silver with some "dirt" painted on, with sculpted details that resemble a knight's armor and helmet. The only real departure from the film are the wings folded up on his back, but I don't hate it. It's not screen accurate, but it sort of conveys the impression of a cape or a cloak. He's pretty typical for a Deluxe, standing right about the same size as a Siege carbot like Prowl or Sideswipe. Crimsonflame is a 2024 retool of Steelbane to commemorate the Year of the Dragon. As alluded to, he was released exclusively in Hasbro Asia markets; Hasbro didn't even make him available to import through Pulse the way they often do with Takara-exclusives like Lunar Convoy. My wife's family is Chinese, though, and my wife's company does business there, so I was fortunate to have her pick up Crimsonflame on her last trip as a souvenier. It's interesting how Steelbane immediately reads as a European Knight while Crimsonflame gives off a Three Kingdoms vibe, despite how little has actually been retooled. The dragon arms/wings on his back are different, he's got a new head, different armor/kibble on his forearms, and the flappy part of his torso, from roughly the sternum down, has been retooled, but that's about it for this mode. The chest, shoulder pads, and legs are the same, and it's kind of just the colors that sell it. Steelbane's sole accessory is this rubbery sword. It's... fine. Steelbane's head is on a ball joint that can look up, down, and tilt sideways a fair amount. His shoulders are also ball joints, and they swivel fine, but between the cut of the socket and the shoulder pads he can only get about 45 degrees of lateral range. His biceps swivel, and his weirdly-detented elbows bend a bit over 90 degrees. He does have wrist swivels, but they're kind of for transformation as the armor on the outside of his forearms is attached to his hands. No waist swivel. His hips are ball joints that move 90 degrees forward or backward but only 45 degrees laterally. His thighs swivel. His knees can technically bend over 90 degrees, but practically the alt mode kibble in his calves stops him at 90. His feet are on hinged ball joints so they can swivel, tilt down very slightly, tilt up a significant amount, and even pivot slightly. Not quite the modern "standard" for articulation in the post-Siege world, but enough that he doesn't feel completely outdated. Steelbane can hold his sword in either hand. When not being held, you can use a tab on the hilt to plug the sword into slots on either thigh. Crimsonflame has a lot more to work with than Steelbane. You've got a flame effect part, a piece that looks like three bundled tubes for rockets or fireworks, a tassel knot charm, a shield, and a torch. Crimsonflame also comes with a display stand that can conveniently hold all of his other accessories except the shield. Crimsonflame's articulation is the same as Steelbane's. He's got a couple of things going for him that Steelbane doesn't, though. For one, he's less back heavy, given that he's not toting those wings around. But, even if he was back heavy, you can plug the stand into a port on his butt (a port which Steelbane actually possesses, mind you). Also, unlike Steelbane Crimsonflame has 5mm ports on his forearm armor. Ostensibly, this is so he can attach his shield, while the flame, torch, fireworks, and charm combine to form a spear. The extra ports on his arms, and the way you combine the accessories, gives you a lot more options than simply a spear, though. Put the flame in the torch and just have him carry the charm. Turn the fireworks into an arm cannon. Combine the arm cannon and the torch into a rifle. The versatility helps make Crimsonflame feel more contemporary than his base mold actually is. Both figures have pretty much the same engineering, and it comes from an era where the design team was trying some crazy stuff that you kind of have to admire, even when it doesn't work out so great. To transform either of these guys, turn the wrists and flip out the forearm armor, then pull the shoulders so his sides unlock from his back. Pull the backpack away just enough to get it out of the way, then the armor will slide up over the head. Now here's where things get crazy. The pelvis and spine split in half, and one side flips over to bring the right leg up over his robot head. You twist some joints, fold the foot up against the shin, and fold the end of the tail out of the calf, and that's the tail. With the tail done, you can lock the robot shoulders back in to turn his arms into his hind legs. Back at the other end, we twist some joints in the other leg, fold up that foot, and fold out the dragon head. All that's left is to fold down the backpack and arrange the limbs on it to form the front legs (and wings in Steelbane's case). Like I said, you have to admire the crazy transformations from this era, but they don't always work. Steelbane's dragon form is thin, with visible gaps and hollows under his neck, in his chest, and in his back. His robot feet are just hanging out, and he's got robot hands dangling off the backs of his legs. Credit where it's due, the number of leg joints that wind up in his neck and tail do give him some good articulation in those areas. His jaws can open and close. His legs have basically the same articulation is his robot arms. The wings on his dragon arms have swivels so they can splay outward, but the ball joints in the shoulders are loose and don't give him any upward flap, plus the only other joint is an elbow bend. You're not going to get a lot of dynamic posing out of his wings. But his wings do add a lot of mass up front, which means that standing him on his hind legs and posing him for flight is a challenge anyway, as he really needs to stand on at least one wing for support. Steelbane's sword uses the tab on the hilt to fit into a slot on his back, between his robot shoulders, allowing the sword to lie along his tail. Once again, things come out a little bit better for Crimson flame. The mold's tendency toward a skinny dragon works better for an Asian-style dragon than a European one. The remolded front legs are shorter and don't have the wings in the way, and while the remolded back legs don't really hind the robot hands they rest under them in a way that doesn't have the hands just dangling. The remolded dragon legs also seem to be better proportioned, so that Crimsonflame looks more natural standing on all fours. Not that he has to stand on his legs, mind you. You can plug him onto his stand for a nice flight pose. As for his other accessories, the flame effect can attach to a nub inside his mouth so he can breath fire, and his shield doesn't simply plug into his back, it attaches in a manner that helps hide the game Steelbane's mold left him. The rest simply goes onto his stand. Steelbane feels like a figure that might have been OK back in 2017; decent robot, very interesting transformation, not-so-great dragon. Not sure that I'd recommend tracking him down today (or, for that matter, Skullitron, a Toys 'R' Us exclusive retool that was just a new head on a more copper-colored body). Crimsonflame uses a few retooled parts and more accessories to be a much stronger use of the mold. However, we're still talking about a toy that was original designed seven years ago, to create a totally original character you probably have to put a little extra effort into importing from Asia. To me, with my ties to Chinese family, it's a lovely souvenir that I'm happy to have, even if he's unlikely to get a spot on my desk as a frequent fidget toy. Without those cultural ties I think he's hard to recommend, but I will say that if you're interested in experiencing this mold at all Crimsonflame is the version to get.

You mean second best. Or, best that isn't the original and actual best. EDIT: BTW, if you couldn't go to the recent 40th anniversary theater event, Hasbro will be streaming the first episode table reading onto the Pulse Youtube channel on June 28th at noon ET/9:00am Pacific. Frank Todaro (Starscream, Wheeljack) and Arif Kinchen (Jazz) will be in the live chat during and for a half hour before. I didn't love Todaro's Wheeljack, but I have to admit that he nailed Starscream. And Kinchen definitely did right by Scatman, so it's worth checking out.

As someone born early in 1980, I can tell you my absolute favorite cartoon as a kid was The Transformers. Of course, being a kid in the '80s isn't like being a kid isn't like being a kid today, where my daughter can watch the same thing over and over and over. No, aside from a few episodes on F.H.E. tapes I could watch The Transformers when it was on, and then I'd have to watch something else. And for me, my favorite something else was far and away Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. So I'm pretty psyched to be looking at the single crossover I'd most eagerly dreamed of since Ectotron, TMNT X Transformers Party Wallop. My first impression was that Party Wallop is a pretty big figure. I don't know why, but the pictures the Hasbro team showed when they revealed him make him seem sort of Deluxe-ish. At the most, no bigger than Code Red, right? Even though I grabbed Bulkhead as a comparison, I can tell you that Party Wallop is similar in height to Code Red, but he's got double the bulk. Aesthetically, Party Wallop is meant to look like one of the Turtles, with green on his legs and arms, a yellow mechanical shell on his torso, and two-toed feet (his gray hands, oddly enough, have four fingers and a thumb). Out of the box, Party Wallop has no bandana, no wrist, elbow, or knee pads, and an empty circle on his belt. As we spin him around, you start to get the sense that Party Wallop is a bit of a shellformer. I mean, yeah, the entire roof of his alt mode is hanging out on his back, but then again, he's a turtle, I can let that slide as part of his shell. But there's flaps with wheels hanging off his hips, flaps of kibble on his forearms, and more flaps of kibble on his his shoulders. Most of the kibble is, at least, hinged, so it moves with him more than it gets in the way. Party Wallop comes with quite a few accessories... you've got two katanas, two sais, two pairs of nunchucks, and a single bo staff. That's enough weapons for all four of the Turtles... which is probably why there's four alternate heads, each with a different color bandana- purple, blue, orange, and red. On top of all that, you get a green dish with a pizza, and... well, the entire front end of his alt mode. Party Wallop's head is on a ball joint with limited downward tilt, but decent upward and sideways tilt in addition to swiveling. His shoulders rotate and get a full 90 degrees of lateral movement. His biceps swivel, and his elbows bend almost 90 degrees. His wrists swivel, and somewhat surprisingly given his backpack, so does his waist. Heck, due to his transformation, he can even arc his back. His hips can go 90 degrees forward, and about 60 degrees backward before his backpack starts to get in the way. Due to the double hinge on his hip kibble, it can move enough that he almost gets 90 degrees of lateral hip movement. His thighs swivel, and his knees bend slightly over 90 degrees. No up or down tilt on his feet, but his ankles pivot a solid 45 degrees. Party Wallop can hold any of his weapons in either hand. There's also a 5mm port on either forearm panel; you can use a flip out 5mm peg on the backside of his alt mode front to attach it like a shield. A very nice thing about Party Wallop is that he has storage for almost all of his accessories. The extra heads fit into his backpack, as does the folded bo staff. The sais use tabs to plug into his hip kibble, while the nunchucks clip under his shoulder kibble. The katanas have tabs on their blades, and they fit into slots along the sides of Party Wallop's backpack. My only complaint when it comes to storage is that there's no way to attach the "shield" to his back. You can, however, simply plug it into his chest. That's where it needs to be for alt mode, anyway, so plugging it in there even negates some partsforming. There really isn't any way for him to interact with the pizza, but if you flip it over it fits into the circular indent on the shield to complete the front-end look. I think, for a turtle-esque Cybertronian with an expected alt mode named Party Wallop that I kind of dig this look, as a nice midpoint between TMNT and Transformers. However, you have all those accessories for a reason. Pop off the bandana-less head and pick the color of your favorite turtle instead. Lift the gray rectangle on his belt and you'll find that that the circle is on a spinner with four other circles, and those ones aren't blank. There's a 'L', a 'D', an 'M', and an 'R.' Match the bandana and the belt and the weapons, and he's less a TMNT-themed Transformer named Party Wallop and more your choice of Leonardo, Donatello, Michelangelo, or Raphael re-imagined as a Transformer. I could charitably believe that the design team was excited to let you make your favorite Turtle out of Party Wallop. I could also cynically believe that some Hasbro suits were gleefully rubbing their hands together at the thought of collectors buying four copies of Party Wallop to display all four Turtles. I might suggest that a balanced way of looking at is is that if you want four Turtles it'll run about the same as I paid for Neca Target Haul-a-Thon 4-pack two years back, and they're much larger figures with higher parts counts. Anyway... with the shellformer kibble flaps, you can expect that the transformation isn't terribly complicated. His backpack unhinges, with some flaps folding out from inside. His head tucks in, and his arms fold back with the shoulder kibble filling in the area behind the side windows. His wrists fold down to line up his forearm kibble to make the back window. Then you can tuck his head in and tab the roof into place- just make sure you attached the front to his chest first. The wheels under his feet fold out and his heels tuck in, then the feet and the outside of his legs rotate 90 degrees. His waist folds back, allowing his legs to slide over his forearms and lock into the roof. His hip skirts unfold and line up so the front wheels are in place, then the flaps that were hanging from the roof fold down to fill in the rest of the sides. Size-wise, Party Wallop makes for a pretty big van, but honestly I think one that scales reasonably well with previous crossovers like Gigawatt and Ectotron, or the Jurassic Park Jeeps. He's only a little large compared to an Earthrise car. He dwarfs fellow fans like SS86 Ironhide or Code Red, though, but that just reinforces the notion that alt mode scale, especially in G1, is always a losing proposition with Transformers. What I like here is that this is the Party Wagon from the '80s/'90s cartoon... not the Battle Shell from the early aughts, not the Cowabunga Carl Party Van from TMNT, not the Assault Van or the garbage truck from the Bay films, not even the inaccurate Kenner toys. The only things I can critique (aside from the splattering of white overspray on the front of my copy) is that there shouldn't be green on the spoiler, the hinge in the roof should be green, there should be a little green trim around the bottom of the sides, and the sensors or whatever on the sides are usually the same yellowish color as the van, not the silver color of the larger sensor. Pretty minor nitpicks, frankly, and some concessions to the fact that he transforms instead of just being a van. Of course, he rolls, and the guns are hinged so they can move up and down. The tips are compatible with (not-included) WfC/Legacy blast effects. And again, all of his accessories can be stored in the van mode. In fact, the heads, bo, and nunchucks stay in the same hiding spots they do in bot mode. Only the sais and katanas have to move. The sais tab into slots on his thighs, while the katanas plug into his crotch with the blades slipping into cutouts under the bumper. Party Wallop probably isn't, objectively-speaking, the best crossover figure that Hasbro has done. I think there are legitimate complaints to be made about how shellformery he is, how bland the default head is, and how there's nowhere to store his front end except on his chest or on his forearm as a shield. He is, however, my favorite, as the only way to better encapsulate my childhood in a single toy would me to make a TMNT Tranformer that came with an NES. To be totally honest, I bought this guy at Gamestop, where he's already in stock, but I kept my Amazon and Target preorders, and then preordered one from Pulse on top of that. I'm going for all four Turtles, here. I think, if you were the right age at the right time like I was for Transformers and TMNT to overlap in your formative years then you're going to love Party Wallop.

I thought it was a bit gimmicky, especially the patisserie stuff, with overly simplistic level design. Oh, and I loathed the controls. It's been awhile since I played Super Princess Peach, but I remember it giving me almost Yoshi's Island vibes. It's a lot more like what you'd expect from a 16-bit era Nintendo platformer.

Second. And, frankly, the first time was better (if a tad sexist).

To be fair, a lot of these games are multiplatform. I'm going to get Dragon Quest, Fantasian, Marvel vs Capcom, and Ace Attorney on PC.

I'm just hoping the Switch 2 is backwards compatible.

Ok, I mean, I'm totally in for Metroid, Marvel Vs. Capcon, Fantasian, and Metal Slug. But you guys missed some bangers.

If Pulse sells out, here's links at Amazon, BBTS, and Entertainment Earth.

I got Geocron, Optimus, Quake, Slipstream, Soundwave, Armada Galvatron, the Gobots, and the Xaaron & Flame pack. Like I said, Metalhawk isn't all that different (and in my opinion, an inferior deco), Energon Megatron kind of sucked so I don't want the repaint, and I'm not super interested in Animated when the characters were in the show, let alone Motormaster.

Deluxe Optimus Slipstream Quake Soundwave Galvatron Motormaster Metalhawk Geocron Core Galvatron. Gobots Xaaron and Flame

Metalhawk was shown off, and IMHO it's not worth posting pictures. It's Legacy Evolution Metalhawk, but with darker gold and gray. Some people are saying it's more toy-accurate, and the darker gray is, but the gold is more like a caramel than the metallic gold that was on the G1 toy, and I personally think the Evolution one looks more cartoon-accurate. And since Metalhawk was a Japan-exclusive back in the day but I have actually watched Masterforce, cartoon colors all the way for me. More interesting is that Hasbro's going into the Marvel UK deep cuts for their new comic book two-pack, with Emirate Xaaron and Flame. Xaaron is a heavy retool of Siege Refraktor, while Flame is a new head and chest on Gamer Edition Megatron. Hopefully with the knees fixed. EDIT: Oh, and here's Armada Galvatron. Guess we're just waiting to see Animated Motormaster. EDIT AGAIN: As I was typing, guess what popped up on Mark's Instagram? EDIT A THIRD TIME: Forgot that we're also getting Soundwave in this wave. There was some talk that he'd be marketed as a Leader-class, but the box won't say "Leader" on it and it might be more expensive than a standard Leader. It's the Netflix toy, modified from Siege to turn into a tape deck. To fill out the budget, he'll come with yet another Ravage, Rumble (based on the Studio Series version, but with a more toy-Frenzy deco), and the reason the people who did get the Netflix one will likely still buy this one, Buzzsaw.

Early next year there will be a 5th wave of Legacy United before Hasbro moves on to the next trilogy in the spring. Cosmos should be in that wave, along with G1 Sureshot, G2 Breakdown, Armada Wheeljack, Overcharge (a Diaclone repaint of Blitzwing), and package refreshes of Tarn, Ramjet, and Galaxy Shuttle.

Oh, BTW... one final word on Springers, with a quick look at the remaining official Springers before Siege. Time has muddied some of the details in my head, but there was a period where Hasbro was expanding in Asia, especially China, and they released a few retools under the label "Global Development Organization," or simply GDO. But in late 2012 Toys 'R' Us thought it'd be fun to release a bunch of GDO figures as store-exclusives. The fellow you see on the left is GDO Springer, who is a retool of Hunt for the Decepticons Tomahawk. And on the right we have a figure I'm betting a lot of you might be familiar with, as it's the first official figure actually designed to be Springer rather than repurposed as Springer- Generations Thrilling 30 Springer, released the following year. I don't think it was ever explicitly stated that Hunt for the Decepticons was a movie line, but I always thought of it as one. Many of the figures were, in fact, repaints of Revenge of the Fallen figures, and even the ones that weren't (like Tomahawk) were clearly influenced by the Bayverse designs. So while the mix of grays, greens, yellow and certainly Springer's colors, and the head is a bit stylized but clearly based on G1 Springer, the digitigrade legs and large, toed feet practically invite you to consider GDO Springer less as G1 Springer and more as a hypothetical Bayverse Springer. Thrilling 30 Springer, on the other hand, with his gray arms and legs, green thighs, and yellow slab of a chest is the most G1 Springer we'd gotten to this point. Which makes sense, since it's the first mold intended as Springer in the first place. However, like much of the Generations line at the time, Thrilling 30 was based more on IDW comics than Sunbow. In Springer's case, it's Nick Roche's design from Last Stand of the Wreckers. And, y'know, the forearms could be a bit tidier, and the shoulders are a bit different, but it's pretty accurate to the comics. GDO Springer comes with a pair of missile launchers, just like Tomahawk did, but he also get a brand new sword unique to Springer's version of the mold. Thrilling 30 Springer also comes with a sword, and a large rifle that also fires missiles. GDO Springer's head is on a hinged ball joint, so it had pretty good up/down tilt and at least some sideways tilt. His shoulders are ball joints that swivel and get a bit under 90 degrees of lateral movement. His biceps swivel, and his elbows bend a hair over 90 degrees. No wrist or waist articulation. Hips are ball joints that go over 90 degrees forward and backward, and a little under that laterally. His thighs swivel. His knees bend a little under 90 degrees, and his digitigrade ankle bends 90 degrees forward. His toes have a ton of up/down tilt, but there's no pivots. Springer can hold his sword in either hand. His missile launchers give you a few options. First, there's a 5mm peg on them that can plug into a port under either wing on his back. The launchers also have a ball-jointed c-clip. This clip can latch onto the molded guns on the tips of his wings, or onto rails on his arms. Finally, it's not an accessory, but the tail boom attached to his right arm has hinges in the vertical stabilizer, allowing it to act like a pinching claw. Thrilling 30 Springer's head is also on a ball joint with a little upward tilt, plenty of downward tilt, and not much sideways tilt. His shoulders swivel, and they can move laterally a little over 90 degrees, but he has Hot Rod shoulders. His biceps swivel, and his elbows bend 90 degrees on ratchets. His wrists bend inward slightly due to transformation, and they swivel. His waist swivels a bit, though his backpack stops him at about 45 degrees. His hips can go 90 degrees forward or laterally, but only about 45 degrees backward. His thighs swivel, and his knees bend 90 degrees on ratchets. His feet can tilt down, but not up, and he lacks ankle pivots (which wouldn't be standard for another six years). He can hold his sword or gun in either hand. The gun has a 5mm port on it, so you can store the sword on the gun, and a 5mm port on his back allows you to store the combined weapon on his back. As with yesterday's repurposed Springers, GDO Springer has just the one mode, a helicopter. The canopy opens so the front of his torso can fold up over his head. The sides of his chest rotate to line up with his back. The sides of the tail fold out from his arms, then his arms hinge backward and join to form most of the fuselage and tail. His hips double hinge forward, his toes and digitigrade ankles fold up against his shins, then his legs tab together and fold up under the belly. T30 Springer's chest comes up over his head, and his shoulder wings angle in and slide downward. His feet fold up, and joints in his thighs push his lower legs together. A flap on his butt locks the legs in place. His hands fold in, and his forearms split in half and wrap up around his shoulders, then his shoulders shift downward on double hinges to sit near his waist. I'll note here that there are clearance issues getting his chest up over his head, and they seem worse going from alt mode back to robot. I frequently wind up popping his head right off the ball joint. GDO Springer is an interesting helicopter, with molded missiles and guns on his wings, large intakes, a two-seat cockpit, landing gear, and a swiveling camera thing under the nose. However, nothing about the predominantly gray helicopter really is particularly notable as Springer. Sure, with the head and more prominent green in robot mode you can tell, but if you were unfamiliar with this figure and simply saw the helicopter I don't think you'd recognize it as Springer. His rotors spin. As before, you've got options for the missiles; under the wings, on the guns on the win tips, or on the rails that are now on the tail boom. With the 5mm pegs on the sword's hilt, though, the only thing you can really do is stick it under one of the wings, which means if you want the missiles to be attached symmetrically you're going to have use one of the c-clip spots. It's not a huge problem, but it's a reminder that the mold wasn't designed for the sword in the first place. Thrilling 30's helicopter mode is also a bit removed from Sunbow Springer or G1 toy Springer, but the colors are at least ones I'd more associate with Springer. It's a tad awkward, though. There's nothing securing the stabilizers on the tail in place, and his wings look more like folded-up kibble than anything purposeful. What's more, his wings are held in place entirely by friction, as his shoulders don't tab into anything after they shift. Springer's sword transforms and plugs into the top to form his main rotor. He's knee pads have little non-rolling wheels molded onto them, and he's got folding landing gear under his nose for him to perch on. Or, you can leave the nose gear folded in, and awkwardly clip his gun to the underside. But hey! As a toy that was designed to be Springer instead of repainted as Springer, Thrilling 30 Springer is our first official Springer since the G1 toy to actually be a triple changer! From the helicopter mode, fold up all his landing gear. Double hinge his entire backpack backward, then unravel his arms so that the windows on them line up with the cockpit. Take some bits that are on the sides of his shoulders, swivel them 180 degrees, then push them into his arms to reveal the front tires. Split his legs below the knee pads and fold them up alongside his legs to form the rear. T30's Springer is not G1 accurate. That said, this is the best car mode Springer has ever had. It looks even more like a Batmobile than Fansproject's Defender, with big wheels for all sorts of terrain and an armored appearance, while maintaining a the look of a vehicle that could also be driven fast on paved roads. I love it! My only real complaint is that I wish it fit together just a bit better. In car mode, you've got a pair of 5mm ports you can use to plug the gun into the roof. As I mentioned before, the sword can actually plug into a 5mm port on top of the gun. However, I've found that you can wedge the handle between his knees, with the knee pads clamping down on the hilt and the blade running up through a gap near the nose, and store pretty securely out-of-sight under the car. Like I said at the start, GDO Springer might work for me as a Bayverse Springer, but not a G1 Springer. Even in 2012 he wouldn't have usurped Universe Springer on my shelf, and he's definitely not worth picking up instead of Siege or SS86 Springer, so there's no reason to pick up this figure unless you're a masochist like me or a completionist. Thrilling 30, on the other hand, absolutely replaced Universe Springer and served as my Springer until Siege. He looks great in bot mode, as long as you're into that IDW style, and I love his car mode. In his time, I'd have said he's an excellent figure. Indeed, many people will argue that he's still the best Springer. However, those people might be remembering him with rose-tinted glasses. The fact is, he's got some fit and tolerance issues, and his helicopter mode (which, again, I think is the more important of his alt modes) isn't particularly good. For a modern, post-Siege collection, you really should go with Studio Series Springer, or at least Siege Springer. But, like I said, this was still a great figure in its time, and likely one some of you have fond memories of.

Is it a bad time to mention a little piece of plastic around the backpack hinge fell off?

Here's the Wave 4 Cores. Like I said, I thought Megatron was kind of crappy, and I actually prefer the Megatron colors, so Galvatron's a pass for me. Geocron swaps the red paint for purple, and the reddish brown for a less reddish brown. But hey, new head! I'll put him in the "maybe" column. Honestly, if Bandai weren't notoriously litigious, I'd suggest an unlicensed third party just side-step all that. And, sure, I'd like a lot of the Gobots I had as a kid, but for starters I'd rather they focus on the core cast (Leader-1, Scooter, and Turbo for the Guardians and Cy-Kill, Crasher, and Cop-Tur for the Renegades).

Agreed, but... That's kind of the thing. The Hasbro team is referencing the e-Hobby set, and the work they've done here (and with the previously-released Road Ranger and Bugbite, who were also part of the e-Hobby set) is accurate to that e-Hobby set. It's Takara's fault that they used some pretty random colors in the first place. BTW, I kind of want a new Deluxe-class Powerglide as much for a Bad Boy repaint that would complete the e-Hobby repaints as for Powerglide himself.

Yep. It's your standard $25 Deluxe that could end up on shelves at Walmart or Target if they weren't still clogged with Arcees and Crosscuts.

Legacy United Gobots (Pathfinder, Treads, and Smallfoot). It's a three-pack, and a BBTS exclusive. "Hey mom, can we get MIssing Link Convoy?" "We have one at home, dear." Yeah... it's Legacy United Deluxe-class Optimus Prime. Friendly reminder, preorders for these (and Quake and Slipstream) will go up tomorrow at 1:00pm EST. Probably also the rest of the line, which isn't anything super exciting- Cores Energon Galvatron and a repaint of Bouldercrash, Voyagers Animated Motormaster and Metalhawk, and Leader Armada Galvatron. I'm in for Quake, Slipstream, Optimus, and Armada Galvatron, but that might be it. I'm not into Animated designs as toys, and while they said the deco will be different I already have Metalhawk. I thought Energon Megatron was kind of trash so I'm not doing the repaint. I guess the Bouldercrash repaint depends on the color. Oh, I'm in for the Gobots. I'm hoping we'll see a few more store-exclusives soon, Target's Summer Geek Out starts Friday, and both SDCC and Walmart's Collector Con are at the end of June.

That'd work... If my desk wasn't actually an IKEA table without any drawers.