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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.

Transformers One Orion Pax/Optimus Prime. This is supposedly a Studio Series Deluxe-class toy and could release as early as June.

I had some thoughts on Jetfire... I post a lot of news and reviews here (and sometimes in the unofficial TF thread), so I hope you'll stick around!

I think they've been available since the 10th. I bought tickets on Sunday for May 19th.

They're already sold out of Jetfire. They were sold out yesterday, so I gave links to BBTS and Entertainment Earth instead. But you know what Pulse isn't sold out of? MP-60 Ginrai MPG-09 Super Ginrai Prices are $159.99 and $279.99, respectively, and they're available at BBTS, Entertainment Earth, and other US-based toy stores. TFSource is probably bummed that they had to drop their $300 price to compete with all the other US stores that waited for the official price. Anyway, I caved and preordered MPG-09. I have issues with some of Takara's design choices, but Powermaster Optimus is the only Optimus I had as a kid, and MPG-09 is hitting my nostalgia button.

So... with weird delay on Swoop, I guess Voyager-class Bumblebee Shockwave will wrap up the current wave of Studio Series figures, for now. I feel like comparisons with the Core-class figure released awhile back are inevitable, because they're really similar despite the size difference. And, yeah, I get it, they're the same character, of course they're similar. But no, I mean they're more similar than, say, Siege Leader-class Shockwave and Legacy Core-class Shockwave. But let's focus on what's different. For one, the shade of purple used for the plastic is quite a bit more blue. Honestly, though, I think my camera and lights are making it look a lot bluer than it actually is, and in-hand I think it's pretty close to the color seen in the film. You might notice that some of the light gray parts on the Core-class figure, like the feet, thighs, hips, ears, etc. are a bit darker. Again, I think my camera's not accurately capturing things, because it hand they're quite dark. Now, some parts that are supposed to be like his inner machinery are supposed to be dark, but outer armor parts like his thighs, ears, most of his feet, plus the stripes at the tops of his shins and the little trapezoid on his abs are supposed to be silver or even kind of whitish. So where's all the Voyager budget going? Some painted copper details on his biceps and forearms? Crappy-looking weathering on his thighs? There's some gunmetal accents on his shoulders and forearms, and even some purple paint on the sides of his thighs and back... but not his butt. And, again, no silver on his feet and thighs, and nothing really hiding how hollow his lower legs are. Curiously, the treads on the insides of his forearms are also not painted, and this is one of the details where the Core-class toy actually does have paint. But I wonder if that's not a more deliberate choice here, since Shockwave didn't have visible treads on his arms in the movie. Oh, so I guess we can scratch "transforming treads" off the budget. I don't know that accessories ate up the budget, either. He comes with his arm cannon, but so did the Core-class toy. The only other accessory is a rubber hose. Does the Voyager-class Shockwave have better articulation? His head swivels, no tilt. His shoulders can rotate and move nearly 90 degrees laterally. Shockwave's elbows bend 90 degrees. That's all about the same, so far. Bicep swivels? Well, Shockwave has a swivel below the elbow... but so does Mini-Wave. Shockwave doesn't actually have a real bicep swivel above the elbow, though. Mini-Wave does, and the fact that a Core-class figure can get the budget for engineering that the Voyager didn't is kind of galling. Well, at least Shockwave has wrists swivels and a waist swivel that Mini-Wave doesn't. His hips go forward, backward, and laterally about 90 degrees, a little more than what Mini-Wave got. Plus he's got thighs swivels that Mini-Wave didn't get. Shockwave's knees bend 90 degrees, which is also slightly more than Mini-Wave. Both have feet that tilt up slightly and down a significant amount (technically a little more on Mini-Wave), but only Shockwave has ankle pivots, even if they're extremely limited. I guess, yeah, Voyager-class Shockwave does have better articulation than his Core-class twin... but don't we expect more out of a $35 toy than a $10 one? A more fair comparison would really be other Voyager-class toys, where he's really at the baseline standard for most of his joints except his bicep swivel and ankle pivots, where he's well below-average. Shockwave's arm cannon uses a tab that fits into a slot on the outside of his forearm to connect, and the rubber hose has one end plugged into a hole on the cannon and the other into a hole on his back. You'll notice that it's turned 90 degrees compared to the Core-class figure. Looking around the net at concept art, movie stills, and model kits makes me think that the Voyager actually has it right, but the one and only advantage of the swivel below the bicep is that you can turn his forearm to orient the cannon like the Core-class's if you prefer. Considering the price difference between these two figures, it's honestly shocking how similar the engineering actually is. In both cases his feet fold down, he does a split, and then joints in his thighs hinge his legs back down. In both cases his chest double hinges out from his body and then under his crotch, with his legs pegging into the chest and a flap with his abs folding underneath. In both cases a joint in his mid torso rocks his upper body, head, and shoulders into the gap his chest vacated. In both cases you have to remove his arm cannon, swivel his arms so his shoulders are slightly angled behind him, turn his forearms 90 degrees, and bend his elbows a bit so the treads under his forearms touch the ground. The differences are that his hands actually fold into his forearms, there's some shifting of his calves, his arms tab into his back instead of linking with his hips, and his head tucks in while a dedicated support for the cannon folded out with his chest. The cannon itself also does a little bit of transforming, with the barrel extending, but that's really it. I'm not sure I've ever seen concept art of Shockwave's alt mode, so I can't say if it's actually more accurate. The hose is cool, and I like that his hands and face aren't visible. Those seem like improvements. But I think his feet look worse, with more of the inside of his bellbottoms exposed, and the back of his cannon is just a big hollow gap now. Shockwave's upper body doesn't lock into place as well as Mini-Wave's, but his arms get and stay in place better. All-in-all, it's kind of a wash. Shockwave's turret can swivel and you can elevate the barrel... same as the Core-class version. But, he's got wheels in his treads, now, so at least he rolls. I guess that's an upgrade. I'm coming away from Shockwave a tad disappointed. I mean, he's really not a bad The sculpt on the figure is honestly quite good, and he does have a number of paint apps, plus the translucent chest and light-piped mono-eye. I'm quite glad to have a Shockwave that's in-scale with my other Bumblebee movie figures instead of a random (and at the time, one-off) Core-class, and I think he'll look pretty darn good in a display with those figures. But, a lack of silver paint in the areas that really needed it would have been better than a few touches of copper, and it really does irk me that that couldn't have budgeted/engineered his upper arms to be two parts instead of just one so that he could have a bicep swivels when they used the kind of engineering I'm asking for on the Core-class toy. It's things like that that take what could have been a great figure and dragged him down to merely adequate. I'd say he's still worth picking up if you've been collecting the Bumblebee Studio Series figures and you're looking to complete that Cybertron battle scene, but if you haven't been collecting the other Bumblebee figures then Shockwave probably isn't the place to start. EDIT: OK, one last picture... Shockwave and Shockwave getting together so Shockwave can have a playdate with Shockwave.

If for some reason you still don't have one, Siege Jetfire is getting a reissue. So is the Shattered Glass Optimus & Ratchet pack. Pulse is sold out of both already, but both can still be ordered at BBTS or Entertainment Earth. Supposedly MP-60/MPG-09 will go up for preorder at US stores tomorrow. I'll be curious to see if Pulse's official price comes out to be less than the $300 TFSource is already asking.

Dollars to donuts it's the exact same voice he used for Johnny Silverhand in Cyberpunk 2077. Eh, I'll still see it when it's available for streaming. The first two were reasonably fun.