mikeszekely

I won't presume to speak for everyone, but I'm of the opinion that Animated had a great story but I wasn't a fan of the exaggerated cartoon designs and I don't think they translate will into 3D toys. The Unicron Trilogy is so bad it's almost unwatchable, but some of the character designs are pretty cool. I really wouldn't mind updated versions of Armada Prime, Megatron, Tidal Wave and Starscream, Energon Prime, Megatron, Shockblast, Scorponok, and Rodimus, and... Well, I'm less knowledgeable about Cybertron. Also, line you said, the toys for the UT need an update. Can't speak for Animated, but Prime had some great figures. Sure, we never got a good Hardshell, and there were some bad ones like Airachnid and Knock Out, but others like FE Optimus are as good as anything in the WFC line. It might be a timing thing, too. T he UT is like 20 years old now, and kids who he up with it are adults with disposable income. Kids who grew up with Animated and Prime are in college. I think the time for both of them will come around again. Ok, supposedly this comes from a Hasbro insider, but not to me directly. I'm hearing this from a guy who's friends with a guy who knows someone at Hasbro. Or maybe there's one more step removed, I'm not sure. And that's why, even though this info started coming out around the holidays I didn't mention any of it before. I was going to write it off as just rumors (as there's apparently A LOT of rumors that are made up, and supposedly even a few that are deliberate misinformation put out by Hasbro to distract from and discredit actual leaks). Like I said, though, Buzzworthy Bumblebee happened. And now we've seen pictures of Netflix Cheetor, Sparkless Barricade, and the Quintesson Drone repaint of Siege Ironhide, plus that purple Paleotrex that's supposed to be part of the third Netflix spoiler pack. Anyone who knows Grimlock and Slag are going to be in SS86 could guess that Hasbro will do the other three Dinobots then claim to have insider knowledge, but the Netflix stuff especially is just out there enough and the info I received on them was so accurate that I can't really dismiss this stuff out of hand. So I wouldn't call it news yet- It's possible this source did have some info and is making up the rest for attention. But it's also possible that there are so many links in the leak chain because Hasbro's cracking down harder on leaks after Kingdom and Studio Series '86 leaked well before their actual reveals and the insider needs more cover. Fingers crossed. Anyway, for me there's a ton of disappointing news. No Titan Metroplex 2.0, no Gears, no KITT, no Studio Series Galvatron, no Terrorsaur or BW Inferno. But there's a ton I'm excited for. I really hope that Galvatron's as good as they believe (I was told things like, "they said they nailed it," and "someone on the design team said he's so good that Scourge and Cyclonus are just accessories for Galvatron"), and I love that we're getting a toy-colored repaint. After the work I spent getting so many of the Siege Sideswipe mold (Sideswipe, Red Alert, Tigertrack, and a second Red Alert that I customized into Clampdown), buying new rifles and shoulder cannons for each of them, and then buying spoiler kits for each of them, I'm not totally thrilled that we're getting an Earth-mode for him and Red Alert, but on the other hand I'm thrilled that we're getting Deep Cover. I'm looking forward to Commander Class Rodimus and Studio Series Wreck Gar, and I'm down for troop-building Junkions and Sweeps. I'm glad to hear Swoop is coming after Slag, and extra glad that Sludge and Snarl are all but confirmed. It sounds like the next two years are going to great for fans, and you guys know I'll be here buying as much as I can and writing about it here. Me too. Maybe a proper Star Saber or Deathsaurus. But I should stress that while anything is possible in the future Ginrai/Powermaster Op and Star Saber were both cited as NOT in the plan for this year or 2022.

I'm a sucker for police cars, and they're cheap enough for an impulse buy. I'm really only in it for Prowl, though, and I might see if anyone else wants just Smokescreen. Besides, if this set does well enough perhaps they'll also do Barricade and Bluestreak, and I'm definitely interested in a Barricade that isn't a repainted Smokescreen with a light bar.

Was digging through some old messages and I came across a lot of Transformers rumors. I wouldn't put a ton of stock in them, except that one thing he mentioned has come true- the Buzzworthy Bumblebee line at Target. So I figured I'd post a bit here from the same source, because some of this stuff is pretty juicy, but all of this should be taken with a hefty grain of salt. EDIT: Actually, these messages go back to late December, and he knew about Netflix Cheetor, Sparkless Barricade, and the black-and-silver Ironhide (it's supposed to be a Quintesson drone) before those pictures I posted leaked, too). Buzzworthy will see reissues of the old Camaro Bee and Barricade Studio Series figures. Other versions of Bumblebee may be included in the line. Animated was specifically mentioned. Starscream won't be the last of the Bumblebee movie Seekers, but it sounds like they're going to be store exclusives- Amazon for Thundercracker, Walmart for Skywarp, Target for Thrust. Possibly Redwing and BBTS and Sunstorm at Entertainment Earth. Hasbro's going to lean hard on Shattered Glass, and the SG figures will be Pulse-exclusive. Rumored SG Figures include Megatron (from the ER mold), Starscream, Goldbug, and Jetfire. Goldbug is unlikely to use Netflix Bumblebee's mold, as Volkswagen is apparently pretty strict with their licensing. Speaking of Netflix Bee, if you missed him there's a chance he could show up again later in Buzzworthy. Mirage and Sideswipe are getting Earth modes. However, they're both set to be part of Amazon exclusive two-packs. Sideswipe will come with a redeco or remold of Airazor as Skywarp, and Mirage will come with a Dinobot repaint as Grimlock. Red Alert will also get an Earth mode, and he'll be a Walgreen's exlcusive. The Netflix line will continue, and the next spoiler pack will actually be a major spoiler. Too many store-exclusives got you down? Sorry, it sounds like that's the only way a lot of this stuff even gets done. If it helps, though, Hasbro is going to start holding back 5% of all store-exclusives to sell on Pulse. Studio Series 86 Wreck-Gar. Voyager Class. There is the potential for sets of Sweeps and Junkions. Tarantulas is coming, and he'll be a new mold, but probably not until 2022 and whatever comes after Kingdom. Inferno and Terrorsaur don't seem to be in the cards, though, at least not by 2022. It sounds like they weren't even going to bother with Tarantulas, but Kingdom is going over better than expected. I hope you like the Beast Wars Megatron mold. T-Wrecks (basically Megatron, but red and a Maximal) is going to turn up in the Generations Selects line. And, perhaps as a Jurassic Park X Transformers thing, expect one colored like the T-Rex in the first Jurassic Park (code name Rexy). A deal was reached with Mattel, who holds the JP license. Other Gen Selects will include some obvious ones- Road Rage from the rumored Tracks, Deep Cover from the Earth-mode Sideswipe mold, the rumored Leader Galvatron but in G1 toy colors, and Artfire (sans Targetmaster buddy). But also rumored to be coming is a Gen Selects Transmutate, from a retooled Paleotrex. Starscream with coronation gear will appear in Studio Series 86. It sounds like he might be based on the Earthrise mold, but he will have remolded parts (specifically mentioned are the shoulders and wings). Don't expect him until next year. Speaking of next year, the next trilogy might be more of a grab bag. It does sound like whatever comes post-Kingdom will be a "fill in the gaps" sort of line, with some G1 and Beast Wars stuff they didn't get to do in WFC, but other continuities are in play, too. The Unicron Trilogy was specifically mentioned as likely to see some figures. Aside from Bumblebee in Buzzworthy don't expect more Animated, though. Likewise, there's nothing planned for Prime, aside for the potential Bumblebee in Buzzworthy. Glyph and Tapout are possibly coming. (You may remember them from 2019's IDW Transformers Valentine's Special). Other Dinobots might be coming to Studio Series. Swoop was specifically mentioned and should be out this year, but the informant seemed to believe that Hasbro will do all five. While Grimlock and Slag are Leaders expect Swoop to be a Voyager. "Sparkless" Barricade and Quintesson drone Ironhide are a thing. Expect a Sparkless Seeker, too. Titans might go on hiatus after Kingdom. Apparently Hasbro they either don't or just barely break even on them. If Hasbro does stop making Titans expect two Commanders per year, with a higher budget and a price bump to $100. That Armada Prime that Takara showed way back with Gen Selects Star Convoy isn't dead yet. The rumored Commander-class Rodimus Prime will scale properly and justify it's budget with accessories like the trailer, which sounds like it'll detach and turn into a battle platform like the G1 toy. Scorponok will NOT get a Black Zarak repaint. For some reason Hasbro is adamant against doing a Studio Series Galvatron. They seem to think that it'd shelfwarm because the original AoE one did. If they get around to him, it won't be in the next two years. There will be another Studio Series Optimus this year, either evasion mode or knight. TLK Megatron maybe in 2022. Gears is still not happening. No Perceptor in SS86. Perceptor was considered, but ultimately passed on. Blaster may turn up in 2022, not sure which line. A Knight Rider crossover was considered, but ultimately nixed. Scooby Doo is also out. A Ninja Turtles crossover transforming Party Wagon was also considered. Discussions got far enough along that Nickelodeon okayed it, but the deal fell through because Hasbro and Playmates weren't getting along. Studio Series 86 is happening because Hasbro still wanted to do those characters but moved them out of War for Cybertron to make room for Beast Wars in Kingdom. That Cheetor with the better colors is a Netflix figure. Primal will also get a Netflix repaint. Don't expect a Delta Magnus repaint. Hasbro knows that Kingdom Magnus isn't very good. The design team wanted him to be a whole new mold but couldn't get the budget. Battle masters and Micromasters are out, Core Class is outperforming them. When the RotF version of Studio Series Sideswipe hits, pay attention to his bio. If it mentions Sideways, then Hasbro decided to do a SS Sideways. If not, then Hasbro canned it. Hasbro is apparently very proud of Kingdom Leader Galvatron. The rumored Metroplex 2.0 is a thing, but apparently a non-transforming one. Centurion did well, so Hasbro is planning on doing a another repaint + accessory pack. A Deluxe-class Hatchet is in the works. No details beyond that, but presumably that's the dog-like member of the dreads in Dark of the Moon. A Haslab Nemesis to go with the Ark was pitched, but Hasbro decided to do the Razor Crest from the Mandalorian instead. Unlike the Ark it wouldn't have a robot mode. It's not a sure thing, but Hasbro is considering a Ricochet/Stepper repaint of SS86 Jazz. We will NOT be getting a new Blitzwing anytime soon. It's apparently too difficult to do him to the WFC standards. Siege Astrotrain's shoes are specifically so he can stand even with Titans Return Blitzwing. The RED line is underperforming. Kingdom Tigatron will have a gut gun. Other Bayverse Dinobots will likely turn up in the Studio Series, but they'll be spread out.

While running some other errands today I swung by both my local Target and my local Walmart. Target had the new version of Ectotron (I dig the new head and the extra ghost is nice, but I prefer everything else about the first one I already have), some Cybeverse toys, a few Micromasters, and a handful of Deluxe and Voyager Studio Series (not 86) figures, and that's it. Walmart was even worse, just a big empty section with a few Netflix Wheejlacks and a lone Studio Series Soundwave. I gotta say, with just a month or two to go I can wait for the rest of the first-wave Kingdom figures. It's a bit longer of a wait, but I feel like I can hold out for the SS86 Deluxes and Grimlock. But it's taken nearly all of my willpower to not pay scalper prices on ebay for Scourge and Hot Rod. Don't be surprised if I start putting up reviews in a week or so because I cracked by the weekend. EDIT: Oh, does anyone need Earthrise Grapple? I forgot Walmart did have a few... in the clearance section, for $17. No idea what shipping will be to your area, but PM and I'll go back and grab one for you.

Customs? Gen Selects? A third wave of Walmart Netflix toys? No idea. That's the darker blue and green eyes Kingdom Cheetor should have had in the first place. The black made me think Diaclone homage, but then we've got the silver instead of red. Looks like the Siege mold, not the newer Earthrise mold. It's not my favorite mold, but it looks kind of cool. I'd consider it. Megatron colors? Barney? PASS. The super rusty look makes me think Netflix; this mold (along with Sideswipe, Cog, and Refractor) got used a lot for generic filler characters. And, like Ironhide, it's the SIege mold, not the newer Earthrise one. That said, we're (maybe) getting this rusty repaint and not blue Bluestreak? C'mon!

Ah, my bad. All I can say is... depends on the printer and settings. I didn't buy that set (I'm actually just waiting on Dragstrip to actually finish the set), but I've bought a ton of other 3D-printed accessories and gap fillers. Some of it's very noticeably 3D printed, but some of it's been printed so fine and painted so well you'd swear it was made from a mold. Still, yeah, $120-ish on a combiner is a lot more to roll the dice on than some $20 guns and gap fillers.

https://www.tfw2005.com/boards/threads/dx9-menasor-upgrade-kit.1202853/#post-18474814

I'm not sure how necessary Gravestone is or isn't. Assuming it is for some structural reason, no, even without the accessory set DX9's is cheaper. Even more so if you missed the first run cheaper pricing on XTB's Breakdown and Wildrider. If you shopped around (and took the free shipping option with ShowZ, which might not be a good idea right now) and got XTB's early prices it was 40 for Breakdown, 60 for Wildrider, 80 for Dead End and Dragstrip, 130 for Gravestone, and $200 for the trailer- $590. You can add another $60 or so if you missed the first run, or if you were buying the G2 or Youth versions. DX9 was 90 per limb and 180 for Motormaster, $540 total. If Gravestone really isn't necessary then you gotta start asking if any of the Stunticons are necessary. There's a kit you can buy for $120 that puts fake car parts and gap fillers on DX9's Menasor, so all you'd need is their Motormaster. In any case, I'm not really mad about the total cost of XTB's Menasor. I've been buying Fans Toys Stunticons, too, and they're almost certainly going to be the most expensive set by a wide margin. I'm mad that XTB sold me five Stunticons for less than anyone else's Stunticons, positioning themselves as the least-expensive choice, only to pull a "oh, you want them to combine? That'll be an extra $200." Their trailer of combiner bits costs more than DX9's trailer of combiner bits, and DX9's came with Motormaster.

In a vacuum, Monolith looks really good. But I think DX9 looks more like the goofy Sunbow Menasor if that's what you're going for. Plus, selling the cars for $80 or less and Motormaster for $130, while telling us everything else would come with Motormaster's trailer and that the trailer would still be a good price, then splitting the trailer and accessories into separate purchases and charging over $200 for just the trailer is a bait-and-switch. I'm definitely not buying the standard one, despite having five Stunticons from them. Given the QC issues with Dragstrip and Dead End I'll wait and see how well other people's hold up, then maybe consider the toy-style trailer. Assuming they get around to it. Then after that I'll probably quit buying XTB's stuff until their prices come back down to more reasonable levels.

Hooray! Looks like I finally got a shipping notice for Thrust!

If Magic Square would just change their plastic (it's supposed to be durable, but joints seem to wear out easy and they seem to have trouble with the fit of some tabs) they'd rule the Legends game. New Age has had some nice designs, but with the exception of the Seekers I think Magic Square's designs beat them.

So, without a copy of Warpath I've gone through the Deluxes. Time to move onto the Kingdom Voyagers, of which I only have one (and it ain't a monkey). So now, I give you the review you've actually been waiting for, Kingdom Voyager-class Cyclonus. Cyclonus is absolutely my favorite of the movie/Season 3 Decepticons. He had a cool robot design, a cool space jet design, and a quiet, loyal, and almost honorable personality uncommon among the Decepticons. And yet, good Cyclonus toys have been rare. The two MP attempts, X-Transbots' Eligos and Fans Toys Quietus, both provided good takes on his robot mode, but Eligos had wonky jet proportions, Quietus had articulation issues, and both had difficult transformations. On the CHUG side things have been even worse. Hasbro gave us a fairly good robot, with good articulation (for the time) but one that's a bit too small, with an unconventional deco, and whose other issues will be more apparent in alt mode. KFC gave us Tempest, a figure that looked the part but was still too small and suffered from novice engineering and poor materials that were common with KFC's early releases. In more recent times Hasbro gave us Combiner Wars Cyclonus, a figure that was finally the right size but suffered immensely from being both a combiner torso and a poorly thought out retool of Silverbolt. It looks like this time, though, things might just be different. Kingdom Cyclonus comes off with a strong first impression, even getting small details right like the line work on his legs and biceps, the orange rectangle in addition to the orange hexagon on his torso, darker purple on his ears and toes, and a color on his hands, thighs, biceps, and face that I'd describe as silver with a hint of lavender. Spin him around and his back is as clean as his front. The complaints I have are mostly minor nitpicks; his lower legs are a little thicker than the animation model, and his head is a little longer. The animation model has the raised bits on the front of his forearms as a the darker purple on his toes and knees, and he sometimes appeared with a dark square painted on his chin like a goatee, but as near as I can tell neither of those details were present in the movie. Oh, and this might be more of a personal preference than an objective issue, but I think I'd have liked it if his colors were all just a bit a darker across the board. And size-wise... well, it kind of depends. See, the joints in his knees and the way they transform means that if you make them as straight as possible he's around a half a head taller than Earthrise Prime, but it'll leave his shins kind of jutting forward with a big gap in the front. If you rotate the lower joint so that his thighs sit more over the middle of his shin he'll lose a bit of height but look a little neater. Either way he should still be a little taller than Prime, as well as Unique Toys' Mania King (who's still probably the best CHUG Galvatron, but a toy that's definitely showing its age). Anyway, while he's not 100% perfect, I think he gets at least 95% for aesthetics. Cycolonus comes with just one accessory, a silver gun that's modeled closely after the gun he used in the animation. Some people might want a more G1 toy-style gun or Target Master partner, but the included gun works just fine for me. Like Blackarachnia, Cyclonus' head is on a ball joint at the base of the skull for a swivel and some up/down/sideways tilt, but a transformation hinge at the base of the post increases his up/down tilt. His shoulders rotate and move laterally 90 degrees (revealing some molded detail on the hinge in the process). His biceps swivel, and his elbows bend 90 degrees. His wrists swivel, as does his waist (take that, Fans Toys!). His hips can go 90 degrees forward, backward, and laterally. His thighs swivels, and his knees can bend around 120 degrees. His feet can tilt up, but not down, and his ankles can pivot a little under 45 degrees. His gun can peg into either fist. He has additional 5mm ports on the outside of his shoulders, the outside of his legs, the backs of his forearms, two under each foot, and one on his back. You'd think Cyclonus' jet mode is hard to do. XTB was close, but the wings were a little long front to back and a little short fuselage to wingtip. Fans Toys got a bit closer, but neither had the silvery and darker purple markings on the nose right. Hasbro's first modern Cyclonus had serious gaps in the back where his legs folded up but didn't really connect to make the fuselage. KFC's fusleage was too long and is missing markings, plus the aforementioned amateur engineering and poor materials. And Combiner Wars is a brick with some vaguely Cyclonus-y bits attached. Kingdom Cyclonus is very close. The silvery and dark purple markings on the nose and wings are right. While I wish the wings were a tad longer to the tips they're fairly close to the animation model. Everything comes together tightly; there are some small gaps, but you have to have him at just the right angle to even notice them. From the top, my only real complaint is that his robot biceps are still plainly visible; it's a shame that some kind of fold-out panel couldn't have be devised to cover it. You can also see that some panels just under the cockpit don't sit flush, and his robot torso doesn't exactly blend in with the upper half of the jet. Another minor complaint is that I wish the thrusters on the rear were painted. On the whole, though, it's a very accurate jet mode. More impressively, the transformation is actually rather simple. I can't believe no one else came up with it before now. Cyclonus has landing gear, one under the nose and one on each shin. There's a 5mm port over the canopy that you can plug his gun into, as well as one under each wing on on the sides just behind the wings. Additionally, all four thrusters are 5mm ports, which makes them compatible with Siege effect parts. It's worth noting that he's got a small hole under his crotch that's compatible with flight stands like the one that comes with MP Tracks or Studio Series Soundwave. That works fine for him in robot mode, but in jet mode there really isn't enough space between his legs to fit him onto the stand, which is a bit of a bummer. So, I think I've pointed out enough minor flaws to demonstrate that Cyclonus isn't perfect so I don't oversell him... but now it's time I told you that this is my second-favorite figure in the entire War for Cybertron trilogy, after Earthrise Optimus. Yeah, he's not perfect in little ways that I might expect a Masterpiece figure to be, but for a $30 Voyager he's excellent. Most figures I get I mess with a little, review, and then put away due to a lack of display space but I've had Cyclonus on my desk since I got him because I can't stop playing with him. If they repaint Cyclonus in slightly different colors and sell him as the Armada I'll buy it. Studio Series Scourge has jumped to my most-wanted figure, and I'm really hoping that rumored Kingdom Galvatron pans out. But even if it doesn't, Kingdom Cyclonus is a figure I highly recommend.

If you're out there, send review samples! Unless you're in HR, then feel free to take up @JB0's suggestion at the top of this page. Anyway, still haven't found a Warpath yet, but I still have my maybe-in-a-month preorder. For now, we're wrapping up the Kingdom Deluxes with Blackarachnia. If I recall correctly Blackarachnia joined the Maximals at some point, right? Well, she's packaged and marked as a Predacon, so her she is with my possibly-soon-to-be-obsolete Thrilling 30 Waspinator, and that works. She doesn't have the shiny gold color of the MP/CGI model, but the yellow-gold plastic and paint they used works well enough for my tastes. She's got the hourglass on her forehead, the Predacon symbol on her collar, the "eyes" on her pelvis, the stripes on her hands, and even the swirl pattern on her chest. While not entirely accurate, the metallic gold around her mouth and chin is different than the yellow-gold on her forehead and most of her face, and I rather like the color breakup. The most immediately noticeably departure from the CGI model is that her spider legs are black instead of gold. The upper segment is molded onto her biceps, so they're also black instead of gold. The insides of her thighs are yellow-gold instead of dark purple, and her feet are black instead of dark purple. The purple is so dark that it gets lost in the black on the CGI model, so black feet don't really bother me, but I do wish they'd done something with her inner thighs. She does have a little backpack, but it sits very flat and doesn't spoil her silhouette too much. Her lone accessory is a mostly-accurate crossbow gun thing. I know the MP version is a bit more detailed and sports a bit more color, but I think this is fine. Blackarachnia's head is on a ball joint at the base of the skull, which by itself provides a swivel and a decent up/down/sideways tilt, but the post is hinged at the base for additional up/down tilt. Her shoulders rotate and can move laterally well beyond 90 degrees. Her biceps swivel, both at the top and the bottom. Technically you'd want to use the swivel just above the elbow where yellow meets black, to keep the spider legs in place on the sides of her arm, but it's a tight joint and tends to pull the black part around with it. Her elbows bend a little over 90 degrees. She doesn't have wrist swivels or, unfortunately, a waist swivel. Her hips can go 90 degrees backward and over 90 degrees laterally, but due to the shape of her pelvis only about 45 degrees forward (a little more if you swing her hip out laterally at the same time). Her thighs swivel, and her knees bend nearly 180 degrees. Her feet can tilt down a little and up a lot, and she's got about 90 degrees of ankle pivot. Her feet are large enough that she's pretty stable, although I wish the up/down ankle hinges where a bit tighter. Really, my biggest grip overall with her robot mode is that her chest doesn't seem to lock in. Like, there's a little groove in her torso and a wedge-shaped tab on the back of her boobs, and I can feel it pushing it, but it immediately pops back out. Oh, and the back of her claws have a 5mm shape for holding her weapon. Like Cheetor she doesn't have a ton of other 5mm ports, but she does have one under each foot and on the back of each calf. So I'm starting to gather that a design goal for the Beast Wars characters in Kingdom is to make robots that are close to the CGI models in the cartoon, but to give them more realistic alt modes. I think that's why they gave Blackarachnia black spider legs instead of gold, and while they put some red markings on her abdomen they didn't put an hourglass on it- real black widows (or redbacks, to our Aussie friends) have the hourglass on their underside, and various species have other markings on the top. Kingdom Blackarachnia borrows a surprising amount of engineering from the MP version. In some ways she's simplfied, with a reduced parts count, but I kind of think that the simplification may have been to her ultimate benefit. Her abdomen doesn't stick up quite as much and isn't as shortened. And while she does still have some yellow-gold from her robot legs (and, to be fair, shoulders) showing it runs horizontally near the base of her abdomen instead of vertically up the sides, and it allows her knee spikes to tuck in a bit better. The tradeoff is that her shoulders aren't hidden as well, but I kind of don't mind it. While they don't stick out like the CGI model, they do remind me of pedipalps that are curled under the head. Her backside comes together fairly well, too, and while they don't make for the pedipalps of the original toy and CGI model I think they make passable spinnerets. While she doesn't have a ton of of articulation or gimmicks in this mode, her robot biceps can rotate between the shoulder and elbow to bring her legs up and in or splay them out, although it's an all-or-nothing deal since the legs themselves are molded to that part. Each leg does have on additional ball joint, though, and that gives you not just the ability for further curl and stretch the legs but also to swivel them back or forward. The joints are strong enough to lift and hold her body off the ground. All-in-all I think she pulls off the spider mode pretty well, but like Cheetor she has a bit of trouble staying together. Her backpack tabs loosely into her thighs to hold her abdomen together, and while her arms are supposed to tab together the tabs are too small and loose; mostly they stay in place by making her claw hands grab onto specially-shaped tabs under her robot feet, but due to the tightness of her bicep swivels moving her spider legs can cause her hands to let go of the tabs. Once you do get everything the way you want it, though, she's fine. Her weapon has a pair of tabs on the edges of the yellow part. These tabs fit into tabs just below her elbow, locking it to her underside like the original and MP versions. I really dig Blackarachnia. She's not a perfect toy by any stretch, but there's clearly an inherent challenge in trying to take the feminine form she had in the cartoon (and that the original toy most definitely did NOT) and turning into a spider that's more proportionally-accurate to the CGI or an actual spider than the original toy was. And while, yes, the MP has the more detailed and accurate robot mode I honestly think this toy pulls off a better spider. She makes for a pretty cool figure that I'd recommend even if you're not a big Beast Wars fan.

Big leave from an inventory system. It seems to have the entire third wave of Core, Voyager, and Leader class figures for Kingdom plus the third and fourth waves of Deluxes, unless some of them wind up earmarked as store exclusives or Gen Selects. Core: Soundwave Dracodon Deluxe: Wheeljack Scorponok Wingfinger Tracks Pipes Shadow Panther Slammer Waspinator Voyager: Rhinox Tigatron Leader: Galvatron So, I welcome Tracks as he, Gears, and Blaster would about wrap up the Season 1 + 2 Autobots. Not so interested in the Core-class in general. Pipes is the inevitable Huffer repaint; I could take him or leave him. Wheeljack is probably, like Prime and Arcee, a reissue of the Earthrise figure. Slammer has been rumored to be a repaint of Warpath; you know me, I love me the citybot pack-ins, so my only complaint is that I need a better Deluxe-class Scamper. Shadow Panther will surely be a black Cheetor; no real interest there. I like Thrilling 30 Waspinator and Rhinox just fine, but I won't say no to new and improved ones. Scorponok helps fill out what I consider to be the "core" Predacons... now how about Tarantulas and Terrorsaur? Tigatron's a question mark for me, for now. The original toy was just a redeco of Cheetor, and if all Hasbro did was upscale the Kingdom Deluxe to Voyager I might pass. But if it's a new mold, like the MP was, I'll probably get him. Green and white is a good color scheme. But I'm most excited for Galvatron. Mania King is still about the best CHUG-style Galvatron, and as much as I like that toy it's feeling pretty dated. Plus, while I don't have him in hand yet, Studio Series Scourge looks fantastic, and Cyclonus... well, you'll find out what I think on Monday.

Also, either Grimlock was too big or Slag, Sludge, and Snarl are too short. Yeah, I had that set and I wound up selling it off. Sometimes I think about buying them again, if I can find a good deal. They were close, but GCreation made a lot of weird design choices that made things a bit more complicated than they needed to be on a lot of them, especially Grimlock. Like, why was it so important that the combined-mode head store inside Grimlock, but then you needed a filler piece for his neck in dino mode? Well, I'll see how SS Grimlock and Slag turn out, and if they're the right size and Hasbro doesn't do them maybe I'll at least try to find copies of Sludge and Snarl. Speaking of combined mode, I think we had the opposite reaction. I did it once for a review then took him apart and said "never again." I digress... So Beast Wars was an interesting time. See, after kids got tired of Micromasters and Action Masters (even as a kid I thought Transformers that don't transform was a stupid idea) the brand went on hiatus in North America. Sales were still pretty good in Europe, where they got awesome stuff like Thunderclash, so Hasbro tried reviving the brand with Generation 2... which it failed to do. So Hasbro handed the Transformers brand (along with most of their "boys toys" brands) to newly-acquired subsidiary Kenner, and it was Kenner who came up with the idea of transforming organic beasts with the normal and mutant heads. Beast Wars sales were good, and the line is sometimes credited for saving the brand, although I'd point out that Beast Wars has a cartoon, while G2 only got a comic book, and that almost certainly generated more interest than G2 got. Regardless, it's certainly true that for a new generation of kids Beast Wars was their G1. And while G1 will probably always be the staple of Transformers, as we get into 2021 it makes sense that Beast Wars would start popping up again. After all, more time has passed from the premier of Beast Wars and the present (25 years) than from the premier of G1 and the first wave of Classics back in 2006 (22 years). So how about we look at Kingdom Deluxe-class Cheetor? On the one hand, this is probably the most screen-accurate Cheetor toy after the MP version. He doesn't have the weird proportions of the original or even the 2008 Universe figure. His chest is made from a cheetah head, his helmet has the right shape, with the tiny tampoed Maximal symbol on the crest. He's got the round blue shoulders, blue pelvis, and blue shins, and the shins are even properly studded (although the studs are blue instead of gold). He's got kibble flaps on his back, though they wrap around his shoulders instead of rising behind them, and cat legs cross over his back. He's missing a bit of blue on his forearms, but that's actually because this toy has less arm kibble than the MP toy and animation model. On the other hand, I'm not loving the colors. Rather than a deep metallic blue Hasbro seems to have used a periwinkle plastic for some of his parts then a blue paint that matched for his face, legs, and pelvis. Then the rest of him is basically the same yellow plastic, so there's no gold for his robot arms and helmet and no color difference between cheetah and metallic parts of his legs. It's not the worst thing ever, but it definitely could be better. Although in the Beast Wars cartoon the Maximals and Predacons were shown to be much smaller than the Autobots and Decepticons I guess Hasbro's abandoning that scale as impractical. Cheetor is basically the same height to the eyes as Siege Sideswipe. Put with the only other Maximals I have, Core-class Rattrap and 2014 Thrilling 30 Rhinox, and I dare say that looks pretty darn good. Maybe it'll look even better when Rhinox, who's a good figure but could use better joints, gets a rumored update in the third Kingdom wave. If not, though, these three plus Kingdom Primal and Dinobot and I'll be content to have the "core" Maximals. Moving along... Cheetor's sole weapon is this whip/axe made from his alt-mode tail and part of his butt. While not an accessory that came with the original Cheetor, it does seem to be based on a weapon that came with Transmetal Cheetor, so it's not like there isn't a precedent. That said, a potential upgrade kit idea would be the gut-gun used most frequently in the show (I'm cool without the tail gun, though). Cheetor's head is on a ball joint. He can't really look down or tilt his head sideways due to the way the ball socket is cut, but he can look up quite a bit. In fact, he needs to tilt his head up to turn his head father than 60 degrees (which is important to remember, because his head has to turn 180 for transformation). His shoulders rotate and extend laterally over 90 degrees, but his back kibble can get in the way. Due to transformation he's also got forward butterfly joints. His biceps swivel, and his elbows bend about 120 degrees. His wrists can swivel, as can his waist. His hips fall a little shy of 90 degrees forward and laterally, and only move a little backwards. His thighs swivel just above the knees, which in turn bend a bit under 90 degrees. His feet can tilt up and down, though, and have a whole 90 degrees of ankle pivot. His tail plugs into his hand for him to hold it as a weapon. I'm not a fan of how it looks, though. The angle of the tail is curved so that his arm would have to be parallel to his body before the blade on it is far enough forward to hit anything in front of him. Again, I'd really love for an aftermarket gut-gun for him. Oh, and as I alluded to yesterday Cheetor does NOT have an abundance of 5mm ports like most of the Siege/Earthrise figure have had. He's really just got the hands and ports in his heels, that's it. Speaking of alt modes, Cheetor transforms into a cheetah. I know, it was a surprise to me, too! Now, I'm not the biggest Beast Wars fan. The show and toyline originally came out when I was in high school and tool cool for "baby toys," and besides if a robot is going to turn into an animal I prefer it to be non-organic. That said, I did watch the show as an adult and I admit it was good. And seeing these three together, yep, that looks right to me. Like I said, I just need Optimus and Dinobot and that's the core group of Maximals. Anything beyond that is a bonus. As with the robot mode, they really did a good job making a more proportional, CGI-accurate Cheetah. Aside from a little blue on his back legs, his robot toes sticking out the back of his cat thighs, and a bit of visible hands on his tummy his robot parts hide well. You also get a bit more paint, with some lighter-colored "fur" on his chest and black spots and facial markings. One thing they didn't put black on, though, is the pupils, which are orange instead of green. This is likely to maintain robot-mode CGI accuracy, where he has orange pupil-less eyes on his chest but turns into a cat with green pupiled eyes (fun fact, the original toy started with orange eyes then got green as a running change). I think I'm ok with orange eyes, I just wish they had pupils. Not that there's a bit of a seem in his chest. No matter how I try the panels seem to want to push back apart. They're a bit finnicky. Cheetor's jaws can open, but he unfortunately doesn't have any head/neck articulation. His cat shoulders are on swivels for rotation and ball joints for 90 degrees of lateral movement and a limited pseudo-bicep swivel. His elbows b end under 90 degrees, and his front paws are on ball joints for up/down tilt and pivoting. His hind legs have swivels at the hips that let you move them very far backward but not really forward. Combined with his knees, which can bend forward no problem but are limited on how far they bend in the anatomically-correct direction, plus the fact that his digitgrade ankle has no articulation (although the paws are, again, on ball joints) and it's hard to get his back legs into many poses that are still anatomically-correct. You're kind of limited to a standing pose and a both-legs-back running pose. I have to give the designers at Hasbro some credit, they've made a Cheetor toy that looks pretty good in both modes with some fairly simple engineering. My biggest complaints are that of color issues and somewhat limited cat-mode articulation, but I think Beast Wars fans will be pretty happy with him. That said, he doesn't feel as solid as the G1 characters in the War for Cybertron line have been. I noticed that with Rattrap, too, and at the time I just wrote it off because he's only a Core class, but with Cheetor now I'm wondering if it's just an inherent difficulty in trying to translate the old shellformer-y Kenner designs into something more modern and CGI accurate? I suppose we'll find out as the line goes on. For now, I think I'd recommend Cheetor to Beast Wars fans, but if you're a G1 purist this isn't the figure that's going to change your mind.

Kingdom Commander Class Paddles. Oh, or maybe the next trilogy can be Maximum Dinobots. A few missing Season 1-3 G1 characters like Tracks, Skids, Gears, Sandstorm, and Wreck-Gar interspersed with G1 Sludge, Snarl, Swoop, Paddles and Slash. Maybe give IDW Strafe and Skar more traditional dino alt modes, redo the ol' Power Core Combiner Grimstone to just be a really cool Styrachosaurus or G1-ify Bayverse Dinobots like Scorn (Spinosaurus). Maybe some brand new characters for other cool dinosaurs. And to combat all those Dinobots the Titan-class can be Monstructor.

I'm looking at doing Beast Wars characters tomorrow and Sunday, then I'll have some G1 goodness for everyone reading at work on Monday. I just really wish everyone was on the same page... Amazon sent Paleotrex before Christmas, I got two Deluxes at BBTS, and a Voyager at Gamestop. Gamestop might have had a few others (I know BBTS had all the Deluxes, but sold out before I could grab the last one), and I've heard of a few other retailers getting some stock in of both Kingdom and Studio Series 86 (but selling out before I could grab any). Both lines are also supposedly turning up at Targets in Washington, but in the mean time Amazon's telling me February for my last Kingdom Deluxe, March for the other Voyager and Megatron, and April for any Studio Series. I mean, I don't mind waiting as long as everyone else is, but I hate that reviews for the entire first wave of both lines have been on Youtube for weeks but I've only managed to scrape together half a wave of Kingdom. The PotP Dinos left me wanting so badly I wound up buying a set of Fansproject (minus Snarl, who they must have only made a handful of) and the Planet X ones. And while they both have their ups and downs, yes, I want more G1-accurate War for Cybertron-scaled Dinobots. Hasbro might be worried about less-cool Dinobots (as if that's a thing) selling poorly, but I think with how well-received their figures have been since WfC started the Dinobots would be like a license to print money.

Not an official one. Your choices are basically DX9's Tyrant Fans Toys Sovereign or Open and Play's Big Cannon. Of the three DX9 has the best cannon mode and a reasonably good robot mode, but he's a bit barrel-chested and his feet are a bit weird. For awhile he was going for a little under $100, but I hear he's starting to go up. Sovereign has a great robot mode with solid articulation, the best paint, and a very strong presence (he's debatably beefier than his animation self), but the transformation's a pain and the alt mode is kind of so-so. The aftermarket for Fans Toys' stuff is a bit crazy, though. I think I got in on a reissue for around $180, but I wouldn't expect to find one for under $250 now. Open and Play's is the cheapest. I think it was originally sold without a box for around $30-$40, and the aftermarket is roughly the same. But, he's actually an oversized, modified KO of the Titans Return toy, and while I think it looks alright in a pinch you definitely get what you pay for there.

Hard to tell from a drawing, but it reminds me a lot of XTB's Savant. The big difference seems to be the shoulders, which are closer to the G1 toy than the cartoon on this drawing, and the fact that it's a bit more detailed. If the drawing didn't come from a Takara source I'd almost write it off as fake, as it'd be a shift in direction from the hyper-toon shellformers Takara's been putting out lately. And now, the moment you've all been waiting for... Transformers Kingdom Deluxe-class Paleotrex! Just kidding- I'm sure of all the stuff in the first Kingdom wave Paleotrex is probably the one you guys are least interested in. But we gotta build up to the good stuff, yeah? Oh, and sorry @tekering, but I have Paleotrex on the right this time. I was shooting pictures of a couple figures and things got a little mixed up. Anyway... this is the part of the review where I usually talk about how the figure stacks up the previous versions, but Paleotrex is a brand new Predacon character. Instead, I'll just point out that he's one weird-looking fellow, with huge hands, super long arms, short lower legs, and a creepy face. Paleotrex is the first Fossilizer, and Fossilizers seem to be a rehash of the Weaponizer gimmick, except made of bones. Well, at least is better than guys that turn into ramps and Micromaster bases. But it means that Paleotrex doesn't come with accessories so much as he's made of accessories. One in particular I want to draw attention to is his head and spine, which can be used as a club. Technically, his robot face is the one on the left, but a mask folds down over it for club mode. Is that an homage to the early Beast Wars toys, with their normal and mutant faces? Perhaps. But the mask is most definitely an homage to the mace that came with the original '96 Ultra Class Optimus Primal (and later some Asian-exclusive releases of MP Optimus Primal). Paleotrex's head swivels where it's plugged into his body, but it also has a hinge for some up/down tilt. His shoulders rotate and extend 90 degrees. His biceps swivel, and his elbows bend a little over 90 degrees. His wrists swivel, his hands can bend in and out, plus he's got a knuckle joint so he can curl his fingers in. His waist swivels. His hips can go forward 90 degrees and backwards or laterally more than that. His thighs swivel, and his knees can bend 90 degrees. Sadly he has no foot or ankle articulation, although his shins can bend just below the knees. As far as weapons go, when his body is assembled you'll have one part left that he can hold as a... sword? Club? Something like that. It plugs into a 5mm hole on either thumb. He's also got holes on the back of each heel and one through his right shoulder If I'm being totally honest, a goofy-looking new Beast Wars character I have no attachment to wouldn't really appeal to me, except he transforms into a T-rex skeleton. Maybe it's the dinosaur-obsessed kid I used to be, or maybe it's the fact that I used to work for a company that made and sold replica dinosaur skeletons for displays like museums where we had a T-rex on display, but I think it's a pretty cool alt mode. Oh, and I guess you don't really transform him so much as rip him apart and stick him back together in a new configuration. If you bought Cog, Brunt, Sixgun, or Fasttrack you should know what you're in for. Paleotrex can open his jaws, and a hinge at the base of his neck allows him to look up (if you don't mind breaking the sculpt), but that's technically it. However, if you remove his robot head you'll wind up with a fairly large empty space in the back of his skull, but you'll give clearance to another hinge and he'll be able to look up and down at it. His little dino arms are ball-jointed at the shoulders so they have some wiggle, but are otherwise solid pieces. He's got a little bit of waist swivel. His hips can rotate 360 degrees and move laterally up to 180 degrees. His thighs swivel just above his knees, which are technically double-jointed and can bend 180 degrees. His feet can tilt up and down at the ankle, but there's no pivot. His toes can also bend up and down. His tail can bend up at the base (and swivel, if you need it to) but there's not further articulation in the tail. Technically this mode uses all his parts. How's that for weapon storage? Although I've already pointed out that you can kind of get away with removing the robot-mode head. You can probably also remove his chest and still have a working T-rex mode. When I said that Fossilizers are like Weaponizers I really meant it. Just like with the Weaponizers you're able to put Paleotrex's parts into various configurations you can use to arm up other figures with the usual- clubs, axes, swords, shoes, claws, shields, backpacks, etc. Here are the two suggested configurations from Paleotrex's instructions. The shoes and the sword I'm not big on, but the backpack claws and the axe are pretty cool. One thing to note here; Paleotrex seems to work well with Autobot/Decepticon figures (his instructions use Warpath). However, based on the limited sample I have so far, the new Kingdom Maximals and Predacons don't really have the 5mm ports to arm them up. I don't presume to speak for everyone, but the Weaponizer gimmick didn't really do much for me. I'd rather have Transformers that actually transform instead of come apart and back together in another shape, and I'd rather those Transformers arm themselves with purpose-made weapons instead of some guy's gun-shaped leg. But I mostly enjoyed the Weaponizers anyway, because I was tickled to get new versions of the G1 citybot pack-ins. As an all-new character, and one that turns into bone weapons instead of guns no less, pretty much the only reason to get Paleotrex is because T-rex is cool even as a skeleton. But if you can live without a transforming T-rex skeleton then I think you can live without Paleotrex, and you can safely pass on this one.

I know a lot of guys like blondes, and a good friend of mine likes red-heads. But for me, the darker the hair the better, and heck yes Mary Ann > Ginger. Man, 2020... thank *insert deity of choice here* it's over.

I saw a thing about his death in the news. It's not the first time someone's been referred to as "legendary" and I'd never heard of them. I guess I'm at an age where I'm just not with "it" anymore.

2020 wasn't as bad for me as it was for a lot of people. I bought a new computer, new laptop, new living room TV, and adopted a cat. Until yesterday I managed to stay pretty healthy. No one at my house is out of work. I even managed to take my daughter to a lake I used to visit as a kid. That said, I lost my grandparents, I miss friends I haven't seen in almost a year, my in-laws had to cancel a trip to visit us so it's been nearly a year and a half since they've seen their granddaughter, my daughter didn't get to go to a preschool graduation, and kindergarten's been mostly the kitchen table. And I really miss dining out. So I'd still say 2020 sucked. I'm hoping for better in 2021 (but I know better than to say, "it can't be any worse" because it definitely can).

Where I live it's almost 2021. You know what happens in 2021? Classics Optimus Prime turns 15. When I got this guy I was over the moon with him. Matter of fact, Hasbro released a Deluxe-Class Classics Prime, then three more Primes during the Prime Wars Trilogy, but until late 2018 this was still probably the best official CHUG Optimus you could get. Heck, I even bought an improved version of this figure upscaled to MP-10's size. But, yeah, he's kind of showing his age. Those blocky wrists with no swivel. The lack of ankle pivots. The copious kibble and the shellformer alt mode. As good as this guy was he was definitely dethroned by Siege Optimus, who's own short-lived reign was ended by the mini Masterpiece that is Earthrise Optimus Prime. Is there any room left in ER Prime's world for this Classics veteran? Can Classics Prime be updated for a modern era? A few years ago, Fansproject thought so. This kit is the TFX-06 Parallax Red Armor (note that there's a TFX-07 kit that's the same thing, but in Ultra Magnus colors). It was an interesting release even at the time, as Fansproject was fading into obscurity and out of the blue they decided to release an upgrade kit for a figure that was already around a decade old. Frankly, I think a lot of people just slept on this one; either they were happy with Classics Prime as he already was, or they were already looking at alternatives like Combiner Wars Prime, iGear's mini MP-01 KO, ToyWorld's Orion, or KBB's MP-10v. But today you can pick this kit up for around $15, and since Classics Prime is, well, a classic, I figured it's worth a look. Above is everything that comes in the box. Note the big chunk; although it comes like that in the box you'll need to separate it into two guns and a new chest/head for Prime. To get started, take Prime's gun and wind vane and toss them aside; you won't need them for this. Start to transform Prime's head and backpack so it's tucked away as show, and unfurl the bumper. Prime's feet fit into the new boots by wedging his toe in until the unused tabs fit into the groove on the boots. The new pelvis grabs onto his butt and goes under his crotch and over his existing pelvis. Remove the screws on the back of Prime's shoulders. Plug the new shoulder armor into the screw hole, then replace the screws. Snap the new sides over the kibble on his arms. Speaking of arms, open the kibble up like you're going to truck mode. Remove the two screws on Prime's forearm, then carefully open it up. Pull the hand off the lower post, then put his arm back together. Repeat on the other side. Note that this step isn't covered in the regular directions, and if you've seen reviews of pre-release versions of this kit this step isn't necessary. That's because the new hand was originally planned to fit over Prime's hand, like a glove, but FP changed the design so Prime could have a wrist swivel. With Prime's old hands removed you can plug the forearm armor onto the forearm by using a small peg and the little hole on the front of his arm. Once it's in place you can fold the kibble back into the robot mode position then finish folding the new armor over the back of his arm. The new wheels have plugs on the back that fit in between the spokes on Prime's front tires. They're just to make things a bit wider, to fit with the new bumper, which just pushes on over the old one. Leave the grill folded out, for now. We're in the home stretch. Take the chest and head and fit it over the old chest, so the edges of the new one tuck under the lip of his hold one. Once it's secure, grab the big gray guns. They have an arm on a slider with a pair of clips. Those clips fit into grooves on the back of his new shoulder armor. Everything that's left turns into a pair of rifles for Prime to hold. And there he is, all armed and armored up. He gains a bit of height, not to mention wrist swivels, articulated fingers, and ankle pivots, to say nothing of new back cannons, shoulder guns, and rifles. Most of his articulation uses his original joints, though. Mostly that's fine, but the riveted swivels for the arm kibble have come a bit loose over the years and the extra weight from the Fansproject parts isn't helping. I dig the design, which is shades of both regular and Powermaster Optimus but also that Fansproject style. That said, the proportions are a bit odd, and I had problems with the new hands popping off. And, while it does add some extra articulation and a fresh new look it's not really enough (or G1 enough) to reclaim the spot held by Earthrise Prime. Credit where credit is due, you can transform Prime without removing any of the new parts except the shoulder cannons. It's a bit frustrating, though, due to clearance issues created by the new parts, but the resulting truck looks pretty cool. It's got a sort of Euro truck aesthetic, minus the giant smokestacks. So, here's the thing... I like Prime with this kit. But I don't know if I like him more than I already did. In some ways, it just made him more cumbersome. However, the kit's only $15, and the changes are completely reversible. At that price, it's kind of worth it to just try it for yourself and see. Just know that, armored or not, there are better options for a CHUG Prime these days.

When I was looking for Transformers at Target recently I stumbled across these combining Zords. Generally speaking I think the Transformers line has improved a bit in the last two or three years, and I'd picked up a few of the Lightning Collection Power Rangers figures, so I know that Hasbro can make good toys that appeal to collectors. And they were giving me vibes that reminded me of the Playmates Voltron stuff, which while far from perfect I mostly enjoyed. So I figured what the heck. The five Zords are sold in three packs, and each pack costs $14.99. The first pack has the Sabertooth Tiger and the Triceratops. Near as I can tell, the plastic comes in just two colors on the Sabretooth Tiger, with a little paint for the eyes and nose. Most of the details are stickers. It's ok-ish. The molded (and non-functional) wheels on the back legs and the shoulders are missing any black, as is the stripe over its rump, but the sticker at least are pretty accurate. The legs and tail are pretty hollow, and the articulation is very limited. Really just the base of the tail and neck (needed for transformation, the shoulders, and the hips; the stuff that's needed for transformation. There's no knees, no wrists or ankles, and it can't even open its jaws. The angles that its paws are molded at further limit the posability. Like Sabretooth Tiger, Triceratops is missing some painted details and uses stickers on the sides. Surprisingly, though, the crest is painted. Triceratops has even less articulation, just the base of the neck and tail. The molded treads and dino toes are left unpainted. Oh, you know how a lot of toys with molded treads have wheels so they can still roll? In a super irritating move you cans see molded bumps where the wheels would go, but they're just non-functional bumps. Second set is Mastodon and Pterodactyl. Seems Hasbro slapped the stickers on the shoulders and painted some green on the head then called it a day. The gold and red stripes along the sides are missing, as is some of the face details and the lines on the ears. The plastic for the tusks and trunk is kind of rubbery, but it has no articulation. From the front, standing on its clipped-on gun-legs, the Pterodactyl doesn't look too bad. It's wings can move a little, and it's got a hinge at the base of the neck and at the base of the skull. Unfortunately, if you lay it down in a flying pose the top of the Pterodactyl is an empty red void, with none of the white and pink details it should have. Tyrannosaurus doesn't come paired with another Zord, but he does come with the Megazord's sword. He's missing some silver on his cheeks and the top of his head, his tail, and his hips, plus red on his neck, feet, and shins. He's also got some ugly red pegs on his knees. He does have a bit of articulation, at least. His jaws can open, and his stumpy little arms can rotate a bit at the shoulders. His hips can rotate 90 degrees forward (but nothing backward), and they can spread ever so slightly. His thighs can swivel, and his knees can bend, plus his feet can tilt up. I'm sure most people aren't interested in individual zords, though, as they get less action than separated Voltron lions. And the selling point here is that they do, in fact, combine. As a matter of fact they can even do the tank mode, though the connections between the mastodon head and the t-rex chest is barely functional, and because of the angles the sabertooth tiger and triceratops don't fit on all the way and have a tendency to fall off. The star of the show is the combined Megazord, but even here you can see where Hasbro cheaped out. He's missing the gold on his crest and stripes on his forearms. He's missing the black and red squares on his knees. His hands are unpainted gray plastic instead of black. And he's not super big, either. Here he is with a Deluxe-class Transformer I had laying around at the time, but I can also say that he's roughly the same height as MP-10 or MP-44. A back view, with the Pteranodon's gun-feet plugged onto the back. If you want a cleaner look, though, not only can the cannons be removed, you can remove the Mastodon's feet. And now we get to the part where I tell you that the articulation sucks. No neck articulation. His shoulders can rotate and move about 75 degrees laterally. His biceps swivel, and his elbows bend about 90 degrees. No wrist articulation. If you move the tail out of the way he does have some waist swivel. His hips can go forward, but not backward and only a little bit laterally. His thighs swivel. And... that's it. No knees, no ankles. Well, at least he can hold his sword and the mastodon head. I guess this is a case of you get what you pay for. I mean, the whole combined Megazord only cost $45; I remember the Playmates Black lion alone costing almost that much. The figures are sturdy, and they stay together well in Megazord mode, so they'd hold up to smaller kids playing with them. Still, the dino Megazord of the original Power Rangers seems like something that would appeal more to adult collectors who grew up watching the show, vs the kids today and whatever the Power Rangers flavor of the year is (Beast Morphers, I think). And speaking as an adult collector I'd have rather paid more for better paint and better articulation in both the individual zords and the Megazord. And I know Hasbro can make better toys than this. Really, I should have bought the SOC Megazord when I had the chance (even though I heard it's not the best, either). I can't really recommend spending $45 on this one.

Ugh, it wouldn't be New Year's Eve if I wasn't feeling like crap. Well, judging by my running nose, draining sinuses, and lack of a cough it seems like sinusitis, which I'm prone to when the weather's been jumping between 20 with snow and 50 with sun like it's been. Still, I've got lots of stuff to share, and I'll start with something very short and simple. I picked up the Reprolabels sets for Siege Sideswipe and Earthrise Wheeljack. Not a ton of difference in robot mode. Toyhax's designer included more labels for their pelvises, forearms, shoulders, knees, and feet, some of it G1 toy-inspired and some of it their irritating habit of slapping random details wherever they find a flat surface. While I appreciate details that call back to G1 stickers I prefer a look that balances with the cartoon more, like the pre-plus version Hasui MP cars. So all Sideswipe got for this mode is a blue triangle on his waist. Wheeljack got a bit more that you can see in this mode, but in his case it's all about the car. So speaking of cars... I didn't use a lot of Sideswipe's labels like the comically oversized Lamborghini logo or the "carbon fiber" spots. I did use some red labels that covered a little of black on the sides as well as gave him some tail lights, but the standout for me (and the reason I bought the set is the roof. See, one of the labels is a red roof with some A-pillars, and the on the sides are some fake windows with the B/C pillars. It's still far from a Countach, but between the Reprolabels and the Nonnef spoiler it's a lot closer than it was out of the box. In the back, Wheeljack gets some tail lights for the 5mm ports and a license plate. As for the rest, I still didn't use them all (especially the gods-awful cell-shaded windows... that's a fad I just can't get into). But I used a lot more of his, replacing the katakana "Cybertron," the inaccurate 638, and the fake sponsors (especially the goofy Aerobolt) with livery that, while not totally accurate to the G1 toy or the actual Lancia Stratos Turbo Group 5 #539 car it was based on, but it's much closer with prominent Lancia and Alitalia marks and, most importantly, the correct number. I generally don't do Reprolabels much anymore. Like I said, they have a tendency to skew too hard to replicating G1 toy stickers (a perfect example, red knees for Sideswipe- had they included silver I'd have used them) and to cover any flat surface with random details. I think these two sets are worth a look, though, as they bring a bit more accuracy to both of their alt modes. EDIT: Oh yeah, I'm going to start Kingdom reviews tomorrow.