mikeszekely

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.

My understanding is that Miller is almost every scene, so recasting them would basically be starting over from scratch on shooting. I read if they can The Flash it'll cost them more like $200 million. But, realistically, I'm not sure what else they could do at this point. Miller's turning into the kind of crazy you really don't want to be associated with. Going ahead with a project starring Miller looks bad enough on its own, but going ahead with it after canceling another project a movie with an up-and-coming Latina lead is a really bad look.

Yeah. A lot of the celebs that get these threads, like the recent one for Nichelle Nichols, I can at least say, "they had a good run, hope I live that long." But this is just tragic.

I was going through her filmography; I didn't know she did some voice acting. Apparently she played Lois Lane in Superman: Doomsday and was also in Legend of Korra.

I can't imagine that the stream will have anything big at this point. They'll probably show Studio Series Wheelie and Ironhide, talk about the upcoming Pulsecon, rehash the stuff from SDCC, and maybe open preorders for the third wave of Legacy (that was already shown at SDCC). Ironhide might go up for preorder, but expect Wheelie to just be available for sale. Anyway... I said I wasn't going to do it. But I had some Amazon credit, and I'm high on all the other plastic crack I've been getting lately, so I did it. I bought Legacy Titan-class Metroplex. Metroplex is a big boy, but (and I realize that my pictures are NOT making this clear) he is shorter than the original Titan, Thrilling 30 Metroplex. Now, I should probably preface this with a disclosure- I have zero attachment to this character. Cybertron is one of only a handful of Transformers shows I never finished (the others being Victory, Rescue Bots, and the 2015 version of Robots in Disguise). I vaguely recall the plot had something to do with Autobots from Cybertron running around different planets looking for keys- I managed to get up to them going to Velocitron, but that's about it. Apparently later they go to a planet called Gigantion, where the Transformers were all huge (despite most of the toys from that arc being mini-cons). Metroplex, or Megalo Convoy in the Japanese version, was the leader of Gigantion. Like I said, I'm not super familiar with this character, but I do know that the CGI models in Cybertron were pretty faithful to their toys, and that this toy sports some changes from the original. His face is a little longer and has some of the extra linework Hasbro put on stuff like Scorponok and the Ark. He seems to have less blue on him, although I can't tell if that's because the original toy used a brighter blue than this one for some parts, or if it's because some of the bits that were separate blue parts on the original toy are just paint on molded details here. There's some extra silver on his forearms. I think he has a little bit more of a backpack. Mostly, though, I think the biggest difference is that they changed his proportions. While he's still kind of skinny, he doesn't have the weirdly stretched look of the original toy. Metroplex comes with two accessories, although they really combine to make one weapon. Compared to some recent Titans like the Ark, which had no weapons, or Scorponok, who just had his shield, I guess it's nice to see an actual weapon, and I know that one this size probably ate into Metroplex's budget. Still, T30 Metroplex had Legends Scamper, Trypticon had Deluxe Full-Tilt, Fort Max, Scorponok, and the Ark had big Deluxe/small voyagers in the form of Cerebros, Zarak, and Mainframe, and even Omega Supreme came with Micromaster Countdown. It feels a bit cheap that Legacy Metroplex, then, doesn't come with Drill Bit, the mini-con the original toy came with, or a Cyber Planet Key. Metroplex has pretty good articulation. His head multiple hinges so he can look down and up more than you might expect, although there's no sideways tilt. His mouth can even open. His shoulder rotate on strong ratchets, and move laterally over 90 degrees, also on ratchets. He's got ratcheted bicep swivels, ratcheted elbows that bend 90 degrees, and a second ratcheted swivel below his elbow (although that's really for transformation). His wrists swivel. His thumbs are on hinges that fold them over the palm, and his fingers are hinged at the base, but he's got no additional knuckles and his fingers are all molded together. He's got an ab crunch and a back bend. His waist has a ratcheted swivel. His hips can move forward, backward, or laterally 90 degrees, all on ratchets. His thighs swivels are soft ratchets. His proper knee joints are ratcheted and bend just over 90 degrees. There's ratcheted joint above his foot that's mostly for transformation, but you can use it to get some up/down foot tilt. Also, his toes can tilt down, his heels can tilt up, his feet have a ratcheted swivel, and his ankles can pivot a little under 45 degrees. The biggest issue I have with his articulation isn't the range, but the variations in the joints themselves. The shoulder rotation is super stiff, but the ab crunch (that's really used for transformation) is much weaker, so turning his shoulders without holding his torso in place is likely to simply bend him at the ab crunch. Even if you are holding his torso, transformation hinges in torso may pop loose. Moving down the figure, the ratchets that move his feet for transformation are looser than the ones in his knees and hips. The two halves of his weapon have spring clips that clip them together. One half has a lunchbox-style handle that you just hook around his fingers on one hand. The other half has a fold out, rotating handle. That handle has tabs that slot into Metroplex's palms. Thing is, it's still a pretty heavy weapon and he can have some trouble holding it. There's a clip near the spinning blade that plugs into the protruding gray parts on his backpack so Metroplex can carry it on his back. With his sturdy ratchets and long heels he stands, stable, even with the additional weight on his back. While I don't think Metroplex has any Armada-style mini-con ports like the original toy, he does have a few 5mm ports. There's one on the front of either forearm, one on the back of either hand, and three on the front of either foot. If you close up his backpack like you're going to one of his alt modes, you'll also find his backpack was covering four on his back, plus there are three on either side of his backpack on the side that was against his back. Now, I don't know if this was an intentional feature of the original toy (I know it wasn't including in the original Japanese instructions, anyway), but a gimmick that did appear in the cartoon was a "work" mode that was sort a mode halfway between his robot and alt modes. It's sort of a second, shorter robot mode. There's quite a bit more departure from the source material on this mode. While his legs do collapse and his butt winds up on the front like the original, things start to get screwy above the waist. While the torso did collapse a bit on the original toy, it was still basically spun 180 degrees at the waist and largely the same as his regular robot mode- still has his hands, same robot head, still looking at the side of his shoulders with the Autobot insignias. For Legacy, part of his chest, his head, and his backpack are all on a part that spins 180 degrees, not his waist, so while his torso does collapse a bit you're still looking at his back side. This means, should you have his hand showing, they'd be backward, and you're looking at the back side of his shoulders. And while you're free to use the same face, the instructions actually want you to flip a blue cover from the back of his head over his face, spin the head 180 degrees, and use a different face that's sort of styled like the alt mode cockpit from the original toy. Oh, and since the hands are backward, you fold them into his forearms and reveal clips like the ones that hold his weapon together. Split that weapon in half, and plug one part either wrist. His head, shoulders, biceps, elbows, waist, hips, thighs, knees, toes, ankles, toes, and heels all have the same articulation as they do in his normal robot mode. He loses the ab crunch, upward foot tilt, and wrist/hand articulation, but that's about it. The saw blade that replaces his left hand can spin, but that's about it. The other "arm" has two ratcheted hinges, plus the digging claw can open and close. The guns on his shoulders are hinged and can move up and down. Weirdly, they have a 5mm peg on them. I think it's probably to prevent the guns from angling down too far; I don't see an easy way to remove them to let another figure wield them. Thrilling 30 Metroplex, and I suppose G1 Metroplex before him, is often derided in alt mode for being essentially a robot sitting down. If that's the case, Legacy Metroplex is a robot doing an awkward yoga pose. I didn't realize until just now, but I actually have him slightly mistransformed- I should have two chunks of his back folded over and plugged into the clips on his legs. But, I think you get the gist... Metroplex turns into... something. I mean, the front end looks like the bottoms of two bulldozers towing something that's half giant-clawed excavator and half one of those Bagger mining vehicles. And let me tell you, while driving across the state once I saw some of those Baggers, and they are indeed appropriately huge for a Titan. But, again, we find some deviations from the source material. His shoulders are shifted in a way that puts the guns so they're facing out to the sides instead of behind him. His forearms are turned so his wrists point toward the front, which allows a tab on the corner of his arm to plug into the underside and solidify everything, but on the original they were turned the other way. If I had the black chunks folded out and tabbed properly that would help lock his legs in place, too, but he'd have those large black chunks there with hollow spaces a Micromaster could sit in... I'm again lamenting the absence of Drill Bit). The original just had blue bars that folded over. But I'd say the biggest difference is that his weapon/digger boom is mounted more centrally, where it was back further on the original, and there's no cockpit. His head is hiding on the back of the vehicle, hunched between his shoulders. There are wheels on Metroplex's feet, arms, and butt that allow him to roll in this mode. As with his "work" mode, the wheel on the ripper turns, and the claw has the ratcheted hinges and the ability to open and close. The entire boom can swivel side-to-side a bit, but his shoulders block the ripper and limit the amount of rotation you can get without pulling him apart, turning the boom, and reassembling him. The trick with Metroplex is that I don't want to judge him unfairly. I mean, I'm an admitted geewunner with no real attachment to Cybertron, so my gut reaction is to resent that it's this Metroplex, and not a replacement for the nearly decade-old Thrilling 30 Titan that has better foot articulation and a stronger G1 likeness. That said, I have to acknowledge that Hasbro's been catering to geewunners like me pretty hard for nearly two decades... the nearly two decades it's been since Cybertron had it's original TV run. Kids who grew up watching the Unicron Trilogy are around the same age now as I was when Classics launched, and those fans want their hits of nostalgia, too. While it's fair for a geewunner to say, "this isn't for me," I don't think it's fair to say that Hasbro should only cater to geewunners. UT fans deserve their moment in the sun, too. Now, does Legacy Metroplex hit that mark for them? I don't think I'm qualified to say. What I can say, though, is that despite the price hike on Metroplex over previous Titans (and I'm talking just over last year's Ark, nevermind that this Metroplex has an MSRP that's double Thrilling 30 Metroplex's), this Metroplex feels like you're getting less stuff. That is, even if Metroplex cost the same as the Ark I'd feel like I was getting less for my money than I did with the Ark. Now, I'm not here to say whether or not that's justified- I mean, there was already a pandemic disrupting the global supply chain, and now there's the whole situation in Ukraine and all of that's led to the worst inflation since before Transformers were even a thing. So, despite no real familiarity with the character, I do actually like Metroplex. His bot mode seems better than the Ark's, and while it's certainly not accurate to any actual real-world vehicle I do sort of dig the Bagger-ish alt mode. But, between the higher price, the fact that you're getting less previous Titans despite the higher price, and the fact that it's not G1, I think a lot of fans who have been on board since Thrilling 30 Metroplex are probably going to sit this one out. It makes me curious to see where the Titan-class might go from here, or if Hasbro might even axe the infamously low-margin category all together.

So... it took some finagling, but thanks to a deal I was able to work out with another board member at TFW2005 I finally have the last of the Walmart-exclusive Velocitron Speedia 500 Deluxes... Cosmos! So, I thought the old Thrilling 30/Combiner Wars Legends-class was pretty good for the time, especially when IDW started using the design for Cosmos in their comic books. But there's something to be said for the G1 cartoon's original fatboy, and Velocitron Cosmos brings it. He's got the squinty little eyes, the big arms with the circular details on the elbows, the guns/pipes on his wrists, they managed to shrink his feet down, and he's even got the cartoon's weird pelvis and massive side skirts. My complaints are fairly minimal. He's got some hollow bits on the insides of his arms and the backs of his calves. He's sporting a bit of a backpack. I'd have preferred if all the green on him was uniformly the darker green (which seems to be paint on the lighter green plastic). The silver on his chest should actually be yellow, I think. Oh, and speaking of his chest, to truly match the cartoon he should honestly be a bit wider. But none of those complaints are huge ones. As far as accessories go, he's got this checkered flag and a pole. I guess everyone else is racing in the Speedia 500, but Cosmos is a track employee. The flag seems to be molded in the same color plastic as the pile, if the paint chip is anything to go off of, with the entire thing being painted. Cosmos' head is actually on a ball joint with enough of an indent around it to actually have some decent up/down/sideways tilt in addition to swiveling. His shoulders rotate and can move 90 degrees laterally- the right shoulder on my copy is pretty loose. His biceps swivel, and his elbows bend 90 degrees. No wrist swivels. His waist swivels, though. His hips can go 90 degrees forward, backward, and laterally. His thighs swivel, and his knees can bend 90 degrees. No up or down tilt on his feet, but he does have just under 45 degrees of ankle pivot. The flag uses a peg to plug into a hole on the pole, then the pole can be inserted into either of Comsos' fists. There's also a peg on the pole, and you can use it to store the flag on a 5mm port on his back. He's also got 5mm ports on either arm near his elbow, on the outside of either leg just above his feet, and on the bottom of each foot. Oh, one more thing about that flag pole... ditch the flag, and use the peg as a handle and the end of the pole as a barrel... and it's actually a gun. It's not a can of robotic insecticide, but I'm glad he's got a better weapon than a flag. Cosmos' transformation isn't actually super complex, but there is some interesting stuff going on with the shoulders and backpack that makes him a bit more interesting than you might expect. Like, the little nubs at the front of the saucer? Those are his heels, not his shoulders. His shoulders are, in fact, where the exhaust pipes are sticking out the back. And unlike the G1 toy or even the T30/CW toy, his head doesn't collapse into his torso. Instead, the entire top of the saucer is on a hinge, and the entire thing spins 180 degrees, folding his real head into his torso and exposing a fake top-of-the-head on the other side. Aesthetically, again, my complaints are pretty minimal. There's a big silver panel on the front of the saucer (cartoon-accurate), but no Autobot insignia on it (even though the line art of him in the instructions has it). There's molded lines where the yellow of his legs showed on the G1 toy (and was colored as such on the Sunbow model), but no yellow paint. Maybe Toyhax will have me covered there. The top of the saucer is a bit tall, but that's likely a concession to the already-smallish torso. All-in-all, I do dig it. When it comes to accessory storage, you do have options, and they kind of depend on what you think the accessory is. Is it a gun? You can use the peg holes on either side to arm up his UFO mode. Is it a flag? Plug it into the hole on the back and Cosmos can tote it to his next race. Cosmos, like Cliffjumper, Bumblebee, Warpath, and Huffer, shows how great the minibots can be with a Deluxe-class budget... here's hoping they can do the same for Gears, Brawn, Windcharger, Seaspray, and Powerglide. Heck, maybe even Beachcomber, too. And yeah, I 100% recommend him... if you can find him. And therein lies my biggest complaint with Cosmos, a complaint that has nothing to do with the figure or the work the designers did on it, and everything to do with the series of poor decisions Hasbro's made surrounding his release. Like, why is Cosmos not in the main Legacy line? I understand that they only have so many slots in the main line, and that store-exclusives can become an avenue for releasing a figure that might not have made the cut for the main line, sure. But consider the figures that are taking up slots in the main line. Wave 3 of Legacy includes Skullgrin, Point Blank, and Crankcase. Now, I don't hate any of those reveals- as an IDW fan, Crankcase gets to pal around with Siege Spinister, Siege Skytread/Flywheels, Titans Return Krok, and TR Misfire as one of the Scavengers. But how many Transformers fans wouldn't happily trade one of those guys for Cosmos? For that matter, Prime Universe Knockout is in the second wave of Legacy. He, like all the other Velocitron Deluxes, is a retooled figure (from Studio Series 86 Jazz). What's more, there's the recently-concluded IDW miniseries Wreckers: Tread and Circuits, a story where the Speedia 500 is a central element to the plot. Road Rocket, Burn Out, Clampdown, Override, and Hauler all appear in it. While Blurr doesn't, he is mentioned as a previous winner. Knockout isn't just in it, he's one of the characters central to the plot. But you know who's not in it? Cosmos. It would have made 100% more sense to put Knock Out in the Velocitron line and Cosmos in Legacy. But, if that wasn't enough of a screw up, the Deluxe case assortment for Velcitron is 2x Blurr, 2x Road Rocket, 2x Burn Out, 1x Clampdown, and 1x Cosmos. So not only did Hasbro give a slot that could have been Cosmos' in Legacy to a Jazz retool of a non-G1 character and put the totally new mold of a G1 cartoon character in a store-exclusive line at a store known for screwing up its exclusives, they shortpacked him on top of that. TLDR- Cosmos is good, you should buy him, someone at Hasbro should be fired.

Much better! I mean, I'm still probably not getting it (If it was like $70-$80 maybe I would for the novelty, but the preorders I've seen are closer to $170), but at least that looks like someone took the camera guy and gave him a modern, realistic alt mode instead of Canon's marketing department saying, "let's make our new camera Optimus Prime!" The problem with Dead End is that instead of getting a whole new mold he's actually a retool of Dragstrip (which, in hindsight, explains why you have to turn Dragstrip's waist 180 degrees and use the bottom of the car as the front of his legs). Dead End has a lot less spoiler to stand on, eh? Worse for me, this doesn't bode well for Breakdown (my favorite Stunticon). He's likely to be a retool of Wildrider, and I'm guessing that means another kibble cape.

I know they probably wanted Optimus because he (along with Bumblebee) is really the most well-known Transformer, but if they really wanted to appeal to Transformer fans they'd have made that Reflector. I need the rest of the Stunticons like yesterday. The Voyagers, the Commander, and the Titan are out, where's my Deluxes at? I don't think it's as bad on the Dragstrip side because he's thinner, but yeah, I see what you mean. Like a little more of Dead End should cover the elbow.

Goldbug is at Target, not Walmart, and part of a 4-pack with other dudes you don't want. I actually had to buy a second 4-pack as part of a trade to get Cosmos, hopefully by the end of the week.😩

Thanks so much, I really appreciate it! If Hasbro could get more of the second wave of Legacy out than just Jhiaxus I'd have more content coming soon.

Me too. I think the robot mode looks a lot more accurate. The improvements to the van mode are a bit more subtle (aside from the rear with the stock feet being utterly wretched on the stock Earthrise version), but they're there, and the fact that there's no partsforming shield is a huge deal. I fully intend to get Ironhide and the inevitable Ratchet (dunno if I'd buy the Diaclone black version* again, but possibly the e-Hobby green Ratchet). That said, due to a higher parts count SS86 Ironhide will be a Voyager. I get that not everyone's going to want to spend Voyager money to replace an Ironhide figure they already own, especially if they bought upgrades for it. Anyway... while the Target-exclusives seem plentiful enough (Creatures Collide is sold out at my Target, but they had a whole peg full of Red Cogs, a whole peg of Terrorsaurs, and a stack at least six deep of Buzzworthy Grimlock), Walmart's new Velocitron Speedia 500 line has been something of a crap show, with the two Deluxes that seemed to have the highest demand shortpacked, causing them to quickly sell out of preorders online and for Walmart to flat out remove the online listing for Cosmos. Indeed, I've yet to secure a Cosmos for myself (but I have a deal in the works and hope to have him soonish). Likewise, no sign of Scourge of the Voyagers. I did manage to get all the other Deluxes, though, so let's take a quick look. Burn Out is the figure it seems you're most likely to find on the shelf, as Skids himself seems to be peg warming a bit. Well... Burn Out at least has a new head, one we're almost certain to see again on Crosscut (and possibly Reboost, if Hasbro milks this mold hard enough). Otherwise, Burn Out is 100% Skids again just in black instead of blue. Which is fine! Burn Out is based on one of the Diaclone colors available for the Honda City mold, a figure that was more or less Skids but black. Fun fact, though... while other Diaclone repaints like Exhaust got cool backstories in the MP line Burn Out's introduction in Transformers fiction came from a very convoluted, multiverse-spanning Botcon story. I'll spare you the details, but suffice to say that the comics establish Burn Out as a mecha with a female AI based on her human pilot, Dia. Dia's partner, Cline, (see what they did there?) piloted his own mecha with the AI called Lift Ticket, so if you picked up Gen Selects Lift Ticket earlier congratulations, you've completed the set! I like the Diaclone repaints anyway, so if you're in that boat then sure, go for Burn Out. On the subject of female Transformers, while the original G2 toy established Road Rocket as a male the only change in tooling from Legacy Arcee is the head. During Road Rocket's unveiling on a Habsro livestream the team consistently referred to Road Rocket with female pronouns, and designer Mark Maher credits Takara employee Hisashi Yuki for reimagining Road Rocket as a "female ninja." So I guess Road Rocket's a girl now? From the first time I saw Arcee's front wheel split open as a "weapon" that stored on her back I kind of expected she'd be retooled as Road Rocket. While I tend to keep Arcee's backpack with the wheel turned and pointed down, mostly like Prime Arcee did, turning it 180 degrees allows you to mount the splayed wheels behind Road Rocket's head in a way that's very reminiscent of the original G2 toy's wheels hanging off the shoulders. I'd almost think this mold was designed as Road Rocket first, with Arcee coming later as a more marketable retool. Regardless, Road Rocket's got the same translucent disc/blades, only with a lighter blue plastic and a shuriken painted on. I still think it's a pretty lame accessory, but the shuriken (which was molded into Arcee's, again suggesting that Road Rocket was planned first) at least fits the ninja motif, and it's so far removed from the G2 toy's flip-out saw blade. The bike mode is still... I dunno. My first thought was to suggest that it's more Arcee than G2 Road Rocket, but I guess it never struck me as very Arcee-ish, either. Truthfully, I very nearly passed on Road Rocket. I like Arcee's mold enough, but I was planning on getting the much slicker Flame War repaint and figured that's enough for me. But Since I saw Road Rocket in the store I went for it, and I'm glad I did. Ultimately, I think I actually prefer Road Rocket to Arcee. Another one I didn't bother to preorder but bought because he was actually in stock at my Walmart is Blurr. In addition to new colors, Blurr has a new head, new shoulders, a new backpack, a new pelvis, and new bits on the backs of his arms. The rest of him and both of his accessories (I forgot to include the blow torch) are from the Studio Series toy. The idea is to make a Blurr that looks more like the IDW version, which is sort of an odd decision. I mean, most of the Velocitron line seems to be based on the IDW v2 miniseries Wreckers: Tread and Circuits where a team of Wreckers (but basically none previously established as Wreckers in Marvel or IDW v1) gets involved in the Speedia 500 on Velocitron, to the extent that Road Rocket appeared in this body before Legacy Arcee was even revealed... but Blurr did not appear in this series. In fact, aside from a mention as a previous Speedia winner, Blurr doesn't appear in IDW v2 at all, and his design is actually based on his IDW v1 appearance. And by based, I mean the colors are fairly accurate, the new head and pelvis are definitely IDW, but the retooled shoulders are still missing a lot of the details and all the stuff that wasn't remolded is more G1 Blurr than IDW Blurr. That half-IDW, half-G1 design is somewhat more jarring in alt mode. It's supposed to look like this: And, sure, it's got the shorter nose and wheels in the front, but that's kind of it. It's missing the fins, it's missing the big engines. I supposed you could leave the seat folded down, but the cockpit is still pretty different. And that's because what we're really looking at is G1 Blur with a new nose and wheels, wheels that don't even touch the ground. The mix of aesthetics just don't work. And yet... while I'm hoping an enterprising third party might make some addons, like the big engines, and I do think the alt mode looks a but dumb, I actually kind of like the robot mode better than the Studio Series one. The new head just has so much more personality. Still, unless you're an IDW fan, this is one you can probably pass on. Last but not least, we have Clampdown. Aside from the fact that he, like Cosmos, is shortpacked, I'm not sure why the demand is so high that he also sold out (all the others were still available on Pulse last I checked). And unlike the other three, whom I did find at my local Walmart, I only got Clampdown because I'd managed to get a preorder on Pulse. Clampdown is a straight repaint of the Walgreens-exclusive Earth-mode Red Alert, no mold changes. And about that redeco... I have some questions. Like, I have him here with a custom Siege Clampdown I made from a spare Siege Red Alert, and I based my choices (silver forearms, red biceps, red thighs, silver feet) on MP Clampdown. Which was, in turn, based on a Diaclone deco (and later e-Hobby release). So it's a bit jarring to see white hands, black feet, and off-white forearms, biceps, and thighs on Velocitron Clampdown. Apparently the Hasbro design team decided to make these changes to make him more visually distinct from Walgreen's Red Alert... but the only reason why Walgreen's Red Alert had red thighs and forearms was because Hasbro used the toy deco on him (save for the gray shins, go figure). If Hasbro had used the cartoon deco then Red Alert could have had more white and Clampdown would have appeared more distinct by having the correct red. Sigh. I know it'll involve popping a rivet at the knee joint, but a part of me really wants to disassemble Red Alert and Clampdown so I can swap their thighs. Fortunately, the alt mode looks good. I expect it'll look really nice with Cordon, actually. There's the small matter of the missing spoiler, sure, but I've already ordered spoiler parts, as well as a new rifle and shoulder launcher, from Nonnef. And yeah, questionable colors aside, go for Clampdown, he's the last of the Diaclone Sideswipes to get an official release (although if Hasbro would like to do an Earth mode Tigertrack and Deep Cover I won't say no).

It's hard to say until I have one in my hands, but SS86 Ironhide is a new mold with a higher parts count, not a retool. The robot mode is a lot more screen-accurate in both sculpt and colors. The van is, too, although it's missing the stripe (but, as a backdoor special, may not be indicative of the final product). The rims are painted, his rear end isn't the ugly Siege feet, and the roof isn't partsforming. I'd say that's a pretty significant upgrade all-around. That said, it's definitely not perfect. I agree that those hinges are just awful, and I'm not crazy about the two tabs that are almost certainly a pretooled attachment point for Ratchet's light bar, plus (although again, probably not final) the red paint on the translucent blue plastic doesn't match the red plastic very well. And a lot of the people who did buy the Ironhide/Prowl two pack spent a bit on upgrades, especially new feet that transformed into something more presentable in van mode. I'm 100% intending to get both SS86 Ratchet and Ironhide, but I'm not faulting anyone who decides they're good with what they have. Anyway... I'm following up yetesterday's Creatures Collide with two other Target exclusives. First up we have Buzzworthy Bumblebee Deluxe-class Terrorsaur. As with Creatures Collide Scorponok, what we have here is a figure previously released in cartoon colors getting a second release in his original Beast Wars toy colors. This involves ditching all the silver paint, adding some black and purple, and replacing the black spots on his chest and his yellow eyes with neon green. Weirdly, I'm a lot less apathetic about this one, though. It could be because I like this mold better than Scorponok's in the first place. It could be because this one is a bit more visually distinct from the previous release. It could be because this is only the second Beast Wars pterodactyl I have while Creatures Collide Scorpnok is my third scorpion. Or it could be because the first release was part of Amazon's exclusive Golden Disk collection and I'm just more inclined to think of Buzzworthy Terrorsaur as a second chance for Beast Wars fans to get a major cartoon character into their collection if they missed the Amazon one as opposed to a toy repaint of a character that was covered in the mainline I was forced to pay for if I wanted Goldbug. In any case, there's no changes to the mold or accessories. It's really just different colors that better reflect the original toy. As someone who gleefully shelled out for toy-colors on Springer, Galvatron, and Cyclonus I can definitely understand the appeal for Beast Wars fans to have a Terrorsaur colored like the toy they had as a kid, and like I said this is a good chance for collectors who want the main Beast Wars cast but missed the Amazon release. That said, us older geewunners might want to pass, especially if you did get the Amazon one. The final Target-exclusive I bought is the creatively-named "Red Cog." Unlike Terrorsaur, he's not not part of the Buzzworthy line and he comes in standard Legacy packaging. I think the original plan was that he was going to be an online-only Red Card exclusive, like Siege Red Wing, but he wound up going to stores instead. He's, uh... well, he's not really all that red, not compared to Gen Selects Aragon. Unlike Aragon, though, Red Cog actually appeared in animation, appearing in both the Siege and Earthrise portions of Netflix's War for Cybertron trilogy under the name "Security Officer." Kind of odd that he's showing up now in Buzzworthy instead of the old Walmart Netflix toys, but whatever. Red Cog has the same head as regular Cog, and the same guns as regular Cog and Aragon. And while I'm a fan of the Weaponizers, I'd probably say that if that was all Red Cog was that you should probably pass on him. But there's more! Kind of like Gen Selects Centurion Drone, the big draw here isn't the figure itself, it's the bonus accessories he's packed with. All of them can be jammed onto Red Cog himself, but they're probably better off going to some of the more recent releases that have had kind of crappy packed-in accessories (I'm thinking Earthrise Wheeljack, Gen Selects Exhaust, Legacy Arcee, Earthrise Sunstreaker, Gen Selects Cordon or Spinout, etc). What accessories do we get, exactly? Well, we get two halves of a time bomb seen in the Netflix show. You can either combine them to make one whole one (although they can be tricky to get back apart) or use the peg or peg hole on the unfinished side to stick them to stuff. You also get a tube of Energon like the one they tried to barter to Soundblaster. The ends of the tube are open 5mm ports, so in theory you could stick it on stuff but you can't really get anyone to hold it. The rest can be thought of, in very general terms, as four different guns with three extra barrels that you can mix and match however you like. That said, Hasbro didn't just pull these things out of the aether. The large pistol with the spot of green paint was used by Arcee in the Netflix show. Another pistol and the short barrel with the little holes is a larger version of the gun and barrel that came packaged with Siege Chromia. The round pistol is from the Netflix show, where it was show to be a medical tool. The rifle is a smaller version of the one that came with Siege/Earthrise Ultra Magnus. The long barrel is was from a sniper rifle used by both Chromia and Elita-1 in the Netflix show, and the triple -barreled bit is actually a chunk of the gun that came with Combiner Wars Streetwise/Prowl. For me, the extra accessories were definitely worth picking up Red Cog. But $31.50 might be a bit much for some extra guns and a throwaway repaint of a background character from a not-great Netflix show for others, and I respect that.

SSS86 Ironhide's alt mode.

A quartet of Deluxe-class repaints that you really only want one of- it's the Target-exclusive Buzzworthy Bumblebee Creatures Collide pack! We'll go from least interesting to most interesting (at least in my book), so we're starting with Scorponok. Presumably, it's the same guy that already had a mainline Kingdom release, and presumably, if you're into Beast Wars, you probably already bought. He comes with the same accessories*, the missiles and the cyber bee (that looks more like a house fly to me), and there's no changes to the mold*. The only really difference is the deco. Where the Kingdom release was based on the cartoon, this release is based on the original toy, so it looses the yellow accents, trades the lighter gray for gunmetal and black, and the lighter purple for a darker and more iridescent shade (although wasn't it more blue on the original toy?). *Ok, technically there is one extra accessory/mold change. While Scorponok comes packaged with the same head as the Kingdom release attached, you'll find an alternate head wrapped with the accessories. This head is the same one that comes with Walmart-exclusive Sandstorm, and it's based on the original Scorponok toy's mutant mask. Alt mode... aside from the aforementioned color changes, you can see that his fangs have been recolored purple. And, you know... it's fine. I think you might enjoy this deco better if you had the original Scorpnok as a toy when you were a kid, but I was in high school and very much not collecting at that time so I have no attachment. In a vacuum, I do actually like the darker colors better than the dull shades on the Kingdom toy, but the Kingdom toy looks more like what I saw in the cartoon (which I did eventually watch). My initial impression of Skywasp is "what if Waspinator but Skywarp?" At least that makes him a character we don't already have, eh? And at the risk of sounding like one Thew Adams, you can't really go wrong with a black and purple baddie. That said, there is some interesting history here. This Skywasp is based on one of a Botcon pack of recolored Thrilling 30 Waspinators. And, while ostensibly a Predacon, he's maybe also a Waruder from Diaclone? As with Scorpnok, there's no mold changes to Skywasp out-of-the-box, but he comes with the new head first sported by the Walmart-exclusive Buzzsaw. And, alt mode. As a character that's a redeco of Waspinator I like Skywasp better than Buzzsaw, based solely on color. But he's hardly a must-have. As a geewunner at heart, I'm happy to move away from obscure Beast Wars repaints and into the realm of obscure G1 characters with Ransack. Unlike the G1 toy, though, he doesn't get a new mold. Instead, he's a repaint of Legacy Kickback with a new head*. And considering that the original wasn't, this actually works surprisingly well for robot mode. Color-wise, my only complaint is that his forearms could have been black. And as a Pittsburgher you know I'm not going to complain about the black and gold. While Ransack does come with a new head based on the G1 Deluxe Insecticon toy, he also comes with the same head as Legacy Kickback. What's interesting here is that a little more of his forehead is black, as is his visor, so it's colored like Kickback's G1 toy. It almost makes me want to buy a second Kickback to put this head on. Kickback's mold for Ransack doesn't work quite as well in insect mode. Giving him black forearms would have helped with alt mode accuracy a bit, as would a method for collapsing the thighs into the lower legs. But really, it's the missing abdomen that really makes Ransack look like a black and gold Kickback. Finally, we have Goldbug, who is probably the figure that will motivate most people to buy this set. He's pretty great! Somehow, Hasbro managed to talk Volkswagen into letting them use the Beetle again, so instead of using the Cliffjumper mold again like Shattered Glass Goldbug or Buzzworthy Worlds Collide Bumblebee they were able to take the new head from Shattered Glass Goldbug and put it on Netflix Bumblebee's body. And by trading the lighter blue translucent plastic with dark translucent and either using gold plastic or gold paint on most of Goldbug's body he winds up looking pretty cartoon accurate to boot. My only complaint would be the blue hands (but that could be fixed with either a little paint or by swapping hands with the Shattered Glass toy). Pro tip- if you store the back of the car on their backs instead of using them like a shield or whatever, you can give Goldbug his hood and make him a little more visually-distinct from Bumblebee by turning it upside down. Alt mode is pretty much Netflix Bumblebee in gold instead of yellow, with a silver bumper instead of black, and dark translucent windows instead of blue ones. But that's really what you'd want, isn't it? G1 Goldbug was a gold Beetle, Buzzworthy Goldbug is a gold Beetle. If Goldbug was sold separately I'd 100% recommend him. The trouble is you can't, short of some wheeling and dealing, get just Goldbug. You have to buy all four. And how good of a deal that is really depends on how much you like the other three. Personally I like Ransack, Skywasp is OK, and Scorponok is pretty redundant, and two other guys I'll use and one I guess I could find a place for is good enough.

If WB doesn't have any faith in it I get not putting it in theaters, I guess. But if the movie was done I don't understand why they wouldn't at least put it on HBO Max.

Voyager Class Studio Series 86 Ironhide? EDIT: Youtuber PrimeVsPrime might have a factory backdoor special already, and I'm hearing rumblings that Ironhide could start shipping by late October.

Right? And even the best Combiner Wars gestalts barely stand straight without falling over/apart. I might be remembering wrong, since I never got one, but wasn't Titan Predaking pretty close to all-in-one? Considering how unstable a lot of other figures have been I don't know that I'm going to complain about big, stable heels. But if it helps, when the cars attach to the legs the hoods fold forward and become part of the heel.