mikeszekely

I agree that they're better, but not $200 better. And that's what Koot's going for these days. I'd love seeing DX9 take a swing at him, but there are rumors that their main designer left to start Newage and that without him they may be quitting after Menasor. That really just leaves MMC/Ocular Max and maybe Transform Element as the once-crowded 3P G1 MP market continues to be replaced with Legends and Bayverse.

XTB's Kup is probably going to be a "good enough" sort of thing. I passed on FT's the first time it came out due to a mix of it's big backpack, annoying transformation with clearance issues, and a growing sense that I'd rather give my money to FT's competitors. Reissue prices have been pretty ludicrous, too.

$240 shipped.

It's funny that I bought Phoenix used and thought I overpaid a few years back, but I paid less than the reissue so maybe I got a good deal after all.

Could be. I do notice that the wings on the box look to be flipped.

I'm not really feeling this X-Men crossover. I mean, I loved the '90s cartoon, but it lacks the charm of the '80s mashups. Instead, this reminds me more of the old Marvel Crossovers. I don't really like that the robot looks like Cyclops with Psylocke's powers, I don't like that this looks to be based on Studio Series Jetfire, and I don't like that the Blackbird looks less like the cartoon (and the logo on the box) and more like an actual SR-71 (they remolded the nacelles and wings, but couldn't sweep those wings forward?). I'll probably pass on this one. I do like the face on it, though. Looks like it's based on Alex Milne's art.

You guys may or may not have heard about Hasbro cracking down on Wei Jiang a few months ago. While there were rumors that it was actually Disney and some KO Iron Man stuff that set it off there's little question that their modified KO Transformers were involved. Since then it's been business as usual for many 3P companies; a knock off is clearly a knock off, but China's IP laws seem to have some leeway for original toy designs as long as they're not using any infringing trademarks, but the Wei Jiang raid seems to have spooked at least a few 3Ps. One of them is Unique Toys, who have basically said they're going to finish up their Age of Extinction Galvatron then close up shop. Now, I'm not a huge fan of the movie designs, but I did pick up Peru Kill (Lockdown) and Challenger (AoE/TLK Optimus) and I was extremely impressed by their clean robot modes and the impressively clever ways that they got those robots to transform. I guess you could say that even though I'm not a fan of the designs in the movies, I'm a fan of what UT was able to do with them. So even though I'd been dragging my feet on it I finally broke down an picked up Unique Toys Dragoon, their take on The Last Knight Megatron. For starters, Dragoon is a big boy. I don't really hate it, though. I don't follow the Bayverse scale very well, but the MPM and Studio Series lines have made it clear that Megatron was bigger than Optimus in at least the first three films. I buy that he's bigger than Prime in The Last Knight, too. The sculpted details are, with the exception of his hip skirts, very screen-accurate, although I'd argue that the copper and gold details could have used a black wash, if not his whole body. If I have one aesthetic gripe here it's that his proportions are a little off. I really feel like his torso should be a bit broader, but that seems to one of the sacrifices UT had to make to work their black magic on this design. Dragoon comes with a few accessories. You get his cannon/flamethrower, which has a really nice braided chain. It also has a light-up gimmick. The instructions don't say anything about it, and I don't know for sure what batteries it's supposed to use. I crammed a trio of CR1025s into it, but that's 9v total and that seems like a bit much, so I'm going to try a pair of AG9s after I pick some up. For now, I can say that pushing the button on the cannon's underside turns the light solidly on. Pushing it again causes it to pulse, pushing it a third time causes it to pulse more rapidly, and pushing it a fourth time turns it off. You also get a sword, as seen in the movie, and a shield, as seen on the Prime 1 figure but (and I checked) not actually in the movie. I'm not sure why the shield has a peg hole in it. Lastly, you get a replacement head for Challenger. Or, that's all you get now. The first batch that went out apparently went out with a display stand. I was pretty satisfied with Challenger's old head (right), but the new one (left) is apparently more screen-accurate. One immediate, notable difference is that the eyes on the new head are painted blue, and lack the light-up gimmick the original head had. The biggest change, though, is that you no longer have to remove his face and swap it with another to go from a mask to a mouth. Instead, you rock part of his head back then simply pull slightly and spin the face 180 degrees, similar to MPM-4. This alone is reason enough for me to swap out the old head with the new. Dragoon himself has a similar gimmick. Lift the top of his head, spin it 180 degrees, then push it back down and spin the entire head 180 degrees. Then just tuck in the tusks (which can actually tuck in slightly more than I have them in the above picture. While we have a close up of his face, I have to say that while the sculpt is perfectly fine I do wish they'd given him an expression that showed his pointy teeth. Oh well. Dragoon's articulation isn't great. His head can rotate and look down, but nothing really up and no sideways tilt. His shoulder pads are on hinged ball joints to get out of the way of his shoulders, which rotate on friction joints and move laterally on a ratchet well over 90 degrees. They also, due to his transformation, have a bit of a backwards butterfly. His biceps swivel just above his elbows, which bend a little over 90 degrees on a single ratchet. Be mindful, though, that there's a second friction hinge above his elbow that's used for transformation. It's not locked into place making it easy to bend his arm backward while posing him. His wrists can swivel, and they can bend downward which I think is essential for characters like Megatron with a cannon on their arm. His index finger is individually-articulated while his other three fingers are molded together, but they're all pinned at the base with two additional knuckle joints, while his thumb has a ball joint at the base and one additional knuckle. His waist can swivel, but be careful because it can get caught on his side skirts which are oddly spring-loaded, making it difficult to situate them exactly as you'd like. Speaking of skirts, due to his hip and butt skirts he can only move his hips forward or backward about 45 degrees on friction joints, and 90 degrees laterally on ratchets. His thighs swivel under his hip joints. His knees are on a single hinge, set weirdly far back. The location allows him to bend them probably around 150 degrees, but at 90 degrees his knee will look weirdly empty and hollow. Dragoon's toes can tilt up, and the bottom of his foot can even move to help support him in such a pose, but his whole feet don't really tilt up or down. He does have some ankle pivot, but it's very (and disappointingly) minimal. I need to point out here that pretty much all the joints, friction and ratchet, are a bit looser than I'd like. I had a few issues trying to pose him in a more dynamic stance. His right knee in particular crosses the line from being a little on the loose side to straight up floppy. Dragoon's cannon uses a peg to plug into a port on either arm, although his right arm is movie-accurate. The chain has a peg on the other end that plugs into a screw hole on the back of his shoulder. His shield also has a peg, and it can fit into whichever arm that you're not using for his cannon. As for his sword, it has a tab on the handle that fits into a slot on his palm. We've got some other storage options, though. There are two diagonal tabs and a peg hole on Dragoon's (extremely clean) back. A rectangular hole on the sword's blade can fit onto the back tabs for movie-accurate storage. The shield can plug into the peg hole, which covers the back tabs, but the shield itself has a tab so the sword can still tab onto the shield and be carried on his back. Peru Kill and Challenger were both revelatory figures. Their robot modes showed little in the way of them actually being transforming figures, but transform they did. More than that, they did so in a way that was clever and involved but also fun and somewhat intuitive. "Black magic," more than one fan has called it. And Dragoon... well, he starts of that way. His clean robot mode does bely the fact that he transforms, and as his torso becomes the nose of the jet so simply and smoothly you definitely think you're in for the UT experience. But then you get to the legs, and things start to fall apart. They have to fillet apart, unfolding and rotating panels to merge with his arms and become almost the entire rear of his jet mode. It's not intuitive, and it's not at all helped by the unclear instructions. You're basically left to move things around until parts start to line up, then moving other things around hoping that other parts will line up without knocking the stuff you already lined up askew. Fortunately, when everything is lined up you can start to tab it together, and once everything's tabbed in place the jet is quite solid. You don't get a good look at Megatron's jet mode in the film, but based on Josh Nizzi's concept art Dragoon's quite accurate, at least from most angles. His cockpit can open. Not sure why they left it the same color as the rest of him; the official toys and the concept art seemed to suggest that it was gold. His cannon, which wasn't part of the art, sits between the nacelles on a longer peg that still allows it to pivot up and down. He has a landing skid under his nose, but at the rear he's just sitting on what is his knee armor. You can see, alongside the odd-yet-accurate forward-pointing engine bells equally accurate guns. Similarly-accurate rear-pointed guns are on the back of the alt mode. From these angles, though, you can start to see more trouble in paradise. Like many jetformers much less care was given to Dragoon's bottom. You can see too much of what's obviously his bot mode armor, and some gaps where said armor don't quite fill in the space. Maybe it's due to the Cybertronian nature of the jet. Maybe it's necessary for UT to work their magic, and it's just more noticeable because you see the bottom of the jet when you're swooshing it around but Challenger (who has his own gaps and visible armor on the underside) gets away with it because he's driving on the ground. For what it's worth, while Dragoon's underside isn't the prettiest at least he doesn't seem thicker than he needs to be and doesn't look like a jet carrying a barely-transformed robot brick underneath. In addition to the cannon pegging in between the nacelles Dragoon's sword can be carried in alt mode. The cannon actually has a little tab on the top, and the same rectangular hole in the sword that fit onto the back tabs fits onto the cannon's tab. Again, not pretty, but it's storage. Unfortunately the shield has no such storage. I'd be a bit more upset about that, but like I said I checked every scene with Megatron in The Last Knight and it doesn't look like he uses his shield in the movie. I might just leave it in the box and call it a day. Dragoon's a bit of a mixed bag. Had Unique Toys released this figure first before Peru Kill and Challenger (and before G-Creation's Grimlock) I think we'd be talking about how amazing it is that they got such a clean, screen-accurate robot to to transform into a mostly accurate jet. We'd just accept the less-fun leg transformation and mediocre articulation as the cost of doing business. But, he didn't come first, and frankly those other figures were able to pull off the same feat with better articulation and transformations that were more fun. I don't know if this was simply a more challenging design to work with or if UT was resting on their laurels, but Dragoon feels like a step back from their previous efforts. Despite this, at around $130 from ShowZ he's the same price or cheaper than a lot of other, smaller, and often less impressive figures (like FT's Aerialbots or MPM Starscream). If you're a fan of the design, or a fan of UT's other Bayverse figures then Dragoon's still worth checking out, especially if you're looking for a Megatron to go with Challenger. I just hope they end on a higher note with Galvatron.

For the rest of you playing Valhalla, what are your thoughts? I'm enjoying it, but in an effort to keep things "fresh" I feel like they watered down some of the RPG stuff I really liked in Origins and Odyssey, and subsequently is one of the better AC games when considering the franchise as a whole but worse than the last two.

I've been playing a ton of AC Valhalla... on PC. I haven't been able to get a new Xbox or PS5.

I'd already pre-ordered Starscream, and I added a preorder for Dino. B-127 is one of those cases where I'll probably pick it up if I see it on my usual Target run, but I don't need a yellow Cliffjumper with a new head so I'm not going to pre-order. Likewise, the paint on Slimer, the tardigrade ghost, the weathered paint, and the mold differences on Afterlife Ectotron are neat, but not really neat enough for me to buy another one.

Let's see how much of the Fan First event we can spoil. Studio Series B-127 Studio Series Dino Ectotron Afterlife version. Preorders will go up at 1:00pm EST. The Studio Series figures are regular retail releases, Ectotron will be a Target-exclusive.

No, you're fine! If I'm mistaken I'd rather be corrected so I'm not telling people the wrong thing. I'm just highlighting absurdity.

Regardless of who ultimately came up with the idea it's still funny to me that two very different robots that happen to both have a Countach for an alt mode were brothers (twins, no less!), but guys who were a literally just a palette swap apparently look the same by coincidence. And like I said, it's funnier to me once Spinout and Tigertrack were retroactively added, because you have a guy that looks like a red Sunstreaker or a yellow Sideswipe, but no, it's Sideswipe and Sunstreaker who are the brothers. Maybe Spinout and Tigertrack are brothers? Anyway... all this talk about the Lambos makes me want both an MP and WfC release of Deep Cover.

Oh, no, they don't. I actually did mean to mention it, but I was in the middle of cooking dinner while I was writing. I'll edit the review.

Got my Deluxe-class Earthrise Sunstreaker, the last of the regular retail Earthrise figures before Kingdom begins next year. It's funny how there were three color-swapped F-15s and two Datsuns but the fandom Bob Budiansky latched onto two very different characters that happened to have a Countach alt mode and decided they're brothers, and now suddenly you can't have one without the other (extra irony when you add Spinout and Tigertrack into the mix). Siege gave us one, and now we've finally go the other. ER Sunstreaker does some things I definitely like. His chest is the actual roof and windshield, no faux parts (there). That and his big shoulders eschews the thinner proportions of the animation model for a toy-like, chunkier build that doesn't look out of place with Siege Sideswipe. I like his head sculpt more than the MP's. He's mostly got his pointy shoulder bits, and his colors are about right. My biggest complaint are his shins, where it looks like Hasbro cut out some mechanical detail just to save plastic. My more minor grumbles are that the pointy bits on his shoulders could have been pointier, and the lack of black/red on his shoulders. This is the only accessory that Sunstreaker comes with. It's barely even an accessory, as it's attached to him in the box and you never actually need to remove it. While Sunstreaker is a remold of Wheeljack, it's extensive enough that I figured I'd better go over articulation in case something changed. His head is on a ball joint that can swivel, tilt sideways, and look up and down a bit. He gets a little extra up/down range due to the fact that the flap his head transforms on doesn't lock into place. His shoulders rotate and can extend a little short of 90 degrees. HIs biceps swivel, and his elbows bend 90 degrees. No wrist swivels. His waist can swivel, though. His hips can bend 90 degrees forward, backward, or laterally. His thighs swivel. His knees bend 90 degrees. The front of his feet can tilt up slightly, down up to 90 degrees, and his ankles can pivot 90 degrees. As show in promo art, he can loosely hold his engine as a weapon. I prefer to leave it on his back, where it sits in alt mode. I'm hoping someone else makes a gun for him. Leaving it on his back occupies the peg hole he has back there. He's also got one on each forearm, one at the top of each shoulder pointy bit, one on the back of each calf, and one under each foot. Sunstreaker transformers into a car that's closer to (but still legally distinct from) a Countach than Sideswipe. And despite being a Wheeljack remold there are some differences that will necessitate an extra spin, not to mention that his arms actually transform backward from Wheeljack. As I said, the side windows, the cutout for the door handle, and the shape of the nose are all close to an actual Countach than Siege Sideswipe, to say nothing of the unique rims. The rear is a bit different, though. Like Sideswipe, he's missing a spoiler. A little paint on the for taillights wouldn't have hurt, either. One big bummer that's more noticeable in this mode than in robot mode is that the yellow paint on the roof/chest and the tail/forearms is much more pale and not a great match for the yellow plastic. A spoiler should be doable, though. The pegholes on his forearms are prominently visible at the rear of the car. And if you'd rather not have chunks of spoiler hanging off his arms in robot mode you could always move them to his calves in that mode. Of course, with his engine in one peg hole and spoilers taking up the others you'd have no real place for any other weapons in alt mode. Or would you? There's space between his robot legs where you could tuck a gun. I'll also note that an upgrade kit could make the pointy bits pointier and there's still room in there to tuck them in. While you're looking at the underside you'll notice Sunstreaker's dirty little secret... the tops of his feet are not the alt mode hood. Instead, the bottoms of his feet are the real hood, and you're looking at faux car parts on the tops of his feet. Sunstreaker's a bit of an oddity. I think his legs are more complicated than they had to be, and he's in dire need of some third-party fixes like a gun and a spoiler. And yet... I kind of think Sunstreaker's an improvement on Wheeljack. So while I really hope Nonnef or somebody comes out with a kit to fix my issues with it I feel comfortable recommending this figure.

I'm very familiar with Walmart's inability to properly manage their preorders. They've never filled any of my store-exclusive Transformer preorders. Luckily I've been able to find them in stores.

I legit had to look twice to make sure I wasn't looking at the Earthrise toy with that backpack. It's like they upscaled it then made her boobs saggy. Maybe the official-only crowd is happy, but I'm good with MMC's.

The last Galactic Odyssey pack is up for preorder now on Amazon for $60. It's Botropolis rescue, and consists redecos of Deluxe-class Airwave as Overair, Deluxe-class Ironworks as... well, Ironworks, a redeco of the Micromaster Battle Squad (as a missile transport instead of a cannon), and a redeco of the Micromaster Astro Squad as the Astro Squad (real creative with these names, eh?). For some reason the set also includes a copy of Doubledealer's missile as a booster for the Astro Squad's shuttle mode. Kinda meh, especially since we're still waiting for an Inferno remold from Grapple (but that is still rumored to be coming in Kingdom). But like a sucker I pre-ordered anyway.

Like... just on a shelf? Maybe I'll be visiting a Walmart soon. I didn't really want one of the new Xbox consoles, but the price hike on Game Pass for PC means Game Pass Ultimate is only $5 more now. And with the addition of EA Play on top of already including Game Pass for PC and console plus Xbox Live Gold, Game Pass Ultimate is looking like a no-brainer. And if I'm going to buy Game Pass Ultimate, I might as well buy a new console to play on... and you see where this is going. EDIT: Stopped at my local Walmart on my way to my dad's, none there. Then I took him to his local Walmart, none there either. Oh well, no biggie.

Curious. I wonder if they're trying to push the unsold, overpriced Ghostbusters MP-10s and the suddenly back-in-stock Ectotron, or if they're going to announce something new?

Ok, I finished the game and tried the new DLC. And... I can't complain, as it's new free content a year after the game came out. But it's certainly nothing to write home about. Infiltrator mode is a single level where you're tasked to find and kill a resistance leader. Unlike the main game there's no markers telling you where to go, though. Instead, as you explore the level, you might find other resistance members, scavengers, notes left in abandoned shelters, or maybe even a laptop. Doing so gives you intel that will put markers on your map. Checking out those markers will give you more intel still, until you eventually have enough intel to know where the target is. Also unlike the main game there's no progression. You'll be able to pick up weapons supplies off of enemies you kill, but you won't get skill points, crafting materials, or trade goods to use in a shop. And there are no checkpoints, which can be a little frustrating. A half an hour in my first time I tried to toss a bomb into a resistance lab to take out a guy on a minigun. The bomb hit the top of the door and landed at my feet, killing me and forcing me to start over from the beginning. It's a shame they didn't do more with it, because playing as an infiltrator is actually fun. If you can get close to an enemy you can use the melee key to grab him. If you toss him into any friends he has with them you'll knock them all down, stunning and injuring them. But what I like to do, if he's the last one, is to throw him high into the air and let him splat, which is fatal. Also, having completed the main campaign, I stand by what I said before. It's not a polished, triple-A game by any stretch, but for $20 or so it's a good time.

Time for another quick repaint review, where I take a quick look at some repaints/remolds of figures I already reviewed with more focus on what's different and less overall detail. Today it's Deluxe-class Generations Selects Tigertrack and Deluxe-class Earthrise Trailbreaker. Tigertrack is a repaint of Sideswipe with no new parts. The bone-colored parts on Sideswipe are regular white, and the red are yellow. Tigertrack doesn't have Sideswipe's Siege dirt, sporting instead a little painted triangle on his waist and some red squares on his knees. If I accept the G1 or MP toys as gospel I have to be a bit disappointed that he doesn't have the silver abs and feet that Sideswipe does. It'll be tricky to paint those. As far as accessories go, he's got the same tube and pointy bit that Sideswipe did, but also the rifle that Red Alert did. That's nice, because it doesn't force you to choose between shoulder cannon and rifle like you had to for Sideswipe, nor does it skip the shoulder cannon entirely they way they did for Red Alert. That said, I'll probably pick up a Nonnef set for him. I'll be grabbing the yellow Nonnef spoiler, too, as soon as it's ready. And although I went without them for Sideswipe I'm hoping Toyhax does a reprolabel set for Tigertrack. The dark paint under Sideswipe's translucent windows looks fine to me, but the unpainted, totally clear plastic on Tigertrack is looking bad. Toyhax did a label for Sideswipe and Red Alert that added a "roof" and A-pillars, and I'm thinking something like that would help Tigertrack a lot. Tigertrack is kind of a nobody, but the Sideswipe mold is one of the better ones. Pass if you don't need the minor character, but recommend if the idea of a yellow Sideswipe appeals to you. Trailbreaker is a remold of Hoist. He's got a new head, new weapon, and new backpack. The new weapon fits over his totally normal fist to give him the gun hand he had in the cartoon. Unlike Hoist's big round orange weapon, though, the rectangular spot of black actually works here, making the inevitable Nonnef kit seem less necessary for him. That said, one downside to doing Hoist first and working backward to trailbreaker is that he's got the same flaps of car kibble behind his arms. Sure, it's G1 toy-accurate, but it's only accurate to Hoist's animation model. So it would have been nice if they'd added a hinge to fold it over so it was all behind his upper arm, or even if they split it and left some of it on his legs. I appreciate that, when remolding his backpack, they gave Trailbreaker his G1 forcefield generator and his shoulder missile. While the forcefield generator was done in gray plastic, which is fine, the missile is black for some reason. Fortunately they're on friction hinges with no pins, so it'll be an easy matter to pop them off and paint them silver. Out of the package Trailbreaker's camper cap is a loose piece. And you can, if you like, peg it into an arm and use it like a shield, which I believe some promo photos did. However, before anyone groans about partsforming, know that the cap has a slot that fits onto a large tab on Trailbreaker's back. That tab is actually hinged, allowing you to open his backpack to fold in the missile and forcefield generator then close it back up without ever removing it. No partsforming is actually necessary- once the cap is in on it never has to come off. Transformation is basically the same as before, although it's a bit easier to fold the missile and forcefield generator into his backpack because you don't have to mess with the wings and lift that you do on Hoist. And the truck mode looks quit good, with the same minor issue that the grill and bumper seem to sit up a bit high and his hands are fairly visible underneath. Oh, and maybe the molded windows on the cap could have been painted. Trailbreaker's weapon pegs into a hole on the top of the cap, no issues (although I wish it could have stored in the void between his arms under the hood). Alternatively, if you have the accessory kit that came with the Centurion drone you can plug the satellite dish from "More Than Meets the Eye, Part 2." On paper there isn't a ton of difference between Hoist and Trailbreaker. In practice, I like this mold better on Trailbreaker. Definite recommend from me.

On the contrary, given how much of both the G1 cartoon and the original Marvel comics centered on the fuel concerns it makes perfect sense that they'd have melee weapons. You'd have to figure that those energy weapons, integrated or not, require more energon to operate than swinging a sword. And given that they need that same energon to live it's surprising that more TFs didn't carry some kind of melee weapon, if only to use when their fuel ran low. Actually, IIRC many of the characters in Prime had melee weapons, and the ones who didn't were usually Decepticons, who had greater energon reserves in that series.

I mean, my the joints on my copy are loose and floppy. Or the goofy waggle gimmick. SS Grimlock has better articulation, and his shoulders don't sit as high as MP-08's. SS Grimlock, based on the comparison with PotP Grimlock, looks to be a tad shorter than MP-08 as well, which works for me because I think MP-08 is just a little too tall for the WfC scale. Plus, and this might be a weird point, but I think that the SS Grimlock lacking the visual premium of MP-08 is a point in its favor. It's more of an aesthetic match, since none of the other WfC figures look that premium. The only thing I think is truly a shame is that SS Grimlock only comes with his gun, not his sword. The "he only had his gun in the movie, not his sword" logic might be technically true but still kind of cheap. However, since MP-08's accessories used 5mm ports it should be fairly easy to repurpose his sword. And it's practically a lock for some 3P to made a sword for him, especially if the rumors turn out to be true and Slag gets a release in the line that's also short on accessories. Don't get me wrong, MP-08 was one of my absolute favorite figures in its day, but Gigapower's Superator replaced it on my MP shelf, and I'll be happy to get the SS version for my WfC shelf.

I've caught reviews for Grimlock, Kup, and Jazz now (*grumbles* wish I could score this figs early for reviewing). Agree on Jazz's feet in alt mode, but the SS '86 line is looking very strong. So much so that there's some speculation (as @technoblue alluded to) that the improvements on this and the WfC line are a direct shot at 3P- Hasbro knows that Takara is unlikely to ever do the entire G1 cartoon cast in actual MP form, but if their mass-market retail figures are good enough do people still need to spend on 3P to have a complete cast of quality figures? I mean, I'm personally not going to stop buying 3P, but Hasbro does have me buying a whole line of figures after I swore off the retail stuff a few years back, so they can't complain too much. I wonder if the choice of white is for screen accuracy? Like MP-44's white legs and pelvis? Even the gold is more of a metallic yellow than actual gold. Speak of the devil. I just got the shipping notice. Weirdly, from Georgia, even though Hasbro has a warehouse that's like two or three hours from me. Trailbreaker is schedule to arrive tomorrow, Sunstreaker doesn't have a date yet (but I'd guess Tuesday-ish). And then we close the book on Earthrise (except for all the store-exclusive and Gen Selects repaints and remolds).