mikeszekely

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).

I used a Beelink SER5 to build a Batocera box for a buddy of mine. Good stuff. Personally, I always thought of Intel's own NUC line as being a bit too much. Sure, they often had specs that outperformed a lot of the competing small form factor PCs on the market, but at some point you have to stop and ask "who is this for?" A little box for grandma to do emails (assuming grandma doesn't want a laptop for some reason), an HTPC, or a box for retro gaming doesn't always need the kind of hardware Intel was using, while creative professionals and PC gamers who are more inclined to spend more on hardware were probably spending it on hardware with a bigger discrete GPU.

I should have the ROM somewhere...🤔

Anthony Mackie is so good I almost want to watch this. Quite frankly, the dude deserves better than this.

Am I part of the younger crowd? I'm only 43. I dunno, you guys. I watched both eps on Max and I kind of dig it. I'm not familiar with Totally Spies, but a quick Google search doesn't seem to indicate any connections among the producers, production companies, animation studios, etc. In fact, it seems like most of Totally Spies work was done in France. I suppose it's possible that Warner Bros Animation/DC Studios hired former Zodiak Kids & Family Studios France writers. The animation for Superman seems to coming from Studio Mir, the same people who animated the Netflix Voltron cartoon.

I'll give FF16 a go when it comes to PC. I barely touch the PS5, and when I do it's for consoles. Pretty sure the last two things I played on it were GT7 and GoW Ragnarok, and that'll probably be it until Spider-Man 2. I was playing Diablo IV, and I think I'm about done with Act III. But my tabletop group started talking about playing Shadowrun 6e (protip: don't, play Shadowrun Anarchy instead). I was sort of vaguely aware that the setting is a bit like Cyberpunk but with a bit of fantasy tossed in, but to get a better feel for it I decided to play Shadowrun Returns, and it turned out to be so good that I haven't touched Diablo since installing Shadowrun Returns. I finished it this evening, though, so now the question is whether I go back and finish Diablo IV or if I jump straight into Shadowrun: Dragonfall.

So... got an email from Amazon saying they shipped the Ratbat/Megatron "Rise of Tyranny" pack. Which means that means that what I actually received was the "Heroic Origin" pack containing Senator Shockwave and "Data Clerk" Orion Pax. Once again, I feel like the least interesting figure in the set is the Senator. I mean, if you're not familiar with the IDW continuity maybe it seems a bit nuts that the guy in the middle there is supposed to be the same guy as the one on your left. Well, after Orion Pax storms a Senate session after being attacked by criminals in the employ of one Senator, another unnamed Senator (mostly white with blue and gold accents) would have Pax repaired, with the new addition of space in his chest for the Matrix (The Transformers Vol. 2 #23). Pax was seen meeting a Senator again, presumably the same one as he was identical save for the gold being replaced with a pale green, to discuss the Senator's suspicion that the Senate colluded with Sentinel to have Nominus Prime murdered (More Than Meets the Eye #9). In the very next issue, Pax and an unnamed Senator, indicated to be the same one but with a different chest and a red, white, and blue color scheme, uncover a Senate plot to bomb Nominus' funeral and blame it on the nascent Decepticon movement. While Pax was foiling the bomb plot agents of the conspiracy captured the Senator and subjected him to Empurata, a form of Cybertronian punishment where one or both hands are replaced with less functional claws and, in extreme cases, one's face is replaced with a simple mono-eye to mark the victim as an outcast. The Senator was also subjected to a Shadowplay, an officially illegal but unofficially still used method of reprogramming a troublesome individual's personality, and it's ultimately revealed that this Senator was Shockwave (More Than Meets the Eye #10-11). Presumably Shockwave's appearance is based on those latter two issues, based on the colors and the shape of the chest. For the most part the colors are in the right spot, and the new chest, head, and crotch are accurate to the comics, although the arms, hips, and legs borrowed directly from the Siege Seeker mold are somewhat less so. The only other new parts are his wings. This explains why the stacks on his back are straight instead of angled forward as they are in the comics- they're just carried over from the Seeker mold. But I find the wings curious because Shockwave didn't have any in the comics, aside from the ones on his arms. The Siege Seeker wings would be inaccurate, but the new wings are equally inaccurate. Speaking of the wings on his arms, Shockwave loses the rifles that the Siege Seekers came with, which is fine since he didn't have any in the comics, and instead gets wings. They have hinges and are simply plugged into the 5mm ports on his arms, and they do not have to be removed for transformation. They're a bit smaller than they appear in the comics, but they'll do. Since they're attached via pegs you can rotate them; Alex Milne apparently intended for them to be able to rotate to be used as arm blades weapons. Shockwave's pre-Empurata alt mode wasn't depicted in the comics, but since he's more or less the Siege Seeker mold he turns into something similar to a Siege tetrajet. Well, the new wing parts form massive engine pods instead of wings, and his new arm blades make up what little wings he's got. It's not my favorite. The tiny wings coming out near the bottom and the massive pods give Shockwave a less cohesive look. That said, I appreciate that they attempted to make Shockwave visually distinct from the Seekers (and therefore hope that the Nacelle figure that will be released later in the line is either the original unmodified Siege Seeker mold or, even better, the Earthrise Seeker mold with Thrust's wings. Senator Shockwave comes with "Data Clerk" Orion Pax. He's, somewhat interestingly, a retool of Siege Hound. He's got a new head, a new chest, and new lower legs and feet, but everything else is direct from Hound. And it's kind of a weird choice. I mean, it's not the first time we've gotten an Orion Pax figure. It wasn't that long ago that we got a remold of SS86 Kup designed to look like the goofy Orion Pax design seen in the Sunbow cartoon episode "War Dawn." It was quite a bit longer ago that we got a Generations Orion Pax, based on his appearance in the Spotlight: Orion Pax one-shot. Technically, although I don't own one, the Leader-class Optimus Prime from Power of the Primes had a cab that turned into Orion Pax, too. Generally-speaking, Orion Pax has been colored pretty similarly to Optimus Prime, so the first thing that stood out to me about this new Pax figure is the blue pelvis and gray hands. I read an interview that claimed that the designer wanted this figure to be an amalgamation of the various versions of Orion Pax, and this unusual color scheme is an homage to Pax's appearance in Transformers Prime. The amalgamated Orion Pax doesn't actually make sense, though. I mean, Senator Shockwave is very clearly meant to be the one you see in MTMTE #10-11. You'd reasonably expect then that the included Orion Pax would be the same Orion Pax that appeared in those comics... the Orion Pax that MMC's Optus Pexus figure (left) is based on. And it seems they started off headed in that direction with the remolded chest... but they didn't remold the torso under it, so he's missing his grill and most of the red color he should have. They should have kept his pelvis silver and painted his hands blue instead. No wheels in his shoulders, no forearm guns. Am I being too pick? After all, it's a retool, not a new mold? Well, despite having remolded legs, he lacks the vents and pipes. And despite having a new head it's based on the one from Spotlight: Orion Pax not the mouth-plated head we see in More Than Meets the Eye. Plus there's the whole fact that IDW Orion Pax, the Pax that was friends with Senator Shockwave, wasn't a little data clerk who grew after getting the Matrix. Orion Pax was a cop, already as big as Megatron and Shockwave. So not only is this Hound retool pretty off target, he's way too small. Instead of a comic-accurate rifle Pax comes with the same rifle with the removable back that Hound came with. He loses Hound's shoulder cannon, though. Instead he gets an axe, and the axe is also kind of weird to me. Pax didn't use an axe in Spotlight: Orion Pax, but the old Generations toy came with one. This Pax gets also new axe, despite not using an axe in his other appearances as Orion Pax in IDW. And even though the axe seems mostly new, the blades seem to have been copied from the translucent parts of the older Pax axe. In any case, while Pax can hold the axe by the handle, there's a pair of 5mm pegs that can be used to store the axe on Pax's back. Pax's new chest, legs, and feet plus a newly-revealed remolded windshield mean that Pax's alt mode should look quite a bit different than Hound's, and on close inspection you really do notice the differences. But unfortunately with the same rear-mounted engine and broadly similar shapes Pax still looks like a jeep, all too similar to Hound and really not at all like he appears in the comics. Sunbow Pax didn't transform, so who's to say that his Kup-esque mode is inaccurate? As for Generations Pax, the lines are a bit more Earth truck than they appeared in the comics, but it's mostly right, meaning that "data clerk" Orion Pax might be the least-accurate Pax you can buy. The mish-mash of the accurate chest with the inaccurately remolded head and legs, not-remolded arms sans arm guns, and the bizarre decision to color him like Prime Orion Pax make this my least favorite Pax figure. But the real kicker is that Hasbro seems very aware that this figure is too small and too inaccurate to adequately represent "Supercop" Orion Pax, and one of the team (Evan, I think) went so far as to suggest they were limited by budget this time but that a more faithful version of this Orion Pax could come at a later date. Ultimately, then, my recommendation for this set is the opposite of the other- unless you really want Senator Shockwave, you should probably skip this set and get a different Orion Pax for your collection.

Bmac, Evan, and Delaney from Pulse are going to be doing a panel at SDCC on Thursday the 20th with some reveals. The only hints they've given about what's to be revealed is that there will be some Generations exclusives, some more Studio Series figures for Rise of the Beasts, and they'll be showing the first Commander-class figure in the Studio Series line. The Generations stuff could be a few more Amazon exclusives. Megatron/Ratbat and Pax/Shockwave are not the only comic-inspired packs. I'm told we can expect Nacelle from the Siege Seeker mold (possibly with the same modifications as Shockwave), a two-pack of Javelin and Kaskade (no idea what they might be remolded from), and a heavy retool of Siege Magnus/Galaxy Upgrade Prime as Nova Prime. What's more, sources tell me that Nova Prime at least has already arrived at US ports from the factory and could be in customers' hands before summer is out. The Generations stuff could also be the War Dawn pack that leaked awhile back in Canada. It's actually be ready to go for awhile, but someone (Bmac?) said they were holding it for SDCC. I'm not sure about the ROTB SS reveals, I mean, who's left? I think Wheeljack, Nightbird, Stratosphere, Apelinq, and those Scorponoks are the only robots left that don't have Studio Series release. Now that I think about it, I'd love a Nightbird that's a lot better than the mainline Deluxe. Now, with the mention of new ROTB SS reveals and a first-ever reveal of a Commander-class in SS you might be thinking, "well, it's obviously Stratosphere, right?" Nope. Stratosphere was a kind of a blink-and-you'll-miss-him character, and Hasbro knows that higher price points tend to be less impulse buys for kids who saw the movie and more objects for adult collectors. They're apparently not willing to risk it on Stratosphere. There's an outside chance it could be Devcon from Dark of the Moon... apparently there is a small but passionate group of Bayverse fans who've been clamoring for Devcon, and work was started on a Leader-class toy, but the parts count got too high and it ran over budget. That said, I'm like 95% sure it's going to be Studio Series 86 Ultra Magnus, a figure I've known to be in development for awhile. I don't know if it'll be an all-in-one transformation like the MP or the old Generations figure, or if it'll have a transforming cab and armor like the G1/Siege/Kingdom toys, but expect a more screen-accurate alt mode than the Kingdom toy.

If they'd have just taken the metallic pelvis, thighs, face, and cab stripe and kept the rest of regular MP-44 (including the blue eyes) I think I'd have really liked it, but as a real toy deco I don't feel like it did enough. Should have ditched the yellow on the pelvis and used blue on his face for the parts that aren't the mask. But I digress, I wasn't really a fan of MP-44's design and engineering in the first place. Anyway, I can finally finish up Legacy Evolution Wave 3 with Leader-class Armada Megatron. Hmm... I've noticed watching the Hasbro Pulse streams that a lot of the Transformers team is younger than I am. Does that explain the attention post-cartoon G1, Machine Wars, G2, etc gets from the team while guys like Gears languish, forgotten? Does that explain why Siege/Earthrise Megatron, aka G1 Megatron, is smaller than movie Megatron, than Beast Megatron, and now Armada Megatron? Generally speaking the Unicron Trilogy animation was much more faithful to the toys than G1 was, and Evolution Megatron is very close to the original toy aesthetically. He even retains the weird left hand of the original toy, although that toy's hand was like that to accomodate a knife gimmick that this toy lacks. I might point out that the purple used here is a bit less blue that the original toy, but that seems to match the animation better. He retains the asymmetrical forearms and lower legs, and the same orange accents as the original toy. Most of the criticisms I think I actually have with this figure, like the big ol' tank barrel just sticking out of his back, is really an issue of the source material, not this figure. That said, he loses the Minicon pegs the original toy had, but seems to have picked up a few more 5mm ports to use with more modern Siege Micromasters. There's one on either forearm, one on the outside of each shoulder, one on the back of each shoulder, one on the outside of each leg, one on his back behind the turret, one on his back on the turret, and one under each foot. Speaking of Minicons, as was the case with Starscream and Hotshot Megatron doesn't come with one That makes his sole accessory this cannon. It's actually the end of his tank barrel. Megatron's head is on a ball joint that swivels but is fairly limited in its up/down/sideways tilt. His ears are a rubbery plastic and are simply pegged into the sides of his head; they come off way too easily. His shoulders swivel, but the range is limited. If you open the purple flaps he can swivel from straight down to 90 degrees, that's it. They have the clearance on the sides to move 90 degrees laterally, though, and his biceps swivel. His elbows bend a bit over 90 degrees, and his wrists swivel. His waist swivels, and he's got a swivel under his chest, too. His hips go 90 degrees forward and 45 degrees backward on ratchets, then over 90 degrees laterally on friction hinges. His thighs swivel, and his knees bend 90 degrees on ratchets. His feet have a bit of downward tilt due to his transformation, and he's got 45 degrees of ankle pivot. If you fold either of his hands in for transformation you'll notice that the other side has a 5mm peg. You can use this to attach the end of his tank barrel like a Shockwave-esque gun hand. Not something the original toy did, I don't think, nor something he did in the cartoon. But I like that it gives him some kind of weapon, and I like that removing it from the rest of the barrel leaves him without as much tank barrel sticking out from behind him. If you don't want it on the rest of the barrel but also want him to have both hands you can open the side of either tank-tread-shoulder and tuck it inside. It'll be loose in there, but it won't fall out. Although, like the original toy, you can angle the turret on his back so that the barrel can fold forward, under his armpit. Or, again like the original toy, his entire midsection can rotate around, bringing the tank's turret to the front. For a Leader-class toy Megatron's transformation is rather uncomplicated. I didn't have the original toy, but I imagine it's gotta be pretty similar. His wrists fold in, then his entire arms fold up into the treads on his shoulders, which then shift up and in slightly. His waist rotates 90 degrees, then his hips kick out beyond 90 degrees and panels on the sides of his legs so they can bend inward below the knees. His heels and toes bend down 90 degrees, and that's about it. As with the robot mode, the tank is mostly very accurate to the original. The exposed head on the front, hip joints on the rear, and shoulders on the sides all carry over from the original toy. Most of what did change I don't really mind. There's less orange on his one front tread, and the side of his turret doesn't have the weird bend in it. There's also a plate that unfolds from inside his chest to cover his face. What I'm less keen on, though, is that the firing missiles of the original toy are permanently molded into the launcher on the side of the turret, with little posts for Siege blast effects. It's not the end of the world, but it takes what was more like a missile launcher and essentially says, "no, it's a gun." Although, maybe that's how they did it in the cartoon? I can't remember. The turret can rotate, and the barrel can be aimed up and down. The gun on the side can also be aimed up and down. He's got wheels in his treads, so he rolls. If you want you can jam a Micromaster between his ears, although they're likely to fall out of if you try. And that's about it, which is really where my biggest disappointment with this figure lies. The sides of his legs, at the back of the tank, do not open; on the original one side butterflied open to reveal a little storage space, and the other opened into a ramp with a claw. A painted orange stripe on one of the front treads is all that references a ladder-like panel with a Minicon peg that unfolded from the original. The other front tread has a trio of molded and painted hatches, but they don't open as they did on the original toy. Yeah, I know I was just advocating for less gimmicks. And yeah, inflation and all that... but is this really all we get for a Leader-class's $55 price point these days? No firing missiles and no Minicon/Micromaster I can live with, but he couldn't even get the parts count to open the doors on his legs? It honestly feels like I've spent a lot of time on Legacy and Evolution claiming that I'm cool giving non-G1 Transformers fans their time while complaining about G1-ified updates like Animated Prowl or Prime Arcee. It's nice when they do a figure like Megatron, then, where the aesthetic already works and we wind up with a accurate update on the original with more modern articulation. And, limits of the shoulders aside, that's what we've got with Megatron. The worst thing I can say about Megatron is that his tank mode is missing some of the gimmicks of the original toy, but the fact remains that even without them we've got a solid figure, in-scale, that can pose with any and all of your post-Siege Transformers, and ultimately I do really dig him. Now, being that I didn't collect the Armada toys back in the day I really couldn't care if they update every figure from that line, but as someone who played the PS2 game and watch the cartoon I think I would like it if they at least did Cyclonus and Demolisher (and maybe a Titan-class Tidal Wave). I'm going to give Megatron a recommend.

It'll be decoed like the original G1 toy. Think yellow eyes, silver or chrome on the pelvis and thighs, maybe some tampos on the forearms and knees that look like the original's stickers. Blue stripes on the trailer, if they include it.

I was going to finish wave 3 of Evolution, but leave it to FedEx to say they were going to deliver today, miss today, and claim they're going to deliver tomorrow now (while having the temerity to say that it's "on time"). So OK, here's the Amazon/Pulse-exclusive Transformers Evolution Rise of Tyranny pack (that you will only get if you order the other one). So first up we have Senator Ratbat, based on his appearance in Megatron Origin. Like Alpha Trion, he's a retool of Studio Series 86 Scourge, and I guess it kind of works for him. To be totally fair, Ratbat is in maybe two or three pages total, and you really only see him from the waist up mostly. What's more, of the appearances he has, he's colored somewhat inconsistently. What I can say is that he's got a new head, the front of his torso, new shoulders and biceps, and a new pelvis, and for the most part they capture the design seen in the comics... except sometimes his shoulders are gold, as if part of the ornamentation on his chest, and sometimes not. And the purple on his waist is either his waist... or it's his pelvis. It's unclear from the art, but his forearms do appear to be rounded in the comics, with purple biceps and forearms and black hands, so there's that. What little you can see of his legs appears blockier in the comics, but I guess Scourge's legs are close enough. I'd say the biggest deviation is his wings, which here are just Scourge's, lacking even the bit of retooling that Alpha Trion got. In the comics his wings are a bit more like G1 Divebomb's. They don't sit higher than his shoulders, and each wing is essentially a base attached to his back with three long "feathers". Ratbat comes with the the same gun as Scourge and Alpha Trion. And he probably has the same gun because it's the one that's designed to plug into the side of his alt mode, which again like Alpha Trion is 90% Scourge's. The entire difference comes down to a narrow section in the middle, from his head and collar to the two panels directly in front of it. And, again, I guess that's fine. I know that there are some that aren't a fan of the soap-brick shape, although 7 year old me thought it seemed kind of futuristic (but not as cool as Cyclonus' swish jet mode). I'd have preferred if he could have had some kind of bat mode, but hey, at least they didn't try to retool Power of the Primes Mindwipe again. The real star of the show is Megatron. Like Ratbat, he's based on Megatron's appearance as an energon miner in Megatron Origin. It's a retool of Siege Megatron, but I'd say that the Siege Megatron mold lends itself to this version of Megatron better than Scourge does to Ratbat. He's a new head, shoulders, and the front of his torso, and Milne's design already had stuff like the treads on his back and the same. I could argue that the gray they used for his darker parts should be a bit darker, his shoulders a bit rounder, that he could use some extra plates on his forearms, or that they could have remolded his pelvis, too, but that feels a bit like nitpicking for what's ultimately a retool. Especially because his head is brand new. I mean, remember when Combat Hero Megatron was released back in the day? People noted then than CH Meg's head was a different sculpt than Siege Megatron's, and a bit more like Milne's with the chin strap, the armor on the brow, and the linework on his forehead. But no, Hasbro went and made an entirely new, even more accurate head. Unlike Ratbat, Megatron has some new accessories. You've got a mount, a drill, a pickaxe, and a handle. The pickaxe isn't just a mining tool, it's the pickaxe that Megatron threw at Senator Decimus in Megatron Origin #1. The idea is that the drill goes into the mount, and then the mount goes onto his forearm (even though he never had a drill in the comics), in place of a fusion cannon. The pickaxe goes into the handle, so he can carry it in his hand. Or, both can be stored on his back, although doing so will make him a bit back heavy. Which reminds me... the knees. If you open the insides of his legs, as you do for transformation, take a look at the knee joint. If it's assembled properly, it'll look like this, with a notched end at the front of the knee and the little circle on the back. Feel free to check your other Megatrons and see. Now, mine didn't come like this. It came with the circle at the front and the cutout at the back. He might seem ok like this. His knee still bends just fine, and you can even transform him. But, he won't be able to straighten his knee all the way, and this combined with the weight of his backpack makes him prone to tipping. Fortunately, it's a pretty easy fix. Remove the screw that runs through the knee, then take his lower leg off and set it aside. To get the actual joint off you'll have to push a pin out. The pin should be knurled at the front of the thigh, so push from the back to the front to remove the pin. Don't worry, this is one of the easier pins I've had to remove. Once you have the knee joints removed, just swap them to the opposite thighs, shove the pins back in, then screw the lower legs back on. Anyway, with the knees fixed it's time to transform him. Now, Siege Megatron turned into a tank, and this is a retool of Siege Megatron, so he's still a tank. Of course, Siege Megatron's sword and fusion cannon made up part of the turret and barrel, and this Megatron doesn't have those. So Hasbro tried to get creative. The new shoulders have slots on the sides instead of 5mm ports, and the handle to the pickaxe has tabs that lets it lock in between his shoulders. This isn't exactly ideal, though, because it leaves a bit of negative space at the back and doesn't really lock his forearms into place at all. With the head of the pickaxe removed, you have a 5mm port that you can plug the mount and drill into, and Miner Megatron becomes a kind of drill tank. It's not the prettiest, but we don't really see Miner Megatron transform in the comics, and the bot mode is pretty on point, so I think we'll allow it. The turret even can still rotate, although the drill can't move up/down. And the best Hasbro could come up with for storing the head of the pickaxe is to plug it randomly into one of the four 5mm ports on the sides of the treads. I can't help but think if they'd remolded the forearms a little more, put some slots on them, they could have put taps on the pickaxe and attached it on top of the turret, to the forearms, hiding some of that negative space and locking the forearms together better. Alas, you win some, you lose some. These comic packs are undoubtedly not for everyone. If the Sunbow cartoon was the extent of your fandom then these IDW designs might be a bit meaningless to you. And despite my great love for the old Marvel comics, where Fuel Auditor Ratbat ran the Decepticons for a time, I don't think a remolded Scourge is going to get anyone too excited. That said, I think this pack is probably worth it for Megatron. I mean, I don't have the other pack yet and I've already got two Orion Pax figures. Why not have a pre-war Megatron, especially when he's arguably better than the original figure they remolded?

Hasbro should know that I'm available to hire to run their Transformers division, and I can start immediately. I don't have a ton of experience running a brand, but I have a lot of ideas that seem to resonate with other fans... stuff like "Don't screw up Breakdown," "Scourge should be colored the same as the animation," "what if, before we get into the really obscure G1 deep cuts, we did a Deluxe-class Gears?" and "what if, instead of making up a bunch of new Junkions to push a gimmick, we just made a Deluxe-class Gears?"

OK, so far we've looked at the new Core figures, plus Deluxe-class Beachcomber. We can finish up the rest of the Wave 3 Deluxes with a Repaint Roundup. OK, so first up we have Devcon. Devcon kind of feels like someone at Hasbro is trolling us. "Oh, G2, some Armada guys, and weird G1-ified versions of Transformers Prime characters aren't doing it for you, you're Sunbow G1 only? Well, we still don't have a new Gears for you, but this guy is Sunbow G1!" And, appearing in the second season episode "The Gambler," Devcon is indeed a Sunbow G1 character... one that existed as a quick throwaway design that was never seen again. He appeared in 3H's comics and a hand-painted version of Beast Machines Mirage was shown at Botcon 2001 as a potential convention figure for Botcon 2002, but it seems he lost the vote and wouldn't get a figure at all until 2014's Botcon, where he appeared as a slight retool of Generations Scourge. Once again, Devcon doesn't rate a totally new mold, and here he's a retool of Studio Series 86 Blurr. However, this time he's a much more extensive retool. Near as I can tell, he's got the same hips and thighs, the same feet, maybe some same parts of his inner torso... and that's about it. He's sporting a new torso, new head, new pelvis, entirely new arms, new lower legs, and a new backpack. I have to admit, I'm a bit impressed. The result is a figure that very accurate to the cartoon, and I'm reasonably sure that at the time nobody expected to make an actual transforming figure out of that design. I do have some notes. First, his hands definitely should have been silver. The round thing on his head should be longer and pointier. He technically shouldn't have any backpack, and the red fins on his forearms aren't cartoon-accurate. But I guess there have to be some concessions to a transformation.' Devcon comes with new accessories. There's a blaster that's similar to the one he has in the cartoon, but for the two 5mm ports on it. There's also a pair of red boosters. Hasbro's instructions seem to suggest plugging the red boosters into the 5mm ports on the gun, then having him hold the gun in his hand. And, sure, you can do that if you want. But for cartoon accuracy, leave the boosters off the gun and plug the gun into his right forearm instead of having him hold it. Then you can stow the boosters out-of-sight, either on his back like a jetpack (which I don't really care for, because it sticks out that much further behind him) or the 5mm ports on his calves (my preferred storage). Articulation is basically the same as Blurr. The only noteworthy difference is that you could kind of get wrist swivels on Blurr, if you didn't mind swiveling the vehicle kibble on the backs of his arms with it, while Devcon simply does not have wrist articulation. Devcon's transformation is basically Blurr, but simpler. His hands swivel into his forearms to reveal boosters, much like Kingdom Cyclonus. His arms do not shift, they simply peg into his folded up-legs (which lack a fold-out antenna). His backpack folds up over his head to form the nose of the vehicle, but with an extra flap that covers his robot chest. Said robot chest does not swivel into windshield the way Blurr's does, nor does his abs unfold to make a seat. Again, despite being a retool of Blurr, the alt mode is pretty cartoon accurate. His arms really do just run along the sides in the cartoon, although the boosters should extend all the way to the back. The rear does have the raised section (although a touch of silver paint on the vents would have really sold it), and the red boosters help finish the look. The nose has the silver gun/antenna thing sticking out the front, and the flap covering his chest has the silver and red details in the right spot. It's a shame that the flap couldn't cover more, though. The vehicle in the animation has a more continuous form, but here we have a divot where his abs are showing and gaps between his waist and forearms where we should have an unbroken sheet of blue. For the record, his silver gun does plug into the underside of the nose for storage. So yeah, Devcon. I mean, he's technically Sunbow G1, and he's a surprisingly good retool. There's definitely a segment of the fandom that's thinking, "Finally, I've been waiting almost 40 years for a toy of this guy!" and I think those people are going to be pretty happy with this figure. That said, I think when a lot of geewunners say they're Sunbow-only, they mean the characters that appeared in the cartoon with some regularity as part of Optimus Prime's (or Rodimus Prime's) Autobots and had toys back in the '80s (with the exception of Arcee, who only didn't have a toy because the executives at the time thought we wouldn't play with a girl character). And I'm guessing that a lot of people in that second group are thinking, "we got this guy but Cosmos was a shortpacked Walmart exclusive, and the last time we got a figure for Gears was almost a decade ago?" Speaking of characters we're getting instead of the ones we actually want, next up we have Axlegrease, a retool of Scraphook. Nominally, she's a Junkion and has the same gimmicks as the others. (Hasbro, if you're reading this, for the love of Primus no more break-apart gimmick characters taking up Deluxe slots, please!) That said, the design team concerned that we'd wind up with too many Autobots, so they made Axlegrease a Decepticon and gave her a different color scheme. I dunno, I'm just not buying her as a Junkion. While it's possible that the Planet of Junk had other tribes with different values than Wreck-Gar's gang, they struck me as more homogenous than the Autobots and Decepticons, rusty-looking bikers content to follow Wreck-Gar, who himself was an ally of the Autobots but not really an Autobot himself. Purple-and-blue Decepticon Junkions don't fly with me. That said, as a purple-and-blue Decepticon who is NOT a Junkion, I don't have any problems with her. Heck, with a different head I'd have accepted her as Shadowstriker... I get that the Wave 4 Shadowstriker homages an older Universe toy, but this figure bears about as much resemblance to the Cyberverse character as that one does. And in any case, Axlegrease is another fairly extensive retool (but not as much as Devcon). She share's some of Scraphook's torso, his shoulders and biceps, his fists, his wheels, his pelvis, some of his backpack, and some joints, and some of his feet. She's got partially new feet, new legs from the thighs down, a new head, new forearms, and a some of her backpack is new. We've got some new accessories, too. She's got new engine block pistols, and new cannons in place of Scraphook's shield and tow arm. She retains his exhaust pipes and, weirdly, the actual tow hook. I think Axlegrease's engine parts actually make for better-looking pistols than Scraphook's, and I'm glade that there are options for where to stick the exhaust pipes to help keep her visually distinct from Scraphook. The real stars are the new cannons, which kind of cover her fists in a manner similar to recent movie designs that turn their arms into Mega Man-style busters, although the barrels slope downward. The hook just seems random. She's got lots of 5mm ports where you could stick it, it's just none of them seem "right." Articulation is the same as Scraphook's, for better or worse. I mean, it's mostly fine, but the shoulders bug me. Transformation is the same as Scraphook, but as you can see the retooled backpack, legs, and engine block makes her a muscle car instead of a pickup truck. However, you'll recall that they have the same shoulders and biceps, which means that their rears are actually very similar. This is where the new cannon accessories come into play. They sit in the back, with bits of them forming the rear windows, and what was a truck bed is suddenly a rear-mounted engine. A second engine. Or something like that. I dunno, what am I, a mechanic? Again, though, the hook just seems like a weird addition. Actually, between the hook and the spikey muscle car alt mode, I'm kind of surprised that this is a new female "Junkion" and not Lockdown. Well, ultimately Axlegrease is OK-ish. I like her better than Scraphook, but she's not really a Junkion to me, and she's arguably the least-necessary character in a pretty disappointing wave. How disappointing? Well, so disappointing that the fourth Deluxe is a package refresh of Tarantulas. Don't get me wrong, if you missed him the first time Tarantulas is worth picking up. But because he was worth picking up, you probably bought him a year ago. So, for those of you keeping score, that's one refresh, two retools, and only one totally new Deluxe-class figure. Actually, it gets worse. We can cover the Voyagers in this Repaint Roundup, too, because one of them is Dirge, another package refresh. And the other is Nemesis Leo Prime. Unlike Devcon and Axelgrease, Nemesis Leo Prime isn't even a retool, just a straight repaint. There is, at least, precedence for this one, though. Arriving in 1998's Beast Wars II, Copy Convoy (as he was called in the anime) is the original black Prime repaint. That's right, before Car Robots Black Convoy became Scourge, before Micron Densetsu Black Convoy gave us the name "Nemesis Prime" in Armada, and long before G1 Prime would get his own black repaint, Copy Convoy here started the trend. And here Legacy Evolution Nemesis Leo Prime does go for anime accuracy, as he's mostly gray with black accents (where the original toy was mostly black with a gray mane). Too much of the figures details are washed out in all that gray, and I think he looks a bit bland next to his standard counterpart. I also can't help but notice that he gets anime-accurate grays and teals, but when Scourge turned up in the Velocitron subline they ditched his own grays and teals for a more generic "Nemesis" black and red, and I'm still super bitter about that. Nemesis Leo Prime comes with the same two missiles and two little pistols that regular Leo Prime did, in black instead of gold, though. Additionally, he's got two more pistols that can combine into a larger rifle that seems to be molded as generic blaster used by many Maximals in the series (aka the one that came with MP Lio Convoy). Now I'm kind of bummed that Leo Convoy didn't get one of his own. But there's a catch! Nemesis Leo Prime can still store the longer missiles in his back/backpack, but that leaves him with just the spots in his mane to store the other weapons. You can store the little pistols, same as regular Leo Prime, or you can break apart the Maximal Blaster and store the separate parts in the mane, but not both. As a straight repaint, Nemesis Leo Prime's alt mode is what you'd expect- gray instead of white, with teal claws instead of gold, and a black mane and tail instead of yellow. The one difference worth noting is that he's got painted eyes, which helps the lion look less goofy. I mean, the long, thin face and missing teeth still look pretty goofy. But at least he has eyes! Like Tarantulas, if you missed Dirge you should probably pick him up. And hey, at least this is the first time he's being offered at regular retail. Pretty sure he was an Amazon-exclusive with Ramjet last time. As for Nemesis Leo Prime, if you're into evil black clones of Prime then he should scratch that itch, and unlike Nemesis Primal, G1 Nemesis Prime, or Rodimus Unicronus Nemesis Leo Prime is at least a character that appeared in a cartoon (I'm not counting the Machinima Prime Wars or Netflix War for Cybertron). Of course, like Devcon, he was technically a throwaway character in one episode, and this time of a Japan-only series. I don't think you're missing much if you skip him, especially if you already bought Leo Prime and figure one of that mold is enough. And just like that, the final score is two package refreshes, two retools, one straight repaint, and still just one single new mold. Again, I don't begrudge non G1 fans getting their time in the sun, but Evolution was already feeling like a step back from Legacy, which was a step back from Kingdom and Earthrise. And this is easily the weakest wave of Evolution. I really hope Hasbro's cooking up some bangers for the third part of the trilogy, but with rumored guys that turn into rocks replacing the Junkions/Weaponizers as the gimmick of the line, I wouldn't hold my breath.

So I got the Megatron/Ratbat one. Did some digging, and apparently the product codes were accidentally swapped, and Amazon goes by the codes. That probably explains why the Megatron/Ratbat set (two Voyagers) is priced $55 while Pax and Shockwave, a Deluxe and a Voyager, are priced more at $70. I don't know if anyone's contacted Amazon in the States about it, but an Australian contacted their Amazon rep and the response was basically, "you ordered the thing with this product code, we sent you the thing with that product code." I guess a lot of people who only wanted one of the sets will be upset, especially if they thought they were getting a deal on Megs and Ratbat. As long as they still send me Pax and Shockwave later I don't really care if they say they're shipping me a box of $55 Twinkies. Oh, and since you did wind up with Megs and Ratbat, PSA... Megatron's knees are probably swapped. I'll post more details about it later with a review of the set, but I want to finish Wave 3 of Evolution first.

Huh. I have the Shockwave/Pax set due to arrive tomorrow, and the Ratbat/Megatron set showing as but shipped and due in August.

Soundwave is available to preorder on Pulse and Amazon.

I kind of feel you on the anime thing, but I never really considered myself a fan of anime any more than I'd say I was a fan of sitcoms. Some I liked, some I didn't, though I can honestly say there was a lot more I liked in the '90s than I do today. All hope isn't lost, though. Occasionally Sunrise throws us a bone and gives us new Gundam in the Universal Century timeline. I thought Gundam Unicorn was quite good, and I thought the first Hathaway's Flash movie was good enough that I want to see the sequel. For something that isn't Gundam I've been enjoying the Ultraman series that's on Netflix. Even Star Trek... yeah, agree on Discovery and I'd say it's true for Picard, too. But have to watched Strange New Worlds? It's the most Star Trek the franchise has been since TNG.

The first two weren't great, but...

With the Cores out of the way, we can move on to the Deluxes... half of which haven't arrived yet. As for the remaining half, well, one of them is a package refresh of Tarantulas. I reviewed him the first time, and the TLDR if you missed him is that he's a pretty decent figure, but not one we need to cover again right now. So, that just leaves the one Deluxe I did get... Legacy Evolution Deluxe-class Beachcomber. As the sole Deluxe-and-up sized G1 character that wasn't a throwaway character for one episode and actually had a G1 toy (that's a mouthful), I expect Beachcomber will be the most-anticipated figure from this wave. Which, frankly, says a lot about Legacy Evolution and this wave in particular, because Beachcomber (the character) kind of sucks (which doesn't explain why I have six of them... G1, POTP, Evolution, Magic Square, and Dr Wu from left to right, with X-Transbots not pictured). Frankly, I thought Power of the Primes Legends-class Beachcomber was plenty good enough for the character. Could he better with a Deluxe-class budget, though? Well, there's some effort to make him more cartoon accurate. Hasbro painted the darker gray on his chest, and replaced POTP's toy-sticker tampo with a cartoon-accurate Autobot badge. There are sculpt differences, too, that seem a bit more Sunbow, but like a lot of the smaller Deluxes he seems a bit chunky. I'll also note that there's some silver on his shins that aren't on the animation model... in robot mode. I will say that the Deluxe budget does help him clean up, though. He's lacking most of the hollow gaps you'd see on a lot of recent Hasbro figures. There's even flaps on his calves to hide the void his thighs will hide in when he transforms. And unlike POTP Beachcomber, the part of his rollcage that's on his backpack tucks in instead of dangling off him like a cape. Another way Evolution Beachcomber beats POTP Beachcomber (and technically the G1 toy, while we're at it) is that he comes with accessories. For one, we get a gun, because maybe you should have decided you were a pacifist before you joined the Autobots, Beachcomber! And, because Hasbro is definitely aware of unlicensed third parties and what they're doing, you get one of the parakeets from "The Golden Lagoon." Graduating up to a Deluxe mostly improved Beachcomber's articulation. His head seems to be on a ball joint, so it swivels but also has a very limited up/down/sideways tilt. Unlike the POTP toy, that's the only ball joint. His shoulders rotate and can move laterally around 75 degrees. His biceps swivel, and his elbows bend around 90 degrees. He's got wrist swivels and a waist swivel. His hips go forward, backward, and laterally 90 degrees. He's got thigh swivels, and his knees bend 90 degrees. No up/down tilt on his feet, but his ankles can pivot around 60 degrees. Beachcomber can hold his gun in either hand, and he's got additional 5mm ports on the outsides of his forearms, the backs of his shoulders, the backs of his heels, and two on his back. The parakeet, which is a bit rubbery, can also plug into any of the 5mm ports. You can plug it into a hand if you want it to look like it's perched on his fingers. The parakeet's peg has a 3mm hole in it, though, and there's a 3mm peg on either side of his collar if you'd prefer to have the parakeet perched on his shoulder. Increasing his budget didn't really do much to increase the engineering, as the transformation is nearly identical to the POTP toy. You tab the legs together, including the section of rollcage in his heels. You stretch his torso, causing his head to recede into his chest. You bend his legs at the knee to cover his thighs, and connect the front and back of the rollcage. And you tab his arms into his sides. The main differences are that the Deluxe also has seats in his heels that tab into his back, the arms don't just tab into the sides, they tab into his feet, you need to untuck the back of the rollcage, and you need to open the flaps on the backs of his legs before you fold them over, then close then up once you're done. As with the robot mode, Beachcomber's alt mode is fine, pretty cartoon-accurate, but a tad chunky. Like, the whole thing seems wider than it should be, which does the front end no favors as the the cartoon-accurate gaps for the knee hinges are more squares than rectangles with a flat blue space between them. You've got the accurate rollcage with the engine behind it, and a pair of seats like the cartoon, but the skid plates on the sides seem to stick out too far from the seats. The silver on the shins becomes a now-accurate silver chevron on the hood, but it's missing an Autobot badge. All four rims are nicely painted. And while I appreciate that Hasbro made the headlights out of separate plastic I sort of think blue on everything except the lenses would look more cartoony. You have access to 5mm ports on the sides of the vehicle, on the engine, and near the rear tires, and you'll probably want to use one of those for the parakeet. A new 5mm port was also revealed on the nose of the vehicle. This is why the gun has a 5mm peg on one side. You can arrange the the gun to become a bumper for the buggy. That said, I'm not loving the asymmetry of a 5mm handle poking up one side and a gun barrel sticking out of the other. But that's ok! The 5mm peg handle and a protrusion from the back of the bumper actually form a c-clip, and the gun is meant to clip onto the back of the rollcage. Hasbro's repeatedly demonstrated that they can do a lot more with a Deluxe-budget than they can with a Legends/Core, especially on fairly simple figures. Beachcomber is another example of Hasbro delivering a pretty great minibot, even if that minibot is Beachcomber instead of Gears, Windcharger, Powerglide, or Seaspray, all of whom I'd rather Hasbro did (although I recently found out that BMac is a big Seaspray fan and has been advocating for a new Deluxe-class Seaspray... fingers crossed!). So, yeah, he gets a recommend from me.

Hasbro seems to be in a hurry to get all the Legacy Evolution Core-class Dinobots out, even as they take their sweet time with the SS86 ones. Because Swoop's wavemate is Scarr, a new-ish Dinobot. With no other toys of Scarr to compare with, I'll just leave him here with Swoop for a sense of scale. Despite this being Scarr's first ever toy, Scarr can actually trace his origin's back to 2013, where he appeared in IDW's Transformers: Monstrosity series (spelled "Skar," but maybe that was too close to the Marvel character "Skaar" for Hasbro to trademark?). His appearance was extremely brief, with no alt mode shown, but with his big shoulders, tapered forearms, the placement of the red and gold on his chest, and the blocky head with the bulging ear vents and the little spike on top it's clear that the designers intended Scarr and Skar to be the same character. With naught but a few bits of Livio Ramondelli's uniquely-styled (but often hard to discern) artwork it's hard to critique Scarr's aesthetic. He's packing some kibble and some hollow calves, but that's kind of par for the course on a Core-class figure that also combines. What details are present seem to be pretty accurate, although I think a bit more red and gold paint on the chest and a bit of color separation on the thighs and forearms might have been nice. Scarr comes with a single accessory. Like Swoop's, it's actually molded in gray and painted black. While it nominally has other purposes, it's very obviously a fist, with a single spike coming off of it like Robocop. It kind of reminds me of a certain G1 accessory... That's the fist that came with G1 Bristleback, of the Monstercons, who's Japanese counterpart is Gairyu. Hmm... Anyway, Scarr's head can swivel, no tilt. His shoulders are on ball joints for swiveling, about 60 degrees of lateral movement, and a little butterfly motion around the ball. Transformation hinges allow him to bring his shoulders entirely in front of his chest. However, he lacks any other arm articulation; no bicep swivels, no elbow bends, no wrist swivels, nothing. He does have a waist swivel, though. His hips are ball joints and can go 90 degrees backward and laterally, and a little over that forward. Ball joints in the knees act as thigh swivels and also allow him to bend his knees just short of 180 degrees. No foot articulation. Scarr's accessory has a peg on it, allowing him to hold it in his own fist with the spike pointing outward. So if you squint it's kind of a gun. Transformation is, again, super simple. Using both the ball joints and the hinges, bring is arms in front of his torso so they can tab into each other. Flip the dino head over his robot head, so it tabs into the arms, and fold the combiner peg into his dino chest. Spin the waist 180, tab his legs together, then bend them at the knees so that they cover his forearms and connect with this shoulders. Arrange his dino feet, and then plug his accessory onto the 5mm peg on his butt to make his tail. With no alt mode in the comic, the design team was free to make Scarr any prehistoric reptile they wanted, and they chose an Ankylosaurus. You can see his shoulders and shins form the shelled back, and if we squint again the obvious fist becomes his tail club. Now, I'm not complaining about his alt mode, I think Ankylosaurus are pretty cool and a worthwhile addition to the Dinobots. But, you know, they could have done a new new figure of Slash, the raptor from Power of the Primes, if they wanted sixth Dinobot. They could have done Paddles, the Plesiosaur. They could have G1-ified Scorn, the Spinosaurus from the Bayverse. But they pulled an obscure character from a flashback in an obscure comic and very deliberately gave him an Ankylosaurus alt mode, with an accessory that looks very much like the one that came with Bristleback, who in Japan was a Gairyu, and Gairyu happens to be an Ankylosaurus on a team with a T-Rex, a Pteranadon, a Triceratops, a Brontosaurus, and a Stegosaurus. At this point, there's no way that Hasbro isn't planning on retooling these guys into Dinoking/Monstructor. But I digress. Well, there's not a lot that Scarr can do in alt mode. His only articulation is that all four of his dino hips rotate. Nothing in the knees or feet, no head articulation. Well, I guess you can swivel the tail on the 5mm peg, but I don't see the point. Much as Gairyu turns into Dinoking's left arm, Scarr turns into Volcanicus' left arm. I mean, the combiner peg is really a 5mm peg on a hinge, and you could plug him into the right side if you wanted, but the thumb is molded onto the fist such that it is the left hand (and Swoop's two accessories are not symmetrical, as one of them has the right thumb and the other doesn't). To get to arm mode you just fold the combiner peg out, remove his tail, unfold his robot legs, spin the waist 180 degrees, and get the dino limbs out of the way (or, from robot mode, just bring in his arms, fold up the dino head, and tab his legs together like you would for dino mode, then just stop). In the hollows of his legs you'll find a square peg that fits into the hole on the wrist. And we're looking at the same issues here that we had with Swoop... you can technically use the waist swivel as a bicep swivel, and you can technically use his hips and knees as an elbow bend, but the hollow backs of Scarr's legs make for a hollow forearm, and there's no wrist swivel so it seems you're expected to pose him sort of gorilla-armed. Anyway, Scarr's a bit of a letdown after Swoop, but he's really more like par for the Core-class course, hampered by budget and the need to combine. He's ok. Better than Sludge, about the same as Slag and Grimlock. I'm not really recommending him, but I'm not really not recommending him. I'd assume most people by now have already decided if they want a little Volcanicus or not, and will buy Scarr or not based on that decision regardless of what I say.

Well, it looks like the third wave of Legacy Evolution is trickling in, so maybe we can soon preorder the stuff they announced for wave 4 last week. But before we get too far ahead of ourselves, let's take a look at what we've got now, starting with Core-class Swoop. Ah, Swoop... seen here with Power of the Primes Swoop, but unlike the other Core-class Dinobots I've reviewed this little guy beat the Studio Series one to market, because despite a head start that had Leader-class Grimlock hitting three years ago we've yet to even see a prototype for Studio Series Swoop. Am I getting impatient? Maybe a little, but it does help that mini-Swoop is actually a pretty decent appetizer. Like, sure, the dino head on his chest is a bit bulbous, and there's a pretty unsightly hinge in it. I'd have liked to see the dino feet on his his knees, some panels on his shins, and his feet painted. If we want to be proper, he should really have some color separation on his legs by making his thighs the lighter plastic they used for his wings. His blue torso is really more like a splash of blue on his chest and that's it, leaving is flanks, pelvis, and back gray. His calves and the backs of his forearms and butt are hollow. But, hey, he's got the red stripes on his legs. And despite the flaws I've pointed out, overall his sculpt is pretty dang good, with wings that fold back like the cartoon. Consider that he doesn't have black shoulders, biceps, thighs, or a pelvis, and no black around his face, and you could say this Swoop is actually more cartoon-accurate than the PotP figure. Of all the Core-class Dinobots so far, Sludge comes with the most accessories... two! Molded in white, painted all black, they look sort of like Swoop's missile launchers if you squint and ignore the obvious curled fingers. For a Core-class figure hampered by having three modes, Swoop's not too shabby in the articulation department. His head's on a ball joint. He can't really look down, but it swivels, looks 90 degrees straight up, and has a slight sideways tilt. His shoulders are more ball joints for rotation and 90 degrees of lateral movement. His elbows are ball joints, bending just over 90 degrees and doubling as a bicep swivel. His waist can swivel, too. His hips are, you guessed it, ball joints, and they can go forward, backward, or laterally 90 degrees. He's got dedicated thighs swivels, and his hinged knees bend 180 degrees. There are small pegs on the backs of the accessories, allowing Swoop to hold them as guns. Swoop's transformation is pretty basic. Make him look up, pull the dino head up over his robot head, tab his ankles together and bend his knees 180 degrees so his feet plug into his back, tab is arms into his sides, and unfold his wings. If his feet folded up a bit better it'd be the G1 toy's transformation. And he looks fine. His back would be a bit cleaner if his feet did fold up like the G1 toy, and it'd be nice if his arms actually tucked in a bit closer instead of merely tabbing in place. A part of me would like to lament the lack of blue paint again, but the truth is you don't see much blue on Swoop if you're looking down onto his back anyway. In the cartoon, you'd see blue by looking up at his underside. But you're not really going to do that with this Swoop His dino head has no articulation, so while the figure can stand on his feet (although he leans forward due to the robot knee hinges) he can't look forward while standing... at least, not without separating the dino head from the robot head, leaving a big gap on the dino head and a very visible robot face. Hey, at least his wings have articulation, with hinges at the base and mid-wing for flapping. And the weapons can tab into his wings (they can be stored there in bot mode, too). To get to Swoop's third mode, that of Volcanicus' right arm, pull the combiner peg out of his belly. Unfold the legs, but leave them tabbed together, and spin his waist 180 degrees. Fold his wings back to robot mode. Then, take his two weapons and fit them together to make one fist. On Swoop's heels you'll find a pair of tabs. These tabs fit into a pair of slots on the fist. And, I'm starting to see some problems. The combiner peg is a 5mm port, so Volcanicus will have shoulder rotation, and a hinge will provide lateral movement. I could say that maybe Swoop's waist will be a bicep swivel, and his hips and knees will be a double-jointed elbow, Combiner Wars-style. But doing so would mean that the front of the forearm is really Swoop's very hollow calves. But the kick is that he'll have no bicep swivel, so if you want the 5mm port on the fist facing forward then Swoop's waist has to be turned so that Volcanincus' "elbow" curls in toward his body. Up to this point the Core-class Dinobots have been hampered by a low budget and the limited engineering that budget can buy for a toy that not only has to go from robot to alt mode, but also has to turn into part of another larger robot. I can't say I'm impressed with Swoop's arm mode, but of the four Dinobots I've looked at so far Swoop definitely has the best robot and best dinosaur modes. Is that reason enough to get him? I'd say if you've been collecting this set then yes, and you'll be happy that Swoop's the best one so far. If not, though, I don't think that Swoop has the same cachét as Grimlock to warrant a standalone purchase, nor is he so good that you'll want to track down the first three (although if you do, Grimlock and Sludge are still available on Pulse and Slag (as well as Sludge) will be re-released in the 4th wave of Evolution.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, Takara nailed the trains at the expense of the other two modes, and that's just not how you want to do a combiner.

I started getting emails from both Pulse and Amazon about figures shipping... by the end of next week I think I should have the whole wave, save Megatron (and, I guess, Dirge, because I bought Dirge back in the Earthrise days). So if I were a betting man, I'd look for a "Transformers Tuesday" email and the wave 4 figures to go up for preorder as early as the 27th.

I preordered VNR Optimus and Antagony today (and Core Class Op, SS Primal, and SS Mirage the other day). I didn't get any ship notices for any of the wave 3 stuff yet, so I kind of figured there wouldn't be preorders for wave 4 yet. I'm thinking they may go up closer to Comicon.

I don't know what's up with that, they really made it sound like everything before VNR Optimus would be today. Well, usually the preorders seem to go up right after the previous wave starts going out, and while I've seen reviews popping up neither Pulse nor Amazon has shipped any of wave 3. If I get a bunch of "shipped emails tonight/tomorrow I'll know the preorders will be Thursday. All-in-all, it's a pretty unexciting wave for me, although I suppose it's marginally better than the third wave. I intend to get the entire wave. I also threw down preorders on Primal, Mirage, and the Prime/Bee set. I mostly want it for the trailer, but I never bought that version of Bee, either. I think Primal actually looks pretty cool. Mirage, like so many movie bots, looks like a kibbly mess in bot mode but I love that alt mode. I'm a Transformers fan, I'm a Porsche fan. When I was a kid I dreamed of owning the very 911 Turbo they used for Mirage in the movie, and today I'm saving up for a Taycan. I'm probably the guy this is for: The holdup is apparently on Target's end, and he's supposedly still coming. But for some reason felt that gray repaints of movie Ratchet and Bonecrusher, Cybertronian Jazz, and now a pair of Legacy multipacks need priority, I guess. Actually there's also Age of Extinction Junkheap. But yes, if Mark insists on doing original characters then I think garbage trucks and buses are criminally underutilized alt modes. Thanks, I've been really busy lately getting caught up on all the work I didn't do while recovering from a knee injury. But I still have a picture for you guys anyway, courtesy of the aforementioned Mark Maher: