mikeszekely

Still waiting on Mixmaster, and I don't have any more brand new figures to write about. I do, however, have a TON of repaints and remolds... Yeah, no Mixmaster, but the other Voyager in the current wave of Studio Series is War for Cybertron Voyager-class Thundercracker. And, I mean, not a lot left to say after Starscream and Skywarp, because Thundercracker's basically the same thing except blue. It's a pretty blue, at least. Same mace weapon, and I dunno if it was always too big or if there's been some mold degradation, but he has a hard time holding it up. On the flip side, he's got a different gun than Starscream and Skywarp. It's the same Neutron Assault Rifle that came with the generic Decepticon Soldier, though, so it's not totally new. Fine with me, though, I kinda wish Skywarp had a less bulky gun than his Thermo Rocket Launcher. Get him if you want to complete the trio, but if you skipped Skywarp and/or Starscream you can probably live without Thundercracker, too. Relevant to yesterday's review of Sideways, another figure on the shelf is Cybertron Deluxe class Excellion. Now, for anyone who actually watched the Unicron Trilogy, you might have wondered how Hot Shot started Armada as a reckless, hot-headed youth who gradually matured over the course of the series, becoming a seasoned warrior and mentor in Energon, only to revert back to a reckless, hot-headed youth in Cybertron. The answer is, as I mentioned yesterday, is because Galaxy Force wasn't created as a sequel to the prior two shows, it was just cludged into a "trilogy" when it was dubbed into English. The guy we know as Hot Shot in Micron Legend and Super Link was called Hot Rod, but in Galaxy Force that guy was called Excellion. While I think there have always been parallels between Hot Shot and G1 Hot Rod, stuff like the chevrons on his shins and the spoiler wings seemed a bit more obvious on Cybertron Hot Shot... but I guess not enough for Takara, who released a more G1 Hot Rod-colored version of Excellion. Hasbro was only too happy to bring this redeco to the West, but I guess their logic was that if Hot Shot was already reformatted into an APC alt mode in his usual blue color then he wouldn't go back to his old sports car mode but changed to red, so they decided he'd be a new, separate character. And for that character, they kept the Japanese name, Excellion. Personally, I'd have liked for him to have been Hot Rod or Rodimus and really hammer that deco and design home, but you can't always get what you want. The point is, Hot Shot was already a decent update of the original toy, so you'd think Excellion would be, too. And for the most part, he is, but there are some deco changes from the original toy. In bot mode, most of the dark gray/black details are a lighter gray, except for his hips which are the same orange as his thighs now, and his hands which are now red. The single chevron on his shin is in two parts now, and his fold-out wing spoiler is orange instead of blue. In alt mode, the vents on his hood and in front of his rear tires are painted a gunmetal color instead of being left unpainted, and there's some gold paint on the rear of the car where the wings fold out. Purists who had the original toy might be fussed by the changes, but I kinda like them, as they make him even more like Hot Rod. Heck, I'd have been cool with them ditching the gray and silver on his chest for orange with flames. As a character who wasn't actually in the cartoon Excellion is far from essential, but the mold's decent enough and I like him as an alternate universe Hot Rod. Where Excellion is a Walmart Exclusive, Studio Series 86 Perceptor can only be found in Targets. I mean, this particular version, since Perceptor was already a mainline Studio Series 86 release. Aside from some extra pack-ins (more on that in a minute), I figured that the only real difference would be tweaked colors. And they are tweaked... the blue and red are just a bit darker, and the blacks on the orignal are are dark gray to better mimic the colors used in the animation. His chest is no longer a translucent part with a silvery paint around the edge, it's solid red plastic with silvery paint. But that's not all. Take a closer look, and you can see that his torso is actually slightly remolded, so he's a little wider in his lats. Spin him around and he's also got a door on his back to hide the gap that his head folds into. Transformation is more or less unaffected, though. But it alt mode, you might see something curious... Perceptor's entire torso is painted red. The two tabs that hold his chest door shut show that the plastic under the paint is actually brown. I guess that's because they put Perceptor's new chest parts on the same sprue as Ramhorn, one of the two packed-in cassette figures and very likely the reason you're replacing Perceptor in the first place. Ramhorn's pretty ok! The little rhino mode is a chonky little guy, and I like that his tape mode has some silver bits that almost past for reels if the weren't so off-centered. Like Steeljaw, his golden weapons are partsformed on and off along with his tail... and a good bit of his back. The other pack-in is Ratbat. Ratbat was previously released as a mainline Siege Micromaster pack, along with a robot bearing the name "Rumble" while being colored like Frenzy. While I liked the shade of purple and the extra colored details on the tape mode of the original version, the two-toned, red-eyed face, the gray that stays on the body and doesn't spread to the wings, and the more magenta main color on the new version are more accurate to the way Ratbat was colored in the 86 movie. Also, Ratbat a new accessory, a set of backpack boosters like the G1 toy had. So, yeah, both of Perceptor's buddies have some partsforming now, and those parts don't really belong on the cassette modes. But, as they both have 5mm pegs (and the gold bits on Ramhorn are on swivels), you can use them as weapons for anyone with the usual 5mm port fists. Just like everyone had to buy Legacy Soundwave just to get Buzzsaw, I think a lot of completionists are going to wind up buying Perceptor just to get Ramhorn. To that end, I appreciate that they included an extra accessory for Ratbat, and that they actually did a little remolded to Perceptor. That remolding on its own probably wouldn't convince me to upgrade, but at least this way I do feel like I upgraded when I was really in it for Ramhorn. Though I haven't see this one in stores yet (I got mine from Pulse), I do believe that two pack containing this Transformers Devastation Ground Soldier is also a Target Exclusive. Ground Soldier is reuse of the Runabout/Runamuck mold, though with a new head and trading a gun in for a sword. For the most part, that's fine... with the backpack on the in-game model I recognized the Ground Soldier as being based on the Battlechargers at the time, and these are definitely one of the colors they used in the game (the other being orange with red windows), but I should point out that their car mode in game had more curves, flared fenders, and a wing on the back. Ground Soldier is packaged with Elite Seeker, who's a repaint of Earthrise Ramjet with new sword accessories. Of all the coneheads, Ramjet is probably the closest to what we get in the game, what with the delta wings and the presence of the vertical stabilizers. Still, I can't help but wish, with this being the fifth color of this mold with no changes to the mold, that they would have made some changes to the wings, since the Seeker in the game does have delta wings but broader with an upward bend at the tips (more like Dirge without the canards), and though the in-game model does have vertical stabilizers like Ramjet (which Dirge and Thrust don't have), they're not sitting on top of big engine nacelles like Ramjet has. In any case, the mix of red, gray, and black make this one of the cooler Seeker designs in my book, and I can always use more nameless grunts, so I think this pack is worth it. Moving on to Amazon's exclusives, we have a pack that's a bit harder to justify. This set has Slugslinger, a bit of a dated Titans Returns mold that replaced the Targetmaster gimmick with a Headmaster one. The white plastic is a light gray, and the blue plastic is much darker (yeah, sorry, I accidentally but the new version on the right instead of the left). Technically, the new deco better matches his brief appearances in "The Rebirth," so points for Sunbow accuracy, I guess. But to me these colors seem more like they belong on Triggerhappy, and the lighter blue is closer to the G1 toy and, arguably, his appearance in the Japanese Headmasters cartoon, so I'm inclined to prefer the original. I'd heard it claimed that the tampographs were altered for the new version, but you can clearly see that they're really not. The only change is that the Decepticon badge on one of his wings has been replaced with the Mayhem Attack Squad insignia. I probably wouldn't have bothered with this set for Slugslinger, but Slugslinger comes packaged with "handsome" Sandstorm... that is, Legacy Sandstorm, but the toy-style masked face has been replaced with a cartoon-style unmasked face. Not much else has changed... the gray plastics used for the small pistol, his hands, and some of his inner workings have been replaced with black plastic, and black hands is more accurate to both his G1 toy and most of his cartoon appearances. Other than than, the orange plastics are just a bit lighter and they didn't paint the vents on his chest. In dune buggy mode, the black plastic instead of the gray for the engine is a change that is less like the chrome engine of the G1 toy and doesn't totally match the control art, but I can't say for sure if it does or doesn't match the cartoon better. I think, if you're not partsforming the otherwise useless cage on, that black subjectively looks better than that random gray. In helicopter mode there's even less difference. I guess what it really boils down to is how badly do you want a cartoon-accurate Sandstorm? I didn't have the G1 toy as a kid, so to me he absolutely needed a cartoon face. The toy-style face was my biggest complaint with the Legacy release. It just sucks that to get that head you have to not only buy another barely-changed copy of Sandstorm, you have to pay for Slugslinger, too. Last but not least, we have the Takara Godzilla Megatron crossover. In robot mode, from the neck down it's just Studio Series Grimlock in a mix and dark and light grays, with a little bit of red in some spots. From the neck up, that's actually a repaint of Studio Series Sludge's head, which kind of works better than I expected it to. It's an almost Alex Milne-esque style for Megatron. I said when I reviewed Hearts of Steel Megatron that I like a black Megatron, and with the lower part of Grimlock's torso picked out in silver and red I think it's really not that bad of a design for a Megatron. I just wished they could have swapped Grimlock's double-barreled rifle for a Fusion Cannon. The disappointment comes when you get him in dino mode, because it's just a dark gray Grimlock. Same stumpy Grimlock arms, same Grimlock head with the missing front teeth. No Godzilla spines. Even with the included blue effect part in his (admittedly well-painted) mouth, I don't think anyone's going to see this on a shelf and think, "oh, that's Godzilla!" So I supposed the question is, how much do are you willing to pay for an actual transforming Godzilla? Because, as is, I can't recommend this figure. Because DNA, maker of third-party upgrade kits, will be releasing a kit later this year that replaces the toes, arms, and head, plus adds spines and a longer tail, to turn this figure into once that actually resembles Godzilla. The kit effectively doubles the price of the figure, though; worth it for a hardcore fan of both Transformers and Godzilla like me, I think, and enough to flip my recommendation from a hard no to a yes if you're willing to spend the money on the upgrade kit.

Still no sign of Mixmaster, but I was at my local Walmart and saw that they're putting out some kind of display in the main aisle that seems to be targeting collectors. One of the sections has Transformers... indeed, after what seems like years of being behind (I saw Legacy Devcon and Tarn not even a month ago) they seemed kind of well-stocked. There was Vortex, Crasher, Alchemist Prime, Scrapper, Bonecrusher, and even the Commander pack with Long Haul and Hook. Of course, I have all those already, though... but they did have one figure I didn't have yet... the Walmart-exclusive Deluxe-class Sideways. I uh... I never made it through Transformers Cybertron. I think there were some interesting ideas, like the notion that there were other lost Cybertronian colonies, that even made it into other media, but I was kind of put off by the "sequel" to Armada and Energon that seemed to have nothing to do with the prior shows. This was, of course, because in Japan Galaxy Force wasn't actually a sequel, but I digress. Point is, I didn't buy a ton of Cybertron toys, but the tail end of Cybertron overlapped the launch of Classics and Universe, and a lot of Cybertron toys got repainted as G1 characters. One of those repaints was Sideways as Ratbat, and I do have that figure, so I can compare them. At first blush they might seem pretty similar, but I quickly realized that I liked the proportions just a bit better on the new figure. His chest doesn't stick out quite so far, and his pelvis and waist are a bit bigger. He's still got pretty long feet, but not quite as long and flat. Color-wise, he's a pretty close match for the cartoon/original toy, though he's missing a little orange on his thighs and he's got orange paint on his chest and face instead of translucent plastic. The wings on his lower legs are tucked in a bit closer, as they lack the armatures the original figure had. He's got tiny molded details near his collar that I assume is supposed to be like the black-and-gold bits on Ratbat... in the cartoon, they were black and orange on Sideways, and gold and orange on the toy. So I guess he's got some missing orange? It's a tiny thing, but technically the cartoon/original toy had orange heels, and the new figure has black ones. Much like the original figure, the wings on Sideways' legs are removable, so they count as accessories. They have molded details where the the original had green paint, but there's no green paint on them. He's got a little Cyber Planet Key. And he's got his shield, which is no longer permanently affixed to his arm anymore. The shield has the faction-switching gimmick of the original, but the key isn't required to activated. Instead, there's a switch on the under side that lets you freely toggle between Autobot and Decepticon. Hope the Autobots don't see his Key! I can't complain, though, the original toy came with a Cyber Planet Key with a Decepticon badge, so it's accurate. Sideways' head is technically on a ball joint. Not a lot of tilt, but it swivels no problem. His shoulders swivel, and they can move laterally 90 degrees. His biceps swivel, his elbows bend 90 degrees, and his wrists swivel. So far, basically the same as the original toy. Things start to improve at the waist, which swivels now. His hips are molded to look like the originals, but instead of ball joints he has pinned swivel hinges. He can move his hips 90 degrees laterally, and if it weren't for his shoulders they could almost move forward/backward 360 degrees. His hips swivel, and his knees bend nearly 180 degrees. His feet can tilt up and down a little, but in another improvement over the original he now also has 90 degrees of ankle pivot. His accessories work basically the same as the original toy. The wings, which are simply pegged into 5mm ports on his legs, can be held like a bladed weapon or bow. The shield can mount on a 5mm port on either arm, and it has the blades that can fold out near the tip. They are not activated by the Cyber Planet Key; you have to fold them out manually. That said, the only place the Cyber Planet Key can really go is into the back of the shield, just like the orignal. Transformation is, by and large, the same. You open the chest to fold the head into it. His backpack lifts up, and part of his back opens up so you can fold the arms around to the inside. His waist folds back, and his legs still turn and curl around on themselves, but his pelvis doesn't have to split in half anymore. The biggest differences are that his accessories partsform now. There's no armatures to move his wings into place, you just remove them from his legs and plug them into his backpack. The shield also comes off... more on that in a minute. I think its fair to say that the improvements int he proportions of the robot mode are largely at the expense of the alt mode. The cockpit's a little shorter and rounder. The shield doesn't sit quite as flush with the top of the fuselage. His shorter, not-so-flat feet stick out of the sides and don't meet the cockpit at the same angle. I get the feeling that someone familiar with this version of Sideways might look at this particular toy and see something close enough to be recognizable, but side-by-side with the original (or Ratbat, as it were) you can't help but notice that how less aerodynamic the new figure looks. The fact that the pelvis doesn't split and and flatten out the underside winds up leaving a pretty big gap between his legs that his little arms don't totally fill in the back. I'd also be remiss if I didn't point out some noticeable orange hinges where the arms folded into the torso and around the ankles that weren't present on the original, and some missing orange and green paint apps. The new Sideways is also missing a bit of the alt mode functionality of the original, too. Remember, the original toy's shield was permanently attached to his left arm on a swiveling double hinge. This hinge allowed you to raise the shield up, so the Key could be inserted and the blades popped out while in alt mode. On the new figure, the shield comes off the arm, the peg is folded in, and in plugs into tabs on the top of the ship (marked with green arrows). That's it, it's either attached or not attached. It can't lift up, and it doesn't have the clearance to fold out the blades if it is attached. That seemed like such a glaring omission that I very nearly missed the fact that the new figure also doesn't have any wheels. Yeah, the original toy has three tiny wheels, one under his torso where the pelvis split and folded away, and two in the armatures holding the wings on. The new figure kind of just sits like a lump. Ultimately, Sideways feels like a series of tradeoffs. The robot mode has better proportions and better articulation that allow for more dynamic posing. Heck, improvements in how the shoulders fold in make them less saggy, and even just in a casual A-stance with his feet turned slightly outward is enough to make him look more alive, like he's about the spring into action, than the original toy. Having the shield as a removable accessory and putting 5mm ports on his forearms also opens up a lot more options poses. But every robot mode improvement seems to have come at the direct expense of his alt mode, which now has worse proportions and is missing most of the functionality of the original toy. And the thing about Cybertron is that we're not talking about a toy that's a major upgrade over a 40-year old brick that hardly bore a resemblance to the cartoon like we get with G1. The Cybertron cartoon was GCI modeled much more closely off of the toys, which again were contemporaries of Classics with most of the articulation we enjoy today. New toys have to work harder to be actual improvements over the originals. I'd argue that some *cough cough Galaxy Upgrade Optimus cough cough* haven't hit that mark. That said... Sideways' alt mode is an alien spaceship, not any kind of recognizable Earth vehicle. Does it matter how sleeky it is? Do I really need the top of the fuselage to lift up to deploy a melee weapon in high-speed aerial combat? I guess what I'm getting at is, yes, I'm a little disappointed with his alt mode, but my appreciation for the bot mode improvements outweigh that disappointment. And frankly, I'm not sure how many of you old geewunners care that much about Sideways in the first place. So, kinda cool robot I have no attachment to that turns into a weird spaceship that's slightly less good than the weird spaceship of *checks notes* TWENTY YEARS AGO? Already? Well now I just feel old.

No arguments from me. Don actually drew up a ton of great concepts for that series, and unfortunately you get to see almost none of it in the actual comics due to Jae Lee's art style (which I've personally never been a fan of). Don's done some other really cool concepts I wouldn't mind seeing in toy form... like this 5-changer Megatron. Unfortunately, Don had a falling out with Hasbro and swore off working on the Transformers brand anymore. I don't remember all the details, but I think it was something along the lines of he came up with the idea for a bomber Megatron and pitched it with a story, IDW didn't want the story but wanted to use the design, then Hasbro made a Deluxe-class toy of it in 2013. Don's position is that he did the design, he let IDW use it (he even drew issues of the comic himself at the time), then Hasbro made a toy without giving him any credit or compensation. Hasbro's position is that it's their brand and their characters, and the minute that design was put in the comics it was fair game for them. I can't imagine he'd be too keen on Hasbro using his unpublished designs.

I don't recall Grimlock in Hearts of Steel? I do know Don Figueroa did a Grimlock tank design for a Dreamwave Transformers/G.I. Joe crossover set in the 1930s... HoS has John Henry in it, so while I don't recall a specific date it's likely set in the 1870s. The sequel, Infestation, is specifically set in 1888. That's still about 30 years before the Mark V, or really any tank. In addition to the cannon design that Hasbro used, Guidi did another design for Megatron that turned into a revolver.

I don't know if they'll release more HoS figures or not (I think people will be upset if we don't at least get Shockwave), and knowing Hasbro I doubt repaints are off the table. But the impression I got from Evan is that this line is going to crank out versions of Optimus/Megatron/Bumblebee/Starscream until they stop making money.

It shouldn't be a surprise to anyone, but Bumblebee's pack-in pal is Megatron. Megatron, like Optimus, doesn't actually appear in the Hearts of Steel comic book, just as concept art. As with the other three figures, I think Hasbro did a pretty good job here on what's essentially a Deluxe-class figure. He's got a bit less paint than Bee, but arguably because he needs less of it; everything's the color it's supposed to be, with silver paint on all those spikes and some cool molded gears in his hips. He's just missing a touch of red on his elbows and gold spikes in the center of his shoulder wheels. The molded gears are on the back sides of his hips, too. There's plenty of other rivets and molded details. All-in-all it's a pretty good design... I love a good black Megatron, and from interviews with Evan it sounds like we could be seeing more versions of these four characters in the future. I, for one, would love for Hasbro to revisit the stealth bomber design from IDW, but I'd really prefer them to be Voyager or Leader class in the future. But I digress. Megatron's sole accessory is this cannon. Megatron's head is on a ball joint with some upward tilt and above average sideways and downward tilt. His shoulders rotate, and though the big wheels on his shoulders have hinges and do their best to get out of the way they do stop him from reaching a full 90 degrees laterally. His biceps swivel, and his double-jointed elbows bend 180 degrees. No wrist swivels, but his waist does swivel. Hips can go about 90 degrees backward, and past 90 degrees forward or laterally. His thighs swivel, and his knees bend a little short of 180 degrees. No upward tilt on his feet, but they can tilt downward. He does have ankle pivots, but they're limited to under 45 degrees. Megatron's cannon plugs into the port on his right arm. The port itself is on a flap, not his actual arm, and can fold outward a bit for some poses. Of the four Hearts of Steel figures, Megatron has about the simplest transformation. Open his back, tuck his head in, and close it up. Bend his wrists outward, then open the gray bits on his arms and tuck his hands inside. Fold out these pointy bits from inside his forearms, then spin them 180 degrees and bend his elbows so his forearms line up with the backs of his shoulders. If it's lined up right, the gray bits from his forearms will tab into slots on the dark part of his back, and the flap with the cannon (which does not need to be removed for transformation) will tab into the middle of the gray part. Then just spin his waist 180 degrees, fold down his feet, and bend his knees. Tabs near his ankles will lock the legs into his butt, and you're done. Simple, yes, but fairly accurate to Guido Guidi's sketches. The little pointy bits you had to flip out of his forearms are an especially nice touch because they do represent details that were present in Guidi's artwork, but I'd bet that if Hasbro had simply omitted them that a lot of people wouldn't have even noticed. My only real gripe, something that perhaps could have been addressed on a little larger, little more expensive figure are the very visible robot thighs on the back. I can't say it's not accurate, since Guidi's sketches don't show that angle, but I get the impression that they should be covered somehow. Not much else to say, really. Like I said, the cannon doesn't have to come off for transformation. Since it's a solid piece, the barrel doesn't telescope (despite Guidi's notes indicating that it should be longer in cannon mode than in robot mode), nor can it adjust its elevation. The big shoulder wheels do roll, though, as do a pair of smaller wheels in his knees. I like this Megatron. I think he's a good fit with their Prime and Starscream, I like the darker colors on him, and the alt mode is both unique and fitting. I think my only real complaint is that I wish he were bigger. Bee and Megatron together are a set worth picking up, especially if you got the previous set. That said, if they do two-packs in the future I'd prefer they put Optimus and Megatron together

Well, I still don't have a date for Mixmaster. But I haven't quite run out of new stuff, because everything is kind of coming all at once. From Pulse's latest exclusive two-pack, here's Hearts of Steel Bumblebee. This one's an interesting one for me, because while some of MMC's earliest projects did include Optimus and Starscream, I never owned them. What I do own is Mech Planet Hot Soldiers Centurion, a figure I reviewed all the way back in 2018. At the time, I said he lacked the polish that more expensive 3P figures usually have, and lo and behold when an official toy comes out from Hasbro it's already looking a bit more refined. The gray plastic is a bit darker and, to my eye, a more accurate color, the head is more defined and less derpy, and he's sporting a lot more paint in ways that make him more accurate, like the blue marker lights on his tummy, the silver gears in the boxes on his shins, and the insides of the slats on his toes. Ultimately, though, they're pretty similar. Both end up with similar kibble in similar places. Hasbro's figure is a little more hollow in the forearms and the backs of the thighs, and you can see a little more into the inner workings in his back, but on the other hand his shoulders aren't as droopy and he's got less kibble on his back. Like Centurion, the official toy comes with a hammer. It's colored a bit more accurately, and although it also has some plastic saving cutouts they're kind of under the hammer head, and less obvious. The official toy gets a pistol that Centurion doesn't have. Bee's head is on a ball joint that has some slight up/down/sideways tilt. Shoulders are also ball joints, and they can swivel and move 90 degrees laterally. Biceps swivel, and elbows bend 90 degrees. No wrist swivels, but due to how they fold for transformation he can tilt them down for poses where you want him pointing the hammer or holding it in a more relaxes fashion. His waist swivels. His hips can go 90 degrees forward, backward, and laterally. His thighs swivel, and his knees bend about 120 degrees. His feet can tilt up and down, and he's got about 45 degrees of ankle pivot. For those keeping score at home, that's mostly on par with Centurion, though the official figure ultimately wins due to pins and hinges for the hips instead of ball joints, a deeper knee bend, and the fact that his entire foot moves when his ankle pivots and not just his pilot toes. Bee can hold either weapon in either hand, but he doesn't have any bot mode storage. Bee's transformation is extremely similar to Centurion's... with obvious train parts in the feet, legs, chest, and shoulder pads I'd like to believe that's simply the most obvious, logical way to get from the robot to the train, and not a case of Hasbro's team copying someone else's homework. The biggest differences are that Bee's shoulders shift deeper into his shoulder pads rather than fold under them, simply bending his elbows to get in place under the rear of the train, and the shoulder pads shift just a bit more cleanly without the need for gap-filling flaps. I'd say the entire transformation is just a bit smoother, really. Once again, the official toy comes off as just a bit more refined. Obviously, the paint again, including the "BEE" written on the sides (that was part of Guido Guidi's concept art for Bee, though I don't recall seeing it in the actual pages of the comic), but also small details like the flap at the bottom rear, the lack of visible hands, and molded details on the back that better resemble the comic. Bee has storage for his accessories in alt mode. There's a 5mm port between his forearms that you can plug the gun into. There's also a hollow space under the pilot. The head of the hammer fits into it, and the handle snaps into place between Bee's legs. It's super secure, but it does fore his legs slightly apart and creates a gap in the pilot. On the one hand, Bee's half a $60 set, and my initial reaction was that seems a bit much for a Deluxe-class figure. But, as part of a Pulse-exclusive set, I don't know that it's actually fair to say that he is a Deluxe. The size and engineering seem pretty Deluxe, but after our recent round of Studio Series Deluxes I'm inclined to think that Bee's sporting a bit more paint. And compared to Centurion, a figure that I recall retailing for around $35 in 2018 (which is closer to $45 in 2025 dollars), Hasbro's offering is little smaller but overall more refined. I don't know that I can fairly complain that Bee costs a little more than a normal retail Deluxe then turn around and tell you that he's better than a toy that's $15 more adjusted for inflation. Because, yeah, between the two I do like the official figure better. Ultimately, the decision to buy or not comes down to how much you like his pack-in pal, who we'll be looking at in the next episode.

Look, I love Bumblebee. Charlie's hands-down the best human character in any Transformers movie. But respectfully, I disagree. I think Bumblebee was more flawed- Bee, who exhibits all the intelligence of a smart dog, winds up being a prop in what's ultimately Charlie's story. Transformers One, on the other hand, was actually about Transformers. Some elements of the story, like Pax becoming Prime, were a little rushed to fit the kids' movie runtime, but I felt like it made the deterioration in the relationship between D-16 and Pax believable. So, yeah, while Bumblebee is my favorite live-action Transformers film by a very wide margin, I happen to like both theatrical animated films better.

Mixmaster still hasn't shipped, no idea what's going on with Elita-1, so... I guess this is the last Studio Series review for now? This being Deluxe-class Transformers One Starscream. I compared Starscream with both screen captures and concept art, and overall Starscream's pretty accurate with the usual caveat that Deluxes often lack the budget for all the paint that they need. So, there's a little gunmetal paint on the inside of his forearm, but not his fingers or the mechanical details on the outsides of his forearms. Likewise, there's a little on the top of his foot, but not his toes. His chest vents are painted, but there's none on his lats. There's a hinge on his wing with molded gun-like details that's painted on one piece, but not the part that connects to it. His biceps are missing red stripes. Overall, though, the sculpt is very accurate, a blend of recognizable G1 features and the rounded shoulders, short torsos, and long skinny legs that was TFOne's schtick. I just have two minor nitpicks, and one "this should have been addressed before it went into production" complaint. The nitpicks relate to his backpack. The intakes and the hood are accurate, but they sit back further from his head than they do on the character model. Also, the intakes are just empty, hollow spaces where the CGI model had them filled with gunmetal mechanical details. As for my "should have been addressed" complaint, it's the way the ends of his wings fold. On the toy, they fold over toward the side facing forward. How could this have been fixed? By having them fold to the back of the wing instead, which would have been more movie-accurate. Starscream comes with a few accessories. The most obvious are his null rays. There's also a weird-looking blue gun, and a white bit that doesn't look like a weapon at all. Starscream's head is on a ball joint with a little upward tilt, but plenty of downward and sideways tilt. Shoulders are also ball joints that swivel and move 90 degrees laterally. His biceps swivel, and his elbows bend a little over 90 degrees. No wrist or waist articulation. Hips are ball joints. Due to his backpack he can only move about 75 degrees backward, and the cut of the socket doesn't allow for a full 90 laterally either, but he makes up for it with a forward kick that goes about 120 degrees. His thighs swivel, and his knees bend about 120 degrees as well. His toes can tilt downward due to his transformation, but no upward tilt and in a first for Studio Series-level TFOne figures no ankle pivots. The null rays properly plug into Starscream's shoulders, though I suppose he can hold them in his hands, too. The blue gun and white bit can also be held as weapons, or combined into one larger weapon. You can store the combined weapon in a port on his back; that's actually the proper place for the white bit in alt mode. If you plug it in there you don't actually have to remove it or the null rays to transform him, but the blue gun does require partsforming. Speaking of transformation, for the most part it's pretty straightforward. His backpack opens a little to reveal a spot his head tucks into. His chest swings up, and the nose of his alt mode unfolds from inside. His legs tuck up to where his chest was, and his knees bend so his feet are at the back of the jet. His arms basically just lay there alongside the fuselage under the wings, which rotate on ball joints to help cover over them. Just two issues... first, lining everything up can be a bit of a bear. His heels have to plug all the way into his backpack, or the flaps on his legs won't line up right. If the flaps on his legs don't line up right the forearms won't sit over the hinges on those flaps properly. If the arms don't sit right the wings won't tab in correctly. Once you get it all sorted, though, you'll have to deal with the bane of my existence- the intakes. In theory they untab from the backpack then swing backward on armatures to "thoop" into place over the wings. See, they're held on by those mushroom pegs with the slits in the middle that are, in practice, supposed to squish in to fit through the hole then spread back out to hold the part in place. In reality a simple 5mm peg would have held on tighter, and I've yet to transform Starscream without both intakes popping off. The jet mode doesn't look bad, though. It's the lovechild of the Siege Seeker mold and the Bumblebee Seekers. While the arms are a bit obvious, they do seem to be in the right place. The sculpt is largely accurate with guns in all the right places. Discrepencies between the toy and the CGI largely come down to missing paint, just like bot mode; mostly he's missing a red stripe on the tail and more gunmetal on the cockpit. The cockpit can open; I don't think there's a need for passenger spaces on Cybertronian alt modes, but you need to open the cockpit to transform him, so it's there. As I mentioned earlier, the null rays stay on his shoulders to wind up in a screen-accurate place in alt mode, and the white bit forms the tip of his tail. The blue gun is captured between his shoulder pads as you transform him, but the placement is again screen-accurate. Starscream, much like Prime and Megatron, suffer a bit from being Deluxe-class figures. Now, I get it, most of the bots in the film were pretty similar-sized, and by making them all Deluxes they can get them out faster due to there being more Deluxe slots in a given wave. But if more of his joints were hinges and swivels instead of ball joints, maybe things would line up a bit easier. Maybe he'd have the missing paint apps. Maybe he could have had ankles, or even wrists. Maybe his intakes could have been pinned so they don't keep coming off. Still, Starscream's not bad, and I maintain that Transformers One was probably the best Transformers film since the '86 one, so I'm happy to add him to the collection. Here's hoping Soundwave and Shockwave get toys before they move on from this film.

I think almost all of mine are in car mode right now, but again, car guy. My (Chinese) wife jokes that when we watch Chinese dramas on Netflix together that she's always looking to see what the characters are eating, I'm always looking to see what they're driving.

Well... I still don't know when the Voyagers of this wave are coming, but Scavenger wasn't the only Deluxe. So up next we'll do Age of Extinction Concept Art KSI Widow. As the "concept art" bit suggests, "Widow" (aka Widowmaker) wasn't actually seen (at least not in robot form) in the film, but rather is based on concept art by Steve Jung. There are some pretty major differences, though... she was more red than orange, and the car kibble is quite different, because she was originally going to be the Pagani Huayra that eventually became Stinger. The head design, the fenders forming her shoulder pads, the spikes on her arms, the knee pads, though, all come from Jung's concept art. She technically has high heels like the concept art, too, but it's kind of hard to tell with the mass of car kibble on her lower legs that was decidedly not part of the concept art. That said, I'm not really mad about it. The concept art has a very lithe, almost sexy design with almost no visible car parts that would have very much relied on CGI magic to transform. What I feel we got from Evan and Kunihiro is a robot that still has noticeably feminine proportions in the arms, torso, and thighs that avoids the all-too-common "just fold everything into a backpack" engineering that's prevalent with Bayverse cars. Despite allusions to some kind of chain accessory (seen in some of Jung's concept art), Widow just comes with these two blasters. While I do admire Widow's aesthetics, her articulation leaves a bit to be desired. Her head's on a ball joint that swivels, but has minimal tilt due to the molded "hair". Her shoulders are ball joints that swivel and move 90 degrees laterally. Her biceps swivel, and her elbows bend a tad over 90 degrees. No wrist articulation, though, and no waist articulation. Her hips are more ball joints that move 90-ish degrees forward and backward, but only about 75 degrees laterally. Her thighs swivel, and her knees bend 90 degrees IF you make sure the kibble on her thighs is out of the way first. Her feet tilt up, due to how they transform, but not downward, and she doesn't have ankle pivots. Her blasters clip over her forearms. I don't think it's immediately obvious how they go on (pro tip: try to align the curve near the barrel with the back of her hand). When not mounted to her forearms, tabs on the top rear can plug into slots under her door wings on her back. Her transformation actually gives me flashbacks to the Transformers Prime Vehicon. Her head and spine fold back from her torso, tabbing into her butt. Her shoulders shift down and back slightly, so that her arms lay along side her head. Her kneepads and toes fold flat. and the thigh kibble slides out, spins to align with the car kibble on her lower legs, then slides back into place. Then (and this is really where the Vehicon thing comes in) her calves open up, and you fold out the insides on three hinges to form the top of the car, from the hood all the way to the rear. Flip up her wings, fold her shoulder pads down to line up with her chest, then rock her chest up so the wings line up with the thigh kibble on the sides of the car. Then all you have to do is close her thighs, lining up all the kibble you folded out along the way, and fold her heels in to finish off the rear. I'm a car guy, and for all the faults both objective and subjective I might have with Bayverse robots both as both concept designs and physical toys, the one thing you're not going to here me complain about is the cars. The people making the movies have an eye for cool cars, and for their part Hasbro's been doing for the Studio Series line what they often didn't do for the individual movie lines- licensing those cool cars. So what we have here is a McLaren MP4-12C (or just 12C for short). The 12C actually was in a highway scene with Galvatron, it just didn't transform. I guess Hasbro retroactively decided that the 12C could be Widow, since the Huayra became Stinger. Regardless, Hasbro did an excellent job here, as all the little details are accurate to the real car; I think the only thing I can find to nitpick is that the side mirrors stick out further on the real car, but that's about it. Of course, you don't want to mar a gorgeous alt mode like this by plugging weapons on top of it, or even having the requisite tabs to attempt to plug the weapons on top. Instead, mid-transformation, you'll find slots below her knees on the inside of her shins after you fold the car kibble out. Plug the guns in there before you close her up and you're golden. To recommend, or not recommend, is tricky. On the on hand, I don't think most of you even bother with the Bayverse stuff. And, for the few that do, maybe you're sticking to characters that actually get screen time. It's definitely a bummer that her articulation is a little sub-par... ankle pivots have been part of the Generations lines since Siege; Bayverse characters deserve working ankles, too! Despite her flaws, though, I do think that the team did a pretty good job taking Jung's concept art and translating it into a toy that still manages to be maintain a feminine figure on a Deluxe budget, and I'm tempted to say that her alt mode alone is worth the purchase price. Truthfully, there have been worse-executed Bayverse characters, so I think I'd give her a tentative recommend if you collect Bayverse characters.

Given the somewhat more limited improvements over their Combiner Wars selves compared to Megatron, I feel pretty comfortable suggesting that SS86 Megatron has overtaken Devastator as the hot item this year. But Devastator's still on a lot of minds, and it just so happens that I also received Deluxe-class Studio Series Scavenger. Unfortunately, like basically everyone but Long Haul so far, SS86 Scavenger seems to take more inspiration from the Combiner Wars toy than Sunbow's control art. Same narrow hips, same lack of the angled collar, same "ironing board" midsection that's basically flat with some molded detail instead of the more three-dimensional cartoon look. In some ways, I think SS86 Scavenger actually looks worse. His proportions are squatter, with a longer crotch that looks like he's walking around with a fully-loaded diaper. Officially, his shovel is meant to curl up onto his back, also like the Combiner Wars toy. In the cartoon, though, Hook's shovel was more like a tail or a third leg, coming off his butt and reaching toward the ground. Scavenger's sole accessory is this gun. As near as I can tell, it's pretty cartoon-accurate, but I wonder at the little peg hole on it. There are no corresponding pegs anywhere on his body. Scavenger's head is NOT on a ball joint, just a simple swivel. A transformation hinge gives him the slightest downward tilt, but he can't look up or tilt his head sideways. His shoulders are ball joints, which allow his arms to move 90 degrees laterally and swivel. His elbows are also ball joints, bending 90 degrees and pulling double duty as bicep swivels. No wrist swivels, no waist articulation. Hips are *sigh* ball joints, capable of moving a little over 90 degrees forward and backward, and 90 degrees laterally. His thighs swivel, and his knees bend 90 degrees. No upward tilt on his feet, but the front half can bend downward due to transformation, and his ankles pivot 90 degrees. Scavenger can hold his gun without issue, but there's no place for robot-mode storage. His shovel has three hinges and a swivel, so he can bring it over his head like a scorpion tail, or you can have it dangling from his back more like the cartoon. The engineering in Scavenger isn't too far off the CW toy. Once again you open his ironing board to fold in the head, the cab folds over, the sides of his chest fold back, and his arms use the hinged ball joints in his shoulders to slide down in line with his chest to form the upper half of the vehicle. The legs, if anything, are slightly less complicated as you just fold in the toes and swing the legs up and around on their ball joints enough that you can tab them to his hips and sides. For what it's worth, Scavenger feels a lot more solid in alt mode than the CW version does, and that third hinge on the shovel is one more than the CW toy had. But still, Scavenger is still copying the CW toy more than the Sunbow art. He doesn't have the section on front of the shovel where the animators drew the G1 toy's peg for attaching the arm. The cylinders (I assume they're supposed to be air intakes and exhausts?) on the Sunbow at is also missing. In place of them we have in indent where a purple ball joint is clearly visible. Finally, the rear of the shouldn't line up with the treads, it's meant to overhang them. I wonder how many of these wrong details got copied from CW because so much of the basic engineering was copied? I mean, the CW and SS toys both have the feet at the front of the treads, the shoulders at the front of the deck, and the hands and waist at the back... exactly the opposite of the G1 toy. I know CW did it because the middle of his torso folded out and Devastator's forearm attached to it, and guess what? 86's chest folds out, and Devastator's forearm attaches to it. And that means that, just like CW Scavenger, 86's deck does NOT rotate. He doesn't even have any wheels to roll on. About the only thing you can do in alt mode is move the shovel using joints at the base, halfway between the swivel and the bucket, and right at the bucket. Oh, and there's a 5mm port on top of the deck you can plug his gun into. Scavenger joints fellow Deluxe and fellow arm Bonecrusher as the weakest of the SS86 Constructicons. There are some improvements over the CW toy, if only in the stability and solidity, especially in the hips, but ultimately he follows the unfortunate trend of copying way too much of CW Devastator's homework when I really would rather they started from scratch and tried for more clever engineering and better cartoon accuracy. I guess Habsro figures the individual modes don't matter all that much if he's going to be combined most of the time anyway... so hopefully Mixmaster will arrive soon and I can tell you if the whole shebang is worth it or not.

It's a little over your budget and not the most cutting edge hardware, but this is about as low as I'd go on the CPU for Tarkov, and the GPU should still cut it for your desired settings. https://www.bestbuy.com/site/thermaltake-graphite-360-gaming-desktop-amd-ryzen-5-5600x-16gb-memory-nvidia-geforce-rtx-3060-1tb-nvme-m-2-black/6488518.p?skuId=6488518 Anything newer/faster is gonna cost you these days. To put it in perspective, I spent about $1200 on my desktop five and a half years ago. I upgraded last fall and spent double that.

Respecftully, I disagree. I mean, yes, Megatron does have a lot more greebles than a modern Fans Toys version would, absolutely. But Prime's far from Sunbow sleek, with thicker proportions and plenty of greebles of his own, especially on the sides of his arms, the backs of his shoulders, and the sides and backs of his legs. Personally, I think they look quite good together.😁 To force you to start over with an ever-so-slightly larger scale, of course. In all seriousness, it was my understanding that they felt that ER Prime was a little too short compared to the rest of the Autobots, and that 86 was something of a course correction. The problem is that Siege/ER Megatron actually did scale pretty well the with other Decepticons, though, so Soundwave, Shockwave, and the Seekers pretty much have to be redone to scale with 86 Megatron. There have been hints of these adjustments for awhile. Galvatron is basically the size they scaled Prime and Megatron up to, Blaster's a little taller than Soundwave, and even though they kinda hyped Motormaster being the same height as Prime, well, none of the Decepticons were as tall as Megatron so Motormaster was always properly shorter than Prime and Megs. I do think, in a way, it's a shame that Romulus wound up not scaling with 86 Prime for those people who really do insist on Megatron having a gun mode, but I'm personally too bent out of shape about it because the Studio Series versions of Prime, Megatron, Ironhide/Ratchet, arguably Bumblebee, and apparently the new Seekers have been such improvements over the WfC versions that I would have double-dipped even if they didn't adjust the scale.

Well, well! While I've accumulated a small pile of repaints over the last two weeks or so that I do eventually need to get photographed, seems Amazon has started sending out the final wave of 2025 Studio Series figures. Which means that I now have, sitting on my desk, one of the most-anticipated figures of the year, Leader-class 86 Megatron. For me, almost since I started collecting, a proper Classics/Universe/Generations/whatever Megatron has felt just out of reach. Classics? I was glad to have something to go with Classics Optimus, but the winged white-and-purple Nerf gun was a bit of a reimagining. Combiner Wars had better colors, but poor articulation and a lot of compromises to make a better tank mode, not to mention he was closer to MP scale than Generations. ToyWorld's Hegemon scaled well and had a proper G1 style, but was kind of fiddly and kibbly even for the time. Siege's squat proportions and stylized fusion cannon were getting closer and still make a decent Cybertronian mode, but he did have a backpack and leg molding that was obvious tank parts. The Earthrise remold gave him a more cartoon-accurate fusion cannon, head sculpt, and abdomen, but an even bigger backpack and partsforming chunks for his turret and barrel and the space between his legs on the back of the tank. NewAge set themselves up for what looked like a home run- clean and very cartoon-accurate bot mode and the gun mode that Hasbro can't do, but they jumped the gun by scaling it with Earthrise Optimus right before the new taller 86 Optimus came out. When 86 Megatron was first leaked, I had just two requests. The first was for the figure to maintain the high level of cartoon-accuracy that 86 Optimus brought. I know Hasbro can't do a gun Megatron, I don't care if Megatron has to be a tank, but I don't want to see any tank kibble on him. This was more important to me than the ability to transform, so important that I'd actually modified an Earthrise Megatron, repainting some parts, removing the backpack entirely, and attaching one of the weird pistols that came with Siege Soundwave to give him the gun barrel on his back. And for that wish, I think I have to give Hasbro an A here. Megatron has pretty much all the cartoon details you could possibly ask for- he's got the hammers on his shoulders, the details on his abs (including the red on the sides that was missing from Earthrise), the black "diaper" pelvis, and the gun barrel on his back. There's something a little off about his fusion cannon. I feel like the barrel is ok, but the middle section should be slightly longer with a dial instead of that lip, and the rear section is a tad long and probably should collapse closer to the middle section. But that's about it. I mean, even his back and sides are remarkably clean and free of tank kibble, just as I asked. You can sort of make out the treads inside his thighs, but the grooves aren't really that far off from the grooves of the gun grip. There's also a chunk near the heel with obvious tank wheels, but even that sits where the attachment point for the shoulder stock. Oh, and a note about the colors... yes, the gray on his legs is a little bluish. I think, under brighter lights and as picked up by my camera (and the cameras of the leakers), they do look too blue. However, sitting on my desk in more normal lighting conditions, the gray looks fine to my eyes. The other wish I had was that he'd come with an accessory that represented his gun mode that other figures could hold. As great as it would be to have a Megatron toy that could turn into his gun mode, the fact is in the cartoon he always shrank so a minion, usually Starscream, could wield him. Megatron turning into a gun captures the spirit of the G1 toy, but a cartoon-accurate Megatron robot packaged with a gun-mode accessory captures the spirit of the cartoon. Once again, wish granted, as he does indeed come with a pistol-mode accessory with a standard 5mm peg handle that anyone (including the future SS86 Starscream) can use. Additionally, there is of course his aforementioned fusion cannon and back-mounted gun barrel. While I largely consider them to be parts of his body, they count as accessories. I mean, not only are they removable (and not installed in the box), they have to come off for him to transform. Lastly, you get the beam saber he used in his fight with Prime in the movie. I know a lot of people wish he'd also come with his energon mace, as they think of that as more his signature melee weapon, but I get it, the saber was in the '86 movie and the mace wasn't. Honestly, since Prime's axe has been installed inside his trailer since I finished that review nearly a year ago, I don't think I'm too bent of out shape about the exclusion of a mace I'm also unlikely to use. So, Megatron's head is your standard ball joint fare, very slight downward and sideways tilt, slightly more upward tilt, and swivel. His shoulders swivel, move laterally 90 degrees, and due to how they're engineered have some forward butterfly action. His biceps swivel, and his elbows bend a bit over 90 degrees on a single hinge. His wrists are ball joints for swiveling and a little wiggle. His hands are identical to Prime's; fixed thumb, but articulated fingers with a hinge at the base and the middle knuckle, with the index finger separate from the other three. His waist swivels. His hips can go about 90 degrees backward, over 90 degrees forward, and just under 90 degrees laterally. His thighs swivel, and his knees bend a little over 90 degrees. Using some transformation hinges, you can get some decent up/down tilt on his feet, plus his ankles can pivot 90 degrees. Megatron has 5mm ports on the side of either forearm, as well as a pair on his back. This is how you'd properly attach the gun barrel to his back and his fusion cannon to his arm... but I suppose nothing's really stopping you from sticking his fusion cannon on his back, and mounting the gun barrel to his forearm. As for his other accessories, like I said before the gun has a 5mm peg for handle, so Megatron or anyone else can hold it. The pommel of the saber is too big to slide into a 5mm port. The top of the saber does come off, but there's a flare near the top so nor can you feed it up through the bottom of a fist. You kind of have to open his hand and snap it between his thumb and the curved bit of his palm. I don't really like the way it feels doing that. You can use second 5mm port on his back to plug the saber into it. Meanwhile, there's a tiny tab on the pistol's scope, and it plugs into a slot between the 5mm ports, allowing Megatron to carry all of his accessories. After transforming the dirt-simple Combiner Wars Megatron and the Earthrise toy where a backpack and some add-on bits are doing a lot of the heavy lifting, 86 Megatron's transformation feels very clever. His forearms don't just open to hide his fists, the opened forearm armor spins 180 degrees so it captures his elbows when it closes. His chest does open to allow his head to fold it, but also continues to unfold to become most of the front of the tank. His arms work their way out of the torso a bit, too, then his back also opens up and the swivel for the turret comes out. The hollow space you created in his torso captures his pelvis. His shins and feet lift away from the legs, tucking over his thighs with his feet wrapping behind and under to make the back of the tank. The bulk of his lower legs unfold to form the sides and treads of the tank. The gun barrel plugs into the fusion cannon's barrel, and the fusion cannon sandwiches between his arms (with a little hatch that opens so the rear of the cannon can hide the arm joints) to finish off the turret. Now, ok... it's not the best tank mode we've seen. Combiner Wars looks a lot better, but a lot of what makes his tank mode so good compromises the robot mode. The front of Earthrise's turret is a bit better, but the front of Earthrise's turret is also a big partsforming bit. Frankly, I'm impressed that the tank mode even came out as good as it did. Yeah, the cartoon-accurate arms mashed onto a nearly cartoon-accurate fusion cannon with a cartoon-accurate gun barrel poking out of it don't make the most convincing turret (and that turret does sit a bit far forward), but his chest makes for pretty decent front of the tank, his legs make for great sides of a tank, and his feet and shins at least fill the gap between his legs better than a random hunk of black plastic, and with (abstract turret notwithstanding) basically no robot kibble. Since the concept art Bumblebee Megatron came out I'd been saying that was the way to go- make an awesome robot, even if it meant phoning in the tank mode. So, to my eyes, Megatron's tank mode is far from perfect but also more than adequate. The tank does roll, by the way. The turret swivels, though the swivel is at the very back of the turret instead of the middle, so maybe don't. You can't elevate or lower the barrel, anyway. What you can do, though, is use one of the two 5mm ports on top of the turret or the one along either side to store your pistol and saber accessories. Studio Series 86 Megatron is not a perfect figure. With a bit more budget maybe he could have had a better fusion cannon, some extra panels or transformation to make his turret look better, or more accessories like his mace, the pistol he murdered Prime with, etc. And it's a safe bet that someone like DNA is working on an upgrade kit to do one or more of those things. While not perfect, I do think that Megatron is still a very good, perhaps even excellent figure, because he delivered more or less exactly what I wanted; an excellent Sunbow-style robot with solid articulation that scales with 86 Optimus, an adequate tank mode, and a pistol accessory that represents his "real" alt mode. If you picked up SS86 Optimus, you're definitely going to want this Megatron to go with him.

I mean, we're talking about a franchise where a space shuttle orbiter becomes the arm of a robot that uses a Jeep Willys for a leg (in the cartoon, I am aware that the toy was actually based on larger the XR311). Trying to reconcile alt mode scale in G1 is a pathway to madness. But like I keep saying, the real problem is the relatively thinness. A car just of room underneath and inside to stuff robot parts, or chunkier parts that are easier to translate directly as robot parts. As big as an F-15 is (and comparatively thick for a fighter), it's roughly 40% thinner than a Datsun 280ZX (which is pretty sleek, as cars go) when you compare their relative length or width to their height. A lot of Kawamori's designs end up with large intakes and engine nacelles that are a thicker than a lot of modern fighters, and Macross series since they started using more CGI have featured Valks that are a lot skinnier, especially in the arms. And like I said, Kawamori has the luxury of working backward from Fighter, and from VF-1 to VF-11 to VF-19 to VF-25 to VF-31 a lot of the transformation elements are pretty similar, with the big evolution seeming to be how they scrunch up the cockpit and nose. I'm not saying this as a critique of Kawamori's work, I'm saying that Takara was first constrained by using real-world aircraft then double-whammied by Sunbow replacing the Diaclone mecha designs with Floro Dery's character models, which (especially in the first season) often deviated wildly from the original designs. When you start with a toy that had kind of weird proportions and arms that were half part of the fuselage and half add-on fists, turn it into a cartoon with more humanoid proportions and normal, blocky arms, then turn it back into a toy that has to be faithful to that cartoon, something's bound to give. And, I mean, yeah, I think it's definitely possible, with enough parts and engineering, to have a totally accurate F-15 turn into a totally Sunbow robot. I agree that designers could make better use of what the plane actually has and translating that into what the robot needs. But at even a $50 Leader price? On a toy that still has to meet US safety standards to be sold in Walmarts, and very likely doesn't have a license from Boeing even be all that accurate in the first place? Last I checked even Newage charges more for a toy that's half the size. And it gets even worse when they have to do it as a Deluxe that also has to be a part of a Combiner. Like I ultimately said, Has/Tak's jet Transformers are far from perfect, and I do get how that can be frustrating for someone so into aircraft... but I gotta be realistic about what they can and can't do with a $20/$35/$50 trying to capture the nuances of an often poorly-animated 40-plus year-old cartoon. ...newer Transformers media, though, doesn't quite have the same excuse. The guys who worked on the Bay films could have worked backward from an F-22 the way Touch Toys did with the J-35 and given us a cool Starscream, instead of the mess of scrap that we actually got. But they didn't. But even then, there's the matter of budgets... SS Starscream? Best they could do on the budget at the time (was that release all the way back when Voyagers were $25?). The MPM, though, that was proportionally thicker and far messier? No excuse. So... like Bumblebee and Cliffjumper? 😄 Shifting gears a bit, I know you're a big fan of the tapes in general and Dr. Wu's specifically. Make sure you check out the 3P thread.😉

It's a fair price, especially with an OLED screen, but I'd recommend budgeting for a RAM upgrade to go with it. Aside from a short weekend trip I haven't really traveled lately, definitely not like I used to pre-COVID. I'm glad I upgraded my desktop when I did, but I'm not really sure I even need a laptop anymore, at least not for the time being. For what little gaming-on-the-go I do these days (mostly just sitting for 45-90 minutes while my daughter is in her dance class) my ROG Ally X is handling well enough.

While I love Dr. Wu's Micromaster-sized Extreme Warfare line, I've been a little more lukewarm on his tapes. His version of Squawkbox was a so-so Beastbox and kind of crappy Squawktalk that combined to make a pretty awkward robot. His version of Slamdance fared a bit better, but between tepid reviews and the fact that the G1 toy never released in the US I opted to pass entirely on Dr. Wu's Decibel. Perhaps they'd have quirks if they didn't have to have to worry about getting both an alt mode AND a combined mode out of a tiny rectangle? Still, it's nice that the good Doctor is covering those late G1 cassette combiners, because who knows when Hasbro would get around to it? It took them how long just to get a version of Buzzsaw out there, and we're just now getting Ramhorn (but only as part of a Target-exclusive package). And speaking of tapes Hasbro's not getting around to, we're still missing two that weren't just part of the US G1 toy line, but characters that had screen time in the Sunbow cartoon. So I'm turning to Dr. Wu once again for Brutality and Slaughter, his version of Slugfest and Overkill. Both figures are lacking the cassette decals the G1 toys had, though there's a case to be made that it makes for more cartoon-accurate "robot" modes. Then again, I think in the cartoon Overkill's biceps, thighs, and tail were white instead of blue, and like most Decepticons he had his eyes colored red in the cartoon, so they're still more toy-colored than anything. Brutality is very similar to G1 Slugfest, with the most obvious difference being that his legs are more on his sides that directly under his belly. Slaughter, meanwhile, stays mostly accurate to G1 Overkill but I feel enjoys an overall better shape and proportions than the G1 toy (ignore the fact that his tail is upside down, I fixed it later). While the early Siege tapes ignored (or in Laserbeak's case, half-heartedly integrated) their accessories, accessories are kind of the good Doctor's specialty. So naturally, this pack comes with all of the weapons needed for both bots. Brutality doesn't enjoy a ton of articulation. His head and tail can bend up, due to transformation, but it ways that break the sculpt. His head is on a swivel, though, so he can tilt his head like he's confused. All four of his legs are on ball joints that allow them to swivel at the hips as well as provide some lateral hip movement, but that's really it for him. Well, it's not like the Siege tapes had the best articulation, either. Brutality's weapons have tabs on the sides that fit into the channels that the sliders for his dorsal plates use. Slaughter, meanwhile, got all the fresh engineering and has much better articulation as a result. No neck swivel, but he can look straight up and tilt his head down until his chin touches his chest. His jaws open and close. His shoulders are on ball joints that swivel and give him about 90 degrees of lateral movement, plus he's got hinged elbows that bend from 90 degrees the anatomically-correct way to 90 degrees the wrong way. His hips are also ball joints for swiveling and some lateral movement, but not a ton, plus he's got a hinged knee and a hinged digitigrade joint. And if all that wasn't enough, his tail actually has a pair of hinges as well, which don't have a ton of range but still allow you to get a little bit of side-to-side curl. Slaughter's weapons have peg holes that plug into small pegs on his sides. Brutality is one of the most convincing tapes we've seen so far, due to all of the molded details on both sides. I think he can afford this luxury due to his pretty simple engineering; his head, tail, and dorsal plates transform exactly like the G1 toy. Really, the only difference is that there's a flap on either side that reveals a gap. His legs hinge into that gap and tab together before folding the flaps back down to cover them. Slaughter is where all the engineering went. His tail rotates 180 degrees and his head folds onto his back, then his entire body splits down the middle. His limbs arrange themselves along the sides, with holes in his ankles pegging the legs in place using the same pegs the guns do for dino mode. Finally, his tail splits down the middle and the halves re-fold at the edge of the "tape." I'm using that word in quotes because he resembles a tape less than even Siege Ravage, with one side largely a white expanse of hollow gaps and the other clearly dinosaur limbs. I'm not going to judge too hard, though, because that's been pretty par for the course not just for Wu but for Hasbro. No one seems to care if they actually look like tapes, so long as we've got little rectangles that fit inside Soundwave and Blaster. Wait... do they fit in Soundwave and Blaster? For the most part, yes, though Brutality is cutting it close. Aside from being right at the limit on height and width, he's one of the thicker boys. I was able to work him in there, but I'd be worried about getting him stuck with the door closed. End of the day, I think these are my favorite tapes that Dr. Wu has done, at least so far. Uncompromised by a combining gimmick, these guys focus on being the best dinosaurs you can get out of tiny rectangles. For Brutality that means fairly basic, very G1 engineering, but I'm not going to complain because he nails the look. And for Slaughter we get a dinosaur mode that beats the robot/animal modes of just about anything Hasbro's done so far, and if the tape mode's a bit messy that's still par for Hasbro's course. And at around $25 after shipping they're priced right around what Hasbro would charge for two Studio Series Core-class tapes, so what's good enough for Hasbro seems like it should be good enough here. So yeah, if you're a fan of Soundwave and want to complete his collection of tape-bot minions, Brutality and Slaughter do a very good job filling Slugfest and Overkill-shaped holes in your collection, and I'd give them a recommend.

I try to be mindful of price, because budget constraints are real. So I'll put up with more on a Deluxe than I will a Leader, and more on a Leader than an MP. It's why I might look at a figure like Studio Series Devastation Optimus and think it's fine, but be fairly critical of MPG Super Ginrai. Regarding planes, I've said before that they're proportionally thinner than most cars and I don't know what more Hasbro can do on a Voyager (or worse, Deluxe) budget than a block of robot with wings and a nose. The fact that they're beholden to Sunbow accuracy for robot mode doesn't do them any favors, either. Sure, Kawamori does way better with his Valkyries, but he can work backward from the Fighter mode and the cheapest Macross toys are 3-4x the price of a similar-sized Transformer (without having to meet the same US toys safety laws). So, yeah, maybe I'm cutting the AotP Aerialbots a little slack. They're far from perfect, but they're at least better than the Combiner Wars versions.

😶

Price doesn't seem too bad... in yen, anyway. Actual import prices will affect my final decision. EDIT: Nope, I'm out. I just saw a photo of the prototype with MPG Super Ginrai, and Ginrai's a little bigger. And since Ginrai is a little smaller than Legacy/AotP/SS Combiners, that means Predaking will be significantly smaller. Doesn't work for me.

Not just over the weekend. At least twice now a several posts just vanished. Doesn't look like it was purposeful moderation, in one case it was basically every post over a 14-hour stretch. I don't know if it's happening in other topics or sections of the board, I noticed it hear because this is where I'm most active.

That seems to be happening lately...

Meh. Haven't touched my PS5 is actual years. I'll probably skip 6 entirely as long as Sony keeps putting their games on PC.

Hearts of Steel Bumblebee and Megatron And Void Rivals Jetfire are available to pre-order on Pulse, now if you're Premium and 2:00pm ET for everyone.