mikeszekely

It was a rough day today, it's late, and I got two packages today and I'm supposed to get another tomorrow. So we'll do this one quickly tonight- Studio Series Voyager-class Mixmaster. That is one awkward-looking robot. And short for a Voyager-class, at roughly half Megatron or about as tall to the head as Deluxe-class Lockdown. That said, he is very broad. Not helping my first impression is the fact that he's not even fully assembled in the box, with some of the truck cab on his back and the mixing drum quarters on his shoulders detached. The truck cab I can kind of overlook; it's a bit a partsforming we'll talk about later. But the drum quarters seem to be detached solely to fit Mixmaster in the box without packaging him sideways. Of course, an awkward robot is forgivable if it's just copying what's on screen, so is Mixmaster accurate? Kind of. His shoulders, if you'd call them that, are a little too broad, but not by as much as you might think. The gray cylinders sticking out of his torso are missing some gold, and I think they're meant to connect to his shoulders. The cannisters behind his head should be silver, not black. He's gota lot of molded details like the wheels in his hips that are basically correct, but left a bland, unpainted gray plastic. Speaking of gray, a lot of places you see it, including his torso, legs, and the stripes on the drum should be much darker. The overall result is a robot that would look a lot less dull and more accurate if they'd used a darker gray and painted some gold accents. Unless you count the "some assembly required" bits, Mixmaster doesn't come with any accessories, so we'll get to articulation. Mixmaster's head is on a ball joint with a hinge at the base, so he can look up and down quite a bit, swivel his head, and tilt sideways a bit. His shoulders have a hinge for transformation that acts as a butterfly joint where they connect to the torso. At the other end of the black part is a swivel that rotates the shoulder, and a hinge for over 90 degrees of lateral movement. His biceps can swivel, and his elbows can bend a little less than 90 degrees. His wrists don't swivel, but they can bend up and down. The drums on his forearms have hinges for transformation and they don't lock into place on his arm, but they don't have swivels either so he can't do the shield thing with them. No waist swivel. His his can go forward over 90 degrees, laterally 90 degrees, and backward less than 90 degrees with his backpack kind of interfering. His thighs swivel, and his knees bend 90 degrees. His feet can tilt up and down, but they don't have any pivot. The canisters on his back can elevate a bit, but they can bend all the way around and he can't do cannon thing some of the older Mixmaster figures could. All-in-all it seems like his joints should be adequate, but he's simply too ungainly to do much in the way of posing, and has no accessories to pose with. Mixmaster's transformation is easier than you might expect, and aside from the gray color being far too light he does pull off the truck mode fairly well. I think he looks pretty good alongside fellow Mack truck Megatron, even if I rationally know Megatron should be bigger (or Mixmaster smaller). A lot of the details are molded in, like the Mack logo on the grill and doors, the the vents on sides, The smaller tire in front of the rear wheels, the step on the driver's side, and the shape of the smokestacks, although again more color was needed. A lot of what you see black here should actually be silver. There's some missing detail, though, like the ladder at the back that's been replaced with obvious Transformer bits. When you pull the front of the cab off you'll see a good chunk of Devastator's face. Simply unfold the rest, spread the drum out on the sides, and curl his legs under him instead of sandwiching them between his arms and you've basically got his combined mode done. The part of the cab you pulled off relocates to the back where it sticks up like it doesn't belong. Perhaps attaching it will ultimately be optional, although you'd risk losing it. Mixmaster's got the same problem that Rampage and Hightower did- they're crappy designs that don't translate well to $30 mass-retail toys that also have to combine. On his own, I wouldn't really recommend him. But, I'm sure that most people buying the Studio Series Constructicons aren't doing it for the individual guys, and we've still got three Constructicons to go before I can tell you if Devastator is any good or not.

It was snowing yesterday, so I didn't go since between me and Carlisle is the Appalachians. And yesterday was the last day.

I'm not personally into the OS stuff, so I don't have a personal opinion on it. But Ben over at Ben's Collectibles seems to have reviewed it.

Welp, with Siege rolling to a close it looks like the next wave of Studio Series figures is rolling out. I haven't seen any of the figures Emgo's reviewed (Soundwave, Mixmaster, Scavenger, and Shockwave), nor the Arcee trio that Baltmatrix got, despite having them (and the '07 Camaro Bee) all preordered. But I did get my hands on the new Voyager-class Megatron. Before anyone gets confused about the review subject usually being in the middle I'll say right away that the new figure is on the far left. That's because I arranged all the movie Megatrons in the order of their films, and this new figure is based on his appearance in the first Bayverse Transformers film (and yes, I know that The Last Knight Megatron there isn't a Studio Series figure, but I think it's good enough to be). Of the four figures above, it definitely looks the nicest as it's positively covered with silver paint. His lower legs are a little chunky from some extra kibble, and likewise the outside of his forearms have some smooth surfaces that weren't on the CGI model, but for the most part I think they did a pretty good job of molding in the right details. The one exception is the front of his torso. If you look carefully, you'll see Hasbro actually reused that one piece from the Revenge of the Fallen Voyager-class figure. It's probably not something that's going to bother too many people; the designs were similar, with most of the difference in the abs and crotch, and you almost have to have a picture of the CGI model handy to really key in on the difference. The silver paint over dark plastic on the newer toy vs the copper-painted details nestled in bare gray plastic on the older figure help both figures look visually distinct. Megatron's sole accessory is his whip/mace thing. It's made from a rubbery plastic. I guess that's better than the no accessories that Revenge of the Fallen Megatron came with. Megatron's head is on a ball joint. He can look up 90 degrees, but not much down before his chin bangs his chest. Turning and tilting his head sideways is a little limited due to the angle of the ball peg. His shoulders rotate and can extend 90 degrees. His biceps swivel, and his elbows can bend 90 degrees. His hands, which are a rubbery plastic, can't do more than fold inward for transformation. Sadly, like all the Megatrons before him, he lacks a waist swivel. His hips can go forward, backward, or laterally 90 degrees. His thighs can swivel, and his knees can bend over 90 degrees. Be advised, though, that the hinge for the knee is at the very back of his thick lower legs, so it's not the prettiest knee bend. The front of his feet can tilt up and down a bit, and the entire foot has a hinge that gives him deep ankle pivots. You can attach his weapon into either hand. Just fold the hand in, as you would for transformation, and you'll see a slot just above his wrist hinge. Plug the end of his weapon into the slot and you're good to go. He cannot make a Fusion Cannon in robot mode, though. Speaking of transformation, while I've never been a huge fan of this alt mode this new figure feels refreshingly large for a Voyager, and has probably the least-complicated engineering of the four figures shown above. The next obvious question would probably be, "How movie-accurate is it?" And that's a surprisingly tough question to answer, as all I could find was some concept art that may or may not match the final CGI mode, and some blurry stills directly from the movie. But, if I assume that the MPM-08 version of Megatron is at least more accurate, then no, the new Studio Series figure isn't super accurate. It's starts out alright, with the Fusion Cannon and his forearms sticking out of the front, although his arms seem a little short. But instead of having his poorly-disguised head chilling behind the Fusion Cannon it goes right to his back. This leaves his back further forward than the wings, instead of even. Speaking of the wings, they don't have the winglets on the ends, nor those connecting struts to a panel on the rear. Instead, his shins are folded over, leaving some bumps and a very visible gap on the back, with a vertical stabilizer that's much too large. From other angles, you can see that the Fusion Cannon, which should sit a little higher than his arms, is too low, and that overall he's kind of thick. He's got no landing gear or struts, which is maybe accurate to the movie design, but in practice it means you're resting him on his chest and thighs, which could scratch the paint. Generally speaking, I think I'm feeling more positively about this figure than negatively. I think, of the three Studio Series Megatrons released so far, that this one looks the best what with all the silver paint. And I think for a lot of fans, especially ones who aren't going to dig up pictures and concept art of the jet mode to obsessively compare it with, that the alt mode might be close enough. Still, for a line that's exists to provide movie-accurate updates to older movie toys it's kind of disappointing that the alt mode isn't a bit more accurate. Although, I can't argue that it's not far more movie accurate than the previous Voyager-class version of this Megatron. For poops and giggles, here's the Revenge of the Fallen versions: And the Dark of the Moon versions: All big improvements. Maybe expecting even more accuracy, especially on designs as wonky as some of the Bayverse characters, simply isn't in the scope of a $30 mass-retail toy. At the end of the day I think I recommend him. As I noted, he looks a bit nicer due to the silver paint, and he's a bit less work to transform. Plus, with this version of Megatron you can really say that you've got all the 2007 movie characters and just stop. That said, if you already have the RotF or DotM versions of Megatron and you only want one version of Megatron to fill that niche you're not going to be missing out on a figure of the year or anything if you skip him. (Me, mind you, will be trying to track down the Universal Studios-exclusive repaint of DotM Megs.)

Apparently Hasbro's having a warehouse sale at the Carlisle Convention Center in Carlisle PA. Anyone near there? Rumor has it that they're selling Siege Omega Supreme for an insanely low $20! I'm pretty caught up on Transformers, but I'm half tempted to go check it out anyway; it looks like it's a little under a three hour drive for me.

No one seemed to take any new pics of Brawn at SGC, but it looks like the same one that was at the last TFCon. From what I've been told, the cassettes are still in the works but they've taken a backseat to Bruticus, and they may move Defensor up too while everyone is still fighting over Menasors. So far, just right here for 3P stuff and in the official TF thread for Siege and Studio Series. I actually started doing this mostly to share some thoughts with my fellow MWers, but the posts kind of evolved into more structured reviews. I do think that my New Year's resolution for 2020 will be to get a dedicated site, even if it's just a Blogger or Wordpress dealie, that'll be more easily searchable for you guys (and maybe have some hopefully unobtrusive ads that can help pay for more figures to review).

You'll still have my written ones. Dunno if that's a good consolation prize or not. Speaking of, I should have FT's Sky Dive in a few days, so you can look forward to reading about that.

It's not Bayverse/Bee stuff, just Toyworld's stuff (and a little bit of Unique Toys). And honestly it's not worth getting to excited over ToyWorld, since they've announced a ton of stuff in the last two or so years but, by my count, have only actually released three new molds in that time. In addition to Toyworld (and Unique Toys) Fans Toys had painted prototypes for their Wildrider, Dragstrip, Air Raid, Astrotrain, Brawn, Warpath, Beachcomber, and their second version of Seaspray. DX9 had their Menasor on display with unpainted Dragstrip and Dead End prototypes in place. Fans Hobby was showing off their new Godbomber and a prototype of Minerva (and, while not G1, they had a prototype of their Armada Optimus Prime, and I'm looking forward to that). Magic Square and New Age both had some Legends stuff (although I wasn't really paying attention to what). I heard XTB/KFC were there, but I'm not sure that they showed anything new. Oh, and AFAIK MMC wasn't there. We know they're working on some G1 stuff, including the rest of their Combaticons, the Protectobots that are going to follow them up, and some Autobot cassettes. (No one's talked about it lately, but I really hope that Star Convoy they showed off is still coming, too.)

I don't know why they do the things they do the way they do it, either, but I wasn't taking any chances, especially with Prime. I preordered all the Earthrise figures the day they were announced (except Ironworks, whom I don't really care about but will probably end up buying anyway if I see him at retail). But before we move on to Earthrise we have to finish Siege. And since I'm not looking at picking any anymore repaints/remolds (sorry, Hot Shot, Crosshairs, and Nightbird) that just leaves me with this guy: Deluxe-class Spinister. As a tall Deluxe, Spinister is about even with Ironhide and Ratchet and taller than the cars, but he's still a little short of a Voyager. Which, to me, is too bad, since in the IDW comics Spinister was the one Scavenger that was noticeably bigger than the others. And while Siege has been one of Hasbro's most cartoon-accurate lines to date Spinister is leaning heavily into the G1 toy. This might be because I don't recall him appearing in the G1 cartoon, and the toy was never released in Japan let alone animated. His head is very G1 toy (I'd have preferred a little more IDW), and although his chest sticks out a bit further he's got molded and painted details that replicate the stickers on the original toy. His lower legs, which were a single solid piece that flipped over to become his cockpit, copy the G1 box art that where he was drawn with a separate cockpit on each shin. His rotor bends to make a V-shape behind his back, like the G1 toy, and there's a notch on it so that when his back is pushed together it (mostly) stays in place. I do have some notes, though. If we're copying the toy, he's missing the wheels on the sides of his legs, and due to differences in how they transformed the G1 toy didn't have the tail sticking up behind his head. Siege Spinister's torso is all pink, while the G1 toy had a two-tone pink and purple. Speaking of purple, the color Hasbro used on Siege Spinister's arms is a little muted compared to the original. I wonder if that's a deliberate choice, though, since Siege Spinister's only appearances in G1 fiction were the old, often badly-colored Marvel comics, where he was all pink from the waist to the neck, arms included. Still, that wouldn't explain the bafflingly gray hands, which were black on the original. Spinister comes with two guns, with molds meant to evoke the gun modes of Spinister's G1 Targetmasters. I'm personally not loving the fact that they're different colors, even though the G1 toys were as well. However, the G1 toys were purple and black, not pink and blue. Although they don't transform, Siege Spinister's guns do have pegs and pegholes on both sides, which gives you options for how you want to use them. You can even combine them, which I believe was a feature of the G1 toy. Spinister's head is on a ball joint with a little up/down tilt and nothing notable sideway. A transformation hinge can move the flap his neck is on to give him some extra downward range. His shoulders rotate and can extend laterally over 90 degrees. His biceps and his wrists can swivel, and his double-jointed elbows combine for 180 degrees of bend. His waist swivels. His hips can go forward or backward a little over 90 degrees, and 90 degrees laterally. His thighs can swivel, and his knees bend a little over 90 degrees on a single hinge. His feet can tilt down and slightly up, and due to transformation his ankles can actually pivot 180 degrees (not that you'd use that much, and no, that's not a typo and I don't mean 90). Spinister has 5mm peg holes on the outside of each shoulder, on the outside of each forearm, on the outside of each lower leg, and under each foot. Technically, he has two on his back as well, but they're positioned right behind the rotors. And again, there are pegs and peg holes on both sides of his guns, which means that even when you stick one into one of his 5mm ports you're adding another one, which I think extends his playability. Oh, and as a reminder, if you picked up Singe from the current wave of Battle Masters and you bought the Phantom Strike Squadron pack (probably because you wanted Skywarp) then you have both of Spinster's Targetmasters. Spinster has an interesting transformation, and the result is similar enough to the G1 toy that you know who it is but different enough that Hasbro doesn't have to pay Bell to license the Apache. The rear is missing some purple and black where his arms and head were, and there's a splash of blue paint leading up to the rotor since the rotor on the G1 toy was connected to its blue waist. The black fold-out wing pylons on the original are bigger and blue now, because they're actually his feet. And instead of folding in, his arms are just lazily curled up along the sides, with his gray hands visible. Due to his transformation he's not totally symmetrical. His actual cockpit is formed by the leg with the landing gear on the calf, and it leaves a peg hole on just one side of the cockpit and a hinge on the other side. His other leg folds up under the belly, which looks a little weird but it's not noticeably from most angles. The entire copter rests on the fake cockpit belly and the nose landing gear. There are no other wheels or gear. Side note, I have the tabs that lock the feet flat, the tabs that connect the feet to his pelvis, the tabs that lock is arms to his sides, and the tabs that link his feet to his elbows all in place with no issue, but nothing I do can seem to get the tabs that are supposed to connect his fake cockpit leg to his tail to stay in place. I thought maybe I was doing something wrong, but a quick check showed me that, at the very least, Baltmatrix is having the same issue. Even though his feet are proportionally longer than the fold out wing pylons of the G1 toy, the 5mm peg holes underneath allow them to serve the same purpose. I think mounting his guns there actually makes him look a bit more complete. However, even though I get that this is more G1, I think I'd have preferred if both guns were the same mold and the same color. The lack of symmetry is bugging me. If you try to peg Singe and Shrute (née Hairsplitter) in those spots you won't have enough clearance for Spinster to rest on his belly. You still have two peg holes on the sides where his arms are curled up, though, plus one on the left side of the cockpit and two behind the rotor. I've found that if you use the ones on his robot shoulders to connect the Battle Masters you'll have just enough clearance for the rotor to spin. And they do spin. Neither canopy opens, though, and even if they did the space inside is occupied by his thighs. Something else I want to point out, although I don't know of it's an intentional but undocumented feature or a happy accident, is that in copter mode the painted panel on his waist winds up looking like a dashboard inside his now-hollow torso. A Titanmaster or a Prime Master can't sit in the space exactly, but if you leave him folded in head/shape mode you can actually fit him in there and still get everything closed up. Just be advised that to open him up to get to that space you have to undo the arm and foot on one side so you can bend the nose of the copter down enough to get the clearance to open the torso. At the end of the day, Spinister is a toy that borrows heavily from the G1 toy when I think a lot of fans would have preferred the IDW version, and still manages to make some odd or lazy color choices. Minor aesthetic quibbles aside, he's a fun toy with good articulation and an interesting transformation. I wish he could have been a Voyager, but that might actually be my biggest complaint. He gets the recommend from me; Spinister is definitely a toy worth checking out. Now if I could just get a Crackcase and Fulcrum...

It's interesting how much Earthrise stuff is already being reviewed, considering it's supposed to be 3-4 months out yet. Heck, Emgo's been reviewing stuff from the new wave of Studio Series, and I'm wondering where he got those since I've had the whole wave preordered since it was announced, none of the US shops I've checked are showing in-stock, and at both Hasbro Pulse are saying that none of them should be in stock until January (although Amazon apparently shipped movie 1 Megatron already, and I'll hopefully have my review up early next week).

I think I do a fairly good job of referring to vertical stabs as such and not fins. Likewise, I don't call the horizontal stabs "tail wings" or other such things. I'll be the first to admit that, until I Googled it just now, I couldn't tell you what the difference between an aileron and a flap is, and have probably referred to both as flaps. I would have confined "flaps" to the wings, though; I know that elevators and rudders aren't flaps. Not sure I'd have paid enough attention to look for molded spoilers on any toys (but I like watching them work if I get a seat near the wing of an actual airplane, and wouldn't mistake them for flaps).

Considering that the best Xbox-exclusives started coming to PC I doubt I'll buy another Microsoft console.

Unique Toys does an amazing job of taking a robot that doesn't look like it should transform and getting it to transform. I loved their Prime, and I enjoyed their Lockdown even though I don't really have a place for him in my collection. I might pick up Galvatron for the novelty, but I wish they'd focus their efforts on, if not G1, something less ugly than Galvatron. Maybe TLK Barricade or DotM Megatron.

I'll let you know in a year or so when their exclusivity with the Epic Game Store ends.

I'm having a hard time getting a total length (or telling exactly what model year Prime is), but I was able to find that the wheelbase on a '74 FLA86 is 231".

Eh... I haven't been a big fan of GCreation's stuff, but I'm interested. Looks like the dino head splits in half, with the lower jaw forming the back half, to make the shoulder armor. I prefer that to the Studio Series.

Not out of the box, no. But every other mini console has been hacked, so maybe eventually.

Well, see, I really didn't know that. Like I said, I don't know trains. Which reminds me of something I was thinking this afternoon; when you're familiar with a subject, even (or especially) if you're not an expert, you tend to underestimate how much other people don't know about that subject. And yeah, as someone who used to do computer setups and repairs for retirees looking to Skype with their grandkids, I get how frustrating it can be to listen to someone describe something they know nothing about (getting it wrong in the process). All I can do is try to remember this discussion should it become relevant when Fans Toys releases Thomas. BTW, I had YouTube on while I was trying to get some work done this afternoon, and I happened to catch Baltmatrix' Astrotrain review. You'll be happy to know that he correctly identified Astotrain's box as a tender. I don't think I knew that they were the exact same locomotive, but I knew that they were extremely similar. In fact, as I often tell you guys, my family was poor and I didn't have too many pre-movie/Season 3 Transformers, but I had a ton of Gobots. I had Loco, and I used to pretend he was Astrotrain.

Short answer: because I'm not a train fan. I don't have model trains, I don't know things about trains, I'd never even been on a train (including subways) until I went to China. And yeah, I do get that this sort of locomotive burns coal to turn water to steam to drive the pistons that make the train go, and if I stop and think about it the coal required needs a place to go. But it's it really incorrect to refer to the tender as a train car? I mean, I understand that not all cars are tenders (including box cars), but tenders still look like cars to me. In this specific case, though, because it doesn't look like a tender. It looks like a lot box on treads (with more treads on the roof). Dunno. Never watched Thomas. My impression of this sort of locomotive is entirely formed by Astrotrain and the Gobot Loco. Neither of which had tenders. Can't speak for everyone, but I'm more interested in the fight going on on top of those wild west trains, I've never been to Disney World, and I've never been to a train museum. I feel like this is where you're really venting more than referring specifically to my review. But in the interest of being very clear, I don't mind that they gave Astrotrain a tender. I just wish they'd have used the tender to cover the unfinished half of the shuttle. I also think that a lot of TF fans would have preferred not to have it and some of the guns and Astrotrain been labeled a Voyager instead, but that's small potatoes to me.

Still waiting for Spinister. But I've got a handful of little guys. First up, we have Battle Masters Rung and Singe. Rung's an interesting one, as he's hugely popular with the subset of Transformers fans who've read James Roberts' excellent More Than Meets the Eye and Lost Light series from IDW comics but completely unknown outside of that group. So, no, he's not going to scale properly, and IDW fans may still be holding out hope that someone like MMC will deliver a better Rung figure in the future, but at the same time I'm pretty happy MMC is throwing IDW fans a bone by giving us a Rung at all. And this Rung is... ok. If you ignore the backpack the sculpt is actually pretty good, although his arms could use some of that white paint they used on his thighs and the yellow stripes on his chest should properly be red. His feet are kind of weird, too. Singe, on the other hand, is pretty unremarkable, as yet another repaint of Firedrive. Well, at least the colors are looking pretty good. Oh, and if you have Shrute from the set you had to buy to get Skywarp then he, along with Singe here, give you both of Spinister's Targetmaster buddies. Singe's articulation is the same as it ever was, basically just ball joints at the shoulders and hips. You can pull the gun barrels off of his back and use the 3mm peg on them to stick them onto Singe's arm (they they didn't give the mold 3mm peg holes in their fists I'll never understand). At first blush Rung looks like more of the same, except he also has a waist swivel. Which is cool, I guess, but not as cool as elbows or knees would have been. It's also worth mentioning that his backpack isn't removable, and it kind of pushes against his legs so he's always bent forward slightly. Singe, again no surprises, turns into a gun. He comes with some nice green effect parts. Taken at face value Rung is also, in the Siege continuity, a gun. His feet are weird because they're the barrel of his gun mode, and the blue effect parts he comes with plug into his feet. Those who've read The Lost Light know what Rung's alt mode really is; for the purposes of this review I'll say that this gun mode is close enough, but again needs more paint. Especially around the circle at the back/top. Moving onto Micromasters, probably the most-anticipated release smaller than a Deluxe would be Frenzy and Ratbat. Although there's a weird typo on the box and in the instructions calling him Rumble, we're living in an era where cartoon accuracy is now so sacrosanct that silvers are being replaced with whites and alt modes are becoming shells that fold into backpacks on robots full of faux parts to match the cartoon's often poor animation better. This "Sunbow über alles" mentality has to be the nail in the coffin for the "Rumble is red, Frenzy is blue" crowd. Regardless of what name they'd put on the box, if they'd put the blue one in this pack I think they could have quit. Most of us could have lived without Frenzy and Buzzsaw, as they were almost never in the cartoon. But fans are still going to demand Hasbro give them the blue one, and since Micromasters go in two packs you have to figure Buzzsaw is coming with him. Regardless, Frenzy's looking fine, if a little squat, although he's got weird bumps coming off of his fists. Guns? Piledrivers? Who knows. No backpack guns, either. Ratbat is also lacking a backpack, and he's got some molded kibble between his ears. But he's adorable and I love him. Articulation isn't a huge improvement over the Battle Masters. Frenzy's shoulders are still ball joints, he still doesn't have elbows, bicep swivels, a waist swivel, or a neck. His hips are hinges, though, and he's got ball-jointed knees. Ratbat's got hinges at his hips, and swivels at his shoulders so his wings can go in and out. His neck is on a double hinge for transformation, but it does give him some miniscule head posability. But he really can't do much, because his wings have to open to maximum for him to stand, and he's really balance between his feet and the tips of his wings. Attempts to pose him will just unbalance him. Frenzy and Ratbat turn into... rectangles. I mean, we can't really call them tapes, since they haven't been to Earth yet, right? One side each looks pretty rectangular all right, while the other leaves their faces peeking out at you. As was the case with Ravage and Laserbeak, one side does have a flip-out peg that you can use to attach them to the 5mm ports on a Siege figure. So maybe they're armor... that blocks stuff with their faces. Of more interest to me is the idea that someone like Dr. Wu could do an upgrade kit that gives them their backpacks by using those pegs as attachment points. And yes, they do still fit in Siege Soundwave and Soundblaster's chests. Soundblaster can even fit two of them. Last but not least we have these color-coordinated guys, who I didn't really want but had to buy to get BBTS to sell me Frenzy and Ratbat. The one on the left is Power Punch, and the one on the right is Direct-Hit. And before you ask, no, I'm not sure why one is hyphenated and one isn't, but that's a convention that seems to go all the way back to their G1 days. Like most of the other Micromasters these guys are modern versions of G1 Micromasters. And like the other Siege Micromasters the biggest changes to the engineering in 30 years seems to be that they have ball joints for shoulders and hips (and knees, in the case of Direct-Hit) and their legs aren't stuck together, giving them ever-so-slightly better articulation than their G1 selves. Power Punch is looking very G1. The biggest differences on him seem to be a second shade of blue on his shins and fists and some silver on his chest to bring out some details. He also doesn't have the original's super visible belly screw, and he's missing some kibble on his collar. Direct-Hit has the same second shade of blue on his forearm, but for whatever reason Hasbro decided to give him a black torso, like Power Punch, instead of the G1 toy's darker purple, which he does retain on his chest vents. His face is also a metallic copper now, vs the bright orange of the G1 toy. Both Micromasters transform into some sort of armored vehicle. Direct-Hit fares a little better here, because I think he looks more complete on his own. He's got his windows and marker lights, and what appear to be molded guns in front of a peg I'm going to pass off as a hatch. Power Punch has a nice purply-pink cannon, but nothing that looks like windows or anything a driver could see out of, unless we're supposed to pretend that the super obvious hole in the front is a window. But then again, these guys have a gimmick, and it's the same gimmick the G1 toy had. Flip down the hatch-peg on Direct-Hit, then plug it into Power Punch's hole to make one long armored truck carrying a cannon. Vaguely Onslaught-ish, I think. And very G1. The biggest differences seem to come down to extra molded and painted details, like marker lights, the darker blue bits, and the gunmetal section with the molded guns. Speaking of guns, while it can be tabbed to lie flat for robot mode, the cannon is on a hinge and can articulate up and down on twin mushroom pegs. The instructions even suggest that you can remove the cannon by pushing the pegs out of their sockets, but I think that'd just wear them out over time. Besides, the 5mm peg on the top of the cannon isn't really so other toys can use the cannon as a gun. The Siege gimmick dictates that the Micromasters combine to be a weapon, and in this particular case you do that by turning the combined vehicle over and plugging the 5mm peg into a fist so that the rear of the vehicle is pointed forward. And sure, that does kind of look like a missile launcher or something from dead on. But from the sides it looks like he's holding an upside-down truck, and from above you'll see both Power Punch's and Direct-Hit's faces. Which brings me to the recommendations. And they're pretty much the same as they always are for the smaller figures- they're cheap enough that you can get them if you want to, but (mostly) unimportant enough that you're not really missing anything if you don't. I could do without Frenzy but you have to get him to get Ratbat, and as a fan of the old Marvel comics who remembers reading "Car Wash of Doom" as a kid I will never turn down a toy of my favorite Fuel Auditor. Fans of IDW are likely to appreciate having some representation of Rung, and if you bought Skywarp and you're planning on buying Spinister you might as well pick up Singe to complete the group. Direct-Hit and Power Punch are probably the hardest sell here, unless you actually had the G1 versions, as they've had basically no representation in any media for you to get attached to. But they're certainly not the worst Micromasters I've handled.

Like @M'Kyuun I can appreciate the engineering, if not the aesthetic. But honestly, the prices are keeping me away more than the aesthetic. $140 for Overload, $150 for Mixmaster, and $180 for Scavenger? No thanks. Long Haul and (I presume) Scrapper are a more palatable $110 each, but we're already talking almost $700, and if theirs has as many members as the Studio Series version we're talking about three more members. Even if we assume that two of them will be cheaper (since two of the missing ones are the only two Hasbro did as Deluxes) you're still almost certainly between $900 and $1000. I'm sure it'll be bigger, more accurate, and more impressive than the Studio Series one, but Studio Series is the limit of what I'm willing to spend on (most) Bayverse stuff.

Sounds like you understand the Bayverse aesthetic better than you realized.

Nearly a year ago, I reviewed New Age Flipper, a tiny Legends-scale Bumblebee. Well Kubianbao (aka KBB), the same people that gave us a Voyager-sized MP-10, went and upscaled it as "Hornets Agent". I'm not going to do another review, since pretty much everything I said about Flipper still applies (minor articulation issues, excellent sculpt). I do want to highlight some things, though. At first blush, Hornets Agent (right) looks almost identical to Flipper (left), just maybe 40% larger. There are some changes, though. For one, the plastic is different. The yellow is a slightly different shade, but I'm not sure if that was a deliberate choice or a result of using a different, harder plastic. There's a black cover over the screwhole on Hornets Agent's butt. And the head is different. It's hard to put my finger on exactly how, as they have similar shapes, but the face is a little more like MP-21's with a smaller mouth and less-flat face. Hornets Agent also seems to have a new sculpt for his gun. It's not as nice as the Takara one (mine's from the G2 version of MP-21), but it's closer to Takara's than Flipper's was. Unfortunately one thing KBB copied from New Age was the weird angled hands, so Hornets Agent still can't shoot straight. Taking a quick look at the car mode we can see two more differences, and I'd argue that they're really "fixes." for one, the joint that folds the arms to the inside for car mode is yellow on Hornets Agent instead of Flipper's black. The other big difference is that Hornets Agent's tires actually roll (although they're just plastic). When I reviewed Flipper I said he earned a pass due to his size. Those things would be harder to overlook on a bigger toy, so I'm glad KBB fixed them. Hornets Agent retains Flipper's weapon storage- slide the handle of the gun into a notch between the tires. Figuring out why you might want Flipper was a no-brainer... it's the only Bumblebee that scales with a 3P Legends collection. Plus it's so tiny and cute, even if you aren't working on a Legends collection it's cheap enough to check out as a novelty. The real question is, why would someone want a bigger version? Bigger means it no longer scales with 3P Legends, and it loses a lot of the novelty that came with being so insanely tiny. The simple answer comes down to Flipper's other big strength: the sculpt. He's a little short and lacks the finish to be a real replacement for MP-21 or MP-45, but he's pretty close in size to the Has/Tak Legends-class Bumblebee from Titans Returns. While that wasn't a bad figure, there's no question that Hornets Agent is a bit more G1-accurate. The cartoonish aesthetic isn't a total fit with the other Hasbro Legends. However, it is again a much more accurate Bumblebee (I actually prefer it to MP-21's alt mode), and it's no more out of place than the Mechanic Studio Huffer and Gears I looked at about a month ago. (I wound up picking up the Mechanic Studio Pipes, too.) Flipper was a good figure. Hornets Agent is a good figure that fixed a few of Flipper's issues in the process of getting bigger. If that weren't enough, consider the price. I got my copy on Ebay for $14. A quick search for Titans Return Bumblebee has him around $17 at the retailers still carrying it, and anywhere from $10-$20 (used and new) from reputable ebay sellers. In other words, Hornets Agent isn't just an aesthetic alternative to Titans Returns Bumblebee for a Generations/Siege collection, it's priced comparably. Unless you really prefer the aesthetic of the Titans Return version there's no reason not to consider Hornets Agent instead.

If my review of Apeface wasn't a good indication, the final wave of Siege is really starting to hit. I've got a handful of little guys on my desk waiting to be looked at, Spinister's preorder page on Hasbro Pulse has an estimated ready-to-ship date of yesterday, and this guy, arguably the most-anticipated figure in the wave, landed on my porch today. It's Siege Leader-class Astrotrain. Might as well get this out of the way first... like Shockwave, Astrotrain is really a Voyager-class figure whose Leader-class price is partly going toward his accessories, and mostly likely partly spread out over the rest of the wave so we can have things like Apeface's Titan Master. Still, paying for a Leader-class figure that's actually shorter than his Voyager-class brethren from Titans Returns can be a hard pill to swallow. Size and price concerns aside, I really can't complain about the aesthetics. I don't have the old Classics Deluxe or the Voyager-class Titans Return version, but I do have Sentinel Prime, and as far as I know Astrotrain was simply a different Titan Master on the same body, only with G1 toy colors, and the new Siege version really blows the Titans Return mold out of the water. So, what accessories does a Leader-class price on a Voyager-class toy get us this time? Well, it gets you five guns (technically four and a missile launcher). And you get a box. The box can open and splay out, and there's room inside to store all five guns, as laid about above, and still have room to close the box. Not that Hasbro is content to simply call it a box and leave it. We'll talk about the uses for the box as we go through the modes, but for now note that the sides of the thinner flaps end with the base connection introduced with Titans Returns. Astrotrain's head is on a ball joint, with some upward and limited downward and sideways tilt. His shoulders can rotate and extend laterally a little under 90 degrees. You can kind of cheat a little extra if you disconnect them from the sides of his torso and use the transformation hinge in the purple shoulder kibble. His biceps swivel, and his double-jointed elbows can curl 180 degrees. His wrists don't swivel, but they do tilt up/down due to transformation. His waist can swivel. If you move the hip skirts out of the way his hips can bend 90 degrees forward and backward but only a little bit backward. His thighs can swivel, and his knees can bend just under 90 degrees. When he's properly transformed his feet are locked, so they don't tilt up and down, but they've got around 60 degrees of ankle pivot. As far as ports for mounting all his accessories go, he's got one on the front of each wing, one on the outside of each shoulder, one on the outside of each forearm, on on the outside of each leg near his ankles, three on his backpack, one in the small of his back, and one on the bottom of each foot in addition to his fists. Again, like Shockwave, he does have an "armored" mode. You want to start by pulling the top of the box off; it splits in half and becomes shoes for Astrotrain (which helps a little with the height difference between him, Octane, and Blitzwing). Take the side of the box with the three pegs on the rotating triangular bit and fold it open, twist it 180 degrees, then fold it flat against the bottom. You can then use the three pegs to plug into the three peg holes on the thrusters on his back, and... uh... I guess Super Astrotrain is a guy with half a box on his back. To finish the look off you could start plugging all his guns into 5mm ports on his body, but they're actually designed to combine into a super gun. Astrotrain's shuttle mode is a real heartbreaker. It's got the single vertical stabilizer, bigger wings, and that uncircumsized cockpit look with poorly-disguised train wheels that the G1 toy and and animation model had. Plus, you know, it's cartoon-colored instead of toy-colored like previous Hasbro Astrotrains, so it's definitely the most animation-accurate Astrotrain to date. The problem is that from about the middle of the fuselage to the tail has a super unfinished look, like someone was building a space shuttle but quit before they got all the outer paneling on. And I'll tell you right now, it's a problem caused by the engineering (his arms curl up, then fold up around his head, then his chest basically folds up to hide his head and bring out the vertical stabilizer) that probably could have been solved with a little more engineering (panels in his forearms or legs could have unfolded to cover up the gaps... or, you know, use the box in a way that would have been actually useful). Still, it looks like it would be super easy for someone like Dr Wu or DNA to do an upgrade kits with, what with four different 5mm ports to plug into in that area. That'd be one on either side near the tail and two on the top just behind the finished part of the fuselage. He's also got one in each thruster on the back, on on either side of the cockpit, one on top of each wing, and two on the underside of the fuselage. While you can use those various ports for mounting the guns there's still the matter of the box. Again, I'd have thought some kind of transformation into something that could cover the back half of the fuselage would have been really useful, but nope. (For the record, I actually pulled the lid shoes off to see of there was at least something I could do with those, but they're kind of too thick and the toes stick up to high). Instead, Hasbro offers these other two uses. Begin by opening the box up and rotating the skinny sides up. Then you're supposed to put the shuttle on it, somehow. I can't find a way to lock the shuttle on... heck, the sides of the box we rotated don't lock into place. Plus, despite what the instructions show, my box does NOT lay flat. So I think this "mode" is pretty dumb. Something else you can do is rotate the side with the pegs around and fold it back so that the pegs are pointing up. Then you can plug the shuttle into the pegs via the booster peg holes, and you've got something of a launch pad. Again, I'd have much preferred something that covered the back of the shuttle, but I can't really be made at this. I mean, you've got four peg holes and two pegs showing that you can use to mount the guns, plus the connectors that allow you to connect it with Trypticon, presumably Scorponok, and any Leader-class Titans Return base. We can't forget the "train" in "Astrotrain." The train mode is alright. Again, a huge improvement over the Titans Return mold in that it actually looks like a train locomotive, and an improvement over the Classics because it's a steam locomotive. My initial, contradictory thoughts were "too much purple" (although that's pretty accurate for this mode) and "why is the front black instead of purple?" (which isn't accurate. There's a few other quirks. I'm not a fan of the gray on the roof, but to be fair that's Astrotrain's feet, and I'd rather have som extra gray on the train than purple robot feet. The rear doesn't have the raised roof with the overhang, either. But arguably the worst thing is that the wheels don't line up. Part of that is because of how he transforms, necessitating that the front wheel and guard fit inside his robot legs while half of the rest are on the outside. But I also think that Hasbro made the folding panels with the wheels on his legs and the rotating panels with the wheels on the backs of his wings too thick. They simply stick out too far on the sides, plus if they were thinner they'd stick out less in shuttle and robot modes, too. The folding of panels to get to train mode unfortunately covers many of the 5mm ports we could use in robot and shuttle modes. You've got two on the top, two under the train, and the three in the boosters on the rear, but for guns only the two on the roof are practically useful. Mind you, you really only need one; if you put the guns together into the super gun mode, but turn the gun in the front 180 degrees so the missile launcher is on top instead of under the barrel, the super gun back plug into the rearward 5mm port with enough clearance for everything. Of course, that's not the only way to carry everything. You can turn stuff all the guns into your trusty box, then use the three pegs on the box to connect to the rear of the train. It's kind of like a train car, except small, and with tank treads instead of train wheels... I guess it's best if we don't think too hard about it. I'll be honest, reviewing Astrotrain is tough. On the one hand, we have a great bot mode. On the other it's a little shorter than the Titans Return Decepticon triple changers. On the one hand he's got a ton of accessories. On the other most of us would probably have been happy to give them up if this could have been a Voyager release. On the one hand it's the most G1, cartoon-accurate alt modes Astrotrain's had on an official toy since the original G1. On the other hand they're still not perfect, with the shuttle mode especially suffering. Ultimately I am going to give him a recommend, if a somewhat reserved one. I mean, if this were an MP I'd trash it, but I just don't hold Generations to the same standard. So I see his flaws, I've noted his flaws, but I'm still having fun with it. I still think this is the best CHUG-style Astrotrain available, especially in robot mode. If you, too, can get past his flaws then by all means pick him up, because who knows when we'll get another Voyager-sized Astrotrain.

Took my wife and four year old to see it. She's funny, because she's really timid- she was nervous about going to the theater (I tried taking her to see Bumblebee last year and she got scared so we had to leave), but she's obsessed with Frozen. She had to sit on my lap for the whole movie, there were several points where she hid her face in my chest, and even a few where she told me she wanted to leave. I just told her to trust me, that everything would be ok by the end. When the movie was over she told me she wasn't scared at all and that it was the best movie ever (although she later clarified that, while better than the first, it's actually tied with Olaf's Frozen Adventure). My two cents? I liked the story better than the first one. It felt like they were having a real adventure and we weren't just watching a girl trying to save her sister from a nervous breakdown. Not sure if I'm totally satisfied with the ending, though, and I do prefer the soundtrack to the first film. Oh, and I'm not super keen on the whole