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mikeszekely

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  1. mikeszekely
    Good, thanks for asking. My daughter's at a point where I have to watch YouTube videos about how to do math just to help her with her homework...😆
  2. mikeszekely
    I mean, I've been hanging out at MW since I was in college, like 25 years now. I haven't met a single person from these boards in real life, but there are people that I interact with enough that I like some of them better than the friends I do have IRL. As for social media, I used Twitter mostly to keep up on sports and news that I might not see otherwise. And I seriously just started using Facebook this year to get in touch with an old high school friend. So I guess it's a little hard for me to feel nostalgic for something I never stopped using because the thing I never used got crappier. Still, cheers bud, we definitely agree on one thing. We got a relatively small community compared to some other forums and junk, but frankly, I think we're a tighter knit for it. Kudos to @Shawn for keeping the lights on all these years.
  3. mikeszekely
    Yeah... it's supposed to be gray prototype, colored prototype, and finished product. And it's cool that the finished one has more cel-shading than the regular SS release, and that there's a rifle this time... but the two prototypes have me scratching my head. I get that they want to give the designers some spotlight and show of the design process, but release a book or something. Don't try to talk me into dumping $85 on three copies of the same figure in decoes I don't want or need, especially when there are so many other decos they could use that would get me to open my wallet... Nemesis Prime, Ultra Magnus, dead gray Optimus, Shining Magnus, Delta Magnus, etc.
  4. mikeszekely
    This. I heard DDR5 could go up by as much as 70%.
  5. mikeszekely
    It's a more complicated question than you might think. It's going to depend a lot on what games you're actually planning to play—actual performance difference on various games at 1440p can range from the 5070ti doing around 40% better at something like GTA 5, to both cards being neck-and-neck at Marvel Rivals or Black Myth Wukong, to the 9070XT performing around 41% better at Rocket League. And that's before you take into account how you feel about stuff like AI upscaling (Nvidia's DLSS generally does a better job than AMD's FXSS, but both are improving at a good clip, I've used both, and both are generally OK) and frame generation (I'm not sure what the consensus is, but I strongly prefer not to use either). Then there's stuff like ray tracing, which most people will tell you Nvidia is much better at, but I'll toss in the caveat that whether you need to use RT at all depends on the game; Control looks way better with it, The Outer Worlds 2 looks pretty much the same to me whether it's on or off, and some games like Indiana Jones require it. If you want a simplistic answer, though, they're fairly close in performance on average and should net you 60fps or better on most games at 1440p. See what's on sale (especially this close to Black Friday/Cyber Monday). I'd consider spending a little more on the RTX 5070ti if the gap is pretty close, but if the gap is larger than, say, $50, you can safely save your money and get the 9070XT. Or do like Az said, get the monitor now, wait and see what GPUs come after CES in January.
  6. mikeszekely
    Having forced my friend, who'd never see Tron, to watch both it and Legacy BEFORE we saw Ares, I can't blame Ares for killing any nostalgia I had for the original Tron. Like, as a kid, the Recognizers and Lightcycles were cool, and I know I spent an afternoon throwing frisbees at my brother after catching Tron on TV. But as much as I dig the Atari-era aesthetics and they way they imagined programs doing their thing like people doing jobs, the story was a plodding mess. So much time is wasted on the human characters, especially the implied love triangle between Flynn, Alan, and Nora, that add nothing to the plot. Watching Flynn in the games is cool, but then it's back to meandering. Find Tron, and use Alan's code to take down the MCP? Fine. But no, they gotta drag in Yori, and they gotta stop and talk to Dumont, and Tron has to die but come back later... it's just boring at times.
  7. mikeszekely
    Star Shuttle comes packaged with the creatively named Red Tank, aka Warpath. In some ways you could argue that Dr Wu did a better job than Hasbro, as he's got white on his shoulders that appears on the character model that the Kingdom toy missed, and the white in his torso leaves a bit more red on his tummy that, again, the Kingdom toy left white. However, a complaint I'm hearing is that Red Tank took the name a bit too seriously; he's a very vibrant red, not the muted brick color that I think most of us would expect. I can say that I definitely think they're right, he is too bright. However, it doesn't bother me a ton, YMMV. For such a tiny figure the paint is pretty good. I mean, the treads are entirely red plastic, so they didn't just paint the white parts, they painted the black between the wheels. Other than that, not a ton to note. He cleans up about as well as any Warpath toy. Like most of Dr Wu's little Extreme Warfare dudes, Warpath doesn't come with any accessories. I wonder if that's why he's done so many minibots? The G1 minibots didn't come with any guns, so maybe it feels more appropriate? Truthfully, I know a lot of people want Dr Wu to do more guns for these guys, but at this scale I don't really care. In any case, Red Tank's head lacks any real articulation. I mean, you can kind of have him look down, but it's really folding his head into his chest. Shoulders are ball joints that swivel and move laterally 90 degrees. Elbows are ball joints that act as bicep swivels and bend 90 degrees. No wrist or waist articulation. His ball jointed hips can go forward, backward, or laterally 90 degrees. The limited movement around the ball is also all the thigh swivel you get. His knees bend 90 degrees, and he's got a tiny downward foot tilt and little under 45 degrees of ankle pivot. Red Tank's transformation isn't super complicated. The head folds into the turret, and armatures shift the shoulders back and down so the arms can form the back half. The tricky bit is using the joints in the right order to line up the feet and legs, with the inside of the foot flipping out and up to fill in the gap between his legs; if you don't have the order just right or everything lined up, chances are you're going to pop a ball joint out of the socket. Like the Kingdom toy, the flaps that fold out of the feet still leave quite a bit of a gap between the front treads. The white/light gray plastic that leaves a white/light gray patch on the rear is more cartoon accurate, though. Is it a perfect rendition of Warpath? Probably not, but it's not the worst I've seen, and the tank is maybe an inch in length, so I'll cut him some slack. There's no wheels or rolling treads or anything, but the turret does spin, and the tank's gun barrel can be angled down slightly or up to about 60 degrees. A working turret is all you really need in a tiny tank, right? I'll say this for Red Tank... he's not my favorite Dr Wu figure, but he's not the worst, either. He's fine. The fact that he's a main G1 cartoon character means you probably don't want to leave him out, and the fact that he comes with the quite good Star Shuttle means you're probably going to want the whole pack anyway. So do it! Do it with the knowledge that the Datsuns are coming...
  8. mikeszekely
    Ever since Dr Wu released his version of Cyclonus I've wanted him to do Scourge, too, to complete the trio of new '86 Decepticons. Fortunately, I didn't have to wait long. This is Star Shuttle, Dr Wu's take on Scourge. Putting Star Shuttle with Destroy Emperor (Galvatron) and Wingman (Cyclonus) really show how far the good doctor has come along since starting the Extreme Warfare line. Destroy Emperor looks positively primitive next to his henchmen! But I personally think that Star Shuttle is a bit more sharply sculpted than even the relatively recent Wingman. As good as he looks from the front, as we spin him around we do see quite a bit of alt mode. You kind of expect that in the wings, but the outsides of his legs and his backpack almost completely hide his robot form when viewed from the back. Once again, though, I'm inclined to cut some slack to a toy that's shorter than a tube of Chapstick and costs about as much as a Deluxe despite coming packed with a second figure. This time he even comes with a weapon! To be totally clear, I'm not sure if every copy of Star Shuttle will come with a gun. The impression I got was that this is a first run/preorder bonus. Star Shuttle's got pretty good articulation for his tiny size. His head swivels, no tilt. His shoulders are ball joints that swivel and move laterally 90 degrees. His elbows are ball joints which bend 90 degrees and double as bicep swivels. His wrists don't swivel, but his waist does. Hips are ball joints that go 90 degrees forward and laterally, and nearly 90 degrees backward. He has actual thigh swivels just above his knees, which are hinges that bend 90 degrees. His toes have some up/down tilt, and his ankles can pivot 90 degrees. His wings are attached via ball joints, so they can spread and flap for more dynamic poses. Star Shuttle's tiny hands are too small to practically have peg holes, so instead the handle of his gun is sort of like a c-clip that clamps around his fists. Star Shuttle's transformation borrows more from the G1 toy than the Studio Series one, with his legs turning inward and his heels folding down to make the front of the vehicle. His backpack spins 180 and a flap folds out to fill in the gap around his thighs. His shoulders shrug up and his forearms turn to plug into his cape, which then wraps around to tab in near his waist on the underside. Then his head turns 180 degrees and flips up, collar and all, so his head crest plugs into the middle engine nacelle. I think his alt mode came out pretty well, turning into a solid, swooshable little representation of the 3-engined, aerodynamic brick we all know and love (or hate, not judging). I think the biggest knocks against it are the visible shoulders and ball sockets on the wing joints. To a lesser extent, the hinges on the backpack flap and wings also seem relatively larger than they might on a Studio Series or Masterpiece figure, but it's the tradeoff necessary to make a figure this tiny that's also durable. With no wheels to roll on, not alt mode weapon storage, and no moving parts the alt mode doesn't actually do much, though. I guess it doesn't have to. And if troop building is your thing (at this price, why not?), good news! While the Scourge version of Star Shuttle comes packed with an entirely different fellow we'll talk about next time, you can also buy a two pack of Star Shuttle with a brighter blue plastic and a very pale blue in place of white, so Scourge can hang with his Sweeps. And yeah, everything I keep saying in all my other Dr Wu reviews applies here. They're not mini Masterpieces the way Newage or Magic Square make their figures. They're relatively simple, relatively cheap Micromaster-sized figures that do a great job of making your Titans and Combiners look even bigger. Their small size and small price also makes them easy to collect. So once again, yes, I recommend Star Shuttle.
  9. mikeszekely
    I expect that'll be the case for most of the MW. Maybe a few purchases of Sureshot. In a fanbase that already skews more toward G1 than later Transformers, MW tends to skew even further into "geewunner" than average. I love the deeper lore, though, and the Thirteen have fascinated me since Furman first started cooking them up in his Dreamwave days/DK's The Ultimate Guide to the Trasnsformers, so I'm also very looking forward to Quintus and Amalgamous. I like the design and colors of the Japanese Lio Convoy and Big Convoy better than Optimus Primal, so I'm in for Big Convoy. I debated whether or not I really wanted Quickstrike or not. He made the cut because he was a regular (albeit late) member of the cartoon Beast Wars cast (correct me if I'm wrong, but I think that just leaves Depthcharge and Rampage, and then maybe the Transmetal versions of some characters, to wrap up the cartoon cast). Razorclaw, on the other hand, is based on a 2003 Universe toy and isn't even the original Beast Wars toy to bear that name... that'd go to a 1997 toy that turned into a crab. Agree bigly. I got Trashmaster, that's enough of that mold.
  10. mikeszekely
    I preordered everything but Razorclaw (wake me when it's G1 Razorclaw), Wreck-Gar, and Jalopy. I wasn't a big fan of those fan-fic Junkions in the first place. Though, I might buy Jalopy if I happen to see him in stores one day; with his more traditional colors and Autobot badge he makes a better part of "Junkasaurus" than Axlegrease.
  11. mikeszekely
    Missing Link Optimus (and, to a lesser extent, Bumblebee) were interesting to me because it took a figure I (and I expect most Transformers fans) was incredibly familiar with, but gave it a more modern level of articulation and made a few improvements to eliminate the partsforming elements of the original. Missing Link Sunstreaker was interesting to me because I wasn't familiar with the original. Although the Missing Link version featured articulation and integrated hands that the original never did, it was my first time experiencing even the basic transformation engineering. The newest entry in the Missing Link line is interesting to me for third, brand new reason—because there never was a G1 toy. Yeah, we're talking about Missing Link Arcee. Note that she's based on an unreleased prototype, though there's a Missing Link version of said prototype. This made for a tough call on my part... the prototype version, with its different head sculpt and mix of orange and purple colors, could be argued as being more toy accurate. Except that it literally only existed as a hand-sculpted, non-transforming prototype. I'm not even sure if the images that were making the rounds were even of the physical prototype. Frankly, it's not certain that the toy would have actually been orange had it gotten further along in production, and I ultimately went with more traditional Arcee colors (though I wish they'd have kept the prototype head sculpt). Regardless of color, Missing Link Arcee gives a reasonable depiction of what a G1 Arcee toy might have looked like, with awkward shoulders, a flat chest, wide hips, and knock knees, though she still seems a bit more modern than the likes of G1 Kup, Blurr, or Hot Rod. Heck, her car kibble even cleans up quite a bit tighter than the SS86 toy! There seems to be a big departure here compared to the other Missing Link figures released so far. See, while Prime and Sunstreaker did come with stickers, if you wanted that look, their sticker details were actually sculpted and painted onto the toys already. Arcee, on the other hand, is looking pretty plain here. She doesn't even have an Autobot badge on her chest. But there are stickers that provide that badge, as well as covers for the screws on her shoulders and colorful bits for her toes and belly button. Her sole accessory is this pink gun. Although not a match for the gun she uses in the '86 movie (which the SS86 toy's gun is based on), I do believe that it's based on a gun she briefly used in the third season. If you want the movie-style pistol, well, I hear it comes with the prototype-colored version. Takara really wants you to double dip on this mold. Articulation isn't quite up to modern standards, but far beyond most of the actual '86 toys. Her head can swivel, and she can look about 45 degrees upward. Her shoulders, including the car fenders, can swivel, while a hinge gives her maybe 60 degrees of lateral movement. Her biceps swivel, and her elbows can bend just over 90 degrees. No waist or wrist swivels. Her hips can go about 90 degrees backward and nearly 180 degrees forward, though you have to move them out enough to clear per pelvis. Speaking of, they move 90 degrees laterally. She has a restricted thigh swivel; you can turn her legs about 45 degrees outward and just a touch inward. Her knees bend about 120 degrees. Her feet can tilt up and down about 45 degrees, and her ankles pivot about 45 degrees. Arcee can hold her gun in either hand. There are also peg holes on her backpack you can plug the gun into. The transformation is, honestly, kind of similar to the SS86 toy. Hinges move her hips to the rear of the vehicle, and her legs swing up so they can tuck under it. The front of her torso flips up to form the nose of the car, while the hood scoop, seats, and rear section with the fin are all parts of her backpack. The big difference is that SS86 Arcee has a lot more backpack to unfold, using it to make up more of the car's exterior while hiding her limbs. Meanwhile, Missing Link Arcee uses the arms to make the fenders and sides of the car, with her actual thighs making parts of the rear. And, y'know, maybe G1 toys didn't always have the best robot modes. But the vehicle modes were still pretty good, and that's definitely the case here. Not exactly cartoon-accurate, as she's significantly narrower with a longer nose that goes way past her front fenders versus the cartoon, yet it does so in a way that captures the sporty, almost hourglass shape the car had with wider fenders and a narrower cockpit, a short, round butt, and a long, sloping nose in a way that Titans Return, Kingdom, and even MMC's third party version didn't quite get. My only real gripe is the corners of her pelvis sticking out a bit from under the nose. Weapon storage on G1 toys wasn't aways a give, but there are two holes near the fin on the back of Arcee's car mode. Either of them can be used to store her gun while she's in alt mode (they're the same spots you can use the store them on her backpack). Growing up poor, I had more Gobots than actual Transformers prior to the '86 movie, but in the Christmas of 1986 I got the entire movie cast save for Cyclonus, Scourge, Gnaw, and Springer. I've rectified that as an adult, and even posted here comparing the '86 toys to some modern Siege, Kingdom, and Studio Series counterparts (something I could update, what with newer SS86 versions of Magnus, Springer and Galvatron). Despite being an important part of the new-for-the-movie cast, and despite having her SS86 figure hanging with her modern movie counterparts, Arcee is not among my 1986 G1 toys. While not truly a 1986 toy, or even a reimagining of an '86 toy with additional articulation, Missing Link Arcee is a sort of "what if?" that can represent the character with my actual 1986 toys. I think that's all I really needed her to be, but the fact that she's kind of decent even by modern standards, with a lot less kibble on her than most Arcee toys, makes her the sort of toy I want to recommend regardless.
  12. mikeszekely
    I just don't care for FT's entire MO anymore. Announce everything so that you don't buy the competition, only to eventually get an over-priced, overly-complicated figure that values paint and diecast over posability and playability. Honestly, the only stuff coming out of TFCon that has my attention is MMC's stiff. Specifically their Constructicons. I looked at FT and XTB's Scrappers, but MMC'S looks to be the (G1) set for me.
  13. mikeszekely
    Same. Honestly, that's usually the same for me. I've had basically no interested in anything Cang Toys has done (I like Gundam, and I like Transformers, but it doesn't mean I want my Transformers to look like Gundam🙃), no interest in TFC's Abominus, the only Iron Factory stuff I ever bought was their Bruticus, and DST's Aerialbots did nothing for me. I dunno why, but their Constructicons grabbed me, though. Mostly same, WfC Trilogy, Legacy, SS86, and AotP are giving me a lot of what I originally wanted like 10 years ago but felt the mainline wasn't delivering at the time. That said, I don't mind more complex stuff if it's good, interesting, or clever, like a lot of what MMC does, or some of Unique Toys' Bayverse stuff. When I criticize FT's Aerialbots for being over-engineered, I don't simply mean they were fiddly. I mean they took five steps to do something that could have been done in two, and they somehow nerfed a waist swivel while doing it. You specifically mentioned how they managed to make Silverbolt less of a Concorde with a brick of robot underneath, for example, but they way I saw it, sure, that block of robot was thinner, but it was still there, despite all the extra engineering that went into smearing that robot brick out and jamming some of it into the fuselage. Worse, it broke up the line of windows where they added humps to fit everything, so the alt mode looked worse from the top, too. Nope, I meant DST. He's going to be part of their Constructicon set. You may or may not recall, when I reviewed their Hook, I showed that he had the standard upper torso mode, but also a leg mode. In a nod to the IDW comics, you can make Hook a leg in place of Scrapper (who was killed by Spike), and Prowl can form the upper torso. The head that came with Hook already has the crest for "Prowlestator."
  14. mikeszekely
    First look at Brawl's leg mode. I'm not loving it... I prefer the toy look in combined mode, so a tank with the front noticeably folded over and a silver foot. But it is sort of cartoon accurate, especially when you consider that Onslaught's frame will form the rest of the leg. Speaking of Onslaught... Prototype looking way better than Combiner Wars, eh? And they're going the Warbotron/Iron Factory route, Onslaught himself is forming the cab of the truck, the combiner bits are forming a trailer that can double as a gun emplacement. Sadly, it doesn't look like they're showing off the whole combined mode/frame. Looks to me like Bruticus' chest is folded into the the waist, with the backpack guns folded down over them, and Bruticus' thighs are folded backward. Then the flatbed portion of the trailer behind the guns is the back of Bruticus' leg and bottom of his feet, but the stuff under it with the rear wheels is his arms. And, last but not least (well, yeah, probably least for most of you) is the other Japan-themed Timelines back. Once again, since set 1 was Prime and Starscream, set two is Megatron and Bumblebee, as a boar and a flying squirrel, respecitively.
  15. mikeszekely
    And yet this is what they came up with. At that price. They're like a third of the way through the funding period, and they've got barely over 1000 of the 10,000 backers they need. I think it's way overpriced... if these were retail figures, it'd be, what, $20 a pop for 3.75" figures, and say $40 per lightcycle (a bit high, but prices I might be willing to pay, for Flynn, Tron, Sark, and the lightcycles, but to heck with Yori and generic badguy program). That's only about $180. I definitely don't need a light-up base for $80 more. Again, I'd have rather they had an actual Tron toyline with stuff from all three films... they I might get Sam, Quora, Ares, Athena, and Eve, a Legacy and Ares Lightcycle, one of those jet things Athena was flying around in, and some Recognizers.
  16. mikeszekely
    *hurries and fixes original post* I have no idea what you're talking about...🤫 I had three out of five of the FT Aerialbots and sold them. I don't miss them. If you like heavy blocks of robots with limited posability and unnecessarily complex engineering you might like them, but I didn't care for them, and I especially hated their Silverbolt. As for DST's, I guess I thought about them they way you think about their Constructicons... kinda neat, but ultimately not G1 enough to hold my interest. But I think that works out better for me, by most accounts the QC of the Aerialbots was much worse than their Constructicons. It's funny, I actually though this set wasn't G1 enough, either, but I wanted Scrapper because he looked cool and he's my favorite Constructicon. I liked him enough that when I saw Hook using his crane as a sickle I figured I'd try one more and liked that one enough to go in on the rest. Long Haul was a bit of a bear, but Bonecrusher is a return to form. Can't wait to see how Mixmaster, Scavenger, and Prowl turn out.
  17. mikeszekely
    I still kinda doubt it. Like, yeah, maybe I'd opt to bring XR goggles over a laptop on a plane or something, but I'm not leaving my house without my phone, full stop. So it's still, at minimum, two devices either way. And, while I haven't used the Vision Pro and have no familiarity with it's OS, Android XR is basically an AI-powered gesture-based front end for the same Android that's already running on a lot of phones. While developers can choose to make their apps more XR-friendly, there's not a lot of incentive for them to do so because Android XR runs standard Android apps already. Then the choice is watch Netflix on chonky googles while my phone stays in my pocket, or watch Netflix on my phone tethered to lighter and less conspicous glasses. I know, I'm sounding really down on the Vision Pro/Galaxy XR/Android XR. I want to like it, I want the tech to succeed, and I want somebody to do something truly interesting with the technology. But, as it stands, I just can't see a scenario where they do something that some some other device doesn't do better, with Viture or Xreal glasses if you really want that private big-screen experience.
  18. mikeszekely
    Sometimes a movie can make what you'd think is a decent return, but it didn't make enough profit for the bean counters.🤷‍♂️
  19. mikeszekely
    I had the original Vitures and had the same trouble with blurry corners. I bought the Pro version later. Worse speakers, but brighter display and less blurring on the corners. In any case, I agree that glasses like the Vitures are great for content consumption. That's exactly why I don't see the point of stuff like the Galaxy XR. Why spend nearly $2000 on bulky goggles when the Vitures Pros are $300 right now? Most of the apps your going to wind up running are going to be regular Android apps anyway.
  20. mikeszekely
    Instead of expensive, conspicuous goggles why not spend like half or less on XReal or Viture glasses and use them with the laptop/phone/tablet you likely already own? I use mine with my ROG Ally all the time to get some gaming in while my daughter is in her dance classes. That's why I'm struggling with stuff like the Apple Vision Pro and Samsung Galaxy XR. Meta already brought affordable VR to the masses, and XReal/Viture/Rokkid are providing more affordable, lighter, less conspicuous ways to use XR on existing platforms and devices.
  21. mikeszekely
    So Samsung just unveiled their rival to the Apple Vision Pro, the Galaxy XR. On the plus side, it's lighter than the Vision Pro, costs like half, and the Android XR OS is getting some praise for its usability and compatible with regular non-XR Android apps. But on the minus side, it's still like triple the price of a Meta Quest 3, and I'm struggling to see the actual market is for XR yet. While the Quest 3 can do some XR stuff, the main draw there still seems to be VR gaming.
  22. mikeszekely
    Yeah. I think I'm good with my non-Xbox Ally X for awhile yet.
  23. mikeszekely
    With names like "Forklift Warrior," "Hook Warrior," and "Load Warrior," I thought this next guy would be something like "Bulldozer Warrior." But maybe something was lost in translation, because Dream Star Toys' version of Bonecrusher wound up being called "Pushing Machine Warrior." Pushing Machine Warrior is, broadly speaking, more of the same from DST. Gorgeous metallic greens and purples, curves and facets that give the bot an almost organic shape, and minimal visual cues that really recall the G1 character. No tread legs here... it's actually his arms that form the treads. The almost entirely green color of the animation is broken up by purples on the chest and gray thighs. But he's not totally unrecognizable. The vertical green "straps" flanking the purple on his chest with the red details do a rather good job of recalling G1 Bonecrusher's shovel chest. The shovel isn't his chest, though. It's mostly folded into his calves. The cab protrudes a bit, but it's far from the worse backpack we've seen on a toy. A few flaps of tread adorn his arms, but the bulk of the mechanical bits can be passed off as shoulder pads. All-in-all, Pushing Machine Warrior suffers from minimal kibble. Forklift Warrior, with his sole gun, is starting to turn into something of an outlier. Pushing Machine Warrior does have his gun, but he's also got a pair of translucent red-bladed shortswords. Also a big honking leg for the Megatron build-a-figure (that we'll talk more about once he's complete). Pushing Machine Warrior's head is on a ball joint with great up, down, and sideways tilt. His shoulders rotate on ratchets, but lateral movement is a ratchet in the chest, on the wrong side of the swivel (a common problem on these Warbotron offshoots, and one less easily overlooked on a more expensive "premium" figure than on the Mecha Invasion guys). They're a bit limited to under 90 degrees, mostly due to the treads on top banging into his head. His biceps swivel, and his double-jointed elbows bend nearly 180 degrees. His wrists swivel, and his fingers are individually-articulated with three pinned knucklers on his fingers, while his thumb has a ball joint at the base and two pinned knuckles. He's got a ratcheted waist swivel with a small ab crunch. His hips use a soft ratchet to move 90 degrees forward or backward, and a stronger ratchet for 90 degrees of lateral movement. His thighs swivel, and though his knees are double-jointed (both using ratchets) the kibble in his calves does stop his knee bend at just over 90 degrees. His feet can tilt up and down, and his toes have a separated up/down tilt, and his ankles pivot 90 degrees. Aside from the shoulders, you should have no trouble getting this guy into some sweet poses. Assuming you can get him to hold his weapons. The thin handles on both the gun and the swords have small slots cut into them. These slots should, in theory, fit around little tabs in his palms. In practice he seems to hold the swords ok, but the gun just immediately comes off the tab, leaving the friction in his fingers to do all the work. And, alas, there's no other storage for the gun in his robot mode. The swords can go on his back, though. There's little pegs on the hilts, and they fit into these little ports on the sides of the cab on his backpack. Transforming this guy is, once again, not particularly hard when you know what you're doing, but made difficult the first time by confusing, unclear instructions. There's some swiveling involved, but his arms turn entirely into the treads. His torso opens up and his head folds into the cab, and the bulk of his upper torso. His legs kind of explode, folding over his calves, but with a number of panels that have to be unfolded just right to make up the front end and shovel. while his feet lay over what's left of his torso to form the rear. Then the cab kind of swings back in and plugs on top. From some angles I think he look like a pretty cool bulldozer, though from the rear his obvious robot toes and the ripper dangling off his robot chest are a bit obvious. DST designed the swords to use their hilt pegs to plug in hear the front of the treads, then the handles unfold and attach to the shovel. This would probably be a good idea, were it not for the obvious red blades, and the fact that they don't secure anywhere along said blades, making them extremely prone to simply popping off. That said, the hinges in the sword handles do allow them to articulate with the shovel, which has a few joints and collapsing hydraulic pistons. The treads don't work, and there's no wheels for him to roll on. As for his gun, it folds up into a neat little package. That package, you'll note, as some little pegs on it. Those pegs can plug into a port on the inside/underside of his chest as part of the ripper. The back of Megatron's leg can open up to reveal a fist inside. Swing it out, close it back up, and fold in the heel and toe and you've got one of Devastator's forearms. Untab the treads, rotate them, and tab them back, remove the gun and scrunch up the ripper (it doesn't actually lock into place as near as I can tell) and fold back the shovel on Pushing Machine Warrior. You'll find a T-peg that slides into the top of the leg-turned-arm, and two clips will fold down to lock in into place. And that's his arm mode. I'm not sure why the DST Aerialbots never really did anything for me, but once again I'm digging the overall design and aesthetic of their Constructicons. Pushing Machine Warrior is another win in my book, I just wish they'd work on their instructions.
  24. mikeszekely
    Remaking the original is a bad idea. The CGI and special effects weren't the problem. Sure, they're not as flashy as Legacy or Ares, but they've held up reasonably well. The problem with the original is the slow pacing.
  25. mikeszekely
    You're correct. I don't know why I thought I paid less... eh, I'm getting old. Must have had something else shipped around the same time that cost $80. I'll have to edit my review, but really the takeway is that the Air Defense team is now fully equal in price to Optimus' trailer, and I dunno about that. The math ain't mathing, as my daughter would say. I 100% agree. Just like animators in the '80s couldn't shade silver, and now we've got a whole mess of people insisting that Optimus' legs and thighs should be white when they're clearly supposed to be the same silver as the toy. And if I'm being honest, I'd have preferred that NYCC Nemesis Prime was black. It's how Takara did the original Armada toy. But, like I said in my review, they're not just copying how the animation was done, it seems that the Hasbro version of the original toy was also dark blue.
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