mikeszekely

Thanks, been waiting for that one. Grimlock and Dead End were the only ones I really wanted. War Dawn will go up Friday.

And if you want the Menasor gift set it'll be available to preorder on August 1st.

Honestly? Because Bayverse (and technically the game stuff) exist in the Studio Series line, which is focused on accurately representing the source material (within the confines of the budget allotted). Armada, Beast Wars, etc already kind of fit with the G1 aesthetic. Animated and Prime are the only ones that really stand out. I rather expect that if they did decide to do Bayverse within Legacy it'd get the G1-ified aesthetic. I'm not exactly beat up about it, though. We've had this discussion before, but while I enjoyed the Animated cartoon and think the style is fine for a 2D medium I think it looks awful translated to 3D. I wouldn't mind seeing unique characters from Animated getting the Legacy treatment, like Lugnut and Lockdown, but even with my large collection of Bumblebees and Primes I already know that's two slots next year I wish were taken by almost anything else. I mean, yeah, technically the most egregious, sure. But it's not like a locomotive and a space shuttle, an oil tanker and a passenger plane, or a dune buggy and a helicopter don't have their own crazy size discrepancies. In a world where a giant robot turns into a human-sized tape deck or a different giant robot turns into a handgun to be used by his smaller allies I think most of us just accept the mass shifting and use the scale chart for their relative robot sizes. I'm not sure if Broadside appeared on any official scale guide, but I think based on his appearances in the cartoon a Jetfire-sized Commander-class should be enough. I mean, to be fair, this Code Red looks to be remolded from the Deluxe toy, not the Studio Series one. That's a $25 figure with a $45 price tag, then. That's where your budget for remolding, paint, and accessories goes. The crossovers benefit from not having to be stuffed into a specific size class. I feel you on Ironhide and Ratchet, though, especially since they're the same size as the Delxues. I get the extra Voyager budget paid for much better engineering, but a little paint would have been nice. Oh well, I'm sure I'll get the Reprolabels for Ratchet, same as I did for Ironhide.

Stranger Things X Transformers Code Red. $45, available later this year.

Which one? Way too many don't wake the Switch. I tried a Gulikit one everyone raved about because it has Hall effect joysticks. And, sure, the sticks were good... but the face buttons were trash that kept sticking. A part of me wants to grab the new 8bitdo one. I've bought a couple 8bitdo controllers for other stuff and I dig them a lot, but the price on the new Switch one is the same price as Nintendo's own Switch Pro controller.

Ugh, of course Pulse sold out of Dead End before I could get online. And they didn't even bother to put up Grimlock. Those are the only two I actually care about. Pulse also sold out of the Amazon Javelin & Kaskade pack and Nacelle, but you can still preorder Nova Prime. https://hasbropulse.com/collections/new/products/transformers-legacy-evolution-leader-class-nova-prime Or you can still get all three packs at Amazon (like I did). https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0BDHHBXMZ/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0BDJ5T6H4/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0BDGLX8HL/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 Nothing yet for the Shattered Glass or Studio Series stuff. Powerlinx Hot Shot is going to be a Pulsecon thing.

I can't confirm any of this yet, but... Pulsecon is September 22nd, and I'm expecting them to reveal the title and first wave of the third part of the Legacy trilogy. That announcement should include Gears, for an early 2024 release. I don't want to get your hopes up, because I haven't heard anything about 2024's Titan* (which, if it even exists, I really hope is the last one). But Hasbro's definitely not done with Animated. In fact, I'm being told that Animated Bumblebee will be joining Gears in that first wave of Deluxes, and Animated Prime will be one of the Voyagers in that wave. *Nothing on the Titan, but supposedly Armada Tidal Wave will be the Commander-class for next year.

Yeah, that's my big problem with the Toxitron stuff. Nacho cheese Jazz is kind of ugly, I'm not sure why they didn't use the actually released G2 colors. And Mirage... well, he really needs a new mold that isn't a repaint of a figure that was kind of awkward in the first place. But something about that neon yellow Grimlock just sings to me. I very much want to get him. Dead End mostly because I do have Shadowstrip. I ordered Cloudcover online because he looks kind of nice. The rest are something I might pick up if I see them on the shelves, but if I miss 'em I won't be bothered. It's a bit of a bummer for me, since I had Magnus as a kid (and I still have a G1 Magnus!), and the white Optimus was a HUGE deal to 7yo me. I'm willing to forgive it, though, because Magnus looks fantastic. Like, maybe better than the MP good. I think it does, in a manner that's probably similar to CW Magnus. It definitely turns at least a bit. If I may borrow some pics from another board... Eh, while I'm over there... Anyway, like I said before, I'm definitely in for the Amazon comic packs and all the Studio Series stuff. I'm leaning toward yes on Hot Shot and the Shattered Glass pack, but I think I'm out on the Menasor gift set. I think if they'd put a little effort into remolding Menasor's head and chest to look more like the toy, and maybe gave the cars their toy-style heads, I'd have bought it for sure, but just changing the colors a bit and adding some tampos isn't really selling it for me (especially since the first releases of Dragstrip and Dead End already have some toy-style stripes). I'm hearing that the Amazon stuff will go up for preorder some time Friday. Not sure about the rest of it, or when the War Dawn pack will go up.

I'm in for all the Studio Series stuff. I'm probably passing on Towline and Medix. I'm also in for the other Amazon sets. On the fence for the Shattered Glass set, the Menasor set, and Hot Shot. I'm not sure about the Toxitron stuff. If I see them I might buy them, but aside from Grimlock and Dead End I'm not going to go out of my way to get them.

Not a ton of surprises at SDCC. As expected, they announced the Commander-class SS86 Ultra Magnus as well as expected SS86 repaints Frenzy (red) and Ratchet. Also in Studio Series, we got some looks at Core-class Exo-suit Noah Novakane (a repaint of Freezer) and Nightbird (who looks kibbly, but better than the previous non-SS Deluxe). Moving into Generations there's going to be a Pulse-exclusive repaint of Hot Shot in his red Powerlinx colors who looks to come with more accessories than the original, including Jolt. I wonder if there will be more Powerlinx Gen Selects with Minicons? a Shattered Glass set of Rodimus and Whisper (Rodimus being SS86 Hot Rod, and Whisper looks like a repaint of Earth-mode Sideswipe) and a Menasor gift set in toy colors. They also showed Towline, a Target-exclusive repaint of Scraphook that was already up for prerorders and sold out on Pulse, and Medix, who I'm not sure what his deal is. I think he was originally going to be a Walgreen's exclusive. They showed off the remaining three Amazon comic book sets. They are Nacelle, yet another repaint of the Siege Seeker mold. Javelin and Kaskade. Javelin is a retool of Studio Series Bumblebee Arcee, and Kaskade is a light retool of Siege Chromia. And Nova Prime, who's a not-extensive-enough retool of Siege Galaxy Upgrade Optimus Prime. Finally, they showed off the Walmart Toxitron figures. I think most of them have leaked, and some have started showing up in stores ( got my hands on two of them, but not the one I REALLY want). They are: Toxitron (repaint of Laser Optimus) Grimlock (repaint of SS86 Grimlock) Jazz (a repaint of SS86 Jazz) Sideswipe (repaint of earth-mode Sideswipe) Mirage (repaint of earth-mode Mirage) Dead End (G2 repaint of Dead End) Laser Cycle (repaint of Road Rocket) Cloudcover (repaint of Ramjet) Not shown was the War Dawn set that's supposed to be the SDCC exclusive. And no preorders for anything yet that I could find. BTW, if anyone happens to see G2 Grimlock at Walmart grab one for me.

Commander is the only class with a once-a-year release. Tonight we're looking at the other annual figure, Legacy Evolution Titan-class Nemesis. We're going to do this review backward, because reasons. The Ark was an interesting choice for Kingdom's Titan... they'd run out of the really big G1 characters, and the mainline hadn't really branched out from G1 yet. But as the ship they crashed into a volcano and the Autobots used for their home for the first two seasons, the Ark was sort of a character in its own right. Sure, it didn't transform in the cartoon, but why do robots that turn into vehicles need a larger vehicle? And even if they do, Omega Supreme, Jetfire, and Sky Lynx already set a precedent for the Transformers transportation also transforming. Who's to say that the Ark doesn't transform (although, with hindsight I might have argued that they could have done Animated-Universe Omega Supreme instead). With the Ark now existing in Titan form, it does make a certain amount of sense to do the Nemesis, too, despite being less well-known. Some background, I'm guessing most of you know that the Nemesis was the ship the Decepticons used to chase after the Ark. It, too, crashed on Earth, and its discovery in South America kicks off the season 2 episode "Microbots." It was also a plot element in the Beast Wars episodes "Nemesis" (parts 1 and 2), where Tarantulas actually discovers the Nemesis in the ocean and Megatron uses it to attack Mount Saint Hillary before Rhinox crashes a shuttle into it, presumably sending it crashing what would become South America. Unlike the Ark, the Nemesis was never the Decepticon's base. Rather, in the three-part "More Than Meets the Eye" series that kicked the cartoon off, the Decepticons were gathering materials to build a new ship to take them back to Cybertron. That ship, retroactively named the Victory, was sabotaged by Mirage and crashed into the ocean. It's the Victory that becomes part of the Decepticon's undersea home for most of the first two seasons. One of the design features of the Nemesis is that four wings oriented around the rear of the ship. Having them all here makes the toy accurate in that sense (and probably works fine in the void of space), but chances are you're going to want to sit this thing flat. We can do this by splitting the bottom wing and splaying it out. What I find interesting is how similar the designs of the Nemesis and the Victory were. Both have the four winged arrangement, primary hulls that taper toward the nose, canards on the front, rounded sections on the bottom, and conning towers or bridges opposite the round parts. That said, although it's a bit narrower and has a more hooked nose in the cartoon, the smoother hull, the rounded leading edge on the upper wing, the fins on the left and right wings, and the lack of engine pods above those wings definitely mark this ship as the Nemesis, not the Victory. The only element that doesn't really match the cartoon is the rear, which is depicted in "Microbots" as as having two engine bells set a bit apart from each other and a pair of fins in between. I can see why that element wouldn't really have worked here, though. Aside from a little trouble getting some panels to stay tabbed in place, I really dig the ship mode. Something about the shape in hand reminds me of a shark. So, accessories. Unlike the Ark, the Nemesis doesn't have a lot. Most disappointingly there's no smaller robot included as there has been with most of other Titans, including the Ark. But we shouldn't be surprised, last year's Legacy Metroplex also lacked a smaller robot despite the original coming with a Minicon. Anyway, what you do get is a gray sprue, and the sprue contains a trio of squarish triple-barreled guns, a trio of round double-barreled guns, and a quartet of tiny Seekers. To my knowledge, the Seekers are Thrust, Ramjet, Earthrise Starscream, and Siege Skywarp. To install the guns, the round ones go in a trio of pegs on top of the ship. Just behind them are two little cutouts for two of the square ones. The third square one goes on top of the bridge tower; there's actually two ports up there. The one in the front is for the guns, the one in the back is for the top of the tower, which isn't attached in the box. On the sides of the ship, behind the canards, you'll find little doors that flip up to reveal retractable gray platforms. The platforms have the Earthrise connectors we saw on stuff like Battlemasters, Prime's trailer, and various ramps on Omega Supreme, Scorponok, and Sky Lynx (but don't work with Trypticon, Fortress Maximus, or the Power of the Primes bases). These platforms have little bumps on them that allow you to attach the tiny Seekers. The platforms can be retracted while the Seekers are attached. There's also a ramp on the back. It also has the base connector, but it and the space inside are much smaller than the Ark's. You can toss a loose Seeker slug in there, but you may find that even a Micromaster is a cramped in there. Like the Ark before it, the Titan-class Nemesis was given a robot mode. The designers meant for her to be a bit more monstrous than the Ark, drawing her with long, spindly limbs and kind of a hunched posture. I'm not sure she needs to hunch. In some ways, the design has kind of grown on me. I dig the big, pointy shoulders, thin torso, and clawed hands. As the Ark's face was meant to be that of the Last Autobot from the Marvel comics, and the Last Autobot's face was designed to basically be the Autobot symbol, the designers wanted the Nemesis' face to be a Decepticon symbol. To avoid making her look like Tarn, though, they gave her face more of an armored design than a mask like Tarn's, with the middle of her brow being inspired by Starscream's crown from the '86 movie. She's got a few issues, though, that I think are a lot less excusable on a $200 toy of this size than they are on a $20 Deluxe or even a $30 Voyager. All of her wings when unfolded prove to be hollow on the inside/bottom. It's not exactly the end of the world for the wings coming off her calves, or the one that makes up her backpack, but some of those waffles are plainly visible on her shins and the sides of the canards facing forward on her shoulders. The kibble that folds back along her knees isn't the prettiest, but I can live with it. Worse is the flaps dangling off her elbows. $200 and the best they can do is have it rotate so it sweeps back a little? They couldn't double hinge it to fold up against her shoulders or anything? Nemesis' head is on a hinged swivel, with really good up/down range. The base is at an angle, though, so turning her head simultaneously gives it a sideways tilt. Her shoulders rotate on ratchets, nothing unusual there. What's a bit more unusual is the lateral movement. There's a ratchet inside the purple part, but it only moves a click or so laterally. A second, also-ratcheted hinge just above her elbow allows it to move out at that point, too, but even combined we're talking about just 45 degrees or so of range. If you want more, you can unlock the shoulders and use the transformation hinge to swivel the entire gray armature, but that joint is on the wrong side of the swivel. Moving on, her biceps swivel. Her elbows are double-jointed and bend 180 degrees combined, but both joints are friction joints. Her wrists swivel. The fingers and thumbs are hinged at the base, but they don't have any additional knuckles and all her fingers are one piece. Her waist swivels on a ratchet. Her hips ratchet forward about 90 degrees, backward a bit less than that due to kibble getting in the way, and laterally over 90 degrees if you can manage to get her arms out of the way. Her thighs swivel on ratchets, and if you move some kibble out of the way her knees bend on ratchets a little over 90 degrees. Her feet don't have any up/down tilt, but her ankles swivel on ratchets, and they have about 30-ish degrees of pivot. If you were keeping score, that's ratchets in her waist swivel, thigh swivels, and ankle swivels where they probably weren't strictly needed, but none in her elbows. Remember that. While the Ark is just supposed to punch stuff, I guess, Nemesis can actually arm herself. You can yank her canards off and wrap her fingers around them to give her comically tiny axes. Alternatively, you can pull the wings off her shins. One end has a barrel that flips out, and inside the edge there's a handle. The handle has tabs that plug into her palms, allowing her to turn the shin armor/wings into guns. But, remember those friction elbows? They can't really support the weight on of the guns on my copy. Her upper left elbow seems especially weak, even after I tried tightening the screw there. Not using a ratchet in at least one of the two elbow joints on either side is a serious design flaw, and my single biggest issue with the figure. As for the other accessories, they pretty much stay where they are. The round guns just chill on her chest and tummy. Two of the square guns wind up on the backs of her shoulders. Somewhat amusingly, the third square gun winds up pointed at the back of her own head. Maybe that's Megatron's failsafe for keeping her under control? It'd have been nice to have spots to redeploy them to be more useful in robot mode, but I can't really find any. As for the Seekers, they're in her forearms now. You can still open the doors and slide the platforms out, and it actually works even better in robot mode because there's a little slider you can use to move the platforms in and out. I think it safe to say I'm having somewhat mixed feelings about Nemesis. On the one hand, she does look kind of cool in bot mode, and I think they did a really good job attempting to capture that weird (presumably Floro Dery) G1 animation design in a package that also transforms into a robot. I'd go so far as to suggest that if you have the Ark you should probably go ahead and pick up the Nemesis as a companion piece. But if you don't have the Ark you're probably better off skipping the Nemesis. Like Metroplex, Nemesis has seen a price increase over the War for Cybertron Titans, including the Ark. That in and of itself wouldn't necessarily be a problem, but that price increase seems to be buying less actual toy. As noted, her wings are all hollowed inside, and aside from a few slugs she doesn't come with any accessories or smaller figures. While not noticeably different from Metroplex or the Ark, the plastic does feel thinner and bendier than Scorponok or Omega Supreme, and the lack of ratchets in her elbows drops her robot mode from a solid B to a C-. And it's at this point that I'll offer an opinion that's probably going to be a bit more well-received here than a certain Transformers message board I won't name- I think it's time for Hasbro to retire the Titan class. Consider the following points: 1. Hasbro's struggled to make Titans profitable. I don't know if they've admitted it openly, but I've heard as much from reliable inside sources. This has forced Hasbro to raises prices on the class, doubling from $100 to $200 since Thrilling 30 Metroplex ten years ago. That's way beyond impulse buy pricing, and while the success of the Masterpiece line has shown that adult collectors are willing to spend a lot on premium toys, "big" is not a synonym for "premium" and unfortunately the other way that Hasbro's tried to make Titans more profitable has been to reduce costs. I don't care how big she is, Nemesis doesn't feel like a $200 toy, and that's going to make people even more hesitant to buy. Anecdotally, I'll point out that you can still buy both of the previous Titans, the Ark and Metroplex, from sellers on Amazon for under $200. 2. Titans are kind of too big. I mean, yeah, guys like Metroplex and Fortress Maximus are supposed to be huge (unless we're talking Marvel comics), but even with fairly simple engineering just picking them up off the shelf and transforming them is a chore that requires a good bit of room. Speaking of room, not counting combiners like Predaking and Devastator, I've got nine Titans on display now, and they take up an enormous amount of space. I Black Zarak in a difference spot, but the other eight are on a table and they take up basically enough surface area for me to display the entire Season 1 cast in a combination of Deluxe, Voyager, and Leader (including Dinobots), plus Jetfire. On a shelf their vertical height would take up the same space as two shelves of smaller figures. 3. What really big characters are even left to make? I know Tidal Wave from Armada is often suggested, but I've heard that Hasbro is planning on doing Tidal Wave as a Commander-class and retaining the original toy's ability to interact with Megatron. If Hasbro wants to keep turning ships into robots I suppose you could do the Autobot shuttle, the Revenge, the Minnow, or the Quintesson ship from the '86 movie. Maybe the Axalon and the Darksyde from Beast Wars. I think as you go down the list of ships, though, interest in transforming Titan-class versions probably goes down (although I'd low-key love a toy of the Revenge). Beyond that, maybe the aforementioned Animated-universe Omega Supreme, and that's about all I could come up with. What I think Hasbro could/should do instead of Titans is do more Commanders. Again, there probably aren't a ton of robots big enough on their own to be a Commander (although, off the top of my head, Tidal Wave and Broadside). But Hasbro has shown that the Commander-class is a good price point for the torsos of combiners that can come with whatever kibble they need for the gestalt, characters that combine with part of their alt mode for a super mode (which alone could be another four Optimus Primes- Power Master, RiD 2000, Energon, and Cybertron), etc. Even if we start adding Commanders to Studio Series (as Hasbro is set to do when they announce Ultra Magnus this week) two a year seems like it'll take forever to cover every character that could benefit from the extra budget that the Commander-class affords.

Robosen Grimlock looks really good, but for $1500 I think I'd rather get a big curved ultra-wide monitor.

I have no attachment to the Omnibots. Didn't have them as a kid, and they had zero presence in the G1 cartoon or old Marvel comics. That and, well, it's XTB kept me from going in on these guys. But that Ferrari 512 alt mode, *chef's kiss*.

How's the QC? I feel like that's always a crapshoot with XTB.

As @sh9000 mentioned there's Legacy: The Art of Transformers Packaging by Jim Sorenson and Bill Foster and published by IDW. The catch is that it was released back in 2014 and it's out of print. I was lucky to pick up a used hard cover a few years ago for around $25 USD, but a quick search today has the paperback going for $50-$60 and hard covers over $100. If you can track down a reasonably-priced copy, though, it's probably what you want. If you can read Japanese or just want to look at the pictures, there's also The Art of the Transformers. Finally, it's not exclusively G1, and it's not limited to box art, but Jim Sorenson also released Transformers: A Visual History. I can't really comment on those last two, though, as I don't own them.

Evan had said as much a little while back, and it's my understanding (though I could be wrong) that it's not actually a preorder. It's been ready to go since Spring. Pulse is getting slammed right now (I guess because the Commanders and Titans are going out) so they might not ship right away, but you're technically ordering in-stock merchandise.

The non-super design is a pretty solid Optimus. I dunno if Hasbro will sell it separately or not, but I strongly suspect a trailer-less Nemesis version could be in the cards, as I believe the one that was in the Armada cartoon was the first official use of the name "Nemesis Prime." Besides, we got Siege Nemesis Prime, Nemesis Primal, Scourge, and Nemesis Leo. It'd be weird if we didn't get Armada Nemesis Prime.

And with Snarl covered, we can go back to Legacy Evolution, outside the curated waves to look at a once-a-year treat: Commander-class Armada Universe Optimus Prime. I've always been fond of Armada Optimus' design. Maybe part of it was that he was only the second new truck Optimus design after a few years of monkeys (on that note, I absolutely love RiD Optimus/Car Robots Fire Convoy and would love to see Hasbro do a new version of him, too). But I really do think there's a lot to like here. The head is very recognizably Optimus with the round ears, prominent brow, masked face, and forehead crest, but with a bit more modern anime designs like bigger blades on his ear antenna, more angular cheeks, and gold on his crest. He's got the Optimus color scheme: red on top, silver in the middle, blue on the bottom. He's got the prominent grill on his torso. But he's also got a bulkier design that kind of makes sense to me. Like, G1 Optimus is a data clerk who reluctantly became the Autobot leader, but Armada Optimus is like a more seasoned Optimus who's better outfitted to fight. The colors here are based on the Armada cartoon, which is to say he's got blue feet and silver/gray hands. To be fair, I think that's his most consistent portrayal (as well as the colors used in the PS2 game), but I personally would have preferred blue hands (like the Dreamwave comics and the original Super Base toy) or gold hands (the Shout Factory DVD cover or the Super-Con toy). I might be the minority there. Overall, it's a solid representation of the character, with my only real complaint being the visible super mode hands in his calves. And before we move on, here's a quick picture of Prime with the other Legacy Armada figures. Is scale an issue? You may have noted that he's just a bit shorter than Earthrise Optimus. My initial thought was that they were going to make Armada Optimus the same size as Earthrise Optimus because Hasbro seems to think that all Optimuses are the same, and I was under the impression that Armada Prime was meant to be a bit shorter, closer in height to the other Autobots. Looking at scale guides for Armada, though, Prime should be ever so slightly taller than Starscream (that checks out) and a bit more than a head shorter than Megatron (maybe slightly too tall, but close enough). It's actually Hot Shot that's way off, as he should be around Starscream's height. Huh. Moving along... Prime comes with a few accessories. You've got his gun, and the pipes on his arms are removable. You've got a Matrix, which is pretty standard for modern Prime figures but also, I'll note, a feature of the original Super Base toy. Then, of course, there's his trailer, which has pegs that fold out to support it when there's no cab. What you won't find (but isn't surprising after three other Legacy Armada releases) is a Minicon. For a Commander, Prime's articulation is a bit limited. His head's on a ball joint and can look up slightly and tilt sideways a good bit, but he can't really look down. His shoulders rotate and can move laterally, but once again Hasbro's committed the sin of putting the lateral joint on the wrong side of the rotation, so cannot both raise his arms and spread them at the same time. His biceps swivel, as do his wrists. His elbows are double jointed and can bend nearly 180 degrees. He does not have a waist swivel, which is a bummer. His hip skirts move enough that his hips can ratchet forward 90 degrees and backward about 45, then friction laterally a little under 90 degrees. His thighs swivel, and his knees bend 90 degrees on ratchets... both the right way, and backwards. The front of his foot can tilt up and down, and his ankles can pivot 90 degrees. Prime can hold his rifle in either hand. It's my understanding that the pipes on the original Super Base toy (which I've personally never owned) could come off his arms and combine into a pistol. Well, Legacy Armada Op's pipes come off, but they don't combine. He can't use them like pistols, either, because the pegs are a bit short for him to really get a grip on. There are 5mm ports near the barrel of the rifle that the instructions indicate you can plug the pipes into for "Evo-Fusion." Yeah, I'm never doing that again. The Autobot badge on his back is actually a separate piece on a 5mm peg, and if you remove it and stick it elsewhere Prime has a 5mm port you can use to store his rifle on his back, per the instructions. Not that it looks so hot there. Aside from that, there are 5mm ports on either shoulder just below the wheels, on either forearm (if you removed the pipes), two on his butt flap, two on the bottom of each foot, and arguably one on each calf in the super mode hands. As for the Matrix, you simply open the front of his grill chest, and much like the G1 Matrices we've been getting there's a 5mm port on the back of the Matrix that fits onto a peg in his chest. Prime's trailer does unfold into a base mode sort of like the original Super Base toy, but as you can see it's not really as elaborate as the original toy. This is due to having very different engineering, but I suppose the general idea is still there. There are a few 5mm ports for attaching accessories, including Prime's rifle, but none of it is big enough for Prime to man the guns or anything. To be fair, while I theoretically like the idea of "the original had a base mode, so this toy should have one too" I rarely actually use base modes, so it's the mode I care the least about. I do care about truck mode, though! Armada Prime makes for a big truck. My first thought, based on the comparative size of the windshields, is that the older Super-Con figure (or the Cybertron repaint) scales better with Earthrise Optimus, but I saw a screen capture from the cartoon of Prime next to a car and he's enormous. I guess, in keeping with the notion of Armada Optimus as being a more seasoned soldier than G1 Optimus, Armada Optimus' truck mode is maybe more of a military vehicle than a civilian truck. In any case I can't compare with the old Super-Base toy, but I can say that transformation is very similar to the Super-Con toy. The back of Prime's truck mode seems a little long to me, like it should stop where the rear tires do. Perhaps because, unlike the Super-Con toy, his legs don't collapse at all during the transformation. That said, they do a pretty good job of not looking like legs, and despite being largely visible on top there are no fists hanging out the back like the original Super-Base toy. It's overall a pretty good, pretty cartoon-accurate truck. In keeping with the notion of Prime as a military truck he's certainly got an unconventional trailer. There's two containers on the sides that sadly, unlike the original toy, do not open up to store Minicons. The trailer rolls not on wheels but on treads. Again, not something you'd see on a civilian trailer, but it's shades of Star Convoy to me. There's three 5mm ports on top of the trailer where you can store the rifle, as well as two on either container on the sides of the trailer, one on the side and one underneath. I'm sure I'm not the only person to wonder, but can you swap trailers with Earthrise? Well, kind of. Earthrise Prime's trailer, already looking too small, is kind of ridiculous on Armada Prime. The peg on the trailer is smaller than the port it goes into, so Armada Prime can pull it but it won't stay attached if you pick him up. Meanwhile, Armada Prime's trailer has a larger peg that doesn't fit into Earthrise Prime's port. Even if it did, it's so recessed that it wouldn't reach. But, it turns out that the peg is just the right size to fit in the gap between Prime's legs, near his ankles. So it's basically the same situation, Prime can pull the trailer but it's not going to stay attached. There's no auto transforming gimmicks like the Super-Base toy had, but you transform Prime as above, with the just grill sticking out the back. Get the trailer into pants mode, then side the grill down into the treaded section on the pants. The red flap locks into Prime's shoulders, then the whole thing flips forward so the clips on the waist can lock Prime in place. And there we have Armada Prime's Super mode. He's a bit shorter than previous Commander-classes, as you can see with Jetfire and Menasor (although, to be fair, Menasor has the DNA kit which added a bit to his height, but I still think he was around Jetfire's size before). For better or worse, Legacy Armada Prime does a good job of capturing the look of the original. He's got the gold in the knees, hands, shoulders, pelvis, and head. He's got hte black feet and the bits of silver in the chest. He's got the blue cannons running up through his knees. Not really a cartoon detail, but he's got the big hinge on his waist that the original toy had. If I'm being honest, though, Armada Prime's super mode was never my favorite. I mean, I'm cool with Prime as a cab that combines with his trailer for a super mode. It's given us Power Master Optimus, which I like, and technically Ultra Magnus, of which I prefer toys that acknowledge that Diaclone origin. Still a fan of RiD Optimus/Fire Convoy. But the original Armada Optimus had the aforementioned auto transforming gimmick, and the cartoon was much more faithful to the toys than the old G1 cartoon, which lead to some unfortunate aesthetics like the chonky backpack and the enormous butt kibble. That being the case, I can't exactly ding Hasbro for accurately representing design just because the original had issues. And at least there's some effort to curl up and minimize the butt kibble. I think Powermaster Prime was fighting bigger Decepticons in the old Marvel comics, and I know Super Ginrai was meant to be a rival for Overlord in Japanese G1. Prime having a super mode in Armada that towered over even Megatron always seemed a bit unfair. That said, according to official sources the top of Megatron's head (not counting horns) should come up to the windows on the cab on Prime's chest. Looks like Hasbro nailed it. If there's one area where the original Super Base toy could be improved it's articulation. As far as I know, the original toy could swivel his head and had limited shoulders, biceps, and elbows., and absolutely no articulation from the waist down. Due to wiring for the electronics, the original Hasbro release was so limited he could even point his rifle straight forward. No such issues here! Prime's head is on a hinged swivel. Nothing really down, no sideways tilt, but he can look up a good bit. His shoulders can swivel on ratchets, and move laterally 90 degrees, also on ratchets. And unlike his non-super mode, this time he can raise and spread his arms at the same time. His biceps swivel, and his elbows bend on ratchets 90 degrees. His wrists swivel. His waist swivels, but it's below all of his waist armor including his pelvis flap. His hips can go forward 90 degrees and backward about 30 degrees on ratchets, and laterally a little over 90 degrees on a surprisingly loose friction joint. His thighs swivel, and his knees bend 90 degrees on ratchets. The front of his foot can tilt up, mostly due to transformation, but he's also got around 90 degrees of ankle pivot. Really, the only thing holding him back from the most dynamic poses is that he's a bit top/back heavy, and his hips only have friction joints for spreading. Prime's fingers have a hinge at the base, though they're all one piece. There's a molded 5mm port in both hands for him to hold his rifle, but it doesn't retract the way Jetfire's does. He's also got 5mm ports on top of his shoulder pads, one on his back, two on his butt kibble, one on the outside each of his lower legs just above his ankles, and one under each toe. I don't know if they're meant to be guns like the Super-Base toy, but you can fold out the supports on his knees and pretend they're cannons. Unlike his actual gun, though, they're not compatible with blast effects. Generally speaking, I think a younger generation of Transformers fans who grew up with the Unicron Trilogy are really going to dig this figure. The diminished base mode and lack of Minicon storage is a bit of a bummer, sure, but the tradeoff is a cartoon-accurate figure with far more articulation, especially in super mode, than the original. On a personal level, I do wish the base Prime figure could have been just a bit better- better shoulder articulation, waist articulation, and sides that locked into place, mostly, maybe a flap that hid the super mode hands. If you're a geewunner with no real interest in Armada I don't know that there's anything here to change your mind, but end of the day I'll recommend this figure as the best version of one of my favorite non-G1 Optimus designs.

Donnie's a legend around here. He's from Ellwood, which is a little west of Pittsburgh, and I'm from a little east of Pittsburgh.

Well, here's a figure that I think a lot of people have been anticipating, but also that a lot of people seemed to have gotten awhile ago. It's Studio Series 86 Leader-class Snarl! I feel like Hasbro's been doing a pretty good job getting the SS86 figures looking like the animation (that is, better than Earthrise/Kingdom/Legacy), and Snarl's no exception. 86 Snarl eschews PotP Snarl's more toy-inspired head for the horned bucket of the animation. The Autobot insignia on a black patch on his chest, the silver gunsight with the red outline, the vents on his shoulders, they're all cartoon-accurate. Other linework on the animation model's torso and shins is present here as well, but with additional greebles that fit the modern Transformers aesthetic that are definitely borrowed more from the G1 toy. The only thing I can really criticize here as not really cartoon accurate is his pelvis, but I think I prefer what we have here to the simple red diaper of the animation. Hasbro took advantage of the Leader-class budget to invest in engineering that cleans him up pretty well. Unlike the G1 toy or the PotP toy, there's no visible dino legs on the outsides of his legs, and no visible dino head hanging from the sides of his knees or lying on his calves. Really, the only dino kibble on him that isn't also present on the animation model (so we're not counting the split tail on his back or the plates on his back, collar, or shins) is the dino feet on the backs of his forearms. Here's a quick picture of Snarl with fellow quadrupedal Dinobots, and yeah. They look really good together. Kind of nuts Grimlock came out in '21 and Swoop isn't expected until '24. But we're almost there! Snarl's sole accessory is this sword. It's a bit rubbery, and painted silver. I guess it's fairly cartoon accurate, but I'm not sure how well it'll match with the various DNA/Nonnef ones I'd been picking up. To be fair to Hasbro, if you look at the Dinobots' appearances they're either not using weapons at all, or you see Grimlock, Slag, and Sludge with guns, Swoop with just the rockets on his wings, and Snarl with a sword. It's cartoon-accurate, but I'm sure I'll be looking for upgrades. Snarl's head is on a ball joint with a limited ability to look down or tilt his head sideways, and really no upward tilt. His shoulders rotate on ratchets, and can move laterally a bit over 90 degrees. His biceps swivel, and his elbows can bend a bit over 90 degrees on a single hinge. If you want to get more, there's a transformation hinge you can use to effectively make the elbow a double joint, but be aware that it's above the bicep swivel. Speaking of swivels, his wrists swivel, as does his waist. His hips can go forward or backward 90 degrees on ratchets, and 90 degrees laterally on friction hinges. His thighs swivel, and his knees bend a click past 90 degrees on a ratchet. His toes can bend down, and he's got 90 degrees of ankle pivot. Snarl can hold his sword in either hand. There's a second 5mm peg on the hilt that allows you to store the sword by plugging it into a 5mm port on his back. Additional 5mm ports can be found on his shoulders and in his heels, but as a Studio Series figure he's lacks the plethora you might find on a Legacy figure. I've transformed a couple of Snarls, and this one is surprisingly basic. There's no real shifting of the torso or shoulders like you might find on some others. His head tucks in, a panel on his back unfolds to cover his head and the black part of his chest, his tail folds closed, his waist rotates, and his legs fold up to form the front half of the dino mode. His front legs unfold from his calves, and the dino head comes out of his shins, but that's nothing I haven't seen in some 3P Snarls. But there is one interesting move. To turn his entire arm into just the thigh, his arms actually curl up and his forearms plug into his shoulders, with the dino feet and lower legs unfurling from his robot elbow. I quite like it. Aesthetically, the dino mode is pretty much exactly as you'd want. He's got the stumpy head with the blue eyes, surrounded by an indented area shaped like the linework around his eyes on the Sunbow models. He's got the gold forelimbs with the gray spots on the shoulders, the big gray hips and thighs with the gold shins and feet, the darker markings on his flanks with the bit of blue, etc. My gut reaction was to complain that his thagomizer only has two spikes (it actually does have four, the other two are just very small), but then I went back and really looked at the animation model. Two spikes is accurate. Snarl's Studio Series incarnation has better articulation than the PotP toy, but not by a ton. He can open his mouth, but that's the extent of his head articulation. His forelegs are actually on ball joints. They swivel at the shoulder and have the slightest outward movement. His elbows can bend a little backward and past 90 degrees forward. His robot shoulders become his dino hips, so they can still swivel on ratchets and move laterally past 90 degrees. The transformation locks the swivel, though. His dino leg is on a hinge that allows him to bend his knees about 90 degrees or so. His feet have up/down tilts and they can swivel, but he doesn't have any dino ankle pivots. The 5mm port on his robot back is available on his dino back, and the ones on his shoulders are on his dino hips. You might think you can just plug his sword into one of those ports, and you can. But if you look at his underside you'll find a pair of tabs under his neck. Those tabs fit into slots on the hilt of the sword (on the side without a 5mm peg), and allowing him to carry it more out-of-sight underneath him. Snarl's a well-executed figure that I don't have a lot to complain about. I mean, I guess it'd have been nice if the gold plastic on his feet, dino limbs, and dino head was painted, but it's not the end of the world for me. I do wish he came with a gun and not just a sword, but a lack of accessories has been a complaint going back to Grimlock. I suppose Snarl could use a few fillers in his robot and dinosaur feet, but it's not the bother than Grimlock's missing teeth were. Honestly, he's just a really good figure that I expect most fans will be quite pleased with. At this point my biggest complaint is really that we're still waiting on Swoop. Definite recommend.

It was being suggested that this might be the beginning of a new Toho Kaiju cinematic universe. I think I could go for that. I mean, thanks to the MCU the notion of a cinematic universe is a bit played out (and it's certainly not helped by DC, Universal Monsters, and Sony's Spider-Man failed cinematic universes), but like I said before I kind of miss the old Showa days when Mothra or Rodan could carry a film on their own before turning up in a Godzilla film. And I really miss the Heisei-era cohesion between films.

I could actually use Thundercracker, Hound, and Skywarp (I have Hot Rod, Shrapnel, and Perceptor already). But I guess I'll keep looking for vintage ones, because Walmart's are all wrong.

I wish they sick with the original G1 toy. I don't really get the appeal here. The charm of a reissue is that it's the same toy I had as a kid. If you change the colors to look more like the cartoon, it's not the toy I had as a kid anymore. If I'm after a toy that better resembles the cartoon I'll buy a modem toy that has better proportions and articulation.

Oh man do I hope this gets screened here. I'd love to see it on the big screen.

Yeah, but what kind of remastering? I mean, the Final Fantasy VII remake was entertaining enough, but it was doing the "I'm an action game now" thing before FFXVI came along. It's like I said to a friend the other day, Dragon Quest > Final Fantasy. Super stoked for that Dragon Quest III remake as well as Dragon Quest XII, but I'd love to see all of the mainline games prior to XI get a modern release (on PC, preferably).