mikeszekely

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I was out running errands the other day, and I swung by the toy aisle. I didn't expect to find anything... I'm believe I'm current on Studio Series and Legacy, and I hadn't heard that Buzzworthy Hatchet or Hound had started turning up. You never know, though, maybe they finally clearanced out the Coronation Starscreams that have been clogging up the Leader spot on the shelf all year- I don't need more Starscreams, but I'd buy them up for the accessories. But he wasn't, so I didn't. However, I did find myself making some Cyberverse purchases, of all things. You guys may recall that I decided to give the Cyberverse Deluxes a go, and while pretty much all of them were a bit below what I'd expect from a Studio Series or Generations Deluxe the Cyberverse Deluxes were an interesting bunch that occasionally used some interesting engineering And yet, despite the heavy focus on Dinobots in the final season, only Grimlock and Slag ever got the Deluxe treatment. And two Dinobots just doesn't seem like enough, so I thought maybe I could fill some of the gaps with Warrior-class Snarl. For those unfamiliar, the Warrior-class is essentially Core-class engineering in a Deluxe-sized package. I guess the idea is that the line is aimed more toward younger kids, so a slightly cheaper, easier-to-transform class of figure is better for their target audience? Anyway, given how many details were left unpainted on the Deluxes, it should be no surprise to hear that Snarl's really hurting for details. The tops of his shoulders, his lats, and crotch should be black. His fingers and biceps should be black, but his forearms should actually more mostly gray with yellow spikes, and there should be yellow on his toes and hips. His hip skirts should be red, and he's missing some blue on his chest. His dinosaur head is visible on his legs. He's full of hollow parts, and, oh yeah, he's missing his backpack entirely. Although the colors wouldn't totally be right, the simplified deco and missing backpack cause Cyberverse Snarl to really remind me of G1 Action Master Snarl. He does still have a tail, though, but now it's an accessory, made of a rubbery sort of yellow plastic. He also comes with a sword made of the same material. The sword fits into a slot inside the tail. As you might guess from an over-sized Legends figure, Snarl doesn't have the best articulation. His head can swivel, but there's no tilt. His shoulders are ball joints that can rotate and extend laterally 45 degrees. There's no bicep swivel, but his elbow is a ball joint that acts like a bicep swivel. The ball joint can bend about 90 degrees- there's another joint for transformation that acts like a double elbow, but it's above the ball joint and therefore above the bicep swivel. No wrist or waist swivel, and technically no thigh swivel either. His hips are ball joints, so you have a very slight swivel there, in addition to being able to 90 degrees forward and backward and 45 degrees laterally. His knees can bend nearly 180 degrees. No foot or ankle articulation. He can hold his sword just fine in either hand. There are also 5mm ports on the outsides of his forearms. You can't do much with his accessories, but if you get guns or something from another figure you can plug them in there. As for his tail, there's two things you can do with it. Since it's acting like a scabbard for his sword, there's a 5mm peg on his left hip that you can plug it into. It's kind of in the way there, I think. You can also plug it onto a post on his back. While you can leave the sword stored in there, the figure does have a gimmick. You can put the sword in his right hand, then wiggle the backpack up and down like a light switch. It'll cause the post its on to move, which in turn will cause his arm to move like he's slashing his sword. I hate it, but I'm not the target audience. Compared to his Deluxe-class brethren, Snarl fits in pretty well in terms of size and aesthetic. He's super simple, though- you turn his forearms so the dino toes face his dino front, you fold the legs over at the knees and fold the head together, and then you unfold his tail and plug it onto his back. That's it. Again, I think the shape here is fine, and the lack of paint does match the Deluxes. But it's really the lack of paint that's also a lack of accuracy. No gold dino toes, the underside of his tail is gray instead of gold, his black rear legs should be gray, and parts of his back should be red, etc. The other thing is, Snarl doesn't do much in this mode. The sword stores inside his tail still. His head has no articulation, not even his mouth. Nor does his tail. His front legs can swivel at the shoulders and that's it. His back legs do a little better. They're ball joints at the shoulders, so they can rotate and even spread laterally. That hinge I mentioned earlier, above this robot elbow ball joints, is a dino knee hinge. Meanwhile, the ball joint is turned so now it bends inward, almost working like an ankle pivot. Adding Snarl to my Cyberverse Dinobots really made me want to get all five. Unfortunately, the only figure Swoop got was a very simple figure that came in a back with a very simple Bumblebee that combined into a very simple Bumbleswoop. Despite being super simple they're also weirdly expensive and prone to breaking, so I think Swoop's a pass for me. But... ...there's an Ultra-class Sludge! Ultra is another class we don't have in Generations/WfC/Legacy/Studio Series, so let me explain it like this... you know how Warrior takes the simplicity of the old Legends-class figures and scales them up to Deluxes? Well, Ultra-class takes a simple Legends-class figure and upscales it to Voyager-size. And, again, you'd expect that simplicity would mean that he's missing painted details and what have you from the cartoon, and sure, that's definitely true... he's missing gold on his elbows, dino does, shoulders, ankles, and the spines on his legs, plus some minor details on his torso and pelvis. His pelvis is also missing reds, blacks, and blues... basically none of it should be the light gray that it was molded in. His head is blue instead of black, and while he does have some blue on his chest most of that blue stripe should be black. But it's not just missing color... his shape, and a lot of his molded details, are also wrong. In fact, with his missing feet, the molded stripes on his shins, the shape of his shins, torso, and head... he's honestly more G1 Sludge and than Cyberverse. The simplicity extends to the back and sides of the figure, where we can see a bunch of hollow spaces again. His dinosaur head and neck dangles off his back, which is fine, but the head is facing forward between his legs like G1 Sludge instead of backward as in the Cyberverse cartoon. As near as I can tell, the toy was probably based on the concept art Eric Siebenaler did for the show. Seibenaler's art had an almost Studio OX feel to it, very G1 toy mixed with Japanese mecha anime, and while it's extremely cool (and I'd urge you to check it out), it ultimately had to be modified to fit the aesthetic the show eventually went with. Like Snarl, Sludge's accessory is basically his alt mode tail. Unlike Snarl, Sludge's tail was meant to be an accessory where Snarl's was still supposed to be a split backpack like G1. Siebenaler's art actually has a longer tail that looks more like a sword, but what we got here is more like a lance. Despite his Voyager-esque side, Sludge's articulation is still pretty crappy. His head has no articulation at all, due to a gimmick we'll get to in a minute. His shoulders are hinged ball joints, so they rotate and even have a little forward/backward butterfly, but they can also move laterally nearly 180 degrees. No bicep swivel, but his elbows are ball joints, so they can swivel and bend 90 degrees. His wrists don't swivel, but due to transformation they can bend down. His waist does swivel. His hips are ball joints that go backward and laterally about 90 degrees but only about 45 degrees forward. His thigh swivel is also limited to the very small about you get working the hip around the ball joint. His knees bend 180 degrees. He doesn't have any feet, let alone foot or ankle articulation. This can sometimes pose a problem, as there's no heels or much for him to stand on, and the dinosaur head makes him a bit back heavy, so he can tip over. He also has fairly loose joints on my copy. He can hold his lance, though. I daresay it's a bit tight, if anything. Ok, so that gimmick? You push down on his dino-head backpack, forcing these two tabs (circled) out. This opens his back, allowing spring-loaded translucent blue "energon armor" to come flying out over his face and torso. Now, I didn't like Snarl's judo chop gimmick, but it's mostly harmless. I loathe this energon armor gimmick. It's the reason his head has no articulation. Plus, when you get his backpack undone it's hard to get back into place; if you don't have it lined up exactly right and really force it it'll just fall back down and cause the energon armor to come flying back out. Can you transform Snarl? Sludge is almost the same, with the arms becoming one set of legs and the other set rotating off his lower legs, his lower legs folding over, and his tail partsforming on. The big difference here is that his waist has to rotate 180 degrees, and his wings cover over his head and torso then his dino head folds up from his back to clip into place. Something I sometimes here when people talk about other Dinobot toys that are all scaled to the same robot mode height (like the Studio Series, Planet X's, Fans Toys, Gigapower's, etc) or, worse, when Grimlock is a larger size (PotP, GCreation, ToyWorld, etc), is that Sludge seems comparatively too small in dino mode. In this case, the extra size granted to Sludge as an Ultra-class is working in his favor here, as Sludge is noticeably larger than the Deluxes (or Warrior-class Snarl). As with Snarl, the shape of Sludge is pretty good, but he's lacking in details. His tail should simultaneously have more and less gold. A lot of the spins on his back are devoid of gold paint, as are his toes. For some reason there's some gold paint on the knees of his back legs that shouldn't be gold, but no gold on the round joint (the molded joint is missing entirely from the front legs, and that painted armor isn't present in the cartoon; again, they're relics of Siebenaler's concept art). The spikes on his shoulders and hips are painted silver, like the concept art, but are gold int he cartoon. And I have to point out that front the front his neck has some serious hollow gaps. Also like Snarl, his dino mode doesn't doo much. There's no articulation in the neck or tail, but at least Sludge can open his mouth. His back legs can rotate at the hips, and that's it. His front legs can rotate and move laterally at the shoulders, and his elbow is a ball joint that can bend 90 degrees or act as a swivel. That's about it. Weapon storage is just partsforming his lance into a tail. So, these guys aren't the greatest... but you kind of know that going in, since these are Warrior and Ultra-class instead of Deluxe or Voyager. The robot articulation is sub-par, they're missing lots of painted details, the transformations are super simple. On their own I definitely wouldn't recommend them. However, if (and only if) you already have Deluxe Grimlock and Slag, then they're at least something to fill out your Cyberverse Dinobots. It's just a shame Swoop never got at least a Warrior-class figure.

Eh... I just backed the Haslab. Turns out there's a bit of a gap between "shouldn't" and "can't".

Usually I like to have a few repaints before doing a Repaint Roundup, but I'm looking ahead at my what I still have coming or preordered... Victory Saber, no, I'm sure I'll do a big review on him. The whole first wave of Evolution. And... well, that's it. Even thinking ahead to what I'm really looking forward to that isn't on my preorders yet I'm guessing stuff like SS86 Ratchet and Frenzy are still away off yet. Maybe Walmart will start stocking the second wave of Velocitron.... y'know, the one that we already bought the Deluxes on Pulse from like a month ago. I do want that toy-colored Hot Rod. Regardless, for at least the rest of 2022, I'm pretty sure this is my last repaint, so I'll just get him out of the way. This is Generations Selects Deluxe-class Magnificus. Magnificus, like a couple of other modern repaints, is what you get when e-Hobby reissues a G1 Transformer in its pre-Transformers Diaclone colors as a Transformer. In this case, it was Perceptor in 2005, and e-Hobby would release a second Magnificus based on the Reveal the Shield Perceptor in 2013. Hasbro's beating e-Hobby to the punch by redecoing SS86 Perceptor themselves, which is, y'know, fine. Perceptor was a decent figure, and he's looking pretty swish in black and gray, so yeah. From the neck down he's 100% Perceptor, just with the red parts in black (including his gun), the black parts still black, and the blue parts in gray. He's got the same pearl/white/silver paint for the belly mirror, the edges of his chest, and the dials on his scope and arms. The insignia was moved from his chest under the clear plastic to on top of the faux mirror, which sports a little silver paint for some reason- that wouldn't be part of the mirror, if he'd actually had one. Under the chest part they've painted his torso red to match the G1 toy, which still used red plastic for part of the torso. And, again, it's all fine, but I'd have liked to see some tampographed versions of the original toy's stickers. The only mold change is his head, which is designed to look like the toy. Hmm... slap this head on Perceptor, tweak the red and blue plastic colors on him, and swap the pearly white paint for silver (or better, chrome), add those tampo details I wanted on Magnificus, and you'd have a pretty good toy-style Perceptor. But I digress. Microscope mode is, again, mostly fine. Again, I lament the lack of sticker details. Plus, while I was willing to forgive some simplifications on Perceptor to make him more screen accurate, I find myself a bit more bitter about the lack of a separate mirror piece on his abs and missing retractable wheels in his heels. My complaint about the lack of wheels that extend from his heels goes double for tank mode, along with the lack of a wheel on his butt and the inability to remove the dials from his arms so his tank mode can lie totally flat like it was originally designed to on the Diaclone toy (but we're forever stuck with them at this weird angle because that's how Hasbro put him in the G1 toy's instructions). So, yeah. Dig the new head and black deco, and the original figure was decent enough, so Magnificus is worth picking up if you're into Diaclone repaints or evil repaints (while Magnificus is officially a Decepticon, this deco is also used as Shattered Glass Perceptor). Just be aware that toy-details that were omitted from the mold for the sake of movie accuracy on Perceptor are a bit harder to forgive when movie accuracy isn't an excuse.

We started putting Christmas decorations up at my house last weekend, but I think we have the space to work in one more. Holiday Optimus Prime will be spending the month of December on display in my living room, but before I put him out I figured I'd better review him! So the obvious thing here is that it's Optimus, with the usual Optimus goodies, right? Chest windows, tummy grill, masked face with a forehead vent and antenna... heck he's even got arm triangles. But, the deco is also Santa Claus. Red thighs? Santa pants. Red arms, and a mostly red torso, with white around the wrists, between the windows, and over his grill? Fur-trimmed Santa coat. Black hands, shins, and feet? Santa gloves and boots. Black pelvis, and a gold crotch with a black C? Santa's belt, with a gold belt buckle (yeah, they probably should have only painted the top of his hips and crotch black and gold, and left the rest red, but there's also the realties of how they molded the parts). But what's arguably more interesting than the deco here is the underlying figure itself. When the first blurry leaks of this guy went up there was some discussion about whether he might have remolded parts from Laser Prime (the chest, biceps, and forearms do look kind of similar), or from Motormaster (both have their cabs on their legs from the knees down, and both wear their rear wheels on their backs). In hand, though, I can honestly tell you that Holiday Prime shares zero parts with Motormaster or any previous Optimus. I even checked some of the finer details, like his hips, biceps, and tires, plus his head sculpt, and it's all brand new. The same can't be said for his accessories, though. He comes with a trailer, and that trailer is Earthrise Optimus' trailer, with one minor modification. A new part has been installed underneath, fitting over the peg that you'd use to plug it into Earthrise Prime's alt mode and stretching back to a new peg closer to the feet. He comes with the same gun as Earthrise Optimus, just painted like a candy cane. He comes with a Matrix, too. The handles on the Matrix appear to be the same as Earthrise's (and why not, they used that mold with Galvatron, Hot Rod, and Rodimus Prime as well, I'm actually surprised they made a new one for G2 Laser Optimus), and Holiday Prime's Matrix will fit into Earthrise Prime's chest. However, Holiday Prime's Matrix is noticeably thinner. Prime's ho-ho-head is on a ball joint with some up/down tilt and swivel, but no real sideways tilt. His shoulders rotate and extend laterally 90 degrees. His biceps swivel, his elbows bend 90 degrees, and his wrists swivel. His waist swivels. His hips can go 90 degrees forward and backward, and just a little shy of that laterally. His hips swivel, and his knees bend 90 degrees. His toes and heels can point down, largely due to transformation, but he lacks any real up/down tilt. His ankles do pivot nearly 90 degrees, though. He can hold is rifle, but the grip is rather tight. His trailer, as it did for Earthrise, can open up, and there's a repair drone inside. The entire interior is just plain white, which I don't mind for the drone trailer itself but the drone could have used some painted details. I find myself wishing for some other accessories, too, like maybe little presents, or a sleigh instead of Roller. Prime's candy cane gun stores on his back, albeit loosely. And although the drone and shield are still removable from the trailer, the truck kibble on his back means you can't give him a drone backpack, and the shield can't plug into the side of his forearm because there's no hole there. Instead, he's got holes on top of each shoulder, on the back of each forearm, two on the back of each leg, and three under each foot. His chest can fold open, and the Matrix stores inside. Again, it's thinner, so the Earthrise Matrix doesn't fit into Holiday Prime. The transformation on Holiday Optimus is interesting. Like, some of it is expected; his backpack forms the back of the truck, his lower legs fold over this thighs and form the front of the truck, sure. But there are more moving pieces than you at first realize, like how parts of his shins spin around to cover his arms tucked under the truck, or the way his backpack fold unfolds to make the tires instead of simply double-hinging over his arms the way Motormaster's does. Like Earthrise Optimus, I think Holiday Optimus isn't simply a Voyager-class toy with an extra trailer, I think some of that budget actually went into the engineering for the figure itself. Well, the engineering and the license, as Holiday Optimus Prime is a licensed Volvo VNR truck. And therein lies the true origin of this figure... this was originally supposed to be a deal with Amazon (Amazon Prime, get it?), and Amazon uses the Volvo VNR in it's fleet. Imagine this truck, painted white, with the sides of the trailer painted blue with the white Prime smile logo. But I guess it fell through, and Hasbro needed to recoup the costs of development and turned him into a Christmas display in time for the holidays. To that end, though, they really nailed the truck. You can see the Volvo badge with the diagonal slash through the grill, the (sadly unpainted) vents on the side of the nose, and even the groove in the bumper. The headlights, the mustache-style mirrors on the nose, and the sunshield but no windvane on the top suggest that Prime is modeled on the VNR 300 series (while I do believe Amazon uses the larger VNR 660). While not colored with extra chrome or anything on the fuel tanks, Hasbro was careful to make the details on the sides, back of the cab, and even the back of the back of the truck and hitch as accurate as possible, with no obvious signs of transforming (until you look underneath). It's even got 8 rear tires instead of four, and and the hitch is angled slightly backward. Of course he can pull his trailer, and the direction suggest putting the gun between the rear tires on the trailer (if you're not using the trailer, the gun cab plug into the hitch). The peg hole is too shallow and the handle too long, though, for it to fold there, so you are unfortunately left with the red rocket peaking forward between the wheels, or turning it around so it's hanging out the back. Of course, it can be avoided entirely by opening the trailer and storing the gun inside instead. Now, an Optimus Prime colored like Santa that pulls a candy cane trailer is an awesome thing I didn't know I needed in my life (but it turned out I definitely do), and this new mold is pretty great, so I'm not complaining, but... if all Hasbro wanted was a holiday Optimus they could have recolored Earthrise and we'd have been none the wiser. Sure, there's the whole Amazon thing, but we gotta talk about the elephant in the room. Turn his waist 180 degrees, and we've got a robot that looks an awful lot like G2 Hero Optimus Prime, I figure I'd very much like to have a new version of. Of course, despite the similarities, the question was always whether or not it could actually be done. Now that I have the figure in hand, I'd say the answer is a resounding "probably"! I mean, I'd have to take Holiday Prime apart to verify that it'd work, but if you remove this circled part necessary for filling in his shin but not necessary for truck mode or if this was the back of his leg, then the grill that's on his knees can fold back further. Then I think you'd simply have to swap the feet where they're pinned at the ankle pivot, so his toes would still point forward, then swap his lower legs where they attach to the black knee hinge. He should still have 90 degree knee bends, and the only difference I can see for transformation is that you'd have to turn his waist 180 degrees to get the cab back on the right side. Then it's just a matter of replacing the Earthrise cab with a red flatbed that has his missile launcher and you're set. In any case, Holiday Prime is a brilliant new mold with a fantastic licensed alt mode, and he's worth picking up even if the holiday novelty limits his overall utility. With that in mind, I really hope they retool him into Hero Prime.

Y'know, part of my initial dislike of Beast Wars was that I thought the idea of robots turning into realistic, organic animals was stupid. If they originally had the sort of mechanical design that they seem to have in RotB I probably would have been cool with it.

Again, that'd be Studio Series, not Legacy. Leader Snarl is already confirmed for 2023. Target-exclusive, possibly this month. 2023, Deluxe-class, Studio Series. Unfortunately, that's it for the characters you named. AFAIK, the rest of Studio Series 86 for 2023 is Core-class Frenzy and Ironhide plus Voyager-class Ratchet. Beyond that, there's Deluxe Bumblebee, Cliffjumper, and Barricade from the WFC videogame plus Megatron and Optimus in the Voyager-class. Then there's Deluxe Bumblebee from Dark of the Moon, and the rest of the Studio Series stuff for 2023 is Rise of the Beasts stuff.

If it's like Legacy, you might see some of it if it's in the first wave, seeing as the first wave of Legacy is still on shelves at my stores.

Oh, no... those are still coming. They're not part of Legacy, though. They're coming in Studio Series, as Hasbro desperately wants to keep the line going but they're running out of movie characters that aren't Skids and Mudflap.

If you look around you can probably find a listing for just about everything coming in Legacy Evolution next year. Heck, I've probably posted a lot of it in this very thread. Well, I've heard from a very reliable source some stuff that hasn't been mentioned yet, and a lot of it is probably coming in the 2024 sequel to Evolution. That said, even though this source has historically been very reliable, he's being a bit cagier than usual and claiming to know more than he's actually sharing. Anyways... I leave this under a spoiler tag, so if you want to be surprised a bit over a year from now you can be. Suffice to say, it's an eclectic mix.

No. That was Travis Knight, Steven Caple Jr is directing this. The only thing I know of that Caple directed was Creed II (that is, I think he's directed more, I just don't know the other stuff). At least it's not Bay directing (he's a producer, but he was a producer on Bumblebee, too).

I mean, I'll go see it. It's Transformers. I'm just not holding my breath...

I've been refreshing my email constantly today hoping for a ship notification for either Victory Saber or Holiday Optimus. Alas. EDIT: Well, no shipping notice, but I did get charged for Holiday Optimus and Magnificus... I already was planning to wait until I had Victory Saber in hand, and now I have some unplanned expenses since our cat seemingly lost the ability to poop. 😔 I probably shouldn't back Deathsaurus at all now. ...but knowing me I'll have backed it by the weekend.

While this is true, had you not mentioned it I wouldn't have even noticed. In hand and once you start posing him it's not as prominent as some pictures of him standing straight from a dead-on angle make it look. Maybe? I mean, I really love MS-02, but opinions around certain parts of the web have been mixed. Many seem to agree with me (great articulation, a clean sculpt, easy transformation make for a good time), but others cannot get over the materials. I'd say it comes down to what you're looking for in a collection; if you're like a certain masked Youtuber whose priority is a "premium" shelf queen, then TE-01 has better materials and "feels" better. But if you like to play with your figures MS-02 is so much more fun to pose, at least IMHO.