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mikeszekely

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  1. mikeszekely
    So this is kind of old news, but I guess the Hasbro team did a Q&A? Here's some relevant stuff from it- -"The Stunticons will not be the end of combiners. They are looking to expand on this in newer ways than before. There won't be interchangeable figures like in Scramble City." I think this is for the best. I'm guessing most of us who bought the Combiner Wars stuff put them together in the "standard" configurations anyway. Ditching Scramble City allows them to ditch CW connector, which was apparently costly and a big reason why the CW figures kind of sucked. Also, more Combiners! *crosses fingers for Combaticons that don't suck* -"Studio Series 86 has been a great success with no intention of stopping what they are doing with that line. There are more coming next year." While this is, generally, a good thing, I'll note that this was the response given about whether or not Hasbro is doing the other Dinobots. -"Do you want to see a Soundwave to go with it? Do you want it to be a Voyager a scale figure too?" This was the answer given when asked if Hasbro was planning a Soundwave to go with the recently-revealed Blaster. Not really an answer, though, but it could be them playing coy. My money is on a new Soundwave coming, but maybe not in 2022. -Obviously, the Legacy promo art had some stuff like G2 Megatron, Hot Rod, a Seeker, and some kind of dragon that weren't announced. Someone asked Hasbro about it, and this was the response. "We love the artwork and how fans are reading into them and finding Easter Eggs. Just keep paying attention to what's coming. They are using more real estate on the boxes to tease more things." -When asked about Gen Selects and Legacy: "Legacy should expand more into these kinds of weird figures. Mark and Evan go back and forth on insane character figures like Action Masters and even Machine Wars ideas. Be prepared for some releases you may not expect." Do Thunderclash in the Legacy line, then give me a Machine Wars Optimus Gen Selects! -Asked if Weaponizers or Fossilizers will continue in Legacy: "What's next is so much crazier. Can't say but they saw the fan's reactions to what was done with the Weaponziers and want to engage that even further. The design team feels it is going to get absolutely nuts for customizing and compatibility. Almost like its Lego that you can build yourself." -Asked about the upcoming anniversary of Armada. They confirmed nothing, but more or less said they wouldn't do a multiple-universe thing like Legacy without including Armada. -Asked if there will be more Titans. "Yes. They love doing them so they plan to keep making more." -They were asked about why Origins Bumblebee wound up in Buzzworthy but not Siege. They weren't really sure. They mentioned that it takes about two years to go from idea to toy on the shelves, so they don't remember everything. But someone did suggest they wanted to Thunderclash.
  2. mikeszekely
    Magic Square's new Prime looks a lot more like MP-44 or Transform Element's Prime. Good for anyone who likes that super Sunbow look, but I'll stick with the first version, which matches the Magic Square Prime I have in my MP collection.😁
  3. mikeszekely
    "Constructicons! Transform and merge into Devastator!" "...we can't." Carcel's arms rotate 180 degrees and lock back in, and he stands up on his shovel. A toe comes out of Morbus' upturned cab, the wheels flip over flat, and a forked tab locks the cab in place. Berith uses an armature for the truck to split in half and bend around. Paimon's legs bend 90 degrees at the hips. And Rum and Vane more or less stay the same (actually you'll want to fold Rum's seat and canopy down, but that's about it. And, yeah, that's not really enough to combine. There's no head or forearms. No chest shield. Folding Paimon at his own hips isn't creating hips and thighs for the gestalt. For that, NewAge has us going with the ol' partsforming solution to combiners, and to get those parts you have to buy a whole fourth set. Partsforming, especially with Devastators, is nothing new. I mean, even if we ignore the gun and the head cannon (and the other packed in missiles and drills), the G1 toy had a separate head, chest shield, forearms, hands, pelvis, and crotch. In terms of separated parts, NewAge actually has a lot less with their Hephaestus kit, which contains... well, about 75% of the gestalt body and a rifle. Nothing is designed to come apart from that body; the chest shield, the hands, the head, it's all attached. I have strongly mixed feelings here. On the one hand, as I've noted, partsforming has always been a thing. While I applaud MMC's "all-built-in" gimmick with their combiners I've never viewed it as a necessity. If Prime's trailer can just appear out of nowhere, so can combiner hands and chests, and there is an argument to be had that "pants" adds articulation and stability to the gestalt. On the other hand, between this and the various Menasors I've collected, I'm getting tired of the majority of the gestalt being a separate, almost complete robot on it's own that you decorate with the team members. I also find it a little off-putting when you buy all the team members then you still have to make another purchase before you can combine them. At least the Hephaestus set is a lot cheaper than an XTB Monolith trailer. OK, let's put them together. Split Carcel's legs then wrap them around the T-shaped tab on Hephaestus' right knee. For Morbus, you want to line these two slots with tabs on Hephaestus' left knee. Then, with the mixing drum extended an extra level, use a slot and a tab on the spout to connecting into a slot and tab on the front of Hephaestus' knee. There are two hooks you'll need to undo on the top of Hephaestus. Once they're unlatched his top can fold back, and his flanks and arms can move out and down. That'll give you the room to insert Berith behind the chest plate. Then just close it all back up and close the latches. Paimon feels the most superfluous to the gestalt. Push the upper half of Hephaestus forward to expose a cavity in his torso. Stuff Paimon in so that a slot under his own pelvis fits onto a tab at the back of the cavity in Hephaestus' body. Paimon's legs are still dangling out the back. You can lock them in place by using a small hinged part on Hephaestus' back, plugging it into two square holes on the back of Paimon's legs. Finally, we have the arms. From excavator mode, fold down and open Vane's legs, wrap them around Hephaestus' right shoulder so that the tabs on the shoulder fit into slots on Vane's legs. Then bend the rest of Vane back down so he plugs into that big peg on Hephaestus' bicep. Rum is the easiest to attach. There's two tabs on Hephaestus' left shoulder, and two slots on Rum's underside when he's in bulldozer mode. Just line them up and plug him in. I might have preferred if the Constructicons themselves made up a little more of Hephaestus' body, but it's hard to argue with the results. We started with robots roughly the size of the G1 toys that often turned into smaller vehicles than the G1 toys, and we got a gestalt that stands significantly taller than either the G1 or DX9's aging Hulkie. It's also a very proportional figure; his arms aren't too long, his chest isn't too broad, his waist isn't too narrow, etc. Hephaestus is also taller than Iron Factory's Bruticus, and somewhat surprisingly is very close in height to Magic Square's Menasor (which makes me think that, despite having smaller Constructicons, Hephaestus will probably be similar in size to Magic Square's Devastator, but time will tell). Well, mass-shifting is often touted as another benefit of partsforming. While I'm curious to see how Magic Square's Devastator and/or a crop of newer MP Devastators than the aging Constructor turn out, Hephaestus is arguably the most cartoon-accurate Devastator you can get that still transforms- Before and After's Engineer General still being the most cartoon accurate overall. But, frankly, have you looked at Devastator's animation model? Mixmaster's cab gets weirdly tall, Scrapper becomes an I-shaped block with a shovel and stilts, they both loose their wheels, and Scavenger loses his shovel. It's honestly impressive how much NewAge still managed to copy from the animation model; a toe still folds out of Morbus' cab, and I didn't bother with it but you can fold in all but two of the teeth on Carcel's shovel. Carcel's body combines with the knee to make the I-shape, albeit an elongated one, and molded detail still splits that thigh. His crotch and hip joints are purple, like the cartoon, and as I mentioned when I reviewed him the sides of Rum's treads are purple to reflect the animation mode, where they magically change colors. While Devastator definitely had eyes in some episodes, he's probably best remembered for having a visor. NewAge has you covered! Lift his forehead up and inside there's a translucent visor you can fold out. Personally, even if I didn't normally prefer the visored look, I think its the way to go here as it's noticeably red while the eyes are a little dead. NewAge did include a light up gimmick, but that's really no excuse as companies like MMC have shown with their Bruticus that it's totally possible to have painted eyes that look good with the lights off but still light up. Hephaestus' articulation is quite good, probably due to most of the joints being supplied by the Hephaestus body and not the Constructicons. His head's on a ball joint that can look up and down some, plus has some decent sideways tilt in addition to the usual swivel. His shoulders rotate, no problem. His right shoulder can move about 45 degrees laterally, his left more like 60-70. His biceps swivel, and his elbows bend over 90 degrees, revealing some diecast pistons in the process. His wrists swivel and have a hinge for folding up so he can push his palm into the ground. All of his fingers and thumbs are on ball joints at the base, which lets them fold over the palm but also splay outward. Then each digit also has an addition pin-hinge knuckle. His waist swivels, and he's got about 45 degrees of ab crunch at the waist. If you need more, you can fold below the chest, where you open him to install Paimon. The chest plate is even on hinges so it moves out and forward instead of bending in with his chest. His hip skirts are all hinged, allow him to move his hips 90 degrees forward, backward, and laterally. The lateral joints are even ratcheted. His thighs swivel, and his knees are are double-jointed for nearly 180 degrees of bend. As the first joint, a friction hinge, moves it'll expose diecast pistons like his elbows did, plus the front of his thigh will slide down like some Gundam models. The second hinge is ratcheted, and I find myself strongly wishing that both were. While the tolerances on the friction joints aren't bad, there's so much weight above them that I found it difficult to get him into the above pose because the friction joint in the knee kept collapsing. Moving on, Carcel's waist joint is hindered only by his canopy getting caught on his ankles, so it's effectively an ankle swivel. Neither foot has any up/down tilt, but NewAge did build ankle pivots into Carcel and Mobus' waists. Aside from the friction knees, the only other trouble you'll run into posing Hephaestus is that he tends to be a little back heavy. They did build a heel spur into Morbus, but Carcel doesn't have one. What's more, Carcel's arms are straight, like the G1, Combiner Wars, and honestly most 3P Devastators to date. But if you look at the animation model, Scrapper's arms were sort of angled (which is apparently what Magic Square is doing). If NewAge had tried for something more like that it'd have given Hephaestus more of a heel, made him more stable, and had the benefit of being more cartoon accurate. Hephaestus holds his gun in an MP-style fashion, with tabs on the handle that plug into slots on the palms before wrapping the fingers around the handle. Like his head, you can open the gun to install batteries. There's an LED at the tip of the barrel, but there also seems to be a speaker on the PCB. Unfortunately, I swear there's some kind of unspoken rule in China that everything has to use a different batteries, so despite having a pile of various button cells I don't have any that fit in the gun to test it. Unless you're really put off by the partsforming, there's a lot to like with Hephaestus. And honestly, even though I'm not loving the necessity of a extra purchase just to combine the six Combaticons, the total price isn't that much different than what I paid for Magic Square's Menasor ($283 for all NewAge sets at TFSafari vs $280 for the three Stunticon sets from The Chosen Prime). And if we assume that Magic Square includes everything you need to make Devastator without any additional sets, and that the third set costs the same as the first two (which, honestly, might be a big assumption), it'll be at least $260. So I can't say that the total price isn't fair. Honestly, for now I'd give Hephaestus a recommend. Aesthetically he's the best transforming Devastator on the market so far, making me realize that Constructor is just begging to be replaced by something a lot more cartoon accurate, and Hulkie's looking so bad now that you're definitely going to want to swap him out for your Legends collection. Really, the only reasons not to pick up Hephaestus are you're waiting for Magic Square or you're just not into Legends.
  4. mikeszekely
    Legs and arms done, here's the final two NewAge Constructicons, Berith and Paimon. To be clear, this time I'm not 100% sure who's who. The box says this guy is Berith, the instructions list him as Paimon. But since the box has the names on the front and sides, and the instructions have the names listed just the once, I'm going to say this one is Berith. Anyway... Hook's a tough one to get right, I think. The head sculpt is good, the depressed abs and chest details are all cartoon accurate, and I like how they painted the "wheels" in his arms. His "feet" have the proper cartoon shape, with a few extra molded details. The only thing I can really say isn't totally cartoon accurate is that his right foot and the part of the left foot that isn't the cab are green instead of matching his legs, but to be totally fair the decision not to color them green in the cartoon was an odd choice in the first place that would require those parts to magically color shift between modes, so I'm going to let it slide. So if Hook is Berith, then this guy would be Paimon. Initially I thought his proportions are kind of weird, with long, big legs and a fairly small torso. I might just be used to Long Haul being a bit of a bruiser, though, because he's honestly very cartoon accurate. The truck details on his chest, the molded details on his pelvis, and the red rectangles and purple circles on his legs are all straight from the cartoon. Speaking of straight from the cartoon, I love that his colors are unapologetically from the cartoon, with the light gray head, dark gray arms, and almost entirely green everything else. Too many previous attempts, including Hasbro's own Combiner Wars version, try to work in black on the head, purple on the arms, or silver on the thighs like a hybrid of the cartoon and G1 toy. One note about Paimon's legs, out of the box they come like they are in the comparison photo. While he's fine that way, I didn't realize until looking at the instructions that NewAge actually intended for the flaps on his shins to double hinge so they stick forward and come more straight down to his feet, as above. Anyway... you'll be so surprised to hear the set comes with two unpainted gray guns with fairly cartoonish sculpts (the one with the scope is Berith's) and a pair of gold-painted bugles. Berith's articulation seems a bit limited, perhaps as a concession to his combined mode? Anyway, his head is on a ball joint, but between the shape of his head and those panels over his collar he gets just a little downward tilt and an almost imperceptibly small swivel. His ball-jointed shoulders can rotate and extend 90 degrees laterally. His biceps swivel, and his elbows bend just a hair over 90 degrees. His wrists swivel, and he's got the same pinned fingers as Carcel and Rum. No waist swivel (I think it would have been possible to have included one), but he does have 90 degrees of ab crunch. Ball jointed hips get 90 degrees laterally, but slightly less than that forward and backward. His thighs swivel, and his double-jointed knees bend 180 degrees. No upward tilt, but due to transformation his feet can tilt down, and his ankles can pivot 90 degrees. Once again, because of pinned fingers, his grip on his accessories is a bit loose. This time, though, opening his hand is necessary for transformation, so what are you going to do? Paimon's head is on a ball joint that swivels and looks down a bit. He can't really look up with it, but there's a transformation hinge you can use to get him to look up with. Just don't push it too far, as it breaks the sculpt. His ball-jointed shoulders rotate and extend a little under 90 degrees laterally, as those tires get in the way. His elbows and biceps are a little weird. There's a ball joint that serves as his bicep swivel and 90 degrees of elbow bend. There's a hinge, too, that you can use to get an extra 90 degrees of elbow bend, but it's above the ball joint and therefore above the bicep swivel. His wrists swivel, and he's got the same pinned hands (making Morbus and Vane the oddballs). His waist swivels, and he's got 90 degrees of ab crunch. His hips go 90 degrees forward, backward, or laterally, no problems, and his thigs swivel. OK, now his knees... you might be inclined to bend him as the red and purple are on knee pads, and you'll find that he's got less than 90 degrees of bend there because the tires on the backs of his legs are in the way. However, (although I wished it tabbed in better), that's actually part of his thigh, and his knees are the double hinges below it. That said, even though you have a double joint you're not going to get much more than 90 degrees of bend, and again it's because of the wheels on the backs of his thighs. No up/down tilt on his feet, but they've got 90 degrees of ankle pivot. Same deal as Berith, his grip on his accessories is a bit more tenuous than I'd like because of those pinned fingers. Of the pinned hand crew, though, he probably holds his stuff the best. Berith's alt mode is... ok. My first thought was that the hook on the crane and the extending part of the boom looked wrong because the hook is facing the wrong way and the boom extension is purple, but that actually seems to be cartoon accurate. The animation model, though, otherwise looked very much like the G1 toy, including the joints and what have you for transforming into combined mode, just with the chrome bits colored green. Berith, by extension, seems a little too cohesive, especially along the sides as the truck runs more or less unbroken and smooth from the front wheels to the back. Berith's crane deck can rotate, the boom extends, and the hook has a hinge. There's a peg hole on his back where you can set the gun, but it's in the way of the boom and the fit is very loose. There's also a peg hole above the left front tire that the gun fits into a little better. Paimon seems to shrink for his transformation. The resulting dump truck is fairly cartoon accurate; I think the worst thing I can say is that it doesn't have the purple chevron next to the cabin where the animators colored the visible robot eyes on the toy. I'm just surprised by how much smaller it gets than the G1 toy. It even does some interesting things with how his chest actually expands when forming the front of the truck, although there's definitely a running theme of "kind of similar to how the G1 toy did it, and nowhere near as complicated as Magic Square". His legs do a good job shifting at the knees and shin flaps to give him a nice, deep bed. It doesn't really articulate, though. I mean, you could if you really wanted to, but the roof over the cab is actually the bottom of his feet and will go with the bed, plus you'll wind up exposing his robot head. Oh, and it's a good thing his bed is deep, because he's the only one of the six with no real alt mode weapon storage, so I guess just chuck his gun into the back. Overall, this is another pretty good set from NewAge, but with a couple of flaws. I'm not a fan of Berith's lack of waist swivel, because I'm pretty sure it could have still been done. He's also got the same chest rotation element for transformation that Carcel has, and I don't like it any more on Berith. Paimon's the better of the duo, but the lack of weapon storage on his alt mode seems like an odd omission, and I wish the part of this thighs that's formed from the bed of the dump truck would secure to the rest of this thigh better. Of the six, Berith's probably the second-worst overall, but Paimon's one of the better ones. Taken all together, we'll have to see tomorrow how the combined mode is but NewAge delivered a good, slightly flawed, mostly fun set of Legends-sized Constructions that I'd recommend in a vaccuum, but it remains to be seen how the rest of Magic Square's are going to stack up. (On that note, sounds like Magic Square's Scavenger and Bonecrusher should be releasing soon, possibly by the end of the month).
  5. mikeszekely
    Well, Magic Square might be dragging their feet, but NewAge didn't. In fact, Carcel and Morbus weren't even the first two released, so lets go back a bit and look at Vane and Rum, aka Scavenger and Bonecrusher. Let's start off by giving credit where credit is due- ToyWorld's been the name in 3P Devastators for years because they delivered the largest and most cartoon-accurate option. NA might not be bringing us a bigger one, but they're nailing the cartoon accuracy. The head sculpt? *chef's kiss* The square on his mask, the crease on his brow, even the hole in is forehead are all there. The raised, tapered collar? The taper between his chest and waist? Check and check. About the worst thing you can accuse Vane of is having extra molded details on his shoulders and the edges of his chest that aren't on the animation model, but I'm not one to champion the cartoon's lack of detail. BTW, you can have his shovel hanging behind him like a tail, which I believe is cartoon accurate. But it can definitely hinge up onto his back if you want a cleaner look. Rum, likewise, is arguably the best Bonecrusher I've seen (although to be fair, Bonecrusher seems to be the character other companies have taken the most liberties with). The slab of green body with the purple hands, the red and purple geometry on his chest , the ab ridges, all good. Really the only thing I'm not crazy about is something you can't see from this angle, but we'll discuss more in alt mode. Accessories are definitely in keeping with what we saw in the previous set- gray guns for each of them, the larger of which belongs to Vane, and gold-painted bugles. Vane's head is on a hinged ball joint, so he can look up about 45 degrees, down a little, and he's got some sideways tilt in addition to the swivel. His shoulders are also hinged ball joints that let him rotate and extend 90 degrees on the ball, plus an additional 90 at the hinge (but only if the lateral movement is up and not back). His biceps swivel, and his double-jointed elbows bend 180 degrees in total. His wrists swivel, and due to transformation they can bend downward. His waist swivels, and he enjoys 90 degrees of ab crunch. His hips are on hinges that allow him to move forward, backward, or laterally 90 degrees. His thighs swivel, and his knees are double jointed for nearly 90 degrees of bend. His ankles can swivel and pivot 90 degrees. He has no trouble holding his accessories. If anything his grip on that bugle is a bit tight. Rum's head is on a hinged ball joint. He can't really look up, but he can look down so far his face is obscured by his chest, and he has some sideways tilt. Ball-jointed shoulders rotate and move laterally 90 degrees; like Vane transformation hinges allow him to lift his arms laterally up to nearly 180 degrees. His bicep swivel, and his single elbow hinge bends a bit over 90 degrees. His wrists swivel, and like Carcel he's got the pinned fingers. His waist can swivel, and he's got a ton of ab crunch. His hips go 90 degrees forward, backward, or laterally, his thighs swivel, and his double-jointed knees bend nearly 180 degrees. His feet can tilt up and down a little, and his ankles pivot almost 180 degrees. Vane's transformation is probably a bit further form the G1 toy's than his mates have been, but on the whole it's still pretty simple. The end result is effective, with the sort of features you'd expect; the bucket arm, the mostly flat body over purple treads, and the lone cockpit. He's given got the little bumps on the side opposite the cockpit that the G1 toy and animation model have, but he's lacking the green section with the peg for the arm that the animators chose to include from the G1 toy. Vane lacks wheels or working treads and can't roll. But the top can rotate over the treads, and the bucket arm has three hinges for it to articulate on, plus a small peg hole on one side for storing his gun. Bonecrusher, like Scrapper, didn't have a ton of detail to mark him as anything other than "generic bulldozer." Rum follows that template rather closely with the same basic box shape for the shovel, two raise bumps on the top where the toy had pegs, and the simple canopy roof. The shovel even has rectangular cutouts; they're oriented horizontally instead of vertically, but they're roughly analogous to the ones on the G1 toy. A hint of purple hands can be seen behind the shovel. They lack the grill detail the animation model enjoyed, but it's at least the right color in the right spot. What isn't the right color, what I said I'd come back to, is the purple paint running the length of his treads. It's not accurate, in either bot mode or alt mode, to either the cartoon or the G1 toy. I get why they did it, though- in combined mode, Bonecrusher's treads mysteriously turned purple on the animation model when he was part of Devastator. Honestly, I'd prefer they'd have left it green, though. Like Vane, Rum doesn't have any wheels. His shovel has minimal articulation. But, one of the pegs on the G1 toy became a raised peg hole, giving you a place to store his gun. And, although it's hard to see in pictures, I like that there's a panel that flips back to create the back of a set in a recessed cockpit area. It's a nice touch. I felt that with Carcel and Morbus NewAge had brought some good ideas to the table, but they also had some clear weaknesses that gave me a slight preference for the Magic Square versions. I don't know if it's the lack of Magic Square competition or what, but I'm finding that I have fewer complaints about Vane and Rum and honestly think that they're a step up from the other two. They look great, they have good articulation, and the transformations are in that sweet spot where they're not super complicated but you don't feel like they needed additional refinement. I think it'll be interested to get the Magic Square ones to compare them with later, but for now I feel like I can give these two a recommend.
  6. mikeszekely
    Even though I just said I usually go with Magic Square over NewAge, and even though I bought and reviewed Magic Square's Scrapper and Mixmaster, I seem to wind up with multiple Devastators. Indeed, I opened that review with a group shot that included most of the Devastators available at the time. So there was a part of me that knew, even as I'd ordered the Magic Square guys, that I'd have to get the NewAge Constructicons, too. Since we already did MS's Scrapper and Mixmaster, that's where we'll start today- this is NewAge's Carcel and Morbus. Just like Magic Square, NewAge's Constructicons are coming two in a pack. So let's start with Carcel, aka Scrapper. Carcel shares a lot of similar details to Magic Square's, which makes both very cartoon-accurate choices. Carcel is a bit slimmer, with more cartoon-accurate bump outs at the edges of his feet, better colors, and, arguably, a better head sculpt. On the other hand, he's got visible gaps on the insides of his forearms, wheels on his shoulders instead of the more cartoony green lumps, and to be honest I just kind of prefer the proportions better on Magic Square's. In either case, we've come a long way from the G1 toy (far left) or DX9's early Legends attempt (far right). The situation with Morbus, NewAge's Mixmaster, is much the same. Similar sculpted details, like the circles under the chest, the red rectangle, the square cutouts on the pelvis, etc, but slimmer and with better colors on Morbus. This time I kind of prefer Magic Square's head, though; Morbus' is too rounded. Morbus again has hollow spots on the insides of his forearms, and actual wheels on his arms instead of green lumps. Morbus simply has purple thighs. I do think I prefer that to the saddlebags Magic Square gave their Mixmaster, but you could make a case that those saddlebags are the bump outs on the animation mode (and G1 toy) and are therefore more cartoon-accurate. Speaking of cartoon accuracy, it's curious how both companies tackled the lower leg. The cartoon had his leg turn green and keep running down a bit, then flare out with the roof of the truck as if the whole thing was a big foot. Magic Square has a bit of a ledge near the knee to mimic that shape, but uses the top of the cab to form shins with little feet sticking out. Morbus, on the other hand, captures the cartoon shape better. The green section that's more flush with the purple is bigger, the cab flares out further, and that's it. This might be an example of what I was saying before, though, about how sometimes NewAge is too Sunbow for me, because as an actual toy it looks kind off to me. Carcel and Morbus come with gray guns that adequately represent the G1 cartoon. The bigger one is for Carcel, and the smaller for Morbus. Something new that you haven't really seen with any Constructicons to date are these gold-painted bugles. They're a nod to the Constructicons playing them at Starscream's coronation in the '86 movie. On the one hand, they're kind of neat, but on the other they're definitely the sort of "that thing in that episode" I could do without, especially since I'm unlikely to display these guys uncombined. Carcel's head is on a ball joint and can look up about as far as you see here, down just a little, barely anything sideways, plus the usual swivel. His shoulders rotate and can hinge outward 90 degrees... some of the time. If you rotate his arm and then extend it laterally the wheels bump into his backpack. His biceps swivel and his elbows bend 90 degrees. His wrists swivel, and surprisingly for a figure so small his fingers are pinned like an MP carbot's, so his hands can open. His waist swivels. His hip skirt moves as one solid piece, but that allows him to move his ball-jointed hips 90 degrees forward, backward, and laterally. Do note that the ball joints are rather loose on my copy. His thighs swivel. His actual knee joint bends 90 degrees, although you'll have to move a flap on the back of his leg. He also has a hinge mid-thigh for transformation; it's not the prettiest, but you can use it as a double knee joint. A pin hinge gives him 90 degrees of ankle pivot, and his foot can tilt down (mostly for transformation. Although his palms are cut as ports for his accessories, the pin hinge doesn't have enough tension and Carcel's grip on his accessories winds up feeling pretty loose. Morbus' head swivels, and unlike other attempts at the character the hood turns with his head. The joint's technically a ball joint, but the hood limits him to very slight up/down/sideways tilt. His shoulders are also ball joints, and they can rotate and move laterally 90 degrees. His biceps swivel and his elbows bend 90 degrees. His wrists swivel, but unlike his partner Morbus' hands are molded into fists with no additional articulation. His waist swivels, he can bend to his left at the waist, and he's got an ab crunch. His hip skirt is also a single hinged part, but his tolerances are slightly different so his ball jointed hips get just about 90 degrees forward and laterally but more like 75 degrees backward. He's got thigh swivels. His knees are, due to the engineering across all his modes, kind of a mess. They can actually bend both ways on double joints, so he can kick himself in the crotch or the butt. I think you ideally want them to be sort of collapsed, so the purple part of his leg and the green meet, but as you manipulate him those joints are going to stretch so it looks like his lower legs are hanging on by thing armatures. If you've got the cab windows properly tucked under the flaps on the front of his shins the cab should be mostly locked in place, so no real up/down tilt. That said, there is a pin hinge at the corner so part of his foot can slide out and in, giving him some ability to spread his legs and still keep his feet flat. Due to having closed fists, Morbus doesn't have any trouble holding his accessories. I might as well note here that the ball joints for his hips are much better than Carcel's. Here's where things start to get a bit more interesting. Carcel's transformation is fairly simple and close to the G1 toy's, with a few extra steps (some of which, like rotating his chest 90 on his torso, are just kind of irritating). Meanwhile, Magic Square has some very impressive, almost MP-esque engineering, but due to the small size and wonky tolerances on the nylon plastic it's kind of a bear. I don't think Carcel looks bad... the animation model was clearly based on the toy, and the toy looked like it was working from a simple drawing someone did from memory of a loader instead of an actual front loader. It'd be nice if the shovel stuck out a little further, or had a bit more articulation, though. I think Magic Square's definitely looks more like an actual vehicle. They even put a little more effort into covering the robot knees at the back. There are small holes above the rear tires on Carcel. The instructions don't mention it and I forgot to show it, but you can plug his accessories into them while he's in alt mode. Like Carcel, Morbus has the advantage of having a much simpler transformation than Magic Square's. Again, I'll note that Magic Square's ambitious engineering would probably work better on a larger, MP-scale figure and without the tolerance issues they keep getting with that nylon plastic, but at the Legends scale its legs are especially a mess of hinges, armatures, and panels while Morbus' legs just keep collapsing until everything's lined up. But again, Morbus is lacking some details that Magic Square has, like fuel tanks, a rear bumper, a more three-dimensional spout, a translucent windshield, and the gray patch of the front bumper. The biggest difference, though, is their alt mode proportions. Morbus' cab is as wide as Magic Squares, but only a little shorter. Meanwhile, the truck is around 30 shorter front to back. This gives it chibi Choro-Q proportions, even compared to the G1 toy. It just doesn't look right. Again, not mentioned in the instructions, but there's a pair of squarish holes on Morbus' roof. You can plug is gun into either, but the shape and angle isn't right for his bugle. If you're collecting Legends figures, I'll say right now there's no reason to pick DX9 over either Magic Square or NewAge. Both are so much better that you should consider upgrading even if you already have DX9's. But picking a winner between just MS and NA is a lot tougher, because they both have different strengths and weaknesses. Generally speaking, I like the colors better on NA. I like the size, sculpt, and proportions better on MS. I like the materials better on NA. I like the more advanced engineering on MS, but the challenges in applying that engineering to figures this small made out of nylon plastic makes NA's much more fun to transform and play with. I think the alt modes look better on MS, but I like that NA has alt mode weapon storage. I suppose, if push came to shove, I'd probably go with Magic Square's if I wanted simply a Legends-size Scrapper and Mixmaster. I think they have more shelf presence, and my preference for their sculpt and proportions trump NA's better colors. And while they can be a bit of a bear to transform, I think they'd be really great if they were upscaled and made out of a more normal plastic, while upscaling NA's would make for figures that feel a bit simple. That said, it may ultimately come down to who has the better Devastator, and that's something we really won't know for awhile as Magic Square has been kind of quiet since releasing the first two. So for now I'll simply say both are very good and leave it at that.
  7. mikeszekely
    I don't have a ton of experience with Legends, but the limited impression I've got is that I tend to (subjectively) prefer Magic Square's aesthetics, as Newage skews a little too Sunbow for me. I also tend to think that Magic Square has better transformations. But that nylon plastic MS uses feels kind of gross, and it often leads to irritating tolerance issues. I'd say 9/10 times when I do want a Legends fig I go with Magic Square, but occasionally NA pulls ahead (and even when they don't they're still very good). I didn't check out any transformation videos on these. My gut reaction was to say Magic Square, since I like their Optimus better than NA's, but the white parts of MS's trailer look kind of grayish. I'd probably pick Newage for Magnus.
  8. mikeszekely
    Yeah. I mean, I'd be willing to shell out $260 for an MP Magnus built like a big Newage or Magic Square, but from XTB? Not without a couple of reviews first.
  9. mikeszekely
    Magic Square and Newage are pulling it off. Why can't XTB?
  10. mikeszekely
    OK, so I wasn't planning on upgrading to Windows 11 on my desktop yet, but MS pushed it through Windows Update and since I didn't really have any issues on my laptop or upgrading my wife's computer I let it happen. My desktop is a Core i7-9770K, 16GB of RAM, and an RTX 280. Before, I was getting around 55-60 fps on Ultra with the optional HD texture pack installed at 1440p. And after upgrading, I'm getting... 55-60 fps. I suppose it remains to be seen how pre-builts with VBS running will be affected, but on Intel systems it seems like performance is basically the same between Windows 10 and 11. I saw that Microsoft and AMD pushed a patch for Ryzen CPUs. I installed the update, I'll see if I have a minute to see if the performance improved or not tomorrow. EDIT: testing the AMD patch is going to have to wait... Ubisoft patched FC6, and for some reason my laptop wants to download the entire 75GB game again instead of just the patch. I'll have to copy the game files from my desktop to save bandwidth.
  11. mikeszekely
    OK, so remember back in September I posted a leaked list of the planned 2021 Studio Series releases? There was a lot of Bumblebee versions of characters, including a Deluxe-class Wheeljack in the first wave. And, uh... Courtesy of PrimeVsPrime, that's a point for the leakers.
  12. mikeszekely
    I guess the board's settings don't allow us to like admin posts, but this is an excellent find, Shawn.
  13. mikeszekely
    IDW 1.0 started out pretty similar to other Transformers comics- Autobots good, Decepticons bad, they fight, humans get mixed up somehow. After the Chaos story arc, though, it's almost as is the editorial team was tired of going back to the same old well and they massively upended the status quo. This lead to two books, Robots In Disguise (later just Transformers), and More Than Meets the Eye. Robots In Disguise followed what happened on Cybertron after Chaos, and it's good, but the start of the show is More Than Meets the Eye. MTMTE follows a group of Cybertronians who follow Hot Rod (calling himself Rodimus) off on a quest, and it's easily one of if not the most character-driven bit of Transformers fiction to date. While Roberts and Milne do make use of a number of popular characters as well as some original characters, they had a knack for incorporating some very underutilized characters including Rewind, Whirl, Swerve, Tailgate, and Skids, resulting in the MTMTE versions being the definitive versions of those characters for a lot of fans.
  14. mikeszekely
    Weird that Kingdom is getting a 5th wave, but I'm not complaining about getting Blaster sooner rather than later. Looks pretty good from what I can tell, can't wait. I'm going to complain a little that he comes with Eject instead of Rewind, though. I mean, I ultimately would want all of Blaster's tapes, and I technically still have the old... what was it... Titans Return? Rewind. But Eject's still basically a nobody, while Rewind's portrayal in More Than Meets the Eye has made him a real character.
  15. mikeszekely
    I get that's probably the draw, but the way I see it I've made due with MP-22 and his lack of articulation for how long now. I had Magnus as a kid- I still have a G1 Magnus. To me, that white Optimus was integral to the experience (especially because I didn't have an actual Optimus until Power Master Op, so to me that white Optimus really was Prime come back as a ghost), and a company doing that at the MP scale is really the only thing that's going to motivate me to swap out MP-22. Honestly, I don't know why Magic Square doesn't do it already. They already made an MP version of their Legends Prime, in white and regular colors, and a trailer that turns into armor for the white Legends-sized one. They just need to upscale it for the bigger one.
  16. mikeszekely
    I'm say the same thing here that I did there- it looks like an improvement over MP-22, but unless it's a cab that turns into a white Optimus and he wears his trailer I'm not switching.
  17. mikeszekely
    Well, I guess the big 1027 news is the Ghostbusters proton pack crowdfund. The only thing worth mentioning Transformers-related is that Lift-Ticket, basically Hoist in red Diaclone colors, is the first Legacy Generations Selects figure. ...I preordered one.🤷‍♂️ Ah, Dorkside... I saw over the weekend that they were advertising the toy-colored Gen Selects Gavaltron as in stock, and since Pulse is still listing it for mid-December I figured I could get it early. No shipping email. When I saw your post I went and saw my order as still pending, so I figured I'd just cancel it and re-order it with the free shipping, save myself $8. Except it isn't listed anywhere on the site now. Not "sold out," totally non-existent. No big deal, given that it's been like four days I was starting to get the impression that they weren't going to fill that order before Pulse anyway. Speaking of Pulse, I got my Pulsecon-exclusive Decepticons Forever Ravage. After having Ravage in hand, I decided that he should get a full review instead of just repaint coverage because he actually doesn't share a ton of parts with Cheetor/Shadow Panther. Everything* above his thigh swivels are brand new, except for the cat legs on his back. He winds up taller, with a broader chest than Cheetor/Shadow Panther. And because it's mostly a new figure, Hasbro was able to make him very show-accurate, with a few constraints a new added details. For the most part, the sculpt and coloring is all correct, even that annoying white lump on his head. There's a new bit of gold trim above his abs, and some thigh details that were present but silver on the CGI model are highlighted in gold. His belt is a tad off, the silver should just outline the red oval, but form a whole rectangle. And then there's his feet. I get that they're reusing parts from Cheetor, so he's not going to have his cat paw feet. But painting them silver, and they are painted, is a weird choice since Ravage's feet were black in the show. From the sides and back you can see that Ravage does carry a bit of backpack that isn't so show-accurate. It's not really worse than the Cheetor mold, though. Unlike that mold, his tail does not come off. Presumably that's because Ravage had a tail in the show. $52.99 is a lot for a tall deluxe/short Voyager, so I suppose a lot of the budget goes to his accessories. You get two cartoon-accurate guns for him. You get a G1 Ravage with the G1 hip weapons. And you get a backdrop that depicts the bridge/cockpit of the ship Ravage uses in the show. Now, you might have noticed from my Studio Series coverage that I tend not to discuss the packaging or backdrops, which I consider part of the packaging, but this one is special. See, in the show there's a scene where this version of Ravage turns into his G1 cassette mode and slots into his ship to control it. Hence, the included G1 Ravage isn't really meant to be a before-and-after thing, it's standing in for this Ravage's cassette mode since you're not going to get a bot that looks like this into a cassette on a Habsro budget. And so the backdrop has a little pocket for the G1 Ravage to slide into in cassette mode. About that Ravage... while it's the G1 mold, it's not G1 accurate. It's not immediately obvious, but the center of the tampoed tape details doesn't match the original G1 or recent Walmart reissue (top right), and it's missing the "Metal Position" and "Microcassette" print. It also doesn't match the one that came with the old Toys 'R' Us Soundwave reissue (bottom right), which means I now have three different G1 Ravages and none of them match. You may also notice that this Ravage has silver eyes instead of gold, and the metal forelimbs aren't polished the way they are on the others. What's really weird, though, is that the original G1 toy doesn't have any tape markings on the other side, just a rub sign and the other eye, but this new one has the tape details tampoed on again, just with a Decepticon insignia instead of a B-side label. Odd deco choices aside, it's still very much the G1 toy. Same transformation, same articulation, same method of mounting the chromed hip weapons. Same difficulty standing due to their thinness. As for the figure that probably prompted you to buy this set, his head is on a ball joint. A little upward tilt, nothing really down or sideways. He can swivel, but only about 45 degrees in either direction. His mouth can open. His shoulders rotate and can extend laterally 180 degrees. His biceps swivel, and his elbows are double-jointed and bend 180 degrees. His wrists swivel. His waist swivels. His hips can go 90 degrees forward or laterally, but only a little bit backward. His thighs swivel just above the knees, which bend just under 90 degrees. His feet can tilt up and down plenty, and his ankles pivot 90 degrees. Ravage can hold his guns just fine using the 5mm handles. They also have tabs on the sides that fit into slots on his thighs for storage. Transforming Ravage was interesting, because while his legs turn into the rear legs the same as Cheetor/Shadow Panther that's about all the similarity you get. His chest opens, allowing his head to lift up and to expose some extra cat chest, and his forearms tuck inside. Now, his cat legs swing around from his back, which leaves a gap where the panels were sitting, but that gap is actually filled by the backs of his forearms and hands. Neat! A word of note, Ravage is misassembled out of the box. It's not just my copy; to be sure I checked Youtube reviews by Benscollectibles and PrimeVsPrime, and neither of them mentioned it but I could see that both of their copies had the misassembly. Basically, the front cat legs are on backward. You'll notice it because when you try to pose the cat's legs it'll seem like the elbow doesn't bend very far; that's because the elbow will be facing the front and preventing you from bending too far. Fortunately it's an easy fix, since the legs are on ball joints. Just pop them off the ball joint, turn the front paws 180 degrees, then swap them to the other side. Correctly assembled, you'll find that Ravage has a bigger head and broader chest than Cheetor/Shadow Panther. His chest and stomach isn't as deep as theirs, though, becuase he doesn't have his robot arms filling it out the way they do. Also, despite the fact that they share legs, they do not, in fact, share paws. Ravage's paws are noticeably bigger. Smallish nitpick, but jaguars are bigger and stockier than cheetahs and leopards. While the broader and bigger head helps, his limbs seem thin and long. I'd almost prefer if they'd made Ravage from Tigatron's mold instead, but I guess then he'd be too big. I'm not a BW scale expert, but this Ravage is in a similar scale with Kingdom Megatron as Ravage appears with Megatron in the show (although Megatron was technically in is Transmetal form by then). Ravage's more mechanical silver thighs do not blend into the cat body they way Cheetor/Shadow Panther's do. This doesn't actually bother me, though. It just reminds me of the hip weapons G1 Ravage carries. Speaking of weapons, his pistols actually do mount on his "hips", by tabbing into his robot thighs just like you can for robot mode storage. While I guess you can technically orient them barrel forward, the instructions have you point them barrel backward. Perhaps G1 Ravages hip weapons weren't weapons at all, but something like boosters? And having his guns pointed backward is orienting the barrels like boosters? I dunno. But the black on the guns does help hide some of the silver robot thighs. Ravage's cat legs, insomuch as they're the same as Cheetor's, have the same articulation. However, since his robot arms aren't locking in place to form his tummy, Ravage retains his waist swivel. He also retains some of his head articulation. I'm not the biggest Beast Wars fan. Like I've said before, I didn't watch it until I was an adult and picked up the Shout Factory DVDs because I was in the "trukk not munky" crowd. But my favorite episodes, the ones most memorable to me, where the ones that tied Beast Wars into G1 and cemented it as a sequel/prequel instead of a reboot. I loved that unlike Optimus, Megatron, Inferno, Scorponok, and Silverbolt, who were just using the names of G1 characters, Ravage in Beast Wars was very clearly meant to be G1 Ravage. Decepticons Forever Ravage might be a bit pricey, given that I could have lived without the backdrop or yet another G1 Ravage, but I love that it's a thing that exists, and that Hasbro took the care to make him an almost entirely new, show-accurate mold instead of just repainting Cheetor black. I have no regrets with this purchase, and if "The Agenda" 1-3 were some of your favorite Beast Wars episodes like they were mine, I'd recommend picking him up.
  18. mikeszekely
    Just a reminder, Hasbro is doing a 1027 event for Pulse Premium members in roughly 10 minutes. Dunno if it'll have anything to do with Transformers, but hey, maybe they'll finally officially announce Slammer. EDIT: Well, doesn't look like I'm going to get to see it. Despite filling out the RSVP they never sent a link to the stream. It's now 10 after, and I'm not sitting around all day on the off chance that they might still send it.
  19. mikeszekely
    I mean, until I'd watched Dune last night I was totally unfamiliar. Never say the '84 movie, never saw the Sci-Fi miniseries, never read the books. I might be the minority, but I'm probably not the only one.
  20. mikeszekely
    I'm sure they'll be good, but when FT decided to charge $250 for freaking Skullcruncher and preorders still sold out in like 15 minutes that was the last straw for me. I'm going to do what I can to finish Menasor and then I'm just done with them. I've been too lazy to package them up, but I fully intend to sell Lupus, Dracula, and the three Aerialbots. FT's just not worth the prices or the headaches.
  21. mikeszekely
    I definitely felt, while watching the movie, that making it longer would have helped explained a lot more, and breaking it up into an episodic format would have given me more time to digest who the various players are and their motivations. A TV show like Game of Thrones I think would have worked a lot better, yeah. Plus they have a ton of material to mine for later seasons after they finish the first book. Speaking of... if I decide to read the books, should I just read the six Frank wrote, or should I also read the sequels/prequels his son wrote with Kevin J. Anderson?
  22. mikeszekely
    Couple of repaints to roundup. First up, we have the Target-exclusive Road Rage. I've actually been sitting on this one for awhile, waiting for something else to come in because I wasn't going to do a post just for one repaint. Anyway, yeah. From the neck down she's the same mold as Tracks, but she does have a new head with a slightly different helmet and more feminine face that's a bit narrower with larger eyes. Aesthetically, she's got a lot of the same issues as tracks, like missing stripes on her wings and molded but unpainted details on her shins. Worse, she can't even get the details painted that Tracks did, the ones on her forearms. Also, if the MP is the definitive version, her feet should actually be red with black on top, not all black, and her biceps should be white. Articulation and accessories are the same as Tracks (although her head missile thing is dark blue instead of white). Other issues from the Tracks mold, namely the loose leg connections, are again an issue here. Alt mode is the same almost-a-Corvette-but-legally-distinct-enough-so-they-don't-get-sued car, but red instead of blue and with a slightly different flame pattern on the hood. She retains the flight mode and alt-mode weapon storage. Not a lot to say here... the missing details and leg issues made Tracks one of the weaker Kingdom releases, IMHO. I can't say I regret getting Road Rage- I welcome more fembots, and her presence in the current IDW series as Nautica's body guard helps (it also makes me want a Nautica, something I've wanted since the previous IDW run). But if you didn't like this mold on the guy who was in the cartoon, I don't think you're going to like it any better in red. Next up, we have Shattered Glass Goldbug. He came with part 4 for the mini series, which, y'know, what happened to 2 and 3 (Megatron and Starscream)? Last I checked Pulse had them shipping November 1st and December 1st, but it also said Goldbug is supposed to come in December, so...? Anyway, Goldbug's kind of weird, because where Shattered Glass Blurr was based on Armada Blurr but with a new G1-ish head, Goldbug was the result of slapping a G1 Goldbug head onto Cybertron Hot Shot, then inverting Bumblebee's colors. For this toy (and comic), they went back to the ER Cliffjumper well (again). Not so sporty or reminiscent of the original SG Bumblebee- I'd almost think the Siege Sideswipe mold a better choice (again). Moreover, Hasbro seems to have ditched details from the original toy, like yellow forearms and thighs, yellow patterns on his chest, and more yellow on his pelvis. He's really more of a Blackbug, but they did at least give us a new head based on the original SG Goldbug's. In what continues to be a running theme, Goldbug has the same accessories as every other instance of this mold- a bazooka that splits into smaller weapons, with a bipod that can double as skis in the alt mode, and a shield made from the rear third of the car. It's probably worth mentioning that this is my fifth time around with this mold, excluding the extensively-remolded Netflix Bee, and Goldbug has by far the worst tolerances. The hinge that moves the waist toward his head for transformation is floppy, an the peg that puts the shield in his hand/on his back is especially loose. So, I actually really dig the colors in alt mode. Reminds me of the '67 Camaro they used in Age of Extinction. The car itself isn't at all like the original SG Goldbug's toy, and the use of yellow is similar only in the fact that the original had yellow accents, too, but it's fine for what it is. I don't really have a recommendation here; either your in on Shattered Glass or you're not. I'll say it does kind of make me want a regular Goldbug, but please not another use of this mold. At this point, if Goldbug can't get an original mold I'd rather they repainted the Runabout/Runamuck mold with this head. My wife took our daughter to some Halloween thing, so I decided to spend my alone time hitting up local stores looking for a copy of Tigatron, since Amazon canceled my preorder. I said I wasn't going to do it, but I also didn't want to drive around all afternoon and go home empty-handed, so I picked up Shadow Panther after all. And, what can I say? It's a deco that existed in the Takara Beast War's line, then in 2000 Hasbro's online collector's service started selling him as "Tripredicus Agent," implying that they were passing it off as Ravage (which was a weird call, since Takara had by then already released a retool of Transmetal Cheetor as a much more screen-accurate Ravage). Despite being a black-and-silver Predacon that turns into a cat, Shadow Panther really isn't too similar to Ravage. The coloring is inverted on the arms and legs, with Shadow Panther showing black where Ravage has silver and vice versa, plus he's got the bright yellow shoulders. But also because the original toy was a straight repaint of Cheetor, with no remolded parts. If I'm not mistaken, that exactly how the MP was, too. Seems Hasbro decided to mix it up a bit this time, though. Rather than having the same head as Cheetor, they gave Shadow Panther the original toy's mutant mask for a head. It's... well, it does make him a tad more visually distinct from Cheetor, but I think I'd have preferred a straight redeco. Shadow Panther comes with the same whip/tail and the same articulation as Cheetor. Also the same lack of a gut-gun. Oh, and that thin tab on the back of the cat neck that everyone broke on Cheetor? Expect to break it the first time you transform Shadow Panther, too. Honestly, it's just a bad design, but fortunately doesn't seem to be necessary in the first place. Shadow Panther turns into a "panther", which is Cheetor but black with red eyes instead of yellow with black spots and green/orange eyes. I supposed cheetahs and leopards are similar enough to get away with this, although a leopard has a slightly more leonine face and proportionally shorter limbs. Yeah... I'm still going to suggest that you have more willpower than I and skip Shadow Panther. The Cheetor mold is ok, but not really worth buying again for a character that was just a black repaint and didn't even enter fiction until a 2006 comic book. Finally, we have Studio Series Sideswipe. Now, you might be thinking, didn't Sideswipe come out like two and a half, maybe three years ago? Indeed, I reviewed a Studio Series Sideswipe way back in February 2019- he's the one on your right. But Hasbro seems quite content to release a version of a character for each film they were in, especially when it means a minimal remold or repaint. And so that's what we have here; the older figure was Sideswipe in Dark of the Moon, the newer one (left) is Sideswipe in Revenge of the Fallen. On the shelf, I didn't notice a huge difference, to the point where I almost didn't buy him because he really looked like the figure I already had. But the number (78) insists that the figure was recent, so into the cart he went. In hand, the differences are much more noticeable. While they both have silver paint for the parts that make up the car, the newer figure uses a darker gray plastic for most of his robot bits. This leads to situations where Hasbro was able to use light gray plastic for some parts that were silver on the robot with gunmetal paint for some accents the first time, but on the new version the accents are left unpainted dark gray and the lighter parts had to be painted silver. The result is that the newer figure seems to have more paint overall, and comes across as a bit more "premium" because of it. He also seems to have a slightly different head sculpt. Spinning him around, you can see some small differences in his wings and totally different backpacks. The wings are because the backpack elements don't rotate the way they did on the original figure. And the backpack itself, which is unfortunately a bit larger this time around, comes down to the difference in the alt mode. But let's take a minute to focus on some similarities, ok? The articulation is the same, because the robot is the same, just with a different head and backpack. And he comes with the same accessories- two double-barreled pistols, and two arm blades made from car parts. OK, back to differences. The big difference is, of course, the roof (or lack thereof). The earlier toy, based on Dark of the Moon, was based on the C7 Corvette Stingray Convertible, while the new toy depicts the earlier C7 concept car, which had a roof. Differences in the front facia are minor; really just the removal of the previous toy's hood scoops. Coming around to the side, the new figure has larger front and side windows, which are entirely attached to the roof (where the older toy kept the front windshield with the roof but the sides were attached to his door wings). The back gets the most remolding, as it's build around the rear window instead of the lack of one, and it lacks the spoiler. To top it off, the four exhausts are on a separate, hinged piece on the new toy. Of course, having a roof means that Hasbro didn't really have to give the interior the same attention... or any attention, really. there's no seats, dashboard, or steering wheel on this version of Sideswipe. That does mean that there's some remolding going on under the roof, not just on it. Namely, there's a slot on one either side of one of the hinged armatures attaching the roof to Sideswipe's back. It can be a little tricky, but there are tabs on the guns that fit into those slots before compacting everything into place, allowing the guns to be stored in vehicle mode (maybe robot mode, too- the backpack seemed to cover them in robot mode, but I didn't think to check if there's space there anyway). If you only care to have one representation of a character and you already bought the first Sideswipe I wouldn't say that there's anything that's such an improvement that you should replace the DotM version with this one. Of course, if you passed on the DotM release this version is mostly the same but with better bot-mode paint, and is therefore probably the version to go for. As I said, though, Hasbro seems keen on releasing characters again for every movie they appeared in; Prime's been done for the first three films, Ratchet for 1 & 3, and I fully expect we see the 2007 Camaro Bee retooled again for DotM the way he was already slightly retooled for RotF. Getting this Sideswipe to complement the earlier release and represent how he looked in both movies is certainly an option.
  23. mikeszekely
    So, I watched this last night, and from the glowing comments here I wonder if we were actually watching the same movie. Maybe because I've never read the books or watched the older Dune movie, but I thought it was an overwhelming info dump until Despite that, I still often found myself confused about the motivations of different factions. Still, I had enough of a sense that Paul's got enemies in the Harkonnen and probably the Emperor, and that he's likely looking to make an ally of the Fremens. And just as I was getting interested in where that story is going, it just ended. Now, I think a project like this needs to be taken as a whole, and it's quite possible, perhaps likely, that I'll like the Dune parts 1 and 2 taken as a whole. I'm also considering reading the novels, and it's also possible that I'll have a new appreciation for the film after doing so. As a standalone film, though, divorced of any prior knowledge of the Dune universe? I thought it was kind of boring, and I have no desire to watch it again.
  24. mikeszekely
    Haven't been following TFCon too closely, been a busy day. I guess Fans Toys revealed a ton of stuff, but I can't bring myself to care about any of it because they charge $50-$100 more than most other 3P's with similar-sized figures yet securing a preorder is like trying to buy a PS5. Shame, if they weren't so insane with them I'd have probably gone for their Scourge. I think people are also upset with what they didn't show, namely Dead End, Fireflight, Slingshot, or the combined modes. I guess the big news from Planet X is that their IDW Grimlock isn't a one-off, and they're working on Sludge. MMC's got a black repaint of their excellent Optus Pexus coming. I'm pretty content with just the regular one, but I have a feeling @Scyla might be interested. They also had Mentis, their version of Rung from IDW's More Than Meets the Eye. I want it, to have a good Rung, but it seems like he's not getting a wide release and the PSX price seems kind of high. Then they had a lighter, cartoon-colored repaint of their Sky Lynx. I passed originally, but if there's nothing else coming around that time that I'm into I kind of regret missing it the first time. Under their Ocular Max brand they also showed off their G2 Combaticons (hard pass, but we'll talk if they do Ruination/Baldigus), and their Protectobots. I'm all about their Protectobots. I mean, the Protectobots are probably my least favorite combiner team, but they look really good to me and I really liked their Combaticons. They're hinting that a third combiner is coming after Defensor. They're not saying who until next year, but I'm feeling like it might be Devastator. Fans Hobby has some pretty interesting reveals. Hasbro wants to do a Titan Cybertron Metroplex when everyone wants them to do Tidal Wave? Fans Hobby is doing Tidal Wave. And Tidal Wave looks like he's going to combine with their upcoming Armada Megatron, so they decided to make Overload to combine with their Prime. There's some new test shots of their Energon Prime, too. But it's not all UT, they're still doing Masterforce with test shots of their Doubledealer, and a Siren repaint of Goshooter.
  25. mikeszekely
    I've got some better stuff on the way, but for now I'm just going to post one some upgrade kits I nabbed. First up, we have this weapon kit from Matrix Workshop for Studio Series 86 Wreck-Gar. As far as 3D printed stuff goes, I've seen much rougher prints. You get a rifle based on the G1 toy's, and a pipe with a 5mm hole on the end and a peg in the middle. The rifle works just like you'd expect. You plug the 5mm handle into his hand, and you're done. Now, what you're supposed to do with the pipe is stick Wreck-Gar's pinwheel of death into the hole on the end, and then stick the narrower end of the pipe into his hand, effectively lengthening his weapon. Here's where we run into trouble (that I'm told is fairly common for Matrix Workshop); the pipe is too narrow, so it's super loose in Wreck-Gar's hand. Meanwhile, the hole on the end is super tight, and I'm worried it'll at best rub paint from the inside and at worst wear down the handle of Wreck-Gar's pinwheel. I guess you can say that you can store both of the new accessories on Wreck-Gar in bike mode. The pipe is meant to be like an exhaust. The peg fits into the hole on Wreck-Gar's leg, with the kink allowing the wider end to fit under the spike. And sure, that's fine, but not really cartoon accurate and not really necessary, IMHO. As for the gun, well, you've really only got the 5mm peg holes on Wreck-Gar's legs, and the magazine sticks out too far to plug the gun in parallel to his leg. You can peg it in, but you'll have to turn it a way that gives the magazine clearance, such as straight up. Not ideal, but not necessarily worse then the pinwheel on the back of the bike. Also not exactly Matrix Workshop's fault. They're just going for G1 accuracy. It would have been better if Wreck-Gar had more 5mm ports in the first place, like maybe under his saddlebags. So here's the verdict- the exhaust pipe doesn't work well in robot mode, but honestly wasn't really necessary in the first place since the animation model doesn't have an exhaust and the pinwheel axe was already the correct cartoon proportions. Taking the exhaust is just the price you pay to get the rifle, which is what I really wanted. And fortunately the rifle works fine, exactly what I wanted. So if you're thinking about getting this kit for the exhaust don't bother, but if you want a rifle for Wreck-Gar this kit will take care of that. Next up we have a filler kit from Go Better Studios for Kingdom Warpath. Go Better has been one of my more favorite of these little Chinese groups doing 3D-printed upgrade kits because of the quality of their prints and the painting they do to color match, but lately they've really been pushing the boundaries of what's being done with 3D-printed stuff with clever, hinged designs like the backpack they did for Earthrise Optimus or the spoilers that turn into arm fillers for Sunstreaker. This kit is one of their more ambitious ones, as it sets out to not only fill some hollow spots but to improve on the tank mode while simultaneously ditching that weird shield. We'll start off easy. There's two bicep fillers and two thigh fillers. The bicep fillers are going to be pretty obvious, but take not of how the thigh fillers fit. OK, now for the hinged parts. One's a forearm filler. Make sure the hinge is folded such that the you get a rectangle near the wrist. The other goes into his foot. Line up the big part with his toes, then wrap the rest along his sole. OK, bot mode is looking good. Only thing you really need to be aware of is that the part of the filler that runs along his soles does inhibit his ankle pivot a little, but you should still be able to get 45 degrees no problem. "Does it transform without partsforming?" is the question you really want to ask. And the answer is yes! But there's some things to keep in mind. First you need to transform the foot fillers. You do this by taking the part that runs along the sole and folding it toward the toe. Now, the trick here is that you still have to transform the rest of his foot. The trouble is the part I've circled, which is on the original mold, not the upgrade part. It needs to move up to the top of the foot, but you see the hinge on the foot filler? That hinge is going to get in the way. You can work around this by manipulating his ankle pivot, tilting the foot, then straightening his ankle and moving the filler after that flap is in place. As for the arm filler, you're using the hinge to open it up. That re-exposes the white underneath, which has the slot that goes into the tab and helps hold the arm in place in tank mode. The flap itself doesn't really do anything else, it'll just chill out under the tank. The results speak for themselves. Stock, even with the shield, the feet parts with the treads come out farther than the front of the tank and there's hollow gaps on the insides. Without the shield the gap goes straight across the front. With the Go Better filler, though, the front of the tank is now even right across the front, from tread to tread. All the gaps are plugged. It's 100% an improvement, and there's no partsforming at all this way. You can toss that stupid shield in a drawer somewhere. So while Go Better's stuff tends to be a little pricey this kit is absolutely worth the cost of admission. It's a highly recommended, borderline essential upgrade for Warpath.
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