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mikeszekely

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  1. mikeszekely
    So the gist would be something like, "not a AAA game, but a decent shooter made by fans of the IP for fans of the IP." Which is pretty much how I'd describe Terminator: Resistance, too, and I really liked that game. And I'm more of a Robocop fan than a Terminator fan, so it sounds like I should have a good time with it.😁
  2. mikeszekely
    TFSafari. Look for "Cybertron Commander". It was actually $23, but I cashed in points for $3 off. Either way, cheaper than a Hasbro Voyager, so yeah. Probably worth rolling the dice on it.
  3. mikeszekely
    I had just ordered one of those. I'll post a full review once it arrives. Despite the silver sun visors and the extra gear on the bumper it's apparently based on another toy that was supposed to be Bumblebee Prime. If the bumper kit is removable (which I believe it is) I might add a bit of paint and use this as a replacement for SS38 instead of SS102, as 38’s not looking so hot these days and my gripes with 102 should be fixed with DNA's upgrade kit.
  4. mikeszekely
    Anyone tried the new Robocop game yet? I need to finish the Phantom Liberty expansion for Cyberpunk 2077, but I'm planning on grabbing Robocop next.
  5. mikeszekely
    It looks good, especially with the cartoon chest, but not so good that I regret selling the three FT Aerialbots I bought or that I suddenly feel like replacing the Zeta Superion on my shelf. Frankly, I didn't think the three I bought were very good on their own, and FT is pricing themselves out of my collection.
  6. mikeszekely
    Looks like Deathsaurus is getting ready to ship. I got an email this evening telling me that I have until November 24th to make changes to my shipping address.
  7. mikeszekely
    Just a reminder that the new Studio Series figures went up for preorder today. All but Scrapheap are still available on Pulse, I preordered the whole lot on Amazon.
  8. mikeszekely
    Ok, so here's a look at those two figures, who will be sold as a two-pack. The line will also have a two-pack of Optimus Prime and Soundwave. Nothing on Soundwave yet, but this is apparently the Optimus: Expect an announcement from Hasbro soon, like mid-November.
  9. mikeszekely
    The new Studio Series reveals at MCM Comicon were exactly what I said they'd be, but it's nice to actually see them. I'll try to post pics later when people aren't just sniping blurry photos from Twitter, but here's my initial thoughts: Mohawk: Decent Core-class motorcycle bot, but the robot is typical Bayverse. Rumble: bot mode is OK-ish, alt mode is just a cube. Wheeljack: his chest is a little more accurate, but it doesn't look like a big improvement over the mainline deluxe. Details like the lights on his thighs are still unpainted. Scorponok: Can't really complain, since we don't have a good figure for him yet. Scrapheap: Probably my favorite reveal. Sure, it's another Junkion retool of SS86 Wreck-Gar, but he's a pretty extensive retool that, combined with the bright yellow, will make him stand out from Junkyard/heap. Starscream: The colors look more accurate, and the jet mode seems to have proportions close to the CAD model than the older Deluxe, but yeah that canopy is huge and the wings look kind of tiny. I'm more curious to get it up against Planet X's than the old Deluxe. Megatron: I like the robot and tank modes just fine. The jet mode looks like an afterthought. Preorders don't up until 1:00pm EDT on Halloween, and they're scheduled for February. I think I'm in for all of it; the least interesting stuff is the Core-class stuff, but Core-class figures are cheap enough to say screw it and get them anyway.
  10. mikeszekely
    I gave my initial impressions of it a couple posts ago. I haven't done any multiplayer at all, but I'm close to completing the career mode. I just have Prototype Power and the showcase left of the featured Track Tour, the Pony Car Showdown, C8 Tour, and showcase from the Power Tour, and the B, A, S, and showcase from the Open Class Tour. I've just been playing here and there, it hasn't been my "main" game.
  11. mikeszekely
    Just finished Spider-Man 2. And by finished, I mean got the platinum trophy 100% done finished. On the one hand, it's a very good game. The combat and web swinging is as acrobatic and fluid as ever. The story is well-written, even if it borrows a bit more heavily from recent comics than SM1 or Miles did, and the voice acting is top notch, with Yuri Lowenthal bringing an even greater range to Peter Parker than the previous games. Despite being arguably the "main" Spider-Man the game does give Miles an arc that really lets him grow as both a character and a Spider-Man. While main missions and some activities are locked to a particular Spider-Man, for the most part you can switch freely between them when not currently in a mission, and there's some pretty cool touches in the game, like how if you drop into a random street crime activity there's a chance that you'll run into whichever Spider-Man you weren't currently playing as. The game's map has expanded a bit beyond Manhattan island, and the new web wings allow for gliding that makes traversal (especially over the rivers) a bit more fluid. On the other hand, Spider-Man 2 is either a step backward in some ways, or doesn't fix issues I had with the previous Spider-Man. Spider-Man 2 seems like a shorter game than the first Spider-Man (longer than Miles, but Miles was only $40, not $70). I think a big part of that is that there's less to do in this game's New York. There's a few side missions with some actual story (one of which is pretty touching, if you remember some of the more minor characters from SM1), but less of everything else. And as far as the everything else goes, a lot of it comes down to punching guys. There's less stealth, fewer collectibles, etc. Even the activities that replace the Taskmaster/Screwball challenges from SM1 are fewer and basically all beating people up under certain conditions. There's a ton of suits for both Spider-Men in the game, but while (I think) all of Miles' carried over not all of Peter's did. This might not bother me so much, but basically every suit that was in a movie (both Amazing suits, the stealth suit from Far From Home, the Homemade suit from Homecoming, etc) made it, along with some (often not very good) Insomniac original designs, but some of my favorite comic book suits from the previous game didn't. No Future Foundation, no Big Time stealth suit, no Spider Armor (1, 2, 3, or 4), no Scarlet Spider II (Kaine), no Electro-proof Spidey, no Last Stand suit, no Bag Man, and worst of all (to me), no Spider-Man 2099 2 suit. And they brought back Mary Jane missions. The worse one is late in the game, where in a cutscene they come up with a plan where Peter will go fight one big bad guy, Miles will get into a brawl with a bunch of littler baddies, while MJ goes and grabs a MacGuffin. After the cutscene, guess which epic Spidey battle you get to play... if you were paying attention, you'd know the answer is neither! The cool stuff happens offscreen while you lead MJ to the MacGuffin. I don't really know what kind of point I'm trying to make. If you have a PlayStation and like the first two Spidey games then you'll have a good time with it. But, especially in a year with as many awesome games as this one, it's not really GOTY, either.
  12. mikeszekely
    I preordered Magmatron and Code Red. I have no attachment to Magmatron, but he's such a weird concept. Plus, if they do eventually do Big Convoy I'll want Magmatron to fight him, so... yeah. I'll be getting Silverbolt, too, eventually, but aside from the second Deluxe-class rock dude he might be the figure I'm least interested in from that second wave. Spoilers, one of those G1 minibots you're waiting for is coming, as well as a G1 Targetmaster and a G1 triplechanger. I mean, I want that, but it's not on the regular release schedule. No, it's Armada Tidal Wave. He's featured in the artwork from Pulsecon. I know some fans are a bit upset that he's "too big" (and may very well be, based on Armada's scaling), but parts of him will still be able to come off and attach to Megatron/Galvatron, and as someone who has fond memories of the PS2 game I'm very down for Tidal Wave being huge. In Studio Series? Wouldn't they have had to appear is some form of Transformers media? Hate to burst your bubble, but I wouldn't count seeing any of that tomorrow. If they reveal the whole first wave, it should be: Don't lose heart, though. That's just wave 1, currently scheduled for February. Wave 2, hitting in April, should have 86 Swoop.
  13. mikeszekely
    Finally, the Transformers part of 10/27 started (preorders are at 5:00pm EDT for Pulse Premium members, 6:00 for everyone else). And they're coming out swinging, with Commander-class Magmatron. It's interesting that they're not only investing the Commander slot for the year on a Japanese-only series, but that they're saying that they're specifically going for cartoon over toy colors. Hopefully we'll get a Big Convoy to go with him. Voyager (Beast Wars) Silverbolt. Takara leaked it as Wave 1 for Legacy Unite in Japan, but they're confirming what I told you guys awhile back, it'll be wave 2 in the US. Don't expect preorders for Silverbolt until Hasbro reveals the rest of wave 2, they just wanted to confirm that you don't have to import the Takara one. Stranger Things X Transformers Code Red. This one was revealed awhile ago and I kind of forgot about it. Limited quantities at Pulse, it's actually destined to be a Target exclusive. Comes in a pizza box. The Studio Series announcements won't be coming until tomorrow at MCM Comicon.
  14. mikeszekely
    It's a licensed car, too, though I guess not too many people here will be familiar with Guangzhou Automobile Group Motor Co (GAC), or in this case their subsidiary Trumpchi. Last time I was over there, GAC was one of the domestic brands I saw a lot of, along with BYD, Changan, BAIC, and Wuling, but at that time imports were much more common. I haven't been there since before then pandemic, but I've heard that electric cars are more popular there now. Tesla is apparently super popular there, but domestic brands like BYD, Xpeng, and Nio that got in on electrification early have enjoyed a surge. Anyway, that one there would be the Empow, a 168HP turbocharged i4 sedan. It's designed to appear kind of sporty yet practical... kind of like a Nissan Maxima or a Kia Stinger, but with way less actual performance. I have no idea how well the Empow sells in China, but I've heard they're kind of popular in the Philippines. Well, enough about that. For the toy, quite frankly, I think it's impressive as heck that they managed to get a licensed car that looks that good to turn into a Shenyang J-11 (a Chinese KO of a Su-27), even with the visible kibble on the belly, and a third cat mode on top of it.
  15. mikeszekely
  16. mikeszekely
    Well, let's see... Alec Guinness was older, but no worse than Katiee Sackhoff as Bo-Katan. Sources say Obi-Wan was born in 57 BBY, and Guinness was 63 when A New Hope came out. Meanwhile, the Obi-Wan show was supposed to be 9 BBY, so Obi-Wan would have been 48. Ewan McGregor (who, fun fact, is married to the actress that played Hera in Ahsoka) was 51 when it hit Disney+. We can work backward, too. Obi-Wan was 38 at the end of the Clone Wars, and Ewan was 34 at the time of Revenge of the Sith. Obi-Wan was 35 at the start of the Clone Wars, Ewan was 31 when Attack of the Clones premiered. Obi-Wan was 25 when he killed Darth Maul, Ewan was 28 when The Phantom Menace came out.
  17. mikeszekely
    Bo-Katan's a trickier one, since we don't have a stated birth year for her. All we can say is that she was an adult when her sister died in 19 BBY. We don't even know for sure if she's Satine's younger sister or older sister (although younger seems like the safe bet). She appeared to be older than Ahsoka, at least. Assuming Bo-Katan was 21 in 19 BBY, she'd be 49 in 9 ABY, or early 50s if The Mandalorian is a little further along the timeline than Ahsoka). Katee Sackhoff is 43 IRL, a little younger than Rosario Dawson and definitely a 5-10 years younger than her character. I don't know that's a significant enough difference that she should absolutely look older, but I can at least see the argument for it there.
  18. mikeszekely
    Time for a quick, likely final for the year, Repaint Roundup. Up first we have Core-class Novakane, who's a slight repaint of Freezer with a barely altered head. It's hard to tell in photos, but the dark gray plastic is basically the same, while the lighter gray plastic is a slightly lighter shade on Novakane. Likewise, the painted rust on Novakane is more of a gold color, while Freezer had more of a copper color. The main difference is their head. Novakane is missing part of his left antenna, and has a black scar over his left eyes, while Freezer has a "normal" head. Fun fact, now that the movie's been out and have more info about development available, I can tell you that these guys are supposed to be Sweeps. Yeah, Scourge gets an upgrade via Robots In Disguise for ROTB, but his Sweeps get the shaft. What's more, there was a generic Sweep model that was supposed to be used for the swarms of them in the film, but Novakane and Freezer were both named; Novakane was missing an antenna, and Freezer had two scars. The animators used all three models interchangeably, and IIRC none of them were called out by name in the movie, so here we are. Anyway, Novakane has the same two "cover the head with the backpack and twist the arms around until they can lock into each other" alt modes as Freezer. Honestly, Freezer was kind of crappy, and Novakane is no better (aside from having noticeably tighter ball joints, go figure). If you're building a nice ROTB shelf and really want variants of the mold, cool I guess, but honestly I don't think either are worth picking up. While that concludes the live action Studio Series stuff for the year, we've got some 86 left, starting with Core-class Frenzy (Red). Frenzy (Red) is a straight redeco of Rumble (Blue), which means he has the same improvements over his Siege Micromaster version; slightly taller, improved proportions, more accurate deco, and accessories. Accessories, of course, being the removable back guns and the pile drivers. But being a straight redeco means he also has the same issues I had with Rumble (Blue). Aside from the ball joints at the shoulders, his arms have no articulation- no biceps, no elbows, no wrists. His fists also do not have peg holes, so while you can remove his back guns and even peg them into his forearms, he can't hold them in his hands. The lack of fist holes isn't a dealbreaker, but as cheap as Core-class is I'd have still liked working elbows. Alt mode has more paint on the front side, to sort of pass as a cassette, and his head is better hidden on the back, which is cool. But he's designed to be the same size as the Siege Micromasters, so he can still fit into Siege Soundwave's chest. Frenzy (Red) is definitely a necessity for the Rumble (Red) crowd. Beyond that, I mean, his is improved over the Siege Micromaster, but the changes in deco are less significant than Rumble (Blue)'s, and his vastly reduced screen time in the cartoon vs Rumble (Blue) makes him feel like less of a necessity. If you don't have a Frenzy in your collection SS86 Frenzy (Red) is the one to get, but if you already have the Micromaster you'll have to decide if that's good enough or you need to upgrade. Finally, we have Voyager-class Ratchet. He's exactly what we've expected since Voyager Ironhide released; Ironhide, with a new head. He's even got the same pair of pistols, which is fine because that's actually movie-accurate for him. But it'd be cool if he had some doctor tools. Happily, we've got red on the hands and pelvis without me having to bust out the paints. This being a Hasbro toy in the era of a highly litigious Red Cross, we've got an even less infringing variant of the symbol we saw on MP Ratchet. And speaking of his head, I like that it's not just Ironhide's but with the mohawk swapped for a crest. Their faces are quite different in ways that reflect their personalities; Ironhide's got narrow eyes and a stern face like he's ready for a fight, while Ratchet's got bigger eyes and a softer face that give him a less angry, more caring expression. Ratchet's alt mode is the same as Ironhide's, which means we get the same great all-in-one transformation and rims you don't have to paint yourself... but we get the same odd lack of alt mode deco, as if the Voyager budget ran out at that point. No stripe on the side, no little red cross on the skirt, and weirdly they didn't even paint the rear bumper this time. Looks like there's a Reprolabels set in my future... Ratchet has the same under-the-van storage for his pistols that Ironhide did, but you sort of can't store them on the roof the way Ironhide could. That's because those tabs, as speculated, are the mounting point for Ratchet's lightbar. I know there was more than a few people who complained that SS86 Ironhide was a Voyager that was the same size as his previous Deluxe release, but c'mon. The new Voyagers are huge upgrades that do away with the partsforming roof (and the need for aftermarket feet to fix the rear of the van). They've got better decos (in bot mode) and better proportions. So as with Ironhide I strongly recommend picking up Ratchet.
  19. mikeszekely
    Than who, specifically? I mean, Rosario Dawson is actually 44 IRL, 15 years older than Natashia Liu Bordizzo (29). AFAIK, Ahsoka was born in 36 BBY, and Ahsoka takes place around 9 ABY, so she'd be about 45. I think Sabine was born around 21 BBY, also a 15 year difference. Hera was born in 29 BBY and should be 38 during Ahsoka, and wouldn't you know it Mary Elizabeth Winstead is 38 IRL. Ezra's two years younger than Sabine, IRL Eman Esfandi is three years younger than Bordizzo. Quite honestly, the actors have almost exactly the right ages and age gaps for the characters they're playing.
  20. mikeszekely
    It's not even Halloween, but I was looking at my preorders and their release dates, and unless Legacy Unite starts hitting early this could be my last or second-to-last review of the year already. What I've got for you tonight is Studio Series Deluxe-class Nightbird. Not gonna lie, I'm a bit underwhelmed. I thought Prime, Primal, Cheetor, and Rhinox's mainline figures were decent enough, but across the board the Studio Series figures were noticeable improvements. ROTB Nightbird wasn't an amazing figure, but surely, I thought, her Studio Series figure would be an improvement, right? And yet, in a lot of ways the ROTB figure is more accurate. She doesn't have a gap in her chest. Her feet are closer to the CGI model. While she lacks most of her skirt armor, her pelvis is at least correct while the newer figure has a weird feathered look. Her calves have more of the gold color, and she's got her forearm claw. I guess at least the arms of the newer figure are more accurately colored. Of course, the ROTB figure had its share of issues, too, but what gets me is that the Studio Series figure doesn't really do anything to resolve them. The armor on her hips is still too large. She's still got a backpack that's made from the rear of the car folding up onto the roof, but now it's even messier. About the only thing the Studio Series figure did try to resolve is to give her wings, but I almost wish they hadn't as they're comically small, as if someone highlighted them in Photoshop and reduced them by 85-90%. Nightbird comes with a sword... and that's it. They took her forearm claw away (technically, if you look closely it's sort of molded on, but meh), and it's really a shame that the Studio Series release couldn't come with two swords like she had in the actual movie. Nightbird's articulation is familiar, if you already have the ROTB figure. Head's on a ball joint that has a swivel limited by her hood, and a little up/down/sideways tilt. Her shoulders are ball joints that can rotate and move 90 degrees laterally. Her biceps swivel and her elbows bend 90 degrees, but she lacks wrist articulation. Her waist swivels, but is limited by her back and hip kibble. Speaking of hips, they can go forward 90 degrees and backward nearly that much. For those keeping score at home, so far the articulation between the figures is identical. Studio Series Nightbird's hips can move laterally 90 degrees as well, her first and only victory over her mainline counterpart. Her thighs swivel, and her knees are kind of double-jointed for transformation and bend nearly 180 degrees combined. No up/down foot tilt, but due to how she transforms her ankles pivot 180 degrees... just like the mainline figure. Nightbird holds her sword just fine in either hand. In what is possibly her first definitive victory over the mainline ROTB figure, SS Nightbird has robot mode weapon storage. You can use a tab to store it on her back... kind of awkwardly, with the blade sticking far out to one side. A better option is to store it on her hip armor. I'll remind you that she has two hips and could have stored two swords like this. At the beginning of this review I talked about how the Studio Series versions of Prime, Primal, Rhinox, and Cheetor were improvements over their mainline ROTB figures. Whether you agree or disagree, you'll at least have to admit that they're very different, at least. Which brings me to what is, perhaps, Studio Series Nightbird's biggest issue; at it's core, it's actually the same figure as the ROTB one. Oh, sure, there are some differences in the engineering here; on the mainline figure a panel inside her chest folds up to cover the gap her head goes through when you lift her chest, while that some part of the hood and some of the nose is part of the backpack on the Studio Series figure. Speaking of the backpack, on the Studio Series toy the backpack rotates 180 degrees, and the wings have to tuck up under the tail. But that's the extent of the differences; the arms tuck in the same way, the rear window and tail fold off the backpack the same way, the feet fold up the same way and make the same rear wheel arear, the legs spin 180 degrees on both and fold up the same way, and the hip armor unfolds the make the doors and front fenders the same way. I'd be lying, though, if I tried to claim that the alt mode wasn't an improvement. Unlike the vaguely last-gen Pontiac GTO-ish unlicensed alt of the mainline figure, the Studio Series toy has a license from Nissan and the result is a far more accurate reproduction of the GT-R R33. It's even got a little Terrorcon badge on the front and a GT-R badge on the rear. The door still has a big hinge running through it, but it's at least the same color as the door; no caramel-colored plastic hinge there, nor the roof, and none on the hood, either. That said, there's still a gray hinge in the roof, and I wish they'd have painted part of it black to blend better with the rear window. OK, I guess there's one other major difference. Studio Series Nightbird's rear spoiler is much more accurate to the film, because it's just a spoiler. Instead of turning her sword into the spoiler, the sword uses a small tab on the hilt to attach to a notch near one of the rear tires. Somewhat infuriatingly (again), you'll note that both sides have the notch, so she could have stored two swords without any issue. She had two swords in the movie, and this toy could hold two swords, wear two swords on her hips, and store two swords in alt mode. It's kind of inexcusable, then, that she only comes with one. Studio Series Nightbird is a disappointment. Her colors are a little bit better, and her alt mode is licensed and greatly improved over the ROTB figure, and I guess that technically makes the SS figure slightly better and probably the one you want if you're building a display for ROTB toys. But she's really like 90% the exact same figure, and I needed her to be a lot better. If they'd taken a different approach to her engineering they could have made bigger, more accurate wings out of her roof and doors and simultaneously reduced her hip kibble. At the very least, if they were going to cheaply copy their other Nightbird design so much, they should have at minimum included a second sword. Sadly, this is likely as good as we're going to get, so here's hoping for a DNA kit or something.
  21. mikeszekely
    Still waiting for Amazon to deliver my copy, along with Super Mario Wonder. And can we just take a minute to appreciate that we've got two GotY contenders out today in a year that's already given us Tears of the Kingdom, Baldur's Gate 3, and Starfield? I can't remember a year this good for games since we got since maybe 2002. EDIT: And it looks like I'm going to be waiting even longer, because despite showing two stops from my house at one point the Amazon driver never delivered my games, and now delivery is showing delayed until tomorrow. Man, I preordered from Amazon because I figured release-day delivery would save me a trip to the store. I had to go out and get tires today anyway, and Amazon dropped the ball. I really wanted a physical copy, but screw it, I want to play Spidey tonight. Bought a digital copy from the PlayStation Store, if/when the Amazon order arrives I'm just sending it right back to 'em. Lesson learned, if I'm not buying digital and I want a game on day one I should just suck it up and plan to swing by Target.
  22. mikeszekely
    When I heard that Prowl was getting an Earthspark Deluxe I figured (especially since I haven't even seen Prowl in the show) that Hasbro was going to redeco or maybe retool Cyberverse Prowl, kinda like how Starscream and Shockwave are repaints or Prime and Grimlock share parts and engineering with their Cyberverse selves. Man, I did NOT see this one coming. (In case it's not clear/you're not familiar, Prowl is a Cyberverse repaint... but not of Prowl. Instead, they repainted Hot Rod.)
  23. mikeszekely
    My first thought was Bumblebee Starscream, but yeah, I can see it. The alt mode, though, not so much. It's an interesting design (I'm not as into Bumblebee's), but $72 USD seems kind of expensive. Maybe just because the Canadian price is higher than a simple dollar conversion. Anyway, apparently the second set will be Optimus and Soundwave.
  24. mikeszekely
    The statues aren't from the books, they're from the Clone Wars show. Check out season 3, episodes 15-17. Rosario Dawson definitely plays Ahsoka differently, but I think that's fine. For one thing, she's been through a lot... the Clone Wars, the experiences that caused her to leave the Jedi Order, Order 66 and the 501st turning on her, the Rise of the Empire, etc. Plus, finding out that Empire's boogeyman was her former master. But also, she's not really the kid we saw at the end of the Clone Wars. People change. Now, it might have been nice if they'd have dug into some of that, maybe give a little more focus to Ahsoka in a show called Ahsoka. What we got was more like an epilogue to Rebels... but I'm not really complaining. I liked Rebels. What? I freaking love Sabine. Does she make the best "light side" choices? Nope. But I think her actions are pretty much in keeping with the character we saw in Rebels. If I have a gripe with Thrawn, it's less about how smart he and his actions are and more that I wish they'd developed him more as a character instead of just pushing him as the big bad. In the books, Thrawn's more neutral than evil, and his decision to join the Empire was less because he aligned with the Empire's ideals and (lack of) morality and more because he felt a strong central authority was necessary to unite the galaxy against another threat.
  25. mikeszekely
    While we wait for Hasbro to announce new Studio Series stuff on 10/27, let's not forget that stuff is still coming out. And right here, we've got Core-class Noah Diaz. Y'know, when this figure was first revealed I was thinking "he doesn't turn into a plane in the movie, what's up with this?" Then I get the figure in hand, and he doesn't actually turn into a plane. Matter of fact, for a smaller figure like this the molded detail is pretty accurate, actually. He's got the vents on his shoulders, the brake lights on his chest, etc. I do wonder at the big feet with the toes... looks like they should be on a Maximal, not Noah, but honestly I think the biggest thing working against him is just a lack of paint. Like the brake lights on his chest should be red, he's missing a lot of his blue accents, and they kind of molded chunks of him in either light or dark gray plastic when the CGI was more blended. Oh, and he doesn't have Anthony Ramos' face. That's a licensing thing, I hear. Instead he's got a visor that goes back to the exo suit's concept art. If you look at it, it's actually meant to evoke a similar detail on Mirage's chest (that, ironically, didn't turn out on the Studio Series toy). Spin him around, and you'll see that he's got some hollow spots, and what little paint he has is budgeted for the front side only. Not a huge deal to me, honestly, given how cheap Core-class figures are. I do wish that the arm blade was a removable accessory, but it's molded to his right arm. Onto accessories. Noah's got his arm cannon, and ironically it has more paint on it than Mirage's arm cannon. He also comes with a jet drone thing, which is obviously where a lot of the budget went. Noah's covered in ball joints. On larger figures, sure, they're not my favorite, but I can't deny that they give Noah some pretty solid articulation. His head can tilt sideways or down a little, swivel, and look 90 degrees straight up. Shoulders swivel and move laterally almost 90 degrees. The ball joints at the elbows bend 90 degrees and pull double duty as bice swivels. His waist is actually a ball joint, so in addition to swiveling he can teapot lean a little and arch his back 45-60-ish degrees. Alas, no forward ab crunch. His hips can go 90 degrees forward, 45 degrees backward, and nearly 90 degrees laterally. His knees bend 90 degrees and pull double duty as thigh swivels. His ankles can swivel, tilt up slightly, tilt down almost 90 degrees, and pivot around 45 degrees. His arm cannon is hollow on the underside with a 3mm peg. It fits over Noah's left arm, with the peg in his fist. If I recall correctly, that's the arm he used for his cannon in the film, so it checks out. The jet, meanwhile, has some pegs, tabs, and slots on the underside. A pair of tabs got into Noah's back, and a 3mm peg goes into his butt. Tabs on the tail go into slots on Noah's calves. Tabs on his arms lock into slots under the jet, and a peg with a 3mm port allows Noah's cannon to plug into the nose. So again, Noah's alt mode isn't really an alt mode so much as locking him into a the underside of the jet. Noah doesn't transform, but the jet kind of does. The tail folds on a double hinge onto the spine of the jet, then the nose double hinges over the tail and the wings sweep backward. Note that you don't have to remove the cannon from the nose while it's in backpack mode, so I guess that counts as weapon storage. But an interesting thing is that the jetpack/drone doesn't just have stuff under it for Noah. There's actually a 5mm peg on a hinge that you can fold out, allowing the drone to be plugged into the 5mm ports on larger figures. Here I stuck it to Sideswipe's back, but with Noah's arm cannon attached to the nose it could even plug into a fist and pass as a weapon. So, Noah turned out to be kind of weird case. To be movie-accurate they made a little action figure, then to be a Transformer they give him a jetpack that was probably half his budget. Now, ultimately, the jetpack is fine, but I'm kind of surprised at how well Noah himself actually works for me. I mean, it's not like I needed a representation of him, not anymore than I need a Studio Series Shia The Beef or Marky Mark. But it's a cool little dude, and I can't help thinking how cool a Samus Aran remold might be. Actually, I'm not really a G.I. Joe guy, I don't collect either the retro or Classified G.I. Joe figures... but if Hasbro used Noah's base engineering and made a line of Joes intended to go with Transformers I'd buy them all. Oh, or maybe MASK? Yeah, Noah's definitely a figure worth checking out, I recommend him and sincerely hope Hasbro finds other uses for the mold.
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