mikeszekely

The actual design and engineering of the figures themselves, I think, has still been pretty good, although I've noticed that joint tolerances have gone downhill, there's way too much translucent plastic being used, and some figures suffer more than others from being retools instead of new figures. The bigger issue I'm having is more marketing and distribuition- which characters are being made, which ones are going in the mainline, which ones are store exclusives, which characters are being derived from retools of other characters, etc. Oh well. I guess we'll see what the future holds, and maybe sooner than you might expect as I'm hearing rumblings that the sequel to Legacy or part two of whatever this trilogy is will be announced at Pulsecon. But let's bring things back to the present for a bit, as I can finally wrap up our look at the second wave of Legacy with the figure that's undoubtedly the most-anticipated release of the wave- Deluxe-class Wildrider. My initial impression is that, finally, Hasbro's done right by Wildrider as, believe it or not, this is the first figure he's had since G1 that isn't a repaint of another figure, as even Unite Warriors/Combiner Wars was just Dead End with a new head. And Hasbro definitely got a lot right here, like the red arms, the Sunbow head with the ears, the vented abs, the octagons on his thighs, and the bump outs on his knees. He's even got some molded detail on his shins that's like the cartoon, just with extra molded lines, and his chest has the uncolored and blue blocks. When you really look at the details, though, you'll start to notice the deviations from the Sunbow character model. The aforementioned chest blocks lack the asymmetry of the cartoon, and even if we agree that the chest is silver like the toy and not white it should fully encircle a square of dark gray/black rather than make an H. There's also no wheels on his shoulders, even though I'd argue that there's no real reason that they couldn't have been there. They are, isntead, on his backpack, which is kind of a thing unto itself. Basically, the front of the car folds over onto his back, but large chunks of it split off on armatures and are meant to kind of hang off the sides, like a weird cape. From straight on, as in the first picture, it's not super noticeable, but if you look at Wildrider at almost any angle it comes across as super kibbly. Fortunately, while you will have to split the hood to get enough clearance to transform him, nothing's actually stopping you from tabbing it all back together again and just having the solid front of the car on his back. Indeed, it's actually accurate to the G1 toy like this, and I do prefer it this way. The only side effect is that his backpack is forced to sit ever so slightly higher on his back. This is because his windshield simple can't fold back farther than 90 degrees straight off his back, and the sides of the hood touch the windshield sooner than the middle. It's not the end of the world, though, and looking carefully at the figure it might even be possible to mod the inside of the torso to get more clearance so the windshield can fold back further. Anyway... moving along, Wildrider comes with a pair of guns. Like Dragstrip, they're paint on black plastic, and also like Dragstrip, they're identical instead of mirrored. So, while there is a peg on one side and a peg hole on the other and you can stick them together the gun he holds in his right hand will always have the peg pointed in toward him and the one in his left will always be peg pointed out away from him. Wildrider's head is on a swivel, no tilt at all. His shoulders rotate and extend laterally 90 degrees, although his backpack kind of gets in the way of you rotate then extend. His biceps swivel, and his elbows bend 90 degrees. No wrist swivel, which is something I feel like I'm writing a bit often lately. His waist does swivel, though. His hips can go 90 degrees forward and backward, and even more than that laterally for that epic high kick. His thighs swivel, and his knees bend 90 degrees. Due to transformation his feet tilt up to 90 degrees up, nothing really down, and he's got almost 90 degrees of ankle pivot. If you're into weapon storage, or you want to arm him up with Weaponizer parts, you're kind of out of luck. In a somewhat unusual move for a mainline figure, Wildrider's got a distinct lack of 5mm ports, with none at all on his arms, shoulders, back, or toes. There is one on either knee, which will be important for combined mode, and one on the back of either leg, and that's it. Wildrider's transformation is very obvious and straightforward, but it's a bit more finnicky than Dragstrip. This is largely because his shins open so his lower legs can fold over his thighs, but only about 45 degrees. This forces you to be very mindful of how things are positioned to get the clearance you need. In fact, although the instructions will indicate that you should transform the front of the car and do the legs last, I actually recommend you do it backward, transforming his legs first, getting the arms into position, and then doing the front and windshield. I really don't have a lot of negatives about the alt mode. Yeah, he's got an extra vent behind the front wheels, and yes, the layout of the taillights is completely different with a weird Batmobile-esque exhaust that's too small for effect parts, but the overall shape with the vented engine cover, door handle divots, tail, nose, molded pop-up headlights, and vents on the hood, make it abundantly clear that Hasbro got as close to making Wildrider a Ferrari 308 as they could without getting a license, and ultimately the worst I can say about him is that I wish they used a brighter red paint for the stripes on the sides. I'm a bit curious as to why Hasbro bothered to make Wildrider's guns (or Dragstrip's for that matter) able to plug into each other at all. It just leaves a peg awkwardly jutting out of one side, and for what? In bot mode he can carry one in each hand, and in alt mode? Well, there's two 5mm ports just behind the roof on the engine cover, meaning they can both be plugged directly onto the car without the need for them to be plugged into each other. To attach Wildrider to Menasor, you want to prep him by lifting the windshield and bending back the front of the car. On the leg part that's made from Motormaster's trailer you'll find two tabs (blue arrows) that fit into slots on Wildrider's shoulders. Two pegs (green arrows) plug into the peg holes that were on his knees. And, if you go back and look again at his bot mode pictures, you'll notice that those peg holes have something like a raised, sideways T-shaped bit sticking off of them. Those protrusions will push in a large purple part on the Menasor leg (orange circle). That purple bit is basically a big button, and pushing it in will cause flaps to automatically fold out and fill in the center of Mensor's shins. And, yeah, I guess a straight gray shin with some linework drawn on is cartoon-accurate, but I find myself hoping that maybe Toyhax will release some stickers give it some of the color G1 Wildrider's underside gave to the original toy Menasor's shin. Meanwhile, while cars hanging nose-down from his calves is cartoon accurate, Wildrider winds up sitting a little low, I guess to give the knee some extra clearance since it's built into this part of the leg instead of the thigh. So, instead of pointing straight down Wildrider's nose winds up forming something more like Menasor's heel. Ultimately, maybe not the most Sunbow-accurate look, but I think it should be fine. It'll give him a slightly more transformed-into-Menasor look vs Menasor-wearing-cars look. After two waves, Legacy's had some ups and downs and I might go so far as to suggest that it's been a bit more inconsistent, or a bit less impressive than War for Cybertron. Wildrider, though, does not disappoint and is definitely the highlight of this wave for me, as I really feel that Hasbro did an even better job with him than they did with Dragstrip (which is good news for me, as Breakdown is my favorite Stunticon and the Deluxe Stunticon that Hasbro did the worst on in Combiner Wars, and I expect Legacy Breakdown will be a retool of Wildrider much the same way Legacy Dead End will be a retool of Dragstrip). I highly recommend him. Indeed, I've heard some people suggest that they'd just buy Motormaster and use the Combiner Wars cars for legs to save money, but I can't fathom why you wouldn't just spend the extra money to get Legacy Wildrider when he's such a huge improvement over the Combiner Wars version.

I'd picked up Tarantulas and Elita-1 on a Target run last week. Then, because I actually needed stuff, I went back on Friday to see if they had the other two. No luck. On Saturday I thought I'd take a drive and check another Target a bit farther out. No luck. Today I needed to go to the post office, which is sort of halfway between me and my local Target. I was feeling lazy, and I didn't really expect that they'd restocked anything, especially with the holiday yesterday, so I almost went straight home. But I was halfway there, and I figured if nothing else a lap around the store is like exercise, so I went. Good thing I did, because they had restocked! Still no Studio Series Wheelie or Ratchet (if anyone wants to grab one for me, I'll pay cost+shipping), but I got Legacy Deluxe-class Knock Out! Knock Out follows the same pattern as Bulkhead and Arcee- take the Prime character and geewunify him until he's an aesthetic fit with the other Legacy and War for Cybertron figures. Unlike those two, however, Knock Out doesn't actually get a new mold. Instead, he's a retool of Studio Series Jazz, and if you look you can see that they share the same shoulders, biceps, fists, abdomen, pelvis, hips, and shins. He does sport a new head, forearms, chest, thighs, and feet, though. I think the result is a somewhat mixed bag. The colors are pretty on-point (although I think the feet should probably have been silver), and the head is definitely Prime Knock Out's helmet on a G1 face. The new chest and feet do a pretty good job of not making the retool immediately apparent, but the parts that are re-used from Jazz are parts that probably could have done with some retooling, namely, his shoulders and knees could have used some spikes. Y'know, something I hear in the fandom from time to time is how much bigger older Transformers figures were, or how hollowed-out and cheaply made the ones today are. However, as you can see Legacy Knock Out is only very slightly shorter than the decade-old Prime Deluxe, and he's actually a tad more substantial at 74g while the Prime figure is a mere 60g. Part of this is because he's got thicker shoulders, biceps, and thighs with universal joints instead of ball joints, part of this is because he's got actual forearms instead of folding part of the roof over an elbow joint at the back of the door and calling it a forearm. But part of it is because Prime Knock Out has his own plastic-saving, hollowed spots, mostly in his thighs, under his feet, on his heels, and basically his whole back. In other words, I'd argue that Legacy Knock Out is less cheaply made. This isn't to say that I'm giving Hasbro a pass on some of their thriftier habits, mind you. I'm simply countering the narrative that Transformers of 10-15 years ago were that much bigger/better, usually with a figure like Generations Springer as evidence even though he was noted for being an exceptionally tall Voyager even at release. But I digress. Knock Out comes with two accessories. There's a smokey translucent blade with some nice metallic teal. It's open on the base, and you'd figure the other accessory is a handle and so you can make his signature Energon prod. And, indeed, that is the case! Well... kind of. Unlike the Prime figure, Legacy Knock Out's hands aren't actually open, so you can't c-clip the prod in like you used to. The smart thing would have been to make the entire shaft 5mm thick, and to have it split some where in the middle so you could slide one end into his fist and plug the other end back in after. Hasbro instead opted to put a 5mm handle on it instead. So, while he can technically wield his prod like that, it looks kind of stupid like that. Fortunately, both the shaft and the blade have other 5mm pegs and ports, so you're not married to the prod-with-a-handle look. I'd argue that you're much better off plugging the 5mm peg on the blade into the port on either forearm, then using a different peg on the shaft to have him hold it as a rifle. If you squint a little and use some imagination the handle even passes for a scope. If you'd rather store his weapons on him, or arm him up with a Weaponizer, Knock Out also has a 5mm port on his back, on the car kibble on the sides of his lower legs, and under each toe. His articulation should be about the same as Jazz's, but if you need a refresher his head's on a ball joint, slight upward tilt, nothing really down, plenty of sideways tilt. His shoulders rotate and move laterally 90 degrees. His biceps swivel and his elbows bend 90 degrees. No wrist swivel. His waist swivels, though, (which beats the Prime version). His hips go 90 degrees forward, and just a little short of that laterally and backward. His thigs swivel, and his knees bend 90 degrees. His toes bend downward due to transformation, nothing upward. His ankles can pivot 90 degrees. It's not really clear from this picture, but Legacy Knock Out is slightly longer than Prime Knock Out. Despite the shared transformation, he actually seems slightly longer than Jazz, too. This may be because, despite sharing some internals, robot parts, and engineering the only car parts that carried over from Jazz are the wheels. Everything else you see in alt mode are new parts. On the plus side, the new parts mean that he's very visually distinct from Jazz. There's plenty of homages to Prime Knock Out, including the shape of the grill, the vents on the hood, and the ducts on the doors. Legacy Knock Out even has his rims painted yellow, something the Prime toy missed, but while they had the yellow paint out it would have been snice to seem them outline the ducts in the doors and the vents in the hood. Legacy Knock Out has some details like a vinyl wrap along eth sides that starts silver and fades to a sort of salmon color, but he's missing the darker band over the hood and roof. He also loses some of the roundness of the Prime design, with sharper lines on the hood, nose, and tail. You can mount the combined prod weapon to car using the 5mm port on the roof. If you prefer to keep them separate, though, there's a port on either side of the car just behind the rear wheels. Knock Out was a fan favorite in Transformers Prime, so I'm definitely not sorry to see him get G1-esque makeover. I'm not even mad that he's a retool of Jazz; Jazz was already a good mold, and Hasbro did enough to make him distinct from Jazz. I'd go so far as to say that I think Knock Out is a better Deluxe release than wave mates Elita-1 and Tarantulas. I definitely recommend him. However, I can't help but point out again that Knock Out was one of the major characters in IDW's recent Wreckers: Tread and Circuits miniseries. In fact, the artist likely had access to the design for this very toy, because this is how he appears in that miniseries. This would be the same miniseries that had the Speedia 500 on Velocitron has a central plot element, that mentioned Blurr as a previous Speedia winner, and that had Road Hauler, Clampdown, Burn Out, Road Rocket, and Override as participants. A series that did not have any hint of Cosmos in it. And so I really feel compelled to point out again that while I do like this figure a lot, this should be the Walmart-exclusive Velocitron Speedia 500 Knock Out, Cosmos should have had this slot in Legacy, and someone at Hasbro should be fired for not getting that right.

It's the weekend, and I don't know how many people are hanging around reading the boards today. But I said I found two of the four wave 2 Legacy Deluxes, so here's the other- Tarantulas. First impression out of the box is that he's looking pretty good. His head seems especially sharp with the small green and yellow painted details, and the overall sculpt seems very on-point. There are a few odd (and likely cost-cutting) color choices, though. The spider-legs on his arms lack the green at the base, and his biceps aren't translucent, but to be fair black biceps and all-black legs is 100% toy-accurate. The insides of his thighs are simply black, lacking any of the purple and gold seen on the cartoon's CGI. Meanwhile, his abs are purple, lacking the black and gold of the CGI (but again, is toy-accurate). On the subject of gold, all the yellow on Tarantulas is painted, and it comes off as more pale yellow than gold, and the green plastic lacks the metallic sheen of the CGI. Overall, though, I think it's all close enough that I'm not looking at him on my desk and thinking about how to paint him. He's got a bit of a backpack, but I think that's fair enough. It's a tad disappointing to see how Hasbro has hollowed out his calves, parts of his claws, and the undersides of the spider legs, though. Tarantulas comes with two accessories. First, you get his crossbow gun. Cast in black plastic and devoid of paint it seems a bit bland, and not at all cartoon-colored. Compared with Blackarachnia's, the bug-eye on the rear is gone, and instead you get a 5mm port This allows you to connect it with the second accessory, a buzzsaw that's inspired by the one that goes with his Transmetal form. Tarantulas' head is (probably) on a ball joint. As with Elita-1, the joint is actually deep in his head without any cutouts for a greater range, so he has the barest fraction of an up/down tilt and nothing sideways. His shoulders rotate and can move laterally just a tad under 90 degrees, and due to transformation he's got a little backwards butterfly. He's got two bicep swivels, one where the green shoulder meets the black bicep, and one where the black bicep meets the green elbow. His elbows bend 90 degrees, but he doesn't have any wrist swivel. His waist swivels; his backpack prevents you from swiveling it 360 degrees, but he gets nearly 90 degrees to either side and that's enough for me. I should also point out that it's more like a chest swivel, as the joint is above his abs. His hips go 90 degrees forward and laterally. His backpack limits the backward movement to about 45 degrees, but again that should be enough for most poses. His thighs swivel. His knees are double-jointed for a combined 180 degrees. His feet can tilt 90 degrees up or down, and pivot 90 degrees. A contour at the base of his claws forms a 5mm port that allows Tarantulas to hold his weapons; the saw actually has two 5mm pegs so he can hold it like a gun that's a saw or an axe that's a saw. Or, as previously noted, you can plug the saw into the back of the crossbow for a big bow saw. That said, there's not much in the way of storage as the only other 5mm ports are the ones on the bottoms of his feet. As I'm sure most of you are aware of, Blackarachnia's toy was a repaint of Tarantulas' back in the day. For the cartoon, though, while Blackarachnia wound up sharing some features like her claw hands, foot shape, and pointy knees the animators gave her a much more feminine form and an alt mode that was less tarantula and more black window spider. And since Kingdom Blackarachnia attempted to capture that difference, Tarantulas shares no parts or engineering with her. This means that while Blackarachnia does a lot of tucking in to fill out a ball shape, Tarantulas stretches out in a way that seems similar to, but more advanced than, the original toy. Much like the original toy, his legs tuck under the abdomen on his back, although this time in a way that leaves his knees poking out like spinnerets. His arms still tuck underneath so his claws become pedipalps. The biggest change is mostly the orientation of his torso. Instead of bending so that his head is hiding under the abdomen and his pelvis becomes the spider's face, he rotates 180 degrees at the chest/waist and a spider head that was previously tucked behind the abdomen on his back unfolds to cover his robot head. I've heard it suggested that the result is more wolf spider than tarantula, but frankly I've always thought wolf spiders look like little tarantulas anyway. His pedipalps are purple and yellow instead of black and yellow, and his abdomen is less bulbous than the cartoon, but overall I think it's pretty close and certainly a step up from the original toy. Tarantulas doesn't have a ton of spider articulation. Because of his elbows you can angle the pedipalps outward a bit, and his bicep swivel technically lets you swivel them. Each spider leg has a ball joint at the knee for some bend and twist, but the fact that they're a solid fixed piece from the knees to the body doesn't give you the range to really utilize the ball joints. He does have some alt mode weapon storage. If you lift his robot legs out a bit you'll find a notched peg under his abdomen. The sides of his peg grab around one of the hollowed grooves under the crossbow, and it seems secure enough. Meanwhile, there's a screw hole between his robot shoulders. In theory, you're supposed to be able to plug the peg from the saw into it and have the saw carried under the spider. In practice, though, the hole is too big and shallow, so the saw falls right out. I've said before, but when Beast Wars came out I was in my late teens, finishing high school and heading to college. I was aware of it, but largely in a Trukk-not-Munky, not-my-Optimus way. I didn't watch the show until my late 20s/early 30s, when stuff like Classics/Universe was getting me back into the brand and the online fandom kept telling me that he show was good. While they weren't wrong, watching the show once as an adult meant that it's never had the lasting impact on me that my beloved G1 did. If Beast Wars characters hadn't started turning up in Kingdom I'd probably have been content to never have so much as an Optimus Primal in my collection. But they did, and while I'm unlikely to go as gung-ho for the BW crew as I am for G1 (where I happily opened my wallet for a Diaclone repaint of Twin Twist) I figured I'd at least go for the "main" or "Season 1" cast. And to that end, Tarantulas is less "oh boy, I hope this new figure of a beloved character is great!" and more "Tarantulas- check. Rampage in the next wave, and that ought to do it." While an overall lack of enthusiasm might make my opinion a bit questionable, I honestly think Hasbro did a pretty good job with Tarantulas. I think he looks pretty good in both modes, and he's got pretty decent articulation. His engineering seems a bit more solid in spider mode, and I prefer him to Blackarachnia. If you're a fan of Beast Wars, this is definitely one you'll want to check out.

It was always a weird one. Like, they had to remold Ultra Magnus, so they cludged a Cybertron Prime out of it... then remolded it as Earth Ultra Magnus and Delta Magnus/SG Ultra Magnus anyway. I feel like they'd do a better job if they were making a dedicated Cybertron Prime, but if they did they'd probably have to make it a Commander (despite being smaller than the original Leader). As an Optimus fan I'm open to that, but there's a ton of other Primes on my wishlist I hope they do first (like Hero Optimus, Machine Wars Optimus, RiD Optimus, and Armada Optimus). Getting back to G1 for a minute, I don't know what the holdup is with Amazon and Pulse, neither of whom seem inclined to ship my wave 2 Legacy Deluxe preorders. I found half the wave at my local Target, though, so today we can look at Elita-1. I've heard it suggested in some circles that this new Elita-1 is more cartoon-accurate, but frankly, I'm not seeing it. I mean, there's little things like they gave her the goggles on her forehead and the raised details on her cheeks, and the silhouette of her head is closer, sure. But the colors are still an almost random mix of pink, red, and white, with shoulders that have nubs instead of the smokestacks she had in the animation, and she trades the default fembot legs for some pretty big boots. All that said, I don't mind this new design. Not every fembot has to look like a robo-bikini model, and there's something about the combination of the face sculpt an the boots that gives me the impression of youthful exuberance. And I'm 100% down with Elita-1 getting a mold that isn't just a retool of Arcee (although between this and SS86 Arcee, Hasbro sure seems keen to ditch Earthrise mold... oh well, I guess there's still the Paradron Medic). Despite legs that actually transform and incorportate a good portion of the rear of her alt mode, Elita-1 is still cursed with a bit of a backpack. And unlike the Netflix version she can't shed any of it. Elita-1 comes with three accessories. The most obvious is the pair of translucent blue pistols, and I gotta ask... between the (sometimes painted) translucent accessories, and the seeming increase in the number of painted translucent parts being stuffed into a few recent figures, does Hasbro have a surplus of translucent plastic? There's zero reason these guns need to be translucent, and I may even break out some metallic paints, but this is how they come. You also get something like the top of Elita's head on a 5mm peg. I can't tell if Elita's head is on a ball joint or a swivel, but there's really no tilt there. Her shoulders rotate and, due to the nubs, get a little under 90 degrees laterally. Her elbows bend a little over 90 degrees, and her biceps and wrists swivel. Her waist swivels. Her hips can move around 90 degrees forward, 45 degrees backward, and 75 degrees laterally. Her thighs swivel, and her knees bend 90 degrees. There's no up/down tilt on her feet, but they can pivot 180 degrees due to how she transforms. She holds either gun in either hand with no issues. In addition to the handle, the larger gun has an additional peg on either side, plus two 5mm peg holes on either side. The smaller gun just has one peg hole on either side. It's just a part of Legacy's gimmicks, I believe. In addition to the weapons, Elita-1 has a 5mm port just below the tires on her backpack on either side, on the back of either forearm, and on the side of either leg just above her ankles, plus a pair under each foot and one on her backpack. While you can use any of them to store that third accessory, you might as well just stick it in the one on her back, as that's where it's designed to be for alt mode. And on to that alt mode! As previously mentioned, her legs do make up the rear fenders, and some of her arms fills in the sides, but she's still very much a shellformer with the the front fenders, hood and grill, cockpit, and some of the rear including most of the spoiler being made from her backpack. As such, most of her transformation is unfurling her backpack, folding her legs up, and lining everything up. We don't actually see much of Elita-1's alt mode in the cartoon, and what we do see looks sort of like Wheelie with the top of Elita's head sticking out of the roof. To that end, Legacy Elita is, again, not cartoon accurate. It lacks a lot of the futuristic sleekness (or what passed for it in the '80s) of Dery's designs, but again I don't actually hate it. I appreciate that it's visually distinct from Arcee. I just wish they could have hidden her feet better. Like maybe tuck them under instead of folding them over. That thing I said, about Elita's alt mode having the top of her head poke out of the roof? That's the real purpose of the third accessory. There's a 5mm on the roof, and you can plug that bit in to have one cartoon-accurate element on an alt mode that otherwise has nothing to do with the cartoon. If you plugged it into her back like I suggested earlier you don't even have to remove it, it's already in the correct spot. Meanwhile, there are three 5mm ports along either side of the car for you to attach her guns. That said, there's nothing stopping you from combining her guns or even plugging her roof ornament into the guns and plugging everything into the 5mm port on the roof. Elita-1 is an ok figure. I appreciate the team giving her a unique figure for a change instead of just remolding Arcee, and her modes look decent enough. That said, there's nothing particularly interesting about her transformation, and despite a unique mold and gimmicks like the roof hat she's still not at all cartoon-accurate. And in a world where guys like Cosmos are getting awesome updates that are impossible to find due to being shortpacked in a store-exclusive sub-brand while guys like Brawn and Octane are stuck with their Titans Returns figures I can't shake the feeling that Elita's spot could have been better filled by another character. As it stands, she's existing in this sort of middle ground where if you want an Elita-1 or are just a fan of fembots she's good enough, but if you write her off as a minor character and skip this figure you're not actually missing much, either.

Don't get me wrong, the idea that humans would utilize technology to overcome the fact that our bodies are not suited to living in space is a realistic concept well worth exploring in a Gundam story. I'm also fine with the idea that human-machine interfaces behind such technology could be applicable to Mobile Suits, and that some use of that technology in Mobile Suits could be harmful to the pilots, and that an organization like Cathedra would be formed to oppose either using the tech in Mobile Suits or even using the tech at all. Where they lost me, though, is the notion that Cathedra is so opposed to using Gundams because they might kill the pilots that they attack the Vanadis Institute and definitely kill the pilots. Like, I really hope that when the show begins properly that Cathedra's motivations are better fleshed out so that the attack on the Vanadis Institute makes even a small amount of logical sense from at least their POV. While there have definitely been characters who are villains, and who have manipulated factions to be the bad guys, traditionally there's usually a bit more moral ambiguity with good and bad on both sides of the conflicts in Gundam, but so far Cathedra is so cartoonishly bad that the guy giving the speech during the attack could have been twirling a mustache while doing so.

Maybe the alt modes make a difference, but to my eye the one on the right looks significantly better.

With the repaints out of the way, we come to the final figure in the Velocitron line, Voyager-class Override. I put her with Siege Galaxy Upgrade Optimus for scale, as (aside from Legacy Metroplex) it's the closest I have to another character from Cybertron. Cybertron is one of the handful of Transformers series I couldn't will myself to actually finish, so I have no idea if that scales well or not. That said, I can look at cartoon and toy, and compared to the original toy I get the impression that Velocitron Override is a massive improvement but still suffers from a few questionable design choices. We'll start with the positives. Her proportions are much closer to the cartoon's, with a head that's, IMHO, an improvement all-around. Most of the details from the cartoon are present. In fact, I think they nailed the cartoon so closely that the omissions are all the more glaring. While she's got some blue on her forehead and the top of her chest, the blue on her thighs and around the vents on her sides is missing. And while there's a spot molded for the headlights in her feet she lacks even the silver paint there that the original toy had. But, perhaps most curious of all, pretty much all the gold paint you see on her should actually be silver. I'd be willing to bet that there are budget reasons behind this. See, originally Override was going to be a heavy retool of Studio Series Hot Rod, something I'd imagine wouldn't really have done the character justice. I know that one of the ways that HasTak was able to work an entirely new mold into the budget for this figure was by cutting the number of sprues down from the twelve or so on a typical Voyager to just four for Override. Then I'd speculate another cost-cutting decision was limiting the number of paints, and since gold was necessary to get her face right they probably just used it for all the silver parts, too. If I'm feeling enterprising I might repaint those bits with a silver Sharpie paint marker, but as I said it's not like I have a huge attachment to the character in the first place. Accessories might have been another budget cut. Or maybe it's just character-accurate? I don't know. But, see, her backpack comes off. It's not necessary for transformation, but there it is. The backpack doesn't have the Cyber Key gimmick of the original toy (thank Primus). There's a slot where one might fit (I don't have one to try), but there's no springs or anything. Instead, you can fold out the barrels manually, which is fine by me, and then plug the same 5mm peg that held the backpack in place on her back into one of her fists. And, again, we're left with a weapon that has a strong, cartoon-accurate sculpt, but didn't have the budget to be properly colored as most of it should be white or silver, not black, and it's missing blue accents and some red on the fins. Regardless, while I don't have the original toy to compare I'd venture that articulation is probably one of those areas of improvement, but probably not by as much as you'd expect as she's a bit lacking compared to contemporary figures. Her head does seem to be on a ball joint, but the ball is so deep in her skull that her head swivels but has no real tilt. Her shoulders can rotate and move laterally 90 degrees. Her biceps swivel, elbows bend 90 degrees, and her wrists swivel. Her waist does have a swivel, but her backpack collides with her pelvis meaning what you see above is about the maximum range on that swivel. Her hips can go forward and laterally 90 degrees, but again the backpack limits the backward motion to about 60 degrees. Her thighs swivel, and her knees bend a bit over 90 degrees. Her feet can tilt down a little, not really up, and they do pivot, just not as much as I'd like. If you want to arm her up, say with a Weaponizer or something, she has 5mm ports on her forearms, just above the wheels on the sides of her legs, on the backs of her shoulders, and under her toes. As previously mentioned there is a 5mm port on her back, too. The cool thing is that if you have her weapon stored on her back, the weapon also has a 5mm port so she'll still have one on her back. Transformation to her car mode isn't particularly complicated; I don't know if this is a result of the whole four sprues and limited budget, or if this is something that allowed her to be made with just four sprues and a limited budget. Mostly I think it's fine, although I'll note that there are some sliders for moving the sides of her torso out to the rear of the car that I'm not a fan of. Her taller stature and limited ability to compactify is going to make her a bit larger than other WfC/Legacy/Studio Series carbots, but as the leader of an alien world dedicated to racing I don't think that's the end of the world. I think, especially considering Hasbro's limited budget, that they did a pretty impressive job converting the smaller torso of the animation model to something that's pretty accurate for alt mode. There's a bit of a gap where you can see her forearms tucked away between her kneepads and the vents in front of the rear wheel that wasn't present on the original, btu that's about it. I'd say my biggest complaints with the alt mode are the same as the bot modes; missing paint (no silver for the "engine", no red on the fins, no blue accents near the rear, no silver for the "headlights") or gold paint that should be silver (hubcaps and around the cockpit). The engine is still removable, but there's no way to use it as a weapon in alt mode. The guns don't clear the area around her barely-concealed (but totally cartoon-accurate) head to shoot forward, and if you try to spin the whole thing around the back is too long and still doesn't clear her head. That's definitely not the end of the world, though. I prefer weapons to be concealed or integrated anyway in alt mode. Override's got her flaws, and you can definitely feel how her limited budget impacted her overall design and engineering. That said, she seems like a pretty reasonable update of a character who was pretty major in Cybertron, even if I didn't watch it. I do dig her alt mode; it reminds me of something from the Wachowski's Speed Racer movie. Unless you're strictly G1, I'd say she's definitely worth picking up.

I didn't care for it. Mechanical designs have been going downhill for years. I'll reserve my complaints about the plot until I see more, but for now I'll just say that the villain's actions are so disproportional to their stated motivation that they're probably the most cartoonishly evil a Gundam villain has been. I've been hearing in some circles about how emotional the prologue is, but the whole setup just stuck me as too outlandish for me to actually be emotionally invested.

Finally got the rest of the Walmart-exclusive Velocitron Speedia 500 collection. So today we'll have a quick look at the rest of the repaints. First up, we have Voyager-class Road Hauler. And, I gotta tell you, I love this guy. He's got such an interesting story, and I don't mean in-universe. See, there's a scene in the very first episode of The Transformers where Hound is blasted off a cliff by Laserbeak. Cliffjumper brings Ratchet and a yellow crane truck to rescue him, and after hooking him to the crane Cliffjumper yells, "Hauler, pull him up!" But, Hauler was never seen again, and the Diaclone crane didn't turn up in the toyline until later, eventually becoming the season 2 character we all know and love as Grapple. Almost two decades later, when Takara was releasing The Transformers Collection reissues, e-HOBBY wanted to do an exclusive redeco. Someone at e-HOBBY knew about Hauler (he wasn't mentioned by name in the Japanese dub), and decided that the redeco could be Hauler. But a since a yellow crane isn't really a redeco of a yellow crane, the decision was made to color him like a Constructicon and claim that he was one of the eight Constructicons present in a scene depicting them building Megatron in "Five Faces of Darkness, Part 4." The original e-HOBBY Road Hauler was, then, simply the reissue G1 Grapple in green, so Speedia Road Hauler is Kingdom Grapple in green. Which is totally fine, exactly what I want. Kingdom Grapple was a pretty solid figure the first time, and I dig the Constructicon colors on him (although, maybe I'd like some new Constructicons please, Hasbro? With elbows this time?). Although he's 99% identical, they did give Road Hauler a new face. That said, I think I might have preferred if they copied that, too, as Road Hauler looks perpetually aghast at being cut out of the show after the first episode. Road Hauler comes with the same gun-hand, rifle, and claw as Grapple, which is, again, fine. Actually, unlike Grapple, I kind of dig the claw. Inferno and Grapple have to have their gun-hands for cartoon-accuracy, and I leave Artfire with both hands since he's got his rifle and his Targetmaster buddy. Replacing one of Road Hauler's hand's with the claw makes him a little more visually distinct from his mold mates. This distinction can even carry over to vehicle mode, by folding in the crane and plugging the claw into the 5mm port there. So, yeah, while I can't really argue that obscure repaints are essential, obscure repaints with super-brief canonical cartoon appearances is kind of my jam. If it's your jam, too, then I definitely recommend Road Hauler. Leader-class Scourge, on the other hand... ugh. I mean, while the original Robots in Disguise was by no means a great show, my favorite part was definitely the Decepticons, and when Legacy Laser Prime was revealed I was excited at the thought of the inevitable RiD Scourge repaint. Unfortunately, I get the feeling that whoever worked on this one wasn't actually familiar with RiD. I imagine a conversation that went something like this: Boss: "Whip up a design for RiD Scourge." Guy: "Scourge? Like the Sweep?" Boss: "No, RiD Scourge is kind of like the Nemesis version of the Laser Prime we just did." Guy: "Oh." *proceeds to color Laser Prime in generic Nemesis colors* Seriously, the colors are just wrong. Most of his torso should be the same color gray as his thighs and biceps. Same for his crotch. The one part of his torso that actually should be black, the grill on his abs, is the one thing they didn't make black. Even his shoulder stacks should have more turquois and gray than black, his pelvis is missing some turquois, and his shoulders and chest windows are missing the black and silver patterns with his shoulders further missing the turquois outlines. And the icing on the cake is the ugly translucent pink plastic in his shoulder stacks and chest windows. Honestly, it's so off to me that I really hope that Hasbro releases a Gen Selects version in the correct colors, because fixing the colors on this guy is going to be a significant undertaking that almost has be questioning if it won't be easier to canabalize torso parts from a second Laser Optimus. It's infuriating. There's zero mold changes, so Scourge has the same accessories and gimmicks as Laser Optimus, just with translucent pink instead of blue. So you've got the sword and gun, the axe, the Matrix, and the sculpted missiles in the shoulders... ...and you've still got the trailer, which is mostly empty and doesn't do half the cool stuff the original toy did, and the sword and axe can still combine to make a stupider big sword. All the accessories store in or on the trailer, although the sword can store under the cab in you prefer. And, at least unlike Laser Prime, the simple silver paint on the trailer is accurate. Actually, the truck mode is probably this figure's one saving grace. The translucent pink for the actual truck windows is accurate, and while the turquoise lines on the hood and the over the rear wheels is a bit more elaborate than the original toy I think it looks pretty cool. Ultimately, though, it's not really enough. If you want to buy this figure as a generic Nemesis Laser Prime, then it's fine, I guess. But the deco is ultimately too far off the mark to really be RID Scourge, and if it's actually Scourge you're after I'd say pass on this.

Agree... makes me hope DNA or someone will do something like that for the Pulsecon Orion Pax. Because I already bought XTB's Kup, and it was frankly one of their worst releases. No way do I sink money into the repaint.

Still no sign of Wheelie, Core Ratchet, or any of the Legacy Wave 2 Deluxes in my area. No sign of the Velocitron Voyagers, either, but Pulse charged me for them today so I guess they'll be here soon. Oh, and Amazon emailed me. Said Legacy Starscream and Crankcase were going to ship on Monday. I was ready to complain about getting wave 3 figs before the wave 2 Deluxes, despite having preorders at two different stores, but they emailed me later to say that, no, they're back to February.

I've already preordered that DNA kit. I could care less about the bits it adds to the turret, but it makes the trailer more proportional in alt mode, it makes the legs more proportional in robot mode, it gives Menasor articulated hands, and it gives Menasor a sword of his own (that still stores in the trailer). Honestly the only things I could have asked for is a toy-accurate Menasor head and rifles in both Motormaster and Menasor sizes.

I haven't been to Target in awhile, since I've been scouring Walmarts trying to find Road Hauler and Override. Maybe I should go soon.

Jhiaxus, who arrived from Amazon forever ago, is starting to pop up in stores, along with Soundwave. I've seen both while hunting for the Velocitron stuff at Walmart. I've already got Motormaster and Metroplex from Amazon, and my local Target at least has a place for Motormaster on their new plan-o-gram. I guess, now that we've got our preorders in for wave 3, wave 2 of Legacy is starting to trickle out, because today I got Leader-class Blitzwing. We're off to a pretty promising start, as the robot mode looks fantastic. The overall shape and aesthetic is much closer to the cartoon than the previous Titans Return toy. That said, I do find it curious that as Hasbro has been really pushing for that Sunbow look lately, to the point where we're getting goofy cartoon Menasor and Point Blank with the ridiculous Sunbow head, yet Blitzwing here is definitely taking a few cues from the G1 toy. Silver fins by his feet instead of beige? Toy. Silver vents on his hip skirts? Toy. Decepticon badge on the rounded bit between the yellow on his chest instead of under it? Toy. Red triangles on silver instead of purple on his chest? Toy. Purple squares on his torso that are the same color as the rest of his chest instead of darker? Toy. But then he's got the actual feet, purple stripes on his arms, and the silver face instead of purple. That's all cartoon. Blitzwing's got a bit of a backpack, but I think that's kind of accurate. I like how the tank barrel folds up, but if you think it's more accurate to have it protruding more you can just leave it folded out. I was a bit surprised to see this Leader-class toy is actually shorter than the previous Voyager. Indeed, he's just a hair taller than Starscream. You'll notice, though, that he's not suffering from the hollowed-out bits that a lot of modern Transformers seem to be plagued with, and he's definitely got some heft to him. But if that's not enough for you to think "Leader," well, he does come with quite a few accessories. He's got his sword, and Hasbro was nice enough to paint the blade silver. He's got not one, but two identical rifles. Then we've also got two translucent red "hands" and two purple-painted translucent red boxes. Blitzwing's head is on a hinged ball joint, and he can look up a good deal, tilt his head sideways plenty, but only look down a little. His shoulders rotate, but his shoulder pads don't. flaps on the front do allow him to lift his arms 90 degrees, but no further. They can also go 90 degrees laterally. His biceps swivel, and his elbows bend about 90 degrees. His wrists swivel, as does his waist. His hip skirts move out of the way so that his hips can go 90 degrees forward and almost 90 degrees laterally, but they just go backward a little bit. His this swivel, and his knees bend a little over 90 degrees. His toes are technically locked in place, but if you untab the fins from the sides he's got some downward toe tilt, plus his ankles pivot up to 90 degrees. Perhaps Blitzwing came with a few too many accessories? After all, he's only got two hands, and he can hold his rifles and sword in either one of them just fine. He doesn't have to hold any, though. The instructions helpfully indicate that you can store his sword and rifles on the trio of 5mm ports on his back. This being a Generations toy and not Studio Series, he's also got 5mm ports on either shoulder, on either forearm, on the outside of each leg near his knee, and under each foot. Storing his rifles and sword on his back will leave him free to use the energon hands and boxes. You just turn his fists, and plug the boxes over his forearms by plugging pegs inside in his fists. Then the energon hands simply plug into the front of the boxes. The hands themselves have four fingers and two thumbs, for some reason. The thumbs are fixed, and the fingers are always straight, but there is a hinge so the fingers can kind of open. All the fingers and thumbs have 5mm ports you can use with blast effects, plus there's another 5mm port on the back of the hands and one on each box. Although the instructions include a lot of steps that make Blitzwing's transformation into his jet mode seem complicated it's actually rather straightforward. The most interesting thing about it is that the wings on his back in robot mode are just for show in robot mode, and the actual jet wings are made from unfurling his lower legs (similar to Titans Return Mindwipe). From the top I think it looks pretty good. The wings lack a gray section present on both the G1 toy and the Sunbow model, and the silver Decepticon symbols are facing the wrong way. The leading edge of his wings have a yellow stripe, a lone concession to the stickers of the G1 toy (but not something present on the animation model). But on the whole, it's got squished, delta-winged, horizontal stab-less look of the cartoon and (mostly) the G1 toy (the G1 toy actually does have horizontal stabs). In keeping with the original toy and the Sunbow model, I expect some junk under the wings. I expect a tank turret on the belly. But... I think Hasbro went too far here. Like, his arms I can deal with. But the tank treads just folded up with the jet parked on them, it's just... ugh. You'd think, with the Leader-class budget, they could have found a way to get one more hinge in there, maybe fold them along his arms instead of dragging them underneath. You need the fold-out landing gear just to keep the front of the plane from tipping over. And what's up with his canopy? The G1 toy used a silver-gray paint to paint the canopy on, and the cartoon gave him a blue canopy. Why, then, did Hasbro use translucent red plastic? Presumably because it's on the same sprue as the hands and boxes, but is there a reason (other than blue=good red=bad) that the hands and boxes couldn't have been blue to match the proper canopy? There are a pair of 5mm ports on either side of the plane you can use to plug in his weapons. The guns look pretty good in place, but the sword always kind of looks awkward and, if you're using both guns, it kind of has to be tucked behind one of them. Two of the ports formerly on his back can also be used, however, as he's now resting on his turret the one that was in the middle of said turret is largely unavailable. Hasbro wouldn't go to the trouble of including boxes and energon hands if you couldn't use them in jet mode, right? Just open his thruster feet, and plug the boxes with the hands attached into the holes under his feet, like some kind of weird grabby boosters. Or, you know, don't. Because it look stupid. From jet mode you're actually pretty close to tank mode already. Turn the jet upside down and lift the bit with the treads and turret enough to tuck the landing gear in and fold the silver part of the nose back. Shift his robot arms up, and wrap the wings back around his legs, then push the panel with the turret back down, folding the treads over as you do. The tank mode, while not perfect, is at least pretty good in my book. There's a little more purple showing on the top than I think is ideal, and likewise a bit of purple on the sides where his forearms are peaking through. From the top, you might also notice a few minor gaps. But, I know, much is being made of the cockpit in the front. Except, well... That's accurate to the source material. I mean, you could argue that the canopy is meant to be on the back of the G1 toy, but nothing's stopping you from spinning the turret on Legacy Blitzwing 180 degrees. It even goes the cartoon route have having a segmented canopy on the top and another canopy (the actual one you see in jet mode) on the bottom. I do have to complain about the choice of red translucent plastic instead of blue again, though. (If it really bothers you, Tim Heada makes a kit that attaches to Blitzwing's shoulders. Then, instead of folding part of the cockpit out, you leave his head out and panels from the kit fold out to cover his head.) As mentioned, the turret does swivel, and the barrel can elevate. There's a trio of 5mm ports on either side of the tank, plus one on top of the turret, for storing his accessories. Which is fine, but I think Hasbro missed a beat here. There's a bit of a gap between his arms/treads and his torso/legs, and it would have made for better concealed weapons if you could store them in those gaps. You actually can store the sword. It doesn't lock in, but because the blade is a rubbery plastic you can wedge the hilt between his arm and body with the peg on the hilt pointing in toward his waist. It's secure enough that it won't fall out, but I'm really starting to think optimal storage for both alt modes is the sword on one side, one rifle on the other, and the second rifle in a storage bin. That rifle will likely have company! In tank mode, you partsform the hands by pulling them off the "wrists" of the boxes then using the peg hole on top of the hands to plug them inside the boxes. Notches on one edge of the boxes will fit onto small protrusions on the sides of the turret. And, OK, I guess they're like some kind of missile launchers? And that's probably the best use of these things across all three modes... but it's still not great. They very much scream "we're useless extras Hasbro stuffed in to assuage that subset of the community that don't understand engineering and parts count affect the budget and that's why you end up with Leaders that are smaller than Voyagers". I'm guessing that 99% of use will never use them. But if 99% of us will never use them, and we do accept that engineering and parts count are what makes a Leader now... well, I wish Hasbro had forgone the stupid things and put that money into the engineering and parts count. Like I said, two more hinges and some of the kibble under the jet could have folded along the arms, which I feel would have cleaned up the jet mode a bit. Or, other little things. Like, there's panels that cover his biceps in his alt modes. Those panels rotate in two places to cover the insides of his forearms in robot mode. The idea is good- Transformers fans often complain about the void left when you fold out a fist. But these panels don't lock into place in robot mode, and they have a tendency to move around as you manipulate his arms. I think that Blitzwing is ultimately a frustrating release. I mean, he's coming on the heels of some truly great releases like Motormaster, Sludge, and Cosmos. He does a lot of things well, and in robot and tank mode he's leaps and bounds ahead of the Titans Return release or the old Generations one- robot mode especially is very on point. But a few questionable design decisions hold him back, especially in his jet mode, and the added sprinkling of toy details on a mostly-Sunbow figure having me thinking about the Blitzwing that could have been. In fact, like Siege Astrotrain, I think we'd be better off if someone decided to make WfC-scaled versions of MFT's Legends-scale figures. As frustrating as he is, though, I should stress that I do think Hasbro executed Blitzwing better than they did Astrotrain. And, until someone does upscale a better Legends toy, Legacy Blitzwing is the CHUG Blitzwing to beat.

I saw a few today at my local Walmart, but again I'm guessing the shipping from the US to France is a bit prohibitive, especially given that the boxes were pretty beat up. If you want it that bad, though, I can go back tomorrow. I actually found almost every Velocitron figure at Walmart today, except for Cosmos and the two Voyagers... aka the last two I really need. I have preorders for them with Pulse, so it's not the end of the world, but it'd be nice if they quit dragging their feet and shipped them. I'd like to wrap up my Velocitron coverage. And on that note, something I can complete my coverage on would be Amazon's Wreck N' Rule figures, as I finally got the last two sets in. First up, we have Deluxe-class Impactor. Now, aside from Springer, I'd argue that Impactor is the most iconic of the Wreckers and the most deserving to be in this collection. Despite that, it was a little hard for me to muster a lot of enthusiasm for him. After all, I already had two Impactors, what with the regular Siege release and the similarly Amazon-exclusive fan vote version. Heck, if you also got the Walmart-exclusive Netflix release this could actually be your fourth! In hand, though, I kind of like him. See, the original Siege release sort of straddled a line between the old Marvel UK Impactor and the more-current IDW version, but then the fan vote version had the more IDW-accurate head (and on my copy, the more IDW-accurate shoulder cannon from Go Better). The new Wreck N' Rule, then, leans even harder into the old Marvel comics, with a new more head, shoulder cannon, and chest piece that are more Marvel-accurate, plus more yellow, less orange on the yellow parts, and a more magenta-ish purple for the purple bits for colors that are closer to the old comics. So, yeah, while I can sort of say that I didn't really need a third Impactor, now that I do I think this one is my Marvel Impactor and the fan vote one is my IDW Impactor, and I'll probably get rid of the regular Siege one. Although the new chest and shoulder cannon are still visible, the tank mode is less obviously different from the Siege toy. That said, with the yellow shoulder hinges and yellow wrist hinges on the previous releases now matching the torso the turret seems more cohesive. And, again, I have the Go Better parts on the fan vote version, making it more visually distinct, and cementing the Siege release as the boring, redundant one I don't really want/need anymore. Impactor is packaged with Deluxe-class Spindle. Why some newly made-up guy instead of Whirl, Roadbuster, Rack'N'Ruin, Broadside, Sandstorm, or another established G1 Wrecker in need of an update? Presumably Hasbro felt they didn't get their money out of the Fossilizer molds. And with that in mind, Spindle is a retool of Paleotrex. One entire arm, the other arm from the elbow down, his tail weapon, and his body from the waist down except the dino arms on his hips are the same, but that means that his other arm from shoulder to elbow, his head, and much of his torso is new, so he's a fairly extensive remold. And for some reason he's color matched to Impactor. Instead of a little T-Rex skeleton, Spindle is a Spinosaurus skeleton. You can have Spindle and Paleotrex act out the Spinosaurs/T-Rex fight from Jurassic Park III, if you want. Just be careful; for whatever reason the wrist/ankles are warped, so his hands/feet fall off the mushroom peg super easy. As far as I know it affects every copy, but its supposedly fixable with some hot water. Of course, as a Fossilizer Spindle comes apart and can be attached to other figures, like color-matched buddy Impactor. And... yeah, while I think the concept was kind of neat for the Weaponizers, especially as it allowed for new toys of obscure citybot pack-ins, strapping on the bones of newly made-up nobodies doesn't really works as well for me. I rather wish Impactor was sold alone for half the price. Which brings us to the final set. This one stars Leadfoot. While Leadfoot is, at his core, earth-mode Mirage with a new head, somehow this mold seems to work better for Leadfoot than it does Mirage. The yellow and metallic blue really pop, and he fits right in with other G2 characters like Laser Prime, Megatron, Sandstorm, Ramjet, and Road Rocket that they've slipped in recently. I think he's also possibly the most-desirable of all the Wreck N' Rule releases due to the fact that he's the only figure that's not a previously-released character or totally made-up. It is, to my knowledge, the only figure Leadfoot's had since 1994. And the only thing I can't think of to complain about is that he doesn't have his rotor (but for around $10 you can buy one with a pull cord that actually fires the rotor). His alt mode has a bit more blue and is missing the stripes of the original G2 toy. It's also carries over the fit issues that Mirage has, where the halves of the car don't want to stay together and the arms don't want to stay locked onto the back of the car. It looks good enough for me, although messing with them makes me wish Mirage had a proper Earth-mode update instead of the Siege retool. Alas, as he wasn't in the '86 movie it seems unlikely he'll get a Studio Series do-over. Like Impactor, Leadfoot is saddled with a Fossilizer you probably don't really want. This time it's Masterdominus. He's a retool of Ractonite, and like Spindle he's a fairly extensive one. He actually comes with two more parts than Ractonite (technically three, if you count the fact that his alt mode head comes apart and Ractonite's didn't, but he looses the tail that Ractonite had, so the difference is two). Those extra parts just kind of plug into his "hands," which were already not really hands, and it really looks bad. Weird ugly hands aside, he uses part of his alt mode head and tusks as a pretty cool claw weapon. And like Ractonite, he's got a visor that can be flipped down over his face. Masterdominus turns into a mastodon skeleton, which is where the extra parts come into play. Ractonite's front legs were kind of short, so they remolded the top a bit and the the extra parts plug into that remolded top, forming longer biceps, before plugging into the torso. Aside from the new mastodon head and the lack of a longer tail, though, it's pretty much the same figure. My main complaint is how loosely parts fit together on him. Seriously, if I pick him up and tilt him so his head is facing downward it's liable to fall right off, as the peg in his neck seems much too loose for the peg hole on his body. I do dig the colors, though. There's something familiar about them... Yeah, I have to believe that's an intentional homage. And that homage alone is enough to elevate Masterdominus over Spindle in my book. Oh, right. He comes apart and you can use him to arm up another figure. Hurray for Fossilizers, amirite? One more thing! With all five sets in hand we can finally build the Wreckers' hammer! And... I mean, it's just a big ol' cardboard display. Assembly is pretty simple, mostly by matching the letters on the tabs, and no glue is required. It'll do as a very cheap backdrop, kind of like the ones that come with Studio Series figures, but it's certainly nothing to get too excited over. Oh, and if you're curious, the smaller black letters on top of the base reads "Creator of the Wreckers Resistance" and the larger orange script says "Emirate Xaaron". Feel free to double-check me, here's the Autobot script: Emirate Xaaron, of course, refers to another character Simon Furman created for the Marvel UK stories. Hey Hasbro, more Marvel characters! How about a Xaaron toy? Or Straxus? Ultimately, the hammer isn't what I'd call a compelling reason to get all five sets. So which ones should you actually get? Topspin, despite being a repaint of a pre-WFC figure, is pretty good, especially if you like Diaclone repaints. Likewise, I think Springer's worth getting for the toy colors, especially if you have Gen Selects Cyclonus and Galvatron to put him with. I like Leadfoot a lot. I'm less keen on Masterdominus, but as the price you pay for getting Leadfoot he's alright. I'd say you can probably pass on Impactor and Spindle, assuming you already have an Impactor. If you don't, though, then the leader of the Wreckers is essential. Bulkhead is easily the worst of the set. For one, while Bulkhead was a member of the Wreckers in Prime, the G1-ified Bulkhead wasn't a member of the G1 Wreckers team that included Impactor, Springer, Top Spin, and (in Regeneration One) Leadfoot. For two, Legacy Bulkhead just came out and is probably still on the shelf at your local Walmart or Target. For three, compared to Springer, Impactor, and Top Spin the camo pattern on his green is hardly a big change from his regular non-camo green release. I mean, give him a new head, make him red, and make his tarp yellow and black striped and call him Pyro, or at least swap the green to gray like the Prime Battle Tactics Bulkhead. But an Amazon-exclusive slightly-different-green Bulkhead when a green Bulkhead just came out is super unecessary.

I don't expect much. It's too soon to announce another wave of Legacy, and even more Studio Series reveals seems like something they could have done now. My guess is that we'll probably get an announcement on that "A Hero is Born" pack, since it's a Pulsecon-exclusive, an update on Star Saber, some Gen Selects repaints (cartoon-accurate Scourge or I riot 😠), and the final Shattered Glass reveal (all signs point to Soundwave). Maybe, if we're lucky, some confirmation of rumored second wave of Velocitron figures and another SS86 Dinobot, but that's probably it for Transformers. Probably more stuff for G.I. Joe, Power Rangers, Marvel Legends, and Star Wars.

This thing looks pretty amazing, but I don't know if I want to shell out the $450-ish. Is the ZAP Megazord out yet? I know they just announced the Dragonzord. I kind of want to get it to have a more premium Megazord than the $50-ish one that was in stores a bit ago, but as it looks an awful lot like that one but with more paint I'm not sold.

From what I've heard, even that's not possible now. Hence Shockwave's spaceship and Sixshot's "submarine" modes.

I preordered one of everything. Which is to say, where's the preorders for the Core-class stuff?! I want to lock in my Rumble preorder, especially with the fact that local stores aren't going to carry him because they can't sell through Shockwave and Ravage.

It has to do with US toy laws. They've said that if they do a SS86 Megatron he'll still have to be a tank. Still, I wouldn't mind if they spent the Leader budget to make a better-proportioned, more cartoon-accurate robot mode that turns into a tank without huge treads on his back and a massively partforming barrel.

Royal Mail stamps. Oh, I'm sooo glad I tuned in for this. 😒 Comics. And OK, all seriousness, I adore Isabella, I don't really mind watching her talk about stuff I'm not going to buy. Studio Series updates -Deluxe-class TLK Hot Rod. Got a license and worked with Lamborghini on alt mode details. I dig it. -Deluxe-class TLK Crosshairs. Eh, the trench coat was always one of those things that looked better on screen than trying to translate into a real toy. I'd have to check the CGI model, but it looks like it needs a lot more paint in bot mode. -Voyager-class 86 Ironhide. No surprises with this one. Maybe not my dream Ironhide, and I really hope they add the stripe before they go mass producing it (which seems unlikely), but it's a big improvement over ER in my book. -Leader-class RotF The Fallen. I mean... I guess they gotta do every character from every movie sooner or later, yeah? I prefer characters that actually transform, but hey. At least you can remove his face. (To be fair, while his alt mode is still a screen-accurate robot doing yoga, it's closer to a "jet" than the original toy, not that you can tell from the stock photos.) -Core-class 86 Wheelie. As per the leak. Looks a little goofy, but better than TR or DNA. -Core-class 86 Ratchet. Seen it already. At least Evan is admitting that we'll later get Core-class Ironhide and Voyager-class Ratchet. I guess, for a core-class, it's fine. -Core-class 86 DotM Laserbeak. It's a tiny red Bumblebee because... reasons? Actually already leaked, despite their claims otherwise. Ravage and Shockwave are already pegwarming, good luck moving this crap. Not even I want one. -Core-class 86 Rumble. HECK YEAH!!! Still fits inside Siege/Netflix Soundwave. The bigger budget for Core vs half a Battlemaster pack gives him much better paint and accessories, including pile drivers. Legacy updates. It's just expanding on the SDCC reveals with alt modes and accessories. -Deluxe-class Pointblank. Still wish they gave him the toy/Headmasters head, not the crappy Rebirth head. Maybe I'm the minority? At least Peacemaker isn't yet another repaint of the Siege Battlemaster. -Delxue-class Crankcase. A retool of Skids, but I love him because of my time with IDW and the Scavengers. The front grill/gun thing is a bit weird. -Deluxe-class Dead End. Will toon-accuracy fans complain about the alt mode stripe? I don't mind it. What I do kind of mind is that the wheels are on the outsides of his legs instead of the insides due to him being a retool of Dragstrip. -Deluxe-class Skullgrin. Meh. I mean, I do like that they're replacing the generic inner robots with the more interesting Pretender shell, as they did with Iguanus, but I'm still mad that this is a main Legacy release but Cosmos is a shortpacked Walmart-exclusive. -Voyager-class Inferno. I'm not a huge Beast Wars fan, but I think it's fine. -Voyager-class Armada Starscream. I know that UT doesn't get the love that G1 does, but this is one of my favorite UT designs and I'm hyped for it. -Leader-class Megatron. Beast Megatron is getting so much more love from Hasbro than poor G1 Megatron. -Core-class Bomburst. Why is Iguanus and Bomburst Cores but Skullgrin a Deluxe? Kind of throws off the scale. -Core-class Soundwave. Just a reissue of the Kingdom figure. Preorders are live now on Pulse, Amazon, and wherever. As long as you're not after the Cores.

Even though I have MS-01, TE-01, MP-10, and a KO MP-44, I'll be buying Magic Square's updated MP Prime, sure. As for Peg... I think it's impressive that they not only made a transforming Flame Toys Drift, but that they specifically made him the Asurada G.S.X. I just don't know that I have room in my life for an MP-scale Peg...

Tailgate and Swerve were, yes, and they'll be cheaper adds for it. Outback and Pipes aren't too bad, either. Cliffjumper and Hubcap will be more, Bumper will be stupid expensive.

Got a shipment of G1 minibots. As of now, I think I'm caught up with the Season 1-2 ones (although some are reissues, like Bumblebee with the cartoon face instead of the original), except for Cliffjumper and Bumper (who are stupid expensive). After that, I think I'll just need the season 3 repaints (Swerve, Tailgate, Outback, Pipes, and Hubcap).

I think that'd be the smartest thing they could do. ...so I wouldn't count on it.