Hold Your Fire (Updated)

Ok, this Megatron has me a bit keyed up. I was never really put off by the Classics color scheme, but it's nice to finally get the mold with a more G1 look domestically. Of course, since this is a Platinum set, it comes with an inexplicably poorly decoed Optimus and will probably cost $349.99. What can you do?

I did retrieve Classics Megatron from storage and have been having some fun with him. I love his transformation.

Update: out-of-package pics from Tforners:

Repaint Fuel

Ok. I picked up the new Optimus/Bludgeon set last weekend because it finally gives a a return, sort of, to the commander size class. Optimus is really only lacking in his truck mode, and even then the lack of paint is the main issue (surprise!). His robot mode is a real treat - easily better than the deluxe toy and obviously more size appropriate compared to Legion Bumblebee, Strongarm, et al than his own legion toy is. I'll most likely pick up Grimlock from wave 2 for the same reason (and skip Sideswipe and Bumblebee for that same reason). 

As you can see, Optimus's armor combines with his axe to make a giant Warhammer thing. We already got a Magnus repaint of the legion toy, but an Optimus toy that comes with both armor AND a hammer begs to be turned into Ultra Magnus. And I would really be happy with a straight repaint, following the deco cues from the legion toy and casting the Energon parts in blue. There is even precedent for Magnus having his own blue axe thanks to MP-0whatever that was a MP-01 repaint. If they really want to knock it out of the park they could give him the head from the legion toy's packaging art and a new mask piece accordingly. 

I'd also love to see a Megatronus in this size class to square off against Optimus and at least one other Decepticon, maybe Thunderhoof. 

Further Down the Rabbit Hole

No joke, we've got some official Liokaiser art here folks! Computron was also confirmed via artwork, but I'm much more enamored with Liokaiser here. Largely because I didn't think he'd ever get any kind of US release, and partly because it gives us some much needed additional CW Cons! On the plus side, Liokaiser uses the two jet molds that aren't Blast Off, so we will now have three unique Decepticon jets. Killbison is a straight repaint of Brawl (at least in tank mode), and Drillhorn uses the drill tooling from Nosecone. The torso is a remold of Sky Lynx that is allegedy going to be Deathsaurus, but there's no telling if he will have any new tooling other than the combiner head, and it's seems inevitable that Deathsaurus won't have his own robot mode, just "dragon" mode. Which is amusing, because I thought that the best Remold option for Sky Lynx would be RiD Megatron/Gigatron, and Botcon Deathsaurus is a remold of him.

No telling if Liokaiser comes with a legends partner (some suggest the Groove mold as the Jaguar guy) or the segmented staff shown in the art. I am happy that he has the normal foothandguns, and not specialty types that Victorion and Computron are coming with. In fact, it's still possible that Liokaiser could be a normal, parted out retail release rather than a box set.