mikeszekely

It would look exactly as odd as the right-hand section of the third pick up from the bottom of the review I posted, since that's the rear of the combined truck. While I understand the desire for a larger Shockwave... that's what Cloud 9's Quakeblast is for (or Fans Toys Quakewave, or the official MP Shockwave... whichever floats your boat...). For robot mode scaling with the other figures in the Siege line I wouldn't actually want more than half a head taller (aka, the same size as Op and Megs). Invert it, so the emitter is on the inside. Then design it so that, instead of opening and encapsulating the arms, it unfolds as you move it up, then turns inside out to wrap around Shockwave's arms. Admittedly, you'd need a lot of hinges, though, to maintain the octagonal shape of the barrel, but no changes to anything but the backpack would be necessary.

If you guys know me by now, you knew this was coming. Leader-class Siege Shockwave. Yes, I did say Leader-class. And yes, Shockwave is really a Voyager, one who's slightly shorter than Prime, Megatron, or Ultra Magnus' core bot. But, as a fan of the early Marvel comics, Shockwave is one of my favorite Transformers, and this is a very satisfying version of it. His color is a satisfying purple, with a translucent piece in his chest, a lavender fist and gun-hand, and some silver feet (painted) and thighs (plastic). He's got a properly chunky backpack and a menacing mono-eye. It's not showing well with my lamps aimed straight at him, but get some light above him and the eye glows so well you'd swear it was an LED. He's even got a hose running from his back to the back of his left arm, and the "dirt" paint prominent in the Siege line is confined to his toes. One might nitpick and say that maybe he's a tad greebly, but that's part of the Siege aesthetic. Really, the only part of the Siege aesthetic carried onto what is otherwise an extremely G1 Shockwave. Like Ultra Magnus, it seems much of the Leader price-tag on Shockwave is devoted to his accessories. And I'd describe them largely as "chunks of things that Shockwave didn't really need." Shockwave's head is on a ball joint, but one with the ball in his chest instead of his head. As noted, he can't really look up but be can look down or tilt his head sideways a good deal in addition to rotating it. His shoulders can rotate, extend 90 degrees laterally at the shoulder itself, and a transformation joint in the chest allows him to extend his arm all the way until his shoulders are touching his ears. His biceps swivel, and he can bend his elbow a little over 90 degrees. He has wrist swivels, on both his actual fist and his gun-hand. His waist can swivel. His hips can bend 90 degrees forward or backward on a soft ratchet, and 90 degrees laterally on a friction hinge. His knees bend 90 degrees backward on a ratchet, and can actually bend one click forward as well. He's got cut thigh swivels a little above his knees. His feet don't tilt up or down, but he does have about 30 degrees of ankle pivot. Since we know it's a Siege gimmick now, I didn't bother to take any pictures of him with a ton of weapons and Micromasters hanging off of him. I'll tell you, though, that he's got 5mm pegs on the outside of each shoulder, the outside of each forearm (and one on the back of his left forearm, but that's where his hose plugs into), one on each side of his backpack, one on the back of his backpack, one on the outside of each lower leg, and one on the sole of each foot. There's five spots on his body for attaching fire effect parts, and the tip of his gun-hand is just the right size to put a fire effect part there. If you feel like using his accessories, the official way is to stick junk that looks like winged, feetless legs with arms coming off of them onto his shoulders, some flat parts with big cannons become his shoes, and the rest clips onto his backpack, although as JB0 noted you can come up with other configurations. This turns him into some kind of four-armed monstrosity... with dapper coat tails. The new arms have bicep swivels, double-jointed elbows (that, for clearance reasons, don't get much better than 90 degrees), and wrist swivels, but they don't have separate shoulder joints, so they rotate and move laterally with main arms. While his coat tails don't do much beyond hanging off his back, they do have a swivel and a hinge so you can keep them out of the way. Plus there are flaps with little cannons, and you can arrange his tails so that the cannons are firing forward. So, the extra parts don't really add any extra articulation, but they don't hinder what he has, either. The backpack and shoulders add a lot of bulk, and his shoes give him a slight boost in height, but to the head he's still only about as tall as Optimus and Megatron. As far as peg holes go, he loses the ones on the outside of his shoulders, the ones on the sides of his backpack, and the ones on his soles, but he gains new ones on the sides of his backpack, plus an additional one on each tail, one on the back of each extra forearm, two on the bottom of each shoe, and one on the inside edge of each shoe. All of the small pegs for fire effect parts are still available except ones on his shoulders, but his new shoulder pads each add two more. Basically, this mode isn't hateful, but it doesn't really add anything meaningful to the experience. If you don't like Shockwave the four-armed freak, all the extra bits can be assembled into a drone, of sorts. The arms do have a point where they lock in, but if you want you can extend them. You still have access to the bicep and wrist swivels, as well as the double jointed elbow. Technically you can even rotate the whole part they're on, like a shoulder rotation, but with no lateral movement. A lot of pegs are visible on the drone, but no the only peg holes are under the forearms and up inside the drone (although if you remove the arm parts, like JB0 did, you'll have access to two on each side of the remainder). Using the peg holes on top of the drone, you can attach Shockwave to the top and he can ride the drone around like a Base Jabber or other SFS from Gundam. Of the two bot-mode uses for the extra parts I'd say that I prefer this one. I can definitely see Shockwave flying around Cybertron on an SFS designed to look like himself, shooting Autobots and dictating his commands to Decepticons. It still seems unnecessary, though. By himself, Shockwave turns into a gun submarine spaceship of some sort. Ok, no, seriously, fold the little winglets on the bridge up, fold the landing skid back in, flip it over, unplug the hose from the bridge tower, and plug it into the landing skid. That's totally a gun! The barrel could stand to be silver, I wish his feet folded in, and he's missing his scope (and arguably his trigger), but I'm willing to let the trigger and barrel things slide in the name of nailing the robot mode. I don't even mind that the handle is really too small for an adult hand to hold. It's not like this is an MP. Assuming that you're using the hole on the top of the barrel for the hose, you've got peg holes on the sides of the barrel, the sides of the handle, and one on each side near the back if you want to stick stuff to him. Not sure why'd you'd want to, though. If you insist on using the parts he comes with, though, this is the official configuration for his complete spaceship mode. I will grudgingly admit that it's kind of a cool spaceship, probably the best "Shockwave as a spaceship" design we've seen. His bot mode heals look like missile racks, and the little cannons on his tails look like the kind of defensive batteries you'd see on a warship. Makes me wish they were articulated. I also dig how the bridge is basically an elongated Shockwave head with his ears horizontal instead of vertical. The eye in the middle is even light-piped, same as his real head. The only thing that looks really out of place is the hose. Unfortunately, only one end, the end that goes into his bridge tower/barrel/forearm can be unplugged and moved around. The end that connects to his robot back is fixed. In full ship mode Shockwave has peg two peg holes on the underside of the wings, one on each extra gun arm, two along each side of the bow, one on the underside of the bow (unless you deploy the landing skid), one on each side of the bridge tower (although you'll likely use one for the hose), and one on the sole of each robot-mode foot. Although there is a spot that looks like it'd work in gunbarrel of the bow, I tried putting different fire effect parts in it and they just didn't fit. Since the Transformers Classics line debuted over a decade ago one of the most commonly-demanded figures was a Voyager Shockwave. After all this time, we finally got one, and he's excellent! Unfortunately, he's saddled with with unnecessary parts that, while not hindering anything, don't really add enough to the experience, either, driving the price up to Leader-class. Had he been sold as a Voyager with just the core Shockwave this would be one of the easiest recommends I've ever given for a mainline Hasbro product. Personally, I'm not sorry I bought him even at the Leader price, and I'd go so far as to say that he's my favorite of the entire Siege line so far. But I'm not sure that the add-ons he comes with really justify the extra $20 over an actual Voyager. So if you can live with the price, I say get him, he's a great figure. Just be very aware of what you're actually getting for your money.

Don't forget the molded missiles on his heels that will wipe out his bridge tower. Technically the Siege Micromasters combine into a weapon (although the result looks more like little robots having intercourse more than a gun). I just stick them on as cars as an homage to Armada. I don't recommend skipping the entire Siege line, as they're the best mainline Transformers have been for as long as I've been collecting. But like I said in an earlier review, you can absolutely skip the Micromasters and not be missing out.

Like JB0, I was also at Target today. Looks like a new plan-o-gram; prior to this visit the shelves were all still marked for Power of the Primes, Cyberverse, and Studio Series, and the Siege stuff (empty pegs for Micromasters, a few Weapon Masters, and empty pegs for Deluxes) were on a temporary holiday display. Now the Cyberverse stuff seems scaled back a bit, and the PotP stuff is clearanced out and moved off the shelf. In its place were spots for all the size classes of Siege. On the shelf they had Voyagers, Micromasters (but no Air Strike Patrol), and Weaponizers. The pegs for Deluxes and the shelf space for Leaders were both empty. I almost bought another Optimus so I could have one with a right hand instead of two lefts, but it looked like people were moving stuff around and restocking, so I figured I'd ask. They really were out of Deluxes, but instead of another Prime I picked up both Leaders. We'll start with Ultra Magnus. While my childhood collection was light on season 1 and 2 characters, I had most of the season 3 toys, so I have a deep appreciation for an Ultra Magnus that's a white Optimus. I was actually kind of disappointed with Combiner Wars Magnus and MP Magnus because they don't have that feature. On the other hand, Has/Tak has kind of taken the white Optimus thing to an extreme, though, giving us Ultra Magnus repaints of practically every Optimus Prime toy released in the last decade. Siege Ultra Magnus delivers the white Optimus I crave, but they didn't take the cheap repaint option. Instead, Ultra Magnus is an entirely new mold (I've heard some people suggest that the head is the same, but Magnus has some molded detail that Optimus doesn't). If he were painted in the traditional red and blue Magnus would be instantly recognizable as Optimus, but Magnus is sporting very different proportions. His upper torso is a little wider due to the folding panels between his chest and shoulders. His lower torso has more chunk. His pelvis is larger and his hips sit lower. His thighs are shorter, and his thighs and biceps are wider. His hands are bigger. His feet are smaller. Taken by himself, he's a little chunky but I don't think he looks too bad. Compared to Siege Optimus, though, there's no question who has better proportions. I'm not mad, though. I actually like how it gives him the basic white Optimus look while also giving him a unique aesthetic. Something else I like is how the front of his pelvis folds down and can spin around. One side is the more Optimus-looking side, while the other is blue with Magnus' white belt. Something I don't like, though, is the huge chunk of very un-Optimus kibble on his back. We'll let it slide, for now. Now, you might have noticed that Magnus (so far) is basically the same size as Voyager-class Optimus, but he's a Leader. I'm guessing the rest of his plastic budget went to his accessories. You've got two leg parts, a torso part, his shoulder missiles, his shoulder pylons, two arm guards, and three guns. One of the guns is silver, and looks like the G1 gun if it had an extra stock. The other are black, and super hollow inside. Magnus' head is on a ball joint that can rotate, look up and down a fair bit, and tilt quizzically a tad. His shoulders can rotate and move outward a little over 90 degrees. His biceps can swivel. His elbows can bend 90 degrees, and he does have wrist swivels. His waist can swivel. His hips can move laterally 90 degrees on friction joints, and forward/backward 90 degrees on ratchets. His thighs can swivel around the joint. His knees bend 90 degrees. His feet don't have any up/down tilt, but they do have about 45 degrees of pivot. He holds his guns ok, but for some reason his grip on other 5mm pegs (including the one on Weapon Master Firedrive) are super loose. As far as other 5mm ports go, he's got one on top of each shoulder, one on the outside of each forearm, one on the outside of each leg just above his ankles, one on the blue kibble on his back, and one on the sole of each foot. His silver rifle actually has two on either side, one right above the handle and one behind the barrel, and the black guns each have one above the handle on the non-hollow side, so you can connect all his weapons up if you like. Magnus' cab is roughly the same size as Optimus', and there are some similarities. Both have translucent blue plastic over the windows, grill, and headlights. Both have a pair of multi-barrel cannons on either side of their bumpers. But on the whole, Magnus is a greater departure from the traditional Optimus cab, with the windshield being a single pane, small slivers for lights, and a front bumper that looks like it could have been more at home as the cow catcher on an old locomotive than a truck bumper. That bumper... this is looking kind of familiar... It's also a lot lazier than Optimus's cab. His forearms and hands don't tuck away so much and look ridiculous, like a half-robot, half-truck riding a pony. There's a huge gap between his robot hips and the tire on his front bumper; really wish they'd have put the tire on an accordion hinge so it could have swung back over that gap. Although is heels fold in, his toes don't fold down and stick up in a way that screams "I am robot feet!". There's a bit of gap between his legs, too. You can distract yourself from some of the ugliness of the lone cab by loading him up with weapons and what not, as you've still got access to the hole in the bumper, two on top of the cab, and one on each side just behind the rear wheels. While Has/Tak has been pretty content to paint an Optimus white, call it Ultra Magnus, and go home for the day Siege Magnus uses all the extra bits to armor himself up. The wider torso and thighs, longer arms, bigger pelvis, and bigger hands are starting to make sense now, eh? What you get is a little greebly, but very G1 Ultra Magnus. With his armor on he's noticeably shorter than the Combiner Wars Leader Magnus, although he's much heavier. He winds up just a head or so taller than Voyager Prime. Now, a lot of people are complaining about this, saying that Leaders are shrinking. Personally, this doesn't bother me. Honestly, I didn't buy a lot of Leaders even at the height of my CHUG collecting, because Leader-class figures tended to be wildly out of scale with the rest. A head taller than Optimus seems like the ideal height for Ultra Magnus. And let's be fair, they're using more plastic than the previous Leader. You're also getting better articulation than the previous Leader-class. His new head is still ball-jointed; not much sideways tilt, but he can look up and down, and rotate his head. His shoulders can still rotate and extend over 90 degrees laterally (I at first didn't like how his shoulder missiles sat up above the blue part of his shoulder, but that's how they stay out of the way of the lateral movement). He's still got his bicep swivels, elbow bends, and wrist swivels. His waist still swivels. His thighs, hips, and knees use the smaller robot's joints and have basically the same range. His ankle still don't have any up/down tilt, but he's got almost 90 degrees of ankle pivot. One thing to note about that ankle pivot, though, is that his feet are molded at an angle to his shins, so he's always got a bit of an A-stance. As far as 5mm holes, they're similar in number. The one on his truck bumper is on his butt instead of his back, but he did get another one on his back. His forearm covers plug into the ones on his smaller robot forearms but those covers also have a 5mm port on the outside. His new legs have a port each on the outside, just below the knee, and the number on his feet jump from one to two on each sole. The ones on his smaller bot shoulders are covered, but he's got a pair just inside of his shoulders on top of his torso, plus one each on the outside of his new shoulders (although you're probably going to stick missiles there for that traditional Ultra Magnus look). Since his hands are the same as the smaller bot's, he still holds his weapons fine but still holds other weapons loosely. All that armor's not just for robot mode. The torso section stretches out to make the roof of a trailer, with the head tucked in and his forearm guards pegged in behind his head. The sides of the legs unfurl and snap together, encapsulating the roof as they do. The backs of the shoulders fold down, the shoulders tab together back-to-back, then the shoulders are pushed so the circles on top of the pylons lock into grips behind the ankles on the boots. The white parts of the boots do not fold down. And because the feet are molded at an angle the back of the trailer isn't level. And there we have the cab and trailer together. Although shorter than the older Leader-class they're about the same length front to back, with a bigger cab on the newer one. Plus the wheels are actually painted this time. Unfortunately, since the trailer doesn't really open and since his head and forearms are taking up room in there you can't really fit a Deluxe-class (or larger) vehicle into the trailer. The cab also doesn't turn. I put the Magnus missiles near the front of the trailer for maximum G1-ness, but this alt mode really isn't G1 at all. In fact... Yeah, it's totally RiD Ultra Magnus, isn't it? The way the front of the cab slopes in, the giant cow-catcher bumper, the little slit headlights, the extra side panel grating, it's all RiD Magnus, just in more G1 colors. And although I put the missiles forward, the instructions actually suggest putting the missiles where I have the black guns pegged on, and the black guns pegged on where I have the missiles and pointing straight down. The shape of those guns, now that I'm looking at them, is very close to that blue part behind the cab on RiD Magnus. In addition to those two pegs on each side of the trailer you've still got the hole in the bumper. Plus, there are two holes on top of the trailer you can use, so while he can't accommodate a ton of extra weapons or Micromasters in this mode you'll have no problem storing all the accessories he comes with, at least. Ultra Magnus is a great figure, once you accept that he's a bit shorter than you might expect a Leader-class toy to be. He's got good articulation that isn't hampered by his armor, the cab is a unique mold and not a repaint of another Optimus, and he's the first Ultra Mangus toy since the G1 version to do both the white Optimus and traditional Ultra Magnus (by design, so I'm not counting Fansproject's City Commander). While I would have liked the truck mode to be more of a G1 Ultra Magnus it doesn't bother me now that I recognize the RiD homage, and these are technically still supposed to be Cybertronian modes anyway. Easy recommend from me.

I know I'm pretty late to the show on this one, but he was sitting in my stack at TFSource just waiting for more stuff to pile up so I (being cheap) could hit that $150 free shipping mark. But this is X-Transbots Flipout, aka MP Wildrider. I looked at the prototypes for DX9 and FansToys' takes on Wildrider... look, I'm all for competition. And while I've heard some mixed things about Montana, I could say there are definitely some things that were nicer on it than XTB's Crackup. But this guy, right here? Flipout? He looks darn near perfect. The lines on his feet and circles on his toes. The trapezoids on his shins. The rectangles on his knees. The octagons on his thighs. The linework on his hips (that DX9 and FT both seem to think is also some of his waist/abs). The big black square on his abs. The asymmetrical white and blue chest squares. The tires in his shoulders. The red forearms broken up with some gray at the elbows and hands. The suitably grumpy face, ear spikes, and a squarish head with just the right linework. The built-like-a-refrigerator torso. He is, of the G1 Wildriders that will be available at some point, the most cartoon accurate. Yet he doesn't feel like he's venturing into that "looks like crappy drawing someone rushed out for a cartoon 35 years ago" look. He looks rather premium, in fact, as nearly every surface is covered in paint. That's glossy white, black, and blue on his torso, a metal-flaked gray on most of the rest of him, and a gorgeous metallic red on his arms and face. He looks and feels so good that he makes the GT Wildrider here look and feel cheap next to him. His back cleans up much better than Crackup's. Honestly, the only thing I can think of to complain about might be that you wish he looked a bit more toy accurate. I didn't have the Stunticons as a kid, so that's a non-issue for me. He doesn't come with much... not that he needs to. You get this cartoon-accurate blaster, mostly painted in that same metal-flake gray used on the rest of him. Not pictured, but he also comes with a second face. The face looks to be the same sculpt as the default one, just done in a glossy red that matches Crackup's instead of the metallic red. Flipout's head is on a hinged swivel that can look down a little, up a little, and rotate. His shoulders are actually on ball joints that rotate and extend 90 degrees. There's a transformation hinge in the torso that you can use to get a little extra lateral movement out of, though. He's got bicep swivels where the red stops, above his elbow. The elbow itself is double-jointed and curls nearly the whole way up. His wrists can swivel. His hands are your basic MP car's, with a fixed thumb and all four fingers molded as one piece hinged at the base. He's got an ab crunch, and his waist can swivel. His hip skirts are hinged at the front and sides, so his hips can bend 90 degrees forwards, backwards, or laterally, on on soft-ratcheted universal joints. His thighs have swivels around the joint. His knees can bend 90 degrees on ratchets. His feet can bend up slightly, down 90 degrees, and pivot about 45 degrees. He holds his gun just fine, using the usual MP method of a tabbed handle fitting into slots on his palms. Flipout transforms into a Ferrari 308 GTB, like you'd expect. Maybe not as cool as the 599XX (sorry, I'm a sucker for modern supercars and don't care as much for '80s Ferraris), but such is life. Being cartoon-based he's sporting the metallic red striping on the sides and lacks the carbon fiber hood of the G1's sticker. I think a case could be made, especially in the bright lights, that the gray is a little light, but I think I'm ok with that. He can't hide his gun in alt mode, but he can plug it into the back of the car, and the handle is on a hinge so it can be aimed up. Despite the emphasis on the cartoon's design, XTB made sure that Flipout looks like an accurate Ferrari 308. The grill is accurate. The tail is mostly accurate, although it seems like it's missing some of the undercarriage shroud around the exhaust pipes. The lights are accurate, including the white circle inside the orange on the taillights and the turn signals in front of the front tires. There's molded and gold-painted spots for the Ferrari badge on the hood, behind the front tires, and on the rims (rims that are also accurate). There's a molded key hole under the triangular door handle groove. The tires are rubber. The translucent red windows let in enough light that they look like realistic windows but are shaded enough that you can't really make out the robot bits inside if you're not actively looking for them. I wish some of the tabs fit together a little more snugly, but one the whole this is a car that won't look at all out of place with your other Hasui-era MP cars. I really don't have a lot of complaints here. Some of the tabs, specifically the ones that lock the rear of the car in and the ones that hold the front of the car and the doors together are a little tight, and he's a little more expensive than Crackup, but I think he's a better figure with a smoother transformation than Crackup. And even with the increase in price, he's still below the price of an MP car, even when MP cars were regularly under $80. He's well made, the materials are good, and he looks spot on in both modes. I'll tell you right now, I don't know if I'm sold on XTB's Menasor (if Zeta does a toy/OX-style Menasor that'll probably be my MP Menasor), but Flipout is a fantastic MP take on Wildrider at a price that makes him very worthwhile even if he never gets combined. Definite recommend from me.

I know I reviewed him a while back, but I don't really remember what I said then. What I'm saying now is that the only reason I don't rank him lower is because I do like the robot mode, even if it's not super movie accurate, and I value the robot modes over the alt modes. But yeah, the alt mode is hot garbage that tabs together so poorly that it always looks half-transformed.

Launchbox, no. I've thought about it, but on my Windows machine I just have shortcuts to individual emulators with custom icons. Frontends like RetroArch and Launchbox gave seemed like an unnecessary extra layer. I've used Lakka as a minimal OS on PC hardware I stuffed into an old NES as a dedicated emulation machine, though. Results were mixed.

I don't think so. I didn't have any Dinobots as a kid so I've got no attachment to red Swoop, only the blue one. Glad he's being made available for the people that do want him, though. And I kind of dig the package.

I saw Bumblebee right before Christmas, then right after Christmas picked this guy up- Studio Series Dropkick. When Hasbro launched the Studio Series line, the impression that I got was that it was something special. A little more expensive than previously, but in return were were getting more paint, we were getting robots that were in scale with each other, and we were getting the most movie-accurate Transformers outside of the MPM line. And while the line has had some hits and misses, for the most part I've been fairly satisfied with what you're getting for what you're paying. Unfortunately, while there are toys galore for the new Bumblebee movie the only new figures announced in the usual Deluxe scale all carried the Studio Series branding, making me worry that Studio Series was less line for the definitive movie toys (again, outside of MPM) and more of a generic umbrella for movie toys in general. And we kind of saw that with Bumblebee, and the toy turned out to be lacking in accuracy due to the toy's design being finalized before the movie's model. However, while tabbing together the alt mode is an exercise in frustration he still made for a solid bot with plenty of accessories, and the MPM of this Bumblebee turned out to be just as inaccurate. Maybe there was still hope for the Studio Series line. And then I got Dropkick. Look, I don't envy the designers. Despite it not being necessary to the plot, someone somewhere decided that Dropkick (and his partner, Shatter) should be triple changers. And those same people used a lot of movie magic to make the transition between modes happen, and ultimately gave us a robot with car and helicopter kibble hanging off it. That series of decisions left somebody else (who definitely isn't being paid enough) the unenviable task of up with a toy that looks like the robot in the movie but actually transforms. And on the looks department, I'd give them a D-. I mean, they kind of gave him faux tires at his elbows and some black blocks with red centers that are maybe supposed to be taillights, but there's really no effort to even attempt to look like car parts anywhere else. His head is fairly accurate, and he does have the helicopter cockpit in his torso and rotor on his back like he should, but the split car grill pecs are kind of just empty gaps here. The blue in his torso, arms, and thighs is totally missing, even in spots where blue paint wouldn't have affected the alt mode. His door wings are gone, inadequately replaced by two kibble flaps that don't secure in this mode, flopping loosely on ball joints positioned so that they sit vertically against his back instead of even trying to stick out horizontally like the door wings. His arms are also burdened with helicopter kibble, kibble that frustrates me because it looks so unfinished. Would it have killed them to put a double hinge in the tail so that it could lay flush on his forearm? This figure is closer to being a Bayverse Whirl than the robot you actually see on screen. He doesn't come with a ton of accessories, but I guess what you get is fine. And what you get is a pair of these guns. The black barrel can fold in for alt mode. Unfortunately that leaves a big empty space when the barrel is deployed. Dropkick's articulation isn't great, especially after being spoiled by Siege and the better Studio Series figures. Pretty sure that his head is on a ball joint, and it can rotate, look up slightly, down slightly, but no sideways tilt. His shoulders have ball joints inside the shoulder for rotation, a little butterfly, and a little lateral movement. With the transformation joint you can get a little more lateral movement, but the kibble behind his head don't leave the tops of his shoulders enough clearance and you can't even get all the way to 90 degrees. His biceps swivel. Elbows bend 90 degrees. No wrist or waist articulation. His hips are ball joints and can kick forward and backward well over 90 degrees, and about 90 degrees laterally. His thighs can swivel. His knees are single hinges that can get nearly 180 degrees. But he has no foot or ankle articulation. Generally speaking I found posing him to be a chore, simply because the junk on his back kept getting in the way of the junk on his arms. He holds his weapons fine, with the usual 5mm pegs for handles that fit into 5mm fist holes. The transformation is, at least, pretty interesting. It takes a fairly thin robot and stretches it out even thinner, moving in ways that don't seem obvious at first but aren't difficult, either. The result is a fairly accurate Bell Super Cobra attack helicopter. The rotors do turn, although the main rotor doesn't spin freely. I think I actually like it that way, though, since it helps the rotor to stay put in robot mode. The weapons peg onto the slightly-too-stubby wings, emulating the 19-tube rocket launcher a Super Cobra might carry. Molded onto the nose you can see the sighting system for TOW missiles, and the 20mm triple-barreled cannon (which is very easy to forget about folding out when you're transforming him). Sadly, you can't really rotate the cannon without forcing the barely-tabbed halves of the copter apart. His hands are super visible on the tail, and I honestly think there's more blue showing in this mode than in robot mode, which is the opposite of what you want. Helicopter aficionados may find some value in a fairly accurate Super Cobra with a fairly unique transformation. However, the robot mode is fairly weak and so far removed from the on-screen model that it might as well be a different character, making Dropkick one of my least favorite entries in the Studio Series. Save yourself some money and let this guy shelfwarm at the store.

I really don't get what's going on these days with Intel/Nvidia. All I know is I've hung on with a Core i7, 16GB of DDR3, and a GeForce GTX 970 waiting for a bigger upgrade than the GTX 10-series. And now that the RTX 20-series is here, it's kind of underwhelming unless you're hung up on ray tracing and priced like Nvidia thinks that crypto-bubble is gonna last forever. And Intel's gone from unbeatable (if pricier) to watching AMD do all the innovation while they clutch their pearls and fret about ARM. Between the two of them (and the price of RAM these days, ouch!) I've gone from planning my next PC build to just buying new games for PlayStation instead.

So I've heard good things about New Age, and I'm thinking about getting Flipper (their Bumblebee) because he supposedly scales really well with other Legends figures and he looks so cute. But I think that, instead of going all in on a Legends-scale collection, I might limit myself to just Magic Square's stuff (well, maybe Iron Factory's DJD, too). That NA Prowl does look pretty cool... minus the elbows. Nothing makes a toy feel cheaper to me than when a ball joint is doing double-duty as an elbow and a bicep swivel. But don't worry, looks like I might still end up with Legends-scale Datsuns...

I'd been hearing a ton of good things about Magic Square's Legends-scale figures, and with MS-01 on the way (just hit the States, so hopefully he gets through customs quickly) I thought I might check out one of those Legends figures. Since I'm not totally sold on the scale, I decided to go with Stereo Master, Magic Square's Blaster. I figure worst-case scenario he'd make a fun little accessory for my MP-scale figures. One of the first things you notice about Stereo Master is the plastic. It's not very glossy, and it feels a bit rougher than most TF figures. If you have some of the older Fansproject stuff, like the heads for the Function X figures, Sidearm, or the Protector trailer, it's sort of similar to that. The difference takes some getting used to, but it feels sturdy, so I guess it's not really a bad thing. The second thing you notice is, holy cow, that's definitely Blaster! Despite his much smaller size I think he's actually got better proportions and more cartoon accuracy than pretty much any other Blaster toy I can think of. They even nailed the hips, which KFC couldn't manage. I've heard the expression "mini Masterpiece" used to describe Magic Square's offerings, and if Stereo Master is any indication I'd say the label fits. For a more accurate size comparison, here he is with a Hasbro Legends figure (Slash) and an Iron Factory one (Armor Boar, aka Brawl). As an MP collector I'm not sure how Legends are supposed to work (I think the idea is that they're sort of the same size as the Hasbro ones, but when Hasbro was doing characters like Optimus in Legends-scale and not reserving it for minibots, but the Legends figures from a company like DX9 might not match the scale of Iron Factory's, or something like that). I think Stereo Master looks fine with Armor Boar, though. And you'll note that Iron Factory and Hasbro both use 5mm peg holes for their hands, which makes them pretty big. Magic Square seems to be using a smaller 3mm size. That means they're not really compatible with other weapons you might have lying around, but it seems to result in hands that are more proportional. Stereo Master doesn't come with a lot. He's got his electro scrambler rifle, with a good sculpt for the size. Plus it's got some silver paint, which is more than I can say for even the KFC version. He also comes with an adorably tiny little tape that transforms into a similarly tiny, similarly adorable Ramhorn. The tape mode is a little on the thick side, and the halves a held in place by friction alone, but I think it's fair for what it is. Despite Stereo Master's small size, Magic Square didn't cut corners on the articulation. His head is on a ball joint that can swivel, look up 90 degrees, and look down or tilt his head sideways a little. His shoulders are also ball joints, and he can rotate them and extend them laterally 90 degrees. He's got a dedicated bicep swivel, an elbow hinge good for 90 degrees, plus a hinge just below the bicep swivel that effectively works as a second elbow joint. His wrists can swivel. His waist can swivel. He's got 90 degrees of ab crunch, and a hinged panel on his crotch even moves to give the ab crunch clearance. It's not a joint required for transformation, either; it exists because MS wanted the figure to have an ab crunch. His hips are on ball joints, so they can move 90 degrees forward, backward, or laterally, plus he's got a little swivel there. If that's not enough for you, he's got dedicated thigh swivels where the darker gray thigh meets the lighter gray hip. His knees are single-jointed hinges good for 90 degrees. His toes have a little bit of up/down bend, and the entire foot is hinged for 90 degrees of ankle pivot. The tape door on his chest does open, and the buttons are all hinged so they can move, but there's no springs or anything. You have to pull the door open and position the buttons manually. I think that's acceptable at this size, though. He holds his gun fine in either hand, and the little Ramhorn does fit into his chest. From most angles Stereo Master's alt mode looks as good as his robot mode. He doesn't have a lot of extra details, but pretty much all the details from the animation model are there. He's even got tab slots where the animation model had lines from where the G1 toy had grooves for turning out the arms. There are seems where the G1 model had some lines. All he's really missing is a circle on one side, something that maybe Toyhax can fix with Reprolabels. He is a little messy from the back, especially with the hands showing. But if I'm being totally fair, I don't think he looks that much worse than the Voyager-sized Unique Toys figure or the MP-sized KFC one from behind. Besides, although it's not the prettiest, having his hands visible does allow him to hang onto his rifle in this mode, so you don't lose it. The connection between the two halves of his handle is a little less secure than I'd like. You can still open his tape door, and Ramhorn can still store inside. Without Ramhorn in there his head is super visible, though. Even with the tape door closed, the clear panel is very see through. MS should have gone less transparent and more translucent. Again, I'm kind of hoping Toyhax can make some Reprolabels to go behind the door, maybe something in gray with lines that look like the animation model. In the meantime, it's best to keep Ramhorn stored inside while he's in this mode. I said at the beginning of this review that chose this guy because I wanted to check out MS's Legends-scale offerings and that, as a boom box, he'd make a cool accessory for my MP-scaled figures. And he definitely does! The thing is, I'm actually kind of blown away by this little guy. Now, I said I wasn't going to do Legends. I said I was far along into my MP collection, and I don't want to try to find space for a Legends collection. And even though I liked Iron Factory's Bruticus in combined mode a lot, despite their reputation I wasn't even impressed enough with them to as individual robots to change my mind on Legends. But Stereo Master really is like a mini MP. In fact, if you scaled him up, replaced the ball joints in his shoulders and hips with universal joints, maybe replace some of the friction joints with ratchets and include a little more engineering in the arms to tuck them into the alt mode better (honestly, I think folding the hands into the forearms and putting other swivel at the lower elbow might be enough) and Stereo Master would be a much better MP KFC's. It's amazing to me that MS was able to nail the aesthetics of both modes as well as they did in such a small package and with such simple yet effective engineering. So ultimately, Magic Square and Stereo Master have done what not even Iron Factory could- they got me into Legends. I will definitely be picking up some more Magic Square figures, and soon. I can't really think of a stronger recommendation than that.

Minor addendum to my Megatron review: I was messing around with him a bit, and I noticed on one side of the sword, on the part the blades rotate around on, there's a screw. If you remove the screw, you can pull the blades off. Without the blades catching on the underside of the turret you can raise and lower the barrel, although the pivot point is set near the back of the turret instead of the front. Without the blades attached it's not much of a sword, but he can still hold it like a rifle. And since he's got peg holes on his back you could stick stick the gun back there, like the gun barrel on G1 Megatron's back. My only gripe is that it sits much too high. That seems fixable with a 3D printer or Shapeways, though. The hole that the blades connected through is still a 5mm hole. An adapter that's basically a thin strip of a plastic maybe an inch long, with a 5mm peg pointing down on one end and a 5mm peg pointing up on the other could peg into the hole on his back with the second peg hanging closer to the bottom of the backpack for the gun to fit onto should do the trick. Anyone with a 3D printer care to try it? I definitely would, but I don't have a 3D printer.

Ok, so he can handwave away Optimus showing up at the end by saying he left and then came back with the others in the first Bay film... but how does he explain Bee fighting Nazis in The Last Knight?

Same, plus two Walmarts, even though both the Targets and the Walmarts have bare shelves and empty peg hooks where the Transformers stuff should go. I don't know if the problem is Hasbro's distribution or if scalpers have just been snatching them up. You can find them plenty of Siege figures if you shop on ebay or Amazon... as long as you're willing to pay 2-4 times the retail price. I eventually gave in and just ordered from TFSource. Who also quickly sold out. It's a shame, because while I don't think can go all in on Siege I'd like to review at least one figure from each size class. Prime wasn't the only Voyager I picked up from TFS, though. I also grabbed Megatron. As with Siege Optimus, Siege Megatron is easily the most G1-ish megatron Hasbro's released. He's a tad broad in the chest, or his torso is a tad short, but I think he looks better in robot mode than even the Leader Class from Combiner Wars. There are even nice touches like part of his shoulders folding back to leave fake gun hammers on top. That said, instead of a gun barrel on his back he's got two noticeable chunks of tank. His wrists are permanently bent inward a bit, and where they fold out he has hollow spots in his forearms. And like Prime he's got that silvery paint all over him meant to look like dirt and scratches. It actually doesn't look too bad on his legs, but it looks kind of gross on his torso and forehead. Aside from the dirt paint I think he might have a bit less paint than Optimus Interestingly, Siege Megatron is definitely looking a little shorter than the previous Voyager Megatrons. However, that might have been due to previous Megatrons being a little taller than previous Optimuses, because when you put Siege Megatron and Optimus together they're very evenly matched. Aside from his trademark fusion cannon, which does NOT have to be removed for transformation (which I very much appreciate), he comes with this big sword thingy. Almost looks like it could be a new type of Star Destroyer. The two tabs on the one side are so you can attach the "swoosh" effect that comes with Lionizer... which I don't plan to get. Megatron's head is on a ball joint that can look up and rotate... and that's about it. You can get him to look down, but that's because his head tucks down into his chest for transformation. Somewhat irritatingly there's no locking point for his collar in robot mode, so it sometimes winds up tucked in there when you're messing with him. Shoulders can rotate and extend laterally 90 degrees. Biceps rotate just above the elbows, which can bend 90 degrees. No wrist rotation. His waist can rotate, although you have to pull the bottom of his backpack out a little to clear his hips. Speaking of his hips they're universal joints that can go forward 90 degrees, backward about 60 degrees (they're capable of more, but his backpack is in the way, and laterally a little over 90 degrees. His thighs rotate on cut swivels. His knees can bend 90 degrees. His heel spurs actually lock into place, and with them extended you can't bend his feet up or down. He does have ankle pivots, though, good for 45 degrees. If you don't like how weird is sword looks, there's a peg on the one side, and the halves of the blade can be turned out so the sword becomes a gun. Battle Master fire effect parts can be placed in the barrel of either weapon. Both of his fists are molded 5mm pegs, so he can hold his sword or other weapons. And, like Prime, he's got a number of 5mm ports on his body for other weapons. There's one on each forearm, including the one his fusion cannon is plugged into... ...there's also one on the outside of each shoulder, one on the outside of each lower leg, two on the back of his backpack, and two on the top of his backpack, so you have lots of options for other weapons, Battle Masters, and Micromasters to attach to. He's also got some of the little pegs to attach the fire effect parts to, and peg holes on the soles of his feet for them. I guess turning into a gun has become taboo again in the eleven years since Classics Megatron came out. And when Megatron's not a gun, he's usually a tank. While Optimus went for a G1 truck mode with random extra bits to be more Cybertronian, Megatron skips emulating the Leader-class version and doesn't even try to look like an Earth tank. It's not a bad-looking tank, though, although he's got a bit of a gap in the rear between his treads. Megatron doesn't have working treads, but he's got wheels on his undersize so he still rolls. His turret can rotate. However, the barrel can't move up or down. Like Prime, Megatron has plenty of spots on his alt modes for weapon storage, fire effect parts, Micromasters, Battle Masters, etc. Unlike Prime, who stored his accessories at random, both of Megatron's accessories are part of his alt mode. The fusion cannon is the middle of the turret, and the blades flip around on the sword and slide under the turret, with the sword handle fitting into the barrel of the fusion cannon. Since he can transform without removing his fusion cannon I don't think that should count as partsforming, but forming the barrel out of his sword definitely is. If you really don't like partsforming, here's how he looks without the barrel. Not ideal. Rotating the turret 180 degrees does give you a little of the cannon sticking out, but still not great. One more alternative is to not rotate the fusion cannon on his arm before folding his arms into the turret. That will leave most of the fusion cannon's barrel sticking out, and as long as the turret's rotated backward so the cannon is pointing forward I think that looks passable. Plus, this way the cannon actually can move up and down a little. The downside, though, is that there's a gap between his arm where the barrel would normally sit. Siege Megatron is a good Voyager-class figure. He's definitely an improvement over the Power of the Primes Voyager, and as much as I love it, over Nerf gun Classics Megatron. However, he feels like a step back from Optimus. The articulation is a little worse, although I'm happy he's still got ankle pivots. The joint tolerances aren't as tight as Prime's; if I pick him up and give him a shake, his hips at the least will wiggle. There should have been some mechanism to help his head not collapse into his chest until you actually want it too. And, while this is more subjective, I'm not a big fan of that sword, so I'm not loving how it's basically a necessity for a proper alt mode. If you're the Siege line or otherwise still collecting Hasbro CHUGs he's definitely a great addition to your collection. But, if you're only going to try one Voyager-class figure from the Siege line Prime is the better of the two figures.

I haven't tried to play any Macross on Android, so I don't have a definite answer, just some advice. There are a few different versions of MAME for Android, and part of the reason for that is because a ROM that works great on one might be totally unplayable on another. So it's probably a matter of trying them to see which one might work with your ROMs. The alternative is RetroArch. RetroArch isn't an emulator in and of itself, though, it's a unified frontend for running ROMs through a collection of emulator cores. It's not as user friendly as a lot of stand-alone emulators and can take some effort to tweak and tune before it's set up the way you like it. However, I hear that the fba core has excellent compatibility with a lot of arcade ROMs

With the Micromaster/Battle Master appetizer out of the way, let's get to a main course of a Siege... Voyager-class Optimus Prime. It's taken eleven years and four tries at a Voyager-class Optimus Prime... but holy, did Hasbro get it right this time! His smokestacks are a little stubby. You can see the wheels in his torso. He's missing the fuel tanks on his legs. The bottom of his crotch is left unpainted gray instead of blue. And yeah, he's got some kibble on his arms and back. But the head sculpt is amazingly good. His pelvis has the correct shape and number of yellow bits. Nothing is particularly modernized or stylized like the other three. And his proportions are actually better than MP-10's. And you know, it seems like people have been complaining a lot in recent years about how Transformers have been shrinking, but with them all lined up it sure looks like Classics Op, Titans Return Op, and Siege Op are basically all the same height to the head. And despite their similar sizes, Siege Op is noticeably heavier than CW or TR Op. There's still some hollow places on his body, although his transformation does fill in a lot of them, and none of the usual Hasbro cost-cutting like hollowing the backs of the thighs just to save plastic. Oh, and is that paint I see? Why, yes it is! The smokestacks, grill, and toes, face, and forehead have silver paint. There's yellow on his pelvis and the lights on his chest, plus white for the stripe under his windows. His eyes are painted blue. That all looks great! Unfortunately there's also some haphazardly applied silver on his arms, chest, and thighs that doesn't look so good. It's meant to look like mud and scratches, like this is a battle worn Optimus, but... eh. I think in hand it's not as bad as it first looks, but I'd have rather the paint budget went elsewhere. The G1 cartoon-accuracy carries over to at least one of the accessories, as he finally comes with a gun that looks like his classic ion rifle (ok, one of CW Prime's was close, if it weren't for the odd engine details). It's a shame they put so many hollow spaces in it. I'd have been perfectly content of Hasbro had stopped their, but he also comes with an axe weapon. The axe can fold up into something like a shield, and it's actually got quite a bit of silver paint itself. This isn't just a good-looking Optimus, Hasbro has improved the articulation over previous efforts as well. His head is on a ball joint that can look up and down a fair bit and tilt sideways ever so slightly in addition to rotating. His shoulders rotate, and a joint inside the shoulder lets his arms move laterally about 90 degrees. The smokestacks are even on a hinged flap so they can open and get out of the way. Due to his transformation he's got a bit of a backwards butterfly motion in his shoulders as well. His biceps swivel, and his elbows bend on a single hinge a little over 90 degrees. His wrists can swivel. His waist can swivel. His hips are friction universal joints that can go forward and backward maybe 75 degrees, and laterally the full 90 degrees. His thighs can swivel around the joint a bit, and if you need a little extra there's a swivel above the knee, too. Speaking of knees, his are a single hinge but they get closer to 180 degrees than a mere 90. His toes and heels can bend downward. And, in a shocking twist for a Hasbro figure, he's got actual ankle pivots, good for about 45 degrees. It's not just that he has a better range of motion than other Hasbro figures, either. The tolerances on his joints are much better than I'd expect. I can pick up Siege Op, give him a little shake, and nothing will move. He is, of course, still a mainline Voyager, so his hands are molded into 5mm peg holes. He can hold his weapons fine in them. You can even open his chest up. There's some molded details in there, but mostly just a big gap where his head goes when he's in alt mode. No Matrix. You can fit a Prime Master in there, though. In addition to his weapons, Siege Op can also hold a Battle Master, or really any other weapon with a 5mm peg. Actually, he can hold a lot of weapons with 5mm pegs, because there are several on his body. There's one on the outside of each forearm near his elbow, one in each shoulder on the smokestacks, one on the outside of each lower leg, between the wheels, and two on his backpack. There's also two on the sole of each foot. Those peg holes aren't just good for weapons, either. Remember those pegs I mentioned under the front ends of the Micromasters? You can slap them onto Siege Op, Armada Minicon Powerlinx style. Actually, turns out you can peg Swindler and Roadhandler together, and with their feet folded out they become a gun. A stupid-looking one, but it's an option. If you have a Battle Master, using the fire effect parts with them does help sell it. Speaking of, turns out the outer edge of the fire effect parts' attachment point is 5mm, so you can stick them into 5mm ports on him. Remember the ones on his feet? Stick them in there, looks like he's got boosters. The barrel of his rifle is also a 5mm port, so you can use the fire effect there. You'll also fine tiny pegs in various spots on his shield and on his body that the fire effect parts can stick onto. I think putting them there makes it look more like Prime is being shot. Although Siege is the first line in a series being called "War for Cybertron" and this is ostensibly a Cybertronian alt mode, Siege Optimus turns into a truck. In fact, although it's not as G1-accurate as his robot mode, it's debatably closer than the previous Voyager-class figures. It does look a little smaller, but that seems to be mostly that the cab is a little shorter. Without the wind vane on the top of Classics Prime it's similar in height and length. And, again, much heavier than CW Prime. As I was saying, for a Cybertronian alt mode it's not that far from the G1 truck. We've still got two windows, a white stripe, a grill, two headlights, and a bumper on the front. The big changes are the translucent blue on the lights and grill, the overhanging roof with extra lights, and the small silver-painted gatling guns on the sides of the bumper. Moving around the truck, the smokestacks end up in the right place, although there's a bit of a gap between them. From above, you can also see a little bit of gap between his thighs. Checking out the sides we do have fuel tanks, as well as some molded bits that could be storage boxes and some skid plates, also painted in silver. His rims are painted in silver. Unlike the G1 version, they're kind of covered still. Weirdly, the windows on the sides are painted silver, despite the front windows and part of the side window being translucent blue. Would I have liked a more earth-mode, G1 truck? Sure. But this isn't bad, and transforming Prime into this mode is surprisingly complex without being confusing or difficult. You can still open up the chest in this mode. Rather than an exposed head, you see silver-painted molded detail that's evocative of a Matrix. There's also a number of peg holes showing- two on the roof, one on each side of the cab, one on each side near the rear wheels, and one on each of the smokestacks (plus, if you open them back up, the four on the feet), so you have a lot of options for storing weapons, Micromasters, blast effects, etc. With a retail price of $29.99, Siege Op is a little more expensive than the Voyagers of yesteryear, but with improvements in sculpt, engineering, articulation, and paint, not to mention enough weight and lack of hollowness that Hasbro doesn't feel like they're skimping on the materials, so the higher price tag feels justified. On the flip side, he might still not be up the same level as an MMC Reformatted or Maketoys Cross Dimension figure, but he's between half and a third the price. It's almost like Hasbro has heard the complaints of the adult collectors and watched those same collectors snap up 3P alternatives and decided they'd actually listen to those collectors and make a competing product. The end result is simply the best Optimus figure Hasbro has released that wasn't part of the Masterpiece line. I just wonder if it's coming too late, at a point where a lot of collectors have abandoned Hasbro in favor of either 1st and 3rd party MPs or 3P Legends. It'd be a shame of that were the case, though. Siege Optimus is a solid figure with a fun transformation and plenty of articulation to get him into so really dynamic poses, and little touches from things like the Battle Master's fire effect parts can add to the display factor while the numerous 5mm ports and compatibility with other weapons and Microsmasters add to the playability. Despite being a mainline Hasbro figure you can walk into a Target and buy it's a great figure, one I'd definitely recommend.

Almost definitely not. MS and TE are both designed to be MP-scaled. Pics have been shown of both with regular MP-10's trailer. The kbb one will be too small.

Replace the head, paint the stripe on the cab, replace the white thighs and pelvis with silver or light gray, and replace the dark gray hinges in his pelvis with hinges that match the pelvis, and then TE would have a chance.

Well, like I let slip in my previous post, I found some Siege figures (finally). Among a few other things. Since I don't have a ton to say about them, I'm going to talk about all the little guys at once, so what I have here are Siege Micromasters Roadhandler and Swindler, aka the Race Car Patrol, and Battle Master Firedrive. So these are the littlest guys in the Siege line, and they're a little less that double the size of a Titan Master or a Prime Master. I'd compare Firedrive to the Nightstick that came with Universe Cyclonus, except that I have no idea where he's at since I moved last spring. Since all the G1 -masters were the same size, and since he makes a pretty large weapon, there's a part of me that wishes Firedrive were smaller. On the other hand, smaller figures usually have worse engineering, so maybe it's fine. Firedrive is supposed to be Firebolt, Hot Rod's old Targetmaster buddy. He looks the part, aside from having white arms instead of black. He comes with two translucent pink rubbery blast effect parts. The Micromasters don't come with any accessories. Speaking of the Micromasters, they're essentially the CHUG version of the old G1 Micromasters (and it just so happens I still have my G1 Roadhandler and Swindler from when I was a kid). Roadhandler, my favorite Autobot Micromaster, comes out pretty close. He's even still got the big screw hole in the center of his chest. His thighs should be yellow and his pelvis should be blue, and he's got some extra black stripes on his shoulders and more molded details, but that's about it. Swindler gains blue shoulders, but loses his blue pelvis and thighs. His molded rear window shades are gone, too, replaced with painted black ones. The biggest change, though, is that he's got some molded details on his chest instead of the front of a car. The new Micromasters are about the same size as the old ones, but the articulation is slightly better. They've got ball joints for shoulders instead of swivels, so they can move their arms laterally instead a bit (Roadhandler more than Swindler, due to Swindler's obnoxiously tall shoulders). They also traded their hip swivels for ball joints, giving them pretty good lateral hip motion and a slight thigh swivel. Their legs aren't stuck together like the G1 toys', either. They can bend their knees. And... well, that's it. No elbows, no biceps or wrists, no waists or necks, no feet. Both are a little back heavy, and without any real feet Roadhandler especially is prone to falling over. Despite being the same size as the Micromasters Firedrive's articulation is slightly worse. Same ball joints for the shoulders and hips, but nothing at the knees. You can remove the gun barrels from his back, though. They have a small peg that fits into the peg holes on his arms. Too bad he doesn't have such holes in his hands. He can use his sole accessories, the fire blast effects, by fitting them over the tips of the gun barrels. While I couldn't find any other uses for them on Firedrive, turns out that they can fit in the screw holes on Roadhandler and Swindler's chests. Or, they can peg into the bottoms of their feet like they've got jet boots on. Firedrive turns into a gun, just like Firebolt did, although the resulting gun is definitely different than Firebolt. I like the molded missiles in his feet. It's a shame Hasbro didn't paint them; a little red would make them pop more. As Targetmaster gun modes go, I've definitely seen worse. And he can be held by any Transformer, official or 3P, that can hold a 5mm peg. Roadhandler and Swindler turn into cars, of course. Somehow they're both slightly larger in their car modes than their G1 counterparts. Roadhander's transformation is basically identical to the G1 toy. The only difference for Swindler is that his front end collapses onto his back via a double hinge instead of folding down over his front. Roadhandler still looks like a reasonable Trans Am, except more of an early '80s model instead of a later '80s one. Swindler looks more like an '80s Corolla than a DeLorean. There's one interesting difference between the new Micromasters and the old ones. Both of them have flip out 5mm pegs under their front ends. Sorry to leave you in suspense, but we'll talk about that again in a later review. Now, I don't intend to go all-in on Siege, so in some ways my review of these figures aren't just for them. They're serving as ambassadors for their size classes. So on that note, would I recommend Firedrive and/or any other Battle Master? I'm not blown away by him or anything, but if you've got some other figures who could use an extra weapon I think he's probably worth the $6.99 retail price. The fire effect parts especially will make for a more dynamic display. Personally, I'm thinking I might pick up the other gun, Blowpipe, but I think Lionizer makes for a pretty awkward-looking sword and the "swoosh" effect he comes with isn't really as versatile as the fire blasts Firedrive and Blowpipe come with. What I don't recommend are the Micromasters. The only reason I bought the Race Car Patrol was because I had a ton of Micromasters as a kid, the G1 Race Car and Air Strike Patrols were my favorite Micromasters, and (minus Roadhandler's right arm) they're some of the few G1 toys I still have from when I was a kid. Thing is, the new ones are barely an improvement from the originals, they still don't have any accessories, and they cost $9.99 for a pair. Now, I get that value is subjective, but there's just no way one of these guys is worth $5. Maybe if they still came in four packs like they did in '89 (and the Race Car Patrol also had new versions of Free Wheeler and Tailspin, both of which I liked better than Swindler back in the day) I could consider it, but as it stands they just feel like a rip off to me. EDIT: Roadhandler and Swindler actually DO have waist swivels. I'd tried first with Roadhandler, and his was just tight in a way Hasbro toys usually aren't. I was messing with Swindler and his waist turned much easier, prompting me to double-check Roadhandler. Yep, he had one, too. Mea culpa, you guys.

Ugh, I can't win with Hasbro lately. First I get a G1 Hot Rod that's missing the sticker on his chest. Then, I finally get my hands on Siege Optimus and he's got two left hands... EDIT: And then I get a Battle in Space version of Classics Hot Rod today and he's got two right hands. FML.

Picked up the Flame Toys Furai Model Optimus. I think it will probably look fine out of the box, but I think I might paint the red and light gray parts anyway before I build it.

I definitely agree, but I think that goes back to my assertion that the pacing was just way off. In general it felt like they were dragging things out, like the episode where they went to the fair and the found footage episode, then suddenly they spent the last two episodes ending the main plot and tossing in little montage to wrap up the loose ends. If Shiro had a girlfriend in the flashback who was killed during Sendak's invasion would anyone be complaining about it coming out of left field, having no plot merit, being killed off too quickly, or pandering to a fanbase? I'm guessing not, and honestly the fact that it's so casually brought up is why I like it the way it was. If Shiro had a girlfriend no one would have cared because heterosexual relationships are still "normal" and heterosexual characters tend to be defined by other character traits than their sexuality, but playing up Shiro's homosexuality ran the risk of simply making him "the gay one." Instead the writers built up Shiro as a character first then revealed his sexuality through the flashback in such a casual way. They're essentially acknowledging that he is gay without making his sexuality define him any more than it would for a heterosexual character.

But can you correct them yourself? Supposedly TE will be shipping to retailers next week, so I don't see TE making any of those changes.

I'm not a fan doing things like taking established characters and changing them for the sake of diversity (looking at you, Marvel/Iceman and New Trek/Sulu), but if someone is bothered by a show having even one gay character then I'd suggest the problem probably isn't the show. I think I can understand the feeling behind this a little better. Now, I'm not LGBTQ so maybe I'm not in the best position to analyze this, but ultimately I think it's fine the way they did it. Yeah, we went a couple of seasons before he was revealed to be gay in a flashback, but I thought that allowed the writers to develop him as a fleshed-out character who happened to be gay instead of a character defined by being "the gay one". It sounds like you're in agreement, but unhappy with his last scene in the ending. It do I misunderstand you? Yeah, but they're probably not the ones complaining about the show being woke. I dunno. I think it's impossible to please everyone. The LGBTQ community deserves to be represented. But I think it's also important to show that men can have strong friendships and open up emotionally in ways that aren't traditionally "manly" without being gay. That's a problem with the last two episodes (and one they nearly could have avoided, as Lotor's rejection was a good setup to showing her as permanently corrupted by the evils she'd committed), but is that an example of wokefulness or just bad writing? But anyway, I guess my point isn't that the show has no problems. It did (especially the pacing in the last two or three seasons). I just don't think that the problems it had were from being "woke" and I think the show was still good overall.