The Transformers Thread (licensed) Next

[mikeszekely]

1 hour ago, anime52k8 said:

I need a good Grimlock in my life. I doesn't help that one of my requirements for a good Grimlock is that it comes in G2 blue.

Fans Toys did Grinder in G2 colors.  But given how hard it is to find one at a reasonable price (and recalling that you were pretty handy with the paints) I'd have to think it'd be easier to buy almost any Grimlock and repaint it yourself.

[tekering]

4 hours ago, mikeszekely said:

I'm really not comfortable using any of them as a Siege stand-in.  This does not mean, however, that all hope is lost.  Keep an eye on the unofficial Transformers thread, where in the next couple of days I hope to explore a few other Grimlock alternatives.

With all due respect, Mike, I don't think that's necessary...

HasTak provided us with the perfect Siege-scaled Grimlock a decade ago.  

[mikeszekely]

12 minutes ago, tekering said:

HasTak provided us with the perfect Siege-scaled Grimlock a decade ago.  

I actually had considered MP-08, and I was going to touch on him in another "article," but the short version is that I think he's roughly a head too tall.

(Also, I have some 3P Grimlocks in-hand or on the way that I haven't reviewed )

[tekering]

11 minutes ago, mikeszekely said:

I was going to touch on him in another "article," but the short version is that I think he's roughly a head too tall.

I've always used the Sunbow cartoon for scale reference, myself...

The Dinobots were always depicted much larger than their toys were, so we sometimes forget how big they were intended to be!  

Edited July 27, 2019 by tekering

[anime52k8]

2 hours ago, tekering said:

 

I'm looking at MP Wheeljack standing next to MP Star Saber right now and I'm not sure if I'm okay with the idea that Grimlock should be bigger than Star Saber.

[JB0]

3 minutes ago, anime52k8 said:

 

I'm looking at MP Wheeljack standing next to MP Star Saber right now and I'm not sure if I'm okay with the idea that Grimlock should be bigger than Star Saber.

Then use a diffrent scene for scale-checking. That's the beauty of this cartoon, everyone is a diffrent height in every scene.

[mikeszekely]

4 hours ago, JB0 said:

Then use a diffrent scene for scale-checking. That's the beauty of this cartoon, everyone is a diffrent height in every scene.

100% this.  The animation is super inconsistent.  I mean, either Devastator is so huge you'd need one that's 7-feet tall to scale with an MP Optimus...

...or one the size of MP Soundwave is big enough.

I know that we tease people some people for taking them a little too seriously, but I do think the the scale charts Sunbow created for reference are a better place to start than the animation itself.  But even then there's a bit of variance, and ultimately it comes down to what feels right to you.  That's why, while Shockwave was shorter than Megatron according to most scenes in the cartoon and the Sunbow scale chart, as someone whose impression of him was shaped a lot by the old Marvel comics I feel like he should be the same size as Megatron.

Regarding Dinobots, or Grimlock specifically, I'm of the opinion that the "correct" scale puts the top of Optimus' head right at the insignia on Grimlock's chest.  But I think you can make a case for anywhere from Prime being a head or so shorter than that to the top of his head reaching the top of Grimlock's chest.

And Mike, for what it's worth, I think there's an argument to be made that MP Star Saber is too small.

[sh9000]

[David Hingtgen]

HUGE Piranacon fan here, but I just don't think they look that great all things considered.  The alt-modes are all over the place---Tentakil is terrible, Seawing's ok, Nautilator is a smidge better I think, Overbite ok, Skalor great.  Haven't seen most bot-modes yet.   If I could, I'd pick up a US mass release Skalor, but am not importing these guys at $35 each.  Will stick with my TFC set.  

[tekering]

Yeah, I couldn't figure out why it looked so awkwardly-proportioned until I realized I was seeing a HasTak mold.  

[anime52k8]

Yay, flame toys is still working on their Windblade and she still looks so GOOD.

[David Hingtgen]

Eh, less Windblade and more like really fancy Windblade cosplay. 

[tekering]

Baby got back!  

Extremely humanoid proportions there -- I'm sure the fandom will eat it up -- but regardless, it'll be a great kit.  The Furai IDW Prime was one of the nicest injection-mold kits I've ever assembled, and the articulation was crazy good.  

[technoblue]

I believe that the Seacons will be marketed under the Generations Selects brand, so there's a good possibility that this combiner will see a global release. The real question is will it be a complete box set or will they sell the bots individually like they did for the PotP Elita-1 combiner? I guess that remains to be seen...

[anime52k8]

19 minutes ago, tekering said:

Baby got back!  

Extremely humanoid proportions there -- I'm sure the fandom will eat it up -- but regardless, it'll be a great kit.  The Furai IDW Prime was one of the nicest injection-mold kits I've ever assembled, and the articulation was crazy good.  

I really hope she turns out good because ban's design for her is amazing. I still kind of wish this was going to be a bigger static PVC figure though.

[mikeszekely]

I'm sure some of you may have seen a Generations Selects repaint of Siege Starscream going around by the name of Red Wing.  I know you could buy it for around $50 (shipping often not included) from some Asian stores.  If you, like me, didn't feel like paying a large markup on a $30 toy but were still interested in getting it I have good news!  Turns out it's a Target exclusive.  The only catch is that you have to have a Target.com account, you have to have a Target REDcard (their store credit card), you have to have the REDcard saved in your Target.com wallet, and you have to use it as your payment method at checkout (although that's not really a big catch for me, since I already had a REDcard since it seems like I'm always shopping at Target).

[JB0]

The frig? That's even worse than store exclusives, store credit card exclusives.

[technoblue]

9 minutes ago, JB0 said:

The frig? That's even worse than store exclusives, store credit card exclusives.

I read a rumor that it could be a timed Target exclusive, and that other stores could get access in August.

*shrug* I guess it could be wishful thinking for those like me who do not have a REDcard. I don't mind waiting on this one to see how things go.

[mikeszekely]

7 minutes ago, JB0 said:

The frig? That's even worse than store exclusives, store credit card exclusives.

I mean, sure, I'd rather there be fewer hoops to jump through, and generally speaking I'd love it if store and con exclusives would go away and I could just buy everything for the regular retail price at Hasbro Pulse.  But $30 on a credit card that I already have because it saves me 5% at a store I shop at regularly beats $50-60 importing the Asian release.

And at least Red Wing isn't a major character.  Meanwhile Skywarp can only be bought in a special pack with a bunch of Targetmasters, Ratchet is a Walgreens exclusive, Smokescreen seems to be exclusive to Hasbro Pulse, and Bluestreak is a Walmart exclusive.

Speaking of Walmart, I found myself stopping on my way home from my kid's birthday.  I saw a guy walking his pet alligator (he was actually a nice guy and he let me pet the gator).  I also found that they put their Siege Micromasters and Battle Masters on clearance for half off, so I picked up the Micromaster Rescue Patrol and Battle Masters Aimless, Lionizer, and Pteraxadon.

First, let's take a look at the Rescue Patrol, composed of Red Heat and Stakeout.

Stakeout isn't necessarily a retool of Roadhandler, but he's pretty similar.  Mechanically, the only real difference is that his knees are ball joints instead of pins, so his articulation is a little better.  Other than the knees, he's got ball joints for shoulders, ball joints for hips, and a head swivel.  Aesthetically I think he looks fine, although he'd be more G1-accurate with blue thighs and a silver pelvis.

Red Heat is meant to be the G1 Micromaster Red Hot, and he's a bit more accurate than Stakeout.  He's just a little thicker in the middle, and he's only got one tire on each arm instead of two.  Like Stakeout he's got ball joints at the shoulders and hips (which were super loose on my copy).  His knees are (tight) pinned hinges, and although it's difficult to get to his head does swivel.  Surprisingly, he's also got a waist swivel.

Stakeout turns into a Cybertronian police car.  Nothing really to write home about, except that I wish he didn't have the tampoed Autobot emblem on his hood.  In my head canon he's basically Barricade Junior.  Red Heat turns into a fire truck, and he's kind of weird.  He's got these long heel spurs that are molded like ladders and form his roof (which was all red on the original toy).  You can also see that the extra rear wheels are actually molded in, but they're left unpainted red.  Red Heat's ladder can swivel, hinge up and down, plus there's an extra segment that folds out from inside.  Of note is that the tip of the ladder ends in one of those little pegs for blast effect parts.

Like other Micromasters both figures have 5mm pegs so you can stick them on larger Siege figures, and there's even an official combination that makes use of Red Heat's waist swivel and a socket on the back of his ladder.  However, the "gun" mode is as stupid as the Race Car Patrol's, if you ask me.

My opinion of Siege Micromasters hasn't changed much.  $10 is still too much for them, but $5 feels a little more fair.  You're not really missing anything if you pass.  I just like transforming police cars for some reason.

Aimless is a slight remold of Blowpipe, with an unfortunately similar inverted color scheme.  I guess he's supposed to be Misfire's Targetmaster, and I guess it's cool that we're getting them, if a little after the fact and for an extra $5 (retail).  Like the other Battle Masters that turn into guns the barrel is removable and has a smaller 3mm peg.  The peg allows the barrel to be attached to Aimless' arm and used as a weapon in robot mode.  Articulation is super basic: ball joints for shoulders, ball joints for hips, and that's it.

Aimless' gun mode is pretty much what you'd expect, Blowpipe with inverted colors and a different barrel.  He comes with brand new blast effect parts that are pretty cool-looking.  At the end of the day I'm always up for more guns, more Decepticons, and more blast effect parts, so he gets a recommend.

Pteraxadon is a little Pteranadon.  You can articulate his head up and down a bit, spread his wings out or tuck them in, and his feet are hinged so you can put him in either a standing pose or a flying pose, but that's about it.  It looks like he's got a little gun running up his back, and you can put a shooting blast effect there, otherwise you fold it out, tuck in the wings, fold the head all the way down, and fold his feet in to turn him into an axe.  A pteranodon that turns into an axe is always a good idea, and it's not a bad axe at that.  Note that in addition to his ax handle he's got a 5mm peg on the other side.  You can use this to store the axe, or I suppose you could flip him around and have a strange (but not combined Micromaster awful) gun mode.

Pteraxadon comes with an smash-style effect part.  I guess it's appropriate for him, but it's not as versatile as the gun shots.  Either way, it's a pteranodon that turns into an axe!  Of course I recommend it!

And lastly we come to Lionizer.  Lionizer is, presumably, a lion, and the sculpt is pretty decent, although I wish his that either his mane was painted silver or his face was the same black color as the rest of him.  Although the sculpt is fine, his limbs are all just ball joints at the hip/shoulder.  So while they can rotate and even spread a little, with no knee or ankle articulation there isn't a lot you can do to pose him.  Even his head can only look up so far, and tilting it down starts to reveal a 5mm peg on the back of his head.

His tail, like the barrels of the gun guys, is removable and has a 3mm peg at the base.  There's really no place to put it besides the tail-spot, though.  You'd think that another small figure could use it as a weapon, but the Micromasters and Pteraxadon don't have 3mm peg holes and all three of the guns have their 3mm holes on their forearms.  If they had holes in their fists they could use it as a sword, but your best bet is to just leave it attached.

Lionizer is supposed to turn into a sword, but again the blade is just his tail.  So between the tail and the flipped-out 5mm peg you have a balled-up cat, and the result is more like a club with a knife sticking out of the top than a sword.  I think the Micromaster Air Strike patrol made a more convincing sword (although that might be just because I'm more used to swords made of aircraft thanks to Transformers Armada).  Lionizer's included effect part is a swoosh part that's good for swooshing his blade, but not much else.  Lionizer's a pretty easy pass.

[M'Kyuun]

Thought I'd share the link to an interview with Hasbro's John Warden and Lynsey Bernier in which they discuss their backgrounds and some of the development process behind Transformers. Link is courtesy of TFW2005.

 

 

[Chronocidal]

On 7/28/2019 at 8:39 AM, David Hingtgen said:

Eh, less Windblade and more like really fancy Windblade cosplay. 

Or a Phantasy Star Online 2 character.  I'd buy that crossover for a dollar.  

[mikeszekely]

Between new figures hitting stores and the SDCC reveals Siege has been getting a lot of attention lately. But Studio Series is chugging along as well, and at a toy show in Mexico we got some new reveals. First is a repaint of WWII Bumblebee as Hot Rod. Now, if I didn't buy the mold as Bumblebee, safe money says I pass on "Ut Rudd" as well. A bit more interesting is a 3-pack of Arcee, Chromia, and Elita-1. Each one is unique; it's not three colors of one figure. But they look to be tiny, and probably not very complex. They're roughly half Hot Rod's size, which I guess aligns with the goal of having the robots in-scale with each other. All three will the sold together as one Deluxe. 

Moving up the interest scale, we're getting a Deluxe-class DotM Soundwave, and after, what, I think four other Bumblebees we're finally getting 2007 Camaro Bumblebee.

[mikeszekely]

And speaking of Studio Series, I managed to get my hands on a figure that never seemed to come in stock in most online stores, going from no listing straight to "out of stock."  I set a stock alert on Amazon, got emailed maybe four or five times that it was in stock only to check the link and have it still showing as out of stock before I got lucky and actually completed an order.  It's Voyager-class Long Haul.

Long Haul is one of the Bayverse designs I actually kind of liked (perhaps due to the fact that he wasn't designed by the people who worked on the first film, and his design actually began as fan art by Josh Nizzi that impressed Aaron Archer and Michael Bay enough that they hired him).  I mean, it's got the Bayverse aesthetic, but at the same time he has a humanoid shape without extra eyes, chicken legs, or the other oddities the Bayverse foist on a lot of the Decepticons.  He's green like the G1 version, turns into a dump truck like the G1 version, and you can tell what he turns into when you look at the robot.  And frankly, the original Voyager-class toy was kind of a mess, with a tiny torso and long, thin limbs.  This version is much closer to the CGI model.  He's properly thick and chunky.  Pretty much anything I could do to criticize the aesthetic boils down to this being a $30 Voyager-class toy and not an MP.  I will say that I wish they could have done a little more to condense his backpack.

I'm will say I'm not sure if I like the size, though.  I have him here with Deluxe-class Scrap Metal, but I'll say that he's maybe a head shorter than Studio Series Optimus and roughly eye-to-eye with SS Ironhide.  I'm not sure what the official sizes are, but I've seen 28' listed for Optimus and 30' listed for Long Haul.  If they're counting Long Haul's backpack, then I suppose this is correct, but for some reason I thought he was bigger.

Long Haul doesn't come with any accessories.  He does have nubs on the ends of his (screen-accurate) arm kibble, though.  Hasbro left them unpainted, because they double as tabs, but they'd properly be red, and in the movie he used his arm kibble as missile launchers.

His articulation is kind of so-so.  Screen-accurate or not, the kibble on his arms and the tires on his shoulders like to get in the way, and his thick, squat proportions don't do him any favors, but with patience you can still get him into some fairly dynamic poses.  His head is on a ball joint and he can swivel his head, but the placement of his head and collar means he can look up and that's about it.  His shoulders can rotate and extend laterally 90 degrees, but again working the arm kibble around the tires can be a chore.  His biceps swivel, and his elbows bend a little over 90 degrees.  No wrist or hand articulation.  His waist is on a ratcheted swivel.  His hips are also ratcheted forward/backward.  By default he can only move his legs forward one click, though, because of his thighs banging into his torso, and he can get roughly 90 degrees backward.  The hips spread on friction joints about 45 degrees.  His thighs swivel.  Now, there's a second swivel at the knee that's used for transformation.  If you swivel the thigh, then swivel the knee you'll have enough clearance to bend his hip forward over 90 degrees and his leg will still look normal, as long as you don't bend the knee.  Speaking of knees, they can bend 90 degrees.  The front of his foot can bend upward for transformation, and he's got up to 90 degrees of ankle pivots.

Long Haul does indeed still turn into a dump truck, but the accuracy seems to be off just enough that Hasbro can say it's a generic dump truck and not have to pay Caterpillar for licensing on the 773B.  The front bumper should be shorter, ending so that the steps are in line with the ladders flanking the grill.  The headlights should stick out a bit further, and the area above them should be flat with black stripes.  And he's missing the railing on the cab and the deck next to it.  I expect that some of these changes, like the protrusions over the headlights, are due to the front of the truck forming the soles of his feet (those protrusions are basically heel spurs).  They could have left the railing on it without affecting the other modes, though.  For the most part, I'm sure there's someone out there who cares as much about dump trucks/construction vehicles as some of us care about cars, planes, trains, etc, but I think most people are going to look at Long Haul, see that he's a green dump truck, and figure that's good enough.

Long Haul rolls, and that's about it.  His bed can't move and he can't dump, or even really haul much of anything since the bed is really more arms and kibble than an actual truck bed.  And when you flip him over you can see that there isn't a whole lot to his transformation.  But, I suppose there doesn't need to be.

When the rest of the Studio Series Constructions come out (which won't be for awhile, since we've still got five to go), Long Haul will be Devastator's right foot.  And, yeah, that's a pretty decent foot.  Due to the way he transforms for this mode (which kind of boils down to taking the truck mode, turning him upside down, then bending his hips 90 degrees) his waist swivel will become a ratcheted ankle, which I think works fairly well.  Based on the drawing of how everyone will fit together I think we can use Long Haul's foot-mode size to and estimate the combined Devastator will be roughly 3 Long Hauls tall.  So, despite being made of four Voyagers, two Deluxes, and two Leaders I think he'll be shorter than his Combiner Wars counterpart, but bulkier.

Anyway, at the end of the day Long Haul isn't the most spectacular figure, but he's certainly not the worst the Studio Series has to offer, either.  Chances are most people are really mostly interested in him as a foot, anyway, but I think it's a solid representation of the character in its own right, and I'll give it a recommend.

[Negotiator]

Glimpse of Unicorn transformation

https://io9.gizmodo.com/exclusive-watch-a-japanese-man-in-a-tuxedo-slowly-tran-1836967381?jwsource=cl

[M'Kyuun]

That's some serious panel madness.

I like how the arms transform essentially as they did in the Movie.   My thinking is this vid comes a little late to try and stir up excitement. Then again, seeing all those panels laid out, it might put some folks off.  Given the lack of momentum on the backing front, unless Hasbro finds another way of funding it, I don't think it's going to see production. 

[Mechapilot77]

i half wonder if the crowdfund thing is a marketing gimmick and its already been approved for production.  i mean takara is picking it up to do their own release...which if the crowdfund were 100% true couldn't happen if they don't reach the goal.  i assume hasbro/ have some retailers will end up being "makeup backers" and maybe whatever factory order takara wants to release would push them over the number?  they've already spent so much effort marketing the thing it will be super embarrassing if it doesn't get made.  that being said, if i were still a single dude with no family/responsibilities but to myself i'd jump on this as a backer but....thats not the case so i can't commit to this.  perhaps they've already missed the window on having enough potential customers of people grew up with G1 that have lots of expendable money and little to no responsibilities.  i mean we are in our 40s!  haha.  that would be a shame though.

[mikeszekely]

IIRC the lion's share of backers for the sail barge came in the final week. Plus the Takara mall and some retailers are taking orders, and we don't know when/if they're counted in the 8000.

[anime52k8]

1 hour ago, Mechapilot77 said:

perhaps they've already missed the window on having enough potential customers of people grew up with G1 that have lots of expendable money and little to no responsibilities.  i mean we are in our 40s!  haha.  that would be a shame though.

40 is the mid life crisis age. it's when you're supposed to start throwing stupid money and things that make you feel younger.

[sh9000]

Saw this set at Target.  Looks cool.

[mikeszekely]

43 minutes ago, sh9000 said:

Saw this set at Target.  Looks cool.

There's a spot on the shelf for it at my local Target, but no stock. In fact, according to Brickseek there isn't a Target for 100 miles with any in stock.

[anime52k8]

lemon, lime and blue raspberry. 

[JB0]

I think that's wider than the space alloted to Transformers in my Targets.

[mikeszekely]

If I can get my hands on that set I'll have seven of that mold, and they haven't even done Coneheads.

EDIT: I do wish that Blue Raspberry was the grape one, though.

Edited August 8, 2019 by mikeszekely

[nhyone]

21 hours ago, mikeszekely said:

Plus the Takara mall and some retailers are taking orders, and we don't know when/if they're counted in the 8000.

The answer is yes.

It is being offered by Hasbro China on TMall, along with many TaoBao sellers, for the China market.

The text there says it is jointedly marketed by HasLab, Hasbro CN and TakaraTomy. It also mentions a worldwide target of 8,000. Not met = not made.

Edited August 8, 2019 by nhyone

[anime52k8]

Finally there's an actual picture of the cell shaded voyager prime. It honestly turned out pretty good.

Edited August 13, 2019 by anime52k8