mikeszekely

I guess good news for console gamers who collect those physical releases, but as a PC gamer I can't remember the last time I didn't just buy a digital game on Steam (my plan for Lunar).

While I'm sitting here eagerly anticipating Constructicons, Aerialbots, and an awesome new Star Convoy, Hasbro went and sent me the latest Collaborative... Star Wars X Transformers The Mandalorian. Years ago Star Wars Transformers weren't merely a one-off collaborative, but a regular thing that I had basically no interest in. I mean, I like Star Wars, but I don't love it the way a lot of people do. And an Eta-2 Actis that turns into a robot version of Obi-Wan is kind of weird, really. But as a Mandalorian the concept kind of works for me... a Cybertronian explorer gets lost in a wormhole or something, ends up in the Star Wars galaxy, and becomes a Mandalorian foundling. That said, the silver color with the brown "pants" and belt, the brown finger with the blue triangles on the hand armor... it's pretty clear that this isn't a Mandalorian, it's supposed to be Din Djarin, The Mandalorian. So I guess we are back to the weird "turn the vehicle into the guy that drives it" Star Wars thing again? I suppose I can ignore the intention and go back to thinking of him as a Cybertronian Mandalorian foundling, but then I can't help wishing for more unique styling. All that said, I can't really do the whole, "here's how it's accurate, here's how it's not" bit because as a Transformer it's an original character, and as Din Djarin it has to be a transforming robot now. I'll just point out that the lower legs are a tad hollow, and he's got some kibble wings that I don't really mind too much but for the hinged half-circles. Size-wise he's roughly a Voyager or short Leader. He comes with a lot of accessories, though some are a bit questionable. There's a stand base, a hinged translucent piece, a teeny tiny pistol, another weapon that's made up of a chunk of his alt mode, a capsule, a stand arm, and six rubbery effect parts. Mando's head is on a ball joint that swivels and has moderately-limited up/down/sideways tilt. His shoulders rotate, though the spikes on them and his kibble wings can be a limiting factor. They move laterally about 90 degrees, but in a move that's becoming distressingly common the hinge is on the wrong side of the rotation. His biceps swivel, and his elbows bend 90 degrees. His wrists swivel, as does his waist. His hips can go a little over 90 degrees forward, backward, or laterally. His thighs swivel, and his knees bend around 130 degrees. Due to how he transforms his feet can tilt down 90 degrees, but nothing upward, and if I'm being generous I might say he's got 45 degrees of ankle pivot. He can hold the pistol and the lance(?) in either hand via 5mm peg handles. The pistol can store in a holster on Mando's right hip, which is another nod to Din Djarin's pistol and hip holster, except that the pistol is comically tiny in his hand. The smallest blast effect is meant to go on the tip of the pistol, while there's a peg under the pointy bit of the other weapon for the largest blast effect. Or, that's what's intended, anyway. Since they use the same connection, you can use any of the effect parts but the round ones. The hinged translucent part has a squarish peg on the gray hinge. This plugs into a port on Mando's back to give him cape... because, y'know, sometimes Din Djarin has a cape. It's shorter than Din Djarin's, and Din Djarin's is black instead of translucent blue... but I don't mind the idea of a Cybertronian Mandalorian making an Energon cape. As for his other accessories, you can plug the stand arm into the stand base, and one of the round effect parts onto it. There are tabs on the effect part that allow you to plug the pod into it. Is it supposed to be like Grogu's pram? I mean, I know what part of his alt mode it is, but for bot mode, why do I need a chunk of his alt mode flying around? The bubble canopy opens on it, but there's no Grogu to put inside. Note that there's really nothing left to do with the other three effect parts (the other round bit and the two medium blasts) in this mode. Technically, the round effect fits onto a 5mm peg on the stand arm, and the pod has a 5mm port on the bottom, so you don't even really need the one round effect that you can use. If you prefer, you can attach the pod to the back of the lance weapon. It's where it goes in alt mode, anyway. It's kind of awkward, sure, but the lance is kind of awkward period. As a bonus if you're not going to use the stand for the pod you can pull the stand arm off and attach the base to a 5mm port on either of Mando's forearms, turning it into a shield (with Din Djarin's Mudhorn emblem molded onto it). The Mandalorian's transformation is pretty simple. Spin him at the waist, open the back of his legs, spin his feet around, and fold them lower legs over the thighs and waist. Open his chest, fold the flaps on the sides out, spin the front around, and fold it over to tab into his legs. Pull his arms away from his body, fold in the fists, and tuck his head into the spot his chest vacated. Then his backpack opens and swivels around to the where his chest was, covering his head, while the half-circles on the back wings cover over his biceps. The pod plugs into the back of the cockpit, just over his feet, and the lance weapon straightens out and plugs into the back of the pod. Considering that it has to also transform into a robot, I think it's an OK representation of Din Djarin's modified N-1 starfighter. The gray color with a bit of gold striping is right. It's got molded details on the nacelles, fuselage, sometimes with gunmetal paint, where Djarin's fighter was missing hull plating. Mostly the rear pod is too big, and the front cockpit shortened to accommodate the larger rear pod, plus bits of leg showing from some angles. The two medium blast effects plug into the molded guns on the front of the N-1... though again, there's nothing stopping you from from using the other ones. The round bits slid over the exhaust spikes, but they don't slide on all way the and they look kind of dumb to me. Mando can transform with the small pistol in its holster, so that's covered. Note that while the canopy on the pod opens, the cockpit canopy does not. You might have noticed that there are tabs on the sides of the stand arm. Those tabs fit into slots on the cape. The hinge then lets you wrap the cape around the stand arm, giving you a place to store it in alt mode. Mando's N-1 mode has a 5mm port on the underside that allows it to sit on the stand arm. End of the day, I'm not entirely sure how I feel about The Mandolorian, and I think a lot of that comes down to the price and accessories. Mando's $55... basically a Leader-class price. As he's not a particularly large or complicated figure, and Hasbro already has a license to make Star Wars toys, it seems like a lot of the budget went toward accessories. Now, while a stand is nice for flying alt modes, I honestly think I'd have been happier if they ditched the stand, the cape, all the effect parts, maybe even the undersized pistol and just knocked the price down to $35. At $35 I'd say something like, "pretty good Voyager figure, the idea of a Cybertronian Mandalorian is kind of cool, I recommend him!" But Mando doesn't feel like a $55 figure at all, and a bunch of effect parts I'm not going to use don't really change that.

Same. It's dumb, I like Perceptor but AFAIK the only difference is that he'll have a solid red chest door instead of translucent with red behind it, and maybe a different shade of blue. I'm guessing Ratbat won't be any different than the Siege version, aside from colors. But, just like we can't NOT have Buzzsaw, we can't NOT have Ramhorn. When I heard that Walmart was doing a Cybertron capsule Excellion would have been an obvious repaint. Maybe the gold version of Vector Prime or Starscream repaints, too. Curious to see what we get for Sideways, though... I wouldn't be the first time an entirely new mold popped up in a Walmart line. I'm told the Ironfist/Carnivac pack will be some retool of either Siege or Legacy Hound (which itself is a retool of Siege) with a repaint of Titans Return Weirdwolf. Likewise Slugslinger will be some repaint of the Titans Return one, while Sandstorm will be Legacy with a cartoon head. The Devastation pack will be a repaint of Runabout with a repaint of Ramjet or Dirge, but I dig those colors so I'm probably in.

Respect. I mean, yeah, the design had potential and might have been really cool as a Voyager. But for me, the reality was just so bad. It's why one of the very first 3P toys I bought was Mania King.

The Deluxe that turns into a tank? Really? I hated that one. I thought it was bad even at the time.

That too. IIRC the Nemesis version was better for QC, but it's been a long time. From what I can see, there's some stuff that MMC definitely did better... Hasbro's Optimus has hollow gaps around the feet, and the train mode is so stumpy (though it's worth noting that Guidi's original design called for a trailer, which is incorporated into MMC's... maybe DNA will do an upgrade later?). Hasbro's deco is more accurate, though, and probably sturdier. As for Starscream, MMC's has more detail, but I'd say Hasbro's fits the current CHUG aesthetic a bit more. It's hard to tell, but Hasbro's alt mode looks flatter, and therefore better. Regardless, I know that comparisons are inevitable since Hasbro is doing designs MMC did years ago, but the reality is that Hasbro's gonna Hasbro, while Knight Morpher alone went for $85 back in 2010 (which would be a little over $120 in 2025 dollars) and is basically impossible to find now anyway. I prefer to simply think it's cool that Hasbro is tackling these designs at all, in what will likely be pretty reasonably priced sets (I can't tell how big they are, but I'd guess between $50 and $70 per set). EDIT: And I'm with @Radioguy, I'd love to see Shockwave if Hasbro continues the line, and maybe Scourge with his blimp mode. Soundwave had a pretty cool design, too, and all three Insecticons become one train. If they do more Autobot's, I think it'd be cool if they did guys like Hound and Ratchet who turned into train cars, not locomotives, and could be connected to one of the Autobots that does turn into a locomotive.

Got these guys recently- Missing Link Bumblebee and Cliffjumper. Unlike Prime, the only G1 version I have is the Walmart Bumblebee reissue from a few years back, so it's kind of interesting that with the black bumper on his toes, unpainted headlights, and original toy-style head that Missing Link Bumblebee is actually closer to G1 than the reissue. That said, there's going to be some differences, especially given the sheer number of variant releases these two saw during their G1 run. The most obvious things that stand out to me, though, are the number of visible pins where hinges were added and the mushroom swivels on their head flaps. That's not the only change, though. Unlike the G1 toys, the Missing Link versions come with weapons. They're vac-chromed to better match other G1 accessories. Bee gets a tiny pistol (top). Cliffjumper gets a slightly larger pistol, as well as his now-mandatory bazooka. Of course the biggest change, just like with Prime, is that these guys have far greater articulation than the actual G1 toys. Their heads can now swivel. They can look down a bit (so could the originals), but not too much as it's a transformation mechanism that will stuff their faces into their chests. Their shoulders still swivel, but they can also move about 45 degrees laterally. Their biceps swivel now, and their elbows bend 90 degrees. No waist or wrist swivels. Their hips can go 90 degrees forward, but only a little bit backward and (if I'm being generous) only 45 degrees laterally. Their thighs swivel, and their knees bend 90 degrees. They have some slight up/down foot tilt, and 45 degrees of ankle pivot. All-in-all, much more articulation than the G1 toys but not as extensively so as Prime, and well below modern standards still. The pegs that make up their guns' handles fit into small holes on their fists. They also fit into a hole on their backs, for a sort of (awkward) bot mode storage. Like Prime, transformation is pretty much the same as the G1 toy, but with a few added steps. The heads still fold down, the feet still bend down and tab together, and the legs still collapse. When you get to the arms, though, they don't simply collapse into the torso. You have to make sure the elbows are straight and the biceps turned so that the wheels are lined up, then you use double hinges to shift the shoulders down and in. Pegs on the inside of the front wheel wells fit into the fists to lock the arms in place. Aside from the still-visible mushroom hinge on the head flaps their alt modes pass a bit more easily for the G1 toys. They even have rubber tires like the G1 toys. Happily, they both have storage for their pistols in car mode. On the inside of their left feet you find a small peg hole. There are corresponding pegs on the sides of the pistols, and they'll tuck neatly into the side of the foot with room for the other foot to close over it. Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be any storage for Cliffjumper's bazooka, though. I've been messing with these guys for a few days and I'm honestly not sure how I feel about them. On the one hand, they definitely fulfil the Missing Link assignment- they're G1-accurate cars with largely G1-accurate robot modes, just with more articulation (and new weapons). But Prime had a few things going for him that these guys don't; he's one of the most iconic toys ever, Takara managed to get a lot more articulation out of him, and he came with all the accessories the original did, so he seemed like a decent value. With Bee and Cliff it feels like Takara worked in some very basic articulation, gave them guns they never had, and suddenly they're $40 each. I know Hasbro has to import these from Takara, and I know that collector stuff is just more expensive in Japan, but I'm having a hard time accepting that these guys are twice the price of their Studio Series Deluxe versions with half the size and half the articulation, just because they're designed to be super similar to ((very cheap at the time) G1 toys. As a one-off for the novelty you should buy Prime instead. I'd suggest passing on these guys, unless you've already decided that you're going all-in on this line.

Because, even 15 years ago, MMC wasn't constrained by budgets the way the bean counters at Hasbro shackle their design teams. Still... do want. EDIT: Oh, and it's not the only two-pack... Liokaiser, Hook, and Long Haul aren't the only new preorders today, BTW. Age of the Primes Voyagers Sky-Byte and Heatwave are also up. Sky-Byte looks new, Heatwave is very obviously Bulkhead.

I'm probably in for Liokaiser, especially if they hit the Deathcobra stretch goal. But I'm kinda disappointed that Victory is monopolizing HasLab while also not existing outside of HasLabs.

Decisions, decisions. The 2024 Zephyrus G14 is on sale right now. The 2025 model will use the same 120hz 3K OLED display, (mostly) the same chassis, same 1TB SSD. Both models have 32GB of RAM, though it's slightly faster on the 2025 model. The main differences are the CPU and GPU. While I'm not expecting an RTX 5070 to be a big upgrade over the RTX 4070 (especially given that the 4070 was already thermally constrained by the G14's chassis and cooling), the 5070ti is probably a more noticeable difference. On paper the Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 is looking like a good upgrade over the Ryzen 9 8945HS, too. But will the theoretical and on-paper upgrades be worth the extra money? With the sale price on the 2024 we're looking at a bit over $500 in savings over the unreleased 2025 model.🤔

Are you buying Bonecrusher because you want Bonecrusher, or are you buying Bonecrusher because you want a Devastator that scales with other Hasbro combiners and he needs a left arm?

The first season had Jazz using an icicle to hit snowballs at Starscream.

The coronation was on Cybertron, and the repeated visits by humans in the first two seasons and Daniel's near-constant presence in Season 3 implies that Cybertron not only has an atmosphere, but one amenable toward human life. You guys are overthinking it. Just because they happen to look like bugles, assume that they are in fact some sort of Cybertronian instrument that interfaces with and works differently than an Earth bugle. Problem solved.

Yes. I haven't tried Az's Clonezilla suggestion, but I've used EaseUS Partition Master to clone SSDs I've upgraded in laptops and an ROG Ally. It works basically like Az says, you use the software to clone the old drive onto the new, then expand the cloned partition to take up the extra space on the new drive.

Big if true, and frankly not that surprising. As I said in my Romulus review, SS86 Prime actually scales better with the other Autobots, so it's Megatron and the Decepticons that are too short. It's a given that 86 Megs will be taller, and Hasbro was bound to continue that scale correction with new versions of Soundave, Shockwave, and the Seekers. OK, maybe Astrotrain is a bit of a surprise... I'd have guessed a new Seeker mold they could milk for repaints would come first. It's a welcome surprise, though, as I personally think that Siege Astrotrain is the worst modern triplechanger.

I don't know. I didn't get a PS3 at launch, and I tended to favor the Xbox 360 more during that generation. I played Ninja Gaiden and a NG2, but on the Xbox/360. I just always assumed that the Sigma versions were the "definitive" versions since they came later. It sounds like that's semi-true for the first Ninja Gaiden (though Itagaki himself says it's Black, not Sigma), but it sounds like porting from Xbox to PS3 was easier than porting from 360 to PS3, because reading up on it makes it sounds like some stuff was added and tweaked but some stuff was straight up cut in NG2 Sigma.

Neutered? Didn't the Sigma versions have more content? AFAIK the Sigma versions were what was used for the Ninja Gaiden Master Collection (which I already own on Steam, and why I'm not in a hurry to buy NG2B).

I had a pair of the original Vitures, I gave them to my wife and upgraded to the Pros over the holidays. Yeah, I think it'd be good if they made the frames a few mm wider and the nose piece a bit more adjustable, but I'm quite happy with them. The screen is much brighter and the electrochromic effect better than the originals. They're not the comfiest for productivity, but the blurring at the edges isn't nearly as bad as the originals. For gaming and watching media having a big private screen beats squinting at the Ally X's built-in display. My only real complaint is that the speakers in them seem kind of weak, like worse than the original's. I guess that's what earbuds are for, but the batteries quit charging on my LinkBuds. Waiting to see if Sony's going to launch WF-1000XM6s this year. As for the RTX 5090 reviews... it's a little better than I expected, about 30%-ish improvement on average over the 4090. DLSS continues to be quite good, and Nvidia continues to dominate at Ray Tracing. Multi-Frame Gen seems better than the original Frame Gen, but still causes artifacts that are more noticeable when boosting from lower framerates, meaning it works best when you're already getting playable framerates and don't really need it. One of the reviewers I was watching mentioned that there was a big gap between the 4080 and the 4090 already, and that the 5060-5080 might have better bumps over their 40-series siblings than the 5090 did, so I'm more curious to see how those shake out. For me, I'm thinking maybe the 5070ti might be my sweet spot. With games like Indiana Jones and now Doom: The Dark Ages requiring Ray Tracing I just don't feel comfortable buying an AMD card. But I hope the 9070 family is good and affordable. Nvidia needs some kind of competition.

Yeah... my RAM and (current) GPU should be ok for recommended, but my CPU is below the minimum.

I think I remember tiny details like that because I swear I've seen the '86 movie more than any other human alive. I saw it during the original run, and my dad bought me the VHS as soon as it came out. I wore that tape out, literally watching it so many times I new every line of dialogue in the film. As an adult I've bought it around five times (DVD, anniversary DVD, Blu-Ray, 4K Steelbook, and digital), introduced several friends to it, made my daughter watch it at least twice, and saw it in the theater for the 35th anniversary run.

Immediately after Unicron transforms and takes a swipe at Cybertron, the scene shifts to a very confused Shockwave. He yells, "Decepticons, we're under attack! Scramble!" And we never see him again. And by never, I mean never, as he doesn't appear in Season 3 or any of the Japanese G1 sequels. The original storyboards for the movie actually had Shockwave die as Unicron destroyed the Decepticon's HQ. Still, it's not like Rumble, Frenzy, or Steeljaw had much more screen time, and they all got SS86 toys.

So this is where things get kind of weird... on a shelf with other Decepticons, Romulus still scales pretty well with Soundwave, Shockwave (though as a Marvel G1 fan I prefer Shockwave to stand even with Megatron, not be slightly smaller), and the Seekers. But if you look at the scale guides, pretty much across the board ER Optimus is a little short compared to every other Autobot, whereas SS86 Optimus lines up just about perfectly. We know 86 Megatron is coming; I expect he'll be scaled to 86 Prime. Then I'd wager that over the next few years we'll see 86 versions of Soundwave, Shockwave, and the Seekers that are just a bit bigger than the Siege/ER versions. But that actually is my point, and why I brought up Chang Tiao. Yes, 3Ps often make more premium products. 3P Legends are closer to MPs in design than Generations. And that's fine, if you're goal is an entire line of figures at that scale. But if you're making a figure to stand in for an official release you're probably better off aping the official releases. Romulus feels like a high-quality 3P figure (because he is), but he doesn't feel like a Generations figure. The capitalist in me says if there's a market I hope it gets filled. But this is going to have to be one of those agree to disagree things. I think Derek Wyatt's style looks great as 2D drawings, but I've never cared for it as 3D objects and I'm generally content leaving Animated in the dustbin of history.

I also finally received a copy of NewAge's Romulus. Romulus is the first 3P Megatron that turns into a gun and is meant to scale with Hasbro's mainline figures instead of the usual 3P Legends and MP offerings. As you can see, he's smaller than ToyWorld/Zeta's Hegemon, barely equal in height to Hasbro's official Siege/Earthrise Megatron. And that's in height; he's a fairly lean figure. While I do think I prefer the proportions on Romulus overall more than the somewhat awkward Siege/Earthrise, I do like a chunkier Megatron overall. It's a bit better or worse when you compare Romulus to his main rival... depending on the figure you're using. His overall proportions match extremely well with Earthrise Optimus. However, not only is he nearly a head shorter than SS86 Optimus, he loses quite a bit of bulk against him as well. Looking at them like that, I can't help but point out a number of other things about Romulus. He's actually got a lot of paint, but the paint is that flat gray color on most of his body, with a weird gray for the face that has an almost greenish tinge. There's diecast in his feet and parts of his legs. Romulus is trying too hard to get that Sunbow look, which makes him a little out-of-place with Earthrise Prime. And the diecast and paint make him a little more "premium" than SS86. These complaints may seem petty... a toy is too good? I'll elaborate on that in a minute. But first, enjoy the back and side views! NewAge's previous attempt at a Megatron, their Legends-scaled Agamemnon, was criticized pretty hard for having a very ugly back. NewAge clearly took the feedback to heart, because Romulus is clean as a whistle from darn near any angle. Scaled down, Romulus would give Magic Square's Doomsday more of a fight than Agamemnon did. Scaled up, Romulus could replace MP-36. NewAge must have been under some pressure to keep the final cost down. As great as the figure looks, the accessories are almost an afterthought. I mean, you got the fusion cannon, which is fine, but the red bump is actually a separate piece, and there's a milky translucent bit in the barrel that really makes me wonder if a light-up gimmick was planned at one point but scrapped. There's a trio of alternate faces, and they're as good as the stock one. But the rest is Megatron's signature mace, the laser sword he used during his fight with Prime in the '86 movie, and the pistol he used to murder Prime with in the '86 movie. Those last three are done entirely in a translucent purple plastic; fine for the mace and the blade of the sword, but cheap for the gun and the handle of the sword. There's no stock, and no silencer. As for as faces go, the stock face (far left) is a neutral expression. There's two open-mouthed faces, one with a happy maniacal laughter face and the other with an angry yelling face. The forth face is one of the best faces I've seen for a Megatron. I've heard it called his "duck face," but if you've watched the '86 movie as many times as I have over the years you'll recognize it as the sneer he makes after saying, "More than you imagine, Optimus Prime!" in response to Prime saying, "Now all we need is a little Energon and a lot of luck" on Laserbeak's recording, and NewAge absolutely nailed it. I think the last time I'd seen a face sculpt on any toy that so completely nailed the character might be MMC's Saltus (Springer). The change faces, pull up the entire top of Megatron's head along with the face; it's pegged in. Once you'd done that, the face has a tab at the top that fits into the forehead. Wiggle the tab out, swap in a different face, then plug the top back into the rest fo the head. Speaking of heads, Romulus's is on a ball joint. He can look up or down or tilt his head sideways about 30 degrees in addition to the standard swivel. His shoulders rotate, and you should get at least 90 degrees of lateral movement. His biceps swivel. His elbows are double-jointed and get nearly 180 degrees of curl. His wrists swivel, and are hinged so they can bend up or down. His fingers are articulated; they're hinged at the base and middle knuckles, with his index finger being separate from the other three. The thumb just has a hinge at the base that has it fold in a somewhat unnatural position. His waist swivels, and he's got over 90 degrees of ab crunch. Due to his somewhat unconventional hip skirts his hips can move forward and laterally a tad under 90 degrees, and only about 45 degrees backward, but that should be enough for most poses. His thighs swivel, and his double-jointed knees bend until his shapely calves collide with his thighs. His feet tilt up and down a little, and have over 90 degrees of pivot. All-in-all, really top-notch articulation. Romulus' wrists are pegged in, so using his mace is as simple as unplugging one of his fists, then plugging the end of the mace into the hole. His fusion cannon has a tab on it that fits very snuggly into a slot on either forearm. His grip on the sword and gun are a bit more tenuous. They both rely on the tension of his fingers wrapped around the handle. Where the thumb ought to curl around and rest over the top finger it instead must be either left half open, or be folded against his palm along side the handle. The first time you transform Romulus is bound to be a bit intimidating. The instructions aren't always clear, and there's a lot of thin parts on hinges. Once you know what you're doing, though, it's kind of clever. Instead of the usual stuffing the head inside the chest his chest actually turns inside out over his waist and lower back. The final result doesn't have quite the same level of real-world details as the G1 toy, but it's really one of the better attempts and it's interesting how similar in size it winds up being to the G1 toy. There's no safety, and some of the mechanical details that should be under the slide have been replaced with some basic hinges, but there's some texture molded into the back of the slide and the grip. I'll also note that there's a cutout in the back of the grip that's filled in with small pieces that are quite removeable; perhaps a stock and silencer were planned at one time. Perhaps they could still be released as an add-on later? Like the G1 toy, you'll find the gun is a bit on the small size, but still mostly fits in your hand, and you can squeeze the trigger though there's no spring and you'll have to reset it manually. While I was playing with Romulus and taking pictures for this review, I couldn't help but think back to the one Chang Tiao did a few months back. I remember having a discussion with someone who was complaining that it was a pretty crappy figure; mediocre articulation, super basic transformation, hollow lower legs, gaps in the alt mode. And I told them that was exactly why it was good. Chang Tiao understood the assignment- make a Megatron that turns into a gun to replace the tank in the Core-class. They turned in a figure that cost nearly the same price as a Core-class figure, with exactly the same sort of simple engineering and aesthetic flaws you'd get from Hasbro on that budget. The resulting figure couldn't possibly have fit better with Hasbro's own Core-class figures if Hasbro had made it themselves. I'm not sure NewAge understood the assignment quite the way Chang Tiao did. Looked at one way, I think NewAge made one of the very best Megatron figures ever at any scale. But looked at another way, they made a figure with diecast, and I can't remember the last time Hasbro used diecast. They painted the figure with more paint than Hasbro budgets for a Titan. They made him Sunbow-accurate to a degree that not even SS86 manages. It's complicated enough that you're NOT going to be flipping it back and forth between modes. And the result is a figure that doesn't quite have that Generations aesthetic; it's too premium. Which brings us to the cost. $105 from ShowZ (and more like $140 if you buy from an American retailer) for this figure, with clear signs that it was going to be even more but they scaled it back by eliminating paint from the accessories, dropping stuff like a stock and silencer, and dropping electronics from the scope/fusion cannon. Now, in the general scheme of 3P $105 isn't outrageous, but it's roughly double a Leader-class. There's an argument to be made here that if NewAge did the sorts of things Hasbro does; simplified the engineering, static hands, rely more on colored plastic over paint, etc, that they could have turned in a figure that closer to Hasbro in both cost and aesthetics. Then there's the elephant in the room... just look at the box Romulus comes in. NewAge heard, like we all did, that a SS86 Optimus was coming, and they figured they could cash in by making a Megatron to go with him. But, and I know hindsight's 20-20 and all, they wound up jumping the gun. They made a figure that scales perfectly well with Earthrise Optimus Prime, but falls short (pun intended) of being a true rival for SS86 Optimus. If they'd waited a few more months and made Romulus a little bit bigger then he'd be one of my easiest recommendations ever, even with my quibbles about his price/aesthetics/engineering compared to Hasbro's. Instead they worked from an assumption (no matter how reasonable it seemed), missed the mark, and left the door open for another 3P to come in and eat their lunch. Heck, it could be that company that keeps KO'ing their Legends stuff, just come in with a KO Romulus that's 15% bigger. As for this writing, if you're in the market for a Megatron to go with some version of Earthrise Optimus then you should definitely get Romulus. If you're in the market for a cool Megatron toy and don't care about the size, get Romulus. If you're looking for a Megatron to go toe-to-toe with SS86 Optimus, though, event though it doesn't transform the Yolopark AMK Pro version might fit you better (especially if they ever get around to the promised re-release with the more cartoon-style deco), or you might want to wait to see what official SS86 Megatron Hasbro turns out.

It's not so much that IPS/VA has advantages as much as OLED has disadvantages in that area. 1. As discussed, long-term display of static images can lead to image retention or burn-in on OLED displays. 2. Due to the different way OLED subpixels are laid out Windows TrueType fonts can have fringing issues when displayed on OLED. 3. OLED tends to be more expensive (though not always). Then it comes down to the fact that most of OLED's advantages are a boon for gaming and content consumption but have little bearing on productivity; better contrast, wider color gamut, true blacks, high refresh rates, less motion blur, wider viewing angles, etc. If you're playing a modern video game or watching a movie in HDR then the picture quality of OLED just can't be beat. This isn't to say that you can't use an OLED for productivity. I definitely do productivity work on my desktop, and frankly the 32:9 aspect ratio (it's basically like two 16:9 27" monitors side-by-side) and Windows Snap is pretty great for the stuff I do. But the thing is, I maybe put 4 hours of gaming in for every hour of productivity I do on my desktop, assuming I'm not just surfing the internet on something like the M1 MacBook I'm currently typing this on from the living room instead. But if you're not really using your display for gaming then cons of OLED start to outweigh the pros.

I think if you're primarily doing productivity, yeah, IPS is probably the better way to go. For what it's worth, though, I don't notice any text fringing on my G9 OLED. I'm not claiming it's not there, mind you. Just that, from where I sit (two to three feet away, with my eyes level with the top third of the display) at 1440p and the scaling set to 100% I'm just not seeing it. It's possible that I might if I got up closer, but as I'm now in my mid-40s* I'd need reading glasses anyway. *I joined MW when I was in college. It's weird to think that there are people here I've been talking to for basically my whole adult life yet I've never met any of you in person.