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mikeszekely

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  1. mikeszekely
    Collecting Transformers can be goofy sometimes. Difficulties with distribution since at least the Reveal the Shield line drove me to quit. A chance at building the combiners I always wanted as a kid but never had sucked me back in with Combiner Wars. Mediocre quality and a ridiculous number of repaints, plus a missing Predaking, turned me onto the unlicensed third-party scene. I quit the official toys again. Dinobots and Terrorcons got me to buy at least a few more Power of the Primes figures, but again the quality wasn't there. Hasbro actually improved their quality with Siege, though, and now not only am I back in but I've been finding myself strangely interested in Titans Return figures, a line I mostly skipped. Tonight we'll take a little trip back to 2017 and have a look at Takara Legends Super Ginrai. So, I know the Takara version has some changes from the Hasbro Titans Return release. I'll tell you, I bought Combiner Wars Ultra Magnus and I liked that toy. It had a neat all-in-one transformation for Magnus... which is exactly why I skipped the Optimus repaint. Aside from having two of the same basic toy, Powermaster Optimus Prime should most definitely not have an all-in-one transformation (which made me all the angrier at the Power of the Primes Leader class that could have been a great Powermaster Optimus, but no...). The Takara version's changes seem centered around two things- making Super Ginrai a little more cartoon-accurate, and making Super Ginrai compatible with a later (at the time) release of Godbomber. I'm not super clear on all the changes, but the most notable one is the feet. The Hasbro version had the same basic feet at Ultra Magnus. Super Ginrai has a new design that's meant to look like the little stubs on G1 toy/Masterforce model. Interestingly, they seem to make him a little taller than Magnus. I think the cartoon had a smaller torso, especially in the shoulders, but for the most part I think Legends Super Ginrai does a fair job capturing the look. The accessories that come with Legends Super Ginrai are a little different than Titans Return Optimus. They do both have the same shoulder guns, which have a cutout section that a Titan Master can sit in. The Titan Master himself has a ton more paint, looking like Ginrai down to the dab of skin-tone on the face. But instead of coming with the same guns Magnus came with, Takara gave Super Ginrai new guns that are more similar to the G1 toy's. They do have some hollow spaces, though. Your intuition is to put them together side-by-side, but there's no way to stick them together like that. Instead the tops fit together, and make another seat for a Titan Master. Ginrai's head is on a swivel, but there's no tilt. His shoulders can rotate on ratchets, and extend laterally about 90 degrees. Just like Magnus, flaps on the outside of his shoulders hinge the mounted weapons out of the way. His biceps can swivel, but it's easy for the kibble under his arms to get caught up on his body. His elbows bend 90 degrees. His wrists rotate, which is an improvement from the Magnus/PM Op, but he lacks the finger articulation they have. No waist swivel. His hips move forward 90 degrees and backward a little less than than on some pretty hefty ratchets. Lateral motion is also ratcheted, albeit much softer, and also good for 90 degrees. His thighs swivel. His knees bend a little under 90 degrees on ratchets. And his new, goofy feet have hinges so they can bend up, down, and pivot. Just be aware that the hinge in his heel spurs is a little weak, leaving him prone to tipping backward. His rifles have just the pegs for handles, while his shoulder guns have four pegs near one end so that you can peg them in regardless of how you rotate them on their Z-axis. In addition to his hands or the sides of his shoulders he's also got peg holes on the front of his forearms and the outside of his ankles. As for the little Ginrai Titan Master, well, he doesn't go into Super Ginrai's belly. Like the rest of the Titans Return toyline the Hasbro version came from, he's basically a Headmaster. lifting up the helmet reveals a little G1-style Optimus/Ginrai head. Ginrai looks kind of weird on the other Titans Return Optimus, but that Optimus' head (or just about any other head) looks fine on Super Ginrai, because only the eyes are showing. Super Ginrai's truck mode is fine. I like the remolded cab, and the goofy new feet don't stick out from the back as much as the Hasbro version's. If you have Combiner Wars Magnus, though, you kind of know what to expect here. The biggest difference is all those folded up panels wrapping around Super Ginrai's legs and hanging on the backs of his arms cover the hollow interior of the trailer. Oh, and be sure you have his feet folded up all the way, otherwise they'll sit lower than the wheels and he won't have the clearance to roll. Like the G1 version, the rifles peg into the top of the trailer, near the rear, and the shoulder guns fit onto the sides of the trailer near the front. I like to use the bottom peg to get them to sit just so the barrels are a little more extended, but again you can use any of the pegs. If you put them sideways you can still have a Titan Master sitting in them. Alternatively, there's a notch on the back of Super Ginrai's head that a Titan Master's feet can plug into, allowing him to sit inside the cab. If you're feeling lazy, though, you don't have to remove the Titan Master at all. He can stay inside the head. Being made from an Ultra Magnus mold instead of a unique mold means that his arms run along the top of the trailer instead of the front, so there's a hollow space visible from the front. Of course, the flip side to this is that the trailer still opens in the back. The space inside will fit most Legends-class and even a few narrow Deluxes. Like the Hasbro version Super Ginrai does have a base mode. Kind of? I mean, it's got places to put his guns, and Titan Masters can sit there, or in the red mess that part of the robot chest. It's got bits that can connect to other Titans Return bases, including Trypticon or Fortress Maximus. But it looks terrible. On its own, I don't think I'd recommend Super Ginrai, or the Hasbro Powermaster Optimus Prime, and it really boils down to what I said at the beginning of the review- this is a neat mold for an Ultra Magnus figure, but Super Ginrai without a smaller cab Ginrai is just wrong. Maketoys' Thunder Manus has better proportions, better articulation, and a transforming cab, even if that cab is only Legends-sized, and frankly I think it's the better CHUG-style Powermaster Prime/Super Ginrai toy. But, for the Takara version, at least, could be salvage a better God Ginrai? Tune in tomorrow!
  2. mikeszekely
    Not gonna lie, I've been pretty heavy into reading comic books/graphic novels, and it's been an extremely long time since I read an actual book. But I can tell you that I'm eagerly awaiting Joe Zieja's "System Failure," the third book in his Epic Failure trilogy. The first two books were great, can't recommend them enough.
  3. mikeszekely
    I think @sh9000 was waiting for this... X-Transbots' Boost, their MP Windcharger. This is a reissue, which is important to note because XTB originally released this with a gray chest, pelvis, and head that was similar to the G1 toy's, with silver legs, as a toy version and another with a bluish chest, pelvis, and head and white legs as a cartoon version. This reissue is alternately called "teal" and "comitoon." It retains the silver legs of the toy version, but the chest, pelvis, and thighs are a different color that's kind of a bluish-gray. It's not as light as the old toy version, but not as blue as the cartoon version. For my money, I think the color is actually more cartoon-accurate than the old cartoon version. I like a lot of what XTB's doing here, aesthetically. They captured the goofy shape of the cartoon shoulders, the cartoon pelvis, the lines on the thighs, the red hip skirts on his sides, and even the way the cartoon had some silver shins. The head sculpt is pretty good, although the face is a little long. His forearms are a little thick, too, but nothing I can't live with. Boost comes with a gun, as all transforming robots should, an alternate toy-style face, an alternate back of the head, and that magnet/tractor beam/flashlight from that one episode. Gotta be honest, I don't really remember this thing too well. I'd have preferred XTB tossed in the lab coat he work in "More Than Meets the Eye, Part 3." Boost's head is on a hinged swivel, with a little bit of up/down tilt. His shoulders are on ball joints, and due to the shape of his shoulders they're pretty limited. He can only extend them about 45 degrees laterally if his arm is at his side. If he's raised it he'll get less because the top of his shoulder collides with his body. His biceps swivel, and his elbows bend just a touch over 90 degrees. His wrists can swivel, and his hands are like an MP car's, with a fixed thumb and all of his fingers molded as one piece pinned at the base so he can open and close his hands. His waist swivels. His hips can kick 130 degrees forward, but only about 30 degrees backward. The red hip skirts hinge out of the way so he can get a little under 90 degrees laterally on those hips. His thighs swivel. His knees bend a little over 90 degrees. Then his feet... well, both his toes and his heels can bend down, but not really up, and both his toes and his heels can hinge inward to give him 90-ish degrees of ankle pivot. I'm not going to use the toy head, so I didn't swap them. It looks like you just undo a screw. He can hold his gun in either hand. The handle has tabs on it that are meant to fit into his palms, MP-style, but the fit is pretty loose. It's really the tension in his fingers doing all the work. As for his magnet thingy, you make his right hand into a tight fist and then slide the handle into his hand with the edge going over the back of his hand. Doesn't seem to work on his left hand. Transforming Boost is a bit of a bear. I mean, it's pretty clear what you're supposed to do, but there's constant tolerance issues getting in the way. Going from car to robot you have to untab is arms from against his body and from under the side view mirrors, which require you try to move the arm in opposite directions. There's minimal clearance for getting his head in and out from the nose of the car. But the worst is his feet, which involves moving and rotating different parts while trying to get a screw to fit under part of his leg. It feels unnecessarily complicated, but the kicker is that the tabs that hold the red parts of the legs into the silver parts and the pegs that lock the heels into the front of the feet don't really work. X-Transbots went with a realistic Pontiac Firebird alt mode. Well, it does look pretty good, and my first thought was that I wished they'd done a black version (ala a rare variant of the Windcharger keychain) because it'd look awesome as KITT. Now, I know some people prefer the realistic alt mode, but it just doesn't look like Windcharger to me any more than a realistic Porsche 924 looks like Cliffjumper. To me Windcharger needs big, flared fenders, bigger rear tires, silver rims, and a silver grill with lights in the front. Speaking of lights, Boost's do pop up. He's got plastic tires that roll just fine. And he's supposed to have storage for his gun and his magnet. The magnet does tuck in nice and snug, but there's a little notch on his other robo-heel that's supposed to grip a notch on the gun's handle. It really doesn't, though. I kind of balanced it in there for this picture, but as soon as I moved him it fell right back out. Well, due to the other tolerance issues I really don't see myself transforming back to car mode again any time soon. Windcharger and Gears are fighting for the position of "Mike's least favorite season 1 Autobot," and that's why when I picked up Badcube's Grump, an ok but not great figure, I was pretty satisfied. "This is good enough for Gears," I said. Happy to cross him off the list. With Boost that's almost, but not quite the case. The robot mode is fine, and I am glad to cross him off the list. But even as an armchair designer who doesn't really know what goes into making a toy like this I can think of ways this design could be improved. If another company took a stab at doing Windcharger there's a good chance they'd do it better (especially if they give him a more cartoonish, penny racer alt mode). So I don't really recommend Boost, but after all this time I don't see anyone offering an alternative any time soon. So buy him if you want to cross Windcharger off of your list, but expect that he'll be a placeholder if something better comes along.
  4. mikeszekely
    Someone on TFW2005 actually bought both versions. Apparently there are also some minor improvements to the hip ratchets, but no, no battle damage or other new accessories. And there's been no mention of a third revision. Speaking of revisions, one of the few complaints about Magic Square's Prime was the lack of paint. So in addition to a white Ultra Magnus repaint and a black Nemesis repaint MS has announced an X version with metallic paint. I'm going to pick one up, compare it to the first version here, then sell one off.
  5. mikeszekely
    Meant to get this up yesterday, but, y'know, life happens. Anyway, we're finishing off MMC's Insecticons with Calcitrant, aka Kickback. Once again, the same complaints I had about the other two are still in force. He still looks super bland due the to total absence of painted detail. In some ways, that's actually a bigger problem for Calcitrant because the purple MMC used is kind of dark, and it blends in with the black without the chrome thighs to help break things up. And I absolutely still wish that we had a translucent option for that chest. Calcitrant has a lot of the same positives, though, including a strong sculpt, especially the head. And, I don't know about you guys but in my mind's eye I've always seen Kickback as the skinny one. It's something the other two have struggled with, especially BadCube, as they've tried to engineer robot arms that are separate from the bug legs. Yet somehow MMC really nailed this. Whether you're measuring across the chest, across the waist, or front to back through the torso, Calcitrant is the thinnest and, to me, the best-proportioned out of the three. And, amazingly, he does this while managing a cleaner back than Fans Toys'. Calcitrant's accessories are an alternate, happy face and a gun that's extremely close to the G1 toy's. Calcitrant's head is on a ball joint. Not much down, little bit of sideways tilt, but he's pretty decent at looking up. His shoulders can rotate and extend 90 degrees. His biceps cans swivel. His elbows are double-jointed and capable of curling nearly 180 degrees. Unfortunately he's got the same kind of hands as Inflecto, so they're pinned at the base and he can open his hands but he doesn't have any wrist swivels. He does have a waist swivel, though, and his hips can go a bit under 90 degrees forward and backward on friction joints and over 90 degrees laterally on ratchets. His thighs cans swivel, and his knees can bend just over 90 degrees on a double joint that's frictioned at the top and ratcheted at the bottom. His feet can't really bend down, but they can bend up, and he's got about 45 degrees or so of ankle pivot. While wrist swivels and a little more range in the hips would have been nice I think his articulation is adequate, really. In fact, if I could have added any articulation I wanted I'd go for the hinges Fans Toys put into their Kickback's wings that let them angle outward a bit. What I'd argue is Calcitrant's single biggest flaw is that he holds his gun extremely poorly. It will fall out. Just trying to take this picture I had to be careful how I positioned his gun hand, because if it wasn't perfectly balanced it'd turn in his grip. There's just no tension there. I don't know how MMC screwed up the tolerances that badly. Aside from the overall lack of painted details and a few visible screws, Calcitrant is again arguably the best-looking MP-style Kickback. The front legs are of a similar style and engineering as was used on the other two MMC bugs, but here they honestly work pretty well as a stand-in for the G1 toy's split arms. He's nice and thin, unlike BadCube's. And he's the only one of the three that doesn't have some extra unfolded bit between the rear legs. Bigger wings, again with those FT hinges, might have been nice but they're proportionally about the same size as the G1 toy's. Aesthetically, there's not a lot to complain about besides the lack of paint. But perhaps the most amazing thing about Calcitrant is that he goes from this great-looking, slim robot to this nigh-on perfect bug with by far the simplest engineering among the three Kickbacks. Flipping between modes is quick and intuitive, with almost everything moving exactly the way you think it should, in the most efficient manner, without any extra hurdles like fragile clasps or splitting his robot head open. The trickiest part is probably making sure you have the the bug legs curled up right going back into robot mode. They go like this, and it's actually pretty simple. Basically, the front bug leg bends 90 degrees at the first hinge and the ball joint, curling in toward the bug shoulder. Then the middle leg gets as close to the front leg as it can and simply folds over it. Then it's just a matter of rotating the bug shoulder so the bug legs are settingling into his robot back, with the tips of the rear legs peeking out from the small of his back. While in bug mode, you can store Calcitrant's gun by plugging the handle into a hole on his robot butt. There's not really enough clearance, though, so it's going to scrape on the ground. Irritatingly, it's super snug when it's plugged into his butt hole. Why couldn't it have been this snug in his hand? One other nice touch is that MMC eschewed the silver face cover that BadCube (stored inside the robot chest) and Fans Toys (stored inside the robot head) used to cover his robot face. Instead, MMC opted for a simple black cover, stored blended into the top of his back in robot mode. This cover has little mandibles, which I think are a nice little detail. The only downside is that the cover just has the hinge at the base, so you're effectively locking his head into position while in bug mode. Frankly, I don't do a lot of dynamic posing of the Insecticons in bug mode anyway. Even with his gun-holding issue and his lack of paint, Calcitrant is the best Kickback toy, period. Considering that you get him in a set with the other two Insecticons for just $100 actually makes the mediocrity of the other two an easier pill to swallow. And that brings me to my final conclusion- unless you don't mind mixing and matching Insecticons across the different sets, I'd still say that Fans Toys' are the best overall as a trio. However, they're much harder to come by, as they've long sold out and FT seems hesitant to reissue them, perhaps due to breakage issues with their Kickback. So while I do think they're probably the best overall, I don't know that they're worth hunting down a set and paying well over their original price (I could find only one offer for their Kickback, as part of a set with all three for $750). Despite my issues with them, and despite BadCube having the best Shrapnel, I think MMC's are definitely my second-place choice for Insecticons, and they're cheap enough that you can buy them and buy the Reprolabels for them and still be around $35 per Insecticon. It's a pretty good deal, one I'd recommend taking if you're in the market for some Insecticons. It's just kind of a shame because these guys were just a little paint and a few design tweaks away from being the top Insecticons.
  6. mikeszekely
    $80? Thanks, but no thanks.
  7. mikeszekely
    Degenki Hobby is showing off color images of that Star Convoy that we saw back at Toy Fair. It's definitely a remold of the Power of the Primes Leader-class. And... eh. My enthusiasm for this particular Star Convoy has waned quite a bit with the revelation that MMC is doing one that is a bit more accurate than this. The inner Orion Pax robot has been remolded as well, to be a more traditional Optimus Prime. It's interesting that he's sporting the G1 toy head, though. And the truck... well, that's a lot more G1 Prime than Star Convoy. Frankly, a regular Optimus that combines with his trailer is Powermaster Optimus, which is what I said this mold should have been used for all along, Titans Return/Takara Legends be damned. One interesting tidbit, though is that Star Convoy won't be part of the Legends EX line (with the usual marked up price). It looks like it's going for 8900 yen, which I'm told is the standard price for Leaders in Japan. And it's apparently going under the Generations Select label... aka the label that Hasbro used to bring us stuff like red Swoop. So there's some speculation that there will be a Hasbro release of this figure. I haven't heard anything new about that Armada Prime that was at Toy Fair, but Degenki did show some silhouettes of some other interesting upcoming projects. Unless I'm way off base, that looks to me like Super Megatron, Star Convoy's rival in the Battlestars Manga, and Snaptrap. Regarding the former, it looks like Super Megatron could be based on Titans Return Galvatron, which would make him a Voyager-class and rather too small for the Leader-class Star Convoy. Regarding the latter, I guess Piranacon is the only US G1 combiner that didn't get done in Combiner Wars, and the last of the Scramble City-esque ones. I just hope a Titan-class Raiden doesn't jump the line- I want a Titan-class Scorponok!
  8. mikeszekely
    The next member of the Malum Malitia we're going to look at is Inflecto, MMC's Bombshell. I've already talked at some length about the move from Ocular Max to Reformatted and how that impacted this set, so I'm not going to beat a dead horse. I'll simply start off by saying that Inflecto has a lot of the same pros and cons that Potesta has. That is to say, I dig the use of chrome, and I think the head might actually be the best of the three MP Bombshells. I wish they'd used more paint on little details and I wish they'd have included some option for a translucent chest instead of yellow plastic. I'm going to add, though, that things are just a little off below the waist, though. I'm not loving tiny feet, and considering that the G1 toy's legs were hollow I'm thinking that Inflecto's shins are needlessly puffy. There's also a butt flap and some panels folded in on his sides that kind of throw off the silhouette. I wouldn't go so far as to say it ruins him, though. I think Inflecto actually looks better than BadCube's Bombshell. As much grief as I give Fans Toys, I really do think their Bombshell was one of their best figures and still my defninitive Bombshell. No extra faces for Inflecto, just his gun. It's chrome, and again it's very toy accurate. Inflecto's head is on a ball joint, with the ball in the chest instead of the skull. He can look down a smidge, up a bit, and tilt his head quizzically, which suits a character like Bombshell. His shoulders swivel, and they have a soft ratchet out to a little under 90 degrees. Plus, mostly due to transformation, he has a butterfly joint. His biceps swivel, and his elbow bends a little over 90 degrees. His fingers are one piece pinned at the base knuckle so he can open his hand, but he lacks a wrist swivel. He doesn't lack a waist swivel, though. His hips can bend only about 45 degrees forward, 30 degrees backward, and 60 degrees to the side. The hips do seem to be soft ratcheted, but I do mean soft. If I wasn't specifically thinking about it for this review I probably wouldn't have even noticed. His thighs can swivel around the hip joint. His knees bend over 90 degrees on a single hinge. His ankles pivot about 60 degrees, and unlike Potesta his feet can also tilt up and down. He holds his gun just fine, by sliding the tapered handle into his similarly-molded fist. Inflecto's transformation isn't all that different than... well, any of the other Bombshell toys, really. His head with it's fake proboscis winds up inside his chest like FT and BC, and the real proboscis was chilling on his back the whole time like FT's. His arms fold behind him and tuck underneath like every Bombshell ever. His rear bug legs were on his calves, like FT's, and the other bug legs were folded onto his back like FT and BC. The big differences are that Inflecto's front and middle legs are on folded panels fill in the sides of the bug mode and blend the legs in more naturally, and that his legs collapse over his thighs like MP-10's instead of folding over on themselves. And the result is... ok. MMC again went for more insect-like legs, and they have a lot of the same problem's Potesta's do. But the tolerances are a bit better, they sit in a manner that looks better than Postesta's, and they're black. So they're not as G1-accurate at BC's, and they're not as well-engineered as FT's, but they work. I'm a bit more bothered by how noticeable his robot arms are compared to BC and FT's, and how flat he looks. And even that flatness isn't necessarily wrong; it's fairly in keeping with the G1 toy. It's just not how I picture Bombshell. There's also the matter of those robot feet. Unlike FT and BC they don't blend in with the abdomen, they're just folded up and sticking off the back. It's not a great look. And something else that bugs me is that he doesn't feel locked together the way BC or FT's do. His waist can still swivel, so his back half doesn't stay lined up right. And the flaps that tuck against his robot torso rely on the friction in their hinges to stay in place. You can plug his gun onto his back, and unlike Potesta the fit is very snug. The barrel can rotate, so it can fit a bit better without to bottom prong on the barrel bumping his robot chest. And there are two hinges in his proboscis for posing. Inflecto's kind of a weird case, I think. With Potesta I could really see the potential, like a some paint and a different design for the legs was all the was keeping him from being the best Shrapnel, but MMC going cheap actually made him my least favorite of the three. With Inflecto I feel like the problems are less fit and finish and more inherent to the design. The feet are problematic in both modes, the lack of a wrist swivel seems related to how the hands collapse into the forearm instead of folding in, the hip articulation is hindered because the chrome thighs around the joint don't have enough clearance, the shins are simply more protruding than they really needed to be. And yet, based largely on a stronger sculpt with better proportions, I find myself liking Inflecto better than BadCube's Shrapnel. If you want the best Bombshell FT really knocked that one out of the park. Inflecto, for all his flaws, makes for a very affordable runner up, though.
  9. mikeszekely
    Seems MMC had a hard time moving their Insecticons, the Malum Malitia (forgive my poor Latin, but isn't that something like the "bad badness"?). First BBTS started taking preorders last fall for them, then TFSource, both at $99.99 (down from $185), while Planet Steel Express dropped the price from 1440 HKD (around $183.48) to 780 HKD (about $99.38). At around $33 per Insecticon, I decided that price was worth troop building even though I already have both the Fans Toys and BadCube Insecticons. MMC is one of the few companies with a reputation close to Fans Toys (truthfully, I tend to prefer MMC's stuff a lot more than FT's), but even before the price drop there were some worrying signs when MMC moved them from their Masterpiece-style Ocular Max label to more standard Reformatted line. So how do they stack up? Let's take a look, starting with Potesta, aka Shrapnel. Well, Potesta is certainly a bit more svelte than Fans Toys' and BadCube's offerings, but in terms of height he's still very much in the Masterpiece scale. That skinniness is probably a relic from when they were going to be in the Ocular Max line, as the Studio OX artwork had rail-thin Insecticons, while Fans Toys' is probably closer to how Shrapnel looked in the cartoon. Still, the overall sculpt is pretty strong, and the use of chrome (even on the thighs) is appreciated, as I did have the Insecticons as a kid and still do have a G1 set lying around. I do wish that the chest were translucent amber, though. Unfortunately, those Ocular max relics are just that. The move to Reformatted must have taken the paint budget, because unless you count chrome as paint Potesta has none of it aside from his face. FT and BC both have some blue on the chest and FT has yellow on the toes that mimic stickers on the G1 toy, and they both have other small yellow, red, and/or silver accents. Those features are small, but they do make a difference. Potesta looks rather bland in comparison. Oh, and not that it matters as much as some people would have you believe, but Potesta is pretty light. He's the lightest of the three, in fact. If you're part of that Fans Toys crowd that's convinced that heft matters more than a transformation that doesn't make you want to throw your collection in the trash and find a new hobby then I should probably caution you that Potesta and BadCube's Shrapnel combined still weigh less than Fans Toys'. I know I don't often show the view from behind, as I don't think it's of huge importance, but the cluster of bug legs on the back is often cited as the biggest issue with Fans Toys' version. Potesta's legs don't fold away quite as neatly as BadCube's, but it's nowhere near the mess that Fans Toys' is carrying. Part of that is because Potesta's rear-most legs actually tuck into his robot legs. Unlike FT and BC's Insecticons, MMC's only come as a set. These are the accessories specifically for Potesta; a very G1 toy-style gun, and an alternate face with a subtle smirk. Postesta's articulation is about on par with the competition's. His head is on a hinged swivel, so he can look up and down a little in addition to turning his head. His shoulders rotate and can shrug/slump on a ball joint inside his torso, while a pin hinge lets him extend them a little over 90 degrees. His biceps swivel, and his elbow bends about 120 degrees on a single hinge. His wrists can swivel, and despite their small size his hands do have a pin hinge at the base of the fingers so his hands can open and close, although the fingers are all one molded piece. His waist cans swivel. His hips can go just under 90 degrees forward (although a little reverse bend at the knee lets you fake the full 90), 45 degrees backward, and slightly over 90 degrees laterally. His thighs swivel around the joint, so there's no thigh cut. His knees are stiff and have points of strange resistance. I almost thought that they were extremely limited, but when I pushed past the resistance I found he can bend them nearly 90 degrees. His ankles can pivot over 90 degrees, and although his whole foot can't title up or down his toes and heels can tilt down as needed. The handle of his gun slides into his hand with that same sort of rectangular handle instead of a 5mm peg that MP Bumblebee uses. The guns on the outside of his forearms can swing around to the back of the forearm if you want a more cartoon-accurate look. And MMC did put a pin hinge on the yellow chest door so that you can open it... there's just nothing behind it. Again, it's a real shame that MMC didn't use one of those nubbin hinges or a clip hinge instead of a pin. Then they could have included swappable translucent doors. The transformation from robot to bug is fairly clever yet also pretty simple. It's on par with Badcube's, and much easier than Fans Toys'. And the result is... eh. It's much flatter than the others, again in keeping with the Studio OX design but not exactly cartoon accurate. I do like how the flaps that the bug legs are on wrap around his robot arms. Again, it's not the most accurate design, but combined with his butt flaps and some fold out bits near his robot knees it gives him a very cohesive appearance. Once again, he's held back a bit by being entirely colored plastic aside from the chrome parts. I might have to pick up the Reprolabels for these guys. But more than the flatness or the drap appearance, the worst thing about the alt mode is undoubtedly the legs. It looks like MMC was trying to give him more articulated bug legs, like Fans Toys did, but they're very poorly implemented. I could start with the obvious and say that they're neither OX, G1 toy, nor G1 cartoon accurate, but I could let that slide if they worked well. Here, they just don't. For starters, aside from one ball joint per leg (at the second from the tip joint) there's no swivels. You can't splay them out like FT's; matter of fact, due to the angles his rear legs are tucking in tighter at the toes. The pinned hinges only bend one way, unlike FT's. And, worst of all, they have these ridges to give them a pseudo-ratchet feel, but they wind up just being too stiff. You feel like you're going to break them sometimes. Matter of fact, you might notice that his right front leg is kind of stuck up in the air. That's because the hinge that swivels it from the robot-mode position down to the bug position is cracked, and looks like it came that way. Oh, and I really wish they hadn't used yellow. Yes, I know the G1 toy had yellow legs. It's one of the things I really like about the BadCube version. But the rear legs were purple, not yellow, and the G1 legs had a jointless, mechanical appearance. I think Fans Toys made the smart call going with black for their insectoid legs. Making them yellow just calls attention to how awkward Potesta's are. Aside from some barely working joints in the bug legs you can open and close Potesta's pinciers. His gun is also supposed to be able to peg onto his back, in a little slot between his robot legs. The trouble is that his legs don't peg together quite tightly enough to create enough friction on the gun handle, so it's sitting in there quite loosely. If you turn him upside down the gun will fall out. I'm not sure why MMC ultimately moved these guys from Ocular Max to Reformatted, but it's a shame that they did. You can see the potential that Potesta had, with a strong sculpt, solid articulation, and an effective transformation. With a little paint, a little better fit and finish, and a different, more accurate design for the insect legs and I think MMC had a real chance to run away with this one. Ultimately, though, he comes across looking a little cheap, and those fit and finish issues and my strong dislike of those bug legs drag him back down to "he's just ok." I honestly think that BadCube has the best Shrapnel, and Fans Toys' has a more premium look and feel even if it's my least favorite of the three to transform. If you have the money (and can even track one down) they're both better MP options. However, if you're on a budget I can at least say that Potesta isn't really a bad figure. Aside from a cracked hinge I feel like I got my money's worth. Assuming the other two are as good or better than Potesta then I can recommend them for the price, if not recommend them outright.
  10. mikeszekely
    I don't. Matter of fact, Devil May Cry (the anime) was free on the PlayStation store a bit ago. I bought it, put the first episode on, immediately realized it was dubbed, and shut it off. I think the VAs that they get to dub anime these days are better than the late '90s and early aughts, but back in the day they were downright terrible. Between that and the fact that I got into the scene back when it was people trading fansubbed VHS tapes and I just developed a strong preference for subtitles. On that note, I guess I'd be kind of mad if I was hardcore into the dubbed version of Evangelion back in the day, because a new dub just wouldn't be what I remembered. But like I said, dubs were pretty heinous back in the day. There's a fair chance Netflix' new dub will be better, but either way it doesn't matter much to me.
  11. mikeszekely
    I didn't buy either MP-36 or any of the KOs (I bought Despotron, no plug). But years ago, when I bought the first MP Megatron, it did come with a plug. For what it's worth, though, they plug wasn't glued; you just had to pull it out. So even if you do get a plug, it's probably not a big deal.
  12. mikeszekely
    Honestly the controller wouldn't bother me so much, but in Japan you'll be able to buy it with one controller for around $60. I'd buy that, then pick up the inevitable 8bitdo controller. But no, we're only getting the the $80 two-controller pack here, so I have to pay more for an extra three-button I'll never use.
  13. mikeszekely
    Yeah, I started doing business with them last year. I'm kind of weird that waiting for a package to come from China is harder for me than waiting for a domestic store to get it in stock and ship it to me, even if the domestic option takes longer, because I know it'll only take a week or so after a domestic store ships but Chinese packages are at the mercy of customs. That's a roundabout way of saying that I still buy most of my stuff from domestic stores, but if there's a big price difference or I'm shopping for something that the US stores don't usually carry ShowZ has become my go-to place. Competitive prices and good service.
  14. mikeszekely
    So it sounds like in Japan they're getting the six-button Megadrive controller, but in the US we're getting downgraded to the three-button version.
  15. mikeszekely
    If I can hack it like the NES Classic, SNES Classic, and PlayStation Classic, sure.
  16. mikeszekely
    Yeah. Somebody get IDW the Knight Rider license. Anyway, when I picked up Scrapmetal, I also picked up Studio Series Deluxe-class Cogman. The thing about Cogman is that, like Thundercracker or the upcoming KSI Boss, he's not really a Studio Series toy. AFAIK, this is a straight repaint with no remolding of The Last Knight Deluxe-class Cogman, and it really shows. He's got a simple, chunky sculpt that really doesn't fit with the other Studio Series toys, and despite being larger he's noticeably lighter than Sideswipe. Which brings me to another complaint... much has been made about how the robots in the Studio Series line are supposed to be in scale with each other. How do we reconcile Cogman, then? I mean, he's cleaner and chunkier, and he's got obvious car kibble, but the molded detail is clearly supposed to be what you saw on the human-sized robot. I do believe that Anthony Hopkins referred to Cogman as a Headmaster in the film, so let's say we do assume that Cogman is just the head and he's sporting a Transtector body. Why would it be taller than Bee, Sideswipe, or Jazz? Why is he nearly as tall as Ratchet? Mind you, this Cogman figure actually is a Headmaster. So, for accessories he comes with a sword and his head. The Headmaster's little head is a chunk of molded plastic that does look like Cogman, but I don't feel like a lot of effort went into making his body look like Cogman's. Speaking of that body, despite being in a movie line it's really a bog-standard Titans Return Titan Master. Cogman's head is on his Headmaster's tiny ball-jointed neck. He can swivel it and tilt his head sideways a little, but he doesn't really have any up/down tilt. His shoulders are on hinged ball joints due to transformation, so he can rotate them, extend them 90 degrees laterally, shrug or slump them, and even butterfly them a little forward or backward, but that ball joint is extremely loose. He's got (loose) bicep swivels, and a (loose) elbows that can bend 90 degrees. His wrists can swivel, but if you open the flap under his forearm like you're starting to transform him you can use a transformation hinge to bend his wrist down. For a character carrying a sword, I think I prefer the hinge to the swivel. No waist swivel. his hips are ball joints that can get just over 90 degrees forward, a little under 90 degrees backward, and only about 60 degrees laterally. He does have cuts for thigh swivels, but they're right above the knees (and kind of loose). The knees, at least, aren't loose... they're a weird soft ratchet, so you're limited to no knee bend, 45 degrees of bend, or 90 degrees of bend. His feet have a slight upward tilt due to transformation, but no downward tilt and no ankle pivot. He also doesn't have much of a heel. So, yeah, his articulation isn't great, and what he's got is far more looser than I'm used to with Siege or other Studio Series toys. He does hold his sword, though. And, since he works using the exact same way as a the Titans Return stuff you can use his Headmaster on a Titans Return figure, or a replace Cogman with a spare Titan Master... which, if I'm being totally honest, is the only reason I didn't put him back on the shelf with Shatter (whom I saw, but passed on after seeing how much stuff pops off of her during transformation). One more thing worth noting... apparently there was a scene written for the movie where Nitro Zeus would be decapitated and Cogman would take over his body. Although it didn't happen, and it wasn't mentioned on any official channels, the Nitro Zeus mold still has this feature built into it. The heads don't transform, but you can pull off Nitro Zeus, Thundercracker, or the upcoming KSI Boss' heads, and you'll be left with a Titan Master port that you can plug Cogman (or any other Titan Master) into. If buying another Titanmaster-compatible figure was my main reason for picking Cogman up, the fact that he turns into an Aston Martin DB11 would be my secondary reason. Like Jazz and Sideswipe, Cogman's covered in silver paint that really makes him pop. Again, though, he's a bit simpler than much of the Studio Series line. He's a bit bigger than Sideswipe, but not jarringly so. However, he dwarfs Bee and Jazz. I know that the Studio Series line hasn't been so in-scale regarding their vehicle modes, but it's another stark reminder that Hasbro is serving up The Last Knight leftovers and not a toy designed for the Studio Series. The car looks really good, at least. Unlike Sideswipe, they even remember to paint the rims. I do have one complaint, though, and that's that they were kind of stingy with the black paint. They used some around the windows, but they left other spots that needed to be black around the bumpers an unpainted gray. There are vents behind the front wheels and on the hood that could have used a little black, too. Cogman's sword can be stored under the vehicle, although the handle sticks out a little far. And although the doors don't open like they would on a real DB11 the roof, windshield, and side windows all open up on a double hinge to reveal a little cockpit area, complete with a right-hand drive steering wheel. There's room inside for Cogman to sit- actually, there's room inside for Cogman and another Titanmaster to ride shotgun. They're sitting on the back of the transtector's thighs, though, with no seatbacks and none of the notches that the bump on their heels can tab into, so they don't sit as well as I'd like. And there you have it folks... a clockwork knight-styled Titans Return figure with loose joints and so-so articulation but lots of paint and a really sweet alt mode. And, as a improptu Titans Return toy I don't hate it. But ultimately I can't recommend it, because a new coat of paint can't hide the fact that Cogman has no business being in the Studio Series.
  17. mikeszekely
    Tfsource has them up for preorder now.
  18. mikeszekely
    Would it help if I told you that the robot junk I was referring to really does become his crotch in robot mode?
  19. mikeszekely
    So, a quick heads up for you guys... I went to my local Walmart today, and looking at the tags on the shelves it seems that they have places for Deluxes in both the Siege (but still stuck on the first wave) and Studio Series lines, as well as Voyagers in the Siege line (although the space was empty), but no spot for Studio Series Voyagers or Leaders of any kind. And after discussing it with a few other people it sounds like Walmart is cutting back on Studio Series, and not all Walmarts will be carrying figures larger than Deluxes. I guess it's a good deal that I was shopping in the city, eh? Going forward I'll probably have to use online stores more, but at least Amazon looks like they're making more of an effort to preorder and stock new Transformers at regular prices instead of waiting for third party sellers to list them with ridiculous markups. But yes, my Walmart did still have Deluxes, and I was happy to find Studio Series Scrapmetal. Well, here's the thing... I can't really tell you if this is accurate or not. I haven't seen any concept art. There's a brief flash of a yellow Constructicon jumping into the ocean with Mixmaster, Rampage, Long Haul, and Ravage, but that glimpse looked a bit like Scrapper, and the initial flyover shot of that scene had a cement mixer, a bulldozer, a dump truck, and a front loader (the latter being Scrapper's alt mode). But Ravage is shown landing next to an excavator with a Decepticon logo. The only other scenes with this group are at the bottom of the ocean, dark silhouettes behind the bright lights they were carrying. Presumably the excavator, who went unnamed, was the "ze little one" they killed for parts to fix Megatron with. In any case, what we got is a little yellow fellow with the sort of generic head and digitigrade legs you've come to expect from Bayformers... but on the whole he's really not that bad. Aside from being digitigrade those legs are mostly treads, not unlike a certain G1 excavator. His torso isn't exactly G1 boxy, but the armor plating over some exposed machinery isn't really the shards of metal you usually get. And his arms are just arms. Nothing unusual aside from ending in oven mitt claws instead of fist, but even that's been done outside of the Bayverse, and Scrapmetal's mitts are certainly more subdued than some of the other Constructicons. Honestly, I think this guy's actually pretty cool-looking. His sole accessory is this panel. This is actually the bottom side, which has more interesting molded details than the top. Scrapmetal's head is on a ball joint. He can't really look up, but he can look down a lot and has pretty good sideways tilt in addition to the standard rotation. His shoulders are also ball joints, providing for rotation and over 90 degrees of lateral movement. Plus they're on a transformation joint that moves the ball down, if you want more of a slump-shouldered look. His elbows are hinged ball joints. The ball itself gives him 90 degrees of bend and acts as his bicep swivel. But if his forearm is turned the right way, you can use the hinge to curl his arm 180 degrees. His hands have a single pin hinge for both the upper and lower claw, so the widest he can open a claw is 180 degrees. But if his claw is closed the hinge can be a wrist tilt. He doesn't have a waist swivel. His hips are ball joints so he can kick himself in the head or the back of the shoulder, plus it's cut to allow 90 degrees of spread. He's got cut thigh swivels. His upper knee joint goes from straight to almost 90 degrees back, and the lower joint goes from straight to about 60 degrees forward. His toes and heels can both bend downward, but he lacks an ankle pivot. In robot mode, that plate uses a peg to fit into a peg hole on his left arm. I guess it's a shield? Studio Series Scrapmetal has an easy, intuitive transformation that turns in him into the sort of generic-looking excavator Hasbro doesn't have to pay a license fee for. So, I guess he's not exactly screen accurate here; if Scrapmetal was the excavator on the boat, that was a Volvo EC700C, that had a black arm and boom and some kind of grabbing claw, but this figure has a yellow arm and boom with a more typical bucket, also in yellow. It also doesn't have the railing on the back, treads that stick out farther than the deck in the back, and nothing but treads sticking out beyond the the deck in the front, not to mention a handrail on that step next to the boom and a ladder on the side behind the cab. But I guess the cab itself looks fairly accurate. While I might dig at the alt mode for not being a screen-accurate Volvo DC700C, it's really not too bad. The deck doesn't turn (although I think they could have got it to work if they'd tried), but the arm/boom/bucket does with hinges at the base of the boom, where the boom and arm meet, and where the bucket sits on the arm. Wheels on the treads and under that robot junk between the treads at the front allow him to roll. And although his arms leave some gappage in the top of the vehicle, the "shield" tabs over it to mostly hide it and even add provide some additional solidity. Scrapmetal will become the left hand of Studio Series Devastator. Well, if Scrapmetal died in the Laurentian Abyss then he's not actually part of Devastator, much as Devastator's left foot was a yellow bulldozer and Rampage died before Devastator got any screen time. Which means that again, Devastator's screen accuracy is going to suffer. But hey, Rampage was both the wrong vehicle and the wrong color (a red bulldozer instead of a yellow dump truck). While Devastator's left hand should be a bulldozer, it was at least yellow. And if I'm being fair Scrapmetal uses his clawed robot arms alongside his shovel to passably pull off Devastator's three-fingered hand, arguably better than previous RotF Devastator figures. One thing that's kind of bugging me, though. Rampage has that stand that's crucial to his robot mode and does store in vehicle mode, but doesn't seem to have a place in combined mode. And now Scrapmetal has that "shield" that's crucial to his vehicle mode, has storage in robot mode that isn't too terribly obtrusive, but also doesn't seem to have a place in combined mode. Now, it's early, and it's possible that they'll store somewhere else on Devastator's body once Mixmaster, Overload, or Scavenger are released. But I'd be lying if I said I weren't at least a little concerned that I'm going to end up with Devastator and a small pile of leftover parts. On the plus side, if the combined Devastator turns out to be garbage Scrapmetal is a much better figure than Rampage. I think he works pretty well as a standalone figure. In fact, while Scrapmetal lacks the kinds of memorable scenes in the first film or two that might sell you on some of the other Studio Series figures, he's a fun toy with a more interesting, less aggressively Bayformery appearance. I think that's enough to carry this figure, and I'm actually going to give him a recommend.
  20. mikeszekely
    Well, Square Enix has already dumped their mobile ports onto PC and PS4 (and Xbox One?). Seems like they're dumping them onto Switch now, too, instead of localizing Switch games they already released in Japan like the Seiken Densetsu collection or Dragon Quest Heroes.
  21. mikeszekely
    Rampage's Voyager-class wave mate is yet another Studio Series Optimus Prime. This time, it's the one from the Bumblebee movie. Much like Prime's CGI model in the film, I think most people are going to look at this toy and be happy to see a strongly G1-inspired Optimus Prime with extra mechanical detail befitting of a live-action movie vs a poorly drawn '80s cartoon. On that note, I myself have no complaints; I think this figure looks pretty awesome. The little gap between his chest windows actually reminds me of Don Figueroa's IDW Optimus. I'd be remiss if I didn't point out, though, that he's suffering from some inaccuracies that make me wonder if, like the Studio Series Bumblebee from this film, they weren't working with an earlier design. From the top down, he's got some silver on the helmet cheeks that shouldn't be there, the panels on top of his shoulders shouldn't have that black, he's missing some armor around the smokestacks, and the smokestacks shouldn't have that bend at the top. He's missing Autobot insignias on his shoulders, and those circles in the silver bands should be hashes. There should be more red on his lats. The inside of his forearms should have silver for the mechanical details, the outside of his forearm should have some silver on the circle near his wrist and some blue, and the front of his forearm should have yellow on the little triangles. His hands should be blue instead of black. The black square on his pelvis should be smaller, and the chunk under his crotch should be blue like G1. The armor on the sides of his hips should be silver, not black, and the yellow stripes on the front of his hips should be gray. The silver rectangles on his knees should be blue, and the circles should be very small, blue, and horizontally arranged at the top of the rectangle. The insides of his lower legs should have more blue, and his lower legs and feet should have a more humanoid shape. Now, if all that seems a bit nitpicky it probably is. I think most of that can be ignored or written off as the film's CGI model being on Cybertron and Optimus having to make some changes after coming to Earth. Some of it can probably be fixed with a little paint, a silver Sharpie, and/or some Reprolabels. And I actually like some of the differences. The shape of the toy's legs, for example, gives him a chunkier, G1-ier look than the GCI. Prime only comes with the one accessory, but a rifle is all he really needs. Seems to be pretty film accurate. Prime's head is on... some kind of joint. Might be a ball joint, or it might be a mushroom swivel with some wiggle. He can look down a tiny bit, but he can't look up or tilt his head sideways. And while he can swivel his head there's an odd resistance to it. His shoulders can rotate and the flap at the top is on a hinge so he can extend his shoulders 90 degrees sideways. Due to transformation he's even got a bit of backwards butterfly. His biceps can swivel, and his elbows bend a little over 90 degrees. His wrists can swivel. His waist can swivel. His hips can bend forward 90 degrees, but only about 30 degrees backward, and a little under 90 degrees to the side. His thighs can swivel, and his knees are a single hinge that can bend over 90 degrees. He's got about 45 degrees of ankle pivots, and they seem to be a soft ratchet. His feet can tilt down, but not up. In fact, they way they're designed if all of his leg parts are properly tabbed in place his feet naturally have a little downward tilt, and manipulating his feet can cause his legs to start to come untabbed. You can avoid some of this- by design, there's a t-shaped tab on the back of his foot that's captured in slot at the base of the calf flap. Just bend the back of the foot down so the calf passed over the tab, then bend it back up so the tab rests against the back of the calf. It doesn't really improve his foot articulation, but it does keep his feet from pushing his legs apart when you move them. A quick look at the back. Like the Siege toy he's carrying the truck's grill and some of the side panels on his back, but I think it cleans up alright. There's a pair of peg holes back there. You can use the smaller pegs on the sides of his rifle to store it on his back. There's a little bit of extra stuff going on with his legs, but the transformation is kind of reminiscent of the '06 Classics Optimus. The wheels, grill, and bumper are on his back, you have to spin his torso around just under the chest to get the windows lined up over the grill, and and panels unfold from his forearms to make up the side windows/door. One point of frustration is that things don't seem to tab together as well as I'd like. It could be partly because I can't get that top section of the grill to sit flush no matter what I do. Fit and finish aside, it's a fairly decent alt mode. I mean, a red cab-over-engine with a silver stripe going around it makes for a very Optimus-y truck, right? That said, it seems kind of boxy, even for a truck. It kind of reminds of of Toyworld's Primorion that way. And there's some inaccuracies again from the truck used in the movie. That truck had black wiper arms, the smokestacks didn't have that bend (again) and they should be closer to the edges of the truck. The handrails are too close together and should be silver, not red. The bumper shouldn't have those rectangular lights (or whatever they're) supposed to be right under the grill. Instead, he should have circular amber ones on the bottom of the bumper, near the ends, and rectangular gap in the middle (for a license plate?). There should be a silver vent above the grill. The fuel tanks should sit a little farther forward, with nothing but a gap (and some silver guards in front of the tires) between the tank and the rear tire. He's missing the marker lights on top. And the area behind the cab, with his knees and shins stuffed up behind the headache rack is a little busy and pushes the headache rack out too far behind the cab. Now, some of those things I could say are a limited paint budget, or the kinds of sacrifices that I advocate for on an alt mode to make a better robot mode. I can live with most of that. But the one thing that really bugs me is black hip skirts standing out like a sore thumb behind the front wheel instead of the steps. His hip skirts, as I said, are actually supposed to be silver anyway... would it have killed them to mold the steps onto the hip skirts? When viewed from above, you can also see that rear of the truck is mostly a hollow gap. It does have a molded, painted fifth wheel... maybe I should be happy that it doesn't look like super obvious robot legs? Prime's rifle can peg into the hole in the fifth wheel, if you need a distraction from the gaping void between the cab and the fifth wheel. Now, I'm pointing out what I think are this figures flaws, because I think you should be aware of them. But I may be coming off a little more negatively than I actually feel. I mean, while the Studio Series started off fairly strong it definitely feels like it's been on a downhill slide, and I find myself skipping more than repaints. But this Prime figure is a pretty good Prime toy, even without using the "movie" qualifier. If you're a fan of movie Prime having a more G1 aesthetic, or just G1-ish Primes in general, I'd recommend picking this guy up.
  22. mikeszekely
    The only Samurai Shodown I've played was the SNES version of the original. I had a friend who liked to get fighting games, practice on them for awhile, then have me over so he could trash me at them. But I picked up Galford pretty quickly, and for a change I was the one doing the trashing.
  23. mikeszekely
    Over the weekend I got a sitter and took my wife out to see a movie. That took us out near a Walmart that's closer to the city than our local stomping grounds, and I was able to pick up Studio Series Voyager Class Rampage. I mean... I guess that's movie accurate? Mostly? We're really talking about a character that didn't have a ton of screen time, and whose design exemplifies the worst of the Bayformers aesthetic. He's got that same sort of "ovoid of jagged metal with eyes" that a lot of Bayverse Decepticons have and his torso is mostly jagged metal not immediately recognizable as part of his vehicle (save for the two pistons on his chest that aren't actually part of said vehicle). His distinguishing characteristics were probably his tread-whips, which this toy kinda has, and the lack of actual legs, which this toy has in spades. Depending on your thoughts on partsforming, Rampage either comes with three accessories or none. They are these two gray pieces, and this stand. Rampage's articulation is pretty poor, even excusing his lack of legs. His head is on a ball joint with pretty good up/down range and the ability to swivel if you want that confused, sideways tilt. His ability to look left/right is fairly limited at the ball joint, but there's a hinge at the base of the stem that gives him more range. Another hinge where the neck meets the torso, more for transformation, does allow for more downward range. His shoulders can rotate, and extend about 90 degrees, plus there's about 90 degrees of forward butterfly as well. YMMV, but the hinges that move his shoulders laterally are kind of weak and have a hard time holding his arms up. He has a bicep swivel... but then things start to go south. He has no elbows. He has no wrist swivel. His two upper fingers are hinged at the base, with additional hinges near the tips of his fingers. The lower claws have a hinge at the orange part and are not individually-articulated. His waist has a hinge at the top that bends forward, and a ratcheted hinge at the bottom that bends backward. He also has a ratcheted waist swivel. However, it's above the lower waist bend. So the thing is, if he's a straight as you can make him the jagged shards of his torso inhibit the swivel. But if you bend the lower waist hinge to try to get some clearance he's not turning to the side at the waist as much as he is leaning to the side. Then we finish off with a hinge at the base of his... leg? Tail? Speaking of that, he in no way shape or form can stand on it by itself. You have to plug it into the black stand that he comes with. Even then, if you extend an arm too far to the side without counterbalancing it with the other arm he'll tip over, stand or no stand. There are some some hinges in the treads hanging off of his arms, but the one closest to his hand where the treads are actually connected to the arm doesn't bend forward all that far, just a little past perpendicular, so his treads never seem very whip-like. As for the gray bits, you can leave them pegged along the sides of his back, where they go in alt mode. Or, you can pull them off and tab them onto his thumb-claws and use them like guns. Which, yeah, he did have guns in the movie, but they were a lot bigger than that. Rampage turns into a Bulldozer, not a tiger... well, Bonecrusher was taken. TFWiki suggests alternatively that it's a Komatsu D575A or a Caterpillar D11. I'm no expert, but this is definitely not a Komatsu D575A, and neither was the bulldozer used for Rampage in the film. It probably is a Caterpillar, but I'd guess D9, not D11. It's hard to say definitively, since there's no Caterpillar trademarks on the box and Hasbro probably just wanted something vaguely like it to avoid having to pay Caterpillar for licensing. Rampage's little thumb claws are just dangling off the back, but if you squint I guess you could take them for rippers. One bigger finger claw on each hand becomes part of the track spring on each side. His gray gun-bits top off the blade lift cylinders (the tilt cylinders are conspicuously absent). None of those parts move, so the blade is fixed in place. There's storage for the stand on the underside of the vehicle. The tracks don't move, but there are a trio of wheels that he can roll on. If we're being technical, Bumblebee killed the crap out of Rampage, and a yellow dump truck turned into Devastator's foot. But for the sake of not having to come up with another name for another Constructicon when Studio Series Devy is already going to be made of eight figures Rampage turns into a foot. So much for screen accuracy! I'm not going to beat around the bush. I think that Rampage is a pretty lousy toy based on a pretty lousy character. And if this were only a crappy toy based on a crappy robot design that turned into a bulldozer this would be one of the easiest passes I could tell you to pass on. However, I know that when Hasbro announced that Devastator was going to be done in the Studio Series it was a big deal, and I'm guessing that a lot more people are interested in making sure they have Devastator's left foot than they are a Studio Series toy of "that guy Bumblebee killed two minutes after he rolled up on screen in ROTF". Unfortunately, we might we waiting awhile before we know how the combined Devastator turns out- Rampage's instructions have three of the remaining seven listed as "available late 2019" and the other four listed as "available early 2020" (although one of those "early 2020" guys is already popping up at Walmarts, so who knows). I can't guess how good or bad the combined Devastator will be. All I can say is that if you wait to find out you might not be able to get your hands on a Rampage, but if Devastator turns out to be so bad you can't stand to display them combined you're going to have at least one Constructicon who's pretty much junk on his own.
  24. mikeszekely
    I broke down and bought Chromia. *shrugs* Chromia seems like an odd choice for Siege, what with Arcee being arguably the most well-known female Autobot, and Windblade featuring heavily in the Cyberverse cartoon and the new IDW Transformers series (the one that's using the toy designs in the comics). I guess they're thinking that Windblade and Arcee had Titans Return toys after their Generations toys (even if I never got close to one), plus Elita One, Firestar (as Novastar), and Moonracer all popped up in Power of the Primes, so Chromia needed an update to fit more with that aesthetic than her previous toy. And I guess that works. I wouldn't go so far as to say she's more cartoon accurate, but she's definitely got less exaggerated proportions, and I do think I prefer that. Unfortunately, she's got a lot of the same problems as the older figure. She's got similar, too-dark eyes that look kind of dead. She's got wheel kibble on her lower legs, although it's a bit more on the sides than jammed into her calves. And both toys have giant honking backpacks. It's a bit tidier and locks in place more definitively on the newer toy, but feels more egregious because that backpack is something like 70% of her alt mode. Something to note, I skipped the Moonracer and Fire/Novastar, as I wasn't a big fan of the PotP line and frankly they didn't look that great to me. I'm familiar enough with them to tell you that, yes, Chromia shares a lot of the same engineering. However, she doesn't have any of the combiner parts. If you've got Novastar, Moonracer, and Elita One you can't buy Greenlight and Chromia and hope to have a complete fembot combiner. Indeed, despite the shared engineering Chromia seems to be mostly new parts. Only the thighs and wheels seem to be reused. Chromia's got a few accessories. There's a pistol. There's a white part that can fit onto the pistol as a longer barrel or silencer, or tab into the top like a scope. There's also a pair of what the instructions call EMP grenades. The bottom of the grenades are 5mm pegs the smaller peg holes inside them, so you can stick them end-to-end and make one big gun. They also have tabs and slots on the sides, so you could use one as part of a gun barrel and one as a scope. The tabs are also just the right size to wedge them into a 5mm peg hole. Chromia's head is on a ball joint that can look down a little and up a great deal, as well as tilt sideways a little. Her universal shoulders can rotate, and they can extend a little under 90 degrees. She has bicep swivels and her elbows can bend 90 degrees. Due to transformation there's no wrist swivels but they can bend inward. Her waist isn't ideal. There is a swivel, but it's lower than her waist and behind her bikini. So it looks a little weird, and it's fairly limited. Push it too far and the blue bikini will pop off, as it's just friction clipped onto the sides of her pelvis. Her hips can go a little under 90 degrees forward and only about 45-60 degrees backwards or sideways. Her thighs swivel. The kibble on her legs limits her to about 45 degrees of knee bend, although if you move the kibble the knees can actually bend 90 degrees. Her feet can tilt forward and backward, plus she's got 90 degrees of ankle pivot. Chromia can actually hold the grenades like she's going to throw them. If you don't want her to hold them or to be a part of her gun the instructions tell you to store them in the peg holes on the sides of her backpack. She also has peg holes on the kibble on the sides of her legs, on the outside of her forearms, one on the back of her backpack, and one on each of her heels. I was pretty prepared to hate Siege Chromia's alt mode. I mean, she's a definite shell former, with most of the car coming from unfolding her backpack. It seems weirdly long and narrow in the middle. And, frankly, it's just not as cool as the older toy's Tron-esque bike mode. But then I looked up her cartoon alt-mode, and, yeah. Could be worse. I dare say that, in hand, the front half of the vehicle looks pretty decent, shellformer or not. We do start to run into some problems on the back half, though. Although Chromia's chest isn't as exaggerated as it could have been, and although the sides of her backpack try to fill in the taper of her waist, a good chunk of the rear still looks like an obvious fembot torso. And once you get past that, the vehicle just stops. That leaves a bit of a gap between her robot arms, filled only by her visible hands. And speaking of her elbows and hands, her forearms are supposed to tab into the backpack, which doesn't actually tab into her torso, and that's supposed to lock everything in place. Unless everything is lined up perfectly, though, you're going to have gaps between her arms and the backpack. And a little squeeze on the backpack is enough to start pushing things apart. You can kind of hide it a bit by plugging the grenades onto the little pegs that fold out as you fold her head in. Then I guess they're supposed to be like exhaust pipes or something. Folding her head in also causes a 5mm peg hole to open up on her sternum. The instructions tell you to tab the white part on top of the blue pistol, then to plug the pistol into this hole. Be warned that the tab isn't the most secure, though, and you're probably better off leaving the white part on the front of the pistol. In addition to the new sternum peg hole you've still got access to the peg holes on her forearms and leg kibble, now sitting just behind her wheels in her alt mode. The one on her back is also available in the middle of her canopy. I'll be honest, I like Chromia a little more than I thought I would, enough that I do think I prefer this version to the older Prime Arcee remold. But, in the interest of continuing that honesty, I didn't expect to like Chromia at all. And everything that I thought would be a negative still is, it's just that I don't hate those things as much as I thought. And ultimately, "I thought it would suck but it's actually kind of ok" isn't a ringing endorsement. She's still probably one of the worst Siege figures so far, and unless you're a completionist or a Chromia fan you can safely skip this one.
  25. mikeszekely
    Yeah, I'm definitely seeing that.
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