Like I said, I spotted the BBTS listing for these guys a bit before they were officially unveiled, before photos of them had even gone up on the site. I just smashed the "order" button, reasoning that if I hated them after I knew what they actually were, I could just cancel the order. Well, my interest in them was sufficient that I kept the orders in place. They shipped super early, considering that BBTS is now taking pre-orders with an expected ship date of April 2023.

TWINCAST

I imagine most of you know this, but for those who don't—in the Headmasters cartoon series in Japan, Blaster and Soundwave engage in a brutal fight to the death, putting holes in each other with their fists, knocking arms off, until Soundwave just up and explodes and Blaster succumbs to his wounds as well. They get ressurected as Twincast and Soundblaster, respectively, as a way for Takara to continue selling the characters in new colors for the 1987 product line. (I'm a little surprised Hasbro didn't do this, actually, since they were still making new cassette Transformers as late as 1988, but Blaster and Soundwave were completely off the market.)

A straight redeco of Kingdom Blaster, the new Twincast has not been
given a remolded cassette door, and as such, can only hold one cassette in his chest (the G1 versions of Twincast and Soundblaster were upgraded and could hold two tapes at a time). During G1, Blaster's black-colored speakers and fists and guns all became red for Twincast, but the Legacy toy must have had its parts on different molds, because while the fists and speakers are now red, the gun is still black. (The robot toes and the radio handle are also cast from red plastic, but painted black.)

The entire freaking Internet is taking great delight in laughing about the fact that Hasbro took the time to point out the toy is designed so that you can plug the gun into the back of the radio mode to act as an antenna. That might be the longest sentence I've ever typed without a comma. But, it's true. And evidently nobody on the planet knows that the G1 toy was designed to do this as well. Like, it's literally the entire reason why Blaster's gun is shaped the way it's shaped. Kingdom Blaster could do it, too. I guess they should have just left it alone as an undocumented feature, and I could have continued to be the only person in existence who knew about it..

Twincast also gets a different face sculpt, as he's wearing a cockeyed expression, with one eye much wider than the other, and a little smirk. It's likely this extra head was sculpted and made part of the mold when Blaster was being developed, and they just gated off the original head when the time came to produce Twincast.

Rewind was gang-molded with the tape deck door window on Twincast in a smoky translucent black color. (The window on Twincast is painted with a red lacquer, but the plastic itself is the same as Rewind.) There's not much to say about Rewind that hasn't been said of Eject—he gets the same gold deco on his chest, though Rewind has a red face mask as opposed to the orange on Eject. Rewind also has a different grey for his secondary parts, a result of being gang-molded with Twincast's lighter grey colors as opposed to Blaster's swirly metallic grey. And, yes, I spell "grey" with an "e" because I am a pompous lunatic.

No, I absolutely did not just buy Twincast so I could get Rewind. I don't know what you're talking about. I demand you stop making such truthful accusations this instant.

METALHAWK

The original Metalhawk toy was released in 1988 and was exclusive to the Japanese market, and was unique and distinctive in that it was a Pretender with die-cast metal parts, which would have been unheard of for a Hasbro toy of the era. In the fiction, he was the leader of the Cybertrons (Autobots) in the Super-God Masterforce cartoon series, at least until such time as Jinrai showed up and Metalhawk realized he didn't look nearly enough like Optimus Prime to retain command.

Hasbro has reported that the Cyclonus toy was not originally created with a Metalhawk remold in mind, but when they were thinking about doing a new version of Metalhawk, the Cyclonus design ended up being pretty much the perfect basis for it. Takara designers were enthusiastic about the project, and tried to make it the best, most cartoon-accurate Metalhawk toy possible. Hasbro realized his inner robot form was perhaps more iconic than his outer shell, which is why this version focuses strictly on the robot design.

So, Metalhawk has the same shoulders as Cyclonus, quite obviously, as well as the same fists, the same upper legs, and the same toes. He also uses the same basic wing design, but the folding panels on Cyclonus have been replaced with the pointed winglets, so there is no longer a folding piece despite looking like there still should be. He still has the weird knee problems Cyclonus did—they are a bit on the loose and floppy side, and there are large, obvious gaps in the knee when the legs are bent.

Robot mode is a fairly even mix of dark blue (shoulders, forearms, lower legs) and red (wings, toes, knees) and grey (upper legs, fists, shoulder intakes) and a mustard yellow standing in for the gold on the original toy (the helmet and torso). He stands at 6.75" tall, shorter than Cyclonus due to his lack of bunny ears. He carries two small winged guns that reminds me of the accessories for Pretender Starscream, which can be wielded individually or connected together. He also has a Blitzwing-like sword, also grey, which can stow on the peg-hole on his back when not in use.

Transformation is nearly the same as Cyclonus, except for the fact that the robot arms face forwards now, with the forearms towards the front of the jet. Also, the jet cockpit isn't quite as long as the one on Cyclonus, so there aren't as many sections to tuck away. The nosecone is folded in half, so you just swing it out after opening up his body and snap it together. (There has been some minor controversy about the length of the jet nosecone, as its size seems to vary depending on which promotional image you look at. The image on the back of his packaging does appear to match the final toy. I'm looking at the promo images in question right now, and if I close one eye and tilt the toy I can get it to match every photo. So, I think it's just an optical illusion that changes depending on the angle of the toy..)

Jet mode is certainly more convincing than the G1 toy, which was essentially just a big block with wings and a jet nose poking out of it. He's about eight inches long with a seven-inch wingspan. It's impressive how next to nothing about him reminds me of Cyclonus in this mode. Reversing the position of the arms makes a huge difference. Regrettably, he has no landing gears whatsoever. Not even little fake ones. The little guns plug into the back exactly in the same way as Pretender Starscream, and the sword can mount to the top of the jet mode if you really want it to.

This is the first time Hasbro has offered this character at retail, and for around $30, that's a comparatively inexpensive way to add him to your collection. (There is only one G1 Metalhawk on eBay right now, and it's $1,959..73. If I spend that much on a Transformer, I'd better be able to drive to work in it every morning!)

Zob (it's funny how both of these characters are blue and grey and red and yellow, and they ended up in the same wave together)

On Tuesday, February 14, 2023 at 9:32:36 PM UTC-5, Zobovor wrote:
> Like I said, I spotted the BBTS listing for these guys a bit before they were officially unveiled, before photos of them had even gone up on the site. I just smashed the "order" button, reasoning that if I hated them after I knew what they actually were, I could just cancel the order. Well, my interest in them was sufficient that I kept the orders in place. They shipped super early, considering that BBTS is now taking pre-orders with an expected ship date of April 2023.
>
> TWINCAST
>
> I imagine most of you know this, but for those who don't—in the Headmasters cartoon series in Japan, Blaster and Soundwave engage in a brutal fight to the death, putting holes in each other with their fists, knocking arms off, until Soundwave just up and explodes and Blaster succumbs to his wounds as well. They get ressurected as Twincast and Soundblaster, respectively, as a way for Takara to continue selling the characters in new colors for the 1987 product line. (I'm a little surprised Hasbro didn't do this, actually, since they were still making new cassette Transformers as late as 1988, but Blaster and Soundwave were completely off the market.)
>
> A straight redeco of Kingdom Blaster, the new Twincast has not been
> given a remolded cassette door, and as such, can only hold one cassette in his chest (the G1 versions of Twincast and Soundblaster were upgraded and could hold two tapes at a time). During G1, Blaster's black-colored speakers and fists and guns all became red for Twincast, but the Legacy toy must have had its parts on different molds, because while the fists and speakers are now red, the gun is still black. (The robot toes and the radio handle are also cast from red plastic, but painted black.)
>
> The entire freaking Internet is taking great delight in laughing about the fact that Hasbro took the time to point out the toy is designed so that you can plug the gun into the back of the radio mode to act as an antenna. That might be the longest sentence I've ever typed without a comma. But, it's true. And evidently nobody on the planet knows that the G1 toy was designed to do this as well. Like, it's literally the entire reason why Blaster's gun is shaped the way it's shaped. Kingdom Blaster could do it, too. I guess they should have just left it alone as an undocumented feature, and I could have continued to be the only person in existence who knew about it.
>
> Twincast also gets a different face sculpt, as he's wearing a cockeyed expression, with one eye much wider than the other, and a little smirk. It's likely this extra head was sculpted and made part of the mold when Blaster was being developed, and they just gated off the original head when the time came to produce Twincast.
>
> Rewind was gang-molded with the tape deck door window on Twincast in a smoky translucent black color. (The window on Twincast is painted with a red lacquer, but the plastic itself is the same as Rewind.) There's not much to say about Rewind that hasn't been said of Eject—he gets the same gold deco on his chest, though Rewind has a red face mask as opposed to the orange on Eject. Rewind also has a different grey for his secondary parts, a result of being gang-molded with Twincast's lighter grey colors as opposed to Blaster's swirly metallic grey. And, yes, I spell "grey" with an "e" because I am a pompous lunatic.
>
> No, I absolutely did not just buy Twincast so I could get Rewind. I don't know what you're talking about. I demand you stop making such truthful accusations this instant.
>
> METALHAWK
>
> The original Metalhawk toy was released in 1988 and was exclusive to the Japanese market, and was unique and distinctive in that it was a Pretender with die-cast metal parts, which would have been unheard of for a Hasbro toy of the era. In the fiction, he was the leader of the Cybertrons (Autobots) in the Super-God Masterforce cartoon series, at least until such time as Jinrai showed up and Metalhawk realized he didn't look nearly enough like Optimus Prime to retain command.
>
> Hasbro has reported that the Cyclonus toy was not originally created with a Metalhawk remold in mind, but when they were thinking about doing a new version of Metalhawk, the Cyclonus design ended up being pretty much the perfect basis for it. Takara designers were enthusiastic about the project, and tried to make it the best, most cartoon-accurate Metalhawk toy possible. Hasbro realized his inner robot form was perhaps more iconic than his outer shell, which is why this version focuses strictly on the robot design.
>
> So, Metalhawk has the same shoulders as Cyclonus, quite obviously, as well as the same fists, the same upper legs, and the same toes. He also uses the same basic wing design, but the folding panels on Cyclonus have been replaced with the pointed winglets, so there is no longer a folding piece despite looking like there still should be. He still has the weird knee problems Cyclonus did—they are a bit on the loose and floppy side, and there are large, obvious gaps in the knee when the legs are bent.
>
> Robot mode is a fairly even mix of dark blue (shoulders, forearms, lower legs) and red (wings, toes, knees) and grey (upper legs, fists, shoulder intakes) and a mustard yellow standing in for the gold on the original toy (the helmet and torso). He stands at 6.75" tall, shorter than Cyclonus due to his lack of bunny ears. He carries two small winged guns that reminds me of the accessories for Pretender Starscream, which can be wielded individually or connected together. He also has a Blitzwing-like sword, also grey, which can stow on the peg-hole on his back when not in use.
>
> Transformation is nearly the same as Cyclonus, except for the fact that the robot arms face forwards now, with the forearms towards the front of the jet. Also, the jet cockpit isn't quite as long as the one on Cyclonus, so there aren't as many sections to tuck away. The nosecone is folded in half, so you just swing it out after opening up his body and snap it together. (There has been some minor controversy about the length of the jet nosecone, as its size seems to vary depending on which promotional image you look at.. The image on the back of his packaging does appear to match the final toy.. I'm looking at the promo images in question right now, and if I close one eye and tilt the toy I can get it to match every photo. So, I think it's just an optical illusion that changes depending on the angle of the toy.)
>
> Jet mode is certainly more convincing than the G1 toy, which was essentially just a big block with wings and a jet nose poking out of it. He's about eight inches long with a seven-inch wingspan. It's impressive how next to nothing about him reminds me of Cyclonus in this mode. Reversing the position of the arms makes a huge difference. Regrettably, he has no landing gears whatsoever. Not even little fake ones. The little guns plug into the back exactly in the same way as Pretender Starscream, and the sword can mount to the top of the jet mode if you really want it to.
>
> This is the first time Hasbro has offered this character at retail, and for around $30, that's a comparatively inexpensive way to add him to your collection. (There is only one G1 Metalhawk on eBay right now, and it's $1,959.73. If I spend that much on a Transformer, I'd better be able to drive to work in it every morning!)
>
>
> Zob (it's funny how both of these characters are blue and grey and red and yellow, and they ended up in the same wave together)

Metalhawk is brilliant. Looks like he stepped right off the screen (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5g31OuseRU). I have him wielding his own Prime Master from PotP, and it's glorious. If I had a minor quibble, it's that his plastic quality feels a little cheaper in hand compared to Cyclonus. But it's a minor criticism of one of the best Legacy releases to date.