The Transformers Thread (licensed) Next

[HoveringCheesecake]

Can anyone speak to the ease of removal of the orange barrel plug for MP-36 Megatron? From what I'm reading, tfsource may be easier to remove when compared to BBTS. Anyone able to speak from experience?

[Kuma Style]

26 minutes ago, HoveringCheesecake said:

Can anyone speak to the ease of removal of the orange barrel plug for MP-36 Megatron? From what I'm reading, tfsource may be easier to remove when compared to BBTS. Anyone able to speak from experience?

Mine literally pulled right out with 0 effort. Wasn't glued or anything. 0 seconds to remove.

[mikeszekely]

17 hours ago, Tking22 said:

Yep, pretty absurd. In BW, he was definitely one of the biggest bots, the only bigger in season 1 was Megatron himself, but that price is crazy, MP-36 was bad enough. I shudder at the thought of what an MP BW Megatron would cost from TT, pretty ridiculous stuff, they are pricing themselves out of my interest area.

I've been reading all of that . Indeed, VERY funny stuff! It also re-affirmed my opinion of TFW2005, a complete and utter crap show, a truly wretched hive of scum, and villainy.

Takara's pricing has been gone from good value for what you get and slowly creeping into, "we'll charge whatever we want because fanboys keep giving us money" territory.  I thought Inferno/Grapple were more than their 3P competitors, but not outrageously so. I thought, Shockwave was too much, Primal way too much, and Megatron bordering on extortion. $250 for Dinobot? Apologists can rationalize it however they like, but I think Takara should at least buy BW fans dinner before screwing them that hard.

As for TFW2005, the 3P discussion really isn't active enough here, so I hang out on their 3P board. It's full of people who buy expensive toys and treat any content that doesn't feed their confirmation bias as a personal attack (to be fair, there are some cool people there, too). 

From what I've heard, the board for official toys is much, much worse. I stay clear.

[derex3592]

8 hours ago, HoveringCheesecake said:

Can anyone speak to the ease of removal of the orange barrel plug for MP-36 Megatron? From what I'm reading, tfsource may be easier to remove when compared to BBTS. Anyone able to speak from experience?

On mine the plug in the gun barrel was not glued in at all, pulled right out, almost fell out.  The silencer was a different story, it was glued in rather well. I drilled a pilot hole through the center then managed to get it out with a pair of pliers.  Got most of the glue residue off with goo gone after that. Annoying.  

[Scyla]

Pictures of Dinobot and he looks glorious:

http://news.tfw2005.com/2017/11/12/masterpiece-dinobot-color-prototype-images-353459

I'm a bit bummed out that these are so much more up my alley than the regular Masterpieces from G1. Dinobot seems to have more paint applications on his chest than MP Laserwave has on the whole toy. Maybe I should sell my G1 MP collection and go with these.

 

[M'Kyuun]

PO'd with AmiAmi for 21,340 Yen- too well done to pass up, esp at that price (approx. $187 at current exchange rate). 

Every figure of Dinobot thus far has been poor, IMHO, so I've never bought any of them. I had hopes that they'd get this one right, but still had reservations. He's not an easy figure to do, but this is pretty impressive. That bot mode looks like it walked out of the toon, and the dino mode looks great, far better than I expected, honestly. As for the pricing, I could have lived without the stand, light up eyes, and spinning tail shield to keep the price lower, but as a collector figure, I guess it's cool for those who dig that sort of thing. Personally, I'm not a fan of putting batteries in my figures in the event I forget about them or they leak. So, I wonder if they're going to do the rest of the main cast? I'm thinking Megatron is a certainty. I wouldn't mind Blackarachnia- that'll test their engineering prowess.

[anime52k8]

was dinobot always so frakking huge?

[nhyone]

On 11/10/2017 at 5:04 PM, mikeszekely said:

Takara should at least buy BW fans dinner before screwing them that hard.

Seems like a tube of lube would be more useful? 

It's catch-22. Price has to be high due to low volume. But if it's too high, people either skip it or go for the KO...

Not a Beast War fan, so this is an easy skip. But after my experience with MP-36, I will be much more critical and not buy one blindly.

[Tking22]

8 hours ago, anime52k8 said:

was dinobot always so frakking huge?

Yup, that's pretty much spot on for scale.

[anime52k8]

I guess megatron is going to be absolutely massive then. I wanted one but now I'm thinking it's going to be way too expensive.

[mikeszekely]

21 hours ago, anime52k8 said:

was dinobot always so frakking huge?

For some reason I remembered him being bigger than Cheetor but smaller than Primal... I guess because some guys were bigger than your average Autobot, but not often bigger than Optimus.

But yeah, looking at some screen caps and it turns out he's the tallest of the core Maximals.  Huh.

[HoveringCheesecake]

On 11/10/2017 at 8:01 AM, derex3592 said:

On mine the plug in the gun barrel was not glued in at all, pulled right out, almost fell out.  The silencer was a different story, it was glued in rather well. I drilled a pilot hole through the center then managed to get it out with a pair of pliers.  Got most of the glue residue off with goo gone after that. Annoying.  

 

On 11/9/2017 at 11:39 PM, Kuma Style said:

Mine literally pulled right out with 0 effort. Wasn't glued or anything. 0 seconds to remove.

Which vendors did you guys use?

[M'Kyuun]

I used Captured Prey for my copy- I paid $225, but he came plugless.  I still think, in hindsight, I'd look for a lower priced option and deal with the plugs. YMMV

[Kuma Style]

On 11/13/2017 at 10:18 PM, HoveringCheesecake said:

 

Which vendors did you guys use?

I'm pretty sure I used The Chosen Prime for that one.

[kanedaestes]

Finally got MP Megs from TFSource. They had no plugs which was great. 

I’ll say this. I know the concerns about the figure but.....he’s without a doubt my favorite transformer toy ever. The poseability, the accessories, the heft, complex transformation, and POSEABILITY. I easily recommend him, I had Apollyon but this blows it away. Now (and this is a controversial topic) I want a new Prime with similar possibility to complete it. Though I’m happy with my MP-10 as well. 

[lechuck]

I don't find it controversial at all, I am with you and think we need an updated OP that addresses poseability.

I could even live with a MP-10.5 of sorts - add double jointed elbows and knees, change the joint system at the shoulders and get rid of the wheel pouches by flipping them into the lower leg cavity.

[mikeszekely]

So Power of the Primes is starting to hit stores.  I didn't find any at Walmart or in the regular aisle at Target, but Target did have an endcap with just the Deluxes.  I keep swearing I'm done with Hasbro CHUGs, and I managed to not buy Jazz and Dreadwind.  But, I can't tell you how much an official Dinobot combiner is appealing to my 5 year old self, so I came home with Swoop and Sla... er, Slug.

Slug is a fairly decent modern Deluxe of G1 Slag.  With the black head, red eyes, red horns, and darker thighs he's clearly based more on his toy colors than his cartoon appearance, and I wish the dino flanks opened into wings, but all-in-all it's pretty good for Hasbro.  Then there's Swoop, who's not really his toy or his cartoon self.  The black around his head is more toy, but he's got eyes instead of a toy visor.  His arms are colored like his toy, with black biceps and shoulders and a band of green around his wrists, but the majority of his torso is cartoon blue.  Then his pelvis and thighs are black, which neither G1 version of Swoop was.  Hasbro also changed the way his wings fold, and the dino legs are on his shins instead of his thighs.

So it seems the gimmick for the Deluxes and Voyagers in Power of the Primes is basically Combiner Wars 2.  In addition to a sword for Swoop and a gun for Slug, both Dinobots come with these... things.  For one, they're not feet; the Grimlock is coming with those.  They are hands for Volcanicus, and the're ok at being hands except they both have thumbs on both sides, which is goofy.  The the thumbs are ball-jointed, though, so I guess you could just pop one off.  Each hand also has a removable clear part.  I guess the idea is that you're supposed to be able to plug in a Prime Master.  I don't have any Prime Masters, but they seem to be Titan Masters  with flat discs covered with a Prime symbol instead of a face.  So, I did plug in an Optimus head.

The clear parts can be held in the Dinobots' hands, like little pistols.  I guess the Prime Master gimmick is that the Deluxes are supposed to wear the funky hands as "armor" that allows them to dock with a Prime for special powers.  It looks terrible, though, like the Dinobots strapped dorm refrigerators to themselves.  Alternatively, both Dinobots have 5mm ports on their forearms, so you could use them like shields, which looks only marginally less stupid.

Slug's dinosaur mode is, again, pretty on point.  Don't know how well it shows up in the pictures, but the dinosaur heads are toy-style , with gold paint under translucent plastic and red eyes.  Swoop also has the toy red lower jaw.  Swoop's pretty good in dino mode, too, although the way his dino feet work adds some bulk to the rear and his wings have different articulation.  My only real complaint here is that I wish Slug had a little more separation between his frill and his body.  Both dinos have ports for their weapons and the Prime Master hand things, as well as a few tiny pegs for Titan Masters to stand on.

And, yep, they're combiners.  Hasbro is wisely using the same basic engineering they used with Combiner Wars, so even though I don't have Grimlock, Sludge, or Snarl I can show off Slug and Swoop's arm and leg modes with CW Bruticus here.  Not only are the combiner ports the same, but the hands and feet still connect via 5mm pegs, so even though I don't have the new Volcanicus feet they still work with the ol' CW hand/foot/guns.  I will say, though, that the new Prime hands' pegs are on hinges.  Ostensibly that's for "transformation," but pratically it means that they've got some up/down wrist motion in addition to swiveling on the peg.  Both dinobots seem to be equally effective as arms or legs.

So yeah... I don't know if I recommend them or not.  If you're into Hasbro's CHUGs they're nice enough as Deluxe dinobots, and the fact that they combine might not please you but I dig it.  And if you want a Dinobot combiner under $100 Hasbro is definitely the way to go.  I mean, if money's no object there are better Dinobots from FansToys and Gigapower, and even betterish (or at the very least, bigger) Dinobot combiners from ToyWorld and GCreation.  But $100-$200 per Dinobot is the kind of purchase that requires some soul-searching, commitment, and probably getting online with the intent to buy, but a $17 Deluxe dangling from a peg while you're out picking up diapers is more or less an impulse buy, and one I don't really regret.

Edited December 2, 2017 by mikeszekely

[JB0]

I saw and snagged both of those the other day. Agree 100% with every word you said.

 

I'd like to add that gold paint under clear plastic is a remarkably credible substitute for chrome under smoked plastic.

And that I was disappointed both bots come with one weapon each. Especially as Swoop has notches under his wings to tab weapons into for pterodactyl mode, but nothing to tab on. I swapped weapons around so Slag has the sword and Swoop gets the gun. Just seemed more character-appropriate to me. 

 

 

Regarding combiner mode, I dug up a test shot and it looks like Grimlock makes a terrible torso. Hoping he's grossly mistransformed. But if I ever actually SEE the rest of the team, I may peg them onto Combiner Wars Sky Lynx. Just to say I did.

[mikeszekely]

14 minutes ago, JB0 said:

I saw and snagged both of those the other day. Agree 100% with every word you said.

 

I'd like to add that gold paint under clear plastic is a remarkably credible substitute for chrome under smoked plastic.

And that I was disappointed both bots come with one weapon each. Especially as Swoop has notches under his wings to tab weapons into for pterodactyl mode, but nothing to tab on. I swapped weapons around so Slag has the sword and Swoop gets the gun. Just seemed more character-appropriate to me. 

 

 

Regarding combiner mode, I dug up a test shot and it looks like Grimlock makes a terrible torso. Hoping he's grossly mistransformed. But if I ever actually SEE the rest of the team, I may peg them onto Combiner Wars Sky Lynx. Just to say I did.

Yeah, I'm not going to kill myself trying to hunt down the other three (four if we count the new girl), but if I see 'em in a store I'll pick them up.

Benscollectibles has a review of Grimlock up.  Looks pretty good as a robot, looks ok from the front as a dinosaur but awful from behind.  Also doesn't seem to have any weapon but the combined-mode feet.  The combined mode might be garbage, but it's still an official Dinobot combiner.  Dinobots combining is canon now!  I know some people are anti-Dinobots combining, but even as a kid I was like, "there's five of them, there's five members on most combiner teams, and their archenemy is Devastator, so why the heck don't they combine?"

I just hope Dr. Wu, Perfect Effect, or someone makes a G1 weapons pack with guns and swords for all five of them.

[JB0]

45 minutes ago, mikeszekely said:

Benscollectibles has a review of Grimlock up.  Looks pretty good as a robot, looks ok from the front as a dinosaur but awful from behind.  Also doesn't seem to have any weapon but the combined-mode feet.  The combined mode might be garbage, but it's still an official Dinobot combiner.  Dinobots combining is canon now!  I know some people are anti-Dinobots combining, but even as a kid I was like, "there's five of them, there's five members on most combiner teams, and their archenemy is Devastator, so why the heck don't they combine?"

Wait, why don't the feet come with Snarl and Sludge? Dammit, this ruins my great DinoLynx plan! I have enough Grimlocks already. Do Sludge and Snarl with another pair of hands? That would be four hands, and that is too many hands.

And this Grimlock's tail has issues in large part because they placed the focus primarily on robot mode, with the dino mode taking hits to make a better robot. Slag has a similar problem, in that his front dino legs are REALLY weird because they gave him well-proportioned robot arms.

[M'Kyuun]

I've been out twice looking for these things in my area, to no avail. I was hoping for that stand-alone endcap at Target, but no. Over the last four or five years, Spokane absolutely sucks for getting Transformers contemporarily with the rest of the country, and I have to wonder why. If we were a backwater town with one road in and out I could rationalize it, but we're the second largest city in Washington. It frustrates me. 

Anyway, I've watched vids of Slag and Swoop, and I think Has/Tak did alright, other than making them deluxes. I know, they combine, and that's fine; moreso, if the secondary gimmick doesn't compromise the main gimmick of transforming. From what I've seen, Grimlock is really the only casualty in the team, since they opted for an odd transformation of his legs to better suit the combiner gimmick.  How they could look at that tail section and think 'yeah!', I don't know. After 30+ years of designing these things, I'd have thought they could pull off a decent looking Grimlock and still make the combiner thing work- guess not. Still gonna get them all, since this may be the last time for another 30 years before we get the whole Dinobot team again in the main line. It'd be kinda cool if a third party made a better Grimlock that still combined- thinking out loud. 

On ‎12‎/‎1‎/‎2017 at 11:00 PM, JB0 said:

And this Grimlock's tail has issues in large part because they placed the focus primarily on robot mode, with the dino mode taking hits to make a better robot. Slag has a similar problem, in that his front dino legs are REALLY weird because they gave him well-proportioned robot arms.

Big yep to your first statement, sadly. As for Slag, personally, I think the back legs took the hit; the forelegs look right to me, and the back legs look a little gimpy, just too small. They could have been made a little beefier to match the front without hampering the transformation or the gestalt. Go figure.

[mikeszekely]

On 12/2/2017 at 2:00 AM, JB0 said:

Do Sludge and Snarl with another pair of hands? That would be four hands, and that is too many hands.

I guess we won't know for sure until they come out, but the assumption would be yes since they're not just hands, they're "Prime Armor".

43 minutes ago, M'Kyuun said:

It'd be kinda cool if a third party made a better Grimlock that still combined- thinking out loud.

The trouble with that line of thinking is that if you want a better 3P Grimlock, then next you start wanting better 3P versions of the other Dinobots.  Next thing you know you bought ToyWorld's Dinos, or GCreations' Shuraking.

[M'Kyuun]

7 hours ago, mikeszekely said:

The trouble with that line of thinking is that if you want a better 3P Grimlock, then next you start wanting better 3P versions of the other Dinobots.  Next thing you know you bought ToyWorld's Dinos, or GCreations' Shuraking.

Got a point there. But, I'd be happy with just an improved Grimlock designed to work with the remaining official figures for combination.

In other news, my wish is being granted, sort of. http://news.tfw2005.com/2017/12/05/transformers-movie-series-leader-blackout-revealed-354841  

This looks ok, but I think I'll hold out for a MP version, as the feet don't look quite right, nor the hands. Honestly though, the Bay designs interest me so little anymore that I'm not sure I'd bite if they did make it.

Edited December 6, 2017 by M'Kyuun

[JB0]

Honestly, the only Bayformer that really engaged me was Barricade, and that was more for amusement at some of his police car detailing than anything else.

[M'Kyuun]

I like his Mustang mode- his bot mode is so-so. not really a stand-out design to me. There were a number of Bayformer figures, some that weren't even featured in the movies, at least as Transformers, that I thought were brilliant designs. Even as a scout class, Breacher still stands out to me as a great example of how a small figure can still have the complexity of a deluxe and in both modes be an all around excellent figure.

[mikeszekely]

I think I like the idea of Barricade.  I like the IDW idea that the Decepticons were a political movement and not inherently evil, and Barricade was a cop who sided with the 'Cons.  More than I want MPM-5, I want a version of movie Barricade (black and white police car, maybe purple and silver accents), as opposed the Micromaster (who was used in IDW), that's done in a G1 style.

Same goes for Blackout, but not as urgently.

[M'Kyuun]

I have zero association with the comics, although I've bought a number of figures that I know originated as IDW designs (by virtue of this forum, mostly). I've never required any kind of back story to like a particular figure; I'm visual- if it looks cool, I'll buy it.  I was never crazy about the Bayformer aesthetic, but some of the figs that came out, esp within the time frame of the first two movies, showcased a lot of ingenuity and engineering prowess on the part of the designers, and that was a huge part of the intrigue of those toys. Sometimes, they were too complex, admittedly. As I've oft stated, IMHO, the only positive that came out of the Bay movies was that it really pushed Takara to innovate beyond just about anything they'd done previously, and that's a plus for us.

[JB0]

8 hours ago, M'Kyuun said:

I like his Mustang mode- his bot mode is so-so. not really a stand-out design to me. There were a number of Bayformer figures, some that weren't even featured in the movies, at least as Transformers, that I thought were brilliant designs. Even as a scout class, Breacher still stands out to me as a great example of how a small figure can still have the complexity of a deluxe and in both modes be an all around excellent figure.

Yeah, that's my take on Barricade as well.

I tend not to consider the "not in film" toys as bayformers. They often didn't align with the movie's aesthetic, in a good way.

Edited December 7, 2017 by JB0

[Kuma Style]

So, I finally bit on ComiCave Movie optimus. This is my first Movie figure ever so I'm pretty excited.

[Kanedas Bike]

On 12/7/2017 at 3:50 AM, Kuma Style said:

So, I finally bit on ComiCave Movie optimus. This is my first Movie figure ever so I'm pretty excited.

Can't wait to see your pics. I was initially interested but I couldn't justify the purchase when weighted against other high-end collectibles.

I have their Omni Class Iron Man Mark 43 and really like it, I'm hopeful that the Prime is of similar or better quality.

-b.

[Kuma Style]

4 hours ago, Kanedas Bike said:

Can't wait to see your pics. I was initially interested but I couldn't justify the purchase when weighted against other high-end collectibles.

I have their Omni Class Iron Man Mark 43 and really like it, I'm hopeful that the Prime is of similar or better quality.

-b.

Honestly, I have a wierd thing for non-transforming, Diecast TFs so stuff like this, the Ultimetal, FlameToys Drift, Ori Toy Hero of Steel... I've gotta' have it all.

It's good to know that their products in general are pretty class.

[mikeszekely]

Seems like the end cap where I found the Power of the Primes toys isn't necessarily a Transformers end cap. I was back today and they had a bunch of random stuff on it. The Deluxes were all gone, but in their place were the Legends-class figures. I already have Shrapnel from the original release, and I passed on Beachcomber and Windcharger because if I wanted them I'd probably buy the X-Transbots versions. I did pick up Slash, though. 

[M'Kyuun]

I've been checking around, and so far all I've found was one copy of PotP Jazz at one Target, which I passed on. I'm after Windcharger, Beachcomber, and the dinos.  If they do a Gobots Crasher-esque redeco of Jazz, though, I'll pick it up.  RTS Jazz is still the toy to beat among Generations figs.

Anyway, pulled up Hasbroshop and they have them all listed; however, when adding to cart, a message stating inadequate supply pops up for every one of them.  Must be taking  supply and demand lessons from LEGO (concerning the UCS Falcon).

I've also been keeping an eye on TRU's online shop, as they have them listed, but without the ability to actually buy them yet. But you can view details.

[Kuma Style]

Head came yesterday but CC Optimus itself delayed through today. So lonely.



 

[Dangard Ace]

"Alas poor Optimus.  I knew him well..."