Transformers Energon Demolisher review

The Energon series had Demolishor remain as a Decepticon after the Unicron Battles, and where there was a peaceful allegiance between both factions as they rebuilt Cybertron and formed a city to mine Energon from the Earth. While he formed a bit of a friendship with the dorky punk Ironhide (a name ironically used for Demolishor in Japan while the Autobot was named Roadbuster), he resumed his loyalty towards Megatron after the Decepticon leader was resurrected. After having an internal struggle between reuniting with his friends or staying with the faction he's been a part of since Armada began, Demolishor sacrificed his life to save his leader, then he bid farewell to Ironhide (or randomly blamed Prime for his death). Megatron, retrieving his spark, later gave Demolishor a new body as he did previously with Cyclonus and Tidal Wave; while those two were renamed Snow Cat and Mirage, Demolishor was not given a new name. In Japan, where Cyclonus was Sandstorm and Tidal Wave was Shockwave, parts of their names were changed to become Snowstorm and Shockfleet. Ironhide was renamed Irontread, while Hasbro intended the toy to be named Long Haul. That and he was meant to be a separate character, a common idea within Hasbro's repaints compared to the show Takara worked on. Regardless, does the toy still hold up if we set aside a messy production for Energon? Let's find out!

Here we have Demolishor in-hand. As an earth-moving dump truck, this manages to look pretty good outside of the arms folded up in front. The giant wheels, a decent level of sculptwork, and a handful of paint apps that are realistic for a dump truck yet also keep it from looking drab help make this feel less Playskool than what Unicron Trilogy haters whined about at the time. I especially love that we have a champagne tint for the hoping used on the grille and rims to make it appear somewhat dirty (which goes well with the intentionally scuffed bumper that would probably be skipped on a modern reimagining). While he can't really dump his load, he can at least lift the bed up and use it as a turret. Sadly, only four of the missiles work, and while his truck bed may be translucent, there are no lights and sound gimmicks. Would have been cool given the possible space included.

For a size comparison, here we have him with his Armada counterpart. While dump trucks are normally used as Voyagers and the like for Transformers, I think the scale between both versions of Demolishor work fine enough. Sure, a dump truck isn't as practical for combat as a tank, but at least he's a big dude for his size class and has a bit of tank-like functionality.

Transformation is similar to G1 Long Haul, only his truck bed becomes the backpack instead of the legs. That and his arms make the aforementioned front section has the arms folded in plain sight. The resulting robot mode is a more stylized take on that design, but with some new tweaks, such as the grill folded away to make it look like he has a purple shirt underneath his green coat, and the clear arms that I'm surprised haven't broken off on me. S toy that is over 20 years old lasting longer than SS86 Jazz, get me! His proportions are chunky,  but not to the same extent as the obese-looking Combiner Wars Long Haul. One funny detail is how he has a tiny Decepticon logo on his chest, yet there's a huge one on his back, so he still feels more prideful of his faction than the PRID Airachnid toy. He has an Energon Star port on his belly button, but hey, he has paint apps on his toes that could easily be skipped. TF budgets were so good back then for paint apps.

His head sculpt is a little different than the blockhead usually found on G1 Constructicons. It looks like a mashup between G1 Gnaw and RID X-Brawn. The card art has him with an actual mouth, but the show has him without any proper face details beyond the eyes and nose. Probably something the animators did to save time with their already cheap ass show. The articulation consists of a neck swivel and slight up and down movement for a hinge, swivel shoulders, outward arm movement, bicep rotation, hinged elbows, and ratchets for the waist, hips, and knees (with rotation above the latter).

Decepticons in Energon had Hyper Modes, which were their linewide gimmick to go against the Autobots Powerlinking. For Demolishor, his inner torso hinges forward and the truck bed hovers over to make him a hunchback missile pod nothing exciting but it still is something.

Here he is next to his old self, and while a prefer the Armada design, I will admit that the Energon version has better articulation overall. Honestly, in spite of the series reception, Demolishor is still a cool toy to buy regardless if he is canonically an upgraded guy or meant to be Long Haul. He should be fairly cheap in the aftermarket, but be sure he has all 4 missiles. Sadly, no repaint options are out there, though I expected a Constructicon repaint or Landfill with Double Targetmasters.

Final ranking: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

McFarlane DC Multiverse New Teen Titans Nightwing & Rebirth Cyborg review

As we give a bit of Teen Titans rep for the review site, we get to finally give some attention to a version of Dick Grayson and cover an uncommon yet still present guest in the form of Victor Stone, aka Cyborg. As many know, one was the first ever Robin before growing out of the sidekick role and becoming a hero of his own after some mentoring from Superman. The other is an individual who had a life-changing experience after his mutilation where he gained cybernetic limbs and other technological abilities that made him a benefit for either the Teen Titans or the Justice League. While many would debate over which team Victor should be a part of, he will stick with the NEW Teen Titans as we review both characters this time.

Here we have Nightwing in-hand. As I understand it, this figure is a retool of the Blue Beetle buck, which is a common blank body for McFarlane to reuse on simpler superhero costumes. While they're just as guilty of doing this like with Hasbro, they have at least got a more proportionate superhero body, and the figure has also retooled the boots and collar to better match the costume he wore back when he first became Nightwing while also removing any carry over sculpted details from the buck he's using. The figure generally looks good, and while I wish the yellow detailing on the torso and shoulders was sculpted, at least the linework is crisp, and the blue lining that matches the rest of his costume gives him some dimensionality. And while most would prefer he had a darker blue like on the SDCC Knightfall or No Man's Land Batman, at least it's a regular blue and not one as bright as his collar. One complaint I do have is that his rotator cuffs are left blank without any paintwork to connect the shoulder detailing and the torso; it isn't a complaint I normally have for plenty a McFarlane figure, yet it is egregious here given how his costume works.

His head sculpt is easily the best part of the set, with a smile that befits Dick Grayson and blue shading applied through the hair and mask. While his articulation is naturally the same as with all other figures in the line, his sole accessory is a Wingding with a hole likely meant for a string to tether through. First Adam West and this Nightwing have that weird quirk, is it hard to get him the string? Next to the Knightfall Nightwing, I appreciate that the costumes aren't mere deco tweaks, though I think I prefer elements of the Knightfall suit better. I just wish he didn't have his shot details painted over pre-existing Blue Beetle costume details. Btw, I am referring to Ted Kord, the second mantle bearer, and not Jamie Reyes.

As for Cyborg, this is how he appeared in DC Rebirth. While I don't own that many versions of the character in the Rebirth aesthetic, Cyborg is still a design I like overall. The blend of classic and modern is already balanced perfectly here, and I always appreciate how Cyborg wasn't trying to mimic the look of his Snyderverse design considering how Disney would have it's corporate-approved Marvel promo art match the MCU. While I'm sure some would want a more classic version of the character design, I always preferred it when Cyborgs had a more fully covered look to his bar the remaining portions of his face that represent what little of his old self remains. He may be more machine than man, but he is not twisted and evil. He could be a bit bulkier, but at least he has silver paint paid with a bit of a wash. It beats having to deal with Hasbro making marbleized silver plastic instead of painting their figures proper silver. However, my copy appears to have some poor QC on the back with the smudge of paint. Hopefully, it's just my copy, but I fear those who want to remove any paint errors will resort to using extra silver paint instead of removing the mistake because that will remove what's intended to go on his back.

As for his head sculpt, I think it's great! Sure, the weathering makes him less pristine, but with all the hell he went through either as a League member or a Titan, can you blame him? While I wish he had alternate hands, he does at least come with a giant arm cannon. It slides over his right arm, and the friction is tight enough for him to keep it in there. Would it have been better to have more display options? Yes. But is this still a good accessory compared to the more Wingding? Also yes.

Overall, while Nightwing is a better version of his classic look than his Knightfall counterpart, Cyborg is an arguably better figure. Sure, you get a digital card for a 3D showroom with the former Boy Wonder, but the price that the Digital line is going for is not as good as the regular line-up. I admit that Cyborg should come with extra hands, or at least something for his left hand to hold, but he had a bit more value for money than his fellow Titan. Maybe wait for a sale on Nightwing, but definitely go get Cyborg. 

Final ranking: ⭐⭐⭐ and a half out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (Nightwing)

⭐⭐⭐⭐ out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (Cyborg)

Transformers Studio Series KSI Widow review

A year ago, the Concept Art series was introduced in the Studio Series line, and it would have been the best opportunity to showcase any scrapped character designs that didn't make it in the seven live action movies. Naturally, the elusive Bumblebee Movie Megatron design is finally immortalized as an official action figure, and despite my negative opinions contradicting that of the Gooneration 1 purists, it was cool to see a tangible version of something previously left in the cutting room floor. Then we got Rumble, who never got alluded to within any BBM concept art showcases. An online listing has the mention of a Sunstreaker, but with an MV6 tag (with MV & a number following it referring to a specific Transformers movie, like MV1 equals the 2007 film, MV2 equals Revenge of the Fallen), it only meant that we got a Concept Art Sunstreaker. Once again, another dude who seemingly never existed even as 2D art. Worse still, Hasbro kept doing rep for that overrated flick, and it took them long enough to finally make a figure more exciting and unique than the BBM dudes. Enter KSI Widow!

Before we delve into the review proper, here is a bit of a history lesson regarding the development of KSI Widow prior to her removal. Most of the concept art we have of her dates back to late 2012, around 2 years before Age of Extinction was released. A female Transformer design known as Widow Maker at the time, she sported aesthetics more comparable to the original trilogy era of Transformers rather than the duology consisting of AOE and TLK. I say this because she is a much skinnier character design than what the toy ended up being, though it's possible this would have not been the case. Created by Steve Jung, one of the robot designers for Revenge of the Fallen, Widow Maker sported a red color scheme and would have had either a tail or a chain whip. Initially, she had car kibble of the Pagani Huayra, which was later given to Stinger.

Various alternate head designs were made for this character, ranging from resembling a proper Cybertronian to having a bizarre human look that likely popped up when the man-made Transformer subplot was part of the script.

It appears she was going to have a rivalry with Drift, in addition to having twin laser swords rarely seen in the concept art. Of course, we all know that either Hasbro or Paramount wanted to make a bit of a rivalry between Bumblebee and Stinger, the latter stemming from making fun of Transformers knockoffs, and that's what we ended up with. The two military robots in the background are probably Hound, but that likely isn't the case.

A different version of Widow Maker was created by Vitaly Bulgarov, which represented a far more alien design where she felt less like a standard Decepticon and more like an upgraded Quintessa. 

This is one of the many alternate head designs she had, with different lengths for the tips of her head and optional extensions below her head that may be comparable to head strands. Needless to say, these don't appear to have any influence on the KSI Widow figure we ended up with.

The vehicle mode she was supposed to transform into was a McLaren MP4-12C, and it was painted red instead of the orange we end up with for the toy. Certainly a beautiful car, but it was not fully part of the main selection of vehicles Paramount and Hasbro chose for their Transformers cast. Rather, the McLaren, along with an Aston Martin and two Lamborghinis, were privately owned vehicles meant for the Hong Kong shoot instead of deliberate choices for any robots associated with them. That is why they're only shown following Galvatron on the bridge and disappear in place of the KSI Sentries, Bosses, Junkheap, and Two-Head.

With that history lesson covered, here we have KSI Widow in her vehicle mode. And in a twist of irony where Hasbro can't get a Ferrari license for a final cut character like Dino, we get an official McLaren MP4-12C! It is cast in an orange shade rather than the proper red we saw in the vehicle prop and concept art though I can theorize this is due to Hasbro wanting to distinguish her from Stinger. Thankfully, it is a somewhat metallic shade and doesn't look too cheap, nor does it wash out any of the details. I also love that we have some black paint apps to break up the orange in the alternate mode; even using metallic paint for the headlights is an added bonus without using any parts of the sprue. The only discrepancy I can find would be the orange paint used on the windows, which are distracting yet thankfully this isn't an issue found on the rooftop.

For a vehicle mode size comparison, here we have KSI Widow next to Stinger, who may be inspired by Bumblebee yet was also influenced by the scrapped fembot. These two sleek and stylish alternate modes are always a treat to have as part of the AOE Decepticon line-up. While it may not be as iconic or lacking in personality compared to the prior representations of the Movie Decepticons, at least they served as a reminder of why humanity should not create a man-made Transformer, especially using the head of Megatron for any data.

Transforming KSI Widow is a genuine surprise when you consider how she not only uses a similar shoulder design to what Stinger has, but we also have the roof and rear of the altmode folding into itself like with the PRID Vehicon figure we had over a decade ago! While it results in her legs being bulky and her arms kind of small when compared to the rest of the body, there is so much a Deluxe based on a Movie design can do. After all, it's still better effort than Devastation Prime and the two Deluxe Constructions. The resulting robot mode ends up having less of a backpack than most Deluxes in the line, unlike the many Movie Bumblebees we've had since Studio Series began. In fact, I wish ROTB Mirage had a cleaner design like this than what his figure ended up with. I mean, sure, some will complain about the bulky legs or the kibble chunk on the thighs, but the way it manages to be reasonably close to the concept art while having the Deluxe restraints is highly commendable. And as a bonus for her lack of back kibble, we get to see a bit of the dreads or hair locks behind her head. They almost seen to belong to a scrapped design element for her tail or whip, but we'll cover that later.

Her head sculpt appears to be an amalgamation of the designs we previously looked at, as the face doesn't quite match any of them and instead appears more robotic and alien instead of having that human look to her. Her articulation consists of ball joints for the neck, shoulders, and hips, swivels for the biceps and thighs, and hinges for the elbows and knees. The weapons she comes with clip onto her forearms, and while those cleverly integrate with her forearms via clips instead of pegs, I have to admit I'd love to see her come with a chain whip. Weirdly, it was mentioned in the listings despite being a nonexistent accessory, though it could have been scrapped during development due to any lack of weapon storage options. Her guns can thankfully under the door wings and fit decently well! They also store inside the vehicle mode from within the legs. 

Here we have her along with Stinger and Galvatron from the Studio Series line, with the former being made early on in the line and the latter in-between their releases. You can see some of the slight influence Stinger took from the scrapped KSW Widow design while also having more stylized versions of Bumblebee's own character model to represent his aesthetic evolution from the classic trilogy to AOE at least. Honestly, it feels great to see Hasbro acknowledge there can still be ways to make Studio Series rep to a nearly complete cast of robots with the Concept Art series. While many would scoff at her and say "erm she is as valuable as a glup shitton ☝️🤓" and then beg Hasbro to do more G1 characters than necessary, I think she could easily be a Top 10 or maybe even Top 5 figure in a list made by less biased fans. Stay tuned for my Studio Series 2025 ranking list to see where she's placed amongst her peers! Until then, I recommend you get her to show we could use more scrapped characters like ROTB Transit, TLK Dragon Megatron, DOTM Hot Rod, and ROTF Springer. Hell, I'd take updated versions of 2007 Wreckage and ROTF Breakaway just so we can have new versions of characters that were scrapped yet did have toys made for them; I'd argue they could hold up fine for Studio Series provided we get some retooling to make their sculpted details sharper.

Final ranking: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

McFarlane DC Multiverse Bizarro and Batzarro review

If there is one thing DC loves doing at times, it's making evil versions of Superman either representing clones, alternate universe versions of the character, or the actual guy under a corrupted influence. Between a Superman controlled by Darkseid, Ultraman of the Crime Syndicate from Earth-3, and all of the various Bizarro you could choose from, makes you wonder how many more variants they'll come up with to piss the blue scout purists off. Anyways, Bizarro comes to us alongside Batzarro as they appeared in the Superman/Batman comic run with art by Ed McGuiness. While the style is a little on the chunkier side, I know it manages to be dynamic and distinct amongst the many comic runs we've had for the World's Finest, and I'd argue that it fits Bizarro and Batzarro the best! Let's see if they're going to hold up that well for any non-artstyle specific displays. Me am not excited for this review!

Goodbye! This are not Bizarro, and he not best figure of the set! Him also not retool of Dark Knight Returns Superman! In all seriousness, this is the stronger part of the 2-pack, what with the figure he is a retool of needing few modifications to make him into Bizarro. Just flip the logo, make the blue purple, add a more maroon tint to the red, and make his skin grey. The body itself is fairly bulky as the artstyle depicts him, though that is perfectly fine for a character specifically like him. Some versions of Bizarro exaggerate the way he looks with the proportions in addition to making him appear more monstrous, so the reuse of the TDKR body works better than expected. Thankfully, the logo is a separate piece from the body, and having it be symmetrical in terms of shape makes mirroring the S into a backwards appearance is better than what Batzarro has as we'll get to. His cape flares to the left side of his body, though not to the same extent as the Hush version of Superman.

As for Batzarro, him are way better than Bizarro! And him not reuse of TDKR Batman! Him are totally new sculpt! Bizarro talk aside, this figure is, of course, a reuse of Batman as he appeared in The Dark Knight Returns. While he may not really feel all that different from the normal Batman from the neck down, there are plenty of a couple of key distinctions worth mentioning. Firstly the grey is closer to a chalky white than the more traditional greys used on Batman, whether it's like the shades used on the Knightfall bucks or Cowardly Lot. In addition, his utility belt is upside down with all of the pouches opened, meaning his gadgets all fell out and are scattered all over the place. One thing I do like is that the inside of the cape has some paint applied to give it a two-sided look, something I'm sure many wished their Batman's had to match the DCAU shading motif. Now what could be one thing that would be awful about this figure? Well, that would have to be the logo on the chest. Not that it's upside down, but that the original TDKR logo is filled in with barely any retooling to make the new logo placement seamless. Was it too much to at least make the figure's pecs a flat surface so the logo could be tampographed on? In a way, it's almost like a Bizarro McFarlanization that fits the character, but I doubt that it would be the intent. As a result of McFarlane not retooling the torso, this is also an issue where future versions of the mold matching the TDKR series cannot have the oval logo.

The head sculpts are great as always, and I love how the Ed McGuiness artstyle matches the characters perfectly than the characters they were cloned from. I love the bushy eyebrows on Bizarro and the Buzz Lightyear chin swirl, while Batzarro has no eyes a la the Xenomorph while his mouth matches that of the Joker.

Their articulation is mostly the same as with the standard McFarlane affair, though both have single jointed elbows with rotation at the elbows instead of the biceps, while Batzarro has thigh swivels found on most other action figures. This was likely a carryover from when the TDKR Batman needed to ride on the build-a-horse whose parts were included along with Superman, Carrie Kelly Robin, and the Joker. They both come with a display base that is decently painted and has a rocky texture to it, and it replaces the common display stands found on most McFarlane figures. While Bizarro comes with a sign to go over his neck as well as splayed open hands, Batzarro only comes with alternate fists. He could have come with the same chains that came with First Appearance Superman to match the box art. Otherwise, what is he going to hold?

Well, he can hold his trading card included if you want to do a picture like this. Though I barely go over the trading cards, I have to mention that the bios tend to be inconsistent between figures. Bizarro's is at least able to fill half of the white space, Batzarro gets a bio as short as the multilingual bios Hasbro uses in their packages. This is about as basic of a sentence as "Steve Rogers is a carbon-based lifeform". Yes, a Glenn Webb reference in a DC review, get me!

For anyone wondering what the prior uses were like, the TDKR version of Superman came either on his own with BAF parts or in a two-pack with Armored Batman. The exaggerated proportions are due to Frank Miller's take on the characters being larger than life caricatures in a grim story. Those proportions don't match the Return of Superman version, neither in baby blue or green skin. They work okay for Worlds at War because of the Ed McGuiness style, but how often would people buy that version?

The prior versions of Batman we got are the regular TDKR version, a Collector Edition with blue and a lighter gray, and a silhouette version meant to homage the cover to the graphic novel. Sadly, the blue and grey version only has painted battle damage. At least the cover version has a wired cape (or at least seems to have one).

For a size comparison, here we have a Bizarro sandwiched in-between the Godzilla Superman with the Action Comics 1000 head and the Mattel TDKR version made in 2016. I hadn't realized how much darker the Matty version got overtime even without being exposed under any light! Anyways, that figure is much chunkier than the McFarlane version, and that owes to the sculpt being made specifically for Superman whereas the prior version used the same base figure for both characters. It probably originated from the Masters of the Universe line.

And here we have Batzarro in-between Cowardly Lot Batman and Mattel's version of TDKR Batman. The funniest thing is how the bulkier body made more sense for Batman than it did for Superman when it comes to the reused bucks on Mattel, and that is where McFarlane did the Miller designs more justice. Ironically, going back to the mold history and comparing TDKR Batman to Cowardly Lot, the latter feels more like a comic version of Batfleck than the former did despite it being the inspiration for the Snyderverse design. So what do I think about this two-pack? If you can get it while it's discounted, I would recommend it. The biggest issue would have to be the torso on Batzarro having nothing but lazy tooling while he lacks an accessory of some kind to give him a different display option like with Bizarro's sign. While other Bizarro options exist like the Rebirth version from earlier in the line or the more recent retool of Action Comics 1000, this is all Batzarro has. So it's a case where the set as a whole is mostly neat, but there is room for improvement. Just know that any Superman figures using the Earth-2 body and any Batman figures using the Hush or Three Jokers bucks are going to tower over both figures. Though with my pictures, it doesn't take being the world's worst detective to know that.

Final ranking: ⭐⭐⭐ and a half out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐