mikeszekely

Hudson says everyone's in, and Akroyd separately confirmed he's interested. Reitman is obviously a big fan besides being the son of the original director. And it can't be any worse than the 2016 film. So I'm cautiously optimistic.

I found MS-01's transformation goes a little smoother if you don't follow the steps in the order of the instructions. Instead start with his arms and go all the way to the point where you rock the side panel back and tab it into his forearm and bicep before you start on his torso.

8's not too bad. Now 17, that one sucks! You have to take out these bombers before they hit an island, but there are way too many other targets. I keep flying in circles mashing triangle trying to lock onto the last couple, but it seems like my plane wants to lock onto literally anything else. One or two get by and I keep failing the mission. And there's not even a checkpoint when the bombers spawn.

I've replayed a few levels in free play after getting better planes/weapons to try to get an S-rank, and it looks like a lot of the credits you get from campaign come from a "first time completion bonus" (although I don't know if that bonus is first time ever, or first time per difficulty). Second time nets you something like one third to one half as many credits, and I don't think I've gotten even 100k on a first time yet. Meanwhile, on multiplayer, I haven't done a team deathmatch (tried once, and either there was a server hiccup or the room's host bailed because he was losing), but for battle royale I've been pulling in around 100k per match. For the record, I never play multiplayer and I don't think of myself as very good at the game and usually come in between 4th and 6th (out of eight), and a match is only around 3 minutes long. So while not strictly necessary to play multiplayer the game is definitely nudging you toward it. Come to think of it the payout for coming in dead last is still better than the payout for replaying any mission I've done so far in campaign, so it's possible that A-10 guy wasn't really comically bad (I mean, no high-G turns and no flares bad), I think he just joined a room then went and found something else to do, letting his plane drift slowly through the matches, not touching his controller, and still collecting payouts for coming in last.

I'm on mission 8, just bought a Su-47. But I got lucky on multiplayer, got in a room with this guy who kept picking an A-10 and was playing really poorly. I played five battle royales with this group, kept coming in 1st or 2nd mostly by hunting down the A-10. Took me from nearly broke to more than enough for the Berkut and the part after it on the line. Now one part and a little over a million credits and I'll get the Su-57 and end the line.

They're on my shortlist. Along with their Ultra Magnus. Oh, and that Beachcomber Seaspray set (because I have a lot of Seasprays). Actually, they're pretty much all on my shortlist. I'm waiting on a few other priorities first (MMC Arcee, IF Tarn, and Zeta Silverbolt are all either out or will be very shortly, plus I have preorders down on reissues for Grump, Boost, and Arkose), but I'll probably bust out the ol' PayPal credit card and grab all the MS stuff I'm missing in the next month or two. Well how about this guy: New Age Flipper, a very tiny Legends Bumblebee Flipper is a little squat, but I think his head sculpt is actually better than the official MP's, and I like his overall proportions better than the Hot Soldiers one. Honestly, I think his backpack even cleans up a bit better than the MP. And he is adorably tiny! He's only a head or taller than a Micromaster. I think the official MP Bee comes up a little taller to MP Sideswipe than Flipper does to Red Cannon, but maybe Red Cannon is a little on the tall side. Until I get a few more MS Legends figures to really get a sense of their scaling, I'm going to say that Flipper is fine. Flipper's lone accessory is a pistol. Said pistol is an adorably tiny replica of MP Bee's. I'd say that Flipper's articulation could stand to be a little better... but I also can't think of a transforming figure this small with better articulation. His head is on a ball joint and can rotate as well as look up and down a little or tilt sideways. His shoulders are ball joints for rotation and a little over 90 degrees of lateral extension. He doesn't have a dedicated bicep swivel, but his elbows are ball joints so they can swivel there as well as bend a little over 90 degrees. No wrist or waist articulation, which I can forgive at this size. His hips are ball joints that can kick forward, backward, or sideways 90 degrees, plus his thighs can swivel a little on balls. His knees are ball joints giving you 90 degrees of bend plus an additional swivel. And his ankles are ball joints, so they can swivel, move up and down a little as well as pivot, although the pivot is more limited that I would have liked. It's worth mentioning that one of the reasons I'm generally not a fan of ball joints is how easily they can get loose. On my copy of Flipper he's mostly OK, but his hips are already pretty loose. Fortunately ball joints are one of the easier joints to fix with floor polish. His fists are basically molded into tab slots, and the handle of his gun is really just a tab. On my copy he holds the gun fine in his left hand, but it's very loose in the right hand, loose enough that if I turned him upside down it'd fall right out. Speaking of holding his gun, his hands are molded so they're pointing inward a bit, so Flipper can't actually shoot straight. If you're a fan of the realistic alt mode Takara went for on MP Bee, I have some bad news for you. Flipper's closer to the penny racer proportions of the G1 toy and cartoon. Personally, I'm fine with this. I dare say I prefer it. And he's a very tiny Beetle. He's taller than a Micromaster from the ground up, but from nose to rear he's actually shorter than Roadhandler here. At this size the panel lines and hinges look like they stand out a lot, but he's so tiny in hand that it doesn't bother me. I think he looks pretty good, honestly, except for a black hinge maring the sides of the vehicle. He's even got a notch under the front end so he can store his little pistol while he's in car mode. My only real complaint is that his wheels are just molded onto yellow flaps and painted black and silver. They're not real, and he doesn't roll. Flipper's not as impressive as a Magic Square figure. He doesn't have the articulation, the tolerances are off in a few spots, and he doesn't roll. But I think New Age brought a pretty strong sculpt for both modes, and they delivered it in a very tiny package. For those reasons, plus his fairly low price, I'm able to look past his flaws. If you're building a G1 Legends collection, I think Flipper will fill that Bumblebee niche nicely, although I could see myself swapping him out later if Magic Square ever makes one.

I know (really, have known for years) where you stand on that, but I love the Raptor as much as I love the YF-23. I love that AC5 and AC:JA both have the FB-22, too. Actually, in the annals of prototypes that never went into production, I wish more games would include the X-32. That thing was so ugly, but I love it. I don't recall that it was in any AC games, but I think it was in Air Force Delta Strike.

When I reviewed Siege Sideswipe my only real complaint was that the black and red accessories didn't really give you a proper shoulder cannon/gun combo for him. So I wanted to follow that up by saying that I picked up the "TF WFC Siege Sideswipe Weapons" by SledgeHammer's Smithery on Shapeways. I went with white processed versatile plastic. It's still a little rough and the details a little soft, which I suppose is to be expected (it's my first 3D-printed Transformers accessories), but the jump to the premium plastic or the smooth fine detail plastic was a bit too pricey, IMHO (for the record, there's also a white natural versatile plastic that's a little cheaper). A bigger complaint that the soft details and slightly rough texture is that the white doesn't match the old bone color Hasbro used. Again, this is expected, though. Not sure if I can easily find a matching paint for the shoulder cannon, but I may just paint the rifle silver. I don't mean to sound to negative, because I'm honestly pretty satisfied. They feel plenty sturdy, and the barrels of both accessories actually have openings, although they don't seem designed to work with the Battle Master fire effects (that said, the tip of the shoulder cannon is small enough that I was able to get one on, but the rifle is too big). The peg on the rifle fits perfectly in Sideswipe's hands and other 5mm ports- snug enough not to move or fall out, but not so tight you feel like you're forcing anything. And the rifle has four 5mm peg holes (one on top, one on each side, and one on the underside) for attaching other Siege accessories, although when I plugged the accessories Sideswipe original came with into the rifle that fit seemed a little tight. The shoulder cannon has a tab for fitting into the slots on his shoulders. Unlike the original accessories, the tab is angled so that the cannon is angled up a little. And if you want to store both new accessories on the car mode the tab on it can fit loosely into a 5mm peg hole. Alternatively, there are a pair of small peg-like bumps on the back of the shoulder cannon, the large of which sort of fits into the rifle's barrel. I don't know if it's intentional; I think the designer was just trying to copy the cartoon or the MP, but it works for me. The parts themselves were $12.99, and my total after shipping and processing was just about $20. For some $20 on two little accessories for a $20 figure might be a bit much, but I'm pretty happy with them, honestly. They really put the finishing touches on one of the best Siege figures so far. In other Siege news, given Hasbro's propensity for repaints it was just a matter of time before they took the white Optimus in Leader Ultra Magnus and repainted in him actual Optimus colors. I was pretty cynical on this; I loved that the white Optimus at the core of Ultra Magnus was a unique figure instead of a repainting the Voyager and calling it a day. But I was also very aware that the core white Optimus figure wasn't nearly as good as the Voyager, and I wondered just what kind of armor they could cook up for it that would be Optimus and not Optimus dressed as Delta Magnus. Well, we're getting our first looks at the new Leader Prime, and surprise, it's Cybertron Optimus/Galaxy Force Convoy! Color me more interested now. Haven't see how the vehicle mode is going to work, but the robot's looking pretty good considering it's an Ultra Magnus retool.

The tech tree is a mess. I hate that you can't sell stuff back, either. I'm early in the game, still, so maybe the campaign levels' payout will improve, but for now it feels like the game is nudging you toward multiplayer. Which, frankly, I didn't find particularly entertaining. I did a battle Royale just to get the trophy, and it was basically a fixed time of 8 people popping missiles and high-G turning. I managed to get one hit and one kill, and that was good enough for 3rd. Getting back to the tech tree, I seriously spent a half hour staring at the screen in indecision. Although there are many branches in the tree they basically rejoin so there are three end points: YF-23, F-22, and Su-57. After being torn over the YF-23 and F-22 and trying to pick an optimal route through the tree to them I eventually gave up and grabbed a MiG-29. Looks like I'm going to work my way through some Flankers to the Su-57...

To add what others are saying, AC5 is a port, with smoothed textures and running natively in 16:9 during missions (but otherwise still 4:3). Plays fine, has trophy support. I'd love it if they put at least 4 and Zero in the PS Store, too. (And maybe sell 5 and 6 separately from 7, since I'd buy AC6 on the Xbox One but not another copy of 7). AC7 is super pretty. Only played the first mission, but it feels more like AC 2-5, Zero, and the PSP games than 6 (and less said about Assault Horizon the better). I tried to kill everything, and I wound up downing 21 targets in clustered groups that came in waves, compared to AC6 where it seemed like they were trying to show off new tech by cluttering the sky with hostiles.

Hot Soldiers' does look a little bigger than Magic Square's, but judging by how they both compare with MS Sideswipe the difference isn't huge. All due respect to Hot Soldiers, I'm just loving what MS is putting out, so I'm still going to hold out for theirs. Respect. I'm usually the opposite, though. I like to get different molds of figures that are traditionally repaints/remolds just to help them feel more unique. It's why I have Maketoys' Grapple and MMC's Inferno, Maketoys' Season 1 Seekers and ToyWorld's Coneheads, and MP Ironhide but Voodoo's Ratchet on my MP shelf. If Badcube had announced their Sideswipe and Red Alert just a little sooner I'd have bought their Red Alert instead of the MP.

Sky Pillar looks pretty cool and would probably be my choice for a Legends Optimus among what's currently available... but Magic Square has a Legends Optimus coming, and it's looking amazeballs. It's kind of for that same reason that, while I think some of the other Hot Soldiers stuff like Ironhide/Ratchet looks pretty good, I'll probably hold off and hope MS gets to them. As for the Hot Soldiers Cliffjumper, I'll be curious to hear your thoughts. There was something that looked off about their Bumblebee, but Cliffjumper doesn't look as bad. Speaking of Bumblebee... well, tune in tomorrow.

No kidding. If there's no new missions, I doubt it'll be worth the extra $25 (to me, anyway).

Well, I don't know where I'm going to display them, but between Stereo Master and MS-01 I'm pretty impressed with Magic Square, so I guess I'm taking the plunge into Legends now (besides, they're a pretty good way to hit the $150 free shipping mark at a lot of US stores when you're almost but not quite there). While there are other figures I want more, I decided to grab Red Warrior, MS's Legends-scale Sideswipe, because he seems to be drying up at some stores and I got FOMO. I mean, yeah, that works. I know some people were into BadCube's Sideswipe because it collapsed his hood chest and gave him more cartoon-accurate proportions, and those people might be a little disappointed to see that Red Cannon retains MP-12's broad chest. But Sideswipe was pretty much the only Season 1 carbot I actually had as a kid, so it doesn't bother me (I even tend to think of his shoulder cannon as black and white instead of all white). The wheels on the outside of his legs are a little higher than the cartoon, but he doesn't have tail lights over the top of his feet. I can't tell if it's an illusion due to those missing tail lights or if it's real, but Red Cannon's legs look longer and/or slimmer, like he's got better proportions. He retains the molded lines on his forearms and thighs, the triangle on his crotch, the silver knee pads, red panels on the outside of his forearm, and his shoulder cannon. the only detail that's immediately noticeable as missing are those shoulder bumps (white on Siege Sideswipe and MP-12+, silver on regular MP-12). But when I looked at scenes of Sideswipe from the cartoon they often weren't there, so I'll let their absence slide. My only real complaint is the head, which has a bland, mushy sculpt. So what we have here is a pretty good-looking, G1 cartoon Sideswipe. Just smaller. How much smaller? Here he is with Legends-class Combiner Wars Blackjack. As a Legends car with a Legends car, that seems to work, but it should be noted that he's only half a head shorter or so than MS's Blaster. MP-12 comes up to the bottom of KFC Blaster's tape deck door. Should MS have made Red Cannon smaller? Should they have made Stereo Master bigger? Or is it MP-12 and Transistor that are out of scale? I don't really know. I guess I'll pick up a few more MS Legends-scale figures and decide later. Red Cannon doesn't come with a lot of accessories, but honestly that's fine. You get his shoulder cannon, which has a slot that fits onto a tab on his shoulder. It has a hinge so the barrel can move up and down a little. He also comes with his gun. As was the case with Stereo Master, MS used a smaller (3mm?) peg for the handle, so his hands are proportional instead of having Iron Factory's hands-bigger-than-the-head syndrome. Articulation is good on Red Cannon, which I'm starting to see as a hallmark of Magic Square's designs. His head is on a swivel, so he can look around but not up or down. His shoulders are on ball joints that can rotate and extend 90 degrees laterally, but a transformation hinge in his torso will get you more. He's got bicep swivels, a hinged elbow that'll get you 90 degrees, and a second hinge at the top of the bicep below the swivel. I'll function as a double elbow joint in a pinch, bringing his total curl to 180 degrees. His hands are fixed, which is fine for this size, but he does have wrist swivels. His waist can swivel, and he's got 90 degrees of ab crunch. His hips are ball joints that can do 90 degrees forward, 90 degrees laterally, and almost 90 degrees backward. He's got cut thigh swivels where the mold line is. His knees bend 90 degrees. His feet can bend down as much as you want and up slightly, plus his toes can also bend up and down. Finally, he's got basically 360 degree ankle pivots. Red Cannon's vehicle mode is... ok. The transformation is simple enough, and you're left with a little Lamborghini, roughly the same size as Blackjack's car mode, sporting black painted windows and rolling tires. Unfortunately, I couldn't find any way to store is accessories in this mode. My gripes are that this mode isn't super accurate. And not in a "cartoon accurate Countach isn't an accurate Countach" way, in a "that's not right" way. Like the bumper, which MS painted silver, was always black, even in the cartoon. He's got not side mirrors or tail lights, but as a Legends-scale figure I can let that slide. Besides, he is sporting little dual exhausts, and they did try to paint most of the vents. The oddest thing to me is that the black trapezoid on the roof isn't black, despite being black in both the cartoon, toy, and real car, and the vented engine bay door and little trunk (painted black and red on MP-12, and totally red in the cartoon/MP-12+) is flat out missing. Instead, you can see his black shins and some of his silver knees peaking out, along with a little white from his feet. Now, I am a little more forgiving due to the smaller scale, and I do prefer that a company prioritizes the robot mode. But I do really wish that MS had come up with some kind of fold out flaps or something to hide them. Maybe if the shins turned inside out to collapse the legs instead of working on a slider... Speaking of sliders, that's my other big complaint with this figure. The car panels on the sides of his lower legs are on sliders. For transformation they pull out away from the leg and turn 180 degrees. The problem is that they don't stay tabbed together super great in robot mode. I've had them come untabbed and start to slide out plenty of times while manipulating him. Still, I think this is one of Magic Square's earliest releases (maybe only the Inferno/Grapple mold is older), so maybe they've improved since then (based on Blaster they have), and even with his flaws Red Cannon is still a pretty impressive figure it's size. Now, I've heard good things about Iron Factory's Sideswipe, but AFAIK Red Cannon is the only Legends-scale G1 Sideswipe, and I think he fills that role effectively. If a Legends-scale G1 Ark crew is what you're after Red Cannon is a good figure. He just doesn't seem to be on of MS's best figures. (Side note, shooting this review reminds me of how good Siege Sideswipe is. Someone should borrow the engineering and make a G1 Sideswipe out of it.)

Preordered the regular digital edition, both Ace Combat 5 and 7 are queued for download. Thought about the digital deluxe, but without knowing what's in the season pass I wasn't dropping the extra $25. For all I know it's a bunch over overpriced Idolmaster skins like AC6.

BTW, there's some discussion about MS's plastic over at TFW2005. If you've ever handled one of MS's Legends figures, or maybe some older Fansproject stuff like the Protector armor, you kind of know what to expect. But a point that's being made is that it has a kind of soft, matte appearance, and some people are wondering how it looks with other red MP-style figures that might have a glossier plastic or paint. The lighting isn't great here, since this is from my actual display instead of my review space, but I think MS-01 looks just fine.

I think most Transformers fans would be willing to admit that MP-10, great as it was, is a bit dated by today's standards. While Takara is set to replace MP-10 with MP-44 later this year, a newer company known only for making Legends-scale figures decided to beat them to the punch, and the result is MS-01 Light of Freedom, the first MP-scale figure from Magic Square and the opening salvo in 2019's MP Optimus war. Some people who are going for total cartoon accuracy and basing their image of Prime on a very specific image of Prime's animation model may find MS-01 a little too beefy. Such is their subjective prerogative, but I think he was animated fairly inconsistently and was often drawn, even in the '86 movie, as a little chunkier. Measured from shoulder to shoulder, around his waist, or the thickness of his forearms actually has him fairly close to MP-10, which nobody used to have a problem with. And in a lot of ways, Magic Square fixed a lot of MP-10's other issues. His torso is a little shorter and his legs are a little longer, with better balance between his thighs and lower legs. His arms, especially in his forearm area, are shorter. On the whole, MS-01 has much better proportions than MP-10. Cartoon accuracy is another consideration, but a contentious one. I think everyone expects a level of cartoon accuracy in their figures, but after a point there's a divide between people who want their toys to look exactly like the cartoon because that's how they remember the character and the people who feel looking too much like an inconsistently (and often poorly) animated 35 year old cartoon isn't the best way to go (full disclosure, I'm in the second group). MS-01 definitely pushes for more cartoon accuracy than MP-10. He's got smaller faux fuel tanks on the outsides of his legs, and his rear tires are neatly hidden away. The vents on his shins are blue instead of silver. He sheds some of the extra molded detail that MP-10 carries, especially the rivets. Some of the molded detail he does have, including the molding on his thighs and the little triangles above his shin vents, are more in keeping with the line work that was on Prime's animation model. Although his smokestacks, grill, and faux fuel tanks are all chromed he's got more of a matte and less metallic look with a very light gray used for his thighs, pelvis, forehead, and some of his face, and a slightly darker gray for his torso and mouth plate. Still, cartoon purists will likely bemoan the fact that MS went with gray instead of white on the pelvis and thighs, that his fingers aren't more rounded, that he's still got too much molded linework on his shoulders and lats, that he's still got windshield wipers, or that his grill is too realistic. Needless to say, none of those issues bother me. Minor issues that do bother me would be the visible red mushroom pegs that his hands are attached to, the tabs on the inside of his forearms, and that his blue crotch piece is a little too small. One other note is that the plastic feels like an improvement over the stuff Magic Square uses in their Legends figures, but still similar, and there's very little paint on him. I kind of like this plastic, and I think it looks fine without the paint, but there are definitely some people who are going to be bothered by them. Given that MS-01 has a little more bulk than Transform Element or Takara's upcoming figures a lot of people are wondering how he compares with different Megatrons, not just MP-36. I think he's a match for Maketoys' Despotron in terms of physical dimensions, but the lack of metallic paint (especially silver) and more subtle molded details aren't exactly a match. Anyway, MS-01 comes with a few accessories. You've got your Energon axe, your ion rifle, an alternate forehead, and some battle damage parts that I will almost certainly never use. Swapping the regular parts for the battle damaged parts requires pulling his lats off on a little tab and simply opening his chest and pushing the windows out. I'm digging the rifle, which has a much better shape and size than the one that comes with MP-10, although it can't fold up and store in his back. I think it also looks better than the replacement rifle that you get if you buy articulated KFC hands for MP-10. Regarding the alternate forehead, the difference if pretty subtle. Basically, the default head (right) is smooth and a little more rounded on top with a flared bill, like a ball cap. The alternate (left) is a more direct copy of MP-10's with molded lines and a wider band that comes to a sharper point over his nose. While I think I'd have been totally fine with the MP-10-style head, in hand the default head looks more correct, so that's what I'll be going with. One area MS was really able to improve over MP-10 was articulation. MS-01's head is on a hinged swivel, so he can look up about 45 degrees, down until his chin touches his chest, and rotate. His shoulders rotate on friction joints. Like MP-10 you can pull his arms out from his body to reveal a hinge for lateral motion, but unlike MP-10 it's ratcheted and can get a full 90 degrees. Plus, when fully extended he's got butterfly shoulders that can go a little backward and about 60 degrees forward. He's a double-jointed friction elbows. Each joint can do 90 degrees by itself and combined can curl his arm nearly the whole way up. I think using the lower joint first looks more natural, but it's much tighter than the upper joint. He's also got two bicep swivels, one at the top of the bicep and one between his elbow joints. Again, the joint I think you'd want to use most of the time (the upper one) is the tighter one. His wrists can swivel. He's got individually-articulated fingers. The thumb is on a ball joint with one additional knuckle hinge, and the fingers are pinned at the base with one additional knuckle hinge. His waist can swivel. Due to a system of hinges for transformation he's also got an ab crunch that can go 90 degrees forward and at least 45 degrees backward. However, using the ab crunch can really break up the sculpt. His pelvis has hinged flaps in the front and sides; the front flaps on mine are a tad loose, and pulling out the side flap also pulls his butt down and out. With the flaps out of the way you get a little less than 90 degrees forward and about 45 degrees backward on a ratcheted universal joint, and just over 90 degrees laterally on a soft ratchet. His thighs swivel around the universal joint, and although you can't swivel them all the way around you can turn his legs 90 degrees in either direction, which is plenty. His knees are double-jointed, friction on top, ratcheted on the bottom. Part of his knee opens up to reveal a diecast piston inside. A lot of people think the knees are ugly, but they don't bother me, especially if you only use the lower joint. Again, both joints can do 90 degrees by themselves, and combined you get nearly 180. His toes can bend up and down, and there's a little play in his feel and the whole foot. Plus you've got about 90 degrees of ankle pivot. His rifle uses the standard MP method of having tabs on the handle fit into slots on his palms. His axe works sort of the same way, in that there's a handle that tabs into his palm, but it goes with it's chunk of spiked orb on the bottom of his fist. Then the part with the axe fits over the top. YMMV, but the tab on one side of the axe handle was longer than the other kept pushing out when I tried to put the axe on his left hand, but it works fine in his right hand. If you're like me, you might be thinking that his axe is a little on the puny side. I don't usually pose my Primes with axes anyway, but if it really bothers you the axe from MP-10 will mostly fit around his fist. Depending on the exact look you're going for, MS-01's smokestacks can slide up and down on his shoulders. I personally like the bottom of the stack to be roughly even with the shoulder, but in the cartoon it's often drawn reaching to nearly his elbow. The pipe at the top of the stack can slide in and out as well, so sliding the whole thing down doesn't leave him with short stacks. Like any good MP Prime you can open his chest and reveal the Matrix of Leadership inside. It is removable, and as Matrices go, it's ok. It's mostly diecast with silver and copper paint and a smooth translucent blue orb... I just happen to think that the Matrix that came with MP-10 had a better sculpt. And no, MP-10's doesn't fit in MS-01. Much ado has been made of the fact that, mostly due to his transformation, there's no Matrix cover besides the chest windows themselves. In hand, I do wish there had been some sort of cover, as the Matrix is visible through the windows, but it's not as bad as I thought it'd be. Speaking of transformation, it's pretty smooth, intuitive, and enjoyable. In some ways, it's similar to MP-10's. His head still folds into his torso, although it goes in through the back instead of the chest. His lats still fold down and spin 180 degrees to bring out the tires, flaps on his back still ride those spinning lats to bring the headlights and the sides of the bumper forward. His waist still rotates 180 degrees, his toes still fold up, and his thighs still collapse into his lower legs. The differences are that there's more going on with the legs to bring out his rear tires and truck mode fuel tanks, the piece with the headlights and bumper is has more of the cab front on it, and panels unfold from his arms to fill in the sides of the truck. Also, there's no faux grill. The grill and Matrix chamber pull out, the Matrix chamber spins around to reveal the bumper, and then the whole thing rotates 180 degrees and pushes back in. The truck mode is ok, overall. The cab loses some of MP-10's details like the rivets and the ladder by the fuel tank, but the fuel tank isn't squished like it is on MP-44. Plus, unlike TE-01 and MP-44, MS-01 retains the stripe on the cab. I know some people want it gone in the name of cartoon accuracy, but I think the cab looks unfinished without it. Unfortunately, behind the cab things are a bit of a mess with a hitch section that's very obviously robot legs. I don't think he's any worse than MP-10 in that regard, but I can't argue that Transform Element looks way better back there than Magic Square. The overall dimensions between the MS-01 and MP-10 are fairly similar, with MS-01 being slightly shorter top to bottom and front to back, but nearly identical in width and overall length. Like MP-10, MS-01 has rubber tires and chrome on the stacks, grill, wheels, bumper, and fuel tanks. It's worth mentioning that the side mirrors on MS-01 don't feel as good as MP-10s, and one has even popped off on me, but aside from those mirrors MS-01 fits together better than MP-10. One thing I find odd about MS-01 is that the instructions have you turn around part of the vents on his shins, revealing a flatter surface with a pair of tabs per leg. The tabs don't work with MP-10's trailer; all you can do is kind of perch the trailer on him, and even then it's a little too high. Yet skipping that step doesn't hinder anything else. You can get the same truck mode without flipping those panels around. So why'd MS do it? Why have those four little tabs? Could MS be working on a trailer for MS-01 at a later time? I've skipped buying trailers for GT-03 Op Ex and both Fans Hobby's Laser Optimus and Scourge figures, and would honestly have preferred if MS-01 worked with MP-10's trailer. But if the price is reasonable I could probably talk myself into buying an MS trailer for this guy. Sometimes it's the little touches that get me. You have to undo the sides a little, but you can open the cab on MS-01 just like you can with MP-10 and the G1 toy. Unlike MP-10, though, you don't see the back of his head. Instead there's a little centered seat, painted in black. That's absolutely an homage to the molded seat left in the G1 toy for a Diaclone pilot, and I love it even if I don't have any Diaclone reboot guys to stick in there. One last thing to mention. Due to how the panels in his arms unfold and lay against the side of the cab, you can pull his doors open. Looks pretty cool from the front, but from the side there's just a wall of red behind the door. 2019 looks like it's going to be bringing us not one but three excellent MP-style Optimus Primes. None of them are absolutely perfect, though, and it's mostly small subjective details that make the most difference. I know some people prefer the cartoonier look of TE-01 and MP-44, but I hate the white thighs and pelvis on both, I really hate the backpack on MP-44, and while I could live with the lack of a thigh swivel on TE-01 it still bothers me more than anything on MS-01. Some have criticized MS-01 for being too similar to MP-10, but I honestly think that's a strength. I loved MP-10, and MS-01's improvements to articulation and changes to the legs and the overall proportions fixed my biggest complaints with it. There's also the fact that most of you probably already have MP-10, and even with its flaws you might be thinking it's good enough that you don't want to replace it. And that's fine. All I can tell you is to take a look at the options. If you think TE-01 looks better, maybe go for it. Even with MS-01 in hand I'm still thinking about grabbing one. But if you like the way it looks you'll probably be happy with MS-01, and I personally think it's inexpensive enough that it's worth buying to replace MP-10, so I recommend it.

Huh. I didn't know that. It just looked like bare plastic to me. I wonder why they didn't use a glossy paint, or something with a satin metallic sheen? Well, I stand corrected. That would fix most of my complaints with TE-01. As it stands, I'm interested in picking up TE-01, but having already bought MS-01 and with a bunch of other stuff trying to beat CNY I decided to wait for the second release in April/May.

Wanted to get this up quick, because a.) my Magic Square Optimus comes today, and b.) it's been a super long time coming. This guy first came out in something like 2015 or 2016, and I preordered and prepaid for a reissue all the way back in March. This is Gigapower's Guttur, their MP Snarl. Like Gigapower's other dinobots, Guttur isn't as slavishly cartoon accurate as, say, Fans Toys' Sever, but I don't think it's fair to he's toy-accurate and leave it at that. I think he's a happy medium between the two. He's got big, round shoulders, gray forearms, and not a lot of the toy's sticker details on his torso aside from cartoon-accurate molded gunsight-looking pattern and the red right below it. He doesn't have halves of a Stegosaurus head hanging off the sides of his knees, either, although he does retain the toy's dino legs on the outside of his robot legs. He's also got some spots of red, black, and blue paint on his legs and red on his shoulders that can be thought of mimicking the toy's stickers, but AFAIK so did Sever. I'd say that the biggest visual difference that separates Guttur from the cartoon model or Sever (aside from the visible dino legs) is his pelvis, which is black with some red, silver, blue, and yellow painted details that similar to the toy's stickers, while the cartoon and Sever both have a red pelvis. There's not a lot to add that I haven't said in my reviews of Grassor and Graviter. His silver parts are painted with a nice silver sheen, his red parts are either a red chrome or a very metallic red paint, and the gold parts are all a gold chrome. The black and translucent parts are really the only unpainted parts. His size and give him a premium feel that combines with his bling for an incredible shelf presence. Do note that, like the other Gigasaurs, you can purchase this guy in a non-chromed metallic version. The metallic version retains the silver paint but swaps the red paint/chrome for bare red plastic and the gold chrome for a metallic gold paint. Guttur comes with a few accessories (possibly more if you get the metallic version, but I'm not sure if all the parts that came with the original came with the reissue). You've got his sword and gun, both of which are pretty G1-accurate. The gun does have a non-so-accurate red tip on the barrel, and the sword splits the difference between toy red and cartoon gray by putting a red blade on a black handle. Both accessories light up, but I don't have the right batteries. Additionally, you get a missile launcher that the G1 toy had, some translucent parts, black parts that fit into the back of his head, and a sheet with eye stickers on jeweled red material Last but not least, you get an alternate head with a snarling face, red eyes, and red forehead instead of the neutral face, blue eyes, and silver forehead that comes installed. Swapping the head is as easy as pulling it off the ball joint and popping the other one on. However, as long as you haven't wedged one of those fillers into the back of his head you can unscrew it and take it apart. In theory, this lets you choose your own forehead/eyes/face combo. In practice, I couldn't get the face off of the red forehead, so I'm going to wind up with red forehead, snarl, and blue eyes when I think I'd prefer silver forehead, snarl, and blue eyes. (Mini rant, but where did the red forehead come from? The G1 toy had silver, the cartoon had black. But both Sever and the ToyWorld snarl have red, and Guttur has a red option.) As mentioned, Snarl's head is on a ball joint. He can look up a little and tilt his head slightly, but his chest is too puffy for him to look down. His shoulders rotate on ratchets and can extend laterally 90 degrees on another ratchet. Biceps can swivel. Elbows bend 90 degrees on ratchets. His wrists swivel. Each finger is individually articulated. The thumb is on a ball joint at the base with no additional joints. His fingers have a pin hinge at the base knuckle and one additional hinged knuckle. His waist can swivel, and mine is super tight. His hip skirts have hinges to get out of the way, and his hips go forward a little less than 90 degrees forward and backward on a ratchet, and laterally 90 degrees on another ratchet. His thighs swivel around the hip joints. His ratcheted knees bend one click under 90 degrees if you leave everything tucked away properly, however you can move the halves of the dinosaur head and get enough clearance to go one click beyond 90 degrees. His feet are kind of weird. The gold toes can move up and down a little, and they can pivot a little. There's also a part in his heel that can pivot, so he has a flat base to stand on when his legs are spread a little, but their range is a little limited. However, due to his transformation his entire lower leg can bend inward at the knee on a ratcheted joint. I wouldn't use it to an extreme degree, but just a click looks pretty dynamic. A special note here, apparently Guttur's hips were an issue originally. They were too weak, or something like that. That's definitely not the case with this reissue. The forward/backward ratchet doesn't feel super strong, but I can pick him up, turn him horizontally, and give him a shake, and nothing moves. The ratchets support the weight of the legs, and there's no play between clicks. He's rock solid. Both the gun and sword have tabs on the handles that peg tightly into slots on his palms. The sword is a little wide, so his thumb can't wrap around it, but it's not going to fall out. The missile has a peg on a double hinge. You can plug it into a port on either forearm, or into the screw holes on his back if you want it over his shoulder. If you're like me and not planning on using the missile launcher you can flip a peg out of the butt of the rifle and peg it into one of the screw holes. One of the translucent parts is a clip that can peg into the other screw hole, and it fits around his sword so you can store both weapons on his back. Unfortunately, the clip has to be removed for dinosaur mode. He's got one other little easter egg, something the other Gigasaurs don't have. You can open the sides of his chest up, like that one episode of the cartoon. There's nothing in there except for some molded circuits and wires, but it's nice that Gigapower used some silver, blue, and black paint on those molded details. Guttur, naturally, turns into a Stegosaurus. There's not a ton of difference between Snarl's cartoon and toy in dino mode. Like both, Guttur's got gold front legs, gold legs from the knee down on the rear, gold head, spine plates, and head, translucent circles on his hips, and is otherwise predominantly silver with a little red on his back near his hips and tail. He's got more molded and painted circuits and wires in the gap where his dino legs tuck in for robot mode; I guess that's closer to the toy than the cartoon's dark gray arrow. What he doesn't have is eyes. There's molded spots for them, but all you get for color is the stickers I mentioned back in the accessories. That's frustrating, because everything else about him feel so premium. It's baffling that they cheaped on on that one last little detail. In dino mode Guttur's head can move up and down a tiny amount, as well as look left and right a bit. His mouth does open, and inside are a pair of individually-hinged cannons. His front legs can rotate at the hip on a friction joint, and laterally just a little bit. The knee bends on a ratchet and has about 90 degrees of range. The front paws can't tilt up and down but a hinge does give him an ankle pivot. His rear hips are his robot shoulders, with ratcheted rotation and 90 degrees of lateral spread. His new dino knees can move forward and backward a little, but they're fairly limited. They can also swivel on his robot-mode bicep swivel, but his robot-mode elbow is tucked away. His rear paws can move up and down, plus the toes can bend up. Like the front paws he does have ankle pivots at the rear, but they have less range. His tail has a joint for a little side-to-side wiggle, but he doesn't have the range or the up/down motion to actually use his thagomizer. The peg holes on his robot forearms are still available on his rear dino thighs, so you can plug in the missile launcher, sword clip, and gun, just not all three at the same time. Finally, if you really want that G1 toy look Gigapower's got you covered. Simply fit the translucent parts over his head and neck, and voila. While there are a ton of official and 3P Dinobots out there today, after all this time your only MP choices for are still just Gigapower and FansToys (unless you count the too-small MP-08 or the OS KO). Happily, you really can't go wrong with either. FT's are slightly more cartoon accurate, Gigapower's are a little bigger, blend in some extra toy details, and deliver a more premium finish without needing to track down some X-version repaint. Both sets enjoy quality materials, quality construction, and simple, effective engineering. What it really comes down to is a mix of availability (which ones happen to be readily in stock when you want to buy) and which has the small differences you prefer. I'm happy with Guttur and the other Gigasaurs, and I'm looking forward to maybe finally getting the last two this year, so yes, I'd definitely recommend Guttur. Just know that FT is good too.

No, Op Ex is a great figure.

So slow it's never gonna arrive.

Sorry! I mean, yeah, they all have their pros and cons. And yeah, the Matrix chamber is probably what I'd say is the biggest strike against Magic Square But you gotta pick your poisons, and for me the bright white thighs and pelvis and lack of proper thigh swivels on TE are the bigger sins, at least for me personally. Yeah, I can kind of see that. It's the head, with the red dome on top the black helmet around a silver face on a mostly black robot with red cockpit glass on his tummy.

The other Deluxe I picked up is Sideswipe. Like Hound, I don't have the old Universe Sideswipe anymore (I kind of remember not liking it, anyway), and unlike Hound Sideswipe didn't get into Combiner Wars, so here he is with CW Brake Neck/Dead End. Maybe a shade shorter, but (spoiler) so much better. They did a really good job of nailing Sideswipe's aesthetic. The chest isn't the front of a Countach, but everything else would look totally at home on a G1 Sideswipe. The silver dirt paint on his shins even looks pretty good, like scratches, although I would have liked his knee pads picked out separately. His accessories are something of a gripe of mine, though. You've got a black tube with a tab on one side and a 5mm peg a quarter turn from it, with 5mm peg hole openings on both ends, and a red cone with a 5mm peg handle and a 5mm peg on the back. The peg on cone fits into either end of the tube. Neither accessory looks like Sideswipe's usual fair. Sideswipe's head is on a ball joint; not much down, but good up, good sideways tilt, and rotation. Shoulders rotate and extend laterally 90 degrees. Biceps swivel. Elbows bend 90 degrees. No wrist swivels, though. His waist can swivel. His hips are universal joints that go 90 degrees forward, backwards, and laterally. The thighs can swivel around the universal joint. Knees bend just a sliver under 90 degrees. No up/down tilt on the feet, but he's got over 45 degrees of ankle pivot. Unlike Hound, he doesn't have any 5mm peg holes on top of his shoulder area. Instead, the white parts flanking his head have slots for the tab on the tube. If you put the longer side of the tube facing forward (and put it on his left for cartoon accuracy) then the peg on it interferes with his head articulation. Spinning it 180 degrees and sticking the cone into it gets the peg out of the way and gives you something closer to his G1 shoulder cannon, although it's black and red instead of white, and it leaves him without a hand gun. It'll be my first time, but I do believe I'm going to hit up Shapeways for a proper shoulder cannon. Beyond slots and his fists, he's got 5mm peg holes on the outside of each shoulder, on the outside of each forearm, on the outside of his lower legs, on his soles, and one on his back. He's supposed to be a Cybertronian car (and Hasbro likely isn't looking to spend money on licensing), so he's not a Countach. But the low profile, the wedge nose, and the vents behind the cabin are certainly Countach-esque. He's a low, sleek car, and although he's a fictional one he looks and feels more like he could a real car than basically any car we got from Combiner Wars. Not a lot of peg holes in car mode; just one on either side in front of the rear tires and one on the roof. I guess you don't really need more, though. Even if you don't combine his weapons you've got enough to store all his weapons. Between Sideswipe and Hound, I greatly prefer Sideswipe (although the fact that I had a G1 Sideswipe makes me a bit fonder of the character). The lack of wrist swivels and more G1 accessories are my main complaints, but he's otherwise one of the best Deluxe-class Transfomers in recent memory, so I'd give him a recommend. Now at this point, I've looked at not one but two figures in every size class of the Siege line. And taken as a collective, Siege is shaping up to be to be one of, if not the best mainstream Transformer lines to grace store shelves. All of the characters maintain a strong G1 style in robot mode despite ostensibly sporting Cybertronian alt modes. Every figure from Deluxe on up has better articulation than previous figures (they're four for six on wrist swivels and six for six on waist swivels and ankle pivots), with better joint tolerances, more paint, and fewer obvious hollow spaces. The Battle Masters don't just make for more weapons that can be used by the larger figures, they come with effect parts that can be used in a variety of ways and come at a reasonable price. Although some people are bemoaning the smaller (or more gimmicky) Leaders, I like that Hasbro is keeping the characters relatively in scale with one another. The Micromasters are the only dark spot in what's otherwise been a stellar line. They just don't feel worth the asking price, even with gimmicks that allow them to combine into weapons or otherwise be used by larger figures. While Hasbro seems to be addressing a lot of complaints with the previous Generations lines by delivering a fantastic aesthetic, scale, less hollowness, more paint, and better articulation I still don't have an answer to my original question: are these changes coming too late for the adult collectors? With third party having filled most of Takara's gaps I think a lot of collectors have given up on CHUG and gone MP. A lot of those that haven't, either because they prefer simpler engineering, have space concerns, don't care for a slavish G1 aesthetic, don't care to pay $100+ per figure, or just for fun, have dived into the prolific world of 3P Legends. Are those collectors, people like myself who have cut back or even quit buying the mainline Hasbro figures, going to come back? That's something only time will tell, although it seems to be that interest has definitely been higher than it's been in a couple of years. And while I'm certainly not going to say that I'm all in (definitely not buying Skytread, probably not any more of the Micromasters besides Ravage and Laserbeak), before Siege came out I said I wasn't going to buy any and somehow ended up with both Leaders, both Voyagers, and half the Deluxes in the first wave. And looking ahead, I could definitely see myself buying both Wave 2 Voyagers and at least two of the Wave 2 Deluxes. One thing worth noting... there's one Deluxe, Cog, that's labeled a "Weaponizer." The Weaponizers look to have special gimmicks that add more value to other figures. I haven't picked up Cog because he's apparently based on a minibot that came with Fortress Maximus back in the day, and I didn't have ol' Fort Max. If I get bored and have money burning a hole in my pocket I might pick him up later. However, the Weaponizers in waves 2 and 3 are Sixgun and Brunt, based on the robot made from Metroplex's guns and a non-transforming tank that came with Trypticon. I did have both of those guys back in the day, and I'm probably going to pick those guys up. So if I don't pick up Cog, you guys might have to wait for me to review a Weaponizer.

Eh, I did wind up going to Target again and getting a Siege Prime that doesn't have two left hands. Still no Deluxes there... but it turns out Amazon had them, and at the regular retail price. I didn't grab all of them, especially since Skytread is a character I don't give a crap about and really feels like a "we didn't finish the Duocons in the old Generations stuff, so let's stick the other one in Siege" move on Has/Tak's part. But I grabbed Hound. I don't have the old Universe Hound anymore (although I remember it being pretty good), but here he is next to CW Hound (who was not so good). His legs are a little less tidy than the G1 cartoon, and that slathered on silver dirt paint hides some of the green. Speaking of green, I'd have liked to have seen a more metallic forest green like the G1 toy, or at least a brighter olive like the cartoon. The rounded lights and plates on the ends of the bumper try to evoke the fenders and mirrors on G1 Hound, but aren't entirely successful. And using some of the at silver paint for the chunk of stuff above his bumper might have also made him a little closer to the Hound's cartoon model. All that said, he's got the right overall shape and color scheme you'd expect from Hound, which is more than we could say for the CW version. Hound comes with three accessories. We've got a rifle, a round thing, and his shoulder cannon. The round thing is fairly superfluous; it's got an offset peg hole on the inside and a tab on the edge, but the dearth of pegs and slots on Hound limit where it can go. The rifle has slots on the side that work with the round thing, a small tip for the Battle Master shot effects, and a 5mm peg on the butt. The shoulder cannon works via a 5mm peg, so it can be plugged into ports besides his shoulders or into his hands, and it also has a 5mm peg on the back. My big gripe with the shoulder cannon is that instead of coming to a point, like a missile, the silver part has an open 5mm hole for a barrel to work with shot effects. I can't quite tell for sure what kind of joint Hound has for a neck; it swivels, and there's a tiny amount of up/down play, but there doesn't seem to be any sideways tilt. The kibble behind his head makes manipulating it kind of a pain. Shoulders rotate and extend 90 laterally. Biceps swivel, elbows bend 90 degrees, and his wrists swivel. His waist swivels. His hips can kick forward, backward, or laterally 90 degrees, and they're universal joints instead of the ball joints you'd usually see at this size class. His thighs swivel around the universal joints. His knees bend a little over 90 degrees. His toes have a slight upward bend, and his ankles can pivot a little over 90 degrees. As I mentioned, the round thing has tabs that can fit onto the sides of the rifle, or onto the butt of the rifle or the shoulder cannon (although not when the shoulder cannon is actually on top of his shoulders, as there isn't enough clearance with his backpack). The instructions also helpfully suggest that the peg on the rifle can fit into the barrel of the shoulder cannon, with the round thing on the back for one large combined weapon. Aside from his fists he's got one peg hole on either side of the top of his torso just in from his shoulder joints, one on the outside of each shoulder, one on the outside of each forearm, one on the front of each shin, one on each sole, and one in the middle of his back. He's also got a few of the tiny pegs on his body for the blast effects. The transformation to jeep mode is pretty interesting, and the jeep is... ok. I dig the bronze stripes, and overall it's much more jeepy than CW Hound's alt mode. I guess I'm just not a fan of the black roll cage, preferring the windshield-and-nothing-else look of G1 Hound. Which would have been doable- the rollcage is only there to connect the engine to his back, but the engine isn't necessary. I think I also might have preferred silver rims to the green, but hey, at least they are painted. You can still put the round part on the side of the rifle or on the back of the rifle or shoulder cannon, but the jeep mode actually has a place for it near the back on the engine. You can see a semicircle cut out around a peg. As for peg holes, Hound has four on the back (two on the engine, one on either side of the engine) plus one on either side of the vehicle. The instructions suggest putting his weapons into the two holes on the engines, but you do you. Although there's a roll cage, the driver's compartment is open. I could kind of wedge a Titan Master in there, although he's a little too big, can't really sit, doesn't have anything to really sit on, and there's no visible controls inside. Hound has a lot of good going for him. Objectively he's one of the better Deluxe-class figures I've handled. I mean, wrist swivels and ankle pivots! On a Deluxe! But I'm still a little lukewarm on him. Maybe it's that his torso is too blocky and not jeepy enough. Maybe that roll cage on the alt mode is just really bugging me. Maybe it's the 5mm cannon barrel instead of a missile tip. Whatever it is, it's more of a subjective nature, so if you think this Hound works for you then by all means get it. But if you're just not a big Hound fan and you're being selective about which Siege figures you pick up I certainly won't fault you for skipping him.

Y'know, I sold my Striker Manus, figuring that he was too small for my Optimus display (which does still have Thunder Manus), and I still have the Noir version if I want to mess with the mold. But that Premium version has me thinking about picking him up again (and maybe Planet X Jupiter, too). Size doesn't really matter, right?