The Transformers Thread (licensed) Next

[mikeszekely]

And the other Voyager from this last wave of Legacy is Starscream.  Not the Earthrise one, and not the Studio Series 86 one.  The Armada one.

Something Legacy Starscream has in common with Earthrise Starscream is that they're both Voyager-sized toys of characters that were previously released as Deluxes.  However, while simply being the same character does mean there will be some similarities, Legacy Starscream isn't merely am improved upscale of the previous version the way Earthrise was.  

So, off the bat, size isn't the only improvement.  His wings are given a more traditional shape, and they've added some more of the black and yellow to his shoulders and chest.  There's more black around his cockpit, nose, and canards, and the cockpit itself is now metallic blue with textures molded into it.  He's got red bands around his wrists, and the white feet have been swapped for red.  His chin strap is painted black, he's got a white spot on his forehead, and the fix on his shins are thin white on the edges with a mostly red chunk.

Spinning him around, the molded details on his forearms are improved, and his backpack boosters are totally different design.  The net result is that Legacy Starscream is much more cartoon accurate.  So far so good, right?  It's not perfect, though.  The biggest single aesthetic issue I have with Legacy Starscream is his legs.  The original toy's lower legs were cast in the same grayish-white plastic as his forearms, with large patches of black painted onto the shins and sides.  The cartoon retained this black-on-white pattern.  Seems one of the ways Hasbro chose to cut costs was to simply cast Starscream's lower legs in black and forego the white entirely.  While were on the subject, Hasbro painted the intakes of the boosters black, but not the exhaust tips, something that they definitely should have done for cartoon and toy accuracy.  You could argue that they need some red on the sides, too, but that red (which was definitely on the toy) seemed to come and go in the cartoon.

Another thing they did to cut costs was to ditch the removable wing sword gimmick.  Instead of removing his left wing and unfolding it into a sword, Hasbro simply made a sword accessory in the shape of his wing sword.  My initial thought was maybe it should have some red on the edge, but I re-watched a fight between Starscream and Demolisher, and nope, somehow his wing loses color in the cartoon when it's a sword, so plain white plastic checks out.  He comes with one other accessory, and that's supposed to be the Star Saber.  It doesn't break apart into minicons or anything- I don't actually see that as a con, though, as what we have here actually looks like a sword and not some jets stuck together. A lot of people are complaining that it's a bit on the small side, and they may have a point there.

Anyway, Starscream's head is on a ball joint.  He can look up quite a bit, but not a ton down, and not a lot of sideways tilt.  His shoulders rotate- his wings have a swivel and hinge so they can angle and fold back to give you clearance.  His shoulders can also move laterally 90 degrees.  His biceps swivel, an his double-jointed elbows get a bit under 180 degrees of curl.  His wrists, sadly, do not swivel.  But, interestingly enough, his waist does!  Granted, you're not really going to get a ton of turn in either direction before his cockpit won't get past his hips, but it's more than Earthrise got.  His hips can get beyond 90 degrees forward, backward, or laterally.  His thighs swivel, and his knees bend a little over 90 degrees.  His feet have a very slight upward tilt, plenty of downward tilt, and a little bit of pivot.

Starscream can hold either sword in either hand.  They both have pegs on the hilt (or where the hilt ought to be) in addition to their handles, and ports on his forearms mean you can have him mount the swords like arm blades.  Additional peg holes can be found under his feet, on the outsides of his legs, on the back of each wing, and in the middle of his back.  The one on his back is a bit recessed, though, which makes it a tad useless.  While his wing sword doesn't turn into a wing, at the cost of some wing articulation you can peg it in across his wing and back so that it's out of sight behind him.

In the cartoon (and I think on the original toy) Starscream's boosters never actually folded back onto his back.  They stuck out behind him (likely giving him grief every time he tried to sit in a high-backed chair).  You can absolutely recreate that look with this figure, something you couldn't with the older Generations figure.  Simply lift his back, then fold the red part back down and tab it back into his back.  No missile firing gimmicks here, but the booster do fold over (no minicon required) to give him his shoulder cannons.  They end in 5mm ports, which makes them compatible with Siege blast effects.

You'll find some similarities in the transformation- jet nose up, backpack up, wings fold back and line up with the shoulders, legs turn inward then wrap over the thighs.  Legacy Starscream's got a few bits that make him feel a bit more solid, though, like panels that fold out of his calves and connect between his legs and a panel on his back that covers over that.  These elements combine to fill in a lot of the fuselage between his legs and back boosters.  His arms also curl up, fists toward the front, in a manner closer to the original toy/cartoon than the way the Generations figure jammed them along the sides.

Speaking of those arms, they kind of bugged me on the original.  Like, they just hang there, so un-aerodynamic.  Blocky arms are still un-aerodynamic, but they tuck in a bit tighter.  You could almost believe they're some kind of engine nacelles or drop tanks.  Dangling arms aside, my complaints are pretty much entirely down to the colors and how they chose to paint (or rather, not paint) Starscream.  I already touched on the lack of black on the exhausts, and the lack of white on the legs.  Beyond that, when viewed from above, there should be a lot more white.  The tops of his torso, above the intakes on his chest, should be white such that it blend right into the wings.  The red hinges would have been better in white- the ones on his wings, especially, could have been molded in the white/gray plastic instead of red.  I think he might have also benefitted if the gray between the boosters were red (which would have had to be paint, since it's molded with the boosters), and the red panel running from it to the tail would have been white instead of red.

Starscream's canopy doesn't open, and he doesn't have any landing gear.  His boosters can flip over, though, so he can fire his cannons in jet mode.  And he's got 5mm pegs on his forearms, under his wings, two on the bottom near the back, and one under his nose, and you can use any of those as places to store his weapons.

Transformers Armada is kind of like the opposite of Beast Wars for me.  With Beast Wars, the story was pretty great but the shellformery designs and the entire notion of robots turning into organic animals were turn offs.  Armada is the kind unwatchable dreck that Japan was serving elementary-age boys in the early-aughts, but I quite liked a lot of the designs from it.  Armada Starscream is probably my favorite non-G1 (or G1-adjacent, like Cyberverse/RiD 15/IDW etc) Starscream design.  It takes some of G1 Starscream's designs, like intakes on the chest, a torso with a cockpit in it, and wings on his back but tweaks them and the colors enough that the homage inspiration isn't as overt as a lot of the more recent Starscream designs, then gives him ant alt mode that's rather like a VF-11 with FAST packs.  Legacy Starscream delivers all that in a package that's got better proportions and cartoon accuracy than the original Armada toy, and better articulation and scale than the Generations toy.  And while I might rant about recent G1 releases scraping the bottom of the barrel, I've acknowledged that non-G1 deserves some time in the spotlight and Starscream is easily a top 3 character from Armada.  I can find a few aesthetic faults with the color placement on this guy, but ultimately Legacy Starscream is a very good take on one of the best non-G1 Starscreams in the franchise, and I can happily recommend him.

[mikeszekely]

And now, we can finish off the third wave of Legacy with Megatron, the sole new Leader-class.

This Megatron is supposed to be an upgraded form of the last Leader-class Megatron we got, the one from Kingdom.  Actually, this is his Transmetal II form, so technically an uprade over the original Transmetal upgrade that organic purple Megatron already got.  I think that Legacy Megatron is a lot closer to the cartoon than the original Beast Wars toy, but it's hard to say because I don't have DVDs for Beast Wars, and good screenshots are surprisingly hard to come by.  For the most part, it comes down to small details... Legacy Megatron has gold toe claws instead of black, gold horns on the dragon arm instead of red, a gold spike on his left knee instead of a trio of black ones, no black on his right knee, no green or black on the spikey "wheels" in his legs, a lack of gold on his wing claws, stuff like that.  Actually, if you're really paying attention (and I don't think anyone was, because the issue seems to go all the way back to the prototypes), you'll notice that the wing claws are actually backward when compared to the cartoon.  This can be corrected, though, by removing a pair of screws, prying the tips of his wings apart enough, then removing the claws, turning them around, and putting it all back together.

While Hasbro did a great job hiding away his alt mode arms, it's a bit disappointing that they still couldn't manage to do anything more with the alt mode chest than the original toy, that is, to have it hanging over his butt.  I believe on the original toy (not sure, as I didn't own it) that it actually was his butt, but here the whole thing sort of dangles off his back like some kind of weird cape.

I also have to say that I'm not really a fan of the head sculpt.  I'd have preferred a more show-accurate face, more akin to the one on Kingdom Megatron.  Instead, Legacy Megatron has bigger eyes, a more prominent nose, sharper lines around his mouth, and a snarl full of pointed teeth that make him seem a bit more monstrous than I recall David Kaye portraying him.

Moving right along, unlike Kingdom Megatron, Legacy Megatron does come with an accessory... this single bit of translucent orange plastic.

Megatron's head is on a swivel, but he's got no tilt.  His right arm has ratcheted rotation at the shoulder, 90 degrees of lateral motion, a bicep swivel, a double-jointed elbow that can bend nearly 180 degrees, and a wrist that can't swivel but can bend downward.  His right shoulder also rotates on a ratchet and can move laterally a bit over 90 degrees.  There are swivels and curls in there, too, but we'll cover that more in alt mode.  His waist can swivel on a ratchet.  His hips can go forward and backward 90 degrees on ratchets, although his "cape" will practically limit the backward articulation.  A friction hinge allows for over 90 degrees of lateral spread.  His thighs swivel, and his knees bend something like a 130-140 degrees.  His feet can tilt up and down, plus they've got about 45 degrees of pivot.

The translucent orange piece can be held in his right fist like a club or flaming sword.  You can also use it as a blast effect, and there's a port inside his dragon head-hand and under each of his feet, but that's it.

Don't let the instructions fool you; transformation for this guy is pretty straightforward, and honestly a bit easier/more fun than the Kingdom one.  For some reason, though, Hasbro has like six steps in the instructions just for folding the dragon arms out of his robot chest, but they more or less boil down to folding the panel they're on out and arranging them in a way that makes anatomical sense, or alternatively using the joints on them to tuck them back into the chest in the only way that they actually fit.

He doesn't have the vehicle mode of the original toy, but quite frankly, when you can turn into a flying, fire-breathing dragon, why on Earth would you want to turn into a grounded dragon that scoots around on wheels?  Maybe fans of the original toy will miss the gimmick, but it's omission is hardly a bother as far as I'm concerned.

I think the dragon mode looks decent enough.  We've got the notes I already had before, like the gold claws on his feet and horns on his head, some missing black on his knees and the "wheels" on his legs.  His front claws are also gold instead of black, which technically matches his gold foot claws but, more practically, are because they're formed from the gold chest ribs on the robot mode.  The dragon still has his own painted gold ribs, although the translucent orange ball is much lower on Legacy Megatron than the cartoon or the original toy.  The gold under his neck is broken up by some red hinges, and front he sides he's a bit gappy- you can actually see his robot fist inside the base of his neck.

Using the ratcheted shoulder joint in the robot shoulder, Megatron's head can swivel, and the lateral shoulder joint gives him some up/down bend.  Beyond that, though, there are four ball joints in his neck that act as both bends and swivels, and another hinged bend where the head connects to the neck.  That gives you quite a bit of freedom for how you want to turn, bend, and curl his neck.  His jaws open.  His shoulders rotate and move laterally almost 90 degrees.  He's got bicep swivels and a single elbow hinge that bends from not-quite-straight to almost 180 degrees of curl.  His wrists swivel, and his hands are actually swivels that allow his claws to slide left and right around his palms.  His hips and legs have all the same articulation as they did in robot mode, but with an additional digitigrade ankle hinge.  His wings have hinges for flapping, the claws are actually hinged and can wiggle left and right a little, then each of the five segments on each wing can swivel, allowing his wings to tuck in or splay out.  His tail uses his robot neck swivel to sway from side to side, then there's an up/down hinge on the back of his robot head followed by four segmented sections on ball joints, so his tail has plenty of articulation, too.

In dragon mode he doesn't really have any way to hold his accessory like a club.  But, naturally, you can plug it into the port in his mouth to have him breathing fire on his enemies...

...in theory.

See, after all this writing, I still haven't touched upon the biggest issue I have with Megatron- loose joints.  The shoulder hinge at the base of the dragon neck is too loose, so his dragon head droops down.  The shifting weight is too much for the loose up/down tilt in his feet, and before you know it Megatron has collapsed under his own weight.  His tail droops so it's always dragging on the ground, which is true even after he's fallen on his face with his butt in the air, adding to the indignity.

Fortunately, these are fixable problems.  I took apart his head and put a little floor polish on the hinge post at the base of the tail.  I took apart his left shoulder and did the same for the lateral joint that functions as the base of the dragon neck, then for good measure dropped a little floor polish on the ball joint closest to the dragon head.  Finally, I took apart both of his lower legs, putting a little floor polish on the posts for both his knees and the digitigrade joints for dragon mode, then dripped a little floor polish onto the up/down tilts on his feet.  Once the polish dried the joints were plenty tight enough eliminating my main complaint about him.

So, yeah.  I'm not the biggest Beast Wars fan.  I'll buy, but won't be bothered if they never get around to the Transmetal versions of Cheetor, Rattrap, Tarantulas, or Blackarachnia.  It doesn't matter to me if they don't do other cartoon characters like Depth Charge, Silverbolt, Quickstrike, and Rampage, and I really don't care if they never do any new figures of Beast Wars toys that were never in the cartoon.  But I like this Megatron figure.  I like it better than the Kingdom one.  I'd give him a recommend, just be sure to pick up some floor polish.

[sh9000]

[M'Kyuun]

17 hours ago, mikeszekely said:

And now, we can finish off the third wave of Legacy with Megatron, the sole new Leader-class.

This Megatron is supposed to be an upgraded form of the last Leader-class Megatron we got, the one from Kingdom.  Actually, this is his Transmetal II form, so technically an uprade over the original Transmetal upgrade that organic purple Megatron already got.  I think that Legacy Megatron is a lot closer to the cartoon than the original Beast Wars toy, but it's hard to say because I don't have DVDs for Beast Wars, and good screenshots are surprisingly hard to come by.  For the most part, it comes down to small details... Legacy Megatron has gold toe claws instead of black, gold horns on the dragon arm instead of red, a gold spike on his left knee instead of a trio of black ones, no black on his right knee, no green or black on the spikey "wheels" in his legs, a lack of gold on his wing claws, stuff like that.  Actually, if you're really paying attention (and I don't think anyone was, because the issue seems to go all the way back to the prototypes), you'll notice that the wing claws are actually backward when compared to the cartoon.  This can be corrected, though, by removing a pair of screws, prying the tips of his wings apart enough, then removing the claws, turning them around, and putting it all back together.

While Hasbro did a great job hiding away his alt mode arms, it's a bit disappointing that they still couldn't manage to do anything more with the alt mode chest than the original toy, that is, to have it hanging over his butt.  I believe on the original toy (not sure, as I didn't own it) that it actually was his butt, but here the whole thing sort of dangles off his back like some kind of weird cape.

I also have to say that I'm not really a fan of the head sculpt.  I'd have preferred a more show-accurate face, more akin to the one on Kingdom Megatron.  Instead, Legacy Megatron has bigger eyes, a more prominent nose, sharper lines around his mouth, and a snarl full of pointed teeth that make him seem a bit more monstrous than I recall David Kaye portraying him.

Moving right along, unlike Kingdom Megatron, Legacy Megatron does come with an accessory... this single bit of translucent orange plastic.

Megatron's head is on a swivel, but he's got no tilt.  His right arm has ratcheted rotation at the shoulder, 90 degrees of lateral motion, a bicep swivel, a double-jointed elbow that can bend nearly 180 degrees, and a wrist that can't swivel but can bend downward.  His right shoulder also rotates on a ratchet and can move laterally a bit over 90 degrees.  There are swivels and curls in there, too, but we'll cover that more in alt mode.  His waist can swivel on a ratchet.  His hips can go forward and backward 90 degrees on ratchets, although his "cape" will practically limit the backward articulation.  A friction hinge allows for over 90 degrees of lateral spread.  His thighs swivel, and his knees bend something like a 130-140 degrees.  His feet can tilt up and down, plus they've got about 45 degrees of pivot.

The translucent orange piece can be held in his right fist like a club or flaming sword.  You can also use it as a blast effect, and there's a port inside his dragon head-hand and under each of his feet, but that's it.

Don't let the instructions fool you; transformation for this guy is pretty straightforward, and honestly a bit easier/more fun than the Kingdom one.  For some reason, though, Hasbro has like six steps in the instructions just for folding the dragon arms out of his robot chest, but they more or less boil down to folding the panel they're on out and arranging them in a way that makes anatomical sense, or alternatively using the joints on them to tuck them back into the chest in the only way that they actually fit.

He doesn't have the vehicle mode of the original toy, but quite frankly, when you can turn into a flying, fire-breathing dragon, why on Earth would you want to turn into a grounded dragon that scoots around on wheels?  Maybe fans of the original toy will miss the gimmick, but it's omission is hardly a bother as far as I'm concerned.

I think the dragon mode looks decent enough.  We've got the notes I already had before, like the gold claws on his feet and horns on his head, some missing black on his knees and the "wheels" on his legs.  His front claws are also gold instead of black, which technically matches his gold foot claws but, more practically, are because they're formed from the gold chest ribs on the robot mode.  The dragon still has his own painted gold ribs, although the translucent orange ball is much lower on Legacy Megatron than the cartoon or the original toy.  The gold under his neck is broken up by some red hinges, and front he sides he's a bit gappy- you can actually see his robot fist inside the base of his neck.

Using the ratcheted shoulder joint in the robot shoulder, Megatron's head can swivel, and the lateral shoulder joint gives him some up/down bend.  Beyond that, though, there are four ball joints in his neck that act as both bends and swivels, and another hinged bend where the head connects to the neck.  That gives you quite a bit of freedom for how you want to turn, bend, and curl his neck.  His jaws open.  His shoulders rotate and move laterally almost 90 degrees.  He's got bicep swivels and a single elbow hinge that bends from not-quite-straight to almost 180 degrees of curl.  His wrists swivel, and his hands are actually swivels that allow his claws to slide left and right around his palms.  His hips and legs have all the same articulation as they did in robot mode, but with an additional digitigrade ankle hinge.  His wings have hinges for flapping, the claws are actually hinged and can wiggle left and right a little, then each of the five segments on each wing can swivel, allowing his wings to tuck in or splay out.  His tail uses his robot neck swivel to sway from side to side, then there's an up/down hinge on the back of his robot head followed by four segmented sections on ball joints, so his tail has plenty of articulation, too.

In dragon mode he doesn't really have any way to hold his accessory like a club.  But, naturally, you can plug it into the port in his mouth to have him breathing fire on his enemies...

...in theory.

See, after all this writing, I still haven't touched upon the biggest issue I have with Megatron- loose joints.  The shoulder hinge at the base of the dragon neck is too loose, so his dragon head droops down.  The shifting weight is too much for the loose up/down tilt in his feet, and before you know it Megatron has collapsed under his own weight.  His tail droops so it's always dragging on the ground, which is true even after he's fallen on his face with his butt in the air, adding to the indignity.

Fortunately, these are fixable problems.  I took apart his head and put a little floor polish on the hinge post at the base of the tail.  I took apart his left shoulder and did the same for the lateral joint that functions as the base of the dragon neck, then for good measure dropped a little floor polish on the ball joint closest to the dragon head.  Finally, I took apart both of his lower legs, putting a little floor polish on the posts for both his knees and the digitigrade joints for dragon mode, then dripped a little floor polish onto the up/down tilts on his feet.  Once the polish dried the joints were plenty tight enough eliminating my main complaint about him.

So, yeah.  I'm not the biggest Beast Wars fan.  I'll buy, but won't be bothered if they never get around to the Transmetal versions of Cheetor, Rattrap, Tarantulas, or Blackarachnia.  It doesn't matter to me if they don't do other cartoon characters like Depth Charge, Silverbolt, Quickstrike, and Rampage, and I really don't care if they never do any new figures of Beast Wars toys that were never in the cartoon.  But I like this Megatron figure.  I like it better than the Kingdom one.  I'd give him a recommend, just be sure to pick up some floor polish.

Sorry to hear about the loose joint situation. Hopefully your copy was a one-off and not endemic. 

I never liked Transmetal Megatron; it didn't appeal to me in the 90s and still doesn't, so I won't be adding this guy to my collection. I just got my copy of Inferno yesterday, and I love him- so much character in that toy! I'm so glad they gave him a hinged jaw for that extra bit of maniacal expression. 😍 "For the royalty!" indeed. I do wish, however, that they'd put some additional ratcheting hinges in the ant legs on the arms to allow them to fold or be moved out of the way better.

In addition to Inferno, I received my copy of TLK Hot Rod, and though I seldom pick up a Bayformer fig these days, it looked pretty good to me. Having not handled a Bayformer in some time, the extent of its complexity in comparison to the typical Generations/ WfC stuff was surprising and reminiscent of the toys from the mid aughts when the first few films came out. The other thing that struck me was the parts count on this toy as opposed to the typical deluxe Generations figure- many more moving parts, a licensed alt mode, better engineering and complexity, a decent amount of paint apps---why the hell don't Generations toys receive the same from their budgets? I realize this is Studio Series, but the SS86 figs don't even seem to enjoy this level of engineering or detail. Ironhide, just to pick on a recent release, suffers from huge hinges which interrupt the smooth lines of his van mode, and he doesn't even have his traditional yellow stripe, although the panel lines depict it. To my thinking, had Ironhide been a part of the regular Studio Series, he would have had a smooth sided van with the stripe utilizing more double hinges and other such contrivances to better realize his alt mode without compromise. Def a double standard when it comes to these lines, and unfortunately, the Generations stuff seems to be on the lower end despite the fact that G1 continues to drive the franchise more than any other continuity.

[mikeszekely]

4 hours ago, M'Kyuun said:

To my thinking, had Ironhide been a part of the regular Studio Series, he would have had a smooth sided van with the stripe utilizing more double hinges and other such contrivances to better realize his alt mode without compromise. Def a double standard when it comes to these lines, and unfortunately, the Generations stuff seems to be on the lower end despite the fact that G1 continues to drive the franchise more than any other continuity.

As someone who buys, well, pretty much everything, it's almost always the opposite, with the non-86 Studio Series toys often shellformers plagued with ball joints, a lack of paint, and even basic articulation like ankles.  But sure, let's take a minute and see how Deluxe-class Studio Series Hot Rod stacks up.

Although they didn't appear together, I decided to compare Hot Rod to Lockdown to remind everyone that Hasbro can do licensed Lamborghini alt modes, but Breakdown is still going to be a legally-distinct Ferrari because Hasbro is cheap.  (And don't worry, people, he's not so brown-gray in hand, my camera just refuses to believe Hot Rod is as gunmetal as he is.

Well, out of the box, I think I can see one way they kept the costs down.  Hot Rod is small, and Hot Rod is light.  To verify that it's not just Lockdown, I checked Hot Rod against a couple of other Deluxes, and sure enough he's even slightly shorter than "standard" guys like Earthrise Prowl and Siege Sideswipe.  And no, your brain is not playing tricks on you, he's super light.  While you wouldn't expect every Deluxe to weigh exactly the same, it's telling that Hot Rod here clocked in around 50g on my scale, but Earthrise Prowl, SS86 Jazz, Legacy Dragstrip, Velocitron Cosmos, and SS Lockdown all came up at 70g or more.

Like many Studio Series figures, the sculpt on Hot Rod is mostly pretty good, with the usual "this thing has to transform on a Deluxe budget" caveats.  So, while the robot details on his midsection, thighs, and head are especially good, and his face is painted well with lots more orange on his legs, there's plenty of awkward car kibble in spots.  The backs of his hands are car panels, he's got car panels with tires just hanging off of his knees (semi-accurate) and folded chunks of car on his forearms (again, semi-accurate).  The placement of this kibble omits or obscures places where he should have orange on his arms, and honestly even with the paint on his legs he's missing a bit from his thighs and torso, too.  Compared to how most SS figures wear their alt modes folded up on their back, Hot Rod's backpack is relatively clean.  My biggest complaint here are his little wings, which are fine in the sense that the CGI model has wings, but less fine in the way that SS Hot Rod's contain a bit more car kibble than the CGI model, which the figure attempts to mitigate by having the ends fold in.  But, since they can't fold flat, they look a bit awkward and tend to get in the way.

Hot Rod's sole accessory is his time gun, and it's fine.  They even put some spots of blue paint on it.

Hot Rod's head is on a ball joint, and it can look up and down a little but can't tilt to the side.  His shoulders are also ball joints, so they can rotate and move laterally a little under 90 degrees.  Plus, there's a transformation joint that doesn't really lock into place, so he can really slump his shoulders, if that's something you want him to do.  His biceps swivel, and his elbows bend 90 degrees.  His wrists swivel, as does his waist.  His hips are, sigh, more ball joints.  They can go about 90 degrees forward and backward, and a bit under 90 laterally.  His thigs swivel, and his knees bend 90 degrees, although you kind of have to force the wheels on his calves around his thighs.  His ankles are hinged ball joints, giving him a ton of up/down tilt and a swivel but leaving him with just the slightest of ankle pivots.

Hot Rod can hold his weapon in either hand, but I couldn't find any storage for it on his robot person.

Hot Rod's transformation is probably where a lot of his budget went, as I'll grant that he's got a lot more moving pieces than Lockdown did.  Perhaps they've learned something from what Unique Toys has been doing with the movie designs, because there is some clever use of robot parts to make up parts of the car instead of shelformering the whole thing.  For instance, the engine cover on the back of the car is the soles of Hot Rod's feet, and much of the hood that isn't part of the robot chest turns inside out and flips around to form his robot abs.

I'm not super clear on the dimensions of a Centenario vs an Aventador, but Hot Rod is noticeably smaller in alt mode than Lockdown.

As mentioned, Hot Rod has the licensed Lamborghini Centenario alt mode, and although it's broken up by a ton of panels and hinges it does look pretty sweet.  Unlike a lot of of the other Studio Series cars, most of Hot Rod is bare plastic molded in the gunmetal color; unfortunately, that means his tires are the same color as his body and rims.  I think we can also see why Hot Rod is missing so many orange paint apps on his robot mode- they'd result in orange paint on parts of the car that aren't supposed to be orange, as the the thin lines over the doors and around bottom is pretty much it for the actual car.  That said, they still skimped, as the orange should go the whole way around the car, instead of leaving big gaps around the wheels.  What's more, the orange should follow the molded panels, so instead of remaining a thin line it's should cover the whole space where the lines raise up in front of the wheels.  It's a minor detail, but the fuel door is also missing.

There are two slots near his rear wing (you may have noticed that this figure has one, and many Hot Rod toys like the previous Deluxe or the Jada Metals car did not- I believe the Centenario has one of those wings that blend in the with body and is extended either manually by the owner or automatically by the car's software).  These slots fit with a tab on the side of his time gun.  If you were hoping for more concealed storage I'm afraid you're out of luck, but it's better than nothing.

In summary, I can definitely see where and how Hasbro managed to keep Hot Rod inside his Deluxe-class budget.  I don't think he (or any Studio Series figure) got any exceptional treatment that Studio Series 86 or Legacy doesn't.  I don't thing his overall parts count is high, and the parts he does have definitely use less plastic than a lot of other Deluxes.  His articulation is fairly average, with more ball joints than I'd prefer.  Large swaths of orange paint on his legs don't translate to higher-than-normal amounts of paint overall, and a little more might be been beneficial when it seems he's made from just three colors of plastic.

However, while I can't say I believe Hot Rod to be exceptional, I can say that he is quite good, perhaps the best Bayverse figure I've looked at in a good long while.  Hot Rod's engineering makes effective use of the the parts he has to deliver a solid figure with a good movie likeness less burdened by kibble than many other figures in the line.  That engineering happens to covert a solid robot into a very cool licensed Lamborghini, too.  So, yeah, Hot Rod's a recommend from me, even if the Bayverse isn't necessarily you're thing.

[M'Kyuun]

8 hours ago, mikeszekely said:

As someone who buys, well, pretty much everything, it's almost always the opposite, with the non-86 Studio Series toys often shellformers plagued with ball joints, a lack of paint, and even basic articulation like ankles.  But sure, let's take a minute and see how Deluxe-class Studio Series Hot Rod stacks up.

Although they didn't appear together, I decided to compare Hot Rod to Lockdown to remind everyone that Hasbro can do licensed Lamborghini alt modes, but Breakdown is still going to be a legally-distinct Ferrari because Hasbro is cheap.  (And don't worry, people, he's not so brown-gray in hand, my camera just refuses to believe Hot Rod is as gunmetal as he is.

Well, out of the box, I think I can see one way they kept the costs down.  Hot Rod is small, and Hot Rod is light.  To verify that it's not just Lockdown, I checked Hot Rod against a couple of other Deluxes, and sure enough he's even slightly shorter than "standard" guys like Earthrise Prowl and Siege Sideswipe.  And no, your brain is not playing tricks on you, he's super light.  While you wouldn't expect every Deluxe to weigh exactly the same, it's telling that Hot Rod here clocked in around 50g on my scale, but Earthrise Prowl, SS86 Jazz, Legacy Dragstrip, Velocitron Cosmos, and SS Lockdown all came up at 70g or more.

Like many Studio Series figures, the sculpt on Hot Rod is mostly pretty good, with the usual "this thing has to transform on a Deluxe budget" caveats.  So, while the robot details on his midsection, thighs, and head are especially good, and his face is painted well with lots more orange on his legs, there's plenty of awkward car kibble in spots.  The backs of his hands are car panels, he's got car panels with tires just hanging off of his knees (semi-accurate) and folded chunks of car on his forearms (again, semi-accurate).  The placement of this kibble omits or obscures places where he should have orange on his arms, and honestly even with the paint on his legs he's missing a bit from his thighs and torso, too.  Compared to how most SS figures wear their alt modes folded up on their back, Hot Rod's backpack is relatively clean.  My biggest complaint here are his little wings, which are fine in the sense that the CGI model has wings, but less fine in the way that SS Hot Rod's contain a bit more car kibble than the CGI model, which the figure attempts to mitigate by having the ends fold in.  But, since they can't fold flat, they look a bit awkward and tend to get in the way.

Hot Rod's sole accessory is his time gun, and it's fine.  They even put some spots of blue paint on it.

Hot Rod's head is on a ball joint, and it can look up and down a little but can't tilt to the side.  His shoulders are also ball joints, so they can rotate and move laterally a little under 90 degrees.  Plus, there's a transformation joint that doesn't really lock into place, so he can really slump his shoulders, if that's something you want him to do.  His biceps swivel, and his elbows bend 90 degrees.  His wrists swivel, as does his waist.  His hips are, sigh, more ball joints.  They can go about 90 degrees forward and backward, and a bit under 90 laterally.  His thigs swivel, and his knees bend 90 degrees, although you kind of have to force the wheels on his calves around his thighs.  His ankles are hinged ball joints, giving him a ton of up/down tilt and a swivel but leaving him with just the slightest of ankle pivots.

Hot Rod can hold his weapon in either hand, but I couldn't find any storage for it on his robot person.

Hot Rod's transformation is probably where a lot of his budget went, as I'll grant that he's got a lot more moving pieces than Lockdown did.  Perhaps they've learned something from what Unique Toys has been doing with the movie designs, because there is some clever use of robot parts to make up parts of the car instead of shelformering the whole thing.  For instance, the engine cover on the back of the car is the soles of Hot Rod's feet, and much of the hood that isn't part of the robot chest turns inside out and flips around to form his robot abs.

I'm not super clear on the dimensions of a Centenario vs an Aventador, but Hot Rod is noticeably smaller in alt mode than Lockdown.

As mentioned, Hot Rod has the licensed Lamborghini Centenario alt mode, and although it's broken up by a ton of panels and hinges it does look pretty sweet.  Unlike a lot of of the other Studio Series cars, most of Hot Rod is bare plastic molded in the gunmetal color; unfortunately, that means his tires are the same color as his body and rims.  I think we can also see why Hot Rod is missing so many orange paint apps on his robot mode- they'd result in orange paint on parts of the car that aren't supposed to be orange, as the the thin lines over the doors and around bottom is pretty much it for the actual car.  That said, they still skimped, as the orange should go the whole way around the car, instead of leaving big gaps around the wheels.  What's more, the orange should follow the molded panels, so instead of remaining a thin line it's should cover the whole space where the lines raise up in front of the wheels.  It's a minor detail, but the fuel door is also missing.

There are two slots near his rear wing (you may have noticed that this figure has one, and many Hot Rod toys like the previous Deluxe or the Jada Metals car did not- I believe the Centenario has one of those wings that blend in the with body and is extended either manually by the owner or automatically by the car's software).  These slots fit with a tab on the side of his time gun.  If you were hoping for more concealed storage I'm afraid you're out of luck, but it's better than nothing.

In summary, I can definitely see where and how Hasbro managed to keep Hot Rod inside his Deluxe-class budget.  I don't think he (or any Studio Series figure) got any exceptional treatment that Studio Series 86 or Legacy doesn't.  I don't thing his overall parts count is high, and the parts he does have definitely use less plastic than a lot of other Deluxes.  His articulation is fairly average, with more ball joints than I'd prefer.  Large swaths of orange paint on his legs don't translate to higher-than-normal amounts of paint overall, and a little more might be been beneficial when it seems he's made from just three colors of plastic.

However, while I can't say I believe Hot Rod to be exceptional, I can say that he is quite good, perhaps the best Bayverse figure I've looked at in a good long while.  Hot Rod's engineering makes effective use of the the parts he has to deliver a solid figure with a good movie likeness less burdened by kibble than many other figures in the line.  That engineering happens to covert a solid robot into a very cool licensed Lamborghini, too.  So, yeah, Hot Rod's a recommend from me, even if the Bayverse isn't necessarily you're thing.

Perhaps my high praise was premature. As I said, some time has passed since my last Bayformers acquisition. I'm not counting the Bumblebee Movie figs even though they still follow the Bay aesthetic. My memories are of rather complex figures with lots of moving parts and paint apps that tended to be less spare than current figs. Alas, inflation and tighter budgets. Anyway, it was against that standard that I measured, perhaps erroneously, the sum of Generations against TLK Hot Rod which impressed me for its clever and complex transformation. I assumed it was representative of regular Studio Series as a whole, but I'm given to understand that he may be a bit of a standout in some respects, but not all. He does make liberal use of ball joints, and he could have benefitted from better clearances, especially between his leg kibble and lower legs. I do think still that he has a higher parts count than the majority of Generations figs, as there are quite a few moving bits on this guy, especially for the size. As Mike pointed out, he's a rather small and light deluxe which made the number of moving bits involved in his transformation surprising, and quite pleasant for their clever double use in the case of the bit of his hood that fills in most of his waist section. I remain impressed with it and add my recommendation along with Mike's. I'm not a Bayformers fan (though my toy collection would say otherwise), but sometimes a toy is worth owning on its own merits apart from its source and that's how I feel about Hot Rod- neat looking bot that turns into a beautiful car via a pleasantly complex transformation schema. 

[mikeszekely]

You'd think with that blitz of reviews I did before Thanksgiving that I'd be done for awhile, but I have one more official review before the month is out (plus Hasbro's got a few treats left for me before the year is out).  Today we've got Studio Series 86 Core-class Rumble (Blue).

Let's talk about the name, for a minute.  Does Hasbro think they're side-stepping the whole Rumble-is-blue-Frenzy-is-red argument?  Do they expect us to ignore that it wasn't that long ago that they released the Siege Micromaster two pack of "Rumble" and Ravage that came with a guy in the black and red colors?  I don't know, btu I do know that after years of leaning on the toy heritage even Hasbro has begun admitting that cartoon is king, and I'm taking this as a tacit admission that if you're goal is cartoon accuracy, and the cartoon clearly called the blue one Rumble, then Rumble is blue no matter how many times they packed him in a box labeled "Frenzy."

But I digress.  Although Core-class Rumble shares some similarities with the Siege Micromaster, he's an entirely new mold with no shared parts.  What you wind up with is still tiny, but with better proportions, actual feet, and colors that are far more animation accurate.

You also get some accessories this time- two piledrivers, and two back guns.  The piledrivers are pretty hollowed out, and unlike the MP ones they're each a single, solid piece.  The pistons do not move.

Articulation is where things start to get a bit dicey.  His head is on a ball joint, with the ball in his torso, not his head.  So, his head swivels (same as the Micromaster), but he's got a limited ability to look up.  Shoulders are ball joints with the same range as the Micromaster- rotation and 90 degrees laterally.  Also like the Micromaster, and something I'd have expected to be better on a Core-class figure, Rumble lacks a bicep swivel, a wrist swivel, any elbow bend, or a waist swivel.  His hips can go 90 degrees forward, backward, and slightly over that laterally, with no dedicated thigh swivel but ball-jointed knees that act as a swivel and a bend- the only difference in articulation between Rumble and the Micromaster here is that Rumble's knee bend is much deeper, more like 160 degrees than the Micromaster's 90.  Due to Rumble's transformation he has feet that can tilt up, but not down, and he doesn't have any ankle pivot.

I prefer Rumble's guns on his back, and they do have little pegs that fit into little holes on his back for that purpose.  He doesn't have fist holes, though, so he can't hold the guns like pistols.  In lieu of that, he's got small holes on his forearms that the guns can plug into like arm cannons.  As for his piledrivers, you just fold his fists in then jam his forearms into the the hollow spots in the sides of of the piledrivers.

For all their similarities in articulation, you'd think that Rumble would end up having a similar transformation.  In some ways he does; his wrists fold all the way in instead of tucking into his legs, but they still fold.  His head folds into his back, giving his slightly longer arms more space on the top, but they still use the shoulder joints to shift his whole arm to the top of his alt mode box.  The big difference is in his legs.  With his longer, more proportional thighs he couldn't simply splay his legs and have his knees bend his feet up to his wrists.  Instead, his hips have to bend over 90 degrees, to get his knees up to his arms and his heels are along the bottom, with most of his foot folded into his shin.

Aside from actually hiding his head in alt mode, on other major difference is that Rumble is actually trying to look like a tape, with a painted label on one side, instead of simply being a Cybertronian data brick or whatever.

There's not a lot you can do with Rumble's accessories in alt mode.  You could, technically, leave the guns attached.  His piledrivers also have little holes near the tops that you can plug his guns into.  There's no way to attach the guns to the tape, though.

Speaking of, one of the goals Hasbro had for Rumble was that he'd still fit into Siege/Legacy/Netflix Soundwave's chest, as the Micromasters were a little smaller than the G1/MP tapes.  And, yep, it's a bit of a tight fit but he surely does sit in Soundwave's chest.  Another quirk that I'm not sure I've found a ton of use for is that the tops of Rumble's piledrivers have a (hexagonal) 5mm port.  I'm not sure what all you could find to plug the piledrivers on to- given that most figures are covered in ports, not pegs, but I was able to spin around Soundwave's shoulder cannon and plug one into it.  That's something.

I've got mixed feelings about Rumble.  On the one hand, especially given that the blue Micromaster was only available in a Pulse-exclusive set, I think it's great to get a more cartoon-accurate one that still fits inside Soundwave and comes with his back guns and piledrivers.  on the other hand, while his aesthetics are improved, his overall engineering and articulation aren't so much of an improvement, and those Micromasters were basically two for the price of a Core-class.  Even with the accessories, I'm not sure that Rumble is really double the figure that those Micromasters are.  I don't have an issue with the size, per se.  I just think, for the money, they could have at least given him some ball-jointed elbows or something.  I guess if you need a Rumble to go with your Soundwave SS86 Rumble will do, and for colors alone he's an improvement over the blue Micromaster.  I'm not sorry I got him, and I'd like to see Hasbro re-do Ravage for sure and possibly Laserbeak to get something with better proportions and screen accuracy, too.  But I'm finding myself weirdly ambivalent about the prospect of a Frenzy repaint; the red and black Micromaster seems good enough for the more minor cassette.

[JB0]

6 minutes ago, mikeszekely said:

Let's talk about the name, for a minute.  Does Hasbro think they're side-stepping the whole Rumble-is-blue-Frenzy-is-red argument? 

I think they're retiring the Frenzy name. There's just Rumble (Red) and Rumble (Blue) going forward. 

[sh9000]

A lot of good deals were available on Hasbro Pulse for Transformers, Marvel, Star Wars, etc.

[mikeszekely]

4 hours ago, sh9000 said:

A lot of good deals were available on Hasbro Pulse for Transformers, Marvel, Star Wars, etc.

*Sigh* If only I hadn't bought all the Transformers already.  

EDIT: But hey, Deathsaurus has been funded, with a little over 1500 to go to get the flail, blast effects, and Living Metal Cannon, as of 2-something am EST Tuesday.  And I haven't even backed it yet (but I almost certainly will, I just want to have Star Saber in hand first).

Edited November 29, 2022 by mikeszekely

[Hikuro]

It looks like PrimeVSPrime has a review up of Victory Saber. Saber himself looks great, maybe better than his MP variation...but man Victory Leo that's just a bummer for his ship mode, paintchipping and out of alignment pelvis area. 

If I had backed it last year like I should have versus paying the 400 bucks I just did last week...I don't think I would feel quite so bad. But in truth, this is either gonna get displayed in bot modes or combined mode, I really don't know.

Did watch however the Haslab look of Deathsaurus and I was sort of into the overall color prototype and what they're doing. They're going to use Vac-metal for the chrome parts to give him a lot more pop and as a nod to the original toy. I dunno though if I'm gonna back it...I probably should. 

[mikeszekely]

5 hours ago, Hikuro said:

It looks like PrimeVSPrime has a review up of Victory Saber. Saber himself looks great, maybe better than his MP variation...but man Victory Leo that's just a bummer for his ship mode, paintchipping and out of alignment pelvis area. 

I've been refreshing my email constantly today hoping for a ship notification for either Victory Saber or Holiday Optimus.  Alas.

EDIT: Well, no shipping notice, but I did get charged for Holiday Optimus and Magnificus...

5 hours ago, Hikuro said:

Did watch however the Haslab look of Deathsaurus and I was sort of into the overall color prototype and what they're doing. They're going to use Vac-metal for the chrome parts to give him a lot more pop and as a nod to the original toy. I dunno though if I'm gonna back it...I probably should.

I already was planning to wait until I had Victory Saber in hand, and now I have some unplanned expenses since our cat seemingly lost the ability to poop. 😔  I probably shouldn't back Deathsaurus at all now.

...but knowing me I'll have backed it by the weekend.

Edited December 1, 2022 by mikeszekely

[Scyla]

For those interested in HasLab Victory Saber but missed out and are willing to shop at TFSource. The store has put up a preorder for $240: https://tfsource.com/transformers-generations/victory-saber-commander-class-transformers-generations/

[mikeszekely]

If you look around you can probably find a listing for just about everything coming in Legacy Evolution next year.  Heck, I've probably posted a lot of it in this very thread.  Well, I've heard from a very reliable source some stuff that hasn't been mentioned yet, and a lot of it is probably coming in the 2024 sequel to Evolution.  That said, even though this source has historically been very reliable, he's being a bit cagier than usual and claiming to know more than he's actually sharing.

Anyways... I leave this under a spoiler tag, so if you want to be surprised a bit over a year from now you can be.  Suffice to say, it's an eclectic mix.

Spoiler

Alright, first up and likely to come in 2023

Legacy Capsule Leader G2 Grimlock - Not sure what the "capsule" thing is all about, but the source suggests this will be a retailer-exclusive.

Legacy Evolution Leader Optimus Prime - Legacy Laser Optimus is already scheduled for an Evolution refresh, but the source says this is a different EAN and "another listing I can't talk about yet."  He's speculating that it could be a refresh of Earthrise Optimus. (BTW, that one he can't talk about? I think it's a Commander-class Armada Optimus Prime, but don't hold me to that).

The rest have the label "LEGACY UNI".  So while not explicitly stated, safe money is that part three is "Legacy Universe."

Voyager-class BW Silverbolt - Ok, I could do without more Beast Wars personally, but I get that he's a main character from the halfway mark on, and he's got that history with Blackarachnia, so BW fans are probably into this one.

Leader-class BW Tigerhawk - Tigerhawk only appeared in three episodes, even if was a memorable arc.  Maybe hardcore BW fans will be excited for this (and I'll probably buy it because what don't I buy?), but this one strikes me as a potential shelfwarmer.

Leader-class G1 Sandstorm - Yes!  Do Octane, too!

Voyager-class Prime Thundertron - This strikes me as another odd one.  I mean, the original toy was a thing, sure.  And the concept of a totally different faction of pirates that were neither Autobot nor Decepticon was kind of a neat... but Thundertron never appeared in the cartoon.  I had to look him up to remember he was even a thing.  That said, perhaps it's a retool of Leo Prime?

Voyager-class Animated Optimus Prime - I'm sure that there's a ton of people who are glad to hear Animated is getting some love.  I have mixed feelings, though... while I absolutely loved the cartoon, I actually didn't care for a lot of the toys.  Wyatt's exaggerated style, to me, looks great in 2D but weird in 3D, and the Animated toys always looked really out-of-place with other Transformer toys, even more than Prime and Bayverse stuff.  But then there's the question of whether or not they'd even retain that style.  Remember, all the Prime characters released in Legacy were G1-ified to fit with the WFC aesthetic.

Voyager-class Cyber Starscream - Which one?  Cybertron, or Cyberverse?  Because, while some Cyberverse designs are close enough to G1 that the existing WFC figures will probably do, I wouldn't mind a couple like Starscream, Soundwave, Megatron, Bumblebee, and Windblade representing the Cyberverse universe in Legacy.  My gut says it's Cybertron, though.

 

[Wolf-1]

Would prefer to see Powermaster Prime but the Armada version is essentially the same thing, just carried out different.  As far as Cybertron/verse; I had heard, though I pay it little head, that the upcoming Cybertron stuff was instead for the game WFC/FOC designs. 

[mikeszekely]

3 minutes ago, Wolf-1 said:

As far as Cybertron/verse; I had heard, though I pay it little head, that the upcoming Cybertron stuff was instead for the game WFC/FOC designs

Oh, no... those are still coming.  They're not part of Legacy, though.  They're coming in Studio Series, as Hasbro desperately wants to keep the line going but they're running out of movie characters that aren't Skids and Mudflap.

[JB0]

4 hours ago, mikeszekely said:

Anyways... I leave this under a spoiler tag, so if you want to be surprised a bit over a year from now you can be.  Suffice to say, it's an eclectic mix.

The only thing that will surprise me is seeing any of them in stores.

[mikeszekely]

Just now, JB0 said:

The only thing that will surprise me is seeing any of them in stores.

If it's like Legacy, you might see some of it if it's in the first wave, seeing as the first wave of Legacy is still on shelves at my stores.

[M'Kyuun]

I'm interested in the Animated Prime, but I'm fearful that they're going to G1-ify it like the Prime stuff, and for all intents and purposes, Bulkhead, who had far more in common with the Animated version than Prime. I still love my Animated toy collection, and would love to see some gaps filled, and some reissues of figs like Blackout. Any new Animated toys I'd like to see mirroring the toon look; if they can do it ad nauseum for G1, they can do it for Animated which had a very definitive style to it. Still, short of improving the articulation, this is still the toy to beat 😍.

I'd be excited for Sandstorm, but after they botched Blitzwing and Astrotrain so badly, I have low expectations. Likewise for any triple-changers going forward. Springer's the only decent one they've done recently.

I'll likely get Silverbolt. I didn't care for the Fuzors and I don't believe I bought any of them back in the day. However, I love the character and the romantic thing he has with Blackarachnia, so I think I'd be down for a modern interpretation.

I have no recollection whatsoever of Tigerhawk despite being a Beast Wars fan. Looked him up, still no recollection. The OG toy looked kinda cool though. I'll wait and see what the new toy looks like before I commit.

I'm guessing Cyber is short for Cybertron, as they're mining a lot of past continuities, and Cyberverse is their younger kids' line with its own style of toys. I'm thinking this: 

Kinda surprised neither leader Swoop nor Snarl were in that list. Notable omissions include deluxe Windcharger, Gears, Brawn, Powerglide, Earth Jeep Hound, core class Ravage, Laserbeak, Steeljaw, and Ramhorn, deluxe Omnibots, Seaspray and Beachcomber, just to name a few. Def want them to finish the first season minibots before moving on to obscure characters like Tigerhawk. Too, they need to redesign Mirage- the Seige fig and its slightly retooled ER toy just aren't right. I want something that's similar to the G1 transformation, where the front of his car mode becomes his chest, his arms the sides of the car, and his legs the back of the car with his spoiler becoming his feet.

[JB0]

31 minutes ago, M'Kyuun said:

I'm interested in the Animated Prime, but I'm fearful that they're going to G1-ify it like the Prime stuff, and for all intents and purposes, Bulkhead, who had far more in common with the Animated version than Prime.

Same. Maybe even get that armored Prime they had in the finale. Toy was designed but never produced, and it still stings.

[mikeszekely]

2 hours ago, M'Kyuun said:

Kinda surprised neither leader Swoop nor Snarl were in that list.

Again, that'd be Studio Series, not Legacy.  Leader Snarl is already confirmed for 2023.

2 hours ago, M'Kyuun said:

Earth Jeep Hound

Target-exclusive, possibly this month.

2 hours ago, M'Kyuun said:

Brawn

2023, Deluxe-class, Studio Series.  Unfortunately, that's it for the characters you named.  AFAIK, the rest of Studio Series 86 for 2023 is Core-class Frenzy and Ironhide plus Voyager-class Ratchet.  Beyond that, there's Deluxe Bumblebee, Cliffjumper, and Barricade from the WFC videogame plus Megatron and Optimus in the Voyager-class.  Then there's Deluxe Bumblebee from Dark of the Moon, and the rest of the Studio Series stuff for 2023 is Rise of the Beasts stuff.

[sh9000]

I want Optimus Prime, Springer, and Netflix Soundwave to be recolored and released in Studio Series TFTM packaging.

[Hikuro]

I was looking over the latest listings leaks and there's some stuff I'm excited for, while others I'm sort of scratching my head at wondering what they are....

Sandstorm, Brawn, Bombshell, Frenzy, Tigerhawk and BW Silverbolt got me going "WOO!" I mean I like my old Generations Sandstorm, so it'll be one of those things where if it doesn't strike that G1 look in some way, I'll pass. I missed out on POTP Brawn years back, of course with Frenzy coming out it means I need to get me Rumble now, Bombshell I'm excited for but they're a little behind not having already released Sharpnel....it's been quite some time since Kickback was released. 

The stuff scratching my head though, Thundertron....I mean...what? I remember he was a heavy redeco of that super old Cybertron character, can't remember his name. But Leo Prime also used that same mold, that makes me wonder if Thundertron will be the same? Devcon, okay, weird, kinda I guess. I think he'll probably be a retool of Scourge, wouldn't surprise me. 
But what's this Capsule thing? I seemed to of missed what this is, god hoping it's not some sorta blind pack cause there's a listing for G2 Grimlock. Personally would love to see some G2 redcos of what's been released even if it's a Selects exclusive of some kind. 

[M'Kyuun]

15 hours ago, mikeszekely said:

Again, that'd be Studio Series, not Legacy.  Leader Snarl is already confirmed for 2023.

Target-exclusive, possibly this month.

2023, Deluxe-class, Studio Series.  Unfortunately, that's it for the characters you named.  AFAIK, the rest of Studio Series 86 for 2023 is Core-class Frenzy and Ironhide plus Voyager-class Ratchet.  Beyond that, there's Deluxe Bumblebee, Cliffjumper, and Barricade from the WFC videogame plus Megatron and Optimus in the Voyager-class.  Then there's Deluxe Bumblebee from Dark of the Moon, and the rest of the Studio Series stuff for 2023 is Rise of the Beasts stuff.

Ah, Studio Series '86. I probably should have done some research before posting, but I didn't. I appreciate the clarification, and I'm happy for the figs we're getting. Still some glaring omissions though, Hasbro. Cranky old Gears needs some love too.

Seems funny that they're revisiting WfC/FoC designs, but I guess everything falls under the Legacy umbrella at this point. For the sake of those fans who weren't able to get the toys back when the games came out, good. I have a few of them, but honestly, most of the designs just didn't grab me. I thought the game mechanics were amazing, though, and should have become the standard going forward, spawning numerous games in the same vein. I'd love a G1 game with those mechanics, especially if they let you play through stuff like the Sherman Dam fight between Megatron and Prime. Choosing your faction and playing from either side would be fantastic as well, but I digress. 

I still love my little FoC Prime figure and wouldn't mind a new voyager scaled version with improved articulation/details. Love the look of that Prime design. The WfC game design, not so much, although I get the sense that that is the preferred design amongst fans.

17 hours ago, JB0 said:

Same. Maybe even get that armored Prime they had in the finale. Toy was designed but never produced, and it still stings.

Are you talking about Wingblade Prime, or another figure? Wingblade was released, but only in the Japanese market. Oddly, Hasbro planned on releasing the armor pack, but with a deluxe version of Prime instead of the voyager for which it was designed and released by Takara. Anyway, it would be fantastic if Hasbro would release that (w/ the proper voyager fig), Blackout, and some of the other non-stateside Animated releases, as well as surprise us with an Omega Supreme (an original mold to capture the Animated character's look and transformation and NOT a crappy retool of The Ark figure).

[JB0]

18 minutes ago, M'Kyuun said:

Are you talking about Wingblade Prime, or another figure? Wingblade was released, but only in the Japanese market.

I did not know that!

...

Or once knew and forgot. 

 

I know it is too much to hope Hasbro will just use the toy they already have designs and molds for. Aggressive cost reductions, whoo!

[M'Kyuun]

1 minute ago, JB0 said:

I did not know that!

...

Or once knew and forgot. 

I know it is too much to hope Hasbro will just use the toy they already have designs and molds for. Aggressive cost reductions, whoo!

NP, I'm here for ya.   I'd be right fine with their releasing the original toys, although, as I mentioned, I'd want the voyager scaled Prime as intended and not the deluxe (which supposedly ill-fitted with the Wingblade armor, unsurprisingly).  Wingblade's ok (wasn't the biggest fan of it back in 2010, and still kinda meh about it); Blackout is the one that got away and the one I really want to see rereleased. I'd wish for a modern toy with updated articulation, but I fear they're just going to G1-ize everything, and that totally misses the point of what made these toys so unique and cool. Likewise the Prime cartoon toys. Updated toys with improved articulation- bring it on! Updated toys that strip them of their stylistic aesthetics in lieu of blockier G1 aesthetics, why? and please, no. 

[mikeszekely]

We started putting Christmas decorations up at my house last weekend, but I think we have the space to work in one more.  Holiday Optimus Prime will be spending the month of December on display in my living room, but before I put him out I figured I'd better review him!

So the obvious thing here is that it's Optimus, with the usual Optimus goodies, right?  Chest windows, tummy grill, masked face with a forehead vent and antenna... heck he's even got arm triangles.  But, the deco is also Santa Claus.  Red thighs?  Santa pants.  Red arms, and a mostly red torso, with white around the wrists, between the windows, and over his grill?  Fur-trimmed Santa coat.  Black hands, shins, and feet?  Santa gloves and boots.  Black pelvis, and a gold crotch with a black C?  Santa's belt, with a gold belt buckle (yeah, they probably should have only painted the top of his hips and crotch black and gold, and left the rest red, but there's also the realties of how they molded the parts).

But what's arguably more interesting than the deco here is the underlying figure itself.  When the first blurry leaks of this guy went up there was some discussion about whether he might have remolded parts from Laser Prime (the chest, biceps, and forearms do look kind of similar), or from Motormaster (both have their cabs on their legs from the knees down, and both wear their rear wheels on their backs).  In hand, though, I can honestly tell you that Holiday Prime shares zero parts with Motormaster or any previous Optimus.  I even checked some of the finer details, like his hips, biceps, and tires, plus his head sculpt, and it's all brand new.

The same can't be said for his accessories, though.  He comes with a trailer, and that trailer is Earthrise Optimus' trailer, with one minor modification.  A new part has been installed underneath, fitting over the peg that you'd use to plug it into Earthrise Prime's alt mode and stretching back to a new peg closer to the feet.  He comes with the same gun as Earthrise Optimus, just painted like a candy cane.  He comes with a Matrix, too.  The handles on the Matrix appear to be the same as Earthrise's (and why not, they used that mold with Galvatron, Hot Rod, and Rodimus Prime as well, I'm actually surprised they made a new one for G2 Laser Optimus), and Holiday Prime's Matrix will fit into Earthrise Prime's chest.  However, Holiday Prime's Matrix is noticeably thinner.

Prime's ho-ho-head is on a ball joint with some up/down tilt and swivel, but no real sideways tilt.  His shoulders rotate and extend laterally 90 degrees.  His biceps swivel, his elbows bend 90 degrees, and his wrists swivel.  His waist swivels.  His hips can go 90 degrees forward and backward, and just a little shy of that laterally.  His hips swivel, and his knees bend 90 degrees.  His toes and heels can point down, largely due to transformation, but he lacks any real up/down tilt.  His ankles do pivot nearly 90 degrees, though. 

He can hold is rifle, but the grip is rather tight.  His trailer, as it did for Earthrise, can open up, and there's a repair drone inside.  The entire interior is just plain white, which I don't mind for the drone trailer itself but the drone could have used some painted details.  I find myself wishing for some other accessories, too, like maybe little presents, or a sleigh instead of Roller.

Prime's candy cane gun stores on his back, albeit loosely.  And although the drone and shield are still removable from the trailer, the truck kibble on his back means you can't give him a drone backpack, and the shield can't plug into the side of his forearm because there's no hole there.  Instead, he's got holes on top of each shoulder, on the back of each forearm, two on the back of each leg, and three under each foot.  His chest can fold open, and the Matrix stores inside.  Again, it's thinner, so the Earthrise Matrix doesn't fit into Holiday Prime.

The transformation on Holiday Optimus is interesting.  Like, some of it is expected; his backpack forms the back of the truck, his lower legs fold over this thighs and form the front of the truck, sure.  But there are more moving pieces than you at first realize, like how parts of his shins spin around to cover his arms tucked under the truck, or the way his backpack fold unfolds to make the tires instead of simply double-hinging over his arms the way Motormaster's does.  Like Earthrise Optimus, I think Holiday Optimus isn't simply a Voyager-class toy with an extra trailer, I think some of that budget actually went into the engineering for the figure itself.  Well, the engineering and the license, as Holiday Optimus Prime is a licensed Volvo VNR truck.  And therein lies the true origin of this figure... this was originally supposed to be a deal with Amazon (Amazon Prime, get it?), and Amazon uses the Volvo VNR in it's fleet.  Imagine this truck, painted white, with the sides of the trailer painted blue with the white Prime smile logo.  But I guess it fell through, and Hasbro needed to recoup the costs of development and turned him into a Christmas display in time for the holidays.

To that end, though, they really nailed the truck.  You can see the Volvo badge with the diagonal slash through the grill, the (sadly unpainted) vents on the side of the nose, and even the groove in the bumper.  The headlights, the mustache-style mirrors on the nose, and the sunshield but no windvane on the top suggest that Prime is modeled on the VNR 300 series (while I do believe Amazon uses the larger VNR 660).  While not colored with extra chrome or anything on the fuel tanks, Hasbro was careful to make the details on the sides, back of the cab, and even the back of the back of the truck and hitch as accurate as possible, with no obvious signs of transforming (until you look underneath).  It's even got 8 rear tires instead of four, and and the hitch is angled slightly backward.

Of course he can pull his trailer, and the direction suggest putting the gun between the rear tires on the trailer (if you're not using the trailer, the gun cab plug into the hitch).  The peg hole is too shallow and the handle too long, though, for it to fold there, so you are unfortunately left with the red rocket peaking forward between the wheels, or turning it around so it's hanging out the back.  Of course, it can be avoided entirely by opening the trailer and storing the gun inside instead.

Now, an Optimus Prime colored like Santa that pulls a candy cane trailer is an awesome thing I didn't know I needed in my life (but it turned out I definitely do), and this new mold is pretty great, so I'm not complaining, but... if all Hasbro wanted was a holiday Optimus they could have recolored Earthrise and we'd have been none the wiser.  Sure, there's the whole Amazon thing, but we gotta talk about the elephant in the room.  Turn his waist 180 degrees, and we've got a robot that looks an awful lot like G2 Hero Optimus Prime, I figure I'd very much like to have a new version of.  Of course, despite the similarities, the question was always whether or not it could actually be done.

Now that I have the figure in hand, I'd say the answer is a resounding "probably"!  I mean, I'd have to take Holiday Prime apart to verify that it'd work, but if you remove this circled part necessary for filling in his shin but not necessary for truck mode or if this was the back of his leg, then the grill that's on his knees can fold back further.  Then I think you'd simply have to swap the feet where they're pinned at the ankle pivot, so his toes would still point forward, then swap his lower legs where they attach to the black knee hinge.  He should still have 90 degree knee bends, and the only difference I can see for transformation is that you'd have to turn his waist 180 degrees to get the cab back on the right side.  Then it's just a matter of replacing the Earthrise cab with a red flatbed that has his missile launcher and you're set.

In any case, Holiday Prime is a brilliant new mold with a fantastic licensed alt mode, and he's worth picking up even if the holiday novelty limits his overall utility.  With that in mind, I really hope they retool him into Hero Prime.

[M'Kyuun]

1 hour ago, mikeszekely said:

We started putting Christmas decorations up at my house last weekend, but I think we have the space to work in one more.  Holiday Optimus Prime will be spending the month of December on display in my living room, but before I put him out I figured I'd better review him!

So the obvious thing here is that it's Optimus, with the usual Optimus goodies, right?  Chest windows, tummy grill, masked face with a forehead vent and antenna... heck he's even got arm triangles.  But, the deco is also Santa Claus.  Red thighs?  Santa pants.  Red arms, and a mostly red torso, with white around the wrists, between the windows, and over his grill?  Fur-trimmed Santa coat.  Black hands, shins, and feet?  Santa gloves and boots.  Black pelvis, and a gold crotch with a black C?  Santa's belt, with a gold belt buckle (yeah, they probably should have only painted the top of his hips and crotch black and gold, and left the rest red, but there's also the realties of how they molded the parts).

But what's arguably more interesting than the deco here is the underlying figure itself.  When the first blurry leaks of this guy went up there was some discussion about whether he might have remolded parts from Laser Prime (the chest, biceps, and forearms do look kind of similar), or from Motormaster (both have their cabs on their legs from the knees down, and both wear their rear wheels on their backs).  In hand, though, I can honestly tell you that Holiday Prime shares zero parts with Motormaster or any previous Optimus.  I even checked some of the finer details, like his hips, biceps, and tires, plus his head sculpt, and it's all brand new.

The same can't be said for his accessories, though.  He comes with a trailer, and that trailer is Earthrise Optimus' trailer, with one minor modification.  A new part has been installed underneath, fitting over the peg that you'd use to plug it into Earthrise Prime's alt mode and stretching back to a new peg closer to the feet.  He comes with the same gun as Earthrise Optimus, just painted like a candy cane.  He comes with a Matrix, too.  The handles on the Matrix appear to be the same as Earthrise's (and why not, they used that mold with Galvatron, Hot Rod, and Rodimus Prime as well, I'm actually surprised they made a new one for G2 Laser Optimus), and Holiday Prime's Matrix will fit into Earthrise Prime's chest.  However, Holiday Prime's Matrix is noticeably thinner.

Prime's ho-ho-head is on a ball joint with some up/down tilt and swivel, but no real sideways tilt.  His shoulders rotate and extend laterally 90 degrees.  His biceps swivel, his elbows bend 90 degrees, and his wrists swivel.  His waist swivels.  His hips can go 90 degrees forward and backward, and just a little shy of that laterally.  His hips swivel, and his knees bend 90 degrees.  His toes and heels can point down, largely due to transformation, but he lacks any real up/down tilt.  His ankles do pivot nearly 90 degrees, though. 

He can hold is rifle, but the grip is rather tight.  His trailer, as it did for Earthrise, can open up, and there's a repair drone inside.  The entire interior is just plain white, which I don't mind for the drone trailer itself but the drone could have used some painted details.  I find myself wishing for some other accessories, too, like maybe little presents, or a sleigh instead of Roller.

Prime's candy cane gun stores on his back, albeit loosely.  And although the drone and shield are still removable from the trailer, the truck kibble on his back means you can't give him a drone backpack, and the shield can't plug into the side of his forearm because there's no hole there.  Instead, he's got holes on top of each shoulder, on the back of each forearm, two on the back of each leg, and three under each foot.  His chest can fold open, and the Matrix stores inside.  Again, it's thinner, so the Earthrise Matrix doesn't fit into Holiday Prime.

The transformation on Holiday Optimus is interesting.  Like, some of it is expected; his backpack forms the back of the truck, his lower legs fold over this thighs and form the front of the truck, sure.  But there are more moving pieces than you at first realize, like how parts of his shins spin around to cover his arms tucked under the truck, or the way his backpack fold unfolds to make the tires instead of simply double-hinging over his arms the way Motormaster's does.  Like Earthrise Optimus, I think Holiday Optimus isn't simply a Voyager-class toy with an extra trailer, I think some of that budget actually went into the engineering for the figure itself.  Well, the engineering and the license, as Holiday Optimus Prime is a licensed Volvo VNR truck.  And therein lies the true origin of this figure... this was originally supposed to be a deal with Amazon (Amazon Prime, get it?), and Amazon uses the Volvo VNR in it's fleet.  Imagine this truck, painted white, with the sides of the trailer painted blue with the white Prime smile logo.  But I guess it fell through, and Hasbro needed to recoup the costs of development and turned him into a Christmas display in time for the holidays.

To that end, though, they really nailed the truck.  You can see the Volvo badge with the diagonal slash through the grill, the (sadly unpainted) vents on the side of the nose, and even the groove in the bumper.  The headlights, the mustache-style mirrors on the nose, and the sunshield but no windvane on the top suggest that Prime is modeled on the VNR 300 series (while I do believe Amazon uses the larger VNR 660).  While not colored with extra chrome or anything on the fuel tanks, Hasbro was careful to make the details on the sides, back of the cab, and even the back of the back of the truck and hitch as accurate as possible, with no obvious signs of transforming (until you look underneath).  It's even got 8 rear tires instead of four, and and the hitch is angled slightly backward.

Of course he can pull his trailer, and the direction suggest putting the gun between the rear tires on the trailer (if you're not using the trailer, the gun cab plug into the hitch).  The peg hole is too shallow and the handle too long, though, for it to fold there, so you are unfortunately left with the red rocket peaking forward between the wheels, or turning it around so it's hanging out the back.  Of course, it can be avoided entirely by opening the trailer and storing the gun inside instead.

Now, an Optimus Prime colored like Santa that pulls a candy cane trailer is an awesome thing I didn't know I needed in my life (but it turned out I definitely do), and this new mold is pretty great, so I'm not complaining, but... if all Hasbro wanted was a holiday Optimus they could have recolored Earthrise and we'd have been none the wiser.  Sure, there's the whole Amazon thing, but we gotta talk about the elephant in the room.  Turn his waist 180 degrees, and we've got a robot that looks an awful lot like G2 Hero Optimus Prime, I figure I'd very much like to have a new version of.  Of course, despite the similarities, the question was always whether or not it could actually be done.

Now that I have the figure in hand, I'd say the answer is a resounding "probably"!  I mean, I'd have to take Holiday Prime apart to verify that it'd work, but if you remove this circled part necessary for filling in his shin but not necessary for truck mode or if this was the back of his leg, then the grill that's on his knees can fold back further.  Then I think you'd simply have to swap the feet where they're pinned at the ankle pivot, so his toes would still point forward, then swap his lower legs where they attach to the black knee hinge.  He should still have 90 degree knee bends, and the only difference I can see for transformation is that you'd have to turn his waist 180 degrees to get the cab back on the right side.  Then it's just a matter of replacing the Earthrise cab with a red flatbed that has his missile launcher and you're set.

In any case, Holiday Prime is a brilliant new mold with a fantastic licensed alt mode, and he's worth picking up even if the holiday novelty limits his overall utility.  With that in mind, I really hope they retool him into Hero Prime.

Not a bad design at all. Too bad they didn't collapse the passenger cabin to lay even with the hood, as his legs would have looked streamlined instead of wielding massive cankles. But as a new mold, and certainly a unique look for our favorite Cybertronian leader-cum-toy-dispersing-saint, he's pretty cool. I think Hasbro's reuse of this mold for a future Hero Optimus is a foregone conclusion; it's merely a matter of time. And of course, it'll likely be an exclusive- probably Walmart. 😛 I jest, but it'll probably happen.😏

I passed on this guy, a decision I'll likely come to regret. For now, and likely always, I'll enjoy him vicariously. Thanks for the review, Mike, and Happy Holidays!

[Hikuro]

On 11/30/2022 at 10:41 PM, mikeszekely said:

I've been refreshing my email constantly today hoping for a ship notification for either Victory Saber or Holiday Optimus.  Alas.

EDIT: Well, no shipping notice, but I did get charged for Holiday Optimus and Magnificus...

I already was planning to wait until I had Victory Saber in hand, and now I have some unplanned expenses since our cat seemingly lost the ability to poop. 😔  I probably shouldn't back Deathsaurus at all now.

...but knowing me I'll have backed it by the weekend.

So interesting thing, and I'm sort of beating myself up after finding out as well. TFSource.com's doing pre-orders for not only haslab Victory Saber with a due out in February, but they're also taking orders for Deathsaurus. Now mind you the prices are higher than the reservations on either from Haslab directly. BUT with that order stack function they got, you don't gotta pay for them until they're released. So with that in mind you could actually get your Deathsaurus figure. But now I'm kicking myself cause I could of ordered Victory Saber for half the cost I just paid on Ebay. 

[mikeszekely]

Usually I like to have a few repaints before doing a Repaint Roundup, but I'm looking ahead at my what I still have coming or preordered... Victory Saber, no, I'm sure I'll do a big review on him.  The whole first wave of Evolution.  And... well, that's it.  Even thinking ahead to what I'm really looking forward to that isn't on my preorders yet I'm guessing stuff like SS86 Ratchet and Frenzy are still away off yet.  Maybe Walmart will start stocking the second wave of Velocitron.... y'know, the one that we already bought the Deluxes on Pulse from like a month ago.  I do want that toy-colored Hot Rod.  Regardless, for at least the rest of 2022, I'm pretty sure this is my last repaint, so I'll just get him out of the way.  This is Generations Selects Deluxe-class Magnificus.

Magnificus, like a couple of other modern repaints, is what you get when e-Hobby reissues a G1 Transformer in its pre-Transformers Diaclone colors as a Transformer.  In this case, it was Perceptor in 2005, and e-Hobby would release a second Magnificus based on the Reveal the Shield Perceptor in 2013.  Hasbro's beating e-Hobby to the punch by redecoing SS86 Perceptor themselves, which is, y'know, fine.  Perceptor was a decent figure, and he's looking pretty swish in black and gray, so yeah.  From the neck down he's 100% Perceptor, just with the red parts in black (including his gun), the black parts still black, and the blue parts in gray.  He's got the same pearl/white/silver paint for the belly mirror, the edges of his chest, and the dials on his scope and arms.  The insignia was moved from his chest under the clear plastic to on top of the faux mirror, which sports a little silver paint for some reason- that wouldn't be part of the mirror, if he'd actually had one.  Under the chest part they've painted his torso red to match the G1 toy, which still used red plastic for part of the torso.  And, again, it's all fine, but I'd have liked to see some tampographed versions of the original toy's stickers.

The only mold change is his head, which is designed to look like the toy.  Hmm... slap this head on Perceptor, tweak the red and blue plastic colors on him, and swap the pearly white paint for silver (or better, chrome), add those tampo details I wanted on Magnificus, and you'd have a pretty good toy-style Perceptor.  But I digress.

Microscope mode is, again, mostly fine.  Again, I lament the lack of sticker details.  Plus, while I was willing to forgive some simplifications on Perceptor to make him more screen accurate, I find myself a bit more bitter about the lack of a separate mirror piece on his abs and missing retractable wheels in his heels.

My complaint about the lack of wheels that extend from his heels goes double for tank mode, along with the lack of a wheel on his butt and the inability to remove the dials from his arms so his tank mode can lie totally flat like it was originally designed to on the Diaclone toy (but we're forever stuck with them at this weird angle because that's how Hasbro put him in the G1 toy's instructions).

So, yeah.  Dig the new head and black deco, and the original figure was decent enough, so Magnificus is worth picking up if you're into Diaclone repaints or evil repaints (while Magnificus is officially a Decepticon, this deco is also used as Shattered Glass Perceptor).  Just be aware that toy-details that were omitted from the mold for the sake of movie accuracy on Perceptor are a bit harder to forgive when movie accuracy isn't an excuse.

[mikeszekely]

On 12/4/2022 at 11:05 AM, Hikuro said:

So interesting thing, and I'm sort of beating myself up after finding out as well. TFSource.com's doing pre-orders for not only haslab Victory Saber with a due out in February, but they're also taking orders for Deathsaurus. Now mind you the prices are higher than the reservations on either from Haslab directly. BUT with that order stack function they got, you don't gotta pay for them until they're released. So with that in mind you could actually get your Deathsaurus figure. But now I'm kicking myself cause I could of ordered Victory Saber for half the cost I just paid on Ebay. 

Eh... I just backed the Haslab.  Turns out there's a bit of a gap between "shouldn't" and "can't".

[mikeszekely]

I was out running errands the other day, and I swung by the toy aisle.  I didn't expect to find anything... I'm believe I'm current on Studio Series and Legacy, and I hadn't heard that Buzzworthy Hatchet or Hound had started turning up.  You never know, though, maybe they finally clearanced out the Coronation Starscreams that have been clogging up the Leader spot on the shelf all year- I don't need more Starscreams, but I'd buy them up for the accessories.  But he wasn't, so I didn't.  However, I did find myself making some Cyberverse purchases, of all things.

You guys may recall that I decided to give the Cyberverse Deluxes a go, and while pretty much all of them were a bit below what I'd expect from a Studio Series or Generations Deluxe the Cyberverse Deluxes were an interesting bunch that occasionally used some interesting engineering  And yet, despite the heavy focus on Dinobots in the final season, only Grimlock and Slag ever got the Deluxe treatment.  And two Dinobots just doesn't seem like enough, so I thought maybe I could fill some of the gaps with Warrior-class Snarl.

For those unfamiliar, the Warrior-class is essentially Core-class engineering in a Deluxe-sized package.  I guess the idea is that the line is aimed more toward younger kids, so a slightly cheaper, easier-to-transform class of figure is better for their target audience?  Anyway, given how many details were left unpainted on the Deluxes, it should be no surprise to hear that Snarl's really hurting for details.  The tops of his shoulders, his lats, and crotch should be black.  His fingers and biceps should be black, but his forearms should actually more mostly gray with yellow spikes, and there should be yellow on his toes and hips.  His hip skirts should be red, and he's missing some blue on his chest.  His dinosaur head is visible on his legs.

He's full of hollow parts, and, oh yeah, he's missing his backpack entirely.  Although the colors wouldn't totally be right, the simplified deco and missing backpack cause Cyberverse Snarl to really remind me of G1 Action Master Snarl.

 He does still have a tail, though, but now it's an accessory, made of a rubbery sort of yellow plastic.  He also comes with a sword made of the same material.  The sword fits into a slot inside the tail.

As you might guess from an over-sized Legends figure, Snarl doesn't have the best articulation.  His head can swivel, but there's no tilt.  His shoulders are ball joints that can rotate and extend laterally 45 degrees.  There's no bicep swivel, but his elbow is a ball joint that acts like a bicep swivel.  The ball joint can bend about 90 degrees- there's another joint for transformation that acts like a double elbow, but it's above the ball joint and therefore above the bicep swivel.  No wrist or waist swivel, and technically no thigh swivel either.  His hips are ball joints, so you have a very slight swivel there, in addition to being able to 90 degrees forward and backward and 45 degrees laterally.  His knees can bend nearly 180 degrees.  No foot or ankle articulation.

He can hold his sword just fine in either hand.  There are also 5mm ports on the outsides of his forearms.  You can't do much with his accessories, but if you get guns or something from another figure you can plug them in there.

As for his tail, there's two things you can do with it.  Since it's acting like a scabbard for his sword, there's a 5mm peg on his left hip that you can plug it into.  It's kind of in the way there, I think.  You can also plug it onto a post on his back.  While you can leave the sword stored in there, the figure does have a gimmick.  You can put the sword in his right hand, then wiggle the backpack up and down like a light switch.  It'll cause the post its on to move, which in turn will cause his arm to move like he's slashing his sword.  I hate it, but I'm not the target audience.

Compared to his Deluxe-class brethren, Snarl fits in pretty well in terms of size and aesthetic.  He's super simple, though- you turn his forearms so the dino toes face his dino front, you fold the legs over at the knees and fold the head together, and then you unfold his tail and plug it onto his back.  That's it.

Again, I think the shape here is fine, and the lack of paint does match the Deluxes.  But it's really the lack of paint that's also a lack of accuracy.  No gold dino toes, the underside of his tail is gray instead of gold, his black rear legs should be gray, and parts of his back should be red, etc.

The other thing is, Snarl doesn't do much in this mode.  The sword stores inside his tail still.  His head has no articulation, not even his mouth.  Nor does his tail. His front legs can swivel at the shoulders and that's it.  His back legs do a little better.  They're ball joints at the shoulders, so they can rotate and even spread laterally.  That hinge I mentioned earlier, above this robot elbow ball joints, is a dino knee hinge.  Meanwhile, the ball joint is turned so now it bends inward, almost working like an ankle pivot.

Adding Snarl to my Cyberverse Dinobots really made me want to get all five.  Unfortunately, the only figure Swoop got was a very simple figure that came in a back with a very simple Bumblebee that combined into a very simple Bumbleswoop.  Despite being super simple they're also weirdly expensive and prone to breaking, so I think Swoop's a pass for me.  But...

...there's an Ultra-class Sludge!  Ultra is another class we don't have in Generations/WfC/Legacy/Studio Series, so let me explain it like this... you know how Warrior takes the simplicity of the old Legends-class figures and scales them up to Deluxes?  Well, Ultra-class takes a simple Legends-class figure and upscales it to Voyager-size.  And, again, you'd expect that simplicity would mean that he's missing painted details and what have you from the cartoon, and sure, that's definitely true... he's missing gold on his elbows, dino does, shoulders, ankles, and the spines on his legs, plus some minor details on his torso and pelvis.  His pelvis is also missing reds, blacks, and blues... basically none of it should be the light gray that it was molded in.  His head is blue instead of black, and while he does have some blue on his chest most of that blue stripe should be black.  But it's not just missing color... his shape, and a lot of his molded details, are also wrong.  In fact, with his missing feet, the molded stripes on his shins, the shape of his shins, torso, and head... he's honestly more G1 Sludge and than Cyberverse.

The simplicity extends to the back and sides of the figure, where we can see a bunch of hollow spaces again.  His dinosaur head and neck dangles off his back, which is fine, but the head is facing forward between his legs like G1 Sludge instead of backward as in the Cyberverse cartoon.  As near as I can tell, the toy was probably based on the concept art Eric Siebenaler did for the show.  Seibenaler's art had an almost Studio OX feel to it, very G1 toy mixed with Japanese mecha anime, and while it's extremely cool (and I'd urge you to check it out), it ultimately had to be modified to fit the aesthetic the show eventually went with.

Like Snarl, Sludge's accessory is basically his alt mode tail.  Unlike Snarl, Sludge's tail was meant to be an accessory where Snarl's was still supposed to be a split backpack like G1.  Siebenaler's art actually has a longer tail that looks more like a sword, but what we got here is more like a lance.

Despite his Voyager-esque side, Sludge's articulation is still pretty crappy.  His head has no articulation at all, due to a gimmick we'll get to in a minute.   His shoulders are hinged ball joints, so they rotate and even have a little forward/backward butterfly, but they can also move laterally nearly 180 degrees.  No bicep swivel, but his elbows are ball joints, so they can swivel and bend 90 degrees.  His wrists don't swivel, but due to transformation they can bend down.  His waist does swivel.  His hips are ball joints that go backward and laterally about 90 degrees but only about 45 degrees forward.  His thigh swivel is also limited to the very small about you get working the hip around the ball joint.  His knees bend 180 degrees.  He doesn't have any feet, let alone foot or ankle articulation.  This can sometimes pose a problem, as there's no heels or much for him to stand on, and the dinosaur head makes him a bit back heavy, so he can tip over.  He also has fairly loose joints on my copy.  He can hold his lance, though.  I daresay it's a bit tight, if anything.

Ok, so that gimmick?  You push down on his dino-head backpack, forcing these two tabs (circled) out.  This opens his back, allowing spring-loaded translucent blue "energon armor" to come flying out over his face and torso.  Now, I didn't like Snarl's judo chop gimmick, but it's mostly harmless.  I loathe this energon armor gimmick.  It's the reason his head has no articulation.  Plus, when you get his backpack undone it's hard to get back into place; if you don't have it lined up exactly right and really force it it'll just fall back down and cause the energon armor to come flying back out.

Can you transform Snarl?  Sludge is almost the same, with the arms becoming one set of legs and the other set rotating off his lower legs, his lower legs folding over, and his tail partsforming on.  The big difference here is that his waist has to rotate 180 degrees, and his wings cover over his head and torso then his dino head folds up from his back to clip into place.

Something I sometimes here when people talk about other Dinobot toys that are all scaled to the same robot mode height (like the Studio Series, Planet X's, Fans Toys, Gigapower's, etc) or, worse, when Grimlock is a larger size (PotP, GCreation, ToyWorld, etc), is that Sludge seems comparatively too small in dino mode.  In this case, the extra size granted to Sludge as an Ultra-class is working in his favor here, as Sludge is noticeably larger than the Deluxes (or Warrior-class Snarl). 

As with Snarl, the shape of Sludge is pretty good, but he's lacking in details.  His tail should simultaneously have more and less gold.  A lot of the spins on his back are devoid of gold paint, as are his toes.  For some reason there's some gold paint on the knees of his back legs that shouldn't be gold, but no gold on the round joint (the molded joint is missing entirely from the front legs, and that painted armor isn't present in the cartoon; again, they're relics of Siebenaler's concept art).  The spikes on his shoulders and hips are painted silver, like the concept art, but are gold int he cartoon.  And I have to point out that front the front his neck has some serious hollow gaps.

Also like Snarl, his dino mode doesn't doo much.  There's no articulation in the neck or tail, but at least Sludge can open his mouth.  His back legs can rotate at the hips, and that's it.  His front legs can rotate and move laterally at the shoulders, and his elbow is a ball joint that can bend 90 degrees or act as a swivel.  That's about it.  Weapon storage is just partsforming his lance into a tail.

So, these guys aren't the greatest... but you kind of know that going in, since these are Warrior and Ultra-class instead of Deluxe or Voyager.  The robot articulation is sub-par, they're missing lots of painted details, the transformations are super simple.  On their own I definitely wouldn't recommend them.  However, if (and only if) you already have Deluxe Grimlock and Slag, then they're at least something to fill out your Cyberverse Dinobots.  It's just a shame Swoop never got at least a Warrior-class figure.

[Scyla]

Anthony's Customs review for HasLab Star Saber is here:

I was curious why they send out review samples for this toy since all units are already sold but Anthony's Customs goes a little bit into that since he talks about the conditions for getting a review sample and the one most important to Hasbro was mentioning the Deathsaurus HasLab project.

So I would say Hasbro feared that Deathsaurus might not fund so the influencers should drum up some hype for it.

Other than that, if you win the QC lottery, this will be a great toy.

The chrome seems to be prone to flaking off though. 

Edited December 8, 2022 by Scyla

[mikeszekely]

Hey, I'd gladly talk about Deathsaurus for a review sample, but something tells me I'm not even a blip on Hasbro's radar.  Oh well, still planning on reviewing Victory Saber since I backed it, and while I haven't heard beans from Hasbro I got a text this afternoon telling me that I've got a package coming tomorrow that requires a signature that is almost 100% definitely Victory Saber.

Until then, some Dinobots weren't the only Cyberverse toys I picked up the other day.  I also grabbed Warrior-class Windblade, since I'm not totally satisfied with either of the other Windblades I have... which I never reviewed.  So, I guess you can consider this a review for all three!

Ok, so, left to right we have Generations Thrilling 30 Deluxe-class Windblade, Cyberverse Warrior-class Windblade, and Titans Return Deluxe-class Windblade.  And I guess it's here that I have to talk about Windblade's design in the first place.  She began life as a fan-vote character, where Hasbro offered different choices on different aspects of the character and fans voted on what they wanted.  And the fans voted for a valiant female red-and-black Autobot that turns into a jet, fights with a sword, and is telepathic.  Now, the initial design apparently came from one Lenny Panzica, but it's not clear how much of her design was straight up his, how much of it was dictated by Hasbro, or how much of it was later developed by IDW.  I do think it's safe to say Panzica is probably the one that gave her the traditionally "sexy" figure with little to no regard for how she's actually transform into a jet, but somewhere along the line someone decided that she should pay homage to The Transformers' Japanese roots (which, I'd argue, are actually pretty minimal- it's like modern fans know that the original toys were licensed for Takara's Diaclone line, but aside from some initial character models for commercials (that were modified by Floro Dery before going to Sunbow) the names, characters, and story are really attributable to Marvel Productions, mainly Jim Shooter and Bob Budiansky).  That led to the honestly kind of cringe idea giving her a head designed to look like kabuki kesho, hence the somewhat aggressive appearance on the original Thrilling 30 toy.  As the design was further refined, though, her "hair' has changed a bit, her lips were painted, and the red around her eyes was made less dramatic and, frankly, a bit more geisha-like.

So as I kind of already touched on, T30 Windblade seems based on one of the earliest designs, before it was refined into what became her "standard" look in IDW.  In addition to the different face, it's the cause of why some of her colors are off, like red thighs and a black pelvis, no red on her wings, etc.  But more than that, she's got a kind of spindly, fragile feel to her.  Titans Return Windblade, by contrast, comes across as more accurate to the comics (but still off), and more solid than the T30 toy, but also simplified and kind of chunky.  And then there's Cyberverse.  Like most Cyberverse toys she's missing a lot of paint apps, mostly black on her legs and fingers, but otherwise she does a good job of capturing the Cyberverse style, which I like quite a bit on Windblade.  Her lower legs look less humanoid and more like bellbottoms, and it gives her a sportier appearance.

Remember what I was saying before, about how she was designed without any regard for how she'd actually transform?  In both the comics and Cyberverse she has no real backpack, and no obvious cockpit.  Facing the reality of making actual transforming toys, though, and all three wound up with a backpack.  I'd argue that Titans Return has the worst one, likely due to the interior actually having to accommodate a Titan Master.

When it comes to accessories, T30 wins out as she's got a lovely translucent purple Stormfall sword with black paint on the hilt, plus a scabbard to store it in.  Titans Return Windblade has her Titan Master, of course, and two swords made of yellow translucent plastic painted silver with a very odd shape.  And Cyberverse Windblade actually doesn't come with anything.

T30 Windblade's head is on a hinged swivel that can look up and down a pretty decent amount, but her collar actually makes it difficult for her to turn her head.  Her shoulders are ball joints that rotate and move laterally a bit over 90 degrees.  Her biceps swivel, her elbows bend 90 degrees, and she's got no wrist articulation.  Her waist swivels.  Her hips are ball joints that can go 90 degrees forward, backward, or laterally.  Her thighs swivel, and her knees bend 90 degrees.  She doesn't have any foot or ankle articulation (unless you count her heel collapsing inward for transformation).  Her wings have very tight hinges that you can use to fold them back a bit, as well as swivel that move them up and away from her body.  Plus, they're connected to the stem of her shoulder ball joints, so they actually rotate around her shoulders.  She can hold her sword just fine, and the scabbard tabs into either of her thighs.  The gold decoration on he back of her head can come off as well, and she can hold it like a fan.  Despite adequate (for the time) articulation, posing her can be a bit of a chore, as her small feet and smaller heels can be tricky to balance on, hence why I grabbed a stand from Studio Series Soundwave.

I'm not clear on what kind of joint Cyberverse Windblade's head might be on; due to her collar she has basically no up/down tilt and can barely turn her head at all.  Her shoulders are ball joints that rotate and move laterally 90 degrees.  Her biceps swivel, and her elbows bend 90 degrees.  No wrist articulation.  Her waist swivels.  Her hips are ball joints that can go over 90 degrees forward, 90 degrees backward, and a little under 90 laterally.  She doesn't have dedicated thighs swivels, but they can swivel over the balls in her hips enough to get her toes pointed 30 degrees apart.  Her knees bend 120-ish degrees.  Her feet really lock into place, but if you start undoing them for transformation you can get them pointed down.  No ankle articulation.  Her hands can hold any weapon with a 5mm handle, including T30 Windblade's sword.  As a Cyberverse Warrior-class, she has a gimmick where you push the jet-nose backpack down and her wings slide upward to reveal some circuitry behind them, which also makes the propellors spin.  And for what it's worth, her big boot feet give her a nice, stable base to stand on.

Titans Return Windblade's little Titan Master ball-joint neck gives her the best head articulation of the three, allowing her to look up and down a fair bit, tilt her head sideways, and even turn her head 360 degrees.  Her shoulders are ball joints that rotate and extend laterally 90 degrees.  Her biceps swivel, and her elbows bend 90 degrees.  No wrist swivel, and no waist swivel.  Her hips can go 90 degrees forward, backward, or laterally, but they have this weird detent that practically forces her to go from stock straight to a wide A-stance.  Her thighs swivel, and her knees bend almost 180 degrees.  Her feet can tilt down, but no up, and she lacks ankle pivots.  Her wings have hinges so they can fold backward, but she lacks the other joints found on T30's.  She can hold her swords in either hand, and they can tab into slots on her thighs (it's a tight fit, but you can fit T30's scabbard into TR's thighs as well).  As a Titans Return toy, Windblade's swords look weird because they're saddled with an unnecessary gimmick, combining in such a way that a little seat is formed for her Titan Master to sit in.

Apologies for mixing up the order for their alt modes... this time, left to right, it's Cyberverse, Thrilling 30, and Titans Return.  Of the three, Thrilling 30 is the basic template for all Windblade's to follow, and probably has the most-accurate shape with the single vertical stabilizer and tapered, perpendicular wings.  There's a lot more black showing in this mode as well... I think that was an intentional part of the design, but one that a lot of artists at IDW didn't adhere too.  The white nose was more often retained, though, and the canopy was depicted as blue as often or more than yellow. 

She also has the most elaborate transformation of the three, but it involves a lot of thin parts moving on multiple hinges that need to be lined up just so to tab in, and the result feels less secure that I'd like and leaves a rather large gap in the middle between her legs.   And yet, for all the extra effort, she has a lot of the same configuration as the other two; chest underneath, legs make up the back, arms just kind of hang out along the sides under the wings.

Which makes me want to talk about Titans Return next.  The forward swept wings, raised tail, and larger fuselage make her less immediately apparent as Windblade- it's mostly the VTOL fans that give her away.  I prefer the more predominantly red color, although I do wish she had some white on her nose.

And that just leaves Cyberverse.  With a more consistently-animated model to compare to, I'd say that the Cyberverse toy does the job fairly well.  My only complaints are that the gimmick leaves her wings with an odd shape, and the cartoon had a single-engine, single vertical stab on the tail.  I think the twin engine, twin stab look of the toy is simply the reality of working with a simple class like Warrior.

The Cyberverse toy doesn't really do anything besides swoosh around.  There's no accessories to store, no landing gear, and her VTOL fans don't move.  T30 Windblade has a fold out landing gear in her nose, and molded permanently-deployed ones on the backs of her robot thighs.  Her VTOL fans are hinged so they can tilt forward, and the blades inside spin.  Her scabbard has a 5mm peg that plugs into her butt on the underside of the jet.  It kind of helps fill in the gap between her legs, but it does stick kind of far out the back. 

TR Windblade also has a fold out landing skid in her nose, but rather than molded landing gear her rear rests on the fins on her arms.  Her VTOL fans can also tilt, but the blades do not spin.  Her swords can tab into the undersides of her wings, and there's a 5mm port behind her canopy.  Hers in the only canopy of the three than can open, allowing her Titan Master to sit inside.

So, of the three, which is the definitive Windblade?  None of them!  They all have some things I like, and some issues that hold them back.  At this point, I'd like to see her get a totally new figure that incorporates some of the best ideas from all three into a toy that's more accurate in both modes that's stable, has better articulation, and more solid construction than the T30 figure, even if it means bumping her up to a Voyager.  Until that day, though, if you really have to have a Windblade the Cyberverse figure is the cheapest and most readily available, as you might still be able to find it in your local Target or Walmart for around $15.  And, while she's lacking a bit in articulation, paint, and accessories, the sculpt is pretty good and I do feel like I got my money's worth.  If Cyberverse doesn't quite cut it for you, seems to be the next-easiest to find on the secondary market.  While I expect I'll personally be using Titans Return Windblade for my collection for the time being (with T30's sword, though), she's got too many flaws to recommend tracking down one on the secondary market.

[JB0]

One thing I really liked about the original Windblade toy that hasn't carried over to future iterations is the novelty of the robot being predominantly red and the jet being predominantly black.
This is, admittedly, possible because most of the jet hangs off her back in robot mode and most of the robot hangs off the bottom in jet mode. But that's just expected of a Transformers plane at this point, sadly.

 

Headmaster Windblade was a waste of a perfectly good opportunity, with it's chunky hard-edged design. The arms especially just make me mad with the massively thick upper arms and the dainty pencil-thin lower arms.