mikeszekely

I transformed mine into a ball. ...I just never turned him back into a robot.

Well, the new HVAC company seemed a lot more thorough. He put cameras in the different pipes and junk, took a bunch of pictures, checked the inducer with a multimeter, etc. He found that the inducer is running at a higher amperage than it should be, and there was a bunch of water in places where water shouldn't be (including in the inducer). So he took the inducer out and apart, cleaned the water and the lines again, the put it all back together. Lo and behold, the furnace has now gone almost 30 hours without a fault (though the fact that it's gone from negative temperatures to almost 55 (or around 12.5 for those of you who value base ten more than precision). It's not all sunshine and rainbows, though... the tech can't figure out how the water got in there in the first place. So we've decided to replace the inducer and the collection box, which means I have to wait for the parts to come in and for him to come back and install them, while kinda hoping that more water doesn't build up and cause issues in the meantime. And even at that, with some corrosion in the heat exchanger and the fact that the furnace is about 14 years old, it was also suggested to me that I might want to start budgeting for a whole new furnace in the next five years. Still... I was able to enjoy my first night in my actual bed in two days, and my first morning waking up to an alarm clock instead of an uncomfortably low temperature in the house in two or three weeks. So, feeling a bit refreshed, I can finally give you my thoughts on MMC's Ocular Max REmix Forte, their take on Ramhorn. Can we just take a minute and marvel at MMC's ability to take a flat rectangle and turn it into a three-dimensional shape for a minute? The engineering makes Jaguar (Ravage) seem almost primitive... like, in Jaguar's case, you could think of the cat's spine as a line from the top of one side of the tape to the bottom, and everything sort of folds along that spine. Forte, a bit like Tempo (Steeljaw) here, has a spine that runs like an imaginary line through the tape from one face to the other, and the cassette has the fold around that imaginary line. But the process seemed to feel a bit more refined than Tempo. And, again, it's really amazing that they got this form out of a flat rectangle. He's got a humped back and a low chest that tapers back to a thinner waist, and his head is at the end of an actual neck. The silhouette is less rectangular than either the cartoon or the G1 toy... it's almost organic. And he does all this while maintaining a shoulder-to-shoulder width that's probably triple his alt mode thickness. Speaking of alt modes... like all the non-humanoid cassettes MMC has done, Forte's missile launchers are permanently attached to his body and are incorporated in the transformation. So I guess the only real accessory here is the box he came in... a clear cassette case, with a wrap-around box that has the instructions attached and collector's card tucked into. Getting back to the rhino mode, Forte's neck has two black hinges that attach it to his body. These hinges allow for a slight side-to-side movement. Meanwhile the head is attached to the neck via a ball joint. That joint gives a little more side-to-side range, plus a little up/down tilt and a swivel. His mouth can open, and his ears are on little ball joints, too, so you can swivel them or tilt them a bit. The middle of his torso can move to give him a slight ab crunch or back arch. His shoulders and hips have swivels for forward/backward movement and hinges for lateral movement. The knees and elbows are hinged to cover about 90 degrees forward or backward. His feet are on hinged ball joints for more than enough up/down tilt and ankle pivots. Finally, the base of his tail has a hinge for some up/down movement. And I know I kept alluding to it, but yes, that rhinoceros really does turn into a cassette tape. As always, MMC eschews that microcassette size favored by G1/MP/Robot Parasides/X-Transbots for a standard cassette size. This of course means there's no Blaster toy that these guys will fit into, but frankly I think the microcassette figures transformed into robots/cats/rhinos that were too small. For an MP display, I think this size works better. Also, likely to keep the rhino mode more cartoon-accurate, the cassette mode has no labels. I would have liked to think that Toyhax would be on it, but I just checked, and while they did labels for all of MMC's versions of Soundwave's tapes they have done any of Blaster's. I think that some of you will find the barren cassette modes a little disappointing, but without a robot with a chest I can store the tapes in I don't see myself transforming them very often anyway. No robot chest, but Forte does of course fit in his case. As will the last several OX tapes, the instructions aren't liner notes that fit inside the case with the cassette, which is a bummer. Rather, the instructions are like a fold-out cover on a box that wraps around the case. Not my preferred way of doing it, but I wonder if there are tighter tolerances involved. Gonna be honest here... I was never really into Blaster's tapes as much as Soundwave's. What's more, I feel like MMC's Ravage, Rumble, and Frenzy came out at a time when I was very much invested in building up a Masterpiece Collection, and I was willing to give up the ability to fit in Soundwave's chest for better-looking, better articulated versions that (to me) scaled better. Fast forward to the present, where it's looking increasingly likely that Hasbro really is going to give me (mostly) cartoonish versions of the entire G1 cast and my MP collection is starting to look like a waste of space. Couple that with the fact that Ramhorn is, for whatever reason, one of my least-favorite of the cassette bots. So I've actually had Forte sitting on my desk for awhile, unopened, as my purchase felt more like an obligation than a general desire to have the figure. But after messing with him I'm really glad I did! The engineering to get from a cassette to a reasonably-shaped, reasonably-proportioned rhino with reasonable articulation feels like witchcraft. And while I don't see myself transforming him often, he's fun to put into poses and does look good displayed with your MP Blaster of choice (I've still got KFC's, little disappointed I slept on Deformation Space's). If you've been enjoying MMC's line of OX REmix cassettes then you should enjoy Forte too, as he might very well be their best one yet. Now if I could just get MMC to release their Ratbat that they announced back in October... of 2023. (Side note, kinda bummed now that I never got the condors. Unlike Ravage and Rumble/Frenzy, I thought the MP ones were an ok size and the REmix ones too big, but now it feels like a shame that I have that hole in the collection.)

Yeah... so he made a Transformers post today. I'm thinking no. If there were, they'd have gone up at 1:00pm ET/10:00am PT.

I know that they're gonna be there showing off some new stuff, and I've heard that there's gonna be some preorders on Tuesday the 17th. Haven't heard anything about a Hasbro stream, though. AFAIK the Takara one is T-Spark, not specifically Transformers. I mean, they're definitely gonna show off some Transformers stuff (I'm thinking Overgear for sure, maybe some Missing Link), along with some Zoids and Diaclone, but I wouldn't expect any Age of the Primes or Studio Series stuff you haven't heard from Hasbro first (unless it's some Takara-exclusive repaint, like that green Lio Convoy).

I have Forte on my desk, but I'm still dealing with furnace issues and I haven't really had the energy for other stuff right now (I mean that literally, as my furnace decided to quit at 1:00am yesterday with temps in the negatives. I tried to get it running (and keep it running), but gave up around 4:30am and wound up laying on the couch in the living room with fireplace going. The tech who "fixed" it by cleaning the lines and the condensate trap came back and replaced the pressure switch, which also didn't fix it, and when I called him Friday he seemed stumped, said he'd come by again later that day, and then ghosted me. I have a different HVAC company coming tomorrow (so I'm staying in the living room with the fire again tonight since we're going negative again), but after learning way more about gas furnaces than I cared to I'm betting it's the inducer motor. Anyway, the TLDR is that I should be reviewing Forte sometime this week.

Same. I basically quit even looking at Fans Toys. Stopped one bot short of finishing their Stunticons and I sold off the Aerialbots I had. Actually, I sold most of the Fans Toys stuff I had... I think I just have their Jetfire, Insecticons, four out of five Stunticons, Scrapper (who's going to get sold), Cyclonus, Galvatron, Cliffjumper, and Springer (who's going to get sold. I toyed with the idea of getting their Optimus when they finish it, but I saw a transformation video for their Magnus and noped right out of there. I'm 100% in on MMC's Constructicons. Their Scrapper and Mixmaster are just excellent all-around figures. But, if I'm being totally honest, XTB's Scrapper has slightly better articulation than MMC's, and on a purely aesthetic level I think the robot mode looks a little better. MMC still wins on alt mode, combined mode, and the act of transforming it, but I'm very sorely tempted to pick up XTB's for a bot mode display. Only thing really holding me back right now is the total lack of space and the fact that Long Haul is impossible to come by. I'm actually planning to sell my MMC Bruticus... not because I don't like it, but because I don't really want two of the same molds. I have MMC's Ruination, so I picked up Magic Square's Bruticus. But I otherwise agree with the sentiment, I'd happily ditch DX9's Menasor and Zeta's Superion for MMC versions. Yeah, I guess on that note, if anyone's interested MMC's Bruticus (all accessories and instructions, including the toy-style upgrade kit, but without their original boxes, a stress mark on Brawl's neck, and the original loose shoulder ratchets), FT's Scrapper (complete with the box), or FT's Springer (should be complete with the box, have to double-check) let me know before I list them elsewhere.

I wasn't too far off, then! I'll give it a go next time I transform him. I have him and Deletus in bot mode right now, and they look good together.

Cool, I'll check this out. I've wanted to cancel Netflix for years, but for some reason my wife can't seem to grasp the idea that we have other apps. Like, if we're watching something together, I can show her something on Hulu or HBO or something, but if I'm not around and it's not on Netflix it's like it doesn't exist in her world.

I'd like to see more details on the actual Overgear toys. I'm not sold on Ironhide (especially with the Overgear trailer giving me more Energon Ironhide vibes than G1/Bayverse). But if Blackout is, say, no bigger than SS86 Megatron, then I could be tempted to pick him up as a sort of G1-ified, Generations-esque Blackout.

I know it's only been a week since I posted a review for MMC's Deletus, their MP Scrapper, but honestly it seemed like I was the last guy to get his copy. So I decided to try a different store for the next one, and guess what? Now I've already got Demolitor, MMC's MP Mixmaster. This time I don't have a bunch of other Mixmasters to compare with, as Fans Toys' isn't out (and I won't be buying it anyway), and I don't think we've even seen X-Transbots' yet. So, we'll fall back to the guy who was everyone's stand-in for Mixmaster for years, ToyWorld's Concrete. And boy is the difference stark, with MMC leaning hard into the cartoon. His biceps and forearms have the bumps where the animators didn't feel like drawing the actual wheels. His torso and thighs are a slab of purple, broken up by cartoon accurate lines on the thighs and some details on his torso. His knees are green boxes stacked on the larger green boxes of his lower legs, complete with lack of feet. As had as MMC is going on Sunbow, there are some concessions to his alt mode. His actual arm wheels are tucked in an under. And rather than plain green slabs with octagons on the back, Demolitor's lower legs have visible windows and side mirrors. The bump outs on his hips are minimal. I really do like how MMC compacted the mixing drum on his back. Demolitor comes with a bugle that's identical to the one that came with Deletus, near as I can tell, and a simple but cartoon-accurate gun. We also get two silver nozzles and a pair of alternate faces the stoic one is stock, and the others are a happy open mouth and a yelling open mouth. Mixmaster gave off sort of manic vibes in the cartoon, so I think I'll be using the happy face, personally. Demolitor's head is on a double-hinged swivel. So he can turn his head, but also crane it forward. This allows him to look up nearly 90 degrees and down at least a little. His shoulders swivel and move 90 degrees laterally. His biceps swivel, and his double-jointed elbows bend about 120 degrees. His wrists swivel, and they can also bend outward due to his transformation. His thumb is on a ball joint. His other fingers are all individual parts and they're all hinged at the base. However, only they index finger has two additional hinged knuckles. The other three are molded into permanent curls. He has a ratcheted waist swivel, and 90 degrees of ratcheted ab crunch. His hips can go 90 degrees forward and 90 degrees backward on ratchets (though you'll have to spread his legs a little to clear the butt plate), and 90 degrees laterally. His thighs swivel. His knees bend about 120 degrees on a double hinge. And flaps under his leg stumps are hinged like ankles, giving him a flat surface to stand on. Actually, for those that think the entirely footless look is a bit silly, there are toes that can fold out of those flaps. Demolitor can hold his gun and bugle exactly like Deletus, by plugging tabs on the handles into his palms. The silver nozzles, which I believe are meant to look a bit like the toy's rockets, can plug on top of the cartoon-accurate nozzles above his head. Demolitor's transformation is interesting. I wouldn't say it's intuitive... you're probably going to want to read the instructions or watch a video for your first time. There's a lot of parts that slide, a lot of small locking flaps, and a lot of parts that rotate around other parts. I wouldn't necessarily say it's difficult, though. Actually, I think it's pretty easy, maybe moreso than Deletus, once you learn how things are supposed to move. And the truck mode is pretty good! Again, MMC is walking a fine line between realism and cartoon accuracy. So the grill and front bumper are pretty cartoon/toy accurate, but with more realistic headlights and some marker lights picked out in white. You can see where they've molded doors onto the sides, with silver-painted door handles and a handrail. The windows are translucent purple to match the cartoon, but MMC added the trio of windshield wipers and the side mirrors. Coming around tot he back the back of the truck has more details than the cartoon, but less than a real mixer. The one thing that does sort of stick out is that both the cartoon and the toy had the rear of the truck entirely green, save for the mixing drum on the cartoon. It's a concession to his robot mode, but Demolitor has a lot of purple under the drum, and not just on the drum itself. Demolitor's cab can turn very slightly, and he rolls on rubber tires. The mixing drum doesn't have a wind-up gimmick like ToyWorld's, but it does spin, and the pouring spout can swivel as well. As far as accessory storage goes, the tab that plugs into Demolitor's hand can plug into a slot in what is actually his robot butt, between his legs under the cab. Like Deletus, the bugle doesn't really have any storage. But the nozzles... I don't think it was necessarily intentional on MMC's part, but you can clip them together, and there's room for them to fit inside the mixing drum. They don't lock in place, so they'll just rattle around in there, but it's better than nothing. Of course, there's one other way that Demolitor is like Deletus, and that's that he turns into a leg that goes the whole way up to the thigh. Once again the realistic alt mode details leave things like visible tires, windows, and side mirrors on Devastator's foot, as well as wheels on the sides of the legs. However, MMC did try to copy the front of the Sunbow foot, with a vanishing grill and the appearance of a toe. The leg mode articulation looks to be pretty good again. We've got about 45 degrees of ankle pivot, and a ratcheted double-jointed knee that gets just a little short of a full 180 degrees. Like Deletus the foot can also tilt up. I know it was a bit of a concern on Deletus, being just a friction joint, but Demolitor actually has a mechanism that uses the unfolded butt-flap linked to small pegs on his arms to create a slider that helps stabilize the foot. Demolitor's gun moves to a different spot in combined mode... there's a little cubby for it inside of Devastator's thigh, which I probably think is cooler than it actually is, but I like how totally out of the way and out of sight it is. As for the silver nozzles, again there's no dedicated storage, but there's plenty of room in the mixing drum. Demolitor is, in my book, another win for MMC. He and Deletus are as much of an improvement over their Protectobots as their Protectobots were over their Combaticons. While no single mode is 100% perfect, I think MMC was very considerate about where compromises were made to ensure that all three modes are still very good instead of absolutely nailing one mode and leaving the other mode or modes to suffer greater compromises. It does remain to be seen how much the all-built-in gimmick will affect the other four, but so far I can safely say that Demolitor is, like Deletus, just a great toy well worth a look.

I dunno, I loved all three of them, but I was like 5-6 when the second season aired. Beachcomber sucked, though.

But they did manage to ensure that he has his most important feature.

Yep. And when IDW did decide to do a continuation of the Marvel series, they choose to pick up with #81 of the original G1 series (Marvel ended on #80) and not G2.

Man, I didn't know anything was going up today, since I'd originally heard the 17th. Maybe the 17th will be Studio Series. Anyways, my furnace broke and I hadn't slept well all weekend because it got too cold overnight and I can't safely keep the fireplace going. The guy came to fixed it today, and it was warm and comfy and I fell asleep and Powerglide is sold out. Luckily I preordered everyone but Cliffjumper (already have two) on Amazon.

Yeah, I mean, I like to think of myself as pretty deep into the Transformers lore and I personally have always found the Thirteen to be a fascinating concept... but Fub Pub's stuff was always kind of mid-tier fan-fiction at best and personally had no desire for Hasbro to be beholden to that pseudo continuity. A guy that can combine with other combiner dudes works for me. Nexus Prime himself (like most of the other Thirteen) would be neither, as he left Cybertron long before they split into factions. But yeah, I wonder about the implications of having him combined with a mix of Aerialbots and Combaticons. Do they willingly join with Nexus, or is he basically enslaving them? I find the mix of limbs Mark used as curious for another reason... I mentioned that the Fun Pub version had a tank, a helicopter, a jet, and an A-10-ish plane for limbs. And Mark gave Nexus a tank, a helicopter, a jet, and... well, I guess he thought a space shuttle looks more like an A-10 than a fighter jet.🤷‍♂️. There is a lot of speculation without any leaks or real evidence that Hasbro may release a Gen Selects-style box set with a frame and some repainted Aerialbots/Combaticons as dedicated limbs for Nexus. I mean, the Geewunner in me wants them the most, but I'm in for everyone but Prime Cliffjumper... and that's because I not only bought the boxset that he originally came in, I ebayed an extra one to customize.

I'd buy a WST Megatron, if they weren't going for $50+. Oh, and I should maybe clarify something I said about Nexus Prime earlier, for those unfamiliar. Nexus Prime, according to the Covenant of Primus, is the guy with the Enigma of Combination for his artifact, and is described as "the first combiner." Which doesn't exactly make sense to me, since there were only Thirteen Transformers at the time and none of them combined with Nexus... I guess it's like each part of Nexus is also Nexus? I dunno. I've said before that while the Covenant solidified and canonized a lot of the lore of the Thirteen, the idea of the Thirteen had been kicking around for awhile and Fun Publications ran with it during their time with the Official Transformers Collector's Club. For the first few years that Fub Pub ran it, if you joined the OTCC by a certain date you got a free figure that was a repainted Energon conbiner figure... first Skyfall (the A-10-ish plane from Superion Maximus), then Landquake (the tank from Bruticus Maximus), then Breakaway (the other jet limb from Superion Maximus), then Topspin (the helicopter from Bruticus Maximus), and finally Heatwave (the torso bot from Bruticus Maximus). The accompanying story explained that these guys, though they didn't know it, were created when Alpha Trion, Vector Prime, and Solus Prime split apart Nexus Prime to hide the fragments of Prima's Star Saber from the Fallen. So the reason why a bunch of people at the other board are mad is that we're getting Nexus as a Voyager-class dude who turns into a jet and looks vaguely like the Covenant depiction instead of a whole entire combiner... as if we haven't known for like a year that Nexus was going to be a Voyager, or as if Hasbro would have realistically dedicated more than a Leader budget in the first place. Well, courtesy of Mark Maher's Instagram, we do know that Nexus is, in fact, capable of turning into a torso that works with at least Superion's frame...

Near as I can tell someone actually designed it and is selling the files so you can 3D print one.

New product pics. Prime Smokescreen (who we already saw) Liege Maximo. I kinda prefer the robo-Loki in The Covenant of Primus, but it's G2 accurate. And finally, Nexus Prime, and though I suspect a lot of you will just see this and shrug, I can feel the rage from the other board that shan't be named and I haven't even swung by there yet.

This kit's a bit late coming, because it was sitting and waiting for Deletus to come it at TCP before I shipped. But this is DNA's DK-61 kit for Legacy Vector Prime. When I reviewed Vector I said at the time that retooling Jhiaxus didn't really do enough to properly do justice to the character, and that was when he just had to represent himself as a character from Transformers Cybertron. But with Age of the Primes giving us figures for the rest of the Thirteen, all of which have been brand new molds, it's really looking like Hasbro did Vector dirty. But is it something we can't remedy with an upgrade? We see here that DNA included new shoulder pads, new forearm armor, new shin armor, new armor for the sides of his legs, new shoes, new wings, a new sword, a sword holder, and a little gold bit. Also included with my copy was a second sword in blue plastic and a extra sword holder, though they were wrapped in a bag and tossed casually into the box rather than having a spot in the tray. To begin, we take the shoulder pads and kind of slide them over his existing ones. Note that there are pegs on one corner, those pegs should be on the back of the shoulder pad. In all honesty, they way they slide on doesn't feel great, and I've heard others complaining of breakages. Fortunately the forearm armor works a lot better. It simply uses a 5mm peg to plug into the ports on his arms. It's not perfect, since the forearm armor is kind of stuck on his arm instead of wrapping over it, but it helps. For the legs, first we're going to take these skinny pieces, and see this hinge they built onto them? They clip into the vestigial ones on Vector's leg, where Jhiaxus' little winglets went. Just plug them in and then fold them over onto the little hook tab The shin armor has little hooks that grab the bottom of the shin and the molding near the 5mm ports on the sides of his legs. The connection is very tenuous, though. If you're cool with making this mod permanent, DNA does suggest using a little glue to attach the shin armor. To attach the shoes, first you have to remove the toe guns, then the pegs on the shoes plug into the 5mm ports on Vector's feet. Plugging the toe guns back on helps secure the shoes in place. Again, not perfect, since his hips and thighs are straight ported from Jhiaxus and still missing some of Vector's details, but it does cover the wires on the stock Jhiaxus legs and gives him his gun toes. The biggest upgrade here might be the wings, which are hinged and have some paint on them in addition to being significantly larger. To attach them, first we have to pull the stock wings off the split mushroom pegs, then it's just a matter of pushing the new ones on. The new wings do a much better job of giving Vector that caped look, though they do make the figure a little more back heavy, and one of mine doesn't like to stay on. Lastly, we've got his new sword. I have mixed feelings about it. One the one hand, it's big and painted and pretty dang cool. On the other hand, not every sword needs to be some anime zweihander, and the stock sword has tabs for the Cyber Planet Key that the new ones do not. For that matter, the stock sword has a 5mm peg that plugged into the port already on Vector's back. For the new swords, you need to use this C-shaped bit. The flat tab goes into this slot above the 5mm port on Vector's back, then the sword can slide into it. The fit is, even when the sword is all the way in, kinda loose, and the fact that it connects with a tab instead of a peg means you can't angle it like the stock sword to be drawn over a particular shoulder. I think there's no real question that the new parts do bring a bit more cartoon accuracy to Vector, but how do the new parts affect his transformation? Well, that's where this kit kind of starts to break down for me... before transforming him, we have to remove the sword and holder, the shoulder pads, and the shoes. Once they're off, you transform Vector almost as you normally would, but instead of folding the wings down to the hook tabs that are now covered by the extra armor we put on the sides of his legs, we fold them down to plug into the tabs on said armor. The foot armor pegs into the leg armor with the toes pointed forward and the soles facing out. You'll notice a slot under the toes. The sword holders can plug into those slots, and the swords can slide loosely into them for alt mode storage. Meanwhile, there are these 5mm ports on the struts holding the wings. This is where the stock sword stored in alt mode. What DNA wants you to do here is take the pegs on the corners of the shoulder armor that I mentioned and plug them into these ports. You may recall we had a small gold bit that we haven't talked about yet. This fits into the T-shaped gap on the back of Vector's torso, which is the nose of the spacecraft. Near as I can tell, the two small rectangular slots on either side are all that was needed to secure the torso for robot mode, so no complaints here. And there's the vehicle mode... once again, the wings are proving to be the big improvement. The new shins don't interfere with anything, so they're fine, and the little gold filler works for me. I'm not super fond of the feet on the sides... having the toe guns pointed forward is kind of cool, but the fact that they have to partsformed, and the toes removed every time they go on and off his feet, is a pain. I think it would have been much smarter for DNA to design feet with the toe goes that simply replaced the stock feet entirely with ones that could transform like the stock feet. Partsforming the shoulder armor is similarly a pain; I get that Vector had big shoulder pads in Cybertron, but if they'd made them just a little smaller and angled them just right they still could have folded down with the stock shoulders and not needed to partsform. Ironically, the one part I would like to partsform is the forearm armor. They stick out from the already-chunky bottom of the spaceship, so it can't sit flat on the ground anymore. Too bad all the available ports are taken up by partsforming feet and shoulder pads. And here's the rub... while all of this does technically make the robot mode more cartoon accurate, that cartoon is Transformers Cybertron. Which does not necessarily have to apply to half G1-ified Covenant of Primus designs used for the other Thirteen. And here's the Covenant design. Now, if we're lucky, Vector's Age of the Primes release later this year will be a brand new mold, but I wouldn't hold my breath... I'm expecting the Legacy toy again, though possibly repainted in gold with red wings. So for now, I think I do recommend the DK-61 kit for Vector Prime- it's worth it for the wings- but as with a lot of DNA's recent kits I don't think I'll be using all of it. I'm probably going to ditch the shoulder pads, and replace the stock feet and DNA's shoes with Chinese 3D-printed feet that, as I suggested, transform the way the stock feet do. That'll still give me the improved wings, legs, and forearm armor, and I can partsform the forearm armor onto the spots where DNA wants you to plug in the shoes.

So I know I'm excited to get Dream Star's Scavenger and finish their Devastator, but G1 always does better than stylized, I think. And while a lot of us picked up ToyWorld's Constructor back in the day, I also think most of us also realize that ToyWorld's not quite pulling off the modern MP aesthetic. With that in mind I'd looked at X-Transbots' Ground Bite last April, and Fans Toys' Gehry immediately after. But I also mentioned that MMC was coming out with there own, and I'd get their Scrapper before deciding which set I'd ultimately pursue. Well, MMC finally released Deltus, their version of Scrapper, so the ultimate Scrapper fight begins NOW! *Note that for all pics it's Fans Toys' Gehry on the left, MMC's Deletus in the middle, and XTB's Ground Bite on the right. It's funny that when MMC created their Ocular Max brand the idea was that they would do more Studio OX-style stuff, but every OX release gets more and more Sunbow. Deletus here might be their most Sunbow figure to date... sure, the visible hinges and flaps on his shins make him look a little more detailed than Fans Toys', but with the green lumps for shoulder wheels and the thin-legged, top-heavy proportions he's definitely more cartoon accurate than XTB's. But is that necessarily a good thing? If I'm being totally honest, from a purely "how does this look" point-of-view, I still kind of prefer XTB's. It's like Deletus looks too much like the cartoon, Ground Bite looks like the robot the cartoon was based on, and Gehry looks like the the cartoon Scrapper ate the other five Constructicons. Depending on what you're personally going for on a shelf, I guess it's worth pointing out that Deletus is significantly lighter than the other two, and most of the gray and all of the green and purple you see on him is unpainted plastic. On the other hand, I'd argue that Deletus cleans up the best with the tidiest backpack. Perhaps accessories make a big difference? Again, not really. Deletus comes with a gun and a trumpet... same as the competition. As far as the guns go, they're pretty similar. Sure, XTB put a little silver paint on their barrel, and Fans Toys' used a gunmetal paint for the entire gun, but they're all recognizably the gun Scrapper has in the cartoon. Things get a little more interesting with the trumpets. Deletus has the most movie-accurate shape, and a nice painted finish. The other two use a vac-metal coating to make them look more like actual brass instruments, with Fans Toys having the best finish, I think, and XTB's looking the most like an actual trumpet. Aside from guns and trumpets, the other two mostly have partsforming bits, while Deletus comes with a tool intended to help with his transformation. Ground Bite does come with a sword, so I guess XTB has the best accessories? Really, I don't think it matters which Scrapper you prefer, you're going to get the accessories you actually care about no matter what. So we come to articulation. Deletus' head is on a hinge that lets him look up about 75 degrees. He can't really look down, but wait! That hinge is actually a double hinge! It breaks the sculpt a little but you can use the hinges to crane his entire head forward so he can look about 60 degrees downward past his own chest. No sideways tilt, though. His shoulders swivel and move laterally 90 degrees. His biceps swivel, and his double-jointed elbows can combine for nearly 180 degrees of bend. His wrists swivel. His thumb has a ball joint at the base with a hinged pin. His index finger has two pinned knuckles. His other three fingers are a single piece molded into a permanent curl pinned at the base. He's got a ratcheted waist swivel, and about 60 degrees of ab crunch. His hip skirts get out of the way to allow 90 degrees of hip movement backward or laterally, and slightly over that forward, all on ratchets. His thighs swivel, and his double-jointed, double-ratcheted knees bend until the bumps on his calves touch his thighs. His toes have a little up/down tilt, and his ankles can pivot nearly 90 degrees. If you go back and check my earlier reviews for Groundbite and Gehry, you'll recall that Groundbite is pretty similar but with even more hand articulation and butterfly joints, but I found Gehry's articulation to be a bit sub-par. MMC eschews the more standard thin tab on the side of the gun handle plugging into a slot on the palm for a larger tab on the back of the handle that plugs into palm under the thumb. It's pleasantly secure on my copy. Trumpet works pretty much the same way, with his fingers curling through the loop. Like Ground Bite, Deletus has the gimmick where you can open a little panel on his wrist to see a communicator/computer. MMC even painted Detetus', which XTB did not. Up to this point you might be getting the sense that I think Deletus and Ground Bite are similarly good figures (but I'm not so hot on Gehry), with Ground Bite having a slight edge for what I consider to be better proportions, a better finish, more and slightly better accessories, and slightly more articulation. And that'd be fair. But then I have to transform them all, and suddenly things start to look different. Gehry is far from the worst Fans Toys transformation I've had to deal with, but it's still nothing I'd consider fun. Ground Bite's transformation is a bit more intuitive and a bit less of a pain, but there's still some sliders and thin flaps and some looseness in the middle until things are finally locked in place. And even then the rear wheels and roof don't stay in place super well. But Deletus is what you've come to expect from MMC... it's mostly intuitive and sometimes downright clever. You might need to check out the instructions the first time or two, but for the most part everything moves the way you think it should with minimal extra flaps or bits, and everything locks together solidly. If you're the type that likes to transform their toys, Deletus is by far the most pleasant experience. The only pain point for me was the tires. MMC engineered a kind of cool gimmick where the tires actually expand for alt mode, but despite claims of "I can do it with my fingernails!" from some circles and a tool included just for that bit I found them to be a bit tight. The plastic on the tool bent and let go before the wheels came out, and I cracked two nails before I dug out a metal spudger and pried the tires open. And what does that transformation get you? Well, forget Gehry again, as I think his alt mode is the worst of the three and clearly the mode that got the lowest priority from Fans Toys. Now, there are elements of Ground Bite that I think convey a bit more realism, like the seat an the working pistons in the shovel arms. I think Deletus' exposed knee ratchets do not make as convincing of a grill. But he's still got a steering wheel, tailights, and smokestack. His roof is a bit more cartoon-accurate, and the sides feel just a tad more cohesive. I guess it's good that Deletus has the best transformation, because I think he just might have the best alt mode. Of course, that alt mode rolls on those expanding tires, and his shovel has some articulation. There's storage under the vehicle for his gun. Normally you could stop here and declare a winner, but as part of a combining team I don't think it's fair to choose a definitive Scrapper without considering the leg mode. And we see that Deletus is noticeably smaller than the other two in this mode- for some collectors who don't really care about the robot or alt mode, they just want to build Devastator, simply being the smallest is the dealbreaker. But it's worth pointing out that Deletus is the smallest because there are no additional parts; if it's not on the robot or the alt mode, it's not part of the leg. Gehry has a huge chunk of diecast that snaps into the heel and wraps to fill a gap in the front, while Ground Bite's knee and thigh are a partsforming piece. Sunbow accuracy might also be a consideration here. Ground Bite would almost make a good toy-style Devastator leg, with all four wheel still visible and his arms sticking straight up to form the heel. On the other hand, I think we see where Fans Toys' priority was, as Gehry went from an ok-but-fat robot to a messy alt mode to a leg that somehow captures the goofy Sunbow model that bore little resemblance to an upright loader. The partsforming heel is the only one that has the two angled sticks from the cartoon. Deletus lands in the middle. His shovel shrinks to get the squarish look of the Sunbow foot and he hides all his wheels, but his heel is more toy-style. Looks are one thing, but how it moves will have an impact on the gestalt. All three have ankle pivots, and again Deletus is in the middle with less than Gehry but more than Ground Bite. However, Deletus is the only one with upward foot tilt. It's not a ratcheted joint, though, so it remains to be seen if that's some exciting extra articulation or a weak point that could cause trouble once there's more weight on it. What's not trouble, though, is the knee. Gehry and Ground Bite can both bend 90 degrees, which is technically enough, but Deletus' knee is double jointed and bends nearly 180 degrees. If MMC can maintain that level of articulation through the other figures in this set then their Devastator could very well be the one with the most articulation... maybe not just among Devastators, but of any combiner I've looked at. And yes, Deletus' gun can be plugged in for leg mode, and it doesn't affect the leg's articulation. So... do we have a definitive Scrapper? Honestly, for as hard of a time as I've given Gerhy, I really think we're spoiled as fans that we have three figures of this caliber to argue about. The truth is, I think it really does depend on what you're looking for. Fans Toys is clearly going to deliver a bigger cartoon-accurate Devastator with a premium finish... if you only care about combined mode and you're the type to put a figure on a shelf and not touch it again until it's time to dust then you're not wrong for going with Fans Toys. Likewise, if you're looking for a set of individual Constructicons I'd say Ground Bite is the best-looking Scrapper. But for me, I'll be forging ahead with MMC. I think Deletus offers the best balance across all three modes. I think Deletus offers the best transformation and the most straight up playability. I have confidence in MMC's QC and engineering, and they're the ones I trust the most to continue to make solid, playable robots with clever and interesting transformations into solid, playable vehicles that combine into a solid, playable gestalt.

Only kind of? If it were an actual thing and not something you have to 3D print yourself I'd have paid for one before I posted this.

I remember seeing Highlander 3 in the theater and really liking it. But it's got an abysmal Rotten Tomatoes score, so maybe 15yo me was just happy it wasn't as bad as Highlander 2. As for the live action show, I remember it starting off pretty good but after the second season each season got progressively worse. Then the other two movies were sequels to the shows, not the first three movies. The first, Endgame, was not great, it sort of played out like a long episode of the show who's entire point was to get rid of Connor and replace him with Duncan, the show's main character. The second, The Source, was Highlander 2 levels of bad. Despite starting Duncan again, the creators of the show refuse to acknowledge the film as part of the show's canon.

I know I got distracted at the end of 2025 with Magic Square's Bruticus, but let's remember we're in the middle of round two (or is it three?) of the Devastator Wars. So I went ahead and picked up Concrete Warrior, Dream Star Toys' version of Mixmaster. Five bots in and I think we've got a handle on DST's aesthetic... curves and lots of angular planes that give off an almost organic shape. I've complained with other guys in this set that the aesthetic combined with the lack of obvious G1 features has given them kind of generic vibes, like at a glance you don't know which guy you're actually looking at. But on closer inspection, with wheels on his shoulders, a head that's definitely got that Mixmaster forehead, and even the two rounded bits on the middle of his torso that there's definitely elements of G1 Mixmaster here. I think the most obvious thing he's missing is the thing with the nozzles above his head, but if you look behind his head you can see a pair of gold circles that actually do recall those nozzles. Really, I think the biggest change from how we normally think of Mixmaster is that DST kind of turned him upside down. There's no big mixing drum hanging out on his back. Instead, the drum is split and becomes the backs of his legs. That, in turn, means that his legs are the back of the truck, and if you look you can see that he's sporting a little backpack that's made from the cab instead of the mixing drum. On the one hand, I think that takes one of Mixmaster's more defining elements and kind of minimizes it, but on the other hand I can't help but admire how tidily it all cleans up. After the last couple of releases coming with cool melee weapons with translucent red blades and build-a-figure Megatron parts that turn into Devastator's combiner kibble, I'm a tad underwhelmed. Concrete mixer just comes with this gun, and a stick. The stick can telescope into a longer stick... I expect that these accessories will all ultimately combine into larger weapons for Devastator. Concrete Warrior's head is on a ball joint with pretty good up/down/sideways tilt. Shoulders rotate on ratchets, and can move laterally a little over 90 degrees. His elbows are double-jointed, but you'll get maybe 115 degrees before his forearms bang into his shoulders. Wrists swivel, the thumb is connected via a ball joint with two pinned knuckles. His fingers are pinned at the base, with two more pinned knuckles; the index finger is separate from the other three, which are molded together. His waist has a ratcheted swivel, and a small ab crunch (too much will cause his tummy armor to pop off). He's even got a little sideways waist bend. His ball-jointed hip skirts move enough to let his hips go just under 90 degrees forward, maybe 45 degrees backward, and over 90 degrees laterally, all ratcheted. His thighs swivel, and his knees bend 90 degrees. No upward foot tilt, but they can tilt down, and his ankles pivot a little under 45 degrees. There's a slot in the gun's handle that fits onto a tab in either palm. The connection is kind of so-so. The instructions tell you to plug the stick onto the side of Concrete Mixer's forearm, like an arm-mounted baton, but I found the best thing to do is to simply jam it into his gun's barrel, turning it from more of a pistol into a rifle. Concrete Mixer's transformation is probably easier to figure out and remember than some of his fellows. His forearms curl up, attach to his shoulders, and scrunch in, then his backpack unfolds, expands, and connects with his arms to form the cab. The rear is a little more involved, as the sides and backs of his legs open and unfurl to get all the wheels in place. What you're supposed to do exactly with his feet isn't super obvious, though... frankly, I'm still not sure they're 100% correct. The real frustration is just the fit... there's a lot of squeezing stuff to make sure it's tabbed in, and you have to bend some parts around others to get them to hook in where they're supposed to go. As usual, DST's instructions are a bit trash, often unclear and missing steps. The resulting truck is, like the robot, pretty in keeping with the others aesthetically. Translucent windows, realistic details like skid plates, caution marks, and ladders, has the correct general shape, but is also sort of sci-fi and definitely not a real-world vehicle. The back of the truck doesn't look totally finished to me, the cab has some unsightly hinges, and the grill could probably have used some more paint. It's not the worst mixing truck I've seen, though. I certainly don't hate it. He rolls ok... on the tires, I mean. The mixing drum doesn't move. There are a pair of peg holes on the tops of the fuel tanks between the wheels on either side. The rearward holes are slightly smaller, and just the right fit for the small pegs on the end of the stick. The larger hole is big enough to shove the entire handle of Concrete Warrior's gun into it. And that, friends, is his alt mode accessory storage. I want to stress that Concrete Warrior isn't bad by any means, but compared to the other DST Constructicons he does seem a little underwhelming. There's some frustrations with his transformation, even if it's easier to figure out what you're supposed to do, and he comes with less accessories than anyone but Scrapper. I also am not a fan of the fact that the wheels on his shoulders have little bits of kibble that help lock them into the back, but they don't lock into place in robot mode. Still, this has been a pretty good set so far, so being the weakest of five pretty dang good figures isn't the worst thing ever. If you've been in on this set, there's nothing so egregious that you should quit. I think it ultimately comes down to the same thing as the other four... do you like DST's aesthetic? Then get Concrete Warrior to go with the others. Not a fan of the stylized take? Skip Concrete Warrior like you probably skipped the first four. I, for one, do not regret getting Concrete Warrior (or his buddies) and I'm looking forward to DST's Scavenger, hopefully in the spring. (BTW, you might recall that when I reviewed some of the other DST guys I used more comparisons than just Mecha Invasion's... I started messing with GT's Mixmaster, but quickly became frustrated at how kibbly he was and how poorly some elements of his design worked. MI's, though, was an absolute treat to play with again, and even though this review is for DST's Concrete Warrior, I can't help but gush again about how very solid, playable, and affordable Mecha Invasion's guys are and remind you again that you should probably check those guys out.)

They already got me buying Prime again with the Skybound version, and I'm told we can expect this battle-damaged retool to be repainted later in gray "sleep" mode. It's one thing for me to buy up a bunch of repainted Deluxes, but even I can justify buying every variant deco @ $60 a pop. (Please ignore the five versions of SS86 Grimlock...)

Man, I hate this three waves a year crap. I went from needing a spreadsheet to keep track of all my preorders down to just a few Pulse exclusives. Used to be preorders for the next wave would start popping up around the time the current one hit shelves. Well, if you're wondering when we might be hearing some news, I'm told that there will be big Studio Series and Age of the Primes reveals at the New York Toy Fair, and preorders will happen on February 17th.