mikeszekely

And finally, we wrap up the new Studio Series molds with Deluxe-class 86 Bonecrusher.

OK... there's no getting around it.  We all saw the photos before he was even released... Bonecrusher is one dumpy dude.  He's a solid block of a bot, and it's unfortunately exacerbated by the fact that his head's a little too small, his legs are a little too short, and his arms are significantly too short.  I criticized SS86 Scrapper hard for being too similar to the Combiner Wars toy, but in terms of overall proportions SS86 Bonecrusher is actually a downgrade from the Combiner Wars toy.

It's not really any better from other angles, either, where you can see that Bonecrusher isn't just too wide left-to-right, he's too thick back-to-front.  What's more, despite knowing that Devastator will be more of a partsformer than the Combiner Wars toy, SS86 Bonecrusher still has what appears to be a chunk of the combined forearm on his back.

I don't want to be entirely negative, so let's talk about the positive changes.  Well, they ditched the silver on his arms and chest.  How you feel about that is subjective, but objectively it's more cartoon accurate.  And while he might have benefitted from longer legs, the lack of skinny gap that the CW toy has where his legs extend does look better.  I think I might even go so far as to say that, while the forearm backpack is disappointing, it's not as long or obtrusive as the one on the CW toy.

Another improvement is that he has a gun!  Sure, it's a fairly small, fairly simple one, but it's cartoon accurate and certainly better than no gun.

86 Bonecrusher's articulation is pretty similar to the CW toy, because they use rather similar joints.  His head swivels (same), with minimal up/down tilt (same) and no sideways tilt (same).  Shoulders are ball joints (same) that swivel and move laterally 90 degrees (same).  There's no dedicated wrist swivel (same), instead the swivel is the ball joint in his elbow (same).  Said ball joint also gives him 90 degrees of elbow bend (kind of wash, CW has a hinge for transformation that'll allow him to bend his elbow 180 degrees, but only if the elbow isn't swiveled.  No wrist articulation (same).  He does technically have a waist swivel, which you could consider an improvement... if the shovel on his chest didn't tab into his abdomen and negate it.  Hips are ball joints (same), with 90 degrees of forward range (worse) due to his shovel kibble, over 90 degrees backward (better) due to not having backpack kibble in the way, and cutouts that allow 90 degrees of lateral spread (same).  His thighs swivel (same, though it's a proper mushroom swivel and not another ball joint like the CW toy), and his knees bend 90 degrees (same, though I'll note that it's a proper hinge in a more anatomically-correct spot instead of using the same ball joint that was the thigh swivel on the CW toy).  His toes can tilt down, not up (same), and his ankles pivot 90 degrees (technically less range than CW, but 90 is plenty).

So, yeah, no real improvements on articulation and only minor improvements on the types of joints... but in the interest of fairness, SS86 Bonecrusher feels a lot better.  The tolerances on his joints are tighter, his shovel actually pegs in, and his pelvis isn't splitting in half every time you manipulate the legs.

Oh, and there's the gun again.  He can hold it without issue in either of his fists.  There's a 5mm port on his backpack if you want to give him bot mode storage, which is nice.  And for what it's worth, he's got a 5mm port under each foot, too.

Bonecrusher's transformation has some broad similarities in that part of his torso with his head has to move back to leave a gap for his arms to fold into, and his backpack ends up underneath so his tread legs have something to attach to.  The differences are more where and how things fold.  For instance, the front of the bulldozer isn't his chest like the CW version, it's his abdomen.  That means that his pelvis doesn't have to split apart to shift his hips upward, they're already in the right place.  His chest and arms come away from his abdomen with his head.  That section of the torso winds up rotating backward 90 degrees, so the back of the bulldozer is the top of his torso (and his head has to fold 180 degrees), rather than staying upright.  The differences in engineering are a trade off; they're why his torso ends up so thick  and his limbs so short in bot mode, however, they're also why he's more solid in bot mode and, I'm happy to report, in bulldozer mode, too.

Aesthetically, I don't have a lot to complain about with the alt mode.  The purple bands on the front, the lack of teeth on the shovel, and the open canopy with no actual driver's seat or wheel are more cartoon accurate than the CW toy.  The mechanical details on the engine compartment and the splashes of silver paint in the treads aren't so cartoon accurate, but I think they help break up the monotony of all that green.

While the shovel is attached via multiple hinges, they're really there for transformation and are mostly locked into place.  So the shovel can tilt up (which isn't actually how a shovel on a bulldozer works), and that's about it.  He does have a pair of 5mm ports on top (which are technically the back sides of his fists) where you can plug in his gun.

It's hard not to feel a bit underwhelmed by Bonecrusher.  He's a tad more accurate in some ways, he has a gun, and he's a lot more solid, sure, but his articulation is largely the same and he's got far worse proportions than a version of the character from a decade ago.  Too be fair, Bonecrusher was arguably one of the best of the CW Constructicons with better-than-average articulation for the time, and CW Bonecrusher is technically a Voyager while SS86 Bonecrusher is only a Deluxe, but still, if SS86 Scrapper hasn't sold you on the SS86 Constructicons I don't think Bonecrusher will, either.

However, it's a safe bet that most of us will care less about the individual Constructicons and more about the combined Devastator.  Now, neither Scrapper nor Bonecrusher's instructions mention their combined modes, but I can make some educated guesses.  And based on those guesses I expect that Devastator will be significantly more solid than the CW toy.  So if a more solid Devastator that isn't oddly huge compared to your other combiners sounds appealing it's probably a good idea to pick up Bonecrusher (and Scrapper), despite his bot mode flaws.

1 hour ago, TangledThorns said:

Remember, its NEEDS vs WANTS. Do you really need that overpriced GPU? Take a breath, don't let FOMO get to you ✌️

I mean, yeah, kinda?  Certainly not in the food/clothing/shelter sense, but my PC just isn't performing at the level I want anymore.  The Core i7-9700K is just too old; urban areas in games like any Assassin's Creed or Baldur's Gate III (when you actually get to the city) grind to a crawl as it tries to manage all the NPCs.  And while adding more RAM and upgrading from an RTX 2080 to an RTX 4070 helped keep things going for awhile, with mandatory ray tracing becoming a thing I'm turning down so many settings I might as well be playing on a console.

What it really comes down to is priorities.  Like I said, I wanted to upgrade my laptop, too, but I'm putting that off for the present to grab a desktop with an RTX 5080 instead of an RTX 5070 or 5070 TI.  I was also thinking about getting the Switch 2 at launch, but after the Nintendo Direct I'm going to hold off on that, too.

1 hour ago, TangledThorns said:

I thought about the Costco or pre-built PC route and there are some that are good deals but I'm a control freak and wanted a specific parts for my PC.

That being said my MSI RTX 5080 Shadow OC was delivered this week, thankfully it was bought before the recent price bump.

On a last note I have everything I need for my build except MSI's new 850 MAG Mortar mobo that should be released sometime this month.

 

Normally I'd agree 100%, but with the chaos that is GPU pricing (and to a lesser extent CPU) even before adding tariffs to the mix I gotta take what I can find. As is, my original plan was to buy a new laptop and replace my desktop later, but the laptop i'd been eyeing went up by $200 before even being released. Since I haven't even traveled in awhile I decided I'm better off upgrading my desktop now before things get worse, and putting off the laptop until things get better.

4 hours ago, azrael said:

For this deal, no. But if you don't have a Costco membership, there is a 5% surcharge on all purchases. So this deal is $2400+5% for non-members.

That'd narrow the gap between the MSI at Costco and the Asus at Best Buy to $80, so yeah, Asus it is.

19 minutes ago, davidwhangchoi said:

Using PC part picker, this is a good deal.

https://slickdeals.net/f/18238240-costco-msi-aegis-zs2-gaming-desktop-ryzen-9-9900x-rtx-5080-32gb-ram-2tb-ssd-2400-free-shipping?v=1&src=frontpage

[Costco] MSI Aegis ZS2 Gaming Desktop: Ryzen 9 9900X; RTX 5080; 32GB RAM; 2TB SSD $2400 + Free Shipping

• AMD Ryzen 9 9900X Processor (12-core)
• 32GB (2 x 16GB) DDR5 6000MHz RAM
• NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 16GB Graphics Card
• 1x 2TB M.2 NVMe SSD
• Microsoft Windows 11 Home (64-bit)
• Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.3
• 360mm Liquid Cooling
• 850W 80 Plus Gold Certified Power Supply
• MSI Mechanical Keyboard
• MSI Gaming Mouse

Not a bad deal at all, given how hard it is to get an Nvidia GPU in the first place.  Don't you have to be a member, though?  There's no Costcos around here, so I'm not.

Meanwhile, I got a $200 Best Buy gift card from my credit card, and my wife gave me a $500 Best Buy gift card for my birthday.  They have a similarly-specced Asus G700 desktop (main difference is an Intel Core Ultra 7 U7-265KF instead of a Ryzen) for $200 more.  Even though the base price is a bit more I think the Intel CPU benchmarks slightly better, and with my gift cards I'll come out ahead so I might just get that.

The Fallen wrapped up the first wave of AotP, and it looks like we're making progress on Studio Series, too.  Today we've got Voyager-class Transformers One Sentinel Prime.

SS Sentinel is, of course, bigger than the Prime Changers toy from last year, with colors that are significantly more accurate.  His biceps, thighs, and ribs are properly a silvery color, with gunmetal on his lats and in his forearms.  He's got the light blue and gold on his legs and knees, but sadly there's no gold on the backs of his hands or the outsides of his biceps and thighs.  He's sporting tabs on the outsides of his forearms where the CGI model had fins, but they should properly be gold.

Things are a bit messier from the back.  The nose of his jet mode is just dangling there, and his wings don't have the shape or textures we saw in the film.  Granted, this probably has a lot to do with the fact that Sentinel Prime doesn't transform in the film, and I'm not sure that an alt mode was even designed for it.  The box art for the Prime Changer toy actually used a recolored version of Starscream's alt mode, while the art on the Studio Series box seems to be based directly on the toy itself.

Speaking of Starscream... does Sentinel give anyone else Seeker vibes?  I'd swear we're a retool away from this mold being used for TFOne Starscream if I didn't already hear that TFOne Thundercracker will be a 2026 Deluxe.

Anyway... Sentinel comes with his shield, which despite the lack of color is actually more screen accurate than the Prime Changers version.  He also comes with a pair of very Null Ray-esque guns.  Unfortunately, the one accessory I think he really should have had is the double-bladed sword he used in the movie, but we'll have to wait for an upgrade kit for that.

Sentinel's head seems to be on a hinged swivel, so he can look up but he lacks any sort of downward or sideways tilt.  His shoulders swivel and move laterally almost 90 degrees.  His biceps swivel, and his elbows bend 90 degrees.  No wrist articulation.  His waist swivels.  His hips can go 90 degrees forward and a little over 90 degrees laterally, but only about 45 degrees backward due to his backpack.  His thighs swivel, and his knees bend 90 degrees.  His feet can tilt down, but not up, and his ankles pivot 90 degrees.

His shield clips onto the tab on the outside of either forearm.  He can use the 5mm pegs to hold his guns.  He lacks any other sort of weapon storage.

OK, technically that's not entirely true.  The shield has nowhere to store, but the guns can also be plugged onto the shield for a look that I believe is more movie accurate.  While we're at it, you can open his chest to flip up a battle mask, and swivel his pecs out a bit.  The tops of his shoulders open, and small guns can swivel out of them.  His forearm can slid down over his fist to make a Mega Man-style arm cannon.  The gold panels on the outsides of his legs open so you can fold out molded missiles.  Finally, you can give him a bit of extra height by folding boosters out of his heels and folding his feet down.  This is the battle mode we saw in the film.

What we didn't see in the film, though, was an alt mode.  From his base robot mode, turn his head 180 degrees, and slide both forearms down over his fists.  Fold down his toes and fold out the boosters in his heels, but this time collapse them down against his toes and tab his legs together.  Pull his arms and pecs away from his torso so you have room to flip his nose up over his head; his pecs will tab into his thighs.  Double-hinge his backpack down so that it fills in the gab between the nose and his legs.  Swing the tips from the tops of his wings to the edges, then fold the wings down so they tab into two spots on his legs.  With the wings in place, you can lock the arms in by slotting tabs under the wings into the backs of his arms, just above his forearms.  Then you can finish him off by folding the vertical stabilizers up.

Although not seen in the film, the jet mode is pretty consistent with the one on the Prime Changers version, and I kind of like it.  It's got Cyclonus vibes.  His torso and legs attempt to integrate into the fuselage, though it winds up a little on the thick side.  Likewise, they seem to have attempted to make his forearms into more engine nacelles, but the un-aerodynamic shoulders throw it off.  All-in-all, it definitely has its flaws, but it's far from the worse jet-mode we've seen.

His shield stores on a tab on the back of the fuselage.  His guns have tabs that plug into the sides just in front of his wings.  It's not documented, but you can also open his shoulders and swing up the shoulder guns.

I have to admit, I wasn't particularly excited for Sentinel Prime, but while far from perfect he is surprisingly better than I expected.  In fact, I think he's probably the best Transformers One toy released so far.  I wouldn't say that he's so good that I'd recommend him if you aren't collecting the TFOne figures, though.  However, I will say this... Age of the Primes has me thinking not just about the original Thirteen Primes, but the Lineage of Primes (that is, the Transformers who have carried the Matrix of Leadership between Prima and Optimus Prime, which in the IDW comics was Prima, Nova Prime, Nominus Prime, Zeta Prime, Sentinel Prime, and then Optimus Prime), and I think that with a little tweaking this figure could actually be not Sentinel, but rather Nominus Prime.  We already have IDW-esque toys for Nova Prime and Sentinel Prime, so a toy for Nominus would just leave me wanting a Zeta Prime.

1 hour ago, M'Kyuun said:

Why?

Because it means we're old.

Anyway, this guy finally came, which I do believe (mostly) finishes out the first wave of Age of the Primes.  It's Leader-class Megatronus Prime.

Megatronus, better known as The Fallen, traces his origins all the way back to the days of the Dreamwave comics where he was the primary antagonist of The War Within: Dark Ages miniseries.  Those comics depicted him as an incredibly ancient, powerful Transformer that was very heavily implied to be working for Unicron.  This was at the very genesis of Simon Furman's idea for the Thirteen; he would subsequently flesh out the Fallen's story as being one of the original thirteen Transformers created by Primus to battle Unicron early in the universe's history.  The Fallen sided with Unicron instead, and was sealed away with Unicron by the remaining twelve.  Later continuities, like the Prime-centric "aligned" continuity of The Covenant of Primus had him defeat Unicron but later come into conflict with the other Primes, causing him to name himself as The Fallen and leave Cybertron.

Regardless of which origin story we accept as correct (if any... perhaps they're all legends, corrupted by time?) the Age of the Primes figure is almost entirely based on that appearance in the Dreamwave comics, including his color scheme, the molded details of his chest and pelvis, and the face that's meant to evoke the Decepticon symbol.  The numerous little yellow lines on his body are actually supposed to be vents, and the yellow is the glow of the fire within his body (a feature that's more or less unique to the Dreamwave version).

Megatronus come with a number of accessories.  You get his signature relic, the Requiem Blaster.  There's also a small black barrel (that I've already attached to his backpack), a sword, a purple stick, a spikey bit, and a quartet of flame effects.  There should actually be one more accessory, a small black box with molded missile details.  It's supposed to attach (and remain attached) to a peg on his left shoulder, however, it was entirely missing from my copy.  Thank goodness I preorder from both Amazon and Pulse. 😒

Megatronus' head is on a ball joint that can look up and down a little, with a slight sideways tilt and a swivel.  His shoulders swivel, can extend laterally 90 degrees, and due to his transformation have a little forward/backward butterfly.  His biceps swivel, and his elbows bend slightly over 90 degrees.  His wrists are actually ball joints, so they can swivel as well as wiggle a little.  His fingers are pinned so his hands can open.  His waist swivels.  His hips can go 90 degrees backward or laterally, and over 90 degrees forward.  His thighs swivel, and due to transformation he has as swivel just above the knee as well.  Speaking of knees, they bend 90 degrees.  His feet can tilt up and down a little, plus they pivot nearly 90 degrees.

The big flame effects are meant to attach to the 5mm ports on the sides of his shoulders and wrap around to the front, while the the smaller one plug into 5mm ports on top of his backpack.  The barrel plugs into a 5mm port on either side of his backpack; the instructions put it on the left (which is Dreamwave accurate), but I chose to put it on the right to reinforce the similarity to Megatron.  It can swivel there like a shoulder cannon, though his backpack isn't tall enough for for him to fire it straight forward.  On that note, the Requiem Blaster plugs into a 5mm port on either forearm, just like Megatron's fusion cannon.  As for the rest of his accessories, they can combine into a bladed staff that's originally a call back to call back to the staff used by The Fallen in Revenge of the Fallen, but has since been carried over to the Robots In Disguise 2015 and Transformers One versions of the character.

Alternatively, you could split the spear apart, and slide one end into one of his fists while opening his hand and pushing the handle of the blade into his other, giving him a sort of mace/axe and a machete.  All of his weapons can store on his backpack.  The black barrel remains where you attached it in the first place, and the Requiem blaster plugs into the port on the opposite side.  The shaft and blade of his spear each use pegs to plug into the pair of ports directly on his back.  There isn't really anywhere else to store his flame effects except when he's not pretending to be on fire.

Transforming Megatronus does involve some partsforming.  Not only do you have to remove his spear and flame effects, but the Requiem Blaster and and the barrel on his backpack have to come off, too.  That said, while there are some basic similarities to Siege/Earthrise Megatron in that his cannon goes between his arms to form the turret, something else gets plugged into the cannon to become the tank barrel, his backpack contains the front treads, and his lower legs spread and bend inward at the knee to form the rear treads.  The process feels more refined, though, with his chest reshaping into the front of the tank, parts of the treads storing inside of his torso so that his backpack can be smaller, and panels unfolding from his butt and legs to fill in the gap at the rear.  When Megatronus was first revealed I predicted that Studio Series 86 Megatron could be a heavy remold of him (and for reference, he's a little taller than SS86 Optimus), and while one of the designers (I think Evan) said that's not the case, I'd be really surprised if Megatron doesn't borrow at least some of the engineering here.

As you've no doubt noticed, Megatronus is a tank.  That aligns with RID15 and probably with Dreamwave (he didn't transform in the comics and I can't find any concept art of an alt mode, but the Titanium Series toy that was also based on Dreamwave was a tank), though other versions make him a Cybertronian jet.  I don't have a lot to say here.  It works well enough, as both the front and back are filled in, and since it's a Cybertronian tank it can look however it wants without needing to be accurate to anything.

The turret can rotate, and the Requiem Blaster can pivot up where it's connected to his arms.  The big flames can really only peg into the top of the turret on what are the insides of his forearms.  You have more options of stowing his spear and the smaller flames, with 5mm ports available on top of the turret (on what are the sides of his shoulders) as well as the top and sides of the front of the tank.

Of all the Primes save Primus and Alpha Trion Megatronus is the one most likely to appeal to the G1 crowd.  He actually appeared in a G1 comic book, and after his brothers he arguably has the most lore (where many of the remaining Thirteen seem hastily thrown together to fill out a the ranks of a group who's number was decided before who actually belonged in it).  The black-and-purple, always-on-fire design is a bit edgelord in hindsight, but was cool back in 2003.  And most importantly, he's a solid figure with good articulation and accessories.  I have a feeling he's going to wind up a highlight among the Thirteen Primes released in the Age of the Primes trilogy, but even if you're not in for all Thirteen he's still worth picking up.

12 minutes ago, Mommar said:

Evidently Daemon x Machina is now also going to be on the PS5 and Series X.

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/daemon-x-machina-titanic-scion-nintendo-switch-2/6628388.p?skuId=6628388

It's not on Steam yet, but apparently PC too (which is where I'll get it).

https://www.gematsu.com/2025/04/daemon-x-machina-titanic-scion-launches-september-5-for-ps5-xbox-series-switch-2-and-pc

Now I just need Squeenix to tell me that Bravely Default remastered is also coming to PC and I'll put off the Switch 2 (at least for now).  How bad can Metroid Prime 4 on the OG Switch be...? (don't answer that)

We're hitting a point where people who were kids and watched Transformers during the Unicron Trilogy or the first few Bayverse movies are about the same age as G1 kids were when Classics '06 hit, and for all the people who complain about G1 endlessly getting rehashed (especially the Bayverse fans who cry about SS86 invading what was previously a line for the live action movies) I've been told by reliable sources that it's the G1ers who are voting with their wallets, which is why we keep getting new and slightly improved versions of the G1 cast for the umpteenth time while even big names like the TLK version of Megatron haven't gotten a figure since the TLK movie line.

1 hour ago, M'Kyuun said:

As would I as I really like that color scheme. Still love the YF-19 though; it's one of my favorite valks. Recently bought the HMR VF-4 and I love it. Unlike the Yamato 1/60 VF-4, whose design Bandai basically copied, I wish they had gone the extra mile to impart shoulder rotation, as it would have improved pose ability immensely. 

I have the upcoming HMR VF-2SS rerelease POed and I'm excited for it. It'll be my first and only VF-2SS toy, and judging by reviews, it's a really good design. 

Yeah, I haven't gotten around the VF-2SS, either.  I think it and the VF-19 are the only variable molds I'm missing (I think they also did a an HMR Reguld and a few Destroids, but if it doesn't turn into a plane I don't want it); I've got a VF-4 (in Fokker's colors, not the Flashback one), a VF-0S, a VF-1J Hikaru, and a VF-1S Fokker.

...and when I put it that way, dang.  Bandai needs to get cracking.  I'd still really like, at minimum, a VF-11 (I prefer C), a VF-17 (I prefer D), more VF-19s (A and F, please), and a VF-22 (Gamlin colors).  While they're at it, might as well give me an SV-51 gamma (Ivanov colors), a VF-25S, a VF-27, a VB-6 a VF-31F, and an SV-262.  And heck, since they did the VF-2SS, might as well do the VF-2JA and the Metal Siren.  And once all those TV valks are out of the way, a VF-3000, VF-5000 (VF-X2 colors), VF-4, VF-14, VA-3, VAB-2, Variable Glaug, and Pheyos.  Then if they have time maybe some of the Protodeviln mecha.

19 hours ago, Convectuoso said:

I still wish they make the YF-19 in HMR

I might not go for the YF-19, but I also hope they do it in HMR.  Then they can redeco it blue as the VF-19A from VF-X2, and that I'd buy.

I skipped the Fire Valkyrie as I prefer my valks to not have faces, but I'm solidly in for this.  Especially if the speaker pods are removable.

Feels like I'm starting to make some progress now, what with finding Slingshot earlier, and now Studio Series Voyager-class Scrapper has finally arrived.

Well... the more things change, the more they stay the same, eh?  86 Scrapper is smaller, more tall Deluxe than a Voyager.  The molded greebles are slightly different.  86 Scrapper's purple is a little less red, his green a little less yellow.  The details on his chest are painted to look like the cartoon, where CW Scrapper's chest and abs are painted to look like the G1 toy.  Yet, for a line dedicated to screen accuracy, 86 Scrapper has lost the gold and silver on his pelvis.  His arms have gone from too short to a little too long.  Yet those small changes seem to highlight the things that are the same... the head sculpts are nearly identical.  Same wheels on the shoulders and legs.  Same way his feet bulge out at the sides under the wheels.

Maybe it's not super apparent in these phots, but the hollow spaces are in the insides of the forearms and the backs of the calves are hollow on both figures, and the shovels fold onto their backs in the same way.

The accessories are similar, too... kinda.  I mean, given that the CW Constructicons came as a set, who can really say what bits belonged to which Constructicons specifically?  What I can say is that Scrapper comes with a trio of guns.  One gun is based on the G1 cartoon and has no analog in the Combiner Wars set (though if you bought the Japanese Unite Warriors set instead you got a similar gun).  The other two gun combine into Devastator's rifle... just like CW Devastator's rifle split into two parts.  I'll note that the sculpt is very close to the CW version, too.  I could write that off like, "well, they're both Devastator's gun, what else would they look like?"  Except that the CW rifle is neither totally toy nor totally cartoon accurate, making it seem like Hasbro/Takara recycled their previous work instead of going back to the source and designing a cartoon-accurate weapon.

But I digress.  Scrapper's head swivels, with some up/down tilt (just like CW).  His shoulders swivel and can move laterally 90 degrees, plus he's got a bit of forward/backward butterfly (improved from CW, who lacks the backward butterfly).  His biceps swivel (same), and his elbows bend 90 degrees (improved, at least from the CW version, though the UW version did have working elbows).  No wrist swivel or waist swivel (disappointingly same).  His hips can go 90 degrees forward, backward, or laterally (nearly the same).  Thighs swivel, and knees bend 90 degrees (same).  His feet can tilt upward (improved), nothing down (same), and his ankles pivot 90 degrees (improved).

Scrapper can hold his gun using the 5mm ports in his fists.

He can also hold the two halves of Devastator's gun.  While he does, you may have noticed a small peg on the edge of his shovel.  That happens to fit a small hole on his black gun, allowing for bot mode storage.  Alas, there doesn't seem to be any bot mode storage for the Devastator gun.

86 Scrapper's transformation is extremely similar to the Combiner Wars toy.  86 Scrapper's chest opens so his head can fold inside instead of collapsing.  His elbows bend backward 90 degrees before tabbing into his sides, but his arms still tab into his sides.  His legs tab together, then his calves fold up and over his thighs, while his shins fold up over the fronts of his thighs and his feet fold flat against the insides of his shins, exactly like the CW toy.  

Again, it's weird how some details have been improved, like paint on the rims and a driver's cabin with a shape more like the G1 toy/cartoon... but how they also still copied details from from the Combiner Wars toy like the larger front tire and the enclosed driver's cabin that aren't G1 accurate.

Scrapper rolls, and though there are technically two hinges on his shovel the one hinge is clipped down so only the one closer to the bucket works.  There are tabs on the sides and slots on the back for weapon storage.  The official configuration is to take the barrel of Devastator's gun and use a slot on the side to grab onto a tab, then a tab under the back of Devastator's gun to plug into one of the slots on the back of Scrapper.  Scrapper's own rifle uses it's 5mm handle to plug into a port on the back of Devastator's gun.

You have other options, though, if you want to get creative.  It's worth pointing out that Scrapper's black gun also has a tab, and can plug onto the back of his alt mode while you can leave Devastator's gun off entirely.

In a way, Scrapper reminds me of the time I had to write a research paper as part of a senior project in high school, then had to do a research paper with nearly identical requirements as part of a freshman project my first semester of college, so I made a few tweaks to the spots my high school teacher dinged me on but otherwise turned in the same paper again to my college professor.  That's pretty much what Hasbro did... while there are a number of small improvements like better joint tolerances and elbows, the overall design and engineering are still so close to the Combiner Wars toy.  A toy which, I remind you, was not particularly complicated and much larger, which makes the notion of Scrapper being a Voyager a tad questionable (even if his smaller size does mean he scales better). 86 Scrapper isn't a bad toy; in a world without the CW version I'd probably be talking about how good he is (how great he is, if he were a Deluxe).  I can't help but be disappointed, though, that Scrapper is basically a decade-old design with minor improvements.  If you're coming from Combiner Wars, the overall solidity, the tweaked colors, and elbows are probably still worth the upgrade.  If you already have the Unite Warriors version, though, you might want to stick that one unless the size bothers you.

37 minutes ago, Mommar said:

First of all where are they getting the $80-$90 number from?  The most expensive game we know of is Mario Kart, which is $80 physical and $50 digital.

https://www.thegamer.com/mario-kart-world-price-physical-copy-90-80-dollars-fans-furious/

It's not $50 digital, it's $80 digital.  It's only $50 if you buy the Switch 2 Mario Kart bundle.

Nintendo hasn't come out and said that it's going to cost more in the States for a physical game card, but based on pricing in other regions they're going to charge more for a physical game card in the States.

44 minutes ago, Mommar said:

Why is Nintendo worse?  Because they won't duke you a console at a loss?

Who says Nintendo is worse?  I'm not paying $80-$100 for GTA, either.

As a PC gamer I'm used to digital-only, you don't actually own anything software. It might be sad to say but it doesn't bother me anymore. What bothers me is the perceived value. $80 seems like too much for a Mario Kart game, even if it is an open world Forza Horizon type. I've already been resisting the jump to $70.  Plus I have to wonder when the next $80 game is coming... it's one thing to charge $80 for a massive game I could spend hundreds of hours on, but what about something like the next 2D Mario? I mean, I remember liking Super Mario Wonder, but that's about all I remember because it was over super quick. There's no way I could justify $80 on a Super Mario Wonder 2, but I could see Nintendo charging that much just because it's Mario.

And the console itself. I expected it to cost more, given that Nintendo hasn't dropped the price of the Switch 1 in  eight years, but at $450 we're awfully close to the PS5's price without the PS5’s performance.

So yeah... I was pretty excited for the Switch 2, but again as I do most of my gaming on PC I think I'm better off upgrading my desktop and maybe holding off a bit on the  Switch 2, at least until there's a Switch 2 exclusive I want more than Mario Kart or Donkey Kong.

If MPG-17 had come out 10 years ago it'd have blown my mind. If it had come six or seven years ago I'd have thought, "hey they made an improved version of MP-10! I should buy it!” But today, in a world with MP-44, TE-01, and two great options from Magic Square? I just didn't know who the market for this is. 

*Looks at Detolf full of nothing but Primes*

...It's me, I'm buying it  aren't I?

1 hour ago, Mommar said:

In theory I do, but they'll have to really fix the gameplay in order to win me back.

That's kind of what I mean. So many people seemed to complain about the first one, but I unironically thought it was pretty good.

Hope it comes to PC. Switch 2 is coming in a little pricier than I expected, and that's before a bunch of new tariffs are set to go into place, plus Nintendo thinks at least some games should retail for $80. I'm thinking I might just splurge on new PC hardware instead.

17 minutes ago, Tking22 said:

Honestly, I was expecting $400, think I'll wait at $450, nothing at launch looks like anything I need. 

Oof. $399 was pricey but doable, but $50 less than a PS5 for a console that might be as powerful as a PS4 is pushing it.

EDIT: the $500 bundle with Mario Kart is looking like a better deal since Nintendo quietly announced that Mario Kart World will have an $80 price tag 

Mario Forza Kart Horizon.

Ah, so there will be a switch 2 version of Metroid Prime 4 after all. 

I may be the only person on earth looking forward to a new Daemon X Machina game. 

Yes to more Hyrule Warriors. 

I'm glad that the Switch 2 looks like it's going to have strong 3rd party support, it's just that most of it looks like games you could already buy on PS4/5/PC.

19 minutes ago, M'Kyuun said:

I'd rather have them over Rescue Bots hybrids and stuff like Kranix

I get that, and fwiw I'd also rather have had Omnibots over Rescuebots, or for that matter fanfic rock guys, fanfic Junkions, fanfic dinosaur skeletons, and trying to mash Animated or Prime into a G1 style. All I'm saying is that Kranix is going in Studio Series, so he's like the one guy you can't replace with an Omnibots.

1 hour ago, JB0 said:

Maybe Slingshot's robot mode will look good after the stickers are applied. I can't imagine something that barren is actually the final appearance anyone wants.

This better?

1 hour ago, JB0 said:

Some of them.

Most, for better or worse.  Sadly, this means that Fireflight is likely going to wind up with his generic cartoon head, not the cooler masked toy one.

33 minutes ago, M'Kyuun said:

I can't believe they're doing Kranix over the Omnibots. C'mon Hasbro, that's bull$h!t. 😠

To be fair, Omnibots aren't in the 86 movie so they can't wedge them into Studio Series. In AotP they're competing with all the other cartoons people younger than us claim get no love because Hasbro only likes G1.

8 hours ago, Scyla said:

To put your mind at ease Mike I think Hasbro did a reasonable good job with Slingshot‘s alt mode.

I think the expectation towards Hasbro should be what is feasible design and what is just plain lazyness.

For having a realistic alt-mode you almost never will have the budget for at Hasbro. Especially not for established character designs.

The designer of Slingshot at least put effort into making it a Robot in Disguise, even if it is not a realistic Harrier. And I think with a different design goal you could make a fairly convincing Harrier jet out of it.

Air Raid is just lazy to me. The fact that the arms don’t tuck in is just lazy design (same with Breakdown not being the right car shape but a slight retool of Wildrider).

So good job on Slingshot unknown Hasbro engineer I guess.

I think that's fair.  And I think, due to the way these things are designed, you can pretty much bet then that Skydive will be just as bad as Air Raid, and Fireflight will be just as good as Slingshot.

Will today's review be as divisive?  Maybe!  It's Studio Series Deluxe-class Devastation Optimus Prime.

The Optimus character model in Devastation was, arguably more than any of the other game models, pretty faithful to the G1 cartoon design.  The only real difference was that the Devastation model was maybe a bit more athletic-looking.  And that's really what we're getting here, a very G1 cartoony Optimus.  Unlike the Earthrise toy, he's got all the yellow on his pelvis painted, as his the blue on his crotch, and the flaps on the sides of his legs are supposed to be his fuel tanks.

His legs even have that tapered shape, and though they do peek out a bit at least some attempt was made to hide his wheels.  His back has less backpack than SS86 Optimus or MP-44, though he does have some bumper and wheel kibble there.

Prime comes with an unpainted Matrix of Leadership, and an energon axe with a molded "swoosh."  Sadly, no gun.  I get that the gameplay was more melee-focused, but I still would have traded the unpainted Matrix or even the axe for an ion rifle.

Prime's articulation is decent enough.  No real tilt on his head, but the flap it's on can be tilted up if you need to fake a little upward tilt.  His shoulders swivel and move laterally 90 degrees, though they are sadly Hot Rod Shoulders™ again.  I'll cut him a little slack for it, though, because the way he transforms means he's got a slight forward and plenty of backward butterfly.  His biceps swivel, and his elbows bend 90 degrees.  No wrist swivel, but due to his transformation his hands can bend inward.  His waist swivels, though his wheel kibble can get in the way.  His hips can go forward and laterally 90 degrees.  They only go about 45 degrees backward, again due to the wheel kibble, but that's honestly enough for most poses.  His thighs swivel, and his knees bend 90 degrees.  His toes can bend down 90 degrees, no upward tilt, and his ankles pivot 90 degrees.

His axe fits over his hand.  Note that his smokestacks are pegged on, like the Legacy Deluxe, but they're smaller with a 3mm peg, so he can't really use them as accessories.

His fists are, of course, standard 5mm fists.  So, you know, maybe you happen to have another Deluxe-class Optimus that came with two rifles for some reason, and maybe Devastation Optimus can borrow one?

As for his Matrix, his chest opens up, and the Matrix (which has a peg hole on the back) plugs into the peg inside.  Since he's only a Deluxe his hands don't open, but there are grooves cut into his fingers and little tabs on the sides of the Matrix.  You can slide those tabs up into the grooves in his fingers to get him to hold the Matrix.  Barely.

Prime's transformation is fairly G1, and for a change doesn't involve a fake grill.  Instead, his lats fold back, as does his head.  His hands turn inward, then his arms bend and tuck just like the G1 toy/cartoon.  His waist rotates 180 degrees, though, and the wheels fold down to finish the front bumper.  His heels and toes fold down, and a half of a hollow peg folds out from each of his shins before his legs kick up 90 degrees and peg together.  The wheels fold down, and the fuel tanks on the sides of his legs fold up over his thighs, and that's it.  You're done.

The truck mode is... not the best.  There's some seams on the front of the cap where his hands folded in, and a weird gap between the grill and bumper.  The fuel tanks don't look as much like fuel tanks due to how Hasbro hollowed then out for some reason (and some red paint at the steps would have been nice).  The back of the cab has a visible robot head, but ironically the same lats filling in the gap between the arms that the Commander-class toy does.  And the back of the truck is still obviously robot legs, though I appreciate that they put molded taillights on the underside of Prime's feet.  So yeah, not great, but I honestly don't hate it.  I mean, aside from the Legacy one (which had an advantage of trying to mimic the G1 toy, not the cartoon), the last time we had a G1-ish Deluxe-class Optimus it had a far worse truck mode.

There's a slot over one of Prime's knees.  You might have noticed a red tab on the axe; that tab fits into this slot so he can carry it in truck mode.

As for the fold-out peg, the hollow inside is a 5mm port.  And the peg is at just the right height for Prime to work with the Earthrise trailer, which actually scales better with Devastation Optimus than it does Earthrise.

When Devastation Optimus was first revealed, I think a lot of fans had a gut reaction along the lines of, "why does this exist, it looks so much worse than SS86 Optimus?"  And, they're not wrong, but I don't think it's totally a fair comparison to make when SS86 Optimus cost almost as much as four of the Devastation one.  He's a Deluxe, existing in a spectrum of Primes between the Core-class and the Voyager/Leader Earthrise one.  He's clearly a much better figure than the Core-class one, and while there are things that the Earthrise mold does better there are, surprisingly enough, things that the Deluxe version does better.  And, as I said, he's a lot better than the old Classics Deluxe.  Really, he's not meant to be the definitive mainline Optimus, which is still SS86's role.  He's overtly meant to be a smaller G1 Prime that can make the SS86 Devastator seem bigger (and I'm sure he'll scale nicely with the Deluxe-class Devastation Megatron when it comes, which I believe it should be later this year).  And, less overtly, to get a(nother) proven product-moving character into the scale that sells the best and makes the most money.

By and large, I think Hasbro was successful at what they set out to do.  Devastation Prime isn't the best Prime, but he's a good Prime, one that's fun to just have on your desk and fiddle with.  I can't quite call him a "must-buy" figure the way I did with SS86 Prime.  If shelf space is limited and you're only looking for single, relatively in-scale representations of the cartoon cast for a display than Devastation Prime is not for you.  But if Commander-class Optimus had too many steps in his transformation and you're looking for a simpler, fun Optimus to mess around with, Devastation Optimus delivers that in spades.  I just wish he came with a gun.

26 minutes ago, M'Kyuun said:

They certainly don't get the same care as ground vehicles, as I've yet to see a car or truck bot with its arms just hanging off the sides

I don't know that I agree with that, actually.  I mean, yeah, they don't usually have their arms just dangling off the sides (though I'll refer you to Siege/Earthrise Ultra Magnus and his related molds, where the hands are very obviously sticking out the back), though I think the generally brick-ish shape of a car gives more places to hide the robot parts than a more tube-shaped plane (sans wings, which are too thin to hide anything).  I disagree more with the the idea that cars always get more care.  I mean, I've ranted many times about Breakdown not even being close to a Lamborghini.  I could point out SS86 Jazz's visible feet, or worse, Earthrise Ironhide's.  Maybe the fact that even Commander-class Optimus has a void on the back of his cab, or the fact that almost every Optimus's rear section is super obvious robot legs?

44 minutes ago, M'Kyuun said:

Funny how the badly-skewed car modes in the Sunbow animation aren't generally carried over to the toys, though.

But they kind of are, though, when they're not making even more changes like missing spoilers (the Lambros) or erasing curves (Wheeljack) or changing bumpers (the Datsuns) to avoid licensing.  As a matter of fact, I happen to think some, like SS86 Bumblebee are better for it, as they look less like the real cars I was unaware of as a 5yo and more like the cartoon I watched as a 5yo.

But then again...

32 minutes ago, M'Kyuun said:

I might mention that I had a huge poster of the F-16 on my wall and a well-thumbed book called The World's Greatest Interceptor Aircraft complete with cross-section diagrams and full color photos of all the jets, squadron breakdowns, and histories.

Whereas I had a poster of a Porsche 911 (930), and dreamed of owning a real Porsche someday (happy to say I bought a '23 Porsche Taycan😁).  So I like aircraft, sure, but I'm actually going to look at cars with a more critical eye.  And I've cut the cars some slack (except Breakdown).

42 minutes ago, M'Kyuun said:

That more Transformers fans don't take offense at Has/Tak's lackluster jetformers and demand better is surprising and frustrating to me.

Because what Transformers fans demand, more than anything, is animation accuracy.  And...

51 minutes ago, M'Kyuun said:

but even as a kid, I thought the Aerialbots' jet modes were pretty terrible... Alas, crappy toys did not lend themselves to improved animation

And that's really the crux of it.  The cartoon is based on the toys (which, in the Aerialbots case sacrificed even more than usual to the combining gimmick), and 40 years later Transformers fans want toys that look like the cartoon.  Is it possible to make transforming jets with good alt modes?  Heck no, Bandai/Tonka did it 40 years ago with Machine Robo/Go-Bots*.  But is it possible for Hasbro, today, to make a toy that's slavish to the G1 Transformers cartoon while simultaneously making a realistic aircraft that's also got enough bulk to be a combiner limb, all on a $25 budget when some 3Ps can't manage in a toy with five times (or more!) the price tag?  I'm afraid not.  That's why, taken for what it is, I think Air Raid is flawed but better than Combiner Wars.  And, taken for what it is, Slingshot is actually pretty good.

*I still desperately want modern Go-Bots toys that scale with Generations.

8 minutes ago, Big s said:

Nah, she’s gonna be Christina Mackenzie 

I'd give that one to Karen Gillan.