mikeszekely

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.

So... Amazon had a lightning deal the other day, so I bought a pair of Viture One XR glasses. For the unfamiliar, they're a bit like really chunky sunglasses, but with micro OLED displays built into them. Now, they don't have compute hardware built in; out of the box they don't do anything on their own, and you'll need to use the included cable to plug it into any device that supports USB-C Display Port Alt mode. This is mostly PCs and Macs (including devices like the Steam Deck and ROG Ally), most Android phones (but weirdly, not Pixels), and iPhones and iPads that use USB-C. They make an adapter (sold separately) to use with older iPhones/iPads, and an HDMI dock with a built-in battery (sold separately) to use with things like game consoles (including the Nintendo Switch). The gist is pretty simple (mind you, I've only tested it on a Windows laptop, an ROG ally, and a Macbook Air). You plug the glasses into the device, then the glasses display a virtual screen. On both laptops the default behavior was to duplicate the desktop, on the Ally it turned off the Ally's screen. For the most part, the image is pretty good. There are buttons on one of the stems for adjusting the brightness of the virtual display, and another button that toggles the opacity of the glasses. In my living room, I was able to play Fallout 3 using the glasses, and only occasionally would I notice anything on the actual TV I was facing as my girls watched Netflix. If you need more opacity, Viture does sell a clip-on cover (again, sold separately). Viture advertises the virtual screen as 120", and... kind of? On the couch, the virtual screen definitely seemed to cover more of my field of view than the 80" screen in our living room, which I was sitting at least 15' from. But it also seemed smaller than my 27" monitor does from less than 3' away, so it's kind of relative. With the adjustable diopter settings the screen was fairly sharp. Text is mostly legible, but it can get a little blurry in the corners. In a suitably dark environment the colors are rich and vibrant, too; Fallout 3 looked better on the glasses than on my laptop's built-in screen. I'll also note that the audio from the glasses is reasonably adequate. That being said, you're probably not going to use the glasses as your main display at your desk. For one, they're limited to 1080p 60fps. If you game on PC, chances are you have a monitor that has a higher resolution, a higher refresh rate, or both. And they only create one virtual screen; you could in theory use them as a second screen, but you'll have to tilt your head way up to peak at the actual screen from under the lenses. The glasses come with multiple nose clips, and I had little trouble finding a fit that didn't slide down. The glasses are a tad too narrow for my face. Could just be that I have a big head, but other reviews I've read have mentioned it, so I think maybe Viture's engineers just have tiny heads. The stems flex out, though, and I didn't find the glasses to be uncomfortable to wear. So what's the use-case for these? The main use seems to be for people playing videogames on handheld devices like the Steam Deck and ROG Ally (this was my primary interest). Those devices don't have super high resolutions or refresh rates in the first place, and until recently weren't available with OLED screens. And sure enough, having a big OLED screen that appears to hover in front of your face beats hunching over a 7" screen in your lap. It's especially nice when you're lying it bed, because you don't have to prop your head up. The screen will float near the ceiling if that's where you're naturally facing. It's nice, too, to be near my girls when they're watching something on TV but to have my own private screen for something else if I'm not interested in whatever they're watching. I could also see them being useful if you're a road warrior. You'd have a bigger virtual display than the 14" screen that seems to be standard on a lot of thin-and-light laptops, with the added bonus that other people around you in coffee shops or airports can't see your screen. Heck, load up a phone or a tablet with your favorite video content and you'd have a better screen than the one built into the seat in front of you on an airplane (assuming the airplane screen even works) that stays in front of your eyes no matter where you turn your head. The Viture One's greatest strength might also be it's biggest weakness, though. One the one hand, by tethering it to another device the glasses themselves are small and light enough to be comfortably worn for a long time; you don't have to strap on a bulky headset like you would with the Meta Quest or Apple Vision Pro. They're nice and portable, as they come with a case that can store the glasses and the cable. But that makes them seem relatively expensive, at around $440 (though almost always on sale for under $400) on Amazon. That's like halfway between a Quest 2 and Quest 3. And if you're not moving around, if you're going to sit at a desk, you can almost certainly buy a 27" monitor with better specs. Ultimately, I think what I've done is become an early adopter for technology that will become more commonplace as it improves and comes down in price. They work pretty well for what they do and they have some interesting use-cases, sure, but they're not really game-changing enough for most people to justify dropping $400 on them. Cut that price in half, though, and I think you'd have an indispensable accessory for everyone who's played a game on a Steam Deck on their commute or for anyone who spends more time on the road than in their office.

Cool, if you like expensive robots that transform for you. I'd rather they announce that they're taking preorders for Ginrai on Pulse. Also, if they don't want the mess that wave 2 was, they need to start talking about wave 3 of Legacy United.