mikeszekely

Anyone into birdwatching, or hunting, or anything that involves binoculars? Looking for some advice.

Anyone watch the Uplay Forward thing? No real surprises, but I'm looking forward to Assassin's Creed Valhalla and Far Cry 6 nevertheless.

One is enough (it'll be my 5th version of the mold, after all). I do have a preorder on him, still. I guess technically I'm still looking for the Target clones, too. In the meantime, lemme know if you found yourself a copy of the Seekers, and until then I'll keep an eye out for you. This! I can live with store-exclusive repaints, like most of the Netflix stuff. But making Thundercracker and Skywarp exclusives is terrible especially since Siege Skywarp was an Amazon-exclusive, and back in the day Classics Skywarp was part of a Target-exclusive two-pack with Ultra Magnus. The poor guy just can't seem to get a regular release! While I don't think they'll be as big as, say, Studio Series Age of Extinction Grimlock, I do think they'll be bigger than your typical Voyager, since the line is about scale. While I expressed some concern earlier that the Studio Series '86 figures could be repaints of Prime Wars figures, even with the addition of a Daniel figure I don't see PotP Deluxe Slag passing for Leader-class. If we assume new molds, screen-accuracy isn't always perfect on the Studio Series figures (like when they slipped the Bumblebee toy line into Studio Series, or when they reused some TLK molds, or reused parts of RotF Megatron to make Shockwave), but it's generally good enough that you can bank on them being G1 cartoon-accurate. But, as I noted, articulation hasn't been the feature in Studio Series that it's been in the War for Cybertron Trilogy. Still, MP-08 wasn't the most articulated of the MP figures, and I'd like to think they could manage at least that much articulation in a Leader-class figure. Time will tell, though. All I can say is that you can probably bank on me being in for all of them. I mean, if I could talk myself into picking up DotM Roadbuster...

Another Walmart leak. TRA GEN SS SLAG DANI The assumption is that it's Slag and Daniel. And this one is $49, so presumably Leader-Class. And I'll remind you that these '86 Studio Series figures started with a Leader-class Grimlock, so... Leader-Class Sludge, Snarl, and Swoop please. Or at least Leader Sludge and Snarl and Voyager Swoop.

Sideswipe, Chromia, and Hound have been warming shelves at my local Walmart. I found Mirage at a different Walmart, and I bought the only Hotlink I ever saw. In three different Walmarts within 20 miles of my house I've yet to see Megatron or Ultra Magnus (not that I actually wanted them) or Scrapface (who I actually do kind of want). But that's just what's in stores. I actually preordered Hotlink and Mirage back in February, when they were first revealed. Walmart never filled my preorder; the ship date was moved from April to June 17th, then after the 17th the status just changed to "delayed." I canceled both of my preorders after finding the figures in stores. Now experience has shown me that Walmart wants exclusives, collectors want to preorder them to lock the exclusives in, but Walmart can't actually be trusted to fill those preorders before giving the product to stores while their piss-poor distribution makes finding the figures in stores a crapshoot. So yeah, in principle I agree that store-exclusives aren't great*, but if we're going to have them give them to anyone but Walmart, please. *Actually, from working in retail, I can tell you that stores pay for exclusives. For more popular stuff that's likely to be in high demand (like Earthrise Skywarp and Thundercracker) it's a crappy move on both the store and the manufacturer. But sometimes it's also a way for a store to shoulder risk that the manufacturer might find unacceptable. It's quite likely that the Siege Rainmakers would never have seen a release if no stores were willing to take it as an exclusive.

Given how badly Walmart's managed their Netflix-exclusives I really hope they only reveal more repaints of figures I don't really need. Or if they can't do that, either give me Sunstorm and Nacelle repaints of the Siege Seeker mold, or give me Sunstorm, Nacelle, Hotlink, Redwing, Acid Storm, Bitstream, and Novastorm repaints of the Earthrise Seeker mold. But, for the love of Primus, please please please don't let the '86 movie be a Walmart-exclusive subline of Studio Series...

I mean, It was a fairly common complaint, in fact, that going as far back as whenever Generations Trailcutter came out, that Generations figures were getting smaller. Presumably, when you say that CHUG scale has been consistently 1:35, you're only talking about cars? Because the only thing I'd say has been consistent about Transformers and scale is that alt mode scale is never going to happen, especially if you're going for G1 or G1-adjacent. Hasbro's stated goal (and one they've not always met) for both Studio Series and War for Cybertron is robot mode scaling. And they're the mainstream lines to even try to have a consistent scale. With that in mind, since none of the '86 crew belong on the same scale chart as the Bayverse Jazz or Kup's alt mode scale against Camaro Bumblebee is basically moot. Studio Series Bumblebee's Camaro alt mode might be approximately in scale with Sideswipe's Corvette mode, but it's a coincidence. They're not in scale with Prime's truck mode. They're not in scale with Starscream's jet mode. Their alt modes are whatever size they need to be for the robots to be in scale. By the same token, even with Earthrise only approximating the G1 alt modes to avoid licensing, Cliffjumper's alt mode isn't in scale with Wheeljack's, who isn't in scale with Prime's, who isn't in scale with Starscream's, and so on. But they're all in robot mode scale according the the Sunbow scale chart. With that in mind, while you could theoretically figure out how big G1 Jazz was in most scenes he shared with Spike and Sparkplug and compare that with how big Bayverse Jazz was next to Sam and Mikaela to estimate how big '86 movie Jazz and '07 movie Jazz would be next to each other I think even Hasbro's smart enough to know that people are going to care a lot more about how the '86 movie SS figures scale with the War for Cybertron Trilogy figures. So, not to dismiss your concern entirely, but it's the least of my worries regarding '86 movie characters in the Studio Series line.

So when I reviewed Roadbuster I kind of complained that other more memorable characters still haven't got Studio Series toys yet, and one of the examples I cited was Dino/Mirage. Well, some new listings popped up in Walmart's inventory system, including- TRA GEN SS Jolt TRA GEN SS Dino So, I guess I'll get my wish for Dino after all. The prices in Walmart's system are $18.84, so Deluxes. Which, y'know, every other guy that turns into a car has been. (Interesting side note; apparently the reason he was called Dino and not Mirage in the movie, that the toys were called Mirage and not Dino, and the reason why the toys were repaints of the very much not-a-Ferrari Sideways was because Mattel had an exclusive deal with Ferrari. But the deal expired at the end of 2014.) That's not all that's in Walmart's system. There's also- TRA GEN SS Bumblebee Another Bumblebee, just was the Studio Series line needed! Well, Bee is the face of the Bayverse. And by my reckoning the Studio Series could yet do Dark of the Moon Bee (which would really only be a minor retool of RotF Bee), two Bumblebees from Age of Extinction ('67 Camaro Bee and 2014 Camaro Bee, and I'd kill for a good figure of '67 Camaro Bee), or The Last Knight Bumblebee (although the '76 Camaro movie 1 SS Bee was based on TLK Premiere Edition Bumblebee, so that last one feels redundant). But I'd guess the safe bet is a retool of SS Cliffjumper as Cybertronian Bee from the Knight film. That said, there is one other Transformers movie that had Bee in it. And I see that Walmart's system is also showing- TRA GEN SS Gnaw Maybe there's something to those earlier rumors that the Studio Series was going to start including characters from the '86 movie. Come to think of it, we pretty much know what the rest of the Studio Series figures are for this year, and these leaked figures would have be planned for 2021. And 2021 just happens to be the 35th anniversary of Transformers: The Movie. Oh, and isn't that Haslab Unicron supposed to start shipping in 2021? Something tells me that Hasbro is very aware of this anniversary and has plans in the works to celebrate it. Because Walmart's system is also showing- TRA GEN SS Jazz TRA GEN SS DLX Kup TRA GEN SS Blurr Gnaw, Kup, and Blurr don't have counterparts in any other movie that I can recall. And Jazz's sole Bayverse appearance was already covered (I don't recall him turning up in the Knight film). That being said, while I'm excited for new toys based on the '86 movie I do definitely have my concerns. For one, if you read my reviews, something I've been commenting on in a lot of Studio Series reviews lately is that Hasbro isn't putting in the same commitment to articulation that they have to the War for Cybertron figures. While geewunny, movie-accurate releases of the '86 movie characters seems like they'd be a good fit with Siege/Earthrise* there's a chance that they might not be up to that level of quality. Which brings me to two, for a new line ostensibly created to give fans new, more screen-accurate figures the Studio Series was not above repainting and re-releasing existing figures. I previously mentioned that the first Studio Series Bumblebee was a retool of TLK Premiere Bumblebee. Crowbar was a retool of TLK Berserker, and both Thundercracker and the KSI Boss were retools of TLK Nitro (Zeus). Three, Hasbro's shown a willingness to sell smaller figures as Deluxes, either by taking a Legends-sized figure and giving him a lot of accessories (Cliffjumper) or by selling more than one in a pack (the Arcee sisters). And four, how movie-accurate can Jazz actually be if Hasbro can't license the alt mode from Porsche? I can't help but note that Gnaw, Jazz, Kup, Blurr, and Grimlock (who was also rumored to be part of this '86 Studio Series) all had releases fairly recently in the Prime Wars Trilogy. There's a part of me that's a bit worried that SS versions could turn out to be repaints of the Prime Wars toys (on the plus side, maybe we'll get Titans Return Kup and Blurr with the Takara decos). *Speaking of Siege and Earthrise, while the line has so far given us some great updates of classic G1 characters mixed with a few "we didn't get to these guys in the Prime Wars, so we're doing them now" releases like Skytread and the Horrorcons, it's curious that we're going to get characters like Arcee, the Alicon, and the Quintesson Judge this year. Galvatron appeared on Earthrise box art, although no figure's been announced. Prime's corpse from the movie is getting an Amazon-exclusive release, and there was that leaked Cyclonus that we all figured was for the War for Cybertron line (although, if the '86 SS turns out to be real, and not just repaints, maybe it's a SS Cyclonus?). Seems like Hasbro's steering the entire Transformers franchise toward the '86 movie just in time for that 35th anniversary, eh?

That's not necessarily true. You'll need a brush, traditional or air, for finer details (or if you want to do things like drybrushing or weathering, which I confess are outside my wheelhouse), but for larger areas, especially if you can remove and paint a whole part, a good old fashioned spray can will do you. In fact, almost everything I've ever painted silver has come from a can of Rustoleum I picked up at my local Walmart. For my trailer I unscrewed where the wheels connect to the trailer, popped the wheels off, and painted parts (which might not be necessary with the fenders). I did the same thing for the drone, removing it, popping the arms off the ball joints, and spraying the drone itself. You can probably find a blue that matches Prime better, but I went with a can of Tamiya Metallic Blue I had laying around. Then the Reprolabels gave the drone the orange cockpit. Something else to consider is that the Nonnef trailer door and bumper don't quite match Hasbro's plastic, as I said in the review. I'd already got and applied the Reprolabels before Nonnef's preorders went up, but if I were in your shoes I'd strongly consider spraying both the trailer and the Nonnef parts silver then putting the Reprolabels on (since that'd put the stripe you just painted over back on). I know it pushes the cost of ER Prime up, but I do recommend the Reprolabels. It replaces the weak paint for the stripes on the trailer, adds some colorful details to the inside, provides the orange for the drone cockpit, replaces the weak paint on Prime's hips, puts yellow detail on the unpainted detail on his crotch, and adds the triangles to Prime's forearms. Like most kits from Toyhax these days there's going to be some labels you just won't use because it adds unnecessary and busy detail where you don't want it, but it honestly goes almost as far as Nonnef's kit it getting Prime and his trailer to look like they should.

You could wait until your Prime and your kit arrive. Or you could pop into the 3P thread and check out my review of Nonnef's kit.

Not to distract from the wrongness of Magnum's alt mode, but I got this kit from Nonnef Productions for Earthrise Optimus Prime's trailer that I suspect has been one of his more popular and anticipated kits. I've bought a few of Nonnef's kits now, and I'm used to getting one or two plastic baggies with some parts, sometimes on sprues and sometimes not. I was a bit impressed to find five baggies, two of them with two compartments, and a loose black piece inside the package. NOTE: When you order the kit you'll have three drop down options, asking you to select you interior, exterior, and cart colors. For the exterior that's the fenders and the struts (but not the feet), and you can pick from blue, gray, and black. I think the fenders and struts were blue in the cartoon and on MP-44, black on Hasbro MP-10, black and gray on Takara MP-10, and black fenders with blue struts on the G1 toy, so I went with blue for the exterior. For the interior, which is just for the consoles, and cart (Roller) you can pick from blue or gray. The consoles are, as far as I know, blue on pretty much every Prime with a working trailer, so I went with blue for the interior. While the cartoon and Japanese MPs used gray or silver for Roller my G1 Prime and my Hasbro MP-10 have blue Rollers, so I went with blue for a third time. It took me a minute to get everything organized, but I wound up making four piles: a pile of parts for the outside of the trailer, a pile of parts for the inside of the trailer, a pile of parts just to make the gas thingy, and a pile of parts to make a Roller. So let's start with the outside of the trailer. First thing you'll do is pull the entire trailer door off the trailer, not just the shield part. It's just friction clipped in. Then pop the new door on. Flip the trailer over and remove the wheels by removing four screws. Then take the fender parts, noting which side faces out and which side faces in. There are two tabs (A) that tuck into a hollow space on the bottom of the trailer. While you're looking at this part, notice the tab (B) on the back? Get the bumper part, and insert the translucent taillights. Now, on the back of the bumper are two holes. Line up the bumper with the slits in it pointing down (or up, since your trailer is probably upside down at this point) so the holes on the back fit over the tabs I called out above. With the fenders an bumper in place you can put the wheels back on. But, don't screw them in all the way. The wheels will overlap and trap part of the fender, forcing you to leave a little gap. If you screw in too hard the wheels will start to bend inward. Why Nonnef didn't design the overlap to be a little bigger and naturally fit over the screw holes I couldn't say, but you basically want it to look like the above picture. You might have already realized that since the wheels can't sit as flush as before the ride height of the trailer is slightly higher. Don't worry, Nonnef has that covered with a piece that fits over the trailers peg on one end and provides a new peg on the other end. The new peg winds up a little lower than the original, correcting for the new ride height. It also allows the trailer to sit back a little further on Prime, which I guess does look a little better/correct. I wasn't really bent out of shape over how close the trailer was to the cab, to be honest. The last parts for the outside are the support struts. Once again, take note of which side faces out and which side faces in. The struts simply plug into the 5mm ports on the underside of the trailer, although this technically means that they're inverted from the G1 trailer, swinging out from the front to the back instead of from the back to the front, but it's not a huge deal. What's a bigger deal to me is the feet. While Nonnef's kits are injection-molded and not 3D-printed, they're relatively simple and Nonnef avoids things like screws or such. So the struts don't angle down as they come out like the original, nor do they have sliding feet like MP-10's. Instead, the feet are hollow with a peg hole through one side, and the struts themselves have a flat piece with a peg hole. If you want the feet on the ground you put the feet on the peg one way, so the flat part of the strut is on the solid end and the flat end of the foot is on the ground. If you want the foot retracted you'd remove it and flip it around, so the flat part of the strut nestles inside the foot. While I'd prefer a less parsformery solution for the struts and feet they do work fine. And while the trailer door isn't an exact color match for the trailer's plastic it's close enough and, in my opinion, looks a lot better than the original door. Although, and I get that Nonnef was copying the G1 trailer, I think I could have lived without the two big tabs at the top, or at least smaller versions of them. The bumper and fenders help fill out the back and give the trailer a much more complete look. On to the inside. You'll get two console pieces that are very similar to what's inside the G1 or MP-10 trailer. They have two pegs on their undersides; you'll only use one, but it allows you to decide which console goes on which side, and installing them is as simple as plugging them into one of the three peg holes on either side of the trailer. Because they're using the existing peg holes you're not really able to get them into a configuration that's an exact match for the G1 trailer, but I think this is close enough. The parts for the drone are a little weird. They're meant to give the drone the antenna and longer, jointed claw arm of the G1 toy, but rather than replace the drone's existing arms it uses them as connection points. So the antenna plugs into the drone's right arm, then you'd fold the arm back . The claw goes into the left arm, and uses the drone's original claw as an elbow. Lastly, you get a pair of missiles that you can push into the 5mm ports on the front of the drone. I think all of this works well enough, but regardless of what colors you picked when you ordered the antenna, claw, and missiles will all be a dark gray plastic. I think I'll have to bust out the silver paint, which I think will mean painting the drones original arms... Building Roller takes a bit of work, but all the parts are designed to peg together without any screws or tools. Start by plugging the seat divider into the base (1). On my copy I had to file the holes before the divider would actually fit. Once it's in place you can fit one side onto the base, but hold off on the other side until you attach the nose and rear (2). Once you've done all that you can push the other side on, giving everything a good squeeze before locking the sides on with the wheels (3). Be careful not to put any wheels on backward. Lastly, finish it off by plugging in the translucent siren. Nonnef's product photos show it on the right side, but based on the G1 cartoon, MP-10, and MP-44 the middle is more accurate. Whichever hole you use you can expect it to be a tight fit. I'm actually not too keen on Nonnef's Roller. Like most of the parts in the kit, Roller's had some bad sprue marks. It's not the worst thing when it's on a spot that's mostly hidden, but in this case there's a big mark on the nose, plus each tire had one. The wheels don't roll that well to begin with. The pieces don't fit together exactly, leaving gaps on the back and nose. There isn't a ton of molded detail or the yellow lights on the nose. And despite ER Prime's trailer being smaller than the G1 trailer and much smaller than MP-10s, Nonnef's "cart" is about halfway in between the G1 and MP-10 Roller in size. That said, the size was a very deliberate choice, because it was designed to carry up to four Titan Masters. The ones that sit in the back either have to face backward or kneel, though. The last thing to build is is the gas thingy. To do this, take the two pieces that form the back and peg them together, trapping the rope between them. Take one of the included round parts (that kind of look like a certain style of Gundam polycap, if you know what I mean) and thread the rope through it. Slide it all the way down and push it onto the base, locking the rope inside. Take the other round part and thread it onto the rope, then get the halves of the nozzle. You want to trap the rope between them then slide the round part in to lock it down again, but on my copy at least there isn't a way to peg the nozzle halves together. The round part will pinch them together, but I found it left a gap at the front of the nozzle, so I wound up gluing it. With the gas thingy built you can either plug it into one (or two) of the remaining four peg holes in the trailer, or you can plug them onto your cart, same as the G1 toy. However, while the pegs fit nicely into the trailer the holes on the cart were too tight, so I had to get the file out again. Here's the trailer with the kit fully installed with the G1 trailer to compare it with. Nonnef's Twitter feed suggested that you'll need to spin the drone around when closing the trailer, but I had no issues closing it up with everything installed and the done in the normal position. If you bought a more G1-y rifle for Prime you can even still store it inside the trailer and everything will close up. Now, here's the thing... yes, Nonnef's kit does go a lot way toward addressing some of the issues the trailer had. However, to achieve this exact look I also wound up painting the drone blue (and, as I said, I may yet paint the Nonnef parts on the drone), and buying the Toyhax labels for ER Prime. Now we're talking about taking a toy that's $50 and spending $25 on Nonnef's kit and $25 on Reprolabels, and now we're getting into the same price I paid for MP-10 (and that's not counting the cost of paint, a new ion rifle, and/or a better Roller). And, I can't speak for you guys, but I definitely want another Roller. I appreciate what Nonnef was trying to do, but this one's not cutting it for me. Fortunately I have Centurion preordered, so I'll have options. That said, I do recommend Nonnef's kit. Even if you don't use all of it, chances are good you'll use enough of it. While I'm looking at another Roller, maybe different missiles for the drone, and different struts for the trailer I feel like I'm getting my money's worth on this kit for the drone antenna, claw, gas thingy, consoles, fenders, bumper, trailer door, and hitch peg.

I'm not super up on older Ferraris... I was more into Lamborghini and Porsche in the '80s. I'm reasonably certain you're correct, Wildrider is a 308 GTB QV, that's definitely what XTB went for and probably what DX9 did as well (harder to say, because DX9's is less detailed overall). Based on the differences I had a feeling that Fans Toys messed up the alt mode, but I was just searching for something like "Ferraris similar to 308" and every hit I got was the 328. And it didn't look like the 328, so I was back to thinking maybe they did use the right Ferrari but messed up some details. But now that you've drawn my attention to it, yeah, Magnum is totally the 288 GTO. Which, y'know, they named him Magnum after Magnum PI, who drove 308 on the show, and Wildrider is supposed to be a 308, but then they went and used a car that wasn't Wildrider or on the show.

I have the first go of X-Transbot's Hoist. It's an ok figure; not without issues, but at the time I felt it was the best representation of the character. This new repaint does look better, but not $40 more than I paid the first time better. And frankly, while I do think XTB's looks more like Hoist than MMC's or BadCube's, I didn't like it enough to buy the mold twice. I'll either wait and see if MMC reissues theirs, check out Fans Toys' (if they ever release it), or buy a used MMC from someone who decided to "upgrade" to Fans Toys (if it ever releases).

One of the smart things they did with Legacy was allow both it and Legacy to exist in the time periods they were made, instead of retroactively shift the original up or make a sequel in modern times set in the past. It allows the differences in visual styles to be explained by the actual cause, more powerful computers, while leaving enough similarities that the world of the Grid still feels like a familiar evolution of the one from the original.

@M'Kyuun In stock, 10 left, get it by Sunday-ish, no markup. Earthrise Optimus Prime at Amazon

When I took Earthrise Prime to the register I knew there was a chance Target wasn't going to let me actually buy it, and I'd feel awkward if I went to the checkouts, tried to buy something, wasn't allowed, and then just left. So, even though I didn't really plan on picking him up, I wound up taking Studio Series Roadbuster to the register, too, and when I couldn't buy Prime I did the, "Well, I guess I'll just take this one today," bit. Before I continue, I have to ask... were these guys really that popular? All three of the Dark of the Moon Wreckers got Cyberverse toys. Roadbuster and Topspin got Deluxe-class releases and a second, repainted Deluxe-class later (Leadfoot actually also got a Deluxe-class figure, but only in Japan). And on top of all that Roadbuster and Leadfoot got Human Alliance figures. And yet I can barely remember these guys even being in the movie (Leadfoot a bit better than the other two, because of the Target branding). I only picked up the original DotM Roadbuster and the repainted "Autobot Armor" Topspin because they were on clearance for $5 a piece at the time. Based on a YouTube video called "Transformers Saga All Roadbuster scenes" I watched for this review he had less than three minutes of screen time. And yet, now Roadbuster's part of the Studio Series. Well, the new figure certainly looks a lot better than the old one, by virtue of not being 90% unpainted taupe plastic. In a lot of ways the new figure is a lot more accurate, with better proportions, wheels on the sides of his knees instead of his hips, an improved head sculpt, no sides of the hanging off his arms, and more molded details like the netting on his shoulders or the canisters in his chest. On the other hand, even ignoring the missing sponsor logos that Hasbro didn't want to license, his colors and paint are only really better than the originals in the sense that he has more colors and paint, but he's still not particularly screen-accurate there. Hasbro used black plastic for his biceps, thighs, and feet, and that does provide some color breakup from the green, gray plastic, and silver paint, but none of those things are actually black (although his feet did have some black on them. His thighs and feet should have green panels, sometimes with white from the stripes on the side, and his thighs had the green broken up with silver metallic bits behind them (much like his shins). His biceps were silver metallic with black rods covered with a copper coil. The white on his chest should follow the edges and curve up to his shoulders. Basically, there should be a lot more green and white. He's also got a big kibble backpack. His sole accessory is this tiny black minigun. No chainsaw, no shoulder gun, no waist guns, no guns for the tires on his knees. Roadbuster's head is on a ball joint, and while it rotates fine he can only look up a little and down not at all. Attempting to do so will pop his head off the ball joint. His shoulders are also on ball joints with a transformation hinge in the chest. The ball joint allows the shoulders to rotate and to extend only about 60 degrees laterally, while the hinge allows him to slump his shoulders a bit. His biceps can swivel. His elbows can bend a bit over 90 degrees. He doesn't have wrist swivels or a waist swivel. His hips are ball joints, and he can kick about 90 degrees forward or 90 degrees laterally, but backward movement is impeded by his back kibble. His thighs swivel. His knees can bend 90 degrees. Due to transformation his feet can tilt up, but nothing really down and no ankle pivots. Overall his articulation is kind of poor, and frankly if the Studio Series is supposed to be a line aimed at adult collectors I really think it's time Hasbro started incorporating some of the articulation improvements they brought to the War for Cybertron Trilogy lines. Heck, even the Cyberverse Deluxes have ankle pivots! Roadbuster's gun is meant to peg into the 5mm peg hole on either arm. Nothing's stopping you from sticking it in his hands, which are molded into a 5mm peg hole shape, though. He also has a 5mm peg hole to either side of his head if you prefer to use it as a shoulder gun. Compared to some of the Studio Series figures with cars for alt modes Roadbuster's transformation is pretty easy. Probably because nearly two thirds of what you're looking at here was the stuff that was folded up onto his back; only the rear fenders (his shoulders) and the nose of the car (his calves and heels) were robot parts. I gotta be honest, I'm a fan of the "in disguise" part of "robots in disguise," and I greatly prefer the alt mode of the original Deluxe. However, I watched that whole three-minute YouTube video, and the fact is Roadbuster (none of the Wreckers, actually) never appeared as a normal NASCAR Chevy Impala, only Mad Max version. So again the Studio Series version is the more screen-accurate version. Well, as with the robot mode, "more screen-accurate" doesn't exactly mean "totally screen accurate." The bladed rims are unpainted instead of silver, and they say "Wreckers Ultra" instead of "Goodyear Eagle." It does have the "Impala" logo across the nose, but simply NASCAR's logo where the National Guard logo should be. A lot of the mechanical details are a silvery plastic, which works for quite a bit of it but is missing some green paint, plus the panels jutting out from under the NASCAR launchers should be white with a Mountain Dew logo. There are other silver panels that should be white or green and some details molded in green plastic that should be white. Almost nothing should be black (except for some bits molded in silver that are maybe supposed to be the guns on the hood). The big wing on the back should be green and black. Now, I get this is a Deluxe-class toy, not an MP. I get they don't have the budget to paint this thing totally accurately. But frankly some of these issues would be less egregious if they'd molded some of the silver pieces, like the part with the wing and the rear bumper or the rotating panels on the sides of his legs that hold the tires, in green instead of silver plastic and then they added some silver paint for just the jet exhaust and some black paint on the wing. You can't tell me they couldn't have afforded at least that much paint; it's not like his itty bitty gun is eating up a ton of his budget. Speaking of guns, there's an oval hole in the nose of the alt mode. You can peg the minigun into the front of the oval, then slide it back to the back of the oval so it's recessed a bit, giving him a movie-accurate minigun for his alt mode nose. I guess I should say this... Roadbuster isn't the worst Studio Series figure. He's not as bad as World War II Bumblebee, car-mode Shatter, or Stinger. He does look OK in both modes, and it's possible Toyhax could do a Reprolabel set that fixes some of inaccuracies I cited. He's easy enough to transform. But, some tabs have trouble staying in, especially the large one in his back that's supposed to lock his backpack in place in robot mode or the ones on the rotating panels on the sides of his legs that are supposed to lock his legs in place in alt mode. His articulation isn't all that great, and he's just got the one little accessory. Couple that with the more subjective notion that Roadbuster is a blink-and-you'll-miss-him nobody of a character and I'm left wondering why we're stuck with him instead of Dino/Mirage, who had a slightly larger roll in the film (and a cooler alt mode), Sideways (who also had a cooler alt mode and a more memorable chase scene in the previous film), Skids and Mudflap (who sucked, but had way more screen time than the Wreckers), Crosshairs and Hound (main characters in both Age of Extinction and The Last Knight), Galvatron (I shouldn't have to explain that one), Lambo Hot Rod, or a proper TLK Barricade that turns into a Saleen Mustang instead of whatever the TLK Deluxe turned into. So feel free to pass on Roadbuster, you really won't be missing out on anything special.

I liked the original Tron, I liked Legacy, and I loved Uprising. So hearing that Disney wants to do a new one, and they want Daft Punk doing the soundtrack, is nothing but good news to me. Well, except for the Jared Leto part.

I really should get around to picking up Divine Shooter.

I saw that this morning on a gaming website. Lots of people complaining that Sega isn't doing a Saturn mini or a Dreamcast mini instead. I guess those people don't get how enormously popular arcades were in Japan. Not saying that I wouldn't mind a Saturn Mini or a Dreamcast mini myself, but given how poorly those systems actually did in their day (ok, the Saturn actually did alright in Japan) I could see this being the smarter move for Sega in the Japanese market. I won't import and Astro City mini, and I'm not totally sure I'd buy one if it got a domestic release. Maybe, having played more in arcades, the Japanese market finds mini cabinets more authentic and/or appealing, but I'd rather ditch the cost of the LCD and what not for a cheaper box since I'd just plug it into the TV anyway. That thing looks too cramped for me (although it looks like it might be a little bigger than the Neo Geo mini). All that said, I love the controller. Something about the neon green buttons, white plastic shell, and the black and gray label reminds me of the kinds of electronic toys I played with growing up in the '80s.

Yesterday I did say I got StutncionS, plural. I also got Magnum, Fans Toys' take on Wildrider. Bonus- with all three Wildriders in hand it's time for another detailed Stunticon comparison review! (X-Transbots on the left, Fans Toys in the middle, DX9 on the right unless otherwise noted.) If there's one thing Fans Toys is known for, one thing I have to give them credit for even when I'm ranting about them, it's that they make good-looking robots. And while I do think that's true here, Magnum does indeed look good, I'm a bit surprised to note that Magnum is not the most cartoon-accurate. For starters, of the three Wildriders Magnum is the only one with silver paint instead of white on the torso. While I've often argued against using white for stuff like Soundwave's forearms or Optimus' thighs, suggesting that it was an '80s animation stand in for the silver/chrome/bare metal you'd find on the toys, I actually think white looks more correct for Wildrider. But, suppose we accept the silver for now. There's still a large square of gray in the middle of his chest that should definitely match the silver. There's also some added molded detail under the blue squares that's not cartoon-accurate, but seems to be meant to disguise the pins running through his torso there. Aside from wishing his silver was white and the gray square under his chin were matched to his torso I don't have much to complain about. FT used translucent blue for the squares instead of just paint, and I dig it. He's got asymmetric squares, as the cartoon does, but I do feel like the bottoms of the blue squares should have lined up. Where XTB interpreted Wildrider's character model as having white the whole way down his torso and a gray pelvis and DX9 interpreted the model as a white chest and gray midriff before adding a new pelvis, Fans toys sort of split the difference and I think it works. Ultimately, they all have the vented pattern in the middle, the octagons on his shins, and the protruding rectangles on the knee (although FT added some non-cartoon translucent red there) with a trapezoid swooping down to his shin, and the lined circles on the toes. The metallic red paint looks best on XTB but still quite good on Magnum, and both are better than the simple gloss red on DX9. In pictures the darker gray on Magnum doesn't look as metallic as XTB's, but in person it is metallic and arguably closer to the cartoon's colors than the other two. On the whole, though, I think I have to give the visual edge to XTB this time. As you'd expect, though, Magnum is the heaviest of the three, with FT's usual overload of diecast. I think Magnum also has the messiest back. Not to say it's bad, it's just not as clean as the other two. Despite the kibble, I don't think he's all that thicker than DX9's, which was often ridiculed for being too thin. Personally I think both are fine, and TF fans are just too used to figures hauling around giant backpacks. I'm not going to beat a dead horse on robot mode scale; FT's are Seeker-sized like DX9's and XTB's are the same size as the Autobot cars. Whichever scale you prefer, you have options. Magnum doesn't come with much in the way of accessories. There's an alternate open-mouthed face, and a gun. On the right you can see how Magnum's gun (middle) compares with XTB's (top) and DX9's (bottom). None are awful, but I do prefer the extra little detail on XTB's and FT's. Magnum's head is on a hinged swivel. His head rotates and he can look up about 45 degrees, but he doesn't have much in the way of looking down. His shoulders rotate on ratchets and can extend laterally over 90 degrees. His biceps swivel. He does have double-jointed elbows, although the upper joint is very tight on my copy. I don't want to force it too hard, so I can't be sure of the range, but he can definitely bend his elbows more than 90 degrees. His wrists swivel. His fingers are individually-articulated with a pin at the base and middle knuckles, while his thumbs are ball-jointed at the base with no additional articulation. His waist can swivel. His hips can ratchet forward and backward just about 90 degrees, and they can spread on friction joints to a little under 90 degrees. His thighs swivel, and his knees are double-jointed with a ratchet at the top and friction at the bottom, and combined they'll bend until his shins hit his thighs. His feet can tilt up very slightly, down almost 90 degrees, and his ankles pivot 90 degrees. Worth noting that all of his joints feel quite solid and overall his articulation is pretty good (which is really nice after Iceman, FT's previous figure). However, I'd be a bit remiss if I didn't mention that he's lacking an ab crunch, something XTB and DX9 both have. Magnum's gun has tabs on the handle that fit into slots on his palms. Nothing new or unusual there. Where Fans Toys' figures often go wrong for me is the transformation, which are often include questionable decisions at best and at worst are overly-complicated and poorly-tolerances nightmares to mess with. However, much as was the case with Spoiler (their Breakdown), Magnum is actually pretty straightforward and relatively easy to transform. And the resulting car looks pretty good. There seems to be less mass-shifting magic going on here than there was for Spoiler, though, as Magnum's dimensions are very similar to DX9's. XTB's is narrower and a little shorter. However, I can't help but feel like the difference between all three isn't as pronounced as it was for the Breakdowns. While I think Magnum looks good enough (for a layperson), after doing way more research into Ferrari's than I care to I'll point out that Magnum is the least accurate 308 of the bunch. Magnum has a more flared tail, a trio of slits behind the rear tires, he's missing the louvers on the rear windows, he's missing the marker lights in front of the tires on the sides, his chin is less pronounced, and he's got four big lights and a less-defined grill. The differences between Magnum and the other two had me double-checking that FT didn't accidentally go with the very similar Ferrari 328, but no, overall he's still closer to a 308. But the award for best alt mode definitely goes to XTB. That is, of course, unless you care about gimmicks. Magnum has the pop out headlights. DX9 has both the headlights and doors that open. XTB's.... it just sits there looking good, I suppose. As far as other gimmicks, Magnum rolls on rubber tires. The handle of his gun can fold back, exposing a post with a tab on it. The tab fits into a slot in his rear windshield. But super careful, though. On my copy the tab was a super tight fit, and I was worried that I was going to break something trying to get it back out. Sometimes slow and steady wins a race. While I feel like XTB and DX9's Wildriders excel at different things they also have their weak points. Magnum mostly excels at being very good all-around. I think you guys have read enough of my reviews of Fans Toys figures to know that I'm not one of their fan boys, I don't pull punches with them, and if I think a figure has issues I'll say so. With that in mind I hope you know it's serious when I say that this is a great figure I highly recommend as the best of of the Wildriders. That isn't to say that the others are bad- I think DX9 still has an edge in ease of transformation and playability, and XTB's is the most real world-accurate in alt mode and cartoon-accurate in bot mode. I'll also note that XTB's Wildrider is probably the easiest of their Stunticons to transform, too, and they've all got similar accessories and good articulation. All three are great figures, and if you're already collecting a different set I'm sure you're happy with it, but if I had to pick a winner it's definitely Magnum first, XTB second, and DX9 third. And for those of you keeping score, that means I'm picking Fans Toys for the overall winner three out of three times now (with XTB coming in second on Motormaster and Wildrider and DX9 edging them out on Breakdown). Of course there is the usual caveat that the Stunticons are a combiner, and we really don't know how XTB's and FT's Menasor will work out yet. But since I'm still in on all three sets I guess I'll have my options.

Nope, no clones. @M'Kyuun I found an Earthrise Optimus there. I tried to buy it for you, but I also got stymied by an extremely arbitrary release date on a figure that's already been released. EDIT: I saw that Pulse has a preorder page up for ER Prime. Weirdly enough it says "This preorder item will be available to ship on approx. 07.07.2020. So... today?

I have Athena on preorder, too, but I'll probably hold off on shipping her until MMC's Blast Off drops.

Those look interesting... more accurate than an emulator and support for CRTs. But, unless things have massively improved since the Game Sack video I watched on them, it sounds like not everything's working yet, and SD storage isn't going to cut it for my collection. My collection of ROMs and ISOs is close to 2TB, and I haven't even started on PlayStation yet. Minisforum is getting ready to crowdfund a new mini PC with Ryzen 5, I'll probably look into getting one of those and setting it up with Retroarch or something.

According to Brickseek there isn't a store that has the clones within 50 miles of me.

Forgive the lighting (and dust, didn't realize it was that bad up there until I looked at the picture). When Dragstrip comes out I'll combine them all up, and replace the bot-mode DX9 guys with the Fans Toys ones. XTB will either be alt mode or a toy/OX Menasor.