RPG: First Impressions of the Shiver Core Rulebook

So, I won this in a raffle at my local, the Leadbelt Gaming Arena. It was one of those raffles with a choice of prizes, your ticket determining when you'd get to chose from what remained. I mention this as an acknowledgement of bias, as I effectively got something I liked the look of for free, but the choice wasn't entirely mine. I started writing this as a means to figure the game out, but it turned into a review of a sort, so please enjoy this content.

 

Shiver is a tabletop role-playing game made by Parable Games, a Nottinghamshire-based enterprise. Its a system to run games based on horror movies and adjacent media. As systems go, its more narrative than tactical, which is appropriate given the theme. If you can just fight your way out of a situation its not really horror any more, is it? The most direct comparison I can make is to the Call of Cthulhu system, as Shiver is quite capable of Cosmic Horror, but its more of a sub theme. Shiver is not a d100 system either, so the generation of replacement characters when, not if, someone dies is probably gonna go a bit faster. Instead, its a custom d6 and d8 system, with one of those clock mechanics that seem to be popular in narrative RPGs just now. The clock mechanic, called the Doom Clock for self-evident reasons, is the means of increasing tension for players, with bad things happening at every quarter hour. This is a metaphorical clock rather than a real time one, its not about the passage of time, and player actions can accelerate or turn back the clock. I say actions, I mean bodged dice rolls, and the supernatural-adjacent Weird character class tends to do things that advance the clock. Actions themselves are resolved via some very pretty but proprietary dice, and this prompts my first complaint.

Game designers, if you are adding custom dice to your game, please ask yourself a serious question. Is this actually justified by the experience you are trying to create, or is it something that's gonna read like a means to extract more money from players by creating a barrier to entry? With Shiver I'm not convinced that the game is in the former category, and I ended up falling down a rabbit-hole of probabilities that I will spare you from. Resolving actions in Shiver is a matter of having a dice pool, rolling, and picking out the desired symbol from the custom dice, character abilities and circumstances adding or removing dice as you’d expect. Of these two special dice, the d6 is the hardest to justify. The Skill die, once you get right down to it, is a reskinned d6, with no change in the ratio of faces. This feels a touch needless, as in real terms you are looking for a symbol with a 1 in 6 chance of being rolled. You are, as they cool kids say, fishing for sixes with extra steps. God forgive me for a Rick & Morty reference, but its a layer of obscuration for no benefit. With the Talent dice its more justified. The faces are different from a regular d8, offering more and multiple Talent symbols that make passing tests easier, but also generating more Strange results. The use of the Strange skill and dice result is the first wrinkle here. These are usually negative outcomes, and the hardest result to get overall with a Talent die, but this enables the abilities of the party's token Weird character. Its a horror game, Strange things happen, I'm sure you can imagine the kind. Adding further nuance is the Luck mechanic, where Luck results can be banked for use in future tests, as Successes. Finally, if you failed a test, you advance the Doom Clock by the number of Strange results. The overall feeling I get is that you don't want to roll dice if you don't have to, for fear of the consequences, but you will want to go fishing for Luck so you can actually pass tests that you aren't good at. I think that works well for a horror game as a concept, its risk versus reward. This also helps with the theme, as surprisingly the rules mechanic for fear is actually a bit minimal if we just go by page count. So, in general, there’s depth, but I'm not convinced the specialist dice add much beyond surface flavour, while obscuring the odds from the players. But hey, they offer a link to a free dice roller.

Ultimately, how dice work and when tests are made the domain of the Gamesmaster, or Director as the game insists on calling it, and so only matter as much as you let them. The game tells you that, although not in those words. I'm mechanically inclined as a player, so it matters to me what they do. But lets put that aside for a more important question, what is this book like as a Gamesmaster's resource? And how might things look for players? The answer to both questions involves how the book is presented and organised. Its a very pretty book, featuring nice art with maybe a bit of Mike Mignola influence, and the writers seem to want to provide all the resources you'd conceivably need. The presentation tends towards at least one piece of art per page, with spaced out text. This makes it attractive and accessible, especially in the character creation section. That said, this is a 223 page book as a result, and its split into only 4 chapters. I do like how each chapter has its own index on its first page, but I would probably have broken up the GM-centric chapter 3 into at least two chapters. Its 95 pages by itself. Creating a character is a similar story. The approach there is simple but wide; you have a load of options and can probably create any character you might want in a scary movie fairly quickly. There's no dice rolling for stats, for example, and there's a bit of a D&D players handbook feel to things. I like the Fool class, that looks fun to play as. The character creation section is however 60ish pages long and has its own layout problems. On the plus side, I do like the introductory chapter 1, that does its job well, and there's a starter scenario in chapter 4. Going back to the Dungeons & Dragons comparison again, this is a bit like someone trying to do the Player's Handbook, the Dungeon Masters Manual, and a starter set as one omnibus edition. Its all there, but its an unwieldy chonker because things are so spread out.


I do want to run this game when the opportunity presents itself. My group does enjoy a bit of horror, and this looks to be a good system for that. I like its style, and it looks to be very adaptable. On the other hand, I feel there's a simple but sound ruleset being obscured by fancy dice and a bloated rulebook. The dice are a gimmick, and I’m pretty sure you could trim the page count by 30% with a change of presentation. Presentation matters in the first impression, but it stops mattering once you’re using the book every week, and dealing with actual people. You kinda want something more concise at that point. Then again, my favourite RPG is The Mecha Hack, which is shorter than two chapters in this book by some margin. I like to build up from something as a GM, and not getting slowed down to flick through a rulebook, but your mileage may vary. If you're looking for a comprehensive horror game, I think this would be a good choice, despite the negatives I highlight.

Look into it.

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen Skystalker is Something That Exists

OK, funny story here. I finished this one up, did my (bad) photography, attempted proofreading, and put it in the publication buffer. Then a fairly compelling rumour materialised that the Core Class, a concept commented on a lot in this article, was being retired.  That may be very well have been confirmed by the time you are reading this. Hmm. That kinda puts a different filter on things. Please enjoy this belatedly re-edited article. Its been bumped up as its vaguely topical.

In Transformers collecting, there's certain subcategories I tend to fixate on. I think its the Autism. These are often small, toy first, curios. Something which I have not really seen before, and if its something I can easily acquire cheaply, good. You might think this would lead me to enjoy the modern Core class, but honestly no. I've picked up a few, but that slot has been middling as toys and too full of big names. We probably didn't need Optimus and the seekers in this size class when Siege and Earthrise already did them bigger. Twice. We probably didn't need a Dinobot combiner again either. That one left so little impact on me that I almost forgot about it. I've actually scrapped a Core class review because it was too negative, and while that Soundwave was pretty good, I've yet to find a core toy I can honestly say I'm a big fan of. Maybe that's why the class is supposedly being retired? It never really had a winner? But what I recommend is almost any toy from the time when this fixation started, the Revenge of the Fallen toyline, and its scout class. These, for better or worse, are what I consider measuring stick for smaller transformers that aren't also heads or guns. And our subject today will be a personal fave of myself and no-doubt many people, Skystalker. He’s a random guy whom is remembered solely for his toy, but his toy is rather a nice one.

 

 

Skystalker's alternate form is a fictionalised drone, with elements of the F22 and the BAE Corax according to the wiki. While pilotless vehicles and non-sentient robots were part of Transformers more or less from day one, the idea of a Cybertronian choosing human military one for a disguise was something new. Military drones in 2009ish certainly weren't well known, and while Soundwave would soon adopt such a form, Skystalker was ahead of the curve. Aircraft are always cool, but this one has the advantage of being novel, and fairly distinctive in shape. Plus its black with silver, which is always a winner. Gotta love the airforce style Decepticon markings, and the foldable landing gear has actual working wheels on it. These are all great until you look on the underside and see most of the robot mode like a horseshoe crab. And indeed realise that the sensor upfront is his face. There's significant overlap between the modes, which is an objective flaw, but I've seen people ignore that for much bigger, more modern, and more expensive toys. This was 8 dollars back in the day, wasn’t it? Something like $11.69 after inflation? We can make reasonable allowances for the pricepoint. Besides enabling jet-plane whoosh noises, Skystalker has two party pieces. The first, the best known, is a "plug on top" combination with the contemporary Mindwipe toy, evoking memories of the old G2 Dreadwing thing. I think people at the time overhyped this somewhat, combiners of any description being thin on the ground back then, but it was/is a modest positive. They do look good together, and you’ll often see them sold as a pair because of it. The other thing, a feature much less talked about, but far more involved, a third or intermediate "Battle Mode". A few of the scouts had this, although with Skystalker it was more deliberate in design. It was a classical plane with legs, or Gerwalk mode, allowing you full use of the leg articulation and actual avian poses if you try. What stops this from being incidental to the point of being a fan mode is the way the toes are spring-loaded to snap shut. Possibly on some kind of mecha-pigeon or unlucky skydiver. This further adds to the character of the toy, and why that Laserbeak repaint worked so well. Corax means raven BTW. I think that had an influence on the design team. So Skystalker is looking pretty decent on the altmode side of things, provided you don't flip him over. How does the robot mode do?

 

Also pretty decent. Actually pretty good, although in much the same manner/ratio/vibe as the drone form. The robot mode adds a lot of burgundy and beige to the colour mix, with a somewhat anonymous cyber cyclops look overall. He looks lanky and thin, with only three digits on each open hand, although the use of the engines give him powerful-looking legs. . Like a lot of toy-first ROTF toys, he's not strictly humanoid, but hes not a metal chandelier either. The word "avian" comes to mind again. The wings kinda just hang from the upper arms, but due to the transformation these are individually posable. This leads to Skystalker's generally good articulation, featuring a lot in the way of unrestricted balljoints and a thigh swivel that feels above and beyond the specification. He lacks a waist joint, and the toes take some getting used to, but you really don't feel the omissions. Again, there is character, and he doesn't feel limited by standards of a scout, or indeed a comparable modern robot form. But wait, there's more. If all Skystalker did was be posable, cheap, and attractive in robot form, that would have been fine, but he has two weapon accessories too. The typical number at the time was zero, and these are uniquely good ones. Two axes detach from the wings, and connect via a 3mm to the open palms. This allows you to change the angle of the weapon, which is good for posing, while a 3mm clip lets them connect to the forearms and other contemporary toys. The implementation of these is quite characterful and its not a matter of these simply stowed on the underside of the wings either. These are integrated with wings and sculpting thereof, each weapon stored into the wing opposite to the relevant hand. On the downside, loosing these accessories is bad for the altmode. On the upside, the geometric segments cut out of the wings add more visual flair. Oh, and these weapons feature two plastic colours and actual paint. How often do you see that?

A good toy is not always a perfect toy. What makes a transformers toy good is not merely matter of counting joints, considering accuracy, and checking how clean the underside is. Those are helpful metrics, true, but they aren’t everything. Skystalker has a messy underside, and no fictional presence, so two of those metrics aren't kind to him. But when I look at this chap, or a certain Cyberjet, I can’t help be disappointed with your average core class. There is a creativity here that more modern toys can lack. Is that why the core class disappointed me? Maybe its an unfair comparison to be making. The brand was flushed with money in 2009, and everything sold. Maybe another Optimus or seeker is just the safe bet, and those aren't actually bad toys, are they? Well, maybe that seeker. But if you think I’m wrong, try him yourself. He may not be easy or cheap to obtain, but there’s good reasons for that.

Gunpla: The GAT-X102 Duel Gundam With Assault Shroud (HG)

OK, it had been a while since I’d done a gunpla or a 30MM kit. I've done a lot of those, and even the best ones can get samey after a while. So, the ones I do get tend to be impulse purchases, or when I need to kill some time. As I was cat-sitting that day, and having done a lot of 40k stuff in a weekly format, an idle evening putting together a robot seemed like a good idea. For me, this is like sitting down with a good book. Hence the Duel Gundam.

 

Of the original batch of Gundams featured in SEED, and pinched by the eugenics teens of ZAFT, the Duel is the odd one out, and I do like the odd ones out. It was the first prototype, and of course a high-end machine, each subsequent creation had a major gimmick, while the Duel was more of a grunt. This makes it very influential as a test-bed, but its dramatically overshadowed by the others. I mean, simply being the no frills option in a squad that includes a transformer and a mech that turns invisible, is no way to win fans. The ZAFT engineers apparently agreed, and slapped a set of armour and weapons on it with almost indecent speed. You see, the Duel actually had a gimmick all along, the old Full Armour deal. This sees a machine originally designed for agility to be fitted with external armour, something which is usually noted in universe as having the predictable downside, but often you have the option to purge the parts when they stop being useful. I can only assume somebody took a look at the battery powered Phase Shift Armour, went "fuck it", and created a hybrid technology unit from their bitzbox. Armour plates usually don't have a recharge time.

So, I'm not gonna say this kit is bad, but I am gonna say that its very outdated. The box set says 2011, but its actually a 2002 kit with new transfers and a slight tweak to one of its plastic colours. The 'Remaster" the box refers to is a re-release of the anime. And this one hasn't aged gracefully. Articulation is functional, but the elbow and shoulder design is basic even by the standards of polycap builds, and the armour of course gets in the way when applied. Colour separation and accuracy is lacking, especially on the "Assault Shroud" bits. These aren't necessarily fun colours either. Yellow atop blue and sombre grey? I would have preferred you'd done it all in white and let me sort it out. And, of course, we have a the parts-fit and plastic quality of a kit that's two decades old.


This disappointed me somewhat. Whatever am I going to do with you?

Project Chem-Dogs: The Conclusion

Well, this feels like a natural conclusion. Ten weeks of non-stop Astra Militarum, this was a proper hyper-fixation. So, while I gently tap the breaks, what did I achieve with Project Chem-Dogs? 

 

Well, I put together a heavily-themed Guard force, worth approximately 1000 points. Of those, the vast majority of the models feature significant green stuff and kitbash work, the vehicles being the least involved, and infantry being the most. I have achieved a passable Caucasian skin tone, and honed in on painting techniques that allow me to do these quickly and effectively. I figured that I'd be doing a unit a week, but I was doing two overall. The matter of skin was always something that intimidated me, its why I went for gasmasks, but at least I'm in "good enough" territory now. Similar comments can be made re: my troubles with waterslide transfers. I hate them, but I seem to be learning. I also achieved something that just wasn't on the original plan: a gender-balanced force. I suppose doing something like this was inevitable while taking a break from Orks, whom are lads to a boy, trying actual girl models for the first(?) time. This was another thing I'll admit to being a bit intimidated by, as such things as “boobplate” exist, but I find myself leaning into it for the sake of variety. Plus I’ve yet to attract any comments along the lines of “Hur-de-hur, army of thieves and hoes!”, which helps. Finally, I’ve played 40k. I haven’t done that since 8th edition, and I will admit to having a bit of a complex about that given the circumstances of how I stopped playing and the cost angle. I've yet to win a game, but I'm having fun, and I feel I'm doing better each time.

So, I’ve achieved a lot, many things I would not have been inclined to try only a year ago. I’m happy about that. I’m not gonna say that I’m as good with humies as I am with Orks, or that I’m a Golden Demon entrant, but I’m better than I thought I would be. Win. Especially after Project Sulaco not working out. What do I want to do next? Well, in the immediate future, I’m working on a Hellhound, which I’m gonna spin-off into its own article, as it felt natural to do so. You can see it in the picture above. I want to build towards another 500 points, but I want to take a break from the weekly format on Guard, to prevent burnout. As for my next major project? I’m still mulling that over. I do want to something involving the new Ork codex eventually, but my prior issues remain. It feels a little bit like house-keeping just now, and doing a Dread Mob would be repeating myself. Fun, yes. But repeating myself. I need to think a bit more.

Watch this space.

Transformers: ROTB Core/Voyager Optimus Primal is Something That Exists

The 1996 Beast Wars Optimus Primal toy

So, I'm just gonna ramble for a bit here. I picked this up basically because I needed something to do that wasn't, in some way, Project Chem-Dogs. A change of pace. Things were going OK with that, and real/work life was a bit bumpy, but objectively not bad. I have to remind myself of that sometimes. I felt the need to write a Transformers article, but my my most recent Legacy toys were fine, but not blog material. I had also been awaiting that new Tidal Wave, and I certainly would have had something to say there, but the it was starting look like the dispatch was gonna go from May to July on the pre-order. Boo! As a result, I allowed myself the gorilla counterpart to that Optimus Prime toy I liked and painted up. It was similarly a mass market core/voyager release, at 12 quid, so whatever happened, at least I was being borderline adult about it. As it would turn out Tidal Wave would dock later that week, but no harm done.

ROTB Optimus Primal’s wiki picture

 

Now, when it comes to Beast Wars characters, I do not consider myself to be especially familiar. Beast Wars was outside of my nostalgia window, I did watch a lot of Beast Machines on cable, if that counts, and I was mentally elsewhere during Kingdom. But I think I have a pertinent observation to make regarding Optimus Primal. He works best if he's allowed to be fun on occasion. Both as a character and in plastic. As his name implies, originally he was intended to be your basic Optimus Prime archetype, but the Beast Wars cartoon made him a totally different chap, a freighter captain with much less baggage and actual room to grow. And potentially be funny in a way Prime hadn't been allowed to be since the 1986 film. This was important, as when you get right down it, he's a humanoid robot that turns into a humanoid animal, which is kinda underwhelming as transformations go. So the toy needs to do more than that in order to justify the price. And frankly, if you're not playing the silly monkey card with this guy, at least a little, you are only highlighting the problem. Unfortunately, they treat him very seriously these days. The question becomes then, how fun is Rise Of The Beasts Optimus Primal? As a character, I'd say probably not. Its not a fault of voice talent, I want to stress that, whom I’m a fan of. Ron Perlman has his qualifications as voice actor, as well as a regular actor, has done the character before, and his depiction of Hellboy proves he can do fun. The problem is that the writers seemed to take their lead from the relatively recent Machinma cartoons, which Perlman voiced, rather than the 90s cartoon. This leads me to conclude that the writers were idiots, but this sort of crappy adaption is par for the course for the live action movies. Are the toys fun though? That's an interesting one. Most of the mass market toys tend to be more colourful than the animation models at least, and have more fun focus. Is this core/voyager fun? Let’s find out.

 

This toy is packaged in robot mode, so I'll start there. Its based on early concept art, like a lot of these things are, but it passes the glance test. They went for the mouth-plate look, not my first choice, although the piercing blue eyes make up for it. He's mainly grey shades with metallics for robot bits. Animal bits are textured like fur, although the detail is gets a bit lost with the colour choices. There's an unpainted maximal symbol on the chest, that would have benefited from the highlight. Its not a bad look, but I feel an ink wash would do a lot here. There are also has two buttplates, I just wanted to mention that. Play value isn't bad either, there's two swords with dedicated storage tabs, these are very similar to the 90’s toy above, and a level of articulation matching the Legacy standard. So, its a quite acceptable robot mode, with all the joints it needs for sword poses. A Darth Maul is entirely practical, as is a one-legged pose, and this aspect of the toy did grow on me. It moves well, and certainly isn’t unattractive in its way.

 

Putting Primal into beast mode is a topic of legitimate interest, as there is a spark of actual innovation in a scheme that is likely familiar to Primal fans or otherwise guessable. You open up the chest by moving aside two sets of panels, to reveal a block that you pull out and rotate to switch the heads. You then, and this is the clever bit, you close the panels in reverse order, completely changing the look of the torso, a nice touch. Stowing the robot mode feet is less elegant, I find these are tricky to pull out after, and the arms do basically nothing. And the resulting ape? Well, its got much of the same strengths and weaknesses as the robot form. Its just its crouched down, and the articulation in the legs is hampered as a result, and you can’t really move them much without breaking the illusion. The head sculpt is nice, good blue eyes again, and the organic elements are more noticeable, if still downplayed by the greys, but its largely the same experience. And that's adequate given what the toy is based off, but its not much more than that.

 

Adequate is probably the best word to describe this Optimus Primal toy. Its doing the basics with competency, but unlike that Prime, I can't say its punching above its weight. It needed something a little more to justify its original £30 price tag. Maybe different hands for beast mode, more accessories, more paint, a bunch of bananas, I dunno, something. Granted, they are presumably aiming for superficially-screen-accurate-non-gimmick-toy with this, and he's certainly OK by those metrics, but the basic design hits the fundamental issues I discussed above. If your source material is a grey robot whom turns into a grey gorilla, and doesn't have a hugely memorable screen presence, you aren't starting from the best position. It exists, and it was £12. I think I got my money's worth.

To close things out, here's a nice picture of Ron Perlman I found.

 

 

Project Chem-Dogs: Part 9

So this week, I finished off my first 1000 points, and had a game on the Monday.

 

I'll start with the tank. As mentioned, this is a proxy model by Ramshackle Games, the Battledog, assuming that I'm not mixing up the names again. This was built as a Leman Russ Demolisher, and the bulk of it was done last week, what I mainly did here was apply waterslide transfers and weathering. I loathe these, and despite some cautious optimism last week, I lost at least five trying to get them on this tank. You can't rush them, and if they get folded, you are in real trouble. I will likely seek an Aquila piece to recast, and maybe some generic number transfers too, because my failure rate is frankly unacceptable. On the plus side, the use of matt mod podge to smooth the surface and seal the things seems promising. My first tank has also had its numbers replaced with an Aquila which went much smoother. Otherwise, this tank went pretty well. Sufficiently well that the speed of painting is getting pretty near to one of my Orky rust buckets. That's good. Its relaxing.

My main task this week was the three kitbashed/green-stuffed Ogyrns. These are Wargames Atlantic's Landsknecht Ogres, which I can say is another good, versatile kit, but I needed to make them more sci-fi. The work I did to make them fit my themes ended up rather involved, and frankly a bit rougher in sculpt, than I intended. I was leaning into the rags over orange jumpsuit theme, but the trousers had to go further than that, so I ended up adding crude knee-pads and pockets. These models are very fancy by themselves, and they needed to look more like prisoners, and those puffy pants were a challenge. By comparison, the gasmasks were easier, as where the kitbashed bayonets, the larger size of the models making some things easier. I had some issues with the undercoating, I got too close on one of them, but once that was sorted, I painted them in the same manner as my infantry. These came out table worthy, but the larger size seems to highlight weaknesses in my techniques. People seem to like them, though.

Having got these chaps together, I was able to have my first 1000 point game in ages, and it was a rematch with the same guy. One hoped that my Demolisher closely followed by the Ogryns would give the Orks some trouble. We only managed to get three turns in, but it was a close draw when we called it. I made a few rules mistakes, but we both were learning, and I think we both had a good time with it. Having tanks on the table made my force work, and I was pleased to see the Ogryns perform the "bouncer" role with some talent. I think I might retire the autocannon teams, or reshuffle them into infantry squads, but I'll see how I go. My 1000 point list seems workable, but I have ideas to further tune it.

On that subject, I also worked on a Hellhound using parts from my hoarder-level bitzbox, but I’ll save that for a future article I think.

 

Up next: The conclusion, but probably not the end.

Transformers: Legacy United Tidal Wave is Something that Exists

And is huge. Unreasonably, impractically huge. Almost too huge to photograph. Hence the crappier than usual photos taken in my kitchen.

Tidal Wave’s wiki picture, a screen capture from the 2004 Transformers video game

As a casual browse of this blog will quickly reveal, I dig giant robots. But not nessecarily the most giant of giant robots. Over the years I've had a fair few of the modern Titan Class Transformers. The biggest of the big boys, without going to HasLab. We're talking toys with robot modes exceeding 18 inches in height. The novelty of these was high at first, but eventually reality set in and it became routine. I started to run out of space, inflation happened, Predaking was pretty awful, and then Hasbro started to run out of characters that justified the pricepoint in either fame or size. Eventually, I donated most of my titans to Toy-Fu, and swore off the pricepoint as something I couldn't justify to myself. Then this one was announced, and I was pulled back in. In much the same way as Armada Optimus Prime. I sold a BotCon boxset to buy this... So I'm glad it doesn't suck.

A composite screenshot of Tidal Wave in animation

But, I'm getting ahead of myself, who is Tidal Wave? Well, he's another character from Transformers: Armada, the fifth such release to appear of late. He was a big, physically powerful, Decepticon famous for chanting his own name. Not exactly a thinker, he was however noteworthy for having naval-themed altmodes, which is rare, and combining with Megatron, which was unprecedented. How big he actually was a bit variable. The famously shoddy cartoon was inconsistent but generally made him on the large side, while comics and video games made him gigantic. The simply-titled Transformers for the PS2 console had him be both an end of level boss, and the level itself. This was awesome. Much later on, Nick Roche would bring the character back for his Sins of the Wreckers comic, where he was similarly huge. And a whale. This was also awesome. The toy was pretty well-regarded too, people liking its transformation and play features, as while he could split into three seperate boats, it was not mandatory for the transformation to do so. Its actually one of my faves, I dunno if its top 3 material, but its definitely A tier for its line. So, I was very pleased to see him back. And I think I would have been happy for him to be simply adapted into the Commander class with functional knees. But they went Titan for him. And they kinda made him a mixed representation in that he's in Cartoon/Japanese-toy purple and huge, rather than Hasbro/Western-toy green and huge. Maybe there's planned repaints, I don't know. But if he's a titan now, surely he can't combine with Megatron any more? He’s lost that along with the Mini-Con gimmicks these remakes all cut? Well, brace yourself.

Something very odd has happened here. They've created a bunch of integrated accessories that Tidal Wave can pass to Megatron/Galvatron. I refer to these collectively as "miniwave", as these are patterned off Tidal Wave's altmodes, with the addition of platform shoes. There's shades of Astrotrain's coal tender with this, or Blitzwing's hulk-hands, but it is much much sillier than either of those. The whole idea of miniwave is so utterly, utterly dumb, I can't quite decide if its just dumb, or so dumb it ends up being awesome again. Given Tidal Wave is now so big that he's socialising with citiformers, no would of begrudged the designers for dropping the Megatron combination. I mean, they've already dropped Mini-Cons. But no. We have Tidal Wave break off bits of himself, in the likenesses of his altmodes, so Megatron can go to the Met Gala in style. On the one hand, it works, and probably better than the original toys at that. It explains Megatron's odd shoulders, its working off the 5mm port system with ratcheted pegs for stability, and Megs' articulation doesn't suffer really. On the other? Well, Tidal Wave is giving up his fingers for this. You end up with some big gaps, although you can work the thumbs into a claw arrangement. Its also worth admitting that "Burning Megatron" wasn't the most dynamic combination in the first place, and you may only do this once. I don't know if we'd honestly have a better toy if they left this gimmick out. Maybe they could have pushed things further and had those parts do more. Like be a partner robot. Or just having Mini-Cons. But this is just such a weird thing to do, I can't help but respect it.

 

The mini-wave pieces also end up playing a part in the base mode, which is also new. Its one step above a fan mode in terms of complexity, in that it looks unintended until you realise that there's dedicated joints in the thighs to allow for it. There's no ramps or such, although its making good use in of the turrets, which use 5mm pegs. The base mode is also the only form you can go to from robot mode without substantial disassembly, Tidal Wave's old party trick being lost in the embiggening process. While not a selling point, I feel this looks OK, in a low-key, just throw it in sort of way. Most base modes tend to be robot yoga anyway, and its not bad by those standards. Better than Titans Return Fort Max, at least. I will however mention that this form does expose certain hollow bits in the torso block, and a transformation joint that likes to separate on my example. 

 

The robot mode by comparison is ideal. It is, as near as makes no difference, perfect. Like most of these modern remakes, gimmicks have been swapped out for articulation, but in so far as mass market toys go, I don't know how you could do better. I mean, he's a big effing guy, he's covered in details and paint, being excellently presented. He moves better than I expected, with a waist joint, articulated skirt armour and ankle tilts. Ankle tilts! The chest guns all move, and can tilt up so they can fire usefully in robot form. Lots of 5mm ports too if you need more. His hands now feature blasters, and are posable in an industrial robotics kinda way. The head rotates, and can unexpectedly look up, although not down. His hips also took me a bit by surprise in that these give enough to look natural, but no more. In what I can only assume is a concession to his weight, the hips are a limited to about 45 degrees forwards and back. EDIT: no, they were just tight. This, combined with the hollowness of his feet, is however as close to an actual flaw the robot mode has. He has an immense presence. He's not trying to be a gymnast. This guy is a juggernaut, no, a dreadnought, striding implacably towards you with no concern for fancy moves or your feeble attacks. If you're not onboard with that, I don't know what I can say to convince you. 

 

Then there's the Dark Fleet modes, yes, modes plural. I did mention that, but that was a few million words ago. Tidal Wave comes apart to form three distinct naval vessels with sci-fi elements, and then be recombined into a very anime space battleship. Following on the original toy, these tend to be a bit simple, with castor wheels on the underside, although obviously larger and more visually pleasing than the source material. Of the three, the battleship segment is the most functional if the weakest in appearance. It looks the least like an actual vehicle, as the head isn't well obscured but its got eight moving turrets, so fair enough. The landing craft or troop carrier is the most scifi, and generally the best looking too, if not having a huge amount going on. EDIT: And a slight tendancy to seperate. Finally, the aircraft carrier is something of a slab, not doing much by itself, but put a couple of core class jets atop and you'd be laughing. I do find the loss of the highly individual play features these previously had to be a bit sad, if not unexpected. I would have fought for that aircraft elevator...

 

Oh, Jesus, this is actually heavy.

 

Ahem. Anyway, putting Tidal Wave into the combined ship form is simple on paper, but there's a lot of mass to manage, not to mention tabs. Once together however the ship is completely solid. Little new is revealed, but it is making the best of what's there, the weaknesses of the battleship being minimised even as the hip joints poke out if the back. The colours make a great deal of sense, the flight deck contrasting nicely with the rest, while the landing craft and battleship match closely. Its got very much the same dreadnought energy as the robot form, which is only more appropriate. This looks like something that would warp in and change an entire battle just by turning up. Perhaps less convincing than say the immediately-preceeding Nemesis, but much much cooler.

As you can probably tell, I rather like Tidal Wave. There's a number of imperfections, but mainly these fall under the heading of personal preference or artistic licence. Its very much what it looks like, a dramatically scaled-up version of the old Giga-Con class toy, which removes gimmickry in favour of articulation and modern engineering. It also goes out of its way to maintain the Megatron combination, which would be harmless and forgettable, if it wasn't so daft. So its harmless and daft instead. If you're an Armada fan, you likely have this already, but if you're not? Well, he's an expensive chap, but he's doing nothing wrong. So if you want something huge and memorable, Tidal Wave is worth considering. And should this end up on deep discount, as Titans can do? Jump on it.

 

This picture is here because I like it.