WFC: Kingdom Autobot Tracks

Hey, it’s been a minute since my last blog post, and I am sorry about that. I just couldn’t come up with any ideas for this one plus my free time was lacking this past week and any free time I had, I was just exhausted. As a result this one might not be my best work but I want to get it done so I can move on. This time I am looking at a figure that a lot of people really hate for one reason in particular. I understand it, but the fix is straightforward and so I find the hate overblown. Anyway I am looking at Kingdom Tracks.

As I stated, Tracks here gets a lot of hate for his legs, which I can partially understand since he has a misassembly that makes his legs really loose and floppy. Now there are multiple fixes for the legs (this is the one I used) and all of them are pretty easy. He has a few other minor issues but I will cover them when I get there, but I think he is on par with figures like ER Trailbreaker and Siege Sideswipe. I guess now is as good a time as any to get in to why.

His head is the best Tracks head we have ever gotten on a mainline figure of the character. The stark white helmet makes all the details visible and I love that the head crest feeds directly into the side spike slopes. The red face is present as it is iconic to the characters design and is looking as good as ever. It is very round and smooth compared to the rest of the head but it works well. The eyes are a nice lavender blue but I would have gone with a brighter blue so they stand out more. Head articulation is pretty limited because of the shape of the head and collar so it can only move about 40 degrees left or right.

The torso is pretty wide but not unproportionately so. He does have a faux chest which works really well and I think if it wasn’t fake he would be way out of scale with the rest of the WFC gang. The fake windows are painted in a nice metallic sand blue and he has his traditional yellow badge block in the center of his chest. Now the torsos itself is pretty two-dimensional because of transformation but you can really only tell from certain angles. He does have quite a large backpack which is almost entirely clear plastic since it is the entire top and back of the car, but this doesn’t bug me. His design requires him to have a backpack and it doesn't get in the way of any articulation at all.

Moving on to Tracks’ arms which are pretty nice. His shoulders have both the wings and wheels on them, and similarly to ER Trailbreaker, the wings are attached to the shoulders but they are not nearly as awkward looking as those panels. I do really like the red and yellow details on his forearms as they bring some much-needed color. Articulation here is pretty standard; shoulder rotation, outward shoulder movement, bicep swivel, and 90 degree elbow. Nothing in the wrist unfortunately, but he does have a bit of a backwards butterfly joint thanks to transformation.

Finally we are onto the legs, and while I have already covered the rampant QC issue with them, they have some other issues besides that and most of it has to do with the articulation and joints used. The actual design and shape of the legs is pretty good. I do think they could use some more colors as they are primarily grey and black with only the blue side panels to break it up. Now lets move onto articulation and I will point out my issues as we get to each one. Starting at the top with the waist which has a full rotation despite the large backpack. These hips have soft ratchets for outward movement which is a choice but not a big deal. The issue I have with them is the the back and forth movement are mushroom pegs, which aren’t the most stable. Thigh swivels and knees are what you have probably come to expect from a modern day figure. The ankles are my other main issue and while the range of motion they have is excellent, they are ball jointed so they could end up becoming loose over time. On top of that they are attached to the side panel not the actual main leg, which means if you haven’t done the fix it is very hard for him to stand.

His Weapons are pretty simple, just his gun and his missile pods. Tracks gun is a reference to his gun in the original cartoon and it looks good even if it is just a detailed cone. Of course it can be plugged into either hand or any of the other various 5mm ports around him. The missile pod is neat and, like the gun, is based more off the show appearance than the original toy. The main difference is obviously the smaller missiles but also detail wise they are much more akin to the animation model. The missiles are obviously meant to plug into the top of the backpack so they rest right above his head but they can of course be plugged in anywhere.

Transformation is neat and for the most part pretty simple. The only confusing part can be the legs, but the engineering is actually really cool, you just need to make sure everything is lined up correctly while doing it. The corvette mode itself is beautiful, the blue is stunning and I love the flame detail on the hood even if it is a bit basic. I also appreciate that the rims are painted silver, it really brings the whole thing together. Tracks is famous for his flying car mode which is incredibly stupid looking, but also extremely fun and lovable and of course this toy can do it. It is just as dumb as every other time it has been done but pulls it off almost as convincingly as the Masterpiece figure. Both the weapons can be stored in these modes, just plug them together and plug them onto the back. I think my only issue with this figure is the lack of a flight stand port in vehicle mode, seems like an oversight not to include one on a figure with a flying alt mode

So that is Kingdom Tracks in his full glory. Once I fixed the legs I really started to enjoy this figure and his engineering. Like I said in the beginning he is just as good as Earthrise Trailbreaker and Siege Sideswipe so it should come as no surprise that he gets the same rating. 6.5/10.

I know this post took way too long to do, especially for how short it is. I just had a lack of time and energy to write these past couple weeks. Unfortunately that may continue into the new year, or at very least the next month or so. I will try and get a new Gallery up every week as they are pretty easy to do and I have a bunch of figures I want to sell off or know I won't do reviews on and that way I am still updating the website every week. On the topic of galleries, Tracks gallery has already been up for a about a week so check that out. With that all said, I will see you all when I see you.

War for Cybertron Mirage Mayhem

I am not going to beat around the bush this time, if you read last week's blog all the way to the end you know that this week I am looking at Kingdom Mirage. This is because he comes packed with Grimlock in the first Battle Across Time Set. Now I did say that there would be a twist this week as well, and it came about while I was talking to a friend. I realized I had an opportunity to do a couple figures in my backlog and while it did triple my workload as far as pictures go, but I am really happy with how everything turned out. So not only am I doing Kingdom Mirage this week but I am also looking at Siege Mirage and Siege Holo Mirage.

If you recall, a while back I did a full review of WFC Trilogy Decepticon Mirage, and because of that I won’t be doing full reviews of any of these figures just to make sure I don’t repeat myself. I will for sure be skipping the articulation and transformation unless it is something I forgot to go over before or in Kingdom Mirage’s case new articulation entirely. I am also going to be skipping the weapons as they all have the same ones just in different colors. With all that out of the way let’s get right into it starting with…

Siege Mirage

Siege Mirage here was the only retail release of the mold, and is done up in his standard colors of white, blue and silver with some black and red accents. This color scheme is absolutely gorgeous on this figure. The head sculpt looks flawless in this royal blue and silver but I wish the eyes stood out more. The stark white chest with the fake car front looks quite nice and is broken up by the giant Auto-badge and silver front wing. Something I did forget to mention on my previous look at this mold, is that thanks to transformation he does have some forward butterfly joints, but they can look a bit wonky depending on how far out you move them. Not much going on in the arms, but the black and silver are a nice break from the white and blue of the rest of the figure. I know a lot of people worry about his legs since his shins are made of translucent plastic but I really like them. I think the clear blue on top of the white plastic just looks really nice, as it adds some nice depth and color variation. Vehicle mode also looks incredible in these colors and I especially love the cybertronian writing on the sides of the car. Luckily this version does not have the paint chipping issue Con Mirage does but he also doesn’t have nearly as much paint though.

Siege Holo Mirage

Moving on to Holo Mirage, who was released via the Amazon exclusive Fan Vote 3 Pack, which came with him, a Decepticon version of Impactor and Aragon, a character that NO ONE saw getting a new toy. Usually I would review multi-packs together but I sold the Impactor right away and since Aragon is just a Cog repaint I think splitting them up like this is just easier. Clear Mirage deco’s have become a staple of Mirage molds since they are pretty easy and make sense since his canon ability in the original cartoon was invisibility. This one is notable as it is done up in translucent blue instead of the smokey translucent plastic they have used on the others. Interestingly it is actually a different blue than the one used on the retail release as it is slightly lighter, also they used a solid light blue plastic for most of the joints which I think is smart as it should prevent breakage. The major difference here is the toy accurate head which has yet to be used on any other figure and that is a shame as it is incredible looking. He does have clear tampographs in various places, such as the chest and spoiler, but they are hard to make out unless they are in the right lighting. I should mention that the shoulder ports on my copy have both cracked just from putting the launcher in, I am not expecting any more cracks there as the launcher fits quite well now. Nothing too spectacular in car mode, just a two-tone blue space race car.

Kingdom Mirage

Finally we reached the main event, Kingdom Mirage. This figure is actually quite a bit different from the Siege mold but still uses a lot of the same engineering and, if my counting is correct, the two molds share about 20 parts. The one part I can’t tell if it is remolded or not is the head, as it looks slightly thinner, which would make sense considering the new chest transformation but it might just be the brighter blue used making it look that way. His chest is significantly thinner, leading to a better proportioned robot mode. He does still have the fake chest but this time in an Earth mode flavoring, and thanks to transformation this figure has an ab crunch which is SUCH a fantastic addition. The arms are probably the most changed, specifically the shoulders since they are a big part of the new transformation scheme mentioned above. Not only are the spoiler shoulder pads (spoiler pads) in the new Earth aesthetic, you can untab the shoulders from the torso to give him more fluid looking butterfly joints that go in both directions. This does come with a caveat though, because of these new joints, he no longer has any shoulder ports for his launcher, but he does have some ports on the back of his shoulders and I actually don’t mind this look. The legs aren’t that much different. A substantial amount of the parts are new but they all function the same. The first thing you will probably notice is that the lower legs are no longer made of clear plastic, they are solid blue. While it is a nice shade of blue they feel kind off plain and I think they could have done from some more paint such as the silver on the knee pads. Overall I don’t have a lot of complaints about this robot mode. My 2 main ones would be the 5mm port on his back is too big to hold anything, but that might just be my copy. My other one is more of a long term concern, as this figure has a lot of paint, specifically the chest, forearms and thighs are all white paint on blue plastic. I have already chipped some off the fake spoiler when I first transformed him, but it doesn’t seem or feel as fragile as the paint on Decepticon Mirage. Transformation is the same as far as the legs go, but the arms are the main difference, even though they end up in essentially the same spot. Vehicle mode is very nice, the back is much cleaner and thinner than the Siege version. The colors are very nice in this mode too but like in robot mode I find the blue kinda barren. You have probably already noticed that the autobot tampograph on the front of the car is off center, which is unfortunate but easily fixable. You can plug the guns in this mode, they go on the sides of the car now which I actually like a lot better than on top of the spoiler.

Overall I think that Siege Mirage has the better colors but Kingdom Mirage is the better figure overall. And Holo Mirage exists if that is more your style. That being said though all of these are good figures so take your pick of any of these and I am sure you will be happy. As for ratings, base Siege Mirage gets a 6.5 from me, Holo Mirage gets a 6, and Kingdom Mirage gets a 7. As far as this Battle Through Time set with Grimlock and Mirage the score averages out to a 6.5/10 which is pretty fair, nothing too special going on but the figures are good.  And with that I have covered every version of the Siege Mirage mold, as well as done galleries for all of them. If you want to check those out then you can click here, here and here for the 3 I covered today and here for the Con Mirage Gallery I did back in May. As for next week it is the first Commander Class figure I have bought and I am having a hell of a time with him. I hope you are all looking forward to it and I will see you all next week

Transformers Studio Series Shadow Raider

It is that time again and this time we are returning to a toyline I have already done a figure from, which is Studio Series, but unfortunately for Studio Series it is another figure I am not super thrilled with(I promise there are figures in this toyline I enjoy). I do think this one is an improvement from ROTF Megatron in multiple ways, especially since I don’t hate this design from the get go. So let’s take a look at one of the few seemingly toy only characters in the entire toyline, Studio Series #17 Shadow Raider.

I know, I know technically Shadow Raider did appear in the movies. He is a representation of the background Mercenaries on Lockdown’s ship in Age of Extinction but like is he really? Those models look nothing like this toy except for maybe the feet and arms plus they were never named in the movie, they were just credited with “Mercenaries”. This toy was just an excuse for Hasbro to reuse this mold in a new color and as far as I am concerned it is a new toy only character.

Looking more closely at the actual figure, and of course starting with the head, we can see that this is a very simple head as he has no real facial features to speak of. He just has a full face visor/mask/helmet which actually is closer in design to Lockdown’s than it is to the actual background mercs. It does have quite a few molded details all over the head which looks really nice but I find the ones in the front half get lost a lot more and that is because the front half of the head is black painted clear plastic. The other issue this clear plastic brings up is that you can see all the, what I assume to be, connection points for said piece in the green plastic behind and it looks awful, just random holes all over the place. Quickly looking at articulation before moving on, the head is on a ball joint and he has a neck hinge meaning he has a lot of upwards movement but because of the shape of his head and collar his side to side movement is limited and downward movement is non-existent.  

The torso is very simple in the grand scheme of things, just a black block with tons of molded detail. For real the detail here is insane and it is all super visible thanks to the black plastic, but I think my favorite part is the chest piece which is picked out in grey and orange and really helps draw attention to the chest. The back on the other hand is just the entire top half of his car mode folded up into a somewhat cohesive looking backpack. It isn’t the worst backpack I have seen on a figure, especially since it doesn’t make him back heavy and, for the most part, doesn't hinder the articulation. But it would have been nice if they did something more creative with it, but I understand that this line is all about movie accuracy and since this mold was originally Lockdown, and he had hardly any car parts in robot mode it makes sense.

Moving onto the arms which are made up of the sides of the car mode, and they are fine. They are very orange compared to the rest of the figure but they do have sections on the shoulder and bicep, which look like ammo pouches with some relatively large bullets, and the entire forearms are black as well. Articulation here is kinda lacking, and what is there gets hindered. Shoulders are on ball joints but are hindered going back because of the backpack and going upward because of the shape of the shoulder. He does have a bicep swivel but it gets stopped by the wheel that is in his inner arm, but you get enough range out of it for it to be useful. Just below that you have the elbow which is on a ball joint, so there is also a swivel there if you need some more range there, unfortunately the elbow itself only goes 90 degrees and, on my copy at least, these ball joints like to pop out which can be slightly annoying. Before moving onto the legs I should mention that there is a fairly common QC issue with this mold in general, and it should come at no surprise to you that it has to do with clear plastic. Shadow Raiders shoulders sections are cast in clear plastic, so that means both the shoulder joint and bicep swivel are affected. This clear plastic has been known to shatter especially at the bicep, since that is a transformation joint and is rotated the wrong way. I have found that rotating it clockwise without holding the wheel has given me the best results so far. 

These legs have all sorts of little issues that just add up to a not great experience. First off the waist and hips are both hindered by the shape of the hips. The waist can only move about 15 degrees in either direction, and the hips can only go out about 60 degrees, before being stopped. Other than that though the hips are also hindered going backwards by the backpack and they can only go 90 degrees forward, which is more than enough. He does have a full thigh swivel but because it is used for transformation, it is slightly off center so it looks awkward when used. His knees only go about 90 degrees, which is workable and his feet actually have about 90 degrees of movement up thanks to transformation so he can do a pretty convincing crouch. On the topic of his feet let’s talk about them for a minute and how I am a dense human being. So for the longest time, essentially since I got the figure till right now as of me writing this, I never realized that the bumper sections on his heels are on a double hinge, meaning they can be pulled out slightly allowing them to sit higher up and more importantly they let the foot sit perpendicular to the rest of the leg, meaning he can stand up straight and not lean forward at a 45 degree angle. 

Before moving onto transformation and vehicle mode he does come with this gun accessory that fits over his left hand. I do really like all the details on this gun with the 3 canisters on top, the tri-spikes at the front and just all the little molded details it has. Unfortunately, like I stated before this gun can only go in his left hand because of how it is designed. If you really want to put it on the other arm you can use the vehicle mode ports and plug it into the outside of either arm but it will be upside down on the right arm, not that that really matters. 

Speaking of vehicle mode, this vehicle mode looks absolutely amazing but getting here is the ABSOLUTE WORST. Everything has a hard time lining up, certain sections will catch on other sections and just pop off, but the real pain comes from getting the entire sides of the car lined up. Trying to fold the hands under the small panels that are attached to the backpack is truly infuriating and requires an uncomfortable amount of pressure. It gets to a point where you wonder if the transformation is really worth the trouble. Onto the car mode itself it is really nice, it is an officially licensed Lamborghini Aventador, and the orange is actually a stock color for the car. It rolls well enough and you can store the gun on the side of the car but it looks pretty ridiculous. I don’t know what else to say about this mode other than it looks cool. You may have noticed that I have indeed “painted” the rims on him, just like on TR Hot Rod, and honestly I think it really completes the look here

And just like that we are at the end of another review, Shadow Raider looks so cool but doesn’t really have the engineering needed to back it up, and combine that with the transformation he comes out at a very mediocre 5.5/10. As always the gallery for Shadow Raider is up as well if you want to look through that.

Now that all of that is over and done with I would like to point out a couple new things on the website; First off I added a Search button in the header and added a search bar at the top of the blog page(replacing the blog title), just in case you need some help finding something, Secondly you will notice the page thumbnail for the Studio Series page as well as the banner on said page has changed from Megatron to Shadow Raider, which was always the plan just to keep things fresh. Expect a couple more minor changes to the site as the weeks go on, gonna be tweaking stuff till I find something I like. Speaking of tweaking I did tweak my watermark in my pictures, and I do like it a lot better. I think i still need to adjust the sizing a bit but it works well enough for this week. Going forward I do have the next 6-7 weeks planned out, provided figures arrive on time, and it is all newer stuff too, so look forward to that and I will see you all then.

Transformers Titans Return Hot Rod

Hello there, and welcome back to MythicTF’s for another review. Before we begin I would like to mention that I updated all of galleries to have the size class within the banner along side all the other general information. Anyways, I am weirdly excited about this one and I don’t really know why. He was a pretty basic but enjoyable figure from Titans Return and an extremely basic one by today's standards. It is weird to think that it has been 4 1/2 - 5 years since he came out cause it doesn’t feel like that long ago but I guess it is a testament to how far we have come since then, especially in terms of engineering. With all that said he still has a lot of character and charm to him so let’s look at Titans Return Hot Rod.

First thing I am going to mention right out of the gate is that I have customized this guy slightly. I took a Silver Paint Sharpie to his rims to help them stand out a bit more. I was planning to take it off before doing this but I couldn't find anything on hand that took it off easily, and I didn't have a lot of free time to go and buy something that would take it off so I decided to just leave it. I think it looks good and doesn’t really take anything away from him as a whole. Anyways let’s just get on with it. 

Starting with the head means that we start this review off looking at Hot Rod Titan Master partner Firedrive. For those who are knowledgeable about TF lore, Hot Rod never had a Titan Master, or Headmaster as they were originally called, he got a Targetmaster named Firebolt. For legal reasons they cant use the name Firebolt so they renamed him to Firedrive and since Hot Rod needed to incorporate the Titan Master gimmick, so they gave his new headmaster the name of his old targetmaster, pretty simple. Like all Titanmasters in Titans Return, Firedrive has a unique power that he gives to any larger robot he is attached to, in this case he gives Hot Rod and I quote “an electrostatic that disables the systems of enemy targets...”. As for looks, there isn't much, he is cast entirely in grey plastic and has no paint, which sucks but since you will probably keep him attached to the main body, i don’t see it as much of a loss. You can make out most of the details on him with the exception being the head as I feel like there isn’t enough definition on them and as a result some of them get lost. For articulation he really only has arms that go forward and the head can do a full 360. the legs are molded together so you can’t really get any poses from them. Finally we can get onto Hot Rod’s face, which is good enough for the most part, although the headcrest fins get lost a lot of the time giving him an off look but it works well enough, especially once connected to the rest of the body.

Speaking of, the torso is pretty simple, your standard hood chest with Hot Rod’s usual flare of engine block and flame decal. It does have a chunk missing at the bottom of it to allow for some ab detail but otherwise there isn’t much happening on the front. The back is what you would expect for a Hot Rod, the windshield/cockpit area and the spoiler section. THe spoiler doesn’t sit quite far enough up so it ends up getting blocked by the shoulders most of the time, which is unfortunate since that is a main part of his silhouette.

The arms seem very rudimentary, i mean the necessary articulation is there; the ball jointed shoulders, the bicep swivel and the 90 degree elbow, but they very much look like two large rectangles attached by a small hinge. They have all the right details too, like the shoulder wheels and his triple barreled forearm exhaust pipes. Oddly his hands are orange instead of the more cartoon accurate grey, but this figure is mope so based on the original toy and not the cartoon as one would expect, so it works. 

The legs feel more articulate and less blocky than the arms even if they really aren’t. I think that is mainly because of his ability to have double jointed knees, you just need to move the kibble out of the way. As for other articulation he has a waist rotation, ball jointed hips and a full thigh rotation. The detailing here isn’t bad, I especially like the vent knee caps and silver shins. His feet don’t move at all but they are molded at an angle so he has a more natural stance when he is just standing. 

For accessories, we already covered the head Titanmaster but he also comes with a pair of rifles. I can’t really tell what these guns are based on, if they even are, the closest I could come up with is maybe the G1 Rodimus Prime rifle but even that is a stretch. Otherwise they fit in his hands well enough and can also be plugged into the shoulder ports if that is something you want to do. You can combine the rifles together to form a double barreled gun of sorts but he has to hold it by the side so it ends up looking awkward and overly large. 

Transformation is simple, nothing too involved or interesting, just make sure you remove the head first. AND HOLY COW this car mode is STUNNING. There are no robot parts at all, everything lines up really well to make this super smooth and clean looking car. The dark translucent blue windshield is great and helps break up all the red and of course he has his classic flame hood and engine block. The orange could stand to be a bit deeper to really help the yellow stand out better, but it is pretty good as is. For weapon storage you can plug the guns into either of the side holes and there is just barely enough clearance to allow him to still roll, you can also combine them together and plug them into the engine block which is a classic feature with almost all Hot Rod toys. When the guns are combined together you can actually fit Firedrive in the middle so he can use it like a manned turret or you can open the windshield and seat him in the car so he can drive it. The last feature I want to mention is the little pegs right in front of the spoiler. They are for titanmasters to stand on so he can give some extra guys a lift or just have Firedrive stand on the car.

So that is Titans Return Hot Rod, while he may be kinda basic and obsolete by today’s standards he is still pretty fun and the car mode stands toe to toe with his newer counterpart’s. For me he is a solid 6.5/10. I don’t really have much else that needs to be said about him, I think I covered everything I wanted too, so feel free to check out the gallery. Next week is going to be a BIG ONE, probably going to have the most amount of pictures in a gallery so don’t be surprised if I end up taking an extra week on it. It isn’t the one I had initially planned to be next but I honestly couldn’t wait and to be honest I almost did her this week instead of Hot Rod but figured I would wait to form a better opinion. Hope to see you all then.

Transformers War for Cybertron: Earthrise Trailbreaker

New week, new blog, and after looking at older figures over the past couple of weeks we’re headed back to modern times with today’s figure. Now if you haven followed me for a while, you might know I used to do Transformers reviews on YouTube, I didn't do very many, they were a lot of time and effort that i didn’t think was worth it in the long run. One of the figures I reviewed was Earthrise Hoist, and while that is not today’s subject he is VERY similar so apologies for those that have seen that video, this review might sound a bit similar. So let’s take a look at War for Cybertron Earthrise Trailbreaker.

Trailbreaker is interesting because I feel like he is one of the more forgotten members of the original cast, even though he did show up in the beginning of the original 1984 show quite a bit. He would just kinda show up, use his force field ability and then leave for like 3 episodes before showing back up. His design is somehow both unique and uninteresting, I really don’t know how to describe it so I guess I should just jump right in and look at the figure in detail.

As always, let’s start with the head, which is primarily a block like helmet with facial features and a visor. The helmet itself is fine, it has got some simple details and lines to give it some definition and from the top you can tell it has a subtle roundness. On either side you have these trapezoidal ear sections as well as some small helmet mutton chops. The face has some good definition to it, allowing to make out the nose and mouth and his expression is pretty standard for Trailbreaker I feel, a stern neutral combination. The head is on a ball joint meaning you have a full rotation as well as some rocking left and right and back and forth. Not a lot due to the shape of the head but enough. 

The torso is his usual brand of uniqueness, with the windshield mono-pectoral, and the truck hood gut. His back is pretty simple, just the canopy cover for the truck mode. He does have his 2 back mounted contraptions, on the left you have a simple missile/gun and on the right you have his famous radar scanner, or as the show depicted it, his force field generator. Now you may have noticed, that while his torso looks the part from the outside, the inside is very hollow and everything is connected via a single support beam which is a third translucent plastic, which doesn’t bode well for this toy's longevity. 

The arms are detailed blocks connected via the various articulation points, and I know I have used this analogy before in the Deep Cover review but it still rings true here. Full rotation at the hand well over 90 degrees in the elbow, and a full bicep rotation. Now we get to the shoulders which are… odd. First thing you notice is that they are on an angle because of the wheel wells in his torso, which is fine honestly, the shoulders can move down to sit straight. Speaking of shoulder movement, the outward movement is really good, able to go a full 180 despite the joint being odd. As for back and forth movement it is unhindered and can go a full 360, but the panel that sits behind his arm is attached at the same joint meaning it comes with the arm when you move it. Most of the time it doesn’t look too bad but at certain angles and poses it looks awkward and unappealing. 

Legs are just as, if not more, chunky than the arms. The molded details here are really nice and none get lost in the paint or plastic, which is always a bonus, and the silver paint on his shins really pops. I do appreciate the red knee caps and the red in the hips as a way to homage the original toy. He has your standard modern day articulation in the legs, with a few surprises; around 80 degree ankle tilt, double hinge knees, full thigh swivel, full outward hip movement as well as full forward hip movement. The back movement on the hips is limited by the design of the waist, but you get a good 30 degrees, and speaking of the waist it also has a full rotation. 

As for accessories he technically has two. First off is this gun/missile piece, It looks really good with the silver section paying homage to the OG toys missiles. On the topic of homage the gun is designed to fit over his hand to again reference the original toy, where you could replace its hands with missiles. This piece can go over either hand, although the cartoon did give him a cannon hand on his left arm, so that is the go too spot for most people. The other accessory is his canopy. It can be removed from his back, and attached to either arm as a sort of shield, but because of it’s design it limits articulation and it has to go on the arm opposite the gun. You can attach it to the shoulder as well but again, severely limits articulation.

Transformation is very simple, the only part that sometimes catches me up is the arms, but that is mainly my own fault for forgetting to rotate them around before bringing them down. Also make sure you rotate the fists so the thumb is facing up, otherwise they will drag across the ground. The vehicle itself is a very nice black pick-up truck. I really like the silver stripe that goes across the side as well as the yellow, orange and red accents to help break up the black. The front bumper is also fully painted silver and has translucent blue headlights, although I don't know if they were worth having the entire hood section be molded translucent plastic, but who knows maybe it couldn’t be helped. Now you may have noticed that the color matching in this mode is off, and that is because the plastic color they use is closer to a very dark brown then it is black, like the paint. It is not the most egregious job of color matching they have done in the whole of WFC, and I find it much more noticeable here in truck mode than robot mode. He rolls well in this mode and you can plug the gun into the canopy as a sort of weapon storage.  

All in all Earthrise Trailbreaker is a very solid deluxe, he has a couple of flaws but nothing I can’t get over. Robot mode is fun, transformation is simple and truck mode looks nice, can’t really ask for much else. 6.5/10. As always the gallery is up as well if you want to check that out, while you're there feel free to check out any of the other galleries that are up if they interest you or feel free to go back and read any of my previous reviews. Next week is a figure I am not a fan of, and he will probably be my lowest ranking figure for a very long time, see you all then. 

Transformers 2007 Wreckage

This week's review is going to be quite interesting, I can already tell. Like I said last week this is an older figure, at least in the grand scheme of things. I wanted him far a very long time since he looked so cool and interesting yet when I did end up getting him I was kinda disappointed, and I have yet to figure out why, so maybe this will help me with that. Anyways let’s take a look at Transformers 2007 Wreckage.

Wreckage was one of the few, if not only, deluxes in the 2007 film’s toyline that was not in the movie, or accompanying video game, in any capacity, although we did get concept art for him under the temporary name of Stryker. I just find it really interesting that he still got a toy, in the first wave no less, despite being cut from the film entirely. He is also one of the most uniquely designed figures in the entire line, and I will get more into the specifics of that as I get to those sections, speaking of which…

Wrekage’s head is interesting and not in a good way. The design of the head is pretty neat, lots of various shapes and angles to make up all the molded details. While the head, half of it anyways, is cast in a rather boring pale grey but that is broken up with some very nice gold paint apps the head crest and cheeks as well as the face being done up in silver. The face itself looks pretty nice with the thin red lightpiped eyes and the massive underbite. Articulation is pretty limited despite being on a ball joint. He can look left and right well enough with some downward movement, but you may have noticed that he is always looking down and that is because of the panel his head sits on and the automorph in his chest. It is pretty unfortunate especially since the rest of him is pretty well articulated. 

The torso is focused on this pristine white pillar, on the front there is the center section of the alt mode, which is not a totally uncommon design when it comes to transformers but what makes this section unique is the fact that it is clearly not the front of a car, not to mention the translucent red naval cannon sitting underneath. Now you may notice that the chest piece doesn’t sit flush with the rest of the torso, so I am thinking that, since it is part of his main auto-morph gimmick, one of the gears is misaligned. While not the end of the word in terms of issues it is kind of annoying. Like I said, the chest is only the center front section of the alt mode, the sides rotate up becoming shoulder pylons, akin to a seeker design, albeit much smaller. I do really like this, since these sections don’t fully rotate back they give him a more unique and visually interesting look. Moving around to the back, and this is where my major problems with the figure lie. The idea behind it is cool, with the angled backpack and it connecting to the pylons, but they only connect via friction which seems to work, but it doesn’t feel strong. Below that you have a few of leftover vehicle parts, which seem harmless for the most part, but the hinge right at the bottom of it unfortunately hinders the waist swivel to the point where he should not even have one. 

These arms are probably my favorite part of this figure, because of both the aesthetics and articulation. Aesthetically the arms are very simple but incredibly effective, the panels on the shoulders give an armored look and while they can get in the way of articulation at certain angles you definitely work around them. The forearms are super cool too with each one sporting a pair of wheels and nothing else, you know what they say, less is more. The hands are molded in a slightly open position but do still have a 5mm port to hold weapons, unfortunately they have a similar issue to the waist where ther have the ability to rotate but are pretty much unable to because of an overhanging panel. Speaking of articulation, that is where the arms shine. Ball jointed shoulders and double hinged elbows do a lot of the heavy lifting, especially since there is no bicep swivel and neutered hand rotation, but to make up for that, he has forward butterfly joints which really help take posing to the next level. 

Moving onto the legs and they are pretty standard. Ball jointed hips, 90 degree knees, he does have ball joints at the feet which was pretty rare back then. Oddly enough, because of transformation, the knees have more articulation going the wrong way. Visually they are pretty neat, the more alt mode armour this time looking similar to a waist cape. Similarly to the forearms the lower legs each sport a pair of wheels. Other points of interest would be the knee spikes and gold stripe down the front of the foot. 

For weapons Wreckage comes with these 2 odd looking guns which are identical mirrored copies of each other. You can plug them into either his hands, the ports on the underside of his arms or any of his wheels, you can also store them in the waist cape if you so choose. Unfortunately the only peg on the guns is on the side rather than the bottom. One of the 2 major features with these guns is that they can convert into swords with the flip of a switch, literally. While you can still plug them into all the same places, the only place the blades work well is under his arms. The other feature is that you can take both swords and combine them together to make a double bladed sword, and attaching it to either of the arm wheels gives it the ability to spin freely.

Transformation is pretty easy, just collapse everything up and in, then cover the legs with the backpack. I do appreciate the weapon storage in this mode since it incorporates the guns right in. Wreckage transformers into an M1126 Stryker Infantry Carrier Vehicle, albeit unlicenced. It is decked out in a basic arctic camo of primarily white with grey splotches decorating most of it. Besides the weapon storage, he has what looks like a 50. Calibur machine gun sitting on top, but other than that there isn’t really any other important details to talk about, I mean all the wheels roll but that is everything. 

That is all folks, that is Transformers 2007 Wreckage in a nutshell. He is cool looking and has some decent articulation and decent ideas but otherwise he is kinda underwhelming. This could very well be a case of over hype for a 14 year old figure and it not living up to said hype, or maybe it just hasn’t aged as well as most people think so he gets a solid 6/10 from me. Anyways check out the gallery if you feel so inclined, next week we take the trail back to the present day and take a look at a fairly new figure. See you all next week.

Transformers War for Cybertron Trilogy: Decepticon Mirage

Another week, another review, and I think I might finally be getting the hang of this whole blog thing. This week's subject is War for Cybertron Trilogy Decepticon Mirage, which is a very unique figure. As always check out the gallery after you're done reading.

Before we start on the figure, the War for Cybertron Trilogy toy line is kind of a weird one. It is entirely based around the War for Cybertron show on Netflix and includes characters and decos that are supposed to be accurate to the show, but it is rather hit or miss if they actually are though. This line was supposed to come out the same day as the show on Netflix, but when the first season of the show got delayed, the toy line didn’t so the entire first wave just kinda came out months earlier than the show and i am pretty sure a lot of these toys just kinda showed up at retailers before being officially announced, but I might be wrong about that part.

Like I said this is a very unique figure as when it first was revealed, spoilers for the War for Cybertron: Siege Netflix show, as everyone thought it was a spoiler for Mirage getting brainwashed into becoming a Decepticon at some point during the show, but that was not the case and it was just a disguise Mirage uses in one episode to discreetly get some information out of some Decepticons, which is honestly a really unique take on Mirage’s powers. 

Mirage’s head is his classic sphinx-like dome with the tall trapezoidal side vents and the half mohawk head crest, but it is all painted up in a nice dark lavender. The paint allows for all the molded details to be extremely visible, all of which are very nice. The face is done in a very nice gunmetal silver making all of the minutiae on the face very defined but the stand out part of the face is for sure those stunning yellow eyes that just stare into your soul. 

The chest is very interesting as it is clearly a fake chest but it has all the right details and molding so it ends up working really well even if it is considerably wide. The colors are very nice with the primarily sand blue torso that gradients into the same dark metallic grey as the face on the centerpiece. He does have a nice semi circle of dark lavender that homages the original toy’s cockpit section and a rather large Decepticon badge right smack dab in the middle. Both of these really help break up the rest of the colors. One of my main issues with this figure is that it is pretty much entirely painted, anything not black or a solid shade of grey is painted on and while that is not inherently a bad thing, the paint isn’t sealed at all so it tends to chip and scratch fairly easily. I have quite a few chips and scratches on the chest section just from messing around and transforming him. His back isn’t too interesting, just some wheels and a support beam.

The arms are actually pretty interesting as they aren’t quite what you might expect. I mean the articulation is pretty standard for a modern day deluxe, 90 degree outward movement, full shoulder and bicep rotation, and a 90 degree elbow, it’s everything around the joints that is interesting. Starting up at the shoulder, he has half of the vehicle mode spoiler as a sort of shoulder pad, which is quite different from the standard Mirage design, but it works really well for a Cybertronian version of the character, plus it is on a separate hinge than the shoulder so it can move out of the way for posing. The forearms are pretty interesting too as they aren’t your standard rectangle, they are very curved and oddly shaped, not only that they also have a 5mm port on the bottom instead of the side like most figures. This allows for under slung weaponry which gives him a very unique look when it comes to posing and weapon placement. Unfortunately the forearms are probably the most scratched up when it comes to paint scratches and again these are just from normal play, but at least in this instance the add to the look as it is a  battle damaged deco

The legs aren’t really as interesting as the arms. Full hip movement in the hips, a decent thigh swivel, 90 degree knees and the feet can move inward and back and forth, as well as a full waist swivel which I think I forgot to mention earlier. The shins are done up similarly to the head with the dark lavender and gun metal gray, with some dark grey peaking through, but it can be a little hard to distinguish from the gun metal at certain times. Turning him around and you can see that the backs of his legs are weird. They look both hollow and not hollow at the same time. I mean it is pretty clear that the front of the car mode is folded up back there and while I don't hate it, the wheel struts just kinda hang there and don’t tab in well so they tend to flop around a bit. 

Obviously I am going to quickly mention the weapons before moving onto vehicle mode. First off is the rifle, which looks very cool and is pretty accurate to what his G1 toy’s rifle looked like but with some added fins on the back, which is a neat addition that gives it some uniqueness. Moving onto the launcher, which is made up of two parts; the missile itself and the actual launcher base. Both parts are very nicely molded and can be used as separate accessories if that is what you want, but obviously they are meant to be combined together, but they are a little bland since both are molded in a standard grey plastic. It should go without saying that both of these weapons can be plugged into any of the 5mm ports that are scattered over the figure. 

Transformation is very cool. The two torso halves are connected by a single beam that allows each section to be transformed separately and then be connected back together in a different way. The legs end up becoming like ¾ of the car mode just by acordianing out, meanwhile the torso just flips around becoming the back end, while the arms tab together to form the spoiler and air scoop. Vehicle mode itself looks really nice for the most part with the big exposed wheels and general F1 car body shape, although not the most aerodynamic considering the large blocks that sit behind the shoulder. While he is pretty solid in car mode not everything likes to tab together or stay that way or at the very least the tabs don’t go in all the way giving him some pretty small gaps that are honestly pretty unnoticeable. You can plug the weapons in in this mode but only on top of the spoiler as all the other ports have been hidden by transformation.

I think that is everything I want to cover about this figure, I don’t know why this one got hard to write at times, guess I was just having trouble finding the right words. I do like this figure a lot and he is a great figure to repurpose, I personally plan on using him as Shattered Glass Mirage, I know quite a few people that are, but I have seen others use him as a modern take on Deluge from the G2 line or even just a random goon to fill out the Decepticon ranks. With that being said he also has a lot of faults and minor annoyances that keep him from reaching his full potential so I give him a solid 6/10

Apologies for this one being a little late, this week was pretty busy and this just ended up being pushed due to time constraints. Hopefully the next one will be up on Sunday but it is quite a glorious figure so there is a lot to cover. Here is the link to the gallery if you fancy a gander and I will see you all sometime within the next week. 

Transformers Generations Selects Deep Cover

Welcome all to my first official MythicTF.ca blog review, I do hope you enjoy and don’t forget to check out the figures gallery afterwards. Now without further adieu let’s get to it and take a look at one of my favorite figures I have gotten this year, Transformers Generations Selects WFC-GS23 Deep Cover. 

Now this toy is based on the original Deep Cover toy which was a E-Hobby repaint of the G1 Sideswipe mold that was released in 2003. As soon as I learned about this guy he has been one of my favorites, from his colors to his ability to shrink like a transformers version of Ant-Man. I just wish he got put in some Transformers media so we would have more to go off of personality wise than just his OG toy’s bio-card.

Getting back to the figure at hand, he is obviously a repaint of the Siege Sideswipe mold, the 7th use of the mold to be exact(well 8th if you count Gigawatt) so he has every positive and negative that mold has, plus quite a few more positives. That being said he is closer to the Covert Clone Sideswipe use of the mold with the color layout being the same, just swap the red for a deep blue and some red accents to help break it all up. 

The head is you standard Sideswipe affair cast in this glorious deep blue, with the trapezoidal prism triangle making up the general face shape with the small horns/fins/ears on the sides and the head crest on top, for which he is the only one out of all the mold uses to have it painted and in silver no less. On the topic of silver, his face is done up in it and it looks really nice, my only gripe with this face sculpt would have to be the eyes, more specifically the color used. The color they used is a metallic, almost pearlescent blue, which while nice, but they just kinda get lost cause it doesn’t really stand out enough from the blue or silver surrounding it. At least the head is on a very nice ball joint, meaning you can get some good poses out of it. 

The chest is your standard hood chest carbot variant, that being said I do like the shape of the chest with the subtle curves at the bottom and sides, but then the top has these nice angles so that the head is visible, while also giving a sort of jacket vibe, especially with how the wheels end up hidden and the white sections beside his head giving off a collar like vibe. The back is just the entire windshield of the car but that is par for the course for Sideswipe’s design, But because of how wide it is it is visible from the front or at least partially. Like most kibble on transformers this doesn’t really bug me as it gives the character/mold a unique look and feel, plus it doesn’t get in the way of the wait swivel, or any of the other articulation for that matter, or make him back heavy.

The arms are your pretty standard affair, just a series of boxes attached via a multitude of joints, including full shoulder movement, bicep swivel, and a 90 degree elbow. No wrist articulation unfortunately, due to transformation. There is quite a bit of detail present on the forearms and because of the white plastic used none of it really gets lost which is always nice. The legs are in a similar boat to the arms, just boxes connected via joints; Full hip movement, thigh swivels(slightly limited by their design) 90 degree knees and a decent amount of ankle tilt. All this articulation means he can pull off quite a few good poses and he has decent enough balance to pull off a high kick and a running pose of sorts. 

I guess the final thing to address in robot mode would be the accessories. Deep Cover comes with the Sideswipe missile launcher parts, both molded in black, the launcher section has silver trim on one side while the missile is fully painted white. He also comes with the “Red Alert Gun'' this time painted in silver. It is just a standard rifle but it does have a 5mm hole on the back for you to plug the launcher into if you so choose. Seeing as this was a Siege toy to begin with you can plug the weapons into any of the 5mm ports available or you can plug the missile launcher into either side of the shoulder for a more traditional look, but personally i chose to either store the launcher on his back or attach it to the side of his arm as a sort wrist mounted rocket or a drill. 

Transformation is a pretty simple affair, nothing complicated at all but nothing super inventive either. That being said, I constantly forget to keep the side panels folded up to give the legs the clearance they need. Now the vehicle mode is a sort of cybertronian supercar, similar to what a space age Lamborghini might look like, and probably the best looking out of all the uses of this mold. The slight glossiness of the black and the blue highlights (that are mainly just remnants from robot mode) really compliment each other, and the added accents like the golden badge tampographs, and painted rims, headlights and taillights really bring this everything together. You can of course plug the weapons into either side of the car or the roof if you would like.

I think that about covers everything I have to say about this figure. I just really love his whole vibe from the car mode to the bomb ass colors to the excellent articulation he is all around just a very fun figure and the best looking version of a mold that has been used many times over. Now if only we could get his brother Clampdown for the final use of the mold, but until then I will make due.

I hope you all enjoyed my first actual blog post review, and are looking forward to more, hoping for these to be weekly but that is dependent on my work schedule so if some are late or possibly early, blame that and don’t forget to check out the full gallery of pictures for Deep Cover (click here) before heading out. I will be adding pictures to pre-existing galleries down the road when I use said figure again for comparison with other figures, so look forward to that. Figured I should add that at the end before I forgot, even though it doesn’t really apply quite yet. Anyways, that is all for now, see you all next week.

(Edit)May 16th,2021
With my Siege Springer review, I have started giving figures a rating out of 10, so I am retroactively adding one for Deep Cover. I give Deep Cover a 8.5/10 mainly based on his colors and simplicity but the ability to just pick him up and mess with him without really worrying about anything, and my love of the character does factor into that score as well.