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mikeszekely

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  1. mikeszekely
    So three years ago I picked up and reviewed Planet X's Jupiter here. Sometime after that I sold Jupiter, since I'd decided to focus on a more MP-style collection (plus, y'know, I didn't have the highest opinion of Jupiter in the first place). But then I moved, and after I moved I wound up leaving the Gundam models I'd built in storage and I used one of the Detolfs they'd been in just to display different versions of Optimus I'd picked up, and I started to regret getting rid of Jupiter. And then earlier this year I picked up several Planet X figures that BBTS had marked down, and I really started to regret selling Jupiter. Around that same time Planet X announced a reissue with a new metallic paint job, so I preordered and forgot about it until I got hit with the invoice (and of course it'd come out when a bunch of other preorders came out so I wound up getting yelled at for that credit card bill). Anyway, I'm not going to re-review Jupiter, but I thought you guys might like to know what's different, in case you're thinking about getting one. Of course, the most obvious difference is the paint. The previously unpainted gray, red, and blue plastics are now metallic silver, gloss red, and metallic blue, respectively (with one exception), and the paint really makes him pop. There are some minor differences, though. The original in-game models, not helped by the lighting technology at the time, had kind of a grungy-yet-shiny look, and it was hard to tell what was meant to be silver and what was meant to be black or gunmetal. So, on the original version there were parts that were black like the pipes on his shoulders and the backs of his legs and the glowing booster thing in his backpack that are painted silver here. Likewise, the stripe on the front of his forearm was painted gunmetal, now it's silver. And his hands, which were actually blue before, are also silver. Unless you think some of that silver should be darker (for me, mainly his hands), those changes are arguably more game-accurate. Less-accurate, though, are the fact that they omitted some pink paint from inside the pipes, opting instead for a bit of blue around the edges. The changes apply to his accessories, too. The detail inside his chest aren't painted (or rather, aren't painted differently) anymore, and instead of being gold with a translucent blue core the Matrix is painted silver with a translucent red core. Not a fan of that. His sword, axe, and gun are silver instead of black; I think I preferred black for the gun; it's the color of his ion rifle and the color used in concept art, but it's definitely more silvery in-game. Some of the original blue-painted details are red, others are just flat out left silver. Red matches concept art, blue matches the game, but either way it needed more of it. As for the axe and gun the translucent blades are replaced with painted ones, and they look fine. If you don't have Jupiter and you're looking to get one this is the version to get. While I'm not a fan of every change, like his gun or his Matrix, they're smaller negatives compared to how much better the robot looks overall.
  2. mikeszekely
    That T-Beast Sideswipe looks great. I just have too much money tied up in other stuff right now, and it doesn't really fit with the rest of my collection.
  3. mikeszekely
    It came out as a box set quite some time ago. But I see BBTS still has some.
  4. mikeszekely
    Well, my TG16 Mini arrived today. I love the early 90's neon orange box. The menus remind me a lot of the NES and SNES Classic's. It's clear whoever Konami contracted to build it is familiar with those systems. There's some nice touches, though, like how when you pick a game you see an animation of the HuCard or CD-ROM being inserted. The software selection is a bit baffling. Given that it's $40 more than the 30-ish game NES Classic (1 controller) and $20 more than the 20-ish game SNES Classic (2 controllers) or the 40-ish game Genesis mini (also 2 controllers) you'd expect that Konami would either go all-in on pack-ins or software. Well, no the pack-ins, you just get one controller in addition to the usual USB and HDMI cables. So is it the software? It's been advertised that the TG16 mini has 57 games, so that must be it! Except the software decisions are, honestly, kind of baffling. Like, when you start up the console, you'll only see 25 games. That's way less than 57! Well, it turns out that those 25 games are all the American games which include some TG16 Turbo Chips and some TurboGrafx-CD games. So, where are the rest? Well, in the bottom of the screen you'll see a PCEngine icon; clicking it switches the menu to the PCEngine menu, which has it's own list of games. These games are also a mix of HuCard and CD-ROM² games, and they're all in Japanese. Well, that makes a certain amount of sense, right? I mean, the PCEngine was way more popular in Japan than the TG16 was in the States. And hey, the PCEngine games include Dracula X, so win, right? Look, I'm the last person on earth to complain about getting Dracula X, but there's still some very weird decisions here. For one, games in one series can be split between menus. For example, Bonk's Adventure (aka PC Genjin) is a PCEngine game, but the sequel, Bonk's Revenge, is a TurboGrafx game. Then there's stuff that seems like it should have been included but isn't. Just continuing with Bonk, the third game, Bonk's Big Adventure, isn't included. Nor is Keith Courage in Alpha Zones, despite it having been the original TG16 pack-in game. Fair enough, we can't have everything, right? Ok, but do we have to waste space on doubles? Games like Neutopia, Neutopia II, and Y's Book I & II are in both the TG16 and PCEngine menus, and that 57 game total is counting both versions separately. What's more, while stuff like Castlevania and Aldynes is easy enough to play even if you don't understand Japanese, good luck playing stuff like Snatcher, Dungeon Explorer, Nectaris, or Jaseiken Necromancer if you don't. Now, I'd thought that all this might be because Konami decided to make and use just one system for all markets, just with different shells around the hardware. Japanese fans would probably want stuff like Snatcher even if foreigners can't read it, and for text-heavy games released in both markets you'd have to include both, right? But then I looked, and nope. The Japanese PCEngine Mini has Tengai Makyo II and Tokimeki Memorial, which the TG16 Mini is missing. And the TG16 Mini has Salamander, which isn't on the the PCEngine Mini, plus there are differences in the PCEngine version of Splatterhouse compared to the TG16 one. If they were able to make those differences it's puzzling why they couldn't make more. All that said, after some digging it was revealed that the TG16 Mini runs on basically the same hardware as the Genesis Mini, and the team behind the Project Lunar Genesis Mini hack announced that Project Phobos, a hack for the TG16 Mini, will come after they get the 1.1 update with folder support out for Project Lunar. So it sounds to me like if you have a favorite game that missed the official cut there's hope yet. End of the day, I'm getting serious '90s deja vu... the TurboGrafx-16 Mini is a fun little console, but with a weaker software library than the Nintendo and Sega consoles it's competing with. Sure, the 57-game library might seem like it's trying to make up for quality with quantity, but the reality is once you take out the doubles and the Japanese games with an insurmountable language barrier you're probably dropping closer to the Genesis Mini's 42 games, making it the better retro deal at $20 less plus a second controller (and that's to say nothing of the sheer quality of the libraries on the two Nintendo Classics). So, while I don't regret picking one up at all, more casual players just looking for something they played as a kid can probably let the TG16 Mini pass them by.
  5. mikeszekely
    My desktop is fairly new (Core i7-9700K, RTX 2080) and my laptop is brand new (Ryzen 4900HS, RTX 2060 Max-Q). So I'm not going to be upgrading anything for awhile, and I'll skip the RTX 3000-series. When the RTX 4000 series rolls around I could take a look at the price vs performance of both them and whatever the current Radeons are, plus whatever my budget is. But, while I'm cool making sacrifices on laptops (I travel sometimes, and I don't feel like carrying a 7lb, 17" behemoth around airports for hours at a time) and machines for specific purposes I tend to go for power on my desktop GPUs. But, if I get bored, I have a tiny computer I built inside an old NES just to run emulators on. It's running a low-wattage Intel Skylake (6th-gen) CPU, I forget which one. I could definitely see myself building a newer small form factor PC for retro gaming and using a new AMD Zen 2 APU.
  6. mikeszekely
    Yeah, I mean, I don't have any modern experience with their GPUs. I mean, a long time ago the very first PC I bought after I got married and moved out of my parents' place was a Sony VAIO with Windows XP. I was just starting to dabble with PC games, but the board in the PC used the short-lived AGP slot for graphics, and the very best card I could find with an AGP interface was a Radeon. It still wasn't all that great, although I was able to manage to run FEAR on it, and yeah, I wasn't a fan of the driver software. But since then I've used Nvidia cards in my computers and I've been quite satisfied. I think the Radeon cards had the same "better bang for your buck" thing at the lower end that the AMD CPUs did, but at the higher ends Nvidia was crushing them. I have no idea if that's still true or not today, but I've been following Nvidia long enough that I understand their numbering conventions and can tell at a glance what generation and how relatively powerful a given card is. The Radeon model numbers don't mean anything to me, though, and I'm fine with Nvidia's performance and software, so I don't really give the Radeon cards a second thought.
  7. mikeszekely
    Probably more eagerly anticipated than Sentinel Prime is his wavemate- Studio Series Voyager-class Scrapper. But is Scrapper any good? After digging through some concept art and screenshots, it looks like Scrapper is fairly screen accurate. He's got the squished insect-looking head the big round shoulders, thin arms, smokestacks on his back, narrow waist, wide hips with tires, tires in his heels, and shovel feet. His left hand is curled into a mace, but alas there's no chain or mechanism for using it as such. His right arm is a claw, but the large flat piece behind it isn't so accurate. He's got molded detail in his chest that could be the lights you see on the actual character model, but they're not painted or marked as such. Overall, like Sentinel, he's not perfect but he seems appropriate for a Voyager-class figure. For comparison, I have him here with Voyager-class Long Haul and Deluxe-class Scrapmetal, the two figures I'd consider to the be the best Stunticons so far. Scrapper's head is on a ball joint in the back, which allows him to look up a little, down a lot, and rotate in a way that tilts his head sideways. The base of the ball peg has a hinge, though, and that hinge allows him to look left and right as well. His shoulders rotate, although the pipes on his sides and the smokestacks on his back can get in the way, and a hinge allows his shoulders to move 90 degrees laterally. Both arms have bicep swivels and double-jointed elbows that combined give him almost 180 degrees of elbow bend. His right arm has a second (wrist?) swivel where the black piece connects just below the elbow. The flat part of his "hand" is hinged so it can bend in and out, and the claws at the end can open and close. His left hand only has a hinge for transformation that allows it to bend up. The curled claws on it don't move, which is kind of a shame. No waist swivel. The way his pelvis is built the entire hip and leg can swivel a bit, but there's almost no lateral movement. His hips do rotate, though, allowing him to kick forward or bend backward well over 90 degrees. Below the tires on his hips he has thigh swivels. His knee can bend to 90 degrees, but it actually can't straight more than a 45 degree bend. If everything is tabbed together the way it's meant to be he has no foot or ankle articulation. As has often been the case with the Studio Series Constructicons, Scrapper doesn't come with any accessories. Scrapper's transformation is fairly simple. The most difficult parts are finding the right clearances to move his legs around to make the wheels. As for his size, well, a part of me think he should be a lot smaller, but if they're heavy mining equipment and not your typical construction vehicles then I guess it's ok. Judging by the size of the cockpits, anyway. Thing is, whether Hasbro is going to sell me on this being a mining vehicle or not, it's not screen accurate. Aside from being yellow, having wheels, and being a front loader it's really not even all that close. A lot of its bulk from the cabin to the back don't resemble any front loader I've seen, let alone the CAT in the movie. In fact, it looks like the random jagged metal that makes up Bayverse robot kibble. Scrapper can roll (quite well, even). His shovel can lift up a little at his robot knee joint, but there's no additional articulation to be had in this mode. If you can get Scrapper into his alt mode, you can get him into his arm mode. Just split apart his shovel, rotate each piece 180 degrees, fold out the claws on the bottom "finger," flip out the combiner connector, and you're basically done. Technically the instructions have you bend the cabin forward, but all that entails is untabbing it and not tabbing it back into anything else. As I mentioned earlier, it's my opinion that Longhaul and Scrapmetal have been the best of the Studio Series Constructicons. And I honestly think that's because they have more humanoid bodies than Scavenger, Mixmaster, Rampage/Skipjack, and Hightower, so I had pretty high hopes for Scrapper. Well, my expectations were half right. I definitely like Scrapper better than Scavenger, Mixmaster, Rampage, and Hightower. However, I do think he falls a little short of Long Haul or Scrapmetal. So for now, on his own, I'd give him a soft recommend if you need more Decepticons. Of course, I suspect that won't matter for a lot of collectors. It's all about Devastator, right? And after seven releases we can see the light at the end of the tunnel, with just one more Overload left to complete the gestalt (although time will tell if I pick up Skipjack just to have a more-accurate yellow left foot).
  8. mikeszekely
    I've been a supporter of Intel for a long time. I've had a first gen core i7, a third gen, and my current desktop is a 9700K. Every laptop I've owned prior to my current one had Intel CPUs. But right now? I've got a laptop with a Ryzen and I love it. AMD had been better bang for your buck for years, but Intel won out on raw performance at the higher end. Now that gap is closing. Intel's 10th gen just isn't enough; if I were building a new PC right now it'd definitely be a Ryzen.
  9. mikeszekely
    OK, enough with the Cyberverse stuff (for now). Here's Studio Series Voyager-class Sentinel Prime. The molded details on this figure is pretty good. It's a little hard to describe, but panels and lines you'd find on the CGI model are generally represented on the toy. However, while red and gunmetal is basically the right colors, you'll find if you look a little closer that sometimes the colors are inverted. For just a simple example take a look as his hip and thigh. There's a bit of hinged armor on his hips that's gray on the toy, but it should be red. Meanwhile, some of the gray on the outside of his thighs should also be red, and the large, y-shaped molded detail on the front of his thighs should actually be gray. It's a little irritating, given the Studio Series' emphasis on greater screen accuracy than older toys, but given that I think all the red you see here is paint it's probably appropriate for the budget Hasbro gives to a Voygaer-class figure. Sentinel comes with his weapon, the Primax blade. Aside from the fact that the holes near the grip are filled in on the toy, and it's lacking the red paint, the molded detail is again pretty screen accurate. It's even got the asymmetric three points on one blade one point on the other. I think Sentinel's head is on a ball joint, but the range is fairly limited. He can look up a decent amount, but he can't look down or tilt his head sideways. Even turning his head is limited to a little under 45 degrees to either side. His shoulders rotate and move laterally 90 degrees. His biceps swivel just above his elbows, which bend over 90 degrees. His wrists swivel. He does have a bit of a waist swivel, but it's hindered by the wheels in his sides. His hips can go over 90 degrees forward, 90 degrees laterally, and over 60 degrees backward due to a bit of backpack kibble. His thighs swivel just above his knees, and his knees bend 90 degrees. His feet can tilt up and down a little due to his transformation, but unfortunately he's lacking ankle pivots. The handle of the Primax blade splits in two, and you can slide them into the top and bottom of a fist to reunite them. Alternatively, although I don't know if he did anything like it in the movie, you can leave the halves split and it looks like he's holding two short swords. Considering how little vehicle kibble is showing (at least from the front) on the robot mode the transformation is surprisingly uncomplicated. Much of the front and top of the vehicle is, indeed, that aforementioned backpack. Meanwhile, his chest turns inside out to form the sides of the vehicle, trapping is arms inside. That just leaves his legs to form the bottom of the truck. That truck, by the way, is a Rosenbauer Panther, a kind of firetruck used mainly by airports. Hasbro actually did license the vehicle, and the resulting alt mode is quite good. It's just lacking a bit of color; a lot of the gray would look better if it were closer to black, while other parts like the railing and boom on the top of the truck should be white. The back of the truck should have red and white stripes, with white ladders. None of the lights are painted, and while it's got the Rosenbauer logo and the big "316" on the side it's missing a lot of the smaller markings. His weapon integrates into the alt mode, forming some of the paneling on the bottom edges of the truck and hiding his robot thighs. Aside from that he rolls ok, and the boom on top can hinge up and down. Even if much of the plot of Dark of the Moon seems to conflict with the previous two films, I like it when Transformers media explores the lineage of Primes before Optimus. Plus, with the great Leonard Nimoy providing his voice, I think Sentinel Prime was one of the better bits of the Bayverse. The new Studio Series version isn't an MP Sentinel Prime, but for a $30 Voyager I think it's a fine representation of the character, especially if Toyhax releases a label set for him or you're handy with the paints. I'm going to give this guy a recommend.
  10. mikeszekely
    I can't recall that Maketoys reissued any of their Re:Master figures prior to Downbeat, but I also am not certain that Maketoys' Re:Master stuff sold out super quickly aside from Downbeat and the Seekers. Many of them, including their Megatron and their Reflector, actually had some pretty hefty markdowns. That said, if Maketoys needs cash to finance other figures reissuing the Seekers while the demand is still high would be a no-brainer.
  11. mikeszekely
    I don't usually give a number; all I have to measure with is a very large measuring tape, and numbers are kind of abstract to me. Instead I show the figure with some other figures to give a size comparison (in that review I showed him with Unique Toys' Sound Mixer, which is basically Voyager-sized, and KFC's Transistor, which is about the same size as MP Soundwave). If it helps, though, I measured him for you (if a bit imprecisely) and found he's about 3.75 inches/9.5cm. That being said, I don't know if MFT changed the original Magic Square design at all; I think MFT KO'ed their Ultra Magnus and made it bigger so I wouldn't be surprised if they did the same for Blaster. Hope that helps.
  12. mikeszekely
    Ok, it took him a little longer to get here than Hot Rod did, but I did also get Cyberverse Deluxe-class Grimlock. Grimlock is basically the same size as the rest of the Cyberverse Deluxes (or, as it were, Warrior-class RiD Grimlock, aka the last Grimlock I bought from an aimed-at-kids line), and while that strikes this old geewunner as wrong it's actually fairly in keeping with the show, from what I've seen (the first season). I know, missing paint apps have been something of a running theme with this line, and that's certainly going to be the case for Grimlock here. Most noticeably his shins should have a yellow stripe running from under his knee pads to the tops of his feet, with one blue and one red square per shin. Many of the little spikes on his legs are painted, but some of them aren't, and he could use a little black on his biceps. However, when you consider that he's almost entirely made of gray plastic, Grimlock is actually sporting quite a bit of paint and, shins and biceps aside, he's actually fairly well done. His upper torso is painted yellow with red details, leaving the gray correctly showing on the vents on his chest. His abs are painted red, and his lats are black. The red on his pelvis is painted, and the black and red details on his shoulders. Even his head is mostly painted, with just his face showing the original gray plastic. Overall, I'd say he looks pretty good. The colors are a good homage to G1, and the big shoulders and forearms give him an appropriately beefy silhouette. I'm not a huge fan of the face, but that's cartoon-accurate so what can you do? Grimlock comes with a few accessories. There's a crown he wore in the Cyberverse episode "King of the Dinosaurs," and like Grimlock himself it's made from gray plastic with yellow and red painted details; it's just missing some blue. He's got a translucent orange effect part. And he's got Maccadam's right forearm. Would be nice to get some biceps and shoulders so I could attach these forearms already... So Grimlock's got a few limitations when it comes to articulation. His head is on a ball joint, and although he can't look down or do much in the way of sideways tilt it's cut in such a way that he can look straight up, as well as turn his head to the sides. His shoulders are ball joints, and why they rotate without issues the bulk of his shoulders means he can't even quite move them 45 degrees laterally. His elbows are ball joints, which also act as a swivel, but again due to the bulk of his arms he can't quite bend them 90 degrees. His wrists can bend inward due to his transformation, but there's no swivel. His waist, on the other hand, does swivel. His hips are ball joints and they can go a little under 90 degrees forward, backward, or laterally. He has cut thigh swivels, and his knees are single hinges that bend under 90 degrees. His feet are on double hinges for transformation, so you can bend them down and if you work both joints even up a little, plus he has over 90 degrees of ankle pivot. I don't know if this is just my copy or if it's a production thing, but while none of his ball joints feel too loose his left thigh swivel is kind of tight, and trying to manipulate it will cause his entire leg to pop off the ball joint. (which is a little irritating as it's necessary for transformation). His right leg is fine, though. The tops of Grimlock's ears fit into slots inside the crown, fixing it to his head. And while he doesn't have guns or a sword (not that I recall him having any in the one season of the show I watched), the end of the effect part has the shape of a 5mm peg, and you can put it in his hand like some sort of firey club. When I reviewed Hot Rod I mentioned that his transformation reminded me of the G1 toy, and I was critical of the figure's simplicity. Grimlock, on the other hand, is surprisingly complex for kid's toy. There's no big surprises with his upper body, but his waist turns 90 degrees and his tail unfurls from his legs. Interestingly, his feet double-hinge out to form part of his back and some of his chest and stomach, filling in some gaps. The "Cyberverse lacks paint" bug hits his alt mode more than his robot mode, I think. He's missing a lot of yellow that should be on his dinosaur neck and a large segment of his tail. And the way the little spikes on his legs were painted means that on one side of his tail they are but on the other they're not. You can also notice around his dino hips that his robot torso was assembled from two parts, and only the front was painted. The inside of the circular details on his legs should be been painted red. Finally, instead of having a yellow dewclaw his entire fist is just chilling on the back of his foot. Weirdly enough, his dinosaur hands were painted yellow but they're actually not supposed to be painted. Grimlock's articulation is even more disappointing in dinosaur mode. His jaw does open, but he's got no other head articulation. His dino arms are just molded bits and have no articulation. His tail has no articulation. His dino hips, aka his robot shoulders, are still ball joints so they can rotate and give him a slight spread. He has no knee articulation in this mode (or rather, due to his transformation, the ball joints are cut so that his knees would bend in toward his body). There's a tiny tab on the crown that plugs into a notch on top of his head, so he can still wear his crown in dinosaur mode. A peg inside his mouth allows you plug the effect part in, so it looks like he's breathing fire. If I'm being totally fair and comparing Cyberverse Grimlock to a Siege or Earthrise Deluxe I'm still struck by how much better the Siege/Earthrise stuff is. The missing paint apps and the reliance on ball joints instead of mushroom-cut biceps, hinges for elbows, and universal joints for the shoulders and hips is blatantly lower-quality for a figure that costs the same price. I'm I limit my comparisons to just the other Cyberverse stuff, though, he's not too bad. The amount of paint he does have is a bit more than the others, he comes with some appropriate accessories, and the engineering is pretty interesting. And when I look at the other Cyberverse Grimlocks only the much larger and more expensive Ultimate Class is even remotely as show-accurate as this Deluxe version. So, if you're not into Cyberverse then there's nothing here that would change your mind. But, if you're a fan of the show or are already collecting from the line then Grimlock is a decently fun figure that won't disappoint the way Hot Rod did.
  13. mikeszekely
    Looks like it's a Mech Fans Toys KO of Magic Square's Stereo Master. I have the original Magic Square one, and I reviewed it here. I don't know if Mech Fans Toys changed it at all.
  14. mikeszekely
    I found one Chinese ebay seller, but they're asking $179 and they only have 368 reviews (98% positive). Your call, though.
  15. mikeszekely
    Maketoys Downbeat. That looks like the original version, which has been sold out for awhile now. Lucky for you, Maketoys is releasing a "Downbeat Premium" with more paint and some extra decals. Looks like preorders are still available at TFSource and The Chosen Prime.
  16. mikeszekely
    Yeah, in addition to the Impactor and Roller kits I've bought Ratchet Studios filler kits for Ratchet and Ironhide, and a pair of Matrix Workshop ion rifles for Siege and Earthrise Prime. In addition to those kits I bought the two Generations Selects Seacons I have on hand there. The upgrade kits are, perhaps, a little on the pricey side, but they can really improve a figure. I have more coming for Studio Series DotM Megatron, Earthrise Hoist, and Siege/Earthrise Astrotrain. Oh, and if you buy a couple of kits at once they have coupons on the site you can use for $1 off two kits, $2 off three kits, or $3 off four kits. It's not just about the upgrade kits, though. Since I've started dealing with them TF Safari has been consistently one of the best customer service experiences I've had from a Chinese seller. Their prices are fairly competitive with bigger names like ShowZ Store, and they were very responsive with an issue I had with a recent order (missing piece from one of the upgrade kits I'd ordered, I asked if they could get me the part and mail it with my next order, and in under 24 hours they promised to do just that, going so far as to send me some stuff I'd preordered without waiting for the rest of the stuff I'd preordered to come in). Plus they've been tossing little freebies in with my orders (I'm not sure, but I think they might be Halo Mega Blocks minifigs, or KOs of such). If they have something in stock that you want I'd strongly recommend giving them a try.
  17. mikeszekely
    I had no idea until today, but apparently he did the voice for Swindle in Transformers Animated.
  18. mikeszekely
    I don't really care to use Cliffjumper's backpack as a shield or whatever, but I don't really think it's too big, and the partsforming to get it from the back of the car to the back of the robot doesn't really bother me. If it does bother you, though, TF Safari (where I've been getting a lot of my upgrade kits) is selling a piece that puts the rear of the car on a hinged armature that keeps it attached during transformation.
  19. mikeszekely
    I'm planning on getting both the Cyberverse and Earthrise versions, but I'm afraid you'll have to go to one of the popular reviewers if you want to hear about the MP one since I'm taking a pass on it.
  20. mikeszekely
    As @jenius said, that's the Haslab one. That said, Zeta supposedly sold off the design or rebranded, and it is still coming this summer. The brand is now 01-Studio, and they're calling the figure Cell. ShowZ Store is taking preorders, supposedly I locked in my price it's been creeping up (it's currently $350, and I don't think shipping is free right now). Ben over at Ben's Collectibles got to show off a headless, wingless sample on his Youtube channel.
  21. mikeszekely
    They've all been pretty easy for me. I don't think I've bought an official MP since Ironhide, and the only ones that were ever even in the running were Inferno (but I decided to stick with MMC's) and Sunstreaker (I kept BadCube's). I thought I already posted this, but I guess it didn't take or I wrote it but closed the browser before I actually posted. But anyway... Generations Selects God Neptune. I've always liked God Neptune's colors and I'd probably be in for this if it were cheaper. But Siege and Earthrise have spoiled me with good joint tolerances and ankle tilts. The Combiner Wars/Power of the Primes engineering just isn't worth dumping another almost $200 for a repaint.
  22. mikeszekely
    I'm kind of excited. I didn't have a TG16 as a kid, but a friend of mine did and I remember playing Bonk at his house. Plus I'm starting to think mini consoles are my thing. After the TG16 Mini the only one I don't have (not counting anything by AtGames, or regional differences like the PCEngine Mini or the Famicom Classic [although I do have a Super Famicom Classic]) is the Commodore 64 Mini. I heard they made a non-mini version of their mini with a working keyboard; maybe I should track one down. EDIT: Oh, I see 8bitdo is making a wireless controller for it that's the same price as the official wired controllers. Sweet!
  23. mikeszekely
    Nice. After emailing me a few weeks ago to tell me that my expected delivery date for the TurboGrafx-16 Mini was pushed to 2021, I got an email today that said it's been pushed up and I might have it by the end of the month.
  24. mikeszekely
    Looks like MP Arcee will come with two pistols, a rifle, a pistol holster, three faces, three blast effects, that spiked probe she tripped up a Junkion with in the movie, and an entire car folded up onto her back. MSRP $150.
  25. mikeszekely
    Been on a bit of an upgrade kick lately. I think it's because the newer Siege and Earthrise figures have been so good. Like, on an older Hasbro figure I'd probably be like, "it's kind of meh, but oh well, that's Hasbro." But now it's like they're so close to what you really wanted that the deficiencies seem both more glaring and more easily corrected. This time, instead of importing a 3D-printed kit from an obscure group in China I decided to try a smaller domestic outfit, not as big as players like Dr Wu or DNA Design, but still well-regarded in the community, called Nonnef Productions, and this is their kit for Earthrise Wheeljack. Unlike the Chinese kits I've been looking at Nonnef's stuff isn't 3D printed. Instead it appears to be injection-molded, and in fact some of the parts are still on runners. What you get here are a pair of wrenches, a pistol, and a missile/barrel on their own plus the parts to make a shoulder launcher on the runners. The parts almost look like they're painted a glossy gray, but I think it's just the color of the plastic. Additionally, you get a pair of translucent wing parts. The wings are pretty straightforward. If you looked, you might have noticed that Wheeljack's spoiler-wings are just pegged in place, with little tabs to stop them from rotating past certain points. To swap in the Nonnef wings you simply pull the old ones off and pop the new ones in place. They even have the same little tabs that stop them at the right points. The translucent color does match the original MP Wheeljack and G1 toy, but I think I'd have preferred them to be silver on the front side and white on the back. More on that in a bit. The main thing is that they're longer and more prominent, and that's a big upgrade over the stock ones... in robot mode. For the shoulder launcher, start by removing the parts from the runners. You'll have two sides, a front, and two inner parts with tabs for the slots on Wheeljack's shoulders. Note that you only need one; the tabs are slightly offset, and one is designed to sit on his right shoulder, the other for his left. Since right is more cartoon accurate that's what I went with. Insert it onto one of the sides, then close the other side over it. Slip the front over the hole, then slide the missile part in. The resulting shoulder cannon will have a tab that fits into the slot on on Wheeljack's shoulder, just like the accessory he came with. Unlike that one, though, the new one is far more cartoon accurate and even has a hinge so it can raise up. As for the gun and wrenches they slip into Wheeljack's hands just the way you'd expect. Actually, if he's holding the gun and one wrench you could say that you've got an extra wrench for Siege Ratchet. While the wrenches do fit Wheeljack's personality it's the gun whose absence was the most sorely felt. Bigger wings, a cartoon-accurate shoulder cannon, and an actual handheld gun make for some substantial improvements to Wheeljack's robot mode. Unfortunately this kit really drops the ball in alt mode. I'll give them credit for trying with the wings. Because they're longer you'd expect them to collide, but each is slightly kinked in opposite directions so one slides over the other and they still make spoiler. The problem is that it's translucent. As I said before, if it were white on the back and silver on the front the silver side would make for cartoon-accurate wings and the white side would be the right color for the car's spoiler. And this seems like something that'd be an easy fix, except Hasbro used a dirty, off-white shade for Wheeljack that won't be as simple to match as grabbing a can of white spray paint. What I think most of us are going to wind up doing is keeping the original spoiler (which can fortunately be stored on the backs of Wheeljack's legs in robot mode), pulling the Nonnef ones off, transforming him into a car, then putting the originals back on. While the original wings can stow on the robot mode, if you swap the spoiler back for alt mode there isn't a place to store the Nonnef wings. In fact, you can't really store any of the accessories in alt mode. The new shoulder launcher has the tab that fits the robot shoulder, but not the peg that pets it store on the roof. Ok, but surely the pistol does, right? Nope. The handles on the Nonnef accessories aren't perfectly round. This isn't a problem when you fit them into round peg holes, like Wheeljack's fist, but the one on his roof is one of those holes that's actually a hexagon. The hexagonal hole combined with the irregular shape of the handles makes for a super loose fit. So what you really wind up doing is using the entire kit for robot mode, then removing the entire kit and setting it off to the side for alt mode. It's not the end of the world, but it's inconvenient and it really didn't have to be like that. If Nonnef doesn't paint his parts the spoiler wings could have at least been cast in a white plastic that matches the figures, and the customers could paint the other side silver if they really wanted to. The gun could have had a regular, round 5mm peg for a handle that fit snugly into the roof, and a slot on the gun could have fit the tab on the shoulder launcher. Speaking of paint, I'd heard someone say that Nonnef's stuff doesn't take paint very well. I can't speak for the translucent parts, but that doesn't seem to be true for the gray ones. I'm not a fan of the glossy gray plastic, so I painted them silver with a simple Rust-Oleum spray can (the kind that's paint+primer in one can, metallic silver) available at Walmarts, Targets, and most hardware stores. It's frustrating to me that the Nonnef kit for Earthrise Wheeljack winds up coming off and not storing on the car mode, especially because I don't think it had to go that way. However, at around $8 + shipping it's a pretty inexpensive kit that does a lot for the robot mode. If you're cool with Wheeljack as he comes out of the package and like to transform him a lot then maybe you don't need this kit. But if you mostly keep him in bot mode and wish he had longer wings, a better shoulder cannon, and an actual gun or wrenches for his hands then you'll probably get your money's worth even if you don't use them for alt mode.
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