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mikeszekely

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  1. mikeszekely
    I mean... I think it's fair to assume what the quality of a game might be like based on their previous works. But I feel like the handful of people that got paid to review it wrote it off as much worse than it actually is.
  2. mikeszekely
    So even though I'm still waiting for Pulse to ship the Sunstreaker I preordered back in March even though it was supposed to ship a week ago, I was pleasantly surprised to find these guys on my doorstep when I thought they were still around a month out. It's the first-released, second-announced, third-labeled Galactic Odyssey pack- the Legends-class Autobot clones. On the left is Cloudraker, on the right is Fastlane, with Pounce in the middle for scale. For those of you who remember my review of the Decepticon clones, I mentioned that they used the Takara decos instead of the Titans Return deco. That's not the case here. This release does ditch the alt-mode rub signs but otherwise appears identical to the Titans Return releases with the "Rebirth"-style Sunbow white faces (the Takara versions had red faces, like the G1 toys). Aside from a lack of sticker detail on their forearms, shorter legs, and the aforementioned Sunbow white faces they're both pretty G1 accurate. They also share most of their parts, with the differences coming down to what's attached to their lower legs, what's attached to the back of their heads, an extra armature with a a backpack on Cloudraker, and wheels attached to the arm transformation hinges on Fastlane. Interestingly, they seem to share at least part of the upper torso with the Decepticon clones as well. As was the case with the Decepticon clones, the Autobots don't come with any weapons or accessories. (Nonnef did some for them at the time of their original release, perhaps he'll do another run now that they're relevant again?) As they're mostly the same figure they have the same articulation- head can swivel, no tilt. Ball-jointed shoulders rotate and extend almost 90 degrees laterally. A transformation hinge also allows the shoulders to butterfly forward. The elbows are also ball joints, providing over 90 degrees of bend and doubling as a bicep swivel. No wrist or waist swivels. Ball-jointed hips can go forward, backward, or laterally at least 90 degrees. They do have thigh swivels, and hinged knees that bend a little over 90 degrees. No ankle pivots, but due to transformation their feet can tilt down. If there's one thing I'm not really a fan of, it's Fastlane's head. There's a hinged pole sticking out of it with his alt mode spoiler at the end. It's a bit ridiculous, because the whole thing moves with his head swivel. While the spoiler was connected to the G1 toy's head, true, it sat lower, didn't swivel, and was removable. One more thing to note- unlike the Decepticons, the Autobot clones have a hinge so that part of their torso opens up. It's not a part of their transformation, and the instructions don't mention it at all. It seems to be so that a Titan Master can sit on them in alt mode, with the tab on the Titan Master's feet plugging into the clone's crotch. The clone's gimmick is, of course, same bot modes but different alt modes. Cloudraker turns into a jet, Fastlane turns into a dragstrip. The process is very similar to their G1 counterparts, with the differences being some subtle changes to how the backpack forms the nose and how the wings fold out on Cloudraker and the fact that Fastlane's legs don't collapse. Both of the clones in these pictured are transformed according their instructions. However, you can always not rotate Cloudraker's arm 180 degrees for greater G1 accuracy. On the whole, I rather like Cloudraker's alt mode, but Fastlane's seems a bit lazy. The fact that his legs don't collapse like the G1 toy leaves a big thigh gap in the alt mode, and it allows his knees to still bend while being a car. I'm also not loving the fact that their arms don't lock in place at all in alt mode. Still, they are just Legends-class, and I don't see anyone else running to do updates of the clones. Ultimately, my feelings on them are similar to the Decepticon clones. The have their flaws, and the lack of weapons is a downer, but the price is fair for what you get and there aren't any other modern alternatives for the characters. So if you want them then by all means get them. You'll probably be happy with them, especially if you have the Decepticon clones. But if you don't feel a need for these characters in your collection and you already skipped the Decepticons then you're not missing out on much if you skip these guys, too.
  3. mikeszekely
    Not yet, I'm still doing the main campaign. But that does bring up another point. This isn't a case of a publisher shoving out some movie tie-in and forgetting about it. The developers clearly care about the game, and they're still supporting it a year later.
  4. mikeszekely
    So, on a recent Steam sale I picked up a game called Terminator: Resistance. Despite the license, it seems the game got very little press when it was released last year, and what reviews I could find were pretty negative. And yet, the Steam user reviews are "Very Positive." The truth is somewhere in the middle, I think. The professional reviews aren't wrong when they point out that the graphics are pretty bad for a game that's only a year old, but aside from when you're talking to another human they weren't bad to the point of distraction. The enemy AI isn't always the brightest, but since you're fighting machines enemies that stick to defined patrol routes, charge you without taking cover, and have trouble finding you when you're hiding behind another object is almost immersive. And the voice acting is bad... just bad. I got nothing to turn that around. But what's good about it? The story seems decent enough, if you're a fan of the franchise (or at least the two good movies). It's sort of a prequel to the original (and it ignores all the sequels). It's a decent first-person shooter with RPG-lite elements. It's not an open-world game, but the outdoor levels give you room to explore. And there's a stealth level where you have to sneak around a bunch of T-800s that's genuinely tense (sadly, after completing it, you get your first plasma weapon and the T-800s become more fodder). Basically, Terminator: Resistance is NOT a polished $60 triple-A title. But it's not licensed dreck, either. If you're a fan of the franchise and you can get it on sale for $20 or less you'll have a good time with it as long as you don't expect a lot from it.
  5. mikeszekely
    If you missed out before but still wanted one Hasbro's restocked a couple of things at Pulse. Lots of basic stuff at their regular prices (SS jeep Bumblebee, ER Wheeljack, ER Exhaust, ER Fasttrack, SS RotF Megatron, SS Sentinel Prime, ER Prime, ER Starscream, SS Scrapper, SS Scavenger, ER Cliffjumper, Gen Selects Hotshot, two of the three Gen Selects Powerdashers, ER Ironworks, SS Mixmaster, SS Crowbar, Gen Selects Nightbird, Siege Smokescreen). It's probably worth highlighting that they have Siege Jetfire, Siege Omega Supreme, ER Sky Lynx, and ER Scorponok, though, as well as the Gen Selects Spy Patrol. The real prize, if you missed it, might be Ectotron for $40.
  6. mikeszekely
    Bot mode looks ok. Maybe a remold of Blitzwing, but the movie models looked like retools of Blitzwing's in the first place. Jet mode isn't looking too hot, though. Looks like the designer saw the bottom fin with the gun on the end and said, "perfect, we'll jam all our kibble down here!" ...I preordered. What I didn't preorder, but found at the Walmart by my parents' place, is Cyberverse Deluxe-class Thunderhowl. So... I don't even know who this is. I only watched the first season of Cyberverse, and Thunderhowl wasn't in it. What I do know is that he's an Autobot, giving us our sixth in the line and finishing it with just two Decepticons, which begs the question- why couldn't I have had Starscream, Soundwave, Slipstream, Shadow Striker, Lockdown, Clobber, or Bludgeon instead? To make matters worse, he's not at all screen-accurate. Even if I allow the bluish color as correct (it's much darker in the cartoon), almost all the yellow on him should actually be blue or silver. Wolf face? Silver. Claws? Silver. Knee pads? Blue. Helmet? Blue. Hip armor? Same color as his body, with blue outlines instead of gold. The only thing that should be reddish is his "cape", which you can barely see. Thunderhowl does come with a few accessories. Like any good knight, he comes with a shield and sword. Don't know how well you can see, but the sword's hilt is designed to look like a wolf. He also comes with an effect part, plus Maccadam's head. The articulation on Thunderhowl can be problematic. His head can swivel, but it's limited by his collar, and there's no tilt. His shoulders are ball joints, and they rotate and can move 90 degrees laterally, although you might have to move the bits above them. His biceps swivel, but they're kind of tight, which can be a problem because of his elbows. They're hinged, and can bend just under 90 degrees, but they're not pinned or riveted, just friction clipped. I've found that rotating his bicep can actually cause you to pull his forearm off. Moving along, his wrists can swivel, but his waist cannot. His hips are ball joints. They can go over 90 degrees forward, but basically nothing backward and only about 45 degrees laterally due to kibble. His thighs swivel. His knees can bend about 90 degrees. His ankles are ball joints, giving him some up/down tilt and a little pivot, plus a swivel. On my copy they're extremely loose, though, and can cause some trouble for getting the figure to stand. His sword fits into either fist, no issues, and the effect part fits over the blade. His instructions show him holding his shield with his hand, too, however he has a 5mm peg hole on either forearm he can plug it into instead. I think that looks a lot better, but depending on the pose his shoulder pads can get in the way. Thunderhowl turns into a wolf, and I must admit if there's any reason to check out this figure its the transformation, which is pretty interesting. Basically, once you get the wolf head off his chest and in place his entire torso, from neck to crotch, splits and splays apart, folding down the middle so that the edges of his cape and coattails meet and form the spine and tail of the wolf. A mid-shin joint on his robot legs provides the digitigrade ankles on his rear legs. Sadly, nothing is really done to hide is robot hands, though. You probably noticed from the previous picture that Thunderhowl's shield tabs into place to form the wolf's back, but there's a space hollowed in his cape for his sword. You tuck it in there as you're folding his torso, encasing the sword inside the wolf's body. I dig it. Sadly, the wolf doesn't have a ton of articulation either. His arms and legs have basically the same joints as before, but the rotated hip and shoulder armor limits the range a bit. The wolf's jaws can open and close. But the wolf doesn't have any neck or tail articulation, which is a bummer. Bonus round- with the head that comes with Thunderhowl, we can finally complete the Maccadam build-a-figure! Ok, so basically all of the Cyberverse Deluxes have been the same height. Ok, fine... to be fair, from what I've watched there doesn't seem to be a huge variance in height for this show's characters. But, Maccadam was definitely a little taller than Bumblebee and Windblade, but this BAF is a good head shorter than everyone else. Aesthetically, he could use a little bit of black accents, maybe some silver on his feet, but he doesn't look too bad overall. As a BAF, Maccadam's got quite a few ball joints to work with. Head can swivel, look up, and tilt sideways a little. His shoulders rotate and can extend laterally about 90 degrees. He doesn't have a dedicated bicep swivel, but his arms can swivel at the ball-jointed elbow. The elbow is cut to allow it to bend about 90 degrees, but technically it's bending the wrong way (inward). His wrists can swivel. He doesn't have a waist swivel, but the top of his torso connects to the bottom via a ball joint, so he can swivel below the chest as well as bend a little. Ball-jointed hips can go about 60 degrees forward or laterally, but a full 90 degrees backward. The ball joints have a little room to swivel at the hips, or he can swivel at his ball-jointed knees. Those knees can also bend 90 degrees. Sadly, he has no foot or ankle articulation. Nor does he transform. He does have a hammer, though, that he can hold in either hand. At this point, I think it's impossible to talk about Thunderhowl or Maccadam without addressing the line as a whole. Out of the gate, I thought they came out pretty strong with Prime, Megatron, Bumblebee, and Shockwave. Granted, the quality wasn't quite up to what Hasbro was delivering with Siege (and I'd have gladly ditched the BAF and effects parts and shifted that budget into better paint and joints), but they were a big step up from the Warrior-class and fairly interesting toys on their own merits. By the end, though, the quality seemed like it was getting worse with each release, and I'm frustrated by both the dearth of Decepticons and the use of characters like Thunderhowl over any number of more desirable characters, especially if they couldn't even make him cartoon-accurate. Honestly, I wouldn't have even bothered with Thunderhowl if he didn't come with the last part for a BAF I was already 7/8 on. And was Maccadam worth it? No, not particularly. So, frankly, I can't really recommend Thunderhowl, although his transformation does make him better than I expected him to be. And if you're not into the Cyberverse show you're probably safe skipping the whole line. Yet at the same time, because there are so many other characters who were prominent in the show, I find myself hoping they continue to release Deluxe-class Cyberverse figures. I just hope they ditch the BAF and put that money back into make the figures themselves a little higher in quality.
  7. mikeszekely
    Like I said, not a perfect match by any means but the wrong red is still better than gray, I think. I should also maybe dig up an Autobot insignia Reprolabel to stick on it and give the rims another coat.
  8. mikeszekely
    Just Runamuck, actually. Runabout was a Series 3 Lotus Turbo Esprit, which is far more wedge-shaped. With Runamuck I complained that Hasbro picked the wrong generation of the right car to make a non-licensed version of, but Runabout will flat-out be the wrong car. Yeah. I looked to see if Amazon got them in, but they're saying November 20th for Sunstreaker and the 26th for Trailbreaker, so *shrug*. At least Amazon got me Runamuck. And this guy- Deluxe-class Weaponizer Fasttrack. Fasttrack, as you may or may not know, was a simple drone figure that came packed with Scorponok, similar to Cog and Fortress Maximus, Scamper and Metroplex, or Full-Tilt and Trypticon. The G1 toy was entirely made of the same unpainted, un-stickered gray plastic aside from his orange wheels and guns. Interestingly enough, an animation model for Fasttrack was created that gave him red eyes and a purple Decepticon badge on his chest, but it was still a mostly monochromatic dark gray. Yet here we have a figure that's a mix of a lighter gray and black, with blue "windows" on his chest, red eyes, and silver ears. However, HasTak didn't just make up this much more visually interesting deco on the spot. Rather, in the Masterforce anime Black Roritchi (the gold repaint that came with the Black Zarak toy in Japan) is seen leading an army of clones called Guardminders, and this is the exact color scheme used for the Guardminders. I'm not sure how I feel about it... on the one hand, it is more visually interesting, and has a cartoon precedent. But on the other hand I had G1 Scorponok as a kid. I actually might have liked something closer to the G1 toy. Note the position of his arms. This is how he came out of the package, but he actually has two peg holes at the shoulder joint, so if you prefer you can use the upper hole to have his shoulders sit lower. Anyway, Fasttrack does come with his two orange pistols, as well as a pointed bit. Plus, as a weaponizer, he can break down into these parts. Fasttrack's head can swivel, but it has no tilt. His shoulders rotate where they're pegged on, and a hinge in his chest allows him to move his arms laterally about 45 degrees, regardless of which hole you use. As with Runamuck, that means the rotate it outside of the lateral joint, so he can't raise and splay his arms at the same time. His biceps can swivel, and his elbows bend 90 degrees. His wrists swivel. His waist swivels. His hips can go 90 degrees forward, backward, or laterally. His thighs swivel, and his knees bend almost 180 degrees. His feet can't tilt up, but his toes do tilt up to 90 degrees downward, and his ankles can pivot up to 90 degrees. His guns have molded bits to cover over his hands, but they really attach via a 5mm peg. The molded bits have a lip that's designed to fit over his shoulder, where you'll find raised peg holes they can attach to. This mimics the unused Sunbow animation model. As for the pointy bit, it has enough of a peg at the base that he can kind of hold it like a knife, but the instructions don't do much but suggest you try using a peg hole on one side of the blade to attach it to a peg on the back of either shoulder, where it most definitely is in the way. Alternatively, you can try using the peg hole on the blade to attach it to the peg on either shin, or to the fold-out peg on his tummy. As far as peg holes go, he's got the aforementioned ones his his hands and on top of his shoulders. He's also got one under each foot, one on the inside of his shin, and one on the back of his head that you can't really get to as long as he's got his backpack on. Speaking of, if he's got his backpack on there's a pair of peg holes on his back you can use, and one on either side of the backpack you might be able to use. If you remove the backpack you'll find it was covering a trio of peg holes. G1 Fasttrack transformed by folding over at the waist and lifting his arms. Transforming this Fasttrack is a bit more complicated, as it involves ripping him apart and putting him back together again. Again the instruction seem to favor using the lower hole on the shoulders for connect the the arms, but nothing's stopping you from using the upper ones. Blue "windows" on the cockpit aside, it's a pretty reasonable facsimile of the G1 toy, aside from the fact that the arms are connected hear the rear instead of mid-cockpit. On my copy I have a little trouble keeping his toes pegged in, too, but nothing minor. His arms, of course, can raise up and down while in this mode. I've sort of thought of it as a maybe an anti-air vehicle for patrolling Scorponok's city mode. He does have a few new features the G1 toy didn't, though. For starters, inside his torso is a flip out part with the base connector. Why you'd want to physically joint a vehicle to a ramp is beyond me, but it's a thing you can do. Also, if you look on the side of his knife that doesn't have the peg hole you'll find a little slot. That slot is for the tab on the back of a Titan Master's feet, so if you plug the knife into the back of Fasttrack's head you'll create a little seat for Zarak to ride on. As a weaponizer there's also the whole bit about ripping him apart and putting him back together in configurations that allow other toys to use them as weapons. His instruction suggest two "official" modes. The first is the usual double-barreled backpack gun. Fairly unremarkable, except that you can take the cockpit, splay it open, and stick the knife into it to form a kind of shield/arm blade that's pretty cool. I'll remind you that the cockpit is really just a backpack on Fasttrack, and with peg holes on his own arms he can actually make the bladed shield and use it himself in robot mode. The other mode explains why Fasttrack has the knife at all, and it seems a mode designed more with the Black Roritchi repaint in mind. See, in Japan the Scorponok repaint Black Zarak came with a spear for a weapon. So, using all of Fasttrack's parts except his head and the front of his torso, you can create a spear weapon. It's a little small for the Titan-class toy, and there's nothing that secures it in his claw except friction. Plus, y'know, Fasttrack is gray and Scorponok didn't have a spear (and Black Roritchi is gold, while Black Zarak's spear was red). It's still obviously the homage they were going for. Fasttrack's got some articulation issues, mostly in his shoulders due to the weaponizer gimmicks, but I could say that about most (all?) of the weaponizers. With an adequate vehicle mode I'd say he's actually one of the better weaponizers, really. Plus, y'know, I'm just tickled that we're getting updated versions of these citybot pack-ins at all, so sure, I'll recommend him.
  9. mikeszekely
    Maybe, or maybe not. It actually comes down to the type of plastic. That gray plastic you see there was likely chosen for that hinge (and countless others on an number of toys you may or may not own) because it's a very durable plastic. The downside to that durability is that it's hard to get it in other colors and paint doesn't take to it well. Under circumstances they might have used a different color-matched red plastic, but for a double hinge on a mass market toy Hasbro opted to play it safe. I'm testing a Gundam marker on it, so we'll see how it goes. I'll tell you right now that it's not a great match for the rest of his chest, but any red is probably better than gray. Got an email from Hasbro Pulse that the Tigertrack I ordered back in like June finally shipped. No word on Sunstreaker or Trailbreaker, who I thought are also supposed to be out now, though. Luckily Amazon hasn't left me hanging on the regular Earthrise figures I had ordered there, so today we can look at Deluxe-class Runamuck. The Battlechargers were kind of simple toys that I wasn't interested in as a kid. And I think they only appeared in two episodes of the cartoon. And yet, I've always been kind of into them as characters. Maybe because of the ebony and ivory motif, maybe because they were cars in an army that (at the time) included space sleds and dragons, maybe because "Ghost in the Machine" is probably my favorite Season 3 episode and they were in it. Either way, I was pretty jazzed for Runamuck (and doubly so after securing a preorder for Runabout). Can't much complain about the robot mode. The head is spot-on, and the animation model was very much an all-white robot broken up only by the dark windows and Decepticon badge on his torso. Maybe he's got a few more greebles than he really needs? I might have some of interior of his "hood" white, too. I think I could live without the gold on his toes, but that's a toy-accurate detail, so I'll allow it. He is sporting a bit of backpack, and his calves are pretty hollow. But I forgive it. I forgive it all for the heel spurs, which are molded to look like his rear wheels. I think everyone would have given Hasbro a pass if he'd simply had his two front wheels and basic heel spurs, but it's a detail from the G1 toy that carried over to the animation model, and the worst thing I can say about it is that I wish they'd have painted the rims on the fake wheels to match the real ones. Runamuck's lone accessory is this pistol. It's fine... it's got more detail than the G1 toy's did, but it's nothing special. I think Runamuck's head is on a ball joint, but there's almost no tilt. The head itself is on a flap for transformation, so you can move the whole flap for a pose if you need to. His shoulders rotate and extend laterally a bit under 90 degrees. But, and this is a big pet peeve for me, the rotation is outside of the lateral joint, so you can't lift his arms and then splay them. His biceps swivel, and his elbows bend slightly less than 90 degrees. No wrist swivels. His waist can swivel, though. His hips can bend forward over 90 degrees, 90 degrees laterally, but only slightly backward. His thighs swivel. His knees bend less than 90 degrees, but if you untab them from his shin as you would for transformation you can engage a second joint for greater range. His feet can't really tilt up, but they do tilt down, plus his ankles can pivot around 30 degrees. His gun can fit into the 5mm hole in either fist. He's also got a port on top of each shoulder, on the outside of each forearm, under each foot, and on his back. Not going to like, with their car-roof-tummies and front-end-feet I thought both Runamuck and Sunstreaker might be remolds of Wheeljack. Turns out he's his own thing, though. Transformation is overall pretty simple and pleasant, although some may be a bit put off by the fact that he's got a faux car roof for a chest. The real thing is actually on his back, behind his hood. The car mode is... ok. Again, I'm not a fan of the gold, but again, it's part of the G1 toy so I'll let it slide. And sure, Hasbro hates licensing for this line, so they were never going to make him an actual Trans Am. I guess what bugs me, as a Knight Rider fan, is that Runamuck should be a mid-'80s third-gen Trans Am, but the boxier lines and angular front fascia remind me more of a late '70s second-gen model. Oh well. At least they painted the taillights. His gun can plug into the peg hole on his back, now part of his roof. There really isn't anywhere else to store it. Compared to some of the better figures in the Earthrise line Runamuck has some unfortunate articulation issues and an alt mode that misses the mark a bit, at least for me. However, there's still a lot to like here, and I'm thrilled to have an updated version of the character that isn't club-exclusive repaint. It's honestly a bit of a shape that Hasbro didn't plan any other remolds, as the same engineering would work for the Throttlebots. I'll give him a recommend.
  10. mikeszekely
    Repaint reviews- Earthrise Ironhide is a remold of the Siege version. The flaps on his legs, the front of his torso, the alt-mode bumper behind his head, his actual head, and his shoulders are the new parts. I find it a bit odd that the shoulders are new. They're molded to be very similar to Siege Ironhide's shoulders, but with less greebly details. Basically the same deal with is head. But the Siege greebles are ok for his forearms, thighs, pelvis, and feet? Can't say that I'm a fan of the unpaintable gray plastic hinge on his belly, and I find the decision to use black instead of gray for the shoulders, hands, and pelvis to be a poor decision. ER Ironhide does at least come with a new gun. I thought it might be similar to the "tool" that comes with Siege Ratchet, but nope, it's a new mold. And Hasbro even stuck a little paint on the barrel. It's not the prettiest, but I like it a lot better than the missile-launching hammer Siege Ironhide came with. Of course, there's the elephant in the room... a huge partsforming chunk. A peg on a slider deploys what could be a quartet of cannons on one end. It's not pretty, but Ironhide can carry it on his back. Of course, the instructions suggest that it can be mounted onto Ironhide's forearm, either with the points down as the barrels retracted as a shield, or rotated 180 degrees on his arm with the barrels deployed as a kind of arm cannon. Again, it's not pretty. I'd be harder on the whole thing except I like turning the whole thing upside down and having him ride it like a surfboard. Sure, it's smaller, but it sort of evokes the G1 toy's sled that way. The articulation and most of the transformation on ER Ironhide is the same as Siege. The only real difference is that you've got a partsforming chunk that forms the roof and some of the windows on the sides. The result is , from most angles, passingly an earth van, sure. Again, I'm not big on the fact that they used black for the bumper and grill, you've still got that gray hinge, the hubcaps aren't painted, and the windows on the sides are molded but left red (probably so they show as red in robot mode). There's also that big black square, but since that's the front of his robot shoulders not much you can do there. I can forgive (and maybe paint) some of that on a what's basically a $20 toy. However, due to the re-used feet the back of the van looks awful. And it didn't have to be this way, either. All they really needed to do is mold each foot as two parts instead of one. They could have had the heels made to look like the bottom half of the van's rear. Then, make the top of the front half of his feet look like the top of the van's rear, and have them rotate 180 degrees during transformation. His feet would still be flat in robot mode, and could even still have the 5mm peg holes. Hopefully someone like DNA, Nonnef, or Dr Wu will address it. Y'know, just in case you were wondering how he looked without his partsforming room. Speaking of the roof, there is a 5mm port on it so you can plug his gun into the top, like you seem to do with most WfC figures. However, note the 5mm peg holes on the sides of the gun. It actually can attach to the underside of the roof, so its stored and hidden in van mode. That I very much dig. Unlike some of the better WfC figures, Earthrise Ironhide is far from being a mini-Masterpiece. Hasbro basically took a Cybertronian mold that wasn't one of my favorites then awkwardly tried to make it work as a Earth-mode van. The sad thing is, this is probably still the best official toy Ironhide got that isn't the MP. I probably wouldn't recommend it, as I didn't recommend the Siege version, but if you're trying to get a complete Season 1 cast going this might be as good as it gets for awhile. Besides, he comes with Prowl. Speaking of Prowl, we can take a look at him and Bluestreak, too. Unlike Ironhide, Prowl and Bluestreak are similar to but not really remolds of their Siege versions. However, they are slight remolds of Earthrise Smokescreen, who I covered in detail, so I actually have less to say about them than I did Ironhide. They both have different heads than Smokescreen, and their chests/front bumpers have been remolded to look more stock and less racecar. Bluestreak comes with the same accessories as Smokescreen, but they work better here. I suggested in Smokescreen's review that you're better off replacing the Earthrise shoulder cannons with the Siege versions, but the Siege ones never felt right for Bluestreak and the Earthrise ones are more cartoon-accurate for him. Prowl, on the other hand, comes with the same gun as the others but doesn't get any shoulder cannons. Instead, he's got a lightbar. As was the case with Siege, the lightbar uses a 5mm peg to fit into a peg hole that already exists on the mold, and that's a pretty smart way of doing things. And I don't miss the cannons, as cartoon Prowl didn't have them. But I have it on authority that Nonnef is working on shoulder cannons for the Datsuns and hopes to have them ready early next year. As I mentioned in my review of Earthrise Smokescreen, I like this mold a lot. The overall shape and proportions are a big improvement over the Siege mold. I do, however, have issues with the colors. If we're going for cartoon accuracy Bluestreak's red biceps should be the shade of gray that his shoulders are. And his shoulders shouldn't actually be that gray, but rather more of a gunmetal color. And Prowl should have silver thighs and some silver on his midriff. None of that's the end of the world, though; I actually kind of dig the red biceps on Bluestreak, and I might just paint Prowl myself. I'm hoping for some Reprolabels, too, to give him more of the toy's Highway Patrol markings. Some looks at the car modes. Not a perfectly accurate Datsun, but probably as close as you could get without paying Nissan for a license. You can see that, while the front got a remold, the rear is the same as Smokescreen, so Prowl and Bluestreak both wind up with spoilers they they didn't have before. I'm pretty ok with that, though. They don't look out of place. That said, the nose looks a little too thin for the rear, like someone started to stick a rally mod on them but quit halfway. I think the black around the sides and rear of Prowl helps, though- it doesn't seem as unbalanced as Bluestreak. I also really appreciate that they painted the lights and the space between them on these guys, which they didn't do with Smokescreen. Again, I'm hoping Reprolabels do a set for Prowl's alt-mode Highway Patrol livery. No special hidey holes. As with Smokescreen, Bluestreak's gun plugs into the roof. Then you can either plug his shoulder cannons into his rifle and have them all on the roof, or you can leave them in their bot mode spots on the hood. Prowl's new lightbar is occupying the peg hole on the roof, the but just like the Siege version the lightbar has a space in the middle that acts as a new peg hole, allowing you to plug the rifle in anyway. I called Smokescreen my second-favorite Earthrise release after Prime, but my least favorite of the Datsuns. Needless to say, I'm still a big fan of this mold and happy to see it on better (to me) characters. The execution isn't perfect, but it's good enough that I definitely recommend both of them, even if it means getting stuck with Ironhide, too, in Prowl's case. I can't wait for Barricade.
  11. mikeszekely
    What mod/table did you use? Did it have a battle mat and minis? I'm dying to play again, but I was thinking about just paying the small fortune for Fantasy Grounds.
  12. mikeszekely
    Where's everyone even getting Maverick at already? I preordered him on Pulse the day they opened the preorders and it says it's not supposed to ship until the end of November.
  13. mikeszekely
    Big generational leaps are over. Plus, Microsoft's business model has moved from selling hardware to selling Game Pass, so it's in their interests to push software that runs on every Xbox from the One S to the Series X. So, aside from faster load times, better 4K performance, and ray tracing the games are going to be the same. Super Mario World.
  14. mikeszekely
    Well, as cool as we all agree Yeagers pounding on kaiju is I think the king getting a new series deserves it's own thread, don't you?
  15. mikeszekely
    I'm kind of surprised no one else has already made a post for this. It's a 13-episode anime from bones (My Hero Acadamia) and Orange (Beastars), set to debut in April 2021. While the trailer is posted on Netflix Asia's Youtube account, I'm reading that Netflix is licensed as the worldwide distributor so hopefully it'll hit most of their markets. I'm a big Godzilla fan, so I'm pretty hyped for this.
  16. mikeszekely
    I was looking at the numbers again, but this time with pricing in mind. For the 6900XT vs the RTX 3090, the performance seems pretty comparable and the price heavily favors AMD. If money is no object and you're a gamer looking for sheer power then AMD seems like a no-brainer... except, in this space, are the cards more geared toward professional stuff like modeling protein folding and what-not? And it's my understanding that a lot of the apps are designed for CUDA, and AMD might not even be an option. The 6800XT vs the RTX 3080 is where I see the fiercest competition. AMD's card seems to offer slightly better performance (at least some of the time), and it's cheaper. But the price difference isn't a huge one, like the 6900XT and 3090's. Those questions about driver software, AMD's ray tracing performance, and their answer to DLSS are still on my mind, and I'm back at what I said before- I'd probably pay the extra $50 and stick with Nvidia, but I couldn't fault anyone for going with AMD instead. The non-XT 6800 seems like more of a head-scratcher. AMD seemed to position it as a competitor to the RTX 2080ti. And yes, in that matchup the 6800 is cheaper and the performance is favorable. But if you're buying a GPU today chances are you're actually going to compare it with the RTX 3070, which seems to offer comparable performance for $80 less. You might want to wait for more comprehensive reviews, but on paper it really looks like you should either buy an RTX 3070 or spend big on the 6800XT or RTX 3080.
  17. mikeszekely
    As others have said, it's nice to AMD being competitive again. But, there are still some questions about whether games that support Nvidia's ray tracing will work with AMD's ray tracing (which would explain why they didn't hype it up), or if AMD will have anything like DLSS. Plus, y'know, AMD's drivers haven't been the best. Really, with an RTX 2080 in my box I don't have much need to upgrade at all, but if I were to do it I'd probably stick with team green. That said, I couldn't fault anyone for going red this time.
  18. mikeszekely
    If you hadn't said anything I might not have even noticed that. I thought it was a straight-up reissue. While I'd have liked some improvements, sure, these Galactic Odyssey releases have been straight up repaints, so I guess I'm actually more disappointed at getting a less-accurate color. I mean, it's still slightly less than I paid for just Bluestreak. Stupid exclusives. Stupid Walgreens exclusives- at least I haven't had too much trouble with the Target and Amazon ones. Are you thinking mostly the translucent bits on the legs, or other stuff like the yellow spots on the taillights, the yellow at the top of his thighs, the green on his hips, and the patterns on his shoulders/biceps? Maybe some red on the cannons (although I'm expecting Nonnef to do Datsun weapons soon)? I'm actually mostly fine with him as is- I didn't have the toy as a kid, so cartoon Bluestreak kind of rules for me (or blue Bluestreak; prior the movie, if I have a fondness for a toy-style it's from staring at the checklist catalogs, and in that case it's blue Bluestreak). The animation model just has simple blue panels, so his legs look fine to me. Actually, what bugs me most is his shoulders, which should really be a dark gray or black, and his biceps should be the light gray they wound up using for his shoulders. I kind of dig the red biceps; we'll see if I wind up painting the shoulders. BTW, I didn't review Bluestreak since he's a remold of Smokescreen, but I did mention that they remolded the chest/front of the car, but not his feet/rear of the car. And I think it makes his car mode look a little weird, like the rear is too thick for the nose.
  19. mikeszekely
    Thanks for the link, @M'Kyuun. Well, I'm not super interested in Punch/Counterpunch, but it he's the price I have to pay to get Barricade then so be it.
  20. mikeszekely
    I can't speak for everyone, but I love Smart Robin. It's probably my single favorite FP piece ever. Aesthetically it's fine, not perfectly G1 but not too stylized. The articulation is ok. But the engineering, especially at the time, was mind-blowing. I was extremely lucky to pick one up used, missing the box and instructions, but with both guns and both the regular Headmasters-style head with the full face and the toy-style head with the mask for around $40. It's a shame that the releases kind of went downhill after that. Sigma L had a slick vampire design, but more average engineering. Crox was fairly mediocre, and aesthetically was too Optimus. Browning had some ambitious ideas but felt very unfinished. And it's a double-shame that they never finished at least the regular Headmasters and gave us a Hardhead. The design for their Apeface looked a lot better than Siege, too.
  21. mikeszekely
    It happens. Yeah. It's been awhile, and I don't remember that he actually transformed and you could see his alt mode, but without getting into spoilers it's mentioned that his alt mode is a "data slug," and it's an issue in his past. It's a step in the right direction, but I'm kind of hoping someone like DNA might do something a little more polished. Maybe put swivels in so the toes can rotate 180 degrees instead of not quite touching the ground, and definitely something with better color matching. Yeah... but honestly, even with a better nose that Brainstorm is still more Blurr than Brainstorm. Unless Titan Master compatibility is super important to you I think you're better off with the older Generations Brainstorm, or maybe Maketoys Smart Robin than trying to fix Titans Return Brainstorm.
  22. mikeszekely
    I have no attachment to the Omnibots whatsoever, but people seem pretty excited. Maybe I'll check them out if they're reasonably-priced, they do look kind of cool. As for the Protectobots, I'm glad there are options, especially since XTB will likely do a pantsformer, but that Streetwise doesn't look so hot to me (waiting for David to point out it's not gray). And I'm a little miffed that XTB had reveals for Omibots, Protectobots, Deathsaurus, etc but they didn't show anything of the trailer we actually need to make Menasor. It's been two and a half years since Crackup, and almost ten months since Gravestone. I loved Rioter Despotron, but I'm not sure I like it as Shockwave. Oh well, I'm happy to see signs of life from Maketoys, and if this is what they gotta do to get the money to get some of their other designs made then so be it.
  23. mikeszekely
    Some interesting stuff. I'm definitely in on MMC's Defensor, and definitely NOT doing XTB's. They still haven't even finished their Menasor. They didn't even show off the trailer at TFCon, but they found the time to announce MP Omnibots. If Planet X finishes their IDW Grimlock before MMC does I'll be into that. Energon is one of my least-favorite Optimus designs, but I'll probably get that Fans Hobby one for my Prime display. Speaking of Primes, that MMC Star Convoy is everything that the Takara one wasn't, and it might be my favorite reveal at the show.
  24. mikeszekely
    Fansproject has been around since 1998?
  25. mikeszekely
    I'm obviously not going to be hitting up the stores as hardcore as I'd been, but I'll keep checking my local stores from time to time. If I see one I'll grab it for you.
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