The Transformers Thread (licensed) Next

[mikeszekely]

If I had to sum up my last two reviews, it'd probably be, "fine for kids, adult collectors should buy the Voyagers instead."  So why, then, did I spend good money on the Weaponizers?

Honestly?  I did it for the little animal guys that they came with.  After all, they've got standard 5mm pegs, so any old figure can use them.  Why, I'd go so far as to suggest that they actually look better and not so oversized when paired with Voyager Prime and Primal instead of the Weaponizer Prime and Primal that they came with.  Sure, as animals they have next to no articulation, but as far as I'm concerned Chainclaw and Arrowstripe are the real stars of the show.  It's just a shame that I had to spend $16-$17-ish on each of them and get a figure I'll probably give to my seven year old after we go see the movie (sorry, Peanut, daddy's keeping the animals).  Wouldn't it be great if you could buy these little animal weapons on their own, for a lot less...?

Turns out you can... kind of.  You can't actually buy Chainclaw and Arrowstripe solo, but for around $6-$7 each you can buy Battle Master Cheetor, Rhinox, and Skullcruncher.  Wait, Cheetor and Rhinox?  Now I'm kind of wondering why they didn't just call Arrowstripe Tigatron.  Heck, even Chainclaw and Skullcruncher are existing G1 Transformers (although Chainclaw was a bear, so maybe they wolf should have been Carnivac?), so it seems odd to just make up a new name for the white tiger.  But I digress.  Like the other two, there's minal articulation here.  Cheetor's legs swivel at the hips.  Rhinox has ball joints where the brownish part meets the gray on his legs, but they're cut to allow swiveling and folding inward, not bending like knees.  Skullcruncher wins the articulation lottery.  All of his hips are ball joints, plus he can actually open his mouth.

Cheetor turns into a blade of some kind.  Not really a sword, since it points forward instead of up.  On a figure with a 5mm port on the forearm I'd suggest mounting him like as an arm blade.  Studio Series Cheetor doesn't have such a port, but my desire to have Cheetor wielding Cheetor won out.

Rhinox is probably my second-favorite of the five.  He splits down the middle and then each half folds back over on itself to make a gatling gun, but ultimately it's a little rhino with a gatling gun hidden in his butt, which gives me the giggles.  Hey, if I were more mature would I be buying new versions of the toys I had as a kid?  And then writing about it on the internet?  And sure, I could have given Rhinox to Kingdom Rhinox, and little Rhinox is probably a better weapon than the ones Kingdom Rhinox came with, but I was too lazy to dig him out of the Beast Wars box and I already had Cheetor handy.

If Rhinox is the second-best, Skullcruncher is the top dog... er, gator.  He turns into a blaster, and if it weren't for the legs dangling off him I'd argue his alt mode looks the least like a deadly weapon poking out of an animal doing yoga and the most like a proper weapon on its own.

So there you have it.  Are these guys good enough that you should buy the Weaponizer two packs just for the animals?  Probably not, but I did, so what do I know?  But the individual Battle Masters?  I'm always game for extra weapons... they come in handy when Hasbro does stuff like making Sunstreaker's engine is sole accessory, and in this economy they probably cost less than a coffee at Starbucks.  I say go for it.

[mikeszekely]

I sure have been talking about Optimus Primes a lot lately.  Rise of the Beasts Voyager, ROTB Weaponizer, Studio Series Gamer Edition... and I know you guys know I have Armada Optimus preordered.  I actually got pretty excited because I got an email from Pulse that I had a $90-some order shipping soon, and I got excited that Armada Op might be shipping early before I realized it was an order with a bunch of smaller stuff, including stuff I'd actually canceled already.  Oh well, at least I'm not actually spending $90 right now.

While we wait for Armada Optimus and any of the other figures I've got preordered, I do have yet another Optimus Prime we can look at... Deluxe-class Earthspark Optimus Prime.

I like Optimus' Earthspark design, which strikes me (in bot mode) as more traditional than the evergreen Cyberverse version.  I think this new Deluxe toy does a pretty good job capturing the cartoon.  He could use a little silver or gray paint on his knees, and a little more red around the grill on his tummy.  His pelvis isn't totally accurate, either, mostly because it's a recycled part from the Cyberverse toy, but they at least colored it correctly.  Like I said, looks pretty good... from the front.

Things are a little messier from the back and sides.  For one, I'm not sure how Earthspark Prime is meant to transform in the cartoon, with the grill of the Prime-style truck suddenly flush with the windshield, but on a Deluxe-class toy Hasbro's solution is to give him a fake grill tummy in robot mode and then have the entire nose of the truck handing off his back.  There's a bit of extra kibble on his forearms- I swear, one more hinge that could have folded it onto the back of his arm would have been divine, and the forearms are also missing the headlights seen in the cartoon.  Lastly, there's the very hollow calves, very similar to the Cyberverse toy yet with new 5mm ports in them for some unfathomable reason.

A pelvis isn't the only part that Earthspark Prime shares with the Cyberverse toy.  Part of the back of his torso is also from the Cyberverse toy, and as you can see here they came with the same rifle.  The only difference is that Earthspark Prime has a splash of blue on his.  The rifle is fine, I guess, but a bit stumpy compared to the more G1-accurate rifle he has in the cartoon.  You also get his axe, which is probably his more signature weapon in this incarnation.  Props on Hasbro for painting the blades blue, since they do glow blue in the cartoon and the Warrior-class toy went yellow.  But, less props for molding the axe in blue plastic, because the axe itself should be red.  Finally, we get one of Mandroid's legs.  I don't know why they're saving the torso for last, it's just that much more likely that I'll lose pieces before putting them together.

Anyways... Prime's head is on a ball joint.  It swivels, tilts sideways a bit, can't really tilt down, but it has a fantastic upward range.  His shoulders are also ball joints that swivel, move laterally almost 90 degrees, and even provide a slight butterfly by moving over the ball joint.  His biceps swivel and his elbows bend 90 degrees.  For transformation his wrists are on ball joints so they can bend inward, but this also allows them to swivel.  Alas, there's no waist swivel.  His hips are ball joints that can go only about 45 degrees forward unless you also swing them outward to clear his pelvis, and a bit under 90 degrees backward.  As far as swinging them outward goes, his hips move laterally 45-ish degrees.  His thighs swivel, and his knees bend over 90 degrees.  His feet can tilt down, but as this is part of his transformation that tucks his feet behind his calves you can't really tilt too far before messing up the sculpt.  No upward tilt, but his ankles pivot about 45 degrees.

Prime can hold either of his weapons in either of his hands, and the rifle is compatible with both Cyberverse and War for Cybertron blast effects.

Prime can store his accessories in robot mode using a clip on his back, just below the backpack.  A ridge on his rifle will fit into that clip, then the identical ridge on the other side of the rifle fits as matching clip on the axe.

I suppose, if you wanted to, you could also stuff the rifle into the ports in his calves using the handle... but if you do, the barrel is long enough to interfere with knee articulation, so why would you?

What's interesting is that Earthspark Prime doesn't share a ton of parts with the Cyberverse toy, and Earthspark transforms into a conventional truck like Prime Prime while Cyberverse Prime is the more traditional cab-over-engine tuck... but the engineering is almost identical.  The main difference is that Cyberverse Prime rotates at the waist, with panels for the headlights flipping down from under his chest and the bumper unfolding from his arms, while Earthspark Prime rotates at the chest and has the nose of the truck on some hinges to fold down from his back to make up the entire front of the truck.

It works, for the most part (and honestly about as well as you'd expect on a Deluxe-class toy).  The front of the truck could maybe have had some marker lights painted, but is otherwise accurate.  They painted the pipes in the nose, which is a nice touch, but neglected to paint the rims.  Likewise, they painted the box-shape (fuel tank? tool box?) gray, but left the steps unpainted when they should also be gray/silver.  There's also the small fact that that the sides get a little messy where you can see visible biceps and thighs, and the back of the cab is filled in with his rifle (which is actually necessary for transformation as it helps hold his legs in place).  His legs are still pretty obviously legs, with no hitch for the trailer seen in the cartoon, and his folded-in feet just leave a gap instead of taillights.  But, again, kind of par for the Deluxe course, especially in the Earthspark line where they seem to cut a few more corners.

The rifle, as noted, is attached to the back of the cab as part of his transformation, but they didn't forget about his axe.  It uses a clip to attach to the back of his legs under the truck, just behind the rifle's barrel, with the handle running between his feet.

I gotta say, I was a little nervous going into this one, because while I did really like Bumblebee I was a lot cooler on Twitch and frankly I think Megatron was trash.  Fortunately, maybe because they borrowed so liberally from the also-good Cyberverse toy, Earthspark Prime came out pretty good.  He's not without his flaws, some of which could probably have been addressed if they'd made him a Voyager, but honestly I quite like him for what he is, and I'd suggest he's probably worth picking up.

BONUS ROUND!

Earthspark Prime shipped with Earthspark Shockwave.  Where Earthspark Prime borrowed subtly from Cyberverse, Earthspark Shockwave is the Cyberverse toy.  There are no changes to the mold, only  the colors.  Aside from the vibrant yellow replacing the purple glow, I prefer the colors on the Earthspark version.  The blue purple and darker accents seem more geewunny.

You'll note that Earthspark Shockwave comes with the same rifle and hosed arm gun that the Cyberverse toy did, but Earthspark eschews the blast effect that Cyberverse Shockwave had.  He also ditches whatever part of Maccadam Cyberverse Shockwave came with in favor of another part for Mandroid.  In this case, it's a left arm.  We already have a human-style left arm, so again I kind of wish we got the torso.  But there's a good reason, I think, for giving us another arm instead.

See, as far as I know, Shockwave is the only one of the initial eight Deluxes that comes with a Mandroid part that's a total repaint.  Other figures in the line (at least up through Grimlock, not sure about Nightshade yet) are either totally new figures or more extensive retools.  That kind of makes Shockwave the least interesting figure, the one you're mostly likely to want to skip if you're collecting the Earthspark Deluxes.  And, you can!  You'll get enough parts with the other seven to make a Mandroid with a human left arm.  You only need Shockwave if you (A) like the new colors, and (B) want Mandroid to have a robot left arm.  Which is exactly where my recommendation lies... skip Shockwave if you already have the Cyberverse figure unless you prefer the new colors or really want that other Mandroid arm.

[sh9000]

[Radioguy]

15 minutes ago, sh9000 said:

Grimlock, presumably.

[mikeszekely]

I've said before, but one of the few contributions brought by the Bayverse films I actually really liked was Barricade.  So when Barricade was announced as one of the first Studio Series Gamer Edition figures I wasn't complaining.  But maybe I should have been... let's take a look at this Deluxe-class figure.

Barricade's inclusion in the War for Cybertron game almost seems like an afterthought, like someone at Hasbro wanted some names that would be recognizable to people who'd seem the then-recent Transformers film.  So High Moon stuck him in the very first level of the Decepticon campaign... and that's it.  The role of car-guy in the rest of the Decepticon campaign would go to Breakdown, and given the game's heavy G1 influences a Stunticon makes a lot more sense.  I can't prove that Barricade's inclusion was just to appease Hasbro, but I think my theory holds water when you really look at High Moon's design for him.  He's generic, mostly gray, and rather similar to the model used for Breakdown.  There's not a lot about his design that recalls his Bayverse counterpart, and certainly none of the G1 blue-and-pink Micromaster.  Still... it's a step up from painting Prowl black and purple and calling it a day.

That said... I'm not sure Hasbro did such a great job capturing what we see in the game.  The overall sculpt is decent, but crowded with kibble the game's model didn't have.  The gray arms, shins, and pelvis are ok, as are the black thighs.  His helmet and torso shouldn't be black, though, they should also be gray.  If anything should be black, it's his gray feet.  I wonder if Hasbro was working off of earlier High Moon art that depicted Barricade with more black than he actually had on him in the game?

From the sides and back you can get a better sense of the kibble problem.  Some of the backpack, with the boosters jutting out, is actually game-accurate, but it's lost in a huge chunk of his alt mode mode that isn't accurate.  Likewise, his hips do have wheels in them in the game, but they're really in his hips, not on massive chunks of kibble that run along his thighs.  Speaking of the wheels, again I wonder if Hasbro was looking at concept art instead of game files. In the game they had some gray but were mostly a glowing purple- Hasbro might have been better off using translucent purple plastic like they did for Siege Barricade.  But High Moon's concept art does depict them as mostly black, with a Cyberverse-esque ring of purple light.

Barricade's sole accessory is this gun.  It does appear to be game accurate, but it's a bit of a bummer that he doesn't get any melee weapons the way Bee and Prime did.

There's no way to sugarcoat this next bit... Barricade's articulation is atrocious.  His head is on a ball joint, with an overly-tight swivel, limited up/down tilt, and no sideways tilt.  That's not exactly true... he can tilt his head, but only when he swivels it.  Actually, he can't not tilt his head when he swivels it.  His shoulders are ball joints, and they swivel fine but only move laterally about 45 degrees.  His biceps swivel, but with minimal clearance between the armor on his forearms and the armor on his shoulders, and his elbows only bend about 60 degrees.  His wrists are ball joints, and they do swivel, as does his waist.  Ball-jointed hips go 90 degrees backward, but only about 60 degrees forward and a bit under 45 degrees laterally.  His thighs swivel, and his knees only bend 45 degrees.  His feet tilt up, due to transformation... and you'll probably have to tilt them up a little bit, giving Barricade a kind of Michael Jackson Moonwalker lean, because he's a tad back heavy but has no heel spurs.  So it's a shame to report that his foot tilts are probably the weakest joints on him, at least on my copy.  Then the icing on the cake, no ankle pivots.  I know, occasionally a movie figure will sneak into the Studio Series line without ankle pivots, but for the most part I thought those days were behind us.  I guess Hasbro figured we were going to be made about the poor articulation anyway, so they might as well save a buck.

Barricade, like Prime, has the gimmick where is right arm (and only his right arm) can be removed just elbow the elbow to reveal a 5mm post.  That post plugs into his gun.  And for the record, I checked, you can plug Barricade's gun onto Prime, but Barricade's shoulder has too much armor and Prime's gun has too much stuff on it for it to fit onto Barricade.

When he's not using his gun, you can store it on Barricade's back by using a tab on one side into a slot on his backpack.  Which I appreciate, since Prime lacked bot-mode weapon storage.  Prime did have storage for his robot arm, though, and Barricade's got that too.  You simple use a similar tab on the arm and the same slot on his backpack.  And... yeah.  I know that their forearms turned into guns in the game.  And I get that it's a gimmick that the Studio Series Gamer Edition is set on capturing.  But honestly, I think I'd prefer the hollow underside with a 5mm peg that fits over the forearm and into the fist.  As it stands, what we're getting are weapons guaranteed to only work with this toys and run you the risk of losing the figure's actual arm in the process.

I'm sure, with all that kibble, you're probably not surprised to know that Barricade is largely a shellformer.  His feet fold up to his shins and do make the grill, and his lower legs make up most of the front of the vehicle.  The rest of the front, with the wheels and headlights, is the kibble on the sides of his thighs swung into place on armatures.  His forearms rotate 180 degrees, then his shoulders shrug downward to make the sides of the vehicle.  But the top of the vehicle, its cockpit, is made from kibble that dangled off his calves, and the entire rear third of the vehicle is his backpack.  Credit where it's due, though, Barricade winds up with a surprisingly large alt mode, given that he was roughly the same height to the top of the head as Siege Barricade but now he's something like 30% larger than the Siege toy.

Unlike the robot mode, Barricade's alt mode is extremely accurate to the game.  The sculpt is just about perfect.  Event the rear of the vehicle is what you see when you're playing the game.  And this time the balance of black and gray is mostly correct; I think they could have made the bumper black, but that's about it.  My only real complaint is the lack of purple.  Sure, they got some on the roof and the headlights, as well as a bit of purple lines in the cockpit.  But he needs more along the side, in the wheels, and on the back.

Barricade's weapon can mount onto the top of his vehicle mode.  There's a squarish protrusion from the top of the gun.  This protrusion plugs into a cutout in the purple glow area on top of the car.

With Prime, Hasbro seemed to know they'd have to work to convince us to upgrade from the old Deluxe, especially given modern Voyager prices and the slightly shorter height of the new figure.  But Hasbro mostly succeeded in my book by giving me a toy with better accessories, better articulation, better bot mode proportions, and a better transformation.  Barricade is the polar opposite.  It's as if Hasbro figured that with no prior War for Cybertron Barricade to compete with that we'd be happy to get any figure, then phoned this one in with lazy engineering that resulted in a kibble-covered robot that doesn't pose well due to totally inadequate articulation, the bare minimum in accessories, and colors that aren't even accurate to the game.  The only redeeming quality this figure has is the alt mode, but that's simply not enough to excuse what is otherwise a massive step backward in Transformers designs.  I don't recommend buying this.  But, between this travesty of a figure and the fact that he completely botched the colors on Velocitron Scourge, I do recommend that Hasbro moves Sam Smith off Transformers and onto something like My Little Pony or NERF.

[pengbuzz]

Is it just me, or is anyone else getting tired of the "hollow-formers" (limbs and sections of torso open and hollow, looking cheap as all get-out)?

[JB0]

1 hour ago, pengbuzz said:

Is it just me, or is anyone else getting tired of the "hollow-formers" (limbs and sections of torso open and hollow, looking cheap as all get-out)?

It ain't just you. 

 

I understand the desire to save parts counts and material volumes, but... if they gonna leave gaping voids, they need to be in places where we ain't starin' at 'em all day.

[lechuck]

Netflix is reviving the Transformers: Forged to Fight game.

 

[M'Kyuun]

54 minutes ago, lechuck said:

Netflix is reviving the Transformers: Forged to Fight game.

 

Hmm, I wasn't even aware of this game. I'm a Netflix subscriber, but honestly, I'm not a big fighting game fan. Now if they got War for Cybertron or Fall of Cybertron, I'd be interested. I wish they'd make a G1 game using the same game mechanics as those games, which, IMHO, are the best Transformers games ever made.

In other news, apparently there's a "Dying Prowl" version of Earthrise Prowl coming. It's a rather macabre and unnecessary way of reissuing the fig, not to mention there are still characters in need of figs that have yet to receive them. The forsaken Omnibots come to mind, as well as Gears, Seaspray, Powerglide, any number of cassettes (including existing ones that could use some serious improvement-looking at you, Ravage), improved Mirage and Seeker molds, an 'origin' version of Wheeljack in his boxy Cybertronian alt mode (of which brilliant custom model maker Jizai Toys just created an amazing digital model), and perhaps new Deluxe Autobots that skew closer to their original Dorvack models. I really wish, too, that Takara would work out a way to make a proper G1 Megatron that turns into a Walther P-38 to fit in with the WfC/Legacy line. That would sell like water in the desert, and I'd be all in for a copy.

Legacy Evolution Titan Nemesis Behind The Scenes - Transformers News - TFW2005

As a nice companion to The Ark, I recently POed a copy of the upcoming Nemesis, which I think turned out pretty well. However, I wish the bot mode had turned out exactly like the concept art, which looks amazing to me, almost more Animated than G1 to my eye, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. Regardless, I'm glad we're getting her, and I like the thin, lanky proportions of her bot mode as a nice juxtaposition to the bulky Ark's. Gripes aside, it's still a great time to be a TF fan.

[Wolf-1]

59 minutes ago, M'Kyuun said:

 

In other news, apparently there's a "Dying Prowl" version of Earthrise Prowl coming. It's a rather macabre and unnecessary way of reissuing the fig, not to mention there are still characters in need of figs that have yet to receive them. The forsaken Omnibots come to mind, as well as Gears, Seaspray, Powerglide, any number of cassettes (including existing ones that could use some serious improvement-looking at you, Ravage), improved Mirage and Seeker molds, an 'origin' version of Wheeljack in his boxy Cybertronian alt mode (of which brilliant custom model maker Jizai Toys just created an amazing digital model), and perhaps new Deluxe Autobots that skew closer to their original Dorvack models. I really wish, too, that Takara would work out a way to make a proper G1 Megatron that turns into a Walther P-38 to fit in with the WfC/Legacy line. That would sell like water in the desert, and I'd be all in for a copy.

 

 Dying Prowl is a Buzzworthy SS release, so I've heard, and the code indicates yet another two-pack  release.  So is it Ratchet or Brawn to keep the "Dying" aspect of the pack going?

[mikeszekely]

So Prime had to compete with an earlier release with a Voyager budget and turned out pretty great.  Barricade had no competition and a Deluxe budget and wound up being one of the absolute worst Transformers figures in recent memory.  And now here comes Studio Series Gamer Edition Bumblebee, a figure that does compete with an earlier version but is also straddled with Hasbro's penny-pinching Deluxe budget.  Does he belong on a shelf next to Optimus, or in the trash with Barricade?

We'll start with aesthetics, where I'd suggest that Hasbro has fixed some of the issues I had with the 2010 toy, but then introduced some new problems.  The new figure doesn't have the overly long, thin limbs of the original, with forearm pads that much more closely resemble the CGI model.  And if scale is important to you then you'll likely find the newer figure to be a better size, coming in taller than Earthrise Bumblebee but closer to a modern WFC/Legacy Deluxe than the 2010 toy.  However, the newer figure puts a lot more mass in the front of the torso, giving him a beer gut that kind of hides his waist, and the older figure has legs that look a lot closer to the CGI.  Despite the bulk, the new figure isn't left holding his arms slightly out to the sides like Randy in A Christmas Story.  The older figure also has better paint apps on the forearms, although I'll note that neither got the feet right (they should be mostly yellow, like the SSGE figure, but but with the black toes of the Generations figure), and both left off some gold details on the hips.

Both figures have pretty big backpacks, but maybe because more mass is shifted forward I do think that the SSGE figure's backpack tucks in a bit tighter.  I also like how the bit of inner torso you see through the wheel wells has the game-accurate ribbed appearance.  Not a fan of the hollow butt (more on that later), and again the lower legs are kind of a mess on the newer figure.  They don't maintain that triangular shape from the game, they look more like a mass of kibble and hinges.  Even with the actual wheels on the inside of the the ankles (where they're not actually visible on the CGI model) Hasbro felt the need to fill it out by sculpting fake wheels into the outside and back, but they couldn't be bothered to paint them.

Well, forget that goofy little pistol the original toy had, SSGE Bumblebee definitely takes the cake here.  He's got a sword that lacks the black-and-red glow but is sculpted pretty accurately.  He's also got two guns.  One is a chonkier gun I've seen in promo images and cutscenes.  The other is the smaller pistol I remember actually having in the game.

Bee's head is on a ball joint with adequate up/down/sideways tilt, no issues there.  His shoulders are also ball joints that swivel but fall a little short 90 degrees laterally.  His biceps swivel and his elbows bend 90 degrees.  His wrists don't swivel, but his waist does.  His hips are ball joints that don't quite get 90 degrees of range forward or laterally (although he's fine going backward), but I think he's close enough.  His thighs swivel, and his knees bend slightly over 90 degrees.  His feet, unfortunately, have no articulation.  After making ankles standard since Siege, I guess Deluxe-class toys don't have enough budget for ankles anymore.  Actually, that's not entirely true... due to transformation, his ankles do bend 90 degrees.  They just bend outward.

Continuing the gimmick for the line, Bumblebee's right (and only right) forearm can be removed, leaving a 5mm pegged stump.  Either blast can be pegged onto that stump.  However, since only the right arm comes off you have to pick one blaster or the other.  Bumblebee can't dual-wield.  Not guns, anyway... you're still free to plug the sword into his either fist, but you'll probably use his non-removable left fist for it.

Bee at least manages to have storage for all his accessories.  There are slots on his backpack, and all three of his accessories have tabs that fit into them.  So, while one blaster is on his arm, the other can go on his back.  As can his sword.  Actually, you have have both guns on his back, and (intentional or not) the tab on the sword will fit into a cutout on either thigh.  That said, for all his accessory storage he's got no place to put his forearm when he isn't using it.  That is, I feel, a major issue.  Bot mode accessory storage that isn't the fists is always nice, but worst-case scenario you lose a gun and give him a Battle Master or an extra weapon from another figure.  Or maybe you buy some new 5mm accessories from a 3P, or these days if you have a 3D printer you can even print your own.  But lets say you set that arm aside, and then lose it.  Now you're just screwed.  You need that arm for alt mode, buddy.

Speaking of alt mode, while they have some necessarily similarities (chest becomes the front, backpack makes the roof and rear, etc) there's some pretty major differences.  Instead of making the sides of the vehicle from the arms, this time they tuck underneath the front with just the forearm wheels peaking out.  The legs, which fold in a much tidier manner this time, make up the sides of the car.  Generally speaking, I think the engineering is improved over the original toy, but there's still some minor frustrations, like getting his shoulders enough clearance to fold in.

Both figures look pretty good in alt mode, each with their ups and downs.  SSGE Bee has the black on his grill, plus the smaller size.  The stripes on the top are slightly more accurate as well.  I think the extra molded geometry along the sides is, too, but I'm not totally certain on that point.  The older figure's stripes aren't marred by a gray hinge, though, and correctly paints the rear "window" that the newer figure didn't.  As for the "headlights" I'm a bit torn.  The red lines in them aren't actually accurate in alt mode... but they are in bot mode.  And generally I think you need to prioritize the bot mode mode, so... yay for red in the headlights, I guess.

All of Bumblebee's accessories can be stored in alt mode.  There's a slot on top that you can use to tab in any of his accessories.  The four on his backpack are also available on the rear bumper (although for practical reasons only two can be used at a time).  One more slot is revealed on the underside of the vehicle, allowing you to plug an accessory in between a space between his limbs.  Note that only the smaller blaster or sword will fit there, though, if you actually want him to roll when you're done.

Well, let's get this out of the way right now... Bumblebee is OK, bordering on good.  He's not Barricade.  He's got decent accessories, mostly adequate articulation, I'd go so far as to say that I do prefer this figure over the 2010 version.  That said, I do feel like Hasbro's kind of hitting the bare minimums here.  The transformation could be a bit smoother, and the QC is started to drop.  I didn't mention it earlier, but if you go back and look at my pictures you'll probably notice some nasty sprue marks on the yellow plastic, and one spot on the rear where they got a little black paint on him.  This, despite skipping the paint on the rear "window".  The real killer for me is the lower legs.  It's not just the lack of ankle articulation, mind you, but the fact that details on the inside of the leg are more accurate to the outside, while what you get on the outside of the leg is sort of a mess of hinges and junk.  Hasbro could have made this figure significantly better, I think, if his legs were swapped then each rotated at the thigh for transformation instead of his whole lower body rotating at the waist.  Unfortunately, that doesn't leave him with the clearance he needs for his backpack to cover his rear in alt mode, though.  You can get close to seeing what I mean by not swapping his legs, then just spinning his waist 180 then spinning his thighs 180.  Details like the wheels in his ankles are on the outside, where they belong, and his the transformation joints in his ankles become ankle pivots.  Unfortunately, the hollow gaps in his butt then become his crotch.  Oh well, maybe a 3P will make a gap filler that'll work.

In any case, I'll give Bumblebee a tentative recommend.  He's still pretty decent and I dig the accessories.  But I don't know that he's an essential upgrade over the 2010 figure the way Prime was.

[Hikuro]

While I was digging around and poking at the images that were released on the new WFC characters I said to myself to just avoid these and really cherish the old ones more. I'm almost certain that Toyhax will come up with some ways of really making areas of say, Bumblebee pop more, him, prime and barricade just don't do it for me...they're to kibble heavy where I didn't really feel that in their old toy variants. Though I do wish I had gotten more into the Planet X stuff as I thought they had really nailed the chunkiness their designs were back then. Sorta just kicking myself not joining in on that. 

[M'Kyuun]

I still prefer the original WfC Bumblebee and I'm passing on the new version- that big chest and inaccurate legs turn me off to the fig. Never cared for the WfC Prime design; I passed on the original and I'm passing on this new version. I do however love the FoC version and the little deluxe toy we got back in 2012, and I hope we eventually get a really well-done voyager figure. Thanks for the review @mikeszekely.

[sh9000]

Hasbro Fanstream.

[M'Kyuun]

SS86 Brawn looks great!

[Scyla]

1 hour ago, sh9000 said:

Hasbro Fanstream.

I think the only exciting toy reveal was FoC Cliffjumper. 

More exciting were the sneak peaks: Strongarm and Shadow Striker.

I wonder why they haven’t shown Prine Dreadwind yet. Seems like an easy prototype to create.

[mikeszekely]

My daughter qualified to be in the 2nd grade spelling bee, which happened to be today so I missed the livestream.  I take it I didn't miss too much, though?  Some Studio Series reveals I knew was coming (GE Cliffjumper and Megatron, 86 Brawn, ROTB Prime and Rhinox), and a tease of stuff I told you would be coming in wave 4 of Evolution like six months ago.  I just want to know where the preorders at?

That said, I was a bit surprised by the Amazon two packs.  I mean, I knew Miner Megatron was coming, but Orion Pax, Ratbat, and Shockwave are total surprises.  I preordered both sets.  But speaking of preordering two packs... where's that Dion/Elita-1 pack that was being sold at Canadian Gamestops awhile back?  I was hoping there'd be some mention of it going up on Pulse for a more reasonable price, because I'm a hair trigger away from paying TCP $100 for it.

EDIT: BTW, I'm getting wind that those two Amazon two-packs are just the first Amazon-exclusive comic-universe figures planned.  There's going to be another two-pack, figures unknown at this point (Skids and Nautica?  Rodimus and Ultra Magnus?  Cyclonus and Tailgate?  Chromedome and Rewind?  Vos and Kaon?  Swerve and Whirl?  Soundwave and Galvatron?  Drift and Ratchet?  There's so many good pairs to choose from, you guys.)  We're also getting Voyager-class Nacelle (the real question here is whether it's the Earthrise Seeker mold or yet another use of Siege Seeker mold), and the one I'm most excited for, Leader-class Nova Prime.

Edited May 16, 2023 by mikeszekely

[sh9000]

I like the look of Brawn.

[JB0]

Ooooh, a new Shockwave toy? Is it a new mold, or just a recolor of Siege?
*hits a search engine*
Ummm... I can't find pictures of this new Shockwave, just some pics of Starscream dressed up as Ultra Magnus that people are CLAIMING is Shockwave?

[mikeszekely]

7 hours ago, sh9000 said:

I like the look of Brawn.

Yeah, he looks good.  But (not that I'm complaining, Brawn was a major character in the first season) I'm curious why Gears and Windcharger don't seem to be getting done (actually, Gears was planned for Kingdom then canceled).  You know how Hasbro loves their repaints, and thanks to the comics I'd expect Swerve and Tailgate to move more units than Outback.

...I'm totally gonna buy Outback, by the way.

29 minutes ago, JB0 said:

Ummm... I can't find pictures of this new Shockwave, just some pics of Starscream dressed up as Ultra Magnus that people are CLAIMING is Shockwave?

Yeah, it's Senator Shockwave.

So, fun fact, Orion Pax's Senator friend was originally unnamed, kind of a "I see greatness in you" plot device.  But as they went along, Roberts came up with the concepts of emurpata and shadowplay.  The former was the practice of removing the head and/or hands of a Transformer, replacing them with faceless mono-eyes and claws as a sign that they are basically outcast from polite society.  The second was basically state-sponsored reprogramming to ensure conformity, officially billed as "personality management."  Roberts decided that, since Shockwave didn't have a ton of backstory besides "emotionless mad scientist" at that point that he could make the senator Shockwave, with the story being that he was something of a hot-tempered radical in the Senate.  He rubbed some other senators the wrong way, so they had him captured and subject to both empurata and shadowplay, essentially creating the Shockwave we all know and love. 

Or at least something closer to it.  See, IDW really went hard on the mad scientist thing.  See, what started as a thing about Shockwave seeding planets with special ores that he hoped would create an alternative to Energon morphed into Shockwave seeding Cybertronian colony worlds with special ores that would give him superpowers at a later date.  And when that later date came he decided, for some reason, to undo time.  Not go back in time, mind you, like, remove the dimension of time from the universe entirely.  It didn't go well, and he did wind up going back in time.  So far back that he met the first primitive Cybertronians, gave himself the identity of Onyx Prime and established the rest of the original 13 Primes from among those primitives... essentially creating Cybertronian society and mythology in a causal loop.  The 13 created tribes of Cybertronians underneath them, they fought, and eventually they all left Cybertron and created the colony worlds where Shockwave would seed his ores in the first place.  In a the course of a run that ended the Autobot/Decepticon war, had Megatron switch sides to join the Autobots, and had Starscream become the democratically-elected leader of all Cybertronians Shockwave became more or less the ultimate villian of the entire IDW run.

[Old_Nash_II]

https://news.tfw2005.com/2023/05/19/rumor-transformers-x-g-i-joe-live-action-movie-in-development-483682

Cmeon Hasbro, put some Joes in a post-credit scene this time.

I don't want much, ok????

Edited May 19, 2023 by Old_Nash_II

[Old_Nash_II]

On 5/17/2023 at 2:16 AM, mikeszekely said:

Yeah, he looks good.  But (not that I'm complaining, Brawn was a major character in the first season) I'm curious why Gears and Windcharger don't seem to be getting done (actually, Gears was planned for Kingdom then canceled).  You know how Hasbro loves their repaints, and thanks to the comics I'd expect Swerve and Tailgate to move more units than Outback.

...I'm totally gonna buy Outback, by the way.

Yeah, it's Senator Shockwave.

So, fun fact, Orion Pax's Senator friend was originally unnamed, kind of a "I see greatness in you" plot device.  But as they went along, Roberts came up with the concepts of emurpata and shadowplay.  The former was the practice of removing the head and/or hands of a Transformer, replacing them with faceless mono-eyes and claws as a sign that they are basically outcast from polite society.  The second was basically state-sponsored reprogramming to ensure conformity, officially billed as "personality management."  Roberts decided that, since Shockwave didn't have a ton of backstory besides "emotionless mad scientist" at that point that he could make the senator Shockwave, with the story being that he was something of a hot-tempered radical in the Senate.  He rubbed some other senators the wrong way, so they had him captured and subject to both empurata and shadowplay, essentially creating the Shockwave we all know and love. 

Or at least something closer to it.  See, IDW really went hard on the mad scientist thing.  See, what started as a thing about Shockwave seeding planets with special ores that he hoped would create an alternative to Energon morphed into Shockwave seeding Cybertronian colony worlds with special ores that would give him superpowers at a later date.  And when that later date came he decided, for some reason, to undo time.  Not go back in time, mind you, like, remove the dimension of time from the universe entirely.  It didn't go well, and he did wind up going back in time.  So far back that he met the first primitive Cybertronians, gave himself the identity of Onyx Prime and established the rest of the original 13 Primes from among those primitives... essentially creating Cybertronian society and mythology in a causal loop.  The 13 created tribes of Cybertronians underneath them, they fought, and eventually they all left Cybertron and created the colony worlds where Shockwave would seed his ores in the first place.  In a the course of a run that ended the Autobot/Decepticon war, had Megatron switch sides to join the Autobots, and had Starscream become the democratically-elected leader of all Cybertronians Shockwave became more or less the ultimate villian of the entire IDW run.

In the MTMTE #11 Senador Shockwave have 2 colors palete

One resembling Ultra Magnus colors, and used in the toy

 

[mikeszekely]

Hot on the heels of last Tuesday's announced Studio Series Rhinox... I went ahead and bought the mainline Rise of the Beasts Voyager-class Rhinox.

Have we seen CGI of Rhinox's bot mode yet?  Because, generally speaking, I think this figure is pretty much what I've come to expect from the Maximals in this movie.  He's got a limited color pallet, he's got more mechanical details, but by and large he's still recognizably Rhinox.  He's still got rhino toes on his wrists, the crotch armor, the round head with the chin strap, and chunky shins.  I'd say the biggest departure from the classic Rhinox design is that he's got sculpted pecs and abs instead of a massive lower jaw for a torso.

Even from behind, he's still got the rhino head for a backpack.  Note that the horns are not attached out of the package, probably so they don't fall off and out of the open-faced packaging.  Once they're installed, though, you don't remove them again.

Here's a quick shot of Rhinox with Studio Series Cheetor and ROTB Primal.  Aside from Cheetor being super tall I'm pretty ok with this scale, and I think they look pretty good together.

Rhinox comes with his signature gatling gun saw blade thingies.  The 5mm pegs on them have plastic that wraps around Rhinox's fists, making it look like his hand transforms into them, which is cool... but I'm wondering if they're even in the movie?  I'll note that the upcoming Studio Series Rhinox gets a hammer instead.

Anyway... Rhinox's head is on a swivel only, no tilt.  His shoulders can rotate and extend laterally 90 degrees.  His biceps swivel, and his elbows bend 90 degrees, but he has no wrist articulation.  His waist swivels.  His hips go 90 degrees forward and over 90 degrees laterally, but his backpack kibble prevents him from getting more than 45-ish degrees backward.  His thighs swivel, and his knees bend 90 degrees.  His feet have a slight up/down tilt, and 45 degrees of ankle pivot.  Let that sink in... ankle pivot on the cheaper mainline ROTB toys, but none of two out of three (technically at least three out of five, since Cliffjumper is a retool of Bee) Studio Series Gamer Edition?

As mentioned, Rhinox's guns plug into his fists with plastic that covers over said fists so it looks like the guns are his hands, or his hands transform into guns.

Rhinox doesn't have any casual weapon storage, but there are 5mm pegs on either side of the plastic that covers over his fists on the guns, and he has 5mm ports on either shoulder.  This gives you at least one option for storage, in case you'd rather have Rhinox wielding Rhinox (I do, and I kind of want mini versions of all my Transformers that turn into guns for the bigger ones).

Rhinox turns into a rhino, duh.  The transformation is very similar to the Kingdom toy, but simplified.  Like, in both cases their lower legs open and expand to form most of the rhino's rear half, but ROTB Rhinox has the rhino legs just hanging out of his calves whereas Kingdom Rhinox has them fold out from inside his robot legs in a more complicated (and with less clearance) process.  His chest doesn't have to fold up, and his arms don't reverse butterfly and collapse to push his shoulders back.  Instead, the shoulders are connected to panels that rotate 90 degrees.  

OK, now I know we have seen the CGI for Rhinox's rhino mode, and... this figures ok.  Broad strokes, it's definitely a mechanical rhino with a lot of browns and some silvers.  Digging in, though, the impression that I get from the CGI is that Rhinox should be more like bare metal, and what brown he has on him is more like dirt or rust.  Also, despite being a mechanical rhino, the CGI has a dynamic, realistic rhino shape, whereas this guy looks like someone turned a refrigerator on its side, stuck some cinder blocks under one end, then stuck some tree trunks and a rhino head on the other.

The articulation in rhino mode is pretty consistent with that visual description as well.  His jaws can open, but there's no head or neck articulation.  His front legs can still rotate and move laterally at the shoulders, and he's still got the bicep swivels, but turning his rhino toes forward means he has no functional knee/elbows.  He's got a little bit of forward/backward movement in what I think is the rear rhino knees, but no hips or ankles, and no swivels.

Those 5mm ports on his shoulders, and the pegs on the sides of his guns?  Yeah, they're not really there for robot mode.  They're there so that Rhinox can carry his guns in rhino mode.

Rhinox reminds me a lot of ROTB Primal.  In both cases you can kind of tell that they didn't quite get the budget for paint and engineering that a Studio Series release would get, but neither of them seem to put out by that, and both of them have an aesthetic that matches Studio Series Cheetor more than the mainline ROTB Cheetor.  So, the question is, why bother if the Studio Series toy is coming?  Well, for someone like me, there's the fact that I could grab this guy right off the shelf while my wife was looking for white shoes for our daughter's dance recital... it's less about "this is the definitive movie Rhinox toy!" and more the experience of buying a toy on a whim at the store instead of preordering it months in advance on Pulse or Amazon and just seeing what that toy is all about.  I reckon, though, that most collectors aren't doing that.  So, I guess my next question would be whether or not the Studio Series toy is actually going to be better.  From the pictures, there's things I like about it but I'm not loving how thin and weedy his legs are (both in bot mode, and the rear legs in rhino mode).  For now, I'm inclined to suggest waiting for the Studio Series toy, but I'd definitely want to have the Studio Series toy in-hand to compare before I make a final call.

[mikeszekely]

The Studio Series stuff from last week's reveals is up for preorder. Brawn already sold out on Pulse, but I was able to preorder on Amazon. Weirdly I can't find Prime, Megatron, or Cliffjumper on Amazon but I pre-ordered them on Pulse. Rhinox is still available at both as of 2:00pm EDT.

[sh9000]

I didn't check my email earlier so I wasn't aware that preorders went up today.  Thanks to @mikeszekely for the reminder.  Preordered Brawn at The Chosen Prime.

[Scyla]

 

MPG Kaen's images are out. They look hilarious: https://www.tfw2005.com/boards/threads/transformers-raiden-project.1183388/page-665#post-21362844

 

Edited May 30, 2023 by Scyla

[lechuck]

MP-58 (?) Hoist also incoming.

https://www.tfw2005.com/boards/threads/mp-hoist.1244198/page-17#post-21362945

I'll say this, it was terrible idea for the cartoon to lean more into the compromised toy designs for season two instead of continuing with the streamlined redesign of season one. That being said, Takara has done a good job of recapturing Hoist from the cartoon.

 

 

Edited May 30, 2023 by lechuck

[mikeszekely]

Shadowstriker (Deluxe, Evolution Wave 4) was leaked.  And... oof.  That's a lot of kibble.  And sure, her limbs are the sort of thin you tend to associate with fembots, but then I'm also thinking that aside from the head it doesn't really look like Shadowstriker.  I mean, there's no front-end on her chest, no doors on her forearms, no wheels in her ankles, etc...

For reference, 

But I kept thinking, I've seen that chest before.  I know I have.  Shadowstriker's gotta be a pretool, but for what?  After racking my brain for a bit, it hit me.  That's 100% Shadowstriker's head on RID 2001 Sideburn's body, kibble and all.

All I have to say is if they're hitting the RID 2001 cast I better get a Leader (or Commander!) Optimus Prime/Fire Convoy...

[mikeszekely]

I was under the impression that the first Jurassic Park crossover didn't sell so well (it's still available and marked down to like $50 bucks), which, y'know, I kind of get that us '80s kids aren't as nostalgic for the '90s, but I thought it was a pretty decent set.  But, yeah, I guess they're doing another one?

Both figures appear to be new molds, so, neat.  I'm in.  This one's an Amazon exclusive.  I don't know if it'll be on Pulse or not, so far no. Nevermind, it's on Pulse here.

In other news, looks like Takara is looking to do a collab with Toyota and JAXA on a new Optimus Prime figure that turns into Toyota's new Luna Rover.

Thing is, right now it's being crowdfunded on camp-fire.jp.  If it gets funded, it will likely also make it's way to regular Japanese retail, but for right now it's a little out of my reach.

Edited June 1, 2023 by mikeszekely

[sh9000]

I have the first Transformers Collaborative JP set so I'll probably get this new set.  That Optimus Prime looks cool.

[M'Kyuun]

7 hours ago, mikeszekely said:

I was under the impression that the first Jurassic Park crossover didn't sell so well (it's still available and marked down to like $50 bucks), which, y'know, I kind of get that us '80s kids aren't as nostalgic for the '90s, but I thought it was a pretty decent set.  But, yeah, I guess they're doing another one?

Both figures appear to be new molds, so, neat.  I'm in.  This one's an Amazon exclusive.  I don't know if it'll be on Pulse or not, so far no. Nevermind, it's on Pulse here.

In other news, looks like Takara is looking to do a collab with Toyota and JAXA on a new Optimus Prime figure that turns into Toyota's new Luna Rover.

Thing is, right now it's being crowdfunded on camp-fire.jp.  If it gets funded, it will likely also make it's way to regular Japanese retail, but for right now it's a little out of my reach.

Pretty awkward placement of the wheels in bot mode on that JP Jeep fig. The Gallimimus is on par with the majority of BW figs, so not too bad. Not terribly interested, though. OTOH, I dig that Prime but not enough to crowdfund. The effort, however, is laudable.

[Scyla]

5 hours ago, M'Kyuun said:

Pretty awkward placement of the wheels in bot mode on that JP Jeep fig. The Gallimimus is on par with the majority of BW figs, so not too bad. Not terribly interested, though. OTOH, I dig that Prime but not enough to crowdfund. The effort, however, is laudable.

Isn’t the head of the jeep inspired by Dennis Nedry (and the whole set inspired by his death scene)? So it would make sense for the jeep to have a more "voluptuous" belly. 

[M'Kyuun]

9 hours ago, Scyla said:

Isn’t the head of the jeep inspired by Dennis Nedry (and the whole set inspired by his death scene)? So it would make sense for the jeep to have a more "voluptuous" belly. 

Sure, but there are better ways to go about it, like Animated Bulkhead or G1 Trailbreaker, which give the illusion of chubbiness without looking terrible. Nedrybot just looks like lazy engineering. 

[sh9000]

Nedrybot has got a spare tire belly.

[mikeszekely]

4 hours ago, M'Kyuun said:

Nedrybot just looks like lazy engineering. 

To be totally fair, this is Hasbro.  There's a non-zero chance that he's mistransformed there.  I'm in, regardless.  Heck, I'm in it for the shaving cream accessory.