The Transformers Thread (licensed) Next

[mikeszekely]

Some rumors from a reliable source.  In 2024 we can expect-

-Deluxe-class Cybertron Hot Shot.  Presumably the sports car, known as Exillion in Japan, since they already did the Cybertron Defense version from Siege Hound.  (Also, is it weird that I think I'd have preferred the Energon version of Hot Shot?)

-Studio Series Core-class Steeljaw.  Yeah, as they look to fill those Core-class slots they're resorting to giving us Lockdown's dog from AoE.

-Deluxe Strongarm.  I feel like I've mentioned this one before.  

-Leader-class Soundwave.  Now, at this point a lot of people are gushing about the possibility of a new G1 Soundwave that isn't a retool of Siege and stuck in Walmart limbo.  And I do have to admit that it'd be pretty cool to have him hit a Leader budget by giving us a Voyager-sized toy and packing in a bunch of tapes.  That said, I have a feeling it's going to another Soundwave, most likely Cybertron (although I'd low-key love if they did a "comics universe" Soundwave with an APC alt mode).

-SS86 Leader-class Springer.  OK, this one might be the most interesting of all.  I mean, I dig Siege Springer a ton, and I'd have been happy if they re-released that figure with a more movie-accurate deco.  But Leader-class suggests this is a whole new mold, and SS86 means it has to be G1 Springer, not something like the unused Osprey from Revenge of the Fallen.  My only concern here is that Hasbro doesn't have a great track record with Leader-class triple changers...

Lastly, not a rumor but news with a ton of speculation.  2024 is the 40th anniversary of The Transformers, and Hasbro is apparently giving the 3D models of the original G1 toys to licensing partners to make toys with.  While, fingers crossed, I'm hoping we can see some straight G1 reissues I suspect that we're going to see more re-imagined stuff.  Y'know, like Optimus Prime pulling a Target trailer or something.

[sh9000]

Cool.  I'm looking forward to more SS86 figures.

[M'Kyuun]

1 hour ago, mikeszekely said:

Some rumors from a reliable source.  In 2024 we can expect-

-Deluxe-class Cybertron Hot Shot.  Presumably the sports car, known as Exillion in Japan, since they already did the Cybertron Defense version from Siege Hound.  (Also, is it weird that I think I'd have preferred the Energon version of Hot Shot?)

-Studio Series Core-class Steeljaw.  Yeah, as they look to fill those Core-class slots they're resorting to giving us Lockdown's dog from AoE.

-Deluxe Strongarm.  I feel like I've mentioned this one before.  

-Leader-class Soundwave.  Now, at this point a lot of people are gushing about the possibility of a new G1 Soundwave that isn't a retool of Siege and stuck in Walmart limbo.  And I do have to admit that it'd be pretty cool to have him hit a Leader budget by giving us a Voyager-sized toy and packing in a bunch of tapes.  That said, I have a feeling it's going to another Soundwave, most likely Cybertron (although I'd low-key love if they did a "comics universe" Soundwave with an APC alt mode).

-SS86 Leader-class Springer.  OK, this one might be the most interesting of all.  I mean, I dig Siege Springer a ton, and I'd have been happy if they re-released that figure with a more movie-accurate deco.  But Leader-class suggests this is a whole new mold, and SS86 means it has to be G1 Springer, not something like the unused Osprey from Revenge of the Fallen.  My only concern here is that Hasbro doesn't have a great track record with Leader-class triple changers...

Lastly, not a rumor but news with a ton of speculation.  2024 is the 40th anniversary of The Transformers, and Hasbro is apparently giving the 3D models of the original G1 toys to licensing partners to make toys with.  While, fingers crossed, I'm hoping we can see some straight G1 reissues I suspect that we're going to see more re-imagined stuff.  Y'know, like Optimus Prime pulling a Target trailer or something.

The thought of a leader class Soundwave fills me with hope that along with his upscaling, so too will the cassettes be upscaled to their original real-world mini-cassette scale. I doubt it, but I can hope. I dislike the smaller scale Hasbro went with for the cassettes since Siege and would love to see a return to their original scale, along with better articulation and complexity, although I realize this is Has/Tak we're talking about here. I think the Hasbro side of that relationship is the real barrier to better products, but unfortunately, they exercise a tight stranglehold on the property, giving Takara little freedom, as they used to enjoy, to make better versions of the toys for the Japanese market, and thus the secondary market for us poor eager schmucks.  Still, an upscaled Soundwave is interesting, especially if it is indeed the G1 version, as the previous mold left somewhat to be desired.

The original Strongarm fig was pretty chunky in her own right, so a translation to G1ification will likely not be as starkly compromised as say Animated or Prime designs.

Leader class Springer is an odd choice; I think the voyager Siege version is nigh perfect. Mike's so right about their lackluster track record with leader class triple-changers. Well, if it's a hot mess, at least we have the Siege fig.

As to the og toys, I'm personally not interested; I was highly critical of them as a teenager in the 80s due to their almost complete lack of articulation, so the modern toys are what I want in a Transformers toy. That said, I get that nostalgia drives a lot of the fandom so if indeed other companies get to have their will and way with the old designs, that's great for those fans who crave them. Now, if a company somehow managed to add full articulation to the old toys, keeping them very close to how they looked, I might be in for a few.

[Scyla]

On 6/15/2023 at 6:05 PM, mikeszekely said:

Some rumors from a reliable source.  In 2024 we can expect-

-Deluxe-class Cybertron Hot Shot.  Presumably the sports car, known as Exillion in Japan, since they already did the Cybertron Defense version from Siege Hound.  (Also, is it weird that I think I'd have preferred the Energon version of Hot Shot?)

-Studio Series Core-class Steeljaw.  Yeah, as they look to fill those Core-class slots they're resorting to giving us Lockdown's dog from AoE.

-Deluxe Strongarm.  I feel like I've mentioned this one before.  

-Leader-class Soundwave.  Now, at this point a lot of people are gushing about the possibility of a new G1 Soundwave that isn't a retool of Siege and stuck in Walmart limbo.  And I do have to admit that it'd be pretty cool to have him hit a Leader budget by giving us a Voyager-sized toy and packing in a bunch of tapes.  That said, I have a feeling it's going to another Soundwave, most likely Cybertron (although I'd low-key love if they did a "comics universe" Soundwave with an APC alt mode).

-SS86 Leader-class Springer.  OK, this one might be the most interesting of all.  I mean, I dig Siege Springer a ton, and I'd have been happy if they re-released that figure with a more movie-accurate deco.  But Leader-class suggests this is a whole new mold, and SS86 means it has to be G1 Springer, not something like the unused Osprey from Revenge of the Fallen.  My only concern here is that Hasbro doesn't have a great track record with Leader-class triple changers...

Lastly, not a rumor but news with a ton of speculation.  2024 is the 40th anniversary of The Transformers, and Hasbro is apparently giving the 3D models of the original G1 toys to licensing partners to make toys with.  While, fingers crossed, I'm hoping we can see some straight G1 reissues I suspect that we're going to see more re-imagined stuff.  Y'know, like Optimus Prime pulling a Target trailer or something.

I would love to get another round of G1 Power Masters in original packaging or the Euro G1 toys.

I never owned any of them with few exceptions but I have fond memories staring at the boxes of Power Master Optimus Prime and Stalker at the local toy store when I was little.

I second your thoughts that the 3rd party probably won’t redo old toys but rather but out Transformers lunchboxes and other stuff I don’t really care for.

[mikeszekely]

-Deluxe-class Studio Series Mirage.  Was wondering what happened to it, since they announced it back during the Super Bowl.

-Leader-class Studio Series Optimus Primal.  I liked the mainline Voyager, but bot mode especially looks so much better on this one.

Apparently the Rise of the Beast toys will continue into 2024 and there will be more reveals at Comicon, but they're done with ROTB toys today.

-Pulse-exclusive Core-class Optimus Prime with a trailer and the Bumblebee from the Bumblebee/Spike Buzzworthy pack.  Unlike Legacy, the trailer actually comes with a Roller that can pull the trailer, and the Autolauncher drone is properly blue with the arm and antenna.

-Legacy Evolution Wave 4

-Deluxe-class Shadowstriker.  It's the one that previous leaked, the one that looks like Side Burn.  I'm still betting on a Side Burn retool, but they're saying that she looks like Side Burn because the before Cyberverse there was a Shadowstriker in Universe that was a repaint of Side Burn.

-Deluxe Bombshell.  The one that leaked 

-Deluxe Strongarm.  Her alt mode looks a little wide and low to be a truck, and it's because she's a retool of Elita-1.  But the bot mode looks pretty nice.

-Deluxe Detritus.  It's a tan version of the leaked Earth-mode Hound that never came out.

-Core class Snarl.  Looks like the best of the Core-class Dinobots to me.  Volcanicus looks OK... probably could use some real feet.  If you missed Sludge and Slag they'll be repacked into Wave 4 with Snarl

-Voyager-class Bludgeon.  They're saying it's based on Milne's Bludgeon, but it's a fairly minimal retool of Tarn (new head and a new sword weapon).

-Voyager Trashmaster.  It's a garbage truck, and garbage trucks are criminally under-utilized in Transformers.  Can still swap parts with the Deluxe Junkions.  Mark hinted at a planned combined mode for the Junkions.

-Leader class Dreadwing.  Another one that leaked already.  I don't hate it as much as some people do, but yeah, the translucent red is out of place, and the G1 Skyquake nods don't really apply.

-Dead Prowl and Ironhide.  I mean, the preorders already went out...

-The Trooper pack.  In person "Seeker" looks more purple than blue (Hotlink?).

These figures will be up for preorder today, but they have reveals that will be available to preorder on Thursday.

-VNR Optimus.  The earlier Canadian release was a warehouse mistake.  And for those that didn't follow it then it's Holiday Optimus Prime in G1 colors.

-Antagony/Scavenger.  It's Legacy Inferno redone in black and purple, but they're including the head from Transmetal Scavenger.  Antagony is the last Gen Selects release for the year.

They did mention that they'll have another reveal that they think we know about already.  I suspect they mean the War Dawn pack with Dion and Aerial, which again was sold in Canada already but I believe was supposed to be a Comicon pack.

I'll try to get picks up of the reveals later.

[M'Kyuun]

So, I was all set to order Bombshell, Dreadwing, Strongarm, and Shadowstriker, but the only new figs they added to Pulse for PO were the core class Bee & Prime, SS leader Optimus Primal , and SS Mirage from RotB, none of which hold any interest for me. Guess the others go up on Thursday with Volvo Prime. Bummer.

Quite irksome that they're releasing a color variant of Earth mode Hound, but no Hound himself. Grrrr!

Still kick myself that I didn't pick up more of the 2015 RiD figs, including Strongarm, when they were out. Some of them were rather ingenious and unique either in the bot modes, the vehicle modes, or both. Steeljaw's another one I skipped to my regret. Hopefully he'll get a good updated fig, too.

@mikeszekely I feel your sentiment pertaining to garbage truck alts; to wit, Animated Wreck-Gar was the only one until Trashmaster. I'm not really into the Junkion figs beyond SS86 Wreck-Gar and his mold mate (I forget his name), but given the exceptional nature of his alt, I may end up getting him if I happen to spot him at Wally.

Edited June 20, 2023 by M'Kyuun

[sh9000]

 

 

@mikeszekely I got you covered with the pics.

Edited June 20, 2023 by sh9000

[mikeszekely]

5 hours ago, M'Kyuun said:

So, I was all set to order Bombshell, Dreadwing, Strongarm, and Shadowstriker, but the only new figs they added to Pulse for PO were the core class Bee & Prime, SS leader Optimus Primal , and SS Mirage from RotB, none of which hold any interest for me. Guess the others go up on Thursday with Volvo Prime. Bummer.

I don't know what's up with that, they really made it sound like everything before VNR Optimus would be today.  Well, usually the preorders seem to go up right after the previous wave starts going out, and while I've seen reviews popping up neither Pulse nor Amazon has shipped any of wave 3.  If I get a bunch of "shipped emails tonight/tomorrow I'll know the preorders will be Thursday.

All-in-all, it's a pretty unexciting wave for me, although I suppose it's marginally better than the third wave.  I intend to get the entire wave.  I also threw down preorders on Primal, Mirage, and the Prime/Bee set.  I mostly want it for the trailer, but I never bought that version of Bee, either.  I think Primal actually looks pretty cool.  Mirage, like so many movie bots, looks like a kibbly mess in bot mode but I love that alt mode.  I'm a Transformers fan, I'm a Porsche fan. When I was a kid I dreamed of owning the very 911 Turbo they used for Mirage in the movie, and today I'm saving up for a Taycan.  I'm probably the guy this is for:

5 hours ago, M'Kyuun said:

Quite irksome that they're releasing a color variant of Earth mode Hound, but no Hound himself. Grrrr!

The holdup is apparently on Target's end, and he's supposedly still coming.  But for some reason felt that gray repaints of movie Ratchet and Bonecrusher, Cybertronian Jazz, and now a pair of Legacy multipacks need priority, I guess.

5 hours ago, M'Kyuun said:

I feel your sentiment pertaining to garbage truck alts; to wit, Animated Wreck-Gar was the only one until Trashmaster. I'm not really into the Junkion figs beyond SS86 Wreck-Gar and his mold mate (I forget his name), but given the exceptional nature of his alt, I may end up getting him if I happen to spot him at Wally.

Actually there's also Age of Extinction Junkheap.  But yes, if Mark insists on doing original characters then I think garbage trucks and buses are criminally underutilized alt modes. 

3 hours ago, sh9000 said:

@mikeszekely I got you covered with the pics.

Thanks, I've been really busy lately getting caught up on all the work I didn't do while recovering from a knee injury.  But I still have a picture for you guys anyway, courtesy of the aforementioned Mark Maher:

[lechuck]

New Takara promo of Kaen with some additional shots of Raiden in action.

Not feeling combined mode – too much kibble and articulation seems average if you ask me.

 

[M'Kyuun]

1 hour ago, lechuck said:

New Takara promo of Kaen with some additional shots of Raiden in action.

Not feeling combined mode – too much kibble and articulation seems average if you ask me.

 

I think it's cool that the train bots exist; in fact, I saw at least one of the original toys at a Japanese hobby shop on Okinawa back in '90 or '91 although I didn't buy it. However, it was a total revelation, as I didn't realize there were Transformers toys beyond the ones we had in America. I was pretty naive at 19. Anyway, I haven't been able to sum up much enthusiasm for these, even at MP levels of quality. However, if Hasbro was to release them in the Generations line, perhaps at voyager scale, I'd be more interested and inclined to pick one or two up, if not the entire team, depending on how well they were executed.

[M'Kyuun]

18 hours ago, mikeszekely said:

I don't know what's up with that, they really made it sound like everything before VNR Optimus would be today.  Well, usually the preorders seem to go up right after the previous wave starts going out, and while I've seen reviews popping up neither Pulse nor Amazon has shipped any of wave 3.  If I get a bunch of "shipped emails tonight/tomorrow I'll know the preorders will be Thursday.

All-in-all, it's a pretty unexciting wave for me, although I suppose it's marginally better than the third wave.  I intend to get the entire wave.  I also threw down preorders on Primal, Mirage, and the Prime/Bee set.  I mostly want it for the trailer, but I never bought that version of Bee, either.  I think Primal actually looks pretty cool.  Mirage, like so many movie bots, looks like a kibbly mess in bot mode but I love that alt mode.  I'm a Transformers fan, I'm a Porsche fan. When I was a kid I dreamed of owning the very 911 Turbo they used for Mirage in the movie, and today I'm saving up for a Taycan.  I'm probably the guy this is for:

The holdup is apparently on Target's end, and he's supposedly still coming.  But for some reason felt that gray repaints of movie Ratchet and Bonecrusher, Cybertronian Jazz, and now a pair of Legacy multipacks need priority, I guess.

Actually there's also Age of Extinction Junkheap.  But yes, if Mark insists on doing original characters then I think garbage trucks and buses are criminally underutilized alt modes. 

Thanks, I've been really busy lately getting caught up on all the work I didn't do while recovering from a knee injury.  But I still have a picture for you guys anyway, courtesy of the aforementioned Mark Maher:

Thanks for all the pointed replies, Mike. Good info, insofar as Target's potential machinations concerning their releases. I continue to be bummed by the dearth of releases yesterday, as I have to take my mother-in-law to an appointment tomorrow morning and it's a fair bet I'm going to miss the initial drops on Pulse; I wish they adjusted those releases for all time zones; if they released at 1 PM here, no worries, but they don't so the drops happen at 10 AM which usually coincide with her appointments. I don't own a cell phone, so that's not an option.  Hopefully by the time I get back the figs I want will still be in stock, as Pulse has a terrible trend of carrying limited supplies and never restocking, at least not the popular items it seems. There's a reason I pay my $50 membership, and I wish occasional restocks of high-demand items was a part of that.

[sh9000]

Volvo Prime and Antagony up for preorder.

[M'Kyuun]

Picked up Volvo Prime. Kinda disappointed that many of the other figs discussed on Tuesday weren't listed today, especially Bombshell.  I'm guessing they'll just drop randomly with naught but an email to let me know; I often miss those when they're relevant and only discover them after everything's sold out on Pulse. 

[mikeszekely]

I preordered VNR Optimus and Antagony today (and Core Class Op, SS Primal, and SS Mirage the other day).  I didn't get any ship notices for any of the wave 3 stuff yet, so I kind of figured there wouldn't be preorders for wave 4 yet.  I'm thinking they may go up closer to Comicon.

[mikeszekely]

I started getting emails from both Pulse and Amazon about figures shipping... by the end of next week I think I should have the whole wave, save Megatron (and, I guess, Dirge, because I bought Dirge back in the Earthrise days).  So if I were a betting man, I'd look for a "Transformers Tuesday" email and the wave 4 figures to go up for preorder as early as the 27th.

[Scyla]

MPG Suiken is out and here is a first picture of the partsforming courtesy of: 

 

It seems like almost half of the train partsforms into his backpack and shoulder spires:

Hilarious. 

[mikeszekely]

I've said it before and I'll say it again, Takara nailed the trains at the expense of the other two modes, and that's just not how you want to do a combiner.

[Scyla]

37 minutes ago, mikeszekely said:

I've said it before and I'll say it again, Takara nailed the trains at the expense of the other two modes, and that's just not how you want to do a combiner.

That is true and I stated as much with the previous releases I got.

However, with each new set of in hand images or official advertisement, I’m shocked to what extend Takara pursued the train mode accuracy abandon many design cues  of official Transformers on the way.

[lechuck]

The partsforming doesn't really bother me, I actually think the arm-bots will be the best of the gang, because they have better articulation which makes them more dynamic.

 

https://twitter.com/Ishikawa_sunday/status/1672547710715707394

[mikeszekely]

Well, it looks like the third wave of Legacy Evolution is trickling in, so maybe we can soon preorder the stuff they announced for wave 4 last week.  But before we get too far ahead of ourselves, let's take a look at what we've got now, starting with Core-class Swoop.

Ah, Swoop... seen here with Power of the Primes Swoop, but unlike the other Core-class Dinobots I've reviewed this little guy beat the Studio Series one to market, because despite a head start that had Leader-class Grimlock hitting three years ago we've yet to even see a prototype for Studio Series Swoop.

Am I getting impatient?  Maybe a little, but it does help that mini-Swoop is actually a pretty decent appetizer.  Like, sure, the dino head on his chest is a bit bulbous, and there's a pretty unsightly hinge in it.  I'd have liked to see the dino feet on his his knees, some panels on his shins, and his feet painted.  If we want to be proper, he should really have some color separation on his legs by making his thighs the lighter plastic they used for his wings.

His blue torso is really more like a splash of blue on his chest and that's it, leaving is flanks, pelvis, and back gray.  His calves and the backs of his forearms and butt are hollow.  But, hey, he's got the red stripes on his legs.  And despite the flaws I've pointed out, overall his sculpt is pretty dang good, with wings that fold back like the cartoon.  Consider that he doesn't have black shoulders, biceps, thighs, or a pelvis, and no black around his face, and you could say this Swoop is actually more cartoon-accurate than the PotP figure.

Of all the Core-class Dinobots so far, Sludge comes with the most accessories... two!  Molded in white, painted all black, they look sort of like Swoop's missile launchers if you squint and ignore the obvious curled fingers.

For a Core-class figure hampered by having three modes, Swoop's not too shabby in the articulation department.  His head's on a ball joint.  He can't really look down, but it swivels, looks 90 degrees straight up, and has a slight sideways tilt.  His shoulders are more ball joints for rotation and 90 degrees of lateral movement.  His elbows are ball joints, bending just over 90 degrees and doubling as a bicep swivel.  His waist can swivel, too.  His hips are, you guessed it, ball joints, and they can go forward, backward, or laterally 90 degrees.  He's got dedicated thighs swivels, and his hinged knees bend 180 degrees.

There are small pegs on the backs of the accessories, allowing Swoop to hold them as guns.

Swoop's transformation is pretty basic.  Make him look up, pull the dino head up over his robot head, tab his ankles together and bend his knees 180 degrees so his feet plug into his back, tab is arms into his sides, and unfold his wings.  If his feet folded up a bit better it'd be the G1 toy's transformation.

And he looks fine.  His back would be a bit cleaner if his feet did fold up like the G1 toy, and it'd be nice if his arms actually tucked in a bit closer instead of merely tabbing in place.  A part of me would like to lament the lack of blue paint again, but the truth is you don't see much blue on Swoop if you're looking down onto his back anyway.

In the cartoon, you'd see blue by looking up at his underside.  But you're not really going to do that with this Swoop  His dino head has no articulation, so while the figure can stand on his feet (although he leans forward due to the robot knee hinges) he can't look forward while standing... at least, not without separating the dino head from the robot head, leaving a big gap on the dino head and a very visible robot face.

Hey, at least his wings have articulation, with hinges at the base and mid-wing for flapping.  And the weapons can tab into his wings (they can be stored there in bot mode, too).

To get to Swoop's third mode, that of Volcanicus' right arm, pull the combiner peg out of his belly.  Unfold the legs, but leave them tabbed together, and spin his waist 180 degrees.  Fold his wings back to robot mode.  Then, take his two weapons and fit them together to make one fist.  On Swoop's heels you'll find a pair of tabs. These tabs fit into a pair of slots on the fist.  And, I'm starting to see some problems.  The combiner peg is a 5mm port, so Volcanicus will have shoulder rotation, and a hinge will provide lateral movement.  I could say that maybe Swoop's waist will be a bicep swivel, and his hips and knees will be a double-jointed elbow, Combiner Wars-style.  But doing so would mean that the front of the forearm is really Swoop's very hollow calves.  But the kick is that he'll have no bicep swivel, so if you want the 5mm port on the fist facing forward then Swoop's waist has to be turned so that Volcanincus' "elbow" curls in toward his body.

Up to this point the Core-class Dinobots have been hampered by a low budget and the limited engineering that budget can buy for a toy that not only has to go from robot to alt mode, but also has to turn into part of another larger robot.  I can't say I'm impressed with Swoop's arm mode, but of the four Dinobots I've looked at so far Swoop definitely has the best robot and best dinosaur modes.  Is that reason enough to get him?  I'd say if you've been collecting this set then yes, and you'll be happy that Swoop's the best one so far.  If not, though, I don't think that Swoop has the same cachét as Grimlock to warrant a standalone purchase, nor is he so good that you'll want to track down the first three (although if you do, Grimlock and Sludge are still available on Pulse and Slag (as well as Sludge) will be re-released in the 4th wave of Evolution.

Edited June 26, 2023 by mikeszekely

[mikeszekely]

Hasbro seems to be in a hurry to get all the Legacy Evolution Core-class Dinobots out, even as they take their sweet time with the SS86 ones.  Because Swoop's wavemate is Scarr, a new-ish Dinobot.

With no other toys of Scarr to compare with, I'll just leave him here with Swoop for a sense of scale.  Despite this being Scarr's first ever toy, Scarr can actually trace his origin's back to 2013, where he appeared in IDW's Transformers: Monstrosity series (spelled "Skar," but maybe that was too close to the Marvel character "Skaar" for Hasbro to trademark?).  His appearance was extremely brief, with no alt mode shown, but with his big shoulders, tapered forearms, the placement of the red and gold on his chest, and the blocky head with the bulging ear vents and the little spike on top it's clear that the designers intended Scarr and Skar to be the same character.

With naught but a few bits of Livio Ramondelli's uniquely-styled (but often hard to discern) artwork it's hard to critique Scarr's aesthetic.  He's packing some kibble and some hollow calves, but that's kind of par for the course on a Core-class figure that also combines.  What details are present seem to be pretty accurate, although I think a bit more red and gold paint on the chest and a bit of color separation on the thighs and forearms might have been nice.

Scarr comes with a single accessory.  Like Swoop's, it's actually molded in gray and painted black.  While it nominally has other purposes, it's very obviously a fist, with a single spike coming off of it like Robocop.  It kind of reminds me of a certain G1 accessory...

That's the fist that came with G1 Bristleback, of the Monstercons, who's Japanese counterpart is Gairyu.  Hmm...

Anyway, Scarr's head can swivel, no tilt.  His shoulders are on ball joints for swiveling, about 60 degrees of lateral movement, and a little butterfly motion around the ball.  Transformation hinges allow him to bring his shoulders entirely in front of his chest.  However, he lacks any other arm articulation; no bicep swivels, no elbow bends, no wrist swivels, nothing.  He does have a waist swivel, though.  His hips are ball joints and can go 90 degrees backward and laterally, and a little over that forward.  Ball joints in the knees act as thigh swivels and also allow him to bend his knees just short of 180 degrees.  No foot articulation.

Scarr's accessory has a peg on it, allowing him to hold it in his own fist with the spike pointing outward.  So if you squint it's kind of a gun.

Transformation is, again, super simple.  Using both the ball joints and the hinges, bring is arms in front of his torso so they can tab into each other.  Flip the dino head over his robot head, so it tabs into the arms, and fold the combiner peg into his dino chest.  Spin the waist 180, tab his legs together, then bend them at the knees so that they cover his forearms and connect with this shoulders.  Arrange his dino feet, and then plug his accessory onto the 5mm peg on his butt to make his tail.

With no alt mode in the comic, the design team was free to make Scarr any prehistoric reptile they wanted, and they chose an Ankylosaurus.  You can see his shoulders and shins form the shelled back, and if we squint again the obvious fist becomes his tail club.  Now, I'm not complaining about his alt mode, I think Ankylosaurus are pretty cool and a worthwhile addition to the Dinobots.  But, you know, they could have done a new new figure of Slash, the raptor from Power of the Primes, if they wanted sixth Dinobot.  They could have done Paddles, the Plesiosaur.  They could have G1-ified Scorn, the Spinosaurus from the Bayverse.  But they pulled an obscure character from a flashback in an obscure comic and very deliberately gave him an Ankylosaurus alt mode, with an accessory that looks very much like the one that came with Bristleback, who in Japan was a Gairyu, and Gairyu happens to be an Ankylosaurus on a team with a T-Rex, a Pteranadon, a Triceratops, a Brontosaurus, and a Stegosaurus.  At this point, there's no way that Hasbro isn't planning on retooling these guys into Dinoking/Monstructor.

But I digress.  Well, there's not a lot that Scarr can do in alt mode.  His only articulation is that all four of his dino hips rotate.  Nothing in the knees or feet, no head articulation.  Well, I guess you can swivel the tail on the 5mm peg, but I don't see the point.

Much as Gairyu turns into Dinoking's left arm, Scarr turns into Volcanicus' left arm.  I mean, the combiner peg is really a 5mm peg on a hinge, and you could plug him into the right side if you wanted, but the thumb is molded onto the fist such that it is the left hand (and Swoop's two accessories are not symmetrical, as one of them has the right thumb and the other doesn't).  To get to arm mode you just fold the combiner peg out, remove his tail, unfold his robot legs, spin the waist 180 degrees, and get the dino limbs out of the way (or, from robot mode, just bring in his arms, fold up the dino head, and tab his legs together like you would for dino mode, then just stop).  In the hollows of his legs you'll find a square peg that fits into the hole on the wrist.  And we're looking at the same issues here that we had with Swoop... you can technically use the waist swivel as a bicep swivel, and you can technically use his hips and knees as an elbow bend, but the hollow backs of Scarr's legs make for a hollow forearm, and there's no wrist swivel so it seems you're expected to pose him sort of gorilla-armed.

Anyway, Scarr's a bit of a letdown after Swoop, but he's really more like par for the Core-class course, hampered by budget and the need to combine.  He's ok.  Better than Sludge, about the same as Slag and Grimlock.  I'm not really recommending him, but I'm not really not recommending him.  I'd assume most people by now have already decided if they want a little Volcanicus or not, and will buy Scarr or not based on that decision regardless of what I say.

[lechuck]

Takara promo for MP Hoist.

 

[sh9000]

Legacy Evolution Deluxe Tarantulas.

Legacy Evolution Starscream.

[mikeszekely]

With the Cores out of the way, we can move on to the Deluxes... half of which haven't arrived yet.  As for the remaining half, well, one of them is a package refresh of Tarantulas.  I reviewed him the first time, and the TLDR if you missed him is that he's a pretty decent figure, but not one we need to cover again right now.  So, that just leaves the one Deluxe I did get... Legacy Evolution Deluxe-class Beachcomber.

As the sole Deluxe-and-up sized G1 character that wasn't a throwaway character for one episode and actually had a G1 toy (that's a mouthful), I expect Beachcomber will be the most-anticipated figure from this wave.  Which, frankly, says a lot about Legacy Evolution and this wave in particular, because Beachcomber (the character) kind of sucks (which doesn't explain why I have six of them... G1, POTP, Evolution, Magic Square, and Dr Wu from left to right, with X-Transbots not pictured).  Frankly, I thought Power of the Primes Legends-class Beachcomber was plenty good enough for the character.  Could he better with a Deluxe-class budget, though?

Well, there's some effort to make him more cartoon accurate.  Hasbro painted the darker gray on his chest, and replaced POTP's toy-sticker tampo with a cartoon-accurate Autobot badge.  There are sculpt differences, too, that seem a bit more Sunbow, but like a lot of the smaller Deluxes he seems a bit chunky.  I'll also note that there's some silver on his shins that aren't on the animation model... in robot mode.  

I will say that the Deluxe budget does help him clean up, though.  He's lacking most of the hollow gaps you'd see on a lot of recent Hasbro figures.  There's even flaps on his calves to hide the void his thighs will hide in when he transforms.  And unlike POTP Beachcomber, the part of his rollcage that's on his backpack tucks in instead of dangling off him like a cape.

Another way Evolution Beachcomber beats POTP Beachcomber (and technically the G1 toy, while we're at it) is that he comes with accessories.  For one, we get a gun, because maybe you should have decided you were a pacifist before you joined the Autobots, Beachcomber!  And, because Hasbro is definitely aware of unlicensed third parties and what they're doing, you get one of the parakeets from "The Golden Lagoon."

Graduating up to a Deluxe mostly improved Beachcomber's articulation.  His head seems to be on a ball joint, so it swivels but also has a very limited up/down/sideways tilt.  Unlike the POTP toy, that's the only ball joint.  His shoulders rotate and can move laterally around 75 degrees.  His biceps swivel, and his elbows bend around 90 degrees.  He's got wrist swivels and a waist swivel.  His hips go forward, backward, and laterally 90 degrees.  He's got thigh swivels, and his knees bend 90 degrees.  No up/down tilt on his feet, but his ankles can pivot around 60 degrees.

Beachcomber can hold his gun in either hand, and he's got additional 5mm ports on the outsides of his forearms, the backs of his shoulders, the backs of his heels, and two on his back.  The parakeet, which is a bit rubbery, can also plug into any of the 5mm ports.  You can plug it into a hand if you want it to look like it's perched on his fingers.  The parakeet's peg has a 3mm hole in it, though, and there's a 3mm peg on either side of his collar if you'd prefer to have the parakeet perched on his shoulder.

Increasing his budget didn't really do much to increase the engineering, as the transformation is nearly identical to the POTP toy.  You tab the legs together, including the section of rollcage in his heels.  You stretch his torso, causing his head to recede into his chest.  You bend his legs at the knee to cover his thighs, and connect the front and back of the rollcage.  And you tab his arms into his sides.  The main differences are that the Deluxe also has seats in his heels that tab into his back, the arms don't just tab into the sides, they tab into his feet, you need to untuck the back of the rollcage, and you need to open the flaps on the backs of his legs before you fold them over, then close then up once you're done.

As with the robot mode, Beachcomber's alt mode is fine, pretty cartoon-accurate, but a tad chunky.  Like, the whole thing seems wider than it should be, which does the front end no favors as the the cartoon-accurate gaps for the knee hinges are more squares than rectangles with a flat blue space between them.  You've got the accurate rollcage with the engine behind it, and a pair of seats like the cartoon, but the skid plates on the sides seem to stick out too far from the seats.  The silver on the shins becomes a now-accurate silver chevron on the hood, but it's missing an Autobot badge.  All four rims are nicely painted.  And while I appreciate that Hasbro made the headlights out of separate plastic I sort of think blue on everything except the lenses would look more cartoony.

You have access to 5mm ports on the sides of the vehicle, on the engine, and near the rear tires, and you'll probably want to use one of those for the parakeet.  A new 5mm port was also revealed on the nose of the vehicle.  This is why the gun has a 5mm peg on one side.  You can arrange the the gun to become a bumper for the buggy.  That said, I'm not loving the asymmetry of a 5mm handle poking up one side and a gun barrel sticking out of the other.  But that's ok!  The 5mm peg handle and a protrusion from the back of the bumper actually form a c-clip, and the gun is meant to clip onto the back of the rollcage.

Hasbro's repeatedly demonstrated that they can do a lot more with a Deluxe-budget than they can with a Legends/Core, especially on fairly simple figures.  Beachcomber is another example of Hasbro delivering a pretty great minibot, even if that minibot is Beachcomber instead of Gears, Windcharger, Powerglide, or Seaspray, all of whom I'd rather Hasbro did (although I recently found out that BMac is a big Seaspray fan and has been advocating for a new Deluxe-class Seaspray... fingers crossed!).  So, yeah, he gets a recommend from me.

[mikeszekely]

The first two weren't great, but...

[sh9000]

Oh I'm getting that.

[mikeszekely]

Soundwave is available to preorder on Pulse and Amazon.

[Scyla]

Wotafa's review of MPG Yukikaze and Suiken:

 

[Hikuro]

So yesterday I was checking my account and was doing my budget when I had noticed a $75 charge from amazon. Couldn't think what it was so I popped on took a look and one of the 2 legacy packs had shipped, shockwave/orion set. I went "Aw crap....I forgot about these I didn't really want them....". So I went ahead and canceled the Tyranny set and thought maybe I'd set the other set some day. Well what was scheduled for Thursday next week ended up being today and when I opened the box low and behold......it's the Tyranny set....the set I had just canceled that wasn't supposed to be released until August! 

Not sure if there was a mix up and that was supposed to be the set originally to release followed by the other or what. Oh well!

[mikeszekely]

2 hours ago, Hikuro said:

So yesterday I was checking my account and was doing my budget when I had noticed a $75 charge from amazon. Couldn't think what it was so I popped on took a look and one of the 2 legacy packs had shipped, shockwave/orion set. I went "Aw crap....I forgot about these I didn't really want them....". So I went ahead and canceled the Tyranny set and thought maybe I'd set the other set some day. Well what was scheduled for Thursday next week ended up being today and when I opened the box low and behold......it's the Tyranny set....the set I had just canceled that wasn't supposed to be released until August! 

Not sure if there was a mix up and that was supposed to be the set originally to release followed by the other or what. Oh well!

Huh. I have the Shockwave/Pax set due to arrive tomorrow, and the Ratbat/Megatron set showing as but shipped and due in August.

[Hikuro]

10 hours ago, mikeszekely said:

Huh. I have the Shockwave/Pax set due to arrive tomorrow, and the Ratbat/Megatron set showing as but shipped and due in August.

Lemme know what you end up getting in the mail then. I was very surprised the set I had canceled was the set I received. I'm not gonna complain to amazon over it though....I didn't really care for this recent iteration of Orion Pax when the old Generations variant was way nicer. Though truthfully I would much rather have the Hero is Born set and  

[mikeszekely]

14 hours ago, Hikuro said:

Lemme know what you end up getting in the mail then. I was very surprised the set I had canceled was the set I received. I'm not gonna complain to amazon over it though....I didn't really care for this recent iteration of Orion Pax when the old Generations variant was way nicer. Though truthfully I would much rather have the Hero is Born set and  

So I got the Megatron/Ratbat one. Did some digging, and apparently the product codes were accidentally swapped, and Amazon goes by the codes. That probably explains why the Megatron/Ratbat set (two Voyagers) is priced $55 while Pax and Shockwave, a Deluxe and a Voyager, are priced more at $70.  I don't know if anyone's contacted Amazon in the States about it, but an Australian contacted their Amazon rep and the response was basically, "you ordered the thing with this product code, we sent you the thing with that product code."  I guess a lot of people who only wanted one of the sets will be upset, especially if they thought they were getting a deal on Megs and Ratbat.  As long as they still send me Pax and Shockwave later I don't really care if they say they're shipping me a box of $55 Twinkies.

Oh, and since you did wind up with Megs and Ratbat, PSA... Megatron's knees are probably swapped.  I'll post more details about it later with a review of the set, but I want to finish Wave 3 of Evolution first.

Edited July 3, 2023 by mikeszekely

[JB0]

Apparently, Kotobukiya unveiled the next Bishoujo Transformer design, and it's everyone's favorite backstabber to genderswap in fanfics to repaint in toylines Starscream. I think it's the best in the line so far, in terms of capturing personality and original design. Though they're still too rich for my blood.

 

I really like this one. The wings-as-purse and canopy-as-tie give her a vague schoolgirl vibe(in one of those anime schools where there's no uniform for recurring characters, and the dress code allows bare midriffs), and I can't not hear her going "Of COURSE I'm not questioning your leadership, Megatron-senpai!"

Weirdly, the decepticons are 2/2 on high-heels while the autobots are 0/2. But after all these years of walking on exhaust nozzles, Starscream kinda HAD to have high heels just as surely as Optimus HAD to have boots.

[mikeszekely]

OK, so far we've looked at the new Core figures, plus Deluxe-class Beachcomber.  We can finish up the rest of the Wave 3 Deluxes with a Repaint Roundup.

OK, so first up we have Devcon.  Devcon kind of feels like someone at Hasbro is trolling us.  "Oh, G2, some Armada guys, and weird G1-ified versions of Transformers Prime characters aren't doing it for you, you're Sunbow G1 only?  Well, we still don't have a new Gears for you, but this guy is Sunbow G1!"  And, appearing in the second season episode "The Gambler," Devcon is indeed a Sunbow G1 character... one that existed as a quick throwaway design that was never seen again.  He appeared in 3H's comics and a hand-painted version of Beast Machines Mirage was shown at Botcon 2001 as a potential convention figure for Botcon 2002, but it seems he lost the vote and wouldn't get a figure at all until 2014's Botcon, where he appeared as a slight retool of Generations Scourge.  Once again, Devcon doesn't rate a totally new mold, and here he's a retool of Studio Series 86 Blurr.  However, this time he's a much more extensive retool.  Near as I can tell, he's got the same hips and thighs, the same feet, maybe some same parts of his inner torso... and that's about it.  He's sporting a new torso, new head, new pelvis, entirely new arms, new lower legs, and a new backpack.

I have to admit, I'm a bit impressed.  The result is a figure that very accurate to the cartoon, and I'm reasonably sure that at the time nobody expected to make an actual transforming figure out of that design.  I do have some notes.  First, his hands definitely should have been silver.  The round thing on his head should be longer and pointier.  He technically shouldn't have any backpack, and the red fins on his forearms aren't cartoon-accurate.  But I guess there have to be some concessions to a transformation.'

Devcon comes with new accessories.  There's a blaster that's similar to the one he has in the cartoon, but for the two 5mm ports on it.  There's also a pair of red boosters.  Hasbro's instructions seem to suggest plugging the red boosters into the 5mm ports on the gun, then having him hold the gun in his hand.  And, sure, you can do that if you want.  But for cartoon accuracy, leave the boosters off the gun and plug the gun into his right forearm instead of having him hold it.  Then you can stow the boosters out-of-sight, either on his back like a jetpack (which I don't really care for, because it sticks out that much further behind him) or the 5mm ports on his calves (my preferred storage).  

Articulation is basically the same as Blurr.  The only noteworthy difference is that you could kind of get wrist swivels on Blurr, if you didn't mind swiveling the vehicle kibble on the backs of his arms with it, while Devcon simply does not have wrist articulation.

Devcon's transformation is basically Blurr, but simpler.  His hands swivel into his forearms to reveal boosters, much like Kingdom Cyclonus.  His arms do not shift, they simply peg into his folded up-legs (which lack a fold-out antenna).  His backpack folds up over his head to form the nose of the vehicle, but with an extra flap that covers his robot chest.  Said robot chest does not swivel into windshield the way Blurr's does, nor does his abs unfold to make a seat.

Again, despite being a retool of Blurr, the alt mode is pretty cartoon accurate.  His arms really do just run along the sides in the cartoon, although the boosters should extend all the way to the back.  The rear does have the raised section (although a touch of silver paint on the vents would have really sold it), and the red boosters help finish the look.  The nose has the silver gun/antenna thing sticking out the front, and the flap covering his chest has the silver and red details in the right spot.  It's a shame that the flap couldn't cover more, though.  The vehicle in the animation has a more continuous form, but here we have a divot where his abs are showing and gaps between his waist and forearms where we should have an unbroken sheet of blue.

For the record, his silver gun does plug into the underside of the nose for storage.

So yeah, Devcon.  I mean, he's technically Sunbow G1, and he's a surprisingly good retool.  There's definitely a segment of the fandom that's thinking, "Finally, I've been waiting almost 40 years for a toy of this guy!" and I think those people are going to be pretty happy with this figure.  That said, I think when a lot of geewunners say they're Sunbow-only, they mean the characters that appeared in the cartoon with some regularity as part of Optimus Prime's (or Rodimus Prime's) Autobots and had toys back in the '80s (with the exception of Arcee, who only didn't have a toy because the executives at the time thought we wouldn't play with a girl character).  And I'm guessing that a lot of people in that second group are thinking, "we got this guy but Cosmos was a shortpacked Walmart exclusive, and the last time we got a figure for Gears was almost a decade ago?"

Speaking of characters we're getting instead of the ones we actually want, next up we have Axlegrease, a retool of Scraphook.  Nominally, she's a Junkion and has the same gimmicks as the others.  (Hasbro, if you're reading this, for the love of Primus no more break-apart gimmick characters taking up Deluxe slots, please!)  That said, the design team concerned that we'd wind up with too many Autobots, so they made Axlegrease a Decepticon and gave her a different color scheme.  I dunno, I'm just not buying her as a Junkion.  While it's possible that the Planet of Junk had other tribes with different values than Wreck-Gar's gang, they struck me as more homogenous than the Autobots and Decepticons, rusty-looking bikers content to follow Wreck-Gar, who himself was an ally of the Autobots but not really an Autobot himself.  Purple-and-blue Decepticon Junkions don't fly with me.

That said, as a purple-and-blue Decepticon who is NOT a Junkion, I don't have any problems with her.  Heck, with a different head I'd have accepted her as Shadowstriker... I get that the Wave 4 Shadowstriker homages an older Universe toy, but this figure bears about as much resemblance to the Cyberverse character as that one does.  And in any case, Axlegrease is another fairly extensive retool (but not as much as Devcon).  She share's some of Scraphook's torso, his shoulders and biceps, his fists, his wheels, his pelvis, some of his backpack, and some joints, and some of his feet.  She's got partially new feet, new legs from the thighs down, a new head, new forearms, and a some of her backpack is new.

We've got some new accessories, too.  She's got new engine block pistols, and new cannons in place of Scraphook's shield and tow arm.  She retains his exhaust pipes and, weirdly, the actual tow hook.

I think Axlegrease's engine parts actually make for better-looking pistols than Scraphook's, and I'm glade that there are options for where to stick the exhaust pipes to help keep her visually distinct from Scraphook.  The real stars are the new cannons, which kind of cover her fists in a manner similar to recent movie designs that turn their arms into Mega Man-style busters, although the barrels slope downward.  The hook just seems random.  She's got lots of 5mm ports where you could stick it, it's just none of them seem "right."

Articulation is the same as Scraphook's, for better or worse.  I mean, it's mostly fine, but the shoulders bug me.

Transformation is the same as Scraphook, but as you can see the retooled backpack, legs, and engine block makes her a muscle car instead of a pickup truck.  However, you'll recall that they have the same shoulders and biceps, which means that their rears are actually very similar.  This is where the new cannon accessories come into play.  They sit in the back, with bits of them forming the rear windows, and what was a truck bed is suddenly a rear-mounted engine.  A second engine.  Or something like that.  I dunno, what am I, a mechanic?  Again, though, the hook just seems like a weird addition.  Actually, between the hook and the spikey muscle car alt mode, I'm kind of surprised that this is a new female "Junkion" and not Lockdown.

Well, ultimately Axlegrease is OK-ish.  I like her better than Scraphook, but she's not really a Junkion to me, and she's arguably the least-necessary character in a pretty disappointing wave.

How disappointing?  Well, so disappointing that the fourth Deluxe is a package refresh of Tarantulas.  Don't get me wrong, if you missed him the first time Tarantulas is worth picking up.  But because he was worth picking up, you probably bought him a year ago.  So, for those of you keeping score, that's one refresh, two retools, and only one totally new Deluxe-class figure.

Actually, it gets worse.  We can cover the Voyagers in this Repaint Roundup, too, because one of them is Dirge, another package refresh.   And the other is Nemesis Leo Prime.

Unlike Devcon and Axelgrease, Nemesis Leo Prime isn't even a retool, just a straight repaint.  There is, at least, precedence for this one, though.  Arriving in 1998's Beast Wars II, Copy Convoy (as he was called in the anime) is the original black Prime repaint.  That's right, before Car Robots Black Convoy became Scourge, before Micron Densetsu Black Convoy gave us the name "Nemesis Prime" in Armada, and long before G1 Prime would get his own black repaint, Copy Convoy here started the trend.  And here Legacy Evolution Nemesis Leo Prime does go for anime accuracy, as he's mostly gray with black accents (where the original toy was mostly black with a gray mane).  Too much of the figures details are washed out in all that gray, and I think he looks a bit bland next to his standard counterpart.  I also can't help but notice that he gets anime-accurate grays and teals, but when Scourge turned up in the Velocitron subline they ditched his own grays and teals for a more generic "Nemesis" black and red, and I'm still super bitter about that.

Nemesis Leo Prime comes with the same two missiles and two little pistols that regular Leo Prime did, in black instead of gold, though.  Additionally, he's got two more pistols that can combine into a larger rifle that seems to be molded as generic blaster used by many Maximals in the series (aka the one that came with MP Lio Convoy).  Now I'm kind of bummed that Leo Convoy didn't get one of his own.

But there's a catch!  Nemesis Leo Prime can still store the longer missiles in his back/backpack, but that leaves him with just the spots in his mane to store the other weapons.  You can store the little pistols, same as regular Leo Prime, or you can break apart the Maximal Blaster and store the separate parts in the mane, but not both.

As a straight repaint, Nemesis Leo Prime's alt mode is what you'd expect- gray instead of white, with teal claws instead of gold, and a black mane and tail instead of yellow.  The one difference worth noting is that he's got painted eyes, which helps the lion look less goofy.  I mean, the long, thin face and missing teeth still look pretty goofy.  But at least he has eyes!

Like Tarantulas, if you missed Dirge you should probably pick him up.  And hey, at least this is the first time he's being offered at regular retail.  Pretty sure he was an Amazon-exclusive with Ramjet last time.  As for Nemesis Leo Prime, if you're into evil black clones of Prime then he should scratch that itch, and unlike Nemesis Primal, G1 Nemesis Prime, or Rodimus Unicronus Nemesis Leo Prime is at least a character that appeared in a cartoon (I'm not counting the Machinima Prime Wars or Netflix War for Cybertron).  Of course, like Devcon, he was technically a throwaway character in one episode, and this time of a Japan-only series.  I don't think you're missing much if you skip him, especially if you already bought Leo Prime and figure one of that mold is enough.

And just like that, the final score is two package refreshes, two retools, one straight repaint, and still just one single new mold.  Again, I don't begrudge non G1 fans getting their time in the sun, but Evolution was already feeling like a step back from Legacy, which was a step back from Kingdom and Earthrise.  And this is easily the weakest wave of Evolution.  I really hope Hasbro's cooking up some bangers for the third part of the trilogy, but with rumored guys that turn into rocks replacing the Junkions/Weaponizers as the gimmick of the line, I wouldn't hold my breath.

[Scyla]

@mikeszekely some of the decisions Hasbro takes are really questionable in the Legacy line. Why the extensive remold of Blurr into Defcon but no remolded car chest for Breakdown (which is a much more beloved character I assume)?
Why the missing research in the proper RiD Scourge color scheme?  Why doesn’t Prime Dreadwing have its proper colors?

On the other hands characters like Skullgrin or Metalhawk get a unique mold or extensive repaint.

Confusing…