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mikeszekely

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Everything posted by mikeszekely

  1. mikeszekely
    I'm looking forward to getting mine... starting with the two I ordered last Wednesday that TFSource hasn't even shipped yet. I get that smaller operations don't have the manpower to get everything out same-day, but if they don't ship by this Wednesday then screw free shipping, they're not getting my business anymore. Hey Swoosh, are you GRAW at TFW2005?
  2. mikeszekely
    It was the cheapest Code I've seen, and most of the others are the original X-1 version. X-0 is around $90-$100 at BBTS/TFS. I thought $60 was a pretty good deal. I'm just a little nervous because no one else bid.
  3. mikeszekely
    Missing sarcasm tag? I like GT's Jazz a lot. Good proportions, nice colors, updated Porsche alt mode. I'm not sure how it fits into most collections, though. It's supposed to be MP-sized, but MP collectors seem likely to complain that it's not a 1975 Porsche 935/76. Meanwhile, CHUG collectors who are likely the most cool with a more modern Jazz are probably going to think GT's Jazz is too big. I think Beta's robot mode isn't bad, but seems more Drift mini-series than MTMTE. Makes sense, though. Isn't Alpha supposed to be his buddy Wing from the same series? Really don't like the alt mode, though. Also, eBay is weird. I've seen people get into bidding wars over stuff that was overpriced to begin with, but somehow I won a new Function X-0 Code for $60 by being the only one to bid. Am I wrong for thinking $60's a good price? The description definitely said new and complete, and the seller has 100% positive feedback on around 2000 sales, so...
  4. mikeszekely
    I figured as much, because there was a lot of discussion about how to get the Feral Cons to hold their weapons back in the day. I'd buy it. I'd buy all the variant covers if the story turns out to be Peg's daydream.
  5. mikeszekely
    Fixed. Without watching the video, just guessing based on other MMC figures I have, does it boil down to sliding it down into the groove in the hand, then turning it into place?
  6. mikeszekely
    Finally got a sitter and saw this today. I liked that it felt like a real sequel to the Avengers and not two hours of setting up future movies the way Age of Ultron was.
  7. mikeszekely
    I was actually thinking that it looked like Bawoo; I figured some of the weirder lines were glare on the box. I just didn't want to think that it really was Bawoo, because... ...this. Bawoo is a pretty popular MS. While I don't think that the existence of an HGUC should preclude an RE/100, or vice versa (I'm not into 1/100 scale models, and I'd have loved an HGUC Gundam Mk. III), I'd think an MG Bawoo would do well enough, especially with P-Bandai MP and Sleeves colors, or P-Bandai ReBawoo. I agree, the RE/100 line is better served by releasing 1/100-scale models of MS too obscure or too large to comfortably sell in the MG line.
  8. mikeszekely
    And yet, it's a Bawoo.
  9. mikeszekely
    It's a Bawoo.
  10. mikeszekely
    Considering that I loved both This Is the End and The Interview, I'll be checking this out.
  11. mikeszekely
    I hope they add a subtitle between now and 2017.
  12. mikeszekely
    There ARE a ton of Devastators, which made choosing one a little bit of a challenge. For me, it boils down like: CW Devy: aesthetically ok but hollow bots with limited articulation, ok combined mode from the front. TFC Hercules: sub-par bots, so-so combined mode. Maketoys Green Giant: awful bots, very good combined mode GT Gravity Builder: Mostly ok bots, minus Bonecrusher, good combined mode. TW Constructor: Excellent bots, ok combined mode that is, at least, better than CW Devy. Herc is out because early TFC quality is kind of meh. Maketoys is out because I don't like the individual bots. Hasbro is out because they're hollow, and Scrapper doesn't even have elbows. It really came down to GT and TW, and like I said GT is looking better combined but TW's individual bots blow GT's out of the water. As for Poseidon, getting Devy will complete my 3P combiners that were in the American G1 cartoon... plus he's a week or two away from being totally available, and I've seen enough reviews for the first four to have a sense of what I'm getting into. With Poseidon, even though TFSource and BBTS are saying April (whoops, already missed that one) or May for Mentarazor and Cyberjaw I'm betting we won't see them until 3rd quarter at the earliest. I think Big Bite will probably be coming out soon, but I'm still not thinking before June. If I keep buying in pairs to save on shipping, and if the reviews are ok, I'll start on him in August as long as at least two are available by then. I might be done for the year after Poseidon, since he completes the US G1 combiners until Fansproject releases their Monstructor repaints of their Dinoking guys. The only exception I'd make is if someone discounts the TW Throttlebot combiner for under $300 around Black Friday. Then, in 2017, I'll start with Hades (assuming Poseidon is done) before looking again at the Dinobot combiners, hope Monstructor is ready, and close it out with the Throttlebots if I haven't already bought them, all the while crossing my fingers and hoping that no one else releases some other Japanese combiner I've never heard of but will naturally want. And I'm definitely hoping that no one releases a better version of a combiner I already have before I'm caught up. So far I still think I prefer M3 to the Transformission one that's coming, and even a drawing of Hotspot doesn't have me thinking MMC will release any new combiners before 2018. I think the only one I might have to worry about is Superion.
  13. mikeszekely
    After sitting on the fence between Gravity Builder and Constructor, I caved today and ordered ToyWorld's not-Scrapper and not-Mixmaster. I had to have Scrapper because he's my favorite Constructicon, went with not-Mixmaster to get free shipping and figured I'd work from the ground up. Next month I'll do not-Long Haul and not-Hook, wait another month, then do not-Bonecrusher and not-Scavenger. I was starting to get interested in TFC's Poseidon, but I've decided to do Devy first and wait for some reviews.
  14. mikeszekely
    I don't often buy whole Reprolabel sets, as a lot of them tend to be too busy for my tastes ("Here's a flat surface, lets make a sticker for it!"). It drives me nuts, though, when rescue vehicles don't have enough markings, so I bought the sets for Maketoys' Axle, Rover, and Katana (aka Groove, Streetwise, and Blades). It got me thinking about how, when I reviewed them, I went and figured out that Axle's a Honda VFR800P, Rover's a Carbon E7, and Katana's an AgustaWestland CH-149 Cormorant, but I never bothered to identify Himed as anything more than "an ambulance." I figured if Maketoys selected real alts for the other 3, they'd have done so for Himed, too, right? So if anyone is curious, yeah, he's a 5th-gen Toyota HiAce HiMedic. EDIT: And I wish Reprolabels would make set for him, dang it! EDIT 2: I have no idea what kind of truck Vulcan (Hotspot) is supposed to be. There aren't a ton of 8-wheeled fire trucks, and I can't find any that match other details like the shape of the cab, the shape of the grill, the protruding front bumper, or the arrangement of the lights around the grill. If anyone can identify Vulcan's alt mode, please let me know.
  15. mikeszekely
    Given his size, I'd say it's a lot more reasonable than Seraphicus Prominon + trailer. But, I'm not sure how an Overlord that big fits into my collection, so it's still too much for me. On the opposite end of the spectrum, today I received Foxhound, Machine Boy's KO of WuKong's Swindle, which was already a KO of Warbotron's Sly Strike. (Machine Boy's on the left, WuKong on the right with Decepticon Reprolabels). And again, since as far as I know the WuKong one is identical to the Warbotron one, assume when I'm talking about the WuKong Swindle that it applies to Warbotron's as well. I'm not going to go into a ton of details here, as I've covered the mold already just a few days ago when I reviewed the WuKong one. I'm just going to focus on the differences, and the biggest difference is color. The WuKong one, which I believe is identical to the Warbotron one it KOed, is mostly a sand color with purple biceps, purple stripes on his forearms, purple chest and abdomen, and translucent light-piped purple eyes. The WuKong one is mostly a bright yellow. The purple chest and abdomen has been replaced with a dark blue. The painted purple stripes on his forearms are a dark gray, and the translucent plastic for the light-piped eyes is red. Interestingly, the painted details on his shoulders, chest, hips, and shins are the same across both toys, as are the black plastic parts. I find the color choice interesting, because while the sand color of the WuKong/Warbotron version is close to the original toy, if you asked me what color Swindle is I'd probably just say yellow. And the yellow used by Machine Boy actually reminds me a lot of the Generations Fall of Cybertron Swindle. The plastic used by Machine Boy does have a different feel to it. When handling both together, I'll probably say that the Machine Boy plastic does feel a little cheaper, but it's definitely not that really cheap plastic you usually get with KO toys. Without the WuKong or Warbotron one to directly compare it to, it feels fine in the hand. So, what do I say that this is an Inception-level KO of a KO instead of simply another KO of the Warbotron mold? Because Machine Boy KOed the extra Gundam weapons WuKong included with their Swindle that the original Warbotron toy didn't have. As with the light piping, Machine Boy used red translucent plastic instead of purple, and the GM shield is entirely translucent instead of just the back and handle. The big cannon lacks the silver paint at the end of the barrel, but otherwise it and the smaller gun are the same as the WuKong one. Foxhound also comes with the little piece to mount the cannon on his shoulder, and an instruction sheet. Unlike the WuKong toy, Foxhound came with a card for "God of War," which features a picture of Warbotron Bruticus (in Warbotron colors, not Machine Boy's), and a little crappy KO of what I assume is Legends-class ROTF Demolisher. What Foxhound didn't come with is a box; he and his accessories were wrapped in plastic and bubble wrap and stuffed in a plain shipping box. In alt mode the difference again boils down to color, but this time it's pretty much the yellow plastic vs the sand-colored plastic. The paint apps are almost entirely the same between them, right down to the little orange lights above the windshield. The only really noticeable difference is the windows; Machine Boy used a dark gray that looks black in photos but a lot better in person, while WuKong/Warbotron used a bluish-silver. Seriously, I scoured the toys looking for spots where Machine Boy might have cheaped out, and pretty much if it's painted on the WuKong it's painted on the Machine Boy. The only spots I found on Foxhound that Machine Boy missed were the molded shocks at the back tires. Well, color me impressed. I mean, I was already pretty happy with Swindle, which WuKong managed to do at around 2/3rds the price of the original Warbotron one. And if you really want a Swindle or a Bruticus that is more properly colored out of the box, WuKong and Warbotron is the way to go. But if you don't mind a little odd color, especially if you're interested in doing a repaint, I was able to get Machine Boy's Foxhound for $24.99 shipped. I can forgive an awful lot when the toy is only $25. I mean, I certainly didn't need another Swindle, but at that price I was curious and figured that, if nothing else, I could paint and mod his cannon to use on Swindle's arm without jacking up the cannon that came with Swindle. Machine Boy doesn't have a KO Onslaught available yet, but looking the price of Fierce Attack and the PO price for WuKong's Onslaught, I'm thinking you could probably get a whole KO Bruticus for $150, or like I said the limbs can be had for around $25 shipped. At that price I kind of have to recommend them, even with the goofy colors. I'll probably get the rest of the Machine Boy set, and I'm personally pretty tempted to repaint them as Ruination/Baldigus.
  16. mikeszekely
    I don't have it, because the color scheme wasn't ever in the cartoon or comics. It's a VERY slick-looking color scheme, but to me 3P toys are the character they're "inspired" by, not whatever name and biography the company came up with, so I had to have the regular colors and can't justify $500 on a black and purple repaint. That said, if you're just into cool robot toys and don't care if it's an accurate Predaking, go for it. It's actually slightly cheaper and the colors are better, they're just not accurate. Changing gears now... I REALLY can't wait for Maketoys' Vulcan.
  17. mikeszekely
    Time to wrap up my Quantron review so I can go back to ogling Mike's Constructicon photos. So, yeah, Quantron- Maketoy's Computron. After the some good, some not-so-good reimaginings of the individual bots, Quantron's actually pretty G1. The head looks like Computron, moving parts cover Metalstorm's hips to put red on Quantron's hips, Metalstorm's shoulders and rotating panels on his arms cover the torso and cleverly stand in for Computron's chest plate. He's just got a little gap where some gray comes through, some new molded pistons that match the working ones on his elbows, and maroon thighs instead of white. Oh, and yeah, he's got Metalstorm's problem with the giant nosecone-cannon. If you want a classic G1 Computron vs. Abominus matchup, Quantron's a little short against Ordin. As long as you're cool with any old Autobot combiner fighting any old Decepticon combiner, Quantron scales perfectly with M3. Quantron's articulation is the sum of his joints, mostly. His head is on a ball joint. He's got ratcheting shoulder rotation and some ratcheting lateral shoulder movement on the combiner peg that's part of Metalstorm. The connectors inside Overheat and Blindfire are also on ratchets to further Quantron's lateral shoulder movement. His elbows are just friction joints at Blindfire and Overheat's waists, and soft ratchets at their knees. Practically, that gives him a little over 90 degrees of bend, and the piston fillers do work. His wrists scan swivel, and his hands are very similar to M3's with a ball jointed thumb that has one hinged knuckle, and individually articulated fingers hinged at the hand with one additional hinged knuckle and a molded half-bend at the other knuckle. His waist swivel, universal hips, and thigh swivels are all Metalstorm's and all ratcheted, with the hips having especially strong ratchets. The combiner pegs on Metalstorm provide a 90 degree ratcheted knee bend. All of his ankle articulation comes from huge ball joints, but the bottoms of the feet have rubber bits on them to keep them from sliding. You can mostly get Quantron into some good poses, but as with Metalstorm the nosecone-cannon is connected below the waist, which can present a challenge. Quantron's rifle is formed by tabbing Metalstorm's rifles together with the white piece that was stuck under one rifle and that other part that serves seriously no other purpose. It's a good rifle, I suppose. If you like, you can remove the hand that's on Blindfire (doesn't matter if it's the left or right hand, but it has to be Blindfire's side), then attach the nosecone-cannon like an oversized Mega Buster. But don't, because it looks stupid. Speaking of stupid, you can also clip one end onto a hand, then telescope the nose-cone cannon. There are metal rods inside (that remind me a lot of old TV antennas). It gives Quantron a giant bow... which is the stupidest thing yet. I mean, Computron isn't known for being an archer in any fiction I can imagine, and all I can think about is how much this gimmick added to the overall cost of the toy and the size of the nosecone-cannon. And since a smaller nosecone-cannon would have fixed like 99% of what's wrong with Metalstorm, you can see where I'm going with this. Anyway, judging Quantron as a set is a lot tricker than calling the individual bots. I mean, I gave 3 out of 5 no's, and in that light if you're looking for a good technobot team you might want to look at the Warbotron ones instead. But, I do recommend Quantron if a good-looking Computron for your display is all you're after, and individual bots don't matter as much.
  18. mikeszekely
    Well, a buddy wanted to me to go to IHOP with him, and the local IHOP is by a Barnes and Noble. So I figured I'd kill a little time there, and I found the RG Red Frame and the RG Wing. Even though they're probably cheaper on Amazon, I grabbed them both, so I'm back to being caught up on RG kits (at least until the 00 Qan [T].
  19. mikeszekely
    I'm just going to go ahead and wrap up the individual bots tonight with a look at Blindfire, Maketoys' answer to Strafe. So he's a little fella, but aesthetically he's a pretty good Strafe. The head is toy-accurate. The colors are almost entirely spot-on; he's missing some red on his torso, gained new red feet instead of just walking on his tail fins, he's got a new red stripe on the aforementioned tail fins and the G1-accurate winglets on his shoulders, his hands are gray now, and Maketoys added some gray to his hips, elbows, and abs, but for the most part he's red where he needs to be and white where he needs to be. Blindfire's got a pair of translucent orange guns, and unlike Celeritas it kind of works for Blindfire, since Strafe's guns were orange. Articulation is again what you'd expect; ball-jointed head, ball-jointed shoulders with an extra hinge for lateral movement, soft-ratcheted single elbow joints, bicep and wrist swivels, soft-ratcheted waist swivel and soft-ratcheted knees, thigh swivels just below the hips, and ball-jointed hips and ankles. His ankle articulation isn't hot, but on the flip side those fins on the back of his arms are pegged in with hinged posts. They don't inhibit articulation much at all, as they can usually be moved out of the way. As long as we're talking about those fins, they can unpeg and Blindfire can hold them like swords. The hinge on the peg is a soft ratchet. It's a little wiggly, but it'll stay up. Ok, so I love Blindfire's alt mode. The fins that were on backs his shoulders partsform onto the tops, and the result is like half G1-Strafe, half Vic Viper, and and a much a sleeker, deadlier-looking starfighter than a straight-up G1 copy. The only thing I'd have preferred Maketoys did differently is to make the cockpit piece white, and put that red back onto Blindfire's torso. You can see in this picture that tabs on his guns fit into grooves on either the top or the bottom side of the fins, if you still want the guns forward. Alternatively, and my preference for a cleaner look, you can peg the guns onto posts on the back of Blindfire's legs. If the fins really aren't your thing and you want a total G1 look, you can do that! Just leave the fins off, and peg Blindfire's guns on top of his shoulders instead. The only downside (aside from looking less cool) is that there really isn't any other place to store the fins, and like Overheat's missile launchers you kind of need them for arm mode. With or without the fins, arm mode is still Blindfire's weakest mode, and it's because of how very little transforming he does to get there. The cockpit flips up over his head, sure, and his feet fold back into their starfigher configuration... but otherwise he's just squeezing his legs together while holding a pair of fins. His arms seriously don't do anything to transform. Now, the fins have slots that nestle around the canards on his cockpit to kind of hold everything in place, but it's not a firm connection and he's still got lots of wiggle room and very visible hands. On the plus side, he's got the same piston thigh-filler gimmick, and you've still got options for the guns. You can clip them to the fins, as in the picture, or you can go G1 and put them on top of his shoulders (which is my preference). I recommend Blindfire, or if he's not the Strafe you're looking for, maybe at least the Cutthroat-colored repaint of Blindfire. Arm mode aside, there's really not a lot to complain about here. He's a nice little bot with a pretty cool starfighter mode. I'd change a few colors (and may still break out the paints yet and do just that), but nothing else that really needs "fixing" for bot or alt mode. It's just too bad Maketoys blew all their engineering on Sonic Drill, otherwise they'd have been able to make Blindfire's transformation a little less basic so he could make for a better arm.
  20. mikeszekely
    No problem, let me know how it works out for you. And with that segue back to Quantron, here's Overheat, Maketoys' Afterburner. Let's just say that, aesthetically, I'm not a fan. The white torso with the orange strip down the middle is pretty G1-accurate, as is his mostly toy-orange color and gray thighs, but that's about it. The white shoulders, gray feet, and gray forearms are all Maketoy's inventions. The silver under the clear parts on his lower legs also undermine the fact that they are (and should be) orange. The headsculpt is awful and bears no resemblance to either the G1 toy nor the cartoon Afterburner. And he's very busy. There's molded details that he doesn't really need, a tire that splits in half and hangs out as massive shoulder pads instead of resting on his back, bike panels on his biceps, armatures with with orange flaps just chilling off the sides of his waist, and a piston hanging off of his butt like a tail. Articulation is what we've come to expect from the smaller Maketoys figures. His head is on a ball joint, his shoulders are on ball joints with hinges for lateral movement, and there's a joint for transformation that gives him some butterfly motion forward. His biceps and wrists swivel, elbows are hinges with 90 degrees of range, his waist swivels as long as you don't try to peg the piston onto his back. Hips and ankles are on ball joints, and his knees are hinges that should have good range but bike parts prevent his knees from getting much bend. His gun is odd, but I think it's ok. In addition to his guns he comes with this pair of missile launchers. They can either peg onto his shoulder tires or he can hold them in his hands. I'm not really a fan of either, or the fact that they're hollow on one side. Alternatively, the missile launchers can peg onto the end of Overheat's gun, forming a hammer. I think that's a better use of the launchers, and the transformation joints that let his arms butterfly forward aid in posing him with the hammer, but I don't really like that the hammer is at the expense of a gun. I prefer to leave them off of him entirely. Things improve a bit when you get Overheat into alt mode. It's not particularly G1-accurate, but Overheat totally turns into a Tron lightcycle. And since he is almost entirely orange with silver under his transparent windows, I can buy into this as a color-accurate modern take on Afterburner. One problem, though, is that there's a noticeable gap on the back of the bike. The gap is filled by attaching his weapons. His gun actually grips onto the lip of the gap, and the launchers peg onto the rear tire. The launchers, though, kind of ruin the sleek lightcycle look. You can, IMHO, get a better effect by clipping the gun on and leaving the launchers off. At this point, as I don't like the launchers in bot mode and I don't like them in lightcycle mode, I'm ready to stuff them back in the box and forget about them. But... ...the launchers are necessary to keep Overheat's gun on him in arm mode. At least it allows the gun to rotate, so it can either be stashed back or flipped forward and used by the combined robot. And the launchers do sort of fill in for the kibble that was on G1 Afterburner in arm mode. In any case, if there's one trait about Computron that really stood out in my mind since watching Grimlock's New Brain almost 30 years ago it was the pair of wheels on his shoulder. Overheat nails that, even if it's with one wheel split in half instead of two wheels. Oh, and that piston I mentioned way back in bot mode? Well, Overheat has the ol' thighs-for-an-elbow problem that plagues the Combiner Wars line and Fansproject's M3, but the piston is an interesting solution. The one end is on a hinge, and the other end pegs between the knees. The piston extends and collapses as necessary, and it fills in the gap between Overheat's thighs. One thing worth noting is that, in both the cartoon and the G1 toy packaging, Afterburner was Computron's right arm. For unknown reasons, Maketoys decided that Overheat is Quantron's left arm. The connectors on the hands are not the same; one fits only Overheat and the other fits only Blindfire. Fortunately, it's not hard to swap them. Just unscrew the hands, swap the wrist connectors, then close the hands back up. So, do I recommend Overheat? Sorry, we're back to no. While the lightcycle mode is kind of cool, the Combiner Wars Legends-class Wreck-Gar looks about as much like G1 Afterburner as Overheat does, and I'm really not feeling his accessories.
  21. mikeszekely
    In which mode? I covered how in cruiser mode the the handle and the white piece clip together and are placed in the hollow spot under the the nosecone-cannon. In robot mode the handle still goes on the nosecone-cannon. Fold the handle back all the way, then look under the scope and the tabs that slot into Metalstorm's rifles. See those shallow vertical slits, one on each side? Look at the underside of the nosecone-cannon. On the gray part at the base you'll notice a gap between the halves with little notches and cuts so those notches can flex. Slide the handle into the gap and the notches will grab the slits. When you put the nosecone-cannon onto Metalstorm's back, the space between the scope and the fin on the handle will accommodate the bump from the joint on the L-shaped part.
  22. mikeszekely
    Don't get my hopes up. I love the Zaku III.
  23. mikeszekely
    Yeah, I watched Skullface's review. Didn't have the energy to sit through peaugh's today, too. As someone who had Scorponok as a kid, I do want Pandinus, but he takes up so much space that's already being consumed by combiners in my display area. Besides, it's going to be challenging enough to budget $100 a figure for twelve figures over the next few months if I try to do a Devastator and Poseidon at the same time, so I'm going to have to pass. He's my favorite of the set, but more on that over the next two or three days.
  24. mikeszekely
    Working our way up from the legs we have Metalstorm, Maketoys' version of Scattershot. He's obviously a lot bigger than the other not-Technobots in this set, coming in around the size of a tall Voyager. The first thing you're likely to notice is that he's a beefy dude, almost as if his torso were too small for the rest of him. And... actually kind of dig it. He's got a very anime-esque figure that sort of reminds me of the Gundam AGE-1 Titus. Looking beyond his unusual proportions, though, and the second thing you'll notice is how close he actual is to G1 Scattershot. He's got a white head with blue eyes, and splits the difference between the 'toon's white face and the toy's blue face by going silver. His torso his mostly white, with a red chest piece that'd be pretty much identical to G1 if the orange translucent bits where white. His pelvis is mostly white, with a splash of maroon on his crotch and even some red on the sides like G1; the only real devitation is some gray details that reinforce his mecha-bruiser look. His thighs are white and his feet maroon, and although is lower legs are white the way the wings folds over gives them the illusion of red. Also like G1 Scattershot, he's got maroon shoulders and biceps and red forearms, again the only real deviation is gray on his hands and the elbow joint, and some of the gold and silver details on the outside of his forearms. Like the G1 toy he's even got guns on his shoulders and raised pentagonal sections on the front. Articulation is excellent. He's got a hinged swivel for a neck so he can look down and to the sides, although not too far down. His shoulders are on a hinge at the chest that can get 90 degrees of lateral movement, but if that wasn't enough there's another hinge at the top of the shoulder that could also get 90 degrees of lateral movement. Combined, you actually get lateral movement until his shoulders collide with his head, nearly 180 degrees. His shoulder rotates before the second hinge, so he can lift his arm and move it laterally into a bicep-flex position. Speaking of biceps, he has swivels there, and double-jointed elbows that almost allow his hands to touch his shoulders. His wrists swivel, but you need to take care that the plates on the backs of his palms don't collide with the kibble on his forearms. His waist is a ratcheted swivel, his his are universal joints with tight, clicky ratchets in both the forward/backward and lateral directions. His thigh swivels are ratcheted. His knees are ratcheted and get about 90 degrees of bend. And his feet are on huge ball joints, with the ball joint being connected to a ratcheting armature. Metalstorm is armed with a pair of rifles. There's a lot of nice engineering here. Although it's more for his combined mode, the ratchets in his legs mean he's super stable. I also like how the pentagonal details on his shoulders are actually flaps that cover up what would otherwise be a cut-out spot for a transformation joint. Finally, I really like how the G1-accurate red on the sides of his hips are actually arms that have red panels on them. In bot mode, it allows for his hips to show white, but to color-change to red for combined mode. It's not all good, though. Let's talk about a few bad things. G1 Scattershot carried his nosecone/cannon on his back, and so can Metalstorm. Difference is, Metalstorm's is almost comically huge- nearly as tall as Metalstorm himself. If you can get over the size, it's still a damned if you do, damned if you don't affair. Leaving it off means having Computron's head and a large, inverted L-shaped bit hanging visibly off of his back. The nosecone/cannon covers it up by clipping onto the L-shaped bit and nestling the Computron head in a hollow spot, but the problem is that the L-shaped bit is fixed below his waist swivel and the Computron head above it, severely hampering his waist articulation. There's also an additional white part that's necessary for forming the combined-mode gun. It looks goofy, but it can clip to the underside of one of Metalstorm's rifles. While you're at it, you can use clips on the bottom of the combiner feet to add them as "leg armor" to the outside of Metalstorm's lower legs. Don't do that, though. It looks awful. I get that the designer, as he did with Fansproject's M3, wants you to be able to use everything in every mode, but sometimes a foot should just be a foot. Given the removable nature of the nosecone-cannon backpack, you probably guessed by now that Metalstorm is a partsformer. Aside from the nosecone/cannon being too huge, Metalstorm's alt mode comes across pretty well. The wings are pretty spot on, and he's got some orange translucent parts in place of the G1 toy's sticker details. Plus, the guns that were on Metalstorm's shoulders are now on top of the space cruiser, and can flip up or forward. Since they cover a 180 degree arc above the space cruiser, I think of them as something like anti-missile weapons. To attach the nosecone/cannon, you have to first remove a part from the nosecone/cannon (another part necessary for the combined mode gun), which further aggravates the partsforming nature of Metalstorm. It has a place, though. You attach the white part to it, and wedge it up into the hollow space that would hide the combiner head in bot mode. I guess it doubles as the front landing skid? There are smaller landing skids on his legs at the back of the space cruiser. You can also clip the rifles to the underside of the wings. My gripe here, though, is that the part of the rifle with the tabs is a separate piece from the bulk of the rifle, and the bulk of the rifle is held in by friction. So even though the tabs lock tightly into the slots on the wings, the rifles themselves don't feel particularly secure. As with bot mode, you can add the combiner feet by folding the wing tips up and clipping the feet onto the ends of of the wings and use them as "boosters." Again, don't do this. They're not particularly convincing boosters. Just let the feet be feet. So, forget partsforming (even if Metalstorm himself only transforms into the back half of the cruiser), overly-large nosecone/cannons, and loose rifles. My real gripe with Metalstorm's alt mode is that, instead of having the raised bridge section in the aft middle of the cruiser what you have is a very obvious combiner torso. Well, here's the thing. Metalstorm has some flaws- some serious flaws. At least one flaw that, frankly, could have been avoided if if the nosecone/cannon were about half the size and clipped onto Metalstorm's back above the waist. However, if you can get past those flaws you have what looks like a very articulated G1 Scattershot on steroids, and I honestly dig that. Ignore the head and L-shaped bit on his back, leave the nosecone/cannon off, and he's a fun robot toy, who turns into a decent space cruiser even if the aft section is clearly a robot chest. So with that in mind, Metalstorm is the first of Maketoys not-Technobots I recommend.
  25. mikeszekely
    I sincerely hope the gloss looks a lot better in person, because I'm not loving how Sinanju is looking in those pictures.
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