M'Kyuun

One of the coolest transforming scenes ever. Suffice to say, I doubt his toy will have so much transformation as panelformation, but at least it looks like they got a close approximation with the arms. Exorbitantly priced potential exclusive figures aside, Hasbro showed some new Siege stuff at SDCC. In particular, I was looking forward to the more G1 inspired Astrotrain, but these pics have me thinking otherwise. He only looks half complete in his shuttle mode, unless that base folds to become the rest of his cargo bay doors. If so, I wish they would have shown it, as that just looks inexcusably foul. It's stuff like this that make me wish there was at least one third party making Generations scaled figs. Some competition in this arena might make Has/Tak step up their game. The design dichotomy in this line frustrates me- some figs are nigh perfect, and then there's stuff like this. I'm digging the little cassettes, though. Spinister is going to look odd when you pick his heli mode up and there's another complete upside down canopy section on its belly. Odd design choice, although I get it for bot symmetry. The original toy's canopy split in half to form the legs, so this was an interesting design choice that I believe will allow him to accommodate a headmaster fig. Actually two, if both legs are identical. Apeface is looking pretty good, although they don't have his robo-ape mode on display. Query: who are the two blue truck dudes in the foreground with Astrotrain? There's something very familiar about them, but just vaguely.

Yeah, I think the planet part is around 19" diameter, with the energy rings taking it to 30". It's a pretty impressive piece. I hope it gets made, but they're just shy of 1200 backers on the third day of the campaign. I'm thinking folks are put off by the price tag- not many people have $600 laying around to buy a toy, even if it is a 'dream toy'. I still think they should promote it better. Do a video detailing transformation, or at least stages of the transformation, and show off any other features to get fans excited. It looks cool, and they're doing a pretty good job with coloration, but if you want to move a transforming robot, the transformation is a big part of the selling point. Also, if there are electronics with Orson Welles doing some of his more notable lines, show that off too. Personally, I'd like to see a nice stop motion transformation, but I'd be content to see a Takara designer doing it. Thinking about it, Hasbro should have debuted this thing at SDCC, and maybe put it on the Transformers convention circuit to try and drum up support. It's one thing to see it on a screen, but if fans could see it in front of them, being demoed, or in a big glass case they can walk around , it'd make a stronger impact.

Yeah, I'm guessing these large products are indeed dream toys even for the designers, who , I'd imagine are fans, at least in part. So to work on something like this, make it workable for mass market, i.e., meeting safety standards, etc, is probably quite rewarding to the design team. Prior to crowdfunding, I'm guessing the design teams had to launch a promotional campaign to convince the execs that it was marketable. History has shown that many of these big projects generally don't sell well, unfortunately. So, I think the crowdfunding platform works well as a measuring stick to gauge interest, and the willingness of the fanbase to shell out a higher sum for 'dream toys'. So far, I think they're doing ok; as of right now, only on the morning of the second day, they have 1030 backers, with 46 days to go to hit 8000. I think they'll make it. I hope so. Edit: I figured what the hell. So I'm in for $627 after tax. Number 1033. I'm already measuring space for a potential shelf just for this guy (he's as tall as three of my normal CHUG shelves). I hope I have a reason to install it after August 31st. Gotta say, I'm getting just a little excited at the prospect.

I hadn't thought of it in that light, but as someone with no marketing background, it makes sense to me. Personally, the crowdfunding aspect doesn't bother me; in fact, I think it's a perfect venue for this sort of product. It gives the manufacturer a much clearer sense of demand without, as you said, taking the risk on mass production only to see the product languish on shelves. Too, Unicron is a big toy, and many folks simply don't have the room for him (I don't either, but I'll find a way ), so that's another factor of risk. Anyway, I'm edging ever closer to paying my money down on this guy, as I doubt we'll ever have another opportunity to have an official large scale Unicron toy done this well. And as I mentioned, I have no idea where I'm going to display this guy- I'm nigh out of room as it is. But it's just too cool to pass up.

Funny you say that; I was wondering to myself how long it would take for some third party to either knock this off, or make something better. I'm generally not interested in oversized figs; I tend to be ok with the scales of most official stuff, especially the last few lines of Generations where scale seems to be of greater import than in the past, which is a nice change. A proper sized Unicron compared to the current Siege line would still be about as big as my house, which is just a touch unreasonable, not to mention difficult to display. Joking aside, this is one figure that an oversized version would actually be reasonable, if one has the room to display it. But I imagine trying to handle something bigger than the current model would also prove challenging. It's already 19 lbs- a pretty heavy toy, especially when a lot of folding/unfolding and other mechanical manipulations are involved, and that's to say nothing of the strength of joints required. There comes a point where the ratchets would be difficult to rotate due to the requisite tolerancing. However getting back to improving the figure; looking at the official, while it's impressive, it does seem like it's going to be by and large a panel-former, as it looks like at least half of the planet surface breaks up into smaller panels which fold up rather noticeably behind and to the sides of the lower legs. I would have hoped that more of the robot bits, as there's a lot of robot there, would unfold and form at least half of the planet surface. I don't think so, though. I'm guessing the bot goes basically goes into something akin to the fetal position, and then those panels on the legs unfurl to become the surface. I'm reminded of Unique Toys Challenger and all the inside out origami they pulled off, and that's the sort of engineering I'd love to see brought to bear on a figure this size. The Unicron transformation scene is one of my favorite bits of animation, and I'd love to see at least the basics of that sequence replicated in a toy. Nope, fully spherical. Unicron's Planet backside. Unicron's Planet profile If you look at the backside, you can make out the arms interlocking. That's actually close to the film transformation, along with the hands retracting into the forearms. With all the panel formation, it's difficult to discern how the legs fold up, though. I really hope they eventually post a transformation, or at least a partial transformation, vid, just to give some idea how it all comes together. I feel the hook setting in.

This is shaping up to be the Unicron toy I've always wanted, but holy crap that price! Before I plunk down $600, I want to see a full transformation video with all the bells and whistles. I don't think I'm asking too much as a potential consumer. I never thought they'd make a toy like this. I have the lackluster Armada Unicron, which has been the best Movie toy incarnation thus far, with a couple slightly updated rereleases over the last decade or so. And now this. Still, I can see $300, $350 tops for something like this, but the asking is pretty crazy and feels more like fleecing than receiving a premium toy. Still I'd be lying if I said I wasn't interested or tempted.

I recall that as well, but I think it was only an issue with American and some European car companies. I don't think they had issues with domestic car companies, as transforming robots were already part of Japanese culture, and they better understood the necessities involved in turning a car into a robot. But, y'know, Transformers have been part of the American fabric for three decades now, so unless you've been living in total isolation, basic knowledge tells you that various parts of the car split, open, and otherwise fold and reshape to affect the transformation. It seems odd to me that at least somebody at Jeep isn't a TF fan, or at least aware of some of the mechanical necessities involved. A small square panel in the hood allowing the head to rotate is a pretty small concession, IMHO. This kinda reminds me of the head transformation for CHUG Prowl and Silverstreak, where the head was spring-loaded to flip into position, resulting in a head that floated on the hood and sat too high and looked awkward, unnatural, and let's be honest, ugly. I remember either Hasbro or Takara, not sure which, being proud of the head reveal on this figure. After getting Prowl, I wondered why.

If true, that's a pretty ridiculous requirement. Obviously, none of the Jeep people are TF fans or they'd know that robot heads popping out of hoods is pretty standard practice. Man, if I ran a car company and I was approached to have a high end Transformer made of one of my cars, I'd be ecstatic- no demands other than it be recognizable. It's kinda like when Weird Al approaches you to make a parody of your song. You know you've made something special, worthy of the attention.

As far as upcoming MPs, I'm in the opposite camp, as I have no plans to get V3, Hound, or the new Bee. After reviews, however, I may consider Hound- I want to see how secure that neck armature is and how well it snugs to the hood. If it ends up gappy, then no. I still wonder why that went that direction with the design when both FT and Maketoys were able to integrate the head normally under the bonnet, Anyway, I'm quite happy with MP Bee V1, Gundog, and MS01, as all three look good to me across the board. As far as Blackarachnia goes, I'm a little disappointed in her spider mode, but honestly, considering that her bot mode is the priority, I guess it turned out about as well as can be expected given what they have to work with. Moreover, a LOT of license was taken with her and Tarantulas from the toy design to the toon design. Her bot mode looks amazing, though, so I'll no doubt be getting her despite my initial reservations. I have the rest, so I may as well. I'll echo JBO's wish that the add-ons with Siege Shockwave could attach to the 'bridge' to make a more proper handgrip. It would have been a nice bit of double utility, much like Refraktor's guns and shields. Anyway, that bot mode looks so good- I may just cave and get him after all. I'm such a sucker for this stuff. As for Soundwave, I totally dislike that alt mode they cooked up for him. I hope he gets a second release later in the series with a proper dedicated cassette recorder mode. I hope they make the mini-cassettes life sized again instead of these half-assed micro-microcassettes. This is one instance in the line where the original 80's toys were superior. Shameful, Hasbro.

I really wish they'd given him his space gun alt mode. That spaceship mode is craptastic, and I'm not a fan of the voyager fig with a bunch of add-ons at leader price shenanigans, either. The Siege line was kinda made for these figs with Cybertronian alts, and IMHO, it's a lost opportunity. For what it's worth, I think they nailed the bot mode, though. But that spaceship... I'm aware you can flip his ship mode over and he's kinda close to his G1 gun mode, but it's more of a fudge than a dedicated and purposely designed alt mode. But then, I suppose they would have had to make his barrel orange. Our gun laws boggle the mind sometimes.

But we have money! And shelves! Money and shelves for Macross merch!

Even so, with all the legal limitations they'd be working under, it'd be Robotech in name only so far as the Macross part of it goes. I don't know what if any limitations they have regarding Mospeada or Southern Cross. I suppose they could use the Legioss in lieu of the VF-1, but that'd be weird. Anyway, I think they'd make a movie that no one save the most die hard RT fans would like, and it'd essentially tank and leave them in irrevocable debt. In light of this argument, I think they should go for it!

So, I took a trip to my local Wally today only to discover they'd restocked their Siege deluxes, including two new guys, Brunt and Red Alert, both of whom came home with me. Brunt is my first weaponizer (not sure what Hasbro's actual name is for these guys that separate into weapons), as despite his partsformery nature, both tank and bot modes look pretty decent. I took a few pics of my recent additions- I forgot to put Springer in there, as he's currently standing guard on my printer in the mancave. I also wanted to add a pic of the arm configuration for Refraktor going to camera mode. Sorry it turned out blurry- I was struggling to get the camera to focus. Prior to placing the arms like this, the waist must be rotated 180, and then likewise each leg at the thigh rotation joint. Extend the landing gears 90 degrees, fold the elbows as seen, and then carefully work them into the hollow area in the legs until the legs are bent 90 degrees at the knee. There's a bit of a gap on top where a bit of the shoulders can be seen. Once all three figures are configured, the waist pegs will connect to the 5 mm ports near the knees of the adjoining bot, and there's a C-shaped half peg on the ankle that plugs into the adjoining bot's shoulder joint hole. Hope my little tutorial helps. Again, sorry so blurry. Kuma, I'm not.

Much like Tatsunoko, I'm sure there's no love lost between BW and HG. I hope BW never buckles to them- they seem to be on good enough financial footing to continue flying the f#ck you flag, and I hope they continue to do so into perpetuity. Nothing good comes from rewarding bad behavior. I still wonder how this company is able to get away with this kind of shady activity. At the very least, it seems an infringement of monopoly law, and worst, it's basically holding a license in limbo for the purpose of predatory litigation. Seems to me that there would be corporate laws to deal with that situation, especially when it's a third party IP. From what I understand, they have some shady real estate dealings as well. Why are they not under investigation? If the Feds had been putting the whammy on Harmony Gold, thus ridding the planet of an insidious evil instead of chasing down potential Russian colluders, the world would be that much closer to utopia. I was so hoping Tatsunoko would deny HG the license, and then BW, Bandai, whoever, would swoop in and drop an enormous steaming legal turd on them, thus crushing the parasitic f#cks asunder. It's a very disappointing turn of events. If only BW and Tastsu could learn to play nice, the West and most of Europe might have a chance of finally enjoying the entirety of Macross without resorting to Asian e-tailers for pretty much everything.

I watched this last night- two hours of cheesy tongue-in-cheek humor as these guys all talk smack and, the Hoff aside, look for their rides to race each other. I wondered why they had Face drive the van, too, as he had a corvette in the show, at least in an episode. B.A. owned the van, but I guess they wanted it b/c it's iconic, and yeah, I'm thinking Mr. T couldn't or didn't want to do it, so they got Starbuck instead. I'm fine with it. The show was actually better than I thought it'd be, as I think they let these guys ad lib b/c some of the sh!t they say, especially Hoff, is pretty damned funny. They also got the original voice actor for KITT, but his voice has changed a little over the years. Still, he was giving sh!t to Hasselhoff throughout the show. Some of the tech that the Hoff looked at/drove was really cool in its own right. The aquatic vehicle he drove in one scene can reach speeds of 60 MPH on the surface, 25 MPH under water, and can 'leap' twenty feet out of the water, which he did. Pretty cool. For older guys, they're all still in really good shape. I also found out that Eric Estrada was a no kidding deputy sheriff in VA from '09-'16, when he became a reserve officer in Idaho, a position he still holds. Admirable. I confess I Googled them all as I was curious about their ages, and I happened to see police officer listed as one of Estrada's careers. Anyway, they raced each other three times at the end of the show (I'm thinking coordinated stunt drivers with interwoven shots of the actors talking smack throughout), but it was cute. They had Catherine Bach in her Jeep Wrangler show up to hold the starting flag for the races. Still looks good for her age. They also had a scene apropos of nothing with Morgan Fairchild in a McClaren. Even at 69, she still looks pretty good and is brassy as ever. Her car was beautiful. Anyway, if you're a child of the 80's, I'd recommend giving it a watch. It's cool to see these guys poking fun at each other and themselves, and along with the iconic vehicles, Hasselhoff travels around and showcases state of the art vehicles that were inspired by KITT. At the end of the show, Hasselhoff says he wants to challenge other supercars of the 80's and gets a call from the operator of a certain time machine. I hope it happens.

Always sad to lose the people who've entertained us in tv and film, and somehow sadder when they spent their careers making us laugh. RIP, Rip. I gotta say, it's hard to feel sad after watching Emma deliver her 'paraphrased' sentiments.

Got my Jetfire and Springer in today. Both pretty solid figs. Only one of my swords with Springer is slightly curved, so that's, strangely, good. I found that if you mount his superweapon (everything combined) at the forward handgrip, it tends to remain a little more stable than if using the aft. Still, it's clunky, and I hope Has/Tak and 3P move towards weapon integration as the design philosophy continues to evolve. Even after watching vids and reading reviews, I still had to stop and check the box photos a few times to make sure I was getting things where they needed to go. It's not a hard transformation per se, but going into it without instructions, as I usually do, posed a little challenging to get things properly oriented going from car to heli. Besides his poor weapon storage, the only other nitpick I have is that I wish his back tires flipped 180 with some sort of a hub design to imply an internal rotor. The car wheels just don't look right to me. But, overall, it's a really good take on G1 Springer, and I'm glad they finally made him. On Jetfire, the chest bits don't want to tab in at the sides very well- kinda tight tolerance and the plastic bits with the tabs is pretty bendy- something to watch for. Also, the arms have to be positioned just so for the pegs on his back to line up with the corresponding holes in his arms in jet mode. Those issues aside, I found the transformation to be pretty easy and satisfying. He is a bit gappy, allowing part of his face, unless you rotate the head 180, and a bit of his shoulders to peek through in jet mode, but I'm not complaining. We've waited for this figure for a long time, and for its few minor flaws, it does so much right. I would have been over the moon for this thing in the 80's , and at 48, I'm still rather quite tickled with it. The inclusion of the armor, all the weapons, and the flame effects are sweet frosting on an already delicious cake. It's a good week for Transformers; yesterday I got Jetfire and Springer, and today my three copies of Refraktor arrived from Pulse. I can't overstate how happy I am with Hasbro's new online service, as they tend to keep product in stock, and I like being able to purchase from the manufacturer without all the price markups of other e-tailers. On to the figs- all three have pretty tight joints throughout, have good paint apps on both figs and accessories, and the overall sculpt is unmistakable as one of the G1 Reflector bots. Personally, I find the 'spaceship' mode they created for the individual bots to be rather meh, and so I wasted no time going straight into camera mode. One caveat; there are no instructions for camera mode, despite the fact that most G1 fans who collect this line are going to buy three of this fig to form the camera. It's a puzzling omission, although it's not too difficult to figure out on your own, and there are any number of video reviews that show how it's done as well. The camera mode is decent, and does a good job of hiding blatant robot parts, unlike the G1 toy, whose arms and faces could be clearly seen from behind. Refraktor's transformation hides the arms within the legs, making for a much cleaner camera mode. Although Refraktor doesn't come with a flash bulb like the original, the guns combine to form an effective little tripod and the shields together form the lens. The whole thing comes together pretty well, and after waiting 30+ years for a proper update, I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out. It's interesting to note that while the toon incarnation of Reflector was based on the toy, the three bots were different in both design and colors, and only the bot who formed the center of the camera was animated to represent the whole team, thus their clone look.

And, since they produce relatively nothing of their own, their legal predation is how they stay afloat. So yeah, give it a year or so.... I wonder how Big West feels about the situation. Do they regret giving Tatsunoko those rights years ago, or do they really not care about having a foot in the western market? I'm sure they didn't see this situation arising back when they used Tatsu to help them complete the animation for SDF:M. I doubt it even raised much concern, if any, when Harmony Gold forged their contract back in the early 80's. It's difficult to project five, let alone thirty, years into the future, and most animation is 'one and done' so far as developing into a long lasting series or a franchise. It's uncommon, and I doubt BW were looking any further than just getting it completed. We have the benefit of hindsight, and it's a tough pill. Still, if they somehow had the clairvoyance in the 80's that HG would become a parasitic licensee holding Macross hostage pretty much everywhere outside of Japan for decades, I wonder if they would have tried to discourage that initial agreement that has become the bane of our fandom?

That's quite apt. BTW, what's the alleged term of this new agreement? I'm genuinely curious, although I suppose the real answer is 'indefinite'. I know nothing of corporate law, but one would think there'd be some sort of regulation placed upon a licensee to produce a minimum amount of product, and to prevent the sort of parasitic behavior that HG is known for.

True, but there are entities like Amazon, comic book stores, Barnes and Noble, hobby stores, and big box retailer online stores that generally carry higher end toys. I doubt I'll ever see Siege Omega Supreme in my local Walmart, which is retailing for $150, but I'll bet Wally and Target will both have it in their online stores. So, I think there are a number of potential venues for higher end merchandise in the US. I think a larger issue would be knowledge of the property; Macross in the US is still a very niche property, whether you're familiar with RT or the original Japanese SDFM, and that might cause Big West or Bandai to question whether or not enough market exists to bother. It's all academic now, unfortunately. I had really high hopes that Tatsunoko finally had enough of HG's shenanigans and would refuse to renew their license. I'm thinking I'll probably never see Macross merch without a Harmony Gold sticker affixed to it in the US in my lifetime.

Of all the weaponizer figures in Siege, this is the only one that remotely interests me, as the execution of the bot mode is pretty well done. I'm not really a fan of partsforming, but given the nature of the figure, I can forgive it here. Kudos to Has/Tak for Taking what was an originally non-transforming character and giving him a decent bot mode. As for the weaponizing bit, it looks cheesy to me, so if I end up getting him, it'll be bot or vehicle modes only. I don't really handle my figures a great deal, and so, unless they're floppy out of the package, mine generally retain tight joints over a longer period. That said, it's been a while since I took Gen Springer down, but I likely will on Tuesday for the inevitable in-person comparison. However, just from a design perspective, I like what Mr. Roche did- aesthetically, the alt modes certainly look better to me than do the original's, especially the car mode, which I think most of us agree was G1 Springer's weakest mode, almost like an afterthought. Siege Springer has the advantage of time, translating to, I hope, improvements in materials and design. Moreover, it benefits from Has/Tak's recent move towards incorporating more articulation, to make them closer to true action figures, which pleases me greatly. Even as a kid, I held a rather low opinion of my TF toys due to their brick-like nature. When ball jointed figs started appearing in the 90's, I rejoiced. Will do. I've had my eye on MMC's take for some time, as I love what they did with the car mode relative to the canon design. It just makes the car look beefier and more realistic to me. It looks, for lack of a better word, proper. I think I prefer the elevated tail boom, even if it, too, is non-canon. The tail transformation is one of those stand-out designs that make me appreciate MMC's design work, and just Transformers on the whole. Moreover, I've developed a positive bias towards MMC's stuff, as the majority of my third party TFs are MMC designs. I think they do a good job, and they generally strike a good balance between aesthetics, articulation, and transformation mechanics. They make, for the most part, fun Transformers. But, options are nice, and mileage varies over a wide range of preferences in this hobby, so in that vein, I'll throw a bone to XTB for their Virtus. From the promos I've seen, if you're a fan of the G1 design, I think they've done a great job across the board aesthetically. How it handles from a materials and mechanical state remains to be seen. I hope it turns out well.

Nice review, Mike. This is definitely the best effort Has/Tak have made towards producing a G1 faithful Springer since the original toy, which I still have. Mine should be arriving on Tuesday, along with Jetfire, so I'm looking forward to finally having two of the most anticipated and long-awaited figures since the 80s. Looking at those side by sides, I'm once again reminded of how well Nick Roche reimagined Springer, and also by how well the subsequent toy turned out. IMHO, it's still one the best, if not the best, triple changer ever produced, and I feel both of the alt modes are far better than the original's. In the 80's, I was obsessed with helicopters, which made Springer desirable. I never thought much of his car mode, but I liked his heli mode, and I liked the character as portrayed in the movie. The G1 toy was pretty lackluster compared to the animation model, which makes this Siege figure, not to mention third party MP figs, pretty amazing for their accuracy(MMC's Saltus is also on its way to me). I'm surprised it took this long to get a toon faithful version, but since Generations has taken a far more G1 faithful design direction, I suppose it was inevitable, and quite frankly, I'm pleased about it. If Siege follows suit and becomes a trilogy of toy lines, then I'm expecting a lot more G1 stuff to come, and hopefully the last third will all be G1 earth mode stuff, so we get Soundwave as a cassette recorder (hopefully with mini-cassettes at their real size once again- can't understand why they shrunk em). I'd so love to have Megs as a pistol in this line, but with our ridiculous gun laws, it'll likely not happen. This is one of those rare instances where I wish Takara was still producing TF figs separately for the Japanese market. Anyway, although it took 30 years to get to this point, I'm glad they finally came around to giving us updated versions of the old toys in the retail mainline. MP is great, and I enjoy it, but it's nice to have these characters in a more playable form, where you're not working out intricate transformations for an hour, and watching YouTube reviews to try and figure out something you missed or just for precautions to be wary of when you get your expensive collector's toy. I think what they're doing now is what we were hoping for a decade ago when the Classics filler line was rolled out. I think its popularity surprised has/Tak, but I'm glad they decided to keep it going through all the CHUG iterations, as it feels like we're finally coming full circle with G1. I hope they make every damn thing they can for G1 and when they've pretty much exhausted the pantheon, I hope they do something completely new and unique like Animated, only moreso. I'd be happy to see a show built around an entirely new cast of characters- no Prime, no Bumblebee, no Megatron- a completely stand-alone story within the TF Universe but with all new characters, perhaps in a different timeline, and maybe on another planet- say Mars, perhaps 150 years after we've colonized it. I just think they need to give the franchise a fresh look with new faces after they're done with all the G1 love.

I was watching the NASA channel tonight, and they had a promotional show about the proposed lunar mission set for 2024, narrated by William Shatner no less. What struck me was the over-enthusiastic "we're going!" message throughout, while mentioning Orion, the SLS, Gateway (lunar orbital station), and other peripheral stuff in preparation. They mentioned there being water frozen on the moon; however they made no mention where that water is (best estimates place it at the poles and possibly deep within the crust), how they intend to extract it, transport it, or process it for both fuel and human utility. The other thing they didn't mention was shielding, although I'm guessing they would be exposed to similar doses of radiation as the ISS- I don't know TBH. They intend for at least Gateway to be a permanent station, although it sounds like they intend to put people on the surface permanently as well. They made little mention of how they intend to actually do that, as they had no practical surface modules or structures to demonstrate. 2024 isn't that far off, especially if new technologies need to be developed to ensure long-term sustained life support and fuel processing. It seems like technologies could be developed much more quickly and efficiently back in the 60's compared to today. Anyway, despite my cynicism ( I'm not a fan of artificial enthusiasm, and there was lots of it in the military, so I may be a bit jaded), I truly want to see this endeavor come to a very successful and sustainable fruition, especially when the planned follow-on is a manned Mars mission. To see this level of space exploration within my lifetime is extraordinary and exciting; I wish I had the wherewithal to be a participant, but alas, I lack the necessary STEM skills, and so I'm content to experience it vicariously and support them with positivity. That said, I'm pragmatic, and can't help but notice some of the omissions, which makes me wonder what's in development to solve some of these essential issues. As much as I'd love to see NASA or one of the private companies roll out a new shuttle design, it seems to me that all future space lift and transport will be conducted with rockets and small powered capsules. While efficient, they just don't possess the romance of a space plane. I miss the shuttle.

Beat me to it, Technoblue, but yeah, those pegs allow you to carry up to four figs hanging on to the underside. I guess it's an ok play gimmick- it shows some imagination on Hasbro's part. Personally, I think it would have been cool to open his backpack flight deck and put stuff, or even legends class figs, in there. As for the chest armor, it would have served the figure better if it could tack on the belly of the plane to cover that whole mess. Though I complain, I'm actually quite pleased to see a fully realized Skyfire after some thirty years of variations that ranged from way off to vaguely similar. I was really surprised by CW Jetfire, and fully believed that was the closest we'd ever get to a Skyfire fig, even with the alt mode concession. It's a really nice figure in its own right, but still, not quite there. The Siege figure is what I, and I'm sure many other G1 fans who remember Skyfire fondly, have been waiting for all these years. My copy's in the mail as I type this, and it should reach me next Tuesday, along with Siege Springer, so I'm very much looking forward to having these guys in hand. The challenge before me then is where to display them, as my CHUG shelves are nearly to capacity. The never ending plight of collectors everywhere- so many toys, so little space. As for the greebliness- I don't mind it at all, and I completely agree with the sentiment that something's obviously amiss when retail toys are more detailed at lower price points than collector grade toys. I much prefer the Hasui approach, but that, unfortunately, is mere history. Concerning forthcoming releases, I'm looking forward to Siege Astrotrain, as I found the TR version to be more akin to, ahem, a trainwreck. It was straight up nasty, a perfect example of how Cybertronian alt modes can go so far off the rails as to be nigh unrecognizable as what they're intended to be. Siege is a mixed bag in that sense, as these guys are all supposed to be on Cybertron in this timeline, and yet there's a strange dichotomy in the alt modes, with some hitting close to the G1 earth alt, and some obviously Cybertronian. For my money, I'm happy with the strong similarities to earth modes, as it makes them relatable both as vehicles and as the characters. That said, I'm pleased to see Astrotrain, finally, taking many a cue from the G1 toy, even if the G1 toy was actually smoother in both of his alts with less gaps. One would think, after 30 years of design, that these things would be improving so far as blending hinges and eliminating gaps in alt modes, but such is disappointingly not the case. I'd love to jump ahead 50 years and see if there's any kind of design evolution, that is if the franchise is even still going at that point (I hope it is). Digression aside, I'm happy to see Apeface making an appearance, although I wish they'd made his jet mode closer to the original, with the close v-stabs, and the magenta nose tip rather than the entire forward fuselage. I hope Snapdragon isn't far behind, as I always found, and still find, his G1 toy to be really nice looking across all three modes, and, having never owned that toy, I'd be really happy with a faithful update. I have no recollection of Spinister, but comparing the original to the Siege update (Thanks Bing), the thing that strikes me most is how both legs are a complete cockpit on the update, whereas the forward fuselage would have split down the center to form the calf sections, if they indeed could split on the original. Anyway, that observation portends an interesting transformation if one can overcome the multi-pastel color scheme. I'll take my chances. Finally, Crosshairs. So they repurposed the Ironhide mold for this character with no alterations to make his alt mode look more like the G1 toy, which looked more like an odd dune buggy than a van. I think if they'd remolded the bumper piece to give him the two bumper protrusions, along with larger tires, it would have given him more distinction and recognizability. As it is, I'll likely pass. Just got notification that my triad of Refraktor figs have shipped from Hasbro Pulse. From what I've read, Pulse only made them available to order on Monday the first, and one could only order two copies. I ordered mine yesterday, and the allowable number was three, so I was happy to just get all three without the hassle of trying to find them in the wild, which, as anyone who still shops retail for their toys knows, is a dicey proposition at best. Transformers are one of the least stocked toy lines at my local Walmart, with the pegs empty about 90 percent of the times I go there. So far, I've ordered a number of figs through Pulse, and they seem to be keeping it better maintained than the old Hasbro online shop. It's a positive trend, and I hope they keep it going, as it's rapidly becoming my go-to for retail TFs.

I'd love to see a viable transforming fighter in my lifetime, but I'd settle for a transforming car or motorcycle. I vehemently want to see the technology proven and becoming commonplace within my lifetime, even if it comes down to an old-fart scooter transforming to carry my wrinkled old ass up and down stairs. Don't know why transforming stuff so captivates me, but robots in general, and transforming ones far, far more, have held me spellbound for as long as I can remember. To see it made real would be a dream come true. But, just like most tech, I'm sure it wouldn't take long for the military to weaponize it, and if these things were imbued with AI, all the doomsday scenarios sci-fi writers have dreamt up over the years would likely follow. I'd be pushing daisies, but condolences to all you young'uns!