mikeszekely

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.

The impression I got is that Mark wants to do more Beast Wars, or maybe someone at Takara. But I guess if enough 8+ old children by Leo Prime... Me personally, I've never seen any of the Japanese Beast Wars stuff, and I can't say I'm particularly interested in getting more Beast Wars II/Neo stuff. I'm a sucker for Primes, though. I love Leo Convoy's design, and I wouldn't turn down a new Big Convoy. Then you can look forward to the Nemesis repaints...

So, I guess there's been some debate over the years that brontosaurus and apatosaurus might have been the same thing, and if so that apatosaurus is the technically correct name, and then later that maybe brontosaurus might be the same genus but a different species, and if they are different then Sludge's stockier body and shorter neck might yet mark him as an apatosaurus. The Diaclone toy that became Sludge, though, was "Dinosaur Robo No. 3 Brontosaurus." Short of Hasbro making a definitive statement on the matter I'm sticking with brontosaurus.

There was another one of those roundtable discussions. It wasn't really as interesting as the last one, no one even asked about Armada Prime or the potential for a Monstructor repaint of the Core Dinobots. Here's a few takeaways... -Yes, the team wants to do the rest of the G2 Stunticons. If they do they'll probably all be in Walmart's Velocitron line. -Crasher is an homage that Mark wanted to do. Licensing issues with Gobots and Bandai kind of limit what Gobot homages they can do. -They're claiming that the target audience for Legacy is 8+, and that kids still make up most of their sales. I say "citation needed." -Building on that, they know adult fans hate the new open boxes, but their research indicates that kids strongly prefer being able to see the actual toy in the package. So closed boxes are pretty much out, and eco-friendly window material is apparently expensive. -Alternate heads for potential repaints are done when the original figure is, so that Galaxy Shuttle head has been kicking around since Siege. Sometimes the alternate heads are never used. -The team does want to do more Beasts. Leo Prime is a test to see if the fandom might be interested in more Beast Wars II/Neo characters. -They insist that the addition of a 6th Core-class dinobot is so they could do the combiner with six cores instead of four cores and a Deluxe. I still say Monstructor is coming. -The team loves that more girls are getting into Transformers and that they love the fembots. Doesn't sound like anything is planned for sure, but Slipstream is a possibility in the future. -The team is looking into doing more of the DJD than just Tarn. -When asked about how the one Junkion on the bottom left of the Evolution poster looks like Lockdown, the team responded with "wait and see." -The team does seem to understand how messed up the Cosmos thing was. Apparently most of them didn't even get a copy. But it's not clear that they have any say on distribution. This seems especially true for store exclusives, as they said the revealed Velocitron Deluxes like Crasher and Shadowstrip's releases are up to Walmart, and that they'd like Minerva to release around the same time as Victory Saber starts shipping but that it's up to Walgreens. Oh, and don't forget about this: There hasn't been much in the way of leaks info on what they're actually going to announce. The consensus seems to be Generations Selects Magnificus for sure, possibly an Omega Sentinel repaint of Titan Omega Supreme, and an outside chance they show the recently leaked Buzzworthy Hound and Studio Series Hatchet.

One of the biggest complaints about Studio Series 86 Sludge was the way his robot toes hang under the body of the dinosaur. I mean, there's a gap in the dinosaur chest, how hard would it have been for Hasbro to hinge the robot toes so they could fold up into that space? Our own @M'Kyuun rolled the dice on a 3D-printed replacement foot with a hinged toe recently, but it seems that there's another option that isn't a 3D printed. Today, I'm taking a look at Nonnef's Sludge upgrade kit. As is the case with Nonnef's stuff, the kit comes on injection-molded sprues. We'll start with the easy stuff first. The red sprue has the parts to make a G1-accurate red sword for Sludge. At the time I ordered, red was the only color available but as of this writing you can get a kit that has a translucent orange blade and a black hilt, like his previous dinobot kits. Me personally, I wind up ordering an extra sword then swapping the orange blade into the red hilt and the red blade onto the black hilt, so I'm not pressing the sword together and won't be showing it in Sludge's fist. The black parts are halves of a toy-style rifle. You can also remove from the gold sprue the two parts to make a missile. The missile will have a 5mm peg to fit into the barrel of Sludge's stock weapon. I have mixed feelings here... I'll certainly never use the missile. As for the rifle, the narrower barrel is more like what Sludge used in the cartoon, but in pretty much every other way the stock weapon is more accurate. Still, it never hurts to have some extra guns around for the figures that either don't get one or get a sub-par one. While we're clipping the parts off the gold sprue, you'll notice this bit that looks like a tab on two of the parts. They're actually separate parts, so carefully remove them but don't lose them! Now, grab a screwdriver and open remove the inside of Sludge's thighs. You'll see the gray knee ratchet on the side of the thigh still attached to the lower leg. Take those tiny gold tabs you just cut off, and jam them into the gap inside the ratchet. This will prevent the nub on the ratchet from smooshing inward, making his knees feel much tighter. Close the thighs back up. While we're cutting stuff off of parts, start separating the gray parts. You'll find a pair that have two pegs on them. One of those pegs, sort of in the middle of the parts, belongs. The other, near the edges, needs to be removed. Set those pegs aside, though, we'll need them later. Take the rest of the parts from the gray peg and lay them out like I've shown above. These parts are going to make Sludge's new feet (along with the remaining gold parts). Take the parts labeled "B". You'll notice that they're actually two parts, a flat base with a trough on the edge and an armature with a peg on the end attached to the base with a rivet pin. Swivel the armature so the length of the peg is parallel to the trough, then take part "C" and plug into the hole on the base just under the rivet. Swivel the armature back up, then take part "D" and plug into part "C". There may be a little gap between them, but you'll squish it all together when you turn the whole thing on its side and plug part "A" into the other side of part "C". What you've got now should look like the third frame of the above picture; that's the bottom of the foot, so flip it over. The thicker gold parts without the taper (the parts the did NOT have the tabs you removed and stuffed into the knee ratchets) are the bottom of the toes, so we just plug the bottom of the peg on the armature into the hole inside. The tapered gold part will also have a peg hole, and you plug it onto the top of the armature peg, capturing the whole armature inside the now-completed toe. Technically, no glue should be necessary but for piece of mind I used a little glue to keep the halves of the toes together. I'll note here that the plastic itself is molded gold plastic, so it's not a match for the gold paint that Hasbro used on the original feet. That said, I think it's probably closer to Hasbro's paint than the coppery paint that BDT used on the 3D-printed feet from M'Kyuun's review. I suppose you could always paint the Nonnef toes yourself, but I wasn't able to find a paint that matched better than the bare plastic, so... To install your newly-built feet, pull Sludge's feet out like you're going to transform them. You'll notice that his feet are attached to a thin flap with a friction clip; just yank the original feet off, and jam the new ones onto the flap. And... yeah. Like I said, the gold plastic isn't a perfect match for Hasbro's paint, but it's not as bad as I was originally thinking because his toes (and, I suppose, some painted bits on his stock weapon) are all the gold that really shows up in robot mode. Well, unless you're looking at his back so you can see his dino head on his backpack, but if you're looking at his back you probably can't see his toes. And in dinosaur mode, you can't see the new toes dangling down like some kind of robot-brontosaurus udder, so again the mismatch between the gold plastic toes and the painted dino head and hump aren't obvious. The riveted armature the toes are attached to do exactly what I suggested Hasbro should have done in the first place- swivel the toes up into the gap under the dino chest. Removing the stock toe-udder does mean that the stock gun doesn't have a place to tab into the underside of the dino mode anymore, but that's not really the end of the world. There's still the 5mm ports on his robot shoulders/dino hips, and you can plug the handles of either the stock weapon or the Nonnef rifle right into them. And while we're in dinosaur mode, we can finally get back to those pegs I had you remove from the foot parts several steps ago. They're fillers for the two screw holes on the side of Sludge's dino neck. They're not perfect... they're not an exact match in color, they have a notch running down one side, and the end has a taper perpendicular to the notch. I guess you're picking your poison, though, between an imperfect filler or a gaping screw hole. End of the day, Nonnef's kit is slightly cheaper than the BDT one, but slightly more after shipping (assuming you even can have it shipped with Nonnef's limited options for international buyers). However, as I've noted the unpainted gold plastic is arguably a better color match than BDT's paint, you get injection-molded parts instead of 3D printed, and you get more for you money with the included sword, rifle, missile, ratchet fixes, and screw hole covers. If you've already bought the BDT feel you probably don't need the replace it with Nonnef's, especially if you're also planning on getting DNA's kit (which has fixes for ratchets and a better sword). Even if you're not getting the DNA kit and you still want a sword, you can buy Nonnef's sword without buying the whole kit. But if you haven't bought any upgrades for Sludge I'd definitely recommend this over the BDT feet.

Yeah. I mean, it's definitely more screen accurate than the Siege Micromaster, and I very much appreciate the new back guns, but end of the day it's still disappointingly similar to the Siege Micromaster. *sigh* Preordered. Hasbro's genius plan... release Studio Series 86 Frenzy (Red) later. Then, even more later, they release Gen Selects Rumble (Red) and Frenzy (Blue) as the toy-color variants... but the Gen Selects are actually the Studio Series figures with no changes except the names on the box.

How much you want to bet that's exactly what they're going to do?

Almost nobody is. Like Road Hauler, he's an early-aughts redeco of a G1 toy that exists only because Takara reissued said G1 toy but wanted to squeeze a little more out of the mold. Unlike Road Hauler, where they retroactively explained the fact that the yellow Diaclone crane appeared in and was referred to as "Hauler" in like the first episode of the cartoon, the thought process for Detritus seems to be "Jeep Willys, but in British SAS desert colors," followed by, "hey, tan and brown sorta looks like a Junkion." One imagines that he gets the mainline spot due to Legacy Evolution being (unnecessarily) stuffed with Junkions. Yes. I've said it before and I'll say it again, the overall improvements in design and articulation that came with Siege won back a lot of fans that were leaving the mainline for more-accurate G1 MPs and Legends, but within the last two or three years they've started squandering a lot of that interest with a series of increasingly questionable decisions- cancelling a Deluxe-class Gears, forced gimmicks like Fossilizers, releasing one main character of a mold (like Smokescreen, etc) in the mainline but making other highly desirable repaints store exclusives (Prowl and Bluestreak), making most of the Earth-mode retools of Siege molds store-exclusives (Sideswipe, Mirage, Prowl, Bluestreak, Barricade, Ironhide, Ratchet, Red Alert, Soundwave, and now Hound), giving mainline slots to G1-ified Prime characters like Arcee and Knock Out but making a new G1 mold a store-exclusive (Cosmos), making (apparently several) new Junkion characters for Legacy Evolution but failing to find the budget to properly remold Breakdown, and so on. Someone in charge needs fired. It's as simple as that. Whoever's making these decisions is making the wrong ones.

Well, over in the official TF thread I've been saying that rather than compete in the MP space dominated by Fans Toys, MMC, and XTB, or the Legends space dominated by NewAge and Magic Square, that it'd be great if a 3rd party would fill in some of the gaps and offer some alternatives to the missteps Hasbro's made since War for Cybertron and make CHUG figures. Then I figured I'd better put my money where my mouth is, so I picked up this unusual piece... this is Daban Model 9913. Some background... Daban is a company that is mostly known for making KOs of Gundam model kits. It's a little strange that they bothered to make anything Transformers-related, but they did, first with 9907. Like their models, 9907 was a knock off, this time of Generation Toy's MP-scaled Optimus Prime. So it's really odd that the only other Transformer they did was the same character (Don Figueroa's IDW Optimus Prime), not simply smaller but apparently a totally unique figure. And... it's OK. I mean, it's a pretty cheap figure- I got it for under $30 shipped from a store I've done business with many times, but I've seen AliExpress sellers list the figure for $15 or less. In a world where even Legends-sized 3P releases cost more than that you have to figure that what you're getting isn't going to be MP-quality. So I can forgive things like the not-quite-accurate knees, the too-large crotch, and the fact that the panels on his forearms and legs don't actually tab in, relying solely on friction to lie in place. I'll even overlook the fact that there's some unpaintable gray plastic on his lats, so he's got some gray that should be red, and he's missing the lights that should be molded in there. Fact is, they've done a pretty good job of capturing the broad strokes of Figueroa's design. There are some features that are a bit harder to overlook, though. His little baby hands are worse than Hasbro's standard fare. And his backpack is a little messy... if only the one panel could get a little tighter against his back. Oh, and I really wish the other panel split and stretched to give him his proper wings. I think my real concern, though, is the size. He's a little bit shorter than Siege or Earthrise Prime. I don't think he looks too bad next to most of the Deluxes, like Ironhide or the carbots, and might even be a bit favorable if you like Megatron to be a bit taller than Prime (G1 cartoon be damned). It's a little wonkier, though, when you have him next to guys like Soundwave or Grapple that you know should be shorter but are around the same size. It makes me wonder a bit why Daban made 9913 this size, exactly. While this isn't exactly a new new figure it did come after Siege, so why didn't Daban make him closer to Siege Optimus in size? As far as accessories go, he just gets this one rifle. It's fine. I think it's a bit stylized (despite the popularity of Don's Optimus, Don only drew Optimus with his rifle in The Transformers #6- the rest of time time he either didn't use a weapon, or he was drawn by someone else. In the actual issue, Prime's rifle was your bog-standard G1 rifle, so a stylized version of that is what Daban was probably shooting for. Still, I rather preferred the rifle Don drew for the cover of that issue, which is what GT used for their Optimus. Side note, see the screws in the above picture? Those screws aren't real, they're molded detail, but they mirror the actual screws on the other side just for symmetry. As you'd expect from a Prime in this price bracket, his articulation is OK-ish. His head's on a ball joint with some up, down, and sideways tilt in addition to the swivel. His shoulders rotate but get a little less than 90 degrees of lateral movement. Due largely to his transformation his shoulders do have some backwards butterfly, so we'll call it a wash. His biceps swivel, and his elbows bend 90 degrees. No wrist swivel. His waist swivels, though, and he's got 90 degrees of ab crunch. His hips ratchet a little under 90 degrees forward, 90 degrees backward, and friction 90 degrees laterally. His thighs swivel, and his knees bend 90 degrees on a single hinge. His toes can tilt down, mostly for transformation, and he's got a slight ankle pivot (but be could really use more). All-in-all, pretty on par with Hasbro- Siege and Kingdom both have more ankle pivot, slightly better range on the hips and shoulders, plus they have wrist swivels, but 9913 has the ab crunch, so... His rifle has the usual 5mm peg handle and it fits into his hands just fine. The instructions that came with 9913 are trash, but fortunately transforming him is pretty easy once you know what you're supposed to be doing. He's kind of a shellformer. The panels on the sides of his legs fold up to cover his thighs and part of the cab. The front of the cab is his actual chest and most of his back. The sides of the cab are filled in with the panels on his shoulders and forearms, with the rest of his backpack making the roof and windvane. Despite all the panels, I'm happy to report that they all line up and tab together very well, and the truck feels solid. That said, clearances can sometimes be a pain. Going from robot to truck, there's a gray piece that fills in his chest that needs to be pulled back, and I found myself grabbing a spudger to get it all the way. Likewise, that spudger was absolutely necessary for unhooking the front wheels and for folding out his hands while going from truck back to robot. Actually, despite the size, I dig the truck mode. Sure, the rear suffers from the usual lazy "it's just Prime's shins", and we've got some visible hinges (although one of them is actually accurate to Don's design). I dig the taillights molded onto his heels. The molded door is a little light, and kind of lost in the arm joints, but on the whole it's a very cohesive truck that's very faithful to Don's art (although, if I'm going to be pedantic, most of the blue from the hinge by his knees should be red, and the windvane should be blue, but he wasn't often seen in truck mode and when he was the coloring was surprisingly inconsistent). You may have noticed that there's a small gap in the back of the cab- no worse than Earthrise's own, but I'm pointing it out because it does have a purpose. If you undo his transformation slightly, you'll find that there's slots on his arms that face into the gap. There are tabs on the back of his rifle. You tab the rifle into one arm, then tab that arm into place against the roof and the side of the cab, then close the other arm so it tabs into the roof, side, and the other side of the rifle. Alas, there's no peg holes or anything to attach a trailer. So... how do we judge this guy? He's a little small, has some panels that don't lock in on robot mode, and his articulation is just adequate. I don't see too many people want to replace Kingdom Optimus with 9913, which I don't think he's really an aesthetic match for anyway. Still, I said we need more 3P CHUG stuff. So when I found an almost-WFC-sized version of one my favorite Prime designs for less than the price of a Hasbro Voyager I can't turn that down. 9913 is definitely good enough and cheap enough to be worth it for a one-off figure to keep on your desk or on a shelf with a bunch of other Optimus figures.

It does seem really weird that Hound is going to be a Target-exclusive, but Detrius (whom I assume with be the same mold) will be a mainline release.

Looks like it's going to be part of the Target-exclusive Buzzworthy Bumblebee line, and it's a retool of the Siege mold. Still... FINALLY. Do want.

Scuttlebutt around the industry is that the lower-spec 4080 was supposed to be the 4070, but when they realized how expensive it would be they decided to save the 4070 badge for something they could market closer to the 3070's MSRP.

Sadly, the closest show to me is still too far to manage on a Thursday night.

So, wait... Action Toy's not making Machine Robo toys anymore, Bandai is doing it themselves? I'm assuming that Bike Robo's not going to get the Gobots faces, but I think I might have to buy it anyway.

I'll leave it to the rest of you curmudgeons to pick this apart, I'm going to take my daughter to see it in the theater.

This. I want any reissues to be as close to the originals as possible. Combiners are good, but I honestly need a ton just to complete the cast of the first two seasons.

Well, Galaxy Shuttle went up on Pulse and Walmart for preorder... and already sold out on Pulse. So being a half-hearted repaint of a mediocre mold to make a more obscure JG1 character hasn't hurt demand. Weirdly, there's no word on the other leaked Velocitron stuff (Hot Rod with a toy deco, Crasher, and Shadow Strip). Instead they announced reissues of the original G1 Hot Rod and Starscream toys, but with repainted with decoes based on the '86 movie.

Better than the train. *shrugs* We really, really need a 3rd party to make Transformers at the Generations scale instead of five variations on Legends, MP, or OS MP, though. MFT made some Legends-sized Decepticon triple changers that'd absolutely rule if they were upscaled to Voyagers.