The Transformers Thread (licensed) Next

[rsvictor1976]

46 minutes ago, M'Kyuun said:

Welcome back to the fold! The toys have come a long way, and for the most part, the SS86 line has been delivering the toys that I think the majority of us have wanted from Hasbro/Takara since the 80s. I've been in the game since it all kicked off in Sept '84, and I'm thrilled that they're finally making figs of the G1 characters that are a balanced mix of toon and original toy, although they tend to skew more towards the animation aesthetic, which seems to be what most fans want. But yeah, we're eating well, as the saying goes, and while it took them about thirty years too long to get around to it, I'm glad they're doing it now while the G1 generation is still around to enjoy them. You picked a good time to come back to the hobby, as G1 fans have never been so well served. Cheers and enjoy!

Yeah, I keep seeing YouTube reviewers saying the same thing about how it’s a great time to be a Transformer collector now. I was really impressed with the Studio Series Optimus Prime for how anime accurate it is and the price point (at least compared to Macross toys). And I’ve always had a weakness for Devastator. My only regret is missing out on that Legacy Menasor set. I’m still a little on the fence about the Age of the Primes combiners using that frame system, but I guess for the sake of accuracy and stability it makes sense.

Edited August 29 by rsvictor1976

[sh9000]

From the resin prototype of ML Ultra Magnus I can see new joints in the hands, hips, knees, ankles, and Matrix Chamber.

Ultra Magnus can finally do its own G1 box art pose.

And I also want the G1 Datsun brothers to be released in ML along with the rest of the cars, Seekers, Dinobots, and as many other G1.

Edited August 29 by sh9000

[M'Kyuun]

17 minutes ago, rsvictor1976 said:

Yeah, I keep seeing YouTube reviewers saying the same thing about how it’s a great time to be a Transformer collector now. I was really impressed with the Studio Series Optimus Prime for how anime accurate it is and the price point (at least compared to Macross toys). And I’ve always had a weakness for Devastator. My only regret is missing out on that Legacy Menasor set. I’m still a little on the fence about the Age of the Primes combiners using that frame system, but I guess for the sake of accuracy and stability it makes sense.

Well, to really appreciate the scope of toy options available to us, one needs to consider both official lines (Hasbro's main line, i.e. currently "Age of the Primes" under the Legacy umbrella, and Studio Series, which is a slightly more premium take, or supposed to be, on characters as they appeared in various media), Takara's Missing Link line which reengineers the G1 toys to feature full articulation and improved complexity all while retaining the look of the OG toys in both modes, Takara's own lines which recreate figs from the Japanese TF shows, the MPG line( formerly Masterpiece), their own releases of Studio Series and mainline toys, oft with better paint apps than their American versions, and other independent lines like their current Wild King show/toys aimed at younger kids. Additionally, there is Robosen, who's producing high-end, sophisticated, fully motorized, self-transforming, walking, talking Transformers. They currently represent the pinnacle of technology as its applied to our favorite Robots in Disguise, even featuring phrases recorded by the original voice actors. They come at a significant price tag, but they're astounding achievements and really cool additions to one's collection. They're a bit out of my price range, but they represent everything that I oft dreamed of in a "perfect' Transformers toy. Lastly, we get to third party companies who've been serving the fandom for about two decades now with figures both faithful to source and with a range of liberties taken in virtually every scale, from legends (slightly smaller than official main line) to Masterpiece, with varying levels of complexity, detail, 'animation accuracy', etc.  there are also companies like Blokees, who make non-transforming model kits of popular TF characters, companies like ThreeZero, formerly ThreeA, who make high-end incredibly detailed non-transforming TF figures. I'm likely forgetting a few, but these are the ones that occur off the top of my head. Lots of options for the intrepid Transformers fan. 

As for the combiner frame system, I'm of two minds: yes, it imbues the gestalt with much greater stability than the poor Combiner Wars figures, but at what point does it simply become an easy crutch to lean on in lieu of better engineering. They didn't use a frame for Devastator, which proves they can make a combiner without it. Granted, Devy has large partsforming bits to complete the gestalt, but aside from the mad all-in-one wizardry of MMC, the vast majority of combiners, official and non, have relied on partsforming bits to accomplish mashing a bunch of smaller robots into a big one. It's an acceptable concession, and one I think most of us, even the most ardent no-partsforming critics like myself, have come to accept, if grudgingly. It's simply the most practical and economical way to achieve the combining gimmick. Hasbro's frame system is a similar tactic, love it or hate it. I'd prefer they used it more sparingly, allowing the limb-bots to actually be the limbs instead of accoutrement on a frame, but I get the reasoning behind it.  If there's a cheap and easy solution, Hasbro will find it, although Takara does most of the heavy design work, so it's a good bet they're more to blame for the heavy use of the frame in lieu of more creative engineering solutions. 

Macross, alas, is such a niche franchise, especially on this side of the Pacific, largely due to Harmony Gold's litigious shenanigans over the last nigh-40 years, damn them.  The subsequent rarity of toys, especially high-end toys like Yamato/Arcadia's, cause availability and pricing to put them out of reach of many a fan. It's the sad reality of Macross fans everywhere, unfortunately. I was hoping that Big West's and Harmony Gold's agreement as well as Disney's airing of the majority of the various Macross Series would spark a renewed interest in the franchise in the West, especially a heightened desire for the toys, but that hasn't happened. Thus the anemic status quo remains.

34 minutes ago, sh9000 said:

From the resin prototype of ML Ultra Magnus I can see new joints in the hands, hips, knees, ankles, and Matrix Chamber.

Ultra Magnus can finally do its own G1 box art pose.

And I also want the G1 Datsun brothers to be released in ML along with the rest of the cars, Seekers, Dinobots, and as many other G1.

I'm thinking he will be able to pull off that pose and probably poses more dynamic than that. They're just teasing us right now.

I want to see that list done, too, especially the Datsuns (I want Prowl in the worst way), the cassettes, some of whom, like Ravage, are in desperate need of a good update. FWIW Fans Toys did a pretty good job with their version of Ravage for Acoustic Wave, both of which are pretty peak. I'm really curious how they'd approach the van brothers, as the Diaclone toys just never really fit in well with the rest of the Diaclone car bots, which makes their inclusion in the TF toyline, which seemed to cherry-pick the best looking of the bunch, oddly questionable in retrospect. We have Floro Dery to thank for the much-improved bot modes in the animation. However, Missing Link is all about improving the G1 toys as they were, warts and all, and it remains to be seen how or if they'll attempt to do something with them. We definitely need Soundwave, Megatron, and the Seekers as well. I'm most curious to see how they'll improve both of the latter. I want a fully poseable G1 Megatron.

[rsvictor1976]

Treated myself to a birthday present. I like the blast effects included with the Commander figures. I wish Bandai would include them with their Valkyries.

Edited August 30 by rsvictor1976

[lechuck]

On 8/29/2025 at 4:35 AM, sh9000 said:

From the resin prototype of ML Ultra Magnus I can see new joints in the hands, hips, knees, ankles, and Matrix Chamber.

Ultra Magnus can finally do its own G1 box art pose.

And I also want the G1 Datsun brothers to be released in ML along with the rest of the cars, Seekers, Dinobots, and as many other G1.

Yikes to that box art?! I think I prefer bad Sunbow animation. 

Actually it all makes perfect sense now, no wonder my parents back in the day would say things like "Do you need this? It seems like a waste of money?". With art like that it is fully understandable that it was not making a convincing case for the toy. 😄 

[tekering]

6 hours ago, lechuck said:

Yikes to that box art?! I think I prefer bad Sunbow animation.

Misrepresentation at its worst, to be sure. 😒

Transformers packaging has come a long way since then.  Look what just arrived on my doorstep:

A beautiful slipcase reveals a stylish cardboard box inside...

...with the contents neatly arranged in the blister within.

This is how these figures have been released for the Japanese market.  The set cost ¥10,000 shipped from Amazon.jp. 👌

[mikeszekely]

2 hours ago, tekering said:

Misrepresentation at its worst, to be sure. 😒

Transformers packaging has come a long way since then.  Look what just arrived on my doorstep:

A beautiful slipcase reveals a stylish cardboard box inside...

...with the contents neatly arranged in the blister within.

This is how these figures have been released for the Japanese market.  The set cost ¥10,000 shipped from Amazon.jp. 👌

Very nice!  I hear the Japanese market is also going to get a set with the Insecticons.  If the deco on them is more cartoon-accurate (solid black arms on Bombshell, no black hips on Bombshell, purple hands and biceps on Shrapnel) I'd be tempted to import.

[sh9000]

Much respect and appreciation to artists such as Mark Watts, Jeffrey Mangiat, Richard Marcej, and David Schleinkofer who contributed to the G1 box art.  I especially loved the battle scenes on the back.

[mikeszekely]

I'm not exactly sure what wave this figure belongs to, as it was originally slated to be released nearly a year ago, then in April of this year, but it's just now finding it's way out after every other figure in the current wave of Studio Series figures (except Mixmaster😡).  This figure is Deluxe-class Transformers One Elita-1.

Near as I can tell, based on the concept art, the design if this toy is broadly accurate as long as you don't go nitpicking it too hard... but nitpicking too hard is kinda my thing.  So, let me first say that the wheels in her calves are accurate, even if they don't shrink the way they do on her CGI model, and kudos to Hasbro for hiding the other wheel... mostly.  

Things kinda start breaking down in the torso.  The rear wheel is kind of folded up comprises the bulk of her torso... the animation-accurate chest and tummy is kind of just a flap tabbed loosely into that wheel.  From the back it's covered by a fairly prodigious backpack that's basically the entire top of her alt mode folded up.  Her forearms are also suffering from having the screen-accurate bits molded onto the insides of large alt mode panels that extend beyond her hands and elbows.

As far as accessories go, she has the rifle she used in the movie, which is similar too but not exactly the same mold as the one that came with Bumblebee.  She also comes with a miner jetpack.

Elita's articulation isn't bad, but it's not my favorite.  Her head is a hinged ball joint with decent up/down/sideways tilt, but it's a tad on the loose side.  Shoulders are also ball joints that swivel but only move laterally about 60 degrees.  She lacks dedicated bicep swivels, but her elbows are more ball joints that provide a swivel in addition to 90 degrees of bend.  No wrists, but her waist swivels.  Her hips are *sigh* even more ball joints, that can go forward and backward about 90 degrees (as long as you move them outward slightly), but only about 75 degrees laterally.  Her thighs swivel, and her knees are double-jointed and good for nearly 180 degrees of bend.  Her ankles are more ball joints, and though they provide some up/down tilt they sadly do not provide much in the way of pivot.

Her rifle can plug into either hand via the usual 5mm handle.  Weirdly, the handle is hinged, though it doesn't actually need to be.

As for her jet pack, there are two tabs (marked in pink) that fit into slots on her back pack.  But you'll note that those aren't the only tabs.  The wider-set tabs (marked in red) fit into Pax/Optimus' backpack.  The unmarked horizontal tab at the bottom fits into Megatron's backpack, and the same tabs that Elita uses also fit into Bumblebee's backpack.  Alas, there's no way to plug the jet pack into Sentinel Prime or Starscream, but they're already flyers so I guess that's fine.

Elita's transformation has some neat tricks, but I think it's ultimately undercut by her Deluxe-class budget.  Her head, chest, and tummy fold forward, revealing the wheels inside.  Those wheels are folded in half, and they have to unfold and shift slightly.  The outsides of her biceps spin around, and that's about all that's needed there.  Her backpack opens and then several panels inside just keep unfolding.  Her shins open and her knee spikes tuck inside.  Her ankle wheels and feet tab together, then her feet shift up toward her knees, while here knees use the double joints to set the upper joint into a space behind the lower one.  Tabs in her forearms near her hands lock into her thighs, while the open shin flaps fit into slots on the outside edges of her arms.  Then you close it all up by plugging her backpack flaps into tabs on the backs of her arms and thighs to solidify the top.  As with Starscream, be prepared for parts to just come off.  For me, both her heels came off, the hinge connecting her neck to her chest came off, and her entire chest came off at one point or another as they're just friction clipped on.  Inconsistencies in tightness or looseness of her ball joints have also caused me to pop an arm off at the shoulder once.

The impression I get is that this toy isn't exactly inaccurate, but it's too wide.  The open shins should be tighter against the body of the vehicle and wrap underneath, while forearm kibble should wrap up and over the rear wheels.  You can also sort of see her head and feet just chilling under the vehicle.  Again, I get the sense that this was just the best they could do managing her robot mass with a Deluxe-class budget.

The spirit of just barely doing what it needs to do but could be way better continues to her alt mode accessory storage.  The jet back uses a 5mm port you might have noticed to plug into a peg dangling off the back of the vehicle.  As for the gun, one side has a tab, and you can plug it into the 5mm port on either side of the vehicle (in what was her shoulders).  But, the shin panels stick out so far, and the barrel of the rifle is so long, that the rifle can't actually point forward while doing so.  Instead, you have to have it pointing backward, which just looks awkward to me.

Compared to the Generations/SS86 toys, it seems like Hasbro likes to take shortcuts on Studio Series figures.  For the most part I've liked the Transformers One figures better than the Rise of the Beasts toys, at least, and based on Prime, Bee, and Sentinel I've felt pretty comfortable saying that the Studio Series figures are at least better than the mainline TFOne toys.  That said, I think Elita-1 is probably my least-favorite of the TFOne Studio Series figures- not really bad, but clearly compromised due to budgets.  Pick her up if you've already got Prime, Bee, and Megatron and want to complete at least those four, but if you're not into the TFone figures Elita is definitely no the one to start with.

[sh9000]

I think I will get the set.

[mikeszekely]

37 minutes ago, sh9000 said:

I think I will get the set.

Depends on the price.  I really don't need Kickback or Skywarp, but I'm sorely tempted to have a Shrapnel with solid purple arms and Bombshell with solid black arms and silver hips (after I swap those parts onto a purple-chested one).

[M'Kyuun]

13 hours ago, mikeszekely said:

Pick her up if you've already got Prime, Bee, and Megatron and want to complete at least those four, but if you're not into the TFone figures Elita is definitely no the one to start with.

Ironically, she and deluxe Alpha Trion, who I picked up at Target on impulse, are the only two TFOne toys that I intend to get thus far. Elita One was the only TFOne fig that I purposely ordered b/c I liked the look of the design enough to plunk a few ducats down.  A3 was a little disappointing in his beast form, but I like the bot mode. For all these beast moded figs that use the back legs , at least from the knee down, to form the rear legs of the creature, I wish they'd add an additional joint that places the back leg to the animal's side allowing for complete 360 rotation of the hind quarter instead of just keeping them awkwardly in line with the rest of the robot leg.  As for Elita, I think the level of engineering is fine given the size of her alt mode and the fact that she's on a deluxe budget.  Could she be better, sure, but not unless they reinvent her on a higher budget with more complexity.

[mikeszekely]

1 hour ago, M'Kyuun said:

A3 was a little disappointing in his beast form, but I like the bot mode. For all these beast moded figs that use the back legs , at least from the knee down, to form the rear legs of the creature, I wish they'd add an additional joint that places the back leg to the animal's side allowing for complete 360 rotation of the hind quarter instead of just keeping them awkwardly in line with the rest of the robot leg.

Studio Series Voyager Alpha Trion incoming...

[mikeszekely]

Still waiting on Mixmaster, but I in the meantime I got Takara's Synergenex Rathalos Prime.

Rathalos Prime is a remold of Kingdom Airazor, though as near as I can tell they only share the same arms, legs, and basic engineering.  I'm not into the Monster Hunter games, but as near as I can tell from the new shoulder pads, the extra forearm armor, the new torso, the visor, and the large spike on Prime's head he's supposed to look like Optimus Prime wearing the Rathalos Armor set.  From some angles, the wings even look like the skirts on the Rathalos Coil part of the set.

From other angles, though, it looks like an Optimus head on a feminine body with a wyvern on his/her butt.  And the wyvern makes him/her overly back heavy with the wing/skirt moved out of the way.  Speaking of, you can see that there's a new panel on the side of the leg.  It exists solely to open in robot mode to reveal a little more blue color, but honestly I think it looks less out of place if you leave it folded against the shin, where it looks slightly more like Rathalos Greaves.

Rathalos Prime comes with the aforementioned forearm armor, a sword, a shield, and (because Prime just isn't complete without one) a Matrix.

Prime's head is on a ball joint, and can look down a bit and tilt sideways slightly, but nothing really upward.  Shoulders rotate and can move laterally 90 degrees if he/she's not wearing the forearm armor, otherwise it gets caught on his/her shoulder pads.  Elbows bend a little over 90 degrees, and his/her waist swivels, but there's no wrist articulation.  The front of his/her pelvis can hinge forward, giving him/her the clearance to move his/her hips about 60 degrees forward, 45 degrees backward, but well over 90 degrees laterally.  Thighs swivel, and knees bend nearly 180 degrees.  The feet are on ball joints which allows them to swivel in addition to giving them some decent up/down tilt, but unfortunately the ankle pivot is pretty limited.

At the most basic, the sword's handle can fit into either fist, and the shield has a 5mm peg that flips out to be held in the other fist.

I'll note, though, that you can store the forearm armor on his/her thighs (which is where they go in alt mode anyway), freeing the ports on his/her forearms to plug the shield in there, either open or closed.  You may have also noticed that there's a slot near the tip of the sword.  You can open the shield up and plug it into that slot to create something more like an axe.

As for the Matrix, cutouts on the handles allow it to plug into his/her fists.  His/her chest doesn't open, though, so to store the Matrix you have to open up the backpack, where it stores in the base of the wyvern's neck.  It can stay there in alt mode.

Speaking of alt mode, the transformation is mostly the same as Airazor, with the added steps of closing the flaps on his/her shins and partsforming the forearm armor onto the thighs if you haven't done either of those things yet.  Technically, you also have to bend the arms at the elbows so that the fists go up behind his/her scapula's instead of tucking into the waist, because the torso doesn't extend the same way, and the head only folds back 90 degrees instead of 180.  But that's fine because you don't fold the alt head out of the chest, it's just part of the backpack, which double-hinges over his/her back and robot face.  The sword and shield combine to form the end of the tail.

To be fair, I think this is about the best you're going to get out a remold of a Deluxe-class Airazor.  The head, back, and wings look pretty great!  The tail is kind of short, though, and the robot torso and thighs all bunched up make for a rather plump-looking Rathalos, with little bird feet instead of the more muscular dragon legs you'd normally expect.

Articulation's fairly limited, too.  There's an up/down hinge at both the base of Rathalos' skull and neck, but no swivel.  The jaws open.  The wings are hinged at the base, immediately beside that first hinge, and a third time a little further out for bend and flapping, then there are rivets at the "thumb" spike that tuck the wings in.  Just like Airazor, you can bend somewhat at the knee with an additional digitigrade joint, plus the ball joints in the feet for posing the legs, but the hips are locked in place.  The tail, (which, again, stores the sword and shield) has no articulation at all.  Like I said, it's probably about the best they could do with a remold of Airazor... but it also begs the question, why remold Airazor?  Basara Prime and Shield-D Prime from the same line are brand new molds, why couldn't Rathalos?  If they absolutely had to remold a figure, why not Legacy Evolution Megatron, which seems like a closer starting point?  Rathalos Prime is kind of a mediocre Deluxe-class toy at a Leader-class price, which makes it a hard figure to recommend even if the alt mode is pretty cool.  That said, in my head-canon Rathalos Prime is a female member of the same group of Convoy-types that include Lio Convoy and Big Convoy from the Beast Wars II/Neo era of the Japanese continuity.

[J.T. Silversmith]

Here are some Pictures of Missing Link Ultra Magnus that I got from the Amazon Japan website.

[J.T. Silversmith]

Based on the shot of the Thigh and the cab lower leg in the last picture I think there is a spot in the "Box Art" pose that was cropped correctly.  Here is my corrected pic

[danth]

38 minutes ago, J.T. Silversmith said:

Based on the shot of the Thigh and the cab lower leg in the last picture I think there is a spot in the "Box Art" pose that was cropped correctly.  Here is my corrected pic

There's the money shot. About as good as I could have asked for. 

[danth]

I also appreciate that they somehow captured the essence of the box art pose without him looking like he's squeezing one out:

On 8/28/2025 at 7:35 PM, sh9000 said:

 

[sh9000]

Cool.  I'll buy ML Ultra Magnus.

[M'Kyuun]

9 hours ago, J.T. Silversmith said:

Based on the shot of the Thigh and the cab lower leg in the last picture I think there is a spot in the "Box Art" pose that was cropped correctly.  Here is my corrected pic

I was wondering how the legs of the inner bot were going to line up with the armor, but it appears that the inner bot's knees will bend forward in line with the armor's hips. I'm curious what sort of attachment points they're using to keep the inner legs in place. I'm thinking they either limited the thigh movement to what we're seeing here to allow the inner bot's lower legs to remain somewhat in parallel with the armor's thighs or those thighs can continue moving forward leaving the inner bot's legs just kinda dangling behind them having reached their limits. Regardless, this is a challenging bot to approach with the ML methodology, and I give Takara mad props for accomplishing what we're seeing in the pics. If I was buying this, the armor's knee joints, pins connecting two relatively thin panels, would give me a bit of concern over long term durability given the top-heavy nature of the figure.

However, again, I have to tip my hat to Takara for imbuing this with the level of articulation they've achieved here and yet keeping both bot and alt modes looking virtually identical to the OG toy. It's an impressive bit of problem solving and the execution is quite well-done.

I'm assuming the buggy dude came with the OG Diaclone toy, as I'm not familiar with its coming with OG UM.

8 hours ago, danth said:

I also appreciate that they somehow captured the essence of the box art pose without him looking like he's squeezing one out:

 

 I didn't see it 'til you said it! 🤣

Honestly, not one of the better bits of box art.

Edited September 5 by M'Kyuun

[mikeszekely]

I think I was always the wrong audience for the Transformers X G.I. Joe line.  I mean, I love Transformers, but I wasn't really into G.I. Joe as a kid, so to me they were kinda of expensive, kibbly, cheap-feeling toys with fairly simple engineering that were too big to scale with my other Generations figures.  And although I thought Soundwave turned out pretty decent, Megatron and Bumblebee were bad enough that when Kup was announced instead of a more beloved character I decided to pass.  But then Amazon had to go and put him on sale (or is it clearance?), so...

Well, my complaint about the size stands (kinda), and the head sculpt is somehow worse than the Studio Series toy.  I'm not totally sure why he's green instead of blue, either, since the majority of those green robot parts are hidden in alt mode.  Colors aside, though, the feet, thighs, arms, and head are definitely very Kup in sculpt, and he's give got his abs and belt.

What's more, while he is a bit thick and he does have big chunks of tread hanging from his significant backpack, there's not a lot of obvious plastic-saving, cost-cutting hollow spots visible on his person.  And, big backpack aside, he's seems a lot less kibbly than the previous three figures in the line.

For accessories, Kup comes with a pair of missiles, a pair of guns, and two retro G.I. Joe figures.  Sgt. Slaughter I know, he was everywhere when I was a kid.  St. Slaughter comes with a stand and a baton (but what's the whip-like bit at the tip?).  I think the other guy is Leatherneck, who comes with a stand, a rifle, and a backpack.

Kup's articulation isn't too bad, acutally.  His head's on a ball joint that allows him to swivel and provides a limited up/down/sideways tilt.  A transformation hinge at the base of the stem gives him a ton more downward tilt.  His shoulders rotate on ratchets, and can move laterally over 90 degrees.  His biceps swivel, and his elbows bend 90 degrees.  His wrists swivel, as does his waist (on a soft ratchet no less!).  His hips swivel forward 90 degrees and backward a little less than that due to his backpack getting in the way, on a ratchet, and over 90 degrees laterally.  His thighs swivel, and his knees bend 90 degrees on a ratchet.  His toes can tilt downward (due to his transformation), and his ankles can pivot 90 degrees.

Kup can hold the guns in either hand, though the round base looks a bit weird.  The missiles store on rails on the inner edge of the tread kibble on his backpack.  The guns can also store back there by plugging them into peg holes near the missile rails.

You have to remove the accessories to get them out of the way, but you can fold open Kup's backpack to reveal a computer.  The backpack only opens to 90 degrees, and the inside has a quartet of those little pegs for Joes' feet, so Sgt. Slaughter and Leatherneck can ride back there.

The instructions for transforming Kup are a bit confusing, but once you know what you're doing it's pretty simple.  Rotate the arms at the shoulders so he's pointing straight up, then fold the fists inward.  Turn the biceps so that the fists are now pointing forward.  Pull the front of his torso away, unclip his shoulders from his collar, and open the flap behind his head.  Spin the head 180, lift the backpack a bit, then shift it so that the panel his head is on rotates and you can fold his head into the gap under the panel you opened.  The backpack should line up with his torso so that the rivet sits into a notch near the tampoed star on either side.  Fold the flap back down, and cover it with the second flap that rotated out with when the head folded in.  Get the treads out of the way, and the arms should fold right through the gap and under his backpack.  The tread kibble needs to rotate on the black armatures so that the armatures can swing forward and line the white fender up with the bit that you already made from his arms.  If you did it right, tabs on the forearms will lock into the the inside of the tread.  Fold open the little bits of kibble on his shins, then bend his knees forward the wrong way about 90 degrees.  Push the lower leg so that it detaches from the knee and hinges around to the outside... the treads on his legs connect to the treads from his backpack, the bottom of his shins continue to form the fenders over the treads, but don't push everything together too tightly yet.  Double-hinge the front of the treads up from the backs of his legs and into place.  Open the two flaps next to his tummy grill, then spin his tummy 180 degrees.  Use the hinges to push the front of the torso into place as the vehicle's nose, making sure to line up the tabs on the nose with the slots on the front of the fender.  If you have everything lined up, the fenders will push in tight with those little kibble flaps filling int he gaps between the nose and the backpack.

Again, not really into G.I. Joe, so I had to look this up... but this is the Tag Team Terminator, or Triple T.  Apparently, this is Sgt. Slaughter's personal vehicle, and was originally the only way to get Sgt. Slaughter v2 in 1986 (though he had a v1 release that year and v2 would get a standalone release the following year).  Hasbro did a really good job recreating the original Triple T toy... aside from a few extra seams and an Autobot badge, the only really noticeable differences are that you can't see through the gap between the treads and the fenders, and Kup's forearms are a little visible from the rear.

Kup retains most of the functionality of the original Triple T as well... as near as I can tell, the only thing he's really missing is that you can't open the engine cover.  But the missiles plug onto tabs on the treads, and the guns plug into ports on the sides of the seat where they can swivel, like the original toy.  One Joe can sit in the seat, like the original toy, where he can hold the joystick, like the original toy.  He's still go the foot pegs on the treads, like the original toy.  In lieu of the engine, you can again open the rear to reveal the computer that was in Kup's backpack, and to give more Joes places to stand.  One more gimmick the original toy didn't have is storage for Sgt. Slaughter's baton and Leatherneck's rifle and backpack.

I said I wasn't the target audience for this line.  Maybe Joe fans who just wanted cheaper vehicles weren't into the line, either... there was an Optimus planned for the line, but from what info I had it was supposed to be out late last year, and is very likely canceled.  I think it's a shame, because I kind of get it, this line was less about being good Transformers and more about taking the original vehicles for the original 3.75" G.I. Joes and making them Transformers.  For all my gripes about the robot modes, the alt modes were always good.  And it's even more a shame, because they were apparently just starting to hit their stride.  Kup is, easily, the best of the line.  He doesn't just nail the alt mode, he's honestly a pretty dang good robot, too.  I'd say this is the first one I'd genuinely recommend as a good Transformers toy.

[M'Kyuun]

I was never into G.I. Joe anywhere near as much as Transformers, but I did watch the show, almost on a daily basis in fact, even as background noise, after school. I thought the Joe toys were incredible, but I only owned a handful of figs and the only vehicle I owned was the Dragonfly helicopter. I still have it, but my Wild Bill's rubber band dry rotted a long time ago and he rests in pieces somewhere in my collection. Anyway, I thought a crossover was a cool idea until Hasbro decided to do Megaron as the HISS Tank, a vehicle I dig, and the end result was far from spectacular. Bee was better. Kup's better executed than the others, but IMHO, the greatest hindering factor is making the vehicles become established TF characters instead of tailoring the transformations to suit bespoke characters. I've argued before that not everything related to Transformers needs to be Optimus, Megatron, Bumblebee, Starscream, etc. I get why, but I point out how abysmally bad they turn out as a result whereas creating a new character to fit the vehicle and creating a more efficient transformation schema to fit the vehicle-to-robot conversion is the optimal solution. Anyway, while I like the concept of Joe/TF crossovers, the execution thus far has been less than appealing, alas, but my wallet and too-full shelves thank me.

[J.T. Silversmith]

Well, interestingly Powered Buggy arms and legs appear to transform without Partsforming!

[J.T. Silversmith]

Also we now have some pictures of the back side of Ultra Magnus's armored form. The pictures are from TFW2005.  You can see some clips that hold his legs in place.

[J.T. Silversmith]

Various views and articulation shown.

[sh9000]

Preordered ML Ultra Magnus at Hobby Genki.  It's a little cheaper there.  I'll also order the Dramatic Capture Series set with the Insecticons at Hobby Genki later.

[M'Kyuun]

Interesting, if simple, solution. As I surmised, the knees act as the armored form's hip joints. I wonder if the previous poses represent the limit of hip articulation forward or if the legs can kick higher. I don't have my reissue of G1 OP handy to see how much forward bend his knees have, but then the ML core's feet and calves have been modified so it's entirely possible the knees have as well to affect greater pose ability.

The armatures holding the core's thighs in place are concerning for the potential to scratch or rub off the chrome.

[pengbuzz]

4 hours ago, M'Kyuun said:

Interesting, if simple, solution. As I surmised, the knees act as the armored form's hip joints. I wonder if the previous poses represent the limit of hip articulation forward or if the legs can kick higher. I don't have my reissue of G1 OP handy to see how much forward bend his knees have, but then the ML core's feet and calves have been modified so it's entirely possible the knees have as well to affect greater pose ability.

The armatures holding the core's thighs in place are concerning for the potential to scratch or rub off the chrome.

One solution would be an adhesive rubber pad on the top armatures.

[Chronocidal]

17 hours ago, mikeszekely said:

For accessories, Kup comes with a pair of missiles, a pair of guns, and two retro G.I. Joe figures.  Sgt. Slaughter I know, he was everywhere when I was a kid.  St. Slaughter comes with a stand and a baton (but what's the whip-like bit at the tip?).  I think the other guy is Leatherneck, who comes with a stand, a rifle, and a backpack.

 

Kup retains most of the functionality of the original Triple T as well... as near as I can tell, the only thing he's really missing is that you can't open the engine cover.  But the missiles plug onto tabs on the treads, and the guns plug into ports on the sides of the seat where they can swivel, like the original toy.  One Joe can sit in the seat, like the original toy, where he can hold the joystick, like the original toy.  He's still go the foot pegs on the treads, like the original toy.  In lieu of the engine, you can again open the rear to reveal the computer that was in Kup's backpack, and to give more Joes places to stand.  One more gimmick the original toy didn't have is storage for Sgt. Slaughter's baton and Leatherneck's rifle and backpack.

I gotta say, the missiles crack me up, because they might be the original mold used on the vehicle in the 80s.  Now, I never owned the Triple T, but I picked up a set of extra missiles Hasbro sold for their vehicles (mostly for spares to equip my Hurricane), and it came with two of those tiny ones.

Hasbro really loved those barbell-shaped weapon mounts, they also got used in the early 90s for their "Flying Fighters" jets, so I was thrilled when I could load up my Joe jets with all the extras those came with.

[Hikuro]

Well, for the price of this Missing Link Ultra Magnus, I may as well just buy the original G1 toy even if it's a reissue and save myself a hundred or so dollars. 

[pengbuzz]

11 hours ago, M'Kyuun said:

Interesting, if simple, solution. As I surmised, the knees act as the armored form's hip joints. I wonder if the previous poses represent the limit of hip articulation forward or if the legs can kick higher. I don't have my reissue of G1 OP handy to see how much forward bend his knees have, but then the ML core's feet and calves have been modified so it's entirely possible the knees have as well to affect greater pose ability.

The armatures holding the core's thighs in place are concerning for the potential to scratch or rub off the chrome.

They don't; I have him and as near as I can tell, they don't have any. Watching the promo video for it, it looks like they may have modified the cab's  lower legs at the knee joint so it can travel forward (0:58):

The front of the knee (where the "sticker" would be) looks like a plate, and it may actually hinge outward/down to allow the thigh to bend forward.

Edited September 6 by pengbuzz

[M'Kyuun]

21 hours ago, pengbuzz said:

They don't; I have him and as near as I can tell, they don't have any. Watching the promo video for it, it looks like they may have modified the cab's  lower legs at the knee joint so it can travel forward (0:58):

The front of the knee (where the "sticker" would be) looks like a plate, and it may actually hinge outward/down to allow the thigh to bend forward.

Are the thighs on G1 OP and UM's core made of die cast?  It's been a very long time since I handled that figure and I don't recall. However, that would account for my mistaking them for being chromed, as they're pretty shiny in the pics. I was thinking, too, that there may be a moveable panel to allow for more forward knee travel, but I couldn't make it out if there is. There could also just be more clearance in the leg mold to allow for the thighs to swivel forward a bit.  Regardless, I'm thinking the pics show the extent, or very close to the full extent of thigh forward motion.  If it could kick up higher, I'm thinking they would've shown it for the 'ooh, ahh' factor.

[Hikuro]

Woohoo! Surprise FedEx drop. Little bummed they broke away from the autobot city back drop with this character, cause he in particular should have that setup. 
Same time such a waste of packaging, like a bag of chips, they could put him in a box literally half the size and look better.

sadly I’m out and about so I can’t say much about him cause he’s still in the box at this time. 

 

Now that I'm home and had time to mess around with him, I can certainly say, none of us are gonna be putting him in his alternate form. He's got great articulation, looks pretty close to his actual G1 representation giving very little hint he turns into a tank. Yes there are things that could been improved upon or done differently, but seeing how for the majority of us, he's gonna be in robot mode, it doesn't really matter. 

Edited September 7 by Hikuro

[pengbuzz]

6 hours ago, M'Kyuun said:

Are the thighs on G1 OP and UM's core made of die cast?  It's been a very long time since I handled that figure and I don't recall. However, that would account for my mistaking them for being chromed, as they're pretty shiny in the pics. I was thinking, too, that there may be a moveable panel to allow for more forward knee travel, but I couldn't make it out if there is. There could also just be more clearance in the leg mold to allow for the thighs to swivel forward a bit.  Regardless, I'm thinking the pics show the extent, or very close to the full extent of thigh forward motion.  If it could kick up higher, I'm thinking they would've shown it for the 'ooh, ahh' factor.

The top of the thigh is diecast (rotational joint at the top), while the remainder is plastic; that said, the rest of the thigh is two pieces that screw together, so it's not the one-piece of the original G1. 

Here's a pic:

And then while putting it back, I found out that I was completely wrong about the overtravel and flexing forward:

At first I thought "$#1T, I broke it!!", until I realized it wasn't flopping or wobbling around. With this in mind, there's also the front of the knee, which is indeed a plastic plate that's stationary (inset for engraved "decal) that could well be modified to hinge forward and allow more forward motion on the knee if they chose. It wouldn't be unreasonable, given that they also modified the back of the calf/ lower leg on ML:UM.

I would like to see someone do a third party back cover for the figure though, to cover over at least the cab. We'll have to see.

[davidwhangchoi]

On 9/5/2025 at 10:35 PM, pengbuzz said:

They don't; I have him and as near as I can tell, they don't have any. Watching the promo video for it, it looks like they may have modified the cab's  lower legs at the knee joint so it can travel forward (0:58):

The front of the knee (where the "sticker" would be) looks like a plate, and it may actually hinge outward/down to allow the thigh to bend forward.

i don't remember deer stalker... is that the ultra magnus version of prime's roller?

 

i wonder if this is 200 dollars with tariffs