Apologies Astro.

I knew they were on sale on AliExpress and the OP version was there but clearly now the sellers are only offering Ultra Magnus. My bad. I should have looked properly before. A quick scout of EBay is drawing a blank. Somebody more versed in sniffing out items may be able to help you find the OP version.

I actually prefer the KBB MP10 V, B and U versions. They work really well with the siege/chug collection. I actually prefer them to the Hasbro Siege/ER OPs.

 

I've only seen the Magnus version for sale too.

 

At least I was not going mad and Astro’s search skills as good as both mine and yours.

Maybe Astro can get the UM version and paint it OP colours if there are definitely no actual OP versions doing the rounds. Just an idea.

 

@Convoy No UK sites have Netflix Ultra Magnus, they cancelled him, and I can't even find him elsewhere currently (sadly).

Today's purchases and arrivals (stuck my thumb in the 'Energon Putty'/PlayDoh for emphasis lol, it's the only bit of the mag I'm keeping. Megs is awful even for a kids' mag FFS, paint everywhere and a wonky badge )

 

What do you mean? like he's not coming out here?

 

Cancelled by the two sites who had him, Smyths and Zavvi. Thinking back why didn't other sites show him when they have all the rest of the line? Zavvi blamed the virus, Smyths said they couldn't trace a supply.

I'll let you know if I see him anywhere but it'll likely be an import!

 

Just ordered a couple of Ironworks.. because why the heck not?

 

Still listed on the Smyths website, not like he's going to be available to order right now with everything going on. Relax!

Ultra Magnus Transformers War for Cybertron Unboxing Spoiler Collectible Action Figure Pack - Smyths Toys

 

There's good and bad. I have the 'official' PE version and they use pretty cheap and thin plastic which doesn't feel good in-hand. You do have to perform some surgery on the trailer to replace the old MTMTE-stile chest plate with a slightly less fun G1-style chestplate, and it's slightly fiddly. However everything else about it is really great. The size is bigger than a deluxe but smaller than most voyagers. It poses like an absolute dream. But best of all it fixes the absurd scale problem with CW Magnus's alt mode, where the old cab implies that this is an absolutely monstrously-sized vehicle, so any deluxe cars you put into the trailer suddenly seem to be equally oversized. The new cab is more sensibly scaled, so it makes the whole thing fit in better with other toys in alt mode. I did a review of it with CW Magnus a while back. As for the KBB version... they might actually use better plastics, dunno. Does it come with the replacement chestplate? It's pretty important.

He had to split

It is the year 1987...

...Vikings invade England once again, cunningly disguising their longships as IKEA shops...
...With unemployment at a mere 3 million people, Margaret Thatcher sweeps to election victory in a grateful nation. Apparently...
And in The Transformers, what's better than one robot? Two robots! And what's not quite as good as that? Well...



I think the Duocons today are a bit hard done by. They're often seen as the G1 line beginning to run out of ideas, to try any gimmick at least once and see what sticks. Like Pretenders, like Clones, like Action Masters, it didn't seem to matter if the idea was good, Hasbro would try it out anyway. So you get Battletrap, he of the no-arms, no-charms society, and today's offering Flywheels. Or indeed, Skytread if you want a more appropriate name.

But I think this is slightly unfair. Only slightly you understand, because the G1 Duocon toys really were a bit shite. But there is a logic behind them. Transformers had always had a strong parent-appeal by being good value for money. You're not buying separate cars and robots, you're buying two in one and saving a bit of cash. So getting three in one has an even greater appeal, obviously. Doesn't matter that Flywheels was demonstrably worse than Blitzwing had been, and came with the added danger of potentially losing half of it and gimping the toy forever more (brrr... sorry, Thunderwing flashbacks). But you get a tank (sort of), a jet (an ugly one, but still) and by slamming the two together they flip and flop into a kind of frumpy robot fella.

I actually quite like the colours on Flywheels/Skytread. I did back in the 80s as well. Burgundy and brown weren't exactly common colours, so it was good to see the Decepticons leaving their comfort zone of blue, black and purple once in a while. In his Siege toy Skytread keeps this going, and improves on his former self by actually bothering to colour the jet canopy in, something embarrassingly absent in '87. The automorphing is absent, but this is probably for the best. 1-step changers can be plenty of fun, don't get me wrong, but most of the pleasure for kids with transformers is knowing how to Rubik's-cube them into different shapes, and feeling pleased to have master the skill. And as a robot Skytread looks pretty great, with a suspiciously well-shaped torso that gives uncomfortable clues that the vehicle modes might be a little compromised. Still, for the time being he's quite a looker, and keeps his feet hilariously big, and yet still not as oversized clown-shoes as his G1 self, which basically just left the entire front of the tank and assumed kids would be okay imagining them as feet.

So yeah, it all falls down a little in alt modes. The jet is functional enough, but the classic cheat of just bundling up robot mode garbage under the rest of the jet is on full display. The smaller size of the jet just makes it all the more noticeable that nothing was going to be done to hide the robot chunks. Proportionally it's all reminiscent of Sky Lynx, but at least he could jettison all that extra crap when he wanted.

The tank should be better, but has an even bigger problem. The transformation simply doesn't work properly. The panels for the back of the vehicle just refuse to close and tab in properly, and while this isn't exactly the end of the world, it's frustrating in just how close the engineering came only to miss the target at the end. Plus the gun never feels very secure in there.

Flywheels didn't get a whole lot of appearances in fiction, but he did make them count. IDW had him dying horribly, leaving just his massive feet behind, but Marvel had him storming in to save the day alongside Trypticon. They were fighting robot zombies. Comics, as I believe I've mentioned, are rad. It's one of those long-running story arcs that really allowed the characters room to breathe, and putting Flywheels in a lead role instead of more bankable names like Starscreams or Soundwaves just helps give the feel of a bigger, more intricate universe. Plus, you know, giant robot dinosaurs fighting zombies. Rad.

So yeah, I've got a weakness for Skytread. He'll never be a favourite, but he has heft to him. He's Trypticon's buddy, he's an independent operator, he's a rubbish tank and a rubbish jet and somehow a really fun robot. He's... uh... brown. So there's that.

 

Must be getting on for 3 years ago now because I remember getting Highbrow from the TRU in Oxford when I was staying with my friend there. Chromedome and Hardhead I got from the Derby branch.

@Danforth,
I have the Toyworld Cosmos and it's nice although the shoulder joints make horrible creaking noises when you move them. Can't really say much more as I bought it towards the end of my MP only phase where I treated figures as glorified statues and I never got round to transforming it.

At a smaller scale I have the regular and translucent versions of Newage Cosmos and they're great, nicely posable, good colour schemes and a transformation that's doable inside 5 minutes  

Got a customs ransom note for my Figuarts Stormtrooper this morning but fortunately it wasn't too bad as it was just £11.20. Next delivery slot was this Thursday so I paid online.

Have ordered a Jakks World of Nintendo Raccoon Mario with the view to probably getting the Tanuki one as well.

 

Thanks, but I had orders with both firms because I don't trust either much and both cancelled them, not me! And Smyths have loads of listings like that saying 'to be confirmed' or 'no longer available' littering their site, maddeningly.

 

It's a little fuzzy, but I love the way the colours came out here.

 

Beast Machine Hasbro Snarl and Blastcharge

 

Just in case I missed some news, but have we seen anything from anyone on an undersized POTP Predaking, I really like the Undersized devastator for the individual bot sizes and would love Deluxe predacons

 

Here’s a picture dup of PE Jinrai next to the cw and Siege magnus. The cabs are a bit bigger but still work with the stock attachments, however there is an additional kit for Jinrai to give him a powermaster, combiner head and new chestpiece for Super Ginrai/pm prime

couldn’t find my siege trailer so the Hyperdrive I painted last year shall have to do

 

A toast to you magnificent set of bastards from the lord of the bastards himself.



Stay safe, fuckers.

 

"This changes nothing. Cybertron is ours!"
From Robots in Disguise#15 'Plan for Everything'

 

Almost seems like Vapourware at this point, last I saw was I believe photos purportedly from the same Chinese toy fair expo that debuted the "Skittles"/Multicoloured 1:1 Cobiner Wars KOs of what looked like a downscaled MMC Feral Rex Preds set but since they cropped up I've seen nada. Damned shame as I think Rexy is closest aesthetically to my platonic ideal for Predaking with something akin to the curvy chonk of the Marvel Comics/'Toon Model sheet artwork, and that's a scale I'd prefer.

OF COURSE! I didn't adjust for the WFC rescaling! I think that's why I went tinier in my head.
They are niftily designed but I remain a bit too tight to fork out on them (especially with a certain Seeker 2-pack that likely won't be cheap in the pipe!  )!

Now with all this Lockdown time on my hands I've been pondering a pet theory of mine again, it's to do with the Titans Return Sixshot and Quickswitch moulds, both notorious for QC joint looseness.
My theory is that at least one of those QC instances, the loose knees, could be in part down to a massive assembly error.
On both my Sixshot and Quickswitch I've noticed in comparison to the CG renders (and at least 1 LG Greatshot I've seen reviewed) that the central knee "fin" has the solid side to the inside of the knee and the recessed hollow to the outside which is the opposite orientation to the renders. That plus the fact that, even sanded slightly, I cannot get the second Shockwave's Lab filler wedge in on the recess next to the solid side (thankfully one wedge a knee has more than solved the floppiness issue on all the knees) makes me wonder if the mis-orientation is what has borked the knees in most cases?
Purely out of my own curiosity I wondered if anyone else with either mould might volunteer their knee orientation and tightness (or not) in a bit of a mini knee census in the UK thread?

 

Fingers crossed its for realsies

@Imperator I don't know about the plastics, I'll let you know when it comes. It does come with the chest piece, and also jazz hands which was a key feature for me. I should be getting my Purplimus Prime in the next day or two. Pretty excited to put that together. Also I didn't realise you a tumbler! Will check out the review plus more. Is that where you save your reviews that you post on here?

 

It is indeed. They should all be there under the toy review tag.

Yeah, the jazz hands are great. I wish there were more transformers that had swappable hands, to be honest.