mikeszekely

Huh, I tried to remove the one in my copy but it seems stuck.

I think, because I went with Pulse instead of importing directly from Japan myself, that I'm the last one to take a look at Missing Link Convoy. Takara went for a quick nostalgia knock-out with the packaging. Sure, it's in Japanese, but red-and-black box with a grid pattern? A window box displaying the truck nestled inside styrofoam flanked by incredible art of the toy in a pose it can't actually do? Classic G1 battle scene on the back with tech specs you need a decoder to read? That's 100% how I remember my Transformers toys being packaged as a kid in America. Inside the styrofoam you'll find the truck and trailer, naturally, but also some familiar and unfamiliar accessories. Familiar- Roller (in the original silver and not the blue color that was more common in the States), his fuel hose, a rifle, a sprue of missiles, and a sprue of tires (because Roller requires assembly). Unfamiliar- a golden Matrix of Leadership and an Energon axe. Not pictured but also included are a collectors card and one of those red plastic rectangles to decode the specs with. The truck itself could almost be mistaken for the G1 toy from most angles, as the most obvious difference from the back and sides is that the Autobot insignia on the sides is tampoed instead of stickered. Likewise, the stickers on the toes are now molded into the feet and painted. From the front, though, there's a bit more going on. The translucent plastic on the windows seems a bit more yellow, but I think that's less to do with the actual translucent plastic and more to do with the new stuff behind it being more reflective. There's no cutouts on his bumper, and his headlights are a bit smaller and lack the peg holes in the middle. About that reflective bit... the front of the cab can still fold open, but the little Dialcone seats (that were useful for storing the original toy's fists) have been replaced by a new chunk of large chrome plastic. That's where the new Matrix accessory can be plugged in. Not gonna lie, I'd have been pretty into it if the G1 toy were reissued with a piece like that and a Matrix back in 1986 after the movie came out. Missing Link Convoy retains the rub sign on the roof, and naturally, can pull his trailer, which hitches the same way (fitting a port over a large peg on the backs of his legs). Aside from a some slight differences in plastic color (which could be due to my G1 trailer being from a reissue), the trailer appears even more similar to the original than the cab. Again, the most obvious difference is that the Autobot insignia and stripes are tampoed onto the trailer rather than being a sticker. But both still have the same molded details on the sides, the same trailer door and bumper, the same little tab sticking out of the front, and the same cutouts on the front and top. Underneath appears the same at glance, too- four wheels at the back, a driveshaft running up the middle with a port for the hitch, and a pair of blue swing arms. Notice, though, that the black part is thicker on the Missing Link toy, and there are no gray tabs at the end. This is a clue to the real difference, which we'll see inside. So yeah, both have the the repair drones and Diaclone seats. The Missing Link trailer has the two largest sticker details done as tampographs (there are some actual stickers in the package if you want to do up the rest of the trailer). The repair drone still has the opening cockpit for another Diaclone seat, the firing missiles, the movable claw, radar dish with the spinner. What's missing, though, is the spring-loaded launcher for Roller. It's just not there. Instead, the repair drone can slide forward and pop out. With wheels on the underside it can roll around on it's own, a gimmick it borrows from MP-44. Roller is also a little different, also borrowing a gimmick from the MPs. The port on the rear that can hold the fuel hose or Prime's rifle can flip over, revealing a little translucent flasher. With the cutouts on the trailer, the drone can still poke out of the front or top of the closed trailer. Of course, I don't think anyone is buying Missing Link Convoy for the truck. After all, they're nearly the same except the original can launch Roller but the new one has a detachable repair drone. The star of the show is the robot mode... which, at a glance appears mostly the same. You'll quickly notice that, as I mentioned with the truck mode, that the Autobot insignias on his shoulders are tampoed, and the sticker details on the arms, knees, and toes are now actually molded onto the plastic and painted. Other than that, the biggest difference is the the hands, which are are bit closer to something you might see on a modern Generations figure than the bulbous mitts with lipped 5mm ports that the original came with. Unlike the original toy, these hands do no partsform or plug into the headlights. Instead, they fold inward, which causes the headlights to fold out from inside Convoy's forearms. Not much difference besides the hands on the sides. You can see a little difference in the waist/pelvis area, though. Most noticeably, there's a tiny peg hole for a flight stand on Missing Link Convoy. The new hands actually necessitate that Missing Link Convoy's rifle is slightly different. On the left, you see both version of the G1 rifle. The Missing Link rifle is mostly modeled after the chunky-barrel one, but the realistic handle (that the original toy couldn't actually hold) has been replaced with another 5mm peg. The reason for that is pretty simple; Missing Link Convoy's new hands are smaller than the the G1 toy's, so the handle on the original toy would prevent the peg from reaching his fist. As for the axe, there's a hinged flap you can open to reveal a 5mm peg inside. It slides into Convoy's hand, then you close the flap over the bottom. A Matrix, a revised rifle, an axe, and hands that don't partsform are all well and good, but they hardly represent a "missing link" between the G1 toys and modern Transformers. No, if there's on thing even the harshest critic of modern Transformers has to admit, it's that the modern toys have far greater articulation than the borderline bricks of the '80s. Heck, the original G1 Optimus toy could swivel his shoulders 180 degrees, he had a backward butterfly, he had bicep swivels, he could bend his elbows 90 degrees, swivel his wrists, bend his hips back 90 degrees, bend his knees 90 degrees, and bend his feet down, and that put him miles ahead of later G1 figures like Hot Rod, who could do nothing but bend his elbows. So that's what the "missing link" thing is supposed to be- the form and aesthetics of the original toy, but with modern articulation. Missing Link Convoy's head swivels. His shoulders can still swivel and have that backward butterfly, but they also can move laterally 90 degrees. And additional hinge on the inside of the swivel will let you extend his arms even further. His biceps and wrists still swivel, but his hands also can bend inward, and his fingers are hinged so he can open his hands. His elbows bend 90 degrees laterally. He's got an uncomfortably tight and fairly limited ab crunch. The tires that are on his hips are hinged so they can get out of the way, allowing you to access a limited waist swivel below his bumper. His hips can still go 90 degrees backward, but they can now also move almost 90 degrees forward or laterally. His thighs swivel now. His knees, which are ratcheted now, can hyperextend a click, and bend over 90 degrees. His feet still tilt down due to transformation, but not up, while the front of his foot is now on a swivel to give him a faux ankle pivot. All-in-all, it's articulation that wouldn't be particularly remarkable on most modern Transformers figures, but it's far more than the original toy, and it's kind of neat seeing what appears to be the G1 toy in these more dynamic poses. The thing is, though, I'm not sure how far this gimmick can actually go. To me, the appeal of owning a G1 figure is having the toy I remember playing with 40 years ago. If it's a reissue, that's fine, but I want it to be as close as possible to the original. With new molded detail, tampographs, accessories, and a ton more articulation that isn't what Missing Link Convoy is. But on the other hand, if I buy a modern toy with modern articulation, I also want modern aesthetics that go harder into the Sunbow models. For all the modern articulation, Missing Link Convoy still has all the G1 jank aesthetics left over from his Diaclone origins. And I think that's where I'm starting to run into trouble. As a one-off figure, Missing Link Convoy is a very neat experiment in taking what is essentially the G1 toy with it's weird proportions and most of it's gimmicks but allowing you to pose it the way you imagined it in your head as a kid. But it's kind of like this... am I willing to rebuy a bunch of G1 toys, or nearly-identical reissues? Yes. Am I willing to buy all those G1 characters in modern toys with modern articulation and aesthetics? Yes again. But am I willing to invest in a third line of toys that look mostly like the G1 toys I had but clearly aren't the toys from 40 years ago because these ones actually have articulation? Honestly, probably not. So, yeah, I like Missing Link Convoy. I think, if you grew up with the G1 toy there's a lot of nostalgia here, and because it's Prime I think it's worth checking him out and seeing what an articulated version of that most classic of toys is like. But I'm not exactly clamoring to see what might be next for Missing Link, and I don't think I'd want to buy a Missing Link Ironhide or something the way some people seem to. Heck, this wasn't even my favorite Optimus I got today...

I'm sick and slept through today's announcements. I managed to pre-order the three United Deluxes, but Vector Prime sold out at both pulse and Amazon. I assume the Studio Series stuff was in the space bridge? No preorders I need to worry about?

Wave 3 of Legacy United is coming soon. Nucleous Sideburn Hot Shot Vector Prime. I'm still waiting for the Core-class rock guy to leak (although I'm sure it'll be a retool of Bouldercrash), and Galvatron hasn't technically leaked but we know he's scheduled for this wave and we saw his picture when Hasbro revealed the box for Tidal Wave. That's it for new figures from this wave. In other news, some of the exclusives for next year are starting to leak. The problem is, a lot of them are still code names or product codes and I don't have a lot of actual details. I do know that Target will have a "Voyager" repackage of SS86 Perceptor, but bundled with Ratbat and Ramhorn. They'll also have a Gamer Edition bundle of Elite Seeker and Ground Soldier from Devastation. That'd likely be repaints of Ramjet and Runabout/Runamuck like so- Walmart's going to have two exclusive lines. One's going to be focused on Transformers Cybertron, which makes sense, since 2025 is the 20th anniversary. We're promised figures of a Deluxe Sideways and an unnamed Leader-class, which we can only speculate on. We're also getting a Skywarp (likely a repaint of United Starscream) and Excellion, a repaint of the just-leaked Hot Shot. The other line is more curious. We don't know what it actually is, just that it'll contain four figures and is listed as "TRA GEN Retro Inspired." Amazon will have a pair of two-packs. One is listed as Spinister vs. Twintwist, and while some are suggesting that maybe they mean Topspin the in the Diaclone colors to match the previous Diaclone Twintwist from the previous Wreckers set, I wonder if it isn't simply Twintwist's other Diaclone colors. Spinster, meanwhile, it's probably a repackage or slight recolor of the Siege toy. As for the other set, it will apparently be Iron Fist (retooled from Siege Hound/Legacy Detritus) and Carnivac (from PotP Weirdwolf). Lastly, Hasbro's SDCC exclusive will be Jetfire, based on his Skybound Comics appearance in Void Rivals, along with figures representing the non-Transformer characters Darak and Solila. Given that Jetfire's appearance in Void Rivals is basically G1 Jetfire, one assumes it's Siege Jetfire again, maybe with a slightly different deco and some of the accessories swapped out with some new slugs or Prime Masters or something. I've got a little less to go on with their Pulsecon-exclusive, but it will supposedly be themed around the IDW Hearts of Steel miniseries.

The Armada Prime reissue is up on Pulse, too, with an October release date. I know MW goes hard for G1, but if you have any interest at all and haven't picked up Armada Prime I recommend him. He doesn't have the Minicon or gimmicks of the original Armada toy, but he holds together much better and has pretty decent articulation, which is a huge upgrade over the nearly-static original.

Dr Wu put them up on Weibo. They're not ready for pre-order yet. They might be available end of the year.

I mean, I'm in for Decibel, but I guess you haven't seen this yet?

The figure you're also paying for when you buy Microscope is Grapple. Which would be cool if it was that Grapple, but it's actually Hauler. Hauler is, of course, a retool of Fire Ladder, his tiny Inferno. There are some changes besides the color, of course. Hauler's got a brand new head, and he trades the gun-hand accessory for a claw. The retooling is a bit more evident in truck mode. The hinges with the wings on Fire Trucks head are gone, as is the peg for the head gun. His legs have been retooled, so they no longer have the hoses. And, most obvious of all, the folding fire ladder has been replaced with an extending crane. The hook on the crane is hinged, and the claw can fit on the end of the crane boom. Now, say you actually wanted the Transformer Grapple, not Dr. Wu Grapple. Well, that's a different set entirely! For that, you need to buy Crane Hook. Crane Hook is pretty much what you'd expect. He's identical to Grapple, just with all the green replaced with yellowy-orange (or orangey-yellow). Unfortunately, that means no gun-hand for Crane Hook, as he just comes with the same claw that Grapple does. And who does Crane Hook come with, then? That'd be Black Mirror, the Extreme Warfare version of Magnificus/Shattered Glass Perceptor. And now we see what the play is here. Rather than package the main characters together then package the repaints together, like he did with the Seekers and minibots, it seems like the good Doctor has figured that he'll sell more repaints if he packages a repaint character with the figure you really want, and then take the other character you really want and package it with the repaint of the first guy. On the one hand, I can't totally blame him. I mean, I 100% bought the pack that had Blaster and Skywarp, but I skipped the pack that was Sunstorm and Twincast. If Dr Wu packaged Grapple and Perceptor and then put Hauler with Magnificus I probably would have bought one set instead of both. On the other hand, as the consumer who was forced two buy two repaints to get the two characters I actually wanted, it's pretty annoying and I'm not happy to see that he'll be doing it again soon by packaging Wheeljack with Shattered Glass Inferno and Bulkhead with Slicer (and Exhaust with Artfire). Well, enough mini ranting. Black Mirror has a new head modeled after the Gen Selects Magnificus, which in turn was modeled after the masked head on Perceptor's G1 toy. And for all my complaining, the figures don't get less good just because they're repaints, so while I might not have been inclined to pick up the Magnificus and Hauler colors, I'm still saying it's worth buying them to have regular Perceptor and Grapple. Honestly, who am I to complain about repaints, anyway? I mean, I've bought eight different versions of Dr. Wu's Optimus Prime now (and believe it or not, that's not actually all of them). From left to right, that's Shattered Glass, Dead Optimus, Nemesis Prime, the original Optimus, Ultra Magnus (toy colors), Magna Convoy, one that that appears to be based on the "duck camo" atmos version of MP-10, and Toxitron. I know for sure Dr. Wu has also done a battle-damaged Optimus, a "cartoon" Ultra Magnus based on the repaint of Classics Optimus, one based on the Evangelion MP-10, and a Golden Lagoon Optimus. And if he really wanted to he could do the other two atmos versions of MP-10 ("Viotech" and "Elephant"), the Ghostbusters version of MP-10, the three BAPE decos of the G1 toy (red camo, green camo, and gray camo), and Shining Magnus. I'm sure I'd buy some (or all) of them. Anyway... most of the Prime Commander redecos come with the same AA-drone-lacking trailer, repair arms, and rifle that the original release did. But they also come with Roller, who was originally sold separately as a pack with both the gray and blue versions, and the energon axe that came with Magnus. Speaking of Magnus, you know since I already reviewed him that he comes with his rifle, missiles, and car-carrying trailer instead of a box trailer. Magna Convoy has the same trailer and accessories as Ultra Magnus instead of the usual Dr. Wu trailer. This is because, when you break apart the trailer and use it armor Magna Convoy up, you get Delta Magnus. Unless you consider him to be Shattered Glass Ultra Magnus, although there's no skeletal alternate face inspired by the Botcon-exclusive retool of Reveal the Shield Optimus. If you prefer the armored-up look and car-carrying trailer, you can also buy the trailer in colors meant for the Nemesis Prime and Shattered Glass figures. They're not the best value, though, as they lack the cab figure but cost just as much. Now, I've already recommended Prime and some version of Ultra Magnus, as they're great little figures. And they're cheap enough that I can live out my dream of having Prime's cab in all the colors of the rainbow, which is why I keep buying them. Am I actually recommending that you guys buy Prime in every color, though? Of course not! Just look at the pictures and pick the colors that you actually like. In the mean time, I think I've got to start looking around for one of those Golden Lagoon versions...

Oh, that reminds me. I only ever bought Dr. Wu's version of Squawkbox. I skipped the drones (which seemed kind of cool, but I wasn't feeling the need for original designs), but I still need Dr. Wu's version of Slamdance. EDIT: Found and ordered from TFSafari. I'm not against it, but I'd rather he start with Slugfest and Overkill, since we don't have any version of them yet. And depending on how much of his resources the cassettes take, I'd kind of rather he keep working on the Extreme Warfare line. He teased a Megatron and a Wheeljack awhile back, and frankly, I'm in for the entire Sunbow cast.

I actually just showed it to my daughter, and she loved the trailer. She thought Bumblebee was hilarious, and said that the movie "looks cool". She's 8, turning 9 before September. There, she's the target audience. Transformers One is designed to appeal to the same crowd that made the Super Mario Bros movie a huge hit. And just like SMB, TFOne will use humor aimed at that age bracket, big Hollywood names, and have a simple and safe story as Paramount attempts to rake in some of that SMB money. Ultimately, there's nothing wrong with that. Sure, I'd love a more mature production aimed at us 40-somethings who grew up on G1. This ain't it, but it was never meant to be, and I don't think it's entirely fair to judge it like it was. Besides, it could be a lot worse. I didn't see Bumblebee peeing on anyone, or a transforming RC truck humping Megan Fox's leg.

Speaking of tiny, I picked up Dr. Wu's Microscope, a Micromaster-sized Perceptor from their Extreme Warfare line. I don't have a Lego minifigure to compare with. I don't have a ton of Legends-sized guys, either... but I do have Studio Series 86 and Titans Return Perceptor, and he's about knee-high to those guys. Kind of hard to make out the details, though... So here he is with the "Child's Play" miniature Perceptor that came with X-Transbots' MP-style offering. Microscope is much more solidly built and can even transform, despite being roughly half again tall, but you start to notice that, proportionally, Microscope is on the chunkier side. I wonder if this isn't a necessity of the size, like you can only make a ball joint so small and only make the plastic around the socket so thin before it's a horrible floppy mess that feels like you're going to break it if you sneeze too hard. Because that's how the XTB figure feels, but Microscope is a more robust figure that you can certainly play with. Aside from being a bit chunky, Microscope seems to take a lot of design cues from the Studio Series figure. On the one hand, that's good! The SS86 figure was trying very hard to look like the '86 movie, so Microscope is very G1 Sunbow accurate. He just needs a little silver on the end of his scope, and a little red faux hinge on his waist. On the other hand, they really copied the Studio Series figure. Same hollow edges on the insides of the forearms, same molded but unpainted treads on the inside of the legs, same hollow back. Both even have a tab on the side opposite the scope, only it's more obvious on Microscope due to it being black and relatively thicker. Microscope doesn't come with any accessories, so we'll jump right to articulation. Head's on a swivel, no tilt. His shoulders are ball joints that can rotate 360 degrees and move laterally 90. His elbows are hinges that bend 90 degrees. Normally, I prefer hinges to ball joints, but on a figure this small what it really means is that he's got no bicep swivels. Nor does he have any wrist swivels. His waist can swivel, though. Hips are ball joints that can go slightly over 90 degrees forward, backward, and laterally. Technically his legs can swivel a little around the ball joint, so he can turn his feet out a bit, but he lacks a more dynamic dedicated thigh swivel. His knees bend a little over 90 degrees. His toes can tilt down 90 degrees, up very slightly, and his ankle can pivot 90 degrees. Transformation is basically identical to the Studio Series toy. Turn his head, tuck it into his back. Fold his hands in, rotate his shoulders, then double hinge them down and into his sides. The scope hinges over, and the tab on the other side folds up to lock into it. He sits down, spreads his legs, then a transformation joint folds them forward again. Finish it off by bending down the toes and opening the chest. The simple engineering gives him a sort of unfinished look. There's no mirror under the slide tray. The dials on his arms don't turn. Nothing actually locks his legs into place. Thing is, this is all true of the Studio Series toy, too. It's a lot easier to forgive, though, when the figure is like a quarter the size. And no, Dr. Wu didn't forget about the tank mode. Microscope lacks the extra toy-style treads that the Titans Return figure had, but there are extra hinges for tank mode, and pegs on his legs that lock into ports on his shoulders that hold everything together nice and tidy. In other words, it feels like less of an afterthought than it does on the SS86 toy. I guess I don't have a lot to say that I haven't already said about Dr. Wu's Extreme Warfare figures. The engineering isn't mind-blowing, and the lack of accessories is kind of a bummer, sure. On the other hand, they're usually better painted and engineered than Hasbro's Core-class figures, and they're half the size, which makes them even better options for displaying with Titans. And they're cheap by 3P standards, usually running around $30 for two figures (I actually got a pair of two-packs for $44). That puts the in impulse buy territory for me. So I recommend Microscope. Like the other Extreme Warfare figures he's a fun, tiny figure well worth the asking price. Just know that to get him, you'll wind up with another figure...

That Optimus is up for preorder. I put links in the regular TF thread.

Transformers One Optimus up for preorder on Amazon. Weirdly not on Pulse (in the US, at least, but he's up on the European site). Also on BBTS and Entertainment Earth.

It is, pretty much exactly, what I expected. It's about Transformers, but it's targeted at kids, with the sort of writing you'd expect for a box office release targeting that demographic, with the same sort of "what popular Hollywood names can we attach?" over "does this voice sound like what we imagine for the character?" Is it the sort of Transformers story I really want? Of course not (that'd be an adaptation of James Roberts' More Than Meets the Eye series from IDW comics). But it's the kind of Transformers movie my daughter will want to watch in the theater with me.