mikeszekely

@Gabe Q did you get one yet?

Well, he came... a whopping two days before I'd have got him from Amazon. I'm so glad my impulse control couldn't have held on just a little longer... anyway, it's Studio Series 86 Leader-class Grimlock. Compared to the guy on the left (Power of the Primes Voyager Grimlock) the new Leader-class figure is a revelation. The proportions are better. He's got his wings. He's got paint on his shins instead of stickers, and the gold paint on his torso is brighter and shinier. He's also meant to actually scale properly with the other SS86 and WfC figures, which is nice. But that brings us to the guy on the right... MP-08 Masterpiece Grimlock (Hasbro version). He's only slightly taller, and many people were already using him as their CHUG Grimlock as he's far too small for the post MP-10 Masterpiece scale. Compared to MP-08 the new Leader has blockier proportions, less detail, and proportionally longer but less swole arms. Now, an argument could be made that all of those things are more cartoon-accurate, but I feel like they make the newer figure appear less dynamic. Of course, I should point out that SS86 Grimlock feels a lot more solid than MP-08, despite weighing a fraction of what MP-08 does. My copy of MP-08 has gotten very loose over the years. He looks good on a shelf, sure, but he handles like a rag doll. SS86 Grimlock has two minor joints I'll try to tighten (one of the wing hinges, and the dew claw on his left hand), but nothing else budges if I give him a little shake. Partly because MP-08 is a little big, and partly because he's so floppy, I explored some 3P options awhile back. SS86 is a little taller than Fans Project's Severo (left) or Planet X's Vulcan (right). SS86 Grimlock is also far more G1 accurate. I don't regret getting either of the 3P figures, but SS86 is definitely a better fit with the WfC stuff. All that said, I do have a few minor aesthetic gripes. Early promo photos showed him with a totally clear chest piece, and I think that would have worked a lot better than the smoked translucent plastic they went with. You can barely see the Autobot insignia under bright lighting. Speaking of things that are too dark, his eyes are actually painted a metallic blue, but again they chose a shade that's a little too dark so his eyes get lost in the black plastic of his head. Grimlock doesn't come with a lot in the way of accessories, and honestly some of what he has I'd trade in a heartbeat for some of what he doesn't have. You get a gun, cast entirely in black and nothing particularly fancy. I'd prefer if the barrels were spaced a little further apart, like the G1 toy or the MP, but it's actually pretty cartoon-accurate the way it is. You get a little Wheelie figure. Wheelie can move his head, his waist swivels, and his shoulders and hips are ball joints, but he doesn't have bicep, thigh, or wrist swivels, and he doesn't have elbows or knees, either. Scale-wise I don't think he's much different than the Titan's Return Wheelie. He's got greater screen accuracy, sure, but the Titans Return figure can transform, has better articulation, and has less hollow gaps. Sadly, while the slingshot is removable, the post it uses is not 5mm so you can't give it to TR Wheelie. I'd have been much happier if they left Wheelie out and gave us Grimlock's sword instead. Supposedly they didn't give him a sword because he didn't use one in the '86 movie... but I don't recall him using a gun in that movie, either. Well, there are 3D-printed options available, although I'm waiting to see if Nonnef or DNA will gives us something better. Also, MP-08's accessories just used 5mm pegs, so you can give SS86 MP-08's sword. Actually, if you prefer it, you can also give MP-08's gun to SS86 Grimlock. Just note that SS86 Grimlock doesn't have the MP's light-up fist to work with the translucent blade/barrels. Grimlock's head is on a ball joint. Not much in the way of upward tilt, but he can look down pretty well and he can tilt his head sideways. Instead of MP-08's giant ball joints, SS86 Grimlock's shoulders have ratcheted rotation and a hinge that gives him 90 degrees of lateral movement. His biceps swivel, and his elbows can bend over 90 degrees (although the sculpt is a bit ugly). His wrists swivel, but he doesn't have any finger articulation. His waist swivels. His hips can go 90 degrees backward or laterally, and a little over that forward. His thighs swivel. His knees are soft ratchets, and they can bend 90 degrees. His feet don't have any up/down tilt, but his ankles can pivot up to 90 degrees. His wings can fold back, and a hinge in the corner lets them splay upward. All-in-all, articulation is an improvement over MP-08. As I alluded to, his hands are the standard 5mm port, so he holds his gun just fine. He also has a port on his back, on the outside of each shoulder, on the outside of each forearm, on the outside of his lower legs, and under each foot. Or, if you really don't want him to hold his gun there's a groove on the top of the gun that allows it to clip over the dino arm on either wing. As for Wheelie, he's got a small peg on one thigh. That peg plugs into a port on top of either of Grimlock's shoulders, allowing him to sit securely up there. He might not be scientifically accurate, but Grimlock turns into a G1-accurate early 20th-century idea of a T-Rex. The engineering from the waist up is fairly similar to MP-08's. From the waist down, though, maybe Grimlock could have stood to borrow a bit more. He seems to shrink more in this mode than MP-08, and he's proportionally wider through his proportionally shorter tail. It's still a pretty huge improvement over PotP, though. My biggest complaint isn't actually the stubby tail, it's his face. If you look at his left side, it looks great. From the right, though, you've got three extremely noticeably screw holes. And from the front you can see that his teeth run down the sides of his jaws, but he's missing his front teeth. In dino mode he loses the tail of MP-08, but otherwise articulation is fairly similar. His head can tilt up, not so much down (assuming you having him in a G1 upright position). His neck can also rotate at the base of the gold section. His shoulders are ball joints for rotation with minimal lateral movment. Elbows can bend a little over 90 degrees, but he doesn't have any bicep or wrist swivels or any kind of claw articulation. No waist or tail articulation. His hips can move 360 degrees and spread laterally up to 90, due to being his shoulders, and his bicep swivel becomes a thigh swivel. His robot elbows lock into place. At first I thought he didn't have any dino knee articulation, but it turns out he does- they're just really tight ratchets, but they can bend over 90 degrees. Not foot tilt, and unfortunately no ankle pivots in this mode. His claws can bend down, though. Most important of all, his jaws do open. Inside is a small peg that works with blast effect parts. Although none are included, I found part of Jetfire's makes for a pretty good breath attack. As for Wheelie, there are little posts on the sides of Grimlock's neck. These posts fit into molded notches in Wheelie's ankles (not the holes in his knees, don't be fooled!). Grimlock's gun, meanwhile, uses a pair of tabs that fit into Grimlock's robot-mode heels on his dino-mode back. Or, again, you have 5mm ports on the sides of his tail, on his hips, and on his lower legs. Grimlock's kind of a funny figure. He's easily the best Grimlock for a CHUG collection, crushing previous HasTak efforts and 3P figures alike on scale and accuracy while beating MP-08 on solidity and articulation. But, because he did so much right the little things that bug me seem magnified. I wish his tail were a little longer. He really needed screw hole covers for his face and neck. The metallic blue for the eyes needed to be a lighter color. The translucent plastic on his chest should have been clear and not smoked. And he really should have come with a sword instead of a crappy Wheelie you can't pose. And, most of all, he needs his front teeth! So I guess Grimlock doesn't wow me the way Cyclonus, Scourge, or even Hot Rod and Kup have. He's still a great figure, though, and very much one I'd recommend.

Aha! So you did give in.

How much is the renewal? I've had Pulse Premium since they opened the site, but I've never actually paid for it. They gave it to me for free for being one of the first X number of people to join Pulse, and last year they just renewed me for free for being "a loyal customer" or something like that. They did send me an email that my Pulse Premium is running out, but I haven't decided if I'll renew or not. I preorder more from Amazon than Pulse (my wife gives me less grief about Amazon purchase for some reason). Right now the only thing I have preordered is Deep Cover, and that one's got me scratching my head because it seems like places like BBTS and TFSource got him weeks ago. I think if I were into something like GI Joe or Marvel Legends or something I'd probably renew for sure, but as it stands I dunno...

I'd buy it... but it seems like it's only in Australia? Not on the US eShop.

@Gabe Q @drumondo?

@drumondo @Gabe Q Eknight's good. They're where I got my Voltron last time.

Drink lots of water, because you're going to need more salt... but I was talking with someone else who claims to be in the know. They confirmed that Motormaster is coming, maybe sometime next year. But they also said that all the Stunticons will be getting a do-over, and the reason actually boils down to the Combiner Wars connectors. Apparently Hasbro was considering doing CW reissues, but that one common bit is actually a fairly expensive part to make. Someone decided that if Hasbro was going to spend money putting out Combiners that they'd rather start over on designs that are more in line with WfC than waste money making more Combiner Wars pegs.

I saw some the other day. If I go back and see them again I'll grab one for you.

Are you referring to these winglets? Because the image I got this from was an unboxing that seems to confirm that they're installed in the direction that most of the preview pics showed a few months ago. Which is to say, backward, as the Blackbird's wings are forward-swept in the 90's cartoon (and the Fox films, for that matter). If they're installed backward, then I'm glad they can pop off and aren't pinned so I can fix them.

Last time GX-71 was reissued a bunch of stores carried it that don't have preorders for the latest reissue. Maybe they'll get some but haven't opened preorders yet.

Yeah, mine is on the way, but being on the other side of the country means a longer wait. Last check it was in Indianapolis, with the delivery date "pending."

I shop at Target a lot, so I'll almost definitely pick up MPM-11 on one of my runs. Can't be any worse than MPM Ironhide. Oh, and Grimlock is back in stock (Jazz too) on Pulse for Premium members. Which naturally would happen the day after I cave and buy one on eBay... EDIT: And now the one I preordered at Amazon that they said wouldn't arrive until May is suddenly ready to ship...

It's a good idea, but they really needed to include a new stand that works with the bigger rings.

More accurately, it's bent on Cybertron and straight on earth. And if Takara copies the 3Ps who've taken on the design it'll have swappable parts for both.

Called it. MPM-11 is Bumblebee Optimus. It's a Target exclusive in the US, and it'll be out in August. Oh, and a new Transformers cartoon is coming to Nickelodeon. They lost me at "action-comedy" though.

Zeta's seekers were shown years ago under ToyWorld's banner. I'm fact, TW did release and I have their Coneheads. I can say that they're pretty good, definitely better than MP-11, although they're a little larger and they had kind of goofy faces. But, assuming the engineering is the same, I prefer Maketoys.

Yeah, it's a little more than I wanted to spend right now, but I kind of want one to go with my Zeta/whatever Unicron.

I've gotta echo @derex3592 on this. It's kind of apples and oranges, but I think GX-71 is a cut above any of the Transformers stuff I own. Make Voltron the centerpiece on your dining table if you have to, but don't miss it again. Now that I think about it, where are you going to put Unicron?

I was going through a box of older Transformers figures and came across some very old movie toys. That's partly relevant because we're discussing jetformers, and (especially for a Bayverse toy) Terradive was actually a pretty cool figure that turned into a just-different-enough-to-avoid-licensing Su-47. He's got a little leg kibble underneath, sure, but a pretty interesting transformation. The other reason it's relevant is that I realized what that transforming J20 reminded me of when I saw him in the box... RotF Breakaway.

I'm glad for anyone who wanted it and still hasn't gotten it, but isn't that like the third run now? I wish some other Bandai stuff got that kind of treatment.

I watched RiD and most of the Unicron Trilogy (I missed the last half of Cybertron). With apologies to the fans, the shows sucked hard. That said, coming off Beast Wars is was very cool to see Transformers that turned into cars and trucks and stuff again instead of gorillas, rats, and jungle cats, and I like a lot of the character designs a lot better than more recent stuff like the Bayverse (looks like someone dumped the cutlery drawer in a blender), Animated (the exaggerated lines looked fine in the cartoon, but I didn't care for how they translated the shapes into three-dimensional objects), or Prime (I actually do like the designs in Prime, but they're a bit closer to the Bayverse than G1). I can't honestly say that I'd commit to whole lines of RiD/UT characters, but I'd be down for RiD Prime, Ultra Magnus, Rail Racer, Megatron, Scourge, and Ruination, Armada Prime, Megatron, Starscream, and Hot Shot, and Tidal Wave, Energon Prime, Megatron, Rodimus, Shockblast, and Starscream, Cybertron Prime, Megatron, Vector Prime, Hot Shot, and Starscream.

An Ultra Magnus with a much better core robot and a trailer that doesn't suck? Oh, and don't forget that post-Kingdom won't be purely G1 (and BW). So I'm crossing my fingers for Fire Convoy and that Armada Optimus they showed at Wonderfest way back with the prototype for Star Convoy. Maybe Tidal Wave. But yes, an Overlord closer in size to Jetfire and a Powermaster Op/God Ginrai with a proper smaller robot would be high on my wish list as well. Unfortunately my source doesn't know what's coming for that class after Rodimus.

It's possible, but my source says they may be phasing out the Titan-class in favor of two Commanders a year. The Titans were extremely expensive to produce and with dedicated toy stores like Toys R' Us gone stores like Target and Walmart actually didn't want those huge boxes taking up that much shelf space. The impression I got is that Motormaster will retail on his own as a Leader-class, but he's at least a year out.