mikeszekely

You probably don't have it tabbed into the front of the car all the way. If you look behind the electronics junk there's a thick tab, and the underside of that panel has a slot. It takes a bit of force to really get it to click into place, and if it's not then the end won't line up right and seat properly into the abdomen. Do both of yours stay on? Wondering if I should buy another one and return the first one since the left arm pops off constantly. Anyway, for a better sense of scale, from left to right, this is the Jada Toys 1:32 KITT, Agent Knight, and the Jada 1:24 KITT.

I suppose some of the early 2025 stuff could come a little early, but as near as I can tell, this is the last official figure for me for the year... the Transformers Collaborative Knight Rider X Transformers Agent Knight. As a Transformer, Agent Knight is pretty basic. The back of the car is the back of his legs and the cabin is on his back like a dozen other Autobot cars. The front of the car is his chest, and it's the horizontal style favored by Jazz and the Datsuns, complete with door wings. It's a clean design that doesn't leave him with much kibble. I think where things start to go a bit awry for me is when we get down to the details. Like, there's nothing wrong with a black head and silver face, per se, but then you look at the silver on the sides of his helmet, and I have to wonder now if the helmet is supposed to be like hair with sideburns. And then there's his massive visor... is that supposed to be an homage to Michael Knight's Carerra Porsche Design sunglasses? Then I suppose all the blue paint on his pelvis and thighs is supposed to be like blue jeans (complete with molded panel "pockets"), but if that's the case, why not paint his butt and the insides of the thighs, too? For that matter, if Agent Knight's design is an homage to Michael Knight, the silver paint on his shoulders and his gray biceps would be better off black to match Michael's signature leather jacket. But really, why try to look like Michael Knight at all? Michael Knight, isn't the car, KITT's the car. Looked at that way, I think I'd have preferred a more Cylon-esque head, with the lightbar sensor for eyes and a mouth that looked like the three light columns that flashed inside the car when KITT was talking. No need for the jeans, either. In any case... Agent Knight's a pretty big figure. He's coming in somewhere between the old Earthrise Optimus and the new Studio Series one in height, and significantly taller than carbots like fellow collaborative Gigawatt. If you're wondering if he maybe scales better with Masterpiece cars, I'd say the answer is yes. He's only a head or so taller than MP Prowl (which some sense, given that the third-gen Trans Am was roughly a foot longer than a Datsun 280ZX). That said, I don't think Agent Knight really fits overall with an MP collection. Frankly, and this is just my opinion, but I think Agent Knight looks and feels a bit cheap. There's little things like the fixed hands (with a little plastic carved out of the backs), hollowed spaces in his inner biceps and back, the way his shoulders just hang there, and the fact that his roof doesn't actually tab in place on his back. You do get a few accessories with Agent Knight. There's a smaller pistol-style gun, and a larger gun that's probably an assault rifle or auto shotgun. You know, for all those times Michael Knight used a gun in the show. There's also a thing that took me a hot minute to figure out is supposed to be like Michael's comlink watch, despite looking nothing like Michael's comlink watch. Agent Knight's articulation is adequate. His head is on a hinged ball joint that can look down a bit, has very good upward tilt, and some sideways tilt in addition to the standard swivel. His shoulders are, disappointingly, on ball joints that swivel and move laterally under 90 degrees. Even worse, though this may be unique to my copy, the left shoulder pops off the ball joint constantly. I mean, I've yet to transform him without it coming off. His biceps swivel and his elbows bend slightly over 90 degrees. His wrists are actually ball joints, so they swivel but they can also bend inward for reasons that have nothing to do with his transformation. His waist swivels. The front of his pelvis is hinged, so the entire thing can lift up, but I'm not sure why since you don't need to move it to get 90 degrees forward and over 90 degrees laterally and backward on his hips. His thighs swivel and his knees bend 90 degrees. His feet can't tilt up, but they tilt down 90 degrees and can pivot around 75 degrees. His wings are hinged so they can move backward but also swivel up/down. Agent Knight can hold either of his guns, and any other 5mm accessory, in either hand. As for the comlink, you'll notice that Agent Knight has a groove with a slot on his left forearm. A tab on the inner edge of the comlink fits into the slot so the comlink wraps around the groove. Once you've installed it, there's no need to remove it as it can stay on through transformation and in alt mode. Agent Knight's guns have tabs that fit into slots on the backs of his door wings when he's not using them. They have to come off for transformation, though. Despite his size, Agent Knight's transformation is what you might expect from a Deluxe-class. Rotate his biceps 90 degrees inward, so the backs of his hands are facing forward, then swivel his shoulders backward 90 degrees on the ball joints. Rotate his waist 180 degrees, open his shins up, fold his toes under his feet, and fold his feet down 90 degrees. Tab his legs together. Lift his backpack up and out of the way, then untab his chest and lift it over his head. Rotate his head 180 degrees, then fold it into the void in his torso. Fold his legs at the knees so they wrap over his thighs. His feet will tab into his back, and you can close the shins back up. Fold a flap out from his behind his chest to fill the gap in the hood his head passed through. Tuck the tab on the back of the roof into his legs and line the hood up with the windshield. Close the door wings to give the car enough rigidity, then you can use swivels to bring his shoulders under the hood where they'll tab in place, while tabs on his forearms will lock his arms in place near his head. As with the robot mode, Agent Knight is definitely out-of-scale with Generations cars or other collaboratives like Gigawatt (or Code Red or the two Jurassic Park dudes), though he doesn't look quite so bad with Ectotron. Agent Knight is closer to being in scale with an MP Car. I'm not inclined to get out a ruler and check every dimension for the exact scales, but as I said a Trans Am should be bigger than a Datsun, so Agent Knight being bigger than MP Prowl is fine. I'll be honest with you, it's hard to say what exactly makes for an accurate KITT when they used something like five different cars in the show for every one picture you find of an actual show-used car you'll find a hundred reproductions of varying accuracy. Heck, websites talking about Knight Rider will often mix stills from the show with not-actually-KITT repros. With that in mind, I think Hasbro did a mostly OK job here. They got the license from GMC, and for the most part details like the marker lights, fuel door, etc appear to be accurate. The tires are nicely painted to match the show. Things are slightly more questionable at the rear, where we have the Knight Industries symbol in place of the blue California "KNIGHT" plate. The lack of a Pontiac badge is accurate, and KITT's taillights are red, but they sat behind a transparent black panel and would, most of the time, simply appear to be black. There's also no gap between the spoiler and the car. Oh, and I wish his arms hid just a bit better under the car. Of course, the most egregious difference between the actual car and Agent Knight is that massive chin. It's going to be a giant turn off if you're mostly in it for the alt mode. The simple fact is that's where the speaker and battery compartment are. You have to install three LR44 batteries (not including, forcing me to make a special trip to my local Walgreens). Once you do, you'll notice a button off-centered between the headlights... headlights which do fold open, mind you. Anyway, if you push that button the sensor bar will light up, and you'll hear audio clips that are either taken from the show or were provided from a pretty good William Daniels sound-alike. The lights do move back and forth like he's scanning, and they're quite bright. I think my only real complaint here is that there's some button sounds the first time you press the button, and if you stop playing with it for awhile he'll say, "KITT, signing off," with a number of clips in between. But I think all I really wanted was the swooshing sound. Aside from electronic gimmicks, Agent Knight rolls just fine. The tabs on his guns fit into slots on his shins under the car for alt mode storage. Agent Knight's a tough one. If you're primarily a Transformers fan, you're going to be frustrated at how out-of-scale Agent Knight is with your other mainline Transformers If you're primarily a Knight Rider fan, you can probably buy a 1:24 KITT replica and get a more accurate car. Of course, given that The Transformers debuted only two years after Knight Rider, and that Knight Rider's original run lasted until 1986, it's a safe bet that there's a lot of overlap between fans of both and this is the kind of crossover you really wanted to see in the Collaborative line because you've been dreaming of it for forty years. Like me, you might be able to overlook a few alt mode and scale concessions. It's still frustrating, though, that the materials and QC feel a bit worse than other recent collabs like Party Wallop. But therein lies my recommendation; if you're a fan of both Transformers and Knight Rider, then Agent Knight is probably a must-have for your collection, warts and all. If you're just a Transformers fan, though, there are better figures, including better collabs, that you could spend your money on. And if you're really a Knight Rider fan and don't really care about Transformers there are better non-transforming KITT toys out there.

I mean, I'm not going to judge anyone who's into the Unix Square VF-1. I hope it finds its audience. I just feel comfortable saying that I'm not its audience.

They're terrible. ...I'm in for both.

I sit about an arm's length from my own display, which was previously a 16:9 27" model. I thought I might like the extra vertical real estate, but I don't think I could do maybe more than an inch or two extra vertically without having to physically move my eyes to see the top and bottom- basically, everything seems smaller than it actually is in the store. I ultimately went with the 32:9, 49” curved (1000R) Samsung Odyssey G9 OLED when I realized that it's basically two 27” 16:9 displays. Honestly the way it wraps into my peripheral vision is far more immersive than a little extra horizontal space would have been for gaming, and on a practical level I've got the benefit of a dual-monitor setup without actually having two monitors. If you're really dead set on one of those two LGs, though, and you're sitting at that distance, probably the 45" curved. It's 21:9, has a higher refresh rate, and at 1440p you're more likely to get those extra frames.

Meanwhile, I'm getting emails from Amazon telling me mine's delayed.😒

Well, I looked ahead at my schedule and I don't think I'm expecting any more repaints until next year, so let me wrap up the ones I've been piling up. I guess we'll open with Studio Series, starting with Core-class Bumblebee Frenzy. And... well, there isn't a lot to talk about here. Rumble was already a very basic figure with minimal articulation, no actual hands, accessories that he could store in both modes but not actually utilize, and an alt mode that was just a box. He wasn't even in the movie, only concept art, and exists solely so Soundwave can stick something into his chest besides Ravage. Turns out Frenzy is exactly the same thing, just in black and red. Unless you're hardcore into having all of Soundwave's tape... er, boxes, you should pass on Frenzy. Against my better judgement, and mostly because I was bored and saw him on a peg while I was at the store, we also have Gamer Edition Deluxe-class Decepticon Soldier. In one of the very first cutscenes in the game Megatron's on the bridge of a ship attacking Trypticon Station and ordering them to go full speed ahead, this generic fellow says, "but sir, that's suidicide!" right before Megatron shoots him. There are also a bunch of generic guys that look like him, but with purple instead of green accents. The thing here is that the Decepticon Soldier is a retool of Barricade, who thus far as been my pick for the absolute worse of the Gamer Edition figures. Thing is, a lot has been retooled here. Same pelvis and hip joints, same hands, same elbow joints, same basic transformation, but his chest, shoulders, forearms, his legs from the thighs down to his feet, and most of his vehicle kibble are all new parts. (Note that, as near as I can tell, DS's leg kibble is supposed to be wheels-forward, but it can be rotated like Barricade's.) You may recall from my rant about Barricade that much of my disappointment came from a lack of basic articulation on the figure. Less kibble on his forearms means he can bend his elbows 90 degrees. Lower (if not actually less) kibble on his calves means he can bend his knees 90 degrees. Is it weird to cheer on what I consider to be the absolute minimum acceptable articulation to be an improvement (especially when he still lacks ankle pivots)? Kind of, but Barricade was that bad, so here we are. Accessory-wise, Decepticon Soldier has the same weapon as Barricade, which is before they started adding pegs for them to hold their weapons. So you do have to pull his arm off to attach the gun, and the arm can still be stored on the back. Despite looking fairly different, Decepticon Soldier transforms in almost the exact same way as Barricade (the only real difference is that you don't have to rotate his biceps or the kibble on his legs). And his gun still plugs into the roof on top. The Decepticon Soldier isn't a great figure, but he at least comes closer to meeting my minimums that Barricade, which makes him the best use of the mold. As a nobody you can probably pass on him without regrets, but if you're into troop building I'd recommend this guy over Barricade. Moving on from Studio Series, I was finally able to complete my Walmart-exclusive Star Seekers when I happened to notice that Deluxe-class Filch was back in stock at Walmart.com. She's a retool, albeit a less extensive one, of Kingdom Airazor, with new shoulder pads, shins, head, and accessories. Filch comes from the divisive 2015 Robots In Disguise. Now, I don't think we got more than a fleeting glimpse of her bot mode in the cartoon, but artwork of it exists, and near as I can tell the new head and shins are pretty much on-point, and by not turning her feet around as you'd do for Airazor you wind up with mostly-accurate clawed feet. Her new accessories, which are basically the ends of her wings, peg into her forearms, and the rest of her wings tuck behind her enough to create the illusion that her wings are actually her arms, like the cartoon. The round shoulder pads don't really sell the idea that they're supposed to be the VTOL fans that they are in the cartoon, though, and her alt mode head shouldn't be visible on her chest (but there's not a lot they can do with that when they're starting from Airazor). Her tail is also way too short. Articulation and 5mm port placement is the same as Airazor, but her only accessories are those wing tips. The instructions show her holding them in her hands... to do what? are they sharp? Will she do a fan dance? Transformation is basically the same as Airazor. As a bird mode, it's not terrible, and I can even overlook the fact that she's got a big hole with the back of her bot-mode head in it instead of the chest she has in the cartoon. My complaint is really more that the remolded parts don't entirely blend with the more organic-looking parts they didn't remold. Like, her new head is sitting on a feathered neck, instead of a collar. The jagged edges of her wings give way to feathers as well, and the VTOL fans are only partially present and devoid of any orange. Her organic, feathered tail is (again) way too short. Her "accessories" use their hinged 5mm pegs to plug into ports on the underside of the wings, basically where the hinges were in Airazor's original wings. Filch was hard to come by, though whether she was shortpacked or simply weirdly popular I couldn't say. The base figure was already pretty decent, and I'm usually up for more Decepticons and more fembots. RID15 is one my least favorite Transformers shows, but I don't really mind if Hasbro pulls the best original characters from it to add to Generations. I'll give this one a mild recommendation, but know that she's really more a Filch-ified Airazor than anything RID15-accurate. And now on the last few figures from Wave 4 of Legacy United, starting with Deluxe-class Slipstream. I kind of knew this from pictures, but it's still disappointing to have her in hand and see that he only parts that were remolded are her head and hear accessories. They've replaced Windblade's kabuki-geisha head with a more traditional Seeker-style one, and her comb and sword with more typical null-ray style guns. Which is a good time to remind you that Slipstream, who predates any version of Windblade by around five years, began life as a clone of Starscream in Animated. She should have more traditional Seeker-style wings without the VTOL fans, she should have intakes in her chest, and a cockpit in her torso. That's not just true for Animated, either, but also her IDW and Cyberverse appearances as well, where she'd even have the large shoulder intakes of a G1 Seeker. Really, you'd have a more accurate Slipstream if you just repainted Earthrise Starscream. But let's say I concede that Slipstream has to be a Deluxe, because in Cyberverse she's Windblade's main rival, and let's say I concede that there aren't a lot of Deluxe-class jets, let alone female ones, so the team had to retool Windblade. Let's say I even concede that budgets are tight, so maybe you don't retool the wings, and they at least painted some details on her sternum that kind of mimic her cockpit. I still say, and I cannot stress this enough, that the absolutely NEEDED to retool her arms. Windblade's arms do not have 5mm ports on the biceps or shoulders, and fins on the outsides of her forearms. As such, Slipstream can either plug her null rays into the backs of her forearms, or she can hold them, and neither option is accurate to any of her designs, let alone her Cyberverse one. My frustration on the matter continues in her jet mode. The only place you can really plug her weapons in are the 5mm ports near the tips of her wings, where they stick out ridiculously far. If they'd had a place on the sides of her arms, where they'd accurately be in robot mode, you could have left them there, spinning them 180 degrees without even removing them, and they'd be tucked closer to her fuselage. At the end of the day, I think what I said about Filch applies... I'm happy to have both another Decepticon and another fembot in the collection. For that reason, I'm giving her a recommend, but I think she deserves better and I'm really hoping for someone like DNA to give her new arms. And lastly, we have Deluxe-class Quake, who's a retool of Skullgrin. But Quake's more the kind of retool I wanted for Slipstream. We have a new head and new accessories, sure, but beyond that we've got a new chest, and, well, pretty much new everything from the waist down. I think it'd be even more obvious how extensively Quake has been retooled were it not for the fact that the new chest is similarly a rectangle with a raised middle flanked by squares and vents, but the thing is it's not the same rectangle, the same raised middle, or the same squares and vents, they're actually based on Quake's G1 toy. Maybe some paint for the molded "stickers" would have helped. It also would have been better if his pelvis was on the same sprues as the chest, because really his entire torso should be blue, and the red shoulders should be gray. Technically his dark gray forearms should also match his biceps. His remolded thighs have molded treads on the inside, which is accurate, but sadly that molded detail is lost due to a lack of paint. Meanwhile, his shins are entirely treads, and he's losing the red shins from the G1 toy. Again, perhaps some red paint on the middle section of the reads would have helped. While Quake does have the same back (mostly) as Skullgrin, he ditches the tail and guns for an entire faux turret top. Sadly, as it uses a 5mm port to plug into the peg on his back, there's no way for him to hold it like a weapon on its own the way the G1 toy could. But as you can see, it folds over and stays mostly out of the way, so if you store it on his back there's no partsforming later. As for his other accessories, he trades Skullgrin's sword-guns for a pair of Targetmasters, Tiptop and Heater. Now, I'd have forgiven Hasbro if they'd simply repainted Sunbeam and Zigzag (the guys who came with Needlenose) into Tiptop and Heater, respectively... that's basically what they did to make Cleansweep and Ozone for Windsweeper, after all. But Hasbro went the extra mile and made two brand new Targetmasters for Quake, and yeah, they're super basic and have no real articulation, but aside from Heater being mostly blue instead of black in gun mode they're very accurate to the G1 toys. One more thing... by ditching some of the Pretender armor elements of Skullgrin's design, Quake's left with marginally better articulation. Nice! From the waist up Quake largely follows the same transformation as Skullgrin. Things get different below the belt, though. Rather than bending his legs forward at the waist, Quake bends his legs backward, so they wind up underneath him rather than in front of him. The backs of his legs fold down over his feet, while hinges swing the tread from the inside of his lower legs over his knees to line up with the treads on the outsides of his legs and the feet covers, making treads that run the entire length of the bottom. The result is, if you squint, almost Quake's G1 tank mode. The illusion is only broken when you realize that his arms and chest and kind of just hanging out below the gray part of his back. If they're part of the turret, they shouldn't run the full length of the tank and they should be gray. If they're part of the main section of the tank they should be lower, more flush all the way around with the treads, and entirely red. Also, if they're not part of the turret, then the turret is kind of thin. In other words, far from perfect, but honestly a lot better than I expected a retool of Skullgrin to be. If you lift the hinge on the front of the turret you can even swivel it a little and raise the barrel. I always figured that Targetmasters walk around while their partner is in alt mode, since they don't have to be guns.* But they can still plug into 5mm ports on top of the turret or ont he sides of the treads. *Targetmasters have always been a dumb idea to me... you could kind of rationalize Headmasters and Powermaster/Godmasters as the "real" robot being the head/engine, and the larger Transformer as a lifeless Transtector without it, but Targetmasters have never been more than a Nebulan/Transformer from Master that was like, "hey, I turn into a gun, can I hang out with you?" Like, what's the bigger Transformer supposed to do if his partner wanders off or gets lost? Or just doesn't feel like being a weapon of war today? Go get a normal, non-sentient gun and just be a regular dude instead of Targetmaster? On the whole, United Wave 4 was entirely retools save for Deluxe-class Optimus, and that's pretty disappointing. However, Quake's the sort of retool I can get behind, where less obscure G1 character, but still a toy some of use might have had as a kid, might not rate enough of a budget for a whole new figure but still manages to get enough that the retool is close enough. He's a pretty solid recommend from me, I just wish Slipstream could have gotten half this attention.

I'm not. As Hasbro's been doing a pretty good job of checking my boxes in the last few years I've been losing interesting in expensive 3P figures that take up way too much space, to the point that I've actually thought about selling off a lot of the ones I bought just to try to have a complete Sunbow cast at the MP scale but never actually liked all that much. I didn't have the Omnibots as a kid, nor were they in any fiction that I recall, so I don't have any attachment to the designs. I was passingly curious to see what XTB might cook up, but when reviews of Fioravanti started hitting it seemed like the usual XTB "looks nice, is kind of a pain" design and I figured I'd be better off spending my money on other things. If Hasbro ever gets around to them, though, I'm sure I'd check them out. And I've definitely got my eyes on Mecha Invasion's Hook and Long Haul.

Bummer. It's not an exaggeration to say that my love of fantasy and science fiction began with me admiring the Brothers Hildenbrant's artwork for The Sword of Shannara and Urshurak.

Nice! I passed on the Megatron and Soundwave helmets, but I have the Optimus Prime one.

I've reviewed Studio Series TFone Megatron, two 3P Legends versions, and Dr. Wu's itty-bitty Megatron, all since October began. Surely I'm out of Megatrons to review for awhile? Well... So this little guy here doesn't seem to have a name, just a number, CT-01. It's the first product from a company called Chang Tiao. And I have to say, Chang Tiao is bringing an interesting approach to this product. Rather than the typical Legends approach of making a mini-Masterpiece like Magic Square or NewAge, Chang Tiao basically looked at that Core-class Optimus & Bumblebee set Hasbro released awhile back and said, "what if we made a Megatron to fight that Prime?" Of course, we know that Hasbro actually made a Core-class Megatron, but one who's colors are a bit off, one who's back and shoulders are dominated by massive tank kibble... well, one that turns into a tank. CT-01 is colored and kibbled like a more traditional cartoon Megatron, but you can see he's still very much built like a Hasbro Core-class toy. Indeed, the sculpt of his shoulders and feet are nigh-on identical to the actual Core-class Megatron. Spinning him around, we can see plenty of visible ball joints, hands that are only visible from the front because the alt mode stuff wraps around them, minimal effort to clean up his back kibble, super hollow calves, and even plastic-saving cutouts in his butt and the back of his head. Now, on a $70 3P Legends figure I'd absolutely be livid about this sort of thing, but remember, CT-01 is meant to replace the Hasbro Core-class Megatron with other official Core-class toys. In that, it absolutely succeeds. CT-01 comes with his fusion cannon; it's actually attached in the box, unlike some others, and does not need to be removed for transformation. You get an Energon mace. And you get a smally but nicely-detailed little Laserbeak. It doesn't transform; it's wings don't even move, though it has hinges at the top and bottom of its neck. CT-01's head is on a mushroom swivel. There's no tilt, though you can use a transformation hinge to kind of make him look down a little bit before his head starts folding into his chest. His shoulders are ball joints that swivel and move 90 degrees laterally. No dedicated bicep swivels, but his elbows are ball joints that act as swivels as well as bending 90 degrees. No wrist swivels, but he does have a waist swivel. His hips care more ball joints, and they can move forward, backward, and laterally 90 degrees, plus they provide minimal thigh swivel. His knees, which are (you guessed it) ball joints, bend nearly 180 degrees and can also be used as swivels. He has no foot articulation; like the official Core-class Megatron his feet are just molded lumps at the ends of his shins in a permanent slight pivot. As mentioned, his fusion cannon comes already attached. It has a slightly off-set peg that plugs into a corresponding port on his right arm. Speaking of pegs, the Energon mace also has a peg so that be can hold it in either hand, but in a way that the handle bends over his knuckles to give the illusion of it replacing his hand like in the cartoon. Laserbeak also has a peg that folds out of his tummy (and no feet). This peg can be used to "perch" Laserbeak on CT-01's left arm. Now I'm thinking it's kind of too bad that Hasbro's Core-class Soundwave doesn't have such a hole on his arms or shoulders. While toy safety laws have consigned official Megatron toys to be forever tanks now, Chang Tiao went for that old-school G1 gun mode. The transformation is the kind of simple that, again, makes CT-01 feel like something Hasbro could have done themselves. Spin his fusion cannon 180 degrees. Turn both of his forearms in 90 degrees, lift both arms 90 degrees, them spread them laterally 90 degrees. Use the double hinge in his torso to shift his upper body out to the right, and his left arm should tab into the space his chest just vacated. Open his chest, which will give you the clearance to swing his right arm across the front of his torso so it can peg into his left arm, and fold his head down before closing his chest back up. Wrap his backpack down and under his chest, and fold the barrel so it's in the space his right shoulder was. Swivel his lower legs at the knee joints so his toes are pointing in at each other, then use the same ball joints to fold his lower legs up and over his thighs, tabbing the legs together as you do. Then just plug the trigger guard into the slot above his foot and you're done. CT-01's gun mode is far from perfect. The grip is wider at the top than at the bottom, with just the illusion of a contour in bow the black parts were molded. There's no trigger in the guard. The back of the gun is missing, with visible fists instead, and there's wide gaps between the handle and the slide where his robot midriff is still plainly exposed. As with the robot mode, these are the sorts of things that'd bug you if you meant for this figure to go with a 3P Legends collection, but they're exactly the kinds of shortcuts you'd expect to see on an official Hasbro Core-class toy. There's nothing really for Laserbeak or the mace to do in this mode. And CT-01 doesn't come with the stock or silencer a more premium figure might have had. However, in another clear demonstration of its intended purpose, the blast effect parts Hasbro's been using since Siege plug into both the fusion cannon and the gun's barrel with no issues. If I haven't made it clear by this point, Chang Tiao is clearly a company that understood the assignment. This is not a premium, mini-MP sort of overly-complex 3P figure. This is a toy that looks, moves, transforms, and feels like one of Hasbro's own Core-class figures. The downside to that is that it's a simple toy with somewhat limited articulation, hollow bits, and a somewhat messy gun mode. But the plus here is that it absolutely looks like it belongs with Hasbro's stuff; it often seems to me that even when a 3P makes a non-Legends, non-MP toy (usually MMC or Planet X these days) they have a tendency to make them somewhat complex or in a different scale, and they don't actually blend all that well with Hasbro's stuff, but if you told me this design came from a Takara employee who planned a Core-class Megatron before Hasbro stepped in and said, "if we can't have gun Megatron in America, nobody else can either!" I'd believe it. And the price is right, too. I paid $18 dollars for CT-01, which is actually cheaper than Dr. Wu's much tinier Megatron. And while you might point out that Hasbro's official Core-class toys are like $10, you can think of the $18 I paid as covering the "free" shipping from China, as I'm told the local price there is much closer to $10. Which brings us to that all-important question... should you buy one? I'd say that's pretty dependent on whether or not you've been collecting Core-class Transformers. If you have, even if it was just that one Hasbro set with Prime and his trailer and Bumblebee, then unequivocally yes; I prefer CT-01 to Hasbro's own Core-class Megatron. That said, I think the majority of Transformers fans are more into the Deluxe-and-up classes, with Cores for the really small guys like Wheelie and the tapes. Hasbro's stated purpose for having Core versions of guys like Prime and Megatron (aside from having cheaper versions of the main guys on the shelves) is to put with your Titans to make them look bigger, but Dr. Wu's been doing that with even better, even smaller figures.

Well... I ultimately decided not to get NewAge's Megatron. They tend to run a bit much for their size, and while their engineering and materials do seem top notch it's hard to justify when you already have a perfectly good Legends-scale Megatron. That said, I did the next best thing, and picked up a copy of Jinbao's Destroy Emperor. If you're familiar with Jinbao, chances are that you know them from either their up-sized copy of MMC's Feral Rex or their up-sized copy of Generation Toy's Gravity Builder. And since I started by talking about NewAge's Agamemnon, you can probably guess that this is an up-sized copy of of that. As such, any discussions of engineering or aesthetics should apply to Agamemnon as well, but build quality, joint tolerances, accessories, and paint/deco might be different. With that in mind, Destroy Emperor is a little less than a head taller than Doomsday, and I believe that Agamemnon and Doomsday are roughly the same size, so there's your upscaling. In a vacuum, I think Destroy Emperor looks fine (from this angle), and has most of the details you'd expect from a good G1 Megatron. The problems don't really start until you have him side-by-side with Doomsday. Then you start to notice that his lower legs are a bit thin, his midsection is a bit too tall, and his chest is a bit narrow. There's very visible hinges in his waist, a large oval in his crotch, and a bit more kibbly-flaps on his arms and shoulders. If I'm being nitpicky, I'd also point out that the gun barrel on his back should be turned so the front sight should be facing forward, not to his right. However, you can actually pull the muzzle off, turn it 90 degrees, then put it back on, though you'll have to do it again in alt mode or it'll look like the barrel is on sideways. The back and sides don't do Destroy Emperor/Agamemnon any favors, either. His back is just a mess. Sure, Doomsday's got a trigger guard folded into the small of his back and a split in his butt with a little trigger tail, but Destroy Emperor is maybe half as thick and he should be with nothing but a mass of hinges with a trigger and guard poking through the middle. What's more, I don't know that these pictures really show it clearly, but his feet aren't flat, and I've had issues with him wanting to lean to his right. To be totally fair, MP-36's back is kind of a mess, too. getting a Sunbow-style Megatron to turn into anything resembling a decently-proportioned Walther is clearly a challenge, and I'd be inclined to forgive Destroy Emperor's aesthetic issues, especially at this scale, except that Doomsday is right there next to him and looking, in my opinion, miles better. At least Destroy Emperor comes with a lot of accessories. You of course get his fusion cannon, stock, and silencer. You get the Key to Vector Sigma, an Energon mace, and an orange plug for his gun barrel. You get an alternate face, a gray bit with a small straight translucent purple effect part, a trio of of longer effect parts, and a single chunky effect part. There's two bits of sprues with some alternate left and right pointing hands and left and right open hands. He comes with the pistol Megatron uses to murder Prime in the '86 movie. Now, all of that comes with the actual Agamemnon, but Jinbao went a bit further and also included a second alternate face, a weird little gray thing, his mind control helmet, and the parts to build a display stand. Destroy Emperor's head is on a ball joint. He can look up a bit and tilt his head sideways a little, but he doesn't really have the chin clearance to look down. His shoulders swivel, no problem, and they can move a little under 90 degrees laterally. Due to how he transforms, there's a little bit of a butterfly there as well. His biceps swivel, and his elbows bend 90 degrees. His wrists swivel, as does his waist, but there's no ab crunch. His hips are a little weird.* They connect to his pelvis via ball joints, but those joints are only for transformation and for moving 90 degrees laterally. Below the ball joint is a thigh swivel, then a dedicated hinge that's lower than his pelvis armor that allows him to kick his legs over 90 degrees forward, but only a miniscule amount backward. His knees are hinged and bend about 120 degrees. His feet lack an up/down tilt, but his ankles pivot about 90 degrees. For those keeping score at home, that winds up being not hugely different in most areas from Doomsday, except that Doomsday has an ab crunch. *It's my understanding that this is exactly how the first run of Agamemnon worked, but subsequent runs have a different hip design. The fusion cannon has a weird h-shaped hole under it, and a massive tab folds out from Doomsday's left arm for it to attach to. My first thought is that the chunky effect part fits into the cannon, which it does, except that it doesn't look great. It looks less like a blast of energy and more like a crystal... in fact, if it were green instead of purple I'd say it's the Crystal of Power from "Fire In the Mountain" (aka the episode where the Autobots dig up and undo Skyfire's heroic death in "Fire in the Sky" because they need a ride to South America). The stand is fairly simple. There's no ratchets or anything, once the arm and tip are put into place they don't move, and you have to pull them apart to reposition them. The tip plugs into a hole in Destroy Emperor's butt. A butthole, if you will. The stock and silencer become a gun emplacement, like the G1 toy/Doomsday/MP-36. The orange barrel tip has a little peg that fits into the muzzle. It's easy enough to remove. The mind control helmet plonks right on top of his head. Most of his other accessories like the gun, the gray piece with the little effect part, his mace, and the Key to Vector Sigma have small pegs that fit into his default fists. The fists themselves use similar pegs to plug into his wrist, so changing hands is as easy as yanking the default hands off and plugging a different one it. You can plug the mace directly into his wrist as well, though the fit is very loose on my copy of Destroy Emperor. If you're thinking that the little effect part makes for a pitiful beam saber, you can pull the effect part off and use one of the longer, more jagged ones. However, I'm not sure that it's meant to be a beam saber at all. It's more like an adapter plug that lets you attach those effect parts to the end of his fusion cannon. I thought maybe the small effect part might make for a good beam from the pistol, but the pistol has a front sight on it and there's no cutout to accommodate it. Here's all three faces lined up. The stoic face and the smiling face were the ones that Agamemnon originally came with. The third face is an angry face. I have hard time imagining that Jinbao created it themselves, so maybe it's from a different Agamemnon release. Regardless, swapping his face is exactly the same process as Doomsday- pry the entire front of his head off, as it's simply pegged in, and swap in the face of your chosing. That just leaves that weird gray bit. It's meant to be a back filler. Rather than copy one of the 3D-printed designs that covered most of his back, it's just fills in some of the space on his left side. There's a slot there, and a tab on it plugs right in. I'll say it makes him look more balanced, like he's not missing a chunk of himself, but it doesn't really hide the mess, and it needs to be removed for transformation. Speaking of transformation... honestly, this might be my all-time favorite Megatron transformation, because it's simultaneously simple but clever. You start by removing his fusion cannon and folding in the tab on his arm. Lift the hinges and gun barrel on his back up 90 degrees, so the barrel is pointing straight out over his right shoulder. Lift his belly panel and fold the hinge out behind it, then thread the entire thing back through his stomach to extend with the trigger guard behind his back. Rotate his waist 180 degrees. Push up on the bottom of his chest slightly and pull his arms out, then fold his chest forward and spin in 90 degrees, so the part that was connected to his right shoulder is now covering his face. Lift his back hinge up another 90 degrees, so it tabs into the edge of his chest, and spin the barrel into place. Grab the sides of his pelvis and shift them down; that oval on his crotch is concealing hinges. In addition to bringing his legs closer together, it's going to uncover a hinge in his waist that'll let you swing the entire thing forward 90 degrees. Fold the panel on the back of his RIGHT shoulder out, collapse his forearm over his bicep on a slider and flip some of shoulder kibble down over his forearm. Use the butterfly joint in his shoulder to shift his arm forward 90 degrees, then with his hips out of the way, you can swing the whole arm and the side of his body it's connected to around to tuck his hand into the side of his chest where his left shoulder was. The left arm is a bit more complicated. You want to fold out the panel on his shoulder, open a panel on his forearm, and bend his elbow 90 degrees. Then, using a hinge near his wrist, bend his forearm so it flips over with his fist pointing in toward his wrist, then use another hinge to straighten his arm with the fist tucked up against his elbow. Fold the armor around his forearm back around, and flip a flap on his shoulder kibble (it sounds complicated, but it'll make sense in hand). Now, you're going to use the butterfly joint to shift the arm forward and the hinges to swing the arm around like you did on the right, except this time instead of forming the back of the gun while his chest is the front his arm is forming the back of the gun AND filling in the gaps on his back. Fold down his heels, open his calves, untab the insides of his lower legs, and spin them 180 degrees so they're poking out between his feet. Fold the hammer out of his left heel, and then you should be able to tab his heels and lower legs together. Turn the outer edges of his legs 180 degrees, then bend his knees. The dark gray inner bits from his legs should slide into a gap between his arms, and his heels will tab in place and close up the back of the gun. Close his calves on the back of the handle and his hip skirts will tab into his thighs, then finish him off by taking the prongs on the flap behind his tummy panel and plugging them into holes in his hips to lock the trigger guard in place. It's all very fluid, nothing feels like it's fighting your or has to be forced past anything, and you get the sense that you can focus on one chunk at a time before moving onto another whereas Doomsday has you practically exploding his legs and rearranging them. It's a pretty good-looking gun mode, too, though unlike Doomsday one side is definitely a bit cleaner than the other. The side with the front of his chest has a few hinges under the slide, nothing to egregious, but the side with his back has a few more hinges and seams due to how it transforms. And yeah, if you're looking down from the top, you can see the colored circles and rectangles from his tummy on the inner edge of the trigger guard, but ultimately I think it's fine. Maybe Doomsday is a little cleaner-looking overall; shins shins make for a smoother front on the grip than Destroy Emperor/Agamemnon's thighs, and I might be a bit pickier if this were blown up to MP-scale, but I think it's perfectly fine for a Legends-scale toy. Frankly I think it'd be fine all the way up to a Generations-scaled figure. Unlike Doomsday, the fusion cannon does have to partsform to become the scope- it's actually connecting to the insides of the lower legs we slid between his arms. The stock uses a pair of tabs to grab into a pair of slots on the back of the grip, and the silencer will slide right over the barrel- you don't have to remove the tip like you did with Doomsday. That said, it's almost certainly going to come off and get stuck in the silencer anyway when you take it back off, and leaving you to pull the silencer apart and grab a pen to push the tip back out. Not sure if that was an issue with a legit Agamemnon or not. The gun mode doesn't really interact with any of the other accessories, as the silencer is too big for the blast effects (although, with the beam saber hilt/effects adapter you can attach the effect parts directly to the barrel without the silencer on), and there's nowhere the seems intentional to use the stand. For the same of this picture, I stuck the peg on the stand through the slit in the trigger guard. It's fine, though. As good as he looks in alt mode, and as easy and smooth as his transformation is, Megatron's gun mode doesn't particularly do much and you're probably going to have him in bot mode most of the time anyway. When it comes to a Legends-scale Megatron you've definitely got a hard choice to make (or realistically already made, since I'm way behind on these guys). Personally, on looks alone, I'd give the edge to Magic Square's Doomsday. I think he's just a bit cleaner in both modes, and has better proportions in robot mode. But that nylon plastic leaves him with frustratingly wonky tab tolerances, and there's a panels on his shins that you kind of have to force past the sliders on the inside when you're transforming him that make him a bit more of a pain to handle. Magic Square's weaknesses are Jinbao/NewAge's strengths, though. What Destroy Emperor/Agamemnon lacks in his thinner proportions, arm kibble, and messy back he makes up for with solid materials that tab solidly in place and a fluid, clever transformation that makes you want to play with him. The question of which one to get, then, will likely come down to your priorities. If you want the best-looking bot and don't care about the transformation, then Magic Square. If you like transforming your figures and want what is easily the best Megatron transformation I've experienced, then go with NewAge. Or if you want a good-looking bot for your display but still want a cheap way to experience NewAge's engineering, at just around $20 or so you're not going to break the bank if you buy Doomsday and Destroy Emperor.

Maybe that price tag is so high because it covers a stint in rehab when you finally convince it to stop using steroids...

Quick addendum to my recent Optimus Prime reviews with stuff I literally just discovered today. 1. Legacy United Deluxe Optimus Prime's smokestacks are attached via 5mm pegs. That's it. Despite what I've pictured here, he doesn't hold them as pistols all that well due to the pegs being kind of short and his hands sitting well below the plane of his forearms, but they're super easy to pop off, and they leave 5mm ports behind if you want to play with him and some Weaponizers/Armorizers/Junkions/Fossilizers. 2. Studio Series 86 Commander-class Optimus Prime actually does have a way to carry his ion rifle without stuffing it in his trailer. I missed it at first, because I'm used to stuffing 5mm pegs into 5mm holes, or dedicated tabs into dedicated slots. But Prime's rear doesn't have any tabs that fit into the rifle's slots, and the magazine on the rifle prevents the 5mm handle from reaching the 5mm port in the hitch. But that magazine is actually the key! On the panels you folded up from his calves over his thighs, there's some square-ish holes that I mistook for the usual Hasbro waffles. Turns out that they're the same size and shape as the magazine, so you plug the magazine into them and presto, alt mode rifle storage.

Haven't you? This isn't insider knowledge, just a bunch on my part, but I'm feeling confident that SS86 Megatron will be a heavy retool of Megatronus. I can't speak to anything but Transformers, but I love that the marketing people have kind of taken a backseat, so it doesn't come across as corporate pandering. They've let (some of) the design team became the face of the brand, and they're clearly passionate fans like us. Their enthusiasm is catchy, they're clearly listening to and engaging with the community, and the peeks they give about what goes on behind the curtain helps us known that they're not always happy with the budgets either, and sometimes it's a repaint or nothing.

Links good for everyone in about 15 minutes. Bonecrusher Scrapper The Fallen will be available later with the rest of wave 1, and Bumblebee and Apelinq should go up tomorrow.

Speaking of nuggets, here's one. It's public knowledge that the new trilogy is Age of the Primes, and I've previously told you that Solus Prime, Alchemist Prime, Micronus, Prima, Alpha Trion, and Onyx Prime are coming in 2025 in addition to the Fallen. I have no idea if another Vector Prime is in the works or not, but for now let's say the Legacy one is all we're getting. So that's 8 out of 13. Well, who are we missing? I'm not going to go into a history lesson explaining why sometimes a character is or isn't on the list, because it's changed. However, there was one list that was codified in 2010's The Covenant of Primus that seemed to be the definitive version (which not only listed who they are, but assigned each of them a unique relic)... until Transformers One came out with slightly different one. Well, the already-released Vector Prime, Megatronus, and the six others leaked are on both lists, as are four others- Liege Maximo, Nexus Prime, Amalgamous Prime, and Quintus Prime. In Transformers One, the last Prime is Zeta Prime. However, in most continuities Zeta is simply part of the lineage of Matrix bearers since the original 13 passed into legend, usually either right before Sentinel Prime or right between Sentinel and Optimus. In the The Covenant of Primus, the last Prime is simply called "Thirteen," and it's very heavily implied (but not outright stated) that Optimus is Thirteen, who chose to kind of die and be reborn as a regular guy. Does that mean, with SS86 Optimus, that we already have Thirteen? Well, take a look at this art from the side of the Fallen's box. After watching Mark just show off the figure, the statue in the middle is pretty recognizable as The Fallen. And that symbol above him is the symbol for the Fallen cooked up during Power of the Primes, when they were doing those little Prime Masters. The guy on the left might not be immediately recognizable to the readers of the Covenant or the IDW comics, where he looked more like robo-Loki, but G2 fans will know that's Liege Maximo (and the symbol above confirms it). The guy on the right? The first thing I noticed was that his torso looks like Powermaster Optimus/Super Ginrai, and what I can make out of the head is certainly very Optimus-esque. But the shoulder's are a bit square, with what appear to be turrets on top and no guns on the sides. There's little wheels on the inside of his forearms. His shins have entirely different (yet still familiar) molded shapes. No, the Super Ginrai cab-chest is all wrong, but everything else is definitely looking familiar... And I did tell you guys that Star Convoy is 2025's Titan... Oh, one more thing. We're still getting four Generations waves in 2025. I think I've already said 2025 is starting with a 5th wave of Legacy United that's basically a bunch of repaints and package refreshes, then three waves of Age of the Primes. But it sounds like part of the reason they're allowing a 5th wave of Legacy United (aside from giving people who couldn't get some store-exclusives like Cosmos and Galaxy Shuttle another crack at them) is because going forward there will only be three waves. The thinking seems to be that this will allow people to have a better chance at getting them in the store, and to give stores more time to sell through before the next wave (though, judging by the number of Legacy Arcees and Crosscuts that have lingered on shelves while entire waves were skipped here, I'm not sure that'll help). The confusing part is that I'm hearing this won't actually affect the number of releases per year, though. It was explained to me as, "you're not losing a figure, if there were going to be ten Deluxes you'll still get ten, just in one fewer wave." But if a wave usually has four Deluxes, four waves is sixteen, and three is twelve, so maybe the implication is that if they planned ten molds we'll get ten molds and two repaints instead of ten molds, two remolds, two straight-up repaints, and two package refreshes?

I need to stay off the other site for awhile, I'm just tired of the whining. Don't get me wrong, there's plenty of people jazzed for the new Constructicons, and some offering valid criticisms like Bonecrusher having kind of weird proportions, but there's entirely too much, "Why is this Devastator the same size as basically every other combiner and not obnoxiously huge like the Combiner Wars toys? Why do toys based on the G1 cartoon look so much like older toys also based on the exact same cartoon? Scrapper must be a ripoff because he's the same size as Bonecrusher, and Bonecrusher is a Deluxe (never mind that they're both the height of Voyager SS86 Ironhide, that we have no idea the actual difference in parts count, that we know Scrapper has ratcheted joints in his torso for Devastator's ankle, and that Scrapper comes with Devastator's gun in addition to his own), so Hasbro must be ripping us off! Speaking of ripping us off, why will this Devastator cost $210 when it's like half the size of Combiner Wars Devastator? That thing only cost $150 ten years ago! I can't understand things like inflation ($150 in 2015 is roughly $200 today), the the fact that these guys might have more complex engineering (Scrapper has elbows this time!), or more accessories (everybody has their own individual guns, Devastator looks like he might be a pantsformer this time, Evan hinted that the combiner kibble might turn into a trailer that Long Haul can pull, etc). Why is Hasbro doing more G1 stuff anyway instead of Bayverse (I conveniently forgot that Dark of the Moon Que and Age of Extinction Optimus were announced literally yesterday)? The designers should all be fired for not being able to make 3P MP-level products on the piddling budgets Hasbro allows them! Worst toy ever, know way am I buying it (even though I probably already have Pulse open to the "new" section so I just have to refresh at 1:00)!"

Courtesy of Ravenwind at TFW, I don't think Devy will look too bad with the Dinobots, based on Menasor.

Well, despite RSVP-ing Hasbro doesn't see fit to send me a link to the 1027 stream.😒 And while the people at TFW2005 don't seem inclined to post the link there, they're more generous with posting clips. Nice to see that Scrapper has elbows, but he and Bonecrusher look an awful lot like Combiner Wars. EDIT: Got a link. EDIT AGAIN: It sounds like preorders for Devy will go up tomorrow, preorders Apelinq and Bumblebee go up Tuesday.

I'm not sure exactly what figures are supposed to be in what waves anymore for Studio Series. It sounds like they're shuffling things around because the Constructicons are getting pushed up. But I do know that, in addition to the stuff that went up for preorder this week (Galvatron, Hatchet, Skywarp, and Double Punch) that we were expecting Leader-class Apelinq, who's a retool of Primal. As well as Deluxe-class Bumblebee Bumblebee. There was some speculation at the time that this would probably be a retool of ROTB Bee and be the Camaro from the end of the movie, but it's actually a retool of of the original SS Bee. I'm not clear on just how extensive, or if the alt mode will actually hold together this time, but he looks to have at least new limbs, and I've heard that the door wings are on swivels this time. Word is that these guys will be available to preorder this week. Beyond that, there were a few spacebridge reveals at the MCM London Comic Con. No surprises, since basically the entire line for 2025 was leaked, but it's interesting to see some of them since they look like they're using renders of the toy (or possibly prototypes, because those are not Prime's final colors) instead of artwork. Deluxe-class Dark of the Moon Que Voyager-class Gamer Edition Ironhide Leader-class Age of Extinction Optimus Prime As well as package refreshes for SS86 Jazz and Dark of the Moon Shockwave. Nothing new on SS86 Devastator or Age of the Primes, but tomorrow is Hasbro's 1027 event. Dunno about Age of the Primes, since we still have another wave of United coming, but I'm 99% sure Devastator is tomorrow.

Layoffs are happening at Hasbro. John Warden, whom they just moved from G.I. Joe to Transformers, is one of the casualties. Bmac is safe, Evan and Emily appear to be safe, haven't heard anything on Mark but I think he's safe.

You know, I said this, yet I have two Legends-sized Magic Square Optimus Primes, plus NewAge's, and yet I don't have a Legends Megatron. Until now, that is. When I ordered Dr. Wu's Menace King, I went ahead and also ordered Magic Square's Doomsday. To be clear, this is a recent S-variant reissue. Other variants exist, with slightly different decos and accessories. I can only comment on what I have in front of me. And what I have in front of me looks pretty good! I think I personally prefer more metallic colors, but what we have here is definitely cartoon accurate and looks pretty great with their Light of Victory version of Optimus. After seeing so many other takes on Megatron, what I really appreciate from this design is how clean and well-proportioned it is. His legs aren't too skinny, nor are they too chunky. His chest isn't too wide or too narrow. His pelvis doesn't look like a big black diaper. He's not burdened with a bunch of kibble on his arms or back, either, aside from stuff like the gun barrel that's supposed to be on his back, a trigger guard that tucks fairly neatly into the small of his back, and a trigger in his butt crack. This has got to be one of the cleanest Megatrons I've had the pleasure of looking at. That said, zoomed in this close you can see some mold flashing. You might have also noticed that some spots, like his forearms, are coming untabbed. It really comes down to Magic Square's choice of materials. Yes, that nylon plastic is sturdy and pliable, but it's also too soft for it's own good. As I said, I know other versions of Doomday come with different accessories. I think the original release came with a ton of stuff. This release just came with a fusion cannon, the parts to make the stock and silencer, and two alternate faces. Doomsday's head is on either a ball joint or a mushroom swivel. It looks like it's a ball joint that's just set so deep that it can swivel but not tilt. However, the other end is hinged at the chest, so he does have decent up/down tilt. His shoulders are ball joints that can rotate and move laterally about 75 degrees. His biceps and wrists swivel, and his elbows bend 90 degrees. His waist swivels, and he's got a 90 degree ab crunch. His hips are a little weird. They're on ball joints, and at first it seems like he can only move them slightly forward, 90 degrees backward, and nearly 90 degrees laterally. However, the ball joints are hinged, and can drop down. This gives him the clearance to bend his hip nearly 90 degrees forward under his pelvis. He has two thigh swivels; the first one is his entire thigh around his hip, and the second is a cut just above the knees. Speaking of knees, they bend a little over 90 degrees on a single hinge. His feet can bend down about 45 degrees, and his toes can bend up nearly 90 degrees. If I'm being generous he has maybe 45 degrees of ankle pivot. Doomsday's fusion cannon can attach to his right arm. The peg has little wings on it, and the hole in the bottom of the cannon is keyed so you have to put the cannon on sideways, then turn it 90 degrees. When you do a tab on the edge of his forearm will fit into a slot on the cannon, locking it into place. Unlike Menace King, whom we looked at yesterday, you can combine Doomsday's stock, silencer, and fusion cannon for a G1-style gun emplacement. As for the alternate faces, Doomsday's stoic face and forehead are simply tabbed onto the back of his head. Slide it off and replace it with another expression, in this case either a yelling face or a laughing face. Just be careful not to loose the eyes, which are a separate piece. You only get the one pair of eyes. The upper half of Doomsday has one of the smarter transformations I've encountered in a Megatron. His arms detach from his torso and swing down on armatures. The backs of his shoulders open up, as do his forearms, and his the outer armor on his forearms spin around to cover his elbows. His wrists just fold in. His chest double-hinges up and to the right, allowing you to open his back and tuck his head in, as well as move the barrel around and in place. Move the trigger guard and then the upper half of his torso will spin 90 degrees to his right. His vented lats fold backward, taking the arms with it, and his arms tab together. Spin him 180 degrees at the waist, then lift his hip skirts and double-hinge his pelvis out, and you'll find another swivel his his crotch. Spin that swivel 180 degrees, so his legs are facing his front but the trigger trigger has been spun around to his crotch. Bend him at the ab crunch, and you can start to see how his chest comes back down and his arms lock in behind where his left shoulder was. Things get trickier with the legs. The hips drop down, and you need to orient the ball sockets just right on the ball joints, and spin his thighs around so the inside is facing out but the rest of the leg is still facing forward. Then his legs open up, and with fairly unclear instructions, you fold in some panels, you fold out some other panels, and use some sliders to ultimately both make his legs a little thicker front-to-back and a little thinner across the shins, as well as move the shins up over most of the thighs. With the legs in place, you can move the hip skirts in to lock the legs to the arms and fill in the grip, then pull out the trigger and lock the trigger guard into his crotch. Honestly, the process itself isn't that bad once you know what you're doing. I prefer it to MP-36's transformation. Most of the frustration really comes for the wonky tolerances of the nylon plastic, and the fact that my old fingers aren't quite as dexterous as they used to be. I wouldn't say that Doomsday's alt mode is the most realistic Walther I've seen, but I'd say it's pretty serviceable, especially given its smaller size. I mean, it cleans up better than Menace King, anyway. I think my biggest complaints are the gaps in the back and the lack of a safety. Also, no matter what I do, he seems a bit crooked. The fusion cannon attaches the same way; I don't think you actually even have to remove it for transformation. The stock slides into a clip on his heels. The silencer fits over his barrel, but you have to remove the tip of the barrel first. I don't have easy access to any of my displayed combiners right now, due to how my room and shelves are currently organized, but I did have my old Zeta Combaticons in storage. I grabbed their Vortex to see if he could hold Doomsday, and the answer is "not really." Doomsday's grip is just a bit too wide for him to really close his fingers around it. That's not really a big deal to me, though. It'd have been better if he'd come with an accessory that was himself in alt mode for other Legends figures to hold (something I believe was included with his original release). Doomsday is a figure that is alternately brilliant and frustrating. He looks fantastic, he poses well, and the transformation is one of the better ones for turning a cartoon robot into a gun that I've come across. The frustrations are mainly that the engineering might be a bit ambitious for a figure this small, and the materials. Magic Square needs to stop with the nylon already. Tabs don't secure the way I want them too, and after one transformation he's already got joints that are getting loose. Change the plastic, though, and upsize this to scale with Studio Series Optimus or even Magic Square's own MP-style Light of Peace Optimus, and you'd have a strong contender for the best Megatron ever made. For now, I think I can recommend this guy as a companion piece for Magic Square's Light of Victory, and potentially as the best of any Legends-scale option for Megatron, though I should probably check out NewAge's before making that call.

So I don't mind Prime having more pronounced, obvious vents instead of just a series of rectangles, but I'm firmly in the camp that the vents should be blue. They're blue in the cartoon, and blue on the G1 toy. Near as I can the whole silver shin vent thing started with MP-01. Otherwise, yeah, I'm hoping for a toy version down the road. Oh, btw, this is the tool I used to get the pins out and swap Prime's heels. It's like $6-7. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07H5F43N3?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_dt_b_product_details

I think it boils down to "blame the cartoon." The truck's animation model doesn't have round tanks. And, of course, neither does Prime's robot mode. Unlike a lot of other recent offerings from 3Ps (and I think MP-44, but don't remember) SS86 Prime uses the same fuel tanks in both modes. FWIW, I do prefer round tanks in truck mode (and in the case of SS86, I wish they weren't so protruding). But I hate how they were implemented on Earthrise/Netflix/Laser Optimus. If they secured in place in truck mode it'd be fine, but you just fold them out and hope for the best, inevitably pushing them back in as you handle them.