The Transformers Thread (licensed) Next

[mikeszekely]

18 minutes ago, M'Kyuun said:

Ironhide, too, suffers the partsforming trend, but he does look good in both modes. I hope the van roof/shield can fold up and attach to his back.

It bothered me at first, but then I thought of it as his G1 sled and now I'm cool with it.

18 minutes ago, M'Kyuun said:

I guess the exclusivity issues are going to continue as a regular part of doing business. I guess it's good for Hasbro from a financial POV, but on the collector side, it sucks.

It wouldn't leave me seething with rage if I could just find the Amazon exclusives already...

EDIT: Apparently these are the links

Seekers

Autobot Alliance

But they don't seem to be working as of 11:40 am EDT.

Edited July 17, 2020 by mikeszekely

[technoblue]

I'm a little wary of the renders, and Walmart's ability to deliver on any of these orders. That said, Elita-1 looks to wear the mold better than Arcee. I'm cautiously optimistic. Optimus doesn't really interest me, unless the Netflix version is swapping out the grey on his legs for blue. That might get me to bite but I'll need to see the actual figure first,

Edit: Pre-ordered the Conehead set. I had to use a wish list workaround to do it, though.

Edit 2: Cancelled my wave 1 Netflix orders with Walmart and re-ordered Megs and Hotlink at AmiAmi. I'll pay a little more and wait a little longer, but at least I know I'll see them at the end of the year.

Edited July 17, 2020 by technoblue

[Negotiator]

Got the autobots

[mikeszekely]

Found the workaround. Got an order for the Autobots and the Coneheads.

[M'Kyuun]

1 hour ago, technoblue said:

I'm a little wary of the renders, and Walmart's ability to deliver on any of these orders. That said, Elita-1 looks to wear the mold better than Arcee. I'm cautiously optimistic. Optimus doesn't really interest me, unless the Netflix version is swapping out the grey on his legs for blue. That might get me to bite but I'll need to see the actual figure first,

Edit: Pre-ordered the Conehead set. I had to use a wish list workaround to do it, though.

I'm usually of the same opinion, as my local Walmart gets TF stock in very sporadically and often with significant periods of time elapsing between stockings. That said, they have gotten all the Earthrise deluxes, and a few of the voyagers (they never carry leader or bigger) enough times over the last 6 months or so for me to have gotten them. They now have the Netflix display, with all the regular second wave figs as well as the Netflix repaints, and they've had them for awhile now. In fact, this is the longest I've seen them keep mainline TFs on the shelf in years, no exaggeration. I'm assuming the same for the next round of Earthrise Wally exclusives. I'm hoping they'll stick around a little longer. At least it gives folks a better opportunity to get them. My area is pretty hick, and in the last decade, I've never once encountered another adult TF fan in the aisle, although I did come across a LEGO scalper once. I suspect there are TF scalpers making the rounds, but my hope is always that kids or older fans like me get them first. 

 

Got both the Coneheads and the Autobot 2-pack (Ironhide & Prowl).

 

Once on Amazon, I just typed the names of the characters into the search box, and they pop up. Good luck!

So who's gonna be selling Thrust to complete the Coneheads?

 

Edited July 17, 2020 by M'Kyuun

[mikeszekely]

4 hours ago, M'Kyuun said:

So who's gonna be selling Thrust to complete the Coneheads?

Hopefully it'll be a regular retail release. I do my work at night, so I had to get up early for the livestream (actually my kid woke me up before 8:00, so I went to Target and bought Ghost of Tsushima before getting online) then spend the rest of the morning trying to lock in my exclusives.  After eating a late lunch I wound up sleeping on the sofa for two hours.  With Hasbro making all these major characters store exclusives they've officially found a way to make shopping from home more exhausting than going to stores.

5 hours ago, technoblue said:

I'm cautiously optimistic. Optimus doesn't really interest me, unless the Netflix version is swapping out the grey on his legs for blue.

It looks like it might be from the pictures.  I wanted Elita-1 but didn't want to pay shipping, so I decided to do a second order with Prime and Elita.  Hopefully the rest of him isn't too dirty.  If it is, though, I might look at swapping parts to have one definitive Optimus.  So all together I preordered Exhaust, Hubcap, Bee, Elita-1, Soundwave, Prime, the Prowl/Ironhide pack, and the Coneheads pack.  And this is on top of having Centurion, Tigertrack, Maverick, Super Megatron, and a buttload of regular Siege and Studio Series coming out between now and the end of the year.

EDIT: Oh, I almost forgot.  Alternate Universe Optimus came today... because the one toy my collection has been missing is Prime's lifeless corpse from that scene that made me cry in the theater when I was 6.

Edited July 17, 2020 by mikeszekely

[tekering]

47 minutes ago, mikeszekely said:

Alternate Universe Optimus came today... because the one toy my collection has been missing is Prime's lifeless corpse from that scene that made me cry in the theater when I was 6.

Any wild theories as to why they're calling it "Alternative Universe" Optimus?  

[Negotiator]

In an alternative universe they got the plastic colors right.

Lol oh nvm. You are talking about the dead prime.

Edited July 17, 2020 by Negotiator

[technoblue]

5 hours ago, M'Kyuun said:

I'm usually of the same opinion, as my local Walmart gets TF stock in very sporadically and often with significant periods of time elapsing between stockings. That said, they have gotten all the Earthrise deluxes, and a few of the voyagers (they never carry leader or bigger) enough times over the last 6 months or so for me to have gotten them. They now have the Netflix display, with all the regular second wave figs as well as the Netflix repaints, and they've had them for awhile now. In fact, this is the longest I've seen them keep mainline TFs on the shelf in years, no exaggeration. I'm assuming the same for the next round of Earthrise Wally exclusives. I'm hoping they'll stick around a little longer. At least it gives folks a better opportunity to get them. My area is pretty hick, and in the last decade, I've never once encountered another adult TF fan in the aisle, although I did come across a LEGO scalper once. I suspect there are TF scalpers making the rounds, but my hope is always that kids or older fans like me get them first. 

HaHa! I wish I could say the same. I don't know how it happened, but Walmart dropped the ball in my area here out east. I was sure we would see shipments around when these hit stores the first time, but those deliveries never came and the store inventory went fast. Walmart is now in a loop, delaying unlucky on-line orders again and again.

I read how some guys re-ordered and were able to get things moving...in hindsight, I probably should have done the same. Alas, Hotlink is no longer in stock and is showing up on walmart.com at a scalper price of $62.

As I mentioned earlier, it was easier to go through AmiAmi at this point. I broke the loop myself.  

1 hour ago, mikeszekely said:

It looks like it might be from the pictures.  I wanted Elita-1 but didn't want to pay shipping, so I decided to do a second order with Prime and Elita.  Hopefully the rest of him isn't too dirty.  If it is, though, I might look at swapping parts to have one definitive Optimus.  So all together I preordered Exhaust, Hubcap, Bee, Elita-1, Soundwave, Prime, the Prowl/Ironhide pack, and the Coneheads pack.  And this is on top of having Centurion, Tigertrack, Maverick, Super Megatron, and a buttload of regular Siege and Studio Series coming out between now and the end of the year.

I missed Soundwave, but I'm not going to worry about it. Maybe I'll have better luck finding him later with this wave.

The thing that's keeping me from opting in on the ER Datsuns are the clip-on wheels Hasbro seems fond of using. They just rub me the wrong way. If there was some way to add a hub cap cover or something, that would fix the figures completely. 

Ironhide looks like a fun evolution of the Siege mold. I wonder if we will get an ER Ratchet with this get up? I'm also curious to see if there will be more news on the Studio Series '86 figures.

1 hour ago, mikeszekely said:

EDIT: Oh, I almost forgot.  Alternate Universe Optimus came today... because the one toy my collection has been missing is Prime's lifeless corpse from that scene that made me cry in the theater when I was 6.

My copy of Alternate Universe Prime arrived, as well, along with Doubledealer. Looking forward to breaking them both out of their boxes this weekend. 

Edited July 17, 2020 by technoblue

[mikeszekely]

50 minutes ago, tekering said:

Any wild theories as to why they're calling it "Alternative Universe" Optimus?  

Just that it might have something to do with the Netflix show or the comics.  Like, they're not killing off Prime already in either, but in the alternate universe that is the '86 movie he died.

Too bad Siege Magnus doesn't have a spot to put AU Prime's Matrix in.

Also, I forgot how bad the trailer looks without add ons.  Maybe I should buy another kit.  As it stands, I'm thinking about re-buying the Reprolabels for ER Prime, partly to go on Netflix Prime, and partly because I want to pull them off the trailer, paint it, and re-apply.

[mikeszekely]

4 hours ago, technoblue said:

along with Doubledealer

Yeah, I got him too.  I didn't mention it because I didn't want to spoil this review I'm about to write.

So Doubledealer is a Leader-class toy.  At least he's bigger than Astrotrain and Optimus, right?  But he's a lot smaller than the pre-Siege Leaders, and shorter than Siege Magnus with the DNA upgrades.  Without the upgrades they're probably similar in size (but I'll be honest, I didn't check).

Doubledealer is an interesting figure for me because I had the G1 toy as a kid, but I don't remember it too well.  I remember I liked Skar (the bat Powermaster) a good bit, and I liked Doubledealer's bird mode a lot, but I think I rarely used him in robot or missile truck mode.  Seeing this version in robot mode doesn't give me much in the way of nostalgia.  But when I go back and look at the original G1 toy I can see that this version is in many ways very faithful.  There's painted details on near his knees, feet, thighs, and shoulders that are callbacks to the original toy's stickers, and much of the sculpt is similar.  What's throwing me off are the proportions.  ER Doubledealer has a much smaller head, narrower waist, and thicker limbs that make him look like a 'roided-up version of the G1 toy.  All-in-all, not too shabby.

Doubledealer wasn't in the G1 cartoon (the Japanese version, Doubleclouder, was in Masterforce, but I didn't see that until I was an adult), or the US run of the Marvel comics (although I think he did show up in Marvel UK).  I guess the toy's fiction was that he was a mercenary who did jobs for both the Autobots and the Decepticons.  My impression of him as a kid was that he was a lifeless missile truck, and if Knok bonded with him he turned into an Autobot robot but if Skar bonded with him he turned into a Decepticon vulture, and Knok and Skar were always fighting over him.  Regardless of the mental fiction you want to assign to him, Hasbro's got you covered.  Out of the box you'll see Autobot insignia on both shoulders.  However, there's a panel on the top of his shoulder.  Flipping it around covers the Autobot emblems with Decepticon emblems.

Like the other Leader-class figures in the War for Cybertron trilogy, Doubledealer seems to make up for his smaller stature with a lot of accessories.  He comes with his large shoulder missile, his large gun, a smaller gun, two smaller missile pallets, a... thing (maybe a radar?), and a flat part with two stabilizers on it.  What he doesn't come with are Knok and Skar, although you may recall from an earlier review I did that they're available as part of "Soundwave's Spy Patrol", though, as remolds of Ratbat and Frumble.

Speaking of, the panel on Doubledealer's chest can open, and there's a hollow space inside big enough to fit either Knok or Skar (or Rumble, Frenzy, Ratbat, Ravage, or Wingthing) but not both at the same time.  And while we've got his chest open, note the molded bit that looks sort of like the back side of G1 Knok.  It's actually just pegged on, so you can pull it off.

With it off, you can flip out the peg on the newer Knok or Skar and peg the engine onto their backs.  Really makes me wish that Hasbro had included a second one shaped like Skar's back.  But I digress.

So, I think Doubledealer's head is on a ball joint.  I say think because it swivels, but there's not enough up/down or sideways tilt to be useful, but a little too much to be play on a mushroom swivel.  His shoulders rotate and can extend laterally 90 degrees.  His biceps swivel, and his elbows are double-jointed and curl more or less 180 degrees.  His wrists swivel.  his waist can swivel.  His hips have soft ratchets that can go forward and backward a little under 90 degrees and out to the side 90 degrees.  He does have thigh swivels, but they're a little limited as the entire blue outer thigh rotates around an inner joint.  His knees can bend about 75 degrees.  His feet don't tilt up or down, but he does have 90 degrees of ankle pivot.

The instructions tell you to put the big missile into a peg hole near his head, the radar into a peg hole on one shoulder, the small gun onto a peghole on the other shoulder, the big gun in his hand, and the missile pallets near his ankles.  He also has a peg hole on the other side of his head, on either forearm, or under either foot.

Without the part with the stabilizers attached he'll have a flap with two more peg holes along his back.  If you want that part on him, though, you lift the flap up and use two tabs to connect it to the underside.  In that configuration he'll wind up with two pegs holes behind his head, and a new single peg hole on his back.  The instructions will indicate that the stabilizers, which are on ball joints, should stick out behind him like wings.  They can be rotated and tucked in, though.

I'll also note here that the big shoulder missile has another peg hole, and the big gun has a peg hole on top, one on each side, one on the butt, and the barrel is a 5mm peg hole.

Doubledealer's bird mode gives me much more nostalgic feels.  I think I used to pretend it was my pet.  It's interesting, again, how it's very similar to the G1 toys in many ways; the way the head is turned to one side and stored in the back behind the wings, the way the arms fold under the bird's chest and the birds legs fold down from the wheels, and the way the upside down front of the truck is basically the bird's tail.  His forearms aren't folded up and tucked between his biceps, though, so there's a bit of a gap, and folding the legs up is a bit of a pain due to clearance issues that cause them to get caught up against his thighs and minor frustrations lining up a tab inside his knee with the back of his thigh.

The flap on the part with the stabilizers give him a more bird-like tail, but the part doesn't connect directly to Doubledealer in this mode.  Instead, his big gun plugs into his shoulder missile to form a larger ICMB, and the stabilizer part uses a pair of peg holes to attach to the underside of the ICBM near the back.  Then the ICMB uses some black clips to pinch onto the bird's back.  Note that the stabilizer part must be detached from the robot back to attach it to the missile; the flap it was tabbed into is now on the bird's belly.

The bird doesn't have a ton of articulation.  The head can swivel, and his neck is double-jointed so it's got good up/down range, but he can't really look side-to-side.  A hinge lets the purple part of his bird legs move up and down, but the rest of it is pegged into place.  The wings can bend backward where they connect to his back and forward close to the tips, and there's a hinges to tuck them in or spread them out near the middle.

The instructions suggest that the missile pallets plug into the bird's sides, while smaller gun and radar are plugged into the robot hands tucked into the bird's belly.  He does have the two forward-facing holes under his head, one on his back, and several others on his belly in this mode, which prompted me to try to split the ICBM and have part on top and part on the belly the way I remember the G1 toy doing.  It kind of works; the missile half is shorter than the G1 version, so it looks like it sits a bit far forward even though it doesn't protrude any more than the G1 toy's did, while the gun does in fact sit farther back on his back.

Doubledealer is, again, a triple changer, and here's his truck mode.  It's similar too his G1 truck mode, but his forearms wind up curled up toward the sky instead of in toward each other, and his chest cover spins around and sits on top instead of being removed.  The result is less clean, but I'm not going to complain about less partsforming.  I will note that the position of his legs (forming the front of the truck) is slightly different than their position in bird mode.  It's slightly easier to get them in position for this mode, and frustrating that they didn't use the same position for both modes.

Instead of using the back of his robot head to mount the ICBM, the ICBM uses a pair of pegs to fit into the flap that was on his robot back.  The instructions suggest using this hands to mount the smaller gun and radar, and putting the missile pallets into the peg holes on the sides of his forearms.  In this mode there's also two on the front of the truck and one on either side you could use instead, plus two on the back.

The part with the stabilizers is once again partsformed, this time using a pair of pegs to lock into the peg hole his shoulder missile sits in and its mirror on the other side.  The flap on it can be folded up and the stabilizers rotated up for "driving."  Then you can fold it down and rotate the stabilizers out, then lift the flap with ICMB on it so that the missile is pointed up for "launch mode."  The flap is even keyed to fit with other Siege and Earthrise bases like Omega Supreme, Ironworks, the upcoming Scorponok, Quintesson, or Airwave, Prime's trailer (assuming you didn't replace the door with the Nonnef one), or any of the little Battlemasters that turn into "shields."

Doubledealer is... alright.  I think he should have come with Knok and Skar, or at least another engine part for the Soundwave Spy Patrol Skar, but instead we got a bunch of other little accessories I could have done without.  He's extremely faithful to the G1 toy, except when he's not.  I'm not a huge fan of the partsforming flap with the stabilizers, but in the toy's defense it's kind of optional for all three modes.  And despite having the original as a kid I don't have a strong attachment to the character, because he's appeared in very little Transformers fiction (unless you're big Masterforce fan).  So, if you like what you see here, then by all means get him.  He's a solid effort on HasTak's part.  But if you're feeling pretty meh on him after reading this then I don't think you're missing too much if you skip him.

[technoblue]

Thanks for the detailed review, @mikeszekely. Appreciate your thoughts on this one. 

This is my first time having Doubledealer in my collection, and I know next to nothing about the character. I was attracted to the triple changing gimmick, and the fact that this figure can also hold minions like Soundwave and Soundblaster. The mobile SAM launcher alt was nifty too, especially since I was thinking he was a straight-up Decepticon at first. I had no idea he had a faction changing gimmick too.

My Siege Magnus is still unmodified, so I'll have a closer look at both figures in the morning and post some comparison photos if no one else gets to it before me. I think your hunch about both leaders being close to the same size out of the box is correct.

[Negotiator]

hmm, gonna cancel the walmart prime.  don't have faith that hasbro will have the right color plastics on this second go.  The promo pics for the trailer version also has the right colors, but we know the toy has grey bits on the lower legs, biceps and shoulders.  it's still a great figure, just being nitpicky.

1st trailer version promo shots

release

 

walmart exclusive promo shots

[mikeszekely]

1 hour ago, Negotiator said:

hmm, gonna cancel the walmart prime.  don't have faith that hasbro will have the right color plastics on this second go.  The promo pics for the trailer version also has the right colors, but we know the toy has grey bits on the lower legs, biceps and shoulders.  it's still a great figure, just being nitpicky.

I'm going to keep my preorder.  If the figure doesn't have fixed blue legs or looks bad in hand I can always take it back to the store, right?  If nothing else, having a second Prime handy might give me the guts to paint one of them.

[M'Kyuun]

I'm thinking about cancelling my Earthrise Arcee and ordering Elita-1 instead, as I prefer T30 for my Arcee. I don't think I have an Elita-1, so it'll do.

Hey Mike, what blue paint did you use for you Earthrise Prime? I've been trying to find your review, but that was so many pages back, I couldn't find it and gave up. Anyway, It's a pretty good match, and I'm thinking of doing some painting on mine as well.

I installed my Nonnef upgrades, and I'm kinda torn about it. The bits over the wheels and the swing out stanchions, minus the parts-forming feet, are all done well, and all that dark blue in line with primes legs in truck mode just looks right. I wish the trailer hitch attachment had been made tighter at the hitch point where it plugs into Prime's legs, and looser where the trailer attaches to allow for a more natural rotation. As it is, the hitch sits down too far into the legs and catches, which prevents the trailer from turning at all. It's easily remedied by a rat file, but it's a bit of an oversight that Nonnef should have caught when he was, I assume, taking measurements for the design. Honestly, I don't understand why HasTak placed the hitch point so close to the cab when they've got almost the whole length of the leg to work with. In the real world, there's generally more space between cab and trailer to allow for a good range of rotation. I was looking forward to putting the Roller together, but holy moly, those tolerances between connection points are crazy tight. Too, the finished Roller is a bit too big (I get why- the Titan Master compatibility), but it just looks off. Too, Nonnef didn't put much effort into detailing Roller. And, Roller doesn't roll. The outer walls of Roller's hull are too thick, and prevent the wheels from spinning. They spin fine before putting those side bits on, so it's a measuring issue on Nonnef's part.  It's fine as a filler for now, but I may have to look for an alternative. I may just get Hasbro's set from Pulse, which also has a more proper looking gun for Optimus. I don't know why they couldn't have made a better looking gun with a double hinge to compact it in truck mode, but I think they get a perverse bit of pleasure out of making things almost but not quite right for these things. It's insidious.

[JB0]

34 minutes ago, M'Kyuun said:

I think they get a perverse bit of pleasure out of making things almost but not quite right for these things. It's insidious.

Well how else are they supposed to sell you Yet Another Optimus next year if this one's perfect?

[M'Kyuun]

23 minutes ago, JB0 said:

Well how else are they supposed to sell you Yet Another Optimus next year if this one's perfect?

Good point, but in truth, I absolutely love Earthrise Prime. It's glorious. I thought the butt wheels would bug me, but that niggle pales in comparison to all the rightness of it. The transformation mechanics are extremely well done and unique, the aesthetics, minus a few paint apps, are spot on, and in hand, it's a joy to both transform and pose. It's better than what I had hoped we'd finally get if Hasbro ever did a G1 faithful Optimus in the Generations line. I love that we got a trailer with it, as well, even if it's not completely faithful to the G1 toy. It's close, and we're incredibly fortunate to live in a time when any number of third parties are producing upgrade kits. Even with its minimal warts, this is going to be a difficult toy to top. I won't be surprised if, a decade from now, we're still talking about and making comparisons to Earthrise Prime.

Which makes the contrast to Earthrise Arcee all that more glaring.  The disparity is such that it feels like two different entities with vastly differing levels of engineering prowess designed these toys. Optimus was designed by their 'A' team, Arcee was designed by the janitor.

[mikeszekely]

3 hours ago, M'Kyuun said:

Hey Mike, what blue paint did you use for you Earthrise Prime? I've been trying to find your review, but that was so many pages back, I couldn't find it and gave up. Anyway, It's a pretty good match, and I'm thinking of doing some painting on mine as well.

Tamiya Metallic Blue spray TS-19.  It's fine for the trailer parts, I guess, but it's noticeably lighter than Prime's legs/hands/head, so I never tried painting the legs.  If there was a hobby store closer I'd go look for a better match (closest one is buy the Pittsburgh IKEA, around an hour drive, so I only stop if I happen to need something at IKEA).

3 hours ago, M'Kyuun said:

I don't know why they couldn't have made a better looking gun with a double hinge to compact it in truck mode,

I don't even need the hinge.  Even with Nonnef's parts occupying some of the peg holes there's enough storage still on the trailer.

[M'Kyuun]

Thanks Mike. I asked the same thing in a PM, so disregard. We have a Hobbytown here in Spokane, so I guess what I'll do is take Optimus for a trip to the store and try to eyeball a good match for the legs. I thought the Tamiya you used was pretty close, though. I'll let you know if I find a better match.

44 minutes ago, mikeszekely said:

I don't even need the hinge.  Even with Nonnef's parts occupying some of the peg holes there's enough storage still on the trailer.

I like being able to store it directly on Optimus, though, and it's just one of those niggling things that you know they could have done better, but didn't. Because they hate us.

 

Edit: After giving it a bit of thought, I'm guessing the secret leader figure will be Ultra Magnus in his Earth truck mode. I'd be down for that, as I didn't like his Siege alt mode at all. His bot mode was lovely, though.  If they can make his cab look like ER Prime's, with Siege's bot mode, that'll be a good a marriage.

Edited July 18, 2020 by M'Kyuun

[mikeszekely]

26 minutes ago, M'Kyuun said:

Edit: After giving it a bit of thought, I'm guessing the secret leader figure will be Ultra Magnus in his Earth truck mode. I'd be down for that, as I didn't like his Siege alt mode at all. His bot mode was lovely, though.  If they can make his cab look like ER Prime's, with Siege's bot mode, that'll be a good a marriage.

If it is, it'll be a white ER Prime and that's it.  I don't see them extensively redesigning armor for him considering that the rest of the line has been almost entirely repaints and less involved remolds.

Like I said before, my money is on Doubledealer with Knok and Skar packed in.

[mikeszekely]

Even though Amazon and Hasbro Pulse don't have him listed as coming in until October, BBTS apparently has Earthrise Scorponok in stock now.

[mikeszekely]

Usually when I review a figure it's either on the left or in the middle.  This time I'm reviewing two figures, and they're the ones NOT in the middle.  Because I picked these guys up at Target today: the Earthrise Decepticon Clones pack.

So that's Pounce on the left, Wingspan on the right.  It might not look like it at first brush, but I think there's a lot of interesting stuff going on here.  The obvious place to start is their size.  These guys are only Legends-class figures, although they have decent amount of bulk to them.  Is this appropriate, though?  They don't, to my knowledge, appear on any scale charts but they did appear in both "The Rebirth Part 1" of the US G1 cartoon and in The Headmasters in Japan.  I vaguely recall them being nearly as as tall as Sixshot in the latter.

Another interesting thing to note is that, while relatively rare (Wingspan was only available in a two-pack with Fastlane exclusive to Walgreens, and Pounce was only available as part of the "Siege on Cybertron" giftset exclusive to BBTS), Pounce and Wingspan were previously released during the Titans Return run.  This Target-exclusive reissue, though, aren't copies of Titans Return versions, which featured rubsigns on the chests, more white on their lats, white faces, white hips, black hinge joints in their torsos, and more painted details on their legs that mimicked stickers on the G1 toys.  Instead this new set is using the deco from the Takara release, which I presume is meant to look more like The Headmasters.

Whether you get this set, import the original Takara versions, or hunted down the original US releases, the idea is that they're carrying over a gimmick from the G1 days of having robots that were "identical" twins but turned into totally different alt modes.  And indeed, from the front they're very similar; the only real differences are the emblems on their chests and some differences in the molding on the outside of their legs. Indeed, they actually share a lot of the same parts.

That said, when you turn them around you can see the some more obvious differences.They have different animal heads on one hinge, different tails on another, partially remolded lower legs, and partially remolded butterfly hinges in their torsos.  Pounce has some animal feet attached to his torso hinges and in the backs of his legs.  Wingspan has bird feet pinned into his arms and uses the remolded legs as a place for his wings.

These guys come with no accessories, which is unfortunately common with Hasbro's Legends-class figures but disappointing nevertheless.  Dr Wu made some accessories for them, but they're sold out in most places.

Pounce and Wingspan are similar enough that they have the same articulation; their heads are on swivels with no tilt.  Shoulders are ball joints for rotation and 90 degrees of lateral extension.  Their elbows are ball joints for a little over 90 degrees of bend.  Usually that ball joint doubles as the bicep swivel, but these guys actually have dedicated mushroom swivels for that.  No waist articulation.  Their hips are ball joints, and they can bend 90 degrees forward or laterally.  Backward range is limited not by the joint by by the tail kibble on their backs.  They have mushroom thigh swivels, and their hinged knees can bend around 90 degrees (Pounce actually gets slightly more, Wingspan slightly less).  No foot or ankle articulation.

Pounce turns into a cat, Wingspan turns into a bird.  Again, interesting.  Pounce's transformation is pretty similar to (but kind of simplified from) the G1 toy.  His arms fold underneath (although his fists don't fold away first), and while not attached to his arms anymore his cat legs are attached to the joints they're on, so they still fold down when you fold the arms in.  Instead of bending the wrong way at the knee his robot legs spin 180 degrees, but the rest of the cat leg still folds out of them.  His tail still folds off of his back.  His torso doesn't open up to allow the cat head to flip out or the bot head to tuck in, the cat head simply folds off his back over his robot head.  Wingspan, on the other hand, has a very different transformation from the G1 toy and some major differences in how his robot legs work compared to Pounce.  The G1 toy just had the hands tuck in, leaving the arms at the sides, and his knees bent a little to double as the bird legs while his wings unfolded on his back.  This version of Wingspan as the robot arms fold under, like Pounce, with bird feet on the back.  His crotch splits in half, allowing the legs to bend up and around to catch onto some tabs that were folded out when the robot arms tucked in, and the wings unfold off of his legs.  It does make for some chunky wings, but it's kind of clever and makes for a much better bird mode than the G1 toy had.  Another interesting thing; due to the reuse of parts between the two Pounce's crotch can also split and hinge like Wingspan's even though it serves no purpose for him.

While they look cool enough, they don't do much in this mode.  Their mouths don't open, and they don't have any real head articulation.  Pounce's tail can bend up and down, and his front legs can rotate and bend at the knee.  His back legs have articulation at the robot hip and knee, and a little where the cat foot flips out.  Wingspan fares worse.  His bird feet have a little bit of bend, and you can kind of get more by messing with his robot elbows.  His tail can bend up.  The ends of his wings can bend up (but not down) at the hinge where they unfold from his legs, and that's it.  Since neither of them have any weapons there's no storage for any, but they do have a space on their backs with a little groove for a Titan Master to ride on them.

They have a few other issues in alt mode.  Their arms fold in, but they don't tab into anything.  That means they're relying solely on the friction in their elbows and the transformation hinge to stay put.  Nor does the white flap on Pounce's butt, nor his robot legs.  The way the instructions have you orient Pounce's forearms also leaves some ugly gaps.  Wingspan's robot legs do tab in place, but the connection is poor.

I think if I'd tried to track down the Titans Return versions or import the Takara versions I'd probably be unhappy with these guys.  I feel like the characters are meant to be bigger, and they have some flaws (that could probably be mostly attributed to them being Legends-class figures).  The lack of weapons for them is a huge bummer, too.  But, if you can find them at Target, you can get these guys for halfway between the price of one Deluxe and one Voyager figure, and that's not too bad for what you get.  Wingspan in particular has some interesting engineering.  I neither recommend you buy them or avoid them.  I think if you know what you're getting and buy them you're getting your money's worth.  But I think if you'd rather not buy them you're not missing out on anything essential, either.

[technoblue]

So I have a couple photos comparing Siege Magnus and ER Doubledealer in stock bot mode. The first image focuses on the ankle tilt, which both figures share. When the feet are in the neutral position, snug against the leg, there's a visible difference. DD's feet sit flat, whereas Magnus has that infamous angle.

Not sure if this change was an intentional improvement on HasTak's part or just a bonus given that DD is a triple changer and has a more involved transformation gimmick. Still, I think it would have been nice if Siege Magnus had feet with the same flexibility.

And now for the height comparison. I didn't have a straight edge handy, so I used a straight-ish dice tube to set the "ground" perspective since the two bots are laying flat. DD is half a head shorter than Magnus. The top of DD's head sits right at Magnus's eye level. At the shoulders, DD is smidge shorter if you don't count Magnus's massive pylons.  

Pretty comparable at stock. But I do wonder if a third party will release an upgrade set to boost DD's height to match with the DNA set improvements? And would such a set sacrifice the triple changer gimmick? I guess we'll have to wait and see.

[mikeszekely]

So Hasbro does two fan-first livestreams announcing some various store-exclusive figures, and man, the release dates are all over the place.  The next Netflix wave at Walmart are all consistently listed for mid-October (although they canceled my order for Elita-1), but it's like at Amazon and Pulse they just pulled dates out a hat.  The Coneheads are supposedly soon in mid-August, but the Ironhide/Prowl pack isn't until November.  At Hasbro Pulse Centurion and Tigertrack, announced in the first livestream, aren't due until October 1st and November 1st, respectively, while the just-announced Hubcap is September first.  But then I already got Alternate Universe Optimus late last week, and Exhaust came yesterday.

Alternate Universe Prime is definitely Prime's dead corpse from the '86 movie and not a Nemesis Prime.  Rather than black with teal accents (and occasion red windows) as the primary colors that you'd normally find on Nemesis Prime, AU is sporting gray for his primary color, with a brown/copper color to the windows and black accents on his pelvis.  The parts that are blue on regular Prime are black, and he's still sporting an Autobot insignia.  The colors are basically movie-accurate, although I think the gray on his torso could be darker and the silver could be the color gray they actually used for his torso.  As it is, it reminds me less of dead Optimus and more of the sort of colors you'd see in the black-and-white Transformers manga. 

Happily, his lower legs don't have the random gray plastic, but his crotch and the middle rectangle on his pelvis are left unpainted.  Weirdly, his gun is silver.  I wouldn't think his gun would change colors just because he died.

Furthering the notion that this is dead Optimus and not Nemesis Prime, AU Prime sports a new head with deliberately-mangled antenna and some painted battle damage on his mask and his left side.  As with the original figure his chest opens up to reveal some extra copper paint accents but basically the same Matrix.  Too bad Siege Magnus has no place to store it.  Maybe an Earthrise/Studio Series '86 Hot Rod/Rodimus Prime?

The trailer is made from a taupe plastic with black stripes and a gray insignia.  Again, it reminds me more of black-and-white manga than dead Optimus, but I'm not complaining.  They could release this mold in blue Delta Mangus/Powered Convoy colors, white Ultra Mangus colors, true black Nemesis Prime colors, yellow "Shining Ultra Magnus" colors, white Ghostbusters Optimus, and red-and-blue Pepsi Optimus and I'd buy it every time.

Should you buy this one, though?  I'm going to go with probably not; being a dead body takes a lot of the "action" out of "action figure."

Ok, so the thing about Exhaust is that he wasn't actually a character until Takara wanted to double-dip on MP Wheeljack's mold by slapping a Decepticon badge on a Diaclone variant.  Now, I'm down with repainting an Autobot and making him a Decepticon.  Works for Prowl/Barricade and Mirage/Mirage.  But I've always kind of thought that Exhaust is still too similar to Wheeljack.  They're both primarily black and white, and Wheeljack even as some red.  The only real difference is that Exhaust trades Wheeljack's green for even more red.

Something that Mark seemed enthusiastic about on the livestream but in person I'm not loving is that he doesn't actually have a Decepticon emblem.  Instead he's got a symbol for some kind of mercenary faction, I guess.  It sort of looks like Exhaust's face if he grew a goatee.  The MP figure had a Decepticon badge; I think I'd have preferred that.  Oh, and I guess I'll have to look into a Nonnef kit for him, since he comes with just one of the toy-style shoulder launchers.

The extra red and lack of green come through a lot better in alt mode.  Not sure about this "Bandit" thing, though, and I wish that the red on the hood made the white into a triangle.  Maybe if Toyhax makes a set for Exhaust I'll pick up both it and Wheeljack's and go all-in on their full racing livery.

Should you get Exhaust?  Maybe.  He's not essential, but I like having more Decepticons, and ER Wheeljack's a good mold.

Not one of the more recently-announced figures, but thanks to @M'Kyuun I was finally able to get my hands on Netflix Scrapface.  Y'know, it's funny, I don't like to buy multiples of the same exact figure, but if you recolor it I'm very down for troop-building.  I've got eight Siege Seekers, and this is my fifth copy of this mold.  If Hasbro gets around to doing a new Scourge I'll keep buying Sweeps as long as they're slightly different colors, and no I don't care that different colored Sweeps isn't cartoon accurate.

But we're not talking about Sweeps, we're talking Scrapface.  And I love him!  He looks like the love child of Reflector and Smokescreen.  His body is actually almost entirely a dark gray plastic.  Most of that red and blue you're looking at is paint.  The red is a bit sloppy; I think it's supposed to be less an accent color and more like he's rusty.  The blue, though, is a gorgeous metallic color.  It really pops in hand.  And unlike Exhaust and Wheeljack, Scrapface is very visually distinct from retail Refraktor or from the toy-colored Spectro, Spyglass, and Viewfinder from last year's camera box set.

Yes, his "spaceship" alt mode is still a bit trash, but that's hardly Scrapface's fault.  That said, even though they probably won't I really hope Hasbro visits this mold one more time, then I could make another camera.  Can't bring myself to buy a second Scrapface or Refraktor over it, though.

Should you buy a Scrapface?  I vote yes.  Good robot, bad alt mode, but mostly it's fun new colors for troop-building.  Besides, maybe he'll have a big roll in the Netflix show, becoming an important part of Transformers canon in the process.

[Negotiator]

Earthrise Soundwave. Gogogo

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Transformers-Generations-War-for-Cybertron-Series-Inspired-Soundwave-Battle-3-Pack/717221883?listId=d8639a42-2621-40f6-8c6f-56e187320036&listType=WL&listItemId=8bfe1503-df56-4547-9456-6faa92314ed0&registryId=undefined&selected=true&la=12

- gone again.

Edited July 23, 2020 by Negotiator

[mikeszekely]

Wait, so Walmart canceled my preorder for Elita-1, then two days later opens up more preorders for Elita-1?  WTF, Walmart?!  Seriously, store exclusives suck, but Walmart should NEVER be allowed to have any.

[Negotiator]

Wait. Walmart cancels orders??

[mikeszekely]

12 minutes ago, Negotiator said:

Wait. Walmart cancels orders??

Apparently.  I have Bee and Soundwave on one order, then later I decided to go back and get Prime, too.  But Prime didn't qualify for free shipping, so I added Elita-1 to the order.  I was kind of on the fence with her, and it was the push I needed.  But Monday I got an email that reads,

"We had to cancel some items.

We're very sorry, but due to high demand, we were unable to fulfill the items listed and had to cancel them."

The item listed as canceled was Elita-1.  Which they then re-listed for preorder today and, as of 6:00pm EDT, is still available.  Now, I'd just preorder it again, but as it's below whatever threshold Walmart sets for such things it'll cost me $8 in an additional shipping cost, so I don't want to preorder it again.  I want them to un-cancel it from the original order.

[M'Kyuun]

I'm actually not too concerned about finding deluxes. I PO'd pretty much all of them from the last wave, and have since had numerous opportunities to pick them in-store. In fact, my local Wally had them the last time I visited (last week). They're both on the pegs, and on a stand in the aisle for the Netflix figs. So, although I have most of the figs I want PO'd already, figs that I'm so-so about , like Elita-1, I'll wait and probably snag in the store should the opportunity present itself.

Voyager and leader, OTOH, are a rarity at my local Walmart, for some odd reason. I usually have to go to Target, or one of the other Walmarts in the area to find voyager and larger class figs. It's weird. I've been anticipating a Soundwave for Earthrise, and I think he looks ok, even if his legs are inside out for transformation, compared to the original.  The thing that really bugs me is the downsizing of the cassettes- just why? It would have been cool to have cross compatibility with the old G1 cassettes and the MP cassettes. Anyway, still want him. I've got a notification alert on it now, so hopefully the next time it becomes available, I'll catch it in time for a PO.

[sh9000]

[mikeszekely]

Well, I think Amazon and Hasbro Pulse are still saying November, but for whatever reason BBTS had this guy in stock so I picked on up there.  It's this year's Titan-class figure: Earthrise Scorponok

I actually had Scorponok as a kid.  I didn't love him as much as Trypticon, but I do have fond memories of him (and pretending his shield was my Turtle Com).  My gut reaction is that HasTak did a pretty good job with this one.  His head is larger than the G1 toy's, of course, but in a way that's more proportional and more in keeping with various animated and comic book appearances by the character.  I dare say he's more proportional all-around than the G1 toy.  The overall design of his head and face is very much in keeping with the US cartoon, which is fine, although I'm not sure how I feel about the extra paneling and lines meant to give it that "it's a giant" look.  He has a lot of the same molded details as the G1 toy, but some of it is picked out with a gunmetal paint that wasn't on the original.   Speaking of paint, he's got painted areas on his chest, thighs, and shins where the G1 toy's stickers were.  The blue area is a little narrower, and the Decepticon symbol is below it instead of on it, but those might be concessions to the US cartoon (where his chest was solid black/gray and the symbol more on his abs).  The only things I'm not really crazy about are the giant chunk of gray in the middle of his shin, and the purple panels on the sides of his legs.

Oh, and he's a little shorter than Fortress Maximus.  Not too bad, though, and certainly closer than the original toys.

Getting back to those purple panels for a minute, I'm specifically talking about the outermost panel.  And I think what bugs me about it's analogous to chrome parts on the G1 toy.  Just like the G1 toy removing them is necessary for transformation, so I feel like they could have been entirely silver and less flat, closer to what we did get on the G1 toy.  Also removable is a piece on his back.  It's the equivalent of the G1 toy's shield, but this time it doesn't flip open.  To get the full length you have to take the panels off his legs and attach them to the shield.

The guns on his shoulders are also removable, which is again necessary for transformation.  There's just the two; you don't get four like you did with the original.  But he does come with a a blast effect part.  I think it's the same one that came with Siege Jetfire.

While we're looking at his back (and side) I'll say this much; he cleans up better in robot mode than the G1 toy did.  His tail folds up more and locks in place, and his insect legs actually fold mostly into his torso.

Scorponok has good articulation.   The entire plate his head connects to is on a hinged swivel, so he can rotate his head and look up/down a little.  His shoulders rotate on ratchets, and extend laterally over 90 degrees on another ratchet.  His biceps swivel where the purple meets the green, and the swivel is ratcheted.  His ratcheted elbows bend 90 degrees.  Another ratcheted joint (basically the scorpion elbow) ends his claws inward up to 90 degrees, plus the hand itself has a friction joint to bend inward even more  No wrist swivel, though.  His thumb claw and his two finger claws have hinges as well, so he can open his hands, grab things, and kind of point.  His waist has a ratcheted swivel.  His hips ratchet forward, backward, and laterally 90 degrees.  His thighs have ratcheted swivels.  His ratcheted knees are double-jointed and can curl 180 degrees.  No up/down tilt, but he's got ratcheted ankle pivots good for about 45 degrees.

As with the G1 toy, the shield can peg onto either forearm.  I miss his big orange G1 gun.

Scorponok is, of course, a Headmaster, so his head comes off and transforms.  The transformation is kind of interesting for a Headmaster, and I like how during the transformation you lift his visor up to reveal eyes underneath.  Shame they didn't give him red eyes and a forehead more like the G1 Headmaster face.  The only thing I'm not super keen on here is that the orange ears are technically partsforming, as you unplug them from what will become arms and tab them onto a backpack instead.

Unlike the Titans Return line, the packaging and instructions don't specify the name for this guy or the Titan Master.  Although officially Titans Return had Emissary form the head of Cerebros, who formed the head of Fortress Maximus, I preferred The Headmasters method of the smallest head robots being the actual living robot and the larger bodies were lifeless transtectors whom you'd refer to by the name of the robot that formed their head.  So this is either also Scorponok, or it's Zarak.  Take your pick.  Either way, I dig how he looks.  The sculpt and detailing is very reminiscent of his appearance in The Headmasters (which was already closer to the G1 toy than the US cartoon).  He's even got molded thrusters on the outside of his heels and on the panels on the outsides of his arms.  The biggest difference here is that most of the panels on his arms and most of his lower legs and feet are gray instead of purple, but to be fair this is the first Zarak figure that's turned into the entire head of Scorponok instead of having a whole helmet to fit around it.

My biggest complaint his the size.  He's shorter than Cerebros/Fortress, who was already smaller than most Siege/Earthrise Voyagers.  Zarak winds up being around the same size as the taller Deluxes like Ironhide or Impactor.  Of course, he was just the human-sized Nebulan in the US cartoon, and his size in The Headmasters was wildly inconsistent, ranging from human-sized to nearly the same height as Soundblaster.  So while I might wish he were closer in size to Cerebros/Fortress it's not like this size is necessary wrong.

Zarak's articulation is ok.  His head can swivel, but the armor on his shoulders kind of gets in the way.  Minimal up/down tilt at the neck.  His shoulders can shrug due to transformation, they can rotate, and they can extend laterally nearly 90 degrees.  His biceps swivel, and his double-jointed elbows curl 180 degrees.  No wrist swivels  His waist can swivel.  His hips can kick 90 degrees forward and backward, and nearly 90 degrees laterally.  His thighs swivel.  His knees bend almost 90 degrees.  His feet can't tilt up or down, by he's got 45 degrees of ankle pivot.  You may find the panels on the sides of his arms get caught up on the orange antenna on his backpack.  If you leave them on his arms instead he'll look a little more cluttered but he'll have an easier time moving around his back kibble.

Zarak's hands are 5mm peg holes, plus he's got one on each arm where the orange antenna plug in for head mode.  It's too bad Scorponok didn't come with any weapons for him.  His joints are sturdy enough that he can kind of hold the big shoulder guns, but their size means his arms have to stay straight, and I'd be worried about the long-term strain on the shoudlers.

If you pull off Zarak's head you get a smaller Zarak Titanmaster.  It doesn't have a ton of detail, but from what I can see the smaller Zarak's design, with the rectangular chest and visored face, is based more on his appearance in "The Rebirth" part of the US G1 cartoon.  It's articulation is he same as every other Titan Master.  You can see how he compares with the earlier Titanmaster Scorponok (who was really just Fangry in Zarak's colors with a new diecast face on the back).  You can also see how that Titanmaster looks on the larger Zarak.

Scorponok turns into a scorpion... I mean, it's right there in the name.  I don't have a size comparison for you because he's huge in this mode.  He's roughly as long as Trypticon's starship mode, and depending on how you have the claws posed he's slightly wider at the widest points.  Transformation is very similar to the G1 toy, except his waist rotates 180 degrees so that his legs don't have the bend backward and there's no hinges to shift the entire shoulders forward toward his head.

As with the robot mode the scorpion mode for this guy is on point.  He's even got a purple collar that evokes the clear visor on the G1 toy.  The biggest differences are that, due to his transformation, you're seeing mostly green on the folded-up robot legs instead of orange, the partsforming panels again show more purple than silver, and with only two sets of double-barreled cannons you can put them on his shoulders or on top of his legs, but not both spots.

His head has painted red eyes, which I'm a fan of.  I don't know how a real scorpion's mouth works, but I like opening this flap and pretending it's like a mouth.  Little Zarak doesn't have to stay attached to Big Zarak for this mode btw.  If you open his chest (reverse from the way the G1 toy opened) up you'll see a flat gray panel with an indent in it.  Little Zarak can sit in there, and there's enough empty space behind the Decepticon symbol on the chest door that he won't get squished when you close it back up.

Scorpion mode is surprisingly well articulated, too.  Although parts of the tail are tabbed in place to hold everything together you've still got three usable hinges on it (and there's a nub at the end you can attach his blast effect parts to).  His arms, claws, and head have have all the articulation they did in robot mode (although the robot elbow bends down and is kind of useless here).  His legs are articulated so that there's a hinge where they connect to the body, but the legs move as pairs at that joint.  They can each move independently at the middle joint, though, as well as at a third joint near the tip.  The legs don't have the moving gimmick that the G1 toy did, but there are two wheels and a roller on his underside so he can roll in scorpion mode.

All of his partsforming pieces have homes in this mode, too.  The leg panels are still on his legs (although they had to be removed to fold out the panel behind it), and the shield is plugged into the underside of the tail (which is kind of where it stores in robot mode, but again has to be removed to give the tail room to unfold).

If Scorponok has a weak mode it's his city mode.  I think that's partly because the city modes on most of the city bots seemed like an afterthought (I do like G1 Fort Max's, though), but I also think HasTak made a few design decisions that are close to the G1 toy but not totally there.  He does have the orange ramps that fold out from the sides (which are compatible with the Siege/Earthrise bases, but not the older Titans Return/Power of the Primes ones), and he's got purple panels (instead of gray) that fold out from the front, but the panels don't have compartments for the mechanical arms and the elevator platform the G1 toy had.  The thighs, which are bent instead of straight, don't have the opening compartments with the molded missiles, either.  There's no antennas, and no orange gun or gray gun cover to act as towers.  The main tower is still his shield, and again I'm finding that its flatness is working against it.  The leg panels, which for a third time would look better if they were entirely silver, don't actually attach to his claws to make the side towers.  Instead they attach to the double-barreled guns, which in turn attach to his arms.  Again, the arms themselves can't shift at the shoulder, so they can't fold back behind the main tower the way the G1 toy did.

While you'd think that Big Zarak should be free to run loose when Scorponok is in this mode, and that's certainly an option, the gray panel with the Titanmaster seat behind his chest panel can also open.  It'll look like there's a big gray void that goes the whole way through him, but at the top you'll find a second gray panel.  You can fold that down toward his back to create a floor, turning the big hole into a kind of chamber that's big enough to store his whole head.  You can even leave little Zarak attached, as the floor as a cutout for him.

The best Earthrise figures, like Optimus and Wheeljack, have had strong G1-but-better vibes, and Scorponok is no exception  He's got the same double-headmaster gimmick that Fortress Maximus had (and, even as a kid, I thought he should have had).  He's got great articulation and improved proportions but on the whole is closer to G1 than he's not.  He's as big (or bigger) to my 40 year old self as the original seemed to seven year old me.  My complaints are fairly few, and one of them could be fixed if DNA or Perfect Effect do an upgrade kit for him.  Namely, the lack of accessories; the orange gun and it's cover are particularly sorely missed, but I'd also like another set of double-barreled cannons (maybe with hinged barrels) for scorpion mode, weapons for Big Zarak (I'm imagining double-barreled pistols that could also plug into the 5mm ports on his scorpion claws), better partsforming leg/tower panels (in all silver, please), perhaps even a few antenna or mechanical arms.  My other more minor but less fixable complaint is that some of the hinges are just friction clipped in.  The door in his chest with the Titanmaster seat and the last segment of his tail, in particular, like to pop out on me.  On the whole, though, this is perhaps objectively the best Titan figure HasTak have done (even if I still love Trypticon more).  Even if you're not heavily invested in the mainstream Transfomers lines I highly recommend checking this guy out.

PS~ Take this with a grain of salt, but I've heard rumors that with all the G1 citybots and most of the G1 combiners out of the way that HasTak is considering taking another stab at Metroplex.  Between you and me, I'd love it if they re-did both him and Max as good as this Scorponok, with better proportions, built-in ankle articulation, and without forcing them to share a mold, even if it meant making them a little more expensive and a little smaller than the previous versions.  While I'm making a wishlist, how about a better Deluxe-class Scamper and an actual Slammer?

Edited July 27, 2020 by mikeszekely

[David Hingtgen]

I'd much rather see a re-done Trypticon.  

(really, they kinda doubled down on the goofier aspects IMHO, it could have been done so much cooler/better I think)

[lechuck]

So far the right cues on the aesthetics seem to be there - no raised collar, tapered bicep and chest intakes line up with the lower  torso parts.

TagHobby

[technoblue]

6 hours ago, lechuck said:

So far the right cues on the aesthetics seem to be there - no raised collar, tapered bicep and chest intakes line up with the lower  torso parts.

TagHobby

<snip>

I have to admit, I had my reservations, but the more I see of this new Starscream mold the more I'm digging it.

But quality is still a big concern, especially given Takara's current price point and they way they fumbled the release of Bee v2 and Hound. I don't want to see paint defects like I did with Bee and I don't want to see crumbling plastic like I did with Hound. Those are my big worries going into this. The CAD drawings look really cool, though, and from what I can see (and what I've been reading) this version not only improves on MP-3/11 but also avoids some of the disappointments I had with my Maketoys' seekers. 

Anyway, I'm looking forward to the colored test shots.

[sh9000]

Scorponok looks good.  I might still get one.  The 2 Decepticon symbols on Snapdragon’s chest look weird to me.