Transformers Armada Giga-Con Class Jetfire with Comettor: The stars aligned for this review

I felt it fitting to close this three pack of reviews by looking at the one that not only inspired this set, but also the one that got me into Transformers in the first place, or at least the version I have because I don't have that version anymore. For you see, like how Pokemon Emerald was my first main experience with Pokemon, the repaint of this toy, Powerlinx Jetfire, was my first Transformer. While that one has been mostly lost to time, the original version of the mould was included with Prime and Overload, and so now lives in my house again, though this time as the original release of the mould in Japan, this is the Takara version (only main difference is some deco choices like the removal of the re-entry fire). How well has the figure held up though?

I'll start with Commetor, which, while I wasn't able to keep the Jetfire, this is the Powerlinx deco. Why do I bring it up, it's because one thing that often happened when it came to the Powerlinx decos for repaints is that the colours would flip. The main colours of the Mini-Con would become the main colours of the main toy, and vice versa. Why do I bring this up? Because if you do a switch and give Powerlinx Comettor to Original Deco Jetfire, the two compliment each other very well. But it also means that Comettor blends in a bit too much. The deco on Powerlinx Comettor is very basic, with about as much detail on it as some Legion Class toys now. What also doesn't help Comettor is that it's held down by gimmicks, though they are quite ingenious. The alt mode is a little Luna Rover-like vehicle, and while the alt mode's got as much movement as the next time Hasbro would try to combine Optimus and Jetfire (spoilers, Jetfire has a Pants Mode), Comettor can connect to a port in Jetfire's Space Shuttle Mode and act as the front landing gear. Is it necessary like Overload and Rollout? Nope, but it is a great way to integrate the Mini-Con into the alt mode, albeit a tedious one to work. While I prefer how Tidal Wave and Ramjet integrate (maybe someday), this is still one of the best cross-functionality between main bot and Mini-Con.

As for Jetfire himself in Space Shuttle mode, I won't lie, this is a great looking Space Shuttle. There are some creative liberties taken, mainly around the boosters for the sake of Robot mode legs along with the paintwork, but this does pull off the shape of a Space Shuttle really well. It also has a feature that a lot of Transformers nowadays struggle with, or just outright ignore, Integrated Weapon Storage. The gun is the third Booster engine, and a Shield Jetfire has become the rear landing gear. The gun is also where all the electronics for the figure are held, which does mean that the common figure killer is contained to something easily worked around. While the cargo doors are somewhat useless (unless you want to break up the look of the shuttle), the three other visible Mini-Con ports do have functionality other than just a place to plug Mini-Cons on. It can change the sound effects the Gun plays, and two missiles can be dropped from the wings when plugging them on. There's a feeling of refinement in this toy, like the designers wanted a strong alt mode that wasn't held back by the gimmicks, and to me at least, they did succeed, even if the alt mode isn't something as interesting (in terms of being turned into a toy) like a tank or a helicopter.

The tighter focus does continue into robot mode, though not as gracefully. Proportions and minor cracks in the illusion are big problems for Jetfire in Robot mode, thanks to his small arms (the gun is bigger than his arms), and the way the legs connect to the body. Pudgy is also a word that can be used to describe his robot mode. Not fat per se, but definitely on the plus side in terms of weight. However, unlike Optimus and Overload, this guy can actually move around and is surprisingly poseable for a bot in this line (or at least what I've been exposed too, which is sad when you think about it). Head swivel, ratcheted shoulders, friction ratchet in the elbows, nothing at the hips, but he does have knee ratchets, knee swivels and ankle tilts. Not ideal possibility, but workable, and the lightweight, but the sturdy feeling plastic makes it great for kids to play around with. Alas though, there is one major flaw with Jetfire, and that comes down to his third mode.

I'll say it upfront here and now, Jetfire's Combined Mode feels forced, like a last minute inclusion because aside from the clips needed to connect to Prime, the parts needed to make it work aren't there, it doesn't improve Prime at all. This is no more poseable then the trailer's legs are, the only difference is that one is a locked A-frame stance, the other can also stand straight and is a little taller, you're still not going to get Prime to walk, something you'd think either one of these would consider making a priority. it is possible to get Prime, Overload and Jetfire to connect together, though it's not a solid connection. You do have to move one part of Jetfire pretty far out of the way to make the connection work, and it never feels pleasant to do. Like I said during the Overload review, I feel sorry for those who have to connect to Optimus Prime, though at least Jetfire gets away with it to the best that he can.

While many older fans might think I'm crazy by saying this, I'm glad that this was my first introduction to Transformers. It's not flawless and is certainly not the best that Armada has to offer, but it is one of the better toys in the Armada line. The gimmicks are controlled, the alt mode looks great, and while the robot mode suffers a little bit, it's due to the limitations of the time rather than the combined mode. When I say that there are gems in the Armada line, this is one of the examples I point to, because while it might not be a flawless gem, it certainly has its charm. Next week will return to some more recent figures, for the Dinobots return to the site. It is time, for Volcanicus to rise!... look, distribution for Power of the Primes has been awful here in Australia ok? The delay was really because I only got them a few days ago (at time of writing).

Transformers Armada Max-Con Class Overload (with Rollout): Welcome to the bad disguise club

From personal experience, there seem to be two types of combining toys when it comes to Transformers. The "Combiners", like Abominus, Bruticus, Rail Racer, Superion, and others like it, and then there are those that come off as more like an upgrade kit for another bot. These normally seem to be the two bot combiners, and while that might not accurately describe versions of the function like the Energon Autobots or the Mini-Cons, it does describe today's gimmick victim perfectly. Armada Overload, not to be confused with his more badass Decepticon relative, Overlord.

I'll start with the Mini-Con first because as you'll quickly find out, this toy does not work without either Rollout or Optimus Prime. To my knowledge, Rollout is the biggest Mini-Con made in Armada, if not the biggest Mini-Con ever made. Most of that comes from the fact that Rollout doesn't interact with Overload the same way as other Mini-Cons do with their partners. Most Mini-Cons either activate electronics, deploy and/or fire a spring-loaded weapon, friction fire some ammo for a weapon, and other functions like that. There are a few that do more with their larger partners though, like Sideway's dual Mini-cons being a rider for him in bike mode, and are two different heads for him in robot mode. In the case of Overload and Rollout though, Rollout is the core part of Overload's alternate mode (turning into the truck needed to make Overload into something functional other then being a red brick), a Headmaster for Overload (with electronics that activate when connecting), a Targetmaster for other robots, as well as needing to be a stand-alone robot. As a result, Rollout's not a very good Mini-Con, just due to all the extra things it needs to do, but there is still a certain charm to it. It uses the same transformation ideas that characters like Inferno (not the bug one) still use to this day, just tuck everything behind the stomach, but does not have any articulation in robot mode other then a pair of awkwardly placed, somewhat pointless thigh swivels and some elbow swivels meant more for transformation. It's hard for me to hate this guy though just because of everything he needs to do. His partner on the other hand...

I feel sorry for almost every bot that exists to connect to an Optimus Prime. I do, I genuinely do. Why? Because more often then not, they're going to get the short end of the stick and be made worse for the sake of making that Prime better. Case in point with Overload, because I don't even know what this is supposed to be. A launch ramp for Armada Jetfire? A red brick to help justify Prime's name in Japan, Convoy? While the sculpt work on it is great, and the paint is solid, but underdone at points, the "trailer" is just a bunch of robot parts stuck together, the only thing it hides are the hands. There are no gimmicks in this mode, the only thing it can do is attach itself to Rollout, Optimus directly, or Prime's trailer. The brick motif continues onto the robot mode to, because Overload is even more static then several G1 figures.No necks, no elbows, no knees, and the legs can only bend one way, and can only go two clicks of the ratchet. For a toy to play with, he's fun, and the blocky look to him gives him a real presence, but there isn't a lot here from an adult's perspective. Even figures like Tidal Wave pull off the blocky, powerful robot look while still being able to pull a pose. Everything about this though screams "let me leach on Optimus Prime". So how well do those work?

Starting with the lesser known function, it can connect to Prime's trailer in base mode. Turning the base into an awkward looking turret, letting you put two more spring-loaded launchers on it, and have Prime operate it. It doesn't do much, it's a pretty fixed turret, but it's a simple enough alternate configuration for the guns. The mode it's most well known for though is the ability to connect to Prime's super bot mode. While it's a slight pain to connect it, once it's on, it's secure. It's tight, it's not going anywhere. Does it look ridiculous when attached to Prime? Yes, but it's a good kind of ridiculous. It's at a level of it being so obscured that it comes back to being badass. The same thing can be said for the quality of it. It's not objectively good, but it's still fun for being so bad that it's kind of good.

That's really the best thing I can say about Overload as a whole. Is it good? Objectively no, but it's fun enough to the point where I don't really care. It's fun for kids, it's certainly more durable then toys are nowadays, and for as bad as the execution of the gimmicks are, the result is so stupid that it's badass. Don't get this toy if you don't have Optimus though, because while it doesn't fix Optimus at all, Overload sacrifices everything in order to connect to Optimus, and suffers as a result. Up next, the reason why we did these three, for a reason you'll soon find out, Armada Jetfire. And up next on the main site, with the holidays coming, how about we check out a game for the family, Super Mario Party.

Transformers Armada Super Base Class Optimus Prime (With Sparkplug): Behold, that time when Prime was a Pyromaniac

Armada's a weird part of Transformers, that whole section of the franchise's life is either loved, hated, or overall impartial, in terms of community opinions. What doesn't help is the mixed bag the toyline was for the time. And one of the best examples I can think of to show how drastic the quality can be in this line can come from this mini-series of reviews, starting with Super Base Optimus Prime.

Transformers Generations; Power of the Primes Deluxe Class Cutthroat: How does he cut throats? He hasn't got a knife

Yes, these are the kinds of questions that keep me up at night.

While I know I promised a land shark of a repainted velociraptor, the shark hasn't come in yet and there's not much to say about Cindersaur other then the new head and the bio card confusion. So, I thought I'd talk about another repaint that is a bit more exciting to talk about. Cutthroat, a decent retool of Wave 1's Swoop.

Transformers Power of the Primes Deluxe Class Blot: Who made Dr. Frankenstein's assistant a Transformer?

Finally, a second Terrorcon to review. Hopefully, this doesn't end up like Volcanicus, and the remaining limb bots are impossible to find. While other combiner teams go with a consistent theme to them, the Terrorcons were one of the teams that didn't have a consistency to them other than being monsters. The only other that comes to mind, in terms of Generation 1 Combiners is their Autobot counterpart, the Technobots. We go from a double-headed dragon to a... troll? Ogre? To tell you the truth I honestly don't know what this is supposed to be. I can at least review him, so I will.

Transformers Combiner Wars/ Power of the Primes Jet Mould Bonanza: So. Many. REPAINTS!!!

If Combiner Wars was known for one thing, it was mould reuse. If there was ever a line that milked engineering dry, it was this one. To give an extreme example, let's take the Dead End mould, one introduced in Wave 2 as a part of Menasor. How many times was that mould used? sixteen times when combining Hasbro, Takara, and convention exclusives. So while at first, it might appear that this review is looking at five different toys, we are in fact only looking at two, and at the same time, we're looking at twenty-eight toys. For you can find nine versions of Blast Off, and nineteen versions of the other four. And that's ignoring the fact that all five share almost the exact same engineering so it could be argued that we're looking at the same toy five times out of twenty-eight! If I included a revisit to Vortex here too, we'd be looking at forty different versions of the same basic toy released in three years. Will this get me out of reviewing all the variants of the Arialbot moulds? I hope so. Here is the revisit for Combiner Wars Blast Off (General Retail), the review of Combiner Wars Fellbat and Guyhawk, and Power of the Primes Dreadwind and Blackwing.

Starting in the Jet modes, it's clear who got which mould. For you see, all of these started in Combiner Wars Wave 1, with the Arialbots. Or more accurately, Blast Off, Fellbat and Dreadwind were in wave 1, Guyhawk and Blackwing's variant came in Wave 2. For some reason, they released Wave 1 with Drag Strip, one of the limb-bots of the Decepticon Combiner, Menasor, and Air Raid was in Wave 2, and Wave 2 had Air Raid, one of the Limb bots of the Autobot Combiner, Superion. Now, why is this weird? Because the rest of the Wave 1 Deluxes were the other Autobots needed for Superion, and the rest of Wave 2 were the Decepticons needed to make Menasor (well, in terms of the traditional configurations). You might say that they didn't want to have a wave of Autobots and a wave of Decepticons, but every later wave in the line didn't bother mixing them up. We even got two waves of nothing but Autobots in terms of the Deluxe Class. Now, what separates all of these flyboys? In terms of engineering? Not much. What defines any variations in engineering really comes down to what happens to the wings and tailfins. Arms, Legs, Heads and Cockpits? All exactly the same. Dreadwind and Blackwing have the most variations in engineering due to the requirements of Power of the Primes, but on top of that, there's also a gimmick that the two have that no other variations of the moulds do.

They can combine into a larger jet, which is, unfortunately, more impressive then it really is. All the extra engineering really gives you is two jets barely hanging together thanks to Blackwing only relying on the port meant for the combiner hand in Dreadwind's arm mode. A port not meant to take a lot of weight, and as such it takes no effort to separate the two. I'm also not a fan of how they handled Blackwing's nosecone and head, as they kinda just hang there, breaking the "sleek" look the rest of the jet goes for. What's also annoying is that one of the wings on my copy of Dreadwind doesn't properly connect to the leg assembly, though it's manageable. It still holds in place, it's just at a slight angle.

Now then, Combiner Limb modes (I'm skipping deco until robot modes for now). While these pictures don't have them include their hands or feet, it's because there's nothing extra to talk about with them. Blast Off, Guyhawk and Fellbat all have the Combiner Wars Hand/Foot/Guns, Dreadwind and Blackwing both have Prime armour hands with two thumbs. Seen them before, not much to add on the matter. All five leg modes look like squashed jets, and all five arms look like they're stuck halfway in the transformation process. Blackwing has one of the most awkward leg modes while Dreadwind doesn't even try to hide his robot mode arms. The other three manage to hide them better purely on the basis of their arms not standing out thanks to colour schemes. One annoying problem I noticed though with Fellbat and Guyhawk though is the shape of their heads. They're a tad too long to let the combiner peg assembly they're attached to do a full 360 movement. It's not the end of the world as it's easily worked around, but it is somewhat annoying as there are only a few other toys (to my knowledge) that have that same problem in the line.

To Robot Modes, and while they all share the same engineering to an extent, all five do at least look like different robots. Dreadwind and Blackwing have the advantage of being heavy retools, but if I was reviewing any other variant of the moulds from Combiner Wars, I would not be saying that. A lot of variety in the Combiner Wars versions of the moulds were in the heads and paint jobs. There was very little retooling in the line to help separate characters. As a result, Dreadwind and Blackwing are a nice change of pace, though while I'm more open to them, I probably wouldn't be if I got all the Combiner Wars versions of the moulds. What I find strange though is that while Dreadwind and Blackwing are built off Combiner Wars moulds, their combined modes feel like an afterthought. This is especially true for Blackwing, as all the extra joints needed for the combined jet mode make the combiner limbs look awkward. But at the same time, due to how bad the execution is on the combined jet, it's at least a good sign that the jet and robot modes look good at all. Out of the five though, I prefer Fellbat's robot mode. It's still surprising to me how powerful it looks when most jets go for a leaner look in their robot modes. When Blast Off was confirmed as an Arialbot repaint, most people were mad at it due to the fact that a Blast Off that was accurate to Generation 1 would be a Space shuttle. I honestly don't care either way, though I do stand by the belief of the fighter jet making more sense in the army team. As for Guyhawk, as obnoxious as the colour is, it is accurate to the original toy. There really is a pink Decepticon jet. As a pink Decepticon jet, Guyhawk does look good, though who in their right mind thought a pink jet would be a good disguise?

Should you own one of each of these? It's up to you. Should you own all twenty-eight variations of these moulds? No way! Unless you want them for combiner limbs, you do not need every version of this ever made, and even the combiner limb excuse isn't well justified as that number includes convention repaints and Takara releases. Are they fun toys to mess around with? Yes. Fun enough to buy them that many times? No. Nothing like this is.

Nendoroid Number 620; Zelda, The Wind Waker Version: Better then Funko Pops in every way?

I am not a fan of Funko Pops. Honestly, I hate them. I think they're quite bland, and either very generic or for those rare times when the standard mould can't be used, really creepy. It's why you'll never see a review of a Funko Pop on here that I bought for myself because I never will. I'm a huge Pokemon fan, not enough of one to look past the eldritch horror that the Funko Pop Pikachu is. There are other alternatives to it though, including a Japanese collectible line known as Nendoroids. At least when it comes to Australian releases, most never see the light of day here, but there are a few that do get a release here, including one that I picked up a few years ago, "Zelda, The Wind Waker Version", or as she'll be known as from here on out, Toon Zelda. Who's ready for a constant attack on Funko Pops?

Lego City 60191; Arctic Exploration Team: Perfect timing on my end!

Too late for Australian winter, too early for winter in the Northern Hemisphere, truly the best time to review a set themed around arctic exploration!

It might be because I've never actually been to the snow, but themes and locations based around snow, ice and the like always do intrigue me. I even tend to let Ice themed platformer levels slide just due to the theme, even if it means subjecting myself to Ice physics leading to awkward platforming challenges... Moving on, while the Lego City theme, one of the few original themes Lego does still prioritize to some degree, has a lot of sub-themes to it, a lot of it can be connected to either Firefighting, Police, or some form of rescue operations. There are some like trains that tend to remain in circulation for a long time, but rarely does the line branch out from the norm, most of it tends to be in "Lego City". However, every now and then, you get something new, such as a new sub-line themed around Arctic Exploration, and where we go to today because I rarely get interested in City themes, starting off with one of the smaller sets of the wave, the Arctic Exploration Team.

Transformers Generations Thrilling 30 Deluxe Class Chromia: Congrats on the new legs, they're better then the Unicycle look

While some might try to disagree, try to call it out as a form of forced inclusivity, it's hard to deny that Transformers is a toyline mostly aimed at boys, and for a while, female characters were a no-show. While female characters have existed since G1, it took until Beast Wars for the girls to be getting toys, with Blackarachnia's first toy being a repaint of Tarantulus, and the first toy to be made from the ground up to be a girl being Transmetal Airazor. "What about Arcee!" I hear you say, well, while she apparently had prototypes and sketches, her first toy was a retool of Transmetal 2 Blackarachnia, as a convention exclusive in 2001. her first toy was in the same wave as today's review, in 2014. And people wonder why we're getting at least one female Transformer each line now? Granted, that wasn't her first toy, as every time she's had appearances in a show of even the live action films, she's had a toy. The reason I say that is because Chromia here is a repaint of one of those toys, from Transformers Prime, something that is surprisingly common because, for all her appearances, she's never had a unique mould. How well does this look work for her? Well, one way to find out.

Transformers Power of the Primes Leader Class Orion Pax/Optimus Prime: Two toys for the price of one

Optimus Prime combining with his trailer to get stronger is not something new. Powermaster Prime did it (originally), I know off the top of my head that it's something that the Robots in Disguise 2001 toy did along with Armada and Cybertron. one of the toys for Dark of the Moon even did it (I couldn't tell you if he did in the film, other then it's implied that he did). However, there is something that the others haven't really done, and that was introduced Prime's identity before he became a Prime into this formula, Orion Pax. See, the gimmick of the Leader Class Power of the Primes toys was the ability to turn a toy that's roughly Deluxe sized into a Leader Class toy with some extra armour. For some characters, this worked out well. Others... not so much. Apologies Primal, this is one case where Truck is better then Monkey... oh you thought fans complaining about changes was something new in this Fandom? It's been going on longer then I've been alive. Anyway, how well does this hold up? Is this the superior Prime Wars trilogy Prime? Ok, that one I can answer now as yes because it looks the closest to what many fans consider Optimus Prime to look like, but that's beside the point.

Transformers Titans Return Leader Class Powermaster Optimus Prime: When the white one gets to be the original

Oh Titans Return, a line of strong potential, great figures with few duds, but alas, unable to capitalize on its full potential, with many believed shoe in faces never to get the light of day. Apeface and Snapdragon, a pair of triple changer headmasters in a line of triple changing headmasters? Nope. Star Saber and the other Brainmasters? Nope. Well known and well-loved headmasters in the community? Maybe as standalone Titan Masters. The first two waves even had teases of returning cassette bots and cons in the Legends class to connect to Leader class Blaster and Soundwave (yes I know the irony of not reviewing that figure still, even though I go by Blaster, in some form, online), yet neither Blaster or Soundwave got their full set of iconic cassettes. The line as a whole really felt like, at least to me, it had some more room to grow, especially in Japan where the figures eventually started getting Targetmaster companions to go alongside the figures that were originally Targetmasters in the Generation 1 toyline. What was also very annoying was the distribution from wave 3 onwards here, let alone the exclusives. "No Hasbro, absolutely no one here in Australia wanted those exclusives. No one wanted Nautica, or Tidal Wave, or Magnus Prime, or Brainstorm, or Quickswitch, or Arcee, or a full set of Monsterbots". (I'd love to give a review of those three, but the only one I have is Twinferno). Apparently they also really didn't want to make a Godbomber and left Takara to do him and a Powermaster Prime that can connect to it. What did we get at general retail? A repaint of Combiner Wars Ultra Magnus. Well seeing as Magnus isn't here to defend himself, let's see what this Prime's made of as we delve into a somewhat mini-marathon of Combining Primes, starting with the one who can't combine unless you get him from Japan!

Tamagotchi Mini: Unnecessarily simplifying for the modern day before it was cool

Yes, this is the best tie into Digimon that I can do at the moment. In my defence, this is basically what Digimon started off as. It wasn't a Pokemon rip off, it was a Tamagotchi rip off.

It's somewhat surprising what things just won't die. I don't know if it's a testament to how beloved Tamagotchi's are, or that people really don't want real pets. While the original Tamagotchi's were released just before my time (I was alive, but you don't give small electronics to a one-year-old), they did get a small resurgence when I was in Primary School with the "Tamagotchi Connection" line around the mid-2000's. Now in 2018, they're back again with a re-release of the Tamagotchi Mini's, and the originals apparently getting a re-release in a few months (at least in the US according to a Wiki I'm using to make sure I get some dates roughly right). Aimed purely at nostalgic fans of the original toys, I figured it would be somewhat interesting to see how well these things hold up by today's standards. Will this appeal to kids nowadays? One way to find out.

Sixshot Showdown: Hasbro's Titans Return Leader Class Sixshot vs Iron Factory Legends Scaled Shadow Tengu

Yes, I know, this should be a review of a Tamagotchi, but I got one of the Iron Factory one in recently, and wanted an excuse to review it and the official one from last year. Two bots, six modes each, I'm sure it'll be fun, right? Want to see who the better Phase Sixer is?

I'll start off with one flaw they share. They share it with each other, they share it with the G1 toy, it will be a problem Sixshots will have so long as they look anything like this and do the six-changer gimmick (the one exception I can think of was that one time in Energon he was a Shockblast repaint, "Who in itself was totally not meant to be Shockwave, totally different character, ignore the similarities!"... it was something Hasbro did back then if they couldn't get the name rights again. At least it's better than Shockwaveblast). The problem is a problem the gimmick has built into it. See, Sixshot's whole gimmick is that he is a Six changer, a toy that officially has six modes. In the case of Sixshot, we have a robot, a car, a tank, a gun, a jet, and a wolf mode. The problem is that with any Transformer, the more modes you have in a toy, the worse each mode gets. Generally, a Sixshot's best mode is his robot mode, with any others being hit or miss at best. On the plus side, this means that this character is far more playable than any other Transformer toy, and the multiple modes encourage fan mode finding like the now infamous flying wolf mode, but if you're looking for a feasible looking car, or tank, or jet, or gun, or wolf, you might want to go get a Transformer that only turns into one of them.

Who here better lives up to the legacy of this guy?

Transformers Combiner Wars Leader Class Armada Megatron: And people thought Optimus was stretching the definition of a combiner...

The move away from Generation 1 into Generation 2 was not kind to Megatron, was it? Well, that depends on how you look at it honestly as he was one of a few characters that got new toys in Generation 2, mostly because he wasn't allowed to be a gun anymore. Since then Megs has bounced around between alt mode, but the one he always comes back to after he's done being weird by being a space car, or a dragon, or a hand, or a Nerf gun in order to try and please both fans and people that have real power, is a Tank. Why? Your main villain is a gun, what else are you going to turn him into when you need to change him other than a giant gun on tracks? Normally that would be the end of it, make a new Tank Megs, make it a Voyager or a Leader, shove it out in a wave in a new toy line and be done with it. Combiner Wars Wave 1 though did actually try to keep the Combiner label for its Leader class figures. There was just one small problem... Megatron doesn't really do combining, does he? There are only two that I recall, being the Cybertron one where he combined with an evil Lion (cause they needed some excuse to keep the Nemesis name), and Armada, where he combined with Tidal Wave. To Hasbro though, connecting Minicons is close enough to combining so a few additions to the mould, a new head and a new colour scheme later and you've got yourself a Combiner Wars Armada Megatron!

Lego Star Wars; The Clone Wars set number 7675; AT-TE: Six legs are better then four!

I, like many others, enjoyed Star Wars The Clone Wars when it was originally airing. I enjoyed the character interpretations, the story ideas, the story structure, to me, it is the best thing set in the Prequel era, the second being Revenge of the Sith. The pilot movie was honestly the first Star Wars film I saw at cinemas. Like many others, I am looking forward to the final season finally being made, even if it's for a streaming service. Do I think it's going to live up to the hype? No, mostly because we know they're sticking to the original plans for the season, and some of those episodes have already been released (albeit in a very, very unfinished state). Unlike some people, I'm not calling for Lucasarts management to be sent to the internet equivalent of the Gallows, and am not believing the "management's going to ruin Clone Wars". To take a stab at that fandom, it's hard to believe anything's "the worst thing to happen to Star Wars" now when the same thing has been said about a lot of things. Do I need to bring up the joke I made when I was reviewing the Flash animation version of Clone Wars where the "let's look at the version of Star Wars fans love to forget exists" could be said about Episode 1, Episode 2, Episode 3, Episode 7, The Clone Wars, something I can't remember because this was when I was using linked imaged rather than uploading them so its now a dead link, the Christmas Special and Clone Wars? (Before anyone brings it up, the inclusion of Clone Wars and Episode 7 was a stab at the "Star Wars is only the original trilogy" crowd, and the review was actually done before Episode 7 came out, back in September 2015).

Back on topic, ever since 1999, Lego has been making Lego sets based on Star Wars and its films, original expanded universe, current expanded universe, shows, games, Lego made spin-offs, basically if you can name a vehicle in Star Wars that is somewhat recognizable to general audiences, there's a good chance Lego has made at least one set based on it and the more well known the vehicle is, the more versions of it Lego has made (on Brickpedia under Star Wars, there are 16 results of sets that have X-Wing in the name, just as an example). With the 20th anniversary next year, it's a safe bet Lego is going to keep this IP as long as possible and will try to renew the licence in 2022. For now though, let's look at the Prequel Walker five years in the making (the one before this one came out in 2003 for Attack of the Clones), let's look at The Clone Wars AT-TE.

Transformers Power of the Primes Lege... um... "Deluxe Class" (?) Battletrap: Can this be considered an upgrade?

While nowadays Hasbro and Takara tend to dedicate an entire year's worth of toys to a gimmick, back in Generation 1 and Generation 2 (it could be said that it was phased out in the Beast Era), gimmicks were given to select few characters, and those could be considered teams for either faction. One of those was the Duocons, two Decepticons that have two alternate modes that combine together to form a robot. The best way to describe them is something like one of the old Power Core Combiners, where once the two pieces are together, spring connections move around to form the "robot". A toy gimmick that limits movement in the toy combined with G1 toy design not letting anything that doesn't need to move to have any movement at all, you can imagine how well G1 Flywheels and Battletrap looked. The thing is though that there isn't a huge amount of love for the Duocons, and many expected Battletrap to get the same treatment Flywheels got, a Titan Master toy by the name of Skytread in Titans Return. Two Legends class toys of two new characters that combine into a new Battletrap? No one was expecting that. Allow me to introduce Battleslash and Roadtrap, today's review subjects.

San Diego Comic-Con 2018 Roundup Part 1 (maybe): Bots, Bricks, Cars, Intergalactic Wars, and a mashup of things because I'm not splitting this between the two sites

Don't worry, I plan on getting back into reviews soon. I just need to get through this dump of news first. While this will not, I repeat, WILL NOT, cover everything from San Diego Comic-Con this year (trust me, its better this way because most of the content won't be "This is a thing... moving on"), I will be looking at some large parts of it, including more Transformers news, this time on the official side of the spectrum, Lego news, the return of The Clone Wars, and Hot Wheels of all things. Shall we get started?

TFCon 2018 Roundup Part 2: The Show floor

And now onto Part 2 of TFCon before all of this becomes completely outdated! For Part 1, you can find it here: https://mediaholicstoybox.blogspot.com/2018/07/tfcon-2018-roundup-part-1-slideshow.html as I won't be repeating things that I've already covered. I will admit that there will be a mix of already released, about to be released, and work in progress figures not ready for release here. I don't know which is which, I'm just looking at the figures themselves. Anyway, shall we get started?

TFCon 2018 Roundup Part 1: The Slideshow

The Northern Hemisphere Summer, a time when it feels like everyone wants to get all their news stories out on what they're working on. While San Diego Comic-Con is on this weekend to talk about more official new releases, I thought I might dabble in the Third Party scene, see what those companies are up to, seeing as TF Con was last weekend. Do not expect reviews of these to happen. I am not made of money, and these figures are not cheap! Also, heads up, this is a text dump with not a lot of images. There is a link to the site where I got my news from though, and it is in the order of those images.

Amiibo Round up; Splatoon series: Paintball, Fashion, and Selfies, this really is a hodge podge of generations

While I have reviewed Amiibo as a whole on the main site a while ago, to act as a comparison between them and a few other items in the Toys to Life market, I haven't really given them an individual review, a proper analysis where they can stand up on their own right. I'd like to change that here and now, and to show that I do actually review more things than just Transformers and Lego, I'll start to review the many amiibo that have been released over the years. I'll be doing them in either their series or potentially, later on, the waves they are released in. While I will try to do them as close to release as possible (for future ones) that might be easier said than done considering how much stock Australia is getting and where it's going. Seriously, I almost had to delay this because it was hard to find on the shelf stock for Pearl and Marina. Really hope that sorts itself out come December, otherwise we'll be seeing another Ness situation. Enough looking to the future though, let's take a look at what we have now.

Lego UFO 6975; Alien Avenger: *Insert War of the Worlds joke here*

Light bricks? Giant single pieces? Magnets? Packaging and marketing that promotes breaking the sets and building what you want without it being implied?! What kind of world have we walked into? Welcome to Lego UFO, a subline of what many now call Classic Space, adding an evil alien faction to that world. This was right before Star Wars took the throne of the main Space theme, and ushered in an era where space sets were focused more on combat rather than exploration. This was a time where sets didn't need to have something actually fire, and that time where children having greater access to technology wasn't at a point where they're born with a phone in their hand, so companies could afford adding more gimmicks to their toys. It's time for us to see some of the dangers the great unknown has for us.

Transformers Beast Wars Transmetal Mega class Optimus Primal: ... the heck is Mega class?

What do you do when your repeat visit with Transformers Generation 2 fails spectacularly? You use your new assets in the form of Kenner, tell them to go nuts, and as a result, they turn everyone into robots with biological animal bits, then robot animals with biological robots, then a fusion of the two while also deciding to throw animals together... along with implementing franchise wide improvements like ball joints, the move from Die-cast metal to plastic, size classes, having a show that isn't all about selling new toys (ok not everyone adopted that one but there have been some great shows that have), helping to pioneer 3D animation for television... basically there isn't much to mock Beast wars of. While I wait patiently for my foot to heal so that I don't need to roll the dice with select stores and how they handle stock cataloging on their sites, I figured I would go back and review the one Beast Wars figure I personally own, before I eventually review Power of the Primes Optimal Optimus... and maybe one day that Masterpiece Primal if I can find one, that just looks great. Anyway, come and take a trip with me to the distant past of 1998, as we tackle a Transmetal gorilla.

Transformers Power of the Primes Voyager Class Terrorcon Hun-Gurrr: Behold the evil that is Hunger!

And now for another episode of "Transformers Generation 1 should not be taken as seriously as some people make it out to be". Staring a white and hot pink double headed dragon!

The problem with combiner releases is that you're effectively put into a no-win situation as there are three main ways of release. You can either release the individual bots in a whole wave of toys, having shelves be dominated by basically one character and one faction. You could release the combiners as a gift set that would be hard to sell because many shoppers are easily fooled into thinking 4 $50 toys is cheaper than 1 $200 toy, or you can do what Power of the Primes is doing, and drip feed combiner teams split up between two (or potentially more) waves. It's why you haven't seen a full Volcanicus review yet (the Wave 2 deluxe aren't out on brick and mortar shelves yet). In this case, we have a combiner who gets a torso and an arm in wave 2, and the rest of him in wave 3. Meet the Terrorcons, heralding from that mythical year of 1987, where gimmicks were starting to become more apparent, and ideas started to get crazier. This is the year where we got the Headmasters, Targetmasters, Monsterbots, Horrorcons (triple changing Headmasters that people are still bitter about not coming into the Titans Return line), Duocons (Battletrap will be coming soon), and Six shot. It got weirder from there. While the Technobots were released during Combiner Wars as a gift set (along with a standalone release of Scattershot to form Betatron?), the Terrorcons, their considered counterpart, was nowhere to be seen until this year. As a fan of this team ever since seeing reviews of the third party version of Abominus released by Unique Toys called Ordin (hopefully a review candidate one day, 3P combiners are expensive, especially older ones), I was excited to learn that we were getting a new official one in Power of the Primes. How well does it hold up? Well, a team is only as good as its leader, so let's see how Hun-Gar holds up.

Starting in the dragon mode, Hun-Grr does look like a nice retool of Combiner Wars Silverbolt, in the same vein as how Titans Return Broadside is a retool of the previous wave's Alpha Trion. However, the big problem with Hun-Garr is that he's kind of boring to transform. He puts his mass to good use, but it's obvious what's going to become the robot mode legs and robot mode arms. You basically move a few things away, reveal the robot head, then stand him up by dislocating his dragon mode heads to use as feet... that sounds morbid now that I think about it, though still not as bad as Brainmasters requiring humans to impale themselves on their own legs. For Kids! Getting back to Hun-Gurrr's dragon, the paint details are fine, not much intricacy to them, but the pink does help break apart the sea of white and dark grey. The stickers are also more tasteful here in comparison to someone like Starscream's, with the main ones being protected by sculpting, being recessed a little in the dragon necks/ robo shins. Hunger also has two small stickers on the dragon heads, two Decepticon logos on what will be the robot mode shoulders, including one meant to look like an old rub sign which I find interesting because this is the first character in the line to do that, and finally two on the backs of the front dragon legs meant for torso mode. Unfortunately, these ones are starting to peel off for me. So close! Articulation is lacking in major areas of the dragon mode, mainly in the necks. Due to these being the robot mode legs, they have the articulation needed for the legs and not much else, except for some movement for the heads. It feels limiting at times, mainly for if you want the dragon heads to be further apart without looking at an angle, I wish there was either an inward hinge in the robot thighs or the heads to be on ball joints, rather then the hinges they're currently on. The front legs are also pathetic compared to the back legs/ robot arms, being just one static piece on two hinges for transformation. The tail also doesn't move, which I can live with, I just wish the tail itself was a bit longer because it looks tiny in dragon mode.

Before going into robot mode, a fan mode I have a bit of fun with on this guy is what I call the "Demon crab mode". Flip out the Abominus head, and move the dragon necks to your desire.

To robot mode, and unfortunately, Hun-Gur comes off as an almost basic bot, except for the combiner kibble that makes up his backpack and most of his dragon gut (the front legs fold up into the backpack for robot mode). There isn't much of a flare in his design except for the hot pink accents, and the fact that he has a dragon tail for a chest piece. Articulation is pretty standard for a combiner boss, with the exception being all the foot articulation he gained from the dragon heads leading to ankle tilt in all four directions. Unfortunately, on mine, the shoulder ratchets on his left shoulder feel weaker than the right, and feel like they could pop off at some point due to a small gap that isn't in the right. I'm curious to see how long the shoulder will last because I don't want it to end up like Perceptor's lens arm slider being so tight its a nightmare to move. There are two plugs on the robot arms/ Dragon mode hind legs that are used to plug the combiner feet in as gauntlets (ala Grimlock), and like Grimlock, look stupid in both forms so leave them off.

Someday, you will be mine...

The torso mode for Abominus has some more flare to it compared to the Robot mode, thanks to the hot pink and silver chest piece which even has a place to hide the Terrorcon Enigma in it... and like the Dinobot and Seeker Enigmas in Grimlock and Starscream respectively, its just a bit of molded plastic with some paint on it. The head sculpt is really well done (something I would love to say about Hun-Garr's head, but that one's just pink with some silver for the visor and a hard to see mouth). Most of the dragon mode parts are put to better use here, with the exception being the back claws (you can thank Silverbolt for that), and the tail which, granted, is trying hard to hide the gap made by using the Abominus head, but it it doesn't do a lot to help. To go back to that part about the tail is short, while it works for robot mode, I wish there was a way they could have engineered it so that the tail becomes some sort of spine for Abominus, just to give it some extra flare. The only other noticeable gap in the hole between the robo thighs and the Abominus chest piece, but it's a gap that's very easy to ignore. I can't wait to get the limb-bots on him to see what he looks like in all his glory.

Like with a lot of combiner comparisons, the argument for these Combiner Wars/ Power of the Primes Combiners can be summed up with one question. Do you want to pay potentially $600 or more for a very nice looking, but delicate and complicated to transform combiner? Or would you rather pay around $170 for one that you can play with? These are a lot cheaper and come with the sacrifices of being cheaper. I would love to get Ordin, I would love to get Feral Rex (don't expect a review of that Predaking set anytime soon, if at all), I would love to have thousands to pump into Transformers. I don't, so I settle with these releases. Hun-Gurrr himself is fine for a Voyager, just kind of boring compared to other combiner bosses I personally own. He hasn't got the presence of someone like Motormaster or Grimlock, nor the insanity of someone like Sky-Linx, nor the gravitas of someone like last week's Starscream. He's just kind of there if that makes any sense. I want to love this figure, and he might get better when with the other Terrorcons, but for now he's just boring. See you on the main site for The Greatest Showman, and up next here? How about a monkey with a hoverboard? It's time to let out your inner beast.

Oh, and before people bring it up as spelling errors, the constant name changing of Hun-Gurrr in the review was intentional, a stab at all the times he's been given different names in Transformer history (though no, he hasn't had the name Hunger).

I should also say that there is going to be a bit more variety coming soon, next week's is the start of it, and some later plans include some mini aliens, some opinion pieces, and to start off a new line of reviews, some ink-tastic figures.

Transformers Power of the Primes Voyager Class Starscream: Oh how it pains me to do this

One thing that Power of the Primes has been doing (at least for wave 1 and 2, 3 is breaking the mould) with the Voyager class has been one combiner with a confirmed dedicated team, and a second torso that lets you combine the remaining figures to them. In the case of wave 1, it is Starscream, one of the first Power of the Primes toys announced and... it was not accepted well, at all, still isn't depending on what community you talk to. How well does it hold up on its own? On an objective level? Well...

Starting with the Jet mode, and its clear out of all the three modes this toy has to do, this is the mode that took the biggest hit to make the other modes work. This guy has an awful Jet mode. The jet parts look fine, its when you look at any other angle that doesn't hide things under the jet mode. Starscream suffers hard from Robot under a Jet syndrome, almost nothing is hidden in this jet mode. The only thing hidden is the robot mode thighs, which are inside the gigantic robot mode shins. I'll at least give them credit for not reusing the Combiner Wars Silverbolt mold again, but even Silverbolt could hide his head. In terms of functions this mode has, there isn't much there. The cockpit can open up to plug a Prime Master/ Titan Master in, or the included Seeker Enigma, and there are ports to store the Null Rays and the Combine mode feet (which looks awful anywhere you put them so do yourself a favor and leave those feet off the jet). A landing wheel can unfold from the nose cone for display, and that's about it. What you see is what you get with the jet mode, including all those foil stickers. While I was willing to let Grimlock slide because they're tasteful and not all over the place, on Starscream, they're almost everywhere and it looks awful. They're covering almost all of the wings, the Decepticon badge on the nosecones (the real one and the fake one for robot mode), the mini Autobot stickers on the side to show how many Autobot's he's killed (which apparently makes him one of the most successful Starscream as he's killed 5), the tail fins, above the vents (I don't know what they're actually called), and that's just the ones for Jet mode. On robot mode you have more on his feet, more on his shins, more on the sides of his arms, and two more inside Starscream's signature collar vents. Who's idea was it to put silver stickers on a cream white toy? I hate these stickers with a passion because the amount of times I've gotten a toy that has them decently applied can be counted on one hand! Is it to much to ask for at least a sticker sheet? Or using decent quality stickers?! Anyway, to robot mode!

The robot mode, a few flaws excluded, is a solid Voyager Starscream. A lot of the flaws people have with it in terms of proportions kind of grew on me as I continued to mess around with the toy. Yeah, he's a bit overly bulky due to combiner boss obligations, but it does kind of work when you consider he is the second in command of the Decepticons. The big problem I have with the toy is that I wish the nosecone from the jet folded up a little more, to make the backpack cleaner. The Null Rays as well could also be a bit bigger on his arms, but they do look surprisingly good when used as hand-held weapons. If you wanted to, you could attach them to the combined mode feet and stick them on his arms, but that actually looks worse then when they're stored in jet mode. He has the standard posing points for a voyager (Neck swivel, can look down due to transformation, ratchet shoulders for both outward and rotation due to combiner obligations, bicep swivel, friction for elbows (90 degrees), friction hips forward and back with ratchets for outward and friction knees with 90 degree bends) but missing some extended features like moving ankles. It would be nice to see the other seekers in this style, but that's coming from a Transformer fan who... doesn't have a set of Seekers in any form...

Please note that three of the five robots used here are fan retools of existing moulds and are not official releases. Image was found here http://www.bwtf.com/toyreviews/generations/potp/starscream

Going into the combined mode and... he does make a solid looking combiner torso. It looks powerful and even incorporates some references to the 86 movie and Bayformers. Meet King Starscream, a combiner so full of himself that he makes sure the combined mode head is just a bigger version of his head with a crown. The body design does remind me of Movieverse Starscream and manages to look a little better than it because it looks less like a random pile of parts forming a Dorito with birthing hips. I'll go more into my views on Movieverse screamer soon cause I do have the Studio Series one. In terms of functionality and how well the combined mode works, I want to hold off on that until I see it with Dreadwind, Blackwing and the two mysterious limb bots he may or may not get.

Is he as bad as everyone makes him out to be? Not really. With the exception of the stickers, he doesn't do anything that I haven't seen in several other jetformers. A lot of the hate I've seen has been tied to the "Starscream shouldn't combine!" argument, and, for me personally, I don't care if gimmicks are given to characters who didn't have them, if the gimmick works, doesn't take to much away from the toy, then they could put anything they wanted into characters. There are even some characters that benefit from the new gimmicks (Topspin and Twintwist say hi). Besides, it doesn't retroactively make the character tied to that gimmick since the beginning, and people who wanted a G1 Starscream that doesn't combine to have alternatives (Masterpiece Starscream and its knockoffs along with MakeToys's Meteor come to mind). If there was no other way to get this character, then I'd be saying something different in the case of the combining gimmick. There's going to be a break in content while E3 happens, so the next thing for both sites is going to be a video covering the news from it. Next toy to review in a few weeks though is going to be another Decepticon Voyager, another combiner, but this is one a lot of people have been wanting, myself included. Terrorcon Hun-Gurrr.

Lego Avengers Infinity War 76104; The Hulkbuster Smash-Up: My Kingdom for a Hulkbuster with knees... or any Lego mech with knees...

Seriously Lego, what do you have against knees? Did someone really not like that one Monty Python Sketch? The Knights weren't that bad, good tastes in shrubberies. (before anyone brings it up, yes I know the reason why, but there is nothing stopping them from making something stronger)

The final Infinity War set... and also the one I actually got first, and was originally planning on doing first. Why leave it so late? Because of the Soul Stone. Let us return the battle of Wakanda, and see how helpful this Hulkbuster is.

Lego Avengers Infinity War 76108; Sanctum Sanctorum Showdown: Not the best with security are you Doctor?

Raise your hand if you saw that Time Stone fake out coming... Just me? ... Really?

The Sanctum Sanctorum Showdown, the largest of the Infinity War Lego sets released so far (not counting that "Totally not UCS" Hulkbuster), and fittingly, where one can find the Time Stone (Eye of Agomoto not included sadly), and the most amount of minifigures. Is it worth the cost? Well...

Lego Avengers Infinity War 76012; Thor's Weapon Quest: No Peter Dinklage minifig? I am dissapointed!

EDIT: 20/5/18, 10:57: While originally, the review said that Thor was reused from Thor Ragnarok, only his face was reused, the body print is new.

One day good sir, you will have it one day...

It's hard to talk about this one without spoilers to the context it comes from so I will go into spoilers for this review. Nothing major, but this set does revolve around one of the big plot points of the movie, Thor getting Stormbreaker, and traveling to (I hope I get this right) Nadivalier with Rocket and Groot, to forge the new weapon. How well does it hold up? Allow me to show you.

LEGO Avengers Infinity War 76107; Thanos; Ultimate Battle: "BEHOLD THE POWER OF MY JEWEL ENCRUSTED GOLDEN ROCKET FIST!!!"

At least he's not using it to throw rave parties? (https://twitter.com/Blaster944/status/992756321119232000)

EDIT (13/5/18, 10:30): Turns out this isn't the Milano, but a ship called the Benatar

Set number 3 of six, and we have another version of the Milano, Star-Lord's ship from Guardians of the Galaxy. The second largest set in the line, and the set coming with the item that plays a huge role in the movie, the Infinity Gauntlet itself, Let's see how it fairs in a review setting, shall we?

LEGO Avengers Infinity War 76103; Corvus Glaive Thresher Attack: Is there meant to be a Part 2 to this or something?

Up next on our Avengers Infinity War Lego set Marathon is the Corvis Glave Thresher Attack. We move into Wakanda with this one with the chase for Infinity Stone number 2 from the movies, the Mind Stone, important enough to play a large role in all Avengers movies so far (except Civil War, depending on if you count it as an Avengers movie or a Captain America movie). How well does Shuri's Lab/ Piece of Wakanda's border hold up though?

LEGO Avengers Infinity War 76101; Outrider Dropship Attack: When a Battle Pack isn't a Battle Pack

With Infinity War now being released in cinemas, and seeing as I won't get to it until this time next year (maybe, might break that rule for this, at time of writing the movie's not out for another few days), I still want to do something more directly connected to the film, so why not review the Lego Sets made? I know I said I'd do the Hulkbuster, and I still will, I just flipped the order around. Instead, these are going to go in order the Infinity Stones were revealed in the movies, and because the first was the Space Stone, first seen as the Tesseract in Captain America: The First Avenger. We're doing the smallest set of the wave first. Sound good? No? Too bad.

For all of these though, as there will be a mix of "these being written before watching the movie" and the fact that these are all coming out within a few weeks of the film in cinemas, I am going to avoid movie accuracy in these reviews. At least when I did Black Panther, the movie was still out in cinemas and had been there for a long time. If there's a second wave (which I do hope there is), I will look at those in the context of the film itself. I will, however, be referencing the trailers though, as I feel like that's fair game. But for now, getting all the exposition out of the way, let's get to it.

LEGO Black Panther 76099; Rhino Face-Off by the Mine: Even with mounted laser guns, this is not a threatening Rhino

By viewer request (as voted on here at the time of writing: https://www.strawpoll.me/15336306/r), the Sanctum Sanctorum can wait, for first we must travel to Africa, and start our two months of Marvel content with their newest movie (at time of writing). With Black Panther being such a huge success, its only fitting the new king of Wakanda gets some recognition this year. To those wondering why I'm not reviewing the movie, its because I review movies when they're out on DVD. Relax, I will get to it. For now, let's look at one of the two sets Lego put out for the movie with the Rhino Face-Off by the Mine... it just rolls off the tongue, doesn't it? Couldn't it have been something like "Battle at the Vibranium Mine" or something?

I'm going to write these reviews with the assumption that those reading this have at least heard of LEGO, and know of words like Minifigures. Is this going to be an in-depth review, analyzing every piece including new pieces, new colours and other information more useful to die-hard LEGO fans? No, cause chances are they've already bought the set if they were interested in it. I'll be looking at this more from a general perspective. I will start with the Minifigures though. The set comes with three and only one accessory for one of them. You get a Black Panther with some energy stored in the suit (watch the movie or look up the context, time and place for that, and this isn't it). Killmonger in his Vibranium suit, though not charged at all, and Okoye, leader of the Dora Milaje, who comes with her spear. All three do have really good prints on their chest, back and heads, though if you were hoping for alternate faces, you're going to be disappointed as none of them have anywhere to hide the second face. The ears of Black Panther and Killmonger only hide the stud connection on minifigure heads, and Okoye is meant to be bald. While it is a shame that none of the figures have some of the more luxurious print works, in that all three just have black legs and none of them have any printing on the arms, I can't help but feel there are things missing from the minifigures. I do wish they'd given Killmonger his swords, but the biggest gap is a character I feel should have been included... ok one of many, this was the big battle of the movie, but we never get nameless background characters in lego unless you're a muke in a Star Wars set. W'Kabi, while not playing a huge role in the movie compared to these three, he was still a main character and one of the Rhino riders in the movie. It also would have been nice to have gotten a M'Baku, but I can cut my losses when needed. Some would complain that "charged" Black Panther should be purple and not metallic blue, but I do think that the metallic blue looks great on the black body and plays off the gold on Killmonger quite well. I'd have liked it as well, but the change is something I can appreciate too. Still though, at least overall, these three are great minifigures.

The Vibranium Mine itself, a huge crater with magnetic trains floating too and from mining machines in the movie... is represented by a minecart, two pieces of scaffolding meant to look like tracks, and a mediocre catapult meant to launch the Minecart. This does well and truly feel like an afterthought in terms of the set design. I wouldn't be surprised if the lion share of the budget for this year's Marvel sets went into Infinity War, but they still could have done a better job then a minecart. Granted, its a futuristic looking Minecart, but its still a minecart. The catapult is a small, non-detrimental, but also not useful gimmick for the set. Its meant to flip the cart over and in testing, I got mixed results, though a common one was a drastic angle change, almost 90-degree difference, but then falling back down onto its wheels and onto the track. It's nice that you get some translucent blue pieces to act as Vibranium in the cart, and I personally added some of the spare pieces and ammo to fill the cart up more, but there's only so much you can do before needing to make something completely new to represent the battle.

The main focus of the set is the Rhino itself and... it's a pretty good Rhino. Not for something like a Zoo, unless you want a Rhino with laser guns mounted on its back, but a good Rhino none the less. The legs are attached with ratchet pieces so its very easy to place onto a base plate, and the articulation is solid for something its size. The head has a ratchet in its neck along with a swivel attached to the body to allow for posing, though it is a shame that there's nowhere for a turning piece to allow it to turn its head from left to right. The ratchet does expose a gap when you move it down a click, but considering the way it was engineered, its easy to let it slide. The legs can only move forward and backward at the body as there is no movement anywhere else in the pieces. One problem though is a small build in between the pairs of legs that limit the direction they can move. The front legs cannot move back further than a click, and the back legs cannot move forward more than half a click. You're going to have to work for your charging poses if you want to make use of the rhino belly as a space for a stand. I do however like that there is a tiny tail with a swivel on it, it's cute. As long as you move the head down a click, you can easily fire (without anything getting in the way) the two mounted stud launchers. These were introduced a few years ago and have become a universal weapon of sorts as there are a lot of versions of this launcher. The way it works is that it fires small lego pieces, normally round 1x1 tiles, using friction fire. Push the lever on it down and it'll fire. As handheld guns for minifigures, these do not work more often than not as the guns themselves look huge in the hands of Minifigures. Mounted on ships and animals, they can look good, though it just depends on where it's mounted and the size of the launcher compared to what it's on. It can be the difference between an oversized machine gun that would destroy the vehicle its attached to if it was fired, if not broken off by the wind itself as it flies, to a pathetic little pea shooter. On the Rhino, the launchers look fine, well proportioned for where they are, and what they would do.

Colours are evenly distributed along both the cart and the rhino, though if I had to nitpick, I do wish they'd cast the Rhino legs in grey instead of sand brown. There's enough of it on the rhino to make it look like the greys are armor, but those are large chunks of the colour and it does stand out a little too much. While I'm personally not a fan of sticker details, on lego I'm willing to give it a slide because of all of it you have to apply yourself. A lot of the time I would just ignore the stickers, particularly on Technic sets, but for the Marvel stuff I've been applying them and, with some exceptions just due to me doing these with my fingers and not the more sensible tweezers option leading me to put them on wrong, they have been going on well and do blend in with the sets. I do appreciate that these have been stickers for single pieces rather then putting a sticker on that covers several different pieces. I'm not going to complain about a bad application of stickers here, cause that was my own fault, other toys aren't going to be so lucky when I come to them.

Is this worth the $35-$40? Not really, I'd say wait for a price drop. While kids would enjoy this, most adult collectors would be buying this more for the minifigures, so to those people, I'd say to try and get them online off of second-hand sites. A neat little distraction, but if it had the budget, could have been so much better if you compare it to the scene in the movie. For three weeks, there will be no content on this site. Those three weeks will be 100% dedicated to the main site, which you can find here: http://mediaholicreviews.blogspot.com.au/. If you are a Transformers fan, feel free to check out some of the previous posts related to the Dinobots. Up next on the main site is going to be the original Spider-Man from the early 2000's, and next time something goes live here, we hunt for infinity stones with the Infinity War Lego sets! Which one is going first? Not sure yet, you'll just have to wait and see.