mikeszekely

Just got back from seeing it. I liked it. The plot, while not amazing, was better than expected, the visuals were cool (see it in 3D if you can), and the soundtrack was cool.

Got some repaints for you. First up, we're actually finishing off the final 2025 wave of Age of the Primes with Flatline. Flatline's something of an interesting character... he was actually created for the IDW Bayverse tie-in comics. He was originally conceived as something of a mad scientist, the guy who created Devastator's gestalt from the Constructicons, but that scene never made it into the comics. He later turned up experimenting on Arcee, as an attempt to explain how she went from the Deluxe-class toy from the original movie line to the Arcee sisters that appeared in Revenge of the Fallen. I guess the IDW team liked their original character enough that he made it into the main G1-esque IDW line, where he was drawn as a potential repaint/retool of Thrilling 30 Trailcutter. His character was a bit more fleshed out; he joined the Decepticons because he believed in Megatron's vision, but as a medic he'd treat anyone regardless of their badge. Here, he's obviously not a retool of Trailbreaker, but rather Armada Red Alert. Broadly, I think it works. T30 Trailcutter had the front of his alt mode as his chest, rather than folded all the way down like the G1 or Earthrise version, and the Red Alert mold still has wheels on the sides of the lower legs. The only things they really had to change were the head (of course), and giving him an actual left hand. On that note, Flatline comes with the same trio of left hand attachments, and he new hand does pop off and you can use those accessories just like you could on Red Alert. They can still store in the fenders on his legs and under his backpack, like Red Alert. However, Hasbro wants you to use the little holes on them to plug them into tiny pegs on his roof, just above the windshield. This is so they can mimic the gun barrels seen on Flatline's back in IDW (which themselves mimicked the spikes on the Bayverse design). I was kind of surprised (but not also not) to find that this is a feature that was always built into the mold, and Red Alert can do it too. The instructions suggest that the weapons should stay on his roof for vehicle mode... perhaps a legacy of his design as a Trailcutter retool? After all, that toy had a pair of guns permanently affixed to his roof. But personally, I think I'm good tucking them away for a cleaner alt mode. Speaking of tucking things away, you had to remove Red Alerts gun-hand to transform him, but I'm happy to say that Flatline's hand can stay attached. So, yeah, I though Red Alert was a pretty decent toy originally. But if you skipped him because you're not into Armada a pseudo-G1 Decepticon medic is a good excuse to take another look at this mold. I also got the latest Target 4-pack in. The 4-pack opens with Ultra Magnus, who's a straight repaint of AotP Deluxe Optimus. Same accessories and everything. And, I get it, as white Optimus repaints go this one probably makes the most sense, since the Optimus use of the mold was mean to mimic his G1 toy, and the G1 Magnus toy had a white Optimus repaint at it's core. Frankly, if DNA does an upgrade trailer that can go with this figure to transform him into a full-on Ultra Magnus I'd consider using this guy on my main movie shelf instead of SS86 Magnus, but as it stands, he's just ok. See, as Optimus toys goes, this one was one of my least-favorite modern molds. Not that it's a bad toy, it's just that the G1 toy aesthetic doesn't really mesh so well with the rest of Siege/Earthrise/Kingdom/Legacy/Age of the Primes, and as a Deluxe he doesn't really scale all that well, either. What I really wanted was the guy on the far right, but to get that I had to go 3P. Speaking of least-favorite modern Optimus toys, they have Magnus fighting Nemesis Prime. Which is a good choice! Except it's Animated Nemesis Prime, and as I've said many times before, as much as I loved the cartoon I'm not a fan of the designs as three-dimensional toys. Objectively, it's a pretty neat mold for the Animated design, but subjectively, Animated clashes so hard with with other G1/Armada/IDW/Cybertron/etc stuff in the post-Siege mainline. Heck, even the Prime stuff fits better )though you could make the argument that's because those figures have been much more G1-ified than Prowl's chin reduction). Besides, Legacy already gave us an evil repaint of Animated Optimus... it was Animated Motormaster. So, yeah, I'm not opposed to Nemesis Prime appearing in this set, I just wish they'd have used a different Optimus toy. Heck, I'd have been happier if they included a second repaint of the Legacy Deluxe, though the SS Devastation version would have worked, too. I'll at least say that Hasbro put some love into this Nemesis, though. In addition to his new masked face, you'll note that Hasbro painted the little squares on his feet, and made his fingers a different color than the backs of his hands... things that should have been done on Animated Optimus in the first place. They also painted his rims and marker lights, which they couldn't be bothered to do for the original release. I guess, if you're down with the Animated aesthetic and you're into Nemesis Prime repaints, the figure's honestly a pretty decent toy. But I personally wouldn't have bought this set over him. I would, however, have considered buying the set for Bumper. It's about time he got an official toy! But Bumper is sort of a weird character... the G1 toy was released in super limited quantities on Cliffjumper cards in 1984. The yellow robot in Cliffjumper packaging led to the unofficial designation "Bumblejumper," despite the actual toy being neither the Porsche 944 or the Volkswagen Type-1. Rather, this was the Diaclone mini-car based on the Mazda Familia 1500 XG. "Bumblejumper" was eventually shortened to "Bumper," which become his canonical name when he was finally acknowledged as his own character in the Dreamwave comics. Retooling Bumper from Bumblebee makes sense, then, as all three used the same basic engineering as G1 toys. That said, he's a bit low effort, as he's really SS86 Bumblebee with slightly brighter yellows, slightly blacker blacks, and a new head. In an ideal world they'd have remolded his feet to be more blocky, like the Familia, instead of (sloppily) painting over the headlights. Likewise, for robot mode, I wish they replaced the yellow pelvis and forearms with black. Instead, all of the effort in this set really went into Horri-Bull. Horri-Bull, who finally completes the Decepticon Headmaster Juniors, is an extensive retool of Titans Return Skullcruncher. They share the same gray gun, biceps, elbows, thighs, and knees, but that's really it. He's sporting a new torso, new pelvis, new hips, new shoulders, new hands, new forearms, new beast claws on his forearms, new lower legs, a new blue gun, and new lower legs. The results work surprisingly well. Where Skullcruncher was a floppy mess that could barely stand, Horri-Bull's joints are sturdy, and he's even got heels with ankle pivots to keep his feet firmly planted. The Head/Titanmaster is a completely different mold than the one from Titans Return. The sort of helmeted look is, to my mind, more evocative of his Japanese Bullhorn counterpart. The body is the same as Skullcruncher's, but with a different head and a different face on his back. Transformation is basically the same as Skullcruncher, but with the added step of folding his feet out and tabbing them into the sides of the torso. And, like robot mode, it works pretty well. His rear legs are blue instead of gray, and his back is a little less humped, but he's got the same basic shape and oddly-spined design of the G1 toy, with a beast face that has more cow-like proportions than the G1 toy, but the same sort of sharp teeth. Because the beast head is actually just pegged on, it can swivel (which, in this position, works like a head tilt) and his jaws can open. Like the G1 toy, there's a hatch on his back for the Head/Titanmaster to ride in. And the blue gun still plugs into his butt to form the beast tail, but there's an additional 5mm port under the barrels that lets you stow the gray gun back there too. For me, Horri-Bull is the highlight of the set. As I said, he completes the Decepticon Headmaster Juniors which started trickling out with Fangry all the way back in 2021. The extensive retooling makes him (and Squeezeplay before him) much better figures than Fangry, though. Like I said, Horri-Bull is really the main reason to buy this set. It's hard to justify an entire set that retails for nearly $100 for just one Deluxe, though (which, you know, could have been a little cheaper if they'd used a Deluxe mold for Nemesis instead of the Voyager Animated one, just saying). For me, I'm always down for a white Optimus repaint, and Bumper provides some much-needed (if lazy) love to an often overlooked G1 character. Those three combined are enough to sell me on this set. Nemesis Prime, a objectively good toy that I subjectively don't like, will be on his way to a new home shortly.

That's all I needed. Going to see it in XD 3D on Tuesday night.

I'm not touching Starfleet Academy with a 10 foot pole. The first season of Discovery was mediocre at best, and while I'll admit to actually liking most of the second everything that's happened since they went to the future has been straight trash and I refuse to acknowledge it. Anything set after the early 2400's is non-canon in my book.

Hmm, wish that Titan Grimlock and that neat Timelines set went up today, too (and we're still waiting for AotP '26 wave 1 for that matter), but I got an order in for Nemesis Prime and preorders for Skybound Optimus, Thundercracker, and Windcharger.

I *think* 1pm EST tomorrow.

Retro Outback and Retro Wheelie are up for preorder on Pulse, shipping in March. Looks like wave 1 of AotP and SS for 2026 was shown off. We already had preorders for half the SS wave, it sounds like Windcharger, Skywarp, and Grimlock might go up for preorder tomorrow. Not sure when AotP will be available to preorder. Also not sure when we can order some new stuff that got shown off, like Skybound Optimus Oh, and remember the Hearts of Steel stuff? They're calling that line Timelines, and I have good news and bad. The bad is that they seem to be done with Hearts of Steel. The good is that Timelines is continuing, and they're following the same format of roughly Deluxe-ish two packs starting with Optimus and Starscream. And it turns out, Timelines isn't about a specific comic book or anything. Turns out Timelines is Transformers throughout time... it just happened to be that Hearts of Steel worked for late 1800s. This time they're going to feudal Japan.

NYCC starts today, and the exclusives (including Armada Nemesis Prime with the Star Saber) are available to order now for Pulse Premium members. For my European friends, if you can't order Nemesis Prime today don't worry. He's also going to be an exclusive for the London Comic Con, and I expect you'll be able to get him on the 24th.

I'm invested enough in the Primes that I'm glad Quintus is coming, and yeah, that's what his robot mode looks like and all, but that's some weaksauce transformation. Windcharger, on the other hand, is looking very interesting At first I thought he didn't have ankles, but then I realized they're going HARD on Sunbow. He's got a white thigh, a knee, a very short white shin, and the rear of the car is big feet. Well, it's not accurate to say "rear," is it? Looks like the front bumper, hood, windshield, and roof all peel back, then curl up into his soles and heels. Not sure why they changed how Sureshot's arms transform. Now you've got visible spoiler kibble on the backs of his biceps and the colors inverted on the rear of the car mode. Looks ok otherwise. Quickstrike is... well, I guess that'll make the Beast Wars fans happy? Personally I got enough of what I consider to be the "main" cast that I'd prefer they move on. I'd also prefer they move on from their fanfic Junkions. Even though Blast Off is a retool of Vortex, and I definitely had a few issues with Vortex, Blast Off is looking mighty fine. Hopefully preorders go up soon. I just wish they didn't go with the animation error face.

I've been saying that my expectations for the film have been in the basement since they announced Jared Leto's casting. I still want to see it in 3D because I happened to catch a preview in 3D, and the Recognizer flying over the city looked amazing in 3D.

I guess I have something to look forward to like a year from now if/when Sony releases it on PC.

As much as I don't like Wheelie, I kinda like that Wheelie. I'm definitely in for Outback, been expecting him since they did Brawn. Still waiting on Swerve...

I saw that the instructions were indicating something, but the drawing for that step was not at all clear. I'm happy to rescind my complaint about droopy shoulders, but everything else still stands- Godbomber is ok on his own, Super Ginrai has issues, combining the two into God Ginrai exacerbates those issues.

Super Mario Galaxy and Galaxy 2 hit for the Switch/Switch 2 tomorrow. Anyone hear if the Switch version of Galaxy is different/better enough to warrant purchasing the whole collection if I already have the 3D All Stars collection? Or should I save some cash and just get Galaxy 2?

I'm not going to judge the MPG line based on a repaint of a decade-plus old MP... I mean, with the old MP line dead where else does it go? And with SS86 and Missing Link Soundwaves hitting in 2026 I don't blame Takara packing Soundwave into every line while he's fresh on people's minds. I will, however, judge MPG based on their original molds. Granted, so far the only one I've picked up was Super Ginrai, and he was rather underwhelming. He was, in my opinion, a premium price for a toy that could have been in Generations if they dumped some of the accessories and chrome, and he suffered from a number of tolerance issues (the Super head liked to pop loose, the truck panels on the legs wouldn't stay tabbed in, too much wiggle in between ratchet clicks, etc). But these days you haven't really Ginrai-ed until you God Ginrai, so now I also picked up MPG Godbomber. My first impressions aren't too bad. He's a lighter figure, but you kind of expect that on a figure with a largely hollow torso who breaks down into components that have to be supported by another toy's joints. His joint tolerances seem better, too, and whether that's actually from Takara paying more attention and tightening him up or simply because the joints don't have to work as hard to support the weight, who can say. The colors are pretty on-point (his pelvis could maybe stand to be a little darker). Cartoon accuracy does seem to be a little less pressing in MPG than the original MP line, though. His proportions are definitely a bit more heroic, with more of a tapered waist, higher wings, and massive forearms that put the fins closer to his shoulders than his elbows. But perhaps the oddest choice is how is shoulder cannon sits. There's a black part with a 5mm port attached to the top of his torso. The instructions would have you fold it back, then the 5mm peg on the cannon is on an elaborate hinge system to angle the peg so it's pointing forward, allowing it to plug into the black piece. There's even a support piece that folds out from the front of the cannon to help brace it. But the thing is, there's a 5mm port on to the top of his back you could use without all the extra hinges on the cannon or the black part on his torso. I guess that segues into accessories. Well, you've got the aforementioned cannon, which is the only thing I think Godbomber really needs. The missile can be removed, but it's not spring-loaded or anything. Takara also gives you some more of the blast effect parts that came with Super Ginrai, little unarticulated slugs for the Headmaster Juniors, a trailer adapter, two stand adapters, and a big ol' sword because of that one time in that one episode. At first I thought Godbomber's head might be a ball joint, because he can't look down much but he's got fantastic upward tilt and good sideways tilt in addition to swiveling, but closer inspection reveals a rivet swivel and separate hinges for sideways and upward tilt. His shoulders swivel on a ratchet and they ratchet nearly 90 degrees laterally; make sure you're using the actual shoulder joint and not the transformation joint. He's also got some butterfly hinges that bring his shoulders foreward 90 degrees. He's got bicep swivels above his elbows, which bend just under 90 degrees, then another swivel below the elbow. His wrists swivel, and his hands can bend backward. His thumbs have a hinge at the base for pinching. His other fingers are pinned at the base and mid-knuckle, with the index fingers being separate from the other fingers. His waist can swivel 45 degrees to the left or right, but that's good enough for most poses. His hip skirts move so his hips can ratchet about 90 degrees forward, just under 90 degrees laterally, and about 45 degrees backward. His thighs swivel, and his knees ratchet a little more than 90 degrees. No toe tilts, but his ankles pivot nearly 90 degrees on ratchets. If you mount his shoulder cannon the official way, it can tilt down a bit or back so that it's straight up in the air, though you'll likely need to fold the support back in and you'll expose another handle if you bend it back too far. If you just plugged it into the port on his back it can't tilt down, but it can still tilt up about 45 degrees. The blast effects can plug into the guns on his forearms, as well as the blue details on the left side of his chest. Godbomber can also hold the sword by plugging a tab on the handle into a slot on fingers. His hands are too small to really close around the handle, though. The transformation for Godbomber's not bad! They didn't totally try to avoid partsforming like the Legends toy (which left it with needlessly complicated hinges to move the chest without disconnecting it, but they also didn't design him to totally come apart then get pieced back together like the G1 toy. Instead, the front of his torso splits from the back half, taking his arms, head, and wings with it. The crotch opens, allowing his hips to slide forward, then his legs come up and over his crotch and tab together. Some flaps fold out of his back, and the unpainted, unchromed gray bits fold and tuck down so that tabs on them are pointing toward what will become the back of the vehicle. Meanwhile, on the other part, the head folds in, the wings move out of the way, and the shoulders drop. Things need to turn so that inside of the shoulder joint is now facing outside and the arms can swing and tab together. Joints in the wings tuck into the spaces his shoulder joints were occupying, then they fold upward. This bit uses some tabs to plug into his shins on the other part, then panels swing out from the sides of his legs to fill in the sides of the vehicle, tabbing into his bumper and the unpainted gray flaps. The fins on the arms can tilt inward, giving you the clearance to plug the cannon into the black part. For this mode, the cannon's peg is folded up so it goes straight down into the black part, but it seems like now would have been a better time to use those hinges to position the cannon so that the fins wouldn't have been in the way in the first place. Aside from having to tilt the fins in to give the cannon room, I don't have any complaints about Godbomber's alt mode. The mechanical detail on the inside of the shoulder joint is cartoon accurate, and a blue panel rotates up from the leg panels to help fill in the area around Godbomber's hands. The proportions are about what you'd expect, and the whole thing holds together pretty solidly once everything is tabbed together right. Godbomber's wings can fold down, and the boosters on them can rotate 180 degrees. This allows you to plug the effect parts into them for a flying trailer mode. Alt mode is also where most of the other accessories we haven't talked about come into play. For example, the front opens to reveal and nicely-painted interior. The Headmaster Junior slugs can sit inside, but here's where things get weird. There are little slots at the bottom of the brown-painted seats, and tabs on the bases of the Juniors. The tabs are on their front sides, so they can plug into the slots in the seats but they're facing backward. Another alt mode accessory is the trailer adapter. See, Godbomber's bumper but has a bit that flips out with a peg on the underside. But there isn't clearance under Godbomber for Ginrai's legs, so you can plug the adapter into the trailer port on Ginrai and it adds a new port behind his feet, so he can tow Godbomber. I'd expect that most people who bought Godbomber bought MPG Super Ginrai, not MP non-Super Ginrai, though. Super Ginrai's trailer already has a port that can fold out from the rear, allowing Godbomer to attach without any adapter needed. Of course, most people who bought Godbomber weren't doing it for the double trailer, they were doing it to form God Ginrai. Sadly, this is where things kind of fall apart for me. First, Godbomber needs to be disassembled, because this time he's back to totally partsforming. In fact, my first complaint is that there are actually more parts than before. See, you remember how I was just saying that Godbomber's forearms seemed to big? Well, you have to open them up, and flip around Godbomber's hands to reveal another set of slightly larger hands. Bigger forearms and bigger hands make God Ginrai's arms look a little small, so red parts are removed from inside Godbomber's waist to peg into his Ginrai's shoudlers, making them also look bigger... from some angles. From other angles now they're horribly hollow, and to add insult to injury they don't stay pegged in particularly well. The forearms don't fare much better, eschewing the Combiner Wars-style sliding connector on Godbomber for a 5mm peg into Ginrai's forearms. Which brings me to my second big complaint, one of Godbomber's forearms was misassembled. It had no bearing on Godbomber's robot or alt modes, but the flap with the peg was installed backward, so I had to take part the arm (five screws) and turn it around before I was able to connect it to Ginrai at all. Godbomber's legs side off his hips, again, Combiner Wars-style. The toe folds out, the thigh folds in, and the red detail on Godbomber's shins have to fold out, spin 180, and fold back in the reveal the connectors for Ginrai's feet. The front of Godbomber's torso splits again, so the pelvis detatches, which seems kind of unnecessary since it reattaches to the same part, just by folding the hips back, lifting the hip skirts, and plugging the skirts into Godbomber's waist. That whole contraption will fit, loosely, onto Ginrai's back, with tabs on the trailer hitch plugging into slots under Godbomber's neck to help secure it into place. Finally, Godbomber's back and butt slide over Ginrai's cab and tab into two places on each side... IF you have Ginrai's cab seated exactly right. If it's off even a little Godbomber won't fit over properly and can't tab into place. Aside from the new fists (which are articulated exactly the same as the smaller Godbomber fists), all of God Ginrai's joints are the same as his Super Ginrai ones and he has the same articulation as before. The cannon plugs into ports where the top sides of the trailer folded up onto his back, using the same folded-in configuration as Godbomber's alt mode. You can also fold out a handle from the cannon and have God Ginrai hold it in his hands using a slots that plug into the fingers, just like the sword (which, despite being held in larger hands, is still too big to really close the fingers around). And he does look pretty good... assuming you can keep him together. Again, I had the head popping up from the cab, the shoulder armor popping off, and the truck panels not staying folded against his legs. Plus, there are joints that extend Ginrai's shoulders to outward a bit for God Ginrai mode that help make him look proportional with all the extra kibble, but using those joints made his shoulders kind of droopy. On it's own, I kind of like MPG Godbomber. I think it's one of the better Godbomber toys around, with decent articulation and all-around solid robot and alt modes. But again, most people want Godbomer to complete God Ginrai. Putting together God Ginrai was frustrating, and keeping him together is nearly as frustrating. To be fair, a lot of the issues are still issues with Super Ginrai; poor tolerances, and the need to have little Ginrai's knees bend just right to line up his legs just so to seat him properly in Super mode. But some of it is still on Godbomber. He commands a premium price because he comes with accessories I don't actually want or need, plus a few things like the hinges in his cannon mount and the fact that you have to open is over-sized forearms to fold in his hands and fold out slightly larger hands when one pair of hands for both Godbomber and God Ginrai would have sufficed are over-engineered in ways that do nothing except inflate the parts count and price. I think, if for some reason Godbomber is like your favorite character and you really want a good toy of him and don't care about Ginrai or combinations, then yeah, MPG Godbomber is probably the best Godbomber toy ever released. Go pick one up! But I don't otherwise recommend him... as an accessory for Ginrai he's just ok, but the real issue is that Super Ginrai isn't good enough to recommend in the first place. Which, I suppose, is a really long-winded way of saying I agree with @lechuck— MPG does feel subpar.

Well, I picked up Missing Link Sunstreaker... Unlike Bee and Optimus I never owed a G1 Sunstreaker, so the entire mold is new to me. I was surprised to see that he's taller than Sideswipe. Being that I'm not familiar with G1 toy, I can't really say how many changes Takara actually made. I think it safe to say that he's got some paint and tampographs that were probably stickers on the G1 toy. His forearms also open to reveal some flip-out fists... I think that's new? He's also got some accessories that he original didn't have. The fists, the yellow boosters, and the three rockets came with the original toy, but ML Sunstreaker also comes with a chromed rifle that is, best I can tell, a straight copy of the one that came with G1 Sideswipe, and a Dianaut. The Dianaut has yellow legs and a khaki button shirt with a collar and pocket that makes me think they were going for something like Spike, but then why the silver head? Sunstreaker's head can swivel. His shoulders are a bit weird. The entire arm hinge can move laterally about 45 degrees, and the hinge works like a forward/backward butterfly joint. The arm behind the tire swivels laterally on a soft ratchet, which combined gives you 180 degrees of lateral movement. However, his shoulders don't swivel forward/backward at all.* His bicep swivels, and his elbows bend 90 degrees. His wrists swivel, and his fingers are hinged so he can open his hands. No waist swivel. His hips can go 90 degrees forward, and over 90 degrees laterally, but just a little bit backward. His thighs swivel, and his knees bend 90 degrees. His feet can tilt downward on a ratchet, due to his transformation, but not upward. He's got about 45 degrees of ankle pivot, with his heels on a separate pivot. *Technically I guess you could hinge the shoulders forward on the transformation/butterfly joint and turn the biceps. That'd make the lateral swivel a forward/backward swivel... but it'd look weird, and come at the cost of any lateral shoulder movement. Sunstreaker's new articulated hands can hold his Sideswipe rifle, and the boosters plug into his shoulders same as they ever did. If you want a more "classic" look, you can fold the new hands into the forearms to reveal a port on the other side. You can plug the rockets in them, or even the shoulder boosters, as well as the larger G1-style fists. The G1 fists didn't have holes, though, so neither do these, and cannot hold the Sideswipe rifle. I imagine that the transformation is about the same as the G1 toy. His head folds down into the engine. The feet fold down, the legs collapse and tab together. His chest opens and a bunch of hinges move his canopy down/forward and lift his engine up and into place, then a flap opens on his back and his arms kind of bend and tuck, one behind the other, underneath before closing his back flap back up. For a simple G1 transformation it seems to make a bit of finagling to get everything lined up right, especially going back to bot mode. What's not to like about Sunsteaker's design? It's a fictional supercharged Countach with massive intakes on top of the engine. Again, not really sure what's different here between this version and the original G1 toy, aside from some tampoed details (like on top of the intakes) that were probably stickers on the G1 toy, but otherwise I think it should be the same. As most of us know by now much of the original Transformers line came from Takara's Diaclone line, so if you open Sunstreaker's canopy there is a seat in there for the Dianaut he comes with. The boosters can stay in place on his shoulders, which are now on the back of the car. But that's about it for storage. No place for the rockets or the rifle, or the big fists. I can't really complain; the G1 toys rarely had storage for accessories, either. But that sort of leads into my conclusion... I'm still not sure how I feel about Missing Link. Like, yeah, I have nostalgia for the toys I grew up with. And yeah, those toys had awful articulation. I remember wanting more even at the time. But something else I remember wanting more of at the time was cartoon accuracy. And in that sense, Generations, Masterpiece, and a variety of third party lines are doing a great job of delivering cartoon-accurate toys with even more accuracy than Missing Link. In a way, all Missing Link is doing is giving me the toys I had when I was a kid in a way that's clearly NOT the toys I had as a kid, which kind of makes me want an original G1 toy or even a straight G1 reissue instead, especially when the ML figures cost nearly as dang much. Honestly, I bought Sunstreaker because I never had the original. I think if I did, I'd have probably skipped this one. I'm not sure how many more of these ML figures I'll buy.

You haven't missed anything.😒

In the words of one James Pumphrey, "Minivans are cool." When I brought my parents with us when I took my wife and daughter to Presque Isle I rented a Chrysler Pacifica and I genuinely enjoyed it. Years later wife got a Kia EV9 when her parents were staying with us, and I dunno. I think more people should consider minivans instead of 3-row SUVs. It's like the Kia is nearly as big as the Pacifica, but the Pacifica's sliding door made it easier to get in and out of, and I swear it had more cargo room to boot. If we still needed a big people mover I'd consider swapping the EV9 for an ID.Buzz, but wife's parents went back to China so it's just the three of us at home these days, and wife kind of wants to downsize. Her next car might be BMW's new iX3 or an Audi Q6 e-Tron.

I'm happy for anyone that's into these He-Man crossovers, but He-Man looks like he's wearing a kid's Optimus costume he got at Walmart.

Well, like I said, MPG-19 is Soundwave, but it's just a repaint of MP-13. But I'm hearing that MPG-20 is a brand new mold for Hot Rod, and @sh9000 already mentioned that MPG-21 is Blaster. Working back from 19, 18 is Roadhauler ( a green repaint of Inferno), 17 is Style-Gen Optimus Prime, and 16 is the black Nucleon Quest repaint of Super Ginrai, so that's all G1 or G1-adjacent. The problem is, as @Scyla noted, the old MP line evolved a bit from more realistic robots to slavishly Sunbow, but that evolution was gradual and part of a pretty consistent design language and scale. MPG is pretty much anything Takara thinks is a more high-end toy, giving it a more scattershot lineup where you have to pay attention and cherry pick what you actually want.

FYI, Hasbro decided to quit Pulsecon, and I expect the Pulsecon exclusives like Armada Nemesis Prime will turn up here.

If SS86 Soundwave isn't for you, Takara announced MPG-19 will also be Soundwave. Before you guys get too excited, though, it looks like a repaint of MP-13. EDIT: If SS86 and MPG-19 aren't enough Soundwave for you, I'm also hearing that Missing Link Soundwave is coming next year as well.

Me: I love a good "white Optimus" Ultra Magnus... too bad the only one Hasbro gave us is the one that makes up the core of Earthrise Ultra Magnus. And at least that was Earthrise... I don't think we've had a Nemesis Prime since Siege! Hasbro: Ok... we'll repaint that toy-style Deluxe Optimus as Magnus, and we'll pack him with a Nemesis repaint of Animated Optimus. As a Target exclusive with two other guys. Me, looking at SS86 Optimus: "Not exactly what I had in mind..." Some guy in China, whispering: "Oh, I got you, bro..." I'll be honest, I have no idea who's making these. They come in a plain brown box with "MD-005" A, B, and C written on it, with check boxes that ostensibly should indicate what variant is inside but none of which were checked on either of the copies I got. As you can see, they're knock-offs of SS86 Optimus, but in Ultra Magnus white and Nemesis black. Note that Shattered Glass purple also exists, as well as regular red-and-blue Optimus. I haven't decided if I want the SG version or not, and the regular Optimus version is sold out at my usual stores. Now, again, this is MD-005. There's another KO going around as AS-08. By all reports, AS-08 is an inferior KO that's uses shoddy materials. MD-005 does seem to use a different plastic than the official figure, but it's solid and feels good in the hands. The joints are all solid, some tighter than the official figure. In short, MD-005 feels like a quality figure. These two versions (and the SG version) come with the rifle, Matrix, axe, and blast effects that SS86 Optimus came with, but not the trailer, repair drone, Roller, or the other effect parts. Instead, they come with some alternate heads, a battle damage part, and some filler for the truck mode. Regular Optimus comes with even more stuff, which I'll bring up if I can manage to get my hands on one. The heads are probably the most interesting bit. A lot of people seemed to not like the original SS86 head (left), though I thought it was fine. But here you also get a season 1 head (middle) and 86 movie head (right), plus a battle damaged version of the movie head. Personally I kinda like the SS86 head on Magnus, but the movie head for Nemesis. Swapping them is as simple as yanking one head off the ball joint and popping another one on. There's a notch in the panels on the sides you have to flip up when you spin the upper body for transformation. The battle damage part takes advantage of that by using a small tab to plug into it. Undoubtedly this part was created for the regular version of Prime, to recreate his iconic wound from his battle with Megatron, and whoever's making these figured they already had the part might as well stuff it in with all the colors. As a (nearly) 1:1 copy of SS86, the transformation is the same. They did replace the plastic wheels with rubber tires, though. I didn't test the Season 1 head, but the movie head transforms just fine. Which brings me to that last filler piece. It's filler for the back of the cab, designed to look like an AC unit. One side is flat, the other sloped, so you'll know which way it fits in. And it just wedges in place, it doesn't tab or lock in. It's a nice idea, and I don't even mind partsforming it, but there's no place to store it on the robot mode, so I doubt I'll ever really use them. At roughly $40, these are high-quality figures that deliver the repaints that Hasbro can't/won't. The extra heads are an especially nice touch. My only real complaint is that I wish they painted the tops of their crotches, the way the official figure did. If you're a fan of Magnus, SG Optimus, or Nemesis (@Scyla) then I can comfortably recommend them. Heck, I'd be in for Delta Magnus, Shining Magnus, or Pepsi Optimus repaints, too.

I've heard stories about Nissan's CVT issues, but I had a 2017 Maxima I drove (hard) until this year. Had absolutely no issues with it, it remains one of the best cars I've owned.

Correct. Stellantis killed it, and the only engine for the Ram 1500 was the Hurricane, a turbocharged straight six. People complained, loudly, and (after replacing the CEO) Stellantis is bringing the HEMI back, and one of the first vehicles it's going back into is the Ram 1500. Edmund's tested the new 1500 HEMI, and the conclusion was more or less "it's slower, it tows less, it gets worse mileage, it's more expensive, but it sounds cool," which is kind of what I was getting at... the Hurricane is a better engine in a lot of ways, and if I was in the market for a Ram 1500 (which I can promise I will never be, trucks just aren't my thing) I'd definitely go with the Hurricane. But not everyone is as into raw performance as I am, and a lot of people just prefer the way a V8 feels and sounds, and they were mad that they weren't being given the option. And that's how I feel about the Charger, too. Few more weeks with it and the more I drive it the more I like it. It's actually a little faster than my Porsche, gets better range, and even though it's not as agile I don't feel like I have to baby it, I don't have to take it nearly all the way to the Point if/when there's a service recall, and (hopefully) maintenance will be cheaper. I'm totally content with the electric version... it's silly and stupid in all the right ways. But I'm definitely in the minority there, and with the Challenger off the market along with the previous Challenger gasoline versions need to happen, and fast. While the Hurricane-equipped Charger SIXPACKs are due to arrive next year I think Stellantis should go one further and put out a HEMI version