mikeszekely

Plus, while it's possible that a 3P could come along and do a stylized take on a character with a modern alt mode, in a lot of ways Hasbro and 3Ps alike have their hands tied by G1. People expect a robot that looks like the cartoon, sometimes to a fault, and that doesn't give them a lot of room to interpreting the shape of an aircraft into robot parts.

Heisei is my favorite (with the caveat that I've only seen half of the Millennium ones). Ideally I'd want a '54 Godzilla from the original film, an '84 Godzilla from The Return of Godzilla, a '99 Godzilla from Godzilla 2000, Shin Godzilla from said film, and maybe a version of the Legendary Godzilla, but ultimately my goal is simply to have one figure for each era. I think the Monsterarts would have been doable if I'd started years ago and got them at retail but the aftermarket seems like it's $130-$200 for most of them, with some like Destroyah pushing past $300. I'm just not sure that's a can of worms I want to open when even the aftermarket for Neca is $20-$50. Then again, I found the Neca from Godzilla vs SpaceGoSpaceGodzilla at my local Target and decided to try it. The tail was broke out of the box, which doesn't give me the warm and fuzzies...

I'm in kind of the same boat, except that my attachment to vehicle Voltron is less than the lions. I'm banking on precedent to get an American preorder, preferably Amazon. If I miss my chance, I think I can live with that.

I know the lion Voltron got a US release. I remember the preorder on Amazon. I just didn't have the money then.

Kinda this. I'm not begrudging anyone their Xboxes, as the Xbox One still seems to be popular with the online multiplayer crowd. But unless that's all you're into you're missing a ton of console exclusives, not just Death Stranding.

Ironhide's wasn't the only upgrade kit I picked up. While I was at it, I also grabbed DNA's DKA-09 upgrade kit for Studio Series Megatron. In the box we find a replacement arm and cannon-claw and some winglets. Seems the main aim of this kit is to give Megatron's tank the little wings that he used to fly around with in Revenge of the Fallen. There's also a battle-damaged head, which I suppose is cool if you don't want to try to hunt down the Target-exclusive Studio Series 31 Battle-damaged Megatron (that I've never seen in either of the two Target stores I frequent), although I'm told it's only supposed to come with the first run*. *Oddly enough, DNA is releasing a second version of this kit as DK-09EX with a paint job that more closely matches SS-31's, and it too is offering a battle-damaged head as a first-run bonus. Except SS-31's head is already battle-damaged, making it a totally redundant bonus that's only worth it if you don't care for Hasbro's sculpt. And I kind of prefer Hasbro's sculpt, so... So, the arm is the main thing I bought this kit for. It's been awhile since I watched the movie, but I remember Megatron with two arms more than I remember him running around with his claw, so this is kind of the look I wanted. And you can get this by pushing the old arm off at the mushroom-pegged bicep, and then pushing this new arm into the socket. The fingers are hinged and allow for some hand articulation, although there's no wrist swivel. If you do still want the claw-cannon look, DNA's still got you covered. Their included version fits over the smaller arm, tabbing in on the forearm. I should point out, though, that it's kind of a pain to get on. DNA's cannon does have molded detail that's pretty similar to what Hasbro offered, and it even has some extra paint. That said, the extending blade on DNA's slides inward to retract instead of folding backward like Hasbro's. That means that the blade itself is much shorter when extended, and always pointing out a little when retracted (which, near as I can tell, is less screen-accurate). There's also a very noticeable peg on the underside. The intention seems to be so that you can jam it into some of the hole-shaped molded detail on Megatron's back for storage when he's not clawing it up. Then we come to the winglets. The smaller ones wedge into the kibble on the sides of Megatron's feet. There's not a ton of clearance there, so the winglets actually push the kibble out a bit from the sides of Megatron's feet. And since Hasbro didn't actually design those parts for anything to be plugged into them they're really just wedged in place and can come loose fairly easily. As for the the large ones, they grab onto the sides of Megatron's back, much more securely than the smaller ones. Once they're attached, they fold up and tuck inside Megatron's torso for robot mode. And, despite not really showing, they do fill in the hollow gaps on Megatron's sides, especially if you take DNA's advice and bend the cannons on Megatron's back down so they're in his armpits (which I don't like to do, as you kind of have to bend them and force them in ways they weren't meant to be bent and forced). Transformation is only slightly affected by the new parts. The new arm wearing the claw still stuffs in the way the old claw arm did. The winglets on his feet kibble slide out, no biggie. The larger wings unfurl and lay over Megatron's hips in a way that looks very natural, but they can get in the way of stuffing his arms into their alt-mode positions. And the payoff is that he now has the wings you see him flying with briefly in the movie. This kit is definitely something of a mixed bag. It gives you a "normal" arm if that's your thing, but if the cannon-claw look is what you want Hasbro already gave you a better one. And I'd be a little more forgiving of the downgrade, since I like the normal option, if the cannon-claw wasn't such a pain to attach to the normal one. It's almost easier to yank it off the mushroom peg and swap the old one back on. The winglets do fill in the torso in robot mode, which is kind of nice, but ultimately they recreate a look that I'm not sure I needed and add a few new headaches along the way. So I can't really recommend this kit. The problems it solves are trivial in the first place, and the biggest benefits bring their own new headaches.

Things have been kind of slow, at least for me, for big 3P figures. So how about something smaller... DNA Studio's DK-10 upgrade kit for Studio Series Ironhide. The kit comes with a pair of new feet for Ironhide, a new bumper, and two new guns with detachable knives. I think movie Ironhide is better know for the pair of cannons he had on his forearms, but as near as I can tell he did briefly use these guns in Dark of the Moon. Installing the feet is pretty easy. You have to remove two screws on each leg, pull the inside of the leg off, then work the old foot off. Just reverse the process to get the new foot on. In terms of sculpt I think the DNA feet are fairly close to the old feet, but right away you'll notice that there's some silver paint on the toes and the cables that the originals don't have. I couldn't tell you for sure if that paint is movie-accurate, but the Masterpiece Movie Ironhide seems to have those paint apps. But, their real contribution to robot mode is that they add the ankle pivots the figure originally lacked. Installing the new bumper is a bit more involved than other upgrade kits I've messed with. First, you have to pull off the front tires, which is a little scary because it takes a bit of force. Then, also scary and also requiring a bit of force, you have to use a small tool (included with the kit) to push this pin out. Once the pin is out, you can remove the bumper. Then you put the replacement bumper in, and instead of the pin you removed you use a different pin that came with the kit to secure it back in place. Now, despite the bent-up faux bumper on his chest, SS Ironhide had his bumper splayed across the front of his waist. This new bumper seeks to remedy that by having the ends bend backward and fill in his waist. It's an immediate and noticeable improvement. Then there are the weapons. Well, he can hold the guns, as the handles are 5mm pegs. But the fit is pretty tight. The knives can stay under the gun barrels, like bayonets, or they also have 5mm handles. Cleverly, DNA sized the tabs that hold the sides of the bumper to the front to also fit into slots on the knives, allowing him to carry the knives on his waist. Unfortunately, they come off pretty easily. The new guns also have storage. There's angled clips on the sides of the guns, they're meant to grab onto the door kibble on Ironhide's back. They're not very secure, though. There's one more thing you can do with the weapons in robot mode. The slot on the knives that lets them fit under the gun barrels can also fit onto tabs on Ironhide's original cannons. That said, they look kind of dumb there. The kit does offer some benefits for truck mode, too. This one's kind of minor, but the new bumper is kind of matte black instead of the gray plastic of the original. Despite the MPM also using gray for the front bumper I'm 99% sure the GMC Topkick used in at least the first film had a black bumper, so the new bumper looks more accurate to me. As for the feet, the outer and middle toes have hinges now. This allows them to fold up, so you the robot toe kibble under the truck is a little less obvious. I should note here, though, that after installing the new feet the back halves of the truck don't seem to sit as flush. I always have a tiny gap. I don't know if that's a widespread issue with this kit or something I goofed on during installation. Honestly, I can't recall if the gap was there or not when he was stock, so YMMV. The new guns have tabs on one side to peg into Ironhide's bed, just like the original weapons did. You just have to turn the knives around backward first. The other side has slots, so you can still attach the original cannons. And the resulting pile of guns is kind of a mess, but to be totally fair it's not like the cannons alone didn't look like crap back there. Alright, I'm going to lay this out there... do you have, or do you want to have, Studio Series Ironhide? Then you should definitely get this upgrade kit. The new feet adding ankle pivots and the new bumper folding into the waist fixes the two biggest issues SS Ironhide had, and elevates him from being one of the middle-of-the-pack figures in the line to one of the absolute best. The extra paint on the feet and changing the bumper to black is really just icing on the cake for me. As for the guns, I don't really care to use them with Ironhide, and I'd have been just as happy if DNA hadn't included them, but there are always other figures (especially CHUG) that can use them.

Hey guys, dunno if I should ask here or in a more Godzilla-related thread, as this question is more SH Monsterarts adjacent. I kind of want a few Godzillas for display. The Monsterarts ones look amazing... but I'm not really ready to drop $150+ one the ones I want. I'm kind of more interested in the Neca ones. At the price I'm not expecting the Neca ones to really hold a candle to the Monsterarts ones, but I'm wondering if anyone with experience with both had any thoughts on how the Neca ones hold up, if they're with the money, that sort of thing.

I mean... where do I even start... Yeah, this is probably going to be the complaint that you hear the most about MP-44. I don't know if they're cramming electronics in or something, but even though it's kind of Takara's MO these days it seems pretty lazy, considering TE managed to have basically no backpack at all. Maybe he's going hiking? The backpack itself is big enough to be noticeable from any angle but dead on, and that'd be bad enough. But it looks like, again unless you're looking at him dead on, this hinge is going to be super visible. And, maybe this is a cartoon thing, but his midsection and grill look to short. The grill especially looks square-shaped. It's a test sample, I assume, and may not be set up properly. But the lack of ankle pivot I'm seeing here is worrisome. As is the major paint chipping on the yellow spots on his pelvis. I personally hate the lack of a stripe around the cab and the lack of blue stripes on the trailer, but I suppose I'll let it slide because "it's cartoon accurate!" You know what's not? A flat chrome panel along the bottom. Even the cartoon drew that fuel tank as three-dimensional. I'm not digging the molded-in but unpainted windshield wipers. If they're so intent on cartoon accuracy that they won't paint them, then they might as well loose other realistic truck details like the steps, handrails, and door and make the headlights totally square. I also see more of that worrying paint chipping... and two red blocks in the bumper that just look like they're going to be unpainted. Maybe I'm nitpicking. But for $350-$440 I think one should be... Especially when this is your competition, and either of these can be had for under $150. And sure, MP-44 looks to have more paint and a ton more accessories... that I don't really want or need, and would rather they just put more effort into making a robot that looks as good as Magic Square or Transform Element's.

Why not? I mean, sure, I'd say it's pretty asinine if a big company like Capcom or Activision wanted to set up a Kickstarter for the next Resident Evil or Call of Duty. But videogames cost money to make. I doubt IGA was rolling in cash, and Way Forward and 505 Games were basically indie outfits. Isn't this sort of "I have an idea, but I need money to make it happen" passion project what Kickstarter is for? Maybe because it's not an excuse, and it's really not the same as a pre-order? You're fronting the cash for the development of the game, which you've already noted means assuming the risk. Ideally because you believe in the project and want to see it come to fruition. Were items not promised here? Was there something you might have got that you didn't? If they said "back for x dollars and get this stuff" and you're getting the promised stuff then they held up their end. They promised a copy of the game if you backed at $60, but they didn't promise the game would be $60. This goes back to what I said above. Kickstarter is NOT a pre-order. You're not buying the game at the retail price when you back it, you're pledging money toward the development of the game at whatever tier promises the goodies you like with no guarantee that any of it will actually come to fruition even if the project hits its funding goals. It was my understanding that they asked their Kickstarter community about this before the decision was made and the majority responded favorably to the idea. And that's really where the problem of Kickstarter lies. Kickstarter isn't a way to pre-order a game that entitles you to special treatment, but people have gotten used to thinking of it that way. Near as I can figure, the Bloodstained backers are getting what they were promised at the levels they were promised. They were never promised that the $60 they pledged would be the retail price because backing the game isn't the same as preordering, or that there would never be retailer incentives to actually preorder the game. The only thing that could be argued is a broken promise is making content explicitly described as "backer-only" available to non-backers, but it seems like they checked with backers first and most backers were ok with it.

I'll probably leave the rear bumper alone. EDIT: Actually, I'm too chicken to use the Molotow pen on the painted silver section of the front bumper. Tried it on the unpainted plastic, though. I think it's an improvement. It's hard to see under the harsh light at my workspace, but the under normal lighting the silver paint isn't so washed out and whitish, but the unpainted section is still super obvious. With the chrome paint it definitely blends better, but time will tell how well it actually holds up. Molotows take a long time to cure, I'm told, so I probably won't touch it for a few weeks.

Any preorders yet?

Roadking's selling out fast; if you think you might want one I'd say get it while you still can. You can always sell it later if you change your mind... it might even go up in value, like Phoenix or the Insecticons. It's hard to say for sure until FT releases members that come with actual combiner parts, but it looks like they're doing the same as DX9 and XTB... Menasor looks like a mostly-complete robot with room to plug in the Stunticons. I mean, you can see from this prototype (render?) how the cars are just kind of tacked onto the shins/calves, the shoulders, and the forearms. And if you look carefully at the cartoon version, you can see those boxes next to Menasor's head are Roadking's forearms, and under his Dragstrip armpit you can see part of Roadking's leg; the smokestacks are on the edge of his calves, and that hollowish bump at the back of his waist is clearly his knee.

I'm ok with Hoult, I think. As for Pattinson... I'm not a fan, but I have to admit that he's got the jawline for it.

I think I've said this before, but as a kid I loved Motormaster. It wasn't that he was a compelling character or anything, but he was a Decepticon, and he was black tractor trailer, which made him kind of like an evil counterpart to Optimus Prime years before RiD Scourge/Car Robots Black Convoy and long before Nemesis Prime became a regular thing. So despite having already gone two in on X-Transbots' Stunticons I was still paying attention to what Fans Toys and DX9 were working on. And despite some misgivings I've had with Fans Toys lately I ultimately decided to pick up Roadking, their MP Motormaster. Road King is certainly a big boy, standing a head taller than TFM's IDW Motormaster (and, by extension, MP-10/MS-01/TE-01 Optimus), but that makes him comfortably similar to Zeta's Silverbolt. I put this same picture up on TFW2005 and right away there was a comment about how Roadking makes Zeta's Silverbolt look kind of cheap. I can't really argue with that, FT definitely used quality materials to create a solid, hefty bot. For all my complaints about FT, one thing they almost always get right is the aesthetics of the character, and that's definitely the case here. Motormaster presents something of an extra challenge, because people want a cartoon-accurate robot with truck cab feet, but they also want that truck to scale with MP-10's. FT handled the challenge somewhat cleverly by making Roadking's feet out of only the upper front quarter of the cab. However, they included little round faux lights, tiny fake wheels (plastic, but they do spin), some silver paint where the bumper was on the Sunbow model, and just enough of the grill to evoke said grill. His arms, thighs, and torso all have molded detail appropriate for the linework on the Sunbow design, and translucent purple windows cover most of his shins. His head is appropriately boxy, and metallic paint on his face has just a touch of purple. Really, the only thing I can complain about aesthetically is that the entirety of his shins aren't black, but I suppose some concessions have to be made for his alt mode. Even his backpack, which a bit of fuss has been made over, really isn't that bad. While bigger than what you'd see in the cartoon FT did take pains to make the paneling look like the animation. Heck, they even put extra fake wheels on a panel just so he'd have the three-wheels-to-a-foot look of the cartoon. Roadking comes with a very G1-cartoon sword and gun, plus a second yelling face. The sword and gun are definitely accessories you'd expect a Motormaster to have... but what he doesn't come with is equally interesting. He doesn't come with any parts for combined mode. The instructions don't mention his combined mode. The only hint of it that I can find are what appears to be Roadking's forearms peeking up next to Menasor's head in the renders and some diecast bits on what look like hinges in his waist. Roadking's articulation is... alright. I feel like, as a side effect of going for that perfect robot aesthetic or their often questionable engineering, articulation is often lacking in FT figures. While I think that's still true if you compare Roadking to contemporary MP-style figures from rival companies I also think that Roadking isn't as bad as something like Apache or Lupus. His head is on a hinged swivel. He can look up a little and he can't really look down at all, but I think that's kind of forgivable what with his box head. His shoulders rotate on a soft ratchet and extend laterally just over 90 degrees on a harder ratchet. Due to his transformation you can pull out the shoulders and give him a butterfly, but it doesn't look great as it's not intentional. His biceps swivel, but weirdly at the bottom of the bicep, just above the elbow. Which leaves the elbow only enough room for a single hinge, good for about 120 degrees. His wrists swivel. Each finger is individually articulated, with a pin at the base knuckles and an additional pinned hinge at the mid-knuckles. The thumb has a ball joint at the base for turning and folding over the palm, and pinned hinge just above that. His waist can swivel, but only about 30 degrees in either direction. He's got an ab crunch with two fixed stopping points. It's not a huge crunch, but unlike a lot of other figures there's plastic that doesn't move behind the plastic that does, so he can crunch away without the sculpt suffering. Hinges on his hip skirts allow them to move out the way so his hips can ratchet forward over 90 degrees and backward about 45. His hips can move laterally slightly over 90 as well, but that joint is just friction. While it doesn't feel loose when you manipulate it it's really not strong enough to support the weight of his legs. They're not going to give out while his feet are planted or anything, but Roadking's not going to be doing any side kicks. His thighs cans swivel about 30 degrees around the hip joints, which is a little limited. His knees are double-jointed, both ratcheted, and combined allow you to bend his knees until his calves start banging into his thighs. Just be advised, the upper joint is much tighter than the lower, but it's there. It's actually the one you need for transformation. He's got a second swivel below the knee, which I'm not really a fan of. And then, despite being blocks of truck, his feet actually have a little bit of up/down tilt and about 45 degrees of ankle tilt. He holds his weapons fine, using the fairly standard method of fitting tabs on the handles into slots on his palms. There doesn't seem to be any storage for them in robot mode, which is kind of a shame. You'd think they could have worked a peg hole or two onto his backpack somewhere. So Fans Toys has done what no one else has done at any scale since the G1 toy... Roadking turns into the cab and the entire trailer. I'm not sure what DX9's plans are, but apparently XTB's will be just the cab, the Combiner Wars toy was just the cab, and TFM's was the cab and like a third of the trailer. FansProject used half the trailer, although they let you put doors on that half for a sort of complete truck. Even Bold Forms, who made a Leader-class-sized Motormaster that turned into a truck that might work with Legends-class figures still only used most of the trailer. But here we go, a cab that's very close to TFM's in size, with a complete trailer. Impressively, the trailer is actually longer than TFM's, although slightly shorter and narrower. And it's a bit smaller than MP-10's, but I don't think it looks bad. Now, if Fans Toys has had one major flaw, something I've taken them to task for time and again, it's their engineering. Their worst stuff has been nightmare-inducing, and even their "easier" figures like their Mindwipe feel over-engineered and aren't particularly fun to transform. Roadking is definitely a step up from that. Most of it is fairly easy, some of it is really clever, none of it feels like you're doing more than you have to, and can almost always figure out what you're supposed to do intuitively and without the so-so instructions. It's not entirely sunshine and roses, though. Transforming his legs does involve basically exploding them and then collapsing them back up in a different way than they were, so at times you've got big chunks of filleted robot dangling in your way. And while you always seem to know how the panels that make up much of the trailer are supposed to unfold and move getting everything lined up and tabbed in just right can be a little frustrating going into truck mode. It's the kind of scenario where you finally get one thing lined up and tabbed in and something you already had done pops back out of place. There are two other issues at play that don't help matters. One is something I've come to expect from FT- tolerances. Some fittings are just too tight. There are a few spots where, no matter how hard I push, some tabs and pegs just don't seem to want to go in the whole way. Or going the other way, there are a few spots that, once they're tabbed/pegged in, they're afraid-you're-going-to-break-something tight. The worst might be these tabs on these diecast pistons near the trailer hitch. They were so tight I broke a nylon spudger, so I had to use a metal one meant for cell phone repair to force that tab back out (fortunately, while the tab itself is plastic, the tab is on the end of a diecast part and the slot is on a diecast part). The other issue is one I've encountered plenty of times, but never on a FT figure- mold flash. It only seemed to be on the gray trailer pieces, but it'd always be in spots near hinges where you have to fold a panel over and it'd make folding that panel harder than it needed to be. In fact, I wound up with stress marks near the hinge on one of the smaller panels, and I could only get the panel to finally move all the way after I filed down the the flashing. A few hiccups aside, I really can't complain about the truck mode. The fake wheels and fake headlights fold up and away, and what you're left with is a fairly toy/real-life accurate Kentworth K100 Aerodyne cab, with translucent purple windows, translucent red marker lights, chrome on (most of) the bumper and grill, and diecast horns. The tires are rubber with silver-painted rims, they roll well, and there's actually eighteen of them (most of the COE truck Transformers I have only have six wheels on the cab... GT's IDW Optimus is the only one I can think of off hand that has ten on the cab, but he only works with MP-10's trailer, and that only has four wheels instead of eight). The trailer is a little panel-y, which I can forgive, and the stripe is broke up by those panels, but that was true for the G1 toy and a detail that carried over into the cartoon, so I'll let it slide. Much like the TFM Motormaster, Roadking's got silver-painted smokestacks and fuel tanks. This might be a problem for some, since in both the cartoon and the toy G1 Motormaster had no smokestacks and purple fuel tanks. Frankly, I'm totally fine with Roadking's as they are. I appreciate the more realistic detail. Really, I think my only real complaints with the alt mode are unpainted gray plastic hinges in the front bumper don't match the chrome FT used for the bulk of it, and that the rear bumper on the trailer is white and doesn't aesthetically match any of the rest of the truck. That rear bumper should have been silver. As for the front, well, those are hinges. I get why FT did it that way. Still, I might run over those hinges with a Molotow chrome pen and see how that goes. The truck mode does have storage on the underside for Roadking's weapons. Each one has a peg that fits into a hole on Roadking's butt. The sword is totally hidden under the trailer. The gun does stick out a little, but not as bad as you might think. The rear of the trailer can open up and fold down, although you have to lift the top of the trailer a bit to free the tabs on the door. And I'm not sure what you'd stick in there. There's not a ton of room, so you can't fit a car in there or anything. All you can really do is peak at Roadking's head. I'm going to come out and say this right away... while Roadking does have a few minor flaws, overall I think this is the best figure FansToys has released since Phoenix. He feels like the kind of figure that earned FT all those rabid fans in the first place. And while I know that there are some people out there (like Bobby "Ham Hands" Skullface) who seem to think that making a Motormaster out of just the cab the way XTB is doing is the better way to go, I personally love that Fans Toys built a Motormaster that goes from an MP-10-sized cab and slightly smaller trailer to a robot only a head or so taller than MP-10 without losing any of that trailer. As a standalone MP Motormaster this is a fantastic figure, and one I'd highly recommend. However, the thing with combiners is that a lot of you might not be interested in a standalone Motormaster. You might be planning on buying just once set of Stunticons, and you need them to work in combined mode as well as robot and alt mode. Ironically, the sturdy construction and diecast heft that makes Roadking feel like a premium figure on his own actually makes me more concerned about how well FT will pull off the combined mode. FT seems to be going in a Zeta-ish direction, with much of the torso being a separate piece, and Roadking's heft becoming a backpack is going to make for a combined mode with a lot of weight in the torso, and if the hips, knees, and ankles aren't extremely strong the combined mode could be unstable. So while I definitely recommend Roadking as a fantastic Motormaster figure I'm afraid we still have to wait and see which Menasor is the one to get.

I picked up and reviewed Maketoys' Striker Manus a few years back (which I reviewed here), and although I liked it I sold it because I was moving away from smaller figures and going all-in on MP stuff. And now that I have a display of just Primes I figured I'd buy him back for that display. Happily, Maketoys announced around that time that they were going to do a new "premium" version with metallic paint. This version also comes with the runner of build-a-weapons that Striker Noir came with, so even more bonus. I'm not going to do another review, but I do want to highlight some differences. So the good? Obviously, I appreciate the extra weapons. And yeah, that metallic paint looks gorgeous. Pictures don't do it justice. But unfortunately, there's bad news too. I don't know if it's mold fatigue or what, but his wrist and bicep swivels are a bit on the loose side, and he holds his accessories a bit more loosely. Which would bug me, but they're not necessarily deal breakers. Unfortunately, the ball joints in his shoulders and neck are even worse, and they very well could be. I'll see if I can get some floor polish in there, but for now I'll say if you already have the original run your figure might not be as shiny, but it's probably got better QC. As for mine, I'll toss him in my Prime display and if I feel like messing with the mold I have Noir on my desk.

When Hasbro announced the Power Rangers Lightning Collection it was kind of in one ear, out the other for me. I was aware that it was a thing that was coming but as someone who's limited his collecting (mostly) to Transformers I didn't really pay it much mind. I mean, as an adult I'm much more into, say, Marvel Comics, but I don't collect Marvel Legends. And yet, Power Rangers occupies a weird spot in my head. It debuted when I was 13, which I think was too old for it to make the kind of lasting impression the cartoons of my youth (like Transformers) did, but I was still young enough to be enthralled by a live-action karate Voltron and I did watch all the way through Power Rangers Zeo before drifting away from the franchise. Well, the first wave of the Lightning Collection started to hit stores within the past month, I guess. Or, at least three figures have (Lord Zedd is apparently in Wave 1, but good luck with that). Two of them mean absolutely nothing to me (apparently, they're the Shadow Ranger from Power Rangers SPD and the Red Ranger from Power Rangers Dino Charge). But that third one... even though this line shouldn't be anything I'm interested in, I found myself compelled to pick it up... It's the White Ranger, from Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers (season 2). So the Lightning Collection is a line of slightly more expensive 1/6-scale figures aimed at the adult collector's market. Although I don't collect them, they're priced the same and seem similar to the Star Wars Black Collection or Marvel Legends, if that gives you an idea. And like those other lines, what I think sets the Lightning Collection apart from both the cheaper mainline toys and the more expensive stuff like the SHFiguarts is that the sculpt here is more realistically detailed. Instead of smooth plastic and fake muscles there's a texture here that includes folds and wrinkles in the suit. The belt, though snug, is a separate piece made from a more rubbery plastic, as is his vest. Combined with a fair amount of gold, silver, and black paint it's evident that the Lightning Collection is intent less on being toys mean for play and more being toys that look nice is a display. Which, weirdly, I'm fine with, despite demanding a level of playability with my Transformers. I think this looks more appealing to me than, say, the SHFiguarts White Ranger, even if the SHFiguarts has better articulation, because it looks like a real person and not an anime version of that person. And that's good enough for me. You might have noticed that his right hand is a claw for gripping, and the left is kind of a straight chopping hand. The White Ranger also comes with a right and left closed fist, a translucent blue effect part, his trusty sword, Saba, and an unhelmeted Tommy Oliver head, complete with rubbery ponytail. Saba has a nice amount of paint on him, although his tiny eyes lack the red you might find on a pricier figure, and can store in a holster on the White Ranger's belt. The hands are pegged in, and can be swapped by simply pulling them out and putting in the other, while ridges at the base of the peg keep the installed fist snug. As for the Tommy head... I mean, I guess it looks nice enough, and pretty in-keeping with the kind of sculpt and paint you see on the aforementioned Star Wars Black Edition or Marvel Legends lines... but I know I'm never going to display him with that head, so I'm not going to risk stressing anything by pulling the helmet head off. Articulation is... well, it's funny, because I think it's better than a lot of the action figures I had as a kid, but I understand that it's probably a little lacking compared to something like the SHFiguarts version. Anyway, his head is on a ball joint inside the helmet, but the ball joint has a hinge at the base so he can look up and down about 45 degrees either way in addition to turning his head and a slight sideways tilt. His shoulders something that might be more familiar to 1/6 humanoid figure collectors, but I've never seen anything like it with transformers. The rotation and lateral movement is something like a disk hinge, but the socket it's set it is also hinged to give him a bit of forward/backward butterfly as well, and in a way that moves the textures around so it still looks like cloth. So he can move his shoulder in a way that seems pretty natural with most of the range you'd want, except for one minor thing... he can't really bring his arms too close to his body in a relaxed pose. That first picture? That's about as relaxed as they get. Moving along, he's got bicep swivels just below the shoulder, and double-jointed elbows that allow his arm to curl all the way up (with a separate elbow piece that fills the gap between the joints). His wrists can swivel, plus there's a hinge in his hands that lets them bend palm-up or palm-down. That's great for the karate hand, but I wish the sword hand bent on the other axis. His upper torso is on a ball joint in the chest, which gives him a swivel plus some forward/backward/sideways lean, while a hinge in his abdomen gives him a little more arching back/ab crunch. His hips are ball joints that get a little less than 90 degrees forward, about 60 degrees laterally, and basically nothing backward due to the sculpt. There's a cut thigh swivel at the top of his thigh, and another swivel below the knee at the top of his boots. The knees, like the elbows, are double-jointed and can bend until his calves reach the backs of his thighs, with the kneecaps being separate parts. His feet can tilt up a little and down to a very realistic just short of 90 degrees. His ankles can also pivot both left and right around 45-ish degrees. The gripping hand has kind of rubbery fingers. It takes some doing, but you can work Saba into it. He can even hold Saba upside down for a Saba talking or firing eyebeams pose. As for the effect part, there's a notch in one spot that the tip of Saba's blade fits into. I'm really not a fan. The effect part seems a little too heavy for the White Ranger's butterfly hinge in his shoulder. It's too large to look like the spark of a deflected attack, and two round and explodey to look like an attack from the Ranger. There are a ton of Power Rangers/Super Sentai toys out there, most of which I'm probably not familiar with. I don't think I'm qualified to say if the Lightning Collection White Ranger is the definitive White Ranger figure. Even with what little I am familiar with I can say that there are, at least, ones with better articulation. I do think that this is a good-looking figure with a fair amount of realistic sculpted detail. This is definitely a figure that's worth the $20 price tag. I can't promise that I'd buy more (of the ones released and announced I might buy Zedd, Goldar, and the Mighty Morphin' Pink Ranger, but I won't feel put out of I miss them), but if they get around to my other favorites (the Mighty Morphin' Green Ranger and the Zeo Gold Ranger) I'd be interested.

Heh, I feel your pain. Personally I think I'm going to watch this, but I'll probably wait for the Blu Ray.

Peaugh says he should have one up this weekend.

A lot of people do, but based on my experience with FT's, BadCube's, and MMC's the FT ones just aren't worth it.

Short some elaborate hoax, yes. Leaks show a partially-cropped Comicon logo and a street date that coincides with the first day of SDCC (July 18th). Previous exclusives have turned up on HasbroToyShop; I myself got the Nemesis Prime repaint of Classics Optimus and the G1 remold Pepsi Optimus (they were both some kind of exclusives, don't remember if they were SDCC or not). I'd say there's a fair chance that some will turn up on Hasbro Pulse.

Heads up, it looks like a reissue of Fans Toys' Phoenix is coming. Most of the US etailers have preorders up now. If you missed out before, now's your chance. Feel free to read up on my review here if you'd like, but here I'll just say that I still think Phoenix is my favorite thing Fans Toys has ever done.

It's anecdotal. I haven't had a chance to personally handle Saltus. He (and maybe FT's Dinobots) makes me wish I hung with Bobby Skullface's crowd. I swear more than half of his reviews come from stuff people loan him. Me, if I reviewed it I bought it myself, and even if I did decide I want Saltus I can't swing it this month.

From what I'm hearing, unless you're like me and holding off to see how XTB's Virtus turns out, you should definitely get him. I'm hearing fantastic articulation, great sculpt, excellent materials, and an intuitive transformation. The worst I'm hearing is that you might want to take a screwdriver and tighten his ankles, or a few people saying they still like Apache's robot mode better.

I love the deco, I love the Roller-Trap, but with MS-01 and TE-01 both in my collection now I can't see myself spending any money on the MP-10 mold anymore.