Ocular Max Remix RMX-03/04 Volture and Buzzard

It's been a long time since the last Ocular Max Remix figure was released - the RMX-01 Jaguar (Ravage) - but the promise of more excellent figures to come has always kept expectations high for RMX-03 Volture (Laserbeak) and RMX-04 Buzzard (Buzzsaw). The Perfection Series has rumbled on, with hits and misses, but with a 1 out of 1 strike rate for the Remix sub-line, a lot is riding on these birds to keep up the good name of the initiative. Based on full size cassettes instead of the original microcassettes, these figures were never going to be compatible with MP or G1 Soundwave in cassette mode, but the idea was always that they'd make excellent Masterpiece companions in beast/robot mode.

Open And Play Big Cannon

The second figure release from Open And Play came pretty much out of nowhere. Big Cannon - a Masterpiece-scaled Galvatron - is a very different proposition to Big Spring. For a start, it is clearly a larger and re-tooled version of Transformers Titans Return voyager class Galvatron. This beefs the figure up to Leader class (and a little bit more), removes the Headmaster and mask gimmicks as well as the third spaceship mode and adds a few refinements to make the overall design a bit more appealing to collectors, or at least that is the thinking behind it.

MMC Reformatted R-26 Malum Malitia

This is a weird set. The Reformatted R-26 Malum Malitia (G1 Insecticons) by 3rd party company Mastermind Creations does not fit into their Reformatted line at all. That's because they were originally intended to be part of the Masterpiece-aping Ocular Max Perfection Series line, but for whatever reason, they were shoehorned into Reformatted. They were supposed to be PS-02, very early on in the line and right after the debut, Sphinx! The designer is different to the usual suspects of Reformatted, which explains much of why these figures feel different to what's gone before in this line. The idea was to make these more slender than what you normally see in Reformatted or maybe even the Perfection Series.