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We're doing another Studio Series Deluxe-class release, and it's funny that even though it's from Bumblebee instead of War for Cybertron, this wave is giving us a Sunstreaker to go with yesterday's Sideswipe. I mean, aside from the extra Bayverse-legacy greebles on Sunstreaker's face, is there anything aesthetically going on here that makes you think that these guys don't belong together? Experienced Bumblebee collectors might notice that Sunstreaker's feet have that same boot-with-treads thing that Bumblebee and Brawn had, but if I told you that Sunstreaker was a bonus character in the DS version of War for Cybertron (that you probably never played) you'd probably buy that. Sunny's got a few folded kibble panels on the sides of his arms and legs, plus some wheels jammed onto the backs of his biceps and unfortunately hollow forearms. But he's not walking around with a mahoosive backpack, so I'm inclined to say he's a bit cleaner than Sideswipe overall. Or really, any of the Gamer Edition Deluxes. Hmm, maybe they don't belong together after all? For whatever reason, Sunstreaker doesn't seem to be too popular with the fan community. One of the complaints is that he's too yellow, but... it's Sunstreaker. What color do you want him to be? The other I'm not totally clear on, it's either that the toy is a poor match for the concept art, or that the concept art didn't exist until the toy and that a Bumblebee Sunstreaker was invented whole cloth for a toy that doesn't deserve to exist because it's taking up a slot that could be used for a character that was actually in one of the five Bay films. To the first point, well, the toy could probably use a little more silver or gunmetal paint on some of the smaller mechanical details like his knees, but Sunstreaker looks like the only concept art I've seen. To the second, I dunno, it sounds like a conspiracy theory, but the only concept art a five-minute Google search brought up is image from the Space Bridge at Wondercon (that is, the one used on the box). So maybe they're on to something, but c'mon, what Bayverse nonsense is even left to steal a slot from in the first place? The racist twins? (Don't answer that, the correct answer is and will always be Dispensor.) Well, Sunstreaker comes with this pair of double-barreled guns. Note the tabs on the one edge. They're be important later. Sunstreaker's head is on a ball joint. He can't look down, and he has only slight sideways tilt, but he can look up a bit, and you can fake even more upward tilt by moving the entire flap the ball joint is on. His shoulders rotate, no issues there, but he can only move them about 45 degrees laterally, and worse, the joint is on the inside of the swivel which gives him what are now being called "Hot Rod shoulders," after SS86 Hot Rod (despite the problem going back well before him). His biceps swivel, though it's limited by the kibble on the backs of his biceps. Elbows bend 90 degrees, and he has no wrist articulation at all. His waist swivels. His hips go 90 degrees forward and very almost 90 degrees backward and laterally. His thighs swivel, and his knees bend 90 degrees. Like Sideswipe, Sunstreaker's feet don't tilt down but they tilt all the way up due to his transformation. Unlike Sideswipe, Sunstreaker has about 60 degrees of ankle pivot... I guess that's another sign that he's not really a crappy Gamer Edition toy after all. Another sign that he's not Gamer Edition? Sunny's guns have 5mm pegs, and he holds his guns by simply sliding the pegs into his fists. No arm removal required. Alternatively, you can use the tabs I mentioned earlier to connect the guns together, then plug the entire thing onto his back in a way that very vaguely recalls the engine on G1 Sunstreaker's back. Transforming Sunstreaker is more straightforward than Sideswipe, but in a way that's also more satisfying. In G1 fashion his feet still make the nose of the alt mode, but they do so by bending his feet up and turning his legs so his heels meet, then turning the kibble on the sides of his legs to fill out the front. His chest is the roof and windows, but the part visible in bot mode is only the front. The rest of the roof and the sides unfold out of his chest, then his head tucks into the void you've created. His backpack flips around to cover it up and start to form the rear. His arms make up the rest of the rear, including the wheels, with the panels on his forearms covering over his hands and filling in gaps on the sides, then his shoulders shift into place to make his spoiler and rear bumper. The result is sporty and yellow, like you'd expect a Sunstreaker to be, with an overall aesthetic that I feel looks equally good with Gamer Edition Sideswipe or Bumblebee movie Autobots, especially Wheeljack. Again, accuracy? I have no idea. But I like it. As with his robot mode, you can combine his guns into one unit and use tabs that fit into slots on the gray bits in front of his spoiler to mount the thing in a way that sort of recalls G1 Sunstreaker, if you squint. If you prefer, though, you can leave the guns as separate units, and plug their 5mm handles into ports on the sides just above his rear wheels. Now, I joke about the Bayverse fans, who've been complaining that the Studio Series line began as a line about the Bayverse films but, as of late, has been dominated by Bumblebee, Rise of the Beasts, Studio Series 86, and now Gamer Edition. As someone who's complained himself about made-up Junkions and what not taking up slots in the mainline while we still don't have a complete set of modern G1 minibots, I do think there's a certain validity to the idea that we don't really need figures based on obscure concept art that never appeared in any media when characters that have appeared on screen haven't had a Studio Series release. That said, I rather like Sunstreaker. Sure, his shoulder articulation could be a lot better, but he's colorful and he's fun to transform. I wouldn't go so far as to call him a must-have figure, but if you're putting together a scene of that awesome Cybertron battle from the beginning of Bumblebee then I say go ahead and get Sunstreaker. Who cares if he was actually in the film or not?

Today, Hasbro put up some preorders for the new wave of Studio Series toys. Except... that's not entirely accurate. Today they put up preorders for Shockwave and Swoop, but they put up preorders for the Deluxes yesterday. And one assumes they put preorders up a day earlier than they said they would because Amazon put them up for sale on Tuesday. And I do mean "for sale," as it wasn't a preorder. That means, with two-day Prime shipping, I've already got Gamer Edition Sideswipe here to look at. Sideswipe's another Gamer Edition figure that replaces an older Generations figure, but unlike Optimus, Starscream, Megatron, or Bumblebee, Sideswipe's previous toy was a retool of Jazz and not super accurate. So this is the first time Sideswipe's gotten a toy that's actually intended to be a game-accurate Sideswipe first and foremost. And, yeah, round chest with the big silver patch, no wheels in his shins or forearms, wheels dangling off his shoulders... I'd say he's definitely looking a big more like he does in the game. Well, from the front, anyway. From the back you've got a backpack made from his alt mode's entire front end, when it should just be tires and the spikey bit. Speaking of, the spikey bit isn't attached in the box. It has a hole on it, and it fits onto a hinged 5mm peg on Sideswipe's back. Unless you're counting that spikey bit, Sideswipe's sole accessory is this gun. The TF Wiki says it's supposed to the Photon Burst Rifle as seen in War for Cybertron. Sideswipe follows the Gamer Edition tradition of sub-par articulation. His head is on a ball joint that can swivel, has some downward and sideways tilt, but almost no upward tilt. His shoulders are also ball joints on weirdly-angled posts. They swivel, but he can't quite do 90 degrees laterally. His biceps swivel, and his elbows bend a little over 90 degrees. No wrist swivel. His waist swivels, but his backpack blocks most of it. His hips are ball joints that can go 90 degrees forward, less than 45 degrees backward due to the backpack, and only about 75 degrees laterally. His thighs swivel, and his knees bend 90 degrees. Due to his transformation his feet tilt up as much as you could want, but not down. And he lacks any ankle pivot, and quite frankly I thought we were past the point of toys not having ankles until Gamer Edition came along and started acting like it was a Voyager-and-up feature. Sideswipe's right forearm comes off, leaving a 5mm stump. He can use his Photon Burst Rifle by plugging the stump into a corresponding port on on the back of the rifle. You can also store the rifle on his back by plugging a tab on it into a slot on Sideswipe's back. However, there doesn't seem to be a way to store the arm when it's not in use. It seems that the bulk of Sideswipe's budget went into the engineering for his transformation, engineering I might describe as "overly ambitious." His chest comes away from his body on a trio of hinges. His collar untabs from his neck and his arms pull away to give you enough room to flip his head around, before using the multiple hinges his shoulders are attached to to bring his arms together above his head. His legs fold over and use panels that spin on the inside to lock them together and the outside to fill in the sides of his alt mode, before the nose of the alt mode double-hinges off his back to cover them up. Wasn't there a simpler way to do it? I mean, maybe? Sideswipe does look pretty good, and pretty accurate, in alt mode. But, so was the older generations figure. Of course, as we stated, the Gamer Edition has the more accurate robot mode, so maybe it's just the price we have to pay to get both modes right. Still, looking at the alt mode, I can almost start to see how it'd work for Jazz, too. I mean, until I look at the robot mode and realize that it looks nothing like Sideswipe's. Sideswipe has a slot on his roof that you can use to mount his Photon Burst Rifle on. And... there's really not much else to say. I think the best argument for picking up Gamer Edition Sideswipe is that you've bought all the other Gamer Edition figures because you're working on a War for Cybertron shelf. But, I hope you've been paying attention to my other Gamer Edition reviews because, frankly, Sideswipe is another letdown. There's no reason in 2024 for a Deluxe-class toy to not have working ankles, and yet Sideswipe keeps the streak of Gamer Edition Deluxes not having ankles alive. Toss in awkward shoulders, the continued gimmick of having to remove an arm to use a weapon, and the inability to store that arm while using that weapon, and Sideswipe's a pretty mediocre figure at best. Which, IIRC, means that we're now seven releases into the Gamer Edition subline of Studio Series, and I've only recommended two (and Starscream somewhat grudgingly at that). I think that's a sample size that's big enough to say that you're better off ignoring the Gamer Edition entirely at this point.

Shockwave https://hasbropulse.com/collections/new/products/transformers-studio-series-voyager-transformers-bumblebee-110-shockwave Swoop https://hasbropulse.com/collections/new/products/transformers-studio-series-leader-the-transformers-the-movie-86-26-dinobot-swoop Go go go!

Let the floodgates open! Today we've got Voyager-class Origins Wheeljack! One of the quirks of the G1 cartoon is that the robot modes were presented as sort of the Transformers' natural appearances, like it's some kind of coincidence that Bumblebee's feet would look like the front end of a Volkswagen millions of years before humans invented automobiles, but the animators still figured that actually turning into a Beetle before coming to Earth was a bridge too far and so designed futuristic alt modes with no thought of how they'd actually go from one mode to the other. It's almost like they didn't anticipate that 40 years later fans of the cartoon would be working at Hasbro and want to make toys based on those one-off Cybertronian modes. And so here we have Wheeljack, and sure enough he looks quite a bit like Wheeljack. To be really cartoon-accurate he should really have a green stripe on each of his shins (and there's no reason he couldn't have, as his shins are inside the vehicle in alt mode), but on the other hand since his feet don't have to turn into the front end of a Lancia Stratos they're actually more cartoon-accurate than the Earthrise figure. I'll note that he swaps the off-white and black of the Earthrise toy for cartoonier pure white and gray, and the translucent plastic that makes his chest window is tinted blue instead of smoked. So how does one go from a cartoon-accurate robot that was based on a sleek sports rally car and turn it into the boxy Cybertronian alt mode seen in the pilot episode? If you're thinking "shellforming," good guess! Wheeljack's got a pretty substantial backpack, as well as a lot of folded panels on his calves and the sides of his legs. He looks like the Sunbow animation model carrying a bunch of extra gear on his legs and back because he more or less is the Sunbow animation model carrying an entire alt mode on his legs and back. Wheeljack doesn't get to be a Voyager entirely by being a Deluxe-sized figure with enough extra plastic hanging off him to make another Deluxe-sized figure. He's got a bit more in the accessory department than his Earthrise counterpart. There's two silver bits that remind me of Lego flowers. There's a gun you may have noticed as his cartoon-style shoulder cannon. And there's this big translucent blue hinged piece. Wheeljack's head is on a ball joint that has minimal up/down/sideways tilt but swivels just fine. His shoulders rotate and move 90 degrees laterally. His biceps swivel, his elbows bend 90 degrees, and his wrists swivel. His waist swivels. His hips can go a little over 90 degrees forward, but his backpack limits him to about 45 degrees backward. There's really no reason for it, but his hips also fall just short of 90 degrees laterally. His thighs swivel, and his knees bend a little over 90 degrees. His feet are on ball joints, so they swivel, tilt down slightly, tilt up about 45 degrees, and pivot. The pivot is a bit less than I'd like, though. You may have already seen than I plugged his shoulder cannon into a 5mm port for it next to his head. He can also hold it like a pistol, and the silver bits can plug into the end of it. Wheeljack also has 5mm ports on the outside of each forearm, on the outside of each leg, in the middle of his back, and under each of his heels. Storage for the silver bits is a bit more limited. There's a peg on the back of each forearm you can use. Otherwise, there's just a pair of pegs in his backpack. Speaking of his backpack, the translucent blue part can tab into it as well, giving him big blue wings. Y'know, like that one time... ok, I don't think he ever had wings in the cartoon. It's more about finding a place somewhere on his bot mode for an accessory that's really for alt mode. The nice thing is that the silver bits still fit on his back under the translucent piece. You'll lose access to the 5mm port on his back, though. Transformation isn't really complicated. You need to shift his head and chest down, spin his waist, and unlock some special hinges in his knees. His arms tuck up over his head to form the front bumper. From there, it's really a matter of unfolding all the panels on his legs, lining them up right, and then unfolding his backpack to close it all up. Credit where credit is due, it's easier to buy Wheeljack as a Voyager in alt mode when you see how much larger he is than Jazz and Bumblebee. While, sure, it's largely shellforming, the end result is still happily cartoon-accurate. I mean, you've got the boxy shape with the sloped front end, the large gray bumper on the front that wraps around the trim, the sort of cassette-ish mechanical detail under the front windshield, the green stripe around the middle with the lighter green/blue suggestion of side windows, and the spoiler around the rear. If I'm nitpicking I might point out that the if the white shoulders peaking out were gray they'd blend into the bumper better, that the the sides should taper toward the roof a bit more, or that the spoiler should be smooth on the outer edge and stick out from the sides a bit more. He could also use a big Autobot insignia on the roof. But minor imperfections don't detract from the fact that it's definitely the alt mode you see in the cartoon. Besides, there's a reason for those bits on Wheejack's spoiler. If you have the fuel rods from Origins Bumblebee (which I do, but currently can't find), they'll clip into the spoiler. As for Wheeljack's own accessories, you can actually store his silver bits and gun inside the vehicle, on his backpack, if you just want them tucked away. Alternatively, there's a 5mm port on his roof you can plug the gun in. The silver bits fit into small pegs on his bumper, because, ah, they're "that thing from that episode". Specifically, they're the cutting blades that Wheeljack deploys when the Seekers had them surrounded by fire.... that he used to cut through the fire? I guess? I mean, after charging through the flames he rams into the Seekers, but the blades weren't deployed then, so... anyway, the translucent blue part plugs into one side, wraps over the front, then plugs into the other side. It's supposed to be the blast shield that Wheeljack raised when they first saw the Seekers ahead. At least Wheeljack kept that up for the rest of the scene. The translucent part has another use, too. You have to pull the hinges apart, then swap rotate the ends and swap them. The "V" shape will become a straighter shape, and you can set Wheeljack on top of it. It's supposed to be the road... I guess? Honestly, the translucent blue part is likely to get misplaced in a drawer with the fuel rods, as I don't really think I'll be using it all that much. But given how uncomfortable it feels to pull the hinges in it apart I'd recommend skipping the road configuration and leaving it as a blast shield/robot wings. Wheeljack doesn't just interact with Bumblebee's fuel rods. He can interact with Bumblebee himself! You can open the roof and fold down the tailgate on Wheeljack, and you'll notice that he's mostly hollow inside. If you take Bumblebee and fold his wings up, you should have just enough space to jam him into the back of Wheeljack while still being able to close him up again with Bee inside. And for those of you who maybe passed on Bumblebee because you thought it was a one-off thing, but now you're interesting in Wheeljack and kind of wish you'd bought Bumblebee to go with him, good news! I have it on authority that Origins Bumblebee will be getting a reissue. Origins Wheeljack is an interesting figure. On the one hand, due to his shellformery transformation that leaves most of his largely-empty alt mode folded up onto his back and legs, Wheeljack feels a bit more poorly-executed than Jazz or Bumblebee. On the other hand, he starts the same size as Earthrise Wheeljack and expands in alt mode specifically so that Origins Bumblebee can ride in the back like he did in the cartoon, and is therefore feels more ambitious than Jazz or Bumblebee. And ultimately, I think a lot of his value comes down to whether or not you own (or will own) Origins Bumblebee. If you do, Origins Wheeljack is a fantastic companion piece that I'd definitely recommend. On his own, though, he's just sort of ok, and not really a substitute for the Earthrise figure.

I mean, the design isn't just consistent with the Cybertronian MTMTE IDW version that MMC was using as a base, or the Flame Toys one. It's also consistent with Chris Ryall's original design that in turn informed the design of the Generations toy from whence dear Peg got his nickname. In other words, it's just what Drift looks like. I'm not sure what exactly you wanted for him to look more G1 in bot mode. He's simply Drift, with the generic late '90s/early aughts tuner swapped out for a car that might have been available to the Japanese street racing scene in 1984.

I'm not surprised. I've never seen a Sprinter Trueno in real life, but my friend had the generation of Corolla it was based on. It's by no means a big car. But I have seen a Countach's a couple of times, and they're smaller than you might think.

If it makes you feel better, I ordered ML Convoy from Hasbro, and they haven't shipped it yet either. Best guess is that Hasbro (and likely BBTS) are getting large enough quantities in that they'll get it by sea freight instead of air. If that's the case, the late Feb/early March release in Japan will be more like May here.

MMC is making an MP-style "G1" drift in their Infinity Finity line. And his alt mode is the Toyota Sprinter from Initial D.

Ordered. And Amazon estimates they'll arrive the same day UPS says Origin Wheeljack is coming. Now if Hasbro could just get off their lazy butts and actually ship the United Wave 2 stuff they charged me for I'll be good. Golden, even, if I can get my order for Swoop in on Thursday... gotta work it in around my kid getting a ton of dental work done that day. EDIT: Origins Wheeljack Wednesday or Thursday, Sideswipe, Sunstreaker, Shard, Gears, Starscream, and Silverbolt probably Thursday, and I've been charged for Sandstorm and the Autobot 5-pack so they should be shipped soon, too. While we haven't been able to order Shockwave or Swoop yet, I think they'll probably be in-hand before the end of the month, then it's just Tidal Wave, Magmatron, and the store-exclusives. That's probably why they Spacebridge mentioned the United Wave 3 stuff... I'm guessing there will be a fan stream later in April or early May with official reveals and preorders.

OK, no arguments, the main body of the figure definitely looks better on the Newage. But... I'm going to be that guy and say I think the wings on the Hasbro figure are fine. The wings on Newage's are kinda too big. For a real pterosaur? Maybe not. But the animation model didn't have huge wings. EDIT: I do think Swoop is the weakest of the five, though. And I'm kind of not surprised. They pulled this same crap with the Stunticons; first four were good, totally dropped the ball on Breakdown.

The arms compressing into the chest a bit might have been nice, but I think his biggest problem is that his legs are just too chunky. As for the wings, the physical toy at Wondercon was mistransformed. This is how it should look.

I mean, it's not Batman: TAS, but it's probably my second-favorite Batman cartoon.

I think we all are! The TFWiki says Grimlock came out in 2021, but I'd swear it's been longer than that. I mean, it says Slag also came out in 2021, and did they really come out in the same year? Regardless, Hasbro managed to release SIX Core-class Dinobots in less time than it's taken to complete the Leaders. Can't help but notice that Swoop comes with a sword for Grimlock as well as his own, and that both of those swords are red. So... Slag and Sludge don't get swords, unless you bought a 3P upgrade kit? I mean, I did, I bought DNA's upgrade kits for Slag and Sludge. And they come with red swords, too... so I guess Snarl's the weird one with a silver sword. I think Ginrai looks pretty good, if a bit simple. In a way, he reminds me of Missing Link Convoy... better articulation, but the transformation looks like it's basically the same as the G1 toy. I'm not loving the trailer/Super Ginrai as much, though. I know it's supposed to be more anime-esque, but something about Super Ginrai's proportions seem weird. Could just be a bad picture, but the inside of his thighs look hollow, or at the very least full of gray plastic. His arms are too long for the trailer mode (really, they couldn't engineer a way to collapse them on an MP release?), and seem to lack mounting points for the shoulder guns. Which, irritatingly, might be anime accurate.

It's funny, of all the stuff that Gossett was in the one role that I'll really remember him for was Lucius Fox in The Batman. (Not the recent movie, the animated series from the 2000s.)

Wondercon is today at 6:00pm EDT (3:00pm Pacific). Nothing concrete, but Bmac will be there, and there's some speculation that Swoop could make an appearance. They are, in fact, showing the Studio Series stuff that they didn't cover in the month of streams. I'll post pictures when I get them, but aside from Swoop there shouldn't be any surprises. Nevermind, they're also also announcing (but not showing) United Wave 3. But if you were reading the leaks I posted awhile back, it's exactly that. The key thing, my fellow geewunners, is that preorders go live APRIL 4TH at 1:00pm EDT. (You know, when I have to take my kid to the dentist...)

Ok, so my more spoiler-y thoughts: So, yeah, like I said, I liked it better than Godzilla vs Kong. The plot's still stupid, but not as stupid, or at least it leans into that stupidity as an excuse to have giant monsters fighting. The handful of human characters seemed less annoying, and the fights were more frequent and better. But I'm tired of Legendary using Godzilla's name to sell us Kong movies that happen to have Godzilla in them a little.

Just got out of the theater. It's better than Godzilla vs Kong but still very much in the same vein. I'll write more when I get home.

What if KITT is a pretool for a small Deluxe-class Windcharger, and the Knight Rider set is a KITT and the FLAG mobile unit after all?🤯

We don't actually know that it's a Deluxe. We technically don't even know that it's KITT. For all we know they're repainting Laser Optimus again as the FLAG mobile unit. ...seriously, it better be KITT, though.

I don't have super high hopes... I liked Godzilla and King of the Monsters, but I thought Kong: Skull Island was pretty mediocre and Godzilla vs Kong was trash. But the Goji fan in me insists, and everyone's off tomorrow, so I'm thinking about taking the family to a matinee.

Disagree. I mean, not with the first part. I definitely would rather have a toy of the Firebird than the Shelby. And I acknowledge that nothing will top the original Knight Rider. But I'm telling you, with a straight face, that I actually loved the 2008 Knight Rider and was disappointed that it only got one season.

Delorean licensing is kind of a mess. Hasbro licensed the "Time Machine" from Universal, and is pretty accurate to the films aside the total absence of DMC branding. When John Delorean went bankrupt apparently some holding company wound up with some of DMC's IP, and someone else bought it from the holding company and started Delorean Motor Company of Texas, which was later sued by the Delorean estate. They settled, but aside from Delorean Motor Company of Texas owning the DMC trademark and both parties agreeing that DMC Texas can make cars and merchandise with the DMC brand I'm not totally clear who actually owes what. I do know that in 2020 Universal started paying DMC Texas royalties, but DMC Texas is still suing for royalties prior to that, and as of last month that case still isn't settled. I'm less concerned regarding K.I.T.T. Hasbro seems to have a good relationship with GMC.

So... this is still technically a rumor, but I got this from a reliable source...

Never say never, eh? (Well, the General Lee still seems pretty unlikely). Anyway, thought I'd leave a link to my original Ectotron review in case anyone wants to read up on it before deciding on whether or not to get the reissue.

Yeah, the only way for a single toy to more accurately encapsulate my childhood would be if Party Wallop came with an NES accessory. As for MP Ginrai... it's kind of a wait and see thing. I don't really mind them not including Godbomber, but it irks me that he doesn't come with the trailer (just like it irked me when KFC announced they were doing it that way... at least Takara isn't starting with the trailer first). I'd also have preferred if they did the blue-eyed cartoon deco first.