mikeszekely

Yeah, that's was my thinking. I remember a lot of the movie 1 toys were pretty inaccurate because they were based on not-final CGI designs. But what are you gonna do if you want the toys to get it in time to promote the movie, right? Even though we've seen MPM-7 only recently it's probably been in development for awhile. However, that's still unacceptable for something you're going to slap the word "Masterpiece" on. They didn't have to rush MPM-7 for the movie. They could have done an MPM Jazz, Ratchet, Blackout, Megatron, Brawl, Bonecrusher, or Shockwave, waited for the CGI too be finalized, and held off on Bee until the Blu-ray release.

It's MP-21G, but you get the idea. Regarding MPM-7, I'm really not impressed. He's got better paint, the flip-open chest, and more advanced engineering, but the overall result is awfully similar the Studio Series version. They both have the same inaccurate MPM-3-style door wings, same thin proportions, and similar folded up panels on his back. And it's one thing to drop a $20 for a Deluxe-class Studio Series, it's quite another to pay $90 when I'm not really into started a whole movie MP collection.

I passed on their Lockdown because I'm not really interested in a connection of movie MPs, but I'm expecting Challenger here soon for my Optimus display. Will review here.

Feels like I was writing up a storm late last year and earlier this year, but things sort of quieted down over the summer. They got so quiet that near the end of August I'd spent none of my monthly toy budget, so despite some misgivings I was having I decided to order this guy (who only this weekend finally arrived): FansToys' Dracula, their MP Mindwipe. I really don't have a lot to complain about, as far as the robot mode goes. The lighter orange-brown used on his wings is closer to the G1 toy and the Headmasters anime, as is the pinkish purple, than the dark wings and lavender from the Rebirth. But compared to some of the other Headmasters characters I think there was less overall difference between the US and Japanese character models for Mindwipe, so he simultaneously comes off pretty well for fans of either show yet suffers from some minor discrepancies that appeared in neither. Like ths silver in the middle of his chest is fine, and while not 'toon accurate the paint on the sides of his torso comes from stickers on the G1 toy, but the little silver details on his forearms, shins, and shoulders, the stripes on his feet, and the off-white trapezoids on his hips seem to be the invention of FansToys. Now, that helps break up the black and purple, and it's just little details, so ultimately I think that's fine. But something I find curious is that whether you go by the US cartoon, the Japanese cartoon, or the G1 toy, a large chunk of the purple on Dracula's chest should actually be black. It looks to me like the door you can open to see his specs was molded in a sparkly purple plastic, and it looks like FT just decided that was good enough instead of painting the area that should be black. Which, I guess, brings me to another point. Now, I'm not the Bobby Skullface type who gushes over paint, but paint is a big part of how FT developed a reputation for quality (deserved or not). And aside from his wings, where all of that orangey-brown is paint, there really isn't a lot of paint on this guy. The silver (including his face) and off-white details are paint, his red visor is paint, but all of the purple is plastic aside from some diecast flaps on his calves. All of the black plastic is unpainted. There's some black diecast; I don't know if that's paint or the color of the metal. The amount of diecast in Dracula does give him a satisfying weight, but he doesn't command the same presence as some of FT's better efforts like Sovereign. He doesn't come with a ton of accessories, either. We've got another of those stands that comes with Sovereign and Soar. We've got his gun, which is pretty G1 accurate but ultimately a single solid lump of sparkly purple plastic. And you've got his Headmaster. The Headmaster guy shares his engineering with Lupus', but all the parts seem to be new. The orange plastic used for his arms and legs seems like they were trying to match the paint on Dracula's wings, which I think is fine and matches the Headmasters cartoon and G1 toy, although it's maybe a little light for the Rebirth. His eyes are painted red, but for whatever reason FT didn't bother to put the silver on his face. Maybe FT just expected us to keep Dracula in robot mode with his head on? I can't imagine they were worried about scratching, since his eyes are painted and Lupus' Headmaster had his whole face painted. Anyway, for those that don't feel like looking for my Lupus review, the Headmasters have no head articulation, ball-jointed shoulders that rotate, provide a slight butterfly joint and allow for 60 degrees of lateral motion. Elbows bend about 90 degrees. No bicep, wrist, or waist articulation. Hips are ball joints and can bend forward 90 degrees, laterally 45 degrees. Nothing really to speak of backward, but they do provide a slight thigh swivel. Knees bend just shy of 90 degrees. His ankles are ball joints and can tilt up and down a little as well as swivel inward a bit. Outward swivel is blocked by the edges of his legs. Those ball joints do give him about 45 degrees of ankle pivot. As for Dracula himself, his neck is on a disc that provides rotation for his head, and the port can tilt so he can look down, or you can remove the head, turn the neck 180 degrees, and reinsert the head and he can look up. His shoulders can rotate on ratchets, and friction hinges let them extend almost 180 degrees. His biceps cand swivel. His elbows are double-jointed, combining for nearly 180 degrees. Engaging the lower joint exposes some thin mechanical details. His wrists can rotate, and due to how they transform and the fact that they don't actually lock in there's a little downward wiggle on them. The hands are FT's standard, with a ball joint at the base of the thumb and one additional pinned knuckle, while the other four fingers are all individually-articulated with a pin at the base and one additional pinned knuckle each. He has a ratcheted waist swivel. His hips ratchet forward just over 90 degrees, but they're limited to just one click backward due to having his bat feet just hanging out on his butt. Lateral hip motion is friction, and falls a bit short of 90 degrees. His thighs can swivel below the hips. His knees bend 90 degrees. His feet can tilt up slightly, down almost 90 degrees, and his ankles pivot just under 45 degrees. He holds his gun fine, with tabs on the handles fitting into slots on his palms, so that at least is improved from Lupus. And he can sit on the flight stand while in robot mode, with a peg and a tab on the stand fitting into a corresponding hole and slot on his nether regions. While I don't really have any major complaints with the robot mode, Dracula kind of falls apart in bat mode. I mean, his head is fine, his wings are fine and his little bat feet are fine. Where he's running into trouble are his robot mode arms. I've done my best to get them as straight as I can, but to get everything pegged in properly his elbows have to be slightly bent. That does two things; first, it causes the elbows to stick out from the sides of his body a little bit, and that exasperates the fact that instead of giving him straight blocks for forearms like the cartoon and G1 toy FT chose to have the arm protrude below (or in this case, above) the elbow, where the hinge for the flap on the back of his forearm is. That spoils the silhouette for me, but that's not as bad as the fact that his biceps taper in toward his elbows, at the same place his torso is tapering in toward his robot waist. That leaves gaps between his torso and robot arms that you can see through, and the bent elbows worsen those gaps. The lack of a cohesive bat body is such a turn off that I strongly considered not buying Dracula at all, if it weren't for the fact that I hadn't touched my toy budget, there was nothing else newish I wanted, and I don't exactly see a bunch of other companies lining up to do MP Headmasters. The most frustrating thing about the bat mode is that FT put all that engineering into flipping the arms around so they're upside down in bat mode, like the G1 toy did... except the G1 toy did it to invert the sides of his body to move the bat wings from his robot back (where they were actually upside down) to his bat back, and Dracula's wings move separately (so that they're never upside down). And the thing is, if they didn't put all that engineering into flipping the arms around they could have just left them to tuck against his sides, perhaps with tabs on the backs of his forearms near his wrists fitting into slots on his robot hips. They wouldn't sit as far forward as the G1 toy's, but I think they'd look alright compared to the animation models. The chrome rings would still be in about the same spot, and instead of jutting out away from his body the protrusions on the backs of his forearms below his elbows would actually fill in the space where his waist tapers in. So if FT would have just stopped here, before you start really transforming the arms, maybe tossed some screw hole covers in for those screws on the robot shoulders, they'd have avoided my single biggest issue with this toy. Also, individual results may vary, but mine has the first fang on his upper right broken out of the box. Given that it took a month to get here from a Chinese Ebayer it's not worth the hassle of sending back, but it's still disappointing. Coming off of Rouge, I'm happy to say that Dracula's transformation is relatively straightforward, yet there are still steps that make me feel like FT was making things harder than they needed to be. I've already talked about how FT took steps to invert the robot arms for bat mode, even though if they'd stopped before they got to that step he'd probably have looked better. There's also stuff like the waist rotating 180 degrees, which is necessary so his legs can bend forward at the hips to bring down the bat foot. But then, instead of simply designing his knees so they could bend backward or using the existing thigh swivels, FT has you open latches on either side of his thighs to free up a mid-thigh swivel. But they didn't even stop there! Not content to have his robot shins showing on the bat's back FT built another set of swivels below the knees so you can turn the lower legs around and make his robot calves his bat back instead. Now again, it's all pretty easy, especially when you've done it once and know to expect it, it just takes what could have been done in two or three steps and somehow drags it out for four or five steps, adding two joints that weren't really necessary in the process. At least the bat has some articulation. His head can rotate, and it can look up about 60 degrees. The rotating part the head is attached to isn't really locked in place, though, so you can pull it out a bit to get him to look up more. His mouth can open. The finger claws on his wings are all individually articulated, pinned at the base with one additional knuckle on each claw. The wings themselves have numerous points of articulation. There's a ratcheting swivel that moves them up and down on his back. Friction hinges near those swivels move the whole wing back but they can't go farther forward that straight out to the side. He's got ratcheted hinges at the bat elbows that move part of the wings up and down. Another hinge in the wing can bend about half the wing back a little, or fold it all forward enough that his wing starts to touch his robot arms. Another swivel and a slider allows the wing to stretch out a bit more, and one final hinge lets the last section of wing bend back a little or 90 degrees forward. As articulated as the wings are, they can't really fold around to cover his body. He does have a (very unfortunately placed in robot mode) tail with four hinges, all of which move up/down, three of which are fine on mine but the one closest to the tip is super loose His bat feet are on double ball joints, so they can move in and out slightly, swivel, move forward and backward a bit, move up and down, and pivot at the ankle. His claws are individually articulated with claws at the base and one mid knuckle each. Unfortunately, due to the weight of the diecast he's now carrying primarily on his back being supported by not two but four ball joints, you have to either use his wings to help prop him up or lean him pretty far forward if you want him to stand without falling over. You can still stick him on the stand, but he's too heavy and the stand is too light for him to get into a good, horizontal flight pose. The translucent door on Dracula's bat tummy opens to reveal two painted d-pads and a steering wheel for the Headmaster. It takes a little effort to get his feet down into the gap under the controls, and to be honest that looks like a pretty awkward way to pilot the bat. As for his robot gun, it doesn't really peg or tab in but you can wedge it between his robot legs onto his bat back and it stays in place with friction. Despite the high praise Dracula's been getting in some circles (maybe from the FT fans who are glad that they don't have to defend a figure like Apache or Rouge again), I think he's a pretty mediocre figure. The lack of necessary paint, like the black that should have covered some of the purple on his chest or the silver that should have been on the Headmaster's face, makes him feel a little phoned in. This despite the fact that the transformation is more complicated than it strictly needed to be. And despite all that went into his transformation his alt mode is gappy and unfinished. And he stinks with what's been FT's MO for post-Phoenix releases- not giving a lot of care to engineering, alt modes, or playability as long as you can put a good-looking robot on the shelf. I don't hate him the way I hate Rouge, but he's still the kind of figure you get because you want that character and there are no alternatives. He's so-so. Get him if you feel like you need more Headmasters in your collection, but if you pass on him you're not really missing out.

Because the characters are too recognizable to be from the movieverse?

Dunno how people here feel about KOs... generally speaking, I think people should try to buy the originals. On the other hand, though, KOs are good fodder for customs. And some KOs offer different sizes or other improvements over the originals, and for those reasons if I'm being honest I've picked up a few. I've mostly avoided talking about them here at MW, but I did recently pick up Toy House Factory's The Hyper Magnum, and improved KO of MP-22 Ultra Magnus. Since it's a KO I'm not going to post my usual review here, but I did write one that you can read over at TFW2005. Although one of these days I should probably start a blog or some other site for these...

Oh, him. Yeah, that definitely looks like Adam Driver. Villain? I'm looking forward to finding out. And to beating stuff up with a motorcycle.

My time with the Studio Series didn't end with Ironhide (nor is it on hiatus while I wait impatiently for that Barricade). I happened to run into this little guy at Target. That is, of course, Studio Series Bumblebee. Technically so is the guy on the right, whom we've already talked about. Our new friend in the middle represents Bumblebee as he's supposed to be in the upcoming Bumblebee movie. And with that in mind... well, I'm not super familiar with the that version of Bumblebee so it's harder for me to say how screen-accurate or not this SS version is. But after a quick glance at the trailer I'd say this guy definitely has some issues. His limbs are too long and thin. Most of the silvery plastic and paint looks like it should be darker, gunmetal in some spots and maybe even black in others. And some of the molded detail on his shoulders and thighs are left yellow when they should have been painted. But the big issue is that, like the other SS Bee, he's got big door wings with the wheels lying on the front and the rear passenger windows folded down below... but Bee doesn't seem to have door wings in the new movie. Interestingly, the upcoming MPM-07 looks more like an OS Studio Series Bee with better paint than what I've seen of Bee's on-screen character model. Could be that, like the movie 1 toys, they're based on older designs that were refined before ending up in the movie. Or it could be that Bee does have door wings in the movie, but they fold up and the trailers only show him with folded up wings. Who knows? For now, I think he looks ok. Aesthetically he fits with the other SS figures, and he's recognizably Bumblebee. I'm just not sure how screen accurate he ultimately is. Compared to other SS figures, he does come with a lot of accessories, though. Like the previous SS release he does have his arm gun. But, unlike that release, this one also comes with a battle mask and an arm blade. Bee's head is on a ball joint that can look up and down a little as well as rotate, but you have to be mindful of the kibble behind his head. His shoulders have ball joints for rotation and a little over 90 degrees of lateral movement. There's a transformation hinge that you can use for more lateral movement, though. Mushroom pegs above the elbow give him bicep swivels, and his elbows can bend slightly over 90 degrees. His wrists can swivel, but they're hinged so they can bend inward about 90 degrees. His waist can swivel. His hips are ball joints and can swing a little under 90 degrees laterally or backward, and well over 90 degrees forward. He has thigh swivels, but not 360 degrees worth. His hip armor prevents him from turning his thigh inward at all, and to about 90 degrees outward. To be fair, that's a pretty natural range. Knees bend 90 degrees. Happily, hinges on his feet give him 90 degrees of ankle pivot, plus he's got some up/down tilt too. For a Deluxe-class figure I really don't have much to complain about articulation-wise. Like the previous SS Bee, you can pull his right forearm off and replace it with his arm cannon. Both arms have the tabs for the arm blade, though. Technically so does the arm cannon, and you can if you like stick the arm blade on the arm cannon. As for his battle mask, you pull half of Bee's regular head off and tab the mask in its place. It's not pretty, but Bee's even got storage for all his accessories. The blade and the gun can stick to tabs on his backpack, and his mask can tab upside down on the lower part of his door wings. It's no secret by now that in the new movie Bee's going to be a VW Bug instead of a Camaro (or in addition to Camaro, I'm not clear on that). The silver and yellow plastic definitely doesn't have the premium look a painted toy might have, but all the molded detail down to the VW logo is right, and he's got painted lights and windshield wipers. Interestingly the tires seem to be molded silver plastic with black paint. Honestly, I'd say it's a pretty good alt mode, but getting everything tabbed in proper is a huge pain on the rear. I do think it's kind of interesting that this new SS Bee has very similar alt mode dimensions to MP-21. Seems like MPM-07 will be bigger. As with robot mode, Bee's got alt mode storage for his accessories. His arm gun tabs onto his butt and sits between his legs. His arm blade just sits on either of his arms. And his battle mask tabs just behind his front bumper. His head is visible on the underside, which some people might not like, but at least this time it's movie accurate. I think it's hard for me to recommend this SS Bee. The frustration of getting his alt mode tabbed together doesn't really endear him to me, and while I do think he's a better toy than the previous SS Bee the previous SS Bee fits better with Prime, Ironhide, Jazz, and Ratchet and helps make a complete set of movie 1 Autobots. I just don't have any attachment to this version of Bee yet. That said, he's got pretty good articulation for a Deluxe-class figure, and maybe this version of Bee will grow on me.

Adam Driver? I'm seeing Aaron Eckhart or Viggo Mortensen. Well, actually what I'm seeing is the proper Dante, and not Ninja Theory's imposter, and for that I'm grateful. ...I might have to get the Deluxe Edition. That Mega Buster...

I wound up paying scalper prices, but I managed to snag me a Studio Series Ironhide. Like most of the Studio Series figures thus far Ironhide's quite a bit smaller than his original movie 1 Voyager release. With previous releases I go the impression that the higher price and smaller size would often lead to better paint, but that doesn't seem to be the case here. I think Ironhide's got a pretty good-looking sculpt, but he's missing a lot of the silver and gold accents that his character model has. in his legs and arms. Even more frustrating is the fact that what paint is applied isn't applied particularly well. The silver around his headlights is chipped, the yellow light on his left pec has some serious overspray, and it looks like they painted his left eye neatly then glommed way too much on his right eye. As long as I'm criticizing, I might as well point out that he's got some thin proportions and a big bumper across his belly that the CGI model doesn't. For all his flaws, though, he's probably still the best Voyager-or-smaller Ironhide toy to date. Ironhide comes with his two arm cannons. Both cannons have some nice paint on them, and they do appear to be much more screen-accurate than previous attempts, right down to the faux truck kibble on them. I'm honestly not sure what kind of joint Ironhide's head is on, but due to the kibble around his collar he can look about 45 degrees to the left or right and that's about it. His shoulders are also a bit funky. Due to his transformation he's got a swivel in his chest and two hinges. If you rotate the swivel one way then it's his shoulder rotation, limited to a little under 90 degrees forward and less backward due to his truck kibble. The first hinge is a butterfly joint and the second hinge gives him a little over 90 degrees of lateral movement. Turned another way his whole arm is a little lower and a little farther forward. The first swivel is purely a transformation joint, and the butterfly hinge becomes his lateral shoulder joint (a little under 90 degrees). The lateral hinge switches to providing the shoulder rotation (about 90 degrees either way). Both positions seem to have their advantages and disadvantages. Regardless, he doesn't actually have a bicep swivel, but his arm does swivel above his elbow. That elbow bends about 90 degrees. He has wrist swivels, which is a little odd because they don't seem to necessary for transformation and Hasbro hasn't been big on including them. No waist swivel, though. Hips can move about 90 degrees forward and laterally, and about 60 degrees backward. His thighs can swivel, and his knees can bend 90 degrees. Sadly no ankle pivots, but due to his transformation he's got some upward toe tilt. His arm cannons peg onto the outside of his elbows, which is nice because it makes the peg hole look like it's part of the sculpt and not a random hole. His fists are molded into 5mm pegs if you want to dig up something else for him to hold. Real quick shot of the movie 1 Autobots all together. I still wish we had a new Camaro SS Bee, and SS Prime's deco is a bit off, but I think they look pretty good together overall. I'm not sure about official listed sizes, but based on scenes where they're together this looks mostly right scale-wise, too. Prime could possibly stand to be a little taller, but it's interesting how similar Ironhide and Ratchet are in height despite one being a Deluxe and one being a Voyager. Onward to truck mode... and it's kind of nothing to write home about. The black rims are screen-accurate. The silver paint around the headlights and grill, the yellow lights on the fenders, the red GMC logo, and the 4x4 tampo are proper, but nothing the movie 1 toy didn't have. The only thing that's really new is the silver on the vent and exhaust pipes, which I do appreciate, and yellow on the roof lights instead of blue, and a silver plastic bumper instead of black. And those last two things are actually supposed to be blue and black, so movie 1 toy wins there. He's also got some shards of robot kibble hanging out on his underside, but at least his arms aren't visible so you don't have to stick his weapons under his running boards to hide them. Aside from that, yellow light instead of blue, and the silver plastic bumper instead of black, think he came out pretty well. He's got the molded Autobot symbol on the tailgate, and even a molded GMC logo on the tailgate and a molded Road Armor logo on the front bumper. Not sure how well it's showing up in my photos, but I also dig how Ironhide's kind of peaking out of his own windshield. I don't know if it's intentional or coincidence, but it's a cool homage to the original G1 Ironhide toy, I think. Ironhide's a tall truck shot from fairly low angles in the movie, so I couldn't honestly tell you if he's supposed to have a covered bed or not. I do know that if he did have a bed cover it didn't stop abruptly, revealing mechanical robot junk inside. Not ideal, I but I can live with that. especially if you want him to carry his arm cannons in truck mode, as they tab into little slots on the bed and help cover or at least distract from that gap. One final shot, in case there was any doubt, no, the alt modes aren't in scale. The GMC Topkick was a pretty mammoth vehicle, for a pickup, Yes, even bigger than Ratchet's Hummer alt mode... but honestly not that much bigger. He's bigger than Prime, for crying out loud. Anyway, as Studio Series figures go, I think Ironhide's somewhere in the middle of the pack. He's not the best, he's not the worst. I have a few issues with him. I think he's fine for what he is, though, and worth picking up if you're into the Studio Series line and you see him in a store.. Just maybe don't buy him from a 3P seller on Amazon at scalper prices like I did.

I put a ton of hours into Gran Turismo 2 back in the day. But even if we overlook the analog stick issue GT is a perfect example of a game where I'd rather play a sequel. Better car variety, more tracks, better physics, better graphics if I just play GT6 on the PS3 that's still hooked up in my entertainment center.

That's fair, but it doesn't really change the fact that that I'm a lot more likely to play Mega Man 3 than Mega Man Legends.

I was saying this elsewhere, but I might as well say it here, too. To me the PlayStation was the beginning of the modern era of gaming. While I played mine a ton I just don't have the same nostalgia for the original PlayStation that I do for Nintendo's older consoles. As much as I loved playing games like Super Mario Bros 3 and A Link to the Past with (mostly) the original controllers on tiny replicas of the original hardware I don't really feel a huge difference between the original PlayStation hardware vs buying a PSone game from the PS3 PlayStation store. Then there's the fact that those early 3D games didn't look so hot even at the time. I don't think time has been as kind to the PlayStation's polygons as it has the NES's sprites. Not a huge deal for some games, but for some games I'd rather play one of the more modern sequels or an HD remake. Also, no Dual Shock? I don't know if Sony thinks that's somehow more 1995 nostalgic, but the lack of analog sticks makes playing a game like R4 so much less appealing. Finally, that price might be a deal breaker. At $60 the NES Classic was practically an impulse buy. At $80 the SNES Classic was pushing it, but nostalgia and the strength of the included library won out. $100 might be asking too much for revisiting late '90s gaming without a Dual Shock, especially if games can't be added as easily as on Nintendo's Classics.

Given the difference in price and the level of engineering a premium price point gets you that's pretty much a given, just like MP-10 is better than Combiner Wars Optimus. But, we're only seven into the MPM line and MPM-02, MPM-03, and MPM-07 are all Bumblebee. I get that Bee is the kid-friendly casual face of the movieverse, but the Bay films are old enough now that there's a generation of fans that associate the brand with the movieverse more than G1, and depending on how old they were when they started watching the Bay films they may be old enough to want to collect a more premium line. I think with Barricade and Ironhide Takara was offering some hope that those fans might be able to get MPM versions of the main cast of at least the first film. But, after the first three releases after the soft reboot of the MPM line things went pretty quiet (we're still waiting for Ironhide), then have yet another Bumblebee thrown at us. I mean, Studio Series has a couple of Bumblebees now, too, but they're lower-priced figures on Target shelves where kids are as likely to go for them as adult collectors. And even then they're a lot closer to completing the cast of the first movie, since we're just missing the confirmed Barricade on the way and a rumored Bonecrusher in the works (although I do wish they'd do a modern Camaro Bumblebee). That's ultimately why I'm not bothering with MPM-06 but I paid a pretty ridiculous markup on Amazon for SS Ironhide. Studio Series is giving me a good-looking (for the price) in-scale movie 1 cast. I don't feel like I can count on MPM to do that, at least not any time soon.

Alright, so I decided I couldn't wait to start another playthrough. I managed to silver all the drone challenges and melee challenges on my first attempt at each, plus I silvered three of the bomb challenges and got the gold on one. That just left the stealth challenges. I had no trouble getting gold on two of them using your advice, but I was still silvering the other two. But it seemed at that point like I had a lot of challenge tokens, so I decided to check it. I called up a guide on what you need to unlock each suit and counted all the challenge tokens, and I figured you actually only need a minimum of 39 challenge tokens as long as you don't buy any gadgets or gadget upgrades that require them. That actually works out to silvering 12 challenges and bronzing the other four. (I'm sure Tking22 and some of the other people reading this know this already, but for those that don't there are four types of challenges, four challenges of each type. A bronze gets you 1 token, silver gets you 2, and gold gets you 3, but you'd also retroactively get any lower-level tokens you missed when you get a better medal, so if you get a silver you actually get 3 total tokens, and a gold is actually worth 6). So for all my complaining buying all the suits is actually pretty manageable, and you don't have to get any golds. I just have to keep playing to get the XP and other tokens to unlock and buy the rest of the suits (just hit 31).

Good tips! I think I've got every suit but Fear Itself and Spirit Spider, so I think I should just need 12. I might have one or two. The stealth challenges would help a lot, because I bronzed all but one. but that'd only get me seven tokens. Unfortunately, when I got near the end of the game and didn't have enough tokens to buy all the suits I spent what I did have on upgrades. Instead of torturing myself to eke out a few more golds it might honestly be easier to start a new playthrough... which, honestly, I don't think I'd mind because the game was so fun anyway. I could always play something else for a bit (I actually started God of War III Remastered; I played GoW III on the PS3, but it was a PS+ freebie), then start a new playthrough when the DLC starts coming.

Ugh. It's not too hard to get enough Challenge Tokens to buy the costumes you really want, but it's pretty hard to get enough to buy all of the costumes. And that's the only trophy between me and platinum for Spider-Man...

I wouldn't mind any of those four costumes, either. But- I also don't mind saying that I think some of the suits on my list should have had higher priority than suits that actually made it into the game.

That's a bit disappointing, considering what popular suits didn't make the cut and what obscure ones did... not to mention how many of the suits are originals for the game. The first DLC suit is apparently another Insomniac original (although it does kind of remind me of Spider-Man UK).

Does anyone know how many DLC costumes are planned for Spider-Man? There's a ton of costumes missing that they could have used. Off the top of my head... I'm complaining because some of those suits are really cool, but at least they put my favorite suit in the game.

*nods in agreement*

It's not a gamebreaking issue, no (not the way the Mega Man X Legacy Collection forced me to buy an 8bitdo SN30 controller), but it's the kind of little detail that makes me feel like the developers don't really understand what it was they were supposed to develop. Anyway... yeah, Spider-Man is pretty good, you guys. Combat took me awhile to get used to, as a ton of Assassin's Creed, Arkham, and Mordor games had me wanting to press triangle to counter, and that's just not how Spidey works. Once I did get used to it, though, I think of all the Spidey games I've ever played (and I really think I might have played all of them) it's definitely got the most fun combat and the one that feels the most like how Spidey actually fights in other media. The open world Manhattan setting isn't exactly new, but I think that the developers did a good job of sprinkling stuff to do into their sandbox (which I think is my jam; I'm the guy that runs around playing Assassin's Creed, Skyrim, Fallout, etc running around and looking for everything to do that isn't the main quest stuff before doing the main quest). But rather than simply collecting a bunch of doo-dads for collecting's sake Insomniac ties all the non-quest activities to various currencies, and you spend those currencies unlocking suits, suit mods, and gadget upgrades. Oh, and the story, when you stop ignoring it, is pretty decent. So far it seems to be loosely based on the "Brand New Day" story from the Amazing Spider-Man comics, but a lot of the stuff that was setting up future story arcs has been replaced with other stuff that may or may not be setting up later events in the game, DLC, or potential sequels. If you have a PS4, if you like open world games, and if you have even a passing like for Spidey the new Spider-Man game is definitely worth picking up.

I haven't yet, but I saw that when you try to jump through a Wily gate the gate opens but Mega Man drops and runs through. That's just wrong.

Stay up playing it? I just picked it up this afternoon. And now that I'm home I'm installing and updating it. Maybe I'll finally be able to play it after dinner...

Way back when I gave my little review for Studio Series Optimus Prime, I said: Well, I still don't have Voyager Battle Blades Optimus. Or the Takara version, with hooks instead of blades. Or Walmart-exclusive Dark of the Moon repaint that also had the hooks. I did, however, stumble across Takara's Revenge Optimus Prime, which was 2014 re-use of the mold for Takara's Movie Advanced Series. When it came out, the Leader version of RotF Optimus Prime was widely-regarded as the best movie-verse Optimus toy, and it kind of seems to me like HasTak knew it too because long before they borrowed a lot of the engineering for MPM-4 they tried to ditch the electronics and downsize it. And this was basically the result- a figure that may still be the best Voyager-scale movie-verse Optimus Prime to this day. Or is it? The chest is definitely an improvement, and I like that you can see the visors on it. Despite being more similar to MPM-4's, this toy's shoulders are actually less movie accurate than the Studio Series (although the gray plastic and silver paint are a nice change from the all red and blue). SS's forearms are also better, with the kibble on the outside of the arm instead of creeping all the way into his armpit. Plus, the swords on Revenge Optimus aren't removable. Because the transformation is more similar to Leader/MPM Optimus Revenge Optimus does strike me as having better legs, even with the non-accurate steps near his knees. However, unlike those versions Revenge Optimus' feet don't unfold, so SS wins there. Plus, if I'm being honest, SS has better proportions, with a narrower waist and a more cohesive torso. Being a Takara figure, the extra paint and chrome on Revenge Optimus do stand out as being really nice. A lot of stuff in his torso is left red that should be silver, though. Plus there's this ridiculous carmel-colored plastic in some of his joints, hips, and shins that just looks awful. Maybe a look at the back will help us decide. And... well, no, that isn't really much help. Both have similar molded detail on the calves. Both have way more backpack than the CGI model. You could say that Revenge Optimus' backpack is closer to the movie design, with the angled panels, but the SS version's backpack is, amazingly, smaller. Out of the box, it looks like Revenge Optimus doesn't have any accessories, just the permanently-attached blades on his arms. But before we go giving the point to SS Optimus, for having more screen accurate blades that are at least detachable, the fuel tanks can be popped off the panels on Revenge Optimus' back, and a little barrel can be unfolded from each to give Revenge Optimus guns. Articulation, then? Revenge Optimus' head is on a swivel, so he can turn his head but he's lacking the up/down/sideways tilt of SS Optimus. Shoulders can rotate 360 degrees and move laterally 90 degrees, which is technically less than SS but I think perfectly adequate. He has two thigh swivels, one just below the shoulder and one just above the elbow, which I guess is technically better than the single swivel on SS but functionally the same. His elbows can bend a little over 90 degrees, which beats SS. No wrist or waist swivels, though, so SS wins on both of those accounts. His hips soft ratchet forward 90 degrees, which is less than the non-ratcheted SS. They also soft ratchet laterally, but only one click or so, so again SS lacks ratchets but has greater range. His thighs swivel, no issues there. His knees bend a little over 90 degrees, but again much less than SS Optimus. His feet can tilt up and down, and his ankles do pivot, which is nice to see on a Voyager in a general sort of way, but in this case it's about the same as SS Optimus. So not too bad, but on the whole SS Optimus definitely has better articulation. But Revenge Optimus does have one thing SS Optimus doesn't... you can open up his chest and find the Matrix inside! The Matrix is painted silver and is removeable. It looks decent enough, but considering you have to halfway transform the torso to get access too it I have to say that I really could have lived without the gimmick. But then we come to truck mode. The contest here isn't so close. For starters, Revenge Optimus is quite a bit bigger. I don't think the Studio Series toys have done a great job with alt mode scaling, but SS Optimus was definitely looking too small compared to the other Autobots (a problem that I think will be exacerbated when SS Ironhide is released). Here we've got lighter silver paint for the step, the front grill, and the air cleaners than the dark plastic used on the SS toy. The silver paint is a match on the smokestacks, but on Revenge Optimus it coveres the whole smokestack and pipe (although the pipes look like they run into the fuel tanks instead of under the truck), plus the smokestacks aren't shortened for "safety" or whatever other lame reason they were on the SS version. The same silver paint is on the wheels. Instead of gunmetal paint or dark plastic the fuel tank, sunvisor, and tool boxes we have chrome. The frame around the front windows is red. There are flames om the door and the full length of the cab. They also stand out better on the front of the truck, which has the proper sunburst color. There are flames on the rear fenders. And while it probably could have used some of that silver paint, the rear of the truck looks like an actual truck, complete with fifth wheel, instead of a mess of robot foot kibble. So, which is ultimately the better Voyager Optimus? Neither toy is perfect, nor should you expect perfection from a mass-market retail toy whose original mold probably sold for $20-$30. And while I wish it had a lot more paint, I'm ultimately going to go with the Studio Series version. There's definitely some things Revenge Optimus does better, but overall I think SS Optimus has better robot proportions and articulation, plus a smaller backpack. He also technically scales more correctly with ther other SS figures in robot mode. And since I'm building a display of Studio Series figures in robot mode those are the things that matter to me. Revenge Optimus (and presumably the other variants of this mold) is still a really cool figure, though, with a much better truck mode.