mikeszekely

I hate the partsforming, too, but if you're going for mostly robot mode I'd still suggest picking him up. The new head sculpt and torso look better and have improved proportions, the joints on mine were better, and the flap his head is on stops without sinking into his chest the way Siege's does. Yeah, it's not my favorite Earthrise figure, and for a character like Megatron I wish it had the impact that Earthrise Optimus did, but I like it better than the Siege version. Anyway... my Centurion Drone came today, somewhat unexpectedly as Pulse never sent me an email shipping notice. Kind of makes me wonder if anything else I'd preordered there (Shattered Glass Prime and Ratchet, Studio Series Universal Park Megatron, Neflix War for Cybertron Spoiler Nemesis Prime, Cordon and Spinout, G2 Megatron, Bug Bite, Maverick, Tigertrack, Super Megatron, Sunstreaker, Trailbreaker, & the Quintesson Pit of Judgement) is on the way without my knowing. Not much to say about the Drone itself, as it's a repaint of Brunt with nothing remolded. I wish it were more visually distinct, but when they were designing Brunt they basically took the G1 toy and figured out how to take it apart and slap it back together into a robot that looked like the Centurion Drone seen in IDW's Stormbringer comic book, so changing the colors and selling it as the Centurion Drone was the best we could hope for. Oh well. Brunt's my favorite of the Weaponizers, so I'm not really complaining about another use of the mold. Of course, for many the selling point wasn't the Drone, it was the extra accessory pack that came with it. There's nothing in the included instructions that mention what each accessory is meant to be for, although there's a picture of each of them on inside of the box lid. You get a cage. Presumably Siege Ravage will fit in there; I can't find mine for some reason. I did try the official MP one, it does NOT fit. Weirdly, the cage seems to be made of a translucent plastic painted black, and the door on the cage doesn't open. Instead the entire thing splits in half. You get a pair of these Energon cubes. One is designed to look full, the other half drained with the Energon sloshing around in it. Both have neat little bubbles molded into the front face. Unfortunately there is no back face, exposing the hollowness of the cubes. Weirdly, their picture on the box suggests they were planned to have 5mm pegs, so you could have figures holding them, but instead there's just a tiny hole on the bottom corner. This hold can fit on the little nubs that blast effects can go onto, presumably so you can peg them onto a base. You get a jetpack. It's molded as one piece with no paint, and it's hollow on the back side. If we assume this is Sideswipe's, which Prime borrowed in "More Than Meets the Eye, Part 3" then you could probably get away with the exhaust bells being that color, but the jetpack should be red. Alternatively, this color is fine for the jetpack but the engine bells should be black or gunmetal if it's one of the ones they grabbed from the wall in "Dinobot Island, Part 2". Regardless, you'll see it has two pegs on the hollow side. The lower peg fits into Sideswipe's back, no problems. The upper peg fits into the hole on Earthrise Prime's back (if you don't have or remove the Go Better back filler). The contours of the jetpack seems designed with these figures in mind, although there may be other figures it works with. I can say that it won't work with Siege Prime, though, due to him having two off-center holes on his back. Speaking of Prime, you get a little tiny figurine of him. It's unpainted, and the sculpt is a little soft. Not sure what its intended use is, aside from making your Titan-class figures look bigger. Also included for Prime is a Roller. It's very reminiscent of the G1 toy, which is to say that the sculpting is fine but there's no paint and Hasbro made it from as few parts as possible. It's a bit of a step back from the ZXB Roller, but I prefer it to Nonnef's Roller. Which is fine; the ZXB Roller can stay with my souped up Earthrise Prime's trailer, and I'll save the Hasbro on for Nemesis Prime's trailer. Nonnef's can go with Dead Prime's trailer. Flipping it over, you can see that Roller is also quite hollow, but there's a peg hole near the back. There's actually a peg in front of the repair drone you can plug roller onto in Prime's trailer... or you could if you don't have the ZXB kit, which comes with a dock for their Roller that plugs in there. Again, no biggie, since I'm using the ZXB Roller and ZXB kit on Earthrise Prime's trailer but I'm planning on sticking this Roller in Nemesis Prime's trailer. Also for Prime, this kit includes a new ion rifle (top) with a more cartoon-accurate sculpt than Siege Prime's rifle (second) and better proportions than Earthrise Prime's rifle (third). The question, though, is which Prime was it intended for? It's noticeably larger than the other rifles, and larger than the Matrix Workshop rifle I'd been using. Actually, here's Earthrise Prime with the new rifle (left) and the Matrix Workshop rifle (right), and I can safely say I'll be sticking with the Matrix Workshop one. I almost wonder if a group was brainstorming ideas for this accessory pack and someone said, "how about a more cartoon-accurate rifle for Leader Prime," meaning Earthrise Prime, and the guy in charge of whipping up the CAD files forgot ER Prime is in the Leader-class and thought they were talking about the Power of the Primes Leader-class figure. One last accessory for Prime, and one for Megatron. You get an Energon Axe (left), compared with the ZXB version, and an Energon Mace. Neither accessory has any articulation. Prime's axe has a peg inside the ball at the base, so it just slips onto either fist and rotating said fist will change the angle of the blade. Looks pretty good from some angles, but you can clearly see is fist on the one side. Megatron's mace seems designed with the Earthrise mold in mind (the Siege version actually has different hands); you can see that the one side is open for the back of his hand, and the cut of the plastic around the handle matches the angle of his fingers. That means that it only fits on his right hand, an the fit is very tight. The peg might be a bit too thick, which isn't good on clear plastic. And speaking of Megatron, you get a little replica of Megatron's gun mode. You also get a replica of Shockwave's gun mode. Megatron's has some black paint on the handle, scope, and silencer so it looks fairly good. Shockwave's is unfortunately just cast in that light gray plastic, no paint at all, so it's hard to tell at a glance that it's supposed to be Shockwave. Both guns have the little pegs at the tip for use with Siege blast effect parts. Megatron's silencer can be removed, and guess what? It pegs onto another blast effect peg, so you can still use the blast effects without the silencer. Megatron and Shockwave both have handles designed to fit into 5mm peg holes, so they can be wielded by a trusted (or not-so-trusted) lieutenant. Again, Shockwave really needed some color, but Megatron looks quite nice in Starscream's grip. Speaking of tiny alt modes, you get a little Reflector camera and a little Soundwave tape deck. Soundwave has some blue paint and almost looks good, he just needed a little yellow. Reflector has no paint. Both figures are hollow on the back. Reflector has a 5mm peg on his base, so you can have a figure awkwardly hold him. And I like that the sculpt looks a bit like the Siege camera set from last year, I just wish it had some paint and weren't so hollow. Soundwave lacks such a peg, so he can't really be held so well. He does have a little peg hole for a blast effect nub, like the Energon cubes, though. Finally, there are these last four accessories, a satellite dish, two guns, and a drill. Without instructions I had to double check, but the pistol is supposed to be a cartoon-style gun for Bumblebee. Since he's not out yet I have Hubcap modeling it. The drill is for Ironhide. The other gun is Cliffjumper's glass-gas gun. This is good stuff; I'm going to have four copies of this mold when all's said and done, and it's nice that they won't all have to have a bazooka. Lastly, the satellite dish is supposed to be the one Trailbreaker used in "More Than Meets the Eye, Part 2." Since I don't have Trailbreaker yet I have Sideswipe modeling it. Indeed, as it just plugs into any 5mm port you could also use it to spruce up a Titan base. If you got the Drone at the original preorder price of $20 then this set was a good value, as you're basically buying a repaint of Brunt at the regular Deluxe-class price and getting a whole bunch of extra stuff for free. At the $30 price it went up to the value is a bit diminished. Don't get me wrong, $20 for the figure means $10 for all the accessories, and that's actually still pretty inexpensive compared to Nonnef, Dr. Wu, DNA, or the Chinese 3D-printed stuff from groups like Go Better or Matrix Workshop. But the hollow parts and lack of paint do come across as lower quality than those guys, and the ridiculously large ion rifle for Prime was a bad swing and a miss. It becomes a case of "you get what you pay for," and if some of these upgrades were things you really cared about you were probably better off paying more for a 3rd party. I do like the guns included in the set, though, and I rather wish that Hasbro would consider doing something like this again with more cartoon-style guns for other figures that either didn't come with a gun, like most of the Legends-class figures from the Prime Wars Trilogy, or figures that came with some strange and not-at-all cartoon-accurate weapons like Siege Ironhide or Earthrise Wheeljack.

Preorder on Hasbro Pulse.

Neat. I'm guessing he comes with Twinkle, though, not Vidrinath. Is Hasbro planning more figures like this? Not sure I want Drizzt and Guen as a standalone, but if they do more characters and maybe some monsters (mind flayer, please!) I might bite.

I finally got my copy of Earthrise Deluxe-class Smokescreen. (Since the board upgrade it looks like my pictures look little in the post, but if you click on them they'll be the regular size.) If you remember my review of Siege Prowl you'll know I really liked that mold (I better... I bought it four times). The new Earthrise mold is similar, but also different. And those differences are, mostly, for the best. For starters, despite some overall similarities in the engineering and despite ostensibly being the same exact character I don't believe they share any parts. I was impressed by this- I figured that the stuff you'd see in alt mode would be different, but stuff like the hands, shoulders, arms, hips, thighs, crotch, and head that could totally have been recycled between molds wasn't. The Earthrise mold winds up with fewer greebles, thicker thighs and waist, slimmer arms, and a head that's set back a little further. At a glance his thighs appear to be the same size, but you can see that his hips and pelvis actually sit a bit higher, so the Earthrise figure winds up with better proportions and more cartoon accuracy. Maybe too much- Earthrise Smokescreen's face is white, versus silver on the Siege version. His thighs are white, too (Siege actually had black thighs, but I painted them silver on my copy). For a Deluxe-class I was surprised to find that he's even got panels that swivel around to cover the gaps on the inside of his feet, similar to he MP Datsuns, plus he's got all-new heel spurs. If I have a complaint about this mold, it might be the accessories. Don't get me wrong, the rifle is a good, geewunny sculpt that's an improvement over the Siege version. The shoulder cannons, though... well, it's a bit obvious that they were sculpted for Bluestreak, not Smokescreen. Siege Smokescreen's are much closer to the cartoon than ER Smokescreen's. Also, why blue? White would match the face and thighs of the figure better, and while I honestly don't care that the gun is blue it really makes the shoulder cannons look wrong. Smokescreen's head is on a ball joint. He can swivel it, and he can look up a bit, but due to the shape of his head he can't look down or tilt his head sideways (when I get my hands on ER Prowl or Bluestreak I'll report on whether or not it's the same). His shoulders can rotate and, properly transformed, extend 90 degrees laterally. I say "properly transformed because the top of his body doesn't lock in at the torso, like the Siege mold. Instead it locks in at the shoulders. If the shoulders are untabbed he can get closer to 140 degrees. His biceps swivel, and his elbows bend over 90 degrees. His wrists can swivel. His waist can swivel. His hips can go around 90 degrees forward and laterally, but they bump into his waist so he can only get around 30 degrees backward. His thighs can swivel, and his knees bend almost 180 degrees. His feet can tilt down, a little up, and his ankles can pivot nearly 90 degrees. His gun pegs into either hand, and itself has a 5mm peg on either side. His shoulder cannons have tabs to sit on his shoulders, and peg holes that allow it to attach to his gun if you prefer. Additionally, he's got a 5mm peg hole on the outside of either shoulder, on the outside of either forearm, on the outside of either leg just below his knee, one under either heel, and one on his back. Oh, and if you were curious, Siege Smokecreen's shoulder cannons do fit on ER Smokescreen. They don't sit quite flush, but I think I might trim the tabs a bit and give them to ER Smokescreen permanently. Again, I liked the Siege mold. While ostensibly a Cybertronian vehicle it looks a lot like it could be a modern or near-future Nissan Z. The Earthrise mold, though, is about as close as you can get to Datsun 280ZX without paying Nissan a licensing fee. As I mentioned, much of the engineering is the same. You still rotate the waist, fold the feet down, and scrunch up the waist. You still lift the front end, fold the arms under, and close the doors. The differences are that his abdomen doesn't move and fold under the front of the car, and the flap his head comes through folds behind his chest instead of behind his back. There are a few differences in clearances, too, with the roof covering part of his lower legs. Some of the new clearances and engineering make it a bit more difficult to get everything lined up just right. Again, Smokescreen's alt mode looks really good. He's got the rally bumper the G1 toy had, plus the blue sides and the red top separated by the white stripes. I do have some notes, though. They got the white on the front bumper, but not along the skirt. There's no black bumper, and while the (not accurate) exhaust pipes might also be black I kind of think they'd look good in silver. None of the taillights are painted (technically cartoon-accurate and also the way the MP+ Smokescreen is done), nor are his rims. And, bizarrely, his 38 is now a big ol' 80. Oh well, I'm sure Toyhax will get right on that. Note that on my copy the paint is a little sloppy. I have a chip just under the Autobot insignia on his hood, and some red got onto the white above the rear wheel on the (American) passenger side. In alt mode Smokescreen really just has access to the one 5mm port, the one on his roof. You can plug in his rifle there, and either leave his shoulder cannons on the hood (where they plug in on the robot mode), or use the pegs on the gun and the holes on the shoulder cannons to combine them. If you're planning on using Siege Smokescreen's shoulder cannons instead they too can attach to ER Smokescreen's rifle or remain on the hood. Smokescreen is my least favorite of the Datsuns, but I have to say that Hasbro took everything I liked about the Siege mold and made it better, and while I expect to like it even better as Prowl or Bluestreak for now Smokescreen is my second-favorite Earthrise release behind Prime. And I like Prime and Smokescreen for basically the same reasons- reasonably-close G1 alt modes, simple and fun transformations, and cartoon-accurate robot modes with articulation I could only dream of as a kid. My only complaints, which may be specific to Smokescreen, are the blue Bluestreak-style shoulder cannons, some details that could have used a little more paint, and the fact that he's sporting the wrong number. Swiping a few of Siege Smokescreen's accessories fixes the first issue, and hopefully Toyhax will fix the other two. Either way, this is a figure I can highly recommend.

Glad to help!

@Convectuoso Have you tried clicking your name at the top, then clicking "account settings"? At the bottom there's a an option for "content view behavior." Change it to "take me to comments I haven't read."

Got a little package today from TF Safari, which means I've got some more 3D-printed upgrade kits, this time all from Go Better/GX Studio. First up is this thing. It's the GX-09 kit for Earthrise Optimus Prime. It's a pretty simple backpack. It has a 5mm peg and it simply plugs into the port on Prime's back. Using dead Prime as a "before" model, you can see that the backpack doesn't add a ton of bulk. I'd argue that, with the rounded edges, it's even a bit animation-accurate, and the color matching Go Better did was pretty close. Of course, the main draw of the kit isn't to plug up a 5mm port on Prime's back. The sides unfold on multiple hinges, allowing it to transform (without removing it) into a narrower but longer panel that fills in the space between his arms in truck mode. And that, frankly, looks a lot better to me. The GX-09 kit gets a definite recommend from me. Between it, the mix-and-matched ZBX and Nonnef kits for the trailer, the Matrix Workshop ion rifle, and the Reprolabels (to say nothing of the fact that I took my trailer apart and repainted it) Earthrise Prime has gone from really good to nearly perfect in my book. The second kit up is the GX-07 kit for Siege Sideswipe. It's a spoiler for his alt mode. It's a pretty simple idea. Sideswipe already has these blocky cut-outs. The Go Better kit slides in to the rearmost hole on each side. And, yeah, Sideswipe's Cybertronian alt mode was already basically what you might get if Lamborghini decided to bring back and update the Countach, but the addition of a spoiler really adds to the G1 vibes. However, you might notice that the sides don't quite line up right in the middle, which is a bummber. Another bummer is that they simply lay across the backs of his legs, which gets in the way of his knee bend. Partsforming is an option, I suppose, but I found out (after I'd ordered this kit) that Nonnef is doing spoilers for this mold, and unlike the Go Better kit (which is two solid pieces) the Nonnef kit will have swivels, so the spoiler can swing to the sides and not block the knees. Nonnef is having trouble getting the red to match, so only black and white will be available at first. I'll grab a white set for Red Alert and a black set for my custom Clampdown, and if they're good I'll probably replace the Go Better kit for Sideswipe when Nonnef gets the red right. For now, I'll say this kit was a good idea, but wait and see if Nonnef's execution is better. Speaking of Nonnef's execution... the last kit in this order is the GX-08 kit for Earthrise Wheeljack. You may recall I already bought and reviewed Nonnef's kit for Wheeljack, so what's different? Both kits offer a new spoiler/wings and a cartoon-style shoulder launcher, but beyond that they go in different directions. Nonnef's kit gave us a pistol and some wrenches, while the rest of Go Better's kit is gap fillers. So we'll start off easy. The two black parts are gap fillers for his thighs. The big white parts with the holes plug into the squarish hole on the edge of the back of Wheeljack's leg, with the holse fitting over and around the 5mm ports on his calves. Then the hinged section folds around, with a slit for the window to fit through, to cover the space on the inside of Wheeljack's lower legs. Wheeljack can transform with these fillers attached, with the minor added step of opening the hinged panel so his thighs can collapse into his lower legs, then folding the panels pack in again. Note, however, that Wheeljack didn't have a ton of ground clearance to begin with, and the Go Better parts are basically touching the ground. You're probably not going to get him to roll like this, but it's not so bad that it looks wrong when he's just sitting there. If it's really an issue for you partsforming is an option (but not necessary). Speaking of partsforming... while Nonnef's spoiler was designed to replace the original a lot of users (myself included) found ourselves using them for robot mode but swapping them with the originals in alt mode because, frankly, the clear spoiler wasn't working for us. I thought about painting it, but I also wasn't sure what paint matched. Well, whatever Go Better used for theirs might not be an exact match, but it's close enough. The spoiler works differently than the others in robot mode. The back of the spoiler actually folds up, revealing the wings instead of splitting to form the wings. Then it's just a matter of folding the wings out. You can see how Go Better's wings (A) compare with the originals (B) and Nonnef's (C). I'll say that I prefer the gray over Nonnef's clear, but I may repaint them silver to match Wheeljack's mask. Go Better's shoulder cannon is a single piece (two if you count the hinge), compared to the multiple hinges on Nonnef's. It works the same as Nonnef's; there's a hinge with a tab that fits into the slots on Wheeljack's shoulder, and that hinge can fold back to reveal a peg that allows it to plug into a 5mm port (like the one on the car's roof). I think the sculpt might be slightly better on the Go Better one, and it's pre-painted silver (Nonnef's was gray and I painted it silver myself), However, I like that Nonnef's is a little smaller and compatible wtih the Siege blast effect parts. Last (and probably least) are two red parts. They plug into the 5mm ports on Wheeljack's shoulders so that when he transforms they look like taillights. It's a nice thought, and it does look pretty good. I'm not sure if I'm keen on giving up two of the three available 5mm ports on the alt mode, though, what with me still having a Nonnef pistol and wrench to store somewhere. I like the gap fillers on the Go Better kit, even if they create a minor ground clearance issue for the car mode, and the Go Better spoiler just works better than Nonnef's. However, if you don't mind the gaps so much and you're handy with paint, don't mind a clear spoiler, or don't mind part-swapping you might find Go Better's kit to be a bit redundant, plus Nonnef's kit provides a pistol and wrenches. If you're only willing to buy one upgrade I'd say I prefer Go Better's. Like I said, the spoiler/wings just work better, and you can always use the Wheeljack's packed-in accessory as a pistol. I'll say, though, that both kits are well-done and this is a case where I didn't mind buying both. Indeed, the white Hasbro used for Exhaust is probably easier to match than the off-white they used for Wheeljack, so I might yet paint the Nonnef wings and give them to Exhaust. I'll paint both of their original accessories as matching toy-style shoulder accessories for Exhaust, and that'll help make them more visually distinct.

I guess Pulsecon is officially the 26th, but stuff's starting. I myself nabbed the Quintesson Pit of Judgement from the exclusives that @sh9000 linked (note that you have to be a Pulse Premium member to buy today, otherwise they're holding back stock for tomorrow). Kingdom will be officially announced. Promo material is coming out. In addition to Rattrap and Cheetor we're getting our first looks at Megatron and Cyclonus. Megatron's back is looking a little kibble heavy, but Cyclonus is looking good. I have to say, though, I'm really not clear on how Hasbro's deciding on what goes in War for Cybertron/Kingdom and what goes in Studio Series '86. Walmart's got listings for what we presume is the first wave, and it looks like the price of Deluxes is going up a bit to $23. But we should be getting Core-class Rattrap Deluxe-class Cheetor Black Arachnia Warpath Voyager-class Optimus Primal Cyclonus Leader-class Megatron Lastly, if you're not interested in paying a small fortune for Earthrise Bluestreak, I have good news! It's expected that he'll be available to (pre)order as soon as this weekend as an Amazon-exclusive.

Courtesy of Ton Ton, a sneak peak at Studio Series '86 Kup. Bot mode looks ok. There's something that looks a little off to me, maybe where his shoulders connect? The backpack's not ideal, either, but could be worse. Truck mode looks fine. In addition to his gun, looks like he comes with his box of Energon Goodies. And instead of mushroom pegs, it looks like his bicep and thigh swivels are just 5mm pegs, so his legs can pop off after crashing on Quintessa.

Maybe Microsoft will have better console exclusives (that is, still on PC but not on Playstation) this generation after all. Pending all the usual legal junk Microsoft just bought Zenimax, the parent company of Bethesda.

The Last Knight was definitely the worst of what I'd charitably call four bad movies and one decent one, but I'm not sure that's the takeaway from that particular detail. I don't know a ton about computer animation, but wouldn't it take more effort to replace his head?

It's already got a Steam page. All of Microsoft's 1st-party stuff, yeah. But here's the thing... I don't think Microsoft is playing the same game as Sony and Nintendo anymore. They've figured out that they can make more from selling you services than they can from selling you games or consoles. I mean, look at this way. It's been months since I played on an Xbox console, and then pretty much only because my friends throw a Thanksgiving party for friends every year, and every year we get drunk and play Rock Band. I've figured for a while that I'd like to get a PS5, because I expect that there will be Sony-exclusive games I want to play, and PlayStation's as good as anything for the multiplatform-but-not-PC games (like my annual NHL fix). A few months, heck, a few weeks ago I had no intention of buying a new Xbox console, though. But Microsoft did get me to sign up for Xbox Game Pass for PC, which will be an even better deal since Game Pass is going to include EA Play. Except the console version does still have more games than the PC version (presumably including NHL now). And the price for the PC version is going up, putting me into a position where I'm thinking I should just get Xbox Game Pass Ultimate for $5 more, which includes Game Pass for PC and console plus Xbox Live Gold. And to get the most out of that I should probably get a new Xbox. I know that, with first party games like Forza at least, cloud saves let you start a game on an Xbox and pick it up later on PC anyway. Even if I cheap out and get the Series S Microsoft still managed to sell me a $15/month service and get me to buy a console that I'll never actually buy a game for. And a few years from now, yes, Sony will likely have moved more consoles. The PS5 version of a multiplatform game will likely outsell the Xbox version by a significant margin. But Microsoft won't care as Game Pass becomes the Netflix of videogames.

I loved it. To my 6-yo self it seemed sleek and hover-y, very futuristic. You had me checking, but it doesn't look like they have an online listing. Anyhoo... got one more Studio Series figure. Let's get it over with... it's Deluxe-class Topspin. Same spiel as before... not a huge fan of the Bayverse Wreckers, their role in the film was largely forgettable (by my count Topspin had under five minutes of screen time in two movies), but picking up Roadbuster (out of boredom) and Leadfoot (because Target) suddenly made me want to complete the set. And, again, this is the first time all three have been released in the same scale with the same aesthetic and without having to import anything. And again, pretty much what I said about the other Wreckers applies here. Good molded detail, accurate head sculpt (to DotM, during his appearances in The Last Knight he had Leadfoot's head), but missing a ton of paint. Although, I do have one new complaint, and that's that his arms are way too long. He comes with two machine guns and two claws, and they'd be my next complaint. While the sculpt is mostly fine, they're molded in a rubbery plastic and fairly deformed out of the box. Topspin's head is on a ball joint that can swivel, tilt sideways, and look up a little, but nothing really down. His shoulders, also ball joints, rotate and extend laterally 360 degrees. His biceps swivel, and despite being double-jointed he really only uses one elbow hinge in robot mode, but it gets well beyond 90 degrees. No wrist swivels or waist swivel. Ball-jointed hips go a little under 90 degrees forward and laterally, but 90 degrees backward. His thighs swivel, and his knees bend about 60 degrees. No foot articulation. The claws fit into 5mm peg holes on Topspin's forearms. They have their own 5mm peg holes, so you can plug something into them as well. You can fold his hands in, but the claws never sit directly over his wrists as they do in the movie. The instructions indicate that his machine guns go into his hands, but with the rubbery plastic all warped on my copy it looks more like he's armed with pool noodles. And here's the team together in alt mode. As I said before, in the Cyberverse/Legends scale Leadfoot and Roadbuster had their armed-up modes but Topspin was a regular NASCAR Impala. In the Deluxe scale Topspin had the guns-out mode, Roadbuster was a normal car, and Leadfoot was a Japan-exclusive guns-out car. Roadbuster was released guns-out in the Human Alliance line, Leadfoot was released as a normal car in that line, and Topspin didn't make the HA cut. So, for the first time ever (officially), all three Wreckers, same scale, guns out. Like the other Wreckers, Topspin's alt-mode sculpt is pretty accurate, with the right pipes and and bits in the right places, but Topspin might have the least-accurate colors, even if you ignore the missing Lowes branding. All the silver on the side should be white, and all the black should be blue. Some of that white should run over the sides of the hood and in front of his front wheels. It looks kind bad, actually. The machine guns on the sides of the car are the same ones he can hold in robot mode. The ones on the roof are permanently attached, but still made of the same rubbery material. His claws, meanwhile, can be stowed on the underside of the vehicle. And just for the sake of comparison, while I don't have DotM Topspin in his original deco, I do have a (weaponless) Autobot Armor Topspin repaint to compare with. And, ok, the Studio Series version is at least better than that... with one exception. The older figure had ankle pivots. Topspin may not be the worst figure in the Studio Series line, but he is the worst Wrecker. And considering I already told you that the Wreckers were poorly-developed characters with minimal screen time, and I already told you to pass on Roadbuster and Leadfoot then passing on Topspin should be even easier.

No tracking for me yet, either, and my package shipped on the 11th. ...of August.

Looks real good. Aside from that nasty yellow hinge on the roof of the car mode it looks better than MP-28. EDIT: As long as we're discussing Studio Series leaks, Studio Series Scourge?

The first time a Prime got a black repaint was in the Japan-only Beast Wars II. There was an episode where one of the Maximals tried to use a copy machine to make a copy of Lio Convoy, and AFAIK "Copy Convoy" was destroyed by the end of the episode when the Maximals destroyed the copy machine. Two years later the G1 toy was re-released for a convention as "Convoy Black Version". I don't know if there was story behind that figure, but it still had Autobot symbols, as did a 2001 repaint of Powermaster Optimus Prime whose bio indicated that it was the actual Optimus, just in different colors for a special mission. I would argue the first real Nemesis Prime was Car Robots Black Convoy (2000), who we know as Robots In Disguise Scourge. The story there goes that six Autobot protoforms were sent to Earth to find Fortress Maximus (who'd been hidden on Earth long ago), but their ship crashed and was lost. Megatron learned about the ship and managed to find it, and after reprogramming them he took the pods with the protoforms to a military base to scan for alt modes. The first five became the Decepticon Commandos (repaints of the Combaticons). As Megatron was scanning a tanker truck for the sixth Optimus jumped in to save the truck's driver and got scanned, too, resulting in a robot with some of Optimus Prime's features (which was a really a convoluted story for explaining why a black repaint of G2's Laser Optimus Prime was a bad guy). Scourge was, at least, a recurring villain in the series. AFAIK, the first instance of the name "Nemesis Prime" came from Transformers Armada. I don't remember the exact details, but late in the series they wind up on a strange planet where they're attacked by a black clone of Optimus Prime for an episode. Interestingly, in the Japanese version Nemesis Prime was called Scourge. After that I guess it got kind of trendy to do black Optimus repaints, rarely with any real fiction behind them beyond him being an evil clone retroactively inserted into the G1 continuity. The Universe toy suggested the was a low-ranking Decepticon rebuilt by Straxus to match Optimus, MP-10B suggested he was a clone created by Unicron. Ultimately his backstory is whatever headcanon you come up with for him.

For me, too. Nice review, BTW. Age of Extinction was even worse! But I did enjoy the part where Prime "tames" Grimlock. And with that in mind, let's look at what I got today (besides Gens Selects Hubcap). It's GCreation's M. Wrath, their take on AoE Grimlock. I thought Studio Series Grimlock was flawed but much better than the previous AoE versions, and I even gave him a recommend. He was even better after I added DNA's upgrade kit, giving him a proper right hand and his club in robot mode plus a better tail, tongue, and some neck filler in dino mode. But I couldn't shake the "this could be better" feeling. And, while I'm no expert on scale in the Bayverse, I re-watched Grimlock's scenes and looked at some materials available on the internet. And, while Hasbro has stated that the goal of the Studio Series line is to accurately represent scale, I'm positive that Grimlock should be bigger relative to Prime than the Studio Series version, actually closer in size to Devastator. So, despite my better judgment, I bought M. Wrath. Now, I think it the expectation when this project was announced three years ago was that this would be more like an MPM figure, but on scale alone I'd argue that M. Wrath belongs with the Studio Series. In terms of sculpt and paint, though, well, I think you can see for yourself. The sculpt on the Studio Series toy was actually pretty good, but GCreation took it a little further by losing the dino jaw and forearms on the left arm, loosing the dino toes on his feels, and giving him more accurate knee spikes. There's details picked out in copper, and the bulk of his body has been given a wash to try to replicate the movie's tarnished, slightly rusty look (without giving him a greenish hue). I'd argue that the dino-head shoulder pads sit a little high, resting on top of but not really covering over his actual shoulders, but the only thing I'm really not loving aesthetically is his face. It's mostly accurate to the movie's almost-beaked face, but I don't know if the angles just aren't sharp enough or what but he kind of looks like Yoda. A quick look at the backside. You can see how his dino tail forms his coattails instead of the rubber flap the Studio Series version gave us, how much more detail GCreation included, and how his feet are more accurate. You can also see that the backs of his shoulder pads don't align perfectly with the fronts. That's because while the movie seemed to have both shoulder pads disappear into Grimlock's dino butt while a third sprouted from his abdomen, and while the Studio Series figure tried to recreate the look by actually folding the second head into his dino butt, GCreation's solution was to split the dino head in half, then hinge the lower jaws around behind the head for the back of the shoulder pads. It's not screen-accurate, but considering how very little you see the backs of his shoulders in the film and the fact that you're probably not going to display M. Wrath with his back facing you I feel it's an acceptable compromise. M. Wrath comes with a few accessories... and he's a bit of a partsformer. See, you get the mace hand, and a stick with some points on one end. You also get part of the dinosaur mode's back. This piece folds up into a sort of box, and that box tabs onto the less-pointy end to become Grimlock's club. You also get a little Knight Prime figure, complete with sword and shield. This figure doesn't transform, and he's much smaller than Studio Series Prime. He's actually just a little taller than Magic Square's Legends-class Prime. You can pose him with M. Wrath while he's in robot mode, but while I'll concede that the Studio Series figure could be slightly smaller vs M. Wrath to correctly be in scale I do think that this Prime is a bit too small. For a little pack-in he does have some decent articulation. His head's on a ball joint in the torso that can look up, down, tilt sideways, and swivel. His shoulders rotate, and the armor on them is hinged plus there's a double-joint that lets him get nearly 90 degrees of lateral movement. His biceps swivel, and his elbows bend a little over 90 degrees. His wrists swivel. His waist swivels, and there's a hinge mid-torso that gives him a little back bend and a little ab crunch.. His hips can go 90 degrees forward and backward, and nearly 90 degrees laterally. His thighs swivel, and his knees bend 90 degrees. His ankles appear to be ball joints, so they can swivel, his feet can tilt up and down a little, and he's got ankle pivots in both directions (although they're a little shallower than I'd like). Both of his forearms have peg holes so you can plug in his shield, and the sword handle slides into his fists. There's a peg hole on his back, too. A peg on his sword allows you to attach it to his back, or you can attach the shield using the same peg that goes into his forearms. However, there's no way to store both at the same time, which is a bummer. As for M. Wrath himself, his head can swivel and he can look down, but he can't really look up and he can't tilt his head sideways. His shoulders can rotate, and a flap moves to allow almost 90 degrees of lateral shoulder movement. His biceps swivel just above his elbows, which bend 90 degrees on ratchets. His wrists swivel as well as bend in and out. His three fingers are hinged and the base and move individually, but lack any additional knuckles. His thumb has a ball joint in the palm plus it has a hinge. His waist can swivel. His hips are super tight and you'll have to work a bit to get his armor out of the way, but you can get almost 90 degrees forward, about 60 degrees backward, and a ratchet will get you nearly 90 degrees laterally. His thighs swivel. His knees bend over 90 degrees on a mushy ratchet. His feet can tilt up and down a good amount. His ankles pivot, but like the little Prime it's a bit more shallow than I'd like. Attaching the mace hand is easy, and works a lot like DNA's kit did. You split the mace in half, then fit each half over his hand and push it back together. His club has a tab on it that fits into M. Wrath's palm. The fit is fairly secure, so he's got going to drop it, but the club is far too heavy for the joints in his wrist so you're going to have the most luck posing him in positions that have the butt of the club on the ground. Transforming M. Wrath from dinosaur to robot is pretty easy, especially given GCreation's reputation. Transforming him back to a dinosaur, though, is a bit more frustrating. It's not exactly difficult; there aren't a ton of steps, and if you did it once chances are good you'll mostly remember how everything goes. The difference is mostly that going from dino to robot involves un-tabbing and unfolding more, while going back to dino means lining everything up just right so the tabs all line up and secure. And the resulting T-Rex has better proportions pretty much across the board than any other version of AoE Grimlock. In dino-mode M. Wrath’s head can extend a bit from his body, giving him room to look straight up but not really down, plus second hinge allows him to turn his head to either side a bit. His jaws can open and close, and his tongue has a hinge at the base. His shoulders can rotate and move out laterally a bit. His elbows are double hinged so they can curl up 180 degrees (although they can’t straighten all the way), and his wrists are hinged so his hands can bend up and down. His hips are a little awkward. The entire joint rotates on a disc, with a hinge for lateral movement, and another joint for rotation on the outside of that hinge. Thing is, due to his weight distribution, you’re going to be tempted to rotate the disc so that the hinge is as far forward as it can go, to get more of his legs under his center of mass, but if you want his hips to be able to move laterally you’ll actually need that hinge parallel to the ground. Then there’s a hinge mid-thigh that bends almost 90 degrees, a ratcheted knee that bends around 90 degrees, and a tight hinge at his digitgrade ankle that can bend forward quite a bit if his robot-mode hand isn't tabbed in pace, but nothing if it is. No dino-thigh swivels, no dino-ankle pivots. His dino toes can splay out, and he does have a little dew claw on the back of his foot. His tail has four hinges that allow for some up/down bend, and two that allow for side-to-side bend, plus five of the spines on his tail are hinged so you can position them just how you like. Despite having several joints, some of them ratcheted, his overall weight distribution (and one loose friction joint) can make balancing him tricky. It’s a case where once you find the sweet spot he’ll be fine, but until you get it expect him to face plant onto his dino-snout. As near as I can tell, the trick is to get the disc so that the hinge is at the bottom, then rotate the the thigh without moving the disc as far forward as it'll go. Tab the robot-mode hand into the dino-foot, locking it's angle in place, then bend the dino-knee until the feet are flat. Here's another side-on shot of M. Wrath with the Studio Series toy. I'll remind you that my SS Grimlock has the DNA upgrade, otherwise much of his dino-neck would be an obvious robot arm curled under a flap (concealed by a neck filler), and his tail would be shorter, non-articulated, and have a spiked lump in it (replaced by DNA's tail). M. Wrath's torso has a more natural shape, with narrower hips and thinner lower legs (without inaccurate robot-mode knee spikes) that sport a proper digitigrade ankle bend, and no robot toes for heels. Even his underbelly is fairly tidy and sporting minimal gaps. If you look carefully, though, you can start to work out his robot mode and much of the transformation (which is largely getting the partsforming bit off, getting the head and tail out of the way, then unfolding his legs off of his back before turning his legs into arms, tidying up his pelvis armor, spinning his head and tail 180 degrees, then splitting them and settling them into place). From the back, you can see M. Wrath with the partsforming element attached (left) and removed (right). It mostly helps hide his robot legs better and covers a gap in the back of the neck that the armature it's attached to needs to pass through for transformation, plus it helps blend his dino-hips into his torso a bit. So while it does clean up his dino-mode a bit, if you really hate partsforming and just leave it off I think you'll still have a better-looking dino-mode than the Studio Series or the older AoE toys will give you. Because he's bigger, M. Wrath's dino mode will scale better with Studio Series figures than the actual Studio Series toy. That said, while I feel like his robot-mode size is just about right compared to SS Prime, and I do think this size is passable in dino-mode (Prime doesn't look like he's sitting on a pony), the dino-mode is definitely still too small. And that's really where the included Prime figure comes in. There's a small peg on M. Wrath's back, just above his shoulders, that fits into a corresponding peg hole on Prime's undercarriage. Plugging Prime allows you to recreate the Prime-riding-a-T-Rex-into-battle scene with a more screen-accurate size-difference. Unfortunately, the partsforming head of the club and little Prime are the only accessories he can use in dino mode. The mace hand and the haft of the club have to sit off to the side. M. Wrath was obviously a passion-project for GCreation. As noted earlier this figure was three years in the making. While not perfectly accurate the sculpt in both modes is fantastic. Little Prime has a ton of paint. M. Wrath himself has numerous painted details and that tarnished metal wash. He's a big figure, taller than MP-08 Grimlock and fairly hefty. A part of me wants to just say he's good, that he and his little Prime make a nice standalone display, and leave it at that. But the thing is, M. Wrath has a fairly hefty price tag (right around $250). I often say that the lower the price the more forgiving I'll be, and at a price that's just a little less than I paid for Studio-1's Unicron or DX9's Omega Supreme I'm not feeling too forgiving. I'm going to notice that the dino-shins come un-tabbed easier than I like, that his robot-mode articulation could have been better, that his dino-mode articulation could have been better, and that some of his joints are a bit inconsistent. I'm going to focus on how challenging he can be to balance, how bad his club looks with its balled-up dino-back for a head, how disappointingly bad he is at holding the club, and how the mace-hand and the rest of the club have no use in dino mode. And I'm going to point out, again, that he's far too small for an MPM display, essentially being a replacement for a Studio Series figure that you could have bought five times over for the same amount of money. And, ultimately, I can't say that I feel M. Wrath is worth the price tag. At $150, sure, this figure would be a definite recommend, even if they had to ditch Little Prime to hit that price point. $200, maybe. But unless you're a big fan of movie Grimlock you're probably going to have regrets paying $250 for M. Wrath.

My condolences to her family. I'll leave it at that, as this thread will skirt dangerously close to the "no political debates" rule.

Hasbro Pulse sent my Gen Selects Hubcap today (now I'm just waiting for them to send the Cordon and Spinout set, the Shattered Glass Prime and Ratchet set, the Netflix Spoiler Nemesis Prime, G2 Megatron, Bug Bite, Tigertrack, Centurion Drone, Sunstreaker, Trailbreaker, Super Megatron, and Maverick... I got a lot of Pulse preorders). Not doing a new review because he's almost exactly the same as Cliffjumper. Even comes with the same bazooka that breaks down into skis. The difference is that Cliffjumper is red with silver paint on his gun, Hubcap is yellow with gray paint on his gun, and they moved the Autobot emblem a bit on Hubcap's hood. The only other difference is that Hubcap has a new head. It's designed to be close to the G1 toy, which is to say that I wish they'd gone the IDW (and a few other continuities) route of giving him blue eyes. His orange eyes don't stand out against his orange face at all. Oh, and while Cliffjumper's head seems fine Hubcap's looks a bit too big for his body. Regardless, after years of Hubcap getting ignored by Hasbro while Cliffjumper was simply a red Bumblebee repaint, it's nice to have an actual Cliffjumper figure and a Hubcap repaint.

Yeah, that's the Black Mamba one. If you still have the box that's their BMB logo on the corner. I personally don't have it, as I'm not super into collecting Bayverse figures, but I got Ben's review (that's Ben's Collectibles, or Ben's KOllectibles) and he seemed to really like it.

Yes. 2021 is there 35th anniversary of the '86 movie, and it sounds like several releases from the film are planned for the Studio Series line. In addition to Hot Rod and Kup we're expecting Jazz, Gnaw, Blurry, Slag w/Daniel, and Grimlock, plus Thrust, Scourge, and Cyclonus are coming but I can't recall if they're supposed to be Studio Series or WfC. (Galvatron and Rodimus Prime are rumored to be coming in Kingdom, the third part of WfC).

Per Cybertron Philippines, that previously mentioned TF Prime 10th anniversary set does turn out to be reissues of Breakdown (War Breakdown in Japan) and Jet Vehicon, which will be exciting for Prime fans if this gets released in worldwide markets since, AFAIK, both figures were Japanese-exclusives.

That looks like Gigapower's Swoop (and that pic right there show's why I passed on ToyWorld's Prime- I don't know why they thought they should scale it with the 3A Prime that already exists instead of MP-10, around which almost every other transforming Prime is scaled). But what Sideswipe is that? The Black Mamba one?

Still waiting to see benchmarks, but my opinion is basically that if I had a 10-series card I'd upgrade, but I have an RTX 2080 so I'm going to wait for whatever comes next. 40-series, I guess. I'm actually pretty happy with my current setup. I can play most games at or near max settings near 60fps and 4k on my desktop, while the 2060 Max-Q does the same (or better) at 1080p (which is fine, because it only has a 14" 1080p display).

Also arriving in the mail- Studio Series Deluxe-class Soundwave. Er, the other Studio Series Deluxe-class Soundwave. As we near 70 releases in the Studio Series line I'm starting to think that every version of every character to appear in the films might see a release, for surely this was near the bottom of my personal Studio Series wishlist. I mean, DotM Soundwave checked most people's boxes for the character, I think. He had a proper robot mode. He had a cool car for an alt mode. He had a significant role in that film. In Revenge of the Fallen, though, he briefly had tentacle sex with spy satellite then gave birth to Ravage. We never even saw his robot mode. To decide if the new Studio Series figure is accurate I even dug around for concept art, and all I could find was a drawing illustrator Paul Ozzimo put on his website with a Chevy grill for a pelvis, so... *shrug*. Well, the new figure takes elements from what you do see in RotF and marries them with details pulled from the DotM design. He's got the long fingers, two toes, broad shoulders, and discs on his forearms. Interestingly, the newer figure actually reuses the thighs and shoulders, and biceps from the earlier one. They just replaced the car-kibble hinges on the shoulders with spikes, and it's a bit disconcerting to see what appear to be fenders on an otherwise totally alien robot. I'm a bit surprised to know that for all the homework the new figure copied that it has a completely different head. It's difficult to say which is more accurate- his head did change a bit between films, and while his face stayed mostly the same it very much looks like the RotF figure is sculpted with a closed mouth while the DotM figure's mouth is open. Weirdly, there's a significant height difference, as if landing on Earth caused Soundwave to get a head shorter. If you were hoping that this Soundwave might come with a weapon, since the last one didn't, you're going to be disappointed. At least he previous figure came with Laserbeak; the new one doesn't even have Ravage! All you get is this transparent blue stand. Soundwave's head is on a hinged ball joint. He can't look down, but it swivels and he's got some upward tilt and more than enough sideways tilt on the ball, plus with the hinge he can basically look straight up. His shoulders rotate and they can technically 90 degrees laterally, although you may find the fins on his arms getting in the way. His biceps swivel. His elbows bend a little over 90 degrees. No wrist articulation. He has a very slight waist swivel. Ball-jointed hips can go way past 90 degrees forward or backward, but due to the sculpt of this thighs only about 60 degrees laterally. His thighs swivel, and his knees bend 90 degrees. No foot articulation, although there is a sort of mid-shin hinge. If we're being technical he can use his stand in robot mode. It's just meant for alt mode. Speaking of alt mode, he turns into the satellite thingy from the movie. Is it accurate? Not particularly. The canisters on his chest do turn out, but they need blue paint. The solar panels near where his crotch was, and the newly-exposed blue details, are fine, but his robot thighs not really trying to hide behind them not so much. The panels on his forearms would be ok if they were bigger, had a blue sphere with blue lights at the base, and the spikes from his shoulders were at the base with the sphere while the rest of his arm just vanished. The panels on his back are missing some of their spikier bits, and they should be turned forward and angled down more, but because you're tabbing his robot knees to his back there's just no way to bend them like that. The overall result is less like he transformed into the satellite seen in the film and more like he did some yoga with solar panels strapped to his wrists, ankles, and crotch. The best thing I can say about it is that I don't think it's any worse than the previous RotF Deluxe-class. The satellite mode can't do much but lay on a desk by itself. But, that's where the stand comes in. You can plug it into Soundwave's grundle and then pretend he's floating. Honestly, I'm trying to decide if this is the single worst release in the Studio Series line. I mean, the robot mode is an adequate robot, but the transformation is lazy, the alt mode is lazy and inaccurate, and he doesn't even come with a little Ravage figure for you to say, "well, at least I'm getting Ravage." Soundwave's a big-time Decepticon, despite his limited use in the Bayverse, so I get wanting him in your Studio Series collection, but the DotM figure does absolutely everything better. If ever there was a figure to pass on it's this guy.