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mikeszekely

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  1. mikeszekely
    As a long time Spidey fan this is a bummer. Actually, I'm pretty sure he created The Question, too. He was a highlight in JLU.
  2. mikeszekely
    I love me some GBA (I'm seriously playing Circle of the Moon right now), but so far I'm still using my Shield for it. Is setting up Retroarch on the minis very complicated? My Snes Classic is full lot Snes games, but a dedicated GBA box might be the excuse I need to get a European Snes mini or a Super Famicom mini...
  3. mikeszekely
    I think they're terrible, but I don't care if other people like them or if they sell well.
  4. mikeszekely
    It's funny, I just watched the second Pacific Rim. Saw the 1:1 Unicorn Gundam, and I caught the sign for Anaheim Electronics. It got me thinking about a Hollywood Gundam movie. Honestly, I think a lot of the groundwork's already been done. Just adapt the animated Gundam movie trilogy. Sure, it won't be as good, because you know Hollywood's gotta be Hollywood and "Westernize" it (ie, dumb it down), but I think even a watered-down adaptation of the original Gundam movies would have to come out better than G-Saviour. Bonus: if it gets made, maybe we'll get some sweet Gundam merch domestically...
  5. mikeszekely
    Not a consensus, no. A lot of people really like FansToys, and to be totally fair they put out some really great stuff with their Dinobots, Quakewave, and Phoenix. That said, I think they've been on a steady decline with a couple of QC issues, excessive use of diecast in spots that probably shouldn't be diecast, and overengineering their figures to the point of absurdity. If all you're looking for is a robot to put on your shelf and never handle they might do, but I'd say wait for reviews. Another well-regarded company is MMC, but while their Reformatted line has been generally solid their Ocular Max brand of MP-style figures has been plagued with QC issues ranging from fairly minor to snapping at the waist if you handle them wrong. My personal favorites are Maketoys and Fans Hobby, but even then MT has taken some flak for cutting a few corners in the name of cost (ie, the underside of Meteor's wings), and Fans Hobby's designs tend to be a little more stylized than a lot of other companies. Something you may here is to stay away from KFC or X-Transbots (who are technically the same company). I haven't personally bought anything from KFC since Citizen Stack, so I can't comment there, but I have a couple recent XTB releases including Paean (Hoist), Klaatu (Cosmos), and Crackup (Breakdown). You might want to wait for reviews to be sure, but personally I'd say they're on an upward trend and I've placed reservations on their next Stunticon and their Seaspray. As far as ones to watch out for, like I said KFC and XTB have a bad reputation, but I don't think it's entirely deserved. I think FT's reputation for "quality" is also grossly overblown. But honestly, in the last few years engineering and manufacturing have come a long way with 3P. I think it's rare that you'll get a figure that's junk anymore. Most of the complaints are nitpicks and debates about scale or aesthetics. A lot of times we're even getting cases where you'll have multiple options for a character and no clear consensus on which version is best. My advice is that if there's a character you're after, figure out what your options are, check out a few reviews, and go for the one you personally think is best, because everyone's got different dealbreakers. I'd only recommend the Takara versions if you want a realistic F-15 and plan to display them in alt mode. The Maketoys' Seekers aren't as realistic (but to be fair, they're more cartoon-accurate in alt mode). If you want them in robot mode, though, go with Maketoys. Seriously, it's not even close. Now, they're not perfect, but I've found the big complaints to be pretty minor in hand. But the benefits over the Takaras more than make up for their flaws. The Meteor mold has much better proportions and much better articulation.
  6. mikeszekely
    Yes they are. That's Maketoys' Ironwill. I reviewed him a couple months ago.
  7. mikeszekely
    It should be possible, if you install Retroarch with a MAME core. I'm sticking with the default emulators and just NES roms on the NES Classic and SNES roms on the SNES Classic, though, so I don't know more than that. If more hackable Classic/mini consoles come out I'll buy them and load then with games for that system, but I've got more than enough devices that can run multiple emulators that I don't feel a need to put Genesis roms ok a SNES Classic or anything like that.
  8. mikeszekely
    Although the NES and SNES pretty much combine to form my childhood, I sadly didn't retain any of the stuff I had from them. I'm not exactly sure what happened to my old NES; I do recall giving my original copy of Zelda to the daughter of one of my mom's work friends, but beyond that I couldn't say. As for my old SNES, I can tell you exactly what happened to that- my brother got it. He'd gotten his girlfriend pregnant, and basically decided to get married and move out immediately after graduating high school. As this would be summer of 2000 I personally was more into the PlayStation. Since we jointly owned both consoles and my brother was playing through Pokemon Blue on the Super Gameboy I suggested he take the SNES, I'd keep the PlayStation, and we'd call it even. I'm pretty sure my brother would have sold the SNES long ago (to be fair, I don't have our old PlayStation either, but I do still have my Dreamcast, PS2, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One). As cool as I think it'd be to own the original consoles and cartridges, I have one 20" mono CRT in storage and no room to hook it or the consoles up, and no room for a collection of cartridges, plus some of those SNES Classic cartridges are pretty expesnive today. The Classic systems offer a nostalgic charm in a smaller package that I can easily connect to a modern TV and still play with the (nearly) the original controller. That's maybe not as genuine as popping the carts (after blowing on them for the NES) into a system connected to a CRT via RF adapter, but it's closer than playing an emulator on my PC/3DS Virtual Console/Wii Virtual Console/Wii U Virtual Console, so I'm pretty content.
  9. mikeszekely
    I mean, I dig the designs. I think the designer struck a good balance that believably reconciles the cartoon's pyramidal alt-modes the Seekers had on Cybertron with the obviously unchanged "I turn into an F-15" robot modes. I'm just not sure how it'd fit into my collection at this point. That said, I'd love to write a review here, if they'd send me a test shot (not looking for a handout, I'd be more than happy to send any hypothetic review sample on to another reviewer after and buy my own copy if I like it).
  10. mikeszekely
    I think Takara is pricing themselves out of the market. $330 at BBTS. I don't care if BW Megs is the best figure Takara ever made, $330 is more than Gabriel. No way I can justify paying that much.
  11. mikeszekely
    That's funny, because I usually start with dungeon 2. I think it's the easiest, the Ropers tend to drop a lot of money, and you get probably the most useful item in the game (magic boomerang). Did you already buy a shield? There's only two in the first Zelda; the one you start with and can't loose, and a larger one that can block Zora fireballs. Depending on the shops, it should cost around 90 Rupees. Just be careful, there are enemies later in the game that will eat that shield. Trying to think of what that could be. Bombs? The Blue Ring? Yeah, it doesn't even restore your health. It has one and only one use, and localization quirks made it extremely cryptic, so I'll just say that you need to give it to the hungry guy in one of the dungeons, and that maybe a hungry guy would grumble about it... There are red and blue potions that will refill your health (red you can use twice, blue once- don't waste money on blue!). But you need to find an old guy who will give you a letter first. Yeah, pretty much. Best advice I can give you is to head right from the start, through a few screens with tektites (jumping spider guys that tend to drop money). Turn north when the Zoras start shooting fireballs at you, and kill some blue moblins. That will let you stock up on some money and bombs. Forget about shields, use the money to buy a red candle. Then take some time to explore the overworld. Burn bushes everywhere (the red candle only works once on a screen, but if you leave the screen and come back you can use it again). Bomb overworld rock walls if they look a little flat, and try to push statutes and boulders. With just bombs and the red candle you should be able to find two heart containers. Then head north and look for a lake with a blue lynel hanging around. With five total hearts you can get the White Sword (something the game doesn't really tell you) and that'll let you kill the slime enemies in dungeon 3 without them splitting apart. And that's good, because the big slimes drop a lot of money, but the little ones won't drop anything. Remember also that due to programming limitations you can only carry 255 rupees. After buying the red candle prioritize a shield and then save up until you hit that maximum. Then look for the one and only shop that sells the Blue Ring.
  12. mikeszekely
    Ah, you installed Retroarch, then? Personally I'm sticking with the stock emulator and using the NES classic for just NES (same with SNES classic). I built a PC in an old NES and bought a NES30 Pro controller for it, and I don't even mess with it because I have an Nvidia Shield in my living room with my roms on a 128GB USB drive.
  13. mikeszekely
    Well, after spending the better part of my day messing around with the NES Classic, I have some thoughts. And while it technically released first, I feel like it's impossible to talk about it now without talking about the SNES Classic. LIKE! -The design of the console. Outside of Japan, the NES is probably Nintendo's most iconic product to this very day, and I love seeing it in this tiny form. While the two-tone grays and vented side definitely have a strong '80s vibe, I honestly feel like the NES's design has held up better than the SNES's, especially the oddly blocky purple-accented one we got in the States. Plus there's the fact that you don't have to open a door the original console didn't have with molded fake controller ports to get to the real ones, because the SNES Classic's are right where they should be. -The interface. Technically, aside from different music and different backgrounds it's basically the same as the SNES Classic's. You scroll left or right through the games, with the name at the top and the box art front and center, and hitting the reset button in a game takes you back to the menu with a little image of the screen you were on with wings on it. Pressing down shows you the save state slots for that game, and each game gets four. -The price. $60 seems like it'd be a fair price if you took the same games, slapped them on a Switch card, and called it something like "NES Greatest Hits" (it'd be less than buying them all through the Wii/Wii U/3DS Virtual Console), but here you're also getting the hardware to play it on. It's true that the SNES Classic gives you two controllers and only retails for $20 more, but for some reason my brain has been trained to think of $60 as an impulse purchase and $80 as a major purchase. -The packaging. Nintendo took care to make the box look as much like the NES packaging from the '80s as possible (just like the SNES Classic's box looked like the '90s SNES packaging). Little touches like that really take me back to my childhood. -Very easy to modify. All you need is a little Windows app that'll walk you through the process, and it's very difficult to brick the NES Classic while doing so. For whatever reason, Nintendo crammed way more memory into the NES Classic than you'd even need (more than the SNES Classic has, even). You use the same tool for the SNES Classic, so if you've already modded that you should know what you're in for. -The controller ports are the same as the Wiimote expansion ports. You take a minor hit to the authenticity of the design, sure, but what you get in return is the ability to use other controllers, like the Wii Classic Pad or some of those off-brand Gamecube-style controllers. Handy if you have some of those lying around and don't want to spring for another controller. DON'T LIKE! -The controller cord. I get that the reset button is needed to get back to the menu, and I think Nintendo expected users would sit near the console (the Famicom Mini's controllers are tethered to the console, just like the original). Maybe it's a cultural difference; I think it's safe to assume the average Japanese domicile is a lot smaller than the average American one, and I'd venture that Americans are probably more inclined to sit further away from a larger TV. The controller cord is a mere 2.5 feet long, which means you really have to sit right next to the console unless you buy a third party controller or some extension cables. -No way to go home except the reset button. The SNES Classic allowed you to hit Select + Down to get back to the home screen, but that doesn't work on the NES Classic. Unless you use a third party controller with a Home button (or modify the console) you really have to hit the button on the console. -No Zapper games. Yeah, Nintendo would have had to include a Zapper (which probably wouldn't fly in today's world as easily as it did in the '80s), and it'd probably be impossible to get them to work on a modern LCD TV, but how can you truly recreate the NES experience without Duck Hunt? MIXED -The game selection. Don't get me wrong, most of the games here would make just about any "best of the NES" list... but probably not "best 30" or even "best 50." I mean, Castlevania II over Castlvania III? Mega Man 2 was probably the right call if you could only have one Mega Man game, but if you can have two Castlevanias and all the Marios I feel like Mega Man 3 at least deserved a spot on the roster. Plus not TMNT, no Battletoads, no Dragon Warrior, and no River City Ransom. The last one is especially frustrating because the Famicom Mini did contain the Japanese version, Downtown Nekketsu Monogatari. And sure, we couldn't have all the games we wanted, but I'd have gladly traded Ballon Fight, Mario Bros (not the Super ones), or Excitebike for any of those other games. I mean, the SNES Classic had fewer games, but by comparison I feel like basically everything on the SNES Classic was a must-have game, and I don't think it had any omissions as glaring as the NES Classic (with the giant exception being Chrono Trigger). Fortunately you can put whatever games you want on it after modding it. There's enough room for the entire NES library with room for the entire PAL NES library, Famicom library, and Famicon Disk System library left over. -NES games haven't all aged gracefully. The NES was born in an era when arcades were still big. A lot of the NES's library were ports of the popular arcade games, and even the ones that weren't were still heavily influenced by arcade design. That means some games with point except to try to get a high score before you run out of lives. Games that can be played from start to finish in under an hour. And games that tried to keep you playing longer with a brutal difficulty, cheap instant deaths, limited lives, and limited continues that forced you to play games over and over, hoping to get a little further every time. I can still play the Legend of Zelda, Super Mario Bros 3, or Mega Man 2 and have as much fun now as I did in the '80s, but games like Ninja Gaiden and Castlevania quickly get to a point where they're more frustrating than fun (I specificially gave up on Castlevania after beating The Creature (aka Frankenstein). Modding the console and adding more games exacerbates this issue. I mean, while I can add stuff I'd definitely play like the TMNT games, the other Mega Mans, Batman, Battletoads, Dragon Warrior, etc, for every one of those there's probably at least five that I liked as a kid that I can't really get into now and 20 that were crap even back then. -Authentic controller. I actually have an original NES controller laying around (although the NES itself was gutted and turned into a PC case), and the NES Classic's controller is extremely close in size and overall feel to the original. Playing Mega Man or Super Mario with a near perfect replica of the controller I used to play those same games back when we use "playing Nintendo" interchangably with "playing videogames" and referred to those games as "Nintendo tapes" feels right in a way that playing them on Nestopia on my PC with an Xbox controller never will. So why put this in the "Mixed" list? At the end of the day, the NES controller was still designed for child hands with very little consideration for ergonomics, and if I take my nostalgia goggles off the NES controller isn't all that comfortable to by adult hands for long play sessions. If I were stuck on a desert island and could only have one minature retro console I'd probably tell you that I prefer the SNES Classic. The games on it stand to this day as some of the best ever made. The NES Classic definitely has great and hugely influential games, but probably haven't aged as gracefully. Still, nostalgia is a powerful thing, and for a mere $60 there's enough here that I think you'll get your money's worth even if you don't mod it to add more games. And if you do mod it, then you've got yourself a palm-sized, highly portable NES that you can hook up to a modern TV and play any and all the NES games you'd ever want with an actual NES controller. Honestly, I'd love for Nintendo to do an N64 Classic, a Gamecube Classic, a Gameboy Classic, and a Gameboy Advance Classic before they stop. (I'd kill for a Genesis Classic, too, but it'd have to be a lot better than the junk At Games puts out).
  14. mikeszekely
    My understanding is that Nintendo had ramped up production significantly over 2016, when they thought the NES Classic would be more of a niche item, and they've sworn to keep restocking it and the SNES Classic through 2018. I definitely think if you want one you'll be able to get one sooner or later.
  15. mikeszekely
    Ahem... If you want the TLDR, though, it'd be gaps in her torso, difficulty standing, awkward backpack, and the most miserable transformation of any transforming toy I've handled (and that's coming from a guy who thinks stuff that's often cited as difficult like Sunsurge or Downbeat are pretty easy). Worse than MP-05.
  16. mikeszekely
    Menasor would be the third combiner FansToys has announced, and and not a single member of any of the three looks likely to be an actual release anytime soon. Only reason I can think of for FT to announce Stunticons now is that they're banking on their reputation to get people to hold off on XTB's or DX9's in favor of eventual FansToy's ones. But to be frank, it isn't 2016 anymore. DX9 isn't putting out figures like Chigurh and Sworder that are missing the MP aesthetic anymore- we're getting stuff like Richthotfen and Gabriel. XTB isn't putting out junk anymore- we're getting stuff like Klaatu and Paean. And the nail in the coffin is that FT isn't guaranteed gold anymore. Phoenix was the last thing FT release that wowed me, and stuff like Rouge and Apache have just be awful. I'm really happy with Crackup. Flipout, XTB's Wildrider, is starting to make the test-shot rounds, and it's looking fantastic. The price is good, and even if XTB's Menasor winds up not being my cup of tea I'm quite happy with their Stunticon cars as individual Stunticons. For now, FT has nothing to offer me, and I'd strongly suggest they finish at least one combiner before announcing another.
  17. mikeszekely
    So did anyone else find a NES Classic today? I went into Target around 9:30, a good hour and a half after they opened, and it looked like they had a couple cases behind the counter. Oh, and 8bitdo is making a wireless controller for the NES Classic; I pre-ordered it from Amazon. I have their wireless pad for the SNES Classic and it works great and feels very close an actual SNES controller. If the NES one turns out even half as good it'll be with the money. Bonus: it's got turbo buttons. I don't need turbo buttons, but they were on pretty much every 3rd party controller back in the day (and a couple 1st party like the Max and the Advantage), so 8bitdo having them seems charmingly retro.
  18. mikeszekely
    This.
  19. mikeszekely
    Australia. Yeah, pretty sure you and @Old_Nash keep cheering on Comcast because you don't live here and don't get how truly heinous Comcast is. Sure, maybe you've heard stories. Maybe you don't quite believe them. Guess what? The stories are true. Comcast is that bad. Worse, even! Don't cheer them on. In fact, pray that Disney gets Fox. Because, especially without any Net Neutrality protections in the US anymore, I promise you that Comcast getting them will be much, much worse. Seriously. You guys act like Disney kicked your puppy. Well, if you lived in a Comcast market they probably actually kicked your puppy, then added a recurring puppy-kicking fee to your bill.
  20. mikeszekely
    So New Gundam Breaker is out, and of course the first game in the series to see a US release turns out to be a buggy mess that's a huge step backwards for the franchise instead of building on the excellent Gundam Breaker 3.
  21. mikeszekely
    I didn't look at the alt modes super carefully, but I was under the impression that a lot (all?) of the discrepancies between their alt modes and actual Countaches are discrepancies between the animation models and actual Countaches. Not something that will appeal to Lambo fans, but a likely hit with fans of Takara's all-toon, all the time direction.
  22. mikeszekely
    Last of the Zeta Combaticons, at least until their Onslaught comes out. This would be Uproar, their Brawl. As with Zeta's Swindle, I feel like Uproar is more toy-inspired than the arm-bots. He's got the black face, no treads on the front of his arms, and the front of the tank makes for more of an angular, protruding chest than the cartoon (or Unique Toys'). I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing, though. Maybe you had the G1 toy growing up, and you're more attached to that image of him than the cartoon. Or maybe you just like a beefier Brawl, because this guy is definitely thicker. You can see that, compared to Unique Toys, he's got thicker forearms, thicker shoulders, a thicker chest, and thicker lower legs. Unlike the other Zeta bots, though, it's not because he's got a ton of folded up panels all over him. Just a little on his shoulders, and that's mostly out of the way. The bulk of his kibble actually comes from his tank treads. Rather than split like the G1 toy or UT's Zeta engineered the treads to fold over themselves on Brawl's legs. The results are... kind of mixed. I don't mind the bulk so much as the fact that the treads are made from a series of interconnecting links wrapped over the inner mechanism. The idea was to give Uproar working treads in tank mode, but folding them over leaves them very loose. You're supposed to feed the treads into his shins, and and there are two folding bits to hold the treads, but they still seem looser than I'd like. Plus the links have a tendency to pop apart. Zeta seems to expect that users may break or loose some links, because they included some extras in the box. There's also a pair of rubber antenna and his gun. Uproar's head his on a ball joint. Same as before, slight up and down, adequate sideways tilt, no issue with rotation. His shoulders can rotate. They also have double hinges for transformation and lateral movement. He can get 90 degrees laterally, and he can kind of shrug his shoulders. His biceps swivel. His elbow is a single hinge that bends over 90 degrees. There's an additional hinge above the bicep swivel that you can use to get a little extra range if you want. His wrists swivel, and his hands are exactly the same as the other three Zeta Combaticons. His waist can swivel, but he lacks the sideways waist bend that his teammates possess. His hips can move just under 90 degrees forward, but only about 45-ish backward because his treads start to collide with his backpack. His hips can do 90 degrees latereally on soft ratchets. His thighs can swivel around the hips, and his ratcheted knees can bend 90 degrees. His toes (and heel spur) can bend down due to transformation. And for some reason his ankles have a double hinge, so his ankles can pivot over 90 degrees. His gun pegs into his hands, no problem. Just like the others. Uproar's tank mode looks like some model of Leopard 1 tank, which I think might be correct for the G1 toy. It's also very detailed. Proportionally he's taller versus his width than the UT Brawl, and correct or not that gives me the impression that Uproar's alt mode is a smaller thank than UT's despite UT being physically smaller. As previously mentioned, the tank treads are designed to actually work. In practice, they don't seem to get enough friction for them to actually engage. When you add that to my earlier complaints about the large shins, loose fit of the treads in robot mode, and the tendency of the links to come apart and I have to say that I really wish Zeta had just gone with fake treads. That's not to say that real treads never work... rubber treads that fit tightly over the wheels and don't have the bend for transformation work ok. But these treads create a host of problems for a gimmick that doesn't even really work. Speaking of gimmicks, the two hatches on the turret can open. The turret can swivel, and the barrel can aim up and down; just be sure to extend it all the way. If the barrel isn't fully extended it'll interfere with the up/down motion. The two antenna plug into the back of turret- not that the instructions mention them. There's also a port to plug in his gun, and it can swivel in that port so he can aim in different directions. It doesn't integrate particularly neatly, though, and it definitely doesn't have the three-cannon look of the cartoon the way UT's or the G1 toy's can. We still have to wait on Zeta's Onslaught, but for now I think Uproar is probably the best of the Zeta Combaticons. His alt mode is solid, even if the tank treads don't work that well, and pretty accurate for the character. He doesn't suffer from kibble quite as much as the others. And while UT's Brawl is definitely more cartoon accurate, Uproar is a pretty toy-accurate and overall beefier Brawl. If that appeals to you, then I guess I could recommend Uproar, but you should definitely go with UT if cartoon accuracy is what you want.
  23. mikeszekely
    I think I need to see more... The arms and legs look pretty good, but I'm not a fan of the short torso and giant pelvis on this Prime any more than I was on MP-36. I also need to see the back.
  24. mikeszekely
    Arms done, we'll move on to the legs with Racket, Zeta Toys' version of Swindle. Ok, this time Racket really does look like the G1 Swindle toy. The front of the vehicle is folded onto his back like the toy. His torso is mostly purple like the toy. Molded black and blue details match stickers on the toy. The blue pelvis is a G1 sticker. The black yellow molded detail on his shins are toy stickers. The chunky thighs and broad but flat feet are even pretty reminiscent of the toy. I think he's even a little less kibbly than the previous two, athough he's definitely got some folded-up panels on this legs, forearms, and shoulders (although maybe it's a help this time, since he's a little back heavy and you can fold down some panels on the backs of his legs like pseudo heel-spurs). I'm not really a fan of the goofy face, either. I mean, the expression is sort of appropriate, and similar to the Warbotron one, but the sculpt just looks weird. If you really want a more cartoon-style Swindle, well, you're not going to get as close with Racket as you do with Unique Toys' Swindle. But Zeta did include a fairly interesting gimmick where you can pull out his chest and pelvis and spin them around. His chest goes from purple with molded sticker detail to looking like a jeep's windshield, and his blue pelvis becomes a jeep grill complete with headlights. It's a neat feature and I'm glad that they included it, but I think if you really care about cartoon accuracy you're better off just picking up the Unique Toys's version. Racket comes with quite a few accessories. You've got a cannon, two missiles, a pistol, two antenna and a trio of windshield wipers. The barrel of the cannon can slide in and out so you can change the length, but at least on my copy the slide is loose and doesn't lock in anywhere, so the barrel usually winds up at it's maximum length. Head's on a ball joint, which swivels fine but has limited up, down, and sideways tilt. His shoudlers can rotate, and double-hinges allow for about 120 degrees of lateral movement. His biceps swivel. He has a single hinge at the elbow and another hinge just under his bicep swivel, but his chunky shoulders and forearms still limit him to 90 degrees of elbow bend. His wrists can swivel, and like the others in this set his hands are molded into a 5mm grip with a fixed thumb and the other four fingers molded as a single piece pinned at the base. For reasons I'm not entirely clear on he has some of the sideways bend at the waist that the arms did, although it's not ratcheted. His waist swivels. His hip skirts move out of the way so that his hips can go 90 degrees forward and backward on friction joints and 90 degrees laterally on a soft ratchet. His thighs can swivel around the hip. His knees can bend 90 degrees on a ratchet. His feet can tilt up a lot, down a little, and maybe 75 degrees of ankle pivot. He holds the pistol by its 5mm peg grip, no issues there. The cannon and the missiles have pegs that are too short to get around his chunky forearms and into his hands, so he can't really hold them. But he's got peg holes on the fronts of his shoulders and the outside of his forearms, plus the cannon itself has a peg hole on each side. There's also a pair of holes behind his head, but it's less practical to use them because whatever you put there has to be angled around his head. Should you decide to install the wipers and the antenna you don't have to worry about them getting in the way in robot mode. The antenna fold down on his shins, and the wipers wind up on the sides of his shoulders. Zeta continues the trend set by Fansproject of ditching Swindle's jeep mode for a Humvee. To be fair to Zeta, it's a pretty decent Humvee. I mean, there's not a ton of paint on it, and it's still not the correct alt mode if you care about cartoon accuracy, but as near as I can tell the molded detail is pretty accurate to an AM General Humvee. The transformation is fairly simple and pretty similar to the Warbotron one, with the front flipping over, the arms moving onto the back, and the legs folding around. The big difference is the way the panels unfold from his shoulders, forearms, and pegs to make up the lion's share of the sides and roof instead of a backpack. With the missiles attached to the cannon you can store all of Racket's weapons on his roof. His tires are rubber and roll well. A gimmick Zeta included is the linkage between the front wheels, so they can turn together as if being steered. Just don't press down too hard; the front of the alt mode likes to collapse. As with the other Zeta bots, a lot of those panels are unfolded on the bottom to really hide the robot in all modes. Do note that for alt mode you can have the pelvis in either the cartoon or the toy style, but the chest kind of has to be in toy mode. The molded bits on the toy side don't allow the chest to sit flat enough to close. That said, even if it's not closed the whole way it won't interfere with anything, so you can get away with leaving the cartoon chest out. I do believe that the bottom of the vehicle will be the front of the shin for combined mode, and I kind of prefer the toy-style for that. Racket is definitely an improvement over the arms, and in a vaccuum he might have even gotten a recommend from me, as he's definitely an improvement over the Warbotron version and the Warbotron Swindle was probably the best of the Warbotron set. But at the end of the day, UT's Swindle was probably the best UT Combaticon, too, and much better than this one. We're right back to the same place we were with the others; pass in favor of UT if you want an MP Swindle, but we'll find out later which is the better Bruticus.
  25. mikeszekely
    No. Disney is sweetness and light compared to Comcast.
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