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mikeszekely

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  1. mikeszekely
    I talked about this before, when color pics were first released, but I'll summarize again. -I could go either way on Swindle. -I prefer UW Vortex. -I prefer UW Blast Off by virtue of him being a shuttle. -I like CW Brawl's head better. -I like UW Onslaught better, but... -The Blast Off-colored chest shield isn't working for me at all. I'd preordered this set, pretty much just for Blast Off and Vortex, but canceled it when I decided to go all 3P for combiners.
  2. mikeszekely
    Bad Company? But I was talking about the new Star Wars game. You just slipped a post in there before I finished.
  3. mikeszekely
    Considering that neither Titanfall nor the last Star Wars game EA published had single player campaigns I'm ignoring this until a single player campaign is confirmed.
  4. mikeszekely
    Preordered are starting to go up for MakeToys Vulcan.
  5. mikeszekely
    Well, I've got Quantron, but I'm going to hold off on him and the six posts it'll take me to review him here. Talon and Tigris should be here Saturday, and Fierce Attack on Monday, so I'll probably review them (and Feral Rex and Bruticus) before I start on Quantron. Some final thoughts on the WuKong/Warbotron guys... while I think that the sculpts are fantastic, the use of paint spot on, and the general designs of their bot and alt modes range from acceptable (Vortex) to great (Brawl and Swindle), and their articulation is good, they're honestly pretty simple figures. Everyone but Swindle requires some level of partsforming, and Vortex and Swindle have kibble backpacks. Also, if you're into clever or complicated Transformations, these guys aren't it. Vortex has the most complex transformation, and it's honestly nothing Hasbro couldn't pull of in at least a Leader-class. I have heard about issues with the original Warbotron guys, I think most notoriously Heavy Noisy's arm sliders were breaking because they were so tight. None of the WuKong versions seem to have those problems. If anything, I wish Vortex's elbow was a little stronger so he could better hold up that nose gun. Likewise, I heard at least first runs of Fierce Attack came with replacement torsos for Air Burst that have tabs to pull out the landing gear and to add a ratchet to the combiner part. WuKong Vortex already comes with those changes. I wish I could compare more, but I don't have access to the Warbotron originals. Lastly, there's some debate in some corners of the internet about whether or not Warbotron is actually TFC. My only experience with TFC is Uranos, and comparing Warbotron Bruticus to Uranos I can say that while I see some similarity, like the fact that Blast Off's wings are on 5mm pegs the way all the Uranos guys are, they feel more different than alike. My gut says they're not the same, although I suspect that Warbotron and Generation Toy are either the same or share a designer the way Fansproject and Maketoys do/did.
  6. mikeszekely
    Getting back to WuKong, here's Brawl, a copy of Warbotron's Heavy Noisy, who was Warbotron's version of Brawl. Much like they did with Swindle, I feel like Warbotron really nailed Brawl's appearance. He's primarily the same Army green as the G1 toy with the same dark thighs, abdomen, and head, and beautifully light-piped yellow eyes. He breaks up his colors a little by going for black hands and a green crotch, and he's got some details done in purple, silver, gray, and black, including a silver bumper, gray details on waist, and black vents on this shins that are all evocative of the original toy's stickers. Like the G1 and CW toy the his chest is made from the front of the tank, his shoulders are the front treads, his back legs are the unfolded back half of the thank, and he carries his turret on his back. Unlike the CW toy, he does it without little forearms and an awkward abdomen. Plus, he has feet! Brawl/Heavy Noisy's articulation is the same as Swindle/Sly Strike's, although his lateral shoulder movement is a little inhibited by his large tank tread shoulders. In addition to his feet, he's got an extra set of heal spurs on the insides of his legs. Like Combiner Wars Brawl, Brawl/Heavy Noisy can use the tank barrel as a weapon. It's a little more involved, though, as it retains part of the turret. The rest of the turret can clip onto the treads on his left forearm as a shield. If, like me, you prefer the G1 look of leaving the turret intact on his back, he also comes with a pair of pistols modeled off the one carried by G1 Brawl. They look especially nice with the silver paint on the barrels. Like Swindle, WuKong Brawl comes with a few accessories that Warbotron Heavy Noisy didn't. Again, they seem to be Gundam weapons molded in translucent plastic; two bullpup machine guns, a beam rifle, and a long-range beam rifle. This time, all of the weapons are from the RX-78GP01 Gundam Zephyranthes. Brawl/Heavy Noisy turns into a very nice tank that's very similar to the G1 toy. His pistols can peg into holes on the top of the turret. Sadly, the treads don't roll, or even have wheels for fake rolling. He's got a nice size, and I think he cleans up a bit better than the CW version. My only complaint, besides the lack of rolling, is a small one: the turret has to be removed and reattached for transformation, as the part of Brawl's back that it clips onto folds over. Like CW Brawl, the barrel of the tank can move up and down, but unlike the CW version the turret can rotate 360 degrees on it's connection point. He's also got enough ports that you can attach a few of the extra WuKong weapons. So, do I recommend Brawl/Heavy Noisy? Most definitely. He's a nice Voyager-sized toy that absolutely nails Brawl's appearance. He's not perfect, but the complaints I have with him are very minor. And with 3 out of 4 limbs recommended as solo figures, I have to say that I've got high hopes for Fierce Attack and the combined mode.
  7. mikeszekely
    Just a heads up, now I've been reviewing the WuKong KOs of Warbotron's Combaticons, which I got because there's not supposed to be much difference between them and the Warbotron ones. But another group that goes by a couple names, including Machine Boy and Mengbadi, is also releasing KOs of the Warbotron guys and they're starting to show up on eBay. The auctions I'm looking at are around $25 shipped, but unlike the WuKongs there are some color differences: Brawl - Mostly the same, but the green is a much brighter green and the purple accents are red. Swindle - The yellowy-tan is a bright yellow, the purple parts are sort of a cobalt color, the translucent parts are red, and the windows are painted black. Vortex - The blue parts are black, the purple parts are red, and the gray parts are blue. Blast Off - The brown is now purple, the purple is gray, the translucent purple is lime green, and some of the accents are painted lime green. No idea how the quality is, but as cheap as they are I'm curious. I bought a Swindle, that way I can mod the cannon to plug into WuKong Swindle's arm without trashing his cannon. If the quality is decent, though, I might buy the other three and repaint them as either G2 Bruticus or RID Ruination.
  8. mikeszekely
    Dark Souls III or GB3? If the former, I have no opinion on the series. If the latter, I say go for it. I played the Japanese versions of the first two, and even without subtitles I thought they were a blast, with the second one having a lot of improvements over the first. If GB3 is as good as 2, it should be a great game. I just haven't had much time for gaming since my daughter was born.
  9. mikeszekely
    Today we're going to be looking at WuKong's Swindle, which is a copy of Warbotron's Sly Strike, which was their take on Swindle. Swindle/Sly Strike is an extremely Swindle-y Swindle. His head is probably the best Swindle head since Animated, with big purple eyes and and a smirky smile befitting of a guy who'd sell his friends for parts. His purple torso nails the G1 toy's look, with silver-painted vents to mimic sticker details from the toy. He's got the same black thighs and hands, and the same yellowy tan of the G1 toy, with touches of silver, purple, and blue to break things up. He's even got some molded circles flanking molded rectangular bit just above his hips that are mildly evocative of cartoon Swindle's jeep bumper belly. I mean, I thought Combiner Wars Swindle was probably the best of Deluxe of the entire CW line, and Swindle/Sly Strike puts him to shame. Speaking of jeep fronts, although you can't get the windshield chest, you can fold the front of his alt-mode onto his chest if you prefer that look. Swindle/Sly Strike's articulation is basically the same as the other two limbs we've looked at, so go back and re-read one of them, and then I'll tell you what's different. He looses the ratchets in his hips, which he doesn't really need since the Warbotron guys are NOT Scramble City-able and Swindle/Sly Strike doesn't turn into an arm that needs ratcheted hips to double as an elbow that has to support a gun as big as he is. And unlike the other two limbs, Swindle/Sly Strike's heels is a hinged part of his whole foot, which is on a hinged ball joint, so when you turn or tilt his ankle you don't have to separately adjust his heel. Due to his transformation, his foot can bend up quite a bit but not so much down. Also due to transformation he has a much deeper knee bend. Whether you got the WuKong version or the Warbotron version, Swindle/Sly Strike comes with a pistol and a larger cannon that mimic the G1 toy's guns. He can hold them in either hand. The WuKong version also comes with a little yellow tab that comes now with Warbotron's Sly Strike but with Fierce Attack, their not-Onslaught. The tab has a peg that fits into the raised screw holes on either shoulder, and has a peg hole that you can peg his cannon into. Sadly, there's no place to plug the cannon onto his arm like cartoon Swindle. WuKong Swindle comes with two other accessories that Warbotron Sly Strike doesn't; a translucent purple shotgun and a shield. Amusingly, WuKong seems to have come up with these accessories by copying weapons from Gundam kits; if I'm not mistaken that's a Kämpfer shotgun and a RGM-79[G]'s shield. Swindle/Sly Strike turns into a Humvee, a design decision shared by Fansproject's Munitioner, if I'm not mistaken. I think it's a good alt-mode for Swindle; the G1 toy wasn't merely a jeep but an XR311, a larger prototype vehicle referred to as a High Mobility Combat Vehicle and a predecessor of the modern Humvee. Swindle/Sly Strike certainly pulls it off better than CW Swindle, who's only real resemblance to G1 Swindle is an open top. Both of Swindle/Sly Strike's guns can mount onto peg holes on the back of the Humvee. Now, Swindle/Sly Strike has a few issues that are worth mentioning. For one, there's the wheels on his shoulders. They're on a hinge at the end of an arm and can be moved so they don't hinder his articulation, and you can try to position them in whatever way you think is best, but they never seem to look right. Two, the roof, windshield, and front grill make up a backpack. It's not huge (much, much smaller than Munitioner's), but it is there. Strangely, the roof and windshield are actually tabbed together and can be split apart, but there's nowhere you can really move them so splitting them is kind of pointless. Lastly, there's the fact that you get that cannon, but you can't plug it into his arm. I've seen people mod their cannons to fit into the screw hole on his outside of his elbow, but it's a bummer that it wasn't a feature out of the box. These are pretty minor complaints, though, that in no way hinder your enjoyment of the figure. I don't just recommend him, then. I strongly recommend him. Due to his personality and the extra screen time he had, Swindle's probably a lot of your favorite Combaticons, and Swindle/Sly Strike is the best representation of Swindle in toy form by a wide margin.
  10. mikeszekely
    Yes... although to be honest, I've been so busy with 3P Transformers that I kind of forgot about GB3...
  11. mikeszekely
    So here we have Blast, WuKong's KO of Warbotron's Air Burst, who was their take on Blast Off. Aesthetically, I love Warbotron's take on Blast Off, and it feels really unfair to compare it to a brown-painted Slingshot (even if I did replace his head with one I pulled from a second CW Vortex). Air Burst/Blast has the right amount of G1 cues: his mostly brown color with purple on his torso, gorgeous head sculpt, silver-painted vents on his chest (pulled from Guido Guidi's art in a Dreamwave sourcebook?) and even toy-style parts of the cockpit on his shoulders. Where he departs from the G1 version are mostly things that are for the better, like cleaner forearms and little bits of color breakup by using a darker purple for his forearms and thighs. Warbotron really did an excellent job with the sculpt and paint; just enough molded details and spots of paint to avoid appearing either boring or busy. Air Burst/Blast's accessories are pretty good. He comes with a pair of pistols, and (partsforming alert!) part of his tail section turns into missile launchers. The missile launchers can be pegged into his forearms, but they do have fold out handles if you want them to be hand weapons. His articulation is in line with Vortex/Whirlwinds's. His shoulders can go all the way around and 90 degrees out the side. His shoulder armor gets in the way a little, but the armor bits are on ball joints connected to a hinge. He's got bicep and wrist swivels,90 degrees of elbow bend, and the same hinged fingers as Vortex/Whirlwind. His head's on a ball joint, his waist swivels, and universal hips with soft ratchets on the forward/backward movement. His hip armor is hinged and can move out of the way of his hips. He's got thigh swivels and knees that bend a little less than 90 degrees. His feet are ball jointed, plus his toe can turn for extra ankle tilt. His thrusters form his heels and are on hinged to make sure he stays stable. If you don't want him to carry the missile launchers on his arms or in his hands, you can flip them around and keep them pegged on the back of his legs. Unlike the Combiner Wars version of Blast Off, Air Burst/Blast turns into a shuttle. Probably not the most accurate shuttle, but very similar to the G1 version down to the stripes of purple on the wings and the purple windshield. He's not as smooth as the G1 toy, but the angles give him an aggressive appearance. Even with some partsforming involved, it's unmistakably Blast Off, much more so than the CW toy. Blast/Air Burst's gun barrels collapse, and the guns can be pegged into either of two holes on the bottom of each wing. The wings themselves are hinged in a few spots for folding up, and are attached via 5mm pegs if you want to remove them for some reason. He's also got fold out landing gear in his chest and molded landing gear on his feet. Sadly, only the landing gear in his chest rolls. If you prefer, you can also peg his guns onto his sides in shuttle mode. The yellow-tipped bits on the ends of his wings are removable, but as with the bits on Vortex/Whirlwind's arms there's no point. In fact, there's ample reason to leave them on, as they have small tabs on top that can fit in the peg holes on the back of his leg. Kind of handy for bot mode, but I have a feeling it'll be very useful in arm mode. I'm going to say that I definitely recommend Blast/Air Burst, even if you have no intention of getting any of the other not-Combaticons. He's not perfect, especially if you hate partsforming, but he's still very good. If you can deal with a little backpack and the aforementioned partsforming, you get a Blast Off with solid articulation and a fantastic appearance.
  12. mikeszekely
    Yeah, the MkII isn't the most complex RG kit, but I still think it's probably the best one for finished model.
  13. mikeszekely
    And both are more angular around the cockpit than any helicopter I've seen. I went HH-2C because it was close, and it had the gun on the chin. YUH-61 looks close too, but wasn't that one going to be a troop transport? Addendum to my Vortex/Whirlwind review: I was messing around with him and I noticed that some of the panels on the sides of the the helicopter chin (the part that is removed in bot mode) looked like they could come off. They do! Apparently, that's storage for the little yellow translucent pieces. Neat! Also, whether we're talking about the WuKong releases or the original Warbotron releases, Vortex was released later in the line. So why review him first? Spoilers: he's the weakest of the four limb-bots. It gets better from here! As for torso bots... well, the WuKong version was pushed back until at least late June, and I doubt I can wait that long to complete this guy, since Bruticus is my favorite combiner. Besides, you have to spend $150 to get free shipping from TF-Direct, so the TF-Direct price + shipping won't be the huge savings over, say, Captured Prey's price + shipping on the actual Warbotron one, so I'm probably going to wind up ordering the real one. Maybe even tonight or tomorrow. Speaking of orders, got the message from BBTS that my Talon and Tigris are in and they took payment, so I'm guessing I'll have them in hand by the end of the week, early next week at the latest. Then it's just a matter of waiting for Vulcan to be released before I take a break from 3P combiners.
  14. mikeszekely
    An HH-2C, right? Which were used for search and rescue, yeah, but an armed one for the Marines in Vietnam. CW Vortex strikes me as more of a civilian or Coast Guard helicopter. More like an S-92 than an HH-2C, even though the tail is way different.
  15. mikeszekely
    Not really sure how to approach this guy.... this is WuKong Vortex, who is a copy of Warbotron Whirlwind, who is their rendition of the Decepticon named Vortex. Now, here's the thing; to the best of my knowledge, the WuKong guys are at worst straight up copies of the original Warbotron toys, and at best supposedly fix some joint issues that the originals had or even add more accessories. I'd assume that 99% of what I'm going to write applies to the original Warbotrons, unless I specifically say otherwise. Two things, though: one, if you know something is different and I don't mention it, let me know! Two, if you're thinking about getting an original Warbotron, you might want to look into any potential issues or benefits that I might not have covered. Anyway, Vortex, with Combiner Wars Vortex. Maybe I should have included a different Voyager-sized Transformer to compare with, because he's definitely closer to Voyager than to his Deluxe-class cousin. Aesthetically, Vortex is a pretty good Vortex. The head sculpt is spot on, and colored like the toy but with a shade of blue closer to the cartoon than the toy, and not as turquoise as the Combiner Wars version. His eyes are yellow, which is a little odd given that Vortex was one of the instances where both toy and 'toon had red eyes, but that's pretty minor. The biggest departure from G1 Vortex is that his torso is dominated by a yellow canopy. Past the canopy, though, and his torso is the gray and purple of the toy, with more of the same blue and gray making up the rest of him. I like that, even though his legs don't make up the cockpit like G1 Vortex, the tops of his feet are painted black to call back to the black windows on G1 Vortex's feet. The rotors don't fold up, which is I guess still G1-accurate, and the tail fins on his legs are pegged in, so they can be removed, or if you prefer the place where they were pegged in can rotate independantly of his feet or shins, so you can fold them onto either the sides of his legs or the back. Articulation on Vortex is good. Head is on a ball joint, the shoulders rotate at the shoulder armor and can move laterally 90 degrees within the shoulder armor. He's got bicep swivels and wrist swivels, elbows that bend 90 degrees in either direction, and all his fingers (molded together as one piece) are on a hinge so he can open and close his hands. His waist swivels and he's got universal hips with soft ratchets for the forward and backward motion. He's got thigh swivels, knees that bend 90 degrees, and his ankle is on a rotating piece to turn his feet inward or outward. His toes and heel spurs are on hinges that give him downward and some upward movement. The toes are on ball joints and the heels on little mushroom pegs to give him faux ankle tilt. Although the rotor blades don't fold up, they are all removable and can be held as swords. He additionally comes with these accessories. We'll cover them separately. First are the translucent yellow parts. You can use them to cheat the rotors into a folded position on his back. Or, you can use them to give Vortex more options for bladed weapons. These guns, really meant to mimic the side guns on the G1 toy, can be mounted to special points on Vortex's shoulders, or onto his forearms. They have both molded pegs on the sides and flip out pegs on the underside, but the pegs are too small for him to use them as handheld guns. Lastly, there's the large chunk that's actually part of his helicopter-mode front end. The idea is that you're supposed to transform it (slightly) into a handheld gun. This is where things start to go south, because not only does it look kind of stupid but the weight of it causes his arm to droop. And, there's simply no place to store it on his body in robot mode, meaning that he either holds it and looks dumb, or you set it aside. Now, I'd like to think that I'm fairly tolerant about partsforming, especially compared to some people. And the side guns and yellow bits I don't mind, because they're not integral to anything. But I'm not a big fan of removing vital parts of an alt-mode and just setting them off to the side in robot mode, so this is a poor decision to have to make. While not exactly G1-accurate in helicopter mode, I think WuKong Vortex/Warbotron Whirlwind does a better job than the Combiner Wars version. Despite the missiles molded onto the sides of the super obvious arms, CW Vortex's small painted windshield, long and thin dimensions, and unpainted but molded windows on the sides make him look more like a civilian or rescue helicopter. WuKong Vortex/Warbotron Whirlwind brings back the nose-mounted gun of the G1, and instead of mounting guns onto the sides of the tail boom he's got wings behind the cockpit to mount the guns on like some attack helicopters. In copter mode, the rotors spin (although they're likely to bang into each other), the canopy can open, and he's got fold out landing gear. It's worth noting that the rectangular bits on the ends of the wings with the yellow lights (or are they supposed to be missiles?) are removable. There's nowhere else to put them in either mode, though, so unless you want to leave them in the box there's no point in taking them off. So, do I recommend Vortex or Whirlwind? Not exactly. On his own, as a standalone figure, I just don't think he's good enough. He's not exactly bad, though, so if you're getting him to complete the set you're not really going to be super disappointed, either.
  16. mikeszekely
    I'd still suggest him. I actually dig the darker purple on the first release, but you need Reprolabels to cover the white on the cannon. He's missing wrist swivels, but his hands are kind of in the position you'd want them anyway. He's been my favorite of my 3P toys for a long time, but (spoilers for the 3P thread) I'm really digging these Warbotron dudes.
  17. mikeszekely
    OK, at Mike's request, here's Sigma L, Fansproject's version of Mindwipe. In bat mode, while there are some changes, I think Sigma L is pretty recognizable as Mindwipe. He's got a more stylized bat head with bigger ears, which I like, nicer wings, more bat-like legs, and looses the pink compartment on his chest for Vorath, but he retains most of the usual Mindwipe colors and has molded speaker details for his hypnotic powers. I dig the addition of the green accents. In bat mode, the head can look up, the ears can (due to transformation) tilt forward, and his mouth can open and close, but he can't turn his head. The bat legs have three soft ratchets; one at the "hips" that can move the leg forward, one at the knee that also moves forward and one at the ankle that can tilt the foot forward or backward. They're stiff enough that, despite their small size, he doesn't have trouble standing on them when they're straight. Bend them, though, and his weight will cause him to tip forward. However, if you have some string or a thin rod, they can curl around it and he can hang upside down. His wings are where he has the most articulation. They're on swiveling arm that can move them up, then hinged on that arm to go a little forward or back until they start popping his bot arms out place. There's two more hinges along the black rods running through the middle of the wing that can go straight back or fold nearly entirely over on the front side. Additionally, there's a pivot joint near the body that allows the wings to spread laterally. Despite the removal of the chest compartment, the Headmaster still has a place to sit... behind that awesomely gothtic translucent green cross on panels that look sort of like a coffin on Sigma's back. Speaking of the Headmaster, instead of a dull black generic body with reddish-purple legs, Fansproject did a little more stylizing for the better. He's got a nice painted face, little black gauntlet blades, and a silver bat painted on his chest. Sigma L's Headmaster dude is basically evil Batman. Be careful transforming him. There's a visor piece that needs to slide out before folding down over the face. In another nice touch, Sigma's got red painted eyes behind his translucent greenish-yellow visor, and Batman's gauntlets form Sigma's ears. And then we have Sigma's bot mode. It's a much greater departure from G1 Mindwipe than his bat mode, but I gotta tell you, if you're going to re-imagine a design this is how you do it. Instead of just another chunky robot, Sigma is a thin, almost gaunt figure, with a high collar, clawed (fixed) fingers, and points on his toes and the backs of his arms. It's a look that makes you think of Sigma as a vampire. As before, he mostly retains Mindwipe's black and purple colors but tosses in some nice painted silver and green accents. Height-wise, here he's with Combiner Wars Prowl and Unique Toys Mania King, so I'd say that Sigma is comfortably a Voyager-sized figure. Sigma comes with a pair of shotguns with nicely-painted silver barrels. They peg just fine into his hands, or they can store on his wings in robot mode. In bat mode, they can either plug onto the front of his wings or onto his back. A nice touch is that the handles are on a hinge, so the guns can swivel up a bit if they're on his back. Articulation-wise, Sigma's got ball-jointed shoulders that go all the way around and a little over 45 degrees out to the side before his shoulder hits his collar. He's got double-jointed elbows that let him curl his arms all the way to his shoulders. Both of his wrists swivel, as does his waist and biceps. His hips are soft-ratcheting universal joints, he's got thigh swivels, and his knees can bend 90 degrees. His feet are on (big) ball-joints that give him some forward and backward tilt, as well as his ankle title. As for his head, the joint for the Headmaster is a disc that can turn from side to side. I've seen videos of other Function X toys where the disc can also tip to let the figure look down, or if the disc is turned 180 degrees before the head is inserted, up. If Sigma L can do that, it's so tight on my copy that I'm afraid the Headmaster's head will break, so I don't want to force it. I really only have two issues with Sigma, and they're kind of related. The first is that the wings are attached to his shoulders, not his back, in robot mode, and there's a molded stop point. That means that if his arm is raised, the wing goes with it, which can look goofy. If not for the stop point, the wings could be rotated to stay behind him, but oh well. The second is the ball-jointed shoulders. The're not bad; on any other figure, I probably wouldn't have a problem. But on Sigma the weight of his wings can cause his shoulders to droop. Despite these minor issues, I strongly recommend Sigma L. The toy just oozes character. Even if he's too drastic of a departure from G1 Mindwipe for you to think of him as Mindwipe, I'd like to believe that your collections still have room for a robot vampire whose head turns into evil Batman and rides in a coffin when the vampire is in bat mode.
  18. mikeszekely
    Too bad you cancelled your preordered... Then I could have bought him off of you.
  19. mikeszekely
    Warbotron does. WuKong doesn't. These are actually KOs of 3P toys that I decided to try because 1.) they're cheaper (I paid $250 for all four limbs, free shipping), 2.) Benscollectibles reviews of them said they were pretty good, and 3.) WuKong supposedly included some extra accessories and fixed some of the problems of the original Warbotrons. WuKong's Onslaught got delayed, though, and these guys took forever to clear customs, so I'll probably buy the real Warbotron version for him. And since you asked, I'll try to have Sigma L up tonight.
  20. mikeszekely
    It's like Christmas morning at my house after the mail came. I'm gonna start calling my mail guy Santa.
  21. mikeszekely
    Or that exactly, yeah.
  22. mikeszekely
    Well, that's Hasbro for you. At least for me, if I buy him, it'll be the first time I buy that mold. I'm going for Fansproject's Function X Code instead of Hasbro's Chromedome.
  23. mikeszekely
    Let's wrap this up so we can move onto better things next week, shall we? So here's TFC's Uranos, the combiner who's supposed to be Superion. So, this is intended configuration, and I'll be blunt; this guy's a hot mess. I don't even think it's fair to compare him to the Combiner Wars version like this, which is why he isn't in the shot. I mean, where to start? The head sculpt goes for the mouthed version of the G1 toy, but with the face painted silver so it's neither toy nor 'toon accurate (unless you count The Headmasters series in Japan... which I don't). To make matters worse, the sculpted mouth has probably the derpiest expression I've ever seen on a Transformer, official or third party. Blackbird's chest folds downward, so his waist is Uranos' crotch. Phantom Ray folds up into a loose ball of crap that floppily clings to Blackbird to form a decidedly un-Superion chest plate. Blackbird's arms tab into his sides, but they are very loose which makes the pretty much the whole torso come apart. His hips don't have enough detents; he can either stand straight up or go to a wide-legged stance. At least, in theory. In practice, Falcon and Eagle are too wide for both of Uranos' legs to be straight, and the ratchets in his hips are so loose that attempting to put him into the wide-legged stance just makes him do the splits. You're pretty much forced to set one leg straight and one wide, which gives him a crooked stance. His ankles don't help, either. While they do have a ratchet, rather than pin the joint in the leg like Feral Rex or Ordin, Uranos' uses a simple 5mm peg, and a connector piece with a peg hole on the legs (arms too, but it's less of a problem there). That means his ankles twist when you don't want them too, or the peg simply pops out when you're trying to use the ankle ratchet. Speaking of connector pieces, Uranos' gun is the same as Blackbird's. I like that the barrel can extend to give it a slightly different look, but for Uranos to hold it you have to use the peg for Blackbird's hand in a handle designed to Uranos' hand. The problem here is that the gun pegs into the handle VERY loosely. Sneeze and you're going to have Blackbird's gun and the ground while Uranos holds an empty handle. One thing I will give Uranos credit for are the elbows. They do use the Harrier and Phantom's hips for elbow joints, but all the limb bots transform their legs by simply sliding up and down instead of the splitting and folding of most of the Combiner Wars figures. So, for those of you who hate the thigh gap showing in the elbow, you only have to pull the legs down enough to expose the hips and you'll get about 90 degrees of bend. And, unlike the Combiner Wars toys, Phantom and Harrier's ball-jointed hips are nice and tight, especially Phantom's. Uranos could hold that gun all day long without any droopage... you know, if the gun would stay on the handle. Now, with all the guns and missiles from the Wing of Uranos kit divvied out, you're still left with this: The two white bits are collar pieces for Uranos. I don't recommend using them; he doesn't really look any better with them, and they restrict his neck movement. The black bit is a faceplate. And the rest is, I dunno, some kind of flying drone gun? It splits apart into a gun, a chest plate, and a crotch plate. To install them, you remove Phantom Ray and put Blackbird's chest back up into it's normal position. The chest plate fits over Blackbird's chest, and the little red wings fold around to grab into Blackbird's arms. Not only will this lock the chest plate in place, but it holds Blackbird's arms in the tabs so they stop falling out. As for the crotch plate, pop Uranos' legs off, rotate the waist 180 degrees, and there's a peg hole on Blackbird's butt that it clips into, then you just spin the thighs back around and put the legs back on. The difference is night and day, and now he doesn't fare so poorly against the Combiner Wars toy. The black face plate gives Uranos a more 'toon look and hides the derpy mouth. The chest plate gives his torso a better shape, holds him together more snugly, and is more recognizably Superion. The new gun is also much closer to the G1 toy's gun, and unlike the Combiner Wars toy, Uranos' hands and feet are mostly white with a little silver and red thrown in. Optionally, you can further clean him up Uranos by removing Phantom and Harrier's wings, or even Blackbird's boosters. I also like to extend Phantom and Harrier's legs all the way. The reason is, now he has double-jointed elbows that can bend enough to allow Uranos to touch his shoulders. Speaking of shoulders, his arms can rotate all the way around on the combiner joint, and the combiner pegs can move up and down to give him lateral movement. His head is on a ball joint and can look up, down just tiny bit, and of course swivel. Unlike the Combiner Wars toy, Uranos has a functional waist joint. His wrist can rotate, and each finger is individually articulated with the thumb on a ball-joint with a pinned knuckle, and each of the fingers on connected to the hand with a pin and having a pinned knuckle. His hips are ratcheted universals with forward, backward, and lateral movement. I complained about the lateral ratchet being too weak, but there's ways around it. You can open up Blackbird's legs and stick something behind the spring like a nylon washer, or you can replace the spring with a stiffer one. I had a lot of success swapping the with the springs from Cybertron Leader Prime's hips. If you don't feel like opening up the legs, you can turn Blackbird's legs sideways and bend Blackbird at a transformation joint a little (similar to how Combiner Wars Menasor works). This increases the space between Falcon and Eagle enough that Uranos can stand straight up instead of a wide-legged stance. And by the way, if you missed the implication, Uranos has thigh swivels. If you do this, you don't loose Uranos' knee since that's handled by the combiner ports on Falcon and Eagle ratcheting. Finally, Uranos' feet can turn on their connector peg, they have ratcheting tilt, and the toes can tilt up and down. So yeah, if you're patient, you can coax some good poses out of him. Uranos' new gun fits into his hand by plugging into the same handle Blackbird's weapon used. It's a bit more secure in there, though. If you don't feel like tossing Blackbird's weapon aside, you can peg it onto his arm. And, if you're the kind of person who doesn't like setting any parts aside but you like the cleaner look you got from popping Phantom and Harrier's wings off, you can store them elsewhere. I had some luck by plugging Harrier's wings onto Blackbird's boosters, and Phantom's wings on the backs of Uranos' shoulders using Phantom and Harrier's forearm peg holes. Now, do I recommend Uranos? Mostly, no. I mean, without the Wing of Uranos add-on, absolutely not. Combiner Wars Superion, even with the default hands and feet, looks better and is more solid. This makes the Wing of Uranos add-on feel less like an optional add-on to fix a few minor annoyances and more like a necessity to fix glaringly obvious issues. And while most add-ons are usually 4th parties attempting to make something they like better, Wing of Uranos is made by TFC themselves, one that feels planned for from the beginning and a cynical cash grab by a company on a figure that was already over the $500 mark. Given that BBTS's discounted price for the complete Uranos set still doesn't include Wing of Uranos, you're still looking at nearly $500 for this guy new, and I can't say that he's worth it. Get the Combiner Wars or Unite Warriors version and buy the Perfect Effect hands and feet for him. That said, if you look at the "for sale" section of some Transformers message boards, you're likely to find this guy for under $300, Wing of Uranos included, or under $250 without (and the Wing add-on is still available at some retailers). At that price, if you're willing to do a little work to fix the hips, I do think he's worth it. He's better articulated than the Combiner Wars version, even with the PE add-ons, and he's got stronger elbows. He's actually grown on me a lot since I got him. If M3 is your Menasor, though, Uranos is a little big of a Superion to go up against his arch rival. Then again, Quantron's a little small to be taking on Ordin... I guess they could switch.
  24. mikeszekely
    That Hot Rod looks way better than the old Classics one, and since all the 3P swings at Hot Rod/Rodimus are MP-scaled, I think I might pick him up. A Voyager-class Megatron is also welcome for CHUG collectors who thought the Leader version from the Combiner Wars line was too big, although I'll have to see a lot more before I decide if he's worth replacing Hegemon on my shelf. Mindwipe and Weirdwolf have the G1 look, but they just look like Happy Meal toys after seeing Fansproject's Function X line. I'll pass there. I'll also probably pass on Doublecross. I think he looks like a great update from the G1 toy, but I was never a fan of the Monsterbots. I'm lukewarm on Getaway. I'd like to pass, but he's had a major role in the More Than Meets the Eye comic, so maybe. Another Optimus Prime just has me scratching my head. We just got a Voyager Prime with Combiner Wars, and we're getting a Leader version with Titans Return. Given the optional head, the yellow on his chest and knees, and the fact that it looks like his trailer is part of him and he doesn't transform into a cab over engine, maybe he's supposed to be Star Convoy?
  25. mikeszekely
    Tonight we're going to look at the last of the not-Aerialbots, TFC's SR-71 Blackbird, a rather different take on Silverbolt. Aesthetically, Blackbird looks mostly like Silverbolt, but has too much red on his torso (due to his intended torso mode, actually). Interestingly, he has black on his knees before the Combiner Wars Silverbolt came along with black on his knees, a feature not on the G1 toy or 'toon. But he's still mostly white with black hands and feet, and gold biceps and thighs. Well, yellow, really, but it's a better color choice than the brownish gold on CW Silverbolt. Due to the way Blackbird's torso is constructed, he tends to look a little beer-bellied. I like the way that, rather than simple carry a jet on his back, the jet bits try to fold up onto his back, but they don't tab together tightly and tend to flop back into their jet-mode positions. Rather than his usual gun, which is really the same gun Superion used, Blackbird's front end detaches and transforms into a kind of gun. A lot of people hated this, I think, but I kind of like it. I mean, it's not the best-looking gun out there, but by not carrying that chunk on his back (like pretty much every other Silverbolt) he's got less of a mess to throw off his balance or block a waist swivel. It's nice to have a Silverbolt you can actually pose! So, for articulation Blackbird's head can swivel (I don't recall if it was ball-jointed or could look up and down), he's got a waist swivel, ratcheted universal hips with forward/backward and lateral movement, knees bend find, and his toes can turn to give him so faux ankle tilt. His shoulders have a joint for rotation, and a separate one in the chest for lateral movement. He's got bicep and wrist swivels, and his elbows bend quite nicely (although doing so exposes the combiner ports). On his back, the pieces that his boosters are attached to are hinged so they can be moved backward, they're attached via 5mm pegs so they can rotate or be removed entirely, and the peg is on an armature with a pair of joints that allow the boosters to stretch and turn so that the exhausts are pointed out to the sides. While the four limb-bots stayed truer to their G1 alt-modes than the Combiner Wars versions, Blackbird eschews Silverbolt's Concord alt mode for that of an SR-71 Blackbird. While I often lean toward being a G1 purist, I can get behind this change. If the other four Aerialbots are all military aircraft, I think it makes sense for Silverbolt to also be a military aircraft instead of a commercial passenger jet. And, despite being a Blackbird instead of a Concord, Blackbird retains Silverbolt's mostly white color with a black nose, and even has yellow stripes down the sides of the fuselage to mimic the windows of the 'toon or the gold and black stripes of the G1 toy. Blackbird has been criticized for alternatively being a jet with a folded up robot stuck to the bottom, or a robot carrying a whole jet on his back. This is mostly fair, although Blackbird does fold a lot of the jet up and gives you enough articulation in the boosters that the robot-with-a-jet isn't super egregious. As for the jet with a robot underneath problem, this was also true for Leader-class RotF Jetfire, the only other transforming SR-71 I can think of, as well as G1 Silverbolt, Universe Silverbolt, and Combiner Wars Silverbolt. Silverbolt's just too blocky of a robot who has transformed into too sleek jets to ever pull it off, so I'm going to cut Blackbird a little slack. At least the whole robot is underneath; Combiner Wars Silverbolt has elbows, biceps, shoulders, and knees that are clearly visible even when viewed from top-down. Blackbird isn't alone in his box; he also comes with this guy, X-47 Phantom Ray. Phantom Ray is a TFC original character. He's a little Legends-sized dude, and he sucks like one. Well, that's not entirely fair, as recent Legend figures have been much better than Phantom Ray. His head can swivel, his shoulders can rotate, and due to transformation have a bit of a butterfly joint, but no lateral movement. His elbows can bend a bit, but he doesn't have hands. He's got no waist, ball-jointed hips, knees that can bend quite deeply, and toes that can point downward due to transformation but no ankles. In a lot of ways, he reminds me of Legends-class Cosmos. Not the recent good one, but the crappy one from a few years ago. He feels loose. The fold out panels on his elbows and shoulders don't peg or tab in, and although his chest has tabs and slots to peg together they really don't. Phantom Ray's name is actually a horrible misnomer; he's a Boeing X-45A UCAV, not an X-47 (which is a different Northrop Grumman UCAV), nor is it a Phantom Ray (Boeing's X-45 successor, and more of a flying wing than the X-45A). Despite being a drone, Phantom Ray has a painted-on window. Blackbird has a little fold-out peg on top. This goes with a peg hole on Phantom Ray's underside, so Blackbird can carry him around the way actual UCAVs are sometimes carried by modified Boeing 747's. So, do I recommend Blackbird? Well... if I'm being totally honest, I actually like Blackbird a lot. Yes, he's got flaws- serious flaws. But they're flaws that are shared by literally every other version of Silverbolt you could buy, and he makes up for it by being the best Silverbolt for posing. So yes, I will recommend him. However, I seem to be a minority here, though, and Blackbird's flaws are perhaps easier to swallow on a $25 toy than a $100 one, so take my recommendation with a grain of salt.
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