The Transformers Thread (licensed) Next

[M'Kyuun]

12 hours ago, tekering said:

I think we need to publicly acknowledge the effort @mikeszekely makes on our behalf, sifting through all the mud there to find the occasional nugget to share here.  

As always, thanks Mike, for wading through the quagmire of vitriol, entitlement, and gross disenchantment that seems to pervade the TFW boards and bringing us the pertinent news, reviews, prescient prognostications for what to expect in the coming months and years, and just for sharing your knowledge, support, and enthusiasm for Transformers. This thread would be greatly diminished without your constant inputs and I salute you for your efforts and presence, and for just being an all-around decent flesh creature. 😉

Happy to say Scrapper and Bonecrusher are preordered. I'm not into the lore as much as most TF fans, so the whole upcoming focus on the Primes isn't really grabbing me. The toys have always been the prime appeal of Transformers for me, pun oh so intended, so I'll wait and see how these figs turn out before mustering anything north of curiosity. TBH, with diminishing space in my house for my ever-growing toy collections (yes, plural), I kinda hope they look like crap to me 😄and I can pass on them without regret, but already Megatronus (The Fallen) isn't looking half bad. He has a better tank mode than most of the previous Megatron figs (SS86 Megatron's tank mode remains to be seen). Initially, I thought he was a partial of Tarn, but after looking at my copy and comparing to screenshots of Megatronus, it appears he'll be a completely new mold. 

I don't know about the rest of you guys, but I've been really enjoying Hasbro's livestreams and broadcasts to bring news to the fandom. It's rare to have that kind of engagement with a corporation, so the effort and ultimately the personalities of the various marketers and designers who host these things brings a whole new dimension of enjoyment to the hobby. I especially love the BTS development exposition and their constant deference to the brilliant folks over at Takara-Tomy who originally developed the concept and have since kept this toy line going for four decades now. While I'm guilty of complaining about this or that, for the most part I try to never lose sight of how fortunate we are that this franchise, my favorite out of all the various toy lines from the 80s, and there were many, continues to thrive giving us constant new updates and new characters to build out our collections, as well as new lore and media. It's easy to take it for granted b/c we're eating well, but it's obvious that Hasbro is facing challenges to keep this line going at an affordable level, so I remain grateful and hopeful that it will continue, hopefully long after I'm one with the Matrix.

Edited October 28 by M'Kyuun

[mikeszekely]

Links good for everyone in about 15 minutes.

Bonecrusher

Scrapper

The Fallen will be available later with the rest of wave 1, and Bumblebee and Apelinq should go up tomorrow.

[mikeszekely]

2 minutes ago, M'Kyuun said:

but already Megatronus (The Fallen) isn't looking half bad. He has a better tank mode than most of the previous Megatron figs (SS86 Megatron's tank mode remains to be seen).

Haven't you? This isn't insider knowledge, just a bunch on my part, but I'm feeling confident that SS86 Megatron will be a heavy retool of Megatronus.

4 minutes ago, M'Kyuun said:

I don't know about the rest of you guys, but I've been really enjoying Hasbro's livestreams and broadcasts to bring news to the fandom. It's rare to have that kind of engagement with a corporation, so the effort and ultimately the personalities of the various marketers and designers who host these things brings a whole new dimension of enjoyment to the hobby. I especially love the BTS development exposition and their constant deference to the brilliant folks over at Takara-Tomy who originally developed the concept and have since kept this toy line going for four decades now. While I'm guilty of complaining about this or that, for the most part I try to never lose sight of how fortunate we are that this franchise, my favorite out of all the various toy lines from the 80s, and there were many, continues to thrive giving us constant new updates and new characters to build out our collections, as well as new lore and media. It's easy to take it for granted b/c we're eating well, but it's obvious that Hasbro is facing challenges to keep this line going at an affordable level, so I remain grateful and hopeful that it will continue, hopefully long after I'm one with the Matrix.

I can't speak to anything but Transformers, but I love that the marketing people have kind of taken a backseat, so it doesn't come across as corporate pandering. They've let (some of) the design team became the face of the brand, and they're clearly passionate fans like us. Their enthusiasm is catchy, they're clearly listening to and engaging with the community, and the peeks they give about what goes on behind the curtain helps us known that they're not always happy with the budgets either, and sometimes it's a repaint or nothing.

[sh9000]

This came in handy today at Entertainment Earth for the Constructicons and other preorders that were adjusted.

[M'Kyuun]

7 hours ago, mikeszekely said:

Haven't you? This isn't insider knowledge, just a bunch on my part, but I'm feeling confident that SS86 Megatron will be a heavy retool of Megatronus.I

I'm embarrassed to say that, despite even the namesake, I was completely oblivious to the possibility that Megatron would be a retool of Megatronus. It would have to be a very heavy retool, but after you mention it, it seems rather obvious. I'm facepalming.

7 hours ago, mikeszekely said:

I can't speak to anything but Transformers, but I love that the marketing people have kind of taken a backseat, so it doesn't come across as corporate pandering. They've let (some of) the design team became the face of the brand, and they're clearly passionate fans like us. Their enthusiasm is catchy, they're clearly listening to and engaging with the community, and the peeks they give about what goes on behind the curtain helps us known that they're not always happy with the budgets either, and sometimes it's a repaint or nothing.

From what I've seen, folks like BMac and Emily are often sharing the limelight a fair bit with the designers. Emily, in particular, stands out for her enthusiasm and her onscreen charisma; I miss her when she's not available to do the streams. While it's the designers I really want to hear from concerning the toys and their development journey, I find the marketers often contribute interesting BTS info as well as just infusing enthusiasm into the conversation. Sometimes the requisite marketing talking points can be a bit obvious and awkward, but for the most part, I still think these things would be diminished without their presence, personalities, and their nudging to keep things rolling along. That said, I think it'd be great to have just a round table with Mark and Evan and maybe a designer or two from TT (Hasui would be on my list for sure) just talking about dream toys and some tidbits on development, perhaps personal art (b/c all these cats can draw), or even showing us their collections. In short, it'd be neat to see them in a venue as fans doing what fans do. But yeah, circling back to the original topic, I don't wish to sell the marketing team short, as I've been impressed by their segue from just doing their 9-5 to media stars in their own rights, along with the designers, none of which probably ever thought live-streaming would become a regular part of the job. We may not agree that the Execs at Hasbro make the best decisions all the time (I still think they're reeling from Brian Goldner's passing), but making the marketers and designers the relatable faces of Hasbro as enthusiastic fans themselves was a brilliant idea. That those folks have been up to the task and have become celebrities of a sort to Hasbro's fans is a win for both sides. Of course, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention that LEGO started this trend a bout a decade ago and it made celebrities of their designers, two of whom have risen to tv stardom on LEGO Masters.  

[mikeszekely]

Quick addendum to my recent Optimus Prime reviews with stuff I literally just discovered today.

1. Legacy United Deluxe Optimus Prime's smokestacks are attached via 5mm pegs.  That's it.  Despite what I've pictured here, he doesn't hold them as pistols all that well due to the pegs being kind of short and his hands sitting well below the plane of his forearms, but they're super easy to pop off, and they leave 5mm ports behind if you want to play with him and some Weaponizers/Armorizers/Junkions/Fossilizers.

2. Studio Series 86 Commander-class Optimus Prime actually does have a way to carry his ion rifle without stuffing it in his trailer.  I missed it at first, because I'm used to stuffing 5mm pegs into 5mm holes, or dedicated tabs into dedicated slots.  But Prime's rear doesn't have any tabs that fit into the rifle's slots, and the magazine on the rifle prevents the 5mm handle from reaching the 5mm port in the hitch.  But that magazine is actually the key!  On the panels you folded up from his calves over his thighs, there's some square-ish holes that I mistook for the usual Hasbro waffles.  Turns out that they're the same size and shape as the magazine, so you plug the magazine into them and presto, alt mode rifle storage.

[M'Kyuun]

13 hours ago, mikeszekely said:

  On the panels you folded up from his calves over his thighs, there's some square-ish holes that I mistook for the usual Hasbro waffles.  Turns out that they're the same size and shape as the magazine, so you plug the magazine into them and presto, alt mode rifle storage.

 

Not the most elegant nor the most complimentary of storage options, but at least it's there. I wish integrated storage was the standard, from inception to production, an intentional hidden or integrated storage of bot weapons.

[shazam]

 

[sh9000]

Happy Halloween!

[mikeszekely]

1 hour ago, sh9000 said:

Happy Halloween!

Nice!  I passed on the Megatron and Soundwave helmets, but I have the Optimus Prime one.

[sh9000]

13 hours ago, mikeszekely said:

Nice!  I passed on the Megatron and Soundwave helmets, but I have the Optimus Prime one.

Excellent.  I missed the sale for the Optimus helmet.  That one looks great.

[mikeszekely]

Well, I looked ahead at my schedule and I don't think I'm expecting any more repaints until next year, so let me wrap up the ones I've been piling up.

I guess we'll open with Studio Series, starting with Core-class Bumblebee Frenzy.  And... well, there isn't a lot to talk about here.  Rumble was already a very basic figure with minimal articulation, no actual hands, accessories that he could store in both modes but not actually utilize, and an alt mode that was just a box.  He wasn't even in the movie, only concept art, and exists solely so Soundwave can stick something into his chest besides Ravage.  Turns out Frenzy is exactly the same thing, just in black and red.  Unless you're hardcore into having all of Soundwave's tape... er, boxes, you should pass on Frenzy.

Against my better judgement, and mostly because I was bored and saw him on a peg while I was at the store, we also have Gamer Edition Deluxe-class Decepticon Soldier.  In one of the very first cutscenes in the game Megatron's on the bridge of a ship attacking Trypticon Station and ordering them to go full speed ahead, this generic fellow says, "but sir, that's suidicide!" right before Megatron shoots him.  There are also a bunch of generic guys that look like him, but with purple instead of green accents.

The thing here is that the Decepticon Soldier is a retool of Barricade, who thus far as been my pick for the absolute worse of the Gamer Edition figures.  Thing is, a lot has been retooled here.  Same pelvis and hip joints, same hands, same elbow joints, same basic transformation, but his chest, shoulders, forearms, his legs from the thighs down to his feet, and most of his vehicle kibble are all new parts.

(Note that, as near as I can tell, DS's leg kibble is supposed to be wheels-forward, but it can be rotated like Barricade's.)

You may recall from my rant about Barricade that much of my disappointment came from a lack of basic articulation on the figure.  Less kibble on his forearms means he can bend his elbows 90 degrees.  Lower (if not actually less) kibble on his calves means he can bend his knees 90 degrees.  Is it weird to cheer on what I consider to be the absolute minimum acceptable articulation to be an improvement (especially when he still lacks ankle pivots)?  Kind of, but Barricade was that bad, so here we are.

Accessory-wise, Decepticon Soldier has the same weapon as Barricade, which is before they started adding pegs for them to hold their weapons.  So you do have to pull his arm off to attach the gun, and the arm can still be stored on the back.

Despite looking fairly different, Decepticon Soldier transforms in almost the exact same way as Barricade (the only real difference is that you don't have to rotate his biceps or the kibble on his legs).  And his gun still plugs into the roof on top.

The Decepticon Soldier isn't a great figure, but he at least comes closer to meeting my minimums that Barricade, which makes him the best use of the mold.  As a nobody you can probably pass on him without regrets, but if you're into troop building I'd recommend this guy over Barricade.

Moving on from Studio Series, I was finally able to complete my Walmart-exclusive Star Seekers when I happened to notice that Deluxe-class Filch was back in stock at Walmart.com.  She's a retool, albeit a less extensive one, of Kingdom Airazor, with new shoulder pads, shins, head, and accessories.

Filch comes from the divisive 2015 Robots In Disguise.  Now, I don't think we got more than a fleeting glimpse of her bot mode in the cartoon, but artwork of it exists, and near as I can tell the new head and shins are pretty much on-point, and by not turning her feet around as you'd do for Airazor you wind up with mostly-accurate clawed feet.  Her new accessories, which are basically the ends of her wings, peg into her forearms, and the rest of her wings tuck behind her enough to create the illusion that her wings are actually her arms, like the cartoon.  The round shoulder pads don't really sell the idea that they're supposed to be the VTOL fans that they are in the cartoon, though, and her alt mode head shouldn't be visible on her chest (but there's not a lot they can do with that when they're starting from Airazor).  Her tail is also way too short.

Articulation and 5mm port placement is the same as Airazor, but her only accessories are those wing tips.  The instructions show her holding them in her hands... to do what?  are they sharp?  Will she do a fan dance?

Transformation is basically the same as Airazor.  As a bird mode, it's not terrible, and I can even overlook the fact that she's got a big hole with the back of her bot-mode head in it instead of the chest she has in the cartoon.  My complaint is really more that the remolded parts don't entirely blend with the more organic-looking parts they didn't remold.  Like, her new head is sitting on a feathered neck, instead of a collar.  The jagged edges of her wings give way to feathers as well, and the VTOL fans are only partially present and devoid of any orange.  Her organic, feathered tail is (again) way too short.

Her "accessories" use their hinged 5mm pegs to plug into ports on the underside of the wings, basically where the hinges were in Airazor's original wings.

Filch was hard to come by, though whether she was shortpacked or simply weirdly popular I couldn't say.  The base figure was already pretty decent, and I'm usually up for more Decepticons and more fembots.  RID15 is one my least favorite Transformers shows, but I don't really mind if Hasbro pulls the best original characters from it to add to Generations.  I'll give this one a mild recommendation, but know that she's really more a Filch-ified Airazor than anything RID15-accurate.

And now on the last few figures from Wave 4 of Legacy United, starting with Deluxe-class Slipstream.  I kind of knew this from pictures, but it's still disappointing to have her in hand and see that he only parts that were remolded are her head and hear accessories.  They've replaced Windblade's kabuki-geisha head with a more traditional Seeker-style one, and her comb and sword with more typical null-ray style guns.  Which is a good time to remind you that Slipstream, who predates any version of Windblade by around five years, began life as a clone of Starscream in Animated.  She should have more traditional Seeker-style wings without the VTOL fans, she should have intakes in her chest, and a cockpit in her torso.  That's not just true for Animated, either, but also her IDW and Cyberverse appearances as well, where she'd even have the large shoulder intakes of a G1 Seeker.  Really, you'd have a more accurate Slipstream if you just repainted Earthrise Starscream.

But let's say I concede that Slipstream has to be a Deluxe, because in Cyberverse she's Windblade's main rival, and let's say I concede that there aren't a lot of Deluxe-class jets, let alone female ones, so the team had to retool Windblade.  Let's say I even concede that budgets are tight, so maybe you don't retool the wings, and they at least painted some details on her sternum that kind of mimic her cockpit.  I still say, and I cannot stress this enough, that the absolutely NEEDED to retool her arms.  Windblade's arms do not have 5mm ports on the biceps or shoulders, and fins on the outsides of her forearms.  As such, Slipstream can either plug her null rays into the backs of her forearms, or she can hold them, and neither option is accurate to any of her designs, let alone her Cyberverse one.

My frustration on the matter continues in her jet mode.  The only place you can really plug her weapons in are the 5mm ports near the tips of her wings, where they stick out ridiculously far.  If they'd had a place on the sides of her arms, where they'd accurately be in robot mode, you could have left them there, spinning them 180 degrees without even removing them, and they'd be tucked closer to her fuselage.

At the end of the day, I think what I said about Filch applies... I'm happy to have both another Decepticon and another fembot in the collection.  For that reason, I'm giving her a recommend, but I think she deserves better and I'm really hoping for someone like DNA to give her new arms.

And lastly, we have Deluxe-class Quake, who's a retool of Skullgrin.  But Quake's more the kind of retool I wanted for Slipstream.  We have a new head and new accessories, sure, but beyond that we've got a new chest, and, well, pretty much new everything from the waist down.  I think it'd be even more obvious how extensively Quake has been retooled were it not for the fact that the new chest is similarly a rectangle with a raised middle flanked by squares and vents, but the thing is it's not the same rectangle, the same raised middle, or the same squares and vents, they're actually based on Quake's G1 toy.  Maybe some paint for the molded "stickers" would have helped.  It also would have been better if his pelvis was on the same sprues as the chest, because really his entire torso should be blue, and the red shoulders should be gray.  Technically his dark gray forearms should also match his biceps.  His remolded thighs have molded treads on the inside, which is accurate, but sadly that molded detail is lost due to a lack of paint.  Meanwhile, his shins are entirely treads, and he's losing the red shins from the G1 toy.  Again, perhaps some red paint on the middle section of the reads would have helped.

While Quake does have the same back (mostly) as Skullgrin, he ditches the tail and guns for an entire faux turret top.  Sadly, as it uses a 5mm port to plug into the peg on his back, there's no way for him to hold it like a weapon on its own the way the G1 toy could.  But as you can see, it folds over and stays mostly out of the way, so if you store it on his back there's no partsforming later.

As for his other accessories, he trades Skullgrin's sword-guns for a pair of Targetmasters, Tiptop and Heater.  Now, I'd have forgiven Hasbro if they'd simply repainted Sunbeam and Zigzag (the guys who came with Needlenose) into Tiptop and Heater, respectively... that's basically what they did to make Cleansweep and Ozone for Windsweeper, after all.  But Hasbro went the extra mile and made two brand new Targetmasters for Quake, and yeah, they're super basic and have no real articulation, but aside from Heater being mostly blue instead of black in gun mode they're very accurate to the G1 toys.

One more thing... by ditching some of the Pretender armor elements of Skullgrin's design, Quake's left with marginally better articulation.  Nice!

From the waist up Quake largely follows the same transformation as Skullgrin.  Things get different below the belt, though.  Rather than bending his legs forward at the waist, Quake bends his legs backward, so they wind up underneath him rather than in front of him.  The backs of his legs fold down over his feet, while hinges swing the tread from the inside of his lower legs over his knees to line up with the treads on the outsides of his legs and the feet covers, making treads that run the entire length of the bottom.  The result is, if you squint, almost Quake's G1 tank mode.  The illusion is only broken when you realize that his arms and chest and kind of just hanging out below the gray part of his back.  If they're part of the turret, they shouldn't run the full length of the tank and they should be gray.  If they're part of the main section of the tank they should be lower, more flush all the way around with the treads, and entirely red.  Also, if they're not part of the turret, then the turret is kind of thin.  In other words, far from perfect, but honestly a lot better than I expected a retool of Skullgrin to be.

If you lift the hinge on the front of the turret you can even swivel it a little and raise the barrel.  I always figured that Targetmasters walk around while their partner is in alt mode, since they don't have to be guns.*  But they can still plug into 5mm ports on top of the turret or ont he sides of the treads.

*Targetmasters have always been a dumb idea to me... you could kind of rationalize Headmasters and Powermaster/Godmasters as the "real" robot being the head/engine, and the larger Transformer as a lifeless Transtector without it, but Targetmasters have never been more than a Nebulan/Transformer from Master that was like, "hey, I turn into a gun, can I hang out with you?"  Like, what's the bigger Transformer supposed to do if his partner wanders off or gets lost?  Or just doesn't feel like being a weapon of war today?  Go get a normal, non-sentient gun and just be a regular dude instead of Targetmaster?

On the whole, United Wave 4 was entirely retools save for Deluxe-class Optimus, and that's pretty disappointing.  However, Quake's the sort of retool I can get behind, where less obscure G1 character, but still a toy some of use might have had as a kid, might not rate enough of a budget for a whole new figure but still manages to get enough that the retool is close enough.  He's a pretty solid recommend from me, I just wish Slipstream could have gotten half this attention.

[JB0]

So I got a shipping notice e-mail from Amazon. Weird, since I hadn't ordered anything recently. I'd just forgotten about that one Knight Rider Transformer.

...

If I were a mint in sealed box kinda guy, I'd be absolutely livid. They threw it in an oversized box with a single small piece of brown paper.

 

You can probably guess, but...

 

 

They only BARELY missed crushing the actual toy, and abrasion on the box window at the point closest to the toy tells me they tried really hard.

[mikeszekely]

4 minutes ago, JB0 said:

So I got a shipping notice e-mail from Amazon. Weird, since I hadn't ordered anything recently. I'd just forgotten about that one Knight Rider Transformer.

Meanwhile, I'm getting emails from Amazon telling me mine's delayed.😒

[JB0]

1 hour ago, mikeszekely said:

Meanwhile, I'm getting emails from Amazon telling me mine's delayed.😒

Hopefully the delay is because they're expending some effort packing it for shipment.

[Axelay]

21 hours ago, mikeszekely said:

*Targetmasters have always been a dumb idea to me... you could kind of rationalize Headmasters and Powermaster/Godmasters as the "real" robot being the head/engine, and the larger Transformer as a lifeless Transtector without it, but Targetmasters have never been more than a Nebulan/Transformer from Master that was like, "hey, I turn into a gun, can I hang out with you?"  Like, what's the bigger Transformer supposed to do if his partner wanders off or gets lost?  Or just doesn't feel like being a weapon of war today?  Go get a normal, non-sentient gun and just be a regular dude instead of Targetmaster?

I legitimately laughed SO hard at this. Just the thought of your gun feeling depressed and not wanting to do its job is hilarious to me.

[sh9000]

Good thing my 2 Agent Knights are coming from Entertainment Earth.  Mint packaging guarantee.  Plus I got one free with their current promo.

[JB0]

On 11/5/2024 at 8:22 PM, Axelay said:

I legitimately laughed SO hard at this. Just the thought of your gun feeling depressed and not wanting to do its job is hilarious to me.

That's kind of actually a canon problem for at least one of them. According to the toy bio, the decepticon Misfire has terrible aim, and is considered more of a threat to his allies than the autobots. What's a short-handed decepticon commander to do? Get him a smart gun that can do the aiming for him! Targetmaster process, GO!
...
He was paired with Aimless, who is depressed and doesn't care enough to even try aiming, so now Misfire is EVEN MORE of a threat to everyone around him. Good job, guys!

[sh9000]

Pass on both.

[Radioguy]

Toho surely scuttled those. Probably as a favor to Bandai.

[mikeszekely]

They're terrible.

 

...I'm in for both.

[Black Valkyrie]

 

Still waiting for the collab between TF & Mac7. 

 

[Radioguy]

13 hours ago, mikeszekely said:

They're terrible.

 

...I'm in for both.

If you like both molds, then I get it. I like Laser Prime, and enough to have grabbed the Target Prime (and would Toxitron, but missed the boat), but this has no appeal for me.

Grimlock, though...I did get the first, and then the G2 because I loved the mold, and if I saw this "Megatron" one dirt cheap, I guess I'd grab it as a variant for that sake. Nothing else.

Honestly, from a Godzilla-fan perspective, these are so laughable they are worse than not having produced them in the first place. They do neither IP any favors.

[M'Kyuun]

Glad I checked in- I recently switched banks, and although I changed my info on Amazon to reflect, they still cancelled my Agent Knight due to incomplete payment. After checking, sure enough, my card info is there and correct. Go figure. Anyway, reordered it as a "Buy now" option and it went through without a hitch. Should be here next week.

[sh9000]

https://www.target.com/p/transformers-x-teenage-mutant-ninja-turtles-party-wallop-mash-up-pack-action-figure/-/A-90257545

On sale for $29.74.

[mikeszekely]

I suppose some of the early 2025 stuff could come a little early, but as near as I can tell, this is the last official figure for me for the year... the Transformers Collaborative Knight Rider X Transformers Agent Knight.

As a Transformer, Agent Knight is pretty basic.  The back of the car is the back of his legs and the cabin is on his back like a dozen other Autobot cars.  The front of the car is his chest, and it's the horizontal style favored by Jazz and the Datsuns, complete with door wings.  It's a clean design that doesn't leave him with much kibble.

I think where things start to go a bit awry for me is when we get down to the details.  Like, there's nothing wrong with a black head and silver face, per se, but then you look at the silver on the sides of his helmet, and I have to wonder now if the helmet is supposed to be like hair with sideburns.  And then there's his massive visor... is that supposed to be an homage to Michael Knight's Carerra Porsche Design sunglasses?  Then I suppose all the blue paint on his pelvis and thighs is supposed to be like blue jeans (complete with molded panel "pockets"), but if that's the case, why not paint his butt and the insides of the thighs, too?  For that matter, if Agent Knight's design is an homage to Michael Knight, the silver paint on his shoulders and his gray biceps would be better off black to match Michael's signature leather jacket.

But really, why try to look like Michael Knight at all?  Michael Knight, isn't the car, KITT's the car.  Looked at that way, I think I'd have preferred a more Cylon-esque head, with the lightbar sensor for eyes and a mouth that looked like the three light columns that flashed inside the car when KITT was talking.  No need for the jeans, either.

In any case... Agent Knight's a pretty big figure.  He's coming in somewhere between the old Earthrise Optimus and the new Studio Series one in height, and significantly taller than carbots like fellow collaborative Gigawatt.

If you're wondering if he maybe scales better with Masterpiece cars, I'd say the answer is yes.  He's only a head or so taller than MP Prowl (which some sense, given that the third-gen Trans Am was roughly a foot longer than a Datsun 280ZX).  That said, I don't think Agent Knight really fits overall with an MP collection.  Frankly, and this is just my opinion, but I think Agent Knight looks and feels a bit cheap.  There's little things like the fixed hands (with a little plastic carved out of the backs), hollowed spaces in his inner biceps and back, the way his shoulders just hang there, and the fact that his roof doesn't actually tab in place on his back.

You do get a few accessories with Agent Knight.  There's a smaller pistol-style gun, and a larger gun that's probably an assault rifle or auto shotgun.  You know, for all those times Michael Knight used a gun in the show.  There's also a thing that took me a hot minute to figure out is supposed to be like Michael's comlink watch, despite looking nothing like Michael's comlink watch.

Agent Knight's articulation is adequate.  His head is on a hinged ball joint that can look down a bit, has very good upward tilt, and some sideways tilt in addition to the standard swivel.  His shoulders are, disappointingly, on ball joints that swivel and move laterally under 90 degrees.  Even worse, though this may be unique to my copy, the left shoulder pops off the ball joint constantly.  I mean, I've yet to transform him without it coming off.  His biceps swivel and his elbows bend slightly over 90 degrees.  His wrists are actually ball joints, so they swivel but they can also bend inward for reasons that have nothing to do with his transformation.  His waist swivels. The front of his pelvis is hinged, so the entire thing can lift up, but I'm not sure why since you don't need to move it to get 90 degrees forward and over 90 degrees laterally and backward on his hips.  His  thighs swivel and his knees bend 90 degrees.  His feet can't tilt up, but they tilt down 90 degrees and can pivot around 75 degrees.  His wings are hinged so they can move backward but also swivel up/down.

Agent Knight can hold either of his guns, and any other 5mm accessory, in either hand.

As for the comlink, you'll notice that Agent Knight has a groove with a slot on his left forearm.  A tab on the inner edge of the comlink fits into the slot so the comlink wraps around the groove.  Once you've installed it, there's no need to remove it as it can stay on through transformation and in alt mode.  Agent Knight's guns have tabs that fit into slots on the backs of his door wings when he's not using them.  They have to come off for transformation, though.

Despite his size, Agent Knight's transformation is what you might expect from a Deluxe-class.  Rotate his biceps 90 degrees inward, so the backs of his hands are facing forward, then swivel his shoulders backward 90 degrees on the ball joints.  Rotate his waist 180 degrees, open his shins up, fold his toes under his feet, and fold his feet down 90 degrees.  Tab his legs together.  Lift his backpack up and out of the way, then untab his chest and lift it over his head.  Rotate his head 180 degrees, then fold it into the void in his torso.  Fold his legs at the knees so they wrap over his thighs.  His feet will tab into his back, and you can close the shins back up.  Fold a flap out from his behind his chest to fill the gap in the hood his head passed through. Tuck the tab on the back of the roof into his legs and line the hood up with the windshield.  Close the door wings to give the car enough rigidity, then you can use swivels to bring his shoulders under the hood where they'll tab in place, while tabs on his forearms will lock his arms in place near his head.

As with the robot mode, Agent Knight is definitely out-of-scale with Generations cars or other collaboratives like Gigawatt (or Code Red or the two Jurassic Park dudes), though he doesn't look quite so bad with Ectotron.

Agent Knight is closer to being in scale with an MP Car.  I'm not inclined to get out a ruler and check every dimension for the exact scales, but as I said a Trans Am should be bigger than a Datsun, so Agent Knight being bigger than MP Prowl is fine.

I'll be honest with you, it's hard to say what exactly makes for an accurate KITT when they used something like five different cars in the show for every one picture you find of an actual show-used car you'll find a hundred reproductions of varying accuracy.  Heck, websites talking about Knight Rider will often mix stills from the show with not-actually-KITT repros.  With that in mind, I think Hasbro did a mostly OK job here.  They got the license from GMC, and for the most part details like the marker lights, fuel door, etc appear to be accurate.  The tires are nicely painted to match the show.  Things are slightly more questionable at the rear, where we have the Knight Industries symbol in place of the blue California "KNIGHT" plate.  The lack of a Pontiac badge is accurate, and KITT's taillights are red, but they sat behind a transparent black panel and would, most of the time, simply appear to be black.  There's also no gap between the spoiler and the car.  Oh, and I wish his arms hid just a bit better under the car.

Of course, the most egregious difference between the actual car and Agent Knight is that massive chin.  It's going to be a giant turn off if you're mostly in it for the alt mode.  The simple fact is that's where the speaker and battery compartment are.

You have to install three LR44 batteries (not including, forcing me to make a special trip to my local Walgreens).  Once you do, you'll notice a button off-centered between the headlights... headlights which do fold open, mind you.  Anyway, if you push that button the sensor bar will light up, and you'll hear audio clips that are either taken from the show or were provided from a pretty good William Daniels sound-alike.  The lights do move back and forth like he's scanning, and they're quite bright.  I think my only real complaint here is that there's some button sounds the first time you press the button, and if you stop playing with it for awhile he'll say, "KITT, signing off," with a number of clips in between.  But I think all I really wanted was the swooshing sound.

Aside from electronic gimmicks, Agent Knight rolls just fine.  The tabs on his guns fit into slots on his shins under the car for alt mode storage.

Agent Knight's a tough one.  If you're primarily a Transformers fan, you're going to be frustrated at how out-of-scale Agent Knight is with your other mainline Transformers  If you're primarily a Knight Rider fan, you can probably buy a 1:24 KITT replica and get a more accurate car.  Of course, given that The Transformers debuted only two years after Knight Rider, and that Knight Rider's original run lasted until 1986, it's a safe bet that there's a lot of overlap between fans of both and this is the kind of crossover you really wanted to see in the Collaborative line because you've been dreaming of it for forty years.  Like me, you might be able to overlook a few alt mode and scale concessions.  It's still frustrating, though, that the materials and QC feel a bit worse than other recent collabs like Party Wallop.  But therein lies my recommendation; if you're a fan of both Transformers and Knight Rider, then Agent Knight is probably a must-have for your collection, warts and all.  If you're just a Transformers fan, though, there are better figures, including better collabs, that you could spend your money on.  And if you're really a Knight Rider fan and don't really care about Transformers there are better non-transforming KITT toys out there.

[David Hingtgen]

I still plan to wait for a KARR repaint.  I mean, c'mon---it would have Peter Cullen voice clips!  (if they're smart---though technically, Cullen only voiced it for the earlier "looks utterly identical to KITT" version, and not the later appearance with the cool 2-tone paint job and yellow scanner)   

[sh9000]

I'm thinking about using my Amazon rewards to get a spare Agent Knight and going the easier route for KARR.  1st season KARR with no changes or 3rd season KARR before the two-tone with just a yellow scanner and yellow visor for robot mode.

Edited November 9 by sh9000

[David Hingtgen]

All black but yellow scanner?  Then you need to make it all dusty and covered in sand. 

[sh9000]

Nah that's why I posted a pic.  He's only covered in sand for a brief period of time.  KARR gets repainted after he turbo boosted into the FLAG Semi about halfway in the episode.

[JB0]

15 hours ago, mikeszekely said:

That said, I don't think Agent Knight really fits overall with an MP collection.  Frankly, and this is just my opinion, but I think Agent Knight looks and feels a bit cheap. 

I'd describe him as "low-budget Alternators", if I had to staple him into a category.

The fact that most of the black has a matte finish bothers me, and it is made worse by the car roof being glossy. They forgot KITT's molecular-bonded shell!

 

The Pontiac emblems on the wheels, and bright red tail lights bug me too, but not nearly as much. I can even forgive the tail lights, just pop up the headlights and there's now a good reason for them to be "illuminated".

 

Surprisingly, the chin doesn't bother me, though if I had my way it would pivot up and hide in car mode, and swing down to bulk out the torso in robot mode. But that's probably not compatible with electronic lights and sound.

Edited November 9 by JB0

[sh9000]

And ordered another Agent Knight.  Came out to only $22.28.

[Radioguy]

Reflashing the chip with Peter Cullen and/or Paul Frees clips should be possible. I hope someone does a teardown/mod vid on YT .

[M'Kyuun]

Got my copy of Agent Knight today (earlier than projected, thank you very much, Amazon Prime) and I cannot get the central bit of his hood, which folds inwards similar to the ER Datsun design, to snap into place within the grey part of his abdomen. The back hinges softly snap into place, but without that front one anchoring it all together, any arm movement just flips his chest up a bit (the shoulders' ball joints, thankfully, are quite tight), but without his abdomen snapping securely, I have to hold down the front of his hood while making any arm movements. It's a bit of a bummer but there certainly could have been worse issues. I haven't had the opportunity to get batteries for him yet, and while I generally abstain from doing so with electronics in my toys, my nostalgia runneth over and I just want to see and hear that sensor and hear KITT's voice, whether it be William Daniels or a voice actor doing a decent imitation.

So far as his transformation schema goes, @JB0 gives it too much credit even as a low budget Alternator or Binaltech, of which I own quite a few from back in the day. Those toys were more complex, featured at least partial vehicle interiors with apropos details, opening hoods or bonnets with engines (generally the folded weapons), steerable front wheels or all wheel suspension in the Jeep Wrangler's case, and in most cases opening trunks or boots. Alas, as a line of licensed vehicles, the bot modes oft suffered, especially in articulation and poseability, but they had a complexity of design that predated and was characteristic of early Hasui-era Masterpiece. Agent Knight is much more in line with current mainline Transformer carbots: his upper body transforms similarly to the Earthrise Datsuns' and the lower half like the WFC or ER Sideswipe's mold. It's a very straightforward transformation, especially if you've handled either of the aforementioned figures. I don't ding it for its simplicity, as it fits with the other crossovers thus far, at least the ones I own. It's a niche collectible sort of thing that taps into 80s nostalgia, and I'm happy that Hasbro has pursued the line, even if some, like the X-Men's Blackbird, left a little to be desired. I hope we eventually get an '89 Batmobile and Airwolf in this line. I'd take Blue Thunder, too. And though it's a more recent design, a Tumbler would be really cool, too. 

[Radioguy]

42 minutes ago, M'Kyuun said:

 I hope we eventually get an '89 Batmobile and Airwolf in this line. I'd take Blue Thunder, too. And though it's a more recent design, a Tumbler would be really cool, too. 

Agreed. I wish they could also do deals with CBS and BBC for Star Trek and Doctor Who collabs.