Toy Review: Transformers Age of the Primes Red Alert (Voyager)

Review:  #862

Name:  Red Alert

Brand:  Transformers

Allegiance:  Autobot

Line:  Age of the Primes

Year of Release:  2025

Size Class:  Voyager (Wave 1)

Mold Status:  new

VEHICLE MODE:

An update to the Armada character, Red Alert transforms into a rescue vehicle.

Predominantly white and red, he is immediately recognizable for what he is supposed to be.  There's a splash of blue here or there, and it's nice that the back is fully enclosed too, with no exposed robot parts.

It's a compact vehicle, given that the rear is shorter than you would expect.  Still, he is an okay size for a Voyager.

He doesn't have many gimmicks in this mode, he can roll on a flat surface and that's it.  However, what's impressive is that all his robot weaponry is stored within the vehicle itself.  You don't need to attach anything to the outside.

A good vehicle mode that doesn't feel cheap, whether that's the feel of it, or the paint apps.

TRANSFORMATION:

Heavily inspired by the original toy, but just given more articulation, the transformation scheme is simple.  That means it is fun though, given that his limbs are large and blocky, it's satisfying in that way.  The doors open and you pull out the arms at the same time.  The legs are from underneath the back of the vehicle (and part of the side of the vehicle mode).  That does mean he has the majority of the vehicle left on his back though.

ROBOT MODE:

Red Alert is a fantastic update and he looks really good here.  The original can have a slightly awkward look given the skinnier legs, but the proportions on this figure looks great.

He has a decent backpack, although it is mostly hollow so it doesn't keel him backwards or anything.  It's just visually messy.

The head sculpt is highly accurate, and the best part?  He has lightpiping, which is a rarity these days.

Unfortunately, he is shorter than your typical Voyager in robot mode.  At least he still feels solid as he doesn't have any hollow parts.

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

His main weapon is a gun, which is stored on the roof of the vehicle mode, which you can flip out and detach.

He can hold the gun only on his right hand, given that his left is an attachment.

The gun can also stay attached to the back, but flipped over to form a shoulder gun.

The missile tip, as well as his left hand attachment, can be swapped for one of two options.  The best part is that the spare can be stored within the panels on his legs.

A huge amount of blue appears in robot mode, which gives away how much of a shellformer he can be, as all his limbs are tucked within the vehicle shell.

Still, he doesn't feel convoluted or a floppy mess like a lot of shellformers are.

An awesome robot mode, even if you're not a fan of the character.

OVERALL:

Red Alert is a worthwhile update to the character.  It pretty much just modernizes the design and engineering, which is all we'd really want.  He is a bit smaller than you'd want, but given all the cost-cutting and subpar figures these days, Red Alert is relatively unscathed and is worth your purpose.

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Kirby Star Allies (Switch)

Kirby Star Allies is a sidescroller platformer in the long-running Kirby series. If you’ve played a Kirby game before, then you’ll be right at home. Even if you haven’t, then the controls are easy to pick up. The game has the typical Kirby abilities where Kirby can suck up enemies and then spit them back out to attack others. However, the unique point is that Kirby can also swallow those enemies to absorb and use their abilities. This gives Kirby completely different movesets for each ability such as slashes for Sword, blowing fire and ice for Fire and Ice abilities. There is a large variety of abilities including less common ones like the Paintbrush and Cleaner. While most enemies have abilities to be absorbed, it’s not all of them though. Kirby can also jump and float indefinitely, so it’s harder to die via the bottomless pits than in other platformers.

The new gameplay gimmick for Star Allies is the Allies part of the game. This plays into the co-op function of the game. Kirby can throw hearts into enemies to convert them into allies, who will then go through the level with you. If you play by yourself, then CPU will control the up to three other allies. No part of the game will be locked away if you play single player, which is great. It gets chaotic with four characters on the screen using their abilities, and you can easily lose sight of where Kirby is during boss battles due to all the effects going on.

Like absorbing abilities, most enemies can be made into allies, including certain bosses. The story villains can never be made into allies, which makes sense. There are also special allies which are guest characters from previous games, and they’re a lot more powerful. The other cool thing with allies is that you can combine two abilities together. For example, you can have Kriby with the Fire ability and then combine it with an ally’s Sword ability to give them a flaming sword. These combinations can change movesets and give them higher offensive power.

The bulk of the game is the story mode, where evil stars have arrived in Kirby’s world, infecting its inhabitants. On the other hand, Kirby receives a friend star that allows Kirby to befriend enemies. Kirby travels the world to save the others, and given the lower age of its target audience, the story is simple with barely any twists and turns. This is also reflected in the game’s graphics, which is a colorful affair, allowing the game to feel cheerful as a result. This is a game where you play to chill and relax, rather than be challenged.

The story is structured into a series of levels that are selected via hub worlds. The levels aren’t too long; most can be finished within ten minutes. There’s no timer in the levels, so you can go through them at your own pace. Each level has puzzle pieces to collect that are semi-hidden, these are used to unlock artwork in the main menu. The game is on the easier side; you’ll rack up a lot of spare lives. Kirby and allies have a health bar, and with the addition of the CPU characters, the game is made even easier. Most bosses can be defeated with barely any challenge, given four characters are there to whack it.

The secrets in each level are easy to find, since most of them are obvious. There are frequent puzzles, most of which will require a combination of various abilities. However, these all have their difficulty dialed down given that the required abilities are always within reach, so there’s little risk of missing any content. Despite the simplicity of the puzzles, they’re fun to solve nonetheless. The CPU characters are clever enough to quickly know what they are required to do to help solve the puzzle, to avoid most of the frustration that may come with relying on other characters.

A slight annoyance with the levels is that they are further broken up into smaller sections, that are separated with short loading screens. While these loading screens are short and act as checkpoints, they are still annoying due to how frequent they are and how it breaks the pacing. The story mode doesn’t take long to finish either, only around six to eight hours. Despite how short the levels normally are, the final boss is much longer, and it is one of the more epic showdowns in the Kirby series.

After completing the story, some new levels and several new modes are unlocked. There are two minigames, which are fun for maybe a try or two, they are very simple so shouldn’t keep you busy for long. The more interesting unlocks are the three new modes. One is a time trial, where you don’t play as Kirby, but rather pick an ability and go through the levels as fast as you can using that ability. It’s separated into multiple stages, and the levels are slightly modified from the story levels. The second mode is a boss rush, which is self-explanatory.

The third and final mode, known as Heroes in Another Dimension, is the best post-story content the game has to offer. It’s four new levels, which takes around 20 minutes each. The difficulty is higher than the story, but still not too hard. There are hearts within each of the levels, most of them you need to solve a puzzle (usually against the time). This culminates into a final level which is beating the main bosses again. These final bosses are much tougher than the ones before it and can get extremely chaotic. It’s a fantastic bonus inclusion (that was unfortunately only added later via DLC rather than being available upon release).

Overall, Kirby Star Allies is a fun Kirby game, so you know what you’re getting into. It doesn’t have any massively innovative gameplay or changes. Rather, the inclusion of CPU characters just makes the game way too easy. Being able to combine the abilities is fun and interesting. The story is short, but there is some post-story content that helps keeps your interest, so it’ll provide at least 10-12 hours of content, more if you want to do everything.

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Toy Review: Transformers Generations Studio Series Sentinel Prime (Voyager)

Review:  #861

Name:  Sentinel Prime

Brand:  Transformers

Allegiance:  N/A

Line:  Generations - Studio Series

Year of Release:  2025

Size Class:  Voyager (Wave 28)

Mold Status:  new

JET MODE:

Based upon his design from Transformers One, Sentinel Prime transforms into a Cybertronian jet, although he had never transformed in the movie.

This is a pretty decent looking jet, from all angles actually.  He even has a pair of thrusters at the back.

He's a pretty good size too, and being a jet also helps with that given he has a good wingspan.

Surprisingly, he doesn't have too much undercarriage kibble, which is impressive.

The robot guns peg onto either side of the cockpit, which looks fairly integrated there (apart from the dull grey plastic used).  While the shield pegs onto the top.

A decent jet mode.

TRANSFORMATION:

Sentinel Prime doesn't have too complicated a transformation, although it doesn't feel as intuitive as it should be.  The figure has some loose joints, which can make transformation more annoying that it should be.  The wings are one piece and jointed to get out of the way.  While the sides are the arms, which you pull back into the torso.  The back extends to form the legs, and you fold the cockpit away.

ROBOT MODE:

At first glance, Sentinel Prime has a decent robot mode.  He looks good and this is a nice design.

The wings on his back are jointed so that they can fold back out of the way.

The head sculpt is also great, but very robotic, which feels weird given that the face is quite expressive in the movie.

You might be forgiven to think he'll be a decent size, and he kind of is.  Just that he's a little bit shorter than a typical Voyager.

Articulation is good, with joints for his head, shoulders, elbows, waist, hips, knees and ankles.

His weaponry is a pair of guns and a shield, that's painted a fluro pink.

For the guns, he can hold them conventionally in both hands.

The shield pegs onto the outside of his forearms.

However, the best usage is combining the guns and shield together into the weapon he used in the movie, and it looks great here.

The other neat thing is that the attack he used in the climax of the film can be replicated here, with no added parts.  There are mini shoulder cannons and shin cannons that flip out.

He also has a built in battle mask, and you partially transform his right arm so that it looks like a cannon.  Folding down his feet and you're done.

Due to how his feet is folded down (and the thrusters are also revealed given that this is a flight battle mode), he gains a bit of height.

The right arm cannon looks a bit cheesy, but otherwise, everything else works really well.  Given that everything is built-in without extra parts is really nice.

Despite the positives, the robot mode does have some flaws.  Mainly due to the loose jointing, especially around the shoulders and torso areas where the arms like to detach.

The ankle tilts are situated too far up, so it looks weird when you utilise them.

Otherwise, it's a good looking display piece, with a lot of weaponry options, even if the playability is a bit fragile.

OVERALL:

Sentinel Prime, despite his flaws, is a figure worth getting.  The design is good, and he has plenty of playability, given his various weaponry plus the battle mode.

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