technoblue Posted January 14, 2021 Posted January 14, 2021 I'm in for MP Thundercracker, but I went with a different US shop to save a bit more. I wish the numbering scheme was consistent, though. MP-52+ got me thinking about Starscream in his toy deco, which would have been sweet. Not sure why we didn't get MP-52T or some other number. Anyway, it's a small nitpick and doesn't really matter in the long run. As it is, the toon deco seems faded compared to what I would expect and even compared to the base colour Hasbro used on Earthrise Thundercracker. An interesting choice, but I wonder if that's final or if the tone will skew away from powder blue in hand. Looking forward to it all the same. The rumoured mainline figures are interesting, but I'm still stepping back from most of these for now. If I buy any, I may pick up one or two from that list. Quote
danth Posted January 14, 2021 Posted January 14, 2021 16 hours ago, sh9000 said: I just realized one thing I don't like about this figure. That chest and torso look like they could come from a sofubi toy. Soft and squishy, very rounded, and no sharp detail. Almost like those old shampoo bottles they would make in the 80's in the shape of your favorite characters (not sure if they still make them). Quote
David Hingtgen Posted January 14, 2021 Posted January 14, 2021 17 minutes ago, danth said: I just realized one thing I don't like about this figure. That chest and torso look like they could come from a sofubi toy. Soft and squishy, very rounded, and no sharp detail. Almost like those old shampoo bottles they would make in the 80's in the shape of your favorite characters (not sure if they still make them). It's almost like they were going for the S3/Movie aesthetic, on an 84/85 character. HotRod and Kup and Springer and Galvatron are "rounded" like that, but not the seekers. Quote
M'Kyuun Posted January 14, 2021 Posted January 14, 2021 I noticed the rounded, barrel-like look of the chest, too, but I didn't equate that with the old shampoo bottles until you said that. But yeah, he almost looks plushy on top, then he has those weirdly long thin thighs. It just doesn't appeal to me, and the F-15 mode is a travesty. Overall, I prefer the look of Maketoy's Seekers, which aren't perfect, but better in most regards than this to my eye. Quote
mikeszekely Posted January 15, 2021 Author Posted January 15, 2021 I told you I was gonna crack. Here's Studio Series 86 Voyager-class Scourge. While not the greatest figure on Earth, I liked the old Titans Returns one for trying really hard. I mean, it had wings, and mostly the right shapes (ok, the head was a little boxy with an itty bitty Snork tube instead of his usual rocket mohawk), but the colors were rather monochromatic. Heck, I eve I modded one of the two I picked up so the back of his legs could be the front just to give him a little more color break up. Could Hasbro get it right in the Studio Series? Well... kind of. He's the proper size now, and his beard isn't he same color as his face anymore. His molded details are mostly spot-on, and even the geometry of his wings are much better than previous attempts. His fingernails pink. Actually, a lot of him is painted, as everything except his backpack and his bicep/elbow joint is actually molded in the darker color. I say "darker color" instead of "blue" because it's actually a bit purple, with an actual blue section painted around the Decepticon badge on his chest. The lighter color is a light blue-gray where it's painted, but the molded parts are again slightly purple. Some details are missing some color. His toes have none of the pink that his fingers do, there's none of the lighter color on the back of his head, and he's the same color from his knees to his hips when his thighs are more of a two-tone thing, with the light color on a pentagonal pattern on the front of his thigh but, depending on the episode, either a darker gray or the the same blue (purple) as his torso. All-in-all it's the most-accurate Scourge figure that isn't from X-Transbots by a very wide margin, but I find myself wondering if a rumored generic Sweep repaint/repackage might have slightly better colors. Another thing worth noting, Scourge is essentially a shellformer. I don't mean just SS Scourge, I think that's part of his core design. While Hasbro definitely did a better job managing a screen-accurate Scourge from the front his wings are really more of a backpack of folded alt-mode panels. It's not the worst I've ever seen, but he's definitely not as clean as Cyclonus. Scourge comes with a rifle. It's a bit hollowed-out, and cast from the same purplish-blue plastic as almost the entire figure. That said, it's fairly G1-accurate, to both the toy and the cartoon (although I had to go to The Headmasters to even find a screenshot of Scourge using a gun). He also comes with a purple blast effect part. Scourge's head is on a ball joint that can swivel and tilt sideways a fair bit but up/down tilt is a little limited. His shoulders rotate and can extend laterally over 90 degrees. His biceps swivel, and his elbows bend ever-so-slightly over 90 degrees. His wrists swivel, although they're a bit tight due to paint (his hands are actually cast in the darker blue/purple, then painted light blue and pink). His waist can swivel. His hips can move forward, backward, or laterally a little less than 90 degrees. His thighs do swivel, but again it's kind of tight, probably due to paint. His knees bend slightly over 90 degrees. His feet don't tilt, but his toes can bend down due to transformation, and he's got a little under 45 degrees of ankle pivot. His can can be held in either hand, despite them having slightly different shapes. Alternatively, he's got 5m ports on the back of either wing, in his shoulder bumps, on the outside of each forearm, on the outside of each ankle, and under each foot. The blast effect can fit on the tip of his gun. I know some of you aren't fond of it. Heck, as a kid Cyclonus' jet mode seemed so much cooler. But as an adult I love Scourge's flying brick mode. It's so unapologetically sci-fi, and I love toys that try to do it instead of a vaguely real, vaguely Earth-mode X-48-ish aircraft. Previous attempts have been somewhat mixed, as they tried to retain some of the G1 toy's method of using the wings to form the sides but making the nose out of his lower legs. The results (the Titanium Series and the Titans Return figures) never quite had the smoothness that the G1 toy or animation model had, though, and I don't think the Titans Return version was even totally trying with extra fins and molded verniers. SS Scourge, though, flips things around. Almost everything you see from this angle is his wings and backpack. A little of it was stuffed inside his torso, allowing his head to accordion back into the traditional alt mode spot. His actual body does very little transforming, mostly just dropping his arms and part of his sides down alongside his legs and tucking in his toes. From the front or from above he looks nigh-on perfect, with slightly flared intakes and a bit of molded detail near the back of the light sections that's present on the animation model. From straight-on at the side you can see that he's not hovering, he's resting on his shins, knees, and some tucked-in wing panels. He looks the worst from the back, where his folded-up feet protrude a bit and leave gaps that give away his shellformer nature, and from the bottom where you can clearly see a scrunched-up robot tucked in a shell and hiding behind two wing panels. So again, I think there's room for improvement, but I also think it's fine for a mainline Voyager-class toy. I do have one complaint, though. The nacelles on the side fold in for transformation to robot mode, and they don't seem to lock in place in alt mode. I find I'm constantly bumping them back into their closed position. Being that this is a Studio Series toy and not Kingdom you can expect a few movie gimmicks. The first is that you can reveal his head in alt mode so he can do the "You want me to gut Ultra Magnus?" bit from the attack on Autobot City. It's not the neatest, though, as it involves flipping open a part and leaving it flopped over. Also, to raise his head up part of his back has to come up, too, which spoils the sleekness of his alt mode. The back part does tab between the side nacelles, though, so it at least keeps them from folding back over. Also as seen in the movie, you can plug the blast effect onto the front of any nacelle (although the middle one is the movie-accurate one). This does leave you to try to find a spot for his rifle. There are 5mm peg holes on either side of his alt mode, but a side-mounted peg only on one side of his gun. You can either stick it to the left side of his alt mode, or into one the exposed peg hole on his right foot. Like Cyclonus Scourge has a small hole for a flight stand under his crotch. Unlike Cyclonus, there's enough room that I was able to get him onto MP Tracks' stand. I'm pretty pleased with Scourge. He's not quite as good as Cyclonus, but he still manages to pack a ton of screen-accuracy into a mainline toy, and as a result he's leaps and bounds better than any other official attempt. Honestly, while I like XTB's Scourge, SS Scourge is much easier to transform, so I might go so far to say that it's the best Scourge toy period. He's definitely worth picking up. Now I'm really hoping for some slightly recolored Sweeps and that Leader-class Galvatron is as good as Hasbro thinks, because we're getting awfully close to having a set of good-to-great, in-scale '86 movie bots. Quote
technoblue Posted January 15, 2021 Posted January 15, 2021 An update for those interested in MP Thundercracker...This was shared on another Transformers forum of note. It looks like this user was able to take a couple photos under better lighting. Yeah, it's toon-accurate blue but I dig it. Quote
M'Kyuun Posted January 15, 2021 Posted January 15, 2021 5 hours ago, mikeszekely said: I told you I was gonna crack. Here's Studio Series 86 Voyager-class Scourge. While not the greatest figure on Earth, I liked the old Titans Returns one for trying really hard. I mean, it had wings, and mostly the right shapes (ok, the head was a little boxy with an itty bitty Snork tube instead of his usual rocket mohawk), but the colors were rather monochromatic. Heck, I eve I modded one of the two I picked up so the back of his legs could be the front just to give him a little more color break up. Could Hasbro get it right in the Studio Series? Well... kind of. He's the proper size now, and his beard isn't he same color as his face anymore. His molded details are mostly spot-on, and even the geometry of his wings are much better than previous attempts. His fingernails pink. Actually, a lot of him is painted, as everything except his backpack and his bicep/elbow joint is actually molded in the darker color. I say "darker color" instead of "blue" because it's actually a bit purple, with an actual blue section painted around the Decepticon badge on his chest. The lighter color is a light blue-gray where it's painted, but the molded parts are again slightly purple. Some details are missing some color. His toes have none of the pink that his fingers do, there's none of the lighter color on the back of his head, and he's the same color from his knees to his hips when his thighs are more of a two-tone thing, with the light color on a pentagonal pattern on the front of his thigh but, depending on the episode, either a darker gray or the the same blue (purple) as his torso. All-in-all it's the most-accurate Scourge figure that isn't from X-Transbots by a very wide margin, but I find myself wondering if a rumored generic Sweep repaint/repackage might have slightly better colors. Another thing worth noting, Scourge is essentially a shellformer. I don't mean just SS Scourge, I think that's part of his core design. While Hasbro definitely did a better job managing a screen-accurate Scourge from the front his wings are really more of a backpack of folded alt-mode panels. It's not the worst I've ever seen, but he's definitely not as clean as Cyclonus. Scourge comes with a rifle. It's a bit hollowed-out, and cast from the same purplish-blue plastic as almost the entire figure. That said, it's fairly G1-accurate, to both the toy and the cartoon (although I had to go to The Headmasters to even find a screenshot of Scourge using a gun). He also comes with a purple blast effect part. Scourge's head is on a ball joint that can swivel and tilt sideways a fair bit but up/down tilt is a little limited. His shoulders rotate and can extend laterally over 90 degrees. His biceps swivel, and his elbows bend ever-so-slightly over 90 degrees. His wrists swivel, although they're a bit tight due to paint (his hands are actually cast in the darker blue/purple, then painted light blue and pink). His waist can swivel. His hips can move forward, backward, or laterally a little less than 90 degrees. His thighs do swivel, but again it's kind of tight, probably due to paint. His knees bend slightly over 90 degrees. His feet don't tilt, but his toes can bend down due to transformation, and he's got a little under 45 degrees of ankle pivot. His can can be held in either hand, despite them having slightly different shapes. Alternatively, he's got 5m ports on the back of either wing, in his shoulder bumps, on the outside of each forearm, on the outside of each ankle, and under each foot. The blast effect can fit on the tip of his gun. I know some of you aren't fond of it. Heck, as a kid Cyclonus' jet mode seemed so much cooler. But as an adult I love Scourge's flying brick mode. It's so unapologetically sci-fi, and I love toys that try to do it instead of a vaguely real, vaguely Earth-mode X-48-ish aircraft. Previous attempts have been somewhat mixed, as they tried to retain some of the G1 toy's method of using the wings to form the sides but making the nose out of his lower legs. The results (the Titanium Series and the Titans Return figures) never quite had the smoothness that the G1 toy or animation model had, though, and I don't think the Titans Return version was even totally trying with extra fins and molded verniers. SS Scourge, though, flips things around. Almost everything you see from this angle is his wings and backpack. A little of it was stuffed inside his torso, allowing his head to accordion back into the traditional alt mode spot. His actual body does very little transforming, mostly just dropping his arms and part of his sides down alongside his legs and tucking in his toes. From the front or from above he looks nigh-on perfect, with slightly flared intakes and a bit of molded detail near the back of the light sections that's present on the animation model. From straight-on at the side you can see that he's not hovering, he's resting on his shins, knees, and some tucked-in wing panels. He looks the worst from the back, where his folded-up feet protrude a bit and leave gaps that give away his shellformer nature, and from the bottom where you can clearly see a scrunched-up robot tucked in a shell and hiding behind two wing panels. So again, I think there's room for improvement, but I also think it's fine for a mainline Voyager-class toy. I do have one complaint, though. The nacelles on the side fold in for transformation to robot mode, and they don't seem to lock in place in alt mode. I find I'm constantly bumping them back into their closed position. Being that this is a Studio Series toy and not Kingdom you can expect a few movie gimmicks. The first is that you can reveal his head in alt mode so he can do the "You want me to gut Ultra Magnus?" bit from the attack on Autobot City. It's not the neatest, though, as it involves flipping open a part and leaving it flopped over. Also, to raise his head up part of his back has to come up, too, which spoils the sleekness of his alt mode. The back part does tab between the side nacelles, though, so it at least keeps them from folding back over. Also as seen in the movie, you can plug the blast effect onto the front of any nacelle (although the middle one is the movie-accurate one). This does leave you to try to find a spot for his rifle. There are 5mm peg holes on either side of his alt mode, but a side-mounted peg only on one side of his gun. You can either stick it to the left side of his alt mode, or into one the exposed peg hole on his right foot. Like Cyclonus Scourge has a small hole for a flight stand under his crotch. Unlike Cyclonus, there's enough room that I was able to get him onto MP Tracks' stand. I'm pretty pleased with Scourge. He's not quite as good as Cyclonus, but he still manages to pack a ton of screen-accuracy into a mainline toy, and as a result he's leaps and bounds better than any other official attempt. Honestly, while I like XTB's Scourge, SS Scourge is much easier to transform, so I might go so far to say that it's the best Scourge toy period. He's definitely worth picking up. Now I'm really hoping for some slightly recolored Sweeps and that Leader-class Galvatron is as good as Hasbro thinks, because we're getting awfully close to having a set of good-to-great, in-scale '86 movie bots. Good rundown, Mike. Up front, I've never liked Scourge's odd space hovercraft alt mode. I think it's probably because I've always equated it, at least subconsciously, with being more of a terrestrial vehicle, or a bar of soap with engines stuck to it, and it just didn't really appeal to me nearly as much as Cyclonus' far cooler jet mode. I love aircraft, particularly fighters and x-planes, so my bias certainly informs my opinion. I will say I dig Scourge's bot mode; the 'bat wings' give him a distinctive look. Anyway, this is the first review I've looked at, and I must admit I'm a little disappointed that he's mostly another shellformer. But, I guess traditionally that's fairly accurate to the original toy. I liked some of the innovation with the TR toy, but the look of the alt mode suffered noticeably from bot bits ruining the flow of the lines. So, shellforming was the tradeoff to create a much smoother streamlined alt mode, which does look good for what it is, while also giving us a pretty accurate bot mode. You really can't ask for much more in a retail figure. It looks to be another winner in the WFC line. Quote
mikeszekely Posted January 15, 2021 Author Posted January 15, 2021 11 hours ago, M'Kyuun said: It looks to be another winner in the WFC line. Studio Series. But believe me, I get the confusion. You ever wonder how Hasbro decided which figures to put in Kingdom, and which to put in Studio Series 86? Well, it's my understanding that stuff like Warpath, Huffer, Inferno, and perhaps Jazz were actually meant for Earthrise, and Kingdom was going to be Beast Wars and the '86 movie. However, COVID affected Hasbro's production and distribution, causing some of Earthrise to be shoved into Siege (Astrotrain, for example, wasn't supposed to be in Siege), and some of it to be moved into Kingdom. And to make room in Kingdom Hasbro got the bright idea to put some of the '86 movie characters into the Studio Series. Anyway, speaking of Studio Series 86, when I cracked and bought Scourge the best deals I could find weren't for Scourge alone, but for both of the Voyagers. So here's Voyager-class Hot Rod. Right out of the gate my first reaction was to note that this really looks like Hot Rod. In some ways, I think he actually looks better than the official MP version. His red color is a bit redder and less pink which, depending on what you remember or what edition you last watched, might seem less accurate but honestly sits better with me. His torso is also nicely tapered and angled, not the flat slab that the MP had. This comes at a cost, though, that some of you are bound not to like- his robot chest is NOT the car's front end. Still, despite having a the real hood stuffed inside of him he has less of a backpack than the MP toy. Moving along, we'll see that he has other features that previous Hot Rods (Titans Return and Power of the Primes, for comparison) are missing. The flames on his chest are done like the cartoon, with three points on each side. His tires stick out the back of his arms, not the front. He has the orange bumps on his forearms, and he actually has gray hands. His boots have mostly the same shape as the cartoon, and are colored more like the movie than the usual black or the toy-style red. I do have some notes, but know that I'm nitpicking every deviation from the animation and none of them actually bother me. But here goes.... there's no yellow stripe on the orange part of his forearms, there is a yellow stripe in his knees where the joint is, there's a bit of gray in his elbows, the pipes on his arms don't actually blend into his forearms, you can see a little bit of red in his calves, they used a little paint around his forehead and crest to try to capture the color breakup of the animation but I'm not sure I like it, and yet they didn't do anything to mark the color separation on his pelvis that he definitely had in the animation. On more note... you probably noticed that Voyager-class SS Hot Rod is about the same height as Deluxe-class Titans Return Hot Rod. And yes, put with some WFC figures he's a little taller than Deluxe-class Sideswipe, slightly shorter than Deluxe-class Ironhide, and significantly shorter than Leader-class Optimus Prime (who's the same size as Voyager-class Optimus Prime). A lot of people are complaining about this. All I can say is that with both WFC and Studio Series size alone is not the determining factor for a class, budget is. Hot Rod might be one of (if not the) smallest Voyagers ever released, but that extra budget gives him a higher parts count and more paint. Without it, you might have had another Hot Rod with orange hands or red boots. And he definitely would have come with fewer accessories, because SS Hot Rod comes with quite a few. You get two guns, molded in red but painted silver. They're similar to the G1 toy's guns (and bug me because, like the G1 toy, they're two different guns instead of two of the same). I'm not complaining since I like my TFs to have weapons, but it's curious that Hasbro included them because he didn't have guns in the film, and screen accuracy is so much a thing that it's apparently why Grimlock isn't coming with a sword. What is screen accurate, though, is his pizza cutter that he used on the robo-squid. Not content to stop there, you also get a Matrix of Leadership. Near as I can tell, it's the same mold (but a slightly darker translucent plastic) as the one that comes with Earthrise Optimus, right down to the hollow back side. Lastly, you get two "pew" blast effects and one shining effect part. Alas, no fishing pole (honestly, I can live without that), and no practice sword and shield, which really would have rounded out his movie accessories. Alright, so here's the big let down... Hot Rod has a major articulation issue. His head's on a ball joint that can turn and tilt just fine. His shoulders rotate and there's even a bit of forward butterfly that helps ensure that his shoulders don't get caught on his backpack. Now, there is a hinge that lets his arms move almost 90 degrees laterally... if his arms are down at his sides. Unfortunately, the hinge is outside his shoulder so if he lifts his arms he can't move them laterally anymore, and I hate that. I'd rather they dumped the Matrix and/or the buzzsaw and added enough parts to his shoulders to give him proper articulation. Oh well. His biceps swivel just above the elbows. Said elbows can bend a bit over 90 degrees. His wrists swivel, and like Earthrise Optimus his hands can open because his fingers are pinned at the base. His waist swivels. His hips can go over 90 degrees forward, 90 degrees laterally, but only about 45 degrees backward (which is fine). His thighs swivel. His knees are actually double-jointed, and combined he can bend his legs around 130 degrees before his calves start to bump his thighs. His feet can tilt up a fair bit and down a little, plus his ankles can pivot about 45 degrees. He holds his guns with the standard 5mm peg handles. And since his hands can open he can hold the Matrix; this is, in fact, why only he and Optimus have hands that open- they're the only ones with Matrices. The shine part fits over the front of his Matrix... or Optimus'. Which reminds me, Optimus has storage for his Matrix in his chest. Hot Rod does not. For him it's just a prop to hold, which is why I could have done without it. Oh, and since he's a Studio Series figure, not a WFC, he doesn't have a lot of 5mm ports. There's one on the back of each calf, and one under each foot, but that's it. He can store his guns on his back, though, using the same method as the alt mode. More on that in a bit. The gimmicks don't stop there. The blast effects can fit onto Hot Rod's guns, but they're also designed to fit onto the pipes on his arms. Combine that with the fact that you can open his head and flip out his visor you can recreate the scene where he sees the Decepticons and starts shooting at the Autobot shuttle on Lookout Mountain. As for the saw, you can open up Hot Rod's left arm and swivel his hand inside (which is NOT necessary for transformation) to reveal a peg. That peg jams into the bottom of his saw. His right arm also opens, and his right hand also flips around, but instead of revealing a peg you reveal the welding torch he uses to fix Kup. Now, these are all cool gimmicks, like you'd see on an MP, that help justify Hot Rod's Voyager-class price. But, again, I'd have traded all of them for better shoulder articulation. Hot Rod's transformation is definitely more involved than most Deluxes. Interestingly, his arms even rotate around so the left arm is on the right side and vice versa, like the one scene where he transforms on Quintessa. The resulting car is quite a bit smaller than previous Hot Rod toys, but it doesn't look out of place next to a WFC car like Sideswipe. For the most part, it's a good-looking Hot Rod alt mode. His spoiler stick out very far behind him, but that might be to match some of the more exaggerated shots in the movie. I'm not loving the big yellow joint in the roof, and to be honest the gray elbow joint and the orange forearm bump are both visible along the sides of the car. Some parts the fold out from the hood and cover over his shoulders don't seem to sit flush, although I hear there's a mod to fix it. Only his front tires have painted rims; I guess they thought they could get away without painting the rear ones since they're mostly covered by pipes. Speaking of pipes, as with the robot mode the front ends of the pipes don't blend into the sides. Finally, the rear is kind of a mess, with the tips of Hot Rod's boots and some if his knee joint poking out of the back of the car. Not Matrix storage in robot mode means none in alt mode, so just toss that Matrix and shine effect aside. The rest of his accessories can be used in alt mode, though. While he doesn't have any peg holes in car mode (the ones on his calves are covered by the spoiler, which, despite what the instruction suggest, does NOT plug into those peg holes), he does have a pair of slots on the roof in front of the spoiler, and a second pair of slots on his engine. The guns, if you'll recall, have wing-like shapes near the rear sights. Those wings tab into the slots, so the guns can sit sideways on either the roof or the engine. What's more, the saw blade has a pair of slots on either side, so once you have the guns tabbed in you can plug the saw onto the guns. Finally, while the "pew pew" effects can again be plugged into the gun barrels you can also plug them onto the back of the pipes, like he's shooting blue flames out of his exhaust. Hot Rod is a good figure, make no mistake. He might even be the best Hot Rod, because while I don't have Fans Toys' I do think he's better than MP-28, so I'm going to recommend him. Sure, he's smaller than you're used to for a Voyager but he's definitely worth a Voyager price. That said, I'm really frustrated by his shoulders. As I kept saying in the review, I'd gladly have traded all his movie gimmicks for better shoulder articulation, because those shoulders are really all that's dragging him down to merely good. If Hasbro had done his shoulders right Hot Rod would be one of the greatest mainline Transformer toys ever released. Quote
mikeszekely Posted January 15, 2021 Author Posted January 15, 2021 If you missed ER Skywarp and Thunder cracker BBTS is taking pre-orders for another batch. Quote
M'Kyuun Posted January 15, 2021 Posted January 15, 2021 (edited) So, I just got back from target, where I picked Kingdom Cyclonus!!!!, Kingdom Warpath, and SS Hot Rod. Starting with Hot Rod, I vehemently echo Mike's comments on the crappy shoulder articulation. A similar mechanism as Cyclonus' would have allowed for natural lateral movement of the shoulder instead of having to rotate the shoulder to the top of the body in order to allow lateral arm movement. Another example of this is Runabout/Runamuck, whose shoulder joints are attached within the body rather than in the arm. It's crappy engineering, and severely limits the arm articulation. The inclusion of all the accessories and effects parts is nice, but I have little use for most and would also have traded the extras budget for better shoulder joints. I also agree, and think that it's likely going to be the consensus among fans, that this is the best looking, most accurate G1 Hot Rod to date, at least officially. I would have said FT's Hoodlum was the best, but I think the chest proportions, due to the chest cheat, ultimately benefits the SS figure and gives him a more appealing look. Hoodlum, though, does have the benefit of having better overall looking lower legs, as the backs of the SS fig's lower legs are compromised by some very well compacted, yet still obviously non-matching, car bits. To some small degree, it may have actually helped the look of the fig had they given him red boots, as it were, as the car kibble would have matched better from all angles. Nevertheless, I'm personally glad they went the direction they did by making his boots grey to match the animation. I'm also glad his hands are grey, and that they can open. I wish fervently that that would become a standard. Maybe in another decade, perhaps. If I have one other nitpick, I wish there was more of a tab to help align the little fold-out front fender bits that sit in front of his shoulders in car mode. They basically free float with little to hold them in place and shore up the gap. Still, it's not egregiously bad on my copy, and on the whole, I think this is an excellent take on the character. I also like the spinning mechanism for the arms, which mirrors the one transformation scene from The Movie. I also wanted to mention how well intgrated the little visor is, at least on mine; it form fits his face perfectly when extended, and folds seamlessly into his nugget when not in use. It looks good, too; a lot of times, features like this, due to fit or what have you, come off looking cheesy and just don't work as well practically as they may have sounded on paper. Good execution here. Glad I got him. Warpath, at least my copy, is a mixed bag. He has a surprisingly complex transformation, especially the legs, that took me by surprise. I expected it to be very straightforward, but there's a fair bit of manipulation necessary to get him transformed. Warpath doesn't come with a gun for his bot mode, but since he turns into a tank, I guess it's moot. I suppose the argument can be made that he can just fire his cannon from his chest in bot mode, but to be honest, I'm not sure if he ever actually did that in the toon, or comics. So here he is in his tank mode, and despite being red, which is toon accurate, he bears a resemblance to the General Motors M551A1 Sheridan, after which the G1 toy was also modeled. As with the majority of tank Transformers, his treads are static, and he rolls on four small wheels underneath. The turret can rotate 360 degrees, and the cannon can rotate up and down, with about 30 degrees of movement. The pic above is the cannon fully down (note that it sits a little above parallel to the ground), and below is the cannon at full height, which is about 45 degrees to parallel. It's a good bit of range, and I'm just happy that they made it rotate at all. The only issue I have with my copy, and judging by the build of it, it will likely be an endemic problem, is that the panels on the upper front end of the tank lack any kind of solid tabbing or latching ability, so the whole endeavor relies on friction to keep it all together. As such, mine has a rather noticeable gap for which I see no ready way to remedy. It's a small misfortunate bit of design that mars what is otherwise a very well designed figure. here's a bottom shot of tank mode. The front of the tank is towards the bottom, and you can see the interlocking tabs that keep the panels straight. Unfortunately, none of them have any clasping ability which allows that whole front section to separate. Bad Hasbro, bad! Bot mode. Kingdom Warpath benefits from a very clean design. Much of the filler panels fold into the legs and are virtually unrecognizable as such. On his back, there's a wedge shaped panel with yet another hinged smaller rectangular panel that form the aft upper deck and back portion of his tank mode that, due to the tight tolerance where it has to pass through the rotating frame to which his arms attach, can be a bit challenging to move into place when transforming him to tank mode. It's something to be aware of. His head is on a ball joint and he can get all of about 2-3 degrees of up and down movement- not a lot. His shoulders are pinned and offer 90 degrees of lateral swing, 360 degrees of fore and aft rotation, his bicep swivels offer 360 degrees of rotation, his elbows bend to 90 degrees, and his wrists swivel 360 on a mushroom peg. He has 360 degrees of waist swivel but no ab crunch. His hips are on universal joints which swivel a little over 90 degrees fore, about 80 aft due to hitting back kibble, and can swing laterally on pinned joints to 90 degrees. The thigh swivels are on mushroom pegs and swivel 360 at a point just south of the 'hip skirt', which is actually the hip joint proper. I love this design, and I hope they stick to it as a norm going forward. The knees bend to just under 90 degrees. The feet have no up or down movement, but the ankles can tilt 90 degrees, as it's necessary for transformation. Mentioning his feet, this guy has some serious clodhoppers on him. I submitted a profile shot below. There should be no stability issues with this guy. Although he comes with no accessories, like most WFC figs, he has a number of 5mm ports: one on his back, outer biceps and forearms, outer lower legs, and one on the bottom of each foot, for a max total of nine. He also has pegs for attaching effects parts on his left forearm, right lower leg, just below the knee, and the tip of his cannon barrel. I thought I took a back shot of his bot mode, but apparently I forgot. Apologies. s The profile , while calling attention to his rather sizeable feet, also shows just how clean he is. the tread detail on his forearm is about it for vehicle kibble, and that's canon to his original toy and toon depictions, so not much to say beyond his being a very sharp update to the classic G1 character. Some comparison shots: First and foremost, the fig that most folks are going to want to see him compared with is the previous Generations deluxe class Warpath from 2011, who transformed into a Cybertronian H-tank. IMHO, this was an excellent Warpath figure that had a fun transformation, a clean bot mode, and a good tank mode, despite its not being the classic Sheridan. I believe this was also one of the first minibots, who generally only appeared in legends scale, to be made as a deluxe figure with all the bennies that accompany the size upgrade. Until this new Kingdom fig, I'm sure he's been the placeholder for Warpath in many a CHUG collection, and I think he bears hanging on to for how well of a designed toy he is. As you can see from the pics, Generations Warpath is a full head taller than his Kingdom counterpart, reflecting Hasbro's continued production of smaller deluxe minibots in lieu of legends scale. I'm all for that decision, and I continue to hold out hope that all the minibots will eventually get deluxe updates. It does, however, draw into question why they decided to make the cassette bots undersized compared to the realistically scaled G1 and MP cassettes. But that's a discussion for another day, or another review, as it were. Here's Kingdom Warpath with ER Prime, and ER Bluestreak. The scaling looks good to this fan's eye. Wrapping my review up, I think this is a really good take on classic G1 Warpath, and one that's been 30+ years coming. the inability of the front panels to close up tightly by some sort of mechanism, the tight tolerance for the back panel, and a potentially frustrating leg transformation are mild detractors from what is otherwise arguably the best official Warpath toy to date. Recommended. As an aside, if you look closely at the bottom of the underside tank shot above, there are two slots under the front of the tank, and it would be nice if a third party produced a weapon or such that could tab into those two slots thus bringing the front halves together securely and eliminating the gap. Lastly, Kingdom Cyclonus. As most of us here are toy collectors, we know that the impression one takes away from even a comprehensive review is still not the same as actually holding the thing in your hands, putting it through its paces, checking all the angles. That's my feeling as I freed Cyclonus from his cardboard prison, posed him, transformed him, and just gazed lovingly at this marvelous figure. All the reviews I've watched and read had me convinced this was going to be a good figure, but in hand, I can think of no better descriptor than the oft overused 'masterpiece'. Short of a few paint apps that would help complete the look and perhaps some double-jointed elbows, this is such a strong entry in this line, with an accurate bot mode, and a jet mode, with tricycle retractable landing gear and wing flaps no less, that's cleaner than 98 percent of what HasTak produce. There are bot parts visible on the bottom, but they're integrated in a way that's complimentary to the jet mode. The armatures for the arms are cut such that, when moved for transformation, the remaining chest area is angled to favor the taper of the fuselage. It's good attention to detail in the design, and I applaud Hasbro and Takara for it, for making this such a standout figure. Both modes are solid, i.e., no falling apart at the merest wiggle. If anything, the tab/slot connections between the forearms and lower legs in jet mode are quite tight and difficult to separate once pressed flush. I had to use a LEGO brick separator and really pry to get those things apart. Be wary. I've gushed enough over this figure. Needless to say, I love it unabashedly. Like many fans, I've waited 30+ years for a proper G1 Cyclonus, and HasTak finally delivered the goods. Highly recommended. Edited January 15, 2021 by M'Kyuun Quote
mikeszekely Posted January 16, 2021 Author Posted January 16, 2021 3 hours ago, M'Kyuun said: So, I just got back from target, where I picked Kingdom Cyclonus!!!!, Kingdom Warpath, and SS Hot Rod. Nice! I stopped at Target today, too. The Transformers section in the usual aisle was totally empty. Sure, they had spaces for everything, just no product. No Earthrise, no Kingdom, no Studio Series, not even any Cyberverse. I later spotted MPM Ratchet in the clearance aisle, along with some Cyberverse stuff. Didn't check prices, but if you're looking for any of that you might want to see if your Target has a clearance aisle. I was about to leave empty-handed (well, not totally, I was actually there to get more pants for my 6yo, who's growing so fast I swear I have to buy her a new wardrobe every six months), but I stumbled across a Transformers endcap on the back side. The had a few ReAction gold Bumblebees, a lone Studio Series Scrapper, a handful of Studio Series Shatters (the jet one), some Optimus Primes (didn't pay attention if they were in Earthrise or Kingdom boxes), and one other figure I needed (but you'll have to wait until I get the review up to find out which one). Maybe tomorrow I'll head to Walmart and see if they have anything. Or maybe Amazon will be like, "hey, everyone else is selling this stuff now, maybe we don't have to wait until March" and start sending out my preorders. Quote
M'Kyuun Posted January 16, 2021 Posted January 16, 2021 Thanks, Mike! The Target I went to also had Kingdom Optimus Primal, Cheetor, and the deluxe dino skeleton dude. They had a bunch of Cyberverse stuff, Kingdom Opimus Prime (the one with all blue legs), a number of SS Bayverse deluxes and MPM Bumblebee Movie Bee. I don't own a single version of Bee Movie Bee, so I thought about it for a second or two, but ultimately passed. I may come to regret it, but not today. I passed on the BW figs, as I have them all PO'd, and, having the MP versions already, I can wait. It gives me something to look forward to. I even thought about leaving Cyclonus at first, but no. My anticipation for this figure was just too great, and then I saw Warpath, and then SS Hot Rod. Suffice it to say, it was a gratifying day. I actually went to Target to see if they had the newest set of LEGO Collectible Minifigs, which they didn't. But finding those Kingdom figs more than made up for it. Had I known that Kingdom OP was going to be a thing, I may have held out and saved myself the time and effort to paint my ER version. Alas, what's done is done, and I don't feel the need to double dip on ER Prime unless he's issued as a new Ultra Magnus down the road. Speaking of UM, after watching a vid review of Kingdom UM a day or two ago, I canxed my PO. It's just not good. I hope that the Hasbro folks who wanted to use ER Prime as the base get their wish at some point, and we get a much better Magnus down the road. 'Til then, CW UM is my placeholder, and for now, I'm fine with it. Quote
mikeszekely Posted January 16, 2021 Author Posted January 16, 2021 10 minutes ago, M'Kyuun said: Kingdom Opimus Prime (the one with all blue legs)... Had I known that Kingdom OP was going to be a thing, I may have held out and saved myself the time and effort to paint my ER version. Are you sure he had all blue legs? Everything I've seen online says that Kingdom OP is identical to ER Op save for the box. The Netflix one has all-blue legs, but it's a darker purplish blue so I decided to stick with ER Prime as my main CHUG Optimus. Also, man I wish I lived where you do. I'd have bought everything. Yes, I have preorders, but I'm impatient, and I'll happily cancel my Amazon orders (that said, maybe I should wait on Primal, because my preorder price dropped to $24...). 14 minutes ago, M'Kyuun said: Speaking of UM, after watching a vid review of Kingdom UM a day or two ago, I canxed my PO. It's just not good. How bad can it be? It looks like it's Siege Ultra Magnus (who, while not great, I honestly liked), but with some retooled parts on the core robot to look more like an Earth truck, and some retooled parts on the trailer to give him a more cartoon-accurate chest and head when armored up. While I'd kill for a new Magnus with a more accurate trailer and better core robot I think I'm still in for Kingdom UM. Oh, btw, those leaks I posted the other day? Not sure what's really different from the Siege mold, but Deep Cover anyone? Quote
M'Kyuun Posted January 16, 2021 Posted January 16, 2021 7 hours ago, mikeszekely said: Are you sure he had all blue legs? Everything I've seen online says that Kingdom OP is identical to ER Op save for the box. The Netflix one has all-blue legs, but it's a darker purplish blue so I decided to stick with ER Prime as my main CHUG Optimus. Y'know, looking back, I'm not sure now, as the box's window mostly showed the upper portion of Prime, and I don't recall the branding. The pics on the box showed him with all blue legs, and I can't remember if I was able to look down into the box to confirm it. My short term memory is rather poor, and I can't honestly be sure. The impression I had when I got home was that he was the version with all blue legs. I forgot to mention yesterday that Target had two copies of Ecto-1, but the price was $60 or $70 (I don't recall which, just that it was grossly overpriced), but secondary is up around $80-nearly 100 range, so it's still the better option, I guess. Gamestop has it on sale for $27.98, so if I had any interest in picking it up, that's who I'd get it from. 7 hours ago, mikeszekely said: Also, man I wish I lived where you do. I'd have bought everything. Yes, I have preorders, but I'm impatient, and I'll happily cancel my Amazon orders (that said, maybe I should wait on Primal, because my preorder price dropped to $24...). Not really, man. Most of the time, I'm sitting here in envy of all the stuff you're finding on that side of the country. Yesterday's findings were a temporary oasis in an otherwise generally barren Transformer wasteland. Target seems to be better than Walmart about getting stock, though. I paid visits to my local Wally, for which empty pegs in the TF section is more a norm than not, and to another Wally that generally is far better at keeping the shelves stocked, and they too had little to offer, at least in the Generations stuff. 7 hours ago, mikeszekely said: How bad can it be? It looks like it's Siege Ultra Magnus (who, while not great, I honestly liked), but with some retooled parts on the core robot to look more like an Earth truck, and some retooled parts on the trailer to give him a more cartoon-accurate chest and head when armored up. While I'd kill for a new Magnus with a more accurate trailer and better core robot I think I'm still in for Kingdom UM. Well, he has a fugly misshapen cab with a big white tumor, comprised of his non-integrated arms, just hanging off the back and gaps on the sides. The cab can't turn independently of the trailer. The trailer has no functionality as a car carrier due to how the legs were designed and due to the stowage of his arms inside. The only positive thing I can say about it is that the bot mode looks good. But, I believe Has/Tak can do better, and since UM's kind of a meh character to me anyway, I'm willing to wait for a better version, should it come. If the rumor's true that the team at Hasbro wanted to use ER Prime for the core, and seem dissatisfied with the current offering, then I suspect we'll see an improved version in the future. 7 hours ago, mikeszekely said: Oh, btw, those leaks I posted the other day? Not sure what's really different from the Siege mold, but Deep Cover anyone? Hmm, I like the dark blue, but I wish they'd done the whole car in that color. I've not really double dipped this mold much, although I like it. I like the colors though, so I may consider it depending on the price. My CHUG shelves are beyond capacity at this point, so I'm already struggling to find places to put the latest figs I've been buying, not to mention I have Haslab's Unicron to prepare for yet. So many toys, so little space. I'm curious as to whether there's indeed an earth mode Sideswipe coming; they got pretty close with the Siege already; all he needs are a few cosmetic changes to the windshield and a spoiler. Guess we'll see. Quote
mikeszekely Posted January 16, 2021 Author Posted January 16, 2021 1 hour ago, M'Kyuun said: Well, he has a fugly misshapen cab with a big white tumor, comprised of his non-integrated arms, just hanging off the back and gaps on the sides. The cab can't turn independently of the trailer. The trailer has no functionality as a car carrier due to how the legs were designed and due to the stowage of his arms inside. So, like Siege then. 1 hour ago, M'Kyuun said: I'm curious as to whether there's indeed an earth mode Sideswipe coming; they got pretty close with the Siege already; all he needs are a few cosmetic changes to the windshield and a spoiler. I'm a bit curious myself. I thought maybe more of a wedge-shaped nose, possibly remolded side panels and legs that are a bit more lambo-ish, and an actual roof. But Deep Cover is supposed to be the earth mode, and Sunstreaker already showed that Hasbro thinks they can ditch the spoiler and be close enough. They clearly didn't change the chest/car nose. I wonder if they painted a roof on (like I did with a Reprolabel on Sideswipe and Red Alert) then called it a day? Quote
M'Kyuun Posted January 16, 2021 Posted January 16, 2021 6 hours ago, mikeszekely said: So, like Siege then. I'm a bit curious myself. I thought maybe more of a wedge-shaped nose, possibly remolded side panels and legs that are a bit more lambo-ish, and an actual roof. But Deep Cover is supposed to be the earth mode, and Sunstreaker already showed that Hasbro thinks they can ditch the spoiler and be close enough. They clearly didn't change the chest/car nose. I wonder if they painted a roof on (like I did with a Reprolabel on Sideswipe and Red Alert) then called it a day? My guess is yes, as they're likely going to go the cheapest option possible. Either that or it'll be a very slight retool, as you said, to make the side panels more reminiscent of the actual Lambo. I think they made the Siege as close to source as possible to make any potential earth mode from it as economical as possible, so whatever they do to it to effect the change, I expect it to be minimal. It's already a good mold, so even if they just repainted the roof and windshield to make it more like the Lambo, I'd be fine with it, honestly. It would be nice, however, if they tried to make it look more like Sunstreaker's car mode. This is Hasbro we're talking about, so I'm keeping my expectations low. Quote
mikeszekely Posted January 16, 2021 Author Posted January 16, 2021 So yesterday when I went to Target I was there for pants, like I said, but my local Target has a CVS in it and that's where I get my prescriptions filled. I had one for pickup, but the pharmacy was closed by the time I got there. Well, today I took my parents to lunch and decided to grab my script on the way home. I didn't expect anything, because who gets restock on Saturday, but on a whim I checked the toy section. Lo and behold, between the main aisle and the endcap were both Studio Series 86 Voyagers (curse my impatience!) and the entire first wave of Kingdom. It's too bad they didn't have the SS86 Deluxes or Grimlock, but again, maybe I'll see what my local Walmart has later (not holding my breath). My two today purchases will have to wait a bit, but the one I grabbed yesterday was Kingdom Leader Class Megatron. Megatron is a big fellow, coming in short of the "old" Leader class stuff (like CW Magnus or Megatron), but standing a good head taller than Siege or Earthrise Megatron. As far as accuracy to the source material goes he's... ok. He's got the dino head for his right hand, the tail-pincher (that I just realized I don't have fully transformed in any of my pics; the end of the tail should be rotated 180 degrees) on the other arm. Like the CGI and MP figures, but unlike almost every BW Megatron before him, he does have a left hand. The patterns on his head, torso, and thighs have mostly the correct shapes, he's got the hip guns, and he's got the tooth collar. His problems are mostly down to colors; there's simply not enough of them. Only the front half of his head is painted; the back half is purple plastic. His biceps are molded in black, and his left forearm in purple, but both parts of his arm should have black and purple, and the purple should be darker than his torso. Speaking of torso, they used a gunmetal color instead of black, which is fine, but they left off some silver around his midriff (despite having it on his chest and tooth collar), and the gunmetal runs all the way to his crotch instead of stopping at his pelvis and having a purple crotch. The round bits at the bottoms of his thighs are actually a darker purple, which is correct, but they used the purple all the way up his thighs on details that should actually be green. Speaking of green, there's none on his shoulders, which are instead covered in a khaki color instead (which replaced the gold on the CGI/MP). Other parts of his dino skin do have green, but in a duller shade than the cartoon. Finally, his purple dino skin is all one shade, with none of the subtle splotching used on the show or MP. Did I say finally? Because there's actually one more thing. He's got a pretty huge backpack. I think it's the nature of the character's design going all the way back to the old Kenner toys; organic beast shell contains a robot inside. That shell has to go somewhere, and that somewhere is his back. That's true for the CGI model and true for the MP... but Kingdom Megatron's backpack is bigger than those, and less accurate (although not necessarily worse than the original Ultra-class toy). Megatron doesn't come with any accessories. It's a shame, I'd have liked to see him come with a toothbrush or rubber ducky, but it's not like Megatron had weapons in the show, and his original toy only came with a water squirter and missile to be used with the dino head, so I guess it's accurate. His head is only on a swivel, so he can't really look down or tilt his head sideways. But a transformation joint can be used to get him to look up a bit. His shoulders rotate and he can move them laterally a little under 90 degrees. His biceps swivel. His left elbow bends about 90 degrees, and although his wrist can't swivel there is a hinge that lets it bend up. That hinge isn't used for transformation. His waist swivels. His hips go 90 degrees forward and backward. Normally they can only do about 45 degrees laterally, but if you rotate the hip blasters to their alt mode position you can get the full 90 degrees. His thighs swivel just above his knees, which bend 90 degrees. His feet can tilt up and down, and he's got about 45 degrees of ankle pivot. His dino head-arm can open, and there's a port in there that works with Siege blast effects. Really, Hasbro couldn't even be bothered to give us one of those? Speaking of dino head-arm, if the head is turned up like the above his elbow joint is limited to about 30 degrees of bend. But... If you rotate his bicep 180 degrees his elbow bends a full 90 degrees. Megatron turns into a T-Rex, and I was a bit surprised to find that he's a tad smaller than Studio Series Grimlock (the AoE one, not the SS 86 one, which I would love to compare to both of these guys). Again, it's Hasbro's stated goal with the BW figures in Kingdom to have mostly cartoon-accurate robot modes, but more realistic beast modes. So again, Megatron's got the mostly-purple body, but without the darker splotches. The green on his back is a duller mint color and his underbelly is more of a khaki than the shinier green and orange on the CGI model. His thighs and neck are longer, and his head is smaller. I'm ambivalent about the color differences, but I prefer the more realistic proportions of the dinosaur mode. Another thing Hasbro did with Megatron specifically is that much of the dinosaur parts, even the stuff that's just folded-up kibble on his robot back, is made from a hard plastic with a rubbery plastic layered onto it like skin. I know some others have expressed some concern about the longevity of the skin, but Hasbro insiders have suggested that they knew that'd be a cause for concern and worked to create a durable formula for it. Perhaps that's where the accessory and paint budget went? Anyway, all those panels cover over his robot parts pretty well, but they do leave a lot of seams on the dinosaur mode. Despite the seems in his skin, and the general fact that I prefer mechanical beast forms to organic ones on Transformers, Megatron's T-Rex mode is honestly pretty awesome. His orange eyes face forward, not the sides. His jaws open to reveal some white painted teeth, a purple tongue, and even those flaps between the upper and lower jaw (muscle? skin?). In addition to opening and closing his mouth, his head can tilt up and down and even swing to either side, although more extreme poses will start to push his skin flaps open or apart. That said, the purple flaps on the sides of his neck actually have springs, so if you push them apart they'll spring back when you turn his head the other way. His little shoulders are ball jointed for rotation and some lateral movement, but he's got no additional articulation in those little arms. His hips can go a little under 90 degrees forward or backward, and he can even spread his legs a little. His knees have the same 90 degree range as before, and his feet still have the same up/down tilt and ankle pivot. His tail has a slight up/down tilt at the base, but more importantly it has a hinge at the base and middle of the tail that allows for some left-right motion. It's one of the most-articulated dinosaur modes on a transforming toy, and it helps make Megatron's beast mode the star of the show. So yeah, Leader Megatron's robot mode suffers from some inaccurate colors and a big backpack. He's a long way from being an MP. But, even at $50 he's also a long way from MP-43's $300+ price tag (even after you start looking for Quackles, the Botbot that turns into a rubber duck, on ebay). I think his robot mode is good enough- I mean, I'm actually not that fond of it, but due to issues I have with the CGI model and MP figure. I've just never cared much for the dino head and tail arms, but Kingdom Megatron replicates what I don't like fairly accurately. But I have to say, even if you're not really into Beast Wars Megatron's kind of worth it for the T-Rex mode, which is just great. It's honestly so good that I swore I was just picking up Megatron due to him being a main character in the show, and that I'd pass on the rumored T-Wrecks and Jurassic Park repaints, but now I'm sure I'll go for the JP repaint at the very least. Quote
M'Kyuun Posted January 17, 2021 Posted January 17, 2021 Kingdom Megatron is a fig I'm looking forward to. I've watched a few vid reviews and read @mikeszekely's, and as Mike said, this is the best organic T-Rex mode we've ever gotten in terms of articulation and the overt attempt to make him look as accurate to what current science believes a T-Rex would have looked like, color notwithstanding, but who knows? Would it have made sense for an apex predator to be purple? Probably not, but the green on his back makes sense in a world that was likely flush with all sorts of plants. Anyway, unlike MP BW Megatron, which is a neat fig, but a pain to transform, I'm looking forward to this simpler version, as Has/Tak nailed the main cues of BW Megatron's bot mode, while giving us a T-Rex mode that's actually poseable for a change. That's a beef I've long had with beast modes, especially the organic ones, as they're generally statuesque, looking the part but practically immobile, except perhaps an opening mouth or maybe a hinged foreleg. To that end, I'm pretty pleased with the majority of the Kingdom BW figs, as, other than Rattrap, Hasbro tried to imbue most with a fair degree of articulation, which makes the alt mode much more fun, as it should be. Some of the back kibble is unfortunate, but a worthy concession to achieve the articulation of his T-Rex mode. I've never been a fan of having his dino head as a hand or his tail as an arm, but I am glad that, unlike his original toy, they gave him a full left arm and hand within the tail as he had in the show. I can live with the tail being an extension, although this is one instance when it'd be nice if it was detachable as it was in the show. As for lack of accessories, I'm ok with it, but a rubber ducky would have been great just because. Anyway, I think using this mold, at least the T-Rex part of it (I'm sure they'll do some retooling of the bot mode to give him some semblance to Dr. Grant, or maybe Owen) as a Jurassic Park crossover is too good an opportunity to pass up. I'm not sure I feel the need to have two copies of this toy, but then again, seeing that T-Rex mode looking like he does in the JP films, it might be too hard to pass up. The thought of it kinda makes me wish there had been more organic dinos, besides Dinobot, who could also see a crossover from the films. I'd love a Triceratops, for one. Quote
mikeszekely Posted January 17, 2021 Author Posted January 17, 2021 (edited) With Megatron out of the way, we might as well cover his rival, Kingdom Voyager-class Optimus Primal. Unlike Megatron, who was a head taller than his G1 counterpart, Primal is a head shorter than Optimus Prime. And aesthetically, I'd suggest he's somewhere between the cartoon and the original toy. Much of his body is black plastic with textured to seem furry in a way that strongly reminds me of the original toy; no slick digital painting here. His pelvis is silver, which is closer to the light gray on the old Ultra-class toy than the darker color used on the CGI or MP-32. Likewise, his hands are a gray color instead of black. However, head has the mouth cutout that he CGI used, the mechanical details on his chest are closer to the CGI/MP than the original toy in both shape and color, and while his dark blue feet don't exactly match the gunmetal feet he had in the cartoon they're not white like the original toy. The one detail that is a departure from both are his hips. They're shaped like the cartoon, but they used the same blue plastic as they did for his feet, while both the original toy and the CGI/MP had red hips. My biggest aesthetic complaint, though, is that the part of his chest that flips around for for transformation is fairly far forward, and there's a large gap between it and his collar. Technically there's a gap under it, too, but it's smaller and less noticeable. Primal doesn't come with a ton of accessories, just his swords. Seems like they were cast in blue and the blades were painted silver. They're lacking the gold on the center of the hilt, but I think it's close enough for a Voyager. Primal's head might be on a ball joint, but if he does there's no sideways tilt. And since his chin is basically touching his chest downward tilt is also pretty much out. He can swivel his head, though, and he can look up a bit. His shoulders rotate and can move his arms 90 degrees laterally, and there's also a butterfly hinge so be can move his arms forward and across his body. His biceps swivel, and his elbows bend almost 180 degrees. His writs swivel, and like Prime and Hot Rod his fingers are pinned at the base so he can open and close his hands. That means that although he didn't come with one and can't store it internally he can hold Prime or Hot Rod's Matrix. Moving along, his waist can swivel. His hips can move forward 90 degrees and a little less than that backward, as long as you move his butt flap, and perhaps about 75 degrees laterally. His thighs swivel around his hip joints, which limits their maximum range due to the sculpt (but ultimately provides enough, I think). His knees bend a little over 90 degrees on a single hinge. However, you can untab the red kneecap from a joint and effectively make his knees double-jointed if you want more range. For some reason there's a second swivel below his knee. His feet tilt up a little but not down, and his ankles can pivot a little under 45 degrees. With his hands open you can slide his swords into his hands. If you don't want him carrying them they have tabs on the sides that can fit into slots on his backpack for storage. If a pair of swords seems like it's not enough when your archenemy is a T-Rex don't worry, that's not the extent of Primal's arsenal. Inside his backpack he's got shoulder cannons you can flip out (the instructions sort of imply that they're always out in robot mode, but they can be folded away in robot mode if you're looking for cartoon accuracy). There's also a rectangular button on the underside of either of Primal's forearms. Push it in and a panel on the oppose side of his arm will open up, revealing his arm blasters. So again Hasbro's going for the more realistic alt mode that attempts to blend his robot thighs into the gorilla's torso and give him a posture akin to a real gorilla moving on all four limbs. That makes the robot knees his gorilla hips (although is robot hips can help spread his legs a little), and the swivel below his robot knees a gorilla thigh swivel, with no actual gorilla knee. The waist swivel is more or less locked in place. Arm articulation is basically unchanged. His head is designed so that it can't look down to far, but he can look almost straight up (or straight forward, I guess, in this posture. He can't swivel his head 360 degrees, but he can swivel it even when it's straight up/forward. His robot parts are mostly hidden, but turning his bicep will expose some of the white part, and the seam of his gorilla butt flap doesn't quite match his robot thighs. His eyes are neither the human-ish cartoon nor the blue of the original toy, but a sort of brownish orange that you might find on a real gorilla. Speaking of real gorillas his hands, chest, and face are gray like the original toy, which is a color you might find on a real gorilla, but I kind of wish they were black like the cartoon, which is also a color you'd find on a real gorilla. I'm not sure I recall Primal ever walking on all fours in the cartoon. And while they don't do it often in real life a gorilla can walk upright for short distances when carrying food or when they're behaving defensively. That's enough for Hasbro to include a bipedal mode for Primal by basically making him look down and unplugging his knee joint from the red part, then using the double hinge to make the rounded joint exposed, then pushing his robot thighs back enough that those joints are roughly in-line with his pelvis. His articulation is unchanged in this position. While it might not be something you'd see on a real gorilla, his swords can still mount on his back or, since his gorilla hands are his robot hands, he can wield them in this mode. Likewise, his shoulder and arm cannons are still accessible, which kind of touches on why I've never been a fan of the gorilla alt mode. Most other alt modes, even beast ones, I can imagine giving a transformer access to some skills or weapons that they wouldn't have in robot mode, but a gorilla is basically already a humanoid form. Oh well, after 25 years it is what it is. Kingdom Primal is, despite being in a different class, a lot like Kingdom Megatron. Both are fairly show-accurate, but not perfect. Both eschew show-accurate alt modes for more realistic ones, and those alt modes are both fairly well-articulated. Both clearly fall short of their MP counterparts, but both are still the best representation of their characters that have ever appeared in a mainstream Transformers line. So maybe Optimus Primal isn't my favorite Kingdom figure or one of my top 5 WfC Trilogy figures, but maybe that's because deep inside I'm with the "truck not monkey" crew. Beast Wars fans are still getting a good toy with Kingdom Primal, so I'd recommend him. Edited January 17, 2021 by mikeszekely Quote
mikeszekely Posted January 18, 2021 Author Posted January 18, 2021 ZAM! POWIE! That just leaves Kingdom Deluxe-class Warpath. As much as I like the old Generations Warpath it was always a more stylized take on what's traditionally been a pretty goofy character. The new Kingdom Deluxe is smaller, as you'd expect from a minibot, but not as small as Bee or Cliffjumper, which is also what the cartoon suggests. He's almost entirely a burgundy red, with bits of white around his abs, eyes, and on the treads on his arms and feet. While I'd have preferred light gray or silver, as it's what's on the G1 toy and what color the cartoon was trying to portray, the white is mostly cartoon accurate. He's actually missing a little white on his shoulders, and he's got a bit too much on his abdomen. The cartoon had burgundy in the middle of his abdomen with an Autobot insignia the toy is missing. Otherwise, yep, that's what the cartoon looks like, right down the the u-shaped detail on his crotch. Actually, there is one thing that bugs me, but I'll get to it in a minute. Warpath doesn't come with any guns, which is a little disappointing but not surprising as he almost never had a gun in cartoon and the G1 toy didn't come with one. He does have this "shield" that's really a hunk of partsforming. Ok, so Warpath's head is on a ball joint. Nothing really down, but he can look up a little and has some sideways tilt. His shoulders rotate and extend laterally 90 degrees. Biceps swivel just above his elbows, which bend 90 degrees. His wrists swivel, as does his waist. His hips can go 90 degrees forward, 90 degrees laterally, and 90 degrees backward as long as you move his buttflap. His thighs swivel, and his knees bend a little under 90 degrees. His feet don't tilt up or down (which might be surprising given his transformation), but his ankles can pivot 90 degrees. Although he doesn't come with a gun he's got places to borrow others, including weaponizers, fossilizers, and Battle Masters. Both of his fists are 5mm ports, and he's got more on the outside of either forearm, on the outside of either shoulder, on the outside of either leg, under each foot, and one on his back. His "shield" is depicted in the instructions on his shoulder, with the shorter end angled over the top, like a Zaku shield. If you plug it into his forearm with the short end over his fist it could maybe be some punching weapon. You can also put it on his back, but it only fits with the short end sticking up behind him like a Throttlebot's hood. While the instructions have his tank barrel collapsed into his chest, you can extend it to recreate scenes from the cartoon where he was blasting it in robot mode. That said, it never collapsed this much in the cartoon. The barrel on the Kingdom figure clicks into place when it's fully pushed it or fully extended, but it'd have been nice if there was a stopping point with it collapsed halfway, as it'd look better and be more cartoon-accurate. As others have noted, Warpath's transformation is surprisingly involved, with is legs rotating 180 degrees at the thighs as a variety of panels unfurl. The result is a more traditional-looking tank than the sci-fi H-tank we got the first time around, but the thin panels have trouble locking in place which can leave gaps on the front of the tank. By being a more realistic tank he's more cartoon accurate than before, but I'm a bit surprised by how much misses the mark here. The turret, while having details that are somewhat similar, is more bulbous than the cartoon and far more bulbous than the real thing. It also sits too far back on the tank, with a barrel that's a bit short with a stumpy muzzle brake. Despite using partsforming* there's still a gap between the front treads that neither cartoon, toy, or real Sheridan has, and it's lacking much of the sharp slope in the front. That said, I guess a better tank mode is a lot to expect on a Deluxe; half the reason BadCube's Wardog was so notoriously complicated was because of how much of his robot torso had to be added to the realistic turret. About that partsforming, his shield plugs into the underside near the front of the tank, with the short end angling up into panels that unfold from his legs. If you just want to put the shield in a drawer and forget about it I don't think his tank mode really looks that much worse without it. That said, something I do find interesting is that it uses four tabs to lock into place, not the peg used for robot mode, and there's a big gap between his legs. A gun with a peg hole, like Earhrise Ironhide/Ratchet's, could easily store in his tank mode by plugging into the peg and riding in the shield. Speaking of peg holes, you've got two on either side of the tank and one on the back of the turret. You can see three more under the tank, but they're not very useful in this mode. His turret can rotate, and the barrel can move up but not really down. The tip of the barrel has a little peg for Siege blast effects, put personally I hope some enterprising party uses it as an attachment point for a better muzzle brake. Like the Cliffjumper mold, Warpath makes a strong case for re-doing all the smaller characters previously released in the Legends scale as Deluxes. Warpath isn't the most mind-blowing toy, but he's a big step up from even some of the better Legends-class toys like Seaspray and Beachcomber and a good figure I can recommend. It makes me both excited to see what Hasbro's cooked up for Huffer and disappointed that Gears is still being ignored. But maybe post-Kingdom Hasbro can revisit the minibots; I'd love a Deluxe-class Seaspray. Quote
M'Kyuun Posted January 18, 2021 Posted January 18, 2021 (edited) Good reviews, Mike. This is definitely a good Primal update, and again, I like that they decided to skew more towards a real world looking ape than the slightly more toony looking version. I assume , in order to recoup the costs of the molds and such, that a later reissue of these figs with their toonier beast modes will happen. But, I like this direction as it gives fans something different from the MP versions. As for nitpicks, I also wish wish his hip joints were red rather than the dark blue they used. I'm also not much of a fan of his gorilla apron/butt flap. I think it would have looked better had it had more of a taper? I dunno. It just looks to my eyes like a furry apron, as if he's about to bake up a banana cream pie. It's a very subjective nitpick, I'll admit, and I think they did an overall good job of giving him pretty decent articulation in his ape mode. I do however wish they'd made all his weapons integrate seamlessly into his beast mode like the original toy, which was amazing for its time, as well as the MP, which did a good job of integrating the majority of his weapons in beast mode. At least they managed to tuck his Prime cannons into his back. Since he used those quite often, but his swords rarely, if ever, it doesn't hurt my feelings to leave those in the box when I eventually get him. Reading through your Warpath review, I realized I totally missed that partsforming shield, so I had to go fetch the box, and fish it out. That should eliminate the gap on the front of my copy's tank mode. I took a serendipitous trip with my wife and friend to go to Wenatchee, WA, about a three hour drive from Spokane, to look at antiques yesterday. I managed to find a mostly intact and fairly new looking and functional M.A.S.K. Condor, a toy I've regretted not picking up as a kid all my life, in one of the antique stores we visited. Brad Turner and the handlebar piece were missing, but otherwise, for $15, I was happy as a hog in a cool puddle to find it in as good as shape as it was. But the goodness didn't end there. We decided to stop at Walmart on the way home to get a charging cable for my wife's phone, which we were using to navigate, and I, given my proclivities, headed straight for the aisles of pure plastic joy. I mean, who cares if you know where you're going when there are toys to be appropriated, right? Anyway, after locating the Transformers aisle, I came upon a gentleman holding a particular red and white box. When I got closer, I realized he had the elusive and much sought Netfix Generations Bumblebee in his hand. He was looking at it rather thoughtfully, and assuming he was going to buy it, I asked him if there were any more Bumblebees on the peg (there looked to be about four more Netflix styled boxes on the peg), and he said no. Then, miracle of miracles, he handed it to me. I was taken aback, and asked him if he wanted it. He said no, so I floated away with Bee firmly in hand. So elated was I to find this most elusive of figures that I neglected to look and see what other hard-to-find-treasures the shelves may have yielded. After all, the TR Headmaster rereleases in retro G1 styled boxes have been confirmed to be out at retail as well, and I'm after Brainstorm to complete my HM collection. It's a small regret, however, and somehow I have a feeling they'll be easier to find once the stores in my area actually deign to stock them. But on to the star of the show, Walmart Exclusive Netflix Generations deluxe Bumblebee. Bumblebee is, as most of you are aware, a retool of WFC deluxe Cliffjumper. They share the same arms, legs, crotch piece, and lower internal waist piece. The head, wheels, front fenders, doors, back fenders, roof pieces, and detachable rear end piece are all new for Bee, which makes him a pretty extensive retool. I'm not a fan of the partsforming car rear end, but I will say it tabs into Bee's back more firmly than on my Cliffjumper. So, Bee's car mode is an officially licensed classic VW Bug. I tried to capture the official emblem , which sits rather high up on his hood (bonnet for our British friends). His trunk, or boot, has unpainted vent detailing and an unpainted license plate with the plate light housing all sculpted well. The tail lights are painted red, and the rear bumper is a separate bit of black plastic. Unlike Cliffjumper, whose detachable rear section was red plastic with the windows painted, Bee's rear section is made of a yellow bit for the frame with a transparent light blue plastic insert for the windows. Also unlike Cliffy, the roof of Bee's car is yellow plastic with a trans-light blue insert, with yellow paint apps to complete the look. the paint here is very well matched to the plastic, unlike other figs we could mention here (cough, cough, Sunstreaker). Already, it's apparent that this fig benefitted from a slightly higher parts count than his mold mate, Cliffjumper. Moving on, the windshield also has wipers picked out in silver paint. he also has the suggestion of a driver's side mirror poking out on the left side of the driver's cabin. The door handles are also picked out in silver paint, and on his front end, his headlights are painted silver, his bumper is made up of black plastic inserts, and he has an Autobot logo on the driver's left side of his hood, which in turn becomes his left foot. I just noticed that Cliffy lacks a faction symbol in his bot mode; the Autobot logo is on the tuck-away flap that forms the car hood. Shame they didn't emblazon it on his roof/chest. Finally, Bee's wheel rims are also picked out in silver and are sculpted to reflect official VW Beetle wheels, complete with molded VW logos. As you can see from the pics, Has/Tak did a fine job capturing the look of the classic Beetle for Bee's alt mode. Of course, there are some of us, myself included, who would like a more Choro-Q styled chibi-Bug mode for him to relfect the G1 toy, but it's a rare occasion when Hasbro licenses anything official for the Generations main line, so I consider it an interesting anomaly. It doesn't hurt that it was well executed, and I wouldn't blame anyone for getting this guy confused with MP-21 Bumblebee. So, here's MP-21 on the right and Netflix Generations Bee on the left. MP-21 is noticeably bigger, and of course, his engineering is far better than the Generations figure. However, just looking at the car modes, the sculpt work on both is very crisp, with minute details picked out on both. It's a good use of the long sought VW license. Now if only Porche would relent, but I digress. So I figured I'd post this new Bee alongside some of his previous incarnations. From l-r: Classics Bee, MP-21, Generations, and Titans Return. The right pic shows Generations Bee next to his mold-mate, Cliffjumper. Moving on to bot mode, there are no notable changes in his articulation or transformation from Cliffjumper, who @mikeszekelyreviewed last year. All changes were cosmetic in nature to give him a VW Beetle alt mode. he also comes with the same accessories as Cliffjumper. A new gun, specific to Bee, would have been nice, but given that the budget was probably stretched to use the license, as well as a few additional parts , I'm ok with it. Third party, or one of Hasbro's bundle packs, will likely come to the rescue for those who feel the need to arm their bots with more accurate hardware. Some shots with his other minibot buds in this new deluxe scale. Hope to see this lineup continue to grow. So many bees. L-R: Classics, MP-21, Generations, and TR That's just Prime.... Final thoughts: While I'm not a big fan of the parts-forming aspect of this mold, I have to say that it was used complementarily to both modes; one need look no further than ER Ironhide or Ratchet to see a poor example of the practice. While some might object to a real world classic Beetle alt mode rather than his more chibi G1 car mode, I feel it noteworthy that this is an officially licensed alt mode in a line that generally eschews them in favor of non-licensed likenesses. I don't mind it, and it makes him unique. In terms of articulation, I think the general mold, both Bee and CJ, embody the new standard, which is basically ankle tilts for all. It's an improvement over past figs, and hopefully a harbinger of more improvements going forward. Finally, he's arguably the most accurate G1 Bumblebee to date in the main line, based more on the toon than the toy, for obvious reasons. It's an excellent update, and a must for your Earthrise/Kingdom collection. Recommended, and I wish you all the best of luck finding him. Edited January 18, 2021 by M'Kyuun Quote
mikeszekely Posted January 20, 2021 Author Posted January 20, 2021 Deep Cover is definitely real, but definitely NOT an Earth-mode. It's pretty clearly the Siege mold again. Honestly, I'm not complaining despite owning four of them already, I'm down for Deep Cover. As much as I like my custom I wouldn't even mind if they do a real Clampdown. Quote
Tking22 Posted January 20, 2021 Posted January 20, 2021 Finally saw MP Thundercracker, looks good, but not good enough to spend the money to upgrade from my MakeToys figures. Takara REALLY needs to get to something new G1-MP-wise to keep my attention, I expected Trailbreaker and Hoist before more seekers, but nooooo. Also, when are they putting out more Hound? Like, not garbage broken ones? I like my FansToys figure for the most part, but Takara really knocked their Hound out of the park and I'd definitely grab one if I knew it wasn't an expensive time bomb. Quote
technoblue Posted January 21, 2021 Posted January 21, 2021 8 hours ago, Tking22 said: Finally saw MP Thundercracker, looks good, but not good enough to spend the money to upgrade from my MakeToys figures. Takara REALLY needs to get to something new G1-MP-wise to keep my attention, I expected Trailbreaker and Hoist before more seekers, but nooooo. Also, when are they putting out more Hound? Like, not garbage broken ones? I like my FansToys figure for the most part, but Takara really knocked their Hound out of the park and I'd definitely grab one if I knew it wasn't an expensive time bomb. Rumour has it that MP Hound will be getting released again soon, and this time without the dreadful quality lottery of the original release. I think mine is one of a very small percentage of first run figures without any cracks or breakages. That said, more often than not the plastic rivaled that of the brittle Yamato v2.0 Valkyries. It'll be good if Takara is making a fixed version available, so that more people can enjoy their take. On the subject of other MPs, one pleasant surprise was MP-51 Arcee. I wasn't expecting much from this release, especially after my depressing experience with Hasbro's ER Arcee—I just wanted a figure with an accurate alt mode to go with my copy of MMC Azalea. Colour me impressed when she turned out to be one of the most articulate and well put together Transformers in my collection. She's wowed many fans elsewhere, and is not one to miss if you can forgive nitpicks, IMO. Takara teased an official MP Skids recently too, but there's no prototype so who knows how far out it is in their schedule. Quote
Shawn Posted January 21, 2021 Posted January 21, 2021 How did this get through the licensing nightmare? https://tformers.com/funko-retro-transformers-jetfire-figure-going-live-today/39612/news.html Quote
mikeszekely Posted January 21, 2021 Author Posted January 21, 2021 2 hours ago, Shawn said: How did this get through the licensing nightmare? https://tformers.com/funko-retro-transformers-jetfire-figure-going-live-today/39612/news.html Good question. Is it possible that Funko licensed it from both Hasbro and HG? Quote
Hikuro Posted January 24, 2021 Posted January 24, 2021 These last two days I’ve been really great for figure purchases. Amazon sent out cyclonus and I just love this guy. While on my way home from work I picked up Primal at a local Walmart. And yeah like stated, there’s some quirks I’m not to fond of but he’ll go well with what beast wars figures I’ve collected in the generations line up. then today I was told by a forum member on tfw of another Walmart down the rod having Jazz, Blurr and Hot rod studio figures. So I got those three picked up without issue. I really feel like that these figures will probably be the last I’ll collect once hasbro finishes both these series. I’ve been very satisfied by both WFC and the studios series. Quote
mikeszekely Posted January 24, 2021 Author Posted January 24, 2021 I really want the rest of the first wave SS86 figures, but I checked my local Walmart and Target last night and another Target today. Nada. Walmart moved their Transformers stuff and had nothing but Netflix Wheeljack. Target has a bunch of stuff, but it's all that Buzzworthy Bumblebee stuff. I may get impatient and wind up overpaying on eBay again. Quote
CoryHolmes Posted January 24, 2021 Posted January 24, 2021 (edited) "Really, bro? You're gonna put that in your body? I thought you wanted to LOSE weight!" "Urp. Relax, it's just a light snack." Edited January 24, 2021 by CoryHolmes PIccy no worky :( Quote
Hikuro Posted January 24, 2021 Posted January 24, 2021 13 hours ago, mikeszekely said: I really want the rest of the first wave SS86 figures, but I checked my local Walmart and Target last night and another Target today. Nada. Walmart moved their Transformers stuff and had nothing but Netflix Wheeljack. Target has a bunch of stuff, but it's all that Buzzworthy Bumblebee stuff. I may get impatient and wind up overpaying on eBay again. Agreed. Local Walmart is moving inventory for spring stuff and there were 5 Netflix wheel jacks and a few dinky cyber verse figures and nothing else. when I went to Target yesterday they were pretty much just empty of anything but 1 kingdom prime figure and bumblebee junk. Quote
M'Kyuun Posted January 24, 2021 Posted January 24, 2021 (edited) At least your Walmarts have evidence of having had some of the newer releases; my Walmart has been empty of all Transformer toys except a single Cyberverse Shockwave since December. I've been in the store when they were stocking toys, and I'm that weirdo that hovers about the pallets of boxes looking for some hopeful sign of Transformers, but nope. Same for 2021 LEGO, but I digress. Not sure why they're not prompt with stocking toys, especially new stuff, but they're not, and haven't been for nearly a decade. It's supremely frustrating, especially since they're only two miles down the road, and I go there at least once a week to take my mother-in-law grocery shopping. That said, I haven't had luck at the second closest Walmart, which is usually prompt about getting new stuff out, but the story's been the same over there. So I'm not sure if it's a distro issue here in Spokane, or some other factor, but I've seen none of the Kingdom nor Netflix stuff locally; I had to travel three hours west to find them in a Wally there. I'm hoping as we move closer to February, some of this stuff will finally start showing up locally. Digits crossed. I wish Pulse would carry the store exclusive stuff. The Walmart online store has been weird with their pricing of late. Case in point, they've been showing Netflix Bumblebee available, but the price fluctuates between $40-50, and reflects a different price every time I check it. I got it for $20 in store. I've been waiting for Brainstorm to become available, which was reflecting a price of $22; I just now checked it, and for the first time, it's available, but the price is now $49.99. Again I've got Walmart selected, so this shouldn't be a scalper price (I detest the fact that Wally and Target both allow outside sellers to sell on their sites, as both have become Meccas for scalpers) Anyway, I'm not sure what's going on with their pricing shenanigans, as every other Wally exclusive fig I've bought online from their store has been sold at the MSRP. Bumblebee was the first fig whose price soared well above, and now Brainstorm, so there's something amiss, and it's not good for us collectors. Edit: After checking the Wally site again for Brainstorm, I was incorrect in my earlier statement; it's being sold by a third party seller instead of Wally.com. I can't get it to even show up when isolating to Walmart exclusive. So much for that avenue. Edited January 24, 2021 by M'Kyuun Quote
Bobby Posted January 24, 2021 Posted January 24, 2021 Just got this from Hasbro Pulse ... Finally an F-14 transformer... Top Gun fun Quote
M'Kyuun Posted January 24, 2021 Posted January 24, 2021 Cool toy, and def in the top ten best jetformers. The VF-1 influence is obvious for anyone in the know, but that's a good thing. It's not a direct copy, which is also good, b/c it's a thumbed nose at HG. Quote
Kuma Style Posted January 26, 2021 Posted January 26, 2021 Got to unbox this boy before work. Looking forward to taking proper pics and hoping my other two copies get here shortly. Quote
sh9000 Posted January 26, 2021 Posted January 26, 2021 On 1/20/2021 at 8:47 PM, Shawn said: How did this get through the licensing nightmare? https://tformers.com/funko-retro-transformers-jetfire-figure-going-live-today/39612/news.html I wasn’t aware that it actually got released but I wouldn’t mind having one just for the heck of it. On 1/24/2021 at 10:59 AM, Bobby said: Just got this from Hasbro Pulse ... Finally an F-14 transformer... Top Gun fun Very nice Gerwalk mode. Quote
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