The Transformers Thread (licensed) Next

[lechuck]

More from MP-55 Nightbird. Unfortunately no image with her and alternate face.

[lechuck]

Also MP Crosscut got some better release images.

[technoblue]

Looking good. I still need to put in my order for Crosscut, though. 

[mikeszekely]

I swear, it feels like I've been waiting forever for the new wave of Kingdom stuff.  I swear almost every YouTube personality has reviewed the whole wave, with Emgo recently putting up a video for the Ark that I've been careful to avoid.  And I'll tell you what, I preordered the second wave at Amazon and wound up regretting it, because Pulse stocked everything first.  This time I was sure to preorder everything from Pulse- I even bought Pulse Premium- and everything's still listed for September.  Meanwhile, Amazon got a bunch of stock in, and apparently already sold out of Scorponok and Tracks.😒  I was able to get a Galvatron, though, to send back to @Wolf-1 (who'd graciously sent his own copy to me so I could review it), and two others.  One of them being Voyager-class Rhinox.

Of all the Beast Wars Kingdom releases Rhinox is, perhaps, the most curious.  Primal, Blackarachnia, Megatron, and Airazor haven't really had updates since the '90s (at least, not that particular version of Primal).  Cheetor and Dinobot got new toys in more modern Universe line, but those figures were still old enough and different enough that the Kingdom figures were clear improvements.  Rattrap had an excellent release in the Thrilling 30 portion of Generations, just before the Prime Wars Trilogy, and while I think it's honestly better than the newer Core-class figure there's something to be said for the different scales.  But Rhinox?  Rhinox also had a pretty great figure in Thrilling 30, and this new Kingdom release is pretty much the same exact size.

So what's changed?  Well, there are some aesthetic changes.  I think some of the changes are good and some aren't so much.  I think the old head looks better; the new one is kind of mushy and less-defined.  Although the teeth aren't as big and he's still got more mechanical detail than he had in the show, I like that his torso seems broader, more solid, and has a bigger faux rhino jaw.  I like that the robot parts of his arms sit more flush.  The solid green color is probably more show-accurate, but I kind of like the color breakup from the bits of gunmetal on the T30 version.  Kingdom has wider hips, T30 more accurate thigh sculpts.  Kingdom has longer feet with fake rhino toes.  I think the brownish tinge on T30 is more show-accurate, the gray on Kingdom is more like actual rhinos I've seen.

Oh, here's something weird.  I don't know how well it's showing up in my pictures, but in hand it looks like they used two subtly different shades of green plastic.  That'd be cool if it were used uniformly, like to break up the color, but it's not.  On my copy, his left hand, around his collar, a transformation joint on just one side of his chest, his right elbow, and his left knee are all slightly darker than the rest of him.

I think they have comparable amounts of kibble.  They've both got Rhino legs for shoulders, biceps, and the outside of their forearms.  They've both got skin panels on their hips and lower legs.  They've both got backpacks; Kingdom's hangs a little lower, but it doesn't stick out as far behind him.

Rhinox comes with his signature spinning-blade-chain-gun things.  Again, mixed feelings.  I love that they're actually painted now, and I'm not sorry that the spinning gimmick is gone.  But they're smaller, shorter, and all-around less substantial than T30's.

With the improvements Hasbro's been making in the War for Cybertron Trilogy lines you might expect that Kingdom Rhinox would have better joints and articulation.  And you'd be right... but not by as much as you might hope.  Head is on a ball joint that can look up a bit, nothing really down, slight sideways tilt.  His shoulders rotate, with a hinge that allows 90 degrees of lateral movement (including when the arm is raised, so that's an improvement).  Also, due to his transformation, he's got butterfly joints that bring is arms across his chest.  His biceps swivel, and his elbows bend 90 degrees.  Just like the T30 version there is no wrist swivel.  And while T30 had a waist swivel, but the non-rotating crotch flap got in the way, Kingdom Rhinox has a waist swivel that includes his crotch armor but his rhino jaw bib can't turn past his hips, so it's still limited.  His hips can go forward and backward 90 degrees, and a little less than that laterally.  His thighs swivel just above his knees, which are double-jointed but don't bend too much more than 90 degrees.  His feet don't tilt up or down, but they have 60 degrees of ankle pivot.  That's a bit more than T30.  The biggest improvement may not be the range, though, but the stability.  T30 Rhinox is notorious for having pretty loose hips.  Between that and his smallish feet I was actually having a hard time getting him to stand for pictures.  Kingdom Rhinox has much stiffer joints; the lateral shoulder hinges could be a bit tighter, but the hips and knees don't move when I give him a gentle shake, and the larger feet are easier to balance on.

Rhinox holds his weapons in the usual stick-peg-into-fists sort of way.  This version, though, also has storage in bot mode.  The backpack has 5mm ports on the sides, and you can plug the guns into them with the business ends pointed backward.  They kind of look like propellers... of death.

Another area I think is a definite improvement is the transformation.  I don't know why, but I always seem to get hung up transforming T30 Rhinox.  For this review I couldn't figure out for awhile why the back legs weren't lining up until I realized I bent his pelvis the wrong way.  Kingdom Rhinox is more straightforward across maybe 80 percent of his transformation, and that last 20 percent is unfolding his back rhino legs from his robot shins.

Aesthetically, the rhino mode is again something of a mixed bag.  As I mentioned before, I think the browner skin color is more show accurate, as is the white eyes with black pupils.  I'm not sure what kind of rhino Rhinox is supposed to be, but I think T30 looks more like the white rhinos I've seen in the zoo that makes me think it has more realistic proportions.  While Kingdom could be going for a different species, like say a black rhino, the fatter body and limbs, lack of shoulder hump, and beady red eyes recall the original toy more than an actual rhino, which seems kind of weird when it seemed like Hasbro was going for more realistic alt modes than show or toy accuracy on the previous Beast Wars characters released under the Kingdom banner.  The prominent green joints on the shoulders are also unfortunate in this mode, as are the hollow spots on the rear legs.  That said, I do like the texture of the rhino skin better on the Kingdom figure, there's no green folded-up feet on the backs of his rear legs, and the amount of green showing on the front legs is a bit less.

But hey, where T30 Rhinox was kind of an immobile brick in rhino mode, Kingdom Rhinox actually has a bit of articulation.  His head as some slight up/down tilt.  His shoulders are a bit blocked from rotating, but he can still spread them laterally, and his robot elbows can still bend his front legs inward so he can clap.  His rear legs can bend forward a bit at the knees.  His mouth can open, in a way that looks a bit more natural, without his robot head showing inside.  Instead, you get a bit of pink paint.

Like T30, Kingdom's weapons do store in alt mode.  It's a bit more clear how they're supposed to sit.  Better, the rhino mode is ok even without them.  They're not necessary to fill a major gap or to provide structural integrity.

I'd say Kingdom Rhinox is a pretty good figure that many Beast Wars fans will want to pick up.  For the most part, I think the differences between this figure and the T30 one are more for the better than for the worse, making this figure the overall better Rhinox.  That said, I think it's safe to assume that a lot of you were hoping for a more slam-dunk, all-around definite improvement that made upgrading from the T30 version a no-brainer.  Instead, I'm forced to say that if you have the T30 (or the Takara version of that mold) and you're happy with it then you probably don't need to upgrade.  In my case, though, the fact that I can pose him and get him to stand more easily is, on its own, enough of a reason to upgrade.

[sh9000]

[mikeszekely]

Too bad I already have all those figures!  At those prices, if you don't I'd highly recommend the Studio Series 86 ones.

Anyway... what I do have is Kingdom Deluxe-class Wingfinger.

Wingfinger is a Fossilizer, so I guess it makes sense to compare him with Paleotrex and Ractonite.  As an original character I don't have any prior media to compare him with.  I guess he looks pretty cool.  He's got actual hands, for one thing, but he's a bit skinny and his shoulders are pretty close together.

Honestly, my biggest aesthetic gripe is that he's got a big Maximal logo on his forehead.  Sure, technically Dracodon, Transmutate, and the upcoming Tricranius are also Maximals, but all three are repaints I don't intend to get, and two of those three are Gen Selects releases.  Of the three Deluxe-class Fossilizers to be released in the mainline at regular retail and of the four skeleton guys I own Wingfinger is the only Maximal.  My headcanon refuses to accept that they're Maximals or Predacons.  I like the think of them as their own skeletal faction.

Oh, one other thing.  The top of Winfinger's head does fold down over his face, but it's a transformation thing.  Unlike Paleotrex and Ractonite, he doesn't have a mask.

Actually, one more other thing- note his hips in the above photo.  That's how he came out of the box, it gives him a double-knee, and I think that looks the best.  I'll note here, though, that his instructions have them turned the other way, with the 5mm ports on the fronts.

Like the other Fossilizers, the base robot doesn't use all the pieces.  If you think of what's left over as accessories, then he comes with a pteranodon skull and two bony bits.

Wingfinger's head is on a ball joint, so it swivels and has limited up/down tilt and even more limited sideways tilt.  His shoulders rotate and can extend something like 140 degrees laterally.  His biceps swivel, his elbows bend 90 degrees, he's got a second swivel below the elbow if you need it, but you shouldn't because his wrists swivel.  He's got two torso swivels, one above the 5mm peg just below his chest and one below the same peg.  His hips move about 45 degrees backward, due to the shape of his butt, slightly under 90 degrees laterally, but far beyond 90 degrees forward.  If you have him like I do, with the ports on his hips pointed backward, then he has a double-knee bend with each joint capable of bending 90 degrees.  However, his thigh swivel is below the upper knee joint (it's likely the instructions have you orient him ports forward precisely so you can't use the upper joint as a knee).  His feet have a ton of up/down tilt, but in a throwback to the pre-WfC days he's got no ankle pivots.

Now, I think the best configuration for Wingfinger is to take the skull and peg it into his back using the peg under the eye sockets.  Then you can use the remaining bony bits as short swords for him to dual-wield.  I'd be remiss, though, if I didn't point out that the bone swords can also be stored by using small tabs on the backs of his biceps, and then the skull can be used as a kind of... I dunno, gun?  Pokey thing?  I have him holding the skull with the peg behind the head crest, but the instructions show him holding the skull using the other peg, and plugging it in from the underside of his fist.  Whatever floats your boat, I guess.

Of course, as a Fossilizer Wingfinger's entire body is really a collection of accessories, and a bit of his transformation will involve pulling parts off of him and sticking them back on elsewhere.  You don't need to totally pull him apart first, but for the sake of record here's how he looks fully disassembled.

Once reassembled you'll have yourself a skeletal pteranodon.  Generally speaking, I think all the Fossilizers look better in their dino-skeleton modes than in their bot modes, and that's certainly true for Wingfinger.  In fact, I think Wingfinger might be best of the three.  My only complaint's are the visible fists on his dino toes, and the fact that I think the claws on his wings should bend the other way.

You can pose him in a sitting pose like this...

...or you can spread his wings, straighten his legs and toes, and pose him in flight.  His mouth can open, and you'll note the 5mm port inside (as well as the ones on his shoulders).

And of course, there's the usual Fossilizer gimmick of becoming weapons for other Transformers.  As always, the only limits are where you can match pegs and ports and your imagination, but these are the two examples given in the instructions.  You have something like an arm-mounted bow, with a bunch of leftover parts, or you can build a winged backpack and a giant pick.  Not gonna lie, that backpack is actually pretty cool.

Normally, this is where a review of a Fossilizer would end.  However, there's one more thing.  You see, Hasbro was pretty impressed by the fan-made combinations of multiple Paleotrexes, and they seemed to take this into account when they designed Wingfinger.  This isn't in any of the instructions, however it was shown by Hasbro Senior Model Artist Mark Maher on the 2021 Pulse Fest livestream, so I guess it's semi-official:

That's right, if you have Paleotrex, Ractonite, and Wingfinger they can combine into... well, whoever this is supposed to be.  Oh, and the fact that we have two Predacons combining with a Maximal just strengthens my argument that Wingfinger shouldn't have been a Maximal.  What's interesting is that this makes use of some design elements of Winfinger, namely that the back of the crest can pop off, and a hinge allows it to open a little to reveal the painted blue visor used for the combiner face, that serve no other purpose.  When your consider this mode official, semi-official, or just an easter egg the designers stuck in, it's clear that Wingfinger was designed purposely with this combination in mind...

...but maybe the others weren't?  Joints that involve a lot of pull-apart peg swivels that can hold up under the weight of one Deluxe-class figure don't do as well with the weight of three of them.  Likewise, Ractonite's little feet don't give them a ton of surface area to balance on.  Plus, you will have a small pile of parts leftover.  While you can probably find places to stick them, or ways to make a weapon out of some of them, I'll note at this point you'll have an abundance of pegs and a dearth of ports to stick them into.

I'll say this much for Wingfinger- he's definitely my favorite of the Fossilizers.  If you were interested enough to pick the others up, then definitely grab Wingfinger.  He's a decent figure, and you'll get the combined mode.  But once again, If a dinosaur skeleton original character doesn't do anything for you and you already passed on the other two there's really nothing new here that makes Wingfinger a must-buy.

[sh9000]

[mikeszekely]

My brother took me to a place in Ligonier, PA with a few G1 Transformers, and I was lucky enough to snag a Kup and Blurr still with their guns and instructions.  And since I already had a reissue Hot Rod, I decided to take these-

1986 vs Studio Series 86

Hot Rod

Kup

Blurr

Boy howdy have things improved in terms of articulation and cartoon accuracy in the last 35 years!

[M'Kyuun]

12 minutes ago, mikeszekely said:

My brother took me to a place in Ligonier, PA with a few G1 Transformers, and I was lucky enough to snag a Kup and Blurr still with their guns and instructions.  And since I already had a reissue Hot Rod, I decided to take these-

1986 vs Studio Series 86

Hot Rod

Kup

Blurr

Boy howdy have things improved in terms of articulation and cartoon accuracy in the last 35 years!

Which is why I, a Geewunner, can't understand the appeal that these old toys still hold for collectors. I suppose they have an old school charm to them, but even when I was collecting the odd TF toy in my mid to late teens, I felt more disenchantment with them than anything else. I longed and hoped fervently for toys resembling what we now have through MP,  the main line stuff since the Combiner Wars Trilogy, and all the G1 third party offerings. I envy the kids of today, as they're getting the toys I imagined and longed for as a teenager- they just don't know how spoiled they are, so comparisons like these really do drive home just how far Transformer toys have come since 1984.

Honestly, though, I'm happier that these things are out now when I'm an adult with disposable income enough to afford this hobby. As a kid, I didn't have much in the way of cash flow, so had these been the reality back then, I wouldn't have had the means to buy too many of them. So while I do envy the kids of today for the improved quality in the toys of their generation, I'm happier still knowing that, unlike most kids, I'm equipped to pick and choose what I want for my collection.  It was worth the wait. 

[mikeszekely]

4 minutes ago, M'Kyuun said:

Which is why I, a Geewunner, can't understand the appeal that these old toys still hold for collectors. I suppose they have an old school charm to them, but even when I was collecting the odd TF toy in my mid to late teens, I felt more disenchantment with them than anything else.

Well, for me a part of it is that I was a bit younger... these weren't toys that I bought in my teens and wished looked more like the show, these were toys I got for Christmas when I was six, and I have very fond memories of playing with them on the kitchen floor.

7 minutes ago, M'Kyuun said:

so comparisons like these really do drive home just how far Transformer toys have come since 1984.

This is actually another aspect of it.  The old toys paired with their modern mainline, 3P Legends, or MP counterparts makes for (what I consider to be) an interesting display.  Case in point-

[M'Kyuun]

That's a really well done display; kudos to the owner. Even Skullface and his collection snobs would have a tough time nitpicking that one to death. 😏

And being an older kid when TFs came out, I was certainly more critical than a younger kid, especially since I was aware there were toys like GI Joe and Micronauts that had a fairly full range of articulation. Seeing them move about on screen, and looking at the boxart didn't help but exacerbate my chafing at the nigh immobility of the toys. Glad articulated versions of those characters came about in my lifetime. Especially Prowl. 

 

[hutch]

9 hours ago, mikeszekely said:

Well, for me a part of it is that I was a bit younger... these weren't toys that I bought in my teens and wished looked more like the show, these were toys I got for Christmas when I was six, and I have very fond memories of playing with them on the kitchen floor.

This is actually another aspect of it.  The old toys paired with their modern mainline, 3P Legends, or MP counterparts makes for (what I consider to be) an interesting display.  Case in point-

Umm I gotta go change my pants. That is amazing. Basically my dream display. 

[JB0]

18 hours ago, mikeszekely said:

Boy howdy have things improved in terms of articulation and cartoon accuracy in the last 35 years!

It is even fair to complain about toon accuracy in the season 3 toys, since they were designed to be animated from the start!

[Hikuro]

I'll always have a soft spot for the original figure line...which is probably why I still buy these things compared to other franchises that produce their own lineup of action figures. 
I use to have a really broad collection ranging from G1-G2 but my father decided it was time to throw them away and I lost the majority of everything I had collected since I was 4. Still, some figures survived once I caught on what he was doing and saved them. And over the last decade I've just been collecting the old figures whenever I can. But I've been mostly buying reissues and very seldomly originals due to their high markups. 

[sh9000]

Very awesome display of Transformers toys from 2 different time periods.

[mikeszekely]

21 hours ago, M'Kyuun said:

That's a really well done display; kudos to the owner.

 

12 hours ago, hutch said:

Umm I gotta go change my pants. That is amazing. Basically my dream display.

 

3 hours ago, sh9000 said:

Very awesome display of Transformers toys from 2 different time periods.

I wish I could claim it, but it belongs to TFW2005 user and genuinely nice guy Turbine027.

4 hours ago, JB0 said:

It is even fair to complain about toon accuracy in the season 3 toys, since they were designed to be animated from the start!

Yeah, but I think they get some slack due to Floro Dery's designs being heavily revised during production of the film, after they toys already went into production. There's still obvious differences, but some of the toys (especially Cyclonus and Gnaw) are noticeably closer to the earlier artwork.

In other news... I'm hearing widespread reports that some of the new Target exclusives, including T-Wrecks, Origin Bumblebee and the Worlds Collide pack, are hitting stores this week.  I checked my local store a little after lunch and all they had was T-Wrecks, whom I'm not really interested in (two is enough of that mold, and I'll have two between the Jurassic Park pack and Megatron).  The Target website says that they don't have the Worlds Collide pack anywhere near me, but that my local Target is supposed to have Bumblebee, so I'll go back tomorrow and try again.

[JB0]

4 hours ago, mikeszekely said:

Yeah, but I think they get some slack due to Floro Dery's designs being heavily revised during production of the film, after they toys already went into production. There's still obvious differences, but some of the toys (especially Cyclonus and Gnaw) are noticeably closer to the earlier artwork.

True. But they're still based on the illustrations instead of vice-versa.

Often the complaints about the first toys not being cartoon-accurate are presented as though those toys were an ineptly-bungled attempt to bring the illustrations to life, which (regardless of preference) isn't fair to the designers.

 

 

Anyways! The "then and now" display is really friggin' cool.

[mikeszekely]

So I went to Target. Nothing on the shelves, so I asked an employee. Apparently they have 8 Bumblebees somewhere in the back, for some kind of street-dated display that was supposed to go up yesterday. But they don't have their display up yet I and they basically refused to go look, so I guess I'm stuck checking again tomorrow.

[mikeszekely]

I don't usually post two reviews in one day, but with Magic Square's Stunticons eating up the bulk of the week but this hitting stores now I didn't want to drag my feet.  See, I went back to Target again, and this time it actually looks like they're in the middle of resetting their plan-o-gram with spaces for Origins Bumblebee, Worlds Collide, and even the new MPM Prime, but the shelves were still quite bare (in fact, the six or so copies of T-Wrecks were gone, but it looks like someone moved them to the Funko section in Electronics for some reason).  The staff today was a lot more helpful, though.  After spending twenty minutes or so searching in the back they were able to get me a copy of Deluxe-class Origins Bumblebee!

When Siege started hitting it was interesting, at least to me, how Hasbro seemed to be working the G1 cartoon route of robots that looked the same on Cybertron and Earth even though the handful of Cybertronian alt modes we saw were pure animation magic.  I guess it was easy enough, turning characters who weren't show in Cybertronian modes like Prime or Reflector into a space truck or a "spaceship".  Soundwave's spaceship wasn't his lamp post mode, though (and the semi-official lamp post mode didn't really resemble the cartoon), and while the Siege Seeker mold is in the spirit of the tetrajets seen in the cartoon they look as close to that as they do to the Colonial Viper from Battlestar Galactica to me.

And now here we have a new new Bumblebee toy, meant to homage that one scene in the first episode where he and Wheeljack are scavenging conductors for energy.  And in that spirit, sure enough Hasbro tried to give him a similar body to his Volkswagen appearance.  In some ways, they're very successful.  He's got the square black shoulders, black ribbed biceps, black hands, and mostly-black legs.  He's got a torso with faux windows, with the smaller cartoon proportions, and a pelvis with the Y-shape molded in.  There's no headlights on them, but his feet have a similar shape, complete with black bumper toes.  His face is wider, happier, and lined more like the cartoon, and I definitely prefer the yellow color on him to the cheddary color of the Netflix Bumblebee.  He does have his drawbacks, namely a large backpack  and a ton of kibble on his legs.

That said... the backpack really isn't worse than what Netflix Bee is carrying.  And the kibble on his legs doesn't bother me as much in-hand as it does in pictures.

Y'know something else I didn't love about Netflix Bee?  His accessories, namely that he had the same bazooka they gave to Cliffjumper.  Origins Bee comes with some more appropriate gear, namely a blaster that takes its design cues from the one he had in that episode (also, the one carried by MP Bee 2.0) and a jetpack.  Weirdly, promo pictures and his own box show the accessories as silver- not sure about the jetpack, but the gun was silver in the cartoon, but what's actually in the box is black.  Now, if you have the accessory pack that came with the Gen Selects Centurion Drone you got another blaster for Bee and another backpack.  The ones Origins Bee comes with are entirely different molds.  While the blaster is marked for Bumblebee, it seems to be based on the one MP Bumblebee 1.0 had, and the backpack seems like it was meant for Prime or Sideswipe.  It doesn't even fit on Netflix Bee.

Oh, yeah, you also get five Energon conductors.  Because you gotta have that thing from that episode.

 Bee's head is on a ball joint.  He can look up and swivel, but the shape of his head prevents him from looking down or tilting his head sideways.  His shoulders rotate and extend laterally 90 degrees.  His biceps swivel, and his elbows bend a little over 90 degrees.  His wrists, unfortunately, don't swivel, but due to transformation they can bend down for pointing a sword.  His waist swivels.  His hips can move forward, backward, or laterally just under 90 degrees.  His thighs swivel.  His knees are double-jointed but still limited to 90 degrees of bend.  His feet have multiple joints as well, which allows him to get some extreme up/down tilt and beyond 90 degrees of ankle pivot.

The jetpack simply plugs onto a 5mm port on the middle of his back, and he can hold his gun using his 5mm fist holes.  For more Siege-style fun he also has 5mm ports on the outside of both shoulders, on the outsides of his lower legs, and under each foot.

And good news, if you have Netflix Bumblebee and want him to share accessories with his Cybertronian self he can.  You have to remove the rear of the car, but the jetpack can fit over the tires on his back to plug into the port that the rear of the car does.  As for the gun, well.  5mm fists are pretty universal.

I think Hasbro kind of dropped the ball on the Energon conductors, though.  Each one seems to be a single piece of sparkly translucent plastic (maybe they had leftovers after making Galvatron, eh?).  The ends are bigger than Bee's fists, so he can't actually hold them.  You can balance them on his arms, I suppose, but Hasbro should have made at least one end detachable and the central rod 5mm, then you could have popped an end off, slid the rod into one of Bee's fists, then popped the end back on.  Oh well.  Guess I'll just lose them in a drawer somewhere with all the blast effects I've similarly lost in a drawer somewhere.

You might have expected that giving a Bumblebee that looks like he turns into a VW a saucer mode would involve a bit of shellforming, and you wouldn't be totally wrong.  However, like the Siege Seeker mold Hasbro does manage to make fairly effective use of Bee's own body.  That's Bee's actual chest in the nose, his pelvis is visible behind the 5mm port on top, and his feet and lower legs make up as much of the sides as the unfurled kibble.

Honestly, I'm quite pleased with the result.  You could rightly point out that it's either a bit longer or it lacks the wingspan of the cartoon, but the overall design is quite close to that opening scene we saw some 37 years ago.  The rear is a little open, but I like that they but some vented details on Bee's knees to make them look like thrusters.  And while the robot kibble is visible from some angles, I like that it holds him up like he's hovering.

A quick view of his underside.  You can see what I've been saying, that he actually does do a bit of transforming and it's not simply a case of unfurling a backpack over a scrunched up robot.  You can also see one of those small peg holes you can use to mount him onto a stand like the one that came with MP Tracks or Studio Series Soundwave.

In alt mode, the shoulder ports are covered up but the one on his back is now on his roof, and the ones on his legs wind up on his wings.  So you can stick his gun on him, and even put his jetpack on him like a FAST pack.

Since I started collecting the WfC line I've wound up with a ton of Cybertronian characters who later got another Earth-mode release*.  When they announced this Bumblebee I honestly wanted it just to bulk out the ranks of figures with both an Earth and Cybertronian mode.  I didn't think the pictures looked all that great... heck, looking at my own I still don't think pictures of him look great.  In hand, though, this is a really fun Bumblebee that's an excellent homage to his first appearance in the cartoon.  I actually think I prefer it to Netflix Bee.  If your CHUG shelf is lacking a Bumblebee, pick this up.  If you have Netflix Bee to go with your Earthrise/Kingdom figures but want a Bee to go with Siege, pick this up.  If you're a fan of Bumblebee, pick this up.  If you've been wanting a saucer Bee for almost 40 years now, pick this up.  He is, unfortunately, a Target-exclusive, but he should be hitting your local stores now (in the US).

*Optimus Prime, Megatron, Soundwave, Starscream, Thundercracker, Skywarp, Barricade, Prowl, Smokescreen, Bluestreak, Ironhide, Ratchet, Ultra Magnus, Laserbeak, and now Bumblebee, with Sideswipe, Mirage, and Red Alert on the way, last I checked.

[Negotiator]

nice.  I added BB to my target cart for pick up, site says they had 7.  Waited until they said they were ready and boom, they cancelled my order and non in stock..... (-.-)

 

[mikeszekely]

8 minutes ago, Negotiator said:

nice.  I added BB to my target cart for pick up, site says they had 7.  Waited until they said they were ready and boom, they cancelled my order and non in stock..... (-.-)

 

If your Target is like mine, yeah, all the stores are getting 8 or so, and they're part of a plan-o-gram reset with a street date of August 1st.  But, until they actually set the plan-o-gram the inventory is in a weird limbo where it's in the store but not available.

Well, either that or they actually did put them out and a scalper bought them all.

[JB0]

Cybertron 'Bee is, in fact, a darned sight more impressive than I was expecting. Can his head be rotated around so you're seeing the back of it on his underside instead of the face?

 

 

My local Target had some pegs that weren't empty. They were packed with this guy, and pretty much only this guy. But it scratches an itch I wasn't feeling, so... on the peg it stays.

They did, however, have ONE of the four-pack with Fangry and three other losers. I was shocked. The box was a bit crushed, but... I don't buy this crap for the boxes. I gotta admit, the price tag was pretty steep, but... FANGRY! And Bumblebee Hubcap Bumper isn't actually that bad of an option. Nemesis Primal isn't a mold I was interested in, but in-hand he's actually quite pleasing.

 

Fangry's not actually very good, really. He's a reworking of Titans Grotusque(a reworking of Titans Doublecross/Twinferno). His transformation mostly consists of "fold the legs back onto each other and claim they're a tail, then flip the wolf head down over the neck hole". Seriously, the werewolf arms are literally just the robot arms with the fists folded in and wolf fists folded up over the emtpy wrists. Barely even worth mentioning, and I'm surprised they bothered.
But to be perfectly fair,  the original Fangry wasn't very good either, with a transformation consisting mostly of "flip the robot upside down, then fold the arms over the neck hole and claim they're a tail".

 

My biggest gripe is that reusing the original Twinferno wings means he has a much smaller wingspan than I associated with the character. Though he's also the only one in the box that doesn't come with a weapon.

My biggest praise is that IT'S A FANGRY! the wolf jaw feels like it is on a soft ratchet instead of a friction joint. Which means it pivots open when you lift it off his back and flip it down over the neck hole.

My biggest point of confusion is that the headmaster was molded ENTIRELY out of black plastic, despite being mostly not black. The green face, purple arms, and purple legs are ALL painted. Rather heavily in the legs' case, giving them a rounded-off melty look.

(For those keeping score on accuracy, the original Fangry headmaster had a purple torso and arms with black legs. The Titans Return Fangry head with no robot to attach it to had a purple torso and legs with black arms, and this one has purple arms and legs with a black torso. We've got every possible color combination covered at this point. The Masterforce cartoon was VERY loyal to the toy designs of the era, so black legs with purple torso and arms would be anime-accurate.)

[mikeszekely]

No, if you turn his head around his forehead crest sits just high enough that the roof/cockpit section won't sit flush.

I kinda want that four pack, also mostly for Fangry, but my Target wasn't showing any in stock and I didn't want to push it after making them go find Bumblebee. I'm there often enough, though. I'll just keep my eyes peeled.

[JB0]

1 hour ago, mikeszekely said:

No, if you turn his head around his forehead crest sits just high enough that the roof/cockpit section won't sit flush.

That is a darn shame. If you could, that would make that pretty clean by the standards of aerial transformers.

[mikeszekely]

Well, looks like the Magic Square Stunticons are going to sit on the back burner for another day.  My dad doesn't drive anymore, so on days my mom works late I'll sometimes take him out for lunch and see if he needs to run any errands.  I did just that today, and he needed to get some stuff at Walmart.  Given how sparse things have been around here I didn't expect to find anything, but I always swing by the toy aisle anyway.  I was very pleasantly surprised, though, to walk out with Studio Series 86 Leader-class Slag*

*It actually says Slug on the box, but he'll never not be Slag to me.

Holy moley... it's hard to believe that the little guy on the left is only four years old, and was reissued this very year.  The difference between the Power of the Primes figure and the new Studio Series one is stark.  SS Slag isn't just bigger (standing eye-to-eye with Grimlock), and he doesn't just sport a more cartoon-accurate deco with white thighs, a red head, and blue eyes.  SS Slag hides his dino legs better, he has better proportions, better articulation (as we'll see in a bit), better engineering, and, most importantly, he has his wings.

Now, hiding his dino legs in his calves means that the tail that hid their on the PotP toy has to go somewhere else.  They went the G1 toy route, and had it fold up into his backpack.  I was a little worried how that'd look when I saw the early pictures, but in hand I think it's ultimately fine.

Slag has a problem very similar to fellow SS Dinobot Grimlock.  That is, he comes with a gun, with a cartoon-accurate sculpt and a nice pearlescent paint job, which is cool.  But, instead of coming with his trusty sword, he too comes with a slug.  In stead of Wheelie, Slag comes with Daniel in his exo-suit.  Which, frankly, doesn't make a ton of sense, since the Dinobots wound up on Quintessa with Hot Rod and Kup but Daniel got his exo-suit on the Planet of Junk with the other group.  And, just like Wheelie, while Daniel looks nice enough he's made from minimal parts and lacks any more articulation than ball joints at the hips and elbows.  In other words, he's a throwaway that 99.999% of Transformers fans would rather Hasbro ditched for the sword instead.

Slag's head is on a ball joint, so he can look up and down a little, tilt his head in confusion (important articulation for a Dinobot), and swivel.  His shoulders rotate on ratchets and can extend laterally a little over 90 degrees.  His biceps swivel, and his elbows are double-jointed and can bend closer to 180 degrees than 90.  His wrists swivel, as does his waist.  His backpack tail only gets in they way when he rotates beyond 45 degrees, and even then you can undo his backpack if you need more.  His hips ratchet forward a little over 90 degrees and backward just short of 90.  They move laterally on friction joints 90 degrees.  His knees are double-jointed, both ratcheted, and can bend almost 180 degrees combined.  His feet have no up/down tilt, but he does have 90 degrees of ankle pivot.

Slag's rifle pegs into either hand, no muss no fuss.  Although he's Studio Series and not War for Cybertron, he does also have 5mm ports on the outside of each lower leg, on the outside of each shoulder, under each foot (which are, unfortunately, hollow like Grimlock's), and there's one on the middle of his back.  Daniel doesn't seem to do anything for Slag in this mode.

Confession: while I do like the gold lower jaw and blue dino eyes, I kind of like the red horns on the PotP toy.  Granted, I get that's a toy detail and that the pearlescent horns SS Slag has are the more cartoon-accurate choice, but still.  That may be about the only thing that PotP Slag does better, though.  Once again, the Studio Series toy isn't just bigger.  He's got better proportions, with a head and frill that don't disappear into his body and shape that avoids the derided potato shape other versions of Slag have been criticized for.  Speaking of other versions of Slag, I see Hasbro using clasps on the side of robot legs to let the dinosaur legs rotate in and out in a way that reminds me a lot of Gigapower.  It might just be a case of different designers coming up with the same solution for a given problem, though, and I'm not complaining.  It gives Slag's engineering a mature feeling that the PotP was certainly lacking.

One more thing about the horns; the inside edges are disappointingly hollowed out.  Fortunately, the horns are just c-clipped in place.  Should be no trouble for a 3P to make a kit with new horns (perhaps in red), feet fillers, and a sword for this guy.

Speaking of engineering, I absolutely love how Slag's head transforms.  The faux jaw stays on his chest, while the real thing folds out from inside.  But it doesn't come out alone!  Instead, Slag's robot head tucks up into the dinosaur head, and a red flap comes out with the lower jaw to cover his robot face and act as the roof of his mouth.  This flap even has a nub for attaching blast effects.  As for his gun, it pegs into the bottom of his tail.  Honestly, I prefer that kind of storage to just jamming it onto his back, the way Grimlock's gun does.  I just kind of wish that, even if it's not cartoon accurate, that they'd painted at least part of the gun gold to match the tail.  Then it'd blend in a lot nicer.

Slag's dinosaur mode articulation isn't great.  His head and tail don't move, although he can open his jaws.  That said, he's got better range in his legs than the PotP toy, and he isn't stuck in a sort of permanent crouch.  His front legs are, of course, his arms, with ratcheted rotation at the shoulders, lateral movement, bicep swivels, and double-jointed elbows.  The rear legs don't have lateral movement or swivels, but they rotate at the hips.  A transformation joint allows the leg to bend backward just below the hips, and there's a hinged knee/ankle that legs the little foot move backwards and forwards a bit.

While Slag's gun stores in the tail, I'll note that he has more 5mm ports available on his shoulders, just above his hips, one on his back, and even a pair on his belly.

I'm not going to beat around the bush here- Slag is an excellent figure, arguably better than Studio Series Grimlock.  Is he perfect?  No, but I can point out flaws with even figures like Fans Toys Scoria, Perfect Fusion's Cesium, or Gigapower's Grassor, and while those larger (and much more expensive) figures have better paint and materials I honestly don't think the engineering on Studio Series Slag is all that behind them.  If you're a fan of the Dinobots (and honestly, what Transformers fan isn't?) then you absolutely must pick this figure up.  This figure is so good that this could be the first time a mainline retail figure beats all the 3P stuff I collect for figure of the year.  This figure is so good that if they do a toy-colored Gen-Selects version I'll gladly shell out for it again.  Huge recommend from me.

Edited August 5, 2021 by mikeszekely

[sh9000]

Slag looks good.  I can’t wait to get him.  Nice setup.

Edited August 5, 2021 by sh9000

[JB0]

6 hours ago, mikeszekely said:

Gigapower's Grassor

I find it incredibly ironic that Grassor came with the toy's missile launcher but has no shoulder holes to peg it into, while Studio Slag has the shoulder holes but no missile launcher to peg into them.

 

Studio Slag looks like a pretty solid take on the character, though the transparent plastic of the Primes version is sorely missed(almost as much as the wings were missed on the Primes version).

[Wolf-1]

"Err; excuse me!"  Awesome review Mike, here I was thinking blue Corvette and instead we got a Triceratops. 

[mikeszekely]

1 hour ago, Wolf-1 said:

"Err; excuse me!"  Awesome review Mike, here I was thinking blue Corvette and instead we got a Triceratops. 

Eh, still waiting on Tracks, Scorponok, Rodimus, and the Ark.

[M'Kyuun]

6 hours ago, JB0 said:

I find it incredibly ironic that Grassor came with the toy's missile launcher but has no shoulder holes to peg it into, while Studio Slag has the shoulder holes but no missile launcher to peg into them.

 

Studio Slag looks like a pretty solid take on the character, though the transparent plastic of the Primes version is sorely missed(almost as much as the wings were missed on the Primes version).

Give it time; Hasbro's never shy about getting mileage from a mold, so tradition dictates that there will be toy decoed versions released at some point with the transparent bits over golden innards and likely tampoes to represent the G1 sticker details, not to mention sword and any other weapons that the G1 toys came with. When the first pics of Kingdom Slug were shown, he had the clear bit over his dino nugget, so I believe these were designed from the onset with toy versions in mind. I looked, but couldn't find the picture. It's likely somewhere in the forums on TFW2005, but I don't feel like parsing through all those pages.

I'm getting these SS Dinos, but honestly, my preference is for the toy look. I'm still enamored by the golden mechanical bits beneath transparent sheathing that really stood out on the old G1 toys, and I'd love to see it on these guys, too.  Like Mike, when they come, I'll be double dipping on some Dinobot goodness.

@mikeszekelyAnother great review! I've seen vid reviews of this guy, but something about reading all those ranges for articulation is hitting home- this is the level that Hasbro, and Takara by extension, need to maintain going forward, hopefully filtering down to all class sizes eventually. If third parties can manage it at legends scale, then there's no reason they can't do it at deluxe and up for all figs. That should be the expectation and the goal.

[mikeszekely]

While Studio Series 86 absolutely rules for us G1 fans, Studio Series every-other-number is still a thing, so Slag wasn't the only thing I found at Walmart.  I also picked up Leader-class Grindor.

Grindor is an interesting case of a character that wasn't really a character until after the fact.  I mean, the scene in the forest in Revenge of the Fallen called for a bunch of Decepticons to gang up on Prime, right?  So the animators used the assets they had to populate the scene with Decepticons... including assets of Blackout.  And, for awhile, even the people making the movie weren't sure that it wasn't Blackout.  It wasn't until later when some executives remembered that Blackout was killed in the first movie, and that Blackout's death wasn't something that Transformer fans were likely to overlook, that they decided that the guy who was very clearly Blackout was actually another guy named Grindor.  And somehow that not-even-really-a-repaint got himself a repaint, so here we are.

Visually, whether it's totally movie-accurate or not, SS Grindor does have some differences from SS Blackout.  Most obviously, the purely robotic mechanical parts in his legs, biceps, and chest are made from a dark gray plastic instead of the silver-gray used on Blackout.  Grindor also has some sandy smudges on his arms and hips.  I guess there's a lot of sand in the woods, eh?

Actually, though, the most important difference between Grindor and Blackout are the hands.  Grindor's hands include a wrist swivel that Blackout was sorely lacking, and while Blackout had a hinge in his thumb Grindor has an additional hinge in his fingers, giving him significantly improved hand articulation.  This is such an improvement that if Takara puts Blackout in their premium paint series with Grindor's improved hands I'd consider buying the upgrade.

In ever other way, though, Grindor's got the same articulation as Blackout, although on my copies at least the joints are noticeably tighter on Blackout.  And as far as accessories go, Grindor's got the same tail rotor turned arm blade...

...but he trades in Scorponok for Ravage.  I don't recall a connection between Grindor and Ravage in the movie, but I'm not complaining.  He's a pretty limited slug-style figure, but I honestly like him for what he is.  He's got a hinge at the base of the tail that gives it some up/down movement, although the cannons on his back go with it, and ball joints at his hips/shoulders.  That's about it.

Ravage can hang onto Grindor's back, just like Scorponok could hang on Blackout's.  Actually, they use the exact same connection, so you could put Ravage on Blackout and Scorponok on Grindor, if you prefer.

Grindor naturally has the same alt mode as Blackout*, but a few more differences are apparent.  Grindor is slightly darker, with a black gold around the windows on the sides and bronze on the thrusters.  But mostly he has different markings, with a large "53" and "Marines", and  no "Blackout" stripe on the tail.  Here's the side view.

Front view.  Different placement for the Decepticon badge, and "53" instead of "4500X," plus a red band on the sensor probe.

Top view.

Underneath, we can see one other aspect where Grindor actually got a remolded part, and it's under the tail.  Grindor has a peg, and he's missing some of the protrusions Blackout has.

The simple reason is that Blackout was designed to carry the Scorponok slug, and used clips that fit around his claws.  Grindor uses a peg that fits into Ravage's chest.  Simple as that.

So, yeah, Grindor is pretty superfluous, both in-film and as a toy.  If you don't have Blackout he's worth picking up as a stand-in with better hands.  If you do have Blackout, well... Grindor has Ravage.  And better hands.

*Actually, I'm told that Grindor actually has a different alt mode.  Blackout turned into a Pave Low, but the Pave Low was retired by the time ROTF came out.  So they made Grindor a Super Stallion, a helicopter that looks basically the same but is actually even bigger.

[M'Kyuun]

I fence sat for Blackout for a long time until finally seeing him at the Base Exchange at Fairchild for $40. There's no sales tax on base, so I relented and got him, as he's a realistic Pave Low, and he was one of few Baybots whose look I liked, as it was readily apparent from those cockpit halves on his chest, the intakes on his shoulders, and that huge rotor disc on his back what his alt mode was. In other words, he, more than most, rocked a bit of a G1 look in his bot mode that appealed to me. Still appeals to me. Anyway, seeing the improvements, especially those hands, makes me wish I'd kept on waiting. Alas, despite the improvements in paint and articulation, I feel no compunction to double dip. I'll just consider my Blackout with an iota of buyers regret from now on, but as it is, it's still a pretty neat fig.

As a personal aside, I was stationed at Hurlburt Field in the early to mid-90s, which some of you may know as the home of USAF Special Ops. I worked the MC-130E Talon I fleet while I was there, but we shared the ramp with the Spectre and Ghost gunships, the Talon II multirole MC-130Hs, as well as HH-60 Pave Hawks, and the MH-53 Pave Lows.  I worked maintenance, and sometimes when our own bench stock was missing some hardware we needed for a job, we'd go on sneaky recon to the other AMUs (Aircraft Maintenance Units) to forage in their bench stocks for items we needed. And sometimes we'd get a chance to climb aboard a chopper for a little looksee. Never got to fly in one though- I would've loved to have had the opportunity. Huge sigh.

[mikeszekely]

Last one, until Hasbro Pulse/Amazon start sending out some preorders and/or I start finding more stuff in stores.  But yeah, I went ahead and picked up MPM-12, Masterpiece movie Optimus Prime as seen in the Bumblebee film.

This is a design I feel like fans have wanted in their collections since Bumblebee first hit theaters.  Results have been somewhat mixed.  We had the Studio Series toy, which was fine for a $30 figure but also lacking in some details and far from Masterpiece quality.  We had some options from ThreeZero and Prime-1, but they were non-transforming.  We had the Toyworld one, which looked great and transformed but seemed to have it's own issues with QC (joint tolerances and transformation issues).  And we had oversized, modified KOs of the Studio Series toy.

Well, I think that any hopes that HasTak might have delivered a more definitive, MP-style/quality transforming Bumblebee Optimus are pretty short-lived.  Sure, Prime's legs are looking pretty good.  The front of the torso's looking alright.  But he's got awful dead eyes.  It almost seems like they were considering light piping, as the back of Prime's head is translucent blue plastic, but it definitely doesn't work.  He's got the same goofy hinged flaps that the Studio Series toy has.  He's got long, gorilla arms with forearms that are too big just to accommodate all the kibble hanging off of them.  You've got the mushy, rubber smokestacks, the bare diecast, and minimal paint apps.  I guess I shouldn't be totally surprised, as Hasbro's influence has kept the Movie Masterpiece line something between Studio Series and the actual Takara Masterpiece line, but I guess I expected a little more for $125.

At least he scales well.  A big complaint I've had with a lot of other 3P and KO Bumblebee Primes has been the odd decision to scale with ThreeZero instead of the existing MPMs.

Side and back view.  Here you can see some of the more egregious arm kibble and that crappy unpaintable gray plastic.

Prime doesn't come with a ton of accessories.  You get his rifle and a Matrix.  The Matrix is, at least, diecast.

Prime's head sits on a mushroom peg for swiveling, with a hinge where the neck connects to the torso.  This hinge allows him to look down, as long as he's facing forward... and that's it.  Shoulders rotate (friction) and extend laterally on terrible, mushy ratchets.  The panel on the side of his shoulder moves out of the way, but you'll have to move it back manually.  Due to transformation there's also a slight butterfly; on my copy it's a bit loose.  His biceps swivel, and his elbow bends over 90 degrees on a single ratchet; there is a second friction hinge above it, but it bends his arm backward for transformation.  His wrists swivel, and they can bend downward largely due to transformation (and, perhaps, a bit too loosely, although I was able to tighten a screw on both of them that seems to have helped).  His thumb is on a ball joint at the base, and his fingers have a pin hinge at the base, with the index finger being separate and the other three molded together, but they have no additional knuckles.  His waist swivels, but there's no ab crunch.  His hip skirts hinge out of the way, so his hips can go 90 degrees forward, backward, or laterally, all on ratchets.  His thighs swivel just above the knees, which bend 90 degrees on a single ratcheted hinge.  His feet have a slight upward tilt, nothing really down, and a bit over 45 degrees of ankle pivot.

His gun fits into either hand using the standard MP tabs on the handle into slots on the palm method.

The rifle can also fold up, and it uses a single tab on one side to plug into his butt for storage.

As for the Matrix, the handles are wide enough that Prime can get his fingers through to hold the Matrix.  Or, like most Primes, his chest can open and it can be stored inside.

Prime has one of the easiest transformations of the MPM series so far.  While some things, like the exact way the panels on the arms unfold and the entire way the legs transform, is obviously quite different it's not exactly dissimilar to the Studio Series toy, either.  The front grill and bumper is still made from his back, the windows are his actual chest, some of the room and basically the entire side of the cab is made from panels unfolded from his arms, etc.  Scale-wise I was never clear on how the CoE design is supposed to fare with the Peterbilt from the Bay movies, but the cab at least is similar in proportions to MP-10/44.

Then again, his legs don't compress at all, leaving a bit of long, gappy rear.  The panels that unfold from the sides actually do a worse job than on the Studio Series toy, as there's a weird cutout gap at the back near the bottom.  The bumper is made from an unpaintable plastic, so no painted taillights.  The fuel tanks are bare diecast and are going to look really crappy after awhile.  Much has been made of how the stripe on the cab is white on the sides and silver on the front; in hand the stripe on the front actually is white with some silver on it as if they were going for dirt.  There's the cat ears, which are really dumb because they could 100 percent have been solved by making that panel two parts instead of one and putting a hinge on it so they could fold over the top; they'd have even helped cover some gray joints that way.  And all of that is ignoring the fact that this is not the truck used in the Bumblebee movie.  MPM-12, like the Studio Series toy, seems to be based on the Marmon used for Evasion Optimus in Age of Extinction.  Consider-

You can see that MPM-12 has the same two squares on the bumper (the other rectangle is a slot for tabbing in his back in bot mode), the same grill with four segments and the wider border at the top (the rectangle on the top of the border, which is a square one the SS toy, is where the Marmon 'M' goes).  It's got the same round pair of headlights set into rectangles, the same visor over the windows, and the same bent smokestack (albeit two instead of one).  The SS toy even has the same roof scoop.  The Freightliner in the movie has a different grill, the extra vent above the grill, no visor, the single rectangle with the orange marker lights on the bumper, straight smokestacks, and rectangular lights that honestly looks a lot more like Earthrise Optimus' truck mode than MPM-12's.

Perhaps HasTak's hands were tied by the fact that Prime's bot mode, even after arriving on Earth, clearly has the visor over the chest windows and bent smokestacks?

Prime rolls, but the tires are plastic, not rubber.  The gun can store on the truck, again by folding but this time using a pair of tabs on the other side of the gun to tab onto the back of the cab.  Which honestly doesn't look great.  I wish they could have done something with it to help fill out the rear of the truck; you can see from above the huge gap between his legs between the cab and his feet.  While you're looking at the top from above, you can also see that there's no slots for pulling MP-10's trailer.  There is a gap between the feet, though, that works with MP-44's trailer.

So there you have it.  MPM-12 is honestly kind of disappointing- bad proportions, kibble, mediocre articulation, and plenty of truck mode issues.  I'm confident that some 3P will come up with something better at some point (sorry, while I think ToyWorld's looks better, I don't consider ToyWorld's to actually be better).  On that note, unless you're official-only I probably shouldn't recommend this.  And yet, despite his numerous flaws, I actually really do like him.  He's pretty straightforward to transform and mess around with, and he's not terrible in robot mode.  Plus, there's something about the novelty of being able to walk into a brick-and-mortar store and walk out with this figure that I find appealing.  So on that note, why not?  I wouldn't go out of your way to find one, and I definitely wouldn't overpay from an online retailer like TFSource (who want $190 for this figure!).  But if you're shopping at Target and you happen to find one, go ahead and treat yourself.

[tekering]

1 hour ago, mikeszekely said:

I think ToyWorld's looks better, I don't consider ToyWorld's to actually be better

I'm the type of collector to whom these terms are synonymous.  Engineering is important, intuitive design is important, material quality is important... but visual accuracy is paramount.  It can't possibly be better, if it looks worse. 🤨

1 hour ago, mikeszekely said:

there's something about the novelty of being able to walk into a brick-and-mortar store and walk out with this figure that I find appealing.

"Novelty?"  That speaks volumes about the failure of Hasbro's marketing and distribution model, doesn't it?

[Wolf-1]

Received my copy of Tracks this weekend; I'll let Mike do the actual review but wanted to let everyone know you might want to pick up a second copy for Alt mode alone.  Hoping it's just my copy but his legs are very loose and don't like to stay tabbed together, in either mode.  Nothing a little glue wouldn't fix, but this is why a second copy would be needed as well.  Vette mode will scale well with Jazz (his feet are just a really big rear diffuser), and the Lambo's; the wider proportions of the vehicles maintains.  The Z cars still look good next to the Vette but my profession won't allow me to unsee what I'm seeing; the Vette should be slightly larger than a Z and instead they come off as exactly the same sizes.  Bot size wise, Tracks again falls into line with the same figures.