The Transformers Thread (licensed) Next

[mikeszekely]

Robot Kingdom and Premium Collectibles were both taking preorders for Deluxe Groove. Too bad they both sold out before I could get an order in. Hopefully someone else, like BBTS or TFSource, will get some. Or Hasbro will sell him in the States already...

[mikeszekely]

Well, even though I said I wasn't going to, I bought CW Trailbreaker. I'd heard he had new arms (true!), and in the store he looked better than I'd thought. His head, which is all black except for his eyes, is very G1 cartoon, moreso than the IDW-ish figure we got, what, a year ago? Year and a half? Anyway, his body is also solid black, making no attempt to paint his chest like a window the way they did for Ironhide. His one forearm is silver with a black hand, ala the G1 cartoon, and his other arm is molded into a silver gun with a 5mm port barrel, which is also good for anyone who missed him not having a gun for a hand the last time around. His lower legs are black with a bit of painted silver, sort of like the old cartoon but with less silver. Instead of having red on his knees and silver thighs his whole thighs are red. Likewise, although the parts of the truck doors that clip around his shoulders are black, his upper bicep parts are red. Not 'toon or toy accurate, but visually striking.

Almost all of his parts are the same as Ironhide and Offroads, but instead of just having a new head he has new forearms, as I mentioned. They look the same from the sides, blending in with the side of the truck and carrying a 5mm port on each arm. From the front, though, his left arm is is smoother and more blocky on the front. On the back, it's still designed to blending with the bed of the truck but it doesn't have those same bed ridges. His right arm, as I mentioned, is designed to look like a gun. The barrel is a 5mm port, so you can stick his combiner hand in there if you want, or steal a weapon from Wheeljack, Sunstreaker, or Mirage and pretend he's got a pop-out blade. The other side is left exposed, so in truck mode his got a silver cylinder embedded in the side of his black truck bed.

One good thing about new arm parts? New slots for the pegs on his back, so when he's in arm mode his own arms actually stay pegged in place, perhaps better even than First Aid.

Speaking of combiner hands, though... in gun or foot mode, Trailbreaker's combiner part looks identical to First Aid's and like a black version of Ironhide or Offroad's. In hand mode, though, we see that it actually has new fingers. Instead of having a part molded to look like four fingers the part is molded to look like two thick fingers, Ninja Turtle style, with little clampy ridges on the inside and, oddly, a coat of silver paint on the outside. Despite being a new part, it retains the groove in the middle so it can still slot onto the bed of Trailbreaker's truck.

And what a truck! Offroad was sort of dull, a gray truck with red windows and a red squiggles on the side. His headlights, grill, and rims are silver, but that silver sort of blends with the gray. Ironhide was red, but again his metallic silvery-blue windows, yellow stripes, silver rims, and silver front end are kind of drowned out by the red. But Trailbreaker... he's an inky black truck, and against that black his bright blue windows, silver rims, silver headlights, and silver grill just pop, and the stripes on the side of the truck are much more G1 accurate than we got on the previous toy and deliciously '80s retro.

TLDR; great colors and new-and-improved forearms make me glad I bought Trailbreaker after all.

[David Hingtgen]

I bought Trailbreaker simply because I needed a fourth figure with a black HFG, and I like him quite a bit. He fixes all the issues earlier versions of the mold had.

[treatment]

[Scyla]

I would be all in on a Masterpiece Trailbreaker. The toy deco with the black car and the red and yellow stripes scream childhood and 80s to me. So much nostalgia.

I also wouldn't mind if MMC does an IDW Trailbreaker.

Edited March 26, 2016 by Scyla

[M'Kyuun]

I'd also like a MP G1 Trailbreaker, but I hope, if and when they make him, that they engineer his hood area to flush with the edge of his windshield to mitigate the 'beer belly' effect. I also hope that, unlike the CHUG version, his forcefield generator can retract and conceal in his truck mode. Ultimately, I just hope that he gets eventually gets a MP figure; I always liked his character more than his character design, which could use a bit of tweaking to improve his bot's appearance. I like the IDW reinterpretation, but the old G1 fan in me wants the original character in updated ABS glory.

This mod of the CHUG Trailbreaker is in line for what I'd like a MP Trailbreaker to look like, albeit with his original truck mode: http://www.tfw2005.com/boards/transformers-toy-discussion/999575-why-did-people-hate-deluxe-generations-trailbreaker-16.html

It would have been cool of TT to engineer the toy to be changed to this config out of the box.

[mikeszekely]

Wha? Trailbreaker's beer belly is his most memorable feature!

[mikeszekely]

If you pick up a Combiner Wars Wheeljack, you really owe it to yourself to pick up the Reprolabels set for him. It's seriously a night and day difference.

Before

After

Before

After

The set also came with bluish stickers for his ears and red for the wheels, but I left those off. As big an improvement as it is, I think I might still put some paint on him. Hasbro only painted the front of his ears, so I'm thinking I'll paint the back, and them maybe paint his forearms, hands, and crotch black.

[jenius]

Wow, that really is a tremendous improvement.

[mikeszekely]

Yeah, I don't often go with Reprolabels, since they more often than not are mimicking sticker details from the G1 toys that weren't on the animation anyway, but the Combiner Wars line is just really lacking paint. For a lot of figures in the line it's not that huge of a deal, but Wheeljack was missing way too much. The windows on his fake car chest weren't even painted!

In addition to Wheeljack, I've also bought the labels for Smokescreen to spruce up his racing deco and to hide the unpaintable plastic, and then the labels for Streetwise and Prowl for better police deco. If I had to do it again, Wheeljack and Prowl's made the biggest difference, Streetwise wasn't as huge a difference but still worth it, and I'd say I could have probably skipped Smokescreen's.

Edited March 27, 2016 by mikeszekely

[Guest davidwhangchoi]

more MP optimus ape

[anime52k8]

munky not Trukk.

Edited March 28, 2016 by anime52k8

[jenius]

Do not want. Yay, money saved.

[sh9000]

Pass.

[Dangard Ace]

That's just prime.

[technoblue]

The uncanny valley is calling and I'm out.

Magnus says he can't deal with Beast Wars right now.

[M'Kyuun]

I wish they'd found a solution to the white robot thighs being visible on the backs of his ape mode legs. Also wish they'd made his bot toe fold flush into the calf detente like the original toy instead of folding it under in his ape mode, and found a way to make his neck flex so that he can look straight ahead when hunched in ape mode. It looks good, but more Generations good than what I would have expected from a MP level toy. Sad to say, there are a few things the original toy did better.

Think I'll hold off on POing him and wait for a potential sale.

Edited March 28, 2016 by M'Kyuun

[dizman]

Yawn.... wake me up when Takara gets a hold of the Porsche license.

[Mechapilot77]

i always pretend monkey optimus never existed and i will continue to do the same. waste of mp slot for me but i suppose i should be happy for beast era fans...

[Scyla]

Finally Takara gives us Computron with a fitting head:

Seems like it will include heavily remolded versions of Rook, Breakdown, Groove and Blast-Off. More images over at TFW (http://news.tfw2005.com/2016/03/28/takara-unite-warriors-computron-mold-first-look-312013)

[Major Focker]

not being able to relate to combiners other than Devastator/Menasor/Superion/Bruticus is making me feel old.

[Kanedas Bike]

not being able to relate to combiners other than Devastator/Menasor/Superion/Bruticus is making me feel old.

This

+ Defensor

And I'm on the fence about MP Beast Wars Optimus, I loved the show once it hit is stride, but I have zero interest in really any Beast Wars toys outside of pure nostalgia. And that alone is not enough to make me spend $$.

-b.

[NeoverseOmega]

Wow, I have such mixed feelings about this MP Optimus Primal!

Admittedly the paint does make it look a LOT better than the test shot's we've seen, and the original toy was a bright spot when transformers was on a massive downturn in the nineties (which the tv show managed to switch around with good story telling and later awesome transmetal toys) - so there is nostalgia and an actual like of the character going for it. In many ways it looks to me like I wished primal looked in the nineties (the transformation is closer to what I pictured originally, and meshes well with some of the later interpretations of the monkey/robot mode switch) - however this is supposed to be a masterpiece toy, and it has none of the innovation it should. I was hoping for actual hair, flexible pieces that allow robot parts to be completely hidden, perhaps even a torso joint so that it could look good both standing up and hunched over in ape mode (apes don't look straight down, they go swayback to look forward). It still appears to have some of the fun of the original - all the stored weapons for example (which I wish more transformers toys would do) but it looks more like, well, a classics or generations Primal than a masterpiece.

Unlike a lot of people I always kind of liked the IDEA of transformers turning into organic animals (If you know there are transformable robots out there, would you be looking for an ape or a taxi cab?) but I knew there was no way to pull it off well in toy form with the toy technology then - I'd still like to see it done though in a story in which it makes more sense (hiding out on an earth already ruled by a small cabal of Decepticons for example).

I half want to buy it just in the hope that they give me a T-rex megatron to go with it . . . . .

[Gunbuster]

Unlike a lot of people I always kind of liked the IDEA of transformers turning into organic animals (If you know there are transformable robots out there, would you be looking for an ape or a taxi cab?)

I'm not a fan of the organic look, so I'll pass on this as well. For those who like them, I'm glad TT released these for them.

As for the question of looking for transforming robots...unless Prime is in a Jungle or nature setting, he will be sticking out like a sore thumb in a city while a transforming taxi would blend in nicely in a city :-P

Humans would more likely be shooting at loose animals in the city than shooting a empty vehicles....just saying....

[David Hingtgen]

It's an MP, which are becoming increasingly "budget-limited" all the time. Takara's designers have the will and know-how, just not the budget, to make "perfect" versions.

For that, you need 3P.

[mikeszekely]

Decisions, decisions.

No, not on MP Primal. That's an easy pass.

It's Computron. I'd need to see more pics, but retooling Rook and Blast Off seems like a better idea than than retooling Brawl and Air Raid, plus the head's definitely better. On the other hand, the Hasbro one will probably be $30-$60 cheaper, and the Hasbro one has feet with ankles.

[Guest davidwhangchoi]

Go ape!

Edited March 29, 2016 by davidwhangchoi

[M'Kyuun]

It's an MP, which are becoming increasingly "budget-limited" all the time. Takara's designers have the will and know-how, just not the budget, to make "perfect" versions.

For that, you need 3P.

Unfortunately, very true, and very evident in what should be their premium line of figures. I'd rather they worked the opposite way; design an awesome figure, determine what small factors can be cut or simplified and still maintain quality, and set a price. I keep Binaltech Jazz and Silverstreak on display in my mancave, and those figures have a far more 'masterpiece' feel to them with good paint, lots of die-cast, rubber tires, working steering, opening doors and hoods, detailed cabin, and plenty of realistic detail at a larger scale. Moreover, these two figures in particular had really good articulation, esp for the time period. These 12 year old toys have heft and a very quality feel to them that I just don't get when handling a modern MP car. Far too many cuts for the sake of reducing costs and meeting price points have been made.

[Scyla]

It's an MP, which are becoming increasingly "budget-limited" all the time. Takara's designers have the will and know-how, just not the budget, to make "perfect" versions.

For that, you need 3P.

I agree. I think MMCs Sphinx is the amalgamation of everything I want to have in the MP line. Can't wait for their Backdraft. I would wished for MP Magnus and MP Star Saber for a $50 higher budget. They would be awesome. Instead they are just good toys (well Magnus at least).

That said I picked up a big box from HLJ today with Legends Sprung, Super Mode Armada Starscream and MP Hot Rodimus and Ironhide. It will take some time to put them through all their paces.

[eriku]

Apetimus is the first MP original mold I'll pass on since Megatron.

I like the show but I only like it enough to have a Robotmasters Apetimus.

[vlenhoff]

A friend got me WU-04 Devi for my Bday

I am going to weather it and take pics, wish me luck!

[Valkyrie Hunter D]

Just got a payment notice from HLJ for Shockwave-booya!

[sh9000]

Paid for MP Shockwave at Amiami. Finally.

[Guest davidwhangchoi]

color in this picture looks much better!

Edited March 30, 2016 by davidwhangchoi

[JB0]

That DOES look nicer. Waitin' to hear from people on what's true to life.