mikeszekely

Life's been a bit hectic, but I've got our third new Legacy Evolution figure after Shadow Striker and Core Snarl. This one is Voyager-class Trashmaster. My initial impression out of the gate was a bit underwhelmed. He's pretty short for a Voyager, roughly around the height of a Seeker or slightly taller than the Deluxe-class Siege or Earthrise Vanettes. His colors are a bit muted, too. I mean, sure, the Junkion in general are a lot of browns, grays, and orangy-reds, but I can't help but notice there's a lot of molded detail that's just the color of the part it was molded onto that was actually colored on Mark Maher's concept art, like big silver pistons on his shins, red ears, and red on his feet. Hasbro wasn't just skimping on size and paint, but plastic as well. You can't really see because his backpack is covering it, but his entire midsection is hollow. Look around that dangling hunk of kibble and the backs of his thighs are hollow, too, as is the back of his head. Weirdly, it's the front of his hands that are hollow. Most of that hollowness doesn't really bother me as much as the lazy kibble flap, though. To be fair, it does have a purpose, but when you see what it is you'll likely still wonder why they couldn't have folded it away better. If I had to guess, I'd reckon that a lot of Trashmaster's budget is his accessories. You've got a big claw, but you also have some hydraulic arms and two parts that look like the front end of a truck. Trashmaster's head swivels fine, but it has very minimal tilt. His shoulders rotate and move laterally a little over 90 degrees. His biceps swivel, and his elbows bend about 120 degrees. His wrists and waist swivel. His hips move 90 degrees forward and laterally, but his butt kibble means he can only realistically get about 45 degrees backward. His thighs swivel, and his knees bend 90 degrees. His feet have excellent up/down tilts, and his ankles pivot about 45 degrees. Trashmaster can hold the claw in either hand. His instructions indicate that the hydraulic arms should plug into his hip skirts, where they just get in the way, and the truck nose parts tab together then plug into the kibble flap on his butt, making it even bigger and more obnoxious. Well, at least the hydraulic arms and truck nose do not have to be removed for transformation. As far as ports go, Trashmaster has one on the back of each shoulder, two on the back of each forearm, one on the side of each forearm, two on his backpack, two on his butt kibble (that are mostly likely occupied by the truck nose), one on each hip skirt (that are probably being used by the hydraulic arms, but the arms also have a 5mm port each, so it's a wash), on the outside of each leg between the tires, and under each foot. Additionally, the rims on every tire have hexagonal ports in the middle. Oh, and as a Junkion Trashmaster's lower legs are 5mm pegged into his thighs and can be removed and replaced with another Junkion's leg (or a Core Volcanicus leg). Unlike the Deluxes, though, his arms do not come off. If the massive kibble flap on his butt wasn't indication enough, transforming Trashmaster will clue you to the fact that engineering is also not where Hasbro allocated his budget. The transformation is simple bordering on Core-class... head tucks in, backpack covers over, arms fold back behind him, waist rotates 180, legs lock together, chest untabs so his lower body folds back and his arms tab into his legs, then the kibble flap with the front of the truck tucks in under the chest. Arrange the hydraulic arms and tab his claw into his hands and you're done. At least the resulting truck does seem to scale nicely with Junkions like Scraphook and Axlegrease. Garbage trucks are one of those alt modes that are criminally underutilized, so I want to be in Trashmaster's corner. That said, there's a real lack of cohesion here. Half of the cab made from his chest is orange, but the half made from the kibble is brown and the tiny portion that's actually the flap it's connected to is yet another shade of brown. His smokestacks have silver paint on the top, they gray from a randomly gray part it's attached to in the middle, then orange on the bottom. And, this last bit's subjective, but frankly I could do without the rust-tones and spikes. I don't want a garbage truck that looks like it rolled off the set of a Mad Max movie, I want a green and white Waste Management truck. All of Trashmaster's accessories are integral to his alt mode. His claw covers his robot arms and acts like the top of the trash container. The claw itself can even open while attached, and you can imagine garbagemen tossing trash into the rear. But wait, is he supposed to be a rear-loader or a front-loader? The fact that the rear is covered and the claw opens at the back suggests rear, but the hood over the cab and the hydraulic arms suggest that he should be a front-loader. Although they lack the spokes that allow it to actually grip a Dumpster, that's the only purpose those arms serve. But, if they did pick up a dumpster, trash would roll off the closed back of the truck and back into the street. Of course, the Junkion gimmick hasn't been full executed if it's only a robot-mode thing. So yes, you can pull the truck kibble off, and yes, you can swap it with another Junkion's. What you can't do, though, is make the gestalt Junkasaurus that Mark showed off on his Instagram account. I'll say that's partly because Trashmaster's joints are a little loose and a lot of the connections are just 5mm ports. But the main reason is because, as shown on Mark's Instagram, you need two Crashbars. Hmm... I wonder if we'll see a Crashbar repaint? I kind of hope so, frankly, he was the best of the Legacy Junkions. As for Trashmaster, he's just ok. I mean, his articulation is fine, and I do appreciate that he's a garbage truck. I'm just not entirely sure I'm getting my money's worth, and I can't help but feel that a bit more paint might have gotten him where I needed him to be. At the very least, I can say I like him better than Scraphook, and I do appreciate some extra Junkion's to round out Wreck-Gar's squad, but at the same time there's a lot of characters I could use new Voyager toys for that I'd rather have than an original character Junkion. If you liked the other Legacy Junkions then Trashmaster is worth a look, but if you passed on the previous ones there's nothing here that's going to make you change your mind. With Trashmaster out of the way... what if I told you that we've covered all the new molds for this wave?

I mean, from Nintendo's POV, with their financial reserves and corporate culture, I get why they would find such a merger/acquisition, especially with an American company, completely out of the question. You have to admit, though, that it made (and honestly, still makes) a ton of sense from Microsoft's position. They were coming off the 360, which was quite popular everywhere except Japan. Meanwhile while the Wii sold gangbusters the Wii U was struggling, and at least some of the perception was because Nintendo was focused on gimmicky, underpowered hardware. If Microsoft bought Nintendo, or they merged, the result would be a library of strong 1st party titles on Microsoft's hardware, hardware that would have better parity with Sony's, and hardware that could be marketed as a Nintendo console and potentially finally allow Microsoft to crack the Japanese market.

*sigh* I'm not going to kid myself, I'm probably buying both because you can never have too many Bumblebees and Primes. But I haven't been this unenthusiastic for new figures since before Siege when I was thinking about quitting entirely. EDIT: Bee and Prime are pretty much confirmation that the leaks are spot on. So you can expect the other three Deluxes to be Cyberverse Windblade, Rescue Bots Chase, and Magneous, the first of Unite's rock guys that are replacing Junkions as the line's gimmick. The other Voyager should be Prime Thunderhawk, and the Leaders will be Beast Wars Thunderhawk and some kind of Optimus Prime. So, yeah, I'll reserve judgement until I see the figures (likely at Pulsecon on Thursday). But the only figure I'm sure I'm going to want is Windblade, and I'm questioning why Hasbro (who still has pegs full of Animated Prowl and Crosscut clogging up shelves) thinks we want a G1-ified version of a Prime character who was never in the cartoon. Tigerhawk's not much better; I think BW fans will probably be into him, but for most people we're talking about spending Leader money on a character that was only in three episodes. As for Leader Optimus, I think it really depends on what Leader Optimus. Is it a package refresh of Earthrise or Legacy Optimus? Is it a new mold? If it's a new mold, which Optimus is it? And I really think that, no matter what, I'm out on the rock dudes. Bad enough that Hasbro wasted three Deluxe slots and a Voyager on original character Junkions (plus released a repaint of Hound while the actual Hound languishes in limbo as a store-exclusive that's on indefinite hold so said store can get more movie toys out), at least they helped bulk out Wreck-Gar's crew. No way am I rewarding Hasbro for filling slots with guys that turn into rocks (that aren't even based on Rock Lords) when characters like Gears and Windcharger need doing.

Continuing with the final wave of Legacy Evolution we have another new mold... albeit a Core-class. This one is Snarl. Despite his small size, Snarl is a pretty decent, cartoon-style representation of the character. Granted, he's not perfect. You can see the dino legs on the sides of his robot legs, and his largely-hollow tail is kind of backward. From the back and sides, we can also see that he's lacking some of the plates higher on his back, and instead he's got a big gray lump. Concessions are definitely being made to the fact that he has to combine. Still, compared to some of the other Core-class Dinobots (especially Sludge) he's got one of the best bot modes. The good times continue to his accessories. While the rest of the team have accessories that have to double as their dino tails or gestalt hands, Snarl gets his sword. And it's just a nice, little sword. The good news keeps coming! For a Core-class figure his articulation is also pretty good. His head swivels. His shoulders are ball joints that swivel and move laterally just under 90 degrees. Plus, due to his transformation, he can butterfly his arms across his chest. His elbows bend past 90 degrees, until his wrist gets to his shoulders. Sadly, there's no bicep or wrist swivels, but hey, he does have a waist swivel. His hips are ball joints that can go 90 degrees forward and backward, and nearly 90 degrees laterally. His thighs don't have swivels, just what you can manage around the ball joints. His knees bend over 90 degrees, and he has no foot articulation. He can hold his sword just fine in either hand. One side has a tab on the hilt, and it can plug into a slot on his back for storage... although the tolerance isn't that great. I have a hard time getting it plugged in so it'll stay. Transforming Snarl is pretty easy. His arms curl up, his legs fold over with the dino head flipping out, and you just close his tail over his head. As with the robot mode, it's heavily cartoon-influenced. That being said, the dino mode is definitely a bit weaker than the bot mode. From some angles it's not too bad, but from the side or back you can see that his tail is way too small, his rear hips are too low on his body, his robot fists are still very visible, and his rear dino feet are just molded in place and not colored. Oh, and he's still got that gray lump, now on his butt. And he's basically a brick in this mode. His arms/rear legs actually tab into his sides, so they have no articulation. And his front legs are basically molded details on his robot legs; that is' the entire lower leg is a single part, so his dino legs don't move. And his head? Yeah, it doesn't move either. His jaws don't even open. At least he has a place to put his sword. There's a slot on his robot chest so the sword can hang out under the Stegosaurus, just like the Leader-class Studio Series figure. As with the slot on his back, though, I find the tolerance a bit off and the sword doesn't like to stay attached. And finally we have Snarl's leg mode. There's a bit of partsforming involved here. You have to pull his back off. This will allow you to flip out the 5mm combiner peg. Plus, the slots where his back was tabbed into now serve as connection points for tabs on his heels, as the dino head stays inside his legs and his hips move back so that his legs don't fold entirely over. His shoulders butterfly over his chest, tab together, then tab into his crotch, then his back reattaches to his forearms serve as the toes of the foot. The instructions indicate that you should store is sword by plugging it into his back, but it's kind of out-of-place on Volcanicus' foot. Speaking of Volcanicus, with all six Dinobots we can finally complete him! He's pretty tiny, at slightly taller than the Deluxe-class Power of the Primes Dinobots. That makes the entire combiner smaller than a single Studio Series Dinobot! Aesthetically, I do like some of the things they've done. Like, the combined Slag/sludge torso looks a lot better than the stock POTP Volcanicus, who I had to modify with an upgrade kit. But little Volcanicus could probably use an upgrade kit of his own. His legs have kind of weird proportions; I'd almost suggest mistransforming him so that Snarl and Grimlock's legs are straightened out to make his legs longer, but it turns out that Grimlock winds up being a bit taller than Snarl that way. I think he's also hurt by the lack of proper feet. I guess he's not too bad from the back, ignoring that Snarl's butt sticks out from his back and Sludge's head is just kind of there (assuming it didn't fall off). His lower legs are too-thick front-to-back, and somewhat gappy. The worst thing might be his arms, though. Although both Swoop and Snarl theoretically have waist swivels that could be bicep swivels in their arm modes, their own robot arms are in the way. Combine that with a lack of wrist swivels and you wind up with a permanently gorilla-armed Volcanicus. Which, you know, figures into his articulation. So, his head is on a swivel, no tilt. His shoulders swivel on their 5mm pegs, and hinges allow them to move laterally a bit under 90 degrees. As I said, he might have bicep swivels, but they're blocked by the armbots's own arms. Their hips and knees act kind of like elbows, but they're only going to curl inward, and he's got no wrist articulation. He does have a waist swivel, though. His hips can go 90 degrees forward and backward, and about 60 degrees laterally. His knees bend 90 degrees, and since they're attached via 5mm pegs they also serve as this thigh swivels. I don't think it's fair to say that he has no foot articulation, it's more accurate to say that he lacks feet entirely. A few other things to note... while manipulating him you can expect two things. First, Sludge's head is bound to pop off his back. Second, Grimlock's dino head isn't locked in place at all, and it has a tendency to get shifted upward and reveal his robot head. The other thing I'll point out is that the gestalt's hands, poor as they are, have 5mm ports. So if you want a weapon for him, turns out he works great with the sword that came with the old Fall of Cybertron Grimlock. Which is great for me, since I still have the sword despite giving away the figure itself. Now that we've looked at the whole set, was it worth it? Honestly, probably not. I mean, I'm not opposed to Core-class Dinobots per se, even knowing that Hasbro's Core-class figures are pretty basic. But the reality is that Snarl is probably the least-compromised by the combining gimmick, and he's still suffering from some compromises. Guys like Sludge were seriously boned by the gimmick. That might be ok if the gestalt itself was good, but it too seems compromised with a lack of arm articulation and chunky, short legs with no feet. And what is this even supposed to be displayed with? I suppose if you put him with a Titan-class figure it makes the Titan look huge, but we don't have any other Core-class combiners for him to pair with. So I guess I don't really recommend Volcanicus, or buying all the Dinobots to make Volcanicus. That said, Snarl's really not a bad little Snarl, and I actually do recommend him if you've already been buying the Core-class Dinobots and are just looking to complete the set, since he's probably the best one. One final elephant I want to address in the room... I've been saying pretty much since it was revealed that Slag and Sludge were announced as the torso parts of version of Volcanicus that would use six Dinobots that this is pretty obviously a pretool for Monstructor/Dinoking. If/when that happens I may do a deeper look at how the individual guys stack up, but for now just looking at Volcanicus I feel like Hasbro's doing him dirty if this is the only version we ever get. I mean, yes, I know the original G1 Monstuctor was the smallest combiner. But with compromised engineering, no feet, and molds that seem to be Dinobots first despite the obvious repaint I don't feel like this is going to be an adequate Monstructor/Dinoking. I think the Pretender Monsters/Dinoforce deserve to be done at the very least as six Deluxes that combine to make a Monstructor/Dinoking around the same height as the Combiner Wars/PotP gestalts, designed to be a more accurate Monstructor/Dinoking with better engineering and fewer compromises and Dinobot repaints as more compromised repaints, if necessary.

Pulsecon is this week, and with the final wave of Legacy Evolution I expect that they'll start showing off the new trilogy. And with that in mind, apparently Legacy UNI(verse? cron?) Animated Bumblebee has leaked. Kind of interesting that they toned down Prowl's chin to make him aesthetically more homogenous with the other WfC/Legacy releases, but Bee keeps his Animated head but gets a more generic body. I can't help but notice that the nose of the car is on his heels, not his toes. Maybe tell me who this is a pretool for, and I'll skip to that one. I'm not feeling this one.

Getting back to the final wave of Legacy Evolution figures, we have our first totally new mold, Deluxe-class Shadow Striker. Right out of the gate, two things jump at me. One, she's thinner but basically the same height as your average Deluxe-class car. Two, aside from her head and predominantly purple color, she really doesn't resemble the character who was one of the more prominent Decepticons in Transformers Cyberverse. I actually had to double check her packaging, but no, it says right there that this is the Cyberverse character. Then why isn't her chest made from the car hood? Where are her big boots with the wheels in the heels and the pair of toes? Where's the windows on her forearms? Instead she's got an engine block for a chest, wheels on her thighs, narrow shins with v-shaped bands wrapped around them, and long, thin feet with big heels on the back. And the reason for all of this becomes clear when you look into the history of Shadow Striker. Sure, she had an original design and was a main character for Cyberverse, but the first use of a character named Shadow Striker seems to be in 3H's Universe comics that were made to support the 2003 Official Transformers Collector's Club set, which invented sisters named Shadow Striker and Roulette who were both repaints of the 2001 Robots In Disguise Sideburn toy with new heads. And with that information handy, you can see that yeah, they used her Cyberverse head, and yeah, they used her Cyberverse black and purple colors instead of the black, blue, and gold colors used on the 2003 Universe toy, but from the neck down that's definitely Sideburn (and wouldn't you know it, according to the leakers Sideburn's coming in 2024, so...). I guess I should be thankful that they cleaned up Sideburns design, eh? There's still a fair amount of kibble on the back, but Legacy Shadow Striker at least folds it into something like a cape or wings instead of just hanging out there, plus she's got wheels on her back like she does in Cyberverse instead of one on her right forearm and the other Primus knows where (seriously, look at the 2001 RID toy and find that forth wheel). Shadow Striker comes with a few accessories, and unfortunately most of them seem to be bits of her alt mode. The largest piece is her entire roof, but there's also her rear end. Her final accessory is a gun with blade-like edges that are somewhat evocative of the original Sideburn/2003 Shadow Striker's, but with a bigger 5mm port for a barrel. Shadow Striker's head is on a ball joint with the ball in her torso instead of her head. She can look down very well and swivel, but she lacks any real upward or sideways tilt. Her shoulders are just weird. You might notice that they're back a bit far, ad it's because they're not attached to the sides of her torso. Rather, they're attached to the front of her backpack. So the shoulders are actually turned sideways and the hinge that's usually for lateral movement is her up/down swivel, and the swivel is her lateral movement (well over 90 degrees). She has bicep swivels, which you'll need to use if you want to pose her with her arms raise and moved laterally, and 90 degrees of elbow bend. Her wrists swivel, as does her waist. Her hips can go 90 degrees forward, backward, or laterally. Her thighs swivel, and her knees bend 90 degrees. Her feet can't tilt down, but they can tilt all the way up to her shins for transformation, and she's got 90 degrees of ankle pivot. She can hold her gun in either hand. Additionally, she has 5mm ports on either forearm, in the middle of her back, one on top of her backpack behind her head, one on each of her calves, and one in each heel. If you take her roof kibble and peg it into her forearm the resemblance to Sideburn becomes even more unmistakable, even if Sideburn's kibble was actually on his shoulder. Which leaves her rear end. The roof kibble actually has its own 5mm port, so you could just stick it there. The instructions tell you to stick it into the barrel of her gun, apparently to kind of mimic a missile accessory from the original Sideburn toy. Shadow Striker's gun has a 5mm peg on the back, so she can also hold it like a club or a... sword? And the rear of the car can also fit on her forearms; I personally like sticking it on the opposite arm as the roof. Alternatively, if you'd rather just store it all away you can lift one of her wings to find a 3mm hole. A 3mm peg allows her gun to be stored there, then you can plug the rear of the car onto her roof and the roof into the 5mm port on her back. Fair warning, the gun will be tucked away just fine but the roof sticks off her back pretty far. Shadow Striker's transformation is definitely different. That chunk of the car's nose with the red pentagon is her crotch. Her chest opens up and unfurls the rest of the hood which covers her waist and hips. Her backpack and shoulders fold out on an armature that stretches her shoulders all the way to the rear of the car, and her legs bend 180 degrees backward to form the bottom, and her arms fold down so that they tab into her calves. Her wings fold in to make the sides of the car, and then the roof goes into place, either because you're just plugging it on now or because she can actually transform without removing it from her forearm. The rear of the car does need to be partsformed into place, though; there isn't enough room behind her head in robot mode for it to stay in place. Her alt mode is a bit of a weird one. I mean, I know Hasbro's probably too cheap to license a Sideburn's Dodge Viper alt mode, and from the front windshield back she looks passably like a less angular version of her Cyberverse alt mode. Her rear is weirdly gappy, though. Aside from the engine block, which isn't part of her Cyberverse alt mode, her front end has no resemblance to a Viper whatsoever. The headlights look a bit like her Cyberverse car but the overall shape is inverted. Instead of having angular sides that sit higher and extend further than the midsection they're lower and shorter. Ultimately, it's neither the aggressive, angular appearance of her Cyberverse alt nor does it look much like the rounded front end of Sideburn's. With her roof and rear attached, that just leaves you looking for a place to store her gun. Realistically, the only place you can put it is the 5mm port on her roof. That said, her rear still has a 5mm port on it. A small tab on the back means you're not really going to able to plug the gun into it, but you could grab an effect part from another figure and make it look like flames are coming out of her exhaust like the Batmobile. I think it's fair to say that I have mixed feelings about Shadow Striker. Aside from her odd shoulders, she does have pretty good articulation and she's got one of the more interesting transformations I've seen lately. On the other hand, her robot mode is far more Sideburn than Cyberverse Shadow Striker, and her car mode is kind of an ugly neither. And the problem that I'm starting to run into with Transformers is that Hasbro seems more keen than ever to reuse molds, but as they branch out from G1 I'm less interesting in owning the same mold again and again. Give me multiple Datsuns and Seekers? Sure. Give me a Sideburn pretool that doesn't really resemble the character she's supposed to be, though, and now I'm wondering if I really wanted this figure or if I'd rather have Sideburn, because I kind of don't want both. I suppose, with the limited knowledge that I have now, I think I'd rather have Shadow Striker, since Cyberverse was pretty good but Robots in Disguise (2001) honestly wasn't. That said, if I knew for 100% certain that Hasbro was also planning on rounding out the core RID cast with Prowl, X-Brawn, and Optimus Prime I'd probably go with Sideburn over Shadow Striker. Make of that what you will.

I've got something a little different today. So, way back in February, I reviewed Studio Series Rise of the Beasts Arcee. I didn't like it, and I don't think I was alone in that sentiment. Someone suggested that there are better Arcee options outside the Studio Series line, so I looked to see what's out there. I was a bit surprised, there wasn't as many options as I'd have liked. While many of the Studio Series releases have had "main" movie line Deluxes and Voyagers Arcee has not (although it's my understanding that Hasbro has more figures planned for the movie line in 2024). That means I had to find other Arcees in the gimmicky "Beast Alliance" stuff. On the left, we have Beast Weaponizer Arcee, and on the right we have Beast Combiner Arcee. Beast Weaponizer Arcee is definitely not a figure without flaws. Like oh-so-many cheaper Hasbro figures she could use some more paint, and while she's honestly looking pretty good overall from the front you can see from the sides and back that she's got significant kibble on her back. That said... is it really worse than the Studio Series figure? I mean, both have the front of their alt modes on their butts and wheels on their backs. The big difference is that Weaponizer Arcee cleans up her calves and puts all her wheels on her back, and I don't even think that's entirely inaccurate. I just wish there was some extra hinges to shift them up to her shoulder blades. Beast Combiner Arcee, on the other hand... whoever suggested that this figure might be better than the Studio Series figure was probably drinking. She's made entirely of red plastic, and while they slapped some paint on her to try to break it up the paint they applied is often inaccurate. Combiner Arcee's problems carry over into her articulation. Her head swivels, but despite being on a ball joint it's basically tilted down as far as it goes, and tilting it up sinks it into her chest. Her shoulders are ball joints that swivel and move laterally about 60 degrees... and that's it for her arms. No bicep swivels, no elbows, no wrists. She has a transformation ball joint mid torso that does allow her a sort-of waist swivel and the ability to arch her back backward. Hips are ball joints that can go forward and backward 90 degrees, and just shy of that laterally. he has thigh swivels just above her knees, which bend 90 degrees. And that's it. Weaponizer Arcee's head is on a swivel, no tilt. Her shoulders are ball joints that rotate and get about 60 degrees laterally. She has ball joints at the elbows, though, bending slightly more than 90 degrees and acting as bicep swivels. Plus she has wrist swivels! No waist swivel, though. Her ball-jointed hips can go 90 degrees forward or laterally, but the kibble on her butt (which you can actually pop off) limits her backward range. Her only thigh swivel is how much you can work her leg around the ball joint in her hip. Her knees bend over 90 degrees, but if you want even more you can use a transformation hinge in her upper shin to fake a double knee. No articulation in the foot. So, yeah, Combiner Arcee's articulation is a definite downgrade. Weaponizer Arcee is kind of a wash; she looses the waist swivel and some of the shoulder range that the Studio Series had, but she gets wrist swivels and better knees. Studio Series Arcee came with that stand that doubled as her gun from the movie. What about the Beast Alliance figures? Well, this is where their names really come into play. Weaponizer Arcee isn't really the Weaponizer, she called Weaponizer Arcee because she's paired with one. And it's one we've already seen sold separate, Cheetor. Cheetor's changes from his stand alone release are pretty minimal, too. The silver/gray plastic is a bit lighter, and they didn't paint the spots or the silver details on his legs. Cheetor is fine; I'm a fan of the ROTB Weaponizers. It's just a shame she's packaged with one I already have. Beast Combiner Arcee also comes with an animal buddy, This big white wolf is named Chainclaw, and he might be made of more plastic than Arcee herself. Despite his large size, though, he's pretty basic, with worse articulation than some Weaponizers. His mouth doesn't close. All he's got are some knee hinges that are really for transformation. Because that's his gimmick. Pull off his tail and the top of his head, then tuck in his legs. Arcee's head goes into a cavity on Chainclaw's belly (that helps ensure that you're orienting him correctly) and pegs secure him into ports on Arcee's shoulders. You fold a panel on his back and side down and tuck it onto Arcee's chest. Doing so not only reveals the head, but automorphs Chainclaws chest and butt down around Arcee's shoulders. Then you can take the tail and turn it into a sword and the top of his head and turn it into a shield. Kind of a neat gimmick (that's original from Cyberverse, I think), but not one that really pays off. Then there's the bike modes. Again, I'm not sure why people thought Combiner Arcee is better than the Studio Series toy. She tucks awkwardly up into a mass of kibble that sort of looks like a bike (never mind that the front wheel isn't connected to the steering). Weaponizer Arcee is kind of similar to the the Studio Series toy; head tucks in, arms shift over her head, front of the bike comes around from her butt, and her legs scrunch up to make the sides of the bike. The extra red on the front of of the bike around the mirrors is actually even more accurate than the Studio Series toy. I suspect that the designers of the Studio Series toy were more concerned with the bike mode. Her arms form a more convincing rear and seat, and because her waist swivels her back becomes a more realistic-looking fuel tank, while a good chunk of Weaponizer Arcee's bike mode is clearly the front of her robot mode with her arms above her head. Her scrunched up legs don't form the smooth sides of the bike, either. However, I tend to prefer sacrifices to the alt mode to get a better bot mode than the other way around, and I prefer Weapnizer Arcee's cleaner legs to the Studio Series massive kibble calves. Neither of these figures are the slam dunk win over the Studio Series toy that I wanted. I sincerely hope that we do see a mainline movie Deluxe that can really champion the design. For now, though, these are your options. One is a clear loser- Beast Combiner Arcee is an overly simple toy built around a gimmick for young kids and is, frankly, not a good toy. It's also the most expensive of the three, so I REALLY don't recommend it. It's a tougher call between the other two. They're similarly priced, with Beast Weaponizer Arcee being slightly more than the Studio Series toy. They have similar engineering. The Studio Series has a better bike that scales better (but is still big) compared to the cars, but Weaponizer Arcee looks better in bot mode, and that's what I prefer, so that's the one I'll recommend.

I'm tired and can't think of anything witty, but I got the new Jurassic Park X Transformers pack. This time we've got Autobot JP12 and Dilophocon. Up first we'll look at Autobot JP12. Like JP93, his super generic name belies the fact that he's a pretty interesting guy. His design is meant to evoke Dennis Nedry. It's pretty obvious from his head design, with its black "hair" and glasses. But the designers didn't stop there. Rather than flip the wheels into the torso like JP93, JP12 drops them and angles them toward his front to give him a belly. That said, I do have one pretty big complaint, and that's his backpack. It sticks fairly far off his back, and it's not clear to me why it couldn't have folded in just a bit tighter. On the whole, though, I think JP12 has a pretty solid design. JP12's got some interesting accessories. He's got a gun, sure. But he's also got a translucent part that, technically, can go on the gun as a blast effect. However, a closer look shows that it's meant to be the device that Nedry was supposed to use to store the dinosaur embryos. You know, the one that he stored in a can of shaving cream. On that note, you get a can of shaving cream. It's got an Autobot insignia on it instead of the Barbasol branding, but the red, white, and blue stripes are instantly recognizable. Lastly, we have a hat with the Jurassic Park logo on it. Now, here's the thing... I don't actually recall Nedry wearing a hat. That said, I think it's supposed to be a rain hat, like the one the Gorton Fisherman wears, and it's standing it for the rain coat Nedry wore. JP12's head is on a ball joint, with limited up/down tilt and no sideways tilt. His shoulders are also ball joints, but they're connected to hinges. So they swivel, no issues, and from down at his sides you can get his arms out past 90 degrees. But the ball is cut so that alone it's more like 60 degrees, and if you raise his arms them move them laterally that's all you'll get. His elbows bend 90 degrees, and he's got swivels at both the biceps and the wrists, but unfortunately not at his waist. His hips get just a little under 90 degrees forward, but his backpack gets in the way and he can only get about 45 degrees backward. His hips can spread laterally 90 degrees. His thighs swivel, and his knees bend 90 degrees. His feet can tilt straight down, but only very slightly up, and his ankles pivot about 45 degrees. JP12 can hold his gun, no problem. As mentioned, the translucent part can sit on the tip as a blast effect, but the translucent part has to be stored in the shaving cream for JP12 to be able to hold it. If you'd rather store it, you can plug it into one of the 5mm ports on the back side of his door wings, but again, the 5mm peg is on the translucent part and there's no way for JP12 to interact with the shaving cream without the translucent part. As for the hat, it just sits on his head. What'd you expect? JP12's transformation is similar to, but slightly more involved, than JP93's. Unfortunately, it's slightly more irritating, too, as his backpack/the roof never seems to be out of the way enough, and the flaps on his shins open toward the inside instead of the outside which forces him to do the splits every time he folds them up. Credit where credit is due, the resulting Jeep Wrangler scales pretty well with JP93's Ford Explorer XLT alt mode. I don't have a lot of notes for the alt mode. It's got the Jeep license and it's a pretty accurate replica of what you actually see in the films, down to the "Jeep" logo just in front of the doors and on the rims to the Jurassic Park license plate on the front bumper and rear. His gun plugs into a hole above the license plate on the front bumper to form the Jeep's winch. I guess, if I had to nitpick, I might suggest that the soft top of the Jeep could be a little darker brown, and the Jeep itself should be a little less brown and a little more gray. While the gun actually forms an integral part of the vehicle, the translucent part stores in the shaving cream and together are clipped to the underside of the vehicle. That's fine, that works for me. What doesn't is that there's no storage for the hat. Was the hat some kind of afterthought? I've found that you can kind of wedge it in front of his face before you tab his arms into place. The hat is secure enough that it won't fall out, but it'll rattle as it's not actually locked into place. Dilophocon is another interesting figure, for the simple reason that a lot of these crossover figures have been remolds (Gigawatt, Ectotron, Draculus, X-Panse, and the upcoming Frankentron). Sure, sometimes you get a brand new mold like Maverick. But last time, when JP93 was new, he was packed with a T-Rex that was merely a new head and paintjob on Beast Wars Megatron. With JP12 being a new mold sporting a very good alt mode, I'd have figured Dilophocon to be retool, maybe of Dinobot (side note, why no Jurrasic Park collab with a retool of Dinobot into Blue? Maybe packaged with a transforming version of the Mercedes Benz AMG 6x6 or Chris Pratt's motorcycle?). Nope, instead we got an entirely new mold. It's not like Hasbro splurged or anything, as he's pretty clearly made entirely from two sprues, but still. He's got a certain charm to him, reminding me a bit of the old Beast Wars Iguanus. I wouldn't be surprised if that toy influenced Dilophocon's design, as you can really see it in the design of his robot head. That isn't to say that no corners were cut, though. His design and engineering is very basic, which leads to stuff like a chunk of his tail just awkwardly chilling on his butt. Again, much like Beast Wars Iguanus, the rest of the tail is an accessory. The tip of the tail flips under to reveal a little gun barrel. Dilophocon also has a blast effect part. Dilophocon's head is on a ball joint that also has a limited up/down tilt, but better sideways tilt. His shoulders are ball joints that swivel and move laterally just a bit under 90 degrees. Also, due to his transformation, his shoulders (and part of his torso) can butterfly forward. His elbows are ball joints, able to bend 90 degrees and doubling as bicep swivels. No wrist or waist swivels. Hips are ball joints that can do well past 90 degrees forward and backward, but only about 60 degrees laterally. His thighs swivel, and his knees bend 90 degrees. His feet have hinges that give him a ton of up down tilt, and ball joints that let his feet swivel, but despite cutouts for it his ankle pivots are short of 45 degrees. His tail has a 5mm peg under it (the same one that connects it to the stump on his butt) that allows him to hold it as a weapon. There's a small hole not in the barrel, but on top of it, that you can plug his effect part into. There doesn't appear to be any storage for his accessories besides leaving the tail attached to the stump. As a pretty simple figure, Dilophocon's transformation is pretty simple. His legs become his legs, you just shift his shins up to his thighs. His dino face and part of his chest and his sides fold in, tucking his arms into the void. The most interesting thing his that his back folds backward, giving you the space to fold in his robot head and turn the frill with the back of his dinosaur head around before you fold it back down and join it with the front of his body. The stump folds back and the tail plugs into it. As a representation of the Dilophosaurus that spit on Nedry, Dilophocon is fair, similar to a lot of the mass-market Jurassic Park toys. The light green plastic with painted dark green mottling seems ok to me, but I can't help but notice that there's no red on his frills, and there's still an awful lot of brown showing on this guy that simple wasn't on the dinosaur in the movie. However, I think his overall aesthetic fits pretty well with the Kingdom Beast Wars guys like Terrorsaur, Megatron, and Dinobot. Dilophocon doesn't do much in dino mode, though. His jaws can open, revealing a port you can plug the blast effect into so it looks like he's spitting venom. The frills can be moved or even removed, as they're just attached via 5mm pegs (in fact, you'll likely find yourself unintentionally knocking them off when you transform him, as the pegs are pretty shallow). He has no other head articulation, though. His dino arms swivel at the shoulders, but that's about it. You can use most of his robot hip articulation, although technically his thighs should tab into his body and lock in place. On a similar note, having his robot shins tabbed into his thighs locks his knees, so he technically has no leg articulation in dino mode. He's got the full range on his feet, though. I can't speak for all Transformers fans, but something I touched on when I reviewed the previous set is that I feel that Transformers vibed pretty well with other '80s franchises like Back to the Future and Ghostbusters because it's all stuff from my childhood, and coming when I was a teenager in the '90s Jurassic Park just isn't serving up the same nostalgia for me. Objectively, though, I think this is a pretty good set. If you enjoyed the previous Jurassic Park X Tranformers collab then you'll probably like this one, too. Even if you avoided that earlier set you might find this one worth checking out, as it's two new molds instead of just one, it's cheaper than the previous set, yet it's arguably the better of the two sets. I'll go ahead and give this one a recommend.

Speaking of IDW, I'm going to do a quick Repaint Roundup tonight so I don't get swamped later. And we're starting with the Amazon-exclusive Nova Prime. Well, Nova Prime is a retool of Siege Galaxy Upgrade Optimus Prime. So, we're going to start with the inner core robot. Frankly, given Nova Prime's appearances in the IDW comics, I doubt that there are too many people that actually care about this mode and you might expect that Nova is a straight repaint of Optimus. I was surprised, then, to note that there are a few subtle mold changes. He's got a new grill and some tweaked lats. It makes sense when you think about it, because that's the part of GU Op that's showing in his super mode. I should technically note that this figure bears very little resemblance to Don Figueroa's original design, which did indeed include a smaller core mode. However, the core robot was only seen in sketches, and I'm happy to have another entry in the White Optimus club. When GU Optimus was released I remember a ton of people at a certain other message board going on about how GU Optimus would make for a good Nova repaint. I disagreed, arguing that Nova Prime honestly has very little in common with GU Optimus aside from both having wings. Now that Hasbro has actually delivered a Nova Prime repaint I'm feeling vindicated. The new chest is close, but not quite exact, to what we see in the comics, and the remolded grill works pretty good for this mode, but the new lats are no more accurate than GU Optimus' already were. The new head looks good, and although they're a bit understated the new shoulder pads work pretty well. Broadly speaking the new wings are kind of right, and kudos to Hasbro that they do have the lights at the shoulders. They lack articulation, though, and are too short. As for the rest of him, nothing's remolded in his arms or below his waist. You can squint and kind of ignore the pipes he has on his arms, because he does at least have one wheel, and the gold fingers look pretty nice even if they should be black. But his legs are just wrong, as they're made from his cab in the comics and don't look at all like the pretty standard Optimus legs we got. It's all compounded by the fact that he's got GU Optimus' ladder cannons on his back, which he most definitely did NOT in the comics. And that segues nicely into his alt mode, which is almost entirely GU Optimus but white. Technically the different wings do make the sides slightly different, but the differences are pretty subtle. Again, I guess it's not entirely fair to say that it's not comic book accurate, since we don't actually see his alt mode in the comics, but we do have Don's design sketches, and yeah, this ain't it. All of this can be taken as a critique of whether or not this mold was good for this character, but I think we should also step back a bit and ask if this is even a good mold in the first place. And, y'know, I didn't mind it as a Cybertronian take on Ultra Magnus, but the GU Optimus retool has always been a bit of a cludgy disappointment as Cybertron Optimus/Galaxy Convoy, who probably deserves his own new mold. And maybe that's the rub... while I'd LOVE for a proper Nova Prime that isn't a retool, I'm guessing that he might not rank that highly for most Transformers collectors. So maybe pick this figure up as it might be the only official Nova Prime we get, and hope that someone like DNA can do something about the wings and backpack. Moving on from Amazon's comic exclusives, the final wave of Legacy Evolution is starting to trickle out. I was pretty critical of the third wave, which relied too heavily on retools, obscure G1 characters, and Junkions no one asked for. Now here we are kicking off wave 4 with Voyager-class Bludgeon... ...and right out of the gate we've got a repaint. I mean, the only new parts are his head and his sword, the rest of him is Tarn. Sure, his new head and sword are cool, but even allowing for Hasbro's claims that they were going for an Alex Milne IDW Bludgeon design instead of more traditionally G1 design, the fact is that aside from the color choices and the head. Not treads on his back, no treads in his feet, no guns on his shoulder pads (which were NOT made of treads). I'd have maybe forgiven all of that, if they'd at least bothered to remold his chest to look more like Milne's design (which was inspired by the Cybeverse design, which was inspired by the RiD '15 design, which was inspired by the ROTF design on he left). To make Bludgeon look slightly more like his IDW self and slightly less like Tarn, you can move the smaller back guns down and attach his fusion cannons to his back. The barrels are a bit thicker than what he's got in the comics, but Tarn's back guns are too small for Bludgeon. A big part of me is half tempted to tell you that the ROTF Bludgeon is still the superior toy. Well, it's true that the samurai armor motif comes through more on that figure, and it does use some interesting and clever engineering. But Legacy Bludgeon has the better head and much better articulation. Bludgeon's bright colors, different cannon placement, and new head distract from how little he's actually retooled in robot mode, but in alt mode he's very clearly Tarn. His alt mode is the reason he still needs both the smaller back cannons and the double fusion cannon. And the sword storage is a complete afterthought... they just stuck a peg on the hilt so you can jam it into on the available 5mm ports. A better head and better articulation can go a long way toward selling me on Legacy Bludgeon's bot mode, but the old ROTF toy far and away has the better tank mode, and that's without mentioning how cool it is that ROTF Bludgeon's sword becomes part of his tank barrel. Bludgeon was a major character in not just the IDW comics, but also the old Marvel comics and he even had some appearances in the Cyberverse cartoon. I'd sincerely hoped that Bludgeon rated a little better, if not a brand new mold at least a more extensive retool. Instead what we got is a half-hearted repaint of Tarn that I'm hesitant to say is even better than a toy that's almost 15 years old. Maybe worth checking out if you don't have a better Bludgeon alternative and you haven't experienced the Tarn mold, but it's definitely better as Tarn than Bludgeon and it's a pretty lazy start for Evolution's fourth wave.

I own most of Fan Hobby's molds (I've been cutting back on 3P and never got around to their Cab/Hosehead, Doubledealer/Clouder, Energon Op, or this guy), and I do like them for the most part, but I can somewhat agree with this statement.

Well, I finished Baldur's Gate 3. I very much enjoyed it, and I'm sure I'll play it again to see how some of other choices could have panned out. As of right now I'd call it my GOTY, beating out Jedi Survivor and Tears of the Kingdom, but the year's definitely not over. Finishing BG3 allowed me to start on Starfield. I'm not super far into it, having completed the first main quest, joined Constellation, and hit level 3, but *spoilers* it runs on my PC just fine at 1440p and a mix of high/ultra settings (Windows 11, i7900K, 32GB of RAM, RTX 4070). Az described it as "Skyrim in space," but I'd say the skill trees and the various weapons types and ammo really make me think "Fallout in space" is a bit more accurate (but I'm arguably splitting hairs with that one). But "Fallout in Space" begs another comparison, that being The Outer Worlds. Been awhile since I played that one, but from what I remember I'd say that Starfield is definitely more of a Bethesda RPG, for better or worse. Starfield seems a lot bigger, and I'm assuming there's more to screw around with while ignoring the main plot based on the fact that I picked up over half a dozen side quests, but The Outer Worlds definitely benefitted from a sharper focus and better writing.

Yeah, but that's not a problem unique to Windows, though. I rarely turn on my PS5, but when I do I have to update it before I can do anything. Curious, what adware are you referring to? I'm running Windows 11* 22H2 and aside from a single "Don't you want to try Edge?" popup the first time I opened Chrome I don't see any ads (full disclosure, I turned off Cortana and widgets, maybe that's where the ads are). *It seems like I'm in the minority, but I like Windows 11.

Because consoles don't require OS updates? And what Windows updates break older games? The ability to play older games is exactly why I prefer PC. The PlayStation 5 can't play PS3 games, but games I bought on Steam when my PC was running XP still run on my Windows 11 box. I dunno, if it's a bug then hopefully Bethesda will patch it. If it's a Windows update thing, then you gotta do whatever you feel comfortable with, but I can't recall the last time an OS update caused issues.

I assume your PC does meet the minimum requirements, though (they don't look particularly demanding)? At what point does this issue occur? I don't want to get into the game until I'm done with Baldur's Gate (hopefully tomorrow), but I did launch it and messed around in the settings (granted, through the Xbox app on PC, not Steam). My box exceeds the published minimum requirements, and all but the CPU exceed the recommended, too (alas my i7-9700K is a generation too old, but I just upgraded the RAM and GPU and hope to get another two years or so out of this box).

The previous Castlevania show fleshed out the (very simple) plot of Castlevania 3 rather imaginatively, but by and large it was faithful to the games; Trevor teams up with Alucard and Sypha (OK, so Grant's missing) to defeat Dracula. Hector betraying Dracula and his subsequent rivalry with Isaac is also part of the plot for Castlevania: Curse of Darkness. With Nocturne... what are they doing here? It's like they want to tell a story about Richter, but this time they're avoiding the games. There's no Shaft, no Dracula, in either the trailer nor the revealed cast. Instead they're setting up Erzsebet Bathory as the "vampire messiah." It's also clearly set during the French Revolution, which doesn't start until two years after Rondo. Is it supposed to be between Rondo and Symphony? Maria still looks pretty young. I really liked the pervious Castlevania show so I'll give Nocturne the benefit of the doubt, but if it ignores the games completely I'll be upset.

There was the IDW comic book, too (as well as Rom and Micronauts), when IDW was trying to do a connected universe of Hasbro properties. Then again, I've heard that the connected Hasbro universe was less about Hasbro pushing IDW to do it and more IDW asking Hasbro if they could do it and Hasbro basically shrugging and saying "whatever, we don't care."

I guess I have to be that guy and admit that I've never played Elden Ring. I dunno, I'm too old and too busy to "git gud" or whatever, and generally don't find Soulslike games appealing. That said, Elden Ring is probably the closest a Soulslike has gotten to attracting my attention. Now, Armored Core 6... I remember playing the very first AC back in the day and I thought it was pretty cool, but I also remember playing another one (Nexus, maybe?) and hating it. I think I'd definitely pick up Armored Core 6, if I weren't trying to wrap up Baldur's Gate 3 with Starfield installed and ready to go next (to say nothing of the fact that I'm also looking forward to the Cyberpunk expansion, Forza Motorsport, Spider-Man 2, Super Mario Wonder, Assassin's Creed Mirage, Robocop, and Super Mario RPG before the year is out). I wishlisted it on Steam; I'll grab it on a sale and save it for a dry spell, just like I did with Sea of Stars. Man, 2023 has been a good year for gamers.

Because it's too obvious, likely. Also, when it does happen, I'd guess they'll be more like the G.I. Joe crossovers- pricey, really accurate alt modes roughly the size of the original toys with seats for packed-in humans with too-large, crappy bot modes.

I also want K.I.T.T, but I'd say that the Turtle's Party Wagon would be high on my want list, too. Maybe the Thundercats' Thundertank, Scooby Doo's Mystery Machine, the Mach 5, or the Gadgetmobile.

I dunno, guys. Not sure I'm feeling it. This would be a second Universal Monsters crossover, the Frankenstein-themed Frankentron. On the one hand, Impactor's a better base mold than Mindwipe was. On the other hand, Mindwipe was more extensively remolded to make Draculus- Frank here looks like he's got a new head and he's trading Impactor's gun and blade hand for a new Tesla coil-ish thing and a blast effect, and that's about it. Plus, it seemed pretty thematically appropriate to take the Transformer who turns into a bat and make him into the movie monster that turns into a bat, but why is Frankenstein a tank? Why not wrap some bandages around some of those unsold Crosscuts and pass it off as a Mummy crossover?

Ok, time to get the rest of this stuff off my desk (it's hard to play Baldur's Gate with all these Transformers in the way). We're closing out the week with a quick Repaint Roundup. Up first we have Nacelle, from the same Amazon-exclusive comic book inspired series that brought us Senator Ratbat with Megatron and Senator Shockwave with Orion Pax. I don't actually have a ton of background for you on Nacelle. The original Nacelle toy was Transformers Collector's Club Figure Subscription Service repaint of the Deluxe-class Thrust toy (but not the one Takara Gentei one or the Generations repaint, rather, the even older Botcon "Games of Deception" version). The colors were apparently inspired by an old Takara catalog that featured early prototypes of Thrust, Ramjet, and Dirge cobbled together by sticking the new wing parts on Thundercracker, Skywarp, and Starscream, respectively. His first real appearance in fiction was late in IDW's post-Siege relaunched Transformers comics. As those comics took place entirely on Cybertron and were the contemporary toy designs, Nacelle ditched Thrust's VTOL F-15 alt mode for the standard Siege Seeker alt. I know some people seem really bothered by that, but honestly I'm cool with it. I suppose that's because my brain decided a long time ago that it wanted every repaint of this mold, and unlike Senator Shockwave Nacelle is back to being a straight repaint with no mold changes. Not counting Shockwave due to the aforementioned remolded bits, I think that makes Nacelle my eleventh version of this mold. Me personally, I'd be in for two more still (Sunstorm and Bitstream), but your mileage may vary. Also from Amazon's comic-inspired line we've got the Deadeye Duel two-pack. This pack comes with Javelin, an Autobot Senate guard, and Kaskade, an Ascenticon (in IDW's rebooted series the Ascenticons were the precursors to the Decepticons) who belonged to the radical group known as The Rise. The idea in this set is that they're both snipers, I suppose. Javelin's sniper rifle seems to be comic-accurate, and although it comes apart into 3 pieces the scope and barrel don't really have anywhere to go go but on the rifle. Kaskade, meanwhile, has a new two-part barrel for her rifle, but the scope and rear section come from Siege Chromia. Kaskade also comes with Chromia's grenades. Combining the grenades with the back of the rifle and using the new parts as a separate gun allows Kaskade to dual-wield two smaller guns. On that note, Kaskade shares accessories with Siege Chromia because she's a repaint of Siege Chromia. Aside from the new barrel to make Chromia's gun a sniper rifle, the only remolded part on Kaskade is her head, which is pretty comic book accurate. Kaskade was a pretty minor character overall, though, appearing in only a handful of panels, drawn inconsistently, and never with a clear view of her whole body or in alt mode. So while I'm pretty sure she wasn't supposed to look so much like Chromia, without knowing exactly what she was supposed to look like Chromia is as good a guess as any, especially since Chromia sports a Cybertronian alt mode. Even so, I think Chromia is still an unfortunate choice to remold. Fact is, Siege Chromia wasn't a great toy in the first place. Her alt mode is weirdly long and skinny, as the bulk of her transformation is unfolding her backpack over her entire lower body. Which means she's very much a shellformer, with like 80% of her alt mode on her back in bot mode. I might suggest that Kaskade would have been worth picking up anyway, due to a lack of female Transformers, but even that's changing as one of Hasbro's designers mentioned that they're consciously trying to release more females (hence why Prime Arcee, Elita-1, Axlegrease, Shadowstriker, Strongarm, and Nemesis were all mainline releases but we're still waiting for a good Gears). No, the real reason to pick up Kaskade is because she comes packaged with Javelin. Unlike Kaskade, Javelin isn't totally new to the rebooted IDW continuity- her origins go back to their previous continuity where she had a minor role in the popular More Than Meets the Eye series (even appearing on the cover of issue 41). That said, I feel comfortable telling you that this Javelin is meant to be the one in the rebooted comics, where she was notably hit in the head by sniper fire from Kaskade. Like Kaskade, Javelin is a retool, but I was a bit surprised to see that rather than reuse a War for Cybertron or Legacy figure they actually started with Studio Series Bumblebee Arcee for the base. Well, Arcee was a cool figure, so I can roll with that. Her arms and her body from the waist down are Arcee, and her wide hips and weird toes are hardly a match for Alex Milne's design. However, her head, torso, and backpack are retooled and significantly more accurate Like her bot mode, her alt mode winds up being a mix of accurate and not. The two wheels in the front are right, but in the comics they're spaced apart. The cockpit is accurate, and in the comics her rifle really does perch on top like that, but she's a little long and messy behind the cockpit. The engines with the pink fins on the sides are right but the arms poking out the back and the visible torso not so much. What she should have back there, but doesn't, is a third wheel. Still, this is one of those case where the character is pretty minor and we're lucky to get even this much remolded. I do wonder, though, why Hasbro felt it necessary to push out Javelin and Kaskade to boost the number of female Transformers, but fan favorites like Slipstream and Nautica are still no-shows. (I wouldn't mind new versions of Firestar, Moonracer, Greenlight, and Lancer, either). We're concluding the night with one more multipack, this one a Pulse-exclusive Shattered Glass set with Rodimus, Sideswipe, and Whisper. Rodimus is a very minimal repaint of Studio Series 86 Hot Rod. While Rodimus did appear in the IDW Shattered Glass comics I'll note that he's actually one of the first characters to get the Shattered Glass treatment, as Classics Rodimus was redecoed in one of the original Botcon 2008 box sets. As far as I know, Shattered Glass Rodimus sports a goatee because Mirror Universe Spock did, and the Star Trek Mirror Universe was the primary inspiration for Shattered Glass. As for the color scheme, while I want to deride him for doing the Nemesis Prime thing and swapping his standard colors for black, gray, and red with purple or teal accents, Fun Publications wasn't actually being that lazy when they came up with the deco. Rather, Shattered Glass Rodimus is based on Titanium Series Menasor, an SDCC redeco of Titanium Rodimus Prime. Rodimus has all the accessories and gimmicks Hot Rod does... two guns, a buzzsaw, a built-in welding torch, a Matrix that doesn't store anywhere, a trio of effects parts, and the flip-out visor. Like I said, aside from deco the only change is he bearded head. I kind of don't know how I feel about this one. By and large, Shattered Glass has been a way for Hasbro to sell us the exact same figures with minimal retooling, and despite buying this set I think the novelty of the Shattered Glass line had worn off well before now. But it's hard to deny that Hot Rod looks pretty good in black and gray. Hot Rod comes packaged with Sideswipe, and Sideswipe's got a bit more retooling with a new head, new chest, and new clubs. These are all details from the original Shattered Glass Sideswipe toy, also from a Botcon '08 set. Like that original toy, the damaged Autobot insignia is molded into the his chest, with a raised spot for the smaller Decepticon emblem. These features come from the fact that the original Shattered Glass Sideswipe was a redeco of Armada Wheeljack, and knowing that Hasbro sunk money into that hood, those clubs, and that head I wouldn't be surprised if we see this figure again as Wheeljack soon. The Countach-esque elements of the non-remolded parts aren't an exact match for the Armada Wheeljack mold, but Hasbro did a very good job copying the deco from the original Shattered Glass toy. Oh, and there is one other minor remolded detail besides the hood in this mode. The door flaps on the sides now have slots cut into them, and this allows you to plug the clubs onto them. Not quite as tidy as the original toy, but it's not the worst thing I've seen and it does make the figure a bit more distinct from the standard Sideswipe mold. Actually, while the original toy's clubs did store in the sides they were a firing missile gimmick then, but here they almost remind me of the way the lower part of the sides of the car form ROTF/DOTM Studio Series Sideswipe's blades. Whisper is the third figure in the set, and in a way the most impressive. I'm told that he does share a few parts with Visper, the Siege Micromaster based on G1 Whisper, but he's mostly a brand new figure meant to be the original Shattered Glass Whisper, which itself was a repaint of the Armada Minicon Wind Sheer. There are some differences... the wings on his backpack stick up instead of laying over his shoulders, more blue is showing on his thighs, the blue on his feet is on his heels instead of his toes, and his shoulders are blue instead of gray while his forearms are gray instead of blue. In jet mode the yellow on his nose goes a bit further back, and with no wing parts on his shoulders there's a bit of a break in the delta shape, but for the most part it's still pretty close to the original. What's more, I think his articulation is a bit better than the previous Siege Micromasters. His shoulders are ball joints that rotate and move laterally 90 degrees, and he actually has elbows that bend 90 degrees. His hips are also ball joints that move 90 degrees laterally and over 90 degrees forward and backward, and his knees bend 90 degrees. While Whisper is in his alt mode, you can flip his legs back around to lie on top of his at mode instead of under it. This gives you access to a 5mm peg on his underside, which in turn allows you to plug him into any available 5mm port on a larger figure (though he is meant to be Sideswipe's Minicon partner). Between the Siege version and the Earth version we've seen this mold an awful lot (by my count, something like five times for Siege, four for the Earth version, plus this one based on the Earth version). It remains a very solid mold, though, and Whisper is definitely the best Micromaster/Minicon Hasbro's done since Siege. I don't know that I'd actually recommend this set if you're not really into Shattered Glass, but I'm preemptively saying that when we see this mold again as Armada Wheeljack you should probably pick him up.

I'm not interested in any of them. I mean, I get that the G1 toys often looked pretty different than the animation, but modern toys are filling that need pretty well with better engineering and proportions to boot. To me, any interest in a reissued G1 toy is for it to be as close to the original release as possible. The Insecticon reissues don't evoke any real reaction from me, since I have the G1 toys. But I was pretty frustrated Hound got released in cartoon colors when I actually really need a straight G1 reissue.

Something I've had to come to terms with is the fact that Legends are the new hotness when it comes to unlicensed 3P Transformers, but also that I just don't have it in me to supplement the MP collection (or, more drastically, liquidate it) and start over on a new scale. Every now and then, though, something catches my eye, and it in this case it's a figure labeled MK-06 T-Rex Dinosaur, that's either from a company called Mike or the figure's name is Mike. I'm not sure. So, yeah. It's a modified KO of Newage's Ymir, their Legends Grimlock, and Newage gets most of the credit for the aesthetics, which are very Sunbow. This means he's got yellow for his chest and dino claws, including the middle section, smallish wings, long arms, thin proportions, dark gray thighs, and minimal details. Surprisingly, Mike (I don't really care what the original intentions were, I'm calling him Mike) isn't any bigger or smaller than Ymir, but nor is he a straight up 1:1 KO. I had to do a little research to be sure what the changes even were, but as near as I can tell the major differences seem to be that the mechanical details on the red strips on his wings have been replaced with a smooth red stripe and similar details on his shoulders were replaced with a simple flat, circle, all in an effort to look even more Sunbow accurate. The other big difference is that they added covers to the insides of the lower legs so you don't see the folded-up tail. Regarding that, I do think it makes Mike look a little cleaner, but it adds a bit of extra headache during transformation. Regarding the other changes I'm not exactly in favor. There's such a thing as too Sunbow, but I seem to be a minority in thinking like that. Another change from Ymir seems to be the accessories. Mike comes with a flame accessory, a hilt accessory, swappable open hands, a fish, a toy-style missile launcher (molded as one piece, no detachable missile), and a rifle, which is what Ymir came with. But Mike also comes with a crown, a replacement translucent chest piece, a replacement translucent dino neck, a cloth apron with bowtie, a serving tray, a second hilt with a translucent blade, and a helmet, plug, and wire for Grimlock's intelligence transfer device. Most of that stuff is just going to wind up in a baggie, though. A lot of those accessories are for dino mode. The crown is ill-fitting. The wire is a little too thick to actually connect the helmet and plug. While I do like the actual sword blade, NewAge's intention was that the flame effect would go on a hilt and it'd look like his sword was on fire. His gun looks kind of awful, with simple shapes and basically no details, it's a shining example of something that's too Sunbow. That said, I do think I prefer the translucent chest. But I digress. Mike's articulation head is on a ball joint that can swivel, tilt down and sideways slightly, and look straight up 90 degrees. His shoulders rotate and can move laterally 90 degrees. His biceps swivel, and his elbows bend just over 90 degrees. His wrists swivel. His waist swivels, and he's got 90 degrees of ab crunch. His hips can move forward, backward, and laterally just under 90 degrees. His thighs swivel, and his knees bend 90 degrees. His feet can tilt up but not down, and his ankles pivot 90 degrees. His wings can be angled upward, but the dino head on his back prevents them from folding any farther back. I presume this is the same as Ymir. His weapons fit into either closed fist, the swords (both hilts) slightly loose, the guns nice and snug. The hands are just pegged in, so swapping them is as easy as pulling them off and swapping the other hands in. Same goes for the chest. Broadly speaking, Mike's (and by extention Ymir's) transformation is your typical Grimlock; legs turn around and the insides come out to make the tail, his hands tuck away (if you kept the default closed fists on) and his arms become his legs, his backpack moves up and his wings close over his head to form the upper dino body. There's some new tricks, though. It's debatable whether or not these tricks paid off. The one that stands out to me the most is that, in an effort to take his relatively thinner forearms and bulk them up as dino legs, his forearm splays open and the interior rotates around so that when it closes back up it's stopped from closing as far. Looks fine from the outside, but from the inside it leaves some unsightly gaps. Aside from that, though, I don't have much to complain about. A bit overly-Sunbow, sure, but his proportions are pretty good. His tail is longer than a lot of Grimlock toys tend to be, which I approve of, and it's got a few hinges so it can waggle to the sides a little. Going beyond the tail, his neck swivels, but that's only good when he's standing upright. He can look down a little and look up about 90 degrees, so he can do more forward-leaning poses. His jaws open. His shoulders rotate and are hinged for lateral movement, with bicep swivels and 90 degree elbow bends. His wrists are ball joints for swiveling, limited upward tilt, and 90 degrees of downward tilt. Because his robot arms are now legs they can swivel at the hips and splay out 90 degrees laterally, and he's got thigh swivels. AFAIK, though, Ymir's only knee articulation was his elbow, which bends the wrong way for dino mode. The people that made Mike tried to fix that, and with the joint fully extended he can bend his knee slightly in the correct direction, but only slightly. His claws can move up and down, but he doesn't have any dino ankle tilt. There's a peg hole on his back that you're supposed to be able to plug one of his guns into; on my copy the hole is too tight. A post on a hinge allows you to attach the flame effect so it looks like he's breathing fire, but there doesn't seem to be anywhere to store the sword hilt. I can't figure out how to take his neck apart to swap for the translucent piece, and the instructions don't mention it. You can tie his apron on, and the apron has a little pocket for the fish. In the pictures I've seen of Ymir the fish is just stuck between his dino hands and relying on the tension of the joints to hold it in place, so maybe that's an improvement. Then again, all you can do with the serving tray is balance it on his claws. It doesn't lock in place. The helmet to the intelligence transfer device fits pretty snugly on his head. Speaking of his head, he has one more gimmick in dino mode. You can lift up the top of his head, and inside you'll find that his eyes are blue paint on a translucent part. The translucent part swivels so that you can display him with red-painted eyes instead. While I do think options are nice, if I'm being honest the robot mode didn't get the same options, and given how Sunbow this thing is, I think I'd have preferred they just stuck with blue eyes and probably fewer seems in his head. I have kind of mixed feelings about this figure. On the one hand, it's pretty clear that NewAge designed a figure with excellent robot articulation and a transformation that makes for a very solid dinosaur mode. On the other hand, gimmicks like the forearm transformation hurt more than they help, the lack of proper dino knees is a bummer, and the overall aesthetic leans a little too far into the cartoon for my tastes, especially his gun. The result is somehow both one of the best and also the most disappointing Grimlock figures I've experienced, and those issues are NewAge's, not the result of being a KO... the only issues that I can directly attribute to it being a KO are some joints that are a bit looser than I'd like (but still perfectly capable of holding poses). With Ymir retailing at over $100 at most US stores, for a figure smaller than most Hasbro Deluxes, I'd have a really hard time overlooking the figure's flaws (subjective though most of them are), and I'd probably tell you that I don't recommend him, I'd maybe wait and see what Magic Square will eventually come up with (not that anyone would listen, because Ymir seems to have sold out everywhere anyway. But, even though Mike is mostly Ymir, Mike's not actually Ymir, and I picked him up for for around $25 shipped. His flaws are a lot easier to overlook at that price, and the reality is that his articulation (if not his aesthetic) is so much better than the Mech Fans Toys Grimlock, and the I'd (again, subjectively) say the dino mode is better all-around. So what's a "no" at $100 is a pretty easy recommend at a quarter of that price.

Just one Dr. Wu figure to review today, but it's a doozy. It's Tactical Commander, the Extreme Warfare version of Ultra Magnus. Tactical Commander is, at heart, a repaint of Prime Commander, their Optimus Prime. Honestly, Dr. Wu's really milked this mold, as I believe it's also been released in Nemesis Prime, Toxitron, Evangelion, BAPE green, Sleep, Golden Lagoon, and Shattered Glass colors. Technically, this variant, now referred to as "toy color," has also been released as a cab-only figure under Prime Commander's model number (DW-E04W) but when I picked it up it was being released in limited quantities with a trailer with the new model number DW-E23T. As the name suggests, the colors are based on the G1 toy's blue-faced, all-white inner robot with blue on the pelvis as per other modern interpretations of white-repainted Optimus Primes. Two additional variants were released at the same time, another version of Magnus that appears to be the new base model DW-E23 that seems to be based on the old Generations toy, replacing the white lower legs and feet with blue, painting his hands darker, using silver for his face, and painting the details on the pelvis yellow. The other is DW-E23D, a Delta Magnus version. For the base figure, not much has changed since DW-E04. The mold itself is identical to Prime Commander, and as near as I can tell the colors are identical to DW-E04W. The second biggest difference is that E04 came with an ion rifle, all the E23 variants have an axe instead. Transformation is unchanged. In alt mode there's one additional difference in the cab between this version and the standard E-23 release, and that's that it has the cartoon-style red bumper. Now, I did say that the second biggest difference between DW-E04W and DW-E23T is that the newer release has an axe instead of a rifle. But the biggest difference is that E04W was only a cab, while all the variants of E23 come with a trailer. And not a simple redeco of Prime's trailer, but a whole new car carrier. At a glance, especially at this scale, it's perfectly fine, but if we're going to over-analyze I might note that there's no way to move the missiles to the front of the trailer, that the trailer is missing the red trim along the bottom, that the trailer's ramp doesn't open and you can't actually put any car in it, and that even if you could open the ramp there's some kibble in the way that'd still prevent you from putting any cars in. But the trailer connects to the cab the same way Prime's does, the cab can turn on the trailer, the whole thing roles, and there's a spot on the side where you can plug in a new Magnus-style rifle. Note that the Magnus rifle has a peg and not the clip that Prime's rifle does, so the white Optimus can't wield it, so the inner robot just has the axe. And the axe doesn't appear to have any storage on the alt mode; there is a small peg on the side, but it's too small for any of the holes on the trailer. But that's ok! Because this set is more than EW04W with a trailer to make him look more Magnus-y in alt mode. Pull the guns and missile launchers off, then the trailer breaks into four pieces. Fold the cab's head in like you're going to alt mode, then twist his arms around so that his shoulders are behind him like they'd be for alt mode, but turned upside down with his forearms across the top of the cab. The rear-most section of the trailer turns into boots that clip over the cab's lower legs. The middle section has a flap that folds down, then it has tabs that attach it to the cab's arms. The rest of the trailer clips over the cab's pelvis, then the sides swing around at lock into tabs that are on the the sides of the piece you just attached, while the top of the trailer folds in a few spots to form arms. And boom, now you've turned a white Optimus repaint into a proper Ultra Magnus. He's gained a bit of height, more proportionally than Kingdom Magnus over Earthrise Optimus, or MP-36 over MP-22, but I suspect the size difference is going to be similar to Combiner Wars Magnus or the upcoming Commander-class Magnus over Earthrise Optimus. While I'm mentioning the Commander-class and MP-22, I might suggest that Tactical Commander has better proportions than either of those, or at the very least better than MP-22, despite being an armored Prime instead of an all-in-one design. The differences between E23T and the standard E23 are less pronounced when he's armored up. As near as I can tell, the standard version of E23 uses a slightly lighter blue plastic and he lacks the red-painted details on the shins. Also, there's a cutout on the boots to allow for flaps on the sides of the inner robot's legs to fit into. Because the standard release has blue legs on the inner robot the armored robot will have solid blue lower legs, but since E23T's legs are white the armored robot winds up with white strips on the sides of his legs. I do suppose the back could be neater. The inner robot's head is pretty visible, although no worse than truck mode. Then again, at around $30 this is one of the cheapest Ultra Magnus figures on the market, cheaper than even Hasbro's releases, and it doesn't have a butt flap like MP-22. Considering that this figure is a smaller figure wearing his trailer at a very tiny scale, articulation isn't too bad. His head's on a ball joint that can swivel, tilt sideways slightly, look down slightly more, and look 90 degrees straight up. His ball-jointed shoulders can swivel, but only move laterally around 45 degrees. His biceps swivel, and his elbows bend 90 degrees. No wrist articulation, and no waist articulation, which isn't really surprising given that the base figure doesn't have waist articulation, either. His armor restricts his hips slightly, so he can get almost 90 degrees forward and backward on ball joints, and about 60 degrees laterally. Likewise, his knees are limited to about 45 degrees of bend with his boots on. No up/down tilt on his feet, but he's got 45 degrees of ankle pivot, which is certainly better than Hasbro would do at this size. And, just to remind you guys, this size is really small. Even with his armor on Tactical Commander is shorter than a Hasbro Core-class. The inner robot (or just regular Prime Commander) is smaller than Earthrise Prime's lower leg, with figures like Cosmos being tinier still. So, yes, Tactical Commander has his flaws. But despite his flaws he still executes the white Prime to cartoon Ultra Magnus extremely well. Fairly simple engineering makes him (and really all the Dr Wu figures) toys that you can have fun playing with, their small size makes it easy to find space for them (and is great for making your Titans seem big), and their relatively low prices make them borderline impulse purchases. While I'm not interested in purchasing every repaint under the sun, I'm looking forward to announced figures in the line like Wheeljack, Inferno, and Megatron, and expect that I'll happily snatch up whatever Season 1-3 figures Dr Wu chooses to do in this line. Regarding Tactical Commander, I'd say it's the most ambitious release in the Extreme Warfare line so far, and it's paid off as one of the best releases. It's honestly a bit nuts that Dr. Wu can release a 3.5" (9cm) Ultra Magnus for $30 that shows up a $50 Hasbro Leader-class, but there you go. Highly recommended.

Over in the official thread I reviewed a new set with a Core-class Optimus Prime and Bumblebee, and as I often do when reviewing Hasbro's Core stuff I brought up again how Dr. Wu is basically doing the same thing but better and smaller with his Extreme Warfare line. So I thought it's a good time to look a few more recent Extreme Warefare releases. Up first we have Elegy (left) and Propel (right), who come together in a pack. They're retools of Dr. Wu's previous Seeker mold, exemplified here with Starscream and covered here. There's not a ton to talk about... as is often the case, they get new cone-shaped heads and they put different wings on the hinges, and in this case Dr. Wu gave them new accessories to better match their toy-style weapons. But there was nothing remolded on the chests or knees, so they lack the cartoon-style extra chest intakes and taller knee pads. They're also lacking the cartoon's painted knee details, but they're otherwise fine, with the same sorts of pros and cons that the season 1 Seekers had. Of course, the season 2 Seekers aren't complete with Ramjet, and for that Dr Wu gives us Turbo. Once again, we have toy-style accessories, and we're missing cartoon details from the chest and knees, but it's a pretty good representation overall. I might nitpick that his hands should be black, but this is a detail that even the Legacy toy missed, and I prefer all-white to black forearms (ToyWorld/Zeta) or all-black arms (Maketoys). Likewise, while I've seen Ramjet's thighs portrayed as both black and white I think I prefer the black that Dr. Wu went with. But aside from new wings, heads, and accessories engineering and articulation is the same on Turbo as it is on Propel and Elegy, and the same as it is on the G1 Seekers. Which, yeah, isn't the most cartoon-accurate, the most articulate, or the most impressive engineering, but when they're this small and you're getting two Seekers for around $25* they're definitely good enough to recommend as tiny figures that you can display with your Titan-class toys to make them look bigger. *Not in Turbo's case, though. I suppose Dr. Wu could have included a Ramjet repaint, since Hasbro themselves have released theirs in three other colors. But, while Dr. Wu isn't above repaints, seems he'd rather give you a different G1 character you might want more than a G2 repaint. So Turbo comes packed with Space, an itty-bitty take on Cosmos! Which is a lot more respect than he got from Hasbro, who shortpacked him in a store-exclusive subline. As you'd expect from a figure this small with a low budget by 3P standards he's not 100% cartoon accurate. I can nitpick that the yellow paint on his arms doesn't cover the joints, or that his entire pelvis is green instead of just his crotch. He's got a little backpack. But really, I think he looks pretty good for a figure that could be twice his size and price. His articulation isn't the best. His head swivels, no tilt. His shoulders are ball joints, which swivel fine but don't have a lot of clearance for lateral movement. His elbows bend 90 degrees. His waist has a little swivel, but it's mostly blocked by a sliding mechanism used in his transformation. His hips are ball joints which can go 90 degrees forward and backward, and just a little shy of that laterally. What play you get moving the leg around the ball is also all the thigh swivel you get. His knees bend 90 degrees. His ankles are ball joints, so his feet can swivel and tilt down, and he gets about 30 degrees of ankle pivot. No accessories are included for Cosmos, which ultimately is fine. I mean, the G1 toy didn't have any, and he's got his built-in wrist guns/thrusters. Transformation is a piece of cake. His hips slide back so when he lifts his legs up his feet are where they should be, his arms swing down into place on some armatures, and his backpack spins around to fill in the back. His head simply slides into to the top, and you've got a cute little saucer. The reality of the way he transforms and the overall simple nature of the toy means he's missing the yellow stripes on the saucer (that were actually relics of the G1 toy's legs showing). Likewise, no silver spot with an Autobot insignia, and somewhat visible hands on the back. Still, the details you'd want are mostly there, and the proportions seem pretty decent. Also, the smaller something is the more forgiving I can be if some tiny details aren't perfect, or if the articulation isn't quite what I'd like, and I'll point out that in robot mode Space is only a little over an inch and a half tall (about 4cm). I actually think that Space is one of Dr. Wu's better releases so far, so I actually like the set of Space and Turbo better than Elegy and Propel, but they're both worth picking up.