Transformers Age of the Primes Targetmaster Sureshot review

The later G1 characters have very little to speak about compared to the 1986 cast, and that rings true for the Targetmasters. He has an ego, one that fits a name like his, though I wonder if he was also a partial inspiration for AOE Crosshairs along with the other Targetmasters. Granted, he has appeared in some other versions of G1, but I always felt that the Headmasters got more attention than the Targetmasters. After all, both Toei and Marvel made spinoff titles based on the HMs, and there is more appeal with having a smaller robot ride a Transtector than having a gun that turns into a robot aside from Megatron and Shockwave. But we now have Sureshot to complete the Targetmaster trio that began with Siege Crosshairs before we got Legacy Pointblank. Let's see if this figure is worth it.

Here we have Sureshot in his vehicle mode. It is a Cybertronic dune buggy that looks as Lego-like as you can get. It matches the old toy fine enough, and it has all the three warm colors of the rainbow with an almost white blue windshield. Is it really hard to say the altmode sucks in spite of being accurate to the source material? Granted, we have seen this trend where some 1986-onwards G1 characters had good altmodes (Hot Rod and Cyclonus) while others had some lousy garbage (this guy and either Kup or Broadside). Hell, even Sandstorm was better and he had to be a Triple Changer!

The Targetmaster partner can ride in front of the altmode, but let's hope Sureshot won't be blinded by something larger than Hot Rod's engine!

Here he is with Siege Crosshairs and Legacy Pointblank. Yes, the former is a retool of Siege Ironhide, though to be honest, I would rather get some upgrade parts to fix him than wait half a decade for a new Crosshairs to be made. I guess on the bright side, that would mean the Siege Ironhide mold would finally be retired so we can get a bit of symmetry for the trio, including Pinpointer not being a Battlemaster.

Transformation is pretty close to the G1 version, from the flip down legs to the arms unfolding from the back, it's almost close to what many would say we a pseudo Missing Link type of figure. With how there is no other version of the character past the old toy, this only makes sense with what they have. The robot mode is also a spitting image of his only other toy, though slightly more refined when it comes to the proportions. He kind of reminds me a bit of the physique we got with the Robo Racer from Power Rangers Turbo. The red for the entire legs almost looks like sweatpants, but with how basic the palette is, he really does feel about as standard as we can get. Nothing all that interesting, and in fact, he kind of resembles more like a knockoff genericon.

Head sculpt is pretty generic with a rounder Starscream helmet and a blue visor; not much else to say about it beyond it matching his Rebirth appearance. His articulation consists of a ball jointed neck, shoulder rotation, outward arm movement, bicep rotation, hinged elbows, waist rotation, universal hips (with slits more visible than the holes on RID15 Warrior Bumblebee), thigh rotation, hinged knees, and ankle pivots.

And here he is once again with his teammates, the Autobot Targetmasters. I guess it's neat to have all 3 of them together, but how long did we have to take to complete them, 5-6 years? It also doesn't help that they each have some pretty annoying flaws more than any other subgroup we got since Siege began; Crosshairs is stuck with an old mold and is mostly a recolor with a new head, Pointblank has his hips sticking out far more as well as having no bicep rotation, and a Sureshot that is so faithful to his old toy he ends up looking unimaginative and nowhere near as visually interesting as his partners. I know many want to get him since he finally fills in the gap for an under-represented subgroup, but at the end of the day, he simply is a gap filler and a real epitome of a glup shitto (accept it, Geewunners).

Final ranking: ⭐⭐⭐ out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

900th REVIEW - McFarlane Elite Edition Spawn review

To celebrate 900 reviews on the site, we'll be taking a look at a fairly reoccuring character who shows up every half of a year. Spawn should need no introduction, I assume; the dude has been created from a modern indie legend, has been part of some fairly prominent media (the 1997 movie, an animated series, and a few games with some guest appearances here and there), and remains one of the most recognizable non-Marvel/DC character you could find in the comic industry tied with Hellboy, Invincible, and The Tick. The appeal to me was the grim nature of the character's world that dealt with more than just edgy stuff people tried to make fun of the 90s for while propping up their shitty Whedonesque writing "quality"; from  exposing actual corruption within law enforcement to going after child abusers, Spawn knows how to tackle commentary better than people try to in recent times. And now with the Image Comics Founders getting their recognition in the McFarlane Toys Elite Edition subline, now we shall ask ourselves if the Toddfather managed to deliver the definitive comic Spawn or if it barely does Al Simmons justice.

Here we have Spawn in-hand, representing his classic design with a gothic mix of red, white, and black and a mix of spikes with chains and hellishly space-consuming cape with an over-the-top collar. In terms of aesthetics, Spawn at least manages to look fine for the most part. From what I can tell, this figure is a reuse of a prior Spawn figure, or at least reuses some existing parts, which I am on two sides of. On one hand, I can be fine with that if it's because the character and his design are at least the same, only with a slight tweak here and there for the aesthetics. On the other hand, with this being comparable to Hasbro's Maximum series for the Marvel Legends line, what's the point of reusing parts if it's meant to be a buck made from the ground up. The proportions could be a bit more dynamic; what we have isn't bad, but it feels closer to the regular builds we get from DC Multiverse. While I appreciate the paint apps used throughout the torso and arms, I am concerned in the longevity of the paint used for the elbow joints. I'm not sure if dual-molding joints is possible, especially when it comes to maintaining proper stability from the materials not breaking down, but it would have helped not cause any chipping. As for the cloth goods, the way Spawn's cape works in fiction usually makes it difficult to keep it either as dynamic as possible without going crazy on the amount of cape he can keep if we were to balance practicality with style. So usually, a cloth goods cape can be easier to maintain than one made out of rubber, though it won't look as dynamic given how over-the-top it's meant to look with its size and jagged nature. I want to say they did a good job with the cape, though I'm not too sure if the collar piece should have been cloth or molded as a static rubber piece. Taking this out of the package, the thing doesn't like to keep its distance with the back of Spawn's head when you take it out it the package. I feel it should have been wired like the rest of the cape, but because the designers likely wanted to maintain a thin shape to the piece without having any stitching for the wires bulk it up somewhat, they were at a dead end with what to do for their resources at this scale. So what we have is a reverse situation with Red Tornado, whose cape wasn't wired yet his collar was. And trust me, we will get to the cape on Spawn. As it stands, this figure mostly works fine for aesthetics, but I know that with how tricky it can be to get his design right with modern engineering, this feels closer to a regular $20ish release than a "premium" figure.

Head sculpt is generally good, though I know some will find the overly narrow eyes a bit distracting. Would be nice to come with different eye size options, but it at least fits the grim nature of the character. The articulation is standard for the usual figures we get from the McFarlane DC Multiverse line, so I will instead talk about his stand and cape. The former does the job fine enough with a bit of paint and sculpt work to make it look like worn out and as close to resembling pavement as possible. Would be nice to have a tombstone for Al Simmons, but it does the job. As for the cape, it's cool...in theory; while we can do all the crazy cape displays Spawn is known for pulling off in all the media he's in, the biggest drawback is how the wires were implemented; rather than have a single wire go through both edges of the cape and have the middle section either go through the neck or be covered by the neck chains, we have two wires used that don't connect, resulting in fewer posing capabilities comparable to the lousy efforts done by Beast Kingdom's DC figures. It sucks even more when you consider how often we used to have wired capes from McFarlane Toys before they started skipping them entirely despite there being small pocket holes for the bendy wires to go through, and on a premium release like this where the wire implementation is half assed, it makes me wonder why nobody tried experimenting with making the feature work without compromising the visual design.

His other accessories include an alternate head representing his unmasked yet undead face, one that used to belong to his old life as Al Simmons. I love the paint work and the stitching combined with the rotting flesh, but the necroplasm effect part, nice as it may look with the ghastly sculpt and paintwork, is very difficult to wrap over his hand without scuffing it up, and it doesn't help that making it as flexible as the rubbery accessories in the usual DC Multiverse line would have helped! His other accessory, a spiked club, is a good melee weapon, even if he usually comes with a meat cleaver sword or an axe. The weapon holding hands are decent but could be better at having a slightly wider grip to not risk scuffing for the handle.

The back is thankfully painted, which is a miracle one would hope to see given how most figures with capes often aren't looking at their backs. Two ports can be used to attach the chains for his more open hands to hold. I like that they're made of die-cast, and while many would wish there were poseable ones, this is still a good addition.

One thing that infuriates me with this figure more than the cape and two of the accessories being too tight to go on him is whenever toy companies show something that was meant to be included with a figure that ends up being scrapped in the final release. Now just because a disclaimer says that it's a prototype, doesn't mean we should have the fully unmasked Al Simmons head, the halfway masked head, and the upside down leg brace. If they were included with the figure, maybe the price would have been easier to stomach at $60+. 

For a comparison, here he is with Proto-Spawn and Mortal Kombat Spawn. While I am happy owning another version of this underrated comic book character, especially one that is straight out of the comics, I honestly find this version the most frustrating one in the collection. I really wanted to say this is a 10/10 release, but the handling of the cape, the collar being awkward at times, the excluded accessories, and the high price makes me think of why the Elite Edition is going through the same problems that the Maximum Series has had. It'd be one thing if this was around the price of a recent Collector Edition, or a few bucks closer to $40, but $50-60 is where the full price doesn't make the figure worth it. If you really want to get this version of the character because he's so close to the original comic run, who am I to stop you? But if you own the MK or Batman crossover versions of him instead, maybe stick with those instead of getting this. And while this is more poseable than the Kickstarter version, that figure still does some things better than what we have here. In all honesty, this and Doomslayer are probably going to be as far as I go with the Elite Edition, and I am so thankful McFarlane didn't make Zatanna part of that subline.

Final ranking: ⭐⭐⭐ out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Transformers Cybertron Skywarp review

While the Unicron Trilogy did represent other Seekers past Starscream, it was mostly in ways different from other media like we saw with G1, Animated, Cyberverse, etc. Armada had Thundercracker "represented" as a recolor Starscream received in a few episodes before his death, though the English dub had him name-drop his ally while Japan never mentioned the character. Skywarp and Ramjet were repainted from the Starscream mold but never appeared or were alluded to in the show; meanwhile, Thrust was a separate design from Screamer yet had two different Powerlinx repaints: a Dirge recolor Hasbro sold and a running change version that was barely sold in US stores with a proper G1 color scheme. There was even a version of Sunstorm on that mold! Energon had no such luck for anyone past Starscream, but Cybertron did bring in Thundercracker as a smaller character with a cannon for an arm. The paint jobs of Thrust, Dirge, and Sunstorm were homaged for the Cybertron and Universe 2008 lines, but it all depends on either having the proper name or the scale they were made for. Skywarp, amusingly, had a more faithful color scheme with the Legends of Cybertron toy sold at SDCC, but the mainline got a recolor of Thundercracker! He may be more purple, but will that stop him from being recommended? Let's find out.

Here we have Skywarp in his jet mode, which is based on a Sukhoi Su-37 fighter jet. While not exactly made by the same manufacturer that gave us the classic F-14 or the badass F-22, it still feels appropriate for a Seeker-type design. We have a shape similar to the former, in addition to the stabilizer fins that are undoubtedly shaped similarly to the G1 jets. While null rays aren't present under the wings, we do have a few missiles or bombs that come with most military jets. What deviates this from the classics, however, is the addition of vertical fins near the cockpit as well as a nosecone pointing downwards. Whether this is due to Hasbro adhering to safety standards like with their version of Armada Starscream or just how they designed the jet is unknown. You do have some robot kibble underneath, but this is still a pretty decent jet in spite of its sort of gaudy color scheme. Honestly, purple would be fine if this was mixed with teal (Slipstream) or black (a generic Seeker).

His Cyber Key gimmick, which includes one of the Earth variety, has the fuselage pop up to reveal a cannon, complete with launching missile via two gray tabs on the sides. Reminds me a bit of Reveal the Shield Lugnut's attack feature, only spring loaded and not phallic.

For a size comparison, here he is next to the Legacy United version of Cybertron Starscream. I'm not sure how much bigger the original version of the larger get is compared to its 2024 counterpart (probably by 25%), but at least the mindset that Starscream turning into a gunship-type of jet isn't entirely lost with this comparison.

For a look at a jet mode somewhat similar to Skywarp's, here is the SS86 version of G1 Thundercracker. Obviously, they have their own differences that make these far less 1:1 with each other, but you can tell HasTak designers wanted to find something fairly close to what Seekers used to turn into before going even further with the Classics Deluxe Starscream. Funny enough, I bet the Legends version of Thundercracker was repainted into a few G1 Seekers, so maybe they weren't far off. As for Thundercracker, I have things to say about him, don't you worry.

His transformation is pretty similar to how the average Seeker design works. The cockpit area folds down, the legs are straightened, the arms are brought out, though this time, they are in different positions throughout the jet mode. The spine of the jet mode becomes the left arm, meaning we have asymmetry rarely seen on a design like this. The downside is that while the robot mode itself is fairly close to what we normally expect with a generic Seeker design, the left arm ends up being much longer and unwieldy than the right arm since it's all cannon. A similar trait was seen with Nitro Zeus from The Last Knight, yet somehow he has better proportions than what we have here with his arms not being as unbalanced despite one of them being the entire front section of his jet mode. This design always came across like a clumsier take on the Seeker design, but maybe that's the point if we consider Thundercracker's role in the series. Cybertron depicted him as a dimwitted goofball with firepower potential, hence the left arm being intentionally clumsy design work. Other things like the upside down wings and his hips being so far apart add to that awkwardness, though I should mention that the left arm should be watched out for if it starts sagging.

His head sculpt is yet another take on the G1 design, though it feels like a mix between the shape of the Armada and Energon versions of Starscream. It's appropriately blocky and has the vague shape carried over, though with unique details of its own that make him less 1:1. While light piping is included, it doesn't always work the best. As for the articulation, the neck, shoulders, biceps, and thighs are in swivels, while the in and out arm movement, elbows, and knees are on hinges; the left arm has a double joint rather than a single joint. Finally, the hips are on ball joints. And yes, the missile can still be fired without the need of a Cyber Key.

As far as repaints are concerned, this is actually the original use of the mold. Thundercracker was also deviated heavily from the classic color scheme yet felt more faithful in bot mode with a mix of blue and grey compared to Skywarp depending on just purple and white. I wouldn't mind getting this so there can be two Seekers that are like a weak yet funny duo that follow Starscream. The Hasbro version has more paint apps than the Takara version.

The last version of the mold we got was for the 2007 movie line in the form of a Walmart exclusive named Divebomb. This was one of the more bizarre attempts at trying to repaint a Unicron Trilogy mold and putting it next to the realistic bots from that film. The lemony yellow mixed with brown just feels out of place, and it feels more like a Shattered Glassc version of Thundercracker 

For a size comparison, here he is next to the same Starscream from earlier. Once again, the new Voyager is smaller than what we had before, but the scale should still be accurate. Honestly, Skywarp feels like one of the weakest molds from the line. I like the idea of having some asymmetry, but the left arm is ridiculously impractical with how it's designed. I also wish more tabs were used on the torso so it wouldn't depend on friction to keep everything in place, especially the left arm. He is a fairly inexpensive figure in the aftermarket, but I still find Skywarp a bit mediocre as a repaint. Just stick with Thundercracker and skip this or Divebomb. Only reason why I own this version of the mold was because I usually review figures right after they arrive from eBay.

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

Transformers Animated Soundwave review

It's that time again for another Transformers Animated review, this time for a Deception with unique origins amongst his kind. Rather than be a normal member of the faction, Soundwave vegan life as a Trojan horse of sorts: a gift made by Megatron intended for Sari's birthday. Knowing she would use the Allspark Key to upgrade this seemingly innocent toy, what Megatron expected was to use Soundwave as a new body before it ended up gaining sentience and turning against humans for technological superiority. While initially unwilling to attack the Autobots from refusal to harm other machines, he was tricked into believing they were traitors for serving the humans he despised. Soundwave didn't make that many appearances in the show, yet he still felt like he was a pretty prominent dude overall. Makes me wonder what he'd be like if he fully joined the Decepticons. Anyways, the revolution is now, because he now takes the review spotlight!

Here we have Soundwave in his vehicle mode. A stylized Scion XB with music elements, this alt mode further solidifies my belief that it was always meant to be a jukebox on wheels. I mean, if you remember the first Cars movie where one of the prankster cars, DJ, was a tuned out Scion with a jukebox in the trunk as well as tons of equalizers to make the altmode all about music. It has a Hot Wheels vibe with the angular profile, stylized rims, and thinner windows than normally possible on the real car, and the Allspark Blue accents actually compliment the toy rather than make it gaudy like in many Allspark Power figures (mainly the Target exclusive versions of Bee, Barry, Brawl, and Jazz). I also like the gold for the logo and the custom bumper made to resemble the tape deck buttons. I hope whoever came up with these design elements got a raise because they know how to make kickass cars I want to see in real life.

Laserbeak can tab on the top, which adds for some funky storage considering how much he comes off like a promotional tour car more than anything this time.

One thing that does suck is that the equalizer on the back is not painted, which was probably neglected because of the bot mode deco, but I would like to see some extra details on the back.

For an alt mode size comparison, here he is next to Earthrise Trailbreaker (the Legacy United Autobots Stand United version, specifically). While the scale has changed between figures from 2008 to 2020, these two seem fairly reasonable if we consider Trailbreaker is a pretty small pickup truck only bulked up with a camper on the back. Thankfully, Animated Soundwave feels nicer to hold and mess around with than Trailbreaker when it comes to plastic quality.

Before we go further in the robot mode, I need to point out a minor yet glaring design flaw: the knees are misassembled in a way that makes him bowlegged. It seems that only my copy was affected, yet this never happened for other people compared to the widespread issue that plagued many Electrostatic Soundwaves. The transformation isn't affected, but he's stuck in that cowboy stance.

First, you need to unscrew the shins from the inside of the lower legs. Be sure not to lose the screws and have them organized properly so they don't get assembled all wrong!

Then you must slide the joints from the swivel pegs before swapping them at the ball joints used for the knees. That way, the sides that are going inwards face each other while the flatter sides are flush with the thighs.

Once completed, you now have this look for the knees. Properly straightened and healthy for fighting against the humans oppressing the machines. On a side note, his beef with organic lifeforms could make him and Beast Era Megatron buddies while they teach the average Japanese Tokusatsu villain how to better hate the human race than just "erm they're heckin' bad ☝️🤓". That being said, that serial number on the shin looks rough...

Anyways, the transformation is pretty fun to go back and forth, mostly with the legs just doing all this twisting and turning to go from the front of the car to the lower legs, not to mention the way the tires face forward on the shoulders or the chest and head snapping in place feeling more satisfying than on other toys. It's this mix of nice plastic quality and addictive engineering that makes you want to pick up an Animated Transformer and play with it. The resulting robot mode is a great reimagining of the classic design Soundwave had in G1, but heavily creating an identity of its own unlike most past versions of Soundwave we had since 2018 that used the evergreen design. He's got shoulder speakers to amplify his audio, dynamic proportions rather than generic blocky ones, and an even stronger music influence than the G1 version's tape deck altmode. This dude could easily infiltrate a DJ booth and blend in fine enough if he doesn't want to attack the humans partying! You'd think the purists would be on board with this look, though I bet even a stylized remaining of the G1 design would be seen as an unholy insult that would trigger them as much as whenever Soundwave has a drastically different design like in the films or Prime.

His head sculpt is meant to be based on the way some characters from 2000 AD's ABC Warriors had their eyes shaped, but it's kind of vague in terms of how the homage turned out. Still, I love the badass shape of the visor contrasted by the bigger cheek guards and mouthplate, making him still look awesome in spite of being cartoony. He looks like he could play Fat Joe's album in the series and get away with licensing fees! How articulation consists of swivels at the neck and waist, ball joints at the shoulders, elbows, hips, and knees, as well as hinges at the ankles. Using the knobs on the guitar as pegs for the screw holes means he can be posed rocking it out with Laserbeak!

As for Laserbeak's bird mode, spite it in half to form the wings, slide the top part down to form a more feather-like tail, and shorten the guitar neck to complete the look. I wish the eyes were painted but this is still one of the best ways to integrate Laserbeak without making him a tape.

As far as reuses are concerned, the Takara version of Soundwave has a metallic coat of paint while the Decepticon insignias are fully colored. I may add some Reprolabels to complete the purple look on the logos for the Hasbro copy...

We later got Electrostatic Shockwave that casts him in grey with red and lavender accents. Instead of Laserbeak, he comes with Ratbat the keytar. I almost want to get this just for Ratbat, but the deco looks cool on Soundwave.

The Takara version manages to be even better, replacing the grey with black, lavender with silver, and adding some gold on Ratbat. If there was ever a Takara Animated repaint to get, make this one of them!

For anyone wondering how well he would look with a modern Animated toy, or at least one set ing as a retool, here he is next to the recent Age of the Primes version of Animated Wreck-Gar. Though clearly a retool of a spiky Junkion and not really matching the source material anywhere near as well as the other Animated characters we got in the series (other than the Autotrooper), these two Allspark Key creations (Allsparkeyrations?) don't look too different from each other when it comes to the overall aesthetics. Overall, Animated Soundwave is a great figure to have from the Deluxe Class cast of characters, especially with that rockstar vibe that makes him want to rock the face off any unsuspecting Autobot. Even if he wasn't part of the main group of Animated Decepticons, I recommend you get him ASAP. 

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