The Transformers Thread (licensed) Next

[Hikuro]

It’s very disappointing that they’re going those routes with jazz and grimlock. Had they stuck to their g2 decos I would have gladly ordered them. If anything now it just fuels my need to buy an additional studio series jazz and get the Toyhax labels for him, call it good.

I know g2 figures always had some of the strangest paint colors but come on….

[mikeszekely]

4 hours ago, Hikuro said:

It’s very disappointing that they’re going those routes with jazz and grimlock. Had they stuck to their g2 decos I would have gladly ordered them. If anything now it just fuels my need to buy an additional studio series jazz and get the Toyhax labels for him, call it good.

I know g2 figures always had some of the strangest paint colors but come on….

I don't think the more traditional G2 decos are off the table.  They might still turn up as Generations Selects or something, especially since I haven't heard much about what Hasbro might be planning for Gen Selects this year.  Frankly, I think these Walmart exclusives are going to shelfwarm the way half of Velocitron, all the Beast Wars repaints, and a good bit of Netflix did.

...and, I dunno.  I kind of like the yellow with teal tiger stripes Grimlock.  But yeah, that Jazz... 🤮

[mikeszekely]

Apparently a small norovirus outbreak is going around my daughter's elementary school.  She's better now, but during the worst of it should couldn't keep anything down long, not even soup.  Well... even though I was just at Target the other day, I found myself going back today for carpet cleaner.  And even though they didn't have beans there the last time I went, I stills swung by the toy aisle and was pleasantly surprised to find myself walking out later not just with the carpet cleaner, but also with Buzzworthy Bumblebee Deluxe-class Origins Jazz.

It was an oddity of that first episode of the G1 cartoon that all the characters on Cybertron looked exactly like would when they woke up on Earth with their new Earth alt-modes.  I'm not sure if the animators thought our young brains were too mushy to figure out that they were the same characters if they changed the obvious car parts on the robots.  Or, more likely, they didn't have the time budget to invest in whipping up new Cybertronian robot-mode character models, so they just made a few sci-fi-ish looking vehicles with no thought for how they'd transform, figuring it's just a short scene in one episode that everyone would forget about after the cast got their established Earth modes.  It's not like nearly 40 years later someone would try to actually make toys with the regular robot character models that actually transformed into those one-off Cybertronian alt modes, right?

Well, from the front Hasbro honestly did a fantastic job.  In some ways, the narrower chest and the reduced kibble on the outsides of his legs make Origin Jazz arguably more cartoon accurate than Studio Series Jazz, although the shoulders are a little large, the panels on the sides of his legs cut into the gray on his shins, and he's missing the blue on his pelvis.  I also think it might have been a bit better if they'd made his torso white with gray paint instead of black with gray paint, as it'd make the area around his collar blend in with his chest a bit better.

From the sides and back we can start to see that Jazz is a bit of a shellformer, with a large backpack and lower legs covered with what will be the rear of the vehicle.  But, I think he's less egregiously kibbly than Origin Bumblebee, and honestly kind of similar to Studio Series Jazz with relation to how much kibble and where it's located.

Origin Jazz comes with a rifle that's similar to SS86's rifle, but ultimately a new mold.  He also comes with that grappling hook he used that one episode.  The grappling hook itself can be removed from the winch part, although there's no rope connecting them.  However, that should make it easy enough to leave the winch black and paint the gun and grappling hook silver, which I might do.

Jazz's head is on a ball joint with a fairly good up/down tilt and slight sideways tilt in addition to the standard swivel.  His shoulders swivel, and they can move 90 degrees laterally.  Plus, due to his transformation, he's got a slight forward butterfly (although too much will pop the chest out).  His biceps swivel, and his elbows bend 90 degrees.  No wrist swivels, but his waist does.  His hips can go forward 90 degrees; the joints are capable of 90 degrees backward and laterally as well, but his backpack will stop them a little short.  His thighs swivel, and his knees bend a little under 90 degrees.  His toes can bend down due to transformation, but he's got no upward tilt on his feet.  His ankles can pivot a bit less than 90 degrees, but honestly more than you'd actually need for most poses.

Jazz's gun can plug into either first.  To use the grappling hook, you first fold in one of his fists to reveal another 5mm port, then you plug the winch into his wrist and the grappling hook into the winch.

Alternatively, the 5mm peg on the winch has one of those little holes carved into it, so the entire winch can fit over the blast effect-compatible tip of Jazz's rifle.  Indeed, with the grappling hook and winch thus attached the rifle, the entire thing can be stored on Jazz's back via pegs on the sides of the gun and a port on Jazz's back.  Jazz additionally has 5mm ports under his feet and on the outsides of his shoulders  Alas, he does not have a 5mm port on his actual back, which means you can't store the grappling hook and winch into the mostly-empty void between his back and backpack.

Jazz's transformation is fairly simple.  His chest lifts up on a double hinge to give his arms clearance to butterfly forward, and his backpack unfurls to engulf his head, forming the roof and nose of the vehicle.  An interesting bit is that lifting his chest will reveal a 5mm port underneath, and the winch/grappling hook combo plugs into it for alt mode storage.  Nice!  As for the rest of the transformation, it's easy enough to figure out what you're supposed to do (open the lower legs, fold out the side panels, collapse the legs combiner wars style) but mildly annoying to get the clearances you need while collapsing the legs with everything open then lining it all up at the end.

When Origin Bumblebee came out it was impressive enough that they got the general shape of his Cybertronian alt mode right, but due to his wings becoming kibble on his legs they were kind of stumpy.  Jazz has no such restrictions, and as such he really looks like he came right off the screen.  If I'm being nitpicky, I might suggest that the vents on the sides where the spoiler wraps around could be a bit bigger, but really, the overall shape, the placement of the blue bands and the Autobot insignia, the way the spoiler connects to the rear at the middle, and the way the spoiler wraps around with some of the vehicle still behind it is all cartoon-accurate.  The worst I can say about it is that his arms are kind of visible underneath, although the way the whole thing rests on his arms does give him the impression of hovering, and the way he sits on his arms lifts his nose, which can technically make his chest visible, too (but I'm guessing most of the time you're not going to have him in the same dead-on nose shot as I took, so you're not likely to notice it most of the time).

While Jazz's winch and grappling hook are stored under the vehicle between his robot shoulders, there's no such hidden storage for his rifle.  The instructions tell you to mount it to his roof, via the 5mm peg hole there.  For something a bit more out of sight, at least from some angles, you can use the peg on the side of the rifle to plug into one of the ports on the back of the vehicle.

I find it a amusing and bit ironic that Siege gave us a bunch of characters with Cybetronian alt modes that were quickly replaced in Earthrise and Kingdom with the Earth-mode versions and a lot of us complained about the double-dipping, yet now that Hasbro's going back and giving us Cybertronian modes for guys that already had Earth modes we're all on board.  While the alt modes in Siege were sort of "let's call this scrunched up robot a spaceship!" or cars that were 95% of the way to being the Earth modes already, I like that Hasbro had the forethought to do the G1 cartoon thing and make the robots look like they had their Earth modes.  So now, when Hasbro is releasing cartoon-accurate Cybertronian modes for Jazz and Bumblebee they still feel like they belong together.  Now, I can't say that Origin Jazz is the necessity that SS86 Jazz is, he's a really good figure that pulls off the standard robot and Cybertronian vehicle from the cartoon better than Origin Bumblebee did.  I'm giving him a recommend, especially if you have Bumblebee or a collection of Siege figures you can display him with.  I don't know how they'll pull it off, but here's hoping they do Wheeljack, too.

[no3Ljm]

ThreeZero MDLX figures from TFCon LA 2023.
https://www.taghobby.com/archives/697810

 

[sh9000]

Nice review on Origin Jazz @mikeszekely.  Looking forward to an Origin Wheeljack.  I'll probably collect all of the Origin figures if there are plans for more.

[M'Kyuun]

11 hours ago, mikeszekely said:

Apparently a small norovirus outbreak is going around my daughter's elementary school.  She's better now, but during the worst of it should couldn't keep anything down long, not even soup.  Well... even though I was just at Target the other day, I found myself going back today for carpet cleaner.  And even though they didn't have beans there the last time I went, I stills swung by the toy aisle and was pleasantly surprised to find myself walking out later not just with the carpet cleaner, but also with Buzzworthy Bumblebee Deluxe-class Origins Jazz.

It was an oddity of that first episode of the G1 cartoon that all the characters on Cybertron looked exactly like would when they woke up on Earth with their new Earth alt-modes.  I'm not sure if the animators thought our young brains were too mushy to figure out that they were the same characters if they changed the obvious car parts on the robots.  Or, more likely, they didn't have the time budget to invest in whipping up new Cybertronian robot-mode character models, so they just made a few sci-fi-ish looking vehicles with no thought for how they'd transform, figuring it's just a short scene in one episode that everyone would forget about after the cast got their established Earth modes.  It's not like nearly 40 years later someone would try to actually make toys with the regular robot character models that actually transformed into those one-off Cybertronian alt modes, right?

Well, from the front Hasbro honestly did a fantastic job.  In some ways, the narrower chest and the reduced kibble on the outsides of his legs make Origin Jazz arguably more cartoon accurate than Studio Series Jazz, although the shoulders are a little large, the panels on the sides of his legs cut into the gray on his shins, and he's missing the blue on his pelvis.  I also think it might have been a bit better if they'd made his torso white with gray paint instead of black with gray paint, as it'd make the area around his collar blend in with his chest a bit better.

From the sides and back we can start to see that Jazz is a bit of a shellformer, with a large backpack and lower legs covered with what will be the rear of the vehicle.  But, I think he's less egregiously kibbly than Origin Bumblebee, and honestly kind of similar to Studio Series Jazz with relation to how much kibble and where it's located.

Origin Jazz comes with a rifle that's similar to SS86's rifle, but ultimately a new mold.  He also comes with that grappling hook he used that one episode.  The grappling hook itself can be removed from the winch part, although there's no rope connecting them.  However, that should make it easy enough to leave the winch black and paint the gun and grappling hook silver, which I might do.

Jazz's head is on a ball joint with a fairly good up/down tilt and slight sideways tilt in addition to the standard swivel.  His shoulders swivel, and they can move 90 degrees laterally.  Plus, due to his transformation, he's got a slight forward butterfly (although too much will pop the chest out).  His biceps swivel, and his elbows bend 90 degrees.  No wrist swivels, but his waist does.  His hips can go forward 90 degrees; the joints are capable of 90 degrees backward and laterally as well, but his backpack will stop them a little short.  His thighs swivel, and his knees bend a little under 90 degrees.  His toes can bend down due to transformation, but he's got no upward tilt on his feet.  His ankles can pivot a bit less than 90 degrees, but honestly more than you'd actually need for most poses.

Jazz's gun can plug into either first.  To use the grappling hook, you first fold in one of his fists to reveal another 5mm port, then you plug the winch into his wrist and the grappling hook into the winch.

Alternatively, the 5mm peg on the winch has one of those little holes carved into it, so the entire winch can fit over the blast effect-compatible tip of Jazz's rifle.  Indeed, with the grappling hook and winch thus attached the rifle, the entire thing can be stored on Jazz's back via pegs on the sides of the gun and a port on Jazz's back.  Jazz additionally has 5mm ports under his feet and on the outsides of his shoulders  Alas, he does not have a 5mm port on his actual back, which means you can't store the grappling hook and winch into the mostly-empty void between his back and backpack.

Jazz's transformation is fairly simple.  His chest lifts up on a double hinge to give his arms clearance to butterfly forward, and his backpack unfurls to engulf his head, forming the roof and nose of the vehicle.  An interesting bit is that lifting his chest will reveal a 5mm port underneath, and the winch/grappling hook combo plugs into it for alt mode storage.  Nice!  As for the rest of the transformation, it's easy enough to figure out what you're supposed to do (open the lower legs, fold out the side panels, collapse the legs combiner wars style) but mildly annoying to get the clearances you need while collapsing the legs with everything open then lining it all up at the end.

When Origin Bumblebee came out it was impressive enough that they got the general shape of his Cybertronian alt mode right, but due to his wings becoming kibble on his legs they were kind of stumpy.  Jazz has no such restrictions, and as such he really looks like he came right off the screen.  If I'm being nitpicky, I might suggest that the vents on the sides where the spoiler wraps around could be a bit bigger, but really, the overall shape, the placement of the blue bands and the Autobot insignia, the way the spoiler connects to the rear at the middle, and the way the spoiler wraps around with some of the vehicle still behind it is all cartoon-accurate.  The worst I can say about it is that his arms are kind of visible underneath, although the way the whole thing rests on his arms does give him the impression of hovering, and the way he sits on his arms lifts his nose, which can technically make his chest visible, too (but I'm guessing most of the time you're not going to have him in the same dead-on nose shot as I took, so you're not likely to notice it most of the time).

While Jazz's winch and grappling hook are stored under the vehicle between his robot shoulders, there's no such hidden storage for his rifle.  The instructions tell you to mount it to his roof, via the 5mm peg hole there.  For something a bit more out of sight, at least from some angles, you can use the peg on the side of the rifle to plug into one of the ports on the back of the vehicle.

I find it a amusing and bit ironic that Siege gave us a bunch of characters with Cybetronian alt modes that were quickly replaced in Earthrise and Kingdom with the Earth-mode versions and a lot of us complained about the double-dipping, yet now that Hasbro's going back and giving us Cybertronian modes for guys that already had Earth modes we're all on board.  While the alt modes in Siege were sort of "let's call this scrunched up robot a spaceship!" or cars that were 95% of the way to being the Earth modes already, I like that Hasbro had the forethought to do the G1 cartoon thing and make the robots look like they had their Earth modes.  So now, when Hasbro is releasing cartoon-accurate Cybertronian modes for Jazz and Bumblebee they still feel like they belong together.  Now, I can't say that Origin Jazz is the necessity that SS86 Jazz is, he's a really good figure that pulls off the standard robot and Cybertronian vehicle from the cartoon better than Origin Bumblebee did.  I'm giving him a recommend, especially if you have Bumblebee or a collection of Siege figures you can display him with.  I don't know how they'll pull it off, but here's hoping they do Wheeljack, too.

Nice review, Mike. Anticipating my copy's arrival; I'm also hoping they can make a good Wheeljack. 

I liked your musing here:

"It was an oddity of that first episode of the G1 cartoon that all the characters on Cybertron looked exactly like would when they woke up on Earth with their new Earth alt-modes.  I'm not sure if the animators thought our young brains were too mushy to figure out that they were the same characters if they changed the obvious car parts on the robots.  Or, more likely, they didn't have the time budget to invest in whipping up new Cybertronian robot-mode character models, so they just made a few sci-fi-ish looking vehicles with no thought for how they'd transform, figuring it's just a short scene in one episode that everyone would forget about after the cast got their established Earth modes.  It's not like nearly 40 years later someone would try to actually make toys with the regular robot character models that actually transformed into those one-off Cybertronian alt modes, right?"

I doubt anyone at the time foresaw the popularity of this franchise when it was beginning or the amount of scrutiny, by adult eyes no less, that the Sunbow toon would receive beyond a few years' time, and certainly not 40+ years' time. Animators should keep that in mind; your work may live on longer and in greater view than you expect, so do it well.

[Hikuro]

On 3/17/2023 at 12:42 AM, mikeszekely said:

I don't think the more traditional G2 decos are off the table.  They might still turn up as Generations Selects or something, especially since I haven't heard much about what Hasbro might be planning for Gen Selects this year.  Frankly, I think these Walmart exclusives are going to shelfwarm the way half of Velocitron, all the Beast Wars repaints, and a good bit of Netflix did.

...and, I dunno.  I kind of like the yellow with teal tiger stripes Grimlock.  But yeah, that Jazz... 🤮

I’d hope not, I still wanna get ramjet l’s g2 deco but keep holding off. I gotta make a move soon though so I don’t miss out.

Deadend FINALLY showed up from entertainment earth. Not hard to transform to vehicle in the slightest either! I really only had 2 quirks which were his feet don’t line up correctly in vehicle mode. And I don’t like how far up he sits in combiner mode. Had a problem getting him to break in half, had to sorta wiggle him loose.
 

 While I was looking at my old fans project version I started thinking they’d work well as cybertronian variants, I gotta find instructions to take them all apart again, that’ll be hard. FP stuff always seems complex.

 

 

[mikeszekely]

Well, I'm still not one of those people who started finding the Voyagers early in Target or anything, but it seems that the current wave of Evolution is really starting to hit now.  I recently received an email telling me that I could order Transmetal II Megatron in his Evolution package refresh.  Also recently, Leader-class Skyquake showed up at my door.

Skyquake's box proclaims him as "Prime Universe" Skyquake, and at first blush it does appear that, like Bulkhead, Arcee, and Knockout, that this is simply a G1-ified version of the character from Transformers Prime.  Thick limbs, green thighs and forearms, red trim around his wrists, large shoulder pads with fins, the shape of the head with the eyebrows, the wings on his back, and the cockpit on his chest, those are all elements of the Prime design (as seen on Dreadwing, as I never bought Prime Skyquake back in the day).

But then you realize that the window on his chest isn't actually his cockpit at all.  Because, unlike the G1-ified Prime Arcee who was seemingly meant to coexist with actual G1 Arcee (and exists primarily as a pretool for Road Rocket), Evolution is G1-ified by amalgamating the Prime design with the late European-only G1 Skyquake, a toy that wouldn't be seen in the States until it was redecoed as Machine Wars Starscream.  That non-cockpit translucent chest window is 100% from G1 Skyquake, and once you notice it you'll notice other details.  Like, Evolution Skyquake's wings on his back are upside-down compared to Prime's, but that's the correct orientation for G1 Skyquake.  His head colors, actual mouth, and pointed chin are Prime,  but they've replaced the the eyebrows with a crest similar to G1 Skyquake's.  And even a few minor details, like the raised ridged bits on top of his feet and the vent on his crotch, appear to be lifted from G1 Skyquake.  In robot mode, I'd say he's roughly 70% Prime and 30% G1.  Does this please Prime fans?  Even though Skyquake's G1 toy wasn't a part of my American childhood, I honestly find myself wanting Evolution Skyquake to be less Prime and more G1.

I'm honestly not sure if I have his torso transformed correctly.  He's got a huge empty space in his backpack, and it looks like it should collapse in a bit more.  There are even slots that his wings should tab into that they don't quite reach.  The reason for this is that the instructions tell you that, from jet mode, you're supposed to fold the tip of his nose under the cockpit, and that the cockpit itself should kind of shift and the canopy will slide forward.  However, when you go to do it it doesn't seem to shift as far as the instructions illustrate, which in turn means that the nose isn't tucked under quite far enough and doesn't leave you with enough clearance to further collapse his backpack.  I haven't checked with too many others, but at least one well-known YouTuber seems to have the same issue.

Well, moving along, Skyquake comes with two accessories in the box, his gatling gun and a translucent orange sword.  The sword can fold in half, and the entire thing can be tucked into a hollow space on the gatling gun.  The gatling gun itself does have a little nub for attaching a blast effect (not included).

Skyquake's head is on a ball joint, but the way it's designed it might as well be a hinged swivel.  He can look down slightly, but something like 75 degrees up, no sideways tilt.  His shoulder pads have a swivel, two hinges, and a ball joint for getting them out of the way but keeping them generally over his shoulders, and the shoulders themselves can swivel plus they can move laterally 120 degrees on ratchets.  They're also on flaps due to how he transforms, and the flaps don't actually lock in place which gives him 90 degrees of forward butterfly joints.  His biceps swivel, and his elbows are double jointed (but due to the bulk of his forearms, are still limited to about 120 degrees).  His wrists do swivel, as does his waist.  His hips go forward, backward, and laterally, all on ratchets.  His thighs swivel, and his are double-jointed and bend roughly 150-ish degrees.  Practically, though, the upper joint is too tight and you'll find yourself mostly limited to the lower joint.  His feet tilt down due to transformation, and he has some ankle pivot.  However, he has small feet and limited heels, so I've found him a bit challenging to balance in more dynamic poses.

Skyquake can hold his sword, and by plugging the peg on the back of his gun into the top of his hand he can hold it like a rifle.

However, you can plug the peg on the back of the gun into the underside of his hand.  Then, there's a 5mm peg on a ball joint that can be folded out closer to the barrels.  Between the articulation of that peg and his own above-average upper-body articulation you can pose him holding the gatling gun with two hands.  And should you get the desire, he's got 5mm ports on each shoulder pad, on the tips of wings facing his front, under each forearm, on the outside of each lower leg, in each heel, two on his back on the engine nacelles and one on his butt.

Skyquake's transformation is definitely more complicated than your average modern Transformer, but honestly less so than the old Prime Voyager.  His cockpit erupts from his backpack, covering his head, then his wings and the rest of his backpack flip over on armatures that cover up his robot chest.  His arms scrunch up and tuck into the middle in a Macross-esque fashion, while his shoulder pads on their own independent armatures lay along the fuselage in front of his wings.  Then his legs scrunch up and flip around, tabbing under the wings to finish him off.  But, I'll note one major curiosity -his cockpit has a swivel.  It's not used for transformation at all, but if you were so inclined you could turn his cockpit upside down during the transformation.

Aesthetically, Skyquake's G1 influences are more prominently on display.  He's a little thicker, with a stumpier nose, but from the canards forward he's Prime Skyquake for sure.  The angled points on his wing tips, the red stripes, and the overall shape of the tail is more Prime, too.  However, the engines and intakes molded onto his wings are G1 Skyquake, as are the vents on the top, and the translucent window and raised section from the mid-fuselage to the tail, with the large engine exhaust, is also very G1 Skyquake.  Again, I wonder how Prime fans like this, because the cranky old geewunner in me would prefer even more G1, although I have to admit that the changes to the tail to minimize the big periscope gimmick from the G1 toy are pretty ok with me.  I'll also note that, while Skyquake makes for a thick and chunky jet, he does a pretty fair job of not simply being a plane with a box of robot kibble underneath.

Speaking of underneath, Skyquake has three working landing gear, something of a rarity these days, and a canopy that can open, even more rare these days.  His combined weapon is meant to plug into the underside of the jet, in the port that's on his robot butt.  The ports on his heels can be used for blast effects, and for additional weapon storage you've got access to two ports under his wings, two ports in front of his rear landing gear, two ports just in front of his canards on the sides, and two ports on top of his wings, on the engine nacelles.

Skyquake has one final gimmick.  See, G1 Skyquake was the leader of a subgroup of Decepticons known as the Predators.  The Predators also had four smaller jets, Talon, Snare, Skydive, and Falcon.  And of those four smaller Predator jets could attach to Skyquake's rear.  Well, we don't have any of those other Predators, but Evolution Skyquake has a pair of tabs that are just the right size and spaced apart just right to plug into Needlenose's chest.  Could we get other figures retooled into the Predators in the future?  I'm not sure it'd make sense to retool them from Needlenose, but I sure hope so.  Skydive's alt mode is a YF-23, and we need more transforming YF-23's.

Skyquake is a bit of a mixed bag, I think.  Objectively, I'm not loving the balance issues, and he seems to suffer from some build issue that prevents his backpack from collapsing fully.  Subjectively, while I can get on board with G1-ifying popular characters without G1 counterparts like Barricade (ignore the Micromaster), Knockout, and Bulkhead I'm less keen when they do it to characters like Arcee and Skyquake that already have G1 counterparts.  I really think Hasbro should forget about trying to create a unifying aesthetic and either have gone full-on G1 Skyquake (which would make for a better Machine Wars Starscream and/or King Atlas down the road), or stop teasing Prime fans with these G1-ish toys and give them the new cartoon-accurate figures that they really want.

For now, I guess I think this toy is interesting enough to own, but maybe not interesting enough to own all the repaints of.  If you're more into G1 than Prime than Skyquake, with his homages to G1 Skyquake, is probably the one to get.  But, if you're more of a Prime fan you might to pass on the guy that died in his first appearance and wait for Dreadwing.

[mikeszekely]

I know I just got my review up, but I already have two addendums.

First, and most importantly, TFWer BrokenForge figured out what's up with Skyquake's backpack not fully collapsing.  The gist is that if you look at the armature that connects his cockpit to his torso, right on the cockpit side of that mysterious, useless swivel, is a hinge.  The wheel of  the landing gear tucks up against it, but it's too thick.  You'll see a circle where the part was connected to the sprue, basically you want to cut into the groove where the wheel sits, extending it right up to that circle.  Once it's cut out the wheel will have enough space to tuck in all the way, the backpack will collapse and the wings will tab right in.

It's easier to get access to if you take apart the cockpit by removing two screws and gently prying in half.  Note that there's a tab that's glued that'll probably break, but once it's screwed back together you won't see it.

The other thing I noticed is this-

I mean, just swap the arms at the biceps and that's a much more Prime-ish cockpit chest and wing orientation.  Apparently I'm not the only one to think of it, either, and someone tested swapping the arms.  It still transforms, his forearms just wind up upside down.  That means that they don't tab into the underside, but the ratchets will hold the arms perfectly in place anyway, and there's not enough clearance to plug the gatling gun into his butt.  That may be moot if Dreadwing comes with a remolded weapon, and it's not like there aren't other ports.  There's some speculation that this is an intentional design; if it's not I might keep Dreadwing in this configuration when it comes out to make him more Prime accurate and more visually distinct from Skyquake.

[nhyone]

Although I don't collect CHUG figures, I still got these. They are very G1, has few hollowness and is greebleless.

Sadly, I got a pre-yellowed Cyclonus cos I didn't check carefully.

[M'Kyuun]

17 hours ago, mikeszekely said:

Well, I'm still not one of those people who started finding the Voyagers early in Target or anything, but it seems that the current wave of Evolution is really starting to hit now.  I recently received an email telling me that I could order Transmetal II Megatron in his Evolution package refresh.  Also recently, Leader-class Skyquake showed up at my door.

Skyquake's box proclaims him as "Prime Universe" Skyquake, and at first blush it does appear that, like Bulkhead, Arcee, and Knockout, that this is simply a G1-ified version of the character from Transformers Prime.  Thick limbs, green thighs and forearms, red trim around his wrists, large shoulder pads with fins, the shape of the head with the eyebrows, the wings on his back, and the cockpit on his chest, those are all elements of the Prime design (as seen on Dreadwing, as I never bought Prime Skyquake back in the day).

But then you realize that the window on his chest isn't actually his cockpit at all.  Because, unlike the G1-ified Prime Arcee who was seemingly meant to coexist with actual G1 Arcee (and exists primarily as a pretool for Road Rocket), Evolution is G1-ified by amalgamating the Prime design with the late European-only G1 Skyquake, a toy that wouldn't be seen in the States until it was redecoed as Machine Wars Starscream.  That non-cockpit translucent chest window is 100% from G1 Skyquake, and once you notice it you'll notice other details.  Like, Evolution Skyquake's wings on his back are upside-down compared to Prime's, but that's the correct orientation for G1 Skyquake.  His head colors, actual mouth, and pointed chin are Prime,  but they've replaced the the eyebrows with a crest similar to G1 Skyquake's.  And even a few minor details, like the raised ridged bits on top of his feet and the vent on his crotch, appear to be lifted from G1 Skyquake.  In robot mode, I'd say he's roughly 70% Prime and 30% G1.  Does this please Prime fans?  Even though Skyquake's G1 toy wasn't a part of my American childhood, I honestly find myself wanting Evolution Skyquake to be less Prime and more G1.

I'm honestly not sure if I have his torso transformed correctly.  He's got a huge empty space in his backpack, and it looks like it should collapse in a bit more.  There are even slots that his wings should tab into that they don't quite reach.  The reason for this is that the instructions tell you that, from jet mode, you're supposed to fold the tip of his nose under the cockpit, and that the cockpit itself should kind of shift and the canopy will slide forward.  However, when you go to do it it doesn't seem to shift as far as the instructions illustrate, which in turn means that the nose isn't tucked under quite far enough and doesn't leave you with enough clearance to further collapse his backpack.  I haven't checked with too many others, but at least one well-known YouTuber seems to have the same issue.

Well, moving along, Skyquake comes with two accessories in the box, his gatling gun and a translucent orange sword.  The sword can fold in half, and the entire thing can be tucked into a hollow space on the gatling gun.  The gatling gun itself does have a little nub for attaching a blast effect (not included).

Skyquake's head is on a ball joint, but the way it's designed it might as well be a hinged swivel.  He can look down slightly, but something like 75 degrees up, no sideways tilt.  His shoulder pads have a swivel, two hinges, and a ball joint for getting them out of the way but keeping them generally over his shoulders, and the shoulders themselves can swivel plus they can move laterally 120 degrees on ratchets.  They're also on flaps due to how he transforms, and the flaps don't actually lock in place which gives him 90 degrees of forward butterfly joints.  His biceps swivel, and his elbows are double jointed (but due to the bulk of his forearms, are still limited to about 120 degrees).  His wrists do swivel, as does his waist.  His hips go forward, backward, and laterally, all on ratchets.  His thighs swivel, and his are double-jointed and bend roughly 150-ish degrees.  Practically, though, the upper joint is too tight and you'll find yourself mostly limited to the lower joint.  His feet tilt down due to transformation, and he has some ankle pivot.  However, he has small feet and limited heels, so I've found him a bit challenging to balance in more dynamic poses.

Skyquake can hold his sword, and by plugging the peg on the back of his gun into the top of his hand he can hold it like a rifle.

However, you can plug the peg on the back of the gun into the underside of his hand.  Then, there's a 5mm peg on a ball joint that can be folded out closer to the barrels.  Between the articulation of that peg and his own above-average upper-body articulation you can pose him holding the gatling gun with two hands.  And should you get the desire, he's got 5mm ports on each shoulder pad, on the tips of wings facing his front, under each forearm, on the outside of each lower leg, in each heel, two on his back on the engine nacelles and one on his butt.

Skyquake's transformation is definitely more complicated than your average modern Transformer, but honestly less so than the old Prime Voyager.  His cockpit erupts from his backpack, covering his head, then his wings and the rest of his backpack flip over on armatures that cover up his robot chest.  His arms scrunch up and tuck into the middle in a Macross-esque fashion, while his shoulder pads on their own independent armatures lay along the fuselage in front of his wings.  Then his legs scrunch up and flip around, tabbing under the wings to finish him off.  But, I'll note one major curiosity -his cockpit has a swivel.  It's not used for transformation at all, but if you were so inclined you could turn his cockpit upside down during the transformation.

Aesthetically, Skyquake's G1 influences are more prominently on display.  He's a little thicker, with a stumpier nose, but from the canards forward he's Prime Skyquake for sure.  The angled points on his wing tips, the red stripes, and the overall shape of the tail is more Prime, too.  However, the engines and intakes molded onto his wings are G1 Skyquake, as are the vents on the top, and the translucent window and raised section from the mid-fuselage to the tail, with the large engine exhaust, is also very G1 Skyquake.  Again, I wonder how Prime fans like this, because the cranky old geewunner in me would prefer even more G1, although I have to admit that the changes to the tail to minimize the big periscope gimmick from the G1 toy are pretty ok with me.  I'll also note that, while Skyquake makes for a thick and chunky jet, he does a pretty fair job of not simply being a plane with a box of robot kibble underneath.

Speaking of underneath, Skyquake has three working landing gear, something of a rarity these days, and a canopy that can open, even more rare these days.  His combined weapon is meant to plug into the underside of the jet, in the port that's on his robot butt.  The ports on his heels can be used for blast effects, and for additional weapon storage you've got access to two ports under his wings, two ports in front of his rear landing gear, two ports just in front of his canards on the sides, and two ports on top of his wings, on the engine nacelles.

Skyquake has one final gimmick.  See, G1 Skyquake was the leader of a subgroup of Decepticons known as the Predators.  The Predators also had four smaller jets, Talon, Snare, Skydive, and Falcon.  And of those four smaller Predator jets could attach to Skyquake's rear.  Well, we don't have any of those other Predators, but Evolution Skyquake has a pair of tabs that are just the right size and spaced apart just right to plug into Needlenose's chest.  Could we get other figures retooled into the Predators in the future?  I'm not sure it'd make sense to retool them from Needlenose, but I sure hope so.  Skydive's alt mode is a YF-23, and we need more transforming YF-23's.

Skyquake is a bit of a mixed bag, I think.  Objectively, I'm not loving the balance issues, and he seems to suffer from some build issue that prevents his backpack from collapsing fully.  Subjectively, while I can get on board with G1-ifying popular characters without G1 counterparts like Barricade (ignore the Micromaster), Knockout, and Bulkhead I'm less keen when they do it to characters like Arcee and Skyquake that already have G1 counterparts.  I really think Hasbro should forget about trying to create a unifying aesthetic and either have gone full-on G1 Skyquake (which would make for a better Machine Wars Starscream and/or King Atlas down the road), or stop teasing Prime fans with these G1-ish toys and give them the new cartoon-accurate figures that they really want.

For now, I guess I think this toy is interesting enough to own, but maybe not interesting enough to own all the repaints of.  If you're more into G1 than Prime than Skyquake, with his homages to G1 Skyquake, is probably the one to get.  But, if you're more of a Prime fan you might to pass on the guy that died in his first appearance and wait for Dreadwing.

Prior to this figure's announcement, I had no awareness of G1 Skyquake or any of his recolors; the design was completely foreign to me. Contrarily, as a Prime fan, I was very aware of Skyquake and Dreadwing from the series, whose toys I initially greeted with great anticipation and equal disappointment for the egregious concessions in jet mode, specifically the all-too obvious pelvis halves which ruined the jet mode for me. I passed on those toys in hopes that something better would come along. Admittedly, I'd hoped that 'better thing' would be a leader class toy during the Prime run, but I've found it in Legacy Skyquake regardless of the additional G1 homages. Right up front, I'm not at all crazy about the G1 toy except for its overall shaping being vaguely reminiscent of the SR-71. Legacy Skyquake, like Prime Skyquake before him, certainly adheres more to the traditional fighter shape, even if the Legacy fig's jet mode is a bit chunkier and less sleek than his Prime namesake's.  I love how the arms tuck away Macross-style (I am a Macross fan after all), and how the pauldrons and legs form the majority of the jet's fuselage, the retracting landing gear, the well-proportioned forward fuselage (which is oft too-small, especially height-wise, compared to the rest of the fuselage in most jet-formers). Although the jet mode is more sci-fi-ish than real-world, it addresses rightly many of the things that are often fudged or omitted in most jet-formers and I simply adore it. Not even the gap between legs and pauldrons gets me down; so much of the major stuff was done well that I can simply overlook it. YMMV, of course. My copy is due to me next Monday, if Fed Ex comes through, and I can barely wait; this is one of my most anticipated figs for '23. 

I appreciate the tip about the backpack; definitely a point of interest. I too wonder about the swivel on the cockpit, as, given the amount of planning that goes into these toys, I highly doubt it's superfluous. The fact that, with a few modifications, you can rearrange his transformation to more closely resemble the Prime robot mode, I imagine we'll see something similar done if indeed a Dreadwing repaint is coming. Let's be honest, it's more a case of 'when' than 'if'.  The change in arrangement, too, would help differentiate the two figs beyond just a mere color change. I hope that's what they do. For Skyquake, I agree with Mike's 70-30 Prime/G1 comparison; my hope is that if they do a rearranged version of Dreadwing, it'll skew closer to 90/10 Prime/ G1 in its overall design and style. I'd say 100% Prime, but that's simply not realistic at this time. Maybe in another decade or so.

To the heart of the matter concerning G1/ other continuity chimeras, I too would rather they just made straight updates to the other continuity figs, especially my beloved Animated, whose design style was so unique and cartoonish and very un-G1 with its real-world inspired vehicles and gadgets. I'm an unapologetic Geewunner- First season is my TF bible and I will love it 'til the day I die. That said, not everything needs to be G1 or G1-ified; part of the strength of the brand, much like humanity, is its diversity and variety, and instead of trying to gel everything into a vanilla version of G1, I'd rather they simply celebrate what made those non-G1 continuities great by updating them as they were intended to be.

 

[mikeszekely]

Apparently this just showed up at a Gamestop in Canada...

[mikeszekely]

Hot on the heels of Evolution Skyquake, I also have for you Legacy Evolution Deluxe-class Prowl.

If taking the designs for Prime and G1-ifying them isn't really a great idea, it seems that taking Derek Wyatt's exaggerated cartoon style from Animated and G1-ifying it is an outright terrible one.  In broad strokes, we have elements of Animated Prowl- the wings on his back, the head that's meant to look like a motorcycle cop's helmet and shades, the gold-trimmed bike chest, the arm pads, the wheels in the shins, etc.  But the changes in proportions just look weird; he's simultaneously shorter and thicker.  His chin is still on the larger side, but somehow still generic and lacking Prowl's personality.  

To add to the ugliness, Animated Prowl's gray wheels are the same black plastic as his shins... well, most of his shins, because for some reason they decided to use unpaintable gray plastic for some parts at the bottom of his shins and his biceps.

About the only think that I think they actually did improve on Evolution Prowl is his wings, which have hinges now that allow them to angle up in a manner more similar to the cartoon than the original toy.

Speaking of the original toy, Evolution Prowl's accessories work exactly the same way.  The hubcaps come off the outsides of his lower legs, and twisting the bottoms will cause the blades to pop out... kind of.  They don't seem to work right on my copy, and I find that I might have to pull the blades the rest of the way out or shove them the rest of the way back in on my own.  Oh, and there's not traffic light on a string this time.  Sorry.

Prowl's head is on a ball joint that has some pretty great range... slightly down, but almost 45 degrees sideways tilt and nearly 90 degrees upward tilt in addition to the usual swivel.  His shoulders swivel and move laterally 90 degrees.  His biceps swivel, and his elbows bend 90 degrees.  No wrist swivels, though.  His waist swivels, and he's got a slight ab crunch.  His hips can go 90 degrees backward, a little over 90 degrees forward, and way over 90 degrees laterally.  His thighs swivel, and his knees bend 90 degrees.  His legs under the wheels can also swivel around the wheels, due to transformation, so you can use that as a double knee if you need to, or as an upward foot tilt.  His feet tilt down, swivel, and his ankles pivot on ball joints.

As far as holding his weapons go, you'll note that his left hand is molded so his thumb is closer to his fingers, which makes it perfect for holding the blade on one of his throwing stars.  His right hand, though, is a more typical 5mm port.  Despite what seems to be a groove cut into his palm, his grip on a throwing star placed in that hand is tenuous.  Additional 5mm ports can be found under his feet, one each forearm, on each shoulder, and one on his back.

In broad strokes, Evolution Prowl's transformation is extremely similar to Animated's.  The front of the bike swivels up from the chest, the shoulders shift backwards so the forearms can tab together at the back of the bike, his waist turns 90 degrees and his pelvis shifts forward, then his legs fold up with his feet swiveling around the wheels to get the wheels into the right spots.  The differences come down to a few minor details- the front of the bike comes up over his head instead of his head folding into his back, his foot and thigh swap places on the back leg, and his foot fills in the underside of the bike's front instead of tucking under the bike on his front leg.

Maybe the slight differences in transformation are due to the thicker, blockier limbs.  Whatever the reason, Evolution Prowl looks a lot less cohesive than his Animated counterpart.  His shifted shoulders leave a gap that his wings don't cover.  The bike's seat leaves a gap between it and his forearms at the back of the bike, too.  The gold plastic parts his arms are connected to and his khaki pelvis and thigh stand out against the black while those parts were either black or tucked behind his wings on the original toy.  Evolution Prowl just looks messy, IMHO.

With his throwing stars in their hubcap configuration, I guess there's not a lot else to say about the bike mode.  The wheels roll, and the 5mm ports are still available along the sides of the ear and in front of the gas cap if you want to arm him up with some other weapons.  His bike mode is a bit too small for an "average" Deluxe like Earthrise Prowl, but probably too big for a Core-class figure.  Maybe a small Deluxe like Bumblebee or Cliffjumper.

As I've said before, I don't mind G1-ifying popular characters without G1 analogs... I'd love for them to do Slipstream, Blackout, or Strongarm, for example.  But when they do it to characters that already have a proper G1 version, all it does for me is highlight how the new toy doesn't fit with the franchise it came from.  And Evolution Prowl seems like an especially poor update, lacking the character of Wyatt's unique style and making a less cohesive bike mode.  You can't even use the "well, at least he's got better articulation" argument that a lot of modern Transformers get away with, because Animated Prowl already enjoyed some impressive articulation.

So who is this supposed to be for?  Animated fans?  The original Animated toy is already superior.  G1 fans?  I don't want to speak for all of my fellow Geewunners, but I'd have preferred they took the budget they wasted on Prowl and invested in more retooled parts for Breakdown (and I will keep beating that dead horse every time Hasbro wastes a Deluxe slot on trash).  Unless there really are people out there who were thinking, "I really like Animated Prowl, but I wish he were shorter, fatter, and more generic so he'd blend in better with my other War for Cybertron and Legacy figures" and you're one of them then you should probably leave Prowl on the shelf.

[JB0]

Short and fat... I dub thee Mall Cop Prowl!

[mikeszekely]

3 minutes ago, JB0 said:

Short and fat... I dub thee Mall Cop Prowl!

Prowl Blart... now I kind of wish he came with a Segway.

6 hours ago, M'Kyuun said:

I'm not at all crazy about the G1 toy except for its overall shaping being vaguely reminiscent of the SR-71.

It's apparently based on the design for an unproduced Soviet Bomber, the DSB-LK.

7 hours ago, M'Kyuun said:

I imagine we'll see something similar done if indeed a Dreadwing repaint is coming. Let's be honest, it's more a case of 'when' than 'if'.

4th wave, sometime this fall.

[RED WOLF]

 

[M'Kyuun]

16 hours ago, mikeszekely said:

Hot on the heels of Evolution Skyquake, I also have for you Legacy Evolution Deluxe-class Prowl.

If taking the designs for Prime and G1-ifying them isn't really a great idea, it seems that taking Derek Wyatt's exaggerated cartoon style from Animated and G1-ifying it is an outright terrible one.  In broad strokes, we have elements of Animated Prowl- the wings on his back, the head that's meant to look like a motorcycle cop's helmet and shades, the gold-trimmed bike chest, the arm pads, the wheels in the shins, etc.  But the changes in proportions just look weird; he's simultaneously shorter and thicker.  His chin is still on the larger side, but somehow still generic and lacking Prowl's personality.  

To add to the ugliness, Animated Prowl's gray wheels are the same black plastic as his shins... well, most of his shins, because for some reason they decided to use unpaintable gray plastic for some parts at the bottom of his shins and his biceps.

About the only think that I think they actually did improve on Evolution Prowl is his wings, which have hinges now that allow them to angle up in a manner more similar to the cartoon than the original toy.

Speaking of the original toy, Evolution Prowl's accessories work exactly the same way.  The hubcaps come off the outsides of his lower legs, and twisting the bottoms will cause the blades to pop out... kind of.  They don't seem to work right on my copy, and I find that I might have to pull the blades the rest of the way out or shove them the rest of the way back in on my own.  Oh, and there's not traffic light on a string this time.  Sorry.

Prowl's head is on a ball joint that has some pretty great range... slightly down, but almost 45 degrees sideways tilt and nearly 90 degrees upward tilt in addition to the usual swivel.  His shoulders swivel and move laterally 90 degrees.  His biceps swivel, and his elbows bend 90 degrees.  No wrist swivels, though.  His waist swivels, and he's got a slight ab crunch.  His hips can go 90 degrees backward, a little over 90 degrees forward, and way over 90 degrees laterally.  His thighs swivel, and his knees bend 90 degrees.  His legs under the wheels can also swivel around the wheels, due to transformation, so you can use that as a double knee if you need to, or as an upward foot tilt.  His feet tilt down, swivel, and his ankles pivot on ball joints.

As far as holding his weapons go, you'll note that his left hand is molded so his thumb is closer to his fingers, which makes it perfect for holding the blade on one of his throwing stars.  His right hand, though, is a more typical 5mm port.  Despite what seems to be a groove cut into his palm, his grip on a throwing star placed in that hand is tenuous.  Additional 5mm ports can be found under his feet, one each forearm, on each shoulder, and one on his back.

In broad strokes, Evolution Prowl's transformation is extremely similar to Animated's.  The front of the bike swivels up from the chest, the shoulders shift backwards so the forearms can tab together at the back of the bike, his waist turns 90 degrees and his pelvis shifts forward, then his legs fold up with his feet swiveling around the wheels to get the wheels into the right spots.  The differences come down to a few minor details- the front of the bike comes up over his head instead of his head folding into his back, his foot and thigh swap places on the back leg, and his foot fills in the underside of the bike's front instead of tucking under the bike on his front leg.

Maybe the slight differences in transformation are due to the thicker, blockier limbs.  Whatever the reason, Evolution Prowl looks a lot less cohesive than his Animated counterpart.  His shifted shoulders leave a gap that his wings don't cover.  The bike's seat leaves a gap between it and his forearms at the back of the bike, too.  The gold plastic parts his arms are connected to and his khaki pelvis and thigh stand out against the black while those parts were either black or tucked behind his wings on the original toy.  Evolution Prowl just looks messy, IMHO.

With his throwing stars in their hubcap configuration, I guess there's not a lot else to say about the bike mode.  The wheels roll, and the 5mm ports are still available along the sides of the ear and in front of the gas cap if you want to arm him up with some other weapons.  His bike mode is a bit too small for an "average" Deluxe like Earthrise Prowl, but probably too big for a Core-class figure.  Maybe a small Deluxe like Bumblebee or Cliffjumper.

As I've said before, I don't mind G1-ifying popular characters without G1 analogs... I'd love for them to do Slipstream, Blackout, or Strongarm, for example.  But when they do it to characters that already have a proper G1 version, all it does for me is highlight how the new toy doesn't fit with the franchise it came from.  And Evolution Prowl seems like an especially poor update, lacking the character of Wyatt's unique style and making a less cohesive bike mode.  You can't even use the "well, at least he's got better articulation" argument that a lot of modern Transformers get away with, because Animated Prowl already enjoyed some impressive articulation.

So who is this supposed to be for?  Animated fans?  The original Animated toy is already superior.  G1 fans?  I don't want to speak for all of my fellow Geewunners, but I'd have preferred they took the budget they wasted on Prowl and invested in more retooled parts for Breakdown (and I will keep beating that dead horse every time Hasbro wastes a Deluxe slot on trash).  Unless there really are people out there who were thinking, "I really like Animated Prowl, but I wish he were shorter, fatter, and more generic so he'd blend in better with my other War for Cybertron and Legacy figures" and you're one of them then you should probably leave Prowl on the shelf.

I've never heard of the Soviet Dark Star project, so I greatly appreciate the mention and the link. Interesting stuff. Still doesn't change my mind about G1 Skyquake though. 😄

Concerning Prowl, I've got the Evo version coming, but without a single doubt, the Animated design is vastly superior. Alex Kubalsky is one helluva designer. I'm not sure why Has/TT felt they needed to change the proportions so dramatically; he was meant to be a thin gangly ninja, not, as you say, Paul Blart. 😏 Alas, I got him anyway, and he's due on my doorstep next week. Prowl, IMHO, was one of the best toy designs in the entire Animated line, and I wish they'd done more to replicate it for Legacy. However, I have both the original and the Samurai versions, so I'm good.

2 hours ago, RED WOLF said:

 

I recently bought this fig despite already having, and loving, Fans Toys' Phoenix. With both in-hand, my preference remains for Phoenix. However, Skyfire is a character that I never expected to get the MP treatment, and given the differences, I caved. Honestly, no regrets, although I agree that the backpack is a bit fiddly and a number of the ratchets, especially the ankle rockers, could have been much improved with a greater number of detents for a much-improved range. Coming from an aviation background, I adore the landing gear on the MP which look far more realistic than those on Phoenix. I prefer Phoenix's chest and waist sculpts even though they're inaccurate; they just look better to my eye. I also love beyond words the use of Phoenix's arms to fill out a portion of the fuselage so seamlessly in lieu of other Skyfire toy designers' penchant for hiding them in the backpack, including Takara. That's some cool engineering and it's not lost on me even if the end result, once again, isn't perfectly accurate to the animation. And that's where Takara's Skyfire makes the difference; it is incredibly accurate to the animation, especially in bot mode.  The hands are a bit odd, though, as the thumb is stuck at a particular angle instead of being able to rotate at the base, a limitation that makes some poses look awkward. And though it's animation accurate, I don't like the backward angle of the thighs when he's standing perfectly erect; it just looks odd to me, and I find myself wanting to bend them forward so they appear more perpendicular to the ground, but then you're putting him in an even more awkward looking pose, so there's naught to be done but accept that that's the way he was designed. Again I prefer what they did with Phoenix as well as Generations Skyfire (Jetfire) in this regard. The MP has no shortage of accessories, with 3 articulated minifigs, his gun, 3 swappable faces, 3 interchangeable faction plates, a stand and adapter, and a couple blast effects parts- it's a nice assortment that adds to the play value of the fig.  The minifigs, in particular, are fun to interact with his jet mode, to which they're properly scaled. Overall, Takara-Tomy did a pretty fair job on him. Some articulation points leave somewhat to be desired, but the overall aesthetic is pure Sunbow toon, and he's still an impressively posable figure, especially at his scale. IMHO, he's a win for TT and for fans.

[mikeszekely]

5 hours ago, M'Kyuun said:

Alex Kubalsky is one helluva designer.

That he is.  Which is probably why I like MMC's stuff so much.

Well, I don't really have a strong opinion on MP Skyfire, save that I looked at pics and decided that I'm good with the Phoenix I already have.  But I do have a different jet to talk about... Legacy Evolution Voyager-class Metalhawk.

While Metalhawk is retooled from Kingdom Cyclonus, they honestly did such an extensive job retooling him that I figured he's deserving of his own review instead of a Repaint Roundup.  Basically, they have the same hands, the same feet, the same hips and thighs, the same shoulders and biceps, the same opening flaps on the calves, and partially the same wings... and that's it.  New head, new forearms, mostly-new lower legs, totally new torso, and some extra bits in the wings makes him around 70% new parts.

And it's pretty impressive how well HasTak was able to take Cyclonus and make an accurate Metalhawk out of him.  Like, OK, his shoulders are tapered to an angular top instead of the blockier shoulders you'd expect to find, but the new head, intakes on his shoulders, torso, and legs are pretty much spot on.  It doesn't even matter that he's got Cyclonus' feet and thighs, because those feet and thighs do remarkably well for matching Metalhawk's animation mode in The Headmasters.

If we're being picky, it would have been nice if his hands matched the blue of his forearms, which have a little extra chunk on the underside.  And Metalhawk's wings are technically attached to his biceps on both the animation mode and the G1 toy, but I don't think attaching them behind the shoulders makes much of a practical difference beyond allowing Hasbro to use that silvery gray plastic for his biceps instead of a more proper red.  His hands and biceps being gray instead of blue/red is undoubtedly a concession to the sprue they're on.

Oh, and I'll note that while the Decepticon Pretenders that have shown up so far have been alt modes similar to their inner robots with bot modes based on their Pretender shells, Metalhawk is fully based on his inner robot (or, more accurately, the animation model of the inner robot as seen in The Headmasters).  This works for me.  I think the monstrous appearance of the Decepticon Pretenders shells were much more memorable than the simple, generic robots inside, but I have no love for the weird human faces with alien battle armor the Autobot Pretenders used.

Metalhawk comes with three weapons, all new and not reused gear from Cyclonus.  They're copied from the G1 Metalhawk toy- the two guns are the same ones used for the inner robot, and the sword is technically meant to be used by the Pretender shell (along with a larger rifle, not included here).  Of course, there is no shell, so might as well scale the sword for the robot we got.

Metalhawk's articulation should be the same as Cyclonus'- a head on a hinged swivel with kind of limited tilt, shoulders that rotate and extend laterally 90 degrees, bicep swivels, 90 degree elbow bends, wrist swivels, waist swivel, hips that go forward, backward, and laterally 90 degrees, thigh swivels, double-jointed knees that get a little over 90 degrees, feet that tilt up but not down, and 45-ish degrees of ankle pivot.

While Metalhawk can certainly dual-wield his pistols, you can actually combine them into a double-barreled pistol.  That'll free up a hand to hold his sword.

If you do want him dual-wielding pistols, though, the sword has a peg on the hilt that'll allow you to plug it into a 5mm port on his back.  He additionally has 5mm ports on the outsides of his shoulders, the outside of his lower legs, on his wings facing forward, and two under each foot.  Despite those ports, there doesn't seem to be a good place to store his guns if you don't want him carrying them in his hands.

If you remember how to transform Cyclonus, you already know how to transform Metalhawk.  If anything, Metalhawk's a bit simpler.  His nose folds out from his torso in just two segments, without having to open those segments to find yet smaller ones like a Russian nesting doll.  His hands simply fold into his forearms, they don't open to encapsulate them.  And while his back does still rotate 180 degrees, once you're done you don't have to rotate the shoulders because his arms will already be oriented correctly.

I think Metalhawk's alt mode definitely has more concessions to being a retool of Cyclonus than his robot mode.  His nose is a little stumpy, he's a little too wide, and the top of his fuselage is too smooth.  This is largely because those nose is tucked into the torso instead of hanging on his back in robot mode, and in jet mode his arms are tucked along his sides instead of folded over onto his back the way the G1 toy worked.  Even still, the mix of blue and gray on the fuselage, and the shape and placement of his wings are pretty accurate to the G1 design.  And I like that there are little touches that help him maintain a unique identity from Cyclonus.  Like, even the little parts that unfurl from his calves to cover the bottom of his legs after the feet are folding in are different.  Instead of having a 5mm port on each panel, they're divided into two segments each, with the smaller blast effect nubs on them.

Another nice touch?  There are slots on the outsides of his legs, so the guns can use the same tabs they use to combine to plug into the sides of his legs, becoming part of his jet mode's tail.  That's exactly how they worked on the G1 toy.  The sword is another matter, since the G1 toy wasn't meant to carry it in jet mode.  There are two tabs on the side of the hilt opposite the peg, and these fit into slots on his calves so the sword just kind of lays along the top of the fuselage.  It's not idea, but also curious because you don't actually need those tabs and slots.  The 5mm port on his back is just in front of those slots, so you could just use the same peg on the hilt you used for bot mode storage to plug the sword into almost the exact same spot along the top of the fuselage.  Oh well.  As far as using other accessories go, well, the sword's covering the 5mm port on his back, his wings cover the 5mm ports on his shoulders, and the guns cover the 5mm ports on his legs.  You do still have one 5mm port under each wing, though.

You know what Metalhawk doesn't have?  Landing gear.  Unlike Cyclonus, there's no fold out landing gear.  I guess, being a retool, he's probably on a stricter budget than Cyclonus was, and he probably spent a lot of it on his retooled parts and accessories.  Maybe landing gear would have put him over?  It's not a deal breaker by any means, but it is a minor disappointment.

All told, Metalhawk gets a hearty recommend from me.  Although he's not 100% G1-accurate, he's surprisingly close for a remold of Cyclonus and still probably the best figure in this wave so far.  It probably helps that the original mold was one of the best figures in the entire Kingdom line, but Metalhawk is still different enough to warrant a purchase.

[mikeszekely]

Did you guys look at the recent Holiday Optimus Prime and think, "Man, that's a really great mold, too bad it's done up like Santa pulling a candy cane instead of a more traditional Optimus look,"?  Well, I'm not sure where or when, as it's just listed as a Fan Fest sku, but...

[Radioguy]

1 hour ago, mikeszekely said:

Did you guys look at the recent Holiday Optimus Prime and think, "Man, that's a really great mold, too bad it's done up like Santa pulling a candy cane instead of a more traditional Optimus look,"?  Well, I'm not sure where or when, as it's just listed as a Fan Fest sku, but...

Was waiting for this.

[mikeszekely]

Two motorcycles in one wave? It's Legacy Evolution Deluxe-class Crashbar.

If I'm being honest, I wasn't a big fan of Scraphook, but out of the gate Crashbar is giving me better feelings.  Yellow on his chest and leg gives him a little more visual flair, and the more squared-off helmet with horns is closer to that Junkion biker look than Scraphook's sort of Ironhide-esque head.  His goatee, which is very reminiscent of his designer's (Mark Maher) own facial hair, is picked out in a darker gunmetal color.

There's also the not-so-subtle fact that Crashbar's got motorcycle parts clearly on his body.  In other words, although he's going to be necessarily smaller than Wreck-Gar and Junkheap he looks (at least to me) more like a proper Junkion than Scraphook.

Crashbar comes with two cannons and two pipes.  Plus, as part of the Junkion gimmick in the Evolution line, his entire arms and his legs from the knees down come off.  His instructions also suggest that you can pop his head off of its ball socket.  However, as there's only one other Junkion to swap parts with right now, and Scraphook's head is on a mushroom swivel and not a ball joint, I fail to see the point of removing Crashbar's head.

So, yeah, head on a ball joint, with the actual ball joint being part of the head and connected to a socket in the torso.  Pretty good up/down/sideways tilt.  Shoulders rotate and extend laterally just under 90 degrees.  Biceps swivel, elbows are a single hinge but bend 180-ish degrees.  His wrists swivel, love to see it, as does his waist.  His hips can go slightly over 90 degrees, forward, backward, or laterally.  His thighs swivel.  The wheels in his calves kind of get in the way of his knee bend, but even if you move them out of the way he's going to be a little shy of 90 degrees.  Both of his feet can tilt up a good bit.  His right foot can tilt down slightly.  His left can't usually tilt down, but if you fold out some handlebars from the middle of his foot the front will be able to tilt down.  Both feet have ankle pivots, but the shape of his left leg gives that ankle more range.

This is the default configuration, per the instructions- a cannon in each hand, and the pipes plug into ports on his back.  Note that each cannon actually has four different pegs, while each pipe has three.

Crashbar has one other sort of secret accessory.  It's not mentioned in the instructions at all, but you'll notice that the struts holding the wheel in his right leg have hinges.  You can actually open them up and remove the wheel, which has fold-out blades inside.  I have no idea why the instructions don't mention it, as it's easily one of his cooler features.

Looking for a place to attach the wheel ones you've popped it off?  In addition to his fists, Crashbar has a 5mm port on the outside of each shoulder, one the outside of each forearm, on the inside of each forearm, on each side of his torso, two on his back, one on the outside of his left leg, two on the outside of his right leg, two on the inside of both legs, and one under each foot.

Of course, his arms use 5mm pegs to attach to his torso, and his lower legs use 5mm pegs to attach to his thighs, same as Scraphook.  I think the idea was that you could swap limbs between Junkions, like you saw them do in the movie.  It's a little awkward in practice, though, because Crashbar's arms are a little shorter than Scraphook's.  Meanwhile, Scraphook's legs are a little shorter than Crashbar's.  If you swap just one leg or one arm they wind up looking a little crooked or off-balance.  Swapping accessories, though, works a lot better.

Crashbar's transformation is a bit like Prowl's, in that he turns his waist 90 degrees and one leg becomes the front while one leg becomes the rear.  In practice, though, Crashbar is honestly a bit easier, and his alt mode a bit more cohesive.  You don't have to take him apart to transform him like you had to with the previous Weaponizers, Modulators, and Fossilizers, but just like Scraphook his accessories are part of the alt mode and they do have to partsform.  In particular, while you could probably leave off the pipes, his cannons become saddlebags and they help lock his leg in place at the rear of the bike.

And as bikes go, yeah, he's definitely got that Junkion vibe.  I dig the flame paint, but wish they could have used some of that red-orange to pick out some of the spikes on fenders.  As with the robot mode, the yellow helps give him a bit of visual flair, and again the fact that he turns into a motorcycle really helps sell me that this is a proper Junkion, just a short one.

Unlike Scraphook, Crashbar's instructions don't really offer any way to use him to armor up any old Legacy figure.  Maybe his relatively small arms and clearly motorcycle-parts-for-legs don't make for convincing upgrades.  His instructions do, however, call attention to the fact that he can swap limbs with Scraphook even in alt mode.  Well, I guess it kind of works better to have Crashbar's limbs on Scraphook than Scraphook's limbs on Crashbar, but even then it's not really something I'd go for.  Swapping accessories works a bit better- Scraphook's spikey tire shield looks especially fine on Crashbar, and Crashbar's pipes look like they were designed for Scraphook.

In a line where I'm salty that they've wasted slots on reimagined G1-ish non-G1 characters like Arcee and Prowl, more obscure G1 characters and Needlenose and Pointblank, and totally made up characters like Scraphook, but can't find the budget to do a proper Breakdown, I was prepared to hate on Crashbar.  Like I said, I didn't really care for Scraphook.  And while, yes, I do still wish they'd have done better with Breakdown (I'm not going to stop beating that horse), and yes, I would rather they fill their new-mold Deluxe slots with the remaining characters from the G1 cartoon who need updated, I actually kind of like Crashbar.  He's a fun little motorcycle that's actually a better figure than his wavemate, Prowl, in addition to being a better figure and more recognizably a Junkion than Scraphook.  I'd go so far as to say that I'd be in for a repaint or two, especially if they have alternate heads and/or accessories.  Is Crashbar essential?  Certainly not.  But if you'd like your Junkions to have a few more members than just Wreck-Gar and Junkheap then Crashbar is a fun little figure that's worth a look.  I'm going to go ahead and recommend this one.

[mikeszekely]

And now things are winding down, as we come to the last new mold in Wave 2 of Legacy Evolution... Deluxe-class Shrapnel.

Shrapnel is pretty much what you'd expect after Legacy Kickback... start with the Sunbow model, add a few greebles to better match the post-Siege aesthetic, and round it off with a few paint apps inspired by the G1 toy's stickers.  I dig him, he's a noticeable improvement IMHO over the aging Legends-class toy.  My only real complaints are that his torso is a tad thick, his chest doesn't open, and for some reason his hands and biceps were on the sprue with his black parts instead of his purple parts.

And about that... couldn't they have put his biceps and hands on the part of the sprue here they put the back of his torso?  His biceps and hands should be purple instead of black, and on his back we find a purple part that actually needed to be black!  I suppose, though, in the grand scheme of things that these are fairly minor complaints.  One other thing, I'm not sure how I actually feel about, is his thighs.  See, on the G1 toy, Shrapnel's face is painted silver, but his mandibles and thighs were chrome.  In the cartoon, his face, thighs, and mandibles are colored the same off-white.  Here, his face is still silver, his mandibles and hips are a silvery gray plastic, then his thighs are painted gray.  It's similar enough under some lights that at first I didn't notice it, but when I did I wondered why they didn't paint it silver?  I'd have liked his mandibles to be silver, too, but what can you do?

You might also point out that he didn't have the bug legs on his forearms.  Those aren't just a toy detail- they're on the Sunbow model as well.  They're not missing, though, Hasbro simply opted to make them separate accessories.  Also included is a fairly G1-accurate gun, painted in silver.  That's more akin to the chrome of the G1 toy's gun, but you may know that his gun was purple in the cartoon.  The underlying plastic is purple, so I suppose if silver bothers you that you could try stripping the paint.

Shrapnel's head is on a swivel, no tilt.  His shoulders rotate and extend laterally 90 degrees.  His biceps swivel, and his elbows bend a little over 90 degrees.  No wrist swivels, but his waist can.  His hips go forward and backward a little over 90 degrees, and they move laterally on soft detents 90 degrees.  His thighs swivel, and his knees bend 90 degrees.  His feet can't really tilt up, but due to transformation that can tilt 90 straight down, and his ankles pivot 45-ish degrees.

Shrapnel's silver gun or his purple bug legs can be held in either hand as weapons.  His instructions also show that you can plug one bug leg into a 5mm port on the underside of the silver gun's barrel, and then the barrel of the other bug leg into the butt of the silver gun for a super rifle.  In practice it doesn't work so well.  The port under the silver gun is tight enough, but the tip of the bug leg is too small or the butt of the silver gun too large, and the connection is tenuous at best.

Fortunately, that's not your only option.  You can plug the bug legs into the 5mm ports under his forearms for a more traditional Shrapnel look.  Well, mostly more traditional.  They're a bit chonky for my tastes.  If DNA or anyone considers doing upgrade kits for the Insecticons smaller, thinner bug legs for Shrapnel would top my wish list.  Chonky or not, though, know that once you plug them into his arms you never have to remove them, even for transformation.  So that's something.  As for his silver gun, you can store it in bot mode by plugging it into the 5mm port in the center of his back. Aside from his back and forearms, Shrapnel has a 5mm port on the back of each shoulder, on each of his calves, and under each foot.

Much like Kickback, Shrapnel's transformation is basically the same as the G1 toy- close the mandibles, spin the waist 180, collapse the legs, fold down the robot feet, fold out the bug legs from his back, robot arms at the sides.  The differences are a few concessions to modern engineering.  His hands fold in instead of staying exposed, and his robot arms tab in place instead of relying on friction.  And instead of sliding up over his thighs, his shins open and his legs collapse Combiner Wars-style.

Shrapnel's insect mode largely shares the same pros and cons as the robot mode.  By and large, it's a mostly-accurate mix of Sunbow and toy details, and I greatly prefer it over the Legends toy again.  But he does still have the chonky bug legs on his arms, the chest still can't open, he's still a little too wide, and he's still showing the black biceps that should be purple.  I won't fault the other bug legs for being that silvery gray plastic that matches his mandibles- that's cartoon accurate.  But I do kind of wish they were yellow like the G1 toy.

You kind of need the purple bug legs attached to the backs of his forearms for insect mode, otherwise he sits at an angle.  That just leaves his silver gun, which the instructions suggest you plug into one of the two 5mm ports on his abdomen.  Technically, the ones under his robot shoulders and feet are also available in this mode.  Or, as large as it is, you can plug his silver gun into the 5mm port on his robot back/bug tummy, and it should just barely fit with enough clearance that he's still sitting on his bug legs.

Unlike the G1 toy, the parts that cover his robot face are separate pieces from the rest of his mandibles.  This allows you to cover over his face and still articulate the mandibles in insect mode.  The tips of his mandibles, like the tips of his gun and purple bug legs, have the little nubs for blast effect parts (not included).

It feels crazy to me that Kickback was part of the first wave of Legacy, and we've had to wait until the second wave of Evolution to get another Insecticon.  That said, that was only about 11 months ago, and with Bombshell scheduled for the fourth wave of Evolution the Insecticons will be finished in far less time than the SS86 Dinobots, who are only 3/5 after two years.  Anyway, despite a few minor quibbles I really like Shrapnel, he's my favorite figure of the wave and I'd go so far as to say that I dig him more than Legacy Kickback, although I dig Shrapnel more than Kickback in general so I may be biased.  Easy recommend from me, and I'm really looking forward to Bombshell.  Although, the last time Hasbro has a strong track record releasing a team but saved my favorite for last they really screwed up that last one (Breakdown).  Fingers crossed that Bombshell gets a proper release and doesn't wind up being Shrapnel with a new head and mandibles.😒

[JB0]

Wow. That's most of what I want in a Shrapnel, and winds up on my must-have list. I lucked out here in that the cartoon and toy aren't very different(wrong shade of purple, grays that should be silver).

The black fists and biceps don't bug me. Not in robot mode, anyhow. Might paint a red band around them to simulate the arm sticker on the original, though.

 

I do wish his new chunkier arms tucked in somehow for beetleborg mode, and that his armblasters were smaller. But minor gripes.

[sh9000]

[mikeszekely]

4 hours ago, sh9000 said:

I had to figure this was coming soon. With wave 2 out they have to show off and open preorders for wave 3. Probably Commander-class Prime, maybe Titan Nemesis.  I was even thinking it's Transformers Tuesday, but the only new preorder today was Shattered Glass Grimlock.

Edited March 29, 2023 by mikeszekely

[mikeszekely]

Speaking of wrapping up wave 2 of Legacy Evolution, here's a quick Repaint Roundup for the figures I didn't fully review from this wave.

I actually got Core-Class Thundercracker some time ago, back when Core-class Grimlock came out and before any of the other figures in this wave.  I've just been sitting on this one, waiting for more repaints to review with him.  Anyway, with our third time around on this mold you kind of know what to expect... a decent robot mode marred by a few questionable deco choices (no silver pelvis, no black on the shins, no stripes on the forward-facing side of his wings).  He at least comes with null rays, unlike Skywarp, so you don't have to go looking for aftermarket ones.

There are no mold changes, so the transformation is still that one I kind of admire for being so different than the Classic and Earthrise Seekers, but also makes for kind of chibi-looking jets with visible robot arms underneath.  So, yeah, we know that these Core figures are meant to be sort of like accessories that make your Titans look bigger, and by now Dr. Wu has done a better job with even smaller Seekers with more accurate decos.  If you want little Transformers to go with your Titans I'd suggest those instead, but if you've already got Starscream and Skywarp then you might as well get Thundercracker and complete the trio.

Next up, we have Deluxe-class Crosscut, a minor retool of Skids.  If you've skipped or missed the store-exclusives you'll find that Crosscut has a new head, however that head actually debuted last year on Burn Out (who, now that he's getting an MP of his own, seems like he should actually have the non-masked face that was on Skids, so...).  Going by Crosscut's own MP, his biceps should be silver and part of his pelvis should be black, but I'm guessing that Hasbro simply took a sprue with black parts on it from the others and ran it in red.  It's not a huge problem, I guess (I have half a mind to buy a second Crosscut just to take the hands and give them to Skids), at least not in bot mode.

However, the tires are on that sprue.  So Crosscut winds up having bright red tires with unpainted rims.  And the rear ones are riveted on, so repainting them will be difficult.  I know that Hasbro's gotta milk their molds, but Crosscut strikes me as an exceptionally lazy repaint.  And, since he's not an OG G1 character with screen time in the cartoon (Crosscut didn't exist until a 2002 repaint of the G1 Skids reissue), you can safely skip this one. (Although I kind of want them to finish the set and give me Reboost now).

Despite being one of the first figures of this wave to turn up in stores, Voyager-class Twincast was the last figure of the wave to arrive on my porch.  Twincast is a very minor retool of Blaster- all they did was replace his stoic face with a smiling one then change the colors (I'm not sure if his goofy non-symmetric eyes are normal for the mold or just a crappy paint job on my copy).  And, too be frank, I've always found Twincast's colors to be a bit garish.

Credit where it's due, Hasbro didn't just run a sprue of black parts from Blaster in red and call it a day, they actually painted Twincast's feet and handle black to maintain accuracy with his G1 appearance... which, BTW, yes the G1 Twincast toy had light gray thighs that matched his shins, but the black thighs used on this figure match his appearance in The Headmasters.  Which reminds me, unlike Crosscut Twincast was actually in a (Japanese) G1 cartoon.  Still, of the three uses of this mold, Twincast is my least favorite, and I might suggest you pass on him as largely unnecessary.  Except...

...Twincast comes with Rewind, arguably the most popular of Blaster's tapes since his prominent role in the IDW comics.  Like Eject, he's still made from an awful lot of translucent plastic, which I'm not a fan of.  But Eject's mold is still one of the better tapes Hasbro has done.  As a character who appeared in the '86 movie and the third season of G1, not to mention the popularity of his IDW self, Rewind's pretty essential, even if Twincast isn't.  But since you have to get Twincast to get Rewind, I'm reluctantly forced to recommend Twincast.  All I have to say is Hasbro better make it up to me by releasing Steeljaw and Ramhorn.

[M'Kyuun]

Given how utterly atrocious Ravage turned out in both Siege and ER forms, and as much as I'd like Ramhorn and Steeljaw in this new size, I have no faith that a Has/TT version will even approach mediocrity. At this point, I'd rather Dr. Wu just went through the whole catalog of cassette minions and made them all with better articulation. Credit where it's due, Has/TT did a pretty good job with Eject, trans-plastic notwithstanding, and with the new improved core class Rumble, except for his unfortunate lack of elbows which I hope some third party will eventually remedy.

I really, really wish they'd kept to the standard real-world micro-cassette scale from G1 and MP; I get why they changed it for this line, but I don't have to like it.

[Scyla]

@mikeszekely can I order the Core Class Skywarp Null Rays somewhere, or are they already sold out?

[mikeszekely]

46 minutes ago, Scyla said:

@mikeszekely can I order the Core Class Skywarp Null Rays somewhere, or are they already sold out?

I bough minet from JRC before he closed up shop. I can't vouch for the quality, but TFSafari has some from 115 Workshop  you could try.

[Scyla]

1 hour ago, mikeszekely said:

I bough minet from JRC before he closed up shop. I can't vouch for the quality, but TFSafari has some from 115 Workshop  you could try.

Thanks!

[sh9000]

I would have never known about the Matrix Workshop Stunticon vehicle guns if that store link wasn't posted.  I might buy them.  Thanks for the link @mikeszekely.

[Hikuro]

I had a lil extra few bucks on hand so I got up this morning to just get some kitty litter, allergy meds and some coffee. But I figured I'd stop by the toy section at one of my local walmarts and see if anything had popped up. They had some of the last wave I guess of figures but there wasn't anything new. I was hoping more to find a G1 Hound re-issue but alas they only had nothing but Starscream. Tons of Jhiaxus though, that kinda surprised me. 

After I had gotten my supplies there I figured I may as well go to Target across the freeway and took a look there. At first I was a bit bummed, there were a ton of 86 Ironhide's....it was either 7 or 9, I just remember it was an odd number. They had Needlenose, Crashbar and Scraphook, 2 Galvatrons, 1 Sludge, a few Earth Sparks I had zero interest in. But what caught my eye was about 8 Pre-earth Jazz's. Which surprised the heck out of me cause mine was still on Pre-order from the website. Quickly got on my account, canceled that order and picked it up. 

It's not a bad figure, he's at least got a lot less kibble going on than Bumblebee did...I dig his alt-mode a ton and the simplicity of his transformation back and forth between modes. I thought for a moment his fists were pushpinned as I had intended to swap those out with his 86 variant but I don't think that's going to be possible as his are just pop out and I believe the 86 is pinned.  There's also something I didn't expect....his hips are not exactly free moving or ratch based, they're kind of just like I don't know the term some sort of soft click so there's a limited amount of angles to choose from when posing. 

I mean either case I like the figure, and I might repaint the grapple hook and blaster to look more accurate. But man, if there isn't a wheeljack version seeing how he's the last of the shown pre-earth characters I will be severely disappointed. 

Now then.......I just wanna wait until I see some G2 stuff come along. 

[mikeszekely]

After a gap of over a month, the last of the Studio Series figures from Rise of the Beasts I had preordered finally showed up.  This one is Leader-class Scourge.

Scourge joins that Evil Optimus Counterpart Truck Club, here with his Velocitron namesake and Dark of the Moon Megatron.  He fits right in, doesn't he?  With naught but snippets of trailer and box art that may or may not even be accurate at this point I can't say how accurate this figure is, but I'm generally digging the aesthetic.  Not real sure what's up with the mask and cowl, but it's certainly different and interesting.  His legs are a tad thin, but the relative lack of bulk combined with the absence of a slouching, digitigrade posture delineates him from Megatron.

He does have a bit of a backpack, complete with a quartet of massive smokestacks.  Some have theorized that between the smokestacks and the shape of the feet/lower legs that Rise of the Beasts could be a multiverse movie that ties The Last Knight to the Bumblebee Universe, that Scourge is a reformatted Optimus Prime, sent to the Bumblebee Universe after Unicron woke up and trashed the Bayverse.  I don't buy it, especially because the backpack and smokestacks don't seem to be present in the trailer.

Note the asymmetric hands.  I don't mind that his right hand is normal but his left is a kind of claw, but I'm not loving the blade permanently attached to his right arm.  I'd rather it were removable, but it's possible that it's always present in the film.  Still, even in that case it would have been good to have it fold in back and closer to his forearm.

In case comparisons to the EOCTC weren't good enough, here he is with fellow Terrorcon Battletrap and Studio Series Bumblebee Optimus Prime, whom ROTB Prime seems to be based on.  This works pretty well for me, but I'll note here that the non-SS ROTB Voyager-class Prime appears to be a head smaller or so than SS Bumblebee Prime.

Moving along... Scourge comes with a blaster.  That's it, but that's probably all you need.

Scourge's head has a ball joint at the base of his head that can swivel a little and look up/down, then a second ball joint at the base of the neck that can also swivel and tilt forward, which combined with his upper neck joint allows him to crane his head forward.  His shoulders rotate, and there are two joints that move laterally, one outside the shoulder swivel and one inside.  The outer one, which I consider proper, can move 90 degrees, but if you choose to use it the other one also goes 90 degrees, or it could simply be used to shrug or slump his shoulders.  His biceps swivel, and his elbows bend 90 degrees.  Neither hand has a wrist swivel.  The fingers on his normal hand have a fixed thumb and a single hinged knuckle in the middle of his freakishly long fingers, which are molded together (note that a potential future MPM Scourge with fully-articulated fingers would have four knuckles on each finger!).  His waist swivels.  His his can go a little over 90 degrees forward, 90 degrees backward, and 90 degrees laterally.  His thighs swivel, and his knees bend 90 degrees.  His feet tilt forward 90 degrees, due to transformation, and slightly downward, plus his ankles pivot 90 degrees.

Scourge's arm blade uses a few hinges to unfold from under his forearm to sit in his right hand.  To use his blaster his left arm gets yanked off just below the elbow, revealing a keyed peg.  The blaster uses a port on the back to slide onto that peg.

When not using his arm blade there his a 5mm port carved into the palm of his right hand, and he can use it to hold Core-class Freezer.  I mean, it's not a great look, and given that Scourge comes with a blaster I still question why Freezer is meant as an accessory for Scourge and not Battletrap, who didn't come with a blaster.  Speaking of no blasters, if you leave his regular left arm attached the base of his claws are hinged, so he can open them up, but there are sadly no additional hinges (even though it looks like, again, each digit should have four total).

Regardless of whether he's got his forearm or his blaster attached to his left arm, Scourge can store the limb he's not currently using.  They both have slots that fit onto a tab on the bottom of his backpack.

One you know how it's supposed to work, Scourge's transformation is fairly simple; the trickiest part is making sure you have the hinges in the back of the cab set right, because if you don't the top of the cab and nose will sit right but the sides will end up crooked.

Scourge was a pretty tall fellow, and his truck mode seems pretty big in hand, but comparing cab-to-cab he seems to scale reasonably well with Velocitron Scourge and DOTM Megatron.

And this is how he looks and scales with Bumblebee Prime and Battletrap.

Aesthetically, Scourge's truck mode has the gray colors and Mad Max-esque chains and mods that DOTM Megatron sported, but with an underlying truck that's much closer to pre AoE Optimus' alt mode- as far as I'm aware, Scourge is a Peterbilt 359, Prime a 379... which makes sense, because the 379 is the newer model, and ROTB takes place well before Transformers '07.  Unlike the robot mode, there are more pictures available of Scourge's truck, and the toy seems pretty accurate if a bit more gray than dirty brown.  There's the usual bits, where the back of the truck looks more like robot legs than a truck, and there's a gab in front of the air cleaner on the hood.  I've included his blaster, unfurled and attached, as part of his alt mode because that's how it looks in the movie, minus chains that stretch from the smokestack to the back.  Overall I like the truck mode, aside from the dirty scratches that look less like dirt and scratches and more like someone scribbled on him with a tan crayon.

If you're curious, you can leave it off... you'll just have more visible hands.  Also, notice how the front of Scourge's thighs were molded to look like the trailer hitch, but don't actually form the trailer hitch.  As near as I can tell, Scourge isn't compatible with any trailers that I own.

He is compatible with Freezer, though.  For this, you need the blaster attached.  Bend Freezer's arms around, and tabs on the sides will plug into slots inside the open blaster.  And... Yeah, it's not really worth buying Freezer over.

Speaking of Freezer, between him and Battletrap the Terrorcons haven't had the best track record.  Fortunately, Scourge is a big improvement over those two, as he should be with the Leader-class price tag.  He still has his issues, like the permanent arm blade, fingers that could use more joints, and a terrible job scuffing him up, plus on my copy one of the smokestacks is very loose.  But, and maybe I just have a soft spot for the EOCTC, on the whole I like this figure, and he'll be my first Terrorcon recommend.

[M'Kyuun]

Preorers are up on Pulse for this morning's Fanstream reveals. 

Kinda irritating that they continue to make up Junkion characters that nobody asked for but still no Omnibots nor Ramhorn nor Steeljaw. They even made Devcon, a throw-away character from one ep of the toon w/ a crappy bot and alt mode. I just want some modern updates of the Omnis in the main line- nice lookin' bots with nice alt modes and, like Tracks, a third weaponized vehicle mode- they seem like no-brainer figs, so why are they continually ignored?

Edited April 4, 2023 by M'Kyuun

[Scyla]

1 hour ago, M'Kyuun said:

Preorers are up on Pulse for this morning's Fanstream reveals. 

Kinda irritating that they continue to make up Junkion characters that nobody asked for but still no Omnibots nor Ramhorn nor Steeljaw. They even made Devcon, a throw-away character from one ep of the toon w/ a crappy bot and alt mode. I just want some modern updates of the Omnis in the main line- nice lookin' bots with nice alt modes and, like Tracks, a third weaponized vehicle mode- they seem like no-brainer figs, so why are they continually ignored?

I’m in for Nemesis Lio Convoy and excited for FoC Cliffjumper.

The Nemesis spaceship looks cool but I’m not feeling the odd arm proportions in bot mode. But I’m not buying it anyway so it is also not my problem. 

Edited April 4, 2023 by Scyla