mikeszekely

So I still don't know what next year's line will be. Hasbro is apparently debating whether to launch a new trilogy, or to have another year of Legacy with a new subtitle. While they figure it out, they're going to squeeze in a fifth wave of United, either late this year or early next year. Before you guys get too excited, there's only two new molds in the wave, and they're both figures that were dropped from the second wave that's due to be officially revealed in March. Everything else is either a package refresh, or a (mostly expected) repaint. Core-class BW Dinobot Deluxe-class G1 Sureshot Deluxe-class G2 Breakdown Deluxe-class Cosmos (PR) Deluxe-class Armada Wheeljack Voyager-class Voyager Ramjet (PR) Voyager-class Tarn (PR) Leader-class Galaxy Shuttle (PR) Leader-class G1 Overcharge I'll save you guys a trip to the TF Wiki, Overcharge is a Diaclone repaint of Blitzwing. So... yeah, I'm happy that people who missed stuff like Ramjet, Cosmos, and Galaxy Shuttle will have another crack at them. This wave is the first thing that's leaked that's actually going to save me money, as I'm only definitely in for Sureshot, Breakdown, and Wheeljack, with a possibility that I'll grab Overcharge.

We're getting a proper numbered Gundam Breaker 4. https://www.gematsu.com/2024/02/gundam-breaker-4-announced-for-ps5-ps4-switch-and-pc

Me too. But, although I don't have the wave assortments, I'll remind you that that list is for the entire year of 2025, and it doesn't even mention Hook or Long Haul. We're looking at two-ish years before Devy's done. I, unfortunately, am probably in for everything but the package refreshes. I assume you mean the SS86 Commander-class one, right? That's this year, though. I'm really hoping that Hook and Long Haul, or at the very least Long Haul, is the 2025 Commander, with partsforming bits to make Devastator. I know, I know... I prefer a transformation that doesn't need partsforming and I'm all-in on any combiners MMC wants to do for that very reason, but I also know what Hasbro can and can't do with their budget and I prefer partsforming to a Long Haul that looks like this... Anyway, I have some bad news. The source that gave me this info (the same trustworthy source that got me the leaks for all of this years' stuff nearly a year ago) is, unfortunately, retiring from the scene. Hopefully I can find and vet a new one. He may have a few more beans to spill this week, though... starting with two items that were left off the last list. Studio Series 86 Leader-class Galvatron Keep in mind, I'm just getting the listings (and product codes, in this case G0481). I have no idea how, if at all, this will be different than the Kingdom or Legacy releases (the latter of which is still on shelves at my local Target). I'm a bit surprised that they're doing him again so soon, but it's not like there isn't precedent. SS86 is replacing Earthrise Optimus and Siege Springer this year, and has also replaced relatively recent releases of Ironhide, Ratchet, and Arcee. Oh, right. I did say two, didn't I? Studio Series 86 Leader-class Megatron. I told you guys it was happening.😉

That's pretty awesome, I'll definitely pick it up. Almost as awesome as this: https://personacentral.com/smt-v-vengeance-announcement/ Finally, I 've been begging Atlus for SMT:V on PC ever since they ported SMT 3! That alone would be fantastic news, but they're effectively doubling the length of the game by calling the original story "Canon of Creation" and adding a remixed version called "Canon of Vengeance", too, that starts the same but significantly alters the story further in. Toss in 40 more demons, some quality of life tweaks, and all the DLC from the original Switch release, and even more DLC to come, and this could be my GOTY. I wonder if it's too early to start asking Atlus for a PC port of SMTIV and SMTIV: Apocalypse?

Too bad it's only a pitch and not actually getting made.

If yesterday's news wasn't excited enough, how about the entire 2025 Studio Series lineup? First, let's get this out of the way... these are the package refreshed characters (that is, figures that have already been released, but will be on sale again). Deluxe-class 86 Perceptor Deluxe-class 86 Jazz Voyager-class ROTB Optimus Prime Voyager-class DOTM Shockwave Leader-class 86 Grimlock Transformers One, which releases in September, gets a few releases Deluxe-class B-127 Deluxe-class Starscream Voyager-class Sentinel Prime Gamer Edition continues with the War for Cybertron versions of: Deluxe-class Autobot Soldier Voyager-class Skywarp Voyager-class Thundercracker Voyager-class Ironhide There's also a listing for a Deluxe-class Optimus as DEV. I wonder if that's Transformers Devastation? Bayverse fans, who have been complaining about a lack of figures from the first five movies while Bumblebee and Rise of the Beasts have been dominating the Studio Series, probably aren't going to be too happy to hear about: Deluxe-class Bumblebee Bumblebee. Note that this isn't being listed as a package refresh, so my guess is they're either re-doing his VW figure with one that's more film accurate, or (more likely) they're doing the Camaro. Leader-class ROTB Apelinq Deluxe-class ROTB Double Punch (I wonder if he'll be green, since Scorpnok was purple?) Or, maybe they'll stop complaining so much, because they're getting some attention in 2025. Deluxe-class DOTM Hatchet (the one that leaked way back with Earth-mode Hound) Deluxe-class DOTM Que Deluxe-class AOE Widow Maker (likely a repaint or retool of Stinger) Leader-class AOE Optimus Prime I'm saving the best for last, though. The 86 movie isn't limited to a few package refreshes. Deluxe-class 86 Bonecrusher Deluxe-class 86 Scavenger Voyager-class 86 Scrapper Voyager-class 86 Mixmaster Unfortunately, there's no listing for Hook and Long Haul. I assume they'll be 2026 releases, although I suppose one of them could be the unlisted 2025 Studio Series Commander-class figure, if he comes with all the combiner bits. OK, TL;DR - STUDIO SERIES 86 DEVASTATOR!

Still a rumor, so remember your salt, but I have it on word from a reliable source that Amazon's exclusive Transfomers this year will be the Mayhem Attack Squad, and will be sold in three two packs. One is Voyager Bludgeon (probably a redeco of the Tarn remold we already got) with Deluxe Ruckus (a retool of Beachcomber), one is Deluxe Chopshop with Deluxe Barrage (repaints of Shrapnel and Bombshell as Deluxe Insecticons... sadly no sign of Venom). And the third is Deluxe Knockout (a redeco of, well, Knockout) with Deluxe Windsweeper (a retool of Needlenose). More exciting (for me, anyway), I'm told that there will be a TMNT x Transformers collab this year. It's gonna be the Party Wagon (Turtle van)!

I doubt you're alone in that sentiment, but as I understand it SS86 Megatron is coming. I just didn't know when (not this year).

Oh, of course I'd prefer a Megatron that turns into a gun! But the team"s been very clear that it won't happen in an official capacity, and that a Studio Series 86 Megatron would turn into a tank. What I'm saying is that if they're going to go the tank route that they should copy Bumblebee Megatron and make the robot nigh on perfect at the expense of putting quotes around the "tank" mode.

Probably not all that new if you follow anyone who gets their figures from China, where this guy was released months ago. But US stores are apparently just now getting Studio Series Leader-class Concept Art Bumblebee Megatron, and since I buy my mainline figures from Amazon or Pulse... So, what do I even compare this guy to? Yolopark Megatron on the left, my customized Earthrise Megatron on the right if you want to see how he looks with G1... ...or maybe Gamer Edition Megatron? Super Megatron? Bayverse Megatron(s)? I mean, like the other Bumblebee designs, he's got that abundance of little mechanical details that the Bayverse seems to have permanently added to any live-action version of Transformers, but with a much stronger G1-inspired base. And in that vein of Bumblebee is maybe a reboot but maybe a prequel to the Bayverse because no one seems to know for sure anymore, this Megatron is equal in height to the Voyager-class Studio Series figures from the first two movies (and about the same size as Super Megatron, bigger than Earthrise, smaller than Yolopark). But wait, this guys a Leader! Well, I'd guess that Megatron makes up a lot of his budget with much nicer paint apps than we're used to; he's cast mostly in the kind of dark gray plastic you see on his pelvis or the black you see on his hips, so basically all of the silver and red you see is paint. While Megatron has a ton of sculpted mechanical details, there's almost no alt mode kibble on him. You have to turn him around to see the hints of treads in his thighs and calves, and small bits of wing. There's also very little in the way of hollowed-out gaps... really, just a strip in his calves, but that's necessary for transformation. His forearms have flaps that open to allow the hands to fold inside. All-in-all, it's a very nice, very clean design. Is it accurate? I'm assuming so. Remember, Megatron wasn't in the movie, just concept art. And even then, I don't think any official concept art was revealed until after the toy. Previous art that was assumed to be concept art (and the basis for at least one third-party toy) was actually fan art. I seem to recall that Studio Series Revenge of the Fallen Megatron didn't come with any accessories, and movie 1 Megatron just had that crappy rubber flail. So the bump to Leader also buys this Megatron a much better accessory. It is, of course, his fusion cannon, but unlike the cannons that came with Siege, Earthrise, or Gamer Edition Megatron it's not a simple one-piece affair. There are numerous hinges on the cannon, giving it a surprisingly high parts count, plus a little bit of red paint. The rest of the budget difference is probably why Megatron's got such good articulation. His head's on a ball joint that can look up a bit, tilt his head sideways a little, and swivel, but looking down is fairly limited. His shoulders rotate and move laterally 90 degrees, but he's also got a slight backward and fairly good forward butterfly as well. His biceps swivel, and his elbows bend around 120 degrees. His wrists swivel, but they can also bend inward (which makes for a better cannon-firing pose, IMO). And in a rarity for almost any Hasbro figure, let alone one this size, he's got articulated fingers, with pinned knuckles at the base and mid-finger, plus his index finger is separate from the other three. This Megatron can point! His waist swivels. The front of his pelvis folds in and the hip skirts fold up, giving him the clearance to move his hips forward, backward, and laterally 90 degrees. He can actually move his hips even farther laterally if you swing the hip skirt around to his back. His thighs swivel, and his knees bend around 150 degrees. His feet can tilt down a little, upward about 45 degrees, and his ankles pivot nearly 90 degrees. If he'd only had an ab crunch I'd say that his articulation is closer to a non-transforming toy, like Yolopark's model kit, than to a transforming toy. Although his hands are articulated, Megatron's palms are still cut to accommodate accessories with 5mm handles. Of course, he's got 5mm ports on either forearm where you can attach his fusion cannon. Megatron also has a pair of 5mm ports on his back. This is really where the hinges come into play. You can plug the cannon onto Megatron's back, then use the hinges to bring the cannon up and over his shoulder. You can also use hinges to fold the barrel up and simply store the whole thing on his back... though I'm not sure why you'd want to. Cannon the arm is pretty standard Megatron stuff, and this one's designed so that you don't actually have to remove the cannon for transformation. On that note... a Leader budget allows Megatron to be a triple changer, with a tank mode (as all G1-adjacent Megatrons are apparently required to have now) and a jet mode (just in case Bumblebee is still a Bayverse prequel). The transformation to tank mode is more involved that you might expect, though most of the work is in his lower body. His hips come apart and spread out like Kingdom Beast Wars Megatron, his shins have to shift up to reveal some treads while others pop out of his thighs, his chest flips up, and most of his torso double-hinges over his butt. The jet mode has more jet-only parts that seemingly fold out of nowhere in an attempt to make it more visually distinct, but when you look past those parts there's actually a lot less actual transforming going on. His chest is flipped up and his arms kind of tucked in front/under him, but his back and hips are in their robot positions and his legs are less transformed and more tucked up along side him. Supposedly Hasbro got designer Emiliano Santalucia to come up with Megatron's alt modes. And sure enough, Santalucia came up with a tank and a jet. I feel pretty comfortable telling you, though, that this is not that tank. The legs that run along the sides with the treads aren't so bad, and I can almost forgive his chest sticking out of the front, leaving a gap through which you can see the back of his head (if you turned it around, as the instructions tell you to do, otherwise his face will be visible). But that Leader budget must have run out before Hasbro figured out Megatron's arms, because aside from tucking in his hands they don't really transform at all. They butterfly toward each other, allowing his shoulders to tab into each other, but at an angle. The angle means there's a gap between his arms, where you can bend his elbows a bit so the cannon on one arm can also peg into the other to form the least-convincing tank turret I've seen in awhile. At least the turret has some articulation. You can't turn it more than 45 degrees in either direction, but there is a swivel. And the pegs on the fusion cannon can swivel in their peg holes to allow the cannon to aim vertically upward. For the jet mode, a cockpit unfolds from inside Megatron's chest, wings unfurl from his legs, the front of his thighs peel off to form some kind of spikes, and the treads in his calves flip over to reveal thrusters. For all those dedicated jet parts, I think his jet mode is even further from Santalucia's design and honestly worse than his tank mode. It doesn't seem to tab together as well as his jet mode, for one. His arms, which are already just hanging under the jet like lumps, are especially prone to coming untabbed on their own. And even if I ignore that, it's harder to ignore that most of the back of the jet is just his exposed robo-taint, and that unfolding the front of his thighs seems less about creating something visually interesting for the jet and more to get them out of the way so that his legs can tuck in a bit tighter. Megatron's cannon isn't necessary for jet mode. I think they missed a trick here by not allowing it to attach to the upper rear portion, like part of an engine. Instead, you're given two options by the instructions. The first is what you'll get if you want to leave the cannon attached to his arm through his transformation, and it simply leaves the cannon sitting between his arms under the jet's belly. Note that, unlike tank mode, the cannon is only attached to one arm, though. It doesn't help to add any solidity to his underbelly, which is a bummer since (like I just said a minute ago) his arm don't stay tabbed in very well in the first place. The alternative is to plug the cannon into one of the 5mm ports on his back, now on top of the jet. Which isn't at all aerodynamic. Worse, it's off-center! Plus, partsforming, since you have to remove the cannon from his arm and relocate it onto his back for this configuration whereas it just stayed on his arm to sit mostly-centered on the underside of the jet (which still isn't aerodynamic, but with his arms down there that ship sailed). My initial feeling was to be a bit disappointed with Megatron. I mean, Santalucia's art looks so sleek and cool, but the toy's tank mode is kind of half-arsed and dumpy and his jet mode is even worse. (Image courtesy of Hasbro designer Sam Smith) But I keep coming back to the robot... as best I can tell Megatron's robot mode is far more accurate than most Studio Series figures. The paint is good, the articulation is great, and there's almost zero kibble visible on him. The jet mode is crap, but the tank is passable enough (and if you google fan modes you'll even find a gun mode) that overall I think he's worth a look, especially if you just want a good Megatron to pose in a display. But more than that, it got me thinking. On another board I've advocated for a potential (inevitable?) Studio Series 86 Megatron to abandon the pretense of a good Earth tank mode, to simply have the best bot mode possible- Sunbow as possible with the hammers on the shoulders, gun barrel on his back, etc, no visible tank kibble)- with an Earthrise Quintesson-level bullcrap alt mode. Just include an accessory that looks like Megatron's gun mode with a 5mm handle that Starscream or Soundwave can hold, and I'll be happy. And really, that's almost exactly what they did here. In other words, you can take most the base engineering from this figure, retool the parts to be Sunbow G1 Megatron, reduce the parts count of the fusion cannon to save budget for the back gun barrel and the gun mode accessory, and this is pretty much exactly what I want from a SS86 Megatron.

Entertainment Earth has this posted about a Hasbro release on Tuesday the 27th at 1:00pm ET/10:00am PT: Nothing definitive, but signs point to it being that five-pack of Autobots I told you guys about awhile ago, with Hound, Trailbreaker, Sunstreaker, Wheeljack, and Jazz. From what we've seen of leaks of Trailbreaker and Wheeljack expect more Sunbow-esque decos of the existing Earthrise/Studio Series 86 toys, with painted blue windows instead of translucent plastic. Hound is the previously Target-exclusive Siege retool we first saw over a year ago, but if you forgot think Legacy Detritus in Sunbow Hound colors. Meanwhile, the next wave of Legacy United has almost entirely been revealed through unofficial channels, along with a few Studio Series leaks. It's not clear why Hasbro's been sitting on this stuff, as the toys have all been in port in the US for awhile now and more collector-focused retailers have been pretty eager to start selling it. I want to say that maybe Hasbro was trying to give the big box stores time to put out the first wave, but if my Target's anything to go by they're apparently content to not restock until those last few Legacy Crosscuts and Bumblebee movie Arcees sell finally sell. Regardless, when pressed about it on Instagram, Bmac said that Hasbro will be having weekly fan streams celebrating Transformers' 40th anniversary in March, and wave 2 of Legacy United will go up for preorder sometime in March after one of the streams. Which is cutting it kind of close, since that wave is supposed to be out in April.

That's... really not ideal. Google stops supporting older versions of Android. Like, I think you have to have at least Android 5.0 to even run GApps (including the Play Store and Google Play Books), and Android 11 is the oldest version that Google still supports with security updates. Basically all e-ink Android readers and tablets are on the edge of obsolescence.

Which would be cool... if they put in a better display, faster CPU, or moved on from Android 11. AFAIK the only difference between the Leaf 2 and the Page is 1GB of RAM.

I have a Boox e-reader, the Leaf 2 (I hear it's been replaced by the Page now, though). It's a black-and-white e-ink display. I bought it because I never got into the Kindle ecosystem. Instead I'd collected a lot of epub files that either didn't have copy protection, or that I used Calibre to strip the copy protection from. When I started I tried different Android apps to read epubs files, but eventually I realized that you could upload your own books to Google Play Books and that Google would sync your progress across devices. From that point on, I always wanted something like a Kindle or a Nook, but that could also run Google Play Books. Boox is one of the very few companies that make Android-based e-readers.

Not the most exciting thing ever, but the new wave of Earthspark Deluxes hit, and... First up we have Thrash, and... hmm. I know that, like Cyberverse before it, Earthspark Deluxes do not get the same budget allocation that Legacy or Studio Series Deluxes do, but this feels like a case of one step forward, one step back. Like, cool, they added some details to the tops of his feet... but his lower legs and feet lost all the aqua color apps. Oh, but they did give him aqua hands... but he lost the paint on the pipes on his thighs. Still, I think the lighter gray, the bluer aqua, and the more coppery paint on his hips and goggles are more accurate than the colors used on the Warrior-class toy, and I'd argue the proportions are a bit better as well... but why'd we actually lose details in the abdomen? Looking at him from the sides and back the most immediate thing I noticed (aside from the missing aqua on his lower legs and feet) was that the Deluxe-class toy has painted rims on his wheels, which does help a lot. But that's followed up by realizing just how similar these figures actually are. Both have the seat folded onto the back, with a hollow side facing outward. Both have hollow gaps under the forearms as well. Well, at least the Deluxe-class toy has different accessories. We do have his signature shield... which I suppose isn't that different than the Warrior-class after all. Actually, there's a major difference- this one is flatter and more cartoon-accurate. The trade off, though, is that it doesn't transform anymore. Well, at least you get a small blaster, too. That said, Thrash is the first of the Earthspark Deluxes not to include any build-a-figure parts (good riddance). Ok, articulation is actually improved. Deluxe-class Thrash's head got upgraded from a swivel to a ball joint, which lets him look down a bit and tilt his head sideways but he still can't look up. His shoulders are ball joints that swivel and move laterally almost 90 degrees. He still has a ball joint for a thigh swivel, but he's actually got a dedicated elbow hinge that bends 90 degrees, plus this time he's got wrist swivels. His waist swivels, and his hips are still ball joints and they can go 90 degrees forward and laterally, and nearly that much backward. They've given him thigh swivels, but due to the wheels in his calves having fenders now his knee bends are limited to about 45 degrees, unfortunately. Still, unlike the Warrior-class toy, this Thrash has ankle swivels and 90 degrees of ankle pivot. Thrash can hold his blaster in either hand, and there are 5mm ports on either forearm that you can plug his shield into. If you want to store his accessories, you can plug the shield into a 5mm port on his back, then plug his blaster into a port on the shield. There's also a port under the shield... I can't help but notice that if you plug it in there so the back is pointed out it looks like the front of his sidecar. And there flared ends around it almost look like they could fold around it. I wonder if a transforming shield was considered at some point, but cut for budget reasons. If you have the Warrior-class toy, a lot of Thrash's transformation is going to be pretty familiar. By and large, you're still making him do the splits, then turn his toes so they're pointing down, then bending the wrong way at the knees so his feet meet in the middle and his wheels are deployed. Then you still turn him 90 degrees at the waist, lift his chest up over his head, fold his back down to make the bike's seat, then folding his torso over and tucking his arms in to make the front of the bike. There's just a bit of added complexity, and most of it is unfolding his feet to help fill out the sides of the bike, and using the ball joint and elbow hinges in his arms to tuck them in a bit more. There's a few more spots where things lock into each other, and don't be surprised if his kickstand falls off, as it's just pegged on. It's... ok. The arms are still visible, but they're not so blatantly laying along side the top of the bike, and the feet really do help fill in the bottom. The painted rims and additional fenders are a welcome improvement as well. I can't help but notice that his head is still visible through the cutouts for the shoulders, though, and the lack of a sidecar hurts his alt mode accuracy. Instead of turning into a sidecar, his shield plugs into a 5mm port on the back of the seat, and his gun plugs into the shield. All-in-all, Deluxe-class Thrash borrows heavily from the Warrior-class toy and still has issues like no sidecar and missing paint apps. The colors, proportions, and articulation, plus the more filled-out bike mode, do make the Deluxe the better figure overall, and if you're looking to add a Thrash to your collection this is the one to get, but it's not the slam dunk upgrade I was hoping for. I'd go so far as to say that if you already bought the Warrior-class figure and you're happy with it you can probably skip the Deluxe. I shouldn't be surprised, though. Hasbro clearly isn't investing too heavily on Earthspark toys. This is, what, the ninth Deluxe in the Earthspark line, but only the fifth new mold (after Bumblebee, Megatron, Twitch, and Nightshade, with Optimus and Grimlock being retools from Cyberverse and Starscream and Shockwave being straight up repaints). And the tenth Earthspark Deluxe? Well, that'd be Prowl! I mean, why do Elita-1, Arcee, Swindle, Skullcruncher, Wheeljack, Soundwave, Frenzy, Breakdown, Laserbeak, Ravage, Skywarp, or Nova Storm just because they were characters that were actually in the show? Doing Prowl, who was NOT in Earthspark (aside from a G1-style flashback) means that you can simply repaint a Cyberverse toy and no one can even point out how inaccurate it is they way we did with Starscream. The weird thing, though, is that while there is a Cyberverse Prowl, Hasbro instead chose to repaint Cyberverse Hot Rod instead. No mold changes, just a new vaguely Prowlish deco. And who's to say it's wrong? If he wasn't in the cartoon, it's not like we have any other reference to go by... ...I mean, aside from this picture on the box. And... well, that doesn't look anything like the toy inside the box. That actually looks a lot like they should have repainted Cyberverse Prowl instead. Cyberverse Prowl isn't simply closer to this box art than Hot Rod, it's really not that far off at all. They both have the bigger crest, hood chest, textured forearms, and triangle belt buckle, pointy hip skirts, and two-layered thighs. Swap the dark blue paint for black, add a little paint to the chin, tweak the colors on the thighs, and add a little orange to the running lights on his chest and you'd be pretty close. I mean, they didn't even give Prowl different accessories. He's still just got the flame effects that came with Hot Rod. Then there's the alt mode. The blue and white doesn't look bad at all, but it's clearly not a police car. They had to paint some red and blue lines in the hood scoop to even pretend that this mold has a lightbar. I'll say this... Hot Rod looks better in blue and white than I'd have thought, but Hot Rod was also one of the worst of the Cyberverse Deluxe molds. It kills me that Hasbro used it for Prowl when Prowl already had a Cyberverse toy they could have repainted that was one of the very best of the Cyberverse Deluxes and it would have been a lot more accurate to their own box art. Had Hasbro used the Prowl mold I might have noted that he wasn't actually in Earthspark, but that it's a good figure anyway and I might have encouraged you to buy it. But with the Hot Rod mold, I'm left scratching my head wondering why we got a repaint of a crappy toy that looks nothing like the box art for a character that wasn't even in the show, when there were plenty of other characters that were in the show that don't have Deluxes. Heck, I only rattled off the Autobots and Decepticons earlier. Arguably, the main characters in Earthspark are neither Autobots nor Decepticons, it's the five Terrans. Among them Thrash was only the third to receive a Deluxe, leaving Jawbreaker and Hashtag still out in the cold. Hashtag is especially a sore spot; Jawbreaker at least has a Warrior-class figure you can make due with, much as I was making due with Warrior-class Thrash until the Deluxe came along. The only toy for Hashtag is a Tacticon- basically a glorified finger puppet. Realistically, even subbing in Warrior-class figures, you cannot complete the Terrans... but a repaint of Hot Rod as guy who wasn't even in the show makes the cut. There's no reason to waste money on this figure. Since RiD '15 the slightly cheaper, slightly simpler Warrior-class toys have been the staples for Hasbro's more-kid focused cartoon lines. The handful of Deluxes produced for Cyberverse didn't get the budgets Deluxes in other lines got but were still mostly decent figures that were a bit more appealing to adult collectors than the Warriors. Despite a strong initial showing with three new molds (Megatron, Twitch, and Bumblebee) subsequent releases have shown turned the Earthspark Deluxes from the best versions of the new characters to exploitative cash grabs for a show that, frankly, wasn't even all that good (I finally finished watching it with my daughter). It makes me want to retroactively change my review recommendations for the previous nine Deluxes- don't buy any of them. Earthspark and the half-arsed Deluxe toys accompanying it aren't worth your time or money.

To be fair, the ROG Ally had some iffy performance at times and has been very much optimized by Asus over the last 10 months, which is why the Lenovo Legion Go (which runs on the same APU) often has worse performance. That said, the Legion Go's worse performance has been within a few FPS, not the 30-40% gap that the Claw is seeing. I'm sure Intel will optimize it further... Arc was a mess when it launched, and now it's... passable, at least for the price. And I'm sure that the Core 7 Ultra 155H is probably better for CPU-intensive tasks than the Ryzen Z1 Extreme. But who's going to buy these things for CPU tasks? As you've noted, Intel's performance has often come at the cost of power consumption, which is only going to hurt the battery life, and Intel just doesn't have the experience AMD does on the GPU side. I get MSI wanting to do something to set the Claw apart from the Legion Go and the ROG Ally (and, technically, the Steam Deck and the myriad of Ayaneo devices), but relying on Intel for a gaming APU was shooting themselves in the foot before they even released it.

Would have preferred the X-Men arcade beat-em up over a SNES game, but I get that it's a licensing thing (Capcom developed the SNES game before all the arcade fighters, and Konomi developed the '92 arcade game).

Speaking just for myself, it's because I don't necessarily see "looks like a Gundam as inherently bad. I mean, I've heard it said about Star Saber enough, and I like Star Saber just fine. And Fire Convoy/RiD Prime is one of my favorite non-G1 Optimus designs precisely because he's got that Japanese super robot aesthetic. My beef is that, among the multitude of Gundam designs out there Strike Freedom is one of my absolute least favorite designs from one of my least favorite Gundam shows (and the weird part is that I'm actually a fan of vanilla Freedom, go figure), and FT's Megatron isn't inspired by it as much as it copied it wholesale and changed just enough to pass it off as a Transformer instead. Getting off topic, but I miss when NECA had the Godzilla license and wish that Toho would have let them do other monsters. Sure, they weren't even as nice as SHMA, but the 2-3x better quality was rarely commensurate with the 4-5x price increase. Conversely, they were way better than the crap Playmates is putting out, and not much more money.

Huh. Kinda prefer the old one. It has more of a penciled look. The new one looks like too much work was done on computers, and winds up kind of cartoony. Speaking of cartoons... really looking forward to the X-Men '97 cartoon on Disney+. As a kid and teenager I loved the X-Men, and I consider the period from the mid '80s to the late '90s to be peak X-Men. Things started going downhill around Onslaught, but I stuck it out for awhile (and I did enjoy a few stories like House of M), but X-Men and related books became basically unreadable to me since Messiah Complex.

Starscream's pretty interesting; mostly G1, but with a touch of Cybertron. Magnus seems to be late IDW Roberts and Milne, I can definitely get behind that. I kind of hate that SG Megatron, though. Wasn't really a fan of them adding the wings to Don Figueroa's design in the first place, but in white it really puts the SEED influence in your face. And for those who prefer transforming toys, I saw that the company that turned Flame Toys' Drift into the car from Cyber Formula came up with a transforming design for Flame Toys' Optimus. I might have to check it out.

I put him on a small table next to the Omega Prime I opened the other day. Now if I could just find boxed Energon and Cybertron Primes... (Technically I do have those molds, but my Energon one is the Platinum Edition Year of the Snake version, and my Cybertron one is Galaxy Force version that replaced all the blue plastic with black)

Speaking of Optimus, I am the scourge of sealed-in-box toys, since I got and opened this guy today.

Technically, it Prime and Magnus. 😜 And yet, there were plenty of people who argued right up until the last minute that it was going to fail, that Haslabs should only be G1 stuff, that RiD 2001 was a flop, and that the initial surge was the few RiD fans jumping on it but there wouldn't be enough to carry it over the line, and that Hasbro should have done Primus instead. Yeah... I dunno about that last one. I mean, do you do Primus the Marvel G1 version, who was never seen in robot mode? Dreamwave Primus, who appeared in a sourcebook but not the comics? Cybertron Primus, who isn't G1 but at least appeared in a cartoon (and whose original toy shelfwarmed hard back in the day)? I mean, Unicron had to have more demand than Primus, and Unicron needed an extension to get funded. I didn't even back that one- $600 was too rich for my blood. No chance I was buying Primus. I'm not exactly a fan of any of the Japanese-made shows be it the ones that stayed in Japan like Victory or the ones that made it to the States like Car Robots/Robots In Disguise. But I am a fan of cool robots. Victory Saber, Deathsaurus, and Omega Prime (well, really more RiD Optimus alone) all fit that bill for me. Now the hard part begins.

Unicron wouldn't have gotten funded without an extension. Victory Saber and Deathsaurus took about a month to hit their minimum backers. It took Omega Prime ten days.😁

Kind of a weird one today. I got one new figure I should review, but it's going to come with reviews for two other ones that I never bothered with. So this is Studio Series Rise of the Beasts Deluxe-class Scorponok, along with Buzzworthy Bumblebee Weaponizer Scorponok and Rise of the Beasts Battle Master Airazor. Let's start with the Scorponoks. They're both verry different in design. Which is more accurate? Well, I'm 99% sure that, like Airazor, Scorponok didn't appear in bot mode in the movie. If I had to guess, the Studio Series toy might be based on some kind of concept art, but I have no idea about the Weaponizer, especially given that its head seems to be based on fan art for a Revenge of the Fallen Dead End. Oh, and of the many robot scorpions we saw in that big final battle, most of them were actually red, but here we have one blue/purple and one green/brown. What's going on here? Well, turns out the concept art for ROTB featured three named scorpions- one red, one blue, and one green. The green one is supposed to be Scorponok. The blue one is supposed to be Double Punch, and the red one is supposed to be Sandstorm. Which is going to get awkward at some point, because I have it on authority that the Studio Series figure will be repainted at least one in either red or green. Not sure what else to say about their designs. Both have a bunch of legs stuck on them, but the Studio Series wears his on his back while the Weaponizer has them on his calves. The Weaponizer also has more hollow gaps on his butt and the undersides of his arms. As far as accessories go, Studio Series Scorponok just has this "weapon" that's clearly his scorpion tail. Meanwhile, Weaponizer Scorponok has a sword of sword-ish weapon, plus his Battle Master partner, a scorpion named Sand Spear. I choose to ignore the Sand Spear name, though. To me, he's also Scorponok. And speaking of Battle Masters, I did say I was going to cover Airazor, too. And, yep, she's still a bird. So, on to articulation. SS Scorponok has his head on a hinged ball joint that gives him very limited ability to look down, but he can look straight up. He's got plenty of sideways tilt as his head spins on the ball joint, but he can't really turn his head sideways. His shoulders are also ball joints, but they kind of suck because the balls are in his chest. So, his shoulders rotate, no problem, but lateral movement is limited to about 45 degrees and then only when his arms are at his sides- no lateral movement if he raises his arms. His biceps swivel, and his elbows are double-jointed so they can curl 180 degrees. His wrists are ball joints so they swivel but they also have some in and out wiggle, and the ball is cut so that that he can bend his hands up 90 degrees. He has a limited waist swivel, and ball-jointed hips that can do 90 degrees forward or laterally but only 30-40 degrees backward. His thighs swivel, and his knees bend 90 degrees. The purple part of his foot is on a ball joint, so it can swivel a little, tilt up and down a little, and pivot about 45 degrees. His weapon uses a hinged 5mm peg to plug into a 5mm port on the inside of either forearm, with his hand kind of meshing into the back side. ' As for the Weaponizer Scorponok, his head is on a swivel, but lacks any sort of tilt. His shoulders are ball joints, with the balls correctly in the shoulders and the stems in the chest, that can freely rotate and move laterally 90 degrees. His elbows are also ball joints, bending 90 degrees and pulling double-duty as bicep swivels. No wrist or hand articulation, and no waist swivel. His hips are also ball joints, moving 90 degrees forward and backward and about 60 degrees laterally. He lacks dedicated thigh swivels, but his ball-jointed knees swivel in addition to bending 90 degrees. He doesn't have any foot or ankle articulation. Scorponok's sword plugs into the 5mm port that's on either of his fists. As for Sand Spear, you straighten his tail, flip the gun on the end of it into a blade, tuck his claws up under his legs, and fold a 5mm port out of his face to turn him into a bladed weapon. Which again brings us to Airazor. Unlike the other Battle Masters, Airazor kind of has two alt modes. First, straighten her wings, then unplug her tail from the barrel in her back. Flip her entire back over and unfold the 5mm peg from behind her head. Then you just tuck her legs against her body and flip her tail around to hide her face, and she becomes a sort of crossbow gun. Alternatively, use the ball joints in her wings to swivel them forward and bend them up so that they tab into each other. Then, take the rest of her body (as it is for gun mode) and swivel it up so that a pair of tabs under her tail plug into the underside of the wings, and she becomes a kind of shield thingy. Given that we only saw robot scorpions in the movie, it shouldn't surprise you that both Scorponoks turn into scorpions. The Weapoonizer is pretty simple. His shoulder pads fold against his biceps, and his arms rotate to become his scorpion claws. A flap on his back folds over his head to provide the scorpion face. The bug legs on his calves fold out, and then his hips and knees bend so that they plug into the hollow gap on his back revealed when you flipped the flap. Lastly, his sword plugs into a port created by locking his knees together, with hinges at the base and tip allowing it to mostly pose as a tail. Meanwhile, the Studio Series toy is a bit more complicated. His head hinges upward to remain his alt mode head, and his arms swivel and curl so that his hands tab into the sides of his shoulders. Then, his whole chest opens up. This first allows his sides to swing out on hinged armatures to complete the change into his scorpion claws, but it also allows his pelvis to double hinge up and into his chest cavity. His shins unfold while tabs near his knees lock the legs in place inside his torso before closing his chest back up. His open shins swivel on ball joints, then tab back together to form his rear-most scorpion legs. The other four legs fold down from his back, with the front pair swiveling into place. Like the Weaponizer, his weapon plugs into his scorpion butt to form a tail. Aesthetically, the Studio Series toy's claws aren't very pinchy, and the Weaponizer has a more scorpion-esque face. I think the rear legs are kind of weird on the Studio Series toy, too, but at least he's got a nice, flat back. If I have to be honest, the Studio Series toy is clearly the superior scorpion mode on the whole. Although it's improved aesthetically, it's not doing a whole lot better in the articulation department. The Studio Series figure has some head articulation... that real scorpions don't. His six legs have more articulation that the Weaponizer, but there's really only one "right" position where he can sit with all six feet on the ground. Weaponizer Scorponok's claws enjoy the same bot-mode articulation that four ball joints provide them. Meanwhile, the Studio Series toy has two hinges and a ball joint on each claw, but they're all more or less for in-out movement. I guess the one real advantage that the Studio Series toy has is the tail. The Weaponizer just has the hinges at the base and tip, so it's mostly straight. The Studio Series toy has a total of four hinges and a more natural curl to work with. If we're just talking about which Scorponok best completes your Rise of the Beasts cast on your shelf, then its obviously the Studio Series one, though I say that with the caveat that it's probably not one of the better Studio Series figures to come from the movie. But... ...if you want a Battle Master version of Scorponok (hence me rejection of the whole "Sand Spear" thing), then the only way to get him is to buy the Weaponizer version of Scorponok. Which, honestly, isn't necessarily the worst thing, since A.) he's one of the better Weaponizers in the line, and B.) Scorponok is a character primed for troop-building anyway. Airazor, meanwhile, is a bit harder to find since most stores are still clogged with the first round of Battle Masters, but if you can get one she's definitely up there with Optimus Primal as one of the best in the line. So I say it's worth picking up all three figures in today's review. That way, assuming you've picked up the other Maximals and Battle Masters, you can have Studio Series versions of all five beast characters from Rise of the Beasts wielding themselves. That's so awesome that I want Hasbro to stop doing beast Battle Masters and give me Battle Master versions of the Autobots and Terrorcons.