mikeszekely

Best I can do. You can get the wings angled a little more down, but the weight of the figure centered on those points pushes them up. I liked the dino mode, but I hated the robot mode. I think a good compromise would be something closer to a real T-Rex's proportions in dinosaur mode, but with a more traditional transformation, like IDW's Grimlock. Which reminds me, MMC is working on one. Here's what I could find on it, although I have it on authority that much of the design has been or will be reworked to get it a little closer to the comics. Unfortunately that same authority tells me that pretty much everything MMC's announced is ahead of this guy in the queue, so he might not see the light of day this year. While we wait, how about a look at MFT's Swooper, their upsized KO of DX9's Skyer, aka Swoop. Out of the box I think this is easily one of the best-looking Swoop toys I've ever seen. DX9 absolutely nailed the proportions and aesthetic of the cartoon. I think the only thing that's really off at all is the goofy face sculpt and the lack of dino feet on his knees. I thought Swoop was one of the better PotP Dinobots but there's really no contest (although I do kind of like the black outline on Swoop's face). Swoop comes with his (non-firing) rocket launchers, a translucent red sword, a silver-painted sword, and again we've got another little Diaclone dude. And I kind of realized that I kind of glossed over him yesterday, so yeah, here he is with a Titan Master, so you can see he's pretty little. He's got no neck articulation, and tiny ball joints for shoulders that allow for rotation and about 30-45 degrees of lateral movement. His elbows can bend 90 degrees. No bicep, wrist, or waist swivels, but there is a hinge in his torso that gives him an ab crunch. His hips are also ball joints that can go forward or backward about 90 degrees and laterally about 30 degrees. No thigh swivels, knees bend 90 degrees, no foot or ankle articulation. And there's little magnets in his heels. I don't know if it's because they're KOs or what, but they feel kind of flimsy, although they haven't broken on me. I think they're probably ok as an accessory for a cooler Diaclone toy, but I couldn't see myself stocking up on them. As for Swooper himself, his head is on a ball joint with an adequate up/down range but negligible sideways tilt. The shoulders are also ball joints that can rotate as well as extend over 90 degrees laterally. The pegs are hinged at the other end, so he can kind of shrug, too. No real bicep swivels, but the elbows are again ball joints that provide swivels as well as a little over 90 degrees of bend. No wrist/hand articulation, no waist articulation. His hips can bend over 90 degrees forward (but only about 30-45 degrees backward due to the wings getting in the way), and just about 90 degrees laterally. He does have thigh swivels, and knees that bend just under 90 degrees (although you can cheat a bit more if you open the flaps on his calves. His feet have some pretty good up/down tilt in addition to a ludicrous 180 degrees of ankle pivot. Swooper can hold the rocket launchers in his hands, but to me they just don't look right unless they're pegged on the wings. Swoop kind of gets the short end of the stick that way. Well, he can hold his swords fine, too. This time the pegs are definitely a bit smaller than 5mm. Things get a bit dicier when we get to alt mode. As with Slag, DX9 seems to have felt the need to reinvent the wheel, so instead of tucking his arms in and having his dino feet on his robot knees, the two sides of Swooper's torso from his waist up actually turn inward 90 degrees, and his dino feet are actually on his wrists. At worst, this looks like a pteranodon with legs growing out of his chest. To be fair, the robot shoulders do tuck in a little, and you can kind of think of his robot elbows as the dino hips, but it's still not ideal. From another angle, you can see that his dino feet can't bend any further down (and his robot hands are visible), and he can't even totally straighten his legs. It's a shame, though, because he looks quite good from other angles, where you're looking more at his head and back. Speaking of his head, there's a hinge that lets it move up and down, and he can open his beak. His wings have hinges at the base and about mid-wing for flapping poses. Aside from all this, I'll point out that he also has the same joint inconsistencies as Slagus. The outward movement on his hips is especially loose. But despite the goofy alt mode I think I actually like him better than Slagus. He's not perfect, but he's kind of fun, so I'll recommend him.

More or less. It's the same reason why Grimlock will always be upright, three-fingered, and stomping around on his robo-wrists instead of being a proper horizontal digitgrade two-fingered Rex. Yep. Can't speak for the Dibots, but among the Gigasaur's both Grassor (Slag) and Graviter (Sludge) have pretty massive lower legs in robot mode, and quite a bit of Graviter's rear dino legs are still kibble on the outside of those legs, plus both of their robot arms collapse a bit at the bicep/shoulder to make shorter front dino legs. Maybe that sort of engineering isn't practical on a Legends-sized figure, so for Bumper/Slagus the front dino legs are actually on his back, tucked between his actual back and his dino back wings (and likely contributing further to his potatoey shape). To make his rear legs, the front of his torso, including his shoulders and arms, are on a ball joint. The hips and pelvis have a hinge at the base of the spine, so they fold down and back to get out of the way, then the front of the torso folds down, spins 180 degrees, then folds back up the other side. It's kind of an interesting take. Like I said, I especially like they way his tail splits, re-folds, then tucks into his lower legs to make his robot feet. But the lack of a waist swivel and the frustrating way you have to maneuver his lower legs around his robot shoulders to get everything together in dinosaur mode have me thinking more along the lines of "if it ain't broke, don't fix it".

Well, starting my Legends collection around the same time I got Gigapower's Guttur and I found myself really wanting Legends-scale Dinobots. I looked at DX9's, and they looked pretty cool... but I like my Dinobots big, and DX9's Grimlock looks scarce. So I did the next best thing, and I bought a couple of MechFansToys' OS KOs of DX9's Dinobots. This one is Slagus, based on DX9's Bumper, aka Slag. A lot of what makes Slagus look so, like the engineering and sculpt, is on DX9. The biggest difference with MFT's, aside from size, is small color tweaks. Namely, they used metallic gold and silver paint, whereas DX9 did have some silver paint apps but was mostly silver and pale yellow plastic. There's also the fact that they gave Slagus black thighs instead of the more cartoon-accurate silver DX9 used. This is kind of serendipitous to me, though, since I have the chrome Gigapower Grassor who also has black thighs, and I display him with the red and silver head, so they match. But yes, there is also the size thing. I don't even think it's supposed to be much, maybe a head or so. But it's enough that Slagus is closer to Deluxe than what you'd normally think of as Legends. And yet, put with Magic Square and New Age Legends, that look right to me. Maybe Blaster's a bit short, but that's true when you put him with Sideswipe alone. New Age's Bumblebee is about knee-hight to Slagus, and MP Bee is about knee-high to Grassor, so that's perfect. I think when Magic Square releases their Legends Optimus that Slagus will be appropriately tall next to him. Anyway, accessories. He's got a cartoon-accurate silver gun, and a red translucent sword. I think the gun and sword are all that Bumper came with, although it looks like the mold is different for the sword and the gun is black, so I guess MFT is actually more accurate. You also get a second, silver painted sword if you prefer your weapons to not be translucent. And, kind of strangely, you get a little KO Diaclone dude. I guess I'll put him with my TFC Stoomander. Articulation is fair on Slagus. His head seems to be a ball joint that can look up a little, but nothing really down or sideways. It can swivel, too, but his dinosaur head makes moving his robot head difficult. Shoulders rotate and hinge out over 90 degrees laterally. He has bicep swivels, and his elbows bend 90 degrees. No wrist swivels, but due to transformation they can bend downward which is great for sword poses. No waist swivel. No ab crunch, but he can arch his back. Hips are ball joints that can move 90 degrees forward, backward, or laterally. His thighs can swivel, and his knees can bend 90 degrees. The gold part of his feet are on hinges, so the can't bend his feet up or down but he does have pretty extreme ankle pivots, although they're not the prettiest. The main thing with articulation is that the joint tolerances are inconsistent. I find myself wishing that his hips were a little tighter moving laterally, but some of his other joints are scary tight (perhaps due to not accounting for paint?). It takes enough effort to turn his shoulders that I keep unplugging his chest. He holds is weapons just fine. The handles are pegs, and his hands are molded into peg holes. They look roughly 5mm-ish, but I think they were 3mm on the original DX9 versions. Slagus' transformation is a little non-traditional. In some ways that pays off. I really like how his tail becomes his feet, for example. But other stuff causes more problems than it solves. His hind legs are actually is robot arms, and to get them there requires some very specific manipulation of his robot shoulders and the halves of his robot legs, and is probably the primary reason he doesn't have a waist swivel. Can't really argue with the results too much, though. That's a very good looking robo-triceratops. He could be a little more cartoon accurate if they'd given him silver horns instead of red, but I actually prefer red horns. I just wish they weren't translucent. Slagus doesn't have a lot of articulation as a triceratops. He can open his mouth, and since the horns are just pegged on you can adjust them to your liking. His front legs can rotate at the shoulder/hips, and bend a little under 90 degrees forward, but even though the shoulder/hip is a ball joint there isn't much clearance for lateral movement. His rear legs, as mentioned, are his arms, so they can rotate, bend 90 degrees, and extend laterally. No head, tail, or feet articulation. And I couldn't find anywhere to stash his weapons in this mode. At the end of the day, I'm not sure how I feel about Slagus. I mean, for his size he's a much better Deluxe-class Slag than the one Hasbro gave us with Power of the Primes. And he certainly looks great in both modes. I guess I'm just a little spoiled by Magic Square. Their releases have been like mini-Masterpieces, but the engineering on Slagus doesn't quite stack up. Still, I'm not sure that there's a better choice for a Slag that fits with Magic Square's Legends figures, especially scale-wise. So, I'm going to give him a recommend, if a tad reluctantly.

Couple places with preorders, nothing immediately in stock. Might be worth waiting. Sounds like TE rushed to get a batch out before CNY to compete with Magic Square, but they've already said there'll be another run in the spring with an alternate head. EDIT: Scratch that, looks like he might be in stock at Toy Dojo.

From Facebook, here's side-on view that shows some of Star Convoy's back. It's hard to say from this angle, but the shape seems right for a G1 Prime (and definitely not Armada Prime). But here's something that will get Armada fans really excited... a shot of the back of Armada Prime's legs. And yes, there's fists in there!

That's a huge compliment, and it means the world to me. But if it means one less headache for Shawn then I can't complain; the man has generously provided this space for us to talk about Macross and all our other anime/sci-fi interests at his own expense for so many years, and I'm deeply grateful to have this community to share with. Sad but true.

Guess I'm a little behind, what with my store using the slow boat for Silver Arrow, but I did get my hands on Zeta Toys' Catapult, their Slingshot. I mean, I'm not sure where Zeta's been going with this set. A tiny shock of black on his chest when either the G1 toy or the cartoon was black to at least the pelvis. Silver thighs again instead of white. Silver feet instead of either black (cartoon) or (white) toy. The same smoked translucent plastic in place of G1 stickers or cartoon details. White on the top of his head and dark blue eyes instead of the all-orange that would have been either toy or cartoon accurate. Between their Fireflight, Air Raid, and now this guy you've got three guys white shoulders, white forearms, white shins, silver thighs, silver feet, black hands, and mostly red torsos with translucent bits on the pecs and hips. Aerialbots, or Genericons? Eh, it's not like anyone's buying this set for the robots. And credit where it's due, at least Zeta molded a fake rolling wheel onto his chest. Size-wise, you guys should know what to expect by now. I'm showing Catapult with their Fireflight, but you can expect them to be roughly MP Seeker-sized robots. Most of what you get with Catapult is the usual Zeta fare: a gun, some missiles that fit onto c-clip racks, and some screw covers. Because the Sunbow crowd complained loudly enough about the toy-style heads Zeta did throw in a new head for Fireflight, but that face is so goofy it's almost like Zeta is trolling them. No skin off my teeth; of all the combiners in the G1 cartoon the Aerialbots have the least personality. I prefer the toy head on Fireflight just to help him stand out a bit. Catapult borrows a lot of his engineering from their Fireflight, so articulation is pretty similar. His head is on a ball joint that can swivel and tilt a reasonable amount. His shoulders swivel and are actually double-jointed so they can extend laterally well over 90 degrees. His biceps swivel. He's got a hinge at the elbow, plus another at the top of the bicep, but he still can't get much past 90 degrees. His hands are the same crappy hands Zeta's been using since they designed Constructor for ToyWorld; swivel at the wrist, individual fingers pinned at the pbase with one addition non-pinned knuckle, thumb on a ball joint with no additional knuckles. His waist can swivel. His hip skirts are hinged, and his hips can go forward and backward a little under 90 degrees on a joint that feels mostly like friction, btu for some reason there's resistance moving it from the straight position. The hips move 90 degrees laterally on ratchets, his thighs can swivel, and his knees bend 90 degrees on ratchets. Then we come to his feet, which are the worst. Basically, nothing moves but the silver toes, so most of the time you're actually trying to balance him on the inside edges of his lower legs. Then the toes themselves are on ball hinged ball joints. You can move them and twist them to create the illusion of ankle tilt or ankle pivot, but the joints are too weak to actually support his weight. He holds his gun fairly well, using thin tabs on his palms into slots on his gun's handle. Like the other Zeta Aerialbots his wings are just pegged onto his legs, so you can remove them if you want a cleaner look and don't mind partsforming. Catapult turns into an AV-8B Harrier/BA Sea Harrier II. It's not bad; like the F-4, the Harrier seems to lend its shape to being converted to a robot without too much blocky robot kibble on the underside, and there's some nice attention to detail like the little flap with the refueling probe on it's left side. Speaking of, be careful, that flap comes off pretty easy. A lot of people are reporting that it's not even attached when they take Catapult out of the box, but mine was. In any case, if I weren't planning to combine these guys alt mode would be my next choice as I really think he looks better as a plane than a robot. Since the engineering is basically the same as their Fireflight's he's got some similar problems with clearance around the chest and shoulders when transforming him. The flap with his head is also kind of loose, and his chest pops open way more easily than I remember Fireflight's doing. I think it's expected by now, but Catapult's got landing gear, tampoed caution marks, and an opening canopy. The canopy doesn't open very far, though, and does so by rocking back on a double hinge instead of swinging up on a single hinge. Maybe real Harriers do that, I'm honestly not sure. One other nice touch is that the VTOL nozzles can be swiveled. There's a spring-loaded spot on his crotch where you can attach him to a ToyWorld/Zeta base. And the underside of each wing has two 5mm peg holes where you can attach a missile rack or his gun, although he holds both kind of loosely. I'll cut to the chase; Zeta's robot modes are kind of passable, and Catapult's no exception. So taken on his own, as an MP Slingshot, I wouldn't recommend him. The aesthetics are there, and the fit and finish aren't there. He's not a bad looking jet, though, and I don't think too many people are buying Zeta's figures because they're good figures. They're buying them because they want 20", pants-wearing combiners. And Catapult is cheap enough that you can buy him, knowing that the robot isn't that great, just because he might make a good arm. And on that last note, hopefully we'll know in a few more days how that goes.

So it's looking like Armada Prime and Star Convoy are displayed together, but Armada Prime is NOT in the inner robot for Star Convoy. See, this picture is making the rounds on Twitter. It's the new Star Convoy, from an angle where you can see the inner robot's face a bit (I've circled it for you guys). Doesn't really look like the head on the new Armada Prime. He doesn't have those little lines on his mask, and he's got some kind of chin thing going on. You know who does have those little lines, though? G1 Prime. And check this out. This is the box art from the old Star Convoy toy. Kind of looks like G1 Optimus turning into Star Convoy, yeah? So the working theory is that the inner robot for the new Star Convoy is going to have some sort of G1-ish robot mode. And if Armada Prime definitely isn't part of Star Convoy that makes the seam in his pelvis all the more interesting. I really hope he's sold as a Leader class with a super mode trailer. Don't stop there, HasTak! Leader-class Rid Prime/Fire Convoy, too! And... well, I guess I can do without Energon Prime...

Looks like a remold of Titans Return Chromedome.

Man, MW was down last night and I really wanted to talk about this stuff. Of course it comes back while I'm sleeping and the party started without me. That's a yep. (That katakana says "Hound") I know a lot of people weren't real into a new MP Bumblebee, but I honestly didn't really like the last one, so I was a bit curious. I should have known better, though... the Hasui era is long dead. And this abomination is a shining example of everything wrong with Takara's current direction. Flat gray instead black. Flat slightly lighter gray on the bumper. White circles for headlights. And a body that looks super cartoon accurate by virtue of being mostly fake car bits while 90% of the real alt mode is half-heartedly folded into a messy backpack. I guess they have their B-team on G1 now, and their A-team is on Beast Wars. Even in gray Blackarachnia looks incredibly show-accurate. I can't even figure out how she's supposed to transform. Too bad I don't collect Beast Wars. The Siege news was pretty interesting, too. I didn't see stuff I expected, like Cybertron Prime, Mirage, Impactor, or Omega, but they did have Jetfire out with Soundwave, Starscream, Prowl and Brunt. They also showed Legends-EX Big Powered, which looks like some Titans Return remolds. I recognize Dai Atlas from the Overlord/Sky Shadow mold, but I mostly unfamiliar with Zone so I'm not sure about the other two guys or where they're from. Then I saw this. I'm not clear if this is meant to be part of Siege or something else, but that's clearly Armada Prime and Star Convoy. Star Convoy is clearly a remold of PotP Leader Optimus. And, I dunno. I'd like a new Star Convoy. Heck, I'd like MP versions of every Optimus Prime. But I can't shake the feeling that this one looks less like Star Convoy and more like G1 Prime wearing a cheap Star Convoy costume. Armada Prime is a little less clear. For one, it's not clear if they're showing off two upcoming toys, or if Armada Prime is the smaller robot that that goes inside Star Convoy. He's a bit stylized, and since a lot of the newer TF toys have been pretty accurate that makes me kind of wonder if it's not a super heavy remold. I keep checking him against pictures of PotP Orion Pax, but I really don't know. There does seem to be a split in his crotch, but I don't know if that's so he can transform and fit into Star Convoy of ir it means he's going to get his own trailer and super mode. I'm definitely interested, though.

comic book

I grew up on G1, and that's why I primarily collect G1, but if anyone asks I'll tell them that James Roberts and Alex Milne's run on More Than Meets the Eye is the greatest work of Transformers fiction in the entire history of the franchise. And I love the Decepticon Justice Division, but I ultimately sold off my MMC Reformatted Kultur, Anarchus, and Cynicus. They just didn't scale with the rest of the collection I was building. I've been pretty interested in Iron Factory's "Spirits of the D.E.C." since they were first announced, though. I figure the set of five will probably cost less than two or MMC's, and the smaller Legends-scale means I can keep them in a small display on my desk. And that was before I starting buying some Magic Square stuff and thinking about doing a whole Legends collection. So I went ahead and preordered, and the first one arrived. This is Dubhe, Iron Factory's tiny Tarn. I went back and looked at a few MTMTE issues to refresh my memory, but yes, Dubhe is extremely accurate to Milne's artwork. There's only two things I can really find fault with. The first is that IF only put two pink lines on Dubhe's abdomen instead of six, but I'm guessing space had something to do with that. The other thing is that while Dubhe appears pretty proportional, Tarn actually wasn't. He was built like a gorilla with large arms that came down almost to his knees. Those complaints are pretty minor next to my biggest one, though, and that's the size. There's no way I can display Dubhe with my other Legends figures. Tarn should be as big or slightly bigger than Megatron, but when MS releases their Optimus and if they ever do a Megatron you know that they're going to be bigger than Dubhe. Now, you might argue that I'm being unfair, that IF sticks to their scale and MS uses a larger one and I shouldn't expect IF to scale with their competitors. But that's an IF Brawl there, and Tarn's not even a full head taller. So no, I'm inclined to say that Dubhe is too small, period. You might have noticed that tiny Tarn's hands are molded into balled fists, like MMC's Arcee that we just looked at. And just like that Arcee, Dubhe comes with some extra hands. You get one set of hands molded into the usual IF 5mm peg-holding shape, and one set of splayed-fingered hands. You also get his signature asymmetric double fusion cannon, which looks kind of off to me. Honestly, I think it needs more pink, silver, and gold paint. The cannon barrels can be removed from their mount, but you can't do much with them as the pegged end is on the mount and there aren't any other pegs to stick them to. Dubhe's head is on a ball joint. Rotation is slightly hampered by his mask catching on this collar treads, and he can't really look down, but he's got fantastic upward range and more sideways tilt than I'd ever use. His shoulders are ball joints that provide rotation and a slight butterfly, but a dedicated hinge is used for 90 degrees of lateral movement. His elbows are ball joints that can bend over 90 degrees, as well as act as bicep swivels. His wrists are just pegged on and can swivel freely. His waist can swivel, and he's got 45 degrees of ab crunch. His hips are ball joints that can go a little less than 90 degrees forward, 90 degrees backward, and slightly over 90 degrees laterally. He can get a little thigh swivel around the ball joint, but he's got dedicated swivels just below the ball joints. His knees can bend 90 degrees. His toes can tilt down 90 degrees and up a tiny bit. Disappointingly, those toes are actually connected to the rest of his foot at that round part at his ankle. The only ankle pivot he gets is the small about that the front of his foot can get from that ball joint. Swapping hands is as simple as pulling on off and pegging another in its place. And Dubhe's double fusion cannon can peg into either forearm via a 5mm peg. Or, should you give him the 5mm peg hole hands, Dubhe can also hold the cannons like a double-barreled rifle. Dubhe's tiny mask can be removed; it just uses a tab to fit into a tiny slot on his forehead. I kind of thought Glitch's face underneath looks a little like the head IF used on their Seekers, just with some scarring on his left side. But again, I looked at the comics, and Dubhe's Glitch face is honestly pretty accurate. Dubhe turns into a Tarn-ish tank. It's... ok. I mean, I guess it's slightly more accurate than Kultur's alt mode, but still not exactly comic accurate. Maybe Milne didn't give enough thought to how Tarn was supposed to transform. Maybe this is as close as we're going to get. I don't know. I do know that he still looks little next to IF's Brawl. The tank mode really doesn't do much. There's no wheels, so he can't roll. The way his backpack opens up and forms fenders over the front treads means that the smaller guns can't swivel anymore, and they never had any up/down movement. Likewise, there's not enough clearance for the cannon barrels to swivel where they're pegged onto the mount. There are hinges in both barrels that you can use to swivel them up, but it breaks the sculpt. Maybe they'll have another use? Dubhe himself does. You can transform him into a block, one that does use the cannon mount but not the cannons themselves. This block doesn't do much of anything right now, but apparently when you get all five Spirits of the D.E.C. you'll be able to combine them. Neat. Well, I think I've made it clear that i have some problems with Dubhe's size. Like I said, I don't feel like I can display him with my other Legends figures, because he's just too small. Quite frankly, I find myself hoping that MechFansToys gives him an upscaled KO, like they did for Iron Factory's Shockwave and a whole bunch of DX9 figures. Beyond that, there's the usual IF stuff like tight tolerances, and if Magic Square can use universal hips and dedicated bicep swivels and hinged elbows instead of ball joints I think Iron Factory should be able to, too, but those aren't really big deals. The robot mode just about nails the look of the comic book, and the alt mode is... well, it's close enough. My only serious complaint is the limited ankle pivots. But it's not like Kultur fits my collection any better. At least Dubhe is far cheaper and takes up significantly less space, so as the centerpiece of a small DJD-only display he succeeds with flying colors. I think if you're into the DJD, or just really like IF's stuff, then he's worth checking out. But most people can safely pass on him.

Speak of the devil. After Fans Toys' Rouge turned out to be one of my most miserable experiences with a 3P figure to date I finally got around to selling her off. Now the Arcee in my collection is MMC Ocular Max Azalea. One of the big reasons I kept my preorder for Rouge was that I thought she looked the best between the two. I think I'll stand by that. Azalea is a little shorter than MP-28, while Rouge was a little taller. I like her default face better than any of Rouge's, though. Although I side with the camp that says Arcee's biceps and hands are pink and not white, the fact that there's a debate about it is due to that pink being a much lighter and more subtle shade than what Azalea's sporting. Her shins have a noticeable point midway where the lower half is thinner than the upper half instead of having a natural curve. Her knees have some gray joints showing, and the gray that should be on her ankles doesn't come the whole way around. But I think the most noticeable difference is that Rouge's thighs and hips went up to her "bikini", but Azalea's thighs are a little lower and you can see some of the joints inside. The thing with the hips, though, is that they can shift up and down like some other high-end non-transformable figures that I don't collect (but I think I've seen something like this on S.H. Figuarts). And I think the hips exemplify the main difference between Rouge and Azalea: Fans Toys sacrificed everything in the name of appearance, MMC make a few aesthetic concessions in the pursuit of better engineering. And it's not like those concessions are major ones. Azalea is still a figure that very much looks like G1 Arcee. Aside from the minor nitpicks I mentioned she's pretty much spot on. She comes with quite a few accessories, considering that she comes in a box smaller than a lot of Legends figures. You've got three alternate faces. The lower lip on the smiling face could have used a little more paint, I think ,and I wish that she had a more serious face that didn't have a visor, but ultimately they're fine. We've got two pistols that seem fairly accurate to what she used in the '86 movie. Since her default hands are static fists with no holes she has alternate hands for gripping pistols, kind of relaxed/cupping, and kind of relaxed/cupping but with the index finger raised a bit. On a figure with delicate hands this size alternate hands seem like a smart alternative to articulated hands, but I wish there were a few more options. Something like splayed fingers, pointing, peace sign, ok sign, etc. Also, the hands are made out of a softer, more pliable plastic, which is fine, but it seems to have a bit of flashing left on it. Lastly, there's an alternate antenna, more for her car mode than bot mode. See, out of the box she has a little white cover, not really an antenna. I guess the thought is that if you're going to be swapping hands you can swap this part, too. To be honest, though, the antenna really doesn't bother me and I'll probably just leave it on. Azalea's articulation is good... in fact, as I already alluded she feels almost like an action figure. Her head sits on a ball joint at the base of her skull that provides for rotation plus some up/down and sideways tilt. However, the bottom of her neck is on a double hinge so you can swing her entire neck forward and backward as well as raise it out of her torso or collapse it back in. So she can look almost straight up, almost straight down, she can crane her neck forward, she can shrink back like Rodimus just ordered her to watch Wheelie and Daniel. Her shoulders rotate, and a soft ratchet lets her move her shoulder laterally over 90 degrees. Her biceps swivel. Her elbows are double jointed and can curl 180 degrees. Her wrists are basically ball pegs, so they can rotate and they have some 360 degree tilt. Without taking her apart to see, I'd guess her torso has a pair of ball joints, at either end of her gray midriff section. The shape of her body limits them a bit, but they work in tandem to turn her torso like a waist swivel that can get almost 45 degrees left or right, but also the kind of bending and stretching that isn't merely an ab crunch. She can lean to the sides. She can arch her back. She might not be able to swivel her waist 90 degrees into an epic pelvic thrust, but she can still be dynamic in a way that looks organic. Her hips, as mentioned before, can drop down so that she can about 90 degrees forward and a little less backward (more if you splay her legs 45-ish degrees), and she can move her legs laterally just under 90 degrees on a soft ratchet. Her thighs do swivel around the gray inner joint, which means they can't spin 360 degrees but you can get a little inward and about 60 degrees out. Her knees are single-jointed but still bend until her calf meets her thigh. Her entire foot can tilt down, her toes can tilt up, and a dedicated hinge provides plenty of ankle pivot to the inside and the outside. Something else I'd like to point out, as it affects posing her, is that instead of loading up with diecast in the torso the way Fans Toys did (or does), Azalea's diecast is in her lower legs and feet. This keeps her center of gravity low, so even with her dainty feet she stands well and isn't prone to tipping the way Rouge did. Plus, her backpack feels much more secure. You have to use the hands designed for holding guns to get her to hold her guns, but they're molded in a way that they feet neatly around the grips with her index finger inside the trigger guards. She can also store them via tiny pegs on her upper thighs. There are corresponding holes both on the gun itself if you want the keep the handle folded up as well as on the handle if you want the guns to sit a little lower. The reason Azalea comes in such a tiny package is because she comes in alt mode... and it's a tiny alt mode. As you can see, she's closer in size to Hellion than to MP-28. I don't have her to compare with directly, but I'd say she's maybe 30% smaller than Rouge. If I'm being totally honest, Rouge probably makes a for a better alt mode. Azalea's got gaps in the back where her hip joints her showing, flaps on the back that try to blend her butt with her fenders but aren't entirely successful, plus like leave a lot of pink at the back that should be white. The white on her hood is just the block, instead of going all the way to the windshield. A windshield that sits a little too far forward, I might add. Her exposed knees don't have that same smooth transition between the front and rear fenders. Her cockpit's a little messy. But, and this is a huge but, transforming Azalea isn't a horrible nightmare. Things flow in a logical order. Nothing feels like it has to be bend or forced around another part with minimal clearance. It's actually kind of fun transforming her. You can fold the handles of the guns in to reveal little tabs that allow you to tab the guns unto her rear in alt mode. She does roll, albeit not the greatest, and her tires are rubber or silicone or something or the sort despite their thinness. Messy though her cockpit might be she does have seats that flip out and blue paint that might be something like an in-dash display. This is the part where I might show you how the default white antenna cover looks, but I'm going to level with you guys. I keep my nails short. What nail I have, I couldn't work it under the white part, so I got a nylon spudger and tried to work it in there. And what happened was that the white part exploded off of her. I heard it bouncing off something in the room, but I can't find it anywhere. It's good that I wasn't planning on using it anyway, because I'll have to move to find it (which I just did last year). I'll tell my daughter about it, that way when I'm dead and she's cleaning up this room and packing up the collection that will be her inheritance she'll know what it is if she comes across it. So, as with her robot mode, the aesthetic compromises to her vehicle mode mostly result in better engineering, and I can absolutely live with that. But if I do have one complaint is that only the default balled fist hands fit under the hood in alt mode. If you're using other hands with her, like the gun hands, they'll peek out from underneath. So you're kind of forced to remove the hands you're most likely to be using every time you put her into car mode, with nowhere to really store them except to set them off to the side somewhere. I'm not going to come out and tell anyone that they're wrong if they decide to go with Rouge over Azalea. If you're the kind of collector that puts their robots in a fairly neutral pose on a shelf and then never touches them again there are reasons why you might prefer Rouge. I do still think, from the neck down at least, that Azalea looks better, and her larger size might be a better fit for some people's collections. But, if life was a rom-com, Rouge is the girl the male lead is pining over until he realizes that all she's got is looks, and Azalea is the female lead who eventually gets the guy when he finally realizes that she's got all the other qualities he was after. She moves better, she poses better, and she transforms so much better that you really have to wonder what FT's engineer was thinking. Azalea is probably the best Ocular Max product I've experienced (out of her, Cliffjumper, Inferno, Mirage, Rumble/Frenzy, and Ravage). She's so good that I'm suddenly very interested in their Springer, and I already have a perfectly good Springer. She makes me wish Ocular Max would do Hot Rod and the rest of the movie cast. If you like to handle your figures at then this is the Arcee you want, and I can't recommend her enough.

That's a lot of empty SD card cases. Anyway, got a package today, so reviews incoming (hopefully another one next week or the week after). One thing I got that in not going to do a full review for, though, is the Shadow Fisher SFM-03 upgrade kit for MP Ironhide. What you get are replacement fenders and front tires, plus new screws and a screwdriver. The idea is that you're replacing the stick parts, where the wheels are attached to the fenders and sit on Ironhide's hips, with new parts that separate the wheels from the fenders. You open Ironhide's pelvis and remove the sliding pieces with Ironhide's stock fenders and tires, the replace them with Shadow Fisher wheels. The new wheels are still plastic and look almost exactly like the stock wheels. They still tab into his butt. But instead of being attached by a hinge to a fender they're on a small silver-painted hip skirt. It's really amazing how much better he looks without chunks of kibble on his hips. As for the new fenders, you remove the screws holding his bumper on. The new Shadow Fisher fenders fit over the tabs that the old ones would grab in van mode, then you screw them on with me screw that go through the new fenders and back into the bumper. The new fenders stay in place when Ironhide's a robot. This covers some of the gaps in his sides. And if you're wondering, the color match is good. The red plastic looks the same, although the yellow paint is a little lighter. Still transforms fine as everything fits right in alt mode. So yeah, if you've got MP Ironhide* and you haven't picked up this kit I highly recommend it, especially as it's apparently just been reissued. For $20 is a huge improvement with no obvious downside. It's really how Takara did have designed it in the first place. *There's a kit for Ratchet, SFM-04, too. I don't have MP Ratchet (got Voodoo's Salus instead), but presumably it's just as good as brings the same level of benefit.

The G1 Metroplex had a really tiny midsection, too. Really, I think the problem is that the new one looks like the designers stretched him to be taller but didn't keep him proportionally wide enough. Max gets away with it not so much because his thighs or midsection are bigger, but because Max isn't as chunky as Metroplex.

Anywhos, at this point I'd gotten two of the Titan-class citybots... why not complete the set with Titans Return Fortress Maximus? Metroplex was the biggest (official) Transformers figure basically until this guy came out, as he's just a little taller. Most of that extra height is in the head, though. In fact, Max is a remold of Metroplex. You can see at a glance that they have the same hands, forearms, elbows, and knees. The red and black part of Max's left pec is part of Metroplex's back. And while they have different shins and some feet parts, what with Metroplex having the unfolding runways and Max having the double-barreled cannons, behind that they have the same lower legs and the tops of their feet are the same. You might think they have different crotches, but turn Metroplex around and you'll see that it's actually the same part after all, just turned around so that Metroplex's butt is Max's crotch and vice versa. Oh, and since they have the same arms that does mean you can open Max's right arm. Unfortunately, though, the gun they left out the gun that Metroplex hid there. Despite the similarities, I honestly think HasTak did a pretty good job turning Metroplex into Fortress Maximus. The new upper torso, the new shoulders complete with ramp kibble, and the shin guns go a long way toward selling the design as Max. They even included that little chunk of whatever that hangs off the side of Max's left leg. My biggest complaint isn't that they remolded Metroplex, it's that Hasrbo got the colors wrong (and of course I got the Hasbro version). The translucent blue on the sides of his waist should be red, the center of his waist with the Autobot symbol is ok but the parts on either side should be white with red instead of blue with silver, he should have a little red on both arm instead of just his right, he shouldn't have red on his left pec, and much of the space between his pecs should be white. Unlike Metroplex, whose differences were fairly minimal, and Trypticon, whose Hasbro release is more or less identical to the Takara, pretty much all of my aesthetic complaints are addressed by the Takara version. Max doesn't come with much in the way of accessories. Basically, you've got his head, his tinier Cerebros head, and a gun. The gun is sort of similar to the double-barreled rifle that came with the G1 toy, but it's smaller relative to Max and designed with a 5mm peg, so Max can't hold it. This essentially means that Fortress Maximus has no weapons; at least hte Takara version came with a sword. The Cerebros head is your standard Titan Master affair, and in the Hasbro set is Spike. And speaking of Titan Masters, one can sit in the gun. As for Max's head, it can turn into... whatever that is. I think G1 Cerebros turned into something like it. One the subject of Cerebros, he's an interesting size. He's taller than a Titans Return Deluxe, but a shorter than a Voyager. Aesthetically, with the use of black and the masked face, it's definitely US "The Rebirth" Cerebros. If you buy the Takara version you'll get a grayer body and a face on the Titan Master that looks more like a mini Fortress Maximus face, because it's The Headmasters Fortress instead. Which, if you prefer the G1 cartoon (which I usually do), might make the Hasbro version the more attractive package. Me, despite preferring Brainstorm with a mouth plate and generally thinking that the Japanese post-G1 trilogy was pretty awful, did sort of prefer The Headmasters' vision of small robots piloting larger bodies a lot more than humans and Nebulans binary bonding with regular Transformers, and I kind of prefer the Japanese Fortress to Cerebros, so again I'm kind of kicking myself for not spending the extra cash and going for the Takara version. (BTW, if you go the Takara route but kind of want the US Cerebros head, just track down a copy of Takara Legends Bumblebee. He comes with a Titan Master that looks like Spike in his exosuit with Cerebros' head on his back.) Regardless of which version you get, Cerebros/Fortress can swivel his head, although the swivel is limited a bit by his face not clearing the blue ridges on his collar, and tilt his head sideways a bit, but nothing really up/down. His shoulders can rotate and extend laterally 90 degrees. He's got ball joints that act as both his bicep swivel and an elbow bend just under 90 degrees. No wrist or waist swivel. His hips are universal joints that can go a little under 90 degrees forward or backward and 90 degrees laterally. His thighs can swivel, and his knees can bend 90 degrees. His toes and heels can both be bent up, but not down. And sadly he has no ankle pivots. The set doesn't come with a G1-style Cerebros rifle, but the double-barreled gun that Max can't hold fits fine in Cerebros' hands. Those blue ridges on Cerebros' collar are actually what attach him to Max's body. There's room in there so you can leave Spike attached, but Cerebros will attach to Max fine without Spike. Neither the Hasbro nor the Takara version of Fortress Maximus comes with Cog. But if you picked up Cog from the Siege line he looks great with Max. Fortress Maximus has basically the same articulation as Metroplex, which shouldn't be a surprise given that they share most of the same joints. The only difference is that the disc that Cerebros mounts onto can rotate a full 360 degrees. Sadly, this means that Max is still missing ankle pivots, so you run into a lot of the same problems posing him. Well, more, actually, because the hip joints on my Max aren't as robust and have more play between clicks than my Metroplex, and this causes him to want to lean back a little. While this could be an individual results may vary sort of situation some internet research leads me to believe that it's a widespread Hasbro issue and that the joints are actually better on the Takara. Max's shin guns can swivel up and down. The swivel is basically a pair of mushroom caps, and it's pretty easy to pull the guns off of his legs. Should you do so, you'll find that they actually have flip down handles that allow Max to hold them in his hands. Like Metroplex, Max has battery powered lights and sounds. The battery box and speaker is actually in Cerebros, and you get different sounds based on whether Cerebros is in robot or head mode. The one downside to this, at least on the Hasbro version, is that the eyes are unpainted translucent plastic that just look dead unless they're lit up. Max's vehicle mode was always sort of lazy. You live his arms up, lay him down, and you're 90% there. For this version, the waist section still folds up to make the bridge tower, although it's a little short and incomplete without Cerebros. Again, despite being a remold of Metroplex this mode, which is probably his more popular alt mode due to serving as the battleship Maximus on The Headmasters, is still pretty G1 accurate. I just think that making Cerebros all but necessary to completing the bridge tower kind of defeats the purpose. Oh well. Again, the shin guns can swivel up and down, and the little bit on the side of his left leg can be removed. Due to the top of the bridge tower being made from Cerebros instead of being distinct, there's no little cockpit there for Spike to sit in. You won't be swooshing Max around like Trypticon, though. The hips on my are loose enough that his legs will droop if you pick him up. Here's where reusing Metroplex's legs starts to come back to bite us. This is Fortress Maximus' base mode. It's basically his starship mode with a few doors opened and his legs splayed 90 degrees instead of pointed straight. The translucent door on his chest has a peg hole for the small gun, and... well, that's about it. It's the epitome of lazy design, but it's not actually unprecedented. This look appears to be based on a mistransformation that was actually featured in a catalog way back in the day. While reusing Metroplex's legs caused the problem for Max's alt mode, they can also (kind of) save the day. Although the Takara version's legs are apparently glued shut, the Hasbro version's legs can still be opened like Metroplex's. This allows you to fan mode him a bit. Personally, I like to spin his thighs 180 degrees, open his legs halfway, and bend his knees up. That kind of looks more like the G1 toy's base mode. Be mindful of the center blue ramp. The top part is held on pretty loosely and has a tendency to pop off if you try to move it at all. The back part also moves a little on the pin. Make sure everything is lined up properly when you fold it onto Max's back or the hinge won't bend and you'll cause stress marks on the plastic. Since Max is part of the Titans Return line he has places where you can connect other bases (or even Trytpicon). There's basically one on each robot shoulder, and one on the little red door on the front of the base mode. The space behind that little red door is enough for a Titan Master or maybe a Legends figure, but nothing bigger. Of the three Titan-class cities, I think Max is probably the worst. By reusing a lot of Metroplex's parts he carries a lot of the same problems, like the lack of ankle articulation, plus newer problems are created like the lazy, inaccurate base mode. The lack of accessories is kind of the icing on the cake. However, while Metroplex has Utopia to compete with Fortress Maximus stands alone. Sure, there's Infinitor, who by many accounts is a good figure, but Infinitor is only roughly Leader-class in size, and lacks the double-Headmaster gimmick. That make make him a good stand in for a Marvel Comics Fortress Maximus, but it's not going to satisfy you if you want a citybot. Without a better alternative, I'm reluctantly recommending Fortress Maximus. Just consider springing for the Takara version.

That sucks. I have a feeling I'm in the same boat with a thankfully much cheaper figure. Decided I want MechFansToys' Dinobots, but no one had them all in stock. Wound up ordering Grimlock from ShowZ, Slag, Snarl, and Swoop from TF-Direct, but could only find Sludge on ebay. I picked a "top-rated" seller and the price was what you'd expect it to be, so I didn't anticipate any problems. Flash forward three weeks later and I've got all my Dinobots but Sludge, who's tracking number got as far as "Regional distribution center arrived" on January 20th but hasn't moved since. And when I checked on the seller I see he's got a ton of new negative reviews, all variations on, "package never arrived." I'd start the claim, but we're still inside ebay's delivery window. I might order another one from another seller. The other seller doesn't have a lot of feedback, which makes me nervous, but the feedback he's got is all positive except for two guys who say their stuff arrived damaged. (EDIT: just checked again, and I see the listing is gone and the seller isn't on ebay anymore, so I maybe I'll get that claim started sooner rather than later...) (DOUBLE EDIT: and I can't find anyone else selling MFT Sludge )

Yep. So for those of you keeping score at home, we're waiting on wave 2 right now which will be Ironhide, Chromia, Prowl, and Sixgun for the Deluxes, plus Soundwave and Starscream for the Voyagers, and Leader-class Cybertron Optimus. Newly announced are Titan-class Omega Supreme (who will come with Micromaster Countdown) Like DA says, Gabe is safe... but Gabe's also mean to be an MP, and I'm sure this won't be. I don't know why I'm still collecting CHUGs after I said I'm not going to (stupid Siege, had to actually be good...), but I can see myself grabbing this guy anyway. Next up is the very first Commander-class toy, Jetfire. Again, this isn't going to replace Phoenix on my MP shelf, but he's looking like a very cartoon-accurate Skyfire. I wonder how big he'll actually be, and how much of his MSRP ($90) is going toward that drone armor weapon pack thingy. I'd imagine that a Leader-class (at the old Leader-class size) would have been big enough that they didn't need to invent a whole new size class over it. Anyway, I'm probably in. Then there are Deluxes Mirage and Impactor. I most definitely will be picking up that Mirage. Impactor... well, I like that he looks like he's getting his own unique mold. But I don't have a huge attachment to him... even his appearances in IDW seemed to be a wink and a nod to Marvel UK stories I never read. Like Skytread, I won't go out of my way to get him, but if I happen to see him while out shopping and nothing else is demanding my money it's not like a Deluxe is a major commitment. Not sure where these guys fit into Hasbro's release schedule... especially because there are three other Deluxes that were previously announced that you guys may or may not be aware of. The first is Red Alert, who will be the super obvious repaint of Sideswipe. (On that note, they're not announced, but who wants to bet that we'll be seeing repaints of Ironhide, Prowl, and Starscream as Ratchet, Bluestreak, Smokescreen, Skywarp, and Thundercracker sooner rather than later?) There's also Deluxe-class (and Weaponizer) Brunt. Like I've been saying, I'm on a kick for the little robots that were pack-ins with the G1 citybots... in fact, if they really want to sell me on Impactor's mold, repaint him as Slammer to go with my Metroplex. But I digress. Brunt's robot mode is a new thing, but back in the G1 days he was a tank that you made from towers and bits of Trypticon. Kind of like Slammer's counterpart. So of course I'm super excited to get this guy. But it's the last one that might be the most intriguing... Deluxe-class Refraktor. Who is actually Reflector... or at least a part of him. Ok, so the details aren't clear, but Refraktor may or may not come with swappable chest pieces so you can decide if he's Viewfinder or one of the other two. Here's the thing, though... regardless of whether he comes with alternate chests or not, on paper he turns into a spaceship/brick and comes with one gun and one shield. But, if you buy three of him, three guns makes a tripod, three shields makes a zoom lens, and three Refraktors makes a camera. Between that and the fact that the Autobots are outnumbering the Decepticons by nearly two-to-one by the end of Wave 2, I'm thinking I'm in for three.

Well, I decided that if I have Trypticon that I needed Metroplex, too. Of course, by the time I decide to add Metroplex to my life it's long after he retailed in the States for, what, $100? Instead I'm paying a small fortune for a reissue of the Takara Legends version. There are some differences, and I'll try to note them as we go along. And since this is where I talk about robot aesthetics, I'll get right to it. Basically, whether you get the Hasbro or the Takara version, you're getting a figure that's definitely taking cues from the G1 toy, but is a tad more stylized than I'd like. His arms and shoulders have lost a lot of their boxiness and now contain a lot of molded details. The result is a bit more organic, and less "guy made out of buildings" than I'd like. Also, perhaps taking cues from the Fall of Cybertron game, he's got a large red orb in the center of his chest and his usual thin white spires/guns on top of his shoulders are black and more compact. But I think what's throwing him off the most (and will carry to all of his modes) is that his chest is too small top to bottom, and/or his midsection too tall. As far as differences go, this version keeps the chrome face that the SDCC version did, but goes for silver-painted thighs with black and red accents instead of all chrome or all white. The bottom of his feet are white with red accents (versus black bottoms and all white for the rest) he's got a little extra black accents on the knees (instead of all white), he's got additional red accents on his forearms, shoulders, and the top of his torso that were left white by Hasbro, he's got extra orange bits on his shoulders, and the circle around his red orb is white instead of black on either Hasbro version. Do note that some of the details that are painted on the Takara version are replicated on the Hasbro version with stickers (although the Takara version still came with plenty of those). Overall the aesthetic differences in robot mode aren't major and probably not worth picking on over another. BTW, as the original Titan-class Metroplex as billed as the largest Transformer ever. He certainly is a big boy! He's bigger than Trypticon... ...and he's even bigger than ToyWord/Zeta combiners like Constructor. He absolutely towers over other mainline Hasbro figures. Even a Leader-class is barely knee-high. But for a true sense of size I think that (like Trypticon) he'll work great with Legends-scale figures. My Metroplex came with these accessories- two black guns for mounting on his shoulders, two large red guns for him to wield in his hands, a claw, a small red gun, and Scamper. Not pictured is the sticker sheet, as I decided to sticker him up before doing the pictures this time, and a pair of gray missiles that can be fired from the big red guns. As far as I know the Hasbro versions only came with one of the big red guns, and it had safety orange at the tip. As long as we're taking a look at the guns, I'll note that they're molded as some kind of space battleships, with bridge towers near the rear surrounded by tiny turrets. Metroplex is so big his guns are battleships, and that's awesome. Although we technically have the guns that would make his arms and legs, we don't have any of the bits to make Sixgun's torso. Oh well, we know that Sixgun is going to be a Deluxe-class in the Siege line. But we're also missing Scamper, and dang it I want a Scamper! As for Scamper, there's some odd choices going on. Like, why is his head red? I get that maybe they wanted to break up the black, but the G1 cartoon actually already did that by giving him blue eyes and a beige-ish face. The shape of his head is weirdly round, too, and very unlikely either the G1 toy or the cartoon. He's also got a tiny pelvis and freakishly long arms, which seems to be because they put the wheels that used to be on his legs on his forearms instead. His alt mode is also kind of off, with a silver engine mounted on the rear that he didn't used to have. His arms don't come off like the G1 toy's did, but they don't fold up either. They just lay along the sides of the vehicle in a way that really spoils the car mode. At least he has six wheels, right? And to be fair, I do like that they molded guns onto his arms so they sit above the rear wheels, kind of like how the G1 version had his entire arms as guns mounted to the top of the car. My other big complaint with Scamper is that he's just a Legends-class figure, and a smaller one at that. Full-Tilt is so much bigger than he is! And better built, too. Scamper's head is a ball joint that can tilt sideways a bit and look up a fair amount, but not really down. His shoulders are ball joints for rotation and just under 90 degrees of lateral movement. He's got ball joints that act as bicep swivel and give him 90 degrees of elbow bend. No wrists, no waist. Ball-jointed hips can kick forward, backward, and laterally 90 degrees. Even his knees are ball joints, which give him a swivel there in addition to bending 180 degrees. He doesn't have any feet. The little red gun (again, why red?) can be held in his hands or pegged onto the roof of his car mode. Metroplex himself has a number of peg holes in spots where you can use the little red gun as well. I'll note here that I've seen Scamper in reviews of the Hasbro version but also in pictures of the Takara version with gray plastic used for his shoulders, biceps, pelvis, thighs, wheels, and some of the stuff around his head. I'm not sure what the deal is there, but under any light you can find mine uses the same black plastic for everything but his head. Sadly, this is probably as good as it's ever going to get for Scamper. Too bad, because I think the Siege Sideswipe mold would make a great Scamper with minimal retooling. As for Metroplex himself, his head as a swivel but he can only look about 45 degrees in either direction, and he doesn't have any tilt. His shoulders have ratchets for rotation as well as lateral movement, and he can get his arms out about 90 degrees. He's got ratcheted bicep swivels, and ratcheted elbows that can bend nearly 180 degrees. His wrists can swivel as well as bend down. Each finger and thumb is a separate piece hinged at the base, but there's no additional finger articulation. His waist has ratcheted swivel. His hips have ratchets that move forward 90 degrees, backward one click past 90 degrees, and laterally about 60 degrees (due to kibble on his hip more than limitations of the joints). His thigh swivels, located where the silver paint stops, are ratcheted. His ratcheted knees bend 90 degrees. And all of that could, in theory, make for some pretty dynamic poses, except his feet have no articulation. I should also mention here that all of the ratchets are pretty strong with very little play in them between clicks. He's quite stable... but I don't know how the joint tolerances are on the Hasbro version. As far as weapons go, the "proper" thing is the put the black guns on his shoulders, like the G1 toy. The red guns have fold down handles that with tabs that fit into Metroplex's palms. However, the black guns also have fold down handles, and he can hold those as well as the red ones. We've got a few more gimmicks to cover in robot mode. First, Metroplex can be displayed with eyes like the G1 toy. But, if you pull down either of his ear-tenna a visor will slide down over his eyes for the cartoon look. Pushing the section of his chest above the red orb down will cause both the orb and his eyes to light up and play some sound clips. As near as I can tell the sound clips are the same between the Hasbro and Takara versions, right down to English phrases like "Decepticon deactivation commencing!" and "Metroplex heeds the call of the last Prime." Also, if we look around at the back of Metroplex's neck you'll see a clear red tab. Moving it left and right causes the lights in Metroplex's eyes to move, basically giving him pupil articulation. I've always dug Metroplex's vehicle mode. It's like the weird offspring of a tank and an aircraft carrier. Not a lot of surprises as the he follows the G1 pattern of sitting down, bending his arms backward, and unfolding his legs. I guess the real difference is the lack of partsforming. On a figure this big I think Hasbro could and should have designed the forearms to open and allow the fists to fold inside instead of just folding his palms down against his wrists. The shoulder spires do extend into guns, although again I wish they were white and more like the G1 version. The instructions tell you to stick the guns that were on his shoulders back onto his forearms instead, but I'm not a fan of the look. It flips open forward instead of spinning around, but he does have a double-barreled gun to the side of his head still, with space behind it for Scamper or another Legends-class figure to sit. A Legends-class figure can also stand at some molded controls behind Metroplex's head. One of his legs has a hollowed-out space in it for the claw, and the claw can store inside that space while he's in other modes. The claw can swivel where it's pegged into the base, it has a ball joint at the mid point to bend 90 degrees and swivel, a ball joint at the claw that bends 90 degrees and swivels, and a hinge that lets the claw open and close. If you have the Hasbro version, the handle of the gun pegs into a hole in Metroplex's back and sits over his torso, which leaves the flight deck clear for stuff like an Aerialbot. The Takara version has little ridge under the barrel that just fit around little notches on the edges of Metroplex's legs. Kind of obstructs the flight deck, but that's more similar to the G1 toy. The big differences between the Hasbro and the Takara versions in this mode is that the helipad on his left shoulder is yellow on black instead of yellow on white, and the flight deck is black on the Hasbro. I prefer the white deck, as it's more G1 accurate, but YMMV. Might just be me, but for this mode I prefer the put the black guns on top of the shoulder spires. I also like to turn the hands so the fingers curl in toward each other instead of covering the little red details. And for size, here he is with Trypticon's space ship mode. Metroplex's city mode again borrows heavily from the G1 toy, but there are a few differences that mostly come down to missing a lot of the partsforming bits, including Scamper and Sixgun's torso, that the G1 toy used to make towers. So instead of sticking straight up Metroplex's right arm is outstretched, and a panel on his forearm opens up to reveal a turret inside. If you have the Hasbro version, the instructions will have you keep one of the black guns pegged on the forearm as well, while the Takara instructions have you peg it on the shoulder pointing up like a tower. One of his big red guns pegs onto his back, standing in place of what I think was just a random partsforming tower on the G1 toy, and that's true regardless of which version you get. His left arm swings around to his back, just like the G1 toy, and that half of his chest opens into a helipad, just like the G1 toy. As with the vehicle mode, the helipad is yellow on white on the Takara version and yellow on black on the Hasbro. The Hasbro version has the other black gun attached to that shoulder just as it would be for robot mode, only with the spire extended. That leaves a free peg hole that you can stick the claw into on the helipad, if you want. The Takara version instructs you to peg the other red gun to the underside of his torso, forming another tower, and the other black gun goes where I just told you to put the claw. In place of the Sixgun torso tower you just have two extremely random red beams. Was the designer originally going for something else that didn't get implemented? A door under the beams can open to reveal what I guess in some kind of missile battery. It's painted red and yellow on the Takara and left unpainted white on the Hasbro. Then, like the G1 toy, Metroplex's legs split open. The side of Metroplex's chest that isn't a helipad has a ramp in it (and Scamper can fit inside). Unlike the G1 version, the ramp can't reach the ground. That's probably why the instructions only have you swing one leg out at an angle instead of both, the way the G1 toy did. The Takara version's ramp is white, except for the chest door, as are the inside of his legs, while Hasbro used black. I think white is more accurate, but maybe black breaks up the color better and makes things a little more interesting visually. There are some stickers you can put in there, but what I think would have really helped is if there were some molded detail inside the legs that made them look like more than the big empty spaces that they are. The Takara city configuration mostly works for me, although I like the black gun on the front of the spire so you can use the claw on the helipad. Other than that, not much to say except he's quite large. Metroplex is a pretty good figure, and it's cool to have a Metroplex this big. He's not as good as Trypticon, though. He's a bit too stylized, Scamper suffers from being a Legends-class instead of a Deluxe, I really want a Slammer, and the lack of ankle pivots on a figure this size seriously hampers his articulation. Plus, unlike Trypticon, Metroplex has serious competition in the form of Maketoys Utopia... assuming you can find one, don't mind paying a premium, and don't mind that he only comes up to the bottom of Metroplex's chest or Trypticon's chin. And, if I'm being honest, if I could find Utopia at a reasonable price from a trusted seller I probably would still like to get my hands on him. But until Utopia gets a reissue under $400, I think Metroplex will scratch the itch for most people, and I'll still give him a recommend.

I think I'd have to see it before I can talk about whether I'm interested in MP-45 or not. Which is more than I can say for Hound.

Since I liked Titans Return Overlord a lot I decided to grab another Leader-class that featured prominently in the Japanese post Season 3 continuity. This time it's Leader-class Sixshot. That's a fairly G1-looking Sixshot. His chest has an especially G1 sculpt with the diagonal molded lines and black circles flanking the dark rectangle in the middle. He's also got silver bits on his knee caps that do a good job standing in for sticker detail. The little wings on his chest have lost their sticker detail, but the all-black is more reminiscent of The Headmasters, so all good there. The car cockpit is on the sides of his legs and the jet nose is the front of his shins and feet... this is inverted from G1, but the silhouette is basically the same so again no real issue. He's still got a cockpit crotch, but he acquired a band of black around his waist. I don't mind it, it helps break up the green. His tank treads are also black instead of white. I have mixed feelings about that; it helps them stand out in tank mode, but it also makes them stand out in other modes. There is some stuff I do mind, though. Like the tires on the outside of his forearms instead of the back, something that I'll chalk up to lazy engineering on Hasbro's part. I mind the black wolf paws in his wrists, which would have been much less noticeable and more correct if they'd used white instead. And on the subject of things that are black instead of white, Hasbro really screwed up the thighs. Finally, I think the head sculpt is mostly fine, but his brow is too large and it has a tendency to hide his eyes. For size, he's a smidge shorter than Overlord and quite a bit taller than Siege Leader Magnus. I think that's maybe a little too big. The impression I got from The Headmasters is that he should be closer to Magnus is size. Granted, he came out way before Siege and would be similar in size to CW Magnus in size, but I kind of think CW Magnus is too big for CHUG, so... *shrugs* Sixshot comes with a pair of guns that are similar to the G1 toy's, although the handles are set a little further back, and there's a hollow space. You can plug the guns together and a Titan Master can stand in the space. Speaking of Titan Masters, because this is a Titans Return figure the top of Sixshot's head opens and you can pull most of his head off. Something neat here is that you can see part of his forehead normally covered by his helmet is molded to look like a ninja headband, with the Japanese kanji "roku," which means "six". The head unfurls into a robot called Revolver that, based on the shape of his chest, is actually Chromedome's friend Jack. Does this tie into Victory and Greatshot? I don't know, I didn't make it very far into Victory. Sixshot's articulation is a little underwhelming for a ninja. His head can swivel, using not Revolver's little ball joint but his own dedicated mushroom swivel. The chest wings can swing forward to give his arms clearance to rotate, but he can only move his shoulders about 45 degrees laterally. He has bicep swivels and elbows that bend a little short of 90 degrees. No wrist swivels, although he can bend his wrists down due to his transformation. That'd be great for sword poses... if only he came with swords. No waist swivel either. The flaps on the front of his hips are hinged so he can move his hips a little under 90 degrees forward and a little under 45 degrees backward on a nice, hefty ratchet. He can't quite get 90 degrees laterally on friction joints, plus one hip is a little loose. His thighs can swivel. His knees bend a little under 90 degrees. Unfortunately, they also bend the other way for wolf mode. His normal robot knee bend is ok, but both knees are way too loose in the other direction and he's prone to tipping over in more dynamic poses. Finally, his toes can bend up and down, and he does have ankle pivots, but the pivots are designed in such a way that they like to be either straight up and down or at a 45 degree angle. Trying to position them in between is a chore, as they keep wanting to drop back to those angles. Sixshot has a lot of alt modes. We'll start with wolf. His rear legs don't get as straight as the G1 toy, his neck is weirdly long, and there are the aforementioned issues the wheels on the sides of the forearms instead of the back plus the black thighs, tank treads, and wolf paws. Otherwise, it is again a very G1 wolf, just with more articulation. He's still got access to his robot hips, knees, toes, ankles, shoulders, and elbows, plus his front paws can tilt up and down, the wolf head can look up, and the wolf jaw can open and close. I don't know if the G1 toy did this or not, but TR Sixshot uses his combined rifles as a tail, and that's cool. Now, the reason I wanted to cover wolf mode first is because there is a gap behind the wolf head. You fill this gap by putting Revolver into head mode and inserting it so Sixshot's robot face is right behind the wolf head, like the wolf head is a mask. That's kind of cool, although I wish they'd put a hinged door there or something so you weren't stuck with inserting the head or having the visible gap. Because the thing is, while I'll show off places that you can put Revolver, fact is you can pretty much leave him attached inside Sixshot's helmet for every other mode. Next up is tank mode. Again, this is fairly G1 down to pegging the rifles onto the sides of his robot legs. I do have a few problems with this mode, though. They basically boil down to stuff not being secure. His legs don't attach to each other, for starters. That makes the weapon bits look a little messy. Nor do they lock in place in any other way. Also, his arms don't lock to his sides. You're essentially positioning his arms along his body and folding his legs around to his back and the tension in his joints to keep everything in place, which it doesn't always do. Bottom line, he doesn't feel as cohesive as he should. The cockpit on this mode does open up so Revolver can sit inside. Also, while Sixshot doesn't have an official base mode, you'll note that the wings have those notches. Those notches are most accessible when Sixshot is in tank mode. You can use them to attach to another TR Leader or Titan class toy. When a tank is too slow, Sixshot can always go for his car mode. Although, honestly, we're kind of stretching the definition of car here, as Sixshot's car mode is obviously far larger than similarly-scaled carbot would be. With the guns on the sides, the front end that hangs out far past the front wheels, and the painted windows TR Sixshot is still taking his cues from the G1 toy. The front end is a bit tidier, though. And the roof over his car cab is hollow. This is so Titan Masters can sit in those spaces. There's room enough that Revolver can bring a buddy! Actually, if you open the tank cockpit behind them you even have room for a third Titan Master. I think this is one of TR Sixshot's better modes. Unlike tank mode, the legs lock into place, and the forearms tab into the silver bits that were on his robot knees, giving the car a solidity that wolf and tank were lacking. Of course, if a car is too slow Sixshot can always go by plane. Once again, this is an G1 jet mode. His forearms are turned, so the wheels on his forearms are facing the ground and some red detail that was on the G1 toy is showing. The other wheels are properly tucked into the gap between his shoulder and his hips. The guns tab onto the wing tips, his chest wings are out, and the crotch cockpit is visible. Only thing I can really nitpick is that the nodes doesn't really have the same taper as the G1 toy, but I can live with that. His arms are unsecured again in this mode, but with the tires tucked against his body and his biceps resting on the wings they don't really feel like they're going anywhere, aside from his elbows being prone to bending. The nose also splits apart fairly easily. On the whole, it's a pretty decent mode, but I still prefer the car. So, officially the instruction tell you that you should pull Sixshot's head back out of his chest, then Revolver can sit in the space the head just vacated. He's obviously too big to sit in the crotch cockpit, after all. Of course, if you follow the official instructions, you'll have an empty head sticking out the back of the jet. You're better off sticking him in the tank cockpit on the underside of the jet if you want to keep Revolver in robot mode. If you're ok having him in head mode, you can always stick him back into Sixshot's head before folding the head back into the chest, or in the wolf neck if you want slightly easier access. Sixshot's final mode is a submarine. A boat? Or maybe a spaceship? I don't know. What I do know is that I've seen fan modes that are more boat-like than this mode. In any case, the two seats from car mode are available. Plus, with the guns in the official position Revolver could also stand there instead (not that there aren't other pegs for Titan Master feet scattered at various places on Sixshot's body). How about we decide that this mode is whatever Siege Shockwave's alt mode is? Oh, wait a second... Yep, they're still guns. Sixshot's heel spurs become the smaller barrels inside the main barrel, and the wolf head adds some solidity to the handle in addition to providing something for the wings to tab on to. Because TR Sixshot's legs work more Combiner Wars-style than the G1 flip-over style the car cockpit is under the barrel near the back instead of on top and near the edge, and the jet nose is at the end of the barrel instead of along the sides near the back. There's also no trigger. Otherwise, it's a pretty G1 gun mode, although officially his rifles are meant to be tabbed together, then stuck onto tabs under the barrel (on top near the bow of the boat/sub/spaceship). Looks pretty ridiculous, if you ask me. Fortunately, there are small tabs on the side meant to hold the nose of the jet mode together. If you open up his toes for clearance you can get the those tabs into the slots on the rifles that they use to connect to each other. Because of how they're positioned that means one rifle will it just a little further forward than the other, but I think it looks better than having them hang from the bottom. Too bad Hasbro is cheap; if they'd filled the very tip of the nose parts instead of leaving them hollow they could have put a peg hole for the guns there. As with the other modes, solidity can be an issue. His (somewhat loose) friction hip joints are all that's keeping the barrel straight, and the friction joints in his shoulders are all that keeps his arms in place. And yes, the instructions don't mention it, it's not any more official now than it was during G1, but he can do the Wingwolf mode for killing Ultra Magnus. If I'm being honest, I'm a little disappointed with Sixshot. Maybe expectation has something to do with it. I mean, I bought Overlord on clearance for $30 not expecting much and wound up really liking him. And when I thought maybe Sixshot would be as good I paid full price for him and don't feel like he delivered that same pleasant surprise. On the other hand, I think he's objectively worse than Overlord. His joint tolerances aren't as good, and the range of his joints is more limited. While he's pretty G1 accurate in all six modes the black thighs and wolf paws really bug me. And too many of his alt modes just don't feel very solid, which Hasbro could have fixed with a few more tabs and/or ratchets in the shoulder rotation and lateral hip movement, and that ultimately strikes me as laziness and/or cheapness. If you're a fan of the character and can find him at a discount he might be worth it, but otherwise I wouldn't recommend him.

Double Evil wasn't really on my radar, as I'm not strongly attached to Overlord. But I caught another review and it looks phenomenal. No idea when I'll be able to work it into my budget, but it's gotta happen.

Ok, so this one's technically not from my Power of the Primes clearance extravaganza. I guess this would be someone else's clearance. This would be Titans Return Leader-Class Overlord. Ok, I watched Masterforce, and my impression of Overlord was that he was a huge dude... but not as big as King Poseidon. There wasn't a Combiner Wars/PotP Piranacon, but I'd assume if there were he'd be about the same size as the other combiners (unless they made him a Titan class), so here you go. Bigger than Megatron, smaller than Bruticus. And although he's not shown here, Overlord is bigger than Combiner Wars Ultra Magnus. I don't have him to compare with, but I'd guess that make him bigger than Titans Return Leader-class Optimus, too. Not sure how much extra height Godbomber adds, but that sounds about right. So I don't know how this would scale according to the almighty scale charts everyone references for MPs, but I think this looks just right for CHUG. And he's pretty close to G1, too. He's even got a fake molded wheel in the middle of his chest where the G1 toy had one, and the real wheel on his crotch is surrounded by a blue patch where the old toy had a sticker. Other sticker details from the toy are replicated with silver paint on Overlord's chest and small stickers on his shins. The colors are a little closer to the G1 toy than the Masterforce cartoon, which may or may not bug you. Other than that, his biceps are gray instead of white, the sides of his legs are blue instead of white, and only his toes are purple while the G1 toy had whole purple feet. That's about it, though. I mean, he's even got molded Chokon Demon Blast cannons on his one side and a molded and gray-painted door for the Chokon Bolt Masher, although it sadly doesn't open. He comes with a few accessories. As a Titan Master, he comes with a little Head robot that the instructions refer to as Dreadnaut. I'm gonna call him Giga, though, because that's who he really is. The real bummer here is that he only comes with Giga, and not Mega (although the Takara release apparently did come with both). Anyway, I've covered the articulation of Titan/Prime Master guys, and there's nothing new here, so I'll move on. Overlord also comes with his "shield" (aka the nose of his jet mode) and his gun. Notice the white on the handle. That's because the gun isn't molded in purple plastic, surprise surprise. It's molded in white and painted with a matte purple. The paint wasn't really accounted for on the tolerances, though, so the fit was too tight until I scratched some of the paint off. As a Titan Master Overlord's neck is actually Giga's head, which is on a tiny ball joint. That gives him rotation but only very limited tilt. His shoulders can rotate and extend laterally a little under 90 degrees. He has bicep swivels, and his elbows bend slightly over 90 degrees. No wrist swivel, no waist swivel. His hips can bend almost 90 degrees forward... his knee actually flexes a bit so that his lower leg is 90 degrees to his body. The hips also go laterally 90 degrees and backward just short of that. His thighs swivel around the hip joint. His knees can bend just a little short of 90 degrees, although you can get more if you pull the tank parts out of his shins. His toes and his heels can bend down, but not up. And I was pleasantly surprised to find that he's got hinges just to give him 90-degree ankle pivots, a rarity in the pre-Siege Hasbro world. Of course, he can hold his gun by sticking the 5mm peg handle into his 5mm peg hole fists. As mentioned, it's a little snug. His shield also has a (thankfully unpainted) flip out peg to fit into the peg hole on the outside of either shoulder. Just as the G1 toy's chest opened up to reveal the plug-in spots for Mega and Giga, this Overlord's chest can also open. The spots inside are the right size to stick a Titan Master, a Prime Master, one of the Enigmas that came with with the PotP Voyagers or Predaking, or one of the Matrix cores that came with any of the PotP Leaders. Hot Rod's gonna need his head back, but that Prime Master Megatronus I got with Prime Wars Trilogy Blast Off is going to be my Mega, I think. I kind of wish that the doors could close with something plugged into those slots, but nope. If a more casual, shieldless Overlord is what you want Titans Return Overlord has options for that. You can have it on his back, simply by attaching it where it goes for jet mode, just upside down. Or, for reasons I can't really fathom, there's a tab on the shield that fits into a slot on Overlord's chest. I'm not sure that any official source has ever labeled him as such, but let's call a spade a spade- Overlord is a Duocon. In fact, he's kind of ripping off Flywheels/Skytread's shtick, splitting at the waist with his upper half turning into a jet and his lower half turning into a tank. Again, both halves are pretty G1-accurate. The jet, known as the Mega-Jet, has the same canard wings, the same pair of fins in the middle, the same raised rear with intakes at the front, and nearly the same sticker layout (near as I can tell all the G1 stickers are there, it's just that the engine nacelles have extra stickered stripes). Better care could have been taken with those stickers, though; I'll probably remove and replace the super crooked one on the nose. The only real differences are the lack of a Powermaster engine port, the fact that the nacelles don't sit as flush against the body as the G1 toy, and the fact that it's got fold-out landing skids a little behind the cockpit instead of rolling wheels right under the nose. The tank, called the Giga-Tank, also looks pretty similar to the G1 toy. It uses Overlord's rifle instead of having its own barrel the way the G1 toy did, but that's fine. The right side still has the orange hatch, and the left has a molded circular piece with a molded gun instead of a Powermaster engine port. He's missing the stickers on the front of the turret, going for a simple Decepticon emblems. I guess the other big difference from the G1 toy is that there are no leftover ramps. The cockpit of the Mega-Jet opens, and a Titan/Prime Master can sit inside. And if, for some reason, you're not using the gun on the Giga-Tank there is a peg hole near the back of the jet. As for the Giga tank, it's got three wheels (one in the front, two in the rear) so it can roll, and the orange hatch can open so a Titan/Prime Master can sit inside. As previously mentioned, Overlord's gun forms the tank barrel and it just fits into a 5mm peg hole on the tank, so the cannon can't move up or down. Nor can the turret swivel. I must say, though, that I'm rather enamored with the Giga-Tank. It's fairly simple yet so much more solid and cohesive than Siege Skytread's, despite being made from the same half of the body. Now, a thing from the Masterforce cartoon was the Mega-Jet and Giga-Tank combining into one vehicle. This wasn't an intended function of the toy; it just happened someone on the Masterforce staff was messing with the toy and found that you could split the tank in half and reconnect it as you would for robot mode and it'd just be chilling on the back of the jet, so they stuck it in the cartoon. That doesn't work on this version, though, since the tank is everything from the waist down instead of the legs detaching from the hips. There are slots near the base of the turret, though, that don't seem to serve any purpose. You can open the doors on Overlord's chest, and the tabs that hold them shut can fit into the slots on the tank turret. The only thing keeping it from really working is that the connection is extremely loose. If you pick up the jet, the tank won't come with it. The weird thing is that Overlord was actually a remold of Sky Shadow (or Sky Shadow was a premold for Overlord, take your pick), and Sky Shadow had a flap that opened on his chest with a little connector piece under it. That piece fit over notches on the tank turret. The notches are still there on the Giga-Tank. If Overlord had been designed with that connector piece on his chest instead of fake wheels then the Mega-Jet would have no problem carrying the Giga-Tank. I should probably point out now that unlike the Deluxe and Voyager-classes it's not necessary to remove Overlord's head before transforming him, so you can leave it attached and no one has to sit in either vehicle. Kind of makes me wish that Overlord would have come during Power of the Primes instead of Titans Return. Then he could have had a regular, non-transforming head and Mega and Giga could have been Prime Masters instead. Now, just like the G1 toy had a base mode, so too does Titans Return Overlord. It's a bit more compact, mind you, with a decided lack of ramps. Although you can leave the nose of the jet as you had it in jet mode, you're meant to pull it off, rotate it backward, then plug it back in. The white underside of the nose has another translucent hatch that opens up, and with the landing skids flipped out under it the effect is pretty similar to the G1 toy. The instructions indicate that you should leave the tank turret halves folded away, but nothing's stopping you from flipping out the side with the other hatch if you need a place for another Titan/Prime Master to sit. Aside from plugging Overlord's rifle in between the legs there aren't any other guns, though. There's also no repair claw and no little roller drone. You can open up either foot, and under the front you'll find a flap you can fold out. The flap has a notch, and is meant for connecting other bases. Also, on the back of the base, there's what's ostensibly non-rolling landing gear for the jet mode, but the notch between them is the same as the notch on the foot flaps. I can't comment on attaching Overlord to another Leader or Titan (which should be possible), but you can easily connect him to the purple notched flaps that sit on Trypticon's hips in robot mode and the edges of his bade mode. Just my two cents, but I think it looks best if you use the connector on the back of the base, not Overlord's feet. With the teal and purple I think Overlord matches Trypticon pretty well. This works for me. I passed on Overlord during his initial release. While I think I liked Titans Return a little better than Combiner Wars I wasn't exactly wowed. Even though I was heavily into third party by the time Titans Return came alone I believe it was during that run that I decided to get out of CHUG and focus on MP. Plus, I was never super attached to Overlord, and didn't see the need to buy a $50 Leader-class of him only to be disappointed by the issues I'd come to associate with Hasbro, like loose joints and a lack of articulation. But Siege has kind of rekindled my interest in mainline Hasbro figures, and Trypticon had me curious about the base-mode compatibility thing, so when I saw places marking Overlord down to $30 (I got him from Amazon, but I see BBTS has marked him down to the same) I decided to give him a go. And I'm really glad I did! He's not hindered in any way by the Titan Master gimmick, he's very G1 accurate, he's got good proportions and doesn't have a lot of kibble, he doesn't really have any loose joints, and although wrist and waist swivels would be nice he does have great ankle pivots and adequate articulation everywhere else. Plus, even though his size is quite a bit taller than the Siege Leaders Overlord is a character that's supposed to be huge, so I think his size works even with the new Siege line. On that note, even if you quit the old CHUGs and are just starting again with Siege, I think Overlord's worth picking up- especially at the price of a Siege Voyager.

Can't comment on AC7, but I had the flight stick bundle for AC5. I thought it was harder to play with than the regular controller. *shrugs* Hands On Throttle And Stick. It refers to the modern convention of putting all the important switches, buttons, and controls on the throttle lever and the flight control stick instead of on a dashboard, so the pilot has access to what he needs without taking his hands off the throttle and stick.

Well, if anybody does want Hot Rod and Protector, lemme know. I'm thinking (in addition to all the other stuff I'm supposed to buy in the next six weeks) that I kind of want to buy the Takara Legends version of Titan Fortress Maximus. I'd be happy to cut a good deal with a MW'er, since you'd be saving me the hassle of ebay/TFW's BST.