Grahf: Again though, the figure itself is fine. As of owning it for a single day before typing this: I can say that in the time I have had this figure, I don't foresee any future problems with this figure. So if you were waiting on a review, that's my take on this figure. For right now, it's good to go.

Grahf: Now Labrat's on sale too after Double Punch? Damn. I do love some BW redecos. However things are tight at the moment. I managed to swing Lazorbeak though.

Maybe if I stopped being lazy and listed those extra Liokaisers I have I'd have a little extra to spend on these lol. I'm going to sell my stand too. I'm never going to use it and Hasbro never made a fourth stand for Deathcobra. So I imagine people will be looking for a fourth stand for him.

Speaking of stands...

Another thing keeping me from jumping on this is the fact that they figure can't stand without the included stand.

They have the heels flip down from the back of the calves without locking into place. So the giant backpack on this will just cause those looooooong heels to just flip right back up causing the figure to fall backwards. This wouldn't have happened had they made it so that the heels flip out from the bottom of the feet instead or at least locked into place to provide some sort of resistance. As is, the heels are flimsier than wet toilet paper. Such a shame.

I didn't mean to do a double dip of comments on Rattraps today, but here we are lol. And guess what? That other Rattrap cant' stand well either. That being the KO MP Rattrap. Takara didn't give the mold heels and neither did the KO company. So with 95% of the rat on the back like this figure, it causes the figure to be extremely back heavy. This comes with a stand while the MP has a tail to tripod on. You can just barely get it to stand sometimes, but a gust of wind, a sneeze, a heavy footstep, a knock on whatever it's standing on, a powerful fart or whatever else will knock the figure over unless you're using the tail as the tripod. Such a shame.

Not everything NEEDS to be 100% accurate if it means limiting what the figure can do. Like the basic function of standing in a stock straight pose. A few liberties can be taken in the designs. Both Takara and TransArt has done it with their other BW figures. So why didn't they do it with their Rattraps. I just hope that when Takara does Silverbolt that they don't leave the stupid dangling wolf paws hanging off the robot arms. It doesn't look good and it hinders the figures. It's just so damn stupid leaving them there where there are so many ways to mitigate them. Hell, have them suck into the arms while still leaving the feet dangling off the bottom of the arms like say, Haslab Deathsaurus. That way you can keep the original look of feet hanging off the bottom of the arms, but not have a shit figure with needless kibble in stupid spots.

I do like Labrat there though. Those colors aren't ones you see often on a Transformers brand figure. It makes for a very interesting looking figure on a display as a result. I will get this someday, just not today.

Grahf: This isn't exactly the figure APC should be reissuing, but it's nice to see that they're still doing stuff other than Dreadwing/Skyquake and the completely inaccurate SG Optimus. It's just nice to know that the company is still going to move forward after a rather long break.

There's still many molds that need to be done, many decos that can still be done from the molds they have and even retools to some of the molds they've done.

As always though, these companies need a little more direction into what they should and shouldn't be doing. They're all over the place sometimes which is what caused the break. Due to not have an actual plan when making the figures they're making, they ended up making quite a few figures that very few people actually wanted or rather, weren't in a rush to get as APC didn't change anything from the originals. So sales slowed down and stores had to clearance out several of their offerings as a result.

Several versions of the same character with only slightly different decos, incorrect decos, figures that are the exact same as the official and aren't troopbuilders and decos that didn't actually exist. I mean, after a while people are going to stop buying. And we did.

Thankfully they're moving on. A new mold that they improved upon (to various degrees of success) and the main redeco released rather quickly, a continued push of an older preorder with a new deco (that's still inaccurate to the actual SG Prime Optimus but worse) and a reissue is better than nothing though.

I would just very much like to help guide these companies sometimes. This way they'll have a better idea of what mold they should do or what redecos to make from the molds they have. I mean, I'm still waiting on Pounce and Wingspan from the Vehicon molds as well as The Hunter/Shockaract from X/Rampage for redecos and so many people are clamoring for Breakdown/Silas/Swerve as a new mold to do. Other than that though, they could do Tailgate from Cliffjumper based on the Cyberverse legion toy, Brawn from Bulkhead, Transmutate/Flareup/Flamewar/other Flamewar/Groove from Arcee, Dead End/Slicer/Wildrider/Chromedome from Wheeljack and so on. They did the B.A.T. from Soundwave for crying out loud. The rest should be no brainers. It's also the one that should be reissued too lol.

And for the love or Primus, they still haven't done a Starscream yet. I'd take either mold. Either an oversized FE deluxe mold or a slightly modified PRID voyager mold. Hell, a double oversized Cyberverse Commander mold would be great too. I liked them all. Then of course do Thundercracker and Skywarp.

I'll have to pick this up this time though. I have the original and even though this is larger, I skipped it. Or rather, by the time I wanted it, it was sold out here and I didn't bother to get it from somewhere else. So I'll get it this time around and hopefully that will help push this company back on track.

Grahf: And there's the reissue.

Don't get this set.

If you really want to upgrade your Armada Optimus then don't get this.

Instead, get the Go Better and Tim Heada kits instead.

The Tim Heada set has the best super mode hands available for this mold. It will also include some gap fillers for the toes of the super mode, a new gun and an Over-Run Minicon that only has jet and gun modes and no robot mode. You should be able to get the hands by themselves though.

The Go Better set has the little red door panels, toe fillers for the super mode, a gun barrel extension, new opening and transforming hands for the base robot that help "hide" them in truck mode and most importantly, this kit has new knees and thighs for the base robot that Transform to make the base robot taller, but not change the length of the truck cab so that everything stays tabbed in properly. Those longer legs will also double as longer arms for the super mode.

However, there is nothing to fix the front skirt armor of the super mode or soles for under the super mode feet to make him taller as if he wasn't too tall already. Those are the best things from this kit that you can't get something similar to in another.

Also, the thigh extenders with this kit WILL work with the Go Better extenders as well. This will put the core robot to be about the same height as SS86 Optimus which is something I personally like. However, using the thigh extenders from this kit means you have to also use the new shoulder pads for super mode too. At least the front facing pieces that are also the side skirts for the core robot and sides of the truck mode. They're longer so that the transformation to truck cab mode isn't broken due to the longer legs. However, the tabs on the wheel armatures don't tab into the new DNA parts well without some sort of modification which requires taking some excess plastic out of the slots on the DNA parts as they're a bit bloated. And since the legs are longer, you no longer have the additional attachment point at the bottom center of the pelvis.

I never bothered with the rear skirt armor for super mode. For starters, it barely does anything. It should've folded onto itself in half and then flipped up on the hinge. That way it would be completely out of the way in super mode with either the same amount of parts or less.

Also of major note with replacing this piece, the pin that you have to take out of the stock flap is extremely difficult for most people to do. The center of the very long pin is knurled and keeping it in place. Usually it's one end. When it's one end only, you can push the pin out a enough to grab onto it with something and then pull the pin out. With this, you're going to have difficulties pushing it out at all. And if you do, when you grab it with the pliers, you'll have constant resistance due to the lock being in the center. You can end up either damaging the figure and the stock pin during removal as many people can attest to. All for something that barely does anything to the overall look of the figure once installed.

If you apply some heat to the pin using a soldering iron, you should have an easier time removing the stock pin. You just run the risk of badly melting parts if you're not careful and slip. I don't recommend using a heat gun for this either as you'd probably melt or damage something long before you manage to heat up the pin enough to help with removal.

I never explained why the new hands in this set aren't good.

DNA has an allergy to using the industry standard of 5mm pegs and ports for some reason. It's a system that's been around for like 50 years now and is used in more than The Transformers brand. So why DNA doesn't like using it I will never know and it will always aggravate me.

So instead of just normal 5mm ports in the hands like the stock hands or the Tim Heada hands, this uses a 5mm port that plugs into the hands. Okay that doesn't seem too bad. It's there if you want it and if you want cleaner looking hands you can remove them. Except that they don't stay plugged into the hands without modification. The fit on them is horrible. Also, the 5mm port it WAY too inset into the top part of the hand. So anything you wish to plug into the 5mm ports is going to need a long handle. Just not too long as the ports themselves aren't very deep. So you're limited as to what you can use. And still, the 5mm ports are slightly too big so most things won't stay in them well either.

All for hands that have bad articulation with thumbs that are terrible and pop off all the time.

Oh and while the new super mode chest piece looks good in theory, it pushes itself out after a few minutes and is a major hinderance in every mode. IT'S ALSO NOT COMPATIBLE WITH AGE OF THE PRIMES COMMANDER CLASS ARMADA JETFIRE. You'll have to take it off and set it to the side. Who am I kidding, it will fall off long before you have a chance to take it off lol. And you'll have to take it apart to return the stock piece too.

Grahf: So in case you couldn't tell from my 3 star review (and it was only that high because I got it for $25) and my very long winded comments otherwise, I don't recommend this kit. It doesn't work well and will now actively get in the way of the upcoming Armada Jetfire combination. The Go Better kit is still widely available for purchase. However the Tim Heada super mode hands are a bit more difficult to come by at the moment. Hopefully whoever prints and sells the Tim Heada designs (he only designs them) will make a new run of them for the reissue as well as for Nemesis Prime. If they don't then oh well, it's not like the stock hands are bad, they're just not Jetfire or Star Saber good with the retracting 5mm ports. And they're better than the stock hands for Superion, Menasor, Devastator and Bruticus.

Grahf: Non-Action Masters Thundercracker here looks amazing.

I hope whoever came up with this deco in 1991 got a promotion or at the very least, a raise. It was so ahead of its time as the 90's had only just begun and they nailed the colors of the decade so quickly.

It's like the Saved by the Bell intro in robot form.

Just beautiful.

Thankfully whoever gave Shattered Glass Thundercracker this deco exists. So now we have another reason to make this deco more often. Shame nobody ever really does though.

C'mon Hasbro, take the Legacy Cybertron Starscream mold and make the SG Seeker trio. Yes, all three used that mold at some point and since this is always TC's SG deco, this is what was used on that design. I just want an angry flying pyramid of 90's in my collection. Then also do this deco in the Siege, Earthrise, Legacy Armada, core class and SS86 molds too. Go back and do the legends class and the legion class and every other Seeker mold ever and run it one more time in this deco. I swear to Primus that they will all sell out.

Listen to your live action movie poster boy.

DO IT!

JUST DO IT!

Don't let your dreams be dreams!

In any event though, at least the current MP figure will be in this deco now one way or another. Your turn "Maketoys"...I'm not talking about the same Howling Meteor mold that's been done to death now, I'm talking about using Galaxy Meteor for it. Yeah, dig that mold up and slather this deco on it. That's what's up.

Simply perfect.

Grahf: Hopefully.  I imagine the Transformers team hates having corporate tell them to hold back revealing things for so long that the leakers and thieves get to reveal and show things off first. There's still a few things that haven't been fully leaked as to what they are and some that we don't know what they'll even look like though. I'm looking forward to the heavily implied SDCC exclusive. If you haven't been up to date on the leaks, I won't spoil it as it is only a few hours away...hopefully. It's going to be amazing though if it's real.

Grahf: Just a heads up.

A 3D print thigh upgrade from ROS was just made "specifically" for this KO version currently on Ebay.

They'll extend the thighs and greatly fix the overall proportions of this figure, especially when the full armor is on.

HOWEVER and not unlike the original set of thigh extenders made for this overall mold, you will have to modify the base figure in order to maintain the transformation. The longer thighs make it so that the blue lower legs can't clip over the pelvis while in truck mode. So there's instructions in the new listing on what to trim inside the lower legs to allow them to still clip over the pelvis for truck mode.

On the original set of thigh extenders I got a long time ago now, I ended up trimming plastic off the back sides of the pelvis because it's not noticeable from the front. I never thought about trimming things inside the lower legs. I don't have this BW version of the mold yet so I don't know if there's molded differences between the Hasbro and BW in those areas or not. I also don't have the new thigh upgrades so maybe they don't add as much length to the legs as the previous set and that's why I never thought about trimming plastic form the inside of the legs as it wouldn't have worked.

Just letting people know that there's an upgrade for this figure out there right now that greatly helps the overall look.

The DNA parts add boots making the already too long lower legs, even longer. And they also made the arms longer slightly when adding the gauntlets with new hands. So the proportions of the base figure were wildly thrown out of whack by the DNA kit.

Bai Wei ended up adding in a torso extender to help the proportions instead. However the thighs are still way too short. So this new kit will fix that last problem.

Like I said, I have the previous thigh extenders and I also have a toros extender that is also available for the Hasbro version of the mold. When both are combined the end result is nice. I also have the first DNA kit and when everything is on, it looks amazing.

So I strongly recommend looking into getting some version of thigh extenders for this BW mold. While it won't fix the head, it will fix the rest of the figure proportion wise. Just remember that regardless of what thigh extenders you get, you will need to permanently modify the base figure in order to maintain the transformation.

They're also basic grey so they should probably also work for the upcoming Nemesis Prime version of this KO. Obviously I don't have it in hand to know for sure, but the grey plastics should be roughly the same shade between Optimus and Nemesis. The Motor Master uses purple for those parts so they won't work for him.

Grahf: It's about time. This company really needs to get these redecos rolling out quicker. Supposedly they have a few more in the works, but only time will tell if they do or what they are if they really are working on more. There's still a few decos that can be done. The Motor Master, G2 The Motor Master, Ultra Magnus, Elite Guard Optimus, Nightwatch Optimus, Animated SG Optimus (that is NOT the exact same deco as G1 SG Optimus) and Star Convoy. Not only that, but there's newly molded parts that need to be KO'd as well. Hopefully BW will put the new parts in a further upgrade for Optimus and Nemesis without having to purchase the full figures again and then included ALL the parts in any future release.

Also of note, there's a 3D printed thigh extension that was recently made for for this. However, you'll have to permanently alter the base figure in order to get them to work in truck mode.

As someone who has a torso and thigh extenders on his Hasbro Optimus with DNA kit, the proportions of the robot mode are so much better. While the thigh extenders I got were different than the new ones and thus, I had to alter my figure worse than the new set, the end results really do speak for themselves. The new thigh extenders have you alter parts that will end up inside the lower legs and can't be seen in either mode whereas the alterations I made are more noticeable in viewing the figure from behind.

So there's already options to upgrade this specific BW version of Nemesis on the market despite this figure not being out yet. The greys used between Optimus and Nemesis should be the same shade and that's why the kit is technically also for Nemesis.

Again, the longer thighs really doo look good on this mold. The arms and lower legs are too long compared to the shorter torso and thighs. While BW put in an ab extender to fix that, they never did anything with the thighs. And now that the DNA kit adds even more to the lower legs and arms, the thighs being so short is even more of an eyesore. So despite needing to cut and trim pieces off the figure, the look of the fully kitted out figure looks amazing. Especially at the prices BW charges for the figure with the otherwise way overpriced DNA kit.

Grahf: Okay so Hasbro did NOT announce the rumored Generations Selects titan class Energon Tidal Wave yesterday.

The execs that tell the Hasbro team what they can and can't talk about or show off really needs to loosen up the reins a bit. Them having to hold back for so long before showing things off is only hurting the brand at this point. They said they're pretty much done with 2028 at this point yet they still can't show off anything that isn't coming out within the next two months in 2026. Showing off more things will only help to build hype for what's coming and allow us to better budget and plan what we get. Getting this info through leaks is causing a divide within the fandom as an extremely vocal part of it keeps getting their panties in a bunch imagining things and when things don't come out exactly like they expect, they throw hissy fits.

Not only that, but showing and announcing things far earlier than normal helps the third party market too. One hand washes the other so to speak.

Case in point, this figure here. Had Hasbro shown off that rumored Energon Tidal Wave, interest in this figure would go up significantly. And now that we've finally seen Megazarak officially as well, both would also help kick DNA in the ass to get kits out for them quicker. We're going to need those shoulder joints for Megazarak and that back plate and connection pegs for Tidal Wave as well. They're some of the best priced and well made parts DNA has done in a while.

And Hasbro needs to hurry up with making more Minicons already. While doing the Dark Saber is nice, there's still so many more Minicons we need. Ramjet, Safeguard, Over Run, Run Over, Clench, Caliburn, Galaxy Force Safeguard, Drillbit, Energon Ramjet (for when Energon Tidal Wave is announced), Commetor, Powerlinx Jolt, Zapmaster (although, this should be a Takara issue as of right now), Powerlinx Longarm, regular Longarm (since the Longarm they did is the wrong colors lol) and I think that's it outside of doing some Takara exclusive decos. Oh wait, and the other colors of the Requiem Blaster.