The Transformers Thread (licensed) Next

[mikeszekely]

10 minutes ago, M'Kyuun said:

Figures it's going to be an exclusive- way to screw the fans and help the scalpers, Hasbro.

It does seem really weird that Hound is going to be a Target-exclusive, but Detrius (whom I assume with be the same mold) will be a mainline release.

[M'Kyuun]

33 minutes ago, mikeszekely said:

It does seem really weird that Hound is going to be a Target-exclusive, but Detrius (whom I assume with be the same mold) will be a mainline release.

Odd decisions that generally affect the fandom detrimentally. 

Personally, I'm not at all familiar with Detritus; I just want my G1 Hound to complete the first season roster. And any other original minibots they want to throw in in deluxe scale, especially Gears, Windcharger, Brawn, and Powerglide.. And all the cassettes. And better triple changers with equally good alt modes as well as good bot modes. And a new far, far improved Devastator where all the Constructicons have full articulation. And for Primus' sake, a better Seeker mold with an actual decent F-15 mode. And Omnibots- C'mon Hasbro- it's been nearly 40 years- give 'em some love please! And..... I think I'm done. Well, the rest of the Dinobots and the Insecticons, but I think we all know they're coming. But between TR, PotP, the WFC series, Legacy, and now Legacy Evolution, they've given me just about every G1 bot, and then some, for my collection. I still think there needs to be a better Mirage- the ER mold sucks (still hanging on to my Classics Mirage- love that fig, too). I honestly wasn't crazy about Siege Hound either, even imagining it with a more earthy alt, but seeing the pic and pulling the Siege toy down for the first time since I bought it, I'm changing my opinion. I think it'll do nicely.

[mikeszekely]

6 hours ago, M'Kyuun said:

Personally, I'm not at all familiar with Detritus

Almost nobody is.  Like Road Hauler, he's an early-aughts redeco of a G1 toy that exists only because Takara reissued said G1 toy but wanted to squeeze a little more out of the mold.  Unlike Road Hauler, where they retroactively explained the fact that the yellow Diaclone crane appeared in and was referred to as "Hauler"  in like the first episode of the cartoon, the thought process for Detritus seems to be "Jeep Willys, but in British SAS desert colors," followed by, "hey, tan and brown sorta looks like a Junkion."  One imagines that he gets the mainline spot due to Legacy Evolution being (unnecessarily) stuffed with Junkions.

7 hours ago, M'Kyuun said:

Odd decisions that generally affect the fandom detrimentally. 

Yes.  I've said it before and I'll say it again, the overall improvements in design and articulation that came with Siege won back a lot of fans that were leaving the mainline for more-accurate G1 MPs and Legends, but within the last two or three years they've started squandering a lot of that interest with a series of increasingly questionable decisions- cancelling a Deluxe-class Gears, forced gimmicks like Fossilizers, releasing one main character of a mold (like Smokescreen, etc) in the mainline but making other highly desirable repaints store exclusives (Prowl and Bluestreak), making most of the Earth-mode retools of Siege molds store-exclusives (Sideswipe, Mirage, Prowl, Bluestreak, Barricade, Ironhide, Ratchet, Red Alert, Soundwave, and now Hound), giving mainline slots to G1-ified Prime characters like Arcee and Knock Out but making a new G1 mold a store-exclusive (Cosmos), making (apparently several) new Junkion characters for Legacy Evolution but failing to find the budget to properly remold Breakdown, and so on.  Someone in charge needs fired.  It's as simple as that.  Whoever's making these decisions is making the wrong ones.

[sh9000]

https://www.thechosenprime.com/tfssccrumblebluetftm

[M'Kyuun]

11 hours ago, sh9000 said:

https://www.thechosenprime.com/tfssccrumblebluetftm

Y'know, for probably a few cents more, they could have given this dude some ball jointed elbows, which would have given him a pretty impressive range of articulation in a core class fig.  It's immensely frustrating when anything in any size class in 2022 still shares the same articulation limitations of toys from 20-30 years ago. Too I'd prefer elbows over those pile drivers. Yeah I get why, but they take up a bit of space on the shelf, and I'm already pretty much out of space as it is. If I get this guy, those drivers will just stay in the box for perpetuity.

Hopefully Dr. Wu will eventually get around to doing all the cassettes in this new crappy size class. Still don't understand why they shrunk the cassettes instead of maintaining the real mini-cassette scale like G1 and MP. At least then there was cross-compatibility so if a particular cassette in one line bested his line-mates, one could mix & match to favor the collection of choice. Too, the larger scale gave them a little more room to work in.

[JB0]

"Rumble(Blue)"

Man, I love that the arguments over color schemes for these two have gone long enough and fierce enough that THIS is the packaging label they need to use.

[mikeszekely]

6 hours ago, M'Kyuun said:

Y'know, for probably a few cents more, they could have given this dude some ball jointed elbows, which would have given him a pretty impressive range of articulation in a core class fig.  It's immensely frustrating when anything in any size class in 2022 still shares the same articulation limitations of toys from 20-30 years ago. Too I'd prefer elbows over those pile drivers. Yeah I get why, but they take up a bit of space on the shelf, and I'm already pretty much out of space as it is. If I get this guy, those drivers will just stay in the box for perpetuity.

Yeah.  I mean, it's definitely more screen accurate than the Siege Micromaster, and I very much appreciate the new back guns, but end of the day it's still disappointingly similar to the Siege Micromaster.

*sigh*  Preordered.

5 hours ago, JB0 said:

"Rumble(Blue)"

Man, I love that the arguments over color schemes for these two have gone long enough and fierce enough that THIS is the packaging label they need to use.

Hasbro's genius plan... release Studio Series 86 Frenzy (Red) later.  Then, even more later, they release Gen Selects Rumble (Red) and Frenzy (Blue) as the toy-color variants... but the Gen Selects are actually the Studio Series figures with no changes except the names on the box.

[JB0]

9 hours ago, mikeszekely said:

Hasbro's genius plan... release Studio Series 86 Frenzy (Red) later.  Then, even more later, they release Gen Selects Rumble (Red) and Frenzy (Blue) as the toy-color variants... but the Gen Selects are actually the Studio Series figures with no changes except the names on the box.

Oh, that would be gloriously evil of them.

Honestly, if I were Hasbro, I'd just swim in my vault of gold all day give up. Frenzy and Rumble would only be sold as a two-pack, and I wouldn't identify which is which on the packaging.

[M'Kyuun]

5 hours ago, JB0 said:

Oh, that would be gloriously evil of them.

Honestly, if I were Hasbro, I'd just swim in my vault of gold all day give up. Frenzy and Rumble would only be sold as a two-pack, and I wouldn't identify which is which on the packaging.

This. Just like G1, sell them as a two-pack. I wish they would sell all the cassettes as either individual releases or two-packs. But I also wish the engineering was better on them too- the G1 toys are still superior to the crappy WFC/Legacy cassettes. I hope they at least go back and redesign Ravage- the current fig is absolutely awful, especially when you consider both Newage and Magic Square were able to do it better on a much smaller scale. I have the Magic Square cassettes, and those things are tiny. MS' Ravage is the weakest of their cassette modes, but the jaguar mode is fantastic at that scale- def evocative of G1 Ravage, which can't be said of the Hasbro effort.

Hasbro

Newage

Magic Square

[Negotiator]

I didn't notice rumble had no elbows. Easy pass now.

[mikeszekely]

There was another one of those roundtable discussions.  It wasn't really as interesting as the last one, no one even asked about Armada Prime or the potential for a Monstructor repaint of the Core Dinobots.  Here's a few takeaways...

-Yes, the team wants to do the rest of the G2 Stunticons.  If they do they'll probably all be in Walmart's Velocitron line.

-Crasher is an homage that Mark wanted to do.  Licensing issues with Gobots and Bandai kind of limit what Gobot homages they can do.

-They're claiming that the target audience for Legacy is 8+, and that kids still make up most of their sales.  I say "citation needed."

-Building on that, they know adult fans hate the new open boxes, but their research indicates that kids strongly prefer being able to see the actual toy in the package.  So closed boxes are pretty much out, and eco-friendly window material is apparently expensive.

-Alternate heads for potential repaints are done when the original figure is, so that Galaxy Shuttle head has been kicking around since Siege.  Sometimes the alternate heads are never used.

-The team does want to do more Beasts.  Leo Prime is a test to see if the fandom might be interested in more Beast Wars II/Neo characters.

-They insist that the addition of a 6th Core-class dinobot is so they could do the combiner with six cores instead of four cores and a Deluxe.  I still say Monstructor is coming.

-The team loves that more girls are getting into Transformers and that they love the fembots.  Doesn't sound like anything is planned for sure, but Slipstream is a possibility in the future.

-The team is looking into doing more of the DJD than just Tarn.

-When asked about how the one Junkion on the bottom left of the Evolution poster looks like Lockdown, the team responded with "wait and see."

-The team does seem to understand how messed up the Cosmos thing was.  Apparently most of them didn't even get a copy.  But it's not clear that they have any say on distribution.  This seems especially true for store exclusives, as they said the revealed Velocitron Deluxes like Crasher and Shadowstrip's releases are up to Walmart, and that they'd like Minerva to release around the same time as Victory Saber starts shipping but that it's up to Walgreens.

Oh, and don't forget about this:

There hasn't been much in the way of leaks info on what they're actually going to announce.  The consensus seems to be Generations Selects Magnificus for sure, possibly an Omega Sentinel repaint of Titan Omega Supreme, and an outside chance they show the recently leaked Buzzworthy Hound and Studio Series Hatchet.

Edited October 21, 2022 by mikeszekely

[M'Kyuun]

Didn't even know there was a talk today, so the update is much appreciated, Mike. I've been out most of the day taking care of mother-in-law stuff, so I would have missed it regardless.

And yeah, I beg to differ on kids being the target and primary buyers of Legacy.😏

[Scyla]

2 hours ago, mikeszekely said:

There was another one of those roundtable discussions.  It wasn't really as interesting as the last one, no one even asked about Armada Prime or the potential for a Monstructor repaint of the Core Dinobots.  Here's a few takeaways...

-Yes, the team wants to do the rest of the G2 Stunticons.  If they do they'll probably all be in Walmart's Velocitron line.

-Crasher is an homage that Mark wanted to do.  Licensing issues with Gobots and Bandai kind of limit what Gobot homages they can do.

-They're claiming that the target audience for Legacy is 8+, and that kids still make up most of their sales.  I say "citation needed."

-Building on that, they know adult fans hate the new open boxes, but their research indicates that kids strongly prefer being able to see the actual toy in the package.  So closed boxes are pretty much out, and eco-friendly window material is apparently expensive.

-Alternate heads for potential repaints are done when the original figure is, so that Galaxy Shuttle head has been kicking around since Siege.  Sometimes the alternate heads are never used.

-The team does want to do more Beasts.  Leo Prime is a test to see if the fandom might be interested in more Beast Wars II/Neo characters.

-They insist that the addition of a 6th Core-class dinobot is so they could do the combiner with six cores instead of four cores and a Deluxe.  I still say Monstructor is coming.

-The team loves that more girls are getting into Transformers and that they love the fembots.  Doesn't sound like anything is planned for sure, but Slipstream is a possibility in the future.

-The team is looking into doing more of the DJD than just Tarn.

-When asked about how the one Junkion on the bottom left of the Evolution poster looks like Lockdown, the team responded with "wait and see."

-The team does seem to understand how messed up the Cosmos thing was.  Apparently most of them didn't even get a copy.  But it's not clear that they have any say on distribution.  This seems especially true for store exclusives, as they said the revealed Velocitron Deluxes like Crasher and Shadowstrip's releases are up to Walmart, and that they'd like Minerva to release around the same time as Victory Saber starts shipping but that it's up to Walgreens.

Oh, and don't forget about this:

There hasn't been much in the way of leaks info on what they're actually going to announce.  The consensus seems to be Generations Selects Magnificus for sure, possibly an Omega Sentinel repaint of Titan Omega Supreme, and an outside chance they show the recently leaked Buzzworthy Hound and Studio Series Hatchet.

Do 8+ old children count towards the "fandom" that might or might no want more Beast Wars toys?

[mikeszekely]

6 minutes ago, Scyla said:

Do 8+ old children count towards the "fandom" that might or might no want more Beast Wars toys?

The impression I got is that Mark wants to do more Beast Wars, or maybe someone at Takara.  But I guess if enough 8+ old children by Leo Prime...

Me personally, I've never seen any of the Japanese Beast Wars stuff, and I can't say I'm particularly interested in getting more Beast Wars II/Neo stuff.  I'm a sucker for Primes, though.  I love Leo Convoy's design, and I wouldn't turn down a new Big Convoy.  Then you can look forward to the Nemesis repaints...

[M'Kyuun]

On 10/20/2022 at 10:28 PM, mikeszekely said:

The impression I got is that Mark wants to do more Beast Wars, or maybe someone at Takara.  But I guess if enough 8+ old children by Leo Prime...

Me personally, I've never seen any of the Japanese Beast Wars stuff, and I can't say I'm particularly interested in getting more Beast Wars II/Neo stuff.  I'm a sucker for Primes, though.  I love Leo Convoy's design, and I wouldn't turn down a new Big Convoy.  Then you can look forward to the Nemesis repaints...

Well, this 8+ fan's got one POed, and like you, I've never seen the Japanese BW, nor have an interest in seeing it. My interest lies more in having some interesting animal modes to add to my Can-American Beast Wars collection. Since they're going for more realistic animal modes, there's continuity on the shelf regardless of which toon the character originates. That said, I'm much more a fan of the Trans-Metals approach where the animal modes are robotic. That makes more sense to me. Many of the old T-M figs were gorgeous.

Took a look at the old Big Convoy toy. Unfortunately, it looks more shellformery than most, and I doubt a modern toy would improve on the approach. Maybe, but my faith in Hasbro is shaky. The prospect of a leader class mammoth is appealing, although honestly, I'd rather have a Trans-Metal take akin to the Dinobots' aesthetic.

[mikeszekely]

1 hour ago, M'Kyuun said:

Took a look at the old Big Convoy toy. Unfortunately, it looks more shellformery than most, and I doubt a modern toy would improve on the approach. Maybe, but my faith in Hasbro is shaky.

It's an objectively terrible design that I'd have zero interest in if it weren't Prime.  But it is Prime, so I must have it.

[M'Kyuun]

On 10/23/2022 at 9:52 AM, mikeszekely said:

It's an objectively terrible design that I'd have zero interest in if it weren't Prime.  But it is Prime, so I must have it.

Wait, what?  I thought Big Convoy was part of the Japanese Beast Wars along with Leo Prime.  Admittedly, I know these things exist, but little knowledge of their continuities. Feel free to school me, as I'm too lazy to look it up. 😊

[mikeszekely]

5 minutes ago, M'Kyuun said:

Wait, what?  I thought Big Convoy was part of the Japanese Beast Wars along with Leo Prime.  Admittedly, I know these things exist, but little knowledge of their continuities. Feel free to school me, as I'm too lazy to look it up. 😊

It is Japanese Beast Wars. IIRC Leo Convoy is Beast Wars II and Big Convoy is Beast Wars Neo. Took me a minute to get your confusion, then I realized you thought I meant "Prime" as in "the cartoon continuity of that debuted on Hasbro's ill-fated Hub after Animated was cancelled."  No, I mean Prime of the Optimus variety... While technically distinct characters, Leo Convoy and Big Convoy are clearly part of that design lineage, arguably more so than Optimus Primal.

 

[M'Kyuun]

3 minutes ago, mikeszekely said:

It is Japanese Beast Wars. IIRC Leo Convoy is Beast Wars II and Big Convoy is Beast Wars Neo. Took me a minute to get your confusion, then I realized you thought I meant "Prime" as in "the cartoon continuity of that debuted on Hasbro's ill-fated Hub after Animated was cancelled."  No, I mean Prime of the Optimus variety... While technically distinct characters, Leo Convoy and Big Convoy are clearly part of that design lineage, arguably more so than Optimus Primal.

 

Ah ok. Indeed I was thinking of the Prime show, not the Prime rank, title, what-have-you.  I was previously aware of both Leo and Big Convoys. I thought they both came from the Japanese BW toons, but I didn't know how many of them there were, or from which each character originated.  Now I know. Thanks!

I should have figured it out; I know you have a sizeable Prime collection, and it should have clicked, but it didn't. Not too perspicacious of me.

[sh9000]

My original order of WFC Siege Jetfire was cancelled a while back but since it's getting reissued I'm happy about that.

[M'Kyuun]

47 minutes ago, sh9000 said:

My original order of WFC Siege Jetfire was cancelled a while back but since it's getting reissued I'm happy about that.

Cool. He's a really well-done fig in a line teeming with such. Hope you enjoy him!

[sh9000]

Thanks.

[mikeszekely]

The Transformers Collaborative crossovers have been a mix of iconic '80s vehicles turned into Transformers, less nostalgic and more obvious movie tie-ins, and the rather bizarre decision to remold Titans Return Mindwipe into Bela Lugosi.  For me, at least, the shots of '80s nostalgia in Ectotron and Gigawatt definitely trigger something in my brain that the others haven't, but for the most part they've still managed to be pretty cool toys.  So when Hasbro announced a G.I. Joe collaborative I was pretty excited.  It's got that whiff of '80s nostalgia, and it's the kind of crossover that makes so much sense they'd already figured it out back in the 1986 Marvel mini-series G.I. Joe and the Transformers.  So here's the first of two planned figures, Megatron.

To be totally honest, they had me at Megatron.  I mean, I still think I'm yet to get a truly good CHUG Megatron.  Siege was decent, but my copy is pretty floppy and Kingdom has a stronger G1 aesthetic.  But Kingdom relies on a ton more partsforming, the partsforming bits have less purpose in bot mode, and despite the partsforming still has a huge backpack.  Or, if I think of Laser Optimus as an upgrade to G1 Optimus, maybe a G.I. Joe Megatron could be an upgraded Megatron in a way that their G2 Megatron failed to be when they simply took the Earthrise figure and painted him green.

Well, kudos to Hasbro for getting a Megatron that turns into a G.I. Joe vehicle to look so very much like G1 Megatron (still kind of a missed opportunity, though, since Megatron got his G2 body in a G.I. Joe comic book).  Remove the backpack and the vehicle kibble from his shoulders, hips, and the outsides of his legs and G1 Megatron to a T.  But, he's really too big for CHUG, as he's actually about the same height as MP-36.  That's a bit disappointing; previous collaborative figures have fit pretty well with the existing mainline.  Even the previous biggest, Ultimate Xpanse, could at least be hand-waved away with notions like an OG character that turns into a jet as big as the Blackbird could be that much bigger, but in this case I'm having trouble imagining that even an upgraded Megatron would be nearly double in size, especially when his alt mode is supposed to be a smaller vehicle.

Things get worse for the robot mode as we spin him around.  Megatron's got an absolutely gargantuan backpack, and the canopy just dangles there.  You can't fold it up and under.  At least the backpack is removable... it actually isn't attached in the box.  Once attached, at least on my copy, it seems like it constantly wants to pop back off.

Worse, and you might have already noticed in in the previous photo, but Megatron is very hollow.  Not just his forearms, but the underside of his fists are hollow.  The insides of his thighs and hip skirts are hollow.  The backs of his legs, and the inside edge of the treads (including his heel spurs) are hollow.  Under his toes is hollow.

Under his backpack is a mostly empty void, save for a cylinder in the middle (that's hollow on the other side).  His actual back is also super hollow, to the extend that if you lift the front of his torso for transformation you can see right through him.

This hollowness even extends to his accessories.  He's got two thin guns that are hollow on the underside.  Worse, his fusion cannon is so hollow that only the top half the barrel is there.  The bottom is just a thin support running the length of the barrel.

In addition to the guns, Megatron's got a sort of shield thing, and a 3.75" Baroness figure.  Presumably this figure is designed and packaged like the G.I. Joe figures of the '80s.  Baroness has a rifle, backpack, and a stand in her package.  As far as her articulation goes, she can kind of swivel her head, but only a little before her hair stops her.  Her shoulders can rotate and extend laterally over 90 degrees.  Her biceps swivel, and her elbows bend 90 degrees.  No wrist articulation.  Her waist is a rubber cable running through a metal loop in her pelvis, which allows her to swivel, ab crunch, back arch, or teapot lean.  Her hips can move forward 90 degrees, backward slightly, and laterally about 45-60 degrees on diecast ball joints.  Her knees bend 90 degrees.  She doesn't have any thigh swivels or ankle articulation.

Perhaps Megatron has better articulation?  Unfortunately, after size and hollow plastic, articulation is strike three.  His head's on a ball joint that can swivel and look up a bit.  His shoulders rotate and extend laterally 90 degrees.  His biceps swivel, and his elbows bend 90 degrees.  He has no wrist articulation, and no waist articulation.  His hips can go 90 degrees forward, but that's just three clicks on the ratchets there.  He can get about 90 degrees backward, too.  They're friction joints for lateral movement, and he gets a bit less than 90 degrees there.  His thighs swivel, but are limited to a 90 degree arc from slightly turned inward to less than 90 degrees outward.  His knees are a single hinge that do bend well beyond 90 degrees.  His toes can bend inward for transformation, but he lacks any ankle pivots.

Rather than have ports on his forearms, his fusion cannon and shield plug into 5mm ports that are on the backs of his hands.  The hole is a bit shallow, so his fusion cannon does not sit flush and is prone to falling off.  Unfortunately, the despite the huge honking backpack, there is nowhere else to store the shield.  But you can't lose it, you'll need it for alt mode!  The smaller guns plug into the top of his backpack.  Once attached, you can pretty much leave them there as it's where they belong in alt mode.  Behind the guns is a hollow basket in his backpack that the Baroness can fit into.

Transforming Megatron isn't super difficult.  His legs scrunch up to form most of the treads, his backpack does mostly nothing, and his shoulder pads form most of the cockpit.  The rest of the transformation is using armatures on his torso to move his arms so they can tuck into his legs and his hip skirts to make up the remainder of the treads.  As I noted earlier, the scale doesn't really work with CHUG.  You can see from the cockpit how small the tank should be, but it dwarfs Earthrise Megatron who should be more of a standard MBT.

Scale aside, this is where I'll finally give Megatron some praise.  Even a casual fan might know (or could read on the box) that Megatron turns into a Cobra H.I.S.S. tank, but that's a bit of a simplification.  It's more accurate to say that this Megatron turns into the H.I.S.S. tank toy that Hasbro originally released in 1983.  And, let me tell you, I think they nailed it.  I mean, the black and white bits in the nose, the big "788", the smaller "3 63" and "GH7c", the Cobra symbols, and the blue V with the serial/part numbers are paint and tampos wher the original toy had stickers, but they're all there.  The molded detail is spot on.  Minus a few seams, some white toes under the nose, and what's clearly Megatron's torso on the back this thing is a dead ringer for the original toy.  Heck, part of Megatron's abs even flip up so the tank still has the tow hitch the original did.

Megatron is so close to the original H.I.S.S. tank that he's got the same compatibility with the old 3.75" G.I. Joe figures (or the modern Retro reissues).  The cockpit opens, and you can put a Cobra into it.  There's still the hollow back, so a Cobra can sit in the (spinning) turret.  And the back still has two foot pegs for Cobras that want to ride on the back.

New to the design, though, is a extra peg hole on the turret.  That allows you to plug in Megatron's fusion cannon.  Meanwhile, Megatron's shield is actually the partsforming back of the tank.  Yep, another Megatron and we've still got partsforming bits.  Without that shield Megatron's entire head and torso are super visible inside a hollow gap.

I have to ask... who is this crossover for?  Joe fans?  The faithfulness to the original H.I.S.S. tank toy and compatibility with 3.75" Joes would strongly suggest that this is the case.  But, didn't Hasbro re-issue the actual 1983 toy in their G.I. Joe Retro collection fairly recently?  Seems like Joe fans were already covered (except maybe the ones who might have wanted a bigger H.I.S.S. tank to go with the 6" Classified figures).  So is this for Transformers fans?  Speaking as a Transformers fan who was never really into G.I. Joe, I'd have to say no.  The scale is off, he's covered in kibble, the articulation is sub-par, and this is some of the most egregious cost-cutting, hollowing of the robot parts I've seen outside of Cyberverse.  And, hey, maybe I could forgive how cheap the robot felt if it were a Deluxe, but this is an MP-sized $90 figure.  I'd have preferred a line of figures that replicated G.I. Joe vehicles in a scale closer to War for Cybertron without the concessions made to work with actual 3.75" Joes.  Maybe there's a small overlapping cross section of hardcore Transformer and hardcore Joe fans that love the idea of the H.I.S.S. tank they had as a kid turning into a crappy Megatron, but from my POV this is one of the worst Tranformers figures I've bought in years and there's simply no way I can justify the price tag.  I mean, with his cannon and shield and Baroness with her rifle and backpack in his back, Megatron is under 450g.  Siege Jetfire is over 650g without any of his accessories.  That's like 30% more plastic for the same price!

[M'Kyuun]

2 hours ago, mikeszekely said:

The Transformers Collaborative crossovers have been a mix of iconic '80s vehicles turned into Transformers, less nostalgic and more obvious movie tie-ins, and the rather bizarre decision to remold Titans Return Mindwipe into Bela Lugosi.  For me, at least, the shots of '80s nostalgia in Ectotron and Gigawatt definitely trigger something in my brain that the others haven't, but for the most part they've still managed to be pretty cool toys.  So when Hasbro announced a G.I. Joe collaborative I was pretty excited.  It's got that whiff of '80s nostalgia, and it's the kind of crossover that makes so much sense they'd already figured it out back in the 1986 Marvel mini-series G.I. Joe and the Transformers.  So here's the first of two planned figures, Megatron.

To be totally honest, they had me at Megatron.  I mean, I still think I'm yet to get a truly good CHUG Megatron.  Siege was decent, but my copy is pretty floppy and Kingdom has a stronger G1 aesthetic.  But Kingdom relies on a ton more partsforming, the partsforming bits have less purpose in bot mode, and despite the partsforming still has a huge backpack.  Or, if I think of Laser Optimus as an upgrade to G1 Optimus, maybe a G.I. Joe Megatron could be an upgraded Megatron in a way that their G2 Megatron failed to be when they simply took the Earthrise figure and painted him green.

Well, kudos to Hasbro for getting a Megatron that turns into a G.I. Joe vehicle to look so very much like G1 Megatron (still kind of a missed opportunity, though, since Megatron got his G2 body in a G.I. Joe comic book).  Remove the backpack and the vehicle kibble from his shoulders, hips, and the outsides of his legs and G1 Megatron to a T.  But, he's really too big for CHUG, as he's actually about the same height as MP-36.  That's a bit disappointing; previous collaborative figures have fit pretty well with the existing mainline.  Even the previous biggest, Ultimate Xpanse, could at least be hand-waved away with notions like an OG character that turns into a jet as big as the Blackbird could be that much bigger, but in this case I'm having trouble imagining that even an upgraded Megatron would be nearly double in size, especially when his alt mode is supposed to be a smaller vehicle.

Things get worse for the robot mode as we spin him around.  Megatron's got an absolutely gargantuan backpack, and the canopy just dangles there.  You can't fold it up and under.  At least the backpack is removable... it actually isn't attached in the box.  Once attached, at least on my copy, it seems like it constantly wants to pop back off.

Worse, and you might have already noticed in in the previous photo, but Megatron is very hollow.  Not just his forearms, but the underside of his fists are hollow.  The insides of his thighs and hip skirts are hollow.  The backs of his legs, and the inside edge of the treads (including his heel spurs) are hollow.  Under his toes is hollow.

Under his backpack is a mostly empty void, save for a cylinder in the middle (that's hollow on the other side).  His actual back is also super hollow, to the extend that if you lift the front of his torso for transformation you can see right through him.

This hollowness even extends to his accessories.  He's got two thin guns that are hollow on the underside.  Worse, his fusion cannon is so hollow that only the top half the barrel is there.  The bottom is just a thin support running the length of the barrel.

In addition to the guns, Megatron's got a sort of shield thing, and a 3.75" Baroness figure.  Presumably this figure is designed and packaged like the G.I. Joe figures of the '80s.  Baroness has a rifle, backpack, and a stand in her package.  As far as her articulation goes, she can kind of swivel her head, but only a little before her hair stops her.  Her shoulders can rotate and extend laterally over 90 degrees.  Her biceps swivel, and her elbows bend 90 degrees.  No wrist articulation.  Her waist is a rubber cable running through a metal loop in her pelvis, which allows her to swivel, ab crunch, back arch, or teapot lean.  Her hips can move forward 90 degrees, backward slightly, and laterally about 45-60 degrees on diecast ball joints.  Her knees bend 90 degrees.  She doesn't have any thigh swivels or ankle articulation.

Perhaps Megatron has better articulation?  Unfortunately, after size and hollow plastic, articulation is strike three.  His head's on a ball joint that can swivel and look up a bit.  His shoulders rotate and extend laterally 90 degrees.  His biceps swivel, and his elbows bend 90 degrees.  He has no wrist articulation, and no waist articulation.  His hips can go 90 degrees forward, but that's just three clicks on the ratchets there.  He can get about 90 degrees backward, too.  They're friction joints for lateral movement, and he gets a bit less than 90 degrees there.  His thighs swivel, but are limited to a 90 degree arc from slightly turned inward to less than 90 degrees outward.  His knees are a single hinge that do bend well beyond 90 degrees.  His toes can bend inward for transformation, but he lacks any ankle pivots.

Rather than have ports on his forearms, his fusion cannon and shield plug into 5mm ports that are on the backs of his hands.  The hole is a bit shallow, so his fusion cannon does not sit flush and is prone to falling off.  Unfortunately, the despite the huge honking backpack, there is nowhere else to store the shield.  But you can't lose it, you'll need it for alt mode!  The smaller guns plug into the top of his backpack.  Once attached, you can pretty much leave them there as it's where they belong in alt mode.  Behind the guns is a hollow basket in his backpack that the Baroness can fit into.

Transforming Megatron isn't super difficult.  His legs scrunch up to form most of the treads, his backpack does mostly nothing, and his shoulder pads form most of the cockpit.  The rest of the transformation is using armatures on his torso to move his arms so they can tuck into his legs and his hip skirts to make up the remainder of the treads.  As I noted earlier, the scale doesn't really work with CHUG.  You can see from the cockpit how small the tank should be, but it dwarfs Earthrise Megatron who should be more of a standard MBT.

Scale aside, this is where I'll finally give Megatron some praise.  Even a casual fan might know (or could read on the box) that Megatron turns into a Cobra H.I.S.S. tank, but that's a bit of a simplification.  It's more accurate to say that this Megatron turns into the H.I.S.S. tank toy that Hasbro originally released in 1983.  And, let me tell you, I think they nailed it.  I mean, the black and white bits in the nose, the big "788", the smaller "3 63" and "GH7c", the Cobra symbols, and the blue V with the serial/part numbers are paint and tampos wher the original toy had stickers, but they're all there.  The molded detail is spot on.  Minus a few seams, some white toes under the nose, and what's clearly Megatron's torso on the back this thing is a dead ringer for the original toy.  Heck, part of Megatron's abs even flip up so the tank still has the tow hitch the original did.

Megatron is so close to the original H.I.S.S. tank that he's got the same compatibility with the old 3.75" G.I. Joe figures (or the modern Retro reissues).  The cockpit opens, and you can put a Cobra into it.  There's still the hollow back, so a Cobra can sit in the (spinning) turret.  And the back still has two foot pegs for Cobras that want to ride on the back.

New to the design, though, is a extra peg hole on the turret.  That allows you to plug in Megatron's fusion cannon.  Meanwhile, Megatron's shield is actually the partsforming back of the tank.  Yep, another Megatron and we've still got partsforming bits.  Without that shield Megatron's entire head and torso are super visible inside a hollow gap.

I have to ask... who is this crossover for?  Joe fans?  The faithfulness to the original H.I.S.S. tank toy and compatibility with 3.75" Joes would strongly suggest that this is the case.  But, didn't Hasbro re-issue the actual 1983 toy in their G.I. Joe Retro collection fairly recently?  Seems like Joe fans were already covered (except maybe the ones who might have wanted a bigger H.I.S.S. tank to go with the 6" Classified figures).  So is this for Transformers fans?  Speaking as a Transformers fan who was never really into G.I. Joe, I'd have to say no.  The scale is off, he's covered in kibble, the articulation is sub-par, and this is some of the most egregious cost-cutting, hollowing of the robot parts I've seen outside of Cyberverse.  And, hey, maybe I could forgive how cheap the robot felt if it were a Deluxe, but this is an MP-sized $90 figure.  I'd have preferred a line of figures that replicated G.I. Joe vehicles in a scale closer to War for Cybertron without the concessions made to work with actual 3.75" Joes.  Maybe there's a small overlapping cross section of hardcore Transformer and hardcore Joe fans that love the idea of the H.I.S.S. tank they had as a kid turning into a crappy Megatron, but from my POV this is one of the worst Tranformers figures I've bought in years and there's simply no way I can justify the price tag.  I mean, with his cannon and shield and Baroness with her rifle and backpack in his back, Megatron is under 450g.  Siege Jetfire is over 650g without any of his accessories.  That's like 30% more plastic for the same price!

I've long thought the Transformers- GI Joe crossover was a no-brainer for Hasbro. That said, this just didn't do it for me when it was announced. I think the HISS should have been its own character, and I thought this was poorly executed upon announcement. It was an easy pass.  I'm firmly in the belief that if they do said crossover, the scale should match current CHUG and they can put some minimally articulated slug Joes in there (hips and shoulders so they can stand or sit and raise their arms zombie style) and sit in little cockpits akin to those in Titans Return/PotP. Too, I think the bots should all be unique characters- none of this nonsense of trying to make an established character into a vehicle it was never meant to represent, allowing the designers to use the alt modes to craft the bot modes as needed.

Anyway, I appreciate the review, Mike. Regardless of my own hesitancy, I was still a bit curious about this fig. Honestly, I wish it had turned out better, as I still think GI Joe/Transformers would make for a great crossover line. It just beggars a different approach to make it better, methinks.

[JB0]

It really seems like this was designed from the start as a crossover toy in the GI Joe toyline, and it has had the misfortune of being sold as a Transformer instead.

I think this is cool, I don't mind the scale(in fact, I consider being GI Joe-scale a plus), but it needs to be Transformers first and GI Joe vehicle second.

Megatron is built like a GI Joe vehicle toy, and that's where the problems lie.

[mikeszekely]

I missed the Pulse thing because I had to take my kid to the doctor.  It looks like the only Transformers thing announced was a HasLab for Deathsaurus.

If he hits 11,000 backers he'll come with a sword, an arrow, a shield and both BreastChestmasters.  14,000 gets you his living metal cannon, flail, and some blast effects.  17,000 gets you a throne and a display stand.

The Haslab ends December 12th.  I'm going to have to think on this.  I backed Victory Leo, and I was thinking about getting MMC's D-Zef for Deathsaurus.  But now that there's an official one...

EDIT: Shadowstrip, Crasher, Minerva, and Bomb-burst are all available on Pulse now.

Edited October 27, 2022 by mikeszekely

[M'Kyuun]

Just missed getting Minerva- had her in cart before sold out, but showed up as sold out by the time I went to pay. Figures she's an exclusive (Walgreens, IIRC). 😒

[sh9000]

Ordered Shadowstrip and Crasher.

[mikeszekely]

25 minutes ago, sh9000 said:

Ordered Shadowstrip and Crasher.

I managed to get Shadowstrip, Minerva, and Crasher.  I guess technically they have Core-class Soundwave, too, but I didn't mention him because I don't think there's a lot of interest in the Core-class guys that already have bigger figures, it's a reissue of a figure that came out during Kingdom, and I already bought one then.

2 hours ago, M'Kyuun said:

Just missed getting Minerva- had her in cart before sold out, but showed up as sold out by the time I went to pay. Figures she's an exclusive (Walgreens, IIRC). 😒

And Walgreen's is such a crapshoot.  I found Brainstorm at my local store, I managed to get Ratchet at Walgreens.com but never saw one in a store, and I didn't see Bluestreak for a long time, got FOMO and overpaid on Ebay, then found like 20 of them a week later.  Never saw Red Alert in stores, but thankfully I'd gotten him on Pulse.

Well, like I did with Cosmos, if I happen to find any Minervas in stores I'll nab 'em and offer them here at cost+shipping.

[Scyla]

7 hours ago, mikeszekely said:

I missed the Pulse thing because I had to take my kid to the doctor.  It looks like the only Transformers thing announced was a HasLab for Deathsaurus.

If he hits 11,000 backers he'll come with a sword, an arrow, a shield and both BreastChestmasters.  14,000 gets you his living metal cannon, flail, and some blast effects.  17,000 gets you a throne and a display stand.

The Haslab ends December 12th.  I'm going to have to think on this.  I backed Victory Leo, and I was thinking about getting MMC's D-Zef for Deathsaurus.  But now that there's an official one...

EDIT: Shadowstrip, Crasher, Minerva, and Bomb-burst are all available on Pulse now.

I don’t know if this will be a success. I probably won’t buy it and I did order Star Saber. 
In my mind the value ist just not there for $180. This should have been a Commander Class release imho.

Plus inflation is a real thing (at least in Europe) and Christmas is coming up so people probably will spend their money elsewhere 

[M'Kyuun]

4 hours ago, Scyla said:

I don’t know if this will be a success. I probably won’t buy it and I did order Star Saber. 
In my mind the value ist just not there for $180. This should have been a Commander Class release imho.

Plus inflation is a real thing (at least in Europe) and Christmas is coming up so people probably will spend their money elsewhere 

Yeah, I think the timing is poor. As you said, Christmas is coming and folks, especially those with far less disposable income, are going to be priced out. I have no interest in the vast majority of Japanese Transformers, so no bite from me either. I think they should have made this a next summer release to give folks time to raise the funds. It's not crazy expensive like Unicron, but $180 is still a lot of money to spend on a toy.

Honestly, I'm curious why Has/TT never agreed to dub and show the Japanese TF show in the US and Canada as a lead up to this and Star Saber to try and gen up more fans. It's a fairly obscure thing- I've been a TF fan since 1984 and my knowledge about these characters is still next to nil since I've never really been exposed to the Japanese shows. Too, I'm not at all crazy about the super robot aesthetic that many of the Japanese Transformers share. I'm just not a super robot fan in general, but especially when it comes to my beloved Transformers. The general Diaclone/ Microchange aesthetic with realistic alts and bots made up of those alt mode bits in one form or fashion has been at the core of the appeal of Transformers for me from the beginning.

Still, for those who are fans of the Japanese TF shows, with Star Saber already in production, it's cool that his nemesis will be available, too. I hope it reaches full goal, as it looks like a nice piece for those interested.

Pics from the London Comic Con are up on TFW2005. Nothing new for Legacy, but the wave 2 Earthspark figs are on display.

The two that stand out to me are Thrash and Soundwave. I wish Megs had a better chopper mode, but that thing looks wonky. And Prime looks like he carries the entire nose of his cab on his back which beggars the question why not just make him a flat-nosed cab and eschew the backpack.

 

Edited October 28, 2022 by M'Kyuun

[mikeszekely]

7 hours ago, Scyla said:

I don’t know if this will be a success. I probably won’t buy it and I did order Star Saber. 
In my mind the value ist just not there for $180. This should have been a Commander Class release imho.

Plus inflation is a real thing (at least in Europe) and Christmas is coming up so people probably will spend their money elsewhere

Depends on how you define "success."  Mark my words, Deathsaurus will get funded... they're already almost halfway there, and it hasn't even been a day.  Get a few more people over the next month and a half, then that big bump from the retailer orders, and 11,000 is pretty much inevitable.  I think odds of the living metal cannon and flail happening are reasonable.  But I could see it maybe not hitting both stretch goals the way Victory Saber did.

Inflation is real in the States, too, but I dunno.  The amount of money some people in this fandom are willing to spend, inflation seems as likely to help some people justify getting so little for so much as it does to turn people off entirely.  Anecdotal, I know, but I personally was thinking I wanted a Deathsaurus to go with my HasLab Victory Saber, and I was just about set to buy MMC's D-Zef Continuum to fill that role.  Backing the HasLab one instead will save me around $25 or so and likely be a better aesthetic match, so...

3 hours ago, M'Kyuun said:

Honestly, I'm curious why Has/TT never agreed to dub and show the Japanese TF show in the US and Canada as a lead up to this and Star Saber to try and gen up more fans.

Shout Factory released Headmasters, Masterforce, and Victory on DVD in the States, both as three sets for each individual series and one box set with all three.  AFAIK, though, we've still never got Zone, Beast Wars II, or Beast Wars Neo in any official capacity.  It'd also be nice to get them all on some kind of streaming service, or at least Hasbro's YouTube channel.

3 hours ago, M'Kyuun said:

Pics from the London Comic Con are up on TFW2005. Nothing new for Legacy, but the wave 2 Earthspark figs are on display.

The two that stand out to me are Thrash and Soundwave. I wish Megs had a better chopper mode, but that thing looks wonky. And Prime looks like he carries the entire nose of his cab on his back which beggars the question why not just make him a flat-nosed cab and eschew the backpack.

Like, who is even in charge of the brand at Hasbro anymore?  The designs for Cyberverse were supposed to be simultaneously G1 enough but generic enough to be their evergreen, standard designs.  So they follow up Optimus' Cyberverse design with the same robot, but now he has TF Prime's alt mode?

Generally, the new Earthspark toys look like a continuation of Cyberverse, but somehow worse.  I'm wondering if some of those aren't Warrior or some other gimmicky figures and not Deluxes (although that Shockwave is a repaint of the Cyberverse Deluxe).  I bought pretty much all the Cyberverse Deluxes, and while some of them were pretty cool I'll probably stay away from Earthspark, or maybe just grab Prime for my ever-growing army.

[Scyla]

16 minutes ago, mikeszekely said:

Depends on how you define "success."  Mark my words, Deathsaurus will get funded... they're already almost halfway there, and it hasn't even been a day.  Get a few more people over the next month and a half, then that big bump from the retailer orders, and 11,000 is pretty much inevitable.  I think odds of the living metal cannon and flail happening are reasonable.  But I could see it maybe not hitting both stretch goals the way Victory Saber did.

Inflation is real in the States, too, but I dunno.  The amount of money some people in this fandom are willing to spend, inflation seems as likely to help some people justify getting so little for so much as it does to turn people off entirely.  Anecdotal, I know, but I personally was thinking I wanted a Deathsaurus to go with my HasLab Victory Saber, and I was just about set to buy MMC's D-Zef Continuum to fill that role.  Backing the HasLab one instead will save me around $25 or so and likely be a better aesthetic match, so...

Shout Factory released Headmasters, Masterforce, and Victory on DVD in the States, both as three sets for each individual series and one box set with all three.  AFAIK, though, we've still never got Zone, Beast Wars II, or Beast Wars Neo in any official capacity.  It'd also be nice to get them all on some kind of streaming service, or at least Hasbro's YouTube channel.

Like, who is even in charge of the brand at Hasbro anymore?  The designs for Cyberverse were supposed to be simultaneously G1 enough but generic enough to be their evergreen, standard designs.  So they follow up Optimus' Cyberverse design with the same robot, but now he has TF Prime's alt mode?

Generally, the new Earthspark toys look like a continuation of Cyberverse, but somehow worse.  I'm wondering if some of those aren't Warrior or some other gimmicky figures and not Deluxes (although that Shockwave is a repaint of the Cyberverse Deluxe).  I bought pretty much all the Cyberverse Deluxes, and while some of them were pretty cool I'll probably stay away from Earthspark, or maybe just grab Prime for my ever-growing army.

You right, I forgot that a lot of units are already allotted for the Japanese market (other than the Ghost Rider set).

Personally, I just don’t see the value in the set. However I hope it gets funded for the people who backed it already.

I might be salty because the next HasLab project is not G1 Overlord. 

[mikeszekely]

I gotta love how Hasbro Pulse lets me accumulate so many preorders that I have to make a spreadsheet to keep track of them all, then decides to ship a butt load of them at once so instead of getting a $50 bill here or a $60 bill there I get hit with $250 in one week and my wife flips out on me.

Anyway, with some arrived and some more on the way next week it's probably a good time for a Repaint Roundup.

First up, we have a brand new Masterpiece Optimus Prime!  Yeah, newer even than MP-44 (and no, I'm not talking about a 3P effort like the new Magic Square one).

Actually, I'm not really sure why Hasbro put a slip case on the box with the "Masterpiece" branding.  The inner Takara box doesn't have any such thing on it, and what we've actually got here is a repaint of Earthrise/Shattered Glass Ultra/Delta Magnus, just without the trailer that turns into armor and painted up like Optimus Prime.  The paint on Prime is a step up from Ultra/Delta Magnus, I'll give them that much, although I kind of wish that Takara took advantage of the stockier shape and done more to differentiate this Optimus from the Earthrise release by giving him a more G1 toy deco.

For the curious among you, Optimus works with the Earthrise trailer, the Siege trailer, or the Galaxy Upgrade trailer in truck mode., although you'll have to find another place to stow the bumper pieces on that last one.

And, naturally, you could put the Earthrise armor on him in bot mode.

The Siege armor just does not fit, though.  The Galaxy Upgrade armor almost works... the part with the head does clamp onto his spine ok, and the chest does fold over, but it doesn't lock in.

The main reason this seems to exist at all is because Takara designed some new tensegrity-style Tenseg bases to be used with Transformers.  You can buy just the base in Autobot red or Decepticon purple, but the only way to get the gray one is to buy Optimus.  Now, originally I'd thought I'd hold off, build the stand, and review it with this Optimus.  But, honestly?  Building the stand involves carefully measuring, cutting, and attaching the included wire.  And, frankly, I don't see myself doing that.  I mean, sure, if you do build it properly with the clear on the bottom and the colored plastic on the top it'll look like the colored plastic is floating... but, as the gray and clear parts are actually mirrored, seems to be you could instead build two separate, normal stands, one clear and one colored.  That seems like better value than a gimmicky tensegrity zero-gravity thing.

As for Optimus himself, I'll not sugar coat it... this mold is objectively much worse than the Earthrise mold.  Especially without a trailer to hide his arms in truck mode... and why didn't he come with a trailer?  Yeah, I know it wouldn't really be accurate but slap a new head on the Earthrise Magnus armor and repaint it to look like Powermaster Optimus, I'd have been into that.  Really, I bought this for one reason, and that's that I would someday like to have every variant color of the G1 toy in a modern mold (although I fear we'll never see a new yellow Shining Magnus).  Ideally, that'd be a red, blue, white, black, yellow, and purple Earthrise figure, but I'll take what I can get.  You, however, probably shouldn't, as it's a bit hard to justify the $60+ price tag.  Especially when you can buy just the red/purple Tenseg bases for $18 each, if it's the stand you're after.  

Next up, we have Deluxe-class DK-3 Breaker.  And, frankly, I don't have a ton to say about this one.  It's Earthrise Trailerbreaker, but with all of his black plastic cast in blue instead.  The deco is almost exactly the same, too- the only differences I could find is red paint on the eyes instead of blue, and the silver paint that was on Trailbreaker's rims went to his shoulder missile and ears instead (I painted my Trailbreaker's shoulder weapons myself).  Oh, and his taillights aren't painted the way Trailbreaker's are.  So, yeah, if you have Trailbreaker you pretty much know what you're getting with DK-3 Breaker, and I'll say that I picked him up because I do dig the Diaclone releases and I honestly find it amusing how much of the Autobot army I'm going to have in two colors.  But I'll confess some disappointment that they didn't give him a new, more toy-accurate head and that they didn't go for the much more visually interesting/distinct yellow Diaclone version.  I guess I'd recommend him if you liked Trailbreaker and/or you're really into the Diaclone repaints.  Most fans can do without him, though.

Moving along, here's the 4th of the Shattered Glass II releases (the 3rd apparently released at the same time, but won't arrive until tomorrow at the earliest), Deluxe-class Flamewar.  Now, I haven't read the comic included with her, but this release is kind of interesting.  See, Prime, Ratchet, the first Pulse-exclusive Shattered Glass quintet, and Blaster from this set are all, very clearly, the Shattered Glass counterparts of regular G1 characters.  And while Delta Magnus could simply be a War For Cybertron version of the G1 character created when Takara decided to release MP Magnus in Diaclone colors, with the alternate head the Diaclone colors are also Shattered Glass Ultra Magnus.  But Flamewar?  She's been kicking around as a pseudo-G1 character since BotCon '05.  She's always been a Decepticon, she's always had something close to this color scheme, and she's always been a repaint of an Arcee that turns into a motorcycle (first Energon Arcee, then in 2014 and reissued in 2015 from Beast Hunters Arcee).  Flamewar has appeared in comics as recently as Fate of Cybertron, the official end of IDW's rebooted G1 continuity.  So a Decepticon repaint of Legacy Arcee in these colors really should be a standard Legacy, non-Shattered Glass Flamewar, and I'm going to treat her as such.

On that note... I dig this figure.  I mean, she's a repaint of Arcee with no new tooling, but the colors just do it for me.  Plus, I really like the versatility of this mold's backpack.  Remove the front wheel entirely and you can give Arcee her wings.  Spread the wheel and plug it into the back of the neck, then fold the backpack up tight and you've got something close to G2 Road Rocket's shoulder wheels.  Or do both for Flamewar, and homage both her wheeled Energon repaint and her winged Beast Hunters repaint.

Flamewar does come with the translucent blades that combine to form a disk that Arcee and Road Rocket came with.  But, she also comes with Fireglide, a little pterodactyl that's been sold in purple and white as Terror-Daxtyl with Siege Skywarp, in translucent yellow as Enerax with Netflix Optimus Prime, and in blue and black as Sights with Golden Disk Jackpot, which means if I look around I should have every copy of this mold.  Anyway, Fireglide's head and feet tuck in and a handle folds out from his back, and boom, you've got an axe, complete with an effect part that tabs onto his wings/blades.

Flamewar looks just as good in bike mode as she does in robot mode.  It's a bit tricky to find a place to slow Fireglide, as he wasn't designed for this mold, but there is a peg under his neck and the axe handle does double as a barrel.  And while it doesn't actually tab in, you can put the fire effect under a wheel and she's got sort of a Ghost Rider thing going.  I love it.

Hasbro's definitely charging a premium for the paint, the extra Battle Master, and the packed-in comic book that may make it hard to justify the price of what is, ultimately, a Deluxe-class figure.  That said, Flamewar is absolutely my favorite use of this mold so far.  Recommend from me.

Finally, we've got the Pulsecon-exlcusive "A Hero is Born" pack.  This pack gets you two figures, and we'll start with Orion Pax.  Pax is a retool of Studio Series 86 Kup.  This is trend that began back in 2005, when the G1 Kup toy was reissued in red, white, and blue as Orion Pax.  Did someone at Takara think the animation model for Orion Pax looked like Kup?  I'm not sure how well it worked using a straight repaint of the G1 toy, but SS Kup's rounded limbs do work with that organic Floro Dery style, and Hasbro actually did remold a bit.  He's got new forearms, a new head, a new chest, and new shins, plus Hasbro was able to get a slightly different look to his shoulders and hips simply by flipping them around.  The result is a figure that is a bit broader in the shoulders and narrower in the hips than what we saw in the cartoon, but it's fairly animation accurate.  I still kind of like the old Generations figure myself, but if you want Sunbow this is Sunbow.

Differences are more minimal in alt mode, as it's really just the nose of the truck made from his chest that shows now.  A part of me would prefer a more unique alt mode for Pax, but since we don't actually ever see Pax's alt mode I can't complain that it's not accurate.  Maybe, just as the Seekers share a body type, Pax and Kup were a particular model.  I dunno.  What I do want to know is who Hasbro can repaint into Dion, Ariel, and the generic Decepticon troopers from the same episode, "War Dawn."

The other figure in the pack is, of course, Alpha Trion.  Trion is, for me, the more exciting figure as Alpha Trion made enough appearances on the cartoon that I wanted him as a kid.  It took until 2007 to get even a BotCon repaint version of him, and 2016 before we'd see a dedicated Alpha Trion that was... not the best.  This time, he's a remold of Studio Series 86 Scourge, and as such he's not exactly cartoon-perfect, but he's actually a lot closer than the dedicated Titans Return version.  His pelvis is a little off and lacking some colors from the cartoon, his lower legs, knees, and feet don't have exactly the right shape and his feet are missing some color.  He's got a lot more back kibble than he did int he cartoon.  However, he's got a new front torso and new shoulders and biceps that better represent the cartoon, even using some molding to mimic the way his shoulder armor wraps onto his chest.  He's got new thighs, for some reason, and the outermost wing panels have been replaced with something better approximating his cape.  He's also got a new head that better matches the Sunbow art... although I'll point out its the head you see in all of his appearances except from "War Dawn" when he turned Pax into Optimus.  Technically, if they were truly going to recapture that scene he'd have a younger face with a smaller mustache and no goatee.  I'm actually glad they did it this way, though.

Like Pax, Alpha Trion didn't transform so we can't really say if a flying soap bar like Scourge's alt mode is appropriate or not (depending on which legend of the 13 you buy into, if any, he might not have had an alt mode at all, but interestingly enough he did have concept art of a hovercraft alt created for the IDW mini-series Transformers: Ironhide back in 2010).  Given that they could have therefore gotten away with using as much of Scourge's alt as they could, as they did with Pax from Kup, it's a bit surprising to see how much they did change.  Almost all of the red plastic parts are new.  The middle engine nacelle has been replaced with a larger, rectangular block, and the panel that cover's his face his wider, more rounded at the top, and with a deeper molded indent.  You could probably argue that remolding those parts was necessary to accommodate Trion's head, but they further went and remolded the panel directly in front of the face covering, too, with little windows molded and painted on.

Orion Pax has the same rifle and box of energon goodies that Kup came with (although the goodie that's protruding from the top has been painted... are we know supposed to pretend it's a communicator or something?), and he's got the same limb removal gimmick.  The right arm on my copy is, in fact, a little loose.  And Alpha Trion comes with the same rifle Scourge did.  However, you'll notice that Trion has both the open hands from Scourge and the Sweep, and none of the closed fists.  That's where the new accessories come in.  You get a gold-painted, textured orb that's meant to be the Vector Sigma computer, with a clear stand for it to "float" on.  Also included is a gold-painted key for Vector Sigma.  There's a slot on top of Vector Sigma for the Key to plug into, however, the size is just right and the shape of Trion's hands just so that he can hold the key, and quite securely I might add.  Characters like with articulated fingers like Earthrise Optimus, Hot Rod, Rodimus, and Jhiaxus can also hold the Key, albeit less securely.  Closed fist characters like Megatron are SOL, though.

I think this is a pretty well-done set.  You are paying maybe $9 over just buying one retail Deluxe and one retail Voyager, but both Orion Pax and Alpha Trion are fairly extensively remolded, plus you get Vector Sigma and the Key with them.  While I've always thought that Dery's Pax design is a little too goofy to become Optimus Prime, Alpha Trion and Vector Sigma were plot points enough times in the cartoon I think finally having a decent representations of both make this set worth picking up, and as of writing it's still available on Hasbro Pulse.

[M'Kyuun]

7 hours ago, mikeszekely said:

Depends on how you define "success."  Mark my words, Deathsaurus will get funded... they're already almost halfway there, and it hasn't even been a day.  Get a few more people over the next month and a half, then that big bump from the retailer orders, and 11,000 is pretty much inevitable.  I think odds of the living metal cannon and flail happening are reasonable.  But I could see it maybe not hitting both stretch goals the way Victory Saber did.

I think it'll get funded too, but like you said, folks may not want to go all the way in just for a lackluster looking stand and a throne.

7 hours ago, mikeszekely said:

Shout Factory released Headmasters, Masterforce, and Victory on DVD in the States, both as three sets for each individual series and one box set with all three.  AFAIK, though, we've still never got Zone, Beast Wars II, or Beast Wars Neo in any official capacity.  It'd also be nice to get them all on some kind of streaming service, or at least Hasbro's YouTube channel.

On the periphery of my memory, I somewhat recall those shows being released on DVD. Needless to say, although I'll say it anyway, I didn't pick them up.  I wasn't sure if Hasbro had put them on their YT channel or not; I know all the G1 stuff is there, but I didn't know if they put the Japanese shows on there too. Might've been a good strategy, prior to revealing both Star Saber and Deathsaurus, to get those shows dubbed and put on there to attract more of an audience leading up to selling toys. I'm no marketing exec, but that kinda seems right to me.

8 hours ago, mikeszekely said:

Like, who is even in charge of the brand at Hasbro anymore?  The designs for Cyberverse were supposed to be simultaneously G1 enough but generic enough to be their evergreen, standard designs.  So they follow up Optimus' Cyberverse design with the same robot, but now he has TF Prime's alt mode?

Generally, the new Earthspark toys look like a continuation of Cyberverse, but somehow worse.  I'm wondering if some of those aren't Warrior or some other gimmicky figures and not Deluxes (although that Shockwave is a repaint of the Cyberverse Deluxe).  I bought pretty much all the Cyberverse Deluxes, and while some of them were pretty cool I'll probably stay away from Earthspark, or maybe just grab Prime for my ever-growing army.

They have been making some odd, and IMHO, questionable decisions of late which, despite their motto, are doing us fans no favors. 

I wasn't aware that the Cyberverse look was supposed to be evergreen. To my eyes, the Earthspark designs aren't that far removed, and personally I don't mind a bit of diversity in the designs. There's still a similar design language. What I call into question is stuff like Prime's entire truck nose just folding back into a huge backpack when the entire section seems to serve no other purpose. If it was a shell to hide the arms, ok, there's justification, but it could have been designed as a cabover saving all that plastic for perhaps more limb filler or more accessories. I suppose one could make the same complaint about Legacy Breakdown and Wildrider, where the entire front end of the car serves no other purpose except to become a big backpack, albeit one that needlessly expands out for no reason whatsoever.  🙄  Ah well, not the first time we've gotten superfluous chunky alt mode bits just hanging off a fig and almost certainly won't be the last.