mikeszekely

I'm on the western side, too, just outside Pittsburgh. And yeah, it turned out to be a big one, 9.2". Fortunately I'd stocked up on groceries before the storm, and we're all working/schooling at home already due to COVID. So aside from killing my back clearing the driveway we're all safe and sound (although I have no idea when Soundwave's actually coming). Spinout and Cordon did show up today, though. These guys are very basic repaints. All the black parts are still black, and all the yellow plastic was replaced with red for Spinout and white for Cordon (except for Cordon's hips and the armature his chest is on, which are black for some reason and probably would have looked better if they were white). Spinout retains the translucent blue plastic with a layer of paint underneath that Sunstreaker has, but Cordon's translucent plastic is clear with no paint, and it looks a bit shabby as a result. However, he's at least partially remolded. Unlike the Siege Lambos and the Datsuns, Cordon's lightbar isn't pegged into a pre-existing 5mm port- it's actually molded onto his chest. Spinout has the same yellow on his ears that Sunstreaker does, but he has yellow eyes instead of blue, which matches the Diaclone toy that the deco is based on. Cordon has his ears painted red, which likewise matched the old Diaclone toy Cordon is based on as well as the MP toy. However, instead of the red eyes that were used on both of those toys Gen Selects Cordon has blue eyes. Sadly, just like Sunstreaker, their only accessory is their engine backpack. So again, Spinout is basically red Sunstreaker, although they did add a touch more black paint onto the vents over the rear wheels. That's fine; since that's basically what he's supposed to look like. I can't help but be a bit disappointed with Cordon, though. Again, there's the fact that the unpainted, un-tinted windows are a bit shabby, but aside from the lightbar on top there's really nothing to indicate that he's a police vehicle. There's very little black on the nose, and it doesn't swoop in from the sides to a point and he's lacking the chrysanthemum badge. From the side you can see that the recess on the sides is painted black on Spinout and Cordon, and I belatedly wish they'd done it on Sunstreaker, too (but I guess that's not cartoon accurate). Cordon has the bottom edges painted black between the wheels, but not the sides of the nose. And, again, nothing to indicate that he's a police car. No "POLICE" or even 警視庁 written on the side. Hopefully Reprolabels can fix it. The worst bit, though, is the lack of paint on the tails. The plastic used to for the forearms, and therefore most of the rear, is black on all three, but Hasbro painted Sunstreaker yellow on the sides most visible in alt mode (even if they didn't do a great job matching that paint to the yellow plastic). Cordon and Spinout don't get that courtesy. Cordon almost gets a pass, what with his colors already being black and white, but honestly I think it looks bad on both of them. So here's where I'm at... I could live without Spinout, same as I could have lived without Tigertrack. But I'm a sucker for police cars, so Cordon was a must-have for me. Spinout's just along for the ride. It helps that this is a good mold, though. I just wish they had guns and spoilers (but word on the street is Nonnef will be cooking something up). And just for fun... the red and yellow Lambo brothers meet the red and yellow Lambo brothers. Oh scrap... it's the cops! Kind of wish they'd do a proper Gen Selects Clampdown I could use to replace my customized Siege Red Alert. And while we're doing Gen Selects Diaclone colors, can I also get the Siege Sideswipe mold as Deep Cover Also, I'd love Earthrise Bluestreak in Diaclone blue. You and me both, but it seems unlikely. X-Men and Ghostbusters are already in Hasbro's portfolio, and the IP holders for Back to the Future and Top Gun seem a bit more open with their licensing deals. DC and Mattel are tight, though, so I don't see DC licensing anything Batman to Mattel's biggest rival. That said, perusing Hasbro's portfolio suggests some interesting possibilities. Power Rangers X Transformers? Hmm, perhaps they're already a bit too similar. Maybe more Marvel stuff? Man, a Spider-Man X Transformers comic book about the Spider-Mobile (already something of a joke in the comics) being a Transformer would be great. But maybe they're missing the most obvious crossover (because it's been done several times already, albeit without toys to go with it): G. I. Joe.

Seems like CD Projekt RED could have done with one more delay. And I'll just leave this here...

Hmm. So I said I wasn't going to sign up for yet another streaming service just to watch this or WB's other 2021 films without going to the theater... but I realized a couple of my go-to "comfort food" shows that I like to rewatch when there's nothing better on jumped to HBO Max. Now I'm thinking I might sign up while they're giving 20% off if you pre-pay for six months.

Thrust is delayed again, this time to the 29th. Good thing he's not a Christmas present. I hope Thrust wasn't on that ONE Apus ship that lost 2000 containers a week or two ago. EDIT: Well, it's not all bad news. Looks like Walmart is fulfilling my Soundwave after all, with an estimated delivery date of Friday. Plus, Hasbro shipped Cordon and Spinout, and FedEx says they're coming tomorrow (y'know, assuming the winter storm that's going to hit tomorrow doesn't screw them up). Oh, and I decided to preorder Ultimate X-Spanse (who I think I'm going to call X-Pants). I think I had enough issues with it that $65 and tax was a bit too much, but Target had a Circle deal on toys recently, so my grand total shipped is a more palatable $55.

The Netflix Sondwave that I preordered back in JULY is still listed as "Delayed, check back later." Not much sense in preordering from Walmart if they're just going to ship inventory to stores and fill later orders. Friends, if any of you happen across one at your local Walmarts please grab one for me, because at this point I don't actually trust Walmart to fill more order or send stock to my local stores. My Universal Studios Megatron came. I might take some pictures later for comparison's sake, but the figure itself is the same mold as the Dark of the Moon Studio Series Leader Megatron I reviewed almost two years ago. The differences are that it ditches the little Igor figure and the cloak, and the colors are a darker gray and silver with none of the tan "dust". It's technically less screen-accurate, then, but I think it looks nicer, and the colors match the movie 1 and Revenge of the Fallen Megatrons better. Oh, and like @M'Kyuun, I got my Prime two pack. Jet Vehicon was a Japan-exclusive remold of RiD Vehicon, with more of a pinkish purple than the indigo used on the earlier mold. You'll note that the (Hasbro) RiD Vehicon has more paint, notably on the waist and shins. The RiD Vehicon had kind of goofy elbows, but they're a bit worse on Jet Vehicon because the remolded part of the arm has the ball socket cut a bit differently, so it can't straighten as much. This is because the Japanese releases came with sticker sheets. They didn't come with the same guns as the Hasbro releases. In Japan, the Prime toyline was called "Arms Micron." And the gimmick was that they came with a sprue of parts that you'd build yourself into a little minicon that turned into their weapon. For Jet Vehcion it's Igu, a little dinosaur thing that turns into a gun similar to what the Vehicons had in the show (stickers applied). Note the extra pegs and peg holes on Igu. Another gimmick of the Arms Micron line is that the weapons could combine with other Arms Micron weapons to make bigger ones. And here's how Jet Vehicon looks with his own stickers applied. Better, but I'd have preferred paint, as I have concerns about the longevity of the stickers. Jet Vehicon's head is on a ball joint, but the joint is angled so left/right swivel and downward tilt is a bit hindered, but he can look up with no issue. Shoulders are hinged ball joints that can rotate and get about 90 degrees of lateral movement. His biceps swivel. Ignore the hinges at the end of his biceps; his actual elbows are the ball joints that stick out to the sides of them. Because his forearm swivels on that ball joint his elbow bend is technically unlimited. No wrist swivel, but they do bend downward for transformation. No waist swivel. Hips are ball joints and can move forward 90 degrees and backward or laterally a bit less than that. His thighs swivel. His knees bend a little under 90 degrees. His feet can bend down, mostly due to transformation, but he doesn't have any ankle pivots. Igu simply pegs into Jet Vehicon's hand. You can bend his hand down and fold the peg back a bit to try to replicate that integrated look, if you like. In alt mode you can really see what's been remolded. The entire side of the vehicle (the panels on the outside of his legs, his forearms, and his shoulders) are all now, as is about half the nose (part of the inside of his legs). And that's to say nothing of the wings, which are attached to a hinge on his back. There are two 5mm ports on each side of the alt mode, plus one two on each wing. You can use them with one of the pegs on Igu to take him along for the ride. Jet Vehicon is cool (I liked the original RID Vehicon), but I'm guessing most of us really wanted War Breakdown. Like the Jet Vehicon, War Breakdown was never released outside of Japan (until now), leaving many fans with only the Cyberverse (Legends)-class figure to represent this major character. I actually really wanted a Breakdown back in the day, and the market for this figure was already so absurd that I settled for importing the darker-colored remolded Silas Breakdown, which I was never totally satisfied with. Like Jet Vehicon, Breakdown is looking a little plain. Because like Jet Vehicon, Breakdown comes with a sticker sheet and a sprue. The assembled minicon is a little Rhino (and maybe an Islanders fan) called Zamu that turns into Breakdown's signature hammer. Hmm, maybe I could have left the stickers off, this time. Speaking of stickers, there's an extra blue stripe. It's not mentioned in the instructions, but if I had to guess I'd say it goes around Zamu's middle. Breakdown's head is on a ball joint, and he can look almost straight up but not really down, and although he can swivel his head his chin kind of gets in the way. His shoulders can swivel, but due to their shape and kibble only move laterally about 45 degrees. His biceps swivel, and his elbows bend a little under 45 degrees. No wrist articulation. His waist can swivel. His hips are ball joints that can go forward only about 45 degrees, backward 90 degrees, and laterally about 60 degrees. His thighs swivel, and his knees bend a little under 90 degrees. His feet can tilt up and down a bit, but he lacks ankle pivots. Zamu can be held in Breakdown's hands. Or, for a more cartoon-accurate look, you can fold his hand up as you would for transformation, revealing a peg hole you can plug Zamu into. Speaking of peg holes, an Arms Micron gimmick was the ability to attach many of them, so Breakdown's got a Siege-level number of 5mm ports including one on the outside of each leg, two behind his head, on on his collar, one on the back of each shoulder, one on the front of each forearm, one on the outside of each forearm, and two on his back. Breakdown turns into a blue military-style truck, as he did in the cartoon. As with the robot mode, many details are left to stickers instead of paint. That includes the headlights, lights on the front bumper, the rear window, two side windows, the Decepticon emblems, and some not-accurate orange stripes on the rear fenders. The worst is a shiny chrome sticker with yellow lights that wraps over the entire rear bumper. No way that's going to last! Meanwhile, other details are just ignored, like the red lights above the rear bumper and the rims on all the tires. While the instructions simply indicate that you can plug Zamu into a peg hole on the roof, there's actually three on the roof, one on the hood, one on either side of the nose above the front fenders, one at the base of each door, one on each rear fender, and one in the middle of his spare tire on the back. I'm not going to judge either of these figures too harshly; it's really not fair to hold decade-old molds to the standards I'm used to with the War for Cybertron or the Studio Series. I will say that I'd have preferred more show-accurate weapons and painted details instead of stickers, but for the most part it boils down to these two simple questions- do you still have a collection of Transformers Prime toys, and are you sore that we never got a Voyager-sized Breakdown outside of Japan? If the answer to those questions is "yes" then you should definitely get this set, as it's filling a gap that's been in most Prime collections for 10 years now. Side note: Jet Vehicon was actually released twice in Japan, first in the colors that came in this set but later in white as "Jet Vehicon General." It's a shame Hasbro didn't bring over the white one, too. I'd have bought it. Now, if someone could just give us a Voyager-sized Hardshell...

XTransbots have lost their minds. $230 for a trailer that turns into Menasor's body, and another $75 for an accessory kit with car shells to beef up the arms.

That too.

I got a couple of packages recently, so how about a repaint roundup? First up we have the Generations Selects G2 Megatron. And... well, knowing that making a G1-accurate Megatron that turns into a gun and selling it in the US is a pipe dream at this point, Hasbro's engineers did a pretty good job making a mostly-accurate G1 Megatron robot that turned into a space tank for Siege. And they retooled that into an even more G1-accurate robot that turned into a slightly more earthy tank for Earthrise. And then I guess someone at Hasbro thought, "Hey, you know what Megatron turned into a tank? G2 Megatron!" So they set out repainting Earthrise Megatron into G2 colors, but the result is decidedly G1 Megatron in mostly G2 colors. He's got the G1 flat chest instead of the front of a tank, and gray feet instead of standing on the middle of a tank. And while they did cover him in the neon green and purple camo of the G2 toy they weren't particularly accurate about it. The forearms, hands, and midsection were gray on the G2 toy, and his pelvis was green. Green arms (but not purple hands) are more accurate if we go with the old Marvel comics colors, but then he'd still have a gray midsection and a black pelvis. Not to mention a blue face. Then there's the matter of accessories. There's still a bunch of trash partsforming, and this time the G1-accurate (but not at all G2) fusion cannon doesn't even peg solidly onto his right arm, where the hole seems a bit big. One of the big things about G2 Megatron was the tank barrel on his shoulder. This would seem like it'd be a good time to make use of the partsforming tank barrel, but while you can set it on his shoulder there's no place to plug it in. Perhaps I can whip something up with some of the Nonnef peg adapters. Tank mode at least looks pretty good. The fusion cannon running through the middle of the turret can be overlooked a bit by the fact that G2 Megatron had a block of purple running through his turret where his shoulder cannon bisects his arms. Frankly, I don't think this mold really works for G2 Megatron. Pretty sure I only bought him because I missed Sandstorm, and I'd say you can safely pass on this one. Moving along to Megatron's rival we have Netflix Optimus Prime. The differences here are a bit more subtle. He's got blue on the crotch and yellow on all his pelvis shapes without the need for Reprolabels, plus much of the gray on the inside of ER Prime's legs are properly blue here. Those changes are probably why I preordered him. The thing is some other parts that were presumably on that sprue, like his shoulder joints and biceps, are also blue now, and they're a darker blue than ER Prime's. His windows are also not blue now. The subtle differences seem to stand out to me more in truck mode. Here the lack of blue on the windows and headlights looks a lot more like the G1 toy to me. One other thing I'd point out is that instead of gray front wheels with a gunmetal paint for the tire is that Netflix Prime actually has black wheels with silver paint, and it looks a bit better. Netflix Prime comes with the same rifle that ER Prime does. However, he trades the trailer and drone for a pair of Battlemasters and a $10 price cut. Enerax is a repaint of Pteraxadon, which was a cool little Pteranadon who turned into an ax. Plus a yellow ax is kind of on brand for Optimus, so Enerax is cool in my book. The other, Shieldron, is a repaint of Soundbarrier, whom I did not review. I didn't review him because his transformation is unfolding his backpack and sticking his limbs to it, and his alt mode is a chunk of road that can plug into the WfC Titans or Micromaster bases. Ok, sure, there is a peg that unfolds from his chest and he could techncially be a shield, but really he just sucks. This one's a toughy. Unless you really don't like the trailer you're probably better off getting ER Prime to have it, plus I prefer the lighter blue on ER Prime, so I guess I say pass on this. But I prefer the torso on Netflix Prime. I might have to paint the biceps, but I think I'll swap my Primes and use Netflix Prime with ER's trailer. On the subject of Netflix, here's the star of the first season, Elita-1. She's a remold of Arcee, with the same translucent gun. She's a fairly extensive remold, though, with a new head, shoulders, and her entire torso. Her biceps, forearms, hands, and legs are the same. And, unfortunately, so is her backpack. That means, for better or worse, it's really her backpack that transforms while she scrunches up under it, and her alt mode is different from Arcee or Lifeline only in color. At least it looks good in red. This mold isn't one of the better WfC molds, but Elita-1 was one of the best characters in the show so far and it's nice to see her get a figure that's more than just a new head. I'll recommend it. Last but certainly not least we have Netflix Bumblebee. Bee's a retool of Cliffjumper/Hubcap, with the new head that was used for Bugbite. Unlike Bugbite, who was just a new head, Bee has a lot of new parts, but you mostly just see them in the chest, backpack, and feet in robot mode. The result is very good, though. He's got that school-bus yellow color and a very G1-accurate sculpt. I might have liked an Autobot insignia on the chest, but still. Bee is, unfortunately, saddled with the same accessories as Cliffjumper. Which, you know, made sense for Cliffjumper because he did use a bazooka once and he did do the skiing thing once, and it did help justify the Deluxe-class price for a Legends-size figure (although I think the engineering alone justified it). If you bought the Centurion with the accessory pack, though, there's a G1-style gun for Bumblebee in it. Hooray! The remolded parts on Bumblebee mostly come into play on his alt mode. You can see that while the engineering is the same and they shared some robot parts like their arms, legs, and pelvises, the alt modes are totally different cars. As a matter of fact (and as the box tells you on the back) Hasbro actually got the VW license for Bee, so his alt mode is an appropriately-detailed Beetle. He's got the VW hubcaps, painted bumpers, lights, and door handles, and even a small molded driver's-side-only side mirror. Frankly, I think he looks fantastic in his alt mode. Very on-brand. Yes, there is some partsforming with the backpack that can be used as a shield, but as I noted when I reviewed Cliffjumper I really like the engineering here. I also like that while they share the same engineering Bee and Cliffjumper look like distinct robots with distinct alt modes, and that Bee is a Beetle instead of making him a generic hatchback. I think I might even like this toy better than the original MP Bumblebee, so I strongly recommend picking him up if you can find him, especially if you have the gun to give him from the Centurion set.

Newage's stuff is really making me wish they'd scale up their designs and make some MPs.

Yeah, Hasbro got to a point where they were giving us a new Top Spin and Twin Twist and new Monsterbots, but the Headmaster Juniors and most of the Targetmasters got ignored. Anyways, I went to my local Walmart today. No Soundwaves, but I did find an Impactor (pass, I already have two), a few Bumblebees (tempted, but my preorder is supposedly on the way) and a few Elita-1s. I bought Elita-1, since Walmart canceled my preorder. Still need to get Soundwave sorted, though.

I'm kind of wondering the same thing. This game seems to have an unusual amount of hype around it- Nvidia even had a "X days until Cyberpunk 2077" counter on Twitter for the last week. Yet, aside from knowing that Keanu Reeves is in it and it's from the guys who made the Witcher games I still no almost nothing about it. A part of me wants to buy it right now just to see what the hype is about, but I've still gotta finish AC Valhalla, Age of Calamity, and Miles Morales (plus, as a fan of Ubisoft's open worlds games in general, I'm sure to pick up Immortals: Fenyx Rising).

You're referring to a certain chest mod for Fans Toys' Arcee, aren't you? Yeah, the Big Firebird stuff gets pretty close to the line dividing what's acceptable and what's not (to me), but if you're talking about what I think you are then yeah, that accessory drove a truck full of NOPE and crashed it way over the line. That Windblade really wouldn't be that bad if the red was her whole pelvis and not just her crotch and if they toned down the Nikki Minaj booty. That said, BFB's Windblade looked fairly promising from the concept art.; I dig it more than Nicee.

Ironically, Brainstorm is the one I'm least interested in. I had the G1 toy as a kid, so the Headmasters anime colors and mouthed face doesn't work for me. I'm most interested in Hardhead because he comes with a more animation-accurate head with a mouth, and Highbrow because one of the rotors on my TR copy broke when I moved three years back. Then, to a lesser degree, Chromedome, Mindwipe, Weirdwolf, and Skullcruncher (in that order) for the more cartoon-accurate heads. But that's more of a "if I see them in a store and and bored enough to buy them" sort of thing.

@M'Kyuun @JB0 are either of you going to get the Arcee head?

Got my shipping notice for G2 Megatron now, too. I thought both of those weren't due until January/February. Crossing my fingers some other stuff comes in early, too (especially Earthrise Barricade). Oh yeah, remember how one of my big complaints about the Cyberverse Deluxes was that there was too many Autobots? Seems there's going to be a Deluxe Starscream and Soundwave now. Prowl too, but it's a start. Also, those Walmart repaints of the Titans Return Headmasters? There's going to be a second wave with the other three (Skullcruncher, Highbrow, and Weirdwolf).

Not based on any TF character, but the Chengdu J-20 is a real Chinese fighter jet, and this seems to simply be a Chinese pride sort of thing. Like the transforming Jiaolong submersible released earlier this year.

Hmm. I checked my order status for the Soundwave I preordered shortly after the preorders went up, and it's still listed as "delayed, preparing order." No offense to @M'Kyuun but Walmart needs to learn how to fill their preorders before sending out product to stores and to people who ordered later. On the plus side, although I've had no emails, I see Bumblebee was shipped. Oh, and I did get an email from Hasbro Pulse today. Seems the Breakdown/Jet Vehicon pack is on the way. EDIT: Oh, and it looks like Thrust is delayed again. Target's saying the 22nd now.

Locke looks better than Koot, I think. Too bad the price isn't any better. I'm not holding my breath on that trailer being affordable.

A little late, but Generations Selects Super Megatron arrived today. Super Megatron's got some size on Siege/Earthrise Megatron, so I'll grant that he presents as an upgrade to Megatron. However, as a remold of Titans Return Voyager-class Galvatron, he's quite a bit smaller than Generations Selects Star Convoy. TFWiki asserts that they are, in fact, still in scale, but having read the Battlestars manga I don't buy that. As a remold, his head, upper torso, bicep, and cannon are new parts, but his shoulders, forearms, hands, and everything below the waist is Galvatron. The resulting figure is not particularly accurate, with fins above his shoulders instead of on them, wings folded onto his back instead of sticking up behind him, and legs that are very Galvatron-in-Megatron-colors instead of the sharp lines of manga. Even his cannon is off, with extra molded detail along the barrel and a marked lack of boosters on the back. Speaking of the cannon, that's his main accessory, and it has a bit of a transformation. He also comes with a triple-barreled gun that stores inside of the cannon when it's not needed. Being based on a pre-Siege toy I had some concerns about Super Megatron's articulation, but it's not too bad. His head is on a ball joint and can look up a fair amount and tilt his head to the side, but looking down is nixed by the sides of his helmet. Likewise, he can swivel his head, but the helmet gets caught on his collar. His shoulders can rotate, and if you move the fins out of the way they move laterally over 90 degrees on a ratchet. His biceps swivel. His elbows are double-jointed and curl 180 degrees. His wrists don't rotate, but they bend inward for transformation (on a weirdly detented hinge) His waist can swivel, although you might have to move his wings. His hips can move forward almost 90 degrees and backward about 45 degrees before his wings get in the way, plus they can soft ratchet laterally almost 90 degrees. His thighs can swivel, and his knees bend 90 degrees. HIs feet have a slight up/down wiggle, and although it doesn't have the best range he even has a bit of ankle pivot. Officially, there's a peg hole on the back of the underside of his cannon, and it fits onto a peg on his right bicep. I think that's better than TR Galvatron, whose cannon plugged into the front of his bicep, but I'd have preferred it attached to his forearm. Super Megatron's alt mod was weird in the manga, being half spaceship with wings, a cockpit, and boosters in the back, but also half gun with a barrel for the nose and a grip dangling below. Takara seems to have embraced the spaceship element, and it starts off ok. The barrel and cockpit check out, the wings are a bit different but present. It's a little thick, though, due to his arms simply curling up alongside, and the rear is totally wrong, lacking the boosters and instead being comprised of the back half of Galvatron's alt mode, but with treads on top. And why on top? Without any landing gear or anything his curled-up arms hang well below his legs, so the resulting... er, aircraft doesn't even sit level. Aside from it not being "official" there's no reason you can't spin his waist 180 degrees so the treads are on the bottom. Super Megatron isn't just Super Megatron... he's also Ultra Megatron! You transform his cannon to form... a hollow mess that doesn't really resemble Ultra Megatron's arm cannon. But you can put the triple-barreled guns on his shoulder, and his chest opens, spins 180 degrees, and closes back up to reflect some of the changes between Super and Ultra Megatron in the manga. His wings also unfurl, and the reason they weren't so accurate in Super Megatron mode is because they were designed with Ultra Megatron in mind. Unfortunately, his forearms don't also change, and from the waist down he's still Galvatron and not Ultra Megatron. His head can also transform. His forehead can rotate (which I forgot to do) to swap from the tampoed Super Megatron crest to the red jewel Ultra Megatron crest. But his face can also spin 180 degrees, to reveal a new face that was never in the manga and, in fact, appears to be based heavily on The Last Knight Megatron. The wings have hinges so they can stay clear of his arms, and the shoulder gun has a hinge so it can aim up and down. My big complaint, though, is how bad his arm cannon looks. the sides are a hollow mess and not at all evocative of the rounded weapon he's supposed to have. Some molded circles hastily covered in red paint don't really look like weapon barrels. Ultra Megatron had a pretty cool tank mode in the manga. This one, not so much. It's almost backward, with large treads in the front instead of the back, no cockpit, and the wings all folded-up. This entire mode is inaccurate. But more than that, it's almost like a fan mode that someone came up with after thinking Ultra Megatron had a tank mode, folding as much onto his back as possible and scrunching up the legs in a way that's different than jet mode but not at all like Ultra Megatron is supposed to look like. For a figure based on an older mold I'm happy to say that Super Megatron is well-built, with tight joints and adequate articulation. However, given the effort (and likely money) Takara put into remolding at least half the parts to turn Galvatron into Super Megatron I can't help but wonder why they didn't just make an entirely new figure, one better and more accurate to the source material? In a vacuum I don't hate this figure, but it reminds me a lot of why I never bothered to pick up Star Convoy. It's not really worth the asking price and not particularly accurate to the source material. Ultimately, I'd suggest giving him a pass.

Super Megatron didn't come. The estimated delivery date was yesterday, which obviously didn't happen, so it changed to "delivery date pending." Looks like it didn't even make it to the local FedEx hub yet. This guy came, though: Transformers Collaborative Top Gun X Transformers Maverick. Maverick's a bit of a departure from the other Transformers Collaborative figures. For one, while the F-14 was obviously the true star of 1986's Top Gun, Goose and Maverick's F-14 is simply one of many F-14As used by the US Navy during the '80s, so it's not as unique or (arguably) iconic as Ecto-1 or the DeLorean Time Machine. Two, Ectotron and Gigawatt were both packaged in retro G1-style boxes, but Maverick comes in a box that looks more like it was designed for a Top Gun toyline. And three, while Ectotron and Gigawatt are heavy remolds of existing figures Maverick is, to the best of my knowledge, an entirely new mold. As such he makes for a pretty tall figure, significantly taller than an Earthrise Seeker and even half a head taller than Siege/Earthrise Optimus or Megatron. Despite his height he's a fairly thin figure with somewhat spindly limbs, which I think underscores some stuff I've said about jetformers in the past and the difficulty in making a toy that has cartoon-accurate robot proportions and turning into a real-world plane. While I don't think Maverick looks awful, the aesthetic strikes me as something that might have appeared in one of the movie lines more than your typical boxy G1 character. Speaking of the aesthetic, his head is designed to look like Tom Cruise's helmet from the film with the tampoed "Maverick" nestled in the red-and-white stripes over the top and the eagles swooping around his ears. His face is interesting, though. His eyes are a red visor, and he's got a face mask (that doesn't appear to be modeled after an oxygen mask). White the mask is the same blue as the helmet on the actual figure the box art shows it silver, and the red visor and silver mask nestled in a blue head gives off some serious Soundwave vibes. Really, while the packaging suggests (but doesn't outright say) that Maverick is an Autobot I've got half a mind to make him a Decepticon. Maybe change his name to Nightflight... Moving right along... Maverick comes with two not-particularly-accurate pylons with a pair of missiles molded into them, and two bombs (unless David tells me they're fuel tanks again) that have one end transform to become shotguns. He also comes with bot-sized volleyball and two replacement volleyball hands, and Tom Cruise's motorcycle. The motorcycle does nothing in either mode, so this is the last time I'll bother to mention it. Maverick's head might be on a ball joint, but the shape of the helmet and underlying neck means that he can look down, but not really up, with a very slight sideways tilt. And while he can turn his head, it only goes maybe 45 degrees in either direction and is forced to tilt downward as it turns. His shoulders can rotate and move laterally over 90 degrees. His biceps swivel, and his elbows bend nearly 180 degrees on a single hinge. His wrists can swivel, and due to his transformation they can bend downward. Unfortunately, like all-too-many jetformers, he lacks a waist swivel. His hips can move forward and backward just over 90 degrees on friction joints, and laterally 90 degrees on soft ratchets. His thighs can swivel, and his knees can bend 90 degrees. With the flaps on his shins closed he doesn't have any real up/down tilt on his feet. He does have an ankle pivot, although it's limited to 30-40 degrees. Although his hands aren't molded into a fist the space between his fingers and thumb is still basically a 5mm peg hole, and that's how he holds his shotguns. If you spin him around, you'll see disappointingly hollow thighs. Also a pair of 5mm peg holes on his back, where his missile pylons can sit while he's in robot mode. Unfortunately, one of the pylons is a bit loose. Alternatively, if you leave the missiles off you could store his shotguns there. One last thing to note on his back, and that's the small hole near the base of his spine. You can use that with some flight stands, like the one that came with MP Tracks. Oh, and note the molded-on arresting hook running up from that hole. That's a nice attention to detail. As for his hands, you can slide them off their mushroom pegs to slide on the alternative hands. The alternative hands are more flat, with a thin peg at the top of the palms. This peg fits into a small hole on the volleyball, allowing him to hold it securely or even pose like he's mid-game-winning spike. It's a cute gimmick that references a (in)famous scene in the movie, sure, but to be honest the hands and ball (along with the bike and missiles) are probably going to end up in a storage bin. And now for the mode everyone's been waiting for- the F-14. It's slightly bigger than an Earthrise Seeker again, so the scale's again a bit off (given that the F-15 should be about two feet longer than the F-14). The transformation is not identical to a VF-1 Valkyrie, but it's definitely in that ball park. The biggest difference is probably in the shoulders and arms. As for the appearance, I think it's fine. Yeah, the weathering looks kind of bad, but for a $50 Hasbro figure it's not the worst I've seen. It's got most of the correct markings, including the VF-1 emblem on the vertical stabilizers, the 114 on the wings and nose, the two yellow lines on the nose, the rescue arrow and triangles on the nose, and Maverick and Goose's names and callsigns under the cockpit. The one thing that seems to be off is that it's missing the US military aircraft roundel, instead featuring Northrop Grumman's logo. I expect that it's got something to do with licensing. And it even has a few marking lights picked out with paint. As far as the shape goes, to my amateur eye it looks pretty spot on and mostly kibble-free, minus his thin arms along the belly, which I think should please some of the members here. Landing gear's a bit weird, though. The one in the front isn't terrible, if lacking paint on the molded wheel, but the ones in the back are in the wrong place and have a weird block shape instead of wheels. A peak at the underside, and you can again see how clean it is save for the robot arms. I guess they have to go somewhere; unlike Kawamori's Valks we're not starting with a aircraft explicitly-designed to transform. You can also see that bombs attach to 5mm peg holes on what becomes his thighs, and the missiles are attached to ports near the glove vanes. As they're the same place the end up in robot mode I'll complain again that the fit is a little loose. Maverick does feature the variable geometry wings the F-14 is known for, and again you can mount the jet onto a flight stand, this time using a hole on either forearm (although the one on the rearward arm is back so far you might encounter balance issues). Sadly, the canopy does not open. While I write a lot about Transformers here this is still a Macross board first and foremost. So the natural question to ask is "can it GERWALK?" And the answer is mostly yes! His knees don't bend forward, so you have to turn his legs 180 degrees at the thighs. And you can work his arms right up to the back of his pelvis, but you can't quite get them around his hips. Still, it's a lot close than most other jetformers get. Maverick's ultimately a bit of an odd duck. As I said, F-14s are cool but "Tom Cruise's F-14" isn't as unique or iconic as Ecto-1 or the DeLorean. Indeed, I'm not sure that Top Gun has the same cultural cachet with us '80s kids as Ghostbusters or Back to the Future, and this feels less like Hasbro playing up nostalgia and more like a cash-grab movie tie-in (in fact, the dog tag on the box has the dates 05.16.1986 and 06.26.2020 printed on it- the date Top Gun hit theaters and the date Top Gun: Maverick was supposed to release pre-pandemic). And as a toy, I think the jet mode is good but a dedicated toy or model might look better, and the robot is a bit thin and out-of-place aesthetically due to realistic attention paid to the alt mode. It's tempting to say that he's a oddball, non-canon Transformer that doesn't fit in with your other Transformers figures so Transformers fans can pass, and F-14 or Top Gun fans can probably find a better representation of the F-14. And that'd make him a pass, right? Except I think the whole experience of this figure is greater than the sum of its parts. I mean, I'm not a huge Top Gun fan (I've seen it once, in the early 2000s, and I thought it was kind of boring). I like planes, but I don't feel a need for realistic depictions of them. And Maverick definitely looks out of place with my other Transformers. But I think I love this guy. He doesn't give me the nostalgic warm-and-fuzzies that Ectotron and Gigawatt do, but he's still a cool figure with some interesting engineering that turns into something in an era where Hasbro is careful not to make the alt modes in Earthrise look too much like the actual G1 cars. I think that counts for something, and if you're a fan of jets that turn into robots I recommend checking this guy out.

On Windows? I use Kega Fusion, with the CD images in a bin/cue format. For controls I use a Retro-bit USB Saturn controller. Not as authentic as using a Retro-bit USB 6-button Genesis controller, but the button layout is close enough and the Saturn pad feels better in the hand. Bonus: Kega Fusion plays Genesis and 32X roms, too.

This set, the Galactic Odyssey Paradon Medics, came a day sooner than Amazon said. Unlike the Siege version, which had some parts remolded from Ironhide and all new accessories, Earthrise Ratchet is straight up Earthrise Ironhide with a new head. Sure, sure, he's got a lightbar, too, but if you look at ER Ironhide you can see the slots where the lightbar gets attached. Well, at least you can always take the tools that came with Siege Ratchet and let ER Ratchet play with them. Something else is bugging me, and that's the colors. I mean, at least he doesn't have black/dark gray hips, thighs, and chest hinge like the earlier promo pics, but something looked off. Then I realized what it was. Siege Ratchet, being the Cybertronian version, didn't bother me with all of his white and almost random red accents, but for an Earth-mode Ratchet the red stripes on his legs and red accents on his shoulders don't make up for the fact that Ratchet's hands and pelvis should be red. And he doesn't look like he'd be easily disassembled to paint, either. Van mode. Y'know, I painted Ironhide's rims, but for Ratchet I think I'll have to pop the wheels off to paint the tires black, because they're molded gray. I'm also a bit miffed that the red stripe stopped short of the torso parts, making him look a bit unfinished. And of course, there's still the issue with the feet on the back. Someone needs to make new feet for these guys soon! Ratchet at least had a new head. Lifeline (the fembot previously known simply as "Paradron Medic") is a straight-up recolor of Earthrise Arcee with no new parts. But that's G1-accurate, so I guess I can't complain. Actually, I want to point out the paint on her face and complain again that Arcee doesn't have painted lips. Speaking of paint, just like Arcee the paint on her "bikini" doesn't go the whole way around, which is still a bummer. Once again, it's really the backpack the turns into the car while the humanoid robot scrunches up underneath. I do like the teal color, though. And I'll note that Lifeline's got some gray paint on the sides that Arcee doesn't (despite her promo pics having them). It helps break up the teal, and would help break up the pink on Arcee if she'd had it. Which would be cartoon-accurate if she did. Should you get this set? If you want an in-scale Ratchet with an Earth mode (even if it's not the best execution) then yes. If you have Siege Ratchet and can live with that, then pass. These are two of the weakest molds in the Earthrise line, only really beating out the weaponizers and modulators.

I'm not signing up for HBO Max over the DCCU. But if I can buy it, even if only on digital, on the platform of my choice then sure.

I preordered Magnus, Inferno, Dinobot, Airazor, Huffer, and Ractonite. Strongly agree. The T30 toy was a good figure, but too heroic. I want a dumpy cartoon Gears. While Earthrise seemed kind of short, maybe due to COVID (I think a lot of the store exclusive packs we've seen this year were actually meant to be regular retail releases canned by COVID) Siege ran for four waves. I'm sure we'll see more (a Tigatron repaint of Cheetor seems inevitable, with maybe a Gen Selects Ravage, and I'm hoping for Tarantulas and Terrorsaur to round out the Predacons). We know that the Ark is coming, but we don't know what (if anything) will be the Commander-class release this time. That said, I don't see them doing Devastator (or any combiners) again right now. More Dinobots seem likely, but look for them in Studio Series '86 (where Slag is already rumored for the second wave).

I kept checking all day after you posted that and nothing, but I woke up to a shipping notice. Plus Amazon said Ratchet and Lifeline shipped, and all three should arrive Saturday. EDIT: Super Megatron now, too. Oh, and heads up, the new Kingdom preorders are supposed to go live at 1:00pm EST (10:00am PST). But if you can't wait for the store of your choice Target has their preorders up now. Interestingly the release date is showing April 1st, which is the same as SS '86 and just a month or two after the first Kingdom wave. Makes me wonder if, like Rattrap, we might see a few more of the first wave get released early. Maybe Studio Series, too, since Hasbro (or somebody) was already sending out review samples. I wouldn't mind the first wave of Kingdom next month and SS '86 in February or March...