mikeszekely

I think it should be to scale with Megatron, who was bigger than his Siege/Earthrise version, but as of right now it's too soon to tell.

Need to see a few more angles. They did stuff like removing the spaceship kibble from his forearms and folding his knees so they don't bump out... But the way the waist still spins, the alt mode controls are a flap on his back, and the way his shins are in the sides of his alt mode instead of folded in are making it seem like like a proper new mold and more like a more modified Netflix Soundwave.

Skydive is the only AOTP Deluxe to show up so far, so I guess we'll skip up to the Voyagers. Hmm... one of those is a repaint, so we'll save him for another day. That leaves us with Alpha Trion. Unlike the other Primes, Alpha Trion is the only one that's actually had a previous, recent release as a retool of Studio Series Scourge. In a lot of ways, the new toy, which is purpose built to be Alpha Trion, is more cartoon accurate. His forearms better capture the layered look, the blocky legs have a more accurate shape, and his pelvis is a bit more accurate with (most) of the silver and blue on his belt. But the rounder chest, smaller shoulder pads, and reddish feet are more accurate on the earlier figure, as is the silver/white in the biceps. And I get that Hasbro wants this to be the Trion that existed with the other Thirteen, so a younger one (hence the "War Dawn" face, but I think more collectors who may not even been in on the other Thirteen probably wanted the more "present" face with the longer mustache and beard, which the older figure has. Neither figure has an accurate backpack, BTW. His cape should be two long segments extending from the backs of his shoulder pads, that's it. Like the prior toy, this one's got a bit of alt mode kibble he's wearing like a cape. It's at least a bit more compact this time. AOTP Alpha Trion has some unique accessories, though, instead of a repaint of Scourge's gun. First, you've got this sort of shield thing. But more importantly, you've got his relic, the Covenant of Primus, and his Quill. Note that the spikes on his shoulders are just pegged in and can be removed if necessary. I think Trion's head is on a ball joint, but the shape of his head only allows it to swivel. A transformation hinge allows him to look up and down, though he can only look up so far before his head starts getting lost in his collar. His shoulders swivel and can move 90 degrees laterally. His biceps swivel, and his elbows bend about 90 degrees. His wrists do not swivel, but his fingers are hinged so his hands can open and close. His waist swivels. His hip skirts are hinged, so his hips can go 90 degrees forward or laterally, but his back kibble limits him to just a little backward motion. His thighs swivel, and his knees bend about 90 degrees. His feet can tilt downward slightly, but not up, and he's got nearly 90 degrees of ankle pivot. Trion's shield can plug into either forearm, or, if you're feeling saucy, you can remove one of his shoulder spikes and plug it into his shoulder. If you'd rather just stow it, you can plug it into his his butt where it becomes part of his cape. Because reasons, you can pull the Autobot badge off of Trion's tummy, where it's ultimately just pegged in place. The instructions show him holding the badge, but it's more like carefully wedging it between his thumbs and fingers and praying it doesn't fall out The real stars are the Covenant of Primus and the Quill... though I wish there was a more natural way for him to hold them. The Covenant simply has a peg on one corner, while the Quill is meant to fit into his fist like a two-year old with a crayon. The Covenant is pretty cool, though. It doesn't just open, there's a pair of translucent red pages you can turn inside. To store the Quill and the Covenant in robot mode, first you fit the narrow slot on the Quill's handle onto a thin tab on the shield. There's a cutout on the shield for the top of the "feather" to poke through. Then you can close the rest of his cape back up, and just plug the Covenant into the peg hole on Trion's back. Despite having a sort of similar alt mode to the previous figure, the transformation is quite different. Fold his wrists in, and angle his arms so that they're almost straight out behind him. Lean his head back as far as it'll go. Lift his cape, then open the cockpit section and feet the blue part behind it through and over his head. Spin the waist, then turn his thighs so his toes are pointing outside. Fold in the heels, then fold the toes down and tab the legs together. Grab his knees and kind of pull them out. Now, fold his waist backward; is arms should lock in place at his knees, and once you fold out and rotate the ball jointed bits the cab should lock into place over his legs. The shield, which doesn't have to be removed for transformation, has the sides double hinge out to form little winglets. Considering that Trion never transformed in the cartoon (it was actually implied for a bit that, aside from Amalgamous, the Thirteen had no alt modes and did not transform), this is fine. While it is, as mentioned, vaguely similar to the Scourge's alt mode (and the Trion toy remolded from it), this spaceship-esque design is actually based on an unused concept for Trion's alt mode in IDW by artist Casey Coller (note that when Alpha Trion did actually transform, the artist on that issue drew him as the Tumbler from Batman Begins). Whether intentional or simply an artifact of his transformation, you can open Trion's cockpit. There's not much to see inside besides his thigh gap, but there's apparently just enough space to stuff a Titan Master inside. As with the robot mode, the Quill is stored by plugging into his shield, under what's now one of his wings. Meanwhile, the Covenant as a slot on either cover. If you look at the underside of Trion's alt mode, you'll find that one of his legs has a tab near the knee joint that the Covenant can slot into, wedged into a space between his knee pads. Alpha Trion's a solid figure who looks good with the other members of the Thirteen released so far, but the elephant in the room is definitely the Scourge retool. Despite the more kibbly cape and Scourge-shaped bits, I think for a lot of collectors it's accurate enough that they may not feel a need to replace it. This is especially true if they want Sunbow G1 and not the entire lineup of Thirteen, one the longer beard seen on "present day" Alpha Trion (and makes me wonder if we'll eventually seen another version of this toy with the older face). I'd say if you have the "Hero is Born" version already or, better still, the EX Gōkin toy, you might not need this figure. If you really prefer the older head, you can wait if you don't mind the risk that it never comes. If you're into the Thirteen, though, the unique alt mode and excellent accessories make Alpha Trion a figure worth checking out.

They used to be worse! At least this way you're still getting both G1 characters, just one cartoon-optimized and one toy-optimized. There was a period where they were packing the G1 guy you really wanted with the repaint (usually Shattered Glass) that you really didn't want. That's how I wound up with Shattered Glass Inferno (came with G1 Wheeljack) and Slicer/SG Wheeljack (came with Bulkhead).

I got a key for Borderlands 4 with my new laptop, so I guess I'll give it a go. Ironically, it'll be my first Borderlands game since Borderlands 2, which came with a GPU I bought at the time.

The next wave of Age of the Primes is hitting... at least online (local stores seem to have Devastation Optimus, TFOne Bumblebee, and maybe a few Bonecrushers, and that's it). I'd prefer to write reviews on weekdays, since a lot of you seem to read them at work, but we're going to have a lot to cover. So let's jump right into it with Deluxe-class Skydive. In keeping with the rest of the AOTP Aerialbots so far, Skydive is definitely a case of two steps forward, one step back. Like, sure, he's a bit closer to the animation model than the Combiner Wars toy. His head has less of the almost Bayverse-esque extraneous mechanical details, his limbs are blockier, and his pelvis is red. That said, aside from the head and the jet parts on his back and the backs of his legs, he's pretty much a cut-and-paste of Air Raid. Same arms, same feet, same fronts of the legs, same pelvis... even the front of the torso is basically the same, except the left side of his chest is filled in to better match the cartoon. Hasbro probably figured they could get away with it since Skydive and Air Raid do have pretty similar animation models... it's certainly not the crime that Legacy Breakdown was. But it does mean that crotch bulge with the line and triangle that Air Raid does, instead of the three squares his animation model has. His forearms are entirely gray with black hands, instead of gray with black cutouts at the wrist and gray hands. The black part of his chest is missing a protrusion, and his shin details are a bit off (to be fair, they're a bit off from Air Raid, too, almost like they were planning this from the beginning and split the difference. Air Raid comes with, surprise, a pair of guns. Note that, out of the box, his vertical stabilizer is not attached. Since it just uses a 5mm peg to connect, it can technically be held like a weapon if you're into that. It probably won't surprise you to hear that a toy that's 75% Air Raid has the same articulation as Air Raid, but I'll go over it again real quick. Ball-jointed head swivels, can look up and tilt sideways slightly, no real downward tilt. Shoulders swivel and move 90 degrees laterally. Biceps swivel, elbows bend 90 degrees, no wrist swivels. Waist swivels. Hips go forward, backward, and laterally 90 degrees. Thighs swivel, knees bend 90 degrees. Feet tilt up due to transformation, but not down, and the ankles pivot 90 degrees. He holds his guns fine, and they plug into the wings for storage. Transformation is, for better or worse, also the same as Air Raid. Now, I know the jet lovers in the audience already hate this alt mode, but as it's NOT a licensed F-16 I see no real point in comparing it to one. I'm just looking at it compared to the animation model. And, well, the stubby wings and single vertical stab with the lightning bolt designs are certainly more accurate than the Combiner Wars toy. His arms are still just chilling there in the open, which isn't worse than the Combiner Wars toy but still sucks. You can argue that the the entire block of robot under the jet sucks, but frankly that's mostly accurate. Less accurate are the two exhaust nozzles, another unfortunate side effect of recycling Air Raid's parts, and I maintain from my Air Raid review that they really should have come up with a better way of stowing the feet. Weirdly, though, I think the thing that's actually bothering me the most is just how flat the fuselage is. Like, yeah, you want the F-15 to be flat, but the F-16 is much more curved along the spine, and it's one of the F-16's details that the animation model did retain. The jet parts on his backs and the backs of his legs, aka the parts that form the bulk of the fuselage, are some of the only parts that did get new molds, so why not get that detail right? Anyway... same as Air Raid, the chest opens up to reveal a front landing gear. And his guns plug into the undersides of his wings. Through the first three releases Air Raid was the worst of the Aerialbots, and I could tell you that Fireflight would instantly be better than Air Raid even if he were just a new head and red paint on an otherwise unchanged Slingshot. But to me, Skydive is worse. He fixed none of the things I disliked about Air Raid, and I think that has more to do with keeping them interchangeable as legs and saving money than an inability to do so. I mean, folding the head into the chest and folding the arms up above the torso, like Slingshot, would have not only solved the arms just hanging out on the sides but could have created the illusion of the F-16's big intake. Changing the legs could have ditched the dopey underbelly feet and giving him the proper single exhaust. And even when they did mold new parts it still seems like they got stuff wrong that they just didn't need to, like the overall shape of the fuselage. Despite Skydive being a bit of a disappointment, he is still better than the Combiner Wars version. And for a lot of collectors, I don't think it'll ultimately matter how how good or bad the individuals are, it'll come down to how good Superion is. We'll get to Superion later in the week, after I have Fireflight in hand. But if you don't mind the spoiler, yeah, you're probably going to want to pick up Skydive.

So that regardless of whether you prefer to or toon colors you have to buy both sets.😒

Ok, time to put together Devastator! Start with everyone in their alt modes. For Scrapper, make sure the little clip on his shovel is in place and lift the shove up. Pull out his arms, rotate them 180 degrees, then push them back in. Bend the elbows to make the heel. Now pull his right leg away from the left. For Mixmaster, fold the heels down from the underside of the cab, then fold in the other flaps. Unhook his hands from the cab. Rather than shift the entire cab the way most Devastators do, just grab the front of the cab and double-hinge it into the top of the cab. Open the mixing drum. Get Long Haul's trailer and turn in into pants mode. Slide the right thigh sideways into Scrapper's left leg, then close his right leg around it. For Mixmaster, use the groove in back of the truck to slide him forward onto the left thigh, then close the mixing drum back up. Speaking of Long Haul, fold his legs back, and fold the roof up. Tab his heels into the roof. Pull his arms out, rotate his forearms 180 degrees, and then curl his arms up. His forearms will tab into the biceps, and then the entire arm will tab into the side of the truck. On the underside you'll see a big gap with Long Haul's face peaking through it. This gap fits over the purple block at the top of the pants. Long Haul's knees will fit into grooves on the flap on the back of the pants. On Hook, fold out the Devastator head part way, and pull out the feet/shin flaps. Pull the to halves of the vehicle apart and fold them over, then lock them together by folding the head the rest of the way into place. Fold his feet/shin flaps back into place. Now the trick is to make sure everything you need to connect is oriented right. Fold out the arm connector from the crane deck, and the torso connector from Hook's chest. Open Hook's front cab, fold out the other connector, and close it up. Bend Hook's right arm 90 degrees at the elbow, but leave the other one straight. Now line everything up... the chest tab goes into Long Haul's cab, and Long Haul's smokestack goes into one of Hook's feet. Tabs on Long Haul's arms go into Hook's other foot and a slot on his chest. Hook's bent right arm plugs into a slot on Long Haul's roof flap. For Scavenger and Bonecrusher, untab their leg treads. Take the center block and fold it outward. Now put the leg treads back. They'll tab back into the combiner ports, but for extra stability there's a flap on the inside of one leg on each bot. Fold it down, then bend the foot of the opposite leg up so that it pegs into the flap. It should be pretty obvious that the ports on the arm bots slide down over the connectors we folded out of Long Haul- just make sure you push down until they click. You're not quite done, though! The rearward tread on each arm bot has a slot that fits into tabs on Long Haul's arms. All of these connections make Studio Series Devastator feel much more solid than the Combiner Wars version. Now we just gotta do the rest of the partsforming. Fold out the fists, and spin them so the hollow side is the back of the forearm. You'll notice a peg inside, and a tab on the lip near opposite the fist. Line up the tab and peg with the slot and peg hole on the blocks dangling from Scavenger and Bonecrusher. Note that it's obvious which side of Scavenger they plug into, but make sure you've got Bonecrusher's turned so the forearm pegs into the hollow side. The easiest way to attach the chest armor is to first open the front of Long Haul and clip the shield onto the part you just opened. Then close it back up, and the top of the shield tabs into Hook while the sides of the shield tab into the treads on Scavenger and Bonecrusher. And there you have it, folks... the third official Devastator toy in 40 years. Like his constituent parts I think it's very difficult to capture a truly Sunbow accurate Devastator... Bonecrusher's treads can't magically turn purple, Scrapper can't magically turn into a weird I-shaped block with a shovel and some scaffolding, and Mixmaster's grill can't magically vanish, after all. But improvements have definitely been made. His hands are now correctly purple, he's got the purple at the tops of his thighs and (subjectively) I think his overall proportions are better, even if he's much smaller than the Combiner Wars version. Improved, but not without flaws. Much has been made of how his lower legs don't really line up with his knees. Officially, it was a design decision so he could stand straight up without Scrapper and Mixmaster banging into each other, but would it really have killed them to just make the hips slightly wider? Or, so what if they bang a little? Modders have already started whipping up knee parts that bring the legs back in line, and the slight A-stance doesn't look bad. I think the next biggest complaint is the backpack. I'm not sure why they didn't design Long Haul's legs to sit up a little higher, maybe hide some of those transformation joints on the back of Hook. I also don't know why they didn't make the flaps on the pants part fold up a bit more. It's not the prettiest, but ultimately not the worst thing ever. It's not like Sunbow Devastator didn't have a (purple) backpack. Of more minor complaints, there's a visible hole just above the shield where Hook's head is hiding. Hook's head doesn't line up perfectly with the shoulder flaps, hence the gap. I really don't know why a flap couldn't have been built into the shield, or onto Hook's shoulder flaps, to cover it. I'm also not a fan of the way Mixmaster's forearms just kinda dangle off the back of Devastator's leg. Unlike Menasor, who had a chunk of leftover trailer and Stunticon pistols, weapon storage was designed for Devastator. Bonecrusher and Scavenger officially use their own alt mode storage for their own rifles, while Mixmaster and Scrapper's plug into the top of the backpack (just ignore that I mixed up Scavenger and Scrapper's rifles). Hook's can plug into the side of his boom. As for Long Haul, the reason part of his gun is green is because you're meant to plug it into Mixmaster's bumper, and you're supposed to the think it's the green toe seen in Sunbow art. The problem I have doing thigs this way is that the toe is off-center, and Bonecrusher and Hook's guns are going to visible from the front (Scavenger's shovel kinda hides his). Fortunately, there are more peg holes on the sides of Long Haul's legs, on Scrapper's feet, and on Hook's left arm. It's possible to plug all of the Construticon's guns on the back of Devastator and out of sight. Devastator's head swivels, no tilt. His shoulders can swivel, and his right arm can move 90 degrees laterally (his left is just a little short). His biceps swivel. Both elbows can only bend about 45 degrees. His wrists swivel, and his fingers (which are molded as a single, permanently curled part) can open. His waist swivels, but only about 45 degrees in either direction before his back kibble hits his waist. His hips ratchet forward 90 degrees, backward about 45 degrees before his butt flap gets in the way, and laterally (on a friction joint) just under 90 degrees. His thighs swivel, and his knees ratchet 90 degrees. Ratchets in Mixmaster and Scrapper's waists give him about 45 degrees of ankle pivot. All-in-all, I don't think his articulation is that much different than the Combiner Wars toy, but because he's smaller and so much more solidly built I find that he's much easier to get into dynamic poses. That being said, I think Scavenger and Bonecrusher also really needed ratchets in the shoulder swivels. Devastator can hold his own gun by plugging the 5mm handle into ports built into his hands, though on my copy (and others, I'm hearing) the connection is pretty loose. One last thing to discuss is scale. I hate to open that can of worms, but I know a lot of people who are happy that Devastator is now closer in size to Legacy Menasor and the old four-Deluxes-and-a-Voyager combiners from Combiner Wars and Power of the Primes, but I know just as many people who think that the Combiner Wars toy scaled better with individual characters. So, here's Devastator with a few Optimus Primes (SS86, Devastation, Dr. Wu, NewAge, and Hasbro's Core-class). Now, here's the official scale chart copied right out of The Ark (so, not any of the various fan-made charts out there). On the very bottom line we have Prime roughly crotch-height to Devastator, and wouldn't you know it SS86 Prime is roughly crotch height to Devastator. But, on the first line, Megatron is only about knee-high to Devastator. Assuming Prime is the same size as Megatron (though, if you compare Megatron to Shockwave on that same line then Prime to Shockwave on the third line you might expect that Prime is half a head taller than Megatron), then Devastation Optimus or a 3P Legends-scale figure might scale better. When you actually played the Devastation game, though, Devastator seemed even bigger still. Which makes me think of the episode "City of Steel," when Devastator was climbing the Empire State Building while clutching Prime in one hand. I think you could make a case for the Core-class toy being the right size for that. All of which leads me to a somewhat unorthodox conclusion... scale is whatever you want it to be. Personally, I never liked Devastator being so much bigger than the other combiners, so much so that I actually bought a downsized KO of CW Devastator. SS86 works better for me. And if I want Devastator to loom larger over Prime than SS86 Devastator does over SS86 Optimus, then I have other options for Optimus. So, yeah. Ultimately the gestalt follows the same pattern as his constituent parts. SS86 Devastator still has plenty of flaws, but enough improvements were made in aesthetics, scale, and especially stability that I think it's well worth replacing the older Combiner Wars version. Just remember that it's ultimately still a mainline toy, not a mini-Masterpiece.

Gonna wait and see what DNA might cook up.

Metroid and Hyrule Warriors are pretty much it for me and the Switch 2 this year. And maybe next year... Also, $40 each for Super Mario Galaxy and Super Mario Galaxy 2 (or $70 for both)?! Is there a developer that thinks less of their fans than Nintendo?

I got all six. Devastator review tomorrow.

Finally! He's only a little over a month behind the rest of his wave, but I finally got my hands on Studio Series 86 Voyager-class Mixmaster. Mixmaster's one of the tougher Constructicons to do if you wanna go full on Sunbow. And, I think that Hasbro got closer than last time, as SS86 Mixmaster's got that all-purple torso and thighs, with just the single red rectangle and a few cartoon-accurate dark gray spots breaking it up. There's molded details suggestive of the little nozzles on his hood, and it really looks like Hasbro did their best to give his shins the flat, feet-free look. That said, his shins don't quite have that shape that looks like he's wearing booties, and he doesn't have the protrusions from his hips. Of course, all the wheels are showing... they don't magically turn into green lumps. I'll note that his shoulders kind sit higher than his torso; I wonder if they could have got them to sit lower, if they could have put the elbow between the wheels instead of below them to be more like the cartoon. Big props for having the mixing drum on his back, though, instead of hanging off his butt like an insect abdomen the way the Combiner Wars version does. One area where he differs from the G1 toy, but not necessarily with the Sunbow model (since it was so oversimplified), the roof the cab isn't his shins, and the front of the cab isn't in his knees. Instead, the cab is on the back of his feet. This will simplify things later when it comes to transformation. Mixmaster's sole accessory is this pistol. There's a definite sense that the team needed the budget of two Voyagers, two Deluxes, and a Commander to realize their vision for Devastator, so that's how they packaged them, but there isn't a lot here that makes Mixmaster specifically more Voyager than Scavenger or Bonecrusher. Mixmaster's head is a little hard to get at, but it is on a ball joint with limited up/down/sideways tilt in addition to swiveling. His shoulders swivel, but lateral movement is a bit limited by the bit that sticks above his torso. Straight from his side it's just a bit under 90 degrees, but if you rotate the shoulder at all it's realistically more like 45 degrees. He has bicep swivels, which is an improvement over the CW version, and elbows that bend 90 degrees. No wrist or waist swivel. His hips can move forward, backward, and laterally 90 degrees, and he's got thigh swivels. His knees bend about 90 degrees. His "foot-less" design means no real up/down tilt, but he does have 90 degrees of ankle pivot. Mixmaster can hold his pistol in either hand, or plug it into the 5mm ports on his forearms. There's no other robot-mode weapon storage. Mixmaster's transformation is very simple, and mostly in the legs. Fold flaps out from under his feet, then tuck his heels in and open his shins. Tab his legs and feet together, then bend first the wrong way at the knees. Swing his hips backward, then use the transformation joint under his knees to fold the cab down into place. Grab the bottom of his chest, lift up halfway up, then straighten his arms and lift his shoulders up. Slots near under his hands should grab onto the sides of the cab, then fold the chest the rest of the way up to cover his face and tab into his shoulders. Lastly, pull open the mixing drum where it tabs into the back of his hood, fold out the spout, then close it back up. This time around, Mixmaster's a much more cartoon-accurate cement mixer than whatever they were thinking when they did Combiner Wars Mixmaster. I think by having the correct alt mode Mixmaster's competing with Long Haul for the "most improved" award in the set. I don't have any major gripes with his alt mode... I do have a few minor ones, though. Both the G1 toy and the animation model left a gap between the cab and the rear, here though the forearm and fist bridge that gap. The G1 toy and animation also had some rectangular panels on the roof of the cab that this toy doesn't. Like I said, though, minor gripes. I'll take this truck all day every day over the Combiner Wars one. He doesn't do much in truck mode. He rolls. There's a 5mm port on the roof for storing his gun. That's about it. Kind of shame; I feel like they could have engineered the mixing drum to spin if they really wanted to, but it 100% doesn't. Mixmaster continues the trend established by the other figures in this set... it's definitely an improvement over the Combiner Wars toy, but the not-quite-Sunbow design, limited articulation in spots, and overly-simplistic engineering makes you think that they probably could have done better. The fact that they got his alt mode right this time is a big win in my book, though, so I'd recommend him.

I knew that Powered Convoy came with a buggy that Ultra Magnus didn't, but how did the one they're adding to Ultra Magnus get the name "Deerstalker?"

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://www.target.com/p/transformers-studio-series-voyager-class-the-transformers-the-movie-constructicon-mixmaster/-/A-94733473&ved=2ahUKEwiYg4zJo8yPAxW1ETQIHSjhASgQFnoECCEQAQ&usg=AOvVaw0xgWR4JJyXa0Tnauv1QvTw

I got several "your stuff is going to ship early" emails, too (weirdly for Skydive but NOT Fireflight), but until I actually get the "we shipped your stuff" email I'm taking their dates with a grain of salt. I'm a little cranky. People were saying online that they were finding Mixmaster at Target. I checked inventory online- none at my local Target, but in stock in the next town over. I made the half-hour drive after putting my kid on the bus only to find barren shelves. The girl working in the toy department checked her computer, they supposedly got him in yesterday, but after looking in the stockroom for awhile she couldn't find him and I went home empty-handed.

Weirder than Roman Reigns as Akuma? Dastmalchian isn't the first face I'd think of when I think of Bison, but neither was Raul Julia. But when I think about it, I can picture Dastmalchian giving off the same sort of so-hammy-its-good vibes as Julia, so I'm open to seeing where he goes with it.

We're getting close to completing two Hasbro combiners now... I'm going to check out a local Target that might have Mixmaster tomorrow morning, and Entertainment Earth is shipping Fireflight and Skydive right now (as long as you order the entire wave of Deluxes, which means also getting Venin and Micronus Prime), so with luck I'll have Devastator and Superion complete in another week or so. That said, despite being made out of five or six guys, they don't seem all that big compared to the likes of the new Studio Series 86 Megatron or Optimus, who stand roughly waist high to them. One solution is to buy bigger combiners, but that can be a bit pricey. The other solution is to buy smaller versions of everyone else, something I've been doing relatively inexpensively with Dr. Wu's Extreme Warfare line. And I'm happy to say I got the latest set in, Leap and Pulse Gun. Leap is the inevitable remold of Dr. Wu's Bumblebee into Cliffmumper. That means most of the parts in red plastic are new, but all the black plastic parts and the engineering are carried over from Bee. As far as remolds go, he's alright. I mean, the face is a little off, and quite a bit of the black parts should actually be gray for cartoon accuracy (black is fine for toy accuracy). They went to the trouble of painting the bumper on his feet, too, though neither the toy nor the cartoon have a black bumper. Borrowing Bee's engineering means that, like the Hasbro toy, he's missing his spoiler on his chest. I don't want to judge Leap too harshly, though. I mean, black on the feet (though a grill, not a bumper), a lack of spoiler on the chest, and black limbs were all errors Hasbro made on their own official Earthrise figure, a figure that came first and was only later remolded to be Bumblebee. I feel like I can cut Leap some slack when he's like a quarter of the size. Leap even comes with an accessory: that bazooka he used one time in the entire G1 run. Wu figures come in pairs, and Leap's partner is Pulse Gun, aka Shockwave. As robots go, I think Pulse Guncame out a lot better, wiht a nice lilac-and-lavendar pairing and a pretty cartoon-accurate sculpt. He even comes with a pair of black rubber hoses. The main point of contention here vs Sunbow will, of course, be his backpack being a lighter color due to being made from the barrel instead of the butt of his gun mode. Again, though, this is something Hasbro/Takara has done twice themselves, with bough the Siege toy and the MP (though the MP had a more cartoon-accurate cover to put on it and use as a stand in gun mode), so it's pretty forgivable on a figure that slightly shorter than the gun-mode accessory that comes with SS86 Megatron. Leap's articulation is the same as Bumblebee's; ball joint head that can swivel and look straight up, ball-jointed shoulders that swivel and move 90 degrees laterally, hinged elbows that bend 90 degrees, no bicep, wrist, or waist articulation, ball-jointed hips that go over 90 forward and backward and nearly 90 laterally and provide limited thigh swivels, knees that bend 90 degrees, and feet that can tilt downward but not up and no pivots. The bazooka has tabs that kind of wrap around his forearm, with a tiny tab inside that fits into a little slot that would hold his arm in place in alt mode. Pulse Gun's head is on a hinged ball joint with basically no sideways tilt, but he can look downward a little and straight up. His shoulders are hinged ball joints, mostly for transformation; they swivel and move 90 degrees laterally on just the ball joint. His elbows are ball joints that bend 90 degrees and provide his bicep swivel. No wrist or waist articulation. His hips can go just under 90 degrees forward and backward and 90 degrees laterally on their ball joints, and he's got dedicated thigh swivels. His knees bend about 60 degrees, which is a little limited, but he's at least got 90 degrees of ankle pivot. Leap transforms exactly the same as Bee, which is to say his waist swings back and his knees bend the wrong way, his elbows bend the wrong way, then all the black parts get stuffed underneath while his backpack folds over his head. The wheels fold out of the backpack and the sides of the car fold out from his feet. Pulse Gun uses a method similar to other modern Shockwave toys; head head folds into the chest, the arms fold up over the head, then the backpack hinges up and covers his forearms to form the barrel. The outsides of the legs form the grip while the rest of the legs form the butt of the gun... well, mostly. On this tiny scale, there's still a pretty big gap between the legs, and it's partially filled with a flap from his back. Aside from, as I mentioned before, Cliffjumper never having a black bumper in either toy or cartoon, I don't have much to complain about here. It's a tiny, mostly Sunbow-accurate car. I say mostly because Dr. Wu went to the trouble of painting the lights, which seems nice, until you remember that not only where the lights not colored on the G1 toy/toon but that the Porsche 944 had pop-up headlights, so no silver needed on the hood (and on the bumper it should be an orange turn signal above a white marker light, btw). I'm nitpicking, though. My criticisms for Pulse Gun's alt mode are a bit stronger. As I said before, the legs have large gaps between them. This is because, rather than have the sides of the legs simply move down and forward to form the grip the legs spin 180 degrees, so the outsides of the legs have to fold down from the inside. So a panel in his back has to fold out, and it doesn't completely fill the gap, and what it does fill isn't the right color. It's an extra waist, because that flap could have been his scope, but instead the scope is missing. Then there's other things, like the visible ball joints, the visible sliders on the legs, the visible feet, and the fact that the grip doesn't actually lock in place. On the whole, Leap could be better but I feel like it's pretty easy to forgive his flaws at this scale. Likewise, Pulse Gun's alt mode is kind of half-finished, but the robot mode is super solid and, again, pretty forgiving at this scale. And this price! Even now with tarrifs to contend with, this two pack costs me about the same price as a single Hasbro Deluxe. So, once again, if you're looking for tiny Transformers for one reason or another this set's an easy recommend from me. Just be aware, this set comes in two versions. There's this one, with a pretty cartoon-accurate color scheme on Pulse Wave but black limbs on Leap. There's also a version that uses a slightly brighter red plastic and swaps the black parts with gray on Leap, but uses a much darker purple for Pulse Gun. I care more about Shockwave, hence the set I picked. It's really a shame that Wu couldn't have put the gray-limbed Leap with the Pulse Gun I wanted as "cartoon colors" and put the darker Pulse Gun with this Leap as "toy colors", but the Doctor really wants you to buy both sets.😒 There's also a third version that I have on the way, it uses the Galactic Man deco for Pulse Gun and swaps Leap with Wheel Hub, aka Hubcap.

If we're taking other Street Fighter media I'm just gonna tell yous to watch Street Fighter 2 V. It's the anime I wish the animated movie was.

BBTS is taking preorders at $225. They say that price includes the tarrif. EDIT: Didn't see that this discussion went to the next page and Hikuro already mentioned that.

Decided to Google some of these guys. Andrew Koji (Ryu) was, like I said, Storm Shadow in Snake Eyes. He was also in Bullet Train. Noah Centineo (Ken) was mostly in Disney Channel stuff, but he did play Atom Smasher in Black Adam. Callina Liang (Chun-Li) has been in almost nothing. Cody Rhodes (Guile) is, as @pengbuzznoted, a pro wrestler. He did have a small part in the CW show Arrow. Orville Peck (Vega) isn't an actor at all, but a country music singer who's made a gimmick out of wearing a mask. I think most of us know who 50 Cent (Balrog) is... the star of the hit action game 50 Cent: Bulletproof. Likewise, Jason Momoa (Blanka) is super famous thanks to his role as Conan in 2011's Conan the Barbarian. I think Street Fighter might be the Hollywood debut of Vidyut Jammawal (Dhalsim), but he's done plenty of Bollywood stuff where he does his own fight scenes. Olivier Richters (Zangief) has been in a couple movies you've heard of, including Marvel's Black Widow, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, The King's Man, and Borderlands. The problem is he gets roles like "Huge Machine Shack Guard" and "Warehouse Guy." Hirooki Goto (E. Honda) is another pro wrestler, but mostly in New Japan Pro Wrestling, not the WWE or anything. He did have a part in a Kamen Rider movie, but looks like this is his Hollywood debut. I already told you guys that David Dastmalchian (M. Bison) was Polka-Dot Man in The Suicide Squad, but you may also know him as the Kurt, Scott Lang's hacker friend in Ant-Man, or as William Borden in Oppenheimer. He's done a number of voice roles in some DC animated films as well. Roman Reigns (Akuma) is yet another pro wrestler. His resume as an actor is pretty thin, but he did play one of the Rock's brothers in Hobbs and Shaw. Andrew Schulz (Dan) is a comedian. He's been in a few movies and TV shows, but literally nothing I've seen, so 🤷‍♂️ Eric Andre (Don Sauvage) is a case where I think most of us are more familiar with the actor than the character. Don Sauvage isn't a fighter, he's a ring announcer who plays a role in Zangief's story in Street Fighter V. Mel Jarnson (Cammy) hasn't been in much, but you might have seen her as Nitara in the Mortal Kombat reboot film. Rayna Vallandingham (Juli) is another young actress with a short resume, but she was in Cobra Kai, which isn't nothing. Side note, Cammy and Juli, but no Juni? Where's my other Bison doll? Alexander Volkanovski (Joe) is a mixed martial artist who's competed in a number of UFC events, but I don't know that he's acted before. Joe, if you were wondering, is a shirtless guy with red pants you fight in the original Street Fighter game, but AFAIK hasn't been in any games since. All-in-all, given the limited acting experience (but extensive martial arts/wrestling careers), I'm guessing that Ryu will be the primary protagonist, with maybe Ken and Chun-Li as secondary protagonists, Bison will be the primary antagonist, and pretty much everyone else will show up for a fight or two before being discarded by the plot.

Andrew Koji was Storm Shadow in the Snake Eyes movie, and he's in The Warriors on HBO. And David Dastmalchian was Polka-Dot Man in The Suicide Squad. Roman Reigns is a pro wrestler, and apparently Orville Peck is a county music singer. Other than that, I don't really know either.

A little, but like Bruce Lee he's pretty defined, and a trained martial artist. I'm willing to give him a chance.

New Street Fighter reboot movie officially announced, along with cast pics. I'll be honest, I don't know who most of those people are. But they seem like reasonably good fits... for the most part. I could definitely see David Dastmalchian (one of the guys I do know!) doing his best Raul Julia as Bison. I'm not loving Roman Reigns as Akuma, though. And what the heck is going on with Orville Peck? My first thought was that his cast photo had him in costume, and for some reason they were changing Vega's mask to something more like Zorro. But I guess a mask and cowboy hat is Peck's normal public look? So it's meta having a guy who likes wearing a mask play the guy who likes wearing a mask?

I think I was always the wrong audience for the Transformers X G.I. Joe line. I mean, I love Transformers, but I wasn't really into G.I. Joe as a kid, so to me they were kinda of expensive, kibbly, cheap-feeling toys with fairly simple engineering that were too big to scale with my other Generations figures. And although I thought Soundwave turned out pretty decent, Megatron and Bumblebee were bad enough that when Kup was announced instead of a more beloved character I decided to pass. But then Amazon had to go and put him on sale (or is it clearance?), so... Well, my complaint about the size stands (kinda), and the head sculpt is somehow worse than the Studio Series toy. I'm not totally sure why he's green instead of blue, either, since the majority of those green robot parts are hidden in alt mode. Colors aside, though, the feet, thighs, arms, and head are definitely very Kup in sculpt, and he's give got his abs and belt. What's more, while he is a bit thick and he does have big chunks of tread hanging from his significant backpack, there's not a lot of obvious plastic-saving, cost-cutting hollow spots visible on his person. And, big backpack aside, he's seems a lot less kibbly than the previous three figures in the line. For accessories, Kup comes with a pair of missiles, a pair of guns, and two retro G.I. Joe figures. Sgt. Slaughter I know, he was everywhere when I was a kid. St. Slaughter comes with a stand and a baton (but what's the whip-like bit at the tip?). I think the other guy is Leatherneck, who comes with a stand, a rifle, and a backpack. Kup's articulation isn't too bad, acutally. His head's on a ball joint that allows him to swivel and provides a limited up/down/sideways tilt. A transformation hinge at the base of the stem gives him a ton more downward tilt. His shoulders rotate on ratchets, and can move laterally over 90 degrees. His biceps swivel, and his elbows bend 90 degrees. His wrists swivel, as does his waist (on a soft ratchet no less!). His hips swivel forward 90 degrees and backward a little less than that due to his backpack getting in the way, on a ratchet, and over 90 degrees laterally. His thighs swivel, and his knees bend 90 degrees on a ratchet. His toes can tilt downward (due to his transformation), and his ankles can pivot 90 degrees. Kup can hold the guns in either hand, though the round base looks a bit weird. The missiles store on rails on the inner edge of the tread kibble on his backpack. The guns can also store back there by plugging them into peg holes near the missile rails. You have to remove the accessories to get them out of the way, but you can fold open Kup's backpack to reveal a computer. The backpack only opens to 90 degrees, and the inside has a quartet of those little pegs for Joes' feet, so Sgt. Slaughter and Leatherneck can ride back there. The instructions for transforming Kup are a bit confusing, but once you know what you're doing it's pretty simple. Rotate the arms at the shoulders so he's pointing straight up, then fold the fists inward. Turn the biceps so that the fists are now pointing forward. Pull the front of his torso away, unclip his shoulders from his collar, and open the flap behind his head. Spin the head 180, lift the backpack a bit, then shift it so that the panel his head is on rotates and you can fold his head into the gap under the panel you opened. The backpack should line up with his torso so that the rivet sits into a notch near the tampoed star on either side. Fold the flap back down, and cover it with the second flap that rotated out with when the head folded in. Get the treads out of the way, and the arms should fold right through the gap and under his backpack. The tread kibble needs to rotate on the black armatures so that the armatures can swing forward and line the white fender up with the bit that you already made from his arms. If you did it right, tabs on the forearms will lock into the the inside of the tread. Fold open the little bits of kibble on his shins, then bend his knees forward the wrong way about 90 degrees. Push the lower leg so that it detaches from the knee and hinges around to the outside... the treads on his legs connect to the treads from his backpack, the bottom of his shins continue to form the fenders over the treads, but don't push everything together too tightly yet. Double-hinge the front of the treads up from the backs of his legs and into place. Open the two flaps next to his tummy grill, then spin his tummy 180 degrees. Use the hinges to push the front of the torso into place as the vehicle's nose, making sure to line up the tabs on the nose with the slots on the front of the fender. If you have everything lined up, the fenders will push in tight with those little kibble flaps filling int he gaps between the nose and the backpack. Again, not really into G.I. Joe, so I had to look this up... but this is the Tag Team Terminator, or Triple T. Apparently, this is Sgt. Slaughter's personal vehicle, and was originally the only way to get Sgt. Slaughter v2 in 1986 (though he had a v1 release that year and v2 would get a standalone release the following year). Hasbro did a really good job recreating the original Triple T toy... aside from a few extra seams and an Autobot badge, the only really noticeable differences are that you can't see through the gap between the treads and the fenders, and Kup's forearms are a little visible from the rear. Kup retains most of the functionality of the original Triple T as well... as near as I can tell, the only thing he's really missing is that you can't open the engine cover. But the missiles plug onto tabs on the treads, and the guns plug into ports on the sides of the seat where they can swivel, like the original toy. One Joe can sit in the seat, like the original toy, where he can hold the joystick, like the original toy. He's still go the foot pegs on the treads, like the original toy. In lieu of the engine, you can again open the rear to reveal the computer that was in Kup's backpack, and to give more Joes places to stand. One more gimmick the original toy didn't have is storage for Sgt. Slaughter's baton and Leatherneck's rifle and backpack. I said I wasn't the target audience for this line. Maybe Joe fans who just wanted cheaper vehicles weren't into the line, either... there was an Optimus planned for the line, but from what info I had it was supposed to be out late last year, and is very likely canceled. I think it's a shame, because I kind of get it, this line was less about being good Transformers and more about taking the original vehicles for the original 3.75" G.I. Joes and making them Transformers. For all my gripes about the robot modes, the alt modes were always good. And it's even more a shame, because they were apparently just starting to hit their stride. Kup is, easily, the best of the line. He doesn't just nail the alt mode, he's honestly a pretty dang good robot, too. I'd say this is the first one I'd genuinely recommend as a good Transformers toy.

Still waiting on Mixmaster, but I in the meantime I got Takara's Synergenex Rathalos Prime. Rathalos Prime is a remold of Kingdom Airazor, though as near as I can tell they only share the same arms, legs, and basic engineering. I'm not into the Monster Hunter games, but as near as I can tell from the new shoulder pads, the extra forearm armor, the new torso, the visor, and the large spike on Prime's head he's supposed to look like Optimus Prime wearing the Rathalos Armor set. From some angles, the wings even look like the skirts on the Rathalos Coil part of the set. From other angles, though, it looks like an Optimus head on a feminine body with a wyvern on his/her butt. And the wyvern makes him/her overly back heavy with the wing/skirt moved out of the way. Speaking of, you can see that there's a new panel on the side of the leg. It exists solely to open in robot mode to reveal a little more blue color, but honestly I think it looks less out of place if you leave it folded against the shin, where it looks slightly more like Rathalos Greaves. Rathalos Prime comes with the aforementioned forearm armor, a sword, a shield, and (because Prime just isn't complete without one) a Matrix. Prime's head is on a ball joint, and can look down a bit and tilt sideways slightly, but nothing really upward. Shoulders rotate and can move laterally 90 degrees if he/she's not wearing the forearm armor, otherwise it gets caught on his/her shoulder pads. Elbows bend a little over 90 degrees, and his/her waist swivels, but there's no wrist articulation. The front of his/her pelvis can hinge forward, giving him/her the clearance to move his/her hips about 60 degrees forward, 45 degrees backward, but well over 90 degrees laterally. Thighs swivel, and knees bend nearly 180 degrees. The feet are on ball joints which allows them to swivel in addition to giving them some decent up/down tilt, but unfortunately the ankle pivot is pretty limited. At the most basic, the sword's handle can fit into either fist, and the shield has a 5mm peg that flips out to be held in the other fist. I'll note, though, that you can store the forearm armor on his/her thighs (which is where they go in alt mode anyway), freeing the ports on his/her forearms to plug the shield in there, either open or closed. You may have also noticed that there's a slot near the tip of the sword. You can open the shield up and plug it into that slot to create something more like an axe. As for the Matrix, cutouts on the handles allow it to plug into his/her fists. His/her chest doesn't open, though, so to store the Matrix you have to open up the backpack, where it stores in the base of the wyvern's neck. It can stay there in alt mode. Speaking of alt mode, the transformation is mostly the same as Airazor, with the added steps of closing the flaps on his/her shins and partsforming the forearm armor onto the thighs if you haven't done either of those things yet. Technically, you also have to bend the arms at the elbows so that the fists go up behind his/her scapula's instead of tucking into the waist, because the torso doesn't extend the same way, and the head only folds back 90 degrees instead of 180. But that's fine because you don't fold the alt head out of the chest, it's just part of the backpack, which double-hinges over his/her back and robot face. The sword and shield combine to form the end of the tail. To be fair, I think this is about the best you're going to get out a remold of a Deluxe-class Airazor. The head, back, and wings look pretty great! The tail is kind of short, though, and the robot torso and thighs all bunched up make for a rather plump-looking Rathalos, with little bird feet instead of the more muscular dragon legs you'd normally expect. Articulation's fairly limited, too. There's an up/down hinge at both the base of Rathalos' skull and neck, but no swivel. The jaws open. The wings are hinged at the base, immediately beside that first hinge, and a third time a little further out for bend and flapping, then there are rivets at the "thumb" spike that tuck the wings in. Just like Airazor, you can bend somewhat at the knee with an additional digitigrade joint, plus the ball joints in the feet for posing the legs, but the hips are locked in place. The tail, (which, again, stores the sword and shield) has no articulation at all. Like I said, it's probably about the best they could do with a remold of Airazor... but it also begs the question, why remold Airazor? Basara Prime and Shield-D Prime from the same line are brand new molds, why couldn't Rathalos? If they absolutely had to remold a figure, why not Legacy Evolution Megatron, which seems like a closer starting point? Rathalos Prime is kind of a mediocre Deluxe-class toy at a Leader-class price, which makes it a hard figure to recommend even if the alt mode is pretty cool. That said, in my head-canon Rathalos Prime is a female member of the same group of Convoy-types that include Lio Convoy and Big Convoy from the Beast Wars II/Neo era of the Japanese continuity.