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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.)

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.

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.

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.

I haven't been following the online chatter... are they mad about something specific, or mad because the plot is unresolved? If the former, I dunno, I thought it was ok. I feel like people keep expecting Star Wars to be something amazing then they get disappointed when it turns out to be just ok, even though *hot take alert* it almost always turns out to be kind of mid. I mean, out of eleven movies we got three good ones, and the shows don't have a much better track record. Heck, even the good shows like Clone Wars and Rebels had some boring episodes, we just remember the shows as good because they had some really epic episodes, too. If it's the latter, I think it's ultimately fine. One way or another Disney will wrap it up.

IIRC the post-Disney books are canon. Going by that, I can't say how much Thrawn knew about Ahsoka personally, but he'd encountered Anakin when a mission for the Chiss Ascendency happened to take him to a planet where Anakin was on a rescue mission. Later, after Thrawn joined the Empire, he and Vader did a mission together and Thrawn recognized Vader as Anakin. I'd imagine, then, that knew Anakin/Vader well enough to be concerned about a Padawan he trained. Anyway, I finished Ahsoka last night. Doesn't seem like the popular opinion, but I enjoyed it fine and I'm curious to see where a second season might go. I mostly found it interesting as a direct sequel to Rebels; ironically, I thought that Ahsoka was the least interesting part of the show.

So, it's not actually RotB (that box art is from Titan Changer Megatron, which was repackaged in the ROTB line but originally from the cheap-ish Authentics line that you find at dollar stores). It's Bumblebee Megatron, and it's based on concept art for a planned appearance Megatron appearance when Bumblebee was going to be a reboot instead of the wishy-washy "no Megatron because he was frozen on Earth, not really a reboot, please don't think about how the rest of the movie doesn't fit the Bayverse continuity!" bit we got. I've heard the design was far enough along that ThreeZero got a copy, but I digress. The point is, yes, it's a real figure, it's schedule for early 2024, and I think there's a very good chance you'll be hearing about it at Hasbro's 10/27 event in a couple days. The only thing I can't confirm is the triple-changing thing. There's a rumor going around that's sourced back to someone who's claimed to have seen it/have some background knowledge, but I haven't verified him as a source. Not saying that it's wrong, just that until I get some info from him that checks out and hasn't been revealed elsewhere I'm keeping the salt handy.

When I reviewed Legacy Evolution Prowl I wasn't super thrilled with him. In the process of G1-ifying him they did away with the tall, thin design with the massive chin that Derek Wyatt drew, making him shorter, chunkier, with bigger eyes and a shorter face. To me, it looked really off for an Animated Prowl, and I didn't need a G1-ified Prowl because, well, I we already got a G1 Prowl in Earthrise. Among the wider Transformers community, though, it seems like Legacy Prowl has his share of fans, but those fans lamented that he didn't have the samurai armor of the late Animated Prowl retool. Well, DNA to the rescue, with their DK-42 kit for Legacy Prowl. The kit comes with the main unit, a wheel with a blade on it, and a helmet. It also comes with two halves of a spear, and a gray clip. There's something we can do with the kit before Prowl even tries to wear it. Built the spear, and you'll find a tab on the shaft that fits into a slot on the clip. Take the butt of the spear and stick it into the 5mm port on the wheel. Now, there's an armature on the main unit with a 3mm peg that fits into a hole on the back of the helmet. Meanwhile, the 5mm port on the other side of the clip will first fit into the LEFT half 5mm port on the bottom, while a tab on the left side of the armature fits into a notch higher on the spear shaft to lock it into place. It's not the most amazing thing in the world, but it allows the entire kit to be set up as a display stand for Prowl's samurai armor when he's not wearing it. Of course, we do want him to wear it! So, on the side of the main unit opposite from the helmet armature is a 5mm peg. You plug that into a port on Prowl's back. The lower panels can rotate so the gold paint is on the outside, then they slide forward to cover Prowl's thighs. Armatures swing the shoulder pieces around his body under his arms, then curl the armor up in front of his shoulders. With the main unit attached, you can plonk the helmet on Prowl's head. The wheel blade can plug into a 5mm port on one of his arms. The clip can plug into the other, although it's kind of weird to have a spear attached to your arm. If you prefer, you can have Prowl hold the spear by separating it into it's halves, sliding the top into his right hand (as the left isn't shaped to hold 5mm pegs), then connecting the bottom. Note that Prowl's forearm armor doesn't really give you enough clearance, though, so I had to bend Prowl's hand inward. Also, the clip's 5mm peg can again fit into the half port on the bottom of the main unit on his back for storage. Aside from the spear and clip, which seem to exist largely to give the set the display mode, the armor works almost exactly the way the Animated Samurai Prowl did 14 years ago, with the spinning hip flaps and shoulder armor on armatures that wrap under the armpits. On that old Prowl toy even the helmet was connected, and to be fair you can still leave DNA's helmet on the armature and assemble it as one piece, too. But that means DNA's set comes with some of the same issues that the old Samurai Prowl toy had, namely that the shoulder armor hampers his arm articulation, and if the helmet stays attached to the armature he looses his head/neck articulation. Which actually brings me to another point- people seem to be pretty critical of how chonky Prowl is with his armor. In the cartoon, even armored Prowl was pretty svelte, and he had tire armor on both arms. But the thing is, due to the late decision to retool the original Deluxe toy with the samurai armor, the original toy for Samurai Prowl was also pretty chunky and also had wheel armor for just one arm. Given how much thicker Legacy Prowl is over the Animated Deluxe in the first place, I think this looks about as good as could be reasonably expected. Well, as long as DNA is copying Hasbro's 14 year old homework, sure enough the armor has an alt mode. If the helmet's already on the armature, flip it over so it's upside-down on his back. The shoulder pads fold back and tab into each other around the helmet. Slide the hip armor back on the sliders and turn them so they can fold over the shoulder armatures with the gold paint on the inside. Note that there's a tab on the armature hinges that'll go into a slot on the hip armor, and a tab on the hip armor that'll go into the shoulder armor to lock everything in place. Split the spear in half, and turn the main unit so you're looking down at the top of the helmet. You can find the two half 5mm ports, and slide the halves the the spear into them so they lay over the helmet. The spears are now the bottom of the sidecar. The blade on the wheel is hinged so it can fold 90 degrees. Use the 5mm peg on the wheel to plug into a 5mm port on the sidecar such that the blade folds along the bottom of the sidecar. Now you just have to attach it to Prowl, and that's where the clip comes in again. On the side with the slot, you may have noticed a trio of angled tabs. These tabs fit into cutouts on the Prowl's rear wheel, and it'll leave him with a 5mm peg poking out. That peg goes into a port on the side of the sidecar opposite its wheel. Due to having to fit between Legacy Prowl's wings, the seat of the sidecar seems narrower and less sheltered... less purposeful, I guess, than the original Samurai Prowl's. I'm not sure how I feel about the gold paint on the fender and minimal gold on the seat, for that matter. But, again, it's ultimately what Hasbro did 14 years ago, and it works fine. On one hand, it's pretty obvious that DNA basically took the armor from the original Samurai Prowl and redesigned it to fit on the Legacy toy, devised a clip so it could attach as a sidecar, then came up with a spear accessory that could also combine with the rest as a display stand. As I mentioned, that means it's got the same issues with chonk and articulation that came with the original toy. On the other hand, I think that's maybe exactly what a lot of people wanted. I think it's kind of hard to recommend a kit that costs as much as the base figure it's for, especially when I wasn't super enthusiastic about the base figure and told you to pass at the time anyway. That said, it 100% accomplished the thing it set out to do, and if you want the armor from the original Animated Samurai Prowl but for your Legacy Evolution toy I don't think there's any real downside for me to not recommend it.

I've got a hot one here tonight... Studio Series 86 Commander-class Ultra Magnus! Not gonna lie, for a robot mode Magnus I didn't hate the Kingdom toy. Sure, the shoulder missiles sit too high to give the shoulders clearance for lateral movement, and his feet and shins could be better, but the remolded head, shoulder missiles, and chest were a lot more accurate than the Siege toy. Actually, on that note, Kingdom Magnus was also more G1 than the earlier Combiner Wars toy, which took a lot of cues from the then-current IDW comics. But, with the "make it as movie accurate as possible (within the budget)" drive behind the Studio Series line SS86 really ups the accuracy game. Most of the shapes are spot on, and if the Sunbow model had linework on it (like the shins, left shoulder, etc) it's present on this figure. There's a bit of extra molded detail, like on the tops of the thighs and the shoulder pylons, that aren't present on the animation model, but Hasbro doesn't want the S86 stuff to look too out of place with the WFC/Legacy stuff, and those extra details are accurate to the G1 toy. What I think is really impressive is that the screen accuracy isn't limited to the front. Spin him around, and you'll see he's actually cleaner than MP-22, again with molded bits and paint on his back that resemble the animation model. If I really look at him objectively, though, I do have a few notes. His arms stick out a bit from his body, and he's got a bit of extra stuff around the top of his torso. His head, which strikes me as a tad too small winds up looking a bit sunken in. I'll note, though, that all of those gripes are a direct result of his engineering, which I'll get to later. My other concern with SS86 Magnus is his size. The one real advantage Kingdom Magnus still has is that he's about a head taller than Earthrise Optimus, and if you look at the Sunbow scale chart that's about where he should be. Even if the scale chart isn't the be-all-end-all for you, you're probably going to remember scenes from the 86 movie like his first appearance, where he drives up and starts giving orders to Springer, Arcee, Blurr, and Perceptor, where Magnus is taller than everyone else, sure, but no one is shorter than mid-chest to him. Here, Prime is significantly smaller, coming up to where a Deluxe should. And things get worse when you grab an SS86 dinobot like Grimlock. While I maintain that official scale charts published in books like The Ark depict Grimlock as a head taller than Magnus, even the most charitable interpretation has them at the same size, but SS86 Magnus is significantly bulkier and around half a head taller. Well, scale is ultimately in the eye of the beholder, and it is what it is, so we'll move along to accessories. Like most (all?) Commander-class figures, Magnus comes with quite a bit. You get two guns. One is modeled off of his G1 toy, and it's what comes to mind when I think of Magnus' gun. It's even got a shade of a 5mm port on the top where the original had one to fit into the smaller robot's hands. I'm not sure about the design of the second gun; it prompted me to go back and watch scenes of Magnus in the 86 movie only to conclude that Magnus didn't fire a shot in the whole movie. I didn't go back and re-watch all of Season 3, though, so it's possibly a cartoon design. As well as his guns, you get yet another Matrix of Leadership, his shoulder missile launchers, and a trio of blast effect parts. Technically you get his ears, too. They're not attached to his head in the box, they're in a bundle of paper with his other accessories. They just plug into the sides of his head, though, and once attached they never have to be removed. SS86 Magnus' articulation actually beats out MP-22's. His head's on a ball joint that allows him to swivel his head, look down, and tilt sideways a decent amount, but due to his transformation the ball joint is hinged, allowing him to look almost straight up. His shoulders rotate on ratchets, and they can move laterally 90 degrees (when down at his sides, more like 60 if he raises his arms first due to the pylons hitting his back). His biceps swivel, and his elbows bend 90 degrees on more ratchets. His wrists swivel, and all of his fingers are pinned at the base so his hands can open, plus his index finger is separate from the other two and has an additional hinge so he can point. That might be a first for a mainline toy; not even Hasbro's Titans have that much articulation (until you replace their hands with a DNA kit). Unlike the MP, SS86 Magnus has a waist swivel. His hips can move forward and backward on soft ratchets, and laterally on friction hinges, nearly 90 degrees. His thighs can swivel, though they're limited from a little inward to 45 degrees outward as his thighs move around the joint. He's got ratcheted knees that bend 90 degrees, but if you undo them a bit for transformation you can get slightly over 90. No up/down tilt on the feet, but the ankles do pivot about 45 degrees. Despite having very articulated hands his palms still have 5mm ports carved into them, so his weapons simply slide into them. Meanwhile, the shoulder missiles plug into, you guessed it, his shoulders. The missiles themselves can be removed; they're just plugged in via 5mm ports Meanwhile, the guns both have the 3mm-pegged tips for you to use the bast effects. Being a Studio Series and not a mainline release means that Magnus isn't swimming in 5mm ports. Aside from his hands and his shoulders there are some on his elbows, though they're more for alt mode. He doesn't have any on his back or even under his feet. That said, there's a slot on his back, and a slightly longer one on his butt. These slots correspond to tabs on his guns for robot mode storage. As for the Matrix, if you lift the blue part of his chest the sides will spring open to reveal a Matrix chamber, with movie-accurate molded details and silver paint. If you undo the red flaps on top of his shoulders to unlatch them for transformation, you can use the transformation hinges as butterfly joints. The tiny Matrix is too small for his massive hands, but he can use his extra-articulated index fingers to hook through the Matrix's handles. Magnus' transformation is, in broad strokes, similar to MP-22 and kind of what you'd expect. The shins fold up, his arms flip around and the hands get covered, then they unfurl from the body and join together. His chest and back come up over his head and then turn inside out to form the cab- no inner white Optimus here. Where they really impressed me, though, is how the rest of his torso and legs transform. The result is that the floor of the trailer is more solidly red, with just a little blue and white visible, and looks more purposeful and less like MP-22's still somewhat obvious thighs and torso (although MP-22 has the shoulder missiles on armatures, while SS86 just pulls them off the shoulders and onto the truck like the G1 toy). It goes without saying that SS86 Magnus' truck mode is easily the best of the CHUG Magnus options. The trailer looks like the Sunbow one; I've already explained how even the floor of the trailer is improved. We've got none of the IDW embellishments of the Combiner Wars toy, and none of the re-used Siege engineering from the Kingdom toy. Likewise, the cab is a boxy G1-style cab, again without the IDW embellishments, but also with fuel tanks, smokestacks in the right place, and no robot arms dangling off the back. This being animation-style, we've even got the red bumper, and all the rims are painted. The cab doesn't look the best from the back, though. I think it would have helped if they'd molded most of it in white and painted the other side (as it's the other side that shows in robot mode). I may at least paint the stacks on my copy. Speaking of the cab, like MP-22 you can detach it, though in this case it just pops on and off, there's no button. With the cab off, we can see that the details aren't too far off from Earthrise Optimus's cab, though a bit more G1-accurate. The cabs are about the same height and same size front-to-back, though Magnus is a little wider. The similarities in the size of the cabs only further emphasize how comically tiny Prime's trailer is, though. Makes me wonder if Prime himself could get the SS86 Commander-class treatment, maybe with a slightly more accurate cab, more complex transformation from bot to cab, legs that aren't recycled (and left/right swapped) from Siege, and a bigger, better painted trailer with a better-articulated drone, Roller, and the other sorts of gimmicks that MP-44's trailer had? As much as I really love Earthrise Optimus, and as sour as some fans get about paying Commander price for a Voyager robot with extra engineering and accessories, I know I'd buy it. We're not talking about Prime, though, we're talking about Magnus. Magnus' truck mode has the sorts of gimmicks you'd expect. The front of the shins fold down to make ramps, and you can fit the Autobot cars on his trailer. The cab can turn a little bit, and the whole thing rolls quite well. As I noted, the shoulder missiles peg back onto the sides of the trailer; this matches the Toei control art for the movie, though I do wish it had the option to put the missiles on the front of the trailer like MP-22 does. My only other minor complaint is accessory storage. As I said earlier, there are 5mm ports near his robot elbows. You can store both guns on the sides of the trailer by plugging their handles into them. Does it work? Yes. Is it the prettiest? No. I rather prefer the MP method of wedging the gun in between the arms, but I concede that neither are really cartoon accurate. SS86 Ultra Magnus is a big figure; arguably too big to properly scale with other SS86/War for Cybertron/Legacy figures. And, if I'm being totally honest, I still prefer my Ultra Magnus to have a cab that turns into a white Optimus that wears his trailer like armor. That's kind of the worst I can say here, though, because what Hasbro delivered here is an incredibly screen-accurate figure, in both modes, with arguably better engineering than the MP version. It makes me understand why we're getting a Leader-class Springer in 2024; sure, the Siege Voyager is pretty darn good, but at this point he's probably the least accurate CHUG-style new 86 movie character we've got. I'll look forward to reviewing Springer when he comes out, but for now all I can say is you should definitely pick up SS86 Ultra Magnus, as he might be the best Transformer figure Hasbro has released all year.

So the new Forza Motorsport reboot came out. First game in a series I'll go to my grave arguing is better than Gran Turismo, so needless to say I had very high hopes for it. However, the "finished" game is definitely a case of one step forward, two steps back. Let me start by asserting that one of, if not the most important quality of a racing game is the feel. You can make the prettiest game with a super deep career mode, but if your car physics make Cyberpunk's look good I'm going to take a pass. And fortunately, this is the one aspect that Turn 10 definitely nailed. The different cars feel unique; you can drive two different cars with similar PI numbers but, as in real life, get a sense for the fact that they're actually handling differently. And even with a controller the sense of feedback you get from the car is much better than in previous Forza games. Another thing I like, and this is a bit of a hot take since most of the reviews I've seen seem to hate it, is the car leveling system. Yeah, a lot of people are mad you can't just buy a car then immediately jack it up to S-class, but let me offer a different take. See, in previous games, yeah, I'd be that guy who'd get a car then let the game auto-upgrade it to whatever the max class was for the event I wanted to race in. But the way it works in the new FM is that when you get a new car it's level 1. As you get experience (which is fairly easy to do; one five-race cup is usually enough to take a car from 1 to close to 20) you'll unlock upgrade categories as well as CP you can spend on upgrades. So, for example, at level 1 you can upgrade your air filter from three different options with different CP costs, but you might not be able to swap out the stock tire compound until the car's at level 11. And yeah, while at first this seems unnecessarily restrictive, I found that it did two things for me. First, although auto-upgrading is still an option, I found myself thinking more about how best to use my limited CP on the available upgrades to get the best balance of speed, acceleration, handling, and braking and choosing my upgrades manually. And second, because I'm not doing all my upgrading at once but in smaller increments between races, I'm able to get a better sense of exactly how each small choice affected the car's performance. Coupled with the fact that, as previously noted, each car behaves differently, the upgrade path you follow for one might not be the same as for another. Start with a nimble car and you might find the best bang for your buck in upping its top speed, while another car that struggles through the turns might benefit from upgrades that improve the braking or handling. That said, Turn 10's rationale for the car XP system is that they want you to really get into a car instead of buying a bunch of cars and switching them out all the time. That's kind of dumb on the surface- half the fun of a game with hundreds of cars I'll never own in real life is collecting them and racing them in the game. But then there's the fact that the game itself is running counter to the developers' stated intent. See, after doing the intro, you're given a choice of a few cars then thrown into an introductory cup. So far, so good. After that intro cup, you can start your career in earnest. Now, the career mode itself is already a bit barebones, but I'm going to let that slide for now. But what I will say is that, aside from limited-time "Feature" events, you have one cup unlocked and the car you started with doesn't qualify. So I buy one that does, and I do that cup, and two more cups unlock. And neither of the two cars I have is usable in either of them. You can see where this is going, right? By now I've done (I think) six cups, and each one required a different car. This is where I'm starting to get frustrated, too. See, buying cars costs credits, and unlike past Forza games it doesn't seem like you win cars (at least, I haven't won a car yet). Now, to be fair, every time I've finished a cup and needed to buy another car for the next cup I've had the credits to do so. But, see, in real life my wife and I decided to go electric. This year my wife already replaced her car with a Hyundai Ioniq 5. As someone who prefers sportier sedans and is due for a midlife crisis, I decided to start saving for a Porsche Taycan. And when I saw that Forza's initial car list included the 2020 Taycan Turbo S I wanted it to be one of the first cars I bought in the game. I had no problem earning enough credits to buy a Taycan... but never enough credits to buy a Taycan and a car from the handful of cars allowed in the next available cup. Then there's the whole "finished" in quotes at the beginning of this post. It's in quotes because there's no way this is the finished product. And sure enough, the devs are already saying that a patch should be released early next week with bug fixes and quality of life improvements. Let me tell you, it needs them. I've experienced all sorts of weird pop-in and lighting issues, on both console and PC. Annoying, but not exactly game breaking. On console, the game will not Quick Resume, which sucks. It tries, then crashes back to the home screen. I've had one crash to desktop on my PC, too, plus an issue where it wouldn't sign into the Xbox server until I manually changed my firewall settings (something a UAC popup normally asks for, but didn't happen here). And by "quality of life," I kind of hope they mean graphics. A lot of Sony fanboys have been posting Forza screens with GT7 screens to show off how much better GT7 is. Now, I think brand loyalty to either console is dumb, and graphics aren't everything... but they're not wrong, Forza looks bad next to GT7. I mean, it's kind of nuts that FM is the first Forza designed exclusively for next-gen, but it looks a lot worse than Forza Horizon 5, too. I started playing on an Xbox Series X in Performance RT mode; that is, 4K 60fps with ray tracing. It looks kind of muddy to me, I might try turning RT off. Next I tried on PC, where I've got a Core i7-9700K, 32GB of RAM, and an RTX 4070. Visual options are a bit more granular on PC, so I set the resolution to 1440p, I told the game to target 60fps, I turned DLSS on for quality. I insisted that the car textures be "ultra" but left everything else, including ray tracing, to automatic. Sure enough, the game runs at a smooth 60fps, even during heavy rain, and the car I was driving looked great (as did the rain on the camera). But the tracks themselves didn't look too hot. Finally, for gaming on the go I tried it on an ROG Ally. Note that Forza Horizon 5 ran decently on the Ally at 1080p with a mix of Medium and Low settings, and it looked pretty decent doing so. FM, though, not so much. I went with 1080p, FSR on, and everything else set to the lowest settings. It looks about as good as Forza 2 on the Xbox 360 did, and only hit 30-40fps. I tried dropping the resolution to 720p, but I was still only getting 45-ish fps and it looked like someone smeared Vaseline all over the screen. TL;DR: Excellent physics and handling make for a fun time driving, but bugs, technical issues, subpar graphics, and a barebones career mode makes Forza Motorsport seem a bit like a beta for a future, better game.

I played it after it was patched a bit. Late 2020/early 21, I think (I remember putting in some time while in COVID quarantine). I bought Phantom Liberty and started over from scratch after finishing Starfield. Bonus because I upgraded my GPU since my first play. I agree that it's a good game, and most of the changes seem pretty positive. I do have two complaints, though. One, I hate that instead of tracking down sellers and buying cars whenever you have the eddies you're gated by street cred then just buy whenever from the net. And two, I've got katanas and knives (and some people might have monowire arms or mantis blades), but stealth kills are still limited to grabbing a guy and breaking his neck. Wait, actually three complaints. Now that I'm thinking about stealth takedowns, is also kind of dumb that if you knock a guy out instead of killing him that hiding him in a crate or trunk kills him. Oh well. Minor gripes overall, and it and Forza should keep me entertained until Mario and Spider-Man.

I'd buy that for a dollar.

I'm really looking forward to Rogue City. The Terminator game they made, while nothing amazing mechanically, was a good budget game made by people who clearly care about the IP (probably more than the people who made the last couple of movies).

I kind of liked the Rise of the Beasts series Optimus Primal, but I did note some issues and concluded by saying, "If and until a better Studio Series figure is released ROTB Primal is a solid toy that should work fine in a movie collection." Well, the Studio Series figure's been released, and it even got bumped up to a Leader-class release. Now which Primal belongs on your movie shelf? As was the case with movie vs. Studio Series Optimus Prime (without the -al), the Studio Series toy is bigger than the mainline one, and by about the same height. In other words, SS Primal is taller than ROTB Primal, but roughly the same height as SS Prime. And, wow... I kind of acknowledged that ROTB Primal had some proportion issues but overall I thought he was a pretty decent representation of the character. Then you get him next to the Studio Series one, and it's like a night and day difference. I checked the SS toy against some screen captures, against the ThreeZero figure, and against the Yolopark model, and the details, proportions, and colors on SS Primal are far more accurate, honestly very close to what you see on screen. Of course, this is still a transforming toy, so it's not quite perfect. Primal's collar isn't quite complete, but most of his problems can been seen by turning him around and looking at his back. Gorilla feet are stuck to his calves, and he's got a hunchback of folded panels. I might be nitpicking, but I also don't remember Primal having a mouth in robot mode in the movie (although it's hard to say for sure without re-watching the film, and he spent the bulk of his screen time in gorilla mode anyway). I'd have preferred the fully-masked face. Between the mask, the swords, and the use of blacks on the robot mode I felt Primal had a sort of ninja vibe going. Speaking of swords, yep, Studio Series Primal's got 'em. He actually comes with quite a few accessories. In addition to his swords, Primal's got the transwarp key, as well as an axe and a pair of chains that didn't get the same paint that the swords and transwarp key did. Note that the transwarp key can be pulled into two halves, as they spent most of their time in the film separated. Primal's head can look down, but due to his collar he can't really look up or tilt his head sideways. He actually can't even swivel his head 90 degrees in either direction (although he can turn his head more than the ROTB version). His shoulders rotate and can move laterally around 150 degrees, plus they can butterfly backward. His elbows bend 90 degrees, and his wrists swivel, plus his fingers are hinged at the base so his hands open and close. In a step up from other articulated hands Hasbro's been doing on Voyager-sized Leaders, his fingers aren't even all one piece, but two! His index and middle fingers are one part, and his ring and pinky fingers are a separate part. Which is cool and all, but why not make the index finger alone a separate part, and put the middle finger with the other two? Then he could point. Oh well, I digress. His waist swivels. His hips can go 90 degrees forward, a little less than that backward, and a little more than that laterally. His thighs swivel, although they're a tad limited, and his knees bend 90 degrees. His feet can tilt up a little, down about 45 degrees, and his ankles pivot nearly 90 degrees. And for those of you keeping score at home, that means that SS Primal meets or exceeds ROTB Primal's articulation in almost every way, with ROTB Primal only taking knee articulation. Primal's hands do have 5mm ports carved into the palms, so you can slide the axe or his swords into them. The axe and one of the swords has a small 3mm peg on it, and the other sword has a 3mm port. This allows you to turn the swords into one double-bladed sword (as seen in the film). The two chain segments can combine into one, and it'll have a 3mm port on one end and a peg on the other, which allows you to connect the chain to the axe or one of the swords on one end and the other sword on the other end. The 3mm pegs and ports are built into sort of half-ish 5mm pegs, and the instructions indicate that Primal can wield the chains like clubs if you wish. I find that his grip isn't as secure on the chains, though. Likewise, the instructions suggest that Primal can hold the transwarp key by sticking one end into his hand. This is technically true, but in the sense that the tapered ends fit into Primal's hand holes and not securely the way a 5mm peg would. Primal doesn't have to just hold on to his accessories. There are a pair of 3mm pegs at the top of his back kibble that you can use to secure the chain to his back. Meanwhile, the axe and both swords have tabs that can be used to slot them onto his back, as well as 3mm pegs on the sides that fit into 3mm ports on his hips. The only thing that doesn't really have any place to store is the transwarp key. It's nice that Primal can store (almost) all of his accessories, especially since they aren't actually all for him. That chain? Primal's weapons weren't chained together in the film. Turns out that there's a 3mm peg on the kibble under Studio Series Battletrap's forearms, and 3mm port on the sides of his wrecking ball, and we did see Battletrap swinging that thing around on a chain in the movie. And the axe? Primal didn't use an axe, but you may remember Optimus Prime using it to hook into the ground to try and stop from getting sucked into the imploding portal at the end of the film. Transforming from one primate form to another, Optimus Primal has never had a reputation for complex transformations. Arms become arms, legs become legs, the robot head tags out and the gorilla head tags in. Heck, I gave kudos to the ROTB toy just for doing something different with the layered chests. So one of the biggest surprises with this new figure is just how intricate the transformation actually is. For one, he doesn't spin at the waist. His robot chest doesn't transform or get replaced by the gorilla chest. Rather, part of his backpack spins around and covers over his lower back, forming his gorilla belly. The rest of his backpack flips over his head, revealing the gorilla chest underneath. Once on the other side of his body, the backpack further unfolds to completely cover his robot chest and pelvis with his gorilla back and butt. Because they're no longer oriented the right way you can't just use the robot arms as-is for gorilla arms, so the inner forearm flap moves up the inside of the bicep, the outer side spins 180 degrees and flips to the inside of the forearm, and as it does the robot hands go into the forearms while a totally separate set of gorilla hands come out. His legs still scrunch up at the knees to try to appear as shorter gorilla legs, but with panels that move and lock into place to try to make them appear more cohesive. Well, you might be looking at the previous picture, with both SS Primal and ROTB Primal in quadrupedal stances, and thinking "But the legs look better on the ROTB toy!" Which, yeah, in that pose they kind of do, due to the thighs being more thoroughly tucked into the body. However, you might recall that ROTB Primal can't really do a bipedal stance, and SS Primal definitely can. And while Primal's gorilla legs are tad messier than the ROTB version, especially with the robot feet for calves, the head is much more nicely detailed, the chest and mechanical abs are more accurate, the toes are better splayed and the shins have better mechanical details. If I have one complaint, it's the arms. Bottom line, Primal's gorilla mode just doesn't have that much mechanical detail, and it seems weird to me to have the larger, furrier bit on the inside of his forearms. You can't really do much about the mechanical details, but due to the way his arms work you can simply spin his biceps and his wrists 180 degrees to turn the inside of the forearms to the outside, and his elbows will still work fine. On that note, let's talk about his gorilla articulation. His head is on a ball joint that can swivel. He has no real downward tilt and the barest suggestion of sideways tilt, but he can look up a good 90 degrees which is useful for the quadrupedal stance. His shoulders and biceps still swivel, and his elbows still bend 90 degrees. Despite being different hands, the gorilla wrists swivel and the fingers are molded and articulated exactly the same as the robot hands. The backwards butterfly joints go forward in this mode, allowing Primal to cross his arms over to beat on his chest. He loses his waist swivel and most of his forward/backward hip movement, but he retains some thigh swivel and all of the lateral hip articulation. He doesn't really have gorilla knees, but the gorilla feet have a bit of up/down tilt that helps a lot with transitioning between his bipedal and quadrupedal poses. One thing he's missing that the ROTB figure had that's a bummer is gorilla ankle pivots. On the flip side, SS Primal can open his gorilla jaws, which is something the ROTB figure couldn't do. Again, even though they're different hands Primal's gorilla hands are functionally the same as his robot hands, allowing him to hold his accessories exactly the same way. Likewise, the ports on his hips and tabs on his back are still accessible for accessory storage (though the swords have to be stored upside-down on his back when he's in a bipedal pose, otherwise his legs are in the way). One of the 3mm posts from the top of his backpack now sits at the small of his gorilla back for chain storage (again, assuming you didn't just give the chain to Battletrap). Back in May I compared the Beast Alliance Weaponizer Optimus Primal with the Voyager-class ROTB Optimus Primal. I'm reminded of that, because Studio Series Leader-class Optimus Primal is as big a leap over ROTB Primal as ROTB Primal is over the Beast Alliance figure. The level of detail, paint, and articulation really makes the ROTB figure obsolete. It's so good that even the Kingdom figure, which is representing a totally different version of Optimus Primal, feels a bit crappy next to this one. That said, this is, after all, a Leader. Should it be, though? Don't get me wrong, I'm not one of those people on a certain Transformers board who complain every time a smaller Voyager or Leader comes out because they still haven't wrapped their heads around the notion that the classes are budgets, not sizes. I have no problem defending figures like Hot Rod and Ironhide, despite being Deluxe-sized, benefitted from their Voyager budgets with more intricate engineering. But Primal? I mean, I'd have been fine with just the swords. The chains should have come with Battletrap in the first place, and I can live without Prime's axe or the transwarp key entirely. And, frankly, Primal's engineering could have been simplified a bit if his arms opened to allow the hand swap without all the shifting panels. Would that reduction in accessories and simplification of the arm engineering been enough to drop Primal back into a Voyager-budget? I guess that's ultimately up to the bean counters at Hasbro. I guess if you don't feel like dropping Leader money on this guy the ROTB toy is still a viable Voyager option, but the simple truth is that Studio Series Optimus Primal is one of the very best Optimus Primal toys you can get, and I ultimately do recommend it.

Yeah... I thought it was mostly a letdown after the previous one. See, I know that the Castlevania games have paper thin plots, but thin or not the lore is still there. And what Ellis' Castlevania did extremely well was to take that plot and flesh it out, providing motivation for Dracula's attack beyond "vampire bad!" and linking the story with element of Symphony of the Night and Curse of Darkness. Nocturne comes in with some interesting ideas that could have fleshed out Rondo of Blood, like exploring the backdrop of the French Revolution, how the de-Christianization of France during the Revolution caused the Church to side with the nobility, how the nobility were infiltrated with vampires, etc. The problem, though, is Clive Bradley seemed to think that it's an interesting setting so he grabbed Richter, Maria, and Annette from Rondo but by and large abandoned the rest of the plot. While we've got Maria and Annette, Tera and Iris have had no role. There's no sign of Shaft. They've replaced Dracula with a super vampire that looks like she should be on Thundercats. So, feel free to disagree, but in my opinion of you want to tell an original story, even one in the Castlevania universe, then use original characters. If you want to tell Richter's story, though, then it should at least kind of follow Rondo of Blood.

Maybe I'll hit Ollie's this weekend. I'd actually seen Silverstreak there before, but I already have one. Technically I already have Coronation Starscream, too, but for $15 a pop it's worth it for the chairs.