mikeszekely

In the words of one James Pumphrey, "Minivans are cool." When I brought my parents with us when I took my wife and daughter to Presque Isle I rented a Chrysler Pacifica and I genuinely enjoyed it. Years later wife got a Kia EV9 when her parents were staying with us, and I dunno. I think more people should consider minivans instead of 3-row SUVs. It's like the Kia is nearly as big as the Pacifica, but the Pacifica's sliding door made it easier to get in and out of, and I swear it had more cargo room to boot. If we still needed a big people mover I'd consider swapping the EV9 for an ID.Buzz, but wife's parents went back to China so it's just the three of us at home these days, and wife kind of wants to downsize. Her next car might be BMW's new iX3 or an Audi Q6 e-Tron.

I'm happy for anyone that's into these He-Man crossovers, but He-Man looks like he's wearing a kid's Optimus costume he got at Walmart.

Well, like I said, MPG-19 is Soundwave, but it's just a repaint of MP-13. But I'm hearing that MPG-20 is a brand new mold for Hot Rod, and @sh9000 already mentioned that MPG-21 is Blaster. Working back from 19, 18 is Roadhauler ( a green repaint of Inferno), 17 is Style-Gen Optimus Prime, and 16 is the black Nucleon Quest repaint of Super Ginrai, so that's all G1 or G1-adjacent. The problem is, as @Scyla noted, the old MP line evolved a bit from more realistic robots to slavishly Sunbow, but that evolution was gradual and part of a pretty consistent design language and scale. MPG is pretty much anything Takara thinks is a more high-end toy, giving it a more scattershot lineup where you have to pay attention and cherry pick what you actually want.

FYI, Hasbro decided to quit Pulsecon, and I expect the Pulsecon exclusives like Armada Nemesis Prime will turn up here.

If SS86 Soundwave isn't for you, Takara announced MPG-19 will also be Soundwave. Before you guys get too excited, though, it looks like a repaint of MP-13. EDIT: If SS86 and MPG-19 aren't enough Soundwave for you, I'm also hearing that Missing Link Soundwave is coming next year as well.

Me: I love a good "white Optimus" Ultra Magnus... too bad the only one Hasbro gave us is the one that makes up the core of Earthrise Ultra Magnus. And at least that was Earthrise... I don't think we've had a Nemesis Prime since Siege! Hasbro: Ok... we'll repaint that toy-style Deluxe Optimus as Magnus, and we'll pack him with a Nemesis repaint of Animated Optimus. As a Target exclusive with two other guys. Me, looking at SS86 Optimus: "Not exactly what I had in mind..." Some guy in China, whispering: "Oh, I got you, bro..." I'll be honest, I have no idea who's making these. They come in a plain brown box with "MD-005" A, B, and C written on it, with check boxes that ostensibly should indicate what variant is inside but none of which were checked on either of the copies I got. As you can see, they're knock-offs of SS86 Optimus, but in Ultra Magnus white and Nemesis black. Note that Shattered Glass purple also exists, as well as regular red-and-blue Optimus. I haven't decided if I want the SG version or not, and the regular Optimus version is sold out at my usual stores. Now, again, this is MD-005. There's another KO going around as AS-08. By all reports, AS-08 is an inferior KO that's uses shoddy materials. MD-005 does seem to use a different plastic than the official figure, but it's solid and feels good in the hands. The joints are all solid, some tighter than the official figure. In short, MD-005 feels like a quality figure. These two versions (and the SG version) come with the rifle, Matrix, axe, and blast effects that SS86 Optimus came with, but not the trailer, repair drone, Roller, or the other effect parts. Instead, they come with some alternate heads, a battle damage part, and some filler for the truck mode. Regular Optimus comes with even more stuff, which I'll bring up if I can manage to get my hands on one. The heads are probably the most interesting bit. A lot of people seemed to not like the original SS86 head (left), though I thought it was fine. But here you also get a season 1 head (middle) and 86 movie head (right), plus a battle damaged version of the movie head. Personally I kinda like the SS86 head on Magnus, but the movie head for Nemesis. Swapping them is as simple as yanking one head off the ball joint and popping another one on. There's a notch in the panels on the sides you have to flip up when you spin the upper body for transformation. The battle damage part takes advantage of that by using a small tab to plug into it. Undoubtedly this part was created for the regular version of Prime, to recreate his iconic wound from his battle with Megatron, and whoever's making these figured they already had the part might as well stuff it in with all the colors. As a (nearly) 1:1 copy of SS86, the transformation is the same. They did replace the plastic wheels with rubber tires, though. I didn't test the Season 1 head, but the movie head transforms just fine. Which brings me to that last filler piece. It's filler for the back of the cab, designed to look like an AC unit. One side is flat, the other sloped, so you'll know which way it fits in. And it just wedges in place, it doesn't tab or lock in. It's a nice idea, and I don't even mind partsforming it, but there's no place to store it on the robot mode, so I doubt I'll ever really use them. At roughly $40, these are high-quality figures that deliver the repaints that Hasbro can't/won't. The extra heads are an especially nice touch. My only real complaint is that I wish they painted the tops of their crotches, the way the official figure did. If you're a fan of Magnus, SG Optimus, or Nemesis (@Scyla) then I can comfortably recommend them. Heck, I'd be in for Delta Magnus, Shining Magnus, or Pepsi Optimus repaints, too.

I've heard stories about Nissan's CVT issues, but I had a 2017 Maxima I drove (hard) until this year. Had absolutely no issues with it, it remains one of the best cars I've owned.

Correct. Stellantis killed it, and the only engine for the Ram 1500 was the Hurricane, a turbocharged straight six. People complained, loudly, and (after replacing the CEO) Stellantis is bringing the HEMI back, and one of the first vehicles it's going back into is the Ram 1500. Edmund's tested the new 1500 HEMI, and the conclusion was more or less "it's slower, it tows less, it gets worse mileage, it's more expensive, but it sounds cool," which is kind of what I was getting at... the Hurricane is a better engine in a lot of ways, and if I was in the market for a Ram 1500 (which I can promise I will never be, trucks just aren't my thing) I'd definitely go with the Hurricane. But not everyone is as into raw performance as I am, and a lot of people just prefer the way a V8 feels and sounds, and they were mad that they weren't being given the option. And that's how I feel about the Charger, too. Few more weeks with it and the more I drive it the more I like it. It's actually a little faster than my Porsche, gets better range, and even though it's not as agile I don't feel like I have to baby it, I don't have to take it nearly all the way to the Point if/when there's a service recall, and (hopefully) maintenance will be cheaper. I'm totally content with the electric version... it's silly and stupid in all the right ways. But I'm definitely in the minority there, and with the Challenger off the market along with the previous Challenger gasoline versions need to happen, and fast. While the Hurricane-equipped Charger SIXPACKs are due to arrive next year I think Stellantis should go one further and put out a HEMI version

Nate from the Transformers team put out a pic of Soundwave with a tape measure. I took a picture of Netflix Soundwave with a tape measure and tried to line it up. Not exact, but it looks like Soundwave might be bigger-er than I first guessed.

Personally I was fine assuming that the Transformers on Earth transformed into vehicles because Teletraan-1 mistakenly thought those vehicles were the dominant life forms on Earth, and beastformers were just what happens when Transformers scan some other life form for their alt mode. Though, I suppose that does raise the question of how they came up with their alt modes on Cybertron... I digress. The point is, Minicons came from Micronus, and Beastformers come from Onyx Prime. Onyx Prime's first appearance, to the best of my knowledge, was the Covenant of Primus. And again, to my knowledge, he's really only appeared in two other places, IDW comics and a design for Transformers One. The latter two sources obviously drew on the Covenant for inspiration, so they all have certainly design similarities like wings, digitigrade legs, and head that looks like he's wearing an animal skull for a helmet. The brown colors are pure Covenant, as IDW and TFOne both depicted him as primarily blue (I assume TFOne was based more on the IDW design, while there was an in-universe reason for the shift in Onyx's design...). I think it's fair to say that Age of the Primes Leader-class Onyx Prime is still sporting a somewhat original design, though. Here he's a bit more organic than other depictions, with faux fur on his shins, the insides of his elbows, and the joints of his wings. He's also sporting a tail, which I'm not entirely sure he had in other versions. In any case, I quite like the design. The wings, digitigrade legs, and hooves give off devilish vibes (even if Onyx was actually described as being a good friend and loyal ally to the other Primes). Onyx's relic is called the Triptych Mask, an artifact that supposedly gave Onyx the ability to travel the spiritual world and appear in dreams. It's heavily implied that the brown thing on the left is supposed to be the Mask, but I would think the mask is actually the aforementioned animal skull helmet... that is to say, his head. He also comes with a pole and his tail. Onyx's head is a hinged ball joint. He lacks much downward tilt, though he's got adequate sideways tilt, and he can look up quite a bit but the further up he looks the more his head sinks into his chest. His shoulders swivel and move 90 degrees laterally. His biceps swivel, and his elbows bend 90 degrees. His wrists swivel, and his fingers (molded as a single, curved piece) are hinged to open and close. His waist swivels, though his butt flap and loin cloth are attached to his upper body. His hips can go 90 degrees forward and backward, and over 90 degrees laterally, and his thighs swivel. His knees, due to being digitigrade, are a bit different. His knees bend 90 degrees, but they don't straighten all the way. Even if they did, his true ankle range from about 90 degrees forward to just shy of straight. Down from his ankle, at his foot, there's no up/down tilt but he does have around 75 degrees of pivot. The "Mask" fits onto the end of the pole to make a spear that he can wield in either hand. I forgot to grab a pic of it, but those tabs on the spear can plug into slots on his wings to store the spear on his back. His tail can either be plugged directly into his butt, or flipped 180 degrees and plugged into his butt flap. Now, the thing about Onyx is, in the Covenant, he's built like a centaur. That is, he has four legs and a horse-like lower body with two arms on a humanoid upper body. The clearest picture of Onyx has him rearing up on his hind legs, though, and IDW artists missed that detail and wound up drawing him as bipedal (though again, this is retroactively explained), and since TFOne copied IDW that version was also bipedal. So AOTP is bipedal, because that's easiest, right? Nope. Centaur mode is included. Officially, you push his face up into his mask, lift his loin cloth, and uncoil the front legs from his chest. His upper torso rocks back so the front legs can reach the ground. This is my favorite mode, and (aside from keeping the mask open) how I'll likely display him. My only real complaint is that his shoulder pads didn't shift in some way to cover the shoulder joints that were previously hidden under the front legs. Articulation in this mode is mostly the same. I didn't mention the wings before, but they have a limited up/down range where they connect to his back, and a hinge to spread them wider. There's also a hinge to move them front-to-back for flapping. I think a swivel would have been nice, but not having one isn't the end of the world. Without the front legs blocking them, those new exposed shoulder hinges give him some front/back butterfly joints. He loses his waist swivel. His front legs can swivel 360 degrees, as long as you move them out laterally enough to have the clearance. And they move nearly 180 degree laterally before his arms start getting in the way. They also have thigh swivels, knees that don't quite straighten but get 90 degrees of backward bend, and digitigrade ankles that can go from nearly 90 degrees forward to 90 degrees backward. His hooves don't pivot, but they can fold downward. And guess what? You can remove his tail, and split it open. One of the tabs that holds it closed actually fits into slots on the insides of his fingers, allowing him to hold it like a bow. Using the same tabs on the spear's shaft that attached it to his back, you can attach the spear to the tail like an arrow. I think I'd honestly be happy enough if they'd stopped there. Bipedal robot with a centaur alt mode works for me. But Onyx is actually a triple changer. From the centaur mode, lift his head up so it tucks into his chest, then hinge his chest armor up and over it. Fold the beast head from his back over his head so it tabs into his chest. Straighten his torso back out, then use the butterfly hinges to bring his shoulders forward, rotating at the biceps and wrists so that his arms still make some sort of anatomical sense. And her we have Onyx's real alt/beast mode... some kind of six-legged horse-dragon chimera. I don't hate it... but I don't know that I love it, either. In my mind, it's an interesting concept, but probably the weakest of his modes on a figure where I was already content without it. The only new articulation to bring up is the beast head. It's on a ball joint, with some limited ability to tilt up, down, left, right, and swivel into a sideways tilt. The jaws can also open. The instructions have you store the spear by removing the "mask" and plugging it onto the side of the pole, then plugging the pole onto his butt. Why not just plug it into the wing? Because, fully unfurled, the wings actually don't leave enough clearance. You can only store the spear there if you keep the wings tucked in. Speaking of options, what if you don't want a six-legged alt mode? I mean, it was good enough for Odin's horse, but maybe Liege Maximo is the only Prime you want having a Norse influence. Hasbro's got you covered. You can shift his shoulders back out into their regular robot position, then wrap the middle legs back around his torso. Still works! As one of the newer, less-developed Primes, and one with a bestial robot mode, a bestial alt mode, and a bestial in-between mode, I think Onyx might not appeal to the "just give me the G1 cartoon" crowd, especially as his Leader price tag makes him less of an impulse buy than a Deluxe like Alchemist or Micronus. That said, the winged centaur of the Covenant was always kind of an out-there design, and I love the way the team brought that design to life. I think he's a pretty cool figure, definitely one of my favorite Primes* so far, and I'd recommend checking him out. *And for those who haven't been keeping track, we're up to nine of the Thirteen now. Deluxe-class Quintus Prime and Voyager-class Amalgamous Prime were announced for the first 2026 wave at SDCC. While not officially announced, I'm hearing that the remainder, Voyager-class Nexus Prime and Leader-class Liege Maximo, should be out by summer 2026.

Target's Geek Out site launched their Transformers stuff. For me, it's a lot of nothing. There's Earthrise Sunstreaker (the original release, not the one with painted windows from the box set), and there's Gigawatt if you missed him the first two times he was released. Of more interested might be Earthrise Thrust, since he was a Target exclusive before and sold out pretty fast. Still a Target exclusive, but here's your second chance... Also did a little digging into Soundwave. Can confirm he's still compatible with the previous Siege Micromaster/Studio Series Core-class/Dr Wu tapes, and he's got the room to store just one at a time. Really hard to say for sure until I have him in hand, or until someone posts a clean direct comparison instead of guessing from shots with Alchemist or rulers, but it does look like SS86 Soundwave is about a quarter of an inch/0.6cm taller than the Siege/Earthrise/Netflix/Legacy version.

A friend of mine had never seen any of the Tron movies, so I had him come down to watch the first two. Personally, while I can see how the original film would have been really impressive back in 1982, but the pacing of the actual story felt really off. This isn't to say that Legacy's plot was any better, and it's a less creative film overall, but it moved at a better pace and the sights and sounds were greatly improved. As far as Ares goes, I don't have a lot of hope for it. The plot seems a little dumb, and I'm really not a fan of Jared Leto. But I caught previews for it in 3D, and when the Recognizer is flying through the city it looked pretty awesome. So I think I'm going to make same buddy go see it in 3D with me.

The big G1 guys are out of the way, but this line is Age of the Primes, not Age of the G1 Dudes. And Alpha Trion isn't the only Prime in this wave; we've also got Deluxe-class Micronus Prime. Deluxe-class?! Micronus is barely up to Alchemist's knees! But that's the thing with the Thirteen... when Hasbro was codifying the lore, they took mysterious, ancient Transformers like Prima, Alpha Trion, Maccadam, and Liege Maximo but they didn't have thirteen guys. So they made up some new ones, then themed some of them to explain different aspects of the expanded Transformers lore like the Quintessons, beast alt modes, and Minicons/Micromasters. So, yeah, Micronus is so small because he's the progenitor of all Minicons. While the other Primes have been pseudo-G1 or "definitive" versions of the Thirteen, what we have here is basically Micronus from Robots in Disguise 2015. Which kind of makes sense... sure, he appeared in The Covenant of Primus, concept art was done for Transformers One, and he's been mentioned in IDW, but Micronus had a major role in RID15 as the mentor of Optimus Prime. So while the blue-green color is shared with the Covenant version, the markings on his chest, the little turbine in his tummy, the big eyebrows, the spikes on his back... that's all RID15. A tiny guy like Micronus has to make up his Deluxe-class budget somewhere, and here it's accessories. First up, we have his relic, the Chimera Stone. That's the thing that looks like a bigger version of the turbine in his tummy, and it's supposed to be a device which allows Micronus to empower the other Primes with his own energy. But the bulk of his budget went into a big ol' unicycle. There's not a lot to Micronus himself. His head's on a reverse ball joint, so he can swivel and look up but no downward or sideways tilt. His shoulders are ball joints, for swiveling and about 90 degrees of lateral movement. Elbows are more ball joints, providing the bicep swivel and 90 degrees of bend. No wrist or waist articulation. Hips use mushroom swivels for 90 degrees of forward/backward movement, and a pinned hinges for 90 degrees of lateral movement. Knees are still more ball joints that are his only real thigh swivels in addition to bending a little over 90 degrees. No foot or ankle articulation. The Chimera Stone can plug into a 5mm port on his back. Despite his small size, his fists are also 5mm ports. Those 5mm ports allow him to grip the handle bars of his unicycle. The unicycle itself is pretty cool, with a single massive, offroad tire under the seat and big exhausts on the sides. The only downside is that there's no way to balance the unicycle except to bend a joint in the exhausts so that the tips sit on the ground instead of flowing out behind the seat. Micronus' transformation is extremely simple... rotate his head and tilt in backward, raise his arms then pull them away from his torso and bring his hands together behind the spikes on his back. Then swivel his lower legs inward and fold them around his thighs so his shoulders tuck into his feet. And... he's a disc. I think the idea is that he's supposed to look like the Minicon storage panels seen in Transformers Armada. There's even an "M" in the middle of of the disc. The 5mm port on his back is still accessible if you want to plug the Chimera Stone in there. Again, Micronus is less about the actual Micronus figure and more about the accessories. See, the exhausts and tire comes off the unicycle, and the tire has a 5mm peg that can fold out. You can use these bits to arm up other figures, Weaponizer-style. The instructions indicate that the rest of the unicycle can even be made into a backpack, at least for Fireflight. As near as I can tell, though, the instructions are incorrect, as there's nothing really to lock into. I'd still say that'd make for a pretty unsatisfying toy, but the unicycle has one more trick up its sleeve. The tire splits and folds open to reveal legs You can open up the underside of the unicycle to flip out a head and plug the legs in, and the exhausts plug into the sides to form arms. Micronus, in his alt mode, can plug into the void under the head, and the sides can close over him. The Chimera Stone fits into a depression in the front to finish him off. Now Micronus is wearing a suit that's loosely based on the Apex Armor from Transformers Prime. Designer Mark Maher also suggests that it could be seen as an early precursor of Pretender technology. Whatever it is, it actually brings Micronus up to a size we might associate with a Deluxe-class minibot. In his armored form, Micronus' head can swivel and he can kind of look down due to the transformation hinge, but he can't tilt up or sideways. His shoulders swivel and extend laterally 90 degrees. His biceps swivel, and his elbows bend 90 degrees. He does have wrist swivels, but no waist swivel. His hips can go a little under 90 degrees forward and backward due to the shape of his pelvis and the kibble on his back, but he makes up for it with a little over 90 degrees of lateral movement. His thighs swivel, and his knees bend 90 degrees. No real up/down tilt on the feet, but his ankles can pivot 90 degrees. The exhaust-pipe fingers, permanently straight, make for some decent finger guns. His curled thumbs do provide him with 5mm ports to hold other accessories, though (or he can rip off his own arm and hold it like a gun, whatever floats your boat). I have to say, I'm pretty satisfied with Micronus, such that he might be my favorite Deluxe-class of the wave and/or my favorite of the Deluxe-class Primes. They could have put out a little Core-class dude, or stuck him as a pack-in with another one of the Primes, and you'd end up with something that accurately depicts Micronus. But the unicycle accessory turning into a larger armor for him kind of elevates the play pattern in a way I dig. I'd recommend giving him a look.

Continuing with the AOTP Deluxes, we have another figure that I think has been anticipated by many for completing a set... it's Venom! I guess it's actually Venin, because Hasbro can't trademark Venom, but to me he's still Venom, so... Without a cartoon to copy, Venom goes for the G1 toy look. Which you think he should nail, getting a brand new mold where the other three Deluxe Insecticons had to make due with remolds of the regular Insecticons, but there's definitely differences. The most immediate diffence is the random patch of translucent red on his tummy. There's also the protruding hinges on his ankles, some minor differences in the proportions, additional 5mm ports on the forearms and the outsides of the lower legs, and a few sticker details from the original that didn't make the cut for tampographs. I never had the G1 toy so I'm not super familiar with it... there's some hollow spaces here on the backs of the arms and legs, but did they exist on the original toy? All-in-all, I think Venom is close enough to the G1 toy that he kind of stands out from the other modern Deluxe Insecticons. Even the accessories—a gun and an axe with a very short handle—are basically the same as the G1 toy. Venom's head is on a hinged swivel, which means no sideways tilt, but he can look down slightly as well as straight up. His shoulders swivel and move about 90 degrees laterally. His biceps swivel, and his elbows bend 90 degrees. His wrists don't swivel, but his waist does. His hips can go forward, backward, or laterally 90 degrees. His thighs swivel, and his knees bend nearly 180 degrees. His toes can bend downward, due to transformation, but not up, and his ankles can pivot 270 degrees, which is way more than you need for posing but also an artifact of his transformation. Venom holds his accessories just fine in either hand... The axe can also plug into a 5mm port on the butt of the gun, and he can hold it by the barrel to create a more natural-looking axe. I don't mind that update at all! The combined axe can also be stored on his back by plugging the normal gun handle into the 5mm port nestled between all his bug legs. Transformation is, I imagine, a bit like the G1 toy. His head hinges forward, then he looks straight up. The antenna on top of his head is has a hinge, so it folds back to kind of tuck into his bug chest. His toes fold in, and his ankles pivot that full 270 degrees so that his feet are against the sides of his legs, then his knees bend so his lower legs encapsulate his thighs and tab together to form the abdomen. Turn his forearms out, fold his fists in, then double hinge the elbows so his forearms cover his biceps. Then push his shoulders into his torso, which will also collapse his sides. Tuck his arms into his sides, then arrange the ball-jointed bug legs to your liking. Again, the bug mode is pretty close to the G1 toy. The shoulders and forearms don't line up quite as smoothly as the original, and he's got a gap and green hinge on top of his bug head that the original didn't have. There's also the aforementioned additional 5mm ports, but that's about it. Bug mode doesn't do much. You can spread his wings like he's flying, though if you want to keep them folded there are tabs on the wings that fit into slots near the 5mm ports on his abdomen. Speaking of ports, the ones that were on his forearms become places to stow his accessories. His bug legs are, again, ball joints, so you have some freedom to pose them. That's really about it. On the one hand, Venom is basically the G1 toy with more articulation, and he completes the modern set of Deluxe Insecticons. That's good! But I think he mimics the G1 toy a little too well for my tastes. Subjectively, I don't think he actually looks like he belongs with the other three. But most of all, I think they should have taken the liberty to improve the original toy's engineering a bit. Like, was their really no way to move the wing hinges between modes? As it stands, he holds his arms permanently at 45 degree angles because his wings keep him from lowering his arms any further. And the wings, which would look pretty cool if they were more vertical behind him, also kind of stick out behind him at a 45 degree angle. His shoulders don't really lock into place, either, having a tendency to collapse when you're manipulating them in robot mode. Frankly, I think he's kind of an annoying. Get him if you got the previous three Deluxe Insecticons and you want to complete the set. Otherwise sit this out out.

Soundwave, as well as TFone Airachnid & Alpha Trion, The Last Knight Barricade, and The Last Knight Nemesis Prime, are available to preorder at the usual places. EDIT: Soundwave's sold out on Pulse.

I applaud Dodge for both trying something different AND giving customers options. Heck, I hope they really give people what they want and stick a Hemi in the Charger... even if, judging by Ram, the Hurricane is faster, cheaper, and gets better gas mileage. (Tows more, too, but who uses muscle cars for towing?) Bringing up longevity isn't really a selling point for me. I get tired of the same old thing... Longest I've ever owned a car is around 8 years. What's more, I like a lot of the tech they've added to gasoline cars over the years, too... ABS, fuel injection, power steering, power windows, heated seats, auto dimming mirrors, parking cameras, GPS navigation, Android Auto, etc. I admire the looks of a lot of cars from the '60s and '70s, but I definitely don't want to daily a car from that era. The car community is a big tent. It's not about being right, it's about being right for you (or me). I'm glad that Dodge made the Charger Daytona. I'm glad that they took a different approach than Ford did with the Mustang Mach-E. It's stupid and silly, and I kinda love it for that. But I'm also glad they're coming out with the Hurricane version, and I was sincere when I said I hope they put a Hemi version out. Options are good.

Well, Fireflight showed up, so we're back to the Deluxes. Fireflight was going to be a tricky one, I think, because if you look at his Sunbow design he's got wings on his legs, sure, but he's also got wings on his back. Maybe the artist was trying to capture the the tail on his back and drew the horizontal stabilizers too big, I dunno. AOTP Fireflight has just the wings on his legs (with the stabs on his heels). He has the cartoon-style head instead of the masked toy head that CW Fireflight had, which I personally consider a bummer but I can't really fault Hasbro for it when cartoon-accuracy is the new order of the day. He's got paint on his chest to accurate mimic the cartoon, right down the blue squares on his pelvis (though it looks more like they're on his waist), though he's missing an Autobot badge on his left breast. All-in-all, significantly more accurate than the CW toy, but again, not without its flaws. Aside from the missing wings/stabs on his back, he's got black hips and black feet that should be white, and the molded lines on his shins are details you'd expect on Slingshot, not Fireflight. What you would expect are kneepads that are conspicuously absent. Fireflight's transformation is exactly the same as Slingshot's. He doesn't much resemble a real F-4, but to be totally fair, neither did the cartoon. The alt mode is NOT licensed, and aside from being noticeably wider, really isn't that far off from the cartoon. What's more, his legs and arms integrate with the fuselage pretty well, giving him one of the better jet modes on a modern Transformer toy. Comparisons to Slingshot are because, by and large, Fireflight is the same toy. He's even got the same guns! Same arms, same waist, same hips, same thighs, same shins, same feet, too. But he's got a new head, new chest, new back, new backs of the legs, new wings, and a new cockpit. Looking down on the jet modes, the only part that's immediately noticeable as the same is the tail. So, while Skydive and Air Raid definitely could have used a little more time to cook, I'm pretty happy with Fireflight just like I was pretty happy with Slingshot. He's much better than the CW toy, and a pretty solid figure overall. Hmm, that didn't take long. Might as well combine them, then. Take apart the extra chunk that came with Silverbolt, and get your leg parts ready. Take Air Raid and Skydive in their jet modes. Fold the front of the jets backward, fold the wings backward, fold the horizontal stabs backward, and spin the vertical stabs 180, like you're going to robot mode. But then, using a second hinge in the noses, fold them back again so they sit lower. Tuck their heads back, then plug them into the backs of the legs. As with Menasor, attaching the leg bots will push in a mechanism that causes flaps the close on the fronts of the legs. Start with Silverbolt in jet mode. Fold up the tail and nose like you're going to robot mode, and fold the wings back. Spin the Superion head 180 degrees and you're ready to attach the body. There's slots under Silverbolt's crotch; plug them into the pair of tabs on top of the body. Secure the body by taking the flap on the back and folding it up so the 5mm peg plugs into Silverbolt's butt, then folding the chest part up so the square shaped bits on the inside fit into the holes on Silverbolt's chest. Connect the legs by sliding the combiner pegs into the ports at the bottoms of the thighs. In theory, you can take Fireflight and Slingshot in their jet modes and place them on the arm parts. Then, as you transform the arms, the armbots will naturally split at the waist, just like they did with Menasor, and you just fold the wings back. In practice, I couldn't get them to work, and I found it easier to poke a spudger into their tummies and split them manually, then attach them after the arms were transformed. However you did it, the black connector goes over Silverbolt's feet to attach the arms to Superion. Finally, we have our combined Superion! He's a bit blocky, and his legs are more or less identical... which is entirely cartoon accurate. The overall design and proportions are much better than the Combiner Wars version. My objective complaints are pretty minimal... he's missing some blue squares on his shins, and in the cartoon his mask was much darker, almost the same color as his helmet, not silver. Aside from Silverbolt's you can pretty much leave the Aerialbots' guns in their usual alt mode spots on their wings... except that if you do you don't quite have enough space between his legs for him to stand straight up. Maybe they should have been off-centered, like Devastator. 😒 You can pull the guns off the wings on the inside and plug them onto the sides of the legs, though they'll be visible in robot mode. More ways that AOTP Superion improves on CW... articulation and stability. His head is on a ball joint that has a decent downward tilt as well as some slight upward and sideways tilt. His shoulders rotate on ratchets and can move laterally 90 degrees, also on ratchets. His biceps swivel, and his elbows bend 90 degrees on ratchets. His wrists swivel, as does his waist, though Silverbolt's tail can get in the way of the latter. Hip skirts hinge up so that his hips can move forward and backward 90 degrees on soft ratchets and 90 degrees laterally on clickier ones. His thighs swivel, and with the leg bots transformed properly his knees bend 90 degrees on ratchets. No up/down tilt on the feet, but he's got about 60 degrees of ankle pivot. All-in-all, this is a Superion you can pose without him falling over and/or falling apart. There's options for Superion's gun. The option I like is to plug Silverbolt's gun into the barrel, then there's a square hole on the underside that fits into a square peg on Superion's forearm, like an arm cannon. This is is the cartoon-accurate way, and the hinge on the rear even allows Superion to bend his elbow without the gun getting the way. The other way is to fold a peg out from the bottom. This peg can he held in Superion's hand, and a second square hole behind it fits on the forearm peg. This method allows Superion to look like he's actually holding the gun, but if you plug Silverbolt's gun into the barrel it winds up looking too long. Lastly, here's how he stacks up with Devastator and Menasor. He's a tad short, but my Menasor has the DNA kit with the bigger feet and longer thighs. I reckon a DNA kit for Superion might even him out a bit more. While I do think that all of the Aerialbots are improvements over their Combiner Wars versions, I remain kind of disappointed with Air Raid and Skydive, kind of impressed with Fireflight and Slingshot, and think that Silverbolt's somewhere in the middle. Superion, though, is a major improvement over the Combiner Wars version. While it'd be nice if the leg bots contributed more to the gestalt, what Hasbro did here looks cartoon accurate and is leaps-and-bounds better in articulation, poseability, and overall sturdiness. So, despite my misgivings on Air Raid and Slingshot, yeah, you should probably buy the whole set. Superion is definitely worth it.

I think it should be to scale with Megatron, who was bigger than his Siege/Earthrise version, but as of right now it's too soon to tell.

Need to see a few more angles. They did stuff like removing the spaceship kibble from his forearms and folding his knees so they don't bump out... But the way the waist still spins, the alt mode controls are a flap on his back, and the way his shins are in the sides of his alt mode instead of folded in are making it seem like like a proper new mold and more like a more modified Netflix Soundwave.

Skydive is the only AOTP Deluxe to show up so far, so I guess we'll skip up to the Voyagers. Hmm... one of those is a repaint, so we'll save him for another day. That leaves us with Alpha Trion. Unlike the other Primes, Alpha Trion is the only one that's actually had a previous, recent release as a retool of Studio Series Scourge. In a lot of ways, the new toy, which is purpose built to be Alpha Trion, is more cartoon accurate. His forearms better capture the layered look, the blocky legs have a more accurate shape, and his pelvis is a bit more accurate with (most) of the silver and blue on his belt. But the rounder chest, smaller shoulder pads, and reddish feet are more accurate on the earlier figure, as is the silver/white in the biceps. And I get that Hasbro wants this to be the Trion that existed with the other Thirteen, so a younger one (hence the "War Dawn" face, but I think more collectors who may not even been in on the other Thirteen probably wanted the more "present" face with the longer mustache and beard, which the older figure has. Neither figure has an accurate backpack, BTW. His cape should be two long segments extending from the backs of his shoulder pads, that's it. Like the prior toy, this one's got a bit of alt mode kibble he's wearing like a cape. It's at least a bit more compact this time. AOTP Alpha Trion has some unique accessories, though, instead of a repaint of Scourge's gun. First, you've got this sort of shield thing. But more importantly, you've got his relic, the Covenant of Primus, and his Quill. Note that the spikes on his shoulders are just pegged in and can be removed if necessary. I think Trion's head is on a ball joint, but the shape of his head only allows it to swivel. A transformation hinge allows him to look up and down, though he can only look up so far before his head starts getting lost in his collar. His shoulders swivel and can move 90 degrees laterally. His biceps swivel, and his elbows bend about 90 degrees. His wrists do not swivel, but his fingers are hinged so his hands can open and close. His waist swivels. His hip skirts are hinged, so his hips can go 90 degrees forward or laterally, but his back kibble limits him to just a little backward motion. His thighs swivel, and his knees bend about 90 degrees. His feet can tilt downward slightly, but not up, and he's got nearly 90 degrees of ankle pivot. Trion's shield can plug into either forearm, or, if you're feeling saucy, you can remove one of his shoulder spikes and plug it into his shoulder. If you'd rather just stow it, you can plug it into his his butt where it becomes part of his cape. Because reasons, you can pull the Autobot badge off of Trion's tummy, where it's ultimately just pegged in place. The instructions show him holding the badge, but it's more like carefully wedging it between his thumbs and fingers and praying it doesn't fall out The real stars are the Covenant of Primus and the Quill... though I wish there was a more natural way for him to hold them. The Covenant simply has a peg on one corner, while the Quill is meant to fit into his fist like a two-year old with a crayon. The Covenant is pretty cool, though. It doesn't just open, there's a pair of translucent red pages you can turn inside. To store the Quill and the Covenant in robot mode, first you fit the narrow slot on the Quill's handle onto a thin tab on the shield. There's a cutout on the shield for the top of the "feather" to poke through. Then you can close the rest of his cape back up, and just plug the Covenant into the peg hole on Trion's back. Despite having a sort of similar alt mode to the previous figure, the transformation is quite different. Fold his wrists in, and angle his arms so that they're almost straight out behind him. Lean his head back as far as it'll go. Lift his cape, then open the cockpit section and feet the blue part behind it through and over his head. Spin the waist, then turn his thighs so his toes are pointing outside. Fold in the heels, then fold the toes down and tab the legs together. Grab his knees and kind of pull them out. Now, fold his waist backward; is arms should lock in place at his knees, and once you fold out and rotate the ball jointed bits the cab should lock into place over his legs. The shield, which doesn't have to be removed for transformation, has the sides double hinge out to form little winglets. Considering that Trion never transformed in the cartoon (it was actually implied for a bit that, aside from Amalgamous, the Thirteen had no alt modes and did not transform), this is fine. While it is, as mentioned, vaguely similar to the Scourge's alt mode (and the Trion toy remolded from it), this spaceship-esque design is actually based on an unused concept for Trion's alt mode in IDW by artist Casey Coller (note that when Alpha Trion did actually transform, the artist on that issue drew him as the Tumbler from Batman Begins). Whether intentional or simply an artifact of his transformation, you can open Trion's cockpit. There's not much to see inside besides his thigh gap, but there's apparently just enough space to stuff a Titan Master inside. As with the robot mode, the Quill is stored by plugging into his shield, under what's now one of his wings. Meanwhile, the Covenant as a slot on either cover. If you look at the underside of Trion's alt mode, you'll find that one of his legs has a tab near the knee joint that the Covenant can slot into, wedged into a space between his knee pads. Alpha Trion's a solid figure who looks good with the other members of the Thirteen released so far, but the elephant in the room is definitely the Scourge retool. Despite the more kibbly cape and Scourge-shaped bits, I think for a lot of collectors it's accurate enough that they may not feel a need to replace it. This is especially true if they want Sunbow G1 and not the entire lineup of Thirteen, one the longer beard seen on "present day" Alpha Trion (and makes me wonder if we'll eventually seen another version of this toy with the older face). I'd say if you have the "Hero is Born" version already or, better still, the EX Gōkin toy, you might not need this figure. If you really prefer the older head, you can wait if you don't mind the risk that it never comes. If you're into the Thirteen, though, the unique alt mode and excellent accessories make Alpha Trion a figure worth checking out.

They used to be worse! At least this way you're still getting both G1 characters, just one cartoon-optimized and one toy-optimized. There was a period where they were packing the G1 guy you really wanted with the repaint (usually Shattered Glass) that you really didn't want. That's how I wound up with Shattered Glass Inferno (came with G1 Wheeljack) and Slicer/SG Wheeljack (came with Bulkhead).

I got a key for Borderlands 4 with my new laptop, so I guess I'll give it a go. Ironically, it'll be my first Borderlands game since Borderlands 2, which came with a GPU I bought at the time.

The next wave of Age of the Primes is hitting... at least online (local stores seem to have Devastation Optimus, TFOne Bumblebee, and maybe a few Bonecrushers, and that's it). I'd prefer to write reviews on weekdays, since a lot of you seem to read them at work, but we're going to have a lot to cover. So let's jump right into it with Deluxe-class Skydive. In keeping with the rest of the AOTP Aerialbots so far, Skydive is definitely a case of two steps forward, one step back. Like, sure, he's a bit closer to the animation model than the Combiner Wars toy. His head has less of the almost Bayverse-esque extraneous mechanical details, his limbs are blockier, and his pelvis is red. That said, aside from the head and the jet parts on his back and the backs of his legs, he's pretty much a cut-and-paste of Air Raid. Same arms, same feet, same fronts of the legs, same pelvis... even the front of the torso is basically the same, except the left side of his chest is filled in to better match the cartoon. Hasbro probably figured they could get away with it since Skydive and Air Raid do have pretty similar animation models... it's certainly not the crime that Legacy Breakdown was. But it does mean that crotch bulge with the line and triangle that Air Raid does, instead of the three squares his animation model has. His forearms are entirely gray with black hands, instead of gray with black cutouts at the wrist and gray hands. The black part of his chest is missing a protrusion, and his shin details are a bit off (to be fair, they're a bit off from Air Raid, too, almost like they were planning this from the beginning and split the difference. Air Raid comes with, surprise, a pair of guns. Note that, out of the box, his vertical stabilizer is not attached. Since it just uses a 5mm peg to connect, it can technically be held like a weapon if you're into that. It probably won't surprise you to hear that a toy that's 75% Air Raid has the same articulation as Air Raid, but I'll go over it again real quick. Ball-jointed head swivels, can look up and tilt sideways slightly, no real downward tilt. Shoulders swivel and move 90 degrees laterally. Biceps swivel, elbows bend 90 degrees, no wrist swivels. Waist swivels. Hips go forward, backward, and laterally 90 degrees. Thighs swivel, knees bend 90 degrees. Feet tilt up due to transformation, but not down, and the ankles pivot 90 degrees. He holds his guns fine, and they plug into the wings for storage. Transformation is, for better or worse, also the same as Air Raid. Now, I know the jet lovers in the audience already hate this alt mode, but as it's NOT a licensed F-16 I see no real point in comparing it to one. I'm just looking at it compared to the animation model. And, well, the stubby wings and single vertical stab with the lightning bolt designs are certainly more accurate than the Combiner Wars toy. His arms are still just chilling there in the open, which isn't worse than the Combiner Wars toy but still sucks. You can argue that the the entire block of robot under the jet sucks, but frankly that's mostly accurate. Less accurate are the two exhaust nozzles, another unfortunate side effect of recycling Air Raid's parts, and I maintain from my Air Raid review that they really should have come up with a better way of stowing the feet. Weirdly, though, I think the thing that's actually bothering me the most is just how flat the fuselage is. Like, yeah, you want the F-15 to be flat, but the F-16 is much more curved along the spine, and it's one of the F-16's details that the animation model did retain. The jet parts on his backs and the backs of his legs, aka the parts that form the bulk of the fuselage, are some of the only parts that did get new molds, so why not get that detail right? Anyway... same as Air Raid, the chest opens up to reveal a front landing gear. And his guns plug into the undersides of his wings. Through the first three releases Air Raid was the worst of the Aerialbots, and I could tell you that Fireflight would instantly be better than Air Raid even if he were just a new head and red paint on an otherwise unchanged Slingshot. But to me, Skydive is worse. He fixed none of the things I disliked about Air Raid, and I think that has more to do with keeping them interchangeable as legs and saving money than an inability to do so. I mean, folding the head into the chest and folding the arms up above the torso, like Slingshot, would have not only solved the arms just hanging out on the sides but could have created the illusion of the F-16's big intake. Changing the legs could have ditched the dopey underbelly feet and giving him the proper single exhaust. And even when they did mold new parts it still seems like they got stuff wrong that they just didn't need to, like the overall shape of the fuselage. Despite Skydive being a bit of a disappointment, he is still better than the Combiner Wars version. And for a lot of collectors, I don't think it'll ultimately matter how how good or bad the individuals are, it'll come down to how good Superion is. We'll get to Superion later in the week, after I have Fireflight in hand. But if you don't mind the spoiler, yeah, you're probably going to want to pick up Skydive.

So that regardless of whether you prefer to or toon colors you have to buy both sets.😒

Ok, time to put together Devastator! Start with everyone in their alt modes. For Scrapper, make sure the little clip on his shovel is in place and lift the shove up. Pull out his arms, rotate them 180 degrees, then push them back in. Bend the elbows to make the heel. Now pull his right leg away from the left. For Mixmaster, fold the heels down from the underside of the cab, then fold in the other flaps. Unhook his hands from the cab. Rather than shift the entire cab the way most Devastators do, just grab the front of the cab and double-hinge it into the top of the cab. Open the mixing drum. Get Long Haul's trailer and turn in into pants mode. Slide the right thigh sideways into Scrapper's left leg, then close his right leg around it. For Mixmaster, use the groove in back of the truck to slide him forward onto the left thigh, then close the mixing drum back up. Speaking of Long Haul, fold his legs back, and fold the roof up. Tab his heels into the roof. Pull his arms out, rotate his forearms 180 degrees, and then curl his arms up. His forearms will tab into the biceps, and then the entire arm will tab into the side of the truck. On the underside you'll see a big gap with Long Haul's face peaking through it. This gap fits over the purple block at the top of the pants. Long Haul's knees will fit into grooves on the flap on the back of the pants. On Hook, fold out the Devastator head part way, and pull out the feet/shin flaps. Pull the to halves of the vehicle apart and fold them over, then lock them together by folding the head the rest of the way into place. Fold his feet/shin flaps back into place. Now the trick is to make sure everything you need to connect is oriented right. Fold out the arm connector from the crane deck, and the torso connector from Hook's chest. Open Hook's front cab, fold out the other connector, and close it up. Bend Hook's right arm 90 degrees at the elbow, but leave the other one straight. Now line everything up... the chest tab goes into Long Haul's cab, and Long Haul's smokestack goes into one of Hook's feet. Tabs on Long Haul's arms go into Hook's other foot and a slot on his chest. Hook's bent right arm plugs into a slot on Long Haul's roof flap. For Scavenger and Bonecrusher, untab their leg treads. Take the center block and fold it outward. Now put the leg treads back. They'll tab back into the combiner ports, but for extra stability there's a flap on the inside of one leg on each bot. Fold it down, then bend the foot of the opposite leg up so that it pegs into the flap. It should be pretty obvious that the ports on the arm bots slide down over the connectors we folded out of Long Haul- just make sure you push down until they click. You're not quite done, though! The rearward tread on each arm bot has a slot that fits into tabs on Long Haul's arms. All of these connections make Studio Series Devastator feel much more solid than the Combiner Wars version. Now we just gotta do the rest of the partsforming. Fold out the fists, and spin them so the hollow side is the back of the forearm. You'll notice a peg inside, and a tab on the lip near opposite the fist. Line up the tab and peg with the slot and peg hole on the blocks dangling from Scavenger and Bonecrusher. Note that it's obvious which side of Scavenger they plug into, but make sure you've got Bonecrusher's turned so the forearm pegs into the hollow side. The easiest way to attach the chest armor is to first open the front of Long Haul and clip the shield onto the part you just opened. Then close it back up, and the top of the shield tabs into Hook while the sides of the shield tab into the treads on Scavenger and Bonecrusher. And there you have it, folks... the third official Devastator toy in 40 years. Like his constituent parts I think it's very difficult to capture a truly Sunbow accurate Devastator... Bonecrusher's treads can't magically turn purple, Scrapper can't magically turn into a weird I-shaped block with a shovel and some scaffolding, and Mixmaster's grill can't magically vanish, after all. But improvements have definitely been made. His hands are now correctly purple, he's got the purple at the tops of his thighs and (subjectively) I think his overall proportions are better, even if he's much smaller than the Combiner Wars version. Improved, but not without flaws. Much has been made of how his lower legs don't really line up with his knees. Officially, it was a design decision so he could stand straight up without Scrapper and Mixmaster banging into each other, but would it really have killed them to just make the hips slightly wider? Or, so what if they bang a little? Modders have already started whipping up knee parts that bring the legs back in line, and the slight A-stance doesn't look bad. I think the next biggest complaint is the backpack. I'm not sure why they didn't design Long Haul's legs to sit up a little higher, maybe hide some of those transformation joints on the back of Hook. I also don't know why they didn't make the flaps on the pants part fold up a bit more. It's not the prettiest, but ultimately not the worst thing ever. It's not like Sunbow Devastator didn't have a (purple) backpack. Of more minor complaints, there's a visible hole just above the shield where Hook's head is hiding. Hook's head doesn't line up perfectly with the shoulder flaps, hence the gap. I really don't know why a flap couldn't have been built into the shield, or onto Hook's shoulder flaps, to cover it. I'm also not a fan of the way Mixmaster's forearms just kinda dangle off the back of Devastator's leg. Unlike Menasor, who had a chunk of leftover trailer and Stunticon pistols, weapon storage was designed for Devastator. Bonecrusher and Scavenger officially use their own alt mode storage for their own rifles, while Mixmaster and Scrapper's plug into the top of the backpack (just ignore that I mixed up Scavenger and Scrapper's rifles). Hook's can plug into the side of his boom. As for Long Haul, the reason part of his gun is green is because you're meant to plug it into Mixmaster's bumper, and you're supposed to the think it's the green toe seen in Sunbow art. The problem I have doing thigs this way is that the toe is off-center, and Bonecrusher and Hook's guns are going to visible from the front (Scavenger's shovel kinda hides his). Fortunately, there are more peg holes on the sides of Long Haul's legs, on Scrapper's feet, and on Hook's left arm. It's possible to plug all of the Construticon's guns on the back of Devastator and out of sight. Devastator's head swivels, no tilt. His shoulders can swivel, and his right arm can move 90 degrees laterally (his left is just a little short). His biceps swivel. Both elbows can only bend about 45 degrees. His wrists swivel, and his fingers (which are molded as a single, permanently curled part) can open. His waist swivels, but only about 45 degrees in either direction before his back kibble hits his waist. His hips ratchet forward 90 degrees, backward about 45 degrees before his butt flap gets in the way, and laterally (on a friction joint) just under 90 degrees. His thighs swivel, and his knees ratchet 90 degrees. Ratchets in Mixmaster and Scrapper's waists give him about 45 degrees of ankle pivot. All-in-all, I don't think his articulation is that much different than the Combiner Wars toy, but because he's smaller and so much more solidly built I find that he's much easier to get into dynamic poses. That being said, I think Scavenger and Bonecrusher also really needed ratchets in the shoulder swivels. Devastator can hold his own gun by plugging the 5mm handle into ports built into his hands, though on my copy (and others, I'm hearing) the connection is pretty loose. One last thing to discuss is scale. I hate to open that can of worms, but I know a lot of people who are happy that Devastator is now closer in size to Legacy Menasor and the old four-Deluxes-and-a-Voyager combiners from Combiner Wars and Power of the Primes, but I know just as many people who think that the Combiner Wars toy scaled better with individual characters. So, here's Devastator with a few Optimus Primes (SS86, Devastation, Dr. Wu, NewAge, and Hasbro's Core-class). Now, here's the official scale chart copied right out of The Ark (so, not any of the various fan-made charts out there). On the very bottom line we have Prime roughly crotch-height to Devastator, and wouldn't you know it SS86 Prime is roughly crotch height to Devastator. But, on the first line, Megatron is only about knee-high to Devastator. Assuming Prime is the same size as Megatron (though, if you compare Megatron to Shockwave on that same line then Prime to Shockwave on the third line you might expect that Prime is half a head taller than Megatron), then Devastation Optimus or a 3P Legends-scale figure might scale better. When you actually played the Devastation game, though, Devastator seemed even bigger still. Which makes me think of the episode "City of Steel," when Devastator was climbing the Empire State Building while clutching Prime in one hand. I think you could make a case for the Core-class toy being the right size for that. All of which leads me to a somewhat unorthodox conclusion... scale is whatever you want it to be. Personally, I never liked Devastator being so much bigger than the other combiners, so much so that I actually bought a downsized KO of CW Devastator. SS86 works better for me. And if I want Devastator to loom larger over Prime than SS86 Devastator does over SS86 Optimus, then I have other options for Optimus. So, yeah. Ultimately the gestalt follows the same pattern as his constituent parts. SS86 Devastator still has plenty of flaws, but enough improvements were made in aesthetics, scale, and especially stability that I think it's well worth replacing the older Combiner Wars version. Just remember that it's ultimately still a mainline toy, not a mini-Masterpiece.