mikeszekely

Like, if you're in for $900 already I don't know why would wouldn't spend the extra $100 for the extra 12 compute units, slight clock speed bump, and 4 extra GB of VRAM and get the XTX. I'm really looking forward to seeing real-world performance, though, but I'm guessing a bit better than a 4080 for quite a bit less money. Of course, I'm guessing that'll just be in raw performance. Nvidia's still got a pretty big edge with DLSS 3. Not necessarily a $200-$700 edge, though.

Before I get started, a quick PSA: Jetfire isn't the only Commander getting reissued. BBTS, Entertainment Earth, and The Chosen Prime all have preorders open for Sky Lynx, with a February release date. With that out of the way, we can now look at Legacy Core-class Bomb-Burst. Bomb-Burst, like Iguanus before him, doesn't do the Pretender gimmick. Instead, he replaces his generic inner robot with a form based on the more recognizable shell (especially true given that the Pretenders didn't appear in the Sunbow G1 cartoon, but featured prominently as Blood in the early arc of Masterforce). Frankly, while the idea of Transformers disguising themselves as humans wasn't the worst idea, giant monsters weren't much of a disguise and I wholeheartedly approve of Hasbro's modern approach. And with that in mind, I think Hasbro did an ok-ish job capturing the look of Bomb-Burst's Pretender shell, but something seems off about the proportions. Also, from behind you can see that he's traded his wings for a blue backpack. Legacy Bomb-Burst comes with pretty much the same accessories as the original 1988 version- two guns, and something like an axe or a pick-axe. Bomb-Burst's head is on a swivel- there's no tilt, and even more disappointingly his jaws are fixed. His shoulders are ball joints for swiveling and moving laterally just under 90 degrees. His ball-jointed elbows bend slightly over 90 degrees and double as bicep swivels. No wrist swivels. His waist swivels, at least. Ball-jointed hips can go 90 degrees backward, a little more than that forward, and a little under that laterally. Ball joints at the knees bend 90 degrees and serve as thigh swivels. His feet can tilt up and down about 45 degrees, and his ankles can pivot a little less than that. The guns have 5mm peg holes underneath that allow them to attach to pegs on Bomb-Burst's forearms, which is how they attached to the inner robot on the G1 toy. There are also 5mm pegs on the backs of the guns, but it's not clear what purpose they serve. They do not have the ability to combine into a larger gun the way the G1 toy did. There are small pegs on the tips of the barrels. These tips are almost certainly for attaching blast effects, but they happen to be the right size for Bomb-Burst to grip, allowing him to use them as big axes. Or, you know, he could just hold the little axe. Unlike the G1 versions, Legacy Bomb-Burst's guns have gray paint and some skeletal details molded onto one side. There's some 5mm pegs on the sides of his backpack. The instructions indicate that you can plug the guns into the backpack, and hey, it's kind of like his wings! Except the drawings in the instructions make it seem like a great fit, but in practice the intakes on the sides of the cockpit force the guns to be attached at a 90 degree offset. So if you want the guns to be his wings, you have to start undoing his backpack, and even then the wings wind up pretty far from his body and will sit at an angle. It's really too bad the wings couldn't detach from the guns. With the engineering of a Core-class figure you don't expect a ton from the transformation, but Bomb-Burst is basic even by Core-class standards. The cockpit on his backpack folds up and over his head, his waist rotates 180 degrees, then his legs curl up under him. The guns on his arms form the wings, but the arms themselves just hang back. They don't even tab into anything. Maybe I shouldn't complain too much... Legacy Bomb-Burst is kind of backward from the G1 toy, whose head was at the back and hips were at the front. And yet, we've got the 5mm pegs on the sides of the cockpit where the original's hip joints were, and his pelvis where the G1 toy's head was. It's blue where the original was blue, and gray where the original was gray. It's honestly not that different, and what differences are there are mostly improvements. Legacy Bomb-Burst has a longer cockpit, and his feet are tucked under more neatly than the original's thighs. Speaking of thighs, Legacy Bomb-Burst's hips and thighs help fill in the space between his arms and pelvis, where the original just had a big gap between his arms and head. These minor changes add up to an alt mode that's basically the G1 toy, but sleeker and more cohesive. My only complaint is that G1 Bomb-Burst had a fin on the back of his head that became his alt mode's vertical stabilizer, while Legacy Bomb-Burst lacks a vertical stabilizer entirely. That may be for the best, though, given that it'd be sticking out of his crotch. Bomb-Burst's guns, as mentioned, are his wings, but his gray axe has alt mode storage, too. The two points fit into slots on the underside of the mostly-hollow cockpit. This leaves just a little of the handle sticking out the front like a nose gun, and it's even compatible with blast effects. When Skullgrin was announced as a Deluxe in Legacy's third wave I complained that was taking up a Deluxe spot when when there are still cartoon characters like Gears, Windcharger, Brawn, Sandstorm, Octane, Broadside, and basically every combiner that isn't the Stunticons that need updated. After having Bomb-Burst in hand, though, I think I'll have to walk that back. Bomb-Burst winds up being a fairly mediocre character with a too-simple transformation, weird proportions, and a lot of floppy ball joints. It's a toy that'd almost certainly have benefited from the greater engineering that comes even with the Deluxe-class. Scale is a factor, too; even if I might have bought into the idea that the Pretenders were naturally smaller than just about everyone else, now I'm forced to reckon with the idea that Skullgrin is like twice the size of Bomb-Burst, even though Blood and Dauros were definitely the same size in Masterforce. I think the Core-class is fine for really small characters, like Wheelie or Rumble, or for doing large characters in a smaller scale for posing with Titans like most of the other Core-class releases. But I'm no longer in favor of using the Core-class as a dumping ground less popular characters. Bomb-Burst should have been a Deluxe. Iguanus should have been a Deluxe. Buy Legacy Bomb-Burst if you're a completionist, or because you know it's unlikely you'll get a better one any time soon. But if you don't need a Bomb-Burst in your collection, then you definitely don't need this one.

Details are still pretty sparse at this point, but it's unlikely. Toho's Keiji Ota is or was less in favor of a Shin Godzilla sequel and more interested in building a kaiju cinematic universe.

Full-length. And it will be released in theaters on the 69th anniversary of the original film.

It's a new film from Toho, not Legendary. Directed by Takashi Yamazaki (Dragon Quest: Your Story, Space Battleship Yamato, Lupin III: The First).

Yeah. The leg fillers aren't the greatest and have a tendency to fall off, but the spoiler and wings are absolutely worth it. I don't think I'll invest in more for Exhaust or Slicer, though. A few were necessary to fix the number and what not, but I still wanted a cleaner Sunbow look than the total racing livery. But buying an expensive sheet that I only need a fraction of the stickers is kind of Toyhax's MO these days. Which one? While I love Go Better's kits of Sunstreaker and Wheeljack I kind of prefer Nonnef's Lambo spoilers. The shoulder missile launcher is a wash, but Nonnef's gets you a G1 rifle, too.

The flood continues. Today, at least, we have a new mold... it's Studio Series 86 Voyager-class Ironhide. SS Ironhide shares no parts with the Siege-retooled Earth-mode Ironhide that came in an Amazon-exclusive pack with Prowl two years back, and side-by-side the differences are pretty striking. For one, the colors are much better, with dark gray on the shoulders and hands instead of black and light gray for the thighs and pelvis. The headlights and the bit of grill on his chest are silver instead of black. For two, the sculpt and proportions are better. His thighs are a little longer. His shoulders don't stick up quit as far. He's got a slightly larger, slightly wider new head. While he does have more greebles than a Sunbow purist might like, he's got less of the overdone Siege ones. Plus, the greebles on his shins don't have any van details. His pelvis flap is both present and cartoon accurate. His chest has a better shape, more actual chest and less beer gut, and is actually more accurate than even MP Ironhide. Oh, and I nearly forgot since I painted my Earthrise Ironhide, but there's no black hinge in the middle of his torso, and the Autobot badge is tampoed on so I didn't have to apply it myself (although the factory did it a little off-center). Despite having similar kibble flaps on the sides of the legs, and despite still having a backpack with the front bumper and wheels, SS Ironhide manages to look better even fromt he back. You can see better the tweaked torso and thigh proportions, and the kibble flaps actually hide most of the tires on his calves. His butt doesn't look like he's wearing a Depends in need of changing. From the side you can see that the tires and bumper stick out a bit further than they did on the Earthrise mold, but there isn't that gaping void in the middle of his back. There's still a little hollowness in the backs of the forearms and the hands, but at least this time you need that space in the forearms for transformation. Likewise, there's still a little hollowness to the thighs, but this time it's on the inside of the thighs, not the back. On aesthetics alone, SS Ironhide is a huge improvement over the Earthrise figure. How about accessories? Well, you get two cartoon-style pistols. That's probably less plastic than went into the hammer/missile launcher that came with Siege Ironhide, and definitely less plastic than came with the toy-style gun and enitre roof that came with the Earthrise version. If you liked using the roof as a shield, or perhaps adding some Nonnef accessories and turning it into a G1 toy-style sled, you might find the guns a bit disappointing. On the other hand, if you hated looking for a place to stash the partsforming roof in bot mode, you'll likely be much happier with the simple pistols. Articulation on this Ironhide isn't all that different than the Earthrise one, which is to say that it's perfectly fine. His head is on a hinged ball joint with some good up/down tilt and a swivel, but it's not really cut to allow any sideways tilt. His shoulders rotate and can extend 90 degrees laterally. His biceps and wrists swivel, and his elbows can bend 90 degrees. His waist swivels, and due to transformation he can even arch his back. His pelvis his hinged to move out of the way for his thighs, but unfortunately it's a single piece. Once it's out of the way, his hips can go just about 90 degrees forward, backward, or laterally. His thighs swivel, and his knees bend 90 degrees. Due to his transformation, he's got several hinges in his feet. You get get about 45 degrees of upward tilt, over 90 degrees of downward tilt, and around 45 degrees of ankle pivot. Ironhide can hold his pistols in his hands just fine, but you might have noticed that as a Studio Series figure he lacks the 5mm ports on his legs, forearms, shoulders, and back that the Earthrise mold has. Don't fret, though, he's still got other options for storage. There's a slot molded into the sides of the pistol, just above the handles. In robot mode, these slots can grab onto tabs on his calves or on his backpack. If the aesthetic upgrade alone isn't enough to overcome the Voyager price tag and get you to upgrade, then perhaps the engineering will? The transformation starts off similarly, and at first I was thinking, "is this a another retool of the Siege mold after all?" I mean, you fold back the bumper on his back, and his arms hinge around to tab together behind his head. You need to open his chest window so you can fold his head inside... but that's when things start getting different. It's not just a window; the front section of the roof also unfolds from inside his chest, and front under it you unfold two more bits with some of the side windows. Rather than sticking straight back, you have to line up the shoulders and bend the elbows just right, because his forearms are also part of the roof. Flaps open on his shins to allow armatures to move his feet; the tops plug into the forearms and form the back of the roof, the soles of his feet fold down to become the rear of the van, and some flaps squished in there make some windows. The kibble flaps on his legs unfurl, filling in the side of the van that includes the bottom from the hinge to the front tires, the middle windows, and section of the roof between his forearms and part that was inside his chest. You get a complete van, with translucent blue windows, and zero partsforming. The van mode isn't perfect. There's those to translucent nubs on the roof- they do have a purpose on Ironhide, but I can tell you that they're not necessary and are almost certainly there as attachment points for the inevitable Ratchet repaint. He's got two large hinges breaking up the sides of the van, but the Earthrise mold has one plus an out-of-place visible shoulder, so I can't say that's worse. The back window is molded in place, but not painted And, although there's molded lines for it, the yellow stripe is missing from the sides. However, it's still an improvement from Earthrise. The wheels look like Earth tires instead of reusing the Siege ones, and Hasbro painted the rims (saving me the trouble). The front end, with the silver bumper and grill, lack of black hinged part, and tampoed Autobot insignia is more accurate than the Earthrise version. There's no pipes on the back of the roof. And the back of the van is actually molded to look like the back of a van (even if the rear window is molded but uncolored), so you don't have to buy replacement feet just to avoid the back of the car being totally out-of-place robot feet. So, those roof nubbins? They can be used as a place to store the gun if you want Ironhide to do some drive-by shooting at Decepticons. But again, they're not necessary. Feel free to Dremel them off and touch up the paint... ...because there's storage underneath the van, too. The spots on his backpack wind up just under the front bumper, so he can still drive and shoot. Want more emphasis on the "disguise" part of "robots in disguise?" Another set of dedicated tabs near the back of the van can be used, too. This allows just a little of the barrels to stick out the back like exhaust tips. If you read a certain Transformers message board you may find that this is a bit of a contentious release. "I just bought an Earth-mode Ironhide two years ago! And it was a Deluxe! This thing is (choose one) the same size/smaller! Hasbro is ripping us off/I'll just stick with the one I have." All I can do is remind you that "Voyager" isn't a size anymore, it's a budget that allows for Ironhide to have better paint and engineering than his Earthrise counterpart, and he's a huge improvement aesthetically across the board. If you're going to settle for what you already have you might as well have not bothered getting Earthrise Ironhide, you could have just stuck with the crappy Universe toy. Because Studio Series Ironhide is the same leap in improvement over Earthrise that Earthrise is over universe. If this is the quality I'll get, I'll happily shell out Voyager money for more figures this size. Ironhide might be the best Transformers figure Hasbro released in 2022, and I strongly recommend him.

I ordered both Prime and Magnificus. As of writing, both are still available on Pulse. Speaking of Pulse... I got another pile of figures from them. Hasbro really likes to release everything all at once. I'll have some reviews for new molds later, but for now I've got another Repaint Roundup. We'll cover the store exclusives first. From the Walmart-exclusive Velocitron Speedia 500 collection we've got Deluxe-class Shadowstrip. Shadowstrip's packaging and instructions proclaim that he's from the G2 universe, which makes sense because "Shadow"strip is Legacy Dragstrip with no mold changes and the same accessories, just with a new deco based on the unreleased G2 Dragstrip toy. I don't have a ton to complain about here. Dragstrip was a pretty decent figure, and swapping the yellow for black and the orange stripes for gold just looks sharp. There's some extra gold accents on the rims and near the cockpit, and some extra blue in front of the cockpit and replacing the orange and purple on his head. It all looks good! The basic checkerboard pattern on the sides of the original prototype have been replaced with a design that looks more like a flag, which I don't mind at all. If I'm being nitpicky I'd maybe point out that the prototype also had a red and white checkerboard on the rear spoiler instead of stripes, but it really doesn't bother me. As the mold itself is unchanged Dragstrip can still split in half at the waist, and you can use him in place of regular Dragstrip on Menasor's right arm. What you can't do, though, is use Dragstrip on one arm and Shadowstrip for the other. The remolded bits on Dead End are apparently slightly different, so the front half of Drag/Shadowstrip doesn't sit flush on Menasor's left bicep. Shadowstrip's far from essential, but as I said Dragstrip was a pretty decent figure already and the black and gold color G2 color scheme looks great (even if you're not a native fan of Pittsburgh sports teams). Recommended from me. Also from the Velocitron collection, we've got Deluxe-class Crasher. I've probably already offered my feelings on this... once upon a Classics time, Hasbro repainted Classics Mirage with a color scheme based on Crasher as Fracture to help fill out the movie line. And, ok, at the time it was cool to get almost any acknowledgement of the Gobots at all. But I'm older and more cynical now, so let's consider the following: 1. Siege Mirage was one of the weaker releases from that line, but we let it slide because it was technically supposed to be like a Cybertronian mode. 2. Retooling the Siege mold instead of starting from scratch emphasized its flaws. 3. Crasher was never a Formula-1 car, and shackling her to Mirage repaints for all time just because of one homage 15 years ago is doing her a massive disservice. And yet, here we are, with a figure that is Earthrise Mirage from the neck down, with the same accessories as Earthrise Mirage. Mark did a pretty good job getting a deco that's pretty close to the character on the Gobots in bot mode, but aside from being black, red, and white the alt mode isn't and never will be Crasher. Ironically, the one time Hasbro did make a figure with an alt mode that's super close to Crasher (PotP Jazz) they didn't bother with the redeco. The only part of Crasher that isn't from Earthrise Mirage is her head, but even that's not new. It's the toy-deco head that Hasbro used for the mostly-clear Mirage repaint that came with the IDW Impactor from that one Amazon line. Sure, the wider, rounder head does have Crasher's shape on the most basic level, but giving her some black eyeliner and a pink face doesn't really make her look all that much like Crasher with her narrower face, bandit mask, and pupiled eyes. All-in-all, then, it's a mediocre repaint of a mediocre figure. Crasher deserves better. Do not recommend. Moving from Walmart to Walgreen's, this one is Deluxe-class Minerva. Aside from the head, Minerva is straight redeco of Legacy Elita-1. A lot of the details on her limbs, which seem to have been designed more with Elita-1 in mind, are more suggestive than G1 accurate. There's engine vents on her shins, no headlights or wheels on her wrists. Her fenders hover behind her shoulders on her backpack instead of sitting directly on her shoulders. Still, her torso seems very evocative of Minerva's, even if the details aren't exact, and the new head sculpt is excellent even if it's not a detachable Titan Master. It seems to me that Mark wanted a new Minerva, and the only way he could get her greenlit is if he could work her into a repaint of Elita-1. And thus, Minerva had to give up a few things like the Headmaster gimmick, and Minerva's eventual retool was worked into Elita-1's design from the start, hence the design of her backpack. Mind you, you can make them a bit more visually distinct by folding down the fenders on Elita's backpack. You probably noticed that Minerva and Elita-1 have the same guns, but there is one difference in their accessories. The weird antenna thing shaped like the top of Elita-1's head has been replaced with a lightbar. I'm hesitant to call either accessories... sure, they're not attached in the box, they plug into a 5mm port, and could easily be removed and held in their fists. But the only reason they're designed to attach via a 5mm port is precisely so you can attach the antenna to Elita and the lightbar to Minerva without changing the actual mold of the base figure. Once they're installed, they never actually need to be removed. I guess the real question is whether or not Elita-1's alt mode is actually a good choice for Minerva's. Well, it's certainly no Porsche! I guess it ultimately comes down to what kind of fiction you want to use for her. Is she the IDW Minerva seen in The Wreckers: Tread and Circuits miniseries? Then you could probably accept this as a Cybertronian alt mode (as well as the lack of a Headmaster gimmick). If you want her to be Masterforce Minerva, though, where the car was a Transtector built on Earth and Minerva is actually a human girl that turns into a head for the Transtector, then a Cybertronian alt mode and the lack of a Headmaster gimmick make a lot less sense. Unfortunately, unless Hasbro makes a new Nightbeat to properly repaint into Minerva, this is as good as we're likely to get. I guess I'd recommend her. Last one for today, we've got Shattered Glass Slicer, who maybe makes even less sense than Flamewar. See, this time I went ahead and read all the comic books. Flamewar kind of checks out, if you just assume that she has the same deco in the regular G1 universe and the Shattered Glass one, because in the regular G1 universe she's an evil Decepticon working for Megatron and in Shattered Glass she's a heroic Decepticon working for Megatron. But Slicer? If you're unfamiliar with the character you might think to yourself, "Well, isn't that like a Shattered Glass Wheeljack?" That's sort of how he comes across in the comic book, and the figure is Earthrise Wheeljack- the only new parts are two new translucent guns. But, to really be Shattered Glass Wheeljack, he'd have to be an evil Autobot- which is what the comic book does. However, the toy clearly has a Decepticon badge on his shoulder. This is because Slicer isn't a new Shattered Glass character, or even a new pseudo-G1 character BotCon repaint. Slicer is a G1 Action Master from all the back in 1991. The OG Slicer was a redeco of Action Master Wheeljack, sure, so redecoing Earthrise Wheeljack makes sense. But it means that Slicer is really a G1 release, not Shattered Glass. The only way I can think of for this to really be a Shattered Glass figure is if they're going to make the claim that Shattered Glass Wheeljack changed his name to Slicer, crossed over into the G1 universe, then joined the Decepticons. Oh, and those two new weapons? They're actually based on the ones that came with Energon downshift, a figure that was repainted as Slicer for BotCon 2010. That reinforces the notion that this figure is G1 Slicer, and only worked into the Shattered Glass line by stuffing G1 Slicer into the story in place of Wheeljack. I'll give Hasbro some credit, though. A lot of times when Hasbro tosses in accessories like this they're kind of an afterthought. Hasbro could have just tossed in two new guns and left it at that, but they designed the guns with hinges. This allows them to peg into the 5mm ports on the back of the car and wrap around the sides so they're still pointed forward. Anyway, Slicer comes with his Exo-Suit. On the original toy, his Exo-Suit was like this pink-and-red dune buggy thing with guns and tire spikes that he could drive around in that transformed into a suit of armor. Here, it's a repaint of Fasttrack/Black Roritchi (with the antenna-less Roritchi head). While the color scheme certainly homages the G1 toy, suffice to say that Slicer will not be riding around in that alt mode. Of course, as a redeco of a Weaponizer you can pull him apart and use him to arm up Slicer in a variety of ways- these four are the ones specifically suggested in his instructions. In most configurations you'll likely find a free port or two to even include his extra rifles. Some of the options, like the big sword, are a bit ridiculous as Slicer's arm joints aren't able to support the weight. And none of them really recreate the armored suit of the original Exo-Suit. Despite my complaints that Slicer doesn't actually fit into Shattered Glass, I think the fact that he's actually a G1 character might be a boon as there are a lot of collectors who couldn't give a crap about Shattered Glass but will buy even the most obscure G1 characters. He's a decent mold, with decent colors, and while his Exo-Suit isn't really an Exo-Suit it's still a pretty rad deco for Fasttrack that can still be used to arm Slicer up. I'd say he gets a recommend.

I carved this one this year. Other than that, I didn't do too much. I have a few neighbors that really go all-out on their displays, and unless you're willing to spend thousands of dollars to keep up with the Joneses all we've got is a big cute spider and a Mandalorian holding up a sign that says "This is the way (to candy)". But I still enjoy walking with my daughter in my David Pumpkins suit while she trick-or-treats... even if she is getting to that age where she'd rather go with her friends because she doesn't need her old man in case she gets scared.

Some clearer looks at Holiday Prime. And with that clearer look, I'm starting to think that the entire robot is a totally new mold, just with similarities to Laser Op in the shape of the chest and similarities to Motormaster in how the wheels store on his back and how the cab is mostly just the lower legs. Even the head and thighs look like new parts, which is great considering how many times Hasbro has used the Siege Optimus legs after Siege. Also, this was revealed with Prime but, being a previous and expected leak didn't have quite the same impact... it's Magnificus. Prime should be $55.99, Magnificus $24.99. It's not clear if Prime will be available at multiple stores or not, but Magnificus is definitely a Generations Selects release on Pulse. Both figures will be available to order tomorrow... no time was specified for Prime, but Magnificus goes on sale at 1:00pm EDT. I'm not clear if these will be preorders, or if like Minerva, Crasher, Shadowstrip, and Bomb Burst they're skipping the preorders and they'll actually ship after ordering.

Oh, I still have my Hero Prime, and I would love a new version to go with my new Laser Prime.

Coming Tuesday to Hasbro Pulse... Some interesting things to note here... 1. You'll recall awhile ago I talked about a rumored Amazon Prime crossover? Holiday Optimus looks an awful lot like a Volvo truck Amazon uses. I wonder if they were working on something, the deal with Amazon fell through, and this is Hasbro recouping the mold? 2. It's hard to tell, with the blurry cell phone photo of a slide at a show, but it's a Frankenstein of a figure. I mean, the trailer is Earthrise, and I wouldn't be surprised if we saw that head already (although the chin is looking a bit flatter than Earthrise). The front of the torso is Legacy Optimus. The pelvis and thighs. The arms and backpack are Motormaster. The legs from the knees down are new, though. 3. Fold the truck's grill over so it's flat against the thighs, and articulate the knees the other way, so the cab of the truck is on the front of his shins. Give him a flat trailer with backpack that can clip over the wheels on his back and a cannon for his arm with a hose. It'd be a passable G2 Hero Optimus Prime.

I gotta love how Hasbro Pulse lets me accumulate so many preorders that I have to make a spreadsheet to keep track of them all, then decides to ship a butt load of them at once so instead of getting a $50 bill here or a $60 bill there I get hit with $250 in one week and my wife flips out on me. Anyway, with some arrived and some more on the way next week it's probably a good time for a Repaint Roundup. First up, we have a brand new Masterpiece Optimus Prime! Yeah, newer even than MP-44 (and no, I'm not talking about a 3P effort like the new Magic Square one). Actually, I'm not really sure why Hasbro put a slip case on the box with the "Masterpiece" branding. The inner Takara box doesn't have any such thing on it, and what we've actually got here is a repaint of Earthrise/Shattered Glass Ultra/Delta Magnus, just without the trailer that turns into armor and painted up like Optimus Prime. The paint on Prime is a step up from Ultra/Delta Magnus, I'll give them that much, although I kind of wish that Takara took advantage of the stockier shape and done more to differentiate this Optimus from the Earthrise release by giving him a more G1 toy deco. For the curious among you, Optimus works with the Earthrise trailer, the Siege trailer, or the Galaxy Upgrade trailer in truck mode., although you'll have to find another place to stow the bumper pieces on that last one. And, naturally, you could put the Earthrise armor on him in bot mode. The Siege armor just does not fit, though. The Galaxy Upgrade armor almost works... the part with the head does clamp onto his spine ok, and the chest does fold over, but it doesn't lock in. The main reason this seems to exist at all is because Takara designed some new tensegrity-style Tenseg bases to be used with Transformers. You can buy just the base in Autobot red or Decepticon purple, but the only way to get the gray one is to buy Optimus. Now, originally I'd thought I'd hold off, build the stand, and review it with this Optimus. But, honestly? Building the stand involves carefully measuring, cutting, and attaching the included wire. And, frankly, I don't see myself doing that. I mean, sure, if you do build it properly with the clear on the bottom and the colored plastic on the top it'll look like the colored plastic is floating... but, as the gray and clear parts are actually mirrored, seems to be you could instead build two separate, normal stands, one clear and one colored. That seems like better value than a gimmicky tensegrity zero-gravity thing. As for Optimus himself, I'll not sugar coat it... this mold is objectively much worse than the Earthrise mold. Especially without a trailer to hide his arms in truck mode... and why didn't he come with a trailer? Yeah, I know it wouldn't really be accurate but slap a new head on the Earthrise Magnus armor and repaint it to look like Powermaster Optimus, I'd have been into that. Really, I bought this for one reason, and that's that I would someday like to have every variant color of the G1 toy in a modern mold (although I fear we'll never see a new yellow Shining Magnus). Ideally, that'd be a red, blue, white, black, yellow, and purple Earthrise figure, but I'll take what I can get. You, however, probably shouldn't, as it's a bit hard to justify the $60+ price tag. Especially when you can buy just the red/purple Tenseg bases for $18 each, if it's the stand you're after. Next up, we have Deluxe-class DK-3 Breaker. And, frankly, I don't have a ton to say about this one. It's Earthrise Trailerbreaker, but with all of his black plastic cast in blue instead. The deco is almost exactly the same, too- the only differences I could find is red paint on the eyes instead of blue, and the silver paint that was on Trailbreaker's rims went to his shoulder missile and ears instead (I painted my Trailbreaker's shoulder weapons myself). Oh, and his taillights aren't painted the way Trailbreaker's are. So, yeah, if you have Trailbreaker you pretty much know what you're getting with DK-3 Breaker, and I'll say that I picked him up because I do dig the Diaclone releases and I honestly find it amusing how much of the Autobot army I'm going to have in two colors. But I'll confess some disappointment that they didn't give him a new, more toy-accurate head and that they didn't go for the much more visually interesting/distinct yellow Diaclone version. I guess I'd recommend him if you liked Trailbreaker and/or you're really into the Diaclone repaints. Most fans can do without him, though. Moving along, here's the 4th of the Shattered Glass II releases (the 3rd apparently released at the same time, but won't arrive until tomorrow at the earliest), Deluxe-class Flamewar. Now, I haven't read the comic included with her, but this release is kind of interesting. See, Prime, Ratchet, the first Pulse-exclusive Shattered Glass quintet, and Blaster from this set are all, very clearly, the Shattered Glass counterparts of regular G1 characters. And while Delta Magnus could simply be a War For Cybertron version of the G1 character created when Takara decided to release MP Magnus in Diaclone colors, with the alternate head the Diaclone colors are also Shattered Glass Ultra Magnus. But Flamewar? She's been kicking around as a pseudo-G1 character since BotCon '05. She's always been a Decepticon, she's always had something close to this color scheme, and she's always been a repaint of an Arcee that turns into a motorcycle (first Energon Arcee, then in 2014 and reissued in 2015 from Beast Hunters Arcee). Flamewar has appeared in comics as recently as Fate of Cybertron, the official end of IDW's rebooted G1 continuity. So a Decepticon repaint of Legacy Arcee in these colors really should be a standard Legacy, non-Shattered Glass Flamewar, and I'm going to treat her as such. On that note... I dig this figure. I mean, she's a repaint of Arcee with no new tooling, but the colors just do it for me. Plus, I really like the versatility of this mold's backpack. Remove the front wheel entirely and you can give Arcee her wings. Spread the wheel and plug it into the back of the neck, then fold the backpack up tight and you've got something close to G2 Road Rocket's shoulder wheels. Or do both for Flamewar, and homage both her wheeled Energon repaint and her winged Beast Hunters repaint. Flamewar does come with the translucent blades that combine to form a disk that Arcee and Road Rocket came with. But, she also comes with Fireglide, a little pterodactyl that's been sold in purple and white as Terror-Daxtyl with Siege Skywarp, in translucent yellow as Enerax with Netflix Optimus Prime, and in blue and black as Sights with Golden Disk Jackpot, which means if I look around I should have every copy of this mold. Anyway, Fireglide's head and feet tuck in and a handle folds out from his back, and boom, you've got an axe, complete with an effect part that tabs onto his wings/blades. Flamewar looks just as good in bike mode as she does in robot mode. It's a bit tricky to find a place to slow Fireglide, as he wasn't designed for this mold, but there is a peg under his neck and the axe handle does double as a barrel. And while it doesn't actually tab in, you can put the fire effect under a wheel and she's got sort of a Ghost Rider thing going. I love it. Hasbro's definitely charging a premium for the paint, the extra Battle Master, and the packed-in comic book that may make it hard to justify the price of what is, ultimately, a Deluxe-class figure. That said, Flamewar is absolutely my favorite use of this mold so far. Recommend from me. Finally, we've got the Pulsecon-exlcusive "A Hero is Born" pack. This pack gets you two figures, and we'll start with Orion Pax. Pax is a retool of Studio Series 86 Kup. This is trend that began back in 2005, when the G1 Kup toy was reissued in red, white, and blue as Orion Pax. Did someone at Takara think the animation model for Orion Pax looked like Kup? I'm not sure how well it worked using a straight repaint of the G1 toy, but SS Kup's rounded limbs do work with that organic Floro Dery style, and Hasbro actually did remold a bit. He's got new forearms, a new head, a new chest, and new shins, plus Hasbro was able to get a slightly different look to his shoulders and hips simply by flipping them around. The result is a figure that is a bit broader in the shoulders and narrower in the hips than what we saw in the cartoon, but it's fairly animation accurate. I still kind of like the old Generations figure myself, but if you want Sunbow this is Sunbow. Differences are more minimal in alt mode, as it's really just the nose of the truck made from his chest that shows now. A part of me would prefer a more unique alt mode for Pax, but since we don't actually ever see Pax's alt mode I can't complain that it's not accurate. Maybe, just as the Seekers share a body type, Pax and Kup were a particular model. I dunno. What I do want to know is who Hasbro can repaint into Dion, Ariel, and the generic Decepticon troopers from the same episode, "War Dawn." The other figure in the pack is, of course, Alpha Trion. Trion is, for me, the more exciting figure as Alpha Trion made enough appearances on the cartoon that I wanted him as a kid. It took until 2007 to get even a BotCon repaint version of him, and 2016 before we'd see a dedicated Alpha Trion that was... not the best. This time, he's a remold of Studio Series 86 Scourge, and as such he's not exactly cartoon-perfect, but he's actually a lot closer than the dedicated Titans Return version. His pelvis is a little off and lacking some colors from the cartoon, his lower legs, knees, and feet don't have exactly the right shape and his feet are missing some color. He's got a lot more back kibble than he did int he cartoon. However, he's got a new front torso and new shoulders and biceps that better represent the cartoon, even using some molding to mimic the way his shoulder armor wraps onto his chest. He's got new thighs, for some reason, and the outermost wing panels have been replaced with something better approximating his cape. He's also got a new head that better matches the Sunbow art... although I'll point out its the head you see in all of his appearances except from "War Dawn" when he turned Pax into Optimus. Technically, if they were truly going to recapture that scene he'd have a younger face with a smaller mustache and no goatee. I'm actually glad they did it this way, though. Like Pax, Alpha Trion didn't transform so we can't really say if a flying soap bar like Scourge's alt mode is appropriate or not (depending on which legend of the 13 you buy into, if any, he might not have had an alt mode at all, but interestingly enough he did have concept art of a hovercraft alt created for the IDW mini-series Transformers: Ironhide back in 2010). Given that they could have therefore gotten away with using as much of Scourge's alt as they could, as they did with Pax from Kup, it's a bit surprising to see how much they did change. Almost all of the red plastic parts are new. The middle engine nacelle has been replaced with a larger, rectangular block, and the panel that cover's his face his wider, more rounded at the top, and with a deeper molded indent. You could probably argue that remolding those parts was necessary to accommodate Trion's head, but they further went and remolded the panel directly in front of the face covering, too, with little windows molded and painted on. Orion Pax has the same rifle and box of energon goodies that Kup came with (although the goodie that's protruding from the top has been painted... are we know supposed to pretend it's a communicator or something?), and he's got the same limb removal gimmick. The right arm on my copy is, in fact, a little loose. And Alpha Trion comes with the same rifle Scourge did. However, you'll notice that Trion has both the open hands from Scourge and the Sweep, and none of the closed fists. That's where the new accessories come in. You get a gold-painted, textured orb that's meant to be the Vector Sigma computer, with a clear stand for it to "float" on. Also included is a gold-painted key for Vector Sigma. There's a slot on top of Vector Sigma for the Key to plug into, however, the size is just right and the shape of Trion's hands just so that he can hold the key, and quite securely I might add. Characters like with articulated fingers like Earthrise Optimus, Hot Rod, Rodimus, and Jhiaxus can also hold the Key, albeit less securely. Closed fist characters like Megatron are SOL, though. I think this is a pretty well-done set. You are paying maybe $9 over just buying one retail Deluxe and one retail Voyager, but both Orion Pax and Alpha Trion are fairly extensively remolded, plus you get Vector Sigma and the Key with them. While I've always thought that Dery's Pax design is a little too goofy to become Optimus Prime, Alpha Trion and Vector Sigma were plot points enough times in the cartoon I think finally having a decent representations of both make this set worth picking up, and as of writing it's still available on Hasbro Pulse.

Depends on how you define "success." Mark my words, Deathsaurus will get funded... they're already almost halfway there, and it hasn't even been a day. Get a few more people over the next month and a half, then that big bump from the retailer orders, and 11,000 is pretty much inevitable. I think odds of the living metal cannon and flail happening are reasonable. But I could see it maybe not hitting both stretch goals the way Victory Saber did. Inflation is real in the States, too, but I dunno. The amount of money some people in this fandom are willing to spend, inflation seems as likely to help some people justify getting so little for so much as it does to turn people off entirely. Anecdotal, I know, but I personally was thinking I wanted a Deathsaurus to go with my HasLab Victory Saber, and I was just about set to buy MMC's D-Zef Continuum to fill that role. Backing the HasLab one instead will save me around $25 or so and likely be a better aesthetic match, so... Shout Factory released Headmasters, Masterforce, and Victory on DVD in the States, both as three sets for each individual series and one box set with all three. AFAIK, though, we've still never got Zone, Beast Wars II, or Beast Wars Neo in any official capacity. It'd also be nice to get them all on some kind of streaming service, or at least Hasbro's YouTube channel. Like, who is even in charge of the brand at Hasbro anymore? The designs for Cyberverse were supposed to be simultaneously G1 enough but generic enough to be their evergreen, standard designs. So they follow up Optimus' Cyberverse design with the same robot, but now he has TF Prime's alt mode? Generally, the new Earthspark toys look like a continuation of Cyberverse, but somehow worse. I'm wondering if some of those aren't Warrior or some other gimmicky figures and not Deluxes (although that Shockwave is a repaint of the Cyberverse Deluxe). I bought pretty much all the Cyberverse Deluxes, and while some of them were pretty cool I'll probably stay away from Earthspark, or maybe just grab Prime for my ever-growing army.

I managed to get Shadowstrip, Minerva, and Crasher. I guess technically they have Core-class Soundwave, too, but I didn't mention him because I don't think there's a lot of interest in the Core-class guys that already have bigger figures, it's a reissue of a figure that came out during Kingdom, and I already bought one then. And Walgreen's is such a crapshoot. I found Brainstorm at my local store, I managed to get Ratchet at Walgreens.com but never saw one in a store, and I didn't see Bluestreak for a long time, got FOMO and overpaid on Ebay, then found like 20 of them a week later. Never saw Red Alert in stores, but thankfully I'd gotten him on Pulse. Well, like I did with Cosmos, if I happen to find any Minervas in stores I'll nab 'em and offer them here at cost+shipping.

I missed the Pulse thing because I had to take my kid to the doctor. It looks like the only Transformers thing announced was a HasLab for Deathsaurus. If he hits 11,000 backers he'll come with a sword, an arrow, a shield and both BreastChestmasters. 14,000 gets you his living metal cannon, flail, and some blast effects. 17,000 gets you a throne and a display stand. The Haslab ends December 12th. I'm going to have to think on this. I backed Victory Leo, and I was thinking about getting MMC's D-Zef for Deathsaurus. But now that there's an official one... EDIT: Shadowstrip, Crasher, Minerva, and Bomb-burst are all available on Pulse now.

I mean, yeah, Nintendo sold some systems in Europe. European NES was definitely a thing. But you probably didn't notice it because Nintendo wasn't able to exert the same level of control over the European market, eventually outsourcing NES distribution to Mattel and a few other local companies. But between the distribution issues, higher prices in Europe, and the aforementioned competition from a thriving home computer market meant that the NES was never force there that it was in the States. The NES didn't just dominate sales here, it was a cultural phenomenon. We had cartoons (Super Mario Bros Super Show, Captain N, The Power Team), we game shows like Video Power, we had clothing and merchandise, heck, we even had the Nintendo Cereal System. In addition to Nintendo Power we had hint books, we had novelizations of NES games. You didn't just know somebody who had a Nintendo here, you owned one because everybody had one (lifetime sales are something like 33.5 million units in the US- that's more than the all of the European NES sales and the Japanese Famicom sales combined). In the late '80s and early '90s if you between the ages of 7-15 if you weren't playing Nintendo, chances are you were thinking about playing Nintendo or talking to your friends about Nintendo. Like you, I'd eventually move on to the SNES, and I have a lot of great memories there (on in particular is bad winter storm hit just before winter break ended, forcing the local schools to remained closed for over an extra week... I'd gotten A Link to the Past for Christmas and spent the entire extended break playing it from start to finish). But, partly due to the larger cultural impact, and partly due to my age (I got an NES when I was 7, and the SNES when I was 13, so the NES was definitely my more formative years), I get a lot more nostalgic for the NES. Incidentally, I'm not surprised that the Gameboy made more of an impact on you. I'm not sure what exactly changed, if Nintendo was able to get distribution back under their own roof or what, but lifetime Gameboy sales between North America and Europe are much closer, at around 43 million to 40 million. Anyway, I finished Blaster Master Zero (got the good ending, too) and I stand by my recommendation. I'll start BMZ2 tomorrow.

Between books, internet articles, and other Youtubers the NES's catalog has been thoroughly documented. What I really enjoy about NES Works, and what I feel sets it apart, is the way that Parish provides historical context for the games. Like, it's one thing to play Super Mario Bros and say, "it's a good game!" but another to talk about how influential it was, and how it's so much more advanced than a lot of other early NES games because a lot of those NES games had been released on Famicom years SMB, when the console was home to mostly ports of single-screen arcade affairs. I'm assuming you're a native European and not a North American expat, right? I've read that the European market for the NES was a bit more reserved, and many gamers at the time preferred computers like the ZX Spectrum that we didn't have on this side of the pond. But here, it'd be difficult to overstate the cultural impact of the NES. The videogame market crash all but ended the market for home consoles, and Minoru Arakawa and Howard Lincoln managed to market the NES as a toy, get it into enough homes to build demand, then use their newly-established position to lock down the entire market. Nintendo strictly controlled who could get a license to develop for the NES, how many games they could publish in a year, which games they could even publish. Plus, Nintendo was the sole manufacturer of the cartridges and controlled the distribution of NES software, so Nintendo ultimately controlled how many copies of a game a publisher could produce and how many copies of a game different stores were allocated. They'd abuse their early market dominance to strangle competition by blacklisting developers who made games for the Atari 7800 or the Sega Master System and retailers who sold said software. Needless to say, if you were a kid in the late '80s and early '90s you had an NES. So, yeah, watching NES Works for me is like revisiting my own childhood. Oh, good. I'm not the only one that does that. I don't do it with everything, but with these smaller, less expensive retro-style games (or actual retro compilations) I have this tendency to buy it first on Switch for the portability. Then I'll buy it again on Steam, because I know at some point Nintendo will release a new hotness that won't be backwards compatible and the Switch will wind up in a closet somewhere (it's basically what happened with my 3DS, after all). Then, when I do get an urge to replay, instead of busting out the Switch or firing up my PC, I'll buy a third time on PlayStation and go trophy hunting. I've done this now with Shovel Knight, both Mega Man Collections, both Mega Man X Collections, the Mega Man Zero/ZX Collection, Mega Man 11, the first two Gunvolts (I bought 3 for the Switch, but haven't bought it for the others yet), both the iX games, the Castlevania Collection, and the Castlevania Advanced Collection. Eventually I'll buy my third copies of Shredder's Revenge and the Cowawbunga Collection, too... I haven't gotten around to the "Windows for posterity" copies yet, but I did buy both my portable Switch versions and my PlayStation trophy versions (I even got the platinum on the Cowabunga Collection). As I understand they even worked in elements of the "Worlds of Power" novelization (although, to be fair, I think Blaster Master: Blasting Again did that first, and Inti Creates might have simply been copying from them). That's impressive to me... while I didn't read the Blaster Master novel, I did read the Mega Man 2 one, and if it was any indication those authors were not afraid of inventing their own mythos to fill in the gaps of the NES's limited storytelling.

As a kid I'd heard of Blaster Master, but the generic rhyming title and goofy alien cover art never really told me enough about the game to really sell me on it. Fast forward 34 years, and I'm watching Jeremy Parish's excellent NES Works series on Youtube. A while ago he put out an episode on Blaster Master, and I start to realize that I must have missed out on a classic that definitely a top 50, maybe even a top 25 game on the console. Rather than fire up an emulator (or see if I had the foresight to put it on my NES Classic) I decided I'd check out Blaster Master Zero instead. See, BMZ has two things going for it- 1. It's available on modern systems (Switch, PS4, Xbox One/Series S/Series X, and Steam). 2. It's developed by Inti Creates, a developer responsible for some excellent retro 2D action games including the Mega Man Zero games, Mega Man 9 and 10, the two Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon games, the Azure Striker Gunvolt series, and the Gunvolt spinoff Luminous Avenger iX. I had other stuff to play so I didn't get around to it for awhile, but today I grabbed my Switch to play with while my daughter was in her dance class, and with nothing else competing for my attention on it at the moment I fired it up. And when we got home, I made dinner and played some more. Made sure her homework was done, got her ready for bed, and played some more. All told, I played until I got to Area 6, which I think puts me somewhere between 50-75% through the game. Needless to say I'm considering it another success for Inti Creates, and I immediately bought both sequels. You should too.

The Transformers Collaborative crossovers have been a mix of iconic '80s vehicles turned into Transformers, less nostalgic and more obvious movie tie-ins, and the rather bizarre decision to remold Titans Return Mindwipe into Bela Lugosi. For me, at least, the shots of '80s nostalgia in Ectotron and Gigawatt definitely trigger something in my brain that the others haven't, but for the most part they've still managed to be pretty cool toys. So when Hasbro announced a G.I. Joe collaborative I was pretty excited. It's got that whiff of '80s nostalgia, and it's the kind of crossover that makes so much sense they'd already figured it out back in the 1986 Marvel mini-series G.I. Joe and the Transformers. So here's the first of two planned figures, Megatron. To be totally honest, they had me at Megatron. I mean, I still think I'm yet to get a truly good CHUG Megatron. Siege was decent, but my copy is pretty floppy and Kingdom has a stronger G1 aesthetic. But Kingdom relies on a ton more partsforming, the partsforming bits have less purpose in bot mode, and despite the partsforming still has a huge backpack. Or, if I think of Laser Optimus as an upgrade to G1 Optimus, maybe a G.I. Joe Megatron could be an upgraded Megatron in a way that their G2 Megatron failed to be when they simply took the Earthrise figure and painted him green. Well, kudos to Hasbro for getting a Megatron that turns into a G.I. Joe vehicle to look so very much like G1 Megatron (still kind of a missed opportunity, though, since Megatron got his G2 body in a G.I. Joe comic book). Remove the backpack and the vehicle kibble from his shoulders, hips, and the outsides of his legs and G1 Megatron to a T. But, he's really too big for CHUG, as he's actually about the same height as MP-36. That's a bit disappointing; previous collaborative figures have fit pretty well with the existing mainline. Even the previous biggest, Ultimate Xpanse, could at least be hand-waved away with notions like an OG character that turns into a jet as big as the Blackbird could be that much bigger, but in this case I'm having trouble imagining that even an upgraded Megatron would be nearly double in size, especially when his alt mode is supposed to be a smaller vehicle. Things get worse for the robot mode as we spin him around. Megatron's got an absolutely gargantuan backpack, and the canopy just dangles there. You can't fold it up and under. At least the backpack is removable... it actually isn't attached in the box. Once attached, at least on my copy, it seems like it constantly wants to pop back off. Worse, and you might have already noticed in in the previous photo, but Megatron is very hollow. Not just his forearms, but the underside of his fists are hollow. The insides of his thighs and hip skirts are hollow. The backs of his legs, and the inside edge of the treads (including his heel spurs) are hollow. Under his toes is hollow. Under his backpack is a mostly empty void, save for a cylinder in the middle (that's hollow on the other side). His actual back is also super hollow, to the extend that if you lift the front of his torso for transformation you can see right through him. This hollowness even extends to his accessories. He's got two thin guns that are hollow on the underside. Worse, his fusion cannon is so hollow that only the top half the barrel is there. The bottom is just a thin support running the length of the barrel. In addition to the guns, Megatron's got a sort of shield thing, and a 3.75" Baroness figure. Presumably this figure is designed and packaged like the G.I. Joe figures of the '80s. Baroness has a rifle, backpack, and a stand in her package. As far as her articulation goes, she can kind of swivel her head, but only a little before her hair stops her. Her shoulders can rotate and extend laterally over 90 degrees. Her biceps swivel, and her elbows bend 90 degrees. No wrist articulation. Her waist is a rubber cable running through a metal loop in her pelvis, which allows her to swivel, ab crunch, back arch, or teapot lean. Her hips can move forward 90 degrees, backward slightly, and laterally about 45-60 degrees on diecast ball joints. Her knees bend 90 degrees. She doesn't have any thigh swivels or ankle articulation. Perhaps Megatron has better articulation? Unfortunately, after size and hollow plastic, articulation is strike three. His head's on a ball joint that can swivel and look up a bit. His shoulders rotate and extend laterally 90 degrees. His biceps swivel, and his elbows bend 90 degrees. He has no wrist articulation, and no waist articulation. His hips can go 90 degrees forward, but that's just three clicks on the ratchets there. He can get about 90 degrees backward, too. They're friction joints for lateral movement, and he gets a bit less than 90 degrees there. His thighs swivel, but are limited to a 90 degree arc from slightly turned inward to less than 90 degrees outward. His knees are a single hinge that do bend well beyond 90 degrees. His toes can bend inward for transformation, but he lacks any ankle pivots. Rather than have ports on his forearms, his fusion cannon and shield plug into 5mm ports that are on the backs of his hands. The hole is a bit shallow, so his fusion cannon does not sit flush and is prone to falling off. Unfortunately, the despite the huge honking backpack, there is nowhere else to store the shield. But you can't lose it, you'll need it for alt mode! The smaller guns plug into the top of his backpack. Once attached, you can pretty much leave them there as it's where they belong in alt mode. Behind the guns is a hollow basket in his backpack that the Baroness can fit into. Transforming Megatron isn't super difficult. His legs scrunch up to form most of the treads, his backpack does mostly nothing, and his shoulder pads form most of the cockpit. The rest of the transformation is using armatures on his torso to move his arms so they can tuck into his legs and his hip skirts to make up the remainder of the treads. As I noted earlier, the scale doesn't really work with CHUG. You can see from the cockpit how small the tank should be, but it dwarfs Earthrise Megatron who should be more of a standard MBT. Scale aside, this is where I'll finally give Megatron some praise. Even a casual fan might know (or could read on the box) that Megatron turns into a Cobra H.I.S.S. tank, but that's a bit of a simplification. It's more accurate to say that this Megatron turns into the H.I.S.S. tank toy that Hasbro originally released in 1983. And, let me tell you, I think they nailed it. I mean, the black and white bits in the nose, the big "788", the smaller "3 63" and "GH7c", the Cobra symbols, and the blue V with the serial/part numbers are paint and tampos wher the original toy had stickers, but they're all there. The molded detail is spot on. Minus a few seams, some white toes under the nose, and what's clearly Megatron's torso on the back this thing is a dead ringer for the original toy. Heck, part of Megatron's abs even flip up so the tank still has the tow hitch the original did. Megatron is so close to the original H.I.S.S. tank that he's got the same compatibility with the old 3.75" G.I. Joe figures (or the modern Retro reissues). The cockpit opens, and you can put a Cobra into it. There's still the hollow back, so a Cobra can sit in the (spinning) turret. And the back still has two foot pegs for Cobras that want to ride on the back. New to the design, though, is a extra peg hole on the turret. That allows you to plug in Megatron's fusion cannon. Meanwhile, Megatron's shield is actually the partsforming back of the tank. Yep, another Megatron and we've still got partsforming bits. Without that shield Megatron's entire head and torso are super visible inside a hollow gap. I have to ask... who is this crossover for? Joe fans? The faithfulness to the original H.I.S.S. tank toy and compatibility with 3.75" Joes would strongly suggest that this is the case. But, didn't Hasbro re-issue the actual 1983 toy in their G.I. Joe Retro collection fairly recently? Seems like Joe fans were already covered (except maybe the ones who might have wanted a bigger H.I.S.S. tank to go with the 6" Classified figures). So is this for Transformers fans? Speaking as a Transformers fan who was never really into G.I. Joe, I'd have to say no. The scale is off, he's covered in kibble, the articulation is sub-par, and this is some of the most egregious cost-cutting, hollowing of the robot parts I've seen outside of Cyberverse. And, hey, maybe I could forgive how cheap the robot felt if it were a Deluxe, but this is an MP-sized $90 figure. I'd have preferred a line of figures that replicated G.I. Joe vehicles in a scale closer to War for Cybertron without the concessions made to work with actual 3.75" Joes. Maybe there's a small overlapping cross section of hardcore Transformer and hardcore Joe fans that love the idea of the H.I.S.S. tank they had as a kid turning into a crappy Megatron, but from my POV this is one of the worst Tranformers figures I've bought in years and there's simply no way I can justify the price tag. I mean, with his cannon and shield and Baroness with her rifle and backpack in his back, Megatron is under 450g. Siege Jetfire is over 650g without any of his accessories. That's like 30% more plastic for the same price!

It is Japanese Beast Wars. IIRC Leo Convoy is Beast Wars II and Big Convoy is Beast Wars Neo. Took me a minute to get your confusion, then I realized you thought I meant "Prime" as in "the cartoon continuity of that debuted on Hasbro's ill-fated Hub after Animated was cancelled." No, I mean Prime of the Optimus variety... While technically distinct characters, Leo Convoy and Big Convoy are clearly part of that design lineage, arguably more so than Optimus Primal.

It's an objectively terrible design that I'd have zero interest in if it weren't Prime. But it is Prime, so I must have it.

Maybe? On the one hand, if you're doing Magnus with the inner robot than the regular Optimus repaint seems inevitable. But, the consensus seems to be that there are several good options for a Masterpiece Optimus Prime, and that concessions made to allow the armor to attach make this a sort of poor alternative to TE-01/MS-01/MS-02/MP-44 etc. It'd have to be remolded, not straight repainted, and even that might not be enough. I guess it'll come down to price and availability. If it sells out super quick like a lot of FT stuff, and it's overpriced the way a lot of FT stuff is, then both Prime and Magnus will be a pass for me. If FM turns out to be their more budget-friendly line, though, I could be in for both. Let's see, what else was at TFCon? It was pretty underwhelming, really. Robosen showed off a slightly smaller, slightly cheaper version of their Optimus. Iron Factory showed off a bunch of their Legends-class samurai stuff, which is cool but not for me. Fans Hobby had a repaint of their Armada Prime and a note that Armada Jetfire is coming, and prototypes for Doubledealer and Dreadwind. I'm not all-in on Armada stuff (and I'm more interested in their Energon Prime), but I'll probably wind up getting their other Masterforce figures. Oh, they have a Chosen Prime-exclusive repaint of their God Ginrai, but in Delta Magnus colors. XTB had G2 repaints of their Groove and Streetwise, I think they're also exclusives. There's also prototypes for Counterpunch, the Quintesson prosecutor, and Galvatron. I do want Punch/Counterpunch. Runabout and Runamuck, of which I'd like both. And the first two of their Constructicons, Scrapper and Long Haul. I've got mixed feelings about these... on the one hand, they look far more cartoon-accurate than ToyWorld's. On the other hand, this is XTB we're talking here. I don't know if I want to commit to the whole gang (especially when I suspect that MMC is planning one doing Devastator). Oh, yeah, I guess Maketoys was technically there, too. Nothing new or exciting, though, just a rainbow of TFSource-exclusive Seekers.

It's what I always wanted in an MP Magnus, but I'd be a lot more excited if it was anyone but Fans Toys.

I used to be a fan of OnePlus, but their rising prices and merger with Oppo put me off them. I got a Galaxy S21 Ultra a little over a year ago, and it's been a mixed bag. The cameras are great and the hardware itself is fine, but I hate that Samsung loaded the thing with their dialer/calendar/mail/contacts/browser/app store/etc instead of (or in addition to) the stock Android apps. And unlike most other pre-loaded apps you can't remove or disable them. I'm really thinking about trading it in for a Pixel 7 Pro.