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mikeszekely

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  1. mikeszekely
    Yeah. At the time Long Haul was released I was still fully expecting to be all-in on MMC's and that's it, but now that I've Ground Bite in hand I'm really sorry I slept on Big Load. Couple of mine have loose joints now. But there's other stuff that bugs me, like how Boncrusher's chest doesn't stay hooked on, the tolerances on all the panels jammed into Mixmaster's legs, Scrapper's lower legs being as thick as they are tall, Long Haul's difficulty standing up without the panels from the upgrade kit, etc. A little birdie told me that MMC's should have working treads.😉 Same, Vortex is looking very good (especially compared to the CW version). But be warned, they're definitely using a frame for him like Superion and Menasor.
  2. mikeszekely
    I think he's been fine as Devastator for a long time, but taking them apart for some of these recent reviews made the flaws in the individual bots stand out. And it's not like you can ever have too many Devastators.
  3. mikeszekely
    Until MMC starts releasing their Constructicons, the main competition to X-Transbots is going to be Fans Toys. So, this would be their Scrapper, Gehry. If Fans Toys had released Gehry when the only "MP" competition was ToyWorld I think we'd all be pretty satisfied. He's a big boy, made of the sort of quality materials people have come to expect from Fans Toys with just about every surface painted. He's super cartoon accurate, too, with the green lumps instead of wheels on his shoulders and the shins that are smooth boxes unblemished save for the simple round bits just below the knees. Gehry's problem, though, is that he's not coming out alone against the decade-old ToyWorld set, he's come at very nearly the same time as X-Transbot's Ground Bite. Traditionally I think these sorts of matchups have favored Fans Toys... compare their Cyconlus, their Seaspray (2.0 for FT), their Blaster, their Perceptor (2.0 for FT), their Cliffjumper, their Trailbreaker, etc, and FT has come out ahead (although not always ahead enough to justify their prices). This time, though, I'm inclined to argue that Ground Bite looks a bit better. Objectively, I think the purple FT chose is a tad too red, and he's a bit too wide. Subjectively, the plain sculpt is maybe a bit too Sunbow for me, leaving Gehry a bit lifeless. Oh, and there's also the backpack. FT seems to have over-engineered the shovel to shrink it down in the name of... what, cartoon accuracy? I went back through a couple of clips of Scrapper in the cartoon, and his shovel wasn't so narrowed. And so much of that condensed mass is just random dangly kibble flaps. Then there's the fact that his front wheels are stuffed into his butt. I'm not necessarily holding it against him, but Gehry comes with fewer accessories, too. You get a big green chunk of... thing. You get his trumpet, and you get his gun. On his own, Gehry's articulation is a bit sub-standard, which is even worse when you compare it to Ground Bite's above-average articulation. Gehry's head is on a hinged swivel with almost no downward range and about 45 degrees of upward tilt. HIs shoulders rotate and move 90 degrees laterally. His biceps swivel, and his elbows bend about 60 degrees. His wrists swivel, but no bend. His thumbs have a ball joint at the base and a single hinged knuckle. Each of his fingers are individually articulated with a hinge at the base and a hinge at the middle knuckle. He technically does have a waist swivel, but what you see in the above image is the maximum range you're going to get out of it because the wheels in his butt completely obstruct it. No ab crunch, either. His hips ratchet forward a little over 90 degrees, but backward only about 30 degrees. Lateral movement is a friction joint, and it's also limited to about 75 degrees. He has a limited thigh swivel, and his knees bend 90 degrees. His feet tilt down and slightly up, with about 45 degrees of ankle pivot before you have to fold down his heel to clear the edge of his leg. He can hold his gun and trumpet much the same way most MP-style figure do, with tabs on the accessories that fit into slots on his palms. I'll note that the tab on the trumpet is such that you curl his fingers through the loop under the keys. That's actually movie-accurate. While there's no storage for his weapons in robot mode, if you're worried about it there is storage on his back for the big green thing. Transforming Gehry's legs is pretty straightforward, perhaps even more so than Ground Bite. Enjoy that part, though, because the rest of the transformation is decidedly less enjoyable. A frankly unnecessary amount of the transformation is spent expanding his shovel and arranging the shovel's arms. Then there's his own arms, which spin apart so that you can kind of wedge his shoulders into the front of the alt mode but stick his forearms along the sides. The wheels move from his butt to the space his shoulders vacated. If you just look at the part of the loader made from Gehry's legs it's fine. The detail is pretty simplified, but that's kind of how the cartoon was even if it's not my preference. Likewise, the roof over the open cab is more cartoon/toy accurate than Ground Bite. But that's all the nice things I can say, because everything else is a mess of random parts smashed together in a way that's neither cartoon accurate, toy accurate, or realistic. Lumps of arm kibble lay along the sides, lumps of shoulder kibble cover the front, there's no details in the "cockpit" for a driver, the arms connecting the shovel are just kind of there, and the shovel itself is covered in seams and gaps to facilitate the again largely unnecessary robot mode shrinkage. It does, at least, roll. And the shovel can be raised to about this height. Alt mode weapon storage is as simple as plugging a tab on the underside of the loader's rear into a slot on the side of the gun. The green hunk of kibble can plug onto the top of the rear, with a shovel-looking piece reaching down into the void that's supposed to be the driver's cabin. I'm not sure why you'd actually want to store it in either his robot or his alt modes, though, aside from the fact that you really don't want to lose it. Yesterday, I said that Ground Bite makes for an excellent Scrapper due to his robot and loader modes, but I expressed some concern over the leg mode. Suffice to say, Fans Toys took the opposite approach. All the complaints I had about Gehry's robot and especially his alt mode seem to be sacrifices in the name of his leg mode. Because, yeah, XTB went the usual route of standing the loader up on it's front with the shovel as the toes and his robot arms as his heels, but FT used Gehry's thicker robot arms to connect to the shovel. This in turn lifts the loader higher, which makes his robot legs form the Devastator thigh. The cabin flattens across the top, giving the cartoon-accurate square on the knee and semi-hiding his front wheels, while the back wheels fold inside his robot legs. Meanwhile, some flaps change position on shovel blade to give him the two-toed look. That green chunk we've been just sort of dealing with in his other modes becomes a vital part of the leg mode, as the bulk of it forms a cartoon-accurate angled heel, with the shovel-esque part reaching to sit between his robot shoulders to form a uniform bit on the front of the leg. The result is a leg mode that fairly accurately captures the wonky Sunbow animation model, for better or worse. In leg mode, it looks like Gehry has a just under 45 degrees of ankle pivot, no up or down tilt, and just under 90 degrees of knee bend, and he feels solid as a brick (save for a flap in the shovel where a tab broke off). I don't have any real concerns about the combined mode here, and somewhat interestingly, it's actually easier to flip between robot and leg mode than robot and loader or loader and leg. In the battle for your shelf, I think Ground Bite is pretty definitely the better Scrapper. However, I did say yesterday that I think a lot of people care more about a Masterpiece Devastator than a Masterpiece Scrapper, and on that note Ground Bite's greatest weakness is Gehry's greatest strength. So if you want a Masterpiece Scrapper, skip Gehry and get Ground Bite. But if you don't care to transform your figures and you want the best Devastator, well, the tables have turned and you might want to pass on Ground Bite and grab Gehry and the other Fans Toys Constructicons. If you're curious what I personally plan to do, I think I may continue to pick up X-Transbots' Constructicons (assuming their Long Haul get's a reissue) based on how good they look in their robot and alt modes and how (surprisingly) solid the QC and engineering is. Based on my experience with Gehry (and from what I've seen of their next release, their Scavenger) I think Fans Toys' bots are just too expensive to have such compromised robot and alt modes, so even if their Devastator turns out great I'm out. I'm looking forward to MMC's Constructicons. Based on their track record with Bruticus and Defensor I'm expectingly delightfully clever yet fun transformations. I think they probably won't have better robot or alt modes than XTB, or a better Devastator mode than Fans Toys, but are the most likely to average out the best across all three modes.
  4. mikeszekely
    I bet Magnus will be expensive, but I'd be interested in both of those.
  5. mikeszekely
    You guys might have heard that there's another Devastator War going on. I myself have reviewed, in the last two months, the entire set of Mecha Invasion Constructicons as well as Dream Star Toys' Scrapper and Hook. While those guys represent some cool and stylized takes on the Constructicons I expect that there are quite a few people thinking, "yeah, that's nice and all, but I was kind of hoping for something with a bit more cartoon-accurate and with more modern engineering to replace Constructor." Well, we're getting a few of those, too! But which one is the right one? With the way things are going I don't think I can realistically buy all six members from every set out there. I can probably manage to buy Scrapper from every set, though (although 01-Studio and MMC's aren't out yet). So the first one up will be X-Transbots' Ground Bite. Out of the box, Ground Bite is making a strong first impression. The colors seem spot on. The proportions are good; he's not too wide, and he doesn't have the extra chunky limbs that ToyWorld's does. He's got the tiered thighs and rib vents of the animation model, with silver, gray and red details on his chest and the stripes on his hip skirts that match the cartoon. The round bits are present on his shins, and his head is on-point with a metallic red paint over translucent eyes. With his shovel you'd expect him to have a bit of a backpack, and he definitely does. However, it's pretty tightly compacted. I mean, you kind of want the bucket to stand out, as I feel it's a part of the character's design, but everything else is pretty unobtrusive and you won't see it from a lot of angles. Ground Bite comes with a lot of accessories. There's his gun, which is maybe on the small side but otherwise cartoon accurate. There's a pair of trumpets- one is for Ground Bite himself, the other is for Big Load, XTB's Long Haul who did come with one. There's a chunk of partsforming Devastator thigh... I find it interesting that it's only the knee and thigh, and none of the hip/pelvis. There's Devastator's chest plate. There's a pair of green circular bits. There's a sword that, if I'm not mistaken, Scrapper used to cut a car in half in the episode where they were making the Stunticons. There's a plastic base piece, some stickers you can put on the base to make it looked like cracked concrete. Ground Bite's articluation is pretty good. His head is on a hinged swivel, which means no sideways tilt but he can look down a bit and up about 45 degrees. His shoulders rotate and move laterally about 90 degrees, both on ratchets, and if you untab them from his torso you can even get a bit of forward butterfly. His biceps swivel. His elbows bend maybe 60 degrees or so. His wrists swivel, and they're hinged so he can bend his hands back. His thumbs have one hinge for folding them down over his palm, plus two hinged knuckles. All of his fingers are hinged at the base with a second middle knuckle; the index finger is a separate piece, while the other three are molded together. It strikes me as an atypical design for XTB, who usually do fully articulated hands with lots of ball joints, but if I'm being honest I prefer Ground Bite's. Unlike earlier articulated XTB hands, these ones don't feel like they're going to fly apart on me. Moving on, his waist has a ratcheted swivel, and he's got a little ab crunch. His hip skirts move so his hips can go 90 degrees forward and one click short of 90 backward on a ratchet, and over 90 degrees laterally on a friction joint. His thighs swivel, and his double-jointed knees (both ratcheted) can get a full 180 degrees of bend. No upward tilt on his feet, but the toes can fold down 90 degrees. They also swivel, which gives him a sort of unlimited ankle pivot. If you're worried about it being like a fake ankle pivot, his heels also swivel so the bottom of his foot can remain flat, but they swivel independently of the front of his feet. He can hold his gun or his sword the same way in either hand. Tabs on either side of the handle plug into slots on his palms, then you wrap the fingers around it. Aside from holding them, he doesn't seem to have any accessory storage in bot mode. The trumpet works similarly. There are tabs that fit into his palms, but you need to leave his hand mostly open so that the fingers can sit over the keys. You can kind of wrap the fingers around the bottom loop of the trumpet, but the result isn't quite cartoon-accurate, not quite how a real person would hold a real trumpet, but somewhere in between. One gimmick that doesn't require any accessories- there's a panel on Ground Bite's left arm that you can lift up to find molded computer details under. It's a small shame they're not painted to help them stand out, but the entire gimmick is more "nice to have" than necessity, so I'm not going to ding him for it. As for the green bits, you'll find that the wheels on Ground Bite's shoulders are basically tabbed on. You can remove them (be careful doing so, the tabs are kind of thin), then replace them with the green bits. This is mean to give him a truly Sunbow look, where Scrapper's wheels turned into round green lumps in the cartoon, if you're a hardcore cartoon purist. It's something you might want to do if you plan on leaving him in robot mode or leg mode, but again those tabs are kind of thin and must be removed and swapped back to the real wheels every time you want to go to alt mode. Speaking of alt mode... the transformation's actually pretty good! I mean, XTB is still going to be XTB, so there are a few sliders and a few parts and panels that are a bit thinner than I'd like, but the engineering itself is pretty straightforward. I think the most confusing part in the instructions are his legs, but once you've done it once or twice it's honestly pretty intuitive. I think the end result is pretty good. Yes, you've got some cartoon elements like the arms chilling on the sides and a bit of his silver thighs peeking out at you, but you've got realistic details like the exhaust and air cleaner over the engine, the bumper, grill, and taillights on the back, an open cab roof of the sort you might find on a actual wheel loader, and detailed, realistic arms connected to the bucket. There's even a seat in the cabin, with a steering wheel and little levers for operating the shovel. The tires are rubber, and the shovel can lift about this far. If you turn him upside down, you'll find space between these green flaps, flaps that have tabs on them. Collapse the barrel into the gun, and you can slot the tabs on the flaps into the sides of the gun to store it under the alt mode. In a nod to the G1 toy, you can put the chest shield on Ground Bite's back. However, doing so does require that you attach Devastator thigh, as the shield connects to it and not Ground Bite himself. Speaking of, normally I don't like to cover the combined mode until I do my review on the entire combined mode, but since Ground Bite has to stand as a proxy for all of the XTB Constructicons, we have to take the leg mode into consideration now. It's pretty typical Scrapper fare, with the shovel becoming the toes and his arms becoming the heels while the back end requires minimal transformation at all (basically just folding the air cleaner and exhaust back in and the cartoon round bits back out). The steering wheel gets stowed away and the seat folds down, and the cabin kind of tucks in. Some extra struts help hold the shovel in place, and panels fold out from the shovel to swap the realistic alt mode teeth with the two-toed look of the animation model. However, I suppose a downside of the more realistic alt mode details is that the leg mode isn't particularly similar to the goofy animation model in the first place. Of a more practical concern, while the thigh fits on tightly enough and does a lot of the heavy lifting in the leg articulation department, Ground Bite's waist does extend to give the leg mode an ankle pivot. However, the extended joint is kind of small, and seems to have trouble supporting the weight of the leg above it. The result is that the entire leg wants to lean backward. Now, it's not enough to to cause him to tip over, and it's entirely possible that the weight of the rest of Devastator on it (and shifting said weight forward a bit) might make this a non issue. It's clear, though, that it was on XTB's mind, because this is where the stand comes in. You'll find a hole under each arm, and four across the front of the shovel. These holes plug into pegs on the stand base. Unfortunately, it's unclear at this time whether the base will be a helpful display piece of an unfortunately necessary one. Given X-Transbot's reputation for spotty QC, I'm happy to report that Ground Bite is an excellent G1 Scrapper. He's solidly built and well painted. The robot mode has well-proportioned, strong sculpt that walks a line that leaves him very Sunbow accurate without being overly blocky and devoid of details. He's also well-articulated and comes with plenty of accessories. The transformation is pretty straightforward once you know what you're doing, and while the alt mode strays a bit from the simplistic animation model it adds a ton of realistic details while remaining broadly accurate. If you want a Masterpiece Scrapper for your shelf Ground Bite is a figure I can easily recommend. However, I think a lot of people are more interested in a Masterpiece Devastator than a Masterpiece Scrapper, and that's where things are a bit more questionable. The relatively small joint in Ground Bite's waist that essentially becomes the gestalt ankle seems like it could be a weak point. Time will tell if it's actually a problem, but a lot of collectors might feel like they have to make a decision now before figures start selling out. Paired with a leg mode that's definitely toy-accurate but doesn't quite match the Sunbow design and I suspect there are (or will be) better options of Devastator.
  6. mikeszekely
    Hey, it's gotta be for somebody besides suckers who buy everything to write Transformers reviews on a Macross message board.
  7. mikeszekely
    Gonna do a little cleanup before the next waves start hitting (and Alchemist and Vortex have both be pre/reviewed in Asia, so maybe not too far off). Here's all the recent repaints. We're opening with Leader-class G2 Grimlock. There's not a ton of difference between him and the original Studio Series release. His eyes are red and he's got some painted sticker detail, but the biggest change is that the gray plastic was swapped for blue. To be fair, though, that's pretty accurate to how the original G1 toy worked... There's no changes to the mold, so we have to wait for an upgrade kit to give him articulated dino arms or his front teeth. He even comes with the same accessories- gun, crappy Wheelie slug (painted to look like the Marvel comics, but still just as un-articulated and worthless), still no sword. All-in-all, he's fine, if you've somehow missed this mold so far or are super attached to the blue one because that's the one you had as a kid. But frankly, the Walmart version of the unreleased G2 colors is the better G2 Grimlock, while the less visually interesting Studio Series one has the benefit of being cartoon accurate. Age of the Primes also gave us Deluxe-class Wasp, who's a essentially Legacy United Animated Bumblebee with a new head. One the one hand, I do like this mold. It's got its flaws, like the seriously wonky shoulders, but there's something I find interesting about the transformation. Plus, I know Waspinator had a toy in the Animated line, but I don't think Wasp did, despite spending more screen time as Wasp. So I think this is probably a win for Animated fans. Then again, while I did like the cartoon I've talked before about how I don't like the stylized 2D designs of Animated as 3D objects. So... I kind of think if you have one of this mold that's enough. Especially if you're more into G1. But like I said, I can see Animated fans being jazzed for Wasp. While we're still Generations-adjacent, here's Walmart's retro Gears. New head, lighter blue, silver gun instead of black, and some different paint apps to better represent the G1 toy's stickers. Shame he still has the unpaintable gray parts in his elbows and fists, though. The blue windows are black like the G1 toy, is is the strip on his hood and he's got his sunroof back. Since it's not molded onto the original hood, they tampoed a Microchange "M" onto the hood. All-in-all, a toy deco doesn't totally capture the wonkiness of the actual G1 toy, but if you like toy decos it's pretty good, especially with the new head. Bumblebee, sadly, didn't fare quite so well. Ditching the yellow pelvis and forearms and using black translucent plastic for the windows is nice and toy accurate, and the shade of yellow is better than the Kraft Singles color used on Neftlix Bee. But, even it it happens to match the Walmart-exclusive G1 reissue with the new cartoon head from a few years back, it does NOT match the battle mask of the G1 toy. Then there's the crappy Cliffjumper Bazooka thing, the lack of alt mode storage for it due to the licensed VW alt mode, and the fact that you have to partsform him to get to said alt mode. Long story short, I'd have strongly preferred this deco with a proper battle mask head on the Studio Series toy, not this one. Alright, moving into Studio Series we have Gamer Edition Ironhide. As the lone SS retool, I guess they had the budget to go hard on him. He's got a new head, new torso, new shoulder pads, and a new weapon based on the EMP Shotgun from the War for Cybertron game. He's also got the same axe as Ratchet. He has a surprising amount of retooled parts for alt mode, too. New front bumper, tweaked roof, and a new rear hatch. The slots on said hatch are a little closer together, so he couldn't carry Ratchet's weapon back there, but fortunately the tabs on the shotgun are closer together, so it works. Despite being slightly tweaked, the roof still has the tabs for the axe. Gamer Edition hasn't been a particularly impressive subgenre for Studio Series, and if you've been skipping them Ironhide is definitely not the one to start with. But if you have a couple, and you liked Ratchet, Ironhide's basically the same thing. Lastly, coming out of left field (well, actually, Japan) we've got Bingo Sports Optimus Prime, a Japan-only retool of Studio Series Crosshairs as Age of Extinction/The Last Knight Optimus. It's a fairly extensive retool, with a new torso, head, shoulders, and biceps. He does have a new gun... But if you'd rather, he comes with the same SMGs that Crosshairs did, and they store in his "coat" the same way they do on Crosshairs. Speaking off, while the new torso and head isn't bad for a Deluxe, Crosshairs had a lot of kibble that we kind of ignored just because it was supposed to be his trench coat. But Prime doesn't have a coat or a cape or anything like that, so on him it's straight up just kibble. As with his bot mode, Prime is a suprisingly heavy retool. The nose, the grill, the spoiler, and the sides are all new, really only leaving the roof, windows, wheels, and butt carried over from Crosshairs. And on that note, you'll see that they both have a pair of notches under the spot for the license plate... This notch allows you to (awkwardly) plug in his new gun. And it's kind of weird that on a figure with so many new parts, the one place the new gun plugs into was a place that isn't new and already had holes despite the fact that Crosshairs did NOT have anything to plug into them. I guess the question you might have is, "why even make Prime a Corvette in the first place?" And the answer is simple... because the Corvette is a real car! Bingo Sports, a Japanese company that helps buyers acquire high-end cars, sponsors a real racing team in Japan. And their CEO, Shinji Takei, drives this Callaway C7 GT3-R. Sadly, Prime is missing some of the sponsors, like the "Callaway" in the grill, "Pirelli" on the bumpers, "Japan Cup" across the windshield, etc. But I think it's cool that Takara re-engineered a different toy that had a C7 'Vette alt mode into a Prime that turns into a real car with an Optimus-style paint job and Transformers branding. That said, would I actually recommend buying it? Probably not. Like a lot of movie Deluxes, Crosshair's mold isn't that great. And this is still a Deluxe, no matter how remolded or how nicely-painted, carrying a price tag around double a "normal" Deluxe. I'd say most collectors don't really need this one. That said, if you're a more Optimus-focused collector (like me) or you're into cars (like me) it's a pretty interesting bit of Transformers history.
  8. mikeszekely

    HMR VF-19P

    mikeszekely replied to BlueMax's topic in Toys

    In the case of the 19P I think we're pretty close already. Just repaint all the red as black, replace the Zora Patrol emblems with the UN Spacy kite, and slap some Jolly Rodgers on the vertical stabs. Really hoping the speakers are just pegged in and can be removed easily. It's always bothered me that they're swept forward.
  9. mikeszekely
    OK, I misunderstood you. I originally read "I'd prefer a figure that looked more like Fortress Maximus and less like a lazy Metroplex retool" as a critique of Big Mac, not a reference to the Has/Tak one. I definitely feel the same way. I part of me wants to replace my Takara Metroplex with the Siyang Vladivostok for a similar Geewunniness. Well, especially if I'm going to have to pay a 145% markup due to tariffs, price is definitely a concern. But after playing with a bunch of big combiners and Titan-class toys, no, bigger isn't always better. I mean, 50cm, 60cm, 70cm, it's all still too small to be in-scale with Has/Tak's mainline figures, let alone any MP-style stuff, so I'd rather they just cap out around 45cm. Big enough to convey that they're big, small enough to still work onto a shelf and handle without a team of assistants.
  10. mikeszekely
    If you have a Switch, I really loved Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity and Fire Emblem Warriors: The Three Hopes. For a more classical mixup vs Lu Bu Dynasty Warriors 8 is good (9 was TERRIBLE). I haven't played Origins yet. Samurai Warriors 4 is good if you like Sengoku history, and if you're a fan of Dragon Quest both of the Dragon Quest Warriors games were good. For Gundam specifically it's Dynasty Warriors Gundam Reborn, but in the US it was only released as a digital PS3 game. I never got into the Orochi games or the One Piece ones.
  11. mikeszekely
    If you're talking about the Has/Tak Titan, yeah, but if you mean Big Mac, it already does look more like Fortress Maximus and not a Metroplex repaint. It's even got most of the G1 toy's sticker details. My biggest gripe with Big Mac is that he's too big.
  12. mikeszekely
    I did, but I've been a fan of Musou games since Dynasty Warriors 3 on the PS2. There are better Musou games than the Gundam ones, and for Gundam hack-n-slash games the Breakers games are better, but if you like Musou games and Gundam then they're still fun.
  13. mikeszekely
    I get that, and I didn't expect to find three empty M.2 slots, but I figured maybe three with one occupied by the system drive. If you're already advertising that you have bluetooth and wifi 6 just don't count that as an M.2 slot even though it's technically in an M.2s slot, because very few people are willing to give up wifi and bluetooth to add another SSD.
  14. mikeszekely
    Nice! I never played the Breakers on Vita, just PS3 for the first two, PS4 for the third, and PC for GB4. I did play Gundam Seed Battle Destiny (good, but not as good as Gundam Battle Universe on the PSP) and Gundam Extreme Vs Force, which I seem to recall reviewing poorly but I loved it for the solid single player campaign.
  15. mikeszekely
    New PC arrived. Asus ought to step up their QC... Out of the box it kept giving me errors about being unable to continue the Windows installation. Fortunately I used to fix computers for a living, so it wasn't difficult to get into Windows Recovery, run a factory reset, and then get it setup. Another minor complaint is that Best Buy advertises it as having three M.2 slots and two 2.5" bays. Well, the only way you're getting three m.2 slots is if you pull out the Bluetooth/Wi-Fi module; there's only one free slot. As for the 2.5" bays, there's room in front of the PSU but no mounting hardware- no cages, no sleds, no caddies, nada. I put my 2TB game drive in the M.2, and for now I installed my 3TB 3.5" bulk storage drive by screwing it into the bottom of the case with a single screw. Down the roads I'll probably get a PCIe NVME card and a 4TB SSD to replace it, but I'm kind of irritated that a case that's probably 20-25% bigger than my old one can't properly fit a 3.5" drive. On the plus side, I went from 45-50fps on a medium-low mix and minimal ray tracing on AC Shadows to 60-65fps on High with the ray tracing cranked all the way up. So once I get all my stuff reinstalled and my settings tweaked the way I like I'll be quite happy. EDIT: tried Ultra High and was in the high 50s, so I dialed back a few things like fog, shadows, and clutter and was able to get over 60 with with good stuff still maxed.
  16. mikeszekely
    I ordered this today at Best Buy. https://www.bestbuy.com/site/asus-rog-g700-gaming-desktop-intel-core-ultra-7-32gb-memory-nvidia-geforce-rtx-5080-2tb-ssd-black/6613426.p?skuId=6613426
  17. mikeszekely
    And finally, we wrap up the new Studio Series molds with Deluxe-class 86 Bonecrusher. OK... there's no getting around it. We all saw the photos before he was even released... Bonecrusher is one dumpy dude. He's a solid block of a bot, and it's unfortunately exacerbated by the fact that his head's a little too small, his legs are a little too short, and his arms are significantly too short. I criticized SS86 Scrapper hard for being too similar to the Combiner Wars toy, but in terms of overall proportions SS86 Bonecrusher is actually a downgrade from the Combiner Wars toy. It's not really any better from other angles, either, where you can see that Bonecrusher isn't just too wide left-to-right, he's too thick back-to-front. What's more, despite knowing that Devastator will be more of a partsformer than the Combiner Wars toy, SS86 Bonecrusher still has what appears to be a chunk of the combined forearm on his back. I don't want to be entirely negative, so let's talk about the positive changes. Well, they ditched the silver on his arms and chest. How you feel about that is subjective, but objectively it's more cartoon accurate. And while he might have benefitted from longer legs, the lack of skinny gap that the CW toy has where his legs extend does look better. I think I might even go so far as to say that, while the forearm backpack is disappointing, it's not as long or obtrusive as the one on the CW toy. Another improvement is that he has a gun! Sure, it's a fairly small, fairly simple one, but it's cartoon accurate and certainly better than no gun. 86 Bonecrusher's articulation is pretty similar to the CW toy, because they use rather similar joints. His head swivels (same), with minimal up/down tilt (same) and no sideways tilt (same). Shoulders are ball joints (same) that swivel and move laterally 90 degrees (same). There's no dedicated wrist swivel (same), instead the swivel is the ball joint in his elbow (same). Said ball joint also gives him 90 degrees of elbow bend (kind of wash, CW has a hinge for transformation that'll allow him to bend his elbow 180 degrees, but only if the elbow isn't swiveled. No wrist articulation (same). He does technically have a waist swivel, which you could consider an improvement... if the shovel on his chest didn't tab into his abdomen and negate it. Hips are ball joints (same), with 90 degrees of forward range (worse) due to his shovel kibble, over 90 degrees backward (better) due to not having backpack kibble in the way, and cutouts that allow 90 degrees of lateral spread (same). His thighs swivel (same, though it's a proper mushroom swivel and not another ball joint like the CW toy), and his knees bend 90 degrees (same, though I'll note that it's a proper hinge in a more anatomically-correct spot instead of using the same ball joint that was the thigh swivel on the CW toy). His toes can tilt down, not up (same), and his ankles pivot 90 degrees (technically less range than CW, but 90 is plenty). So, yeah, no real improvements on articulation and only minor improvements on the types of joints... but in the interest of fairness, SS86 Bonecrusher feels a lot better. The tolerances on his joints are tighter, his shovel actually pegs in, and his pelvis isn't splitting in half every time you manipulate the legs. Oh, and there's the gun again. He can hold it without issue in either of his fists. There's a 5mm port on his backpack if you want to give him bot mode storage, which is nice. And for what it's worth, he's got a 5mm port under each foot, too. Bonecrusher's transformation has some broad similarities in that part of his torso with his head has to move back to leave a gap for his arms to fold into, and his backpack ends up underneath so his tread legs have something to attach to. The differences are more where and how things fold. For instance, the front of the bulldozer isn't his chest like the CW version, it's his abdomen. That means that his pelvis doesn't have to split apart to shift his hips upward, they're already in the right place. His chest and arms come away from his abdomen with his head. That section of the torso winds up rotating backward 90 degrees, so the back of the bulldozer is the top of his torso (and his head has to fold 180 degrees), rather than staying upright. The differences in engineering are a trade off; they're why his torso ends up so thick and his limbs so short in bot mode, however, they're also why he's more solid in bot mode and, I'm happy to report, in bulldozer mode, too. Aesthetically, I don't have a lot to complain about with the alt mode. The purple bands on the front, the lack of teeth on the shovel, and the open canopy with no actual driver's seat or wheel are more cartoon accurate than the CW toy. The mechanical details on the engine compartment and the splashes of silver paint in the treads aren't so cartoon accurate, but I think they help break up the monotony of all that green. While the shovel is attached via multiple hinges, they're really there for transformation and are mostly locked into place. So the shovel can tilt up (which isn't actually how a shovel on a bulldozer works), and that's about it. He does have a pair of 5mm ports on top (which are technically the back sides of his fists) where you can plug in his gun. It's hard not to feel a bit underwhelmed by Bonecrusher. He's a tad more accurate in some ways, he has a gun, and he's a lot more solid, sure, but his articulation is largely the same and he's got far worse proportions than a version of the character from a decade ago. Too be fair, Bonecrusher was arguably one of the best of the CW Constructicons with better-than-average articulation for the time, and CW Bonecrusher is technically a Voyager while SS86 Bonecrusher is only a Deluxe, but still, if SS86 Scrapper hasn't sold you on the SS86 Constructicons I don't think Bonecrusher will, either. However, it's a safe bet that most of us will care less about the individual Constructicons and more about the combined Devastator. Now, neither Scrapper nor Bonecrusher's instructions mention their combined modes, but I can make some educated guesses. And based on those guesses I expect that Devastator will be significantly more solid than the CW toy. So if a more solid Devastator that isn't oddly huge compared to your other combiners sounds appealing it's probably a good idea to pick up Bonecrusher (and Scrapper), despite his bot mode flaws.
  18. mikeszekely
    I mean, yeah, kinda? Certainly not in the food/clothing/shelter sense, but my PC just isn't performing at the level I want anymore. The Core i7-9700K is just too old; urban areas in games like any Assassin's Creed or Baldur's Gate III (when you actually get to the city) grind to a crawl as it tries to manage all the NPCs. And while adding more RAM and upgrading from an RTX 2080 to an RTX 4070 helped keep things going for awhile, with mandatory ray tracing becoming a thing I'm turning down so many settings I might as well be playing on a console. What it really comes down to is priorities. Like I said, I wanted to upgrade my laptop, too, but I'm putting that off for the present to grab a desktop with an RTX 5080 instead of an RTX 5070 or 5070 TI. I was also thinking about getting the Switch 2 at launch, but after the Nintendo Direct I'm going to hold off on that, too.
  19. mikeszekely
    Normally I'd agree 100%, but with the chaos that is GPU pricing (and to a lesser extent CPU) even before adding tariffs to the mix I gotta take what I can find. As is, my original plan was to buy a new laptop and replace my desktop later, but the laptop i'd been eyeing went up by $200 before even being released. Since I haven't even traveled in awhile I decided I'm better off upgrading my desktop now before things get worse, and putting off the laptop until things get better.
  20. mikeszekely
    That'd narrow the gap between the MSI at Costco and the Asus at Best Buy to $80, so yeah, Asus it is.
  21. mikeszekely
    Not a bad deal at all, given how hard it is to get an Nvidia GPU in the first place. Don't you have to be a member, though? There's no Costcos around here, so I'm not. Meanwhile, I got a $200 Best Buy gift card from my credit card, and my wife gave me a $500 Best Buy gift card for my birthday. They have a similarly-specced Asus G700 desktop (main difference is an Intel Core Ultra 7 U7-265KF instead of a Ryzen) for $200 more. Even though the base price is a bit more I think the Intel CPU benchmarks slightly better, and with my gift cards I'll come out ahead so I might just get that.
  22. mikeszekely
    The Fallen wrapped up the first wave of AotP, and it looks like we're making progress on Studio Series, too. Today we've got Voyager-class Transformers One Sentinel Prime. SS Sentinel is, of course, bigger than the Prime Changers toy from last year, with colors that are significantly more accurate. His biceps, thighs, and ribs are properly a silvery color, with gunmetal on his lats and in his forearms. He's got the light blue and gold on his legs and knees, but sadly there's no gold on the backs of his hands or the outsides of his biceps and thighs. He's sporting tabs on the outsides of his forearms where the CGI model had fins, but they should properly be gold. Things are a bit messier from the back. The nose of his jet mode is just dangling there, and his wings don't have the shape or textures we saw in the film. Granted, this probably has a lot to do with the fact that Sentinel Prime doesn't transform in the film, and I'm not sure that an alt mode was even designed for it. The box art for the Prime Changer toy actually used a recolored version of Starscream's alt mode, while the art on the Studio Series box seems to be based directly on the toy itself. Speaking of Starscream... does Sentinel give anyone else Seeker vibes? I'd swear we're a retool away from this mold being used for TFOne Starscream if I didn't already hear that TFOne Thundercracker will be a 2026 Deluxe. Anyway... Sentinel comes with his shield, which despite the lack of color is actually more screen accurate than the Prime Changers version. He also comes with a pair of very Null Ray-esque guns. Unfortunately, the one accessory I think he really should have had is the double-bladed sword he used in the movie, but we'll have to wait for an upgrade kit for that. Sentinel's head seems to be on a hinged swivel, so he can look up but he lacks any sort of downward or sideways tilt. His shoulders swivel and move laterally almost 90 degrees. His biceps swivel, and his elbows bend 90 degrees. No wrist articulation. His waist swivels. His hips can go 90 degrees forward and a little over 90 degrees laterally, but only about 45 degrees backward due to his backpack. His thighs swivel, and his knees bend 90 degrees. His feet can tilt down, but not up, and his ankles pivot 90 degrees. His shield clips onto the tab on the outside of either forearm. He can use the 5mm pegs to hold his guns. He lacks any other sort of weapon storage. OK, technically that's not entirely true. The shield has nowhere to store, but the guns can also be plugged onto the shield for a look that I believe is more movie accurate. While we're at it, you can open his chest to flip up a battle mask, and swivel his pecs out a bit. The tops of his shoulders open, and small guns can swivel out of them. His forearm can slid down over his fist to make a Mega Man-style arm cannon. The gold panels on the outsides of his legs open so you can fold out molded missiles. Finally, you can give him a bit of extra height by folding boosters out of his heels and folding his feet down. This is the battle mode we saw in the film. What we didn't see in the film, though, was an alt mode. From his base robot mode, turn his head 180 degrees, and slide both forearms down over his fists. Fold down his toes and fold out the boosters in his heels, but this time collapse them down against his toes and tab his legs together. Pull his arms and pecs away from his torso so you have room to flip his nose up over his head; his pecs will tab into his thighs. Double-hinge his backpack down so that it fills in the gab between the nose and his legs. Swing the tips from the tops of his wings to the edges, then fold the wings down so they tab into two spots on his legs. With the wings in place, you can lock the arms in by slotting tabs under the wings into the backs of his arms, just above his forearms. Then you can finish him off by folding the vertical stabilizers up. Although not seen in the film, the jet mode is pretty consistent with the one on the Prime Changers version, and I kind of like it. It's got Cyclonus vibes. His torso and legs attempt to integrate into the fuselage, though it winds up a little on the thick side. Likewise, they seem to have attempted to make his forearms into more engine nacelles, but the un-aerodynamic shoulders throw it off. All-in-all, it definitely has its flaws, but it's far from the worse jet-mode we've seen. His shield stores on a tab on the back of the fuselage. His guns have tabs that plug into the sides just in front of his wings. It's not documented, but you can also open his shoulders and swing up the shoulder guns. I have to admit, I wasn't particularly excited for Sentinel Prime, but while far from perfect he is surprisingly better than I expected. In fact, I think he's probably the best Transformers One toy released so far. I wouldn't say that he's so good that I'd recommend him if you aren't collecting the TFOne figures, though. However, I will say this... Age of the Primes has me thinking not just about the original Thirteen Primes, but the Lineage of Primes (that is, the Transformers who have carried the Matrix of Leadership between Prima and Optimus Prime, which in the IDW comics was Prima, Nova Prime, Nominus Prime, Zeta Prime, Sentinel Prime, and then Optimus Prime), and I think that with a little tweaking this figure could actually be not Sentinel, but rather Nominus Prime. We already have IDW-esque toys for Nova Prime and Sentinel Prime, so a toy for Nominus would just leave me wanting a Zeta Prime.
  23. mikeszekely
    Because it means we're old. Anyway, this guy finally came, which I do believe (mostly) finishes out the first wave of Age of the Primes. It's Leader-class Megatronus Prime. Megatronus, better known as The Fallen, traces his origins all the way back to the days of the Dreamwave comics where he was the primary antagonist of The War Within: Dark Ages miniseries. Those comics depicted him as an incredibly ancient, powerful Transformer that was very heavily implied to be working for Unicron. This was at the very genesis of Simon Furman's idea for the Thirteen; he would subsequently flesh out the Fallen's story as being one of the original thirteen Transformers created by Primus to battle Unicron early in the universe's history. The Fallen sided with Unicron instead, and was sealed away with Unicron by the remaining twelve. Later continuities, like the Prime-centric "aligned" continuity of The Covenant of Primus had him defeat Unicron but later come into conflict with the other Primes, causing him to name himself as The Fallen and leave Cybertron. Regardless of which origin story we accept as correct (if any... perhaps they're all legends, corrupted by time?) the Age of the Primes figure is almost entirely based on that appearance in the Dreamwave comics, including his color scheme, the molded details of his chest and pelvis, and the face that's meant to evoke the Decepticon symbol. The numerous little yellow lines on his body are actually supposed to be vents, and the yellow is the glow of the fire within his body (a feature that's more or less unique to the Dreamwave version). Megatronus come with a number of accessories. You get his signature relic, the Requiem Blaster. There's also a small black barrel (that I've already attached to his backpack), a sword, a purple stick, a spikey bit, and a quartet of flame effects. There should actually be one more accessory, a small black box with molded missile details. It's supposed to attach (and remain attached) to a peg on his left shoulder, however, it was entirely missing from my copy. Thank goodness I preorder from both Amazon and Pulse. 😒 Megatronus' head is on a ball joint that can look up and down a little, with a slight sideways tilt and a swivel. His shoulders swivel, can extend laterally 90 degrees, and due to his transformation have a little forward/backward butterfly. His biceps swivel, and his elbows bend slightly over 90 degrees. His wrists are actually ball joints, so they can swivel as well as wiggle a little. His fingers are pinned so his hands can open. His waist swivels. His hips can go 90 degrees backward or laterally, and over 90 degrees forward. His thighs swivel, and due to transformation he has as swivel just above the knee as well. Speaking of knees, they bend 90 degrees. His feet can tilt up and down a little, plus they pivot nearly 90 degrees. The big flame effects are meant to attach to the 5mm ports on the sides of his shoulders and wrap around to the front, while the the smaller one plug into 5mm ports on top of his backpack. The barrel plugs into a 5mm port on either side of his backpack; the instructions put it on the left (which is Dreamwave accurate), but I chose to put it on the right to reinforce the similarity to Megatron. It can swivel there like a shoulder cannon, though his backpack isn't tall enough for for him to fire it straight forward. On that note, the Requiem Blaster plugs into a 5mm port on either forearm, just like Megatron's fusion cannon. As for the rest of his accessories, they can combine into a bladed staff that's originally a call back to call back to the staff used by The Fallen in Revenge of the Fallen, but has since been carried over to the Robots In Disguise 2015 and Transformers One versions of the character. Alternatively, you could split the spear apart, and slide one end into one of his fists while opening his hand and pushing the handle of the blade into his other, giving him a sort of mace/axe and a machete. All of his weapons can store on his backpack. The black barrel remains where you attached it in the first place, and the Requiem blaster plugs into the port on the opposite side. The shaft and blade of his spear each use pegs to plug into the pair of ports directly on his back. There isn't really anywhere else to store his flame effects except when he's not pretending to be on fire. Transforming Megatronus does involve some partsforming. Not only do you have to remove his spear and flame effects, but the Requiem Blaster and and the barrel on his backpack have to come off, too. That said, while there are some basic similarities to Siege/Earthrise Megatron in that his cannon goes between his arms to form the turret, something else gets plugged into the cannon to become the tank barrel, his backpack contains the front treads, and his lower legs spread and bend inward at the knee to form the rear treads. The process feels more refined, though, with his chest reshaping into the front of the tank, parts of the treads storing inside of his torso so that his backpack can be smaller, and panels unfolding from his butt and legs to fill in the gap at the rear. When Megatronus was first revealed I predicted that Studio Series 86 Megatron could be a heavy remold of him (and for reference, he's a little taller than SS86 Optimus), and while one of the designers (I think Evan) said that's not the case, I'd be really surprised if Megatron doesn't borrow at least some of the engineering here. As you've no doubt noticed, Megatronus is a tank. That aligns with RID15 and probably with Dreamwave (he didn't transform in the comics and I can't find any concept art of an alt mode, but the Titanium Series toy that was also based on Dreamwave was a tank), though other versions make him a Cybertronian jet. I don't have a lot to say here. It works well enough, as both the front and back are filled in, and since it's a Cybertronian tank it can look however it wants without needing to be accurate to anything. The turret can rotate, and the Requiem Blaster can pivot up where it's connected to his arms. The big flames can really only peg into the top of the turret on what are the insides of his forearms. You have more options of stowing his spear and the smaller flames, with 5mm ports available on top of the turret (on what are the sides of his shoulders) as well as the top and sides of the front of the tank. Of all the Primes save Primus and Alpha Trion Megatronus is the one most likely to appeal to the G1 crowd. He actually appeared in a G1 comic book, and after his brothers he arguably has the most lore (where many of the remaining Thirteen seem hastily thrown together to fill out a the ranks of a group who's number was decided before who actually belonged in it). The black-and-purple, always-on-fire design is a bit edgelord in hindsight, but was cool back in 2003. And most importantly, he's a solid figure with good articulation and accessories. I have a feeling he's going to wind up a highlight among the Thirteen Primes released in the Age of the Primes trilogy, but even if you're not in for all Thirteen he's still worth picking up.
  24. mikeszekely
    It's not on Steam yet, but apparently PC too (which is where I'll get it). https://www.gematsu.com/2025/04/daemon-x-machina-titanic-scion-launches-september-5-for-ps5-xbox-series-switch-2-and-pc Now I just need Squeenix to tell me that Bravely Default remastered is also coming to PC and I'll put off the Switch 2 (at least for now). How bad can Metroid Prime 4 on the OG Switch be...? (don't answer that)
  25. mikeszekely
    We're hitting a point where people who were kids and watched Transformers during the Unicron Trilogy or the first few Bayverse movies are about the same age as G1 kids were when Classics '06 hit, and for all the people who complain about G1 endlessly getting rehashed (especially the Bayverse fans who cry about SS86 invading what was previously a line for the live action movies) I've been told by reliable sources that it's the G1ers who are voting with their wallets, which is why we keep getting new and slightly improved versions of the G1 cast for the umpteenth time while even big names like the TLK version of Megatron haven't gotten a figure since the TLK movie line.
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