The Transformers Thread (licensed) Next

[JB0]

3 hours ago, M'Kyuun said:

Regarding your Diaclone conversation, beyond the rebranding of the same toys by Hasbro, I didn't think there was any connection between the two lines at all. I wasn't aware of Diaclone until probably my late twenties-early thirties when I started getting on the internet and discovering Transformers forums. Diaclone never interested me beyond the shared toys and the history of how Transformers came about.

A few toys have come out under the "Diaclone Universe" subheader. This is, I think, the third that they've done. All have been existing molds homaging G1 characters that were imported from Diaclone, repainted to better match the original Diaclone toy colors.

And Transformers fiction has established the previous "Diaclone Universe" repaints as actually BEING Diaclone mechs, complete with ordinary humans for pilots, so DUTT being a Headmaster and "Diaclone Universe" raises questions.

...

I do, umm, strongly suspect that Hasbro is not particularly concerned with Diaclone Lore, and that TakaraTomy's Diaclone Reboot team is ignoring whatever Hasbro writes, even if Hasbro says it's from Diaclone. But if Diaclone Twin Twist shows up in a comic, I'm anxious to find out what the canon justification will be.

 

 

 

 

I did a rapid dive into Diaclone history because of Diaclone Reboot. It reminded me that I always wanted to know how the dinobots made sense in a setting overrun with robots disguised as ordinary vehicles. (Spoilers: It turns out it's actually the ordinary vehicles that don't make sense.) It was a light afternoon read because there's not much TO the original Diaclone line. The story only exists to put on backs of boxes and in catalogs packed inside said boxes, and finding it in english is the only hard part.

https://www.transformerland.com/blog/tag/diaclone/ This guy went to the effort of translating the catalogs if anyone is curious. But it basically just says "Aliens attack Earth, humans build robots to fight aliens. Aliens get their noses bloodied and adopt guerilla tactics, humans adopt MASK tactics to counter them. Aliens open time warps to bring dinosaurs forward in time, humans build robot dinosaurs to stop actual dinosaurs coming through the time warps*. Diaclone line is cancelled in favor of reverse-importing Transformers." That's... seriously 80% of what they wrote.

Diaclone Reboot has appreciably more story, in that it can fill a single sheet of paper instead of a single notecard. The writeups that nostalgic adults expect to see are slightly more robust than when they were five, but it's still toy commercials and not Shakespeare.

 

 

Dear TakaraTomy: Please make a Diaclone Reboot anime. The CG battle animations you put on YouTube are badass and I want to see an entire season of them.

 

 

 

*INTERESTINGLY, some of the details of the dinosaur time warp "plot" seem to have been harvested and reused both by Sunbow for the Dinobot Island two-parter and by Sunrise for King of Braves Gaogaigar, a lavish toy commercial for anime series based on another Takara toy line.

[mikeszekely]

10 hours ago, JB0 said:

A few toys have come out under the "Diaclone Universe" subheader. This is, I think, the third that they've done. All have been existing molds homaging G1 characters that were imported from Diaclone, repainted to better match the original Diaclone toy colors.

And Transformers fiction has established the previous "Diaclone Universe" repaints as actually BEING Diaclone mechs, complete with ordinary humans for pilots, so DUTT being a Headmaster and "Diaclone Universe" raises questions.

I'm really not sure how much previous Diaclone repaints have been meant to be actual Diaclone mecha, as I haven't followed every last bit of fiction around it.  I will say that most of the WFC repaints use fiction that's basically "this is a G1 guy, you just didn't see him in the cartoon because they were doing stuff."  They got names and the basic kind of backstories the original G1 toys had; red Tracks is now Road Rage, and Road Rage served as the bodyguard for Crosscut (who himself was Cybertron's ambassador to some colony planet).  Yellow Sideswipe is Tigertrack, who got stuck on guard duty at some Autobot installation.  Diaclone Powered Convoy is either Delta Magnus, the leader of the Primal Vanguard, or Shattered Glass Ultra Magnus.  It seems like only recently Hasbro started getting lazy and directly referencing Diaclone instead of backporting the Diaclone homages into G1 Transformers, with DK-2 Guard (black Ironhide) and DK-3 Breaker (blue Trailbreaker).

Anyway... I feel like most of you either have or have heard about this guy already, because I swear I'm the last guy on the planet to get a copy, but here's Leader Class Studio Series 86 Sludge.

Compared to the tiny, more toy-inspired Power of the Primes figure the new Studio Series toy is definitely going for the cartoon look.  Sticker detail, sort of painted on the PotP toy, is just molded into a black panel on Sludge's chest; I'd have preferred a dark translucent panel there, but I get it, it's cartoon Sludge.  That also means gray forearms, and Hasbro was even careful to have the dino toes on his wrists arranged like the cartoon- on on the front, two on the back.  He's just got a gray stripe across his shins, none of the sticker details from the toy, but he's missing a little blue that the Sunbow model still had.  Also, he's wearing his tail on the outside of his legs.  A part of me was initially disappointed; Grimlock hides his tail pretty well, after all, and Slag's dino legs folded away, why couldn't Sludge's legs clean up, too?  But looking at the Sunbow model shows that his robot legs did have junk on the sides (based more on the G1 toy, which had dino legs on the outsides of his robot legs), and putting the tail on his legs kind of maintains that silhouette.  That said, there are a few deviations.  For one, there's large large bumps on the front and back of his shoulder.  The animation model has smooth shoulders; these bumps actually seem to be a G1 toy detail.  Similarly, Sunbow Sludge has spikes on the front and back of his elbow.  I don't mind ditching that detail, though.  I mean, they'd interfere with articulation and/or dino mode, most likely, and the only reason the Sunbow model had them is because that's where the dino feet are on the G1 toy.

A quick comparison with his fellow Studio Series Dinobots... he scales nicely and has a design with sculpted greebles and what have you that fits with the other two, but I can't help thinking Sludge looks a little bland compared to Grimlock and Slag.  I'm also just realizing that Hasbro started with the three that debuted first in the cartoon, as these guys debuted in "S.O.S. Dinobots," while Snarl and Swoop wouldn't come until "War of the Dinobots."

You better still deliver the other two Dinobots, Hasbro!

Moving right along... Sludge's sole accessory is this gun.  It's cartoon-style, sure, with some gold paint on parts that were yellow in the cartoon.  Once again we get a Dinobot without a sword, but this time we don't get a slug figure, either.  I'm not mad we don't get a slug- the Wheelie and Daniel that came with Grimlock and Slag were so awful that DNA replaced them with articulated, transformable figures.  But I'm kind of mad that we've gone from "you don't get a sword because they didn't have swords in the movie so we used the budget for Wheelie/Daniel" to "no sword because we're cheap."

Which brings me to another issue... articulation.  Sludge's head is on a swivel, there's basically no tilt at all (although the hinged panel that folds his head for transformation can get you a slight up/down tilt).  His shoulders rotate on ratchets, and can move laterally 90 degrees.  His biceps swivel.  His elbows are technically double-jointed, but even using both joints won't get you much beyond 90 degrees.  That's because the upper joint is a transformation joint, and in robot mode it actually locks into place.  His wrists swivel, as does his waist.  His hips can go a little over 90 degrees forward and a little under that backward (due to his backpack) on a soft ratchet, and 90 degrees laterally on a friction joint.  His thighs swivel, and his knees bend 90 degrees on a soft ratchet, but also about 45 degrees the wrong way.  No up/down tilt on his feet or toes, but his ankles do have 90 degrees of pivot.

Now, you probably read that and thought, "aside from his head that's pretty decent, so why is articulation an issue?"  Well, several of his joints, including some ratchets, are way too loose.  Basically, his hips and knees need to be tighter, plus the panels that fold his hands into his forearms and the hinges on his "wings."  Just trying to take this picture was frustrating me with Sludge wanting to do the splits, a knee would give out, or his wing would keep falling over his shoulder.

At least he holds his gun fine.  Nothing fancy, just stick the 5mm peg on the back into his fist.

Sludge's transformation was surprisingly involved.  Like Slag, in involves faux feet to form the hump on his back while his real feet chill underneath, and it borrows a move from ToyWorld's Sludge that flips part of the torso with the arms around to form the rear legs instead of his front legs.  For the most part, it works, and SS86 Sludge is looking a lot better all-around than the PotP toy.

And he sizes reasonably well with the other Dinobots.  I mean, he still seems a little small compared to Grimlock, but Hasbro managed to engineer Sludge to stretch out into dino mode while Slag kind of scrunches in on himself, making Sludge properly bigger than Slag.

We do have a few issues again, though.  There's a bit of red showing around the hips that the animation never had.  It's part of his robot chest, actually.  I think Hasbro could have had flaps on the faux feet that could have folded out to cover better, but it doesn't bother me too much.  I'm much more bothered by the fact that, even when everything is properly lined up and in place, there's a constant seam down most of his back where his robot wings are trying to pull part, to the extent that they even pull his hump and tail apart.

Then there's the big one... his real robot toes just hang down under his belly.  It looks really bad.  And Hasbro knows it, too, because they put little notches on top of his feet and little tabs on his gun, so you can plug the gun into the notches.  Underbelly alt mode storage, right?  Nothing better Hasbro could have done, right?

Wrong, and it's another area where Hasbro just went cheap and/or lazy.  Because there's a huge void on Sludge's dino chest.  A pickier critic than I might even have cited that void as an issue, but it's out-of-sight underneath and doesn't bother me.  That said, see where I drew the green lines?  If Hasbro cut the toes from the feet at those lines, then connected them back on a hinge, that big void means there was plenty of room for the toes to have folded up instead of dragging on the ground underneath him.  Indeed, at least one Chinese 3D-printing outfit has already made replacement feet for Sludge that do just that.  I may get them; I'm a bit leery of using 3D-printed parts for such a large piece, due to the print lines.  It's a shame that, with how they've been coming later and copying the 3D printers, DNA didn't put new feet in their upcoming kit for Sludge.

Sludge's articulation in dino mode is fairly limited.  I mean, it's better than the PotP toy, and similar to Slag, but yeah.  His neck can bend at a ratcheted joint at the base, but there's really one position that looks right while the sculpt breaks on the rest.  His head swivels where the gold painted part meats the unpainted gray, and a second hinge at the base of his skull lets him look up and down.  His jaw opens.  His front legs can rotate at the shoulder and he's got bicep swivels, plus his paws have some up/down tilt.  There's no lateral movement at the shoulders, though, and no elbow.  His rear legs are his arms, so lateral movement ratcheted rotation, and a bicep-turned-thigh swivel, plus a 90 degree elbow-turned-knee.  No foot articulation, though, and no tail articulation.

In addition to his gun storage, Sludge has one final gimmick.  Inside his mouth is a a black peg, just like Grimlock and Slag.  And just like Grimlock and Slag, you can put a non-included blast effect on it.

I can't help but be a little disappointed by Sludge.  Part of that might be because Sludge has always been my least-favorite Dinobot, but the robot toes not folding up is frustrating because there's zero reason why Hasbro couldn't have done it.  And the QC on Sludge definitely feels like a step down from the first two.  That said, SS86 is still a properly big, cartoon-accurate Sludge.  Sure, Fans Toys and Gigapower both made even bigger and better Sludge figures for an MP collection, but this is the first mainline Sludge since the PotP figure (which itself was only the second one after the G1 toy).  If you're collecting from War for Cybertron, Legacy, or Studio Series 86 then Sludge is pretty much a must-have, despite his flaws.

[sh9000]

Too bad about Sludge's feet but the Dinobots look good together.  Looking forward to Swoop and Snarl.

[M'Kyuun]

2 hours ago, mikeszekely said:

I'm really not sure how much previous Diaclone repaints have been meant to be actual Diaclone mecha, as I haven't followed every last bit of fiction around it.  I will say that most of the WFC repaints use fiction that's basically "this is a G1 guy, you just didn't see him in the cartoon because they were doing stuff."  They got names and the basic kind of backstories the original G1 toys had; red Tracks is now Road Rage, and Road Rage served as the bodyguard for Crosscut (who himself was Cybertron's ambassador to some colony planet).  Yellow Sideswipe is Tigertrack, who got stuck on guard duty at some Autobot installation.  Diaclone Powered Convoy is either Delta Magnus, the leader of the Primal Vanguard, or Shattered Glass Ultra Magnus.  It seems like only recently Hasbro started getting lazy and directly referencing Diaclone instead of backporting the Diaclone homages into G1 Transformers, with DK-2 Guard (black Ironhide) and DK-3 Breaker (blue Trailbreaker).

Anyway... I feel like most of you either have or have heard about this guy already, because I swear I'm the last guy on the planet to get a copy, but here's Leader Class Studio Series 86 Sludge.

Compared to the tiny, more toy-inspired Power of the Primes figure the new Studio Series toy is definitely going for the cartoon look.  Sticker detail, sort of painted on the PotP toy, is just molded into a black panel on Sludge's chest; I'd have preferred a dark translucent panel there, but I get it, it's cartoon Sludge.  That also means gray forearms, and Hasbro was even careful to have the dino toes on his wrists arranged like the cartoon- on on the front, two on the back.  He's just got a gray stripe across his shins, none of the sticker details from the toy, but he's missing a little blue that the Sunbow model still had.  Also, he's wearing his tail on the outside of his legs.  A part of me was initially disappointed; Grimlock hides his tail pretty well, after all, and Slag's dino legs folded away, why couldn't Sludge's legs clean up, too?  But looking at the Sunbow model shows that his robot legs did have junk on the sides (based more on the G1 toy, which had dino legs on the outsides of his robot legs), and putting the tail on his legs kind of maintains that silhouette.  That said, there are a few deviations.  For one, there's large large bumps on the front and back of his shoulder.  The animation model has smooth shoulders; these bumps actually seem to be a G1 toy detail.  Similarly, Sunbow Sludge has spikes on the front and back of his elbow.  I don't mind ditching that detail, though.  I mean, they'd interfere with articulation and/or dino mode, most likely, and the only reason the Sunbow model had them is because that's where the dino feet are on the G1 toy.

A quick comparison with his fellow Studio Series Dinobots... he scales nicely and has a design with sculpted greebles and what have you that fits with the other two, but I can't help thinking Sludge looks a little bland compared to Grimlock and Slag.  I'm also just realizing that Hasbro started with the three that debuted first in the cartoon, as these guys debuted in "S.O.S. Dinobots," while Snarl and Swoop wouldn't come until "War of the Dinobots."

You better still deliver the other two Dinobots, Hasbro!

Moving right along... Sludge's sole accessory is this gun.  It's cartoon-style, sure, with some gold paint on parts that were yellow in the cartoon.  Once again we get a Dinobot without a sword, but this time we don't get a slug figure, either.  I'm not mad we don't get a slug- the Wheelie and Daniel that came with Grimlock and Slag were so awful that DNA replaced them with articulated, transformable figures.  But I'm kind of mad that we've gone from "you don't get a sword because they didn't have swords in the movie so we used the budget for Wheelie/Daniel" to "no sword because we're cheap."

Which brings me to another issue... articulation.  Sludge's head is on a swivel, there's basically no tilt at all (although the hinged panel that folds his head for transformation can get you a slight up/down tilt).  His shoulders rotate on ratchets, and can move laterally 90 degrees.  His biceps swivel.  His elbows are technically double-jointed, but even using both joints won't get you much beyond 90 degrees.  That's because the upper joint is a transformation joint, and in robot mode it actually locks into place.  His wrists swivel, as does his waist.  His hips can go a little over 90 degrees forward and a little under that backward (due to his backpack) on a soft ratchet, and 90 degrees laterally on a friction joint.  His thighs swivel, and his knees bend 90 degrees on a soft ratchet, but also about 45 degrees the wrong way.  No up/down tilt on his feet or toes, but his ankles do have 90 degrees of pivot.

Now, you probably read that and thought, "aside from his head that's pretty decent, so why is articulation an issue?"  Well, several of his joints, including some ratchets, are way too loose.  Basically, his hips and knees need to be tighter, plus the panels that fold his hands into his forearms and the hinges on his "wings."  Just trying to take this picture was frustrating me with Sludge wanting to do the splits, a knee would give out, or his wing would keep falling over his shoulder.

At least he holds his gun fine.  Nothing fancy, just stick the 5mm peg on the back into his fist.

Sludge's transformation was surprisingly involved.  Like Slag, in involves faux feet to form the hump on his back while his real feet chill underneath, and it borrows a move from ToyWorld's Sludge that flips part of the torso with the arms around to form the rear legs instead of his front legs.  For the most part, it works, and SS86 Sludge is looking a lot better all-around than the PotP toy.

And he sizes reasonably well with the other Dinobots.  I mean, he still seems a little small compared to Grimlock, but Hasbro managed to engineer Sludge to stretch out into dino mode while Slag kind of scrunches in on himself, making Sludge properly bigger than Slag.

We do have a few issues again, though.  There's a bit of red showing around the hips that the animation never had.  It's part of his robot chest, actually.  I think Hasbro could have had flaps on the faux feet that could have folded out to cover better, but it doesn't bother me too much.  I'm much more bothered by the fact that, even when everything is properly lined up and in place, there's a constant seam down most of his back where his robot wings are trying to pull part, to the extent that they even pull his hump and tail apart.

Then there's the big one... his real robot toes just hang down under his belly.  It looks really bad.  And Hasbro knows it, too, because they put little notches on top of his feet and little tabs on his gun, so you can plug the gun into the notches.  Underbelly alt mode storage, right?  Nothing better Hasbro could have done, right?

Wrong, and it's another area where Hasbro just went cheap and/or lazy.  Because there's a huge void on Sludge's dino chest.  A pickier critic than I might even have cited that void as an issue, but it's out-of-sight underneath and doesn't bother me.  That said, see where I drew the green lines?  If Hasbro cut the toes from the feet at those lines, then connected them back on a hinge, that big void means there was plenty of room for the toes to have folded up instead of dragging on the ground underneath him.  Indeed, at least one Chinese 3D-printing outfit has already made replacement feet for Sludge that do just that.  I may get them; I'm a bit leery of using 3D-printed parts for such a large piece, due to the print lines.  It's a shame that, with how they've been coming later and copying the 3D printers, DNA didn't put new feet in their upcoming kit for Sludge.

Sludge's articulation in dino mode is fairly limited.  I mean, it's better than the PotP toy, and similar to Slag, but yeah.  His neck can bend at a ratcheted joint at the base, but there's really one position that looks right while the sculpt breaks on the rest.  His head swivels where the gold painted part meats the unpainted gray, and a second hinge at the base of his skull lets him look up and down.  His jaw opens.  His front legs can rotate at the shoulder and he's got bicep swivels, plus his paws have some up/down tilt.  There's no lateral movement at the shoulders, though, and no elbow.  His rear legs are his arms, so lateral movement ratcheted rotation, and a bicep-turned-thigh swivel, plus a 90 degree elbow-turned-knee.  No foot articulation, though, and no tail articulation.

In addition to his gun storage, Sludge has one final gimmick.  Inside his mouth is a a black peg, just like Grimlock and Slag.  And just like Grimlock and Slag, you can put a non-included blast effect on it.

I can't help but be a little disappointed by Sludge.  Part of that might be because Sludge has always been my least-favorite Dinobot, but the robot toes not folding up is frustrating because there's zero reason why Hasbro couldn't have done it.  And the QC on Sludge definitely feels like a step down from the first two.  That said, SS86 is still a properly big, cartoon-accurate Sludge.  Sure, Fans Toys and Gigapower both made even bigger and better Sludge figures for an MP collection, but this is the first mainline Sludge since the PotP figure (which itself was only the second one after the G1 toy).  If you're collecting from War for Cybertron, Legacy, or Studio Series 86 then Sludge is pretty much a must-have, despite his flaws.

So, regarding Diaclone, I'm aware of the various Diaclone repaints we've gotten over the years in both MP and most recently the WFC/Legacy stuff. I have the MP + Gen Selects versions of blue Bluestreak, one of my favorite repaints of my favorite TF design. I wasn't sure if there was any other continuity between Transformers + Diaclone, but apparently not. BTW, greatly appreciate the research and breakdown of the Diaclone story, @JB0. 

So Sludge was the only Dinobot I had as a kid, and I've harbored a soft spot him ever since. When Grimlock was announced, and in leader scale no less, I was pretty excited, anticipating an eventual Sludge. While Grimlock stayed pretty faithful to the G1 toy, the liberties taken with Slag's transformation concerned me a little. I still think he turned out alright, but I still don't know why they'd deviate from a tried -and-true formula beyond "because they can". So now Sludge takes even more liberties than Slag, and while I think it benefits the Apatosaur mode, especially the legs, I too dislike the bit of red from his bot chest showing (which would normally be completely obscured by his wings, and the god-awful toes just dangling under his dino belly where there's a suspiciously perfect-sized void there to accommodate them if they were on a hinge. I suspect that was the plan, but budgetary restraints / lack of room in the allocated molds wouldn't allow it. My copy of Sludge should arrive this week, and in anticipation, I've already bought BDT's upgrade kit which will give him hinged toes. They are 3D printed, but feel solid and while the striations from the printing process are visible on just the gold toe bits, it gives the impression of machined metal (if you've ever used a milling machine, you know what I mean).  I wish the toes ratcheted, but they're just friction, and not as tight as I would like. But, they have enough friction to stay folded, and really, that's all I really expect from the kit to improve the dino mode. I'll post some pics with the mod installed once I get my Sludge in hand.

[mikeszekely]

33 minutes ago, M'Kyuun said:

I've already bought BDT's upgrade kit which will give him hinged toes. They are 3D printed, but feel solid and while the striations from the printing process are visible on just the gold toe bits, it gives the impression of machined metal (if you've ever used a milling machine, you know what I mean).  I wish the toes ratcheted, but they're just friction, and not as tight as I would like. But, they have enough friction to stay folded, and really, that's all I really expect from the kit to improve the dino mode. I'll post some pics with the mod installed once I get my Sludge in hand.

Yeah, I just ordered that kit myself.  But, BDT is apparently the company that made a large sword for Springer and a gut and tail gun for Cheetor.  The gut gun was decent, but the sword wasn't.  I'd feel a lot better if someone like Go Better or DNA made new feet for Sludge.

35 minutes ago, M'Kyuun said:

So Sludge was the only Dinobot I had as a kid, and I've harbored a soft spot him ever since.

😄

My wife (who is really disinterested in my Transformers hobby) and my daughter (who loves Bumblebee, but doesn't care for the rest) saw the Dinobots lined up in dino mode on my review table.  I asked them which one was their favorite.  My wife at first said they were all the same, except different dinosaurs (that's the point, I reminded her).  My daughter picked Grimlock, then my wife decided to go with Grimlock, too.

"Poor Sludge," I said.  "You're nobody's favorite."

My wife thought I felt bad because maybe Sludge was my favorite, and I was bummed that no one agreed.  I told her that I actually agreed with them, Grimlock's my favorite, but I really felt bad for Sludge.  I mean, in a group where you have a T-Rex, a guy with horns, a guy with spikes on his tail, and a guy that flies, the fat one with the long neck just isn't as cool- Sludge really is nobody's favorite.

Guess I was wrong.

[Scyla]

Nice review Mike.

 I wonder if there will be Toy inspired Dinobots in the future. The toys seem to be mighty fine but too bland looking for my tastes. A bit of toy detailing printed on and translucent plastic would solve that.

[M'Kyuun]

4 hours ago, mikeszekely said:

Yeah, I just ordered that kit myself.  But, BDT is apparently the company that made a large sword for Springer and a gut and tail gun for Cheetor.  The gut gun was decent, but the sword wasn't.  I'd feel a lot better if someone like Go Better or DNA made new feet for Sludge.

😄

My wife (who is really disinterested in my Transformers hobby) and my daughter (who loves Bumblebee, but doesn't care for the rest) saw the Dinobots lined up in dino mode on my review table.  I asked them which one was their favorite.  My wife at first said they were all the same, except different dinosaurs (that's the point, I reminded her).  My daughter picked Grimlock, then my wife decided to go with Grimlock, too.

"Poor Sludge," I said.  "You're nobody's favorite."

My wife thought I felt bad because maybe Sludge was my favorite, and I was bummed that no one agreed.  I told her that I actually agreed with them, Grimlock's my favorite, but I really felt bad for Sludge.  I mean, in a group where you have a T-Rex, a guy with horns, a guy with spikes on his tail, and a guy that flies, the fat one with the long neck just isn't as cool- Sludge really is nobody's favorite.

Guess I was wrong.

😊 Sludge isn't the brightest, the most ambitious, or the fiercest of the Dinobots, but I dig him.

41 minutes ago, Scyla said:

Nice review Mike.

 I wonder if there will be Toy inspired Dinobots in the future. The toys seem to be mighty fine but too bland looking for my tastes. A bit of toy detailing printed on and translucent plastic would solve that.

Agree.

That's my big 'wonder if' too.  I really don't need two sets of these guys, but given my druthers, I'd prefer the more toy-styled versions, especially if they all have the transparent covers over mechanical innards like the originals. 😍  I'd love to see them do chrome, too, but that'll never happen.

[tekering]

8 hours ago, mikeszekely said:

I'm the last guy on the planet to get a copy, but here's Leader Class Studio Series 86 Sludge.

Sometimes I miss spending time on your planet.  Here on the rogue asteroid known as Japan, Sludge won't be released for another month. 😔

[M'Kyuun]

20 minutes ago, tekering said:

Sometimes I miss spending time on your planet.  Here on the rogue asteroid known as Japan, Sludge won't be released for another month. 😔

It's ironic that the US followed by Japan seem to be the last countries to get Transformers toys when both countries are responsible for designing and producing them.  I can't help but feel a pang of envy when UK fans are showing off the latest releases a month or so before they show up here.  Guess Japan has it even worse. That totally sucks, and FWIW, I'm sorry. 

[Drad]

4 hours ago, Scyla said:

Nice review Mike.

 I wonder if there will be Toy inspired Dinobots in the future. The toys seem to be mighty fine but too bland looking for my tastes. A bit of toy detailing printed on and translucent plastic would solve that.

Grimlock has that molded detail underneath the gold-painted neck piece. So they could be planning toy deco versions of the Dinobots.

[M'Kyuun]

6 hours ago, Drad said:

Grimlock has that molded detail underneath the gold-painted neck piece. So they could be planning toy deco versions of the Dinobots.

My understanding is that was the initial intention, but something changed after Grimlock's design. The transparent bits were scrapped from all remaining Dinobots in lieu of just painting those affected areas gold to match the animation. That sucks as being able to see the mechanical bits through the smoky clear plastic was one of my favorite features of the original toys.

[Scyla]

7 hours ago, Drad said:

Grimlock has that molded detail underneath the gold-painted neck piece. So they could be planning toy deco versions of the Dinobots.

I’m sure they have plans for toy versions. The question is if those plans will come to fruition. 

Here is the block model of the combined mode of MPG Raiden:

Source with a translation: https://www.tfw2005.com/boards/threads/transformers-raiden-project.1183388/page-446#post-20472889

That looks hilariously bad. Seems like a train wreck to me (pun intended). 

[mikeszekely]

1 hour ago, Scyla said:

That looks hilariously bad. Seems like a train wreck to me (pun intended).

Anywho... got a few repaints for you today, nothing too exciting.

First up, we have Studio Series Deluxe-class Bumblebee Ironhide.  And... yeah.  It's Ratchet with a slightly retooled head.  Everything else is the same, just different colors, including his rifle.  It's so samey I can't be bothered to look up the CGI and see how close the sculpt is or if he needed more paint or whatever.  I mean, don't get me wrong, Ratchet was one of my favorite of the Bumblebee figures so far, due to having a pretty interesting transformation, and so Ironhide is also pretty good.  It's just that, by now, I've been there and done that.  And yeah, I guess that you could say that about a lot of the repaints that I still end up buying, but picking up something like Earthrise Thundercracker after Starscream is completing a set of beloved G1 characters, picking up BB Ironhide after Ratchet is getting a toy of a guy who was on screen for literally two seconds that's the same as another toy of a guy who had two seconds of screen time.  Actually, Ironhide might be slightly worse, because the joints on Ironhide all feel slightly looser.

And at least with the G1-style stuff you get at least some differences... I mean, as an ambulance, Ratchet has a lightbar, but Ironhide has a sunroof!  But their Cybertronian modes in Bumblebee?  Same.  I guess get him if you want to complete the set, but if you just wanted to check out the mold and you already have Ratchet then you're probably good.

We also have Studio Series Deluxe-class Bumblebee.  Again.  Yeah, there's been a lot of Bumblebees in the Studio Series line, but this is actually the third use of this specific mold, and at a glance you're probably hard pressed to even see much difference.  The one on the left, though, is is from Transformers.  The one on the right is from Revenge of the Fallen.  And the new one, in the middle, is Dark of the Moon Bumblebee.  DOTM Bee uses a dark gray instead of black for some of his mechanical parts, he's got the unmasked head, and he's got some slight retooling on his chest that replaces some car details with some mechanical ones.  That's about it.

The differences are more apparent in car mode.  This time, the black stripes are a bit wider and farther apart, running over the hood but not the trunk.  The fog lights have been changed, the exhausts have four tips instead of two, and there's some black paint on the bumper.  The most obvious difference, though, is that he's got a larger wing-type spoiler on the rear.  And... well, I can't really complain.  This is probably the best Bayverse Bumblebee mold, and I actually do want accurate representations that reflect the changes from film to film.  Quite frankly, I hope they use the basic engineering to make new, more-accurately scaled SS versions of the '67 Camaro from Age of Extinction and the 2016 Camaro from The Last Knight.  I want the 2013 Camaro from Age of Extinction, too, but with the weirdness of that one's robot mode I'm not sure Hasbro can keep milking this mold for it.  Anyway, if you just want the 2007 cast, or a Bumblebee that's close enough for all three movies (the way they seem to be doing with the MPM line), then you're probably set already.  But otherwise this is still a pretty good mold and I don't mind buying it again.

Last up, we have the repaint I was most looking forward to... it's Generations Selects Cyclonus!  This Voyager-class figure is a straight copy of Kingdom Cylconus that trades the light purples and rose metallics for the darker purple and silver of the G1 toy.  Being a straight copy means that his rifle is also Kingdom's cartoon-style gun.  I'd have preferred a new toy-style gun, but I guess that's asking for too much.  The new purple is pretty spot on.  I'm not sure how well it's coming across in my pictures, though, but I think the silver they used is too dark, almost bordering on a gunmetal color.  I think the blue on his abdomen looks pretty nice and gives his torso some color break up, but I'll note that only the very first '86 runs of Cyclonus had the blue.  Later runs, like mine on the left, and all of the Targetmaster ones didn't.  But Gen Selects Cyclonus comes with Nightstick?  I'm a bit less taken with the blue on his ears.  Oh, and I think Hasbro really should have made his hands purple.

If he looks like he's missing some detail, don't worry.  As with Gen Selects Galvatron, Cyclonus comes with a sheet of stickers to emulate some of the stickers from the original toy.  I think he really pops once you put the stickers on.

If that's still not enough, you get some blast effect parts that work with either his regular rifle or Nighstick (who I'm not otherwise going to comment on, because Hasbro's made like fifty Targetmaster/Battle Masters out of the same two gun molds).

Jet mode.  I see Hasbro hasn't fixed whatever the issue is that keeps the sides from sitting flush on the fuselage.  Aside from that, I think that between the color placement on the plastics and the stickers that they really did a good job emulating the G1 toy.  Even the blue, again, was on early runs of G1 Cyclonus, so it's accurate even if my G1 Cyclonus doesn't have it.  The only things I can really complain about are that the fuselage doesn't have the bulge where the G1 toy's ears are (but I wouldn't expect them to alter the mold that drastically anyway), that I wish the silver tip on the nose was purple, and that we don't have the big Decepticon symbols on the wings.  Now, Hasbro did actually include stickers for those symbols.  The thing is, due to the differences in engineering that's the back of the shoulders on G1 Cyclonus, but the front of the shoulders on Kingdom Cyclonus.  So you have to choose if you want the stickers that are accurate for robot mode OR the stickers that are accurate for alt mode; I went with bot mode.

If you've been plugging Cyclonus' rifle into the canopy on Kingdom Cyclonus you might be wondering what to do now that he's got two guns.  Ditching Nightstick is probably the easiest, but don't forget Cyclonus has 5mm ports under his wings, too.  His landing gear is tall enough that there's even enough space for his regular rifle.  You can plug Nightstick into a wing, but it'll push Cyclonus off the ground.

Kingdom Cyclonus is definitely one of my top five figures from the whole WFC Trilogy, so I'm certainly not going to complain about any excuse for a repaint.  And he goes great with Gen Selects Galvatron and Wreck 'N Rule Springer... I almost want to do the whole '86 cast again in toy decos.  But there's one cloud on my parade, and that's an extremely loose swivel on his left shoulder.  Like, if you go back up to the picture with the decals and Cyclonus posing with both guns, I actually tried to pose him lifting Nightstick a bit higher but that shoulder can't support the weight.  It's quite a disappointment bringing down a repaint I was otherwise quite excited for.  As long as the issue isn't widespread, though, I'd recommend Gen Selects Cyclonus if you're into toy decos, or just want a second Cyclonus for his armada.

[mikeszekely]

@#!$ing store exclusives.🤬  My Walmart got some Speedia Deluxes today... Just not Cosmos or Clampdown, who for some Mega Genius decision are short packed in favor of extra copies of a guy who's already peg-warming is his cartoon colors.

Having better luck with Target...

[Wolf-1]

Most likely already grabbed up; from what I've "heard" there are only 2 Clampdowns  per case and only 1 Cosmos.  Cosmos is a cool figure, especially when compared to the original $3.00 toy, and while it would be nice to have him in the collection; I've all but given up on that one.  Clampdown will be had, even though I missed the HasbroPulse preorder.  Still pushing Legacy wave 1 around here locally.  

[mikeszekely]

I'll keep trying.  I have another Walmart I'll go to on Wednesday when I take my dad out for lunch, and then there's one I can hit sporadically when I go play D&D at my friend's house.  I fear I might have to pay Ebay prices.  Friggin' scalpers.

Well, Cosmos might not be a recent add to my collection, but I did end up with quite a bit of other stuff in the last few days.  Of those, I do believe that the most hotly-anticipated is Legacy Commander-class Motormaster.

It's hard not to have an opinion that's colored by the four 3P G1 cartoon-style Motormasters I have... right off the bat, I'm zeroing on on the kibble panels on the outsides of his legs, the bulky kneepads that only make two of the three purple rectangles seen on the Sunbow model, the still-visible truck grill, and the backpack with the very on-display wheels, and I'm thinking about how I've seen Motormaster done more cleanly in four different ways.  On the other hand, this is still a Hasbro figure, on a Hasbro budget, with the usual regulations and standards a mass-market retail toy has to meet.  On that note, there's so much they got right here.  The sculpt of his box head and face is so much better than the previous Combiner Wars figure.  His waist is a little narrow, but his torso has the animation model's taper, with both his chest and his pelvis having the proper gray outline.  His torso and arms have molded lines that accurately capture the linework of the animation, and Hasbro even went to far as the put some purple paint on a hinge near his collar for color accuracy.  Moving down to his legs he's got his little cab feet, complete with molded and painted little wheels.  I think that, even with a bit of kibble, he's ultimately a gorgeous figure that really emphasizes just how bad the CW version really was.

Motormaster actually comes packaged in alt mode, and inside the box all you'll find, besides Motormaster himself, is this trailer.  And... yeah, it mostly looks like Motormaster's trailer.  It's even got the gap in the stripe seen on the animation mode.  The rear has some molded details for the door and taillights, but with some purple and white showing it's obvious that there's something else going on.  And a lot of that something else is revealed by the front of the trailer, which is very obviously Menasor's chest and.... thighs?

A quick peak at the bottom.  There's some fold-out feet that you can use to keep the trailer up without the cab.  You can also see the peg that the trailer uses to attach to said cab.

"That can't be it!  Doesn't Motormaster have any weapons?" you ask.  Well...

First thing you wanna do is pull the front third of the trailer off.  Aha, there's a sword in there!  Then pull the top half of the remaining section off of the bottom.  

Remove the trailer stuff from Menasor's chest by flipping up the gray bit between Menasor's thighs, then kind of unpeeling it.  Once it's off, you can fold the halves of the "peel" together into a tower shape with the peg that attaches the trailer to the cab at the top.

Now, taking the top half of the trailer, you can break it in half and a small chunk will be revealed between then.  Fold out the barrels and you've got yourself a gun.  Then open the panels along the sides near the back, and fold out Menasor's feet.

 

The gun has a peg hole under it that allows you to plug it onto the tower.  Get the bottom section of the trailer, and break that in half, too.  You can probably see that it's going to be part of Menasor's arms.  For now, though, just bend the elbow joints on them 90 degrees.

Now, take Menasor's chest, spin it 180 degrees and straighten the legs.  The tower with the gun uses two tabs to plug into the underside of the chest.  The arms have pegs just under the tucked-in hands that plug into holes on the back side of the chest.  Now, get the remaining parts, and notice the pegs on Meansor's toes.  Those plug into the end of the bent sections of the arms, and congratulations!  You've got a base mode!  The handles on the gun can be angled outward, and Motormaster can stand on Menasor's chest and hold the handles.  The purple bit on the back of the gun covers Motormaster's face... and yeah, I thin kit's supposed to do that.  There's like a little molded periscope visor on the end of it.

Motormaster's head can swivel; it's slightly loose on my copy.  No tilt, but I think that's just the cost of having a box head.  His shoulders rotate and can extend laterally 90 degrees.  His biceps swivel, his elbows bend 90 degrees on a single hinge, and his wrists swivel.  His waist swivels.  His hips can go 90 degrees forward, backward, and laterally, all on ratchets.  Speaking of his hips, take a closer look.  You'll notice that the big end of the rivet pin is showing, while on most figures that's on the back.  You can turn the hips around, if really want, but note that they'll need to be on the front for alt mode.  Moving on, his thighs swivel.  His knees are double-jointed, but the lower hinge is just for transformation.  With just the top hinge, though, he'll get 120 degrees of knee bend or so.  No up/down tilt on his feet, but his ankles can pivot up to 90 degrees.

He can hold his sword in either hand, no problem.  And you can take the gun off the tower and use one of the handles to let Motormaster hold it.  Thing is, it's a bit heavy for him, and on my copy his shoulders weren't quite up to the task of holding it up.  Frankly, it's kind of ugly.  I'm hoping DNA, Go Better, or another company makes a more G1-style gun for him.

One more thing about the sword... there's a 5mm peg hole on both sides of the hilt.  It's that hole that fits onto a peg that helps store the sword in the trailer.  There's a major missed opportunity here, though.  See, the peg hole that the trailer attaches to on the cab is on Motormaster's back.  If they'd made a peg hole on just one side of the hilt for storage in the trailer but put a peg on the other side instead of a hole then Motormaster would be able to store the sword on his back.  Actually, come to think of it, he's lacking the entirely play pattern established with War for Cybertron, as that peg hole on his back is the only peg hole he's got.

Much like the CW toy (but unlike the G1 toy), Motormaster himself only turns into the cab of his truck mode.  It's surprisingly uncomplicated.  His arms fold up toward his head, but still reach out the back.  The backpack folds up and around to cover over his arms.  Panels on his legs unfurl, and he's really bent over backward with his head to his heels, and the panels wrap around his body to form most of the truck.  His knee pads make up most of the roof, with the rest unfolding from panels that were on the sides of his legs.  That's why you need the big rivet heads showing; the raised section of his thighs around him makes the rivet hole double as a peg hole, and pegs on the flaps that make the back of the roof will plug into them.

I think the truck mode looks pretty good.  The hitch actually looks like a truck.  He's got the purple windows, painted rims, and a painted grill.  His chest and crotch are showing from the back, but I can live with that.  Some of you may decry the lack of smokestacks, but fun fact- neither the G1 toy nor the Sunbow animation model has them!  So my complaints really boil down to molded headlights on the cab that aren't painted, and white chunks of plastic at the bottom sides where his shoulder joints are.  The headlights shouldn't be too hard to paint with a silver Sharpie paint market, though, and as it's not showing in bot mode even those white chunks could be painted, too, if they really bother you.

As previously mentioned, the trailer plugs into Motormaster using a peg that goes into the peg hole on his hitch.  And, well, it looks a little short.  Technically Motormaster's trailer is slightly longer than Earthrise Prime's, but the fact that it's taller and significantly wider, plus Motormaster himself having a bit more girth than Prime's cab, throws off the proportions a bit in truck mode.

The cab can turn on the hitch, and the whole thing roles quite well.  And I do like that everything is stored in the trailer.  There's actually a little space still for a gun, should some 3P make one for Motormaster.

Of course, by now we all know that a big part of Hasbro's decision to make Motormaster a Commander-class made entirely from the cab but with a big honking trailer is because the trailer transforms into a good chunk of Menasor... but perhaps not as much as many of the 3P versions.  You can take apart the base mode and turn Menasor's waist 180 degrees.  Slide the legs in.  They work using Combiner Wars-style joints, but they each have a tiny tab and slot so each lower leg section only fits into one thigh.

Motormaster turns into the bulk of Menasor's upper body in a transformation that reminds me a bit of G1 Soundwave.  Menasor's head is not a partsforming element; it's actually inside Motormaster's torso.  Once you have Motormaster transformed, you plug in him into the back of Menasor's chest using a trio of tabs and the large pegs surrounding some swivel joints for some of the panels on Motormaster's legs.  To further secure him, the panel the sword uses to plug inside the trailer flips up and pegs into Motormaster, and two gray panels on the chest flip up over Motormaster's wheels.

The arms have sort of a gimmick.  You fold up the sides of the trailer and flip out the hand, then you can attach Dragstrip in his car mode.  A tab near the elbow will slide in under the the front half of Dragstrip, near his waist, allowing the halves of Dragstrip to separate.  Then you can finish transforming the arm by bending both the forearm and bicep away from the elbow, then bending them back on another hinge that stretches the arm out and leaves the elbow joint exposed.  Then you just have to fold the trailer wheels flat.

As it's been revealed that Dead End is actually a major retool of Dragstrip, I expect he'll work exactly the same.  There's a bit of automorphing that goes on in the legs, too, but we'll talk about that after Wildrider comes out and I can actually show off how it works.  

Getting back to the arm, you'll note a silver section protruding from the back of the arm.  This section is open on the bottom, and it clips over Motormasters feet to attach to Menasor's body.

Standing an incomplete Legacy Menasor next to the Combiner Wars version really illustrates how badly Menasor needed a do-over, eh?  While some may not love how much of Menasor is formed from Motormaster's trailer instead of the other Stunticons, it's really hard to argue with the results.  Legacy Menasor is only slightly taller than the CW one and still has arms that are a tad too long (or rather, his thighs are perhaps a tad too short), but there's no visible gaps in his elbows and he's generally much more solid.  He's also far, far more cartoon-accurate.  The shoulder pylons are a bit G1 toy, but I'm not complaining.  Maybe because of how much time I spent staring at the toy catalogs, but I like the combiner team members to look like their Sunbow models but the combiners themselves to look more like the toys.  If Hasbro isn't planning on slightly remolded, repainted toy-style Stunticons then I actually would love a 3P to make a toy/OX-style Menasor head.  But I digress; Hasbro's going for toy accuracy and they got it.

(I'll probably have more to say about the legs after Wildrider comes out.)

Menasor's head, like Motormaster's, swivels but has no tilt.  His shoulders rotate on ratchets, and can extend 90 degrees on another ratchet.  He's got soft-ratcheted bicep swivels, and ratcheted elbows that bend 90 degrees.  His wrists swivel, but somewhat disappointingly they lack any articulation in the fingers; like Motormaster's own hands they're molded into fists with 5mm ports.  His waist swivels.  His hips can go forward and backward 90 degrees on some strong ratchets, and 90 degrees laterally on slightly softer ones.  His thighs swivel, and his knees bend just over 90 degrees.  His feet don't tilt down; as they are here, they can tilt upward due to the transformation but I'll have to re-test it once Wildrider arrives to see how it actually works with a car attached.  A very strong ratchet allows the ankles to pivot nearly 90 degrees.  All told, he's got some decent articulation and sturdy ratchets that make him far easier to actually pose than the Combiner Wars version.  There are still a few practical issues, though.  For one, much of the underside of his feet are hollow, which limits the amount of contact surface he actually has.  I'm thinking fitting some rubber pads in there will help, though.  Also, it's a little too easy to slide the legs off.

Having 5mm ports for fists means that Menasor can hold Motormaster's sword and the gun.  The gun seems a better fit for Menasor, but the sword looks kind of silly here.  More like a big knife.  I'll also note here that there are a number of pegs and holes on Menasor's arms and feet that allow everything to hold together in trailer mode.  In theory, they could be used to attach other weapons and accessories.

Speaking of accessories... not all of the trailer makes Menasor's body.  The gun tower from base mode isn't part of Menasor.  Now, Hasbro tries to get around that... if you take the gun and flip it over you can plug the gun onto the tower using the bottom of the purple flap, elevating it just a bit higher.  And since Menasor's hands are, again, just using 5mm ports, he can grab onto the handles and you've got a turret for Menasor.  I'd have preferred the entire trailer was integrated, though.  Failing that, if we're going to have leftover parts, I'd have liked a bit more trailer to cover Menasor's chest that still could have been part of the tower.  Alas.

One final note... it throws off his proportions even more, and you're lacking a bit of clearance, but if you wanted you can use Combiner Wars figures to make Mensaor's legs.  It doesn't work with the arms, though, since the connection is different.  Although I wouldn't be surprised if someone makes an adapter for some reason.

Which reminds me... I've heard people complaining, as they did with Rodimus, that you're paying Commander prices for what's essentially a Voyager with some gimmicky trailer.  And I've heard new complaints that a Commander-class with four Deluxes is a lot more expensive than a Voyager and four Deluxes.  And I think both of those arguments are missing the point.  Motormaster and trailer combine to form a robot that is the same size as Commander-class Jetfire, so the price for Motormaster is justified.  The other Stunticons are really decoration.  And if you get those decorations, yes, you've spent more than you did for Combiner Wars Menasor, but the end result is a more stable, sturdy, poseable, cartoon-accurate figure.  I really can't stress enough what a leap Legacy Menasor is over the Combiner Wars/Power of the Primes combiners.  Or, for that matter, how much of an improvement Legacy Motormaster is over Combiner Wars Motormaster.  If one Commander and four Deluxes is this much better than one Voyager and four Deluxes then I'm saying right now I'll happily buy a Commander-class Silverbolt, Hot Spot, Onslaught, Scattershot, Hun-Grr, Razorclaw, and Snaptrap.  Motormaster isn't perfect, but I think he mostly lives up to the hype and I highly recommend him.

[M'Kyuun]

Great review, Mike! I'm not the biggest fan of the frame w/ ornamental cars to form a combined bot, BUT, this is a case where I'll make an exception. I don't know that they'd have been able to pull off an all-in-one Motormaster at even a commander class budget. It's a tall order, and I don't think the final result would have been as faithful as this approach. The engineering is still pretty amazing when you consider the puzzle aspect of the trailer with all the different parts, which also have varying levels of transformation individually, plus the cab section, all of which has to create a base mode (It's not great, but points for trying- they don't have to, but it's a little extra playability that costs you nothing more than time) and merge together to form the torso and limb frames, all of which needs to be sturdy enough to bear the weight of those additional deluxe carbots. And it all has to meet strict safety laws and such, plus be easy enough to be manipulated by an 8 year-old, yet still appeal to us old 40-50 year olds who grew up with it, b/c ya know, although we're not technically the target audience, we're the ones with the nostalgia and the passion for G1 and the disposable income to have rooms full of this stuff. Not that I would know anything about that. 😉

 

So, my copy of Studio Series '86 Sludge came today, and I'm rather quite pleased with him. I complained about Takara's, specifically Hasui-san's, reinventing the wheel with some of these SS86 Dinobot transformations, but honestly, I was pretty impressed with the design. I think moving his chest back to let his arms form the back legs was a really clever move. His dino butt is way too chunky, and I so wish they had the budget and inclination to give him a longer and slightly articulated tail which would be useful and apropos on an Apatosaur. Moreover, Sludge often used his tail in the toon in combat, and it'd be great if this figure could pull it off, too. Alas, no.  Wish they'd worked out a better neck joint- it totally breaks sculpt and looks weird when his neck is bent down. The hip and knee ratchets on mine seem pretty solid thus far. Like Mike, I wish his legs pegged together a little more solidly, but I can live with the slight gap. now onto the main reason for my post. Not content to suffer the stock figure's toe udder in dino mode, I bought BDT Studio's upgrade kit to replace the stationary toes with a set that can rotate into the tummy void that seems to have been made for just that purpose. My thoughts on the kit (BDT-35C) are as follows:

Ok, so on the left is the stock toe as it comes on the fig and on the right is the corresponding BDT upgrade. here you can see the variations in size, sculpt, and color. the grey is a slightly darker shade than Sludge's plastic, but the gold is a much deeper bronze than the paint used on the fig. Of course, you can always try to do a better color match yourself if you choose to get the kit. It doesn't bother me.

The toe and the base are simply held together by friction; no screws. There's a short length of black plastic tubing somehow embedded in the base and for now it provides enough friction to allow the toe to hold a position, although it wouldn't really be enough to bear the weight of the whole fig.  Also, note that the stock toe base has a center piece at the top whereas the BDT base does not. These bases are only held onto a double hinge linkage by two very small protrusions on the inner walls. The center piece helps keep pressure on that connection on the Hasbro base, whereas the BDT is a much weaker connection without it. Not sure why they didn't engineer that into their design, as it would have greatly improved the strength of that joint. As is, it holds ok on mine, but care must be taken when manipulating the joint, as it'll come off very easily. Big oversight on BDT's part.

Hasbro toe on the left, BDT on right. Note the center plate on the Hasbro toe base that maintains pressure on the joint. The BDT would have greatly benefitted from having it too.

The following show the range of toe up and down respectively.

Here Sludge is showing off his brassy new toes. I like that the grills in the front are actual grills and not just molded detail. I wish they'd painted the insides of the toes black or dark grey though. The base color of the 3d printing material is white, and you can see it when looking through his toe grills.

Finally, the reason for getting this kit in the first place. Behold, Sludge with a mostly flat tummy!  Sludge is ready to pummel Decepticons now without worrying about getting hung up on a speed bump; the downside to the upgrade is there's no place to put his hand cannon except pegging it onto his hind hips, and that's if you don't have his former feet-cum-rocket packs installed. I really wish they'd made his gun collapse enough to store within his big dino butt under those folding panels with the faux G1 toy's toes on his back. Alas it's too big, and with the BDT toes installed, the belly storage option is gone. (Didn't like it anyway). Maybe a third party will make a collapsible gun, or one that separates into two bits that'll fit in his booty. Then he'll truly have junk in his trunk, so to speak.

Look at that svelte undercarriage!  Those stock toes were udder nonsense.  I can't stop myself.

It's a marked improvement over the golden mammary formed by the stock toes. I imagine they just didn't have enough room in the molds or the budget to squeeze out two additional parts to allow for the toes to bend organically. For now, the BDT kit suffices, as it's the only folding toe option that I'm aware of. Fortunately, at $17 bucks, it doesn't set you back too much, and I think the improvement to the dino mode is worth it.  The tenuous connection is its greatest flaw, but with care, it works.

While the moveable toes are almost certainly the main draw of this kit, there are two additional bits that come with it that allow you to make use of the old toe pieces you removed. Admittedly, it's not the best, but it's an option if you choose to use them.

I'm not too plussed about the rocket packs, but I guess it's nice that they gave you that option, and it offers something to make the castoff official toes useful. I appreciate the thought more than the execution.

In summary, this kit fixes my main gripe with the stock figure. However, the kit could certainly use some refinement, especially the base where it has a tenuous connection. I was really surprised when I was able to easily pull the toe piece off revealing a less than cleanly cut bit of black plastic tubing affixed to the base providing the only means of friction. It's obvious that these were designed quickly and cheaply , but as the only option I'm aware of currently to give him a much-needed breast reduction for a reasonable price, I give the kit a soft recommendation.

 

 

Edited August 2, 2022 by M'Kyuun

[Scyla]

8 hours ago, mikeszekely said:

I'll keep trying.  I have another Walmart I'll go to on Wednesday when I take my dad out for lunch, and then there's one I can hit sporadically when I go play D&D at my friend's house.  I fear I might have to pay Ebay prices.  Friggin' scalpers.

Well, Cosmos might not be a recent add to my collection, but I did end up with quite a bit of other stuff in the last few days.  Of those, I do believe that the most hotly-anticipated is Legacy Commander-class Motormaster.

It's hard not to have an opinion that's colored by the four 3P G1 cartoon-style Motormasters I have... right off the bat, I'm zeroing on on the kibble panels on the outsides of his legs, the bulky kneepads that only make two of the three purple rectangles seen on the Sunbow model, the still-visible truck grill, and the backpack with the very on-display wheels, and I'm thinking about how I've seen Motormaster done more cleanly in four different ways.  On the other hand, this is still a Hasbro figure, on a Hasbro budget, with the usual regulations and standards a mass-market retail toy has to meet.  On that note, there's so much they got right here.  The sculpt of his box head and face is so much better than the previous Combiner Wars figure.  His waist is a little narrow, but his torso has the animation model's taper, with both his chest and his pelvis having the proper gray outline.  His torso and arms have molded lines that accurately capture the linework of the animation, and Hasbro even went to far as the put some purple paint on a hinge near his collar for color accuracy.  Moving down to his legs he's got his little cab feet, complete with molded and painted little wheels.  I think that, even with a bit of kibble, he's ultimately a gorgeous figure that really emphasizes just how bad the CW version really was.

Motormaster actually comes packaged in alt mode, and inside the box all you'll find, besides Motormaster himself, is this trailer.  And... yeah, it mostly looks like Motormaster's trailer.  It's even got the gap in the stripe seen on the animation mode.  The rear has some molded details for the door and taillights, but with some purple and white showing it's obvious that there's something else going on.  And a lot of that something else is revealed by the front of the trailer, which is very obviously Menasor's chest and.... thighs?

A quick peak at the bottom.  There's some fold-out feet that you can use to keep the trailer up without the cab.  You can also see the peg that the trailer uses to attach to said cab.

"That can't be it!  Doesn't Motormaster have any weapons?" you ask.  Well...

First thing you wanna do is pull the front third of the trailer off.  Aha, there's a sword in there!  Then pull the top half of the remaining section off of the bottom.  

Remove the trailer stuff from Menasor's chest by flipping up the gray bit between Menasor's thighs, then kind of unpeeling it.  Once it's off, you can fold the halves of the "peel" together into a tower shape with the peg that attaches the trailer to the cab at the top.

Now, taking the top half of the trailer, you can break it in half and a small chunk will be revealed between then.  Fold out the barrels and you've got yourself a gun.  Then open the panels along the sides near the back, and fold out Menasor's feet.

 

The gun has a peg hole under it that allows you to plug it onto the tower.  Get the bottom section of the trailer, and break that in half, too.  You can probably see that it's going to be part of Menasor's arms.  For now, though, just bend the elbow joints on them 90 degrees.

Now, take Menasor's chest, spin it 180 degrees and straighten the legs.  The tower with the gun uses two tabs to plug into the underside of the chest.  The arms have pegs just under the tucked-in hands that plug into holes on the back side of the chest.  Now, get the remaining parts, and notice the pegs on Meansor's toes.  Those plug into the end of the bent sections of the arms, and congratulations!  You've got a base mode!  The handles on the gun can be angled outward, and Motormaster can stand on Menasor's chest and hold the handles.  The purple bit on the back of the gun covers Motormaster's face... and yeah, I thin kit's supposed to do that.  There's like a little molded periscope visor on the end of it.

Motormaster's head can swivel; it's slightly loose on my copy.  No tilt, but I think that's just the cost of having a box head.  His shoulders rotate and can extend laterally 90 degrees.  His biceps swivel, his elbows bend 90 degrees on a single hinge, and his wrists swivel.  His waist swivels.  His hips can go 90 degrees forward, backward, and laterally, all on ratchets.  Speaking of his hips, take a closer look.  You'll notice that the big end of the rivet pin is showing, while on most figures that's on the back.  You can turn the hips around, if really want, but note that they'll need to be on the front for alt mode.  Moving on, his thighs swivel.  His knees are double-jointed, but the lower hinge is just for transformation.  With just the top hinge, though, he'll get 120 degrees of knee bend or so.  No up/down tilt on his feet, but his ankles can pivot up to 90 degrees.

He can hold his sword in either hand, no problem.  And you can take the gun off the tower and use one of the handles to let Motormaster hold it.  Thing is, it's a bit heavy for him, and on my copy his shoulders weren't quite up to the task of holding it up.  Frankly, it's kind of ugly.  I'm hoping DNA, Go Better, or another company makes a more G1-style gun for him.

One more thing about the sword... there's a 5mm peg hole on both sides of the hilt.  It's that hole that fits onto a peg that helps store the sword in the trailer.  There's a major missed opportunity here, though.  See, the peg hole that the trailer attaches to on the cab is on Motormaster's back.  If they'd made a peg hole on just one side of the hilt for storage in the trailer but put a peg on the other side instead of a hole then Motormaster would be able to store the sword on his back.  Actually, come to think of it, he's lacking the entirely play pattern established with War for Cybertron, as that peg hole on his back is the only peg hole he's got.

Much like the CW toy (but unlike the G1 toy), Motormaster himself only turns into the cab of his truck mode.  It's surprisingly uncomplicated.  His arms fold up toward his head, but still reach out the back.  The backpack folds up and around to cover over his arms.  Panels on his legs unfurl, and he's really bent over backward with his head to his heels, and the panels wrap around his body to form most of the truck.  His knee pads make up most of the roof, with the rest unfolding from panels that were on the sides of his legs.  That's why you need the big rivet heads showing; the raised section of his thighs around him makes the rivet hole double as a peg hole, and pegs on the flaps that make the back of the roof will plug into them.

I think the truck mode looks pretty good.  The hitch actually looks like a truck.  He's got the purple windows, painted rims, and a painted grill.  His chest and crotch are showing from the back, but I can live with that.  Some of you may decry the lack of smokestacks, but fun fact- neither the G1 toy nor the Sunbow animation model has them!  So my complaints really boil down to molded headlights on the cab that aren't painted, and white chunks of plastic at the bottom sides where his shoulder joints are.  The headlights shouldn't be too hard to paint with a silver Sharpie paint market, though, and as it's not showing in bot mode even those white chunks could be painted, too, if they really bother you.

As previously mentioned, the trailer plugs into Motormaster using a peg that goes into the peg hole on his hitch.  And, well, it looks a little short.  Technically Motormaster's trailer is slightly longer than Earthrise Prime's, but the fact that it's taller and significantly wider, plus Motormaster himself having a bit more girth than Prime's cab, throws off the proportions a bit in truck mode.

The cab can turn on the hitch, and the whole thing roles quite well.  And I do like that everything is stored in the trailer.  There's actually a little space still for a gun, should some 3P make one for Motormaster.

Of course, by now we all know that a big part of Hasbro's decision to make Motormaster a Commander-class made entirely from the cab but with a big honking trailer is because the trailer transforms into a good chunk of Menasor... but perhaps not as much as many of the 3P versions.  You can take apart the base mode and turn Menasor's waist 180 degrees.  Slide the legs in.  They work using Combiner Wars-style joints, but they each have a tiny tab and slot so each lower leg section only fits into one thigh.

Motormaster turns into the bulk of Menasor's upper body in a transformation that reminds me a bit of G1 Soundwave.  Menasor's head is not a partsforming element; it's actually inside Motormaster's torso.  Once you have Motormaster transformed, you plug in him into the back of Menasor's chest using a trio of tabs and the large pegs surrounding some swivel joints for some of the panels on Motormaster's legs.  To further secure him, the panel the sword uses to plug inside the trailer flips up and pegs into Motormaster, and two gray panels on the chest flip up over Motormaster's wheels.

The arms have sort of a gimmick.  You fold up the sides of the trailer and flip out the hand, then you can attach Dragstrip in his car mode.  A tab near the elbow will slide in under the the front half of Dragstrip, near his waist, allowing the halves of Dragstrip to separate.  Then you can finish transforming the arm by bending both the forearm and bicep away from the elbow, then bending them back on another hinge that stretches the arm out and leaves the elbow joint exposed.  Then you just have to fold the trailer wheels flat.

As it's been revealed that Dead End is actually a major retool of Dragstrip, I expect he'll work exactly the same.  There's a bit of automorphing that goes on in the legs, too, but we'll talk about that after Wildrider comes out and I can actually show off how it works.  

Getting back to the arm, you'll note a silver section protruding from the back of the arm.  This section is open on the bottom, and it clips over Motormasters feet to attach to Menasor's body.

Standing an incomplete Legacy Menasor next to the Combiner Wars version really illustrates how badly Menasor needed a do-over, eh?  While some may not love how much of Menasor is formed from Motormaster's trailer instead of the other Stunticons, it's really hard to argue with the results.  Legacy Menasor is only slightly taller than the CW one and still has arms that are a tad too long (or rather, his thighs are perhaps a tad too short), but there's no visible gaps in his elbows and he's generally much more solid.  He's also far, far more cartoon-accurate.  The shoulder pylons are a bit G1 toy, but I'm not complaining.  Maybe because of how much time I spent staring at the toy catalogs, but I like the combiner team members to look like their Sunbow models but the combiners themselves to look more like the toys.  If Hasbro isn't planning on slightly remolded, repainted toy-style Stunticons then I actually would love a 3P to make a toy/OX-style Menasor head.  But I digress; Hasbro's going for toy accuracy and they got it.

(I'll probably have more to say about the legs after Wildrider comes out.)

Menasor's head, like Motormaster's, swivels but has no tilt.  His shoulders rotate on ratchets, and can extend 90 degrees on another ratchet.  He's got soft-ratcheted bicep swivels, and ratcheted elbows that bend 90 degrees.  His wrists swivel, but somewhat disappointingly they lack any articulation in the fingers; like Motormaster's own hands they're molded into fists with 5mm ports.  His waist swivels.  His hips can go forward and backward 90 degrees on some strong ratchets, and 90 degrees laterally on slightly softer ones.  His thighs swivel, and his knees bend just over 90 degrees.  His feet don't tilt down; as they are here, they can tilt upward due to the transformation but I'll have to re-test it once Wildrider arrives to see how it actually works with a car attached.  A very strong ratchet allows the ankles to pivot nearly 90 degrees.  All told, he's got some decent articulation and sturdy ratchets that make him far easier to actually pose than the Combiner Wars version.  There are still a few practical issues, though.  For one, much of the underside of his feet are hollow, which limits the amount of contact surface he actually has.  I'm thinking fitting some rubber pads in there will help, though.  Also, it's a little too easy to slide the legs off.

Having 5mm ports for fists means that Menasor can hold Motormaster's sword and the gun.  The gun seems a better fit for Menasor, but the sword looks kind of silly here.  More like a big knife.  I'll also note here that there are a number of pegs and holes on Menasor's arms and feet that allow everything to hold together in trailer mode.  In theory, they could be used to attach other weapons and accessories.

Speaking of accessories... not all of the trailer makes Menasor's body.  The gun tower from base mode isn't part of Menasor.  Now, Hasbro tries to get around that... if you take the gun and flip it over you can plug the gun onto the tower using the bottom of the purple flap, elevating it just a bit higher.  And since Menasor's hands are, again, just using 5mm ports, he can grab onto the handles and you've got a turret for Menasor.  I'd have preferred the entire trailer was integrated, though.  Failing that, if we're going to have leftover parts, I'd have liked a bit more trailer to cover Menasor's chest that still could have been part of the tower.  Alas.

One final note... it throws off his proportions even more, and you're lacking a bit of clearance, but if you wanted you can use Combiner Wars figures to make Mensaor's legs.  It doesn't work with the arms, though, since the connection is different.  Although I wouldn't be surprised if someone makes an adapter for some reason.

Which reminds me... I've heard people complaining, as they did with Rodimus, that you're paying Commander prices for what's essentially a Voyager with some gimmicky trailer.  And I've heard new complaints that a Commander-class with four Deluxes is a lot more expensive than a Voyager and four Deluxes.  And I think both of those arguments are missing the point.  Motormaster and trailer combine to form a robot that is the same size as Commander-class Jetfire, so the price for Motormaster is justified.  The other Stunticons are really decoration.  And if you get those decorations, yes, you've spent more than you did for Combiner Wars Menasor, but the end result is a more stable, sturdy, poseable, cartoon-accurate figure.  I really can't stress enough what a leap Legacy Menasor is over the Combiner Wars/Power of the Primes combiners.  Or, for that matter, how much of an improvement Legacy Motormaster is over Combiner Wars Motormaster.  If one Commander and four Deluxes is this much better than one Voyager and four Deluxes then I'm saying right now I'll happily buy a Commander-class Silverbolt, Hot Spot, Onslaught, Scattershot, Hun-Grr, Razorclaw, and Snaptrap.  Motormaster isn't perfect, but I think he mostly lives up to the hype and I highly recommend him.

I wonder if they will follow suit with other combiners. I think Defensor and Bruticus lend themselves well for this Commander Class approach. 
However both of those were some of the better CW combiners so I don’t know if the incentive for Hasbro is there to redo them.

Silverbolt would be cool if the combiner parts could form an aircraft carrier for the jets to land on. And I think he would benefit from the additional budget the Commander Class toys seem to have.

The leftover trailer bits for Menasor it disappointing and a real oversight in my eyes.

I also find it amusing that the 3rd party approached to MP combiners is now adopted by Hasbro since it is seemingly shunned by a large population of Transformers fans.

[mikeszekely]

2 hours ago, Scyla said:

I also find it amusing that the 3rd party approached to MP combiners is now adopted by Hasbro since it is seemingly shunned by a large population of Transformers fans.

Well, couple things about that.

First, I think it's easier to accept with Menasor than the others. By having just the cab turn into Motormaster you can keep the truck more in-scale, and using the trailer to turn into much of Menasor's body gives it a purpose. Plus a big robot with cars hanging on it's limbs is pretty cartoon accurate.

Two, while Hasbro's Menasor is similar to Zeta's pantsorming, it's actually no as bad as the MP Menasors. Only the very front of Menasor's torso is made from the trailer. His head is part of Motormaster, and Motormaster is essential to completing the gestalt.

Three, I think it's fair to hold MP to a higher standard. MMC's Bruticus is my favorite combiner and an engineering marvel, and their Defensor is shaping up nicely. But even their biggest fans will admit compromises were made, and Onslaught suffered a bit for it. I don't think anyone expects Hasbro's tightly-budgeted approach would get anywhere near what MMC is pulling off for mainline CHUGs.

Me personally, for CHUG I'm fine with partsforming if it gets us more like Legacy Menasor. I agree that Defensor and Bruticus were a lot better than CW Menasor, but Legacy Menasor is such a leap forward that they really need to do all of them over now.

[tekering]

11 minutes ago, mikeszekely said:

I agree that Defensor and Bruticus were a lot better than CW Menasor

Of course, "a lot better than CW Menasor" is still several stages below "acceptable." 😝

I'm not even sure if Legacy Menasor qualifies, given those giant snowshoes he appears to be wearing... 😒

[M'Kyuun]

1 hour ago, mikeszekely said:

Well, couple things about that.

First, I think it's easier to accept with Menasor than the others. By having just the cab turn into Motormaster you can keep the truck more in-scale, and using the trailer to turn into much of Menasor's body gives it a purpose. Plus a big robot with cars hanging on it's limbs is pretty cartoon accurate.

Two, while Hasbro's Menasor is similar to Zeta's pantsorming, it's actually no as bad as the MP Menasors. Only the very front of Menasor's torso is made from the trailer. His head is part of Motormaster, and Motormaster is essential to completing the gestalt.

Three, I think it's fair to hold MP to a higher standard. MMC's Bruticus is my favorite combiner and an engineering marvel, and their Defensor is shaping up nicely. But even their biggest fans will admit compromises were made, and Onslaught suffered a bit for it. I don't think anyone expects Hasbro's tightly-budgeted approach would get anywhere near what MMC is pulling off for mainline CHUGs.

Me personally, for CHUG I'm fine with partsforming if it gets us more like Legacy Menasor. I agree that Defensor and Bruticus were a lot better than CW Menasor, but Legacy Menasor is such a leap forward that they really need to do all of them over now.

I think you make a good argument for the direction Has/Tak chose. I posited my opinion in a previous post, but essentially, given the bevy of restraints under which they must labor to produce a safe and functional toy within tight budgetary limits, I think they went the best route to give purpose and function to all parts of the figure while striving to maintain the G1 toon look of Menasor. Are there concessions? Yep, but I think they were judiciously acceptable concessions relative to the ultimate aim of making a toon accurate Menasor/Stunticon team.  The designers at Hasbro & Takara-Tomy are fans of this stuff; they know they can't do everything they'd like to do to make the 'perfect' fig within their imposed limitations. I don't always agree w/ their choices, but thanks to their behind-the-scenes revelations on Instagram, I'm developing a whole new respect for the hurdles and hindrances they face when designing these things, and an appreciation for just how well most turn out in retrospect.

I would absolutely love it if Hasbro/TT could follow MMC's example as it pertains to combiners. All-in-one is the ultimate engineering approach, IMHO. It's hard to do, and unfeasible for mass-retail toys aimed at 8 year-olds. Reality sucks sometimes. But, at least it exists within the MP level of collecting, and that's something to be celebrated. 

[Scyla]

1 hour ago, mikeszekely said:

Well, couple things about that.

First, I think it's easier to accept with Menasor than the others. By having just the cab turn into Motormaster you can keep the truck more in-scale, and using the trailer to turn into much of Menasor's body gives it a purpose. Plus a big robot with cars hanging on it's limbs is pretty cartoon accurate.

Two, while Hasbro's Menasor is similar to Zeta's pantsorming, it's actually no as bad as the MP Menasors. Only the very front of Menasor's torso is made from the trailer. His head is part of Motormaster, and Motormaster is essential to completing the gestalt.

Three, I think it's fair to hold MP to a higher standard. MMC's Bruticus is my favorite combiner and an engineering marvel, and their Defensor is shaping up nicely. But even their biggest fans will admit compromises were made, and Onslaught suffered a bit for it. I don't think anyone expects Hasbro's tightly-budgeted approach would get anywhere near what MMC is pulling off for mainline CHUGs.

Me personally, for CHUG I'm fine with partsforming if it gets us more like Legacy Menasor. I agree that Defensor and Bruticus were a lot better than CW Menasor, but Legacy Menasor is such a leap forward that they really need to do all of them over now.

I just find it interesting that, for the longest time, Hasbro favored the “main bot turns into torso and thighs“ approach and now that 3rd party showed that it is a viable option to have a frame for the combiner is developing their own.

Of course Hasbro can’t sell a frame that doesn’t do anything on its own (say like the pants and arms for Toy World Devy) because that would fly with consumers and stores I would assume. As you pointed out Menasor is an ideal test balloon since his CW iteration wasn’t… well received and his G1 cartoon model is just a frame with cars attached to it anyway.

I‘m cool with that approach and look forward if Hasbro continue with this and how future iteration of this concept will look like (like my Silverbolt aircraft carrier idea).

On the other hand I’m curious what a Hasbro all-in-one combiner would look like at a Commander or Titan price point.

[M'Kyuun]

38 minutes ago, Scyla said:

I just find it interesting that, for the longest time, Hasbro favored the “main bot turns into torso and thighs“ approach and now that 3rd party showed that it is a viable option to have a frame for the combiner is developing their own.

Of course Hasbro can’t sell a frame that doesn’t do anything on its own (say like the pants and arms for Toy World Devy) because that would fly with consumers and stores I would assume. As you pointed out Menasor is an ideal test balloon since his CW iteration wasn’t… well received and his G1 cartoon model is just a frame with cars attached to it anyway.

I‘m cool with that approach and look forward if Hasbro continue with this and how future iteration of this concept will look like (like my Silverbolt aircraft carrier idea).

On the other hand I’m curious what a Hasbro all-in-one combiner would look like at a Commander or Titan price point.

I wish they'd borrow more ideas from third party, but at least this demonstrates a willingness on their part.

Regarding your Silverbolt aircraft carrier idea, if Has/TT were more competent when designing jet alt modes I'd be all for it. But, with only a single alt mode to deal with, their attempts to make jetformers are overburdened with concessions. The Aerialbots were hindered further by their need to form limbs hence the blocky bots-wearing-jet-carcasses approach to their G1 toys. Unfortunately, that egregiously compromised aesthetic has followed us into the 21st century with unshakeable tenacity such that even the majority of third party attempts, most at MP scale no less, have copied it. Dreamstar Toys are one of the few to move away from the G1 aesthetic to produce more realistic looking jets, although their take on the bot modes is very stylized, more akin to Bayformers than G1. Additionally, much to my disappointment, as well as they did on the limb-bots' jet modes, their Silverbolt shares the same block-o-bot undercarriage that seems to plague all instances of the character in toy form. I keep waiting for someone to make a more integrated Silverbolt that actually looks like a proper Concorde, but that seems to be an insurmountable challenge, or nobody cares enough to try. @mikeszekely and I have had this conversation, and though we differ in our opinions, I still think it's wholly do-able. 

Even with a titan budget, I'm not sure they'd be able to pull it off. I look at The Ark, and there are so many things that could have, and one would expect would have, been done better on a titan class fig. The hands suck, the little cannons that dot his carcass are molded detail instead of being separate rotating features, the enormous gaps in his legs that should have been covered by hinged clamshell panels, the gap at his elbow that similarly should have had a folding cover, the lack of a fifth engine bell (which should have been engineered in even if it had to separate and fold away to form the feet), etc. I like it, but I'm not blind to its many concessions. While I'd love all-in-one combiners from Hasbro, I just don't think it's financially feasible, and I think the engineering required would be too complex for their age market. I remember back in the mid-2000s when Bayformer toys were becoming very complex, and parents were complaining b/c little Johnny or Susie couldn't figure them out (and I suspect, neither could the hapless parents when they tried to help). Admittedly, I had trouble figuring some of them out, and the instructions weren't always the clearest (thank Primus for all the video reviewers). So, I make the argument that even with a larger budget, I think the all-in-one approach is impractical. 

Edited August 2, 2022 by M'Kyuun

[sh9000]

14 hours ago, mikeszekely said:

 

This shot looks cool.  It's going to be great with the rest of the cars.

[mikeszekely]

51 minutes ago, sh9000 said:

This shot looks cool.  It's going to be great with the rest of the cars.

Right? And even the best Combiner Wars gestalts barely stand straight without falling over/apart.

 

1 hour ago, Scyla said:

On the other hand I’m curious what a Hasbro all-in-one combiner would look like at a Commander or Titan price point.

I might be remembering wrong, since I never got one, but wasn't Titan Predaking pretty close to all-in-one?

3 hours ago, tekering said:

I'm not even sure if Legacy Menasor qualifies, given those giant snowshoes he appears to be wearing... 😒

Considering how unstable a lot of other figures have been I don't know that I'm going to complain about big, stable heels.  But if it helps, when the cars attach to the legs the hoods fold forward and become part of the heel.

[Scyla]

14 minutes ago, mikeszekely said:

Right? And even the best Combiner Wars gestalts barely stand straight without falling over/apart.

 

I might be remembering wrong, since I never got one, but wasn't Titan Predaking pretty close to all-in-one?

Considering how unstable a lot of other figures have been I don't know that I'm going to complain about big, stable heels.  But if it helps, when the cars attach to the legs the hoods fold forward and become part of the heel.

You’re right, I completely forgot about Predaking.

If I remember correctly the thighs where integrated into Tantrum and Headstrong and the shoulders into Rampage and Divebomb but the hands and feet where still pieces that you had to attach. 
 

That Predaking was a terrible looking toy. Maybe I don’t want to know what an all in one Hasbro combiner would look like.

The Menasor is looking great, move along.

Edited August 2, 2022 by Scyla

[mikeszekely]

Voyager Class Studio Series 86 Ironhide?

EDIT: Youtuber PrimeVsPrime might have a factory backdoor special already, and I'm hearing rumblings that Ironhide could start shipping by late October.

Edited August 2, 2022 by mikeszekely

[tekering]

6 hours ago, Scyla said:

I don’t want to know what an all in one Hasbro combiner would look like.

I wish I didn't know what an all-in-one Hasbro combiner looks like. 🤕

Lest we forget... 😒

[Scyla]

8 hours ago, tekering said:

I wish I didn't know what an all-in-one Hasbro combiner looks like. 🤕

Lest we forget... 😒

I don’t know what you mean. Looks great to me. 
 

 

[mikeszekely]

A quartet of Deluxe-class repaints that you really only want one of- it's the Target-exclusive Buzzworthy Bumblebee Creatures Collide pack!

We'll go from least interesting to most interesting (at least in my book), so we're starting with Scorponok.  Presumably, it's the same guy that already had a mainline Kingdom release, and presumably, if you're into Beast Wars, you probably already bought.  He comes with the same accessories*, the missiles and the cyber bee (that looks more like a house fly to me), and there's no changes to the mold*.  The only really difference is the deco.  Where the Kingdom release was based on the cartoon, this release is based on the original toy, so it looses the yellow accents, trades the lighter gray for gunmetal and black, and the lighter purple for a darker and more iridescent shade (although wasn't it more blue on the original toy?).

*Ok, technically there is one extra accessory/mold change.  While Scorponok comes packaged with the same head as the Kingdom release attached, you'll find an alternate head wrapped with the accessories.  This head is the same one that comes with Walmart-exclusive Sandstorm, and it's based on the original Scorponok toy's mutant mask.

 Alt mode... aside from the aforementioned color changes, you can see that his fangs have been recolored purple.  And, you know... it's fine.  I think you might enjoy this deco better if you had the original Scorpnok as a toy when you were a kid, but I was in high school and very much not collecting at that time so I have no attachment.  In a vacuum, I do actually like the darker colors better than the dull shades on the Kingdom toy, but the Kingdom toy looks more like what I saw in the cartoon (which I did eventually watch).

My initial impression of Skywasp is "what if Waspinator but Skywarp?"  At least that makes him a character we don't already have, eh?  And at the risk of sounding like one Thew Adams, you can't really go wrong with a black and purple baddie.  That said, there is some interesting history here.  This Skywasp is based on  one of a Botcon pack of recolored Thrilling 30 Waspinators.  And, while ostensibly a Predacon, he's maybe also a Waruder from Diaclone?

As with Scorpnok, there's no mold changes to Skywasp out-of-the-box, but he comes with the new head first sported by the Walmart-exclusive Buzzsaw.

And, alt mode.  As a character that's a redeco of Waspinator I like Skywasp better than Buzzsaw, based solely on color.  But he's hardly a must-have.

As a geewunner at heart, I'm happy to move away from obscure Beast Wars repaints and into the realm of obscure G1 characters with Ransack.  Unlike the G1 toy, though, he doesn't get a new mold.  Instead, he's a repaint of Legacy Kickback with a new head*.  And considering that the original wasn't, this actually works surprisingly well for robot mode.  Color-wise, my only complaint is that his forearms could have been black.  And as a Pittsburgher you know I'm not going to complain about the black and gold.

While Ransack does come with a new head based on the G1 Deluxe Insecticon toy, he also comes with the same head as Legacy Kickback.  What's interesting here is that a little more of his forehead is black, as is his visor, so it's colored like Kickback's G1 toy.  It almost makes me want to buy a second Kickback to put this head on.

Kickback's mold for Ransack doesn't work quite as well in insect mode.  Giving him black forearms would have helped with alt mode accuracy a bit, as would a method for collapsing the thighs into the lower legs.  But really, it's the missing abdomen that really makes Ransack look like a black and gold Kickback.

Finally, we have Goldbug, who is probably the figure that will motivate most people to buy this set.  He's pretty great!  Somehow, Hasbro managed to talk Volkswagen into letting them use the Beetle again, so instead of using the Cliffjumper mold again like Shattered Glass Goldbug or Buzzworthy Worlds Collide Bumblebee they were able to take the new head from Shattered Glass Goldbug and put it on Netflix Bumblebee's body.  And by trading the lighter blue translucent plastic with dark translucent and either using gold plastic or gold paint on most of Goldbug's body he winds up looking pretty cartoon accurate to boot.  My only complaint would be the blue hands (but that could be fixed with either a little paint or by swapping hands with the Shattered Glass toy).

Pro tip- if you store the back of the car on their backs instead of using them like a shield or whatever, you can give Goldbug his hood and make him a little more visually-distinct from Bumblebee by turning it upside down.

Alt mode is pretty much Netflix Bumblebee in gold instead of yellow, with a silver bumper instead of black, and dark translucent windows instead of blue ones.  But that's really what you'd want, isn't it?  G1 Goldbug was a gold Beetle, Buzzworthy Goldbug is a gold Beetle.

If Goldbug was sold separately I'd 100% recommend him.  The trouble is you can't, short of some wheeling and dealing, get just Goldbug.  You have to buy all four.  And how good of a deal that is really depends on how much you like the other three.  Personally I like Ransack, Skywasp is OK, and Scorponok is pretty redundant, and two other guys I'll use and one I guess I could find a place for is good enough.  

[mikeszekely]

SSS86 Ironhide's alt mode.

[Mechapilot77]

3 hours ago, mikeszekely said:

SSS86 Ironhide's alt mode.

Well its better than the exclusive 2 pack wfc one but thise gigantic hinges still look awful.  That being said, this is the retool that shoulda come during wfc with prowl and its alt mode is better.  Im not forking over evem more money on this subpar mold though.

[mikeszekely]

It's hard to say until I have one in my hands, but SS86 Ironhide is a new mold with a higher parts count, not a retool.  The robot mode is a lot more screen-accurate in both sculpt and colors.  The van is, too, although it's missing the stripe (but, as a backdoor special, may not be indicative of the final product).  The rims are painted, his rear end isn't the ugly Siege feet, and the roof isn't partsforming.  I'd say that's a pretty significant upgrade all-around.  That said, it's definitely not perfect.  I agree that those hinges are just awful, and I'm not crazy about the two tabs that are almost certainly a pretooled attachment point for Ratchet's light bar, plus (although again, probably not final) the red paint on the translucent blue plastic doesn't match the red plastic very well.  And a lot of the people who did buy the Ironhide/Prowl two pack spent a bit on upgrades, especially new feet that transformed into something more presentable in van mode.  I'm 100% intending to get both SS86 Ratchet and Ironhide, but I'm not faulting anyone who decides they're good with what they have.

Anyway... I'm following up yetesterday's Creatures Collide with two other Target exclusives.

First up we have Buzzworthy Bumblebee Deluxe-class Terrorsaur.  As with Creatures Collide Scorponok, what we have here is a figure previously released in cartoon colors getting a second release in his original Beast Wars toy colors.  This involves ditching all the silver paint, adding some black and purple, and replacing the black spots on his chest and his yellow eyes with neon green.  Weirdly, I'm a lot less apathetic about this one, though.  It could be because I like this mold better than Scorponok's in the first place.  It could be because this one is a bit more visually distinct from the previous release.  It could be because this is only the second Beast Wars pterodactyl I have while Creatures Collide Scorpnok is my third scorpion.  Or it could be because the first release was part of Amazon's exclusive Golden Disk collection and I'm just more inclined to think of Buzzworthy Terrorsaur as a second chance for Beast Wars fans to get a major cartoon character into their collection if they missed the Amazon one as opposed to a toy repaint of a character that was covered in the mainline I was forced to pay for if I wanted Goldbug.

In any case, there's no changes to the mold or accessories.  It's really just different colors that better reflect the original toy.  As someone who gleefully shelled out for toy-colors on Springer, Galvatron, and Cyclonus I can definitely understand the appeal for Beast Wars fans to have a Terrorsaur colored like the toy they had as a kid, and like I said this is a good chance for collectors who want the main Beast Wars cast but missed the Amazon release.  That said, us older geewunners might want to pass, especially if you did get the Amazon one.

The final Target-exclusive I bought is the creatively-named "Red Cog."  Unlike Terrorsaur, he's not not part of the Buzzworthy line and he comes in standard Legacy packaging.  I think the original plan was that he was going to be an online-only Red Card exclusive, like Siege Red Wing, but he wound up going to stores instead.  He's, uh... well, he's not really all that red, not compared to Gen Selects Aragon.  Unlike Aragon, though, Red Cog actually appeared in animation, appearing in both the Siege and Earthrise portions of Netflix's War for Cybertron trilogy under the name "Security Officer."  Kind of odd that he's showing up now in Buzzworthy instead of the old Walmart Netflix toys, but whatever.

Red Cog has the same head as regular Cog, and the same guns as regular Cog and Aragon.  And while I'm a fan of the Weaponizers, I'd probably say that if that was all Red Cog was that you should probably pass on him.  But there's more!

Kind of like Gen Selects Centurion Drone, the big draw here isn't the figure itself, it's the bonus accessories he's packed with.  All of them can be jammed onto Red Cog himself, but they're probably better off going to some of the more recent releases that have had kind of crappy packed-in accessories (I'm thinking Earthrise Wheeljack, Gen Selects Exhaust, Legacy Arcee, Earthrise Sunstreaker, Gen Selects Cordon or Spinout, etc).

What accessories do we get, exactly?  Well, we get two halves of a time bomb seen in the Netflix show.  You can either combine them to make one whole one (although they can be tricky to get back apart) or use the peg or peg hole on the unfinished side to stick them to stuff.  You also get a tube of Energon like the one they tried to barter to Soundblaster.  The ends of the tube are open 5mm ports, so in theory you could stick it on stuff but you can't really get anyone to hold it.

The rest can be thought of, in very general terms, as four different guns with three extra barrels that you can mix and match however you like.  That said, Hasbro didn't just pull these things out of the aether.  The large pistol with the spot of green paint was used by Arcee in the Netflix show.  Another pistol and the short barrel with the little holes is a larger version of the gun and barrel that came packaged with Siege Chromia.  The round pistol is from the Netflix show, where it was show to be a medical tool.  The rifle is a smaller version of the one that came with Siege/Earthrise Ultra Magnus.  The long barrel is was from a sniper rifle used by both Chromia and Elita-1 in the Netflix show, and the triple -barreled bit is actually a chunk of the gun that came with Combiner Wars Streetwise/Prowl.

For me, the extra accessories were definitely worth picking up Red Cog.  But $31.50 might be a bit much for some extra guns and a throwaway repaint of a background character from a not-great Netflix show for others, and I respect that.

[sh9000]

I'm all in on every SS TFTM release so I'll definitely get Ironhide and the inevitable Ratchet.  I still hope Prowl, Springer, and Soundwave gets reissued in SS TFTM packaging.

[mikeszekely]