mikeszekely

Nope! Before Megatron was revealed I'd have bet that was the case, but I'm happy to report that's not the case. They have similarities in that they're both tanks, both form their turrets from their arms and arm cannons with their back cannons making the barrel, and both have their chests end up at the front of the tank and legs (mostly) at the back. But that's about it. Near as I can tell, they have no shared parts. Transformation is quite different, too. Megatron's is sort of laying on his front, with his chest flipped up over his head. His legs rotate 180 degrees to form the rear treads, but the front of the treads are (mostly) his backpack. For Megatron, his waist detaches and double hinges so the bottom of his spine and the top of his pelvis are on the bottom of the tank. His head folds in and his chest flips up to form the front of the tank with the top of his torso. His back also opens up, and the joints that move the arms unfurl from inside his back. His shins combiner wars up over his thighs with his feet, which kind of tuck into the back of the tank, and his lower legs split, unfold, and wrap around the sides to form the entirety of the treads. IMHO, it's a more clever and interesting transformation, even if the turret still winds up looking kind of crappy. Anywho... kinda forgot about these Amazon-exclusive repaints until they showed up on my porch. They're a continuation of Amazon's previous exclusive capsules, in that they're a mix of Wreckers and Mayhem Attack Squad guys (with a little IDW comic stuff thrown in). In the first set, representing the Mayhem Attack Squad, we've got Carnivac. Carnivac himself is a straight repaint of Titans Return Weirdwolf, but he does come with some new accessories. Namely, we have a shorter tail sword, a brand new gun that's modeled after the G1 toy, and a new face. Now, there's a part of me that wants to say that Hasbro is pretty lazy here, reusing TR Weirdwolf for Carnivac just because they're both wolves when the G1 toys were nothing alike. Fact is, it actually does kind of work, though. As a Pretender, Carnivac didn't have the most detailed toy. In broad strokes, purple on the top with brown legs is correct. His chest is painted brown where the wolf's lower jaw sat (ala Slag). My biggest complaints are actually going to wind up being that his shoulders are too tall, he doesn't have the top of the wolf's head behind his bot head (again, ala Slag), and he has blue forearms and hands, which... ...is a concession to his alt mode, where blue forelimbs are now accurate. Though he still has molded eyes, he's got a painted visor like the G1 toy. His lower jaw and chest are accurately brown, too bad there isn't more of it on his back. There is some brown on his hips and thighs, which isn't accurate here but a concession to his bot mode. Most of the rest of his leg is blue; purple would have been better, and at first glance since it's covered in bot mode you might think there's no reason it couldn't have been, but a closer look tells me that those parts were on the same sprue as his forelimbs. The blue tail (which I believe is actually cast in purple plastic and painted blue) is accurate. Since he's repainted from Weirdwolf, Carnivac has to be a Headmaster instead of a Pretender. And we can see that while the face attached is new, the Titan Master carrying it on his back is the same. As a late G1 toy with a bad gimmick and no presence in the Sunbow cartoon or the Japanese sequels, Carnivac is a pretty D-list character (unless you were a fan of the Marvel comics). In that sense, it's a blessing to get any Carnivac, even if it's a repaint rather than a new mold. I just wish Hasbro would stop dipping into the dated, ball joint-heavy Prime Wars well. Carnivac's Wrecker opponent is Fisitron, aka Ironfist. Presumably, what with the Marvel character, Hasbro went with the more trademarkable Fisitron, a name which comes from his appearance in IDW's Last Stand of the Wreckers miniseries, where it was basically his screenname on the Cybertronian-equivalent of a r/Wreckers subreddit. With that in mind, you might be thinking, "Wasn't G1 Ironfist a sort of ugly butterscotch color? Why's he mostly gray here?" And the answer is, again, Last Stand of the Wreckers, where he kept the butterscotch shoulders, biceps, and pelvis but went with a light gray for his torso and lower legs. So my only real complaint, color-wise, is that his hands should be blue. Fisitron is a retool of Earthrise Hound/Detritus, who was already a retool of Siege Hound. While he is mostly Earthrise Hound, aside from a new head he's sporting a brand new backpack as well. And while he doesn't have the red eyes and headlights, or the big wheels under his chest or on his thighs that the G1 toy has, the mold does work surprisingly well for an IDW Ironfist. Again, my only real complaint would be Hound's bumper and winch. The backpack isn't the only thing new. He comes with this squarish bit, a yellow rifle, and a round bit. As a retool of a Siege toy there's lot of ports where you can mound the accessories on their own. However, the rifle fits inside the square bit with the barrel poking out, and the circle plugs on top of it, recreating the accessory of the G1 toy. Again, the bumper and which aren't doing Fisitron any favors, but with the new roof (which has a part that folds out of the backpack over his legs) goes a long way toward selling the idea that Fisitron is a Humvee and not a Jeep. Just like the G1 toy, the (combined) accessory plugs into the roof. It lacks the gimmicks of the G1 toy, though, so the barrel doesn't pump and the ammo drum doesn't spin (unless you spin it yourself... it is just a 5mm peg). I'm sure there's a handful of G1 purists who had Ironfist as a kid and wish that Fisitron were more accurate to the original toy, but again we're talking about a character who had really no appearance in any Transformers fiction until Last Stand of the Wreckers. What's more, Last Stand of the Wreckers is one of the most popular stories that IDW published, so for the majority of Transformers fans who even know who Ironfist is in the first place the IDW version is the definitive version. End of the day, though, these are both two extremely D-list late-G1 characters (in Ironfist's case, so late that he was repacked unchanged for G2). Fans of the old Marvel comics might want the set for Carnivac, and IDW fans (like me) will enjoy Fisitron, but the majority can probably ignore this set. As for the other set, we open with Mayhem Attack Squad member Spinister. Now, the original Siege release was already in accurate G1 toy colors, and mostly accurate to his appearances in IDW comics (save for later when his head was colored light gray with a purple mask). This new version is pretty similar, save for the blues below the belt and on his mask being darker and, his rotor and hands swapped for a darker gray (almost black), and his arms switching from pink to blue. Near as I can tell, it's based on his Transformers Universe profile in the Marvel The Transformers #65, but throughout the late Marvel run he was colored fairly inconsistently. The G1 toy was a double Targetmaster, a gimmick that was omitted from the Siege figure. Hasbro is rectifying that now; aside from colors the only difference between this Spinister and the Siege one is that he comes with repaints of the Targetmaster buddies that came with Needlenose and Windsweeper. Spinister has a very cool transformation that uses just one of his legs to make the cockpit while tucking the other up underneath and using his feet to form the wings. If you missed him the first time, he's definitely a toy worth checking out. If you didn't miss him, though? I mean, I strongly prefer the original colors, and I'm not super into the Targetmaster gimmick in general. But even if you were gung-ho on making sure Spinister has his Targetmaster pals, well, Singe was released as a standalone Battlemaster during Siege, and Hairsplitter (renamed "Shrute") came with Siege Skywarp in Amazon-exclusive Decepticon Phantomstrike Squadron pack. So if it were Spinister and his guns alone I'd say (again, unless you missed the Siege release) that he'd be an even easier pass than Carnivac and Fisitron, except... ...his opponent is Topspin, a Diaclone repaint of Titans Return Topspin. Who, aside from the Diaclone deco, is unchanged from the original toy. But here's the thing... we all know that Topspin goes with Twin Twist. And there's definitely some of us who picked up the Diaclone deco of Twin Twist when Amazon released him in their earlier Wreckers collection. People who thought, "man, I really hope they do a Diaclone Topspin to go with him." Well, it's that dang monkey's paw... you can have your Diaclone Topspin, but you gotta pay double and take a Spinister you don't really want or need, too. It's a dang shame, too, because, yeah, he's got too many ball joints and lacks the ankles that have become standard in the post-Siege world, and yeah being a Titans Returns figure means he's a Headmaster now, but is still a pretty cool mold, so it's hard to say no to him. I liked the regular deco, but I also dig this Diaclone deco. Man... Whether you're talking about the original releases or the Diaclone decos, Topspin and Twin Twist just belong together as a pair. So, I'm forced to rule thusly: if you don't have Siege Spinister, you should get this set for Spinister. If you do have Spinister already, then it's up to Twin Twist. Did you get the Diaclone version of him? Well, then you're obligated to get this set for Topspin, whether you want Spinster or not. The only way I can tell you to pass on this set entirely is if you already have Spinster and you're passing on BOTH of the Diaclone Jumpstarters.

I'd say that's definitely the way to go. Not only could you mount it directly to a new mobo with more NVME slots, you could fill all the mobo's NVME slots and still stick the adapter into a free PCIe slot (which a future mobo will almost definitely have) and have even more NVME storage.

No official word yet. I've heard June 10th (which would be like a Transformers Tuesday, maybe with a livestream?), but I've also seen June 11th and June 16th as potential dates from Entertainment Earth's cryptic clues on the drop zone calendar. Soon as I know something more definite I'll let you guys know.

Yeah, the hip skirts are fine. It's supposed to be his black pelvis, but the flaps on the front move with the thigh, like 86 Optimus.

I'm getting the DK-59 kit and a KO SS86 Prime to make into Skybound Prime, but I'll note that if you're* fine with the pistol 86 Megatron comes with and don't really want/need the Optimus parts and Megatron arm DNA is also (pre) selling just the fusion cannon for about $6. (*The plural you, as in everyone reading this post, not you specifically @sh9000, who I expect is still in for the whole kit.)

Yeah, word is that Megatron's already reached port in the US. I don't think Hasbro leaked it, I think they were planning on officially revealing it on the 10th. It's just far enough along that regardless of whatever wave Hasbro was saving it for copies have made it out of the factory in a less-than-legal manner.

Aside from his fusion cannon and back cannon, he comes with the laser sword from the movie and a pistol that looks like his cartoon alt mode rather than the pistol he murdered Prime with. Both can be stored on his back in bot mode. Not sure where the official storage in tank mode is, but I'm sure it's there somewhere.

Oh, found these on reddit. EDIT: Technically Studio Series Widowmaker has also leaked, and she looks pretty decent for a Bayformer (she actually uses a lot of the car parts in her body, and the orange McLaren 12c alt mode is swish), but I don't think most of you care about Bayverse stuff.

Should be a Leader-class; dunno how much they go for in Japan, but in the States Prime (a Commander-class) cost as much as a Leader and a Voyager together. Back is clean, by the way. You do have some treads visible in his calves and heels, but nothing I can't live with. I might have to find a good gunmetal paint to repaint his shins, though. Transformation looks pretty interesting. The entirety of the treads fold inside his lower legs, and the hinges and stuff that make his arms into the turret wrap around inside his back.

Assuming this is real (and I have no reason to believe it's not), bot mode is looking pretty dang good. Fusion cannon's a little off (but DNA is making one for like $6). Color on his legs is a little off, too, but maybe it's just the photo. Tank mode is... well, sans turret, it's pretty decent. The turret looks less like an actual tank, though, and very much like arms folded up around a fusion cannon with his back cannon sticking out of the barrel. And you know what? That's good enough for me. I just want a robot that looks screen accurate; no super obvious treads, no big honkin' backpack. I don't really care how crappy the tank mode has to be to make that happen.

Can't you right-click the img file and select "mount"? That should open it in file explorer as if it were a drive, then you should be able to copy files from it to another actual drive.

I found this image, but i can't verify the veracity of it. Anyway... I think Scavenger and Mixmaster are pretty obvious in the Takara picture, but for those that weren't sure the other two should be Transformers One Starscream and Transformers One Elita-1.

Leader. I don't mind that he won't transform into a gun, as long as he has a gun-mode accessory for Starscream.

Yes please. For all the hype P5 got, P4 is still my favorite game in the series.

Oh man, he wasn't even that old. What a bummer. I never got into the Hulk's solo adventures, but I was a fan of his Star Trek: New Frontier series.

Sources tell me that Silverbolt arrived at port in the States in... I can't remember if it was late February or early March. Before the Trypticon reissue, in any case, which you might have noticed is in stock at both Pulse and Gamestop. I'm not saying that the issue is definitely tariffs, but it's definitely not a factory issue. Silverbolt left the factory, sailed across the ocean, and made it to the States. Whether they're now sitting in a container on a ship/at port that hasn't been unloaded or sitting in some Hasbro warehouse waiting for distribution I couldn't say, but the kink is definitely somewhere between arrival in the US and distribution to retailers.

Not bad. A little taller, but I have the DNA kit on my Menasor anyway. Here's hoping DNA does something for Superion. And that Hasbro actually releases Silverbolt in the States. Lots of people have him in hand overseas now, but Amazon moved my estimated delivery date from April to November.😒

Should run fine even on Switch. I have the graphics settings maxed and I'm still getting 60fps at 1080p on the 17w setting on my ROG Ally X. With the default settings, the game has a 60fps limit turned on. I'll try later with the frame limit off, on both the 12w and 17w settings (though, even at 25w, the Ally X lasts me just over 90 minutes, which is enough to get through my kid's dance classes). With the frame limit turned off and maxed at 1440p on my desktop I'm getting 400-600fps... my monitor is only 240hz.🤯

Bought. Great timing, too, I just finished AC Shadows on Monday and the Oblivion Remaster today.

Might have to pick that up. I've noticed that, despite having like eight different streaming services, they seem to be pushing original and more recent content (no matter how banal) over older quality content. I just checked, can't steam Knight Rider. And this is less than a week after I was looking for Battlestar Galactica and finishing that I couldn't stream it, either.

Mixmaster

I'm always up for more space Winnebagos.

So, yeah, way more powerful than the Switch 1, but after 8 years so is your phone (probably). The takeaway I was reading somewhere else was that there's a bigger gap between docked and handheld performance on the Switch 2 than the original. Which makes sense; the Switch was 720p handled and 1080p docked, the Switch 2 is 1080p handled and 4k docked. Going from 720 to 1080p is just over doubling the pixels, but going from 1080p to 4K is quadrupling.

A Gigil-Elgerzorne-Megatron combo. Instead of a trailer he could come with a ball that has a little Sivil-Starscream inside to sing "Power to the Dream" at.

It's nuts how last year it seemed like a struggle to find something to play but this year I've got Clair Obscure, Atomfall, and now Doom just waiting for me to finish AC Shadows and the Oblivion Remaster.