The Transformers Thread (licensed) Next

[Scyla]

1 hour ago, mikeszekely said:

Seems sketchy to me that Hasbro couldn't cover the amount Zavvi ordered but they could send copies to YouTubers that didn't order one.

That was also the thought I had… 

Still, I believe that Zavvi messed up. The person ordering from Hasbro either didn’t undertake the way HasLab projects work, or they expected a certain number of people cancel before release so they ordered less than orders received on their side (like overbooking of airplane seats).

[M'Kyuun]

Just popped in to catch up on the latest and I'm dismayed for those of you who got your Star Saber orders canceled by Zavvi.  I've not used them, but this situation certainly doesn't speak to their reliability, especially on a specialty item. I hope Haslab doesn't just wash their hands of this, either; if they're going to continue doling out orders to other retailers, they need to make sure that those entities are requesting the proper number of products to fill their orders. Or maybe they should keep Haslab products inhouse completely to avoid this situation altogether.

Anyway, I'm sorry to hear this is happening. Hopefully, good resolution will follow, even if it happens after the holidays. Come what may, a safe and Merry Christmas to you all, my fellow Macross Worlders, and all good hopes for a happy new year.

[Scyla]

9 minutes ago, M'Kyuun said:

Just popped in to catch up on the latest and I'm dismayed for those of you who got your Star Saber orders canceled by Zavvi.  I've not used them, but this situation certainly doesn't speak to their reliability, especially on a specialty item. I hope Haslab doesn't just wash their hands of this, either; if they're going to continue doling out orders to other retailers, they need to make sure that those entities are requesting the proper number of products to fill their orders. Or maybe they should keep Haslab products inhouse completely to avoid this situation altogether.

Anyway, I'm sorry to hear this is happening. Hopefully, good resolution will follow, even if it happens after the holidays. Come what may, a safe and Merry Christmas to you all, my fellow Macross Worlders, and all good hopes for a happy new year.

I will just redirect my funds to something else. Maybe a Lego Space set I still need or a Metal Build Gundam to complete the collection.

I will keep an eye out at the Japanese aftermarket, maybe I can snipe a Victory Saber from there.

I have to say that was probably the worst "crowdfunding" campaign I participated in. Sure, I lost $100 in the Maas Toys Seekers but there it was clear that it was a scam early on. With Victory Saber you had a good amount of hype behind the release for more than a year.

[mikeszekely]

So, there's been some Transformers leaks. Unfortunately, must of them just have listings like "Collab 2” or "Selects 3” with prices in Canadian dollars.

That said... I'm hearing a few things that are a bit interesting. Like, confirmation that the Commander-class for 2023 is Armada Optimus, and the Titan is the Nemesis. But perhaps the most interesting thing I'm hearing, if you weren't happy with Earthrise Ultra Magnus, is that we should expect a Commander-class Magnus under the SS86 banner.

[M'Kyuun]

2 hours ago, Scyla said:

I will just redirect my funds to something else. Maybe a Lego Space set I still need or a Metal Build Gundam to complete the collection.

I will keep an eye out at the Japanese aftermarket, maybe I can snipe a Victory Saber from there.

I have to say that was probably the worst "crowdfunding" campaign I participated in. Sure, I lost $100 in the Maas Toys Seekers but there it was clear that it was a scam early on. With Victory Saber you had a good amount of hype behind the release for more than a year.

Again, I hope it works out for you. In the meantime, you can't go wrong with Space LEGO. Ever.  Best gift for every and all occasions and non-occasions. I may be a little biased. 😁

3 minutes ago, mikeszekely said:

So, there's been some Transformers leaks. Unfortunately, must of them just have listings like "Collab 2” or "Selects 3” with prices in Canadian dollars.

That said... I'm hearing a few things that are a bit interesting. Like, confirmation that the Commander-class for 2023 is Armada Optimus, and the Titan is the Nemesis. But perhaps the most interesting thing I'm hearing, if you weren't happy with Earthrise Ultra Magnus, is that we should expect a Commander-class Magnus under the SS86 banner.

A titan class Nemesis to park alongside The Ark is pretty cool. No idea where I'm gonna put another huge fig, but I'll sort it when the time comes. I'm, for one, very happy at the prospect of a Studio Series '86 Ultra Magnus, as I thought the Siege and ER versions were utter travesties. Additionally, although I'm traditionally an all-in-one fan for Magnus, for the SS86 version, I think I'd prefer to see them use the ER Prime mold and create a trailer that parts-forms into his armor, as I think that would be the ideal way to realize the character as well as pay homage to the original toy. I already have a decent all-in-one Magnus from the Combiner Wars line, so that itch is sufficiently scratched. If they do go the parts-forming route, I hope they make the trailer capable of actually carrying a few of the Autobots in their car alts like the original and that the arms can lower down to form a ramp so the cars can drive up onto the second deck. I'm probably asking too much.

Although Armada Prime doesn't interest me nearly as much as other Prime designs, I'm curious to see how it turns out. I have a copy of the original toy courtesy of my sister, who years ago gifted me a big box full of TF toys from across a number of lines that she came upon in her ebay pursuits, and honestly, it wasn't too bad a fig for its time, especially given the combiner concessions. I don't think I have the trailer for it, just Optimus himself. It'll be neat to see how they handle the update, as well as any potential Armada Jetfire figs to keep the combining aspect. After all, in for a penny, in for a pound. I hope Hasbro does right by the fans - they've waited a long time for updates to these toys, and I hope they can give them as close to the original experience as possible.

[mikeszekely]

9 hours ago, M'Kyuun said:

I'm, for one, very happy at the prospect of a Studio Series '86 Ultra Magnus, as I thought the Siege and ER versions were utter travesties. Additionally, although I'm traditionally an all-in-one fan for Magnus, for the SS86 version, I think I'd prefer to see them use the ER Prime mold and create a trailer that parts-forms into his armor, as I think that would be the ideal way to realize the character as well as pay homage to the original toy. I already have a decent all-in-one Magnus from the Combiner Wars line, so that itch is sufficiently scratched. If they do go the parts-forming route, I hope they make the trailer capable of actually carrying a few of the Autobots in their car alts like the original and that the arms can lower down to form a ramp so the cars can drive up onto the second deck. I'm probably asking too much.

The funny thing about Magnus is that I'm reading a ton of comments that are basically "ER Magnus sucks, but you can't justify a Commander price for Ultra Magnus."  It's like... we've seen what a Leader budget gets us, and we agree, it sucks.  If you don't want it to suck, you have to be willing to pay more money.  Some of Hasbro's best recent figures (I love SS86 Ironhide so much) have been figures that are the "size" of one class (even though they've stressed a bunch of times that class is a budget, not a size) but utilize the extra parts an engineering from the next size up.  I, for one, and willing to pay a bit more if a bit more is the difference between ER Ironhide and SS86 Ironhide.

Anyway, just going off the budget, I do kind of wonder if it actually will be a retool of ER Prime and a trailer that armors him up.  I don't necessarily need him to be ER Prime, but I do prefer UM to have an inner robot, since it was a big deal to me when I had the original toy as a kid.  I even got the Perfect Effect figure for the Combiner Wars one.

[Rock]

Prime1's new Powermaster Optimus statue @9:10

 

[M'Kyuun]

On 12/23/2022 at 9:46 PM, mikeszekely said:

The funny thing about Magnus is that I'm reading a ton of comments that are basically "ER Magnus sucks, but you can't justify a Commander price for Ultra Magnus."  It's like... we've seen what a Leader budget gets us, and we agree, it sucks.  If you don't want it to suck, you have to be willing to pay more money.  Some of Hasbro's best recent figures (I love SS86 Ironhide so much) have been figures that are the "size" of one class (even though they've stressed a bunch of times that class is a budget, not a size) but utilize the extra parts an engineering from the next size up.  I, for one, and willing to pay a bit more if a bit more is the difference between ER Ironhide and SS86 Ironhide.

Anyway, just going off the budget, I do kind of wonder if it actually will be a retool of ER Prime and a trailer that armors him up.  I don't necessarily need him to be ER Prime, but I do prefer UM to have an inner robot, since it was a big deal to me when I had the original toy as a kid.  I even got the Perfect Effect figure for the Combiner Wars one.

Totally agree; if we want Hasbro/Takara to churn out good figs, we need to be willing to pony up the cash for them. I think Pointblank is a perfect example of a character that would have benefitted greatly from being up classed. There are certainly others, but that one's fresh, as I was just messing with him yesterday. So yeah, I think commander class is an absolute must for the nest Magnus toy, even if the resulting fig is a voyager-scaled bot with a trailer that unpacks into his armor. I say all this not even being a huge Ultra Magnus fan; however, I think both fans and the character deserve better than what we got with both the Siege and ER versions.

I only mention the core bot being an ER Prime repaint since it makes sense compared to the original G1 Magnus toy's use of a repainted G1 Optimus. Too, I think the ER Prime toy is fantastic, so reusing that mold is fine by me.

[obakesan]

So managed to get around to checking my Haslab Victory Saber, especially given all the issues I've been reading about lately. Thankfully aside some paint spray here and there I think I lucked out and nothing wrong so am happy with him. Hope they improve things with deathsaurus. 

[obakesan]

Masterpiece Trailbreaker official video. 

 

[M'Kyuun]

MP Trailbreaker looks alright. If I didn't already have MMC's Terraegis, I'd probably bite. I've seen complaints about how he looks, but honestly, Trailbreaker is kind of a wonky design from the start, but I think Takara did ok. I agree with the complaint about the obvious window adorning his torso and wonder why they couldn't have engineered the door to rotate 180 to hide it, but they didn't. That bit of nitpickery aside, he's done pretty well with some pretty impressive articulation. I like the slide down grill to allow easier access to open his hood, which covers a well-detailed engine facade. Too, I like that his back weapons are fully integrated and chromed. Good stuff.

[M'Kyuun]

So 2022 has come and gone, and overall, I think it was a pretty good year for Transformer toys. My itch was certainly scratched for the vast majority of G1 figs released, as well as figs like Override, Legacy Bulkhead, and Earthspark Twitch, which added variety to my collection.  I'm looking forward to what 2023 brings us as well as the discussions and reviews they inspire. Finally, I'm grateful that the Transformers brand continues to thrive, that I'm getting versions of the toys I wished for as a kid in the main line, that there are options like upgrade kits and third-party figures to fill voids otherwise unrealized, that the fandom remains passionate for these convertible robots inspiring everything from actual toy designs both official and non, cartoons, live action films, forums like this one, and the many reviewers who do us all a service by letting us see what's in the box before it hits our eager mitts. I'm thankful, and hopeful, come what may.

To all my fellow Macross World members, I wish you a most excellent new year!

[mikeszekely]

On 1/3/2023 at 1:45 AM, M'Kyuun said:

To all my fellow Macross World members, I wish you a most excellent new year!

And a very Happy (belated) New Year to you and everyone else who puts up with my long-winded posts on the toys I bought as well!

I went back and looked at all the review posts I made in 2022, and I have to say that while Legacy on the whole definitely wasn't as exciting as the War for Cybertron trilogy (for me, at least) there were still some very excellent releases from Hasbro last year.  So, without further ado, my top five official Transformers releases of 2022.

5. Leader-class Transmetal II Megatron - while some loose joints gave me an initial negative impression, once I tightened him up with some floor polish and he could hold a pose he's been sitting on top of my PC tower.  In an era where "Leader" has come to mean "Voyager with extra bits" it's a rarity for a sub-Commander to have this much presence.  Megatron rounds out the package with decent articulation and a downright pleasant transformation.  I'm not even a big Beast Wars fan, but this is the best figure Hasbro's released named "Megatron" in years.

4. Commander-class Motormaster - Speaking of "Voyager with extra bits," Commander-class Motormaster gave me something that Combiner Wars failed to do: a cartoon-accurate robot with the little truck feet that scales with Prime but isn't a repaint of him, that turns into a whole truck and trailer.  And while there are those who would prefer more actual combining and less sticking cars onto a mostly-complete robot, turning Motormaster's trailer into most of Menasor's body works, at least for the Stunticons, giving us a Menasor that's far more stable and better proportioned than the Combiner Wars one.  Just a few minor complaints held this release from being higher on my list, like the lack of G1-style rifles for Motormaster or Menasor, the bland shins on Menasor, and a few panels that don't lock into place well.

3. Leader-class Holiday Optimus Prime - Optimus Prime colored like he's wearing a Santa suit with a gun and trailer from the Earthrise release painted like a candy cane seems like a novelty, something you might break out as part of your Christmas decorations and forget about for the other 11 months of the year.  But, with his licensed Volvo VNR alt mode, solid articulation, and just-right transformation Holiday Optimus Prime was one of the low-key best Optimus figures we've got, and I sincerely hope Hasbro finds a way to revisit the mold with a more everyday deco.

2. Voyager-class Studio Series 86 Ironhide - When I started collecting the "Classics" line over fifteen years ago, one of my wants quickly became collecting the main cast from the G1 cartoon I grew up watching.  And for years, Hasbro's put out a series of successively better Ironhide figures that never quite hit the mark (such that YouTube personality Thew Adams did a video about this very topic).  Universe Ironhide was a bit a of a mess, replace by Combiner Wars Ironhide that was somehow better despite not really looking like Ironhide from the neck down, followed by Siege who looked pretty good in bot mode but had that Cybertronian alt mode, and then the Amazon-exlcusive Earthrise one that retooled the Siege figure into a passable earth van with a massive partsforming roof, as long as you didn't mind upgrading the Siege feet with some aftermarket ones that looked more like the rear of a van.  At that point I'm sure some of us, myself included, resigned ourselves to thinking that Earthrise Ironhide was as good as it'd get, at least for now.  And then the design team at Hasbro applied a Voyager budget to Ironhide, and came up with a totally new mold that delivered a more cartoon-accurate van with no weird feet, no partsforming for the roof, and a robot mode that honestly looks better than MP-27 to me.  If there was one retail-release you should have picked up in 2022, it was Studio Series 86 Ironhide.

1. HasLab Victory Saber - It had to be this one.  I feel for everyone that had QC issues, the Taiwanese whose Victory Sabers were lost at sea, and our European friends who got screwed by Zavvi, because this one was so good.  A decent Saber figure with the Brainmaster gimmick that combined with the V-Star to make an adequately-sized Star Saber probably would have sold me on its own, but to come packed (in a gorgeous box with a reversible slipcover that has American HasLab and Japanese Victory-style designs) with a pretty decent Victory Leo and a boatload of accessories, and to be sturdy and secure even when combined (unlike, say, Takara Legends God Ginrai) really put it over the top for me, even if Holi and Fire are kind of trash.

[M'Kyuun]

I don't really have a top 5, but some standouts to me were:

1. Legacy Cosmos- Shoutout to @mikeszekelywithout whom I never would have had this figure. Weve had a few official Cosmos figs over the years, including the really cool Generations Cosmos fig, but none that actually looked like his G1 namesake. The Walmart Exclusive Velocitron 500 Series Cosmos fixed that omission with an excellent chunky deluxe scaled figure that looks the part in both bot mode and flying saucer mode. IMHO, this is one of 2022's best releases.

2. SS86 Ironhide- Mike said everything that needs to be said about this fig. he filled a long, long overdue hole in the mainline, and despite a few warts (those big hinges on the side of his van mode, the lack of his yellow stripes, knee joint issues for some, the overpainted front bumper section, lack of his back cannon, multiple shades of red throughout), the base fig channels the animation model very well and as Mike said, looks better than the Masterpiece, which I hope they revisit someday, but after they've given up this slavishly toon-accurate nonsense.

3, Legacy Kickback- This fig took its cues from the original toy, and one could be excused for thinking it was the G1 toy on first sight. It's a really nice update, although I wish they'd made his wings look mechanical like the original and that they had some additional hinges to lay flat for flight in his locust mode. I also wish the lower legs retracted over the thighs somehow to shorten the legs and disable the robot knees, but you can't have everything. Hoping we'll get at least one more Insecticon update in 2023.

4. SS86 Sludge. Sludge was my only Dinobot as a kid, and I've always had a soft spot for him. I was excited when he was announced, and pretty pleased overall with him in-hand. While I don't think they need to reinvent the wheel with the Dinobots, I appreciate the novel transformation schema Hasui-san came up with for him. My only real negative was that the robot toes hang from the Bronto's stomach like a weird udder. There's a large space in the dino's chest that makes it appear as though the toes were going to rotate into that cavity, but they probably exhausted their budget and just let them hang. Fortunately, we live in a golden age of Transformers where multiple third party companies create upgrade kits to fix some of the official toys' flaws, and I used one such kit to fix the toe issue and give my Sludge the trim tummy he was always meant to have. Excited to complete the Dinobots, and hopefully both Snarl and Swoop will round out the team in '23.

5. Menasor- more to the point, the complete package of Stunticons and Has/Tak's approach to rethinking how they do combiners since Combiner Wars. Truthfully, I prefer an all-inclusive approach like MMC have been doing with their combiners- no add-ons, no parts-forming. But, I'm also pragmatic, and I understand it's simply not feasible within their operating limitations to do that. IMHO, the direction they took was the right one, and other than Breakdown's inaccurate car mode, the Stunticons turned out pretty well, minus a wart here or there. Has/Tak did a brilliant job giving us a screen-accurate, stable, and quite articulated Menasor. Still, I wonder how they're going to approach other combiners that don't utilize a framework with bots tacked-on.

6. Legacy and MP Skids- I like Skids' design, and I was happy that he not only got a fig in the mainline last year, but also a MP fig that harkened back to the good old days when Hasui-san was driving the design direction. That direction may not be for everyone, but I like it, and I was happy to add him to my MP collection, and his mini-me to my CHUG collection.

7. Legacy Tarantulas and Inferno- I'm a BW fan, and IMHO, both of these figs were done exceedingly well, really capturing the characters. I especially appreciate the articulated jaw on Inferno- I can hear his maniacal laugh every time I open his mouth.

8. legacy Override- I'm not a fan of the Unicron Trilogy, but as with all things Transformers, every now and then a design strikes a certain appeal, and that's how I feel about Override. I was happy that that they gave her a fig, and I think she turned out pretty well overall.

9. SS Hot Rod- I vehemently dislike the Bayformers films, but I have to admit that a lot of cool toys arose from that franchise. The transformation engineering on this fig impressed me, especially the way bits of his hood rotate and compact to form his torso. Too, I like how the front of his car forms his chest- it's reminiscent of G1 characters like Prowl and Jazz, and I've always been a fan of those designs. Hot Rod has mediocre articulation and the wheels on his legs don't have enough clearance for the knees to bend without scraping. However, I think he looks cool, the transformation is quite clever and a bit involved, and his car mode is beautiful. 

10. Legacy Bulkhead- While I've seen most reviewers link him to the Prime design, from his truck mode to various cues on his bot mode, this design screams Animated to me. Of course, given Derrick Wyatt's very stylistic animation, the translation from that to a realistic military truck was always going to be fraught with challenges, but I think Has/Tak did ok. The result, of course, is a trimmer, lankier version of the big guy to make him fit with the G1 aesthetic. Regardless of which version of Bulkhead you associate him, the toy itself turned out pretty well.

I'm probably missing a few, but these figs stood out to me for one reason or another.  I'm hoping 2023's lineup is at least this good. There's a lot more non-G1 stuff coming for 2023, especially UT stuff, which isn't exactly my cuppa. Nevertheless, I'm in it for the toys, and regardless of the media to which a toy is attached, if the toy itself appeals, I'll usually pick up a copy. Still, I'd be lying if I said I didn't want to see more G1 stuff, especially those first season omissions that have yet to be filled, and maybe a deluxe Powerglide, too. Come what may, here's to an exciting new year of Cybertronian goodness and hopes that we're all able to get the toys that appeal to us. Happy collecting!

[mikeszekely]

Well, new year, new Transformers branding.  Sure, some Youtubers getting the backdoor specials or even a few paying a premium to get their stuff imported from Robot Kingdom just to get their videos out first have most of the wave done already, but I buy local... so I was kind of surprised when Evolution Core-class Slag Slug arrived today.

Hmm.  As I've said before, Hasbro's logic for releasing characters like this in the Core-class is to have smaller versions you can pair with Titans to make the Titans seem bigger.  Which is fine... except that any semblance of scale at this class is now gone.  I mean, previous Core-class figures like Optimus, Megatron, Shockwave, and Starscream are all similar in size, so having them all about the same size at the Core-scale is fine.  But Slag shouldn't be the same size... it's almost like Slag is a pretool for another figure... But I think Slag properly scaled with the other Core-class figures would be more like a Deluxe.

Oh, wait, we already have a Deluxe-class Slag.  And a Leader.  And little Core-class Slag is borrowing from both.  I mean, he's got the cartoon colors with the red head and face with the blue eyes and the silver silver/gray thighs, but the engineering is much closer to the Deluxe, which like the Deluxe ditches the wings and leaves large dino leg kibble hanging off of his legs.

Although, his back does split and fan out for another mode.  It's not official, but I like to do it for his robot mode, too.  It kind of gives him his wings.

Slag's sole accessory is this rather odd-looking blaster.

Even by Core-class standards, I'm not loving Slag's articulation.  He can look up slightly, no down or sideways tilt, and he can swivel his head, but the entire dino head turns with his bot head.  His shoulders rotate and can extend around 180 degrees on a ratcheted (or at least detented) hinge.  He has no bicep swivel, though, and no elbow joint, and no wrist joint, though, so get what you can out of that shoulder.  If you leave him "properly" transformed his backpack will stop his waist from swiveling, but the swivel is there- just open his back up like I prefer it.  His hips are ball joints that can go 90 degrees forward, backward, or laterally.  His knees are also ball joints, so they have to double as thigh swivels in addition to bending almost 180 degrees.

Using the smaller peg on the unpainted side of his gun you can insert it into either of his fists.

Transforming Slag is very simple- his bib folds up over his face, and his legs tab together and fold over 180 degrees to form the dino butt.  His arms need to move laterally 180 degrees, then swivel to get the dino toes facing forward, then it's just a matter of getting the back legs in place to have a tiny Triceratops on your desk.  

And he looks ok... from some angles.  From too low on the sides you'll seem some spots on his front legs where Hasbro hollowed the plastic.  Plus, he's looking sort of anemic with no wings to fill in his dino sides, and his tail is kind of stumpy and rides a little high.

That is, of course, because his blaster turns into his tail.  Well, that's partly why... I mean, you'd think even as a blaster he could have had a longer and more tail-like tail.  It's almost like Slag's designed around something else.  If you don't mind his robot face peeking out, you can open his dino mouth.  His rear legs swivel, but they have no other joints.  His front legs swivel and can move laterally, but he's got no other joints there.

Now, if that's all Slag did I'd say he's one of the worst Core-class releases Hasbro's done so far and write him off.  But there is actually a bit more to it.  See, you can remove this black part from under the tail... it's a head!  Move all four of Slag's legs back- his front legs will have tabs that plug into his sides.  Open his backpack up- this is what it's actually for- and you'll find a 5mm port you can plug the head into.  On the underside you'll note a gaping hole is Slag's chest plus three pegs (marked green), and two more pegs (yellow) on the side.

Yep, Hasbro's doing the Dinobots as a combiner thing again.   Here's Slag in his head and torso  mode, where he's listed as part 1 of 6 to make Volcanicus.

...wait a minute.  Previously, even when they released Slash as a sixth Dinobot, Power of the Primes Volcanicus only had five members.  And Grimlock formed the head and torso.  It's almost like Slag is a pretool for a different figure.  Do we know of any other combining Triceratops?  Who form the torso of their respective combiner?

Yeah, this is an interesting case, because Hasbro's design team has shown a willingness to take the old G1 Pretenders and give them one mode based on their shell and one based on the inner figure.  Sure, with Skullgrin, Bomb Burst, and Iguanus it's been robots based on the Pretender shells with the alt modes of their inner robots, and Kakuryu would have to be the opposite- a Triceratops based on his Pretender shell and a robot based on the inner bot.  And sure, Hasbro would probably have to do some retooling to get a robot that looks more like Kakuryu, who didn't have a dino head for a hood.  You might also point out that Kakuryu's western counterpart, Slog, had a weird alien-looking Pretender shell, not a dinosaur, and the inner robot for both had a bipedal monster for an alt mode more reminiscent of Blot than a Triceratops.  Still, Kakuryu is definitely a sauratopsid, and he definitely turns into the chest of Dinoking.  Oh, and some of Dinoking's other parts include Rairyu, a Brontosaurus (like Sludge), Goryu, a T-Rex (like Grimlock), Yokuryu, a Pteradactyl (like Swoop), and Doryu, a Stegosaurus (like Snarl).  Just wait and see if Volcanicus' new 6th member is an Ankylosaurus, like Gairyu.

Of course, on that note, I still don't really recommend Slag.  As a solo figure, even a Core-class one, he's not that exciting.  Nor am I jumping at the chance to have a Volcanicus made out of Core-class Dinobots.  To me, the most interesting thing about Slag is his potential as a pretool for Kakuryu (or even Slog).  A Dinoking/Monstructor, even if it's only Core-class, is definitely something I'd want.

EDIT: Messing with Slag a bit more, I have to say that regardless of what the instructions and official product photography show, I'm like 99% sure his backpack is supposed to be open like wings for robot mode.  Not only does it free up the waist swivel (a joint that isn't used in the other modes), but you'll note that there's a 5mm peg on top of his tail/gun.  With his backpack open the same 5mm port that the Volcanicus head plugs into is exposed on his back, and you can use the 5mm peg on his tail to store the whole thing on his back in bot mode.

Edited January 5, 2023 by mikeszekely

[mikeszekely]

Nonnef put up a kit that replaces parts of Pointblank's biceps and elbows with ones that allow a proper bicep swivel and a double-jointed elbow bend.  The only catch is that the new elbow is more flush with his bicep, so there's a bit of a gap where the grill of the car mode is more recessed.  Kit also includes the engine/spoiler/shield thingy, but alas, not a toy/Headmasters head.

I ordered myself a copy and I'll be reviewing it in the 3P thread later, but I wanted to post about it here because Nonnef says the default elbow parts that come with the kit are black, but he made a limited number of extra red (that match the car mode better and are the original elbow colors) and blue (that match the robot mode better).  While stock lasts, if you put the full kit in your cart you can use a drop-down option on the product page to add an extra set of the other colors, and I figured maybe you guys might want to get on that.

[lechuck]

MPG-05 Seizan is up for pre-order.

https://hobby.dengeki.com/news/1790913/ (a couple more images)

[M'Kyuun]

14 hours ago, mikeszekely said:

Nonnef put up a kit that replaces parts of Pointblank's biceps and elbows with ones that allow a proper bicep swivel and a double-jointed elbow bend.  The only catch is that the new elbow is more flush with his bicep, so there's a bit of a gap where the grill of the car mode is more recessed.  Kit also includes the engine/spoiler/shield thingy, but alas, not a toy/Headmasters head.

I ordered myself a copy and I'll be reviewing it in the 3P thread later, but I wanted to post about it here because Nonnef says the default elbow parts that come with the kit are black, but he made a limited number of extra red (that match the car mode better and are the original elbow colors) and blue (that match the robot mode better).  While stock lasts, if you put the full kit in your cart you can use a drop-down option on the product page to add an extra set of the other colors, and I figured maybe you guys might want to get on that.

My set is on its way- I just got the regular kit with black elbows. I'm not too plussed about the opening where the elbows form the grill; having the full range of arm articulation he should have had outta the box is worth the concession. The car mode still looks good, better in fact for the kit's inclusion of his secondary blue wing accessory which was likely dropped due to budgetary restrictions. I'll also agree with Mike on the Headmaster inspired noggin- it just looks better, even if the actual Headmaster gimmick wasn't in play (I'm not at all a fan of the Headmaster gimmick, so no love lost there if someone does do a replacement head based on the HM look). This guy really should have had a voyager budget.

[Scyla]

3 hours ago, lechuck said:

MPG-05 Seizan is up for pre-order.

https://hobby.dengeki.com/news/1790913/ (a couple more images)

Yikes, the lighter color is not doing the design any favors.

Train mode looks stunning as expected but I feel they should have gone with tinted windows (on all of them) to hide the internals a bit better. 

[mikeszekely]

Legacy Evolution continues to trickle out... I haven't got any of the "main" ones you guys would be most interested in yet, but I do have Core-class Sludge to look at today.

Well... I mean, where do I even start?  Slag, despite having some toy-ish kibble on his legs, was clearly going for a cartoon aesthetic.  But it's hard to tell what's even going on with Sludge.  Right away, you eyes are drawn to the massive kibble hanging off of his hips.  It's not his tail, hugging the sides of his lower legs like the cartoon.  It's his dino legs, which I guess is more toy style, except the G1 toy (and the Combiner Wars version) had the legs attached near his robot ankles.  At first you might think Evolution Sludge's dino legs are attached near his knees, and they are, and maybe you can just rotate them to be more out of the way, except the dino legs are also attached to his hips.

Perhaps you're so distracted by that kibble that you almost don't notice that while his chest is painted red with a black panel, his midriff is bare gray plastic.  Or that his pelvis flap and the bottom of the dino feet on his hips are black, but his "thighs" (such as they are) are gray.  Or that his wings aren't attached to his back, but rather, are molded onto the outsides of his arms, which are set weirdly out from his chest.

Ultimately, while I certainly had my issues with Slag, it's clear that Sludge's transition to Core-class turned out much worse, at least in bot mode.  And, at around the same size as Slag, he's going to suffer from the same scale issues when placed with the other Core-class figures.  But hey, at least they molded that gunsight pattern inside the 5mm port on his chest.

Sludge's issues aren't just aesthetic.  The way he's built is just bizarre, and it affects his articulation.  His head can swivel, no tilt.  His shoulders are ball joints, so they can swivel and move laterally about 60 degrees.  He has no other arm articulation- no biceps, elbows, or wrists.  He doesn't swivel at the waist, but he can swivel at the chest, so that's something at least.  Ok, now his legs are were things get really weird.  If you look under his hinged pelvis flap you'll find the black part of his "thighs" are actually part of said flap.  Under the flap, you'll find some silver thighs, but they're not attached to his pelvis at all.  Instead, they're molded onto the dinosaur legs.  Where the dino feet are attached to his hips on a disc hinge is where his hips swivel forward and backward a little over 90 degrees in either direction, and they can move laterally about 45 degrees (but more than 30 degrees and you'll be able to see the gap between his silver "thighs" and the bottom of his pelvis flap).  The dino legs have a swivel that kind of acts as a thigh swivel, but it's actually shifting his robot leg out and around, which again quickly breaks the illusion that his robot "thigh" is attached to anything.  A ball joint connects the dino leg to the outside of his robot knees, allowing them to bend over 90 degrees.  He has no foot or ankle articulation.

Sludge doesn't come with any accessories, although his dino head is not attached in the package.  Thing is, there's no way for him to hold it in his hand, and it doesn't partsform, so once you have it attached to his back there's no reason to remove it.  That said, his fists do have the smaller holes that the other Core-class figures do, so he can at least hold their accessories.

Transforming Sludge is pretty simple, but it's noteworthy for one reason- unlike the G1 toy, the Combiner Wars toy, and the Studio Series 86 toy, Evolution Sludge's robot arms do not become any of his alt mode's legs.

But maybe they should have, because his alt mode is decidedly not great.  His front legs have that sort of stubby look of the G1 toy and cartoon, but his rear legs don't have the shape of either.  But what bugs me more is that SS86 Sludge, ostensibly cartoon-accurate and the model the Core-class should follow, has rear legs that bend backward.  Instead of copying his larger sibling, though, Evolution Sludge has hips that are set back way too far, and knees that are permanently molded bending forward.  Combine that with a hollow gap under his neck and the stumpiest of tails that's connected to his body higher than his neck and he's really not looking too hot (although he does sort of look like my cat when he's about to pounce).

Adding insult to injury, Sludge does nothing in dinosaur mode.  He has zero articulation- his jaws don't open, his neck doesn't bend.  He has no elbow, knee, or ankle articulation.  His hips and shoulders do not move.  His limbs are frozen in place against his body.  I mean, Slag's articulation wasn't the best, but at least his shoulders and hips swiveled, his shoulders had lateral movement, and he could open his mouth.

How did Sludge get to be so bad?  Well, I'll tell you... he was designed to be a half a torso first, and both of his other modes too a back seat to that.  Of course, it may be hard to see when Sludge is in his combined mode without being connected to any other Dinobots... he looks like he simply raised his arms, turned his dino legs 180 degrees, then folded over his robot legs.  Because that's pretty much it... and on that note, I'm finding it difficult to believe that his horrible robot mode design was the only way to get his robot and dinosaur legs into a configuration like this.

Regardless... once he's in position, take the Volcanicus head out of Slag's tail, then plug the 5mm port on the gold side into the hole on Sludge's chest.

With Slag's tail attached, you'll find that the two holes next to Sludge's head line up with two pegs on Slag's chest.  The forward-most hole on Slag's tail lines up with a peg on his dino chin, and Sludge's head fits into the cavity in Slag's chest.

If everything is lined up right, Slag's front toes will tuck into the dino legs on Sludge's back.  Then, you can use holes on the inside of Sludge's forearms to lock them onto pegs on Slag's front legs.  Everything should fit together nice and snug.

The outside of Sludge's hands have peg holes that I expect the arms will plug into.  Sludge's dino legs form Volcanicus' thighs and have 5mm peg holes on the bottom where the legs will plug in.  Of course, the other Dinobots aren't available yet... AFAIK, we haven't even seen renders or prototypes.  However, using 5mm ports for connections means we can get a little creative and make a complete robot by grabbing some parts from the War for Cybertron Weaponizers, Modulators, or Fossilizers.  I used Slammer's shoulders to extend the thighs and turn the 5mm port into a peg, then attached Slammer's legs.  I had a harder time finding shoulders with pegs instead of peg holes, But Ironworks would do.  I thought they looked a little short on their own, though, so I removed the hook hand and plugged in the rest of Slammer's arm.  To use Slammer's other arm on the other side I grabbed the hook arm from the Botropolis Ironworks.  Well, now his arms are too long, but... you get the idea.  Combined, Slag and Sludge make a decent, if little, torso.

And yes, Sludge is a sauropod, Rairyu is a sauropod, Sludge forms the lower torso of this Volcanicus instead of his right leg, just like Rairyu forms Dinoking's lower torso.  Honestly, I fully expect Hasbro to redeco/retool this set into Dinoking from Victory before they actually try to do Monstructor.

But I digress.  As a Sludge to go with your Core-class Transformers, Evolution Sludge is a failure.  He's a terrible robot, with a bad dinosaur mode that can't even move, and he's too small to scale with guys like Core-class Ratchet let alone Core-class Prime.  If that's what you want, you're better off looking into DX9's old Dinobots, or maybe hoping NewAge does the other four now that they've done Grimlock.  The only reason to buy Evolution Sludge is if you're committing now to the Core-class Volcanicus, and on that note at least I can say that Slag and Sludge combined make a decent torso, but we'll see how the limbs turn out.

[lechuck]

Alright lets rock this train 😄

 

14 hours ago, Scyla said:

Yikes, the lighter color is not doing the design any favors.

Train mode looks stunning as expected but I feel they should have gone with tinted windows (on all of them) to hide the internals a bit better. 

Colours look fine to me, but articulation is more my focus and Seizan/Suiken seem to fare better on that point than the other three trainbots so far.

[Scyla]

56 minutes ago, lechuck said:

Alright lets rock this train 😄

 

Colours look fine to me, but articulation is more my focus and Seizan/Suiken seem to fare better on that point than the other three trainbots so far.

The colors look fine. However, the dark green of Suiken hides the kibble and bulk of the backpack better, making it looking it not as elaborate as it actually is. With the bright beige color it is front and center.

For me Getsuei is still the best. The arms don’t look fun to handle with all the kibble and the detachable backpack.

[JB0]

My Target restocked the Transformers section after the holiday devastation.
It now looks almost exactly like it did before. Bunch of Blitzwings, bunch of Jhiaxzus or however it's spelled, handful of Reaction figures(all G2 Grimlock dinosaur mode), a bunch of empty pegs, and a bunch of comic and Power Ranger toys hanging on pegs tagged as containing Transformers.

Notably, the Cyberverse stuff has all been replaced with Earthspark stuff. Almost. One peg ful of Cyberverse still.
...
And a single lonely Pointblank.

 

 

I kinda like the radiators on the elbows, even if they're in the way. Makes him look like he has integral weapons. Yes, yes, that's not canon, I know. But it's COOL.

Obvious signs of the simplification from the original concept sitting around, though. Most notable Peacemaker having a peg on his ass that would let him peg into a wrist like the japanese cartoon.... if Pointblank's wrists could fold in.

[Scyla]

12 hours ago, mikeszekely said:

Legacy Evolution continues to trickle out... I haven't got any of the "main" ones you guys would be most interested in yet, but I do have Core-class Sludge to look at today.

Well... I mean, where do I even start?  Slag, despite having some toy-ish kibble on his legs, was clearly going for a cartoon aesthetic.  But it's hard to tell what's even going on with Sludge.  Right away, you eyes are drawn to the massive kibble hanging off of his hips.  It's not his tail, hugging the sides of his lower legs like the cartoon.  It's his dino legs, which I guess is more toy style, except the G1 toy (and the Combiner Wars version) had the legs attached near his robot ankles.  At first you might think Evolution Sludge's dino legs are attached near his knees, and they are, and maybe you can just rotate them to be more out of the way, except the dino legs are also attached to his hips.

Perhaps you're so distracted by that kibble that you almost don't notice that while his chest is painted red with a black panel, his midriff is bare gray plastic.  Or that his pelvis flap and the bottom of the dino feet on his hips are black, but his "thighs" (such as they are) are gray.  Or that his wings aren't attached to his back, but rather, are molded onto the outsides of his arms, which are set weirdly out from his chest.

Ultimately, while I certainly had my issues with Slag, it's clear that Sludge's transition to Core-class turned out much worse, at least in bot mode.  And, at around the same size as Slag, he's going to suffer from the same scale issues when placed with the other Core-class figures.  But hey, at least they molded that gunsight pattern inside the 5mm port on his chest.

Sludge's issues aren't just aesthetic.  The way he's built is just bizarre, and it affects his articulation.  His head can swivel, no tilt.  His shoulders are ball joints, so they can swivel and move laterally about 60 degrees.  He has no other arm articulation- no biceps, elbows, or wrists.  He doesn't swivel at the waist, but he can swivel at the chest, so that's something at least.  Ok, now his legs are were things get really weird.  If you look under his hinged pelvis flap you'll find the black part of his "thighs" are actually part of said flap.  Under the flap, you'll find some silver thighs, but they're not attached to his pelvis at all.  Instead, they're molded onto the dinosaur legs.  Where the dino feet are attached to his hips on a disc hinge is where his hips swivel forward and backward a little over 90 degrees in either direction, and they can move laterally about 45 degrees (but more than 30 degrees and you'll be able to see the gap between his silver "thighs" and the bottom of his pelvis flap).  The dino legs have a swivel that kind of acts as a thigh swivel, but it's actually shifting his robot leg out and around, which again quickly breaks the illusion that his robot "thigh" is attached to anything.  A ball joint connects the dino leg to the outside of his robot knees, allowing them to bend over 90 degrees.  He has no foot or ankle articulation.

Sludge doesn't come with any accessories, although his dino head is not attached in the package.  Thing is, there's no way for him to hold it in his hand, and it doesn't partsform, so once you have it attached to his back there's no reason to remove it.  That said, his fists do have the smaller holes that the other Core-class figures do, so he can at least hold their accessories.

Transforming Sludge is pretty simple, but it's noteworthy for one reason- unlike the G1 toy, the Combiner Wars toy, and the Studio Series 86 toy, Evolution Sludge's robot arms do not become any of his alt mode's legs.

But maybe they should have, because his alt mode is decidedly not great.  His front legs have that sort of stubby look of the G1 toy and cartoon, but his rear legs don't have the shape of either.  But what bugs me more is that SS86 Sludge, ostensibly cartoon-accurate and the model the Core-class should follow, has rear legs that bend backward.  Instead of copying his larger sibling, though, Evolution Sludge has hips that are set back way too far, and knees that are permanently molded bending forward.  Combine that with a hollow gap under his neck and the stumpiest of tails that's connected to his body higher than his neck and he's really not looking too hot (although he does sort of look like my cat when he's about to pounce).

Adding insult to injury, Sludge does nothing in dinosaur mode.  He has zero articulation- his jaws don't open, his neck doesn't bend.  He has no elbow, knee, or ankle articulation.  His hips and shoulders do not move.  His limbs are frozen in place against his body.  I mean, Slag's articulation wasn't the best, but at least his shoulders and hips swiveled, his shoulders had lateral movement, and he could open his mouth.

How did Sludge get to be so bad?  Well, I'll tell you... he was designed to be a half a torso first, and both of his other modes too a back seat to that.  Of course, it may be hard to see when Sludge is in his combined mode without being connected to any other Dinobots... he looks like he simply raised his arms, turned his dino legs 180 degrees, then folded over his robot legs.  Because that's pretty much it... and on that note, I'm finding it difficult to believe that his horrible robot mode design was the only way to get his robot and dinosaur legs into a configuration like this.

Regardless... once he's in position, take the Volcanicus head out of Slag's tail, then plug the 5mm port on the gold side into the hole on Sludge's chest.

With Slag's tail attached, you'll find that the two holes next to Sludge's head line up with two pegs on Slag's chest.  The forward-most hole on Slag's tail lines up with a peg on his dino chin, and Sludge's head fits into the cavity in Slag's chest.

If everything is lined up right, Slag's front toes will tuck into the dino legs on Sludge's back.  Then, you can use holes on the inside of Sludge's forearms to lock them onto pegs on Slag's front legs.  Everything should fit together nice and snug.

The outside of Sludge's hands have peg holes that I expect the arms will plug into.  Sludge's dino legs form Volcanicus' thighs and have 5mm peg holes on the bottom where the legs will plug in.  Of course, the other Dinobots aren't available yet... AFAIK, we haven't even seen renders or prototypes.  However, using 5mm ports for connections means we can get a little creative and make a complete robot by grabbing some parts from the War for Cybertron Weaponizers, Modulators, or Fossilizers.  I used Slammer's shoulders to extend the thighs and turn the 5mm port into a peg, then attached Slammer's legs.  I had a harder time finding shoulders with pegs instead of peg holes, But Ironworks would do.  I thought they looked a little short on their own, though, so I removed the hook hand and plugged in the rest of Slammer's arm.  To use Slammer's other arm on the other side I grabbed the hook arm from the Botropolis Ironworks.  Well, now his arms are too long, but... you get the idea.  Combined, Slag and Sludge make a decent, if little, torso.

And yes, Sludge is a sauropod, Rairyu is a sauropod, Sludge forms the lower torso of this Volcanicus instead of his right leg, just like Rairyu forms Dinoking's lower torso.  Honestly, I fully expect Hasbro to redeco/retool this set into Dinoking from Victory before they actually try to do Monstructor.

But I digress.  As a Sludge to go with your Core-class Transformers, Evolution Sludge is a failure.  He's a terrible robot, with a bad dinosaur mode that can't even move, and he's too small to scale with guys like Core-class Ratchet let alone Core-class Prime.  If that's what you want, you're better off looking into DX9's old Dinobots, or maybe hoping NewAge does the other four now that they've done Grimlock.  The only reason to buy Evolution Sludge is if you're committing now to the Core-class Volcanicus, and on that note at least I can say that Slag and Sludge combined make a decent torso, but we'll see how the limbs turn out.

I’m confused. The Hasbro designer went all out to come up with such an novel hip design for sludge (supposedly for the combiner mode hips) and then the leg shells just dangle there next to Vulcanicus' thighs. 

[mikeszekely]

48 minutes ago, Scyla said:

I’m confused. The Hasbro designer went all out to come up with such an novel hip design for sludge (supposedly for the combiner mode hips) and then the leg shells just dangle there next to Vulcanicus' thighs. 

More or less.  Like I said, his dinosaur legs are connected to the sides of his robot hips and the outsides of his robot knees; that's the only way his robot legs are attached to his body.  For combined mode his dinosaur legs rotate near the ankles, effectively turning his dino legs into Volcanicus' thighs but turning his robot legs to the outside as yet more kibble.

I keep thinking that he'd have had the same amount of kibble but a much better bot and dino mode if they made the dino legs thinner, cartoon-accurate ones attached near his ankles (and not his hips at all), given him actual thighs that connected is lower legs to his body, and did the ol' splits at the hips, legs bend inward at the knees and used his robot legs for Volcanicus' thighs.  But what do I know?

[Wolf-1]

Noticed Flame Toys is set to release the second model kit in their G1 line; it's Soundwave with a Ravage, the previous release being O.P., which is the Sunbow version.  Having built 4 of them, all Prime's to this point, they compete with practically any Bandai HG/MG articulation, in other words they have quite a lot of abiltiy to pose.  Personally, I feel like the Soundwave sculpt is slightly off, I expect the legs to be big and boxy but it seems like the forarms are twice the width of his shoulders.  Ravage also seems to come with quite the bit of articulation.  I've seen a proto-type for Megatron in G1 goodness and he like Prime is lifted directly from the Sunbow version.  

If you like the concept of the Red line but won't fork the money out for the rubbery feel and lack of articulation, the Flame Toys model kit line is a great alternative.                                          

[mikeszekely]

12 hours ago, JB0 said:

My Target restocked the Transformers section after the holiday devastation.
It now looks almost exactly like it did before. Bunch of Blitzwings, bunch of Jhiaxzus or however it's spelled, handful of Reaction figures(all G2 Grimlock dinosaur mode), a bunch of empty pegs, and a bunch of comic and Power Ranger toys hanging on pegs tagged as containing Transformers.

I've been to two different ones (and a Walmart) last weekend.  Unless you wanted Coronation Starscream (or the Walmart-exclusive Kingdom repaints) they were pretty much empty of Transformers entirely.

12 hours ago, JB0 said:

Notably, the Cyberverse stuff has all been replaced with Earthspark stuff.

Hmm.  I need some other stuff, perhaps I'll make a Target run tomorrow.  I was meaning to check out some of the Earthspark Deluxes, and I hadn't been able to find those anywhere else yet.  Even Pulse sold out surprisingly quickly.

Well, local stores have been a bust, but seems like Amazon is going to send me stuff one figure at a time.  Today, we can move up from the Cores with Legacy Evolution Deluxe-class Needlenose.

Sometimes it's interesting what Hasbro can do when they're not beholden to a cartoon, eh?  Evolution Needlenose has proportions that fit with other figures in the War For Cybertron/Legacy lines, and coupled with his newly-red eyes he looks like he could have been based on the cartoon, but he was never animated.  Instead, Needlenose borrows a lot from his G1 toy.  He's got the yellow face and the knight's helmet.  His arms are purple like the toy, and have have similar molded details like the two horizontal lines above his thumbs, to vertical lines on bottom corner of his shoulders, and the raised rectangles on the top corner of his shoulders.  His torso has the same shapes and gray colors as the G1 toy, including the raised collar.  Blue pelvis with the indent on his crotch, that's a toy detail.  His gray thighs lack the stickers of the G1 toy, but there's some molded lines that somewhat recall them.  Likewise, molded turquoise vents on his shins are a simplified version of the stickers the G1 toy had.  He's even got raised gray kneepads where the original toy's solid thighs and knees cut into the hinged blue lower legs, and we cap it all off with purple feet, ala the toy.  Heck, Evolution Needlenose even has pegs on the corners of his wings where the original toy did!

Like the G1 toy, Evolution Needlenose also carries his alt mode on his back in the same way.  The biggest difference is that more of the fuselage folds over on his spine than just the blue nose.  The result is something along the lines of "what if the G1 toy, but with better proportions and articulation?"  And as someone who grew up with a lot of the post-movie toys this is something I find appealing.

Size-wise, although Needlenose is a Deluxe he's fairly large, standing something like a head taller than the Autobot cars or the Stunticons but maybe a head shorter than Starscream.  Considering that the original toy was fairly small, in lieu of a spot on an official scale chart I think he's an ok size- right about the same as his fellow Targetmaster Spinister.

Speaking of Targetmasters, like the G1 toy he comes with two, Zigzag (the black one) and Sunbeam (the purple one).  I have mixed feelings about these two.  On the one hand, they're remarkably accurate to the originals, down to Sunbeam even having a molded rifle on his left hand.  Zigzag's just missing his white pelvis (although he's covered in paint- he's actually molded from the same purple as Sunbeam- that black is paint).  As with Pointblank's Peacemaker, I appreciate that they're not just recycling the same two Battlemasters over and over anymore, but in a way I feel like we're moving backward.  I mean, Zigzag and Sunbeam have zero articulation in their robot modes- the only moving parts are flipping out their gun barrels.  That's exactly how the G1 toys were back in the '80s.  But, over a decade ago, Universe Cyclonus came with a Nightstick figure that has shoulder swivels, elbow bends, and hip swivels that could move independently of each other.  I think I'd almost prefer if Hasbro did like Spinister and just gave Needlenose non-transforming guns that looked sort of like Zigzag and Sunbeam's gun modes.

His Targetmaster buddies might not have articulation, but Needlenose himself sure does.  His head is on a ball joint for swiveling, some downward and sideways tilt, but nothing really up due to the engine behind his head getting in the way.  His shoulders rotate and extend laterally 90 degrees.  His biceps swivel, and his elbows are double-jointed for a full 180 degrees of curl.  His wrists swivel, as does his waist (although his backpack might have to be moved out of the way.  His hips can go over 90 degrees forward, only a little bit backward due to his backpack getting in the way, and over 90 degrees laterally (his limit is really when his leg starts banging into his shoulder).  His thighs swivel, and his knees bend around 150 degrees.  His feet can tilt down 90 degrees, and his ankles can pivot around 60 degrees.  Although you can have his wings flat against his back like the G1 toy, they can fold back away from his body about 45 degrees (more than that and they'll push his backpack out).

Needlenose can hold his weapons in either hand.  Additionally, he's got a 5mm port on either shoulder, on either forearm, on the side of each leg just below the knee, under each foot, and the exhaust nozzle behind his head is 5mm compatible as well.  Additionally, there's the 5mm posts on his wing tips.

Transforming Needlenose is more complicated than the G1 toy, but still surprisingly similar.  His whole head folds down into his chest instead of just his helmet covering his face, and his arms fold up above his head instead of tucking into his sides, which in turn necessitates shifting his entire backpack and up and toward the rear of his alt mode.  But his legs still wrap around his sides so his toes point toward the rear, and his nose still folds down off his back.

Of course, the similarities to the G1 toy mean that, like the G1 toy, he's got a lot of folded-up robot on his underbelly, which is sure to displease some of you.  Given the source material and the realities of a Deluxe-class budget, though, I'm not super bothered by that.  Even his feet, which sit where the original's head was, comes together with to form a box with an hexagonal indent that looks oddly purposeful and not simply like robot feet.  His red cockpit is present, and the blue and turquoise paint on his wings recalls a simplified version of the stickers on the original.  I just wish he had some paint on his tail.  Speaking of his tail... the original toy didn't have those horizontal stabs on it, nor did it have the diminutive canards that Evolution Needlenose does.  While it could be as simple as making Needlenose less obviously an F-16XL to avoid paying Lockheed Martin for a license, there's been some speculation that Hasbro could slap new wings and a different head on this mold and make Windsweeper.

Anyway... you have the 5mm port in the exhaust, in case you wanted to use an effects part, and the ports that were on his legs are technically accessible on the belly of the jet (although, with no landing gear, he's going to wind up sitting on them).  However, like the original toy, Zigzag and Sunbeam have 5mm ports on the top sides of their gun modes.  These ports allow them to mount onto the pegs on the underside of his wing tips.

The ports also allow you to plug one into the other to make a single, larger gun.  Sure, this was a gimmick the G1 toy had, and sure, he could use the super gun in bot mode like the G1 toy.  However, Hasbro added a specific gimmick that requires Sunbeam to be placed into the more forward port on Zigzag.  Then, you can undo the back of the plane just enough to open Needlenose's feet.  A notched tab on Zigzag's heels will plug into slots under Needlenose's exhaust nozzle, with clearance behind the nozzle for Sunbeam's head.  And... yeah, I mean, it's a thing you can do.  Doesn't look much better than when Darkwing and Dreadwind become Dreadwing, but it's something.

Gotta be honest, when they announced Needlenose I can't say I was super excited for him.  Sure, he had a role in the IDW comics (as the brother of Tracks, no less), but I didn't have the original toy, he wasn't in the cartoon, and I was out of the Marvel comics by the time he showed up.  I didn't dislike him, but a part of me was asking, "why this guy" for a new Deluxe mold, especially when Breakdown is getting shafted into a minimal retool of Wildrider.  Early pictures, with the robot wearing a jet on his back and a jet carrying a folded-up robot on his belly, didn't exactly wow me, either.  In hand, though, the ease of flipping him between modes and his solid articulation make him a very fun figure to mess around with, and I'm finding that I actually like this guy a lot.  I'm going to go ahead and give him a a solid recommend from me.

[JB0]

4 hours ago, mikeszekely said:

I've been to two different ones (and a Walmart) last weekend.  Unless you wanted Coronation Starscream (or the Walmart-exclusive Kingdom repaints) they were pretty much empty of Transformers entirely.

"Pretty much empty" is typical here.

My Targets finally got rid of Coronation Starscream. I don't know how, because they clearly weren't selling that shelf-load.

[Scyla]

Watched Peaugh's review of Leo Prime:

During the video I has the thought that the had is so squished because Hasbro needed to save money because the lion head is a big chunk of plastic. So they just squished it in the CAD tool to make it narrower but didn’t change anything else.

I think if you would stretch out the head by factor 1.2 it would be a good looking lion head. 

Edited January 13, 2023 by Scyla

[mikeszekely]

My Leo Prime should be here tomorrow maybe, so I'm really trying to avoid any other reviews lest the unconsciously bias my own.  While we wait for Leo Prime, though, I do have Legacy Evolution Deluxe-class Hot Shot to look at.

A complaint I often hear is how Transformers are getting smaller, so I was kind of surprised to see that Hot Shot is the same height, more or less, than the original toy (or the Powerlinx repaint).  For that matter, he's pretty similar in height (to the top of the head) with the 2008 Universe release, which I never bothered with.  As far as more modern releases go he's a head shorter than Hot Rod, but right in line with the Autobot cars or the Stunticons.

Where Evolution Hot Shot differs from previous takes is how much bulk he has (or rather, hasn't), and where that bulk is kept.  His shins are a bit narrower, and his arms are downright thin compared to the original toy.  Thing is, for most of his body, I actually think the new proportions work pretty well for him.  I do wish his arms were a bit thicker.

Of course, a lot of the reduced bulk on his arms is because they're kibble-free.  If you look at the insides of his forearms they molded fake car windows, but that's it.  You may also notice that his back's a bit different, and he could use some gray paint on the circles on his shins.  Look a bit closer and you might notice that the bit of tire that pokes out from his shin flaps is on the inside edge of his leg instead of the outside, because on Evolution Hot Shot the hood of the car is on the outsides of his legs instead of the inside.  His calves are now dominated by the the top of the car kibble that used to be on his forearms.

Hot Shot's lone accessory is his engine gun.  It's decently painted, given that it's molded from red plastic, and looks pretty good.  Armada fans hoping he'd come with a new Jolt Minicon will be a bit disappointed, but probably not surprised since Legacy Starscream didn't come with Swindle.

So, why all the minor aesthetic changes, you might be asking?  The answer, plain and simple, is articulation.  The original toy barely had any.  The 2008 Universe toy had it in theory, but in practice the kibble was constantly in the way and loose joints made him difficult to stand and pose.  Evolution Hot Shot's articulation is fairly average for a modern War For Cybertron/Legacy toy... but that makes him among the most-articulated Hot Shots you can get.  His head swivels, no tilt.  His shoulders can swivel- his backpack and the shoulder pads are going to get in the way such that he can't swivel them 360 degrees, but you get get at least 30 degrees back and over 90 forward, and up to 180 if you unplug and move the shoulder pad.  His shoulders also move over 90 degrees laterally.  His biceps swivel, and his elbows bend 90 degrees.  No wrist swivels, but his waist swivels for the first time on an Armada Hot Shot.  His hips can go forward or laterally just a bit over 90 degrees, and backward just a bit under.  His thighs swivel.  With the kibble on his calves properly in place his knee bend is fairly limited, maybe 30-ish degrees.  If you use the ball joint to move it to the side of his leg, though, you'll get nearly 90 degrees.  Untabbing his knee from the top of his shin will allow you to use a transformation joint as an additional knee hinge, pushing the total range to nearly 180 degrees.  Speaking of transformation, his feet can tilt downward due to how he transforms, and Hasbro managed to work in 90 degrees of ankle pivot.

His gun has two handles, because I guess that's how the original toy was.  You can use either one to plug the gun into either of his fists.  Both of the gun's barrels have the little nubs for blast effects (not included).  Oh, and you guys remember that Star Saber sword that Starscream came with, that everyone thought was kind of small for him?  Turns out it's just the right size for Hot Shot.

But wait, there's more!  Despite the lack of Minicon, Hot Shot does have his axle bazooka gimmick.  Rather than being some kind of spring-activated thing, though, you manually fold the axle over and spin it around so the wheel with the 5mm port is facing forward.  Said port will make the axle bazooka work with blast effects (again, not included).  You can flip his visor down over his face, too- I don't remember when he did it in the cartoon, but I figured I'd pose him like it's a targeting computer or protective eyewear for firing the axle bazooka.

What he cannot do is wear his engine gun on his chest.  I don't recall him doing that in the cartoon, but frankly, it's been years since I watched it and I didn't really like it anyway.  But I do understand it was something the original toy could do.

Speaking of stuff the original toy could do that this one can't, you might have noticed a distinct lack of Minicon ports.  There's nowhere on his bot mode that's compatible with original Armada Minicons.  That said, he does have 5mm ports on the sides of his spoiler where the original toy had Minicon ports, on the outside of each forearm, on the outside of each leg near his calves, under each toe, on his back behind his axle bazooka, and on each side of his axle bazooka (one side of which is exposed on his back when the bazooka isn't in firing mode).  I'll remind you that all the Siege Micromasters had flip out 5mm pegs that allowed you to attach them to the larger figures.  I don't recall a helicopter that could pass as Jolt, but nothing stopping you from jamming Roadhandler onto Hot Shot.

Hot Shot's transformation is a bit more involved than the original figure, but a lot less so than the Universe version.  In broad strokes, it's pretty obvious what you're supposed to do, but it's easy to get hung up on certain little details, like if his arms aren't turned the right way the doors can't tab in, or if you had his axle bazooka turned the wrong way on his back the rear of the car can't fold down the whole way, or remembering to flip out the little yellow bits on his roof.  I was a bit surprised by how much smaller he gets in car mode- significantly smaller now than the old Armada toy, but pretty average for WFC/Legacy.

I think his car mode is decent.  The overall shape is pretty close to the original, and he's got translucent windows instead of painted ones.  I have a few minor criticisms, though.  The silver on his headlights and front grill is fine, but the silver just above the grill should probably have been yellow, and the yellow spot with the peg holes is where that silver should have been.  His front bumper is black, and they painted the skirt along both sides black, but his rear bumper is simply missing.  Likewise, they painted the lines on his roof, but not the vent in front of his spoiler, which was black on the original toy.  Finally, aside from the Autobot symbol (which is nice and clean on this figure), there's no red on him.  The original had red taillights and red marker lights on the front bumper, plus red on the center of his wheels (which otherwise had silver rims).  I can live without red on his wheels, though.

As far as alt mode gimmicks go, you can still plug the engine gun into its spot on his hood.  You can still open his bumper up, but rather than painted claws you just have the 5mm ports that are under his toes.  The 5mm ports on the sides of his spoilers that replaced some Minicon ports are also available.  Curiously, there is one post with a hole on the rear.  The post is 5mm, so you can plug in any accessory that has a 5mm port that fits between the halves of his spoiler, like one of Wildrider's guns or Earthrise Optimus' Matrix of Leadership.  I suspect but can't confirm (because the Powerlinx Hot Shot I have is a junker someone gave me sans accessories) that the hole in the peg might make him compatible with the original Armada Minicons.

In some ways, Hot Shot is a lot like Needlenose.  I don't have a ton of attachment to him- Needlenose doesn't have a cartoon presence but at least he's G1, Hot Shot isn't G1 but at least he's one of the main characters in the Armada cartoon.  My lack of attachment meant that I wasn't super excited for him, but in-hand he's a pretty decent, fun little figure.  He might not be for you if you're strictly into G1, but Armada fans should be pretty happy with him.  And even if you're not big on Armada, he's fun enough and aesthetically close enough to retroactively decide Hot Shot was a G1 character all along, like Legacy Bulkhead or Knock-Out.

[mikeszekely]

Legacy Evolution is continuing to slowly trickle out, one figure every few days, from Amazon.  No sign of the other Deluxes, but today we've got our first Voyager-class release with Leo Prime.

Leo Prime is about the same height as fellow Maximal leader Kingdom Optimus Primal, which you may recall from that review is a tad shorter than Earthrise Optimus Prime.  Curious, how the Maximal analogs of Optimus Prime are shorter than the Autobot leader, but the Predacon named Megatron is bigger than his Decepticon namesake (when the Beast Wars cartoon depicted both as significantly smaller than their ancestors).  I'm not very familiar with the Japanese Beast Wars sequels, but AFAIK Leo and Primal being around the same size squares with with the theatrical story "Lio Convoy in Imminent Danger".

So, for the parts of Leo Prime that are the robot, he looks pretty good.  The proportions are better than any Leo Prime save the MP version, the head sculpt is strong, and there's a decent amount of paint on him meant to get his colors right- they even painted parts of his gray-molded hands blue

The aesthetic issues I have with this guy are more due to the lion kibble.  Not in the sense that he has it- it's simply a fact of life that the Beast-era animation may have fixed some proportions but was generally much more accurate to the toys than G1, kibble and all, so I expect the head on his right shoulder, the butt on his left, and lion arms dangling off the backs of his forearms.  No, it's more that the aesthetic established with Kingdom with more realistic animal modes has a somewhat detrimental effect on that kibble.  The lion's face as mane lack the almost mechanical look of the animation.  This isn't limited to the head, either, but the bits of mane on his forearms, which were much sleeker in the animation.  On his left shoulder, the irregular shapes of the lion's back half stack awkwardly on top of each other rather than nestle together like overturned spoons to form a nearly continuous, domed shoulder pad.  Then there's the lion legs on his forearms.  Traditionally the lion's legs look like they're coming straight out from under the mane, but this time he's got a more realistic-looking lion shoulder.  While the leg can kind of curl up behind the shoulder, the whole thing sticks out a bit further on a ball joint and gets in the way more than designs that have the lion leg laying more flush against his robot arm.  There's the backpack, too.  It's a chunk of the lion's back that just kind of lays there without tabbing into anything in this mode.  I get that a Voyager-class toy isn't going to have the budget that an MP does, but I do wish that Leo Prime maybe borrowed a little more from MP-48 in these regards.

Leo Prime comes with a few accessories.  They're unfortunately all molded from the same gold plastic as his mane, so the colors aren't cartoon-accurate (but they are Robot Masters accurate), but the accessories themselves do appear in the cartoon.  The two smaller ones have 5mm pegs, while the longer ones just have little tabs.  Weirdly, the shorter ones have slots on them, but the tabs on the longer ones do NOT fit into them.  Nothing does.  Those slots seem to exist solely to conserve plastic.  They lack any sort of missile-firing gimmick, but are otherwise roughly in-line with what the original Lio Convoy toy came with in 1998.  That said, I do wish he came with one more gun... I don't know if he used in the cartoon I never watched, but both the Robot Masters Lio Convoy and MP-48 had it.

Leo Prime's head is on a ball joint with some up/down tilt, but nothing really sideways.  His shoulder kibble has hinges to tilt up toward his head, as well as hinges to fold back off of his shoulders (with the lion head even being on a slider to ensure that the mane clears his backpack).  This allows the shoulders themselves to swivel and extend laterally 90 degrees.  His biceps swivel, and his elbows bend 90 degrees.  No wrist swivels, but his waist has a swivel.  His hips can go forward and backward about 90 degrees, and laterally slightly over 90.  His thighs swivel.  His knees bend 90 degrees.  It's more for transformation, but he does have an ankle swivel, and his ankles pivot up to 90 degrees.  His feet do not have any up/down tilt, though.

He can hold the smaller weapons via their 5mm pegs as pistols, which is good enough, I suppose.  The tabs on the longer weapons do not allow Leo Prime to hold them in his 5mm fists.  Indeed, there's a relative dearth of of 5mm ports.  The only ones immediately visible are on the outsides of his knees and under his heels.

To use the larger weapons, you flip the bits of mane on the sides of his forearms down, revealing... 5mm ports?  It's kind of weird that the tabs on those weapons don't fit into Leo's fists, but do fit into these peg hole holes, but for what it's worth those peg holes are the hexagonal kind.  So, they work with the larger weapons, but if you like they also work with any 5mm-pegged accessory, including the ones on the pistols.

Another gimmick from previous toys and the cartoon is that you can flip the lion legs around, and on the backs they have fold-out claws.  They don't have the swivels that the MP does, so the only way to get the claws to curve toward his fist as they do in the cartoon is to turn the whole leg around.

All of his accessories have storage in robot mode.  There are panels in the top of the lion's mane that flip forward, revealing 5mm peg holes that the pistols can plug into.  On the inside of his backpack are two slots and two tabs- the tabs on the longer weapons (I believe they're supposed to be missiles, but they have the little nubs on the tips for blast effects like guns) go into the slots, and the tabs on his backpack fit into slots near the tips of the weapons.  This leaves the tips pointing downward in bot mode, so if you wanted to stick some blast effects on them you could pretend Leo Prime has a jetpack.

And you wanna know the best part?  His accessories can stay in those spots even through transformation.  I love me some concealed alt mode storage.

Leo Prime's tail can flip out of his left shoulder, which I guess is an attack from the cartoon?  The sides of the lion's mane are not hinged, though, so he can't do the "Lio Typhoon" thing.  But he does have one final robot gimmick- the panel on his left breast opens to reveal his Energon Matrix... which I guess is something the Beast Wars II writers decided all the Maximal leaders have, so there's more than one, but I'm not even clear is a physical thing that could be removed (it's not removable here, at least).  But anyway, you can open the door and look at it.  Well, you can actually do slightly more than that... there's one of those little nubs on it, so you can stick a blast effect (not included) onto it.  Is shooting a blast out of his Energon Matrix something Lio Convoy did in Beast Wars II?  Sure would be nice if someone like Shout Factory would sub Beast Wars II and Beast Wars Neo for the US.  

Transforming Leo Prime into a lion is mostly pretty easy once you know what you're supposed to do.  There's only two problems- the first is that you need to tab his wrists into an armature under the lion's head, and once everything is secure and in place it'll be fine, but they like to pop out while you're lining everything up and securing it into place, giving him a touch of fiddliness.  The other issue is that the instructions aren't super clear on what it is you're actually supposed to be doing, making the first time transforming him a little confusing.

Aesthetically I have some mixed feelings.  As I previously noted, the designers opted to keep the more realistic animal style they started with Kingdom, and it's not doing Leo Prime any favors in the head department.  The original toys and the cartoon had a face that was very cartoony, almost Kimba the White Lion-esque that conveyed a sense of intelligence and heroism, but Evolution Leo Convoy just looks kind of doofy.  I know @Scyla suggested that the face looks kind of squished, but lions don't actually have very long faces.  In fact, if you take the following picture of a lion and hold Leo Prime at a distance from your screen such that they're the same size, you'll find that they have nearly identical proportions.  However, you'll also find that the real lion's mane also covers his cheeks and jowls.  Leo Prime's mane is simply back too far, giving him the appearance of sunken cheeks and narrow jaws.  Combine that with eyes that are just gold orbs with no pupils and, yeah.  It's not the best.

Aside from his head, though, I think he looks pretty good.  Sure, there are seams where his body panels line up, and some inevitable robot bits showing on his pelvis, chest, and the backs of his legs- that's part and parcel of robots turning into "real" animals, I'm afraid (and one of the reasons Beast Wars initially bothered me so much but stuff like the G1 Predacons never did).  If I'm being totally honest, though, the seems are a lot better, the lion's flanks look a lot more like an actual lion, and the parts of his mane that were on his forearms are actually integrated into the rest of his mane, which are actually significant improvements over MP-48's lion mode.

Articulation in lion mode, however, isn't so hot.  He can open his mouth a little, but has no other head articulation.  His front legs can bend forward at the ball joints, which work out to be his lion elbows, but the forward range is fairly limited.  They have swivels, but as they're below the elbows I guess they're technically wrist swivels.  The paws themselves have no articulation, which is a bummer, although you can still deploy the claws, I suppose.  Back legs are a bit better, due to being his robot legs.  His hips have a little bit of swivel backward, lateral extension, thigh swivels, digitigrade knees that bend forward plenty but only a little bit backward before his robot knee pads get in the way, ankle swivels, and ankle pivots.  His tail is technically hinged at the base for transformation, but using it to articulate the tail in lion mode breaks the sculpt.

But hey, you can have a gorilla riding a lion, and that's never not cool.

Although everything stores in lion mode, you might want to have it deployed while in lion mode, which is something that the older toys and cartoon did.  For the pistols, you just flip over the top of his lion mane again.  For the longer "missiles" you'll have to dig them out of his back, then fold over the parts of his mane that were on his forearms and plug them into the revealed 5mm ports.

I've kind of always liked Lio Convoy (once I discovered him).  A lion just seems cooler to me than a gorilla (and gives him an alt mode that makes a bit more sense than starting with a humanoid form and transforming into a slightly different primate), and I really like the more traditional Optimus colors on his robot bits mixed with white.  I think he's cooler than Optimus Primal, and I like this figure better than Kingdom Primal.  That said, despite being very popular in Japan he's a touch more obscure in the West, and I could see even the Beast Wars fans among us being a bit turned off by the somewhat static lion mode with the doofy face and the kibble on his robot arms.  I'll say I like him, and I'd tentatively recommend him, but I'll also say he hasn't dethroned Needlenose as my favorite of the wave and note that in general Legacy and Evolution haven't generated the same excitement for me that War for Cybertron and Studio Series 86 has.

That said, I hope you guys like this mold.  I have it on good authority we'll be seeing the guy who really started the black, gray, and teal repaints of Primes, Copy Convoy/Black Lio Convoy, later in Evolution under the name "Nemesis Leo."

[Tking22]

MP Trailbreaker looks good, but I'm not liking that shade of grey, I get it, animation accurate, but it's ugly. Once again, like with Hound, it looks good overall but not good enough to justify bumping my perfectly fine third party stand-in. Jetfire too I guess, if I didn't have Phoenix I'd be all over him, but I do so I'm not. The minfig stuff looks cool, but I'll literally never display him like that. 

[Hikuro]

I just got in my Legacy Breakdown. Little surprised he only came with a singular blaster, WHICH btw a little disappointed that it stores under the chassis where as you can't do that with the other figures. I mean I get it, he's got the rear spoiler so the port doesn't exist like Wildrider. You can keep it stowed away while in combiner mode, so I guess I'll just take the win on that. 

So all that's missing is Deadend which he's pretty elusive right now being the final part of the combiner set. BBTS and TFSource have him sold out, Toydojo isn't even listing him, Amazon is jacked up to 60 dollars and Ebay isn't really any different. 

I'm still waiting for the DNA Design to release their upgrade kit for Menasore but kinda tempted to just cancel it. I'm finding some 3D Printable options to help in certain areas like the sword most of all. 

[mikeszekely]

51 minutes ago, Hikuro said:

So all that's missing is Deadend which he's pretty elusive right now being the final part of the combiner set. BBTS and TFSource have him sold out, Toydojo isn't even listing him, Amazon is jacked up to 60 dollars and Ebay isn't really any different. 

Well, Dead End's not really the last, Breakdown is.  Granted, Dead End hasn't been out for super long (I got my preorder in and reviewed him mid-November), but that might be why you're having a harder time finding him.  Last time I checked Target they were pretty empty, but I'll keep an eye out there and Walmart, if I see one I'll grab it for you.

Supposedly my copy of Breakdown is set for Wednesday from Amazon, but since they haven't actually shipped it yet I'm a tad skeptical.  Tarn and Scraphook are still saying March, but I'm hoping to see them sooner than later.  Along with a Fan First Friday to announce the next wave, and maybe some Studio Series stuff.  I had like two pages of preorders before, now I'm down to just those last three Evolution figures and the four officially-announced Studio Series ROTB figs.

[Hikuro]

11 hours ago, mikeszekely said:

Well, Dead End's not really the last, Breakdown is.  Granted, Dead End hasn't been out for super long (I got my preorder in and reviewed him mid-November), but that might be why you're having a harder time finding him.  Last time I checked Target they were pretty empty, but I'll keep an eye out there and Walmart, if I see one I'll grab it for you.

Supposedly my copy of Breakdown is set for Wednesday from Amazon, but since they haven't actually shipped it yet I'm a tad skeptical.  Tarn and Scraphook are still saying March, but I'm hoping to see them sooner than later.  Along with a Fan First Friday to announce the next wave, and maybe some Studio Series stuff.  I had like two pages of preorders before, now I'm down to just those last three Evolution figures and the four officially-announced Studio Series ROTB figs.

That’s funny breakdown for me came from Amazon. I guess he was technically the last of the set originally scheduled for March I think. 
I don’t get to go out much and the closest target here is awful at releases, or they get snagged super fast I’m  it sure which. Even the two Walmarts in town are terrible. But I also had caught Covid right at the end of the year, so I’m not well enough yet to venture outwards. 
mid toydojo had dead end I’d probably order it for pickup, alas he’s not even listed on their site.