This next wave of Transformers Generations is some crazy shit.  Nightbeat and Jhiaxus, who are really awesome guys who rarely get toys?  Windblade, the bestest new character?  And the guy in the wave I'm least interested in is somehow Crosscut, who's a new toy of a previously e-Hobby exclusive guy?  It's like Hasbro was throwing darts at a dartboard composed entirely of stuff I really dig.  

Let's talk about Nightbeat.  He's a retool of Generations Bumblebee and his retool Goldfire Bumblebee, so this means he's the third use of the mold and the third head for it.  (There'll be a fourth head on a fifth use of the mold next year.)  He almost was made from Reveal the Shield Jazz, which so almost happened that art of that version is on the cover of the comic book Nightbeat comes with.  RTS Jazz is a much better toy (one of the best), but this version made from Bumblebee looks more like Nightbeat in robot mode.  The original Nightbeat was a Porsche, just like Jazz, so RTS Jazz woulda been perfect in vehicle mode.  A muscle car feels a little off.

Nightbeat's in the colors you'd expect him to be -- he's a bright cyan and yellow, grounded by black.  All of his yellow is painted, and the toy valiantly tries to cover up blue plastic with yellow paint.  It mostly succeeds, surprisingly, but there are a few thinly covered parts that look a little greenish.  Nightbeat's new head has lightpiping, but it's painted over in red on both sides.   This time Nightbeat's shins are glued into place so that you can no longer slide them out laterally for robot mode.  Perhaps there were stability or looseness issues?  

There's a way to transform Nightbeat so his shoulder kibble hangs in a way that suggests Nightbeat more -- a transformation alteration that Japan is using for their upcoming Goshooter exclusive.  Just, uh, keep his shoulders untransformed, basically, losing the door wings and keeping them hanging off his biceps.  

His weapon is still ridiculous.  It's Bumblebee/Goldbug's, but every time this toy comes out again with that same weapon, I feel like its ridiculousness increases.  

I kinda wish Nightbeat had gotten a newly sculpted chest in addition to his head.  I also wish he'd gotten to have an orange face.  Yellow is way better than silver like everyone else, but it's not strictly accurate.  However, Nightbeat's face is yellow in the ongoing IDW comics, so maybe that's where that comes from.  

Speaking of which, I strongly need a Nautica for him to solve mysteries with.