mikeszekely

I saw a nearby Gamestop was supposed to have Ectotron in stock, so I went to check it out. At the store they said they only had them for preorders, but they could order one online for me. Got the order confirmation email, but that was Wednesday, and as of Friday night there's no "it shipped" email. So, yeah, I'm planning on reviewing it... assuming that Gamestop actually has stock to fill my order. Not having stock, but sitting on my money, desperately hoping to find stock somewhere so they can keep my money, and only begrudgingly admitting that they can't and refunding me long after it's sold out and I can't look for it elsewhere seems like a very Gamestop thing to do.

After the debacle that was Windows 8, I think hesitating on anything after 7 is reasonable. But I eventually upgraded my main gaming rig to Windows 10, and it's been fine.

Not recolors, no. But Wei Jiang OS KOed them, closer to MP cars in size.

Diablo III? Coop doesn't seem as popular as vs these days across all platforms, not just Switch. I wonder if that's a side effect of multiplayer moving away from splitscreen in the same room to online. That's cool for people who just wanted a handheld successor to the 3DS. Especially kids. I bought a second dock for my Switch, though, so I could bounce between my living room TV and bedroom TV, so I'm not particularly interested myself.

I'm in agreement, but I think watching the third season made me appreciate the second one more. I mean, I think the first season was a great standalone sort of thing. The second season had the pressure of living up the first season working against it, but in hindsight I also think it was only telling half the story (when it wasn't getting sidetracked by El's road trip). Season 3 doesn't actually feel like the third season, it feels like it's finishing the second one. The Duffers have said that if they get to do a fourth season that it'll be a bit different. And I think that's a good thing. While the Demogorgon was kind of the big bad from the first season the Upside Down itself was an interesting and integral part of the story. Aside from being the place where the Mind Flyer came from the Upside Down was largely forgotten in the following seasons, but it's something I'd like to see them circle back to.

With the price drop the new Radeons seem like a good buy, but I'm probably going to spend a little more for a GTX 2070 Super.

For most people this figure probably isn't as anticipated as Jetfire, Springer, or even Refraktor... but as someone who owned the G1 Trypticon as a kid and regarded it as one of his absolute favorite toys I was pretty excited to get my hands on something that was missing from the newer Titan Class Trypticon. That something, of course, being Brunt. Brunt has a robot mode, so... I guess that's not G1 accurate. Of course, I don't mind that they gave him one (maybe do Slammer, too, so we can complete Metroplex). My first thought was, with the claw hands, the mouth cover, and the cannon on his back, was that Brunt's robot mode might be an homage to Beast Machines Tankor. After doing a little digging, though, Brunt's robot mode is actually based on Don Figueroa's designs for the Centurion droids in IDW's Stormbringer series. And, colors aside, it's honestly pretty accurate, too, so who knows? Maybe we'll get a repaint. All I know is that I think Brunt looks pretty cool. Unlike Cog and Sixgun it's not immediately apparent that he's a guy made of weapons. Although I have it mounted on his back, which is what the instructions show, that cannon is actually just pegged on. I'd count that as his accessory, then, since the other Weaponizers had guns. The metallic orange tip is removable, revealing a 5mm peg hole on the gray part. Brunt's head is on a swivel, so there's no tilt. His shoulders can rotate and extend 90 degrees. His biceps swivel, and his elbows bend a little under 90 degrees. He doesn't have wrists to swivel, but his claws can open and close. His waist can swivel. His hips can go over 90 degrees forward and slightly over 90 to the side, but a little less than 90 backwards due to his backpack. His thighs swivel, and his knees bend 90 degrees. His feet don't tilt up or down, but they do have 90 degrees of pivot. Brunt's claws can't really hold anything. But he's got two 5mm peg holes on his backpack, one near his elbow on each forearm, one on the front of each thigh, one on each calf, one on the outside of each leg near his ankle, and one under his right foot. Additionally, he's got 5mm pegs under his left foot, on his right calf, in his belly, and on the insides of his forearms. Considering that the G1 toy didn't transform and that this Brunt started with a robot that wasn't necessarily designed to turn into anything resembling G1 Brunt, I gotta hand it to HasTak and say that they've managed to take that robot and turn it into something that looks an awful lot like G1 Brunt. Everything is quite a bit more textured than the smooth surfaces of the g1 toy, partly because that's the Siege aesthetic and partly because the main gun is made of legs. With the orange tip and the lip under it I can kind of forgive the robot toes jutting out from the middle of the cannon. His Cylon-esque head is even sort of evocative of the molded bump of a hatch on the G1 toy. Really, I think my biggest complaint with the alt mode is that there's too much of that silver gray plastic and not enough purple, although I'm sure others will complain that his transformation is less transforming and more pulling him apart and putting him back together in a different configuration. Brunt's got rolling wheels. Plus, his cannon can turn a full 360 degrees as well as swivel from straight ahead up to about 60 degrees. It's not a big deal, but be advised that Brunt's ankles do not lock into place, so there are two big friction hinges in the middle of the cannon. With the orange tip forming the end of the cannon you'll have the gray part of his weapon left over. His instruction suggest placing it into a 5mm peg hole on the right side of the cannon, wear the base. There's also a peg hole on the other side, closer to the front, and on top of the cannon near the tip. Technically there's one on the back of the cannon, too, but anything you put in there will hamper your ability to aim the cannon upward. In addition the cannon, there's a pair of peg holes near the back of the cannon and one on each side of the front treads. Of course, being a Weaponizer means that Brunt's not just a Deluxe-class, he's a Deluxe-class that comes apart to make accessories for other Siege toys. Despite the lack of obvious gun-limbs that Cog and Sixgun have you can make some pretty cool guns just with Brunt's lower legs or by combining his torso (of all things) and his gun. Of course, the instructions have their sort of "default" configurations, and one of them includes using parts as shoes again. That mode, which uses the arms instead of the legs, is called the Demolition Loadout. It also has the torso gun mounted on an arm, the backpack as a kind of shield, and the hips and thighs form a kind of backpack for turning the combined leg gun into a shoulder cannon. The other configuration is the Serpentine Loadout. Brunt's backpack is still a shield (I guess there's not much else you can do with it), and Brunt's weapon is passed along. The rest of Brunt forms a pretty cool backpack with big grabby claws. I know there are more popular characters in the line than a non-transforming pack-in, but I really like Brunt. He's one of my favorite figures in the Siege line so far. I like this toy enough that I actually do hope HasTak does the Centurion repaint, because I'd buy it in a heartbeat. Highly recommended.

I was pretty impressed with it at the time, but not so much now. I mean, you could make the argument that the reimagined alt modes are still better than the G1 cartoon's, but the new Siege figure's execution is better. It just feels more solid, while little stuff bugs me on the older figure. Stuff like how the butt flap never seems to sit flush on either alt mode, how both alt modes kind of feel like they want to pop apart, and especially how the arms just kind of curl around for the helicopter and leave noticeable gaps. Let me know how you like it. I thought about picking it up... it has, I think, the best car mode (even if it's not entirely cartoon accurate) and a good robot mode, but there's something about the helicopter that just doesn't look right to me. I think it's the tail boom. It looks kind of thin, and in my mind the bottom of the boom should extend from the belly, like an Apache, rather than the top of the boom extending from the spine like a Bell 206. I still have Open & Play's Big Spring, and I think that's good enough for me to wait and see how X-Transbots' Virtus turns out.

Possibly most-anticipated Siege figure after Jetfire and Omega Supreme, here we've got Voyager-class Springer. As good as the previous Generations figure was (and as much as I love Nick Roche's art), this new Siege figure aims at being a much more cartoon-accurate toy. And yeah, it's unmistakably cartoon Springer. It's not as accurate as Jetfire, though. I'll ignore the smooth, less detailed yellow rectangle on his too-narrow waist, and the visible transformation hinges running up his sides. I'll even ignore the dirt paint, which is seriously overdone on his shoulders and chest. My real aesthetic complaints come down the the shoulder pads, with their very visible tires and the fact that they can't be rotated to wrap around the shoulders instead of sitting over them, and the fact that his arms are basically the same shade of green all the way down. At the least, his entire forearms should be the same color as the panels on the outside of his forearms, and his hands should match his thighs and face. And yes, he's shorter than Generations Springer. But I think Generations Springer was a tall Voyager, and Siege Springer's height is fine. Springer comes with quite a few accessories. He's got two (badly warped) swords, two guns, and a... spinny thing. I guess it's pretty obvious that the swords and spinny thing combine to make the rotor for the helicopter mode, but I'm a little puzzled why they didn't go for the much neater rotor that transforms into a single sword like the Generations version, or the G1 version. Regardless, they're not all that's combining. The guns can combine to form a larger rifle, and the swords and spinny thing can be attached to the rifle to form a super weapon. That spins. Springer's head is on a ball joint, but with only a little up/down tilt and even less sideways tilt. His shoulders rotate, and they extend laterally a little under 90 degrees due to his shoulder pads getting in the way. His biceps and wrists swivel, and his elbows bend a bit over 90 degrees. His waist can swivel. His hips can go forward and backward a little over 90 degrees, and 90 degrees to the side. His thighs can swivel. His knees bend over 90 degrees. He's got over 90 degrees of ankle pivot, and his feet can tilt downward a little and up until his toes reach his shins. Those up/down hinges are a little on the loose side, and they're supporting the entire weight of the figure, making him a little prone to tipping backward. He of course holds his weapons fine, but if putting them in his hands isn't your thing (or, y'know, because he's got so many) there are also 5mm peg holes on the outsides of his forearms, on the outside of is lower legs near his knees, on top of each shoulder pad, under each foot, and three of them on his back. Additionally, there are tabs on the sides of his backpack that the swords can grip onto. All of his accessories, including the spinny thing, can be stored just on his backpack. Springer's helicopter mode, much like his robot mode, is mostly on-point, but with a few things worth pointing out. The landing skids are green instead of yellow, and he's missing the intakes and the horizontal stabilizers on the tail. I'll give the visible wheels a pass, but there's kind of a gap under the nose that his shoulder pads aren't totally covering. It's still the best helicopter mode for a Springer toy smaller than MP-scale, though. The spinny thing and swords form the rotor, as previously mentioned, and it spins. The instructions suggest plugging the guns into the holes above the landing skids. You also have one on either side of the cockpit, and (excluding the one the rotor is plugged into) two on the top. Technically the spinny thing itself has a hole on the top and a pair of pegs, and the tabs on the sides of the backpack are still accessible if you can find something else that fits on them. Oh, and there's a largish peg hole underneath that's probably meant to work with some kind of flight stand. Springer's car mode has never been great, but I think that Siege Springer pulls it off better than most. It's solid, mostly cohesive, and compacts into something that is both fairly cartoon accurate and passable as a land vehicle of some Cybertronian variety. I think it even holds up compared to some of the MP options. It's not as gappy as Open & Play's, not as elongated (and stupid-looking) as Fans Toys', and while I'd concede that MMC's looks better, it's less cartoon accurate. I dare say that I like Siege Springer's car mode better than his helicopter mode. The instructions indicate that you should make the super combined weapon I talked about back with the accessories, then plug it into the top. Aside from looking kind of goofy the whole thing spins too freely, a side effect of using the core of the rotor for the base. For a more secure fit you could take the super weapon apart and tab the swords onto the backpack, then use the peg holes behind each of the four tires, above the front tires, or the trio on the top for plugging in the guns. And, I guess, the spinny thing, because what else are you going to do with it? Springer is one of the best figures in the Siege line so far. I'd say he's hands-down better than Generations Springer, which was already highly-regarded. He's another one of those figures that makes me think that if HasTak had been putting this much care into their designs years ago that I might never have bothered with third-party Transformers or the Masterpiece line. Most of his issues are minor aesthetic issues. I'd have preferred a transforming sword rotor to the dual-sword-spinny-thing combo, but a 5mm peg is a 5mm peg and I can always repurpose the sword/rotor from the older Generations toy. The only thing that's really holding me back from liking him more is the looseness of his feet joints, and that may even be a "your mileage may vary" sort of thing, since even on my copy one is looser than the other. He's a definite recommend from me.

When you transform him to jet mode his head goes in there.

I have mixed feelings regarding Jetfire's handholds, then. I guess it is kind of a neat play gimmick, and it really doesn't affect his pelvis as you can simply ignore them. I'd have happily ditched the ones in his forearms for a more traditional and secure wrist, though. Interesting. See, I'd checked earlier with Pulse when the limit was two, but when I looked yesterday they were sold out, otherwise I'd have bought them there instead of BBTS. Oh well, at least I have Brunt and Springer on the way.

Finding the new Leader-class Optimus was kind of a happy accident, but I guess it means that the new wave of Siege figures is starting to trickle out. I have Brunt and Springer on order and in stock but still waiting to ship from Hasbro Pulse, Red Alert and Thundercracker preordered with an arrival date of August 5th,, and a trio of Refraktors preordered at BBTS with a more nebulous date of "July". And then there's this guy, who arrived today: Commander-class Jetfire. If I'm being honest, with all of the Siege Leaders being much smaller than previous Leader-class toys (essentially Voyagers with some add-on bits), I was feeling a little cynical about the whole Commander class. I kind of expected Jetfire would essentially be the old Leader size (plus some add-on bits). I'm happy to report that's not the case. Leader Megatron, who I believe is slightly taller than the Combiner Wars Leader-class Jetfire (whom I never bothered with), only comes up to about the badge on Jetfire's chest. And he absolutely dwarfs the old Classics Voyager-class Jetfire. Point of fact, you could make a case that he's actually too big, and perhaps should have been closer in size to the older Leader-class. Voyager-class Siege Optimus comes up to this Jetfire's hip joints. MP-10/MS-01-TE-01 come up above the waist of Fans Toys' Phoenix, which was supposedly scaled with MP-10 according to Sunbow's chart (and IIRC, Daca Toys' Kronos was a little smaller than Phoenix). For Siege Jetfire and Siege Optimus to have the same relative scale as MP-10 and Phoenix then Jetfire would either have to be a head shorter (based on his head), or Prime would have to be two (of his own) heads taller. Given his size, the scarcity (and perhaps price tag) of Phoenix, and the dearth of other alternatives, I've heard some people considering using the inaugural Commander-class as an MP stand-in. And... maybe that'll work, if you squint. I mean he is bigger than MP-10 and the various flavors of 3P MP-style Primes, and while Skyfire was always bigger than Prime I think you can find enough examples from episodes to say that he doesn't need to tower over Prime the way Phoenix does. Jetfire is also pretty much free of the dirt paint that's been used on much of the Siege line, and he's definitely leaning hard into the cartoon aesthetically. The sides of his chest are longer than Phoenix, which is actually more cartoon accurate. He's got the red accents on his chest and hip armor, plus the red panels on the outsides of his legs. His shoulders have the appropriate band-around-an-orb shape, and he's even got the bump outs just below his elbow on the front and back of his forearm. The main thing working against him is that, like the rest of the Siege line, he's covered in molded greebles. This makes him a fine aesthetic match with other Siege figures, but compared to the extremely smooth, flat look Takara's been going with I think Siege Jetfire is going to stand out on an MP shelf. Jetfire does have some neat tricks, though. Although the instructions don't mention it, the Autobot insignia is molded and painted onto a panel that can flip around to reveal a similarly molded and painted Decepticon symbol, which is the kind of "like that one time in that one episode" think you usually don't see outside of MP figures. And his hands, while decidedly not very MP-ish, are pinned at the base of the fingers so they can open and close. The neat thing here, though, is that closing his fingers causes a 5mm ring to slide out from inside his palm. Opening the fingers causes it to retract. While I'd prefer fully articulated fingers and the ol' handle-tab-into-palm-slot on an actual MP figure this size, the sliding ring preserves compatibility with other Siege weapons, including Battle Masters, Micromasters, and parts of Weaponizers. Speaking of weapons, Jetfire comes with quite a few accessories. You've got a pair of blast effect parts, each one capable of separating into three smaller segments. You've got a chestplate called the "Skyshield Aerial Armor," which opens to allow storage for the Skyshield Battle Mask. Then, from left to right, a pair of HP Jetboost Particle Beam Cannons, a pair of HS Photon Missiles, a pair of HS Photon Missile Sky Launchers, and a pair of double-barreled Radiograph Boosters. Like all the extra parts that came with Shockwave, Jetfire's accessories can be combined into some kind of drone thing. The handles on the Sky Launchers fold up, which folds out an offset handle on one of them, and they can combine together to make something more like the double-barreled rifle Skyfire had in the cartoon, also. Jetfire's head is on a hinged swivel that can rotate and look up a fair amount, but nothing really down. Interestingly, the panel that this neck is on also can tilt backward a bit, increasing Jetfire's ability to look up. His shoulders rotate on ratchets, and can extend a little over 90 degrees on another set of ratchets. His biceps swivel just above his elbows, which are also ratcheted. They're double-jointed, but the second joint is really more for transformation, and he's still limited to a little over 90 degrees of bend. His wrists swivel, and I've already talked about his hands. He has a little waist swivel, but due to the shape of his torso, his hip armor, and his backpack he's limited to basically what you see in the above picture. His hips can go forward or backward a little under 90 degrees on ratchets. They can also extend laterally 90, but surprisingly that joint is just a friction joint. His thighs rotate around the hip joints. His knees are a single joint with a softer ratchet, capable of 90 degrees. Although they're tabbed into place when you first take him out of the box, he does have up to 90 degrees of ankle pivot. As I touched upon earlier, his weapons use 5mm pegs (or holes), and the rings in his palms allow Jetfire to hold them or any other weapon with a 5mm peg handle. Additionally, he's got 5mm peg holes on the outside of each bicep, the outside of each forearm, on the red panels on his lower legs, in the middle of his back back, one on the back of each wing, and one in each heel, plus he's got fold out 5mm pegs on the front of his pelvis and at the hinges in his wings, and a pair of 5mm-long tabs on the sides of his backpack that a weapon with a 5mm peg hole can grip onto. While Jetfire can hold the combined drone you made out of his accessories, you can split them up and place them on his body using the various holes, pegs, and tabs. The official placement has the particle beam cannons tabbed onto the backpack, the photon missiles stuck to the faux wing tips using the fold out pegs, and the boosters on his forearms. The mask, of course, covers his face, and tabs that unfold from his chest allow the armor to latch into place. I guess the armor and mask are a neat little homage to the G1 toy, but they're really not doing anything for me, especially since the mask doesn't give him the VF-1S's head lasers. Nor does the chest armor have the same symbol flip gimmick that Jetfire's own chest does. I could take or leave the particle beam cannons and the missiles (although the missiles need to find a new home). I dig the boosters, though. They remind me of the FA-78-1 Full Armor Gundam. Jetfire's alt mode is a lot like his robot mode. In some ways, it's very cartoon accurate. The thrusters are on the backpack, and his folded-up feat are thruster-less. Like Fans Toys, HasTak elongated the thrusters in jet mode, albeit in a very different way with the rear half of the thrusters folding out of his calves. He's got the little vertical stabilizers and the secondary cockpit on the backpack. The actual cockpit is just behind the nose, with intakes on the sides, and, again like Fans Toys, HasTak worked the sides of Jetfire's chest around to the sides of the fuselage. But once again the cartoon accuracy is marred somewhat by the abundance of Siege greebles. He's also a little gappy from some angles, fortunately mostly from the bottom. There is fold-out landing gear with rolling wheels. Weirdly, there's also the pegs that slide out of his pelvis, and another set that come out of his wrists when you tuck in the hands. The instructions tell you how they should fold out and be positioned for alt mode, but I'm really not sure why. They serve no purpose that I can discern, nor do the instructions give one. The main canopy does have a hinge and can open to reveal some details inside, although you have to fold down the nose to open the canopy. The one on the backpack doesn't open. For accessory storage in alt mode, the instructions basically have you build the drone and plug it on top of Jetfire's backpack. Again, I'm not really loving it. Fortunately, you have access to the backpack tabs, the peg hole on the backpack, the holes on the sides of his legs, the ones under the wings, plus the fold out pegs (which are now under the wings), and that gives you plenty of alternatives. The pegs and holes under the wings in particular are a pretty natural place to stick weapons that look like missiles. Unfortunately, the only way the chest armor stores in the jet mode is, at minimum, on the combined rifle and stuck on the backpack. Oh well, looks like the chest and mask are going back into the box. Oh, and a friendly reminder... those blast effect parts don't just make for cool muzzle flashes and less cool weapon hits. In Jetfire's case, you can (and should) make sure the blast effects are fully assembled, then stick then into his thrusters for maximum "swooshing". Jetfire's definitely a really cool figure with a lot to like, but he's got a few quirks. And I do think he's a little too large for proper scaling with the other Siege figures, which is extra disappointing, because my other beef with this figure is the price. Although not usually as big, $80 can buy you figures (usually MP-style) with higher quality, better materials, and stronger joints. I like Jetfire, but I'm struggling to say that he's worth $80. If HasTak would have made him closer to the previous Leader-class version in size and ditched most of the extra accessories then offered him for $50-$60 I'd say he's a must-buy toy. If you can get past the sticker shock, though, Jetfire's a really fun toy that does a great job of actually looking like Skyfire in the cartoon.

Infinitor was kind of a bucket list toy for me, but the chest compartments that are slightly too small for his own Headmaster had me kind of curious. Since Brainstorm is my favorite Headmaster, on a whim I decided to pick up ToyWorld's Brainwave. Brainwave is much more stylized and less faithful to the G1 toy than Infinitor is. The grays are a little too dark, and the cyan a little too green. He's lacking in shoulder wings, but he's got quite a backpack. And he's all-around a bit more bulky than you'd expect. The face is kind of pinched, too. I've own four different takes on Brainstorm, and Brainwave's head is probably the worst of the four. All that said, I don't really hate it. I actually dig the heroic proportions. In a vacuum I think Brainwave looks like a good CHUG Brainstorm, and indeed I'd still say he's better than the Titans Return version. But in context I think Brainwave came out after Fansproject's excellent Smart Robin figure. Given both figure's retail price at the time, unless you were adamant about Brainstorm being a tall Voyager instead of a tall Deluxe then Smart Robin was the easy winner. Plus the Generations Voyager came out not too long after, if I'm not mistaken. Brainwave comes with the accessories you'd expect for a Brainstorm figure- his head, and his guns. Size-wise, the Headmaster is about the same height as Generations Brainstorm or Fansproject's, and a little bigger than a Titan Master. It's interesting to me that, instead of trying to make the head look like Brainstorm's G1 Headmaster they made him look like a smaller, slightly differently-colored version of the larger robot. Articulation-wise, it's very similar to Infinitor's. His head can't move. His shoulders can rotate and extend laterally on a ball joint. His hips are ball joints that can move forward and laterally 90 degrees. His knees are ball joints that can bend 90 degrees and double as thigh swivels. It just doesn't have the ball-jointed elbows Infinitor's does. It's also a bit smaller than Infinitor's. Now, as far as I know Toyworld didn't get around to doing all the Headmasters, but they did Hardhead and Skullcruncher. Assuming that their Headmasters are the same size as Brainwave's then yes, they could fit into the compartments in Infinitor's chest. And perhaps they could swap heads amongst the three of them. However, you can't really swap Brainwave and Infinitor's heads. Infinitor's is just flat out too big for Brainwave, and doesn't fit in the socket. Brainwave's does fit onto Infinitor, but aside from looking too small the connection is too small to lock it, and the spring-loaded stat gimmick wants to push the head back out. Properly seated on his body, Brainwave can rotate his head, but on my copy at least it's incredibly difficult to move it. His shoulders can rotate and extend 90 degrees, but moving them tends to dislodge the gray piece between his shoulder and his body. His biceps swivel, and his elbows bend 90 degrees. His wrist can swivel, and because they're not really locked in place you can use a transformation hinge to bend them down almost 90 degrees. His waist can swivel. His hips about 75 degrees forward and 90 degrees backward on ratchets, although his right hip is so soft it feels more like friction. They can also spread 90 degrees on soft ratchets. His thighs can swivel. His knees can bend 90 degrees, his toes can bend down due to transformation, and his ankles can pivot 45 degrees. His guns have 5mm pegs for handles, and they fit into his fists just fine. He also has peg holes on the backs of his forearms that you can plug them into. The cockpit on his chest is fake, but it still opens. He doesn't have any stats to show inside, but it's still nice that Toyworld put some molded detail inside and even painted it silver and red. Oh, and those cyan accents on his legs? They actually pull out and away revealing some bladed weapons. You can plug the blades into his hands, but they look kind of weird to me. I don't see myself posing Brainwave with them, but it's still pretty cool that they're there. Brainwave's wings mostly just chill on his back, kind of like a backpack. They have to be angled back a little to keep from interfering with his shoulder articulation. However, they're hinged, so you can raise them upward in a kind of flight mode. What's cool is that there are also flaps on the backs of his legs. If you lift them you'll find some molded, painted thrusters. This little bit of detail is entirely for robot mode, as they're tucked in for the alt mode. It's the kind of thing that ToyWorld didn't have to do, so it's very much appreciated that they did do it. Transformation is a bit different that your G1 Brainstorm, and the result is... well, it's not the strongest of alt modes. The nose is quite a bit thicker, not tapering to a point like the other Brainstorms. By itself that's not so bad, but the guns plugged onto the sides are significantly blockier and less aerodynamic than even the G1 toy's. They're also mostly white. His legs do a kind of cool trick where they split and hinge just below the knees, revealing some molded gray thrusters inside. But their chunkiness works against the jet mode, when viewed from most angles. Or, viewed from the bottom, you can see his hips and thighs and he looks more like a folded-up robot than a jet. Then of course, there's the wings. There's nothing that really looks like Brainstorm's vertical stabilizers, just four wings with four very familiar round engine nacelles... And, yes, you can spread them apart. They're totally X-Wing wings. It's just a shame, because they're a little too short, the folded up legs making up too much mass in the rear, and the nose is too broad to really sell the alt mode as an X-Wing. So the alt mode kind of fails as both an X-Wing and Brainstorm's Well, at least there's fold out landing skids, although the lower wings have to be parallel to the ground for them to work since the rear skids come out of the engine nacelles. If you don't like his guns on the nose, there are also 5mm pegs near the tips of the wings, under the lower wings and on top of the upper wings. And the actual cockpit (on Brainwave's back) can open so the Headmaster can sit inside, although you have to move his robot feet to give the canopy enough clearance. Let's get this out of the way... I can't really recommend Brainwave. He's obviously too big to go into a Legends collection, and too small and stylized to be MP. He was clearly meant to be a CHUG Brainstorm. But like I already pointed out, the Voyager-class Generations figure is a better, cheaper option, and if that's too big Fansproject's Smart Robin looks better in both modes due to extremely clever engineering that makes me recommend it to this very day just for the experience. Brainwave only fares slightly better than the lazy Blurr remold that eked into the Titans Return line, but even then that figure was cheaper and had the advantage of being compatible with all the other Titan Masters. Despite not recommending him, I must admit that I don't regret buying Brainwave, though. I bought him for a clearance price of around $40, and at that price I got a chunky figure with solid plastic reminiscent of older TFC stuff like Hercules, decent articulation, and a simple transformation I can get through quickly without a spudger (something I really appreciate since moving my focus to MPs). He's not going in any of my displays, but he's still pretty fun to mess around with.

Wish I'd have known about these issues a day or two sooner. The physical version I ordered just arrived. Hopefully those promised patches come quickly...

Astrotrain looks pretty good! Kind of makes up for the first two. I'm in for Apeface, as long as he's a Headmaster. Hopefully they'll do Snapdragon, too. Spinister... Ok. I'd be more excited, but I missed Triggerhappy and never even saw a Misfire or Slugslinger, so Spinister (and a potential Needlenose) would complete a set that I'm missed every other release on. And Crosshairs. Well, the Ironhide mild works surprisingly well, but I'm a little miffed that Crosshairs is the regular retail release while the one everyone actually wants, Ratchet, is going to be a Walgreens exclusive.

Was out shopping the other day and I found this guy at Target: Siege Leader-class Galaxy Upgrade Optimus Prime. So, for those of you who don't know, this is a retool of Siege Leader-Class Ultra Magnus and an homage to Transformers Cybertron/Galaxy Force Optimus Prime. On the Cybertron homage, well, you don't really see it with the smaller robot. Aside from his torso looking more like the cab of Cybertron Prime's alt mode than his usual G1 truck mode he's definitely looking a bit more G1 in this mode. Indeed, Orion Pax in the current ongoing IDW Transformers reboot is based on this figure, and not the previous Voyager-class one. However, unless you're buying Siege figures because of the new IDW comics, I'd say that the Voyager-class figure beats this one in aesthetics. Maybe the translucent teal on white draws the eyes away so you don't notice it as much on Magnus, but this Prime looks fat. Speaking of Magnus, Prime shares the same legs, arms, head, and most of the pelvis. His torso from the waist up is really the only new parts for this mode. It's enough that, combined with the different colors, he does look distinct enough from Magnus, but again this is really another point in favor of the older Voyager mold. I do like the toy-style yellow eyes, even if they're not IDW-accurate (the comics still use blue). Would it have really killed them to paint the smokestacks silver, though? Like Magnus, this Prime gets his status as a Leader-class toy by dumping all of his extra plastic into accessories. Those accessories would be a pair of arm parts, a silver rifle, two black guns, and his trailer. The trailer isn't as good as hiding the super mode head as Magnus', and the guns on the top are disappointingly hollow underneath. As for the guns, the silver one is similar to the one that came with the original Cybertron Optimus, albeit without the hand guard and firing missile. The black ones are almost identical to the ones that came with Magnus. They're just missing that splash of silver paint his got in the barrels. Like Magnus' trailer, Prime's splits into boots, shoulder pads, and a torso piece (the arm parts aren't part of the trailer this time, though). The boots are again mostly what came with Magnus, they just have different panels on the sides that don't move this time. The rest is pretty much new. Prime's articulation is the same as Magnus', but for a refresher his head is on a ball joint with some ok up/down/sideways tilt in addition to rotation. His shoulders can rotate and extend a little over 90 degrees laterally. His biceps swivel, his elbows bend 90 degrees, and his wrist swivels. His waist swivels. His hips go forward and backward 90 degrees on ratchets, and extend laterally almost 90 degrees on softer ratchets. His thighs swivel around the hip joint, so they can't rotate freely but they can turn outward over 45 degrees, adn I think that's adequate. His knees bend 90 degrees, and his ankles can pivot inward about 45 degrees. In addition to his hands, Prime has 5mm peg holes on the outside of each forearm, on the outside of each leg near his ankles, on top of each shoulder, under each foot, one on either side of his backpack, and one in the middle of his backpack. Speaking of backpacks, Prime still has one, just like Magnus. Now, recall that I said that his arm parts don't go with his trailer the way Magnus' do. The box suggests that you put the arm parts on his arm for this mode, as you would for super mode. The instructions tell you to put them onto his backpack, though. Putting them on his backpack seems to be IDW accurate. Prime's cab mode has the same basic problems that Magnus' does. His feet don't fold up in any meaningful way. His front wheels sit very far forward and leave an empty gap behind them. His smokestacks end up side-by-side in the middle of the cab instead of the back. And his arms stick out the back of the cab with his fists super visible like they're holding the handlebars of an imaginary motorcycle. I do like that the cab has some molded detail like marker lights, and light bars that the original toy had, even if they're not painted. By itself, the cab has 5mm pegs on the sides of the bumper, in the middle of the bumper, a pair on top of the cab, one on each side of the cab, one on each side of the hitch near his robot feet, and one under each foot at the back of the hitch. Plus, technically, his fists are available. So, you can store all of his weapons and maybe even a few Battle Masters on the cab alone. Do note that the arm parts are a necessity for the cab mode. Without them you're missing a large portion of his bumper and his front wheels. If you stored these parts on his backpack then they're already where they need to be, so it's only partforming if you put them on his arms already. If we bring in the trailer... well, that's starting to look like Cybertron Prime, yep. The cab is a little shorter, but doesn't have a visible head in the middle. Even with the arm parts in their proper place he's still missing a pair of front wheels, and the bumper is slightly different without visible fingers. The rear doesn't bulge out like the original toy. And from the top the trailer's a bit more open on top. Aside from some extra blue at the back, though, the colors are fairly accurate, the side panels are still there, and he's still got his ladder-cannons. And, side from the very back, there's not a lot of obvious Ultra Magnus here. While the top of the trailer is more open than Magnus', leaving the super head mostly visible, it does at least blend with the cab's arms and hides the hands. The cannons can move up and down or swivel outward. Both cannons have a 5mm peg in the front, and you can attach his rifle just like you could on the original toy. They lack the cyber key gimmicks, though. You can still use the three 5mm peg holes on the bumper, the two on top of the cab, and the one on each side of the cab, plus the trailer has two more on each side. The instructions suggest placing the black guns near the front of the trailer, which might help hide his head from some views. I prefer upside-down on the rear peg holes, but they kind of look out of place no matter where you put them. While the sides of the trailer are hinged they don't swivel. So, you can't do his flight mode. Despite starting with a more G1 figure, once you armor him up Prime really does start pulling off the Cybertron look. Like Magnus, the front of his pelvis even flips around for a slightly more Cybertron-esque one. Could have used some blue on his crotch, though. His forearms are still red instead of blue, but at least the arm parts provide some blue on the outside, the pipes, and the tires. The armor provides the Cybertron-style head and chest windows (although they don't open and there's no Matrix inside), plus faux-cab shoulderpads. He's got his wings, thought the wheels are fake, and his big cannons can fold up onto his back without him tipping over like the original toy. And while his proportions still aren't ideal, I think I like them better than the original. I think my only major complaint is that they could have done a better job with his legs. I get that they wanted to reuse Magnus', but I think they'd be more accurate if they hadn't painted the shins silver, and instead painted some of the details on his knees. They could have painted the black guns, too. See, while they seemed to be an homage to a feature on RiD Magnus' alt mode for Ultra Magnus, they work as Cybertron Prime's leg guns here. And as I recall, those guns were silver with a little red on the outside edges, not black. Another area where this Prime has the original Cybertron Prime beat is articulation. The new head is still a ball joint. The chin keeps it from looking down as far as the base robot, but he can still look up and tilt his sideways pretty well. His shoulders, elbows, biceps, wrists, waist, hips, thighs, and knees are all carried over from the base robot, and the additional armor doesn't restrict them in any way. Plus, his new boots have nearly 90 degrees of ankle pivot. He can hold any of his guns just fine, although again I prefer to have the black ones (which maybe I'll paint silver) on his legs. The cannons can flip around and under his arms, like the original toy, and again you can put his rifle into one of them. This time, though, his cannons have pegs on sliders, so you can maneuver them into his hands when you want to do the full-burst thing. Fully armored, Prime now has peg holes on top of each shoulder, on the outside of each forearm just behind the wheels, on the back of each wing, on his butt, under each foot, and on the outside of each leg. If, like me, you're using the ones on his legs for the black guns, you might be pleased to know that the designers accounted for that and put another peg hole on each gun. Plus there's the peg hole on the barrel of each cannon, which can also be used for blast effect parts, and while they're too shallow to attach weapons you can fit those blast effect parts into the pipes on his forearms for some Hot Rod-style forearm gun action. I very much appreciate that HasTak made an Ultra Magnus for Siege that used the White Optimus armoring up gimmick that the G1 toy had, instead of going for another all-in-one transformation or, worse, repainting the Voyager Optimus white and calling it a day. I get that they had to reuse the mold, and I appreciate them stepping outside the G1 box instead of doing another Powermaster Prime. That said, while there's a lot that I like here better than the original Cybertron toy, I don't think it's really accurate enough to please most Cybertron fans, especially unarmored. And despite being technically more accurate to the IDW comics, the previous Voyager-class Prime is a much better G1-ish Optimus than the unarmored robot. I think this Prime is a pretty good toy, but unless you somehow missed the earlier Voyager-class and are desperate for any Siege Prime, are a fan of the new IDW series and really want that extra comic book accuracy, or you love Cybertron/Galaxy Force so much that any version of that Prime will do, then it's ultimately a safe pass.

I guess we'll find out tomorrow, since that's the release date. But it looks like some kind of 2D shooter.

My larger point still stands- Transformers ran for six films and counting telling its own stories (if they can be called that) and not doing much more than cherry-picking names from the source material. Whether I, as a Transformers fan, care to acknowledge those films as true Transformers or not is immaterial next to the fact that they made a bazillion dollars. You're basically arguing that a live-action Macross movie set during the Unification War that told an original story but could still fit into the actual Macross canon wouldn't actually be Macross. Then what, Zero isn't Macross? Or my idea for a Hollywood Macross isn't Macross because there's no singing? We're really in agreement, here. SDF Macross wouldn't make it in Hollywood. We're just splitting hairs over what is and isn't Macross enough to both come out of Hollywood and satisfy hardcore Macross fans.

Not sure where this fits into my collection, but this figure was on my bucket list, so here it: ToyWorld's Infinitor, aka Fortress Maximus. Of some sort. Infinitor is pretty accurate to the G1 toy, with some metallic red and white paint even standing in fro some of the stickers on the old toy. I think a lot of collectors tend to prefer more cartoon-accuracy, but after the third season you have to decide if cartoon accuracy means the US "The Rebirth" episodes or the Japanese Headmasters anime, and in that case maybe using the toy for a reference isn't a bad idea. So if toy-accuracy is the name of the game this time, then I guess the biggest question I have would be "What's up with the translucent red?" I mean, it works ok for the forearms, but you've got a big chunk in the middle of his chest that should properly be white and gray, and his left breast is also translucent red where the G1 toy was part solid blue, and part translucent green. On the whole, though, I think it's more accurate than even the Takara version of the Titan-class Fort Max, so I can mostly overlook the red plastic. Speaking of the Titan-class, though, there's an issue of scale here. Now, to be clear, there's a deliberate mistransformation of the hips you can do to squeeze a little extra height out of him. But either way, Infinitor is not a big toy, standing roughly the same height as a Titans Return-era Leader-class. I've heard of some people buying him up for the Legends-class collection, and although I didn't grab a picture he's roughly as tall as Iron Factory's Bruticus. Now, if we're talking about Fortress Maximus as he appeared in either cartoon, is that actually big enough? The size difference between Infinitor and Magic Square's Sideswipe is less than the difference between Titan Fort Max and Siege Sideswipe. Or is he too big, as he's apparently quite a bit taller than Iron Factory's Scorponok? Personally, I think the best way to think of Infinitor is not as either cartoon version of Fortress Maximus, but as the old Marvel Comics version. While he was big in the comics he wasn't necessarily huge, standing about the same size as Powermaster Optimus Prime, with the other Headmasters coming up to his waist. Mixing Siege with some other late Generations lines like Titans Return and I think Infinitor is best thought of as a CHUG-scale Marvel Fortress Maximus. Then we come to his accessories. He's got his rifle, but not the sword he had in The Headmasters. And his head can transform into a smaller robot, one that seems to take its cues from the G1 toy Cerebros/Fortress (although I'm not sure why the top of his head and center of his chest are black). Its head doesn't come off and turn into a smaller Spike/Fortress, but Cerebros was often ignored in the Marvel comics, at best depicted as an intermediate step between Spike and Fortress Maximus, but often omitted in favor of Spike turning directly into Maximus' head. So the omitted double-Headmaster gimmick is another point in favor of Infinitor being Marvel Fortress Maximus. Despite being smaller than Maketoys' or Fans Toys' Headmasters, Infinitor's head is closer to them in size than a Titan master, a G1 Headmaster, or one of Fansproject's. Which makes him a little disappointing, because he feels kind of junky compared to Maketoys and Fans Toys. His head can't move at all. His shoulders are ball joints so he can rotate them and extend them laterally a bit. His elbows are also ball joints, allowing him to turn his bicep and bend his elbow about 90 degrees. His hands don't move, though, and are sculpted in such a way that bending his elbow often looks like it's giving him gorilla arms. His hips are ball joints and can kick forward over 90 degrees, back a little, and laterally over 90 degrees. His hips are pretty loose, though. His knees are ball joints, able to bend 90 degrees and double as a thigh swivel. And that's about it. Transformation to head mode is pretty simple and basically the same as a Titan Master; you just have to spin the lower legs 180 degrees before folding him up. There are notches on his chest where his heels kind of fit into, but it's more of a guide than a secure slot/tab. As for Infinitor himself, he can't look up or down but the entire area his head plugs into can spin, allowing him to turn his head about 45 degrees in either direction before his cheeks start banging into other stuff. His shoulders rotate on friction joints and can extend laterally about 70 degrees on a strong ratchet. His biceps swivel. His elbows are double-jointed. The lower joint is a friction joint that's good for 90 degrees, the upper joint is a ratchet and lets him curl his arms the rest of the way up. His wrists swivel, and his hands are like an MP car's with a fixed thumb and his four fingers molded as a single piece pinned at the base knuckle. His waist can swivel. His hips can go forward or backward 90 degrees in four clicks on very strong ratchets, and laterally a little over 90 degrees in five clicks on a similarly very strong ratchet. His thighs swivel, and his knees bend 90 degrees on a softer ratchet. Due to transformation his feet can tilt down, but not up. He's got 90 degrees of ankle pivot. He holds his rifle just fine. Despite his size, his rifle just has a 5mm peg for a handle, and his palm is cut like a 5mm peg. I got excited thinking that meant that he could use Siege Cog's parts for guns, but the handles are too short and the rounded bumps at the ends of his forearms keep the pegs from reaching his hands. Not that he needs a gun. Like the G1 toy, Infinitor's got guns that can swivel out from his hips, guns under the translucent flaps on his forearms, and guns in his shins. Plus he's got guns on the bit connected to his left leg. I didn't have the G1 toy, so I don't know if it originally came off, but that bit is attached to Infinitor. However, it's on hinge and a pair of swivels so it can fold onto the back of his calf when it's not being deployed. Infinitor also has compartments that open up on both sides of his chest. I could fit a Titan Master and a Fansproject Headmaster in there, but Maketoys' and Fans Toys' are too big. Actually, I couldn't fit his own Headmaster in there with the door closed. I'm not sure if the ones that came with their Hardhead or Brainstorm would fit. The ramps on the backs of his shoulders can be removed if they're in your way. They just plug in via 5mm pegs. If you want them attached, though, they have hinges and can swivel on their pegs, so they really shouldn't get in your way. As you'd expect, Infinitor turns into a spaceship, of sorts. I mean, despite being the alt mode that was most often depicted in both cartoons, Fortress Maximus' spaceship mode was always kind of weak, as 90% of the transformation was laying him down with his arms in the air. But, I guess that Infinitor is pretty accurate in that regard. Again, I think it looks better than the Titan-class version. The big difference, again, is a large chunk of translucent red plastic, this time at the top of the conn tower. I seem to recall the G1 toy was just white on one side, with a translucent green canopy on the other. I might have preferred green, for both this and the chest, but it looks more cohesive than the half-and-half look of the G1 toy, so overall I mind it less. Like the G1 toy, you can plug his rifle into the side of the tower. The translucent red canopy can open, allowing the Headmaster to ride inside. And there are wheels on the underside, so he can even roll a bit in this mode. So my only complaint is that I wish it tabbed together a little more solidly. The ramps do tab onto the backs of his arms, but nothing keeps his shoulders from rotating. Actually, the folded up conn tower keeps the chunks of his chest in place in robot mode, and with them unfurled his chest can rotate, too. Flaps come up from his hips to lock the waist swivel, and the ratchets are plenty to hold his hips in place, but his thighs can still swivel freely. And it's just friction holding his feet in place. The friction does an ok job keeping them from tilting up or down, but the ankle pivot is somewhat loose. Then there's that pod on the side of his leg. Due to its shape and the greebles molded onto it it never seems to sit flush against his leg, let alone lock into place. Infinitor's ship mode does get props in one major area- it's much, much easier to "swoosh" it around than the G1 toy or the Titan-class figure. Infinitor's base mode is, again, pretty G1-accurate, although again it's pretty small. It's shorter than Titans Return Overlord's base mode but it has a lot more mass in the back. I have it transformed according to the instructions, which rotate the sides of the shoulders 180 degrees so they sit closer to his legs, but if you want more G1-accuracy you don't have to do that step. The only thing that's really missing are the doors on the front and the spinning antenna. Officially, the gun pegs into the side of the tower, which I think is what you'd expect, and the pod on his leg sits as pictured, on the side with its guns in the air. I think on the G1 toy it was supposed to be turned and sit in front of leg, next to the main tower, as a helipad. Aside from not having a smooth surface conducive to landing vehicles on, we have the same issue with the overall shape of it not allowing it to sit flush. Still, you can swivel it into almost the right position. The sides of his legs do open up, and the red catapults on his ramps can be slid forward. Again, it's pretty spot-on, it just has some of the same problems with ship mode did with the shoulders not locking in place. That's actually true for the ramp as well, but it's only really a problem if you pick the base up. I think ToyWorld would have been perfectly fine if they'd just stopped there. However, they came up with another base mode. This is official and in the instructions, and the difference here is that you don't transform the chest section, you instead transform the hips so they're in the slightly taller position, then you bend his legs around so that his toes are pointed toward the front. Peg holes on his toes give you an alternative place to put his gun. And... yeah, it's a thing you can do. I'm just not sure why you'd want to. Putting aside for the moment that it's less accurate, it has a certain unfinished, gappy appearance and the regular base mode just looks better to me. Infinitor is an interesting piece, that's for sure. In some ways, he's the G1-but-with-better-articulation Fortress Maximus that the Titan-class toy utterly failed at being. But in other ways, the fit and finish is a little lacking for a toy in this price range, and his diminutive size holds him back from being the Fort Max a lot of us really want. If he were upscaled to the size of, say, Maketoys' Utopia (Metroplex), some of the tabbing issues were resolved, and they gave the Headmaster his own littler Headmaster then I would recommend it in a heartbeat as the definitive version of Fortress Maximus. As he is, though, I think he's just too small for most collections. That said, I find Infinitor much more satisfying than the Titan-class Fortress Maximus, and if you want a Marvel comics CHUG-style Fortress Maximus then he should definitely fit the bill.

I've owned pretty much every console Nintendo's made, except the Virtual Boy. But the Switch is definitely the console I've enjoyed the most since the SNES. Maybe because it's also kind of a handheld? Their handhelds have been stellar. I'm actually a little sad that the 3DS is basically dead now. It's more portable and has better battery life than the Switch, so I usually bring it with me instead when I visit my in-laws in Beijing. Persona Q2, probably the last game I'll pick up for it, was the 80th cartridge I bought for it.

Yeah, but not necessarily the beginning. Using your own example of Transformers, sure, they didn't leave out the Autobots and Decepticons. But they also didn't crash on Earth in an Ark millions of years ago only to wake up in 1984 when a volcano explodes. And, maybe I'm being pessimistic, but whatever Kawamori and company's intentions regarding what is and isn't iconic I can't see Hollywood selling the general public on the story of a pop singer winning the war against a militant race of alien giants through culture shock. Best-case scenario is a movie that respects the source material enough for the hardcore fanbase but can still be sold to the general public. I happen to think that acknowledging the alien star ship crash but telling a story (at least for the first part) about the Unifcation War could work (and no, I don't mean they should adapt Macross Zero, I mean a different theater and a more grounded conflict).

Why does a live-action Macross movie have to adapt any existing Macross story? Another easy jumping-in point would be in Unification Wars, and as a conflict between the UN and the Anti-UN they could largely skirt around the issue of aliens.

Well, Gundam is getting a live action Hollywood treatment from Legendary pictures. I'd imagine that anyone thinking about doing Macross would at least wait and see how Gundam does.

I'm wondering the same thing. EDIT: Google says it was a kids variety show that ran from 1968 to 1970, and was in syndication from 1971 to 1982, so I guess it's a little before my time (which, as I'm pushing 40, is becoming increasingly rare to have to say). So the premise of turning it into a horror film is as ludicrous as taking a cartoon character (also from the '60s) and giving him a talk show.

I don't know what that is.