This set is a gamble on the part of Lego: that kids & collectors would buy a set based on the obscure, hard-to-see, blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameo it makes in the Special-Edition version of Episode IV.

Video review included!

The Sentinel is an FTL-capable heavy landing craft built by Sienar Fleet Systems and Cygnus Spaceworks for the navies of the Galactic Empire. Incorporating similar features to its smaller cousin, the Lambda-class light personnel shuttle, it has an expanded cargo capacity that allows it to hold a number of single-seat All-Terrain Personal Transports (AT-PT), or several military-grade speeder bikes. But it also has use as a troop transport- carrying six squadrons of Stormtroopers directly to the front lines. Unlike the Lambda-class shuttle, however, the Sentinel has thicker armor, more powerful shields, and spots a wide array of weapons for both ground and air-assaults- eight forward laser cannons, two retractable heavy rapid-fire blaster cannon turrets under the nose, two concussion missile launchers (with four rounds each), and a dorsally-mounted ion cannon turret! With a command crew of two, and three gunnery officers, this allows it to also be use for military actions other than hauling cargo & troops to the front lines, and between Imperial starships.

The Sentinel was first seen in the off-screen “Shadows of the Empire” multimedia series (books, graphic novels, video games, models, toys, etc.) during the late ‘90s which bridged the gap between the Star Wars films “...The Empire Strikes Back” (1980) and “...Return of the Jedi” (1983). But when the Special Edition version of “...A New Hope” was re-released back into theaters twenty years later in 1997, the Sentinel made its first and only on-screen cameo- taking off from a Tatooine desert after dispatching a squadron of Imperial Sandtroopers looking for a pair of Rebel Alliance droids which escaped the capture of the Corellian CR90 corvette, Tantive-IV.

Landing Mode

This set is a gamble on the part of Lego: that kids & collectors would buy a set based on the obscure, hard-to-see, blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameo it makes in the Special-Edition version of Episode IV. It’s a bit squatter, but it fits the general shapes, functions, and appearance of the Sentinel-class assault shuttle. The cockpit section is tilted downwards like the Lambda-class shuttle [aka Imperial Shuttle (Set #7166)], but the hinge it’s attached to in back is different, so it unintentionally tilts up and down. A single all-black Imperial Pilot can beseated in front of the tilting controls inside by removing the transparent canopy piece. Oddly, though the Sentinel does have windscreens, they are very narrow, but here the cockpit is fully exposed with no printed hull designs like the Imperial Shuttle set’s canopy did. The paired retractable Blast Cannon Turrets are located under the nose, but they do not move. Continuing back, on the front of the cargo mid-section are four of the eight retractable Laser Cannons located behind the cockpit by small transparent-neon yellow cones. On the inner side of these are the Missile Launchers (which I’ll get into detail later). Along the bottom of the cargo section are two blocky footpads that hold the set off of the ground; these do not move, but you can remove them easily enough if you wish. Above the cargo section is the tall vertical stabilizer. Also obviously inspired by the one on the Lambda-class shuttle, this one is shaped differently- with a large chunk taken out of the back-lower half. Along the back corners of the cargo section are two small red levers) that activate another feature [that I’ll be getting into later]. The back engineering section contains the gear system to move the wings up-and-down, and has an assembly in back to represent the wide sub-light ion engine array. Like the Imperial Shuttle set, the Imperial Landing Craft has three small non-functional orange anti-collision lights along the front tips of the tail and wings.

To gain quick access to the bomb and missile launchers, the top roof panels (x3 per side) of the cargo section can be lifted upwards on both sides to reveal the interior!

From underneath, you can see two red Technic levers on both the front and back of the cargo section. When you pull both of these away, you can then lift the cockpit, tail, & engineering sections away to reveal the cargo section! Very cool idea, and it allows you to replace things inside easier without bumping into everything else along the way! (The cockpit/tail/engineering half doesn’t balance very easily on its own upright, so you’ll have to just tilt the nose up, and fold the red levers in, and then carefully set it down.) Though the larger cargo loading ramps are not available on the Imperial Landing Craft set, they are still implied by the indents on the outside walls of the cargo section. The interior of the cargo section is taken up mostly by space for the two missile launchers & their trigger assemblies, and just enough room for the two Stormtrooper gunners (they just sit wedged in on the floor between the bomb & missile launchers), two commanding Sandtroopers (they sit on two blue minifig seats), and the minifigs’ four hand-held weapons. The bomb launcher(s) takes up the back wall. The minifig blasters sit upside-down in holes to save space, and so that they won’t go anywhere. The four transparent-orange/-neon yellow bombs simply sit in open troughs along that back wall. The retractable ion cannon is not represented in this set.

Transition to Flight Mode

Unlike the earlier Imperial Shuttle set which had wings which ratcheted down/up manually by hand, the wings on the Imperial Landing Craft are tied into a gear system triggered by a small knob beneath the engineering section. Twisting counter-clockwise lowers the wings, while twisting clockwise retracts them. It takes about eight turns to make the wings reach their respective position(s), so be patient.

Unlike most Lego Star Wars sets with large movable sections, however, this set does not have a stop point or a bumper to prevent the wings from unfolding farther than they are supposed to, so you have to just guess where they stop, and then leave the knob alone. (I set the wings at about 135°.) This means that, even though it doesn’t do this in the Special Edition version of Episode IV or “Shadows of the Empire”, the wings on the Imperial Landing Craft can be twisted around 180° if you wish.

Flight Mode

Again, because the Sentinel-class assault shuttle is more stretched out on all axis, the Imperial Landing Craft set seems a bit on the chubby side. The wings are not totally flat; instead being layered in order for Lego to keep them both thin and long. The engineering section is completely exposed from both the top and bottom, so you can easily see the mechanism in there in either mode. Something to keep in mind as you’re flying the Imperial Landing Craft around- don’t turn it upside-down, or else the bombs inside will fall out of their troughs! I will also say that the set cannot support itself on any of the flight surfaces- tail and wings- or they will break off. But while a lot of the surface detail is also missing, it makes up for it in features- mostly in the form of its weapons...

I’m gonna say this right off: do not touch the forward laser cannons unless ya wanna shoot something! That’s just a habit you’re gonna have to get into. Pushing inwards on either of the longer laser cannons will fire the associated spring-powered missile launcher. These things have a pretty good range (5’ on a flat surface) and an even better kick. The warheads of each of the two missiles provided are soft hollow rubber, so they cushion the impact a bit... but that doesn’t then give you the excuse to then go shoot someone or something with them! The bomb launcher system is quite simple to use, and pain-free- simply press upwards on the two small red levers on the back of the cargo section, and then the bombs will fall out of little chutes on the back. You can also drop just from one side if you wish, but since each trough inside the cargo section is designed to hold only two bombs, each side will only drop that many.

There is one new part in here that I’ve never seen before, and two of them are provided with the set. They’re half visible on the back of the cargo section, just behind the red levers. They’re flat 1x2 Technic plates, but they’re composed entirely of black rubber! These act as little springs which reset the troughs inside the bomb wall inside the cargo section- when pressed down, the bombs fall out, and then when you let go, the rubber parts reset automatically so the bombs can be repositioned inside without immediately falling out again. Interesting idea!

Minifigs

Lego Set #7659 comes with five minifigs- a black Imperial Pilot, two standard Stormtroopers, and two Sandtroopers. The four ‘troopers have printed details on their helmets, and on the front & back of their torso parts. What separates the standard Stormtroopers from the Sandtroopers is the small soft fabric covers they have over their right shoulders; these orange & black items match those seen in “...A New Hope”, though they lack the associated cooling backpack units. The two orange shoulder pads come in a small cardboard box, and are printed flat- to get them to curve, you place the two holes over the neck of each minifig. All of the ‘Troopers’ inner minifig heads are straight black with no detailing. The black helmet of the Imperial Pilot minifig is just a different-colored version of a Stormtrooper helmet; only the circular Imperial Navy’s logos are added for detail. The pilot’s front torso detail is also different from the other 'Troopers', but he has no printing on the back of his torso piece. Two minifig blast rifles, and two smaller blasters are provided for the ‘Troopers. (I think the smaller ones are actually designed to be used as Han Solo’s blaster!)

As an update to the Imperial Shuttle set from the late ‘90s (it came out before Episode-I did), this one absolutely rocks! The biggest thing for me was that it had the mechanism which allowed you to turn the wings around by turning a knob rather than having to ratchet each one manually up-&-down. The only bad part to this, however, is that they don’t stop the wings for you; you have to make a judgment call each time, and so that was a bit of a let-down. But dropping bombs, and firing- not one, but two- hidden spring-powered missiles was fantastic! (Do you know how often Lego incorporates two spring-powered launchers into their sets-? Not very often, I can tell ya that! So this was a real treat.) I also thought it great that, not only could you access the cargo section through risible doors on top, but you could actually separate the cargo section altogether! While it would have been nice to have four Sandtroopers, I thought that it was a nice balance to mix it up with two regular Stormtroopers. And then you got a separate all-black Imperial Pilot. Yeah- they seriously down-scaled this set from what it would have been (the assault shuttle is supposed to carry 54 Stormtroopers at once), but what we got was pretty cool too. Things to change: add bumpers for the wings so they don’t drop down farther than they’re supposed to, maybe beef-up the neck a little bit to give it more substance, and add some painted detail to the canopy so it’s more opaque that clear. The Imperial Landing Craft is an awesome Lego set, so I highly recommend getting it!

The Bubblegum Crisis Motoslave is a surprisingly sturdy and robust toy. Read on for all the details, with VIDEO

The Motoslave is one of those mythical toys that makes you wonder why they never made one sooner. It comes from the classic anime Bubblegum Crisis, which originally was an 8-part OVA from 1987.

BGC had just come out when I had my "anime awakening" and although I was never a huge fan of the series, I have nostalgia for its place in my history. In fact, BGC was the feature story in American anime fanzine I got in the late 80s, and it was in this magazine that I got my first glimpse of the Motoslave. I haven’t seen the magazine in years, but I remember the black and white newsprint image like it was yesterday.

The most likely reason why we haven’t seen a Motoslave toy up until now is that the technology wasn’t up to par. Even now this version isn’t entirely accurate with the animation transformation, but it is close enough. I guess another reason we have seen this now is that there is resurgence in popularity for 80’s mechanical designs in toy form, as evidenced by the Megazone 23 Garland, and THREE different companies producing Mospeada Ride Armor toys.

For those of you not in the know, the Motoslave is a motorcycle that can transform into a robot, or be worn as a protective suit of armor. This particular Motoslave belongs to Priss, one of the Knight Sabers, a group of women who fight crime in a futuristic Tokyo.

With this toy I can safely say that Yamato has their act together. Gone are the fragile parts, the QC issues. This thing is great and ready to go right out of the box.

Priss

Priss is shown here in her Hardsuit – her protective armor used to fight crime. The figure is articulated with ball joints in the neck (2) torso (2), shoulders, elbows, hips and knees.

The head and torso articulation is great, but the shoulders could use some improvement. The nature of the design prohibits Priss from being able to swing her arms outward any significant distance. The elbows have mini-joints that resemble Revoltech joints that do not click. Priss comes with five variant hands, as well as a replaceable right arm.

The hips are another weak spot, as they will pop out of their ball joints if you try to move them too far.

Motoslave

The Motoslave is really the main draw here. In bike mode it is 14cm long and features rolling tires and a working kickstand. It is molded entirely in color, with no paint or decals. It makes it very toy-like, but a little detail would have been nice, such as color detail on the handlebars or instrument panel. A large cannon with a folding handle can be attached to the side of the vehicle.

Transforming the Motoslave is…. Involved. It’s kind of like toy origami. I won’t go through all the steps here, you can watch the video for that. One thing I want to stress to you though is that despite its fragile looks, the Motoslave is sturdy as hell. Each part is super strong, and the joints are connected by metal screws and rivets. You would really have to screw something up to break this. Kudos to Yamato for finally getting it.

Once the transformation is done, you are left with a robot with spindly arms and legs, and a big hollow inside. The figure has articulation at the head, neck, shoulders, elbows, wrists, hips, knees and feet. Not too shabby for something that used to be a motorcycle.

But here is where the fun begins. Priss can actually fit inside of the Motoslave.

To do this, you need to remove the front cover from the Motoslave, and you need to make some modifications to Priss.

First, you must remove the shoulder connectors on Priss and replace with the supplied larger ones. Why Yamato could not have engineered something that did this, I have no idea. It’s a pain, plain and simple. You also have to replace the hands with fists with small pegs on them.

Priss then rests in the cavity on the Motoslave, and her hands plug into small tabs on the arms. On the legs of the robot, small hooks fold out for Priss to rest her feet on. Unfortunately, her legs are not long enough to reach the pegs, and you actually have to extend the legs at the knee to get them to reach.

The Motoslave includes variant hands that enable it to hold the cannon. The hands just fit in with friction

In either mode, the Motoslave and Priss can be attached to a display stand. There is a small circular section with pegs in it for Priss to stand on, and this section can be removed for independent display. The large arm holds the Motoslave up high for dynamic poses.

The Good

I like the look of this thing, and to me, the best part is in mid-transformation when you get Priss situated inside of the Motoslave. It just looks so great and detailed. I love the quality of materials, and the intricate transformation.

The Bad

The Priss figure could have been done so much better. With the shoulder joint swapping and the leg extending needed you just cant help feel that this part of the toy wasn’t thought out well enough.

The bottom line

For me, the Priss figure does not ruin the toy, but the price tag is a bit high. If you love the design, I think you will overlook the flaws and agree that this is a fun toy.

1/15 Transformable Motoslave and Priss are available now at Yamato Toys USA

"While I function, Earth is under my protection."

Video review included!

Optimus was a young and optimistic recruit in the Autobot Academy, wanting to face off against real Decepticons in a battle as part of the Elite Guard. Unfortunately, he missed the war by a few million years, and eventually failed to pass the Academy. His ambitions and dreams crushed, Optimus was instead assigned command of a small maintenance crew for the tedious and boring duty of repairing and cleaning-up the Space Bridge network. But when the Autobot crew accidentally comes across the very powerful, life-giving All Spark which was lost at the end of the war, they are suddenly ambushed by the greatly-feared leader of the Decepticons, Megatron, and his own broken army of experienced soldiers in their search for the legendary artifact. The Autobots get away from the Decepticon warship, and Megatron is destroyed in a fluke explosion, but damage causes their ship to crash on an unknown planet. Optimus Prime and his crew go into emergency stasis lock for 50 years, and reactivate in the future underneath Lake Erie near Detroit, Michigan. The Autobots reformat their alternative forms to match those of Earth vehicles so as to blend in. As they begin to explore Detroit, they come across a human girl named Sari Sumdac, whose father owns the largest robot manufacturer on the planet. When she sneaks aboard their ship to see more of the transforming alien robots, Sari encounters the All Spark, and it rebuilds her electronic key card to carry many of its own powers. With Sari’s help in understanding Earth’s unusual cultures and customs, Ratchet, Prowl, Bumblebee, Bulkhead, and Optimus Prime swear to protect the All Spark from rogue Decepticons until Elite Guard reinforcements arrive.

After a surprising engagement with the leader of the Decepticons thousands of stellar cycles after the end of the Great War, the crash landing of his small Space Bridge maintenance ship on an unknown planet, and the startling discovery the legendary & powerful All Spark, Optimus Prime is finally living out a dream that had been quashed hundreds of years ago- the chance to be a hero. But now, a lot of responsibility has been placed on the shoulders of this young Elite Guard washout, and he must summon the strength & integrity to bring his small band of miss-matched Autobots together as a team to protect the All Spark until their great leader Ultra Magnus can send reinforcements to recover it. But first, they must determine what kind of planet they have crashed on. With biological life infesting this planet, there exists a level of technology through which they can blend in. Taking the form of a “fire engine”, Optimus Prime leads his crew into Detroit, Michigan, where they come across a young human female named Sari Sumdac. Though wanting to preserve their anonymity while on this Earth, this is soon defeated when they are forced to reveal themselves to the world, and they become instant celebrities... and heroes. Dealing with primitive humans, Sari and Bumblebee getting into mischief all the time, Bulkhead breaking things left-and-right (as usual), Prowl following his own solitary agenda, Ratchet grumbling about how things were different during the war, the most valuable artifact in the universe in his cargo hold, and a bunch of Decepticons hunting them - how is a bot supposed to deal with all this!? The only way Optimus Prime can: with perseverance, wisdom, courage, honor, responsibility, and dedication.

Optimus Prime’s vehicle mode (back) is that of a futuristic 4-wheel fire engine, with a water cannon on the back. Now, the most-obvious deviation for the toy from his counterpart in “Transformers Animated” is that his vehicle mode does not include the trailer/back half. On the other hand, the trailer is never seen on-screen in the series except in vehicle mode, so what happens to it when he transforms is up to speculation. What is clear, though, is that in the series Optimus can still drive around without the trailer. And this is no different for the toy- the top section behind the over-engine cab can be detached, and he still can move about just fine, albeit a little more front heavy than before. And when that top section is removed, then he more closely resembles (back) his predecessor(s) from 1984-onwards. Being a fire engine, the passenger cabin has a pair of non-functional blue strobe lights on top. Above the narrowing light gray front bumper is the passenger compartment, decorated in Prime’s trademarked red & silver, but enhanced with black as well. While the windows in the side-doors are not painted in, the two angular windshields are transparent-blue ABS. Upon closer inspection, a further detail is that there is circuitry molded in on the inside of the windshields, giving them a techy look; while they may be transparent, the inside of the cabin is black, so it’s very difficult to tell if there are other molded details within. All four wheels are the same size and design, but the front ones are narrower from a forward profile. While he no longer has cylindrical fuel tanks visible, the blue back half is rather poorly set up to disguise his legs from robot mode, especially when that top section has been removed.

Other than the wheels allowing him to roll very easily across any flay surface, the Water Cannon from the top section can be freely twisted around 360°, though always at an angle.

Automorph Technology is a special feature which was introduced in the “Transformers: Armada” (2002-03) line, and returned in “Transformers: Cybertron” (2006); though it was not called such until the debut of the toy line based on the first live-action film “Transformers” (2007). What Automorph does is- depending on which toy is involved- use a series of internal levers & gears, triggers, and buttons to move one part of the figure without you having to move it yourself; it automatically transforms for you. Sometimes, an Automorph feature will be electronically-powered, though this is reserved for special larger sets only.

For Optimus Prime, there is one Automorph feature:

• After separating his ankles, and flipping the front bumpers/wheels around to become part of his lower legs, there is a small black button on the back of the cab just above his legs that needs to be pressed downwards. When depressed, the blue back half of the vehicle mode will automatically twirl sideways and downwards to become his legs! Then, when they stop turning, you can press the now lower torso/legs forward just a little, and they’ll snap into final position, preventing the mechanism from accidentally engaging when not intended.

This spinning transformation feature is a direct reference to the style of animation in the series which all of the Transformers utilize, which is a whirl of motion while transforming which is untraceable by the eye.

. . .

While the leg Auto-Conversion is a very cool effect, it’s kinda tricky to put back. But then, everything else involved in transforming him falls into place easily enough. Although, I will say flipping the shoulders forward the first time threw me off because there are pegs that they’re fitted to on the back of the cab that they don’t tell you about, so you have to really tug on them to get ‘em loose.

And finally, how Optimus Prime transforms is very similar to his G1 predecessor- arms deploy from the mid- and back of the cab, legs fold out from behind, red cab becomes his chest, engine grille becomes his stomach, the wheels end up on his legs (albeit in a different location), and a panel needs to be opened & closed so that his head can flip up. About the only things that are different is where the front bumper ends up, how his legs deploy, and where/how his hands deploy!

Optimus Prime’s robot mode (back) is the newest incarnation of, and tribute to, the character so beloved since 1984. This one, however, has a very strong posture thanks in large part to the animation style used by Cartoon Network for “Transformers Animated”. While the coloring scheme remains red, blue, and silver, black is added along the outside of his lower arms & waist. From a side profile, his shoulders and neck are aligned in the same position with his ankles, but his chest & hips are- forgive the expression- thrust forward rather arrogantly, giving him a very curvy back. However, he is in no danger of tipping over whatsoever, with those huge feet. His head is very traditional in design, though one thing that a lot of fans complained about was the decision to make his mouth light blue. (I was indifferent to such an issue. To me, this was comparable to painting flames on the movie version of Optimus Prime from the 2007 film- it fit the design style enough that it wasn’t distracting.) I don’t know why, but in addition to the traditional paired pointed antennae for his ears, I always see the forehead for this incarnation of Optimus as very reminiscent of the peaked cap worn by military servicemen in dress uniform. (Perhaps an intentional throwback to his earlier days in the Elite Guard Academy...?) For a change, the headlights of the truck form are preserved on his chest, right below the identically-positioned windshields, and to either side of the truck’s front grille at his stomach. The transparent-blue strobe light array now rests on the top of his back, though you can now see that the red coloring was painted on since it does not appear there in robot mode. His arms are near identical to his cartoon counterpart’s; though incorporating black paneling along the forearms, and black elbows. The front bumper of the alt. mode, rather than remaining preserved as a belt across his waist, has been separated and repositioned behind the back of his legs. Indeed, the front wheels, which traditionally rest at his hips, have also been moved down with the halved bumper to occupy his ankles along with the inward-turned back wheels!

The range of motion on this figure is pretty good. About the only thing on him that doesn’t move around are his ankles. And even though they move during transformation, the wrists are locked in place by those panels on the outside; the only way to counter this is to un-snap the panels, and then the fists can rotate in-and-out, but the panels would just hang there instead. Each shoulder also features double joints which fold out and allow him a greater range; they also allow him to fold his arms forward without bumping them into the vehicle mode’s side-view mirrors on his chest. His waist, not unsurprisingly, can turn through the full 360° quite easily. Too easily, I’d even say- his torso is so loose that it turns the first chance it gets. However, because the mechanism is disengaged (if you remembered to do that final snap after the legs have spun down), you won’t strip the gears or break anything else accidentally. Though his head can’t look up or down, it can still spin side-to-side all the way around. The only real problem I have with the poseability is in the hips- like the Voyager-class Autobot Grimlock figure, they can’t bend that full 90° forward, but I’ll say that the range is better than Grimlock’s.

. . .

For special features, Optimus Prime is loaded. The closest one to being seen in the series is his faceplate. This is usually stored on the front of his neck (which helps contribute to his “...Animated”-styled long chin). There is a tiny blue lever on the back of his neck that, when pushed downwards, will slip the faceplate upwards to cover his light-blue mouth; thus giving him a closer resemblance to many of his predecessors! The second is that his eyes are also made of transparent-blue ABS, and when light shines through the back of his head, they glow. (Does it work...? I’d say it is average and not as great as other figures, but- hey, at least it works!)

The other two features are his weapons...

While he does have a single-blade extendable rocket-powered Energon ax in the series (crazy as that sounds), that is represented only with the smaller Deluxe-class Optimus Prime (Cybertron Mode) figure. Here, the Ion Ax (back) is very wide and double sided, and is formed by the majority of the top section from the vehicle mode; though not resembling the one in the series in any way.

Since none of the Autobots in the series have dedicated weapons (other than the occasional shuriken or rocket-powered Energon ax), they usually depend on their internally-mounted Space Bridge maintenance tools to get by. Being disguised as a fire engine- which are usually designed for many different types of rescue operation- Optimus Prime comes across in the series as a living multi-tool with all kinds of features. Unfortunately, cool as all this sounds, the Voyager-class toy is not as well equipped as Batman himself is. And so, we must settle for a simple Water Cannon. While mounted internally on the back of his fists in the series, this one is big enough that he can grip it like a blaster. Now, when I say that it is a Water Cannon, I mean that it can hold actual water inside of it! There is the smallest of black rubber stops) under the blaster that can be popped-off (it remains attached via a soft cord), and the small reserve can be filled with tap water. To squirt the water, press in on the front of the nozzle.

(Now, I don’t plan to fill mine with any water, so I can’t give you range or how many shots you’ll get. But I’m guessing there might be enough for about ten good squirts out to about a foot-or-two.)

The instructions also specify that when opened up, the Ion Ax can be placed on Optimus Prime’s back, to act as a jet thruster pack. The Water Cannon can also remain attached in this form as well. (While he cleverly uses his Energon axe in the series for very short boosts, he is nowhere-near capable of flight in such fashion!)

What the Instructions *Don’t* Tell You

[fanfare sounds]

The Voyager-class Optimus Prime set, fortunately, has only two marks in this frustrating category:

• The faceplate has a small blue point on his chin which slips through a hole in the red plastic when it’s moving up and down. Unfortunately, this hole disappears when you twist the neck to either side, preventing the faceplate from going either direction. So the lesson here is that Optimus Prime must always be looking straight ahead when you move the faceplate around.
• While this is rather an omission rather than something that was completely unexpected, this is still something important that was overlooked. What they fail to elaborate on, unfortunately, is how to reverse the process of transforming the legs back once they’ve been spun down. Through guesswork on my part, I’ve determined that the waist needs to be pointing to the right before you un-snap it to reengage the mechanism. Then, holding the red cab section, rotate the legs/lower torso clockwise, slowly & gently helping them pitch (i.e. rotating the cab back) at the same time. The mechanism is spring-loaded, and so while it will easily spring downwards, it cannot do the reverse; you have to help it get back. And then, once the legs are near-horizontal again, you need to depress that black lever again so that it can be re-locked.

I’ve heard of people simply forcing the waist section up without spinning it, and I greatly fear that this will rapidly wear down the mechanism inside, and so I strongly recommend that you not do that! So long as you take your time and remember to start the process with the legs & waist facing the right direction, you should do just fine.

...but the instructions don’t tell you any of this.

Many people and longtime Trans-fans were once more greatly disturbed by the newest incarnation of those famous shape-shifting alien robots in disguise; for example, turning the famous Optimus Prime into a measly wannabe with no ambitions and trust issues, or the overall design style of merging & graceful lines/curves matching that of other recent cartoons such as Disney’s hugely-popular “Kim Possible” (2002-2007). And yet after a rocky start in trying to win back the minds of the fans, the show has become a hit on its own as much as it is a tribute to the original G1 series from 1984. Plus, “Transformers: Animated” is an original American series like “Beast Wars: Transformers” (1996-99) and “Beast Machines: Transformers” (1999-2001) before it, rather than being a dubbed anime production from Japan. The same can be said of the toys thus far in their initial releases. But as word has spread across the Internet, the toys have come to shine on their own- not just for their functionality, but for their absolute and striking similarities to their on-screen counterparts, which has never been as fully successful before- where proportions were usually off, colors were wrong, and functions were off or not mentioned. In other words, after 23 years, we are finally getting in our hands what we see on the screen in a way never seen before in Transformers history.

This is another figure that I was looking forward to with great anticipation from the very moment that I saw it online in late 2007. And it has not disappointed in any way. Perhaps some of the tabs and the holes that they fit into are a little finicky when you transform him, but that’s no big deal. While this is a feature that has appeared in the past, the Water Cannon, I thought, was a nice idea, but I’m sure that other collectors like myself will also never be putting water into it. Though I knew the Ion Ax would not look anything like its on-screen counterpart, I was glad that at least the figure came with a large ax of some kind. Next time, though, I expect the one seen in the show to be in the same box. And attaching the two weapons to his back was also a cute little gimmick, and it didn’t sacrifice any other part of the toy to accomplish, which was really nice for a change! The moving faceplate, also, was nice and a good alternative to using a separating accessory piece for those who couldn’t stand his blue lips. The Auto-Conversion legs were, of course, really awesome, and a great way of paying respect to the ninja-quick insta-transform that these characters go through. But, of course, with the exception of the large ankle kibble, this is another fine, fine example of Takara’s hard work of bringing us a toy that so closely matches its on-screen counterpart, and yet plays homage to the past great leaders of the Autobots. Things to change? Yeah- give him an Autobot symbol somewhere, mnn? In the series he has a red symbol on each upper arm, but the only indication of such is an indented panel on the front of his right upper arm! I am also a little annoyed with how easily his waist turns after I lock it in place when transforming him. Oh, and in the future, I’d like to see a fully-functional fire engine trailer section to go with this figure. As is, though, I am very satisfied and I highly recommend getting the Voyager-class Autobot Optimus Prime (Earth Mode) figure.

Oh... and please forgive me my little, um... AT-ST moment here; I couldn't resist.

--Renewing the Charge--

[DISCLAIMER: This last section is not supported, advertised, or endorsed by either Hasbro, DreamWorks, Paramount Pictures, or Warner Brothers Records. It is a fan-supported effort completely independent from all companies affiliates with the 2007 film "Transformers".]

Not even a week after "Transformers" entered theaters on July 3rd and became a blockbuster, scores of fans were clamoring for a copy of the original musical score by Steve Jablonsky. However, WB Records said in an official statement that the score would not be released for the foreseeable future. In protest, a fan-supported online petition was set-up to persuade the record company to reconsider. By the end of two months, over 5500 signatures had been recorded (your's truly at #1112).

Victory for the signers was claimed when “Transformers: The Score” was released in October that same year, containing just-shy of one hour of the original score. Jablonsky also personally wrote to the creators of the petition thanking them for their efforts. The CD would go on to become the 32nd best-selling soundtrack on Amazon.com at the time of its release.

However, victory was short lived. Because the CD was so popular, it disappeared from shelves rapidly, and was not restocked. By the end of 2007- a mere two-and-a-half months later- new CDs were no longer being produced, but were still being sought after. Reports of online price scalping were not uncommon when stores ran out, easily selling for double the original prices. (Don't worry- I got my own copy in October, and loved every minute of it!)

. . .

Well, the folks at The Knight Shift who brought you the first petition have come back, and they are saying "Give the people what they want". I recently learned that a new Petition 2.0 is now up, and is accepting signatures once more. This new effort is directed at Warner Brothers Records, and is asking for an extended reissue of "Transformers: The Score", with the potential for additional original tracks to be added.

(Yours truly is petition signer #563.)

If you signed the original petition, I both thank you and ask you to put forth your effort on this new petition as well. If you did not sign the original petition, but got the CD, please sign this new petition. If you are a fan of Steve Jablonsky, please sign this new petition. If you are long-time Trans-fan, or you simply enjoyed the film the movie, then please sign this new petition. I thoroughly appreciated and enjoyed the original CD release, and I want others to share in it as well.

Bubs been doing so well lately, I let him live...but is he alive or dead?

I've never understood why some people say that "Day of the Dead" was the worst of George Romero's original zombie trilogy. It was always my favorite and by a pretty good margin, too. Well, the film will soon be celebrated by a line of 8" action figures from Amok Time and the first one is almost set to be released. Bub, the popular, iconic zombie from the film, will be the first, and final product images are now available.

Bub will be a deluxe figure and include a display base, extra arm, gun, razor, headphones, tape deck and "reward bucket". It looks like the only thing missing is a Stephen King novel. I don't know if that's just an oversight or if it's for legal reasons, but I'm guessing the latter.

Bub is set to be released in late October/early November and will retail for $14.99. The second figure in the line will be the "Dr. Tongue" zombie and that will follow in 2009. Here's a shot of the guys from Amok Time with "Day of the Dead" FX legends Tom Savini and Greg Nicotero, showing off both figures.

If that doesn't whet your appetite, check out this stop motion video! Stop motion rules!

This set is cute (little robots with squat bodies and big eyes usually are), practical, sufficiently gimmicky, and certainly a good representation of the character physically from the movie.

The Waste Allocation Load Lifter - Earth Class (aka WALL•E) was a mass-production robot built by the international monopolistic conglomerate Buy n Large in the 22nd Century to begin the long clean-up of human garbage & waste on Earth. Though only designed for a trial run of five years, the reality of the situation on the planet meant that it would instead take hundreds of years to affect clean-up safe enough for humans to return. And so, Earth was completely abandoned so that the WALL•E units could work more efficiently. Over the centuries, with a complete lack of outside support, the thousands of WALL•E units across the world worked themselves into ruin. By the 29th Century, only one remained fully functional- surviving by salvaging spare parts from its rundown comrades as a most-unexpected & unprecedented form of self-preservation; its unusual motivation to continue on functioning would eventually prove to be turning points for both humanity and itself.

Each WALL•E unit is a small trash compactor programmed to search out solid garbage, collect it within itself, and compress it into more-manageable trash cubes for later pick-up by other dedicated robots. In addition to the two small three-fingered hydraulic manipulators on either side of its chassis, each has a small laser cutting torch built in between their optical sensors on the sensor pod above which can cut larger garbage into smaller and easier-to-handle chunks for them to process. They roll on two tractor-tread assemblies and are able to climb difficult natural & artificial terrain such as stairs & junk heaps with the sophisticated traction & suspension within them. To make certain that they too do not contribute to the mess they are trying to clear, all WALL•E units use solar energy as their primary power source. When recharging, during difficult weather patterns, or in storage, each unit can retract the sensor pod, manipulators, and tractor-tread assemblies into the hollow interior to make a compact cube shape.

U-Repair WALL•E (back) stands 3 15/16” (10.2cm)-tall when all of the accessory parts have been added, and is designed around the story element from the summer 2008 movie that this particular unit tried to keep itself functional by swapping parts from its broken brethren ‘bots. The set contains 20 parts which come pre-assembled in the packaging, but serve as the main gimmick of this particular toy. The separate components are:

• eye camera sensors (Right & Left)
• head
• neck
• hollow body
• storage compartment doors (Front & Back)
• chest control/indicator panel
• upper arm (Right & Left)
• lower arm & hand (x2)
• tractor assembly (Right & Left)
• tractor leg attachment piece (Right & Left)
• ragged tractor-tread belt (x2)
• complete tractor-tread belt (x2)

The only duplicate parts are the tractor-tread belts- one pair are worn from use and look ragged, while the other pair look factory-fresh & undamaged. Since the two pairs of belts are symmetrical when slipped onto the tractor assemblies, it doesn’t matter which goes on which side. And, because WALL•E’s yellow ABS body is hollow, whichever pair of belts is not in use can be stored internally, keeping the set complete.

. . .

With the exception of the head-to-neck joint (which is a ball-&-socket) and the tractor-tread belts, all of the U-Repair WALL•E parts are snap-fit. Indeed, if you wish, you can even swap most of the components into kooky combinations! The only exception to this is that the tractor assemblies cannot snap onto anything other than the leg attachment parts; this is because the assemblies’ joints have tiny unique bars which prevent them from snapping onto anything else. However, the leg attachment parts themselves are still fully versatile in merging with the other components of the set. Though they can be separated, the two fingers on each hand are not meant to be removed, even though if too much pressure is applied they will pop-off. The control panel on the front of WALL•E’s chassis above the front storage compartment door can be removed, but Thinkway Toys incorporated a small tab-&-slot design on the inside which prevents you from installing it upside-down.

Since there is not nearly enough room or mechanics involved in this toy, WALL•E cannot store all of its parts inside of itself like it does in the movie, so simply removing most of them is sufficient to resemble its compacted storage form (back). (Yeah- you can store some of the smaller separated parts inside of him, but that space is obviously normally reserved just for whichever spare set of tractor-tread belts is not in use.) In storage form, its almost-cube-shaped body is 2 ½” (6.5cm) on its longest axis [front-to-back]. The similar-sized Transforming WALL•E action figure set, however, is specifically designed to fit all of the parts into it without separating them by means of spring-loaded internal mechanisms.

Removing U-Repair WALL•E’s limbs allows for a better look at the detailed molded surfaces on all of the components which closely resemble the ones on the CGI character from the film…

The plastic lenses for its eyes are indeed transparent, but inside of them is black plastic, so you can’t see what’s really in there even though they reflect light well enough. Though the panels on the top of its eye camera sensor parts which resemble eyebrows, they are molded in and do not move as in the movie. On the back of its head is a single black PVC part resembling cables going into its eye cameras; these cannot be removed but the material is flexible so that its eyes can still tilt up-&-down. All six sides of its yellow body have panels painted gray, and lines highlighted. Of particular interest is the fact that all fully-exposed yellow surfaces have weathered brown paint applications added to them to give WALL•E that worn, rusted, grungy, & beat-up appearance it has throughout most of the film. This applies just to the body and upper arms; no other surface has been weathered; and all plastic molds have not been altered- save one set of tractor-tread belts- to look worn either. The tractor assemblies do not extend or contract like they do in the movie; being molded into single parts. However, three of the wheels on each do freely rotate, with the fourth for decoration only. On both sides of the two largest wheels on the tractor assemblies, and on the back storage compartment door, is the logo for the fictitious Buy n Large corporation (abbreviated as “BnL”).

Other extra printed details include the control panel display which shows his “Solar Charge Level” [at full capacity], the official “WALL•E” label on the lower left corner of the front storage compartment door, and the black-&-white caution stripes on both upper arms. And, with the exception of the outside panels around the eye camera lenses, all other surfaces of the toy are unpainted.

Poseability for the U-Repair WALL•E set is fairly good. All of those snap twist-joints in the wrists, shoulders, and neck allow for a good range of motion, and there are additional alternate joints in the larger two fingers on each hand (they are molded together as one piece), a second shoulder joint beyond just the connecting peg, and a horizontal rod between the eyes which allow them to swivel up and down. The shoulder joints in the movie run along an angular “J”-shaped track on each side, allowing it to reach farther, or retract the arms. Here, the shoulders snap into just one hole located about mid-way along the upper horizontal track; unlike the larger electronic motorized InterAction WALL•E toy, the shoulders cannot be repositioned anywhere else since there is only one hole on each side along the non-functional track. WALL•E’s rather expressive binocular-shaped eye cameras can swing up and down just a little, but because the black plastic cord on the back of his head is actually rather inflexible, they always droop when left alone, so it always has a rather mournful expression. Unlike in the movie and several other toys, U-Repair WALL•E’s lower arms cannot telescope in and out, and so they stay at that one length all the time- the wrists just barely stretching beyond its body when the arms are pointed straight forward. Both tractor-tread belts- which are made of a flexible yet non-stretching material unlike rubber- can freely turn, allowing it to roll. (Those belts are tight enough that it doesn’t roll very easily, so you have to push down on it a bit to get them to spin. And even then, sometimes the inner wheels won’t turn, and the belts will just slide right around them. Don’t even try pushing it around on hard wood flooring- it’ll slip around like it’s on ice; it works best on short carpet.)

Having not actually seen “WALL•E” in theaters by the time this review was posted, I had to do my best to avoid spoilers for myself until it came out on DVD later in 2008. However, seeing the various trailers & reviews online allowed me to glimpse the tiny R2-D2-wannabe, it was inevitable that I would come across the character enough to become interested. And really, this is the only figure I found that I really wanted. The biggest reason was the ability to disassemble him to resemble its storage form, and that they provided a worn pair of tractor-tread belts to swap out. I did, however, see another figure that you could disassemble, Construct-A-Bot WALL•E, but I kept a good distance away from that one because it used magnets to keep the parts together, not snapping joints, so I knew it would never stay together after the first time I dropped a single part! Though this figure was the same size as ones that didn’t come apart, and instead came with trash cubes, I decided that I didn’t need the trash cubes to like the figure. While I was a little disappointed that the arms couldn’t telescope, the two larger fingers on each hand were molded together, and that it couldn’t reach far beyond its chest, I still find this a very satisfying representation. But, I wasn’t willing to spend over $30 for features like motorized rolling around and voice-activated features that- as an older collector- I would not have used much later on. Things to change? Other than those disappointments listed above, not really. I might, however, tighten those connection joints just a hair, though… The U-Repair WALL•E set is cute (little robots with squat bodies and big eyes usually are), practical, sufficiently gimmicky, and certainly a good representation of the character physically from the movie. And so I highly recommend getting the little trash-bot!

See the commercial for U-Repair WALL•E by Thinkway Toys!

(Be sure to look for more "WALL•E meets a" videos- they're hilarious too!)

Yep it's just more of the same goodness from the 1/60 (2.0) Macross line from Yamato. This time around it is Hikaru Ichijo's VF-1A from the film Macross: Do You Remember Love?

This fine Yamato VF-1A is brought to us by our sponsor, Angolz.com. The only really notable difference between this release and the previous VF-1S is a slightly looser swing bar in the leg mechanism and of course the new head sculpt featuring the single antenna design. For those not in the know the letter designation after the 1 (as in VF-1A) generally tells you what the antenna array looks like. A has a single antenna, J has two and the S features 4. The first release got everything right so there wasn't much room for improvement between releases so just expect more of the same goodness as the last review.