The Transformers Thread (licensed) Next

[mikeszekely]

32 minutes ago, M'Kyuun said:

That's one area where Bay did well- the man knows his nice cars; it's just a shame that the bot modes were so horrible.

Speaking of cars in the Bayverse, one of the last year's Studio Series announcements that I'd been really looking forward to was Barricade.  Not only would he bring me closer to completing the movie 1 cast* (aka the important ones; everyone else is just gravy), but Barricade was my favorite Decepticon in the film.  Now he's here, so let's take a look.

*Yeah, yeah, technically that Megatron is from Revenge of the Fallen, but they're both silver with ugly heads and busted metal whisks for hands, so unless HasTak does a movie 1 SS Megatron RotF Megatron will do.

Like many of the other Studio Series Deluxes Barricade is a pretty small figure, roughly even in height with Bumblebee and a head shorter and noticeably less massive than the '07 Deluxe.  Aesthetically he's hitting a lot of hte marks with his weird legs, foot spikes, long arms decked in car panels, and squished up car chest.  His forearms are a little hollow, and that hollowness is exacerbated a bit by some of that forearm being clear plastic, but he's arguably not worse than the Studio Series toy in that regard.  He's even got those trapezoidal panels on his shoulders.  One of my main gripes are a lack of paint; his face looks fantastic, but the lack of silver and blue on his body leaves him almost entirely black his neck to his feet, and what gray there is is to break it up in gray plastic, used incorrectly in the case of his biceps and knee joints.  My other complaint would be that he's kind of lacking the window wings.  I mean, they're there, but they're tiny flaps of rubbery plastic that jut almost straight out the back like vestigial lumps of what they really should be.  I also think his chest could be a little bigger, but overall it's a huge aesthetic improvement over the '07 toy, and indeed a better overall appearance than pretty much any Barricade short of MPM-05.

Barricade's sole accessory, much like MPM-05, is his spinning wheel of death.  It's totally unpainted, but it'll do, I guess.  The spikes are a soft, rubbery plastic.

Barricade's head is on a ball joint with a little up/down tilt, although his chest and the peg are kind of at an angle so it's up to you I guess how much of that tilt is up and how much is down.  He's got just a touch of sideways tilt, too, and he can swivel his head but the angle of the peg makes it look like his simultaneously tilting his head forward.  His ball jointed shoulders can swivel and bend about 45 degrees before his shoulder kibble hits his head.  Due to transformation he's got a backwards butterfly.  His biceps swivel, just be mindful of the door kibble that gets caught up on his shoulders.  A transformation hinge bends his elbows in toward his body, and the actual elbow bends over 90 degrees.  No wrist swivels, but his claws can open and close a little.  No waist swivel.  His hips are ball joints that can go 90 degrees forward, about 60 degrees backward, but is extremely and disappointingly limited to just a moderate A-stance laterally.  He also doesn't have any thigh swivels except the limited motion of the hips around the ball joints.  Due to his weird leg design he's got two knee joints.  The upper knee goes from about 90 degrees forward to 45 degrees backward.  the lower knee has the same range in the opposite direction.  His feet have excellent up/down tilt, but no ankle pivots.  Truth be told, I find the articulation to be pretty limited, and it's hard to have him do more than stand around.

Unlike the MP toy there's no half-transformation to make the spikey wheel look like part of his arm.  There's just a 5mm peg at the end, and half circles in his claws that make a 5mm peg hole when they're closed.

Barricade's transformation is like a simplified version of MPM-05's, so there aren't a lot of surprises.  The resulting car is small, slightly shorter than Bumblebee and maybe 60% of the size of the '07 Deluxe.  It doesn't have the inaccurate '643' on the bumper, the "Police" on the rear spoiler is facing the correct way, and he's got the '9-1-1' markings that the '07 toy was lacking.

Translating the MPM's engineering, even if it is simplified, to a figure this small does leave some fit and finish issues.  My copy has trouble keeping everything tabbed in properly.  The other big issue with the car mode is, again, the lack of paint.  The headlights are unpainted black plastic.  Although they're molded in, the orange lights in front of the front tires and the red lights behind the rear tires are unpainted.  There's also nothing in the license plate area.

Barricade can use his spiked wheel in car mode.  Under the front bumper is a deep groove that the 5mm peg lays sideways in.  Getting it back out can be a bit of a chore.

If you've been collecting the Studio Series then at this point Barricade is kind of a must-have, as he's one of the last two figures needed to complete the movie 1 cast.  But I feel like HasTak knows that and is taking advantage of it, because what they've given us is a figure with a pretty strong sculpt that will look good with the other figures on a shelf, but kind of a lousy toy with poor articulation and poor fit and finish.  And at the risk of sounding like a certain masked YouTube reviewer, the lack of paint is a real disappointment.  I mean, if you're going to charge me $20 for an undersized Deluxe that's fine if I feel that money went somewhere.  Jazz is a great example; he's tiny, but almost all the silver on him is paint.  I'm not asking that the whole toy be painted black, but picking out the lights on the car and adding some silver and blue on the robot would have gone a long way toward helping me forgive some of his other shortcomings.  Like I said, you pretty much have to get him if you're like me and want to complete the cast, but know that you're in for a disappointment.  And if you're not serious about collecting the whole cast then he's an easy pass.

[M'Kyuun]

Transformers and transforming toys for me has always really been about the toy first, its engineering, and whenever possible, the story of its development. To that end, I found a pretty cool article on Seibertron.com showing some pre-Diaclone prototypes, illustrating what pre-CAD concept work was all about. Hope you enjoy. https://www.seibertron.com/transformers/news/rare-hand-made-transformers-prototypes-shown-in-figure-king-magazine/42990/

I wish I could read Japanese, as I'd love to know what's said in that article. 

I hope Figure King gets a lot of positive feedback for this article, as I'd love to see more of these.

[mikeszekely]

With Barricade out of the way we can complete the '07 movie cast with Studio Series Voyager-class Bonecrusher.

In terms of height to the head Voyager Bonecrusher isn't much taller than the '07 Deluxes.  The newer figure is carrying a lot more girth, though.  Girthy enough that the Voyager label feels fair?  Well, that's debatable, I suppose.  I'd say he's pushing it, but given how diminutive a lot of the Studio Series Deluxes are I think I'm ok with it.

The important thing is that he looks a lot better than the old Deluxe.  The overall proportions are better, and there's kibble flaps hanging off of his arms.  The head is just about perfect.  And while in some ways Bonecrusher exemplifies the worst of the Bayformer designs with lots of jagged edges and very few bits easily identifiable as part of the alt mode, SS Bonecrusher does a pretty good job of getting those few bits and getting them in the right places- tires in the heels, tires outside his knees, tires in the hips, windows near his shoulders.  Maybe I'd expect more out of an MP-scaled figure, but for a Voyager I'd say this is definitely good enough for me.  My only real complaint is that the forks on his back stick up too far, because the arms they're mounted to are too long.

Ok, accessories.  Well, Bonecrusher doesn't have any.  I guess in lieu of accessories I'll give you guys a picture of the '07 movie Decepticons* together.

*Except, again, Megatron's technically from Revenge of the Fallen.

Bonecrusher's articulation isn't half bad.  His head swivel, although given how his neck is mounted it's more like a sideways tilt.  But there is a joint that lets him swing his head from left to right a bit, just nothing up or down.  His shoulders can rotate, and there's actually two hinges that combine to give him nearly 180 degrees of lateral movement.  Plus, due to transformation, there's a butterfly hinge that brings his shoulder around almost over his face.  His biceps can swivel, and his elbows can bend 90 degrees.  Weirdly, his whole forearm can bend, or just the inner silver part, but either way it caps at 90.  His claws are hinged so they can open and close.  No waist swivel.  His hips can go over 90 degrees forward, backwards, and laterally.  His thighs can swivel, and his knees can bend 90 degrees.  He doesn't have any up/down tilt on his feet, and his front toe is fixed, but the rest of his foot is hinged and acts like an ankle pivot. 

Again, he doesn't have accessories, but he does have 5mm peg holes on his forearms if you found something you wanted to mount.  I guess his weapon is meant to be his forks.  Which can hinge up and over to jab at things in front of him.  The two sides can stretch up and connect for added reach.  The forks can swivel, too, so you can make them like a grabbing claw.

Considering how stumpy his legs are and the lack of a waist swivel I was pleasantly surprised to find that you can get him in some decent poses.  That butterfly shoulder really helps get him in that about-to-shoulder-check-a-bus pose.  What problems I ran into were less about the range of the joints and more about their tolerances, as wider hip stances would sometimes find him doing the splits.

As good as Bonecrusher's robot mode turned out to be, his vehicle mmode is kind of a letdown.  It's a little bigger than the Deluxe, sure, but not by as much as you'd think.  And it really isn't any more detailed.  In fact, it's missing the little Bonecrusher logo that the Deluxe has.  Plus, like I said before, the arm with the minesweeping claw is way too long.  It never looks right, and it's a little too heavy for the hinges.

It rolls, somewhat poorly, with a little less clearance that you really want for his robot hands under the rear of the vehicle.  But you can fold over the minesweeper claw.  I don't know what more I could say.  It's not really even that his alt mode is bad, it's just kind of underwhelming.

Underwhelming alt mode or not, I think the robot mode is surprisingly good.  Bonecrusher was probably my least favorite Transformer in the '07 movie, I was definitely picking him up just to complete the cast.  After how mediocre Brawl was I didn't have particularly high hopes, but Bonecrusher came away as a surprisingly fun figure.  I think he's worth a recommend.

[technoblue]

I bought my first official Transformers combiners yesterday. I couldn't resist the Unite Warriors reissue of Devastator, and then I bought PotP Predaking too. Both are the right price and look to be the right scale to stand with most of the 1st and 3rd-party figures in my collection. Also. the add-on packs are still easy to find.

I'm also looking at Abominus, since the four limb bots are easy to pick up at Hasbro's new shop which means I only have to search for the main guy Hun-Gurrr.  I guess the flood gates have opened. So yeah, I was trying hard to hold the line and avoid another rabbit hole (my stubborn resistance is well-documented here and in the third-party thread), but now I'm looking forward to these warts and all.

[mikeszekely]

I keep mentioning that the movie 1 cast is done in Studio Series as long as you use the Revenge of the Fallen version for Megatron.  But you actually do have another option for Megatron- a Leader-class based on Dark of the Moon.

Yeah, this new Leader-class is definitely bigger than the Voyager-class from the DotM movie line.  In fact, he's a little taller than the previous Studio Series Megatron... but wait a minute!  Aren't the Studio Series toys supposed to be in scale?

Well, you'll notice that the shape of his thighs naturally push his hips to point a little forward, and if you bend his knees and give him that same slightly hunched over posture as the other SS Megatron then the height difference disappears.  So how do you have two figures of similar size, but one's a Voyager and the other is a Leader and costs $20 more?

For starters, the newer Megatron is heavier, so I guess there's probably more plastic.  And there's more paint, too.  RotF Megatron had some copper accents, but DotM Megatron has a ton of copper used to simulate dirt, plus silver, gunmetal, and khaki accents, plus red for his head wound.

As far as the sculpt goes, it's alright.  I think the animators really just ran with a robot that looks mostly like he did in the previous film but somehow also turned into a truck without really thinking about how that transformation worked aside from replacing his tank tread feet with truck tire feet.  And to that end, well, two tires on the inside of the lower leg, one on the outside, that checks out.  To be fair, a lot of the sculpted detail on his torso, thighs, and forearms is actually pretty accurate, and even some of the detail on his biceps, shoulders, and shins are trying.  Just some of the details are shifted a bit, the proportions a little off, and there's extra kibble giving him more rectangular shoulders and biceps (with wheels) and big, chunky boots.  It's not perfect, but it's a lot closer than the older DotM Voyager.

Another thing that this Megatron has that the RotF Voyager didn't is accessories.  There's the chains he wears on his chest, sculpted in a rubbery plastic.  There's his shotgun, cast in gunmetal plastic with silver paint.  There's his cloak, done is some kind of cloth material.  And there's Igor.  I don't really recall much of Igor from the movie... I guess he's supposed to be what's left of Long Haul after RotF, repaired just enough to function as Megatron's pet.  There's not a lot to this guy; he's got some paint, his shoulders have ball joints that can swivel and have some limited outward range, and there's a hinge in his hips for his legs to move forward and backward but the legs and hinge are one piece so the legs move together.  I'm just going to toss in a box.

Megatron's head is on a ball joint, and he can't really look down or tilt his head sideways with it but he's great upward range and he can turn his head left and right about 30 degrees in either direction.  His shoulders can rotate and extend nearly 90 degrees laterally.  He's got bicep swivels just above his elbows, which bend 90 degrees.  No wrist swivels, but on his right hand the whole hand can hinge up and down.  His left hand has similar hinges for similar articulation, except that hand isn't one solid piece and his thumb can move separately from his fingers.  No waist swivel.  His hips can move just under 90 degrees forward, nothing backward.  Laterally he can only get about 30 degrees if his hips are in a normal standing position, but as you bend his leg forward you'll get more clearance.  When his hip is nearly 90 degrees forward you'll be able to also swing it out 90 degrees laterally.  He's got a thigh swivel just above his upper knee which is ratcheted and goes from perpendicular with the thigh to just over 90 degrees backward.  The lower knee is also ratcheted and goes from almost 90 degrees backward to about 45 degrees forward.  There's another swivel below the lower knee.  Sadly, he doesn't really have any ankle articulation.  Due to transformation the front of his foot is on a swivel, but the connection is too low into the foot part and on the outside edge of the front of his shins, so swiveling it even a little lifts it off of the ground and above the inner edge of his leg that's actually supporting him.

A 5mm peg hole is molded into his right claw so he can hold his shotgun.  The chains can wrap over his torso and snag onto hooks on his back kibble; note that the length that looks like two chains goes under his right arm.

The cloth hood sits over his head, with a cutout for his left shoulder.  I found the cloth to be a little long on the right side, though.  As it pushes against his shoulder it tries to push the hood back or up.  To keep it really down over his head I found it works best to take the chain that goes over his right shoulder and wrap it over the cloak, pinning it down. 

Speaking of chains, he can't carry his shotgun on his back with them, but there is a little peg hole on his back.  You can use a peg on the shotgun to stow it back there.  And you can set Igor up on his back using small pegs that fit into Igor's feet, like a Titan Master.

It may also be possible that this Megatron gets to be a Leader-class because his alt mode is pretty big.  He completely dwarfs the older Voyager toy.  I'm not sure how long a Mac Granite tractor is supposed to be compared to a Peterbilt 379 (I just know they're both Class 8), but Leader Megatron is similar in length measured from the front wheel to the back wheel of his tractor section as Studio Series Optimus.  To a layperson like myself that seems like it should be right.

The truck mode is much more movie accurate, or at least the tractor section is, than the older DotM toy.  He's got the reinforced windshield with the extra rail, the spikes for a sunvisor, and more accurate, more Mad Max spikes on his grill.  There's a little molded bulldog on the hood, and it's even painted silver, and again we've got lots of copper paint looking like sandy dirt.  Things start to get a little messier as you start to look at the trailer.  It's missing spikes, it's missing the spare tire (which maybe makes up for the fact that the DotM Voyager had one on each side, but the actual movie truck only had it on the passenger side).  There are some tool boxes and pipes and valves between the tractor wheels and the trailer wheels, but the toy is symmetrical while the actual truck wasn't.  The liquid storage tank isn't particularly uniform, either.  It starts silver, switches to a dark gray plastic, is interrupted by his robot thighs peeking out, before terminating in a chunk of khaki plastic that doesn't really resemble the tank.  The truck is also plagued with visible hollow spaces, most notably in the front of liquid storage tank and the inside of the cab viewed from behind.

I really wish HasTak had tried harder to get the liquid storage tank looking more accurate.  Just painting it uniformly one color would have helped a lot, but I also would expect some extra panel to cover over his thighs if Has/Tak ever borrowed engineering from this toy to make an MPM version.

Fortunately, there is something you can do to cover the worst parts of the tank.  Just drape his cloak over it, smashing down the hood, and using the rubber chains to hold it down.  Not only does it help hide stuff like the robot thighs, it's a more movie-accurate look even if the truck mode had been perfect.  There are more pegs on top of the tank for Igor or a Titan Master to peg onto.  As for the shotgun, a slot on one side fits into a tab under the tractor.  Just don't look too long, as it's another reminder of how hollow the cab is.  On that note, I wish the rear wheels of the tractor locked into place better.  They have a tendency to collapse back in under the the vehicle.

I've never really been a fan of Megatron in the Bayverse movies.  I gather that the designers wanted something that looked like non-biological but still more like an alien life form than a robot, and I guess that's what they got but there was nothing about the design that really said "Megatron" to me.  Of the four(ish) versions we got, though, Dark of the Moon's would probably be my favorite as I like the idea that when he finally took an Earth form for his alt mode it was basically an evil counterpart of Optimus'.  So, I kind of like this toy.  I think it's a major improvement over the older DotM Voyager.  I've got mixed feelings about it being a Leader that's a similar size to a Voyager (although, in addition to the other reasons I gave in the review, I could also point out that the RotF SS Megatron was pretty big for a Voyager, especially in the Studio Series, or that spreading the costs over a whole wave or even a whole line might dictate which toys can be large Voyagers and which can be small Leaders).  And this figure definitely has some issues that are harder to overlook in a $50 figure than a $30 one.  I think the thing is to read or watch reviews (like this one) and be very aware of what it is you're actually getting.  Because when I look at this Megatron as objectively as I can there's a part of me that thinks Hasbro should do better at a $50 price point.  But on a more personally subjective level I'm actually pretty happy with this figure.  So, I can't go so far as to give it a solid recommend, but if after reading this review you still think this looks like a pretty cool figure then maybe you'll enjoy it like I did.

[tekering]

Having just bought another Bayverse Megs (Model Wizard's "Metal Rendsora" version of The Last Knight Megatron), I'm not keen on ordering yet another smallish (and overpriced) Leader-class figure...

After now having replaced Lockdown, Blackout, Grimlock, Prime, and Megatron with larger, more accurate third-party versions -- at increasingly low prices -- I've finally decided it's not worth ordering the official Leaders at all.

I've always resented the "Eh, I'll just wait for the inevitable KO" crowd, but I'm beginning to see their point...  I mean, Rendsora retails for HALF the price of that ugly little Leader.  

[mikeszekely]

8 hours ago, tekering said:

Having just bought another Bayverse Megs (Model Wizard's "Metal Rendsora" version of The Last Knight Megatron), I'm not keen on ordering yet another smallish (and overpriced) Leader-class figure...

After now having replaced Lockdown, Blackout, Grimlock, Prime, and Megatron with larger, more accurate third-party versions -- at increasingly low prices -- I've finally decided it's not worth ordering the official Leaders at all.

I've always resented the "Eh, I'll just wait for the inevitable KO" crowd, but I'm beginning to see their point...  I mean, Rendsora retails for HALF the price of that ugly little Leader.  

Yeah, I can understand that logic. I just don't have the space for G1 MPs and Bayverse figures that size. I like that the Studio Series is fairly accurate and relatively small (except the Bumblebee movie ones).

[technoblue]

Although the movie designs aren't to my taste, I appreciate how well they capture the other-worldly nature of each Transformer in bot mode. To me it seems like this mode is the strong point of the Studio Series Bayverse figures. Megatron here, for instance, comes together in an impressive way--and I do like that cloak gimmick. 

I have no memory of Igor from DotM (is that bad?), although his toy form reminds me of toon Kremzeek, so I guess one could always pretend that he is an analogue for that zany bolt of G1 energy.

[mikeszekely]

9 hours ago, technoblue said:

Although the movie designs aren't to my taste, I appreciate how well they capture the other-worldly nature of each Transformer in bot mode. To me it seems like this mode is the strong point of the Studio Series Bayverse figures.

For the most part.  They're still mainline toys that sell for $20, $30, or $50 and are still constrained by that.  Sometimes articulation is limited, there isn't quite enough paint, or there's kibble that isn't really accurate, but with the exception of VW Bumblebee and Dropkick they're better than previous mainline takes on the characters, and Habsro's actually trying to keep them in scale in robot mode.

9 hours ago, technoblue said:

I have no memory of Igor from DotM (is that bad?)

Nope.  I've blocked entire chunks of the movies out of my mind, and it's not like Igor was a major character.

18 hours ago, tekering said:

I've finally decided it's not worth ordering the official Leaders at all.

How about a Deluxe then?  This is Studio Series Sideswipe.

It's kind of weird that I swore off movie toys after being kind of disappointed with a few figures from the RotF line, but the two figures I did pick up from DotM both got do-overs in the Studio Series, eh?  Well, right away you're probably noticing two things: the fact that he's smaller than the older Deluxe-class toy, which is kind of par for the course for cars in the Studio Series, and that he's a lot more silver than the older toy.  Some of that, mostly in the chest on robot mode, is silver paint, but even where it's bare plastic the colors are just more correct.  He's got a strong head sculpt, his chest is made from the rear of the car like it's supposed to be, and he's got faux car kibble to simulate the parts of the front end that sit on his forearms on the CGI model.  He's even got the asymmetric feet from the CGI model.  If I'd criticize anything, it's that the parts of the car that should be on his forearms are on the front of his feet, obscuring his tire-feet.  At least those bits of car can add to the figure's stability.

Sideswipe comes with his signature arm swords, painted silver, and a pair of guns that I don't remember him having (but apparently he did during the Egypt fight in Revenge of the Fallen).

Sideswipe's head is on a ball joint with ok up/down tilt, a taste of sideways tilt, and plenty of neck swivel.  His shoulders are also on ball joints that can swivel and extend laterally about 90 degrees.  You just have to be mindful of the car parts that make up his chest.  He has dedicated bicep swivels, although they're fairly tight on my copy and his arm tends to turn around the ball joint first.  His elbows bend 90 degrees.  No wrist swivels.  He does have a waist swivel, it's just limited to under 30 degrees to either side by the car kibble on his back.  His hips are ball joints that go 90 degrees forward, about 45 degrees backward, and maybe 60 degrees laterally.  His thighs can swivel, and like so many Bayverse designs he's sort of digitigrade with the upper knee ranging from slightly bent backward to about 90 degrees backward and the lower joint ranging from almost 90 degrees forward to almost 90 degrees backward.  The car kibble on his toes and heels can slide up and down to provide support, but he doesn't have any ankle pivot.  His wings are connected via ball joints on swivels so you have options for positioning them as well.

The swords have tabs that fit into slots on the backs of his hands, and the guns have 5mm pegs for handles that fit into his hands, which are shaped like 5mm peg holes.

A quick look at the back, and you can see that there's storage for the guns in robot mode.  The guns have tabs on one side, and they fit into slots on the alt mode dashboard.  I've found that they pop off kind of easily, though.  And there doesn't seem to be be any storage for the swords that I can find.  That kind of forces you to always have him using his swords, and rather than keep storing his guns on his backpack I'd kind of prefer they just didn't include them.

Sideswipe's car mode is looking pretty slick.  Like Jazz, this mode is almost entirely covered in silver paint.  It really gives it a premium look vs the older DotM toy, although the DotM toy had painted rims and SS Sideswipe doesn't.  That's kind of odd.  Like the old toy SS Sideswipe has a visible interior with two seats, the steering wheel, and the center console.  While I think the sculpt of the interior is better than the older toy, the tinted windows and black seats are more accurate.

The front grill, hood vents, tail lights, and the Corvette logo are painted to stand out from the silver.  Speaking of that silver, mine has a smudge over the passenger-side headlight, as if someone touched it before it tried.  The sides of the car have little molded Stingrays just behind the front tires.  That's a nice real-world touch that's on both the concept car that Sideswipe was based on and current production Corvettes.  Another real-world detail is the quartet of exhaust pipes molded onto the rear.  They seem a little high, though.  I mean, they're definitely high versus the production model, but I can't remember how they were on the concept.  Either way, you may notice four extra exhausts under the molded ones, filling in the space between them and the ground.

That's due to the fact that his guns store there in alt mode by tabbing into the slots on his hands where you'd normally store the swords.  The swords themselves are tabbed into the sides of the vehicle and make up a good portion of the sides of the car between the wheels.  I'm kind of not a fan of either of these things.  Generally speaking, while I like weapons to hide away in alt mode I'm not really a fan of them being essential to the alt mode, especially when they don't have any robot mode storage.  And the guns forming exhaust pipes on a car that already has exhaust pipes looks stupid.  More than that, it reinforces my notion that he'd have been better off if they simply hadn't included the guns.

For me personally I think the biggest strike against him is that I don't really have a connection with a lot of the Bayverse characters that weren't in the first movie, Sideswipe included.  With the movie 1 cast complete (short of them doing a movie 1 Megatron) I don't feel any strong urge to pick up characters like Sideswipe; I picked him up because he was available and he was only $20.  But I don't regret it.  I think this is a pretty good figure.  The sculpt is pretty good, articulation is adequate, the engineering feels better than the Dark of the Moon toy, and the silver paint goes a long way toward making this figure feel like something more premium than previous movie toys.  I'd say I'd recommend him if you're into the Studio Series line.

[mikeszekely]

Alright, one more Leader.  This time it's Studio Series Jetfire.

Out of the gate, this is a very good-looking Jetfire.  It's not exactly perfect; instead of having several long, thin "feathers" of metal on his back his wings are just the two flaps, I don't think inlets of the engines are supposed to be so visible on the backs of his legs, and I can't find any indication that he should have those soft rubber bits coming from the back of shis waist to the sides of his chest.  But this figure gets so much more right, like the exposed machinery in his arms and pelvis, the scaffolding on the inside of his thighs, the engines that make the bulk of his thighs, the Mercedes logo-ish things on his hands, the shoulders, just the right kibble above his shoulders and neck, etc.  His face is an especially bright spot with silver paint on much of it and a wash on his soft plastic whiskers and bear.  I do wish they would have made his eyes a little more visible, though.

But what's with the yellow dot on his right foot?

His size is kind of hard to judge accurately.  It sort of comes to how much you hunch over his torso and how you position his legs.  He can be a bit taller than Starscream...

...or he can be more eye-to-chest with him.

He comes with a few accessories.  For starters you have his cane, which is absolutely vital.  You've also got an axe, which looks nice and has some silver paint, and I do know that the Leader-class Jetfire from way back had an axe... I just don't remember Jetfire having an axe in the actual movie.  There's also a red part that looks like part of Optimus' torso.  I'm going to say that I don't know exactly what it's for.  The instructions don't mention it.  The metallic paint on it sort of matches SS-05 Optimus, but there's no way I can see to use it with him.  You may be able to use it with the newer SS-32 version of Optimus, but it's my understanding that SS-32 is designed to work with Jetfire out of the box.  So the working theory is that it might have something to do with the upcoming SS-44 Leader-class Optimus.

Jetfire's articulation is a little hard to describe due to his posture.  His head can look up a good bit if his neck is parallel to the ground, but that "up" might just be level if he's hunched over.  He can also look slightly down, although again that "slightly" might be significant if he's hunched over.  There's also a joint that lets him look a little to the left or right, but it's fairly limited.  His shoulders can rotate, although there's a little kibble in the way, and they can bend laterally over 90 degrees.  His biceps swivel just above his elbows.  Those elbows can bend 90 degrees the normal way, and 30 degrees backward.  There's a hinge that allows him to bend his wrist up and down (relative to his forearm), and a swivel below that.  No waist swivel.  His hips can bend forward and backward about 90 degrees on ratchets; you can actually get well over 90 degrees forward if you splay his hips a little.  And splay them you can, on friction hinges.  If his leg is straight (which it usually won't be) the jet kibble on the outside of his thigh will prevent you from spreading his legs very far, but if you bend his legs forward a little you can bend them out 90 degrees.  His thighs can swivel.  Jetfire's yet another digitigrade Bayverse design, and his upper knee bends from slightly forward of straight to 160 degrees backward on a ratchet.  The lower joint is also ratcheted, and can bend from about 45 degrees backward to over 90 degrees forward.  There's a swivel just below that joint (which is technically the ankle on digitigrade animals), and an inward pivot of about 45 degrees.  Then at his foot (which is really just the toes on a digitigrade animal) his feet can bend up and down.  It'll kind of soft lock at the most downward position, and again depending on how you pose him that downward position might not really be down at all.  There's also another 45 degree ankle pivot.  The big wings on his back have a swivel to move up and down, and the smaller wings over his shoulders have three different hinges that move them up and down, back and forth, and roll them forward and backward.

The top of his cane is a 5mm peg, and it fits neatly into the 5mm peg hole on either palm.  His axe slides into a 5mm peg hole made from a ring between his thumb and fingers.  I'm not a huge fan of that look, though, since his fingers don't have any articulation and don't close on the handle.  It looks less like he's holding the axe and more like it's stuck on him like he's Tobey Maguire figuring out his spider powers.  When not in use, both accessories have large slots that fit over tabs on the inside of his wings.

 Jetfire's SR-71 mode is... ok?  From the top I think it looks pretty great, although I don't think the fuselage is wide enough.  As you start to move to the sides, though, you're going to start seeing a lot of robot kibble jammed underneath.  While the tiny windows on an SR-71 make it look like it should be bigger, without getting out a ruler and measuring that scale looks pretty good with Starscream's F-22 mode.  A part of me wants to echo @M'Kyuun and say that toy designers should do better, but the truth is compared to other transforming Blackbirds it's par for the course and (aside from the visible whiskers) arguably better than the Revenge of the Fallen toy.  I have some gripes with the engineering, though.  When everything was in place I still had trouble keeping the jet panels tabbed in near his robot shoulders and the on the rear of the engine nacelles.  Plus the way those rubbery parts unclip from his torso, then wrap around and tab back into the wings is pretty unsightly.

Unlike that older toy, this Jetfire has markings that are accurate to the SR-71 17972 on display at the National Air and Space Museum that Jetfire was supposed to be.  And in this case we can explain that yellow dot as being on the actual plane.

Jetfire's can does fold up into the front landing gear, and the rear landing gear is tucked away, almost hidden, under the engine nacelles between Jetfire's heel protrusions.  The underside is a pretty kibbly mess, although aside from his hands it's at least not immediately obvious what that kibble is.  And that's the world we live in, where the folded-up robot chilling on the bottom of a plane is considered a win just for not being a super-obvious about it and looking like some other random junk glued to the bottom of said plane.

Oh, and speaking of junk on the bottom of the plane, you can attach his axe there, too.

So yeah, Jetfire's alt mode is good from above but the usual kibble fest from below.  But I think his robot mode is fantastic; I just wish he had some articulation in his fingers.  Aside from a lack of a waist swivel his articulation is pretty good and the overall sculpt and detail look great.  If you can overlook the problems with his alt mode I'm going to give him a recommend.

Edited March 15, 2019 by mikeszekely

[mikeszekely]

Had the pictures done, but I got super busy with another project that I'm still technically in the middle of.  Thought about not writing anything tonight, but I think this needs to get out there.  This is Voyager Class Studio Series 32 Optimus Prime.  Not to be confused with Voyager Class Studio Series 05 Optimus Prime, of which he's a heavy remold.  In fact, instead of doing this the usual way I'm going to closely compare the two, with 32 on the left and 05 on the right.

The most noticeable, immediate differences are that 32 is slightly taller, and he's colored a little brighter.  Looking a little more closely, 32 has larger forearms, less kibble on his hips, and he lacks the hinge to fold down the rear fender.  His chest is remolded in a way that looks more accurate than 05's but leaves the front fenders more exposed under his armpits.  He's also got less paint than 05.

From other angles it looks like 32's backpack sticks out a little farther and hangs down slightly lower, with the back of the cab not quite covering up the grill.  But the way the fuel tanks clean up is much cleaner and more movie accurate.

Overall, it's kind of a mixed bag.  It's almost like the designers looked at the things they thought were the most wrong with 05 and tried to fix them, but in the process created a bunch of new problems.

32's lone accessory is his gun.  Which means if you need to buy two Optimus Primes to get the same accessories as MPM-4.

32's articulation is the same as 05's, so I'm glossing over it.  However, I have to say that the joints on 32 are much tighter.  The up/down tilt on 05's feet had gotten so loose that he fell over a couple times while I was taking these pictures, but 32 feels rock solid.  That alone might be reason enough to favor 32.

Naturally, he can hold his gun with no issues.  And if you want, you can store it on his back.

If you do happen to have both Primes, yes, 32 can use 05's swords.  It's a tighter fit, and you have to untab the arm kibble from his wrist, though.  And there's no storage for them that I can find since he lacks the visible roof and accompanying slots that 05 has.

The competition isn't as close in truck mode.  While I like the shinier silver paint used on 32, I like that they bothered to paint the rims this time, and the fuel tank is a bit more appropriately sized, 32's got visible hinges in his bumper, the step is jammed under the cab instead alongside it, the toolbox is missing, the roof is a little more panely, and more kibble is showing under the air cleaners.  And he's still got the shortened smokestacks.  Both trucks have issues, but I do think 05 looks better.

Prime's gun can tab onto the side of the truck.  And because his feet are the same, you can still tab 05's swords onto them in the back.

Of course, the real reason why you might want another Optimus Prime is the combination with Jetfire.  You don't have to do a lot with Prime to get him ready, just fold up his feet like you're going to truck mode and unfold his backpack a little.  For Jetfire, you want to open him up a little, pull off the jet nose and split it in half, untab the rubber parts from Jetfire's chest and pull his upper body off, pull the legs off, and then pull a gray piece off of the bottom of each wing.  To Hasbro's credit, the connections are tight and if you the instructions didn't tell you where they are you might not have even noticed.  The legs transform, allowing Prime's legs to tab on before wrapping around the side.  The nose halves tab into each of Prime's shoulder pads.  The lower part of Jetfire's body transforms almost to jet mode, then slides into grooves on Prime's backpack.  The rubber parts wrap around and tab onto Prime's sternum.  The instructions tell you that Jetfire's cane folds up and tabs onto the underside of Prime's forearm, and he can wield his gun or Jetfire's axe.  You can also store some of the weapons on the wings where you pulled off the gray parts, although you have three weapons and onto two tabs.

You're also left with a bit of leftover Jetfire.  The instructions don't indicate anything you can do with this.

However, you can unfold the jet fuselage and tab his head in like you're going to jet mode, fold his hands in, turn his arms so the hands are facing each other and tuck them into his chest as much as possible, fold the spine connector back toward the fuselage, tab the gray parts you pulled off the wings together, and tab them into the spot where the nose was.  There's a little handle you can slide into Prime's fist from the bottom, and the result looks like a big gun.  I wonder if this wasn't a planned feature that was abandoned?  There's really no reason why the gray parts should tab together at all (come to think of it, I don't think they serve any purpose in Jetfire's robot or jet modes, either), and while the handle does sort of help give you leverage to get Jetfire's torso to come apart I'm not sure that alone explains its existence.  But as a gun it definitely feels unfinished.

The real issue here is that, as a Voyager-class figure, all of Prime's joints are friction joints.  While it's great that they're tighter than 05's, the weight of Jetfire's lower body on Prime's back left him back heavy and prone to doing the splits.  And that's before giving him Jetfire's top as a weapon.  Suffice to say that none of his arm joints are up to that challenge.

In light of all that, I'm going to have to say that I don't recommend SS-32.  The combination with Jetfire just isn't pulled off that well and isn't worth buying Prime for.  And while there are some changes, even if you think they're improvements there's just not enough of them to buy another Optimus if you already have SS-05.  And even if you're just now deciding that you want a Studio Series Op and missed out on 05 you might as well wait for Studio Series 44, which despite being labeled a Leader class looks like this exact SS-32 figure, only with better truck-mode paint and a trailer that he can combine with.

[sh9000]

https://www.walmart.com/ip/TRANSFORMERS-G1-CASSETTE-2-PACK/494322832

[Black Valkyrie]

 

Preordered  BB Prime.

 

[JB0]

14 hours ago, sh9000 said:

https://www.walmart.com/ip/TRANSFORMERS-G1-CASSETTE-2-PACK/494322832

"This item is no longer available"

 

That's disappointing. What tapes were they?

[mikeszekely]

1 hour ago, JB0 said:

"This item is no longer available"

 

That's disappointing. What tapes were they?

I got the same when I clicked the link, so I couldn't tell you for sure.  I do believe they're following the G1 route, though, so the reissue of Soundwave is coming with Buzzsaw, and there will be two packs of tapes.  One with Ravage and Rumble (who is red and black and clearly Frenzy) and one pack that's Frenzy (except he's blue and purple and definitely Rumble) and Laserbeak.

(And of course I have the old TRU reissue with Ravage and Laserbeak, so if I want all of Soundwave's tapes* I'll have to buy all the Walmart reissue stuff.)

*prior to the '86 movie

[JB0]

As long as they all have nice chrome plastic where it belongs, and Hasbro doesn't cheap out/get scared. 

I propose we call them Rumzy and Fremble forevermore. Cartoon loyalists are unhappy, toy purists are unhappy, even the comic fans are grumpy.

 

[mikeszekely]

In a move I expect most of us saw coming, Siege Barricade will be a repaint of Siege Prowl.  What's interesting is that it seems to be based off of a retro G1-style Barricade based on Prowl that Guido Guidi did a couple years back.

While it'd have been interesting to see a little more effort go into a "Classics" Barricade, I'm not complaining.  Heck, I even did something similar with Combiner Wars Prowl, although mine looks kind of crappy.

 

[sh9000]

https://www.walmart.com/ip/TRANSFORMERS-GI-DECEPTICON-SOUNDWAVE/453478696?u1=&oid=223073.7200&wmlspartner=PxE*ot9VSWM&sourceid=38506091550738886490&affillinktype=14&veh=aff

[M'Kyuun]

Yeah, that's no longer available either.  I'm hoping to find the G1 cassettes at my local store at some point, but definitely not holding my breath. I was there on Friday, and all the pegs for Generations stuff were empty. All they had for Siege were two copies of Megatron. I was hoping to land a few of the wave 2 figs, and maybe some G1 Exclusive reissue, but the Transformers section was a ghost town. I think a tumbleweed rolled by as I was looking for traces.

I have a feeling ebay is going to be choked with egregiously overpriced G1 reissues once these things make it to retail.  I hope nobody buys them and the greedy bastards take a loss. 

[sh9000]

I still wish that Target was carrying the G1 reissues.

[mikeszekely]

 

Yeah, that's no longer available either.  I'm hoping to find the G1 cassettes at my local store at some point, but definitely not holding my breath. I was there on Friday, and all the pegs for Generations stuff were empty. All they had for Siege were two copies of Megatron. I was hoping to land a few of the wave 2 figs, and maybe some G1 Exclusive reissue, but the Transformers section was a ghost town. I think a tumbleweed rolled by as I was looking for traces.

I have a feeling ebay is going to be choked with egregiously overpriced G1 reissues once these things make it to retail.  I hope nobody buys them and the greedy bastards take a loss. 

It's real hit or miss.  I went toy hunting this weekend.  On Friday local Target had nothing but Siege Megatron, a couple of wave 1 Deluxes, and plenty of Dropkicks.  My local Walmart had a few wave 1 Siege Deluxes, plus Dropkick, Jazz, and Ratchet from the Studio Series.  I went to a different Target Saturday and they had a ton of Siege Optimus and Megatron, several wave 1 Siege Deluxes, and some SS Dropkicks.  I was pretty surprised to see that they also had SS Leaders Megatron and Jetfire, though.  At least that was a sign that new stuff is trickling in.

I went to my bi-weekly tabletop game night with my friends this afternoon.  I hit the Walmart by my friend's house with little hope, as it's pretty rural and never seems to never get new stuff in.  I was pleasantly surprised to find the entire 2nd wave of Siege Deluxes, although I skipped Chromia.  She just doesn't look that good to me, although I suspect she'll be like Skytread- I'll say I don't really want her, a couple weeks from now she'll be readily available in all my local stores, I'll go to Target or Walmart for something totally unrelated and buy her on a whim anyway.

Sadly, no new Siege Voyagers, though.

Anyway, expect reviews for Siege Prowl, Ironhide, and Sixgun later in the week.  For now I'm working on a big one for the 3P thread.

[no3Ljm]

The Art of The Transformers. April 2019. 3024yen.

内容紹介
トランスフォーマー35周年
初の原画集

35年の間に膨大に描かれた画稿の中から、初期の黄金期から節目となる1995年まで
パッケージイラストのベストセレクション200点以上を収録

Content introduction
Transformers 35th anniversary
First original image collection

From the vastly drawn artworks during the 35 years, from the early golden age to the milestone until 1995
Includes more than 200 best selections of package illustrations

[sh9000]

Nice book.  Here’s the preorder link at Amazon JP.

https://www.amazon.co.jp/ART-TRANSFORMERS-タカラトミー/dp/486506298X

[mikeszekely]

It does look great... for Japanese speakers.  As an English Speaker, though, I already have a copy of Transformers Legacy: The Art of Transformers Packaging. It looks like they cover a lot of the same material; Legacy even has the Japan-only stuff.

Will this book be hardcover?  I guess that would be an advantage, since Legacy looks like it's really only available at decent prices in paperback.  Looking at those prices for the hardcover and I can't believe I picked it up for $27 at a used book store.

[M'Kyuun]

You got lucky: Abebooks wants an insane $460 for the hardback, and Amazon wants a mildly less egregious, yet no less exorbitant $198.10 for it. To Amazon's credit, though, their paperback version is only about $30, a much easier pill to swallow.

Presentation was certainly a strong factor towards making the G1 toys appealing; Prowl's artwork, which I still think is one of the best examples, sold me on his toy before I ever saw the show, IIRC.  I even pose my MP Prowl to match it, so strong is the impression it made on me. To that end, the artwork is still doing its job. I'm forever sold.

I was hoping Barnes and Noble carried this, as my wife and I are planning a visit in the near future, but I didn't see it pop up. Might have to throw $30 at Amazon, as this looks like a nice addition to my small Transformers library.

Edit: Just checked the B&N site directly, and they do have it: $50 for hardback, and $23.38 for paperback. Unfortunately, neither of my local stores has it in-store, so I'll likely order it through them and get my  member discount.

Edited March 11, 2019 by M'Kyuun

[sh9000]

The Transformers Legacy book is awesome and I probably won’t get the Japanese book.  I got the hardcover version when it was first released through Amazon for cheap.  It’s big and heavy with a lot of nice pics.  I placed a 1984 G1 toy catalog poster as a bookmark at the first page.

[M'Kyuun]

Made a late sojourn to Wally tonight to pick up a few things, and I had to make the obligatory trip to the toy section to see if they had any Transformers. Lo and behold, they had a few wave 2 Siege deluxe figs hanging on the pegs! Specifically, 2 Chromias, 2 of the red and white guy that breaks apart into guns and stuff, one Prowl and one Ironhide.  So Ironhide, Prowl , and Chromia came home with me.

If you have Moonracer, you already have a pretty decent idea of how Chromia works. She still has the huge backpack on an otherwise feminine humanoid body, but minus the combiner port. She also has car fenders attached to the outsides of her calves. Her hands can clearly be seen at the back of her car mode with no attempt to conceal them. She comes with two small cylindrical things that appear to be thrusters of some sort; in bot mode, their square tabs can peg into the round holes in the car fenders on her back, and in car mode, stowing her head reveals two small pegs to which the cylinders can attach, which continue the look of thrusters just above her hands. I can't help but wonder why they couldn't have come up with something better than this, but as fembots are rather rare, I went ahead and got her. One additional note; unlike Moonracer, Chromia has ankles with a pretty good range of fore, aft, and rocker, enabling some pretty dynamic poses. One other detail is that her gun comes with an accessory that can attach either as a suppressor or a scope. Weird, but, you know, options.

Ironhide is an appropriately chunky bot. Transformation is pretty simple, but it gets the job done. Two detractors in Cyber-van mode are that his head is clearly visible through his clear windshield (why they didn't go with a dark colored translucent plastic is anyone's guess), and the back of his van are basically big feet. However, as this is a Cybertronian alt mode, and likewise Chromia's, I give both some levity as they're ostensibly not using their alt modes for disguise, so visible bot bits isn't as detrimental as they would be on Earth. Moving along, Ironhide comes with a large gun whose business end looks like a 6-pack rocket launcher. Said business end can rotate 90 degrees and the weapon 'transforms' into a war hammer of sorts. the gun has two pegs for hammer mode and one for gun mode. It's a fun little feature. One negative with my copy, and also with my Prowl, is that these things have the plastic tires with the split peg that snaps into the wheel mounts, and due to too much flop or too much friction, at least one wheel on both doesn't or barely turns on a smooth surface. Rubber tires would have alleviated the issue, but now I'm just pissing into the wind.

Finally Prowl. Prowl feels dainty in hand, especially after handling Ironhide. His thighs and biceps are pretty thin, and somehow he feels smaller than what he actually is. His transformation is pretty smooth, and I love how the center hood section inserts into his upper torso in bot mode, effectively filling the gap and eliminating what would otherwise be an awkwardly large flap behind his head. Articulation is standard deluxe with the addition of some fore, aft, and rocker on the ankles. His gun is reminiscent of the G1 toy, but not as big, detailed, nor chrome, sadly. It's molded in white plastic with nary a painted detail to be seen. His light bar is an accessory, for whatever reason, and can attach to his gun right above the gun grip peg. It looks silly, and mine shall heretofore remain on his car roof. Prowl's windows are also clear transparent plastic, but there's silver painted molded detail under the glass that's reminiscent of the G1 toy art and MP Prowl. It looks nice. He also has the Autobot symbol tampoed on his left leg just below the knee, like the G1 toy. His doors sport Cybertronian writing, which I've not bothered to research, although I'm sure someone out there has translated it. As G1 Prowl is my favorite, this figure hits all the right  notes with me. It homages the original while giving him a small roadster-esque Cybertronian mode painted in Japanese police car livery (maybe the denizens of Cybertron are fans of Japanese culture, too). I think I'll definitely be picking up the Barricade repaint if I ever stumble across it, and probably every other repaint, for that matter. Other than sticky wheels, it's a pretty decent toy.

 

[M'Kyuun]

https://www.seibertron.com/transformers/news/interview-about-siege-omega-supreme-with-new-image-of-details-and-gimmicks/43070/

Here's a link to a brief interview with Hasbro's John Warden concerning the upcoming Siege Omega Supreme.  

I've never really been a fan of the G1 design, but this figure has me intrigued, I must confess. I'm not a fan of partsformers, and this new version, like his predecessor, breaks down into all the requisite parts, but the improvements to both his alt and bot modes are becoming more appealing to me as more info is revealed. I don't own any titan scaled figs yet (honestly, I don't have the room), but I think I'll keep a wary eye on this guy as more disclosures come to the fore. Anyway, if it interests you, enjoy the interview, courtesy of Hasbro Pulse by way of Seibertron.com.

One other aside, per the article, it sounds like interviews like this one will become a regularity from Hasbro Pulse. If you're like me and toy specific info as well as some backstory interest you, this is good news, indeed.

[mikeszekely]

Still hoping to find the wave 2 Siege Voyager soon, but in the meantime here's a look at Deluxe-class Prowl.

Sorry I don't have the old Universe Prowl anymore, but here he is with (Reprolabeled) Combiner Wars Prowl.  And I think that's actually a good comparison, because it helps highlights both the good and the bad with the newer figure.  Good, because in most of the ways where it really counts Siege Prowl really nails the aesthetic.  His head isn't sitting up extra high and he's got actual car bumper feet and not the goofiness of Universe Prowl.  The colors are mostly placed correctly (he could have used some silver on his thighs and biceps), with some yellow paint highlights and a head sculpt I'd totally accept on an MP.  But speaking of that MP, Siege Prowl's torso is nearly as wide, and his head and arms are only slightly smaller.  What shrinks Siege Prowl to a size smaller than the last Deluxe-class Prowl is everything from the waist down, and the result is that his upper body and lower body look like they belong to two different Prowls that were part of two different size classes, and that's the bad.  For a $20 toy, though, I think the good outweighs the bad, though.  This is the best mainline version of Prowl we've got since Classics debuted.

Oh, one other subjective complaint.  I hate the off-centered Autobot badge on his chest.  Really don't know why they couldn't have tampoed it above the black point in the middle of his chest like the MP.  I guess because that's how the G1 toy did it.  Still, I'm hoping Reprolabels comes up with something to fix it (not holding my breath, though, as it seems like lately their sets have had a lot of busy stuff I don't want while totally missing the few fixes I actually would want).

Getting a little off track, so let's look at accessories.  He's got his rifle, no surprises there.  It has one 5mm peg hole on the top at the back.  There's also his lightbar.  With Siege's gimmick being multiple peg holes so you can attach multiple accessories it makes a certain amount of sense to make the lightbar an accessory.  For one thing, it means you can use it like an accessory and plug it into any 5mm port on Prowl or any other Siege figure.  You can even plug it into the one on his gun, and I kind of dig that.  I think it will also make repainting the mold for characters like Bluestreak or Smokescreen that much easier.

Prowl's head is, I believe, on a ball joint.  It swivels, can look up a little bit, down a fair amount, but sideways tilt is negligible.  His shoulders rotate and can extend 90 degrees laterally.  His biceps swivel, and his elbows bend 90 degrees.  He does have both wrist and waist swivels.  His hips are universals, and they can a little over 90 degrees in all directions.  his thighs swivel around the hip joints, and his knees can bend basically 180 degrees.  His feet can tilt down plenty, up a bit, and his ankles can pivot nearly 90 degrees.  My biggest complaint with his articulation is honestly just that you can move his wings back and forth on a hinge but you can't tilt them at all like you can on the MP.

As I mentioned, you can put his accessories into his hands or any of the other 5mm ports on his person.  He's got one on top of each shoulder, one on each forearm, one on the outside of each lower leg, one on his back, and one on each heel.

Transformation it pretty good, too.  His lower half transforms exactly like you'd expect, although it compresses a lot more than you first think.  For the upper body, most of his torso and arms are on a hinge that lift them up and away, leaving just his head on a box, then after you transform it you bring it back down over the head-box, closing the doors and pushing the arms up under the car to finish enclosing it.  The result is low, sleek, and noticeably smaller than CW Prowl.

Again, though, I think it hits a lot of the right notes.  The car has a long nose, and the transformation hinges for his arms even kind of evoke the bulges for the original Datsun's headlights.  With the sleeker, futuristic design, the Tesla-esque single window running from the windshield over the roof to the rear window, and the lack of any kind of tail lights I'd almost buy this as a concept car for the next Nissan Z car.  Minor subjective complaint, I don't really like the Cybertronian writing and wish he had a more proper police deco (again, maybe Reprolabels), but considering that this is supposed to be pre-Earth it makes sense they did it this way.  I'm also not a fan of the headlights.  There's some molding there for them, but just this tiny sliver of yellow paint in the corner of the molding.  Some blue or silver paint on the rest of it would have really helped.

Unlike most of the other Siege figures Prowl doesn't have many 5mm pegs in alt mode.  In fact, he's just got the one on his roof, and if you're using it for the lightbar you're really not left with much else.  You could plug the lightbar onto his gun, then plug the gun in there.  But, the lightbar actually has a squarish hole in it.  You can't put a 5mm peg into it, but there is a square tab on his gun that fits into it.  That way you can still put his gun onto his alt mode, and you still have the 5mm peg hole on the gun to plug something else into.

Well, I like Siege Prowl.  He's simple and fun, he's got decent articulation, his car mode is pretty cool, and aside from some minor issues with proportion he looks the part better than Universe Prowl or Combiner Wars Prowl.  He'll probably replace Sideswipe as my go-to Deluxe-class Siege figure for comparison shots in future waves.  If you're already collecting the Siege figures or just want a good Deluxe Prowl then this one's a safe recommend from me.

[M'Kyuun]

I liked that the Autobot symbol was offset on his hood, with the other symbol on the opposite leg, as it homages the G1 toy. I also don't mind the Cybertronian writing on his doors (which, I agree, would have been even nicer if they could angle up a bit), since this is supposed to be a Cybertronian alt, and definitely one of the better ones. Agree that his headlights seem incomplete- could have used some paint or a translucent inset.  Also agree that this is the best Prowl fig we've gotten in the mainline, like, ever. If/when they end up doing Earth alts, I'm curious if they're going to recycle the mold with different paint, or make a whole new toy. If the latter, I hope they maintain the spirit of this one with minor changes to make it more 'Earthy'. On the whole, though, it's a really good representation of Prowl, and I'm really enjoying the Siege line for its attempts to be faithful to the G1 designs.

[mikeszekely]

Let's continue looking at the second wave of Siege figures with Deluxe-class Ironhide.

Right out of the gate, one of the things that immediately grabbed my attention is his size.  He's still smaller than a Voyager, but a head or so bigger than Sideswipe, Prowl, or Hound.  From what I'm hearing, upcoming Voyagers like Soundwave and Starscream are a little smaller than Megatron and Prime, and that works out to two different sizes for Deluxes, and two different sizes for Voyagers, because the carbots are smaller than guys like Ironhide, Ratchet, and Trailbreaker, who are in turn smaller than Soundwave or the Seekers, who are smaller than Megatron and Optimus.  It's an attempt at G1 cartoon scale, and I like it... although I do wonder how Hasbro will approach minibots in this line.  There haven't been any announced, but I can't imagine them not giving us a Bumblebee sooner or later.  Perhaps they'll add Legends class to the line, or bring back the old Scout class.

I also dig the looks of this Ironhide, at least in robot mode.  His crotch could have been the same lighter color as his thighs, but it's one of the few attempts to use two gray tones I've seen on an Ironhide toy instead of randomly replacing them with black or more red.   His shins are properly long, flat, and red, with only a little unobtrusive kibble on the sides.  His torso is dominated by a window, although I'd say he's looking a tad less tubby and a tad more buff than the G1 cartoon.  And the head is nigh on perfect... that right there is the face of a bot who's been around the block a couple of times but he's still ready to bust some Decepti-chops.

And if you're going to bust Decepti-chops, it helps to have a weapon.  This is all Ironhide comes with.  It's kind of like a missile launcher, I guess.

Ironhide's head is on a ball joint with a little up/down tilt and a little sideways tilt in addition to swiveling.  His shoulders rotate and can extend laterally a little over 90 degrees.  His biceps and wrists can swivel, and his elbows can bend 90 degrees.  His waist can swivel.  His hips are universals that can go 90 degrees forward and a bit more than that backward and to the side.  His thighs swivel around the hip joint.  His knees bend ever so slightly more than 90 degrees.  His feet can't tilt up or down, but he does have up to 90 degrees of ankle pivot.  And it's there that we run into our first problem... the feet are connected via the hinge that gives him that ankle pivot, and one area Hasbro seems content to cheap out on the Siege toy is putting pins in those hinges.  Instead, they use the kind where one part has the two ends of the hinge with little holes in them, in this case the legs, and the other part (the feet) have the middle of the hinge with two nubs.  Hasbro's been having problem with tolerances on this line- we've seen that mostly with weapons that all supposedly having 5mm pegs for handles fitting snug into some fists or peg holes but being loose on others, even on the same figure (Cog was a particularly egregious example).  It manifested itself on my Ironhide by making the nubs on his right foot slightly too big, warping the plastic on the hinges and leaving the foot prone to popping out.

Anyway, Ironhide's got a few 5mm pegs available in robot mode.  There are four on the top of his backpack, one in the middle of his back, one on the outside of each shoulder, one on the outside of each forearm, one on the outside of each leg, and one on the bottom of each foot.  He can hold his launcher, but the handle is up pretty close to the business end, so he can't bend his elbow without angling the weapon.  Also makes me wish for some wrist tilt, but I don't expect it on a $20 Hasbro figure.  The peg hole on his back is useful for storage.

Alternatively, the business end can fold down, and you can use a different 5mm peg to have Ironhide hold the weapon like a battle hammer.  That's pretty cool, but I think I'd have traded the whole thing for a proper gun.  Oh well, I guess that's what Weaponizers and Battle Masters are for.  I'm not sure what the third peg on the weapon is for.  Best I could come up with was to have it hook down into one of the four holes on top of his backpack, again for storage.

 While we're back there, you can see my next big complaint with this figure, and that's the he hollowness that I kind of thought we were getting away from.  It's in his back, his forearms, his thighs, even his freaking hands.  And look, on a Deluxe I can forgive a little hollowness if it's kind of necessary for transformation, like Prowl's legs.  But what you see here is purely to skimp on plastic.

Ironhide's alt mode is sort of like a van, but kind of narrower or shorter.  That makes him longer than the other Deluxes (that I have), but there isn't really an illusion of bigness.  You're not going to mistake him for a Voyager.  And the transformation is kind of interesting in some ways, but kind of frustrating in others.  Interesting because of the way his upper body spins at an angle to make the front of the vehicle.  I also like how the window has a flush setting for van mode, but notches inside his chest that it slides into to push it out a bit for robot mode.  Frustrating because the head has to be in exactly the right spot or the chest window won't close all the way, and because the flaps that are on the sides of his legs pop off super easy.  Like his right foot, the nubs in hinges seem a little big for the holes so the ends of the hinges are a little bent.

From the front I dig the sleek angles of the windshield and the quartet of bumper blasters coming at you, but the rest is kind of a mixed bag.  I mean, I like the silver stripes that are kind of like windows, and the gold stripes that homage the G1 design.  His head is super visible through the totally clear window, though.  It bugs me, but honestly not as much as if it were an Earth mode; I mean, would he carry passengers there on Cybertron?  If not, why can't a robot's head be visible?  The wheels are just gray.  Ideally I'd want black wheels with silver or gray rims, but I'd have settled for gray wheels with painted rims.  His feet are just chilling there; they don't blend with the rest of the vehicle at all (and the toes have some bonus hollowness).  I think the worst is his arms, though.  The gray on his shoulders is out of place in alt mode, and because his biceps are smaller than his forearms or shoulders the space they occupy is gappy and unfinished.  Prime's arms are covered in extra kibble to finish off his alt mode; it's a shame Ironhide couldn't have had a few extra fold out panels to cover at least his biceps.

Ironhide's got the four peg holes on his bumper and the ones on the bottom of his feet at the back of the vehicle.  While they're great places to use blast effect parts from Battle Masters they're not as useful for plugging in weapons.  For that, he's got four on the roof, and that's about it... unless you start transforming him.  The back of the roof, the part that makes his shins in robot mode, have a peg hole on the inside.  The effect is something like the roof and sides of the vehicle splitting open and deploying a weapon, and I assume that this is what it's intended for.  After all, with the panels closed fully for vehicle mode the peg holes are on the inside, and in robot mode that panel is his shin, so the peg hole isn't exposed there either.

At the end of the day, I think it's fair to say I have mixed feelings about Ironhide.  I definitely appreciate Hasbro's attempt at scale in the Siege line, and he's definitely an improvement over the old Universe Ironhide or the one from Combiner Wars.  In some ways I think the robot mode is more aesthetically-pleasing than even something like the iGear version.  Compared only to Siege figures, though, and not the older CHUG lines, and Ironhide's seriously disappointing.  The alt mode is unfinished and it's distressing to have so many parts popping off due to poor tolerances and a lack of pins in the hinges.  But the worst thing is the return of Hasbro's extra cheap, plastic-skimping hollow spots all over Ironhide's back.  It feels like a step backward.  I'd have gladly traded the sloppy silver weathering on his feet and weapon for a little more plastic in his forearms.  Ultimately Ironhide surpasses Skytread and Cog to become my least-favorite of the Siege Deluxes so far.  Unless you're all-in on Siege, I can't say I recommend him.

[M'Kyuun]

I wish they'd designed his feet to rotate 180 to allow the angle of his feet to compliment the van mode. Too, they could have given the feet an extra joint to allow for up and down as well as the rocker. Mine, fortunately, hasn't manifested an issues with the rocker joints, but the one side panel falls off of mine with the merest provocation. Agree with Mike's assessments both on lack of plastic throughout (just about every part of him has a hollow section, making him quite light for his size), and  lack of paint on his wheels. Still, he's the best incarnation of Ironhide we've gotten in CHUG thus far, at least in bot mode. If/when they transition the line to Earth alts, I hope they make some marked improvements. They can reuse that head, though. Like Mike said, it works. One other thought regarding his odd weapon- I wish they'd given him his retractable back cannon as seen in the show, as there's definitely room for it, and it'd be more fitting than his rocket launcher hammer gun with poorly placed pegs.

In other TF news, there's debate going on at Hasbro concerning doing a live action Beast Wars. The issue, however, is the exorbitant cost- $450M. Execs aren't sure there's enough fanbase, or knowledge base, for that matter, to support a Beast Wars movie, and I must concur. While secluded monks high in the Himalayas could probably tell you who Optimus Prime is, I doubt that Optimus Primal has the same recognition factor. Personally, if they wanted to do a BW movie, I'd be content to have it animated at a much more affordable production cost. Even then, I'd be concerned about its making a profit, quite honestly.  For my money, stay on the trajectory that Travis Knight started with Bumblebee, and I think the films will continue to find an audience.

Edited March 14, 2019 by M'Kyuun

[mikeszekely]

I've watched Beast Wars. I'll happily concede that it had some surprisingly mature writing, especially given the time. I'm still very much opposed to robots that turn into organic animals. And while I'm more tolerant of robots that turn into mechanical animals I prefer them in smaller doses among robots that turn into cars, planes, trucks and tanks.

My two cents? Forget a Beast Wars movie. Just admit that Bumblebee was a reboot, dump the first five movies, and tell me a good story with transformers that looked like they did in Bumblebee's Cybertron scenes.

[RavenHawk]

 

 Just admit that Bumblebee was a reboot

They have. When it first came out, it was stated that it was not a reboot, and the director said he avoided certain things because they would have required it to be a reboot, but Hasbro officially said a few weeks ago that it is now a reboot.

[Mechapilot77]

so i'm a few figures deep into siege line but once the WFC arc or the story is over, are they coming to earth?  i can easily see earth mode retools of many of these releases 

(heck some are 90+ % earth mode already) and maybe i should wait for that?  if i do, will i miss out on some great toys?  with seige jetfire i'm not worried because his earth mode was his cybetron jet mode, same with omega.