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mikeszekely

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  1. mikeszekely
    Continuing with GT's Constructicon's, here's Navvy, their take on Scavenger. Navvy is a fairly stylized version of Scavenger, but he's got most of the right details in the right places. It's smaller, but he's got his silver ironing board chest. He's still got the black head, silver mouth plate, and red visor, although the head has a more generic shape. He's still green on top, purple below the belt. He's still got a shovel coming out of his back, although the way it comes out has it sitting higher and not reaching down the way G1 and ToyWorld Scavenger's shovels do. The big difference between Navvy and other Scavengers is that he trades their T-shaped torsos for something a little more naturally proportioned, and in my opinion Navvy looks more dynamic for it. The elephant in the room would be the big backpack kibble tucked between his back and the shovel. I'll give GT kudos, they worked to incorporate the combined-mode forearm into Navvy's bot mode so that you can say that there's no partsforming involved, and they even tried to make it interesting with little missiles and a thruster. However, if you're like me and don't necessarily mind partsforming, you can easily remove the backpack. Navvy doesn't come with much in the way of accessories, since his contribution to the gestalt is the forearm and he's wearing it. You get his gun, an extra gun handle (presumably for either Scraper or Mixer Truck's guns), and a second head. The extra head is a touch more Scavenger-y, with the flat top and square section in the middle of a more squarish mouth plate. Unlike the extra heads that came with their Long Haul and their Hook, I think I prefer Navvy's extra head... Yep, much better! So, articulation. His head is on a ball joint with pretty good up-down and lateral tilt. His shoulders can rotate, and he's got hinges in his chest to allow the shoulders to swing out 90 degrees laterally. He's got bicep swivels and double-jointed elbows that go well past 90 degrees but don't quite have the room to get his forearm all the way up so he can touch his shoulder. His hands are identical to the other four in the set I've reviewed. He's got a waist swivel, but due to his transformation he can also rotate at the middle of his chest. Also do to transformation, Navvy sports an ab crunch. His hips can bend a little less than 90 degrees forward, backward, or laterally. Folding down a flap on the front of his leg is necessary to get more than the slightest bend forward, though. Navvy has thigh swivels, and his knees are single-jointed but go well past 90 degrees. His feet are kind of weird. Due to his transformation his foot can rotate, but he doesn't really have an ankle. Instead, his toes are attached to a discs, and you can position them by rotating the disc so that they're at an angle, simulating ankle tilt and keeping them flat when you put him in an A-stance. For stability, he's got heel spurs on the other side, and they're on identical discs and work the same way. Like we've come to expect from GT, Navvy's got a nice, detailed alt mode, but there are a few things that stand out as being less-than-ideal. First, the front of the excavator is very obviously robot crotch. Second, his head is clearly visible behind the shovel. Third, the questionable use of silver for the filler panels on the back. There's some stuff I like going on, though, like the black treads and the fact that you can go from robot to excavator without removing the combined-mode forearm, which like Maketoys' is towed behind like a portable generator. Again, though, you can remove the forearm if you prefer. My initial thought was that his top half and bottom half look weirdly off-center if you do that, but a quick Google search indicates that this is both real-world and G1 accurate. The top of the excavator doesn't rotate, but the shovel arm itself does. In addition to rotating, it can move up and down at the base of the shovel, with a second up-down hinge mid-arm and a third at the bucket. And like the other GT Constructicons, Navvy can store his gun in alt mode so that it's hidden and out-of-the-way. My main gripe with Navvy is a continuing theme with this set. GT does some interesting engineering, but time and again you find yourself folding panels that don't lock into place. On the whole, though, I'd say that I prefer Navvy's robot mode but would probably give ToyWorld a slight edge on alt-mode. If I had to choose, though, I'd probably go with Navvy. He just feels a little more fun in hand.
  2. mikeszekely
    Well, I might have been abroad for nearly a month, but that didn't stop me from letting my order stack fill up while I was gone. Tonight we're picking up where we left off with Generation Toys' not-Constructicons, starting with Crane, their version of Hook. Based only on appearances, I think Crane makes a fine Hook. His head is a little short, and his torso has the same stylized look as the other GT Non-structicons, but he's got plenty of Hook-ish details: flat-top head, visored eyes, crane boom on his back, silver thighs, mostly-purple torso broken up by silver, green arms, cab on his shin. Where he does deviate from toy and 'toon, namely his gray biceps, black hands, and his rear wheels living on shoulder wings instead of his upper arm, deviate almost exactly the same way ToyWorld's Hook did. Right off the bat, though, there are a few issues I'm having with the execution. His head wants to pop off almost every time I transform him. His backpack has two areas where stuff tabs in to hold it in place, but in both cases does so rather loosely. GT thinks to do stuff like have panels swing up to cover up the last little gap on the insides of his shins, but the cab collapses and the flaps just lay on his left shins. He's got these flaps that fold around to fill in the gaps on his shoulders, but moving his arms tends to push those panels back up (and why GT didn't just have the whole shoulder rotate is beyond me). The crane boom is longer than Crane is tall, so you have to angle it (for Mode 1) just so he can stand. And if you transform him according to his instructions kibble on the sides of his thighs will hinder his knee articulation. Crane comes with his gun, the combined mode's gun, and an alternate head. The alternate head is a tad generic-looking, so it'll probably stay in the box. The combined-mode gun does have a feature that allows it to be used outside of combined mode. You can transform it a little, then peg it into the chest plate that came with Dump Truck to make a sort of artillery piece. Do note that the sides should sit up higher than I have pictured. The tolerances on the gun are just way off... those panels are supposed to slide, but I put as much force on them as I dared and the wouldn't budge. It's worth noting that the gun pegs into the chest plate it two spots, but I only have it pegged in one because the other hole is too small for the peg on the chest plate. Articulation is pretty much what you'd expect from a member of this set by now. His head is on a ball joint that provides both his neck rotation as well as good up-down and lateral tilt. His shoulders can rotate 360 degrees, and lateral movement his handled by the transformation joint. Essentially that gives him 90 degrees of ratcheted lateral movement, but the whole shoulder piece moves up above the torso. His shoulder wings are hinged laterally and can move 90 degrees out from the shoulder, as well as rotate. Molded detail makes it look like he's guns or missiles in his wings, which is cool. He's got bicep swivels, and his elbows are single hinges that get a little over 90 degrees. His hands are identical to the other GT figures; wrist rotation, fingers molded as once piece with a single hinge at the knuckles. He's got waist and thigh swivels. His hips are ratcheted for forward/backward movement, and he can get just shy of 90 degrees forward and maybe 45 degrees backward. Lateral movement is just a friction joint, but it does the job and gets you 90 degrees. His knees bend 90 degrees on friction joints, but again the leg kibble on the sides of his legs has to be moved so as not to impede his shins. I find that a little easier to do if you rotate the panels 90 degrees from what the instructions tell you. His ankles are on complicated armatures, but they can rotate and provide plenty of inward ankle tilt. Crane's instructions describe three modes for the robot. The first is vintage Hook, with the crane boom lying over his back. The second has you rotate the boom around, then bend it at a joint so that it's over his shoulder. Mode 3 is detaching the boom, which slides on and off via a pair of mushroom pegs. Aside from having less kibble on his back, I don't see the point. You could pretend it's a melee weapon, I guess, but there's really nowhere for him to hold onto it. Up until now, the GT Constructicons have been getting a lot of praise from me for their alt modes, which are a pleasant blend of G1 and realistic details. And... I kind of feel like GT dropped the ball on Crane. He's still got the rubber tires, the painted hubcaps, painted lights and grill, caution marks, ladders, safety rails, and details like the pistons on the crane boom. In that sense, he's visually cohesive with the other members of the set. However, the space between the driver's cab and the crane operator's cab seems unusually long and empty, plus the black rear cab with painted windows doesn't match the front cab at all. Unlike Combiner Wars Hook or ToyWorld's version, the crane deck doesn't turn, just the crane boom. That means that the rear cab prevents the boom from turning past it. The boom itself does turn, it can move from lying flat to pointed straight up, and it can extend one segment. The hook at the end has a pair of joints. One thing I do really like is that GT managed to work in stabilizers on the sides. Like the other GT Constructions, Crane's weapon does store in vehicle mode, and it's brilliant in its simplicity. The front cab opens up, and the gun folds up and tucks inside. You'll recall that I originally decided to go with ToyWorld's Constructicons because, from photos alone, I thought they looked better. GT managed to surprise me because I found that in hand I really liked their Scrapper, Mixmaster, and Long Haul better than ToyWorld's. This time, though, ToyWorld's walking away the victor. Loose flaps, tolerances that are too tight in some spots and too loose in others, and some design choices that sometimes feel over-engineered don't quite measure up to the clean lines of ToyWorld's Hook. That's not to say that Crane's bad- he's still better than Maketoys' or Has/Tak's versions, but he's not quite on the level that his teammates are.
  3. mikeszekely
    Whoops!
  4. mikeszekely
    If Hobbytown was closer I'd shop there more. But I already don't pay shipping, since I get the majority of my kits from Amazon.
  5. mikeszekely
    Kind of a disappointing sale; a lot of that Fansproject stuff has been their recent weekend sales, so I either already bought it or still don't want it. For $20, though, I think I'll try KFC's Mugan Scope.
  6. mikeszekely
    Man, I go away for three weeks and this thread turns into a ghost town. Meanwhile at TFCon Chicago... MMC's ReFormatted take on Megatron.
  7. mikeszekely
    None of the MP-scaled Megatrons is perfect. New Megatron, Mightron, and Despotron all have their charms. Push came to shove, I'd probably go with Despotron, but I'll take whichever KBB makes a Voyager-sized KO of first.
  8. mikeszekely
    Doesn't the Remastered version just bring the graphics up to what the PC versions could do already?
  9. mikeszekely
    I found the Hobbytown selection to be ok, but their prices are a tad higher. I'll stop every time I need something at IKEA, but it's not worth the hour drive. Good to know about the one in Cranberry. Is it close to I79? In the summer we sometimes go to Linesville (which I'm guessing you're familiar with), and Cranberry's on the way.
  10. mikeszekely
    So I just got back from Beijing. Now, at home in Pittsburgh, there's basically nowhere to buy Gunpla and I get most of my stuff from Amazon. I found a shop on Gulou East Street, though, that had a ton of cool stuff including a TON of Gunpla. I wound up picking up the HGUC Revive Qubeley, HGUC Hyaku Shiki, RG 00 Qan [T], RG Skygrapser, and the HG Full Armor Gundam Thunderbolt (manga version).
  11. mikeszekely
    I'm in. While I've barely used my Wii or Wii U, I've had A TON of play on on Nintendo's handhelds right up to the 3DS, and I still love Nintendo's 2st party games. I see the Switch as a handheld that can be played as a console more than a console meant to compete with the PS4 or Xbox One.
  12. mikeszekely
    Well, I'd avoid the kanji 岩, since Japanese refer to rock music (which I assume your buddy's show is about, rather than different bands coming in to talk about minerals) as ロック or ロックミュージック. Plus, proper names tend to get translated phonetically even when Japanese words exist, and you've probably already noticed that they simply use ライブ when talking about a live performance. So as boring as it is, katakana is pretty much the way to go. Either ライブ！ロックルームから or possibly even ライブ!フルムザロックル-ム.
  13. mikeszekely
    My dad still uses XP. Don't know how much longer, though- I told him I'm not fixing that computer anymore.
  14. mikeszekely
    Windows 10 isn't too bad. It's like they mixed some of the good ideas from 8 into 7. Plus, DirectX 12.
  15. mikeszekely
    Shouldn't be hard to crack your top three when you have TFC that high...
  16. mikeszekely
    So, while I've collected all of the Titans Return Deluxes (and have yet to see any Voyagers or Leaders), I've been avoiding the Legends and the Titan Masters. The Legends just seem like a step backward from better recent stuff, like the Insecticons, Cosmos, and Powerglide. As for the Titan Masters... a vendor wound up tossing Loudmouth in one of my orders that had been delayed. The idea of having extra interchangable heads is kind of cool (especially if you have a kid that loses a head, it's nice to be able to just buy another one), but the gimmick is that they come with a triple-changing accessory- a mode for the Titan Master to drive, a mode for the Titan Master to integrate with, and weapon mode for other TR figures to use. Loudmouth's accessory, and I assume this to be true for most of the Titan Masters, sucks. A little hovercar he can drive? Ok. But the tank mode that he's supposed to integrate with is terrible, and the weapon mode is equally terrible. So I was ready to write off the whole size class as not worth the money. Besides, I'm miffed that most of the Titan Masters are characters who aren't getting a proper Deluxe treatment. On a whim today I picked up Crashbash and Apeface, though, and they're both actually pretty nice. They still suck as weapons, but both of their other modes are pretty good. Apeface doesn't have a lot of articulation, but he looks like a fairly decent ape with a backpack that the Titan Master rides in. His jet mode is very simple, but it's like a chibi version of his G1 toy's jet mode, and the Titan Master's integration fills out the fuselage. As for Crashbash, he's like a little dragon thingy, again with a backpack for the Titan Master to ride in. His other mode is a Tyrannosaurus, and it's pretty clever. The dragon wings make the Tyrannosaurus' chest, but it leave's gaps so the Titan Master's arms become the Tyrannosaurus' arms, and his legs become its lower jaw. I wound up picking up Horri-Bull, too. He's more along the lines of Loudmouth; ok tank mode, crappy jet and weapon modes. But it's ok, because to me they're not Squeezeplay and Horri-Bull (who would be their US G1 selves, in my head-canon). Since I just finished watching Masterforce I think of them as Cancer and Bullhorn, and they drive those little accessories because they're not really Transformers. Now I'm oddly looking forward to Fangry so I can have Wilder, too. I'm afraid to fix Loudmouth into Goshooter, though, because then I'll have to look for Cab and Minverva.
  17. mikeszekely
    All over the place, but the consensus is that they're getting better. I've never ordered from them before, not really comfortable starting with a preorder on a figure that's supposed to be a limited release.
  18. mikeszekely
    Most of MMC's new releases just aren't doing it for me. Turben was close, but I want MTMTE Whirl, not Stormbringer Whirl. Disappointed that I didn't act quickly enough on Kultur, though.
  19. mikeszekely
    There must be a reason that TFC likes that gray plastic so much. They used it for most of the joints and hands on the Hades guys, too.
  20. mikeszekely
    $20? Logitech F310. Although, as Keith suggests, a wired Xbox 360 controller will run you only about $7 more.
  21. mikeszekely
    How cheap is cheap? And wired or wireless? For maximum compatibility the Xbox 360 and Xbox One controllers are your safest bet, and the 360 controllers are pretty cheap to boot now. Off-brand Xbox controllers may or may not work, depending on whether or not they support Xinput. You should be able to find some cheap options there. There's Logitech's line of PC pads. They're mostly PS-ish in shape and support Xinput. Of course, there's also the PS4 controller. Officially, PC support will come with a dongle they're releasing, which will probably make it the most expensive option. You can skip the dongle if you don't mind using a USB cord and an unoffical program running in the background that translates the PS4 input into Xinput. You actually can even use it wirelessly if your PC has Bluetooth. Of course, if you already have a PS4 (that was you that friended me the other day, right?) you can just use the controller you already have (although I personally bought a second one... less hassle resyncing the controller between devices most of the time, and a spare's always nice when a buddy comes over for a little splitscreen gaming). My honest advice? If you like the PS4 controller, just use it. Even if you buy as second controller and wind up getting Sony's official dongle it'll be worth it in the long run.
  22. mikeszekely
    Alright, absolute last one until late October, and not a Constructicon. Today it's Cyberjaw, TFC's version of Overbite (who was also Overbite in Japan). Cyberjaw's your average 3P limb-bot in size. He's a little beefier, but almost identical in height to fellow land shark Alberich. He's similar to teammate Big Bite in that he's a little stylized. His blockier elements are more curves and points, the single blue strip on his chest is a larger chest plate with a translucent yellow center, the big vented sides are replaced with much smaller molded details, the beast arms are on the side of his legs instead of dragging on the ground, etc. His colors are also a bit off, with the blue being more of a blue-green, the purple a bit lighter and redder, and the pink more of a magenta. Despite these changes, he's still fairly spot-on with a mostly blue (green) head, yellow eyes and mouth plate, purple torso with blue in the middle, blue shins and feet, magenta shoulders, and blue forearms. His beast legs are still his arms, and the tail is still on his back. The only changes I'd really have liked to see would be purple hands and thighs and magenta biceps, and for his feet to be a little less weird (although I guess weird feet was kind of a G1 toy detail, and there's not a lot of artwork of him in robot mode to go off of). Oh, and for his weirdly asymmetric left hand to match his right. Cyberjaw comes with a ton of accessories. Unlike Big Bite, he's just got the one gun, but he's still got two swords, a handle for gun mode, the adapter piece that used for arm/leg/gun mode, and instead of a hand he's got a foot for combined mode. As with Big Bite, Cyberjaw's gun can open to reveal a barrel extension, and it's also got a cool flip out shark fin. The foot is a complicated piece that could almost get a review on its own. It's big, bigger than Warbotron Bruticus or Feral Rex's feet even. This is because, rather than having separate stands for their gun modes, Poseidon's foot transforms into a stand for gun mode. The toes splay outward, and you can remove the two parts pegged onto the top of the heel. The sides of the foot untab and swing forward, and an armature folds out from underneath. The gray sides of the armature swing upward to grab onto the gun handle part. The sides of the foot have armatures in them as well that fold outward. The sides of the foot can also rotate, so you can point them and their armatures however you like. The gray bits we removed have a 5mm peg on one end and a pair of peg holes on the other, so you can find a place to stick them. There are the two pegs on that we removed them from on the rotating part with molded missiles, and plenty of peg holes. Indeed, even if you're not going to put Cyberjaw (or any of the other non-Seacons) into gun mode, you can use the peg holes to instead store Cyberjaw's guns and swords, which I like. Of course, you can put his gun or swords into his hands, as well. Like Big Bite, it's up to you if you want to use the gun as a smaller or larger rifle, and his tail can also be held as a melee weapon. Cyberjaw also has similar articulation. His head is on a double ball joint with a pretty fantastic range of up/down and lateral tilt. He's got a tight friction waist swivel and tight friction hinges for lateral shoulder movement that'll get nearly 180 degrees before the top of his shoulders start colliding with the top of his torso. His shoulder rotation is ratcheted. His thighs and wrists swivel, and he's got a friction double-hinge elbow. Its set at a weird angle so that the top hinge can wiggle a little but not point straight down. The result looks a little weird but can still bend all the way so that he can touch his shoulders. His hips are universals with soft ratchets for forward and backward movement and harder ratchets for lateral movement. He can kick 90 degrees forward or backward, and he gets a little over 90 degrees laterally. His knees are hard ratchets that get 90 degrees, but you have to watch because he's also got a transformation joint that does nothing for bot mode, but it requires less force to move so it's going to want to bend instead of his actual knees. Finally, as I mentioned before, his feet are just weird. Like Big Bite, they bulk of them are made from alt-mode panels. Unlike Big Bite, they don't fold up into nice flat feet. They're set on a ball joint with a hinge, and by themselves they have pretty good articulation. You could, theoretically, get forward, backward, inward, and outward ankle tilt plus ankle rotation. In practice, though, the front of his foot that hides just how unlike feet his feet really are is a separate piece that rotates down from the end of his shin on a ball joint. It can spin on his joint to stay lined up with the rest of his foot and preserve the illusion of ankle tilt, but if you tilt the bulk of his foot up or down, or rotate his ankle, the toe piece doesn't stay with it. As I mentioned before, Cyberjaw turns into a land shark. I think he looks pretty great and more shark-like than the G1 toy. Unfortunately, he looses a lot of his purple in this mode. This seems to have been necessary to keep his lower legs and feet blue green, but I think it would have helped if the gray armature on his back had been molded in purple (and again, if his biceps were magenta). His lower jaw is also blue green instead of pink. This choice is purely an aesthetic decision to keep the whole head blue green by TFC, because the lower jaw is hidden in bot mode. There's no reason it couldn't have been pink, and if you can find a paint that matches the magenta parts on him you could certainly paint it yourself. His hind claws are also weirdly gray instead of purple and similarly hidden in bot mode. In beast mode, his arms are his legs so he's got ratcheted hip rotation and friction knees that bend over 90 degrees. He can't move his hips laterally due to the way they're pegged in in this mode. His beast arms can rotate at the shoulders and extend laterally over 90 degrees, plus he's got elbows that can bend 90 degrees. His claws can open and close, but he doesn't have any sort of wrist or bicep swivel in beast mode. His jaw can open and close. His tail has five hinges for flexing his tail up and down but sadly he can't move his tail from side-to-side like a real shark. If you want, you can mount his gun onto his back by plugging it into one of two screw holes on his back behind his beast legs (not pictured). I find it interesting that Cyberjaw was one of the first figures in this set to be show, but he was released after Big Bite. You might think that was because TFC wanted to tweak the design a little, but what they released is definitely a less-refined toy than Big Bite. His tail doesn't lock onto his torso the way Big Bite's does. His feet are less foot-like than Big Bite's. His beast arms don't peg down in bot mode, they just lie along the sides of his legs. Similarly, his shark fin halves don't tab together in shark mode the way Big Bite's do, and in robot mode they like along the inside of his lower leg but again don't tab anywhere. And, while his tail hinges give him greater up/down range on his tail segments than Big Bite's ball joints, he has none of the side-to-side motion in his tail that Big Bite does. I don't know about you, but I'd gladly trade some up/down motion if it got me some of the actual motion that actual sharks use to actually swim. It's hard not to feel a little let down because Cyberjaw is a very similar toy with a similar transformation to Big Bite, and every complaint I have seems not only like it could have been addressed but that it actually was addressed when they designed Big Bite. I don't want to seem too down on Cyberjaw, though. Excluding Big Bite, he's the best TFC toy I've handled, easily beating out the Hades guys. He's still a good, fun toy, just not as great as Big Bite, or as great as he could have been. I still like the sculpt a lot in both modes. And I'd still say that I recommend him, but as always with a combiner you might want to wait to see how the whole team and their combined mode shakes out. This seems doubly true for a TFC combiner giving how much improvement we saw in the Hades team over previous TFC releases but how utterly disappointing Hades was combined. And while Mech Ideas announced their own Liokaiser when most people were already four or five out of six into Hades, an unknown company has announced that they're doing a Piranacon with enough time for most people to take a wait and see approach to Poseidon.
  23. mikeszekely
    I managed to get one more order in before I leave for China. We're going to continue looking at Constructicons tonight with Generation Toys' Mixer Truck, their version of Mixmaster. At first glance, it looks like GT was looking more at Mixmaster's toy for inspiration than his animation model. The molded details on his chest are vaguely similar to the toy, and he's got the toy's mouth-plated head, silver thighs, and silver abs. He's even got some purple circles where the original toy had visible screws. It's really a shame that GT didn't give him green hands like they did with Scraper, because the black kind of sticks out. He's definitely got GT's stylized touch, though. It's most noticeable in his legs, which have the front of the cab at an angle on his shins in a manner very similar to Maketoys' Mixer, and in his hood, which is huge. At a glance, you'd want to say he's taller than Combiner Wars Mixmaster, but if you look at their heads Mixer Truck is shorter without the hood. Also, instead of green with large silver missiles like the G1 toy or green with little nozzles like the cartoon, Mixer Truck's got a black hood with painted silver vents and translucent purple missiles set in silver. Unlike ToyWorld's Concrete, the missiles are not removable but they are on a slider so you can extend or retract them within the hood. Curiously, it seems a lot of 3P companies have trouble with Mixmaster's rear wheels in bot mode. The G1 toy had one tire around the shoulder and one behind its fist, and while the animation model lacked the tires he had bumps on his arms in those spots. CW Mixmaster tried to stuff both tires in the upper arm, giving him odd proportions. Both Mixer Truck and Concrete carry them as kibble hanging off their shoulders, but their approaches are different. Concrete's are pegged onto the back of his shoulders, kind of out-of-sight but also interfering with his arms' range of motion. Mixer Truck carries his on the sides of his shoulders. It's definitely more in-your-face, but I think it's a better approach. If you don't like the hood and don't mind a less traditional look, the whole assembly can be folded down onto Mixer Truck's back. Speaking of backs, you have some options with Mixer Truck. The mixing drum splits in half, and each half is on sliding hinges to give you some control over how you position it. Personally, I like to open it just enough to reveal the double-barreled thing inside. I think of them as thrusters in this mode. You may also splay the halves wide, which you'll need to do to accommodate the hood should you fold it back, or work them closed for a more classic look. Note that the closed bot mode position is still different from the way it sits in truck mode. Another look at the Maketoys-inspired lower legs. From some angles they look like they sit kind of funny on him, but they're not as bulky as ToyWorld's. Aesthetically-speaking, I think it's fair to say that ToyWorld is more G1-accurate. That being said, in hand I really like Mixer Truck. Even as I long for an alternate animation-style head with a mouth I have to admit that GT did a great job crafting a head for Mixer Truck that exudes menace with fewer facial features. And while some pictures I'd seen initially turned me off of GT's Mixmaster as being top heavy, in hand he just looks powerful. Mixer Truck's head is on a ball joint with plenty of rotation, a small amount of up/down tilt, and fairly good lateral tilt. His hood is on a hinged swivel so it can be tilted back and aimed side-to-side. His shoulders can rotate, and there's a hinge for lateral movement that can technically get you better than 90 degrees, but in practice a little under that without moving his hood and playing with his wheel kibble. Speaking of, the kibble has it's own ratcheted swivel so it can rotate on his shoulder, as well as a hinge so it can be extended laterally a little under 90 degrees. He does have bicep and wrist swivels and a single-jointed elbow hinge that will get 90 degrees. His hands are the MP car-style with fingers molded together in a slight curve, hinged at the base knuckle so the hands can open and close. His waist does swivel, but care must be taken as there's very minimal clearance for the halves of the mixing drum to clear the silver cylinder jutting from his butt. His hip skirts don't move, so his hips get a little less than 90 degrees forward/backward on solid ratchets, as well as a little less than 90 degrees laterally on a friction joint. His thigh can swivel either above or below the gray part with the purple flap, which can rotate independently so the flaps can be on the sides, front, or back of his legs, whichever you prefer. Although his shins have sort of an odd shape be can bend his knees a little over 90 degrees. His ankles aren't that great. They're on a hinged ball joint, but the way it sits he's got very little inward ankle tilt and no upward tilt, but ankle rotation and more downward tilt than you could ever want. Oh, he's also got a little lateral bend in his waist. His lone accessory is his gun, black with a gray handle and some silver paint on the barrel. Very par for the course. Like Maketoys, GT is clearly trying to get realistic alt modes by including lots of molded and painted details. The ladders on the back, the side view mirrors, the smokestacks, and the safety rails between the front and rear tires are all nice touches that I've seen on real cement mixers. I'm also a fan of purple mixing drums on my Mixmasters (hence why I replaced the default green one on Concrete). There's something about the front of the truck that looks kind of off somehow, though. Almost cartoony, and by that I mean like a something the Warner Brothers (and sister) would use to get into hijinks with on Animaniacs, not like the G1 cartoon. I think I'd have preferred if the windows were painted purple instead of dark green, and I really miss the silver grill. Despite being less detailed, Concrete looks the most like Mixmaster here. High marks to GT for hidden weapon storage in alt mode, though. Mixer Truck's drum doesn't rotate like Concrete's, but it does open up. In truck mode, the double-barreled thing I imagine as a thruster in bot mode becomes something like a missile launcher. There's actually a peg hole for Mixer Truck's gun, too. Another thing you can open is the little flap where you pour the cement mix into the drum. And, in yet another thing that reminds me of Maketoys, the combiner port is visible on the back of the truck. I do have my complaints about Mixer Truck, but none of them are deal breakers. The smokestacks spin too freely, and the front bumper doesn't really lock into place in robot mode. Neither, for that matter, do the flaps on the sides of his legs. They have tabs, and in truck mode they tab into grooves on the front of his thighs. Since his thigh can rotate above that part, I don't see why they couldn't peg into similar grooves on the sides of his thighs. And at the risk of nitpicking, I'll say again that I could have done with a smaller hood and animation-style head. The worst thing I can say about him, though, are that the safety rails between the tires and the silver parts of the front bumper are just pegged on. They pop off pretty easy, just enough that if you're aware of them and careful transforming him that they won't come off but easy enough that I'm thinking about gluing them anyway. So, do I recommend Mixer Truck? I do. I mean, I do think that Concrete is more G1 accurate, and if you're looking for MP-scale and G1 accuracy you might want to go with him instead. However, having both in hand I find myself preferring Mixer Truck. He's made of better plastics, I like his beefier, stylized appearance, and IMHO he's got more of that intangible "fun" factor. And I have to say, I find it quite curious that I initially went with ToyWorld's Constructicons because I thought they looked better in photos, but now that I have three of the GT's in hand I find myself preferring them over their ToyWorld counterparts. I don't know if that will continue... from pictures, GT's Bonecrusher REALLY doesn't look like Bonecrusher to me, so we'll see. I plan to pick up the last three when I get back to the States in late October, so be sure to tune in then to find out.
  24. mikeszekely
    No, the only sad thing about The Sarah Conner Chronicles was that it didn't get a third season. But yeah, Genisys isn't exactly a high point for the franchise. Not as bad as T3, though.
  25. mikeszekely
    Got the Blu-ray steelbook today. Case is gorgeous, but I wish they'd have put a booklet or something in there with a list of which extras are on which disc. Speaking of extras, I'm slightly disappointed that there are actually fewer extras than the 20th anniversary DVD (no Scramble City). Just like the 20th anniversary DVD, the Blu-ray (at least the steelbook) has one disc with the cropped widescreen version and one disc with the 4:3 version. Haven't watched it myself, but the reviews are saying that the video quality is MUCH better than the DVD (although a draw between it and the UK Blu-ray).
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