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mikeszekely

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  1. mikeszekely
    I'm going hold off on more Studio Series Voyagers for now, and jump straight to the Leader... Age of Extinction Optimus Prime. Given that he's actually slightly smaller than the Voyager-class figure from The Last Knight, we're back to "Leader" really meaning "Voyager Plus." And next to my copy of the TLK Voyager, it's a tad hard to see where the plus is even coming from. But it's important to remember that I repainted a lot of that figure, with Toyhax stickers for a lot of the flame details. So I went and found a photo of how the TLK figure originally looked, and ok, there's definitely some improvements. Rather than use an ugly darker gray plastic with bits of silver paint, the new SS figure uses a lighter gray for Prime's silver parts, with just some silver on his shins. He's got some of the gold accents on his tummy and knees (but not the ones in his chest or the rest of his shins). He's got the red on top of his feet, blue hip skirts and blue on the backs of his hands, plus the proper flame deco and silver vents on his boobs. There's no blue on parts that aren't supposed to be blue but were on the older figure, like his collar and most of his head. At the end of the day, though, this is still a mainline figure. The budget ran out before the deco was totally screen accurate, and he's not pulling off Unique Toys black magic engineering. He's still missing some blue on his shoulders, some red on his collar, and some flames on his shoulder pads and legs. His legs still have kibble, like the smokestacks for his truck mode and parts of his roof, and he's still got quite a backpack. While pretty noticeable from the sides and back, I would argue that his silhouette is overall improved from the front, as he doesn't have doors poking out like wings and fenders and wheels on his ankles. A Leader budget also comes with more accessories. You get a sword, a shield, an arm blade, and a little connector piece. The sword and shield are bigger than the ones that came with the TLK toy. Like the figure itself, they're technically more accurate (no orange blade, no weird blue shield); the red and silver on the sword are fine, but the pommel is left uncolored and it's missing a few blue accents. And the silver and red on the shield are mostly fine, but some of the red and gold accents are missing, as is the blue on the rather large bit at the top. Prime's head is a ball joint with a fairly limited up/down tilt, but surprisingly adequate sideways tilt and swivel. His shoulders rotate and move slightly over 90 degrees laterally; the shoulder pads are both double-hinged and on a swivel, so they can easily get out of the way. His biceps swivel, and his double-jointed elbows curl a full 180 degrees. His wrists swivel and can bend inward, and his fingers are hinged so his hands can open. His waist swivels, though his hip skirts are connected to his upper body so you'll have to lift them to clear his hips. Speaking of hips, they can move 90 degrees forward or laterally, but only about 75 degrees backward (which is honestly plenty) due to his backpack. His thighs swivel, and his knees bend 90 degrees. The front half of his foot can tilt downward, nothing up, and he's got 90 degrees of ankle pivot. The entire handle comes off of the sword, so you can feed it up through the bottom of a fist then reattach the blade, though with his opening hands you can kind of just snap them into his hands. He can hold the arm blade in his other hand, but with his wrists bent forward you can also plug them into slots on his forearms. The shield plugs into the 5mm port on either forearm. It can open up to show the gun built into it, but opening it actually requires pulling off the sides, which are simply plugged into 5mm ports on the base of the shield, and reattaching them to different 5mm ports. Prime has storage for all his gear, but it's a bit annoying. You need the connector piece, which the sword slides into. But to find a 5mm port on Prime's back, you have to life part of the truck kibble, which makes it visible from the front. Once it's attached, you can plug the shield into the 5mm port on the connector part. The arm blade has a slot on one side. It can either plug into the side of the door kibble on the edge of his backpack, or a tab under the gun on the underside of the shield. Prime's a bit shellformery, with a large portion of the cab coming from his backpack and almost he entire rest of what you see in alt mode coming from his legs as his head, arms, and upper torso tuck away inside the backpack cab. I think the transformation is generally more interesting and a bit smoother than the TLK Voyager, though. Speaking of, they're now nearly identical in size, and while my customized TLK definitely looks better in truck mode, it's worth noting again how that figure looked before I customized it. Details like the vents on the hood, the flames on the rear fenders, and the blue that should run along the bottom are all missing. Guess that paint budget didn't hold up. On the whole, though, it's a pretty good sculpt, and the missing paint details are par for the course with Bayverse Studio Series figures. Prime hauls his gear by plugging the connector part into the 5mm port on the hitch. That allows the sword to slide through it, with the point moving through a cutout on the back of the cab. There's just enough space for the shield to plug into the 5mm port on the connector. The arm blade doesn't fit on the shield in this mode, but the slot on the side of the blade can fit over a tab between the rear wheels on either side. Or, another option is to attach a trailer. SS86 Prime's trailer fits pretty well (I'm becoming tempted to buy a second SS86 Optimus for a spare trailer for other Primes, while the robot himself could be permanently turned into Skybound Optimus with that upcoming DNA kit...). Reviewing Studio Series figures on the heels of Age of the Primes can be a bit hard. Hasbro tends to do a better job with G1 characters, as the busy designs of the Bayverse just don't lend themselves to transforming toys on a budget. Coming off of some bangers like SS86 Optimus, the IDW remold of Gamer Edition Optimus, and Reactivate Optimus it's tempting to see the flaws in SS AoE Optimus and think it's not that much better than the old Voyager, that it's kind of just an OK figure. And maybe that's not wrong, but the fact is that while this version of Optimus Prime has been done better, it hasn't been done by Hasbro, and not at this price. Even the Leader toys from the Age of Extinction and The Last Knight lines were pretty kibble-tastic, and the deco, silhouette, and engineering beat out any unmodified Voyagers while we're at it. To be perfectly honest, this is also probably the best Studio Series figures Bayverse Optimus has gotten, period, beating out SS-05 and it's remolded and repainted Revenge of the Fallen and Dark of the Moon iterations (would love to see that design get a Commander-class glow-up). So, no, he's not my favorite figure this year (though, with some notable figures from this wave still MIA, he might be my favorite SS figure so far this year), I do like him. If you've got a shelf or two going for the Bayverse, this figure is worth picking up. But as if often the case, if you're not into the movie designs this isn't going to be the figure that makes you change your mind.
  2. mikeszekely
    They look really cute, but I hear that the people that did that Core-class gun Megatron are doing a Core-class Predaking (and Devastator, and maybe Bruticus and Menasor for good measure). I'm holding out for those.
  3. mikeszekely
    Since Raiden was the first MPG (or, technically, like the first several MPGs) it was assumed that the "G" was for "gattai." Then Takara decided it's for gattai, but also giant and great, then they stuffed Ginrai into it (but only Super Ginrai, because Ginrai by himself is still just regular MP), canceled the regular MP line, then started sticking whatever into it with no sense of scale or unified aesthetics. So I'm pretty sure MPG stands for "My Primus God-these-Transformers-fans-will-buy-whatever-we-shovel-at-them!"
  4. mikeszekely
    Interesting. From the silhouette it looks less Sunbow. More MP-10, less MP-44. And the back of the truck doesn't look like robot legs.
  5. mikeszekely
    Well, been driving around looking for Slingshot and the Age of the Prime wave 1 Leader, but no dice. In the meantime, Amazon sent me some of the new Studio Series figures (though not Bonecrusher or Scrapper... sensing a pattern here...). So we'll open with a Deluxe- Transformers One Badassatron/B127/Bumblebee. The first thing I noticed about Bee is that he's actually a tad smaller than movie-line Prime Changer toy. I reckon that has a lot to do with scaling him with the Studio Series TFOne Optimus (as opposed to the Prime Changers, where Prime and Bee wound up the same size). But a closer look does reveal a figure that's a bit more screen-accurate, with more of a cutout collar, gunmetal biceps, gold on his crotch and hip skirts, and wheels that are part of his feet rather than the bottom of his legs. However, it's a case of two steps forward, one step back as he looses the gunmetal details on his forearms and the gold on the backs of his hands. He's also go some protrusions on the sides of his knees. They're not on the robot CGI model. Spinning him around... he's got kind of chunky legs, but I guess his alt mode bits have to go somewhere, and I'm pretty sure the animators weren't too concerned with how that worked when they did the CGI. He's also got a little backpack, but that's far from the most egregious one we've looked at (or will look at) this week. Badassatron comes with more accessories than the Prime Changer. You've got his blaster, and there's two this time. He's got his knife hands, and they're separate parts from the blaster now. And you've got a rifle I don't actually recall Bee using in the film. I'm pretty sure Bee's head is on a ball joint with no issue swiveling, but up/down tilt is fairly limited and sideways tilt is basically nonexistent. His shoulders are, unfortunately, ball joints, but they do serve to swivel and move laterally 90 degrees. His biceps swivel, and his elbows bend 90 degrees. No wrist articulation. His waist swivels. His hips, which are sadly also ball joints, can go forward 90 degrees but only about 60-70 degrees laterally and backward. His thighs swivel, and his knees bend 90 degrees. The one thing that's definitely an upgrade over the Prime Changer are the feet. Due to how he transforms, his feet can tilt down 90 degrees, and as long as you don't mind untabbing his calves you can cheat and tilt his feet up nearly 90 degrees as well. Plus he's got just short of 90 degrees of ankle pivot. Bee's blasters peg into his hands; they're not identical, so only one blaster fits on his right hand and one on his left. His knives plug into slots on the blasters. He can hold the knives in his hands, but there's no way to plug them into his wrists like you see in the movie. As an alternative to his blaster, you can have him hold the rifle. I kind of think the rifle isn't really for Bee, though. I mean, I'll have to watch it a third time to confirm he doesn't actually use it. But you know who doesn't have a gun, and who definitely did use that rifle in the movie? Optimus. Well, Bee has storage for his accessories. You leave the knives in the blasters, then the blasters have tabs that plug into slots on his back. The rifle has a peg on one side, and that peg just happens to fit into his butt. That said, I'm going to be storing that rifle in Optimus' hand. Bee's transformation is surprisingly involved compared to the Prime Changer. His back opens up, but rather than tucking in his head it's so you can fold out a panel. This allows you to lift his whole chest up over his head. His forearms open up and his hands fold in, then they swivel so the backs of his arms are on the outside. He bends backward at the waist, which lines up the backs of his legs with his backpack to form most of the top of the car. His feet fold down 90 degrees, then his calves untab from his legs and swivel around so his feet tab into his shins. Then you can finish him off by using hinges to shift his shoulders up into the wheel wells, and his forearms will tab into his hips and feet to finish the sides of the car. Despite being a smaller robot, SS Bee is is roughly the same size as the Prime Changer in alt mode. Bee's alt mode is more of a lateral move than a real improvement over the Prime Changer. The front end, most of the roof, and the gold rims are basically the same. Between the wheels the sides are similar. Both have the rear that overhangs past the rear wheel. Neither have sides between the wheels and roof that look particularly finished, though the protrusions on his knees make more sense now as they are a movie-accurate alt mode detail. And both are lacking the actual wheels the CGI model had, rolling instead on what are supposed to just be rims. If nothing else, though, Bee can still carry his gear. The tabs that connected his blasters to his backpack now fit into slots near the rear of the vehicle, though the ones on his backpack are still available close to the front if you prefer. And the rifle uses the 5mm peg on the one side to plug into a 5mm port on the side of the vehicle. Studio Series Badassatron is a pretty decent figure, a moderate improvement over the Prime Changer with more accessories to boot. I just feels like he's come a bit late... as good as Transformers One was (and it was good, probably my favorite Transformers movie after the '86 one), it seems it underperformed in the box office and then just disappeared, so the enthusiasm I once had for toys of those characters has waned a bit. So I guess I'd ask you, do you want transformable toys to represent the cast of this movie? Did you already pick up Prime and Megatron? If your answer is yes, then you should also pick up Bee. But if your answer is no, well, I don't think there's anything here that's going to change your mind.
  6. mikeszekely
    I personally don't get the hate for Windows 11. I upgraded for auto HDR and direct storage, and once I got a 32:9 monitor I came to really appreciate the centered task bar. That said, if Windows 11 is really a no-go for you, maybe Steam OS? Valve is starting to make it available to system builders. I'm my experience with the Steam Deck it has a surprisingly usable desktop mode, and I had no trouble running the bulk of the games in my Steam library.
  7. mikeszekely
    The other Age of the Primes Voyager is a character that definitely wasn't in the G1 cartoon, but you might know him if you played that pretty awesome Transformers PS2 game back in the day... it's Armada Red Alert. Yeah, that, right there... that's the entire selectable cast of the PS2 game. It's also what I'd consider to be the "main" cast of Autobots from the Armada cartoon- aside from humans and Minicons, this was the entire Autobot force until Smokescreen joined the cast in the tenth episode. As a depiction of Red Alert, the Age of the Primes toy is pretty good! The sculpt, especially his head, strikes me as more cartoony than the original toy. Hasbro was pretty generous with the paint, too, giving him darker kneepads, silver on his bumper and grill, gray around his grill, yellow headlights, and black around the headlights. He's missing a little, though, with no red stripes on his head and no yellow on his biceps (though that could be a good thing, as the yellow on the cartoon came from the gold plastic used for the joints on the original toy). Red Alert does have a bit of a backpack, yes, and some kibble on his legs. However, as the Armada cartoon was much more faithful to the toy designs than G1, this is still pretty accurate. Do note, though, the gap on the left side of his backpack. Red Alert comes with a total of four accessories, one of which you could consider his standard left hand (bottom). Additionally, he's got another translucent red piece, a solid gray piece, and a gun. The gun is, a bit disappointingly, solid white plastic. The original toy had some black/dark gray around one end and some blue over the ribbed middle section. The cartoon traded blue for silver, but it still had more color than we got here. Red Alert's head is on a ball joint that can swivel and look up slightly, but lacks any meaningful sideways or forward tilt. His shoulders rotate and move 90 degrees laterally. His biceps swivel, and his double-jointed elbows can bend 90 degrees. His right hand swivels. He does have a waist swivel, too. His hips can go 90 degrees forward and just a little short of that laterally, but his backpack gives his hips minimal backward range. His thighs swivel, and his knees bend 90 degrees. His feet can tilt up 90 degrees due to his transformation, backward about 45 degrees, and his ankles pivot just a little short of 90 degrees. The kibble on his legs can swivel, but he lacks the fold-out Minicon repair bay the G1 toy had. Red Alert can hold his gun in his right hand, as he did in the cartoon, or it can mounted to a double hinge on his backpack to become a shoulder cannon. His left wrist simply ends in a 5mm port that you can use to attach either of the red parts or the gray part. Likewise, there's a 5mm port at the end of his gun that you can also plug the smaller bits into. Red Alert is packing storage for all of his accessories, too. If you lift up his backpack and fold out the flap on the inside, you'll find a tiny peg. This peg fits into the center of the gray part; then you simply fold his backpack back up. The gun, in shoulder cannon mode, can simply flip over and fill in the gap on the left side of his backpack. As for the translucent red parts, there's little spots for them on the inside of his leg kibble. Those spots aren't just for robot storage, mind you. That's where they go in alt mode, too, which is good because you do have to remove whatever part you're using as his left hand before transforming him. Aside from that bit of partsforming, his transformation is very straightforward. Swivel his biceps in 90 degrees, then move his shoulders laterally so the back of his biceps tab into the doors on top of his shoulders. Curl the elbows 180 degrees, then swivel his shoulders so the doors are oriented properly. Life the Autobot badge on top of his chest, flip out the inner flap, tuck his head into the cavity you created, and close the flap over it. Lift his windshield, then his entire backpack, folding out the inner flap, and line the windshield up with the hood, then fold his arms back like you're closing his doors. Tuck in his heels, then fold his feet up to his shins. Joints in his calves will allow you to fold part of his lower legs around to tuck his feet behind the leg kibble. Then you simply bend his torso under his chest to swing his hips and legs back, and line up the kibble on his legs to fill in the rear of the vehicle. Again, his vehicle mode is looking pretty good, what with the paint on his grill, lights, front bumper, etc. There's also the red stripe across the side, and gunmetal trim on the fenders and skirts. It's just a dang shame that the paint budget ran out before they could finish, as his rear bumper, taillights, and and some other details on the rear that should be gunmetal are left bare white. The Red Cross symbol on the original toy has been replaced with the more modern Autobot one. Probably for the best... I understand that the Red Cross sued Hasbro over the original toy, which is why the cartoon had no symbol at all. In a similar fashion, AotP Red Alert loses the gold rims of the original toy, but that seems more cartoon accurate that way. The Minicon ports on the hood and doors have been replaced with 5mm pegs. However, there's still a peg on the translucent red part. Too bad I don't have an original Minicon to try on it. Not too much else to say. It's not activated by a Minicon, but again part of his roof can flip over to be a gun in this mode. And he rolls fine. Honestly, it's a bit of a shame that a lot of you are likely to pass over Red Alert, as the Unicron Trilogy seems pretty overlooked by the G1 crowd. While lacking in gimmicks, Red Alert is solid and straightforward in a way that I wish more modern Transformers were. He's quietly the best Age of the Primes figure so far, and I'd recommend giving him a chance.
  8. mikeszekely
    So it's a choice between the vibrant colors and rich blacks of an OLED screen on a potato, or an LCD on a less-underpowered device (that likely incorporates DLSS)? Bye, Switch OLED. Same. It's a Nintendo console. Even if I do 90% of my gaming on PC I still love most of Nintendo's first-party games, and I'm confident that there'll be something I want to play at launch.
  9. mikeszekely
    Rumor, so take it with a grain of salt, but there's some buzz going around that preorders will open for the Switch 2 on Wednesday, April 2nd at 10:00am EDT.
  10. mikeszekely
    Thanks for the feedback! I figure everyone should be familiar with the main cartoon cast, but not everyone is aware of the deeper lore and real-world history behind anyone who wasn't in the cartoon, so I've been trying to present them with context. I'm happy to know that the effort is appreciated!
  11. mikeszekely
    Still haven't had any luck finding Slingshot, and I'm skipping Wasp, so how about we start our week off checking out the Wave 1 Voyagers? And since it's Age of the Primes, it seems fitting that our first Voyager will be the very first Prime, Prima. Due to the various lores and retcons, Prima is arguable the most-depicted but least-consistent in said depictions. In the original Marvel The Transformers #61, there's an extremely boxy orange and blue robot being given the Matrix in a flashback about Primus creating the first Transformers that's identified as Primus. In Transformers Generation 2 #5 another flashback shows skeletal mechanical being arises from sludge on the surface of Cybertron before being formatted into a rounder red and gold body. While not identified by name, it's said to be the first Transformer, which would be Primus. In the cartoon episode "The Five Faces of Darkness Part 4" Rodimus has a Matrix vision of a blue-and-white Cyconlus-esque gladiator who rose up against the Quintessons that's supposed to be Primus (despite NOT being the first Transformer in the cartoon). The Covenant of Primus depicted Primus as a silver knight, a design which was also the basis for his brief appearance in the IDW comics. And Transformers One depicted him as a white and gold warrior with a head vaguely like Optimus Prime's, but without a mask. Hasbro's Prima, with the segmented, armored chest and downward-angled shoulder pads, two-toed feet, and limited color pallet can largely be thought of as the Covenant of Primus design smushed into a boxier, more G1 shape, though his head is actually the Sunbow cartoon one. The armored warrior look is pretty good from the front, but a peak around the back does reveal a fairly large backpack (or perhaps it's a short cape?), and hollow calves that aren't quite filled in by wheels. Primus comes with a sword blade, a sword hilt, and a silver Matrix of Leadership. These all combine to form the Star Saber, Prima's unique artifact (the Covenant of Primus says they each get one). Prima's head is on a ball joint. There's not much downward or sideways tilt, but it swivels and he can look up a fair bit. His shoulder pads are double hinged to give him the clearance he needs to swivel his shoulders freely and move them just about 90 degrees laterally. His biceps swivel, and his elbows bend a little over 90 degrees. His wrists swivel, and he's got pinned fingers. Although they're all molded together in a single permanently-curled part, he can at least open his hands. His waist swivels, but his hip skirts are connected to his sides so they swivel with him. Fortunately they're hinged, so they don't impeded said swivel. His hips can go forward and laterally 90 degrees, but his backpack/cape limits him to about 45 degrees backward. His thighs swivel, and his knees bend a bit over 90 degrees. His feet have a little up/down tilt, and his ankles pivot nearly 90 degrees. Prima can hold the Star Saber in either hand, no issues there. While most intentional depictions of Prima have made the Matrix of Leadership part of the Star Saber, as the first Matrix bearer Prima does have a panel on his chest that opens, allowing the Matrix to be stored inside. As for the rest of the Star Saber, a 5mm peg on the other side of the hilt can plug into a 5mm port near the top of either side of his backpack. Prima additionally has 5mm ports on both shoulder pads, both forearms, and under each foot. Prima's transformation is fairly involved, but things move and line up better and things tab more solidly than Solus. And no parts fell off! Basically you splay open his forearms, tuck in his hands, spin his biceps, lock the shoulder pads down, then hinge his backpack with his arms away from his torso. That gives you room to swivel the top of his torso (just above his waist swivel), behind which you'll find his front wheels. Tuck in his head down, shift his shoulder joints together so that his forearms fill in the sides of his backpack, then bring his backpack back toward his torso so that little tab-like protrusions on the top of his chest tuck into the gaps on the insides of his forearms. With that done, just fold the wheels out of his calves, tuck his feet into his calves, then bend his knees such that his lower legs cover his thighs and his toes tuck under the backpack. Prima is, I suppose, some kind of space truck. Although the rear is still a bit gappy, I think I generally prefer Prima's alt mode to Solus'. It's got an almost lunar rover sort of vibe going on (though the front half seems a bit crooked... it took me a hot minute to realize it's meant to be be that way). That said, much like Solus, I think Prima still works best in robot mode. Prima does have storage for the Star Saber in alt mode, though you kind of have to take it apart. The blade tucks between his leg and protrudes slightly from the rear. The hilt, though, uses a 3mm peg to plug into a port behind either set of rear wheels, riding under the vehicle with or without the Matrix (which can be stored in his chest while he's in alt mode). If you prefer a more violent vehicle, the 5mm ports on his shoulder pads and forearms are available on the sides of the vehicle, plus a new one is revealed on his front bumper. Finally, the manual does offer one more official gimmick. The front wheels can fold down halfway, while the rear ones can hinge up, giving him a sort of hover mode. While the story of the Thirteen has become established canon across multiple Transformers series, it's a bit of lore that wasn't canonized until most of us G1 fans were into adulthood and may not resonate with fans who grew up largely on the cartoon alone. However, even the cartoon acknowledged a lineage of Primes, a series of Matrix bearers extending from Optimus or Rodimus in the present back into Cybertron's ancient history. In that, I think Prima may have more appeal to a lot of collectors than his siblings, because Prima isn't just the first of the Thirteen, he's the first Matrix bearer, the one who begat that lineage that ends with Optimus/Rodimus. So, it probably good to know that he's a pretty good figure. Sure, the colors are a bit monotonous, and his alt mode is a sort of generic alien space truck, but he's also decently-articulated, poses well, and solidly-built with no parts falling off on me. That's enough to make him the best of the three figures we've looked at so far, and I'd recommend checking him out.
  12. mikeszekely
    I think we're eventually going to go with the vehicles, too. My wife's parents stay with us for extended periods, and on the weekends we like to take mine out for lunch. We got a Kia EV9, and it's really nice (like, surprisingly so to someone who learned drive in the '90s and remembers when Kias were cheap crap), but my wife decided it's too big for her daily commute. When the lease is up we're going to turn it back in and maybe get her a Macan EV. Then, because a charger in the garage makes EVs great for local driving but the public charging infrastructure is somehow both expensive and terrible I was thinking maybe a Chrysler Pacifica for hauling extra people/cargo. I love your Jag, but my wife works way too much and I'm usually the one driving my kid around during the week so I really couldn't go with a two-seater or 2+2... yet. After my daughter's grown, if we get to that three-car point, I could see myself swapping the Taycan for a 911.
  13. mikeszekely
    Thanks, I had to go to Dallas for it. All the ones around here (Pittsburgh) are white or black.
  14. mikeszekely
    My new (used) car arrived today.
  15. mikeszekely
    Guess I'll wait for AMD's french toast special... yeah, it'll still be overpriced, but not as badly, and it'll be filling enough that everyone will talk about what a great deal it is by comparison.
  16. mikeszekely
    Will Denny's also honor Nvidia by charging $200 for the Breakfast Bytes, but only to like two or three people before they're sold out?😒
  17. mikeszekely
    Well, I picked up AC Shadows on PC. My first though was, "how does this even run on consoles?" With an i7-9700K, an RTX 4070, and 32GB of RAM I'm getting 40-50fps at 5120x1440 on medium with dynamic resolution off and with DLSS set to quality. I can get 60-70 if I turn on frame gen, but aside from intolerable input lag it was causing my PC to hard reboot until I set my monitor's refresh rate to 120Hz, so I turned it back off. Even after I seemed to have the game in a playable state I had one DX12 error that caused the game to crash back to desktop. After restarting and playing a bit more I didn't encounter any more issues in-game, but after exiting to desktop properly Windows itself was jacked up (clicking on start menu did nothing, wallpaper was gone, right-clicking and opening display properties gave me an error) which forced me to reboot a third time. So maybe the answer to my original thought is, "apparently better than it does on PC." I think I need a patch, a new PC, or both before I get back to it.
  18. mikeszekely
    As predicted, Perceptor with Ratbat and Ramhorn are up to preorder on Pulse
  19. mikeszekely
    I mean, at an MP level with an MP budget and MP engineering, yeah, I want the real alt mode. On one of Hasbro's $25 Deluxes, though? When's the last time we had a real licensed alt mode that wasn't from the live action movies? Close enough's been close enough for years. Sometimes not even close enough... looking at you, Legacy Breakdown.😠 But here, specifically, I know stuff like Siege Sideswipe gets a pass, but the Aerialbots are going to get nitpicked to death for real-world inaccuracies that are still cartoon accurate.🤷‍♂️
  20. mikeszekely
    You can have real-world accuracy (if Hasbro would bother to license the alt modes, which they won't) or you can have cartoon accuracy. You can't have both. Does Slingshot look like a real Harrier? Nope. But that's looking pretty dang cartoon accurate.
  21. mikeszekely
    The other Age of the Primes Deluxe I managed to pick up so far was Air Raid. Sadly, this means we'll have to wait a bit longer for Slingshot, but at least we've got one Aerialbot to look at. In some ways, I think Air Raid had his work cut out for him. Compared to basically all of the other Prime Wars-era combiners the Aerialbots were arguably the best ones, good enough that a company called Ju Jiang tweaked and embiggened them and sold it as an alternative to Zeta's MP-scaled bots. Side-by-side, though, AotP Air Raid really does look like an improvement to me. The overall proportions are better. His chest doesn't need to be extra wide to accommodate that chunky Combiner Wars peg. The gold sticker-esque details are gone, and the excess red on his knees and shins has been reduced to small squares. The Autobot badge as been moved from his shoulder to his chest (and said shoulders don't have those spikes). He can wear is backpack with the wings open. It all adds up to being far, far more cartoon accurate. I do have a few notes, though. I actually still prefer the metallic blue on CW Air Raid's head. It's weird, because the G1 toy had silver on top of his head, and I feel like Sunbow colored him grayish blue to reflect that it's a different color than the white that makes up the rest of his head, but the blue on CW strikes me as more correct. Maybe because Sunbow did use a different gray for Air Raid's face? CW Air Raid interpreted that as blue head, silver face, but AotP is walking it back to silver head, gray face. My only other complaint are the black hips. I get that he'd only get so many runners, and perhaps that black plastic makes for stronger joints, but it really doesn't match anything. Red or white would have been a better choice. For that matter, I think maybe a white torso with red paint instead of a red torso with white paint might have been a better (if unrealistic by budget) call, based on the Sunbow art. Air Raid comes with two guns. They're not super detailed, but as near as I can tell they are a pretty decent match for the cartoon. You also get his vertical stabilizers, which are separate parts that peg in place. Air Raid's head is on a ball joint. He doesn't have much downward or sideways tilt, but he can look up pretty well in addition to turning his head. His shoulders swivel and move laterally a bit over 90 degrees. Unlike CW Air Raid, they're not ball joints. His biceps swivel, and his elbows bend 90 degrees. No wrist swivels, though they are at least separate parts this time. His waist swivels. His hips can go 90 degrees laterally and backward, and slightly over that forward. And, again, not ball joints this time. His thighs swivel, and his knees bend 90 degrees. Like his hands, his feet are seperate parts now. They can't tilt down, but they do tilt up, plus his ankles can pivot 90 degrees. He can hold his guns in either hand. He also puts the "stab" in "stabilizer," as he can wield them like some kind of knives. That said, you'll probably just plug them into the ports on the backs of his legs. The only other 5mm ports he has are on the undersides of his wings, if you're looking for a place to stow his guns. In broad strokes, Air Raid's transformation is not that different than the Combiner Wars toy. Turn the head around, and double-hinge the nose and intakes up and over. Open the legs and double hinge the backs up and over the thighs. Fold down the horizontal stabs. Tuck the arms into the sides. The only real differences are that you either need to spin the vertical stabs (assuming you already had them plugged in), fold in his fists, and (and this is the big one) instead of doubling-hinging his shin up and over his thigh his shin flips up 180 degrees over the thigh, and his feet fold down against the inside of his shins. Aside from his arms not being tucked in as tightly, when viewed from some angles AotP Air Raid is definitely an improvement. For one thing, the silhouette is a lot closer to a legally-distinct F-15 than the more F-14-ish CW version (even with the vertical stabs are too far inward, sitting on top of the engine bulges instead of along side them). Two, while perhaps a bit less interesting visually, the simple white stripes on the wings and the stubbier nose are both more cartoon accurate. From other angles, though, Air Raid's definitely got some issues. As I noted, the arms jut out from the sides. This is because while they do peg in place, they don't actually tuck in at all. The molded exhaust details are a nice touch, but they don't line up at all with the engine humps. And then there's his feet. Look, I know as Macross fans a lot of us are used to more streamlined transforming planes, and I've often suggested that it's an unrealistic expectation for Transformers given that, a.) they have to be cartoon accurate, b.) often were bricks of robot strapped to the underside of a plane in the G1 days, and c.) are limited in engineering due to their limited budget. That said, is there really nothing better they could have done with his shins and feet? They take an already chunky block of robot hanging under a plane and make it even thicker! Why not swivel them around to the sides, behind his arms? Honestly, without the added thickness of his feet, the jet mode really wouldn't be that bad (by Transformers standards). As I mentioned, if the vertical stabs were already plugged into his legs, all you need to do is turn them 180 degrees. They never need to be removed. As for his guns, you can plug them into the undersides of his wings and it looks fine. The panel on his chest with the Autobot insignia can flip forward as "landing gear". Nevermind that it's like a quarter plane-length behind where an F-15's actual landing gear would be, it's at least enough to keep him from tipping forward onto his nose. For the most part, Air Raid's a definite improvement over the Combiner Wars version. In bot mode, it's amazing how much better proportions and working ankles can make for more dynamic poses, and honestly just replacing the ball joints in the shoulders and hips with hinges and swivels is a big upgrade in my book, plus the deco is far more cartoon accurate. The jet mode is also much closer to the cartoon (and an F-15) than the Combiner Wars version. It's just a shame that his shins and feet add so much thickness to the underside, turning what could have been a slam dunk into more of a goofy-looking underhanded free throw. Still, the greatly-improved robot mode and the mostly-from-some-angles improvements to the alt mode are enough to make me prefer Air Raid over not only his Combiner Wars version, but also over his wave mate Solus Prime. He makes me eager to get my hands on Slingshot. Frankly, that's enough for me that I'll give him a recommend.
  22. mikeszekely
    While Legacy started fairly strong, I think even its most ardent defenders will have to admit that Legacy United made 2024 one of the weakest years Transformers has had this decade. The number of new molds spread across the four 2024 waves was paltry, and then they opened 2025 with a bonus fifth wave that was nothing but repaints and package refreshes. I've been dying for some genuinely new figures, and it looks like they're finally starting to trickle out. Today I stopped at my local Walmart and didn't find anything, but the next closest Walmart had half of the Age of the Primes wave 1 deluxes! And since the theme of Age of the Primes is, well, the 13 Primes, let's open with one of the titular Primes, Solus Prime. Let's talk about the Thirteen for a minute, shall we? They were originally conceived of as not necessarily Primes, but the as the first thirteen Transformers created by Primus. The seeds of this began when Simon Furman was writing for 3H Productions, but became a sort of canon when Furman wrote the DK-published Transformers: The Ultimate Guide, and was further fleshed out when Furman wrote Transformers: The War Within: Dark Ages for Dreamwave, which introduced the Fallen. Other characters, like the barman Maccadam, old Alpha Trion, and the Liege Maximo were tossed around as potentially being part of the Thirteen, and when Transformers Galaxy Force came to the west writer Forest Lee decided that Vector Prime must also be one. The notion of the Thirteen was kicked around a bit behind the scenes, with Fun Publications introducing some characters in their BotCon comics, and Hirofumi Ichikawa implying that Logos Prime (aka Cybertron Soundblaster) was one in a Beast Wars manga. And it was around that time that Hasbro a.) was developing Transformers Prime, and b.) decided they'd better sit down and figure out exactly who the Thirteen were and what exactly their deal was. And so, we got The Convenant of Primus, a real book based on an in-fiction book written by Alpha Trion that details the story of the Primes, and suffice to say that Alpha Trion and Vector Prime did indeed make the cut. While Alpha Trion has been leaked as a Voyager for later this year, there's been no mention of Vector Prime, and with the Legacy United figure being a recent release it wouldn't surprise me if we either don't get another one, or get a package refresh of this one. So, even if we exclude the SDCC Alpha Trion, I'm pretty sure Solus is actually the second Prime to be released. By this point, there have been a few depictions of Solus Prime, but this figure seems to borrow the most from the model created for the Machinima Power of the Primes series (though that model itself could be see as G1-ifiying the design from the Covenant). The shape of her chest, the largely purple-and-silver color scheme, the shoulder pads, the pointy toes on the feet, and the apron all take heavily from that design, though her head is arguably a bit closer to the Transformers One design. As a Deluxe she doesn't have a lot of stature, but it's a solidly-sculpted robot. Solus comes with these three accessories, but you can really think of them more as three parts of one accessory. The darker purple bit plugs onto the wide end of the gray shaft, and the other bit onto the 3mm peg on the other end of the shaft, and you've got the hammer known as the Forge of Solus. The Forge was a plot point in the Transformers Prime cartoon, with Megatron replacing one of his arms with the arm of a dead Prime so he could use it. The design here is not the Forge we see in Prime, though. Rather, it's almos exactly the hammer from the Machinima version, which in turn was the hammer seen in The Covenant of Primus but with the pink swapped for gold. Solus' head is on a ball joint with adequate up, down, and sideways tilt in addition to the standard swivel. Her shoulders swivel and can move laterally 90 degrees, plus due to her transformation she's got a 45-ish degrees of forward butterfly. Her biceps swivel, her elbows bend 90 degrees, and her wrists are on ball joints that swivel and bend inward. Her waist swivels. Her apron is actually three parts, all hinged, so her hips can move 90 degrees forward and laterally, and about 60 degrees backward before her backpack gets in the way. Her thighs swivel, and her knees bend 90 degrees. Her ankles don't tilt up or down, but they can swivel as well as pivot 90 degrees. To get Solus to hold her hammer, you have to slide the shaft up from the bottom of her hand and then plug the top onto the shaft. The butterfly joints and inward-bending wrists do allow you to get her in poses holding the hammer with two hands. Aside from her hands, she has 5mm ports on the outsides of her forearms, and one on her backpack near her butt. A peg near the top of the hammer can be folded out and plugged into the port on her backpack to give her bot-mode weapon storage. As much as I really like Solus' robot mode, her alt mode isn't doing her any favors. Transformation was simple but also frustrating. Some parts didn't want to line up, some parts seemed like they needed more clearance than they actually got, and way too many parts came off that weren't supposed to. On my copy, one of the flaps on the inside of her forearm came off, her grill came off, a panel that rotates on her shoulder pads came off on one of them, and her entire right foot came off no fewer than three times. And for what? The front half of her truck mode starts off pretty strong, but kind of quits halfway through. The front of her apron spins 180 degrees, but her apron is ultimately just draped over her thighs, which are still super visible from the sides. Her knees and part of her shins form the rear, but don't come close enough to not leave a huge gap. They could have designed this version of Solus any way they wanted to, but it's clear that they heavily prioritized the robot mode. I'd be more mad at it, but technically Solus wasn't supposed to have an alt mode, so... She can, at least, carry her Forge in this mode. You'd think the obvious thing to do would be to use the flip out peg to plug the Forge into her roof, the same spot she stowed it in bot mode. However, you might notice that one side of the Forge has a tab on it. That tab actually plugs into a slot near either knee so that the Forge attaches to the side of the truck instead of the top. I think Solus is a bit of a mixed bag. On the one hand, the concept of the Thirteen has intrigued me since I first read Transformers: The Ultimate Guide, and it as well as The Covenant of Primus are both on my bookshelf as we speak. Toy version of the Thirteen have been on my wish list for awhile. And, as a robot, I don't think Solus disappoints. I like the sculpt, and I think the articulation works well for her with her Forge. Her alt mode, though, looks like she stopped halfway through transforming, and with all the parts that fell off I found it to be more frustrating than fun. If, like me, you're planning a display of the Thirteen in their bot modes then Solus is probably worth picking up. But if your love of Transformers begins with the cartoon in 1984 and ends with the cartoon in 1987 and you're scratching your head thinking, "what thirteen original Primes?" then you're better off skipping Solus.
  23. mikeszekely
    Sideways and Excellion are up for pre-orders on Pulse and Walmart.com, though I don't actually recommend Walmart since they've yet to fill my preorders for the toy -style Gears and Bumblebee, but somehow had both show up in stock for new orders then sold out of at least Bumblebee. EDIT: Apparently Target is also doing a thing, now. They're going to unveil something Transformers every Thursday for the rest of March. Unfortunately, today's reveal is a reissue (or a lot of leftover stock) of Legacy Devcon. That said, I have it on good authority that the Perceptor pack with Ramhorn and Ratbat is next week and the Devastation pack (blue Runamuck and black Ramjet) will we in two weeks.
  24. mikeszekely
    Lilo and Stitch is, quite possibly, my favorite Disney movie, so I'm less inclined to dismiss it outright than a lot of their other recent output. However, I still don't get Disney's perverse need to do live action remakes of all their older animated movies... especially when half the time "live action" isn't even that, it's just "realistic" CGI animation.
  25. mikeszekely
    Have you played it? I'm not super big on SRPGs. I bought SD Gundam G Generation Cross Rays and couldn't get into it, played one of the Disgaea games on the PSP and didn't care for it, played the GBA Final Fantasy Tactics and couldn't get into it... but on the other hand, I did kind of like Transformers: Battlegrounds and I loved the Project X Zone games on the 3DS. Not sure if I'd like this one or not.
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