The Transformers Thread (licensed) Next

[M'Kyuun]

"Preciate the heads-up, @mikeszekely. I'm going to PO Inferno, Huffer, and Dinobot.  I really hope there's more to Kingdom than this. If nothing else, the rest of the Dinobots and a new improved set of Constructicons would have been a nice way to close out the series. Shame they didn't do Gears; he could have stood an update from the T30 toy.

I just received my Ratchet and Lifeline yesterday, and Runabout on Tuesday. Got my shipment notification from Pulse this morning for Maverick. It's a nice slow trickle of incoming figures. I was a little disheartened that the same level of detail and accessories weren't afforded to ER Ratchet as the superior, IMHO, Siege version.

 

Just got all my POs in on Pulse: Huffer, Ultra Magnus, Inferno, Dinobot, and Airrazor. Of the bunch, I can't wait to get Huffer. I have several third party versions of him, but I've long wished for HasTak to make a version that fit with the Generations aesthetic, so I'm happy.  The other figs are good, too, with UM being the only questionable one. With his armor on, he looks pretty good, though. I just think it sucks that his cab mode looks like ass. I wish Takara had just made an Asian exclusive based around a white ER Prime- I think it would have been a far better looking toy all around.

Edited December 3, 2020 by M'Kyuun

[mikeszekely]

I preordered Magnus, Inferno, Dinobot, Airazor, Huffer, and Ractonite.

56 minutes ago, M'Kyuun said:

Shame they didn't do Gears; he could have stood an update from the T30 toy.

Strongly agree. The T30 toy was a good figure, but too heroic.  I want a dumpy cartoon Gears.

58 minutes ago, M'Kyuun said:

I really hope there's more to Kingdom than this. If nothing else, the rest of the Dinobots and a new improved set of Constructicons would have been a nice way to close out the series.

While Earthrise seemed kind of short, maybe due to COVID (I think a lot of the store exclusive packs we've seen this year were actually meant to be regular retail releases canned by COVID) Siege ran for four waves.  I'm sure we'll see more (a Tigatron repaint of Cheetor seems inevitable, with maybe a Gen Selects Ravage, and I'm hoping for Tarantulas and Terrorsaur to round out the Predacons).  We know that the Ark is coming, but we don't know what (if anything) will be the Commander-class release this time.

That said, I don't see them doing Devastator (or any combiners) again right now.  More Dinobots seem likely, but look for them in Studio Series '86 (where Slag is already rumored for the second wave).

[danth]

Huffer looks pretty awesome!

UM looks god awful.

[M'Kyuun]

3 minutes ago, mikeszekely said:

I preordered Magnus, Inferno, Dinobot, Airazor, Huffer, and Ractonite.

Strongly agree. The T30 toy was a good figure, but too heroic.  I want a dumpy cartoon Gears.

While Earthrise seemed kind of short, maybe due to COVID (I think a lot of the store exclusive packs we've seen this year were actually meant to be regular retail releases canned by COVID) Siege ran for four waves.  I'm sure we'll see more (a Tigatron repaint of Cheetor seems inevitable, with maybe a Gen Selects Ravage, and I'm hoping for Tarantulas and Terrorsaur to round out the Predacons).  We know that the Ark is coming, but we don't know what (if anything) will be the Commander-class release this time.

That said, I don't see them doing Devastator (or any combiners) again right now.  More Dinobots seem likely, but look for them in Studio Series '86 (where Slag is already rumored for the second wave).

Yep- toon styled gears, as awkward as he looked, would be fitting for ER. likewise Brawn.

I don't foresee any combiner stuff in this line, either, but one can wish. Perhaps in SS down the line. That seems to be a good way for them to stretch out releases over a greater time line, as the SS line seems to be a separate line with its own considerations apart from the main lines. If true, then it affords them a more flexible usage of their budget. If they decided to do the Constructicons in voyager scale, then they could do it much more reasonably over a year or two's span as individual releases, with more attention to detail and articulation applied to each bot, which would be my preferred way for them to redo them. I don't want a repeat of the lackluster CW version. I'd rather they took their time, crafted some nice looking Constructicons with full articulation, and give us a nice looking G1 Devastator without too many concessions.

Anyway, I think SS is going to turn out to be good thing down the road for G1 releases, as just about everybody from the OG series was in there at some point, and that opens an opportunity for more updated figs. I hope they use it a s such a platform. ER is a good line, but there are some stinkers in there, too ( Astrotrain, the van bros, and Arcee come to mind), and I wouldn't be opposed in the least if these and other not-so-well-done figures got a more quality redo in Studio Series.

I'd forgotten about the upcoming Ark figure, and like you said, there are very likely repaints for the BW figs coming, and some of the ER figs as well (pretty sure we'll get a Pipes from Huffer's mold), so yeah, I'll sit tight and wait to see what else they reveal. Seeing how well done Grimlock is, I can't wait to see Slag, and I hope they do the other three, or at least Sludge and Swoop, who appeared in the Movie. Poor Snarl- missed his 15 seconds of fame for some reason.

[mikeszekely]

This set, the Galactic Odyssey Paradon Medics, came a day sooner than Amazon said.

Unlike the Siege version, which had some parts remolded from Ironhide and all new accessories, Earthrise Ratchet is straight up Earthrise Ironhide with a new head.  Sure, sure, he's got a lightbar, too, but if you look at ER Ironhide you can see the slots where the lightbar gets attached.  Well, at least you can always take the tools that came with Siege Ratchet and let ER Ratchet play with them.

Something else is bugging me, and that's the colors.  I mean, at least he doesn't have black/dark gray hips, thighs, and chest hinge like the earlier promo pics, but something looked off.  Then I realized what it was.  Siege Ratchet, being the Cybertronian version, didn't bother me with all of his white and almost random red accents, but for an Earth-mode Ratchet the red stripes on his legs and red accents on his shoulders don't make up for the fact that Ratchet's hands and pelvis should be red.  And he doesn't look like he'd be easily disassembled to paint, either.

Van mode.  Y'know, I painted Ironhide's rims, but for Ratchet I think I'll have to pop the wheels off to paint the tires black, because they're molded gray.  I'm also a bit miffed that the red stripe stopped short of the torso parts, making him look a bit unfinished.  And of course, there's still the issue with the feet on the back.  Someone needs to make new feet for these guys soon!

Ratchet at least had a new head.  Lifeline (the fembot previously known simply as "Paradron Medic") is a straight-up recolor of Earthrise Arcee with no new parts.  But that's G1-accurate, so I guess I can't complain.  Actually, I want to point out the paint on her face and complain again that Arcee doesn't have painted lips.  Speaking of paint, just like Arcee the paint on her "bikini" doesn't go the whole way around, which is still a bummer.

Once again, it's really the backpack the turns into the car while the humanoid robot scrunches up underneath.  I do like the teal color, though.  And I'll note that Lifeline's got some gray paint on the sides that Arcee doesn't (despite her promo pics having them).  It helps break up the teal, and would help break up the pink on Arcee if she'd had it.  Which would be cartoon-accurate if she did.

Should you get this set?  If you want an in-scale Ratchet with an Earth mode (even if it's not the best execution) then yes.  If you have Siege Ratchet and can live with that, then pass. These are two of the weakest molds in the Earthrise line, only really beating out the weaponizers and modulators.

[M'Kyuun]

I got them for completion's sake, but I agree; both are notably weak designs in a line( I'm speaking of the entirety of WFC) that on the whole had a lot of good designs, and some very standout designs.

Hopefully, they'll do a better Arcee and Ratchet/Ironhide down the road. For my tastes, the T30 is still the superior Arcee fig.  I wish they'd shamelessly borrowed some ideas from Ocular Max's Azalea, as it would have helped ER Arcee immensely. As for the Vanette dudes, they need to start from scratch and make something better. I don't mind the Siege version, except for the terribly lazy feet; however, it didn't translate well, needing a huge partsforming roof and still retaining those awful obvious robot feet, which, had they just made a way for them to rotate 180, or at least the toes, as @mikeszekely mentioned before, with apropos details, they could have helped the shaping of the van mode. What a wasted opportunity to make something better. 

I'm aware of a couple 3P attempts to make better feet for the van dudes, but honestly, I've already spent more on these lackluster figs than I care to admit, and I just don't feel like wasting any more time, money, or effort on them. I'd rather wait to see if some 3P surprises us with one, which is highly unlikely, or wait for HasTak to take another crack at it, which will probably be a few years to a few decades away. It saddens me that 3Ps no longer dabble in the Generations scale beyond legends, as there are times when the official release is such a letdown that an alternative is a welcome beacon of hope. 

[mikeszekely]

Super Megatron didn't come.  The estimated delivery date was yesterday, which obviously didn't happen, so it changed to "delivery date pending."  Looks like it didn't even make it to the local FedEx hub yet.

This guy came, though: Transformers Collaborative Top Gun X Transformers Maverick.

Maverick's a bit of a departure from the other Transformers Collaborative figures.  For one, while the F-14 was obviously the true star of 1986's Top Gun, Goose and Maverick's F-14 is simply one of many F-14As used by the US Navy during the '80s, so it's not as unique or (arguably) iconic as Ecto-1 or the DeLorean Time Machine.  Two, Ectotron and Gigawatt were both packaged in retro G1-style boxes, but Maverick comes in a box that looks more like it was designed for a Top Gun toyline.  And three, while Ectotron and Gigawatt are heavy remolds of existing figures Maverick is, to the best of my knowledge, an entirely new mold.  As such he makes for a pretty tall figure, significantly taller than an Earthrise Seeker and even half a head taller than Siege/Earthrise Optimus or Megatron.  Despite his height he's a fairly thin figure with somewhat spindly limbs, which I think underscores some stuff I've said about jetformers in the past and the difficulty in making a toy that has cartoon-accurate robot proportions and turning into a real-world plane.  While I don't think Maverick looks awful, the aesthetic strikes me as something that might have appeared in one of the movie lines more than your typical boxy G1 character.

Speaking of the aesthetic, his head is designed to look like Tom Cruise's helmet from the film with the tampoed "Maverick" nestled in the red-and-white stripes over the top and the eagles swooping around his ears.  His face is interesting, though.  His eyes are a red visor, and he's got a face mask (that doesn't appear to be modeled after an oxygen mask).  White the mask is the same blue as the helmet on the actual figure the box art shows it silver, and the red visor and silver mask nestled in a blue head gives off some serious Soundwave vibes.  Really, while the packaging suggests (but doesn't outright say) that Maverick is an Autobot I've got half a mind to make him a Decepticon.  Maybe change his name to Nightflight...

Moving right along... Maverick comes with two not-particularly-accurate pylons with a pair of missiles molded into them, and two bombs (unless David tells me they're fuel tanks again) that have one end transform to become shotguns.  He also comes with bot-sized volleyball and two replacement volleyball hands, and Tom Cruise's motorcycle.  The motorcycle does nothing in either mode, so this is the last time I'll bother to mention it.

Maverick's head might be on a ball joint, but the shape of the helmet and underlying neck means that he can look down, but not really up, with a very slight sideways tilt.  And while he can turn his head, it only goes maybe 45 degrees in either direction and is forced to tilt downward as it turns.  His shoulders can rotate and move laterally over 90 degrees.  His biceps swivel, and his elbows bend nearly 180 degrees on a single hinge.  His wrists can swivel, and due to his transformation they can bend downward.  Unfortunately, like all-too-many jetformers, he lacks a waist swivel.  His hips can move forward and backward just over 90 degrees on friction joints, and laterally 90 degrees on soft ratchets.  His thighs can swivel, and his knees can bend 90 degrees.  With the flaps on his shins closed he doesn't have any real up/down tilt on his feet.  He does have an ankle pivot, although it's limited to 30-40 degrees.

Although his hands aren't molded into a fist the space between his fingers and thumb is still basically a 5mm peg hole, and that's how he holds his shotguns.

If you spin him around, you'll see disappointingly hollow thighs.  Also a pair of 5mm peg holes on his back, where his missile pylons can sit while he's in robot mode.  Unfortunately, one of the pylons is a bit loose.  Alternatively, if you leave the missiles off you could store his shotguns there.  One last thing to note on his back, and that's the small hole near the base of his spine.  You can use that with some flight stands, like the one that came with MP Tracks.  Oh, and note the molded-on arresting hook running up from that hole.  That's a nice attention to detail.

As for his hands, you can slide them off their mushroom pegs to slide on the alternative hands.  The alternative hands are more flat, with a thin peg at the top of the palms.  This peg fits into a small hole on the volleyball, allowing him to hold it securely or even pose like he's mid-game-winning spike.  It's a cute gimmick that references a (in)famous scene in the movie, sure, but to be honest the hands and ball (along with the bike and missiles) are probably going to end up in a storage bin.

And now for the mode everyone's been waiting for- the F-14.  It's slightly bigger than an Earthrise Seeker again, so the scale's again a bit off (given that the F-15 should be about two feet longer than the F-14).  The transformation is not identical to a VF-1 Valkyrie, but it's definitely in that ball park.  The biggest difference is probably in the shoulders and arms.

As for the appearance, I think it's fine. Yeah, the weathering looks kind of bad, but for a $50 Hasbro figure it's not the worst I've seen.  It's got most of the correct markings, including the VF-1 emblem on the vertical stabilizers, the 114 on the wings and nose, the two yellow lines on the nose, the rescue arrow and triangles on the nose, and Maverick and Goose's names and callsigns under the cockpit.  The one thing that seems to be off is that it's missing the US military aircraft roundel, instead featuring Northrop Grumman's logo.  I expect that it's got something to do with licensing.  And it even has a few marking lights picked out with paint.  As far as the shape goes, to my amateur eye it looks pretty spot on and mostly kibble-free, minus his thin arms along the belly, which I think should please some of the members here.  Landing gear's a bit weird, though.  The one in the front isn't terrible, if lacking paint on the molded wheel, but the ones in the back are in the wrong place and have a weird block shape instead of wheels.

A peak at the underside, and you can again see how clean it is save for the robot arms.  I guess they have to go somewhere; unlike Kawamori's Valks we're not starting with a aircraft explicitly-designed to transform.

You can also see that bombs attach to 5mm peg holes on what becomes his thighs, and the missiles are attached to ports near the glove vanes.  As they're the same place the end up in robot mode I'll complain again that the fit is a little loose.

Maverick does feature the variable geometry wings the F-14 is known for, and again you can mount the jet onto a flight stand, this time using a hole on either forearm (although the one on the rearward arm is back so far you might encounter balance issues).  Sadly, the canopy does not open.

While I write a lot about Transformers here this is still a Macross board first and foremost.  So the natural question to ask is "can it GERWALK?"  And the answer is mostly yes!  His knees don't bend forward, so you have to turn his legs 180 degrees at the thighs.  And you can work his arms right up to the back of his pelvis, but you can't quite get them around his hips.  Still, it's a lot close than most other jetformers get.

Maverick's ultimately a bit of an odd duck.  As I said, F-14s are cool but "Tom Cruise's F-14" isn't as unique or iconic as Ecto-1 or the DeLorean.  Indeed, I'm not sure that Top Gun has the same cultural cachet with us '80s kids as Ghostbusters or Back to the Future, and this feels less like Hasbro playing up nostalgia and more like a cash-grab movie tie-in (in fact, the dog tag on the box has the dates 05.16.1986 and 06.26.2020 printed on it- the date Top Gun hit theaters and the date Top Gun: Maverick was supposed to release pre-pandemic).  And as a toy, I think the jet mode is good but a dedicated toy or model might look better, and the robot is a bit thin and out-of-place aesthetically due to realistic attention paid to the alt mode.  It's tempting to say that he's a oddball, non-canon Transformer that doesn't fit in with your other Transformers figures so Transformers fans can pass, and F-14 or Top Gun fans can probably find a better representation of the F-14.  And that'd make him a pass, right?  Except I think the whole experience of this figure is greater than the sum of its parts.  I mean, I'm not a huge Top Gun fan (I've seen it once, in the early 2000s, and I thought it was kind of boring).  I like planes, but I don't feel a need for realistic depictions of them.  And Maverick definitely looks out of place with my other Transformers.  But I think I love this guy.  He doesn't give me the nostalgic warm-and-fuzzies that Ectotron and Gigawatt do, but he's still a cool figure with some interesting engineering that turns into something in an era where Hasbro is careful not to make the alt modes in Earthrise look too much like the actual G1 cars.  I think that counts for something, and if you're a fan of jets that turn into robots I recommend checking this guy out.

[M'Kyuun]

Good review, Mike. I'm still waiting for mine to show up- probably this week.

As a Macross fan precisely because of Kawamori's realistic jet modes, Maverick strikes a chord with me, as did G1 Jetfire back in the day. It's no secret that the VF-1 was inspired by the F-14, so it's cool that here we have a transforming F-14 inspired by the VF-1. Of course, this is still HasTak, so it lacks the refinement of a Macross design, but in the world of Transformers, where most jet modes are butchered all to hell, this stands apart as a step up, and I'm happy that they made it, even if, as Mike points out, the F-14 is not so iconic and singular a specialized movie vehicle as say Ecto-1 or the DeLorean.  As a Top Gun tie-in, though, it was never going to be anything else. Well, I guess they could have made it Cruise's bike, but compared to a fighter jet, that's pretty lame, even for Hasbro.

Unlike most TF fans, I've never been a fan of blocky bots turning into misshapen and otherwise concession laden jet modes. I consider it an artifact of simple and practical engineering practices in the 80's when toys were still considered for children, and little consideration was given to imparting realism if there was a gimmick involved, such as transformation, where the gimmick took precedence. Moreover, the designs often became even blockier than the toys to simplify the cartoon artwork, since it was all hand drawn and required hundreds, if not thousands, of separate cells. Thus the blockiness that is so cherished is an anachronism of simplistic design and rendering, and no one, I suspect, ever for a second, thought that people in their thirties and up would still be attached to these things thirty-plus years on, with toy technology of a caliber that we could only dream of as kids. I think, had they ever had an inkling of the longevity of this franchise, they may have tried a little harder, been willing to spend a little more, to improve the aesthetics of both toy and toon. Maybe. I'd love to pose the question to Hasbro, Takara, and Sunbow just to see if , had they some prescient notion, they would have attempted to improve anything.

Anyway, having watched and read a few reviews and read some forum chatter, I see far more negative criticism of Maverick than positive, mostly for the reasons Mike himself mentioned: too skinny, too lanky, not blocky enough, doesn't fit with the rest of their collection, and the paint job sucks, among others. Of these, the paint job is the only thing I would have liked to see done better. The other issue I have is with all the hollow spaces in bot mode, but it's become such a regularity with TF toys over the past five or six years now that it's basically par for the course, as the saying goes. But I applaud the design direction in its fairly accurate depiction of an F-14, while still transforming into a pretty well articulated bot. I wish this was the direction for all jet mode bearing bots going forward, but the shadow of nostalgic integrity looms profoundly over this franchise, and I fear that we're likely stuck with atrocious jets that turn into blocky bots so long as my generation remains the lifeblood of the fandom, which equates to about another roughly forty years or so before we 'all are one' pushing daisies. I'm curious, and also apprehensive, of what will become of Transformers after we've all tread our last and a wholly new generation, unburdened by nostalgia, takes the reigns. Will there even be interest at that point? I hope so. It's such a cool and fun concept, it makes for some really neat and oft sophisticated toys, and it offers infinite opportunities for storytelling, as well as mining the vast mine of lore already set down in toons and comics. 

[mikeszekely]

A little late, but Generations Selects Super Megatron arrived today.

Super Megatron's got some size on Siege/Earthrise Megatron, so I'll grant that he presents as an upgrade to Megatron.  However, as a remold of Titans Return Voyager-class Galvatron, he's quite a bit smaller than Generations Selects Star Convoy.  TFWiki asserts that they are, in fact, still in scale, but having read the Battlestars manga I don't buy that.

As a remold, his head, upper torso, bicep, and cannon are new parts, but his shoulders, forearms, hands, and everything below the waist is Galvatron.  The resulting figure is not particularly accurate, with fins above his shoulders instead of on them, wings folded onto his back instead of sticking up behind him, and legs that are very Galvatron-in-Megatron-colors instead of the sharp lines of manga.  Even his cannon is off, with extra molded detail along the barrel and a marked lack of boosters on the back.

Speaking of the cannon, that's his main accessory, and it has a bit of a transformation.  He also comes with a triple-barreled gun that stores inside of the cannon when it's not needed.

Being based on a pre-Siege toy I had some concerns about Super Megatron's articulation, but it's not too bad.  His head is on a ball joint and can look up a fair amount and tilt his head to the side, but looking down is nixed by the sides of his helmet.  Likewise, he can swivel his head, but the helmet gets caught on his collar.  His shoulders can rotate, and if you move the fins out of the way they move laterally over 90 degrees on a ratchet.  His biceps swivel.  His elbows are double-jointed and curl 180 degrees.  His wrists don't rotate, but they bend inward for transformation (on a weirdly detented hinge)  His waist can swivel, although you might have to move his wings.  His hips can move forward almost 90 degrees and backward about 45 degrees before his wings get in the way, plus they can soft ratchet laterally almost 90 degrees.  His thighs can swivel, and his knees bend 90 degrees.  HIs feet have a slight up/down wiggle, and although it doesn't have the best range he even has a bit of ankle pivot.

Officially, there's a peg hole on the back of the underside of his cannon, and it fits onto a peg on his right bicep.  I think that's better than TR Galvatron, whose cannon plugged into the front of his bicep, but I'd have preferred it attached to his forearm.

Super Megatron's alt mod was weird in the manga, being half spaceship with wings, a cockpit, and boosters in the back, but also half gun with a barrel for the nose and a grip dangling below.  Takara seems to have embraced the spaceship element, and it starts off ok.  The barrel and cockpit check out, the wings are a bit different but present.  It's a little thick, though, due to his arms simply curling up alongside, and the rear is totally wrong, lacking the boosters and instead being comprised of the back half of Galvatron's alt mode, but with treads on top.

And why on top?  Without any landing gear or anything his curled-up arms hang well below his legs, so the resulting... er, aircraft doesn't even sit level.  Aside from it not being "official" there's no reason you can't spin his waist 180 degrees so the treads are on the bottom.

Super Megatron isn't just Super Megatron... he's also Ultra Megatron!  You transform his cannon to form... a hollow mess that doesn't really resemble Ultra Megatron's arm cannon.  But you can put the triple-barreled guns on his shoulder, and his chest opens, spins 180 degrees, and closes back up to reflect some of the changes between Super and Ultra Megatron in the manga.  His wings also unfurl, and the reason they weren't so accurate in Super Megatron mode is because they were designed with Ultra Megatron in mind.  Unfortunately, his forearms don't also change, and from the waist down he's still Galvatron and not Ultra Megatron.

His head can also transform.  His forehead can rotate (which I forgot to do) to swap from the tampoed Super Megatron crest to the red jewel Ultra Megatron crest.  But his face can also spin 180 degrees, to reveal a new face that was never in the manga and, in fact, appears to be based heavily on The Last Knight Megatron.

The wings have hinges so they can stay clear of his arms, and the shoulder gun has a hinge so it can aim up and down.  My big complaint, though, is how bad his arm cannon looks.  the sides are a hollow mess and not at all evocative of the rounded weapon he's supposed to have.  Some molded circles hastily covered in red paint don't really look like weapon barrels.

Ultra Megatron had a pretty cool tank mode in the manga.  This one, not so much.  It's almost backward, with large treads in the front instead of the back, no cockpit, and the wings all folded-up.

This entire mode is inaccurate.  But more than that, it's almost like a fan mode that someone came up with after thinking Ultra Megatron had a tank mode, folding as much onto his back as possible and scrunching up the legs in a way that's different than jet mode but not at all like Ultra Megatron is supposed to look like.

For a figure based on an older mold I'm happy to say that Super Megatron is well-built, with tight joints and adequate articulation.  However, given the effort (and likely money) Takara put into remolding at least half the parts to turn Galvatron into Super Megatron I can't help but wonder why they didn't just make an entirely new figure, one better and more accurate to the source material?  In a vacuum I don't hate this figure, but it reminds me a lot of why I never bothered to pick up Star Convoy.  It's not really worth the asking price and not particularly accurate to the source material.  Ultimately, I'd suggest giving him a pass.

[M'Kyuun]

I received an unexpected but welcome package from Walmart today in the form of the WFC: ER Soundwave 3-pack. I ordered this guy last Monday when I got an in-stock alert and rushed to get a PO in. The EDD was 22 December, so imagine my surprise when I opened the box and saw this guy in all his G1 glory. as a side note, I hope yours is coming soon, too, @mikeszekely, as I know you've had difficulties with Walmart's delivering on POs in the past. Thus said, I'll leave it to Mike to do an in depth review, as he's got it down to a science, whereas all I can offer are ramblings and poor photography. 

Quick impressions: Bot mode is very G1, and his chest even pops open by pressing the release button on his shoulder. It never gets old. He comes with three weapons: his two batteries-cum shoulder launcher and pistol with extending barrel, just like the G1 toy minus the chrome, as well as an additional folding rifle the origin or significance of which I know not.  He comes with two cassettes (hence 3-pack) Ravage and Laserbeak, which are the same disappointing molds from Siege albeit with G1 accurate heads. Both fit snugly, one at a time mind you, into his chest. In cassette mode, Ravage's one flat side is painted to resemble a cassette, whilst Laserbeak's one flat side is painted to reflect the decals on the wings of the G1 condors. I do like that you can change the look of his chest depending on the mode, but it would have been nicer had the cassettes been better engineered to be flat on both sides like the original toys. This is one of the few cases where the G1 toys were better than their modern updates, and I'll never understand why they didn't maintain the real-world mini-cassette scale to work with both MP and the original toys. Soundwave's cassette recorder mode resembles his G1 self, mostly, from the front, although look at him from any other angle and the illusion is broken. Again, in recorder mode, the original toy did it better. ER SW's chest is nearly as thick as G1 Soundwave's alt mode. Since ER SW's arms also swing behind his back like the original, it creates a large unsightly protrusion on the back of the recorder. Also, unlike G1 SW, whose weapons, neatly disguised as batteries, stored away in a compartment on his back which also featured a handy belt clip, ER SW's head stores in his mini-backpack, and the weapons, still disguised as batteries, have no realistic compartment in which to reside, and so peg onto the backs of the legs awkwardly and unrealistically. Usually, when something has been done right, it's copied, but one must abandon any such expectation of Hasbro. I digress. One other difference is that although HasTak copied the basic shape of G1 SW's lower legs with the angled kneecaps, which filled in space in recorder mode on the G1 toy, they have them fold with the kneecaps out in recorder mode, which is an odd choice. Too, there's a centimeter gap between the lower edge of the cassette tray and the function buttons where the hinges are clearly visible. Again, it was done better on the original toy, whose tray sat snug against the function button area and hid the hinges. The area with the function buttons (there are actually two sets of function buttons- a larger one for alt mode, which becomes a butt flap, and a smaller set on his crotch and front independently hinging hip panels) forms his lower waist, which is able to swivel, so that's likely why they didn't try harder to hide the big gap. 

there's quite a bit of paint on this fig: the edges of the cassette tray are painted in a light yellow, as well as the little arrow detail in the lower center, the horizontal stripes on his upper chest and lower legs (which intersect in recorder mode), as well as his knee vents are picked out in gold, and his shin and knee details, as well as the insides of his legs which are molded to form the front of his recorder mode, are picked out in silver. They even have the "L" and "R" molded into them. The function buttons, fore and aft, are painted silver, as well as a small detailed section of each shoulder. I wish they'd thrown a touch of red and yellow on the small rectangular details on his knees to reflect the G1 toy's decals, but it's certainly not a deal-breaker, and fairly easy to do myself. the paint apps, overall are pretty crisp on mine. No real complaints there.

The eyes are translucent red light-piping, which may offend some. It doesn't really bother me, although I wish they'd used trans-yellow, as it would show up better and be G1 toy accurate. As-is, his eyes are rather dark, especially if there's no direct overhead light source.

For all my complaining, I still like this figure, and I feel like I waited an eternity for it. I was really bummed when I missed the original PO for him, and stoked when the toy gods saw fit to grace me with an in-stock notification at a time when I happened to be on the computer (a rarity). I didn't like the Siege toy's alt mode at all, and patiently hoped and prayed that this figure would become a reality. In hand, it has its flaws, especially when I compare him to the OG toy; the tradeoff, of course, is that this fellow has far better articulation, and fits in with the rest of CHUG . The alt mode is acceptable, certainly better than the Siege's questionable alt, and it satisfies with the old push-button opening cassette tray, a must-have feature of any self-respecting G1 Soundwave toy.  Do I recommend him? Sure. It does enough right in both modes to fill that need for a G1 Soundwave figure to go with the rest of Generations. I wish more effort had been exerted in the engineering to bring his alt mode closer to the original, especially his backpack battery compartment, but as it is, it gets the job done.

[mikeszekely]

Hmm.  I checked my order status for the Soundwave I preordered shortly after the preorders went up, and it's still listed as "delayed, preparing order."  No offense to @M'Kyuun but Walmart needs to learn how to fill their preorders before sending out product to stores and to people who ordered later.

On the plus side, although I've had no emails, I see Bumblebee was shipped.

Oh, and I did get an email from Hasbro Pulse today.  Seems the Breakdown/Jet Vehicon pack is on the way.

 

EDIT: Oh, and it looks like Thrust is delayed again.  Target's saying the 22nd now.

Edited December 9, 2020 by mikeszekely

[technoblue]

14 hours ago, mikeszekely said:

Hmm.  I checked my order status for the Soundwave I preordered shortly after the preorders went up, and it's still listed as "delayed, preparing order."  No offense to @M'Kyuun but Walmart needs to learn how to fill their preorders before sending out product to stores and to people who ordered later.

On the plus side, although I've had no emails, I see Bumblebee was shipped.

Oh, and I did get an email from Hasbro Pulse today.  Seems the Breakdown/Jet Vehicon pack is on the way.

 

EDIT: Oh, and it looks like Thrust is delayed again.  Target's saying the 22nd now.

I got my notification for the TF Prime Breakdown and Jet Vehicon set too, as well as Green G2 Megatron. Looking forward to both. 

I think the whole Walmart/Target thing must be regional. I've read about how people on the west coast are seeing Thrust in stock at their local Target stores. It is strange that the pre-orders are given a different priority from in-store stock, though. One would think they would have stock set aside for in-store and pre-order purchases and that these deliveries would happen in parallel. In a perfect world, I guess...

[mikeszekely]

35 minutes ago, technoblue said:

I got my notification for the TF Prime Breakdown and Jet Vehicon set too, as well as Green G2 Megatron. Looking forward to both. 

Got my shipping notice for G2 Megatron now, too.  I thought both of those weren't due until January/February.  Crossing my fingers some other stuff comes in early, too (especially Earthrise Barricade).

 

Oh yeah, remember how one of my big complaints about the Cyberverse Deluxes was that there was too many Autobots?  Seems there's going to be a Deluxe Starscream and Soundwave now.  Prowl too, but it's a start.

Also, those Walmart repaints of the Titans Return Headmasters?  There's going to be a second wave with the other three (Skullcruncher, Highbrow, and Weirdwolf).

Edited December 9, 2020 by mikeszekely

[M'Kyuun]

7 hours ago, mikeszekely said:

Got my shipping notice for G2 Megatron now, too.  I thought both of those weren't due until January/February.  Crossing my fingers some other stuff comes in early, too (especially Earthrise Barricade).

 

Oh yeah, remember how one of my big complaints about the Cyberverse Deluxes was that there was too many Autobots?  Seems there's going to be a Deluxe Starscream and Soundwave now.  Prowl too, but it's a start.

Also, those Walmart repaints of the Titans Return Headmasters?  There's going to be a second wave with the other three (Skullcruncher, Highbrow, and Weirdwolf).

I saw those other Headmasters today as I was perusing TFW2005. I got all but Brainstorm during TR, and I'm good with them as they are. I do love the retro boxes, though- nice touch. Kinda wish they'd done that for the whole of WFC, or at least the ER /Kingdom for the G1 bots. The toys may have sucked back then, but the packaging was spectacular.

I like the Blurr mold for TR, so I doubt I'll mind its reuse for Brainstorm. Heck, it even made for an arguably better Arcee than the ER figure. At least the bot was involved in the transformation.

Looking forward to getting my Breakdown and Flying Vehicon on Saturday. I was sooo bummed when I missed out on it back when Prime was still airing, so I'm very appreciative of this second chance to get him and Breakdown, another character we never got here in the US. 

The 15th anniversary of Animated is drawing nigh, and there was talk on the TFW boards about some Animated-generations hybrid stuff coming. It's all extreme speculation apparently stemming from yet another rumor that there's a Megatron with a helicopter alt possibly coming. Honestly, if either is true, I'm down. Unlike Prime, who is and always shall be a truck in my mind, a handgun is both impractical and impossible to produce here in the US, and the idea of his becoming a tank works. but I'm far more open to Megatron taking on other alt modes.  Curious to see what comes of all this erstwhile vaporware.

[mikeszekely]

4 hours ago, M'Kyuun said:

I like the Blurr mold for TR, so I doubt I'll mind its reuse for Brainstorm. Heck, it even made for an arguably better Arcee than the ER figure. At least the bot was involved in the transformation.

Ironically, Brainstorm is the one I'm least interested in.  I had the G1 toy as a kid, so the Headmasters anime colors and mouthed face doesn't work for me.  I'm most interested in Hardhead because he comes with a more animation-accurate head with a mouth, and Highbrow because one of the rotors on my TR copy broke when I moved three years back.  Then, to a lesser degree, Chromedome, Mindwipe, Weirdwolf, and Skullcruncher (in that order) for the more cartoon-accurate heads.  But that's more of a "if I see them in a store and and bored enough to buy them" sort of thing.

[JB0]

Man, when are they gonna do a Fangry update? Only Headmaster I had as a kid, and the only time they touched him since then was to do a head+targetmaster package.

[mikeszekely]

18 hours ago, JB0 said:

Man, when are they gonna do a Fangry update? Only Headmaster I had as a kid, and the only time they touched him since then was to do a head+targetmaster package.

Yeah, Hasbro got to a point where they were giving us a new Top Spin and Twin Twist and new Monsterbots, but the Headmaster Juniors and most of the Targetmasters got ignored.

Anyways, I went to my local Walmart today.  No Soundwaves, but I did find an Impactor (pass, I already have two), a few Bumblebees (tempted, but my preorder is supposedly on the way) and a few Elita-1s.  I bought Elita-1, since Walmart canceled my preorder.  Still need to get Soundwave sorted, though.

[M'Kyuun]

I was at my Wally yesterday, and they didn't have any of the latest figs, so no Soundwave, Bee, or Elita-1.  They've actually been keeping their Transformers section reasonably stocked this year, a first in a very long time, so I've little doubt it's just a matter of time.

I must have been dozing when all those ER POs came out, b/c I missed Soundwave, and I don't remember if I got one in for Bee or not. I skipped Elita, although if I had my druthers, I wish she'd come with ER Ratchet instead of Lifeline, as at least she has a different head, and she featured in the old cartoon.

[mikeszekely]

I got a couple of packages recently, so how about a repaint roundup?

First up we have the Generations Selects G2 Megatron.  And... well, knowing that making a G1-accurate Megatron that turns into a gun and selling it in the US is a pipe dream at this point, Hasbro's engineers did a pretty good job making a mostly-accurate G1 Megatron robot that turned into a space tank for Siege.  And they retooled that into an even more G1-accurate robot that turned into a slightly more earthy tank for Earthrise.  And then I guess someone at Hasbro thought, "Hey, you know what Megatron turned into a tank?  G2 Megatron!"  So they set out repainting Earthrise Megatron into G2 colors, but the result is decidedly G1 Megatron in mostly G2 colors.  He's got the G1 flat chest instead of the front of a tank, and gray feet instead of standing on the middle of a tank.  And while they did cover him in the neon green and purple camo of the G2 toy they weren't particularly accurate about it.  The forearms, hands, and midsection were gray on the G2 toy, and his pelvis was green.  Green arms (but not purple hands) are more accurate if we go with the old Marvel comics colors, but then he'd still have a gray midsection and a black pelvis.  Not to mention a blue face.

Then there's the matter of accessories.  There's still a bunch of trash partsforming, and this time the G1-accurate (but not at all G2) fusion cannon doesn't even peg solidly onto his right arm, where the hole seems a bit big.  One of the big things about G2 Megatron was the tank barrel on his shoulder.  This would seem like it'd be a good time to make use of the partsforming tank barrel, but while you can set it on his shoulder there's no place to plug it in.  Perhaps I can whip something up with some of the Nonnef peg adapters.

Tank mode at least looks pretty good.  The fusion cannon running through the middle of the turret can be overlooked a bit by the fact that G2 Megatron had a block of purple running through his turret where his shoulder cannon bisects his arms.

Frankly, I don't think this mold really works for G2 Megatron.  Pretty sure I only bought him because I missed Sandstorm, and I'd say you can safely pass on this one.

Moving along to Megatron's rival we have Netflix Optimus Prime.  The differences here are a bit more subtle.  He's got blue on the crotch and yellow on all his pelvis shapes without the need for Reprolabels, plus much of the gray on the inside of ER Prime's legs are properly blue here.  Those changes are probably why I preordered him.   The thing is some other parts that were presumably on that sprue, like his shoulder joints and biceps, are also blue now, and they're a darker blue than ER Prime's.  His windows are also not blue now.

The subtle differences seem to stand out to me more in truck mode.  Here the lack of blue on the windows and headlights looks a lot more like the G1 toy to me.  One other thing I'd point out is that instead of gray front wheels with a gunmetal paint for the tire is that Netflix Prime actually has black wheels with silver paint, and it looks a bit better.

Netflix Prime comes with the same rifle that ER Prime does.  However, he trades the trailer and drone for a pair of Battlemasters and a $10 price cut.  Enerax is a repaint of Pteraxadon, which was a cool little Pteranadon who turned into an ax.  Plus a yellow ax is kind of on brand for Optimus, so Enerax is cool in my book.  The other, Shieldron, is a repaint of Soundbarrier, whom I did not review.  I didn't review him because his transformation is unfolding his backpack and sticking his limbs to it, and his alt mode is a chunk of road that can plug into the WfC Titans or Micromaster bases.  Ok, sure, there is a peg that unfolds from his chest and he could techncially be a shield, but really he just sucks.

This one's a toughy.  Unless you really don't like the trailer you're probably better off getting ER Prime to have it, plus I prefer the lighter blue on ER Prime, so I guess I say pass on this.  But I prefer the torso on Netflix Prime.  I might have to paint the biceps, but I think I'll swap my Primes and use Netflix Prime with ER's trailer.

On the subject of Netflix, here's the star of the first season, Elita-1.  She's a remold of Arcee, with the same translucent gun.  She's a fairly extensive remold, though, with a new head, shoulders, and her entire torso.  Her biceps, forearms, hands, and legs are the same.

And, unfortunately, so is her backpack.  That means, for better or worse, it's really her backpack that transforms while she scrunches up under it, and her alt mode is different from Arcee or Lifeline only in color.  At least it looks good in red.

This mold isn't one of the better WfC molds, but Elita-1 was one of the best characters in the show so far and it's nice to see her get a figure that's more than just a new head.  I'll recommend it.

Last but certainly not least we have Netflix Bumblebee.  Bee's a retool of Cliffjumper/Hubcap, with the new head that was used for Bugbite.  Unlike Bugbite, who was just a new head, Bee has a lot of new parts, but you mostly just see them in the chest, backpack, and feet in robot mode.  The result is very good, though.  He's got that school-bus yellow color and a very G1-accurate sculpt.  I might have liked an Autobot insignia on the chest, but still.

Bee is, unfortunately, saddled with the same accessories as Cliffjumper.  Which, you know, made sense for Cliffjumper because he did use a bazooka once and he did do the skiing thing once, and it did help justify the Deluxe-class price for a Legends-size figure (although I think the engineering alone justified it).  If you bought the Centurion with the accessory pack, though, there's a G1-style gun for Bumblebee in it.  Hooray!

The remolded parts on Bumblebee mostly come into play on his alt mode.  You can see that while the engineering is the same and they shared some robot parts like their arms, legs, and pelvises, the alt modes are totally different cars.

As a matter of fact (and as the box tells you on the back) Hasbro actually got the VW license for Bee, so his alt mode is an appropriately-detailed Beetle.  He's got the VW hubcaps, painted bumpers, lights, and door handles, and even a small molded driver's-side-only side mirror.  Frankly, I think he looks fantastic in his alt mode.  Very on-brand.

Yes, there is some partsforming with the backpack that can be used as a shield, but as I noted when I reviewed Cliffjumper I really like the engineering here.  I also like that while they share the same engineering Bee and Cliffjumper look like distinct robots with distinct alt modes, and that Bee is a Beetle instead of making him a generic hatchback.  I think I might even like this toy better than the original MP Bumblebee, so I strongly recommend picking him up if you can find him, especially if you have the gun to give him from the Centurion set.

[M'Kyuun]

Partsforming aside, they did a great job on Bee for this line. Part of me would have liked his alt mode to be a little more chibi to reflect the G1 design, but this works well. I daresay, this is an improvement over MP Bee v2.

So I got my tenth anniversary TF: Prime Breakdown and Flying Vehicon two-pack today. My emails led me to believe that delivery was rescheduled to tomorrow and neither I nor my wife heard the delivery guy on the porch. Alas, I didn't discover that it had been delivered until 10PM, four hours later, when I getting ready to go to bed. My excitement was piqued, however, so I at least had to open them up and check them out. I managed transformation for both without instructions. Having the original car Vehicon, transforming the flying version wasn't too much of a stretch. Thing of beauty, it is. Love it. It definitely gives me a cool Batman vibe.

Breakdown wasn't too difficult to sort, especially once I figured out how to get the arms in place. Getting the rear end of his truck mode proved to be a bit trying, as the legs fold but don't really lock into anything or each other, which allows for a lot of flex in his truck mode if you're trying to get things tabbed and you're squeezing from the front. Once I readjusted my approach, I finally succeeded. Love the beefy truck mode they gave him. Good looking fig in both modes, and I'm glad they finally gave him a US release. Shame it took a decade.

Now the odd stuff: Both Breakdown and Vehicon came with individual plastic bags containing sprues, a second set of instructions, and a sticker sheet. In my 36 years of collecting Transformers, I can't recall ever having this level of assembly required. Essentially, the sprues contain the parts to make their respective weapons, which also transform into little beast modes. I'm going to wait until tomorrow to do the assemblies and sticker-work, but I thought I'd let folks who bought this set know what to expect. I certainly wasn't expecting little model kits with these guys, nor a very G1 looking foil sticker sheet for both the figures and their weapons. I don't mind putting the weapons dudes together, but, man, I hate putting stickers on, and wish they'd come painted/tampoed instead. Bellyaching aside, I'm looking forward to completing the look for both of these guys and giving them their weapons. Fun, fun.

[Hikuro]

I just got Netflix Soundwave and Elita-1, considering that I was fairly happy with the what was it, power of the primes Arcee? I decided to skip Earthrise and wait when Elita was released. Yeah, I'm not a fan of her overall transformation being a shell former sort to speak. But Soundwave I think is a rather fun toy. There's a few things kind of stiff in the transformation such as cover parts on the legs that then peg into his side during cassette mode. And I feel bad for totally missing out on Rumble and Frenzy and Ratbat to help complete the cassette addons. 

[David Hingtgen]

On 12/6/2020 at 6:13 PM, mikeszekely said:

Moving right along... Maverick comes with two not-particularly-accurate pylons with a pair of missiles molded into them, and two bombs (unless David tells me they're fuel tanks again) that have one end transform to become shotguns.  

And now for the mode everyone's been waiting for- the F-14.  It's slightly bigger than an Earthrise Seeker again, so the scale's again a bit off (given that the F-15 should be about two feet longer than the F-14).  The transformation is not identical to a VF-1 Valkyrie, but it's definitely in that ball park.  The biggest difference is probably in the shoulders and arms.

Yes, they're fuel tanks.  I honestly don't really recall off the top of my head, any jet-former having bombs.  They're always fuel tanks (excepting like 1 gunpod), going back to the G1 seeker mold.  Assume that for any TF ever, if it's not a missile, it's a fuel tank.   

(sorry for not seeing/replying sooner, but the paint job is just so terrible I've pretty much been ignoring everything about that figure).   

As for scale/length---a lot of the F-15's "overall length" comes from its sharply-swept, boom-mounted tailplanes.  When it comes to raw "fuselage size", the F-14 is definitely the bigger of the two.   Chop off the tailplanes, and it'll be obvious which plane is larger/longer "really".   And the mounting location and sweep of the tailplanes, is the #1 place where transforming F-15's tend to have their alt-mode "compromised" from the real thing and won't quite accurately reflect how it "should" be.   (well, that and the intakes)

[mikeszekely]

The Netflix Sondwave that I preordered back in JULY is still listed as "Delayed, check back later."  Not much sense in preordering from Walmart if they're just going to ship inventory to stores and fill later orders.  Friends, if any of you happen across one at your local Walmarts please grab one for me, because at this point I don't actually trust Walmart to fill more order or send stock to my local stores.

My Universal Studios Megatron came.  I might take some pictures later for comparison's sake, but the figure itself is the same mold as the Dark of the Moon Studio Series Leader Megatron I reviewed almost two years ago.  The differences are that it ditches the little Igor figure and the cloak, and the colors are a darker gray and silver with none of the tan "dust".  It's technically less screen-accurate, then, but I think it looks nicer, and the colors match the movie 1 and Revenge of the Fallen Megatrons better.

Oh, and like @M'Kyuun, I got my Prime two pack.

Jet Vehicon was a Japan-exclusive remold of RiD Vehicon, with more of a pinkish purple than the indigo used on the earlier mold.  You'll note that the (Hasbro) RiD Vehicon has more paint, notably on the waist and shins.  The RiD Vehicon had kind of goofy elbows, but they're a bit worse on Jet Vehicon because the remolded part of the arm has the ball socket cut a bit differently, so it can't straighten as much.

This is because the Japanese releases came with sticker sheets.  They didn't come with the same guns as the Hasbro releases.  In Japan, the Prime toyline was called "Arms Micron."  And the gimmick was that they came with a sprue of parts that you'd build yourself into a little minicon that turned into their weapon.  For Jet Vehcion it's Igu, a little dinosaur thing that turns into a gun similar to what the Vehicons had in the show (stickers applied).  Note the extra pegs and peg holes on Igu.  Another gimmick of the Arms Micron line is that the weapons could combine with other Arms Micron weapons to make bigger ones.

And here's how Jet Vehicon looks with his own stickers applied.  Better, but I'd have preferred paint, as I have concerns about the longevity of the stickers.

Jet Vehicon's head is on a ball joint, but the joint is angled so left/right swivel and downward tilt is a bit hindered, but he can look up with no issue.  Shoulders are hinged ball joints that can rotate and get about 90 degrees of lateral movement.  His biceps swivel.  Ignore the hinges at the end of his biceps; his actual elbows are the ball joints that stick out to the sides of them.  Because his forearm swivels on that ball joint his elbow bend is technically unlimited.  No wrist swivel, but they do bend downward for transformation.  No waist swivel.  Hips are ball joints and can move forward 90 degrees and backward or laterally a bit less than that.  His thighs swivel.  His knees bend a little under 90 degrees.  His feet can bend down, mostly due to transformation, but he doesn't have any ankle pivots.

Igu simply pegs into Jet Vehicon's hand.  You can bend his hand down and fold the peg back a bit to try to replicate that integrated look, if you like.

In alt mode you can really see what's been remolded.  The entire side of the vehicle (the panels on the outside of his legs, his forearms, and his shoulders) are all now, as is about half the nose (part of the inside of his legs).  And that's to say nothing of the wings, which are attached to a hinge on his back.

There are two 5mm ports on each side of the alt mode, plus one two on each wing.  You can use them with one of the pegs on Igu to take him along for the ride.

Jet Vehicon is cool (I liked the original RID Vehicon), but I'm guessing most of us really wanted War Breakdown.  Like the Jet Vehicon, War Breakdown was never released outside of Japan (until now), leaving many fans with only the Cyberverse (Legends)-class figure to represent this major character.  I actually really wanted a Breakdown back in the day, and the market for this figure was already so absurd that I settled for importing the darker-colored remolded Silas Breakdown, which I was never totally satisfied with.

Like Jet Vehicon, Breakdown is looking a little plain.

Because like Jet Vehicon, Breakdown comes with a sticker sheet and a sprue.  The assembled minicon is a little Rhino (and maybe an Islanders fan) called Zamu that turns into Breakdown's signature hammer.  Hmm, maybe I could have left the stickers off, this time.  Speaking of stickers, there's an extra blue stripe.  It's not mentioned in the instructions, but if I had to guess I'd say it goes around Zamu's middle.

Breakdown's head is on a ball joint, and he can look almost straight up but not really down, and although he can swivel his head his chin kind of gets in the way.  His shoulders can swivel, but due to their shape and kibble only move laterally about 45 degrees.  His biceps swivel, and his elbows bend a little under 45 degrees.  No wrist articulation.  His waist can swivel.  His hips are ball joints that can go forward only about 45 degrees, backward 90 degrees, and laterally about 60 degrees.  His thighs swivel, and his knees bend a little under 90 degrees.  His feet can tilt up and down a bit, but he lacks ankle pivots.

Zamu can be held in Breakdown's hands.  Or, for a more cartoon-accurate look, you can fold his hand up as you would for transformation, revealing a peg hole you can plug Zamu into.  Speaking of peg holes, an Arms Micron gimmick was the ability to attach many of them, so Breakdown's got a Siege-level number of 5mm ports including one on the outside of each leg, two behind his head, on on his collar, one on the back of each shoulder, one on the front of each forearm, one on the outside of each forearm, and two on his back.

Breakdown turns into a blue military-style truck, as he did in the cartoon.

As with the robot mode, many details are left to stickers instead of paint.  That includes the headlights, lights on the front bumper, the rear window, two side windows, the Decepticon emblems, and some not-accurate orange stripes on the rear fenders.  The worst is a shiny chrome sticker with yellow lights that wraps over the entire rear bumper.  No way that's going to last!  Meanwhile, other details are just ignored, like the red lights above the rear bumper and the rims on all the tires.

While the instructions simply indicate that you can plug Zamu into a peg hole on the roof, there's actually three on the roof, one on the hood, one on either side of the nose above the front fenders, one at the base of each door, one on each rear fender, and one in the middle of his spare tire on the back.

I'm not going to judge either of these figures too harshly; it's really not fair to hold decade-old molds to the standards I'm used to with the War for Cybertron or the Studio Series.  I will say that I'd have preferred more show-accurate weapons and painted details instead of stickers, but for the most part it boils down to these two simple questions- do you still have a collection of Transformers Prime toys, and are you sore that we never got a Voyager-sized Breakdown outside of Japan?  If the answer to those questions is "yes" then you should definitely get this set, as it's filling a gap that's been in most Prime collections for 10 years now.

Side note: Jet Vehicon was actually released twice in Japan, first in the colors that came in this set but later in white as "Jet Vehicon General."  It's a shame Hasbro didn't bring over the white one, too.  I'd have bought it.

Now, if someone could just give us a Voyager-sized Hardshell...

Edited December 13, 2020 by mikeszekely

[mikeszekely]

Thrust is delayed again, this time to the 29th.  Good thing he's not a Christmas present.

I hope Thrust wasn't on that ONE Apus ship that lost 2000 containers a week or two ago.

 

EDIT: Well, it's not all bad news.  Looks like Walmart is fulfilling my Soundwave after all, with an estimated delivery date of Friday.  Plus, Hasbro shipped Cordon and Spinout, and FedEx says they're coming tomorrow (y'know, assuming the winter storm that's going to hit tomorrow doesn't screw them up).

Oh, and I decided to preorder Ultimate X-Spanse (who I think I'm going to call X-Pants).  I think I had enough issues with it that $65 and tax was a bit too much, but Target had a Circle deal on toys recently, so my grand total shipped is a more palatable $55.

Edited December 16, 2020 by mikeszekely

[M'Kyuun]

I hope that storm doesn't play too much havoc on your side of the country. FWIW, my family all live in PA, albeit on the western side of the state, so I have cause for concern for all acquaintances, be they friend or family. Be safe Mike, you and yours.

Glad to hear you're getting your Soundwave from Wally, Mike. I've been checking my Wally this week for Netflix stuff, but they've received neither that nor the wave of ER figs with Sunstreaker yet, so I'm glad I got my chance-PO in when I did.

I got my copy of Maverick today, and I'm pretty pleased with him.  The paint certainly could be better, and the main gears are just weird, but in just about about every other respect, for a Transformer jet, this is a really well done figure for the minimal amount of concession to the jet mode. As a Macross fan, the obvious relationship in design to the VF-1 is most agreeable, especially given that Kawamori based the VF-1 on the F-14, and so we come full circle. It's a trend I'd love to see become a norm in TF jet design, although I think I'm in the minority in that opinion. TF fans love their blocky bots that turn into heavily concession laden jets. I will never understand that, but it is what it is. 

I ended up ordering Spin-out and Cordon through Entertainment Earth, since Pulse was sold out at the time, and have yet to get a shipping notice; however, I have received my Sunstreaker, and given how well that mold turned out, I'm looking forward to having the other two mold-mates. I usually don't double or triple dip on molds, unless there are significant changes, but since I didn't get MP Cordon, this offered a less expensive yet still good alternative. Plus there's something inherently cool about the emergency/police liveries that I've always liked among TF figs, which I think goes all the way back to my first TF toy, G1 Prowl.

I briefly fence-sat on POing X-Spanse, but c'mon, it's a fairly well done, nearly bot kibble free SR-71. The aircraft enthusiast in me just couldn't pass that up. I do wish that the forward fuselage had more involvement in the bot mode, like becoming the arms, but relatively speaking, its still better than most of the official Silverbolt toys that have ever been done, and that's a small win. I so wish they'd done the more stylized Blackbird from the early X-Men films, but beggars can't be choosers.

I'm curious to see what their next crossover will be. I pity the fools if they make BA's van from ER Ironhide's mold.   Original KITT and Airwolf top my list. At least Hasbro seem to do a pretty good job with helos, so I have faith that the latter might actually turn out alright.  It'd be even better if it had the retractable guns and rocket launcher, and hell I'll be crazy and and say retractable landing gear, too, but I think I'm asking a bit much from Hasbro. And if they do do a KITT, they need to do a slight remold of ER Prime into Goliath. It's a must.

I'd love, love, love an '89 Batmobile and Tumbler TF figs. Both are Holy Grail toys in my 'want list'.

[mikeszekely]

21 hours ago, M'Kyuun said:

I hope that storm doesn't play too much havoc on your side of the country. FWIW, my family all live in PA, albeit on the western side of the state, so I have cause for concern for all acquaintances, be they friend or family. Be safe Mike, you and yours

I'm on the western side, too, just outside Pittsburgh. And yeah, it turned out to be a big one, 9.2".  Fortunately I'd stocked up on groceries before the storm, and we're all working/schooling at home already due to COVID.  So aside from killing my back clearing the driveway we're all safe and sound (although I have no idea when Soundwave's actually coming).

Spinout and Cordon did show up today, though.

These guys are very basic repaints.  All the black parts are still black, and all the yellow plastic was replaced with red for Spinout and white for Cordon (except for Cordon's hips and the armature his chest is on, which are black for some reason and probably would have looked better if they were white).  Spinout retains the translucent blue plastic with a layer of paint underneath that Sunstreaker has, but Cordon's translucent plastic is clear with no paint, and it looks a bit shabby as a result.  However, he's at least partially remolded.  Unlike the Siege Lambos and the Datsuns, Cordon's lightbar isn't pegged into a pre-existing 5mm port- it's actually molded onto his chest.  Spinout has the same yellow on his ears that Sunstreaker does, but he has yellow eyes instead of blue, which matches the Diaclone toy that the deco is based on.  Cordon has his ears painted red, which likewise matched the old Diaclone toy Cordon is based on as well as the MP toy.  However, instead of the red eyes that were used on both of those toys Gen Selects Cordon has blue eyes.

Sadly, just like Sunstreaker, their only accessory is their engine backpack.

So again, Spinout is basically red Sunstreaker, although they did add a touch more black paint onto the vents over the rear wheels.  That's fine; since that's basically what he's supposed to look like.  I can't help but be a bit disappointed with Cordon, though.  Again, there's the fact that the unpainted, un-tinted windows are a bit shabby, but aside from the lightbar on top there's really nothing to indicate that he's a police vehicle.  There's very little black on the nose, and it doesn't swoop in from the sides to a point and he's lacking the chrysanthemum badge.

From the side you can see that the recess on the sides is painted black on Spinout and Cordon, and I belatedly wish they'd done it on Sunstreaker, too (but I guess that's not cartoon accurate).  Cordon has the bottom edges painted black between the wheels, but not the sides of the nose.  And, again, nothing to indicate that he's a police car.  No "POLICE" or even 警視庁 written on the side.  Hopefully Reprolabels can fix it.

The worst bit, though, is the lack of paint on the tails.  The plastic used to for the forearms, and therefore most of the rear, is black on all three, but Hasbro painted Sunstreaker yellow on the sides most visible in alt mode (even if they didn't do a great job matching that paint to the yellow plastic).  Cordon and Spinout don't get that courtesy.  Cordon almost gets a pass, what with his colors already being black and white, but honestly I think it looks bad on both of them.

So here's where I'm at... I could live without Spinout, same as I could have lived without Tigertrack.  But I'm a sucker for police cars, so Cordon was a must-have for me.  Spinout's just along for the ride.  It helps that this is a good mold, though.  I just wish they had guns and spoilers (but word on the street is Nonnef will be cooking something up).

And just for fun... the red and yellow Lambo brothers meet the red and yellow Lambo brothers.

Oh scrap... it's the cops!

Kind of wish they'd do a proper Gen Selects Clampdown I could use to replace my customized Siege Red Alert.  And while we're doing Gen Selects Diaclone colors, can I also get the Siege Sideswipe mold as Deep Cover

Also, I'd love Earthrise Bluestreak in Diaclone blue.

21 hours ago, M'Kyuun said:

I'd love, love, love an '89 Batmobile

You and me both, but it seems unlikely.  X-Men and Ghostbusters are already in Hasbro's portfolio, and the IP holders for Back to the Future and Top Gun seem a bit more open with their licensing deals.  DC and Mattel are tight, though, so I don't see DC licensing anything Batman to Mattel's biggest rival.

That said, perusing Hasbro's portfolio suggests some interesting possibilities.  Power Rangers X Transformers?  Hmm, perhaps they're already a bit too similar.  Maybe more Marvel stuff?  Man, a Spider-Man X Transformers comic book about the Spider-Mobile (already something of a joke in the comics) being a Transformer would be great.

But maybe they're missing the most obvious crossover (because it's been done several times already, albeit without toys to go with it): G. I. Joe.

[mikeszekely]

On 12/17/2020 at 2:28 AM, M'Kyuun said:

 

I ended up ordering Spin-out and Cordon through Entertainment Earth, since Pulse was sold out at the time, and have yet to get a shipping notice

If you can cancel, Spinout and Cordon are back in stock today at Pulse.  As is Sandstorm (which I put in an order for).

[M'Kyuun]

Appreciate it, but I got my shipping notice from them three days ago; it was in my junk mail, and I missed it initially, but discovered it today. So, I'll probably have them in hand by Monday or so. No interest in Sandstorm, but I am anticipating getting Thrust later this month. Hopefully the release date doesn't get pushed back again.

[mikeszekely]

Netflix Soundwave came today!

Netflix Soundwave is a very heavy retool of Siege Soundwave.  Most of his body is actually new; only his feet, hip skirts, the back of his head, the door on his chest and the button, and his arms from the biceps down are re-used.  The result takes a Soundwave that already had a strong G1 aesthetic and fixes a lot of the complaints I had by ditching the backpack, swapping the yellow eyes for red, and replacing the dull gold on his chest with a brighter yellow.  Unfortunately, it introduced a few new complaints, mostly the lack of red stripes on the accessories and around his wrists.

A look at the back shows again how extensive this remold was, but also starts to raise some questions for me.  Like, if almost every part in his body was new, why not give him new arms, too?  The Siege landing skids on the backs of his arms are a head-scratcher.

Speaking of reused stuff from Siege, he comes with the same accessories.  That his shoulder cannon, his rifle, and a pistol that isn't really associated with the character.

Of course, for the extra $10 premium over the Siege figure he also comes with two "tapes," Laserbeak and Ravage.  It's a fair deal, since they were originally sold on their own as a Micromaster two-pack $10, and unlike Prime's Battlemasters you probably want Soundwave's tapes.

From one side the new versions of the tapes are identical to the old ones.  From the other, though, you can see that they're decoed a bit more like the G1 toys (left) than the previous versions (right).

In beast mode I think the older Laserbeak has more cartoon-accurate wings, but he's got that goofy head inspired by the War for Cybertron videogame.  This new figure has a new head that's more G1-accurate.  As for Ravage, he too has a new head, and... it's kind of derpy.  I mean, the old one wasn't anything to write home about, but the new one... yeesh.  Otherwise it boils down to the old one looking more cartoony, the new one looking more G1 toy, and neither being particularly good.  Still, it's tapes for your Soundwave!

And they do, of course, work with Soundwave.  You can only store one at time, but his chest does open up by pushing the button on his shoulder.  It's a carry over from the Siege toy, but it bears repeating that his left hand his molded so his index finger is extended a bit in a button-pressing fashion.  I'll also remind you that the extra pistol unfolds, allowing you to link his shoulder cannon and his rifle into a long... thing.  Or, you know, you could always give it to a bot who needs a gun, like Sunstreaker/Cordon/Spinout/Wheeljack/Exhaust.

(Even with the extensive remold his articulation is basically the same as Siege's, BTW.)

All the remolded parts allow Netflix Soundwave to do what people have been trying to fan-mode onto Siege- turn into a tape deck.  From the front it's quite passable, with the REC/BATT (although the light is just a rivet), the speakers with the R and L, etc.  The only the thing really seems off is some of the details on the side, due to his shins facing out instead of in, and the fact that the bottom has a bit of a lip.  The button still opens the door, and a tape can still fit inside.  Best of all, it's not a goofy-looking spaceship.

The back, unfortunately, didn't come out so well, with molded details jutting out from the sides and his arms just kind of chilling back there.  With the numerous peg holes back there you can plug in his accessories so that you don't lose them, but they're even worse at blending in.  I can't help but wonder if some of this could have been avoided if they'd just started from scratch on an Earth-mode Soundwave instead of retooling the Siege toy.

When the dust settles, while I do wish his alt mode could have been a bit tidier and I really miss the red stripes on his arms (for the accessories I just swapped with Siege's), for the most part this is still an improvement over the Siege toy and much more in-line with what collectors have really wanted since Hasbro started rolling out Classics back in 2006: a Voyager-class, very G1 Soundwave that turns into a tape deck.  The fact that he comes with some tapes is that much sweeter, and if you can get your hands on him I recommend you do so.

[M'Kyuun]

OK, so I'm a bit behind. going back to your review on Cordon and Spin-out, I hadn't noticed that the arms are black, which really mars the look of the car modes, and the fact that there's no police livery applied to Cordon. The clear windshield was a misstep, too, as the two with colored windshields, with detail behind them, illustrate what an improvement it makes. That black armature is such an eyesore; why oh why wasn't it molded in white so as to be less obtrusive in both modes? Like you said, let's hope Toyhax comes to the rescue.

I'd also like to see a blue Bluestreak. I love my MP toy, but there's always room for more.

With Mattel holding the license for Batman toys, it's unlikely that Hasbro could get it, too, even in a limited capacity, as Mattel would likely litigate it out of the realm of possibility. From a business perspective, I could understand it, but quashing the possibility of a transforming Batmobile would be extremely disheartening. As far as doing Marvel comics, they're already doing an X-Men crossover, so the door's open to more Marvel stuff. I'd love to see a Hulkbuster that turns into one of Stark's sports cars.

Y'know, doing transforming GI Joe vehicles seems like the biggest no-brainer; it would combine two of Hasbro's biggest properties in a way that I think fans would love. They've already done Star Wars, although many of those toys left somewhat to be desired. Then again, most of those designs pose some serious challenges to being interpreted in a transformable format. The vast majority of the Joes' vehicles, and Cobra's for that matter, were based on real world vehicles, albeit with tweaks. But, they'd be far easier to translate than most of the Star Wars stuff, and if they were done at least as well as the ER stuff, I think we'd get a pretty nice collection of GI Joe Transformers out of it. With Maverick, they've already got a potential Skystriker, and I think that paint job would greatly improve a lot of folks' opinion of that figure, which, IMHO, is one of the best jet-mode Transformers ever made.

The lack of paint apps on ER Soundwave that appeared on the Siege version just makes you shake your head and wonder why. I already mentioned the lack of color apps to the little button-looking details on his knees and shoulders, but the lack of the red stripes on his weapons and wrists is hard to ignore once it's pointed out, as they really add a lovely contrast, not to mention they're accurate to the sticker details of the original toy. I guess the cost of the new molds for his cassette player mode ate up the paint budget. Sigh. Might have to try fixing it on mine. 

[mikeszekely]

10 hours ago, M'Kyuun said:

I already mentioned the lack of color apps to the little button-looking details on his knees and shoulders,

Presumably you mean the black band with the yellow and red squares on his knees, and the squares on the silver part of his shoulder?  Maybe some red for the rectangle above the silver?  All details that are on the G1 toy's stickers.  If G1 toy is your reference, though, you might ask why the red bits with the yellow triangles on his knees weren't painted, too (because they're molded onto Netflix Soundwave).

Well, if you look at the MP, the details are all molded on (like they are with Netflix Soundwave), but only the little red bit is colored.

And if you refer back to the Sunbow art he's got silver patches on his knees, but with no silver on his shins, no silver on his shoulders, and none of the molded detail.   So I can't really fault Hasbro for walking a line between toy and cartoon on that.

But, you'll notice that G1 toy, MP toy, and Sunbow all have the red stripes on his weapons and forearms.  Omitting a detail that's on every version is just cheap and lazy.  Fortunately it was a pretty easy fix.

For the weapons I just swapped with Siege Soundwave.  With his yellow eyes, backpack, different molded details, and Cybertronian alt mode I don't need Siege to be as G1-accurate, and as pods on his engine nacelles they kind of look better without stripes anyway, so he won't miss his original accessories.  Then for the arm stripes I carefully (but, on close inspection, perhaps not carefully enough) went over the molded band with the fine point of an alcohol-based Ohuhu 15 Red marker.  (Mind the photo, I'm taking down my usual photo space in the guest bedroom since my parents are staying with us for the holiday, so I just grabbed a quick pic at my messy and sub-optimally lit computer desk.)

[M'Kyuun]

Got an in-stock notification for Netflix Bumblebee; I was getting ready to add to cart when I noticed the price: $50. And yeah, I checked to make sure there was only one in the cart. I don't think this is a secondary seller, either, as I have Walmart checked. Not sure what's driving that price, as he's just a heavy remold of ER Cliffjumper. Anyway, I'm not paying $50 for it, and I think I'll wait to see if it appears in my local store at a more reasonable $20.

[mikeszekely]

Ugh. Thrust is delayed again.

On the plus side Kingdom is starting to trickle out. Heard BBTS got all the Deluxes in. I didn't bother to cancel any of my preorders, but Paleotrex turned up from Amazon this morning. Reviews will have to wait until after Christmas, though, since I use the desk in the guest room for pictures and my parents are staying overnight on Christmas Eve.

Huh.  Stuff's coming out early, but I just got an email from Amazon saying that Cheetor's delayed until April.  Maybe I'll cancel and order from BBTS after all (although they're out of Warpath now).

Edited December 24, 2020 by mikeszekely

[Mechapilot77]

On 12/20/2020 at 12:06 PM, mikeszekely said:

Presumably you mean the black band with the yellow and red squares on his knees, and the squares on the silver part of his shoulder?  Maybe some red for the rectangle above the silver?  All details that are on the G1 toy's stickers.  If G1 toy is your reference, though, you might ask why the red bits with the yellow triangles on his knees weren't painted, too (because they're molded onto Netflix Soundwave).

Well, if you look at the MP, the details are all molded on (like they are with Netflix Soundwave), but only the little red bit is colored.

And if you refer back to the Sunbow art he's got silver patches on his knees, but with no silver on his shins, no silver on his shoulders, and none of the molded detail.   So I can't really fault Hasbro for walking a line between toy and cartoon on that.

But, you'll notice that G1 toy, MP toy, and Sunbow all have the red stripes on his weapons and forearms.  Omitting a detail that's on every version is just cheap and lazy.  Fortunately it was a pretty easy fix.

For the weapons I just swapped with Siege Soundwave.  With his yellow eyes, backpack, different molded details, and Cybertronian alt mode I don't need Siege to be as G1-accurate, and as pods on his engine nacelles they kind of look better without stripes anyway, so he won't miss his original accessories.  Then for the arm stripes I carefully (but, on close inspection, perhaps not carefully enough) went over the molded band with the fine point of an alcohol-based Ohuhu 15 Red marker.  (Mind the photo, I'm taking down my usual photo space in the guest bedroom since my parents are staying with us for the holiday, so I just grabbed a quick pic at my messy and sub-optimally lit computer desk.)

that sunbow art is i think a fan made.  official shows light colored shins and not blue.  that version you showed has made the rounds though and even hasbro used it as a reference for their red series.  it needs to die.  soundwave has light shins, always and forever!

[mikeszekely]

On 12/22/2020 at 12:46 PM, Mechapilot77 said:

that sunbow art is i think a fan made.  official shows light colored shins and not blue.  that version you showed has made the rounds though and even hasbro used it as a reference for their red series.  it needs to die.  soundwave has light shins, always and forever!

I don't know if it is or isn't fan made, but it seems official enough to have been used as the basis for RED and Super 7 Soundave.

That said, you're absolutely right, he was animated with silver (or white) shins.  At least in the '86 movie, which is about the best animation G1 got.