The Transformers Thread (licensed) Next

[mikeszekely]

Coming Tuesday to Hasbro Pulse...

Some interesting things to note here...

1. You'll recall awhile ago I talked about a rumored Amazon Prime crossover?  Holiday Optimus looks an awful lot like a Volvo truck Amazon uses.  I wonder if they were working on something, the deal with Amazon fell through, and this is Hasbro recouping the mold?

2. It's hard to tell, with the blurry cell phone photo of a slide at a show, but it's a Frankenstein of a figure.  I mean, the trailer is Earthrise, and I wouldn't be surprised if we saw that head already (although the chin is looking a bit flatter than Earthrise).  The front of the torso is Legacy Optimus.  The pelvis and thighs.  The arms and backpack are Motormaster.  The legs from the knees down are new, though.

3. Fold the truck's grill over so it's flat against the thighs, and articulate the knees the other way, so the cab of the truck is on the front of his shins.  Give him a flat trailer with backpack that can clip over the wheels on his back and a cannon for his arm with a hose.  It'd be a passable G2 Hero Optimus Prime.

Edited October 29, 2022 by mikeszekely

[M'Kyuun]

6 hours ago, mikeszekely said:

Coming Tuesday to Hasbro Pulse...

Some interesting things to note here...

1. You'll recall awhile ago I talked about a rumored Amazon Prime crossover?  Holiday Optimus looks an awful lot like a Volvo truck Amazon uses.  I wonder if they were working on something, the deal with Amazon fell through, and this is Hasbro recouping the mold?

2. It's hard to tell, with the blurry cell phone photo of a slide at a show, but it's a Frankenstein of a figure.  I mean, the trailer is Earthrise, and I wouldn't be surprised if we saw that head already (although the chin is looking a bit flatter than Earthrise).  The front of the torso is Legacy Optimus.  The pelvis and thighs.  The arms and backpack are Motormaster.  The legs from the knees down are new, though.

3. Fold the truck's grill over so it's flat against the thighs, and articulate the knees the other way, so the cab of the truck is on the front of his shins.  Give him a flat trailer with backpack that can clip over the wheels on his back and a cannon for his arm with a hose.  It'd be a passable G2 Hero Optimus Prime.

Saw this over on Twitter, and some of those folks were predicting Hero Prime as well. I guess the Hasbro folks said this mold is going to be reused, so it's almost a certainty.  One more Prime variant to check off your list, Mike.  

I've never been a G2 fan, and honestly, that original Hero Prime toy does nothing for me. That said, I'd at least be interested in seeing what a repaint/retool into the character would look like. But god, that awful, awful color scheme. 🤮  IMO, G2 is like the 70's of Transformers- chintzy designs and tacky upchuck-worthy colors. I consider it and UT to be the absolute rock bottom of the franchise, with Bayformers coming in a close second (for different reasons).

[lechuck]

16 hours ago, M'Kyuun said:

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.

I think you are asking to much of Hasbro.

• They probably don't have command of the G1JP cartoons like they do with the Sunbow, so it would mean licensing and distribution discussions.
• These are 30+ year old cartoons now with an inclination of Japanese/Asian story telling and themes, not sure that is going to really attract a new audience.
• The greater audience – who is that exactly going to be? Those that are buying into Star Saber and Deathsaurus already know who they are and don't need the cartoon as an introduction. It's doubtful your average mum and dad, auntie/uncle or grandparents buying toys for the kids know of or care about Haslab/Pulse, so the cartoon won't help. Even if today's kids got to know Victory and started nagging their family for the Haslab offerings, the sticker price would instantly kill any discussions to be had.

Licencing, dubbing and maybe editing an old cartoon for a western audience in the hopes of increasing the user base for Haslab would be a poor ROI for Hasbro.

[Hikuro]

I do own the entire Japanese line that came from Shout Factory back in the day, though to be honest the subtitles have a tendency to going sub....par. Though I do wish they had took the time to go and change character names and terminology to fit the American aesthetics versus staying with the Japanese version.

I went out for the first time in over a month in my new car and drove to Austin, paid a visit to Toydojo and scored the only Motormaster they had on the shelf. But man it took me 3 hours just to get home due to an accident and all I could think of was cracking that box open.

Do gotta say I really really like this figure, the engineering I think is very well done, and he cleans up very nice from truck to robot, and the combiner transformation is really neat even if it's heavy parts forming by his trailer. I couldn't help but turn him into Menasor and slapping Dragstrip and Wildrider on to get a good look at his form and how massive he is. I'm thinking my old Fansproject M3 is gonna get taken apart into bot modes or just put away in favor of this guy. 

[mikeszekely]

1 hour ago, M'Kyuun said:

I've never been a G2 fan, and honestly, that original Hero Prime toy does nothing for me.

Oh, I still have my Hero Prime, and I would love a new version to go with my new Laser Prime.

[M'Kyuun]

18 hours ago, lechuck said:

I think you are asking to much of Hasbro.

• They probably don't have command of the G1JP cartoons like they do with the Sunbow, so it would mean licensing and distribution discussions.
• These are 30+ year old cartoons now with an inclination of Japanese/Asian story telling and themes, not sure that is going to really attract a new audience.
• The greater audience – who is that exactly going to be? Those that are buying into Star Saber and Deathsaurus already know who they are and don't need the cartoon as an introduction. It's doubtful your average mum and dad, auntie/uncle or grandparents buying toys for the kids know of or care about Haslab/Pulse, so the cartoon won't help. Even if today's kids got to know Victory and started nagging their family for the Haslab offerings, the sticker price would instantly kill any discussions to be had.

Licencing, dubbing and maybe editing an old cartoon for a western audience in the hopes of increasing the user base for Haslab would be a poor ROI for Hasbro.

You make a good argument; as you said, the folks buying Star Saber and Deathsaurus are already aware of it, and the price is a bit steep for most parents/grandparents to drop on a kid, unless said guardians are wealthy and don't mind dropping that kind of cash on a toy. I doubt the cost of licensing would be much given Hasbro's long partnership with Takara, but the dubbing, or even subbing of such, as well as distribution would be an added expense that might not yield a greater audience. I use myself as an example; I wouldn't buy it, and I have no interest in Star Saber or Deathsaurus.

Ultimately, these Haslab projects are aimed at an adult fanbase with plenty of disposable income. 

17 hours ago, Hikuro said:

I do own the entire Japanese line that came from Shout Factory back in the day, though to be honest the subtitles have a tendency to going sub....par. Though I do wish they had took the time to go and change character names and terminology to fit the American aesthetics versus staying with the Japanese version.

I went out for the first time in over a month in my new car and drove to Austin, paid a visit to Toydojo and scored the only Motormaster they had on the shelf. But man it took me 3 hours just to get home due to an accident and all I could think of was cracking that box open.

Do gotta say I really really like this figure, the engineering I think is very well done, and he cleans up very nice from truck to robot, and the combiner transformation is really neat even if it's heavy parts forming by his trailer. I couldn't help but turn him into Menasor and slapping Dragstrip and Wildrider on to get a good look at his form and how massive he is. I'm thinking my old Fansproject M3 is gonna get taken apart into bot modes or just put away in favor of this guy. 

That's a long road trip for a toy. I don't like driving, which is why I'm glad virtually everything is available online these days- let Fed Ex or USPS do the driving.    While I'm not a fan of parts-forming, I'll concede that Has/TT did a good job realizing the character and the gestalt, achieving a pretty stable and toon-accurate (we'll overlook Breakdown's, erm, breakdown in that dept) gestalt within the limited budget. It's miles better than the wobbly and decidedly non-G1 accurate Combiner Wars version. The only points I give CW is that the limb bots actually formed the limbs rather than just being snap-on deco. Alas, 'toon accuracy'. 🙄

17 hours ago, mikeszekely said:

Oh, I still have my Hero Prime, and I would love a new version to go with my new Laser Prime.

Of course you do!😁 Glad they're very likely making a new one to accompany the original for your collection.  I must admit to being curious as to how it's going to look. Honestly, I think that Christmas Prime looks alright with that leg configuration.  The fact that you can essentially get two different looking figs, kinda like Punch/CP, just by a difference in config opens it up to more possibilities for various releases. 👍

[M'Kyuun]

In-hand images of the Transformers- G.I. Joe crossover Bumblebee AWE Striker have been posted over on TFW2005. While I didn't get this or Megatron, it looks to be far better executed than Megatron. I still think they should have made this and the HISS, as well as any further crossovers, their own characters instead of trying to awkwardly make these fit established characters. Moreover, it would give the designers license to use the vehicle parts better towards realizing the bot mode instead of trying to work around an established bot mode. They didn't do that as much with AWE Striker Bee, thankfully, but the HISS definitely suffered by trying to make the bot mode a G1 Megatron with huge tank bits hanging off of him.

[mikeszekely]

Some clearer looks at Holiday Prime.  And with that clearer look, I'm starting to think that the entire robot is a totally new mold, just with similarities to Laser Op in the shape of the chest and similarities to Motormaster in how the wheels store on his back and how the cab is mostly just the lower legs.  Even the head and thighs look like new parts, which is great considering how many times Hasbro has used the Siege Optimus legs after Siege.

Also, this was revealed with Prime but, being a previous and expected leak didn't have quite the same impact... it's Magnificus.

Prime should be $55.99, Magnificus $24.99.  It's not clear if Prime will be available at multiple stores or not, but Magnificus is definitely a Generations Selects release on Pulse.  Both figures will be available to order tomorrow... no time was specified for Prime, but Magnificus goes on sale at 1:00pm EDT.  I'm not clear if these will be preorders, or if like Minerva, Crasher, Shadowstrip, and Bomb Burst they're skipping the preorders and they'll actually ship after ordering.

[JB0]

Presents are the right of all sentient beings.

[Scyla]

15 hours ago, mikeszekely said:

Some clearer looks at Holiday Prime.  And with that clearer look, I'm starting to think that the entire robot is a totally new mold, just with similarities to Laser Op in the shape of the chest and similarities to Motormaster in how the wheels store on his back and how the cab is mostly just the lower legs.  Even the head and thighs look like new parts, which is great considering how many times Hasbro has used the Siege Optimus legs after Siege.

Also, this was revealed with Prime but, being a previous and expected leak didn't have quite the same impact... it's Magnificus.

Prime should be $55.99, Magnificus $24.99.  It's not clear if Prime will be available at multiple stores or not, but Magnificus is definitely a Generations Selects release on Pulse.  Both figures will be available to order tomorrow... no time was specified for Prime, but Magnificus goes on sale at 1:00pm EDT.  I'm not clear if these will be preorders, or if like Minerva, Crasher, Shadowstrip, and Bomb Burst they're skipping the preorders and they'll actually ship after ordering.

Holiday Prime looks good. A nice divergence from the regular shtick. I would totally buy a Nemesis Prime version.

[M'Kyuun]

2 hours ago, Scyla said:

Holiday Prime looks good. A nice divergence from the regular shtick. I would totally buy a Nemesis Prime version.

I was thinking the same.  It's too much to hope for, but it'd be cool if it came with a black Roller, too.

Just noticed that the front wheels snap onto the same trans-green plastic that forms the headlight lenses. Not sure that was the best decision given transparent plastic's tendency to become brittle and crack over time. 😬

[mikeszekely]

I ordered both Prime and Magnificus.  As of writing, both are still available on Pulse.

Speaking of Pulse... I got another pile of figures from them.  Hasbro really likes to release everything all at once.  I'll have some reviews for new molds later, but for now I've got another Repaint Roundup.

We'll cover the store exclusives first.  From the Walmart-exclusive Velocitron Speedia 500 collection we've got Deluxe-class Shadowstrip.  Shadowstrip's packaging and instructions proclaim that he's from the G2 universe, which makes sense because "Shadow"strip is Legacy Dragstrip with no mold changes and the same accessories, just with a new deco based on the unreleased G2 Dragstrip toy.  I don't have a ton to complain about here.  Dragstrip was a pretty decent figure, and swapping the yellow for black and the orange stripes for gold just looks sharp.  There's some extra gold accents on the rims and near the cockpit, and some extra blue in front of the cockpit and replacing the orange and purple on his head.  It all looks good!  The basic checkerboard pattern on the sides of the original prototype have been replaced with a design that looks more like a flag, which I don't mind at all.  If I'm being nitpicky I'd maybe point out that the prototype also had a red and white checkerboard on the rear spoiler instead of stripes, but it really doesn't bother me.

As the mold itself is unchanged Dragstrip can still split in half at the waist, and you can use him in place of regular Dragstrip on Menasor's right arm.  What you can't do, though, is use Dragstrip on one arm and Shadowstrip for the other.  The remolded bits on Dead End are apparently slightly different, so the front half of Drag/Shadowstrip doesn't sit flush on Menasor's left bicep.

Shadowstrip's far from essential, but as I said Dragstrip was a pretty decent figure already and the black and gold color G2 color scheme looks great (even if you're not a native fan of Pittsburgh sports teams).  Recommended from me.

Also from the Velocitron collection, we've got Deluxe-class Crasher.  I've probably already offered my feelings on this... once upon a Classics time, Hasbro repainted Classics Mirage with a color scheme based on Crasher as Fracture to help fill out the movie line.  And, ok, at the time it was cool to get almost any acknowledgement of the Gobots at all.  But I'm older and more cynical now, so let's consider the following:

1. Siege Mirage was one of the weaker releases from that line, but we let it slide because it was technically supposed to be like a Cybertronian mode.

2. Retooling the Siege mold instead of starting from scratch emphasized its flaws.

3. Crasher was never a Formula-1 car, and shackling her to Mirage repaints for all time just because of one homage 15 years ago is doing her a massive disservice.

And yet, here we are, with a figure that is Earthrise Mirage from the neck down, with the same accessories as Earthrise Mirage.  Mark did a pretty good job getting a deco that's pretty close to the character on the Gobots in bot mode, but aside from being black, red, and white the alt mode isn't and never will be Crasher.  Ironically, the one time Hasbro did make a figure with an alt mode that's super close to Crasher (PotP Jazz) they didn't bother with the redeco.

The only part of Crasher that isn't from Earthrise Mirage is her head, but even that's not new.  It's the toy-deco head that Hasbro used for the mostly-clear Mirage repaint that came with the IDW Impactor from that one Amazon line.  Sure, the wider, rounder head does have Crasher's shape on the most basic level, but giving her some black eyeliner and a pink face doesn't really make her look all that much like Crasher with her narrower face, bandit mask, and pupiled eyes.

All-in-all, then, it's a mediocre repaint of a mediocre figure.  Crasher deserves better.  Do not recommend.

Moving from Walmart to Walgreen's, this one is Deluxe-class Minerva.  Aside from the head, Minerva is straight redeco of Legacy Elita-1.  A lot of the details on her limbs, which seem to have been designed more with Elita-1 in mind, are more suggestive than G1 accurate.  There's engine vents on her shins, no headlights or wheels on her wrists.  Her fenders hover behind her shoulders on her backpack instead of sitting directly on her shoulders.  Still, her torso seems very evocative of Minerva's, even if the details aren't exact, and the new head sculpt is excellent even if it's not a detachable Titan Master.  It seems to me that Mark wanted a new Minerva, and the only way he could get her greenlit is if he could work her into a repaint of Elita-1.  And thus, Minerva had to give up a few things like the Headmaster gimmick, and Minerva's eventual retool was worked into Elita-1's design from the start, hence the design of her backpack.  Mind you, you can make them a bit more visually distinct by folding down the fenders on Elita's backpack.

You probably noticed that Minerva and Elita-1 have the same guns, but there is one difference in their accessories.  The weird antenna thing shaped like the top of Elita-1's head has been replaced with a lightbar.  I'm hesitant to call either accessories... sure, they're not attached in the box, they plug into a 5mm port, and could easily be removed and held in their fists.  But the only reason they're designed to attach via a 5mm port is precisely so you can attach the antenna to Elita and the lightbar to Minerva without changing the actual mold of the base figure.  Once they're installed, they never actually need to be removed.

I guess the real question is whether or not Elita-1's alt mode is actually a good choice for Minerva's.  Well, it's certainly no Porsche!  I guess it ultimately comes down to what kind of fiction you want to use for her.  Is she the IDW Minerva seen in The Wreckers: Tread and Circuits miniseries?  Then you could probably accept this as a Cybertronian alt mode (as well as the lack of a Headmaster gimmick).  If you want her to be Masterforce Minerva, though, where the car was a Transtector built on Earth and Minerva is actually a human girl that turns into a head for the Transtector, then a Cybertronian alt mode and the lack of a Headmaster gimmick make a lot less sense.  Unfortunately, unless Hasbro makes a new Nightbeat to properly repaint into Minerva, this is as good as we're likely to get.  I guess I'd recommend her.

Last one for today, we've got Shattered Glass Slicer, who maybe makes even less sense than Flamewar.  See, this time I went ahead and read all the comic books.  Flamewar kind of checks out, if you just assume that she has the same deco in the regular G1 universe and the Shattered Glass one, because in the regular G1 universe she's an evil Decepticon working for Megatron and in Shattered Glass she's a heroic Decepticon working for Megatron.  But Slicer?  If you're unfamiliar with the character you might think to yourself, "Well, isn't that like a Shattered Glass Wheeljack?"  That's sort of how he comes across in the comic book, and the figure is Earthrise Wheeljack- the only new parts are two new translucent guns.  But, to really be Shattered Glass Wheeljack, he'd have to be an evil Autobot- which is what the comic book does.  However, the toy clearly has a Decepticon badge on his shoulder.  This is because Slicer isn't a new Shattered Glass character, or even a new pseudo-G1 character BotCon repaint.  Slicer is a G1 Action Master from all the back in 1991.  The OG Slicer was a redeco of Action Master Wheeljack, sure, so redecoing Earthrise Wheeljack makes sense.  But it means that Slicer is really a G1 release, not Shattered Glass.  The only way I can think of for this to really be a Shattered Glass figure is if they're going to make the claim that Shattered Glass Wheeljack changed his name to Slicer, crossed over into the G1 universe, then joined the Decepticons.

Oh, and those two new weapons?  They're actually based on the ones that came with Energon downshift, a figure that was repainted as Slicer for BotCon 2010.   That reinforces the notion that this figure is G1 Slicer, and only worked into the Shattered Glass line by stuffing G1 Slicer into the story in place of Wheeljack.  I'll give Hasbro some credit, though.  A lot of times when Hasbro tosses in accessories like this they're kind of an afterthought.  Hasbro could have just tossed in two new guns and left it at that, but they designed the guns with hinges.  This allows them to peg into the 5mm ports on the back of the car and wrap around the sides so they're still pointed forward.

Anyway, Slicer comes with his Exo-Suit.  On the original toy, his Exo-Suit was like this pink-and-red dune buggy thing with guns and tire spikes that he could drive around in that transformed into a suit of armor.  Here, it's a repaint of Fasttrack/Black Roritchi (with the antenna-less Roritchi head).  While the color scheme certainly homages the G1 toy, suffice to say that Slicer will not be riding around in that alt mode.

Of course, as a redeco of a Weaponizer you can pull him apart and use him to arm up Slicer in a variety of ways- these four are the ones specifically suggested in his instructions.  In most configurations you'll likely find a free port or two to even include his extra rifles.  Some of the options, like the big sword, are a bit ridiculous as Slicer's arm joints aren't able to support the weight.  And none of them really recreate the armored suit of the original Exo-Suit.

Despite my complaints that Slicer doesn't actually fit into Shattered Glass, I think the fact that he's actually a G1 character might be a boon as there are a lot of collectors who couldn't give a crap about Shattered Glass but will buy even the most obscure G1 characters.  He's a decent mold, with decent colors, and while his Exo-Suit isn't really an Exo-Suit it's still a pretty rad deco for Fasttrack that can still be used to arm Slicer up.  I'd say he gets a recommend.

[M'Kyuun]

@mikeszekely I was looking at your Wheeljack in the previous post and noticed you had the Go-Better upgrade kit, which I recently ordered and should be in my mailbox any day. I also noticed you had the Toyhax sticker set, but that you used very few of the stickers to spruce up your fig.  I was also contemplating the set, but like you, I would probably only use the Alitalia and Lancia labels (I'm good with the stock paint and tampo for the car- actually I think they did a really good job with it, even if the number on the door is inaccurate). I'd likely use a few of the labels for his bot mode, as well, but paying $15 for a label sheet and only using about a third of said sheet feels like a waste of money. I kinda wish they'd do limited sticker sheets with just the sponsor labels and maybe the lights for $5.  Probably not cost effective to do, though.

Anyway, I also bought upgrades for my ER Sideswipe (accidentally ordered two kits- must've fat fingered it). Maybe I'll paint the second set white and use it for Clampdown or Red Alert. 

I keep hoping for one of these upgrade makers to make a kit to replace Legacy Skids' toy-based shin panels with panels that are more reminiscent of his G1 box art with those lovely windows encasing robo stuff. I think I'm in a minority of one for preferring that look. 😄 Wish the toy's head looked more like the box art as well.

 

[mikeszekely]

The flood continues.  Today, at least, we have a new mold... it's Studio Series 86 Voyager-class Ironhide.

SS Ironhide shares no parts with the Siege-retooled Earth-mode Ironhide that came in an Amazon-exclusive pack with Prowl two years back, and side-by-side the differences are pretty striking.  For one, the colors are much better, with dark gray on the shoulders and hands instead of black and light gray for the thighs and pelvis.  The headlights and the bit of grill on his chest are silver instead of black.  For two, the sculpt and proportions are better.  His thighs are a little longer.  His shoulders don't stick up quit as far.  He's got a slightly larger, slightly wider new head.  While he does have more greebles than a Sunbow purist might like, he's got less of the overdone Siege ones.  Plus, the greebles on his shins don't have any van details.  His pelvis flap is both present and cartoon accurate.  His chest has a better shape, more actual chest and less beer gut, and is actually more accurate than even MP Ironhide.  Oh, and I nearly forgot since I painted my Earthrise Ironhide, but there's no black hinge in the middle of his torso, and the Autobot badge is tampoed on so I didn't have to apply it myself (although the factory did it a little off-center).

Despite having similar kibble flaps on the sides of the legs, and despite still having a backpack with the front bumper and wheels, SS Ironhide manages to look better even fromt he back.  You can see better the tweaked torso and thigh proportions, and the kibble flaps actually hide most of the tires on his calves.  His butt doesn't look like he's wearing a Depends in need of changing.  From the side you can see that the tires and bumper stick out a bit further than they did on the Earthrise mold, but there isn't that gaping void in the middle of his back.  There's still a little hollowness in the backs of the forearms and the hands, but at least this time you need that space in the forearms for transformation.  Likewise, there's still a little hollowness to the thighs, but this time it's on the inside of the thighs, not the back.

On aesthetics alone, SS Ironhide is a huge improvement over the Earthrise figure.

How about accessories?  Well, you get two cartoon-style pistols.  That's probably less plastic than went into the hammer/missile launcher that came with Siege Ironhide, and definitely less plastic than came with the toy-style gun and enitre roof that came with the Earthrise version.  If you liked using the roof as a shield, or perhaps adding some Nonnef accessories and turning it into a G1 toy-style sled, you might find the guns a bit disappointing.  On the other hand, if you hated looking for a place to stash the partsforming roof in bot mode, you'll likely be much happier with the simple pistols.

Articulation on this Ironhide isn't all that different than the Earthrise one, which is to say that it's perfectly fine.  His head is on a hinged ball joint with some good up/down tilt and a swivel, but it's not really cut to allow any sideways tilt.  His shoulders rotate and can extend 90 degrees laterally.  His biceps and wrists swivel, and his elbows can bend 90 degrees.  His waist swivels, and due to transformation he can even arch his back.  His pelvis his hinged to move out of the way for his thighs, but unfortunately it's a single piece.  Once it's out of the way, his hips can go just about 90 degrees forward, backward, or laterally.  His thighs swivel, and his knees bend 90 degrees.  Due to his transformation, he's got several hinges in his feet.  You get get about 45 degrees of upward tilt, over 90 degrees of downward tilt, and around 45 degrees of ankle pivot.

Ironhide can hold his pistols in his hands just fine, but you might have noticed that as a Studio Series figure he lacks the 5mm ports on his legs, forearms, shoulders, and back that the Earthrise mold has.  Don't fret, though, he's still got other options for storage.  There's a slot molded into the sides of the pistol, just above the handles.  In robot mode, these slots can grab onto tabs on his calves or on his backpack.

If the aesthetic upgrade alone isn't enough to overcome the Voyager price tag and get you to upgrade, then perhaps the engineering will?  The transformation starts off similarly, and at first I was thinking, "is this a another retool of the Siege mold after all?"  I mean, you fold back the bumper on his back, and his arms hinge around to tab together behind his head.  You need to open his chest window so you can fold his head inside... but that's when things start getting different.  It's not just a window; the front section of the roof also unfolds from inside his chest, and front under it you unfold two more bits with some of the side windows.  Rather than sticking straight back, you have to line up the shoulders and bend the elbows just right, because his forearms are also part of the roof.  Flaps open on his shins to allow armatures to move his feet; the tops plug into the forearms and form the back of the roof, the soles of his feet fold down to become the rear of the van, and some flaps squished in there make some windows.  The kibble flaps on his legs unfurl, filling in the side of the van that includes the bottom from the hinge to the front tires, the middle windows, and section of the roof between his forearms and part that was inside his chest.  You get a complete van, with translucent blue windows, and zero partsforming.

The van mode isn't perfect.  There's those to translucent nubs on the roof- they do have a purpose on Ironhide, but I can tell you that they're not necessary and are almost certainly there as attachment points for the inevitable Ratchet repaint.  He's got two large hinges breaking up the sides of the van, but the Earthrise mold has one plus an out-of-place visible shoulder, so I can't say that's worse.  The back window is molded in place, but not painted  And, although there's molded lines for it, the yellow stripe is missing from the sides.  However, it's still an improvement from Earthrise.  The wheels look like Earth tires instead of reusing the Siege ones, and Hasbro painted the rims (saving me the trouble).  The front end, with the silver bumper and grill, lack of black hinged part, and tampoed Autobot insignia is more accurate than the Earthrise version.  There's no pipes on the back of the roof.  And the back of the van is actually molded to look like the back of a van (even if the rear window is molded but uncolored), so you don't have to buy replacement feet just to avoid the back of the car being totally out-of-place robot feet.

So, those roof nubbins?  They can be used as a place to store the gun if you want Ironhide to do some drive-by shooting at Decepticons.  But again, they're not necessary.  Feel free to Dremel them off and touch up the paint...

...because there's storage underneath the van, too.  The spots on his backpack wind up just under the front bumper, so he can still drive and shoot.  Want more emphasis on the "disguise" part of "robots in disguise?"  Another set of dedicated tabs near the back of the van can be used, too.  This allows just a little of the barrels to stick out the back like exhaust tips.

If you read a certain Transformers message board you may find that this is a bit of a contentious release.  "I just bought an Earth-mode Ironhide two years ago!  And it was a Deluxe!  This thing is (choose one) the same size/smaller!  Hasbro is ripping us off/I'll just stick with the one I have."  All I can do is remind you that "Voyager" isn't a size anymore, it's a budget that allows for Ironhide to have better paint and engineering than his Earthrise counterpart, and he's a huge improvement aesthetically across the board.  If you're going to settle for what you already have you might as well have not bothered getting Earthrise Ironhide, you could have just stuck with the crappy Universe toy.  Because Studio Series Ironhide is the same leap in improvement over Earthrise that Earthrise is over universe.  If this is the quality I'll get, I'll happily shell out Voyager money for more figures this size.  Ironhide might be the best Transformers figure Hasbro released in 2022, and I strongly recommend him.

[mikeszekely]

47 minutes ago, M'Kyuun said:

I was looking at your Wheeljack in the previous post and noticed you had the Go-Better upgrade kit, which I recently ordered and should be in my mailbox any day.

Yeah.  The leg fillers aren't the greatest and have a tendency to fall off, but the spoiler and wings are absolutely worth it.  I don't think I'll invest in more for Exhaust or Slicer, though.

47 minutes ago, M'Kyuun said:

I also noticed you had the Toyhax sticker set, but that you used very few of the stickers to spruce up your fig.

A few were necessary to fix the number and what not, but I still wanted a cleaner Sunbow look than the total racing livery.  But buying an expensive sheet that I only need a fraction of the stickers is kind of Toyhax's MO these days.

47 minutes ago, M'Kyuun said:

Anyway, I also bought upgrades for my ER Sideswipe (accidentally ordered two kits- must've fat fingered it).

Which one?  While I love Go Better's kits of Sunstreaker and Wheeljack I kind of prefer Nonnef's Lambo spoilers.  The shoulder missile launcher is a wash, but Nonnef's gets you a G1 rifle, too.

Edited November 2, 2022 by mikeszekely

[JB0]

6 hours ago, M'Kyuun said:

I keep hoping for one of these upgrade makers to make a kit to replace Legacy Skids' toy-based shin panels with panels that are more reminiscent of his G1 box art with those lovely windows encasing robo stuff. I think I'm in a minority of one for preferring that look. 😄

I love the "random widgets under glass" look too.

 

But hey, at least Skids wasn't in the cartoon enough to matter, or you'd be shouting into a howling vortex of "featureless blue rectangles because toon accuracy or gtfo". So there's a bright side!

[M'Kyuun]

17 hours ago, mikeszekely said:

Yeah.  The leg fillers aren't the greatest and have a tendency to fall off, but the spoiler and wings are absolutely worth it.  I don't think I'll invest in more for Exhaust or Slicer, though.

I wanted it for the improved spoiler/wings and for the more accurate shoulder cannon. 

17 hours ago, mikeszekely said:

A few were necessary to fix the number and what not, but I still wanted a cleaner Sunbow look than the total racing livery.  But buying an expensive sheet that I only need a fraction of the stickers is kind of Toyhax's MO these days.

Unfortunately so.  I wish there was another option that made more limited sheets with just the essentials. Toyhax tend to go a little overboard.

17 hours ago, mikeszekely said:

Which one?  While I love Go Better's kits of Sunstreaker and Wheeljack I kind of prefer Nonnef's Lambo spoilers.  The shoulder missile launcher is a wash, but Nonnef's gets you a G1 rifle, too.

I got the Go-Better GX-30B kit for Kingdom Sideswipe. I accidentally ordered two, so I'll probably end up painting the second kit and using it on Red Alert or Clampdown. 

Yeah, their Sunstreaker kit is excellent. The leg fillers are a little bit of a pain to manipulate during transformation but improve the look of the bot. Love that the gun can fold and store in the legs in car mode. Wish Hasbro themselves would do more of that. At this point, perfect integrated weapon storage should be the standard, not the exception. Alas, while some things have improved, like articulation, they've taken some steps back as well, especially in their zeal to conserve plastic per mold.  I think rotating wrists and opening hands should also be standard from deluxe and up. Maybe in the next decade, but I doubt it.

[M'Kyuun]

11 hours ago, JB0 said:

I love the "random widgets under glass" look too.

 

But hey, at least Skids wasn't in the cartoon enough to matter, or you'd be shouting into a howling vortex of "featureless blue rectangles because toon accuracy or gtfo". So there's a bright side!

'Random widgets under glass'- LOL. I like that. And yeah, it's one of my favorite features from the G1 toys and box art. I still think it looks rad.

Your observation about 'toon accuracy', an oxymoron if ever there was one, is on point. Indeed, Skids was spared Dery-fication. Back to the box art for Skids, it's a bit puzzling why the artist drew those shindows, as the toy certainly didn't have them, so it's a surprising bit of license when they generally tried to capture the look of the toy even while trying to make them look dynamic. Regardless of the why, I'm glad they did- shindows FTW! 😍😄

[mikeszekely]

Before I get started, a quick PSA: Jetfire isn't the only Commander getting reissued.  BBTS, Entertainment Earth, and The Chosen Prime all have preorders open for Sky Lynx, with a February release date.

With that out of the way, we can now look at Legacy Core-class Bomb-Burst.

Bomb-Burst, like Iguanus before him, doesn't do the Pretender gimmick.  Instead, he replaces his generic inner robot with a form based on the more recognizable shell (especially true given that the Pretenders didn't appear in the Sunbow G1 cartoon, but featured prominently as Blood in the early arc of Masterforce).  Frankly, while the idea of Transformers disguising themselves as humans wasn't the worst idea, giant monsters weren't much of a disguise and I wholeheartedly approve of Hasbro's modern approach.

And with that in mind, I think Hasbro did an ok-ish job capturing the look of Bomb-Burst's Pretender shell, but something seems off about the proportions.

Also, from behind you can see that he's traded his wings for a blue backpack.

Legacy Bomb-Burst comes with pretty much the same accessories as the original 1988 version- two guns, and something like an axe or a pick-axe.

Bomb-Burst's head is on a swivel- there's no tilt, and even more disappointingly his jaws are fixed.  His shoulders are ball joints for swiveling and moving laterally just under 90 degrees.  His ball-jointed elbows bend slightly over 90 degrees and double as bicep swivels.  No wrist swivels.  His waist swivels, at least.  Ball-jointed hips can go 90 degrees backward, a little more than that forward, and a little under that laterally.  Ball joints at the knees bend 90 degrees and serve as thigh swivels.  His feet can tilt up and down about 45 degrees, and his ankles can pivot a little less than that.

The guns have 5mm peg holes underneath that allow them to attach to pegs on Bomb-Burst's forearms, which is how they attached to the inner robot on the G1 toy.  There are also 5mm pegs on the backs of the guns, but it's not clear what purpose they serve.  They do not have the ability to combine into a larger gun the way the G1 toy did.  There are small pegs on the tips of the barrels.  These tips are almost certainly for attaching blast effects, but they happen to be the right size for Bomb-Burst to grip, allowing him to use them as big axes.  Or, you know, he could just hold the little axe.

Unlike the G1 versions, Legacy Bomb-Burst's guns have gray paint and some skeletal details molded onto one side.  There's some 5mm pegs on the sides of his backpack.  The instructions indicate that you can plug the guns into the backpack, and hey, it's kind of like his wings!  Except the drawings in the instructions make it seem like a great fit, but in practice the intakes on the sides of the cockpit force the guns to be attached at a 90 degree offset.  So if you want the guns to be his wings, you have to start undoing his backpack, and even then the wings wind up pretty far from his body and will sit at an angle.  It's really too bad the wings couldn't detach from the guns.

With the engineering of a Core-class figure you don't expect a ton from the transformation, but Bomb-Burst is basic even by Core-class standards.  The cockpit on his backpack folds up and over his head, his waist rotates 180 degrees, then his legs curl up under him.  The guns on his arms form the wings, but the arms themselves just hang back.  They don't even tab into anything.

Maybe I shouldn't complain too much... Legacy Bomb-Burst is kind of backward from the G1 toy, whose head was at the back and hips were at the front.  And yet, we've got the 5mm pegs on the sides of the cockpit where the original's hip joints were, and his pelvis where the G1 toy's head was.  It's blue where the original was blue, and gray where the original was gray.  It's honestly not that different, and what differences are there are mostly improvements.  Legacy Bomb-Burst has a longer cockpit, and his feet are tucked under more neatly than the original's thighs.  Speaking of thighs, Legacy Bomb-Burst's hips and thighs help fill in the space between his arms and pelvis, where the original just had a big gap between his arms and head.  These minor changes add up to an alt mode that's basically the G1 toy, but sleeker and more cohesive.  My only complaint is that G1 Bomb-Burst had a fin on the back of his head that became his alt mode's vertical stabilizer, while Legacy Bomb-Burst lacks a vertical stabilizer entirely.  That may be for the best, though, given that it'd be sticking out of his crotch.

Bomb-Burst's guns, as mentioned, are his wings, but his gray axe has alt mode storage, too.  The two points fit into slots on the underside of the mostly-hollow cockpit.  This leaves just a little of the handle sticking out the front like a nose gun, and it's even compatible with blast effects.

When Skullgrin was announced as a Deluxe in Legacy's third wave I complained that was taking up a Deluxe spot when when there are still cartoon characters like Gears, Windcharger, Brawn, Sandstorm, Octane, Broadside, and basically every combiner that isn't the Stunticons that need updated.  After having Bomb-Burst in hand, though, I think I'll have to walk that back.  Bomb-Burst winds up being a fairly mediocre character with a too-simple transformation, weird proportions, and a lot of floppy ball joints.  It's a toy that'd almost certainly have benefited from the greater engineering that comes even with the Deluxe-class.  Scale is a factor, too; even if I might have bought into the idea that the Pretenders were naturally smaller than just about everyone else, now I'm forced to reckon with the idea that Skullgrin is like twice the size of Bomb-Burst, even though Blood and Dauros were definitely the same size in Masterforce.  I think the Core-class is fine for really small characters, like Wheelie or Rumble, or for doing large characters in a smaller scale for posing with Titans like most of the other Core-class releases.  But I'm no longer in favor of using the Core-class as a dumping ground less popular characters.  Bomb-Burst should have been a Deluxe.  Iguanus should have been a Deluxe.  Buy Legacy Bomb-Burst if you're a completionist, or because you know it's unlikely you'll get a better one any time soon.  But if you don't need a Bomb-Burst in your collection, then you definitely don't need this one.

[M'Kyuun]

Along w/ Minerva, I missed the PO window on Pulse for Bomb-Burst. Guess maybe that wasn't a bad thing. Much like Iguanus, I was going to get him for the novelty rather than any nostalgia, of which I have zero. I always thought the G1 Pretenders were an atrocious affront to everything cool about Transformers. As such, like Mike, I much prefer the eschewing of the stupid fake skin cocoon and just making the character a proper transforming robot. Since they are core class, I don't have high expectations from them in pretty much any aspect so long as they have basic articulation- hips, knees, shoulders, elbows, and head on ball joints. Anything beyond that I consider a bonus. Long gone are the days when a small fig would have the engineering and parts count of a fig like Universe Breacher, who was a scout class toy at similar scale to core class. But scale is where the comparison ends. 

[mikeszekely]

On 10/31/2022 at 12:00 PM, M'Kyuun said:

While I didn't get this or Megatron, it looks to be far better executed than Megatron.

Was it though?  Let's take a more in-depth look at the Transformers X G.I. Joe Bumblebee A.W.E. Striker.

My initial impression is that Megatron looks better.  Some extra details on his hips and some extra tread on his legs aren't a huge deal.  For the most part, he looks like Megatron, just with some extra back guns and some new shoulder kibble.  Bee, on the other hand, looks like Hound and Beachcomber had a baby.  Little splashes of yellow and a Bumblebee head are all that really make him Bumblebee; they could have easily painted the chest blue gray, slapped a different head on him, and called him Kup.  And no matter who he is, his proportions are terrible.  I can't tell if his arms are weirdly long or not, but his torso is definitely like half the length it should be.

Some of the bigger gripes with Megatron were the alt mode kibble hanging off his back and shoulders, and the hollowness of the figure.  Bumblebee is, arguably, slightly less hollow- there's some hollow spots in his feet, forearms, biceps, and fists, but this thighs and legs are pretty filled in.  Of course, his thighs are also super thin due to transformation, so there isn't much to hollow out.  I'd argue, that the kibble, though, is worse than Megatron's.  Sure, he's got big shoulder pads and a mahoosive backpack, but those things stay pretty much out of the way.  Bee, meanwhile, has massive tires on his shoulders and knees that prevent him from even bringing his arms the whole way down.  And while his backpack doesn't jut out nearly as far as Megatron's, the roll cage dangles down past his knees, and the ends constantly bump into or get caught up on those knee wheels.  Just a few more hinges to collapse the roll cage would have made all the difference, but, SPOILERS, like Megatron Bee's more concerned with being replica of a 1985 G.I. Joe toy than a Transformer.

Be comes with a bit fewer accessories than Megatron.  There's just the one gun, where Megatron had three.  Bee does come with a retro-style G.I. Joe, but even his human has fewer accessories as he's got a stand and a rifle but not a backpack like Barnoness.

Side note... I wasn't a huge G.I. Joe fan.  I was aware of some of the more popular ones- Duke, Snake Eyes, Shipwreck, Roadblock, Scarlet, Flint, and Lady Jaye on the good guys, Cobra Commander, Destro, Zartan, and the Baroness on the bad guys.  This guy here is apparently Stalker, whom I'm totally unfamiliar with... but I love this guy!  He doesn't have any gimmick.  He's not a ninja or a member of the Village People.  He's just a guy, in generic army fatigues, with the sort of mustache popular with black actors in the late '70s and early '80s.  I mean, if you told me that this wasn't a G.I. Joe, it was actually George Dillon (played by Carl Weathers) from Predator, I'd totally believe it.

Moving along.  On paper, Bumblebee actually has better articulation than Megatron.  His head swivels.  His shoulders rotate and, in theory, can move laterally 90 degrees.  In practice, the back kibble and big shoulder tires are going to get in the way.  His biceps swivel, and his elbows bend 90 degrees.  He actually has wrist and waist swivels.  His hips can, again in theory, move 90 degrees forward, backward, and laterally, but again good luck working around the back kibble and big tires on his legs.  His thighs swivel, and his knees bend slightly over 90 degrees.  No foot or ankle articulation, which is kind of unacceptable on a $68 figure.

Something else worth noting... Megatron may have fewer joints, but the joints he has are nice and tight.  Bumblebee is really floppy.  On my copy, the lateral shoulder joints can't hold up the weight of the arms, and a gentle shake will cause his hips to flail like a little kid pretending to do karate.

The gun has a peg on it that can be used to plug it into his hands.

There's also a peg on his backpack that lets you mount it like a shoulder cannon.  A small protruding bit with a peg on it allows Stalker to ride on Bumblebee's back and man the cannon.

Another complaint about Megatron is that a lot of the vehicle was formed from his backpack and shoulder pads, with most of the robot stuffed between the treads on the bottom.  Bee does make up more of the vehicle here, with the legs and feet forming the front 2/3rds of the vehicle.  His backpack, if you ignore the roll cage, is pretty much just the engine compartment and rear fenders.

As was the case with Megatron, Bumblebee doesn't simply turn into a vehicle from G.I. Joe, he turns into a pretty convincing replica of a 1985 toy that 3.75" G.I. Joe figures could ride in.  It's hard for me to tell, maybe the green is a little lighter than the original toy (but close to the reissue), and some details that were stickers on the original are tampoed on Bee.  He's even got the steering wheel, camera, and antenna of the original.  There is a bit of extra material sticking up behind the seats that's not on the original- that's the platform Stalker can stand on when Bee's in robot mode.  And the engine cover isn't removable on Bee, since instead of an engine you'd just find Bee's head.

Whether Bee was holding the gun or wearing it on his backpack, you'll have to pull it off and partsform it to the top of the roll cage.  Then Bee's got plenty of space for Joes to ride- two seats in the roll cage, plus pegs on the floor outside the cage for joes to ride on the sides.  Another peg on the engine compartment allows a fifth Joe to man the cannon.

I guess a lot of what I have to say here is going to carry over from my Megatron review... a Transformers/G.I. Joe crossover makes a lot of sense, but it'd work better if the robots (whether original characters or repurposed existing ones) scaled with the mainline Transformers, the way the other crossovers have, and make them Transformers first, vehicles second, and skip compatibility with 3.75" figures.  The way they did it, focusing on a toy replica that happens to transform, makes for a poor Transformers experience, while Joe fans could simply buy a reissue A.W.E. Striker for less than half the price and not have to put up with it turning into a sub-par Transformer.  They could have saved a ton of money and made a much better Transformer if they'd simply repainted Maverick as the G.I. Joe Sky Striker. 

So, no, I don't think Bumblebee is better.  His floppy joints, weird proportions, and more in-the-way kibble make me like him a lot less than Megatron.  I can't honestly recommend this to anyone, be they Transformer or Joe fan, unless they're a super hardcore fan of both franchises who can remember playing with the A.W.E. Striker back in the '80s and thinking to themselves, " this is cool, but I wished it turned into a robot."

[JB0]

With those shoulders, I think Hot Shot woulda been more appropriate than Bumblebee.

[M'Kyuun]

4 hours ago, mikeszekely said:

Was it though?  Let's take a more in-depth look at the Transformers X G.I. Joe Bumblebee A.W.E. Striker.

My initial impression is that Megatron looks better.  Some extra details on his hips and some extra tread on his legs aren't a huge deal.  For the most part, he looks like Megatron, just with some extra back guns and some new shoulder kibble.  Bee, on the other hand, looks like Hound and Beachcomber had a baby.  Little splashes of yellow and a Bumblebee head are all that really make him Bumblebee; they could have easily painted the chest blue gray, slapped a different head on him, and called him Kup.  And no matter who he is, his proportions are terrible.  I can't tell if his arms are weirdly long or not, but his torso is definitely like half the length it should be.

Some of the bigger gripes with Megatron were the alt mode kibble hanging off his back and shoulders, and the hollowness of the figure.  Bumblebee is, arguably, slightly less hollow- there's some hollow spots in his feet, forearms, biceps, and fists, but this thighs and legs are pretty filled in.  Of course, his thighs are also super thin due to transformation, so there isn't much to hollow out.  I'd argue, that the kibble, though, is worse than Megatron's.  Sure, he's got big shoulder pads and a mahoosive backpack, but those things stay pretty much out of the way.  Bee, meanwhile, has massive tires on his shoulders and knees that prevent him from even bringing his arms the whole way down.  And while his backpack doesn't jut out nearly as far as Megatron's, the roll cage dangles down past his knees, and the ends constantly bump into or get caught up on those knee wheels.  Just a few more hinges to collapse the roll cage would have made all the difference, but, SPOILERS, like Megatron Bee's more concerned with being replica of a 1985 G.I. Joe toy than a Transformer.

Be comes with a bit fewer accessories than Megatron.  There's just the one gun, where Megatron had three.  Bee does come with a retro-style G.I. Joe, but even his human has fewer accessories as he's got a stand and a rifle but not a backpack like Barnoness.

Side note... I wasn't a huge G.I. Joe fan.  I was aware of some of the more popular ones- Duke, Snake Eyes, Shipwreck, Roadblock, Scarlet, Flint, and Lady Jaye on the good guys, Cobra Commander, Destro, Zartan, and the Baroness on the bad guys.  This guy here is apparently Stalker, whom I'm totally unfamiliar with... but I love this guy!  He doesn't have any gimmick.  He's not a ninja or a member of the Village People.  He's just a guy, in generic army fatigues, with the sort of mustache popular with black actors in the late '70s and early '80s.  I mean, if you told me that this wasn't a G.I. Joe, it was actually George Dillon (played by Carl Weathers) from Predator, I'd totally believe it.

Moving along.  On paper, Bumblebee actually has better articulation than Megatron.  His head swivels.  His shoulders rotate and, in theory, can move laterally 90 degrees.  In practice, the back kibble and big shoulder tires are going to get in the way.  His biceps swivel, and his elbows bend 90 degrees.  He actually has wrist and waist swivels.  His hips can, again in theory, move 90 degrees forward, backward, and laterally, but again good luck working around the back kibble and big tires on his legs.  His thighs swivel, and his knees bend slightly over 90 degrees.  No foot or ankle articulation, which is kind of unacceptable on a $68 figure.

Something else worth noting... Megatron may have fewer joints, but the joints he has are nice and tight.  Bumblebee is really floppy.  On my copy, the lateral shoulder joints can't hold up the weight of the arms, and a gentle shake will cause his hips to flail like a little kid pretending to do karate.

The gun has a peg on it that can be used to plug it into his hands.

There's also a peg on his backpack that lets you mount it like a shoulder cannon.  A small protruding bit with a peg on it allows Stalker to ride on Bumblebee's back and man the cannon.

Another complaint about Megatron is that a lot of the vehicle was formed from his backpack and shoulder pads, with most of the robot stuffed between the treads on the bottom.  Bee does make up more of the vehicle here, with the legs and feet forming the front 2/3rds of the vehicle.  His backpack, if you ignore the roll cage, is pretty much just the engine compartment and rear fenders.

As was the case with Megatron, Bumblebee doesn't simply turn into a vehicle from G.I. Joe, he turns into a pretty convincing replica of a 1985 toy that 3.75" G.I. Joe figures could ride in.  It's hard for me to tell, maybe the green is a little lighter than the original toy (but close to the reissue), and some details that were stickers on the original are tampoed on Bee.  He's even got the steering wheel, camera, and antenna of the original.  There is a bit of extra material sticking up behind the seats that's not on the original- that's the platform Stalker can stand on when Bee's in robot mode.  And the engine cover isn't removable on Bee, since instead of an engine you'd just find Bee's head.

Whether Bee was holding the gun or wearing it on his backpack, you'll have to pull it off and partsform it to the top of the roll cage.  Then Bee's got plenty of space for Joes to ride- two seats in the roll cage, plus pegs on the floor outside the cage for joes to ride on the sides.  Another peg on the engine compartment allows a fifth Joe to man the cannon.

I guess a lot of what I have to say here is going to carry over from my Megatron review... a Transformers/G.I. Joe crossover makes a lot of sense, but it'd work better if the robots (whether original characters or repurposed existing ones) scaled with the mainline Transformers, the way the other crossovers have, and make them Transformers first, vehicles second, and skip compatibility with 3.75" figures.  The way they did it, focusing on a toy replica that happens to transform, makes for a poor Transformers experience, while Joe fans could simply buy a reissue A.W.E. Striker for less than half the price and not have to put up with it turning into a sub-par Transformer.  They could have saved a ton of money and made a much better Transformer if they'd simply repainted Maverick as the G.I. Joe Sky Striker. 

So, no, I don't think Bumblebee is better.  His floppy joints, weird proportions, and more in-the-way kibble make me like him a lot less than Megatron.  I can't honestly recommend this to anyone, be they Transformer or Joe fan, unless they're a super hardcore fan of both franchises who can remember playing with the A.W.E. Striker back in the '80s and thinking to themselves, " this is cool, but I wished it turned into a robot."

 

11 minutes ago, JB0 said:

With those shoulders, I think Hot Shot woulda been more appropriate than Bumblebee.

My original observation stands with these G.I. Joe crossovers; they should have been their own characters absolutely divorced from any preexisting characters. It's from that lens that I really judge Bee here- give him a new head, get rid of the yellow paint, give him a custom paintjob and just call him Striker. I like the design, over-long arms and all. I think it's a better design than Megatron, as it doesn't look like it was designed to be Bumblebee with Striker parts tacked on, but a transforming AWE Striker with a Bumblebee head and some paint apps tacked on. My personal quibble aside, the limitations and looseness of the articulation is worthy of criticism, especially for the price. Too, as Mike said, the poseability and playability would have been improved if that roll cage could fold up a bit freeing the legs up. As-is, it's an easily avoidable annoyance that could have been easily remedied.  Unfortunately, Hasbro seems to be taking the cheapest possible path with these, which is unfortunate, as many of us have been waiting for this crossover for a long time, and now that it's here, it's lackluster at best.  While it's cool that they're upscaling these to fit the 3.75' vintage Joes, ultimately, I think the toys would be better served if they shrunk them down to CHUG scale and made the Joe figs smaller with rotating shoulders and hips (maybe knees too for proper sitting positions).  And again, make them all their own characters.  That's a subline I'd definitely buy into, although I've no idea where I'd put them. So many figs, so little room.

As a disclaimer, like Mike, I was never really into G.I. Joe. I watched the toon and had a small handful of figs and the Dragonfly Helicopter, which ironically was based on the RW Bell AH-1 Cobra. I thought the toys were, and still are, some of the best military toys ever made, and the Joes themselves were probably the best action figs you could buy domestically. The only figs that overshadowed them, at least in articulation, were Takara's Microman figs. All that said, apart from the toys, my interest was lukewarm at best. Transformers was the epitome of cool in my eyes, and Macross aside, still is. Well, transforming toys in general, but Transformers make up the vast majority of my modest collection.

[JB0]

6 hours ago, M'Kyuun said:

My original observation stands with these G.I. Joe crossovers; they should have been their own characters absolutely divorced from any preexisting characters. It's from that lens that I really judge Bee here- give him a new head, get rid of the yellow paint, give him a custom paintjob and just call him Striker.

You aren't wrong. 

And in terms of existing characters, they missed the obvious choice of, you know, HOUND.

 

But yellow character with disproportionately huge shoulders? Hot Shot.

[M'Kyuun]

5 hours ago, JB0 said:

You aren't wrong. 

And in terms of existing characters, they missed the obvious choice of, you know, HOUND.

 

But yellow character with disproportionately huge shoulders? Hot Shot.

Honestly, I don't get a Hot Shot vibe from this at all; rather, the Striker and the resultant bot are far more reminiscent of Beachcomber. We could just say this is Beachcomber's less hippie cousin. 😁

[JB0]

11 hours ago, M'Kyuun said:

Honestly, I don't get a Hot Shot vibe from this at all; rather, the Striker and the resultant bot are far more reminiscent of Beachcomber. We could just say this is Beachcomber's less hippie cousin. 😁

Beachstormer. 

 

Hot Shot is mostly just from the splashes of red in the yellow chest and (especially) the awkwardly-large shoulders.

[nightmareB4macross]

This OP reminds me of my dog when he was a puppy with his lipstick always out no matter the situation.

So happy to see you.🤣

[JB0]

A real Jingle Bell Rock & Roll Out kinda feelin'.

 

Yes, that was terrible. No, I'm not sorry.

[mikeszekely]

I mentioned when I reviewed the Megatron H.I.S.S. tank that I'd hoped it might make for a better CHUG Megatron than Earthrise Megatron.  And I elaborated on my issues with Earthrise Megatron earlier when I reviewed an unofficial Megatron that does turn into a gun but isn't particularly good... my second such figure, as it were.  Why is it that we have a pretty great Optimus with Earthrise, but the best we can do with Megatron is a kibbly partsformer (Earthrise), a so-so also kibbly unofficial figure that actually turns into a gun (ToyWorld Hegemon/Zeta Mega-Tron), or 3P stuff that's great but not at all an aesthetic match (MMC Tyrantron, Maketoys Despotron)?  I got so desperate that I started looking at the R.E.D. Megatron.  I stopped caring if he transformers (especially if he's going to wind up a tank), as long as he was G1 cartoony and had adequate articulation.  Oh, but it turns out the R.E.D. figure is like a head or so smaller, and while I can tolerate a Megatron that's slightly bigger than Optimus a Megatron that's slightly smaller is simply too small.

But, you know who is the right size?  Earthrise Megatron.  And as an official WFC figure he's got the right mix of Sunbow and greebles.  He's just got that backpack kibble and the crappy partsforming bits for his tank mode, but if I don't actually care anymore about a transforming Megatron could I "fix" ER Megatron?

Turns out, yeah.  Kind of.  Here's what I did...

(1) Since I don't need it to peg into his other arm, I grinded down the peg on top of the fusion cannon to more closely resemble the dial on the G1 toy.
(2) I painted the red bits connecting his shoulders to his torso gray.
(3) I tossed aside the tank barrel and rear filler entirely.  No tank mode means we don't need it anymore.
(Not numbered, because I nearly forgot I did it) I painted the silver square on Megatron's abs red, to better resemble the Sunbow model.

(4) I painted his flanks red.
(5) I pained the black part his arms are attached to, and the entire turret base, gray.  It's not a perfect match, but a, when does Hasbro match their own paint and plastic, and b, a not-quite right gray is still closer to the gray plastic than black.
(6) I used a rotary tool and cut off the panel with the tank treads entirely.

(7) I painted the black backs of his arms gray.
(8) Where Hasbro only painted the front of Megatron's biceps red, I painted the sides and back.
(9) I painted the black heels gray.

(10) The big flap on his back that forms the front of the tank?  I picked a spot near the small of his back, just above an indented spot, and used a rotary tool to cut through it.  The idea is to leave enough to cover the hollow areas on the back of his torso but to create more clearance for the waist swivel and to minimize what can be seen from the front.
(11) The finishing touch... on what was left of the flap, I drilled a 5mm hole.  Then I went on got one of those folding pistol things that came with Siege/Netflix/Legacy Soundwave or Siege Soundblaster.  I unfolded it, then cut off the end below the 5mm peg.  Technically, I even ground the peg a little shorter and sanded off some of the molded detail to fit the thing more flush in the hole I'd made on Megatron's back.  It's a tad thinner than I'd really like, but it gives Megatron his back-mounted gun barrel.

Speaking of gun barrels... like I said, this pretty much ruins his ability to transform.  But, when Megatron transformed in the cartoon he didn't turn into a tank, he shrunk down into a gun that Starscream or Soundwave could hold.  And while my post-op Megatron can't shrink down and transform into a gun, you can swap him out with a gun that other figures can hold when you need Megatron to have an alt mode.  Two examples that I have at home are the Megatron gun that came with a reissue G1 Starscream, and a Megatron gun that came in a pack with the Generations Selects Centurion drone.  You have to remove the stock and set it aside for the former, as your average WFC figure doesn't have the little tabs on the bottoms of their fists that the reissue Starscream does, but as you can see here Earthrise Starscream can hold the gun part just fine.  Meanwhile, the Centurion Drone one simply has a 5mm handle and no stock at all, and it's designed specifically for WFC figures.  If you don't have either of these, there are other options.  Dr. Wu created something like this years ago, and while you're unlikely to find an original Dr. Wu Megatron gun these days I was able to find knock offs of the Dr Wu, the Centurion Drone, and the Starscream reissue Megatron guns on Ebay.

So... yeah.  I'd still love for a better 3P Megatron that checks all my boxes- scale, articulation, cartoon look, turns into a gun, doesn't suck.  I keep thinking a WFC-scaled version of Magic Square's Megatron without that nylon plastic would be the bee's knees.  Until then, though, I can live with my non-transforming fixed Earthrise Megatron and a separate non-transforming Megatron gun that Starscream can hold.

[Dangard Ace]

As someone who loved GIJoe and Transformers as a kid I’m loving the play value of this cross over.  The Vietnam LRRP is back together again rolling in the AWE Striker!

[davidwhangchoi]

they should've made the Joe jeep Hound

[nightmareB4macross]

26 minutes ago, davidwhangchoi said:

they should've made the Joe jeep Hound

IiRC, Hasbro did just a non-transformable Hound and Jetfire.

[derex3592]

15 hours ago, nightmareB4macross said:

This OP reminds me of my dog when he was a puppy with his lipstick always out no matter the situation.

So happy to see you.🤣

@nightmareB4macross Ok good! I'm not the only one that thought that immediately! LOOL! 

[M'Kyuun]

On 11/5/2022 at 8:14 PM, nightmareB4macross said:

This OP reminds me of my dog when he was a puppy with his lipstick always out no matter the situation.

So happy to see you.🤣

I think you meant 'dipstick', not 'lipstick', but yeah, I see the correlation. 😉 Considering that the trailer is completely empty, that would seem to me to be the more likely gun storage option. It would also void this, erm, more uncomfortable option. 😈

[Wolf-1]

On 11/5/2022 at 11:35 PM, mikeszekely said:

I mentioned when I reviewed the Megatron H.I.S.S. tank that I'd hoped it might make for a better CHUG Megatron than Earthrise Megatron.  And I elaborated on my issues with Earthrise Megatron earlier when I reviewed an unofficial Megatron that does turn into a gun but isn't particularly good... my second such figure, as it were.  Why is it that we have a pretty great Optimus with Earthrise, but the best we can do with Megatron is a kibbly partsformer (Earthrise), a so-so also kibbly unofficial figure that actually turns into a gun (ToyWorld Hegemon/Zeta Mega-Tron), or 3P stuff that's great but not at all an aesthetic match (MMC Tyrantron, Maketoys Despotron)?  I got so desperate that I started looking at the R.E.D. Megatron.  I stopped caring if he transformers (especially if he's going to wind up a tank), as long as he was G1 cartoony and had adequate articulation.  Oh, but it turns out the R.E.D. figure is like a head or so smaller, and while I can tolerate a Megatron that's slightly bigger than Optimus a Megatron that's slightly smaller is simply too small.

But, you know who is the right size?  Earthrise Megatron.  And as an official WFC figure he's got the right mix of Sunbow and greebles.  He's just got that backpack kibble and the crappy partsforming bits for his tank mode, but if I don't actually care anymore about a transforming Megatron could I "fix" ER Megatron?

Turns out, yeah.  Kind of.  Here's what I did...

(1) Since I don't need it to peg into his other arm, I grinded down the peg on top of the fusion cannon to more closely resemble the dial on the G1 toy.
(2) I painted the red bits connecting his shoulders to his torso gray.
(3) I tossed aside the tank barrel and rear filler entirely.  No tank mode means we don't need it anymore.
(Not numbered, because I nearly forgot I did it) I painted the silver square on Megatron's abs red, to better resemble the Sunbow model.

(4) I painted his flanks red.
(5) I pained the black part his arms are attached to, and the entire turret base, gray.  It's not a perfect match, but a, when does Hasbro match their own paint and plastic, and b, a not-quite right gray is still closer to the gray plastic than black.
(6) I used a rotary tool and cut off the panel with the tank treads entirely.

(7) I painted the black backs of his arms gray.
(8) Where Hasbro only painted the front of Megatron's biceps red, I painted the sides and back.
(9) I painted the black heels gray.

(10) The big flap on his back that forms the front of the tank?  I picked a spot near the small of his back, just above an indented spot, and used a rotary tool to cut through it.  The idea is to leave enough to cover the hollow areas on the back of his torso but to create more clearance for the waist swivel and to minimize what can be seen from the front.
(11) The finishing touch... on what was left of the flap, I drilled a 5mm hole.  Then I went on got one of those folding pistol things that came with Siege/Netflix/Legacy Soundwave or Siege Soundblaster.  I unfolded it, then cut off the end below the 5mm peg.  Technically, I even ground the peg a little shorter and sanded off some of the molded detail to fit the thing more flush in the hole I'd made on Megatron's back.  It's a tad thinner than I'd really like, but it gives Megatron his back-mounted gun barrel.

Speaking of gun barrels... like I said, this pretty much ruins his ability to transform.  But, when Megatron transformed in the cartoon he didn't turn into a tank, he shrunk down into a gun that Starscream or Soundwave could hold.  And while my post-op Megatron can't shrink down and transform into a gun, you can swap him out with a gun that other figures can hold when you need Megatron to have an alt mode.  Two examples that I have at home are the Megatron gun that came with a reissue G1 Starscream, and a Megatron gun that came in a pack with the Generations Selects Centurion drone.  You have to remove the stock and set it aside for the former, as your average WFC figure doesn't have the little tabs on the bottoms of their fists that the reissue Starscream does, but as you can see here Earthrise Starscream can hold the gun part just fine.  Meanwhile, the Centurion Drone one simply has a 5mm handle and no stock at all, and it's designed specifically for WFC figures.  If you don't have either of these, there are other options.  Dr. Wu created something like this years ago, and while you're unlikely to find an original Dr. Wu Megatron gun these days I was able to find knock offs of the Dr Wu, the Centurion Drone, and the Starscream reissue Megatron guns on Ebay.

So... yeah.  I'd still love for a better 3P Megatron that checks all my boxes- scale, articulation, cartoon look, turns into a gun, doesn't suck.  I keep thinking a WFC-scaled version of Magic Square's Megatron without that nylon plastic would be the bee's knees.  Until then, though, I can live with my non-transforming fixed Earthrise Megatron and a separate non-transforming Megatron gun that Starscream can hold.

I am not sure where he found the printable file at, but Lazyeyebrow has essentially done the same thing to Meg's back, only the faux barrel is the proper size.  It's not up on his site for sale or at JRC Designs.  Maybe try Shapeways but better pile on a few orders to make the shipping worth the effort.