mikeszekely

The list tracks pretty well with what I've heard. Powerglide's a bit of a surprise, but not unwelcome; I think it's their intention to replace all minibots with Deluxes, and with Seaspray and Windcharger supposedly I the way it doesn't leave too many left to do. Swerve is also one I wasn't aware of, but that's another easy Gears repaint. His cartoon presence was minimal, but he was popular in IDW. I expect we'll see Tailgate, too, at some point after Windcharger. AFAIK it's Prime Smokescreen. I don't know how far along in development it got, but he was planned and I think even appeared in some Kingdom artwork. He was shelved indefinitely, though. Big if true. I've always found the G1 toys fascinating; so far from the animation, then learned later it's because they were original cool mech suits.

The official date hasn't been set, but it's traditionally September. Whatever day it is, you just have to order from Habro Pulse (the EU version does ship to Germany). I just don't remember if you have to be a Pulse Premium member or not.

Hey @Scyla I wanted to give you a heads up. This year's Pulsecon exclusive is Commander-class Armada Nemesis Prime.

Su-27 (technically J-16, if we're being pedantic). MiG-27 is a totally different (and far uglier, IMHO) beast.

You didn't do anything wrong, amigo. I'm just tying together the official fan stream announcement with my earlier unconfirmed date for preorders. Because yes, they're gonna talk Studio Series, and yes, you're gonna be able to preorder Megatron on Tuesday.😁

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So, I don't have a lot of details and there's been a lot of hurdles to jump through what with Hasbro and Marvel being buddies so DC normally siding with Mattel. I don't know if they're planning on doing a Batmobile or Batwing, and I don't know when you should officially expect to hear anything about it (though SDCC or "Batman Day," the third Saturday in September, are possible candidates). But yes, a Batman crossover is (or at least was) on the schedule for this year.

I was compiling a list of cars I wanted to check out with her when the lease was originally up next summer, and the Lyriq was on my shortlist. I haven't looked at the Optiq yet. What's attracting me to the iX though are the number of people who are saying how reliable it's been. Seriously, the only complaints I'm hearing (aside from the exterior aesthetics) is that the public charging speeds are a little slower than the competitors (something I think they addressed for the 2025 model?), but we charge at home so it's kind of irrelevant to us. One thing to note, I'm mostly shopping used. Over the last few years a TON of EVs were leased out on a mix of manufacturers running some crazy lease deals and dealerships pushing them for tax credits, so the used market is full of 1-3 year old cars with relatively low mileage going for like half the price of a new one. There's a dealership nearby with a CPO '22 iX xdrive50 with around 25k miles for $48k. Closest CPO Lyriq is 170 miles away (though, if I don't care so much about CPO, Carvana's got some of both). So here's a story... I was driving with my wife, my kid, and my parents in the EV9. The road curves toward a light, and I was stopped in the left lane because I was planning to drive straight through but turn left at the following light. The light turned green, and I start going forward... as does the traffic in the right lane. Because of the curve, I guess, the Kia thought the car behind us to the right, despite not leaving its lane, was coming at us. And whatever smart features Kia baked in decided to drive to avoid the accident by steering itself into the turning lane. It was thankfully empty, otherwise the car would have jerked control from me and caused an accident to avoid an accident that wasn't going to happen in the first place. So, yeah, our Know It All could have left us K.I.A. (I leave those "safety" features alone in my wife's car, but I turned off everything but the parking sensors in the Porsche.)

Blue Booster was packed with his buddy, Wingtail. Prime, though, gets someone to fight instead (which I prefer). In this case, it's Hearts of Steel Starscream. Starscream is, again, roughly Deluxe-class when I would have preferred a Voyager. I'll note, though, that he's a tad shorter to the top of his head than Prime, which does create the sense that they're in scale with each other, if not other Generations figures. Starscream's accuracy is a bit harder to judge than Prime's, though, because concept art exists for two different versions. I went and looked at the comics to see which one was used and found that not only was he drawn very inconsistently, even from panel to panel in the same issue, he was often colored just as inconsistently. Indeed, in one of his first appearances he's actually colored more like Armada Starscream than G1. I'll say that Starscream most resembles a version of Guidi's concept art that appeared as an variant cover. That concept art used a lot more gold for some joints, so maybe Starscream needs more paint? Or maybe not, since almost none of the gold was used in the actual pages. Starscream sports lots of detail from the comics, including the Kawamori-esque hip wings, the fins sticking out of his feet, the hood over his head, at the scalloped "ears." All-in-all, I think he fares pretty favorably for a Deluxe. Starscream comes with a pair of gatling guns. The molding is pretty good, but I think it's a bit lost in that light gray plastic. Again, maybe accurate, but a little of the extra color from the concept art could have made them really pop. Starscream's head swivels, no tilt. Kind of hard to get at it, anyway. His shoulders swivel and move laterally just shy of 90 degrees. His biceps swivel, and his elbows bend a tiny bit over 90 degrees. No wrist articulation, and sadly (too common for Starscreams) no waist swivel. His hips can go about 75 or so degrees forward, backward, or laterally, which is below average but honestly adequate for most poses, I think. His thighs swivel, and his knees bend 90 degrees. His feet can't tilt up, but they can tilt 90 degrees downward (mostly for transformation) and his ankles pivot a little under 45 degrees. Starscream's guns can mount on his forearms, as would be typical for his null rays. You don't even have to remove them to transform him. If you like, though, he can also hold them in his 5mm fists. Starscream's transformation is about folding things upward, but in waves. First, his chest and arms hinge up over his head so the top of his torso tabs into his back. Tuck the arms back under the wings on his back, and then you hinge up the part with the lower pair of wings. Once they're spread and connected to the upper wings, his waist hinges upward, too. From there it's just a matter of making him do a split, swiveling the thighs 180 degrees, bending his knees, and tabbing his legs into his lower wings. Starscream's alt mode is reasonably accurate, but missing some stuff. Like, the little winglets sticking out of his feet should actually be a continuous wing running through his feet. Other than that, the front's fine, but then we come to the back. His got a sort of gappy, unfinished look with visible fists where the design sketches called for lights and chimneys. The red part sticking out the back is accurate, even down the wheel under it, but here's the thing. The design notes that's supposed to be his robot crotch. Here it's a part hanging off his butt, while his actual crotch is folded up underneath. Now, I'm no expert, but it seems to me that they could have used his actual crotch for this part if they'd simply opted to swivel his waist 180 degrees and bend his legs the other way (which would have given him the benefit of a waist swivel). He at least rolls, of the aforementioned wheel in his butt and another pair under his legs, and all three wheels are actually accurate to the comics. His guns, again still mounted to his forearms, protrude from the front in a manner that is also comic accurate. I guess another way of putting it is that Starscream's alt mode is a weird and not particularly aerodynamic mish-mash of biplane and train, but that's the fault of the design and not the toy. So... the toy is pretty good! Maybe just as good as Prime, even, in the sense that you can see how it could have been stellar with a little more budget but is ultimately one of the very best Deluxe-class toys I've reviewed this year. So yeah, this set is definitely worth picking up. What's more, we know Hasbro is going to do at least one more two-pack from Hearts of Steel with Bumblebee and Megatron, and I'm kind of excited for that now. If we're lucky Hasbro can continue to milk Hearts of Steel the way they were doing Shattered Glass for awhile.

Following up on this... wife's car is STILL in the shop. The order the dealer placed for a replacement battery was cancelled (Hyundai makes them, and apparently they're hording them for new vehicles). We're obviously NOT happy. Thinking about buying the wife another car, then putting off an "everyone can use it, especially me when the weather is bad and I don't want to drive the Porsche" until the lease for the Kia is over. Must be electric, wife prefers SUVs, and riding in my Porsche has given her a taste for luxury. Thinking the BMW iX might be a good fit. Thoughts? Edmund's really liked their long-term fleet car as it was fast, comfortable, has a great interior, and it was one of the most reliable EVs in their fleet. Only downside seems to be the exterior, which the wife and I agree is kind of fugly (but fugly is kind of BMW's MO, I think).

Agreed. But you should be able to find him (at least for a little while) on Amazon, Hasbro Pulse, Gamestop, BBTS, etc. I haven't heard anything, but there is a new Tron movie this fall. Now'd be the time.

Well, Sonic's not the only two-pack I got over the weekend. Is there a reason to choo-choo-choose the other one? It contains this guy- Hearts of Steel Optimus Prime. Let me get this out of the way right off the bat... I'm disappointed that he's a Deluxe. I mean, I don't mind that Deluxe-class Primes exist, like Devastation Optimus on the right here, but the thing about Devastation Optimus or Core-class Optimus is that they're basically G1 Optimus, when we also have options for G1 Optimus that scale with the bulk of our collection. We don't have a Hearts of Steel Optimus at scale (aside from a fragile and impossible-to-find-now third party toy), just this little one. Having said that, though, I can't complain too loudly because Hasbro kinda nailed this bot mode. I mean, if you look at Guido Guidi's concept art for the series, they nailed all the major details, even allowing for a surprising number of painted details to keep the colors right. Honestly, I think he's just missing some lines on his toes and some yellow paint for the triangles on his forearms. It's a clean figure, too, with little in the way of kibble that wasn't part of Guidi's design. And while we're looking at he sides and back, I want to call attention to the backs of his shoulders, where there's some nice molded details of gears, like you can see the inner workings there. It's a really nice touch. Prime's accessories are this gun, which is half accurate to the comic book. It's just missing it's rear, like if you imagine Megatron's fusion cannon having the barrel and mount but not the eyepiece on the back. There's also this blue rectangle. Prime's head has a ball joint, but it's flipped so the stem is in his head and the ball is in his torso. Maybe they should do that more often, because it gives Prime pretty good up/down/sideways tilt. His shoulders rotate, no problem, but the big shoulder pads do limit his outward range to about 75 degrees. His biceps swivel, and he's got maybe 120 degrees of elbow bend. No wrist articulation, though. His waist swivels. His hips can go a little under 90 degrees backward and a little over 90 degrees laterally, but due to his hip skirts he's limited to about 75 degrees forward. His thighs swivel, and his knees bend about 120 degrees. His feet have a very slight downward tilt and about 45 degrees upward. His ankle pivots are a tad disappointing, though. The actual joint is designed in a way that he could have 90 degrees of pivot, however, the side of his leg comes down so low and doesn't give his foot clearance to move around it, limiting him to something like 30 degrees. Prime holds his gun with no issues, and the blue rectangle can plug into a 5mm port on either forearm like a non-really-comic-accurate shield. Unfortunately, he lacks any other bot mode storage, which is a shame. I can live without a place to put his gun, but I wish he could have carried the shield on his back. Prime's transformation is surprisingly interesting. I mean, you can probably tell at a glance that his head has to tuck into his chest, and his arms wind up tucked behind him while his legs make up the part with the wheels. But what's neat is how you get there... you don't merely open a hatch, tuck in his head, then curl up his forearms and fold the shoulders back. You actually pull his head and arms away from his torso, and the entire assembly flips over so that when you move it back his head goes into his chest naturally. Then, because his arms aren't actually long enough to make the whole top of the engine, the backs of his legs open up to form the sides and rear. Then his gun becomes his smokestack and his shield becomes the roof. When I first saw the pictures Hasbro released I thought Prime looked a little stumpy. Actually, though, it's pretty close to the concept art, up to the panels that are made from the backs of his legs and the blue roof. In the concept art, they should both be silver/gray... because based on Guidi's concept art, Prime should be longer because he should have a trailer part. DNA, you wanna get on that? As noted, the accessories are integrated into this mode because the gun turns into his smokestack and the shield into his roof. Which works well enough, except that I mention again that I'm not a fan of the shield. But if an upgrade trailer comes along and replaces the roof shield, I really don't have anything to complain about besides the figure's size. Of course, even size is a pretty small complaint- as long as he scales with other Hearts of Steel releases it technically doesn't matter if they scale with other Generations figures, and it's not like Hasbro's charging for a Voyager here. The set's $60, and split two ways that's $30 each... a little more than a normal Deluxe price, but with more paint than a normal Deluxe, so. I think you definitely get your money's worth with Prime; good paint, solid articulation, and adequate accessories with a transformation I rather enjoy. I'd definitely give Prime a recommendation... assuming you want his partner. Which we'll discuss tomorrow.

PSA: I expect preorders for SS86 Megatron to become available next week, June 24th, at 1:00pm ET. Understand that this isn't confirmed, but it's apparently based on retailer info.

Good for those that want it, but PC delivers 99% of what I want to play and the rest is first party Nintendo stuff.

No, I get that's accurate. I'm saying it makes Blue Booster's face look extra weird, is all. I think I'd prefer either more normal Sonic eyes, or a less normal Sonic head.

You apparently can't have a Sonic without a Tails. Or in this case, a Blue Booster without a Wingtail. From the neck down, Wingtail looks more like a Transformer to me than Blue Booster did. Sure, the red-and-white feet emulate Tails' shoes, the white forearms his gloves, and the yellow-ish legs and biceps Tails' natural fur color, but the predominantly red-and-black torso with visible airplane parts instead of a mecha-fur chest work for me in a way that Blue Booster kind of didn't. From the neck up, though, his head suffers from the same uncomfortable combination of too-accurate anthropomorphic cartoon animal with soulless light blue robo-eyes. The biggest strike against Wingtail's aesthetics, though, is the metric butt ton of kibble he's wearing. The wings on his arms I want to give a pass too, as they're reminiscent of an inverted Powerglide, but then he's got another set of wings sticking pretty much straight out his back. Those wings are paired with the entire rear half of his alt mode dangling off his butt. Sure, I get that it's supposed to be like the two fox tails that hang off of Tails' butt, but they don't really look like fox tails, do they? Perhaps if the horizontal stabs folded up and maybe the entire thing spun around to reveal a yellow and white side? I don't really love where the joint's connecting the tails sit, either, as it kind of forces them to be constantly in the way. As far as accessories go, Wingtail comes with a booster gun and a blue flame effect part. Wingtail's ball-jointed head can look up a bit and tilt sideways ok, but he has zero downward tilt. His shoulders can, in theory, swivel and move laterally about 75 degrees. In practice, the wings on his arms will get in the way long before that. Likewise, his biceps swivel, but the wings are very much in the way. I'll point out, though, that the wings are kind of just pegged on; there's a part pegged into the back of his shoulders, then the wing itself is separately pegged onto that part. For bot mode, that does mean that they're removable if they're bothering you. Moving on, his elbows are double-jointed and bend 180 degrees (a necessity for transformation), but he has no wrist swivels. He has a waist swivel, as it's part of his transformation, but with all of his tail kibble pegged in place it's pretty useless in bot mode.ev His hips are capable of going 90 degrees forward and nearly 90 degrees laterally, but his tail kibble is going to make that more like 45 degrees laterally, plus the way his back is shaped gives him only a slight backward hip bend. His thighs swivel, and his knees can bend nearly 180 degrees (basically until his feet and thighs collide). Speaking of feet, there's no up/down tilt but his ankles do swivel and pivot 90 degrees. There's a peg on the booster that Wingtail can use to hold it as a gun, with the effect part making it look like it's blasting Decepti-Eggs or whatever. I'll also point out that there's a peg hole on the end. If you remove the flame effect, you can use it to combine with Sonic's item box for a bigger sort of blaster, or you can put Blue Booster's ring on it. I guess you can technically attach Blue Booster's item box to Wingtail's gun, then the ring to the item box, but then there's still nowhere to put the flame effect. Something always gets left off. Kibble might be the worst thing about Wingtail's aesthetics, but the actual worst thing about this figure is probably the transformation. On paper it seems simple enough; tuck the head into the engine, lift the engine up, fold his arms into the gap, line up his wings, tuck up his legs, then encapsulate the legs with the tail. In practice, there are two things I found frustrating. The first is that the pegged-in wings on his arms pop off constantly. On my copy, one wing pops off the assembly on the back of his shoulder, and on the other side the entire assembly pops off his shoulder. Eventually I stopped fighting it and basically partsform him, which is probably for the best because the other issue is getting the engine tabbed into place. As a Deluxe-sized figure the tolerances just aren't tight enough to really tuck his arms in perfectly, so you wind up squeezing them with one hand while forcing the engine to tab over with the other... something that's easier to do when the wings aren't in the way. Credit where credit is due, Wingtail's biplane mode is excellent, and aside from there being a little extra white in the middle, the stripe on the tail missing a line, and the robot feet not quite integrating into the belly, it's a pretty accurate rendition of the Tornado. Turns out you can have a pretty good plane mode with you A.) start with a chunkier plane than most modern fighter jets, B.) work backward from the plane instead without worrying about the robot's cartoon accuracy, and C.) Don't mind if the robot in question is covered in kibble. In alt mode, Wingtail's gun plugs into a port on the belly of the plane, with the flame effect pointing backward like a booster. A booster which is, in fact, canonical to the games, so kudos to Wingtail for alt mode accessory storage and double kudos for game accuracy. With the booster installed, the wheels (which do roll) on the wings and tail don't quite reach the ground. There are little black nubs on the booster, though, so the plane still remains upright. While the canopy has hinges to open, the ends of it are partially encapsulated by the tail, so you can't open it in plane mode. Between Blue Booster and Wingtail, Wingtail is definitely the more interesting figure in my book. He's got better accessories that integrate better with his alt mode. Speaking of alt mode, I like it a lot better than Blue Booster's. It's less cartoony and out of place, and a rare example of a plane alt mode that doesn't look like jet with a box of robot kibble strapped to its belly. However, better doesn't necessarily mean "good." The robot's kind of a kibbly mess, said kibble limits his articulation, and a few frustrations with the transformation process make me want to leave him in plane mode. And quite frankly, if you're a Sonic fan and just want the plane, you can get a bigger toy of the Tornado that comes with a Sonic figure to for less than this set. As a Transformers fan, they're below-average figures that don't blend aesthetically with other figures in your collection. Ultimately, this is a set most people should pass on. Even I wouldn't have bothered with it if I had to pay full price; I used a Target coupon though and figured it'd at least be decent review fodder.

Sometimes, you gotta go fast! But should you go fast to Target for this guy: Transformers X Sonic Blue Booster? Blue Booster is a roughly Deluxe-sized figure of a robot that looks like Sonic the Hedgehog, but isn't Metal Sonic. And to that end, he's got some gold where Sonic has his flesh-colored arms, and some more gold where Sonic has his flesh-colored underbelly, and a little gold where he's got his flesh-colored face, plus some white "gloves" on his otherwise Sonic-blue body. And the obviously-car feet and fender shoulders sell the idea that this Sonic is also a Transformer. But where they kind of lose me is the face. Like, he's got a regular face with a mouth and a little button nose, but instead of Sonic's eyes there's a blue visor in the shape of Sonics eyes that weirdly connect above his nose. Another minor gripe I have is the white on his legs. Sonic doesn't have white on his legs (unless you count the tops of his sneakers, but that opens up a new avenue of complaining that his feet aren't red), and these parts only seem to be white because they ran out of room on the blue sprue but had room left on the white one they used for his arms. Gotta keep those costs down, amirite? That's also why, despite not needing room to fold in his hands or anything, there's plenty of hollow spaces on this figure, including his the backs of his forearms. Blue Booster comes with two accessories (for himself). The first one of Sonic's iconic rings, with a translucent blue filling. The other is one of the item boxes from the 3D Sonic games. A spinner inside has an invincibility sparkle on one side, and an Autobot badge on the other. Blue Booster's head swivels and has a slight sideways tilt on a ball joint, but a transformation hinge that doesn't lock in place gives him pretty good up/down range (if you ignore his chin sinking into his chest). His shoulders swivel, but he relies on transformation hinges on the wrong side of the swivel for lateral movement, giving him Hot Rod shoulders. Even though, what range he has is only about 45 degrees. His biceps swivel, and his elbows bend 90 degrees. No wrist swivels, but he does have a waist swivel. His hips go forward, backward, and laterally 90 degrees. His thighs swivel, and his knees bend maybe 120-140 degrees. As designed he has no up/down foot tilt, but if you open the flap on his heels you can give him some downward tilt, and he's got 90 degrees of ankle pivot. The bottom of the item box has a handle that folds out with a 5mm peg, allowing Blue Booster to point the top of the box like a gun. It's not super convincing, but it is what it is. As for the ring, the translucent center has a 5mm peg. This peg can plug into a port on either of Sonics hands, turning the ring into a shield. If you want to keep his accessories together, there's also a 5mm port on the item box, but there's no other robot mode storage. Blue Booster's transformation is a bit like Earthrise Wheeljack, where the arms curl up to the sides and rear, the feet make the nose, the legs hinge and collapse sideways, and the torso has to spin but also flaps on the torso have to spin separately to keep the cockpit on the correct side. It's pretty straightforward, which is both good and bad. Good, because there's nothing frustrating to trip you up, but bad because there's nothing particularly interesting about it. Blue Booster's alt mode is the Speed Star, Sonic's car from the Sonic Racing games. It's... mostly fine. It is, for Speed Star, what a lot of mainline figures are to real cars. The shape is fine, broad details like the headlights, grill, and taillights are picked out, but it's kind of devoid of finer details like the actual bulbs in the headlights, the black part of the grill, the insides of the rims, or the Sonic badge on the hood. I'll also note that, while it is fairly indicative of what you see in the games, the Speed Star's cartoonish proportions don't allow it to blend with other Transformers as neatly as previous ones have. Blue Booster's cockpit can open and close in alt mode. There's no seat or cockpit inside, it's largely a leftover element of his transformation. And in what I consider a pretty big negative for this figure, there's no storage in for his accessories in alt mode, either. I'm of the opinion that some of the Transformers crossovers have been pretty genius. Back the Future, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Knight Rider, and Ghostbusters all took some pretty iconic pop-culture vehicles from a period contemporary with the original cartoon and turned them into original Transformers characters. Others have made a bit less sense due to being much less iconic, but the N1 from The Mandalorian, the two Jurassic Park cars, the pizza van from Stranger Things, and the F-14 from Top Gun were still decent Transformers that blended in with your other figures. Heck, even the G.I. Joe ones, which I haven't been into as a Transformers fan, is pretty neat for Joe fans for turning into scaled vehicles for G.I. Joe figures to interact with. But at this point, the crossovers seem less like genius moves and more like Hasbro is pimping Transformers to anyone who wants a crossover. A year ago, maybe, this could have been a movie tie-in, but right now it just seems random. The robot mode is too Sonic for Transformers, but too Transformers to be Sonic, and while the alt mode is mostly-game accurate the proportions just don't mesh. For Blue Booster alone, no. I'd say pass. However, you can't buy Blue Booster alone, he's packed with another figure. Tune in tomorrow and I'll tell you if that figure makes or breaks this set.

Dunno about the slippers, but the rest of that kit really looks like it improves those two.

Long ago, in the days of yore (before Siege, even), Hasbro launched the Studio Series line. Around the same time Bumblebee was hitting theaters, and Hasbro made the decision not to do a movie-specific line. Rather, toys for the new designs released directly in the fledgling Studio Series lineup. Releasing as 18th overall was Bumblebee Bumblebee, and even at the time I didn't think he was very good and didn't recommend him. Based on earlier concept art, his robot mode was somewhat inaccurate, his back kibble was a mess, and his alt mode is darn near impossible to get and keep tabbed together. The designers at Hasbro seem aware of how bad that figure was. And so, nearly 100 releases later (actually more, if you count the fact that 86 and Gamer Edition were using separate numbering, and that Studio Series has since abandoned numbered releases and that guys like Que and AoE Optimus weren't numbered), Hasbro's doing their first Studio Series do-over with Bumblebee Bumblebee (116). My first impression is that the new figure is, indeed, better looking than the original. The molded details on his thighs and abdomen are sharper, his head his more proportional with bigger eyes, his longer arms, thicker legs, and bigger feet are more in keeping with the film's proportions, and the armor on his hips and shoulders is more accurate. He's still got some backpack kibble, but it tucks in tighter to his body. Likewise, having the rear of the car on his heels isn't exactly screen accurate, but it wasn't accurate on his calves, either, and shifting that mass to his heels works better with the film's proportions. And yet, for all the fixes, he still has the inaccurate door wings. They're hinged this time, so you can swivel them up and down, but you can't totally fold them onto his back like he had them in the film. His accessories are the same, but different. For starers, he doesn't have the battle mask the original release did. But he does have his arm blade and arm cannon, both of which are sporting new sculpts. In the case of the knife, I think the angled instead of pointed blade is more accurate. As for the gun, not only do I think it looks a lot better but it fixes a gripe I had with the original. This one is hollow and fits over Bee's hand, so you don't have to yank his arm off to plug the gun into the stump. Articulation is a bit mixed. Bee's head is on a ball joint (same as the original), but he's got a bit more up/down/sideways tilt range this time. His shoulders are ball joints that swivel (same) and move laterally over 90 degrees (better). He doesn't have dedicated bicep swivels (worse), but he has ball jointed elbows that act like swivels in addition to bending 90 degrees (same). No wrist swivels (same), no waist swivel (worse). His hips are ball joints that go beyond 90 degrees forward (better), but less than 90 backward due to back kibble (same) and only about 60 degrees laterally (same). His thighs swivel around hips hips, which can be a tad limited (same), and his knees bend a little under 90 degrees (worse). No downward foot tilt (worse), but pretty good upward tilt (better), plus he's got maybe 30 degrees of ankle pivot (worse and an ankle swivel (better). While the range on a few joints has improved, it's a bit of a missed opportunity to see that they didn't improve the ranges of the more limited ones, like his hips and thigh swivels, and it's downright frustrating to see a reduction in ankle pivot and a total loss of the waist swivel. Similar to the original version, Bee's arm blade has a pair of tabs that fit into slots on either forearm (but not his gun this time). As for his gun, as mentioned before it fits over his fist and part of his forearm but ultimately plugs into his fist, so you don't have to remove his forearm. The cutout for his hand means he can only use the gun with his right hand, but A.) that's film accurate, and B.) that was also the case for the original figure. Although the arm blade doesn't attach to the gun such that it looks like his gun hand is wielding it, it does have a tab on the yellow part that fits into a slot under the gun's barrel. Then you can find a pair of clear tabs on Bee's back, one tab goes through the gap in the middle of the blade while the tabs that plug into Bee's arm sandwich around the other tab, allowing his weapons to be stored on his back. Normally I separate the transformation and comparison with the deeper look at the alt mode, but this time I think it's better to put it together. Because the transformation is pretty similar; in both cases the hood and roof from front windshield to rear windshield unfold from his back. In both cases the section with the headlights unplugs from Bee's chest, swiveling up to meet the hood and simultaneously bringing swinging the doors down. In both cases his shoulders tuck under the front fenders and his arms kind of lay against the bottom of the car. The most major difference is that instead of his waist swiveling and his shins/feet shifting up toward his back, his hips swing back and his knees bend the wrong way to fill the same available space in a slightly different way. And the result is... well, it's nearly identical. This is because, while all the robot bits are new, almost the entire car "shell" has been reused. The wheels, the entire backpack, same. The rear of the car moved from his calves to his heels, but it's the same. The door and the driver/passenger windows are the same. However, the rear window piece is gone, and it and the back half the car and rear fender that folded behind the door has been replaced with a new rear window and chunk of the rear that folds behind the door. The rear fender, though, is a separate new piece. Speaking of fenders, the front tires and back half of the front fenders no longer fold to the front of his wings, they're new parts that are attached to his shoulders. The main difference isn't visual, it's how it all fits together. The original toy is an absolute mess. I got to together pretty well for this review, and let me tell you that's the tightest I've had it in years. It takes some fiddling to get everything lined up and tabbed together on the new version, but I'd rate it as more annoying, whereas the original was downright frustrating. Like the original figure, alt mode weapon storage is achieved by getting the weapons in their combined configuration, then, sticking the two protrusions on the rear bumper through the opening in the middle of the blade. Ultimately, with better proportions, a better sculpt, and an alt mode that tabs together marginally better, SS 116 is an improvement over SS 08, and if you took my advice almost seven years ago (sweet Primus am I getting old) then this is probably the figure that fills that gap you've had on your Bumblebee shelf all that time. However, Hasbro really self-owned themselves here by re-using so much of SS 08 on the new version (gonna go out on a limb and assume the designers hands were tied by either Hasbro bean counters or the reportedly demanding Volkswagen Group). Articulation could still be better and in some cases is downgraded, and even heavily modified the design simply doesn't allow for move-accurate storage of his door wings still. I'll give this version a half-hearted recommend, simply because I don't see a better option coming any time soon. Now excuse me while I figure out which version of live-action Bumblebee Hasbro has left to do (I think just four, the '67 widebody from Age of Extinction, the refreshed 5th gen Camaro from Age of Extinction, the 6th gen Camaro from The Last Knight, and the 2nd-gen '77 Camaro from the original film but with the robot from Bumblebee/Rise of the Beasts, but without the offroad gear from the end of the film that was seen on SS 100).

Apparently it's to standardize the size of the boxes by class for retailers. So as a Leader class he goes into a box that has to be big enough to accommodate the Dinobots. To me, not only is G1 Megatron's alt mode really a gun and not a tank, to truly be cartoon accurate it has to shrink down to something Starscream can wield. And since they haven't invented mass-shifting yet, I was always of the opinion that all I really needed was a very cartoon-accurate robot- the barrel in his back, the split hammer on his shoulders, no visible tank kibble (especially not as a backpack like Combiner Wars/Siege/Earthrise)- packaged with his gun mode as an accessory. As long as they did that his tank mode could be as trash as the one on Bumblebee Megatron. So to me, rather than complain about SS86 Megatron's turret, I'm impressed that the tank mode looks as good as it does. He's checking my boxes and I can't wait to have him in my collection.

Not tomorrow. I'm honestly not sure if Hasbro is planning another stream for later this month or just waiting for SDCC at this point, especially since I was told today's stream was for AotP and Studio Series, but by "Studio Series" they apparently meant one solitary Amazon multipack. That said, some people are saying a clue on Entertainment Earth that reads "Classic! Or new? Maybe both. Sign up lest you get caught without cool action figures in the cold vacuum of space... or your home. Your home needs new action figures." suggests that Megatron will go up for preorder on Monday. EDIT: Well, I preordered everything on Amazon except the Dinobots, which I preordered on Pulse. Usually I preorder everything on Pulse, too, but looking back over my last couple of orders I've canceled almost everything there because I get it somewhere else first.

You guys want more G2 Dinobots?

Was just about to post all the wave 3 stuff, but I got scooped. Fireflight got screwed, looks like a new head and colors on an otherwise unchanged Slingshot. Skydive is obviously a retool of Air Raid, but at least they remolded his wings and tail. Venom looks cool. Alpha Trion is interesting. The face is the younger face from "War Dawn," which kind of makes sense if this is supposed to be Trion when the other Primes were kicking around. It rather compliments the SDCC Scourge retool, rather than replaces it. The alt mode appears to be based on concept art for the IDW series Transformers: Ironhide. Do I want to buy another Slugslinger and Sandstorm just to get Sandstorm's cartoon face...? I looked to see if there's anything unexpected going to be announced for Studio Series tomorrow, but I think the Takara leak already covered it (Megatron, Scavenger, Elita One, Starscream, and Widowmaker. Maybe Mixmaster, if we're lucky, since I think he's actually farther along than Scavenger.

I guess a ton of stuff's been announced in the last couple of days? I guess for me the highlights are Neverwinter Nights 2 Enhanced Edition, Persona 4 Revival, Marvel Cosmic Invasion, The Outer Worlds 2, Onimusha: Way of the Sword, Mecha Break, and Deadpool VR.

Not so long ago, Hasbro took Armada Optimus Prime, a large toy but one notorious for poor articulation even by the standards at the time, and gave us a modern version. That version was smaller and missing most of the gimmicks of the original toy, but it looked good and it definitely had better articulation. This year Hasbro is again updating an old Optimus Prime toy with poor articulation, but this time they're doing it at the Titan scale. This here is Age of the Primes Star Optimus Prime. Since I first discovered it I've loved the design of Star Optimus (or Star Convoy, as it were). He had enough of the traditional design beats- chest windows, tummy grill, red torso, blue helmet and lower legs, face mask, and antenna ears. But he was amped up on '80s/'90s Japanese super robot anime energy. He was bigger, with a little extra gold and black added to his normal color pallet, a maedate-style crest on his forehead akin to a Gundam, smokestacks swapped for double-barreled shoulder guns, leg wheels swapped for tank treads, and a prominent gold star on his chest. I loved the design so much that I bought the 2005 reissue, and despite the toy's lack of articulation (it's seriously a solid brick with arms that swivel at the shoulders and bend at the elbows, that's it) I loved the gimmicks. With Hasbro running the brand more tightly in modern times my hopes for a modern version were dwindling. In 2019, Takara retooled Power of the Primes Leader-class Optimus, replacing the Sunbow Orion Pax with a "normal" Optimus Prime, then retooling the combined mode into something slightly resembling Star Convoy. If the "evolutions" intent with the regular release was to show Orion evolving into Optimus Prime, then this figure showed Convoy evolving into Star Convoy. But the robot didn't have great proportions, the chest windows were wrong, the star wouldn't stay in place, and the alt mode was totally G1 Optimus, not Star Convoy. Around the same time, MMC released Stellarus Convoy, an impressive unlicensed figure with good articulation that mostly captured the heroic proportions of the manga, but lacked the gimmicks of the original, suffered from QC issues, and it still had a less-than-accurate alt mode. Fast forward to the present, and Hasbro's decided to crank out figures of the Thirteen Primes, aka the thirteen original Transformers created by Primus. Knocking out characters like Prima and Solus, who pretty much only exist as lore, not a problem. But what about the Thirteenth Prime? Canonically, the Covenant of Primus made the Thirteenth Prime Optimus, who chose to be reborn as an ordinary Cybertronian in the Well of All Sparks, hence becoming Orion Pax. It was not a popular take; I love Optimus as much as the next guy, but to me part of his story is that he's just a regular guy who becomes a leader because his courage, conviction, and compassion causes him to take a stand against against Megatron's tyranny. He's special because he's not special (something that the Transformers One film did a good job conveying). And we have a ton of new Optimus Prime toys. Hasbro's solution to coming up with a toy, then, is to take an obscure Japanese manga-only version of Optimus, update and mass release it, and let you decide if it's literally an upgraded "ultimate" form of Optimus Prime or something else. And aesthetically, man did they do a good job! The new Titan hews very closely to the original toy, but tweaks the proportions to make them a bit more heroic, gives him better hands, and cleans up his solid, undetailed back. My sole complaints are the bit of trailer panels on the sides of his legs, and the lack of gold on his pelvis. His antenna are even hinged, and can range from nearly straight ala the original toy to more exaggerated, manga-esque positions. As a Titan, Star Optimus is giving up far less than Armada Optimus did. On the right, we have all of the original toy's accessories, minus some ramps. And on the left, we can see that the new toy has them all- the crawler vehicle (that becomes Prime's calves), the black truck, a small Hot Rod, the little turret (which doesn't separate from the base like the original did), and his rifle. But on top of all that, Titan Star Optimus also comes with six blast effect parts, the Zodiac orb, the Silver Matrix, and a bullet. The two yellow ones are the multi-segmented ones that first came with Siege Jetfire. The orange ones are the multi-segmented one with two extra tips that came first came with Siege Omega Supreme. The blue one, though, I believe is new. Obviously, one big improvement with this toy is articulation. His head swivels, and he can tilt his head down but not up or sideways. His shoulders rotate on ratchets, and more ratchets allow them to move a little short of 90 degrees laterally. His biceps swivel, and his ratcheted elbows bend 90 degrees. His wrists swivel. His thumb is fixed and his finger are all molded together in a permanent curl, but they are pinned at the base so he can open his hands. His waist has a ratcheted swivel. His hips can go backward 90 degrees, laterally a little over 90 degrees, and forward just under 90 degrees due to interference from his hip skirts. All that motion is ratcheted. His thighs swivel. His ratcheted knees bend just a little shy of 90 degrees. His toes tilt downward, due to his transformation, and his ankles pivot about 60 degrees. The base of the turret gun folds up so that Star Prime can hold it like a pistol via a 5mm peg. The Silver Matrix can be held like a hilt, with the blue effect part acting like an flame blade. It's a neat idea, but it looks way too small for him. Unlike the original toy his shoulder guns are not permanently affixed. Rather, they are attached via 5mm pegs which means he can also hold those in his hands. The barrels can move up and down. His regular rifle can also be held in either hand, using both a short 5mm peg but also a tab that fits into a slot on his wrist to help lock it in place. The extra support is helpful because the Silver Matrix (a gimmick invented for the 2019 Generations Selects release, BTW) has a peg on it that allows it to plug into the barrel of his rifle. The folded-up turret gun then uses a peg to plug into the hole on the Matrix. This combined weapon is an homage to the Big Bang rifle, the name for when you took the rifle of the Generations Selects toy, split it in half, and mounted its Silver Matrix between the halves. You may have noticed in the previous pic that the bullet fits into a groove in the rifle. Once it's installed, I see no reason to ever remove it. Likewise, if you open up Star Prime's chest there's a little pedestal with an round indent and a peg hole. The Zodiac orb fits in there, and can stay there through transformation, so I see no reason to remove it. When Titan Star Prime was first revealed, I know some people saw that Hot Rod and thought, "What, why is his wing on his legs? That looks so bad it makes the Core-class version look better!" I think what those people didn't know is that this Hot Rod, despite being roughly Core-class in size, is a direct homage to a Micromaster Hot Rod that came with the original toy. It copies elements from the Micromaster, like the engine on the back of his head, the wings on his legs instead of his back, and basically the same transformation. The big difference is that the exhaust pipes and engine are are painted silver, and the chest details are paint instead of a sticker. Well, that and a bit more articulation. His shoulders are ball joints so they can swivel but also move laterally about 30 degrees. He's got elbows now, and they're ball joints, so they act as bicep swivels in addition to bending 90 degrees. His hips are ball joints that can go 90 degrees forward and laterally, and about 60 degrees backward. His hinged knees bend nearly 180 degrees. Although this release doesn't come with any accessories specifically for him, he does have 3mm peg holes on his fists and he can hold Core-class accessories like the sword that came with that version of Hot Rod without issue. Note that the instructions specifically say that Hot Rod can sit inside Star Prime's chest. He doesn't lock in place, and his legs stick out and prevent his chest from closing back up, though. In alt mode Hot Rod can fit into the trailer of the little black truck, same as the original toy. However, the black truck does NOT have the spring-loaded launching gimmick anymore (and, oddly, swaps the orange door for a gray one). It's not all bad, though. The truck has picked up some new gimmicks. For starters, there's two 5mm ports on the top and one on each side (plus a peg on each side), allowing you to mount weapons like the turret gun, his shoulder guns, or even his rifle. Two, the cab (which has a 5mm peg on the roof now) comes off, and two gun barrels fold out from underneath. This, too, can be plugged into one of the ports on the trailer or carried as a pistol by Star Prime. The crawler rolls on wheels, now. It no longer has working treads or a battery so it can roll on its own. But, it does split in half now, so it can stay on Prime's calves without mucking with his articulation. Transforming Star Prime is somewhat similar to the original. In both cases the chest opens so the head can fold inside, the turrets swivel 180 degrees, the shoulders rotate forward 90 degrees and the elbows bend backward, the arms disconnect from his sides and fold up over his head, the waist swivels 180 degrees, and the toes fold down. In both cases the backpack folds down to fill in part of the trailer. The key differences are that the rear wheels fold out from inside the chest instead of behind the arms, the fists fold in with the grill on the other side instead of the grill being molded onto is fingers, his front hip skirt folds open to fill in part of the trailer, and the panels on the sides of the legs hinge up to fill in the rest. Both still mount their rifle and turret onto the trailer, though the bottom of the turret stays folded onto it instead of attaching to the rifle. In alt mode, the new Titan Star Prime is very faithful to the original, but there are some choices that could have been a bit better. For one, because his legs are actually legs and he's missing the large butt flap that the original crawler docked into, some of the detail under the trailer is missing. Two, the top of the trailer is a little gappier due to being made from his pelvis and not a big kibble backpack. Three, his torso is totally red plastic, so there's a red section at the front of the trailer (just behind his shoulders and above the rear wheels) that should actually match the trailer's gray and include the blue stripe. But perhaps worse of all, the trailer doors are a waffled mess, lacking the details of the original toy, including the silver stickers with the door numbers. The doors do open, though, and they even have those bits on them to connect them to stuff like Siege Prime's trailer shield, the Earthrise modulators, or some of the other Titans. Like the truck itself, Prime's leg/trailers lack the spring gimmick of the original toy. Actually, you can't even drive the truck straight in! The edges of the opening are too narrow, and there are squarish protrusions with peg holes on the floor. To install the truck, you have to open the front of Prime's shins, then the truck plugs down into it, with the square bits fitting into notches on the bottom of the truck. This locks it in place. The Silver Matrix use a peg to plug into one of the peg holes in the other leg. My first thought is that there's plenty of room in there, I can toss his blast effects and turret gun in there, too. However, there's two issues with that. One, the friction on the door, which is essentially his heel, isn't super strong, and the weight of the loose accessories can actually push it open, causing them to fall out when you're manipulating him in bot mode. Two, even if you can find a way to tighten that up, pivoting his ankles creates small gaps that stuff can fall out of anyway. If you plug the Silver Matrix into the lower port you can use it to kind of pin the turret gun and blue effect part in such that they can get down to the door/ankle gap. As for the rest of his effect parts, I've got a box filled with just effect parts I've inadvertently collected since Siege, so the orange and yellow ones can just go in there. It is a little disappointing, though, that with so much space in his legs they couldn't find a more effective way to store his accessories in them. The original Star Convoy toy didn't stop at big robot and big truck. Like so many big Transformers at the end of JG1, Star Convoy had a base mode. It's not super complicated; you basically lifted his back butt flap and removed the crawler, then his legs and pelvis could swing up. Turn the torso 90 degrees, open his chest, open up the legs, attach some ramps the crawler and hook it onto the other side. The turret gun gets stuck on the crawler so Hot Rod can use it, but the rifle stays in his hand. Like the truck mode, the new toy is very similar but also slightly different. His hips move like he's sitting, but his pelvis doesn't move, leaving the torso a little higher and the chest unable to reach the ground. It also means his legs don't stick out as far to the sides. His heels leave archways that weren't present on the original toy. There's no butt flap, so the crawler winds up closer to his body and doesn't stick out so far in the front. This is exacerbated by smaller ramps on the crawler. But, on the plus side, those ramps are actually on the crawler. They're not separate parts that I had to dig out of the box in my closet. Prime's head also hinges forward, sort of obscuring his face and making it slightly less (but still extremely) obvious that a chunk of the base is just robot torso. While I do have a few minor gripes with Star Convoy (and maybe some of them, like the ugly trailer doors, could be fixed with a third-party upgrade from DNA or someone), this was one of my most anticipated releases for the year and he doesn't disappoint. He looks amazingly good in bot mode, he's much closer than any other attempt in alt mode, and he actually has the base mode and gimmicks like the black truck, the Micromaster Hot Rod, and the detachable crawler that were so cool about the original toy. His joints are solid, he's got actual articulation manga-esque proportions. It's literally everything I love about the original toy but better, not a half-arsed attempt like the Generations Selects toy or a great robot but still lacking in other ways reimagining like Stellarus Prominon. What's more, while he's a big boy (even bigger than Stellarus), his smaller size compared to other Titans actually makes him so much easier to handle. I'd go so far to say that not only is Star Prime the best version of this character, he might very well be my favorite Titan-class release ever. Now, I get that as a JG1 character he doesn't have the widespread appeal that a Sunbow character might, and that $150 is still a big ask even if it is cheaper than several previous Titans, but if you have any interest in this character at all this is the version to get. Highly recommended.