I have no idea what the overlap between transformers fans and mdzs/untamed fans is, but whirl is wei wuxian telling tailgate/jin ling that he should absolutely get into fights, and that getting into fights is good, actually
So the new beast wars comic is out! Spoiler The art hasn't grown on me yet, though I think it MIGHT? So far it's just plot setup that, as far as I can tell, is just an updated version of the original Beast Wars premiere? Optimus Primal is. Ok he's kind of a jerk to start, more in being quick to judge and arrogant rather than any intentional cruelty? I look forward to his character arc launching him to himbohood. I'm going to be headcanoning Rhinox as the ship's obstetrician for the foreseeable future, and also seeing what kind of non-fighting shenanigans these crews get up to now that they're stranded with no chance of tiny humans to get them into nonsense. Also looking forward to the hypothetical inclusion of some others! Like Transmutate and Botanica. Seriously, I'm glad they're including more non-dude bots (in the form of Nyx and... I don't think Skold has pronouns yet?) but I can't wait for more to show up. And I'm hoping they let Botanica be weird, because there's a lot to do there. (and here's hoping Waspinator gets to have a nice day at some point)
Spoiler: Transformers: Escape #2 Spoilers :((( (but also. Vigilem lives?) ((Vigilem could perhaps be found by Windblade?)) But also, lord, poor Skystalker. I'm very fond of Geomotus, and the conversation with Straxxus suggesting that rather than Cybertron going cold and still, it might tear itself apart first? And Dai Atlas describing how it feels to stop immersing oneself early is... interesting.
Sorry for mentioning the Bay movies, but I just realized that Bay, somehow, when selecting bots to act as spaceship engineers rather than, you know, the usual role of walking machinegun, ended up picking the Wreckers. Like, okay, Wheeljack, Perceptor and Ironfist were Wreckers in various continuities, but Bay ended up with Roadbuster and Topspin and Leadfoot, none of whom are usually known for their prowess at anything other than violence (well, Leadfoot was also fast.) And yet Bay made them less violent than their usual selves, or at least less one-dimensionally violent. Bay's choices are so confusing.
Trying to figure out Megatron's IDW pre-Lost Light alt forms to see if I can make tankie jokes about him.
Off the top of my head, he's been a mining rig(? I don't think his original alt is ever named), a tank, a gun, and a stealth bomber. According to the wiki, JRo wanted his LL alt to be a tank too.
Right, so does the first one count as a tank? Was Megatron ever simultaneously both a tank and a tankie? * * For those unfamiliar with the terminology, the term "tankie" is often used as a pejorative term for sympathizers/apologists for the Chinese Communist Party, presumably as a reference to the Party's use of tanks to dispel the 1989 Tiananmen Square riots.
Cang Toys is doing some pretty good work on their not-Predaking, engineering-wise. In particular, their not-Divebomb is the first birdformer in forever that actually has the wings coming out of the shoulders in bird-mode rather than the back. In essentially all birdformers ever since the first Airazor toy, the robot-mode's shoulders and arms would still be in same position as in robot-mode, folded away slightly, and the wings would be coming out from significantly higher up like a surfboard strapped to the poor thing's back, and it looks awful from any angle other than from straight above. Here the wings are coming out of the shoulders and the arms are tucked away onto the back and neck, so that the bird ends up with a bit of a backpack but the wings look like they might actually be part of the bird's body. The move you have to do to get the arms and the wings to swap places for this guy is a little scary, I'll admit, and the tail end is kinda kibbly, but eh, I'll take it. Also, funnily enough this version of Divebomb is actually slightly more heavily armed in bird mode than in robot mode. By the way, this is the same company, and indeed the same combiner series, that gave us the hand crab. I love the hand crab. Still no news about the feet. I can't believe that I'm gushing about engineering for knock-off toys, but on the other hand I'm not actually sure how many major toylines have room for engineering of this level of depth and complexity. Maybe if someone wanted to make the Super Sentai zords not suck ass.
That design reminds me visually of the Stormbird machines in Horizon: Zero Dawn. I've been idly entertaining the idea of writing a crossover b/c the machines in that game would make for some sweet-ass alt forms.
Here's their not-Rampage (the tiger) and not-Tantrum (the bull) for comparison. I don't think the not-Tantrum has enough exposed tubes for HZD, but the not-Rampage would fit (there are tubes on the back and on the hind legs that you can't see in the picture)
Not-Rampage does look a lot like a Sawtooth. Hmm. (I have my cast figured out, though, if I'm doing it I'm doing it based on Prime. Ratchet gets to be a Shellwalker and doing lots of angry claw-shield waggling to make his point.)
So back on my bullshit about combiner kibble. Cang Toys had a display booth at the China International Comic Festival & Asia Game Festival 2021 and we got to see the full not-Predaking combiner, which comes in both a Masterpiece size and a Legends size. You may recall from my previous unhinged ranting that the hand for the Masterpiece size combiner form a crab when not in combined mode (the Legends scale ones do not). At the time the feet were a mystery, but now the mystery is solved! Each foot is itself a transformer, with a fox mode apparently. Oh, also the hips are a gorilla. So this combiner has actually eight robots (and a crab) rather than the usual five robots and miscellaneous parts. See here Also, their next project is a Volcanicus, which means Dinobots, combining Dinobots! But also the designs kick ass: They're going full Zoid and I love it. More pictures here Unfortunately no pictures of the combiner design, but still, the individuals look great. I mean, a bunch of 3rd party companies have put out some pretty good Dinobots, but I really, really like the designs on these ones. Also they look like they will really hurt to transform because they're all absolutely covered in spiky bits.
So it turns out that you should probably pay attention to what the product description says. Meet NBK K-SR02 King of the Sniper: Adjudicator. This guy turns into this gun: Which, I thought, pretty cool looking, like a Vos but white and blue. Yeah, I'll buy it. It's $89 bucks but that's third-party for you. Maybe I can have one of my figures hold it. Fast forward a few weeks: Turns out the figure is almost 2 feet tall (52 cm) and the gun is 3 and a half feet long (about a meter). Also it fires rubber bullets (not well, but it does) and the scope actually gives noticeable zoom. Now I need a place to put this thing.
