The Transformers Thread (licensed) Next

[M'Kyuun]

Good run down on all the inconsistencies/inaccuracies, Mike. I appreciate the legwork you put into the review. Overall, I have positive feelings about this figure. From watching previous vid reviews, I hadn't really noticed the black area behind the front wheel, but now it's hard to un-see. What has really bugged me from day one about his alt mode is how the oddly shaped blue leg kibble, to which the headache rack attaches, gives the impression that the cab leans forward. I'm not sure if it actually does or if it's an optical illusion, but every time I see it in truck mode, that cab looks like it's leaning into the wind. Too, as Mike mentioned, it's a very cubic cab, even for a cabover. It looks odd.  These are all nitpicks, and if I ever find this guy at retail, I intend to get him as he's still a nice G1-ish representation. All of my criticisms lie with his truck mode, and my figs don't usually stay in alt mode for long. Cheers for the review, Mike.

[Tking22]

MP Beast Wars Megatron is officially on the way from HLJ, along with my Figuarts EP-III Obi-Wan, finally, and Hi-Metal R VF-4. Should be a nice little box of goodies.

[mikeszekely]

So, a quick heads up for you guys... I went to my local Walmart today, and looking at the tags on the shelves it seems that they have places for Deluxes in both the Siege (but still stuck on the first wave) and Studio Series lines, as well as Voyagers in the Siege line (although the space was empty), but no spot for Studio Series Voyagers or Leaders of any kind.  And after discussing it with a few other people it sounds like Walmart is cutting back on Studio Series, and not all Walmarts will be carrying figures larger than Deluxes.  I guess it's a good deal that I was shopping in the city, eh?  Going forward I'll probably have to use online stores more, but at least Amazon looks like they're making more of an effort to preorder and stock new Transformers at regular prices instead of waiting for third party sellers to list them with ridiculous markups.

But yes, my Walmart did still have Deluxes, and I was happy to find Studio Series Scrapmetal.

Well, here's the thing... I can't really tell you if this is accurate or not.  I haven't seen any concept art.  There's a brief flash of a yellow Constructicon jumping into the ocean with Mixmaster, Rampage, Long Haul, and Ravage, but that glimpse looked a bit like Scrapper, and the initial flyover shot of that scene had a cement mixer, a bulldozer, a dump truck, and a front loader (the latter being Scrapper's alt mode).  But Ravage is shown landing next to an excavator with a Decepticon logo.  The only other scenes with this group are at the bottom of the ocean, dark silhouettes behind the bright lights they were carrying.  Presumably the excavator, who went unnamed, was the "ze little one" they killed for parts to fix Megatron with.

In any case, what we got is a little yellow fellow with the sort of generic head and digitigrade legs you've come to expect from Bayformers... but on the whole he's really not that bad.  Aside from being digitigrade those legs are mostly treads, not unlike a certain G1 excavator.  His torso isn't exactly G1 boxy, but the armor plating over some exposed machinery isn't really the shards of metal you usually get.  And his arms are just arms.  Nothing unusual aside from ending in oven mitt claws instead of fist, but even that's been done outside of the Bayverse, and Scrapmetal's mitts are certainly more subdued than some of the other Constructicons.  Honestly, I think this guy's actually pretty cool-looking.

His sole accessory is this panel.  This is actually the bottom side, which has more interesting molded details than the top.

Scrapmetal's head is on a ball joint.  He can't really look up, but he can look down a lot and has pretty good sideways tilt in addition to the standard rotation.  His shoulders are also ball joints, providing for rotation and over 90 degrees of lateral movement.  Plus they're on a transformation joint that moves the ball down, if you want more of a slump-shouldered look.  His elbows are hinged ball joints.  The ball itself gives him 90 degrees of bend and acts as his bicep swivel.  But if his forearm is turned the right way, you can use the hinge to curl his arm 180 degrees.  His hands have a single pin hinge for both the upper and lower claw, so the widest he can open a claw is 180 degrees.  But if his claw is closed the hinge can be a wrist tilt.  He doesn't have a waist swivel.  His hips are ball joints so he can kick himself in the head or the back of the shoulder, plus it's cut to allow 90 degrees of spread.  He's got cut thigh swivels.  His upper knee joint goes from straight to almost 90 degrees back, and the lower joint goes from straight to about 60 degrees forward.  His toes and heels can both bend downward, but he lacks an ankle pivot.

In robot mode, that plate uses a peg to fit into a peg hole on his left arm.  I guess it's a shield?

Studio Series Scrapmetal has an easy, intuitive transformation that turns in him into the sort of generic-looking excavator Hasbro doesn't have to pay a license fee for.  So, I guess he's not exactly screen accurate here; if Scrapmetal was the excavator on the boat, that was a Volvo EC700C, that had a black arm and boom and some kind of grabbing claw, but this figure has a yellow arm and boom with a more typical bucket, also in yellow.  It also doesn't have the railing on the back, treads that stick out farther than the deck in the back, and nothing but treads sticking out beyond the the deck in the front, not to mention a handrail on that step next to the boom and a ladder on the side behind the cab.  But I guess the cab itself looks fairly accurate.

While I might dig at the alt mode for not being a screen-accurate Volvo DC700C, it's really not too bad.  The deck doesn't turn (although I think they could have got it to work if they'd tried), but the arm/boom/bucket does with hinges at the base of the boom, where the boom and arm meet, and where the bucket sits on the arm.  Wheels on the treads and under that robot junk between the treads at the front allow him to roll.  And although his arms leave some gappage in the top of the vehicle, the "shield" tabs over it to mostly hide it and even add provide some additional solidity.

Scrapmetal will become the left hand of Studio Series Devastator.  Well, if Scrapmetal died in the Laurentian Abyss then he's not actually part of Devastator, much as Devastator's left foot was a yellow bulldozer and Rampage died before Devastator got any screen time.  Which means that again, Devastator's screen accuracy is going to suffer.  But hey, Rampage was both the wrong vehicle and the wrong color (a red bulldozer instead of a yellow dump truck).  While Devastator's left hand should be a bulldozer, it was at least yellow.  And if I'm being fair Scrapmetal uses his clawed robot arms alongside his shovel to passably pull off Devastator's three-fingered hand, arguably better than previous RotF Devastator figures.

One thing that's kind of bugging me, though.  Rampage has that stand that's crucial to his robot mode and does store in vehicle mode, but doesn't seem to have a place in combined mode.  And now Scrapmetal has that "shield" that's crucial to his vehicle mode, has storage in robot mode that isn't too terribly obtrusive, but also doesn't seem to have a place in combined mode.  Now, it's early, and it's possible that they'll store somewhere else on Devastator's body once Mixmaster, Overload, or Scavenger are released.  But I'd be lying if I said I weren't at least a little concerned that I'm going to end up with Devastator and a small pile of leftover parts.

On the plus side, if the combined Devastator turns out to be garbage Scrapmetal is a much better figure than Rampage.  I think he works pretty well as a standalone figure.  In fact, while Scrapmetal lacks the kinds of memorable scenes in the first film or two that might sell you on some of the other Studio Series figures, he's a fun toy with a more interesting, less aggressively Bayformery appearance.  I think that's enough to carry this figure, and I'm actually going to give him a recommend.

[JB0]

35 minutes ago, mikeszekely said:

robot junk

In the context of Bay's Devastator, I can't NOT read that as a reference to his wrecking balls.

[mikeszekely]

26 minutes ago, JB0 said:

In the context of Bay's Devastator, I can't NOT read that as a reference to his wrecking balls.

Would it help if I told you that the robot junk I was referring to really does become his crotch in robot mode?

[JB0]

50 minutes ago, mikeszekely said:

Would it help if I told you that the robot junk I was referring to really does become his crotch in robot mode?

That DID make me laugh, so yes.

[Tking22]

Good lord, he's a REALLY big purple dinosaur.

[sh9000]

These were posted a while back but not the entire set.  I would really love the Batmobiles, KITT, and the A-Team van.

Edited March 29, 2019 by sh9000

[Chronocidal]

What, no Gadgetmobile?  Although, to be fair, that's already a transformer, you'd just be adding another mode.  

Seriously though, I'd love some of those.  The Herbie one especially, I grew up on the original Love Bug.  Now I'm tempted to pick up a Bumblebee to repaint.

[RavenHawk]

5 hours ago, sh9000 said:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Mach 5 one makes me think of Transformers: Prime Wheeljack for some reason.

As for "Black Beauty" there, I don't get the 3 section staff.

Then again, I don't get why the artist chose to mark all of these drawings as though they were trademark registered, either...

As for "Shotaro", Mayhem Mekanics Otomo is already pretty much 3/4 of the way there.

 

[JB0]

1 hour ago, RavenHawk said:

The Mach 5 one makes me think of Transformers: Prime Wheeljack for some reason.

Reminds me of Drift/Peg.

[sh9000]

A Transformers KITT in G1 packaging would be lovely.

[mikeszekely]

34 minutes ago, sh9000 said:

A Transformers KITT in G1 packaging would be lovely.

Yeah. Somebody get IDW the Knight Rider license.

Anyway, when I picked up Scrapmetal, I also picked up Studio Series Deluxe-class Cogman.

The thing about Cogman is that, like Thundercracker or the upcoming KSI Boss, he's not really a Studio Series toy.  AFAIK, this is a straight repaint with no remolding of The Last Knight Deluxe-class Cogman, and it really shows.  He's got a simple, chunky sculpt that really doesn't fit with the other Studio Series toys, and despite being larger he's noticeably lighter than Sideswipe.

Which brings me to another complaint... much has been made about how the robots in the Studio Series line are supposed to be in scale with each other.  How do we reconcile Cogman, then?  I mean, he's cleaner and chunkier, and he's got obvious car kibble, but the molded detail is clearly supposed to be what you saw on the human-sized robot.  I do believe that Anthony Hopkins referred to Cogman as a Headmaster in the film, so let's say we do assume that Cogman is just the head and he's sporting a Transtector body.  Why would it be taller than Bee, Sideswipe, or Jazz?  Why is he nearly as tall as Ratchet?

Mind you, this Cogman figure actually is a Headmaster.  So, for accessories he comes with a sword and his head.  The Headmaster's little head is a chunk of molded plastic that does look like Cogman, but I don't feel like a lot of effort went into making his body look like Cogman's.  Speaking of that body, despite being in a movie line it's really a bog-standard Titans Return Titan Master.

Cogman's head is on his Headmaster's tiny ball-jointed neck.  He can swivel it and tilt his head sideways a little, but he doesn't really have any up/down tilt.  His shoulders are on hinged ball joints due to transformation, so he can rotate them, extend them 90 degrees laterally, shrug or slump them, and even butterfly them a little forward or backward, but that ball joint is extremely loose.  He's got (loose) bicep swivels, and a (loose) elbows that can bend 90 degrees.  His wrists can swivel, but if you open the flap under his forearm like you're starting to transform him you can use a transformation hinge to bend his wrist down.  For a character carrying a sword, I think I prefer the hinge to the swivel.  No waist swivel.  his hips are ball joints that can get just over 90 degrees forward, a little under 90 degrees backward, and only about 60 degrees laterally.  He does have cuts for thigh swivels, but they're right above the knees (and kind of loose).  The knees, at least, aren't loose... they're a weird soft ratchet, so you're limited to no knee bend, 45 degrees of bend, or 90 degrees of bend.  His feet have a slight upward tilt due to transformation, but no downward tilt and no ankle pivot.  He also doesn't have much of a heel.  So, yeah, his articulation isn't great, and what he's got is far more looser than I'm used to with Siege or other Studio Series toys.

He does hold his sword, though.  And, since he works using the exact same way as a the Titans Return stuff you can use his Headmaster on a Titans Return figure, or a replace Cogman with a spare Titan Master... which, if I'm being totally honest, is the only reason I didn't put him back on the shelf with Shatter (whom I saw, but passed on after seeing how much stuff pops off of her during transformation).

One more thing worth noting... apparently there was a scene written for the movie where Nitro Zeus would be decapitated and Cogman would take over his body.  Although it didn't happen, and it wasn't mentioned on any official channels, the Nitro Zeus mold still has this feature built into it.  The heads don't transform, but you can pull off Nitro Zeus, Thundercracker, or the upcoming KSI Boss' heads, and you'll be left with a Titan Master port that you can plug Cogman (or any other Titan Master) into.

If buying another Titanmaster-compatible figure was my main reason for picking Cogman up, the fact that he turns into an Aston Martin DB11 would be my secondary reason.  Like Jazz and Sideswipe, Cogman's covered in silver paint that really makes him pop.  Again, though, he's a bit simpler than much of the Studio Series line.  He's a bit bigger than Sideswipe, but not jarringly so.  However, he dwarfs Bee and Jazz.  I know that the Studio Series line hasn't been so in-scale regarding their vehicle modes, but it's another stark reminder that Hasbro is serving up The Last Knight leftovers and not a toy designed for the Studio Series.

The car looks really good, at least.  Unlike Sideswipe, they even remember to paint the rims.  I do have one complaint, though, and that's that they were kind of stingy with the black paint.  They used some around the windows, but they left other spots that needed to be black around the bumpers an unpainted gray.  There are vents behind the front wheels and on the hood that could have used a little black, too.

Cogman's sword can be stored under the vehicle, although the handle sticks out a little far.  And although the doors don't open like they would on a real DB11 the roof, windshield, and side windows all open up on a double hinge to reveal a little cockpit area, complete with a right-hand drive steering wheel.  There's room inside for Cogman to sit- actually, there's room inside for Cogman and another Titanmaster to ride shotgun.  They're sitting on the back of the transtector's thighs, though, with no seatbacks and none of the notches that the bump on their heels can tab into, so they don't sit as well as I'd like.

And there you have it folks... a clockwork knight-styled Titans Return figure with loose joints and so-so articulation but lots of paint and a really sweet alt mode.  And, as a improptu Titans Return toy I don't hate it.  But ultimately I can't recommend it, because a new coat of paint can't hide the fact that Cogman has no business being in the Studio Series.

[sh9000]

 

[derex3592]

Ok....now that was just all kinds of AWESOMENESS!!!

 

[M'Kyuun]

Mixing the animation with real toys so seamlessly is craftsmanship at its best; very cool. I've come to really enjoy all these stop-motion movies using modern Transformer toys (official and otherwise), as modern levels of articulation make the action so life-like when done well.

[mark-1s]

That was really well done. Funny enough I just watched that very episode earlier today. Madness!

[sh9000]

It’s pretty awesome shot for shot.

 

I’ve been collecting the Hallmark G1 ornaments.  The next one is Bumblebee.

[mikeszekely]

Degenki Hobby is showing off color images of that Star Convoy that we saw back at Toy Fair.  It's definitely a remold of the Power of the Primes Leader-class.

And... eh.  My enthusiasm for this particular Star Convoy has waned quite a bit with the revelation that MMC is doing one that is a bit more accurate than this.

The inner Orion Pax robot has been remolded as well, to be a more traditional Optimus Prime.  It's interesting that he's sporting the G1 toy head, though.

And the truck... well, that's a lot more G1 Prime than Star Convoy.  Frankly, a regular Optimus that combines with his trailer is Powermaster Optimus, which is what I said this mold should have been used for all along, Titans Return/Takara Legends be damned.

One interesting tidbit, though is that Star Convoy won't be part of the Legends EX line (with the usual marked up price).  It looks like it's going for 8900 yen, which I'm told is the standard price for Leaders in Japan.  And it's apparently going under the Generations Select label... aka the label that Hasbro used to bring us stuff like red Swoop.  So there's some speculation that there will be a Hasbro release of this figure.

I haven't heard anything new about that Armada Prime that was at Toy Fair, but Degenki did show some silhouettes of some other interesting upcoming projects.

Unless I'm way off base, that looks to me like Super Megatron, Star Convoy's rival in the Battlestars Manga, and Snaptrap.  Regarding the former, it looks like Super Megatron could be based on Titans Return Galvatron, which would make him a Voyager-class and rather too small for the Leader-class Star Convoy.  Regarding the latter, I guess Piranacon is the only US G1 combiner that didn't get done in Combiner Wars, and the last of the Scramble City-esque ones.  I just hope a Titan-class Raiden doesn't jump the line- I want a Titan-class Scorponok!

[Black Valkyrie]

48 minutes ago, mikeszekely said:

 

The inner Orion Pax robot has been remolded as well, to be a more traditional Optimus Prime.  It's interesting that he's sporting the G1 toy head, though.

 

 

Reminds me of Ginrai. 

 

 

[Sgt Nate V]

16 hours ago, mikeszekely said:

And it's apparently going under the Generations Select label... aka the label that Hasbro used to bring us stuff like red Swoop.  So there's some speculation that there will be a Hasbro release of this figure.

A few hours ago a listing for this popped up on Hasbro Pulse:
https://hasbropulse.com/products/transformers-generations-selects-star-convoy

[mikeszekely]

6 minutes ago, Sgt Nate V said:

A few hours ago a listing for this popped up on Hasbro Pulse:
https://hasbropulse.com/products/transformers-generations-selects-star-convoy

$80? Thanks, but no thanks.

[sh9000]

It was my first time going inside a Walmart since many years ago and I didn’t find much that was good.  I saw these but ultimately passed.

[RavenHawk]

Just now, sh9000 said:

It was my first time going inside a Walmart since many years ago and I didn’t find much that was good.  I saw these but ultimately passed.

I just can't see how that price is justified. I would think $29.97 (using Walmart's pricing scheme), and then getting discounted from there.

[M'Kyuun]

I saw one on clearance for about $40  awhile back- I thought the clearance price was crazy. Add another fifty bucks and you can pick up a Magic Square or Transform Element MP scaled Prime. I just can't see paying exorbitant prices for these old 80's toys. Different strokes, though.

And speaking of high priced toys, I got my big purple dinosaur on Wednesday.  I managed to nearly snap off one of the tabs on his back panels (purely my fault for not looking at directions or checking a transformation vid beforehand- I wanted to be surprised for a change, and I paid the price). A little Gorilla Glue and time put Megatron back together again, yes. Once again, Takara impresses with the overall sculpt and paintwork- he looks like he stepped right off the screen. They followed the original toy's transformation pretty closely (as far as I can remember- been a decade or so since I last had him out of storage), but then I'm not really sure there's really any other way to make him transform and maintain his overall appearance. He's definitely the easiest MP BW figure to transform, but not without a caveat. I watched Skullface's review, and I'll echo his sentiment about the extending bit in his abdomen- it was crazy tight on mine, and I ended up using a small flathead screwdriver to start the sliding process until I could move it by hand. Def could have used a second pair of QC eyes on that bit of engineering.  Most of the panel joints were really stiff too, scarily so in some cases. The back panels, which involve about six different folding maneuvers apiece, rotate on double hinges, and some of those things were nail-biters. Too, there are tabs aplenty on these things, so that's another area to be especially cautious about, especially when breaking apart the dino mode. (As I found out the hard way)

The bot mode is about as good as it can be following the original toy/ toon designs for the character. The dino mode captures his toon look to the 'T', but poseability is pretty limited, which is one of the nitpicks I have in general for both Dinobot and Megatron- the transformation limits the leg articulation at the hip on both figures, which is kind of a sticking point to me on a MP toy. I wish they'd figured out a way to give these things full leg articulation in their dino modes, but it's an issue going back to the original toys as well.  It's something that would have really elevated both in terms of engineering, which, IMHO, should be a hallmark of Masterpiece. Subjectivity aside, it's a pretty amazing figure, one that was necessary to fill out the roster for BW collectors. I'm looking forward to Blackarachnia- her bot mode already looks amazing; I hope her black widow mode is equally so.

 

[sh9000]

I might have picked it up if it was the price on the right instead of the price on the left.  The high quality G1 KO with trailer and full G1 box sells for less than $40 shipped.

[JB0]

Yeah, fifty bucks for the original Optimus with no trailer is a bit of a joke.

[mikeszekely]

Collecting Transformers can be goofy sometimes.  Difficulties with distribution since at least the Reveal the Shield line drove me to quit.  A chance at building the combiners I always wanted as a kid but never had sucked me back in with Combiner Wars.  Mediocre quality and a ridiculous number of repaints, plus a missing Predaking, turned me onto the unlicensed third-party scene.  I quit the official toys again.  Dinobots and Terrorcons got me to buy at least a few more Power of the Primes figures, but again the quality wasn't there.  Hasbro actually improved their quality with Siege, though, and now not only am I back in but I've been finding myself strangely interested in Titans Return figures, a line I mostly skipped.  Tonight we'll take a little trip back to 2017 and have a look at Takara Legends Super Ginrai.

So, I know the Takara version has some changes from the Hasbro Titans Return release.  I'll tell you, I bought Combiner Wars Ultra Magnus and I liked that toy.  It had a neat all-in-one transformation for Magnus... which is exactly why I skipped the Optimus repaint.  Aside from having two of the same basic toy, Powermaster Optimus Prime should most definitely not have an all-in-one transformation (which made me all the angrier at the Power of the Primes Leader class that could have been a great Powermaster Optimus, but no...).

The Takara version's changes seem centered around two things- making Super Ginrai a little more cartoon-accurate, and making Super Ginrai compatible with a later (at the time) release of Godbomber.  I'm not super clear on all the changes, but the most notable one is the feet.  The Hasbro version had the same basic feet at Ultra Magnus.  Super Ginrai has a new design that's meant to look like the little stubs on G1 toy/Masterforce model.  Interestingly, they seem to make him a little taller than Magnus.  I think the cartoon had a smaller torso, especially in the shoulders, but for the most part I think Legends Super Ginrai does a fair job capturing the look.

The accessories that come with Legends Super Ginrai are a little different than Titans Return Optimus.  They do both have the same shoulder guns, which have a cutout section that a Titan Master can sit in.  The Titan Master himself has a ton more paint, looking like Ginrai down to the dab of skin-tone on the face.  But instead of coming with the same guns Magnus came with, Takara gave Super Ginrai new guns that are more similar to the G1 toy's.  They do have some hollow spaces, though.  Your intuition is to put them together side-by-side, but there's no way to stick them together like that.  Instead the tops fit together, and make another seat for a Titan Master.

Ginrai's head is on a swivel, but there's no tilt.  His shoulders can rotate on ratchets, and extend laterally about 90 degrees.  Just like Magnus, flaps on the outside of his shoulders hinge the mounted weapons out of the way.  His biceps can swivel, but it's easy for the kibble under his arms to get caught up on his body.  His elbows bend 90 degrees.  His wrists rotate, which is an improvement from the Magnus/PM Op, but he lacks the finger articulation they have.  No waist swivel.  His hips move forward 90 degrees and backward a little less than than on some pretty hefty ratchets.  Lateral motion is also ratcheted, albeit much softer, and also good for 90 degrees.  His thighs swivel.  His knees bend a little under 90 degrees on ratchets.  And his new, goofy feet have hinges so they can bend up, down, and pivot.  Just be aware that the hinge in his heel spurs is a little weak, leaving him prone to tipping backward.

His rifles have just the pegs for handles, while his shoulder guns have four pegs near one end so that you can peg them in regardless of how you rotate them on their Z-axis.  In addition to his hands or the sides of his shoulders he's also got peg holes on the front of his forearms and the outside of his ankles.

As for the little Ginrai Titan Master, well, he doesn't go into Super Ginrai's belly.  Like the rest of the Titans Return toyline the Hasbro version came from, he's basically a Headmaster.  lifting up the helmet reveals a little G1-style Optimus/Ginrai head.  Ginrai looks kind of weird on the other Titans Return Optimus, but that Optimus' head (or just about any other head) looks fine on Super Ginrai, because only the eyes are showing.

Super Ginrai's truck mode is fine.  I like the remolded cab, and the goofy new feet don't stick out from the back as much as the Hasbro version's.  If you have Combiner Wars Magnus, though, you kind of know what to expect here.  The biggest difference is all those folded up panels wrapping around Super Ginrai's legs and hanging on the backs of his arms cover the hollow interior of the trailer.  Oh, and be sure you have his feet folded up all the way, otherwise they'll sit lower than the wheels and he won't have the clearance to roll.

Like the G1 version, the rifles peg into the top of the trailer, near the rear, and the shoulder guns fit onto the sides of the trailer near the front.  I like to use the bottom peg to get them to sit just so the barrels are a little more extended, but again you can use any of the pegs.  If you put them sideways you can still have a Titan Master sitting in them.  Alternatively, there's a notch on the back of Super Ginrai's head that a Titan Master's feet can plug into, allowing him to sit inside the cab.  If you're feeling lazy, though, you don't have to remove the Titan Master at all.  He can stay inside the head.

Being made from an Ultra Magnus mold instead of a unique mold means that his arms run along the top of the trailer instead of the front, so there's a hollow space visible from the front.  Of course, the flip side to this is that the trailer still opens in the back.  The space inside will fit most Legends-class and even a few narrow Deluxes.

Like the Hasbro version Super Ginrai does have a base mode.  Kind of?  I mean, it's got places to put his guns, and Titan Masters can sit there, or in the red mess that part of the robot chest.  It's got bits that can connect to other Titans Return bases, including Trypticon or Fortress Maximus.  But it looks terrible.

On its own, I don't think I'd recommend Super Ginrai, or the Hasbro Powermaster Optimus Prime, and it really boils down to what I said at the beginning of the review- this is a neat mold for an Ultra Magnus figure, but Super Ginrai without a smaller cab Ginrai is just wrong.  Maketoys' Thunder Manus has better proportions, better articulation, and a transforming cab, even if that cab is only Legends-sized, and frankly I think it's the better CHUG-style Powermaster Prime/Super Ginrai toy.  But, for the Takara version, at least, could be salvage a better God Ginrai?  Tune in tomorrow!

 

Edited April 13, 2019 by mikeszekely

[mikeszekely]

Well, it's tomorrow, and here's a figure that didn't get a release in Hasbro's Titans Return line.  This is Takara Legends Godbomber.

Godbomber's got some unusual proportions.  I'm not sure it's fair to criticize him too much for that, as the Masterforce cartoon didn't look a heck of a lot like the G1 toy, Super Ginrai doesn't have the most heroic, anime-esque proportions, and Godbomber's bits still have to fit on Super Ginrai.  With all of those limitations Godbomber still comes across as pretty faithful to the source material.

Despite the lack of a Hasbro release, Godbomber is still effectively a Titans Return toy.  So, he comes with a Titan Master and a helmet to make his head, his shoulder cannon with a removable tip, a sword blade, and a sword handle.  Note that this is the individual release of Godbomer, to go with the individual release of Super Ginrai.  In Japan there was a gift set version that also came with Titan Masters of Cab and Minerva.

The sword can store under the cannon by attaching the cannon's tip onto the pommel of the sword, then stuffing the entire handle under the front of the cannon.   The blade slides into the underside.  And, for some modes, you can even store Godbomber's helmet by plugging it into the back of the cannon.

Godbomber's head swivels and has a little up/down wiggle.  His shoulders rotate, but they have a tendency to pull the wings with them.  Ratchets allow his shoulders to move over 90 degrees laterally. His biceps swivel, and the swivel is tight.  His elbows bend a little under 90 degrees.  No wrist swivel, but his (very flat) hands do have the thumb on a ball joint and a pin hinge for his fingers.  No waist swivel.  His hips are actually hinges up in his pelvis, and he can only get about 30 degrees of lateral movement there.  Ratchets below the pelvis can get 90 degrees forward, but almost nothing backward.  He doesn't have swivels at the thighs, but he does have ratcheted swivels just above the knees.  The knees are double-jointed, with ratchets at the upper joint, and can bend until his heels are touching his butt.  His feet can bend up, his toes can bend down, and a hinge gives him about 60 degrees of ankle pivot.

Godbomber can hold his sword, and the cannon can plug into either shoulder.  He can't hold a gun, but there are 5mm peg holes in his arm wings.  Those wings are also hinged, and pushing them back will cause little forearm guns to pop up.  The cannon has a hinge, but the tolerances are just off and it tends to flop down against his chest.  And tolerances are kind of a problem in general here.  Some joints and connections are kind of loose.  Others are tight, especially some ratchets.  I've found that manipulating his arms have a tendency to untab his shoulders, which hold the front and rear of his torso together.  It's also fairly easy to knock his forearms off, perhaps due to the unsightly hollow spaces on the inside not providing enough to lock onto.  And the you could sneeze and knock the blade off of the sword.

One mildly interesting thing to note, and that's that Godbomber's knees are actually Combiner Wars pegs.  You can't do a full limb swap, but you can put Godbomber's legs onto a Combiner Wars gestalt, or use Combiner Wars/Power of the Primes Deluxes as legs for Godbomber.

Godbomber's a character whose alt mode has always been sort of an afterthought.  Like the designers were tasked to make a transforming robot that turns into armor for Optimus/Ginrai, so they figured they'd make it like a trailer, but with windows in case it was supposed to drive itself, but they also thought Optimus/Ginrai needed wings so they stuck those on, too.  And, I mean, I don't have a lot to say here, either.  It's dumb, but it's again a pretty faithful modern version of the G1 toy.

Godbomber does have a little hitch that swings out from the front and can be captured between Ginrai's robot feet, giving him the double-trailer look.

The front opens up, and there's room inside for three Titan Masters inside.  The combined cannon/sword/helmet fits loosely between his robot arms on the roof.  It comes off too easy, and again the hinge doesn't support the cannon at angles.  You can flip up the little forearm guns, though.

And again, this being essentially a Titans Return figure, Godbomber too has a base mode.  Again, it's nothing to write home about.  It's really just pulling the legs off and using the wings to reattach them so they hold up the rear end.  There are a few places you can put extra weapons, though, and there are again the tabs to connect Godbomer to other bases.  Oh, and something I nearly forgot to mention, the shoulder cannon can open up, and there's a seat for a Titan Master inside.  I have to admit, though, it's at least a bit more cohesive and all-around base-like than Super Ginrai's base mode...

Speaking of Super Ginrai, I'm guessing that the number of people buying Godbomber because they really want a good Godbomber are dwarfed by the people who really want a God Ginrai.  And sure enough, you can rip Godbomber apart and stick him all over Super Ginrai to make Takara Legends God Ginrai.  Note that Godbomber does not work with Hasbro Powermaster Prime; everything Godbomber's parts stick to are the remolded parts, and none of it fits or connects to the Hasbro mold.

Aesthetically... I guess it works.  His forearms and shins are a bit long, but the shins at least gives him a leggy, Japanese super-robot style I don't mind.  And the torso isn't as chunky as the G1 toy.  His wings sit kind of high, like they're floating above his shoulders instead of behind them.  But, and this is the real rub, he's a lot bigger than Overlord, when they should be around the same size.  You can even cheat by folding Overlord's toes down on their double hinges and folding his heels in a bit to add some height, and he's still a head short.  

For the most part God Ginrai is using the same joints as Super Ginrai, and aside from the forward motion of the hips there's really no change in the range.  However the hinges in the Super Ginrai ankles are more of a problem here.  Before you could try to shift weight to the front of the foot, and you had heel spurs even if their hinge was a little too weak.  In God Ginrai mode the heel spurs are folded up and he's carrying a lot more weight on his back.  This makes him super prone to falling over backward.

God Ginrai can hold Godbomber's sword or his rifles.  The sword can still store in the cannon if you're not using it.  As for his rifles, they can actually peg into Godbomber's shoulders to peak out from God Ginrai's back.  Godbomber's helmet can't stay on the cannon, as there's not enough clearance, but there's notches on the helmet that fit into notches on Godbomber's arms so the helmet can store on God Ginrai's back.  And if you need a place to put the Titan Master, he can either sit in one of the seats available in vehicle mode, now God Ginrai's chest, or inside the shoulder cannon.

On his own Godbomber isn't a very good figure.  I don't own it, but Maketoys' Divine Shooter looks to be a much more dynamic Godbomber figure.  Get that instead, if you really need a CHUG-sized Godbomber.

As an accessory for Super Ginrai... well, if you already have Super Ginrai, then sure, get Godbomber.  But, as God Ginrai is prone to falling over, is so much bigger than Overlord, and still doesn't have the small cab robot I'd again say that you're probably better off with Maketoys' Thunder Manus.  You can even get a God Ginrai figure using the armor he comes without without the need for a separate Godbomber figure like Divine Shooter, and he seems to scale a lot better with Overlord.

There was definitely some potential here, though.  Perhaps some add-ons could bring that potential out?  Check out the unlicensed Transformers thread tomorrow and we'll find out.

[sh9000]

This statue looked pretty cool in person.

[M'Kyuun]

I guess I can understand the allure of statues, although for my money, I'd rather have a transforming figure. To that end, MP BW Megatron looks fantastic, and could no doubt be similarly arranged if one was enterprising enough to build a detailed base or diorama for him. I'm not that guy, but just sayin'. 

Harkening to Mike's Power Master Prime/Ginrai review, I also bought the Takara version in lieu of the Hasbro, as I already had Ultra Magnus, and didn't fancy another near copy of the mold. The Takara version has posable feet, and though they look odd, it's an upgrade to the Hasbro. Moreover, it has the more G1 accurate cab , although in truth, I kinda liked the stylistic take of the Hasbro. Overall I think it's a decent figure. I really like the PE Prime figure that they made for PMP, but at $50, it was just a bit too much money, even if it does look nice and add accuracy to the figure. 

I have no association with Godbomber, and quite frankly, I think it looks terrible all the way around, so I entertain no second thoughts on skipping it.

[davidwhangchoi]

Transformers x Ghostbusters MP-10 w/ Trailer 

Availability date: October 2019

[nhyone]

Still milking the MP-10 mold?

I thought MP-44 would be out by then. Repaints are inevitable.

[tekering]

5 hours ago, davidwhangchoi said:

Transformers x Ghostbusters MP-10 w/ Trailer

Wasn't April Fool's Day a couple weeks ago...?  

[mikeszekely]

1 hour ago, nhyone said:

Still milking the MP-10 mold?

I thought MP-44 would be out by then. Repaints are inevitable.

This. As much as I love MP-10 is 2019. There are better MP Primes.