mikeszekely

Nope. I already think thought 24" figures were pushing the limits of practicality, both in terms of how much space they take up and in on unwieldy they are to try to transform and pose. Tell you what I do got, though... MS-04 Munitioner. Magic Square's MP-style take on Swindle. MMC's Swindle, though very good, struck me as a tad busy. He had kind of chunky legs with alt mode bits on his feet, gappy knees, and panels on his shins that simply aren't present on the animation model. And much like with their Brawl, Magic Square comes onto the scene with a smooth, clean figure that just nails the animation model. Seriously, they went to almost ridiculous lengths to get the cartoon look. MMC put faux wheels on their Swindle's shoulders, Magic Square put faux wheels on Munitioner's shoulders and on his legs- inside and outside, because that's how the animation model works. His smooth shins have a taper, but also the slight cutaway in front of the outer wheels because, again, that's what's on the animation model. He's got the purple hood chest like MMC, but also the smaller waist under it that the animation model has. Unique Toys' Swindle was one of their best Combaticons, but the extra greebles on his legs, the big fenders and real wheels on his shoulders, the dark biceps and wrist stripes, and the more muted colors speak of a time before everyone committed to going full cartoon. And Zeta's Swindle... was certainly a thing. So, aesthetically at least, I have to give the edge to Munitioner. Heck, the only thing I can find to complain about is his somewhat boring facial expression. Swindle needs a smirk. Oh, and would you look at that! Munitioner comes with an extra smirking face! He also comes with his arm cannon, his gun that's just a missile, and the bit you need to mount both to his alt mode. And if you were paying attention to what came with Heavy Gunner, you could probably guess that Munitioner was coming with the other combined mode foot. And just like with Heavy Gunner, Munitioner doesn't just look nice, he poses nice, too. Head is a hinged swivel, with downward tilt until his head touches his chest and upward tilt just short of 90 degrees. His shoulders swivel, with 90 degrees of lateral movement on the correct side of the swivel then almost 90 more on the other side of the swivel due to his transformation. Sadly, no butterfly joints, though. Biceps swivel, and his elbows bend over 90 degrees on a single hinge. His wrists swivel and can bend back, like Heavy Gunner's, but they're a tad smaller. As a result, the thumb is on a ball joint with one more hinged knuckle, and his index finger is hinged is separate from the others, hinged at the base and mid-knuckle but lacking the ability to splay like Heavy Gunner. The other three fingers are also hinged at the base and mid-knuckle, but they're molded together. His waist swivels, and he's got that double torso joint that gives him both a back bend and an ab crunch. His hips work exactly like Heavy Gunner's as well, giving him 90 degrees of backward and lateral movement but close to 120 degrees of forward range. His thighs swivel, and his double-jointed knees bend nearly 180 degrees. He has a very slight upward toe tilt, nothing down, and his ankles pivot 90 degrees. Once again, we have a small tab on the missile gun's handle that plugs into a slot in his palms, and once again it's a little on the small side and prone to popping loose. And just like Heavy Gunner's alt mode leftovers had a flip-out handle for him to hold it in bot mode, so goes the connector part for Munitioner's weapons. It doesn't really look much like a weapon, though, and I find myself wishing that there was literally anywhere else to stow it. As for his arm cannon, if you want it on the side of his arm so it doesn't get in the way of his elbows, there's tiny pegs that fit into the center of the fake wheels on his shoulders, much like MMC's Swindle. However, if you prefer the on-the-front look he often had in the cartoon (and on his control art), there's also a tab on it that fits into the front of his shoulders. Lastly, there's the alternate face. Swapping is easy, just tilt his head up so you can get under his chin and slide his face forward; it's just tabbed in. Pop the smirking face on by pushing the tab on the back into the slot on his head. In what I think is going to become a theme here Munitioner's transformation is a lot like Heavy Gunner's. You need to basically turn him inside out, as the real front wheels, fenders, and grill are inside is torso and need to trade places with his head and arms, and the process seems more complicated than it strictly needed to be. Once you have the top/front sorted, you again need to explode the legs into a variety of panels that end with the actual real wheels, sides, rear, and seat backs coming from inside his legs while his shins for the top of the rear and the outside edges of his legs forming the bottom. A bit of a tougher call than Heavy Gunner, I'd say. There are a few more details like marker lighst and what not on MMC's Swindle, but a few visible joints and more seams as well. Zeta gets immediately disqualified for having the wrong alt mode entirely, but I appreciate how well Unique Toys' has held up, with a bit more realistic details than Munitioner while also managing to be cleaner than MMC's. Then again, the space between his shins on the back of vehicle is actually on the animation model, and there's an argument to be had that the smooth sides are also more cartoon accurate. I do personally prefer a bit more realistic alt mode detail, though, so I'm a bit bummed by the lack of taillights. I can't help but note that amount of visible legs bits folded up but not quite concealed under the vehicle. Munitioner does have a steering wheel, but no shift knob or anything else in the interior. Well, there are the seat backs, but the seat cushions are just the tops of Munitioner's thighs. Yep, Munitioner's interior is mostly his butt. He rolls on his wheels. The connector clamps between his legs, then the handle of the missile folds in to reveal a little peg that fits into a small hole on one side of the connector, while a hole in the side of the arm cannon's barrel fits onto a peg on the opposite side. The connector can swivel like a turret, and the weapons can swivel on the connector to aim up/down. With no breakages this time! On the whole, I think the competition here is a bit more fierce than yesterday. I do still think that Munitioner pairs the best-looking robot with excellent articulation, but the transformation is a bit more tedious than Heavy Gunner's. I do prefer realistic alt modes, but there's a certain cleanliness to Heavy Gunner's super-Sunbow tank mode that Munitioner's visible leg kibble is missing. I'd still recommend him as the "best" Swindle, but the gap between him and MMC's Swindle is definitely smaller than the gap between Heavy Gunner and MMC's Brawl. Buy Munitioner to replace Unique Toys or Zeta, sure, but this isn't the figure that's going to sell you on upgrading from MMC.

Come to think of it, it's a bit sad that I've been playing this series for nearly 30 years and in that time "new" American planes have mostly been new variants of the F-15, F-16, and F/A-18.

You guys keep bringing up the animated movie, I keep tell you Street Fighter II V was the better animated product. Anyway, does the movie look good like The Godfather good? Heck no. But does it look it could be the same sort of dumb but fun movie as, say, Sudden Death.

Last I heard he's in the third 2026 wave, which would be fall, so probably not for awhile. Fingers crossed they shuffle him into wave 2 and move someone from wave 2 back so we can complete Bruticus by summer, but even then wave 1 isn't technically supposed to be out until February, so I don't expect preorders for wave 2 for another month or so.

I'd buy it, if it came out on PC. From my POV, 2-5, Zero, X, and Joint Assault remain stuck on PlayStation consoles.

I tried... I picked up a few releases, primarily from Magic Square. They do some really impressive designs, but ultimately couldn't justify going all in on a fourth scale (after MP, Generations, and Dr. Wu, that is). Needless to say, I was pretty excited when Magic Square released their first MP-style figure, a very excellent Optimus Prime. A bit less excited when they did their second and it was Optimus Prime again... I mean, I still bought it and it was still great, but I'd love for Magic Square to up-scale some of their designs for other characters. How fortunate for me, then, that Magic Square's third MP-style release is MS-03 Heavy Gunner, their take on Brawl. Of all their Combaticons, I thought MMC's Brawl was their best one. Going up against him first is a high hurdle for Heavy Gunner to clear. And, aesthetically, anyway... I think he made it. I mean, we can debate the merits of some realism and whether you should go hard on Sunbow or not. The objective fact of the matter is that Heavy Gunner is indeed closer to the animation. Yes, he's smoother because he doesn't have a lot of real details on him they way MMC's does, but also because he's just cleaner. His forearms don't have those broken panels, his abdomen doesn't have that big pin running through it... ...Magic Square was even careful to mimic the cartoon's color placement. The sides of his lower legs are gray, inside and out. There's no tank-colored bits on his shoulders or forearms. Honestly, the only thing I can criticize as not totally cartoon-accurate is that he's not quite as blocky as the animation model; the angles on his pelvis are a bit sharper, and there's a taper to his thighs that the cartoon lacks. I'm loathe to actually suggest that's a criticism, though, because I think overall Heavy Gunner presents dynamic, dare I say heroic proportions. He looks good even when he's just standing in a slight A-stance. Oh, and I should definitely mention the plastic. Magic Square has often been criticized for their nylon plastic. Yeah, it's a little flexible and very durable, but it's also light, doesn't take paint well, wears on joints, and has a particular texture. I think they got away with it for their Legends stuff, but MS-01 showed it maybe wasn't he best choice for larger figures. They did change their formula for MS-02, and while I can't say there was anything objectively bad about it it was definitely light and kind of "cheap" feeling. Heavy Gunner's plastic is definitely a bit lighter than something you might find on a Fans Toys or MMC figure, but it's definitely a step up from that they've been using and, for the most part, feels fine to me. For the most part.* For completeness, here he is with the other "MP" offerings. Zeta's still gets credit for being a fair representation of the toy, but obviously not the cartoon. Unique Toys' was good for the time, being one of the first takes on the character to do the flatter cartoon chest instead of folding the front of the tank over, but some color choices were the first hints of the more stylized characters UT ultimately ending up running with. Heavy Gunner comes with his gun, of course, and a big ol' foot for combined mode that we'll set aside for now. He also comes with the rear-mounted guns for his tank mode, and it's here that we run into our first issue.* See, I don't know if it's because their older plastics left them more wiggle room on their tolerances, but on the rear mounted guns the barrel on one side moved without issue, but the other didn't want to move at all. I pushed a little harder and the peg inside sheered right off. *sigh* I supposed I can glue it, but then that barrel will be permanently at whatever angle I glue it to. Broken before I even posed him. Well, at least Heavy Gunner himself isn't broken, and I can pose him. And he's good at posing, too! His head's on a hinged swivel, so no sideways tilt, but he can look down until his chin touches his chest and he can look almost 90 degrees straight up. His shoulders swivel on friction joints and move nearly 90 degrees laterally on ratchets. Plus, mostly due to his transformation, he's got butterfly hinges that shift his shoulders roughly 45 degrees forward or backward. His biceps swivel, and his elbows bend a little over 90 degrees on a single hinge. His wrists swivel, plus it can bend back into a "stop" pose. Which goes really well with his individually-articulated fingers, each one on a ball joint at the base for bending, splaying, and swiveling (in the case of the thumb), plus one additional pinned knuckle hinge. His waist swivels, and like both of MS's Optimus figures the torso has a double hinge in it for back bends and ab crunches. His hips actually have two points of rotation, one where the joint actually swivels and one which lowers the point of swivel, giving him over 90 degrees of forward bend, but only about 60 degrees backward due to his backpack getting in the way. Scary strong ratchets have me not wanting to push the lateral movement beyond 90 degrees. His thighs swivel. His knees are double-jointed and combined bend nearly 180 degrees. Sadly no up/down tilt on his feet, but his ankles pivot 90 degrees. Overall he's not quite as articulated as MS-02 was, but certainly above average overall. Heavy Gunner's pistol has a small tab on the handle that plugs into a slot on either palm. It works, but the tab is pretty small so it doesn't take much for it to come loose. Even when it's not tabbed in, his fingers do a good job of holding it in place. When it comes to the rear-mounted guns, seems like it's easiest for most companies to just ignore them. MMC included them, but aside from a rather forced shoulder cannon mode they didn't really do anything but sit off to the side in bot mode. Magic Square decided to put a fold out handle on them so Heavy Gunner could use them as another handheld weapon. Better than nothing, I guess. Transformation is definitely a process. Is the guy designing stuff for Magic Square these days a former designer at Unique Toys? I can't help but think of figures like their Age of Extinction Lockdown and Optimus, who kind of turned inside out. I kid you not, the turret, the square part with the two round circles that the turret sits on (part of his back), some of the treads, his heels, and his shins are the only bits of the tank that would be visible in robot mode. The front of the tank was inside his torso, and the entire green/brown parts over the treads were inside his legs. To be clear, I don't think it's a difficult transformation, especially once you know what you're doing, but it can be a bit fiddly when the entire leg from the knee down is exploded open, and it's not exactly intuitive. There's a lot of flaps that will need to flip, and sometimes other flaps will be in your way. Oh, and the knees must be in the exact right position, or things won't line up proper. And, again for good measure, how Heavy Gunner stacks up with Zeta and Unique Toys. Subjectively, I'm going to say that I do think MMC's Brawl wins the alt mode. It's got enough realistic detail for me to say, "yeah, that looks like a Leopard I." Objectively, Heavy Gunner is more cartoon-accurate. Brawl's shin vents are clearly present on the rear, as is the rear fuel drum that I don't think you'd see on an actual Leopard but was present on the animation model. The two trios of smoke grenade launchers are on the front of the turret, like the cartoon, and he's got the little slit for the driver to see out of next to the spike on the animation that I assume was supposed to be a gun port. Really, the only thing I can criticize is that he's got two spotlights where the animation model I believe only had one, but they're just pegged in and you could pull the extra off anyway. Heavy Gunner rolls out wheels under his treads. His turret can spin, and the main barrel can be raised and lowered. Fold the handle in, and you can plug his gun into the top of the turret. The double-barreled gun plugs into the back, and in theory you can raise and lower the barrels. In theory.😒 Accessory breakage aside, I'm quite pleased with Heavy Gunner. I think he's a fantastic robot- excellent articulation, excellent cartoon accuracy. Subjectively, I like him better than MMC's. Transformation is a bit of a bear until you learn it; frankly, I hope their Legends version wasn't this complicated because I don't know if I deal with all the flaps at a much smaller scale. Again, I do prefer MMC's more realistic tank mode, but I have to acknowledge that Heavy Gunner is far more cartoon-accurate in alt mode. I think subjective preferences do matter a lot; if you have MMC's set and you love it, then I'm not necessarily saying you should rush out to replace it. But Heavy Gunner is objectively an extremely good figure, and I'm not not saying you should rush out to replace MMC's, either.

Interesting... we're talking about Bruticus again. Wonder if we can make that a theme (foreshadowing)? I mean, Hasbro's Brawl and Blast Off should be here pretty soon... But yeah, I have to original Iron Factory version. He's been chilling next to the clock on my desk for years (and occasionally comes out when I need to re-create that one animation error where Bruticus is a normal-sized dude grouped with the individual Combaticons). A bit stylized, and I'm not really into Legends, but I'm still glad I have him.

Noice. I mean, I think I'd prefer an HD remaster collection (for PC) of the original PS2 games, since they were the highlight of the series for me, but 7 was still a lot better than 6 and Assault Horizon. As long as it's at least as it's set in Strangereal and at least as good as 7, I'm in.

But there's a 12 right there on the floor before the door to Rock's room opens! Well, I can tell two things from the trailer: it looks like the same style as Mega Man 11, and I'm not going to be playing it any time soon.😔 Might be my most-anticipated announcement of the night. Too bad I'll probably be playing Mega Man sooner than this. Also, no offense at all to you guys posting trailers, but I find it interesting when you guys have trailers for stuff I couldn't care less about, like Resident Evil Requiem and yet another Tomb Raider reboot, then I go and see what all was announced and can't believe you guys aren't posting trailers for the sequel to Control. Also, hey, Larian's working on a new Divinity game and someone else is working on a D&D game that's a 3P action game instead of, y'know, D&D. So, the Original Sin games were good, so I'm not mad a Larian for doing a new Divinity. And Warlock is my favorite D&D class (I hope Kaatri takes frequent breaks for the authentic Warlock experience), so I'm mildly curious to see what that's all about. But I still wish that Larian's new project and the new D&D game were actually the same thing, and it was Baldur's Gate 4.

Last one (apparently for the year), and sorry, it's not Blast Off. It's Age of the Primes Deluxe-class Quickstrike. Seems like Hasbro is really committed to getting at least all the Beast Wars characters that actually appeared in the cartoon out. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think we're down to Depth Charge, Rampage, and Dinobot II, then maybe the Transmetal versions of Cheetor, Rattrap, Tarantulas, Blackarachnia, Megatron, and Primal. Anywho, Quickstrike. Beast Wars are from an era where the CGI was modeled after the toys a bit more closely than G1 was, and near as I can tell Quickstrike's original toy was already pretty dang close to the cartoon. Improved accuracy comes largely from replacing the original toy's greens and translucent golds with more cartoony teals and solid golds. The flip side of making a toy that's accurate to a cartoon that was accurate to an older toy is that the worst traits (subjectively, in my opinion) get carried over. I mean, one arm is a cobra (ok, that's kind of badass), but the other is a clamp made of his alt mode legs. And, yeah, that's accurate to the cartoon, and yeah, now BW fans wouldn't have it any other way... but it doesn't change the fact that I kind of hated designs like this the first time, back in the '90s. And then there's his accessories... or total lack thereof. Again, this is accurate to the original toy. And, if I remember right, to the cartoon, because how are you supposed to hold a weapon with a cobra for one hand and bug legs for the other? Quickstrike's head is on a ball joint, but aside from swiveling and having some upward tilt the shape doesn't lend itself to much articulation. Both of his shoulders swivel and can move over 90 degrees laterally. His right arm has a series of five ball joints, each of which provides a swivel and a 90 degree bend, plus his cobra mouth can open. His left arm has a bicep swivel above his elbow, which bends 90 degrees forward or backward. Below the elbow is a sort of wrist swivel, then hinges where his "fingers" connect allow him to open and close his hand. His waist swivels, just mind the alt mode head on his back. His hips can go forward, backward, and laterally 90 degrees. His thighs swivel, and his knees bend 90 degrees. The fronts of his feet and his heels can fold down, but not up, and he's got about 75 degrees of ankle pivot. Although he doesn't come with accessories, there's one of those little pegs in the cobra's mouth that's compatible with Siege effect parts. Centered in between his bug legs is a 5mm port you can perhaps find a use for. There are additional 5mm ports under his feet and one on his back. I didn't have the original toy, but I imagine the transformation is probably similar. His shoulder pads kind of open up, and a panel on his chest opens for clearance. Then, the front of his torso opens about halfway, his his head folds down into the chest, and the panel closes. His right arm swings out so that the shoulder joint lines up with the waist cutout, then the front of the torso along with the arm swing the rest of the way up, tabbing into the panel that was behind his head. The shoulder pads lock into the sides of the torso you just swung up. His left arm shifts at the shoulder so that his bicep will tab in along the inside of his back, with his elbow landing right at his waist. If you have it right, the longest bug legs will be pointing toward the tail, and hooks on the "front" hips will grab into a slot on his waist. It's pretty much just cleanup after that... use the double hinge on the alt mode head to swing it forward and tab it into his butt, spread his hips, swivel his thighs, and fold down his feet and heels to make his legs into claws, and arrange the ball joints of his cobra arm into something like a scorpion tail. I think Fuzors was one of the weirder gimmicks in the Beast Wars line, and I'd say I'm not generally a fan. I mean, wouldn't Buzzclaw have been cool enough to be just a praying mantis? Do we have to throw lizard in there? What's the orca in Torca bringing to the table? But I have to admit, the Fuzor thing does kind of work for Quickstrike. He's kind of like if Scorpnok were a cowboy and swapped his boring ol' stingy tail for a freaking cobra. I respect that. Once again, we have no accessories, but we do have a very articulated cobra tail with an opening mouth that has a port for blast effects. His scorpion arms benefit from all the articulation of his robot hands and feet. He's still got a 5mm port on his back if you want to jam a Micromaster or a chunk of Brunt on him or something, plus the 5mm ports under his feet are now inside his claws. I'll be honest, if I'm feeling a little apathetic about Quickstrike it's probably because of who he his... a C-list character from a cartoon I didn't watch until I was an adult made to sell a toy line I didn't collect who's design was constrained by the limitations of the era. But caring about Beast Wars less than G1 and preferring designs that don't use their alt mode kibble for hands are the sorts of subjective criteria that might make you not care about a figure no matter how good or bad it is. Objectively, I think Hasbro did a good job with this figure. The lack of accessories, no matter how appropriate, is a bit of a bummer, but the toy still has lots of articulation and plenty of show accuracy in both modes. If you grew up a bit later than I did and Beast Wars is your jam, then Quickstrike's actually a good figure that's sure to please.

😆 I'm far from a pro, but I do what I can with a decent smartphone camera, some cheap Walmart LED lamps, and MS Paint.

At time of writing we're down to the last three weeks of 2025, but don't tell Hasbro. Yesterday's Studio Series Barricade is supposed to be in the first wave of 2026 Studio Series releases. As for the rest of the wave... who knows? It looks like just Barricade for now. But Studio Series isn't the only line with an early release. I've also got two of the Deluxes in the first 2026 wave of Age of the Primes... but probably not the two you wanted. First up, we have Quintus Prime. In my mind, the Thirteen could be divided into two groups. The first group is comprised of characters that appeared in fiction first (or at least before the mythology was fully fleshed out), then Hasbro ID'ed them as part of the Thirteen. These tend to be the more recognizable ones, like Alpha Trion and Vector Prime. Once Hasbro compiled that list and came up short of 13, the rest were created to pad the number. They're the less well-known (and perhaps more forgettable) members. Quintus is part of that second group, but due to his role in Transformers Earthspark, perhaps a bit more well-known than, say, Amalgamous Prime. AOTP Quintus doesn't borrow much from the Earthspark design, though. In fact, with his four eyes, elaborate head crest, and mass of tentacles and ribbons from the waist down, he's almost entirely the Quintus seen in The Covenant of Primus. That said, there are some differences that I'll charitably call Earthspark-based instead of budget-cutting. The most obvious is that he's got just two arms instead of six. As a sort of compromise he's got two gray tentacles coming out of his sides. The other thing that might be Earthspark-inspired is that he's got actual legs. See, rather than many independent tentacles he's got five groups of soft plastic that are, more or less, hip skirts. There's a big one in the back, one on each side, and two in the front. Under the tentacle skirt, though, he's got a pair of translucent green legs that end in four-toed feet (two in the front, two in the back, not four in a line like "normal"). Quintus comes with his legendary artifact, the Emberstone. The Emberstone is yellow-green here instead of blue, but it does appear to have the same shape as the Emberstone's appearance in Earthspark. This is the only accessory that Quintus gets. Quitnus' head is on a ball joint with plenty of up/down/sideways tilt, but his collar limits his swivel. His shoulders swivel and move laterally 90 degrees inside the shoulder pads, plus the shoulder pads have hinges for transformation that get you a little more than 45 degrees of extra lateral range. His biceps swivel, his elbows bend 90 degrees, and his wrists swivel. His dark tentacles can swivel where they're attached, with hinges that have 180 degrees of range, but no additional articulation along their length. His waist swivels. The tentacle skirts hinge outward a little over 90 degrees, giving his hips the freedom to move forward, backward, or laterally 90 degrees. His thighs swivel, and his knees bend 90 degrees. His feet don't really tilt up, but they do tilt down quite a bit and his ankles can pivot over 90 degrees. Quintus' hands are the usual 5mm ports, and the Emberstone has a 5mm peg on the bottom. The gray tentacles also have curls at the ends that make 5mm ports equally-capable of holding 5mm accessories. There's an additional 5mm port on his back, and under each of his feet. The Emberstone also has storage. Open the door on his back and you'll find a 5mm hole that goes right through his chest. Plug the Emberstone in, close him up, and the peg's rounded end becomes an orb in his chest. I expect that once you put it there, you're likely to leave it there. Quintus' transformation looks about as basic as it gets. The kibble on the backs of his forearms covers his hands, and his arms fold up over his head. But there's actually a bit more to it! His waist swivels, and flaps on his calves fold over the backs of his thighs, giving his tentacles a place to lock in. Then his shins kind of combiner wars up partially over the front of his thighs, again giving his tentacles a place to lock into. It's still super basic, but given that Amalgamous was the only one of the Thirteen that was meant to have an alt mode turning the tentacled Covenant design and turning it into a squid-like spaceship is the best we could hope for, I guess. Note that the leg transformation can be done for robot mode as well; it makes his toes look like the ends of more tentacles, creating the illusion that he doesn't actually have legs. I don't have a ton to say about the the spaceship mode. The skirts on his sides are the same part, not mirrored, so they kind of don't line up the same. The configuration pictured uses tiny pegs on the "elbows" of the gray tentacles to plug into spots on his chest, propping the front of the spaceship up like landing gear. The instructions do show that you can fold the tentacles back to lie among the translucent green ones. This would presumably be more of an in-flight look, but the tentacles do not lock into that position, they just lie there. Aside from moving the tentacles the spaceship doesn't do much. The door on his back opens like a cockpit now, and you can leave the Emberstone installed inside. That said, there is a 5mm port on top of the cockpit door, so if you want the Emberstone to ride on top that's an option. I'm not going to beat around the bush... Quintus is definitely the weakest of the Thirteen released so far. In fairness to Hasbro, the robot's design doesn't doesn't lend itself well to transforming into an alt mode, so maybe I can forgive the simplistic transformation and half-hearted spaceship mode. The lack of accessories, too, as even in the Covenant he's not know for any weapons or anything. I do wish instead of largely static tentacles they'd given him his actual extra four arms, though. As a one-off, standalone sort of figure I don't think Quintus is bad, but nor is he very compelling. If, like me, you're collecting the Thirteen then he fills a slot with a mostly Covenant-accurate design, and I'm not sure what more you could want or need there.

Despite collecting the Studio Series figures since the line's inception, I'm actually not a huge fan of the films. I mean, the first one was pretty good, but they went downhill fast as each the writers seemed to treat continuity, their audience, and even basic science with increasing contempt with each sequel. A particular sore spot was the character designs, as it often seemed like they were pulling Transformers names out of a hat and slapping them on random robots that looked and acted less like their namesakes and more like someone ran a car through a shredder, arranged the output into something vaguely humanoid, and made the resulting mess angry. All that said, I have gone on record as saying that the Bayverse gave use two good things; Blackout and Barricade, two characters who today are arguably more definitive than their original G1 Mircromasters. And while Studio Series gave us the '07 versions pretty quickly, I wasn't going to be satisfied until we also got a version from The Last Knight. And guess what we finally got? A Studio Series Deluxe-class The Last Knight Barricade! Well... my big want for a new SS version over the original TLK toy was for it to be more movie accurate. But with the ever-constrained budget allowances that go into Deluxe-class figures, it's kind of a mixed bag. The new head is definitely more screen accurate (as the original was based on concept art, not the final CGI model), with blue outer eyes, more silver on his face, and the light on his right temple. He's missing some silver on top of his head, though. More effort was spent in transforming the chest, so the push bar folds away this time and you can see his Decepticon emblem on his badge... but there's no side of the chain that holds the badge around his neck. There's a hint of molded handcuffs on his crotch, but his pelvis is otherwise an indistinct lump. The molded details are more accurate on his forearms than the original, but the lack of a darker gunmetal in that mechanical detail hurts. It's a bit worse for his biceps; at least his hands are forearms are simply missing an accent color. His biceps should also be blue with gunmetal accents. His legs are a mixed bag. The colors are sort of correct, with blue hips and silver/gray mechanical bits, but some of his thighs and knees should be white. His feet, while correctly blue (but again missing some silver and gold details), look like he's standing on blocks of kibble. Which he essentially is! The original toy had feet shaped more like the CGI model's. I'll cut SS Barricade a little slack on his back. Like the majority of designs from this movie, the CGI had a very detailed back that fully handwaved the transformation and gave no thought to how it was supposed to work on a $20 (now $30) toy. So, no, having the bulk of the roof isn't accurate, but the new toy does compact it down a bit better, and the angled light bar is kind of accurate. Also worth pointing out that rear of the car, specifically the taillights and exhausts, turning into his calves is also CGI accurate. Some details missing from the original toy, like the white panels with "POLICE" on his biceps, are still missing. Disappointingly, the new toy is missing the knuckle dusters molded into the original toy's fists. Barricade might not have enough paint, but they certainly didn't skimp on accessories. He comes with a black part, two pieces that make up his arm cannon, and a pair of pistols. I'll confess that I'm a tad disappointed that he didn't come with a nightstick like the original toy, but to be fair the nightstick was from Barricade's original concept art, and was never seen in the film. Barricade's head is on a ball joint that can tilt up a little, not much down, and has a slight sideways tilt in addition to swiveling. His shoulders are ball joints that swivel and move laterally about 90 degrees. His elbows are also ball joints, giving him 90 degrees of bend and pulling double-duty for bicep swivels. No wrist swivels, but he does have waist swivel. His hips are ball joints that can go 90 degrees forward/backward and about 60 degrees laterally. His thighs swivel where the gray plastic meets the silver-painted blue. He has multiple knee joints; it seems like they were trying to give him a digitigrade stance like the '07-DOTM Barricade, even though he wasn't really digitigrade in TLK. The uppermost joint bends about 45 degrees either way. The lower joint bends a click forward, but not at all in the "normal" knee direction. At the top of the lower gray part is his ankle, which bends upward and can pivot 90 degrees, plus he's got an ankle swivel at the bottom. Barricade can hold his pistols in either hand. The pistols also have tabs on the side that allow you to plug them into his hips for storage. Meanwhile, the black part (which is missing some color) plugs into a slot that's only on his right arm. That bit is definitely on his right arm on the CGI model; I can't tell if it's supposed to be on his left arm as well or not, because his left arm always has the cannon in the film. The cannon installs by taking one part and plugging it into a tab that only exists under his left arm. The other half wraps over the top of his forearm and plugs into the bottom half. Now, there's two things bugging me here... one, the cannons block his left fist, so he can't hold a pistol in that hand unless you put the cannons somewhere else. But there's no alternate storage for them that I can see. Then, two, there's a little tab at the base of just that one pistol. I thought maybe it's so you could plug it in somewhere else, like maybe make it a shoulder-mounted weapon or something, but nope. The tab seems to serve no purpose at all. Transformation is similar to, but a bit more complex, than the original toy. The chest still has to come up over his head, but there's additional steps involved in folding the push bar out and shifting the corners of the bumper up. His legs still scrunch up to make the rear of the car, but his waist swivels and the scrunching is a bit more convoluted as it's now the whole rear, including the rear spoiler and window. His arms still kind of tuck in, but you don't have to flip them around first. Then front windshield and a strip across the hood are separate from the backpack and go into place first, then the doors unfold and the backpack slides down to lock everything together. As a bit of a car nut, the licensed alt mode on the new SS figure is a major step up from the "legally distinct" TLK toy. I'm honesty a bit impressed with how accurate some of the details are. White paint on the sides doesn't come all the way down to the trim? Accurate. Looks like the corners of the front bumper are missing? Accurate. Strakes on the spoiler? Accurate. Gaps cut into the rear under the taillights? Accurate. Again, the big letdown seems to be that they ran out of paint. On the nose there's some silver in the headlights and four squares on the push bar, but the silver fog lights are left black, and the red and blue lights on the push bar are on painted. The marker lights behind the rear tires are unpainted. And on the rear there's red on the taillights and some black around them, but none on the rear diffuser. Other little details are missing. We've got the white on the doors and roof, and we've got the big "867" on the roof and "POLICE" on the doors, sure. But there's no "867" on the front corners or the bottoms of the doors. There's no "911" on the sides under the spotlights, or "14" on the spoiler. There's no "To punish and enslave" over the left rear wheel, and no "Keep calm and Hail Megatron" over the right rear wheel. As far as accessory storage goes, first we take the black arm part and plug it into the rear window. The halves of the arm cannon can then plug into it, one using a slot to fit onto a tab on the black part, the other using a tab to fit into a slot on the black part. The pistols use the same tabs they used for plugging into his hips, they just plug into cutouts above and slightly behind the rear wheels. Barricade is very much a mixed bag. I mean, yes, he's got a number of elements that make him the more accurate figure, especially in alt mode, than the original TLK toy. I'd go so far as to say he's got better articulation than that toy, too. But, compared to SS86/WfC/Legacy/AotP his articulation is still a bit limited, and the lack of paint is doing him no favors. This is still not the Barricade I'd hoped for... maybe I need someone like Unique Toys to work their black magic on an MP-style toy? I mean, ball joints, more limited articulation, and a lack of paint is pretty par for the course for Bayverse designs in Studio Series. I'd say get him if you're a fan of the character, or you're trying to complete the film's cast. Otherwise you can probably skip him.

Yeah... I can't comment on it (and didn't review it), but that's because I was so disinterested that I never bothered with it. I do have the TFOne Prime/Megatron kit on order at TCP, but they've been getting their DNA stuff in WAY later than everyone else for some reason. I can't be too bothered by it, though, because I usually have to wait for a few of them to pile up to get free shipping anyway. I could order from ShowZ or something (like I do for most of my stuff), but (at least in the pre-tariff days) that was unusually the more expensive way to get DNA stuff. But yeah, in addition to the TFone kit, I have the kits for Godzilla Megatron, Prima, Vector Prime, and Bonecrusher/Scrapper on order. I *might* order the kit for Long Haul/Hook, since it gives Long Haul a waist swivel, but I'm not interested in moving around the back kibble in combined mode. Likewise, I'm thinking about getting the Devastator kit for the forearm filler, Hook gap filler, articulated hands, etc, but I'm not really sure I want the shoulder bits.

Never heard of Power Spec, but that's like $200 less than I spent for half the hard drive and half the RAM on a Asus G7 earlier this year.🤔

Or Swindle and Brawl need to be entirely shin and Bruticus needs some proper feet under them.

I got 'em there. Can only find Sideways on Amazon, though. Edit: found 'em.

Confirming pre-orders for 1:00pm EST/10:00am PST.

The Hasbro panel was for all their brands, so the Transformers part was real short. They showed off the leaked Sideways and Onslaught. Nate said someone about making sure Bruticus has black hands- until I hear differently I assume he actually means Onslaught, since gray is already correct for Bruticus, but I pointed out yesterday that green is wrong for Onslaught. Yes, pre-orders for those two open tomorrow, still confirming the time. The only other thing they mentioned is a brief glimpse at Swindle. Sorry for the poor quality. Bot looks fine, not loving the black winch. Jeep is a little long. The trailer is a reference to an episode; I'm hoping the guns mount without it. The arm cannon and trailer will combine to form Bruticus' gun. I don't think preorders for Swindle will be tomorrow, as he's scheduled for the third wave right now.

I mean, if the bubble bursts the companies that invested the most heavily will lose out big time. And I'd say that's exactly what keeps Nvidia from killing GeForce... yeah, it's peanuts compared to their datacenter business, but last quarter those peanuts were still around $5 billion. That's about half of AMD's ENTIRE revenue from the same quarter. Sure, it's not going to make Jensen Huang a trillionaire, but it's not bad for a fall back. Or, for that matter, money you'd want to leave on the table for your rivals even if the AI bubble doesn't burst. Because, yeah, the numbers say gaming is a small part of Nvidia's business now, but it's also relative to how gargantuan Nvidia has become overall, but consumer GPUs still seem like a pretty big market. So why, then, is Micron ditching consumer products? I'd say they simply don't have the resources that Nvidia does in the first place, and those resources are going to be even tighter with the NAND shortage. For the immediate future, data center customers simply can and will pay more than they could get selling RAM to consumers. Data center demand has Micron's revenue up almost 50% of the same quarter last year. It's a bet that, at least in the short run, the AI bubble isn't going to burst. I guess the question, then, is whether or not AI is really a bubble. In a lot of ways it does sort of feel like companies are shoving AI onto a market that really doesn't want it. Anecdotally, I know plenty of people who are just annoyed whenever Microsoft/Google/etc tries to shove some new AI feature nobody asked for into Windows/Android/web apps/etc, nobody seems to like those AI summaries that appear ahead of your search results, and end users seem mad as heck when companies try to use AI-generated content in place of human-created work in anime and videogames. But, honestly, no, I think things will level off eventually but this bubble's not going anywhere. Websites and social media are already churning out AI-generated crap because it costs them next to nothing to create and it brings in the clicks. Nexon says we should assume every game developer is using AI, and Tim Sweeny says Valve is dumb for making creators label their games if they us AI content. Companies are going to continue to force AI on us, because the promise of computers that will do stuff faster and cheaper than humans is just too alluring to them. Yes, but realistically cloud-based setups are all like 70% of the population needs anymore. My wife barely uses her laptop anymore, and then only because she finds it easier to work with spreadsheets, but everything else she does in Safari on her iPhone. My dad would be fine with a Chromebook were it not for the fact that he has a huge locally-stored music library that he still manages with iTunes for Windows for some reason. It's mostly creatives, enthusiasts, and gamers who are going to suffer from rising costs and limited supply. As someone who falls into two of those categories, believe me, I sympathize.

Not sure, but CCXP25 starts tomorrow. The Transformers team is there and will have a panel at 3:00pm EST. I expect we'll hear more about Onslaught (and a few other recent leaks) then, and if there are going to be preorders this week we'll get tipped off then. EDIT: BTW, I'll have more to say in the near future. Probably not before the holidays, though.

I was thinking Leprechaun, but that works too. Just replace "They're always after me Lucky Charms" with "Diggy Diggy Hole".

Oof. I'll let Onslaught's feet have a pass. They're ugly, but kind of becoming a standard for Hasbro; they're basically the same as Silverbolt's. And the truck mode looks pretty good. But this is a Commander-class toy. At that price, they should be able to afford enough plastic colors to make his thighs and hands black instead of sticking them on the same runner as the green/brown parts. And don't get me started on Bruticus. He's got terrible proportions that look like half his legs are missing. It's funny that after buying a DNA upgrade for Menasor I was debating if I think such upgrades are necessary for Superion and Devastator, but I'm already praying for DNA to fix Hasbro's mess on Bruticus. Also, I strongly prefer Bruticus to have a silver chest plate and blue thighs. I'm not getting that, because Hasbro wants to go Sunbow. OK... then why doesn't Blast Off connect via the top of the shuttle, as is cartoon-accurate? It's like Hasbro figured out the frame system works, then made a one-size-fits-all design that clearly doesn't work for Bruticus.

Despite not being nearly 60 years old like Twin Mill, Bone Shaker, first released in 2006, seems to be nearly as iconic. It also had a life-sized working version commissioned, and has appeared in several Forza games. And now it's a Transformer. Bone Shaker is kind of like the opposite of Twin Mill. Yesterday I praised Twin Mill for blending in with other Deluxe carbots due to his somewhat typical design and lack of overly Hot Wheels-esque elements. Bone Shaker's giant skull chest is instantly recognizable to Hot Wheels fans, though, and the bot it's attached to clearly has no interest in blending in. And yet, it totally works. Combined with his red eyes and face that managed to look angry even with a mask, Bone Shaker is a bot that oozes attitude. But not in a "I'm something else being shoehorned into Transformers way," like the pizza van from Stranger Things or a football helmet. More like in a Lobo or Deadpool way, like you stuck him in a comic book with the regular cast and he gave off so much main character energy you had to give him his own series. That attitude does come with a few drawbacks. He's not as clean as Twin Mill. The wheels aren't really his shoulder pads, they short of hover above his bare shoulders, with flaps of kibble tucked half-heartedly behind them. A windshield that doesn't fold at all sticks off his back. And his feet kind of aren't really feet. Like the front of his "foot" is actually part of his shin and doesn't move at all, while the flat bottom does move but is kind of just a flap. Bone Shaker's sole accessory is this... I guess mace. There's something like a skull and crossbones on it, but instead of a skull it's an Autobot badge. The packaging does suggest Bone Shaker's supposed to be an Autobot, but he gives me major Decepticon vibes. I'm kind of glad this is the only Autobot badge on the entire figure; rather than accept him as another Autobot, I'll imagine him as a Decepticon rival for Twin Mill. Bone Shaker's head is a ball joint, with a swivel and minimal down or sideways tilt, but he can look nearly 90 degrees straight up. The wheels over his shoulders are hinged so you can adjust them as needed to allow his shoulders to swivel and move just about 90 degrees laterally. His biceps swivel, his elbows bend 90 degrees, but he doesn't have wrist swivels. He does have a waist swivel, though, and his hips can go forward, backward, and laterally 90 degrees. His thighs swivel, and his knees bend nearly 180 degrees. The design of his feet don't really allow for up/down tilt, but the flat part that he actually stands on is hinged gives him about 90 degrees of ankle pivot. Bone Shaker can hold his mace in either hand. There doesn't seem to be any storage for it. Transforming Bone Shaker is relatively simple, and unlike Twin Mill doesn't require partsforming. Fold the skull on his chest open. That will open a gap that will allow you to rock the front of his torso up over his head. Don't close the skull yet, though! You need to open to fold the flaps with his shoulders attached down, tucking his shoulders together in the space his chest just vacated such that his elbows are bend 90 degrees with his hands tucked in just above his waist. Now you can close the skull, as well as fold the front wheels down and tuck the exhaust pipes into place. As for the rear of the vehicles, his legs tab together and fold over, Micromaster-style, but that's oversimplifying things a bit. You need to take his shins and hinge them out and away, giving you the clearance you need to fold his feet flaps around to make the seats. Once the legs are actually in place, the shins swing down to fill in the rear of the car. Bone Shaker has been released in a lot of decos over the years, and I'm not into Hot Wheels enough to say if what we've got here is accurate to any of them. Suffice to say that the flames-on-black works for him, though. And the shape of the car- exposed V8 on the nose, curling exhausts sticking out the sides, the big skull nose clutching the headlights, the open roof, and what I assume is a fuel tank in the back is all accurate to the 1:64 car regardless of the deco. I think Bone Shaker's Hot Wheels origin is more obvious than Twin Mill's and it's hardly a disguise, but he's still not totally out-of-place as a Transformer. G2 Laser Rods, anyone? There is the bit of Hot Wheels branding on the hood, but again, no faction symbols. The instructions fail to mention it, but there's a tiny tab at the bottom of the mace. This tab fits into a notch between the seats in his cabin, allowing in to store it in vehicle mode. Is it supposed to be a shifter? Bright red, smooth ball of the mace does sort of seem like it, but the scale of it vs the car is way off. I guess it's better than nothing, but why not just give him a gun that could tab into the slots on his rear? Bone Shaker is, in my opinion, another hit. Sure, he's got a bit more kibble, but he makes up for that with sheer charisma. He's got a solid transformation and a great alt mode; there's not a lot to complain about here. I'd love to see Hasbro and Mattel continue this collab, as it makes a lot of sense for both companies. And, fortunately, it sounds like I'm going to get my wish, as I know of at least three more in the works.