The Transformers Thread (licensed) Next

[anime52k8]

11 minutes ago, mikeszekely said:

Conformation came that Ultimate-class Skylynx does, in fact, split into both the Sky and Lynx portions.  I wonder how articulated that neck is?  either way, I'm not to broken up about missing the ol' Combiner Wars one anymore.

Skylynx will have his traditional shuttle-with-a-box mode.  But I like that when they're separated Lynx isn't just a box; he'll have a base mode that serves as a launch platform for the shuttle.

Anyway, all four of these figures look like winners to me.

 

This is a glorious, magnificent work of art and I need it NOW.

[sh9000]

I need that Scorponok.  Maybe Sky Lynx.

[JB0]

2 hours ago, anime52k8 said:

This is a glorious, magnificent work of art and I need it NOW.

Speaking of magnificience... the shuttle mode has an 80s NASA logo and orbiter name painted on it.

Sky Lynx transforms into the STS Magnificience.

[anime52k8]

1 hour ago, JB0 said:

Speaking of magnificience... the shuttle mode has an 80s NASA logo and orbiter name painted on it.

Sky Lynx transforms into the STS Magnificience.

I didn't even see that but now I want him even more.

[JB0]

19 minutes ago, anime52k8 said:

I didn't even see that but now I want him even more.

It IS fantastic, isn't it?

[M'Kyuun]

It is. Out of these four reveals, Sky Lynx impresses me the most, and I've never really cared about him. This is a good looking toy.

[Mechapilot77]

sky lynx looks really good.  up there with their jetfire release last year and maybe even better (well if you like sky lynx .... i'm so so on him but this is looking like a great toy).  wonder how big it will be.  yesterday i saw it being called commander class like jetfire (whose ovearll mass would not be large enough for a big skylynx), but today its ultimate?  either way it needs to be more massive than jetfire was i think.  .  wonder how it wills scale with the potp predaking (Which is titan class), as they were seemingly arch enemies IIRC.  if its too small to go with that, maybe i can make my feral rex relvant again by having them fight?  haha

[mikeszekely]

5 hours ago, Mechapilot77 said:

yesterday i saw it being called commander class like jetfire (whose ovearll mass would not be large enough for a big skylynx), but today its ultimate?

I think Commander is right.  Ultimate might be my bad.

Anyway, couple more reveals, courtesy of Hasbro by way of TFormers.com (hence their obnoxious watermark).

Voyager-class Megatron

Deluxe-class Smokescreen

Deluxe-class Airwave Modulator

And then, although the images are a tad tiny, Walmart gave us our first look at Deluxe-class Allicon, Voyager-class Quintesson, Deluxe-class Runamuck, Voyager-class Snapdragon, and Leader-class Doubledealer.

I'm not really feeling Airwave Modulator or Doubledealer, but I'm in for the rest.  I can't help but feel like Hasbro's taking advantage of us, though, what with the releasing new and better versions of toys we literally just bought (Prime, Smokescreen, Starscream, and Megatron, plus who knows if they'll do more Datsuns and Seekers).

[Tking22]

Why does this new little Earth Rise of whatever Arcee have a far superior chest and head sculpt to the expensive "Masterpiece" MP-51? That's crazy. This isn't third party vs Takara, this is all Takara, and the cheaper mainline figure looks better then the collector grade Masterpiece figure. Obviously the MP looks much better in some areas, far superior alt mode of course, but I'm honestly hard pressed to say it has a better robot mode. 

[mikeszekely]

I got an oil change yesterday, and stopped by the Target by the dealer.  Nada.  Today I ran out of bread so I swung by my local Target after dropping my kid off at school.  They had no Deluxes, and while they were well-stocked on Voyagers they were pretty much all Siege Thundercrackers.  They did have Astrotrain with the Earthrise packaging, and a few Earthrise Micromasters.

Oh, and this guy: Earthrise Leader-class Optimus Prime.

When this Prime was first revealed I thought, based on his overall aesthetics, he might be a retool of Siege Prime (left).  Then I noticed the wheels on his back and the way the fuel tanks tuck into his thighs, and I thought maybe it was a retool of Studio Series Bumblebee Prime (right).  But I'm happy to report that he's pretty much an entirely new mold.  One Hasbro clearly put a lot of love into; his hands tuck away, but instead of hollow forearms he's got flaps like an MP or 3P figure.  While he's got the usual light-gray plastic on his thighs and pelvis he's sporting silver paint on his ribs, ab-grill, around the windows and windshield wipers, on his smokestacks, on his face and headcrest, on the vent on his chest, on the vents on his chest and shins, and on his toes.  I'm not sure if it's just the plastic (although the color is different compared to his legs), but his hands and head might be painted or have some kind of finish as they have a metallic sheen.  The windows are molded in red plastic, but silver paint was applied to the inside before translucent blue "glass" was attached.  The proportions are good, and he's lacking the splatter that was so prevalent in Siege.  He's not totally perfect.  He's got wheels on his back, and gray plastic for his biceps and elbow joints, plus a lot of the inside and backs of his lower legs (I originally thought that they must transform somehow, like the SS version, but nope, it's just gray for no reason).  The wheels are visible on the outsides of his legs, and he's missing the little squares of fuel tanks.  Most noticeable to me is that they painted the yellow bits on his hips, but didn't paint the yellow on his crotch.  Still, we're talking about a mainline Hasbro figure, not a Takara MP or some 3P figure, and on that note this blows pretty much every G1-ish mainline Prime out of the water, including the Siege Voyager and the Power of the Primes Leader-class.

Just in case you needed a little extra comparison, here he is with Siege Leader-class DotM Prime and the original G1 toy.

Of course, you probably noticed that Prime himself is more or less exactly the same size as the previous Siege Voyager, but I did say this is a Leader.  What does that extra money get you, besides paint?  Why, you get Prime's ion rifle, of course.  It seems a tad chunky, and I'm not a huge fan of the unpainted gray pegs, but on the other hand it's cast in that gray plastic and the black color is paint.  You get the Matrix.  The Matrix seems to be cast from a solid piece of translucent blue plastic, so all that copper and silver color you see there is more paint.  Finally, you get a trailer.  The trailer is made from two different gray plastics, with silver paint on the rims, blue paint for the stripes, and a red tampoed Autobot insignia.  Some white in the stripe would have been nice, but it is what it is.  The trailer has a trio of 5mm peg holes on the bottom, plus some folding landing gear for standing up on its own.

Prime's head is on a ball joint that can look up and down a fair amount, plus a little bit sideways in addition to swiveling.  His shoulders can rotate and extend 90 degrees.  Due to his transformation, he's also got some backwards butterfly motion.  His biceps swivel, and his elbows can bend 90 degrees.  His wrists can swivel, and his fingers pinned at the base and can open like an MP carbot's, which is rare for a mainline figure this size.  His waist swivels, although it gets caught up on the wheels on his back and can only turn about 45 degrees in either direction unless you start to unfold them.  His hips can bend 90 degrees forward but only about 30 degrees backward (again, due to the wheels on his back).  They can also extend 90 degrees laterally.  His thighs can swivel.  His knees are a single joint, but they can bend 140-150 degrees.  His feet don't bend, but you can bend his toes or his heels downward if you like.  And his ankles can pivot about 60 degrees.

Although his hands open, they're still basically molded into 5mm pegs, and that's how he holds his gun (or other Siege accessories).

In addition to his hands, Prime has 5mm peg holes on the sides of either shoulder, out the outside of each forearm, in the middle of his back, on the outside of each leg between his wheels, and two on the underside of each foot.  While they can be used for a variety of accessories, as previously mentioned his rifle folds out and you can use the peg on the side to store the rifle on his back.

The Matrix stores inside Prime's chest, as you'd expect.  You'll note again the copious molded detail and silver paint inside.  Since Prime's hands can open he can kind of hold the Matrix, but without forward butterfly joints he can't bring his arms forward enough to grab it with both hands at once.

We can't forget about the trailer.  It opens, similar to the G1 toy.  Inside you'll find four more 5mm ports on either side, a 5mm peg on the trailer floor, and another 5mm peg on the ramp (a ramp which has those notches and can be attached to Siege Omega Supreme, and presumably Scorponok and some of the other upcoming Earthrise figures (but NOT the older Titans Return/Power of the Primes bases).   You'll also find the repair drone, which has a decent enough sculpt but I can't help but be disappointed by the the fact that the whole thing is done in two kinds of gray plastic.  With all the paint they used on Prime himself I'd have liked for the drone to be blue with a silver cockpit.  Oh, and the drone doesn't have it's antenna, nor does it have firing missiles.  But it does have a pair of 5mm ports on the front you can use for Siege accessories, including blast effect parts.

The drone's arms are ball-jointed at the shoulders, nothing at the elbows.  It can swivel where the bottom of the drone is connected to the armature holding it up, and that armature has three hinges.

Alas, the trailer does not come with Roller.  Perhaps Hasbro is planning a transformable Micromaster Roller?  I'd be down for that.

But that's still not all!  The drone comes off the trailer where the base of the armature connects to it via a pair of 5mm ports.  The armature itself has a 5mm peg on the front of the bottom segment, so it can attach to Prime on one of his 5mm ports (the instructions suggest the same one you use for storing his rifle.  Plus, you can pull a chunk out of the trailer's ramp, the one with the 5mm peg, allowing it too to mount on Prime.  Perhaps as a shield?

The engineering in Prime's transformation borrows from many Primes that came before it, in addition to offering some new tricks, and yet it remains surprisingly uncomplicated.  Some of the cab's sides and and front are flaps, including grill, headlights, side windows, just above his front fenders, but instead of tucking into a big backpack they actually fold in and curl up into his chest.

Size-wise, it's every so slightly smaller than Siege Prime or Bumblebee Prime.

Of course, Prime can pull his trailer, like Studio Series DotM Prime or the G1 toy, but this is where I think my single biggest complaint about this figure comes into play: the trailer is tiny.

While the trailer is of a similar width and even slightly taller than SS DotM's trailer, it's narrower and significantly shorter in terms of both height and length than the G1 trailer, even though Earthrise Prime's cab is similar in size to the G1 cab.

I'm not sure how I feel about the translucent blue on the headlights, the trailer could use some paint on the lights, and the door of the trailer is broken up with tech details.  It's still a very nice cab, though.  Again we have silver paint on the grill, bumper, around the headlights, on the cab stripe, a little on the front fenders, on the rear rims, and on the flip out fuel tanks.  Something to note about those fuel tanks is that they unfold from his thighs like SS Bumblebee Prime's, but unlike that figure Earthrise Prime's lower legs don't really transform, so nothing fills the gap they leave.  And since they don't lock into place, they're prone to getting pushed back in when you handle the figure.  Oh, and the fact that the front rims don't have silver paint is a little jarring (the rear wheels seem to be black plastic with silver, while the front wheels were cast in gray plastic and the black is paint).

The cab itself has a 5mm peg hole on either side and three on the back.  The hitch area has one on either side between the rear wheels, one in the middle between Prime's legs, and one on the edge of the passenger side.  You can use them to store the rifle, or even tow the repair drone.  If you want Prime to pull his trailer it attaches to one of the peg holes, but again it had three holes on the bottom, and the instructions even show his rifle folded up and stuffed onto the bottom of the trailer like so.  Of course you can open the trailer and store the rifle inside, too. 

Something I've kind of said more than once during this review is that this is not a perfect G1 Optimus Prime figure, but that this is also not a $150-$400 MP figure.  Sure, I was blown away by MP-10 when it came out, thinking that it was the kind of figure I wish the G1 toy was when I was a kid, but that was tempered by the fact that I'd bought an adult collectible.  So while there's a few details that are off, and it doesn't come with Roller, I'm still blown away by Earthrise Prime because this is the $50 mainline Optimus Prime I'd have loved to have had as a kid.  Needless to say, I can't recommend this figure enough.  While the quality of Hasbro's mainline figures have improved since the War for Cybertron Trilogy launched and I've been pretty happy with most of them, Earthrise Prime feels like a truly special figure that no Transformers fan should miss out on.  I can only hope that new Voyager-class Megatron is even half this good.

Edited February 21, 2020 by mikeszekely

[anime52k8]

Damn girl, you're... not quite as nice looking as Nicee despite not being saddled with any form of transformation. Still pretty cool though.

 

 

:edit:

 

And it looks like the twitter mob has ruined yet another good thing.

Edited February 22, 2020 by anime52k8
update

[JB0]

9 hours ago, M'Kyuun said:

It is. Out of these four reveals, Sky Lynx impresses me the most, and I've never really cared about him. This is a good looking toy.

As a kid, I wanted Sky Lynx so bad. Not because of the character but because he was a robot dinosaur space shuttle, which was most of my buttons in one toy. He's always been a favorite.

 

 

Speaking of pushing my buttons... I want that Windblade!

Edited February 22, 2020 by JB0

[M'Kyuun]

Y'know, those things you mentioned about Sky Lynx should have "pushed my buttons" as well- shuttles and big cats, and dinos, oh my!  Alas, I've seen the light, and given all that the Earthrise version offers, I'll almost certainly snag a copy.

That Windblade model's interesting. I like the look of the broken panels- just a neat mechanical look, although I'm not sure if it's really right for the character. Regardless, it's a non-transformable model, which greatly erodes its appeal for me. I'll wait to see what Big Firebird crank out for their Windblade. If it's anything like Nicee, it'll be beautiful---and transformable.

Thanks for the Optimus review, Mike. I'm hoping to stumble across him one of these rare times when I visit Target. I've purposely gone to two different Targets in my area already, and they had zip for Earthrise. I've yet to see a single Earthrise figure of any class. Kinda irks me when I see TFW posting sightings in other countries when they're not even showing up domestically. Good for you for snagging one. 

I'm hoping Hasbro will roll out some of those figs revealed by Walmart's system at Toy Fair this weekend. The Allicon looks cool, and I'm really curious to see Snapdragon's other modes. I really, really hope he turned out well- I've liked the look of him since I was a kid, but I never had the original, so I have high hopes for this figure to be good. It's gotta be better than Apeface, anyway. Pretty low bar to exceed. Not too plussed about ER megs, which borrows a lot from the Siege figure. I hate how they did his tank cannon; I wish they'd just found a way to integrate his fusion cannon into the alt mode, and give it some up and down movement. It doesn't seem like a tall order to me, but apparently it is. 

[sh9000]

I might need to get Allicon and Snapdragon as well.

[JB0]

2 hours ago, anime52k8 said:

:edit:

 

And it looks like the twitter mob has ruined yet another good thing.

Seriously? They already cancelled it?!

[anime52k8]

1 hour ago, JB0 said:

Seriously? They already cancelled it?!

They deleted their social media posts about it.

[JB0]

2 hours ago, anime52k8 said:

They deleted their social media posts about it.

*looks things up*

Oh. Well.

That seems to have gotten out of hand rather rapidly. Some thermonuclear drama bombs went off over there.

[M'Kyuun]

8 hours ago, Tking22 said:

Why does this new little Earth Rise of whatever Arcee have a far superior chest and head sculpt to the expensive "Masterpiece" MP-51? That's crazy. This isn't third party vs Takara, this is all Takara, and the cheaper mainline figure looks better then the collector grade Masterpiece figure. Obviously the MP looks much better in some areas, far superior alt mode of course, but I'm honestly hard pressed to say it has a better robot mode. 

I've stated the same opinion in a previous post. It's very odd that a retail figure would have better overall sculpt, especially in the face, and better proportionality, than a high end MP. At least the MP transforms, whereas the ER figure doesn't look to have much in the way of transformation at all.  Without the pesky challenge of making parts of her become the car, they were free to sculpt a nice action figure and just attach the forward fenders to her back.  I don't like that decision, but it is what it is. Lots of mixed reactions to it on Seibertron and TFW2005 going both ways. It is a nice looking Arcee, but I fear sacrificing the transformation in lieu of part/shell-forming her will become more of a trend, which is contradictory to what Transformers are supposed to be. At this point in the toyline's evolution, nothing short of perfect transformation should be acceptable. 

Not sure what the hubbub on Twitter's about, but having seen how things can escalate on the TFW boards, some folks really need to learn some restraint and practice a modicum of courtesy. A little goes a long way. 

[mikeszekely]

The whole Windblade thing is quickly escalated to the point where I'm just steering clear of the whole thing.  Whatever will be, will be; I'm not getting involved.

31 minutes ago, M'Kyuun said:

At least the MP transforms, whereas the ER figure doesn't look to have much in the way of transformation at all.  Without the pesky challenge of making parts of her become the car, they were free to sculpt a nice action figure and just attach the forward fenders to her back.  I don't like that decision, but it is what it is. Lots of mixed reactions to it on Seibertron and TFW2005 going both ways. It is a nice looking Arcee, but I fear sacrificing the transformation in lieu of part/shell-forming her will become more of a trend, which is contradictory to what Transformers are supposed to be.

I mean, yeah, ER Arcee definitely looks like she's wearing most of her alt mode on her back.  But to be frank, the same could be said for Generations Thrilling 30 Arcee.  The big difference is that a large chunk of the rear comes off of ER Arcee but folded in half and hung of T30's back.  Ok, sure, I'll grant you that part of T30's chest did form the nose of the car, and that doesn't seem to be the case on ER Arcee.  But ER Arcee looks like she's got a waist swivel and won't have those birthing hips, so I'll call it a fair trade.

39 minutes ago, M'Kyuun said:

At this point in the toyline's evolution, nothing short of perfect transformation should be acceptable. 

I gotta disagree here.  I mean, on an MP figure that costs hundreds of dollars then yes, I agree, the engineering should be a lot better than pulling a shell of faux parts out of a giant backpack and wrapping it around a super Sunbow action figure.  The newer Takara MPs are even more disappointing in light of some of the clever engineering some other companies are doing, especially UT's Bayverse stuff.  But on a $20 Deluxe saddled with the budget restrictions Hasbro imposes to hit that specific price point I'm going to cut the engineering a lot more slack.  As long as it's not a pain to transform I'm going to judge it more on articulation in robot mode and how it looks in both modes.  With the exception of her face (which might just need some red on her lips), ER Arcee looks like an upgrade over T30 (or in my case, Takara Legends Arcee) to me.

[JB0]

3 hours ago, M'Kyuun said:

Not sure what the hubbub on Twitter's about, but having seen how things can escalate on the TFW boards, some folks really need to learn some restraint and practice a modicum of courtesy. A little goes a long way. 

Apparently some folks found the plastic robot offensive, some folks found the offense offensive, names were called, both sides declared themselves the gatekeepers of the hobby and that the others aren't even really Transformers fans...

The last statement is probably even true. I'd bet most of the commotion on both sides is coming from people that just want to start trouble and think only children should play with toy robots.

 

And once it got going on Twitter, everyone registered all the accounts they needed to get it going everywhere. Because no one can have nice things anymore. We built this internet, now we have to live with the consequences.

[Scyla]

21 minutes ago, JB0 said:

...We built this internet, now we have to live with the consequences.

WE built this Internet???? No you built it, it is your fault!!!

I kid, I kid, we all know that Tim built it. Clearly he is to blame!!!

I wonder if we get a Kuro Kars Kuri version of Windblade (or Arcee, Nautica, Firestar). I would be all over those; so to speak.

Regarding the prototype I‘m not sure if I like the face sculpt but that could be because it is not painted. I’d also wish the bow on her back was bigger.

[JB0]

1 minute ago, Scyla said:

WE built this Internet???? No you built it, it is your fault!!!

I kid, I kid, we all know that Tim built it. Clearly he is to blame!!!

Everything is Al Gore's fault!11

 

I am with you on a potential Kuro version. I really like Windblade, and I'd like to see more done with her. Especially on the high end.

[M'Kyuun]

4 hours ago, JB0 said:

Apparently some folks found the plastic robot offensive, some folks found the offense offensive, names were called, both sides declared themselves the gatekeepers of the hobby and that the others aren't even really Transformers fans...

The last statement is probably even true. I'd bet most of the commotion on both sides is coming from people that just want to start trouble and think only children should play with toy robots.

 

And once it got going on Twitter, everyone registered all the accounts they needed to get it going everywhere. Because no one can have nice things anymore. We built this internet, now we have to live with the consequences.

I fear for the future of my species.

7 hours ago, mikeszekely said:

The whole Windblade thing is quickly escalated to the point where I'm just steering clear of the whole thing.  Whatever will be, will be; I'm not getting involved.

I mean, yeah, ER Arcee definitely looks like she's wearing most of her alt mode on her back.  But to be frank, the same could be said for Generations Thrilling 30 Arcee.  The big difference is that a large chunk of the rear comes off of ER Arcee but folded in half and hung of T30's back.  Ok, sure, I'll grant you that part of T30's chest did form the nose of the car, and that doesn't seem to be the case on ER Arcee.  But ER Arcee looks like she's got a waist swivel and won't have those birthing hips, so I'll call it a fair trade.

I gotta disagree here.  I mean, on an MP figure that costs hundreds of dollars then yes, I agree, the engineering should be a lot better than pulling a shell of faux parts out of a giant backpack and wrapping it around a super Sunbow action figure.  The newer Takara MPs are even more disappointing in light of some of the clever engineering some other companies are doing, especially UT's Bayverse stuff.  But on a $20 Deluxe saddled with the budget restrictions Hasbro imposes to hit that specific price point I'm going to cut the engineering a lot more slack.  As long as it's not a pain to transform I'm going to judge it more on articulation in robot mode and how it looks in both modes.  With the exception of her face (which might just need some red on her lips), ER Arcee looks like an upgrade over T30 (or in my case, Takara Legends Arcee) to me.

Thrilling 30 Arcee's hips formed the rear fenders of her car mode, and her chest formed the nose, for lack of a better term, which I think is a practical and satisfying solution for Arcee's transformation. Azalea mirrors that design, albeit with covers that slide over her thighs, but fold into her front fenders to form her shoulder pods. Good solution for a lithe figure. I do think that the big rear fairing on T30 was unfortunate, and could have been engineered a little differently to minimize or eliminate it, but it is what it is.  If Takara had eschewed the folding abdomen panel on T30, or cut it off at the waist line, then they could have given her waist rotation, as all her back kibble attachments are north of her waist. It's a woulda, coulda, shoulda bit of head-scratchery. The birthing hips are an unfortunate tradeoff on T30, but MMC were able to slim down the hip line marginally, and Fans Toys' Rouge's hips are perfectly aligned to her waist, giving her a very organic look, although her hips come apart and rearrange for car mode, IIRC. But for perfect transformation on a deluxe sized fig, I'm willing to accept wider hips. 

It's all subjective, and based on what each of us prioritizes. For me, it's transformation above all, but for others, aesthetics. In ER Arcee's case, I wish they could have found a better balance. But I must agree that ER Arcee is a better looking figure than her T30 predecessor, and indeed, the upcoming MP. The cost is her transformation, which I disagree with. Nonetheless, I'll still likely get her, as she'll have nice shelf presence. Hopefully today we'll get to see folks handling her at Toy Fair to give a better picture of how her transformation works and whether that big chunk of car can integrate with the bot mode better than a so-called hoverboard.

Mike, you're so on point when you mention Unique Toys. What those guys are doing for Bayformers is nothing short of revolutionary in engineering terms. I wonder how they'd approach a G1 Arcee, or a Windblade.

[mikeszekely]

We saw some of this yesterday, but yeah.

Deluxe-class Runamuck.  No complaints from me, save that I want Runabout, too.

Deluxe-class Allicon.  Not gonna lie, he's looking a little rough, especially with the arms hanging on arms thing.  It really looks like the alt mode head is a backpack, and the transformation is nothing more than putting it into place and and rotating the torso 180 degrees.

Voyager-class Snapdragon.  Better than Apeface.

Voyager-class Quintesson.  The "robot" mode is spot on.  I'm not exactly loving the alt mode, but considering that they didn't have alt modes in the cartoon it's fine.

Leader-class Doubledealer.  It could use some darker blue on the arms and legs, and maybe the head's a bit too small, but I think it's mostly on point.  The problem is, despite actually having a G1 Doubledealer as a kid, I just don't care enough about the character to be like, "I'm definitely spending $50 on this!"

These guys, plus Arcee, Scorponok, Megatron, Skylynx, Fasttrack, and Airwave Modulator are all up for preorder on Hasbro Pulse (nothing on Amazon yet).  Plus, if you hurry you can snag a preorder for Generations Selects Soundwave Spy Patrol, which looks like the only way you're getting a proper purple Rumble.

Edited February 22, 2020 by mikeszekely

[mikeszekely]

It's no secret that I'm a big fan of Siege and I'm really into what's coming in Earthrise, but the War for Cybertron isn't the only thing going on.  We have some Studio Series reveals, too.

Starting with Revenge of the Fallen we've got Deluxe-class Soundwave.  In case you thought a weird satellite is better than a Mercedes.

Voyager-class Scrapper, who I think looks pretty cool.

And to finish out Devastator we have Leader-class Overload.  Who, naturally, is most of Devastator's body and won't be out until October.  I'm not a fan of the chunk of Devastator's neck that's just sitting on Overload's bed, but if I'm being fair most of the Studio Series Constructicons have been kind of crappy figures on their own that we're just buying to make Devastator.

Also, not pictured, is Voyager-class Skipjack.  But he's literally just Rampage but yellow instead of red.  He seems to exist solely because the robot that appeared in the movie was red, but Devastator's foot in the movie was yellow.

Moving on to Dark of the Moon we have Voyager-class Sentinel Prime, who's looking way better than previous toys.

And Deluxe-class Topspin, who... meh.

Then we finish our journey with the Bumblebee movie.  We've got a Deluxe-class Cliffjumper who looks pretty freaking great (even if I suspect will get repainted as yet another SS Bumblebee).

Then last but not least we've got Voyager-class Blitzwing.  And... yeah.  I mean, the robot looks great.  But c'mon, Hasbro, if you can get licenses for movie-accurate cars you should be able to do it for movie-accurate planes, because that is NOT an F-4.  It actually looks like that crappy Nitro-series toy.

[anime52k8]

My brain is starting to hurt trying to process what is going on with Blitzwing's alt mode.

[mikeszekely]

Preorders are up on Amazon, now, too.  I ordered the Micromaster tapes, Arcee, Runamuck, Smokescreen, Fasttrack, Snapdragon, the Quintesson, Megatron, Skylynx, and Scorponok from Earthrise and Scavenger, Overload, Cliffumper, and Sentinel Prime from Studio Series.  I'll probably still get Allicon and Doubledealer, but I'm not committed yet.  As for Studio Series, the others (possibly including Skipjack) are more of a "if I see them while shopping at Target" thing, but I can definitely do without.

[M'Kyuun]

Hey Mike, I appreciate the heads up about the earthrise stuff availability on Pulse. Got my POs in.

Concerning the figs, I'm rather pleased with how Snapdragon turned out; he looks good across all modes, so a nice update. Thanks, HasTak. Po'd that sucker straightaway.

I went ahead and PO'd Runamuck b/c I wasn't sure if he was going to be an exclusive, and though I have no connection to the character, he looks like a decent take of a character rarely , if ever, done as a toy. I also got the cassette dudes. Yummy. I hope there's an ER Walkman specific Soundwave coming, too. Those cassettes need a home.

PO'd Sky Lynx, b/c, of everything shown thus far, it looks the most impressive to me. Brilliant update.

I think I'll wait and try to find Arcee and Smokescreen in the wild, as I usually have decent luck around my area with deluxes. Voyager and larger, not so much.

Doubledealer is a character I'm not at all familiar with, so I had to look him up. I have to say, the G1 toy had me kind of excited, especially for that rocket transport mode. Then I saw the ER update, and the hollow front end of the truck mode, and just the odd shaping of the front fenders, has me kinda dubious. It just doesn't look that good to me. The back of the truck looks great (love that the rocket can be positioned for launch, as well as those outriggers), and the bird mode looks ok, as well as bot mode, so I'm hesitant. I should probably just bite the bullet and get him, b/c I sense future regret if I skip him. Ah, decisions.

The Quintesson transformation is, um, creative. I think they did a great job on the Quintesson itself though, as the face sculpts look crisp. Yeah, it's just a render, but hopefully the actual will be done pretty close. Just the same, I never really had a desire to own a Quintesson, so I'm passing on him. The Allicon looks more like a Cyberverse figure than an Earthrise, given the startling lack of sophistication in its transformation. Just poorly done. Shame, b/c I believe this is the first time he's ever been offered in the main toyline, and they basically phoned it in. Pass.

Looking through the Studio Series stuff, I kinda dig that Scrapper, although I'm not crazy about his 'hands'. The leg design is cool, though. I clicked on Blitzwing while I was ordering up my ER figs, and was pretty disappointed to see that tragic jet mode they conjured up for him. Like Mike said, they can get all these expensive licenses for sports cars, but won't pay to use the likeness of an F-4? Sigh.

That Cliffjumper looks pretty good- recognizeable, and the Cybertronian car mode reminds me of the War for Cybertron game Bumblebee design. Not a bad thing, IMHO.

[mikeszekely]

I know Cyberverse is more of the kids line, but I also know plenty of collectors (myself included) started grabbing them once they started releasing actual Deluxes instead of Warrior-class or what have you.  If you want to know what you still need to complete that build-a-figure, here you go:

Hot Rod

Grimlock

Arcee

Thunderhowl

I haven't seen season two or three yet, so while I think Grimlock is a fine addition and I'm not exactly mad at Hot Rod or Arcee, I do wish that they'd done Windblade instead of one of them (since she and Bee are the basically the only Autobots outside of flashbacks for most of the first season).  As for Thunderhowl, maybe he's a bigger character in episodes I haven't watched?  But for now I'm I'm scratching my head wondering who the heck this guy is and while the entire wave is Autobots when we really need more 'Cons.  Where's Starscream, or Slipstream, or Soundwave?

[M'Kyuun]

I like the cartoony styling of Cyberverse Arcee, although it looks like she carries her entire car mode on her back. Sigh.  When it comes to Arcee, seems like all the engineers were out on smoke breaks. 

That's one funky looking Grimlock- not crazy about it. Thunderhowl, however, looks interesting, at least from that angle.

[sh9000]

https://dorksidetoys.com/collections/transfomers?page=2

[treatment]

TFW/TFW-forum seems to be getting slightly slashdotted right now, but here are some pics of ER-Arcee from the NYTF-2020...

https://news.tfw2005.com/2020/02/22/new-york-toy-fair-2020-transformers-war-for-cybertron-earthrise-images-405916

 

talk about baggages.

also, why the huge slippers...

 

 

Edited February 22, 2020 by treatment

[mikeszekely]

Oh, looks like ER Arcee's hoverboard can be attached to her back.

Anyway...

You guys might have heard that Netflix is going to have a show made by Rooster Teeth based on the War for Cybertron trilogy.  And now Walmart's got some preorders up for some figures based on the Netflix series.  They may or many not be Walmart exclusives, and it sounds like they ship in April.  Don't get too excited- there doesn't seem to be any new molds, they're all just repaints of Siege figures.  We're looking at Chromia, Hound, and Sideswipe, just even dirtier.  We're looking at Megatron in a box set with some Battlemasters.  Cool enough, I guess, if you missed those figures.

There are three figures with more extensive redecos than just more dirt, though.

Scrapface, a variant of Refractor with Smokescreen's colors.  Kinda neat.  I might pick him up if I see him at my local Walmart.

Decepticon Mirage.  Mirage wasn't my favorite Siege mold, but at the risk of sounding like Thew something about that purple and black color scheme is just working for me.  Preordered, I must have it.

Speaking of purple and black, here's Hotlink., aka "the purple one."  Honestly, I think there's too much black on him, and he's looking a bit too Skywarpy for me.  But what they heck, I might as well own every variant of this mold.  So, yeah, preordered.  While we're at it, can I get Bitstream and Sunstorm, please?

This might be the most curious piece of all.  It's the Ultra Magnus Spoiler pack.  It runs $60.  We don't know what's in there, aside from some kind of Ultra Magnus.  I mean, safe bet is a repaint of Leader Magnus, but what it is or what he's packed with that justifies the extra $10 and why his deco or accessories constitute a spoiler for the show I couldn't say.  I'm really curious to know what's inside, but at the same time I just installed the DNA kit on the Magnus I already have, and I'm not looking forward to buying another one, so...

[JB0]

4 minutes ago, mikeszekely said:

Decepticon Mirage.  Mirage wasn't my favorite Siege mold, but at the risk of sounding like Thew something about that purple and black color scheme is just working for me.  Preordered, I must have it.

Can we call it "Crasher" again?

6 minutes ago, mikeszekely said:

why his deco or accessories constitute a spoiler for the show I couldn't say. 

You misunderstand. It isn't a show spoiler. It is a wing you attach to Ultra Magnus to make him go faster.

[mikeszekely]

1 minute ago, JB0 said:

You misunderstand. It isn't a show spoiler. It is a wing you attach to Ultra Magnus to make him go faster.

That's not enough to justify a $10 markup.

...

It must be two spoilers.  One for the cab, and another, bigger one for his trailer.