Lego Ideas 21322; Pirates of Barracuda Bay: Dammit, they ate the monkey!

Pirates wasn't something that interested me as a kid. It did when I was younger, alongside Medieval with a toyline I honestly don't remember the name of. But around the time I got into Lego themes like Bionicle, my interest in things like Pirates drifted away for an interest in machines. The only time I got back into Pirates was the Pirates of the Caribbean movies, but with the state of those movies, that didn't last very long. In all seriousness, how many variations on Undead Pirates can they come up with? When I saw this though, I was interested as due to being bound to crutches twice in two years due to my own stupidity, the attempts to kill time have given me an interest in older Lego themes, and seeing how people reimagine them, which this set basically is. Welcome, to Barracuda Bay.

Lego Ideas 21318 Tree House (With Light my Bricks addon): This is just takes Glamping to a whole new level

One thing that is nice to see about the models presented on Lego Ideas is the abundance of original designs that aren't tied to any theme or licence. Things like the Dinosaur fossils, Ship in a Bottle, and Old Fishing Store being a few examples of the original concepts that make it through, highlighting an interesting level of creativity as there aren't any limits to what they could be. One of the more recent examples of this is one of last year's sets, which as the name states, is just a treehouse, though one of the most impressive looking treehouses I've seen ever. How well does it hold up on closer inspection though?

I will say this now, this review is going to be focused on the Autumn colours for the set. A nice bit of detail is that the set comes with enough leaves that you can have a Spring/ Summer look with a set of green and dark green leaves, or an Autumn look with a set of dark yellow and two tones of brown. To those in the northern hemisphere, March, April and May are Australia's Autumn, or where I live it can be called "I don't know if I want to be Summer or Winter yet" due to how rapid the temperature changes can be, especially in March. So for now, the copy of the set that I have is using the Autumn leaves. It doesn't change much about the set in terms of functions, it's just aesthetical preferences.

Transformers War For Cybertron (Siege and Earthrise); Astrotrain: All aboard the murder Choo Choo!... wait, wrong one...

Before getting started, I do have to make a quick announcement. Due to the state of the world right now, I've revived a Patreon account to try and ease the blow that is basically the world shutting down due to the Coronavirus. It has affected me pretty hard, due to my main work being Events Operations, so if you do enjoy the work that I do (which should be coming out more consistently due to all the extra free time I have), and you are in a position where you can help, please support me on Patreon (https://www.patreon.com/mediaholics), and hopefully, the state of the world isn't like this for too long. If you start seeing an influx of older toys, older shows, movies, games etc in the coming months from both sites, this is the reason why. Anyway...

Sharing releases between both Siege and Earthrise (supposedly, I hear reports of him coming out in Siege but based on Australia's releases, the only two leaders were Magnus and Shockwave*), to make up for the Titans Return Astrotrain being more sci-fi themed, we get a modern recreation of G1 Astrotrain... in the toy line that wanted to be more sci-fi themed but didn't want to commit to it... On top of that, Astrotrain has a similar issue to what Siege Shockwave had and came out smaller than the Titans Return Tripple changers that people actually like, and it felt like Siege AT was brushed aside too early. Of course, me and my dumb decisions decided to pick up this one first and not the Leader Optimus, thinking that AT would be the harder of the two to find now we can at least see if the pre-release hate was justified.

Starting in Train mode, and for better or worse, this is an updated version of the G1 toy, something that I don't think works as an advantage, but as a disadvantage. To achieve the Triple Changer ability in the '80s, a lot of Transformers like Astrotrain had parts of alt modes basically bolted onto them to make modes pass off as something more than a brick with vehicle parts. This is a brick with vehicle parts. While it looks nice with all the paint and sculpt details, and I love the fact that most of the purple is not going to be seen in the shuttle mode, things like the main train wheels still look like they're bolted on, and when looking at the new Tinder accessory that he comes with, it just comes off as Astrotrain having no idea what he's supposed to be travelling on. Does he need train tracks? how do those work when the wheels can't be on the same set of tracks? Why does the tinder have tank treads along with regular wheels? It just comes off as a mess of design styles that encapsulates my issues with the War for Cybertron Aesthetic conflicts. At least the Tinder acts as a great way to store all the weapons in this mode?

While the space shuttle mode does suffer in the looks department due to the other modes, I find it to be the more enduring mode. It's a loveable awkwardness that the train mode has to an extent, but it feels like they were trying to make it as close as possible to a real train that the issues are more blatant. Details like the "clearly not the front train wheel slabs" looking more like canons work better, and honestly could have been great if they had effects parts plugs on them, the brick that the nosecone peaks out of, it's funny to me. One thing that I'll admit is a issue is the section that houses the tailfin when it's not needed for the other modes. It looks ugly, gappy, and overall unpleasant to look at with no real way to hide it (not without a 3D Printer at least). The Tinder's integration in this mode does work really nicely as well, becoming a launch platform for the space shuttle that can also connect to other bases. However...

Minor tangent for the Adaptable Interconnection Retrofitter Lock System, or A.I.R Lock System. While I love the idea of these interconnecting to form layouts for the Micromasters to drive on, it does sting that they can't connect to the connection points used in Titans Return, seeing as they're not against bringing back older gimmicks for the toyline, such as the Titans Return integration for Jetfire, Apeface and the upcoming Snapdragon. Apparently, Omega Supreme can connect to both the old system and the new system, though I can't confirm that. It still would have been nice if at least some of the Battlemasters could act as a bridge between the Titans Return connectors and the new system.

To the robot mode, while yes I would have liked it to be taller, it's still a great looking robot mode. The animation colour scheme, along with the WFC articulation easily make it the better toy when compared to the Titans Return release. It's effortless to pose him, and a lot of fun to mess with, especially as he joins Generations Roadbuster and Age of Extinction Hound (among others) in the "Overcompensating in the gear department", with his usual gun, two rifles, a machine gun and a rocket launcher, all of which can be used to tool him up with C.O.M.B.A.T ports, or be stuck together to form a massive Frag you cannon. Even the cyber mud battle damage looks great here because it doesn't ruin the look of the toy, and it works nicely in the space shuttle mode. Unfortunately, the Tinder is dead weight in this mode, as all you can do with it is give Astrotrain slightly taller shoes, and an ugly backpack which ruins the look from the back. It would have been great if it could have been a shield, maybe bigger shoes to put him in line with his Titans Return companions, but as is, you're better off treating it like Earthrise Optimus' trailer, left to the side.

Though I've listed a lot of issues with this toy, in truth, I really enjoy it. The issues I have with it, subjectively, are relatively minor to me. Though I wish it wasn't so faithful to G1 that it could have taken some liberties to keep in the spirit of the character, that's kind of what the Titans Return one was, so it's hard to blame them for making a more faithful one for those wanting a faithful toy. If you can justify the cost right now, he's worth picking up. As I mentioned at the start of this review, things are going to be rough for a while, and if you want to support what I do, please consider supporting it on Patreon, or just sharing it around.

*This is an attempt at satire mocking the state of Hasbro's Australia distribution.

Transformers War For Cybertron (Earthrise) Deluxe Class; Cliffjumber: Well... Deluxe might be a stretch...

Oh boy... time to delve into some of these issues of the War for Cybertron line... Starting in Siege (not counting Studio Series as I don't actively collect the line), the size classes seem to be more of an indication of difficulty, rather than size. While that acts as a benefit when they release the larger Deluxes like Ironhide and Spinister, Earthrise, year two of the trilogy looks to be pushing those limits. Honestly it's impressive that they're trying this as people are still angry at the Leader Class Shockwave and Astrotrain from Siege. On top of the size issues, a practice known as Partsforming is looking to play a big part of the line. While people were fine with it for the Weaponizers, and that will continue with the... Modularizers? Is that what they're calling the bases? Armorizer still sounds nicer to me. Anyway, while those still use the process, people are less forgiving of it when it comes to the upcoming Arcee, who I'll go into detail on when she's released. Partsforming, and being shrunk down to a Legends Class sized character being sold at deluxe prices though? You can just imagine how people have been reacting to the new Cliffjumper. Is it warranted though?

To quickly deal with them. Inside the boxes of Earthrise toys, you get a piece of a star map, and a "scanner", and by the end of Earthrise, you should be able to complete a full map of the Transformers universe. I'm not bothering with the map, so I'm not going to be covering it from here on out. Starting in Car mode, and giving credit where it's due, this is a nice looking Cliffjumper car mode, just that compared to other Deluxe car bots, it's tiny. It's smaller than a Nintendo Switch Joycon (look, I'm writing this while I kill time between shifts, I don't have many size comparisons on hand right now). It's a solid little Sports Coupe, with the only major bit of kibble being robot mode hands being slightly visible, something that weapon storage helps cover-up. Cliffjumper does at least scale nicely with the other mini bots in car mode, along with the robot mode. Speaking of...

While one specific part of the transformation is frustrating to do on my copy of the toy, when he's in robot mode, it's hard to deny that he doesn't look like a great Cliffjumper, and it's nice to see a G1 Cliffjumper that isn't just a red Bumblebee (though I don't think anyone is expecting that to last, this guy screams "Retool me into Bumblebee!", maybe even some Throttlebots in the Generations Selects line. Goldbug, Chase and Freeway for example). Due to being labelled as a Deluxe, he has got the advantages of the size class and price range, he's way more articulated than any of the other Minibots released in the Generations line, and the transformation itself is very interesting and fun to do. I also like the fact that he gets his Bazooka, and the weapon itself can be rearranged for numerous configurations in both Robot mode and Car Mode. But... the "Shield"... here is where the partsforming comes into play. The back of the car has to be removed for the transformation. While it can be used as a shield, the main purpose is to be used as a back cover to clean up his back in robot mode. While it works for that purpose, the effect would probably look better if it didn't look like he stuck the backend of some random car onto his back. At the time of writing this, I have both Cliffjumper and Hoist in terms of the Earthrise Deluxes, with Hoist being who I got first. Because of that though, I'm struggling to see where the cut costs from producing a smaller figure went too. Though there aren't as many unnecessary gaps in the pieces, they are still there, though not as obvious as on someone like Hoist. While I can tolerate gaps for joints and engineering, holes like in his forearms and legs that are just there to cut some of the cost away from the moulding process I, and many others find annoying, and it's something that I would have liked to have seen dealt with for Cluffjumper, who's already smaller than all the other Deluxes in the line.

Though Cliffjumper justifies the cost in terms of engineering, not having a class between Deluxe and Micromaster does hurt the perception of the toy. It's not in any way a bad toy, and it would be nice to get other Minibots with the same engineering treatment. But when looking at it on a shelf next to the other wave 1 Deluxes, it's a hard sell to the average customer. Here's hoping Runabout and Runamuck are the usual Deluxe size, especially because I want to put them side by side Topspin and Twin twist,, but right now the main goal is being able to actually get both of them in Australia at all. 

Top 10 Transformers Purchased in 2019

With a new year and a new decade upon us, I thought it might be nice to look back on what's been, because 2019 was a solid year for Transformers. Siege was a huge step up over Power of the Primes, Cyberverse gave characters not cast in plastic for several years a new chance on life, and Studio Series continues to replicate the movie designs (whether or not this is a good thing or not depends on your view of the movie designs). With 2020 looking to continue the upward trend, and even improve on the engineering in Cyberverse, I thought I might look back at the 10 best figures I obtained in 2019. They don't need to be released this year, they don't have to be objectively the best, just the stuff that I've enjoyed the most that I obtained this year.

10. Cyberverse Skybyte

While the spark armour gimmick of the Cyberverse line was more of a mess then I'd hoped for, I will admit that Skybyte on his own was a nice figure. Basic engineering, but fitting for what is basically a Legends Class toy. As good as previous Skybyte toys? No idea, this is the only one I own, but perfectly serviceable. A fun toy to fidget with, thanks to the basic, but to the point transformation and small size. Besides, it's nice to see something other then G1 get nostalgia love.

9. Siege Shockwave

I like a good spaceship Transformer every now and then, and while many purists might not like all the extra stuff added in to turn a space gun into a spaceship, it doesn't take away from how playable Shockwave is. If you want to completely ignore the armour, you've still got a good voyager sized Shockwave that turns into the space gun. At the end of the day, I love toys that are fun to mess with, that don't feel like they're going to break if you do something wrong. Shockwave's fun, a strong release in Siege bogged down in the controversy of all the extra plastic that a lot of people didn't want but had to get to avoid the "you're selling a gun to my child" controversy. He also looks great in black, at least based on pictures I've seen.

8. Studio Series Hightower

I had to put this thing somewhere on the list. Is it a good toy? No, but it's hilarious that it exists at all, considering as the design itself is universally hated. I'm not against non-humanoid robot designs, but Hightower's design is a joke, and that's honestly the best thing about it. I love how stupid this thing looks, I find it hilarious that someone legitimately thought that this was a cool design. Until the rest of Devastator comes out, and even probably after, this guy has the title of the funniest transformers I have, and for that alone, he makes the list.

7. Siege Micromasters

I'm lumping all of them together for this one (except for Wave 5, I'm missing those two), as, like Skybyte, they're fun to fiddle around with, and with Earthrise teasing at Micromaster bases in the future, it'll be fun to have a modern take on the Micromaster play pattern. If I had to pick a favorite of the wave 1 moulds, it would have to be the one used for Flak, along with Roadhandler at number 2, Lazerbeak at number 3. All I can really say is "more Micromasters please, and try to refresh the stock here once in a while, I'm sick of seeing Wave 2 on shelves! (While you're at it, for the love of Primus, stop putting Studio Series Blackout and Grimlock on shelves!)

6. Siege Jetfire

Jetfire is probably one of my favourite characters in Transformers, so from the announcement of it happening, I was onboard for Siege's take. The end result is a fun display piece. As good as third party offerings of Skyfire? No, but again, it's that playability that I enjoy in collecting Transformers, so while Siege Jetfire might not be as amazing as the Fanstoys one, but he can certainly outgun him. A very minor complaint of mine is that I wish he had a bit more weight in him. He feels a bit too light for someone of that size. Not KO levels of light, nowhere near it. It might just be a me thing because while I'm not what you'd call buff, my job requires moving heavy stuff around.

5. Studio Series Dropkick (Car mode)

Why aren't their more muscle car transformers? I'm not joking around here, there are a surprisingly large amount of vehicles that have the potential to be cool transformers, but you never see them (or rarely see them at best), with Muscle cars being one of them. It's why I've enjoyed the car forms of Bumblebee villains Shatter and Dropkick. While Shatter has a bad kibble problem, Dropkick's

4. Studio Series Scrapmetal

What've I've enjoyed the most about figures in the Studio Series line like Scrapmetal is that while they've taken creative liberties, to me at least they're creative liberties that improve the looks of the characters, decluttering the movie designs and making them stronger as a result. To me, while there are parts of the movie designs I like, they always look messy with parts overkill cluttering the look, and parts coming out of nowhere to make it look even worse at times (I swear movie 1 Bumblebee has two engines for feet). The simplification for the sake of making working toys does mean that we get nicer looking designs (for the main body at least), and Scrapmetal is probably the best example of this. It's nice as a standalone toy, and I'm curious to see how well it holds up as Devastator's left hand.

3. Siege Impactor

A long-awaited figure to join The Wreckers, and one that certainly didn't disappoint. While locking the IDW head behind a US exclusive is annoying, the original looking head still looks great and doesn't detract away from how great of an overall figure Impactor is. It's strong, commanding, might have been better as a voyager, but there's still a clear presence to him on a shelf, in both tank mode and robot mode. Perfectly fitting his long-awaited arrival as an official toy. Would have been nicer though if his legs weren't so visibly hollow though.

2. Siege Spinister

From an absolute nobody that no one expected to be any good, to what many, myself included, view as one of the best Siege toys released, and also the best helicopter Transformer released (though when your competition includes Studio Series Dropkick, there's not that much competition in it). Spinister's a lot of fun to mess around with, movement feels effortless, the transformation is fun, there's very little I can actually fault him for, and what faults I have, most of them I can easily look past for the sake of the overall figure. If you could only get one figure in Siege, get Spinister.

Before moving on, a few honourable mentions

• Siege Skywarp: Fun in a squad, just wish those Rainmakers weren't US exclusives
• Studio Series Drift (Helicopter): A bit too much kibble on him for my liking, but it's a far better Helicopter then Dropkick's one was
• Siege Galaxy Upgrade Optimus Prime: I really wanted to love this thing, but the Ultra Magnus retools get in the way, and to this day I still don't know how those shoulder pads are meant to store in space fire truck mode.
• Studio Series Ironhide: Honestly the biggest issue with this guy has just been the release schedules of Studio Series with entire waves being almost impossible to find on shelves while older stock keeps being brought in and shelf warming.
• Siege Optimus Prime: I've got more to say about him in the new year, as a joint review of him and Takara's Nemesis repaint is a goal of mine to cover. A lot of fun to mess around with though, I just don't want to give it to the toy that's guaranteed to be good because it's Optimus Prime

And for number 1...

 Galaxy Force Megatron

A collection such as toy collecting is a representation of who you are. The stuff you gravitate towards tells a bit about yourself, what you enjoy, what you hate. It's an amazing feeling to find a grail from your childhood, something you've wanted for a long time and now finally own, and Galaxy Force/ Cybertron Megatron was one of my grail pieces. While I was introduced to Transformers in late Armada/ early Energon, Cybertron design-wise was a line that felt like it could do no wrong for me as a child, and even to this day holds a special place in my heart. If I had the space and the money, I'd probably try and put together a complete collection of that line. I'll admit Megs isn't quite as graceful about gimmick integration as Optimus is, but he still has a presence to him that I do think some incarnations lack. For that reason, Galaxy Force Megatron is my number 1 Transformer toy purchased in 2019.

With that, it'll be interesting to see what happens in 2020. I've got some things lined up, like a review of the Generations Selects Seacons, a goal of mine is to try and track down a MakeToys Thunder Manus so if that happens, you'll see that as a review. Studio Series Devastator is still happening as far as I know, and Earthrise looks to have a lot of interesting stuff in the pipeline if leaks are to be believed (I'm hyped for Snapdragon and Doubledealer).

Transformers War for Cybertron Siege Prowl and Barricade: Good Cop and Bad Cop

As with tradition, whenever one of a large handful of characters gets a new toy, there are bound to be repaints of the characters that share their original look. But, every now and then, there are curveballs that for better or worse, give a version of a character never seen before. While Prowl will always have the Bluestreak and Smokescreen variants in time (in this case, locked behind more exclusives), a curveball no one saw coming was Barricade, a G1 Micromaster F1 car nobody, given Holywood star power for being one of the few Decepticons people actually recognize, given a Generations toy based on a fan concept by Transformers Artist Guido Guidi. Combined with the fact that he's the better of the two general retail releases of the mould, and 2019's been a good year for Barricade.

I'm jumping ahead here, but it should be said that even taking out Decepticon bias, Barricade is a more interesting take on the mould in terms of deco. Due to Prowl's mostly white colours, and "sparing" paint applications like the headlights, it comes off as extremely dull when compared to the striking, yet blending colours of Barricade. Most of it coming from the purple windows with the silver paint underneath it. Barricade makes more of a statement compared to other Siege toys, especially compared to Prowl. If you can only get one version of the mould, between the two, I highly recommend Barricade. As for if you should get the mould at all though, that's another question.

The mould itself is fine for a deluxe class carformer, but due to the simple nature of the robot mode, and the habit of not making things move that doesn't need to move, I can't help but feel this is a bit too basic when compared to something like the Universe 08 toy and the Masterpiece version of the Fairlady Autobot moulds (at least based on pictures). Simplicity has its merits, but just by looking at pictures, you can tell how this transformation process is going to work. There's no exciting part of the transformation, nothing interesting, nothing that encourages me to keep bouncing between the two modes. Even something like the ability to hinge the door wings up a bit would at least help with that process, and give the robot something resembling an interesting look. A part of that though comes from how repetitive this general look feels for Carformers. Back windows become the legs, the hood becomes the chest, the doors become kibble wings, and the roof becomes the back. How many characters does that describe in the 35 years of Transformers? Gear wise, neither of the two feel complete, thanks to the Fairlady mould known for having a handgun, and two shoulder guns. While Smokescreen and Bluestreak have the set, Prowl gets the handgun, and Barricade gets the two shoulder guns (that I personally prefer to plug together and use as arm blasters thanks to the C.O.M.B.A.T weapon port requirements. Especially on Prowl, this makes a forgettable looking character look even more forgettable.

While Barricade has the paint, paint can only help so much with a mould. I don't think the toy is bad, just uneventful, not very exciting, especially when compared to other Deluxe Class toys in Siege like Spinister, the Weaponizers, even other Autobot cars. While it's a great representation of the character for a cheap price, in a line full of fun and interesting transformations, this mould just seems underdone, basic, like it's a part of a combiner (but that might just be the fact that Jazz was in Power of the Primes).

Transformers War for Cybertron (Siege) Deluxe Class Spinister: "Arrive at the 80's obnoxiously neon whirlbird!"

It should be no surprise at this point, but for the most part, I have a soft spot for the Season 3/4/ post cartoon G1 characters and designs, when Hasbro and Takara were throwing everything at the wall to see what stuck. It was creativity I don't think we've seen much of since the Beast Era. That's not to say I don't like post Beast Era designs, far from it, there are many I like (have you not heard my issues on G1 Red Alert compared to the Unicron Trilogy one?). But, this was a time when the bankable characters weren't as bankable yet, so the bigger focus was on new characters, rather then reskinning old characters into new gimmicks... although I struggle to call Spinister's trick a gimmick, as all he was originally was a pretty bad helicopter toy, that came bundled with two really bad looking Targetmasters, adopting the still true philosophy of "the more stuff included, the worse everything else gets". The bar is set low for this Siege remake, as the last two Double Targetmasters in the Generations like was Quake (an alright repaint of Hardhead), and Scoop, a pretty forgettable toy from Thrilling 30 that did come with two solid Targetmaster moulds at least. Nowhere to go but up at least.

Starting in helicopter mode, and it is an obnoxious, brightly coloured, completely useless for stealth missions attack helicopter, which is why I love it. While the helicopter is very well proportioned for the most part, the biggest problem comes from a bit of underside kibble. See, the original toy had the legs formed by splitting the cockpit into two, whereas here, a fake cockpit exists for the second leg, to make the legs look better in robot mode, but it makes the helicopter mode look bad from a lot of angles. The exposed hands and hollow tail are also pretty blatant, but far more forgivable due to being easier to ignore most of the time. It would have been nice if there was a way to stick two Battlemasters on the wings (I think that's what they're called... I don't know helicopters), mostly because if you get Skywarp and the standalone Singe, you get both of Spinister's Targetmasters. A minor complaint, but it would have been a nice bit of detail.

For the robot mode, and though the Helicopter had issues, this is an almost flawless robot mode. At the cost of hollow legs, and a rotor that I wish stayed in place a little better, you have a kibble free robot mode (other then what was from the original toy) with all the siege articulation (and a bit extra in the arms and ankles for the sake of transformation) making him a lot of fun to pose. Even the battle damage paint works well, as the placement feels more like faded paint rather then actual battle damage/ cyber mud. Although it is a shame that the helicopter had to be sacrificed so much for it, it was worth it because I honestly think this is one of the best figures in the line, when it had no reason, nor a need to be.

In a size class dominated by Autobots, and a line with a larger focus on legacy characters rather then niche nobodies, it's shocking how well Spinister turned out. While a part of that might be that Spinister's toy catalogue consists of a really bad original toy, then repaints of any decent chopper mould they could use for niche exclusives (or Nemesis Prime's Targetmaster?), anything was going to be better than the past. I'd even go so far as to say that this is one of the best toys of the year, based on what I've been able to experience. Definitely worth picking up