mikeszekely

You'd think with that blitz of reviews I did before Thanksgiving that I'd be done for awhile, but I have one more official review before the month is out (plus Hasbro's got a few treats left for me before the year is out). Today we've got Studio Series 86 Core-class Rumble (Blue). Let's talk about the name, for a minute. Does Hasbro think they're side-stepping the whole Rumble-is-blue-Frenzy-is-red argument? Do they expect us to ignore that it wasn't that long ago that they released the Siege Micromaster two pack of "Rumble" and Ravage that came with a guy in the black and red colors? I don't know, btu I do know that after years of leaning on the toy heritage even Hasbro has begun admitting that cartoon is king, and I'm taking this as a tacit admission that if you're goal is cartoon accuracy, and the cartoon clearly called the blue one Rumble, then Rumble is blue no matter how many times they packed him in a box labeled "Frenzy." But I digress. Although Core-class Rumble shares some similarities with the Siege Micromaster, he's an entirely new mold with no shared parts. What you wind up with is still tiny, but with better proportions, actual feet, and colors that are far more animation accurate. You also get some accessories this time- two piledrivers, and two back guns. The piledrivers are pretty hollowed out, and unlike the MP ones they're each a single, solid piece. The pistons do not move. Articulation is where things start to get a bit dicey. His head is on a ball joint, with the ball in his torso, not his head. So, his head swivels (same as the Micromaster), but he's got a limited ability to look up. Shoulders are ball joints with the same range as the Micromaster- rotation and 90 degrees laterally. Also like the Micromaster, and something I'd have expected to be better on a Core-class figure, Rumble lacks a bicep swivel, a wrist swivel, any elbow bend, or a waist swivel. His hips can go 90 degrees forward, backward, and slightly over that laterally, with no dedicated thigh swivel but ball-jointed knees that act as a swivel and a bend- the only difference in articulation between Rumble and the Micromaster here is that Rumble's knee bend is much deeper, more like 160 degrees than the Micromaster's 90. Due to Rumble's transformation he has feet that can tilt up, but not down, and he doesn't have any ankle pivot. I prefer Rumble's guns on his back, and they do have little pegs that fit into little holes on his back for that purpose. He doesn't have fist holes, though, so he can't hold the guns like pistols. In lieu of that, he's got small holes on his forearms that the guns can plug into like arm cannons. As for his piledrivers, you just fold his fists in then jam his forearms into the the hollow spots in the sides of of the piledrivers. For all their similarities in articulation, you'd think that Rumble would end up having a similar transformation. In some ways he does; his wrists fold all the way in instead of tucking into his legs, but they still fold. His head folds into his back, giving his slightly longer arms more space on the top, but they still use the shoulder joints to shift his whole arm to the top of his alt mode box. The big difference is in his legs. With his longer, more proportional thighs he couldn't simply splay his legs and have his knees bend his feet up to his wrists. Instead, his hips have to bend over 90 degrees, to get his knees up to his arms and his heels are along the bottom, with most of his foot folded into his shin. Aside from actually hiding his head in alt mode, on other major difference is that Rumble is actually trying to look like a tape, with a painted label on one side, instead of simply being a Cybertronian data brick or whatever. There's not a lot you can do with Rumble's accessories in alt mode. You could, technically, leave the guns attached. His piledrivers also have little holes near the tops that you can plug his guns into. There's no way to attach the guns to the tape, though. Speaking of, one of the goals Hasbro had for Rumble was that he'd still fit into Siege/Legacy/Netflix Soundwave's chest, as the Micromasters were a little smaller than the G1/MP tapes. And, yep, it's a bit of a tight fit but he surely does sit in Soundwave's chest. Another quirk that I'm not sure I've found a ton of use for is that the tops of Rumble's piledrivers have a (hexagonal) 5mm port. I'm not sure what all you could find to plug the piledrivers on to- given that most figures are covered in ports, not pegs, but I was able to spin around Soundwave's shoulder cannon and plug one into it. That's something. I've got mixed feelings about Rumble. On the one hand, especially given that the blue Micromaster was only available in a Pulse-exclusive set, I think it's great to get a more cartoon-accurate one that still fits inside Soundwave and comes with his back guns and piledrivers. on the other hand, while his aesthetics are improved, his overall engineering and articulation aren't so much of an improvement, and those Micromasters were basically two for the price of a Core-class. Even with the accessories, I'm not sure that Rumble is really double the figure that those Micromasters are. I don't have an issue with the size, per se. I just think, for the money, they could have at least given him some ball-jointed elbows or something. I guess if you need a Rumble to go with your Soundwave SS86 Rumble will do, and for colors alone he's an improvement over the blue Micromaster. I'm not sorry I got him, and I'd like to see Hasbro re-do Ravage for sure and possibly Laserbeak to get something with better proportions and screen accuracy, too. But I'm finding myself weirdly ambivalent about the prospect of a Frenzy repaint; the red and black Micromaster seems good enough for the more minor cassette.

I didn't care for the little Action Toys guys too much, but the bigger Bike Robot/Cy-Kill they did is still one of the best toys I own, and I was really hoping they'd at least do an Eagle Robo/Leader-1 to scale with him. Truthfully, I'd love the entire main cast (so Turbo, Scooter, Cop-Tur, and Crasher, too), but I understand that they were a bit confined within the Revenge of Cronos license. I might check out this new Bike Robo, since I have both of AT's Bike Robos plus an original Cy-Kill (with both wheels!) and a Super Gobots Cy-Kill. Kind of want to complete that set. If it turns out good, maybe Megahouse will do the others (although I'm guessing if they do Porsche Robo it'll be the white one, not Crasher).

As someone who buys, well, pretty much everything, it's almost always the opposite, with the non-86 Studio Series toys often shellformers plagued with ball joints, a lack of paint, and even basic articulation like ankles. But sure, let's take a minute and see how Deluxe-class Studio Series Hot Rod stacks up. Although they didn't appear together, I decided to compare Hot Rod to Lockdown to remind everyone that Hasbro can do licensed Lamborghini alt modes, but Breakdown is still going to be a legally-distinct Ferrari because Hasbro is cheap. (And don't worry, people, he's not so brown-gray in hand, my camera just refuses to believe Hot Rod is as gunmetal as he is. Well, out of the box, I think I can see one way they kept the costs down. Hot Rod is small, and Hot Rod is light. To verify that it's not just Lockdown, I checked Hot Rod against a couple of other Deluxes, and sure enough he's even slightly shorter than "standard" guys like Earthrise Prowl and Siege Sideswipe. And no, your brain is not playing tricks on you, he's super light. While you wouldn't expect every Deluxe to weigh exactly the same, it's telling that Hot Rod here clocked in around 50g on my scale, but Earthrise Prowl, SS86 Jazz, Legacy Dragstrip, Velocitron Cosmos, and SS Lockdown all came up at 70g or more. Like many Studio Series figures, the sculpt on Hot Rod is mostly pretty good, with the usual "this thing has to transform on a Deluxe budget" caveats. So, while the robot details on his midsection, thighs, and head are especially good, and his face is painted well with lots more orange on his legs, there's plenty of awkward car kibble in spots. The backs of his hands are car panels, he's got car panels with tires just hanging off of his knees (semi-accurate) and folded chunks of car on his forearms (again, semi-accurate). The placement of this kibble omits or obscures places where he should have orange on his arms, and honestly even with the paint on his legs he's missing a bit from his thighs and torso, too. Compared to how most SS figures wear their alt modes folded up on their back, Hot Rod's backpack is relatively clean. My biggest complaint here are his little wings, which are fine in the sense that the CGI model has wings, but less fine in the way that SS Hot Rod's contain a bit more car kibble than the CGI model, which the figure attempts to mitigate by having the ends fold in. But, since they can't fold flat, they look a bit awkward and tend to get in the way. Hot Rod's sole accessory is his time gun, and it's fine. They even put some spots of blue paint on it. Hot Rod's head is on a ball joint, and it can look up and down a little but can't tilt to the side. His shoulders are also ball joints, so they can rotate and move laterally a little under 90 degrees. Plus, there's a transformation joint that doesn't really lock into place, so he can really slump his shoulders, if that's something you want him to do. His biceps swivel, and his elbows bend 90 degrees. His wrists swivel, as does his waist. His hips are, sigh, more ball joints. They can go about 90 degrees forward and backward, and a bit under 90 laterally. His thigs swivel, and his knees bend 90 degrees, although you kind of have to force the wheels on his calves around his thighs. His ankles are hinged ball joints, giving him a ton of up/down tilt and a swivel but leaving him with just the slightest of ankle pivots. Hot Rod can hold his weapon in either hand, but I couldn't find any storage for it on his robot person. Hot Rod's transformation is probably where a lot of his budget went, as I'll grant that he's got a lot more moving pieces than Lockdown did. Perhaps they've learned something from what Unique Toys has been doing with the movie designs, because there is some clever use of robot parts to make up parts of the car instead of shelformering the whole thing. For instance, the engine cover on the back of the car is the soles of Hot Rod's feet, and much of the hood that isn't part of the robot chest turns inside out and flips around to form his robot abs. I'm not super clear on the dimensions of a Centenario vs an Aventador, but Hot Rod is noticeably smaller in alt mode than Lockdown. As mentioned, Hot Rod has the licensed Lamborghini Centenario alt mode, and although it's broken up by a ton of panels and hinges it does look pretty sweet. Unlike a lot of of the other Studio Series cars, most of Hot Rod is bare plastic molded in the gunmetal color; unfortunately, that means his tires are the same color as his body and rims. I think we can also see why Hot Rod is missing so many orange paint apps on his robot mode- they'd result in orange paint on parts of the car that aren't supposed to be orange, as the the thin lines over the doors and around bottom is pretty much it for the actual car. That said, they still skimped, as the orange should go the whole way around the car, instead of leaving big gaps around the wheels. What's more, the orange should follow the molded panels, so instead of remaining a thin line it's should cover the whole space where the lines raise up in front of the wheels. It's a minor detail, but the fuel door is also missing. There are two slots near his rear wing (you may have noticed that this figure has one, and many Hot Rod toys like the previous Deluxe or the Jada Metals car did not- I believe the Centenario has one of those wings that blend in the with body and is extended either manually by the owner or automatically by the car's software). These slots fit with a tab on the side of his time gun. If you were hoping for more concealed storage I'm afraid you're out of luck, but it's better than nothing. In summary, I can definitely see where and how Hasbro managed to keep Hot Rod inside his Deluxe-class budget. I don't think he (or any Studio Series figure) got any exceptional treatment that Studio Series 86 or Legacy doesn't. I don't thing his overall parts count is high, and the parts he does have definitely use less plastic than a lot of other Deluxes. His articulation is fairly average, with more ball joints than I'd prefer. Large swaths of orange paint on his legs don't translate to higher-than-normal amounts of paint overall, and a little more might be been beneficial when it seems he's made from just three colors of plastic. However, while I can't say I believe Hot Rod to be exceptional, I can say that he is quite good, perhaps the best Bayverse figure I've looked at in a good long while. Hot Rod's engineering makes effective use of the the parts he has to deliver a solid figure with a good movie likeness less burdened by kibble than many other figures in the line. That engineering happens to covert a solid robot into a very cool licensed Lamborghini, too. So, yeah, Hot Rod's a recommend from me, even if the Bayverse isn't necessarily you're thing.

And now, we can finish off the third wave of Legacy with Megatron, the sole new Leader-class. This Megatron is supposed to be an upgraded form of the last Leader-class Megatron we got, the one from Kingdom. Actually, this is his Transmetal II form, so technically an uprade over the original Transmetal upgrade that organic purple Megatron already got. I think that Legacy Megatron is a lot closer to the cartoon than the original Beast Wars toy, but it's hard to say because I don't have DVDs for Beast Wars, and good screenshots are surprisingly hard to come by. For the most part, it comes down to small details... Legacy Megatron has gold toe claws instead of black, gold horns on the dragon arm instead of red, a gold spike on his left knee instead of a trio of black ones, no black on his right knee, no green or black on the spikey "wheels" in his legs, a lack of gold on his wing claws, stuff like that. Actually, if you're really paying attention (and I don't think anyone was, because the issue seems to go all the way back to the prototypes), you'll notice that the wing claws are actually backward when compared to the cartoon. This can be corrected, though, by removing a pair of screws, prying the tips of his wings apart enough, then removing the claws, turning them around, and putting it all back together. While Hasbro did a great job hiding away his alt mode arms, it's a bit disappointing that they still couldn't manage to do anything more with the alt mode chest than the original toy, that is, to have it hanging over his butt. I believe on the original toy (not sure, as I didn't own it) that it actually was his butt, but here the whole thing sort of dangles off his back like some kind of weird cape. I also have to say that I'm not really a fan of the head sculpt. I'd have preferred a more show-accurate face, more akin to the one on Kingdom Megatron. Instead, Legacy Megatron has bigger eyes, a more prominent nose, sharper lines around his mouth, and a snarl full of pointed teeth that make him seem a bit more monstrous than I recall David Kaye portraying him. Moving right along, unlike Kingdom Megatron, Legacy Megatron does come with an accessory... this single bit of translucent orange plastic. Megatron's head is on a swivel, but he's got no tilt. His right arm has ratcheted rotation at the shoulder, 90 degrees of lateral motion, a bicep swivel, a double-jointed elbow that can bend nearly 180 degrees, and a wrist that can't swivel but can bend downward. His right shoulder also rotates on a ratchet and can move laterally a bit over 90 degrees. There are swivels and curls in there, too, but we'll cover that more in alt mode. His waist can swivel on a ratchet. His hips can go forward and backward 90 degrees on ratchets, although his "cape" will practically limit the backward articulation. A friction hinge allows for over 90 degrees of lateral spread. His thighs swivel, and his knees bend something like a 130-140 degrees. His feet can tilt up and down, plus they've got about 45 degrees of pivot. The translucent orange piece can be held in his right fist like a club or flaming sword. You can also use it as a blast effect, and there's a port inside his dragon head-hand and under each of his feet, but that's it. Don't let the instructions fool you; transformation for this guy is pretty straightforward, and honestly a bit easier/more fun than the Kingdom one. For some reason, though, Hasbro has like six steps in the instructions just for folding the dragon arms out of his robot chest, but they more or less boil down to folding the panel they're on out and arranging them in a way that makes anatomical sense, or alternatively using the joints on them to tuck them back into the chest in the only way that they actually fit. He doesn't have the vehicle mode of the original toy, but quite frankly, when you can turn into a flying, fire-breathing dragon, why on Earth would you want to turn into a grounded dragon that scoots around on wheels? Maybe fans of the original toy will miss the gimmick, but it's omission is hardly a bother as far as I'm concerned. I think the dragon mode looks decent enough. We've got the notes I already had before, like the gold claws on his feet and horns on his head, some missing black on his knees and the "wheels" on his legs. His front claws are also gold instead of black, which technically matches his gold foot claws but, more practically, are because they're formed from the gold chest ribs on the robot mode. The dragon still has his own painted gold ribs, although the translucent orange ball is much lower on Legacy Megatron than the cartoon or the original toy. The gold under his neck is broken up by some red hinges, and front he sides he's a bit gappy- you can actually see his robot fist inside the base of his neck. Using the ratcheted shoulder joint in the robot shoulder, Megatron's head can swivel, and the lateral shoulder joint gives him some up/down bend. Beyond that, though, there are four ball joints in his neck that act as both bends and swivels, and another hinged bend where the head connects to the neck. That gives you quite a bit of freedom for how you want to turn, bend, and curl his neck. His jaws open. His shoulders rotate and move laterally almost 90 degrees. He's got bicep swivels and a single elbow hinge that bends from not-quite-straight to almost 180 degrees of curl. His wrists swivel, and his hands are actually swivels that allow his claws to slide left and right around his palms. His hips and legs have all the same articulation as they did in robot mode, but with an additional digitigrade ankle hinge. His wings have hinges for flapping, the claws are actually hinged and can wiggle left and right a little, then each of the five segments on each wing can swivel, allowing his wings to tuck in or splay out. His tail uses his robot neck swivel to sway from side to side, then there's an up/down hinge on the back of his robot head followed by four segmented sections on ball joints, so his tail has plenty of articulation, too. In dragon mode he doesn't really have any way to hold his accessory like a club. But, naturally, you can plug it into the port in his mouth to have him breathing fire on his enemies... ...in theory. See, after all this writing, I still haven't touched upon the biggest issue I have with Megatron- loose joints. The shoulder hinge at the base of the dragon neck is too loose, so his dragon head droops down. The shifting weight is too much for the loose up/down tilt in his feet, and before you know it Megatron has collapsed under his own weight. His tail droops so it's always dragging on the ground, which is true even after he's fallen on his face with his butt in the air, adding to the indignity. Fortunately, these are fixable problems. I took apart his head and put a little floor polish on the hinge post at the base of the tail. I took apart his left shoulder and did the same for the lateral joint that functions as the base of the dragon neck, then for good measure dropped a little floor polish on the ball joint closest to the dragon head. Finally, I took apart both of his lower legs, putting a little floor polish on the posts for both his knees and the digitigrade joints for dragon mode, then dripped a little floor polish onto the up/down tilts on his feet. Once the polish dried the joints were plenty tight enough eliminating my main complaint about him. So, yeah. I'm not the biggest Beast Wars fan. I'll buy, but won't be bothered if they never get around to the Transmetal versions of Cheetor, Rattrap, Tarantulas, or Blackarachnia. It doesn't matter to me if they don't do other cartoon characters like Depth Charge, Silverbolt, Quickstrike, and Rampage, and I really don't care if they never do any new figures of Beast Wars toys that were never in the cartoon. But I like this Megatron figure. I like it better than the Kingdom one. I'd give him a recommend, just be sure to pick up some floor polish.

And the other Voyager from this last wave of Legacy is Starscream. Not the Earthrise one, and not the Studio Series 86 one. The Armada one. Something Legacy Starscream has in common with Earthrise Starscream is that they're both Voyager-sized toys of characters that were previously released as Deluxes. However, while simply being the same character does mean there will be some similarities, Legacy Starscream isn't merely am improved upscale of the previous version the way Earthrise was. So, off the bat, size isn't the only improvement. His wings are given a more traditional shape, and they've added some more of the black and yellow to his shoulders and chest. There's more black around his cockpit, nose, and canards, and the cockpit itself is now metallic blue with textures molded into it. He's got red bands around his wrists, and the white feet have been swapped for red. His chin strap is painted black, he's got a white spot on his forehead, and the fix on his shins are thin white on the edges with a mostly red chunk. Spinning him around, the molded details on his forearms are improved, and his backpack boosters are totally different design. The net result is that Legacy Starscream is much more cartoon accurate. So far so good, right? It's not perfect, though. The biggest single aesthetic issue I have with Legacy Starscream is his legs. The original toy's lower legs were cast in the same grayish-white plastic as his forearms, with large patches of black painted onto the shins and sides. The cartoon retained this black-on-white pattern. Seems one of the ways Hasbro chose to cut costs was to simply cast Starscream's lower legs in black and forego the white entirely. While were on the subject, Hasbro painted the intakes of the boosters black, but not the exhaust tips, something that they definitely should have done for cartoon and toy accuracy. You could argue that they need some red on the sides, too, but that red (which was definitely on the toy) seemed to come and go in the cartoon. Another thing they did to cut costs was to ditch the removable wing sword gimmick. Instead of removing his left wing and unfolding it into a sword, Hasbro simply made a sword accessory in the shape of his wing sword. My initial thought was maybe it should have some red on the edge, but I re-watched a fight between Starscream and Demolisher, and nope, somehow his wing loses color in the cartoon when it's a sword, so plain white plastic checks out. He comes with one other accessory, and that's supposed to be the Star Saber. It doesn't break apart into minicons or anything- I don't actually see that as a con, though, as what we have here actually looks like a sword and not some jets stuck together. A lot of people are complaining that it's a bit on the small side, and they may have a point there. Anyway, Starscream's head is on a ball joint. He can look up quite a bit, but not a ton down, and not a lot of sideways tilt. His shoulders rotate- his wings have a swivel and hinge so they can angle and fold back to give you clearance. His shoulders can also move laterally 90 degrees. His biceps swivel, an his double-jointed elbows get a bit under 180 degrees of curl. His wrists, sadly, do not swivel. But, interestingly enough, his waist does! Granted, you're not really going to get a ton of turn in either direction before his cockpit won't get past his hips, but it's more than Earthrise got. His hips can get beyond 90 degrees forward, backward, or laterally. His thighs swivel, and his knees bend a little over 90 degrees. His feet have a very slight upward tilt, plenty of downward tilt, and a little bit of pivot. Starscream can hold either sword in either hand. They both have pegs on the hilt (or where the hilt ought to be) in addition to their handles, and ports on his forearms mean you can have him mount the swords like arm blades. Additional peg holes can be found under his feet, on the outsides of his legs, on the back of each wing, and in the middle of his back. The one on his back is a bit recessed, though, which makes it a tad useless. While his wing sword doesn't turn into a wing, at the cost of some wing articulation you can peg it in across his wing and back so that it's out of sight behind him. In the cartoon (and I think on the original toy) Starscream's boosters never actually folded back onto his back. They stuck out behind him (likely giving him grief every time he tried to sit in a high-backed chair). You can absolutely recreate that look with this figure, something you couldn't with the older Generations figure. Simply lift his back, then fold the red part back down and tab it back into his back. No missile firing gimmicks here, but the booster do fold over (no minicon required) to give him his shoulder cannons. They end in 5mm ports, which makes them compatible with Siege blast effects. You'll find some similarities in the transformation- jet nose up, backpack up, wings fold back and line up with the shoulders, legs turn inward then wrap over the thighs. Legacy Starscream's got a few bits that make him feel a bit more solid, though, like panels that fold out of his calves and connect between his legs and a panel on his back that covers over that. These elements combine to fill in a lot of the fuselage between his legs and back boosters. His arms also curl up, fists toward the front, in a manner closer to the original toy/cartoon than the way the Generations figure jammed them along the sides. Speaking of those arms, they kind of bugged me on the original. Like, they just hang there, so un-aerodynamic. Blocky arms are still un-aerodynamic, but they tuck in a bit tighter. You could almost believe they're some kind of engine nacelles or drop tanks. Dangling arms aside, my complaints are pretty much entirely down to the colors and how they chose to paint (or rather, not paint) Starscream. I already touched on the lack of black on the exhausts, and the lack of white on the legs. Beyond that, when viewed from above, there should be a lot more white. The tops of his torso, above the intakes on his chest, should be white such that it blend right into the wings. The red hinges would have been better in white- the ones on his wings, especially, could have been molded in the white/gray plastic instead of red. I think he might have also benefitted if the gray between the boosters were red (which would have had to be paint, since it's molded with the boosters), and the red panel running from it to the tail would have been white instead of red. Starscream's canopy doesn't open, and he doesn't have any landing gear. His boosters can flip over, though, so he can fire his cannons in jet mode. And he's got 5mm pegs on his forearms, under his wings, two on the bottom near the back, and one under his nose, and you can use any of those as places to store his weapons. Transformers Armada is kind of like the opposite of Beast Wars for me. With Beast Wars, the story was pretty great but the shellformery designs and the entire notion of robots turning into organic animals were turn offs. Armada is the kind unwatchable dreck that Japan was serving elementary-age boys in the early-aughts, but I quite liked a lot of the designs from it. Armada Starscream is probably my favorite non-G1 (or G1-adjacent, like Cyberverse/RiD 15/IDW etc) Starscream design. It takes some of G1 Starscream's designs, like intakes on the chest, a torso with a cockpit in it, and wings on his back but tweaks them and the colors enough that the homage inspiration isn't as overt as a lot of the more recent Starscream designs, then gives him ant alt mode that's rather like a VF-11 with FAST packs. Legacy Starscream delivers all that in a package that's got better proportions and cartoon accuracy than the original Armada toy, and better articulation and scale than the Generations toy. And while I might rant about recent G1 releases scraping the bottom of the barrel, I've acknowledged that non-G1 deserves some time in the spotlight and Starscream is easily a top 3 character from Armada. I can find a few aesthetic faults with the color placement on this guy, but ultimately Legacy Starscream is a very good take on one of the best non-G1 Starscreams in the franchise, and I can happily recommend him.

That head on the one on the left... oof. Looks like Jetfire and his elementary-age son.

I don't know about dark undercurrents in his videos, but his stepdaughter committed suicide last year, and his wife filed for divorce this past August. It seems clear he was hurting, but hindsight is 20/20. It's tragic that no one closer to him was able to get through to him.

Having bought most (all?) of the Cyberverse Deluxes, I can't say that I'm in for any of the Earthspark stuff. They definitely look to be a continuation of the Cyberverse designs- heck, Shockwave is a repaint of the Cyberverse Deluxe. While there were a few highlights among them, Prowl being one that really springs to mind, despite being labeled as "Deluxe" they were definitely a step down in engineering/parts count/paint from War for Cybertron or even Studio Series Deluxes. They seem like a bit of a cash grab, really. Speaking of Deluxes, we're done with the Legacy ones, so we can move on to the Voyagers. We'll start with Inferno. I mean, that's immediately recognizable as Inferno. Hasbro did a good job using some black and metallic blue paint apps on his legs and waist plus some purple and gray on his pelvis and arms to bring out cartoon details that weren't present on the original toy. His head also as a much more cartoon-accurate sculpt than the original toy. Most of the aesthetic changes come down to the necessities of engineering. His wrists and his whole hands are black instead of just the fingers, and he's got 5mm ports on his forearms instead of blue spots. The ant legs coming out of his wrists are much larger than the cartoon. What's more, the cartoon had a set of ant legs on his robot shins, and the third pair simply disappeared. The ant legs on Legacy Inferno's shins are faux legs, molded onto the shins and painted. Legacy Inferno is instead forced to carry a pair of legs on his biceps, and another pair on his back near his waist (and the original toy at least had a pair there). The antenna that were on the cartoon's back, behind his head, are on Legacy Inferno's abs because they aren't removable the way the original toy's were. The ant mandibles (also not removable) at least fold inside the ant head; it's a shame they couldn't have done that with the antenna too. Inferno comes with just the one accessory. Rather than attempt to look like the gun he used in the show, it is instead modeled after the booster in his ant abdomen, although the translucent reds and gunmetal paint are not particularly show-accurate. Inferno's head is on a ball joint. Not much downward tilt, but he can look up a fair amount and tilt his head sideways a little in addition to swiveling it. Plus, there's a hinge in his head so you can open his jaws. His shoulders rotate and can extend laterally a little over 90 degrees. His biceps swivel, and his elbows are double-jointed and capable of a combined 180 degrees of bend. His wrists swivel, as does his waist. His hips go forward slightly over 90 degrees, backward slightly under 90 degrees, and 90 degrees laterally. His thighs swivel, and his knees bend 90 degrees. If you untab the knee, you can use a second transformation hinge to get nearly 180 degrees of bend total. His feet tilt down plenty, but not up, and his ankles can pivot over 90 degrees. All-in-all, very decent in the articulation department. His clawed hands are perfectly capable of holding weapons with a 5mm post for a handle. Additionally, he's got the previously-mentioned 5mm ports on his forearms, one on the outside of each leg just below the knees, under each foot, and in the middle of his backpack. If you close the backpack up, you'll find another 5mm port. Speaking of his backpack, you can use a second post on the back of his weapon to plug it into his backpack, because his weapon is pulling double-duty as both the booster from the cartoon and his gun. I'm sure if you'd like to leave the booster there in bot mode that someone, likely with a 3D printer, will make cartoon-accurate guns for him. Personally, this is fine for me. The "propellor" formed by his split ant abdomen can even spin like the cartoon. You have to spin it manually, though- it's my understanding that the original toy had some kind of spring-loaded gimmick. Inferno turns into, surprise, a fire ant. The transformation isn't particularly complicated, either. The ant head opens up, the jaws flip out, then it flips up and closes over his robot head. His robot arms tuck into the void in his chest vacated by the ant head. The bottom blade of his propellor rotates around so it lies under the top one, leaving a gap for his robot legs to tuck into when you close the abdomen up. Then it's pretty much just a matter of arranging the ant legs. The ant mode is pretty ok. Maybe he sits a little high. The middle pair of legs are a tad too long, I think, and between that and the back-heavy nature of the ant mode it's a bit more difficult than I'd like to get him standing on all six legs; the front pair are usually lifted off the ground. The legs themselves are all dark gray/black, in contrast to the show where the femurs were red and only the tibia and tarsi were black (or the toy, where the middle legs were black but parts of his front and rear pair were made from his red robot arms and legs). He's also missing the abdomen marking seen on both the original toy and the cartoon. He's otherwise cartoon-accurate, right down to the little mandibles in between the larger ones. Inferno's mandibles can open and close, and his antenna have hinges. His mandibles cannot be removed and used as a robot weapon, though, nor can you use it as a missile launcher to fire one of his back legs. Speaking of his legs, the front pair have hinges so they can move in toward his chest or out farther away from his body. The middle pair don't really have any articulation. The back pair have two hinges close to the body that let you adjust their position a bit. The ant head itself, due to the transformation hinges and the ball joint on the encapsulated robot head, has a little up/down tilt. His accessory can plug into a 5mm port on his back- unfortunately, due to his legs occupying that space, it cannot be stored in his abdomen. Once again, I'm not a huge Beast Wars fan. I watched the show as a young adult, and the characters that made the biggest impression on me were the initial cast. Coming in around the second third, he just didn't make as big an impression, and despite being around until the end of the show I guess I never really thought of him as one of the "main" characters. Still, I think he's probably one of the more popular characters with a lot of bigger BW fans than I, and while Legacy Inferno lacks some of the more integrated weapon storage and gimmicks of the original toy, as well as a more cartoon-accurate weapon, I expect that those fans will enjoy Legacy Inferno's pleasant transformation, solid articulation, and greater cartoon accuracy. I'll give him a solid recommend, if Beast Wars is your jam.

Well that's just a damn shame. I won't pretend to know what he might have been going through, but I'll share that after my daughter was born I had a breakdown of sorts and wound up on medication for awhile. Thankfully I was able to get the help I needed, and it's heartbreaking that Jason wasn't so fortunate. When what you're feeling is both irrational and uncontrollable it can be so difficult to even believe that you can be helped. Friends, if you or someone you know is suffering from depression maybe take a minute to reach out. Sometimes just knowing that you're not actually alone can make all the difference.

I wonder what happened? He was only a couple years older than me. I was around 13 when Power Rangers first aired, and it was mostly a novelty that reminded me of Voltron at the time. It was really the Green Ranger story that really sucked me in, and even though I was growing out of it (I was 17 when Turbo aired), I kept watching until they replaced Tommy on Turbo. I'd say the original Mighty Morphin' cast were all pretty memorable to me, but it's fair to say that JDF was probably the only reason I kept watching when they started rotating in a cast of interchangable and forgettable teenagers, and his departure marked the end of my interest in the brand (until the surprisingly good Boom! Comics book). Rest in peace, Ranger.

I have lunch with my parents and a Thanksgiving party to go to in the evening, but I wanted to finish up reviewing the wave 3 Legacy Deluxes. Am I rushing for nothing? Show of hands, who reads MW on the weekend, and who saves it for work on Monday? Anyway, it's Skullgrin. The last Deluxe is Skullgrin. Well, the first and most immediate thing to get out of the way is scale. Prior to Skullgrin, Hasbro has released two Pretenders in Legacy, and they've both been Core-class. And with Hasbro reps stating outright that they're paying attention to scale now, they set a precedent (correct or not) that the Pretenders are small Transformers (even if it's less about the Pretenders actually being small and more about filling out a class with few obvious options with characters who may not be popular enough to warrant a larger figure). Now, despite G1 Pretender shells for Iguanus, Bomburst, and Skullgrin being roughly the same size, despite being depicted in the Marvel comics as the same size, and most notably Dauros (Skullgrin) and Blood (Bomburst) being the same size in Masterforce, Hasbro went and made Legacy Skullgrin a Deluxe and roughly double the size of the other two Legacy Pretenders. Regardless of the size issue, Skullgrin departs from the others in another way. The two Core-class Pretenders had bot modes that were modeled closely on their Pretender shells, and alt modes that worked those forms into something close to the inner robots' alt modes. Skullgrin has more of a blended approach. His head and shoulder pads, the spikes on his knees, and a pelvis that's meant to look like a belt all come from the Pretender shell. But the blockier arms and legs with the normal purple robot feet, are more like his inner robot in design if not color. And his torso, mostly purple with vents and a raised gray section running down the middle, that's the inner robot all the way. The tail? Yeah, that's from the Pretender shell, and I dig it. It's on a hinge connected to a part with two 5mm ports on his back. The whole thing is just pegged in and can be removed, if you prefer. Does that make his tail an accessory? I prefer to leave it permanently attached. Besides, he has enough accessories with a pair of rubbery rifles that are also swords, and a pair of larger cannons. Despite a huge head with jaws that spill over his chest, Skullgrin's got decent articulation. His head is on a ball joint that can look almost 90 degrees straight up, nothing really down. And although his jaw should hinder his ability to turn his head, lifting it a little will give you enough clearance to turn 45 degrees to either side, and if you don't mind him looking up while he turns his head he can actually turn his head a full 360 degrees. His shoulders rotate and extend laterally just a little short of 90 degrees. His biceps swivel and his elbows bend over 90 degrees. No wrist swivels, but due to transformation his wrists bend down, which can be great for sword poses. His waist swivels. His hips go forward and backward 90 degrees, but the spikes on the sides limit him to about 45 degrees of lateral spread. His thighs swivel, and his knees bend 90 degrees. No up/down foot tilt, but he's got 90 degrees of ankle pivot. The instructions imply that the cannons belong on Skullgrin's back, as that's where they're needed for alt mode, and his actual weapons are the gun swords, which, y'know, can be held like guns. Or swords. Of course, the cannons are simply plugged into his tail backpack via 5mm ports, so if you prefer you can have him hold the cannons as guns. Also, there's 5mm ports on the backs of his forearms, on his shoulders, under his toes, at the top of his back above his backpack, two on the back of each leg, one under his tail, and even some on the cannons. So you have lots of options for arming Skullgrin up. Transforming Skullgrin is pretty simple... like, maybe with a few changes he really could have been a Core-class. He's basically tucking his head into his chest, folding his back up, tucking his arms behind his back, collapsing his legs, and lying down. The most complicated part is folding the treads out of his calves and extending them on an armature so that they can plug in to his arms. And, you know, it's a tank. It's got two barrels on the top, visible treads at the back, and a dearth of such treads on the sloped front, which is also true for the G1 toy, but the similarities are pretty abstract. The G1 toy tapered from back to front, with a larger gap between the sloped points on the nose. The cannons on the top should be longer and sit forward a bit more. Legacy Skullgrin takes the basic concept of G1 Skullgrin's alt mode, squishes it into a brick along the left/right axis, then stretches it out on the front/back axis until it's not totally recognizable. Well, at least the turret can spin, and the cannons can aim up/down independently. As for his gun swords, the instructions bid you plug them into one of the two ports on his treads. Again, in an abstract way this is sort of how the G1 toy worked, with rifles plugging into the sides of the tank, but again, in practice, the look is pretty different. The lack of taper means the rifles always hug the sides of the tank, and because the tank is so long they don't reach all the way to the front like the G1 toy. If you're looking for other options, you can plug them into the sides of the cannons, or even plug the sword handles into the barrels of the cannons, but you don't really have the clearance to use any of the other 5mm ports. Objectively, Skullgrin is probably one of the better figures in this wave, and if a Decepticon tank with a demonic skull for a head appeals to you then I can safely recommend this one, although with the same questions about why a guy like Skullgrin gets a new mold in the main line while Gears was canceled/Cosmos was a store exclusive/Breakdown has to share an alt mode with Wildrider. I also wish that Hasbro had sized the Pretenders more consistently (although, given that Skullgrin is pretty good and Bomburst was kind of lacking, maybe Hasbro should have made them all Deluxes instead of Cores).

Just under 2000 to go, and I'm sure Deathsaurus will get a boost when people start having Star Saber in hand. I mean, I know I'm waiting for Star Saber first, but I'm probably in for Deathsaurus.

This quote from my last review is turning out to be a running theme for this wave. Today, it's Deluxe-class Crankcase. Crankcase is a retool of Skids, which I'd say is fine because Skids was fine, but it does mean that Legacy Crankcase is significantly different than G1 Crankcase due to very different transformations. Basically, Crankcase has a new chest, head, and shoulders with new car parts forming his chest and backpack, but the innards are largely the same, he's got the same arms from the biceps down, and he's nearly the same as Skids from the waste down, they just molded some extra stuff on the outsides and backs of his legs. At a glance, that seems to work. Kind of. His chest has details similar to the G1 toy, and even has a large 5mm peg hole in the middle where the original toy had a screw, although they probably could have skipped the silver paint or at least put it on his hips where it actually belongs. Blue shins and forearms check out, but his biceps, hands, and feet should also be blue, and his blue thighs should be black. His backpack doesn't sit quite as high, and his back cannons are naught but little nubs, but his backpack is made from the same part of his alt mode as the G1 toy's, and the fact that he has back cannons at all is something. The backs and sides of his lower legs are made from black alt mode bits like the G1 toy, but here they're the back of his alt mode instead of the front. The original Crankcase got by on just his shoulder cannons, so any accessories are a bonus, I guess. He's got one of the two guns Skids came with in a smokey translucent plastic, and the entire grill of his alt mode. Despite being a retool of Skids, Crankcase has worse articulation. His head is a ball joint that swivels and has a little up/down/sideways tilt. His shoulders rotate, but the joints Skids used for lateral movement are encapsulated and immobilized by his new shoulders. As such, his only lateral movement comes from the transformation hinges in his chest, which means he has 90 degrees of lateral movement if his arms are down, but if you rotate the shoulder he's got none. His biceps swivel, and his elbows bend 90 degrees. In something of a rarity for this wave he does have wrist swivels. His waist swivels, his hips can go 90 degrees forward and backward and a bit under that laterally. His thighs swivel, and his knees bend 90 degrees. No up/down tilt on his feet, but his ankles can pivot 90 degrees. Crankcase has 5mm fists that hold his gun without issue. The side of the grill flips under to reveal two small pegs that fit the little holes on blast effect parts. There's some molded detail on the back side that make it look like its supposed to be a gun, even though the little nubs are hardly barrels and the front side still looks like a grill. There's also 5mm ports on the tires on his shoulders, on his forearms, on his chest, on the middle of his backpack, under his toes, and on his calves. If you don't like the grill as a weapon, you can leave it on his chest, although the look is hardly G1 accurate, or fit it neatly onto his backpack. Transforming Crankcase is almost exactly the same as Skids- the chest folds up, the arms tuck underneath, the shins open and the legs bend at the knees and hips so that the back of the alt mode lines up with the roof, and the rear tires fold out from the heels. On paper, the biggest difference is that the doors on Skids are connected to his chest and fold back, while on Crankcase they're part of the backpack, with the window fixed in place and a hinge under it for the bottom of the door to fold down. In practice, though, there's some weirder tolerances that made it feel like I was forcing the chest and backpack into place, and tight hips (possibly the only tight joints on the figure) made lining up his legs with the roof a bear. The grill does have to partsform into place. But aside from that the differences in the nose, doors, and the extra bits they put on the sides and rear do a decent job of converting a Honda City into something more like a Hummer. Blue stripes along the roof run where the flip out guns are on the G1 toy, which is a nice touch marred a bit by the over abundance of blue at the back. Likewise, the hood has a blue patch with a Decepticon emblem like the G1 toy, but stripes running out from it over the front fenders that the original didn't have because the shoulder joints were cast in blue plastic. The back of the car/truck has the spare tire and some paint to resemble the spare and sticker on the back of the G1 toy, but there's no such paint on side rear windows where the G1 toy also had stickers. The back window is blue when it should be black, and both the front and rear bumpers are black where they should be blue. The little nubs of Crankcase's shoulder cannons are fully encased under his roof, so they can't deploy in alt mode the way the G1 toy's can. But, you can use the peg hole on the roof to mount his gun. Crankcase was actually one of the Deluxes I was most looking forward to in this wave... put him with Siege Skytread/Flywheels and Spinister, plus Titans Return Krok and Misfire, and we're well on our way to having the Scavengers from IDW's More Than Meets the Eye and Lost Light books. We can even throw in SS86 Grimlock (even if his T-Rex mode is a bit less accurate), write off original character Nickel as a very late addition, and we're really just missing an original character by the name of Fulcrum. In hand, though, Crankcase is a disappointment, largely due to my copy having some of the worst QC I've had on a Hasbro figure in recent times. His knees are super loose. The transformation joints in his shoulders are so loose that he has trouble posing with his arms away from his body as even the tiny bit of weight in his arm is enough to cause the joint to sag back down. Both of his back wheels are loose and pop off during transformation. His doesn't lock securely into place in bot mode, and his right shin immediately pops off its tab. Then there's the question of why he even exists in the first place. I mean, Pointblank was getting into some G1 deep cuts, but at least he was in "The Rebirth" and/or the Headmasters, so you can argue he's necessary to complete a cartoon collection. Crankcase wasn't in any cartoon. Crankcase and the Triggercons were never even released in Japan. I'm not complaining about Armada and Beast Wars figures popping up because I accept that Transformers isn't just about us geewunners, but it's like Hasbro is actively trolling us when they are releasing G1 characters. Unless you either had the G1 toy as a kid or, like me, you're an IDW fan, you likely have zero connection to this character. And yet, here Crankcase is in the mainline while Gears was canceled and guys like Cosmos are shortpacked Walmart exclusives. You might be inclined to defend Crankcase as a retool, a way to get a little more out of Skids' mold (nevermind that I'm 99% sure Crosscut is coming and after the MP Reboost is certainly on the table). But even then, why does he get such an extensive retool with a new roof, sides, head, shoulders, and front end/chest while the Breakdown is still totally Wildrider in alt mode? For the vast majority of you, no, I don't recommend picking up Crankcase. And Hasbro, if some execs happen to read Transformers posts in this little corner of the internet, hire me to run the Transformers brand. I'll do it for (probably) a lot less than whoever's currently running it into the ground, and I'm sure I'll make much better decisions. Staring with a Gen Selects Paddles.

Since @Hikuro mentioned him, I guess we'll do Deluxe-class Pointblank next. Well... let's get the major aesthetic elephant in the room out of the way with a meme. Yeah, I hate the doofy Sunbow head. Did Floro Dery work on it? Was it a Marvel thing? I don't really know, but it's like somebody somewhere looked at the toy and thought, "nah, it looks too Japanese super robot-ish, we gotta make him look way less cool since he's going to be a minor background character." Pointblank was a much more important character in the Japanese Headmasters anime, and I think Hasbro missed a trick by not giving Pointblank that head instead. Aside from that, my quibbles are fairly minor. Again, I might have preferred the more heroic silhouette of the Headmasters version, but Legacy Pointblank's narrow torso and wide hips are fairly in line with both the G1 toy and the Sunbow model. He's got some silver on his knees and some red and silver paint on his crotch that hearkens to the G1 toy's stickers, but were present on neither cartoon. Likewise, his arms are a pretty uniform blue, like the toy, where both cartoons gave him darker forearms. When you look at it that way, it's that much more frustrating that they seemed to have used the toy for their primary inspiration from the neck down but they gave him the Sunbow head instead of the toy (which was the model for the Headmasters head). I'm not a fan of the car kibble on his forearms; it's due to his engineering, which I'll have more comments on in a bit. The backs of his calves are hollow, but as it's for transformation I'll let it slide. There's a tiny sliver of cockpit dangling from his back, and I'd have to ask if it was really necessary. But probably, after the head, I'd say the biggest issue is the color of his cockpit. Here it's mostly a dark translucent blue, with a bit of blue paint on the sides, and it looks kind of wrong because Point blank should have a roof. In both cartoons, the division of the roof and the windshield was like the division of his chest and abs. And that's before I even point out that the translucent blue is much darker than the paint, which is the opposite of the toy where the windows were off-white stickers, the Sunbow model where his chest was a solid off-white or light gray block, or the Headmasters where they were colored a cell-shaded reflective mix of white and gray. I'll point out that prototype that was shown off during the livestream unveiling for this wave had clear translucent plastic instead of blue, and I think that looked better. Moving right along... Pointblank's sole accessory is his Targetmaster buddy, Peacemaker. And, man, do I have mixed feelings here. On the one hand, he looks the part aesthetically, and even includes a few paint apps on his chest, shoulders, face, and eyes. And, hey, they're not tossing the Siege Battlemaster mold in again like they did with Artfire or Cyclonus. On the other hand, at least the Battlemasters had some basic articulation. The only articulation Peacemaker has is a hinge in his hips to fold his legs over, and a hinge in his feet to fold the barrel out from behind his legs for gun mode. One thing you'll notice Pointblank does not come with is his engine/shield/gun thing. Mark said they wanted to included it but Pointblank was over-budget. That also lead to getting hollowed-out spaces on the insides of his thighs and forcing the hands to be molded directly onto the forearms. And the wrist articulation is a good segue into his overall articulation! His head's on a ball joint with very limited up/down/sideways tilt. His shoulders rotate, and he's got two separate joints that can be used for lateral movement for well over 90 degrees of motion. Only one can be used in conjunction with shoulder rotation, though, and that one is limited to a bit less than 90. Still should be adequate. What isn't adequate, though, is the total lack of a bicep swivel. His elbows bend, but the car kibble on his forearm and the wheels on his shoulders prevent you from getting even 90 degrees. And, although he doesn't have a swivel directly at the wrist, he does have swivel at the top of his forearm, under his elbow, and that acts as a de-facto wrist swivel (it's sure not working as a bicep swivel). His waist swivels. His hips can go forward and backward 90 degrees, and over 90 laterally. His thighs swivel, and his knees bend 180 degrees due to transformation. His toes can bend down, nothing up, and his ankles have 90 degrees of pivot. Pointblank can hold Peacemaker in either hand using a 5mm handle. What's kind of weird is that Peacemaker also has a peg on the back of the gun mode, so Pointblank can hold him as if he were a knife with a gun barrel for a blade. I wonder if at some point Pointblank was going to be designed with his hands as a separate part that could fold into the forearm to reveal a 5mm port, ala Grapple/Inferno/Artfire/Hauler. That'd allow you to plug Peacemaker into that port for a Headmasters-style gun hand. Alas. In addition to his hands, Pointblank has ports under his feet, on the outsides of his legs just above his ankles, on the backs of his shoulders, and one in the middle of his back. His instructions helpfully tell you that you can move the tiny silver of cockpit out of the way, fold in Peacemaker's barrel, and then store him on Pointblank's back. OK, the engineering is kind of a paint on this one, and you get the feeling that they made it harder than they needed too. Like, they could have put the hood on his back with the sliver of windshield instead of sticking it on his arms, then they could have found a more elegant way of tucking his arms under the hood that could have included bicep swivels instead of creating clearance issues that force you to manipulate the arms in exactly the right way. The G1 toy had the sides filled in with fold-out panels. Here, they went with smaller fold-fold out bits on ball joints (that pop off constantly) for the bottom but his feet for the top, which again creates some clearance issues where everything has to be lined up just right. His alt mode looks pretty cool, at least. My nitpicks are pretty minor. I think his front fenders are too narrow, and the grill formed by the bits of kibble that were on his forearms leave some gaps between them and the fenders. Mostly I dislike the omission of the engine accessory. There are ports available on the sides of the car, just in front of the rear wheels, but no 5mm port on the roof like the G1 toy or even on the black section that is his butt. Instead, for vehicle mode storage you're supposed to use thin tabs on the backs of Peacemaker's arms and plug them into slots on Pointblank's knees, filling the some of the gap between his legs left by the absence of the engine/shield. Pointblank is... ok. I mean, if you're going to do an Autobot Targetmaster Pointblank's the cool one (although I guess we technically also have a Targetmaster-less Siege Crosshairs). He does have some issues, though, and the frustrating thing is that a lot of them could have been mitigated if they'd copied the G1 toy a little more closely. A bigger question, though, is why does a guy like Pointblank get the budget for an over-engineered new mold that went over-budget but a more popular G1 guy like Gears gets canned, and the last member of a popular combiner can't get an accurate mold and has to re-use another members? Decisions like that are hurting the brand. Long story short, I like Pointblank is a pretty disappointing release. He looks cool, but the articulation issues make him frustrating to pose and the over-engineering makes him not particularly fun to transform. You're not missing much if you pass on this one.

Sounds about right. Pulse is giving people until the 28th to verify their shipping information. Assuming they start actually going on on the 29th, I could have mine as early as the 1st or 2nd, but more likely sometime the following week. Speaking of stuff coming in, the wave 3 Legacy Deluxes are rolling in from Amazon, and Megatron should be here tomorrow. Amazon is dragging their feet on the Voyagers, but I got them on Pulse and the ship notice came today, so they should be here Friday or Saturday. Might as well start with the the one that's likely the most-anticipated... Deluxe-class Dead End. As a replacement for the lackluster Combiner Wars figure, Legacy Dead End is a definite improvement. The head sculpt is and chest are decidedly more Sunbow, his shoulders, pelvis, hips, and thighs are all properly black instead of silvery gray, and he's got the vents on his forearms and the octagons above his knees that the Sunbow model has. His shins have molded details similar to the Sunbow model, although the larger blocks have the vented design of the toy. He's got wheels on his shoulders, and although the other wheels are on the outside of his legs instead of the inside there are smooth, rounded bumps where the wheels should be. That being said, compared to the strong start that was Dragstrip, Wildrider, and Motormaster, Dead End starts to suffer from Hasbro's budget limitations- in this case, primarily for sharing engineering with Dragstrip (although, to be totally fair, they don't share any actual parts). It's why his chest is so broad, but it tapers to a narrow waist with the suggestion of molded geometry like the Sunbow model but not quite pulling it off. It's why his hands are red instead of black, and his biceps are black instead of red. It's why the wheels are on the outside of his legs instead of inside. But, in what is probably his biggest aesthetic flaw, it's what's up with his feet. From the back and sides, I think his lower calves look a bit thick, and he's got a backpack, but the backpack doesn't bother me. If it flipped over it'd be toy accurate. Like the other Deluxe Stunticons, Dead End comes with a pair of guns, with a little metallic purple paint on the scopes and barrels. In addition to the 5mm handles, there are pegs on either side. And... what's up with that? Like, Dragstrip had some hollow spots on the one side and something like tabs on the other, and Wildrider has a peg on one side and a hole on the other... but there's nothing with slots that Dragstrips gun's plug into, and there's no meaningful way to combine all six. Especially because Wildrider and Dragstrip's guns are identical instead of mirrored, so the pegs/tabs are on the same side and the holes/slots are on the same side on both guns. I digress... Dead End's head is on a swivel, so there's no tilt. His shoulders rotate and move 90 degrees laterally. His biceps swivel, and his elbows bend just a bit short of 90 degrees. No wrist swivels, as his hands are molded onto the ends of his forearms. His waist swivels, though. His hips go a little under 90 degrees forward and backward, and 90 degrees laterally. His thighs swivel, and his knees can kind of bend 90 degrees, but chances are his calves will collide with his... undercarriage... before actually getting the full 90. His feet tilt down for transformation, nothing up, but he does at least have nearly 90 degrees of ankle pivot. Dead End holds his guns in his hands with no problems, but other than that he doesn't have much in the way of storage. There are 5mm ports under his feet, but that'd have him stepping on them. There are ports on his shins and the backs of his arms near his elbows, but those are for combined mode. Then there are 5mm ports on the backs of his forearms, just above his hands. They don't seem to serve much purpose. As mentioned, Dead End's engineering is cribbed almost entirely from Dragstrip. From the waist down it's identical- open the shins, fold in the thighs, fold the feet back. You just don't have to spin the waist 180. On top, you still gotta spin the arm kibble and the shoulder wheels, you still yank out his arms with chunks of chest, and you still end them up so the chunks of chest tab in together above the rest of his chest. The only difference is that instead of shoulder kibble forming a front spoiler and the front of his torso spinning around to make a cockpit, his backpack folds backward so you can fold his head in, then you double-hinge the hood so that when you close his backpack back up the hood covers over his arms. All things considered, I think that's about as close to a Porsche 928 without paying for the license. The lights, the sunroof, the hood, even the lip under the front end are all pretty spot on. There's some weird notches cut into the front, but I imagine that's where the bracket for a front plate would go. Things do get a bit messier with the back end, but again, no license so it's pretty close enough. My biggest complaint is that the feet-not-totally-lining-up issue is also carried over from Dragstrip, so you'll likely either have gaps where the feet line up with the back of the car, or a gap between the feet themselves. Pick your poison. Sunbow purists may complain that he's got the toy-style stripe... I look at it this way, though. Hasbro already started doing G2 Stunticons with "Shadow"strip, and G2 Dead End is pretty much a slightly more saturated G1 Dead End, minus the stripe. So giving the stripe to regular Dead End will make him a bit more visually distinct. Sure, I'd rather they went full-on Sunbow for these guys and then later they released toy-style Stunticons with new heads, but it doesn't look like that's happening. The peg holes on the bottom of his feet wind up just in front of his rear spoiler, and they're a perfect place to plug in his guns while he's in alt mode. It doesn't seem to matter if you use the same peg he holds, or one of the pegs on the sides that don't seem to serve any purpose. As for combined mode, I mentioned that you couldn't really use Dragstrip for one arm and Shadowstrip for the other. There are some small differences in the connections on Dead End vs Dragstrip. For Dead End, there's two chonky tabs that fit into the armature above his chest, two L-shaped taps that fit into slots on the corners of his knees, four pegs that fit into holes near his waist and near his back tires. A tab on Menasor's arm slides into a slot in the black square on Dead End's abdomen, releasing his top from his bottom so you can fold out the arm the rest of the way. So, yeah, Dead End is pretty good, and I do give him a recommend. Just be aware that here's where Hasbro's penny-pinching is starting to turn up in this set, making Dead End the weakest of the admittedly very good Stunticons... so far.

One last Repaint Roundup before the new stuff, eh? We're finishing off the Shattered Glass stuff with Soundwave. Rather than use the Siege mold that's again current on the shelves with Legacy, Hasbro opted to use the Netflix mold for SG Soundwave. I'm not complaining, as it's my preference... I just find it curious that their arrangement with Walmart means that Hasbro can't sell regular Soundwave with this mold in the mainline, hence the Siege reissue, but it's ok to do a Pulse-exclusive SG repaint? If Pulse-exlcusive repaints are ok, why waste a Voyager slot in Legacy to reissue Siege Soundwave? Why not instead reissue a Generations Selects Soundave using the Netflix mold, but replacing all the gray plastic and silver paint with Sunbow white? And as long as I'm questioning Hasbro's decision-making skills, I'll note that they've remolded Soundwave's head to include his headband. You'd think they could have just made a rubbery plastic or soft goods headband accessory that fits over Soundwave's head, but no, they found the budget to remold it. And yet they couldn't find the budget to better remold Breakdown... Anyway... for all my complaints about Hasbro's inability to get their act together, I do really like SG Soundwave's design. As I understand, the white with blue accents comes from the Sonic White version of Music Label Soundwave. The headband, meanwhile, comes from the first official SG Soundwave, which was a Botcon repaint of Universe Ironhide with a new head and a soft goods headband. Having not read the Fun Publications Botcon stuff, I couldn't tell you what the story behind the headband is. In the IDW SG comics it's just there. One last thing to note... Siege Soundwave had translucent yellow, and Netflix Soundwave has translucent red eyes. For those two, the lightpiping seemed adequate. SG Soundwave has translucent green eyes, but the lightpiping just isn't doing its job here, so his face looks a bit dead. It's times like these I wish Hasbro screwed heads together instead of gluing them. I'd really have preferred the eyes were painted. Anyway, as a repaint of the Netflix Soundwave, he comes with the same accessories as Netflix Soundwave. Which is to say, the same rifle, shoulder cannon, and weird pistol that came with the Siege/Legacy toy (and eventually became the back barrel for my non-transforming Earth-mode Megatron), plus two Micromaster tapes that Siege/Legacy didn't. The tapes are the same characters as Netflix- Ravage and Laserbeak. One assumes that Ravage is there to appease David Willis. The color scheme is based on Kiss Players Glit, but Willis wrote the profile for Ravage in Fun Pub, figuring that the opposite of stealthy, silent Ravage would be an attention-seeking social media addict. He was so enamored with his idea that he started making a webcomic about SG Ravage, which in turn was picked up by Fun Pub, which combined with his work on TFWiki has given Willis and unfortunately outsized impact on the franchise. As for Laserbeak, although initially depicted as yellow and purple Fun Publications decided to repurpose the Botcon Knights of Unicron repaint of Animated Soundwave's guitar as SG Laserbeak, leading to the red and gray we see here. Curiously, rather than use the head they made for Netflix Laserbeak they went back and used the older Siege head (which was inspired by Laserbeak's appearance in the War for Cybertron videogame). As a repaint of Netflix Soundwave, SG Soundwave turns into a tape deck instead of a spaceship thing. The same bells and whistles are present... the tape deck opens up to store one of the tapes... you can stick the other to him by folding out a peg on the tape and plugging it into the hole where his shoulder launcher goes, or one of the arm holes on the back. Also on the back you'll find storage of sorts for all three of his guns. So what's left to say? I mentioned in a quote the @Scyla the other day that Hasbro's QC has been going downhill, and there's definitely a dip in quality between SG Soundwave and Netflix Soundwave. The hips are looser, and one of the hip pieces wasn't fit quite right when they shot the pin through it. I can't tell if that's the reason his alt mode doesn't seem to line up quite right or not. Plus, although nothing seems to be broken on him, there's something rattling around inside of him. Siege Ravage is by far the worst of the Micromaster tapes, so I'm not exactly thrilled to see it again (Laserbeak is fine, but someone want to tell me how we ended up with three Laserbeaks using this mold but zero Buzzsaws?). And there's the whole question of whether or not Shattered Glass repaints are even necessary outside of Hasbro's insistence that we buy every mold at least twice. For his flaws, though, I think Soundwave is a favorite among SG fans, and as I'd previously noted I do think the colors are really sharp, and as a companion piece to a similarly-sharp SG Blaster I'd say that Soundwave is one of the better SG releases and worth checking out, especially if you never got the Netflix mold.

OK, I gave it a fair shake. Pros: CGI animation is decent. A plot about post-war Transformers dealing with new threats from humans has potential. I can dig Megatron as a good guy, and I'm glad that they didn't default to a tank alt mode for him. I like that they're using Elita-1 instead of defaulting to Arcee for the token female Transformer. Prime has a fairly G1 bot mode, and I dig Bumblebee's evergreen design to the extent that I wish they'd do a nice Deluxe for the Evolution line. The dad is possibly the best human character in a Transformers show since Agent Fowler. It's set in my home state of Pennsylvania. Cons: Despite the Geewunny bot mode, Prime's alt mode is from Prime. Prime himself is portrayed as kind of dopey. The Autobots and/or the human Ghost team they allied with seem kind of incompetent in general. I loathe Twitch and Thrash- they remind me of the crappy minicons that buddied with the humans in Transformers Armada, and unless they come up with a good explanation for it later the whole "magic rock creates a new Cybertronian subspecies that's extra special because it happened on Earth" is terrible. It's clear that those two and the human kids are the main characters, and the actual Transformers showing up to do cool stuff is a tiny part of the show that happens to the main characters, not with them. When Megatron refers to the "battle of Burbank" and you realize that Megatron joining the Autobots happened before the end of the war, you'll also realize that there's an untold story about Megatron and the Autobots fighting Starscream or Shockwave and the Decepticons on Earth, and that's probably a much more interesting show than what we're actually getting. Mixed: I don't really like the kids. Robbie, especially, comes across as a brat, but at this point that seems to be more of a plot device to get the show going than his actual characterization, so I'm giving them more time to grow on me. Dietrich Bader is a fine VA and objectively I think he does a great job as Mandroid in this show, but subjectively it wasn't a great idea to watch this after binging the third season of Harley Quinn (where Bader plays Bruce Wayne) because I keep expecting Mandroid to mention having dead parents. It's aimed at kids in a way that reminds me of RiD 15 and Cyberverse, but Prime and Animated already demonstrated that you can make a Transformers show with broader appeal. Even if it is your "dream job" what kind of person forces their whole family to drop everything and move to the middle of nowhere to become a park ranger? And what kind of park pays its rangers enough that you can afford to relocate from Philly on a single income? Overall, I'm willing to watch a few more episodes and see how it goes, and so far I like it better than RiD 15. But Transfomers fans still deserve better. Whenever I'd preorder from just Pulse, it seems like Amazon customers got them first. When I'd preorder from Amazon, Pulse customers would get them first. So I started preordering from both, and over the weekend got emails from Pulse and Amazon that they were shipping soon. I can't afford to buy the entire wave twice, so I had to cancel my preorders at Pulse (except Megatron, which Amazon thinks still isn't coming until February). Amazon has the rest of the wave arriving tomorrow, but so far only two Deluxes have shipped (you'll have to wait for my reviews to see which ones). I kind of doubt that the others are showing up tomorrow now, but like I said I still think they'll be here by the end of the week. EDIT: of course, after cancelling those Pulse orders I get the shipping notice for Megatron from Pulse and a bunch of delay notifications from Amazon. Sounds like most of the stuff isn't coming until next week, now. FML. The misassembled parts has me a bit concerned. The paint, not so much. The scratches on Star Saber's mask are instantly noticeable, but I have similar scratches on a few other figures, including Earthrise Optimus. And in a couple of the pictures in that thread I had to stare for awhile to even figure out what they're complaining about before I realized that they probably are pointing out the overspray. And on that note, have they not bought a Hasbro figure in the last two or three years? While I think the designs of the figures themselves have improved a lot, QC at the factory has been getting a little worse every time they change the name of the line. If my set arrives with a scratched mask and a little overspray but tight joints and no missing or misassembled parts I'll consider that a win.

I haven't gotten anything from the third wave of Legacy yet. I've checked my local stores a few times, but all I've at Target a few stray Kickbacks, a nice mix of Bulkhead, Jhiaxus, and the occasional Soundwave, and a ton of Coronation Starscreams. Walmart isn't much better- they have the same Bulkhead/Jhiaxus/Soundwave/Cornoation Starscreams, but their pegs are decorated with a glut of Burnouts, Blurrs, Sandstorms, and Nightprowers, with a light smattering of Clampdowns. That said, between Amazon and Pulse I expect I'll have the entire wave by the end of the week.

I haven't watched it yet... I guess I should give it a fair shake. I mean, Megatron joining the Autobots can make for some great stories (like IDW's More Than Meets the Eye). And, despite it targeting younger kids, Cyberverse was honestly pretty good- I mean, it was no Prime, but a lot better than RiD 15. So I'm trying to keep an open mind. The trailers looked bad, though.

But no robot ankle articulation. I'm inclined to ignore it, unless they plan on sticking the ROTB toys directly in Studio Series like they did for Bumblebee.

My shipping address is correct. Can't wait!!

People debate all the time about which actor did the best Batman, and they only seem to talk about the live-action ones. Real fans didn't need to debate, though. We knew the best Batman was animated. Rest in peace, Kevin.

They're calling themselves Touch Toys, but it's the same designer that did the J-20 and the helicopter for TFC. I think it's meant to be part of the same line, just TFC isn't producing them anymore.

I know you guys dig transforming planes... especially ones that clean up in alt mode. Looking at you, @M'Kyuun. If I'm not mistaken, that's a Shenyang FC-31.