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? 

 

 

The Story So Far

Hi, I'm Jenn, or Jenny since we're friends. I've been a toy collector for as long as I can remember.

(Hi Jenny!)

My story begins with Playmates Toys, although whether it began with the seminal classic Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles or the flash-in-the-pan Dick Tracy tie-in is a matter of historical debate. Regardless, I was hooked. Mutants and gangsters were soon joined by superheroes, monsters, soldiers, wrestlers, Ghostbusters, and assorted other little plastic people and creatures.

I was born in the neighties, that period of the late 80s and the early 90s where the past was dying and the future was struggling to be born and popular culture was all over the place and everything was neon. My dad was a shrewd deal lover, so a lot of my early childhood collection was made of the dregs of the 80s that were still lingering at closeout chains. This might have been the origin of my preference for things from just before I was born--because I could still get Fearsome Flush, but the Slimer and Mr. Stay-Puft figures on the back were long gone. I guess it speaks to the core American millennial experience of having seen the tail end of the peak before the long, slow slide into mediocrity and imperial decline. 

I adopted the collector mentality fairly early, and by age 10 I was hanging out at the flea market having conversations about Star Wars with people three times my age, spending my allowance money on Harley Quinns and Grand Moff Tarkins, reading White's Guide and Tomart's (before the much hipper ToyFare came along), and making myself an inscrutable pariah to my contemporaries. I have a distinct memory of hiding a BeetleBorgs figure behind my back when I unexpectedly ran into a friend from school at Kay Bee. He was probably there to buy the latest Sega release, and I was there to buy Roland the Titanium Silver BeetleBorg, and somehow I knew this was to be kept a secret. I played video games, sure, but they never really captured my interest the way action figures did. Toys are tactile, physical objects; there's sculpting, engineering, and paint work to consider, then there's the intricacies of manufacturing. They represent a collaborative creative effort to see an idea through to three-dimensional reality. 

I'm romanticizing things a bit, yeah. But that's how it is with something you're really passionate about.

I also like writing. Not to brag, but I did win a statewide journalism award while on my high school newspaper. Unfortunately all those toy magazines are long out of business and the online world has pivoted to video. Well, not me. Reading and writing about toys is part of my enjoyment of them. As we outsource more and more of our daily lives to robots and algorithms, connecting with actual humans through written language is a welcome reprieve. You will never see generative AI content on Toys Don't Cry, that's a promise. If you think something was written with AI, that's probably just my neurodivergence always looking for two dollar words when a fifty cent word will do just fine.

Mainly you'll find reviews of figures both contemporary and classic. Probably very few superarticulated 6" figures, because everybody writes about those, and they don't really interest me anymore. My focus is on classic form factors and neo-retro stuff these days, although in my time I've dabbled in just about everything. I'd also like to write longer-form pieces about the history of specific lines and franchises, and maybe some of the people behind them. ToyFare in its early days ran features like that and I learned a lot from them. I just want to share my love of toys and the knowledge I've accumulated about them over my four decades on Earth. 

If that sounds good to you, stick around! I've backfilled some older content written for other venues over the past couple weeks as a sample of what to expect. The next few months of my life are going to be pretty busy but I'm going to try to update at least twice a week. Thanks for spending part of your day with me!

 

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.

JENNY GABS ON: He-Man and Skeletor (Masters of the Universe Mighty Masters, Mattel, 2026)

In this modern world of hyper articulation and media accuracy, it's easy to forget where we came from. As an action figure aficionada with an appreciation for the fundamentals, I'm a sucker for a back to basics approach. And as someone who wants to see this stuff live on beyond me, I'm conscious of the need for good quality entry level product. Kids aren't going to get hooked on $20 Origins figures, not in this economy. Five to ten dollars is the sweet spot, something a kid could buy with their allowance. If Star Wars figures were $20 in 1995 I might be normal.

 

Since 2026 is finally the fabled Movie Year spoken of in hushed tones by brand managers of the distant past, Mattel made sure to have He-Men of every conceivable size and style ready for the MOTU movie merchandising blitz. At the base of the pyramid are Mighty Masters. This is Masters of the Universe boiled down to its most essential elements. A-list characters, key weapons only, six points of articulation, $4.97 retail.

 

Throwing it back to 1982 but at a more compact 3.25", Mighty Masters launches with the Man that is He and the evil lord of destruction alongside shortpacks Man-At-Arms and Beast Man. They actually have a slightly better range of motion compared to the vintage figures because of their ball jointed heads and, y'know, actually hinged hips instead of weird proprietary rubber bands that are a pain to replace 40 years on. As far as I can tell their shoulders are only swivels, so don't mistake these for mini-Origins. They also don't pull apart, although you can take off their chest armor with some effort.

 

Like the early vintage figures, they all have the same power punch action feature--pull back at the waist and release to make them clobber the crap out of each other. He-Man's got his Power Sword, Skeletor his Ram Staff, and that's all you really need, isn't it? They look cool standing there. They're fun to pick up and fiddle with. You can carry one in your pocket. What's not to love?

Although these are definitely targeted at kids, there's something appealing for adults looking for a cheap hit of nostalgia as well. Five bucks is the same price as a Blokees kit, only you know what you're getting. They seem to be selling pretty well, too (which is why Duncan and Beast Man aren't in this review, although that might have more to do with these being functionally Walmart exclusives and my local Walmart sucking. There's also Battle Armor variants of the main men as well as Fisto and Trap Jaw, allegedly). If not for yourself, get 'em for your kids or niblings. Introduce them to a Skeletor untainted by Jared Leto. Pass on the knowledge of the First Ones. This is the way.

...hey, didn't that get a movie this year too? Huh. I forgot.