mikeszekely

Fair enough.

Not yet. I have the "comitoon" version preorderd at TFSource. I've heard he's kind of so-so, but I'm looking forward to him since he'll complete my Season 1 minibots. Hopefully shouldn't be too much longer, since some other US retailers like ToyDojo and TheChosenPrime got theirs. But instead of a minibot, how about a really big one instead? Because while I'm still waiting on Boost, I did happen to pick up Fans Hobby's Double Evil, their MP Overlord. And because of how he's packaged, we're going to do things a little differently and start with alt modes instead of bot mode. The first box is for the jet. In addition to the jet, it has four black missiles with silver tips, and double-barrelled gun, an articulated claw, and the black & gold "Power Pilot." It also comes with it's own set of instructions and a trading card. The second box is the tank. It also has a rifle, two antennae, three small rockets, two ramp parts, and the white and silver Power Pilot. Curiously, it comes with it's own set of instructions, although instead of a second trading card it comes with a sheet of stickers. Most of the stickers are for Double Evil, but a few are actually intended for Power Baser (Fans Hobby's Powermaster Optimus Prime). I'll mention at this point that I'm not really sure why FH decided to box this stuff separately. As far as I know, they're not sold separately. Both boxes are packed into a larger plain white box, so they're not split up in any way that would make packing and shipping them any easier. I'm not an expert, but I think FH could have put everything in one box. Anyway, about those Power Pilots. If you're a Masterforce fan you've probably noticed that Fans Hobby mixed them up at some point. The black & gold one is Giga, and he drove the tank. Mega is the white & silver one, and she flew the jet. As far as the figures themselves go, if you've handled Power Baser's you kind of know what to expect already. Their heads are on swivels. Their shoulders are ball joints with the ball in the torso, so they can rotate and extend laterally a bit. Note that the shoulder rotation is a little limited by their backpacks, especially Mega's since those fins on the tops of her shoulders are just the right size to keep them from clearing her backpack. Elbows can bend a little. No bicep, wrist, or waist swivels. Their hips are ball joints with the balls in the pelvis, which gives them swivels and a little bit of lateral movement. Hinges at the base of the ball pegs get you 90 degrees forward and adequate backward motion in the hips. The knees are hinged, no foot articulation, and due to the lack of heels and the weight of their backpacks you have to bend the hips back a little and bend the knees the wrong way a little to try to get the feet under their center of gravity, otherwise they'll fall over. For those that are curious neither Giga nor Mega will fit on Power Baser. I didn't try Ginrai on Double Evil, though. Now the jet itself, known as the Mega Jet in Masterforce, is a big honkin' jet. It's slightly longer than Fans Toys' Phoenix, although Phoenix has a greater wingspan and is heavier due to having more diecast parts. The detachable portion alone is larger than Titans Return Leader-Class Overlord's entire jet. Personally, I think the jet mode looks great, but something Fans Hobby gets some flak for is selling figures that are in the MP scale but are a little too stylized and not G1-accurate enough. To me, Overlord wasn't a part of G1 in the US, I didn't watch Masterforce until I was already an adult, and when I did watch it I thought it was pretty bad. I'm not super into Overlord, so I'm not really bothered by Double Evil not being an exact match for the G1 toy or the Masterforce animation model. I would be remiss, though, if I didn't point out those deviations, and in jet mode the purple inlet cones have a different shape, the canards are a different shape, the nose is longer, the fuselage starts to widen at the cockpit instead of behind it, the wings are bigger (although I think that was true in the cartoon, too), the fuselage is proportionally not as wide, the engine nacelles are proportionally smaller, and instead of inwardly-angled purple stabs on the nacelles the stabs are outwardly-angled and set on the tail between the nacelles. Double Evil's jet also has visible exhaust nozzles, extra silver paint, and is missing the orange window on the underside. I think when you look at it the colors and the general details are there, so you recognize it as the Mega Jet, but the silhouette is actually very different. All of the accessories that come with the jet can be stored on the jet. The double-barreled gun plugs into the spine. The barrels can extend, and the gun can rotate. The canopy can open to allow the Power Pilot to sit inside, and the steering yoke even moves up and down. The missiles attach to the undersides of the wings by pushing the missiles' canards and fins into grooves under the wing. The claw folds up and sticks to the inside of the engine nacelle, in the space between the robot torso and left arm. There's also landing gear that can fold out from under the nose and from the insides of the robot arms. The wheels aren't rubber, but they do roll. Fans Hobby did a good job blending the spine of the plane into the engine nacelles, they shaped the thigh connectors to look like additional exhaust nozzles, and they engineered a flap that plugs into the robot hips. It all helps to give the jet a very finished look, so it's not immediately apparent that it's a transformer unless you look at it from directly underneath. The Giga Tank is nearly as impressive as the Mega Jet when it comes to size, as it's still significantly bigger than Titans Return Overlord or even Combiner Wars Leader-Class Megatron... and it's just made from legs! I think the Giga Tank also deviates less from the source. It's a little longer and it doesn't have two big square holes on the front, but I think that just makes it look like a more cohesive tank. Likewise, he's lacking the weird gaps on the back of the turret that the G1 toy had (and the Masterforce animators left on the animation model). The concave canopy section isn't toy accurate, but like the Mega Jet's wings I do think it's cartoon accurate. The lights at the front of the turret (actually, I think that's something like a periscope on a real tank) and the silver rails around the sides and back of the turret are accurate. I think the biggest deviations (aside from all the tampos) are the chaff launcher on the side of the turret and the lack of a Powermaster engine slot (which reminds me, the Mega Jet doesn't have one either, but it's less noticeable because the jet is black and I'd guess the port would have been right around where you plug the gun in, anyway). Like the Mega Jet, the Giga Tank is designed to store all of the accessories that it comes with. For starters, the rifle collapses and tucks in under the back of the tank. The two ramp sections connect together and then tab onto the bottom of the tank. Both the ramps and the gun help to make the back and bottom of the tank look even more cohesive. The canopy opens for a Power Pilot to sit it, and again there's a steering column that lifts up and down. Next to the canopy, in place of a Powermaster engine port, there's a panel that flips up and reveals a rocket launcher. The three small white rockets fit into the barrels. On the front of the tank turret are a pair of flaps that open up to reveal spaces to store the purple antennae. For the record, those rockets and the antennae store in the same spots in robot mode, in case I forget to mention it. As good as the tank looks Fans Hobby went the extra mile by including working rubber treads. The barrel can raise and lower, and while the turret can't spin a full 360 degrees it can turn 60 degrees to the left or right. The fact that it can turn at all is pretty impressive when you remember that the entire tank splits into two halves. And splitting the tank in half is something you'll need to do, if you want to turn Double Evil into a robot. For the most part, the transformation is pretty straightforward and fairly enjoyable. The only parts I'm not very fond of are the aforementioned splitting of the tank and pulling the front of the jet off. The connections are very strong, and it requires a scary amount of force to pull them apart. Otherwise everything pretty much moves the way you'd expect, although there are some flaps that are easy to miss under the turret halves that help the turret look more flush with the legs and lock them in place so they don't rotate and some other flaps you pull down inside his shoulder armor so you don't see a gap when you view him from the side. Those flaps can be easy to miss. Aesthetically it's again not entirely G1/Masterforce. His torso has a taper in the midriff that I think looks more dynamic, and his thighs have a Dreamwave sort of bulge to them. The broad shoulder armor, the ridges on his abdomen, his head (and most especially his face) are more IDW than Masterforce. Again, these are things that might bug you if you want a more G1-accurate Overlord, but again I really dig this sculpt. I just has so much life to it. And Double Evil is a very big fellow. He's half a head taller than a big bot like Phoenix, and he's carrying more bulk. He positively dwarfs his rival, Power Baser. Fans Hobby can't release their Godbomber soon enough! Double Evil's head is on a ball joint at the the base, with a hinge where his neck is connected to his torso. He's got fantastic up/down range, more than enough sideways tilt, the usual swivel, plus he can crane his neck forward. His shoulders rotate on ratchets. There's a ratcheted hinge inside the shoulder that can move maybe 60 degrees laterally, and a second ratcheted hinge where the whole thing is attached to the torso. Combined he can move his shoulder a little over 90 degrees laterally; the purple spikes even have double-hinges to help them move and give his shoulder enough clearance. His biceps can swivel, and he's got double-jointed, ratcheted elbows that can bend well over 90 degrees (although it takes a little finagling to get his forearm armor to clear his biceps. His wrists can swivel, and he's got articulated fingers. The thumb is on a ball joint at the base with one additional pinned knuckle hinge. Each finger is pinned at the base with two additional pinned knuckles. He doesn't have an ab crunch, but he can bend a little forward or backward at the sternum. His waist can swivel. His hips can go forward just over 90 degrees and backward just under 90 degrees on ratchet. Unfortunately, he can only move them about 45 degrees laterally, still on ratchets. So no high kicks, but honestly I think it's enough for a character this big. His thighs swivel, and he's got double-jointed, ratcheted knees that give him an extremely deep knee bend. His feet have a ratcheted up/down tilt with plenty of down and a click or so up, plus his ankles can pivot 45 degrees to either side. The main thing to address in regards to posing him is his stability. While the ratchets are strong, there's some wiggle between clicks. And the way his foot is designed, the connection between the leg and the foot is a swivel, kind of at the base of thin shin, pointing forward into the back of the top of his foot. He does have heels, but they barely reach as far as the back of his leg. As many others have pointed out, if you stand him up straight at attention he has a tendency to lean backward or even fall over. Now, I think it's fair to point this out, as it is an issue, but I think it's been kind of overblown. Click his hips out just a single click from stock straight, and turn his thigh swivels out just a little bit, and you'll have him in a natural, relaxed stance that's stable. Putting him into even more dynamic poses, with one leg forward and one leg back, and he becomes even more stable. In practice, getting him in a position where he'll stand worrying that he's going to fall over isn't difficult. Once again, all of Double Evil's accessories can be stored (or at least carried) on his person. His rifle slides into his palm using that Maketoys/Fans Hobby system with the rails at the base of the palm that fit into grooves on the sides of the handle. I already mentioned the antennae and the little white bombs remaining in their tank-mode spots. The Power Pilots can continue to chill in their respective cockpits, or you can open the doors on Double Evil's chest to reveal a pair of Powermaster ports. If you're into the Masterforce thing the smaller black parts of the doors are separate pieces and can be closed while the white parts are open, locking the pilots in place. Unfortunately, the doors only open as far as you see in the above picture; I'd have liked it if they could have opened 180 degrees. And just like the G1 toy, pushing them in activates spring-loaded mechanisms that will pop the Chokon Demon Blast open and pop the Chokon Bolt Masher out. If you want to close the doors with the pilots inside you can. Mega's door won't sit totally flush, but it's close enough that you're unlikely to notice the difference, and it's just friction that holds the doors closed so you're not missing any tabs. The smaller ramp piece fits onto the leftover jet piece, covering the gap Double Evil's head would fit into. Doors on the underside open, and the claw can peg into the inside. There's also a handle on the underside that folds out and rotates around. The handle has the same grooves that the gun does, so Double Evil can hold this chunk of jet like a shield. The ratchets in his arms are strong enough to keep it up. Of course, if you prefer to keep one of those articulated hands free and want a more traditional look, there's bumps inside those panels we opened, just under where the claw pegs in. Those bumps slide into grooves on his shoulder armor. This is the part where I confess, as impressive as the jet mode is I do wish that the removable part would have been a bit smaller. Most of the time Overlord's "shield" is just a little longer than his arm, but Double Evil's reaches below his knees. As for the rest, the rest of the ramp folds up and tabs into his backpack, and there are ridges that the tail fins on the missiles can slide into. The double-barreled gun plugs into the same spot as it does in jet mode, which is now on his back and behind his head. When I reviewed the Titans Return Overlord I said that Overlord's really a Duocon because he splits into a jet and a tank just like Flywheels. But G1 Overlord was pretty massive; when you compare him to Trypticon, Metroplex, or Scorponok he was in that same ballpark. Overlord is a citybot, so Double Evil wouldn't be complete without a base mode (one that still has storage for all his accessories. Again, we're not totally G1 here. The front of the jet is still the main tower, although it doesn't turn around so the white part isn't showing. There is a door that flips open to reveal a double-barreled turret that one of the pilots can man. The engine nacelles still make additional towers, and they're still topped by the appropriate antennae. You've still got a main ramp on the front, with two ramps off the sides that connect to the tank halves. However, the back of the jet doesn't unfold at all (save for the ramps themselves), and the ramps are kind of short, so the halves of the tank aren't spaced out as far. They don't splay out like the G1 toy, either, so they rather remind me more of the Titans Return toy's base mode. His rifle doesn't make a small tower for one tank half, and there's no missile launcher part for the opposite side. They don't have ramps. But the double-barreled gun does plug into one side, and the claw on the other like the G1 toy's crane. And although the rifle can't make a tower, it can still plug into one side. The instructions suggest that you can put the other pilot in the space behind the double-barreled gun, like he's also manning a turret, but he doesn't lock in place there. The handle moves so it can be aimed up and down, and both it and the double-barreled gun can swivel. By that logic, you could also put him on the other side, like he's operating the claw, but honestly I prefer keeping him in his tank cockpit. The claw, too, can swivel at the base, the claw can open and close, and the arm has two hinges. The rocket port on the tank turret can still be deployed, and technically, you can still swing out the tank barrel if you want. The missiles clip onto the same spots they do in jet mode, you just have to reposition them so that they're pointed up. The tank parts are only connected to the rest of the base where the ramps tab into them, so if you move the base you kind of have to move the tank parts separately and reconnect them. The main section itself, though, is quite secure, which is a big improvement over the Titans Return toy. A part of me does wish it were a little closer to the G1 toy, but that would have necessitated another pair of ramps, a little scout car, and the missile tower. I think the deviations we got from the G1 base are the sacrifices made to ensure that every accessory had a place in every mode, and I prefer that to a more accurate base mode I'll almost never display him in. At the end of the day Double Evil definitely has a few flaws, but I'm sure that I don't own a figure that I can't find at least a few flaws on. How much any give flaw, especially something like Double Evil being a little stylized and not entirely G1-accurate, is pretty subjective. What I can tell you is that I think Double Evil's flaws are minor. I think there are highly-regarded figures with bigger issues (like Phoenix's waist swivel, Constructor's proportions, etc). And I think, despite not really caring much about Overlord, and despite having an entire (full) Detolf just for Optimus Primes, that Double Evil is a much better figure than Power Baser. I'm telling you that I highly recommend this figure. Actually, I've recommended stuff like Siege figures, so I kind of feel like saying "I recommend this" isn't strong enough. What I really want to say is that if you can work Double Evil into your budget then you should definitely go to your store of choice right now and buy one if you haven't already.

Devil May Cry 5 is only 30-ish GB installed. No YOOGE! patches.

It's real hit or miss. I went toy hunting this weekend. On Friday local Target had nothing but Siege Megatron, a couple of wave 1 Deluxes, and plenty of Dropkicks. My local Walmart had a few wave 1 Siege Deluxes, plus Dropkick, Jazz, and Ratchet from the Studio Series. I went to a different Target Saturday and they had a ton of Siege Optimus and Megatron, several wave 1 Siege Deluxes, and some SS Dropkicks. I was pretty surprised to see that they also had SS Leaders Megatron and Jetfire, though. At least that was a sign that new stuff is trickling in. I went to my bi-weekly tabletop game night with my friends this afternoon. I hit the Walmart by my friend's house with little hope, as it's pretty rural and never seems to never get new stuff in. I was pleasantly surprised to find the entire 2nd wave of Siege Deluxes, although I skipped Chromia. She just doesn't look that good to me, although I suspect she'll be like Skytread- I'll say I don't really want her, a couple weeks from now she'll be readily available in all my local stores, I'll go to Target or Walmart for something totally unrelated and buy her on a whim anyway. Sadly, no new Siege Voyagers, though. Anyway, expect reviews for Siege Prowl, Ironhide, and Sixgun later in the week. For now I'm working on a big one for the 3P thread.

Oh. Yeah, those people. The ones who get me grinding my teeth when they review something like Zeta's Fireflight and they try to straighten out the wing tips, or any jet with two straight vertical stabilizers and they angle them like an F-18's because it "looks cool."

T-38? Modern update for what? They've been around forever. Contemporary of the F-4 and nearly a decade before the other four, if I'm not mistaken. I feel like you typed T-38, but meant to type something like Tu-160 or Tu-360.

I got the same email. My order # is 100030250, so I guess I'm in!

Well, this is an older figure, but it got a recent reissue. This is BadCube's Grump, aka MP Gears. Well, that's definitely Gears. I think BadCube put a lot of effort into capturing a lot of Gears' details, from the weird head, the vent necktie, the red triangle, the silver trapezoids, the fins on his shoulders, and the bump outs on his shins. The tires are well-hidden. My gripes are fairly few. For one, I wish they'd painted the red parts of the hinge at his waist silver to match the cartoon. Two, he's got the usual BadCube "stuff kibble on the feet" thing that leave his feet kind of flat, with messy blue and silver bits. I think the worst thing he's got going on, though, are weirdly short arms (or a weirdly long torso). I was never a huge fan of Gears, though; I think the only thing that saved him from being my least-favorite season 1 minibot is because he hung out with Spider-Man in the old Marvel comics. I guess my point is that while there's probably room for improvement Grump looks good enough for me. He's a little shorter and less stocky than BadCube's earlier MP Brawn. The plastic on Grump feels better, though, and he's actually a little heavier due to some diecast. Grump comes with just three accessories. You've got his gun, which has really nice metallic blue paint. The other accessories are from the episode "Changing Gears". The video cassette-looking thing is Gears' personality circuit, which Megatron stole to use in his solar needle and without which Gears became happy, helpful, and friendly. The other is the tool he used to help Megatron fix the solar needle. Speaking of "Changing Gears," the default face out of the box is a happy, smiling face, and there's no alternate face in the box. That episode might be the quintessential Gears episode, but if you're like me you still want a grumpier face more representative of the rest of his appearances. BadCube's got you covered. Just lift up his face, spin it 180 degrees, and fold it back down. Instant grumpy face. I have to admit, while it seems like a minor bummer not to have Gears' toy face I appreciate the face-swapping gimmick doesn't require me to pick which face I want to display him with while stuffing the rest in a box in my closet. Grump's big ol' blockhead can swivel, but due to its shape it can't tilt at all. His shoulders are on hinged ball joints. The ball joint provides rotation and some lateral movement. With the the hinge you can get the lateral movement to 90 degrees, but you can also give him a shoulder slump in more neutral poses that I appreciate for the character. He has bicep swivels, and a single elbow hinge that gets a little more than 90 degrees. Unfortunately he's got no wrist swivels or any kind of finger articulation, which seems a little limited for a supposed MP-alike (although I guess he's not worse than MP-21 Bee in that regard). His waist can swivel. His hips are universal joints that get a little under 90 degrees forward, 90 degrees backward, and over 90 degrees laterally. His thighs swivel around the hip joints. His knees are technically double-jointed for transformation, but only the upper hinge is really useful in robot mode and it'll get you just under 90 degrees. His ankles are ball joints, so he can get a little up and down tilt, ankle pivots in both direction, plus an ankle swivel. Much like MP Bee, the handle of Grump's gun is rectangular, and slides down into the rectangular hole his fist is molded into. The torch can be attached by folding his hand into his arm and then tabbing the torch into a notch between the top of his forearm and the hinge that the hand folds in on. As for the circuit, you can flip up a panel on Grump's torso and you'll see a slot that it fits into. You might want to have some sturdy tweezers or a small pair of pliers handy, though. It fits in snuggly enough that it won't fall back out on it's own, even if you shake him, and deeply enough that you can close is torso back up. That means that there's very little to get a grip on to pull it back out. Grump's transformation is kind of similar to Brawny's. Both store the arms in the passenger cabin. Both pull the front wheels and fenders from out of their torso, although Grump's are more in the backpack. Both fold the rear tires from out of their calves. Both fold up the legs and feet to make the rear and much of the sides of the vehicle, Brawny just uses some extra flaps to help cover his rear. Somehow he's a lot smaller, though. Something to note, I kind of remember some reviewers complaining about the transformation back when he first came out (or maybe it was just one certain masked reviewer...). I gotta be honest, I thought it was pretty easy. A real walk in the park compared to pretty much everything Fans Toys has done since Phoenix or so. Now, I've never handled Wardog, but by now I've got BadCube's Gears, Brawn, Huffer, Sunstreaker, and all three of their Insecticons, and I'm really questioning why BadCube got a such a bad reputation for difficult transformations and why people are so willing to give Fans Toys a pass when theirs are much worse. Moving on... I'm not sure if G1 Gears alt mode was based on a real truck. I'll say that Grump has the basic details of the cartoon- blue truck with a red bed cover and bumper. He's still got the gray patch on the hood, and he's still rocking a sunroof. But the finer details aren't quite a match for the cartoon. The headlights don't flare out on the sides so much. He doesn't really have that second set of lights on the hood, either. He's just got two little bumps. He's got A pillars and running board steps. The grill is more detailed, and he's got some molded shocks visible on the rear wheels. It's sort of like BadCube was trying to make a more realistic truck without a specific truck in mind. Oh, minor point, but I wish the translucent plastic for the windows had some tint. Not really interested in seeing is robot shoulders through the windshield. Speaking of windows, there's none on the bed cover, just some visible hinges. But the guy's gotta transform somehow, I guess. It's not like I'm going to spend a ton of time looking back there anyway. The tires are plastic, and they don't roll particularly well. I can't tell if it's because things aren't lining up just right, or if there's not enough clearance between the tires and the wheel wells, or if the tolerances on the axles are too tight. Probably a combination of all three. You can store the gun on the back of the truck by fitting two pegs into two holes on the side of the gun. I do appreciate alt mode weapon storage. If you put the circuit in his chest you can leave it in for truck mode; even though it's exposed it's not going to fall out. Nowhere to stow the torch, but I'm fine tossing it back in the box. Grump, like most figures, isn't perfect. Aside from the silver there's not much paint on him. He doesn't come with a ton of accessories. His feet are a little messy, and his proportions are a little wonky. He doesn't have any wrist articulation. But, BadCube put a lot of attention into the sculpt. The accessories he does have are fine. I really like that you can swap faces without actually swapping parts. He's reasonably well-articulated aside from the wrists, and the joint tolerances feel good. He's the right size for a minibot, and the transformation isn't bad. For a character that's mostly just checking off a box for me I think BadCube honestly did a pretty good job, enough that I'm somewhat curious to check out their Swerve remold despite no real recollection of him in the cartoon (I guess Trypticon stepped on him). I'm going to give Grump a recommend.

Those were the ones I had as a kid. I actually had all five, but I remember wanting the other one because it was bigger and didn't have wheels. As an adult, right now I just have the big Playmates Legendary Defender Voltron, the same-sized Playmates '84 Voltron, and the smaller diecast Legendary Defender. Of those three, I'd say my favorite is the diecast Legendary Defender... it's functionally the same as the larger one, but it's easier for me to overlook the flaws on a much smaller Voltron that ran about half the price. I desperately want the SoC Voltron, and will attempt to get the reissue (and Vehicle Voltron).

It's one of those things where TE supposedly said they're doing another head that would be included with the re-release, but no one's heard anything about it since.

It's been years since I played it, but I don't recall it being bad. I remember appreciating that it had a pretty decent single-player story mode. And I see it's Metacritic rating is a respectable 79 (not that I put a ton of stock in Metacritic ratings). The just-released DoA 6 is PC, Xbox One, and PS4. DoA 5 was released in multiple versions on PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One, PC, and Vita. So it's safe to say the series is pretty multiplatform now, but if they were married to anyone for awhile it was Xbox. DoA 3 was an original Xbox launch title and exclusive, DoA Ultimate was an Xbox exclusive featuring an enhanced version of DoA 2 rebuilt on the DoA Xtreme Beach Volleyball engine, and DoA 4 was an Xbox 360 exclusive. DoA 5 was the first on a PlayStation console since DoA 2: Hardcore on the PS2.

I'm having a different issue with quotes. When I highlight a portion of a post I want to quote I'm just getting a little empty gray box under it and not the usual "quote this" options. This is on both Chrome and Edge on my Windows 10 desktop and Chrome on my Android (Pie) phone.

Hey, that movie was bad, but Elizabeth Banks wasn't bad in it. Anyway, yeah, I'm gonna check this movie out.

I actually got an email from eknight saying they expected to get 50 units but they wound up getting 140 preorders before they turned it off. Anyone who ordered more than one (not me) can only have one, and even then they're saying the first 50 people to pay their PayPal invoice when they go out are the ones that are going to get them. So I guess I'm keeping my eyes open for a more guaranteed route, and until that happens I'll be checking my email constantly come summer.

Well, I never heard of them, but they don't require payment upfront and I slept through BBTS, Entertainment Earth, and Toy Dojo's preorders, so I guess I'll give them a try.

In a move I expect most of us saw coming, Siege Barricade will be a repaint of Siege Prowl. What's interesting is that it seems to be based off of a retro G1-style Barricade based on Prowl that Guido Guidi did a couple years back. While it'd have been interesting to see a little more effort go into a "Classics" Barricade, I'm not complaining. Heck, I even did something similar with Combiner Wars Prowl, although mine looks kind of crappy.

The N30 Pros had d-pad issues? I take it you mean the newer version? I have the older model (when it was the still called NES30 Pro and colored like a proper NES controller) I bought for a emulator box I built, an SN30 Pro I bought to play Mega Man on the Switch,, an N30 for the NES Classic, and two SN30s in both SNES and SFC colors for the SNES Classic. No issues here. I wanted to pick up an SN30 Pro+, too, but they're still not available. I don't have quite the same nostalgia for Sega's controllers, but I might pick one of those up, too. Or I'll wait and see if they make a bundle with a receiver when that Megadrive Classic finally comes out.

I got the same when I clicked the link, so I couldn't tell you for sure. I do believe they're following the G1 route, though, so the reissue of Soundwave is coming with Buzzsaw, and there will be two packs of tapes. One with Ravage and Rumble (who is red and black and clearly Frenzy) and one pack that's Frenzy (except he's blue and purple and definitely Rumble) and Laserbeak. (And of course I have the old TRU reissue with Ravage and Laserbeak, so if I want all of Soundwave's tapes* I'll have to buy all the Walmart reissue stuff.) *prior to the '86 movie

Had the pictures done, but I got super busy with another project that I'm still technically in the middle of. Thought about not writing anything tonight, but I think this needs to get out there. This is Voyager Class Studio Series 32 Optimus Prime. Not to be confused with Voyager Class Studio Series 05 Optimus Prime, of which he's a heavy remold. In fact, instead of doing this the usual way I'm going to closely compare the two, with 32 on the left and 05 on the right. The most noticeable, immediate differences are that 32 is slightly taller, and he's colored a little brighter. Looking a little more closely, 32 has larger forearms, less kibble on his hips, and he lacks the hinge to fold down the rear fender. His chest is remolded in a way that looks more accurate than 05's but leaves the front fenders more exposed under his armpits. He's also got less paint than 05. From other angles it looks like 32's backpack sticks out a little farther and hangs down slightly lower, with the back of the cab not quite covering up the grill. But the way the fuel tanks clean up is much cleaner and more movie accurate. Overall, it's kind of a mixed bag. It's almost like the designers looked at the things they thought were the most wrong with 05 and tried to fix them, but in the process created a bunch of new problems. 32's lone accessory is his gun. Which means if you need to buy two Optimus Primes to get the same accessories as MPM-4. 32's articulation is the same as 05's, so I'm glossing over it. However, I have to say that the joints on 32 are much tighter. The up/down tilt on 05's feet had gotten so loose that he fell over a couple times while I was taking these pictures, but 32 feels rock solid. That alone might be reason enough to favor 32. Naturally, he can hold his gun with no issues. And if you want, you can store it on his back. If you do happen to have both Primes, yes, 32 can use 05's swords. It's a tighter fit, and you have to untab the arm kibble from his wrist, though. And there's no storage for them that I can find since he lacks the visible roof and accompanying slots that 05 has. The competition isn't as close in truck mode. While I like the shinier silver paint used on 32, I like that they bothered to paint the rims this time, and the fuel tank is a bit more appropriately sized, 32's got visible hinges in his bumper, the step is jammed under the cab instead alongside it, the toolbox is missing, the roof is a little more panely, and more kibble is showing under the air cleaners. And he's still got the shortened smokestacks. Both trucks have issues, but I do think 05 looks better. Prime's gun can tab onto the side of the truck. And because his feet are the same, you can still tab 05's swords onto them in the back. Of course, the real reason why you might want another Optimus Prime is the combination with Jetfire. You don't have to do a lot with Prime to get him ready, just fold up his feet like you're going to truck mode and unfold his backpack a little. For Jetfire, you want to open him up a little, pull off the jet nose and split it in half, untab the rubber parts from Jetfire's chest and pull his upper body off, pull the legs off, and then pull a gray piece off of the bottom of each wing. To Hasbro's credit, the connections are tight and if you the instructions didn't tell you where they are you might not have even noticed. The legs transform, allowing Prime's legs to tab on before wrapping around the side. The nose halves tab into each of Prime's shoulder pads. The lower part of Jetfire's body transforms almost to jet mode, then slides into grooves on Prime's backpack. The rubber parts wrap around and tab onto Prime's sternum. The instructions tell you that Jetfire's cane folds up and tabs onto the underside of Prime's forearm, and he can wield his gun or Jetfire's axe. You can also store some of the weapons on the wings where you pulled off the gray parts, although you have three weapons and onto two tabs. You're also left with a bit of leftover Jetfire. The instructions don't indicate anything you can do with this. However, you can unfold the jet fuselage and tab his head in like you're going to jet mode, fold his hands in, turn his arms so the hands are facing each other and tuck them into his chest as much as possible, fold the spine connector back toward the fuselage, tab the gray parts you pulled off the wings together, and tab them into the spot where the nose was. There's a little handle you can slide into Prime's fist from the bottom, and the result looks like a big gun. I wonder if this wasn't a planned feature that was abandoned? There's really no reason why the gray parts should tab together at all (come to think of it, I don't think they serve any purpose in Jetfire's robot or jet modes, either), and while the handle does sort of help give you leverage to get Jetfire's torso to come apart I'm not sure that alone explains its existence. But as a gun it definitely feels unfinished. The real issue here is that, as a Voyager-class figure, all of Prime's joints are friction joints. While it's great that they're tighter than 05's, the weight of Jetfire's lower body on Prime's back left him back heavy and prone to doing the splits. And that's before giving him Jetfire's top as a weapon. Suffice to say that none of his arm joints are up to that challenge. In light of all that, I'm going to have to say that I don't recommend SS-32. The combination with Jetfire just isn't pulled off that well and isn't worth buying Prime for. And while there are some changes, even if you think they're improvements there's just not enough of them to buy another Optimus if you already have SS-05. And even if you're just now deciding that you want a Studio Series Op and missed out on 05 you might as well wait for Studio Series 44, which despite being labeled a Leader class looks like this exact SS-32 figure, only with better truck-mode paint and a trailer that he can combine with.

Nah, I'm kind of with @Mommar on this one. One of the biggest draws for me with the Switch was that I could play on the TV after my daughter went to bed but also in portable mode whenever I could throughout the day. You just gotta make sure you look up every so often if you take 'em to the park or something to make sure the kid is still ok. Oh, and I'm not sure about shmups, but my girl's at an age where she's still not playing, but she's starting to learn about the characters from other kids and she's curious about what I'm playing. So I've been playing stuff like Super Mario Odyssey (which I'd bought at launch and didn't get around to until just this month), and she'll sit and watch me play for awhile.

Yeah, they were all cute and not at all badass. But all of the Gen 1 starters had personality. Totadile was pretty cool in Gen 2. Gen 3 weren't my favorites, but I could go with either Treecko or Torchic. Gen 4 was a little worse than Gen 3, but I'm cool with Turtwig or Piplup. Gen 5 was pretty bad, but again at least Tepig and Snivvy had some personality. I thought Gen 6 had some of the best starters since Gen 1, I liked both Froakie and Fennekin. Gen 7 was so-so, Rowlet and Litten were ok. But Gen 8 just looks kind of generic and boring. Someone suggested they look like Powerpuff girls. Just my opinion. Maybe like X & Y we'll get a chance to get a second starter from another generation. Then I can stuff the fire bunny in a box on the PC.

Alright, one more Leader. This time it's Studio Series Jetfire. Out of the gate, this is a very good-looking Jetfire. It's not exactly perfect; instead of having several long, thin "feathers" of metal on his back his wings are just the two flaps, I don't think inlets of the engines are supposed to be so visible on the backs of his legs, and I can't find any indication that he should have those soft rubber bits coming from the back of shis waist to the sides of his chest. But this figure gets so much more right, like the exposed machinery in his arms and pelvis, the scaffolding on the inside of his thighs, the engines that make the bulk of his thighs, the Mercedes logo-ish things on his hands, the shoulders, just the right kibble above his shoulders and neck, etc. His face is an especially bright spot with silver paint on much of it and a wash on his soft plastic whiskers and bear. I do wish they would have made his eyes a little more visible, though. But what's with the yellow dot on his right foot? His size is kind of hard to judge accurately. It sort of comes to how much you hunch over his torso and how you position his legs. He can be a bit taller than Starscream... ...or he can be more eye-to-chest with him. He comes with a few accessories. For starters you have his cane, which is absolutely vital. You've also got an axe, which looks nice and has some silver paint, and I do know that the Leader-class Jetfire from way back had an axe... I just don't remember Jetfire having an axe in the actual movie. There's also a red part that looks like part of Optimus' torso. I'm going to say that I don't know exactly what it's for. The instructions don't mention it. The metallic paint on it sort of matches SS-05 Optimus, but there's no way I can see to use it with him. You may be able to use it with the newer SS-32 version of Optimus, but it's my understanding that SS-32 is designed to work with Jetfire out of the box. So the working theory is that it might have something to do with the upcoming SS-44 Leader-class Optimus. Jetfire's articulation is a little hard to describe due to his posture. His head can look up a good bit if his neck is parallel to the ground, but that "up" might just be level if he's hunched over. He can also look slightly down, although again that "slightly" might be significant if he's hunched over. There's also a joint that lets him look a little to the left or right, but it's fairly limited. His shoulders can rotate, although there's a little kibble in the way, and they can bend laterally over 90 degrees. His biceps swivel just above his elbows. Those elbows can bend 90 degrees the normal way, and 30 degrees backward. There's a hinge that allows him to bend his wrist up and down (relative to his forearm), and a swivel below that. No waist swivel. His hips can bend forward and backward about 90 degrees on ratchets; you can actually get well over 90 degrees forward if you splay his hips a little. And splay them you can, on friction hinges. If his leg is straight (which it usually won't be) the jet kibble on the outside of his thigh will prevent you from spreading his legs very far, but if you bend his legs forward a little you can bend them out 90 degrees. His thighs can swivel. Jetfire's yet another digitigrade Bayverse design, and his upper knee bends from slightly forward of straight to 160 degrees backward on a ratchet. The lower joint is also ratcheted, and can bend from about 45 degrees backward to over 90 degrees forward. There's a swivel just below that joint (which is technically the ankle on digitigrade animals), and an inward pivot of about 45 degrees. Then at his foot (which is really just the toes on a digitigrade animal) his feet can bend up and down. It'll kind of soft lock at the most downward position, and again depending on how you pose him that downward position might not really be down at all. There's also another 45 degree ankle pivot. The big wings on his back have a swivel to move up and down, and the smaller wings over his shoulders have three different hinges that move them up and down, back and forth, and roll them forward and backward. The top of his cane is a 5mm peg, and it fits neatly into the 5mm peg hole on either palm. His axe slides into a 5mm peg hole made from a ring between his thumb and fingers. I'm not a huge fan of that look, though, since his fingers don't have any articulation and don't close on the handle. It looks less like he's holding the axe and more like it's stuck on him like he's Tobey Maguire figuring out his spider powers. When not in use, both accessories have large slots that fit over tabs on the inside of his wings. Jetfire's SR-71 mode is... ok? From the top I think it looks pretty great, although I don't think the fuselage is wide enough. As you start to move to the sides, though, you're going to start seeing a lot of robot kibble jammed underneath. While the tiny windows on an SR-71 make it look like it should be bigger, without getting out a ruler and measuring that scale looks pretty good with Starscream's F-22 mode. A part of me wants to echo @M'Kyuun and say that toy designers should do better, but the truth is compared to other transforming Blackbirds it's par for the course and (aside from the visible whiskers) arguably better than the Revenge of the Fallen toy. I have some gripes with the engineering, though. When everything was in place I still had trouble keeping the jet panels tabbed in near his robot shoulders and the on the rear of the engine nacelles. Plus the way those rubbery parts unclip from his torso, then wrap around and tab back into the wings is pretty unsightly. Unlike that older toy, this Jetfire has markings that are accurate to the SR-71 17972 on display at the National Air and Space Museum that Jetfire was supposed to be. And in this case we can explain that yellow dot as being on the actual plane. Jetfire's can does fold up into the front landing gear, and the rear landing gear is tucked away, almost hidden, under the engine nacelles between Jetfire's heel protrusions. The underside is a pretty kibbly mess, although aside from his hands it's at least not immediately obvious what that kibble is. And that's the world we live in, where the folded-up robot chilling on the bottom of a plane is considered a win just for not being a super-obvious about it and looking like some other random junk glued to the bottom of said plane. Oh, and speaking of junk on the bottom of the plane, you can attach his axe there, too. So yeah, Jetfire's alt mode is good from above but the usual kibble fest from below. But I think his robot mode is fantastic; I just wish he had some articulation in his fingers. Aside from a lack of a waist swivel his articulation is pretty good and the overall sculpt and detail look great. If you can overlook the problems with his alt mode I'm going to give him a recommend.

Ugh. I remember a time when it was hard to choose your starter because there was at least two cool choices. Now it's looks like it's going to be hard to choose because they all look terrible.

For the most part. They're still mainline toys that sell for $20, $30, or $50 and are still constrained by that. Sometimes articulation is limited, there isn't quite enough paint, or there's kibble that isn't really accurate, but with the exception of VW Bumblebee and Dropkick they're better than previous mainline takes on the characters, and Habsro's actually trying to keep them in scale in robot mode. Nope. I've blocked entire chunks of the movies out of my mind, and it's not like Igor was a major character. How about a Deluxe then? This is Studio Series Sideswipe. It's kind of weird that I swore off movie toys after being kind of disappointed with a few figures from the RotF line, but the two figures I did pick up from DotM both got do-overs in the Studio Series, eh? Well, right away you're probably noticing two things: the fact that he's smaller than the older Deluxe-class toy, which is kind of par for the course for cars in the Studio Series, and that he's a lot more silver than the older toy. Some of that, mostly in the chest on robot mode, is silver paint, but even where it's bare plastic the colors are just more correct. He's got a strong head sculpt, his chest is made from the rear of the car like it's supposed to be, and he's got faux car kibble to simulate the parts of the front end that sit on his forearms on the CGI model. He's even got the asymmetric feet from the CGI model. If I'd criticize anything, it's that the parts of the car that should be on his forearms are on the front of his feet, obscuring his tire-feet. At least those bits of car can add to the figure's stability. Sideswipe comes with his signature arm swords, painted silver, and a pair of guns that I don't remember him having (but apparently he did during the Egypt fight in Revenge of the Fallen). Sideswipe's head is on a ball joint with ok up/down tilt, a taste of sideways tilt, and plenty of neck swivel. His shoulders are also on ball joints that can swivel and extend laterally about 90 degrees. You just have to be mindful of the car parts that make up his chest. He has dedicated bicep swivels, although they're fairly tight on my copy and his arm tends to turn around the ball joint first. His elbows bend 90 degrees. No wrist swivels. He does have a waist swivel, it's just limited to under 30 degrees to either side by the car kibble on his back. His hips are ball joints that go 90 degrees forward, about 45 degrees backward, and maybe 60 degrees laterally. His thighs can swivel, and like so many Bayverse designs he's sort of digitigrade with the upper knee ranging from slightly bent backward to about 90 degrees backward and the lower joint ranging from almost 90 degrees forward to almost 90 degrees backward. The car kibble on his toes and heels can slide up and down to provide support, but he doesn't have any ankle pivot. His wings are connected via ball joints on swivels so you have options for positioning them as well. The swords have tabs that fit into slots on the backs of his hands, and the guns have 5mm pegs for handles that fit into his hands, which are shaped like 5mm peg holes. A quick look at the back, and you can see that there's storage for the guns in robot mode. The guns have tabs on one side, and they fit into slots on the alt mode dashboard. I've found that they pop off kind of easily, though. And there doesn't seem to be be any storage for the swords that I can find. That kind of forces you to always have him using his swords, and rather than keep storing his guns on his backpack I'd kind of prefer they just didn't include them. Sideswipe's car mode is looking pretty slick. Like Jazz, this mode is almost entirely covered in silver paint. It really gives it a premium look vs the older DotM toy, although the DotM toy had painted rims and SS Sideswipe doesn't. That's kind of odd. Like the old toy SS Sideswipe has a visible interior with two seats, the steering wheel, and the center console. While I think the sculpt of the interior is better than the older toy, the tinted windows and black seats are more accurate. The front grill, hood vents, tail lights, and the Corvette logo are painted to stand out from the silver. Speaking of that silver, mine has a smudge over the passenger-side headlight, as if someone touched it before it tried. The sides of the car have little molded Stingrays just behind the front tires. That's a nice real-world touch that's on both the concept car that Sideswipe was based on and current production Corvettes. Another real-world detail is the quartet of exhaust pipes molded onto the rear. They seem a little high, though. I mean, they're definitely high versus the production model, but I can't remember how they were on the concept. Either way, you may notice four extra exhausts under the molded ones, filling in the space between them and the ground. That's due to the fact that his guns store there in alt mode by tabbing into the slots on his hands where you'd normally store the swords. The swords themselves are tabbed into the sides of the vehicle and make up a good portion of the sides of the car between the wheels. I'm kind of not a fan of either of these things. Generally speaking, while I like weapons to hide away in alt mode I'm not really a fan of them being essential to the alt mode, especially when they don't have any robot mode storage. And the guns forming exhaust pipes on a car that already has exhaust pipes looks stupid. More than that, it reinforces my notion that he'd have been better off if they simply hadn't included the guns. For me personally I think the biggest strike against him is that I don't really have a connection with a lot of the Bayverse characters that weren't in the first movie, Sideswipe included. With the movie 1 cast complete (short of them doing a movie 1 Megatron) I don't feel any strong urge to pick up characters like Sideswipe; I picked him up because he was available and he was only $20. But I don't regret it. I think this is a pretty good figure. The sculpt is pretty good, articulation is adequate, the engineering feels better than the Dark of the Moon toy, and the silver paint goes a long way toward making this figure feel like something more premium than previous movie toys. I'd say I'd recommend him if you're into the Studio Series line.

Yeah, I can understand that logic. I just don't have the space for G1 MPs and Bayverse figures that size. I like that the Studio Series is fairly accurate and relatively small (except the Bumblebee movie ones).