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I don't know that I agree with that, actually. I mean, yeah, they don't usually have their arms just dangling off the sides (though I'll refer you to Siege/Earthrise Ultra Magnus and his related molds, where the hands are very obviously sticking out the back), though I think the generally brick-ish shape of a car gives more places to hide the robot parts than a more tube-shaped plane (sans wings, which are too thin to hide anything). I disagree more with the the idea that cars always get more care. I mean, I've ranted many times about Breakdown not even being close to a Lamborghini. I could point out SS86 Jazz's visible feet, or worse, Earthrise Ironhide's. Maybe the fact that even Commander-class Optimus has a void on the back of his cab, or the fact that almost every Optimus's rear section is super obvious robot legs? But they kind of are, though, when they're not making even more changes like missing spoilers (the Lambros) or erasing curves (Wheeljack) or changing bumpers (the Datsuns) to avoid licensing. As a matter of fact, I happen to think some, like SS86 Bumblebee are better for it, as they look less like the real cars I was unaware of as a 5yo and more like the cartoon I watched as a 5yo. But then again... Whereas I had a poster of a Porsche 911 (930), and dreamed of owning a real Porsche someday (happy to say I bought a '23 Porsche Taycan😁). So I like aircraft, sure, but I'm actually going to look at cars with a more critical eye. And I've cut the cars some slack (except Breakdown). Because what Transformers fans demand, more than anything, is animation accuracy. And... And that's really the crux of it. The cartoon is based on the toys (which, in the Aerialbots case sacrificed even more than usual to the combining gimmick), and 40 years later Transformers fans want toys that look like the cartoon. Is it possible to make transforming jets with good alt modes? Heck no, Bandai/Tonka did it 40 years ago with Machine Robo/Go-Bots*. But is it possible for Hasbro, today, to make a toy that's slavish to the G1 Transformers cartoon while simultaneously making a realistic aircraft that's also got enough bulk to be a combiner limb, all on a $25 budget when some 3Ps can't manage in a toy with five times (or more!) the price tag? I'm afraid not. That's why, taken for what it is, I think Air Raid is flawed but better than Combiner Wars. And, taken for what it is, Slingshot is actually pretty good. *I still desperately want modern Go-Bots toys that scale with Generations.

I'd give that one to Karen Gillan.

Huh. I'd have never thought of it on my own, but I guess I could see her as Sayla.

Finally! I have a friend that does the book merchandising for several Walmart stores, so while the ones around me are still pretty barren he was able to find this guy for me at a store about an hour from here... Age of the Primes Deluxe-class Slingshot! This time the Age of the Primes figure destroys the Combiner Wars version. It's not even close. AotP Slingshot has the correct orange goggles, the line bisecting the top of his head, no unnecessary silver on his ribs or gold on his knees, his thighs are properly white, and his overall shape is much closer to the G1 cartoon. From the front, my only gripes are the tiny stripe of white in his tummy, and the fact that his black hips should probably be red. Viewed from the back his cockpit is folded in to a backpack and his wings are on his legs, as they should be. His tail doesn't connect to his backpack, though. Instead, they fold back into some pretty massive heels. It's not the worst thing in the world, though... I'm not sure how his tail could move to the backpack without partsforming anyway. Slingshot come with this pair of guns. They don't particularly match the G1 toy, but they seem to match the cartoon pretty well. Slingshot's head is on a ball joint. Not a ton of upward tilt and basically no sideways tilt, but he looks down surprisingly well. His shoulders, sadly, are Hot Rod Shoulders™, so they swivel with no issue and can technically move 90 degrees laterally, but because the swivel is on the wrong side of the hinge he can't do both at the same time. His biceps swivel, and his elbows bend 180 degrees. No wrist articulation. His waist swivels. His hips can go 90 degrees forward and backward, and over 90 degrees laterally. His thighs swivel, and his knees bend just a hair shy of 90 degrees. The front of his feet can tilt down, due to transformation, but no upward tilt. His ankles pivot 90 degrees. He can hold his guns pretty tightly via the standard 5mm pegs. He's also got 5mm ports on the outsides of his forearms, on his wings, and despite their squarish shape on his shins. Slingshot's transformation isn't complicated at all, mostly similar to the Combiner Wars toy/AotP Air Raid. However, there are two differences from Air Raid that make the engineering here much better. First, rather than turning his shin inside out and having his feet just dangle from the bottom, his feet and heels fold down to form the tail. Second, instead of just tabbing his arms against his sides, they actually curl up and tuck in to become part of the fuselage. Slingshot is not an accurate AV-8B Harrier, as he's a bit chunky and has only the merest suggestion of intakes. He's still mostly a jet with a block of robot on the underside. I really don't think he's that bad, though. As I said, the fact that his arms actually blend into the fuselage and his feet become part of the tail instead of just hanging out underneath make him much better than Air Raid. There's even a suggestion of the vertical thrust nozzles on the sides. And his blocky alt mode is, frankly, pretty cartoon-accurate, and overall thinner than the Combiner Wars toy. In alt mode, the guns plug into the 5mm ports under the wings. You can also see landing gear in the back of his head- yes, that landing gear does fold out. There's no landing gear on the wings (as a real Harrier would have), but some molded non-functioning wheels near the peg holes at the bottoms of his shins. That's not far off from the feet wheels of the G1 toy. Gonna be honest, this isn't a review I was looking forward to writing. Given MW's stronger-than-average love of military aircraft I'm expecting the bulk of the comments to be along the lines of "look at that big block of robot underneath, why can't Hasbro/Takara make decent jet transformers?" and "doesn't have an accurate FLIR blister on the nose, 0/10," as if a toy chasing cartoon accuracy without a licensed alt mode that also has to be a block of a combined limb was ever going to come close to being a realistic Harrier on a $25 budget. And here I am, trying to tell you that despite his flaws Slingshot is actually very good! Like, best wave 1 Deluxe good, and a major upgrade from Air Raid. I'm going to tell you that you should definitely pick him up, knowing full well that many of you won't because a Deluxe-class jet is automatically a non-starter. But reviews are ultimately opinions. You don't have to agree, but mine is still that Slingshot is very good and I'd recommend him.

They seem to have intentionally based it on MP-10.

I wouldn't go that far (trash would be the Siege Astrotrain mold)... I think it looks passably fine in both modes. But I otherwise agree; it's a tad blocky and lacking it articulation, and a bit disappointing that they basically recycled and upscaled the then 15-ish year old Classics mold. We've seen enough companies do better Seekers and both the MP and Legends scales, Starscream deserves a new an improved mold (that they can then milk anywhere between 5 and 20 more times. Aside from lacking a bigger handle and the scope, what was wrong with Shockwave? I thought, for a guy that turns into a gun that can't turn into a gun anymore, he came out pretty good. Better than Sunstreaker's too-wide, no-spoiler ER toy. Worth pointing out that the previous version was a Leader, and the 86 version is listed as a Voyager... While Kranix wasn't a Cybertronian (until/unless Lithone is retconned to be a Cybertronian colony), he actually did have an alt mode, and it appeared in the Marvel Comics adaptation of the movie. Just don't ask me how they're going to pull it off without some new alt mode kibble on the robot and/or robot parts on the alt mode...

Sorry, I only have info from Hasbro, and the MP/MPG stuff is all Takara.

Some 2026 leaks Deluxes: -Blast Off -Quickstrike -Smokescreen (doesn't say which one, could be a PR of Earthrise, a new G1 mold, Armada, Prime, etc...) -Powerglide -Swerve -Animated Ratchet -Prime Cliffjumper -Quintus Prime -Sureshot Voyagers: -Amalgamous Prime -Brawl -Animated Wreck-Gar -Armada Sideways -Nexus Prime Leader: -Big Convoy -Universe Razorclaw (Tigerhawk repaint, not the Razorclaw we actually want) Commander: -Onslaught Hmm... no mention of Swindle. I guess he's coming in 2025 now? I mean, he was originally, but I'd heard he got swapped with Vortex, who originally wasn't on the 2025 schedule. Oh, and Studio Series too. Deluxe: -Devastation Bumblebee -TFOne Orion Pax -TLK Barricade (yay!) -86 Windcharger (that'll wrap up Season 1) -86 Sunstreaker (new mold, or ER?) -86 Kranix -86 Cliffjumper (ER, or a retool of 86 Bee?) -TFOne Thundercracker -TFOne Airachnid Voyagers: -86 Skywarp -86 Thundercracker (probably the ER mold again) -86 Shockwave -TFOne Alpha Trion Leader: -86 Soundwave (PR, or new mold?) -86 Astrotrain (Dear Primus please let it be a new mold that doesn't suck) -86 Snarl (definitely a PR) -TLK Nemesis Prime (a repaint of the one I just reviewed I'm hearing that there will also be a retailer-exclusive line (thought which one, I don't know) celebrating the 40th anniversary of the 86 movie. Expect it to have a Deluxe-class Hound, Voyager-class Scourge, Voyager-class Hot Rod, and a Leader-class Optimus Prime. I'd be willing to bet that it's the Earth-mode hound from the multipack, the Scourge and Hot Rod we already got (maybe redecoed in toy colors, since Veloctitron was already supposed to have a toy-colored Hot Rod?), and Commander Optimus sans trailer and all his accessories save his rifle. Is it weird that I kind of want to buy the JP Menasor set (or rather, regret not buying the Hasbro one) just because I want Breakdown and Wildrider? I'd probably sell the other three.

I'm not sure what the logic behind MPG Prime is. It's giving me more OX/manga vibes, very different from the hardcore Sunbow look of MP-44. By itself that's fine, but they supposedly killed the regular MP line for MPG, and I wonder what that means for the characters that never had an MP release yet.

Arcee's toy? No, it was designed at the same time the other 86 movie toys were, and like those toys it was based on Floro Dery's earlier designs and not the finalized designs seen in the movie, hence the weird fender shoulders and pink-and-orange color scheme. It apparently never got past the resin prototype stage, though. The prevailing theory was boys playing with Transformers wouldn't want a toy of a girl one. The Missing Link toy is based on the resin prototype. Anyhoo... just one more toy to review for now, but by my count I'm still waiting on two figures from Age of the Primes and three from the current Studio Series wave. Hopefully I find them soon (I even went out for a drive to a more distant but bigger Walmart this morning, but they didn't have anything but Transformers One leftovers and empty pegs). But for now, he's Studio Series Deluxe-class Wheeljack (Que). Fun fact, this is actually Que's first release in the US. A toy was created for him during the Dark of the Moon toyline, released in Asian markets as "Wheeljack" and Japan as "Autobot Que," but Hasbro canceled the US release at the 11th hour. Needless to say, the Bayverse fans (yes, that's a thing... remember, we just a little shy of the '07 movie turning 20, so there's a whole generation of young adults for whom this was their G1) are pretty giddy. Should they be? He looks pretty bland, to me. Sure, in the film Que is primarily blue and silver, but the Studio Series toy has a lot of gray plastic that really ought to have some blue paint (including a second, lighter shade that Hasbro applied to his eyes and hair and nowhere else). There's some gold paint on his mustache and his belt buckle, but again that's leaving a ton of details that should have gold accents unpainted. He's also got quite a lot of kibble. This is arguably true for many of the Bayformers in the Studio Series line up. Like I said yesterday, the overly busy, alien designs used in the movies never really lent themselves well to transforming toys, resulting in a lot of shellformers. And look, I'm prepared to forgive some forearm and calf kibble. I can overlook a bit of a backpack. What's driving me crazy, though, are the two panels running from his shoulder pads all the way down to his knees. They're not screen accurate, and they're constantly in the way. Then there's his accessories. He's got a little gun-looking thing, and a... stick. Que's articulation is pretty much trash. His head swivels and looks down, but no upward or sideways tilt. His shoulders are ball joints with a swivel heavily restricted by his shoulder pads, and lateral movement under 90 degrees. His biceps swivel, and his ball-jointed elbows bend 90 degrees. No wrist or waist articulation. His ball-jointed hips can go 90 degrees forward, a bit less than 90 laterally, but almost nothing backward due to his backpack kibble. His thighs swivel, and his knees bend 90 degrees. Due to his transformation his feet have a little up/down tilt, but no pivot. He can hold his gun without much issue, but the stick? The 5mm ports in his hands don't go all the way through, so he can hold it by sticking the very end into a hand, far from where you'd hold it as a spear or staff, or you can plug the 5mm peg on it into his hand like an oversized billy club. Honestly, I think the best thing you can do with it is to stick the weird-shaped tab into a spot on his back above his alt mode grill, then use a 3mm port to plug his gun into the stick. This weird stick kibble is actually present on Que's back in the movie, so... yay accuracy? Lift Que's entire backpack, including his shoulder pads, up and away from his body. Untab the sides and line them up with the wheels on his shoulder pads, and unfold his windshield. Tuck his shoulders close to his body, then use his elbow, bicep swivel, and a transformation hinge in his forearm to kind of turn his arms around behind his back so his fingers point at his head and the kibble on his forearms meet to form the roof. The back of his calves will swivel so that his feet turn inward. Stop at about 90 degrees, fold in his heel and tuck the foot in, then continue to swivel another 90 degrees to line up the back of the car. From there, it's just a matter of using some hinges and swivels to swing the shoulder pads and the sides of the car into place without adequate clearance to do so. Credit where it's due, Hasbro got a license from Mercedes-Benz, and Que turns into a decent (if you ignore the transformation seems) E550 (W212, pre-facelift). The headlights, taillights, foglights, and most of the grill are accurate to the real car, as well as the chrome strip across the back, the MB badge on the trunk, and the E550 in the rear corner. If nothing else, at least the Studio Series line has given us some nice, licensed cars. Well, nice until you try to figure out what to do with his gear. Essentially, there's a cutout near the bottom of the door, under the wing mirror. You plug the gun into the stick, like you would for his backpack, then plug the stick into that cutout. Because, yeah, I've totally seen people driving a Benz with a giant weird stick hanging off the side. Look, I know that there are Bayverse fans out there, many of whom have been frustrated that so much of Studio Series has been taken over by Gamer Edition, 86, and Rise of the Beasts in the last few years. They want to complete their movie casts. They will lap this up while insisting that Habro also make some other blink-and-you'll-miss-him guy you have to look up on the TF Wiki to realize even had a name. Good for them, I guess, but for everyone else Que's kind of trash. His robot mode is bland, kibble-covered mess with below-average articulation and accessories I kind of hate, even if they are movie-accurate. Really the only nice thing I have to say about him is that he's got a nice car mode and he ticks a box toward completing the Dark of the Moon cast. I think the majority of you should avoid this figure.

I want to find the guy who pitched a dark sci-fi Metroidvania of Pac-Man and shake his hand. And maybe find out what he's smoking.

I was already in on "Marvel brawler," but it's apparently from the peeps that did the very excellent Shredder's Revenge, so know I can't wait. Playable Spidey, Venom, Wolverine, and Storm? Deep cut Annihilus for the villain? It's like a sequel to the X-Men Arcade game and Maximum Carnage at the same time, and I'm so here for it.

No, I've only played a little of the NES and SNES games.

I'm not super into schmups, but I'll grab it on a Steam sale. Ironically, I put almost everything I liked in the new Nintendo Direct onto my Steam wishlist.

Interesting, considering that reliable leakers were saying it wasn't going to be shown. I'm also surprised that it looks like it's still coming to the Switch 1. It's a must-buy for me (I wish 2-3 would get ports, too). Dragon Quest I+II, Raidou Remastered, the Marvel beat 'em up, and that Pac Man metroidvania are high on my wish list too, but I'll get those on PC. The digital game card feature seems cool, should make it easier to share games with my kid.

All the more reason to get off HG's sinking ship.

I must be too American. Didn't recognize the face, and "CR7" meant nothing to me. I had to Google it, and when I finally figured out that it's Cristiano Ronaldo I said, "Oh, the soccer player! Wait, why they heck would I want to play as a soccer player in a fighting game?!"

If Harmony Gold were smart they'd sell the rights back to Big West, liquidate their other assets, close their doors, and Frank Agrama would retire before he gets in any more legal trouble instead of trying to wring any more blood from the stone that is Robotech. Then again, if Harmony Gold were smart they'd probably have more to show for 42 years of business than Shaka Zulu, Robotech, and a Abe & Bruno.

I'm going hold off on more Studio Series Voyagers for now, and jump straight to the Leader... Age of Extinction Optimus Prime. Given that he's actually slightly smaller than the Voyager-class figure from The Last Knight, we're back to "Leader" really meaning "Voyager Plus." And next to my copy of the TLK Voyager, it's a tad hard to see where the plus is even coming from. But it's important to remember that I repainted a lot of that figure, with Toyhax stickers for a lot of the flame details. So I went and found a photo of how the TLK figure originally looked, and ok, there's definitely some improvements. Rather than use an ugly darker gray plastic with bits of silver paint, the new SS figure uses a lighter gray for Prime's silver parts, with just some silver on his shins. He's got some of the gold accents on his tummy and knees (but not the ones in his chest or the rest of his shins). He's got the red on top of his feet, blue hip skirts and blue on the backs of his hands, plus the proper flame deco and silver vents on his boobs. There's no blue on parts that aren't supposed to be blue but were on the older figure, like his collar and most of his head. At the end of the day, though, this is still a mainline figure. The budget ran out before the deco was totally screen accurate, and he's not pulling off Unique Toys black magic engineering. He's still missing some blue on his shoulders, some red on his collar, and some flames on his shoulder pads and legs. His legs still have kibble, like the smokestacks for his truck mode and parts of his roof, and he's still got quite a backpack. While pretty noticeable from the sides and back, I would argue that his silhouette is overall improved from the front, as he doesn't have doors poking out like wings and fenders and wheels on his ankles. A Leader budget also comes with more accessories. You get a sword, a shield, an arm blade, and a little connector piece. The sword and shield are bigger than the ones that came with the TLK toy. Like the figure itself, they're technically more accurate (no orange blade, no weird blue shield); the red and silver on the sword are fine, but the pommel is left uncolored and it's missing a few blue accents. And the silver and red on the shield are mostly fine, but some of the red and gold accents are missing, as is the blue on the rather large bit at the top. Prime's head is a ball joint with a fairly limited up/down tilt, but surprisingly adequate sideways tilt and swivel. His shoulders rotate and move slightly over 90 degrees laterally; the shoulder pads are both double-hinged and on a swivel, so they can easily get out of the way. His biceps swivel, and his double-jointed elbows curl a full 180 degrees. His wrists swivel and can bend inward, and his fingers are hinged so his hands can open. His waist swivels, though his hip skirts are connected to his upper body so you'll have to lift them to clear his hips. Speaking of hips, they can move 90 degrees forward or laterally, but only about 75 degrees backward (which is honestly plenty) due to his backpack. His thighs swivel, and his knees bend 90 degrees. The front half of his foot can tilt downward, nothing up, and he's got 90 degrees of ankle pivot. The entire handle comes off of the sword, so you can feed it up through the bottom of a fist then reattach the blade, though with his opening hands you can kind of just snap them into his hands. He can hold the arm blade in his other hand, but with his wrists bent forward you can also plug them into slots on his forearms. The shield plugs into the 5mm port on either forearm. It can open up to show the gun built into it, but opening it actually requires pulling off the sides, which are simply plugged into 5mm ports on the base of the shield, and reattaching them to different 5mm ports. Prime has storage for all his gear, but it's a bit annoying. You need the connector piece, which the sword slides into. But to find a 5mm port on Prime's back, you have to life part of the truck kibble, which makes it visible from the front. Once it's attached, you can plug the shield into the 5mm port on the connector part. The arm blade has a slot on one side. It can either plug into the side of the door kibble on the edge of his backpack, or a tab under the gun on the underside of the shield. Prime's a bit shellformery, with a large portion of the cab coming from his backpack and almost he entire rest of what you see in alt mode coming from his legs as his head, arms, and upper torso tuck away inside the backpack cab. I think the transformation is generally more interesting and a bit smoother than the TLK Voyager, though. Speaking of, they're now nearly identical in size, and while my customized TLK definitely looks better in truck mode, it's worth noting again how that figure looked before I customized it. Details like the vents on the hood, the flames on the rear fenders, and the blue that should run along the bottom are all missing. Guess that paint budget didn't hold up. On the whole, though, it's a pretty good sculpt, and the missing paint details are par for the course with Bayverse Studio Series figures. Prime hauls his gear by plugging the connector part into the 5mm port on the hitch. That allows the sword to slide through it, with the point moving through a cutout on the back of the cab. There's just enough space for the shield to plug into the 5mm port on the connector. The arm blade doesn't fit on the shield in this mode, but the slot on the side of the blade can fit over a tab between the rear wheels on either side. Or, another option is to attach a trailer. SS86 Prime's trailer fits pretty well (I'm becoming tempted to buy a second SS86 Optimus for a spare trailer for other Primes, while the robot himself could be permanently turned into Skybound Optimus with that upcoming DNA kit...). Reviewing Studio Series figures on the heels of Age of the Primes can be a bit hard. Hasbro tends to do a better job with G1 characters, as the busy designs of the Bayverse just don't lend themselves to transforming toys on a budget. Coming off of some bangers like SS86 Optimus, the IDW remold of Gamer Edition Optimus, and Reactivate Optimus it's tempting to see the flaws in SS AoE Optimus and think it's not that much better than the old Voyager, that it's kind of just an OK figure. And maybe that's not wrong, but the fact is that while this version of Optimus Prime has been done better, it hasn't been done by Hasbro, and not at this price. Even the Leader toys from the Age of Extinction and The Last Knight lines were pretty kibble-tastic, and the deco, silhouette, and engineering beat out any unmodified Voyagers while we're at it. To be perfectly honest, this is also probably the best Studio Series figures Bayverse Optimus has gotten, period, beating out SS-05 and it's remolded and repainted Revenge of the Fallen and Dark of the Moon iterations (would love to see that design get a Commander-class glow-up). So, no, he's not my favorite figure this year (though, with some notable figures from this wave still MIA, he might be my favorite SS figure so far this year), I do like him. If you've got a shelf or two going for the Bayverse, this figure is worth picking up. But as if often the case, if you're not into the movie designs this isn't going to be the figure that makes you change your mind.

They look really cute, but I hear that the people that did that Core-class gun Megatron are doing a Core-class Predaking (and Devastator, and maybe Bruticus and Menasor for good measure). I'm holding out for those.

Since Raiden was the first MPG (or, technically, like the first several MPGs) it was assumed that the "G" was for "gattai." Then Takara decided it's for gattai, but also giant and great, then they stuffed Ginrai into it (but only Super Ginrai, because Ginrai by himself is still just regular MP), canceled the regular MP line, then started sticking whatever into it with no sense of scale or unified aesthetics. So I'm pretty sure MPG stands for "My Primus God-these-Transformers-fans-will-buy-whatever-we-shovel-at-them!"

Interesting. From the silhouette it looks less Sunbow. More MP-10, less MP-44. And the back of the truck doesn't look like robot legs.

Well, been driving around looking for Slingshot and the Age of the Prime wave 1 Leader, but no dice. In the meantime, Amazon sent me some of the new Studio Series figures (though not Bonecrusher or Scrapper... sensing a pattern here...). So we'll open with a Deluxe- Transformers One Badassatron/B127/Bumblebee. The first thing I noticed about Bee is that he's actually a tad smaller than movie-line Prime Changer toy. I reckon that has a lot to do with scaling him with the Studio Series TFOne Optimus (as opposed to the Prime Changers, where Prime and Bee wound up the same size). But a closer look does reveal a figure that's a bit more screen-accurate, with more of a cutout collar, gunmetal biceps, gold on his crotch and hip skirts, and wheels that are part of his feet rather than the bottom of his legs. However, it's a case of two steps forward, one step back as he looses the gunmetal details on his forearms and the gold on the backs of his hands. He's also go some protrusions on the sides of his knees. They're not on the robot CGI model. Spinning him around... he's got kind of chunky legs, but I guess his alt mode bits have to go somewhere, and I'm pretty sure the animators weren't too concerned with how that worked when they did the CGI. He's also got a little backpack, but that's far from the most egregious one we've looked at (or will look at) this week. Badassatron comes with more accessories than the Prime Changer. You've got his blaster, and there's two this time. He's got his knife hands, and they're separate parts from the blaster now. And you've got a rifle I don't actually recall Bee using in the film. I'm pretty sure Bee's head is on a ball joint with no issue swiveling, but up/down tilt is fairly limited and sideways tilt is basically nonexistent. His shoulders are, unfortunately, ball joints, but they do serve to swivel and move laterally 90 degrees. His biceps swivel, and his elbows bend 90 degrees. No wrist articulation. His waist swivels. His hips, which are sadly also ball joints, can go forward 90 degrees but only about 60-70 degrees laterally and backward. His thighs swivel, and his knees bend 90 degrees. The one thing that's definitely an upgrade over the Prime Changer are the feet. Due to how he transforms, his feet can tilt down 90 degrees, and as long as you don't mind untabbing his calves you can cheat and tilt his feet up nearly 90 degrees as well. Plus he's got just short of 90 degrees of ankle pivot. Bee's blasters peg into his hands; they're not identical, so only one blaster fits on his right hand and one on his left. His knives plug into slots on the blasters. He can hold the knives in his hands, but there's no way to plug them into his wrists like you see in the movie. As an alternative to his blaster, you can have him hold the rifle. I kind of think the rifle isn't really for Bee, though. I mean, I'll have to watch it a third time to confirm he doesn't actually use it. But you know who doesn't have a gun, and who definitely did use that rifle in the movie? Optimus. Well, Bee has storage for his accessories. You leave the knives in the blasters, then the blasters have tabs that plug into slots on his back. The rifle has a peg on one side, and that peg just happens to fit into his butt. That said, I'm going to be storing that rifle in Optimus' hand. Bee's transformation is surprisingly involved compared to the Prime Changer. His back opens up, but rather than tucking in his head it's so you can fold out a panel. This allows you to lift his whole chest up over his head. His forearms open up and his hands fold in, then they swivel so the backs of his arms are on the outside. He bends backward at the waist, which lines up the backs of his legs with his backpack to form most of the top of the car. His feet fold down 90 degrees, then his calves untab from his legs and swivel around so his feet tab into his shins. Then you can finish him off by using hinges to shift his shoulders up into the wheel wells, and his forearms will tab into his hips and feet to finish the sides of the car. Despite being a smaller robot, SS Bee is is roughly the same size as the Prime Changer in alt mode. Bee's alt mode is more of a lateral move than a real improvement over the Prime Changer. The front end, most of the roof, and the gold rims are basically the same. Between the wheels the sides are similar. Both have the rear that overhangs past the rear wheel. Neither have sides between the wheels and roof that look particularly finished, though the protrusions on his knees make more sense now as they are a movie-accurate alt mode detail. And both are lacking the actual wheels the CGI model had, rolling instead on what are supposed to just be rims. If nothing else, though, Bee can still carry his gear. The tabs that connected his blasters to his backpack now fit into slots near the rear of the vehicle, though the ones on his backpack are still available close to the front if you prefer. And the rifle uses the 5mm peg on the one side to plug into a 5mm port on the side of the vehicle. Studio Series Badassatron is a pretty decent figure, a moderate improvement over the Prime Changer with more accessories to boot. I just feels like he's come a bit late... as good as Transformers One was (and it was good, probably my favorite Transformers movie after the '86 one), it seems it underperformed in the box office and then just disappeared, so the enthusiasm I once had for toys of those characters has waned a bit. So I guess I'd ask you, do you want transformable toys to represent the cast of this movie? Did you already pick up Prime and Megatron? If your answer is yes, then you should also pick up Bee. But if your answer is no, well, I don't think there's anything here that's going to change your mind.

I personally don't get the hate for Windows 11. I upgraded for auto HDR and direct storage, and once I got a 32:9 monitor I came to really appreciate the centered task bar. That said, if Windows 11 is really a no-go for you, maybe Steam OS? Valve is starting to make it available to system builders. I'm my experience with the Steam Deck it has a surprisingly usable desktop mode, and I had no trouble running the bulk of the games in my Steam library.

The other Age of the Primes Voyager is a character that definitely wasn't in the G1 cartoon, but you might know him if you played that pretty awesome Transformers PS2 game back in the day... it's Armada Red Alert. Yeah, that, right there... that's the entire selectable cast of the PS2 game. It's also what I'd consider to be the "main" cast of Autobots from the Armada cartoon- aside from humans and Minicons, this was the entire Autobot force until Smokescreen joined the cast in the tenth episode. As a depiction of Red Alert, the Age of the Primes toy is pretty good! The sculpt, especially his head, strikes me as more cartoony than the original toy. Hasbro was pretty generous with the paint, too, giving him darker kneepads, silver on his bumper and grill, gray around his grill, yellow headlights, and black around the headlights. He's missing a little, though, with no red stripes on his head and no yellow on his biceps (though that could be a good thing, as the yellow on the cartoon came from the gold plastic used for the joints on the original toy). Red Alert does have a bit of a backpack, yes, and some kibble on his legs. However, as the Armada cartoon was much more faithful to the toy designs than G1, this is still pretty accurate. Do note, though, the gap on the left side of his backpack. Red Alert comes with a total of four accessories, one of which you could consider his standard left hand (bottom). Additionally, he's got another translucent red piece, a solid gray piece, and a gun. The gun is, a bit disappointingly, solid white plastic. The original toy had some black/dark gray around one end and some blue over the ribbed middle section. The cartoon traded blue for silver, but it still had more color than we got here. Red Alert's head is on a ball joint that can swivel and look up slightly, but lacks any meaningful sideways or forward tilt. His shoulders rotate and move 90 degrees laterally. His biceps swivel, and his double-jointed elbows can bend 90 degrees. His right hand swivels. He does have a waist swivel, too. His hips can go 90 degrees forward and just a little short of that laterally, but his backpack gives his hips minimal backward range. His thighs swivel, and his knees bend 90 degrees. His feet can tilt up 90 degrees due to his transformation, backward about 45 degrees, and his ankles pivot just a little short of 90 degrees. The kibble on his legs can swivel, but he lacks the fold-out Minicon repair bay the G1 toy had. Red Alert can hold his gun in his right hand, as he did in the cartoon, or it can mounted to a double hinge on his backpack to become a shoulder cannon. His left wrist simply ends in a 5mm port that you can use to attach either of the red parts or the gray part. Likewise, there's a 5mm port at the end of his gun that you can also plug the smaller bits into. Red Alert is packing storage for all of his accessories, too. If you lift up his backpack and fold out the flap on the inside, you'll find a tiny peg. This peg fits into the center of the gray part; then you simply fold his backpack back up. The gun, in shoulder cannon mode, can simply flip over and fill in the gap on the left side of his backpack. As for the translucent red parts, there's little spots for them on the inside of his leg kibble. Those spots aren't just for robot storage, mind you. That's where they go in alt mode, too, which is good because you do have to remove whatever part you're using as his left hand before transforming him. Aside from that bit of partsforming, his transformation is very straightforward. Swivel his biceps in 90 degrees, then move his shoulders laterally so the back of his biceps tab into the doors on top of his shoulders. Curl the elbows 180 degrees, then swivel his shoulders so the doors are oriented properly. Life the Autobot badge on top of his chest, flip out the inner flap, tuck his head into the cavity you created, and close the flap over it. Lift his windshield, then his entire backpack, folding out the inner flap, and line the windshield up with the hood, then fold his arms back like you're closing his doors. Tuck in his heels, then fold his feet up to his shins. Joints in his calves will allow you to fold part of his lower legs around to tuck his feet behind the leg kibble. Then you simply bend his torso under his chest to swing his hips and legs back, and line up the kibble on his legs to fill in the rear of the vehicle. Again, his vehicle mode is looking pretty good, what with the paint on his grill, lights, front bumper, etc. There's also the red stripe across the side, and gunmetal trim on the fenders and skirts. It's just a dang shame that the paint budget ran out before they could finish, as his rear bumper, taillights, and and some other details on the rear that should be gunmetal are left bare white. The Red Cross symbol on the original toy has been replaced with the more modern Autobot one. Probably for the best... I understand that the Red Cross sued Hasbro over the original toy, which is why the cartoon had no symbol at all. In a similar fashion, AotP Red Alert loses the gold rims of the original toy, but that seems more cartoon accurate that way. The Minicon ports on the hood and doors have been replaced with 5mm pegs. However, there's still a peg on the translucent red part. Too bad I don't have an original Minicon to try on it. Not too much else to say. It's not activated by a Minicon, but again part of his roof can flip over to be a gun in this mode. And he rolls fine. Honestly, it's a bit of a shame that a lot of you are likely to pass over Red Alert, as the Unicron Trilogy seems pretty overlooked by the G1 crowd. While lacking in gimmicks, Red Alert is solid and straightforward in a way that I wish more modern Transformers were. He's quietly the best Age of the Primes figure so far, and I'd recommend giving him a chance.