mikeszekely

I have both the old Deluxe Bumblebee and the old Deluxe WFC Prime (I have the FoC Prime, too, but my daughter played with him and I think he's missing a part or two now). I'll be doing some comparisons, because I'm in for all three. I wish they'd have done Megatron, too. I'm assuming the main draw of these new figures is going to be scale; I remember the old WFC Bumblebee being kind of huge.

I dunno, as much as I dislike Meta as a company, I bought a Quest 2 figuring I could use it for both untethered and PC VR... and then never played a single PC VR game. Sure, the Quest 2 isn't the most powerful hardware, but not being tethered to anything turned out to be a bigger deal than I thought. If the PSVR2 gets Steam support and a better library on the actual PlayStation I'd maybe consider it, but mostly I'm hoping that Meta makes a comfier Quest 3 with some of the better PSVR2 features, like eye-tracked foveated rendering.

Oh, I didn't know this was available on PSVR2. I have the Quest version, and I wholeheartedly recommend it. I'd say it's one my my top three or four favorite VR games. The others contenders, BTW, would be Beat Saber, Walkabout Mini Golf, and Superhot VR. I have no idea if any of those are on PSVR2, though.

I have to second @Tking22's suggestions- REVIII, Horizon, and GT7. Because... The problem, my biggest problem with PSVR2, is that you cannot use it to play the games for the original PSVR. You can run the games on the PS5, but you need the original PSVR hardware, which in my opinion was a huge mistake. I don't know if there were technical hurdles or what due to the different controllers or whatever but this means that stuff like the Transformers VR game that just came out did so on a platform that was already dead, players with large PSVR1 libraries can't sell their old units to defray the cost of the new one, and the new one's starting with a pretty limited library. That's kind of a kick in the teeth for a headset that costs more than the console it runs on, and more than the technically inferior but more user-friendly Quest 2. Everything I've watched and read about the PSVR2 is glowing praise for the hardware with a wait-and-see attitude toward actually buying one.

Studio Series Gamer Edition. War For Cybertron Optimus Prime (Amazon Pulse) Bumblebee (Amazon Pulse) Barricade (Amazon Pulse)

It looks better than Rise of the TMNT.

Yeah, I have a 1TB drive on the way. It just won't be here until next week. I also have a 1TB microSD card. I thought I'd just use it to add to the Steam Deck's storage, but I'm starting to think that using it to dual boot Windows might be a better choice.

Well... my Steam Deck arrived. I dunno if it's because the 64GB unit uses eMMC or what, but I was honestly appalled at how slow the thing is to cold boot from a totally powered-off state. Fortunately, once it's up and running it seems responsive enough. My first impressions were that it was noticeably heavier and thicker than the Nintendo Switch, but it feels pretty ergonomic and once I was playing a game I didn't really notice the size anymore. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to do too much with it. When I ordered it Valve was saying it'd take 1-2 weeks for delivery, and it turned out to actually take about 4 days, so it came much faster than I expected. Sounds like a good thing, but the SSD I ordered won't arrive until late next week, and 64GB is really too small to do much with. Some games I own wouldn't fit even if it was the only game I installed! I did install The Messenger on it and play it a little. The good news is that Steam Big Picture mode has come a long way, and it works pretty great on the Steam Deck to really make it feel like a console OS. Proton seems like it's doing its thing just fine under the hood and I was having a good time with it. Things started to get a bit iffier when I decided to poke around in desktop mode. In Valve's defense, I didn't spring for their official $90 dock when I had a perfectly good hub already, but with the hub trying to use an external display was a frustrating mess that would cause odd aspect ratios and rotated screens on both the external monitor and the built-in display, and even then only on battery power. If I plugged in the AC adapter the Steam Deck would stop outputting to the external display. So, I was forced to squint at the Steam Deck's little screen, but I was otherwise able to navigate the desktop (KDE, for the Linux gurus in the audience) with a mouse and keyboard. Of course, the whole purpose of using Desktop mode is to use programs outside of Steam, and that's where I figured I'd try my hand at running some emulators. I tried using a program called EmuDeck that's supposed to automate the process of setting up the emulators, and it's even supposed to use a tool add your ROMs as non-Steam games within Steam so that you can launch and play them from Big Picture mode without going into Desktop mode. I say supposed to because, while it did download some emulators, it mostly made a mess downloading Retroarch, every imaginable core for Retroarch, and several standalone emulators on top of that, then threw up parser errors when I tried to get it to register the handful of test ROMs I'd copied over. Long story short, I think I'd have been better off just downloading a standalone emulator or two and adding it to Steam manually. Or, maybe go one step further and setup a bootable microSD with something like Batocera, or maybe even Windows for the utility of running other PC games that aren't SteamOS compatible. I will say that at least it seems reasonably powerful. I was able to get Metroid Dread running smoothly in Yuzu on it. Anyway, if you want the TL;DR summary, it'd be this- check the games you want to play to see how well they run on the Steam Deck (and don't always trust Valve's own ratings, because some stuff they say is unsupported will actually run with a little tinkering). If you have enough compatible PC games you want to play, then go for it. It's a nice piece of hardware. But, if your primary intent is to emulate retro games there's probably a better option for you. And, if you do decide that you want a Steam Deck, make sure you're comfortable replacing the hard drive, and if you're not, consider spending the extra cash on the 256GB or 512GB models, because unless you're just into retro-style plaformers and smaller indie games 64GB is totally inadequate.

Regardless of whether they're good or not (they're objectively not, but so niche I find them appealing anyway), we still have to combine them to finish up this series. Ok, up first we have Kenzan on top in the same configuration we had for DaiKenzan, Jinbu in his jet mode but with this legs turned around and bent at the knee, and Ganoh in truck mode from the waist up, except his arms are turned 90 degrees, and robot mode from the waist down, with the addition of his shin pads turned down into massive feet. Once Jinbu is plugged into Ganoh, his nose and wings fold down, then Kenzan attaches to Jinbu at multiple points. Kenzan's kabuto fits over his lighbar, then the helmet folds down over his had and the sides fold out to become shoulder pads. And this is GoKenzan. GoKenzan works fairly well. His arms and torso are a little too long, and his torso is pretty thin when viewed from the front, but Ganoh makes for a very stable base. He does have a very large backpack, though... honestly, I don't think that these triple combiners work as well as using just two, like Energon did. Best case, the middle guy is pretty flat and you've got a ton of backpack. Worst case, the proportions are way off because you've got too much going on in the middle. But I digress. As was the case with the Shinobi Swordbot team, the leftover kabuto fit together, and all of the Samurai Swordbots' weapons combine. This time, Ganoh's weapon is in its folded position, and Kenzan's swords connect to tabs near the joint. A thin peg on the pommel of Jinbu's sword plugs into the hole in the 5mm peg/foam sprayer on Ganoh's weapon, and the whole thing is a big spear. Ganoh and Jinbu's combined kabuto are a less convincing weapon, but the spear is a noticeable improvement over whatever the Shinobi Swordbot Team's weapons combined into. GoKenzan has no head or waist articulation, we'll get that out of the way. His shoulders swivel, and with the shoulder pads able to hinge up and out of the way they can ratchet over 90 degrees laterally. His biceps swivel, and his elbows ratchet a little over 90 degrees. His wrists swivel, and due to how they transform, they can bend upward. His fingers and thumb are also hinged at the base and fold into his palm. His hips ratchet forward and backward a little under 90 degrees, but only about 45 degrees laterally due to the wheels on his hips. His thighs swivel, and his knees bend 90 degrees. His feet tilt up, due to transformation, but as they're just friction joints his feet are going to be the weak link when trying to get GoKenzan into dynamic poses. As for his accessories, you can plug the combined kabuto thing into one hand. For the combined weapon, you slide the combination of Kenzan and Ganoh's weapons into the port on his hand, then feed Jinbu's up through the bottom until it plugs in. Rotating up just like the Shinobi team, Jinbu goes on top, Ganoh in the middle, and Kenzan moves to the bottom in his DaiGekisou configuration. Ganoh curls up and actually makes the bulk of the torso. Jinbu is thinly draped over the top, with a good bit spilling onto the front. Then we add the kabuto to make GoJinbu. GoJinbu almost looks cool from the middle up. The proportions are pretty decent, as long as you again ignore the massive backpack. And while Kenzan's kabuto made for kind of a minimal change, Jinbu's blends very well with his wings and nose to give the appearance of a jinbaori, a kind of surcoat that a high-ranking samurai would wear over his armor. What does GoJinbu in is the legs; Kenzan's thighs are simply too thin, and they simply look inadequate to the task of holding up all that mass. GoJinbu uses the same spear as GoKenzan, but at least Kenzan and Ganoh's kabuto look to have a more deliberate combination. GoJinbu gets a full 90 degrees of lateral range on his hips, and he trades wrist articulation for ankle swivels, but otherwise articulation is pretty much the same. Practically, you'll have a harder time keeping him balanced in dynamic poses than GoKenzan, too. But I ran into some other problems with GoJinbu. Namely, I had a hard time getting his accessories into his hands. I think, due to a bump out around his thumb, the peg holes that are his fists are simply too tight. Ultimately GoJinbu is ok, but for practical reasons I prefer GoKenzan. Shuffle everyone one more time, so that Jinbu is on the bottom, Kenzan the middle, and Ganoh the top. Attach Ganoh's kabuto to form GoGanoh. GoGanoh definitely has the coolest looking top. Ganoh's kabuto looks awesome as armor, and I'd argue that Jinbu looks better as pants than Kenzan. Like the others, he's pretty top heavy, but his mass is more distributed through is upper body than condensed into a backpack. Unfortunately, some of that distributed mass is Kenzan's hips sticking off GoGanoh's lats, so he can't bring his arms all the way to his sides. GoGanoh has the same combined spear, and a decent-ish combined kabuto gun. GoGanoh's articulation is the same as the other two, minus wrist and/or ankle swivels, although you have to move the kibble from Jinbu's arms and nose or they'll impede his hips. Posing him is challenging again due to be top heavy, but he's got a few extra issues. First, Jinbu's got a bit of play between ratchet clicks, and the loosest friction swivels of the bunch. His legs had a tendency to turn inward when I didn't really want them to, like he's pigeon-toed. Second, and far worse, the connection between Gahon and Kenzan is terrible. Without his kabuto to help pinch them together, the slightest manipulation can cause Ganoh to disconnect from Kenzan. Oh well, at least he holds his spear pretty well. That said, he can't hold his gun at all. His fists are too low to his forearms. It's ok, though. There are 5mm ports on GoGanoh's forearms, and the kabuto weapon can plug into one of them as a shield or an arm cannon. Use your imagination. If you read my review of the Shinobi Swordbot team's combined modes, this is a lot of the same; the best configuration winds up being the one where the leader is on top. GoJinbu's skinny legs throw me off and he has trouble holding his weapons, while GoGanoh looks impressive but has the most trouble standing and wants to fall apart due to a weak connection between Kenzan and Ganoh. Maybe that's for the best, though? The Go combiners represent the triple combination gimmick of the show better than DaiKenzan or DaiGekisou, who don't even appear until the final episodes. And GoKenzan and GoGekisou are kind of the "default" combinded modes, with the other four being more like gimmicks. Should you invest in these guys? Probably not. As I've noted many times, they're not particularly good toys. Even, as @tekering helpfully pointed out, when compared with contemporary Transformers of the time period. They're simpler figures with a very specific target demographic- Japanese elementary-age boys. However, that can be seen as a feature. Takara wasn't trying to make toys that could appeal to both kids and adult collectors. They weren't beholden to Hasbro's rigid pricing structure. And with no need to appeal to international audiences they absolutely revel in their Japanese nature. They're so extremely niche within the larger Transformers brand that I can't help but adore them. Are they serious collectibles? No. Will they make a great diorama? Nope. Do they kind of look like dollar store junk next to your War for Cybertron and Legacy figures? Absolutely. But GoKenzan, GoGekisou, and Optimus Exprime on a shelf alone have a certain charm, representing one of the most unique but brief moments in Transformers history, an obscure but kind of cool footnote to the much more popular Transformers Prime line.

I don't think that MP-13 is a fair comparison, given it's a figure for adult collectors and Transformers Go is aggressively targeted at elementary-age (Japanese) boys. Thrilling 30 is more fair, but even then I'm seeing with stuff like Legacy vs Earthspark or Studio Series vs the non-Studio Rise of the Beasts toys they invest more in even mainline toys when they expect more nostalgic adults than kids will buy them. The best toys to compare to these Go figures is Transformers Prime. In fact anything we got in the West under the "Beast Hunters" sub-brand was released in Japan as part of Go, and the Predacons were the antagonists of the cartoon. And even by those standards, the Swordbots are probably the worst figures in the Transformers Go line.

The final Samurai Swordbot (and at this point, the final Swordbot period) is G03 Ganoh. With the Shinobi Swordbot team it was their leader, Gekisoumaru, who was slightly taller than the others. I was a bit surprised, then, that Ganoh turned about to be the tallest of the Samurai Swordbots. And... well, he actually doesn't look too bad. Sure, his head's a little small, his arms and torso are a little short, but he actually looks like he has a torso! That's an upgrade! And while I complained that Jinbu didn't really look much like a samurai, and that's technically true for Ganoh as well, there are some aesthetic choices, especially in his head, that make him look like a sōhei, a Japanese warrior-monk. He does, sadly, have hands for heels, huge feet, and massive shin pads. Sacrifices are still made to the gimmicks. But on the whole, Ganoh might be the best individual figure out of all seven. Sure, that's not necessarily the highest hurdle to clear, but when the alternative was another Jinbu or Sensuimaru I'm pretty pleased. Ganoh comes with a fairly rubbery spear with drill-like points on both ends, and of course, his kabuto. Ganoh's head is on a swivel, no tilt. His shoulders are ball joints that swivel and move laterally 90 degrees, plus the ball joint is on a hinge that'll get you and additional 60-ish degrees before the hinge causes his side to un-tab. His biceps swivel, and his elbows bend 180 degrees. No waist swivel. He has to use his ratcheted combined mode joints for lateral hip movement, but two things are working in his favor. One, they're not as high up his back as they are on the other Swordbots, so it doesn't look too unnatural. Two, because of the wheels on his sides he's limited to about 45 degrees. That's kind of enough, I think, and it prevents him from moving the joints so far that they break up the illusion of his robot torso. For forward/backward hip movement he's got ratchets that'll go 90 degrees. His thighs swivel just above his ratcheted knees, which bend 90 degrees. No ankle pivots, the red parts of his feet can tilt up and down. Ganoh's kabuto can plug into his fist to be a gun-ish thing, same as the others. His spear is weird, though. See, it doesn't open, and even if it did the fist holes don't go the whole way through, so he can't hold it the way you'd expect him to hold a spear. Instead there's a 5mm peg in the middle, set at a right angle to the shaft. It looks weird to have him hold it, but what are you going to do? Well, you could store it on his back, for one. You can bend the shaft at the joint in the middle to make a V-shape, then use a pair of angled slots to tab the spear directly to his back. I think that actually looks pretty cool! If you want to store his kabuto you tab it into slots higher up on his back, then you use tabs near the joint on the spear to hang it totally folded up from a notch on the back of the kabuto. It shouldn't surprise anyone when I say that Ganoh's transformation is pretty simple. His head tucks in, his arms curl up and then use flaps on the sides of his body to swing back behind his torso. His legs turn 180 degrees at the thigh swivel, tab together, and then swing back 90 degrees. The last thing you gotta do is lift his bumper, tuck in his crotch flap, then put his bumper back down. Surprisingly, it's not just Ganoh's robot mode that's pretty good. His truck mode is decent, too. The cab is convincing, and I can pretend that the exposed thigh is like a fuel tank or something. The shin kibble isn't ideal, but again it almost passes for purposeful. My biggest complaint is the big hands/heels on the back of the truck, and the gap between the lights on top. The gap actually serves a purpose, though. Ganoh's weapon becomes an integral part of his fire truck mode. Specifically, he's an airport crash tender. See, with it folded in half you can use tabs near the drills to plug it into his shin pads at the back of the truck. The 5mm peg he used to hold the spear in robot mode sticks out over the front of the cab, and it's meant to be a foam sprayer. Works for me! Although, you may wish to have Ganoh carrying his kabuto in truck mode. To do that, you have to shift the spear backward, using tabs closer to the joint to plug into his shin pads. Then the kabuto uses a pair of tabs to plug into slots near his head. And, while no longer a convincing crash tender, I still don't hate this mode. With the drill bits hanging off the back like a tail and the kabuto sitting on the front like a head, he looks sort of like someone built a Triceratops Zord out of a fire truck, and I honestly dig it. At this point, I should still point out that Ganoh is a decade-old toy with engineering that was pretty dated even then. Objectively, he's got a great toy. That said, if you were going to get one just one Swordbot this is the one to get, as he's got a solid robot mode, a solid alt mode, and even with his kabuto pulls off a better look than Optimus Exprime's "dragon" mode. Oh, one more thing. Now that we've looked at all three Samurai Swordbots, I had a thought. They'd have to completely eliminate the combination gimmick, but I think Hasbro could make convincing Legacy Samurai Swordbots with a few retools of existing figures. What do you guys think?

I'm having kind of a rough week, but I did want to finish up Transformers Go. So, we looked at the Shinobi Swordbot team, individually and combined. We looked at Optimus Exprime, and his combined modes, which necessitated that we also looked at Kenzan, the leader of the Samurai Swordbot team. So what we need to do is finish off the Samurai Swordbots, and we're picking up with G02 Jinbu. I gotta be honest, I'm not really seeing anything samurai about Jinbu. I've heard it suggested that his head is supposed to look like he's wearing a samurai helmet, but I don't see it. He looks like a wannabe Conehead to me. Like Kenzan, he's give me a lot of that "weird Chinese transforming toy I found at Big Lots" vibe. Also like Kenzan, he's suffering from a distinct lack of torso. From the back his wings are kind of hiding it, but there's nothing really behind the cockpit on his front. There's the combiner hips, partly visible from the front, and they're pegged together onto the landing gear. I guess that makes him a bit more solid than some of the others, but as we'll see it creates it's own problems. Oh, and he's doing that thing where they use the combiner hands for heels again. Notice, in my pictures, the molded detail on the front and back of his thighs. I didn't realize this until much later, but apparently Jinbu is misassembled at the factory. What you're seeing as the front in my picture is actually the back, and vice versa. It's not too hard to fix, though, if you happen to buy a copy yourself. Remove the two screws from the lower leg and separate the halves, being careful of the spring and the ratchet in the knee. Be careful to set them aside so you keep track of which one was the right and which is the left. Now, remove the screws from the thighs then split and remove them- you can't just rotate them, because one side is hollowed for the ratchet. What you have to do is take what was his right thigh, then put it on his LEFT hip so the screw is still facing outward. Then you can put his left leg back on. Then put the thigh that was on the left, put it on the right hip, then put the right leg back on. Why does this matter, you ask? As misassembled, his knees bend less than 90 degrees. You're going to need them to bend more than that for combined mode. Moving right along... Jinbu comes with his kabuto and a very long fishing pole. I mean sword. It's a nodachi, but the guard has a bunch of extra junk on it that looks to me like a fishing pole. Jinbu's head is on a swivel, no tilt. His shoulders are ball joints for a swivel and about 60 degrees of lateral motion. A transformation hinge also gives him about 45 degrees of forward butterfly. His biceps swivel, and his elbows bend 180 degrees. No wrist articulation. No waist articulation. Now, his hips are where things get awkward. Because the combiner hips are locked into his landing gear he can't use them to fake any lateral movement. So, looked at one way, his hips can ratchet forward and backward about 90 degrees, but there's no lateral movement. But, there's a swivel above his hip. So, you could turn it 90 degrees, and then he'd have 90 degrees of ratcheted lateral movement, but no forward/backward movement. Regardless. there's a thigh swivel below the hip, and (when properly assembled) his knees bend a little over 90 degrees. His feet, or rather the yellow flaps on the front of his legs, can tilt up and down, but he has no ankle pivot. As you'd expect, he can hold his sword in either hand, and a 5mm peg allows him to hold his kabuto like a gun. It even has one of the more convincing barrels we've seen. For bot mode storage, you can either use one of two angled tabs on Jinbu's back to attach the sword at an angle across his back. If you want to store his kabuto too then you plug the kabuto onto his back using a pair of tabs on the kabuto and the little black slots on Jinbu's back, then use the same slot on his sword into one of the tabs near the 5mm peg on the gun barrel. Jinbu's transformation reminds me a little of Armada Starscream's, in that you're not folding the nose up 180 degrees, you're folding it up 90 degrees then folding his wings up 90 degrees on his back. (Combine that with his shoulders staying exactly where they are and the ability to bend the combiner hips backward while bending is robot hips forward and you've got an excellent Gerwalk mode!) His arms swivel backward on the butterfly joints and tab together to fill in the gap between his wings. From there it's as simple as bending his legs backward at the combiner hips 90 degrees, then using slots under his knee pads to tab onto his wings and unfolding his various flaps. Note that I have his yellow feet folding in, as I think it looks better and I kind of remember that's how it looked in the cartoon. Officially, though, they're supposed to be flipped out. Something tells me this isn't going to be one of @M'Kyuun's favorite jetformers! He comes across as longer and sleeker in the cartoon, but even in the cartoon he has all that leggy undercarriage. He's too gappy, with nothing between his legs. Actually, nothing really holds him together except the friction in his joints that the tabs that go into his kneepads. His arms are just kind of there between his wings. Speaking of his kneepads, it's almost a shame that they just slope up from mid-fuselage. If they were actually a bit longer and stuck up more I'd almost buy them as FAST packs. There is some landing gear that folds out from the nose, but that's about it for jet mode. Well, you can store his sword by clipping it into the gray clips on the back of his robot head. He can carry his kabuto, too, by folding his feet in (if you haven't already) then tabbing it into the slots underneath. Of course, if you thought he wasn't looking too aerodynamic before... I'm not sure which of the Swordbots is the worst... I think, on robot mode alone, Sensuimaru is probably worse than Jinbu, but he makes up for it by having a cool as heck shark mode. Jinbu is sort of a letdown in both modes. As has been the case, I don't actually recommend picking him up. I think he even lacks the obscure Japan-only charm of the others.

Actually, it's not necessary. The Ioniq 5 itself can be told to charge during off-peak hours on its end, so smart features on the charger are redundant. Yeah, and it seems like its the best seller. The Home Flex is on my short list, but it's the most expensive, and it seems like the app some weird issues around one vehicle per account and one account per vehicle. So my wife and I would have to use the same account for her Ioniq 5, but down the road if/when I replace my ICE car with an EV I'd have to create a separate account for it and then logout and login with the old one if I'm charging my wife's. Right now, I think I'm leaning toward a Walbox Pulsar Plus. But it seems there was a miscommunication with the electrician... he looked at the sub breaker in my garage, and I guess he figured he was going to put in a new 50 amp breaker and install a NEMA 14-50 outlet, and that I was going to mount the charger and just plug it in. But, in my state there's a tax rebate that only applies if the charger is hardwired, and the Ioniq 5 can charge faster than the 40 amps I'd get from a 14-50 outlet, so I just emailed him and asked if he wanted to reconsider his bid because I actually need a 60 amp breaker hardwired to a 48 amp charger.

Maybe not the kind of car talk that excites most of the guys on this forum, but I'm looking to replace my wife's Nissan Rogue with an EV, since her daily commute is around 70 miles and gas is still $4 a gallon here. Finding an EV isn't really the hard part... I think we're going to go with a Hyundai Ioniq 5 (we'd actually have one by now, but my wife is super insistent that it must be a white Limited AWD, and the dealers in my area have white in every trim but Limited and Limiteds in every color but white...). But good gravy, am I having a doozy of a time trying to settle on a Level 2 home charger and get an electrician to install it.

Man, you can walk into my local Walmart right now and buy both Skids and Burn Out, since Walmart never moved beyond the first wave of Legacy. Evolution had Crankcase in the first wave and Crosscut in the next. That's four variants in a year to fifteen months (plus there's a rumored Medix version that's maybe coming to Walgreens this year). That's not exactly my idea of spread out. Target's distribution can be screwy. My local store had shelf space cleared and tags made for Motormaster and those Street Fighter collabs, but never got any inventory. Eventually they just started shoving DC stuff in those spots. But yeah, Origin Bumblebee was hard to get for a month of two... then suddenly they were everywhere, and my store eventually had to put them on clearance. Well, as glad as I am to get Origin Jazz, what I really want is some kind of update on that G1 Hound.

No problem. I preordered at Target before I knew Pulse had a link, so I grabbed on there, but when I saw Pulse taking preorders I figured I'd better preorder there because I remember Target cancelling orders for Thrust. What I'll likely do is keep my orders for both then pass one along to someone who needs it later.

Buzzworthy Origin Jazz is up for preorder on Target's website. Edit: Pulse too Edit again: Pulse also has preorders for Guardian Robot with Lunar-Tread. Now, don't ask me while I'll spend hundreds of dollars on every Seeker repaint under the sun but I can't justify a single $200 purchase on a repaint, but there you have it. I dig the colors, but it's too big and too expensive to buy an Omega Supreme repaint. That said, Black Zarak, the Ark, and Legacy Metroplex have all gone on sale/clearance- it's actually why I picked up Black Zarak. If the Guardian goes under maybe $120-ish I'll probably bite. While I'm talking about unreleased figures, this guy is making the rounds: Legacy Towline. I think he's a Generations Selects. For the geewunners like myself, this retool of Scraphook is supposed to be this guy from Robots in Disguse (2001): I'm not feeling this one. Don't get me wrong, I like the green, and I think we need more bright green Transformers. Just because Scraphook has a tow hook doesn't really make him similar enough for this to work. Scraphook and Towline are clearly different kinds of trucks, and Scraphook doesn't have the almost the entire cab for a beer belly the way Towline does. I don't mind seeing more RiD in Legacy (or whatever comes next)- RiD '01 Optimus is one of my favorite Optimus designs. But surely Hasbro can do better than this.

Anyone here have a Steam Deck? I finally bit the bullet and ordered one today. My daughter's getting to that age where I have to run her to activities and then sit and wait. I've been playing a lot of the Nintendo Switch, but I'm a PC gamer first and foremost. Originally I thought I'd get the $650 512GB Steam Deck - PC games are getting stupid big, after all. But after doing a little research it seems pretty trivial to upgrade the SSD in a Steam Deck yourself, and a 64GB Steam Deck plus a 1 TB 2230 NVME SSD looks to be around $560 so I'll end up with more storage for less money. Pretty stoked to get it in hand, looks like a great way to play not only PC games on the go but it also looks like a very capable machine for emulating retro consoles, too.

A part of me thinks I don't really need the regular ROTB figures, with the notion that the Studio Series ones are more accurate. That said, I get bored when I haven't bought a new Transformer in awhile. I could see myself seeing them on a shelf and buying them on a whim. Maybe I'll keep the accessories (the swords from that Airazor and the gut gun from that Cheetor) and let my daughter have the figures.

Tomorrow is now today. After a pair of duds, how will Deluxe-class Airazor fare? Well, the initial impression is pretty good! With the mask around her eyes, the feathered helmet, and the bird head in her chest she's recognizably Airazor. On one hand, I'm not sure I dig the more monotone, limited color palette (based on the trailer, an issue that all the Maximals in Rise of the Beasts seem to share). Her gray is now more brownish, with a few silver and metallic green highlights. No more orange or bright gold. On the other hand, I really like the sculpt. ROTB Airazor trades in the '90s CGI proportions for a slightly taller, better-proportioned build. She's still a feminine figure, but with a little more strength, a little more presence, than the Kingdom version. Not a lot to add about the back and sides, except to say that I really like the feathered texture on her thighs and calves. Much like the Kingdom toy, she comes with a pair of blasters, covered with that metallic greenish paint. Although her head seems to be on a ball joint, she has a pretty limited up/down tilt and practically no sideways tilt (just enough to let me know it's a ball joint under there). He shoulders are also, sadly, ball joints, but they swivel and move laterally 90 degrees, and they're at least tensioned well. Her biceps swivel, and her elbows bend 90 degrees. No wrist swivels. Her waist does swivel, but it requires that you un-tab and lift up her bird-head chest a little so the beak clears her waist armor (something Kingdom avoided by keeping her waist armor low enough for the beak to clear it in the first place). Her hips can go forward and laterally 90 degrees, and backward about 45 degrees due to her bird tail being in the way, but 45 is enough I think. Her thighs swivel just above her knees, which bend all the way to her thighs and calves meeting. Her ankles are ball joints, which allows them to swivel plus gives them a decent upward tilt, slight downward tilt, and a disappointingly slight ankle pivot. Much like the Kingdom figure, Airazor can either plug her guns into her 5mm fists, or into 5mm ports on her forearms. She lacks the other 5mm ports of the Kingdom figure, though, and I could find no other storage spots for her accessories. I've been comparing ROTB Airazor to the Kingdom toy quite a bit, and there's a good reason for that- they're the same figure. OK, sure, I know that in some interview or livestream one of the designers mentioned that it's a new figure and doesn't share any parts with Kingdom Airazor, and that's true. But the engineering is 100% the same. If you've transformed Kingdom Airazor then you've transformed ROTB Airazor, because every step is the same. I'm not saying that's a bad thing- Kingdom Airazor was a good toy! But I find it kind of curious that Cheetor's Studio Series figure is totally new and Airazor is the Kingdom toy with new parts, while the preivously-leaked non-Studio Series figures have a totally new Airazor and Cheetor is the Kingdom toy with new parts. Using the Kingdom design means that ROTB Airazor has that same perched pose that aren't necessarily conducive to flying poses. Her longer, thicker legs aren't as convincingly tucked against her torso. It kind of changes what sort of bird she's supposed to be. We can assume that Kingdom Airazor, with her smaller beak, is some kind of falcon. ROTB's larger talons and beak suggest that she's be upgraded into some kind of eagle. Of course, like Cheetor, she's also trading a realistic alt mode for a more bio-mechanical one. Articulation in bird mode is much the same as the Kingdom toy. Her feet retain their ball-jointed range, and a mid-shin joint is used for this mode. You can technically still use her robot knees, but that'd break up the sculpt. Her head can swivel and look up and down, plus her beak can open. Her alt mode weapons are plugged into her robot forearms- since she doesn't have Kingdom's other 5mm ports, you can't plug them into the thighs the way you do on Kingdom (and Kingdom's legs tucked in tighter, so there isn't room to plug in her guns to her arms). If you had the guns on her forearms in robot mode you don't even need to remove them for transformation, just rotate them 180 degrees. Ultimately, I think the worst thing about ROTB Airazor is that it's not really a new toy. Earthrise Starscream has more changes from the Classics mold than ROTB Airazor does from the Kingdom version. But like I said, that's not necessarily a bad thing. I actually prefer the robot mode on ROTB, as I think it has better proportions and a more interesting sculpt, but the alt mode suffers a bit for it. Plus, Airazor doesn't have any of the joint tolerance issues I ran into with Freezer and Battletrap. I'm going to give Airazor a recommend- if you liked the Kingdom toy, you should enjoy this one as well.

Curious that Mirage was unveiled, but there are no preorders. Same goes for the Core-class Swoop and Skar, too. As for Airazor, she just arrived and I haven't had a chance to photograph and mess around with her, so the review won't be ready until tomorrow-ish. But in the meantime, perhaps you'd enjoy a Core-class Freezer?* Wait, are we sure this isn't Frenzy? *Double-checks box* No, it definitely says Freezer. Well, I have no idea who Freezer is. Was he even in any of the trailers? The box art is just a close up of his face yelling at you, and when I tried searching for info on him I got back mostly stuff on the other characters in the movie, especially Scourge, Mirage, and Wheeljack for some reason. The lingering Bayverse aesthetics hit hard on this one. As I alluded to, if you take away two arms and make him a bit less substantial and a bit more jagged metal and he's basically Frenzy. Which, you know, we don't have a Studio Series Frenzy. But then again, this isn't actually Frenzy, so...? I guess he cleans up fairly neatly. He's got a little backpack, but nothing egregious. And Hasbro seems to have used a lot of his budget on paint, as he's got a dirty copper weathered effect all over the lighter gray parts. Not sure why he has 5mm pegs for heels, though. Frenzy doesn't come with any accessories. OK, I'll be very upfront here as we move into articulation, this is where things are going to start to fall apart, as he's almost entirely ball joints. His neck is hinged at the base with the idea that his head should extended forward from his body, but the hinge technically gives you the ability to lift his head up as well. The head itself is on a ball joint with some up/down tilt, some ability to look left and right, and in this position swiveling is sideways tilt, and he could turn his head upside-down if you like. His shoulders, which are a touch loose, can swivel and move 90 degrees laterally. Ball joints at the elbows bend just over 90 degrees and act as bicep swivels. No wrist articulation, no waist articulation. Ball joints at the hips, again a tad too loose, have 180 total degrees of movement, but it's at an angle that runs from over 90 degrees forward to under 90 degrees backward. They also allow for 90 degrees of lateral movement. Likewise, the only thigh swivel you'll get is the limited swivel around the ball joint. His digitigrade knees have no articulation, but he's got ball joints at the next joint (anatomically, the ankle) for a little swivel and a bend with a little under 90 degrees of total range. His ankles (anatomically actually knuckles, BTW) are yet more ball joints with swivels, limited upward tilt, downward tilt until the pegs on the backs start hitting his legs, and a fairly limited pivot. Freezer's transformation is simple, and would be super easy... if he weren't made of ball joints. But because he is, he winds up being the most frustrating ROTB figure I've looked at yet. It comes down to three things- first, very little actually locks or tabs into place. Like, sure, his backpack opens and flips over his head, but other than that the only thing tabbing into anything else are his elbows tabbing into the other elbows on the same side. The rest is kind of just arranging his limbs however looks best for you. The second is that, because ball joints don't have regular bends or turns and so little actually locks into place, the one thing that's supposed to is a chore. It's a struggle to get the ball joints turned just right at both the shoulders and the elbows to actually get the tabs on his upper elbows lined up with the slots on his lower ones. Finally, when you do manage it, the third issue is we're now relying on the tension in the ball joints of those shoulders, those hips, and those legs to hold everything in place now, and we've already established that the hips and shoulders are too loose. While I'm complaining that his alt mode is a floppy mess in a descriptive sense, you might be looking at him and thinking "floppy mess" is literally his alt mode. I mean, what is this? Some kind of artillery? I mean, sure, there's a gun barrel covering his head, and we (tried) tabbing his arms together and propping him up with them, but he's still 90% robot mode on his back. He technically has a third mode, however. Instead of tabbing his arms together at the elbows and propping him up on his hands, you can turn the lower arms and tab his lower elbows into slots on his thighs (again, sounds simple, but good luck lining up those ball joints to get the tabs at just the right angles), then tab is upper wrists into the slots on his lower elbows. A 5mm peg can be unfolded from his back (wrecking your nails in the process). Now, instead of being some kind of standalone artillery piece he's a gun that's meant for Scourge... who hasn't been released yet. I gave him to the lamentably gun-less Battletrap, and he's a little big to use with him. The 5mm peg is roughly around where Freezer's shoulders are, which means that all that limb kibble runs past Battletrap's wrist, past his elbow and all the way up to his shoulder. Battletrap might have been able to pull it off anyway, but remember that Battletrap's shoulders are too loose and would usually collapse under Freezer's weight anyway. I should note that Freezer apparently has a fourth minor configuration that's basically mounting his gun mode to Scourge's truck mode. I'll try to remember to highlight it when Scourge comes out. *No, no you would not. I suppose you could still take this with a grain of salt since I haven't seen the movie and have no real background for Freezer, but Freezer's a crappy robot with worse alt modes. Barring an amazing scene in the movie, he's borderline useless. He's almost entirely annoying ball joints with almost no actual transformation. Even for the lower standards of a Core-class figure he feels like a rip off that could have been a cheaper Battlemaster or something. I can't imagine that he adds a ton of value to Scourge, either. Skip this one and save your money.

Yeah. That Core-class Grimlock I reviewed (and a Core-class Thundercracker I grabbed at the same time but haven't mentioned) are from that new wave. There have been sightings of Twincast and Metalhawk both in stores. I've heard tell that some people who bought from Robot Kingdom are also getting Skyquake. I was sure they'd come before their May/June preorder date, but I'm a little surprised they're rolling out this early. Fine by me, I suppose, since I preordered the whole wave. But I'm really only excited for Shrapnel. But hopefully some of you are excited for the Rise of the Beasts Studio Series figures (or at least like reading about them. Because here's Voyager-class Battletrap. I don't know that we've had a good look at Battletrap's CGI model yet, so I don't have a lot to go on for the aesthetics here. Uh... he's quite a bit taller than Bumblebee, roughly the size of an Earthrise Seeker. There's still shades of the Bayverse aesthetic will lots of mechanical bits and bobs, and toes, for that matter. But I do like that that we're not dealing with weird proportions, funky hands, or digitigrade chicken legs like basically all of the early Bayverse Decepticons, and I rather like his head sculpt. Plus, I like that he's not just jagged metal and there's recognizable bits of truck in his torso. From the front, I daresay he looks pretty cool. The bits of truck kibble that make up his backpack aren't terribly egregious, either. However, I loathe the kibble on the backs of his forearms. To be fair, it could be screen-accurate kibble. That doesn't change the fact that it looks like an out-of-place mess that's kind of in your way. And as near as I can tell, it's actually not CGI-accurate. His sole accessory is this wrecking ball. There's a chain molded on it, and it's covered in silver paint, so it looks pretty good. I'd prefer a gun, though. Alright, his head is on a ball joint that can swivel and look up slightly, but no real sideways tilt. His shoulders swivel, and on my copy they're way too loose, like, can't-support-the-weight-of-the-forearm-kibble-loose. His biceps swivel, and his elbows bend 90 degrees. No wrist articulation. His waist swivels. His hips can go 90 degrees forward and laterally, but only about 45 degrees backward due to his backpack. His thighs swivel, and his knees can bend over 90 degrees. His feet can tilt down, due to transformation, but not up, and the front of his foot swivels to give him roughly 90 degrees of ankle pivot. If you have Legacy Bulkhead you'll know exactly how Battletrap's wrecking ball works. You open it up, and there's a peg inside that can slide into either fist. Then you close the wrecking ball so his fist is captured inside. This would be fine, if it's how Battletrap uses it in the movie (but, as I alluded to, the only bit of him I could find in the trailers has him using a gun). However, his own box art depicts it on a chain like flail, so it's kind of a bummer that the chain is just molded detail. Like Bumblebee, Battletrap has storage for his weapon in robot mode. Basically, there's a tab at the end of the 5mm post inside the ball, and that fits into a slot on the translucent part at the top of his backpack. It's not the best fit, though... actually, tolerances on the clear plastic seem to be a bit off in general, as there are slots on his backpack formed by gaps between the outer yellow plastic and the inner translucent plastic, and they're suppose to grab onto tabs on his back to lock the backpack in place. On my copy you can plug the backpack on then watch it immediately pop back off. Oh well. Transforming Battletrap is a tad frustrating. There's some cool stuff, like how the lower leg splits in half and unfolds below the knee, then the whole thing folds around above the knee to make the sides of the truck. Unfortunately, there are some wonky tolerances again, and they're compounded by the fact that his arms tuck up but don't really lock in place at any point except plugging the ends of his forearm kibble together- if you can get them to stay tabbed in. Or if his sides will stay in. Or if his top will stay in place. Well, it's at least impressive how well he compactifies for this mode. He doesn't look out-of-place next to Bumblebee. Or, to contrast with another recent Mad Max-looking tow truck he's just a little longer, taller, and wider than the Junkion Scraphook, albeit significantly heavier. There are fortunately more photos of the truck used in the film available right now, so it's a bit easier for me to find stuff to complain about . Well, there's those big clips jutting out the sides, just in front of the side mirrors. And the hole they plug into forces the "Bernie's Towing and Autobody" logos down a bit, so a stripe that should be running under it is omitted. On the actual truck, the cab stops and there's a black bar holding up the flashing lights, here we have some orange kibble that would float awkwardly above the edges of the truck bed even if the cab did stay tabbed in all the way. Instead of exhaust pipes running along the sides between the fuel tanks and the rear tires you've got a mess of foot kibble that drags so low his tires barely have any clearance to roll (and they don't actually roll all that well, so maybe they don't actually have that clearance after all). There's a weird flame pattern on his front bumper... is it supposed to be rust? Scratches? Either way it's not on the truck they filmed with. As for the rear, the trio of lights on each side are accurate enough but the hinges, cutout in the middle, and the bulges in the middle aren't. His robot knees, hands, and parts of his forearms are easily visible and the back of the cab is wide open. The boom for the tow hook is too short as well. If I was GMC I'm not sure I'd be happy with how Hasbro represented my truck, but then again, maybe GMC is just happy Hasbro's checks don't bounce. Well, he doesn't roll very well, but at least you can store his wrecking ball in this mode. Actually, doing so kind of helps. See, there are small tabs on the sides of the bits under the tow hook There's a slot behind the peg inside the ball, and another slot on the other half of the ball, so the ball closes over and tabs onto both sides. Since the tabs are on separate pieces that are ostensibly tabbed together themselves, the wrecking ball helps them stay together. Battletrap's definitely a mixed bag. The robot mode looks pretty good, except for the awful kibble on his arms, but loose shoulders kind of spoil that for me. The truck, despite being a licensed vehicle, has tolerance issues that keep things that are supposed to be tabbed in from staying tabbed in, has things that should be tabbed or locked in place that just don't, and has entirely too much robot kibble, including some that prevents him from rolling well. If he were a Deluxe, or heck, if Voyagers were still under $30, I might be able to excuse some of this. But in the era of $35 Voyagers Hasbro needs to do better. I know Hasbro recently announced they wanted to increase profits 50% by 2025, but if there plan to do it is to raise prices and lower quality I think a number of fans will simply stop buying their stuff. On that note, maybe once the film comes out and I see it Battletrap will wind up being a favorite villain I'm glad I have a figure of, but as it stands right now I don't think I can actually recommend this one.

The Studio Series line began with a Deluxe-class Bumblebee that turned into a second-generation Camaro. Seems kind of fitting, then, that the 100th Studio Series figure is a Deluxe-class Bumblebee that turns into a second-generation Camaro. Of course, this time Bumblebee isn't exactly the Bayverse one, it's continuation of the one from Bumblebee, and we can see that in some of the details like the shape of the feet and the more solid, less "jagged metal" look of the thighs, arms, and torso. Taken on just those merits, SS100 Bumblebee looks better to my eye than the original. However, he suffers from several inaccuracies vs his CGI model, in ways that kind of make SS01 more accurate to its source material. Some of that seems to be the retention of engineering elements from most (or maybe all) of the Camaro Bumblebees in the Studio Series line. In this case, I'm specifically referring to the way that front tires swing out and back 90 degrees, and his doors open until they touch the tires, forming his wings. As a continuation of the Volkswagen design from Bumblebee, though, his tires should be on his back between his shoulders, roughly situated over where a human's trapezius muscles are. And, like the Volkswagen design, his wings are meant to lie flat along his back directly under the wheels most of the time. When deployed, his wings are closer together and angled backward. There's also the usual car kibble that they couldn't hide on a Deluxe budget, like most of the top of the car folded up into a backpack, the bits of the rear wrapped to the inside of his legs, or the tires on the sides of his legs. Other faults can be attributed to Hasbro cutting costs even as they raise prices by skimping on paint. Mechanical detail on the the top and sides of his feet, the outside of his shoulders and biceps, and some black stripes on the outside of his forearms are simply missing. Ironically, one of the things they did paint was the inside of the forearm, and a good chunk of what they painted should have been left yellow. The lack of paint extends to his accessories. We've got a blaster that's positively covered in gray paint. I'll need to see him use it in the movie to know for sure, but I'm betting that it's got more gray than it actually needs. On the other end his his arm blade, which is cast in yellow plastic and has no paint at all. If it's meant to be like the one that came with SS18 Bumblebee, then the blade and some of the mechanical detail should be painted. Bee's head can swivel, and he's got a small up/down tilt but nothing sideways. His shoulders are on ball joints that swivel and move laterally 90 degrees. His biceps swivel, and his elbows bend about 90 degrees. No wrist swivels. His waist swivels, though. HIs hips are ball joints that go a little over 90 degrees forward, a little less than that backward, and about 45 degrees laterally. He has thighs swivels that move around the hips, and knees that bend 90 degrees. His feet don't tilt up or down, but he's got ankle pivots good for around 60 degrees. His blaster is mostly hollow underneath, save for a 5mm peg, so it works by pegging into and covering over his fist. The way it's molded is mean to go with his right hand. The arm blade has a pair of tabs that fit into slots on either forearm. Alternatively, you can store his accessories on his wings. Both wings have a tab on the back. The arm blade has part of the cutout in it forming a slot that fits over the tab on one wing. The blaster has a clip under the barrels that grabs onto the tab on the other wing. It's not the prettiest storage, what with his weapons dangling so low as to be visible when viewed from the front, but it's something. Despite the new old alt mode and the elements of Bumblebee Bumblebee's aesthetics, the transformation of SS100 should be instantly familiar. From the doors forward it's nearly identical to SS01- the roof and windshield unfold from the backpack, his chest flips up over his head, his arms shift forward so the wheels can fold forward and the doors can fold back, running along the underside of the vehicle. The back of the car feels similar, too, but I can't quite put my fingers on where I've seen this engineering. Basically, the back window unwraps from the inside of his leg to the back, and his feet turn in and rock up into the void left by the window, with his heels turning 90 degrees to form the tail. And, yeah, based on what we've seen it's a pretty accurate second-gen Camaro modded for offroad racing. My complaints are fairly minimal. His suspension seems jacked a little higher than in the film, to give his arms clearance under the car. Other than that, it's missing paint again. I'll excuse the fact that his front bumper isn't black, since it has to be yellow and silver for robot mode. The skirts along the sides of the car, though, and the front side of his spoiler should be black, though, no excuse. I'd have liked it if they painted the lights on his bumper armor and roof, too. As for the rims, well, this is one time when Hasbro can get away with no paint, as they do appear to be black in the film. Bee's got some alt mode storage for his weapons. The blade has another tab, this one on the top, that plugs snugly into a slot between his legs. As for the blaster, the fit is a bit more tenuous but there's a small indent in his bumper on the rear. This allows the clip we used for bot mode storage to pinch over the armor on his bumper. Despite the inaccurate wings and tire placement caused by a lazy reuse of engineering, I really like SS100. His articulation is adequate, and the ease of the leg transformation makes him one of the more fun Bumblebee figures in the Studio Series line. Wings aside, he looks good in both modes, he just could have used a bit more paint, some of which I may apply myself. This one gets a recommend from me.

The Samurai Swordbots are coming, but we're going to take a break to cover some new releases, and we're starting with Legacy Evolution Core-class Grimlock. I know that there are sacrifices being made in the name of a gestalt mode, and maybe these sacrifices are harder to make when you only have a Core budget to begin with. But, between this and the recent ROTB Arcee I can't shake the feeling that Hasbro's really cheaping out on this class lately. I mean, other recent Core-class figures like Rattrap, Megatron, Soundwave, and the Seekers have certainly suffered from their low budget but still ultimately offered pretty decent figures. But Grimlock? Where's all the color? There's a red strip on his leg, but not the green or blue. The front of his torso is painted gold, but just the front, and even then they missed the spots where hinges were cut in. There's a dash of the red midriff, but none on his pelvis, and he's misisng the black on his thighs. And that's without mentioning the huge hinge behind his head, the mostly hollow dino head and neck on his back, the mostly hollow legs, and the wings that sit far too low on his back. Maybe Slag needed less paint in the first place, but I think Hasbro did a better job with him than with Grimlock. At least Grimlock came out better than Sludge, though. Also unlike Sludge, at least Grimlock came with a weapon. You can probably guess that it'll have purposes beyond being a weapon, but bless the designer (Evan?) for trying to give it some semblance, however poor, of Grimlock's double-barreled rifle. Grimlock's head can swivel, no tilt. His shoulders are on ball joints, so they can swivel and move laterally 90 degrees. Due to those hinges in his chest he also has an excellent forward butterfly that can bring is arm in front of his body. He does sort of have a wrist swivel, though, it's just in the middle of his forearm. His waist swivels. His ball-jointed hips can go 90 degrees laterally, a little more than that forward, and a little less than that backward. He lacks dedicated thigh swivels, but his knees are ball joints and they can turn out slightly under 45 degrees. Plus, they bend over 90 degrees. He has no foot articulation. All-in-all substandard articulation, as even most Core-classes have elbows, but it's actually an improvement from Slag. Using the small peg on one side Grimlock can hold his weapon in either fist. There doesn't seem to be any other storage. Grimlock's transformation is mostly familiar but very simplified. His robot hands don't fold in, instead is his forearms rotate so the robot fists on on the inside and the dino toes point forward. His chest doesn't shift downward, that's why he's got the big hinge behind his head. The dinosaur head folds up higher, along with a good portion of his back, so the wings have to rotate 180 degrees on ball joints before forming the chest. His legs tab together and then fold up onto his back, but there's no fancy hinged panels or fold out tails to worry about. Rather, you form the tail by plugging the back of the gun into the tops of his knees. The one little step you might miss is that there's a peg on Grimlock's back, and it needs to be flipped over to fill in the gap on his dinosaur back. Otherwise there's not enough room for the legs to fold up. Well... it's not great, but I feel like I've seen worse. Like, the back of him that's made up from his robot legs is too large, but that's maybe an easier pill to swallow on a Core than it was on a Voyager-class like the Power of the Primes Grimlock. From the front and sides the lack of color is a bit less apparent since he's basically gray where he needs to be and gold where he needs to be (minus those hinges again). I may touch him up, add the red stripes to his sides. Folding him into dino mode also hides a lot of his hollow gaps. I think my biggest complaint is probably those ball joints on the sides of his neck, like giant tumors. In dino mode Grimlock's head can look up, and he's got the swivels and lateral motion of his robot shoulders in his dino hips... but that's about it. His jaws don't open, and his little dino arms are fixed in place. Practically, that means most of the time he's in dino mode he's just going to stand around. I guess you could bend him over like he's fishing... Well, like I said a lot of his sacrifices are likely in service of his combined mode. For instance, the lack of arm articulation makes the front of his leg mode more solid, since what we're doing appears to be taking the dino mode, moving the tail to plug into ports on the robot shins to make it a heel, and swinging and locking his robot arms to the front. Open his dino neck and fold it over so you've basically got a brick. The challenge seemed to have been what to do with Grimlock's wings. His left wing just lies flat along the top, which looks fine, but I guess didn't leave enough clearance between it and the other leg on the gestalt. So, is right wing spins around and tabs into his dino neck. I'm not a huge fan of the asymmetry, though. I suppose you could turn the other wing around and tab it to the first, forming a hood over Grimlock's dino head, but for now we'll stick with the official transformation. And here's what we've got combined, so far. It works, I guess. Seems the idea was to get all Grimlock's toes lined up on the front to suggest that they're Volcanicus' toes, and he does provide a sturdy enough base that he stands up even with only one leg. It's a bit of a shame that he couldn't have come with some accessories that became actual feet, though. I suspect that'd improve the final proportions of the gestalt, too. Oh well, combiners on a budget. By the way, you'll note that Grimlock is the left leg, which I predicted back when Slag and Sludge were revealed. And we've got the recent reveals of Swoop, a pterodactyl, for the right arm and Skar, officially revealed as an Ankylosaurus, as the left arm, leaving Snarl, the stegosaurus, to form the right leg, again, as I predicted, because again, I'm telling you that Volcanicus is a pre-tool for Dinoking. In any case, Grimlock is another sub-par Core-class Dinobot who I don't recommend on his own. Volcanicus is shaping up to be fairly decent, though, so get Grimlock if you're in it for the combined mode. Or, you know, just wait for Dinoking.

I'm looking forward to getting it in-hand and giving it a proper look, but from what I can see it looks like another Commander-class home run.