The Transformers Thread (licensed) Next

[mikeszekely]

I've talked about Combat Megatron, the Seekers, and the Datsuns.  But over the last couple of... well, months, actually, I've picked up a few other Siege repaints.

As a kid I never owned an actual Shockwave.  I did read the Marvel comics as kid, though, and I really wanted a Shockwave.  I wound up getting the next best thing... a Galactic Man from Radio Shack.  So when Hasbro announced they were doing a Galactic Man repaint as Generations Selects figure I preordered immediately.

Nothing new here mold-wise, so if you had a hard time justifying paying a Leader price for what's honestly more of a Voyager, then Shackwave probably isn't for you (although Target seems to have marked regular Shockwave down to $30 online, so if you passed over the price before now's your chance to get him for a Voyager price).  But to me the dark gray body and red mono eye look as good as they did in the '80s.

Shackwave comes with the exact same accessories, and they function exactly the same as before.  It's interesting, though, that his extra bits are actually black, and they have more silver paint.  This allows Shackwave to have have a bit more color break up than regular Shockwave.

That color breakup is especially noticeable in alt mode, where the his gun barrel... er, I mean, his bow is a silvery plastic.

You don't have to go to Hasbro Pulse and buy Generations Selects to get repaints, though.  Red Alert here is a mainline release.  As was the case with the G1 and MP toys, Red Alert's body is a copy of Sideswipe's, just with a different deco.  However, Hasbro did give him a slightly remolded head, with smaller ears than Sideswipe's.  It's a nice little touch that makes him more animation-accurate, and Hasbro could have gotten away without doing it and most people probably would have been fine that way, so it's doubly-appreciated.  In addition to the slightly different head, Red Alert comes with totally different accessories- a black rifle with a pair of 5mm peg holes on the butt, and a light bar.  I say Sideswipe is a good mold, and Red Alert makes sense as a repaint, so go ahead and pick him up.

Impactor and Mirage hitting shelves in the current wave of Siege figures is all well and good, but you might remember that their inclusion in Siege was part of a fan poll.  And that fan poll listed them as "Mirage Vs. Impactor."  Doesn't make sense if they're both Autobots, right?  So while regular Impactor and regular Mirage are hitting regular retail, a "Fan Vote Battle 3-pack"* is available as an Amazon-exclusive containing Decepticon Impactor.  Right away, the most obvious difference is that Decepticon Impactor has a different head, sporting the Spartan helmet design he wore in IDW, a look I greatly prefer.  Of course, that's not the only differnce.  It's hard to tell from pictures, but the yellow paint is a slightly different shade, and his knees are red.  He's got caution markings on his chest and shoulders, silver accents under his pecs and on the sides of his shoulders, the venting between his pecs is now painted black, more of his shoulder cannon is painted purple, and some of the yellow is actually painted.  Plus, while he's still got some of that Siege dirt on his legs, it's darker and not as thick.  Oh, and his Autobot insignia is swapped out for a Decepticon one.  Now, most of this stuff is done to make him look less Marvel and more IDW, which is fine, except for one thing- Marvel Impactor is a short-lived, UK-only character.  However, by this point I think fans in general are much more familiar with Nick Roche's IDW series Last Stand of the Wreckers and would have greatly preferred this version of Impactor at retail instead of part of a $70 box set, and I'm sure Hasbro knew it but put him in the box set to get suckers like me to buy it.  Or, put another way, this is the better version of Impactor, but you should probably just buy the retail one.

BTW, he wasn't a Decepticon in the IDW comics, nor do I even recall him and Mirage appearing in the same story at any point during the IDW run.  So Impactor as a Decepticon fighting Mirage still doesn't make sense.

An Impactor Vs Mirage fan-vote multi pack with Impactor would obviously have Mirage, too.  The box labels this one as Holo Mirage, and he's mostly made of a blue translucent plastic with some solid blue plastic for some joints.  Presumably this is Mirage turning invisible.

If we zoom in, though, we can see that there's some deco differences beyond simply being translucent.  For starters, he's actually got a new head sculpt based on the G1 toy.  It kind of makes me wish they'd just done a solidly-colored, toy-style Mirage, because then I'd have considered skipping the retail releases of both Mirage and Impactor in favor of this box set, but no, retail Mirage is still the one you want.

In addition to the head, you can faintly see a "26" instead of an Autobot insignia on his chest, some letters on his left shoulder whose meaning escapes me, and "Visages" on his right shoulder (including the quotes).  For those of you that don't know, when Mirage joined the crew of the Lost Light in the excellent IDW series More Than Meets the Eye he opened a bar called "Visages" (yes with the quotes) on the ship.  Although not an exact match, the cursive font, use of quotes, and the three lines flanking the text is meant to be not just the word, but the bar's logo.  It's a cool touch.

Ultimately, I like Holo Mirage more than I thought I would, but still not enough to recommend you go buy a box set and skip on the retail release.

One last final shot of some alt modes.  Again, mostly what you'd expect.  Mirage looks kind of neat, but his alt mode has the same issues as before.  Impactor is still one of the better Siege figures, and the Decepticon version looks better, but most people should probably just stick with the regular retail release.  Red Alert's as good as Sideswipe and worth picking up, although I wish he had more obvious "Fire Chief" markings instead of the Cybertronian.

*Yes, 3-pack, that's not a typo.  There's a third figure in the box with Impactor and Mirage, but we're going to talk about him next time.

[JB0]

4 hours ago, mikeszekely said:

That color breakup is especially noticeable in alt mode, where the his gun barrel... er, I mean, his bow is a silvery plastic.

I could do without a monchrome Shockwave until you got to this part.  The purple barrel on Siege Shockwave bugged me from the start.

[tekering]

On 10/23/2019 at 10:06 AM, GobotFool said:

I am certain saving the packaging really won't impact the value of the toy if I ever decided to resell it.

In Japan, packaging greatly impacts the value of an item on the secondary market... regardless of what it is.

[Golden Arms]

Picked up Siege Ratchet last night at Walgreens.

 

[mikeszekely]

20 hours ago, mikeszekely said:

There's a third figure in the box with Impactor and Mirage, but we're going to talk about him next time.

And for that third pack-in figure we have to delve into the depths of Transformers obscurity.  It's time to talk about the Powerdashers.

During the '80s Transformers packaging came with the tech specs everyone remembers, but also "Robot Points" that could be clipped off and saved.  During the original G1 run there were a few characters that you could only get by sending some money and Robot Points in with the mail-order form that came with some Transformers.  The most famous of these would probably be Reflector, as he/they were only one to appear in the cartoon.  And at the other end of the spectrum we have the Powerdashers, the characters Hasbro couldn't be bothered to name.  As I understand it you didn't actually pick which one you wanted, you just said you wanted a Powerdasher and got one back at random.  And indeed, what little bio Hasbro came up with at the time was used for all three toys, and sort of implies that they're three different forms of one guy named Powerdasher.  Some fans referred to them by their Diaclone names: F1 Dasher, Sky Dasher, and Drill Dasher.  In Italy and France the Powerdashers were licensed before Transformers and were named Aragon, Cromar, and Zetar, and Zetar was the name used by Ultra Magnus when the Powerdashers appeared in a flashback during Roberts' run on More Than Meets the Eye at IDW.  Apparently, Hasbro is making those names official as they see new life in the SIege line.  Despite Hasbro managing to release new molds for the Jumpstarters, the Monsterbots, the Duocons, and both the Autobot and Decepticon clones in recent lines the Powerdashers get no such love in Siege.  Instead, each one is a repaint of one of the three Weaponizers released so far.

So first we have Aragon, the F1 Dasher.  He's the one that came packed with Decepticon Impactor and Holo Mirage, and he's a repaint of Cog with a new head.  The new head is a fair representation of the G1 toy.  The red slab of a body, red arms, black shins, and silver feet work ok and aside from the silver bits on his shoulders and the two pylons flanking his head the shape isn't too far off.  He's even got the wheels on his hips like the G1 toy did.  I think maybe the silver around his knees should have stayed black, though, and it's actually his red thighs that should have been silver. 

The big problem I have here, and this will be a running theme, is the alt mode.  As a repaint of Cog, his official alt mode is now a red, black, and silver whatever Cog is.  He even splits into the separate Gasket and Grommet units.  He's definitely not an F1 Dasher anymore.

One of the advantages of being a Weaponizer, though, is that you can pull things apart and reconfigure them.  So, can we reconfigure Aragon into something closer to his G1 alt mode?  Actually, yeah.  You can fold in his head like normal, but leave the waist attached the way it is in robot mode.  Instead, just spin it 180 degrees, then pull his legs off, fold in his thighs, and peg the legs onto his robot-butt.  You can leave his guns off- I'm ok with losing the guns for alt mode.  Unfortunately, there's no good place to stash his arms, and no real way to fill in the gap between his collar pylons.

Zetar, the Drill Dasher, is the only Powerdasher I really wanted.  I mean, he's a repaint of Brunt, and I loved Brunt.  Plus, I'm from the Pittsburgh area, and black and gold are kind of our thing.  Apparently I'm not the only one; he's a Generations Selects figure, and sold out on Hasbro Pulse.  I managed to find on on Ebay with minimal markup.  Again, the only new part is the head, which is pretty cool because he's wearing a drill for a hat.  Using Brunt for his base means he's not as blocky as the G1 toy, and he's got Brunt's crab claws instead of fists.  But I still think it's a pretty cool aesthetic.

Zetar transforms exactly the same as Brunt, except the drill comes off of his head and attaches to his chest.  His instructions don't mention the shoulder gun that forms the tip of Brunt's barrel, but it's there.  With it attached to the big tank barrel made of legs the drill seems too small to drill a hole big enough to move the tank through.  I kind of thought it might be cool if the big tank cannon ended in the drill, but the drill has a hole, not a peg, so there's no way to connect them.

Obviously, the G1 toy didn't have Brunt's big cannon.  Can we make Zetar's alt mode more G1?  Almost.  For starters, ditch the shoulder cannon accessory, it's just not necessary.  Now, both of his thighs have peg holes; it's what his back plate plugs into.  And his lower legs also have peg holes on one side.  I think a simple 3D printed part to replace his back plate, something with peg holes to attach to his back in robot mode and his thighs in tank mode, but something that has 5mm pegs on the other side instead of the swively dome and peg holes for mounted the legs as a cannon, would let you attach the legs laying flat in a manner that's similar to his G1 alt mode.

Cromar, the Sky Dasher, is the one I was least interested in, but after picking up Zetar and the pack that happened to have Aragon I figured I might as well complete the set.  Like Zetar he's a Generations Select figure, and last I checked he was still available at Hasbro Pulse.  And I'm just not a fan.  The new head, while fairly accurate to the G1 toy, reminds me of a clown.  His torso, instead of being a nice, black slab, is broken up by too much molded detail and silver paint.  The back guns are an unnecessary holdover from Sixgun.  He just doesn't look all that great.  Even if they weren't G1-accurate, Zetar and Aragon look visually interesting compared to their mold-mates.  Cromar just looks bad next to Sixgun.

Sixgun didn't exactly have the best alt mode in the first place.  I could let it slide with him, though, since the G1 toy was literally a tower for Metroplex and six guns in alt mode, and you can still get six guns usable by other Transformers out of Siege Sixgun.  Cromar is supposed to be a jet, though, so the un-aerodynamic amalgamation of guns and mangled torso don't quite fly for me.

Unfortunately, of the three Siege Powerdashers Aragon is the only one I can't configure in some way that I'm more pleased with.  It has a lot to do with Sixgun's design; for all the pegs and peg holes he's sporting none of them seem to be arranged in any way that lets you connect his back and hips except the default way, so no matter what you always end up with the cockpit over that large box.

So, should you add the Powerdashers to your Siege collection?  Probably not.  The only way to get Aragon is to buy the $70 3-pack, and while that will get you the better version of Impactor you're still going to want a retail version of Mirage.  Save yourself some cash, get the retail version of Impactor, and call it a day.  Cromar is an ugly, inaccurate robot with an ugly, inaccurate alt mode, good only for pulling apart to arm up your other Siege figures.  Zetar's the only one that I think is actually pretty cool on its own.

[Kuma Style]

New Amazing Yamaguchi:

[Kuma Style]

 

[mikeszekely]

I've been talking a lot about Siege lately.  And I think I also mentioned once that I like to have symmetry between Studio Series and Siege/Generations wherever possible.  So I'm looking at the 2007 movie characters, who are nearly complete now in the Studio Series line (Megatron and Bumblebee are both in the Studio Series line, but I guess I'm technically still waiting for 2007 Camaro Bee and 2007 movie Megatron).  And then I look at Siege.  We've got Siege Optimus, Ironhide, Ratchet, Megatron, Starscream, and Barricade.  Combiner Wars gives us Brawl and Bonecrusher, and I've got both Power of the Primes Jazz and Reveal the Shield Jazz.  Short of Hasbro Hasbro repainting Springer I doubt we'll get a Siege Blackout.  So that just leaves Bumblebee from the first movie.  I have to think that Bumblebee will get made in the War for Cybertron trilogy sooner or later, especially with Cliffjumper getting a Deluxe in Earthrise, it did get me thinking about there aren't any Legends-class figures in Siege or Earthrise (so far).  However, if we look into the pre-Siege catalog of Generations toys just about every minibot has been covered.

Now, this isn't meant to be a detailed review for any of these guys.  It's just going to be a quick overview of what's available to pair with your Siege figures.  Since all but one of the figures I'm going to talk about is a Legends-class you can expect head swivels, ball-jointed shoulders that may or may not be limited laterally, ball-jointed elbows pulling double-duty as bicep swivels, no wrist or waist articulation, ball-jointed hips, ball-jointed knees doubling as thigh swivels, and no foot or ankle articulation.  Many of these figures came with no accessories, or they came with some kind of goofy Micromaster-esque contraption, and we're just going to ignore those for now.

We'll start with Bumblebee and Brawn.  Both seem like fine representations of the characters.  A repaint of Brawn with a new head is also available as Outback.  For whatever reason Hasbro skipped the obvious Cliffjumper repaint of Bee and went for Roadburn, aka Throttlbot Chase, instead.  Brawn does have something like a shield, but if you don't want it on his arm it can tab onto his back.

Instead of turning into a Beetle Bee turns into a generic hatchback.  No big deal.  Brawn looks a bit more heavy-duty than a pure G1 version, but it gets the job done.  Note that the shield clips into his toes and hides the gab by turning into the rear vehicle roof.  Also, as part of the Titans Return line, they both open up and have room for a Titan Master inside.  Brawn's roof relies on friction to stay closed, which is a little annoying.

Next we have Windcharger and Tailgate.  Windcharger here is from Titans Return, Tailgate is pre-Combiner Wars, but I'll note that this version of Windcharger was redone as Tailgate for Power of the Primes, and this version of Tailgate exists as Windcharger as well.  I'm showing them off this way, though, because Titans Return Windcharger has a more G1 Windcharger feel, while the pre-Combiner Wars mold is meant to give Tailgate a more IDW appearance.  Which makes sense.  Sure, Tailgate did appear in the third season of the cartoon, but everyone loves him from More Than Meets the Eye.  That said, the Titans Return mold feels a lot better in hand, with less kibble on his back and hips.  I'll probably pick up the PotP Tailgate.

Both molds turn into sports cars.  Neither is really a Firebird, again to avoid paying for a license, but Tailgate here is sort of evocative of a late second-gen Firebird, and Windcharger is a little closer to the third-gen Firebird the G1 toy is based on.  You have to half transform him, but Windcharger's got that seat for a Titan Master.

Both Gears and Swerve pre-date the Prime Wars, but I really like this mold as Swerve.  As with Tailgate, they were clearly trying to capture the much more popular IDW version, where he was was a main character about the Lost Light (vs G1, where he's best known for getting stepped on by Trypticon).  Since Gears and Swerve were the same mold back in G1, it made sense that Hasbro would repaint Swerve (yes, Generations Swerve came first), but painting Swerve as Gears and popping a new head on doesn't really work for me.  He just doesn't look grumpy enough.

The alt modes are fine, though.  Again, they look a little heavier-duty than the G1 toys, but they work.  Especially Swerve.

If I'm not mistaken, Seaspray is part of Titans Return, and Beachcomber part of Power of the Primes.  Both are adequate representations of the G1 characters, though.  Seaspray's gut comes off, and he can kind of use it as a missile launcher or something.

Despite being part of separate lines, both figures have the same gimmick where a Titan Master can ride inside.  I guess it's up to you if you really need Seapsray's gut in alt mode or not.

Cosmos here came with one of those goofy aforementioned Micromaster-esque figures when he was first released pre-Prime Wars.  He was re-released in a slightly darker green without the Micromaster during Titans Return, though.  Either way, he's not the tubby little guy from G1, but a fun little figure nonetheless.  Powerglide was part of Combiner Wars.  His landing gear works as a 5mm peg, and the idea was that he could have a third mode as a gun for Superion.

Cosmos' UFO mode is pretty cool.  Powerglide is definitely strongly influenced by the G1 version, but I wish his legs folded more like the G1 toy instead of just sticking together and leaving a gray section on the fuselage.

Wheelie is... well, he's Wheelie.  He sucks, but with all the other movie characters that appeared in the Titans Return line he was kind of inevitable.  Warpath is the one minibot that I'm going to suggest not using a Legends-class figure for.  Don't get me wrong, Legends Warpaths do exist... there's the 2008 version, when Legends were extra tiny (from a time that also included versions of Wheelie, Beachcomber, Brawn, and Cosmos, BTW).  There's also a so-so release during Combiner Wars, but it was a repaint of Megatron and lacked the chest channon.  Meanwhile, the Deluxe figure has help up fantastically.  I don't know about you guys, but with a lot of the "good" Classics/Universe/Generations releases pre-Prime Wars I'm going back and thinking they're not as good as I remember, but that's definitely not the case with Warpath.  Besides, despite being a minibot he was always animated closer in size to a carbot, so it still works.

Both look good in vehicle mode, but I have to emphasize look in the case of Wheelie.  He tabs together fairly poorly and is prone to coming apart.  He does have the seat for a Titan Master, though.

By my count, excluding toy-only characters like Hubcap or Bumper, that means the only Autobot minibots we don't have are Cliffjumper, Huffer, and Pipes.  Cliffjumper, as we've already noted, will be released as a Deluxe-class figure in Earthrise.  As for Huffer and Pipes, they were actually both released in the Combiner Wars line, but both are repaints of Legends Optimus with new heads.  Sorry, sticking Huffer/Pipes' head on Optimus' body and painting it orange/blue doesn't really make for Huffer/Pipes to me.

While we're talking Legends, let's take a moment to mention the Decepticons.  For the most part, the Decepticons tended to be bigger than the Autobots.  The smallest ones in the cartoon seemed like Soundwaves's tapes, Reflector, and the Insecticons.  As we know, Soundwaves' tapes are turning up as Siege Micromasters, and we just got a Deluxe Reflector.  So how about the Insecticons?

It took awhile, but we got all three Insecticons.  Shrapnel came first, pre-Prime Wars (although he'd be re-released during Power of the Primes), then Bombshell during Combiner Wars, and Kickback arriving last during Titans Return.  Because of this, some elements like the shades of purple being used and the gold chests don't exactly match (they might have matched even less, but I actually repainted parts of mine to be a little more G1).

They didn't come with guns.  However, for around $10-12 you can buy this upgrade kit from Dr Wu that includes guns for each of them.

Of the three, Bombshell is probably my favorite, partly due to being my favorite Insecticon in the first place, partly because I think he works pretty well.  Kickback's the runner up, he's close to being great and his chest even opens to allow a Titan Master to stand in it, but the way his arms tuck under to form an abdomen the G1 toy never had is a little awkward.  Speaking of awkward, Shrapnel suffers from having the biggest, least posable bug legs.

If you buy the Dr Wu guns, they do have storage in alt mode.  There's a slit on the side of Bombshell's gun that fits onto the black horn in front of his proboscis.  Kickback's has a tab on the handle that fits into a slit on his arms/abdomen.  Shrapnel's simply plugs into a 5mm port exposed on his middle after transformation.

And that, friends, is that- all the official Legends-class figures you can use with your Siege collection.  None of them are mind-blowing figures you're going to rate as one of the best in your collection, none are truly awful.  They're all kind of adequate (except for Warpath, he's pretty great).

Edited November 1, 2019 by mikeszekely

[M'Kyuun]

Nice rundown on the official legends class figs from the last few lines, Mike. I've been really happy with how well they've turned out, even Wheelie. Warpath turned out to be such a good fig that I doubt anyone has an issue with his being a deluxe. Cosmos, to me, was the one standout due to his departure from the G1 model, which I'm assuming was based on one of the comics' interpretations, but he still retains enough characteristics to be recognizable, and honestly, he's fun a figure. Huffer is the notable omission in the G1 legends updated figs, and one I've been waiting for.  I finally filled the void, previously occupied by IGear's version, with Magic Square's Strong Man. I also supplemented my CHUG shelf with New Age's Max, their G1 interpretation of Cosmos. Official versions are welcome, however. Slowly but surely, the '84 roster is filling up with some nice updated figs. I'm anticipating the upcoming Cliffjumper, a character who for years has been relegated to Bumblebee repaints. Nice to see him get his own mold that's fairly faithful to his G1 look, minus the spoiler. Nice, too that they gave him his cannon from the first episode of the series, and water skis from that other episode. I think third party is having an influence.

So, I checked out one of the Walgreens in my area today for Siege Ratchet, with no luck. They had a couple other Siege figs, as well as a Shockwave and a Sideswipe fig which I can't identify. They were in fully enclosed boxes marked as Generations, but the figs themselves looked more in line with the Cyberverse figures. Did a Google search, but didn't find them, so I'm wondering if they're Walgreens exclusives too. This Shockwave turned into a spaceship, different from the Siege toy, but it looked decent enough that I almost picked it up. I left it there, and, after a fine lunch of fried chicken, headed to Target where I found Siege Thundercracker on sale. I've been critical of the mold from the get-go, as the obvious folded legs forming the undercarriage bugged me in his tetra-jet mode. However, since he was marked down a bit, I figured I'd grab him. Glad I did- while the undercarriage is still unattractive, in hand it doesn't bother me as much as I thought it would. He locks together pretty solidly, and he's quite swooshable. Bot mode is where this figure shines, though- it should be the benchmark for articulation- the feet pivot fore and aft as well as tilt inwards a little, the fists, which rotate into the arm for transformation, also rotate at the wrist, elbows and knees both bend well beyond 90 degrees. The legs have a spring-loaded panel that allows the thigh to bend deeply into the calf for transformation, but it serves double duty by allowing for some deep kneeling poses. His thigh incorporates the waist skirt, and thigh rotation occurs below the skirt line, which works very well. His elbows are double jointed, and bicep rotation occurs below the cubed shoulders. The wings are jointed to allow the wings to sweep back, but also rotate back, kinda like a cape in the wind, allowing for ample clearance for arm posing. The transformation is clever for turning his G1 F-15 robot mode into a Cybertronian tetra-jet. The only negative I have, and this may just be my copy, is that his guns peg into his shoulders somewhat loosely, although they peg into his wings firmly. Not sure if that was a mold issue, but it's a very small detractor from what is otherwise a really standout figure. If the Earthrise mold has the same articulation, I'm looking even more forward to snapping up all three original Seekers when they release. 

I must admit, I was wrong about this figure; while I still wish they could have incorporated the legs into his alt a little more conformally, as a total package, the bot mode more than makes up for the alt mode deficiencies, and I've always felt that the bot mode should take precedence, as they're robots in disguise, not the other way around. Definitely a recommend. Cheers!

[mikeszekely]

1 hour ago, M'Kyuun said:

Huffer is the notable omission in the G1 legends updated figs, and one I've been waiting for.  I finally filled the void, previously occupied by IGear's version, with Magic Square's Strong Man.

I'm curious how Strong Man looks with one of the official Legends. I have a few Magic Square figures, but 3P Legends are usually a different thing where the bigger bots are the size of Hasbro Legends, and then the minibots scale to that. As an example, my Magic Square Beachcomber comes up to about the middle of Hasbro Beachcomber's chest. So I get the feeling that MS Legends are too small for CHUG.

I'm exploring some other alternatives, though. Stay tuned.

[tekering]

4 hours ago, mikeszekely said:

I get the feeling that MS Legends are too small for CHUG.

Strong Man is definitely the biggest of Magic Square's "minibots," but certainly not CHUG scale...

[M'Kyuun]

Beat me to it, Tekering. Thx for the comparison pic.  The official legends figs are not only taller, but also chunkier compared to the Magic Square, which hues much closer to the animation, and which, I believe, is in its own scale apart from official toys. In truth, my old IGear matches proportionally better with the recent legends releases, but Strong Man is such a beautiful fig that I have him displayed as well with the rest. Unlike most collectors, I have multiple versions of characters on my CHUG shelves- it doesn't bother me, and space is at a premium.  I could put up a dedicated shelf somewhere I suppose, for a 'definitive' assortment, but my care factor is off-scale low. Anyway, I keep hoping, as they churn out these G1 inspired legends figs, that they'll eventually give us a faithful version of Huffer, as I don't think Has/Tak have produced one since the original. He was a rather notable character in the first season, showing up and playing active roles in any number of episodes, especially hauling Prime's trailer in the ep where Megs uses all the Decepticon power rectifier chips to cheat in one-on-one combat. That gives me hope, as Earthrise Prime is coming with his trailer (it's such a useless accessory, and yet such an integral part of the whole character), and it offers the perfect opportunity for Hasbro to release a Huffer fig that can haul it too. Fingers crossed.

[mikeszekely]

One more bit about Siege repaints, probably the last for awhile.  I found the Walmart-exclusive Voyager-class Siege Soundblaster at my local store, and I gave up looking in stores but found the Walgreens-exclusive Deluxe-class Siege Ratchet at Walgreens.com.

Soundblaster is pretty much a straight repaint of Soundwave, which is fair because that's pretty much what the G1 version was, too.  In keeping with the G1, the only major mold change is that he's got a chunky, protruding chest door.  The black looks sharp, though, and the reds are a brighter, orangier color than the pinkish hues on Soundwave.  Plus he's got the red eyes I wish that Soundwave had.

Ratchet, meanwhile, has a surprising amount of remolded parts.  His head is different, his shoulders are different, his shins are different, his forearms are different, his pelvis is different, and while you can't really see it from this angle his bumper and his wheels are different.

As far as accessories go, Soundblaster has the same accessories as Soundwave- a rifle, a shoulder cannon, and a gun that unfolds and can be used to connect his other weapons.  Ratchet, meanwhile, trades Ironhide's hammer cannon thing for a boxy thing at the end of a multi-hinged stick, a wrench, and something that could either be a pistol or a medical tool.

I covered articulation and 5mm ports when I reviewed Soundwave and Ironhide, so I won't get into it again.  Suffice to say that you'll be able to arm up Soundblaster the way you'd want, and Micromaster Ravage and/or Laserbeak can fit into his chest.  Ratchet can hold his tools, and the hinged stick is mean to go into his back and hold one of his tools over his head.

Your mileage may vary, but I'll mention that the stick on the backpack box is badly warped out of the box on my copy.  It leans to one side, plus it's kind of twisted, so if you try to plug it in straight it winds up a little toward Ratchet's right shoulder, aimed slightly to the right.

Soundblaster's alt mode is is the same unconvincing "spaceship" that Soundwave got.  I like the translucent red cockpit, but I kind of wish they'd done a little more with the repaint, like painting the molded missiles at the front of the ship.

Ratchet turns into a space van, like Ironhide, with the same gaps around his biceps.  I have to say, though, that I think Ratchet pulls it off a lot better.  The fact that his shoulders are white lends the vehicle a cohesiveness that the random gray on Ironhide was lacking.  The new bumper actually looks more like a bumper, and the new molded detail on his shoulders is evocative of an ambulance's light bar.

Ratchet has an official third mode, although it's less a mode and more a "hey, if you only get halfway through the transformation it kind of looks like the sled the G1 toys came with."  Basically his legs are pegged together, his head is tucked away and the torso swiveled into van mode, but that's about it.  But you can plug in his accessories, and yeah, it is kind of like the G1 toy's sled or a mobile med bay.  The new molding on the forearms even comes into play, as you can see that the molded details look like little tools laying on them.

So there we go.  Soundblaster looks good, but feels less necessary.  I wouldn't lose sleep if you can't find one, but if you do see one and you like the colors he's no worse than Soundwave.  But I do recommend you try to hunt down a copy of Ratchet.  He pulls off the mold better than Ironhide does, and the new accessories and remolded parts show that they put some care into him instead of just cashing in on an obvious repaint.

[M'Kyuun]

Thanks for the reviews, Mike. It looks like Jackson Pollack went apeshit on both Soundwave and SoundBlaster with that excessive battle damage. Sheesh! I skipped on the Siege Soundwave in anticipation of a second release with a dedicated cassette player mode. I'm guessing that'll probably confuse some of the younger kids who collect these things, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it'll come to pass. G1 Soundwave was one of my favorite characters in the series, and remains so today. He had, arguably, the best gimmick, aside from transforming, with his cassette minions popping out of his chest to do his bidding. Pure awesome. 

I checked out EmGo's Ratchet review yesterday, and, though I had seen or read a previous review and knew that there were quite a few remolded parts, it was a nice refresher that made me appreciate the figure more. I've been to one Walgreens thus far, and they didn't have him, so I'm going to have to check again or resort to online. I may try another one in my area today, as I have an appointment, and there's one located nearby. While the mold didn't exactly floor me with Ironhide, it's still pretty good, and I must admit I'm a sucker for the 'box on the hinged stick', which is meant to be his cannon, or rocket launcher if you will, that was part of the G1 toy's sled, and was actually depicted more with Ironhide (deployed from his back in the third ep when he's "tired of sucking their vapor trail" and flies after the Decepticon ship; and again in the second episode during the Sherman Dam scene, he and Bumblebee "make a new river" with Bee manning the said cannon in the back of Ironhide's van mode.  Good stuff.). As an aside, I was so, so hoping that cannon would be integrated into MP Ironhide's back to reenact those scenes- alas, no. Anyway, hopefully I'll run across a copy of Ratchet today as the total package, IMHO, is superior to what we got with Ironhide, and it'd be nice to have both. 

Edit: Walgreens run was a success. Amazing sculpt-work all over this figure; it's really a shame they didn't give it a wash, or some dry-brushing, or just a spot of paint here or there to pick out details. The accessories in my copy are all in perfect shape (no warping of the hinged stick for his cannon), but the back wheels have a little too much play and don't turn very well, almost not at all on a smooth surface. Lamenting the omission of rubber tires. Nice looking Ratchet figure. I'm not a big fan of plugging weapons in all over the vehicle mode, and I discovered that all of his weapons will fit snugly in his legs, just in case there are any like-minded souls out there.

Edit2: On Saturday, I mentioned coming across a Shockwave and Sideswipe figure in Generations packaging that I couldn't identify. Well today, as I picked up my Ratchet, a shelf tag next to him had the info: Generations Cyber Battalion. I never heard of this line before today, nor have I ever seen the toys anywhere but Walgreens. Anyway, they look a little simpler than the Siege toys, similar to the Cyberverse toys, based on the eponymous cartoon. I guess they're a continuation of that line. Anyway, I won't lie: Shockwave doesn't look too bad, nor does their Jetfire, which I probably would have bought had they had it. Anyway, just thought I'd follow up.

Edited November 6, 2019 by M'Kyuun

[mikeszekely]

13 hours ago, M'Kyuun said:

Edit2: On Saturday, I mentioned coming across a Shockwave and Sideswipe figure in Generations packaging that I couldn't identify. Well today, as I picked up my Ratchet, a shelf tag next to him had the info: Generations Cyber Battalion. I never heard of this line before today, nor have I ever seen the toys anywhere but Walgreens. Anyway, they look a little simpler than the Siege toys, similar to the Cyberverse toys, based on the eponymous cartoon. I guess they're a continuation of that line. Anyway, I won't lie: Shockwave doesn't look too bad, nor does their Jetfire, which I probably would have bought had they had it. Anyway, just thought I'd follow up.

The Cyber series is considered an offshoot of Generations, developed by Hasbro's Global Development Organization.  Don't hold me to this, but I think the intention was to develop larger figures cheaper than your standard Deluxes and Voyagers for some Asian and Latin American markets.  TRU used to carry them, but presently Walgreens is the only place I know of that stocks them in the US.  They started off as upscaled Legends-class figures.  Newer waves featured new molds, but they still borrowed a lot of engineering from previous Legends-class figures.

Prior to Siege, Cyber Battalion Shockwave was pretty popular with CHUG collectors because he was the first real Voyager-sized, G1-ish option for a Shockwave.  The articulation on them is pretty poor, though, and aside from Grimlock and Bumblebee every character in the Cyber series has a Siege counterpart.

[M'Kyuun]

Thanks for the info, Mike. After I posted my second edit, I watched a couple of vid reviews of Battalion Shockwave and Jetfire, and yeah, these were made to gain brand appeal in foreign markets, they are made cheaply with fair to poor articulation, and they're around voyager scale, although I encountered a bunch of legends scaled figs during my visit to Walgreens, who happen to be, as you mentioned, the sole retailer for these things. They've been around since 2017, but Saturday was the first time I'd ever seen them. It's a shame that the build quality and articulation are so poor, as Shockwave looks pretty nice, with some nice paint apps, and I like the spaceship mode, simple as it is, better than the Siege. Anyway, the large figs are just shy of $17, and with large hollow areas and basic articulation (Shocky has no knee joints), I'm glad I put him back.  Gotta admit, there was a slight thrill of discovery, though, and with a little more articulation, he would have made a nice stand-in for CHUG.

Target has Siege Shockwave on sale for $30, so I went ahead and ordered him online, and he should be on my doorstep next Tuesday. Like the vast majority of Siege figs, I think I'll like him much better in hand. If nothing else, he has a nice bot mode.

[Kuma Style]

Got Flame Toys' star Saber in hand. First thought just looking through the clear box part is that it's way smaller than I expected. Haven't unboxed but eyeballing it doesn't look any bigger than Drift.

[sh9000]

The ReAction Transformers remind me of Action Masters.  Pretty expensive for each though.

[Kuma Style]

Hmmmm...

[Kuma Style]

[Kuma Style]

[Hikaru Ichijo SL]

On 11/6/2019 at 8:55 PM, Kuma Style said:

That is just bloody beautiful.

[Kuma Style]

1 hour ago, Hikaru Ichijo SL said:

That is just bloody beautiful.

A freaking men.

[Kuma Style]

[Kuma Style]

 

[Scyla]

6 hours ago, Kuma Style said:

*snip*

Nice video Kuma, I was really looking forward on your opinion of that toy. 

I was under the impression that for the plain Saber mode you ought to remove the outer leg armor and remove the armor around the forearms and shorten the arms to make the figure more proportional. It also gives the forearms a shape that resembles the one Saber had in the Victory cartoon.

Also when you extend the ankles there is a mechanism that rotates the "claws" placed over his heals upwards. I assume to give it more range of motion and get them out of the way. There are also springs in the claws and the forearms and on the "cockpit" section of the backpack. The one in the backpack is so it gets out of the way and snaps back. Haven't found a reason for the springs in the forearm claws yet. 

After having some more time with this and playing some more with their Shattered Glass Drift, Star Saber really went up a notch in my appreciation. Both of my Drifts have this annoying, wobbling mid section in their torsos which makes them feel flimsier and of lower quality than they actually are. Star Saber on the other hand is solid as a rock and a joy to pose.

I'm just blinded by how awesome the engineering in Drifts legs is. It makes me forget all the issues like the play in the torso joint.

I really look forward to their Optimus. I don't even collect blue and red Primes but I don't want to miss out while I wait for a Nemesis recolor.

Edited November 9, 2019 by Scyla

[mikeszekely]

Take this with a grain of salt, but the rumor going around is that the next Commander-Class figure will be Sky Lynx.

[Kuma Style]

[mikeszekely]

It seems like another wave, the final wave, of Siege figures is hitting stores.  I haven't seen anything local yet, but I just received Voyager-class Apeface from Amazon.

Apeface is roughly the same size as the Seekers, which is fine, and at first blush hits a lot of the right notes with his purples, blacks, and whites.  The purple panel on his chest doesn't open, which is a bit of a bummer.  I think he's looking a little thin, especially if you ignore the big rivets off his hips.  I also think that the black on his lower legs isn't showing well, what with non-standard purple feet, the splatter all over his shins, and the fact that most of the insides of his legs are white.  I also think the nose of his jet sticks out too far above his head.

Apeface comes with three accessories.  He's got a gun, which I suppose is pretty similar to the G1 toy's, except that it's black instead of the pinkish red used for his wings.  He does have a Titan Master head, although it's a little different than usual.  I have him here with the stand-alone Titans Return Titan Master Apeface, and aside from having a bit more color you can see when I turn them around that the newer toy has the robot mode face on his calves instead of his back.  Looks to me like the older Titans Return version is based on the toy, while the newer face looks more like the cartoon.

In my zeal to do that comparison I forgot to show that he also comes with a shield of sorts.  It's very G1, and you'll see it in the following pictures.

Apeface's head is a Titan Master, so it's basically a tiny ball joint in the Titan master's neck.  He can swivel his head and it's got minimal bobble.  His shoulders are hinged swivels that provide rotation and 90 degrees of lateral extension.  His biceps swivel, and his elbows bend 90 degrees.  No wrist swivels, but they do fold in for transformation.  No waist swivel, either.  His hips can go 90 degrees forward and slightly over that laterally, but kibble on his butt limits his hips' backward range.  His thighs swivel.  His knees can bend 90 degrees.  The front of his foot can bend up and down.  It's tabbed in place by default, but if you untab his foot he's got 90 degrees of ankle pivot.

Apeface has 5mm ports for Siege accessories on the outside of each shoulder, on the outside of each forearm, four on his back (one on each wing, two under the cockpit), one on each calf, and two under each foot (one on each toe, one on each heel), plus of course his fists.  And yes, you can of course use other Titan Masters for his robot mode head.  I daresay I kind of prefer the older Titan Master Apeface, if only the eyes were painted.

Apeface is a triple changer, and one of his modes is a jet.  And... I don't know, you guys.  I know that the G1 toy was pretty blocky, and the chances of getting the sleek cartoon design was pretty nihl, but as amazing as it sounds I think that the new Apeface is actually worse.  The original G1 toy had more black showing on the sides (making some of the white plastic used on the inside of the robot legs an even more baffling decision).  The black sides of the G1 toy's jet also had angled protrusions that extended past the white, giving the impression that they could be engine nacelles.  The wings on the G1 toy were just a little behind the cockpit, so there wasn't a huge swath of white.  Instead, with the wings and tail a little farther forward, the robot arms stuck a little further out of the back like engine exhausts.  Siege Apeface is a roughly square brick with some jet bits tacked on.  I'd concede that it's probably hard to make a robot turn into a jet and a gorilla, but the cockpit and nose are poorly-designed and poorly-colored.  Whether you're going by the cartoon model or the G1 toy, the blue canopy dominated the cockpit.  Most of the nose what white on the top, and black on the bottom, with just the tip being that pinkish color.  instead we've got only the tiniest of blue peeking out of a mostly pink nose, with just the barest of white accents and no black.  It just looks wrong.

I think the wrongness of the jet mode is compounded by the fact that the cockpit doesn't open.  This is because it's largely hollow inside, making space for much of the gorilla's head.  Instead, there's a blue canopy on the back of the jet that the Titan Master can sit in, but to access it you have to pull the shield with the vertical stabilizers off.

As for 5mm ports, you have one on each side just in front of the wings, two more on each side near the back, two under the nose, one on each wing, and one in the middle between the wings.  That last one, though, you really need for plugging the shield in to complete the jet.

Apeface's other mode, the mode for which he's named, is a gorilla or some other large ape.  I think pulls off the ape mode better that the jet mode.  That's not to say that it's perfect, mind you.  It's more that the G1 toy's ape mode was a hot mess.  Siege Apeface's squarish body is actually working for him here, and as a result he doesn't suffer from the weird back bend and odd head placement that the G1 toy did.  While is robot arms are still hanging off of his ape hips they are, at least, curled up and not sticking straight up with his fists in the air.  Now, the downsides are that the jet cockpit and wings aren't as hidden as they were with the G1 toy, but that seems to be an acceptable trade.

I never really saw the logic in an ape alt mode... it's like you're trading one (mostly) bipedal form with opposable thumbs for another, just with somewhat different proportions.  Maybe just stick with robot mode, because the ape mode's articulation isn't the best.  The head is on a ball joint, but it's very limited in its ability to turn or even look up and down, necessitating the need for the torso to be angled if you want the head to look straight forward.  His shoulders are on ball joints so they can rotate and extend almost 90 degrees laterally, but his biceps don't swivel and his elbows only bend maybe 30 degrees.  Just as well, you kind of need them to prop the torso up.  His wrists can bend up/down, but his fingers are molded into that curl.  Again, no waist articulation.  His ape hips can rotate a little, but they're hindered, and they don't have any lateral movement, and there's no thigh swivel.  His ape knees can bend 90 degrees.  His ape feet can bend up and down but no pivots.

He's got a 5mm port on each bicep, two on each money hip, on on either side of his head, one on each pec, and five on his back (on on each wing, one between the wings, two on the cockpit).  This does allow him to store all his accessories.  Now, I think on the G1 toy the headmaster made up the ape head, right?  Most of the ape head is already present.  You just insert the Titan Master with the robot face pointed backward to give it it's eyes and forehead.

I must confess that I think Apeface is a little disappointing.  He's a mediocre robot with a mediocre ape mode and a terrible jet mode.  In Hasbro's defense, though, it seems like a difficult design work with; the G1 toy was a mediocre robot, mediocre jet, and a lousy ape, and even a 3P "MP" effort like KFC's Kingorilla was a mediocre jet and sported huge backpacks in robot and ape modes.  I still find some of the aesthetic choices questionable, though.  Unless you're really into the character, I think I'll give this one a pass... even as I hope for an eventual War for Cybertron Snapdragon.

[Firefox]

I just wish they come out with Snapdragon

[M'Kyuun]

'Preciate the Apeface review, Mike. I've got him PO'ed through Hasbro Pulse, so no telling when he'll ship. Overall, for a triple changer, he's not too bad, if a bit chunky. As you pointed out, that all-pink nose kinda ruins the look a bit- I'd rather they'd casted it in white and painted the tip pink to mirror the G1 toy. And too, it would have been nice if the canopy was larger and the jet's cockpit accommodated the headmaster. So many of the TR/PotP figs were well done in this regard, and it seems odd that they would omit it from this design, esp when the G1 toy did it. Oh well, it is what it is. I've poor talent with paint, but I'm sure a few customizers out there will paint their figs to look more appropriately G1ish, and I look forward to seeing how they turn out.

SnapDragon seems a foregone conclusion to me. All the way around it had better looking alt modes, especially that SR-71 inspired  jet, and arguably, a better looking bot mode than Apeface. The Dragon mode always looked more like a T-Rex to me, and I've no problem with that at all.  So, hopefully, if not in the near future, then at NY Toy Fair, we'll get our first glimpse of a minty new SnapDragon fig that is done well. If they can approximate KFC's Kingzilla, scaled down and with a shorter beast torso, then I'd be pretty pleased. Just for giggles, here's a fully transformable LEGO version built by Alan Yuppie. If someone can make one this good from LEGO, Hasbro has no excuse.

[sh9000]

G1 Snapdragon was one of the Transformers I had as a kid.  I kept it in robot or jet mode the most.  Years later I bought a sealed one and I still have it.  Glad I never sold it.  I might get that KFC Kingzilla.

[Kuma Style]

[Hikaru Ichijo SL]

2 hours ago, Kuma Style said:

Dang, that is so awesome. I love the Saber with Star Saber.

[Kuma Style]