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mikeszekely

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  1. mikeszekely
    I'm still not feeling Grinder. Maybe there only so much you can do with Gridlock, but he still reminds me to much of MP-08.
  2. mikeszekely
    Wow, he seriously went all out. That's a bit more involved than my project.
  3. mikeszekely
    Personally, I agree. Even when going for more G1-accuracy that's often demanded of MP figures, I like them to look like robots/vehicles whose details were simplified for animation models, not carbon copies of the animation models. From the waist down, especially, Salus looks so much better than the Takara version. But I don't own either, and there may be some in-hand qualities that I don't know about that might make me hate Salus. All I do know is iGear makes a fun CHUG Ratchet, but it's a far cry from being an MP Ratchet. And I'm going to fix the problems I have with it myself.
  4. mikeszekely
    Tonight, as I fill out my core Autobots, we've got a blast from the past- iGear's PP05M Medical Specialist, their take on Ratchet. Before we really start digging into the aesthetics of Medical Specialist, let's take a moment to frame him in the time period of his release. If I recall correctly, the PP05 mold was shown off and iGear started taking preorders in the summer of 2011, and after a number of delays finally hit the market in the summer of 2012, a few months before MP-12 Lambor/Sideswipe. Back then, Takara wasn't cranking out the MP figures at the pace they were today and they were still thought of as something special. That is, there wasn't the expectation that your favorite character would get made sooner or later, and 3P MPs weren't really a thing (FansToys' own Quakewave was still a year out). No, back in 2012 the 3P market was largely focused on making toys to go with the Classics/Henkei/Universe/Generations toys, and iGear's PP05 mold was mostly meant as an alternative to HasTak's Universe/Henkei Ironhide and Ratchet mold. On that note, I think iGear largely succeeded with Medical Specialist. No, he's not a perfectly animation-accurate, scaled-to-MP-10 toy, and if that's what you want you have options for that. As a CHUG figure, he works as a Voyager figure, and just as MP Ratchet is taller than MP Wheeljack Medical Specialist is taller than Generations Wheeljack. He is arguably too big compared to Classics Optimus Prime, but on the other hand iGear had already released a "voyager"-sized version of MP-01 who was a bit taller than Classics Prime if scale was your big concern (which, with Transformers, it really shouldn't be). Now if you're like me and you've somehow got an impression that most Transformers are fairly similar in height (seriously, check out IDW's Infiltration series; Ironhide, Ratchet, Sunstreaker, Jazz, and Prowl are all shown to be roughly the same height), and your "average" size is roughly Voyager, then Medical Specialist is actually about the same height as an MP car, and a little shorter than KBB's MP10-V. Sunbow scale chart purists might cringe, but this is exactly the size I want. Of course, it's not just about size, it's about the looks. And while he's not a perfectly animation-accurate figure, he's much closer than the Universe Ratchet released by Hasbro. His forearms are correctly white instead of black, he's got the animation-style white head and dark grey crest, he's correctly got white thighs instead of red, and he doesn't have Universe Ratchet's oddly out-of-place black hips. While my first instinct is to suggest maybe he has too much red in his torso that's actually fairly cartoon accurate. The biggest departures are his black feet and biceps, plus the shins that are noticeably made up of the rear of the vehicle. While I do wish or white feet and biceps, I'm actually cool with his shins (and the flaps on his shoulders). I do wish they hadn't opted to paint the rear window black when he's got a clear chest window, though. Also, as you'll probably see better in other pictures, the insides of his lower legs are black, and I'd prefer them to be white. If you're more into comic book Ratchet (either the old Marvel comics or IDW), iGear has you covered with a comic-style red head with silver crest. I'm honestly having a really hard time deciding myself whether to go for the 'toon or comic book head; they both look great. There's also a third head that's basically cartoon Ratchet's with an older-looking face to please fans of Transformers Animated's cantankerous medic. Medical Specialist comes with a ton of other accessories. Some are exactly what you'd expect for Ratchet: a Philips head screwdriver, a flat head screwdriver, a hammer, calipers, two different crescent wrenches a socket wrench, and a pair of arc welder hands. Some arguably fit Ratchet: a blue visor, a little satellite dish, saw blade hands, that weird-looking thing that's modeled after a G1 toy accessory that might be a gun, or a might be a tool of some sort, and a small rifle (even a medic has to protect himself). Some aren't really Ratchet at all: a sniper rifle with a bipod, a large knife, and a huge gun. You can remove the sniper rifle's bipod by popping the tip off the barrel and then working the bipod up the barrel. The rifle has a second handle on a ball peg so that it can be moved sideways, and a rail under the barrel for a c-clipped accessory like the dish or the knife. Medical Specialist also has small rails for the c-clip accessories on each forearm. The dish looks like it makes more sense there, like he's scanning an injured Autobot, than it does under the barrel of a sniper rifle. The visor splits in half, and you wrap the halves around his head to put a little screen in front of his eye. If you lift up on the clip rail on his left arm you can see a little computer inside. It's a shame they didn't paint a screen or something in there. His other arm opens, too, but there's no computer inside. Instead, there's a peg hole. You can plug an accessory into the hole, but they don't really look like they belong there. The saw and arc welder hands work by splitting them open, fitting one end over a hand so he's gripping the post, then fitting the other end on the bottom. Be careful, though, because the welding tips aren't secure and will fall out when the hand his open. They work fine, as far as they go, but I think they would have looked better in white. For that matter, I think most of the accessories (except maybe the guns) might have looked better in silver. At the end of the day, most of the accessories are just going to sit in a bag (unfortunately the seller I bought from didn't have the original box), and I'll pose him with the accessories that I think work best; the tool thingy (that might be a gun) and his little rifle. And on the subject of posing, he's not too bad at all. His head is on a ball joint that can turn, tilt a up a bit, and tilt laterally a bit. Looking straight ahead is as far down as he gets, though. His entire shoulder can rotate 360 degrees, then the black part of his bicep is on a hinge inside to get about 90 degrees of lateral motion. The flaps on his shoulders are on a hinge that rotates at the base so you can keep the flaps out of the way. He's got bicep swivels, and double-jointed elbows that get a bit over 90 degrees. His wrists can swivel, but he's got no finger articulation. He's got a waist swivel... technically, he's got two of them. There's a hinge for transformation that I have on the front of his body in most of my pictures, but I realized that since he swivels both above and below that part you can spin the hinge around to his back. His hip skirts are on hinges to keep them out of the way, so his ball jointed hips can swing about 90 degrees forward, backward, or laterally, and he's got thigh swivels just below his hips. He can only bend his knees about 60 degrees or so before the back of his leg collides with his thigh- to get the most range make sure the knee is all the way forward against his shin. His foot can tilt up a little, and due to transformation he can point his toes downward 180 degrees. He's got a small, natural amount of ankle rotation, and enough ankle tilt to get you a wide A-stance. His diecast heel spurs don't tilt, though, and while there are natural stop points for their forward-backward range the joint is a little looser than I'd like. Moving all to alt mode, Medical Specialist beats out Universe Ratchet by actually turning into a van instead of an SUV. In fact, while the fine details are different, the overall shape is very evocative of the Datsun Vanette. He's got the red and silver light bar on top and the red stripes down the side that G1 Ratchet did, plus iGear tried to spruce him up with some extra details like the Star of Life on the back and the backwards "Ambulance". I wouldn't mind a few more ambulance markings, though. Kind of pointless to talk about alt mode scale. He's far too big for MP10v, too small against MP Wheeljack. I forgot to compare him to Classics Prime and Generations Wheeljack in alt mode... I assume he works better there, but to my tastes bot scale is more important. I mean, if alt mode scale mattered Bruticus would have a right arm that's bigger than his entire body with a tiny stump of a right leg. But I digress. Despite looking a tad plain overall, up close we see that iGear actually put a bit of effort into the little details. You can see a pair of seats inside Medical Specialist's cab, molded windshield wipers on the window, chrome grill, chrome grill guard, headlights and tail lights that are translucent red/clear/yellow plastic over chrome, chrome rims, rubber tires, silver paint on the mirror-side of the side view mirrors, black paint on the door handles, and painted gas cap. I'm not a fan of the grill guard; it kind of worked on an SUV, but it looks silly on a vanette. At least it's not red, like the one on Universe Ratchet. But the biggest problem I have with the alt mode is that the black painted windows, which I've already stated are a horrible mismatch for the clear chest window. (It'd be nice if the front door windows didn't have that big gap, too, but I think it's necessary for them to have the clearance for transformation, so we'll just pretend they're partly rolled down). Even the underside cleans up nicely; you can't really tell there's a robot in there, and there's storage for his little rifle under the front. Sadly, that's the only accessory that has alt mode storage. I have a few gripes. He's got a lot of molded details that might have popped more with a little paint. The panels that were on the sides of the van do peg in an secure the back of his lower leg, but parts from the roof just lay on top of them. The plastic quality, while not necessarily bad, doesn't really feel as good in hand as most other 3P toys in my collection. And, curiously, there's the case of the joints I've pointed out with arrows. Out of the box, this panel just tucks along his side, and that's fine. It's not in the way or anything. But there's a seem, and if you look at the other side there's a hinge on a pin, marked with the blue arrow. The panel could fold inward, behind the tire, but there's not enough clearance. Now, where I've marked with the green arrow, there's another pin that holds the front bumper on. If the bumper could hinge upward there then you'd have the clearance to fold the side panels in, but there's too much plastic and no room for the bumper to move. There are certainly some reasons for me to not recommend this figure. I've already talked about how he's not up to being an MP figure; most collectors are into the more G1-eriffic MP figures scaled around MP-10 now, and will be quite content with the Takara MP Ratchet. There's also the fact that this guy originally retailed for over $100, and I don't care how many accessories iGear jammed in the box this was never a $100 figure. On the other hand, though, there are still CHUG collectors, who collectors like me who do mostly 3P but have a different scale in mind than MP-10, and if you're patient you can find the iGear Specialists relatively cheaply on the secondhand market. I got this copy of Medical Specialist for $50 shipped, and that price feels fair for a CHUG Ratchet that is leaps and bounds better than Universe Ratchet. As long as you know what you're getting into, what his flaws are, and your comfortable with a CHUG and not an MP Ratchet, then by all means get him if you can find a deal. Side note... there have been times when I've been tempted to paint or otherwise modify a figure to get more of the look I'd want, but aside from the odd Reprolabel I've always avoided it for fear of trashing an expensive figure. This time, though, I think I'm going to do it. Once I've done everything I care to do to this Ratchet, I'll post back here, success or failure.
  5. mikeszekely
    Here's a real quick one I made up with a photo of Eligos, a photo of the G1 toy, and a screen cap of Cyclonus in jet mode from a similar angle. There's no question that XTB really nailed little details like the panel lines and what not, and I think that Eligos nails Cyclonus' bot mode. But the proportions in jet mode are just off. He's too chunky in the back between the arm thrusters (which looks really bad from behind), maybe too chunky from between the landing gear and tail fins, with wings that look too short. It's kind of moot for me, though. He's way too tall for my collection.
  6. mikeszekely
    That's actually pretty cool.I'm surprised that it's for the second in the series. I want aware that there was a first. Might check them out. Not like Konami is ever going to give us another good Castlevania...
  7. mikeszekely
    Vangelus would be my favorite if he weren't so sporadic and did more 3P. (Not saying he doesn't do 3P, just send like he does way more HasTak.)
  8. mikeszekely
    Y'know, I've noticed that too, like since spring or early summer or so. Maybe not like he doesn't like it, but like he's in a hurry? I don't know. He used to be one of my favorites, but lately I find myself watching mostly Skullface and Emgo. Skullface is usually a little hard on figures, Emgo a little soft, so they balance out, and I like that they both aren't afraid to say what they don't like about a figure (even if they like a figure). Switching gears for a minute... so yeah, I've got my combiners, but like I mentioned I'm filling out Autobot ranks with "core" characters, and may want to do the same with Decepticons. So the "core" characters I have would be Optimus (MP-10v) Prowl (KO MP) Sideswipe (KO MP) Wheeljack (KO MP) Jazz (GT J4ZZ) Hound (MT Gundog) Mirage (DX9 Sphinx) Bumblebee (ToyWorld Bii) Megatron (ToyWorld Mania King) Galvatron (UT Mania King) All six Seekers (iGear Raptor Squadron) I also just binged and bought iGear's Patrol Specialist (Ironhide) and Medical Specialist (Ratchet). Now, I don't need toys of every Transformer to ever appear in the cartoon, but who else should I consider "core"? Having like one or two episodes where a character was the focus doesn't really make them a "core" character for me. I'm thinking maybe: Brawn Perceptor Cliffjumper Blaster Jetfire Reflector The Insecticons Soundwave Rumble Laserbeak Ravage Shockwave Astrotrain Blitzwing Hot Rod/Rodimus Prime Arcee Springer Blurr Kup Ultra Magnus Cyclonus Scourge Any I'm missing? (Don't count the Dinobots, in my head-canon they're a combiner team and will be handled as such). The tricky part will be finding toys that are the right size, what with everybody seemingly either making Legends or MP-sized figures. For my collection, some bigger characters might be just short of Leader-sized, and some smaller characters Deluxes, but mostly they should be in the Voyager-ish range.
  9. mikeszekely
    Happy to do it! I wish I'd get a little more feedback from you guys, but MW is a smaller community, so I'll take whatever I can get.
  10. mikeszekely
    Got a package today. To help fill out my Autobots with "core" characters I decided I needed a Hound, so here's Gundog, Maketoys' take on him. Now, I should point out right away that Maketoys did two versions of Gundog. One is MTRM-02N, and he's a lighter pea-green with yellow stripes, white thighs, and metallic silver accessories meant to look like the cartoon. The version I have, with the darker green, silver thighs, and vac-chromed bits is version MTRM-02Y, which is supposed to be their toy-style deco. So right off the bat, he's not going to be cartoon accurate. Even if we were talking about the 2N version he's got enough toy details and little Maketoys tweaks that you cans still argue he's more of a stylized Hound than the sort of animation-or-bust aesthetic the post-Hasui Takara MPs are delivering. As a toy-inspired Hound, though, he's just about perfect. The star outlines on the fenders, the red and white stripes on his arms, the red knees, the triple tailights on his big, chunky feet- it's pretty much all there except his hips, which have some molded and painted lights instead of stripes, and the hood, which is lacking the the additional stars and stripes. And, stylized or not, at a glimpse it is unmistakably Hound, less updated than the older Generations version and MUCH better than his Combiner Wars counterpart. Oh, and as long as we're talking aesthetics, I grew up with the cartoon and I never had a G1 Hound toy. By all rights I should prefer the 2N version, but I don't. The dark metallic green of the 2Y version is so much sexier. As it's generally accepted that Maketoys' RE:Master line is meant to be their versions of Masterpiece toys, he does fit nicely with other carbots, be they actual Takara MPs or other 3P "MP"s. Gundog is noticeably heftier than pretty much every other toy I have in that size, though, due to he amount of diecast Maketoys used on him. Gundog comes with a handful of accessories. The most important ones for bot mode are his shoulder launcher and his rifle (which is definitely taking more cues from the G1 toy than the pistol Hound used in the cartoon). He also comes with a gas can, a spare tire, and a mounted gun. Gundog's articulation is a bit of a mixed bag. His head is on a ball joint and can look up a bit, not so much down, and rotate. No real lateral tilt to speak of. His shoulders can rotate 360 degrees on ball joints, but his fenders and side-view mirrors are in the way a little. The ball joint provides a slight amount of butterfly forward/backward motion. A dedicated hinge gives Gundog his lateral shoulder movement all the way until his shoulder starts hitting his hood. He's got a bicep swivel, and his elbow can bend 90 degrees. The elbow joint is kind of high, and I wish a second joint would have been included lower on his elbow. His wrists can rotate and his fingers are all molded together on a single hinge, similar to the MP carbots. His waist can swivel, and due to his transformation he has a bit of an ab crunch. Technically, he can bend almost 90 degrees at the waist, but the more he bends the more his back looks nonexistent, so use it sparingly. His thighs are universal joints, but his hip armor doesn't move, so he can get just under 90 degrees laterally, maybe 60 degrees forward, and a little under 45 degrees backward. His thigh rotation is built into the universal hips, and while he can't rotate them all the way around the range of movement he does have is about what I'd consider natural anyway. Now, his knees are double jointed, but the seats that cover the backs of his legs hinder how much he can actually bend his knees. If you fold the seat but leave it on the back of his leg he can get about 90 degrees of bend. If you move the seat to the side he can touch his heel to his butt, but then he looks stupid because he's got a seat just hanging off his leg. His feet are great, though. Due to how they transform he's got an adequate amount of forward tilt, more backward tilt than you could ever need, and 90 degrees of inward ankle tilt. Plus, because his feet are so broad and diecast he stands very solidly however you choose to pose him. It's pretty obvious where his shoulder launcher and gun go in robot mode. The gun can be held in either hand, but the shoulder launcher actually has a part to hug the side and therefore only fits on his right shoulder. It does articulate up and down a bit. Finding places in robot mode for his other accessories gives you a few more options. The tire can be carried on his back, which is where I prefer it, or on his arm like a shield. The gas can, too, can be carried on his back or his arm. If you put it on his arm, you can see tiny molded missiles on the bottom, so this is mostly where I prefer it keep it. You can also peg it onto the side of his gun (which might look better if he's carrying his gun in his left hand), or if you don't mind a little asymmetry you can store it on his toe. The mounted gun is a bit trickier, though. The mount isn't shaped right for him to hold, and it lacks the tabs to secure it. You can jam it awkwardly in his palm and the knuckle joint is tight enough that it'll stay if you don't bump it, but it doesn't look right. You can peg it onto his left forearm, which might look okay if not for the post jutting off of it. The instructions suggest pegging it onto the side of his shoulder launcher. You can certainly do that, but it definitely doesn't look any better there. You'll probably just want to leave it off for robot mode. Before we get to alt mode, Maketoys did include a "classic" mode meant to simulate the shoulders of the original toy. Although it's an official mode I think of it more like an Easter egg; his shoulders just look awkward that low. If you want a more cartoon look, you can lower the fenders but keep the shoulders up. Be advised, though, that the fenders don't hug to his torso as tightly in the lower position and therefore will require a little more finesse to pose his arms around them. So on to alt mode, Gundog turns into a Mitsubishi J59 (which was a licensed version of the WWII Willys jeep produced by Mitsubishi in the '80s). Again, Maketoys really nailed the G1 toy. He's missing the extra stars and stripes on the hood, as I mentioned before, but he's got the black seats, the triangles on the sides, and the mounted gun and side view mirrors are very reminiscent of the toy. When I think of Hound, Gundog is very much what I have in mind, far more so than the Halo Warthog that is Generations Hound. I don't think we even need to talk about Combiner Wars Hound. Again, he doesn't look too bad with MP cars, although closer inspection reveals that, like Invisible (and presumably Sphinx), he's actually a bit too large to be accurately-scaled with the carbots in alt mode, which illustrates nicely the futility of trying to scale toys based on G1 transformers in alt mode instead of robot mode. The spare tire and fuel can clip onto the back. All five tires are rubber and roll nicely. The mounted gun looks great in alt mode, nice and G1 toy-accurate. And there's even a little molded dashboard and steering wheel. I like to "play" with my toys, though. And rather than have a G1-accurate mounted gun in jeep mode and a different rifle/shoulder launcher in robot mode, I prefer to sacrifice jeep mode a little by combining the shoulder launcher and rifle and using in in place of the mounted gun. There are slots on both sides, though, so it's possible to mount all of his weapons in jeep mode. At the end of the day, Gundog isn't perfect. There's things I'd have done a little differently to get a little more articulation out of him. I've had parts fall off of him; not just the tire on his back, which happens more than I'd like, but the steering wheel came out of the dash, the seats came out of his legs, and I even popped his front bumper off while messing with his shoulders. Speaking of, although I'm hearing this is more of a thing with the 2Y version, but rotating his shoulders for transformation requires a little more force than I'd like. I'd also have really preferred if Maketoys had made the rifle transform into the mounted gun. Sure, it would have been less accurate, but then I wouldn't have an even less accurate configuration for jeep mode while I stick the mounted gun back in the box. I think we also have to address the elephant in the room, that being Fanstoys' Willis. Now, I don't have Willis, so I can't comment on things like quality or transformation. From what I can see, though, Willis looks to be much more cartoon-accurate than Gundog, and if you want a cartoon-accurate Hound for an MP display I'd suggest on looks alone that Willis is probably the way to go. That said, Gundog has a lot going for him. He's got a relatively intuitive transformation, like a slightly more advanced take on the Generations toy. The way his wrists unfold is kind of clever, even. If a more stylized G1 appearance is your jam Gundog makes for a beefy, imposing Hound. And if you're into toys that are like better-proportioned, better-articulated versions of the G1 toys then there's no question that the 2Y version of Gundog is far and away more toy-accurate than Willis. Gundog is also, despite minor bits coming off if handled too roughly, ultimately very solid and fun to mess around with. If you want a good Hound figure and you're not sold on Willis, then by all means go for Gundog.
  11. mikeszekely
    Well, the main reason I'm passing on Eligos is because he's WAAAAAAAAAAY too big to belong in my collection of mostly Voyager-sized Combiner guys (and a smattering of KO MP cars to help fill out the Autobot ranks). That said, I think XTB really nailed Cyclonus in bot mode... but I'm not sold on his alt mode. Don't get me wrong, I think it's the best take on it I've seen, but from some angles the fuselage looks too long and the wings too short.
  12. mikeszekely
    I'll keep it in mind. Cloudready runs fairly slowly on this netbook. It actually took so long to boot I thought maybe something had gone wrong with the installation. Maybe I'm not used to running an OS off of a spinning platter on low-end hardware anymore, or maybe there's something wrong with the computer (I actually got it from a friend's mom after it gave her grief and she was unable to get Windows 7 to reinstall on it). Once it's booted, though, I guess it's acceptable if all you want to do is run a browser.
  13. mikeszekely
    So, the aforementioned netbook what ran even Lubuntu really poorly? The one I put Lakka one to test it? Yeah, Lakka works great as a console OS, but console seems like a poor use of a netbook. I think I've seen you mention CloudReady before, so I figured I'd look into. For those not in the know, CloudReady is apparently a commercial version of Chromium OS (Chromium OS being the open-source underpinnings of Google's Chrome OS), free for home use, so installing CloudReady on an old laptop is kinda sorta like turning into a Chromebook. Reported results are pretty good, and the particular netbook I have is on the list, so I'll give it a go.
  14. mikeszekely
    Depending on where exactly the motherboard sits (presumably as low as possible), maybe jury rig a cartridge into a bracket for the SSD?
  15. mikeszekely
    You guys complaining about the lack of detail on MP Inferno's alt-mode back side are really touching on my main complaint with the MP-line in general (bot modes included) since Ironhide or so. They try so hard to look like the Sunbow models that they're lacking in detail, while MP-10 and the MP cars are more like what I felt the characters looked like before they were simplified for animation.
  16. mikeszekely
    Apparently the only difference between the power and reset switches in the NES is a small metal piece on the power switch. Remove it and it should spring back out like the reset switch. I don't have ANY old NES stuff lying around. I think I either gave away or traded my NES when I got a SNES. Right now, I have a bid in on a defective NES on Ebay. But I'll keep it in mind. Another thought I've had would be to dremmel out spaces in the controller ports, then get some USB extension cables and splice them to USB headers on the mobo. That way you could plug a USB controller into the modified controller port. From what I understand, that's doable, but it's really unnecessary and will increase the load on the picoPSU. From a fresh install Lakka doesn't play DVDs or videos; it's really just mean to run RetroArch and make a hardware behave as little like a PC and as much like a console as possible. Even the PlayStation libcore wants bin files with cue sheets and not actual discs. Heck, Lakka itself doesn't support installation from a CD or DVD, requiring you to use a flash drive for installation. Of course, since Lakka is still Linux at heart I'm sure you could add DVD playback (I know it just takes some settings tweaks to get it to play back video files), but at that point why bother? Like I said, it's just going to increase the load on the picoPSU and add to the cost.
  17. mikeszekely
    So I, like most Americans, was totally unable to score an NES Classic Edition today. Instead of mope about it, I decided to build my own NES to play classic games. Here's my basic idea: First, I'm going to start with an NES. It doesn't have to work (and if you happen to have a busted NES you want to unload, PM me). I'm going to gut it, and that'll be my case. Cuts will be made to the rear as needed, but the front shouldn't be changed. Then, I'm going to need new guts. I'm thinking a Micro ITX board, probably an MSI H110I Pro, an Intel Celeron G3920 (and it's integrated HD 510 graphics), 4GB of DDR4, and a 120GB Kingston SSD I have lying around. I shouldn't need more CPU or memory due to the OS, nor will I need an optical drive, mouse, or keyboard. I will, however, want Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, again due to the OS. So I'll probably add an Intel 7265 802.11ac/Bluetooth 4.0 M.2 card. No way I'm going to fit a regular PSU inside the NES, so I'm planning on picking up Mini-box's picoPSU-150XT and a 150w AC Adapter. While I'm at it, I'm going to loot for a solution to use the NES's power switch for the PC guts. I'll either solder the NES's power switch to a mobo header, or buy a replacement desktop switch and header and jury rig it to the NES's button. Then I just need to install an OS. I've decided to try Lakka, an extremely lightweight Linux-based OS that's really centered around RetroArch. Once booted, it's designed to be navigated with a controller. The interface is, more or less, Sony's XMB. It comes with a number of libcore's baked in, and out of the box it should work with a DualShock 3 wired or wirelessly (hence the desire for Bluetooth). It also works with Xbox 360, Xbox One, and DualShock 4 controllers wired. The DualShock 4 can be configured to work with Bluetooth, too, but it requires a bit of command line work (which is tricky in an OS that doesn't have a Terminal or work with a keyboard). All of those controllers work without having to remap buttons (although you can), and the Home button even pauses the emulator and brings you back to the the OS, where there are options for things like saving states and what have you. ROMs, BIOSes, and other files are pushed to the Lakka box from another computer on the same network (hence the desire for Wi-Fi). I tested Lakka on a 4-year-old Acer Aspire One netbook with an AMD C60 and 2GB of RAM. This computer is so crappy that Lubuntu (a lightweight Linux distro) ran pretty slowly, but Lakka booted quickly, the interface was no better or worse than the PS3's, and I fired up a few SNES games that ran perfectly well, so I'm feeling like my planned build should be more than adequate. Plus, unlike the NES Classic, it'll have more than 30 games!
  18. mikeszekely
    What's up with Takara's MP pricing lately? $120 seemed an awful lot for Primal, considering he's carbot-sized, and now $230 for Megatron? That's just insane. Despotron is only $145 and cleans up much better, and if you mind kibble less than Maketoys' little stylized touches Mightron is even less expensive.
  19. mikeszekely
    Hey, I liked 4 out of 6 X-Men movies. But the third of both trilogies sucked.
  20. mikeszekely
    Yeah, I heard it's better (and has a singleplayer campaign!), but it kind of just snuck out, and I guess coming between Battlefield 1 and Call of Duty Infinite wasn't the smartest release window EA could have pegged for it. Heck, I'm not particularly interested in BF or CoD, and I really doubt I've have shelled out $60 for Titanfall 2. I'd have probably waited until it dropped to $20-$30 if I wasn't given an Origin key. On that note, does Battlefield 1 have a singleplayer campaign? Not that I should be bugging my friend for more keys...
  21. mikeszekely
    Last one until more stuff comes in. Tonight it's Fansproject's Function X8 Crox, their take on Skullcruncher. Previously, Code, Smart Robin, and UUUU were fairly stylized yet ultimately close to Chromedome, Brainstorm, and Weirdwolf respectively, while Sigma L was barely recognizable as Mindwipe but done up in such an over-the-top vampire style that I was happy to go along with it. Crox here looks enough like Skullcruncher that he's recognizable as such, but Fansproject made some design decisions that are either odd (his mostly-green lower legs and green tail weapon) or done in a way that hurt this toy in favor of an Optimus Prime repaint (the black chest windows, and shrinking and moving Skullcruncher's white chest panel down to a grill-like spot on his abdomen). I get that repaints are often a necessary evil in this business; I think every release in the Function X line has seen repaints except for UUUU, Sigma L, and Browning II (and since Browning just came out there's still time for that mold to get repaints), but I'm not a fan of making sacrifices on the main mold that I will buy for the limited-edition repaint I won't. Aesthetically, I kind of prefer the Hasbro version. I will say this, though- in typical Function X fashion, Crox cleans up really well. Titans Return Skullcruncher has the rear crocodile legs just hanging off of his shins and the crocodile head hanging off his back, while Crox has them hidden away so well you really couldn't tell what his alt mode is if you didn't already know. He's got some molded back detail painted up very nicely, and flaps to cover hollow gaps in his legs. As long as I'm talking about where Crox beats Skullcruncher, I think Crox has a much better head sculpt. Also, and this is more a problem with Hasbro than something that Fansproject doing something exceptional, but Skullcruncher's knee joints are some of the loosest joints I've encountered on a Hasbro toy (which already tend to have looser joints than 3P toys or their Takara counterparts). I actually had a hard time keeping Skullcruncher standing. Since we're on the subject of joints, Crox's head uses the same rotating disc system as most of the other Function X figures so his head can rotate and look down, or if you plug the head in backward and rotate it 180 degrees he can look up. His shoulders are on balljoints that give him some lateral movement, but combined with a transformation hinge can get over 90 degrees of lateral extension. He's got a bicep swivel and a single elbow hinge that can go a little over 90 degrees before his shoulder armor starts to get in the way. He doesn't have a wrist swivel exactly, but his forearm can rotate below the elbow joint and provides the same effect. He has a waist swivel, but it sometimes take some finesse to work the bottom of his abs around his hips. Also, his abs can't really crunch but he can arch his back a little. His hips are ball joints that can rotate 90 degrees forward or backward, but only about 45 degrees laterally before his hips collide with his torso. His thighs can swivel below the hips and his double-jointed knees can bend a little past 90 degrees. His feet are kind of weird, due to his transformation. Basically, they're connected to his legs on the front of his shin just above the foot. That connection can rotate, providing him with a small degree of inward ankle tilt but no ankle rotation or up/down tilt. Like UUUU, he's got his tail weapon but lacks the gun of his G1 or Titans Return counterpart. The handle is quite long and the shape doesn't quite match the holes in his fists, so it takes a bit of effort to work it in and out of his hands. Once in place, though, it's held quite securely. Also like UUUU, his weapon can be stored in robot mode so he doesn't have to carry it. It looks more natural than the way UUUU's sword hooked onto his thighs, which is a good thing. Crox's only other accessory would be his Headmaster. The Headmaster is more G1-accurate, more detailed, and slightly more articulated than his Titans Return counterpart, and is almost identical to UUUU and Sigma L's with the visor that folds up over the face on his back. If the competition between Crox and TR Skullcruncher was already a little closer than you'd expect, Crox actually fairs even less well against TR Skullcruncher in crocodile mode. Aesthetically, we have the same baffling decision to make his rear half and tail green instead of pink (at least from the top), plus Fansproject opted for green forepaws instead of white, and while Crox's more mechanical appearance is arguably more accurate I really dig the technorganic look of TR Skullcruncher. Both figures can look up and down, but TR Skullcruncher can also turn his head and look left or right. Both can rotate their front legs at the shoulder, both can extend their legs laterally at the elbow, and both can rotate their legs just below the elbow, while Crox can also move his paws a little on ball joints. Both can rotate at the waist, although Crox can wiggle a little up/down at the waist. Skullcruncher's hips are balljoints and can rotate and move a little laterally while Crox uses one joint for rotating and a separate hinge for lateral movement. The result is that Skullcruncher kind of spreads his legs while Crox just widens his stance. His rear paws are hinged so they can lie flat however you rotate his hips, but without any ankle tilt widening his stance is basically useless. Both figures have a single joint for swinging their tails left and right. Both figures can open their mouths. Crox can open his mouth wider and he's got some spinning, spiked gears for grinding whatever he bites, while Skullcruncher has a molded tongue. Both figures also have spaces for their Headmasters to sit. Neither use the old G1 spot in the crocodile head, either, instead opting for space in the back. Credit where credit is due, the little windshield that Fansproject gave Crox makes does make sense here. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't getting a little cool on the Function X line. Crox lacks the innovative transformation of Code, Smart Robin, or UUUU- in fact, it's very similar to TR Skullcruncher. He also lacks the inspired design Fansproject used for Sigma L. His articulation is only superior to Skullcruncher's in that he has ankle tilts (with fairly limited range at that) and tighter joints, and below average compared to most modern 3P figures. Plus, he's basically Deluxe-sized, something that's true for most of the Function X line but smaller than most 3P "CHUG" figures. When I look at some of the Generation Toys figures that are retailing for $100, at Striker Manus retailing for $80, or MMC figures like Anarchus and Spartan retailing for $85, there's just no way that I can say that Crox is worth the $80 retail price tag he's carrying. When it comes to 3P, there are better figures at that price and for just a little more. When it comes to Skullcrunchers, yes, he's better than the TR version, but not that much better (especially if the Takara version fixes the weak knee joints). However, TFSource has been frequently running Fansproject figures on sale and I snagged Crox there for $40. Crox is a lot more palatable at that price, expecially if you're like me and you want to get all the Headmasters in the Function X line. That being said, I'm definitely waiting for TFSource to put Browning II on sale before I pick him up, and while I do want him and a Function X version of Hardhead to round out the collection I'm not particularly interested in Fansproject taking on the Headmaster Juniors.
  22. mikeszekely
    In other video game discussion... anyone playing Titanfall 2 on PC? Buddy of mine sent me a key, figured I'd give it a go.
  23. mikeszekely
    Wife picked up a camera for our vacation, so I figured I'd give it a whirl and let you guys decide if it's better or worse than my cell. Anyway, the Constructicons weren't the only Generation Toy figures I picked up. Tonight, we'll have a look at J4ZZ, their oh-so-cleverly-named version of Jazz. Over at the TFW2005 boards far too many "discussions" devolve into debates about what is and is not "Masterpiece," often with meaningless words like "Chugsterpiece" thrown around. I'm pretty content to ignore them 99% of the time, but I must confess that I'm not exactly sure what GT was going for here. He's very close in size to a HasTak MP car like Prowl here. And yet, Takara's MP line has always been about delivering toys that are accurate to the G1 cartoon (almost to a fault on some of the latest releases), and J4ZZ is clearly not. In fact, he seems to borrow a lot aesthetically from Reveal the Shield Jazz, with some people suggesting that he's meant to be more of an IDW version of Jazz. Then again, if you're like me and don't really care about official, CHUG or MP, then he's about the same size as most combiner limbs. However you want to slice it, he's definitely Jazz. He's got the car front for his chest, the head with the little ears, and mostly the right colors in the right places. One thing I dig is that the Jazz had light blue panels on his pelvis in the cartoon, perhaps in an attempt to recreate sticker detail. The cartoon didn't have square panels on his knees that the toy did, though. J4ZZ keeps the squares on his knees, but makes them translucent blue and ditches the blue on the pelvis. Oh, for people who are about that sort of thing, J4ZZ is covered in paint. It might bother some people that his forearms are silver instead of white. It might also bother some people that his white isn't a flat white, but a pearlescent white that almost looks white compared to silver but silver compared to flat white. One other aesthetic complain I have is that I wish the doors had more articulation than the open/close hinge. I know a lot of people would like them to hide away somehow, like G1 Jazz's animation model, but I'd have even been happy with a little joint like MP Prowl's that would let you angle the doors upward a little. J4ZZ has very solid articulation. His head is on a hinged swivel with good upward tilt, poor downward tilt, and 360 degree rotation. The tires that sit above his shoulders are on a trio of hinges so they can stay close to his shoulders without hindering his shoulder movement. Likewise, the guns on his shoulders can rotate where they're connected to the back of his shoulders, plus there's a hinge and a ball joint, so they too can be maneuvered out of the way*. Then his actual shoulder can use both the transformation joint and a built-in hinge to get 90 degrees of lateral movement, and of course it can rotate. He's got bicep swivels, and his elbows are double-hinged to nearly allow him to touch his shoulder (if you transform him properly, a lot of people seem to like putting his arms backward which would only allow a single joint to bend 90 degrees). His wrists swivel, and his hands are typical GT and basically the same as MP cars (which is to say, molded fingers on a single hinge and a molded thumb). He's got a waist swivel. His hip armor can hinge out of the way, allowing his hips to bend nearly 90 degrees forward, backward, and laterally. He's got limited thigh swivels, but if you want more he's got a second swivel at the knee. Speaking of knees, they're a single joint that can bend 90 degrees, and oddly enough the only ratcheting joints on the figure. His ankles can tilt downward due to transformation, but there's not enough clearance to get any real upward tilt. He can get about 45 degrees of inward ankle tilt, which I think should be enough for most poses. If you want to fake a little more, though, his toes can rotate due to his transformation. His lone accessory is his gun, which he holds fantastically well. Better than any of the MP cars I have, better than GT's Constructicons, and better than TFM's Wildrider. *The shoulder guns are apparently a source of contention. Are they meant to reference the shoulder cannon the toy had? Neither G1 cartoon Jazz nor IDW Jazz has anything like them, and many fans have indicated a desire to remove them. Note that you can pop them off the ball joint, or remove the pin on the hinge, but you shouldn't unscrew the whole thing since the tires tab into the part that's screwed to back of his shoulders in alt mode. It's not all sunshine and rainbows, though. One major complaint is that J4ZZ's torso is pretty hollow. GT does have some fold out panels to help hide it, but panels that make up is abs don't sit flush with the panels on his sides. The white space indicated in the picture is actually the background showing through that gap. In alt mode, J4ZZ's modern alt mode stands in stark contrast to the '70s and '80s alt modes of the official MP carbots. That said, he looks really good with the similarly modern alt mode of TFM's Wildrider. J4ZZ seems to borrow less from RTS Jazz in alt mode. While RTS Jazz almost looks like a hatchback, J4ZZ is clearly a Porsche; a 997 GT3**, to be exact. GT uses a lot of both molded and painted details and rubber tires to bring his at mode to life. **There's been some complaining that "a 911 doesn't suit Jazz". The 997 GT3 is in the 911 family, sure, but so was G1 Jazz's 935 Turbo. If you ask me, a 997 GT3 is as close you can get to modern version of The side view mirrors and rear spoiler are a softer, rubbery plastic which will allow them to be bent and flexed without breaking. While I think J4ZZ could use a little more, like 4s on the doors, the paint job is very Jazz-esque, which is to say it's very Martini Racing. Indeed, it's very close to actual Martini Racing livery on actual 997 GT3s. Maybe some Reprolabels for license plates, the Porsche badge, numbers, and the stripes on the sides? While J4ZZ's feet occupy his cabin and there's really nothing to see by doing so, both doors are super easy to open and close. Rather than peg in, they're held in place in alt mode by magnets. There's a small peg hole on J4ZZ's roof. You can peg his gun into it, and the gun even has a hinge to allow it to swivel upward about 45 degrees. This is fairly in keeping with Takara's MP cars (at least the ones I have). However, I'd rather have it hide away in alt mode like GT did with their Constructicons or TFM did with their Wildrider. J4ZZ even cleans up well from underneath his alt mode, with practically nothing showing that looks like obvious robot. I'm doubly frustrated by those shoulder guns, though. If they weren't there, I'd imagine that there's just enough space there that if J4ZZ's gun folded up a little it could have stowed in the space those shoulder guns occupy. J4ZZ is a great Jazz toy, but as I noted at the beginning of this review it's hard to say what exactly GT's plan was. I'd imagine that most people looking for an MP-sized Jazz will say that he's not G1-enough, especially with Maketoys' Downbeat just around the corner. I suppose, with an MP-10-sized IDW Optimus Prime and a companion IDW bomber Megatron coming from GT that maybe they're thinking about doing an entire line of "MP" IDW characters? Personally, I think he's a fine fit for my decidedly not MP collection; rather than pine for a more G1 Jazz, J4ZZ has me wanting a Prowl that's a Nissan 370Z. If modern takes on G1 characters is something that appeals to you then I'd happily recommend J4ZZ. However, I think I'm probably in the minority. If a G1 Jazz to fill a gap Takara's left if your official G1 MP collection is what you want J4ZZ is an aesthetic mismatch and you're probably better off waiting.
  24. mikeszekely
    Tonight, at long last, I give you Gravity Builder, Generation Toys' version of Devastator! Aesthetically... yep, that's Devastator all right. Now, you could argue that CW Devy is closer to the Sunbow model (minus his left leg), but let's all take a minute to recall that the Sunbow model looks like crap. Gravity Builder combines some good, burly proportions with the detail that came from GT's more realistic alt modes. While you can make the argument that Gravity Builder is a stylized Devastator, I personally feel like he's pretty close to the kind of monster I'd imagine the simplified Sunbow art was meant to represent. And as long as I'm comparing him to CW Devy, I think it goes without saying that Gravity Builder has greater articulation. He doesn't feel as cheap, either. When I was arranging them for photos, I'd swear the entire CW Devy weighs as much as one GT Constructicon. I think this is probably the comparison that most people are interested in, GT vs ToyWorld. And the ToyWorld set does have a lot going for it- it's bigger, if you're into that, and it's got a presence. It's got the most articulated hands of any combiner in my collection, and the partsforming hips and thighs give ToyWorld's Devy a lot of stability. For me, though, TW Devy is too big, and I was never a fan of the Studio OX head, silver thighs, or the way that Scavenger's shovel just dangled there. It also has those too-long arms and that too-small waist. Taking a look at Gravity Builder, he's got the shovel folded up, he's got much better proportions, and GT crafted a much better head. In other words, I think Gravity Builder is a better combined Devastator than ToyWorld's. Then there's Maketoys' Giant. Side-by-side, it's clear that Gravity Builder took a lot of cues from Giant. They both use Long Haul to form the hips and thighs, and they both continue to minimize partsforming by having the forearms turn into portable generators that are towed by Constructicons and having the chest shield integrate into Long Haul's bed. They both have their heads permanently part of Hook. They both have detachable crane booms, and both of their booms bend in the middle to fold down over their backs. They're both more detailed due to the more realistic alt-modes of their constituent members. And, if you'll recall from my earlier review, GT's Bonecrusher has a head that looks very similar to Maketoys'. And while Giant is smaller than Gravity Builder, I'd say they even have pretty similar proportions. Giant is still a great-looking Devastator, but the so-called "Warbotron size" has become something of the de facto standard for 3P combiners now, and the Maketoys/Fansproject ones are just too small for my collection. Gravity Builder, on the other hand, fits right in with the two Warbotron Combiners, most of TFC's stuff, Ordin, or Feral Rex. You get two faces for Gravity Builder. The default is, I assume, his rage face. You can pop off just the silver part and swap it out with a more stoic face. Personally, I think the rage face is less, "I'm going to crush you, Autobots!" and more like he had the misfortune to use the toilet after Bruticus dropped a steamer and forgot to flush, so I'm going to go with the stoic face. So, articulation. I think that Gravity Builder's head is on a ball joint, but I'm not sure if it's due to the way it's assembled or what but mine seems to have some issues getting the poses I want. His shoulders can rotate on ratchets that don't require a ton of force to move, but do hold the weight of the arm even when holding his gun. There are two or three ratchets in each shoulder for lateral movement as well. It can take a little work to coax his arms into the position you want, but the lateral range is nearly 90 degrees and that's pretty good for a combiner. He's got two bicep swivels, one at the top of the bicep and one at the bottom. It's important that you use the bottom one, as the one above is for unlocking and detaching the forearms from Scavenger and Bonecrusher. He's got a ratcheted, single-jointed elbow that gets more than 90 degrees. His wrist swivels, and each finger is individually articulated. The thumb is on a hinge with a ball joint at the base with a second hinge mid-way, so you can rotate it, fold it flat over the palm, make a thumb's up, whatever your heart desires. The fingers are on ball joints at the base with two more hinges. His fingers can get some splay and make some good poses, but he doesn't have as much range as ToyWorld's Devy, nor does he have the wrist bend. He uses Long Haul's waist and hips so the articulation is the same there. The knees use the ratchets in the combiner ports on Scrapper and Mixmaster, and they're very tight. You have to be careful manipulating them, because when you try to straighten his leg after bending the knee the force required makes Scrapper and Mixmaster want to slide back off. Finally, Scrapper and Mixmaster have a joint built into their torsos so that they can bend in combined mode, providing Gravity Builder with ankle tilt. I want to note here that I do have two issues with articulation. The first is lower bicep swivel, the one for articulation, is a little loose, especially on the right arm. The second is that while Long Haul's hip ratchets are almost insanely tight, there's a lot of play between the clicks which makes Gravity Builder want to do the splits. It should be noted, however, that GT included replacement parts for both of those joints in the "Megasorry" pack that's supposed to come with Crane. I haven't installed them so I don't have any firsthand knowledge, but I'm hearing that the parts do fix those issues (although they're supposed to be somewhat difficult to install). Gravity Builder's gun fits into his palm via a pair of tabs. The connection is tight; not the kind of tight that makes it hard to get out once you put it in, but the kind of tight where the pressure or the tabs wants to force the gun back out. So, while he can hold his gun, it doesn't take a lot of effort to get him to drop it. In theory, Gravity Builder should also be able to use his crane boom as a melee weapon. Unfortunately, I couldn't seem to get the boom off, despite having done it with no issue when I reviewed GT's Hook. The boom can also rotate 180 degrees, allowing the boom to be deployed over his shoulder. Gravity Builder's hands might not be as articulated as ToyWorld Devy's, but they do have a neat trick. You can fold open the back of the hand to reveal a trio of missiles inside. Back view. As you can see, Gravity Builder cleans up pretty well even from behind. One small gripe is that Long Haul's hands are kind of visible in the small of Gravity Builder's back, but who's going to look back there anyway? As I mentioned before, the crane boom has a joint in it so it can fold over Gravity Builder's back. You can also see Scrapper, Mixmaster, and Long Haul's guns stowed away. Scrapper, Mixmaster, Scavenger, Hook, and Bonecrusher all store their weapons in exactly the same places as they do in vehicle mode, leaving them thoroughly tucked away to the point of being integrated. Long Haul can't, because his legs make up Gravity Builder's thighs, but his gun can still use one of the peg holes on his back. Hook's can actually be deployed in combine mode by opening his cab and extending the barrel, giving Gravity Builder a small shoulder gun. I like Gravity Builder a lot. He's got a lot of competition, though, so the question is really, "Is this the definitive Devastator?" With FansToys having recently announced that they're working a Devastator, knowing their reputation for quality and G1 accuracy, maybe not. I think you can also make a case for ToyWorld's Devastator being a better fit for an MP display, what with the better G1 accuracy of the individual Constructicons and the extra height in combined mode from the partsforming. That said, knowing Fanstoys it'll be years before they release their first Constructicon, and I personally think that Gravity Builder looks a lot better than ToyWorld's Devy when combined. Whether you call them MP, CHUG, or something else, Gravity Builder fits much better size-wise with the majority of other 3P combiners as well. So yeah, of the Devastators you can buy today, Gravity Builder is probably the best. So unless you really like the extra size of ToyWorld's Devy or you're looking for Constructicons to display uncombined with your MP Decepticons, Gravity Builder would be the Devastator I'd suggest.
  25. mikeszekely
    And now the last of the Generation Toy Constructicons, here's Bulldozer, their version of Bonecrusher (at least I assume it's supposed to be Bonecrusher...). I kind of feel like I'm watching Sesame Street. "One of these things is not like the other..." In all seriousness, GT went ahead and came up with a stylized version of Bonecrusher, just as the rest of their Constructicons were stylized. Thing is, while the other five were stylized they were still very recognizable (although I do wish Mixmaster had included an alternate toon-style head). Bonecrusher here, not so much. From the waist down he does have those green tread legs, but from the waist up he's really lacking any sort of Bonecrusher-y details. I mean, I guess the silver angular chest is meant to evoke the sticker details on the G1 toy, but in my not-so-humble opinion fails miserably. Then there's the head, which looks like it'd be a better fit for Scrapper or Scavenger than Bonecrusher. (Yes, one could argue that they were going for the toy's head, but then why the silver mouth plate instead of black?) Of more practical concern is GT's decision to follow in Maketoys' footsteps and stick the dozer blade somewhere beside the chest, and like Maketoys it just creates a kibbley mess. At least on Maketoys' Bonecrusher's blade kibble was somewhat out of the way on his hips; by sticking the blades on his forearms and wrapping them up behind the shoulders GT has virtually guaranteed that they'll be in the way. There's enough articulation on the blades and the connecting parts that articulation isn't necessarily hindered, but posing the arms more or less requires you to move the kibble, get the arm in the pose you want, then finagle the blade around the posed arm. Bottom line is that while GT's Bonecrusher looks kind of cool and fits aesthetically with the other five members of the set he looks about as much like Bonecrusher as a white and red painted Leader-1 from the Gobots looks like Starscream. It's like the other five Constructicons fired Bonecrusher and replaced him with with another Transformer who happened to turn into a bulldozer. In my head, I call him Constructicon Steve. As with GT's Scavenger, Steve wears a combined-mode forearm like a cape with the same thruster and missiles. He doesn't have Scavenger's scoop to help hide the combiner hand, though. Once again, although Steve can transform between all three modes with it attached, it can easily be removed if you prefer. Steve's accessories are basically the same as Scavengers; the attached forearm, his gun, an extra gun handle (also presumably for either Scrapper or Mixmaster), and an extra head. The extra head's kind of a disappointment. It does ditch the mouth plate of the installed head, which is kind of a step toward looking more like Bonecrusher... except that it still doesn't really look anything like Bonecrusher. However, with the vented cheeks, black chinstrap, thick brow, and trapezoidal mohawk flanked by two round bits, it does bear an uncanny resemblance to Maketoys' Bonecrusher... (It's also kind of disappointing that everyone released after Mixmaster came with an alternate head when I still really want an alternate head for Mixmaster). Well, it's either I at least give Steve a Bonecrusher mouth or I put one of Scavenger's heads on Hook so that he's not the left as the only Constructicon with a mouth... Steve's articulation is more or less the same as Scavenger's, especially since they're 99% the same from the waist down. Since my review of Scavenger was just one post ago, I'll let you take a quick peek instead of re-typing the same stuff. Good? OK, now here's where Steve is different. One, the fold in his body is a little lower on the torso and locks into place, so it doesn't really work as an ab crunch the way it did on Scavenger. Two, due to some combination of how his arms transform and/or the shape of the arms themselves, he struggles to get a 90 degree bend at the elbow despite it being double-jointed. Some unofficial fun- the sides of the dozer blade are just pegged onto the rest of the blade. They come off quite easily, and the little arms are just the right size to fit into Steve's hands, if you want to give him a melee weapon. I just wouldn't do it too often. While his gun slides down into his grip, the dozer pieces have to be forced in past his thumb, which could/will probably cause the thumb to eventually break. Some official fun, too- while his legs are 99% the same as Scavenger's, there's a little bit extra for the dozer blade to attach to. While GT could have just left it on the sides of Steve's legs they actually fold into leg-mounted missile launchers, complete with little silver missiles poking out. The missiles slide in for alt mode and stick out for bot mode. They don't interfere with articulation, but they do rotate where they're attached so you can have them aiming however you like regardless of however you pose his legs. Credit where credit is due, Steve makes for a pretty fantastic bulldozer. The large, wide dozer blade makes the one on ToyWorld's Bonecrusher look positively anemic, and I greatly prefer the closed cab to the little roof on ToyWorld/the original G1 toy. The grill, the large pistons on the main body, the smaller arms that hold the dozer blade to the treads, the exhaust pipe, and the air pre-cleaner filter are all nice real-world touches. Like Scavenger, Steve tows the combined-mode forearm behind him disguised as some sort of portable generator, and like Scavenger's it can be removed. The pistons and the dozer blade attached to them can be manipulated a bit for posing, and like the other members of the set his gun stores out-of-sight in alt mode. Ultimately, Steve suffers from the same sort of flaws that GT has had on every member of this set; unsecured flaps. In this case, the biggest offender is the front grill just lying on the back of his forearms. Despite that and the dozer kibble on his arms, my unbiased opinion is that he's actually a better toy than their Hook. My unbiased opinion, though, is that I can't get over how un-Bonescrusher he is. When I first saw him he was probably the single biggest reason I decided to buy the ToyWorld Constructicons, and if having a good Bonecrusher in robot mode is important to you then, yes, go with ToyWorld. Steve is definitely my least-favorite of the set. Of course, I don't think many people are buying this or any other version of the Constructions because they want the best Bonecrusher, so tune in tomorrow when I review the combined form of Gravity Builder.
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