mikeszekely

Oh, yeah. That. I get why Microsoft wants it to be a requirement (and why they want to implement VBS), but yeah, I guess the average PC user tends to stay on the same hardware a lot longer than I do (and even I only upgraded from a third-gen i7 to a 9th-gen at the beginning of 2020). I guess it's kind of coincidence (and a bit of extra government stimulus money) that I upgraded my wife's laptop, my desktop, and my laptop between November 2019 and April 2020.

What makes you say that? Most of what I've been reading about it is pretty much in-line with my own experience- no issues that give you a reason not to upgrade, no features that give you a reason to upgrade. The only potential problems I've heard of are the AMD issue (which is maybe AMD's issues, not Microsoft's, and AMD has pledged to fix), and the VBS issue that maybe is a problem for gamers (VBS causes a reduction in performance, but it's not enabled on a Windows 10 upgrade to 11, so...). Alright, that CPU paired with 16GB of RAM and an RTX 2060 Max-Q. I was getting around 50 fps on Ultra settings at 1080p, around 57-58 fps on High. That's slightly worse than Far Cry 5 on the same laptop, but it's hard to say if that's the AMD hit on Windows 11 or simply the fact that the new game is more resource intensive.

It's funny. Seems to me like if you get a MP/CHUG/Legends Springer it's not a huge deal if you don't have or bother with Sandstorm and Broadside. But if you get just one Decepticon Triple Changer you've got to get them all. And so, since I reviewed Mech Fans Toys/Mechanic Studios' Astrotrain (three of them, actually) I had to get their Octane. And with Astrotrain and Octane in hand I had to get this guy- Thunderbolt, aka MFT's Legends+ Blitzwing. Once again, I feel like MFT really knocks it out of the park on cartoon accuracy. Thruster feet? Check. The red, yellow, and gray geometry on his chest? Check. White stripe on his tummy? Check. Beveled thighs? Check. Shoulder pads with purple stripes? Check. Fins at the bottoms of his shins? Check, although technically it's optional because you can fold them in while he's in bot mode. What I really find impressive is that he manages it all with a backpack that isn't as big as DX9 or KFC's MP-esque Blitzwings. And for size, there he is with his MFT triple-changing buddies. I think he'll work fine in a largely Magic Square collection. He might be a tad big for a Newage collection, but I could see Blitzwing being kind of a big bruiser, so maybe he'd get a pass. Thunderbolt comes with two accessories you need, and one you probably don't. You get his gun, nothing fancy in purple plastic but with a nice cartoony sculpt. You also get his sword, which has lovely metallic purple paint on the blade. Then you get an alternate head, apparently based on Animated Blitzwing's crazy face. Because apparently you can't have G1 Blitzwing without at least one unrelated head based on a totally different Blitzwing. Needless to say, that's going back in the box. Thunderbolt's head is on a ball joint with a good amount of up/down tilt and too much sideways tilt. His shoulders are on ball joints. They rotate, but only about 90 degrees due to his shoulder pads and back kibble. They also move laterally 90 degrees, as his shoulder pads hinge out of the way for that. His biceps swivel, and his elbows bend 90 degrees. No wrist articulation. He does have a little waist rotation behind his pelvis flap, but it's very limited. His ball-jointed hips can move forward and laterally 90 degrees but just a bit backward. His thighs swivel both above and below his knees, which bend 90 degrees. His feet can tilt up, his toes can tilt down, and his ankles can pivot 90 degrees. He holds either of his weapons with no trouble by sliding the handles into his hands. Thunderbolt's tank mode is pretty good! Not as realistic as KFC's Ditka, sure, but cartoony enough and an honest improvement over DX9's Gewalt or the sub-par Titans Return version. The only thing I can really fault is that there isn't a chunk of the jet-mode's cockpit jutting out the front, but is that really a bad thing? He does have the prominent jet exhausts, but for some reason I think a tank with jet exhausts is kind of cool. There's little wheels for him to roll on, and the turret can rotate. The barrel has a limited up/down range. Using tabs on the weapons, you can plug them into the sides of the tank for storage if you like. Thunderbolt's jet mode is fine, too. Perhaps not as cartoony as KFC's, as the kibble is tucked in tight and the lower "wings" missing, plus there's non-cartoon cannons (that do sort of call to mind the molded bombs on the G1 toy). Not as realistic as DX9's, either, because it does have the kibble, delta wings, and overall proportions of the cartoon/G1 toy. A quick peak at the underside reveals the tank turret just chilling out underneath. I think that's just the cost of doing business with Blitzwing. I don't really mind it, and there's bumps on the turret for the jet mode to rest on and stay level. Disappointingly, there doesn't seen to be any way to store his weapons while he's in jet mode. Thunderbolt's a pretty good toy, I think. He's not without his flaws (I like him better than MFT's Octane, but not as much as Astrotrain), but he might be the best Blitzwing I've seen in any scale. Which, as if often the case when I do a Legends review, just makes me wish that they'd make these things in WfC-scale. But if Legends is your thing, I'd definitely give Thunderbolt a recommend.

Waspinator and Tigatron went up on Pulse. I ordered Waspinator but Tigatron already sold out. Which is great, since Amazon cancelled my preorder... With 2-ish days left, Victory Saber is just under 18,000 backers, unlocking the second tier reward (the stand). If the usual pattern holds of Haslab getting a big boost in the last 24 hours as the international orders come in, the third tier (shield and Micromasters) is looking like a real possibility.

I mentioned in my my review, but MS had three different ways to do the arms- split the cars and put half on the shoulder and half on the forearm, don't split the car and put the whole car on the shoulder, or extend the car and make it mostly the whole arm.

Ah. That didn't really bother me. But maybe you could paint the arms to match the cars? I don't recall that those parts show on the truck.

For what it's worth, my laptop has a Ryzen 4900HS CPU, and I haven't noticed any performance issues. Then again, I haven't used much more than Chrome and Mail since upgrading. Tomorrow I'll try running Far Cry 6 on it.

It's a shame Toyhax or someone didn't make decals for the legs of DX9's Menasor. That thing is solid as a rock.

So... anyone else using Windows 11 yet? I didn't put it on my desktop because I need that to play Far Cry 6, but I went ahead and did the upgrade on my laptop, and then later on my wife's laptop. Honestly, it's been one of the most painless OS upgrades I've done on a Windows PC. I haven't used it a ton yet, mostly just web browsing and email, but here's my initial impressions. -I dig the look. Honestly, I thought Vista and Windows 7 looked better than 8 and 10; the transparencies felt modern and the flat UI that was all the rage in the early 2010s always felt like a step backward to me. I like that 11 brings back transparencies, but in a more subtle way. I also dig the rounded corners on windows, but to be totally fair it's nothing Linux wasn't doing years ago. -The new Start Menu is fine. After Windows 8 I was leery of the fact that MS was changing the Start Menu again. Thing is, you can pin apps you use a lot, and that works like the Live tiles on Windows 8.1/10 except they take up less space and don't have information you probably weren't checking anyway. I've heard some people complain that there's an extra click to see a list of all the installed programs. I suppose that's valid, but more often than not I'd just start typing the name of the program I wanted if I didn't have a Live tile for it, and the search bar is still right there. -I kind of like the centered task bar buttons. I mean, I figured I'd like it on a tablet like the Surface. And I also expected that I'd be more tolerant of this change since I'm also used to using various Linux distros, MacOS, and ChromeOS. When I first saw the centered buttons I immediately wanted to move them back to the left (which you totally can do), but I decided to give the centered icons a try for awhile. And now, I think I'm actually starting to prefer it. -Widgets are back, I guess, but I didn't use them back in the day and I don't see myself wasting the RAM on them now, especially since they seem to require signing in with a Microsoft account. It's easy enough to just shut them off. -On the whole, I think it's prettier than Windows 10, but really not that different. Even stuff like right-clicking the empty space on the desktop... the context menu looks shiny and new, but you can click "more options" to bring up the old context menu... and then realize they have pretty much the same stuff, just in a slightly different order. MS has been steering us toward the newer "Settings" app since Windows 8, but if you search for it the Control Panel is still around. -The ability to run Android apps is a big deal... but it's also no available yet. So... meh? So I guess my recommendation is do upgrade to Windows 11. Or don't. Because right now, I don't think there's really a compelling need to upgrade- most of the time, for most users, it's going to behave pretty much the way you're used to Windows 10 behaving. Heck, I saw my wife using her computer for awhile yesterday after I updated it, and I don't even think she noticed that anything was different. But there's nothing broken, either, at least in my experience. I haven't had any crashes, no trouble with programs or apps that worked in Windows 10 not working in 11, no hangups or issues doing an upgrade in place, etc.

I'm digging the Skyline, too. I hear it's supposed to be Nightbird.

Yeah, it's been brought up before how stupid it is that it's not Jazz.

This image is making the rounds. I don't know about this csutton2@familydollar.com or how they came by this image. I've talked to some sources who have proven to be reliable, though, and they're telling me that this is real- not just the render there of Titan Metroplex, or the fact that Cybertron Metroplex is the 2022 Titan, but that the price increase is real, that "Transformers Legacy" logo is real, and the purple/blue mechanical details around the edges are indicative of what Legacy's boxes will look like. Hasbro's catered to G1 for a long time, and the Unicron Trilogy is nearly as old now as G1 was when the first wave of Classics came out. As a fan of the franchise, I think it's nice that Hasbro's giving those fans their moment in the sun. But they better put their money where their mouths are! If Metroplex does poorly there's a chance Hasbro will stop making Titans. And frankly, as a "geewunner" this is nothing but disappointment to me. I mean, it's one thing for me to drop $20 on a character like Airazor that I don't have much attachment to, but there's no way I'm dropping $190 on this. I was really hoping that the rumored leaks were misinformed, and the Legacy Metroplex was going to be a do-over of G1 Metroplex, because the original feels very dated with the Trypticon and beyond. I really want a Metroplex with better proportions, better accessories, better G1 accuracy, ankle articulation, and a Deluxe-class Scamper. Then I want a new Fortress Maximus that's not a retool of Metroplex, has his hip cannons, ankle articulation, and the correct base mode. After those, if Hasbro really wants to move on from G1 (which makes sense, you can't keep rehashing the same 5-6 citybots) there's still stuff I'd rather see than Cybertron Metroplex, like Armada Tidal Wave.

Hmm... I mean, I kind of want Raiden to be a success. It could mean that they're the first six of an MPG line that could go on to include other combiners. And while the scale may not please those who wanted the MPG stuff to be in the same scale as regular MP, if they're small enough the MPG stuff could replace the less-than-stellar Combiner Wars figures in a CHUG collection. But for the money maybe I'm better off seeing how Zeta/Moon Studio's Radiotron shakes out. Color prototypes of the two leg bots have been shown, and they look good so far. I wish their version of Shouki was further along, for a more direct comparison.

Have they said how big Shouki is? Or how big the combined Raiden will be?

The first stretch goal was reached. I'm on the fence.

Oh, he's a chunky boy. I kind of dig it.

Thanks, @tekering. He's gonna be a big boy, then.

I have a lot of Devastators. (TW Constructor, GT Gravity Builder, Titan-Class Devastator, G1 Devastator, Maketoys Giant, TFC Hercules, DX9 Hulkie, and a KO upscaled Hulkie) So... when MS and Newage started doing Constructicons, I figured I'd have to get both sets. Haven't ordered any of the Newage ones yet, but while grabbing some other stuff from ShowZ I decided to toss the first (and so far, only) Magic Square set in. So here's Shovel Master and Roller Master, their Legends-size Scrapper and Mixmaster. My initial impression out of the box was quite good. The size is pretty big; they're both the same height as their Motormaster, and taller than the Stunticon cars. And these are, by far, the most cartoon-accurate Constructicons I have. Magic Square even went out of their way to copy some of the worst bits of the animation models, like the green lumps on Scrapper's shoulders and Mixmaster's shoulders and forearms where the animators drew the shape of the wheels but no actual wheels. Shovel Master's got the stripes on his hip skirts, the gray and red on his chest, the bump outs on his knees, the dots on his shins, and the flared ankles with the wheels on his legs. If I'm being critical, I'd probably say the worst thing about his sculpt is that it's a little flat. The bump outs on his knees, the gray chest panel, and the purple center piece should all stick out a bit more. Something else that doesn't really bother me when I'm looking at just MS's figures but is supremely noticeable when you put them with other Constructicons (in this case, the DX9 on the right and the G1 on the left) is what I'd have to say are some poor color choices. The green is too yellow and too pale, like watered down Mountain Dew, and the purple is both too pale and not nearly blue enough. Roller Master's got the green nozzles on his head, the squares on his pelvis, the red rectangle and linework on his chest, and the circles on under his chest where the animators drew his screw holes, plus the stepped green lower legs with the linework on the shins. He's even got bump outs on his hips, although they actually serve a purpose here. Where Roller Master deviates the most from the animation model is a little extra line work on his abs, legs that are more tapered (technically true for Shovel Master, too, but less noticeable there), and the fact that he actually has feet with just a bit of toe poking out. Of course he's got the same color issues, but I expect that to match these guys the other four will as well. So I'm not going to keep beating a dead horse over it. Given the relatively high price for this set I'm a little disappointed by the lack of accessories. You get two guns, molded fairly cartoon accurate and cast as single pieces in black plastic. The bigger one is Shovel Master's, the smaller one Roller Master's. You get an alternate head for Shovel Master. And you get a replacement robot-mode backpack for Roller Master. Shovel Master's head is probably a ball joint. He can look up and down a little, nothing really sideways, and it can swivel. His shoulders rotate and extend laterally just about 90 degrees. His biceps swivel, double-jointed elbows bend well past 90 degrees, and his wrists swivel. His waist swivels, and if you start to pull him apart for transformation you can get a little ab crunch. His ball-jointed hips can go 90 degrees forward, 60 degrees backward, and just under 90 degrees laterally. His thighs swivel, and his knees are double-jointed and bend until his calves meet his thighs. His feet can tilt up an down a little, with additional hinges at the toes and heel, and his ankle can pivot 45-ish degrees. Roller Master's head is on a ball joint. It swivels, he can't really look down or tilt sideways but he can look up around 45 degrees. Shoulders rotate and extend laterally 90 degrees, biceps swivel, double-jointed elbows do over 90, and wrists swivel. His waist swivels, no ab crunch. His ball-jointed hips go 90 degrees forward or backward, but those packs on his hips keep them from doing more than 45 degrees laterally. His thighs swivel, and his knees are double jointed and bend until his calves touch his thighs. His feet tilt down, but there really isn't room for them to tilt up. His ankles pivot 90 degrees. All-in-all, both figures have pretty good articulation, especially for their size. They hold their weapons by sliding the handles into their molded hands. However, articulating them is where we start to see some of the flaws in MS's designs. See, they're fairly intricate, especially for their size. But, the designs are paired with materials that are more of a return to nylon form, and I have to say that while nylon can be a great material on a part that needs some flex and durability I'm really starting to question MS's decision to go all out with it. It leads to imprecise fits for tabs; Shovel Master's sides are constantly coming undone while I'm moving his arms, same goes for the sliders in Roller Master's torso and the top of his lower legs. It also leads to loose hinges over time, and already out of the box Shovel Master has a lose up/down tilt on his left foot, Roller Master has a totally floppy ankle pivot on his right foot, and he's got a part on a mushroom swivel for transformation that comes off every time you twist it. As for the other accessories, you swap Shovel Master's head by pushing his face off, then removing the helmet from the ball peg. While I can see the differences in the sculpt, I'm not sure the alternate head captures the cartoon any better than the stock one. As for Roller Master, his mixing drum is attached via a small peg near the top of the backpack and two tabs at around armpit level. It just pops off, and you can put the alternate one on via a peg in a hole below the stock drum's, and a larger tab that goes into the small of his back. This drum gives him a smaller, more cartoon accurate backpack that lies flat against his back, but it doesn't transform like the stock one so it'd have to be removed and swapped back to stock for alt mode. Speaking of alt modes... Shovel Master's is pretty good. He eschews the closed cabs of some of the more modern interpretations of Scrapper in favor of a more cartoony, G1 toy open roof on two supports. There's lots of little linework, too, that gives him a bit or realistic detail, though. A lot of the same positives can be said for Roller Master's alt mode. He's got a lot of the cartoon details like the shape of the grill, placement of the headlights, the single-pane windshield the two-tone bumper, etc. But there's a bit more realistic detail, too, with the hip packs becoming fuel tanks, molded and painted windshield wipers, and linework depicting more realistic door panels. The engineering and transformation is again the biggest problem I have with these guys. In the case of Shovel Master it's not too bad, maybe a little ambitious for the scale and definitely for the materials. Use the same engineering on anything from a WfC-scaled Voyager to an MP-scale with more traditional plastic and it'd probably be quite brilliant, but as it stands the legs feel weird, some stuff doesn't seem to tab in place at all, most noticeably the roof, and the things that do tab in don't seem to line up quite right. As for Roller Master, from the waist up as he forms the back of the truck the engineering is quite clever. The mixing drum expands, the arms tuck away, and wheels come out of the inside of his torso. His legs, though, explode into a mess of panels that have to be rearranged in just the right way to form the cab of the truck. The instructions are tiny and hard to decipher, and if you don't do things in the right order some parts will wind up in the way of the others and you won't be able to collapse everything into the necessary cube shape. Again, maybe it'd be better at a larger scale or with some better instructions, but as it stands it was possibly the least fun I've had transforming a figure in 2021. I actually had all the pictures done yesterday, but I decided to wait until today to write the review because I wanted to cool off and not have the transformation color my opinion too much. So where does that leave us, then? I'd say it depends... is your collection more Newage or Magic Square? If your collection is more Newage, then these guys are almost certainly too big. Being as tall as MS's Motormaster means they're also as tall as their Optimus. If Magic Square, then there's are mostly good, cartoon accurate Stunticons and you'll probably be happy adding them to your collection, although again perhaps smaller Newage ones work better if you think they Constructicons should be a little smaller. Or maybe you just don't like the colors and materials Magic Square used. I expect I'll have a more definitive recommendation after I have the Newage ones in hand.

I think most (all) Transformers since Siege (maybe before?) have a little port for a stand. Thing is, aside from the little one that came with Studio Series RotF Soundwave they don't really mention it, and Hasbro doesn't seem to sell any official stands, so I never really bring it up in my reviews. It's good to know that the Tamashii ones work, but I really wish Hasbro would release something official. EDIT: Victory Saber's just under a 1000 to the V-lock cannon, with a little under a week to go. Not sure when the retailers put their orders in, but as it stands I'm guessing we get the cannon, the stand is iffy, and I'm not counting on the shield and Micromasters. The Hasbro Pulse Youtube channel has an interview up with Hisashi Yuki, the designer for both MP Star Saber and the Haslab one. While I'm sure there's lots of interesting tidbits in that interview (haven't watched it yet, maybe after I pick my daughter up from school), one thing that caught my attention is the size. You can clearly see Haslab Star Saber is about a head shorter than the MP, and Yuki says that the combined Victory Saber will be as tall as MP Star Saber. So... anyone with a couple of different size WfC/SS86 figures and MP Star Saber want to put up some pics for size comparisons?

*shrugs* Blitzway has a very promising Voltron coming, but I'm fairly content with my SoC Voltron that matches nicely with my other SoC Voltron and not looking to drop $600-$700 on another. But, y'know, more power to the people that do.

Saw it this afternoon. It was flawed but enjoyable, pretty much like the first one. I'll say that some of the relationships felt diminished by the alterations to their origin stories and the the more rushed format of a two-hour film vs a multi-issue comic book- there didn't seem to be any real reason or connection for Cletus to be so obsessed with Eddie, and while Carnage was clearly capable of causing... well, carnage, he never felt as threatening as he did in the comics. I think this is mostly made up for, though, by Tom Hardy's excellent portrayal of Eddie and the amusing interplay between him and the Venom symbiote. One thing... And about that after credits scene-

Got an email from Target. Looks like Road Rage is shipping. I'm sure I'll put up pics, but I'll wait for a few other repaints to come.

Funny, I had the opposite reaction. For a time I'd considered getting the PX one to go with my WFC stuff, but an official release fills that hole in the collection. And the overall quality of WFC and SS86 plus shelves that are fast approaching their limits had cooled me on MP-scale figures in general.

Sorry this one seem a bit late- still nothing at my local stores, but Amazon finally sent me Studio Series 86 Voyager-class Wreck-Gar. I really wanted to compare him to some other Wreck-Gars... but I never bothered with either the Legends or Deluxe-class Groove repaints from Combiner Wars, as they didn't really seem like an upgrade over the old Reveal the Shield toy. And while I should have the RTS version I can't find it anywhere. So we'll have to make do with SS86 Hot Rod and my most movie-accurate Optimus Prime... and dang, I didn't realize how big Wreck-Gar was. I mean, I know he's the leader of the Junkions, he was definitely taller than Hot Rod in the movie, and at least some Season 3 episodes did have him around the same size as Rodimus, but somehow I always pegged him around the same size as Springer. But SS86 Wreck-Gar is definitely taller than Siege Springer. So... not a lot to complain about with the robot mode, eh? I could quibble about the exact shades and saturations of the various browns and oranges, but all things considered that's an extremely accurate Wreck-Gar, and I don't have a lot to complain about. The sculpt is very good, even the face (which was a bit of a weak point for other SS86 figures, notably Kup and Blurr). The colors are almost entirely where they should be; I had to go back and double-check some scenes, but really the only things I can complain about are that the little knuckle spikes should be red (when they even bothered to draw them), and round base that the chest cannons are attached to should match the cannons. Everything else, though? *chef's kiss* OK... there is a bit of the Hasbro Hollows. You'll see some space saving ones on the insides of his thighs, some gaps in his biceps where the mushroom peg that connects the arms to his shoulders plugs in, and some under his forearms for his wrists to tuck away because Hasbro just can't be arsed to to make cover flaps for that on the bulk of their mainstream toys. But I'm pretty close to giving them a total pass on that, because his back is otherwise quite clean and cartoon-accurate. I mean, KFC's MP-style Wreck-Gar cost 4x as much as this and it's got all sorts of kibble on its back. The accessories aren't bad, either. You get his wheels, and they're painted well. You get the pinwheel axe he used in the movie. What you don't get is his rifle. I'd need to go back and watch all of his Season 3 appearances to see if he used it in the cartoon, but I remember the G1 toy having it. I guess, though, he never had a gun in the movie, so like Grimlock and Slag's swords it's omitted. Wreck-Gar's head is on a ball joint, and he's got pretty good range looking up and swiveling, but due to the shape of the joint's cutout there's no sideways tilt, and his beard keeps him from looking down. His shoulders rotate and can extend well beyond 90 degrees laterally. His biceps swivel, and his elbows bend 90 degrees in the expected direction as well as backward a bit. His wrists swivel and, due to transformation, they can bend down, which is useful for poses where you want him pointing his axe at someone. His waist swivels (on my copy his waist swivel was very loose, but a little floor polish in the seam on his back fixed that right up). Due to his transformation he even has a bit of an ab crunch, something you almost never see in the mainline. His saddlebags are hinged and move out of the way so that his his can move a little under 90 degrees forward or backward, and over 90 degrees sideways on what appears to be a soft ratchet. His thighs swivel, and his knees bend just under 90 degrees. Like his elbows, they can also bend the wrong way. His feet can tilt down nearly 90 degrees, up a little, and his ankles can pivot about 60 degrees. Finally, his chest cannons are actually ball joints, so you have a little freedom in how you aim them. All-in-all it's a bit disappointing to see a couple of those joints miss the 90 degree mark, but I think he redeems himself by get more than 90 on others and having points of articulation like the ab crunch that a lot of other figures in this line don't. Wreck-Gar's wheels can slide over any of the four large spikes at his wrists and knees (which are not removable), although I believe the "official" spots are are on his left arm and leg. He can hold his axe or other accessories via his 5mm fists. He doesn't have much in the way of other 5mm ports, though. There's one on the outside of either leg, halfway between his knees and his feet, and there's one under each foot, but that's it. Despite the lack of 5mm ports, though, he does have some weapon storage. It's just that the storage uses a much smaller peg on the axe to fit into the much smaller hole near the gas cap on his back. Half of Wreck-Gar's transformation is pretty clever, as his torso separates and extends, allowing the front of the bike to unfurl and his head to tuck into it. It allows his head to "become" the front of the bike without having a huge head, like the G1 toy, or a tiny front end on the bike. The other half of his transformation, though, is extremely basic as it's basically just his toes pointing down and his knees bending the wrong way. Oh, and this probably goes without saying, but it's necessary to partsform his tires. The bike mode is big, by the way. Poor little Hot Rod's car is dwarfed by it. I guess it's easier to overlook than on a lot of other motorcycle Transformers, though, since it's mean to be a ride for other Junkions, not a real-world bike meant for humans. Wreck-Gar's bike mode is good, but not perfect. I think it's a hard one to get right, though. I mean, the toy was basically chest and head up, arms squished in, legs curled around. The animation model used the basic geometry of that, but also a healthy dose of animation magic to get the arms shrunk into smaller spokes for the front wheel and to blend his leg right into his chest. The SS86 toy has to try to reconcile that, and that forces them to make some compromises. His robot shoulders wind up being more visible, and his chest is a bit thinner and leaves some gaps. But I like how his chest tabs securely into his biceps, and his shoulders in turn tab into his toes, which helps make the bike mode feel solid and at least tries to emulate the seamlessness of the animation model. And let me just say that I love how the back of Wreck-Gar's head peaks up through the front of the bike to appear as the information cluster. That said, the one big problem I have with the bike mode is the big gap between his legs and the armature that forms the "seat" of the bike. It looks so bad, but it also looks like something that could have been avoided if they'd done something as simple as have part of the inside of his lower legs fold or rotate out to fill that spot. I also wouldn't have minded if they made the seat part black, to help it look more like an actual seat. Gimmick-wise, not a lot going on. There are bits on Wreck-Gar's calves that fold out, so the bike can stay balanced. The pinwheel axe can use it's small peg to plug into a small hole on the back of the bike, meeting the bare minimum for storage, but it's not particularly pretty there. There's a small fin on the seat of the bike, and a corresponding slot under Wreck-Gar's crotch. If you have two Wreck-Gars you can have one ride the other, although I'd expect at least one Junkion remold (even if Junkyard hadn't been leaked as a 2022 SS86 release). Lacking a second Wreck-Gar (though sorely tempted to get another and repaint him), I tried posing both Prime and Hot Rod on him. He's a bit small for Prime, but Hot Rod looks pretty good there. Despite having the toy, Wreck-Gar was never a favorite of mine as a kid, so honestly I went into thinking more about how he'd help fill out the WfC/SS86 collection of new-for-the-movie characters. In hand, though, Wreck-Gar is one of the better figures released this year and I'm quite pleased with him. My complaints are minimal, and mostly limited to the back of the bike mode. I'm definitely in for Junkyard, but now I'm hoping that in addition to Junkyard in the main SS86 line that maybe we could get two or three more Junkions in some kind of Gen Selects or Amazon box set. On top of that, although I'm not holding my breath, with a few tweaks this mold would make for a very passable Cy-Kill (perhaps not totally Hanna-Barbera, but definitely the stylized version that Megatron is killing on the first page of Megatron Origin #2). But regardless of how many Junkions (and Go-Bots) Hasbro ultimately does or doesn't give us, I highly recommend picking up at least Wreck-Gar.

I rarely bother with Nintendo's eShop. Funny how a company that used to restrict how many games a third party could release on their platforms because of crappy Atari games crashing the market seems totally content to let their eShop become almost an unnavigable swamp of garbage people wouldn't bother to download for free on a phone. Nintendo still makes some of the best 1st-party games in the industry, though. Really looking forward to Metroid Dread next week.