BW Megatron (Special Galaxy Type & Tyrannosaurus Rex) [Defender Version 06-Brutal Fang]

Ah yes, Beast Wars Megatron. A character you can't talk about without either quoting him or hearing his voice in your head. Absolutely my favorite of the Megatrons, he started out as a lowly criminal before taking the namesake of Megatron for himself and beginning his quest of stealing the Golden Disks and traveling back in time to Earth to rewrite history in the Decepticons' favor.

Then later, he completely dominated Cybertron and ruled it with his new Vehicon army. Other Megatrons may be a threat, but this one actually succeeds, and he's charming as hell while doing it. His death actually caused the reformation of Cybertron, and whenever he pops back up... it's kind of a big deal. And he has a rubber ducky.

Needless to say, I was ecstatic when Blokees started working Beast Wars characters into their awesome Transformers Defender Version blind box model kits. In Series 06-Brutal Fang, there are four different Megatron kits available: a standard robot mode, beast mode, Special Galaxy Type, and Special Armor Type. I was fortunate enough to get Special Galaxy Type for my robot mode representation. The difference between it and the standard is that Special Galaxy Type has metallic colors and extra painted detailing on the Tyrannosaurus bits. It's really sharp looking and feels more show-accurate, while the standard resembles the original toy more. Special Armor Type has even more metallic coloring and paint detailing, along with a blast effect and the rifle he carried in the episode Call of the Wild.

Robot mode assembles mostly like a standard Defender kit, but there are some differences, mostly in his arm construction. His arms are composed of the T-Rex's tail and head. So instead of the standard forearm and fist construction, his right arm has a dinosaur head in place (the same mold the beast mode kit uses), while his left arm gets a tail piece that connects at the elbow, with a fist that fits inside it at an angle. Some of the arm articulation you'd expect from a Defender is compromised, but it looks fantastic.

The Tyrannosaurus Rex kit is a fun little build that results in a neat little representation of his infamous beast mode. He was colored purple as a bit of a jab at Barney the Dinosaur, which in turn has led to some folks thinking that calling him Barney is somehow a way to insult Beast Wars fans. Me? As a teen during the time Barney was huge, I appreciated the joke. Not to mention, I always thought he resembled Tyrantisaurus Rex from Masters of the Universe, and I've always liked the Grayskull era of MOTU.

Assembly is pretty easy. Really, the body comes together almost like a shell, with the limbs connecting afterward. There's a fun fire blast effect that plugs into his mouth (which opens) and can also be used with the robot mode kit, as the head is the same molded piece. I've seen some complaints from folks sticking the flame effect in too hard and breaking teeth... and I have no clue how they manage that.

This little dino also reminds me of the Predacon Mini-Con Gnashteeth from around 2008. I jumped all over that Micron Booster series he hails from, and it was so much fun. Ultimately, this is a great little set of models that results in solid mini figures of a classic character I clearly love. I really appreciated the variety in their builds, as the beast element brought some welcome variety and made for a newer experience. Really good time.

He-Man [Mighty Masters]

He's the most powerful man in the universe, he's He-Man! The main hero of Masters of the Universe of course is in the initial Mighty Masters series and looking great.

I was pleasantly surprised to learn that he doesn't have the same swinging arm gimmick Man-At-Arms and Beast Man have. Instead, he features a pull-back waist similar to the original Masters of the Universe figures! I had wrongly assumed the swinging arm gimmick was line wide and am very happy to see variety like this. Considering the size and price, I'm impressed they even included gimmicks.

He-Man, like the others, is a fairly decent reproduction (there's some differences) of the original toy in mini figure form. He's got his trademark Power Sword, which even has a little holster on the back of his hardly-there armor.

So here's where I make an admission. MOTU came out when I was very young... and I totally thought he was the bad guy at first. Yep, you heard me. I thought Skeletor was the good guy.

That first commercial featured a skull-faced castle with a skull-faced guy and some normal dude threatening him. To be fair, I was 4 and completely not listening to or comprehending the dialog. I also liked monsters, which clearly has never left my system.

Well, it didn't take me much longer to realize He-Man was the good guy and the army of Halloween decorations were the villains. Who knew?

Oh... yeah. This Mighty Masters figure of the apparently good guy is pretty great.

Ironfist [Wheels 02-Wreck 'N Rule]

The first kit I assembled from the Blokees Transformers Wheels Series 02-Wreck 'N Rule was this one, Ironfist. I'm not going to act like I'm Ironfist's biggest fan, but it's hard not to like him. I've gone over some of the confusion surrounding his original toy in another post from earlier this year. It's honestly hard for me not to remember all of that whenever thinking about him.

This Ironfist is another non-transforming blind boxed model kit from Blokees, who at this point are the main focus of my Transformers buying. Wheels of course represent the alternate modes of Transformers characters, and this one is firmly based on his appearance in the IDW comics where he's most popular.

What draws me to this the most is the resemblance to a Diaclone vehicle. I just want a fleet of these piloted by Dianauts. I can imagine that's possible too, as there's a little cockpit up front intended for a Blokees driver to pilot the vehicle.

This was one of the easier to assemble Wheels kits I've come across. Even with the small instructions that I sometimes have trouble with, I was able to snap everything together within minutes. The only trouble I had was these little bits that go between the wheels. Initially, I wasn't sure which way they were meant to be positioned as it wasn't very clear in the instructions. However, it became pretty obvious when I just looked at the damn thing. That was one of those moments where I said "oh... yeah" out loud and then looked around to see if anyone saw that. Thankfully I was alone at the moment. Something like that would go on my permanent record.

A nice touch is the cannon turret moves a little when the ammo drum is turned. That whole section can also be moved around so that Ironfist can aim his gun as well. I didn't notice any Solidex pieces in his construction disappointingly, but thankfully the vehicle is nice enough to excuse its absence. Seriously, I love Solidex.

RangerStop & Pop 2026

It had been far too long since I've attended a RangerStop and Pop. I attended the first one in 2019 (this is a sister convention to RangerStop in Florida FYI) and for one reason or another couldn't make to any others much to my own disappointment. My friend Brett, who is the organizer for ToyLanta recently took over RangerStop and Pop and invited me out to run a Transformers panel much like I do at ToyLanta. I was of course happy to do so and also excited for the chance to finally make my return to this con.

As I'm moving soon, I couldn't attend the entire show. There is much work to be done around my current home to get packed and ready. I came Sunday morning as the panel was at 12pm. Leaving around 10am, I assumed I'd have plenty of time as the drive was only an hour away. Thanks to various Atlanta road work (it's always under construction and nothing is ever completed) and slight trouble finding parking, I got to the show and registered with just 10 minutes until the panel. Thankfully they got me in and in the room with a few minutes to spare. Dusty was going to be joining me, but had some troubles and couldn't make it. Show guests and Transformers voice actors Greg Berger and Neil Kaplan joined me and we had a fun little panel with a revolving, but spirited crowd. 

Afterwards I enjoyed a few hours of the convention as it winded down. I handed out a ton of Zone Base stickers which were even more popular here than at ToyLanta and that was even more super flattering. I even had some pins the Mrs had made with her new pin machine to give out! It's hard to believe, but I actually ran out of both. I saw several of my stickers on phone cases, laptops, on costumes and badges. Even a few stuck randomly on arms... I'll never get used to that. 

I found myself on more than one occasion running into Austin St. John, the original MMPR Red Ranger, and found myself regular conversation with him. That was quite cool. I had one point gave him some Zone Base stickers and he scanned the QR code right there and checked out the site! That's extremely flattering, especially when he praised the look of it! Of course there was plenty of Ranger actors, Mortal Kombat actors, and voice actors present. RangerStop is the kind of convention that the guests are attendants as well, so at an minute you're bumping into them doing regular activities.

One table I found myself talking with was an independent tokusatsu production called 'Jammingers Overture ', which is a music themed series. Their first episode is available on YouTube and that's pretty damn neat. There was quite a bit of independent creators there as well as booths featuring hand made and 3D printed merchandise. Being an old school con nerd, this is the type of thing I love seeing at conventions and made a point to visit and buy some items from them. I got a great set of Pikachu and Eevee figurines for the Mrs as well as some Zelda 64 earrings for her. One booth had 3D printed Morphers that I kind of wish I'd gotten one of, but did buy a very cool Halloween Gengar figurine of from. Of course there was some sellers with toys and I picked up Gobots Blades and Spay-C in great condition for a steal. The RangerStop booth had some branded lanyards and I picked up one for future use.

RangerStop and Pop as usual had a tattoo artist doing work at the show as well as a live DJ performing all weekend keeping the show lively. Southern Fried Gaming Expo had a corner with some playable games set up and even had a weekend long competition that would have been fun to take part of. Speaking of the DJ, there's a dance party overnight at the show that I'm sure is a lot of fun. As the show was closing up, I said my goodbyes and headed home for a wonderful taco dinner and evening playing Pragmata. I've almost got the story mode completed, however a ton more game to play. I seriously love this game. It was awesome finally making my RangerStop and Pop return and look forward to attending more in the future and helping incorporate Transformers into the show. Thanks to Brett for including me in his shows and putting on such solid conversations.