mikeszekely

Yes... and no. Like I said in my Dragstrip review, I don't think partsforming is an absolute necessity- MMC's Bruticus was fantastic, and their Defensor looks just as good or better. But I also know Hasbro's working with a lot tighter restraints that are going to affect the level of engineering they can stuff into a Commander-class toy. So, yes, like you I'd rather the limbs of future combiners be formed from the individual robots instead of having them be stick-on bits to a nearly-complete robot, especially when other combiner teams don't have a neat little trailer to transform into their gestalt frame. But, it doesn't really bother me if they use partsforming for the hands, feet, head, chest shield, or even "pants" like ToyWorld's Constructor, and I don't mind if those parts are packaged with a Voyager-sized figure and sold as a Commander. At this point, I just really want good-looking robots with good-looking alt modes that turn into a gestalt that doesn't have the goofy proportions and difficulty supporting it's own weight that this thing does-

G1 Motormaster, be it toy or cartoon, didn't actually have smokestacks. Don't get me wrong, I'd rather he did, but their absence is accurate. It's hard to tell from just box art and one photo of the truck at a weird angle, but that's a heck of a lot closer than Combiner Wars. I'm pretty excited! Looking at the art a little more carefully, and knowing that Hasbro is going to make the cars "legally distinct" enough to not pay anyone for licensing, I think it's probably Wildrider with Dragstrip on the bottom left, and Breakdown on the road above Motormaster.

👀

It's doubly frustrating because, unlike a lot of previous Target exclusives, they don't seem to be selling Cliffjumper online. But you can pop your ZIP code into Brickseek and see if another store in your area might have one.

Well, I went back to my local Target today to buy Easter candy that I forgot to get. I saw a Silverstreak on the shelf... figures, after Pulse finally shipped one. One Blaster in Legacy packaging, and a TON of Bulkheads... but not a single Deluxe to be found. This was the case last time I was there; either they sold out incredibly fast (they had to have moved the remaining Kingdom stuff and put out the Legacy stuff between Wednesday afternoon when I was there and Saturday afternoon when I stopped again to pick up a prescription), or there's a case of Deluxes in a stock room they haven't put out yet. Either way, no Kickback for me. Even as I scour my local stores for Legacy figures, though, I have to point out that Kingdom is technically still wrapping up. I haven't seen him in stores, but Amazon just sent me Kingdom Core-class Hot Rod. Since it's introduction, Hasbro's been impressing me with the Core-class. Sure, they're not on par with similarly-sized figures from Magic Square or NewAge, but given the realities of Hasbro's price-point-focused, mass produced, US child safety regulated business Rattrap and Vertebreak were solid enough, it was interesting to see how much of the Earthrise aesthetic went into Core Optimus, and Megatron and Starscream were surprisingly intricate for the their small size. Hot Rod, though, is a giant step backward. His small, rounded thighs and flat, tapered chest remind me more of Titans Return Hot Rod than the Studio Series toy. And he's missing a ton of color. This stems from the fact that, aside from the black wheels, he's entirely molded in reddish plastic, so all that you see that isn't red is paint. And they didn't even do a good job! They knew Hot Rod's thighs should be orange, so they painted the molded panel on the front and left the bulk of his thigh red. Hot Rod has an orange chest? They painted the whole chest orange, when they probably should have left the outer edge with his headlights red. Is Hot Rod supposed to be toy or toon here? The red shins with the molded chevrons suggests toy, but they didn't paint the inner part of the shins or the chevrons on them. His feet are red, too, when they really should be black. His hands are missing the orange, and his shoulders don't have any molded chevrons, just the indentations. Which are left unpainted. If it's cartoon Hot Rod, then orange near his wrists, gray on his shoulders and hands, and his shins could be black along with his feet. It wouldn't affect his alt mode. A quick peak at his sides and back. Aside from molding a general Hot Rod-ish shape to his shins they really didnt' do anything to get his legs looking very Hot Rod-esque... which I kind of don't mind. The pipes and wheels on the side just remind me of the G1 toy. His back's kind of devoid of detail, especially because his wings are actually sandwiched between him and his back instead of on his back. There is the 5mm port there, so you can pull his wings off and plug them into his back, but the thing is there's a small peg on the front of the wings and a small hole in his torso, so leaving the spoiler sandwiched inside him kind of holds his back together. Although Hasbro has stated that the intention of releasing larger characters like Optimus and Megatron in the Core-class is so that you can pose them with Titans and make the Titans seem bigger, I could suggest another use for Core-class Hot Rod. You see, the original G1 Star Convoy came with a Micromaster Hot Rod as an accessory. This is something that neither the Gen Selects Star Convoy or MMC's unofficial Star Convoy came with. While I'm sure better 3P Hot Rods exist (and I may even pick up a potential Magic Square or NewAge one in the future), for $10 I see Core-class Hot Rod as less a decent Transformer on his own and more like an accessory pack for Star Convoy. Unless you count the fact that his spoiler comes off, Hot Rod's sole accessory is a sword. Kind of like Rodimus' sword, but not colored the same. Funny, Rodimus gets a sword for like two issues in an obscure IDW continuation of the old Marvel G1 comics and now swords are Hot Rod/Rodimus' thing, I guess. Like Hot Rod himself, the sword is made from red plastic with blue paint on the blade. I think Hot Rod's head is on a swivel; if it's a ball joint, it's cut in such a way as to allow for not even the slightest tilt. His shoulders are ball joints that swivel and, if his arm is raised 90 degrees, has a pretty good butterfly joint, but his lateral range is borderline nonexistent. His elbows are ball joints, giving him 90 degrees of bend and doubling as a bicep swivel. His hips are ball joints that'll get you 90 degrees forward, backward, or laterally. His knees are ball joints, acting as his thigh swivels and bending just under 90 degrees. He's got no wrist, waist, foot, or ankle articulation. Although Hot Rod's sword has a 5mm peg for a handle, the pommel is a smaller peg. This is good, because Hot Rod himself doesn't have 5mm pegs for hands, so he holds his sword by plugging just the pommel into his hand. The same small peg exists on his wings, as I mentioned earlier. You can have him hold his wings like a crossbow, then, and his sword can actually plug into the 5mm port on the bottom of his wings. Hot Rod's transformation is, at least, different. It starts off kind of normal; his arms tuck into his sides, and his back folds down with the spoiler instead of spinning 180 degrees like the G1 toy. But instead of his legs collapsing they bend out and back at the knees. His calves unfurl and tab together to form the roof and the hood. Aside from the lump in the middle of his spoiler, the fact that the pipes on the sides don't pass the rear tires and go all the way to the back of the car, and is generally lacking in details, Core-class Hot Rod's alt mode does a pretty good job replicating the G1 toy. It's narrower than the Studio Series toy, taller in the back and tapering toward the nose like the G1 toy, with the the rear widening a bit and the pipes bending out to follow. Again, though, it's really the missing details that spoil it. The headlights are molded on, but they're not painted orange. And although they took the time to paint the hood orange and to add the yellow flames, they didn't put an Autobot insignia on it. I mean, even the Micromaster that came with Star Convoy has the Autobot insignia! Then again, the Micromaster doesn't have any silver on the engine or pipes, so... While sticking the handle of the sword into the 5mm port on the front of Hot Rod's spoiler is still an option in alt mode, there's another alternative. The small peg that allows Hot Rod to hold his wing as a weapon, or helps hold his backpack together, fits into a corresponding hole on the sword. This allows you to stack the sword on top of the spoiler instead of sticking it into the front. I should also point out that if you move the spoiler from it's usual spot to the peg hole on his back in robot mode that you can plug the sword in like this while he's in robot mode, allowing him to carry it on his back. Y'know, it's kind of a shame... Legacy comes in firing on all cylinders (I mean, while I think Arcee is the worst of the line so far, my complaints are mostly related to how generic they made her and I think the mold itself will be better appreciated when they do the repaint). And at the same time, Kingdom is going out on an absolute dud. Due to the way most of them have been scaled-down larger bots just for displaying with Titans they're already kind of a hard sell. The thing that's kept me buying them anyway is that they've been pretty solid on their own merits, and that's not really the case here. Hot Rod has the weakest sculpt, minimal details, floppy ball joints, and poor articulation. He just feels cheap. Cheap can be an asset if, like me, you're just looking for an accessory for a Star Convoy, but for everyone else should pass on this one.

I used to be a big fan of the LEGO games, but the more recent ones (LEGO Jurassic Park, LEGO Marvel Superheroes 2, LEGO DC Supervillains) have been kind of letdowns for me. Still the new LEGO Star Wars is getting enough buzz that I decided to grab a copy for the Switch. I just need to finish Kirby and the Forgotten Land first... which itself I highly recommend. It's one of the most fun times I've had on Switch since Yoshi's Crafted World.

Theoretically. I picked one up a few weeks ago, but that was the only copy I've seen in the wild. Kup seems more common.

As long as we're speculating on stuff... almost every WFC mold between Deluxe and Leader got at least one repaint, if only as themselves in a slightly different, occasionally store-exclusive deco (the only ones I can think of that didn't were Springer, Apeface, Astrotrain, Snapdragon, Doubledealer, Warpath, Wingfinger, Cyclonus, Rhinox, and Tigatron). It seems likely that the trend will continue with Legacy, so... what characters do you think we'll get? Are the Prime-universe characters pre-tools? As far as the Deluxes go, we're already rumored to be getting Burn Out, which would be Diaclone black. I'm guessing we'll also see Crosscut at some point, if not Reboost. I'm guessing Arcee will become G2 Road Rocket. That'd explain why her front wheel can split and sit behind her head. Kickback and Dragstrip are iffier. If I were a betting man, though, I'd suggest Kickback is the odd duck that doesn't get any repaint, while Dragstrip gets a new toy-style head and deco. Moving on to Voyagers, Blaster's an easy one. We'll get Twincast. But what about Bulkhead? A lot of people have been saying it'll be an Optimus Prime, but I don't know about that. I mean, sure, Bulkhead's shoulders, forearms, and feet have a very Optimus shape. I think we can work with those shins. And a truck cab for a torso seems like a very Optimus thing... but I'm just not seeing it. I mean, we just had Siege and Earthrise Prime, and ER Prime was re-released in Kingdom. Those guys are already much more G1 Prime than a retool of Bulkhead. Plus, Laser Optimus is filling the need for a Prime in every line. I think it's more likely to be a Prime-ish, not Optimus character like Pyro. If it is Optimus, I'd look for it to be one that isn't G1, maybe Energon or Beast Hunters Optimus. But I'd love to see something really out there like the concept Fire Rodimus. Then we have the Leaders. Galvatron, previously released in Kingdom, doesn't need any other repaints having already been done in toy deco and a purple reformatting version. And we have Laser Prime, where nothing's been announced but RiD Scourge is inevitable.

Or at least around the same time as retailers! I preordered all six new figures (the other two being Galvatron and Blaster repackaged), and so far I've gotten two from Amazon and three from Target. If you look at my order history on Pulse probably around half my orders have been canceled because I secured a preorder there after Pulsecon or a Fan First event only to get my stuff elsewhere sooner. Of course, there was that one time I didn't preorder on Pulse, only Amazon, and that one time Pulse really did get their stuff first. You just can't win. This is why I ultimately stuck with Pulse Premium. While I haven't had too much trouble getting the Target-exclusives, Walmart-exclusives have been a bit hit or miss. Most of the exclusives I did manage to find were in-store, and I don't think I've ever pre-ordered an exclusive at Walmart.com that they actually fulfilled. Walgreens-exclusives are even worse. I managed to get Siege Ratchet from Walgreens.com, but I haven't seen an exclusive Transformer there since Titans Return. I wound up over-paying for Bluestreak. But I had very little difficulty securing Red Alert- on Pulse. And with shipping for a single Deluxe sitting around $8-9 for me without Pulse Premium, I'd say I did get enough stuff from them in the last year that Premium did pay for itself. That said, the only other premium service I pay for like that is Amazon Prime. And Amazon gets my stuff to me within two days of me completing the order. Maybe Hasbro could consider prioritizing fulfilment on Premium customers. I just today got emails today that they shipped Guard and Silverstreak, and I'm still waiting on them to ship Iguanus. 3-4 business days (and more like 5-6 actual days) just to stuff my orders into a box and slap a label on them is kind of ridiculous after I just handed them $50 for Pulse Premium. Anyways... I'll probably hit up my local Target again tomorrow. We keep running out of stuff, so I've got a shopping list beyond Transformers, but I'm hoping I'll find a Kickback. For now, though, here's Legacy Deluxe-class Dragstrip. So, fun fact... there was a time when I thought that I was more likely to get a complete G1 cartoon cast at the MP due to unlicensed third parties than if I waited for Hasbro to do it in Generations. Around the same time Hasbro was having distribution issues. There were several figures, including Thrilling 30 Arcee and Windblade, that I never saw in stores. Others, like Thrilling 30 Jhiaxus, I never found at Target or TRU only to pick him up at a Gabriel Brothers long after. These difficulties had me swearing I was going to quit collecting the mainline stuff, but then Combiner Wars came along and the lure of combiners had sending my cash Hasbro's way still. And yet, what we actually got was stuff like the Dragstrip on your left there. And that's what actually caused me to quit collecting official (until War For Cybetron drew me back in). When you have the new Legacy version with the Combiner Wars version side-by-side, it's no wonder why the current team at Hasbro though the Stunticons needed a do-over. I mean, aside from being predominantly yellow these guys look nothing alike. The new Legacy figure is far, far more cartoon-accurate (and honestly, swap out a different head and add some stripes on his feet and he's more toy-accurate, too). He's got a bit more molded details than the animation model as Hasbro is wont to do with the mainline, but that molded detail includes the knee pads and the bump outs over the rear wheels that the animation model has. He's got the orange head with purple ears and top, silver face, and red visor of the cartoon. He's got two wheels on each shoulder, and one on the outside of his legs. He's got silver engine parts in the middle of his torso, and his body is devoid of almost all color that isn't yellow. He's got spoiler feet. Really, the two biggest areas where he diverges from the animation are the bits of spoiler around his shoulders (which, with maybe two more hinges, could have folded onto his back), and the overall shape of his torso. In the cartoon he's drawn as either very rectangular or possibly getting wider as you move top to bottom, while the Legacy toy gives his torso a very heroic V-shape, and part of that V-shape comes from turning the cockpit so the rounded edge is at his waist instead of on his chest. While I'd have loved for them to come up with a better solution for the spoiler (especially since at least four different 3Ps have figured it out between CW and Legacy Dragstrip), I don't mind the more heroic proportions so much. It's still very visibly Dragstrip. With the spoiler on top instead of on his back, Legacy Dragstrip doesn't have any backpack, which is another big improvement from CW. I find it interesting that Hasbro's solution to cartoon-accuracy was to have the upper side of the rear of his alt mode on the backs of his legs instead of the fronts, and to leave the engine there. That's right, the engine you see in his chest is not the alt mode's engine, and it's largely covered by the cockpit when he's in alt mode. There are a few minor issues I have from these angles, though. The undersides of his forearms have the Hasbro Hollows™, and the bit that moves the front wheels has one wheel directly attached to his shoulder and one wheel hanging behind it on a panel that looks like it's floating instead of continuous from the back of his arm. I'm being picky, but I'd have kind of liked if both wheels on each shoulder were attached to a panel that rotated at the mid-point of the panel, leaving both wheels on a continuous yellow piece, plus the more forward wheel would extend in front of his shoulder and the rear wheel would extend a little past his shoulder instead of the entire rear wheel being behind his shoulder. Dragstrip comes with a pair of guns. The guns are identical, not mirrored, so one side has a pair of tabs and the other has tab-shaped cutouts, and the tabs are on the same side on both guns. I think they're black plastic with some gorgeous metallic purple painted on. The overall shape of the guns is pretty similar to the G1 cartoon, but they could have used the purple on the barrel and scope, too, if they really wanted to be accurate. And, of course, since Legacy's gimmick is translucent blue Energon weapons we have... wait, what?! There's no translucent blue weapons! Dragstrip's head is on a riveted swivel, so he's got no tilt. His shoulders rotate 360 degree and move laterally 90 degrees, although you might have to fiddle with the spoiler kibble His biceps swivel, and his elbows bend slightly over 90 degrees. No wrist swivels, though. His waist swivels, and his hips can go 90 degrees forward and backward and even more than that laterally. His thighs swivel, and his knees can bend 90 degrees. His feet can tilt downward for transformation, but nothing up, and his ankles can pivot 90 degrees. Dragstrip can hold his guns in either hand. Or, you can plug the tabs on one into the slots on the other to give him a somewhat awkward double-barreled gun. Unlike most other modern figures, there's no peg holes under his feet, on his forearms, or on his shoulders for blast effects or Weaponizer parts, but he does have a peg hole on each shin, one on each calf, and four on his back you can use for bot-mode weapon storage. Dragstrip's transformation is one of the more simple ones in Legacy so far, with is arms collapsing above and into his body, his waist spinning 180 degrees, and his legs doing the Combiner Wars collapse. The most interesting thing about it is the way his cockpit accordions out and spins 180 degrees. And what we get is a car that's significantly less generic Formula 1 car and more Dragstrip than the Combiner Wars version. There's a mix of toy and toon going on here. The vertical stripes on the front and rear spoilers and darker gold for most of the cockpit with no black, that's all cartoon. The horizontal stripes down the sides are from the toy, though. I appreciate the shape of the front spoiler, the visible rear engine with eight cylinders, and the four small front wheels and two large rear wheels that are definitely hallmarks of Dragstrip's design, but the rear wheels are a little small and not quit back far enough, and there are these weird scoops along the sides of the cockpit. Probably just enough to make Dragstrip legally not a Tyrrell P34. I'll note that on my copy the one side lines up perfect, but the other always has that little gap between his arm and his leg. And, like @Hikuro mentioned, his feet don't actually line up right no matter how you adjust him so the rear spoiler is always a bit crooked. There's a cutout space near the front of the cockpit where it hinges that isn't he prettiest, and I'm not a fan of some of the fake chest engine peaking out of the cockpit. Dragstrip's head is also visible in the cockpit. Hasbro tried to camouflage it by making the back of Dragstrip's head hollow and molding part of it to look like a seat. Maybe if the top of Dragstrip's head hinged so the front of the "seat" wasn't blocked in, and maybe if some of the fake engine folded up and had a molded steering wheel it'd look less like the cockpit is occupied by a robot head. As far as alt mode weapon storage goes there's a peg hole just behind the cockpit on both sides that you can plug in his guns. On the bottom of the car, no useful for alt mode, you'll find six total 5mm peg holes (blue, and one smaller one*). There's also a rectangular slit (red). If you work a fingernail or a spudger into the slit the car splits in half. This pretty much confirms three things: 1.) No matter how much some people will refuse to believe the rumors until an official announcement, yes, we're getting the rest of the Stunticons, because combined mode is the only reason for him to split in half. 2.) Yes, Motormaster will be a Commander-class. Because... 3.) ...Hasbro's new Menasor is going to work just like X-Transbots/DX9/Magic Square. Expect a Voyager-sized Motormaster that turns into just the cab of his alt mode, pulling a trailer that turns into most of Menasor's body that the cars stick onto. Again, that's the only reason I can see for Dragstrip to split in half- most of the arm, including the hand and elbow joint, will be made from Motormaster's trailer. Half of Dragstrip will plug into the forearm, half to the shoulder, almost definitely using the six peg holes I highlight. In fact, using Dragstrip's size to get a quick estimate, I'd say it's a safe bet that the new Menasor will be at least two inches taller than the Combiner Wars version, and I'm expecting far greater cartoon accuracy and stability to boot. Sure, there are teams like MMC's that are showing that all-in-one combiners can be great, but honestly I don't expect that level of engineering from Hasbro's retail line, and if parsforming is what it takes to make a combiner that doesn't suck then do it. My only real questions at this point are just how much of the torso Motormater himself will make up- the 3P versions have more or less folded him into a cube that plugged into a nearly complete torso, but I don't think that's the only way this could go- and whether or not the limbs will be Scramble City or not. Scramble City isn't a feature I need, per se; even when it's an option, I tend to put my combiners in the "official" cartoon combination, but I don't see how splitting in half would interfere with Dragstrip plugging onto Menasor's leg, or why Breakdown and Wildrider couldn't split in half despite forming the legs. I suppose we'll find out relatively soon... there's a Transformers Fan First Tuesday on April 12th, which seems like a good time for them to reveal the second Legacy wave, which rumors have including Wildrider, or possibly even Motormaster himself. *I don't think the smaller peg is involved in the combined mode. I think it's the flight stand peg. On his own, just as a Dragstrip figure, Legacy Dragstrip is pretty great. There's a bit of aesthetic choices that I'm not loving, sure, and some cheap hollow spots, but even without Combiner Wars Dragstrip to remind me of just how bad things can be Dragstrip just might be the strongest of the first wave Legacy releases. It's clear that the designers felt that Combiner Wars did the Stunticons dirty, and it's clear that they wanted to set things right. Time will tell on the gestalt, but for Dragstrip on his own Hasbro knocked it out of the park. In fact, they may have done too good of a job; he's setting a very high bar for the rest of the Stunticons to follow, but even more than that he's so good that he doesn't just make the Combiner Wars Stunticons obsolete, he makes the entire line obsolete. I mean, there's no way I can display Legacy Dragstrip on a shelf with other Season 2 Decepticons and put Combiner Wars Swindle on the same shelf without Swindle looking like trash. I don't really car what it takes now, if it means more Commander-class figures, more partsforming, if teams can't be mix-and-matched, if Scramble City is ditched entirely, or if it takes years to achieve. I want, at the very least, Superion, Defensor, Bruticus, Computron, and Abominus re-done like this. And if it isn't obvious, yeah, I highly recommend you pick up Dragstrip. He's great.

Ugh. Just renewed Pulse Premium, but I'm having second thoughts on that. I ordered Silverstreak and Iguanus last Friday, and they took payment for Guard on Thursday. All three are showing paid but still unfulfilled. Ship my stuff, Hasbro!

Every other Sunday I get together with a group of friends and we play some tabletop RPG (for almost the last year we've been playing the Dungeons & Dragons 5e module Rime of the Frostmaiden). Since my wife and daughter left well before I did to take a painting class, and since I had luck finding some Legacy stuff at my local Target, I decided to stop at the other Target on my way to my friend's place. Still no luck finding Kickback, nor did they have any Silverstreaks. But they had Leaders! I passed on Galvatron in Legacy packaing; it's the same toy as the Kingdom version, just without the Siege-style dirt. But you better believe I picked up Legacy Leader-class Laser Optimus Prime! Generally speaking, I'm a fan of Laser Optimus' design. I love how it retains some classic Optimus features like the chest windows and grill abs, but gives him some added mass. And I like the tweaked colors; he's still sporting the red and blue you've come to associate with Prime, but there's something striking about taking the light gray on his thighs and pelvis and spreading it over his entire torso, with a bright blue grill to break it up. Plus, the addition of black into the mix lets you know that this Prime means business. The new Legacy mold does a pretty great job capturing the aesthetic of the original Laser Prime toy, far more so than the Reveal the Shield figure or the Chaos on Velocitron box set repaint of Titans Return Optimus Prime. From the waist up the only criticism of the sculpt I can offer is that his forearms are a bit more squarish than the slightly-rounded arms of the original, but I'll note that the linework on his forearms does portray the indented section. The head is a dead ringer, and he's even got some molded detail on his tummy wher ethe original toy has screw holes. His shoulders sport some yellow paint, but I think they could have used some red, too, to better mimic the stickers on the original toy. Speaking of, there's no red on his knees. While the inside of his chest has red, the windows themselves are clear and do not say "Optimus Prime". Actually, I'm ok with that last change, but here's hoping Toyhax will do a set to add the missing details to his shoulders and knees. Ditching the RTS and TR versions, we can take a closer look at the sides and back. Again, not a lot of me to complain about. The orientation of the wheels on his legs are a bit different, and his heels are black, but that's pretty minor. There's no skid plates on the backs of his arms. That probably for the better, though. The cab on his back is accurate, but could use a little silver and yellow paint. I'm not loving the hollow calves, though. Here's a comparison with more contemporary figures, Earthrise Optimus and Studio Series (Dark of the Moon) Optimus. What's interesting here is that there are small tweaks to the crotch, the vented area on the shin, and the calves, sure, but for the most part from the waist down this is Earthrise Optimus again. This means that Legacy Optimus loses some details of the original, like the round hips, the "U" shapes on the waist, larger knee pads, and tracks running up his thighs. However, the new crotch does give him the "U" shape there, and the new bits on the shins mostly resemble the original toy and keep him just distinct enough from the Earthrise/Siege versions. It's pretty impressive how well Hasbro made the old parts work on the new mold. As Hasbro is wont to do, to make a Voyager-sized figure hit that Leader price point means accessories, accessories, accessories. With that in mind, you get a Matrix, because Matrices are apparently required by law on all new Prime figures. You get a double-barreled pistol that kind of evokes the original toy's gun, were it rounder and flatter. Because this is Legacy you have to get the translucent blue weapons. There's a sword, but that's actually appropriate because the original toy had a translucent sword. You also get an axe, because Prime used on in one episode of the cartoon and now axes are standard gear for him too. Finally, for the first time in a long time, we get a tanker trailer that isn't actually part of his body because he's not an Octane pre-mold. I'm honestly not 100% sure what kind of joint is used for Prime's head. It doesn't tilt at all, and even swiveling it is quite difficult. His shoulders are a bit disappointing. As has been mentioned, on the original toy/RTS/TR/Fans Hobby versions the entire shoulder, including the pylons, rotated as one piece. Here, though, they don't move. The bit with the yellow paint is on a hinge and can flip up to give him a bit more clearance, but the shoulder inside is all that actually moves, 90 degrees backward and slightly more than that forward on a soft ratchet, and 90 degrees laterally. His biceps swivel, and his elbows bend 90 degrees. Although his wrists are technically on ball joints they're not cut to allow any bend, only a swivel. His waist swivels. From the waist down he's identical to ER Optimus, but real quick that's 90 degrees forward/backward/laterally on the hips, thigh swivels, slightly over 90 degrees of knee bend, toes that tilt down due to transformation, and 90 degrees of ankle pivot. Prime can hold his sword and axe in either hand. The fit for the axe is a bit tight. There's a tiny tab on the pommel of the sword, so it only fits in one way. If you prefer, there's a port at the top of the axe and you can plug the sword into it to make a bigger, weird-looking sword. I don't prefer, but you do you. If it's long-range firepower you're after Prime can also hold his gun. The holes on his shoulder pylons are compatible with Siege blast effects. Or, they can swing open to reveal some molded, non-firing translucent blue missiles. Prime's got a number of 5mm ports on him. There's one on each shoulder pylon, just in front of the wheels. There's one in the middle of his back and one on the back of each forearm. He's got two on the back of each leg, two under each foot, and one on the outside of each leg between the wheels. While all this is good if you want to use Weaponizers or Fossilizers on him, or even to store his gun, storing his sword or axe on his body isn't really an option. They don't really have 5mm pegs on them, short of their handles. They do have other storage, though... we'll get to that in a minute. As for the Matrix, I was a bit surprised to find that it's a new mold and they're not just recycling the one that came with Earthrise Optimus/Hot Rod/Galvatron/Rodimus Prime again. The new one's handles are shorter and a bit rounder. The front of Prime's chest flips open to reveal the storage space. Prime can hold it, but rather than having the articulated hands that Earthrise Optimus, SS86 Hot Rod, and Kingdom Rodimus got Legacy Prime's hands simply aren't closed the whole way. This allows you stuff the Matrix's handles through. A bit cheap, I'd say. Lastly, Prime's trailer opens up similarly to the original toy's. Inside you'll find numerous 5mm ports if you wanted to add some more accessories, and special slots that work with the tabs specifically on the sword and axe. There's that storage I was talking about! The gun plus into a standing bit to make a turret, and there's a repair claw sitting over a small ramp. As trailers go, given how anemic ER Optimus' trailer was I'm not really surprised that this is all a Leader budget gets us today. That said, it's tiny and dull compared to the original toy's trailer. There's no spring loaded missile launcher, no disk launcher, and no air-pump missile launcher. The ramp is tiny, and there's no walls for all the missing sticker details. At least the turret part with the repair claw can be detached. Indeed, it's plugged into a 5mm port, so you can actually plug in onto any other 5mm port, including on Prime himself. I think that segues us nicely into the truck mode, yeah? I was surprised by how involved the transformation is, actually. The original toy is pretty simple, but it was pretty close to modern standards already; it just needed bicep, wrist, waist, and thigh swivels plus ankle pivots, stuff that all would have still worked with the original transformation. Instead, Legacy Optimus tries to stuff his arms into the cab (but only gets the shoulders and biceps), folds up his chest and tummy, then collapses his pelvis and waist into the gap to shorten the rear instead of collapsing his thighs into his legs. The resulting cab is slightly smaller than the original, much larger than the RTS Deluxe. The trailer is significantly smaller than the original, but because it's separate from Prime himself the entire truck winds up being much larger than the TR mold. It's also far more accurate to the original than either the RTS or TR molds. The shape of the cab and the colors are mostly spot on, with black canisters, square headlights coming off of the fenders, smokestacks behind the doors, and a trio of running lights flanked by two horns on the top. His blue feet still wind up hanging off the back. The trailer has a fairly accurate mold, too, with the hatches on the top of the tank (even if they don't launch disks) and the red piping on the sides. The big differences are gray fuel tanks instead of red, since they pop out of his thighs and aren't part of his arms, a small red step instead of the larger silver on the original, and his forearms just chilling on the back of the cab. But even that I don't hate as much as I thought I would. Aesthetically, the red front of the cab is done in move-style flames instead of fading into the black; not my preference, but I can live with it. There's an Autobot symbol on the door instead of "Optimus Prime." I think that's fine, too, and I actually like that it's the G1 Autobot symbol instead of G2. I never cared for the insignia changes in G2. The big one for me is that the trailer is just silvery-gray plastic. That'd be fine if this was Scourge, but Laser Optimus need a picture of himself burning down a forest. Well, that's one more thing Toyhax can do. Another comparison with the other Voyager-plus-trailer-equals-Leader Primes. Legacy Prime's little trailer is less out of place when everyone's got a little trailer, eh? Any of these three Primes can pull Earthrise or Legacy's trailer (as can SS Bumblebee Prime), however the bits of the ring dangling under SS DotM Prime's trailer prevents it from fitting on ER or Legacy Prime. Prime's main accessories can all fit on the cab. You can use the 5mm ports on the roof or on the sides near the tires to stow his gun. And there are slots behind the port for the trailer hitch that the axe can store on- just fold up the handle first. As for his sword, it uses little tabs on the hilt to plug into the underside of the truck, on the backs of his legs. I really appreciate this feature, as it's how the sword stores on the original G2 toy. Of course, the cab is really mean to pull the trailer. And everything actually stores on the trailer, too. The sword and axe store on the inside, where they did in base mode. The whole thing will close up with them there, no issues. As for the gun, it actually makes one of the hatches on top of the trailer. Just plug it into the port. There are also two additional 5mm ports on the front of the trailer, on the back of the trailer, and one near the wheels on each side of the trailer. As a big fan of Laser Optimus Prime I get excited and then let down every time Hasbro gives us a new one. The Deluxe RTS one was OK-ish, but too small and lacking a trailer. The TR one was actually done up like G1 Optimus for the mass retail release, and you had to buy an expensive box set of recolors (or buy an expensive loose on on Ebay, like I did), and as a Headmaster pre-tool of Octane wasn't that good int he first place, when all I really wanted was the original G2 toy with better articulation. Legacy Prime comes so close to that. The aesthetic is super close, he's got mostly the right accessories including a detachable tanker trailer, he's got articulation that's basically on par with Siege or Earthrise Prime. The lack of articulated hands, the fixed shoulder pylons, the trailer's small size and lack of gimmicks, and some missing details (especially on the trailer) are all that's keeping Legacy Prime from being the Laser Prime of my dreams. So I weirdly am somewhat disappointed by Legacy Prime even as I love him. If you had the original G2 toy and nostalgia for it then I recommend Legacy Prime, but if you're on the fence you might be better off waiting for the inevitable Scourge repaint.

Calling off the search for that one. More on that tomorrow.😉

Even though I was just at my local Target I had to go back today to pick up a prescription. Instead of walking a circle around the main aisle, as I'd normally do, I cut straight through the kitchen stuff and came at the toy section from the back, and I noticed something very curious. Kingdom Megatron, some Tigatrons, a lone Rhinox, several Wingfingers, and a boatload of Tracks were all spread over a back endcap. They weren't marked clearance, but it seemed likely that that they will be soon. So what was in the regular spots, you ask? Some Origins Bumblebees, a few Studio Series Kups, Blurrs, and Jolts, several Sweeps, and a Wreck-Gar or two. Oh, and a solitary Legacy Arcee, a solitary Blaster in Legacy packaging... and like a dozen Legacy Voyager-class Bulkheads (sadly no Kickback, Dragstrip, or Laser Prime). When Hasbro designer Mark Maher first unveiled Bulkhead, he specifically stated he was "honored to make Bulkhead look like he belongs in the G1 universe." Personally, I think that's exactly what we got here. He's got a head that's like a halfway point between the Animated and Prime versions. His torso is still dominated by the front of his alt mode. He's got the silver pelvis and knees plus actual hands like Prime Bulkhead, but silver thighs, green feet (with trapezoidal cutouts) like Animated Bulkhead. I am hearing a lot of complaints about Legacy Bulkhead. One is that this isn't a straight up new toy of Prime Bulkhead, and while I feel for Prime fans we have to accept that a more G1-ish, unified aesthetic is part of Legacy's mandate. The other complaint I'm hearing is that, like Arcee, Bulkhead's Legacy design is a tad generic. He's clearly traded a lot of the roundness of his Animated and Prime forebearers for a more typically G1 boxiness, but it's not just that. His arms are shorter and less bulky. His legs, too, have shed some bulk but got taller, as Prime and Animated Bulkheads' entire legs come no higher than Legacy Bulkhead's knees. This criticism is more subjective, and I can sympathize with the notion that "squat and round" is part of Bulkhead's character. Legacy Bulkhead's form does have a certain shape to it that could almost pass for Inferno, Grapple, or Optimus Prime. However, G1 doesn't really have the luxury of having Derek Wyatt's cartoonishly round alt mode, or the shifting of panels to take a fairly angular SUV hood into a rounded shape the way Prime Bulkhead did. While I probably wouldn't have complained if his legs were a little shorter or his limbs a little thicker I'm forced to conclude that this is indeed pretty much what you'd get with a G1-ified Bulkhead. And it's not like he doesn't have Bulkhead's signature beer gut. It's not immediately obvious from the front, but from the side you can see that his torso actually extends pretty far out in front of him. So no, my biggest complaint isn't that he has more typically-proportional limbs. What's kind of bugging me are those two wheels on his back, behind his head. I can't figure out the point of them; they're not the tires he rolls on in alt mode. Perhaps its an homage to Prime Bulkhead? I realize that comparing Bulkhead to other Bulkheads is useful for aesthetics, but not necessarily how well he fits with the toys he's intended to go with. So here's a quick snap of him with Netflix Optimus Prime. That works pretty good, for me. Bulkhead's got a few accessories. He's got a tarp-ish thing, which will be important in alt mode. We've got his signature mace fist. And we've got a gun. The gun is made of translucent blue plastic, which we've established is the gimmick in this line (Siege had Micromasters with pegs that allowed them to stick to larger characters, Legacy has weapons made of Energon... if the next trilogy opens with keys that activate extra built-in weapons refer back to this post and know that I saw it coming). Unlike Skids and Arcee, though, Bulkhead's weapon has some gunmetal paint on it as well, so it doesn't look like a total waste. A note about the tarp... it can plug into a 5mm port on Bulkhead's back. While some may not care for the extra kibble, I think it's worth pointing out that it can stay on through his transformation. No partsforming is actually required. Bulkhead's head is on a ball joint. He's got some downward tilt, not much up or sideways. His shoulders swivel and extend laterally 90 degrees. His biceps and wrists swivel, and his elbows bend a bit over 90 degrees on a single hinge. His waist swivels. His hips go 90 degrees forward and backward on friction hinges, and 90 degrees laterally on a soft ratchet. His thighs have mushrooms swivels inside the silver part, although the shape of the thigh around the joint limits him to only about 45 degrees or so. His knees bend slightly over 90 degrees. His feet can tilt just a bit upward, but he's got decent downward tilt plus the front half of his foot folds over for transformation so you can fake even more, and his ankles pivot nearly 90 degrees. With his tarp on his back, Bulkhead's free to hold his gun in one hand. The mace opens up to reveal a 5mm peg inside; you can slide that peg into the other hand, with half the mace covering the top of his hand, then you close the other half over the bottom, trapping his fist inside. The tarp is meant to be used as a shield, too, with a window to peak through like a Gundam shield or a riot shield. To hold it out in front of him you have to first put the mace on one hand. Then, a peg can fold out from the top of the tarp and plug into one of the bumps on the mace right over Bulkhead's knuckles. You can also plug the tarp directly into Bulkhead's forearm. If you do, the sides can fold around and plug into the roof, encapsulating most of his arm. If his arm is encapsulated, though, he's going to have a hard time holding his gun. Lucky for him, the butt of the gun has tiny pegs, and there are tiny peg holes near the wheels behind his head. This allows Bulkhead to use his gun as a shoulder cannon, which is a nice option. I dunno about the tarp as a shield, though, and I'll probably just leave it on his back. In addition to his hands, forearms, and the middle of his back Bulkhead also has one on the outside of each leg, one in each heel, and two on each calf. While the tarp might be occupying the peg hole on his back, it also adds a new peg hole plus a pair of pegs. The wheels on his shoulders and legs technically have a 5mm port in the middle, however since the wheel spin anything you plug in will droop, so the usefulness of those peg holes is debatable. Bulkhead's transformation isn't super complicated, but it was surprisingly less simple and more engaging that I was expecting. I absolutely love the way his calves open up and the fuel tanks fold out from the inside. While Bulkhead's packaging refers to him as "Prime Universe Bulkhead," his military truck alt mode is arguably more like Animated Bulkhead's armored truck than Prime's extended cab, off-road kitted pickup. Actually, cab front, six wheels, covered rear... Legacy Bulkhead's truck mode has shades of Hound's in Age of Extinction. While I might like to forget that movie, Hound did have a real alt mode (an Oshkosh FMTV, I believe), and the similarities between Legacy Bulkhead and AoE Hound then lend a certain realism to Bulkhead. I'll also note that AoE Hound also had a mostly-green body, rounded "helmet" head, and a round beer belly body. The wheels behind Bulkhead's head wind up on the back of the cab*, and the shield tarp and fold-out fuel tanks due a mostly good job hiding his fold-up robot bits. And despite the very different alt mode, Bulkhead is still sporting some similarities like the black bumper with a tow winch and headlights consisting of two small round lenses. *While I don't think Hound specifically had spares behind his cab in AoE, carrying a spare behind the cab is absolutely something Oskosh FMTVs can do. Going tarpless in alt mode isn't really advised. For one, half the cargo space you'd think the truck should have is occupied by Bulkhead's pelvis, hips, and much of his thighs. The black hinged part the tarp plugs into is just hanging there, and Bulkhead's feet stick up too far to be a tailgate. So don't remove the tarp, but do take a peak in there because there is some storage. In fact, a pair of pegs between the quartet of peg holes in there allow for discreet storage of both his gun and his mace. That said, if you prefer a more guns-out approach to his alt mode you'll have a usable 5mm port on either side of the truck, between the rear wheels, one 5mm port on the top of the tarp, a 5mm peg on either side of the tarp, plus a fold out 5mm peg on top. I think Bulkhead's going to be a polarizing character. As I've noted, there are people who are upset that this isn't a straight up new version of Animated or Prime Bulkhead, and even the ones who accept that Bulkhead was going to get a G1 makeover may have gripes with how far that makeover went. For me, though, this is exactly what I wanted. Unlike Prime Arcee, Bulkhead was a non-G1 character that I welcome as a retroactive addition to G1. While a part of me might have liked him to be a bit rounder, I appreciate the constraints of giving Bulkhead an aesthetic that better matches with WfC-trilogy and a more realistic alt mode. I'd love to see a few other non-G1 characters get this sort of Generations makeover like Slipstream, Shadow Striker, Knockout, Prime Breakdown, Strongarm, Lugnut, Lockdown, Blackout, Drift, Windblade, and at least Tarn if not the entire DJD). So while I'll understand if you decide the Bulkhead's not for you, I'm actually going to give him a recommend.

I've got a blast from the past here today... it's Before and After's Six Sigma, a third-party take on Sixgun. As you guys probably know, G1 Sixgun was a robot you could make by taking a tower piece from Metroplex, sticking his shoulder guns onto it to make arms, using his dual rifles to make legs, a double-barreled cannon for a backpack, and a small gun that plugged into one of his arms for a pistol. So the G1 toy was pretty tall, coming up to Metroplex's chest or so. So where does that make Six Sigma fit, scale wise? In modern times Hasbro has worked to make all of those characters that were packed in with Citybots Deluxes or so, but the downside of that is that when you pull Siege Sixgun's leg off you have a gun that can be used by another Deluxe or Voyager, not Titan Metroplex. Six Sigma, meanwhile, seems far too huge to go with your Generations figures; he's slightly taller than MP-10/44/MS-01/TE-01, and nearly as tall as Siege Jetfire. I think I'd display him with MP Transformers, honestly. However, when he came out (long before Siege Sixgun), Six Sigma was actually sort of un upgrade kit for Titan Metroplex. Aesthetically, I think he does a pretty good job pulling off Sixgun. There's actually two versions; this one, with black forearms that emulate the fact that his arms are supposed to be made from Metroplex's black shoulder guns, and a version with red forearms that copies the animation's decision to invent arms for him out of thin air with Metroplex's shoulder guns become Sixgun's shoulder guns. I think I might have preferred the red, but I prefer Six Sigma's black arms to Siege Sixgun's white ones. Six Sigma's head is also more G1 toy-accurate, and doesn't have the white faceplate that Hasbro invented for the Siege toy. Six Sigma doesn't come with Sixgun's pistol, which is kind of a drag; I'm pretty sure that the "six" in "Sixgun" is two guns making the arms, two guns making the legs, one double-barreled gun on his back, and one gun held in his "hand", but recent iterations of the character seem to count his backpack as two. Oh well. What Six Sigma does come with is a Slammer tank. Unlike Kingdom Slammer this one doesn't have a robot mode. Heck, the turret doesn't move and there's no wheels to roll on. That said, by including Slammer Six Sigma would have given you a complete set of Metroplex's drones something like seven years ago. Six Sigma's head is on a ball joint. He's got fairly limited tilt up/down/sideways, but it swivels. His shoulders rotate on ratchets, and a ratcheted hinge allows him to move his arm slightly over 90 degrees laterally. His biceps swivel, and his elbows are double-jointed but his forearms are too bulky to get more than 90 degrees. He's got a ratcheted ab crunch and a waist swivel, but the waist swivel is a tad limited by his own hips. Speaking of hips, they can go over 90 degrees forward and backward on ratchets, but just a single lateral click or two for only maybe 45 degrees laterally, if I'm being generous. His thighs swivel. He's got ratcheted knee bends, but again only about 45 degrees or so. The front section of his feet are on swivels, which gives him 360 degrees of faux ankle pivot, plus both parts of his feet are on ratcheted hinges that give his feet some downward tilt. While it's a bit of a shame that Six Sigma doesn't have Sixgun's pistol, Slammer can transform by flipping the turret around to the bottom of the tank. You can use a peg to plug Slammer the large peg hole on either of Six Sigma's forearms, near his wrists, turning Slammer into a kind of arm cannon. There are also peg holes on Six Sigma's shoulders. This allows you to take the shoulder cannons from Titan Metroplex and plug them onto Six Sigma, which better emulates the animation model. Six Sigma doesn't have a alt mode like the Siege toy, really. He does more like what the G1 toy did- the backpack comes off. The torso doesn't come apart, but it does transform into a tower. Since his arms don't come off, they kind of scrunch up, turning into something like cannons. And although I haven't done it here, yes, his legs come off. The legs actually extend, and the heels flip down to become handles. The shape of them is designed to fit into Titan Metroplex's hands. And since DNA's replacement hands work with the stock rifles, then they can hold the Six Sigma ones, too. You can also take the double-barreled backpack gun and plug it into a port on the right side of Metroplex's back. I don't think that's cartoon accurate, but I vaguely remember doing that with the G1 toy. I thing things kind of start coming apart when it comes to integrating Six Sigma with Metroplex's alt modes. I mean, for base mode, he doesn't seem to integrate at all. To be fair, I don't recall being able to do anything with the Slammer or Sixgun's tower section on G1 Metroplex's battleship mode, but the leg guns plugged into Metroplex's legs and the backpack guns went in the spot you can use for robot mode. You can still put the backpack guns on, but Six Sigma's legs don't plug into Metroplex's anywhere. I think a little more thought went into Metroplex's city mode. The bulk of Six Sigma that makes up the tower uses to pegs to loosely plug into the screw holes by the helipad, which is pretty much where G1 Sixgun's torso tower went. Slammer's turret collapses, pushing out a fold out spire, and you can plug him into Metroplex's back where the double-barreled cannon was in bot mode. It's not exactly G1 accurate, but it's kind of close enough given that Titan Metroplex isn't very G1 accurate. I'm not sure where Sixgun's backpack went on G1 Metroplex, but it has tabs so it can perch (albeit loosely) on top of the Sixgun tower. However, there doesn't seem to be a way to integrate Six Sigma's leg guns. The G1 toy had them plug into Metroplex's knees, and while there are peg holes in the right spots on Titan Metroplex there are no pegs on Six Sigma's legs. What we wind up with is a figure out-of-scale with your modern Generations figures, with fairly limited articulation and dicey plastic quality (I snapped the mushroom peg off one of the wrists the first time I transformed him), that gives Metroplex the rest of his drones, and becomes parts that can integrate with some of Metroplex's modes, but never all of his parts in any given mode. Seven years ago I'd have said that's enough to make Six Sigma an attractive purchase. In 2022, though, it's honestly cheaper and easier to use Siege Sixgun and Kingdom Slammer. Siege Sixgun's legs might not make rifles for Metroplex, but it's easier to incorporate all of Sixgun and Slammer's parts into the city mode while retaining the stock rifle (or rifles, if you got the Takara version), making Six Sigma pretty redundant. Mostly what Six Sigma did was make me mess around with Metroplex and rekindle my desire for a better G1 Titan version with a better Deluxe-class Scamper.

I definitely appreciate it, and I would 100% have taken you up on it had Hasbro not put him on Pulse today. But I'd guess buying one of yours probably wouldn't be much faster now, since Silverstreak looks to be in-stock and not a preorder, and since I have Pulse Premium I'm guessing that's going to save me $10 or so on shipping. If you see a Laser Optimus, though...

Silverstreak is on Pulse now. I got an order in. EDIT: Core-class Iguanus, too. Both seem to be in-stock merchandise, too, not pre-orders.

More or less. I'll pick up Spike if I see him, and I preordered the DNA kit for the red horns, sword, and Daniel. EDIT: And checking the other Target and Walmart was still a bust.

Picked up a few more of itty bitty Dr. Wu guys. These ones come in two packs, so I have a pack with Destroy Emperor (Galvatron) and Monitor Officer (Soundblaster), and another with Intelligence Officer (Soundwave) and Big Surge (Beachcomber). Aesthetically, I don't have a ton of complaints. I mean, that's Beachcomber for sure. Maybe Soundwave and Soundblaster are a little lacking in details, and Galvatron's a bit fat and maybe a tad IDW-ish. The back of his cannon is kind of just a brick, too. Galvatron and Beachcomber have hollow lower legs, due to transformation, and I think Dr. Wu might might have been better if the fin on Galvatron's back flipped the other way. But I'm willing to cut these guys a lot of slack just because of how tiny they are. Seriously, here they are with Newage Bumblebee V1, Siege Roadhandler, and Core-class Soundwave. Bumblebee's bigger than all of them, and they're half the size of a Core-class or less. Soundwave and Galvatron are less than a head taller than Roadhandler, and Beachcomber is even shorter. They're basically Micromasters, only with better articulation. Destroy Emperor's head is on a swivel, no tilt. His shoulders are ball joints for rotation and cut to move just short of 90 degrees. His elbows are double-jointed and bend 180 degrees. No bicep or wrist swivels, but he does have a waist swivel. Hips are ball joints that can go 90 degrees forward and backward and about 60 degrees laterally. His knees are ball joints, so they can bend nearly 180 degrees and they double as a thigh swivel. No foot or ankle articulation. Intelligence and Mointor Officer have a ball joint going into their torsos, so their head can look up but going too far kind of messes with the sculpt. There's some sideways tilt, nothing really down. Shoulders have pin hinges for 90 degrees of lateral movement attached to ball joints going into their backs, providing the swivel as well as a bit of butterfly. No wrist or bicep swivels, but their elbows bend 90 degrees and they have waist swivels. Their hip skirts move just enough that their ball jointed hips can go over 90 degrees backward, 90 degrees laterally, and just short of 90 degrees forward. You can kind of fake a full 90 by over-extending their knees, which bend 90 degrees forward or backward. No thigh swivels, save what you can get by moving their hips around the ball joints. Their feet are on ball joints, so they have a little up/down tilt and about 45 degrees of pivot. Big Surge fares the worst. He's got no head articulation, no bicep, wrist, waist, or thigh swivels, and no ankles. He's got ball jointed shoulders that swivel and get 90 degrees of lateral movement, ball jointed hips that get 90 degrees forward/backward/laterally, hinged elbows that can bend 90 degrees, and hinged knees that bend 180 degrees. So, not the greatest, but just having elbows and greater range on his hips and shoulders does put him ahead of a Siege Micromaster despite being a little smaller. Oh, something to note... unlike Prime these guys don't really come with accessories. Galvatron's cannon comes off, as does Soundwave/Soundblaster's shoulder cannons, but there's no rifles for Soundwave/Soundblaster or Beachcomber. There is a curious purple peg in the box with Galvatron/Soundblaster. It's not in the instructions. You can plug it into the back of Galvatron's cannon to make it look a little more complete, but I believe the smaller end is actually meant to go into the barrel of his cannon. WfC blast effects can plug onto the larger end, effectively making Galvatron's cannon compatible with them. You have to figure that the transformations on guys this little are going to be pretty simple. Beachcomber is literally just folding his legs over and tucking his arms against his body, but honestly, that works. Soundwave/Soundblaster have some of their hips exposed, and don't really sit flat because of it, but I have to give them credit for using the feet, head, and shoulder cannon in combination with his arms to fill in his back, arguably better than the Hasbro Core-class or even the Netflix Voyager. Honestly, my biggest complaint with them might be that their tape decks don't open, but that might have been a challenge at this size. Galvatron comes out the worst, but I'd say he's in the ballpark and not much worse than DX9's Legends-class Galvatron. Because, again, these are tiny, tiny dudes. Here's Galvatron and Beachcomber with Newage Bumblebee and Siege Roadhandler. And here's Soundwave slotting something like halfway between the Hasbro Core-class and the slug Soundwave that came with the Hasbro Centurion drone pack. Like I said when I reviewed Dr. Wu's little Prime, these are not Earth-shattering mini-Masterpieces like some of the stuff Newage and Magic Square have been doing. Even your average Deluxe or even Core-class is more complex. They're meant, first and foremost, to be accessories to make the Titan-class figures seem bigger But yeah, there's something that's just fun about having tiny Transformers that are posable and still transform, they're reasonably priced at $30-ish for a two-pack, and despite their small stature they're actually a step up from Hasbro's own Micromasters. Are they necessary? Probably not, but I kind or recommend checking them out anyway. My only real complaint with them is how they're packaged. I mean, I could totally have lived without Soundblaster, so of course he's packaged with Galvatron and Soundwave, who you'd actually want, is sold separately. With Beachcomber, no less, who is marginally more important than Soundblaster but whom I still probably could have done without. And why are we getting dudes like Beachcomber before more important characters like Grimlock, Bumblebee, Prowl, Hot Rod, Shockwave, Scourge, or Cyclonus? At least the Seekers are coming (with more Autobot minibots and Blaster).

😔 No luck hunting my way. My Target has a couple of dino Megatrons, a Tigatron or two, several Wreck-Gars and Sweeps, a few Wheeljacks, a regular Studio Series Kup and a couple of Jolts, and a ton of Origin Bumblebees. My Walmart's just a joke at this point. A Hasbro rep should secret shop them and rip them a new one, because they have a 4' section for Transformers and the entire space for Voyagers was filled with these things that look like alien Stretch Armstrongs, and the spot for Leaders was filled with Batman stuff. What space was actually being used by Transformers was mostly Cyberverse, plus a ton of Tracks. I might take a trip to the next town over tonight, they often have stuff my local stores don't. But hey, if anyone sees a Silverstreak I'll reimburse you for cost and shipping if you want to grab one for me. I'm not too worried about the Legacy stuff, as I have it all preordered, but I'll say same goes for Laser Prime. I do NOT want to wait until July for that one.

Right, and this is a big distinction. The "hero" has always been a male, but there have been tons of female mobile suit pilots, and plenty of them piloted Gundams. Even if we exclude Sayla's little excursion we've had (at least) Emma Sheen (Gundam Mk. II), Four Murasame (Psyco Gundam), Rosamia Badam (Psyco Gundam Mk II) Elle Vianno (Gundam Mk. II), Roux Louka (Zeta Gundam), Marbet and some of the Shrike team (Victory Gundam), Karen Joshua (Gundam Ground Type), Marida Cruz (Gundam Banshee), Rain Mikamura (Rising Gundam, Shining Gundam), Allenby Beardsley (Nobel Gundam), Aida Surugan (Gundam G-Arcane), Cagalli Athha (Strike Rouge), and Lunamaria Hawke (Impulse Gundam).

Same mechanical designer as Iron-Blooded Orphans, I take it? That thing's as ugly as Barbatos. I'll still check it out, though.

A bunch of the old classic Gold Box D&D games just went on sale on Steam. They're divided into six collections- Collections 1, 2, and 3 cover all the old games set in the Forgotten Realms, then there are separate collections for Krynn, Dark Sun, and Ravenloft. (No Spelljammer: Pirates of Realmspace, though?) All of the collections are listed at $9.99*, except Collection 3 at $5.99, though they're already on sale for 15% off. Or you could buy the whole shebang for $31.86. *In the US, anyway. I'm thinking for $32 I might as well buy the whole thing, although I suspect I'll find some of those games a bit too old for my tastes. Menzoberranzan was my jam back in the day, though, and I liked the Ravenloft games that used the same engine. I'm sure I'll pick up at least that much.

Free to play Gundam Overwatch? Why can't they just make a new Gundam Battle game already?

Skids is an interesting fellow. I think he appeared in all of two episodes of the G1 cartoon, and for many fans he's better known for his more-developed arc in the old Marvel comics. But, perhaps due to his minimal presence in the cartoon (which may have had something to do with him being shortpacked in early '85, making an original G1 toy a bit more rare), Skids sort of faded into obscurity, and the name really only popped back into the Transformers zeitgeist when it was given to one of the Bayverse characters so awful Hasbro has reportedly refused to include him in the Studio Series line. A trio of reissues and a Binaltech/Alternators release in the '00s (plus a two pack reissue in Bayverse green and blue) got him enough to make him a main character in IDW's More Than Meets the Eye, which in turn lead to his Generations release, only for him to be to quickly forgotten again. At least, forgotten until very recently when Hasbro/Takara hit us with a one-two punch, first with a Masterpiece release, and now with Legacy Deluxe-class Skids. I think the sculpt on Skids is pretty great; the G1 details like the door wings, big red feet, hood chest, car chunks on his lower legs, and just a bit of windshield peaking up behind his head nail the look of the character without the goofy shoulders of the G1 toy/cartoon. My only complaing with the sculpt is that the inside of his thighs and lower legs are pretty hollow. His head and the yellow headlights on his chest are similar to his cartoon appearance, but unlike many other recent Transformers releases Legacy Skids sticks more with his toy appearance than the Sunbow model. His shoulder tires point forward. He's got a black bumper, black shins, and black on his pelvis (albeit not the yellow and red from the stickers). The blue used on him is darker like the toy than the lighter color used on the animation model. I wish his biceps were blue and his fists red; the black color they used here isn't accurate to toy or cartoon. I also wish he had some blue on his knees. While I think, for the most part, Skids looks fine I find myself thinking it'd be nice if Toyhax does a set to give him some of his G1 sticker details, or alternately if Hasbro would do a Generations Selects version in cartoon colors. A quick peak as his side and back. No real surprises, it's exactly as Skids-y as you'd expect it to be. Skids comes with a trio of accessories. He's got one single-barreled blaster and one double-barreled; their silver paint is reminiscent of the original toy's chrome, but the sculpt is more Sunbow. You also get a translucent blue weapon. The single-barreled has a 5mm port on both the top and bottom, allowing you to plug the double-barreled gun into either the top or bottom to make a kind of triple-barreled gun that he can hold in either hand. The translucent weapon, meanwhile, has a peg on one end and a barrel on the other so he can hold it like a rifle. But there's another peg coming off the barrel, and he can use that to hold it as an axe. The translucent weapon also has peg holes on the sides of the axe blade... they don't really do much to interact with his silver weapons, but I suspect that down the line, when the whole first wave is out, they might be useful in combining his weapon with the translucent weapons of the other Legacy figures. But, and this is my preference, you can ditch the translucent weapon entirely. Then, you can plug the two silver blasters into ports on top of his forearm instead of his fists, better mimicking both the G1 toy and his cartoon appearance. And, should you need them, there are also 5mm ports on the outsides of his legs, under his feet, and on his back. Oh, yeah... articulation. His head is on a ball joint; he can look up a little and tilt his head sideways a tiny bit, but nothing really downward. His shoulders rotate and can move 90 degrees laterally. A second transformation hinge can actually allow him to move his shoulders laterally only upward to 180 degrees. His biceps swivel, his elbows bend 180 degrees, and his wrists swivel. His waist swivels His hips can move slightly over 90 degrees forward and backward, and slightly less than 90 degrees laterally. His thighs swivel and his knees bend 90 degrees. His feet don't tilt up or down, but his ankles pivot 90 degrees. Skids' transformation is very straightforward- you can probably work it out just by looking at him. His chest flips up, his arms tuck in so the wheels are in the right spot, and his knees bend backward to make up the rear of the car. The trickiest part is lining up his roof and windshield, because it and his hood chest have to be lined up just right for it to snap into place. Like the robot mode, the car is a pretty good Skids, getting as close to his Honda City alt mode as they reasonably can without paying Honda for the license. My complaints are fairly minimal; I wish his rims were painted. I'd prefer a darker translucent plastic for his windows, which would better match the cartoon/G1 toy/his own moonroof. They painted the front bumper black like the G1 toy, but not the rear bumper. His rear could actually use a lot more painted detail on the lights, too. And while they molded a shade on the rear window to kind of justify why it'd be solid blue, I wish it and the rear side windows were black. But that's about it. Skids rolls just fine. Due to his transformation his doors can open, although you're not going to see much more than his forearms and hips. You can combine all of his weapons, including the translucent one, and mount the entire thing into a 5mm port on his roof. The ports on the sides his legs are also available on the sides of the car, near the back. Arcee was a disappointing way to start Legacy; they took a Prime character that already existed in G1 and made her design less cool and more generic before packaging her with some disappointing translucent accessories. She dampened some of my enthusiasm for the line. Skids, though, is a total 180 from that. He's a solid figure that does a good job of capturing the original toy, representing a character that's been under represented in the mainline. And while they did have to include the Legacy translucent weapon gimmick, it can be largely ignored as it's in addition to his more traditional weapons rather than in place of. Skids is a definite recommend from me, and I sincerely hope that future Legacy releases are more like him and less like Arcee. I'm really looking forward to the rest of this wave again. EDIT: I just figured out, it's possible to orient his shoulders so the tires are on the back. You'll see the pins, but there's molded detail on the other side similar to the MP's. I just have to decide if I want to paint those details myself or wait and see if Toyhax does stickers...

No, I think they meant literally dark. And while, yes, darkness could be used to cover for bad props/effects, I think it's a deliberate choice on The Batman that's used for effect. There are couple of instances where a scene is very dark, but then there's a sudden light source like a flashlight or headlights that's aimed directly at the camera- it's meant to be a jarring transition. In the first half of the movie, Batman's scenes are all at night. There's also a scene with Bruce, one of the first times he's out of costume, where he puts on sunglasses in the house because the morning sun coming through the windows is too bright for him. This is a parallel with Bruce's mindset at the time.