mikeszekely

Yeah, it's a holiday, but stuff's starting to come in rapidly, and it's not like I'm actually doing anything today. Might as well tell you guys about the sole new mold in this entire 3rd wave of Legacy United... Deluxe-class Cybertron Universe Hot Shot. I'm guessing that a lot of you are familiar with how, in Japan, only the shows that became Armada and Energon were related, and Galaxy Force was re-written in the West to make fit Cybertron a sequel. So on that note, the guy on the left was actually a new character in Japan named Exillion, but he was changed to Hot Shot in Cybertron to maintain a sense of continuity. Seems a bit weird that the guy who was primarily yellow in Armada and Energon is primarily blue now, and sure, when you put Cybertron Hot Shot next to the Legacy version of Armada Hot Shot they don't look super similar. But if we had a Legacy Energon Hot Shot (please, Hasbro?) you can sort of see how elements of that design, especially the head, could be interpreted as a stepping stone between these two designs. Of course, it also helps a lot that Hot Shot's arc in Armada is basically G1 Hot Rod, and Exillion seemed to draw a lot of design cues from the '86 Autobot. His shins have triangular patches with chevrons like the G1 toy, and his backpack is remarkably similar to the G1 toy's with the canopy dangling down his back and the part that isn't the canopy sporting a shape that's awfully similar to Hot Rod's spoiler wings. His torso even sports some random yellow patches that are roughly analogous with the headlights on Hot Rod's torso. Heck, he's even tall for a Deluxe, towering over his standard Deluxe carbot Armada self to stand eye-to-eye with SS86 Hot Rod. That's actually where we start running into minor discrepancies on the Legacy version compared to the cartoon or the original toy. They had pipes tucked between his doors and forearms that Legacy Hot Shot is missing. Legacy Hot Shot is also missing silver paint on his rims, yellow on the triangular markings on his heels, and black on his hips. The silver on his torso is more of a gunmetal, and the circular details near his shoulders are bare pin hinges. The red on the inside of his backpack has been left unpainted blue, and the red details on his shoulders, including the Autobot insignia, have been reduced. Hot Shot comes with two accessories. As was the case with the other Cybertron characters in Legacy United, we have a small Cyber Key that retains the design of the original toy's but lacks any paint. He also comes with a mostly translucent yellow gun. It's a single piece, unlike the original toy that fired its barrel as a missile, but it's colored in a way that's more cartoon accurate. Hot Shot's head is on a ball joint that can swivel, look up a bit, and tilt sideways some but can't really tilt downward. His shoulders are a bit wonky. They rotate fine, and he can get a little under 90 degrees of lateral movement (he could do more if his head wasn't in the way). But a lot of that lateral movement comes from a transformation joint on the wrong side of his rotation, nearly giving him "Hot Rod Shoulders" (which seems kind of appropriate for a design that cribs so much else from Hot Rod). However, he does have a limited about of lateral movement where his biceps connect to his shoulder pads. Speaking of biceps, they swivel, and his elbows bend 90 degrees. His wrists and waist swivel. His hips can spread laterally 90 degrees and he can kick forward over that, but his backpack gets in the way and limits him to 45 degrees or so backward. His thighs swivel, and his knees bend 90 degrees. His toes tilt upward due to his transformation; I actually find that joint a tad loose for my tastes. Nothing downward, but his ankles pivot far more than you'd realistically need at 180 degrees. Hot Shot can hold his gun in either hand, and since this is legacy he sports a couple of extra 5mm ports I'm pretty sure the original toy didn't. There's one on top of each shoulder, one on the outside of each forearm, one near his ankle on the side of each leg, one under each toe, and one on his backpack. The backpack one makes for pretty good storage for his gun in bot mode. As for the Cyber Key, it can't be combined with his weapon like Starscream and Vector Prime's can, which is a bummer. There's a slot on top of his backpack it can plug into, but it's purely cosmetic. Hot Shot does have wings like the original toy, but they fold out manually. Curiously, they're red on the Legacy toy instead of yellow like the original or cartoon. Hot Shot's transformation is very similar to his original toy's. His backpack still rotates 180 degrees. His shoulders still swivel up to meet above his head to form the nose, and his arms still tuck into his sides to form the doors. His toes still fold in, and his legs still collapse to form the rear. The main differences are that his head now folds into his back, and legs now open up and collapse Combiner Wars-style instead of merely sliding up over his thighs. For the most part I think his car mode looks pretty good. He's got the vents in the hood and sides, and he's sporting his yellow headlights, though they're painted on instead of using translucent plastic like the original. The red shoulder joints from the original toy are blue, which better matches the cartoon. His engine block is less detailed than the original toy, but again I think that's in keeping with the cartoon. His rear end is a bit messy, though. He's missing the Autobot badge on his hood. And, as I touched on previously, no paint on his rims, and while he's got some yellow striping on the sides they didn't paint the rest of the yellow on the spoiler. I'll also note that the only red on his rear comes from his wings and their hinges, when the wings should be yellow and the red on his alt mode was supposed to come from the inside of his backpack. In alt mode, Hot Shot has two 5mm ports on either side just behind his wheels, but the one you're most likely to use to attach his weapon is the one on his roof. That is, I believe, where his weapon attached to the original toy. And like the original toy, the Cyber Key plugs into the back of the engine block, though again you have to fold out the wings manually. There's one other feature that I'm not sure is actually an intended feature, buy you can open his cockpit while he's in alt mode, where you'll find Hot Shot's face peeking out. You could almost sit a Titan Master in there, if his head wasn't in the way. There's enough room for his Cyber Key, though, if you're looking for a place to store it that isn't simply leaving it plugged into the back. Cybertron used CGI based on the toys, and as such the original toys wound up being extremely cartoon-accurate in the first place. As such, that means most of the changes from the original toy to Legacy are mostly tweaks in proportions, additional 5mm ports, and improved articulation. However, he's a victim of Hasbro's penny-pinching, as his flaws seem largely to stem from budgetary decisions (missing paint apps, sticking his wings and hips on the same sprue as his other red parts, etc). On the whole, I think Hot Shot's a pretty solid figure, well worth picking up if your a Cybertron fan, a Hot Shot fan, or simply like a cool-looking Autobot that turns into a car. I think my biggest complaint isn't actually about the figure, but rather Hasbro's scattershot approach to releasing characters from all over the franchise's history, as Legacy United has now brought us two Cybertron versions of characters we recently got Armada versions of, but we're still missing some of what I'd call the main Armada cast (to say nothing of the fact that now I also want the Energon versions of these guys).

Right? I'm going to wind up buying a different, slightly brighter blue Thundertron (but with an eye patch and hook hand now!) just to get a third remold of Magneous.

Well, not to distract from the still-not-officially-announced-but-definitely-real SS86 Optimus, but I've got Wave 3 of Legacy United in hand. And I want to start by getting the remolds and repaints out of the way in a quick Repaint Roundup. So, let's see... first there's Deluxe-class Strongarm, who's simply a package refresh from Evolution, despite being advertised on the front page of Pulse at the time of writing. Up next we have Deluxe-class Side Burn. While Shadowstriker was labeled as Cyberverse-Universe, and had the Cyberverse head and colors, I don't think anyone saw that chest on her and figured they were homaging the Universe without eventually retooling it into Side Burn, the guy who was repainted into the Unvierse toy in the first place. And in some ways stuff starts to make sense when it's Side Burn. The fact that the gun can also be held as a knife? The original Side Burn had a weapon like that. The rear bumper plugs into the gun? Side Burn's bumper was part of his other gun. The top of the car partsforms into a shield? Side Burn's roof was always stuck to his left shoulder. When I reviewed Shadowstriker I felt like she was a poor representation of the Cyberverse character due to the added Side Burn elements, but after re-watching RiD '01 with my daughter and better familiarizing myself with Side Burn's design I'd argue that the reverse is also true- Sideburn is compromised because the designers tried to work in elements of Cyberverse Shadowstriker. The wheels that should be under his forearms are on his back. I presume what parts went on which sprues was based on Shadowstriker's colors, and that's how Side Burn wound up with blue forearms instead of white and black feet instead of blue. His roof is plugged into his forearm rather than his shoulder, and his right shoulder is free from kibble when it should have his front bumper. I could almost let the robot mode issues slide, but the concessions to Shadowstriker are most egregious in alt mode. Other figures have gotten away with just enough changes to avoid licensing the real-world car the original toy was based on, but I don't think anyone would mistake whatever this is for a Dodge Viper. The molded headlights carried over from Shadowstriker, but they're not painted so it looks like he's missing the yellow headlights from the original toy, and without the outlines the original toy had you can barely make out the flames tampoed on the sides and hood. Look, I know at the end of the day Hasbro loves to get their repaints in. But they could have made a really good Side Burn, then sold the red Super Side Burn repaint, then done Shadowstriker in her Universe colors along with Roulette, then made a more accurate Cyberverse Shadowstriker that has nothing to do with Side Burn. But instead Hasbro went in this direction (and to be clear, I blame the suits, not guys like Mark and Evan) and now nobody is happy. I say pass, which I suspect most of you crusty ol' G1ers were going to anyway. Unless you really liked RiD '01 and really want a new Side Burn. Up next we have Nucleous, the rock guy who didn't exist until now, yet somehow got more budget for retooling than Side Burn. Nucleous is a retool of Magneous, and they share the same biceps, forearms, hands, back, removable spikey boards, waist, pelvis, and thighs. However, he's got a new head, backpack, chest, shoulders, lower legs, feet, and weapon. Heck, just because the bumps on the rocky surfaces don't line up right, you can't even swap legs between them. Transformation is the same, but you can see how new parts give Nucleous a slightly sleeker alt mode. Plus, where Magneous' weapon just kind of chilled out on him, Nucleous' breaks into two halves that then attach to the back as big boosters. I want to be against Nucleous. I've been ranting for awhile about how G1 characters like Breakdown get shafted by having to be retooled while the budget for new molds keeps going to invented gimmick characters. I think doing characters that turn into rocks to homage the Rock Lords is fine, but rocky dudes that turn into trucks made out of rock is kind of dumb. But the thing is, I kind of like the Infernac guys. As gimmicks go, the Armorizers have been my favorite since they took the Citybot pack-ins and turned them into Weaponizers. So I actually kind of dig Nucleous. Honestly, I think my biggest complaint is that he's a remold of Magneous instead of the superior Shard. That brings us to the Voyagers. I'm not clear on if there's another package refresh, or if for some reason there is only one Voyager in this wave, but... ...the only one I'm sure we're getting in this wave is Vector Prime, and he's a retool of Legacy Jhiaxus. And despite being a heavier retool he's in kind of the same boat as Side Burn in that he's still very compromised by reusing parts of Jhiaxus when a character this important probably should have been his own mold. He's got a new head chest, shoulders, parts of his backpack, parts of his crotch, and wing bits, but he's re-using the rest of the arms, parts of the torso, parts of the hips, and all of the legs (minus the ankle wings, but with the vestigial hinge bits). And while the new parts look pretty good, the bulk of the Jhiaxus parts are just wrong. His forearms should be magenta with clockwork details, and he's missing his arm guards. He's missing half his pelvis armor. He's missing the molded thrusters in his thighs, and the guns on his toes. His legs trade the armored knight look of the original for the exposed wires of Jhiaxus. Vector Prime doesn't have Jhiaxus' guns, but he does have a sword and a Cyber Planet Key. Like Starscream, the key is smaller and doesn't actually activate any mechanisms. Also like Starscream, the key can be plugged into a slot on Vector Prime's back, or it can combine with his weapon. When not in use, the sword can also be stored on a 5mm port on Vector Prime's back, but the key has to be removed first. Again, like Side Burn, I think that the compromises are worse in alt mode. He's super flat, with none of the details on the rear that came from the original's folded-up body. Just a vertical stabilizer that carried over from Jihaxus that Vector Prime shouldn't have. The long, sleek fuselage is shorter and kind of stumpy-looking. At least the arms dangling from the underside can sort of be taken in place of the original's folded-up legs, although they're missing the toe guns. Without the mass of robot bits at the back, the Cyber Key plugs into a socket just behind the cockpit. The sword, though, just pegs awkwardly into a 5mm port on the underside of either wing. It can't fit into the nose of the jet like the original's did; what looks like a sword incorporated into it is just molded, painted detail. Well, I still think it's kind of awesome that they went hard on old Marvel G2 when they did Jhiaxus. And I suppose finding a repaint for Jhiaxus' mold would be tough. But while Vector Prime does get some stuff right, he's not the clever retool that Metalhawk from Cyclonus was. Vector Prime deserved better. I kind of want to say you should pass. I know, compared to the rest of the Unicron Trilogy, that Cybertron got a lot of love from the fandom, though. If Cybertron's you're thing and you're just happy to have some kind of update, then I guess this is better than nothing. And the planned Leader for this wave was supposed to be Armada Galvatron, but he got bumped to wave 4. So... yeah, aside from one Deluxe this entire wave has been mediocre repaints and retools. I guess tune in next time and we'll look at the lone new mold in Wave 3. Plus I hope to have a big review for you guys before the week is out.

Hey, it was good enough for MP-44...

I'll just leave this here. It was briefly on Baidu, then deleted, made its way to a certain TF website where someone asked again for it to be deleted but was basically told that there was no way the cat's going back in the bag at this point.

You ever wonder what kind of person goes to a Macross board to write extensive posts on the far-too-many Transformers toys he buys? Here's a glimpse at how my mind works. My wife does a nice thing and picks up an Asian-exclusive Crimsonflame for me... but I quickly realize Crimsonflame is a remold of an old The Last Knight figure. So before I can write anything, I have a powerful urge to track down a frankly mediocre seven year old movie toy. But hey, it made for a fun review, and I can stop there, right? ...right? Yeah... no. Because Steelbane is one of a group of Guardian Knights, an immediate question I found myself confronted with was, "how many Guardian Knights are there?" The answer is twelve, but a follow up question then is, "how many got toys?" I briefly touched on Skullitron, which I figured I could ignore since it's just Steelbane again with a different head. Unfortunately, my brain was unwilling to ignore any toys that used a different mold, and that's how I wound up with Dragonicus and Stormreign. Dragonicus (left) and Stormreign (right) are much bigger than Steelbane, standing at about the same height as a modern Voyager. That said, Stormreign has far less mass, weight less than some of the Deluxes I have laying on my desk. I'll note that Dragonicus and Stormreign technically aren't Voyagers; they're came together in a single Leader package. You can see why, as you spin them around. Dragonicus is a pretty chunky boy with a massive "caped" backpack. Stormreign, though, is pretty hollow. His torso is mostly a void that's barely covered by his backpack, and even then although his backpack looks fairly substantial from the side you can see from the back that it, too, is basically hollow. Now, are they screen accurate? Quite frankly, from what I remember of the film (a film I actively try not to remember) all the Guardians were sort of generic-looking armored knights. That said, I can find the specific character models that these toys are supposed to be based on, and yeah, quite a lot of the molded details do match. That said, Dragonicus should have a bit more blue and none of the black , and he shouldn't have a backpack. Stormreign, likewise, shouldn't have a backpack, and he should actually be mostly red. Aside from that it bugs me that Stormreign's left arm, which should look the same as the right, has a random gray flap. (Note that I didn't receive instructions with these guys and they came in bot mode, with Dragonicus' feel as you see in the pictures. I realized after the fact that they're mistransformed- they should be rotated 180 degrees, with the robot toes folded out from under the the claws. I'm too lazy to reshoot all my pictures, though.) Dragonicus and Stormreign come with three weapons between them. Ostensibly, the swords belong to Dragonicus, and the mace belongs to Stormreign. That said, nothing's holding you to that. Dragonicus' head can swivel, no tilt. His shoulders rotate on ball joints, and can move laterally 90 degrees. His biceps swivel, and his elbows bend a little short of 90 degrees. No wrist or waist articulation. His hips swivel forward 90 degrees and backward about 60 before his backpack gets in the way. Laterally, they move 90 degrees on a detented swivel. His thighs swivel, and his knees bend 90 degrees. His feet are on ball joints that swivel, tilt downward, and provide the slightest of pivots. He can hold the swords or the mace just fine in either hand... And pegs on the weapons allow them to store in peg holes on his "cape." Stormreign's head seems to be on a ball joint. It swivels, but it also has a slight downward and sideways tilt. Shoulders are ball joints that swivel and move laterally a little under 90 degrees. His biceps swivel, and his elbows bend 90 degrees. No wrist swivel, but he does have a waist swivel. His hips go forward and backward 90 degrees, and nearly 90 degrees laterally. His thighs swivel, and his knees bend 90 degrees. His toes can bend downward, but he lacks any other articulation in his feet, unfortunately. Once again, Stormreign can hold both the sword and the mace in either hand. Stormreign has just a single peg hole inside his backpack, but it has no trouble accommodating either a sword or the mace. So as I said, while the swords are ostensibly Dragonicus' and the mace is Stormreign's, if you want all three Guardians to have a sword (since Steelbane comes with one) there's no real reason why you can't give Stormreign one sword and give Dragonicus a sword and a mace. Now, here's where things get weird. Neither figure really has an alt mode on his own. For Dragonicus, you split his pelvis and spread his hips, then crack open his torso. His head tucks in, and his shoulders rotate so his arms are sticking straight up while beast arms fold out. His hands tuck in, and dragon heads fold out. His legs turn 180 degrees, and then collapse so that his knees tab into the backs of his hips, and you tuck in the robot toes (which I failed to do). You can splay out his wings, but that's about it... a fileted two-head dragon without a butt and tail. Meanwhile, Stormreign's waist swivels 90 degrees. One of his legs turns and collapses over the thigh. The other has a tail fold out of the calf, then the backpack folds down over that thigh. In the void behind the backpack, his left shoulder first folds down on one hinge, then up next to his head on the another. That arm will curl so his forearm is tucked under his head. His head rotates 180 degrees, then his entire head and shoulders collectively spin so his lead and left arm are tucked into his torso and his right arm is extended where his head was. That arm, like Dragonicus', has the hand fold in and a dragon head fold off the back, turning him into a sort of serpent. But then you stick Stormreign into Dragonicus' chest cavity, and close him back up. Tabs on Dragonicus' hips will lock into slots on Stormreign's backpack, and the result is Dragonstorm, a three-headed Dragon that's a lot bigger than Steelbane but not impressively huge... he's kind of the size of a dragon you'd expect at as a Leader-class toy. Dragonstorm was a thing we that was in the movie. However, in the movie he was supposed to be a conglomeration of all twelve Guardians, not just two. And he kind of looked like what you'd get if you piled a bunch of gunmetal sticks into the shape of a three-headed dragon. You can kind of see some of that intention in the numerous random crisscrossing lines molded onto his body, but the colors are by and large the blacks and grays that dominated the robot modes with some orange on the heads for some reason. Dragonstorm's front arms at their most extended are shorter than his back legs. So, Dragonstorm's shoulders are ball joints and they can rotate and even move laterally up to 90 degrees. His feet/hands have some up/down tilt. And his elbows have nearly 180 degrees of curl. You'll notice, though, that his elbows kind of lock into place in a nearly-straight position. And this is necessary, because without that lock his elbows are too weak (at least on this copy) to support his weight. Meanwhile, his back legs have the same hip joints as bot mode, but transformed for dragon mode he loses almost all of his knee articulation. His feet do still have the ball joints, though, for the suggestion of a pivot and a little upward tilt. His tail has enough hinges to bend downward plenty, a little bit up, and nothing sideways. It's just enough articulation in his tail and hind legs that he can stand up and balance on those legs and tail. As for his heads, the jaws open on all three. The base joint in all three necks is a ball joint, then there's a hinge where the robot elbows are, a hinge where the dragon neck folds out from the forearm, and a hinge where the dragon head attaches to the neck. The wings have hinges at the base plus two additional hinges for flapping poses. The swords can plug into ports under Dragonstorm's wings, and there's a port on his back for storing the mace. Dragonstorm is nothing if not an ambitious bit of engineering. The movie had a bunch of knights that glommed into a dragon, and Hasbro figured out a way to make two knight dudes combine into one three-headed dragon. There's a lack of more modern articulation, and a lack of accuracy in both bot and dragon modes, but the broad strokes are all there. I might be curious to see what Hasbro could cook up if they decided to tackle Dragonstorm in the Studio Series. I can't really recommend trying to track down a copy of this one, though. I mean, for one thing, I don't think he's really good enough to justify the aftermarket markup. I thought I was rather lucky to find one lose for around the original retail price in an advertised "like new" condition. Turns out, not so much, because he suffered from an issue that is extremely common with this figure; one of his dragon heads was broken off. This problem was apparently so common that you run the risk of having one or more heads broken right out of the box.

Since he was first announced, I'd often thought about what Legacy Animated Bumblebee would look like with a G1 head. Well... I don't know if I'm going to keep him like that or not. Honestly, I think it's kind of a cool look, but the head is slightly too large. It's the one from the "Worlds Collide" Buzzworthy multipack, the one that's basically Bumblebee's head on Gen Selects Hubcap. EDIT: Another idea I kind of liked is that Bumblebee "graduates" from his G1 minibot body to a regular carbot-sized Autobot, a form that amalgamates modern post-Bay takes on Bumblebee with G1. I mean, I'm not the first to think of it. Don Figueroa did a hybrid design during his time at IDW, and Guidi Guidi cleaned it up. Heck, it even got a figure back in the day... but it's pretty crappy. I basically want something like that, but modernized and less crappy. So while I had WC Bee's head off, I figured I'd pop it on the Cyberverse Deluxe. I have to say, I rather like that. But if I go this route I'll have to modify the ball joint, as Cyberverse Bee has a smaller ball joint than WC and Legacy Animated Bee.

Amazon's Mayhem Attack Squad has a second set on offer. I didn't mention it yesterday because, A.) I think it warrants its own look, and B.) it hadn't arrived yet anyway. But it's here now, so let's take a look at the one with the Deluxe Insecticons! We'll start with the less interesting of the two, Chop Shop. Chop Shop is a retool of Shrapnel, with a new head and new mandibles. He comes with the same gun and bug legs that Shrapnel does, but he also comes with a pair of remolded bug legs that better resemble his G1 toy. As retools go it's decent; a step up from the Ransack that came with the Target "Creatures Collide" pack awhile pack, sure, but still one whose origins are a bit obvious still. Like, they painted the silver stripes on his chest, but they're not on the big pecs of the G1 toy and actually sit lower than the definitely-not-a-vent translucent part that the G1 toy didn't have. His shins still have Shrapnel's shape and details. But still, the new legs and mandibles go a lot further than just the color toward selling the mold as Chop Shop. Likewise, we're still mostly looking at Shrapnel in alt mode. His "eyes" bulge out the the side because they don't hide under his pecs and his arms don't tuck into his sides, they just hang out along the sides. His abdomen is missing the rounded humps and is overall more square-ish. But again, the new legs and mandibles lend to a silhouette that has at least more distinction than Ransack got from Kickback. Oh, a note about his accessories... on Shrapnel, while his bug legs could always technically be used as guns, I was content to leave them plugged into his arms as bug legs. But Chop Shop's arms are stuff with his new legs. Technically, you could combine all three accessories to form a big rifle, but it's kind of unwieldy. Personally, I think I'll use the Shrapnel legs as pistols for Chop Shop, and just ditch the Shrapnel gun. Of the two Deluxe Insecticons in this set, Barrage is the more interesting. I mean, sure, at first blush he is, like Chop Shop, a retool with a new head and mandibles- in this case, Bombshell. And just like Chop Shop, he comes with the gun and bug legs of his non-Deluxe counterpart, but also a set of new bug legs that better resemble his G1 toy's. Heck, you might even be inclined to give Barrage a strike for being less color-accurate than Chop Shop- Legacy Barrage has lots of extra green on his legs, green hips that should be yellow, a yellow pelvis that should be green, and green shoulders that should be yellow. He doesn't have the caped look that the G1 toy's wings gave him. And, his chest is missing the white stripes of the G1 toy, too. His chest is what makes him so interesting, though. Spin him around, and you'll see the curved shape and translucent panel that you'd find on Bombshell. That's right, Bombshell's front is Barrage's back, and Bombshell's back is Barrage's front. And, you may recall a small, useless part dangling from a hinge on the back of Bombshell's neck that I called out when I reviewed him? Yeah, that part's gone, but the hinge is the attachment point for his new bug head/mandibles. It's clever; it really helps Barrage look like more than Bombshell with a new head. I'm a bit disappointed that they didn't do the same for Chop Shop- they could have used the bug Shrapnel bug legs in his shoulders to make the front legs instead of the legs on his back, maybe use the connection points for the legs on his back to attach new pec pieces... ah, what could have been. As for as his gun goes, Bombshell's bug legs combined with his gun better than Shrapnel's did in the first place, so I'm pretty content to just do that. Unfortunately, Barrage's alt mode is still pretty obviously Bombshell. He loses the roundness of his G1 self. The new head and mandibles are pretty accurate, but they sit at the front of Bombshell's "head", which gives him an extra body section. But here's the crazy part about his alt mode. For his new legs to touch the ground properly, they have to be turned sideways compared to Bombshell. That is, the peg holes Bombshell's legs go into need to point downward when he's in alt mode, but Barrage's arms need to be turned so those same holes are pointing out the side. And yet, you'll find that his arms still have the right tabs and slots to lock together. Going one step further, you'll notice that there's a cutout on the robot shin flap that makes up the side of the abdomen that's just right for the hexagonal shape of the peg hole to sit inside of. In other words, it's very likely that these retools have been in the planning all the way back to when the mold originally debuted as Shrapnel. Oh, yeah, technically there's a third figure in the package. See, you've got this hammer, here, and a pair of effect parts. The hammer turns into this guy, Malleous Minotaurus, a repaint of the Siege Battlemaster known as Smashdown. He's pretty much an afterthought. I mean, he's little, with massive blocks for forearms and legs. And his articulation is pretty poor; ball joints at the shoulders and hips that allow for rotation and plenty of lateral movement, but no bicep, thigh, elbow, knee, waist, or foot articulation. And even his head is wonky. Yeah, it's a ball joint, but it doesn't go all the way up. That gives him up/down tilt, which is necessary for his transformation, but swiveling the ball joint tilts his head sideways rather than turn his head. In his alt mode, he's ok. I mean, he's a big hammer, and he looks like a big hammer. The effect parts are to make the hammer look like it's smashing into stuff, and... to cover the other side of the hammer in blue snot? I guess? Let's put it this way, you're definitely not buying this set for Malleous Minotaurus. But you probably should buy it for Barrage and Chop Shop. I mean, I've been a bit critical here, but o be clear, I'm nitpicking. While I think it'd be cool to get four brand-new Deluxe Insecticon molds, I'd expect that even if an idea like that could get past Hasbro's bean counters that licensing issues with Bandai over the Beetras designs would likely leave such an endeavor dead in the water. Retools of the non-Deluxe Insecticons will probably be the standard for a long time, and I'm genuinely very pleased that Chop Shop and Barrage got more love and attention than Ransack did. I'd give this set a recommend. I'd especially give recommend it if you picked up Ransack. Now we just need Venom. Discussion time- assume we will get Venom (I've already heard some rumors, and the design team has stated that they like to complete teams). Assume it's a new mold- no promises, but Mark suggested that he'd want to do a new mold for him. The question, then is, what else could the mold be used for, given Hasbro's propensity to milk the crap out of a mold? If it were up to me, I'd want a black-and-purple redeco. Give me an original character that looks like he was meant to be a one of the original Insecticons, so both groups are a balanced four. But that's just me.

I don't think that's out in the wild here, yet. Who's carrying it in Europe? It's supposed to be a Target-exclusive in the US, and when I preordered it I used a $20 off $75 coupon, which I think makes the set a lot more palatable, but it's not due to arrive for another month yet. Leftover from Chase, likely. He's got "Hot Rod shoulders," that is, they used a transformation hinge for his lateral shoulder movement but it's on the wrong side of the rotation so he can't lift his arm and spread at the same time. If I remember right, he's got pretty shallow ankle pivots, too, and wings that are kind of in the way. Hmm. I thought it was impressive that they turned Mindwipe into Squeezeplay at all. I guess I'll see what I think when I have him in hand. Yeah, I mean, the regular release of Tarantulas was fine, just not super excited for a repaint based on a prototype. Curious what you mean about this. I mean, isn't the engineering the same as the regular Legacy release? I thought that Tarn was fine... I mean, yeah, not as good as Kultur, but about as good as I'd expect from a figure that cost a fifth of that. IIRC my only real complaints were the guns on his back popping off and the barrels of his double fusion cannon being hollow. Aesthetically, I agree, he looks terrible with all that extra red. He looks like he's wearing lipstick. In Hasbro's defense, though, Cyberverse Tarn has a bunch of glowing pink lines that they were trying to mimic.

Looks like stuff's starting to hit stores. Got a few store exclusives in-hand, and according to Amazon Wave 3 of Legacy United should be shipping to me soon (side note, maybe they would't have had to stretch United into a fifth wave if Wave three wasn't three Deluxes and one Voyager plus a package refresh of Strongarm). Up first we have Target Optimus Prime, which is (naturally) a Target-exclusive. As you can see, it's a redeco of Legacy Laser Optimus, and... well, I'm really not too sure about this one. Like, black is not a color I associate with Target, and the mix of black with the red I do associate with Target, especially the black head with red eyes, gives him a sinister sort of look. I think they'd have been better off complimenting the red with the usual Target white... or using a different mold entirely, like VNR Optimus. More on that in a bit. Anyway, here's where things really start to go awry. Target doesn't ship goods to their stores in tanker trucks, so Target Optimus comes with a redeco of the Earthrise trailer instead of Laser Op's. So it's got the same detachable chunk of the trailer ramp, the same little drone thingy, the same lack of Roller... but something is missing. Target Optimus does NOT get the Earthrise blaster. Moreover, while he's got the molded missiles in his shoulders and a removable Matrix like Laser Prime, he lacks the rest of Laser Prime's accessories. No gun, no axe thingy, no sword. That trailer drone is all he's got. Well, that and Bullseye. Bullseye is a redeco of Siege Ravage. Although, like Ravage and the other Siege Micromasters, he does have a flip out 5mm peg for Prime to hold, he doesn't really do much in his alt mode. Like, what is even supposed to be, with that artwork? A gift card? Regardless, he transforms into a robot... well, I guess he's supposed to be a dog, even if the face is still more cat-like. They painted his nose and the little bullseye around one of his eyes. An interesting artifact of this redeco is that while you can't help but notice how much he sucks as Ravage, you don't have that preconceived notion of a lithe cat body for Bullseye and subsequently I don't mind the mold so much as Bullseye. In any case, here he is in truck mode. The trailer definitely looks nice; it's the same deco Target uses on their real trailers as of writing. The thing is, the Earthrise trailer was always a bit on the small size, and it's exacerbated by how large the Laser Op mold is in truck mode. The red cab seems fine at first glance, but I found myself thinking that Target's trucks are usually white. I got to looking for pictures of Target trucks, and you know what? Yeah, some are white, but some are red, too. But, whether white or red, you know what they seem to have in common? They're Volvos. Which brings me right around to one of my first thoughts, and that's that they should have used the VNR mold. I'm thinking white where VNR Optimus's cab is red, and black where the blue parts are, and still mostly red in bot mode. As it stands, while I have a soft spot for niche crap like this, and I do frequent Target, this almost feels like the sort of advertising someone should pay me to take, not the other way around. A superior deco on the VNR mold might have sold it better, but this is what it is, and what it is is not recommended. Moving along, I also got the first of Amazon's Mayhem Attack Squad. Well, the second, actually, because the I got a notification saying that I'd get the other set last Monday, and some people were even getting that set before then... only for Amazon to turn around and tell me my order would be delayed until sometime next week. So glad I preordered right away so I wouldn't have to wait. 😒 Whatever. This set contains two figures, and the first one is Windsweeper, and he's Needlenose with a new head. Thing is, Needlenose with a new head actually kind of works for Windsweeper. The new head is spot on, and the rest of Needlenose's body is sort of sufficiently generic enough that simply swapping the colors for Windsweeper's is mostly enough. For bot mode, I think the only things he really needs are a different chest and his flip out guns (remember, he's a Triggercon), and I do believe Nonnef has a kit addressing those issues... Of course, it's a different story in jet mode. I mean, you can see some elements like the extra molded lines in the canopy, the horizontal stabilizers on the vertical stab, and the little canards that suggest that Windsweeper was a planned repaint before Needlenose was even finished, but Windsweeper simply shouldn't have delta wings. Oh, and since he's largely Needlenose with a new head, his weapons are Targetmasters, too, named Cleansweep and Ozone. They're entirely painted silver, I guess to try to evoke the look of Windsweeper's built-in guns. But, yeah, I'll probably look into upgrade kits. Also packaged with Windsweeper is Breakdown. Like everything else we've looked at today, Breakdown is a minimal-effort new head and colors on an otherwise unchanged body, and from what I've been reading I guess a lot of people are kind of mad about it. The thing is, I don't really mind it. I mean, Bulkhead's gun always had that option to attach like a shoulder cannon, and Prime Breakdown did have a shoulder cannon in the show. He comes with the Wrecker hammer that the Wreck-N-Rule version of Bulkhead had, and I remember remarking at the time just how much it looked like Breakdown's hammer. (Not that he needs he, but he's got Bulkhead's wrecking ball, too.) The colors are good, the new head is excellent. The cab front for a torso is more of a Bulkhead thing, but the flat shape is pretty Breakdown-esque. While I can see not wanting these rivals to be the same guy with different heads, I honestly do think that this mold does work for both characters. Heck, I might even like it better as Breakdown. Well, in bot mode, at least. The alt mode doesn't strike me as particularly Bulkhead or Breakdown (though if you squint I guess it's kind of like a realistic take on Animated Bulkhead's truck). Prime Bulkhead should be more Hummer-esque, and Breakdown more of an armored truck. I guess what's really frustrating is that they honestly could have been a little more visually distinct, and all it would have taken is replacing Bulkhead's tarp/shield thing with something else. Maybe something less faux tarp and more like armor. Maybe make them fold differently, so Breakdown has a spare tire on his back but Bulkhead's came up over his shoulders like the "wings" on Animated Bulkhead. I dunno. What I do know is that while there are lots of ports you can stick the accessories, if you ditch the wrecking ball that Breakdown doesn't really need, anyway, you can fit everything under his tarp, same as Bulkhead. So, yeah, Windsweeper and Breakdown are kind of minimal effort. And yeah, a lot of people are kind of miffed about Breakdown being the same figure as his rival. But like I said, Needlenose works pretty well as Windsweeper, and I think the Bulkhead mold still works for Breakdown. Windsweeper alone is the kind of obscure character that you could live without, but I think this set's worth picking up to give Bulkhead his rival.

Yeah, it, that IDW Rodimus, Bingo Optimus, and a reissue of MPM-03 are supposed to go up for pre-order next week.

Allow me. On the one hand, it feels kind of lame to see Hasbro doing Miner Megatron and IDW Orion Pax again so soon. I do kind of like that the deco on Megatron is more gladiator, like he exists in a continuum between the previous Miner Megatron and Siege Megatron. But honestly, the reason I'm likely to shell out for this set is that Pax. I like the remolding they did here, and the Gamer Edition Optimus always seemed like a better choice for this Optimus than Siege Hound. The set will be available to purchase in person at SDCC, with extras going on Pulse on July 28th.

The trunks are fine, the cape's fine, it's that the shirt's too loose and the material is bunching under his chest and around his elbows. And hey, is that Edi Gathegi I spy as Mr. Terrific? I like him in For All Mankind.

Got a bit of a double review for you guys today that connects Age of Extinction to the present. On the left, we have Deluxe-class Age of Extinction Premiere Edition Steelbane. On the right, we have the Hasbro Asia-exclusive Year of the Dragon Crimsonflame. Steelbane is meant to be one of the guardians who stole Quintessa's staff and fled to Earth (which is somehow Unicron... good thing he didn't eat himself in Rise of the Beasts, eh?) and did some stuff with Merlin and King Arthur. He is pretty accurate to the mostly indistinguishable armored knight-looking guys we saw in the film, given that he's shades of gray and silver with some "dirt" painted on, with sculpted details that resemble a knight's armor and helmet. The only real departure from the film are the wings folded up on his back, but I don't hate it. It's not screen accurate, but it sort of conveys the impression of a cape or a cloak. He's pretty typical for a Deluxe, standing right about the same size as a Siege carbot like Prowl or Sideswipe. Crimsonflame is a 2024 retool of Steelbane to commemorate the Year of the Dragon. As alluded to, he was released exclusively in Hasbro Asia markets; Hasbro didn't even make him available to import through Pulse the way they often do with Takara-exclusives like Lunar Convoy. My wife's family is Chinese, though, and my wife's company does business there, so I was fortunate to have her pick up Crimsonflame on her last trip as a souvenier. It's interesting how Steelbane immediately reads as a European Knight while Crimsonflame gives off a Three Kingdoms vibe, despite how little has actually been retooled. The dragon arms/wings on his back are different, he's got a new head, different armor/kibble on his forearms, and the flappy part of his torso, from roughly the sternum down, has been retooled, but that's about it for this mode. The chest, shoulder pads, and legs are the same, and it's kind of just the colors that sell it. Steelbane's sole accessory is this rubbery sword. It's... fine. Steelbane's head is on a ball joint that can look up, down, and tilt sideways a fair amount. His shoulders are also ball joints, and they swivel fine, but between the cut of the socket and the shoulder pads he can only get about 45 degrees of lateral range. His biceps swivel, and his weirdly-detented elbows bend a bit over 90 degrees. He does have wrist swivels, but they're kind of for transformation as the armor on the outside of his forearms is attached to his hands. No waist swivel. His hips are ball joints that move 90 degrees forward or backward but only 45 degrees laterally. His thighs swivel. His knees can technically bend over 90 degrees, but practically the alt mode kibble in his calves stops him at 90. His feet are on hinged ball joints so they can swivel, tilt down very slightly, tilt up a significant amount, and even pivot slightly. Not quite the modern "standard" for articulation in the post-Siege world, but enough that he doesn't feel completely outdated. Steelbane can hold his sword in either hand. When not being held, you can use a tab on the hilt to plug the sword into slots on either thigh. Crimsonflame has a lot more to work with than Steelbane. You've got a flame effect part, a piece that looks like three bundled tubes for rockets or fireworks, a tassel knot charm, a shield, and a torch. Crimsonflame also comes with a display stand that can conveniently hold all of his other accessories except the shield. Crimsonflame's articulation is the same as Steelbane's. He's got a couple of things going for him that Steelbane doesn't, though. For one, he's less back heavy, given that he's not toting those wings around. But, even if he was back heavy, you can plug the stand into a port on his butt (a port which Steelbane actually possesses, mind you). Also, unlike Steelbane Crimsonflame has 5mm ports on his forearm armor. Ostensibly, this is so he can attach his shield, while the flame, torch, fireworks, and charm combine to form a spear. The extra ports on his arms, and the way you combine the accessories, gives you a lot more options than simply a spear, though. Put the flame in the torch and just have him carry the charm. Turn the fireworks into an arm cannon. Combine the arm cannon and the torch into a rifle. The versatility helps make Crimsonflame feel more contemporary than his base mold actually is. Both figures have pretty much the same engineering, and it comes from an era where the design team was trying some crazy stuff that you kind of have to admire, even when it doesn't work out so great. To transform either of these guys, turn the wrists and flip out the forearm armor, then pull the shoulders so his sides unlock from his back. Pull the backpack away just enough to get it out of the way, then the armor will slide up over the head. Now here's where things get crazy. The pelvis and spine split in half, and one side flips over to bring the right leg up over his robot head. You twist some joints, fold the foot up against the shin, and fold the end of the tail out of the calf, and that's the tail. With the tail done, you can lock the robot shoulders back in to turn his arms into his hind legs. Back at the other end, we twist some joints in the other leg, fold up that foot, and fold out the dragon head. All that's left is to fold down the backpack and arrange the limbs on it to form the front legs (and wings in Steelbane's case). Like I said, you have to admire the crazy transformations from this era, but they don't always work. Steelbane's dragon form is thin, with visible gaps and hollows under his neck, in his chest, and in his back. His robot feet are just hanging out, and he's got robot hands dangling off the backs of his legs. Credit where it's due, the number of leg joints that wind up in his neck and tail do give him some good articulation in those areas. His jaws can open and close. His legs have basically the same articulation is his robot arms. The wings on his dragon arms have swivels so they can splay outward, but the ball joints in the shoulders are loose and don't give him any upward flap, plus the only other joint is an elbow bend. You're not going to get a lot of dynamic posing out of his wings. But his wings do add a lot of mass up front, which means that standing him on his hind legs and posing him for flight is a challenge anyway, as he really needs to stand on at least one wing for support. Steelbane's sword uses the tab on the hilt to fit into a slot on his back, between his robot shoulders, allowing the sword to lie along his tail. Once again, things come out a little bit better for Crimson flame. The mold's tendency toward a skinny dragon works better for an Asian-style dragon than a European one. The remolded front legs are shorter and don't have the wings in the way, and while the remolded back legs don't really hind the robot hands they rest under them in a way that doesn't have the hands just dangling. The remolded dragon legs also seem to be better proportioned, so that Crimsonflame looks more natural standing on all fours. Not that he has to stand on his legs, mind you. You can plug him onto his stand for a nice flight pose. As for his other accessories, the flame effect can attach to a nub inside his mouth so he can breath fire, and his shield doesn't simply plug into his back, it attaches in a manner that helps hide the game Steelbane's mold left him. The rest simply goes onto his stand. Steelbane feels like a figure that might have been OK back in 2017; decent robot, very interesting transformation, not-so-great dragon. Not sure that I'd recommend tracking him down today (or, for that matter, Skullitron, a Toys 'R' Us exclusive retool that was just a new head on a more copper-colored body). Crimsonflame uses a few retooled parts and more accessories to be a much stronger use of the mold. However, we're still talking about a toy that was original designed seven years ago, to create a totally original character you probably have to put a little extra effort into importing from Asia. To me, with my ties to Chinese family, it's a lovely souvenir that I'm happy to have, even if he's unlikely to get a spot on my desk as a frequent fidget toy. Without those cultural ties I think he's hard to recommend, but I will say that if you're interested in experiencing this mold at all Crimsonflame is the version to get.

You mean second best. Or, best that isn't the original and actual best. EDIT: BTW, if you couldn't go to the recent 40th anniversary theater event, Hasbro will be streaming the first episode table reading onto the Pulse Youtube channel on June 28th at noon ET/9:00am Pacific. Frank Todaro (Starscream, Wheeljack) and Arif Kinchen (Jazz) will be in the live chat during and for a half hour before. I didn't love Todaro's Wheeljack, but I have to admit that he nailed Starscream. And Kinchen definitely did right by Scatman, so it's worth checking out.

As someone born early in 1980, I can tell you my absolute favorite cartoon as a kid was The Transformers. Of course, being a kid in the '80s isn't like being a kid isn't like being a kid today, where my daughter can watch the same thing over and over and over. No, aside from a few episodes on F.H.E. tapes I could watch The Transformers when it was on, and then I'd have to watch something else. And for me, my favorite something else was far and away Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. So I'm pretty psyched to be looking at the single crossover I'd most eagerly dreamed of since Ectotron, TMNT X Transformers Party Wallop. My first impression was that Party Wallop is a pretty big figure. I don't know why, but the pictures the Hasbro team showed when they revealed him make him seem sort of Deluxe-ish. At the most, no bigger than Code Red, right? Even though I grabbed Bulkhead as a comparison, I can tell you that Party Wallop is similar in height to Code Red, but he's got double the bulk. Aesthetically, Party Wallop is meant to look like one of the Turtles, with green on his legs and arms, a yellow mechanical shell on his torso, and two-toed feet (his gray hands, oddly enough, have four fingers and a thumb). Out of the box, Party Wallop has no bandana, no wrist, elbow, or knee pads, and an empty circle on his belt. As we spin him around, you start to get the sense that Party Wallop is a bit of a shellformer. I mean, yeah, the entire roof of his alt mode is hanging out on his back, but then again, he's a turtle, I can let that slide as part of his shell. But there's flaps with wheels hanging off his hips, flaps of kibble on his forearms, and more flaps of kibble on his his shoulders. Most of the kibble is, at least, hinged, so it moves with him more than it gets in the way. Party Wallop comes with quite a few accessories... you've got two katanas, two sais, two pairs of nunchucks, and a single bo staff. That's enough weapons for all four of the Turtles... which is probably why there's four alternate heads, each with a different color bandana- purple, blue, orange, and red. On top of all that, you get a green dish with a pizza, and... well, the entire front end of his alt mode. Party Wallop's head is on a ball joint with limited downward tilt, but decent upward and sideways tilt in addition to swiveling. His shoulders rotate and get a full 90 degrees of lateral movement. His biceps swivel, and his elbows bend almost 90 degrees. His wrists swivel, and somewhat surprisingly given his backpack, so does his waist. Heck, due to his transformation, he can even arc his back. His hips can go 90 degrees forward, and about 60 degrees backward before his backpack starts to get in the way. Due to the double hinge on his hip kibble, it can move enough that he almost gets 90 degrees of lateral hip movement. His thighs swivel, and his knees bend slightly over 90 degrees. No up or down tilt on his feet, but his ankles pivot a solid 45 degrees. Party Wallop can hold any of his weapons in either hand. There's also a 5mm port on either forearm panel; you can use a flip out 5mm peg on the backside of his alt mode front to attach it like a shield. A very nice thing about Party Wallop is that he has storage for almost all of his accessories. The extra heads fit into his backpack, as does the folded bo staff. The sais use tabs to plug into his hip kibble, while the nunchucks clip under his shoulder kibble. The katanas have tabs on their blades, and they fit into slots along the sides of Party Wallop's backpack. My only complaint when it comes to storage is that there's no way to attach the "shield" to his back. You can, however, simply plug it into his chest. That's where it needs to be for alt mode, anyway, so plugging it in there even negates some partsforming. There really isn't any way for him to interact with the pizza, but if you flip it over it fits into the circular indent on the shield to complete the front-end look. I think, for a turtle-esque Cybertronian with an expected alt mode named Party Wallop that I kind of dig this look, as a nice midpoint between TMNT and Transformers. However, you have all those accessories for a reason. Pop off the bandana-less head and pick the color of your favorite turtle instead. Lift the gray rectangle on his belt and you'll find that that the circle is on a spinner with four other circles, and those ones aren't blank. There's a 'L', a 'D', an 'M', and an 'R.' Match the bandana and the belt and the weapons, and he's less a TMNT-themed Transformer named Party Wallop and more your choice of Leonardo, Donatello, Michelangelo, or Raphael re-imagined as a Transformer. I could charitably believe that the design team was excited to let you make your favorite Turtle out of Party Wallop. I could also cynically believe that some Hasbro suits were gleefully rubbing their hands together at the thought of collectors buying four copies of Party Wallop to display all four Turtles. I might suggest that a balanced way of looking at is is that if you want four Turtles it'll run about the same as I paid for Neca Target Haul-a-Thon 4-pack two years back, and they're much larger figures with higher parts counts. Anyway... with the shellformer kibble flaps, you can expect that the transformation isn't terribly complicated. His backpack unhinges, with some flaps folding out from inside. His head tucks in, and his arms fold back with the shoulder kibble filling in the area behind the side windows. His wrists fold down to line up his forearm kibble to make the back window. Then you can tuck his head in and tab the roof into place- just make sure you attached the front to his chest first. The wheels under his feet fold out and his heels tuck in, then the feet and the outside of his legs rotate 90 degrees. His waist folds back, allowing his legs to slide over his forearms and lock into the roof. His hip skirts unfold and line up so the front wheels are in place, then the flaps that were hanging from the roof fold down to fill in the rest of the sides. Size-wise, Party Wallop makes for a pretty big van, but honestly I think one that scales reasonably well with previous crossovers like Gigawatt and Ectotron, or the Jurassic Park Jeeps. He's only a little large compared to an Earthrise car. He dwarfs fellow fans like SS86 Ironhide or Code Red, though, but that just reinforces the notion that alt mode scale, especially in G1, is always a losing proposition with Transformers. What I like here is that this is the Party Wagon from the '80s/'90s cartoon... not the Battle Shell from the early aughts, not the Cowabunga Carl Party Van from TMNT, not the Assault Van or the garbage truck from the Bay films, not even the inaccurate Kenner toys. The only things I can critique (aside from the splattering of white overspray on the front of my copy) is that there shouldn't be green on the spoiler, the hinge in the roof should be green, there should be a little green trim around the bottom of the sides, and the sensors or whatever on the sides are usually the same yellowish color as the van, not the silver color of the larger sensor. Pretty minor nitpicks, frankly, and some concessions to the fact that he transforms instead of just being a van. Of course, he rolls, and the guns are hinged so they can move up and down. The tips are compatible with (not-included) WfC/Legacy blast effects. And again, all of his accessories can be stored in the van mode. In fact, the heads, bo, and nunchucks stay in the same hiding spots they do in bot mode. Only the sais and katanas have to move. The sais tab into slots on his thighs, while the katanas plug into his crotch with the blades slipping into cutouts under the bumper. Party Wallop probably isn't, objectively-speaking, the best crossover figure that Hasbro has done. I think there are legitimate complaints to be made about how shellformery he is, how bland the default head is, and how there's nowhere to store his front end except on his chest or on his forearm as a shield. He is, however, my favorite, as the only way to better encapsulate my childhood in a single toy would me to make a TMNT Tranformer that came with an NES. To be totally honest, I bought this guy at Gamestop, where he's already in stock, but I kept my Amazon and Target preorders, and then preordered one from Pulse on top of that. I'm going for all four Turtles, here. I think, if you were the right age at the right time like I was for Transformers and TMNT to overlap in your formative years then you're going to love Party Wallop.

I thought it was a bit gimmicky, especially the patisserie stuff, with overly simplistic level design. Oh, and I loathed the controls. It's been awhile since I played Super Princess Peach, but I remember it giving me almost Yoshi's Island vibes. It's a lot more like what you'd expect from a 16-bit era Nintendo platformer.

Second. And, frankly, the first time was better (if a tad sexist).

To be fair, a lot of these games are multiplatform. I'm going to get Dragon Quest, Fantasian, Marvel vs Capcom, and Ace Attorney on PC.

I'm just hoping the Switch 2 is backwards compatible.

Ok, I mean, I'm totally in for Metroid, Marvel Vs. Capcon, Fantasian, and Metal Slug. But you guys missed some bangers.

If Pulse sells out, here's links at Amazon, BBTS, and Entertainment Earth.

I got Geocron, Optimus, Quake, Slipstream, Soundwave, Armada Galvatron, the Gobots, and the Xaaron & Flame pack. Like I said, Metalhawk isn't all that different (and in my opinion, an inferior deco), Energon Megatron kind of sucked so I don't want the repaint, and I'm not super interested in Animated when the characters were in the show, let alone Motormaster.

Deluxe Optimus Slipstream Quake Soundwave Galvatron Motormaster Metalhawk Geocron Core Galvatron. Gobots Xaaron and Flame

Metalhawk was shown off, and IMHO it's not worth posting pictures. It's Legacy Evolution Metalhawk, but with darker gold and gray. Some people are saying it's more toy-accurate, and the darker gray is, but the gold is more like a caramel than the metallic gold that was on the G1 toy, and I personally think the Evolution one looks more cartoon-accurate. And since Metalhawk was a Japan-exclusive back in the day but I have actually watched Masterforce, cartoon colors all the way for me. More interesting is that Hasbro's going into the Marvel UK deep cuts for their new comic book two-pack, with Emirate Xaaron and Flame. Xaaron is a heavy retool of Siege Refraktor, while Flame is a new head and chest on Gamer Edition Megatron. Hopefully with the knees fixed. EDIT: Oh, and here's Armada Galvatron. Guess we're just waiting to see Animated Motormaster. EDIT AGAIN: As I was typing, guess what popped up on Mark's Instagram? EDIT A THIRD TIME: Forgot that we're also getting Soundwave in this wave. There was some talk that he'd be marketed as a Leader-class, but the box won't say "Leader" on it and it might be more expensive than a standard Leader. It's the Netflix toy, modified from Siege to turn into a tape deck. To fill out the budget, he'll come with yet another Ravage, Rumble (based on the Studio Series version, but with a more toy-Frenzy deco), and the reason the people who did get the Netflix one will likely still buy this one, Buzzsaw.