Grahf: Cool...

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I mean it is...

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I do like it...

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It's just that...

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Can they maybe get some of those 20 preorders they have up right now out before adding more?

Decibel was put up for preorder back in January and is supposed to come out some time from October to December. Yet there hasn't been an update.

It's great that these companies like to get people hyped up for new releases and all, it's just that they're so backed up that it ends up having the opposite effect. When they're put on seemingly endless preorders without updates but new preorders keep getting added, it starts to kill the hype.

Get Decibel done for Blaster.

Get Metroplex done for Trypticon. "Second quarter 2024" and it still hasn't been updated.

Get Omega Supreme done. "Third quarter of 2023". 2023!!! A whole fucking year ago it was supposed to come out and it doesn't have a single update. It's just the CAD of the cube mode for fucks sake.

Get Arcee done. They Rise of the Beasts hype has been done for a long time now. This things going to finally come out and nobody is going to really care. "Second quarter 2025" it says. Yeah, all hype will have completely died by then.

This is so obnoxious when these companies do this.

Grahf: Oh okay so this is just listed and has a full price preorder and should be out soonish. I thought I missed something lol.

Okay. I love Hasbro's titans. However, There just really isn't anything to do with them though as they're just too big. Cybertron Metroplex is mostly fine though as he's actually in scale but he is still huge. A little too big still to mess with for long.

This is a roughly foot tall undersized KO of TR Trypticon. I'm in love with that. This isn't so called legends scale as TR Trypticon is too small for that and that's almost double this thing's size. This is just a smol Trypticon that can actually be played with. Perfect! I'm sold. You got me.

However;

Where's Full Tilt? I'm not even seeing the parts on the chest that Full Tilt connects to that also double as a vehicle launcher down the ramp for base mode.

I'm not seeing a bunch of 5mm pegs and ports anywhere so Siege Brunt won't exactly work with this either.

Those are some glaring omissions to me.

If you're this far into the design before the preorder goes up, there should've been something shown for a potential future Full Tilt and Brunt. Maybe even Wipe-Out too. I get that a third party and/or KO company might not care about compatibility with existing official products but I do. Especially when you're not showing off an equivalent of your own in any way. The three/four of them should be a set. They should all get done and be designed together even if Hasbro themselves don't always do it.

At the very least there should've been a few 5mm pegs and ports. I would love to weaponize him with the Brunts and Centurion Drones I have. Connect the base mode to the Modulators I have. Just something. It wouldn't take much to add them in too seeing as to how they had to take out the TR base connectors anyway. Just switch them over to the WFC design instead.

Oh well I guess. Not like there's anything to be done about all this now. I'll just have to take it for what it is but it does bum me out a bit.

I wouldn't mind seeing more titans done like this. Again the actual figures are great but they're just too big. Regardless of their articulation, they just stand there stoically. These will actually see some play. Just make sure to add in any upgrades they all have like the hands as I fucking hate the hands on the ark and they're the only upgrade I did for that one. The others have interesting upgrades too or rather, just some parts of the upgrades anyway.

And Gigastorm retool when?

At least then it would make sense not to have Full-Tilt or Brunt. I guess Gigascouter exists in toy form but he wasn't in the show so he technically doesn't count.

It's not like it will be difficult either as it's pretty much the same color plastics with only slight deco changes and the horn on the head. LIke, you could've just had that horn in the box as a swappable piece lol and had the spots and a few random gold spots as decals or something. Have gold arms as swappable pieces too.

Not that it really matters either but I wonder if the tail still opens up so we can do the crawling dragon thing fourth mode. What would be the actual beast mode since the standard dino mode is actually his robot mode. So he'll have his robot mode, base mode, flying vehicle thing mode and beast/monster thing mode.

Grahf: While I'm not into the Missing Link line as a concept, I didn't factor in previously unmade prototypes like Arcee and well, Ultra Magnus.

But now that we're 100% certain that we're getting Missing Link Ultra Magnus, things have changed.

I need this.

No no no, you don't understand.

I NEED this.

For a time I went everywhere with my G1 Ultra Magnus when I was a kid. Slowly but surely he shed parts and pieces all over the North Eastern United States. By the end of my time lugging him around I only had one shoulder cannon, the chest plate, the helmet and the bodies. All four fists were gone. All the other guns were gone. Both rockets were gone. The pelvis/trailer hitch was gone. But he came everywhere with me until he was retired.

There's even this one photo with my siblings and all the cousins (at the time) on my father's side at my titi's house in Connecticut in the 80's with a little me holding Ultra Magnus.

About ten years later we redid the photo but I didn't have an Ultra Magnus to hold. It was long after I no longer had any piece of my original except for a single shoulder cannon but before RiD 2001's Ultra Magnus came out.

Every time I see a new Ultra Magnus come out I think of that picture. While we're long past doing another updated photo, at least now i can have an updated version of the Ultra Magnus from that photo instead.

40 years really is quite a bit of time for humans isn't it?

Damn...

Grahf: There it is. Been waiting for this to be listed here.

This is a modified knockoff of the recent Legacy Animated Optimus Prime along with a slightly modified KO of the DNA upgrade kit.

This set is supposedly going to be about $36 USD.

That's for a $35 (now $42) Hasbro Voyager and a $65!?! DNA upgrade kit. Just to put it all into perspective price wise.

Okay so the changes to Optimus start with a brand new head for the mold. The head itself seems to be a KO of the old voyager Animated Optimus Prime's head complete with flip up facemask gimmick and no upward articulation for flight poses. This is not the stock head that would normally come with the Legacy voyager Animated Optimus Prime. As such, the original DNA facemask parts will not work on this which is why they're not included.

They also modified the abdomen on the figure. It now has a built in extender. This will make the figure slightly taller than normal. However, I think it also changes the truck mode as a result. It should push the legs back by the same length as the ab extension is. This will also mean that the trailer won't/shouldn't sit flush with the back of the cab anymore. It's very difficult to tell for sure with all the pictures I've seen of this so far though.

They removed the front wheels that would go in the grey parts on the front of the truck. These would've tucked away into the torso for robot mode.

To compensate for the removed front wheels, the middle wheels are now on a hinged system to move them forward on the truck and to help cover a slight gap that was there originally but was made slightly bigger by the extended abs.

There seem to be gap fillers installed or built into Optimus but not ALL of them. The insides of the thighs are filled as are the backs of the lower legs under the knees. But it seems as though the  back of the arms above the elbows have not been filled it. Guess they thought that you couldn't see them with the wings attached or something but you can still see them otherwise so I don't know why they seemingly left those out.

The trailer seems to be a tad wider than normal when looking at the pictures. It could just be wider or it could be that the figure itself is more narrow in truck mode but I doubt that.

They changed the connection points for the wings. The back of Optimus has what appear to be 5mm pegs on them with the wing pack having 5mm ports to attach. The wing pack no longer has the two little flip out latches anymore either. So the wings should attach solely by a series of four pegs and ports. Which means it should stay on way better now than the DNA wings on the Hasbro figure.

Also, there's less paint on the KO DNA parts as well as on the axe.

That's about all the differences I know about.



I already have the original figure with gap fillers, thigh extenders, the DNA kit, extra water cannons and extra Maketoys Battle Tankor style guns and plan on getting the new ab extender. However I will probably still pick this up. It's a really good price and I did want another Optimus at some point.

It's claimed that BW said they already have some sort of plans for this going forward. But it's not clear what that means. Redecos most likely but redecoed into what exactly is unknown.

Hopefully they'll do Menasor. DNA really made an ass out of us with that kit. They said it wasn't going to happen then after their standard The Motor Master kit sold out, they released what they said they weren't going to do as if they were doing us all a favor. So DNA can shove it.

But I also hope they do Nemesis as well. Yeah it sucks that we all just got him but I really don't want DNA to get any more of my money for that kit. $65 is way too much for it and I only got them due to the points discounts here.

After those, I hope they do Elite Guard Optimus, Nightwatch Optimus (based on a toy and kinda looks like Magna Convoy), Ultra Magnus (yes there was artwork for it even though he's also his own design that has nothing to do with Optimus), G2 The Motor Master (yes there's artwork for that too), Star Convoy (a few toys were based on it and more would've come out had Animated went into season 4) and ANIMATED SG Optimus (different colors than G1 SG Optimus). And I really hope they do my personal favorite, Fire Guts Ginrai.

Oh yeah, I also hope that when DNA shows off their Godbomber style expansion to this kit that BW KOs that too. That would be extremely badass if BW does end up doing a Fire Guts Ginrai. We just need more Fire Guts Ginrai in our lives.

But really, DNA can suck it and Baiwei can get all the money.

Grahf: I'm sorry did I read the price correctly on other sites?

$150 for what is basically a Missing Link Machine Robo/GoBot?

I thought the prices on ML Bumblebee and Cliffjumper were crazy.

Damn man, bring back Action Toys to do more Machine Robo figures. I'll never scoff at those prices again after seeing the price on this. $100 for Bike Robo DX is great compared to this.

And what happened to the Megahouse "model kits"? I was enjoying them.

Hasbro already has some kind of relationship with Bandai now due to Power Rangers. So Hasbro should work something out with them to be able to do GoBots without pussyfooting around the likenesses like they've been doing. Make a joint toy line of Machine Robo and GoBots between Hasbro and Bandai. Make them prices that sane people are willing to pay and make them the size of current Transformers. They'd sell like hotcakes worldwide. An official Leader 1 and Cy-Kill the sizes of Optimus and Megatron would sell gangbusters.

Grahf: With the prices for these they might as well change the name from GoBots to NoBots.

$140 USD for this. It's 3.35 inches tall. That's the same size as the original Cop-Tur. That's an original Turbo he's standing on and original Scooter and Screw Head he's standing next to on the listing with the bonus blade.

I thought Missing Link figures were expensive but this is crazy.

Grahf: Wait, someone actually paid that price for one of these? Are you crazy? Don't encourage that company by telling that that this price is anything close to okay. That is NOT an okay price for this. $60 max. More than Missing Link Bumblebee and Cliffjumper but less than Missing Link Sunstreaker/Cordon/Spinout. And that would be max for the better version of Cop-Tur with the extra parts.

These prices are bad for the entire market. Purchasing these tells not only this company but others that they can raise prices for mediocre figures that don't deserve the asking price. People out there complaining endlessly about the increases in prices of standard Hasbro figures but there's some who are not only willing to pay this but actually did. This hobby can't take things like this and it's price. The market will eventually collapse as a result.

And was the company listed with this one just a mistake or a Freudian slip? FansToys and the people who purchase them are a main part of the problem as it is and if this is actually a side project of theirs, the price starts to make more sense. But even still, $135 for such small figures that already had the majority of their design work put into them over 40 years ago is crazy even for them.

Grahf: Yet if there's any pair of characters I think about more as the most iconic duo than G1 Scourge and G1 Warpath, it would have to be G1 Alpha Trion and E-Hobby Treads. That is by far the most noteworthy and memorable duo in all of Transformers and GoBots fiction ever created.

Just seeing the two of them together like this is bringing back all the memories of when together they together were together doing together things together. It was the Marvel run issue number 9001 when they did the thing. You remember that right? The thing that these two did. It sure was.

Grahf: Interesting.

However given the $5 preorder and no double preorder deal on this, I imagine this being yet another overpriced third party combiner reissue from about a decade ago like the TFC King Poseidon that was reissued a few months ago.

And how exactly is that going?

Oh that's right, it's still not selling even with $80 off.

These aren't what people consider $500 to $600 combiners are anymore. The game's changed. I hope they keep up with the times when it comes to pricing this reissue otherwise expect it to sit around not selling.

Grahf: I seen one pic the other day and I was excited but thought something was off about the front end as that's all the pic was. Then I seen these pictures and I realize what that was.

Now I'm not nearly as excited.

They buried Armada Starscream under Energon Starscream...or worse, Movie Starscream

This isn't Armada Starscream anymore. Even with the smaller wings, the cannons on top and the little wings deployed up front, this isn't Armada Starscream. They changed too much to get the F-22 Raptor in there. Now it just looks like Energon Starscream.  Do one or the other, not some weird cobbled together version of both.

None of their other Armada or Energon figures so far have been a mix of the two designs. So why for this one? If you're making Armada Starscream, just make Armada Starscream. It's not like there aren't options for reuses of the mold and they needed to do something to make the mold worth casting. Not that it matters to this company who decided that G1 SG Optimus Colors were good on ARMADA OP even though there's four other decos they could've done instead that actually exist.

This isn't even tooling that Jhiaxus would need either. That I could've seen happening. Having the wings be able to switch between the Starscream look and the Jhiaxus look. Having guns under the wings instead of the swords. Ramjet and Skywarp definitely wouldn't need this tooling either let alone Thundercracker who's an exact copy of Starscream.

If they wanted a more complete looking jet mode for Armada Starscream then a mix between Armada and Animated Starscreams would work better. Animated Starscream is seemingly mostly based on Armada Starscream to begin with. So blending those two designs would work better than whatever they're trying to accomplish here.

If you had to mix Energon Starscream into something then it should've been G2 Starscream. No, not THAT G2 Starscream. The new mold that had a limited release alongside G2 Megatron (no not THAT G2 Megatron) and was later redecoed and fully released as G2 Smokescreen and Dreadwing. The two jets that combined in jet mode and that the larger ATB could also turn into a tank.

As this is, I just don't see enough of Armada Starscream in the design to get excited about it anymore. Which is a shame as I REALLY wanted a big so called MP version of Armada Starscream to go with the so called legends class version, the deluxe and the voyager as well as the original. One that could stand next to Maketoys Galaxy Meteor Cybertron Starscream.

Guess I'll still be waiting.