mikeszekely

Magic Square Optimus shipped out last night. Hopefully customs doesn't take forever with it. The more I look at TE, the more it just looks off to me. It's cheap enough I might still get one for my Optimus collection, but I'm more interested in it for alt mode.

I assume the complaint about "woke" comes from the Urban Dictionary definition, essentially that the OP is complaining that it's too social justicey PC progressive. So I don't get it because I don't really see what's so "woke" about it.

Yeah, I think it's definitely more ET than The Shape of the Water. I feel like people might be reading too much much into Charlie's relationship with Memo, and maybe making a love triangle where one wasn't really intended. Speaking of Charlie and Memo... are we sure that's how it's spelled in the movie? Because this can't be a coincidence...

I do believe that ShowZ was taking preorders for $109. Haven't seen him listed at any US stores yet, but I'd venture something like $130, $135. I'm digging crazy engineering, the cartoon-accurate back robot back, and how clean the rear of the truck is on TE's, but the pelvis and thighs are too white, the head sculpt is my least favorite of the MP Optimus options, he's got the same short torso issues that MP-44 has (although not as bad) and the lack of a proper thigh swivel are killing my interest. As for MS, I know some people don't like the chunkier proportions, but I do. Indeed, that picture of him next to MP-10 shows how MS-01 is a lot like MP-10, but with fixes like shorter arms and more cartoon-accurate lower legs with hidden wheels. So when I heard it was going to be releasing soon I caved. Preordered and prepaid. And it looks like ShowZ got his stock in, so I'm expecting a shipping notice by the weekend an in my hands before the month is out.

Had, past tense (ok, technically I still have the Mac Mini, but it's ancient and I haven't used it in years). OSX was great around 10.6, but more recent updates don't seem to do much beyond make the UI look flatter and behave more like iOS. Speaking of iOS, I used to have iPads. I had the original, then the iPad 3, then the original iPad Air. Android was still pretty young and paying catch up. At the time, the iPad was still the only tablet worth yessing, but even then I hated the overly restrictive nature of iOS, which is why I went with Android (still do) for phones. In the years since Android's come a long way, and I think it's time for phones and tablets now. And there's real competition from Windows with their Surface line now. iOS, on the other hand, doesn't seem to have changed much. I'm happy to help my family with their PCs and phones and whatever, but yeah, I told them a few years ago I'm not service Apple anymore.

On the west side of the bay, I guess? It looks like there are a ton on the east side. I don't know where exactly in the bay area you are, but if you make a trapezoid with points in Richmond, Antioch, Hayward, and Livermore I count 8 of them. Like I said, though, I don't know where exactly your starting point is. I'm also pretty unfamiliar with SF, so for all I know the traffic on 580 could make a 5 mile drive a half hour ordeal that just isn't worth it.

Where are you at that there's no Walmarts? There are four of them within 15 miles of me (plus a 5th that's a little farther, but on the way to a friend's house so I've been known to stop in from time to time). My problem is that between the five I haven't actually seen much of the G1 reissues besides Hot Rod. I got lucky and grabbed the only Devastator I ever saw. No Starscreams, no minibots.

So I eventually decided to get one of those cheapy Hot Rods... and mine came without the chest flame sticker. Looks like the savings are going towards Reprolabels...

I don't get it either.

I agree with pretty much everything except that last bullet point. But that's because

Huh? It's up over $500 million worldwide. I thought it was doing pretty well.

Thanks! Yep, that's the art I was referring to in my review. AFAIK, it was used as the basis for his Marvel Comics appearance and his G1 toy, but it's not the design the animators for the movie and Season 3 went with. It seems that it was Toei Animation that altered Derry's designs. While I can find accurate, revised character models for other movie/S3 characters, I just couldn't find one for Wreck-Gar. That really leaves the animation itself as a reference, and like I said it's pretty inconsistent. The number and location of his spikes and his colors were sometimes different between the movie and Season 3 (or even once scene to the next in the movie). That's why I feel like, even though I might have made a few tweaks to his colors or given him a more expressive face, I ultimately think that KFC did a really good job capturing Wreck-Gar's animated appearance.

Chinese shipping with questionable tracking and an overworked US customs cut it pretty fine, but it looks like I have one more review for you in 2018. This time it's KFC's Crash Hog, their MP Wreck-Gar. So here's the thing... I looked for Wreck-Gar's character model, and only found a Derry drawing from 1985 that definitely wasn't the final one. I rewatched the portion of the '86 movie with the Junkions. I checked screen caps from episodes of season 3 that he was in. I looked at the old Marvel comics, and even some Dreamwave stuff. I looked at the G1 toy. And I gotta say that Wreck-Gar was one of the more inconsistently-drawn and colored characters out there. That being said... I really think that KFC nailed it. Don't get me wrong, I do have some nitpicks. I think the face is a little bland, and would have liked more of a sneering "you check in, but you don't check out" expression. The reddish orange on his torso probably could have been redder, and there are some other spots where I might have adjusted the colors a bit. He's also got the typical articulated KFC hands, and they look too big for him when his fingers are open. Still, the overall sculpt is pretty great, right down to the fuel tank backpack and saddlebag hip pouches. Considering how the G1 toy transformed and it's giant head I confess that I'm pretty impressed that KFC made a Wreck-Gar this close to what was actually animated that still transforms. Do note one thing I didn't notice until after I took this pictures and tried to transform him, though. I actually have his forearms backward- the side with the screws should be facing out. And the reason I didn't realize this at first is because his biceps are facing the correct way, screw on the inside... which meant that my copy was actually misassembled. I had to take his arms apart and flip is biceps 180 degrees. Although some of my pictures might be wrong, the information I'm typing here will reflect the fixed arms with the forearms facing the right way. Size-wise, he's a little more than a head taller than MP Hot Rod. For those keeping score, that makes him shorter than MP-08, DX9's Carry, or the various Springers out there, maybe half a head taller than FT's Kup, and roughly the same size as DX9's Blurr, which I think is about right for Wreck-Gar. Crash Hog comes with a ton of accessories. Naturally, you've got his two wheels, with yellow rims that look different on one side. You've also got his trademark axe, although with a longer handle than you're probably used to. You've got not one but three different guns, each one a different mold but all basically cast in the same gray plastic with little silver accents. You've got four rubbery spikes, two brown pegs, a pair of wing mirrors, a pair of brake levers, and for "that thing in that episode" you've got his little TV. But wait, there's more! As a bonus "that thing in that episode" you've got the box he beats on before telling Hot Rod that he talks TV. Crash Hog's head is on a swivel with a hinge inside his head. He can look up and down a fair amount, but his ability to do so becomes limited he his head is also swiveled. The antenna on his head are on ball joints so you can wiggle them a bit. His shoulders can rotate on ratchets, and extend about 90 degrees laterally on what feels like a very soft ratchet. His biceps cans swivel. His elbows are double-jointed, with the upper joint being friction and the lower joint a ratchet. Combined he can curl his arm all the way up to touch his shoulder, just about 180 degrees. His wrists can swivel. As I mentioned, the hands are KFC/XTB hands with all five digits on a ball joint at the base, with the thumb cut so that it can fold down over the palm. Each digit has two additional hinges, although they're not pinned. I know some people like these hands due to the range of articulation you can get, but personally I think they're too fragile. To be totally fair, though, none of the ball joints have broke on me (like XTB Scourge's thumb did), and none of the digits have come apart at the unpinned knuckles (the way XTB's Hoist did). Moving along, the waist has a ratcheted swivel. The saddlebags can rotate as well as swing upward. The hip skirts can also hinge up. This gives you enough clearance for a little under 90 degrees of lateral movement on a friction joint at the hip as well as a little under 90 degrees forward and about 45 degrees backward on ratchets. The thighs can swivel. His knees a single-jointed ratchet good for 90 degrees. The front of his foot can bend down due to transformation, and he's got about 45 degrees of ankle pivot. He holds any of his guns using the typical MP methold of tabs on the handles that fit into slots on his palms. The fit is a little on the tight side, but that means once you do get them snapped in place they're very secure. His axe works the same way, although there's two spots on the handle with tabs. That gives you options for where on the handle you want him to grip it. The handle itself also comes apart if you want a more accurate, smaller handle, or the axe head can be removed entirely. You'll note that all three guns and the axe head have pegs on them. You'll also note that there are an abundance of peg holes on Crash Hog. He's got one on each shoulder, one on the outside of each upper elbow joint, one on the inside of each lower elbow joint, one on the outside of each forearm just above the wrist, one on the outside of each knee, one on the inside of each knee, one on the back middle of the outside of each lower leg and one on each side of his butt kibble. These pegs can be used as mounting points for his various weapons. They can also be used as mounting points for his spikes or his wheels, giving you a large degree of freedom for how you want to arrange him. You do have to be careful with the spikes, though, as they're very easy to knock loose as you manipulate him. You can get him to hold his little TV, although there's no way to secure it in his hand. (Note the molded gauges on the back of his head; that's nice attention to detail.) When he's watching it, either saddlebag can be opened and the TV stuck inside. Not as accurate as stuffing it into his stomach, but better use of space. As for the box, it has a handle at one end with the same tabs that fit into his palms that his weapons have, if you're into that. The bottom also opens up, allowing you to store some of the little pieces, which is pretty handle. More Transformers should come with boxes. Crash Hog has one more gimmick. You see, Wreck-Gar isn't the only Junkion KFC is tackling. They've done one more, Dumpyard, with teases for an additional four (and that doesn't count the Cy-Kill that appears in Crash Hog's comic book instructions). The gimmick here is that the arms can be removed at the bicep, as well as the head with some of the front of the torso. These pieces can then be swapped around between Junkions, giving you even more customization options. The parts are secure when they are attached, so I think this is a pretty cool gimmick that KFC executed well. Y'know, after watching the Junkion scenes in the movie, I'm not sure that Wreck-Gar's motorcycle mode ever actually appeared in the animation. One does assume that some choices, like the yellow wheels and gray saddlebags, are based on robot-mode colors. Otherwise, Derry's character model or the G1 toy may have informed some design choices. Crash Hog's axe handle splits apart to become the spokes for the front wheel instead of using his arms, leaving his arms to kind of bend up and tuck into his feet in a way that probably changes the look slightly, but his legs do bend up in a pretty G1 way. His backpack unfurls a bit to hide his head and bring out a new, properly-sized front and controls. Ultimately, even if it's not totally 100% accurate, I think it's close enough, especially if the inaccuracies are thought of as small sacrifices necessary to make such a good robot mode. For a size reference, here he is with DX9's Salmoore... Or, here he is being ridden by MP Hot Rod. This makes me think that the bike mode is a good size for most MP cars and ok for Hot Rod, but I'd imagine that he's actually a little small for another KFC Junkion to ride. Although I've seen pictures showing that it can be done, I can't really test this myself as I don't have any other Junkions. The axle handles have springs and do compress like shocks, and the piece they mount to can rotate so it looks like the bike is turning. There's a flip down kick stand on both sides of the bike. The wheels do spin, and although they're spiked it's still pretty easy to balance the bike when you use the kick stands. And most of the accessories we've talked about already can be mounted in bike mode, as there are ports on both sides of both wheels, three ports on the each side of the bike where the legs and arms are folded up, one port on each side of the rear of the bike, and a port on top of the back. You still have access to the saddlebags, which means you still have storage for the TV. Additionally, we can finally use the other accessories we haven't talked about. The brake levers and mirrors use c-clips to grab onto the diecast handlebars. You can see more molded gauges above the handle bars. Do note that the instructions suggest that once the mirrors and brake levers are attached that it should be possible to fold them up and leave them on when you transform him back to robot mode. In practice I had no trouble with the brake levers, but the mirrors kept popping off. YMMV, but I ultimately decided to leave the mirrors off. I don't think the bike mode looks bad without them, in any case. Now if you really hate partsforming, KFC's still got you covered. The axe handle doesn't have to be used to hold the front wheel. Instead, you can tuck the wheel between his elbows. This does change the silhouette of the bike, though, shortening it quite a bit. You also lose that wheel-turning ability. Still, I don't exactly hate this look. It's probably not as accurate, but the overall look kind of reminds me of a smaller Japanese sports bike. Which finally brings us to the last two accessories: those little brown pegs. Should you for some reason decide you don't want the axle handle for the steering stems but still want them carried on the bike, you can put the pegs into the halves of the axe handle, turning what's regularly a peg hole into a peg. You can then use this new peg to attach the handle halves to the sides of the bike, on the robot legs. The result looks something like exhaust pipes. This is the sort of thing that seems like it might make for good customization options as KFC releases more Junkions, but I'm pretty content to put the pegs in the box (first the green accessory, then put the whole thing back into the packaging). Now, I do have a few more complaints. The QC, while not as horrible as some KFC/XTB stuff, is a little iffy in spots. I already mentioned that his biceps were assembled backward. There's a few spots where I could find some sprue marks or stress marks One of his little chest guns, in fact, is slightly bent and has a noticeable stress mark. And one of the pins fired through the bike-mode controls/windshield was misaligned slightly, so the controls are a little crooked and the windshield doesn't sit flush on one side. Plus, while the transformation is pretty easy to understand what you're supposed to do, actually transforming the backpack section to the front of the bike and bike is a bit of a pain that involves threading the handlebars, bike controls, and windshield through a gap between the front of the bike and the fuel tank with minimal clearance. And going back to bot mode those same parts have to be situated just right for the backpack, head, chest, and sides to all peg in right without something popping back out. I think those annoyances are ultimately worth it, though, as this might be the best toy Keith has released under the KFC label. The plastic feels like a definite improvement from even other good KFC releases like Transistor. There's diecast in smart places, too, namely the handlebars, his thighs, and his feet. His articulation is pretty good, and his joints (be they friction or ratchet) all feel like they have the right amount of tension so that nothing is loose or floppy. The sculpt is nigh-on perfect. He's got a ton of accessories. And although he's got gimmicks I think they're well-executed gimmicks that work well without interfering with other aspects of the figure. All-in-all, I think I could imagine a company like Fans Toys doing an even more accurate sculpt with better paint and colors, or a company like DX9 engineering transformation that's less of a pain. But I'm not sure I can imagine a company doing another Wreck-Gar that looks better, transforms better, and matches the customization and playability of Crash Hog. Truthfully, I really only wanted an MP Wreck-Gar to round out my Season 3 cast and had no intention of picking up any other Junkions, but I'm so pleased with Crash Hog that I'm planning on buying at least two of the other Junkions once KFC releases them. I think that's probably the best recommendation I could give him.

Meh. I just don't see it as that different than the non-ripped version of the starting suit. The texture is a bit different (plus), the spiders are different (wash), and the webs on the suit are glossy (minus), that's about it. I'm happy for the people who were practically beating down Insomniac's door over it, but I'd have preferred something else, like the Superior Spider-Man suit, that still isn't in the game.

Just came back from taking my daughter and my dad to see it. I'm glad I brought my dad, because my dear daughter, who was perfectly fine whenever the Cybertron scenes were on, decided during the human talky parts that it's "too scary," so my dad took her out to the lobby while I watched the last hour alone. And... it's good! Not my favorite movie this year, and definitely leaning into kids movie territory, but far superior to any of the Bay films with a relatively focused plot and a decent human cast. My biggest complaint is that the Cybertron scenes are only a brief part of the movie.

With the current trend in MP Transformers having shifted from trying to look like the realistic robots the poorly drawn cartoon could have been based on to trying to look exactly like the poorly drawn cartoon, MMC Occular Max is set to cash in by re-releasing Sphinx, their MP Mirage, with a new extra cartoony deco. Frankly, I think it looks pretty bad... but lucky for me, there are people out there who are into the super cartoon look, people who do want this Sphinx repaint, and already have an earlier Sphinx release. And it turns out that those people are all too willing to sell their older Sphinx to me at a reduced price. Something I liked about Invisible is that his T-shaped torso and wheels behind his shoulders reminded me of the excellent Classics Mirage. As I transitioned away from a CHUG-style collection to a more G1 MP collection, though, I'm forced to admit that the stylized head and narrow waist (and the aforementioned tires behind the shoulders) don't really capture Mirage as he looked in the cartoon. Sphinx definitely captures the cartoon look a lot better, in my opinion. His head is more cartoon-accurate and isn't so small, his torso has better (or at least more cartoon-accurate) proportions, he's got the front wing visible on his torso instead of folded away inside, he's got white biceps and dark shoulders like the cartoon, his wheels tuck into his heels a little further, and he's even got a little of the cartoon's crotch bulge. Things aren't exactly perfect, though. His legs have a more complex transformation than Invisible's do, and that does leave some gaps and some exposed gray hinges on his shins. The flip out panels on his chest and the exposed backs of the front wheels (also in his chest) would have looked better in white. Finally, some the kibble on his back sticks out further than the rest of his torso so it spoils his silhouette and is visible from the front. And while the racing livery will make for a cool alt mode, I'm looking at his chest and wondering where to put an Autobot insignia. Still, based on looks alone, Sphinx is the clear winner for a G1 MP collection. The back is a bit of mixed bag, too. There's a bit of kibbly mess going on that I'm not thrilled with. But, there's no hollow gaps on the backs of his forearms, no half-hearted concealed hollow calves, and no tires hanging off his shoulders. Something worth noting here is that Invisible's head sits in front of a hood formed from the front of the cockpit. Sphinx, like the G1 toy, uses the front of the cockpit for the back of his head. That means the racing decals are tampoed on the back of Sphinx's head. MMC OX has you covered, though. You can swap the back of his head with a clean, decal-less part. Or, if you don't like his default face, with it's mostly stoic expression yet still slightly upturned at the corners of his mouth, you can replace it with a clearly happy face, or go with the toy-style face. In addition to head parts, Sphinx comes with his gun, painted in silver and sporting a very cartoon-accurate sculpt (vs Invisible's more toy-inspired gun), and his shoulder rocket launcher. Not pictured (I don't know how I missed it is the transparent blue top half of a guy. Now it is, at this point, that I have to point out again that I bought this from another collector, and I'm not entirely clear on which run or which version of Sphinx this is (although I believe it to be first run original). I tell you this because mine came with a second box, and in that box I got a clear plastic parachute (aka "that thing from that episode") and one more face. The sculpt on this extra face is pretty muddy; in hand it looked like a slight pout, but looking at my photo it looks like it was meant to be an open-mouthed yelling face. I dunno. My point is, while these are the accessories that I got with the copy of Sphinx I bought I don't know what is and isn't standard, aside from the gun and rocket launcher, so your mileage may vary if you pick up a different version. Sphinx's head is on a ball joint, but that ball joint is on a hinge inside his chest. The ball joint itself can look down a lot and tilt his head sideways a bit, but he can't really look up, and if he turns his head it gets caught on his collar. However, you can move the hinge back to let him look up or to get the clearance to turn his head, so it's a wash. His shoulders rotate, and a hinge inside his shoulders lets him extend his arms 90 degrees. Another hinge inside his torso can be used to gain almost an additional 90 degrees. Plus, he's got a bit of forward butterfly. His biceps can swivel, and the sides of the car on the outside of his arms actually swivel on his shoulders so they stay clear. His elbows are double jointed, but here's where we run into another problem. Instead of having a hinged flap on the forearm to hide the fists in alt mode, there is a flap, but it's connected to the wrist and folds inside the forearm with the hand. And it doesn't lock down, it just kind of lays over the hollow top of the forearm. The top hinge is enough to get you over 90 degrees of elbow bend, but it's tighter than the lower hinge. And if the lower hinge bends more than 60-ish degrees it pushes the forearm flap open. Moving along, we have wrist swivels. His fingers are pinned at the base knuckle, and the pointer finger is a separate piece. Oddly, the thumb isn't fixed like I'd expect on a hand this size. It's on a swivel for some reason. Speaking of swivels, he has a waist swivel and a small ab crunch. His hip skirts can move out of the way so he can move his legs forward 90 degrees, backward about 75 degrees, and laterally about 75. They're just friction joints, though, and as there's a bit of diecast in his legs they're a bit looser than I'd like. He's not going to collapse under his own weight; he can hold a pose, as long as it's not a kicking pose. Continuing with the legs, he's got thigh swivels that are limited to turning about 45 degrees out or in, and double-jointed knees that get just a little over 90 degrees. His spoiler toes can tilt down a little, but here's my next problem: both of the hinges are, again, a little too loose for the weight of the figure. This means that his spoiler feet naturally want to bend up until they meet his shins. However, his tire heels are lower than the ends of the spoiler toes, so if his legs are perfectly straight he'll lean forward. To get him to stand up straight you have to either bends his knees or his hips backward so that his lower leg is at an angle vs his torso. Oh, but he's got great ankle pivots. A dedicated hinge moves his whole foot, tires and all, up to 90 degrees. A lot of companies would have just moved the spoiler toes and called it a day. He holds his gun just fine in either hand using the standard MP tabs on handle, slots on palms. The shoulder rocket uses some prongs to clasp onto a diecast bit in his collar. It's offset to that the rocket doesn't collide with his head, but that does mean that it can only sit on his right shoulder. The parachute works the same as the guns, with handles that have tabs on them to fit in his hands. The back of his head just pops off, if you want to switch to the clean piece. You also have to pull it off if you want to swap the face, although swapping the face does require you to remove a screw. The inner piece, with the metallic blue eyes, is shared among all three non-toy heads. Sphinx's alt mode is quite good, with big rubber racing slick tires that roll fairly well, although the transformation hinges in the front tires can cause them to bow out. In some ways, there's a lot more attention to detail than Invisible that's closer to the real #26 Ligier JS11 driven by Jacques Laffite that was the inspiration for G1 Mirage. The shade of blue is more accurate. The sides of both the front and rear spoilers are blue (although they're missing the the "elf" decals"). It's got the clear windscreen and little black side view mirrors that Invisible is lacking. Although Sphinx uses the misspells "Ligier" as "Liger" and uses the G1 toy's deliberate misspelling of "Citanes" instead of "Gitanes", the Liger/Citanes decal below the windscreen is accurate (although the Goodyear one below it isn't). Those decals are missing if you switch the back of the heads. The "26", "Goodyear" (misspelled as "Goooyear"), and "elf" (misspelled as "ell") are also all correct, along with the dancing lady on the sides, the "Goodyear" on the tires, and all the red pinstriping. Those are all details I had to go to Reprolabels to get on Invisble (although, to be fair, most of those details will probably be missing on the upcoming Sphinx Cel, because cartoons). The engine is more accurate, there's a steering wheel in the cockpit, and even a little silver paint behind the cockpit where the real car has a metal ring. For all that attention to detail, though, it's baffling to me that MMC OX put "Citanes 26" on the sides instead of "26 Citanes." Not the end of the world by any means, but it just seems weird that they'd get so much right and then goof on that bit. And while I'm being picky, despite the steering wheel and clear windscreen, Sphinx's cockpit is kind of a mess compared to the simple, empty seat in Invisible. That hinge in the middle is actually part of his neck assembly, and behind that hinge those arms are for folding the stuff between the cockpit and engine up and around onto Sphinx's back. It's not really a pro or con either way, but I do find it curious that DX9 used chrome for the spoilers and vents, but silver paint for the wheels, while MMC OX used silver paint for the spoilers and vents and chrome for the wheels. I think chrome for the spoilers and vents is accurate for the real car, with silver or black wheels. If you don't mind a bit of partsforming, you can cover up a lot of the mess in the cockpit with the little translucent blue half of a guy. I guess it's supposed to be like a holographic driver It looks pretty cool, but since it's got no place to go in robot mode it's the kind of accessory that you toss in the box with the extra heads you're not using into a closet. Both Sphinx's gun and his rocket launcher have little tabs on them that fit into the sides of the rear spoiler. While I prefer the weapons to be hidden in alt mode, I'll take some alt mode weapon storage over none any day. Sphinx is a figure that's been hyped up a lot since he first came out. Even today I'll hear people complaining about the QC on some of MMC OX's more recent releases saying things like "Sphinx was great, but they've gotten worse since." And I've got to be honest, I don't think Sphinx really lives up to the hype. I don't think he's better than Backdraft or Hellion, anyway (they're the only other OX stuff I have, besides the OX Remix tapes). The joints could have been better. The transformation of the legs seems needlessly complex and leaves a gap on his shins. The angle of the bottom of his feet is a bit of a problem. The flaps on his forearms are a big problem. I don't really feel like this is the definitive Mirage, which was what I expected; there's plenty of room for Takara, Fans Toys, XTB, etc to step in and deliver something better. That being said, Sphinx is quite good despite his issues. Perhaps good enough that, even if someone can and does come out with a better one, you probably won't feel the need to replace him. I'd definitely recommend Sphinx over Invisible. I'd go so far as to say that if you already have Invisible it's still worth upgrading to Sphinx.

There's a reason I've been on a Macross board for something like 20 years but I don't own any Macross toys. I don't begrudge anyone who does, but that's too expensive of a rabbit hole for me to jump down.

So I've heard. But I really don't feel like starting over again (already did that when I switched from CHUG to MP). And, like I said, I wasn't really impressed with the Legends stuff. I mean, I like that they have all the articulation that they do, but it's just too many ball joints for my tastes. That said, Magic Square's stuff is looking more appealing to me than Iron Factory's, so if I we're going to jump in now would be the time...

Oh, this thing is so bought.

In the Car Robots/RiD cartoon Armorhide connected backwards compared to how Brawl connected. See, on Bruticus, the top of the tank is the shin, with the front bending backward (or disappearing entirely) and the turret sitting on the front. But on Ruination, Armorhide is reversed. The front of the tank bends forward and forms his knee, and the top of the tank and turret are on his calf. Now to answer David's question... short answer "no". Longer answer is "kind of". You can flip the foot around, but there doesn't seem to be enough clearance to get the port on the tank to hook onto Onslaught/Mega-Octane's connector if you try to do it backward. Not that you'd want to, because Brawl/Armorhide's head is very visible back there. Also, the front of the tank doesn't bend, so you can't recreate that kneecap. However, the turret is just pegged on, and there happens to be a peg hole on the back of the leg. So you can't turn the leg around, but you can move the turret to the backside.

I was honestly kind of unimpressed with the individual War Giant bots.... I'm not really sold on the whole Legends thing. But the combined mode is my favorite Bruticus (and I have five of them). I'm actually hoping IF does more combiners this size. ToyWorld/Zeta's might have that shelf presence, but the smaller guys are so much more fun to pose and mess around with.

Well, shooting down the G1 reissue and MP-44, here's a Prime I do want. Supposedly, this is Studio Series 38, Cybertronian Optimus from the Bumblebee Movie.

As I heard it, on the resin prototype the wings were a solid piece. And I guess MT didn't know what any engineer knows, because apparently when they tried making them in plastic they warped, so MT went with the hollowed back/underside (so it's quite possible that someone else did indeed design them). Now, in a perfect world, would MT have devised a solution that filled the wings before the Meteor mold went to retail? Maybe... but how much would it have driven up the cost? Speculation here, but I think MT took a beating on Despotron since MP-36 was announced, and I think MT was very concerned with releasing Meteor at a price low enough to tempt people who already owned Starscream and friends. If Meteor had been $10-20 more expensive, would you have bought him? I think some people definitely would have, but I think some people wouldn't have. Some people were already saying that, especially spread out over three to six Seekers, it was already too much. Likewise, while some people complained (loudly) about the wings others (myself included) just plain didn't care that they were hollow. Anyway, way I see it, for everyone this bothered, and for everyone that said they would have paid more to get the wings filled, this is their chance to put their money where their mouths are. Me personally, I'm not buying them (or jream's upgrades, which are nice for the people that want them but aren't actually cartoon accurate). Like I said, I just don't feel like they're necessary. Now, it looks like they're also including them with the Coneheads. If I buy their Coneheads then sure, I'll use the ones that come with them. But I already have the ToyWorld Coneheads, so I'm not sure if I'm in for MT's.

In 1984 Optimus Prime retailed for around $20.99. Adjusted for inflation, that's around $50 today. Except in 1984 Prime did include Roller and the trailer, so...

Aww, wish I would have known about the action figure version at Walmart. I just picked up the regular one. Watched it this evening with my wife. I think I liked it more the second time.