mikeszekely

Sorry, it's been an extremely busy day, but he came and I wanted to get this up today (although I guess it'll technically be tomorrow by the time I'm done) - Studio Series 86 Deluxe-class Kup. Unlike Jazz, I think HasTak's designers have been pretty good to Kup. We got Generations Sergeant Kup, who managed a pretty Kup-ish robot mode while turning into a more Earth-mode truck, and it was pretty good. Then we got the Titans Return Kup, who I thought did a pretty good job pulling off both the robot mode and a more G1-accurate space truck mode. But, again, unless you got the Takara version the colors were definitely off. But the Studio Series 86 team decided to change more than colors. SS86 Kup's got a new head sculpt that looks kind of off to me. Comparing it to the line art makes me think it's actually mostly cartoon-accurate, but the mouth is too wide and the chin is too long. His shoulders seem a bit low, but that's cartoon accurate. His chest could maybe stick out a bit more, and he could show a little more abs, but the thinner limbs, the gray belt, and the pale orange belt buckle and wrist accents are just about perfect. The wheels poking through his shins aren't really screen-accurate, but they're a nod to the G1 toy. He's also carrying a bit more backpack than the Titans Return toy, but again I think of it as a G1 toy callback. Speaking of the G1 toy, Kup comes with a blaster that is styled a lot like a relatively scaled-down version of the G1 toy's blaster. Which got me thinking, did Kup actually shoot a gun in the '86 movie? For a more screen accurate accessory they tossed in his container of energon goodies, and that might be my favorite accessory of all time. Kup's head can look up or down a little, and he's got pretty good sideways tilt. His shoulders rotate and can move laterally nearly 180 degrees. His biceps swivel, and his elbows bend over 90 degrees on a detented hinge. Sadly, no wrist swivel, but his waist does swivel. I thought at first he didn't have one, but I could see the mushroom cap in his back. Turns out it's just really tight, at least on my copy. His hips can go forward, backward, or laterally 90 degrees. His thighs swivel, and his knees bend just under 90 degrees, again on a detented hinge. His feet don't really tilt up or down, just the tip of his toes for transformation, but he does have a good 60 degrees of ankle pivot. The only real complaint He holds his gun with no problem, but there's no place to store his accessories in his robot mode except his hands. He doesn't have any other 5mm ports except on on the bottom of each foot. The energon goodie container also has a 5mm peg on the bottom of it, so it can he held in either fist or even given to any other figure with 5mm port hands. Oh, and take a closer look at the elbow. Those detents aren't just to give him a psuedo-ratchety feel. They give the exposed joint a sort of clockwork appearance when his elbows are bent that helps sell the "Kup is old" thing. There's also some molded rivets on his biceps, thighs, and shoulders that do the same, yet none of the scratches or smudges he was drawn with. While the other SS86 figures have been content to sell themselves on screen accuracy and, in Hot Rod's case, lots of accessories, Kup brings as movie gimmick to the table. Instead of having mushroom swivels for his biceps and thighs Kup has pegs and peg holes. So, you can pull his arms and legs off and recreate the scene where Hot Rod has to fix him. Which... I kind of want a Studio Series robo-squid now. When I heard his limbs could pop off I got pretty excited. Because, you know who else has pop-off limbs? Weaponizers, Modulators, and Fossilizers! I thought for sure we could do some crazy limb swapping. But, most of those figures don't have splits at the biceps, their arms come off at the shoulders. Brunt, the one guy whose arms do separate at the bicep, has the peg on his arm and the hole on his bicep, but Kup has the peg in the bicep and the hole in the arm. You'd think the legs, which usually did split at the thighs, might have fared better. But no, in most of their cases the peg hole in the thigh is recessed in a way that Kup's peg can't reach the hole. So between Brunt, Cog, Sixgun, Fasttrack, Airwave, and Paleotrex (sorry, didn't feel like digging around in storage for Ironworks) none of the arms worked with Kup, and only Sixgun and Paleotrex's legs worked. Missed opportunity, if you ask me. Unlike Blurr, Kup doesn't really share any engineering with the Titans Return toy. On one hand that's a bit disappointing to me; I thought the way TR Kup's torso and legs unfolded and refolded during transformation was pretty interesting. Nothing about the SS86 toy's transformation feels interesting or special, and some steps that require tabbing in some leg panels into the front fenders is a bit of a pain. On the other hand, SS 86 Kup once again has better proportions and much greater screen accuracy. The cockpit, which no longer opens and doesn't have to accommodate a Titan Master, is a bit lower and sleeker. The front fenders are more curved. The back of the cab doesn't have visible hands. The sides aren't decorated with containers, just rivets and an Autobot insignia. He's got those pointed bumps near the back, but he could have used some of that orange paint for lights. The bed doesn't have the gaps that the TR toy has, and the bed sits down between his legs more. I think it could stand to be a little longer, but despite a similar overall length it doesn't look quite as short as the TR toy. Kup does have storage for his accessories in truck mode. There are tabs on one side of each of his accessories, and they fit into notches on the sides near the back of the truck. It's fine, but I do wonder why there was no storage on the bed, like the G1 toy? Kup is, in my book, another winner for the Studio Series 86 line. Honestly, the whole line has been so good I'm a bit more bummed than I was before that Kingdom Ultra Magnus is just a Siege retool and that Springer's colors are a bit off, especially in the arms, because my CHUG '86 movie cast is starting to look better than my MPs. Kup gets a recommend from me, and I can't wait to see how the heavily-rumored Leader Galvatron and Commander Rodimus Prime turn out.

I've had it pre-ordered since they announced it.

Well, according to Amazon Kup will be here tomorrow. I do have something else to fill the time tonight, though. See, after getting my G1 Star Convoy and Generations Selects Super Megatron I started to wish I'd picked up Gen Selects Star Convoy. Ebay prices pushing up over $100 started to exacerbate my FOMO, so when I saw he was still available at TF Safari for $65 (a significant markdown from even Hasbro Pulse's list price) I jumped on it. So if it wasn't clear, Star Convoy is a remold of Power of the Primes Leader-class Optimus Prime, and that was the line that was doing the "Evolutions" gimmick for all the Leaders where you had a smaller "before" figure that combined with a larger "after" figure. For instance, Hot Rod into Rodimus Prime (which I have, but apparently never reviewed). For Prime it was an Orion Pax that turned into a truck cab, and could combine with the trailer to form a G1 Optimus Prime. For Star Convoy, Orion Pax has been extensively remolded into G1 Optimus. Now, while I do like the toy-style yellow eyes this Prime otherwise has weird proportions and strange details like vestigial smokestacks on the backs of his shoulders. This is almost certainly due to the fact that, despite turning into a truck cab and the extensive remold, it was never actually meant to be Prime. This is particularly obvious when you spin him around and look at the back. He's got a backpack with the front of the cab on it, and you realize that not only are his chest windows fake but he's got a second set of fake chest windows over the actual truck windows. It's a mess, and while you might have accepted it on PotP Optimus to have a cartoon-accurate Orion Pax I'm far less able to overlook the flaws of this Optimus Prime when the Earthrise figure is so much better. He does come with a few accessories. There's a Matrix done as a solid silver chrome block- the inner section is not removable the way it was on the PotP Optimus. There's black guns, which can combine into a larger rifle that looks a lot like G1 Optimus' rifle and not so much like Star Convoy's (as you can see by comparing GS with G1). This is probably because the rifle is identical to the one that came with PotP Optimus. It has another gimmick, one I'm not sure worked with PotP Optimus. The Matrix has a hole on the top and a peg on the bottom, so you can sandwich it between the two guns when combining them to make the Matrix part of Star Convoy's blaster. Lastly, you get a trailer, sans stripes, and some stickers to add the stripes yourself. Prime's head is on a ball joint that can look up a bit, down a fair bit, and tilt sideways only very slightly. His shoulders are ball joints that can swivel but only extend laterally about 45 degrees. Less if he lifts his arms first, not because the joints are poorly laid out like SS86 Hot Rod but because the kibble on his back gets in the way. His biceps swivel, and his double-jointed elbows bend 180 degrees in total. No wrist or waist swivels. His hips can move 90 degrees forward on a disc hinge, but only about 45 degrees backward due to his back kibble. Laterally he can spread his legs about 75 degrees on ball joints; not that his left leg is super loose on my copy and manipulating the leg will cause it to pop off. The thighs swivel, and his knees bend 90 degrees. His feet can tilt down for transformation, but there's no upward tilt and no ankle pivots. In other words, not only does he look a lot worse than Earthrise Prime, aside from the elbows his articulation is worse, too. Prime can hold his guns using the usual 5mm ports. The Matrix stores in his back, actually, by first moving the fake windows and then moving the real ones. It's actually easiest to do in truck mode. Speaking of, there it is. The trailer hitches back a bit further than Earthrise Prime's, but notice that they otherwise have fairly similar dimensions. Even the trailers are similar in size. Now, because the trailer does transform and ER Prime's doesn't I'm not going to be too hard on it. Sure, it's got some red, some visible hinges, and some gaps. I forgive it, because it's more than just a box. The cab, though... eh. The headlights are too smushed in by the grill. The silver stripe doesn't go the whole way around. The sides with the fenders don't quite line up... ...and the back of the cab is a complete mess, with half-painted hinges for smokestacks and scrunched up arms that don't tab in place or hide particularly well making up most of the back. Prime's robot chest is folded down against his legs, and a lump on the back of his head serves as the trailer's hitch. Now up to this point my big complaint has been that Earthrise Optimus is a better G1 Optimus toy. But the reality is that my biggest complaint is that this is a G1 Optimus toy, period. It's a G1 Optimus robot that turns into a G1 Optimus cab and pulls a G1 Optimus trailer. It's is not by any stretch the heavily armed, treaded space super-truck that G1 Star Convoy turns into. Even with the guns plugged onto the trailer. But, turn the trailer into most of a robot body, turn the smaller Optimus robot into a cuboid with a head, plug him into the back, and I have to admit that you do have something that resembles Star Convoy. The head, pelvis, waist, and lower legs have been remolded, plus his feet have been changed to black, to better resemble Star Convoy than G1 Optimus, even if he doesn't have big treads on his calves. The smokestacks on PotP Optimus have been replaced with Star Convoy's shoulder guns, and a hinged star has been added to finish off the look, even if the chest behind it doesn't have the angles and non-square windows that Star Convoy should. Ah, but that star is where we run into one of my biggest issues with this toy. There's a tab on it that's supposed to fit into a hole between the windows at the top of his chest. It flat out doesn't have the friction to do so. Out of the box, tension on the hinges at the base of the star will pull it right out. Some people have had some luck by popping the star off, pulling the hinge part out, turning it over, and putting it back together. If I do that the tension on the hinge doesn't pull it out, but the hinge is now looser and the weight of the star pushes it back out and down. Just to take these pictures I had to bend the hinges in a way that the star rests against his chest purely with friction, as the star is sitting lower than it actually should. You can see, once I posed him, the star pulling away from the chest again. Star Convoy's head can swivel and look down, but he's got no upward or sideways tilt. The turrets on his shoulders can swivel, and the barrels can aim anywhere from slightly lower than straight ahead all the way up to straight up. His shoulders can rotate, and they can move laterally a bit under 90 degrees. His biceps swivel, and his elbows bend a little over 90 degrees. Sadly, he lacks both wrist and waist swivels. His hips can ratchet forward or backward about 60 degrees, and they can move laterally 90 degrees on friction hinges. His thighs swivel, and his knees bend 90 degrees. His feet can tilt up and down a fair bit, and he's got 45 degrees of ankle pivot. Weirdly, his right foot seems to have a ratchet, but his left foot is all friction. Star Convoy has the same 5mm ports in his hands as the smaller Prime, and holds his rifle with no issues. I mean... am I supposed to be excited that Star Convoy is acknowledged after almost 30 years? The simple fact is this isn't Star Convoy at all, it's G1 Prime cosplaying as Star Convoy. Which I might have forgiven, if he could keep his costume together. The fact is, fit and finish issues keeping his combined-mode sides locked in and his star actually on his chest ruin the Star Convoy robot mode for me. And for the rest, there is no Star Convoy truck, just G1 Optimus, and G1 Optimus was done far better with Earthrise. You should NOT pay aftermarket prices for this. Heck, I'd be mad if I paid the $80 Hasbro was asking. At $65 I can sort of console myself with the notion that it's an historic release, but one that feels kind of shoddy and, frankly, is a poor representation of the character. I don't recommend buying it. Given the scale issues, I don't think I'd recommend buying the PotP version, either. But, what actually might be the most frustrating thing of all... the transformation from the trailer to the bulk of the larger robot's body actually works pretty well. Wrist swivels, a waist swivel, and a bit more range in the hips would have been ideal, but the articulation is mostly there. The trailer is pretty solid. And the smaller robot's transformation is actually kind of similar to Ginrai/Powermaster Optimus' core robot. Basically, this "evolutions" concept led to an out-of-scale G1 Optimus and a poorly-executed Star Convoy remold that I can't really recommend, but if they'd made this Powermaster Optimus/God Ginrai instead it could have been a homerun, as the whole thing is much more solid than Ultra Magnus remold we got in Titans Return.

Welp, I didn't just nab Jazz at Walmart the other day. I also managed to grab Studio Series 86 Deluxe-class Blurr. A lot of debate seems to be going around about whether or not SS86 Blurr is really a needed upgrade over Titans Return Blurr. Well, if we're talking the Hasbro version, the colors are obviously far more accurate this time. Of course, the Takara version was colored accurately the first time around. Actually, the Takara Prime Wars version had some dark blue on the rims of his shoulder thrusters, which I guess might make him more accurate... except SS86's head is better (although I'm not sure what's up with the face sculpt), his chest is a bit cleaner, and his lower legs don't have thrusters on them. Oh, and you don't have to pull his head off to transform him. Both versions have the alt-mode nose for a backpack. SS86's isn't removable like the Titans Return toy's, but it's thinner and doesn't protrude so much, so I guess that's a wash. There's also been a bit of complaining in some circles about the kibble on the back of his forearms. Here's the thing, sure, the Titans Return version has less of it, but it's not like it's not there. And, while it magically shrinks on the animation model, it's not like that kibble isn't cartoon accurate; indeed, it's at least facing the correct way, with the bottom against the back of his arm. Then there are the accessories. Titans Return Blurr came with a passable rifle, but SS86's is more screen accurate (although I might have liked it to be silver). You also get the welding tool he used to patch the shuttle on the Planet of Junk for the briefest of moments before the Decepticons attacked. It could have been silver, too, but I guess both match the white Hasbro used for Blurr's hands, face, and feet. Blurr's head is on a ball joint with the ball in the torso instead of the head. He can look down a bit and has some slight sideways tilt, but up is out of the question. His shoulders rotate on ratchets (or at least some kind of detented joint), and they can move laterally over 90 degrees. Unlike the Titans Return toy there's a pin-hinge through the shoulder thruster, so he can raise his arm and still move it laterally. Biceps swivel, elbows bend 90 degrees, and wrists swivel, although his wrist swivel is a bit hindered due to the fact that his arm kibble is actually connected to his hand. His waist swivels. HIs hips can go 90 degrees forward, backward, or laterally, on universal joints instead of the ball joints used on the TR figure. His thighs swivel, and his knees bend 90 degrees. Due to transformation his feet can tilt up, same as the TR figure, but unlike that figure his ankles pivot up to 45 degrees. He holds either accessory just fine by sliding the post into his fist. The shoulder thrusters are 5mm-compatible, and he's got ports under his feet, but nothing on his back or legs. No robot-mode weapon storage seems intentional, but you can technically hang the rifle using the alt-mode storage (more on that in a bit), although it looks goofy with the barrel almost reaching the ground. You can also slide the rifle into the gap in the top of his backpack. It's not secure if you tip him over or anything, but it works in a pinch. SS86 Blurr's engineering is actually pretty similar to the Titans Return figure. In both cases the nose folds up from the back, the feet fold up against the shins, the shins open, the antenna folds out of one leg before they're joined, then they fold over to the thighs and close back up. The arms move out on hinged armatures on both, but the armature is longer and set closer to to the waist than mid-torso so the thrusters on his shoulders reach the back of the vehicle instead of tucking into non-accurate leg thrusters. Again, the biggest difference seems to be his chest, where the sides split open and the chest window spins 360 degrees instead of opening. From most angles Blurr looks pretty good in alt mode. The open cockpit is a bit more cartoon accurate than the TR toy's. He's got the vents around the rear, and he doesn't have the peg holes that the TR figure has. I think the thinner nose looks better. He's slightly wider, and his arms make a smoother, curvier shape along the sides. That said, the rear is a little messier due to having more cartoon-accurate shapes for lower legs, and he doesn't have rolling wheels. Indeed, from some angles you can see that he's he's actually resting on his robot feet and some tabs that extend a bit from a hinged flap that hides his head and connects his alt-nose to his body. Unless you're looking at the sides from ground level, though, it doesn't look bad. They hold him up a bit, so it looks like he's floating. There's no paint inside, but you can see that they did mold a seat and some controls into his cockpit. That said, it doesn't really accommodate any figures like a Titan Master. It's fine for me, Blurr doesn't need a driver. Especially if that driver is his head. As I mentioned, Blurr does have alt mode storage for his accessories despite a lack of 5mm ports. On the back of the rifle you'll notice indented slots. These slots can grab onto a tab under his alt-nose. There's a pair of slots flanking that tab, and it just so happens that there are a pair of tabs on the bottom of the welding tool, allowing it to partially wrap over the butt of the rifle. Now, while it's a thing you can do, I think it looks ridiculous and I won't be doing it again after taking these pictures. Blurr's looking like another win for SS86. It's accurate in both modes without the crazy engineering DX9 or Fans Toys used in their MP versions, and it does have better accessories and articulation than the Titans Return/Takara Legends version. The real question, I guess, is whether it's better enough that you need to replace the version you already have. I'd say if you have the Hasbro Titans Return version then yes, I definitely recommend him. The screen-accurate colors are a major improvement on top of the more accurate sculpt, better accessories, and better articulation. If you have the Takara Legends version, though, the answer isn't as clear cut because I suspect it looks "good enough", plus there's the fact that you probably paid a premium if you bought the Legends version. That sunk cost might deter you from upgrading to something that's only a little better. So while I definitely think SS86 Blurr is the superior figure I can't fault anyone for sticking with the Legends version.

I'm not sure what's more impressive, @tekering's collection or the fact that he manages said collection in Japan, where space is such a premium.

I wish I knew. Hopefully I can walk into a store soon and find Grimlock, too, because I sure don't feel like waiting until May for him. Well, I don't know about the rest of the Kingdom/SS86 toys, but Hasbro Pulse listed as back in stock (for Pulse Premium members only) Scourge, Cyclonus, and Hot Rod. Alas, no Grimlock.

Does the FoC version still count, since WfC/FoC are technically TF Prime? Yeah, that one wasn't very good, but if Planet X did Jazz I'd probably be all over it. As for MT's Jazz I love it, it's on my MP shelf and I have zero interest in replacing it with the Fans Toys one (whenever that may be), but I don't really do anything with my MPs after I review them and settle then into their display. The Siege/Earthrise/Kingdom/SS86 stuff, though, doesn't have a display space. I review them then store them. But I keep taking figures out and leaving them in my desk, because they're fantastic fun to fiddle with. I've got room in my heart (if not the shelf space) for Maketoys' and SS86 Jazz.

The day started out a little rough. See, I've been waiting for a package from China. The package cleared customs and was taken by a courier to a USPS facility in Lancaster, PA (between Harrisburg and Philadelphia, about 3 and a half hours east of me). Yesterday I was alerted that it arrived and then departed from Warrendale (north west of me, less than an hour away). The next stop should be my local post office, so if it arrived there early enough it should have been delivered today. So I checked the status when I woke up and saw that, for whatever reason, it went back to Lancaster. Next up I check my email, and I see three emails from Amazon about revised shipping dates. Since stores are starting to get Studio Series 86 in but my preorders all had a release date of April 1st I assume that Amazon is moving them up. That's the case for Kup- he might be here by Monday. But the other two are delays, with Amazon now telling me I'm not getting Jazz or Grimlock until May. Well, after dropping my daughter off at Kindergarten I went out to get more driveway salt. Target doesn't have any salt, and aside from some Buzzworthy Bumblebee stuff they only have a single Kingdom Optimus Primal. So I head over to Walmart. No Grimlock, but I did manage to find Studio Series 86 Deluxe-class Jazz! Y'know, for such a major character Jazz hasn't had a lot of love. We had a crappy Legends-class toy in 2008, the well-received but definitely dated Reveal the Shield toy a decade ago, and less-well-received Power of the Primes toy in 2017. While I think both of those figures have their issues they both were passably Jazz in robot mode... but not like this one. SS86 Jazz nails the cartoon-style, to the point that the only flaws I can pick out are very subtle details like different line work on his grill, a little extra details on his silver abs and shins, and a lack of stripes over the fenders on his lower legs. And some of that, like the differences on the grill, might be an effort to get around Porsche's licensing, because nothing on the box seems to suggest that they did obtain such a license. With that in mind, accuracy to the 86 movie was clearly the priority, so fans of the G1 toy might find a few other disappointments. He doesn't have a shoulder launcher, and his doors cannot fold out to make wings like the RTS toy or the G1 toy. Jazz comes with a mostly-cartoon accurate gun. I've seem some people online complaining about it, but I'm not sure what their problem is aside from the white pegs on the sides. But those pegs serve a purpose, allowing Jazz to store his gun on his back while he's in bot mode. Jazz's head is on a ball joint, with very little downward tilt, adequate sideways tilt, and plenty of upward tilt. His shoulders rotate and extend laterally a little over 90 degrees. His biceps swivel, and his elbows bend 90 degrees. Sadly, his wrists don't swivel, but his waist does. His hips can move forward almost 90 degrees, backward about 45 degrees, and laterally about 75 degrees; not the best, but I think an adequate amount for most poses. His thighs swivel, and his knees bend 90 degrees. His feet can't tilt up, but the toes do tilt down. And his ankles can pivot almost 90 degrees. Jazz can hold his weapon in either hand, no problem. He has one more 5mm port on his back, where he can store his gun, and one on each foot under his toes. While articulating Jazz I should point out that I ran into two more minor issues. The first is that his backpack doesn't really lock in place. Gravity and friction are enough that it's not flopping around or anything, but you might push it out of place while handling him. The other issue is that his knees have these little tabs that plug into his shins. Neither are as secure as I'd like, but his left knee especially pops out constantly while handling him. While previous Deluxe-class Jazz toys were pretty passable in robot mode I've never been satisfied with their alt modes. RTS Jazz looks more like a Ford Fiesta than a Porsche. PotP Jazz did pull off something very Porsche-esque, but the wrong model (something more like a Porsche 956, aka the same car Gobots Crasher turned into). SS86 Jazz is finally, unmistakeably, the whale-tailed Porsche 935. Really, the departures from the real car and the animation model are slim. There's the aforementioned grill and the missing stripes over the rear fenders. There's a weird vent on the side, in front of the door. There's some missing black from the sides of the spoiler, the number 14 instead of 4. And perhaps most noticeable of all there's his toes sticking out the rear of the car. Some of those things, like the missing stripe, the number change, the grill, and the vent were again probably to avoid licensing issues. As for the feet, well, it's unfortunate, but I think it boils down to how his feet were engineered. While other, usually unofficial, takes on the character have demonstrated that it's not necessary for his feet to poke out like that I'll say that for Hasbro to have avoided it they'd have had to totally redesign his legs. While I do prefer weapons to be hidden in alt mode that's not the case for SS86 Jazz. That said, the peg hole on his back winds up on his roof, and you can plug his gun in there. Studio Series 86 Jazz is not a perfect figure. That said, his flaws are mostly very minor, and the aesthetic ones (save the feet sticking out in alt mode) will almost certainly be corrected with some Reprolabels down the line. All-in-all, for a Deluxe-class figure he came out pretty fantastic. I think he's a huge improvement over the previous two Deluxes. Fans of the toy-style shoulder launcher and door wings might be less enthusiastic, but anyone looking for a cartoon-accurate Jazz is sure to be pleased, and I highly recommend this figure.

FedEx was a little late, and then we've been getting smashed with a winter storm here. It's not one of those ones where you get hit by a foot of snow and dig yourself out the next day. No, it's one of those ones where it snows and inch and then stops, so you go out and shovel the driveway only for it to snow another inch, so I've basically had to go shovel four times in the last three days (and my driveway is currently an unbroken sheet of white). But hey, I managed to take a few pictures while my daughter did her Zoom kindergarten, and since I dozed watching TV after dinner I'm good to stay up and write. So here's there latest edition of Repaint Roundup. We're starting with Barricade, who's been my most-wanted repaint since he was announced. And yeah... he's alright. He's Earthrise Smokescreen with no mold difference, just different colors. Hasbro opted for clear plastic on his windows and lights, which I guess is fine, but it does kind of reduce the purple on him. So while I think in actuality the lilac plastic used on him is the same as the Siege toy it comes across as slightly more pinkish. I mentioned before, especially in this post, that the notion of Barricade as a psuedo-G1 repaint of Prowl/Smokescreen comes some art Guido Guidi did a few years back, and in his art you can see black shoulders, purple biceps, black forearms, and purple hands. Now, because of his movie design, I prefer more black than purple, so when the Siege figure was purple from the bicep down I wound up buying a second Siege Prowl and swapped arm parts. Well, this time Barricade does have proper black forearms, but now his shoulders are purple. And this time they're not easily removed to replace or repaint. On the subject of colors, we come to his weapons. Again, on Guidi's art, Barricade had a gold gun, and Smokescreen-style purple shoulder cannons with gold barrels, which is why I painted Siege Barricade's gun and the barrels of his shoulder cannons. This time Hasbro actually painted Barricade's gun, and it looks pretty good! But, we've got the smaller Earthrise shoulder guns used with Smokescreen and Bluestreak, and they're just purple. In anticipation of Barricade's release I'd ordered some replacement accessories for both him and Smokescreen from Nonnef. Smokescreen's white accessories work perfectly fine for him, but I'm not loving the "gold" ones for Barricade. They're more of a caramel color. Plus, with just the barrels on the shoulder guns appearing as gold on Guidi's artwork you kind of have to decide if all purple guns are more or less accurate than all-gold. Given that this is two toys that went for purple shoulder guns now I'm starting to lean that way, and I might just stick with his default accessories. Besides, a Smokescreen chest and head with Bluestreak's shoulder guns and Prowl's lightbar makes him an amalgamation of all three Datsuns instead a black-and-purple Smokescreen with a light bar. Alt mode. The matte paint on the hood look nice, until you realize how quickly it starts showing marks. The Datsun mold looks great in black, but the deco is a bit lacking. There's no paint on the taillights, and the only police markings are some white on the door with "POLICE" tampoed in black. Toyhax seems a bit behind, but I really hope they do a set for Earthrise Barricade that gives him markings similar to what was on the Mustang in the 2007 movie. We can do something about the colored wheel clip, though (for him and the other Datsuns). Nonnef makes these wheel covers. They have a tab on the back that simply wedges into the middle of the clip. Black works fine for Barricade and Prowl (G1 Prowl might have had silver rims, but most modern police cars do seem to use black). Black will also match Smokescreen out of the box, but I did wind up painting his rims. Likewise, Bluestreak's come painted. Nonnef makes gray wheel covers, too, but I think I'm going to have to wait for warmer weather and I'll paint the gray ones silver before installing them. So Barricade- I like the ER Datsun mold, I like Barricade, so it's a recommend, especially if you don't have the packed-in Punch/Counterpunch yet so you're not just paying for Barricade. The Nonnef weapons- recommend for Smokescreen, not so much for Barricade. I didn't get the sets for Prowl and Bluestreak, which are more toy-style than cartoon-accurate. Leaving the Galactic Odyssey behind for a bit we've got the Pulse-exclusive Shattered Glass pack. We'll start with Prime, who's a straight repaint of Earthrise Prime, sans trailer. SG Prime's a bit interesting because the original one was the Classics mold, and the deco's been retroactively applied to Universe Laser Optimus mold and MP-10 before Earthrise got the SG treatment. While some details have been uniform- dark blue legs, purple torso and arms, yellow window with one of them damaged, other details have been less consistent. The pelvis markings (which, like ER Prime, leaves off the paint for the middle rectangle), sort of Mountain Dew-colored here, matched his windows on the Classics mold, but were sort of greenish on the MP. But, the MP had yellow eyes, but ER goes for the original's red. This version, unlike both the Classics and the MP, has gray hands and a green forehead crest, but the grayish gun matches the MP. Classics had the Autobot insignia on both shoulders, the MP on just his left shoulder, but ER swaps to it just his right shoulder. Perhaps the play up the "mirror" aspect? But one thing you notice is that ER Prime's left shoulder was left smooth for the tampoed insignia, and mirroring it makes it look messy on the shoulder with greebles while his left shoulder is out-of-place smooth. Well, at least his lower legs are solidly blue (from the front). SG Prime does still come with a Matrix. The handle is painted a darker silver than ER's, and the center is purple with a yellow crystal. Hasbro did get a little lazy here, though. Unlike ER Prime, Hasbro only painted one side of SG's Matrix, so the back is just a pee-yellow translucent plastic. Truck mode looks fine, with yellow windows and headlights, minus the aforementioned issue with the insignia being on the greebles and the other side being smooth. I do wish he had a trailer, though. Maybe he can use Alternate Universe Prime's. I don't think he needs it, being dead and all. Instead of a trailer, SG Prime comes with SG Ratchet, who's a straight repaint of Earthrise Ratchet. I think there's less of a precedent for SG Ratchet's colors. As near as I can tell the only Shattered Glass Ratchet prior to this was from a Botcon customization class using a new head on Combiner Wars First Aid. That toy did seem to establish that SG Ratchet is still mostly white, does trade Ratchet's red for grays and purples, and does have a purple crest and a darker face. But all this cyan? That seems new. I gotta tell you, though, I don't hate it. Actually, I think it goes pretty great with the purple. That said, if ER Ratchet had a white hinge for the window on his chest why couldn't SG Ratchet? SG Ratchet comes with the same roof-shield and tool that ER Ratchet does. The main difference is that the boosters are purple, the Autobot insignia is purple, and Hasbro put some silver paint on his tool. SG Ratchet's vehicle mode suffers the same way ER Ratchet and Ironhide's do- molded but unpainted windows on the back of the sides, gray wheels, a partsforming roof, and robot feet instead of the back of the van. That last one's a bit worse for SG Ratchet because his cyan feet really stand out against the white. The windows I don't mind too much; a lot of ambulances and cargo vans don't have windows on the sides of the rear. The feet, though.... the sooner someone comes up with a better solution the better. I'm not a big fan of the Shattered Universe in general. Flipping the script, so the Autobots are the bad guys and the Decepticons the good guys, isn't clever or original and, in this case, ultimately makes for the same good robots fighting bad robots. Nemesis Prime already makes for an in-universe evil Optimus with a better deco to boot. That said, I actually really like SG Ratchet's deco. I've got half a mind to slap a Mercenary or Decepticon badge over the Autobot one on his roof, rename him, and make him the Decepticons' medic, no SG universe required. There's also the rumors that Hasbro will go going hard on SG as Pulse-exclusives. If you're in for a collection of SG repaints and this isn't just a one-off set then it makes more sense to pick this one up. If you're really not into SG, though, unless you really like the molds or decos this set's probably a safe pass.

Deep Cover is available to preorder on Hasbro Pulse. What's interesting is that it's being reported that this is one of two figures, causing some to speculate that an official Clampdown is coming, too. While I wouldn't say no to that, the wording is "This special edition WFC-GS23 Deep Cover figure is 1 of 2 different versions that will be our first U.S. releases of the character (each sold separately, subject to availability)." That suggests to me two versions of the same character, which perhaps lends credence to the rumor I reported on that Deep Cover, Red Alert, and Sideswipe are getting retooled Earth modes.

Actually, you reminded me that early last week I'd ordered a PS4 game from best buy that they shipped FedEx. It came the same day as our cat food from Chewy. The driver dropped the game in a bubble mailer onto my porch, then dropped a box with 40-some cans of cat food on top of it. The disc was ok, but the case was pretty crushed.

Quick update on Punch/Counterpunch- When transforming him to car mode his forearms are supposed to tab into his sides. On my copy they kept popping out, which messed up the alignment of the front end of the car. My first thought was that maybe which hands are exposed made a difference- it didn't. I wrote it off as either a tolerance issue inherent to the design, or possibly an issue with my copy specifically like mold flash. I mean, I was already having some minor issues with his head ball joint, right? Well, while reading up on the character I stumbled onto something. See, the PotP version had an assembly issue, and this assembly issue has apparently not been corrected for the Galactic Odyssey version. If you need the fix, or think you need the fix, here's what you do. Begin by popping the arms off the ball joints. Now, look at the post the ball joint is on that runs into his torso (it's blue on the original version, black on the newer one). Where the post is jointed to the torso look at the shape on top, then swivel the post and look at the shape in his armpit. One side will be a little rounder, the other a little flatter. The flatter side should be on the top, if if you're like me you'll find the rounder side is on top. If that's the Punch's chest and get the hood kibble out of the way, then get a spudger and carefully wedge it between the yellow plastic and the blue/black plastic on his flank. Wiggle the ball joint toward the gap you created and you'll see it's just on a post. You can pull the part out once it clears the post, flip it over, then put it back. With the flatter side up the ball peg will find a natural stopping point when you rotate it up, and that point will perfectly align his forearms with his sides and they'll stop popping back out.

Man, FedEx. Got an email this morning that my Shattered Glass set was out for delivery. I kept checking, all day long it's "loaded on vehicle for delivery" and "scheduled delivery by end of day Sunday, January 31st." But it never came, and now the status is "pending, no delivery date scheduled." Meanwhile, Amazon tells me yesterday that my next Galactic Odyssey box's delivery date is moved up to Tuesday. And it came today. Score one for the beleaguered USPS, I guess. Well, half this box is a repaint, as is all of the Shattered Glass stuff, so I guess I'll be doing a repaint roundup soon. But the other half... well I guess it's technically a repaint too. But it's a repaint of a figure I never bought, so he gets his own review. It's Deluxe-class Punch! Y'know, I always start these things by talking about how accurate or not a figure is to the source material, but I guess we need to address first the differences between this version and the first release, and then we have three different sources to compare to. In addition to having a G1 toy, this guy appeared in both the "The Rebirth" in the West and in The Headmasters in Japan. Well, right off the bat, he's a lighter shade of blue than the first release, and the rims on the wheels aren't painted. That's all less-accurate, regardless of the source, but those are the big differences, but there are a few small ones like his hands not matching the rest of his blue, black bands on the outsides of his forearms, black biceps, and black on his abdomen, again, all less-accurate (at least as Punch). The rest is more car-related, and we'll cover them when we get to car mode. He retains the black feet and purple shins, which are toy details, His eyes are red and separated like "The Rebirth", but the shape of his helmet and the silver part of his face with the molded mouth is pure The Headmasters. His chest is the biggest departure from all sources. The toy had the windshield split by a white panel with the Decepticon badge on it, which The Headmasters copied. "The Rebirth" put a pair of Decepticon badges on the windshield, but the windshield narrowed over the space between them. Here we have the entire windshield intact and looking like a normal windshield, with the badge sitting a bit lower. Punch is a bit tall for a carbot. Fine with me, I have no idea where he goes on a scale chart. He was shown as tall as Galvatron and a little shorter than Fortress in The Headmasters, but animation is always an inconsistent source. Punch comes with this single yellow pistol. I was ready to say that it lacks the second barrel that the yellow gun that came with the G1 toy had, and it's shorter than the black rifle that came with the G1 toy. However, Punch did seem to have a yellow pistol in The Headmasters so I guess this is fine. The gun is all you get with this version, but I'll note here that the original Prime Wars release also came with a Prima Prime Master and one of those double-thumbed Prime Armor combiner hands that came with Power of the Primes Jazz. Punch's head is on a ball joint. He can look down, but nothing really up and no real sideways tilt, but it could be that the manufacturing was off because if I try to pose him looking straight forward the head wants to kind of pop into a slight sideways turn. Shoulders can rotate, and he can almost move them 90 degrees laterally, on hinged ball joints. You might have to fiddle with the car kibble on his shoulders, though. His biceps swivel and his elbows bend a tiny bit under 90 degrees. No wrist swivels, but his waist does swivel. His hips are ball joints not my favorite; I prefer universals). They can go forward, backward, or laterally a little under 90 degrees. I'll note that I'd prefer if they were a bit tighter, but the the tolerances are a lot better than my old Combiner Wars stuff. He has mushroom swivels in his thighs, and his knees can bend about 90 degrees. Although he has little painted black spots to show his feet, they're actually just the bottom of his legs, molded at an angle for an A-stance, so no ankles or tilt. He can hold his gun fine. There's a single 5mm port on his back you can use for storage as well. Wait, did I say Punch? Maybe I meant Counterpunch. Again, the most immediate difference between the Galactic Odyssey version and the original Prime Wars one is the color. The blue is lighter, and the yellow more of a lemony yellow than the orange creamsicle on the original. And yep, that makes him less-accurate all around. He's also lacking the painted details on his thighs meant to evoke the G1 toy's stickers, but that's technically more cartoon accurate (bare black in "The Rebirth," tiny red dots but otherwise black in The Headmasters). Likewise, while "The Rebirth" used yellow biceps, the G1 toy and The Headmasters had black arms for Counterpunch, so the black band on his forearm and black biceps are more accurate than the all-blue on the PotP version. As for details that are the same between versions, there's molded details on the yellow parts of his shoulders that match details on the car parts in The Headmasters. The head doesn't match "the Rebirth," but it splits the difference between the G1 toy and The Headmasters by giving him two separate eyes like the toy but making them blue like The Headmasters. Most of the molded details on his torso and the placement of the Autobot badge follow pretty much all three G1 versions. The only real differences is that he's got some black markings that no version had under the badge, and the circles on his abs have changed to trapezoids. Unlike the G1 toy, Counterpunch doesn't get a separate gun. He has to share Punch's. Speaking of sharing with Punch, his articulation is basically identical because he shares the same joints. Even his elbows and knees are the same; the joints are simply designed to hinge in both directions. The only real differences are that the downward tilt of Punch's head means an upward tilt for Counterpunch, and the position of Counterpunch's shoulder kibble seems to interfere more with his shoulder articulation than with Punch. Note that I've arranged properly according to the instructions, with the bottom of the car pointed up and the seam against the back of his shoulder. His kibble actually will tab onto the sides of his shoulders that way. But, many pictures I saw of the original seemed to have it arranged so that the bottom of the car was against the back of his shoulder and the seam facing down. If you do it the unofficial way it's a bit easier to get the car kibble out of the way. In some ways, transformation between Punch and Counterpunch might be easier than the G1 toy (I don't know, I never actually owned it). In both cases you're basically spinning him around 180 degrees, so Punch's back is Counterpunch's front and vice versa. He's got the same tilting visor that the G1 toy had, so the top of his helmet covers the eyes on whichever face is currently the back of his head, although nothing hides the fact that Counterpunch has a mouth on the back of his head. On both sides the badge is set on a panel that can be flipped down. This doesn't just hide the badge for whichever faction he's not being; underneath the flap is a 5mm port for robot mode weapon storage or possibly use with some Siege accessories. The big difference between this version and the G1 version is that the car kibble doesn't house separate arms for each robot mode. They share the same arms, and as I mentioned the elbow simply bends both ways. He does have separate hands, though, to make sure that the thumb is on the right side. The black panel on the outside of his forearm opens up, and as you rotate one fist into his forearm the other will rotate out. If other Transformers didn't think it was suspicious that Punch looks a lot like Counterpunch from behind and vice versa, you think the fact that they both transform into the same car would tip them off. Their larger robot mode size still works pretty well in car mode with War For Cybertron figures. Once again, the blue was darker on the PotP version, and the PotP version had red rims, and in both cases that's more accurate to the source. This one retails the red-painted taillights but loses the silver paint around the grill, and on those little indented bits on the fenders behind the front tires. A part of me hates to see that paint go, but it's not like the G1 toy had a silver grill. But the biggest is the yellow painted around the skirts. Sporty, but not at all accurate to the source. Speaking of the source, regardless of which version you have the car isn't G1 accurate at all, aside from being a blue car. The original was supposed to be a Pontiac Fiero. This car is sort of like a Ferrari SF90 Stradale and a 6th-gen Camaro had a baby. While I guess something a little closer would have been nice I'm not a big fan of the Fiero, which I don't think has aged as well as contemporary Firebirds (aesthetically speaking). So I'm not too put off. Punch/Counterpunch has a 5mm port on his roof, and you can stick his gun there if you want. However, if you look on the underside one of the black armatures that connects the car kibble to his shoulders has a small tab on it. That tab happens to fit into a slot on one side of his gun's handle, allowing him to store it underneath. Oh, and despite the fact that a large section of his hood unfurls from inside his torso, despite the fact that his head doesn't fold into that cavity for car mode, and despite the fact that the original PotP version came with a Prime Master, a Prime (or Titan) Master doesn't fit in the void vacated by the section of his hood. I tried. Alright... regarding this figure on its own, the engineering is a throwback to the Prime Wars cars, which is not up to par with the War for Cybertron stuff even if I ignore the feet. That said, the engineering is still pretty interesting, like how the roof curls up into his feet, and I'm honestly impressed that a character like Punch/Counterpunch would get made with a unique mold in modern times at all. I don't think he's a must-have character, but if you like the design or had fond memories of the G1 character/toy then he's still pretty cool. That said, if you want an Earth-mode Barricade then Punch/Counterpunch is along for the ride. If you're like me and you didn't get the Amazon-exclusive Power of the Primes version then cool, now you have this guy in your collection too, even if he is colored more like Nightbeat than G1 Punch/Counterpunch. However, the Power of the Primes version has the superior deco. If you already have him then your faced with either skipping Earth-mode Barricade or being forced to buy a second, inferior version of Punch/Counterpunch along with him.

Because it's not this Bombshell (1985), nor the cartoon. Look at the shape of the torso, the spikes on the shoulders, the black head with the silver mask and green eyes, the lack of a proboscis on his forehead, the purple shins and orange feet, the weird gun and the green bug hat that come with the Super7 one... It's Action Master Bombshell. Who came out in 1991, a year after Banzaitron. All that said, crappy articulation, crappy price, doesn't scale with existing lines, and homages the absolute worst subline idea in all of G1, and I'm really starting to wonder how these got into production, because I doubt even the biggest Transformers fans have any interest in these.

I don't have the original DX9 ones, but I did get the MFT KOs. I think the DX9 ones scale better with Newage, but they're a bit small for Magic Square. Quality was fine for all but Sludge; his dino head busted off first time I transformed him. But again, that was the MFT version.

I mean, I'm in, I wanna watch it. But what happened to the Ultraman anime?

When I was little my dad told me and my brother he'd buy us each a toy under a certain price. Naturally that price excluded any Lion Voltron stuff, so I got the black gladiator and my brother got the red one. We never got the blue one and never tried combining them because, as noted, they weren't in any cartoons. Even to my four year old self Gladiator Voltron seemed kind of like a KO Voltron. So as an adult I must have him, of course.

If we do that we'd pretty much have to do Stealth Voltron from The Third Dimension, too. ...not that I'm saying no to either of those.

Really? Because all Youtube seems to suggest to me anymore are videos I've already watched.

I don't need every little accessory- most of my Dairugger and Golion accessories are stored in their stands, which themselves are in a closet. But I'd love a Legendary Defender To go with the other two Voltrons.

Good news- my copy of FT's Dragstrip is in the stash, waiting to be shipped. Bad news- waiting on at least one of two other figures I know have been released from the factory but haven't hit my stash yet.

I'll still have HBO Max when this comes out, so I'm skipping the trailers in case of spoilers. I'll watch this the day it comes out.

I really want the rest of the first wave SS86 figures, but I checked my local Walmart and Target last night and another Target today. Nada. Walmart moved their Transformers stuff and had nothing but Netflix Wheeljack. Target has a bunch of stuff, but it's all that Buzzworthy Bumblebee stuff. I may get impatient and wind up overpaying on eBay again.

XTB's Springer is definitely looking good, but at some point XTB got it into their heads that their stuff is super premium and they can charge Takara prices for it. Looking at preorders XTB wants more than either MMC's or even Fans Toys' went for, and with the shoulders cracking on their Dragstrip, the paint flaking off the legs of Dead End, and the nightmare transformation that is the super overpriced trailer I'm sorry I waited for it because there is no way I'm dropping $200 on their Springer. Gonna see if I can still get an MMC one, or maybe I'll get lucky and they'll reissue.

Hope you enjoy them. I saw Ben reviewed Blitzwing on YouTube. Looks neat, but didn't really work with my collection.