Okay so it might be a little difficult to make a separate cab that can still transform into a robot mode. There's quite a bit going on there.

Those shoulder flaps are just one flap too wide. Had they extended the first flap before the hinge and then had a hinge similar to the one Beast Machines/Universe Skydive has at his shoulders then it could maybe have sucked the shoulders in by one stack. 

I just finally found a RotB voyager Rhinox yesterday in the wild (but not Prime or Primal) and his shoulders are too close to the body. SS86 Magnus' shoulders are too far from the body. I guess the two counterbalance each other or something lol. I also got SS Rhinox as well. Rhinox is getting a lot of love lately. I should get out Kingdom Rhinox and T30 Rhinox to have a voyager Rhinox Party.

Now I understand the upgrade kit for RotB voyager Rhinox and the shoulder extenders though. I'll probably be getting it as I think it's really necessary. Shame the shoulders would still be too close once the Chainguns of Doom are being held but it is what it is. I just don't know if I want the hammer and new head though. The set is so much cheaper without them. They're charging $19 for just the head by itself. That's crazy stupid. The shoulder and filler kit is almost $20 and the hammer is $14 but all the sets together are $40. I like how the hammer kind of fills in the belly but I don't think it and the head are worth another $20 more than just the shoulder and filler kit. Yeah I think I'll just get the filler kit. This way RotB Rhinox can have the Chainguns of Doom and SS Rhinox can have the hammer. He'll be the odd one out though since the other two Rhinox also have Chaniguns of Doom. Maybe I'll give SS Rhinox the two Battlemaster Rhinox figures (retail and the one that comes with Wheeljack) to make up for it.

It started with SS86 Ultra Magnus and ended with a Rhinox party. That's just how it be sometimes. You just have to SHRUG it off.

Shrug.

Do you get it?

Because you use your shoulders to shrug.

That was how I went from Magnus to Rhinox.

The shoulders.

You get it right?

I'm sure you do.

You have to now right?

I mean I just explained the joke.

So you must get it now.

Yeah you get it.

 

That Magnus looks good. The "ears" being separate pieces are odd but understandable.

I'm fine with Magnus being super robot sized because well, he should be. He combines with his trailer just like the Optimus Primes  that get that big. The only thing is I really would like to have had the smaller prime but done like the Perfect Effect figure with the CW/TG Magnus. The armor sets like Classics Fansproject City Commander and the Siege/Kingdom figures are nice but obviously leave a lot to be desired. The CW PE set worked perfectly. Just like Super Ginrai, Star Saber and even Armada Optimus to an extent.  Having the smaller figure be the core of the robot and/or just the arms in some cases works better. Although the way Energon and Cybertron Prime work should also still work as long as they stick to those designs and not do the Galaxy Upgrade Optimus Prime way again for Cybertron Prime.

5 hours ago, Razyel Kayne said:

There's at least 2 shades of White on ratchet....I thought we were pass that.

We won't be past that until they stop using translucent plastic and then painting over it. But in any event, two shades of white are better than the three shades of red on Ironhide and three shades of yellow on Sunstreaker.

If they want to still have translucent parts then they need to be separate inserts that are glued, pinned or screwed in. Yeah it might cost a little extra but it should save on paint and make a more uniformly colored and sturdier figure overall.

There's at least 2 shades of White on ratchet....I thought we were pass that.

Only $55 for the Shattered Glass two pack? Seriously? Okay! That's for a $35 voyager, a $25 deluxe with at least five new parts, whatever the Minicon costs as it's brand new and has no price basis and the needless markup for SG releases but minus the comic. It should have been $60 minimum without including the Minicon and the SG "tax". 

Ten accessories though? Shouldn't it be eleven or even twelve depending on how they divy out the Sideswipe mold's original weapons this time? Now I'm confused at to what's in the box. 
1 buzzsaw arm attachment for Hot rod.
2 guns for Hot Rod.
2 tailpipe effects for Hot Rod.
2 "swords" for Sideswipe.
1 launcher for Sideswipe.
1 rocket for Sideswipe.

And then what? Whisper is counted as its own figure. That leaves the following in question:
1 Matrix of Leadership for Hot Rod.
1 effects part for the Matrix.
1 gun for Sideswipe.

We see the gun for Sideswipe in the image on the front of the box but nowhere else. It wouldn't be the first time recently where the pictures on the box have the incorrect parts but it's the only thing that makes sense. The Matrix and effect part wouldn't make sense for this version of Hot Rod. So I'm going to go with the gun for Sideswipe being the final accessory which is great. I think I'm out of extra guns for that mold for with which to give him.

Regardless I got my preorder in before it sells out or they decide to change the price.

I think I should get a second one though. That Sideswipe could pass for G2/Universe Drench. Or maybe that's just who this will be in my collection. I just seem to use the SG figures as their own characters so there's that.

Edit after a new post with pictures distinctly showing the Matrix appeared while I was typing:

And it looks as though the set comes with the Matrix AND the effect part. So that would make 11 accessories and not 10. I would've wanted the gun for Sideswipe instead but I guess this guy doesn't need it with the two "swords" and the Minicon on top of the rocket launcher. More guns are always better than more Matrices and effect parts that only fit the Matrix though. Something actually usable vs something thrown in a baggie.

I mean I get it, not every version of Sideswipe comes with the gun, launcher and rocket but it doesn't make sense for Hot Rod...I'm sorry, Rodimus here to come with the Matrix. That's not his thing. Does this mean that they're going to release commander class Rodimus in SG colors eventually? I would imagine it would be named Rodimus Unicronus and not Menasor though. That's what I wanted from the start though but without the trailer as a leader class release.

Okay.

Ratchet is Ratchet.
Frenzy is Frenzy.
Erial and Dion are Erial and Dion.
Primal is Primal.
Mirage is Mirage.

Moving on to the new stuff that I haven't already commented on.

Frenzy and Ratchet are new but what else am I supposed to say?

Novakane is well, underwhelming. He has a battle damaged head but it otherwise looks exactly like Freezer. I thought he would at least be a different shade. It seems though that there's only supposed to be differences in the head between the two but they kept swapping the features in the movie. I don't know as I haven't seen the movie yet. It's weird though, I like to get three of figures I like to troopbuild but for some reason I stopped at two of Freezer. It seems I somehow knew there were actually two of them without having watched the movie. Now do I get two Novakane too or just leave it at the two Freezer. Nope, I'll probably get another Freezer and three Novakane lol.

A new Exo suit mold is pretty cool. I'll get three just like I have from the SS86 Exo Suit. This jet mode reminds me of the little drone/gun thing that RotF Stratosphere was supposed to come with. But they don't actually look alike though. 

Nightbird looks just as weird as Mirage. They both look good but at the same time those backpacks are off putting maybe I think I'm not sure. What's with these Terrorcons and their weird skinny 00 Gundam looking legs? Put some of that bulk down there to offset the backpack on Nightbird. 

The Stunticon set is a bit annoying. I still haven't managed to get a Wildrider yet but I don't want to get the whole set just for him. This has a different deco though and that Motormaster looks really good so I'll probably end up getting the set too. Not like I didn't have both CW and UW Menasor. I have since sold CW Menasor last year but still, I had both for a long time. In fact the only ones I didn't have both versions of were Devastator and Ultra Prime/Convoy Grand Prime. I never found Convoy Grand Prime for a price I was willing to pay as I stupidly never got it when it came out. CW Devastator wasn't worth getting if you had the UW version which I do. 

SG Hot Rod looks good of course but I don't really care much for that mold. It's good don't get me wrong, I just don't really like it. I might have a better opinion of the mold if Rodimus didn't come out around the same time.

SG Sideswipe looks good. Not amazing as it's still just the Siege Sideswipe mold but still good. The new weapons are cool as is the Minicon! Can't wait to get Armada Wheeljack now. I just wonder if they'll try to sell it as a voyager on his own. You'd think the Siege SS mold would be so cheap to use now that they can add a Minicon with it and still be deluxe priced. Just put it in a wave with a cheaper to make figure to offset the cost. 

And that brings us to Ultra Magnus. Wow. I'm not one of those people who care about scale. I couldn't care less if Magnus is supposed to be just a "head" taller than Optimus/Rodimus and be shorter than Grimlock. I never seen it that way as a kid and that view only got expanded the more I got figures that got huge when combined with their trailers starting with PMOP. So I always thought Magnus did the same thing and it overwrote my memories of the movie and season 3 and I watched that movie like everyday for years and still don't think he was barely taller than the two Primes. This is going to be the CW figure on steroids though. Which means expect a replacement for that cab that transforms at some point. Shame Perfect Effect isn't around as I don't trust DNA to do it.

Overall though he's clean looking and loaded with articulation. He's going to look on display. The only thing is that I would liked to have seen a little something else with him. I just don't see this having quite as much going on as Motormaster/Menasor, Armada Optimus, Skylynx or even Rodimus. Hell, I think Jetfire might have more going on with his weapons and armor bits. So I would want that little plane thing that could be made from the G1 toy's chest and helmet. Or better yet, a little Powered Buggy in Magnus colors to go with him. Done as a Weaponizer though. Yeah neither thing happened in the movie or even the cartoon but I don't care. There are things that appear in SS figures that didn't actually happen so why not? It's just that this doesn't have the smaller robot and has a fairly simplistic transformation so there's quite a bit of room for something else. Maybe that little bit of room goes to a ton of panels in the transformation to make it look so clean but we don't know yet.

Again, compared to the other commanders and what they do, this looks like there's not as much to it. Jetfire is the only comparable one in that regard. Jetfire is also very simple and doesn't have much going on. Sky Lynx is simple too but he's two rather large and dense/heavy figures. And has quite a bit going on with the six legs, three tails and two necks and heads. Rodimus' trailer has a surprising amount of stuff going on with it as well as he himself being loaded with little flaps and parts and hinges. Motormaster forms a whole ass combiner on his own with a bunch of flaps and springs for things and heavy ratchets and whatnot. Armada Optimus is so dense and doesn't have any hollow bits other than the toes while also having a few extras going on as well. Plus Motormaster and Optimus still have their standard smaller modes whereas Magnus doesn't.

I see you, Thrust.

That Nova Prime sure looks good. Not as good as mine but still good. I was hoping for them to take out the cannons so that they could then do more with the wings making them bigger and have a few points of articulation though.

Nice to see that Javelin is not using the Velocitron Blurr mold like people had speculated and is instead using the vastly superior and highly awesome SSBB Arcee mold. However Kaskade is using the horrible Chromia mold. That mold sucks and they should've just kept using the PotP Moonracer mold entirely if they were going to keep things that similar. Not only does the Moonracer mold work better than Chromia, it can be used as a combiner piece. Chromia kept all the bad parts of the mold and somehow managed to make them worse while retaining none of the good parts and actually ended up hindered as a result. It's amazing that the designers managed to accomplish that. All they reused are the wheels, the hip joints and like a hinge or something. Those pieces alone shouldn't have hindered Chromia to the point that it just ended up being a neutered Moonracer. TR Scourge, Highbrow and Windblade show how to reuse a handful of parts without being hindered by anything while making three figures that look nothing alike. Besides, it just looks like Moonracer. If I still had my three extra Moonracers I would just swap the heads but I can't as I only have one Moonracer now as I sold all the extras I kept for customs less than a year ago. People were speculating that she would be using the Shadowstriker mold due to their heads being pretty much identical except for the placement of the monocle. That would've been so much better and we don't even have that mold yet to even see if it's actually good or not. I guess it could be worse though, they could be using SS86 Arcee. 

Nacelle using the Siege Seeker mold is perfect as he's part of the "Welcoming Committee" along with Hotlink. It's just a shame that Fun Pub merged Nacelle with the prototype Thrust when they made that first toy of him. These are NOT Nacelle's colors. He's supposed to be dark blue and not have bright white and red. These colors are based on an old toy advertisement which had the G1 Thundercracker toy body with red and white prototype Thrust wings. Skywarp had red Dirge wings and Starscream had red Ramjet wings. There was also a red Beachcomber, blue and red Seaspray as well as a grey and blue Powerglide and blue Cosmos which would later go on to be Bad Boy and Pathfinder in that E-Hobby GoBots set. Black and white Astrotrain was also in the picture.

The SS Decepticon are cool if you missed out on them I guess but I didn't. I missed out on some of the Autobots and still didn't pick that set up. 

What's even going on with this set? Is that normal Jolt with Powerlinx Hot Shot? So are they going to release the weapons, blast effects and Powerlinx Jolt as a separate core class "upgrade" kit for this Powerlinx Hot Shot? Why wouldn't they just included Powerlinx jolt with this set and then release standard Jolt as the potential "upgrade" set later? This is literally just creating more problems.

But if they did make core class Minicons, what else would be in the boxes of the others? Swindle with a new sword or two and sword effects? Leader-1 with a shiv and some blast effects? Sparkplug and Over-Run as a two pack?

Again, this is just bringing up more problems than it solves. That Jolt looks amazing though. I just hope that at least this one is going to be able to stand on its own and that it's just lying down in the pictures due to it having to stand there for a long time while people shaking the table and whatnot and not that it can't stand on its own.