mikeszekely

I'm hearing $50 for Prime sans trailer. Seems a bit steep.

*sigh* I don't collect Legends stuff, and I'm trying to limit my MP stuff to geewunny stuff. But I do have IF's Bruticus, and I do want that Ruination/Baldigus... and if I'm being totally honest, I'd also go for G2 Bruticus Battle Gaia and the '03 Walmart-exclusive arctic camo Ruination. A line has to be drawn somewhere, though, so no '04 Universe Ruination desert camo... ...ok, you got me. I'll take the desert camo too.

I loved it. It's my personal game of the year, even. I'm the type of person who usually buys games and skips the season pass because when I finish the game I'm done with it. When I finished Spider-Man, though, I bought the season pass right away because I just wanted more. I might even do a new game plus run.

Did you not get Spider-Man in Argentina? (I also really liked Assassin's Creed Odyssey, but it didn't have the same impact Origins did).

I want that Ruination/Baldigus, I'm just having trouble justifying it.

Apparently Walmart's going to get a cab-only reissue of G1 Optimus. This actually kind of works for me. I still have the previous reissue. I can use the trailer from it, let my daughter have the previous orangy short-stacked cab, and get the newer reissue which amazingly looks to have uncropped smokestacks.

Quick question for those of you who own both a PS4 and an Xbox One... how do you decide which console to buy a game for? I bought both at or near launch and for a long time I'd buy the PlayStation exclusives and the Xbox exclusives for their respective platforms, but I'd primarily been a PC gamer. A conflux of events- a top-shelf PS exclusive, some lifestyle changes that making console gaming a little more convenient than PC gaming, and a gaming rig that's pushing past its prime- has had me buying a lot more games for my PS4, though. There's an annual get together I have with my friends, and part of that get together is playing Rock Band on Xbox. When that caused me to dust off the old behemoth and do the updates I realized that the Xbox One's web browser and multimedia functions are a little better than the PS4's. I had also gotten used to moving the PlayStation between the living room and my bedroom TVs, and there was no way I was doing that with the Xbox One and it's giant power brick. So on a whim I bought myself an Xbox One X for Christmas. And having a new toy means wanting to play games on it... except aside from the exclusives I'd pretty much bought everything I wanted to play on either the PS4 or the PC (or, depending on the sales, sometimes both). Now I'm looking ahead, and I'm just not sure which console I'd buy new games for. To be clear, I don't play multiplayer games that aren't splitscreen with the people in the my living room, so online friends or communities or PS Plus or Xbox Live Gold aren't really deciding factors (and I actually have four Dual Shock 4s and four Xbox One controllers, so splitscreen's a wash).

Yeah, the kind of mistake Hollywood execs greenlight.

SatAM? More like Satan, if you ask me...

I was never into Saint Seiya, so I don't really have strong feelings about this Netflix series one way or the other. Changing the feminine guy into a girl feels like the laziest way to bring more diversity to the cast, though. Whatever. Wake me up when the guys who did Voltron bring us a Ronin Warriors reboot.

I mean, rules are rules and what I think ultimately has no bearing. But I kind of feel like the Robotech rule was more important years ago, when Robotech was getting DVD releases and and on Cartoon Network and kind of on the rise. There was a lot of animosity between the Macross purists and Robotech crowd, and a rule like this was necessary to preemptively keep things from getting nasty. These days, though, with Macross fans having enjoyed Zero, Frontier, and Delta while Robotech seems to be on the decline, it seems to me like the (flame) war is over. I mean, when I saw this thread my initial reaction wasn't to question whether a Robotech thread belonged here, it was whether a women's studies thread belonged here. And again, that's not for me to decide, but ultimately I don't really care one way or the other. Maybe I'm just getting old, but I don't have inclination to get fired up on the internet the way I used to. Ultimately I feel like @Brofessor isn't hurting anybody and that reading and engaging with this thread and it's topics is a choice. If it bothers me, I could simply not read and not engage, and as long as the replies are respectful I don't really have a problem with it. Of course, that does hinge on the respectful part, which isn't a given. And again, not my site, not my rules, so it's not like my opinion carries a lot of weight.

I liked Fallout 4... but I also liked 3 and New Vegas. And games set in space. EDIT: Oh, and speaking of Obsidian, I loved and will defend to the death Alpha Protocol.

I think he's pushing it at US store prices (something like $180?), but he's a blast for the $155 I paid at ShowZ's store. It's not perfect, and if you're used to the premium finish you might get on a Fans Toys figure TFC isn't doing that. But if you want a fun, chunky, heavy Prime that's jun to mess around with I say go for it. For me he jumped ahead of Challenger and is up there with Gigapower's Graviter and DX9's Gabriel for my favorite TF figures this year.

Anybody else following the Game Awards announcements? I could honestly care less about who wins what, but Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3 and Obsidian's The Outer Worlds came out of nowhere and immediately jumped into my "must have" list.

I appreciate it, but you don't have to make a special trip tomorrow. I'm taking my car to get serviced for a recall and there's a different over there that's actually on my way home anyway.

Which store? I was at my Walmart a week ago, a Walmart near a friend's house Sunday, and Target yesterday. Tons of PotP Terrorcons (plus Dropkick and the repaints of Stinger, Ratchet, and Starscream in the Studio Series) but still not Siege.

Yeah, I think Shatter's the girl.

Space in the universe may be infinite. But space in my house is definitely finite, which is why I've been trying to be more focused with my collecting and winnow my collection down to G1 MP. Despite this focus, I do have one Detolf in the corner of the room with nothing but Optimuses. Needless to say, I've been looking forward to this one pretty much since it was first announced... this is TFC's S.T. Commander, an MP-scaled take on some concept art Don Figueroa did of an Optimus Prime that transforms into the Rolling Thunder vehicle from G.I. Joe. Based on the box and manual, this guy is actually the "Titical" Commander, who is only "Supreme" when he's armored up. The logo, though, has tiny periods after the "S" and "T", and a big star that's half in the gap on the "C" and half on the "O" in such a way that the logo really looks like it says "Stoomander," so for the rest of this review I'm calling him Stoomander. (Speaking of the box, I don't usually talk about those but I'd be remiss if I didn't tell you that the Stoomander logo is styled after the G.I. Joe logo, and the artwork is an homage of the Rolling Thunder's box art from 1988.) Anyway... that's a pretty good-looking Optimus. There's tons of recognizably Optimus details like the grill on his abs, the yellow on his pelvis, the chest windows... even the guns on his shoulders are evocative of G1 Prime's smokestacks. He also reminds me a little of IDW pre-Earth Prime/Orion Pax, which shouldn't be too surprising since I think that design was also Figueroa's. My only real complaint is his head. TFC decided to go for light piping, and the pale translucent plastic they used looks dead unless there's a light source directly behind it, at which point it's a light blue tint away from being clear. I'll probably take the head apart and paint the eyes myself. Less fixable is the overall sculpt, which I think would look better with more defined ear-tennas and without the blue chinstrap. I can't really fault TFC there, though, as it's true to Don's art, minus the color. Don's original design has Prime in the Rolling Thunder's green colors instead of the traditional red and blue. Which reminds me, Stoomander is available now in Optimus colors, but preorders are up at most retailers for a green version that more closely matches the colors Don used, with an early 2019 release date. (And when TFC first announced this figure they show the S.T. Commander logo in three different colors; colors that match this, colors that match the green one, and colors that heavily imply that they're considering Ultra Magnus colors as well.) Stoomander comes with a ton of accessories, so we're going to break them down into three groups. The first group is what I'd call the "normal" accessories. He comes with a little Roller car, two large missiles molded into some kind of racks, and his rifle. Roller's cockpit can open, and like the MP Roller you can plug the rifle into Roller. There's even a little rubber cable on the back of the rifle that plugs into the back of roller, per Don's art, and the handle of the rifle is on hinge so you can aim the rifle upward. The second group of accessories are the diecast bits. I see the silver ones as being sort of like Megatron's fusion cannon and part of Stoomander's body, although as you can see they are removable. They can rotate on their pegs, and there's a hinge on the shoulder guns so the barrels can go up and down. They're bare diecast, and don't look look quite as nice as the gunmetal ones, which are either a darker metal or diecast with a finish (I can't tell, I'm no expert on that). The larger double-barreled guns have a hinge at the back, so they can move up and down but not independently, and when they're flipped 180 degrees and the flap with the tampoed number pulled back they actually leave a little seat. The smaller double barreled guns have swivels and hinges at the base of the barrels, so they can me moved around and aimed independently. I should point out that this isn't the only diecast. On the the above robot, Stoomander's also got a diecast flap on his back, two non-removable diecast guns on his back, a diecast grill between his chest windows, diecast bars along the inside edge of those windows, diecast rims in the wheels, and diecast in the silver and gunmetal in his shins. The third group is basically the bits you need to make a proper alt mode. Of course, they do have other uses. And they do have more diecast. In this case, we again have diecast rims in the wheels, diecast guns in feet of the boot-parts, diecast in the stabilizer pylons on the red red parts, and gunmetal diecast braces for the big missiles on the red parts. Stoomander's articulation is excellent. His head is on a ball joint that can look up and down pretty well, tilt sideways more than enough, as well as rotate. His shoulders rotate on ratchets and have ratchets for lateral movement that'll get you 90 degrees before his large shoulders are lying flat against the top of his torso- as long as his shoulders aren't rotated. I will note here that basically the only hindrance I have with Stoomander is that rotating his shoulders means that they'll turn into his body if they also try to move laterally, so you really can't use both joints at the same time. Moving along, though, he's got bicep swivels and double-jointed elbows ratcheted at both ends good for 150 degrees or so. His wrists can swivel. Each finger and thumb is individually articulated with a ball joint at the base and two additional pinned hinged knuckles. His waist can swivel, and he's got 90 degrees of forward ab crunch. His hip skirts are hinged and can swing up and out of the way so his hips can ratchet 90 degrees forward and backward. Lateral movement is also ratcheted and gets one click over 90 degrees. His thighs swivel around the hip joints. That means they can only turn inward a little and outward about 30 degrees, but I think that's adequate. Like his elbows his knees are double-jointed and ratcheted at both ends, good for nearly a full 180 degrees of bend. The front of his foot can tilt up and down. His heel is ball jointed and can bend down and rotate for some reason. Finally, a dedicated hinge gives him 90 degrees of ankle pivot. One thing I really want to point out is that he has a ton of ratchets. A pet peeve of mine is when you have a ratchet that's strong and takes some force to move from one click to the next, but the joint is limp and loose between clicks. This was, I think, the major problem with Zeta Toys' Bruticus. The ratchets were strong, but too much wiggle between clicks in the hips and knees made him prone to toppling. Stoomander doesn't have this problem at all. Every ratchet is perfectly toleranced. None of the ratchets feel too soft, none of them feel like they get stuck or take excessive force to move between clicks, the clicks are close enough together, and there's little or no play between clicks. Stoomander is one of the most solid toys in my collection. He holds his gun rifle fine using the standard tab on the handle and slot in the palm. There's also one post on each shin, one on the inside and outside of both forearms, and one on the outside of his shoulder. You can use them to mount the diecast single-barrel guns, double missiles, and and smaller double-barreled guns in any way you wish, although the standard based on Don's art would be single-barreled guns on the shoulders, missiles on the outside of the forearms, and nothing on the shins or the inside of the forearms. Af for the leftover bits, you can stick the blue parts together and fold the feet down. The guns inside the feet can be flipped out, the bigger double-barreled guns attached to the front, and the smaller ones attached to hinged pegs on the top by the wheels. Not only are those pegs hinged, mind you, but they're on a flap that can also be hinged open to give you options for positioning. As for the rest, I recommend putting it together in basically the way it goes for alt mode. That creates a stable platform for the two big missiles with little ramps for deploying roller. The instructions suggest that you can split that stuff apart, putting he chunk with the missiles behind and the parts with the rams on either side. However, they don't actually attack to the blue parts this way. They're just leaning there. Precariously, in the case of the big missile part. The instructions do suggested another thing you can do, which is basically setting the blue parts up back-to-back, with the wheels touching and facing forward, then putting the other parts together the way I had them in the previous picture and sticking Roller in the middle with the rifle set into Roller at a 90 degree angle. The diecast parts in the back have fold out handles for Stoomander to grab, so it looks like he's firing some kind of missile turret. Unfortunately, the connections aren't super solid, or in the case of Roller, nonexistent as he's just sitting in the gap between the red part with the missiles and the red parts in the front. So none of your options for base modes are exactly lighting the world on fire, but I don't think anyone really expects them to. Stoomander does have an alt mode mode without all the extra bits, in case you were planning on leaving them in a box somewhere. In fact, one of the transformation steps for this mode is to collapse his legs Combiner Wars-style, something you only do for this mode. The transformation is pretty easy. The results are kind of meh, though. The front looks cool enough, but the rear is very obviously the collapsed robot legs. There's even a little gap between them from his crotch to his ankles. I will say that there are a lot of little tampos that I could take or leave in robot mode that really shine in vehicle mode. In this mode you have access to most of the same posts you did in robot mode, allowing you to attach the smaller double-barreled guns, diecast missiles, and single-barreled guns as you see fit. They all rotate on their posts. Additionally, the windows that were on his shoulders can open, there's two diecast guns on the roof that move up and down independently of each other, and two panels that can be flipped up behind those guns. The tires roll. I don't think they're rubber, but they're a rubbery plastic, not a hard one. I'm not sure that it was ever part of Don's original concept, but the parts we used for various base modes can be worn as armor (which you could probably tell since the blue parts were pretty obviously new lower legs). The new lower legs snap on tightly. The smaller red parts form new forearms that don't seem like they should secure that well, given that they wrap around the existing forearms and peg into themselves without actually connecting to the existing forearm, but in practice they work fine, and I like how the diecast parts become hand armor. The gray part makes his crotch bigger, and I think making it gray instead of blue is a real missed opportunity. The ramps fold up and slide onto his shoulders after you spin the shoulder guns out of the way. It practically screams "we couldn't think of anywhere else to put these!" I also think the blue looks out of place. The rest fits into his back. This connection actually is pretty bad, as it just used two tabs on the backpack that go into two slots that also have screw holes cut into their tops. There simply is too little connection with too little friction for such a heavy pack, and it was prone to falling off when I manipulated him. It's a shame nothing bulked out his torso or gave him a new head. Basically, he looks like his limbs are too big for his body in this mode. Sure, it's cool to see Optimus bristling with weapons, but aesthetically I think I like him better without all the add-ons. For the most part Stoomander's articulation isn't affected much in his Supreme mode, but where it is affected it's affected negatively. His shoulder rotation is completely hindered by his backpack. His new hands are built the same as the old ones, although you have to move the diecast parts out of the way to use his wrist swivel. His heels don't rotate since they're just hinged and not ball-jointed and his toes have a little less upward tilt, but both his toes and heels can bend down and he's still got 90 degrees of ankle pivot. The new hand can hold the rifle the same as the old hands. He's still got posts on the inside and outside of his forearms, and the posts on his shoulders are still accessible although there's a little less clearance around them with the new shoulder pads. His shins are where the big change is, as he's now got hinged posts on the outside of his shins instead of the middle. Instead, the middle has peg holes and little notches that are for the larger double-barreled diecast guns. Plus, if you want to do a Freedom Gundam-style full burst you can flip out diecast guns in his toes, and the big missiles are on a pair of hinges (on friction, one ratcheted) so they can be aimed up and over his shoulders. If you don't want them in a firing position, and you don't want them just dangling from the usual missile mounts, there are tabs on the sides of the backpack and slots on the missiles. You can use them to tab the missiles along the sides of the backpack like big rocket boosters, making the backpack like a rocket pack. It seems to have been something of an afterthought on TFC's part, though, as the stabilizer pylons stick out from the sides a bit and force the missiles to sit at a slight angle. One more thing you can do with (either) robot mode: you can take either missile off of their usual connectors on his backpack and slide it over the barrel of his rifle. Because if there's one thing Optimus needed it's a gun that shoots ICBMs. I'll mention here that the instructions seem to indicate that the barrel of the rifle can be removed, and a picture on the back of the box shows the rifle and its barrel as separate pieces. I tried pulling on it as hard as I'm able to without the use of any tools, and I couldn't get the barrel off of the rifle. Honestly, though, I'm not sure why you would want to. The barrel has no use without the rifle, and you need the barrel on the rifle even if you want to put a missile on it. Obviously, this complete Rolling Thunder mode is the real reason for all of the extra parts. And here's the thing about it... is it super accurate to the actual Rolling Thunder vehicle? Maybe not. The shape of the front end is different, and the Rolling Thunder is flatter with small missiles on the overhangs and a large turret on the back. Instead we've got missiles on the sides, more small guns in the front, and the big turret is replaced with a pair of gun emplacements. It is, however, pretty accurate to Don's design, down to the stabilizer pylons, the location of the various missiles and turrets, and the clamps holding the missiles. my only real complaint is the big gray joint in the middle of red, but even that joint is in Don's original work, so I guess it gets a pass. The stabilizer pylons don't extend outward from the vehicle, but the diecast parts do slide out to touch the ground. I should also mention that on my copy three of them were fine, but the fourth (the one that ends up on his left arm in Supreme Titical Commander mode) is super loose. The blue parts in the middle do unfurl into ramps, which the Rolling Thunder did have, and there's just enough space in the gap there that you can fit Roller in there. It even stays in there pretty securely with the the ramps closed, although there isn't any way to actually lock it in place. The diecast clamps can lock the missiles in place via tiny slots on the rearward ones and tabs on the missiles. When not used for that purpose the rear ones can fold down either way. The front ones can only fold the one way, but they can rotate. One big miss in this mode, I think, is that there's nowhere to mount the rifle. The big gimmick is that Stoomander is supposed to be compatible with Titan/Prime Masters and/or the Diaclone reboot guys. You can open the windows in the front and stick some in there, you can open the panels on the roof to create a seat, Roller's cockpit opens to make a seat, the larger guns on the shins have seats, if you open the panels on the sides of the legs there's enough room to be a seat, and even the guns in Stoomander's supreme feet have seats. The problem is, at least with Titan Masters, is that they don't quite fit. They're a little too big, especially with the faces on their backs. I could kind of get them to work by bending them the wrong way that the knees instead of the hips, but they sit a little high and loose, and even then you can't close Roller's cockpit and they still don't always have the clearance for the faces on their backs. Unfortunately I don't have any Diaclone guys to test; the Diaclone reboot didn't really interest me, although now I'm kind of tempted. Stoomander isn't perfect. There's a few spots where the fit and finish could have been a little better. And while he does have lots of painted detail and tampos there's going to be some who are put off by the largely unpainted red, light gray, and blue plastic. And I think my biggest complaint is that you really need all the extra parts to make the alt mode look good and correct, but the robot mode is actually better without the extra junk. Despite his flaws, Stoomander is extremely fun and (minus the backpack coming off, sketchy connections in the base modes, and one loose stabilizer) very solid. He's easily the best Transformers figure TFC has ever made, and the best Optimus figure I got his year (a year that also gave me Generations Toy's Gorilla and Unique Toys' Challenger, mind you). I'd go so far as to say that he might very well be my favorite figure of 2018, after Graviter. I'm going to go ahead and give Stoomander a strong recommend.

Is this a good time to remind everyone that I'm selling my Rouge...? (No, seriously, $85 shipped to the lower 48. Complete with box and instructions. Transformed once to car and back for review, then it went back it the box.)

I love Maketoys, I have at least one of all their Re:Master molds; I think I'm just missing their Inferno (I have Grapple) and their Jazz repaints. I'd love to get my hands on Utopia one day, and their Cross Dimension stuff is really cool... but I just don't have room anymore for anything that isn't G1 MP.

They've become my go-to China-based store. I'd probably buy more there but I hate waiting for stuff to get through customs.

Not to derail the Prime discussion, but I said I'd try to get this up for @JetJockey These are basically your three choices for Jazz (there is a 4th that's pretty good, but he's arguably a more IDW-inspired take that turns into a modern Porsche 911 GT3 instead of an old 935 Turbo). They are Maketoys Downbeat, Transform and Roll Out Agent Meister (who may or may not be listed as Hova), and ToyWorld's Coolsville (which was also released under the Zeta brand as Jazzy). For robot mode, Maketoys went with a cartoon look, Toyworld went with a toy look, and TNR is somewhere in between. Weirdly, they're all slightly different sizes. Maketoys fits in with the MP cars, Toyworld's a little too tall, TNR is a little too short. For alt mode, again, it's worth pointing out that MT went for a cartoon look, which is why he's much more plain than the others (although you can by stickers for him if you like). ToyWorld and TNR went for a more realistic look; the main difference is that TNR actually used the Martini livery if you buy from a Chinese seller (right down to a Porsche badge), while Toyworld made little changes like Mortini instead of Martini, two "s"s in Bosch, and no mention of Porsche. For what it's worth, I wrote a review of Downbeat here. I think the ToyWorld one is still readily available, or at least the Zeta version is, in around the $60-$65 price range. TNR's is similarly still pretty easy to get, although I've seen prices anywhere from $65 all the way to $90. Downbeat was impossible to find for awhile, but it looks like MT reissued him and I've found some in stock and a few preorders for new stock at around $95-$100. Now, with the Primes I was able to say what my preference was based entirely on aesthetics, but since all of these Jazzes are out my opinions are a little more developed. However, I have to stress the only one I've handled personally is Downbeat. That being said, Downbeat's my recommendation. Although I agree with @Scyla that he's got some flaws, like the unpainted gray on his feet and shins and the silver paint on his thighs (Jazz is one of the characters that should actually have white thighs), he just nails the look in robot mode. Plus he's got good articulation, solid construction, smart engineering, and it doesn't hurt that MT is one of my favorite 3P companies. I think his car mode looks good, too, although his rear bumper looks like it's falling off, and if you prefer the realistic racing livery then the other two definitely look better (for me, bot mode is more important). ToyWorld/Zeta has lots of paint and diecast, but the transformation is supposedly kind of a pain, he's got that flap behind his head, gaps on the insides of his forearms, and I'm not really into the toy look on him. TNR might have themselves a happy middle ground, but I've been hearing stories of stress marks, issues pegging the shoulders together, and an all-around "cheap" feel.

My read on the situation is that your opinion is the majority opinion and it's really the price more than anything else putting people off of MP-44. Honestly, if someone made an MP-10 with Wei Jiang's fixes to his proportions that hides the wheels on his legs in bot mode and isn't oversized that would be my ideal Prime. But I guess I might get MS and try to repaint the white and gray parts silver.

Doing this mostly for @JetJockey, whom I expect to check in here soon. But here's some quick comparison pics of the current crop of upcoming MP-style Primes. Of course, I just grabbed one relatively comparable picture of each, so these may not highlight some issues (like MP-44's backpack) that may or may not be an issue. Some other quick stuff to note- MS is available to preorder from some Chinese shops like ShowZ and a few American shops for between $109-$135. I've only seen TE on the Chinese stores so far for around $109. Takara's MSRP for MP-44 is 50,000 yen, which translates to around $440. Some stores may go lower, some may go higher (my favorite is TFSource, who have it listed as 10% off on sale... at $450). For your money, we're not really sure what MS or TE is offering besides Optimus and his rifle. Some pics of TE have had him pulling MP-10's trailer. MP-44 is going to come with a ton of accessories including Spike, Sparkplug, his trailer, Roller, a jetpack, fire effects for the jetpack, an alternate head, a battle damaged head, and a Starscream head. MS looks like it'll probably be out first, and TE soon after. I think both will be out by spring. MP-44 is currently estimated for August. Personally, there's stuff I like and dislike about both MS and TE (and good ol' MP-10). I like the beefy proportions, subtle details, and the head on MS, but I like the silver trim on the windows, yellow paint on the lights on top of his torso, and the rifle better on TE. I don't like that both are using white for the thighs and pelvis, and I don't like the MS is using light gray instead of silver for his ribs and face. In truck mode, I think that TE has a better hitch section while MS's has the same chunky robot leg look that MP-10 does, and again I like the painted lights on the roof and the silver window trim. But the silver stripe on the cab is a must for me, and I think the front of the cab looks better on MS. So for now, I'm leaning toward MS, but I might still pick up TE. Especially if I think I can take them apart and paint the stuff that's bugging me. Takara was never in the running. Even before they showed the painted pictures I hated the squished torso with the giant pelvis and long legs. I hate the giant backpack. And the hitch section of the truck mode looks like a mess. Then they showed the color pictures, and again I'm not a fan of the super cartoony white and light gray instead of silver, the missing silver on the cab, and now the missing blue stripes on the trailer. If they all cost the same Takara would still be my last choice, but the fact that they want over $400 is laughable, I don't care what accessories they're including. @JetJockey, it's super late here (almost 3:30am!) so I'm turning in. But if I have time tomorrow I'll do something like this for your Jazz options.

After getting Unique Toys' Challenger, I think I said something about being curious about Peru Kill, their Lockdown. I never bought him because I'm not really interested in building a collection of MP movie figures. However, not one but two companies have or will release KOs of Peru Kill (with rumors that one of the KO companies is or has ties to UT themselves). I decided to give the BSL one a try, mostly because ordering it and something else I wanted from ShowZ was about the same price as just ordering the other item (of course the other item, the thing I really wanted, shipped separately and is currently stuck in customs hell). Anyway, aside from some very minor differences in color I'm unaware of any differences between the official and the KO- they're both made the same, with diecast in the same spots and same or similar joint tolerances, so as far as I'm concerned this review applies to the official as well as the BSL KO. To start with, here he is with MPM-4 and Challenger. Now, if you remember watching Age of Extinction you may remember Lockdown fighting Optimus and being fairly similar in size. And if that's the case, you might think this is fine. Based on what I could dig up regarding the Bayverse scale, and backed by the Studio Series, Peru Kill should maybe be a head or so shorter. Honestly, for robot mode I feel like this is fine, even if not absolutely correct, but we're going to talk about this again later. Aside from the size, Unique Toys definitely crafted a pretty fantastic-looking Lockdown. He's got most of the movie model's molded details, as well as some paint for the faux blue headlights on his chest and some orange on his biceps and knees where the movie model has visible brakes. And then you turn him around, and you see an almost total absence of car kibble, save for things like the tail lights in his calves and the tires in his biceps that are movie accurate. You also get more movie-accurate details like his butt plate, the round ports on the back of his head, and his spine. Some of the details are a little flatter than the movie model, his head is perhaps a little small (although the sculpt is fantastic, right down the scar over his left eye), and his midsection could be a little thinner, but it's still very, very close and still being delivered in a package that doesn't even look like it should transform. To my eye, only his feet really give it away. Speaking of feet... I should say that the underside of his feet are basically his alt mode doors. As such, his side view mirrors are, by default, on his feet. You can leave them there, if you like. It's not the most accurate look, though, as I think they stick out fairly noticeably. If you don't mind a bit of partsforming, you can instead pull them off his feet and peg them into the sides of his shoulders. Anyway, accessories. He comes with his alternate masked face. He comes with his claw, which he didn't use a ton in the movie but is kind of Lockdown's defining characteristic across other versions. He's got a Seed. And he's got a very large rifle. Noticeably absent are his knife, which the Studio Series figure included, and the spark extractor, which I think a lot of people wanted. You do, however, get Steeljaw... or in the case of this KO, three Steeljaws (this is the most noticeable difference with the KO- all the gunmetal color on the head, spines, and legs, and feet here should properly be silver). Not a ton to say about these guys. The jaws can open and close, and the the head is on a ball joint with some up/down/ tilt, the ability to look a little to the left or right, and the ability to tilt their head. The shoulders and hips are also ball joints for rotation and some spread. The elbows are hinged with about 90 degrees of bend. The true knees on his hind legs are also hinged and also good for about 90 degrees, but their true ankles are fixed. Then all four paws are on ball joints. Steeljaw has a tab on his back that the big rifle can connect to, if that's your thing. As for Peru Kill himself, his articulation is a tad limited. His head can tilt up and down a little, but he can only turn it about 45 degrees to the left or right before his chin hits his collar. His shoulders can rotate and extend laterally a little shy of 90 degrees. His elbows are double-jointed and can curl the whole way up. At first I didn't think he had a bicep swivel, since there is a part right above his elbow that swivels but you need to actually flip a part and lock it in place to keep his bicep together. After messing with him a little more I found he does have a (tight) bicep swivel, it's just between his elbow joints. His wrists can swivel, plus they're on a hinge so they can bend up and down. The thumb is on a ball joint, but is otherwise a solid piece. His other four fingers have a pin hinge at the base and mid knuckles, but the fingers are molded together so he can't point or anything. Things get a little worse as we go down. For starters, he doesn't have a waist swivel. He does have a swivel below the waist, but it's very limited; what you see in the above picture is pretty much the maximum. His hip skirts don't move (aside from his butt flap), so he gets a little less than 90 degrees forward and backwards on his hips, and only about 60 degrees laterally. His thighs swivel around the joint, but he amount of swivel that gives him feels pretty natural. His one ratcheted joint are his knees, which can bend just over 90 degrees. The problem here is that even though it's not a super strong ratchet it still requires more force to move it than the transformation hinge just below his knee. This give him a tendency for his leg to bend the wrong way below the knee when you're manipulating him. Finally, his ankles can tilt down a good bit, down just a taste, and pivot around 45 degrees. To attach his hook you fold up in hand like you're going back to alt mode, then peg the hook into what was the top of his hand. The hook can rotate on the peg like a wrist swivel, and there's a hinge in the hook that lets it open and close like a claw. It forms a knife-like point when it's fully closed. As for the seed, it really doesn't do anything. You can try to balance it in his hand, but it doesn't stay very well and there's no way to peg it in place. It's the sort of accessory that's begging to go back into the box. To use the other face you simply have to pop the default one off. There's a tab on the back of each face that fits into a slot inside his head. Then we have his big gun. He can hold it, if you like. His hand fits through the handle, and peg on the back of the rifle locks into a hole on his forearm. The friction joints in his elbow are just barely adequate for holding up such a heavy weapon. Of course, I don't recall that he actually did use his gun that way; the only gun-like weapon I recall was the spark extractor. The gun, I recall, was his head. And Unique Toys made sure you can recreate that look, too. The handle folds up, and the barrel slides forward so you can fit the weapon around Peru Kill's head. Inside, a tab will fit into a slot on the back of his head and a spring will pull the barrel back, locking the gun into place. For extra support a small armature will plug into the top of his back. And for the record, I tested this with both faces, and it works either way. If you'd rather he not carry his gear on his hands, he can carry it on his back. Slots on the gun fit onto tabs on his back so that the gun looks slung across at an angle. The hook has tabs on it, and it can either fit into the slot on other side of the rifle or, if the rifle isn't on his back, into the slot on his back that the rifle's little armature plugs into when it's in head mode. That's not all, though. If you did buy Challenger, chances are you got a dagger. That dagger, as I mentioned at the time, isn't for challenger, it's for Peru Kill. And Peru Kill can hold it in his hand, although it's just the tension in his fingers holding it in place. Or, you can use the pegs on the hilt to attach the dagger to the top of his hand. I think he used the dagger both ways while fighting Optimus at the end of the movie. But enough about robots. Even though it doesn't look like it, Peru Kill does transform into a Lamborghini Aventador. At a glance, he looks like he still fits in fairly well with the MPM cars. And it's pretty impressive that they'd get something nearly as tall as MPM-4 (or MP-10) to shift down to something that's close to an MPM car in size. Although, I checked some numbers, and a Saleen Mustang S281 should be roughly 189", and the Aventador is a hair over 188". But we can see Peru Kill is definitely a little longer than Barricade. Now, remember when I said that Peru Kill is probably a little too tall? While his robot height didn't really bother me I do have to think that had they actually made him the "proper" size in robot mode if the resultant shrinkage might have made the alt mode scale better. Well, at least I can say it's a very nice alt mode. I think Lamborghinis have been some of the coolest-looking cars as far back as the ahead-of-its-time Countach, and while the differences in a lot of the modern Lamborghinis are sometimes subtle the Aventador is probably my favorite of the bunch. Peru Kill does a pretty good job of capturing the Aventador. Paint is used to pick out the lights in front of the front wheels and behind the rear wheels, as well as the brakes behind the movie-accurate Lamborghini rims. It's hard to see, but it's even got the sideways Y's in the tail lights. I do have some complaints, though... the lack of break lights above the similarly lacking license plate, the lack of detail in the cooling vents for the brakes and the intakes for the engine behind the windows, the fact that the dark translucent plastic on the windshield and the side windows aren't actually covering the whole windowed area, and the lack of a Lambo badge (or at least a painted, intended shield where the badge should be). Plus, while you can't really tell Peru Kill transforms by looking at his robot mode, it's super evident in alt mode by the fact that it's covered in seems. It does roll, though, on rubber tires. His rifle plugs into slot near the tail of the car, and if you also want to store the claw it can still be tabbed onto either side of the rifle. When Peru Kill came out I remember people gushing over it. Some even said it was their choice for the best Transformers toy of 2017. And if I'm being totally honest, I'm not sure I'm feeling that. I think the alt mode is a little unfinished (and yes, I checked, my gripes with the BSL version are present on the UT one). I think the seed is stupid and we really should have gotten a spark extractor. I think his articulation is a little too limited in the hips and waist, and I really wish they'd have done something different with the knees. I wish he were a little smaller, so his car mode would scale better with MPM-3 and MPM-5. That said, I think it's easier for me to see Peru Kill's flaws because I got Challenger first. Because, make no mistake, it's extremely impressive how Unique Toys managed to engineer both to be so screen accurate and still actually transform. I just think Challenger pulled it off with fewer compromises. (Or course, it doesn't help that Lockdown was a shallow villain who came and went in a single crappy movie, who I'd have no attachment to at all if it weren't for the Transformers Animated version.) I think I'm forced to conclude that from a technical point of view Peru Kill is a flawed figure, but extremely impressive nevertheless. If you're into Bayverse characters you should definitely check him out. If you're not into the Bayverse designs, though, you might struggle to find room for him in your collection. One thing's for sure, I'd love it if Unique Toys used the designer for this and Challenger to do some G1-style MP's. The clever yet simple engineering is definitely effective at hiding away the alt mode in some fantastic-looking robots, and unlike Fans Toys' recent efforts they're actually pretty fun to transform.