The Transformers Thread (licensed) Next

[danth]

I swear he calls OP a "gobot" in that video!

[sh9000]

Target Circle has an offer of $25 off a $120 in-store or online purchase.

[JB0]

4 hours ago, Negotiator said:

I went in for the Ark (sold out at the moment now), galvatron, rodimus, & tracks. 

Curious for those  outside of california/LA county,  are you taxed this much?

This is for the ARK.

Subtotal	$159.99
Shipping	$0.00
CA STATE TAX	$9.60
LOS ANGELES COUNTY DISTRICT TAX SP	$3.60
CA COUNTY TAX	$0.40
LOS ANGELES CO LOCAL TAX SL	$1.60

Total

$175.19 USD

Here in Dallas, that's about what I'd pay in taxes... except I don't have a state sales tax. Sales tax is all city and county level, and adds up to 8.25%. (The cities want to raise it, but state law prohibits total sales tax from exceeding 8.25%)

 

I can't actually set up an order to check, because Ark is sold out. What's even the point of preorders if you aren't going to make enough to fill everyone's orders? I HATE EVERYTHING!

[sh9000]

https://www.target.com/p/transformers-generations-war-for-cybertron-kingdom-titan-wfc-k30-autobot-ark/-/A-81959526

https://dorksidetoys.com/collections/fan-fest-21/products/transformers-generations-wfc-kingdom-titan-class-the-ark-free-shipping-pre-order

[Hikuro]

ordered Galvy, Rodi & Scorpi. That's pretty much all I'm caring over. I liked my old Generations tracks so I'll be good there. Don't care for the Ark and I'm very satisfied with my old Generations Rhinox.

[mikeszekely]

Stopped at Target for peanut butter for my kid's lunches and Litter Genie refills for the cat.  I was surprised to see some Studio Series stuff I wasn't expecting until July.  SS74 is Revenge of the Fallen Bumblebee with Sam, but it's not in Studio Series packaging, it's Buzzworthy Bumblebee.  Near as I can tell it's the same as SS49, just with lighter gray robot bits and the inclusion of a Sam slug.  Bummer, I was really hoping that he'd get a new head without the battle mask.  I saw B-127, too.  I passed, because I already have the mold as Cliffjumper, but I'll probably stop on my way home from the mechanic tomorrow and grab one anyway, because I've got every other Studio Series Bumblebee mold and skipping one feels wrong.

Don't see much point in doing a review today, since everyone's got the new preorders on their minds.  I'll try to do one tomorrow, but Huffer's been granted a reprieve, as I was looking for something and came across a box with some stuff I meant to talk about awhile ago, so I'll do that first.

[Negotiator]

 

[tekering]

Oh, that's much worse than we'd been led to believe.  The proportions are laughable, the Matrix is tiny and misshapen, the fists have perfect holes in them, and the arm cannon's practically dragging on the ground! 

[technoblue]

Yeah, the canon does appear to be compensating. Megatron would not approve of these Unicron shenanigans. 

I’m not fussed by the matrix, though. Like TonTon illustrates in his review, it’s the exact same one that comes with Optimus and Galvatron’s release adds a funky chain to recreate scenes from the movie. Alas, it does accentuate Galvatron’s bulked out torso which could be a downer for anyone insisting on better mainline proportions. Myself, I’m looking forward to putting this guy together with Cyclonus and Scourge, even if the other two upstage him—Hey, just like the G1 toon! 

[mikeszekely]

2 hours ago, tekering said:

the fists have perfect holes in them

Isn't that true for most modern Transformers?  Maybe it's more noticeable on Galvatron due to his size, but I've got a several TFs on my desk right now, and of those Dinobot, Arcee, and Scourge are the only ones without a closed fist with a 5mm port running through them.

2 hours ago, tekering said:

the arm cannon's practically dragging on the ground! 

This is a fault of Galvatron's design (the character, not this toy).  On the original toy the cannon clipped over his bicep.  When Titans Return had it attach to the front of his bicep people complained that it got in the way of his arm articulation.  And then we get to the cartoon.  On the character model, looks like the front of his bicep, right?

Unless it's on the side of his bicep...

Notice how, whether the front or the side, the orange barrel starts at about his elbow, and the non-orange bits are in line with his bicep and shoulder?

But sometimes it's on his forearm.

The Kingdom toy can't magically shrink the cannon the way the cartoon does.  But it looks like you can plug the cannon into his bicep instead of his forearm.  The barrel will still be a bit long, but that'll start the orange at the elbow and keep the non-orange part in line with his bicep and shoulder.

(That said, it won't do anything for the fact that his torso is a bit too wide, his shoulders to low, and/or his gorilla arms).

A better solution would have been to do more like Fans Toys (and I think DX9) did- connect the cannon to his forearm, but put the connection point on the orange barrel, not the parts behind it.

[M'Kyuun]

Despite not really feeling this guy, I went ahead and PO'd him anyway yesterday just in case he turned out better than what the limited pics were indicating.  After watching TonTon's review, I have to say I have a more favorable view of him; the proportions, as @mikeszekelypointed out, are a bit wonky in the shoulders, but even in the shot in Mike's post just standing there, he looks better to me. I personally like the long cannon barrel on Galvatron, so that's a non-issue. I wish they had found a way to store his bot mode barrel mount internally in cannon mode. I also wish TonTon had folded up the leg bits in cannon mode, as I'm not crazy about that particular bit of engineering. I do, however, like how they did the cannon barrel transformation, minus the shoulder mounts just kinda hanging out in space under the cannon. I wonder if the bot barrel mount will tab in between those to fill that space out?  It still won't be the most sightly thing, but better than that gap. I also hope the treads can pivot to remain parallel if the angles of the arms are changed in cannon mode. Overall, though, not a bad looking fig after seeing it in good light and manipulated.

[tekering]

13 minutes ago, mikeszekely said:

I've got a several TFs on my desk right now, and of those Dinobot, Arcee, and Scourge are the only ones without a closed fist with a 5mm port running through them.

Well, damn.  I thought HasTak had outgrown that a decade ago.  I mean, the 2010 Reveal the Shield figures (like Wheeljack, Jazz, Tracks, Windcharger, Inferno or "Grappel") didn't have that problem... and since then, third-party figures have avoided it, too.

When (and more importantly, why) was the "open hand" look abandoned? 

[mikeszekely]

4 hours ago, tekering said:

Well, damn.  I thought HasTak had outgrown that a decade ago.  I mean, the 2010 Reveal the Shield figures (like Wheeljack, Jazz, Tracks, Windcharger, Inferno or "Grappel") didn't have that problem... and since then, third-party figures have avoided it, too.

When (and more importantly, why) was the "open hand" look abandoned? 

I'm thinking right after thrilling 30. Closed fists were back on Combiner Wars.

Edited April 10, 2021 by mikeszekely

[M'Kyuun]

3 hours ago, tekering said:

Well, damn.  I thought HasTak had outgrown that a decade ago.  I mean, the 2010 Reveal the Shield figures (like Wheeljack, Jazz, Tracks, Windcharger, Inferno or "Grappel") didn't have that problem... and since then, third-party figures have avoided it, too.

When (and more importantly, why) was the "open hand" look abandoned? 

I'm with you- I wish the open handed look had become the standard instead of the outdated fist with a hole. That or give all the figs opening hands like ER Prime. That should be the standard at this point, along with fore and aft pivoting ankles, rotating wrists, and double jointed elbows and knees. That's the standard for most modern action figs, so why shouldn't Transformers follow suit?

[mikeszekely]

So my Walmart basically never has anything.  Their Transformer section is half the size of any other Walmart's, and the other half is used for generic "Action Hero" boys' toys crap.  But today I had to get my oil changed, so I visited the Walmart and Target over that way.  The Target experience was comparable; some Studio Series 86 and Kingdom stuff I already have (but not Airazor), and some newer Studio Series and Buzzworthy Bumblebee stuff.  The other Walmart was a revelation, though.  None of the new Netflix stuff I wanted and they were out of Kingdom Deluxes save for a lone Arcee, but they had all the Kingdom Core-class figures, Optimus Primal, and both Leader Megatron and Ultra Magnus.

Oh, and they also had the second wave of Retro Headmasters.

Previously, I'd picked up Chromedome and Hardhead for their more Headmasters-style heads (vs IDW for Chromedome and the masked G1 toy for Hardhead during their original Titans Return runs).  I passed on Brainstorm because I actually don't care for the mouthed Headmasters head, preferring the G1 toy/Sunbow masked face.  I also passed on Mindwipe because I didn't think the differences in the faces were worth re-buying him (but I deeply regret it, so if any of you are out at Walmart and see one buy it for me! I'll reimburse the cost, tax, and shipping to PA!).  This time, I bought the whole wave.  While there are some differences to the head robot modes, like red paint on Weirdwolf*, painted eyes on Skullcruncher, and a darker torso and painted face on Highbrow, I'll be honest and say that 90% of the reason I bought Weirdwolf and Mindwipe was because of the much less stylized, more G1 big robot faces.  I'd thought Highbrow's was pretty similar and actually bought him because one of the rotors broke during a move on my Titans Return copy, but in hand I can see that Highbrow has a less blocky head with less of a chin and a bigger visor.  That's pretty much in keeping with Headmasters vs the US Sunbow animation.

*I've never cared for the whole thing about Nebulons bonding with Cybertronians from both the US Season 4 and the Marvel comics, and never bothered learning the Nebulon's names.  I prefer the Headmasters story where the heads are actually tiny Cybertronian-decendants and the bigger robots are non-sentient transtector bodies they built for themselves.  Hence, as far as I'm concerned these heads are Weirdwolf, Skullcruncher, and Highbrow.

Aside from the differences in the faces, Weirdwolf is pretty similar to the Titans Return version.  The yellow is a very subtly-different shade, he's got yellow details on his thighs instead of silver, and he's missing some silver paint on his shoulders.  The most obvious difference is the different shade of blue, which has a slightly more greenish tinge on the retro version.

In wolf mode, the retro version doesn't have the sloppily-painted claws, has yellow flanks with tampoed details, has some red instead of silver where his tail plugs in, and there's no red on the tail itself.  Also, the retro version has some silver paint on the cheeks and red-painted eyes.  The Titans Return version was all translucent plastic.

Head aside, Skullcruncher has a lot less difference between the retro and TR.  The green might be slightly different (although I'm not sure if it's just a trick of the camera now that I'm typing this).  The magenta parts aren't as red, and that seems to be more accurate to pretty much every G1 version.  Otherwise, the markings are pretty much the same.  I'll also note that this mold was notorious for having super loose joints.  While more loose than I'd prefer, the retro version is better than the original on this case.

In gator mode, Skullcruncher loses the paint on his rear feet, but I double-checked and sure enough a quick check shows pretty much all the G1 versions of Skullcruncher with all-green back legs but magenta forelimbs and white claws on the front legs.  The tampos on his sides move from the green to the magneta parts, which is more G1 toy-accurate, and he gains some paint on his back (which was the robot chest on the G1 toy).  His tail gets some silver and red paint near the end, where the G1 toy had stickers.  Rounding out the toy accuracy, the eyes on the retro version are white.  The red eyes on the TR version are cartoon accurate (either cartoon).  Finally, he's got a black tongue now instead of gray.

Highbrow's got a number of deco changes, although most of them are pretty subtle.  The retro version has a lot more gray on his chest, which is more G1 accurate across both cartoons and the toy.  Beyond that, both cartoons had plain gray arms and thighs with plain blue lower legs, so the fact that both Highbrows have gray hands is inaccurate to everything, Meanwhile the painted details on the arms look more like the G1 stickers on the TR version, while the painted details on the lower legs are more sticker-accurate on the retro version.  The other difference is his guns.  On the retro version they're painted the same color as his arms, which was the case for the G1 toy, while they're more of a gunmetal color on the TR version.

Neither toy has three blades on each rotor, nor the angled wings (up for Sunbow, down for G1 toy and Headmasters). Aside from the red stripes and the white lines on the canopy the Titans Return toy is more Sunbow accurate, with blue from nose to tail.  The retro version has the bit of gray in the middle that the G1 toy and Headmasters had.  The unlined canopy, silver paint on the sides of the cockpit, blue lines on the wings, and the Autobot insignias on the intakes look to be replicating G1 toy stickers.

They're out-of-scale, and mostly they're lacking articulation like waist swivels and ankle pivots that are more standard since War for Cybertron began.  They're also not as super G1 as the post WFC toys have been, so they're a bit out of place.  That said, who knows when Hasbro will get back to the Headmasters?  It's worth having them to get at least a little closer to completing the G1 cast (Targetmasters when, Hasbro?).  That said, do you really need the retro releases if you already have the Titans Return versions?  That really comes down to how much you prefer the heads on the retro releases.  If I'm being honest?  Yes for Chromedome and Weirdwolf.  Yes for Brainstorm if and only if you prefer the mouthed Headmasters face, otherwise no.  Yes for Hardhead if you prefer the faced Headmasters and Sunbow face, no if you prefer the G1 toy look.  Maybe for Skullcruncher; I like the more accurate purple, I like the different head, but the old head wasn't as off and I prefer the red eyes on the gator.  They're pretty similar otherwise.  Probably not for Mindwipe; there isn't as much difference in the heads, it mostly comes down to more G1 colors on the body.  And, unless you have a broken rotor like I do, no for Highbrow.  There's just not a huge difference there.

[Keith]

On 4/9/2021 at 9:23 AM, mikeszekely said:

They're talking Power Rangers.  Is Transformers done?

Well, we've already seen the Ark, Rodimus, Scorponok, and Galvatron, so just focusing on the new stuff...

Kingdom Voyager-class Rhinox

Deluxe-class Wingfinger

Deluxe-class Tracks

...who does have his flight mode.

Shattered Glass Blurr

Blast Effect pack with Deluxe Tricranius.

Robosen Optimus Prime

Preorders are up now if you're a Pulse Premium member, otherwise they go up at 5:00pm EDT.

I'm passing on Tricranius because I don't care for Fossilizers or blast effects that much.  Likewise, Blurr looks cool but I'm not sure I'm going in on Shattered Glass.  I preordered Rhinox, Wingfinger, Tracks, Scorponok, the Ark, Galvatron, and Rodimus though.  That said, I hope the 9/1/21 date is a placeholder and that a.) we don't actually have to wait that long, and b.) the classes are staggered and ship in separate orders.  If I get one $400 order my "good wife" is going to murder me to death.

As for Robosen Prime, it's a really cool programable robot you can control with a smartphone.  It transforms on it's own.  But... it's $700.  Unless the US wants to give me another stimulus check I can't justify it.  Not saying it's not worth it, just that I can't justify spending it.

Oh, in non-reveal news a question was asked, "will we see the other Dinobots in the Studio Series?"  The answer was simply to wait for a Fan Friday in May...

Yeah, but...

 

[mikeszekely]

4 hours ago, Keith said:

Yeah, but...

I know.  Believe me, I want it.  But not as much as I want to stay married.

EDIT: On an unrelated note... Rattrap is decent for a Core class, but I'm not sure he's actually supposed to be that small.  I mean...

I think... I think I'm going to have to track down a Thrilling 30 Rattrap, huh?

DOUBLE EDIT: Yeah, I Ebayed Rattrap.

Also, after doing some shopping, taking some pictures, and rearranging my schedule I can provide a review a day for another week, and @M'Kyuun you can feel free to read without skipping because I'm pushing Huffer to at least Thursday, but more likely Friday.

Edited April 11, 2021 by mikeszekely

[M'Kyuun]

4 hours ago, mikeszekely said:

I know.  Believe me, I want it.  But not as much as I want to stay married.

EDIT: On an unrelated note... Rattrap is decent for a Core class, but I'm not sure he's actually supposed to be that small.  I mean...

I think... I think I'm going to have to track down a Thrilling 30 Rattrap, huh?

DOUBLE EDIT: Yeah, I Ebayed Rattrap.

Also, after doing some shopping, taking some pictures, and rearranging my schedule I can provide a review a day for another week, and @M'Kyuun you can feel free to read without skipping because I'm pushing Huffer to at least Thursday, but more likely Friday.

You're awesome, Mike. My package with Huffer isn't supposed to show up until Thursday. I think it's coming by horse and buggy, or perhaps rickshaw. Not sure why it's taking so long. It shipped on the 6th from GA, and it's currently showing in CO. Since FedEx runs everyday, I'm hoping it'll show up a day or so sooner, but I'm definitely not holding my breath. I guess I can't complain since the shipping was free, but I'm a spoiled American, so I do. Anyway, if you exhaust all your other reviews, by all means, throw Huffer's up there. 

Hope you enjoy T30 Rattrap. I think he was done quite well- he's more complex than one would think so far as transformation, his rat mode legs articulate, and he even has the show accurate opening arms with little removable bombs in there. I very much liked that all the T30 figs integrated their weapons in beast mode, which is another thing that I wish ever so fervently was an unimpeachable standard in Transformers regardless of line. At this point in toy evolution, nothing pertinent to a character should have to go in the box or get pegged on awkwardly to an alt mode. The new Rattrap toy pales in comparison, except for its more realistic looking rat mode.

[Hikuro]

11 hours ago, mikeszekely said:

I know.  Believe me, I want it.  But not as much as I want to stay married.

EDIT: On an unrelated note... Rattrap is decent for a Core class, but I'm not sure he's actually supposed to be that small.  I mean...

I think... I think I'm going to have to track down a Thrilling 30 Rattrap, huh?

DOUBLE EDIT: Yeah, I Ebayed Rattrap.

Also, after doing some shopping, taking some pictures, and rearranging my schedule I can provide a review a day for another week, and @M'Kyuun you can feel free to read without skipping because I'm pushing Huffer to at least Thursday, but more likely Friday.

I’ve actually still got my thrilling rat trap and rhinos and no intentions to replace them with the kingdom line. In fact besides missing airazor and tigatron I pretty much got the maximal cast collected and I think they all look good together.

[M'Kyuun]

50 minutes ago, Hikuro said:

I’ve actually still got my thrilling rat trap and rhinos and no intentions to replace them with the kingdom line. In fact besides missing airazor and tigatron I pretty much got the maximal cast collected and I think they all look good together.

Still have mine, too, but I went ahead and PO'd Kingdom Rhinox just to see if there are any improvements. The T30 fig was really well done and still on display with my MP BW figs, along with Rattrap and Waspinator. Kingdom Rattrap was disappointing compared to the T30 and his fellow Kingdom mates, so I passed on him. I've been picking up the rest however, and for the most part, I think they're good, some better than others. I'm looking forward to finally having Scorponok and Terrorsaur, who, despite being core characters, have largely been ignored figure-wise. Scorponok looks amazing to me already- excited to get him. Airazor's in the mail, and I should have her in hand later this week. From the reviews I've seen, she looks to be one of the more impressively done figs in the Kingdom BW line, and having never had the original, I'm excited to add her to the growing collection.

Although I enjoyed BW back when it was first airing, the toys didn't really grab me, so I own very few of the organic BW figs. My BW collecting took off when they introduced Transmetals, as I thought they were visually more appealing, plus the idea of a robot turning into a robotic beast appealed to me more as well. Still have them all stashed away around here somewhere.

[M'Kyuun]

Courtesy of Twitter user Preternia,  Amazon has PO's up for some upcoming Kingdom and SS86 figs: SS86 leader class Slag and Daniel, voyager 86SS Wreck-gar, voyager Tigatron, deluxe 86SS Gnaw, deluxe Pipes, and deluxe Shadow Panther. 

I checked Pulse, but no listings for them there yet.

Edited April 11, 2021 by M'Kyuun

[mikeszekely]

4 hours ago, Hikuro said:

I’ve actually still got my thrilling rat trap and rhinos and no intentions to replace them with the kingdom line.

Ironically, I do have Kingdom Rattrap.  And I'm replacing him with Thrilling 30.  I'm sure I'll review and compare when it comes in, but it just looks like an all-around better figure than the little Core Class one.

3 hours ago, M'Kyuun said:

but I went ahead and PO'd Kingdom Rhinox just to see if there are any improvements. The T30 fig was really well done and still on display with my MP BW figs, along with Rattrap and Waspinator.

Yeah, I have Thrilling 30 Rhinox and Waspinator, and I think both are very good.  If Hasbro wasn't doing new ones for Kingdom I'd probably be content continuing with the T30 figures.  But, I think for the most part Hasbro's making better figures today than they were back then, and it's not like I can't find areas that could be improved like better articulation, more solidity, sturdier joints, and in Waspinator's case wings that can be posed without the flapping gimmick.  I preordered Rhinox, and I'm sure I'll pick up Waspinator when he hits (which, if my source is to be believed, he's coming).

34 minutes ago, M'Kyuun said:

Courtesy of Twitter user Preternia,  Amazon has PO's up for some upcoming Kingdom and SS86 figs: SS86 leader class Slag and Daniel, voyager 86SS Wreck-gar, voyager Tigatron, deluxe 86SS Gnaw, deluxe Pipes, and deluxe Shadow Panther. 

I checked Pulse, but no listings for them there yet.

Thanks for the heads up.  The process is a bit convoluted; you can't find regular product pages, just wishlist links.  But once you add them to your wishlist you can then preorder.  I grabbed all six, but I'll probably cancel Shadow Panther.

For anyone else, here are the links

Tigatron

Shadow Panther

Pipes

Slag

Wreck-Gar

Gnaw

I thought Pulse's preorder dates for the third wave of Kingdom seemed a bit far out, especially as sources have told me that Galvatron was manufactured, boxed, and shipped to the States already.  And Amazon's dates for these 4th wave figures are only a month later.  While it's possible that Hasbro is giving themselves some wiggle room, especially with the Ever Giving having blocked a ton of ship traffic for a week, I'm betting on the Pulsecon reveals releasing much sooner, just like the July wave of Studio Series figures hitting stores right now.  I'm thinking probably June or July for everyone but the Ark, and probably August/September for him.

Oh, and speaking of Slag...

 

[M'Kyuun]

Ooh, appreciate the pic! Slag's looking a little blocky in his Triceratops mode- more straight edges than curves. Hopefully he's a little curvier in person.  I wonder if that odd protrusion behind Daniel's leg is an add-on or part of the sculpt. I hope the former, as it doesn't look right. Otherwise, he's pretty much channeling the G1 toy and toon in a good balance of each. I really wish they'd done the smoked plastic bits over inner mechanical details like the original toys. I always loved that, and it's noticeably absent on both Grimlock and this guy. Someone at Hasbro just needs to say "F**k the budget" and put all those touches that gave the original toys their charm their proper due.

I like that they moved the aft dino legs, and ostensibly the tail halves, to the insides of the bot legs for a smoother , toon accurate profile in bot mode. If this is what the final is going to look like, they skimped on painting the mechanical details on the bot knees, and the sides of the dino mode. Alas, Hasbro.  "Go the extra mile?- um, no".

[mikeszekely]

Repaint Roundup!  Actually, I got this stuff in awhile ago, but I was busy and forgot about them.  Didn't even take them out of the box until I took my pictures.  It's... the rest of the Galactic Odyssey stuff!

First up, Micron.

This set contains six Micromasters.  From left to right, we've got Windstorm, Stingracer, Runner, Motorhead, Fireguard, and Roadburner.  These guys are all repaints of existing Micromasters.  Windstorm and Stingracer are repaints of Daddy-O and Trip-Up of the Hot Rod Patrol.  Weirdly, while the Hot Rod Patrol were Autobots only Windstorm is here.  Stingracer is a Decepticon.  As near as I can tell, they're both new characters and they're actually references to M.A.S.K. vehicles Hurricane and Stinger.  Next we have Runner and Motorhead.  They're repaints Roller Force and Ground Hog, the Decepticon Race Patrol.    Motorhead is also supposed to be from the G1 Race Patrol, and while his colors are accurate his alt mode is not (because he's got Ground Hog's.  Runner's got the closed cockpit of Roller Force, but his colors suggest that he's actually Barricade.  Not the pseudo-G1, make-movie-Barricade-a-Prowl-repaint; Barricade the 4th member of the Race Patrol.  Last up, Fireguard and Roadburner are repaints of Direct Hit and Power Punch.  They're meant to be member of the G1 Metro Squad, with Fireguard replacing Wheel Blaze (because Wheel Blaze was already included in that Target-exlcusive Micromaster pack from awhile back).

Not a lot to say about these guys, really.  They're Micromasters.  Super simple transformation, limited articulation, no accessories, 5mm ports to stick them onto larger figures.  Generally-speaking, I'm not a fan of Micromasters, so I don't recommend this set.  I think I only bought it because I liked the first three Galactic Odyssey packs and simply decided to get all five.

Speaking of the fifth set, this is the Botropolis set.  This time we've got a mix of Modulators and Micromasters.

Fuzer and Blast Master are a repaint of Fuzer (aka Phaser) and Blast Master.  Yep, despite the different colors they're supposed to be the same Micromasters that combine into a shuttle that were already released in Earthrise.  During G1 they were part of the six-pack Astro Squad in the US.  In Japan, the G1 toys were released during the Return of Convoy period as part of the Shuttle Rocket W Team.

The rest of the G1 Shuttle Rocket W team (and two of the other four Astro Squad were Moonrock and Missile Master.  They're yet another retool of Direct Hit and Power Punch, but with a retooled part.  Instead of the gun, he's got a flattish piece.  It works, because in G1 Moonrock formed the front of a missile truck, and Missile Master formed the back.

And that flattish piece?  Yeah, there's a missile that can fit onto it's peg, completing the look.

As for the Modulators, first up we have Overair, a repaint of Airwave.  There's a story here... in the US we got a Micromaster Air Base with a magenta Decepticon F-14 Micromaster named Airwave.  In Japan, the same set was released as an Autobot and named Overair.  That said, the Japanese release was still the same colors as the US release, so I'm not sure where Hasbro got this scheme at.

While Overair can do all the stuff Airwave can, this is the specific alt mode you're gonna want.

The other Modulator is a repaint of Ironworks, and it's... Ironworks.  Yeah, like Fuzer and Blast Master it's the same character, just in different colors.  I'm told that Hasbro was trying to match him to Sky Lynx.  As with Overair, Ironworks can do all the same stuff that the regular colors can do, but you're going to want this configuration.

The last bit you get in this set is a white and silver repaint of Doubledealer's missile.  Despite not really looking like it, it's supposed to be the rocket from the Micrmomaster rocket base.

So what you're supposed to do is take the combined shuttle mode of Fuzer and Blast Master, and use one of their flipout pegs to attach him to the missile.  Then, flipping up a peg on Overair, you can plug the whole missile onto... well, onto the airport terminal.  Not exactly the best place to launch a shuttle from, eh?  Ironworks clips onto Overair using the linkage devised for War for Cybertron (that totally isn't compatible with the one used for Prime Wars).  Then the combined Missile Master and Moonrock just sort of drive along on the runway.  The whole thing is supposed to be the the Micromaster rocket base.  Y'know, the one that came with Countdown?  Except now Countdown comes with Omega Supreme?  It's... passable, I suppose.

It's also nothing you can't do already if you already bought the retail releases of the Modulators, Doubledealer, and a handful of Micromasters.  In fact, if you have them all, you can link them together to make one really big rocket base.

And yeah, I don't really recommend this set either.  Aside from not being huge fans of Micromasters I'm not a huge fan of the Modulators.  While I appreciate that they're supposed to be G1 Micromaster bases, they're simply not as fun as the Weaponizers or even the Fossilizers.  

[mikeszekely]

39 minutes ago, M'Kyuun said:

I wonder if that odd protrusion behind Daniel's leg is an add-on or part of the sculpt. I hope the former, as it doesn't look right.

I'm not sure if it's removable or not.  But I think it's supposed to be this.

40 minutes ago, M'Kyuun said:

I like that they moved the aft dino legs, and ostensibly the tail halves, to the insides of the bot legs for a smoother , toon accurate profile in bot mode.

The dino legs, yes.  The tail is on his back, though.

Overall, is this a perfect, mini MP Slag?  No.  Is it as good or better than Kingdom Grimlock?  I'm thinking yes.

[JB0]

1 hour ago, M'Kyuun said:

  I wonder if that odd protrusion behind Daniel's leg is an add-on or part of the sculpt. I hope the former, as it doesn't look right. 

Looks removable to me. They turned the chrome radiators of the original toy into missile launchers. As missile launchers, they almost certainly are on pegs so they can be handheld.

[M'Kyuun]

Slag's looking pretty good, overall. I wish they still did chrome- it'd be sweet to see these guys in all their chromy 80's goodness. Interesting that they didn't use his chest plate as the traditional dino lower jaw; both modes look good nevertheless. Not crazy about sandwiching his gun into the tail as storage. I wouldn't mind it if the tail was longer than the gun and obscured it completely, but when a good quarter inch of white gun protrudes from the tail, it just looks odd. I appreciate the effort, but the execution is wanting. 

7 hours ago, JB0 said:

Looks removable to me. They turned the chrome radiators of the original toy into missile launchers. As missile launchers, they almost certainly are on pegs so they can be handheld.

They look removable to me, but none of these pics show them as such. Granted they look like quick cell phone shots, so who knows. They look too big for the detail they're supposed to emulate from the original toy, and the white color contrasts oddly with the silvery gray of his dino body, which makes me hope they can be removed and that the vent details are molded into the body plates/bot wings.

From underneath, his back feet are tiny, thin, and hollow compared to his beefier front feet. I imagine it's so they can fold into the dino leg, which in turn folds into the bot leg. Still, they look oddly incongruent. That gun sticking out of the end of the tail is just . I would have hoped for better execution in a leader class. Not gonna stop me from getting him though.

Assuming the rest are coming, I can't wait to see Sludge. He was the only Dinobot I owned as a kid, and I'm excited at the prospect of having an update in the mainline. 

I hope we also get deluxe Insecticons at some point in the SS86 line. Maybe a commander class Astrotrain with good looking alts. Voyager scaled Constructicons. Perchance to dream....

Edited April 12, 2021 by M'Kyuun

[mikeszekely]

12 hours ago, M'Kyuun said:

I hope we also get deluxe Insecticons at some point in the SS86 line. Maybe a commander class Astrotrain with good looking alts. Voyager scaled Constructicons. Perchance to dream....

Voyager-class Perceptor.

But I digress.

So, yeah, there's been a lot of buzz here about Kingdom, but we really only focus on the Deluxe-and-up set.  Core Rattrap was... ok... ish.  I mean, I did buy an almost 10 year-old figure to replace it.  I've gotta say, the Core-class Optimus looks... similarly ok-ish.  Megatron might actually look better than the Voyager.  But having smaller versions of stuff I recently bought bigger ones for on the off-chance I want to make my Titans look bigger (they're not even on display because they're too big!), nah.  Plus, between what Hasbro can do with a Deluxe and third parties are doing with Legends, the Core-class stuff feels kind of half-hearted.  And yet, something compelled me to pick up Kingdom Core Class Vertebreak.

Like Paleotrex and Ractonite, Vertebreak is a Predacon made up of dinosaur bones.  Given how much I didn't really care for the Fossilizers you might really be wondering what possessed me to grab Vertebreak, but there's something sort of charming to me about a squad of villainous undead dinosaurs.  When Wingfinger comes out I might try to remove any Maximal symbols he's got and stick him with rest of the skeletal squad.

I'll note, though, that Vertebreak is not a Fossilizer.  With one exception she doesn't come apart.  She actually transforms.  And, while her limbs are on the thin side (as you'd expect from a skeleton), she's reasonably proportional compared to the other two.

That one exception I mentioned?  That's her lone accessory.  It's her dino-mode tail.

Vertebreak's head is on a ball joint.  She can't look down, but she can look up a fair amount and tilt her head sideways a bit.  Swiveling can be done at her neck, but it's limited by her collar.  Her shoulders, also ball joints, rotate and extend laterally a little under 90 degrees.  Her elbows are yet more ball joints, giving her 90 degrees of elbow bend and doubling as her bicep swivel.  No wrist or waist articulation.  Her hips?  If you guess ball joints, give yourself a cookie.  They can go forward and backward well over 90 degrees, and laterally slightly over 90.  Plus they're acting as limited thigh swivels.  Her knees are actually hinges, and they can bend 90 degrees.  Her ankles are, surprise, ball joints.  They can swivel tilt up and down, and provide some pivot.

One thing she has in common with her larger pals is that her tail is supposed to be her weapon.  She actually has two hands, though, with fingers molded into open-ended 5mm ports.

While her bigger buddies are much to small to go toe-to-toe with the likes of Grimlock and Slag, I do find Vertebreak to be an interesting foil for Power of the Primes Slash.

As mentioned, Vertebreak actually transforms instead of coming apart then going back together into a different configuration.  She turns into a Dracorex, which may be a juvenile pachycephalosaurus or it may be a distinct, related species.  Regardless, she looks pretty good; her arms are a bit visible from the underside, but she mostly does a good job hiding her robot bits.  She fits nicely with the larger Fossilizers.

In alt mode, her jaw can open and she can look up, but not down, and she's got no swivel.  Her arms are fixed.  Her hips and legs are the same as her robot mode, though, which is pretty decent.  Her tail can rotate around where it's plugged it, but has no other articulation.  Still... better than Slash.

Vertebreak certainly isn't the greatest Transformer Hasbro's made, and if you passed on the Fossilizers you should probably pass on her, too.  That said, if you do have the other Fossilizers for her to hang out with, she's a surprisingly decent little figure that helps round out the fossil faction and might be worth checking out.

[Alex GS]

Hmm didn't expect any Masterpiece lately, these ones look pretty cool, resembles alot G1 toys, I think I might get both

[M'Kyuun]

Wish they were including all the extras with Skids, at least the scooter. The paint apps look crisp; his alt isn't the most attractive or impressive car, but his overall color scheme and deco has always appealed to me. It just looks sharp. I distinctly remember looking at his G1 toy in the store back in '85 and thinking he looked cool, well except his arms, and putting him back on the shelf without so much as a thought that there's be a high end version 36 years down the road. Of all Hasbro's properties, I'm sooo glad that Transformers remained relevant after so many years. 

Edit; @mikeszekelyI checked tracking on my Huffer/Airazor package, and my guess is it'll most likely be delivered tomorrow. Tracking is showing pending, but it's in transit in the Spokane Valley which is part of Spokane, about twenty-five minutes away. If not tomorrow, then Wednesday at the latest, I assume, provided they don't FedEx me in the keister and route it to Seattle.

Edit2: Huffer and Airazor are out for delivery today. Finally!

Edited April 13, 2021 by M'Kyuun

[Mechapilot77]

16 hours ago, Alex GS said:

Hmm didn't expect any Masterpiece lately, these ones look pretty cool, resembles alot G1 toys, I think I might get both

odd i can't find the sold by amazon japan listing for skids...only for reboost.  the skids i found are 3rd party sellers.  did amazon jp sell out?

[M'Kyuun]

I saw an advert for Entertainment Earth, and I just PO'd a copy from Pulse. He's going for $90, which is relatively low for a MP car-bot. I'm guessing that maybe he's an older design reminiscent of the Hasui era that didn't get released due to their new slavish toon design direction, and now they decided to release him after all to gauge interest in the old aesthetic.  Just typing out loud; I have no evidence. Kinda how it feels to me, though.

What I do know is that Skids looks pretty good to my eyes, and even if he is a little limited in the articulation department, relative to the releases over the past few years, I'm ok with it for the overall aesthetic. It just looks nice, uncompromised by all the folded panels that seem to characterize the recent heavily toon-inspired MP figures. 

[mikeszekely]

14 hours ago, M'Kyuun said:

Edit; @mikeszekelyI checked tracking on my Huffer/Airazor package, and my guess is it'll most likely be delivered tomorrow. Tracking is showing pending, but it's in transit in the Spokane Valley which is part of Spokane, about twenty-five minutes away. If not tomorrow, then Wednesday at the latest, I assume, provided they don't FedEx me in the keister and route it to Seattle.

Edit2: Huffer and Airazor are out for delivery today. Finally!

Good, then I think I'll finish up the second wave of Kingdom with Huffer tomorrow.  And today I'll do Deluxe-class Airazor.

Airazor is venturing into "I didn't collect Beast Wars and only watched the show once as an adult" territory.  I don't remember much about her, aside from her relationship with Tigatron.  She's not what I'd consider to be part of the "core" cast of the show.  But, from what I can tell, she's a mix of the original toy and the Beast Wars cartoon.  She's got more cartoon-style, feminine proportions.  While she could, perhaps, use a few more gold accents, she's got both the gold and orange of the cartoon instead of yellowish of the original toy.  However, she's also got a lot of a lightish gray-brown for her "feathered" parts that's similar to the original toy instead of the cartoon's charcoal color.

For size, here she is with fellow Maximal Cheetor and Sideswipe, the standard-bearer for the Deluxe Class.

Airazor comes with two of these missile things.  They're not accurate to the original toy, so I presume she had something like it in the cartoon?  I can't recall.

Airazor's head is on a ball joint.  She can look up a decent amount, down a small amount, and she can tilt her head to the side slightly less than that.  Her shoulders rotate and can extend laterally 90 degrees.  Her biceps swivel, and her elbows bend just over 90 degrees.  Her waist can swivel.  Her hips can go forward way over 90 degrees, as long as she moves her hip laterally enough for her thigh to clear her pelvis.  Her hip only goes backward a little, though, but again far beyond 90 degrees laterally.  Her thigh swivels, and her knees bend something like 150 degrees despite only having a single hinge.  Her ankles are ball joints, so they can swivel, tilt up and down, and pivot, though the pivot is a lot shallower than I'd prefer.  Her wings are pegged into her back, keeping them from unfurling as they would in beast mode, but she does have one hinge that can flap them back and one swivel that can raise the ends up.

Based on what I can tell, her missiles are mean to plug into the 5mm ports on her forearms like a Seeker's null rays.  I kind of like that symmetry, like Airazor is the Seeker form applied to a bird instead of a plane (Gen Selects T-Beast Starscream, please?).  She can also hold them in her hands, if you want to use them more like the original toy's blaster.  Alternatively, she's got 5mm ports on the outside of her thighs and below her calves on the backs of her legs.  Surprisingly, there's none under he feet.

Airazor's transformation isn't terribly complicated, but it does involve shifting her upper body and some double hinges and jamming her fists into the resulting cavities on her sides.  The resulting beast mode is... ok, I guess.  It's a bit better than the original toy, but it's still a far cry from the cartoon as her underside looks very much like a squatting robot with her arms tucked into her sides.  Even from other angles her thighs are still pretty visible as her tail doesn't even quite come down and out far enough to cover everything.

Her face has some of the lighter coloring around her beak and the darker beak of the cartoon, but again most of her "feathers" are closer to the toy than the cartoon.

An interesting artifact of her transformation is that you can swing her robot head into her torso and bring up her falcon head, but then simply stop, resulting in a bird-headed robot.

In bird mode she can look up or down, and her neck swivels.  Her beak does open (although it can be difficult to get it open).  Her legs, which are actually anatomically accurate for a digitigrade bird, have her hips locked as her robot thighs are actually tabbed in place.  She still can bend at her knee, and she's got an extra hinge to serve as her digitigrade ankle.  Plus, despite being turned around, her feet still use the same ball joints to tilt, swivel, and pivot.  As for her wings, she's got the swivel for extending her pinions and four total hinges for flapping.

Her instructions don't leave much advice for storing her weapons in this mode.  Your best bet is probably the 5mm ports on her thighs, although you also have access to the ones on the backs of her legs, just above her feet.

I'd prefer a darker gray for her feathers, and some more paint on her talons.  For me, she's also the sort of character that I don't really have any attachment to, either from the cartoon or from nostalgia.  However, I think she's a pretty decent figure overall, and I expect one that bigger fans of Beast Wars than I will definitely appreciate.  So, I guess pass if you're strictly G1, but recommended if you were excited to see Beast Wars included in Kingdom.

[M'Kyuun]

Got Airazor and Huffer today. Of the two, I'll just say for now that Airazor is the better figure. I'll wait until Mike's Huffer review to give my thoughts.

 

 

[mikeszekely]

17 hours ago, M'Kyuun said:

Got Airazor and Huffer today. Of the two, I'll just say for now that Airazor is the better figure. I'll wait until Mike's Huffer review to give my thoughts.

You got me curious now, so I guess I better hurry up and give my review of Kingdom Deluxe-class Huffer.

Does Huffer qualify as a "short" Deluxe the way Bumblebee and Cliffjumper did?  I mean, he's shorter than Sideswipe, sure, but he's definitely taller than Bumblebee.  But I have him on my desk right now with a few Studio Series figures (spoilers for later in the week), and he's as tall or taller than the two Deluxes I'm looking at.  Well, I'd say I'm still OK with this size.  I think Huffer was portrayed a little taller than Bee, and Kingdom Huffer scales with Netflix Bee and Siege Sideswipe rather similarly to the way BadCube's Huff scales with MP-21 Bumblebee and MP-12 Sideswipe.

But how's he doing on that G1 accuracy we've all grown to love?  Kind of a mixed bag, really, and it's noticeable when I put him with the Mechanic Studio version.  The head seems a little off, not quite rounded enough and with the helmet coming in too close to his eyes.  He's got those big chunks on his collar, and some extra silver on his crotch he doesn't need.  The silver plastic on his thighs and midriff should match the light blue paint on his torso.  As for the darker blue, in hand it's a bit more purplish than he's showing up in my photos, so I don't really have a problem with that.  I do, however, really dislike his black hands- they should be the same silver as the rest of his arm.  He's a bit stocky, especially his arms, which are lacking the points on top.  His feet almost have that blocky shape with the squarish cutouts, but they're marred by a hinge in his toes.  Could I be nitpicking, though?  I mean, he's got the basics; blurple torso with a light blue "window", round, silver arms, bucket head with a cab hood, and orange legs.  It's the first official Huffer figure that isn't a repaint of some decidedly-not-Huffer truck since the original G1 toy.

Huffer comes with two accessories, and they're fairly big since they gotta push Huffer up to that Deluxe budget.  The first is a shield, which I'm just not a fan of.  The second is a gun.  Since G1 Huffer didn't have a gun, and I don't recall him using one in the cartoon, Hasbro seems to have looked elsewhere for inspiration.  And it seems they might have been inspired by Halo, because the top half of the gun looks an awful lot like a Spartan Laser.

Huffer's head is on a ball joint, with minimal tilt in any given direction.  If you might find his hood gets in the way, but it's on a double hinge which gives you a lot of freedom in how you want to move or position it.  His shoulders rotate and extend laterally 90 degrees.  His biceps swivel and his elbows bend a touch under 90 degrees.  His wrists can bend inward due to his transformation, but they don't swivel.  His waist does, though.  His hips can go 90 degrees forward or backward, but only about 60 degrees or so laterally which is disappointing but honestly enough for most poses.  His knees can bend something like 130 degrees, or more if you move his heel flap.  His feet do not tilt up or down, but they do offer around 45 degrees of ankle pivot.

Huffer's gun slides into either fist.  His should can be mounted onto a peg hole on either his forearm or his bicep if he's wielding it, or on his backpack if you want to store it out of the the way.  He's also got 5mm ports on the sides of his legs, where the bump out for his taillights are, and under his feet.

With Cliffjumper (and his related repaints and remolds) and Warpath you got the sense that some of their budget went to their fairly inventive transformations.  That's not really the case with Huffer.  You kind of just move the cab out of the way, pull his arms out and down, bend him at the waist so you can fold out his front wheels (and hope they don't fall off), orient his arms so that his shoulder can tab into his hips and his fists are pointing out behind him, open his heels and flip is lower legs over his thighs, and push everything into place until it looks like a truck.  Well... the truck at least looks to scale decently enough.

And the truck is pretty Huffer-esque.  He's got the silver grill flanked by four lights, although Hasbro chose to give him a silver bumper and marker lights, too, plus translucent windows and painted wipers.  His heels fold around over his shins to form a silvery skid plate.  I wish it was orange, but I don't hate it.  And I do like that Hasbro gave him painted rims and taillights, and how they molded the area around his wrists to kind of resemble the G1 toy's forks.  My biggest complaints, though, both revolve around those arms.  As with robot mode, they just look too thick here.  But worse than that, Hasbro really made no effort to hide his hands.  As thick as his arms are you'd have thought that they could have folded into his forearms, or the forearm could have slid up over them.  But no, they just bend down so you don't see them from the front, but from the back it looks like he's fist-bumping himself.

If you're set on using all his accessories, they do have a way to integrate into his truck mode.  First, you peg the shield over his skid plate, with the "claws' hanging over the back.  Then you actually split his gun in half longways.  There's a groove on each half under the barrel, and these grooves fit over long tabs on the sides of the shield, with the orange insides of the gun facing out.  The result is kind of like giving him a truck bed.

On the other hand, if you're like me you don't think Huffer really needed a shield and the alt mode setup looks less G1 than the skid plate.  So if you're tossing it in a drawer and not planning on using it, Huffer's still got a 5mm port on his roof, on the sides of his arm/smokestacks, behind his rear tires, and four on his skid plate.  Not to mention both of his fists are technically available.

Speaking of ports on his skid plate, since Huffer pulled Prime's trailer in one out of 98 episodes it's very important that Kingdom Huffer can pull Earthrise/Kingdom Prime's trailer, right?  Well, good news!  He can!  If you've got some of the aftermarket kits like Nonnef's that move the hitch peg forward it might not work, but if you remove them the original peg fits fine.  I dare say the trailer actually looks better scaled to got with Huffer.

Cliffjumper and Warpath set something of a precedent, that given the budget of a Deluxe smaller figures could pull of some clever engineering that'd make them worth the Deluxe price despite their smaller stature.  Huffer doesn't totally live up to that.  His mundane transformation was practically begging for Hasbro to do more to cover the exposed hands on the back of the cab, and some additional paint could have alleviated the fact that some of his colors are off.  Instead it feels like Hasbro just dumped the extra budget into more plastic- a huge gun when a little pistol would have done, a massive shield no one asked for, and more robot bulk than the scrawny whiner needed.

However, it'd be unfair to call Huffer a bad figure, because he's really not.  While there are definitely things Hasbro could have done better he's still unmistakably Huffer in both modes, appropriately scaled, with adequate articulation and the ability to pull Prime's trailer.  He's like that kid in school who put in just enough effort pass the class but you know could do better if he applied himself more.  Huffer's a solid enough effort that I recommend for your WfC/CHUG collection, just don't expect him to be a highlight for the line.