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Yes. They sold through their initial stock very quickly, but I think they're expecting more by the end of the month. I'm in the same boat with a different figure with them.

Chalk it fewer MP-style 3P releases, the fact that I'm getting close to "completing" my MP collection, or some combination thereof, but 2022 wasn't the best year for me and 3P stuff. I reviewed 97 official releases in 2022, but (excluding reviews I wrote for older figures that I just happened to pick up and reviews for upgrade kits) I only wrote eight reviews for 3P figures. Over in the official thread I listed my top five of the year, and the challenge was whittling my list down to the best five. I'm having the opposite problem here- I think to get to five I might have to include some stuff that I'm not so gung-ho on. 5. X-Transbots Janssen - When I reviewed it, I had some issues with it, and apparently some other people had some QC problems. I concluded that it was a pretty significant upgrade over Fans Toys' original Tesla, and that it was a better value than their newer Tesla 2.0, so I gave it a recommend. Well, in the months since you could find some deals on Tesla 2.0 that brought it to around the same price, and at that point maybe go with Tesla 2.0 instead? 4. Magic Square Crane Master & Load Master - Magic Square packs some impressive engineering into their designs... but, between the small size and smushy nylon plastic they can also be a tad finnicky. Still, this was the set that completed their Devastator, which I think has better engineering and looks better than NewAge's... but yeah. Finnicky. I'd still love to see someone upscale this set to modern Hasbro Deluxes, maybe use less nylon in their plastic. 3. Fans Hobby Meg Tyranno - After a bit of a QC disaster with their Armada Optimus, Fans Hobby came back swinging with their Armada Megatron. Meg Tyranno has solid aesthetics, a solid if uninspired transformation, and lots of compartments and play patterns that remind me of their Overlord (one of my favorite Fans Hobby releases). This one might have scored higher, if I were more of an Armada fan. 2. Magic Square Light of Justice - Two things prevented this from figure from being my #1. First, the plastic, while sturdy, is thin and light, and there's no diecast and very little paint, giving the figure a "cheap" feel. Second, when it comes to aesthetics, I still prefer their earlier Light of Freedom. Once you overlook those two issues, though, what you're left with is a figure that looks cleaner and has a cartoon-accurate minimal backpack compared to MP-44 and has far better articulation and doesn't seem as lifeless as Transform Element's OP Leader. Pair that with a straightforward, pleasing transformation and compatibility with both MP-10 and MP-44's trailers, and you've got my second-favorite MP Optimus. 1. MMC Ocular Max Medicus - When it comes to 3P Transformers, in my book, MMC is the company to beat. Sure, they don't use as much diecast or paint as Fans Toys... they also don't charge as much as Fans Toys, and they still make figures that strike a good balance between realistic and Sunbow. But what really sets MMC apart from their competitors is that somehow consistently make figures that don't just look good, they're fun to handle. MMC releases figures that have some of the most clever engineering, and Medicus is no exception. Super clean, cartoon-accurate robot mode with solid articulation. Gorgeous alt mode that's 95% Sunbow but with some extra real-world details. An arm mode that features a bicep swivel, double-jointed elbow, and a fully-articulated hand that requires zero partsforming because the hand is actually built-in. And, somehow, a transformation between those modes that's clever, fun, and doesn't make you want to pull your hair out. This guy is the total package, and I can't wait to review Navigant (who technically released at the very end of last year, but didn't make it to me before the New Year).

Caught some benchmarks for the RTX 4070 Ti. And... I dunno. Performance seems similar to the 3090 Ti, and it costs about the same as a 3090 Ti. Seems to perform a little better than the 7900 XT, and it seems to cost a little more than the 7900 XT. So... it's fine? I guess? Although maybe the 7900 XTX is a better bang for your buck, assuming you're not super concerned with power draw or ray tracing (or melting GPU connectors). Or you could spend a little more and get an RTX 4080. But I think Linus over at LMG made a good point when he was comparing the price of the RTX 4070 Ti with the 3070 Ti. Like, this is the 70-level card- if you wanted to pay 3090 Ti prices for 3090 Ti performance, you probably already bought a 3090 Ti. Crypto crashed, the most popular GPU (according to Steam) is the GTX 1650, GPU sales are down to a 20-year low, and there's an argument to be had that GPU prices are simply too high across the board right now. And that's sort of where I'm landing... I think tech like DLSS/FidelityFX and ray tracing can make a big difference, but maybe we're not there yet. So, while I'm currently on an RTX 2080 and usually like to upgrade every other generation, I think I'm going to sit out an extra generation and maybe see what's cooking when we get to the RTX 5000/AMD 8000 series.

Well, new year, new Transformers branding. Sure, some Youtubers getting the backdoor specials or even a few paying a premium to get their stuff imported from Robot Kingdom just to get their videos out first have most of the wave done already, but I buy local... so I was kind of surprised when Evolution Core-class Slag Slug arrived today. Hmm. As I've said before, Hasbro's logic for releasing characters like this in the Core-class is to have smaller versions you can pair with Titans to make the Titans seem bigger. Which is fine... except that any semblance of scale at this class is now gone. I mean, previous Core-class figures like Optimus, Megatron, Shockwave, and Starscream are all similar in size, so having them all about the same size at the Core-scale is fine. But Slag shouldn't be the same size... it's almost like Slag is a pretool for another figure... But I think Slag properly scaled with the other Core-class figures would be more like a Deluxe. Oh, wait, we already have a Deluxe-class Slag. And a Leader. And little Core-class Slag is borrowing from both. I mean, he's got the cartoon colors with the red head and face with the blue eyes and the silver silver/gray thighs, but the engineering is much closer to the Deluxe, which like the Deluxe ditches the wings and leaves large dino leg kibble hanging off of his legs. Although, his back does split and fan out for another mode. It's not official, but I like to do it for his robot mode, too. It kind of gives him his wings. Slag's sole accessory is this rather odd-looking blaster. Even by Core-class standards, I'm not loving Slag's articulation. He can look up slightly, no down or sideways tilt, and he can swivel his head, but the entire dino head turns with his bot head. His shoulders rotate and can extend around 180 degrees on a ratcheted (or at least detented) hinge. He has no bicep swivel, though, and no elbow joint, and no wrist joint, though, so get what you can out of that shoulder. If you leave him "properly" transformed his backpack will stop his waist from swiveling, but the swivel is there- just open his back up like I prefer it. His hips are ball joints that can go 90 degrees forward, backward, or laterally. His knees are also ball joints, so they have to double as thigh swivels in addition to bending almost 180 degrees. Using the smaller peg on the unpainted side of his gun you can insert it into either of his fists. Transforming Slag is very simple- his bib folds up over his face, and his legs tab together and fold over 180 degrees to form the dino butt. His arms need to move laterally 180 degrees, then swivel to get the dino toes facing forward, then it's just a matter of getting the back legs in place to have a tiny Triceratops on your desk. And he looks ok... from some angles. From too low on the sides you'll seem some spots on his front legs where Hasbro hollowed the plastic. Plus, he's looking sort of anemic with no wings to fill in his dino sides, and his tail is kind of stumpy and rides a little high. That is, of course, because his blaster turns into his tail. Well, that's partly why... I mean, you'd think even as a blaster he could have had a longer and more tail-like tail. It's almost like Slag's designed around something else. If you don't mind his robot face peeking out, you can open his dino mouth. His rear legs swivel, but they have no other joints. His front legs swivel and can move laterally, but he's got no other joints there. Now, if that's all Slag did I'd say he's one of the worst Core-class releases Hasbro's done so far and write him off. But there is actually a bit more to it. See, you can remove this black part from under the tail... it's a head! Move all four of Slag's legs back- his front legs will have tabs that plug into his sides. Open his backpack up- this is what it's actually for- and you'll find a 5mm port you can plug the head into. On the underside you'll note a gaping hole is Slag's chest plus three pegs (marked green), and two more pegs (yellow) on the side. Yep, Hasbro's doing the Dinobots as a combiner thing again. Here's Slag in his head and torso mode, where he's listed as part 1 of 6 to make Volcanicus. ...wait a minute. Previously, even when they released Slash as a sixth Dinobot, Power of the Primes Volcanicus only had five members. And Grimlock formed the head and torso. It's almost like Slag is a pretool for a different figure. Do we know of any other combining Triceratops? Who form the torso of their respective combiner? Yeah, this is an interesting case, because Hasbro's design team has shown a willingness to take the old G1 Pretenders and give them one mode based on their shell and one based on the inner figure. Sure, with Skullgrin, Bomb Burst, and Iguanus it's been robots based on the Pretender shells with the alt modes of their inner robots, and Kakuryu would have to be the opposite- a Triceratops based on his Pretender shell and a robot based on the inner bot. And sure, Hasbro would probably have to do some retooling to get a robot that looks more like Kakuryu, who didn't have a dino head for a hood. You might also point out that Kakuryu's western counterpart, Slog, had a weird alien-looking Pretender shell, not a dinosaur, and the inner robot for both had a bipedal monster for an alt mode more reminiscent of Blot than a Triceratops. Still, Kakuryu is definitely a sauratopsid, and he definitely turns into the chest of Dinoking. Oh, and some of Dinoking's other parts include Rairyu, a Brontosaurus (like Sludge), Goryu, a T-Rex (like Grimlock), Yokuryu, a Pteradactyl (like Swoop), and Doryu, a Stegosaurus (like Snarl). Just wait and see if Volcanicus' new 6th member is an Ankylosaurus, like Gairyu. Of course, on that note, I still don't really recommend Slag. As a solo figure, even a Core-class one, he's not that exciting. Nor am I jumping at the chance to have a Volcanicus made out of Core-class Dinobots. To me, the most interesting thing about Slag is his potential as a pretool for Kakuryu (or even Slog). A Dinoking/Monstructor, even if it's only Core-class, is definitely something I'd want. EDIT: Messing with Slag a bit more, I have to say that regardless of what the instructions and official product photography show, I'm like 99% sure his backpack is supposed to be open like wings for robot mode. Not only does it free up the waist swivel (a joint that isn't used in the other modes), but you'll note that there's a 5mm peg on top of his tail/gun. With his backpack open the same 5mm port that the Volcanicus head plugs into is exposed on his back, and you can use the 5mm peg on his tail to store the whole thing on his back in bot mode.

And a very Happy (belated) New Year to you and everyone else who puts up with my long-winded posts on the toys I bought as well! I went back and looked at all the review posts I made in 2022, and I have to say that while Legacy on the whole definitely wasn't as exciting as the War for Cybertron trilogy (for me, at least) there were still some very excellent releases from Hasbro last year. So, without further ado, my top five official Transformers releases of 2022. 5. Leader-class Transmetal II Megatron - while some loose joints gave me an initial negative impression, once I tightened him up with some floor polish and he could hold a pose he's been sitting on top of my PC tower. In an era where "Leader" has come to mean "Voyager with extra bits" it's a rarity for a sub-Commander to have this much presence. Megatron rounds out the package with decent articulation and a downright pleasant transformation. I'm not even a big Beast Wars fan, but this is the best figure Hasbro's released named "Megatron" in years. 4. Commander-class Motormaster - Speaking of "Voyager with extra bits," Commander-class Motormaster gave me something that Combiner Wars failed to do: a cartoon-accurate robot with the little truck feet that scales with Prime but isn't a repaint of him, that turns into a whole truck and trailer. And while there are those who would prefer more actual combining and less sticking cars onto a mostly-complete robot, turning Motormaster's trailer into most of Menasor's body works, at least for the Stunticons, giving us a Menasor that's far more stable and better proportioned than the Combiner Wars one. Just a few minor complaints held this release from being higher on my list, like the lack of G1-style rifles for Motormaster or Menasor, the bland shins on Menasor, and a few panels that don't lock into place well. 3. Leader-class Holiday Optimus Prime - Optimus Prime colored like he's wearing a Santa suit with a gun and trailer from the Earthrise release painted like a candy cane seems like a novelty, something you might break out as part of your Christmas decorations and forget about for the other 11 months of the year. But, with his licensed Volvo VNR alt mode, solid articulation, and just-right transformation Holiday Optimus Prime was one of the low-key best Optimus figures we've got, and I sincerely hope Hasbro finds a way to revisit the mold with a more everyday deco. 2. Voyager-class Studio Series 86 Ironhide - When I started collecting the "Classics" line over fifteen years ago, one of my wants quickly became collecting the main cast from the G1 cartoon I grew up watching. And for years, Hasbro's put out a series of successively better Ironhide figures that never quite hit the mark (such that YouTube personality Thew Adams did a video about this very topic). Universe Ironhide was a bit a of a mess, replace by Combiner Wars Ironhide that was somehow better despite not really looking like Ironhide from the neck down, followed by Siege who looked pretty good in bot mode but had that Cybertronian alt mode, and then the Amazon-exlcusive Earthrise one that retooled the Siege figure into a passable earth van with a massive partsforming roof, as long as you didn't mind upgrading the Siege feet with some aftermarket ones that looked more like the rear of a van. At that point I'm sure some of us, myself included, resigned ourselves to thinking that Earthrise Ironhide was as good as it'd get, at least for now. And then the design team at Hasbro applied a Voyager budget to Ironhide, and came up with a totally new mold that delivered a more cartoon-accurate van with no weird feet, no partsforming for the roof, and a robot mode that honestly looks better than MP-27 to me. If there was one retail-release you should have picked up in 2022, it was Studio Series 86 Ironhide. 1. HasLab Victory Saber - It had to be this one. I feel for everyone that had QC issues, the Taiwanese whose Victory Sabers were lost at sea, and our European friends who got screwed by Zavvi, because this one was so good. A decent Saber figure with the Brainmaster gimmick that combined with the V-Star to make an adequately-sized Star Saber probably would have sold me on its own, but to come packed (in a gorgeous box with a reversible slipcover that has American HasLab and Japanese Victory-style designs) with a pretty decent Victory Leo and a boatload of accessories, and to be sturdy and secure even when combined (unlike, say, Takara Legends God Ginrai) really put it over the top for me, even if Holi and Fire are kind of trash.

They had a prototype at one of the trade shows last fall. But other than that, no. Always take 3P release dates with a grain of salt, especially XTB. I'm guessing three more months, minimum.

The funny thing about Magnus is that I'm reading a ton of comments that are basically "ER Magnus sucks, but you can't justify a Commander price for Ultra Magnus." It's like... we've seen what a Leader budget gets us, and we agree, it sucks. If you don't want it to suck, you have to be willing to pay more money. Some of Hasbro's best recent figures (I love SS86 Ironhide so much) have been figures that are the "size" of one class (even though they've stressed a bunch of times that class is a budget, not a size) but utilize the extra parts an engineering from the next size up. I, for one, and willing to pay a bit more if a bit more is the difference between ER Ironhide and SS86 Ironhide. Anyway, just going off the budget, I do kind of wonder if it actually will be a retool of ER Prime and a trailer that armors him up. I don't necessarily need him to be ER Prime, but I do prefer UM to have an inner robot, since it was a big deal to me when I had the original toy as a kid. I even got the Perfect Effect figure for the Combiner Wars one.

So, there's been some Transformers leaks. Unfortunately, must of them just have listings like "Collab 2” or "Selects 3” with prices in Canadian dollars. That said... I'm hearing a few things that are a bit interesting. Like, confirmation that the Commander-class for 2023 is Armada Optimus, and the Titan is the Nemesis. But perhaps the most interesting thing I'm hearing, if you weren't happy with Earthrise Ultra Magnus, is that we should expect a Commander-class Magnus under the SS86 banner.

Seems sketchy to me that Hasbro couldn't cover the amount Zavvi ordered but they could send copies to YouTubers that didn't order one.

At least the Street Fighter crossover figures are there. My Target is nothing but Dinobots.

I'd have to go over it with a fine-toothed comb to spot the differences, but I have the individual releases of Magic Square's Stunticons. They're good! A bit simpler than their Devastator, but at that scale I don't think that's a bad thing.

I don't recall hearing anything yet, but it's probably not an impossibility. Ramjet and Dirge are rumored to be getting re-released. They gotta G1-ify it so it fits with the rest of Legacy, I guess. Seems reaction is pretty mixed, some people really like it, others feel like giving up Wyatt's style is like giving up the soul of the character and are lamenting that they're not getting actual new Animated figures. While odds are good that I pick up this Prowl, and bad that I'd pick up a cartoon-faithful Animated Prowl, I think my position really hasn't changed. That is, I love the idea of taking the best characters from outside G1 and retroactively G1-ing them into Legacy, but I'm decidedly less enthusiastic about G1-ing characters that already have popular G1 versions and would rather Hasbro gave those characters more animation-accurate upgrades. In other words, I think Bulkhead and Knockout worked for me, and I love how the upcoming Skyquake amalgamates Prime with G1, but, Arcee and Prowl are kind of redundant. I'd rather see G1-ish versions of Bayverse Blackout, Animated Lugnut and Lockdown, RiD '15 Strongarm, and Cyberverse Slipstream and Shadowstriker.

Another (Deluxe-class?) Junkion in Legacy Evolution... And a G1-ified Animated Prowl And... yeah. I mean, I guess they do look kind of cool. And I shouldn't be a G1 curmudgeon and I should let Prime and Animated fans enjoy some new figures. On a personal level, though, Legacy was definitely a lot less exciting for me than the WfC Trilogy, and while I'm pretty pumped for Tarn and Leo Prime Evolution isn't exactly wowing me. Thank Primus that I can still expect some good stuff in Studio Series 86.

In all seriousness, I didn't care that Holi and Fire came with Victory Saber. In hand they turned out to be kind of junk, but it didn't bother me because they were always kind of last-minute add-on crap I didn't need in the first place. But now that I know I'm getting Pipo and Boater, too, I'm suddenly excited about the prospect of having the whole team. I even started watching my Victory DVDs and dug TFC's Liokaiser out of storage to replace the joints with the ones TFC made for the reissue. I'm kicking myself for never completing their Road Caesar, and wondering if some enterprising 3P would make the Multiforce...

The flip side of that is that MMC's stuff is kind of out-of-place with Hasbro stuff, which is why I settled on HasLab Deathsaurus. Don't get me wrong, though. MMC is my very favorite 3P, as they're the only one that seems to understand that the transformation matters. I expect I'll kick off 2023 reviewing some of their stuff. Getting back to Deathsaurus, though, looks like Hasbro is tossing in Pipo and Boater, completing the Rescue Patrol.

I'd have bought the G1 version of D-Zef if Hasbro hadn't announced their HasLab. I may still get the IDW version.

Backing window is closed on Deathsaurus. I kind of remember Star Saber getting a surge in backers after the backing window closed as international orders from affiliate sellers were counted, but right now the final count is just over 25,000. I backed one, anyone else? Hopefully he doesn't take as long to produce as Victory Saber- I'm hearing that Hasbro is targeting September.

If you don't care about ray tracing and just want the most frames for your buck, the RTX 7900 XTX looks like a good choice. I guess I was hoping for a more decisive win over the RTX 4080, and the RTX 4090 is still the money-is-no-object, absolute best. The 7900 XT, though, should probably be cheaper- as it stands, for the performance difference you're really better off spending the extra Benjamin on the XTX. I don't know that you can or should buy a card based on what it might do int he future, but I'll note that the 7000-series reviews mention weird performance dips and buggy drivers. I seem to recall the 6000-series had similar issues at launch, but eventually they got serious performance boosts through driver updates. Maybe driver updates for the 7900 XTX will give me that decisive win over the 4080 I was hoping for.

Kind of. Skyquake was green and died in his first appearance (although his zombie corpse appeared one or two more times). Dreadwing was the same CGI model, but blue. He joined the Decepticons on Earth because he wanted to avenge Skyquake, and wound up being a recurring villain. When it came to the toys, Dreadwing actually got them first (in both the Cyberverse Commander-class and Voyager-class), and then was redeccoed as Skyquake after the fact. As I said earlier, I really dig that this Skyquake is listed as Prime-universe but is getting blended with the G1 version, and I hope that when it's released as Dreadwing it can be changed enough (think Universe Sunstreaker and Sideswipe) to downplay the G1 Skyquake and look more like Prime Dreadwing. Fans Hobby had a few QC issues with their Armada Prime, and they do get a little too-stylized sometimes (their Armada Prime has a too-small upper body and goofy head on the smaller robot). I like them overall, though, they made some figures I really love like their Scourge, Laser Prime, Overlord, and Armada Megatron. I expect I'll pick up their Buster and Hydra, and probably their Energon Prime. They had some animated scenes in commercials, and they were a thing in the old Marvel comics, but they never appeared in the Sunbow cartoon. Their Japanese counterparts, Buster and Hydra, were major villains in the Masterforce anime (Fans Hobby has a track record of doing the Japanese versions first, but following them up with the Western ones after, so we'll have options). I think this Prime/G1 Skyquake scratches the G1 itch enough for me (maybe because Skyquake and the Predators weren't released in the US). But, with rumors of a Legacy Thunderclash coming, I'd absolutely throw money at Gen Selects Machine Wars Optimus and Machine Wars Starscream. MW Starscream was the best colors of that mold, anyway. In other news, if you're in for Deathsaurus (and you still have about 35 hours left to get in on it as of this writing), all tiers have been achieved. I'm looking forward to posing mine with Victory Saber sometime next year.

Welcome, friends, to what is likely going to be my final yet biggest review of 2022... Transformers HasLab Victory Saber! Due to the nature of this set, I don't think the usual robot-accessories-articulation-alt mode format works. We're going to go out-of-order and start with accessories, and there's a lot. There's a translucent blue stand that comes in three parts, six blue-green blast effects, a large V-lock cannon, a smaller rifle, two red-and-white cannons, a rubbery silver sword blade, a sword hilt/jet nose, two Micromasters, a shield, and an adapter for the shield. The stand has two configurations. You can slide the arm into the gap at the top of the "V" on the base so that the arm is perpendicular to the base for robot mode. Or, you can slide the edge of that triangular protrusion on the arm into the side of the base. The third translucent blue part fits onto a large peg, forming a cradle with a tab for alt mode. As for the shield, plug the adapter into the 5mm port right in the middle. Transformers Victory heavily featured the Micromaster Rescue Patrol team. The toys themselves were identical to the American versions, of which Stakeout and Red Heat/Hot already saw modern releases during Siege, so Hasbro figured it'd be easy to include those two with this set (although the other two didn't get Siege toys, so they're excluded). In the anime they were colored differently than their toy counterparts, so the Micromasters in this set are colored to look like the anime. Fire is a pretty minor repaint of Red Heat/Hot- basically, the blue is a much lighter shade, and they put some of that blue on his hands. Holi is the more drastic redeco, as Stakeout is mostly black but, for whatever reason, the animators thought Holi should be predominantly white. Aside from deco, the figures are identical to the Siege releases, but I'll note two important things. First, the joints are tighter on Holi and Fire than my somewhat-floppy Stakeout and Red Heat/Hot. That's good! But, the ball joints in their hips have some issues. In Fire's case, his legs a prone to popping off during transformation. In Holi's case, his legs are prone to popping off pretty much any time you move them. That's bad! However, the Micromasters were announced as third-tier backer option, I think after the initial HasLab started, and I never really cared about them. What I did care about is the figure proper, so we start with the roughly Deluxe-class Saber. I don't have a lot to complain about here... he's a pretty simple figure, with visible gaps on the inside of his forearms, but he's not exactly the main show, either. Standing just a head shorter than a "standard" Deluxe like Sideswipe, but a head taller than a small Deluxe like Bumblebee, he sticks pretty close to the cartoon with the silver lats, white trapezoids on his chest, and a larger white panel with an Autobot insignia, but the yellow on his crotch sort of splits the difference between the simple line of the cartoon and the original toy's stickers, and the gray hinges in his shins are very reminiscent of the original toy's wheels. He's clean and looks good from the back and sides. However, he's got some additional 5mm ports that the original didn't have to keep in line with the modern Legacy/WfC figures. The ones on his forearms are opposite the hollow gap, so you can see right through his arms. Saber's head can swivel, but it can't tilt... frankly, given how he works, it's impressive that it even swivels. His shoulders are on hinged ball joints so they can swivel, and just using the ball joint he can get a little under 90 degrees laterally. Using the hinge, too allows him to get closer to 120 degrees of lateral movement. The combination also allows him to shrug or slump his shoulders. His biceps swivel, and his hinged elbows bend 90 degrees. His wrists are actually ball joints, which allow them to swivel. HIs waist swivels a little, although his backpack prevents him from turning too far. Unusual for a Hasbro figure, Saber actually has a good ab crunch (which will allow his hips to clear his backpack when you're swiveling the waist). His hips go over 90 degrees forward, 90 degrees laterally, but only about 35-45 degrees backward, again, due to the backpack. His thighs swivel, and his knees bend almost 90 degrees. His toes can tilt down, and his ankles have a small but present pivot. Saber can hold the smaller rifle, although the fit is a little loose (the issue is the rifle's peg, not Saber's hand). Additionally, there are 5mm ports on either forearm, the outside of either shoulder, in the middle of his back (just behind the wings), and under each heel. The rifle itself has a 5mm port on either side that the G1 toy didn't as well, but there's not exactly an abundance of pegs to plug into them. The jet nose can plug into the 5mm port on his left shoulder for cartoon/toy accuracy. In the cartoon, Saber was one of four "Brainmasters." Brainmasters are kind of like Headmasters in reverse... rather than being a small robot that connects to a larger Transtector body, the Brainmasters are regular-sized Autobots who can transfer their brains into Micromaster-sized Transtectors. In the cartoon, the Brains entered the chests of their larger bodies, then they'd shoot up through the neck hole, becoming heads that filled in the empty helmets. Although I'm not really sure how the gimmick worked on the original toys, HasLab Saber retains the gimmick, and it's pretty clever here. You open his chest and you'll find the Brain of Courage inside, secured to a black cylinder via a tab on it's tiny butt. You pop him out, then fold Saber's face on to his back to reveal his own little head. The original toy was nearly double the size of a G1 Headmaster with a square, red torso, white limbs, and a gray head. For HasLab, though, the Brain of Courage is very tiny, maybe half the size of a Titan Master. Despite his teeny tiny size, he tries to copy the cartoon look (which was kind of like a mini Star Saber body with regular Saber's head), so he's got more of a deco than most most Titan Masters- he's got white paint on his abs, and I do believe that his legs are white plastic with blue paint on his thighs and red-painted feet. He's even got a tiny bit of gold paint on his chest. Surprisingly, the little guy even has some articulation! His legs are hinged at the waist so he can bend into a seated position (although both legs are a single part). His arms also have tiny ball joints for shoulders. They don't allow for much lateral movement, but they can rotate 360 degrees. Saber turns into a little jet. Perhaps this one is acceptable to @M'Kyuun? Or maybe not, as the nose of the jet does have to be partsformed from Saber's shoulder to the front of the jet. When you look at the underside it's pretty obviously a scrunched up robot, but from the sides and top he tucks in pretty well, and he's pretty accurate to the cartoon. In this case, totally cartoon. He's lacking the blue stripes on his wings and the extra yellow details that the G1 toy had. He's also resting on his chest and knee pads; unlike the G1 toy, he doesn't have any landing gear. Saber's cockpit can open, and there's a seat inside that the Brain of Courage can sit it. Which is good, because he can't say in Saber's head/chest, as it folds into the cavity that the Brain stands in. The only peg on Saber in this mode is under the nose, but his chest doesn't have clearance to plug it into his rifle's peg holes. Still, he's got two 5mm ports on either side of the jet, plus one on top behind the canopy that you can plug the rifle's handle into. His heels form the engine nozzles of his jet mode, and you can plug blast effects into them if you like. Should I call this an accessory? The set comes with a brick (I'm hesitant to call it a spaceship) known as the V-Star. In the anime, the V-Star would occasionally be piloted by Saber's adopted human son, Jan, and operate autonomously. But what you're really meant to do is fold Saber's wings up and his stabs down, then dock him into the V-Star. The combined ship is pretty big. He's got a bit less mass but a comparable size to Commander-class Sky Lynx, but he's still dwarfed by Jetfire. As you might expect, the yellow on the original toy's wings has been replaced with white and the stickers that ran down the nacelles are omitted to be more cartoon-accurate. Unlike the original toy, the red bits near the front with the Autobot insignias don't open and don't have landing gear. There is landing gear in the yellow knees underneath, though, and the whole thing balances on the yellow landing gear and the black bits at the very back of the ship. The back of the V-Star has two very obvious nozzles plus two additional 5mm ports for plugging in blast effects, and you can see four smaller nozzle-looking bumps that the small holes in the blast effect pegs can fit onto. If you start to transform the V-Star, you'll also find slots on the edges of Star Saber's legs where you can store the sword blade. Alas, there doesn't seem to be a place to store the blade in his back, the way he did in the anime. The guns on what will become Star Saber's shoulders are hinged, as are the antenna on Star Saber's head. The shoulder guns have the bumps for blast effects, as does Saber's rifle, which can be stored in one of 12 available ports on the V-Star (four on each white nacelle, four on the blue back). There's actually six on the back, but one is covered by Star Saber's head. There's also a peg on the end of the blue part that plugs into one of the ports on the back of the shield, allowing the V-Star to carry it. You don't even have to remove the adapter from the back. And while Saber isn't designed to use the flight stand, the combined V-Star is. Of course, the V-Star doesn't just park in a garage while Saber's doing his thing. Like many larger G1 toys at the time, the V-Star has a rudimentary base mode. Although there are places you can plug in Saber's rifle, Saber himself can't interact much with this mode (I think the G1 toy had a platform he could stand on, but no such luck here). His instruction suggest using two slots on the back of the shield to plug into two tabs on the gray panels at the front, attaching it to the base. On my copy it doesn't work; the tabs fall right out of the slots. Not a huge deal for me; the G1 toy didn't have a shield. I haven't watched Victory, but I got the impression he maybe only used it in like one episode. I'm sure anyone with a passing familiarity doesn't care about the base mode, and is unlikely to keep the V-Star in ship mode, either. No, it's all balling Saber up and transforming the V-Star into a larger robot body for him. The combination of Saber and V-Star gives us Star Saber, the main reason I wanted this set in the first place. Star Saber's a big fellow; I'd argue that if Hasbro were to have tried selling him at retail he'd likely be a Commander-class. Some Transformer fans may derisively suggest that some of the Japanese Transformers are "too Gundam," but in this case, after Takara did the initial design, it was finalized by none other than Kunio Okawara, and the comparison with Gundam is probably a bit more fair. It is a very Gundam-ish design, with lots of red, while, blue, and yellow. Not that there's anything wrong with that! Some views from the back and sides. Star Saber is pretty kibble free, but it's not hard to do considering the simple squarish nature of the V-Star. For the most part, his robot mode doesn't diverge too much from the original toy, you just have white on the little chest wings instead of blue and yellow, and the little yellow sticker on the original toy's crotch is molded, painted detail with some extra Gundam-esque yellow vernier on his hip skirts. Note that Star Saber's head is a partsforming piece that slides over Saber's head. I believe Star Saber's head also covered Saber's on the original toy, but that there was a flap so it was never disconnected from the V-Star. Star Saber's head can swivel, and he can look up quite a bit (too much, though, and you'll start to see Saber's head through a gap between Star Saber's face and neck) and down slightly. His shoulders have ratcheted rotation, but only about 45 degrees of lateral movement. His biceps swivel, and his elbows are technically double-jointed with a friction hinge at the top and a ratchet at the bottom. However, due to his Popeye forearms you're still limited to just a little over 90 degrees of bend. His wrists swivel. His hands are built like Jetfire's, with a fixed thumb and fingers that are hinged at the base and can open. Closing them pushes a 5mm port out of the inside of his palm. His waist swivels. His front and side hip skirts can move, so his hips can go forward just under 90 degrees, backward maybe 45 degrees, and laterally 90 degrees, all on ratchets. His thighs swivel, and his ratcheted knees band just a bit short of 90 degrees. His toes can bend down, or the whole red part of his foot can go up and down, however, the gray part of his foot doesn't move. The red part is designed to move around it, but on my copy (and most that I've heard from) the right foot is a bit tight, and you might need to trim some excess plastic off the gray part. Finally, he does have some ankle pivot, but its disappointingly pretty limited- just enough to keep his feet flat with his hips out one click each into a basic A-stance. Star Saber can hold Saber's rifle. He can also use a handle to hold the shield. The blue handle on the jet nose can be extended, and that'll give you room to plug in the sword's blade. An interesting thing here, because of how the jet nose is shaped as a hilt, the original G1 toy is designed so that the top of the nose is facing forward, and you can plug the blade into this one the same way. However, in the anime Star Saber is drawn so one side of nose is facing forward- it looks more natural as a sword like that. And the blade/jet combo is also designed to work if you plug the blade in that way- his wrists bend outward just enough, and the handle is long enough, that Star Saber can hold the hilt either way and still have the the edge of the blade in the right direction for chopping. As for the shield, in addition to holding it the adapter has pinchy clips. These clips latch onto slots on the edge of either of Star Saber's forearms, Gundam-style, and frees up his hand. This also gives you a place to store the sword. There's enough space to slide the blade through the adapter and plug the peg on the bottom of the jet nose into a hole at the top of the shield. Alternatively, you can store the sword in one of the three peg holes on his back, or the ones on either hip. Star Saber also has two ports on the back of each leg, one one the wings on the sides of his legs, one on the back of each shoulder, one on the back of each forearm, three on his butt, and four under each foot. There's also a slightly large peg on the bottom of his butt. This is the place where you plug in the stand. We're still not done. Star Saber also comes with his pal, Victory Leo. So, at the end of Masterforce, the Transtectors that were boded with humans gained sentient personalities and ditched their humans. God Ginrai became a friend and ally of Star Saber's, until Deathsaurus kind of killed him and Perceptor and Wheeljack used his body to create Victory Leo. And I'm telling you this because Victory Leo kind of looks to me like it was Tantrum and Razorclaw who got killed and had their parts made into Victory Leo. Again, to better match the cartoon, sticker details on his shins have been simplified to a large yellow chunks with raised red shapes under them. The blue was removed from his shoulders, and stickers were removed from the yellow parts of his chest (although there's molded detail where the stickers would go). They painted some vents red that were simply molded onto the original. And the stickers on the original toy's pelvis are reduced to a single red square with an Autobot insigna tampoed on. While the top of his head isn't much taller than Prime (and even then Victory Leo's got a big hat, and his eyes are probably level with Prime's), he's still a pretty big boy that I'd argue qualifies for Leader-class. And while I think he looks pretty good, it's here that were getting back to Hasbro's usual cost-cutting. While probably more solid than a typical Voyager or Deluxe, Hasbro did hollow the insides of his thighs, the undersides of his wings, and, worse, the undersides of the V-Lock rifles on his back. Also, while they painted some red striping on his wings, they apparently missed on spot on what is, in his robot mode, the back of the wings. Two red stickers are included in the package to cover those spots. Victory Leo's head can swivel, but his helmet snags and you kind of have to lift the panel his head is on like you're going to transform him. His shoulders rotate and can extend almost 90 degrees laterally. His biceps swivel, and although his elbows have just the one hinge each they can bend around 150 degrees. His wrists swivel. Unfortunately, due to how he splits apart, he doesn't have a waist swivel. His hips can go a little over 90 degrees forward and a little less than 90 degrees backward on ratchets, then about 60 degrees laterally on a softer ratchet before gatling guns on his hips get in the way. His thighs swivel, and his knees bend about 90 degrees. He doesn't have proper ankles, but the red toes have a swivel and there's a bit of a black part with a hinge that lets you tilt the front of his foot almost 90 degrees up or down, or turn the toes into a faux 90 degree ankle pivot. For animation accuracy, the V-lock rifles plug into 5mm ports on some red bits on Victory Leo's back. The red bits are hinged, which will bring them up and over. There are 5mm ports on his forearms, though, and you can plug the V-lock rifles into them, like the G1 toy. He can hold the V-lock cannon, too, but I gather he had it on his hip in the cartoon. Sure enough, there are 5mm ports on the sides of his waist. There's also two more on his back, one on each of his calves, one on each of the cat paws on the backs of his legs, two on each of the cat legs on the sides of his legs, and one under each toe. There's also a post in the middle of his back. The V-lock rifles have two ports under each barrel, and the V-lock cannon has one port on each side and one peg on the right side. The V-lock rifles and cannon are, naturally, compatible with the blast effects parts. On his own, Victory Leo isn't compatible with the flight stand. Victory Leo turns into a lion... with wings! The transformation is pretty simple. A bit of VL's forehead folds down over his face*, his front legs fold out from the backs of his forearms (oh no, visible hands), you fold the "tail" out of his robot legs and scrunch them up, and the back lion legs unfurl from their spot on the outsides of the robot legs. You don't even have to remove the V-lock rifles. *Note that, again, this is an area where you may have some excess plastic flash around the hinge, and you might need to cut it off before you can fold the cover down over Victory Leo's face. I know I did! So be careful and don't force it. Despite the simplicity, Victory Leo really isn't too bad on his own. His wings have hinges at the base so they can flap up. The V-lock rifles can swivel and have hinges built into them so they can angle up even while the armatures they're attach to stay plugged into his back. His front legs have all the articulation of his arms (minus wrist swivels). His back legs can swivel at the hips, bend at the knees, and bend at the paws. His mouth can open, and his head can turn into a sideways tilt. If you don't mind breaking the sculpt a bit, you can untab the panel it's on and tilt it up. Plus, his robot hips become an ab crunch/back bend. Due to transformation he loses two 5mm ports on his back between the V-lock rifles. He does still retain two on his back, that were his calves in robot mode, plus one under each of his rear paws, two on each rear cat hip, on on each side of his waist, one on each forearm, and on on both the inside and outside of his front paws. Then there's a special raised gray part with a peg in the middle of his back. You can fold the handle of the V-lock cannon in, revealing a clip with a hole in it. The hole goes onto the peg on the lion's back, and the clip grabs onto the gray part, securing it in place. Victory Leo's original toy was just meant to have the lion alt mode, but when the animators of the Victory anime were messing with the toys they invented a "jet" mode. This time, it's official! You basically get there by folding his head onto his back, unfurling his wings, curling up his legs, and turning the V-lock rifles around because his back is now his front. The V-lock cannon even has its own way of attaching in this mode. There's two slots on the top of the rifle. Turn it upside down, and the slot near the back plugs into a tab on Leo's unfolded back, while the other slot closer to the front grabs onto a tab formed from smaller tabs on both legs. From this "jet" mode, remove the V-lock cannon (but not the rifles, and open his robot legs up enough to fold the "tail" back in. Now, grab Star Saber in his alt mode, and life the blue flap on the back. Tabs on Victory Leo's rear cat legs (circled). They go into slots on the inside of Star Saber's legs, then the blue flap folds back into place, locking into the red clips you see on Victory Leo. This, then, is their (somewhat ridiculous, but in a good way) combined alt mode. And now were definitely a lot closer to Jetfire in size. With all the ports on the V-Star you'll have plenty of room to store both Saber's rifle and the V-lock cannon. The shield can stay, too, but you'll have to remove it, pull the adapter off, and put it on a port closer to the bottom of the shield, and even then it kind of sits at an angle. Oh well, I guess that helps hide the lion head. So far, we've been talking about Star Saber and Victory Leo, but the HasLab was for Victory Saber. Like the Godbomber that he was (at least partly) made from, Victory Leo is actually an upgrade for Star Saber. To get there, with his arms, wings, and V-lock rifles in their jet mode positions, you slide the back and sides of his torso off, along with his head. The instructions tell you to turn the lion head 180 degrees, then fold it down into his chest cavity, the fold the back flap around under the head. I haven't watched enough Victory to know, but maybe this is cartoon-accurate? Turning the head doesn't seem to be a necessity. As for the rest of Victory Leo, you split him right down the middle. Fold the big feet out of his chest, fold the "tail" and the large red clips out of his legs, and fold in the smaller red clip in his pelvis. Then, right where the gatling guns on his hips are, bend the halves of his body over on themselves, so that the tabs on the cat legs plug into slots on the sides of his chest. Yep, like 80 percent of Victory Leo is just shoes for Star Saber. You attach them by folding Star Saber's feet in the way you would for his alt mode, then using the big red clips to grab onto spots on his heels. Then, fold the "tail" parts up over the gray parts of Star Saber's feet to lock them in. By the way, I'd have sworn the instructions tell you to put them on the way I have them in my pictures, but I've since come to realize that they're backward. If you ever forget, the gold chrome goes on the outside, but they'll fit either way. I'm too lazy to go back and redo all my pictures, though. As for the rest, the raised gray bit with the peg that you could clip the V-lock cannon onto the lion mode has its own clip, and it pegs into and grabs onto the spot on Star Saber's back where his head sits on the V-Star. You further secure this new backpack into place by untabbing the red armatures the V-lock rifles are on from Victory Leo's back, then hinging them up and over to plug into slots on the top of Star Saber's back. And now, Victory Leo plus Star Saber equals Victory Saber, who's a really tall fellow. He's roughly equal in stature to Takara Legends God Ginrai or Siege Jetfire. He does this with kind of odd proportions, though, as his shoes are taller than God Ginrai's and he doesn't get he new longer forearms like God Ginrai. The result is that his shoes don't really look like part of his legs with little red feet, It looks like he's standing on boxes. To be clear, though, this is me critiquing Victory Saber's design going back to 1989, not this particular figure. Like I said, the instructions are very clear that this is how the lion's head goes in Victory Saber mode. It doesn't hurt anything, though, if you'd rather have a right side up lion head on Victory Saber's back. Because it's just shoes and a backpack, Victory Saber's articulation is largely unchanged from Star Saber's. The only difference is that the new red feet can tilt down, but not up; the ankle pivot is still up above, at Star Saber's ankle. Victory Saber plugs into the stand the same as before, and he can wield all of his accessories- at the same time, even! Just plug Saber's rifle onto the peg on the side of V-lock cannon, or use one of the other ports on his body. Heck, you can even transform Holi and Fire, fold out some pegs on them, then stick them on Victory Saber. Or, if you prefer, you can just store his gear. His new backpack covers the peg holes on his back, and the wings cover the ones on his shoulders, you've still got the ones on the cat's paws on the outsides of his shoes, two on each of his calves, one on the back of each forearm, on both the insides and the outsides of the cat's paws on his backpack, on the cat forearms on his backpack, hips hips, his butt and on the wings on the outsides of his legs. His new shoes also have a 5mm port under each foot. Over on the boards that shall not be named, there's a lot of drama surrounding this set's QC. To be clear, there have been reports of actual QC issues, ranging from common but minor issues like mine where I had to trim a little excess plastic from Victory Saber's face cover and Star Saber's right foot, and the hips on Holi being worthless, to more serious issues like parts that should be mirrored actually using the same part, missing parts, or damaged parts. Other issues have included damage to the gold chrome on Star Saber and/or Victory Leo, and light scratches on Star Saber's face plate. The majority of the QC complaints I've been hearing, though, really come down to paint. And for that I'm talking stuff like, if you look closely at the right shoulder on my copy, you'll see a paint chip where white is poking through the red, or in the one picture of Star Saber's side you might see a little fleck of blue where it shouldn't be. While I'm not making light of actual QC issues, and I do agree Hasbro could probably do better (maybe if they moved their factory again), I have to stress that Victory Saber is a Legacy figure. He's a CHUG, and he's built like one. There's a notion that, because this was a $180 HasLab project aimed at adult collectors that this is some kind of premium product, more akin to an MP maybe (or maybe not, given how shoddy Takara's own QC has become). Nope. You're buying a box with a $90 Commander-class, a $50 Leader-class, a $10 Micromaster set, and an extra $30 to cover the flight stand, shield, blast effects, and fancier box (assuming Star Saber comes with the sword and rifle, and Victory Leo comes with the two V-lock rifles and the V-lock cannon). And just like with the Legacy figures you buy in a store, you're going to have some minor paint defects. You're buying the same plastic used in the mainline. You're still getting color that comes more from the plastic than what paint they did use. Despite the fact that Victory Saber is most definitely CHUG, you're getting a solid figure with sturdy connections and joints that hold up well even in Victory Saber mode and carrying that big V-lock cannon. Indeed, he feels a lot more solid than either my Sky Lynx or my Jetfire. I very much love this set, I definitely think it was worth the price, I'm very glad I backed it and chose to back Deathsaurus. If it were possible to get him at retail still I'd absolutely recommend it. Unfortunately, the reality of HasLab means by the time he goes out and I can actually tell you I love it and it's good you're stuck looking for one on the aftermarket.

I kind of dig it. It's got a lot of recognizably Prime stuff about it, but like Bulkhead, Arcee, and Knockout they had to make the aesthetic work with the rest of Legacy, and they did it by working in a lot of G1 Skyquake. EDIT: Just had a thought about the cockpit and what not... AFAIK, Prime Dreadwing is also confirmed for Legacy Evolution. Perhaps, in an effort to keep Skyquake and Dreadwing from being identical in all but color Dreadwing's tooling will allow for the jet canopy to show on his tummy to appear closer to his Prime appearance.

Thanks Shawn, I was worried it was just on my end! I started pinging MWers on other boards I visit to see if they could post.

Hey, I'd gladly talk about Deathsaurus for a review sample, but something tells me I'm not even a blip on Hasbro's radar. Oh well, still planning on reviewing Victory Saber since I backed it, and while I haven't heard beans from Hasbro I got a text this afternoon telling me that I've got a package coming tomorrow that requires a signature that is almost 100% definitely Victory Saber. Until then, some Dinobots weren't the only Cyberverse toys I picked up the other day. I also grabbed Warrior-class Windblade, since I'm not totally satisfied with either of the other Windblades I have... which I never reviewed. So, I guess you can consider this a review for all three! Ok, so, left to right we have Generations Thrilling 30 Deluxe-class Windblade, Cyberverse Warrior-class Windblade, and Titans Return Deluxe-class Windblade. And I guess it's here that I have to talk about Windblade's design in the first place. She began life as a fan-vote character, where Hasbro offered different choices on different aspects of the character and fans voted on what they wanted. And the fans voted for a valiant female red-and-black Autobot that turns into a jet, fights with a sword, and is telepathic. Now, the initial design apparently came from one Lenny Panzica, but it's not clear how much of her design was straight up his, how much of it was dictated by Hasbro, or how much of it was later developed by IDW. I do think it's safe to say Panzica is probably the one that gave her the traditionally "sexy" figure with little to no regard for how she's actually transform into a jet, but somewhere along the line someone decided that she should pay homage to The Transformers' Japanese roots (which, I'd argue, are actually pretty minimal- it's like modern fans know that the original toys were licensed for Takara's Diaclone line, but aside from some initial character models for commercials (that were modified by Floro Dery before going to Sunbow) the names, characters, and story are really attributable to Marvel Productions, mainly Jim Shooter and Bob Budiansky). That led to the honestly kind of cringe idea giving her a head designed to look like kabuki kesho, hence the somewhat aggressive appearance on the original Thrilling 30 toy. As the design was further refined, though, her "hair' has changed a bit, her lips were painted, and the red around her eyes was made less dramatic and, frankly, a bit more geisha-like. So as I kind of already touched on, T30 Windblade seems based on one of the earliest designs, before it was refined into what became her "standard" look in IDW. In addition to the different face, it's the cause of why some of her colors are off, like red thighs and a black pelvis, no red on her wings, etc. But more than that, she's got a kind of spindly, fragile feel to her. Titans Return Windblade, by contrast, comes across as more accurate to the comics (but still off), and more solid than the T30 toy, but also simplified and kind of chunky. And then there's Cyberverse. Like most Cyberverse toys she's missing a lot of paint apps, mostly black on her legs and fingers, but otherwise she does a good job of capturing the Cyberverse style, which I like quite a bit on Windblade. Her lower legs look less humanoid and more like bellbottoms, and it gives her a sportier appearance. Remember what I was saying before, about how she was designed without any regard for how she'd actually transform? In both the comics and Cyberverse she has no real backpack, and no obvious cockpit. Facing the reality of making actual transforming toys, though, and all three wound up with a backpack. I'd argue that Titans Return has the worst one, likely due to the interior actually having to accommodate a Titan Master. When it comes to accessories, T30 wins out as she's got a lovely translucent purple Stormfall sword with black paint on the hilt, plus a scabbard to store it in. Titans Return Windblade has her Titan Master, of course, and two swords made of yellow translucent plastic painted silver with a very odd shape. And Cyberverse Windblade actually doesn't come with anything. T30 Windblade's head is on a hinged swivel that can look up and down a pretty decent amount, but her collar actually makes it difficult for her to turn her head. Her shoulders are ball joints that rotate and move laterally a bit over 90 degrees. Her biceps swivel, her elbows bend 90 degrees, and she's got no wrist articulation. Her waist swivels. Her hips are ball joints that can go 90 degrees forward, backward, or laterally. Her thighs swivel, and her knees bend 90 degrees. She doesn't have any foot or ankle articulation (unless you count her heel collapsing inward for transformation). Her wings have very tight hinges that you can use to fold them back a bit, as well as swivel that move them up and away from her body. Plus, they're connected to the stem of her shoulder ball joints, so they actually rotate around her shoulders. She can hold her sword just fine, and the scabbard tabs into either of her thighs. The gold decoration on he back of her head can come off as well, and she can hold it like a fan. Despite adequate (for the time) articulation, posing her can be a bit of a chore, as her small feet and smaller heels can be tricky to balance on, hence why I grabbed a stand from Studio Series Soundwave. I'm not clear on what kind of joint Cyberverse Windblade's head might be on; due to her collar she has basically no up/down tilt and can barely turn her head at all. Her shoulders are ball joints that rotate and move laterally 90 degrees. Her biceps swivel, and her elbows bend 90 degrees. No wrist articulation. Her waist swivels. Her hips are ball joints that can go over 90 degrees forward, 90 degrees backward, and a little under 90 laterally. She doesn't have dedicated thighs swivels, but they can swivel over the balls in her hips enough to get her toes pointed 30 degrees apart. Her knees bend 120-ish degrees. Her feet really lock into place, but if you start undoing them for transformation you can get them pointed down. No ankle articulation. Her hands can hold any weapon with a 5mm handle, including T30 Windblade's sword. As a Cyberverse Warrior-class, she has a gimmick where you push the jet-nose backpack down and her wings slide upward to reveal some circuitry behind them, which also makes the propellors spin. And for what it's worth, her big boot feet give her a nice, stable base to stand on. Titans Return Windblade's little Titan Master ball-joint neck gives her the best head articulation of the three, allowing her to look up and down a fair bit, tilt her head sideways, and even turn her head 360 degrees. Her shoulders are ball joints that rotate and extend laterally 90 degrees. Her biceps swivel, and her elbows bend 90 degrees. No wrist swivel, and no waist swivel. Her hips can go 90 degrees forward, backward, or laterally, but they have this weird detent that practically forces her to go from stock straight to a wide A-stance. Her thighs swivel, and her knees bend almost 180 degrees. Her feet can tilt down, but no up, and she lacks ankle pivots. Her wings have hinges so they can fold backward, but she lacks the other joints found on T30's. She can hold her swords in either hand, and they can tab into slots on her thighs (it's a tight fit, but you can fit T30's scabbard into TR's thighs as well). As a Titans Return toy, Windblade's swords look weird because they're saddled with an unnecessary gimmick, combining in such a way that a little seat is formed for her Titan Master to sit in. Apologies for mixing up the order for their alt modes... this time, left to right, it's Cyberverse, Thrilling 30, and Titans Return. Of the three, Thrilling 30 is the basic template for all Windblade's to follow, and probably has the most-accurate shape with the single vertical stabilizer and tapered, perpendicular wings. There's a lot more black showing in this mode as well... I think that was an intentional part of the design, but one that a lot of artists at IDW didn't adhere too. The white nose was more often retained, though, and the canopy was depicted as blue as often or more than yellow. She also has the most elaborate transformation of the three, but it involves a lot of thin parts moving on multiple hinges that need to be lined up just so to tab in, and the result feels less secure that I'd like and leaves a rather large gap in the middle between her legs. And yet, for all the extra effort, she has a lot of the same configuration as the other two; chest underneath, legs make up the back, arms just kind of hang out along the sides under the wings. Which makes me want to talk about Titans Return next. The forward swept wings, raised tail, and larger fuselage make her less immediately apparent as Windblade- it's mostly the VTOL fans that give her away. I prefer the more predominantly red color, although I do wish she had some white on her nose. And that just leaves Cyberverse. With a more consistently-animated model to compare to, I'd say that the Cyberverse toy does the job fairly well. My only complaints are that the gimmick leaves her wings with an odd shape, and the cartoon had a single-engine, single vertical stab on the tail. I think the twin engine, twin stab look of the toy is simply the reality of working with a simple class like Warrior. The Cyberverse toy doesn't really do anything besides swoosh around. There's no accessories to store, no landing gear, and her VTOL fans don't move. T30 Windblade has a fold out landing gear in her nose, and molded permanently-deployed ones on the backs of her robot thighs. Her VTOL fans are hinged so they can tilt forward, and the blades inside spin. Her scabbard has a 5mm peg that plugs into her butt on the underside of the jet. It kind of helps fill in the gap between her legs, but it does stick kind of far out the back. TR Windblade also has a fold out landing skid in her nose, but rather than molded landing gear her rear rests on the fins on her arms. Her VTOL fans can also tilt, but the blades do not spin. Her swords can tab into the undersides of her wings, and there's a 5mm port behind her canopy. Hers in the only canopy of the three than can open, allowing her Titan Master to sit inside. So, of the three, which is the definitive Windblade? None of them! They all have some things I like, and some issues that hold them back. At this point, I'd like to see her get a totally new figure that incorporates some of the best ideas from all three into a toy that's more accurate in both modes that's stable, has better articulation, and more solid construction than the T30 figure, even if it means bumping her up to a Voyager. Until that day, though, if you really have to have a Windblade the Cyberverse figure is the cheapest and most readily available, as you might still be able to find it in your local Target or Walmart for around $15. And, while she's lacking a bit in articulation, paint, and accessories, the sculpt is pretty good and I do feel like I got my money's worth. If Cyberverse doesn't quite cut it for you, seems to be the next-easiest to find on the secondary market. While I expect I'll personally be using Titans Return Windblade for my collection for the time being (with T30's sword, though), she's got too many flaws to recommend tracking down one on the secondary market.

I loved Zero Dawn when it first came out, but I recently tried replaying it on PC and it just wasn't clicking with me. I didn't even bother with Forbidden West. Any other good announcements? I have it on, but it's muted. I'm just trying to win a Steam Deck (that I'll buy if I don't win).

I missed this the first time, but as huge Mega Man fan I'll grab this if it's still available next month. This month got a little tight between Christmas, backing Deathsaurus, and my cat having to get disimpacted at the vet.