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mikeszekely

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  1. mikeszekely
    You and I might be single-handedly keeping Inti Creates afloat. I own four copies of Azure Striker Gunvolt (DS, Windows, Switch, PS4), three of ASG2 (DS, Switch, PS4), two of Luminous Avenger ix (Switch, PS4), and three of each of the Bloodstained games (Switch, Windows, and PS4). I have a tendency to buy games on PC for posterity (I have more faith that a PC I buy 10 years from now will play an old game than whatever consoles are available will be backwards compatible), but then again on whatever console I'm currently into. Switch got a lot of play when I was doing more traveling, but now the PS5 is the new hotness (even though I'm mostly buying PS4 games for it).
  2. mikeszekely
    Counterpoint: I remember watching the cartoon a ton. After the '86 movie came out on VHS I wore it out watching it every day. And on Christmas morning? I got Gobots. My parents couldn't afford Transformers until season 3. The only Season 1-2 toys I had were Seaspray, Powerglide, Bumblebee, Sideswipe, and the Insecticons. (And a Galactic Man I pretended was Shockwave). My parents tried to make up for it, as I had a ton of them after Season 3, but by then after seeing the movie so many times I was keenly aware that the toys were a bit off from the cartoon. So, to me, sorry. No wings for Jazz. (For those that do like wings on him, I wish the Studio Series toy have you the option the way Maketoys' did) There's one weird exception for me, though. I spent a ton of time looking at the combiners I really wanted but never got in those checklist catalogs. As a result, even though I like the cartoon look for the team members, I have a preference for the toys in combined mode.
  3. mikeszekely
    Starts at 11:00 ET.
  4. mikeszekely
    I dunno... MPM-12 looks a lot better in Emgo's review. In all seriousness, I think every collector needs to do right for their own collection, but I personally feel like there needs to be more balance. If looks alone are paramount then why bother with a transforming Transformer at all? Just get the ThreeZero or Prime-1 and call it a night. What's up with Target's distribution, man? None of the stores around here have the Worlds Collide pack, but they're all starting to get Origin Bumblebee. If you want, I'll grab one for you next time I'm there.
  5. mikeszekely
    I dunno. I mean, there's definitely things that are very MP-44 in the chest and shins, sure, but the proportions are still pretty similar to v1 overall. NA's got MP-44's large pelvis and short midsection. Like I said, not for me, but I get that it'll appeal to a lot of people. FWIW, I'm not really interested in MS Op v2, either. I'm good with the first one, in Legends and MP scales. I might not be interested in picking up another MP Prime, but I'm looking forward to your post. I love going over all the minute differences.
  6. mikeszekely
    I like how trim his backpack is, but from the front it looks like a little MP-44. Which, compared with Magic Square's, isn't a good thing (to my tastes).
  7. mikeszekely
    Maybe? I don't know what things are like in Japan. In the States, I think Hasbro's willingness to engage with adult collectors has improved a lot with Hasbro Pulse and various livestreaming events, but it's still very much usually a "oh, you want this premium collectible/Takara import? You can buy it online." The brick and mortar space is still devoted to mainline Studio Series, War for Cybertron, and Cyberverse stuff, usually 4' or less of an aisle, so yeah, being able to buy anything Masterpiece at a physical store is a novelty.
  8. mikeszekely
    Last one, until Hasbro Pulse/Amazon start sending out some preorders and/or I start finding more stuff in stores. But yeah, I went ahead and picked up MPM-12, Masterpiece movie Optimus Prime as seen in the Bumblebee film. This is a design I feel like fans have wanted in their collections since Bumblebee first hit theaters. Results have been somewhat mixed. We had the Studio Series toy, which was fine for a $30 figure but also lacking in some details and far from Masterpiece quality. We had some options from ThreeZero and Prime-1, but they were non-transforming. We had the Toyworld one, which looked great and transformed but seemed to have it's own issues with QC (joint tolerances and transformation issues). And we had oversized, modified KOs of the Studio Series toy. Well, I think that any hopes that HasTak might have delivered a more definitive, MP-style/quality transforming Bumblebee Optimus are pretty short-lived. Sure, Prime's legs are looking pretty good. The front of the torso's looking alright. But he's got awful dead eyes. It almost seems like they were considering light piping, as the back of Prime's head is translucent blue plastic, but it definitely doesn't work. He's got the same goofy hinged flaps that the Studio Series toy has. He's got long, gorilla arms with forearms that are too big just to accommodate all the kibble hanging off of them. You've got the mushy, rubber smokestacks, the bare diecast, and minimal paint apps. I guess I shouldn't be totally surprised, as Hasbro's influence has kept the Movie Masterpiece line something between Studio Series and the actual Takara Masterpiece line, but I guess I expected a little more for $125. At least he scales well. A big complaint I've had with a lot of other 3P and KO Bumblebee Primes has been the odd decision to scale with ThreeZero instead of the existing MPMs. Side and back view. Here you can see some of the more egregious arm kibble and that crappy unpaintable gray plastic. Prime doesn't come with a ton of accessories. You get his rifle and a Matrix. The Matrix is, at least, diecast. Prime's head sits on a mushroom peg for swiveling, with a hinge where the neck connects to the torso. This hinge allows him to look down, as long as he's facing forward... and that's it. Shoulders rotate (friction) and extend laterally on terrible, mushy ratchets. The panel on the side of his shoulder moves out of the way, but you'll have to move it back manually. Due to transformation there's also a slight butterfly; on my copy it's a bit loose. His biceps swivel, and his elbow bends over 90 degrees on a single ratchet; there is a second friction hinge above it, but it bends his arm backward for transformation. His wrists swivel, and they can bend downward largely due to transformation (and, perhaps, a bit too loosely, although I was able to tighten a screw on both of them that seems to have helped). His thumb is on a ball joint at the base, and his fingers have a pin hinge at the base, with the index finger being separate and the other three molded together, but they have no additional knuckles. His waist swivels, but there's no ab crunch. His hip skirts hinge out of the way, so his hips can go 90 degrees forward, backward, or laterally, all on ratchets. His thighs swivel just above the knees, which bend 90 degrees on a single ratcheted hinge. His feet have a slight upward tilt, nothing really down, and a bit over 45 degrees of ankle pivot. His gun fits into either hand using the standard MP tabs on the handle into slots on the palm method. The rifle can also fold up, and it uses a single tab on one side to plug into his butt for storage. As for the Matrix, the handles are wide enough that Prime can get his fingers through to hold the Matrix. Or, like most Primes, his chest can open and it can be stored inside. Prime has one of the easiest transformations of the MPM series so far. While some things, like the exact way the panels on the arms unfold and the entire way the legs transform, is obviously quite different it's not exactly dissimilar to the Studio Series toy, either. The front grill and bumper is still made from his back, the windows are his actual chest, some of the room and basically the entire side of the cab is made from panels unfolded from his arms, etc. Scale-wise I was never clear on how the CoE design is supposed to fare with the Peterbilt from the Bay movies, but the cab at least is similar in proportions to MP-10/44. Then again, his legs don't compress at all, leaving a bit of long, gappy rear. The panels that unfold from the sides actually do a worse job than on the Studio Series toy, as there's a weird cutout gap at the back near the bottom. The bumper is made from an unpaintable plastic, so no painted taillights. The fuel tanks are bare diecast and are going to look really crappy after awhile. Much has been made of how the stripe on the cab is white on the sides and silver on the front; in hand the stripe on the front actually is white with some silver on it as if they were going for dirt. There's the cat ears, which are really dumb because they could 100 percent have been solved by making that panel two parts instead of one and putting a hinge on it so they could fold over the top; they'd have even helped cover some gray joints that way. And all of that is ignoring the fact that this is not the truck used in the Bumblebee movie. MPM-12, like the Studio Series toy, seems to be based on the Marmon used for Evasion Optimus in Age of Extinction. Consider- You can see that MPM-12 has the same two squares on the bumper (the other rectangle is a slot for tabbing in his back in bot mode), the same grill with four segments and the wider border at the top (the rectangle on the top of the border, which is a square one the SS toy, is where the Marmon 'M' goes). It's got the same round pair of headlights set into rectangles, the same visor over the windows, and the same bent smokestack (albeit two instead of one). The SS toy even has the same roof scoop. The Freightliner in the movie has a different grill, the extra vent above the grill, no visor, the single rectangle with the orange marker lights on the bumper, straight smokestacks, and rectangular lights that honestly looks a lot more like Earthrise Optimus' truck mode than MPM-12's. Perhaps HasTak's hands were tied by the fact that Prime's bot mode, even after arriving on Earth, clearly has the visor over the chest windows and bent smokestacks? Prime rolls, but the tires are plastic, not rubber. The gun can store on the truck, again by folding but this time using a pair of tabs on the other side of the gun to tab onto the back of the cab. Which honestly doesn't look great. I wish they could have done something with it to help fill out the rear of the truck; you can see from above the huge gap between his legs between the cab and his feet. While you're looking at the top from above, you can also see that there's no slots for pulling MP-10's trailer. There is a gap between the feet, though, that works with MP-44's trailer. So there you have it. MPM-12 is honestly kind of disappointing- bad proportions, kibble, mediocre articulation, and plenty of truck mode issues. I'm confident that some 3P will come up with something better at some point (sorry, while I think ToyWorld's looks better, I don't consider ToyWorld's to actually be better). On that note, unless you're official-only I probably shouldn't recommend this. And yet, despite his numerous flaws, I actually really do like him. He's pretty straightforward to transform and mess around with, and he's not terrible in robot mode. Plus, there's something about the novelty of being able to walk into a brick-and-mortar store and walk out with this figure that I find appealing. So on that note, why not? I wouldn't go out of your way to find one, and I definitely wouldn't overpay from an online retailer like TFSource (who want $190 for this figure!). But if you're shopping at Target and you happen to find one, go ahead and treat yourself.
  9. mikeszekely
    Just came back from seeing this with a friend. I'm not really a Joe fan, so I can't comment on the origin story, but overall I thought the fights used too many jump cuts, the plot was kind of predictable, and it lacked the campy charm of the first two. And yet... somehow I was entertained. Plus Baroness was super hot. C-, would watch again on video with my wife.
  10. mikeszekely
    Real quick, I picked this up when I finished grabbing the Magic Square Stunticons. It's DK-12, and an upgrade kit for MPM Ironhide from DNA. Of all the MPMs since MPM-03, Ironhide was by far the worst. Could this kit help? Well, we've got two guns like he had in Dark of the Moon, complete with knives/bayonets. There's also two small clips, a large chunk of... thing, and a little peeing Mojo. One of the big complaints I had was that the door kibble didn't stay attached to his arm. Well, the clips fit over the clear ridges on the door kibble. Then, the tab that nominally goes into those ridges fits into a slot on the clip. I'll say it's still not as secure as I'd like, especially since the the clip wants to pop off of the left arm, but it's definitely a huge improvement. The other complaint I had was that the the truck halves with his shoulders didn't seem to lock into a specific place. That's what the larger chunk is for. Fold down the part of Ironhide's back with the smokestacks. Note the gray parts with the h-shaped cuttouts where his shoulders connect, and the large tab in the middle of his back. The chunk has bits that slide over and around the h-shaped bits, and a large tab that fits into the middle of Ironhide's back. Once they're in place the wheels will kind of wedge behind the clips on his shoulders, locking everything into place. After, the instructions imply that you should bend his back flap a certain way, forcing the old tab that went into his back down past some other piece, then wedging the end up into the gap in the middle of the DNA chunk. The gap isn't wide enough, though, so I'd say just fold the back up like normal and tuck the tab on the back flap under the DNA part. Well, the DNA parts don't do anything about the kibble flaps all over his arms, or the weird location of his shoulder joints. But they do keep the kibble and shoulders locked into place, so they're successful in that at least. Aside from that, Ironhide can hold the guns or knives by wrapping his fingers around the handles. And you can put Mojo wherever you like to leak lubricant on Ironhide's foot. The guns also have little pegs that fit into little holes on the DNA part on his back. For strorage. A robot mode fix is fine for a display, but what if you want to transform Ironhide? Well, you're probably a sadist... the transformation is fairly simple, lining up the sections of the hood and the flaps that make up the roof and doors is a colossal pain, as right when you get one lined up another will pop back open. But the DNA parts do work with the alt mode, albeit by partsforming. So start by taking all the DNA stuff off of him. The knives have slots on the handles that allow a tab that looks like a magazine to slide through, attaching the knives like bayonets. The clips also attach to the guns just in front of the handles. Now, if you look at Ironhide's bed you'll find some tabs near the back and slots near the cab. The guns have corresponding slots and tabs, so they just clip right on. That leaves the back part. The sides hinge up, like a U. Look at the back side. You'll notice some slots, and a gappy space. Now look under Ironide's front end. You'll find some tabs on the parts that the tires tab into, and a hinge under the "Road Armor" logo on the bumper. The tabs fit into the slots on the DNA part, and the gappy space fits over the hinge, securing it under Ironhide's front. So... I'm kind of at a loss to describe my feelings here. I'll say that I could do without the guns, knives, and Mojo, but I don't hate them. I like that everything has a home in both modes (except the dog, but he's just for posing anyway). The clips and the back part do what they set out to, and are a huge improvement over the stock figure. But, even with the improvements, Ironhide is still the worst of the MPM figures. He's still got awkward articulation, he's still got way too much kibble on his arms, and his transformation is still a finnicky affair due to shellforming the front half out of panels that don't like to tab together. The bed is better covered and the robot has more accurate proportions, but I still think the Studio Series figure is a better movie Ironhide toy. So I guess my recommendation works like this... do you have MPM Ironhide? Then you should get this kit, as it fixes two major problems I have with the robot mode. Do you not have MPM Ironhide? Then don't waste your money on him, because while this kit does help a lot Ironhide is still not a very good figure.
  11. mikeszekely
    As cool as I am on XTB right now, James/Bond has my attention. But I'm more interested in these guys:
  12. mikeszekely
    So, especially for their tiny scale, Magic Square made a great set of Stunticons. But, no matter how much you love your Stunticons, the question is always going to be, "But how's Menasor?" So let's get these guys combined up, shall we? To begin with, like XTB's or a large chunk of DX9's, most of Menasor is fully-formed without the Stunticons at all simply by transforming Overlord's trailer. And yes, this sort of partsforming is a generally a bit more than I like, but I do think Menasor gets away with it partly because of the challenges of bringing an animation-accurate robot, especially with such low/thin sports cars for legs, and partly because the parts at least come from something. Overlord's top spins around like you're going to robot mode, but otherwise he just scrunches up a bit and plugs into the back/top of Menasor. For the arms, they work like DX9 and XTB in that the cars split in half. There's no buttons or gimmicks, rather, the peg is keyed so the halves can only separate when one half is rotated 90 degrees vs the other half. Once separated, the halves tab onto Menasor's arms. They stay on pretty securely. The legs tab onto one side of Menasor's legs. Now, I was thinking like the G1 toys, which have the noses of the cars pointing up, but the tabs are arranged so that they can go on nose down as well. If you prefer, Menasor's legs can rotate below the knee, and his toes can be removed and placed on the other side of his feet, so that the cars can face forward. No, it's not really cartoon accurate, but it's a display option that seems to have a certain following with adapters being made for the DX9 set to do something similar. I'll note here that due to Magic Square's tolerances, the nylon plastic, and the design of the leg frame that the connection between the cars and the legs (or even keeping the panels that form the legs together) is a bit of a pain. All combined up, and we have a very cartoon accurate Menasor, one who's a pretty big boy for a Legends-style figure. He's a full head taller than my Iron Factory Bruticus (which honestly mirrors my MP display, where I have the shorter MMC Bruticus with DX9's Menasor). That'll make him significantly taller than DX9's Hulkie, but with both Newage and Magic Square putting out Devastator's I don't imagine that's a problem. Menasor's animation model is kind of bland, so I really like the molded details Magic Square managed to work into the design. And if you're wondering, here's how he scales with Magic Square's Prime and Magic Square's Sideswipe (which also shows how Menasor scales with Motormaster and the other Stunticons, if you're wondering). I think that works fine. If anything, MS Menasor is slightly taller vs MS Prime than DX9's Menasor is to MP-10/MP-44/TE-01/MS-01. Menasor's head is on a ball joint with up, down, and sideways tilt plus the requisite swivel. His shoulders rotate and could, in theory, move 90 degrees but in practice the tops of the cars on his shoulders are going to get in the way. His biceps swivel, and his elbows bend 90 degrees, again in theory because in practice the cars limit it to a bit less. The wrists swivel. The thumb is on a ball joint with an additional hinge, and the fingers are individually-articulated with a hinge at the base and a hinge ad the middle knuckle. His waist swivels, and he has 90 degrees of ab crunch. Once you move the hip skirts out of the way his hips can go 90 degrees forward and laterally and just a bit less backward. His thighs swivel, and his knees bend 90 degrees. His ankles have a very slight up/down tilt, double jointed pivots that'll go way over 90 degrees, and a swivel. It looks like his weapons have tabs that fit into slots on his palms, but the tabs are actually much smaller than the slots. As a result, he holds his weapons a little looser than I'd like, mostly with the tension of his fingers. But what about the other accessories that came in baggies? The ones I kept promising we'd talk about later? Well, Magic Square is giving you options. For one, remember all the pictures of Menasor that come up in a Google search of him holding up the lightning bug? The ones that look like the cars are dangling off his shoulders, and don't contribute at all to the forearm? Well, find these flat pieces and attach them to Menasor's forearms just like this- the one with tabs running parallel to the short sides goes on Dragstrip's arm, with the t-shaped hole pointing toward the hand, and the one with the tabs running parallel to the long sides goes on the Dead End arm with the t-shaped hole pointing to the elbow. Then, note that the shoulder connections actually hinge outward on a flap. There you go- the flat parts bulk out the forearm, and the cars dangle entirely from the shoulders. Menasor's ready for a lightning bug! Too bad you don't get one... For every one person that likes this configuration, I'm sure that there's another that would prefer the cars to simply be the arms. And Magic Square's got you covered there, too. The arms are connecting to an underlying shoulder piece. Pull them off, then pop the hands off. Dragstrip and Dead End actually have some complicated hinges and swivels inside their bodies, allowing for a bicep swivel and elbow joint without physically splitting the cars in half. You just need to add the hands, which we actually do by plugging them into the t-shaped holes on the flat parts, then plugging the flat parts into the bottoms of the cars. Now the cars are the arms! Mostly... you've still got the shoulder panels the cars connect to, and the flat bits holding the hands and filling out the forearms. I suppose that's a blow against partsforming, but I have two reasons not to do it this way. One, it leaves that chunk of arm leftover (and you'll need it to go back to trailer mode). Two, there's one more use for those flat bits. See, we still have all these parts leftover. It's an alternate chest, thighs, toes, hip skirts, and head. The chest is the hardest part to swap, as it does involve unscrewing the original and screwing the replacement on. The halves of the head are simply pegged together around the ball joint, so you can pull them apart. Since both faces have similar expressions with slightly different sculpts I didn't really try to see if the faces are interchangeable. The hip skirts are plugged into a peg hole on the crotch, and the thighs are tabbed on, so it's simply a matter of popping them off and popping on the replacements. It's hard to see, but the toes have hook tabs and have to slide outward and off of Menasor's feet. Then you can slide the replacement's on. As I mentioned, they can tab into the back of Menasor's feet, too, if you want to spin the legs around and have the cars facing forward. Or if you just want bigger heels. Finally, those flat bits we've been using as forearm filler? They can unfold into these pieces, which clip onto Menasor's collar. The result is a much more toy or OX-style Menasor. Now, while I spent a lot of time watching the cartoon and like my combiner team members to be cartoon accurate, I spent as much time or more looking at those checklist catalogs that came with the G1 toys, and as such I actually prefer a more toy-style combined mode, so this is how I'll be displaying mine. The only real issue I have is that I think the thighs for this mode should be silver, and I'd love some stickers or something to decorate the front of Menasor's legs with details from the G1 toys. Still, the most important thing to me is that he's got (what I consider to be) the correct head and the shoulder/collar pylons. Oh, and just to make sure, I transformed him back to truck mode. You don't have to swap any of the parts back to the cartoon-style ones. Some of the tolerances are a bit tighter, but everything still works. The only downside is that the parts that turn into his shoulder/collar pylons have nowhere to go outside of the combined mode. At this point, I feel like I'm beating a dead horse, but this is an impressive Menasor, one just just about as accurate and nearly as impressive as the MP options despite standing just a little taller than an MP Optimus. I really, really wish this guy scaled with War for Cybertron. He's not without flaws; Magic Squares wonky tolerances and nylon plastic doesn't do them any favors here, causing problems with the legs and making his grip on his weapons a tad loose. But I love that this set gives me the options to display both the cartoon and toy/OX Menasor without having to buy two sets of Stunticons, and I love that the smaller size of the combined mode makes for a combiner that's easier to play and pose with than a 20" display piece with ratchets that take two people to move. Absolutely recommending this guy for any Legends collectors, but I'd also suggest checking him out if you're simply a Menasor fan.
  13. mikeszekely
    I know everyone's excited for the Blitzway Voltron I can't talk myself into dropping $700 on when I still think the SoC one is pretty great, but has anyone else seen this? It seems to be a 3P figure from Micro Cosmos going by the name Elvis. Yeah, yeah, it's a bit stylized. But it does come apart and the lions do transform, and the whole thing is apparently under 7" tall. And it looks like it'll only be around $100.
  14. mikeszekely
    Sorry, friends. Some official stuff came up that I wanted to cover right away, as it's a bit more timely. But we can now continue looking at Magic Square's Stunticons with Overlord, their Motormaster. A theme that comes up with these smaller-scale figures is how great they are for their size. Like, we know that these things aren't MP-level, but they're cheaper and tinier so we don't really expect them to be. Except this time, maybe Overlord is a borderline MP-style figure. I mean, I've got Fans Toys', DX9's, and XTB's Motormasters, and I think aesthetically Overlord is more or less on par with those figures. I mean, sure, he doesn't have the diecast, the paint, the ratchets, or the articulated fingers. But he's clean and largely kibble-free. He's feet are tidier than DX9's, with better arm proportions. All of his shin windows are colored, unlike XTB, and he doesn't have that toe tab that XTB's does. His legs are actually black, instead of gray with a flap over it like Fans Toys, and the back of his arms aren't gray like Fans Toys. He's not as think from the side as DX9's, but his backpack is smaller and cleaner than either FT's or XTB's. I mean, really, the worst thing I have to say about Overlord is htat he just has the one big wheel on the side of his foot instead three little ones. It's one minor deviation from total cartoon accuracy, but one I don't really mind. The three MP-ish options had them, but in all three cases the overall leg was messier for it. Also, as seen in the first picture, Overlord scales great with their Optimus. Motormaster's scale is something XTB and FT struggled with. Compared to the other sets, Overlord's got the most accessories. There's a trailer (that's right, like XTB's Overlord is just the cab), a purple rifle and a sword for Overlord, larger versions of said rifle and sword for the combined mode, and a third bag of parts that we'll talk about more another day. Come to think of it, we're not going to see the bigger sword and rifle again today, either. Overlord's articulation is pretty good, too. His head only swivels, but with that box around it I think that's ok. Shoulders are ball joints that rotate and move laterally 90 degrees. His biceps swivel, and his elbows bend 90 degrees. His wrists swivel, and if you undo the flap under his forearm you can bend them down to get a nice sword pointing pose. His waist swivels, and there's a double-hinge in his abdomen that'll give him an extreme back bend or ab crunch. His hips ball joints that can go 90 degrees forward and laterally, and just a bit less than that backward. His thighs swivel, and his knees are double-jointed and capable of bending nearly 180 degrees. His feet don't tilt down, but there's a little room to bend his toes upward, and he's got 90 degrees of ankle pivot. He holds his accessories just fine, but as with the others he doesn't have anywhere to store them except in his hands. While none of the MP-ish Motormasters were pull-your-hair-out frustrating they all had a certain level of complexity that made transforming them a bit of a process. By comparison, Overlord is delightfully simple. I mean, even by Legends or Magic Square's own standards, transforming Overlord is a quick, painless process. And the resulting truck is good! The trailer is bigger than the one that came with their Optimus, but that's not a bad thing as that trailer was a bit small. Overlord's seems quite proportional. Although the trailer is larger, the cab itself is right around the same size as their Optimus, which is great. If you like, Overlord can even pull Optimus' trailer, better than Optimus himself since Overlord actually has a place to plug the trailer into. As great as Overlord's robot mode is, I do have to point out some flaws with the truck mode. His fuel tank is flat and silver (FT's was chrome, and I actually prefer that, but total cartoon accuracy should be purple). No complaints about the headlights, which aren't exactly cartoon-accurate but very in-keeping with the MP options, and the gunmetal paint on the grill and bumper are a better choice than the chrome on Fans Toys or the metallic purple on XTB's. But Overlord is lacking the horns, marker lights, and wing mirrors of the larger options. The trailer has some nice details on the sides; the seems in the purple bands strike a nice balance between the cartoon and the toy, I like the supports on the sides (although they're upside down in the above pic; likewise I don't have the front tires on the cab rotated right) and the bumper and tail lights on the back. But the front of the trailer is a bit of a panel-y mess, and the rear is downright gappy with no hint of the trailer doors. Don't get me wrong, I don't want or need the doors to open and for the trailer to have storage inside. It's just a shame that they couldn't make it a bit tidier. Speaking of untidy rears, while I think most of the cab looks great (even the back of the cab proper, which a lot of companies neglect) the hitch area is clearly Overlord's chest, which I don't honestly mind, and his barely-folded arms and super visible hands, which I do mind. This is where the concessions to size come in; it's acceptable here, and I'd honestly even roll with it for a Hasbro release, but I'd demand the hands are totally hidden and the arms tuck in more so they don't stick out past the rear wheels on an MP. You can see the square hole in his chest where the trailer pegs in. He rolls fine, but like the cars there's nowhere to store his sword and gun (or the larger sword and gun), even with the trailer. Hasbro, if you're reading this, steal this design and upscale it to fit with WfC. What's Magic Square going to do? They can't come after you for stealing their design without you going after them for stealing their IP. And I'm encouraging this because this is a fantastic Motormaster figure that deserves to be more than three inches tall. While he has a few flaws, sure, the truck is definitely good enough, the robot is clean and well-proportioned, and the transformation is simple and fun... this might actually be my favorite Motormaster toy overall. He's a must-have if you're into Legends-scale stuff, and worth checking out even if you're not if you're just into Motormaster or the Stunticons.
  15. mikeszekely
    While Studio Series 86 absolutely rules for us G1 fans, Studio Series every-other-number is still a thing, so Slag wasn't the only thing I found at Walmart. I also picked up Leader-class Grindor. Grindor is an interesting case of a character that wasn't really a character until after the fact. I mean, the scene in the forest in Revenge of the Fallen called for a bunch of Decepticons to gang up on Prime, right? So the animators used the assets they had to populate the scene with Decepticons... including assets of Blackout. And, for awhile, even the people making the movie weren't sure that it wasn't Blackout. It wasn't until later when some executives remembered that Blackout was killed in the first movie, and that Blackout's death wasn't something that Transformer fans were likely to overlook, that they decided that the guy who was very clearly Blackout was actually another guy named Grindor. And somehow that not-even-really-a-repaint got himself a repaint, so here we are. Visually, whether it's totally movie-accurate or not, SS Grindor does have some differences from SS Blackout. Most obviously, the purely robotic mechanical parts in his legs, biceps, and chest are made from a dark gray plastic instead of the silver-gray used on Blackout. Grindor also has some sandy smudges on his arms and hips. I guess there's a lot of sand in the woods, eh? Actually, though, the most important difference between Grindor and Blackout are the hands. Grindor's hands include a wrist swivel that Blackout was sorely lacking, and while Blackout had a hinge in his thumb Grindor has an additional hinge in his fingers, giving him significantly improved hand articulation. This is such an improvement that if Takara puts Blackout in their premium paint series with Grindor's improved hands I'd consider buying the upgrade. In ever other way, though, Grindor's got the same articulation as Blackout, although on my copies at least the joints are noticeably tighter on Blackout. And as far as accessories go, Grindor's got the same tail rotor turned arm blade... ...but he trades in Scorponok for Ravage. I don't recall a connection between Grindor and Ravage in the movie, but I'm not complaining. He's a pretty limited slug-style figure, but I honestly like him for what he is. He's got a hinge at the base of the tail that gives it some up/down movement, although the cannons on his back go with it, and ball joints at his hips/shoulders. That's about it. Ravage can hang onto Grindor's back, just like Scorponok could hang on Blackout's. Actually, they use the exact same connection, so you could put Ravage on Blackout and Scorponok on Grindor, if you prefer. Grindor naturally has the same alt mode as Blackout*, but a few more differences are apparent. Grindor is slightly darker, with a black gold around the windows on the sides and bronze on the thrusters. But mostly he has different markings, with a large "53" and "Marines", and no "Blackout" stripe on the tail. Here's the side view. Front view. Different placement for the Decepticon badge, and "53" instead of "4500X," plus a red band on the sensor probe. Top view. Underneath, we can see one other aspect where Grindor actually got a remolded part, and it's under the tail. Grindor has a peg, and he's missing some of the protrusions Blackout has. The simple reason is that Blackout was designed to carry the Scorponok slug, and used clips that fit around his claws. Grindor uses a peg that fits into Ravage's chest. Simple as that. So, yeah, Grindor is pretty superfluous, both in-film and as a toy. If you don't have Blackout he's worth picking up as a stand-in with better hands. If you do have Blackout, well... Grindor has Ravage. And better hands. *Actually, I'm told that Grindor actually has a different alt mode. Blackout turned into a Pave Low, but the Pave Low was retired by the time ROTF came out. So they made Grindor a Super Stallion, a helicopter that looks basically the same but is actually even bigger.
  16. mikeszekely
    Eh, still waiting on Tracks, Scorponok, Rodimus, and the Ark.
  17. mikeszekely
    Well, looks like the Magic Square Stunticons are going to sit on the back burner for another day. My dad doesn't drive anymore, so on days my mom works late I'll sometimes take him out for lunch and see if he needs to run any errands. I did just that today, and he needed to get some stuff at Walmart. Given how sparse things have been around here I didn't expect to find anything, but I always swing by the toy aisle anyway. I was very pleasantly surprised, though, to walk out with Studio Series 86 Leader-class Slag* *It actually says Slug on the box, but he'll never not be Slag to me. Holy moley... it's hard to believe that the little guy on the left is only four years old, and was reissued this very year. The difference between the Power of the Primes figure and the new Studio Series one is stark. SS Slag isn't just bigger (standing eye-to-eye with Grimlock), and he doesn't just sport a more cartoon-accurate deco with white thighs, a red head, and blue eyes. SS Slag hides his dino legs better, he has better proportions, better articulation (as we'll see in a bit), better engineering, and, most importantly, he has his wings. Now, hiding his dino legs in his calves means that the tail that hid their on the PotP toy has to go somewhere else. They went the G1 toy route, and had it fold up into his backpack. I was a little worried how that'd look when I saw the early pictures, but in hand I think it's ultimately fine. Slag has a problem very similar to fellow SS Dinobot Grimlock. That is, he comes with a gun, with a cartoon-accurate sculpt and a nice pearlescent paint job, which is cool. But, instead of coming with his trusty sword, he too comes with a slug. In stead of Wheelie, Slag comes with Daniel in his exo-suit. Which, frankly, doesn't make a ton of sense, since the Dinobots wound up on Quintessa with Hot Rod and Kup but Daniel got his exo-suit on the Planet of Junk with the other group. And, just like Wheelie, while Daniel looks nice enough he's made from minimal parts and lacks any more articulation than ball joints at the hips and elbows. In other words, he's a throwaway that 99.999% of Transformers fans would rather Hasbro ditched for the sword instead. Slag's head is on a ball joint, so he can look up and down a little, tilt his head in confusion (important articulation for a Dinobot), and swivel. His shoulders rotate on ratchets and can extend laterally a little over 90 degrees. His biceps swivel, and his elbows are double-jointed and can bend closer to 180 degrees than 90. His wrists swivel, as does his waist. His backpack tail only gets in they way when he rotates beyond 45 degrees, and even then you can undo his backpack if you need more. His hips ratchet forward a little over 90 degrees and backward just short of 90. They move laterally on friction joints 90 degrees. His knees are double-jointed, both ratcheted, and can bend almost 180 degrees combined. His feet have no up/down tilt, but he does have 90 degrees of ankle pivot. Slag's rifle pegs into either hand, no muss no fuss. Although he's Studio Series and not War for Cybertron, he does also have 5mm ports on the outside of each lower leg, on the outside of each shoulder, under each foot (which are, unfortunately, hollow like Grimlock's), and there's one on the middle of his back. Daniel doesn't seem to do anything for Slag in this mode. Confession: while I do like the gold lower jaw and blue dino eyes, I kind of like the red horns on the PotP toy. Granted, I get that's a toy detail and that the pearlescent horns SS Slag has are the more cartoon-accurate choice, but still. That may be about the only thing that PotP Slag does better, though. Once again, the Studio Series toy isn't just bigger. He's got better proportions, with a head and frill that don't disappear into his body and shape that avoids the derided potato shape other versions of Slag have been criticized for. Speaking of other versions of Slag, I see Hasbro using clasps on the side of robot legs to let the dinosaur legs rotate in and out in a way that reminds me a lot of Gigapower. It might just be a case of different designers coming up with the same solution for a given problem, though, and I'm not complaining. It gives Slag's engineering a mature feeling that the PotP was certainly lacking. One more thing about the horns; the inside edges are disappointingly hollowed out. Fortunately, the horns are just c-clipped in place. Should be no trouble for a 3P to make a kit with new horns (perhaps in red), feet fillers, and a sword for this guy. Speaking of engineering, I absolutely love how Slag's head transforms. The faux jaw stays on his chest, while the real thing folds out from inside. But it doesn't come out alone! Instead, Slag's robot head tucks up into the dinosaur head, and a red flap comes out with the lower jaw to cover his robot face and act as the roof of his mouth. This flap even has a nub for attaching blast effects. As for his gun, it pegs into the bottom of his tail. Honestly, I prefer that kind of storage to just jamming it onto his back, the way Grimlock's gun does. I just kind of wish that, even if it's not cartoon accurate, that they'd painted at least part of the gun gold to match the tail. Then it'd blend in a lot nicer. Slag's dinosaur mode articulation isn't great. His head and tail don't move, although he can open his jaws. That said, he's got better range in his legs than the PotP toy, and he isn't stuck in a sort of permanent crouch. His front legs are, of course, his arms, with ratcheted rotation at the shoulders, lateral movement, bicep swivels, and double-jointed elbows. The rear legs don't have lateral movement or swivels, but they rotate at the hips. A transformation joint allows the leg to bend backward just below the hips, and there's a hinged knee/ankle that legs the little foot move backwards and forwards a bit. While Slag's gun stores in the tail, I'll note that he has more 5mm ports available on his shoulders, just above his hips, one on his back, and even a pair on his belly. I'm not going to beat around the bush here- Slag is an excellent figure, arguably better than Studio Series Grimlock. Is he perfect? No, but I can point out flaws with even figures like Fans Toys Scoria, Perfect Fusion's Cesium, or Gigapower's Grassor, and while those larger (and much more expensive) figures have better paint and materials I honestly don't think the engineering on Studio Series Slag is all that behind them. If you're a fan of the Dinobots (and honestly, what Transformers fan isn't?) then you absolutely must pick this figure up. This figure is so good that this could be the first time a mainline retail figure beats all the 3P stuff I collect for figure of the year. This figure is so good that if they do a toy-colored Gen-Selects version I'll gladly shell out for it again. Huge recommend from me.
  18. mikeszekely
    Considering that the Youth versions have typically been more than the cartoon versions that's still a good $20-$30 less. I'm tempted, if it's a slower month when it releases... EDIT: it's actually A LOT cheaper than the first release, as it's being reported that the Youth trailer will come will also come with the accessories (faces, cannons, car shells, etc) that were a separate $75 purchase the first time.
  19. mikeszekely
    If it's cheaper than the regular version I might bite. My XTB Stunticons are still without a trailer.
  20. mikeszekely
    No, if you turn his head around his forehead crest sits just high enough that the roof/cockpit section won't sit flush. I kinda want that four pack, also mostly for Fangry, but my Target wasn't showing any in stock and I didn't want to push it after making them go find Bumblebee. I'm there often enough, though. I'll just keep my eyes peeled.
  21. mikeszekely
    If your Target is like mine, yeah, all the stores are getting 8 or so, and they're part of a plan-o-gram reset with a street date of August 1st. But, until they actually set the plan-o-gram the inventory is in a weird limbo where it's in the store but not available. Well, either that or they actually did put them out and a scalper bought them all.
  22. mikeszekely
    I don't usually post two reviews in one day, but with Magic Square's Stunticons eating up the bulk of the week but this hitting stores now I didn't want to drag my feet. See, I went back to Target again, and this time it actually looks like they're in the middle of resetting their plan-o-gram with spaces for Origins Bumblebee, Worlds Collide, and even the new MPM Prime, but the shelves were still quite bare (in fact, the six or so copies of T-Wrecks were gone, but it looks like someone moved them to the Funko section in Electronics for some reason). The staff today was a lot more helpful, though. After spending twenty minutes or so searching in the back they were able to get me a copy of Deluxe-class Origins Bumblebee! When Siege started hitting it was interesting, at least to me, how Hasbro seemed to be working the G1 cartoon route of robots that looked the same on Cybertron and Earth even though the handful of Cybertronian alt modes we saw were pure animation magic. I guess it was easy enough, turning characters who weren't show in Cybertronian modes like Prime or Reflector into a space truck or a "spaceship". Soundwave's spaceship wasn't his lamp post mode, though (and the semi-official lamp post mode didn't really resemble the cartoon), and while the Siege Seeker mold is in the spirit of the tetrajets seen in the cartoon they look as close to that as they do to the Colonial Viper from Battlestar Galactica to me. And now here we have a new new Bumblebee toy, meant to homage that one scene in the first episode where he and Wheeljack are scavenging conductors for energy. And in that spirit, sure enough Hasbro tried to give him a similar body to his Volkswagen appearance. In some ways, they're very successful. He's got the square black shoulders, black ribbed biceps, black hands, and mostly-black legs. He's got a torso with faux windows, with the smaller cartoon proportions, and a pelvis with the Y-shape molded in. There's no headlights on them, but his feet have a similar shape, complete with black bumper toes. His face is wider, happier, and lined more like the cartoon, and I definitely prefer the yellow color on him to the cheddary color of the Netflix Bumblebee. He does have his drawbacks, namely a large backpack and a ton of kibble on his legs. That said... the backpack really isn't worse than what Netflix Bee is carrying. And the kibble on his legs doesn't bother me as much in-hand as it does in pictures. Y'know something else I didn't love about Netflix Bee? His accessories, namely that he had the same bazooka they gave to Cliffjumper. Origins Bee comes with some more appropriate gear, namely a blaster that takes its design cues from the one he had in that episode (also, the one carried by MP Bee 2.0) and a jetpack. Weirdly, promo pictures and his own box show the accessories as silver- not sure about the jetpack, but the gun was silver in the cartoon, but what's actually in the box is black. Now, if you have the accessory pack that came with the Gen Selects Centurion Drone you got another blaster for Bee and another backpack. The ones Origins Bee comes with are entirely different molds. While the blaster is marked for Bumblebee, it seems to be based on the one MP Bumblebee 1.0 had, and the backpack seems like it was meant for Prime or Sideswipe. It doesn't even fit on Netflix Bee. Oh, yeah, you also get five Energon conductors. Because you gotta have that thing from that episode. Bee's head is on a ball joint. He can look up and swivel, but the shape of his head prevents him from looking down or tilting his head sideways. His shoulders rotate and extend laterally 90 degrees. His biceps swivel, and his elbows bend a little over 90 degrees. His wrists, unfortunately, don't swivel, but due to transformation they can bend down for pointing a sword. His waist swivels. His hips can move forward, backward, or laterally just under 90 degrees. His thighs swivel. His knees are double-jointed but still limited to 90 degrees of bend. His feet have multiple joints as well, which allows him to get some extreme up/down tilt and beyond 90 degrees of ankle pivot. The jetpack simply plugs onto a 5mm port on the middle of his back, and he can hold his gun using his 5mm fist holes. For more Siege-style fun he also has 5mm ports on the outside of both shoulders, on the outsides of his lower legs, and under each foot. And good news, if you have Netflix Bumblebee and want him to share accessories with his Cybertronian self he can. You have to remove the rear of the car, but the jetpack can fit over the tires on his back to plug into the port that the rear of the car does. As for the gun, well. 5mm fists are pretty universal. I think Hasbro kind of dropped the ball on the Energon conductors, though. Each one seems to be a single piece of sparkly translucent plastic (maybe they had leftovers after making Galvatron, eh?). The ends are bigger than Bee's fists, so he can't actually hold them. You can balance them on his arms, I suppose, but Hasbro should have made at least one end detachable and the central rod 5mm, then you could have popped an end off, slid the rod into one of Bee's fists, then popped the end back on. Oh well. Guess I'll just lose them in a drawer somewhere with all the blast effects I've similarly lost in a drawer somewhere. You might have expected that giving a Bumblebee that looks like he turns into a VW a saucer mode would involve a bit of shellforming, and you wouldn't be totally wrong. However, like the Siege Seeker mold Hasbro does manage to make fairly effective use of Bee's own body. That's Bee's actual chest in the nose, his pelvis is visible behind the 5mm port on top, and his feet and lower legs make up as much of the sides as the unfurled kibble. Honestly, I'm quite pleased with the result. You could rightly point out that it's either a bit longer or it lacks the wingspan of the cartoon, but the overall design is quite close to that opening scene we saw some 37 years ago. The rear is a little open, but I like that they but some vented details on Bee's knees to make them look like thrusters. And while the robot kibble is visible from some angles, I like that it holds him up like he's hovering. A quick view of his underside. You can see what I've been saying, that he actually does do a bit of transforming and it's not simply a case of unfurling a backpack over a scrunched up robot. You can also see one of those small peg holes you can use to mount him onto a stand like the one that came with MP Tracks or Studio Series Soundwave. In alt mode, the shoulder ports are covered up but the one on his back is now on his roof, and the ones on his legs wind up on his wings. So you can stick his gun on him, and even put his jetpack on him like a FAST pack. Since I started collecting the WfC line I've wound up with a ton of Cybertronian characters who later got another Earth-mode release*. When they announced this Bumblebee I honestly wanted it just to bulk out the ranks of figures with both an Earth and Cybertronian mode. I didn't think the pictures looked all that great... heck, looking at my own I still don't think pictures of him look great. In hand, though, this is a really fun Bumblebee that's an excellent homage to his first appearance in the cartoon. I actually think I prefer it to Netflix Bee. If your CHUG shelf is lacking a Bumblebee, pick this up. If you have Netflix Bee to go with your Earthrise/Kingdom figures but want a Bee to go with Siege, pick this up. If you're a fan of Bumblebee, pick this up. If you've been wanting a saucer Bee for almost 40 years now, pick this up. He is, unfortunately, a Target-exclusive, but he should be hitting your local stores now (in the US). *Optimus Prime, Megatron, Soundwave, Starscream, Thundercracker, Skywarp, Barricade, Prowl, Smokescreen, Bluestreak, Ironhide, Ratchet, Ultra Magnus, Laserbeak, and now Bumblebee, with Sideswipe, Mirage, and Red Alert on the way, last I checked.
  23. mikeszekely
    I haven't bought anything recently from KFC. I think the newest stuff I bought was their Octane and their Blitzwing, and both were... not good. I also have their Blaster and their Wreck-Gar, though, and both of those are good (if a little dated, in Blaster's case). I'll note here, though, that KFC and XTB are the same company (Keith owns both, they both use Keith's factories, they have different designers). While I'd thought XTB was on an upward trend with a string of impressive releases (their Cosmos, Cliffjumper, Breakdown, Wildrider, and Seaspray were all very good) recent QC has gone downhill. There was widespread breakage on Dragstrip, paint chipping on Dead End, less widespread but still oft-reported breakage on Dead End, stress marks on Motormaster, and a host of issues so bad on their Kup that XTB is apparently already putting out a 2.0 version and promising copies to people who bought the original one at just the cost of shipping. So, right now, I'd suggest maybe waiting for a review or two.
  24. mikeszekely
    So... how about those Magic Square Stunticons? Legs yesterday, we'll do arms today with Pillage and Contain, aka Dragstrip and Dead End. So... I think both of these guys have a very good cartoon likeness and put the Combiner Wars stuff to shame, for sure. But maybe this pair has just a little less effort give to them than the leg bots. I'll overlook the orange stripes on Pillage's toes; they're not cartoon accurate, but if you use the spoiler for his feet and the stripes are their in alt mode it's going to be their in bot mode. But after seeing the solutions that XTB, Fans Toys, and DX9 came up with the front of the vehicle just dangling on his back seems a bit unispired, and the blocks on his knees aren't particularly accurate. Contain's torso is alright. I like that they even gave him the lines on his forearms. But those little squares don't really match the double octagons he had in the cartoon, and shin details are replaced by the rear of the car. Minor stuff, to be sure, just minor stuff that makes me think MS did better on the other two. For size, they're the same as the legs, so I'm just leaving G1 Breakdown in the shot. OK, accessories. Once again we have two little guns and a bag of parts we'll talk about another day. The gun with the handle further from the back of the gun is Contain's, and it's fine. Like the ones from yesterday, is a single piece with limited but accurate detail with no paint. Pillage's is slightly more disappointing. The single piece and limited details are fine, but again it seems like MS got a little lazy and cast it in black because they had room on the black sprue. It'd be better if it were purple. Both of these guys have ball joints for necks. The way they're cut they can swivel and look straight up, but they can't actually tilt sideways. Their shoulders both rotate. Contain's shoulders can move 90 degrees laterally. Pillage's tires hit his head, preventing him from getting the full 90, and unfortunately his lateral joint is in the torso, so he can't raise his arm and move it laterally, just one or the other. Both figures have bicep swivels, 90 degrees of elbow bend, wrist swivels, and waist swivels, but no ab crunches. They do have a weird joint that lets them bend sideways like they're making the "C" in the "YMCA" dance, though. Hips are ball joints that go 90 degrees forward, backward, or laterally, and they have cut thigh swivels. Knees bend 90 degrees. Contain's foot can tilt up and down a little, and his ankles pivot nearly 90 degrees. Pillage's foot also bends up, down a little, and pivots 90 degrees, but he has a heel that doesn't move, an extra toe hinge, and the tire moves independently of his foot. Both of them hold their weapons fine, a little tightly even, but lack other storage. Contain's transformation is similar to the legs. There are two important differences, though. For one, he doesn't have the ab crunch that they do. For two, he's got extra moving parts on his legs to move the rear of the car onto his knees and to swing the tires from the inside to the outside of his legs. This causes a bit of problems because he winds up not having the same clearances that the legbots do, which kind of forces you to bend his legs around his hands. And even after the panels, especially his feet, don't seem to want to line up properly. Pillage fares a bit better with the simplest transformation of the four. Again, though, tolerances are a bit of a problem for Magic Square- I had to file a slot on his legs where the engine in his belly is supposed to tab into once it's folded out. Aesthetically I don't have a lot of problems with these guys. Maybe Contain looks a little long and flat, and maybe a steering wheel in Pillage's cockpit would have been nice, but in both cases they're the right mix of cartoon and real car. Plus Contain doesn't have a visible back of his head like DX9's or weird alt mode proportions like Fans Toys'. As with the leg bots these guys roll fine, but they lack any place to store their weapons while they're in alt mode. Both of these guys feel like a step down from the previous two, with Contain being the worst overall. Despite my complaints, though, they remain simple, effective designs that I'd kill to have embiggened up to WfC's scale to replace the Combiner Wars versions. So ultimately my recommendation is the same- get these guys if you have a Legends collection, or simply if you're a fan of the Stunticons. They're good overall.
  25. mikeszekely
    I think it depends on how/where you want to display them. I mean, with the official MP tapes I've been ok with Laserbeak and Buzzsaw, but I replaced (actually, moved to my WFC collection) Rumble, Frenzy, and Ravage and replaced them in my MP display with the MMC ones, because I've always felt they do a bit of mass shifting in the cartoon and should be a bit bigger. For an MP display, I'd ideally like Steeljaw and Ramhorn to be around the same size as Ravage, so I'm waiting for MMC's (which I'm assured are not canceled, just low priority).
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