Jump to content

mikeszekely

Members
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    12708

  • Joined

  • Last visited

 Content Type 

Everything posted by mikeszekely

  1. mikeszekely
    Thanks for the input. I'll put it out of my head. I guess I was just caught up in the "holy balls, that's affordable!" I'll stick with my original plan, which is to drive the Nissan until my kid is in high school then maybe treat myself to something more fun and less practical.
  2. mikeszekely
    Well, the other Voyager-class in this wave, perhaps the last Voyager-class in the Earthrise line (that isn't some kind of store-exclusive or promo pack) is the Quintesson Judge. (Sorry for putting him on the left instead of the right!) I mean, yeah, that loos like a Quintesson to me. Maybe his base is a little short, or maybe the gray color could stand to be little bluer. I wouldn't mind if he had some yellow speckles at his base. But I don't have much else to complain about. Is he the right size? For some reason my impression of the Quintessons, formed when I was a kid, had them smaller. But looking up pictures of them with Optimus in "The Return of Optimus Prime" suggests that, yes, this is the correct size. The Judge comes with quite a few accessories, although some of them are almost more like vital parts of the figure. You've got a clear plastic energy beam for him to sit on (indeed, he can't stay up without it). I'm not a fan of the clear; in the cartoon they either had yellow or purple beams, and indeed earlier product photography suggested that the beam would be yellow. Oh well. You also get a chair or a throne. I think it's passably similar to the one the Judge was sitting on in the '86 movie, although again I gotta wonder why it's green and not bluish gray. You get what I at first thought was a gun (the Earthrise instructions don't name them like the Siege ones did), but while reading up on Quintessons I think it might actually be a tool used by one of the judges in "The Return of Optimus Prime." And, lastly, you get a cage. Note that the cage actually pegs into the top of the Judge's head and slides down inside it, and the top of said head doesn't secure in place without it. Not exactly accessories, but two of the faces aren't attached out of the box. The instructions aren't super clear about it, but I re-watched part of the '86 movie in slow-mo to confirm - the correct order is the spikey green face after the orange and blue one, then the angry red one next to it before the blue and green one with the big hat. The Judge doesn't have a ton of articulation. The tentacles either have a wire or are made of a bendable plastic that retains some of its shape like a wire. The tentacles have two little pegs near the ends; the one closest to the end can peg into a hole on the back of the gun, while the other peg fits into holes a hole on the side of the Judge, allowing him to look like he's holding the gun up (because the tentacles alone can't support the weight of it). The mouths on the death head, the angry red head, and (although limited) the blue and green one with the hat can open and close. He can sit/stand on his chair; there's even a peg that can hold him in place by the glowing part. Lastly, if you look back at the picture above, of the two faces that needed to be attached, you'll see a little lever. Pushing that lever will make the faces spin around. Should you not want the Judge to hold his gun/tool, the instructions tell you that you can plug it into one of two peg holes under the chair. However, if you open the cage there's a peg hole inside of it. I prefer to put the gun/tool there, and store the whole thing inside the Judge. So, remove the glowing bit, pull the top of his head off, pull the cage out and set it aside, flip the faces up, fold the panels behind the faces down, stick the glowing bit into the top of the head, and balance the top of the head on his five chins. Voila, Quintesson alt mode. It's like a tower... it kind of reminds me of the solar collector that Grapple wanted to build. It's nothing to get excited about, but it's hard to get mad since Quintessons didn't transform. My main gripe is that the top of the head is literally balanced on the chins of the faces. It doesn't lock or secure in any way. Four of the panels behind the faces are making up the support legs for the tower. The fifth actually has a doorway behind it. The end of that flap has the War for Cybertron base-connector bits. You can unfold and splay out his chair, then connect it to the ramp flap. The chair has the base connectors on both sides, so you can expand it out further by connecting to Scorponok, Doubledealer, or one of the other figures that use that connector. The instructions tell you to put the gun/tool on top of the cage, and there's really nowhere else I found that you can stick it. The cage doesn't attach to anything; the peg holes on top could stick it to the pegs on the chair, but then it's technically upside-down and you're losing your spot to put the gun. The cage does open, and you can stick a Titan Master, Micromaster, or some Battle Masters inside, but even a Legends-class figure is too big. I have mixed feelings about the Judge. Objectively-speaking, almost any other Voyager-class Transformer does more and is more fun. The included accessories and transformation seem to be weak attempts to justify a Voyager-class price point on what will be, for most collectors, a statue. On the other hand, Quintessons were a major part of G1 lore (even if most fictions have rejected the idea of the Quintessons as the Transformers creators), and the Judge does fill a niche (and a whole lot cheaper than XTB's, I might add). So I'll put it this way- if you can live without Quintessons, you can live without the Judge. But if you think the Quintessons should be represented in your collection this is a perfectly adequate figure that's a lot cheaper than some of the alternatives so by all means pick one up.
  3. mikeszekely
    So here's the thing. I drive a 2017 Nissan Maxima Platinum edition. And I do like it; it's sporty enough that driving it doesn't bore me the way my wife's Rogue does, but still practical enough that no one worries I'm having a midlife crisis when I pick my kid up from school. But my dad was going on and on the other day about the car he saw on a used car lot near his house, how cool it looked, etc. Turns out it's a Fisker Karma, and the asking price is under $30K. Obviously I'd need more info about the condition and the mileage and all that, but am I crazy for even considering trading in my three-year-old car on something that's at least eight, but cost more than double my Maxima when it was new?
  4. mikeszekely
    Changing the size of the tapes doesn't bother me, really. Part of the design goal for WFC is that the figures are in-scale relative to each other. If getting Soundwave to scale properly with proportions more like the cartoon and less like the G1 toy means making the tapes smaller, so be it. As for the rest, I'd say it's a direct result of retooling the Siege figure instead of designing an Earth-mode Soundwave from scratch.
  5. mikeszekely
    Is it just me, or is Earthrise turning into the shortest Transformers line ever? We're already talking about Kingdom leaks, but the second wave of Earthrise is just starting to trickle out. They got the big guys out of the way with Doubledealer, Scorponok, and Sky Lynx, and Snapdragon was a fairly recent delivery. Still no Deluxes yet, but I do believe the rest of the Voyagers came in today. So tonight we'll take a look at Earthrise Megatron. Unlike Prime, who got a great new figure, Earthrise Megatron is a remold of Siege Megatron. He does have a number of new parts; new head, new backpack, new chest, new midsection, new pelvis, new lower legs, and new fusion cannon. The new head, torso, and fusion cannon parts are more cartoony than the Siege version. His midsection is slightly longer, his pelvis slightly shorter and narrower, and while I don't think it totally fixes the Siege figure's kind of wonky proportions I do think it helps. I also like that he's cleaner than the Siege version, but for whatever reason he's still got he mud splatter on his legs. Although it doesn't have to be removed for transformation I suppose that his fusion cannon is still an accessory. He also comes with a black hunk of kibble and what's clearly the front of the tank turret with a blade on the back. Megatron's articulation hasn't changed much. His head is on a ball joint and he can look up a good bit, very slight sideways tilt, swivel, but looking down's a no-go. Shoulder's rotate and move laterally 90 degrees. Biceps swivel, elbows bend very slightly over 90 degrees. Wrists don't swivel, but due to transformation they can bend inward and I kind of prefer that for guys like Megatron with big cannons on their forearms. His waist can swivel but his backpack does get a little caught up on his hips and you might have to un-tab it to get the clearance you need. Hips can go forward and laterally 90 degrees, backward is again limited by the backpack but he's a warlord, not a ballerina, so it's fine. His thighs swivel and his knees bend 90 degrees. His feet bend down, mostly due to transformation, and his ankles pivot about 45 degrees. Could be one of those your-mileage-may-vary things, but I'll note that the joints on ER Megatron are tolerances much better than on my Siege Megatron, and his head isn't always collapsing into his chest. His fusion cannon (properly) sits in a peg hole on his right forearm. He's another peg hole on his left forearm, the outside of each shoulder, the outside of each shin, one under each foot, and a pair on his backpack. Unlike the Siege version, he doesn't have any on the top of his backpack. There's a peg on the black kibble part that fits into a peg hole under the tank barrel on the other kibble part. Another peg on that part allows you to store the entire thing on his back, or you can plug it into his other forearm. Your choice; another arm cannon, or spin it around for an arm blade. Either way it looks totally out of place (although Nonnef makes a thing that's basically a ring with a 5mm hole on a 5mm peg; you could stick one on the backpack, then plug the tank cannon into it so it's poking over Megatron's shoulder, and that look would probably work for that Generations Selects G2 Megatron repaint they're making). ER Megatron's transformation is 99% identical to Siege's. The only differences are that the front of the tank doesn't fold in, there's nothing to flip up on his shoulders before plugging in the tank barrel, his pegs tab into the front treads that were on his backpack instead of into his pelvis, and the kibble part gets stuffed between his legs to fill in the back of the tank. Despite the near identical engineering ER's tank mode is much more Earth-like and less sci-fi (as long as you ignore the fusion cannon running down the middle out stick out the back of the turret). It's just a shame that it requires such egregious partsforming, and a shame they spent the paint budget on dirt instead of picking out some of the details like the lights, radar, or flares molded onto him. Megatron still rolls, and the turret can still spin. There are no hinges on the front of the turret, though, so the barrel can't be raised or lowered. Considering how fantastic ER Prime was I'd be lying if I said that ER Megatron being a warmed-over Siege Megatron wasn't disappointing. The Earthrise version does fix some of Siege's flaws with better joints (especially that flap his head is on), a more G1-accurate robot mode, and a less sci-fi tank mode. But one of my least-favorite things about Siege Megatron was the reliance on his accessories to make the complete tank, and ER doesn't just repeat that mistake it actually does it in a worse way, with parts that are even more out-of-place in robot mode than Siege Megatron's "sword." Ultimately I do think it's an improvement over Siege, and I think it's the best Megatron figure Hasbro's made, and if you don't have a Megatron for your Classics/Universe/Generations/War for Cybertron collection yet then this is the one to get. However, if you have Siege Megatron you might find the differences to be minimal enough that the "upgrade" isn't worth it.
  6. mikeszekely
    2020: the gift that keeps on kicking you in the bean bag. Cancer is the worst. A few years back my aunt was feeling run down in early November. After initially treating her for stress & dehydration, by Thanksgiving they figured out she had liver cancer. By Christmas she was bedridden, and she died that March. Can't believe that it's taken Black Panther from me, too.
  7. mikeszekely
    So, that second Netflix Spoiler pack that was announced with Elita-1, Bumblebee, Soundwave, and the other stuff on that clustertruck of a Fan First Friday? It's Nemesis Prime. The figure itself will be based on the Siege mold and will come with the same rifle as Siege Optimus, but he'll also come with two new guns, a big ol' sword, a blast effect part, a repaint of the Slitherfang Battle Master, some Energon cubes, and the Earthrise trailer. Siege Black Convoy was already released in Japan, and I gotta say the Hasbro version isn't looking as good. It looks like both figures replaced the original's translucent blue plastic with translucent red, but Takara had the good sense to paint everything but the windows while Hasbro left it red. The good news, if you didn't preorder it at Walmart back in the day, is that it's still available there, plus TFSource, BBTS, Dorkside Toys, and Entertainment Earth.
  8. mikeszekely
    ER Ironhide/Ratchet's feet look terrible on the back of the alt mode because they're unchanged from the Siege figure. Fortunately, unless Hasbro decided to add a pin, their feet are attached on a friction clip hinge, and it'd be super easy to replace them with a 3rd party replacement. Maybe something with a bumper on the heels, and toes that rotate 180 degrees too make the rear window.
  9. mikeszekely
    This Amazon exclusive set just popped up for preorder, featuring Earth-mode Ratchet and a turquoise Arcee repaint Lifeline. Great for those of you who missed the Walgreen's-exclusive Siege Ratchet. Note that the set is being referred to as the "Paradron Medics 2-pack," and it's being billed as the first of five "Galactic Odyssey" encounters packs. I have no idea when the next four will be available, or if they'll be store-exclusives. I do know that they'll be Botropolis, Biosfera, Dominus, and Micron, though.
  10. mikeszekely
    Shattered glass. See the green around his head, above his eyes? That's a headband.
  11. mikeszekely
    Nah, the Titanium version was Don Figueroa's from the Dreamwave War Within series. That version was also done by Spark Toys as "Alpha Pack" (which I own) and Civil Warrior's General Grant (which I'd like someday, but it's not a priority). MMC's seems to be based specifically on Orion Pax's appearance in the More Than Meets the Eye story "Shadowplay" based on comments from a few MMC employees (art by Alex Milne). In IDW, Pax was a cop, not a data clerk. They do look a lot alike, though. Well, in IDW getting the Matrix doesn't physically alter the bearer; Pax's design is basically Milne drawing him as Prime looked in the miniseries Stormbringer (which was the second IDW Transformers series released, after Infiltration). And now were coming full circle, because you know who did the art for Stormbringer? Don Figueroa, the same guy that did War Within for Dreamwave. And yeah, they do share similarities. They've both got the little chest squares on the chest, the forearm guns, and the wheels in his shoulders (that MMC had to move to his back). But the IDW design fixes the swole proportions of the Dreamwave version, IMHO, shrinking the chest and ditching the huge wheels on his legs.
  12. mikeszekely
    3060 should be a definite upgrade from the 1080. A 2060 is already extremely close to a 1080 in performance.
  13. mikeszekely
    Take the station wagon and jack up the suspension (AWD optional). Now what you do you have? A crossover SUV, the most popular vehicle category in the US*. *I say as a sedan driver.
  14. mikeszekely
    Yeah, I preordered it Monday-ish at TFSource. Then you really need to read the IDW More Than Meets the Eye series.
  15. mikeszekely
    See, I had G1 Transformers right up to the Pretenders and Micromasters. But I was 13 when G2 hit and definitely in that "I'm too old for toys" phase, preferring instead to play video games. I was only dimly aware of Beast Wars, which I dismissed as stupid. I was in college when RiD was on, and while I thought it was great that they were back to vehicles and often looked at the toys while working at an Ames department store I didn't pay it too much attention. Skipped the Unicron trilogy, too; I was young, newly married, didn't have a ton of disposable income and still only vaguely aware of the adult collecting. I didn't finally start buying Transformers again until Classics. Around the time I did start collecting again I went back and watched all the shows. And you're right, RiD and the Unicron Trilogy were both pretty bad. However, divorced from the bad anime and without memories of the original toys I'm a fan of some of the designs. Bruticus is my favorite G1 combiner, so Ruination is right up my alley. Scourge was the OG Nemesis Prime (yeah, technically Powermaster Optimus had the "nucleon quest" black repaint, but I think that was still supposed to be Optimus). And RiD Optimus is one of my favorite non-G1 Optimus designs. My holy grail would be an MP version. I'm a fan of Armada Prime, too (but more for his regular mode than his super mode).
  16. mikeszekely
    Not cheap, but the 60/70/80 aren't as bad as I thought they'd be after hearing earlier that the 3090 would be $1400. I was worried that the 3080 was going to be $999.
  17. mikeszekely
    I like the extra details on NA's, but MS's are usually a little bigger (which I prefer) and use fewer ball joints (which I greatly prefer). Those ball joints on NA's wrists are especially awful.
  18. mikeszekely
    Presumably you mean the only Beast Wars Kingdom figure? Because I know you want Cyclonus. I'm not sure how many Beast Wars figures I'm in for. Honestly, Thrilling 30 Waspinator is the only Beast Wars figure I've ever bought, because I'm not really into robots with organic alt modes. That said, I've got significantly more disposable income than I did when I started collecting, and between that, the fact that the show was actually pretty good, and me softening in my old age I expect I'll at least pick up the "main" cast of Cheetor, Primal, Rhinox, Rattrap, Dinobot, Black Arachnia, Megatron, Tarantulas, Waspintaor, Terrorsaur, and Scorponok, assuming they do them all. While I'm thinking about it, while I hope they continue to support G1 I'm also open to them revisiting Armada, if not the entire Unicron Trilogy. Same deal, I'd be in for the "main" characters (Optimus, Hot Shot, Red Alert, Megatron, Starscream, Cyclonus, and Demolisher, probably also Jetfire, Scavenger, Tidal Wave, Thrust, and Sideways). Maybe RiD 2000, too, I really want Prime/Fire Convoy, Rail Racer, Ultra Magnus, Megatron, Sky-Byte, Gas Skunk, Slapper, Dark Scream, Scourge, and Ruination. My problem with an RiD line is that I don't really care about the other Autobots.
  19. mikeszekely
    TFSource is having a customer appreciation sale, with different deals every day. Yesterday it was KFC/XTB, I guess. Boost, Kingzilla, Stratotanker, and Ditka were all on sale. Boost sold out pretty quick, though. Personally I grabbed Stratotanker; I don't see anyone else doing an Octane, and I had $30 worth of Source points to cash in on top of the sale price, so I got him for $90. Crosses a character off the list, at least. Not shipping him until MMC's Brawl comes out, though. Today's deals are less enticing. MPM Megatron, MPM Jazz, and Tracks. Because they can't give Tracks away. Oh, and I guess if you buy stuff you're entered into a drawing for Fans Toys' Koot. I've passed on Koot twice now, since it looks like a pain. I wouldn't buy him. But I'm getting tired of waiting for Locke, and if I win a Koot in the meantime that's another character I can cross off the list.
  20. mikeszekely
    Yeah... you might be underestimating the gap on the reissue.
  21. mikeszekely
    Which one aren't you familiar with? G1 Fasttrack was a very monochromatic drone figure that came with G1 Scorponok, and transformed basically like a G1 headmaster with his arms straight up instead of straight down. The new Earthrise version is a modern "weaponizer" update, much like Cog (who originally came with Fort Max) and Sixgun (who originally came with Metroplex). (Technically Brunt, who originally came with Trypticon, too, but G1 Brunt didn't have a robot mode.) I think Fasttrack was called Roritchi in Japan. Black Roritchi (who's really more of a Gold Roritchi) came with the Japan-only Scorponok repaint Black Zarak, so Gen Selects Black Roritchi is the same updated Fasttrack in G1 Black Roritchi gold. I'm going to wait and see. I mean, I wound up buying the Powerdasher repaints of Sixgun, Cog, and Brunt, and Black Roritchi seems no more or less valid of a character than they. I guess I just want to see how good Fasttrack (who I'm kind of excited for) is. I never had any of the original toys as a kid, but I can confirm that the Walmart reissue Starscream is pretty gappy. Thing is, the inner edge of the wings have cutouts to go around the the base of the vertical stabs, and the peg holes aren't flush with the rest of the fuselage. Seems to me that if the peg holes were flush (and the pegs shortened as needed) the wings could be flush, or at least a lot less gappy. Perhaps the mold was changed to give the wings a little more clearance for robot mode? Anyway... Tonton Review posted a short video on Youtube with the first look at Kingdom Core-class Rattrap. Some highlights: So this new Core-class is going to be fairly small. Rattrap will be smaller than the already-Legend-ish Deluxe-class Bumblebee. I see a few more ball joints than I'd prefer, but given the size it's forgivable. I'm kind of hoping those ankles are ball joints; I don't feel like like regressing back to the days when foot articulation was a rare treat instead of standard. Doesn't look like he as a waist swivel, either, but I can confirm wrist swivels. Here he is with the previous Deluxe-class Thrilling 30 Rattrap, and he's just over half the size. Given the smaller size of the new figure I don't think he looks too bad, but the new figure could definitely use more paint. Back view. Kibble's not looking any worse than the Deluxe. Rat mode looks fine. The underside is either cleaner than the Deluxe, or at least better at hiding the robot stuff at this angle. Looks like it'll have less articulation than the older Deluxe-class, but again depending on the price I think it's forgivable at this size. Long story short, I don't think this is necessarily an "upgrade" if you have the Thrilling 30 version, but if they price it around the $10 mark I think I'd rather buy this than a pair of Micromasters.
  22. mikeszekely
    Even if they don't plenty of people will buy them just because they're official. That'll hopefully drive down the prices for Maketoys' to more reasonable levels, since they don't seem keen on reissuing them.
  23. mikeszekely
    I think it's probably a fair price, but still more than I want to pay right now considering that it'd just make me want to hunt down Kingorilla to go with him. That said, I don't have an Octane yet. I might bite on Stratotanker (even though that sale price looks like they took the regular price, jacked it up, and then put it on "sale" for the original price). Oh, and if you don't have him yet $25 for Boost is a no-brainer. His transformation isn't the most fun thing in the world, but I haven't seen a better MP Windcharger.
  24. mikeszekely
    I don't think it looks as bad as the CAD file suggested, but I don't think it looks good enough to replace my Maketoys ones, either. From the back he looks cleaner, but from the front he's definitely got a case of taking the Sunbow art too literally, and the proportions are kind of squat as a result. The null rays look exceptionally bad.
  25. mikeszekely
    Yeah, that's going in the Optimus Detolf.
×
×
  • Create New...