mikeszekely

Preorders are set to go live in about 10 minutes... EDIT: Amazon link BBTS Pulse, fixed the link, but if it starts acting up again, try searching "Optimus" and clicking on the cart icon next to the preview in the search to add it to your cart. Entertainment Earth, but it's listed as backordered.

Unless Hasbro changed the price since Magmatron, Commanders retail for $89.99.

Dang, @Dangard Ace ace just beat me to it. Anyway, he doesn't look as overstuffed with effects parts and accessories as Rodimus was. Looks like most of his budget is because he's basically a mini MP-44. I think he looks fantastic, and I can't wait to get my hands on him. It's a shame that Hasbro hasn't really done a lot of Commander-class repaints, because I will absolutely buy a second copy with silver pelvis and thighs, stripe on the cab, and blue stripes on the trailer, and a third copy if they do a Nemesis Prime out of the mold.

I was never really into anything Doherty was in, but cancer sucks. My heart goes out to her surviving family.

In order of appearance, near as I can tell: WFC/Legacy Core-Class Seekers. The recent multipack redeco of Earthrise Wheeljack, a G1 Mirage, and Newage Flipper/KBB Hornets (the latter two magically turn into Battle Across Time Mirage and Origins Bumblebee). Earthrise Optimus Prime Newage Agamemnon (that's the Megatron) and what appears to be Netflix Soundwave with SS86 Rumble inside. If it wasn't clear when some toys were magically turning into different ones, they're using some editing to make the smaller toys seem bigger, because Agamemnon should be like 60% of the size of that Soundwave. SS86 Ratchet (fighting a Core-class Thundercracker) SS86 Jazz (and Core Skywarp) Netflix Soundwave (with Netflix or Siege Laserbeak), who magically spits out G1 Laserbeak and G1 Ravage. Siege Sideswipe Siege Prowl I can't tell who's flying into the mountain at the end of the theme song. Multiple core-class Seekers on the Decepticon side. 01 Studio Seed (Cybertron) The aforementioned redeco Earthrise Wheeljack magically transforms into Origins Wheeljack. Origins Bee has some kibble removed. Looks like they switched to Earthrise Voyager Starscream. Took me a minute, but the other two are DX9 Bluebolt and Skyshaker, from their War in Pocket line. Origins Bee turned into Origins Bee. Skywarp and Thundercracker are back to being the Core-class toys... until they transform into the Siege Skywarp and Siege Ion Storm. Ion Storm is later replaced with Siege Thundercracker. Despite Siege Soundwave having an easter egg mode meant to mimic that light pole, it's still Netflix Soundwave. And Siege/Netflix Laserbeak still turns into the G1 toy. The multipack redeco of Earthrise Trailbreaker joins Siege Prowl and Earthrise Optimus on the elevator. Origins Jazz. Siege Shockwave The first couple of scenes in the credits are toys that we already saw. First new ones are Earthrise Cliffjumper and the multipack Hound. SS86 Rumble makes his first appearance in bot mode, along with Netflix/Siege Laserbeak (no G1 toy this time) and Siege Rumble (who's Frenzy, since he's black and red) That's MP Sideswipe with Hound there. Earthrise Huffer, SS86 Brawn, and Legacy United Gears And it ends on a mistransformed Flipper/Hornets (not counting the like & subscribe bit). All in all, I'd have liked a bit more consistency when using models for the bots, but still very impressive work.

Speaking of MMC's Devastator...

Right? It gets weirder. First off, here's Mixmaster. He and Scrapper will be sold together as a set. Stylized, but a little more conventional than Scrapper. But there's the alt modes... I mean, Scrapper looks fine in alt mode, but Mixmaster looks more like the Bayverse version. But then there's the combined modes... ...arms. Not legs, arms. And those hands don't partsform, either. Mixmaster's is in the mixing drum. Scrapper's is in his back. When they come, Bonecrusher and Scavenger will be legs, so Devastator will look like this: And if all that isn't weird enough, Mecha Invasion is apparently also working on a Volcanicus. They haven't shown any of it except for line art for Grimlock's alt mode... but I guess Volcanicus and Devastator are going to use the same connectors for the limbs, because they showed this at a trade show. Now, I guess the question is whether or not there's a market for such an unconventional Devastator when three of the biggest names in 3P are promising Sunbow-accurate MP Devastators. But Mecha Invasion have apparently announced a price for the Scrapper/Mixmaster set at 399 yuan. That's almost exactly $55 USD at today's exchange rate. Even after dealers get their markups and build their "free" shipping into the price, I'm guessing $70-$80. And that's for two figures, with ratchets and diecast, that look to have good articulation, storage for their guns in alt and combined modes, and relatively straightforward engineering. I think at that price they're not actually competing with guys like Fans Toys or MMC at all, they're simply making neat figures that you can play with at a very reasonable price. I'm going to roll the dice on the first set. Once they announced the price, they went from being a curiosity that I wasn't planning on buying to something I'm actively anticipating now. As for the rest, I'm not sure I can do all the Devastators again, but I might try to get all the Scrappers, since he's my favorite.

First, there was Maketoys vs TFC. Then ToyWorld vs Generation Toy. And not that long ago we had Magic Square vs. Newage. But the Devastator Wars aren't over, friends. I already knew we were getting three Sunbow-style options. Fans Toys MMC and X-Transbots And, yeah, after waiting how many years now for Fans Toys to finish one combiner their Scrapper looks far too chunky for me to be interested in what they're offering. XTB's might look the best, at least the prototype stage, but again I don't actually trust them to pull it off. Since Scrapper is my favorite Constructicon I might check just him out, from the other two, but MMC is the only one I planned to get all six of. You'd think, with those three big names working on Constructicons that other players might want to work on something else. But nope! I found out that 01-Studio, the former Zeta guys who did an excellent 3P Unicron, are also throwing their hat in the ring, though their take is a bit stylized. Dream Star Toys, who are doing that weird gunmetal super stylized Superion, are going to do a more IDW-style set. Then there's this one. It's apparently the first try from a new company called Mech Invasion. Personally I think it looks a bit funky, but he's apparently going to be kind of cheap and come with Mixmaster, so it might be worth checking out.

With Wave 3 and the Titan for Legacy United out of the way, it seems like Studio Series is starting to slowly trickle out, too. Hoping to have more soon, but so far I've just got Deluxe-class Studio Series 86 Bumblebee. Bumblebee's an interesting release. On the one hand, this is the fourth Deluxe-class G1-style Bumblebee we've gotten in the post-Siege soft reboot. However, Origins Bumblebee and World's Collide Bumblebee (aka yellow Cliffjumper with a new head) were both Target exclusives, and Netflix Bumblebee (the guy on the right) was a Walmart exclusive. That means that SS86 Bumblebee is actually the first G1-style Bumblebee to see a mainstream release, which is instantly a boon to people who weren't able to get the store exclusives. That said, a lot of serious collectors like myself tried to get their hands on the Netflix release. Is SS86 an upgrade? Well, as the brand pushes for more and more cartoon accuracy SS86 Bee does have some advantages. While a bit bigger than the control art, I think the boxier torso with the visible window on the tummy better matches a lot of scenes from the cartoon (including the scene in the '86 movie where he's at the computer with Spike). I also prefer the bigger face and eyes. SS86 Bee also has a better pelvis, with the curved V-shape on the crotch, and the shorter thighs are more proportional. I think think, from the front, that the flatter feet on Netflix Bee is more accurate (though the bumper looks better on SS86 Bee), but... From the side, I prefer that SS86's feet are shorter. Actually, while not totally cartoon accurate his the proportions of his feet really remind me of the G1 toy. Once again, I prefer the protruding chest. And I like that his rear wheels aren't visible. He still has a backpack, but it tucks in tighter, is less visible from the front, and doesn't partsform. There is one thing that bugs me on SS86, though, and it's the visible wheels on the sides of his feet. Ever since toys like ToyWorld Bii and MP-21 folded the feet into his heels I've really preferred that. Though, again, I supposed visible wheels is a callback to the G1 toy. Instead of folded the wheels under his feet, he's got these panels that fold out from under his toes and the inside of his doors/heels that interlock and lift him up enough that he's not standing directly on his wheels. Again, personal preference, I still would have preferred if the wheels folded under his feet. No more Cliffjumper bazooka holdovers, SS86 Bumblebee comes with a pistol. The details mark it as the same sort of generic Autobot pistol that guys like SS86 Ironhide have. Actually, it's rather like the pistol that came with the Centurion Drone set that was meant for Bumblebee in the first place. So here's the thing... Bee's articulation is perfectly adequate. His head is on a ball joint that looks up, down, tilts sideways, and swivels. His shoulders are ball joints that swivel and move 90 degrees laterally. His biceps swivel, his elbows bend 90 degrees, and his wrists swivel. His waist swivels. His hips can go forward nearly 90 degrees, and 90 degrees laterally and backward no problem. His thighs swivel, and his knees bend 90 degrees. His feet can't tilt up, but they can tilt down slightly and he's got 45 degrees of ankle pivot. Like I said, perfectly adequate. The catch, though, is that Netflix Bee can do all of that except the slight downward foot tilt, but he's got more lateral shoulder movement, shoulders that aren't ball joints, a full 90 degrees forward on the hips, and 90 degrees of ankle pivot, giving him a slight edge over SS86 in articulation. There's also the play pattern to consider. SS86 Bee can hold his pistol in either hand, or he can carry it on his back using a small tab on one side of the gun and a slot on his backpack. There are no 5mm ports for other accessories. Netflix Bee has 5mm ports on his forearms, on the sides of his legs above his ankles, and under his feet, plus technically the one his backpack is plugged into. World's Collide Bee goes a step further by adding a 5mm port to the backpack itself. SS86 Bee's transformation has some similarities to Netflix Bee's. The doors fold off of his heels. He has to bend backward at the waist. His arms are bent 90 degrees at the elbows, with his fists pointing toward the back and covered by his backpack. As I noted, though, he doesn't have to hold onto his backpack with his fists, it's attached to his back via an armature. His head folds into his torso. His sides fold out and spin around to reveal the rear wheels, then fold back in to tuck up his arms. His feet fold down, then keep wrapping around so that his heels enclose his thighs. I don't think it's the most clever or innovative engineering I've ever seen on a Bumblebee, but I'll say that there's less minor clearance issues and no partsforming, and I overall prefer the transformation to Netflix Bumblebee. SS86 Bee's car mode is what I think will ultimately make or break this figure for a lot of people. For Netflix Bee, Hasbro got a license from Volkswagen and the result is a very accurate yellow VW Beetle. SS86 Bee does not have a license, and skirts that gray area where they change just enough for the Hasbro legal team to argue that it's not a VW Beetle. I've heard some people suggest, with the flat roof and more angular rear, that it actually resembles the small Buzzworthy figure that had the alt mode that was clearly modeled after Bumper (aka the Mazda Familia minibot). While I do agree that SS86 Bee could have been a tad rounder, he's actually quite accurate to what we see in the cartoon. He's still got the round lights, flared fender, and swooshing frunk. The thicker front bumper with the cross pieces less real VW Beetle and more a mix of cartoon and G1 toy. He's got the simple silver circles for rims, and his rear tires are bigger than the front, just like the cartoon. At the back we've got the thicker bumper, the plain red rectangles for taillights, and instead of the realistic engine cover we've got the molded bump-out from the cartoon modeled after the back of Bumblebee's head. In other words, Netflix Bee is a more realistic car, and you might prefer that. But objectively speaking, SS86 Bee is a more cartoon-accurate car. If I'm being honest, I kind of prefer that. Bee doesn't do too much in car mode. He rolls great. As with the bot mode, the pistol can be stored on his backpack, now the rear of the car. That's an upgrade over Netflix Bee, since the VW license didn't leave him with any 5mm ports in car mode to store any accessories. So then... do I recommend SS86 Bumblebee? For those that didn't manage to get any of those store exclusives, definitely yes. He doesn't do anything special, but he doesn't have to. He's just a solid all-around G1 Bumblebee figure. If you've got World's Collide Bumblebee, I'd also say he's an easy upgrade. He's just more accurate all around than a yellow Earthrise Cliffjumper with a new head. The harder question is whether you should upgrade if you have Netflix Bumblebee. As I've noted throughout the review, I think SS86 Bee is more cartoon-accurate, in both modes, he's got a better transformation that doesn't involve partsforming, and I like that he comes with a pistol instead of a Cliffjumper bazooka. Netflix Bee has slightly better articulation, though, and for some people the more realistic licensed alt mode is better even if it's not entirely cartoon accurate. If you think you might be in that latter group upgrading might not be necessary. All I can say, though, is that now that I have both in hand I do slightly prefer SS86 Bumblebee. What's more, I have the Goldbug version of the Netflix Bee mold from the Target-exclusive Creatures Collide pack, so it's not like I'm giving up on the Netflix mold entirely. Switching to SS86 Bumblebee simply helps make him and Goldbug be a bit more visually distinct. (SS86 Bumblebee does NOT come with a Matrix. The one in the photo is from Legacy Laser Optimus. The handles are barely gripping the tabs that hold his chest closed, so his chest wouldn't close if I left the Matrix there. That said, there is enough room inside his chest to toss a Matrix loose in there.)

By and large, I ran out of display space years ago. Older purchases get organized into boxes. Newer purchases live on my desk where I can mess with them for awhile before ultimately boxing them. And if there's one thing I'm more out of space for, one class that I kind of wish Hasbro would just kill off, it's the Titans. Right now, I have a display with Metroplex, the other Metroplex, Scorponok, Fortress Maximus, Omega Supreme, Trypticon, Nemesis, and the Ark, and that space is full. Black Zarak lives off to the side, and that's pretty much only because I thought that Scorponok mold was the best Titan and Black Zarak had gone on deep clearance. Really, there's not a lot of characters Hasbro left that Hasbro could do in the Titan Class that could get me to open my wallet anymore. Fortunately for Hasbro (less so for my wallet and my display), Hasbro found one- Legacy United Titan Class Tidal Wave. Tidal Wave is sort of a weird one. There seems to be a vocal group who think that Titan is too big for Tidal Wave; they grew up with the original Armada toys and they want a Tidal Wave that works like those toys did. But I'll be honest, I didn't watch Armada until later in life. What I did do, though, was play a certain Transformers game on PlayStation 2, one that was based on Armada without me really knowing it at the time. One where you play through a level infiltrating a Decepticon warship and culminating in the entire level transforming into one of the most epic boss fights in a video game. That level, and that boss, were of course Tidal Wave, so for me Titan is the only class I'd ever want for him. So, yeah, right out of the gate, I guess I should note that he doesn't actually look like the Tidal Wave from the game. The game was based on the American toy; green hands, green head, green boats in his chest, brown shins, purple face, etc. The new Titan figure is based on the cartoon, which in turn was based on the Japanese version of the toy. And on that note, Tidal Wave is quite accurate- purple feet, thighs, head, hands, and chest boats, mostly a mix of dark and light gray everywhere else, with a few pink and yellow accents here and there. The one thing I can point to and say isn't cartoon accurate is the orange windows on his chest boats and the orange accents on his knees, but those are still details from the Japanese toy that the cartoon was based on. All-in-all, he's pretty accurate, and clean from the sides and back. Though, his back's full of what appears to be a tiny version of his own torso. Sorry, with my usual setup unavailable I wasn't able to grab a picture of Tidal Wave with another Titan, just Legacy Armada Megatron. But you should probably be aware that he's one of the shorter Titans. Indeed, only Devastator and Predaking are shorter*. He's maybe a header shorter than the Ark or the Nemesis. Honestly, I don't actually mind this, at least logistically. Being slightly smaller makes him easier to play with, and allows him to take up slightly less space. That said, there is still the "if he's smaller, why does he cost the same" argument. *I can't say definitely whether or not Trypticon is shorter, since his legs and tail allow him to stand at varying heights. Tidal Wave comes with a few turrets loose in the box, but he doesn't actually have any accessories. Not even blast effects, which is a tad unusual at this class/price point. Instead, much like the Weaponizers/Fossilizers/Armorizers/Junkions Tidal Wave breaks apart into an array of pieces. This is because, unlike the original toy, pretty much everything you do with Legacy Tidal Wave involves partfsorming. Before we get to that, though, let's talk articulation. Aside from size, it's the one area that I assume is an improvement over the original toy. His head swivels; no tilt. His shoulders rotate on ratchets, and they can extend over 90 degrees laterally on more ratchets. He's even got a single click of backwards butterfly due to his transformation. His biceps swivel, and his elbows bend a little over 90 degrees. His hands a kind of weird. His fingers are all molded together, with a hinge at the base and a hinge in the first knuckles. He can't bend his fingers too much, though, due to the guns in his palms. His fingers are attached to the kibble that overhangs his hands, also, so while he does have a wrist swivel his fingers don't swivel with the rest of his hand. His super thick thumbs do, though, but they have their own swivels, as well as a single hinge. Moving on from his hands, he does have a waist swivel, but you have to make sure his butt flap is untabbed, and even then on my copy it's super tight. Speaking of flaps, his butt flap can hinge up out of the way to allow his hips to bend backward over 90 degrees on a ratchet. His front hip skirt is a single unit, and the boat kibble on his crotch pokes into his belly so it can only fold up so far. That limits his forward hip range to roughly 75 degrees. But hey, he's got over 90 degrees of ratcheted lateral movement. His thighs swivel on ratchets, and his knees bend 90 degrees on more ratchets. The earliest reviews for this guy (likely stolen factory samples) were having issues with the knee ratchets breaking. All I can say is that doesn't seem like it'll be an issue on my copy; while I wouldn't call his knee ratchets weak, they're not as tight as the ones in his shoulders or elbows, and then bend without me ever feeling like I'm forcing them or they're going to break. Anyway, his toes and heels can bend downward, due to transformation, but not upward, and his ankles pivot around 60 degrees on ratchets. Although Tidal Wave doesn't come with accessories and doesn't really have traditional fists, he's got 5mm ports on the fronts of his biceps, on the outsides of his lower arms near the elbows, on his knees, on the backs of his legs near the edges, in the barrels of the guns in his hands, and in the guns on the four double-barreled turrets on his torso. You can use those ports to attach other accessories or blast effect parts. On the subject of turrets, all four of them can rotate and the barrels are hinged. If you watched the cartoon or played the game, this is the alt mode you're probably most familiar with, as it's the only one that appeared in either of those. I think that, although often depicted landing and floating in the water, that it's actually supposed to be a spaceship. It's my understanding that the original toy was able to transform into this mode without partsforming. That's not the case for the Titan, though. First you pull his arms off, tuck the connector pegs in, turn the biceps so the deck lines up, open his forearms and spin the fingers around, attach the arms together, and fold up a little chunk of deck on one side and a bridge tower on the other to make a little aircraft carrier. Then remove his legs by sliding the thighs off the hips. Open the shins and fold the thighs inside, fold down his toes and heels, and fold out the wings. There are also connectors tucked in near his ankles; fold those out. On the torso section, bend his hips so that the connectors are tucked against his body, then pull the entire front of his torso up and spin it 180 degrees. Take the aircraft carrier and find a groove on the back that slides over the crest on Tidal Wave's head. Then, untab the boat kibble from his sides and use the double hinges to swing them around so they lock into the sides of the aircraft carrier. Once that's done, you can bring the front of his torso back down to help lock everything into place. Finally, reattach his legs by lining up a point on his toe with a groove in the back of the chest boat kibble, a tab sticking off of the thigh connector with a slot on the inside of the foot, the connector peg you flipped out earlier with a slot on the hip/upper thigh, and a peg hole with a peg near the turrets that make up the robot chest. Aesthetically, I really dig this mode. With the guns poking out of the bow, the rotating double-barreled turrets, CIWS launchers, a flight deck, engine pods, and catapult doors this ship wouldn't look out of place in a Gundam series. If I'm being totally honest, I personally think it looks cooler than the Ark or Nemesis' alt modes. It's pretty screen-accurate, too, aside from the aforementioned touches that came from the Japanese toy. In this mode, Tidal Wave can roll on a dozen small wheels on his underside. You can also rotate and aim the turrets. I think this is one of those times when the Core-class toys come in handy (or better yet, the even smaller Dr. Wu toys). You could pose some Seekers on the flight deck, for instance. Tidal Wave doesn't just have the one spacehship mode. He actually turns into three different boats, a gimmick I understand carried over from the original Armada toy. To get to this mode, you'll want pull the legs off, then tuck their connector pegs in, plug the legs, and fold up the wings together to make a landing craft. Use the double-hinges in the double boat hulls to bring them closer in to Tidal Wave's heads, then put the front of his torso back down to lock it in place and form a weird soft of battleship. As for the arms, well, you don't need to do anything. They're already an aircraft carrier. The so-called "Dark Fleet" mode is pretty cool, and I know the original toy could do it, but I don't think it really appeared in the cartoon outside of a few stock transformation scenes. It's kind of weird, though, that the aircraft carrier is the smallest ship. It has it's wheels and it can roll, but it doesn't do much else. I guess it's a shame he doesn't come with a Minicon jet like the original toy. You can lift the flaps on the landing craft to pretend like it's opening, but there's nothing in there. I think it'd have been cool of he at least had ramps that opened on his toes. As for the battleship it still rolls and you can still rotate and aim the turrets. So, you know I just said that we really only saw the Dark Fleet mode during stock transformation scenes? And, you remember how I said that there's a group that thinks Tidal Wave is too big? A gimmick of the original toy is that the old Armada Megatron/Galvatron toy could combine with Tidal Wave. That gimmick made it into the cartoon; despite being depicted first as huge battleship, then less huge but still big battle ship that required Hot Shot and Blurr to team up to tip, somehow the Dark Fleet shrank enough to combine with Megatron. But clearly there's no way that Legacy Megatron is going to combine with boats bigger than he is, right? But Hasbro thought of that. Remember, in Tidal Wave's back, there's a thing that looks like a miniature version of his torso in there? It pulls out. The flaps you lifted to spin his fingers around on his forearms? Yank 'em out. The wings on his legs? They slide backward with chunks of his calves. Lastly, open his shins, but instead of folding his thighs inside take a peak at the inside of the shin flap, and you'll find little platform shoes. Now, swing the take turret around from Megatron's back to his front. Flip up the gun with the double barrels (too bad we don't have Leader-1 to plug into the tank turret). Attach the platform shoes to the bottom of Megatron's feet. Take the back part, swing the double-hulls down, and fold a peg out from the bottom. That'll allow you to plug it into the 5mm port on one of Megatron's shoulders. Take the bits you yanked out of his forearms, then transform his fingers and tab them together like they're in ship mode. You'll find a 5mm peg on a hinge that you can use to plug it into his other shoulder. Lastly, take the bits you pulled out of his legs. They have connectors you'll fold out and tab together. This combined connector has a peg that plugs into Megatron's back, while the parts that they folded out of have asymmetric pegs that fit into the asymmetric ports on the backs of Megatron's shoulder kibble. And, there you go, Burning Megatron. So, OK, it's the combination from the show. That box is checked. But to be honest, Megatron's joints have trouble supporting even that much weight. Plus the parts that attach to his arms are attached to his shoulders, not his forearms. So it's kind of inaccurate. It'd have been better if, knowing that they were going to do make Tidal Wave, they'd simply given Megatron some ratchet joints, moved the pegs on the arm bits, and allowed them to plug into ports on Megatron's forearms instead. There's one other cool thing about these smaller bits for Burning Megatron mode. You can turn them into a miniature Dark Fleet! I mean, the arm stuff is already basically a miniature aircraft carrier (it's even got a little molded bridge on it), and the back part is the a miniature version of the battleship. You can plug the shoes on top of the leg parts, then the leg parts combine and you've kind of got yourself a mini landing ship. Once again, the aircraft carrier doesn't do much. But the "feet" on the mini landing ship still open up, and although the forward pair of turrets are molded onto the battle ship the two toward the rear are pegged in place and can swivel. One cool thing about the mini battleship is that, since it just fills a void in his back 99% of the time and isn't really visible in his other modes, you can actually feel free to use all the time. Make it a 4th, smaller ship in the regular Dark Fleet. Use the peg that attaches it to Megatron's arm to attach it to Tidal Wave's own arm. If you don't mind gaps on the sides of the big landing craft, you can put the little landing craft in the Dark Fleet, too. Taking the little aircraft carrier out of the arms leaves a big, gaping hole in the big aircraft carrier, though. But that's not all! Apparently the designers felt kind of bad that Tidal Wave has to partsform into his spaceship mode when the original toy didn't have to, so they wanted to give Tidal Wave a mode that didn't require partsforming. They came up with a base mode... and they also kind of failed at that "without partsforming" thing. See, it's true that you don't have to pull his arms and legs off; turn his head 180 degrees and lay him down on his back, lift up the front of his torso, spin it 180 degrees, then fold down the hip flap. There's a peg built into it near his crotch that'll plug into the back of his head. Turn his biceps so that his elbows bend backward, then rotate his shoulders 180 degrees. Fold his feet up as you would for ship mode, make him do a split, then use special joints just for this mode to bend his lower legs back down. It's a base mode. But, to really finish it off properly, you have to pull the miniature battle ship out of his back, and use a peg hole to plug it into a peg that was at the top of his chest, turning it into a sort of tower. Pull the miniature aircraft carrier out of his arms. One side will use use a peg to plug into a hole under his thigh. The other plugs into a hole in what's left of his arm to form another tower. Now pull the winged parts out of his legs, and plug them into the sides of his arms Finally, remove all four turrets from his torso. Place two of them in the peg holes on his knees, and the other two on the backs of his shoulders. So, yeah, it's a base mode, and a pretty decent one at that, but it definitely still takes some partsforming. I can't be mad at it, though. It is, at the end of the day, a bonus mode. You can totally ignore it and still trust that Tidal Wave will still have the basic functionality (if not all the gimmicks) of the original toy. And speaking as someone who didn't have the original toy and doesn't mind the partsforming on this one, I think its possible that Tidal Wave might actually be my favorite. I mean, sure, the G1er in me would prefer to say that Scorponok or Trypticon are better, and I might subjectively prefer them, but objectively Tidal Wave has good articulation and balance, a cartoon-accurate bot mode, and cartoon-accurate alt modes. His base mode is on par with any other base Titan base mode, and his spaceship mode is subjectively probably the best one. He's big like I prefer, but he comes with smaller parts so he can still do the thing with Megatron. My copy, at least, doesn't have any QC issues. There's really not much here to complain about. That said, if I had to come up with some negatives, I'd say my biggest one is that without any blast effects or other accessories it does seem like you're getting a little less for your money than with previous Titans. I'd have loved if the parts that attach to Megatron didn't simply exist for that or to make a miniature Dark Fleet. It'd have been cool of they could actually have combined into mini bot and spaceship modes, too. Failing that, he probably should have come with Ramjet, his Minicon, and possibly Megatron's Leader-1 since I doubt Galvatron will. Finally, it's not really a complaint, but I'm concerned about repaints. We know that Has/Tak is willing to repaint Titans, Fortress Maximus, Scorponok, and Omega Supreme had one each. I could definitely see Tidal Wave being repainted in toy/game colors, as well as his Energon colors. Even though I best remember Tidal Wave from the game, I think I'm happier with the cartoon colors than the American toy colors, but if they do Energon colors I might seriously go from "I'm done with Titans" to buying two versions of this mold. Anyway, if you're strictly G1 then I suppose you'll probably skip Tidal Wave no matter how good he is. But personally, I think you should get him. He's simple, but extremely well-done in my opinion. Metroplex and Fortress Maximus are really starting to feel dated, now...

Well... I wanted to write about something else today, but FedEx elevated the act of telling me they're going to deliver on one day only to actually deliver a day or two later from an occasional "it happens" to absolutely every time they have to bring a box to my house.😠 So I guess today I'll make due with a couple of upgrade kits from Nonnef. For starters, when I talked about Legacy Windsweeper the other day, I said: Well... here's a kit that does just that. We'll start with the easy part. The chest piece has some tabs on it, and they're meant to go right into the recesses on his stock chest. It's a lot closer to his G1 toy's look, now, although I wish Nonnef would have painted those two rectangles when he put the red at the top, and that the bottom of the chest reached down to the bottom of the silver part behind it. Technically, I'll need to add a Decepticon insignia and some blue paint to the still-visible vents on the original chest, but that's not on Nonnef. As for the guns, lay them flat, then plug in the other parts so that they stick off the back with the 5mm pegs on the side with the long barrels. Once assembled, it's as easy as plugging the aforementioned 5mm pegs into the ports on the outsides of his forearms. The guns can then swivel behind his arms, which is about as similar to the G1 toy as you're going to get without being able to stick the guns inside his arms. The only negative here is that, due to how he transforms, the guns have to be removed to transform him. There are ports on the underside of the guns, though, so you can plug them onto the tips of his wings, so it could be worse. All in all, for $10 this is a pretty solid kit. With Windsweeper upgraded and Ruckus coming soon, I recalled that the transition from G1 to Legacy left Crankcase with just these little nubbins. I figured I'd better get him an upgrade, too. As with Windsweeper, we'll start with the easy stuff first. There's a pair of thigh fillers. just slot them into the hollow insides of his thighs and you're good to go. For the guns, put them so the peg on the rear is facing up. Take the angled parts and put the big end over the peg so that the side with the groove is facing up and the the bottom is bending back toward the barrel. Then take the small piece and fit it over the small peg on the angled piece; I don't think it matters which side. Fully assembled, the tabs on those last little pieces fit into slots on Crankcase's roof. The armature between those pieces and the actual guns allows the guns to fold against his back, or to swivel up and over the top of his backpack. It looks pretty good and short of storing inside the backpack works just about as well as the G1 toy. Unlike Windsweeper, you don't even have to remove the guns to transform him! However, there's no way to hide them, since they don't fold into the roof the way the G1 toy's did. Instead, they just chill out on his roof. That said, they can still swing out in front of the windshield. Again, my biggest complaint here is that the upgrade can't fold away and hide like the G1 toy, but that's a flaw of the Legacy toy using the Skids mold instead of getting his own new mold designed to work like the G1 toy in the first place. Nonnef's upgrades work about as well as you could reasonably expect, and for a mere $6 they're a pretty easy recommend (for $3 you can get some hubcaps for his wheels, too, but I opted not to). Last up, we have a kit for Legacy Windblade that provides a new sword and wing fillers. The ones I got here are red fillers with black paint; the paint is neat but super thin; if you go this route you might want to repaint the black yourself. The black fillers don't have any paint. As for the sword, you can pick when you order if you want blue, red, clear, or smokey clear. You can also order just a sword, so I wound up getting two- blue is the color she originally had when she first appeared in IDW Comics, but pink seems to be the color she's more often seen with, including her appearances in the RiD '15 and Cyberverse cartoons. Nonnef clearly tried to copy the design of the hilt on the sword the Legacy figure came with as closely as he could, but the molded detail comes across as a bit flatter and mushier. They retain the pegs that let you plug them into her hips, and she can hold them just fine. The real difference, aside from color, is the shape of the blade. Rather than looking like it's blazing with an Energon fire, it's got the same shape first seen in Sara Pitre-Durocher's IDW artwork, which carried over into the Cyberverse cartoon. As for the wing fillers, they simply use a pair of pegs to plug into the peg holes under her wings. They're cutout so that the turbines in her wings can still rotate. Your mileage may vary here... there's no denying that the underside of her wings, which is the side that faces forward in bot mode, are all kinds of waffled. Adding the filler smooths it out, but adds thickness to her wings takes up those 5mm ports. Because the Nonnef swords have the same little pegs as the stock one, they can plug in between her ankles in jet mode the same way. Of course, you can only store one sword this way, and a random blade sticking out the back makes a bit less sense than fire. A lot of people online seem to be raving about the Windblade kit, but I'm pretty lukewarm on it. I think the Nonnef swords look better in bot mode, but worse in jet mode. And when the fillers do smooth out the underside of the wings, I'm not a fan of the added thickness. At $12 ($6 extra per additional sword) this is the most expensive of the upgrade kits I'm looking at today, but I feel like it does less than the other two. Ultimately, the value you derive from this kit will come down to whether you're more bothered by waffle wings or thicker wings.

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.