JENNY GABS ON: Kestrel (Delta-17, 5x5 Toys, 2023)

One of the great things about the classic ARAH line, and a strength that I'm surprised Hasbro has never really leaned into, was its diversity. And not only in ethnicity but in gender as well. There was one female Joe or Cobra for every one of the classic years (1982-87) which might not sound like a lot, but it's extraordinary for an 80s male action toy brand. Most contemporary lines had one or none, and a lot of cartoon rosters ended up missing their female teammate when it came to the toy aisles. In 2024 (the last year the data set wasn't contaminated by a drunk with a Knights Templar chest tattoo) women accounted for 17.9% of active duty military, so if you want your shelf demographics to match America's modern military, pre-purges, roughly one in six of your Joes should be a woman. Even with the better than average start, you're gonna need some reinforcements.

Kestrel comes to us from 5x5 Toys (an expression I learned from Faith on "Buffy the Vampire Slayer") and is one of two women in the initial assortment of Delta-17, the other being enemy commander Death Sparrow. In the fiction she's a Polish soldier who hooked up with the American Delta-17 unit while foiling one of Death Sparrow's operations. Generally this line seems more grounded than Operation: Recall, aside from the obligatory sword guy and the evil techno-samurai. For her part, Kestrel looks like a pretty basic soldier, dressed in a yellow-green uniform with darker green webgear and a blue beret. Her brown hair is pulled back into a tight bun. She's got one eyebrow cocked and a regulation-defying red lip atop a confident smirk. She exudes confidence, poise, and a desire to prove that she's better at this job than you are. In a Joe context, given her bird of prey-themed code name, she probably is. Make her be Hawk's niece or daughter, eager to prove herself worthy. Or Falcon's sister or cousin, eager to smack him upside the head.

The plastic is nice and dense and feels comparable to a 90s figure. It does have that shine to it that bothers some people. She's mostly molded in color, including her skin--Death Sparrow has painted flesh, and the difference is what led me to choosing Kestrel over her. The figure moves very well. Her wrists are maybe the tiniest bit sticky but nowhere near needing freezer time.She can aim her rifle with its attached grenade launcher (she's a grenadier, which incidentally was my university mascot) very convincingly. She also includes a combat knife with an intricately molded serrated edge. The knife fits into a slot on her compact green backpack somewhat loosely, so don't store it there if she's going to be packed away. The figure can also hold her backpack by the loop which is kind of a neat touch. Finally, she includes a Delta-17 logo base. Most of these third party figures include bases with a wider footprint than a standard Joe base, which I'm finding I kind of prefer. Half the time your figures end up not centered on the standard base, and if that kind of thing aggravates you then you're in the right place.

I really dig Kestrel. She's simple, she's grounded, but you need those kinds of characters in your Joeverse or else it's all ninjas and laser troopers and Fatal Fluffies. I could see using her as a main character or a squad leader were I still possessed of a childlike imagination. With these kinds of lines the main factor is if the designs appeal to you, but that doesn't mean anything unless the fundamentals are sound. They are. So take a look and see if you like 'em. Besides the women, I also vibe with Rooster (who looks like the Joes' Hit and Run and The Corps' Whispering Willie tossed in a blender) and Preacher (whose code name and visible cross necklace makes me see him as the Army's most badass chaplain). Maybe we'll look at them one day. 

 

JENNY GABS ON: Krang's Android Body (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Playmates, 1994)

One of the reasons I started this blog is not just to share my opinions of the latest and greatest, but also to archive the stuff in my collection that doesn't have a whole lot in the way of text and pictures online, and to share the stories that come with them. At my heart I'm an archivist, which I suppose is a nicer way of saying "packrat," but I kind of see us all as custodians of knowledge that the masses have deemed disposable. Toy collectors have known the value of physical media all our lives. And while it's great to throw YouTube on after a hard day at work, I've always preferred text, and writing is one of my strengths. The Internet keeps getting increasingly unusable and populated by bots and AI-generated text, but I'm going to gamely continue on making human-generated content until the robots drag me away.

Speaking of robots, Krang's Android Body! Playmates first made a giant version in 1991 to fit the original Krang figure, but the landscape of the kid world was wildly different three years later. TMNT's third movie failed to make the splash of the first two and color coded dinosaur themed karate teens filled the void in our little elementary school brains. Turtles was on the back burner for me as well, but when I saw this figure hanging on the pegs at Target I begged my mom to get him for me. I loved villains, I loved Krang, and I had missed out on the giant one. This was the last new Turtles figure I acquired during the original run--I had one of the Mini-Mutant playsets, and the Raph version of the Muta Force mech suit, but as far as regular 5" figures, Krang was the end of the line. Until Next Mutation, because there was a *girl Turtle*! (And it was bad, but that's a story for another day.)

Krang's Android Body stands right at 5" tall thanks to his antenna, which makes him taller than most other Turtles figures, but a lot of them are hunched over or squatting, so he tends to look a little undersized. He fits great with ReAction figures though! He's largely a downscaled version of his 11" counterpart, with the jagged mouth and more colorful palette Playmates cooked up for that figure. Personally I like this fiercer look better than the bored bald guy from the cartoon. Why do some people prefer "toy" looks? I think it's because we spent more time with our action figures than the animated characters, who were only on for a half hour a day. The child mind isn't focused on details but on vibes. All the little gaps and greeblies on the body are painted, which was kind of rare for Playmates. The android body has swivel wrists, shoulders, hips, and neck, and an opening door on the belly to remove the tiny Krang.

The little alien overlord is less than half the size of his 1989 figure, and is just one solid blob of pink-painted plastic. He's got a jagged smile on his face and his tentacles raised in triumph. The figure includes one accessory specifically for Krang, that being a downscaled version of the walker from his original figure cast in cerulean plastic. It's pretty simple--each side has a leg and an arm molded together and glued to the platform, no articulation, and no way to hold Krang in place, but it's still a nice inclusion. The legs on mine are kind of warped but he can remain standing. Due to the lack of articulation he's going to be stuck wildly gesticulating but that's pretty on brand for him. It also kind of looks like he's doing the Johnny Bravo dance. Whoa mama!

The other three accessories are all meant to represent the android body's ability to morph its hands into various tools and weapons. We've got a cool sci-fi blaster hand, a claw hand that looks a bit like the head of a Mouser, and what I always used as a communicator but may be some kind of remote control. On a modern figure these would probably be swappable hands (and not cerulean), but here they merely slip over the figure's hands. The claw is articulated for chompy action, but you'll have to pretend you can't see his hand peeking out. I'm astounded I managed not to lose any of these pieces over the years. But I always took fairly good care of my toys, especially an A-list villain like Krang. He's got some minor paint wear and scuffs on the belly window but he's not too bad.

As a late addition to the line the standard sized android body is kind of rare. Nowhere near the likes of Scratch or Shogun Shoate, of course, but expect to pay right around $100 for a loose and complete one. Playmates never reissued this figure, although in a bizarre turn the mini Krang was packed in with a 2009 reissue of the original Shredder, before that concept had been utterly run into the ground. Today there are a number of options for your Krang's Android Body needs--more cartoon accurate, more articulated, etc. You probably don't need this one. But for me, he'll always be special.

Today, September 29, was my mom's birthday. This is the first year I'm spending it without her. Mom was responsible for fostering my childhood understanding of geek stuff. I could see characters like Spider-Man or C-3PO on TV and she could give me at least a rough rundown of what their deal was. She was a spoiler, and she gifted me many toys over the years. Hell, as recently as last Christmas she gave me some Ninja Turtles figures. I remember where I was when I received most of my childhood collection--I guess it's just how I form memories, I connect them to some object, and that's usually a toy. She didn't even question that I needed Krang. Obviously I needed Krang--this was the woman who pounded the pavement and enlisted coworkers to help secure me a Technodrome for Christmas a few years before. She knew enough about the things I was into, and she knew that Krang was more essential than Beach Bum Michelangelo or some third-string X-Man. 

She wouldn't have classified herself as a collector, but her Barbies and 100+ nail powder dips, neatly arranged in acrylic drawers with swatch sticks hanging on the wall above them, would beg to differ. I'm so much like my mom, and I'm so grateful for the moments and memories she gave me. I look at this goofy bald guy in red shorts and I'm back in 1994 looking up at her smiling face, her surprise that they made a normal-sized Krang, and her genuine excitement to make her kid's day. That's what really makes these things special, the people and the moments they connect you to. I love you Mom.

JENNY GABS ON: Starscream Armor Scare Glow (Masters of the Universe X Transformers, Mattel, 2026)

It's interesting how different companies approach these collaborative projects. Hasbro has designated Optimus Prime, Megatron, Bumblebee, and Starscream as the main characters of Transformers, and indeed, it's those four in the crossover. If Mattel had that same attitude this would probably be Starscream Armor Beast Man, which wouldn't be a *bad* fit, but instead they did something much cooler. For half of his existence Scare Glow was barely a character at all, coming as he did at the very end of the vintage line, but he quickly became a cult fave once adult He-Fans started revisiting the franchise in the early 2000s and finally made his animated debut in MOTU Revelation. Scare Glow is a ghost--Starscream is sometimes a ghost. Starscream's ghost can possess other bots (including Waspinator in that one episode of Beast Wars!), so is he possessing Scare Glow, or is Scare Glow possessing a still-living Starscream? 

I'm just kidding, this is Scare Glow wearing *Starscream Armor*, because that's the conceit we're going with. The heroes of Eternia met the Turtles and the Thundercats, but there are no actual Transformers in this story, they're just wearing armor inspired by them. You can decide if he sounds like the late great Tony Todd or the late great Chris Latta.

Like Skeletor, Scare Glow's torso is entirely new. The red part is molded separately, creating a great layering effect and giving it some depth.  Actually, other than his hands and thighs all of Scare Glow's parts are brand new. His face, upper arms, and lower torso are molded in glow in the dark plastic, as is tradition. It's not as bright as the standard Scare Glow but you gotta appreciate the effort. Also he glows blue instead of the more common green--perhaps to better evoke Starscream's ghost.

Furthering the connections to The Transformers: The Movie, in which Starscream takes the first step toward becoming a ghost, Scare Glow's armor has the crown, shoulder pads, and cape from Starscream's coronation as Decepticon leader, moments before being wasted by Galvatron. The purple cape evokes Scare Glow's typical garb, which is probably the reason for its inclusion. If you want a more basic look, all of these pieces are removable. The crown is made out of soft plastic For Safety Reasons, so the points will warp if you don't store it properly.

Most of his accessory budget goes to the coronation gear, but Scare Glow is still armed with two null rays, which are surprisingly versatile. They can be plugged into his shoulders to complete the Starscream look, or he can hold them as a pair of twin axes, or he can hold them as guns (there's even a hollow space for his thumbs to go for a better grip), or they can plug together end to end to make a staff evocative of Scare Glow's signature halberd. This last one isn't mentioned in any of the marketing material for some reason, maybe because of how rigid the null rays are being a breakage concern, maybe because it looks kind of daft. But hey, I'd rather have the option than not. They can also plug into his back using the same ports as the cape, another undocumented feature, possibly accidental.

I don't have any other "Ghost of Starscream" (or indeed, Coronation Starscream) figures in my collection, and I love both characters, so I'm tempted to say this is my favorite of the MOTU X Transformers crossovers. He just ticks so many boxes. It's real close between him and Optimus Prime Armor He-Man, but either way the second wave was much stronger than the first. Didn't stop it from going to clearance too! Crossovers are on pause for the rest of the year, but I'd love to maybe see one more wave with Beast Man/Soundwave (a stronger thematic pairing) and Teelita-1. We're also still supposed to get a Transformers X MOTU item from Hasbro, so my favorite special interests aren't done with the mashups yet.

 

JENNY GABS ON: General Mortífero (Operation: Recall, Locomotion Media Group, 2026)

The world sucks right now, but you've gotta look for the bright spots where you can find them. For example, we're living in an absolute Renaissance for 3.75" o-ring toy soldiers. There are the various Super7 lines, which have the benefit of recognizable licenses, but the indie toy space is full of exciting and creative original concepts. The hook for Operation: Recall is that they've got a bunch of former Hasbro GI Joe employees from the golden age on board to develop concepts, giving this line a built-in pedigree. It definitely feels more like a spiritual successor to ARAH than some of its fellow (also very good!) indie lines, owing to both its behind the scenes bona fides and its willingness to embrace over-the-top designs.

The villains of this world are Orthrus, led by this mysterious masked madman, General Mortífero. Every O:R figure comes with a swell little booklet showing the development of the figure from concept sketches to control art. Interestingly, the initial sketches for Mortífero look closer to Cobra Commander, hood and all, but the final design leans more in Destro's direction, particularly his Iron Grenadiers look--gold mask, black suit, red shoulder cape. It's similar in broad strokes, but with its own unique touches. The gold part of the mask is attached to a black hood, with grilles over the mouth and nose and horrifying bulging bloodshot eyes. We know those are part of his mask because there's an unmasked version coming at some point, and that one has his face painted up like a skull, with slicked back black hair and a splatter of blood. Both looks would be equally at home on a slasher flick killer as on the kingpin of a ruthless terrorist organization.

The General is dressed in a black moto-style jacket, black jodhpurs, and red accessories, with a gold belt buckle bearing the Orthrus logo, which is based on his fearsome visage. His buttons are picked out in gold, because you're getting your money's worth here. The decos on all of these figures are very intricate. All of his clothes are very shiny, giving them the appearance of patent leather. Kinky! Actually, the glossy finish is a feature common to O:R figures and a minor point of contention among collectors. You'll find just as many detractors of the flat, matte finishes on Super7 figures. I see what they were going for, because if you look at old ARAH figures they do have a shine to them, but that was, I believe, a property of the plastics used. General Mortífero almost feels like he's got a clear coat finish, and it seems like it's scratching off in areas with lots of friction, like the waist and shoulders. 

He's got the expected articulation for this format, with the addition of swivel wrists, which basically every o-ring line besides Super7's has, although the ones on O:R feel especially smooth. His shoulder articulation is a bit impeded by the design of his jacket and the pauldron, so he can't raise his arms above his head but he can still gesticulate menacingly. The pauldron is soft white plastic painted red, and it's fixed by a tab going into a slot on the torso. You can remove it if you want, but I would suggest undoing the back screw and not just yanking it to avoid stressing the tab. His cape has a wire in the bottom for posing, which will likely also be the case for wave 3's Shhhh and his more dynamic full cape.

In addition to his nifty Orthrus logo base, General Mortífero comes with a gold pistol, a gold dagger in a sheath that plugs into his belt, and his signature weapon, a gold spiked mace. I really like how the cape is the perfect length to conceal his pistol! And the gold mace combines a threatening aura and opulence in a way that seems suited to a South America-based dictator who, let's face it, is probably trafficking drugs to fund his war machine. Headman always had a distinct Bob the Goon aura so in my canon this is his new boss. Unfortunately, and maybe because of the possible clear coat, his hands are very stiff, and working his accessories into his hands was a struggle. They've basically stayed put since I opened him. The sheathed dagger is more of a costume piece than a true accessory.

I want to be very clear about something--it sounds like I have a lot of criticisms of this figure, but every one of them has been addressed in the Wave 2 figures that I have. This is a by-fans, for-fans effort, and I think taking one series to iron out imperfections is a perfectly acceptable learning curve. Since the only media for Operation: Recall is the file cards, these basically live and die on the strength of their design, and General Mortífero is a solid one, even if the execution isn't quite as solid. This is a figure you buy because it looks awesome, but maybe check out one of the A.T.L.A.S. heroes first if you want a general impression of the line.

 

JENNY GABS ON: Kane (Masters of the WWE Universe, Mattel, 2021)

Masters of the WWE Universe is back! Kind of. If your Walmarts are anything like mine, they're in a constant state of being picked clean of any and all wrestling figures that are interesting in the slightest. I can't imagine they would bring it back for just one series, though. Mark my words, there's definitely going to be a Danhausen dressed as Skeletor in the near future. In the meantime, the original run has a robust selection of sword and sorcery sports entertainers to build out your roster.

Kane debuted at Badd Blood: In Your House in the fall of 1997, interfering in the inaugural Hell in a Cell match between his estranged brother the Undertaker and Shawn Michaels. In the following years the Devil’s Favorite Demon had his story modified and retconned so many times WWE once published a fiction novel in an attempt to tie it all together. But initially the story was that Kane was badly burned in the funeral home fire that killed their parents and had been kept locked away by Paul Bearer as a secret weapon should he and Taker ever be at odds. Silent, sadistic, and with the ability to summon fire, Kane was a masked monster that instantly captured my young imagination.

…eventually he would roll a wheelchair-bound Zack Ryder off the Raw stage and electrocute Shane McMahon’s testicles with a car battery, but this was way before that.

MOTWWEU splits the difference between “wrestler in a MOTU setting” and “wrestler mashed up with a MOTU character,” and Kane is the latter, taking his cues from Roboto. Because Kane’s nickname was The Big Red Machine. This is also why he beat up Pete Rose at three consecutive Manias! His stark red and black color scheme looks great on a MOTU body. His limbs are robotic, and like Roboto, he has interchangeable weapons for his right hand. He doesn’t include Roboto’s axe hand, but he can accept any of the weapons from Roboto or Metal-Boto, but not Trap-Jaw, so no “See No Evil” hook. He additionally includes an effects piece that plugs onto the end of his blaster, turning it into a flamethrower! His hair fades into translucent fiery orange, another reminder of the fire that killed his parents and scarred him. Psychologically. 

Kane didn't often sport the two-sleeved look. Most memorably, it was when the Undertaker was posing as Kane, and thus needed both sleeves to cover up his tats. The modularity of MOTU Origins is a big help here, because you can just plug in any bare arm with a black wristband and have a more standard looking Kane. He's still got robot parts and orange eyes, though. Because of this figure, the Superstars release came in his reversed colors/primarily black suit. So I guess if you want a truly basic Kane in MOTU style, you're out of luck. You'll just have to settle for one of the hundred other Kane figures from the last thirty years.

Kane’s rookie figure was released toward the end of 1998, and it was the one wrestling figure above any other I really wanted for Christmas that year. I did, in fact, score him (and a bunch of others) courtesy of my awesome mom, and it was the best Christmas ever. So maybe that’s why I feel such a strong nostalgic pull to this guy, despite not fitting with the era I’m focused on for this line, and despite Glenn Jacobs becoming something of a villain IRL. Although his character has still done worse things, like sexually assaulting a dead cheerleader, or an alive Lita. Glenn would probably agree with forcing a rape victim to incubate a demon baby, though. What are the odds of getting a Gene Snitsky figure? About the same as Nailz?

JENNY GABS ON: Shockwave (Transformers War for Cybertron: Siege, Hasbro, 2018)

Shockwave is one of the core Decepticons, but for whatever reason it took Hasbro until late 2018 to make a worthwhile Generations figure for him (FoC Shockwave was too small and too weird). He began the era of smaller but more detail-packed Leader-class figures we’re still currently enjoying. This was not without controversy, as many decried him as just a Voyager with extra parts. Which he is…but he has a good reason for that.

The base robot is really nice. Yes he’s Voyager-scaled, but he has none of the hollowness or "waffling" that we sometimes see as a cost cutting measure. His articulation is leaps and bounds ahead of any other mainline Shockwave available at the time (though again, that was a very short list) although I do wish he had front to back movement in his ankles. His hips and knees are equipped with sturdy ratchet joints. He can do The Pose from the iconic cover of Marvel's Transformers #5 just fine. His light piped optic is very bright and menacing. His lavender blaster hand? Not so much.

Like Megatron, Shockwave’s G1 alt mode was a gun.  A purple sci-fi laser gun, but still, we can't have that. So this Soundwave turns into a starship reminiscent of Space Battleship Yamato and similar vessels from ancient sci-fi anime, with a command tower sporting the same light-piped optic as Shockwave’s face so you know it’s him. By pure coincidence I’m sure, you can flip this spaceship upside down and it looks more or less like his G1 gun mode. The grip would be a little small for my preschooler niece but it’s the thought that counts. (There’s a third party upgrade kit to give it a real grip.)

The core figure has been reissued by itself several times, and it's even the basis for his Studio Series 86 figure, with lots of remolding to get rid of that icky surface detail. For a lot of people, that one will be the one to get. But to really get everything out of it you need the Siege release, especially if you like the play pattern Siege introduced. Which I do! I’m also one of the rare weirdos that likes the battle damage on Siege figures, which the rest of the fandom hates. To each their own. Y'all are wrong, but that's okay. 

 Shockwave comes with a ton of extra pieces which function similarly to the Weaponizers introduced in Siege. In fact, in its original context this figure seems designed to introduce and sell you on the play pattern and ideally send you out to the store to pick up Brunt or Cog or whoever. In robot mode, he gains two extra blaster arms, giant shoulder pads, some lifts for his feet, and a backpack with two...tentacles? hanging down the sides. It really befits his mad scientist tendencies. 

In gun starship mode, the backpack piece bulks up the fuselage, adding more forward guns and making it look even more like a space battleship, while the arm and feet pieces plug into the back end to give him some wingalings. You can (and I often do) orient the foot pieces vertically for a slimmer profile, but this is the way it's "supposed" to look. Undocumented in the instructions, the extra pieces can partsform together to form a hoverboard or drone. You can also flip it upside down to make a little battle sled for a Scout or Core-class figure!

All these years removed, I think Shockwave is the best of the Siege Leader molds in terms of functionality. Magnus’s trailer/armor and Astrotrain’s launchpad/caboose/backpack have more limited applications. Plus the whole idea of experimenting on himself suits his character. Shockwave was a major shelf warmer but once he was gone from stores, aftermarket demand started ticking up. I’m not sure if that's still the case given that there are somewhat more cartoon-accurate versions available now, but until HasTak actually builds a new-from-the-ground-up Shockwave (not the whale, a G1 version, ya silly), those are quite literally missing something.

 

JENNY GABS ON: Powerglide (Transformers Age of the Primes, Hasbro, 2026)

Was it all a dream?

I came back to Transformers during a transitional (in more than one sense) period of my life. For some reason the prospect of all-new Headmasters spoke to me. When Siege came out I dove in all the way. The War for Cybertron and Legacy trilogies were all killer and minimal filler. But now that's over...and it feels like we're kind of directionless. The Age of the Primes is focused on the Thirteen Primes, most of whom are very obscure characters (Liege Maximo, for one, is based on a single comic panel). But then there are also G1 characters who, in keeping with the new design initiatives, are as smooth and accurate to the G1 cartoon as possible. Studio Series is mostly also filled with the same. The packaging for both lines looks almost identical, further blurring the distinction. Prices are climbing out of control, with deluxes going from $17 to $28 or more in the last ten years. Characters fans have been requesting for years are shoved into multipacks with slight improvements on figures we already have. *Starscream* is an impossible to find retailer exclusive. We're doing made-to-order stuff, which is one step up from a damn Kickstarter (hi Playmates). 

Some of these aren't new problems, some aren't major problems, some aren't even necessarily Hasbro's fault. They didn't decide to start a trade war, and they clearly expected Transformers One to be a bigger hit when they chose the Thirteen as the focal point for the next two years. But taken all at once, under the "leadership" of a CEO who insists the toy company he heads isn't a toy company, it's starting to feel like a lot; a franchise adrift, trying to rally around what worked before at a 50% markup. Something has got to give.

Anyway, here's Powerglide.

Powerglide is, by my reckoning, the last of the updated G1 Minibots I need for my collection. (I don't care for the new Windcharger/Tailgate mold, and I guess I still need Bumper, but does anyone *need* Bumper?) Historically Minibots--a fan term, not their official name--were an entry level product, small vehicles with simple transformations sold on a card for pocket money, and as such many Transfans of the G1 and G2 era likely counted one among their first acquisitions. Updates tend to usually also be on the small side, but since Earthrise Cliffjumper they've been small Deluxes, usually with more complex engineering or extra accessories. 

As expected, Powerglide is all smooth burgundy plastic with a cone-shaped head that does nothing to discourage the jokes about his name. His big blue eyes give him a cute appearance despite his best efforts at looking tough. He poses well, although his wing-shoulders can come detached with little effort, and his head by its nature can't look up and down. His chest panel opens up to reveal his inner workings, including a series of pink dots in a heart shape. This is a reference to the last shot in the G1 cartoon episode "The Girl Who Loved Powerglide," and it's not the first time a Powerglide figure has included a hidden heart. See, he's a softie!

A softie that converts into a weapon of war, that is! Powerglide's traditional alt mode is an A-10 Thunderbolt II ground assault plane, nicknamed "Warthog" because apparently it's really ugly. His conversion process has some frustrating steps, largely centered around the back engines. Firstly, they're too low. They should be oriented above the wings and tail fins, as on a real life Warthog as well as previous versions of Powerglide. The hinges are so tight that the pieces will pop off before sliding forward as intended. Also they don't really lock in in either position and constantly seem like you're doing something wrong. His wings don't really lock in securely either. There's a panel on the top of the tail that suggests a rubsign sticker. That's a detail from his G1 toy, not his animation model. Perhaps a version of this toy will be coming to Walmart with tan instead of silver limbs.

He comes with two accessories. One is a fairly generic silver blaster, nothing special but gets the job done. The other is another reference to a specific G1 cartoon episode, "Hoist Goes Hollywood," in which the Autobot tow truck gets a part in a movie and the biggest attention whores on the Ark (Sunstreaker, Tracks, and Powerglide) insist on being included, so they get cast as aliens with goofy googly-eyed masks. It's a great piece, pure cheese, but it's just going to get tossed in a baggie. To attach it you have to lift up the nose cannon on top of his head and flip his face around so the mask can tab into place. This means, of course, you can't also use it on your Sunstreaker or Tracks figures. Seems like a lot of resources devoted to referencing a one off appearance that maybe could have been used for a more accurate plane mode.

If you're collecting the Minibots, Powerglide is a must have. But he's just sort of fine, and illustrative of a troubling trend. I was at a con this weekend, and at two separate booths I stopped myself from getting an SS86 Megatron because, as great a job as they did on his robot mode, his tank mode is just perfunctory. Transformers as a brand is enjoyable to me because of the tactile interactive element, and I switch them between modes frequently. When the vehicle mode is clearly an afterthought, it kind of doesn't matter how good the robot is to me, I'm still going to feel a little shortchanged. And when prices are closer to $30 than $20 for the entry level (which Deluxes are now), I'm not sure "shortchanged" is the feeling you want to evoke.

New directions for Generations and Studio Series were announced at San Diego Comic-Con. If this figure came out next year, he would likely be sold under the Studio Series banner, which will be focused on media accuracy from across the franchise. Generations will be the "sandbox" line, where designers are free to experiment with new ideas and hopefully linewide gimmicks and storytelling like the Prime Wars and War for Cybertron trilogies had. We'll see if there will be more distinction between the lines once these changes set in. That doesn't do anything to address pricing, distribution, frustrating business practices, etc, but it's something.

 

JENNY GABS ON: Leonardo, Donatello, Michelangelo, and Raphael (glow in the dark SDCC exclusive) (TMNT Reaction+, Super7, 2026)

As it happens, one of the last things Playmates will do with the TMNT license is a crossover with GI Joe. And they're cool, but they're very much in the style of Playmates TMNT, meaning too big (or too small, I guess, if you're a Classified collector) to mingle with regular Joes. For the more literal minded among us, Super7's got us covered.

I love Super7 because they have a similar idea of what makes toys cool as I do. If you get it, you get it. And one of their go-to gimmicks for convention exclusives is glow in the dark variants. Hot on the heels of TMNT Reaction+ series 1, one of their exclusives for San Diego Comic-Con 2026 was a box set of all four Turtles in Reaction+ style, cast in glow in the dark green plastic. This is especially significant because, as of right now, they haven't announced single carded/non-glow versions of Leo and Mikey. They're probably still coming, but if you don't want to wait it makes sense to snag all four of the boys in one box, if you can live with the gimmick.

The Turtles are no strangers to 3 3/4" scale, as Super7 has already released a ton of figures in the 5POA Reaction format. Those figures took their design cues mainly from the vintage Playmates toys, just like the Ultimates did before Playmates decided to screw with Super7's business, like they did with NECA's before. (This is one of several reasons I won't miss them!) The Reaction+ Turtles seem to be primarily cartoon-adjacent, judging from the color schemes chosen for Shredder and the Foot. It's even more apparent here, with the glow plastic giving them a brighter shade of green than their single-carded versions, and the green shells which...actually don't match the cartoon, but do match a lot of Nickelodeon stock artwork promoting the '87 cartoon versions of the Turtles. Huh.

How does the O-ring construction work with these guys? A lot of the solicits say they have nine points of articulation, but that's just not accurate. They have the same articulation as any other Reaction+ figure, but because they're wider side to side than front to back the waist basically functions like an ab crunch. I'm not sure where that 9POA line came from. Another positive improvement from the earlier Reactions is that the Turtles are appropriately shorter in stature than an average figure, accomplished via shorter upper leg pieces. This has the humorous effect of making the older figures look like people wearing mascot costumes when compared to the new ones.

They all have unique head sculpts, with Mikey characteristically being the only Turtle with a smile, Raph mean mugging, Donnie with his jaw set in concentration, and Leo perhaps channeling his 1988 Playmates grimace. From the neck down they're all the same. The shells function like backpacks to facilitate changing the O-ring. There are all kinds of sculptural Easter eggs on the back side of the shells--a communicator, a couple of shuriken, a pair of kunai, a canister of ooze, and of course, pizza.

Their weapons are color coded, which is charmingly corny. I've seen some complaints about Mikey's club-like chucks but they follow the same design language as Ninja Force-era ARAH weaponry, so they're fine by me. Could you design them with little chains, or maybe have a set of "spinning" chucks? Sure, probably. But that's not the point of releases like this. Raph's sais are extremely thin and stiff so take care when inserting and removing them. Donnie can't really hold his bo with both hands in a convincing manner but he sure can fake it. Leo's swords are great, no notes.

Super7 really doesn't play around when it comes to glow in the dark stuff.  The glow is extremely bright and long lasting! And this was just from being in the sunlight in my living room while taking the earlier photographs. If you supercharge them with a quick dip under a UV lamp they'll emit a faint glow even in a dimly lit room. This is doing nothing to curb my desire for a whole shelf of GITD stuff, by the way.

As of this writing the fate of Super7's TMNT license is unknown but likely wrapping up. I'm glad they were able to get all four brothers out in the Reaction+ format before the end. It's bittersweet, things ending right as a new format is launching, but between both the 5POA and O-ring figures there's a pretty robust collection with all of the essential characters covered. Your mileage may vary when it comes to how distracting you find the translucent green plastic compared to the solid ones. As you can see, they scale just about perfectly with the downsized Technodrome from a couple years ago. If you've got one of those, why not have some glowing turtle boys climbing the outer shell? 

 

 

JENNY GABS ON: Gas Skunk (Transformers: Robots in Disguise, Hasbro, 2001)

As the Japanese Beast Era petered out and Beast Machines failed to excite in the West, Hasbro and Takara decided to change tack and start collaborating on a franchise reset. However, to hold the line before the launch of Armada/Legend of the Microns in the fall of 2002, Hasbro needed something on the shelves. So they ported over Takara's 2000 line and accompanying anime, Transformers: Car Robots, which saw the exciting return of Autobot cars and, eventually, Decepticons...as a *subteam* of the main villains, who remained the Predacons. As we know, Japan hates bad guys, so while the Autobots got three new Deluxe and two new Leader molds, the Predacons only got a new Megatron, with his team formed from a selection of late era Transmetals 2 molds that hadn't been released in Japan.

The unfortunately named Gas Skunk, parsed slightly cooler as "Gaskunk" in Car Robots, was one of three Predacon flunkies serving under flying shark/haiku poet Sky-Byte. He naturally turns into a biomechanical monstrous skunk, with a silver stripe going down his back and continuing in silver vac metal down the length of his spiky tail. He was originally released in 1999 as the even more unfortunately named Maximal Stinkbomb, and even shares the same plastic colors as Stinkbomb, only his deco is greatly improved. Gas Skunk's claws and robot mode teeth are painted, Stinkbomb's are not; his tail is two-toned vac metal with a rich copper accent, Stinkbomb's is solid gold. Stinkbomb's stripe is white, which does sell "skunk" a little better. You know, they could have easily passed this guy off as a wolverine or something, he didn't HAVE to still be a skunk. Might have seemed a little less like Hasbro was trying to sell you a better version of a thing they just sold you two years ago. But that's their entire model these days, so Gas Skunk was just ahead of the curve. (As mentioned, he was new to Takara's market so this only became an issue on his American release.)

His conversion to robot mode involves a lot of spinning ball joints and flipping stuff over. In robot mode, he's roughly 4" tall, not counting the bitchin' ponytail of death attached to the back of his head. His red mask is appropriately villainous for a mold that started life as a good guy. In my opinion, most of the Transmetal 2 Maximals look kind of evil, so abandoning the "mammal=good guy" rule that Beast Wars loosely observed makes sense. His sculpted details are asymmetrical in both modes, as was the style at the time. He has a flip-out yellow claw on the end of his pony/tail, and the pod on his left shoulder can flip up to reveal his spark crystal. The pod on his right shoulder also flips up, but there's nothing in there. Perhaps it's where he keeps his weed. In fiction, he can belch up clouds of noxious fumes and fire stink beams from an integrated blaster in his left forearm, but that's up to your imagination. Or you can also forget I just told you that, totally an option.

In Japan, the Predacon foot soldiers were sold individually, but the Hasbro release opted to bundle Gas Skunk, Dark Scream (a flying squirrel) and Slapper (a poison dart frog) together in one box. There are minimal differences between them, but if you find one loose on a $5 table at a toy show like I did, it's probably Hasbro's. Also, "Slapper"? Jesus Christ, Gas Skunk doesn't even have the worst name on his own team?? This is why localization can sometimes be good, weebs.

RID 2001 eventually encompassed molds from every previous Transformers series--a true celebration of where the franchise had been and where it was going. The late Beast Wars era turned out banger after banger while corporate was more focused on Episode I and neon Batmans and Pokémon PVCs. I wasn't into them at the time, and I've owned and sold several in my collector years. They're definitely an acquired taste. But given the state of things in 2026, with prices rising out of control and Hasbro ever more committed to recreating 1984 with all the whimsy stripped out, a freaky little mutant with shiny bits and stupid gimmicks is a taste I'm starting to acquire. Maybe it's just longing for an era we're not likely to see again.

JENNY GABS ON: Pirate Captain Brutus (Port Borgo) (Star Wars: Epic World of Action, Hasbro, 2025)

 

I've always been fond of the Shistavanen wolfman species, much more than George Lucas, who excised the two original wolfmen (Lak Sivrak and Arliel Schous) from A New Hope Special Edition. He believed the off-the-shelf masks looked corny, not awesome like the giant praying mantis or the guy with the devil horns. In a decision I actually agree with, Disney has said nuts to that and started incorporating the species back into canon. (Genndy Tartakovsky also somehow got away with using one.) In fact, Arliel Schous, once a longshot on par with Bea Arthur's night shift cantina barmaid Ackmena, has been rendered in plastic recently for the first time too.

Disclosure--I haven't seen Star Wars: Skeleton Crew. From everything I've read it seems like a perfectly cromulent show, probably picked apart a bit too much by people who were outside its target audience. I admire what they did, at least *trying* to connect with kids, and of course, allowing Hasbro to release a wolfman space pirate, which you can appreciate even if you don't care about Star Wars.

Brother Bruti comes to us from the ill fated Epic World of Action, a 4" scale kid-targeted line that was 0.25" taller than the previous 45 years of product for no reason in particular. Because of that he's a little oversized compared to what he should be, but it's not like there's a surplus of Skeleton Crew figures to display him with. There's a couple in this line (counting Brutus), one in Vintage, and...that's it? Aliens and droids are close enough to fudge the scale difference. And as stated, I haven't even seen the show, and statistically you probably haven't either. If I had to guess most Captain Brutuses are going to end up towards the back of a cantina or Jabba's palace setup.

He leans pretty hard into the pirate aesthetic, with a captain's coat and a bandolier of extra blasters. I doubt they're single shots so it's not practical the same way an earth pirate would carry extra pistols, but it looks cool. He has two more sculpted into the holsters on his brown PVC kama, and a loose silver blaster to hold along with a short sword. You'll notice his right foot is kind of coming off the table--it looks like he's sculpted to be taking a step forward, but the stiffness of the kama makes it hard to flex his leg back far enough so that both feet are on the ground, and even then he'd still probably tip right over. He almost needs to be brandishing his tools of the trade as a counterbalance.

Because he comes from a kid line (and is a "deluxe" figure no less), company policy dictates that he must come with a big dumb missile launcher. It's meant to plug (loosely) into an extra oversized harness that you can shove onto his torso, and no, that doesn't fix his balance issues. It can also just plug directly into his back so he can make like Boba Fett in an alternate universe 1979 where his backpack was functional. I never cared for accessories like this as a kid, and I care even less for them as an adult who writes about toys for fun. 

If you liked the character, and you're not as hopelessly devoted to archaic form factors as I am, just get the Black Series figure. In that scale he actually has several of the children from the show to menace. If you're into monsters and pirates, or you miss Super7's The Worst, this figure fits right into that aesthetic. Plus it's always exciting to see cantina aliens in new contexts. Like most Star Wars toys of the last few years, I can really only recommend this guy at clearance prices. Get a stand for him though.

 

 

JENNY GABS ON: Gigawatt (Transformers Collaborative, Hasbro,2020/2025)

 Jigga who? Gigawatt!

The DeLorean time machine from Back to the Future is one of the most iconic nerd vehicles of all time. At least I think it still is—the 80s were a long time ago, I’m on the younger end of people who are obsessed with 80s pop culture, and I’m less than a year from turning 40. It was featured pretty prominently in Ready Player One, right? Do the kids like that movie, or was that also mostly people my age and older? Regardless, for the milieu of Transformers Collaborative, it fits like a glove. I’m sure Naruto is cool and everything, but I’ll pass.

So it seems a lot of collectors just…leave their figures in robot mode forever? How reductive. With these crossovers the vehicle is a huge selling point, though, and as a model of the DeLorean time machine Gigawatt does an admirable job. The iconic gull wing doors can open (although the interior is obviously not filled out), and the wheels can flip down to put the car in hover mode. The stainless steel body panels have a nice texture, and the back of the car is decked out with all of Doc Brown’s modifications, all picked out with paint. As with most toys of the time machine, he does not have the DMC badge on the front. Did you know the DeLorean Motor Company is still around? 

Gigawatt is built off of the Siege Sideswipe mold and shares engineering and some parts with it; it’s one of the most solid deluxes of the modern era so no complaints on that front (I’m approaching Seeker numbers when it comes to how many copies of this mold I own). Take care when transforming his wheels because they’re not pinned and will pop off at the hinge if you use too much force. There are additional locks to keep his shoulders and chest together in both modes, and the flip-around chest panel with the flux capacitor and date display can be a little hard to maneuver past his head. They really pushed this little Deluxe to the limit in terms of retooling!

Gigawatt includes three accessories, only one of which—the rifle—is specifically for the robot. He also includes the lightning rod from the first movie, which can plug into his forearm as a “whip” as well as mount to the back of the car, and a Mr. Fusion Home Energy Reactor that can mount to the top or back of the rifle as well as the back of the car to power its hover mode. Unofficially, it can attach upside down to his wrist as a “watch” to replicate the poster art, but I’m afraid it will scrape off the microscopic “Mr. Fusion” logo. All of his accessories can be stored in his vehicle mode, with the rifle pegging neatly under the front of the car. (The lightning rod and Mr. Fusion wouldn’t be equipped at the same time, but whatever, we love weapon storage.)

I don’t normally mention packaging in my reviews but Gigawatt comes in a G1-style box, complete with 1985-era Hasbro logos and a cutout Tech Specs card on the back. I’m fighting the urge to hoard by reminding myself that I decided to stop using packaged toys as home decor.

Initially sold at a premium price point, runaway inflation means you can now get Gigawatt for a few bucks more than a normal deluxe (or for your birthday from your awesome family). As a very solid model of the DeLorean time machine or as an addition to the legion of Sideswipe clones with extra flair, Gigawatt does it with style.