M'Kyuun

It's a shame that Hasbro has strong-armed the reigns of Transformers from Takara; if Takara was still allowed to do their own versions of these toys, their version of the Ark would likely have been far better. I prefer the Japanese design philosophy of designing the best toy possible, and then assigning a value, rather than working backwards from a fixed budget and settling with whatever's been cobbled together. I was so looking forward to this guy; he was going to be my first titan class toy, but the more I see that Ark mode, the more put off of it I am. Guess that's $150 saved, but honestly, the disappointment hurts more than the expenditure. Commenting on Ractonite, there's a part of me that wants to love these things; dinosaurs are cool, and a transforming dinosaur skeleton should hit that sweet spot, but for some reason, these just aren't doing anything for me. I will say that both Ractonite and Paleotrex look good in their dino skeleton modes, and I appreciate the amount of articulation they have. The bot modes, however, just aren't very good. Admittedly, turning the skeleton of anything into a robot is a pretty tall order, as there's not really a lot to work with, so I guess they did the best they could. I'm not at all a fan of yanking them apart and using their bits to forge weapons and such- it's too much of a contrast to see a 'high tech' robot bearing what looks like stone aged weapons. Not even a svelte bot like Huffer can make it look good. If Hasbro wants to do dinosaurs, there are four more Dinobots begging for updates to stand alongside Grimlock, and I think I speak on behalf of the majority of TF fans when I say that's what we really want. @mikeszekely If you've got your Huffer review ready to go, go ahead and post it, man. I'm not due to have my copy til Monday. If I see the review posted, I'll just skip over it until I have mine. I deeply appreciate the courtesy, but don't hold back on my account. The world needs more Huffer.

Concerning the Ark, the problem with the gaping holes could have been addressed with a couple hinged clamshell panels, but as it is, even with a third party add-on, the shaping is going to be difficult to capture accurately. I think I'd rather prefer entirely new legs that offer the fifth engine and proper sides that match the original design, which would be a costly add-on. Looking at it anew today, I just have to wonder incredulously how the designers looked at this and called it good as a final product.

I'm on the fence for the Ark. I like the bot mode a lot, but since the Ark is the star of the show, if you will, I'm pretty disappointed with the lazy and inaccurate design, not to mention the big gaping holes on either side. Guess my question about whether or not it has the center exhaust bell got answered. I suppose I should have known better than to raise my expectations. I am digging Kingdom BW Scorponok, though, and thus far, he's my only guaranteed buy for now, unless they throw MP Skids in there, too. Even with that we're getting boned, as the Diaclone colored version comes with more accessories for the same price. Why couldn't they put the same stuff in both? grrrr Anyway, Hasbro's sending out emails for folks to reserve a 'spot at the party' for tomorrow's pre-Fest event on Pulse. I don't recall their doing that for PulseCon, and this sounds like it's going to be a similar event. Anyway, just thought I'd tell folks planning to get in on it to check their email so they can confirm their reservations.

FWIW, I'm gonna attempt the stickers on this one, as I usually do on these more 'deluxe' sets. As I said above, I'm not at all looking forward to placing those chrome stickers in the doors- what a PITA. I wish they'd just print all the requisite parts in these larger specialty sets. That's one feather I'll give Mega Bloks- they print everything, and it makes the building experience so much smoother and enjoyable. Once you've made your mods, you'll have to share some pics, man. I know that you know your way around the brick, so it'll be interesting to see the fruits of your tweaking.

The aft section is most definitely supposed to share the same tapered appearance as the front of the ship. I wonder if there are going to be a couple partsforming bits to replicate that shape to cover the knee holes? They didn't quite execute the recessed sections in the middle very well either. I wonder what they did with the fifth center engine bell? It's a shame when the official toy has so many instantly recognizable flaws, and you're thinking in the back of your mind if (insert third party of choice) had done this, it'd be far more accurate. It's especially gulling when they can tailor the bot mode however they need to to ensure that the Ark mode is nigh on perfect. Gah!

Interesting, but not in the most propitious manner for the customer. At the very least, if they can't simply get you a replacement wheel, they could give you a complete Inferno (I'd even request they open the box to make sure), even if it means waiting for new stock. Personally, I'd rather wait and have the toy I want than, as you said, possibly end up with a copy of a fig I already have. Kinda defeats the point of collecting/trying to assemble the full roster of characters. I guess you can't expect everyone at Hasbro to be toy nerds; I appreciate that the designers seem to be in touch with the franchise and the collecting mindset, but it's probably not a requisite for customer support. Anyway, at least you get to do a return, and hopefully a store near you has it, or you can try and score a copy through Pulse, or one of the e-tailers. To their credit, Pulse does seem to restock, although you have to keep an eye on it for when they do. So, usually I complain about the lack of TF toys in my area, specifically Walmart, but yesterday after I got my first Covid shot, I decided to pay a visit to the nearby Wally (where I used to work, as it happens), and I was pleasantly surprised to find the retro-HeadMasters (Skullcruncher, Highbrow, & Weirdwolf), as well as the ER Prime three pack, and, IIRC, a few of the SS86 figs. Since I already have all the TR Headmaster deluxes, I passed, although I was tempted to get another Weirdwolf since mine cracked a little at the hinge behind his wolf head. Anyway, today, I went to the usually stark and depressingly empty TF aisle of my local Wally to find the newest batch of Netflix recolored deluxes hanging on the pegs, as well as two ER Arcees. they also had three copies of Deep Cover sitting on the overstock shelf, for some odd reason, as there was an a completely empty peg for Gen deluxes. I put the copy of DC that I took down on a peg, so hopefully some kid walks away happy. My copy's in the mail so I left all three. Anyway, I didn't bother picking up any of the Netflix figs, although I was tempted to get the rusty Cybertronian Datsun fig, simply b/c I like the mold and he's another variant. But I didn't didn't grab any of them. My shelves are overcrowded as it is, with still more Kingdom figs coming, so I'm trying to be a little choosier. Anyway, just wanted to let folks know in case they were looking for one of these. Not bad; I like it, and will probably get it. But for Primus' sake, why the hell can't they figure out a way to put some covers over those huge gaping holes where the knees are visible? Jeez. The Teletraan I bot is cool. Hopefully he can fit in the Ark's chest/flightdeck. The tummy section reminds me of the Iron Giant; I like it. I'm liking that Ark bot mode, but part of me still wants this:

Those pegs were longer and tighter on Grapple, which caused stress breakage for any number of folks. Hasbro listened and made those pegs shorter and not as tight fitting on Inferno. I noticed it immediately when I transformed mine for the first time. Kudos to Hasbro/Takara for making the change. The silver headbox wings bug me more than any of the other silver stuff. They and the side hoses should have been traditionally white, and yeah, the stabilizers should have been silver, and functional- c'mon Hasbro, is it too much to ask to put a little slider mechanism in there for realism? Nitpicks aside, Grapple/Inferno is one of the better molds in the line, and I'm glad they turned out as well as they did. Also agree with the lost opportunity of not putting a 5mm peg hole at the end of Inferno's ladder for his arm spout accessory. As is, there's no where to store the thing in his truck mode that doesn't look stupid, so I just stick it in the hollow areas of his heels in truck mode. Not the best, but at least it stays with the vehicle, and it's one time when I'm glad for a hollow area. @Negotiator Aw, that sucks man. Hopefully, Hasbro will come through for ya. Keep us updated, as I've not had any major missing bits like that except a missing prop on TR Seaspray that I just wrote off, so I've never had need of their service. But I'm curious to see how they respond.

I read the comment before scrolling down to the pic, opining to myself that I didn't think it was that bad. Then I scrolled. I will say in advance that I'm not looking forward to those 'terrible' stickers in the cargo bay. I am, however, curious to see the new cargo bay door parts. My delivery date bumped out a day, so now it's due Friday instead of tomorrow. Ah well, something to look forward to regardless.

Good review, Mike, but nope, not my Magnus. Way too many concessions, and in truth, it's ugly and non-functional in truck mode. To my mind, they simply retooled a flawed toy, and many of those flaws carried over. I remain hopeful for a Magnus utilizing a white ER Prime as the core, with hopefully a well designed trailer that can rotate independently of the cab and be utilized as a proper car carrier. That would be excellent, and with any luck the Hasbro designers can convince the bean counters.

Mine's due to arrive on Thursday. Looking forward to it.

Yep, I think so, too. Upscaled to voyager, I think they would have been able to fix some of his issues. I like my TR Galvatron, though, although I have the same complaints as every one else. But it was nice to have an official Galvatron that turns into his space cannon, and considering that they were under a design constraint to develop him as a triple changer, as @mikeszekely mentioned above in his review, I don't think he turned out half bad. I have the original toy, so comparing that to the animation model, and then doing the same with TR, the TR comes much closer to what we saw on screen, even with all his compromises. I don't even mind his weird jet mode. Thus far, from the various pics we've seen of the upcoming Galvatron fig, I'm not really sold on the proportions. As Mike observed, he looks like he has the upper body of one figure, and the the lower body of a smaller figure, and the whole looks unbalanced. I'm also not really caring for his cannon mode, so that's knocks on both modes that are putting me off to it. He's definitely one that I'll wait to see some reviews before buying. Other than the crappy headmaster gimmick and mask, TR Galvatron appeals to me more across the board than this new fig. I PO'd Deep Cover as well, and though I didn't receive a separate shipping notice, a quick check on Pulse shows that he's packed with Huffer and Airazor, whose tracking has bumped out from this Friday to next Monday. Not sure why it's taking so much time, but the package still may show up this week. Wouldn't be the first time FedEx's tracking was off. Anyway, it'll be a trifecta of goodness when it finally arrives.

Ah, ok. I thought perhaps you guys were getting them from some external source that I wasn't aware of, like from a LEGO Store. I've seen those vouchers on the VIP site, but I have yet to use them. I have a ton of VIP points, as I rarely ever use them, but keep building them up. I guess I'm waiting for that one potential humongous set that's upwards of a grand that I can't do without (A UCS AT-AT, perchance). Lacking room in a seemingly ever shrinking house, I've been slowing way down on large LEGO purchases. The last big one I bought was the new Ninjago City, as I wanted a companion for the Ninjago Movie Ninjago City, each of which is one of the most brilliant and fun sets I've ever built, and they look absolutely amazing. I wish they'd do a Space themed set like that, with assorted modules, repair bays, landing strips, mecha suits, little ships....oh what potential bliss it could be!

I thought for sure you had your copy of Airazor; sorry to hear you've been having trouble finding her. Mine should be shipping from Pulse any day- just waiting for the email. I expect I'll have her in hand by next weekend if she ships within the next two days. Well, her and Huffer. Anyway, I found some pics on the net for comparison. I canceled my Magnus order- the combined bot mode looks good, but the core cab bot is so-so, and I don't like the truck mode at all. I suspect at some point the folks at Hasbro who wanted to make ER Prime the core will push the idea into fruition. I hope so, even if they have to do the Rodimus approach and make him a commander class. Swung by my local Wally today, and all they had for Transformers were a handful of Cyberverse Bumblebees. No Generations figs at all, as usual. In this collector's eyes, Pulse is one of the best things Hasbro has done in recent years. In lieu of heartfelt thanks, I send them money. It all works out in the end.

I'm kidding, Mike. If you have your review ready to go, go ahead and post it. I can just skip over it until I've got my copy in hand. But I am curious to hear your thoughts on it. This is BW Airazor: Comparing with pics of the Kingdom version, the feather detail is more heavily sculpted and realistic overall, but the transformation is very similar, except instead of concealing her robot head inside the falcon head (which makes sense, really), her bot head now tucks into her abdomen. The bot mode captures the look of her toon likeness much more accurately, down to the arm rockets she wielded. Unfortunately, Hasbro made no attempt whatsoever to hide them in beast mode, and the result is a falcon with JATO rockets. All things considered, I think she's a good update, and having never owned the original, I'm looking forward to this new incarnation. Kingdom Airazor pics sourced from The Allspark

The freebies in question were the Easter Bunny's Carrot House and the Space Rocket Ride I wasn't even aware of the latter set, but I'll gladly take it. It appears to have a kinetic action feature, so that's cool. Where in the world do you guys get vouchers for LEGO? I've been collecting for over forty years, have bought untold thousands of dollars of LEGO, have been part of the VIP program from inception, and I can't recall having ever had a coupon, voucher, or otherwise. I'm curious how you come about them. Oh, and congrats to those among us who managed to get the set. Honestly, I'd rather get my set early for the freebies, as the set itself will become more widely available in a month or so after the initial fervor dies down. I wish said freebies had more to do with the main set, like the smaller '89 Batmobile that came with the large set, but free is free, and I'll happily take what they offer. It's disappointing that the rumored tie-in VIP set didn't materialize- they'll end up putting it for a brief period at like 3 AM and naught but the scalpers will get it.

Man, don't spoil Huffer for me. I've been waiting 37 years for Hasbro to make a proper G1 Huffer in the mainline, and from pics I've seen, it looks pretty darn good. There are reviews up already by the usual suspects, and I've been avoiding them assiduously, as I want to enjoy this fig with fresh eyes. I'm not even sure what it is I like so much about his design, b/c his personality wasn't the greatest, but I've liked it since the old G1 days, and I'm happy that they upscaled him to a small deluxe size, and that he can pull ER Prime's trailer. I keep hoping that all the G1 minibots will eventually get the same treatment, regardless of branding. I've seen a vid review or two of Airazor, and my impression is that they did a really good job on her. The original toy was pretty decent, especially for the time, and the Kingdom toy is a lovely update. It's definitely better than Dinobot, who turned out to be rather disappointing after owning Kingdom Megatron. It didn't help that my copy had a bum ankle with zero friction- just flopped about freely right outta the box. A dab of Gorilla glue made it better- still not as tight as I'd like, but at least it'll bear weight in a pose. I like the solutions they came up with for his transformation, but his Raptor mode suffers from obvious bot bits, Palmolive hands (80s kids know what I'm referring to), odd proportions, and lack of hip articulation. The dino mouth on my copy doesn't seem to want to open as far as what I've seen in online pics, so I'm not sure if that's operator error on my part, or just the way my copy was put together. Anyway, of the Kingdom BW figs, I think his is the worst beast mode thus far for all the compromises. I was really hoping they'd knock this one out of the park- sadly, no.

Well, I managed to score a copy of the Shuttle Discovery set, and two freebies. The site is slow, and it took a number of refreshes to finally get it. And, yeah, whatever tie-in set they have planned for VIP isn't showing up yet. I hope they do eventually get it, and that it's not another extremely limited set like the Batpod. LEGO's not dumb, although I think they like to play dumb when they say they underestimate the popularity of certain sets on launch day. Any sort of space homage is going to sell well especially larger scale sets like this that commemorate historical events, and certainly so for the Shuttle, which leaves behind an extraordinary legacy in man's journey to explore, study, and utilize space. All space tech is cool, but there's a beauty and romanticism about the Shuttle that resonates and captures the imagination beyond the appeal of rockets and capsules, at least to me.

Pulse has been pretty timely about getting figs out. I've received any number of emails from them saying that stock came in early and my stuff was shipping. I got Inferno the week before last, and Dinobot came last week. This morning, I got emails saying Kingdom Huffer and Airazor shipped, so I'll likely have them in hand early next week. As for the Netflix stuff, my Walmart barely stocks anything Generations, Netflix or otherwise, and and when they do stock, it's not a lot. I never saw any of the Headmaster stuff in my store. It's sad. I know that Pulse is selling some of the retailer exclusive stuff, and hopefully items like the Wally exclusive Headmasters will be available on there in the future, as brick and mortar, at least in my area, offers a very slim chance of getting these toys. I miss the old days when these things were well stocked and readily available. Heck, they used to be well stocked in my store back in the mid 2000s, but something happened over the last five or six years to detrimentally effect their stock. IMHO, the adult market for toys has had a negative overall effect: we're the impetus behind keeping a lot of nostalgia driven toys alive, but it's also the adult market that's created a thriving landscape for scalpers to take advantage. It'd make for an interesting case study to garner some imperial data.

So this little guy showed up today. One caveat to potential recipients: when I attempted to mount my copy on the stand , I noted a long slender hinged panel covering the slot where the stand needs to go. The panel is designed to peg into the panels that straddle the stand hole on the bottom of the planet, and it can open externally, but not enough to really clear the stand without putting stress on both the slot cover panel and the panel to which it attaches. The slot cover looks like it can rotate up inside the planet, but not without dismantling the majority of the panels, which is unwieldy to say the least with a toy this size (about 14 lbs). In the future, when I transform him to planet mode, I'll be leaving that panel rotated inside the planet, if possible, to prevent further stressing. I'm not sure why he didn't come like that, or why they didn't design the hinge with more travel. Anyway, I made it through the transformation, which was a little more laborious than I expected - some of those panels require some effort to disengage/engage- without, so far as I can tell, any damage or overstressing of parts. The ratchets on my copy, other than the lateral hip ratchets, are quite stiff and again require a bit of effort to move, which is a good thing. One should be able to put him in a pose over an extended period and not worry about sagging. He definitely has a sense of presence- he's big, granted, but the paint and sculpting are really sharp, and in person, he's just a really impressive thing to behold. Of course, it's not all butterflies and rainbows- he has a ton of kibble adorning his back and legs, and the unsightly equatorial spiky bands from his planet mode just dangling off of his shoulders. Engineering is just not this Transformer toy's strong suit, which is a shame for the price point, the experience of Takara, and the time in which they had to design him. I would have gladly waited another year, especially since Covid likely had an impact on development, to let them refine the design and perhaps make a more refined toy where more of the robot was involved in the alt mode and some that kibble could be eliminated. The hands, specifically the thumbs, are another headscratcher: for all the effort put forth to articulate the fingers individually, the thumbs are incapable of rotating to a grasping position. He can give a thumbs up, but he's just shy of having an opposable thumb. I have yet to attempt transforming him back into planet mode, but by the instructions it seems that the head is to be removed. I don't recall Unicron's being a Headmaster, and looking inside his planet mode with one of the top side sections of panels opened, there appears to be enough room for his head, albeit with the horns rotated down, so I'm going to try and leave his head on. Hopefully it fits and I don't do any damage in the process. Edit; It's Monday morning and looking at Twitter, I found some comments where others were also complaining about mounting him on his stand and the lack of detail in the instructions. Step 4 , and I imagine this is going to become an infamous thing, simply depicts Unicron in planet mode with a down arrow pointing at the stand without any additional instruction. Perfectly clear, right? Until you realize there's a panel covering the slot where the stand goes and, as I mentioned above, it doesn't have enough travel to clear the stand without being stressed. Anyway, it was a bit of unfortunate validation that it's an issue that's likely to be endemic with the figure. It's definitely an oversight on HasTak's part that should never have made it to the production stage. Seems I'm not the only one who struggled with manipulating the panels, either; there's definitely some effort required. On the plus side, the panels do seem to hold together firmly once you've put forth some exertion, issued a few choice words, held your mouth right, and prayed a little that you weren't breaking anything by applying so much force. Too, you're dealing with a sphere with little in the way of purchase to help you pull these panels together, so that too, was a source of frustration. Alas, misery adores company, and I felt vindicated in this regard as well by some Twitter users' difficulties in transforming him. There's certainly a feeling of satisfaction upon completing the transformation though. You feel you've accomplished something, and you'll likely have the traces of sweat, as I did, to prove it. Anyway, I want to bid good luck to all my fellow Unicron recipients; hopefully this will leave you a little forewarned what to expect, but I also hope you won't be afraid to tackle the transformation. The materials are pretty sturdy, and other than the thin sliding panel to which all of the backpack kibble is attached, it's a very sturdy toy, and when snapping apart the panels I never felt like I was going to break anything. Take care when transforming the shoulders, as along with snapping into place, there's a small spring-loaded catch on the armature to which the shoulder is mounted, and you need to ensure that its engaged. The shoulder ratchets are extremely stiff, and it's one area that I can foresee potential breakage issues if it's not assembled correctly. That's about all I can think of at the moment. Cheers and enjoy.

Right there with ya- why isn't anybody jumping on this obvious opportunity? If I had the know-how and the tech to do it, I'd be all over it. As it is, I have money to throw at the people who do, as I'm sure do many of us CHUG collectors who are discontent with some of the official figs. As for the legends I've bought: NA's original release Harry (Prowl)- love this little guy- he's about the size of a Matchbox car, but with MP levels of articulation. Brilliant little pocket fig to just take with you. All three of NA's first season Seekers- I preferred these over MS' take- Ingenious transformation, great looking in both modes. F-15 mode isn't completely accurate, but far better, IMHO than the new MP Seeker. NA's Megatron- fun fig with a cool transformation that, IIRC, doesn't require bending parts around other parts. the downside is that the hips are wonky due to their design, and the back suffers from quite a bit of gun kibble. NA's plastics generally have a solid feel to them which translates to the fig as a whole. Magic Square's Megatron- This guy takes the prize for nailing the toon look in bot mode unburdened by kibble, save for the gun trigger that looks like a little tail on his butt. His proportions are beefier than the NA, with a wider chest that just looks better when they're compared side by side. The downside is along with the more flexible feeling plastics they use, in this fig's case, a few parts need to bend slightly beyond their natural tendency around other parts to achieve transformation. I haven't had any stress or breakage, but it's just never a good feeling to have to do that. That said, if I had to make a recommendation between MS' and NA's Megs, I'd have to go with the MS for presence alone. The transformation is clever and fairly complex, marred only by the aforementioned bending of certain parts. MS' Soundwave and Cassette Team- I confess I liked the look of NA's Soundwave better, but MS' still captures the look of G1 soundwave very well, and his clean bot mode manages the kibble far better than NA's take. The transformation is clever, with the bulk of it happening in the legs. The result is a nice looking little cassette recorder that looks good from the front, but kinda gives itself away from the back. It's a shame they couldn't have recreated the brilliant weapon/battery storage area of the original toy, but sadly no. The back is gappy and the weapons peg in between the arms and the panels forming the exterior shell of the recorder. It works, but it lacks the elegance of the original toy. The cassettes were designed with their bot modes as the priority, which I agree with. The cassette modes range from pretty accurate (Ratbat) to maybe passable if I squint from across the room (Ravage). That said, bot mode is where these guys shine, and for such diminutive transforming figures, they feature an exceptional amount of articulation and paint and detail. Of course, they all fit in Soundwave, with a caveat: the fit is quite snug, and the only way to get them out is to open his back panels in bot mode and work the cassette out with a finger. The requisite panel is inaccessible in his recorder mode, an unfortunate decision, or oversight, on MS' part. MS's cassttes drove my decision to also get their Soundwave, as due to scaling differences, they're not cross compatible. I'm sure that's not a coincidence. MS' Huffer- Nice take on the character. Clever engineering, although this fig also has some parts that have to pass by each other with very close tolerances. NA's Cosmos- Again, nice little fig that does a good job of capturing the toon likeness. Articulation leaves a bit to be desired compared to their other figs, but that's inherent with Cosmos' design. At this scale, I can forgive it. The hips on this fig do not have good clearance with the body, and they rub anytime they're moved more than about 20 degrees or so fore or aft. Pretty sucktastic. Transformation is clever and effective, and the end result is a little green 50's inspired flying saucer. Despite my attempts to avoid collecting legends, I recently PO'd a number of Iron Factory figs, including their take on Huffer which looks fantastic. I also went in on a toy colored version of DR. Wu's Chatter, his take on Beastbox and Squalktalk. I hope he eventually does Raindance and Grand Slam, as Chatter looks pretty sweet.

Given their bent towards greater articulation, which seems oddly not to be the case with Skids based on pure eyeball inspection, the assumption is that, should they hold true to their slavish toon and extreme articulation standards, MP Skyfire (man it seems odd typing that) will be an incredible figure in those regards. But they also have a bent towards very complicated transformations which oft result in a lot of layers of folded panels and such forming large sections of the bot modes, so there's that to be wary of, although Skyfire is, admittedly, a fairly straightforward design. The arms are really the only murky bit, and I absolutely love FT's solution which is better than WFC's Jetfire for how it integrates seamlessly into the alt mode without leaving large gaps or open areas. IMHO, it's going to be a difficult design to better, articulation and inaccurate chest sculpt notwithstanding. The other side of that coin is pricing; MP Skyfire will likely run well over twice what Phoenix cost, so there's also that to be considered. If the new MP Prime's going for $400, a bot that dwarfs him will likely exceed that price by at least another $100, and likely upwards towards the $600 mark. Based on the Unicron crowdfunding price, there's already a precedent for what the fandom will pay for a highly sought but rarely made figure, and MP Skyfire will likely be a one and done sort of release. There are no recolors or slight remolds into other characters, as the character design itself was an artifact of Sunbow's legal inability to use the VF-1 design in the animation, so they're betting on the strength of our nostalgia to drive sales. I'm sure they're well aware of the previous third party releases, especially Phoenix, so they need to make a figure that's better in every way so we'll toss our third party doppelgangers aside in lieu of official Skyfire. It's a gamble on their part, and I'm surprised they're doing it, but also happy that they're doing it too. If it turns out to be a homerun- great sculpt, paint, articulation, transformation, accurate in both modes, gimmicks, no QC issues- more than likely I'll be one of those ardent fans plunking down his ducats.

Despite a long and prolific acting career, I wasn't familiar with her name. However, going down through the (long) list, I'm sure I've seen her, or heard her voice, in any number of shows over the years. Regardless, she's yet another sad loss to cinema. RIP Madame, and thanks for sharing your talent.

I wish either his wings could fold, or he came with an alternate set of folded wings. Beautiful figure, regardless. Curious to see if they do Xanatos's armor and the Steel Clan. So many great characters in that show.

Wow!- Goliath never looked better in 3D. Such a damned good show that Disney seems to want to forget.

After doing a comparison between the toon, WFC Skyfire, and Phoenix, the WFC definitely gets the head proportions better, as well as the chest design. Phoenix is by far the best MP scaled Skyfire out there, but after comparisons, there's room for improvement there that I hadn't really considered. So, when MP Skyfire comes up for PO, and I'm shelling $400+ for it, I know who to blame. On a completely different note, looking at my Generations Netflix Soundave on my desk, I so, so wish a third party would make some improved cassettes for him, as the official ones are, to put it kindly, sorely wanting. Speaking of 3P cassettes, I got my MS tape set last week, and those things are just incredible for the amount of articulation they imparted. The focus is definitely on the bot modes, though, as the cassette modes require squinty eyes and a bit of imagination to make them convincing, except Ratbat which actually does look convincing from one side in tape mode. At this extremely tiny scale, and given the poseability and the ability to still transform, it's easily forgivable for how much fun these little guys are. I recommend them just as fun little desk toys to tinker with. Quite an impressive little set, and of course, necessities if you own MS's Soundwave, which is also a pretty well done fig. The tape fit is very snug, though, necessitating a finger through a convenient hole in his back to eject them. Kind of a pain, but IIWII.