Transformers: Age of the Primes Micronus Prime

We are a few waves into Age of the Primes now, and it very much seems to have been business as usual. Aside from the Primes themselves, we've been getting a lot of G1 characters, Menasor style combiners, a splattering of other continuities, and a few more repaints than you might like. Yeah, it's basically Legacy again, but not that glorious first wave of Legacy United. The Primes themselves are doing alright, but they were definitely playing things safe. I mean, it's hard to look interesting or cool when you are in the same line as The Fallen, but being an alien carformer with an understated colour scheme wasn't, ahem, gonna set the world alight. Not when The Fallen did that just by standing still too long. Guess which two toys I might be referring to. Anyway. With Onyx Prime that started to change, he's a centaur BTW, and with today's subject we have possibly the most interesting deluxe of recent times. Unfortunately, Micronus gave me a wee case of Buyer’s Remorse, because he simply does not live up to that potential.

Now, Micronus Prime is the god of little guys, and a little guy himself, approximately core class in dimensions and complexity. As the name suggests, his domain is Mini-Cons and any small transformer that partners with another larger one. He's actually the third supernatural entity to have ties to Mini-Cons as a creator, the original being Unicron, although he's the one that's stuck. Micronus appeared in the 2015 Robots in Disguise series, which is now old enough to count as nostalgia, and this toy is very close to that depiction. He's got that very distinctive Prime-era face design, lacking a nose, and his translucent build evoking his look on the show. As a toy, he's somewhat basic, turning into what resembles an Armada style Mini-Con Storage Panel, an Arc Reactor, or less romantically, a hockey puck. The fact the the god of little guys and murder pets transforms into an abstract shape isn’t a shocker. RID2015's Mini-Cons often transformed as such so they could be launched from larger toys, see also cassetteformers, and especially those data disks from Fall of Cybertron. What brings it down is a design/production flaw on my copy that prevents his legs from lining up exactly right in disk mode, but there’s enough give in the plastic to make you think can get there. I would discover during the photoshoot that my attempts to do this seems to have caused stress marks in the knees; I should have known better. Then again, maybe it wasn't me, I've seen a report since that a toy came with that damage.

Anyways, Micronus is otherwise nicely articulated for his size, nicely presented, and has this little Chimera Stone artefact in lieu of a weapon. It plugs in via a 5mm peg, and I honestly kinda forget about it. He’s a lot like that Eject toy from a few years ago, and in isolation, you might wonder where the money is going if he just turns into a shape. The answer is, an exosuit.

 

If Micronus himself looks like a hockey puck, the exosuit he is packaged within looks like the goalie. This seems to have been created from whole cloth to justify the pricepoint, and my initial thought that this was a new take on the Apex Armour from Transformers: Prime, and while that is a stated influence by the designer, it's not actually named as such. There's apparently a bit of Pretender in there too, but I am reminded of a Prime-era exosuit playset in the chest. Visually, it makes for an interesting contrast between it and Micronus, or indeed Transformers in general. It's got a faintly anonymous head, gun fingers, and perhaps more a piloted mech look than Cybertronians in general. It's got a similar build to Micronus, so it's short for a deluxe, but it's stocky. It's also a lot more functional than Micronus is, because this is not only a deluxe-ish robot mode, it's also a bike for him to ride, and a weaponizer mode for use with other toys. It's the meat of the set. What I did notice though as I came to write this post, is that each mode has a  disappointing near-miss quality to it. The robot lacks a waist joint, which I'm inclined to forgive under the circumstances, but the back kibble I'm less fond of. In a stroke of absolute genius, the legs compress into a single big wheel, but the resulting monobike lacks a kickstand and absolutely does not balance by itself. You have to bend the arms down at the elbow for balance, and that's about as involved as the arms get in the transformation. So, while having Micronus ride this is rather adorable, it's flawed. The weaponizer mode meanwhile is simply four chunks, which goes completely unmentioned on the box, and I'm not surprised. I can't be arsed to photograph it. And I can't be arsed to take better photos.

I want to like Micronus Prime more than I do. He's tied to one of my favourite Transformers concepts, and after dozens of routinely competent deluxes, he's actually interesting in concept. He is not, however, that great. Or good at anything in particular. Or interesting in execution. He's passable in lot of things, some of those things being notably unusual, but he doesn't excel at any of them. And its not even failing in any interesting way; I've written about some uneven toys in the past, but at least they sucked in memorable ways or charmed me beyond that. Micronus Prime falls instead into the pit of apathy. There is not some fundamental misunderstanding, a glaring fault, or a lack of creativity. Its a matter of mediocre execution, being neither good enough or bad enough to hold my attention. Mostly alright overall, but wait for a sale, and be careful of the translucent plastic.

Plamo: The Astra Militarum Hydra

 

While I now have a non-trivial number of armydudesmen, I don't have that much experience with the official vehicle models. Aside from the occasional indulgence or bargain, everything I have like that, is some form of kitbash/salvage job. While I have  previously dabbled with the Chimera type vehicles, today's subject is my first new build example, a Hydra.

As a unit, a Hydra sits in a awkward place. Its an anti-air flak tank, designed to inexpensively defend against aircraft. 10th ed, as you may observe, has not been kind to aircraft. They were always an odd fit for 40k anyway, something best saved for the biggest possible games or Epic, so it's perhaps not a shocker that GW is seemingly phasing planes out. It's 28mm scale after all. Perhaps they should take the Knights too, but I digress. So why might you want a Hydra then? Well, in addition to being a relatively cheap tank-shaped object for doing tank things, it gets bonuses against Fly keyword targets. That list includes a great many nuisances that deep strike into your lines and any number of advanced xenos vehicles that think floating is cool. Under ideal circumstances, those autocannons reroll to hit, possibly with Lethal Hits, and then wound on a 2+, with a reroll. Said autocannons do not get as many shots as it looks like they should, which is sad. But these do have a 72 inch range, so it can cover an entire board. I've been thinking of acquiring one for a while, and then I saw one cheap at Brum Toyfair, and here we are.

As a kit, the Hydra is a revised, call it second generation, style of Guard vehicle. The base hull and tracks are visually very similar to the plastics we got in the late 90's, but refined and rationalised. There's no faffing with individual track wheels, which is nice. That's all on its own sprue, with the version specific stuff on its own separate sprue, which in this case involves the Wyvern as an alternative build. This does look like a simple thing to magnetise, but I couldn't be arsed. The Wyvern is currently a solution in search of a problem, and while hoards may well come back into fashion soon, I'm not short on blast weapons. While a largely straightforward build, two odd flaws presented themselves. The first was that while the Hydra sprue had numbered parts, the track/hull sprue did not. Odd, if harmless. The second is more involved and takes a moment to explain. The Hydra features crewmen models and an open structure, with the ability rotate the business end as a big turret. Now, the sensible thing to do in such a build is to paint the crew separately, you don't have the space to do otherwise, but here comes the problem. The gunner is holding on to the controls and acting as a linchpin for the rotation. Odd, and annoying to work around. As a kit its fine, inoffensive, but maybe 10% more involved than it needed to be. But then again, I’ve never been a fan of exposed crewmen on vehicles anyway, so maybe I’m being unfair?

I made a dumbass mistake with this one, I assembled the guns in the wrong order, which is why the barrels are a bit shorter than usual. I kitbashed a crude hunter killer missile, but only built one crew model, which received a headswap and green stuff rags. You only really need one for this tank, and the other looks good for use in a command squad or similar.  Painting was then achieved via spraycan, drybrush and wash techniques. I’ve got nothing especially interesting to say here, these methods work well-enough, despite my mistakes. Which unfortunately include the crew controls, as that big screen was a problem.

I’m not especially happy with this model as a project. But I suppose its good enough for the gaming table.

State of the Blog Post Winter 2025

Well, its that time of year again, time for a few words on the blog, my status, and how Chrimbo will affect output.

 

In the grand scheme of things, I am level and self-managing, but somewhat flat and directionless. I’ve been trying to address the whole career/life/social issue, to very limited success. Despite trying Meetup, Facebook, and assorted gaming venues, I’ve yet to find a regular in-person social group. My usual 40K sparring partner has moved onto other things, so I made the point of trying new stuff, and nothing has stuck. My Autism is continually on my mind with respects to this, but also a desire not to punish myself for not connecting with people. I try, and I keep trying, but it remains difficult and imposing. Workwise, I’ve decided to completely rework my approach, and try to find something specific to aim for, rather than merely trawling job listings for ideas. I’ve been seeking advice, and done a personality quiz for neurodivergent people, but this continues to be a problem. And by no means a new one. But maybe I have an idea now, and maybe I can accept it if I don’t. On the plus side, as I have felt better about things, and know myself better, I’ve got more energy to at least address the problem. Also, what social avenues I do have seem to be holding. My RPG group is great, TFN is a plus, I see my niece on occasion, and I’m supposed to be Gamesmastering again soon.

 

Creatively, this year has seen a return to Orks, which had all but vanished with my Guard fixation.  Playing games with the greenies was a shot in the arm, giving motivation to modernise and finish my ancient horde. That way I can play in a GW store. Its relatively cheap to do so too, and while I haven’t lost interest in Guard, I think I’ve taken them as far as I can for now. My interest in Transformers, Gunpla and such remains, but I need to have a clear-out. Also, if I am running an online RPG, I probably need to think about that. With respects to blog posts, these trends and those in the paragraph above lead to me having blog ideas, but less of a buffer than I would usually have. The blog will continue, at least for now, but some change in either content or regularity seems possible.


So, after all that waffle nobody is likely to read, what is the Chrimbo update schedule? 

Regular updates will cease on December 14th.
An Astra Militarum themed special will go up on New Years Day.
Regular posting will resume on January 11th.

Happy Holidays, and Merry Christmas!

My Time at TFN: Mini-Con Reading 2025

 Well, I went to the TFN Reading Mini-con. There I worked on the Toy-Fu stall and attempted to socialise. And, yeah, it was nice time on all fronts.

 

My experience started at about 10am Friday, I started my long journey to Reading. By chance, I ran into an ex-coworker, and took the opportunity to catch up on the bus. Nice to see her. I was running 30 minutes or so ahead of schedule, and the trains were tolerable. I had to use the London Underground once, but that was as bad as it got. My only real difficulty was getting a bit lost on the way to the hotel. Said hotel was old, but decent. I got a fridge and microwave in my room for some reason, with both a quality chipshop and the venue in easy walking distance. The initial plan was to set up the table that afternoon, which would have been a massive relief, but this was not to be. Unfortunately, I didn't find that out until I got to the hall at 3PM. Which was somewhat annoying. Friday was then spent in the pleasantly quiet hotel bar, chatting and talking nerd shit. Such conversations were the highlight of this weekend, although outside of transactions I didn't get to chat much otherwise.

The actual convention followed the next morning, although I was a touch late to set-up. I'd prepaid for breakfast, and that overlapped with the hall opening. I didn't dawdle, but if I pay for brekkie, I'm fucking having it. As it turned out, I wouldn't get a proper lunch anyway. Working on the stall was  a bit of a blur, as it usual, although things weren't that hectic. We shifted a non-trivial amount of plastic, including some stuff I'd donated, with a notable second wind in the afternoon, as we put out some Japanese exclusives. I didn't really get to attend any panels, but as we were all in the same hall, you could hear them. Kinda. Audio issues plagued the events, the Blokees panels being a notable sufferer. I should maybe have brought my ear plugs. Then followed the close, the packing up, and more time in the hotel bar. I called it just before 10, only for some other guests to wake me at 4. I didn't really get back to sleep after that, and obviously no-one else was about, so I opted for an earlier train. That worked out OK, but St Pancras Station was one long queue and a riot-in-waiting. I got back to Nottingham about lunchtime, grabbed a sarnie, some groceries on the way back, and then home.

 

So, the toys. I didn't really get much this time,  actually under budget, although this isn't unusual for me these days, especially so late in the year. I dunno if any of these are blog material, but there are:

Retro Brawn: The only really new thing I got, a fairly nice little mould. I dunno why I keep buying this guy, but it seems to workout for me.

Pathfinder: I never picked up that new Speeedia Cosmos, and there's a history with this repaint. Not bad, but very hollow.  Also a girl, and a Gobot, if either factor is of interest.

A knock-off not-Devastator set: I always want to buy something from Toy-Fu, and this caught my eye. It's an upscaled version of the DX9 Hulkie set. No, making an unauthorised reproduction of an unlicensed Transformer does not produce the real thing.  Nor is it actually that great. But for a tenner I've paid a lot more to get a lot less.

And finally, two mini-figures gifted by a kind friend.


All in all? A good time, what went wrong wasn’t a crisis, and I'm happy with the socialising I did. I still need to interact more though.

Plamo: The 30 Minutes Missions Roundnova I

Righty, it seems that I might back on that 30MM bullshit.

 

Some context first. This was another Brum Toyfair purchase, there always being at least a couple of mecha stalls there. As a project, this was completed in-between drying stages of my Kommandos, the claim of 30 minutes completion time being plausible even if I wasn't rushing. While 30MM kits can get very samey, this one is very recent, and is doing something new: fabric effect parts.

The Roundnova is, shockingly, round. Its got a domed head and rounded body, and might easily be called friend shaped. This, and it's heavy backpack might lead you to think it's small going by the box alone, but no it's a fairly big lad.  In terms of construction, it's nothing revolutionary despite it's looks. There’s a 2019 joint sprue in there, but most of it goes unused, the hips and shoulders being new pieces of the same style, which omit shoulder amour. The hands are an unusual three fingered claw, although you get closed versions to hold weapons. It feels a touch light for it's size, not badly so, but it's a noticeably hollow robot. The Roy Roy is a little charmer, with a translucent piece for it's sensor, and a build that says champion hugger. The missile backpack, like everything else, is modular. And finally, there's a selection of Liefield-style pouches, cast in a beige with a fabric effect.

 

While good as 30MM kits often are, this one does have a few aspects I dislike. The gun for example seems to be screaming for an actual barrel, it's just got an exposed connector, and the shield has more of a sensor dish vibe.  Going by stock photos, the Roundnova II variant combines these two to great effect, but OK. You can swap guns, it's no issue, and half the fun. Unfortunately, the knee joints are cast in the same colour as the fabric, which prompted me to break out the paint. I also picked out the missiles and tarted up the gun. I weathered the robot in my usual way, but I used different washes on the metal and fabric bits. I dunno if it worked that well, but it worked OK.

 

Overall? A good time.

 

Transformers: Titans Return Shuffler is Something that Exists

 

 The 1987 Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers Shuffler toy

 

One thing I enjoyed immensely, but has basically vanished from modern Transformers, is the idea of a pocket money toy. Maybe its inflation, maybe its the focus on collectors, maybe its Hasbro treating everything outside of Generations to be shovelware, maybe it's all three. But we don't really get fun for a fiver any more, the closest thing lately being those targetmasters Rise of the Beasts had. The best example of the concept was, perhaps paradoxically, in Generations, as part of of Titans Return, with what are known as the "solo Titanmasters". These started out life as a concession to reality. Titans Return was a modernised spin on the Headmaster concept, where little dudes became the heads of bigger dudes and drove their altmodes. This tends to offer much play value, but you have problems if you loose the head, hence the solo releases. Spare heads on a blister card, basically. The designers however things pushed further by adding an accessory vehicle in the pack, allowing the little guy to be more than just a head, and providing another weapon for larger figures. This was, almost without exception, a joy. Its also the main difference between Hasbro and TakaraTomy on the toyline. TT just didn't sell Titanmasters by themselves, instead splitting up those components for use in other price points. They were trying make the toys better fit their market and their version of Headmasters fiction. Umm, OK, sure, if that's what you have to do. But you did the solo release thing in the 80’s, so why not? The TT versions are undeniably nice. But it gets weird when Hasbro does a Japanese tribute toy and TT doesn't release it. Shuffler is one such example, and honestly the lack of a Japanese release for him seems contrarian. Guys seriously, all you had to change was nuffin.

So who, or possibly whom, is Shuffler anyway? Its not an unreasonable question to ask, and answering it helps with the word count with respects to a rather simple toy.  He has almost no fictional presence, but he and his kin are noted for being the black-market-human-organs sort of expensive to obtain, as a Japanese G1 exclusive. Part of the Autobot Master Warriors, Shuffler is the elephant one, and presumably his titanmaster power is that he never forgets. As a titanmaster, Shuffler now operates a touch differently from the original toy, with the elephantine bits refocused onto the accessory vehicle. 

The actual robot/head bit is typical of its kind. Shuffler’s robot mode features a balljointed neck that becomes the neck joint of his head mode, balljointed shoulders, and conjoined legs that move at the hip and knee. This is upgraded articulation versus the original headmasters, and in a smaller size. Its not spectacular posability, but it is pragmatic possibility; Shuffler is at that sorta size where designers have to think seriously about choking hazards and breakages. Shuffler features two pegholes on the underside of his feet, plus an angled tab/heel-spur, allowing for a rock solid connection onto other toys, so he's disinclined fall off base modes and such. The robot mode has a unique headsculpt, not a given with these, but it and the robot mode in general lacks paint. This is an area where TakaraTomy consistently is better than Hasbro, and the most obvious sign that this is a budget release. Granted, the head is a point of friction, so you don’t want that much paint on it, but something for the eyes or chest would have been nice. 

The head mode is, once again, typical of the Titanmaster. You ball up the robot mode and the head holds together via friction. This scheme is common to all titanmasters, the main variation being the faceplate that personifies the head, which can have a rather different design aesthetic from the rest of the sculpt. As these plates were only screwed in, there was/is a cottage industry in 3rd party faces, which is outside of my remit today, but I just wanted to mention it. Shuffler's head form is proportioned to fit deluxe bodies, and features three different colours of paint app. Its a good noggin.

 

If we bring the accessory vehicle into things we get three more modes, although in two of them Shuffler is an optional extra as he just stows unobtrusively in head mode rather than doing anything structural. The elephant mode, aka the main event, is a simple affair with little useful articulation, but has a neck and trunk joint thanks to the transformation. Its simply but nicely presented too, with paint around the shoulders and painted eyes. Shuffler just kinda goes in the belly, and remains there for the weapon mode. While not so much an elephant gun as a handheld missile pod, its quite convincing and top three for the price point. I just which there was paint picking out those missiles. The tank mode meanwhile ends up with a rotating turret, with Shuffler plugging into the back tracks, so he's slightly more involved there, if still somewhat optional. You have to grade for the price, but there's no bad mode here.

 

Shuffler is both an excellent case study of the solo titanmaster play pattern, and a great toy on his own terms. However, as a late wave release he's hard to obtain, and TakaraTomy just had to be weird about it. All they had to release it as is, maybe with a few more paint apps, and they would have had a winner. But no, they had to break the whole play pattern, an unforced error. Shuffler is not just something that exists, he's a rare, and totally unambiguous, example of Hasbro beating TakaraTomy at their own game.

And Alchemist Prime isn't bad either.

Plamo: The 30 Minutes Missions Bug Fingy

 

Well, actually its the “Extended Armament Vehicle (MULTIPLE LEGS MECHA VER.)”. But that’s far too unwieldy to be useful.

I’ve got a bit of a lightweight article for you today. At the time of writing, I’m at of a loose end, and feel this is probably worth talking about, however briefly, and I may not feel like writing later. A buffer article, if you will. Of course, there’s only so much for me to say about 30MM at this point. While it does have lore these days, I don’t really get to soapbox about anything as I would with a gunpla or 40K project. 30MM is for all intents and purposes setting-agnostic, an exercise purely in the model itself, and customisation thereof. I’ve done a fair few of these for good reason, but I can’t offer many fresh insights here. Plus I mainly produce my robots in the same way these days, I.e. basic weathering techniques with lore filibuster. However, 30MM is very much the experimental side of Bandai’s output, or its cutting edge, so if something vibes with you, the odds are that its a good/interesting time. 

Bug Fingy, as I choose to call it, is definitely experimental, its an insectile drone, with one plastic colour, a shiny sticker for the eye, and some guns that put me in mind of a Ball. Its a simple affair, as these smaller 30MM kits tend to be, and arguably lacks a bit in customising potential. Its got 3mm port functions, and you can turn it into a centipede with multiple kits, but as its non-humanoid there’s only so much re-purposing you could do. What it does have, however, is ideal articulation for the body plan. Each limb has four joints in it, joining the body with a balljoint, said body segments are also balljointed, and the claws open. The posability is comprehensive and honestly I don’t see how you’d do better at this size and price. Its even got a little earwig scissor tail thing going on. If this had more plastic colours, I wouldn’t hesitate to call it a must-buy, so watch out for future variants.

I did my usual weathering on this. I tried to paint the dish a glossy black, but it didn’t take. Otherwise this was a pleasant project done on either side of a shift at work. Consider it recommended.