Grahf: I've already said how much I love Fort Max colors on Scorponok.

However, even at 20% off, I don't think I'm going to pick this up.

I don't understand the obsession with cubeformers. I admire the engineering of these titans after Trypticon to do all the things they need to and have all their minions and still turn into cubes, but I'd rather just not have any bit of my money go into them turning into cubes from the start. I just want small titans to play with. Gi One's undersized Titans Return Trypticon was perfect with how small they made it. It's so much fun to play with. And so is Dr. Wu's Trypticon as I have three versions of that. I'm sure the rest of these titans would be just as fun, but there's a reason why I'm not getting more.

That being the price.

I already went into it a little in that I don't want to "waste" money on engineering in a mode that's completely useless with the cube mode. The battle stations/cities/rocket bases are one thing as those are what they normally do. It's just having TWO modes that are just stationary "nothings" bothers me. Why even put the cube mode in? It's just increasing the costs of these needlessly to me. It's why I don't get many 52 Toys figures past the first few DiO redecos they did (that I got matching Trypticons from Dr. Wu to go with so that was cool).

With the cube mode engineering raising the prices, I've stayed away from getting more than the three Trypticons. That and well, I'm upset that Trypticon isn't as good since Brunt and Wipeout don't exist and Full-Tilt is barely there whereas all the minions are fully there for Metroplex, Scorponok and Omega Supreme. So even at 20% off, the price seems too high for me to justify getting these as they're just little novelty figures that don't add anything to my collection. In that they don't further what I actually collect. I have plenty of fun little figures that cost far less and further my collection.

I might regret it later, but I am going to pass for now. Maybe if it goes on a steeper sale I'll pick it up. This isn't a slight at Dr. Wu or Show Z in any way, it's just based on my collecting habits and where I feel I should put what income I have set aside to support my plastic crack addiction.

Again though, Scorponok looks so good in Fort Max colors. I wish Gi One did more Hasbro titans than Trypticon at commander sizes so I could have the smaller more fun sized titan at a more cost effective price as well as mostly fit in my collection as Marvel G1 sized figures. Yes, even Trypticon was small in Marvel G1. That undersized KO Trypticon is pretty much paired perfectly to the SS86 Dinobots when you look at a few issues of Marvel G1.

Grahf: I never really understood the love for the SD style. It's cute I guess, but that's it for me. The aesthetic does nothing for me visually and I especially don't want toys done in that style.

But who knew a SD style Concord jet would end up looking like a space shuttle lol. I mean, tell me Silverbolt in jet mode doesn't remind of you Blast Off despite the wings being on top instead of being on bottom. Well, I guess it would be Movor and not Blast Off huh? Oh well. Wait, G2 Blast Off was white lol.

Otherwise, it's cool I guess. It's the Aerialbots. They do the Aerialbot things. You know, being jets that turn into robots that then combine into a bigger robot. The combiner kibble forms an even more SD version of the already SD Superion so there's that I guess.

I know there's a market for the SD style, but it's not me and I don't understand it. The rest of you have fun and enjoy though.

Grahf: Hmmm...

So it's now labeled as "coming soon". Okay cool. I do still need this one. It's just, I've had Thundercracker and Skywarp on preorder since they first went live. And that was LONG before this listing was put back up for preorder.

Oh well, at least this company seems to remember what's actually making them money at this point. That being the figures...er uh, figure (I mean, it's just a retool of the one figure) that they actually released. It's going to do so much more than showing off a bunch of upgrade kits that don't ever get made instead. Those don't make you money. Releasing reissues and redecos DOES make you money. So do more of that and less of the showing things off that never get made.

Now if only we can get Hasbro to make Universe Ramjet. They too have the base mold just sitting there. And there's constant store exclusives that need to be made. And it's not like Thundercracker, Skywarp and Ramjet aren't well known names that would satisfy the people in charge of ordering at Walmart and Target that only vaguely remember the names from G1.

Unless they plan on doing another Seeker three pack like they did in Siege for the Rainmakers. A three pack of Skywarp, Thundercracker and Universe Ramjet would be great. Then maybe do Dirge, Thrust and G1 Ramjet from the Legacy Cybertron Seeker mold. Or Skywarp, Sunstorm and Universe Ramjet. Or SG Starscream, SG Thundercracker and SG Skywarp...yes, they've all used that design in SG media at some point...didn't I say this recently? Oh well.




TLDR: It's great to see this company actually doing something again, even if it's a reissue that should've come out AFTER the two preorders that have been up forever. I hope this means though that they'll get the rest of their stuff out soon instead of showing off upgrade kits that don't get made. I also wish Hasbro would use the Legacy Armada and Cybertron Seeker molds more.

Grahf: To be fair, it also has a rather large scuff on the abs of the figure. It's very noticeable compared to some other figures I've seen complaining about paint imperfections. But yes, loose joints can easily be "fixed" and looseness in general is subjective.

Grahf: Yes, while loose joints are indeed subjective and can easily be fixed, I do actually think that the paint blemish is somewhat substantial on this.

I was fully ready to make fun of this listing after reading what the problems were until the picture showing the problem fully loaded.

It's not a large imperfection yes, but it is still very noticeable literally front and center on the figure. I don't think I would've been able to put up with that either at this price.

I've seen several listings here and complaints on other forums showing paint "imperfections" that were barely noticeable or in a place that you couldn't see in either mode unless you were trying to look for it and wouldn't be seen in a display.

This isn't one of them though. Again, that's front and center for all to see right there on the abs. There's no fixing that other than putting another figure in front of it, but who's putting another figure in front of this? This is meant to be the star of a display and not shoved behind some lesser figure or character.

So while it may be a small ugly spot on the figure, I do think it's large enough and in a prominent enough spot to complain.




As for the loose joints:





Dude, learn how to tighten them yourself. Looseness is completely subjective to begin with so it's a rather difficult point to prove. Which is why you should know full well how to "fix" it at this point if you're ordering $200 voyager sized figures. I mean, there's a 98% chance that the joints on this are exactly the same as every other version of this figure and even one if not both of the KOs from the different companies.

Water based polyurethane. That's what I use. It's the active ingredient in floor polish and literally is just what Kiki's Fix Loose Joints is. Just get yourself a can from Walmart, Home Depot or Amazon or something and put some in a small needle tip applicator bottle from a craft store or aisle and tighten the joints.

OR

Invest in a screwdriver as that's all that's needed sometimes too.

Grahf: I swear that this company has no idea what they're doing.

How have they still not done any redecos of this yet?

Every other company except Hasbro, Takara and BaiWei pump out 4 or more decos of Optimus as soon as they make a mold. I understand why Hasbro and Takara hold back, but I don't understand why BaiWei does.

This site is flooded with Optimus Primes, Nemesis Primes, SG Optimus Primes, all white Ultra Magnus', Magna Convoys, Sentinel Primes and whatever other decos of Optimus exist. Yet BW here has yet to make a single other redeco of this.

The Motor Master, Nemesis Prime, Elite Guard Optimus, Star Convoy, Toxitron, all white Ultra Magnus, G2 The Motor Master, Nucleon Quest Optimus Prime, "hate plague" Optimus, "golden lagoon" Optimus, Nightwatch Optimus. All of these and like one or two more have official decos based on this design in one way or another. And of course my obligatory call outs to Fire Guts Ginrai and Magna Convoy too. So get moving.

A company is in a position to stick it to DNA and their overpriced kits and they just won't do it.

Why?

I'd buy one of each if they did them. Well, maybe not the "hate plague", "golden lagoon" or any other translucent figure they can make which I left out when listing things. The two I did call out would depend on how they looked and if they were self destructive or not. I mean that the all red one wasn't translucent plastic and the all gold one wasn't the type to get all scratched up easily or was made out of the brittle type of gold.

I really just don't understand this company and it's allergy to actually making money. Wrong mold choices, wrong deco choices, randomly chosen oversized figures, randomly chosen "improvements", wildly conflicting qualities, randomly doing KOs of DNA parts or not and the random nearly original figure from out of nowhere.

Just such a weird company.

I'd make such cool shit if I was in charge of these KO companies. Believe it or not though, I do know how to reign myself in so it wouldn't be ALL random nonsense that's in the opposite direction to what's already being made lol. I mean, it doesn't take a genius to figure out what we'd want or not want and then cater to that.

Grahf: Optimus H Prist I can't believe it's taken me two and a half years before I actually tried to get these DNA hands to hold a weapon.

I didn't think anything of it. I mean, they molded the titan weapon handle slots in the palms of the hands right? I just needed to finally take a weapon and put it in there.

Let's see, I have the DNA gun, leg guns and SDCC Master Sword for Fort Max. I have the Modfans gun for Fort Max, I have the DNA gun for Scorponok, I have the guns on Metroplex, I have the Before and After Sixgun for Metroplex. I even have an extra Modfans Bless coming in when it was on 40% off here to get another gun and radar dish for $13.

So I take that gun from Modfans that I already have and...

it doesn't fit.

I go back to the box of titan weapons and grab the Scorponok gun as I see that the Modfans handle has a weirdly shaped peg system on it that maybe doesn't work with the DNA hands. And well, the Scorponok gun is orange and grey just like Autonomous Maximus.

I go to plug that into the hands and...

that doesn't fit either.

I stop trying at this point. If two weapons didn't work I figure that no weapons were going to work.

Just what the hell? Why on Cybertron can't this Primus damn company ever do anything right for the simplest, stupidest things sometimes?

I mean, how the hell do you make a pair of hands for a titan with ports in them for weapons and then make them incompatible with the other titan weapons that you've already made? Then on top of that, not make any weapons that actually are compatible.

Come to think of it, I've never actually seen any pictures of Autonomous Maximus holding a weapon before. Just looking now I seen one of the stock hands somewhat holding the Weijiang Predaking sword, but that's all I've seen. So few people seem to have even got this set that I don't think anyone's ever noticed this before.

I'm bummed out now. I have 17 (+Logos Prime, Sentinel Prime, Nova Prime and Autonomous Maximus) of the 13 Primes here right now and I was arming them up, but I can't do that to Autonomous Maximus now. I'll have to find something else for him. Hopefully the DNA hands will be tight enough to use the giant Sword they recently made. I can always tighten the fingers up some though in case they're not strong enough. It's just wild that there aren't any weapons to fit the ports in the hands.

Literally the only things from this kit I wanted and the only pieces that I actually got don't do something so very basic. DNA will DNA even when you don't realize they're doing it.

Grahf: Interesting. That is a very clean figure. And it looks exactly like it needs to. Both modes look exactly as I'd expect Strafe to look.

Other than the color of their Nosecone, I'm really liking the look of these so far.

I have the Craftsman Toys Computron, but I didn't like most of the figures individually. They just did some weird things with their transformations and they have parts that flip and flop around without actually doing anything.

So yeah, these look as though they're designed to have everything doing something meaningful. I mean, if you're going to mold the pieces to do thing, they might as well do it meaningfully right? Otherwise you're just wasting budget engineering things needlessly.

But I mean, this is Magic Square though. They seem to be the top of the so called legends class market. They've been at it for a while and despite some hiccups when they started, they seem to have figured it all out.

The prices aren't bad either so far. I don't pay much attention to this scale usually so I'm always pleasantly surprised by how low the prices are sometimes. I sometimes just group together all the companies at this scale and just remember seeing $100 on figures this size at times. Looks like it was never Magic Square. Or rather, at least not here on Show Z where they're cheaper than other places for third party figures.

I'll be keeping an eye out on this set now. I might not pick it up right away, but it's now on my radar. I'm just hoping that they fix the colors of Nosecone. It's just weird sometimes when people know what colors the characters SHOULD be, but they find this one random piece of media or a degraded still from a 40 year old cartoon where it's either not colored properly, in weird lighting or the image had its colors changed over time. So when people search for images, the incorrectly colored ones come up and that's what they use for reference. I mean, I haven't seen an single instance of Afterburner being red and not orange yet Takara seems to think he's red. Every still I've seen he's orange. Some have a red hue, but are clearly still orange.

Which is another reason why I'm still going to hold off. With their Nosecone being the wrong color, I worry about their Afterburner now too. So it's a wait and see still for me.

Grahf: "...
...
...
...
...
...wait, Overgear Ironhide and Blackout weren't already up for preorder here for months now? That's weird. Oh well.

This Blackout though. Damn. It's a beautiful figure. I really like this one.

I like the aesthetics of the robot mode. It's Transformers in nature, but also looks like something from out of another converting robot line. Similar to Touch Toys or the original figures Wei Jiang have been making under the name of Round Culture. But there you go. If you want to flesh out the line a bit until Takara does, there's some other figures to consider picking up to pair with this line.

The parts layout in robot mode is something I like about this too. While there's nothing amazing or new going on here, it's again something that you see more in non-Takara products more than you do. Well...other than RotF Tomahawk/Springer/Vortex/Spinister that is. Or rather, you can move the wings up to simulate this look with that figure. Touch Toys Careleray for instance could stand in for Starscream. Hellbird could stand in for Bulkh...I mean Hound. BulkHound lol. If they ever release Trunxpotter that could stand in for Stratosphere.

This to me though is the one that makes me look forward to the rest of the line. Sure Ironhide looks good, but he's not very different and Optimus is...fine I guess. It's just Blackout here is the definitive proof of concept of what this line can be out of the three we've seen so far.

Although, it could be due to it being Blackout as we've only ever had the one version of that design with six total toys made of it in six different size classes in all these years. Well, technically there's one more when you factor in Animated Blackout as he uses the same general design. Whereas we've seen how many Bayverse Ironhide toys in different sizes and especially Bayverse Optimus Prime toys and OP toys in general. So they have to work harder at trying to look different whereas Blackout doesn't have to do much to stand out.

I just know that I really like this figure and will be picking it up at some point. And I might now have a reason to track down those Touch Toys figures too..."

Originally posted 5/21/26.

Grahf: "I never really understood the love for the SD style. It's cute I guess, but that's it for me. The aesthetic does nothing for me visually and I especially don't want toys done in that style.

But who knew a SD style Concord jet would end up looking like a space shuttle lol. I mean, tell me Silverbolt in jet mode doesn't remind of you Blast Off despite the wings being on top instead of being on bottom. Well, I guess it would be Movor and not Blast Off huh? Oh well. Wait, G2 Blast Off was white lol.

Otherwise, it's cool I guess. It's the Aerialbots. They do the Aerialbot things. You know, being jets that turn into robots that then combine into a bigger robot. The combiner kibble forms an even more SD version of the already SD Superion so there's that I guess.

I know there's a market for the SD style, but it's not me and I don't understand it. The rest of you have fun and enjoy though."

Originally posted 5/21/26.