The Boys - Season 4 (2024)

The fourth season of The Boys is eight episodes long. The season continues with the group, led by M.M. as they continue their quest to tear down the corrupted society dominated by the supes. Even after all that has happened, the supes still holds most of the power, and it feels as if the group is getting more desperate each time. They are backed by the CIA so it’s not as if they don’t have resources, but they are also highly pressured given the urgency.

Homelander controls Vought now and holding so much power, politically and physically, everyone fears him and bows to his will. However, even all that sucking up gets to him, given that he cannot get any proper advice when he needs it. It’s interesting to see that Homelander is more irked with his ageing. While his power hasn’t waned yet, he knows that it is only a matter of time. He will age, get weaker, lose popularity and everything else that makes him what he is now, and it’s an existential crisis. This is an intriguing angle to get towards.

We knew that Homelander was a manufactured “product” of Vought, and we get glimpses of what happened in his childhood. The glimpses that we see makes it no surprise why Homelander is so broken and mentally unstable now and getting worse as time goes on. He has significant flaws, but you also can’t help that it wasn’t completely his fault. The show constantly explores what happens when someone who isn’t perfect gets so much power, and it leads to some very disturbing scenes.

Homelander is trying to gain more political power, and that includes rebuilding The Seven (which has somewhat diminished in its importance as time goes on). Given that most of the original members have departed, it needed fresh blood and these new characters, as expected, can be unlikable. There are several plot threads that are concurrently going on, and this means that characters are constantly plotting against each other. There are constant twists and reveals, and often it does this in the most horrible way possible to those characters, often crossing multiple lines.

The show has always walked headfirst into gore and violence, designed to shock the viewers. At first, this season seems to take a more toned-down approach from the surprise and disgust of the scenes. Then comes the middle of the season and it comes back in full force, seemingly able to constantly find new ways for visual gore that’s repulsive to watch, and even more to think about what it means if you did it in real life. It can be vomit inducing and too much at times.

The pacing is not too slow this season, and it goes by at a decent rate. Each episode is progressing the plot, whether it’s Homelander’s plot to attempt a coup on obtaining total power over America (while also continuing to show how he just cannot handle as much as he thought he could), or the Boys’ plans to stop him. The Boys’ themselves seem scattered, with Butcher coming on and off, giving that he’s running out of time. Every other plan that the Boys are trying to action seems to go awry. Nothing truly seems to go their way and their whole team seems to be imploding.

Even throughout just this season, there are constantly shifting alliances. One episode, these two will work together, in the next, they change allegiances. It leads to a case where you sometimes can’t remember who has made a deal with whom. This all ends at the season finale, where we get unexpected plot developments and it massively shifts the paradigm. It was a good season finale, and it felt like the whole season wasn’t wasted, progress was made, and the plot advanced by a significant margin. It puts all the characters into a tough spot and nicely sets up the final season.

Overall, the fourth season of The Boys helps capture what made the series so good in the first place. While it still has the dark humor, and a lot of gore and violence, to the point where it is uncomfortable to watch, the plot developments manages to capture your attention and interest. You’re keen to see where this will go. The characters manage to straddle the line between being someone you’d love to hate, and someone that is just annoying.  Although it does suck where innocent characters die.

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Toy Review: Transformers Generations Studio Series Barricade (The Last Knight) (Deluxe)

Review:  #912

Name:  Barricade

Brand:  Transformers

Allegiance:  Autobot

Line:  Generations - Studio Series

Year of Release:  2026

Size Class:  Deluxe (Wave 30)

Mold Status:  new

VEHICLE MODE:

Another entry for Barricade in the Studio Series line, this time, it is based upon his appearance in The last Knight movie.

He transforms into a 2016 Ford Mustang police car, and the concept of a Decepticon having a police alternate mode is still quite novel.

He is an okay size in vehicle mode for a Deluxe, it might not look that much smaller, but he is quite compact.

All five of his robot weapons can store towards the back of the vehicle, making it seem like some sort of attack mode.

This is, in general, a somewhat good vehicle, especially in regards to the sculpted detailing and the painted details.  He's also missing his iconic "To punish and enslave" line.

However, and this is due to the requirement in transformation (which the designer could have figured out a way to fix...) but the front of the vehicle sits much higher than the rest, so it looks really odd and off.

It's a shame that this is the case, given that everything else looks so good.

A good and aggressive looking vehicle mode, let down by the weird hood thing.

TRANSFORMATION:

Barricade's transformation is not too bad.  The front and arms transforms as you'd expect, being that you fold the hood forward to form the torso, and the arms just swing up from underneath.  The roof and side windows fold into the backpack.  while the rear unfold to form the legs.

ROBOT MODE:

The original toy was a bit of a shellformer and it looked like it, and this version tries to address it but brings with it its own problems.

It's still a really decent robot mode though, and the biggest piece of kibble is his backpack, but is compact enough to not be a massive issue.

The head sculpt is really busy, to the point that it can be hard to decipher the details.

Height and size wise, he is okay for a Deluxe.

Articulation is also fine, he has joints for his head, shoulders, elbows, waist, hips, knees and ankles.

He comes with a plethora of weapons though, a pair of guns, a forearm blaster, and a circular wrist blaster.

The two guns can be held in his hands, but they look really odd.  Firstly, they are too flat (basically as thin as a typical sword accessory).  Second, the handles are really long / high up for some reason so it sticks out of his fists.

A neat touch is that the guns can store on his waist.

They're pegged to look like they're holstered there, which is a nice touch, and probably is part of the reason why they are so thin since they would get in the way of the arms if they were thicker.

The next weapon is a forearm blaster / wrist mounted taser, that just pegs onto his forearm, and looks fairly good there.

Lastly, two separate pieces clip onto his arm for a circular six-barrelled blaster, which doesn't look too bad.

The robot mode looks a bit busy, and it's not perfect.  He has some proportion issues with his legs.  Due to transformation, they unfold from just the rear of the vehicle mode and every time a Transformer tries this, there is not enough mass.

And that's the case here, Barricade's legs are too thin and not chunky enough, especially looking from the side.  His feet are also indistinct blobs lacking a proper outline.

It's hard to say whether this is an improvement over the original as there are pros and cons, but objectively, it's not a bad robot mode.

OVERALL:

Barricade is a good enough figure.  He has flaws in both modes, which isn't ideal and feels like they could have easily been remedied if a little bit more effort was put into it.  As a result, this isn't the best figure we've had, but it is still a solid one.

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Toy Review: Transformers Retro Seaspray (Deluxe)

Review:  #911

Name:  Seaspray

Brand:  Transformers

Allegiance:  Autobot

Line:  Retro

Year of Release:  2025

Size Class:  Deluxe

Mold Status:  new

PACKAGING:

Released as part of the Retro subline, Seaspray comes in retro inspired packaging, which means he's on bubble cardboard (an extreme rarity these days).

The back depicts classic G1 art, and tech specs, and this is like a blast from the past.  The packaging has just enough modern touches to not feel outdated.

VEHICLE MODE:

Surprisingly, unlike most of the other Retro releases, Seaspray is a brand new mold (rather than a reuse from the Generations line), and transforms into a hovercraft.

This is a very decent hovercraft.  The shade of blue used is vibrant, and pairs well with the white and yellow.

Seaspray is a decent size for a Deluxe, considering that he is a minibot.

The robot gun can peg onto the side towards the back.

He has some small plastic wheels on the bottom to allow him to roll.  The propellers at the back can also spin.

There are only two minor flaws in this mode, the first is that his robot head is visible at the back.  Even though it kind of blends in as it's the same shade of yellow as its surroundings, it's still obvious.

The second is that he is fairly hollow when you look underneath, but considering real hovercrafts are the same, it's not a huge deal and he feels quite nice in hand anyway.

A fantastic vehicle mode.

TRANSFORMATION:

Seaspray has an enjoyable transformation that isn't too complicated.  The general idea of the transformation is similar to toys of the past, but updated here.  The front splits and unfolds to form his legs, and a few panels of the hovercraft will fold around his legs as a result.  The sides become the arms, and they just require you unpegging him.  The rest of the assembly folds together to form the torso.

ROBOT MODE:

Seaspray's robot mode is very very good.  It captures the character perfectly.

Despite some G1 artworks depicting him as very chubby, he's more towards the animation model (as expected) and so he isn't too fat.  He has great proportions.

The head sculpt is also fantastic.

As a minibot, you would expect him to be a little bit shorter than normal Deluxes, and that is the case here, but he doesn't feel small thanks to his solid feel and proportions.

Articulation is great, he has joints for his head, shoulders, elbows, waist, hips, knees and ankles.

He comes with a silver gun as his weapon.

He can either hold the weapon in his hand...

...or you can attach to in the same place as vehicle mode so that it looks like a shoulder cannon.

A really surprising and amazing thing is that he doesn't have any kibble at all in robot mode, which is very impressive.

He has wide feet, which really helps in his stability, he'll probably never keel over, but it's not wide enough to look out of proportion.

A big difference of Seaspray compared to some other contemporary figures is that he actually feels solid and quality in hand, rather than a flimsy hollow piece of plastic.

A robot mode that's a great follow up to vehicle mode.

OVERALL:

It is a shame that Seaspray was released as part of the Retro line rather than the Generations line, given that he'll probably have a little less availability.  This is a really good figure that perfectly captures the characters in both modes, and is a brilliant toy to boot.  Definitely try and get Seaspray if you can.

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