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mikeszekely

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  1. mikeszekely
    Eh, I was going to save it for tomorrow or Monday (though I guess it technically is tomorrow now, since it's nearly 2:00am here), but I'll be busy and this guy comes in the same box as Craner, so... here's Tipper, Mecha Invasion's Long Haul. At a glance, you're probably thinking, "yeah, that's Long Haul all right." Really, the first thing that I noticed that was less-than-G1 were his colors. Rather than being almost entirely green with a silver head and black arms, the green is broken up with a black pelvis, silver thighs, green forearms, and silver hands (kind of ironic, given that the other three have black hands instead of their usual green, then the first guy that should have black hands is the first guy that doesn't). There's also some painted details like the silver trim around his feet... I dig it, it looks like treads on boots. Tipper is more jacked than G1 Long Haul, but without the dumpy proportions of Combiner Wars Long Haul or even his GT counterpart here. Anyway... I'm embarrassed to say that I didn't really notice it until I had him in hand, but Tipper's chest isn't the usual truck grill you'd find on a more G1 Long Haul. You know who else didn't have a truck grill for a chest? Bayverse Long Haul. Bayverse Long Haul also had his wheels on the backs of his shoulders or shoulder blades (kind of both, they're big tires). Which is exactly what we find on Tipper. While we're at it, on Bayverse Long Haul part of the bed flap that stick out over the cab sat behind his head in bot mode. And yep, we're doing that on Tipper, too. So I feel like we're getting back to the mix of G1 and Bayverse that was missing from Craner. While we're focused on his back, you'll note that the hollowed-out plastic on his fists. Guess Hasbro's the not the only ones cutting costs by cutting plastic. Tipper gets this gun, which is decidedly less phallic than Craner's. No real complaints here. Tipper's head is on a ball joint with good upward and sideways tilt, but downward tilt's a little limited. Of course it swivels, too, but he's got a bit less clearance so he only gets about 45 degrees in either direction comfortably, and maybe 90 if his head is tilted up as much as it goes and you don't mind his chin scraping the raised bits near his shoulders. Speaking of shoulders, just like the other three he's got rotation and 90 degrees of lateral movement, but the lateral movement comes from a transformation joint on the wrong side of the swivel, giving him "Hot Rod Shoulders." His biceps swivel, his elbows bend over 90 degrees, and his wrists swivel. His waist swivels, and like Craner he's got no ab crunch. His hips go forward 90 degrees, backward a little less than that due to some kibble getting in the way, and over 90 degrees laterally, all on strong ratchets. His thighs swivel. His knees bend 90 degrees on ratchets. His feet can tilt down, but not up, and he's got nearly 90 degrees of ankle pivot. And just like the previous three, the peg handle of his gun fits into the hole of his non-articulated fist. It's cute how tiny his gun looks in his hand, given that it's not actually that much different in size than the others. Also like the other three he's got light-up eyes that are turned on/off via a magnet in his gun. Tipper's transformation, at least between bot and truck, is a return to the simple, satisfying engineering experienced with Loader and Mixer. I've heard some complaints that, like Craner, bits of the alt mode are prone to coming untabbed, but that hasn't been my experience at all. Tipper's a solid dump truck that could be used to bludgeon someone. Much like Craner, I can't find a specific make and model for Tipper's alt mode, though I think it's mostly me Liebherr vibes. That said, with it's tall, flat face and the ladder/stairs it's clearly meant to be a larger mining-type hauler rather than the G1 Long Haul's much smaller Hitatchi truck, which is certainly in line with Bayverse Long Haul's Caterpillar 773B mode. From the front and sides I think it mostly looks pretty good, though why they didn't paint the ladder on the side of the grill to match the stairs going across it is a bit of a head-scratcher. Things are a little messier at the back, specifically in the bed. To be fair, though, I think it's a better than GT's Long Haul. Tipper at least has some room in his bed, whereas GT's couldn't even contain all of his own kibble. And while Tipper rolls great on his big rubber tires his bed isn't articulated. No tipping for Tipper. Tipper does have storage for his weapon, though. On the underside, between his silver thighs, you'll find a black flap. Open it, and you can see a slot on the underside of Tipper's crotch. A tab on the back of his gun plugs it into that slot, then you can close the flap back over it. Tipper will form the waist, pelvis, and thighs of the combined mode, no fun surprises there. So, as with Craner, I'll cover it in a review of the entire combined mode later. This second set has turned out to be interesting, because if Craner is the weakest MI release so far, then Tipper is probably my favorite. It's not that he does anything particularly different or better than Loader or Mixer, I just think his bot mode looks the best (versus Loader, who I think is too skinny and loses something for having his bucket form his feet instead of a more traditional backpack). In any case, while not everyone has room in their heart or on their shelf for a set of stylized Constructions, I can't help but point out that Mecha Invasion's set of Hook and Long Haul run about the same as Hasbro's own Commander-class two-pack of same. And, sure, the Hasbro set comes with an additional trailer of combiner kibble for Long Haul to pull, Mecha Invasion's Constructicons are significantly bigger. That isn't to say that one is necessarily better than the other (I'll be getting Hasbro's, too), just that for a 3rd party product where normally just one of the two would cost even more, MI's Constructions are still a great value for sturdy, solid, extremely playable figures. Tipper, like Craner, Loader, and Mixer, is an easy recommend, and I can't wait for the third set (which will very likely be out by spring).
  2. mikeszekely
    As much as I enjoyed checking out a design that looks as cool as Dream Star Toys' Shovel Fighter, I'd be lying if I told you I wasn't more excited to check out the second set of Mecha Invasion's boys... which I'm going to do now, starting with Craner, their version of Hook. Compared to Loader and Mixer (aka Scrapper and Mixmaster), Craner's design is pretty conventional. He's got the flat head, purple torso, (mostly) green arms with wheels on the elbows, purple torso, silver thighs, and silver toes of Sunbow Hook. His shins are green, like the toy, and he's got a big-ol crane boom on his back like both. The biggest divergence from G1 are his shins, though. Rather than the silver lumps with a cab on his left foot of the cartoon, or the green slabs which also had a cab on the left one, Craner's shins are kind of backward; they're the underside of his alt mode (with guards and stabilizers folded over his knees). Meanwhile, the cab that's usually on the front of his left leg is actually on the back of his right leg. There are some other, minor differences... he doesn't have that shelf over his shoulders that G1 Hook does, and the wheels on the sides of his shoulders are on the back. On the whole, though, it's probably even less stylized than the Generation Toy version. When I reviewed Loader and Mixer, I noted that they had several Bayverse influences, almost like they were G1/Bayverse hybrids. So it stands to reason that Craner would have to be more traditionally G1- there really isn't a Bayverse Hook to drawn on. Craner's weapon is this... unfortunate-looking gun. Seriously, is this review going to need a NSFW tag? It's even worse when I point out that the silver barrel can collapse into the black stock. Craner's articulation is pretty much on par for the set. His head's on a ball joint with decent up/down/sideways tilt. His shoulders rotate and you can tell that the designer had the same "use the hinge in the chest" mentality that gave the Loader and Mixer 90 degrees of "Hot Rod Shoulders," but due to his transformation he does have maybe 45 degrees of proper lateral shoulder movement. His biceps swivel, and his elbows bend a little over 90 degrees. His wrists swivel; there's an additional hinge mid-forearm that swings inward, to help his fists clear the gas tanks on the outsides of his arms. His waist swivels. No ab crunch this time. His hips can go a little over 90 degrees forward with his hip skirts on swivels to get out of the way, and a little under 90 degrees backward due to his backpack. They ratchet laterally a little over 90 degrees. His thigs swivel, and his knees bend 90 degrees on ratchets. His toes can tilt down due to how they transform, but not up. He's got about 60 degrees of ankle pivot. Craner can hold his sex toy gun in either hand by simply plugging the 5mm port handle into either fist. And just like the previous two, his eyes have a light up gimmick. This time the batteries were included, but it works exactly the same- insert the battery into the LED module, stuff the module into his head, put the cover over it, and turn it on/off using a magnet in his gun. Craner has a little trick up his sleeve. Where other Hooks simply have the boom dangling from his back, Craner's can flip over his shoulder. There's a scope that folds out from the side of his boom, and a cannon folds out from the underside and plugs into the front, giving him a massive shoulder cannon. That'll teach you to make fun of his gun! From the waist up, Craner's transformation is just as simple as Loader and Mixer's. From the waist down it feels like there's a bit more origami going on with the panels in his legs, but it's nothing too difficult. That said, going from truck to robot is going to be a bit more frustrating, and his toes seem very difficult to flip out on my copy. G1 Hook's Nissan UNIC crane truck mode has never been particularly exciting, and G1 Hook's particular version of it loses at lot of what details the actual truck does have. So I appreciate some touches like the silver skid plate between the cab and the crane controls, the metal fuel tanks, and the stabilizers. And I don't even mind that Craner's cab and crane controls are on the opposite side as G1 Hook's (but, it kind of makes sense, Hook being based on a Japanese crane would have the cab on right, because Japanese drive on the left, but a Chinese company like Mecha Invasion would put the cab on the left because Chinese (like Americans) drive on the right). But I have to be honest and say that in some ways his crane mode is a bit unrefined. Like, sure, there's a molded and painted grill, and painted headlights, but the lights molded onto hinges that stuck out from the front of the cab, and there's gaps under the front. And there rear sort of has painted taillights and even a spot that could be a license plate... on what's very obviously Craner's purple chest. Plus, while the other members of this team have been rock solid in alt mode, Craner feels just a bit less so. He's mostly fine, but if you squeeze him in certain spots things start to come undone. You can play with him, though. He rolls just fine on his rubber tires. The crane can swivel, and it moves up/down on ratchet. The boom can extend, and although there's no string or chain that can lower the hook, the hook is hinged at both ends of the black part for posing. What's more, the cannon in the boom can still be deployed while in crane mode. As for his other handheld, er, "weapon," there are tabs on either side. Retract the shaft, and there's some vacant space between his arms on the underside of the vehicle. You'll find a slot there that you can plug the gun into. With Loader and Mixer I talked about their combined modes when I did their reviews... I'm not going to do that with Craner. Mainly because, by himself, his combined mode is kind of a floppy mess. He needs a friend to latch on to. But also because, unlike Loader and Mixer shattering your expectations by becoming arms instead of legs, Craner isn't really doing anything unusual here. He's forming the upper torso and and head of the gestalt. So, after the third set is released, I'll do a review just for the whole combiner, and we'll talk more about it then. For now, all I'll say is that the there's no partsforming. The combined head is inside Craner... actually, the black details on Craner's abs are actually the top of the head! So far, Craner is probably my least favorite of the set. That's not to say he's bad! He's just less good, I guess. His alt mode is just a little less refined, his transformation isn't quite as smooth (though, again, that's relative to the rest of this set... it's still a breeze compared to most 3P toys!), and there's just a few more little annoyances like his toes being hard to get out and his chest not staying tabbed in when you handle him. But also, we're talking about a fun, solid toy that comes with another figure (who we'll be looking at very soon) for just $90... that's two guys for less than one of Dream Star Toys' or X-Transbots' Constructicons, or all four released so far for less than just Fans Toys' Scrapper. Craner's very much worth the prices of admission, so he gets a recommend from me.
  3. mikeszekely
    Yes. But we should be able to confidently say that it's some upgrade in raw performance without DLSS and Frame Gen over a 3070. Because, even if it's native performance is only on par with a 4070, the 4070 was already on par with the 3080.
  4. mikeszekely
    I'm happy for the Beast Wars fans that are one step closer to completing their Season 1 cast, but I'm personally not doing MP Beast Wars. I'm curious about Predaking, but it's going to depend on a couple of factors... just how big is it? How do the individual bots look? What kind of price are we talking? And Basara Prime... yeesh. Jet or truck? It's got a head that's a hybrid of Prime and the Fire Valk, with the Fire' Valk's hips for shoulder pads? But the usual Prime truck-window boobs? And I can't shake the notion that I've seen that chest, with those shapes for the windows and that corkscrew between them, somewhere before...
  5. mikeszekely
    It's a newer Micro SD standard. Basically means faster read/write.
  6. mikeszekely
    Plus their PR team mentioned "potential" layoffs. When PR says "potential" you should read that as "definite." I can't help but be curious how they got to this state. Usually an engine switch mid-development (which, like I said, results in cancellations more than anything else) is brought on by scope creep, publisher interference, licensor interference, or the game turning out so bad that they go back to the drawing board. I know it's kind of morbid (and I do feel for the dev team), but I sincerely hope Matt McMuscles eventually does a "What Happened?" about Reactivate. Also, I still want a toy of the Megatron they designed for the game.
  7. mikeszekely
    Based on the reference card, a 5070ti should fit in your case and you probably won't need a PSU upgrade, though you'll be bumping up against the limit. Anything more than that and you'll have to check the measurements for the specific vendor's card, and you'll definitely have to upgrade the PSU along with it.
  8. mikeszekely
    A few months ago, when I reviewed the first set of Mecha Invasion Constructions (set 2 is on the way, BTW), I said that I was like 75% sure that Mecha Invasion was Generation Toy. But apparently they're not the only ones! And you want to know the weird part? After doing the Constructicons (well, technically after their Protectobots) GT split apart, and both of their offshoots are doing more Constructicons. Given that I've already decided that I'm in for Mecha Invasion, MMC, and Hasbro's own Constructicons on top of already owning a bunch of other Devastators, do I really need another one? Maybe not, but Scrapper's my favorite Constructicon, so I figured I'd at least take a look at Shovel Fighter, Dream Star Toys take on him. Yeah, apparently Dream Star Toys is also a GT spinoff. I didn't pay attention to them before because, frankly, the Aerialbots are one of my least favorite combiner teams and I wasn't interested in owning a set of super-stylized versions of them. Ironically, with MMC's pending Constructicons filling my MP Sunbow niche the fact that DST's Scrapper is so stylized is exactly what attracted me to him. With the shovel on his back, large shoulder wheels, and largely purple torso with green limbs, he's arguably more G1 than Mecha Invasion's "what if Bayverse was more G1-ish?" take, but the boxy nature of the actual G1 design has been given the more organic shapes of Don Figueroa's IDW-era work (though I should point out that this is NOT Scrapper's IDW design). His size, heft, and gorgeous metallic paint give him more of a "premium" look and shelf presence than his GT and MI cousins. I'm not without complaints, though. One of my bigger gripes is the kibble on his back. I mean, yeah, there's the shovel... that's part of Scrapper's design and I'm content giving it a pass. But there's a second set of hinged up bits coming off his butt (it's actually the combiner joint). I'm also not keen on his eyes. There's no clear plastic on the back of his head so I assume that he has an LED and not light piping. However, the instructions make no mention of it, so I don't know what battery or batteries it takes, and I don't know if there's a physical switch I can't find or some kind of magnetic one like the Mecha Invasion guys. My other complaints are, somewhat interestingly, complaints I've had with GT's designs going all the way back to their original Devastator. There are some bits of alt mode that simply do not lock into place in bot mode. The most obvious one that's probably jumping out at you right away is the railing just sticking out of the sides of his feet, but another example are the ball-jointed calves that are just draped over the wheels. While I've compared Shovel Fighter with his relatives, I know for a lot of people Constructor has been their Devastator for the last several years as the only "MP-scale" option. Just thought I'd point out that Shovel Fighter is even bigger than ToyWorld's Scrapper. He's closer in size to MP-44 (or your 3P MP Optimus of choice). Shovel Fighter's sole accessory is this gun. The sculpt is interesting, and it's got some nice copper highlights, but the bare black plastic is decidedly less premium than the figure holding it. Shovel Fighter's head is on a hinged ball joint. He's got excellent up/down tilt, some sideways tilt, and the requisite swivel, but he can also do things like crane his neck forward or recoil in disgust. His shoulders are another one of those GT carryovers... see, they rotate on ratchets, no issue there. And they move laterally, about 90 degrees if you move the shovel on his back out of the way. But, just like GT's Scrapper, and just like MI's scrapper, the hinge for the lateral movement is in the torso, on the wrong side of the rotation, so he can't move his shoulders laterally while they're rotated. It's irritating enough on cheaper figures, but with a price range between $120-$150 I'd expect better. But I digress. His biceps swivel, and his elbows are double-jointed and bend nearly 180 degrees. His wrists swivel. His thumb is on a ball joint at the base with two addition hinged knuckles. His index finger is separate from the other three, which are molded as one piece, and the fingers all have three hinged knuckles. His waist swivels, and he's got an about 45 degrees of ab crunch. His hip skirts are on ball joints and move so his hips can go just about 90 degrees forward and backward on a soft ratchet, and over 90 degrees laterally on a stronger ratchet. His thighs swivel, and his ratcheted knees bend 90 degrees. Despite the hinged flaps over his feet, they don't tilt up or down. He's got about 45 degrees of ankle pivot. The handle on Shovel Fighter's gun has a small slot on it. That slot matches a little tab on his palm just in front of his thumb, then you can wrap his fingers around the handle. The connection seems nicely secure. Shovel Fighter's transformation is fairly interesting in the way his arms end up underneath, the way his torso kind of turns inside out to form the cab, and the way his legs and feet also turn inside out to wrap around his body and form the back of the vehicle. Interesting, but also kind of annoying. The instructions aren't always super clear, and a lot of the transformation is splaying him out in a bunch of dangling bits, rearranging those bits, and not tabbing things together again until near the end. That said, once everything is tabbed together the resulting vehicle is fairly solid. I'm not an expert on wheel loaders and I don't know if Dream Star Toys had a specific model in mind for Shovel Fighter. I've seen loaders from Volvo, Komatsu, and Hyundai that are similar but not the same as this guy. It's believable as a real vehicle, though, with only a few seems and no obvious robot parts. He's compacted in this mode; while still the biggest loader on my review table, he doesn't really dwarf ToyWorld's Scrapper in this mode the way he did in bot mode. He may be too realistic, as the black railings are more annoying than helpful and I think we could have lived without them. Shovel Fighter rolls just fine on big rubber tires, and there's four hinges between the truck and the bucket of his shovel. There's a gap between his legs on the underside of the vehicle, and in that gap you can see a small tab in what was his chest. That the bottom of his gun's handle fits into that tab, with the barrel pointing toward the rear. It locks pretty solidly in place. Interestingly enough, the instructions indicate that the gun should be removed for leg mode. Yeah, DST's Scrapper isn't doing anything crazy like turning into an arm the way MI's does. The leg mode isn't quite as solid as the loader mode; some of the tabs that locked things in place are deliberately undone, I assume to give the combined mode ankle articulation. Note that this is the official transformation, but I'd imagine that you could probably find a way to position that kibble near the knee joint so that it's not just split open like a banana peel. I do kind of like how the shovel folds up into something more like a robot toe. And again, as big as Shovel Fighter's bot mode is, in leg mode it's the same size as ToyWorld's so I don't expect the combined Devastator will be much bigger than Constructor. I think DST is facing a tough sell. Most collectors are laser focused on cartoon accuracy these days, and chances are some of you are (like me) planning on buying XTransbots', Fans Toys', or MMC's Constructicons. If you're in for one of those, do you really need another Devastator? At least going with a more unique take on the Constructicons doesn't force them to compete directly... you could do one of the big three for your G1 Devastator and grab another one just because it looks cool. But then, Mecha Invasion are arguably doing more creative things with their Constructions, all well selling them in packs of two for less than one of DST's. And if you're like me and enjoy transforming and playing with your toys, the MI figures are definitely more fun. That said, I bought Shovel Fighter because he looks cool. No, he's not the most fun Scrapper to transform and play with, and no, he's not the most G1-accurate Scrapper, but he just looks really good. If you just want cool robots to pose and look good on a shelf there's a lot to like here, I think. Oh, and the next release from DST is their Hook, whose crane boom turns into a scythe. I mean, I was going to just do Scrapper as a one-off, but now I'm thinking I might be in on the whole set after all.
  9. mikeszekely
    A bit over a year ago I said that the developers announced they were starting over on a new engine and tossing out six years of development, and I'd told you then that historically that those sorts of announcements lead to cancelations, not finished product. I predicted then than Reactivate would never see the light of day. I really wish I could have been wrong this time.
  10. mikeszekely
    Hmm... no G14 with a 5070, and the one with the 5070ti is $2200. So do I go $200 over budget when I'm already also planning on doing a new desktop, or do I wait for another $1650 sale on the 2024 model with the 4070?
  11. mikeszekely
    Sometimes I hate being right.
  12. mikeszekely
    Tons of stuff leaking about the Switch 2, which is apparently the actual name. Nintendo's official announcement is supposed to be by March 31st, but some are speculating that it could be announced this month (I've heard once leaker claiming as soon as today, but we'll see), with an April release date. I'm guessing I'm in, especially if it's backwards compatible as most leaks claim. I don't play with my Switch OLED super often anymore, as I'm largely a PC gamer an my ROG Ally X handles most of my portable needs, but Nintendo still has the best first party games.
  13. mikeszekely
    Well there we go. I found Asus' Zephyrus CES announcement. Sounds like the 2025 G14 will have a Ryzen AI HX 370 and "up to an RTX 5080", with a 3K OLED display. All I need is a price and release date, but if Asus can keep a 32GB 5070 version the same price as the 2024 32GB 4070 I'm in.
  14. mikeszekely
    I get the feeling that we're starting to get to the limits of what can be done with raw rasterization... in a home setting, you can only draw so much power from the wall and dissipate so much waste heat. So no, I don't expect huge bumps in rasterization performance on the 50-series over the 40-series. Nvidia's "double the performance" and "a 5070 is equal to a 4090" claims definitely come down more to improvements in DLSS and Frame Generation than raw rasterization. That said... DLSS 3 was already pretty good, so I'm feeling pretty optimistic for DLSS 4. I'm at a point where, unless I'm really looking for issues, I don't notice the difference when I'm into the game. I'm a bit more skeptical of Frame Generation, though. For me, at least, it's definitely caused more weird graphical artifacts than DLSS alone, and those artifacts are more noticeable the lower your frame rate is. If you're only getting 30-40fps and you're trying to hit 60 you're definitely going to notice issues and will be better off turning down other settings. At higher frame rates the inserted frames are on the screen for a shorter time so issues are less noticeable, and can be used more comfortably going from, say, 90fps to 120fps. But if you're already getting 90fps that extra boost is more "nice to have" than absolute necessity. Regardless, where I stand right now I'm leaning toward paring an RTX 5070ti with one of AMD's Ryzen X3D CPUs in a desktop sometime later this year. I also want to replace my original Zephyrus G14 (Ryzen 9 4900HS with an RTX 2060 Max-Q), ideally with a newer model G14. I very nearly almost bought the 2024 version with Ryzen 9 8945HS and the RTX 4070, especially since the new OLED display would be a huge upgrade in and of itself, but I've dragged my feet for so long on that now I might as well wait a few more months and see if they stuff an RTX 5000-series GPU into one.
  15. mikeszekely
    Where I live it's hilly with lots of back roads and my wife's daily commute is 75 miles, so we jumped on the EV bandwagon- first with a Hyundai Ioniq 5, then a Kia EV9 after some clown in a pickup decided stop signs didn't apply to him. Looking at the specs it does look like the Afeela has decent specs, but the price tag (whole arguably comparable to similarly-specced EVs) is squarely in the, "no thanks, I'm still going to go with a Taycan" territory.
  16. mikeszekely
    I forgot about Sony's car. I'd like to see some actual specs, but it's a very bland-looking car with a lot of serious competition at that price range.
  17. mikeszekely
    Either way, I don't feel bad about crap upgrading from the Ally to the Ally X for features that benefitted me now instead of waiting for the Z2 Extreme for what's looking to be a pretty modest spec boost. Maybe when Z3 hits.
  18. mikeszekely
    So Nvidia's basically claiming that their 50-series cards should be around double the performance over the 40-series. It's a pretty bold claim... especially when that boost in performance seems less about raw power and more about DLSS 4 and Multi Frame Generation. Still, with an MSRP of $550 if there's any truth to Nvidia's claims I'm probably going to grab an RTX 5070. Depending on how the prices shake out on the rest of my build (time for a totally new PC, my 9th-gen i7 is turning into a bottleneck), I might even splurge the extra $200 for the 5070 Ti. But the 5080 ($1000) and 5090 ($2000) are too rich for my blood (and that's coming from a guy saving to buy a Porsche). AMD's announcements were less exciting, at least to me. A metric boatload of CPU skus with model numbers that seem purposefully designed to confuse consumers. The gist of it seems to be that there's a Zen 5 CPU for everyone, and I'm sure one of them will go into my next PC. I just need to puzzle out which one. They did announce the expected Z2 series for handheld PCs, and... it's kind of underwhelming. Like, yeah, it's definitely better than the Z1, but in a very evolutionary not revolutionary way; it sounds like the non-extreme Z2 is roughly on par with the Z1 Extreme.
  19. mikeszekely
    I love CES. It's my favorite holiday.😁
  20. mikeszekely
    I gave up on Earthspark. They start by showing you an interesting premise- the war is over, and the Autobots and humans formed a joint organization to police Cybertronian activity. They open with cool characters... Optimus Prime, Elita One, Swindle, Megatron... Then immediately abandon all that to focus on a cast of original robots with personality disorders who live in secret with three of the worst human characters the franchise had seen so far (the mom is pretty cool, so she gets a pass). Every now and then they'll cameo more interesting Autobots or Decepticons, but the main baddies in the show are the director of the ostensibly good human/Autobot alliance and a mad scientist. It's ultimately frustrating because the bones of something good are there, but the writers are basically constantly saying, "who cares about your favorite Autobots and Decepticons, focus on our original fanfic characters!” as if the producers assembled their writing team from Sonic Deviantart pages.
  21. mikeszekely
    To be fair, I think it looks better than Thrilling 30 Metroplex. But 2' tall Transformers are already too unwieldy and take up too much space in my house; a robot that big is immediately out of the question no matter how cool it is. ...well, unless it also can cook.
  22. mikeszekely
    Well, Beat Saber is pretty much the VR standard bearer at the point. The simple premise (chop cubes to the bear if the music) is easily understood and quickly picked up, but still fun and even a decent workout. Pistol Whip is sometimes described as Beat Saber with guns. You auto scroll through a level while faceless baddies attack you. Shoot (or pistol whip, hence the name) the baddies before they get you, but to get the best score you're going to time your shots to the beat of the music. Superhot VR is one of the more unique experiences I've played. Like Pistol Whip you need to take out the faceless baddies before they take you out. But the catch here is that the world around only moves when you do, allowing you to do stuff like punching a guy, snatching his gun out of the air as he drops it, leaning out of the way of an incoming shot from his buddy before returning fire, then throwing the empty gun to take out a third guy. But actually my favorite game on the Quest is Walkabout Mini Golf. It's pretty much what it sounds like... you play mini golf. And while you can use the trigger to teleport to your ball, you actually can use the joystick to "walk" from hole to hole. The base game comes with 8 courses, and each course has a regular daytime version and a harder night version. The day versions have a hidden ball to find on each hole- once you've found a ball you can swap out your basic white ball for it. The night courses have foxhunts where once you find all the clues you can get a unique putter. You can buy additional courses that are added periodically- as of this post, I think there are 22 add-on courses, for a total of 30. Courses run the gamut from something that could totally be a real mini golf course somewhere to the utterly fantastic, like a course on a space station or one that runs through the island lair of the villain of '60s-style spy movie with a thing for lasers.
  23. mikeszekely
    Same. But he and Fortress Maximus are missing articulation and are a bit more stylized than the post-Siege stuff. As not sorry as I am to be getting Star Convoy, I'd open my wallet for a new more G1 Metroplex with proper ankles in a heartbeat.
  24. mikeszekely
    Surprise, one last review for 2024! I'm closing out the year with MMC's Incertus, their take on a Masterpiece-style Groove. I think by now we kind of expect that MMC isn't going to necessarily go as hard on Sunbow as some of their competitors. Realistic details, like the handlebars behind Incertus' head and the taillights visible at the bottom of his shins are still part of how MMC's designers do their work (and, as a fan of Takara's older, pre MP-35-ish stuff, I'm grateful). Even with the extra detail, though, MMC did stick impressively close to the Sunbow design, in ways that not even the made-specifically-for-Groove Combiner Wars figure managed. He's got the solid gold chest, the silver arms that still have white fists, and the pipes running over his shins and around the edges of his legs. His head even sits on a white "shelf" above his shoulders, though the edges of his "popped" collar are less a decorative lip and more functional vehicle kibble on Incertus. Now, if you've looked at the Sunbow model, you might see that his cartoon backpack is sort of an abstract version of the front of his bike mode with the shocks, fender, and wheel missing entirely. We don't have quite that level of toy engineering yet, but I think MMC did do a pretty impressive job of rotating the fender and storing most of the wheel inside Incertus' torso. This contributes to a fairly clean robot mode overall. As far as accessories go, you don't get a ton, but at the same time, you get more than enough. There's a pistol, two leg-mounted guns, two alternate faces, and what I assume is a speaker that I guess is one of those "thing from that episode" bits. To be frank, The Protectobots have been, in my mind, the least memorable of the combiner teams and as a stand-alone character Groove made almost no impression on me. Groove the character might not have made much of an impression, but Incertus the toy sure is. The articulation here is pretty great! His head is on a ball joint that swivels, tilts up, and tilts sideways (though looking down is kind of limited due to his massive chin). His shoulders swivel and move laterally 90 degrees, plus he's got a tiny bit of a forward/backward butterfly going on. His biceps swivel. His actual elbow joint bends around 130 degrees on a single hinge, but by opening a flap and using a transformation joint in his forearm you can actually bend his elbows a full 180 degrees. His wrists swivel. Each of his fingers are individual digits, molded into curves but hinged at the base knuckles for the fingers and a ball joint for the thumb. His waist swivels, plus he's got nearly 90 degrees of ab crunch. His hips can go 90 degrees laterally, plus they 90 degrees backward and around 120 degrees forward on a soft ratchet. His thighs swivel, and his knees bend about 120 degrees on a single hinge. HIs entire foot has a little up/down tilt, plus his black does have their own up/down tilt, and his ankles pivot 90 degrees. Just like other recent MMC figures, Groove's pistol has a tab on the back of the handle that plugs into his palms. I don't know if he was actually animated with them or not, but Groove's control art has guns on the sides of his legs near his feet. This is a gimmick lifted straight from the G1 toy, and if it's a look you like Incertus has you covered. Above his ankles, just above the tampoed "POLICE", you can fold out a small tab. This tab plugs into squarish plugs on the inner edge of the guns. Likewise, if you don't really like the neck shelf, no matter how cartoon accurate it is, you can use a few hinges to sink part of it into his chest, lowering his head to a more natural position at the expense of some of that shelf sticking around as kibble along the sides of his head As far as the faces go, it looks like they just slide forward and off, but I prefer the stoic face and don't want to accidentally scratch the paint, so I didn't feel like actually pulling it off. Oh, yeah, and the speaker-thing. Turns out his hands are actually pegged into his wrists, so all you have to do is yank his whole hand off. Then the speaker, which has a peg on the back, simply plugs into the hole on his wrist vacated by his hand. I guess it's nice that they included it, but if I'm being real it's going in a baggie, and that baggie is going into a box in my closest where I will promptly forget about it forever. Groove's transformation is surprisingly interesting. His head, chest, and upper arms mostly wind up inside his torso, with the kibble that was flanking his head closing up over the top of his torso to form the fuel tank. His calves fold out and bend around to lift his feet up and form the seat, but his shins and thighs remain flat and form the bottom of the bike with his forearms filling in the gap between. It's a transformation that seems both clever and surprisingly straightforward once you've done it once or twice, but it can be a bit tricky to make sure his head and the flaps they're attached to are actually in the right spots for his chest to fold inward all the way. Groove's original toy was kind of chunky and missing details, and the sunbow model replaced the pair of headlights with a weird-looking grill, but they were both kind of recognizable as an early '80s Honda Gold Wing motorcycle (GL1200, I think). To better match the Sunbow art some of the faring is missing, leaving the engine a bit exposed, but there's a good amount of realistic detail mixed in the with simple Sunbow deco. The details include painted tachometer and speedometers, painted handbrakes, and painted switches on the handles, plus turning the handlebars turn with the front wheel. Due to the way the G1 toy transformed, the guns that were on his ankles wound up behind the seat. However, the bot mode tabs are, as I mentioned, just behind the "POLICE" tampoes. I think a lesser company might have left the connection there, and figured it's close enough. Not for MMC, though. There's a second set of tabs that fold out near the top of the back of the bike, allowing you to mount the guns there. As for his pistol, it kind of tucks into a notch on the back of the bike. From bike mode, it doesn't take much to get into leg mode. As you'd expect, the entire front of the bike comes up and swivels over. The fuel tank splits open into it's bot-mode position to give the front of the bike some room, and the seat splits in half and slides open to leave a gap for the wheel to tuck into. It's not nothing, but I think we have to concede that it's not really as clever as the way their Streetwise expanded into leg mode, and their Hotspot is doing a lot of the heavy lifting by storing the feet instead of having the leg bots do it. I'm not complaining, though! I think it'd be kind of petty to complain that the leg mode is kind of simple when it's A.) still effective, and B.) coming in addition to what is already a fantastic robot and fantastic motorcycle. I mean, a running theme with MMC's Protectobots has been that they're already a step up in engineering from their still-impressive Combaticons, and Incertus might just been the best one yet. I think Incertus is about as close to a perfect MP Groove as you could hope for, and ultimately I think edging out Fugu's God of Flame, the Mecha Invasion Constructicons, and fellow MMC Protectobot Ignis (Hot Spot) as my favorite 3P figure in 2024*, so I'm giving him my highest recommendation. *I actually have one other 2024 release coming, but it won't be here in time for me to review.
  25. mikeszekely
    Took my wife an daughter to see in this afternoon. We liked it, in the same way that we liked the first two... it's a kids movie about a video game, but it's still entertaining enough for adults. I might be "that guy" and say I still think Sonic 2 was the best of the three, but I'll qualify that by saying that they're all pretty similar. Of all the movies I watched this year I'd say it's better than Alien: Romulus, Venom: The Last Dance, or Beetlejuice Beetlejuice and not as good as Deadpool & Wolverine, Transformers One, or Dune Part 2.
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