The Transformers Thread (licensed) Next

[sh9000]

Looks like for the GI Joe Collaborative line that Optimus' alt mode is the MOBAT and will come with General Hawk.

[mikeszekely]

11 hours ago, sh9000 said:

Looks like for the GI Joe Collaborative line that Optimus' alt mode is the MOBAT and will come with General Hawk.

Interesting that this was leaked but we haven't even seen Triple T Kup with Sgt. Slaughter yet.

EDIT: Also news, Hasbro is doing a Transformers Tuesday on January 16th at 10:00am Pacific.  99% sure it's for Tidal Wave, and hopefully preorders will go up same day.

Edited December 28, 2023 by mikeszekely

[mikeszekely]

Well, I've actually been sitting on this guy for a few days now, but I use our guest room for photography but we had guests using the room for the holiday, so he had to wait.  I'm finishing up the Legacy United wave 1 Core-class figures with Energon Megatron.

Not gonna lie, Megatron was actually my most-anticipated Core-class figure.  I know that the Unicron Trilogy doesn't get a lot of love from G1 fans, and Energon seems to be regarded as a particularly low point, but it was actually my favorite of the three Unicron Trilogy shows (although maybe because I watched the Japanese Super Link version?).  I mean, we went from three human kids in Armada to just the one, and frankly Kicker was less annoying.  Even better, a lot of the character designs in Energon were more G1-inspired than Armada.  Such is the case with Megatron, who is like 85% G1 Galvatron in toy colors... which makes sense, since a.) in the Japanese versions, Megatron didn't become Galvatron in Armada then back to Megatron in Energon, he was always Megatron in Armada and always Galvatron in Energon, and b.) just as Megatron powered up and turned purple in Armada, he'd later power up (in Japan)/turn into Galvatron (in the US... again) and get the G1 cartoon colors.

And, at least aesthetically, Hasbro did a pretty good job with this figure.  As a Core-class he's lacking the budget for some of the yellow/orange paint to accent his shoulders, knees, toes, and the vernier-looking circles on his hips and torso, plus some of his shin details have been simplified.  But overall the sculpt is pretty strong, and the solid green on his wings is a better match for the cartoon than the translucent plastic of the original toys.

More than the lack of paint, the most obvious visual cue to Megatron's lack of budget is actually on his back, where his backpack is largely an empty shell.  The backs of his legs are also pretty hollow, though they do have to accommodate his heels, as is the back of his head.

Megatron comes with at trio of accessories.  One is a tank with a blade sticking out of it; these were separate pieces on the original toy.  While this tiny tank is simply copying what the original toy did before it, one of my favorite things about this tank is that it's meant to be Armada Megatron's tank mode.  The other accessories are a pair of neon green cannons... cannons that were attached to the original toy.

Megatron's head swivels, but it has no tilt.  His shoulders are ball joints that swivel and get about 45 degrees of lateral movement, if I'm being generous.  His elbows are also ball joints, acting as bicep swivels and bending 90 degrees.  No wrist or waist articulation.  His hips are ball joints that can go 90 degrees forward or laterally, but he's got no backward movement.  He's got dedicated thigh swivels, and knees that bend probably a good 160 degrees.  However, his lower legs are just friction clipped on, and on my copy they're kind of loose and prone to falling off.  Hasbro really should have sprung for pins here.  Due to his transformation his feet can tilt down plenty and ever-so-slightly up, but he lacks ankle pivots.

Megatron's hands have the smaller 3mm ports, and his green cannons have them so he could theoretically hold them like pistols.  They're meant to plug into ports on top of his shoulders, though.  In a stark example of Hasbro cheapening out on this figure, the original's cannons were hinged on his shoulders so they could point straight up when not in use or be angled forward to fire.  Here, we either use a peg on the back of the cannons to attach them so they're pointed straight up, or you remove them and use another peg on the bottom to have them pointing 90 degrees forward.  As for his tank, there's a 5mm port on the bottom, and a 5mm peg on either forearm.  You can plug the tank onto either arm, with either the blade pointing out or the tank barrel.

The original Megatron toy didn't have the most complicated transformation, and it's even more simple here.  Spin his head, and fold the nose up over it.  Rotate his backpack 180, then turn his forearms 180 and bend them at the elbow- his biceps should tab into his sides.  Make him do a split, then turn the thigh swivels so his knees are pointing down.  Then fold in his feet and bend at the knees so that tabs near his feet plug into his shoulders.

I kind of liked Energon Megatron/Galvatron's spaceship mode.  It was a reprieve from the tanks that'd become standard post-gun alt modes, and an upgrade from G1 Galvatron's artillery mode.  But it's a bit disappointingly done here.  His feet don't fold and collapse the same way, which throws off the intakes.  His wingspan is a little short, and it lacks the X-Wing-esque attack mode flaps.  The lack of paint on his knees makes them less convincing as engine exhausts.  But worst of all, instead of tucking in neatly to his sides, his forearms are sticking up with visible fists punching his own wings.

The green cannons remain in place on Megatron's shoulders and do not have to be removed for transformation.  While Megatron doesn't have the full attack mode the original toy had, the tank accessory can tab into place between his wings.

Megatron, like pretty much the rest of the Wave 1 Cores, is a bit of a let down.  He looks good in stoic poses as a robot, but limited shoulders, bulky wings, and accessories that stick out from his arm and shoulders kind of limits how you can pose him.  He's missing paint apps, his transformation has been too-simplified, and it leads to a hollow, ugly imitation of the original toy's spaceship mode.  Plus his shoulder cannons aren't articulated and his lower legs keep falling off.  I really can't recommend him.  But, let's be honest, this isn't what I really wanted, anyway.  What I want is the original toy, scaled with WFC/Legacy and with improved articulation.  And for that we need an Energon Megatron that's at least a Voyager, maybe a Leader.

[M'Kyuun]

While the Unicron Trilogy isn't to my taste, as they continue to plow through the various characters, my guess is they'll eventually give this guy the upscaled fig he deserves. Honestly, he's not a half bad sci-fi jetformer, certainly better than many we've gotten over the decades. I'd be curious to see how a voyager or leader scaled fig turned out.

Got a few deluxe figs from Pulse yesterday, including Animated Bee, and man is it a shame they didn't allow for the front halves of his car to swivel 180 degrees to become his toes instead of his heels. Would've been a great improvement to an already good update. The size differential between this fig and his original deluxe figure just makes you realize how much less plastic they're working with at almost three times the price from those 2008 toys. 

[mikeszekely]

Still waiting for the one and only new Leader-class (the other being a repackaged Laser Optimus, remember?) to finish up the first wave of Legacy United.  Haven't gotten it yet, but it looks like the first batch of 2024 Studio Series figures are starting to go out.  Or at the very least, Voyager-Class Gamer Edition Starscream did.

This is an interesting case, because this is the first time the Studio Series Gamer Edition has really gone up against Planet X, a brand whose bread and butter has largely been unlicensed toys from High Moon's War For Cybertron and Fall of Cybertron games.  Planet X never did Bumblebee, Cliffjumper, or Barricade, and while they did do Optimus and Megatron they did the Fall of Cybertron versions while Hasbro did the War For Cybertron ones.  And... well, of course Planet X's looks better!  It retailed for nearly triple, and that was before pandemic inflation.

I think, instead of focusing on how Hasbro did it worse, it's better to point out where Hasbro went right.  I mean, his arms could use a touch more mechanical detail, maybe a bit darker gray on the biceps, and some purple glow on the shoulders, but his limbs are fine, for the most part.  He's got the intakes behind his head like he should, and I dare say that I prefer Hasbro's head over Planet X's.  It's really the torso where things start to go screwy.  Like, he's got the collar parts (which are not attached out of the box), but they're kind of small and don't flow into the front of the torso.  Speaking of, Planet X looks like they tried to put some effort into getting his torso right, while Hasbro kind of slapped some red lines on some fairly flat gray spaces and called it a day.  But the thing that most people are going to notice first is the cockpit.  It's like twice the size it should be!  Honestly, fresh out of the box I don't think it bothered me too much, but when I started looking at concept art, screenshots, and the game CAD files it became super apparent how chunky the toy's cockpit is.  Frankly, next to Planet X's the official Starscream looks like he's pregnant.

A common refrain I here about messy backpacks is, "Who cares, who poses their figures with the back facing you?"  Thing is, as the games were third-person shooters you spent a lot of time looking at the characters backs, and I appreciate that Hasbro did put some effort into keeping things accurate here.  Like, sure, the tapered bottom with the blue exhausts did come out a bit better on Planet X, but Hasbro at least molded and painted the exhausts onto the more squarish backpack they created.  And one thing they actually did better is to include the tail on the backpack.  I'm not entirely sure why they put the little blue fins on the sides of his legs, though.

Starscream comes with a single rifle, and a mace in two parts.  The rifle is pretty different than the rifle(s) that Planet X included with theirs, but that's ok.  While it could have used more paint, the one that came with Hasbro's Starscream is a fairly accurate Null Ray from the War for Cybertron game, while Planet X's were based on the Nucleon Charge Rifle from Fall of Cybertron.  As for the mace, the spikes are better on Planet X's, and they have more accurate gunmetal bits around the purple.  But the shape of the mace is better on Hasbro's, with a pattern on the inner bits that seems more game accurate.

Starscream's head is on a ball joint.  He's got negligible sideways tilt and a slight downward tilt, but a pretty good upward tilt and swivel.  His shoulders rotate and move laterally almost 90 degrees.  His biceps swivel.  His elbows are double-jointed and bend a good 180 degrees.  His wrists swivel.  It's a bit limited, but he does have waist swivel.  His hips go forward, backward, and laterally 90 degrees.  His thighs swivel and his knees bend a bit over 90 degrees.  No real up/down foot tilt (his front toe bends down for transformation), but he does have 45 degrees of ankle pivot.

Starscream can hold his mace in either hand.  And, based on customer feedback, Starscream's Null Ray has a 5mm port on the bottom so he can hold it in his hand as well.  Apparently this will be the standard going forward.

They haven't abandoned the gimmick, though.  You can still remove Starscream's right arm to reveal a 5mm stump.  That stump plugs into a port on the back of the Null Ray for the arm-turned-gun game look.

When not using his weapons, both the Null Ray and the mace can be stored on 5mm ports on Starscream's back.  I couldn't find anywhere to store his arm when Starscream is using the Null Ray instead of an arm, though.

In a totally undocumented feature, Starscream's cockpit tummy can be opened while he's in bot mode, and the cavernous interior has plenty of room for storing the Matrix that came with GE Optimus.  All hail Screamus Prime!

One thing that Hasbro's definitely doing a bit better than Planet X is the transformation.  This isn't to say that Planet X's was bad, but it is a bit more complex, more like the transformation you'd find on a Masterpiece figure, while Hasbro's is the kind of typical Voyager fare that you can keep on a desk and flip back and forth fairly easily.  About half the transformation is just unfolding the backpack into what will become the wings, tail, and a good chunk of the fuselage.  The front of his torso lifts up, and his head folds into the cockpit (which is why it had to be so wide in the first place.  Meanwhile, his legs open up so his lower legs can fold up and wrap around his thighs, sort of Combiner Wars-style, but sideways instead of front-and-back.

Now, sure, I have my gripes.  The cockpit is still too fat, and there's actually a small hollow gap behind it that his forearms don't entirely fill.  The quartet of intakes on his back need some blue paint, and the blue fins I was complaining about on the robot mode really aren't present in the game.  I'm also not loving the hollow bottoms of his feet.  Technically these would be his engine exhausts, and in the game they're pretty open, but subjectively I think the translucent purple Planet X used looks better.

Speaking of Planet X... Hasbro's actually got the more accurate alt mode.  The wider rear and the main wing placement is more accurate.  Subjectively, I might argue that proportionally bigger wings look better on Planet X's, but I double-checked the in-game models and sure enough Starscream really did have stumpy wings like that.

It's not pretty (or really game accurate), but Starscream can carry his weapons on his alt mode.  There's a 5mm port on either side of his tail, and you use the 5mm handle on the Null Ray or the extra 5mm peg on the handle of the mace to plug them right in.

Strictly speaking, as a display piece Planet X's figure looks better in bot mode on a shelf, especially with other Planet X figures (which run a bit larger than Hasbro's).  And Starscream's baby bump is a major contributing factor to that.  But given the limitations of Hasbro's Voyager budget these days, GE Starscream is a surprisingly good figure.  He's probably the best Gamer Edition figure after Optimus, although in a sub-line that delivered what is probably the worst of Hasbro's releases last year (GE Barricade) I'm not sure how much weight that actually carries.  Still, we're talking about a figure that's got good articulation, is reasonably accurate in both modes (if you ignore the extra-large canopy and the need for just a few more paint apps), a transformation that's pleasant and straightforward, and adequate accessories that give you the option of replacing his arm but don't require it.  I'd say this one actually does get the recommed from me.

[mikeszekely]

Happy New Year, friends!  And what better way to start the year than with the last of 2024's first-wave Legacy United figures (which arrived at the last minute in 2023)?  This, friends, is Leader-class Tigerhawk.

This one's a bit of a weird one that requires a bit of quick Beast Wars recap for the geewun, trukk-not-munky crowd.  Although ties to the original Transformers cartoon was kept deliberately vague at first, by the end of the first season it's established that Beast Wars is meant to take place in the same continuity as the original cartoon, with the show's characters coming from some time in Cybertron's future before traveling back in time in Earth's prehistory.  Beast Wars also introduced us to the Vok, a race of aliens who were doing stuff on Earth because... well, I don't think their origins or motives were ever fully explained.  But one of the things they did in the second season was abduct Tigatron and Airazor.  Now, skip ahead all way to the end of season 3, and the Vok are kind of miffed that the Maximals and Predacons are screwing with time, so they rebuild Tigatron and Airazor into one robot, Tigerhawk.  At first Tigerhawk worked something like a mech suit for the Vok, who used him to attack the Predacons, but he was narrowly stopped by Tarantulas.  Tarantulas managed to get the Vok out (killing himself in the process), which allowed the sparks of Tigatron and Airazor to take back over, which caused Tigerhawk to briefly join the Maximals before being killed in the series finale.  Put another way, Tigerhawk was a character that appeared in just three episodes of the cartoon.

All that being said, Tigerhawk looks pretty cartoon-accurate.  He's got cartoon purple instead of the original toy's blue, and he's got the the copper/gold accents present in the cartoon that weren't on the original toy.  And he's a big boy, too, standing significantly taller than the Voyager-class Tigatron and Deluxe-class Airazor he's supposedly made from, with enormous wings.

Perhaps not as evident from his back and sides, but Tigerhawk's got a somewhat asymmetric design.  I mean, sure, his shoulders are obviously different, but if you look a bit closer his whole arms are, with something like tubing on his right arm but pistons on his left.  The greebles on the white part of his chest are different.  His kneepads are different; the one on his right is thicker at the bottom, the one on the left is thicker at the top.  His right foot has a more mechanical appearance with a more organic heel, and his left foot is more organic with a more mechanical heel.  Even the sides of his helmet are subtly different.  To be clear, I'm not certain how cartoon-accurate this asymmetry is, though it's subtle enough that you might not even notice it at first.  I will say that I like it, though... it helps illustrate his origin as an amalgamation of two other characters.  Really, my only serious complaint with how Tigerhawk looks is that the underside of his wings (that is, the side facing forward in bot mode) are hollowed out.

Tigerhawk comes with a few accessories, and they're particularly well-integrated on this figure.  In fact, they were all in the previous pictures.  We've got two feathery swords,  two big cannons, and a smaller double-barreled gun.

Tigerhawk's head is on a ball joint that can look down until his chin touches his chest, but has minimal sideways tilt and nothing really upward.  His right shoulder rotates and the translucent part opens to allow it to move 90 degrees laterally.  His left arm is a bit more of a pain.  In theory, it too rotates, and the top of the tiger head opens to allow 90 degrees of lateral movement, too.  In practice, the entire shoulder wants to pull up from the torso (as it does for transformation).  Once you get the shoulder extended, when you try to bring it down his bicep wants to disconnect from the shoulder instead of swiveling it back in.  Regardless, both biceps swivel and both elbows bend a little over 90 degrees, but neither wrist swivels.  His waist does swivel, but it's limited to about 45 degrees to either side, and the feathery flap over his crotch moves with his upper torso.  His hips ratchet forward and backward over 90 degrees, and use friction joints to move 90 degrees laterally.  His thighs swivel, and his knees bend 90 degrees.  His feet don't really tilt up or down without starting the process of transforming them to alt mode, but they do have 90 degrees of pivot.

Tigerhawk can hold his feather swords in either hand.  They also have ports on them that allow them to be placed on the tips of his wings, where they blend in with the other molded and painted feathers.  He can also hold the double-barreled pistol in either hand, or plug it into the 5mm port on his left arm...

...but the best place for it is the 5mm port on his right arm, because then you don't even have to remove it to transform him.  If you do leave it on his arm, you can always arm him up with the cannons instead, as they use 5mm pegs to plug into his fists.  But, they also have ports on them, which allows them to be stored in the nacelles on his wings.

And while they're part of his nacelles, they can flip around to be deployed from his back, though this is really more of an alt mode thing.

Tigerhawk's transformation is as different as you'd expect from an alt mode like that.  If we start with a reference frame that says his wings don't actually move, then his beast legs have to come off of his shoulders, his chest opens up, and his pelvis splits in half.  Then his head and the purple part of his chest have to go where his crotch is, the inside of his torso has to spin 45 degrees so that his right shoulder is on his front and his left shoulder is on his back, the white halves of his chest have to encapsulate his right arm, then his hips come up to where his shoulders were originally, all semi-simultaneously.  Once you've sorted all that out things get easier as you sort the left arm into his back, arrange his rear beast legs to your liking, then transform his robot legs into his front beast legs.

Tigerhawk seems reasonably accurate in beast mode.  Perhaps, if I'm being picky, he could have used a bit more white on his shoulders and the rear legs, but it's definitely the front half of a tiger with the wings and rear of a hawk.  I do have to complain about the weird purple growths on his forearms, though.  They're not present in either the cartoon nor the original toy, and it's because they're his robot heels, which don't quite fold in all the way.  But... why do his heels need to fold in?  Why do his robot feet need to transform at all?  I don't know if they did on the original toy or not, but here is beast feet (which fold out of his calves as his robot feet fold into his shins) look basically like his robot feet, but longer.  Seems like the design of the character intended that his robot feet and his beast feet were the same feet. 

Note that the swords are still in the wings, and the cannons are in the nacelles.  In this basic configuration, the nacelles have gatling guns facing forward.

One departure from the original toy is that he's got gold armor over his eyes, where the original toy simply had a tiger head with a blue helmet sort of hovering over it.  The original toy was meant to have an attack mode; the helmet drops down over the tiger's face, the wings angle forward to fire feather missiles, and the cannons in the nacelles flip out.  Legacy Tigerhawk can bend the wings forward and flip the cannons out, but the blue helmet is missing.  For what it's worth, though, the gold armor over the eyes instead is more cartoon-accurate.  Meanwhile, if you left his double-barreled gun on his right arm like I told you it'll already be in its alt-mode spot... sticking out the back of his underside like double-barreled genitals.

In beast mode, Tigerhawk's head has a decent up/down tilt, with the back of his head opening as needed for clearance, but no sideways tilt or swivel.  His jaws can open.  His shoulders work the same as his robot hips.  His elbows bend less than 90 degrees, but as his front paws don't bend up a whole lot you're kind of stuck with his elbows at maximum bend just to get his front feet semi-flat.  At least they have swivels.  This will give his front feet ankle pivots.  In theory, you could try to pose him so that he's swiping with the claws, but in practice the ball joints in his rear hips and the friction hinges in the knees, ankles, and paws of his digitigrade rear laws aren't strong enough to support Tigerhawk's weight without both of his front paws on the ground.  Due to the shape of his robot chest directly under them, his tail feathers are constantly angled upward with the ability to tilt slightly more upward.  His wings, which we neglected to talk about in robot mode, are hinged to flap up/down at the base, with an additional up/down hinge on the outside of the nacelles.  Then there are hinges in the translucent green discs that sweep the wings forward or backward.

I have seriously mixed feelings about Tigerhawk.  Like, even though I'm ok with giving other Transformers shows some representation, I find the inclusion of a character that appeared in just three episodes (and was killed off at Hasbro's direction, because they were seriously thinking about not releasing the original Tigerhawk toy in the first place) over Quickstrike, Depth Charge, or Rampage* to be a questionable choice, let alone some of the missing G1 characters or some of the more popular characters from other Transformers media, especially when he's eating up the only new Leader slot in the wave.  And Tigerhawk's definitely a figure with a few issues, mostly in the alt mode articulation and the tolerances of some of the tabs on holding his arms together in robot mode.  But I have to admit that the figure winds up being an ambitious design with an interesting transformation that could only have been pulled off with a Leader budget and engineering.  And, hey, at least Tigerhawk appeared in more episodes than Devcon, whom we also got a figure of in Legacy.  So if you're a Beast Wars fan I'd go ahead and recommend this one.  Even if you're not it's still a pretty interesting toy, just one of a relatively minor character.

*Didn't mention Silverbolt because we know he's coming... he's already been solicited in Japan, and he should be part of Wave 2 in the West.

Edited January 2 by mikeszekely

[Hikuro]

I was finally able to get my hands on a wild SS WFC Optimus Prime. I went to a local Target store and wasn't expecting much....I think their toy area is in recovery mode or something, it was super barren. But low and behold there was a singular Optimus Prime there from the WFC game....35 bucks I figured why not I'll grab him.

He's not bad, not perfect but not bad. I think I still prefer my old deluxe version though...the transformation was just a lil nicer on that but I could be wrong it's now sitting in a storage container with the mass majority of other WFC toys. 

Truthfully I feel bad for completely missing out on the Planet X Stuff, I think I would had preferred owning those figures over these. But all I ever come across are the metalics and I'm not interested in that.

[mikeszekely]

Heads up.  You guys remember the Target-exclusive Buzzworthy Hound that was supposed to come out (before Detritus)?  Apparently Target decided to cancel some of their exclusives when some of the previous ones didn't sell too well.  Well, the good news is that Hound's not dead!  The bad news is that he's now going to be part of a multipack along with Jazz, Wheeljack, Sunstreaker, and Trailbreaker, and I have no indication how (if at all) the other four are going to differ from their WfC/SS86 releases.  The listing is "Gen Selects Autobot Multipack", so while nothing's been stated to me definitively yet I'm thinking it might wind up a Pulse exclusive.

[JB0]

1 hour ago, mikeszekely said:

Apparently Target decided to cancel some of their exclusives when some of the previous ones didn't sell too well.

Imagine that! Who knew that if you never stock a product, people won't buy it?

[mikeszekely]

2 hours ago, JB0 said:

Imagine that! Who knew that if you never stock a product, people won't buy it?

I mean, I can only speak to my local Targets, but despite my desperate scrambling to preorder figures the minute they were available due to FOMO, I've seen pretty much every Buzzworthy release in stores, with more than a few turning into shelfwarmers... I mean hype for the Origins figures drove some kind of initial surge, but they seemed to restock and wind up on clearance, and Kup, toy-colored Dinobot, Towline, and all the N.E.S.T repaints were definite shelfwarmers.  Oh, and to this day I can still walk into Burlington or Ollies and pick up $6 Silverstreaks that Target wrote off).  The only Target exclusives that seemed genuinely difficult to get were before they started using the Buzzworthy Bumblebee branding, like Thrust and Runabout.

[Radioguy]

8 hours ago, mikeszekely said:

Heads up.  You guys remember the Target-exclusive Buzzworthy Hound that was supposed to come out (before Detritus)?  Apparently Target decided to cancel some of their exclusives when some of the previous ones didn't sell too well.  Well, the good news is that Hound's not dead!  The bad news is that he's now going to be part of a multipack along with Jazz, Wheeljack, Sunstreaker, and Trailbreaker, and I have no indication how (if at all) the other four are going to differ from their WfC/SS86 releases.  The listing is "Gen Selects Autobot Multipack", so while nothing's been stated to me definitively yet I'm thinking it might wind up a Pulse exclusive.

But, still a Target 4-pk, yeah?

4 hours ago, mikeszekely said:

I mean, I can only speak to my local Targets, but despite my desperate scrambling to preorder figures the minute they were available due to FOMO, I've seen pretty much every Buzzworthy release in stores, with more than a few turning into shelfwarmers... I mean hype for the Origins figures drove some kind of initial surge, but they seemed to restock and wind up on clearance, and Kup, toy-colored Dinobot, Towline, and all the N.E.S.T repaints were definite shelfwarmers.  Oh, and to this day I can still walk into Burlington or Ollies and pick up $6 Silverstreaks that Target wrote off).  The only Target exclusives that seemed genuinely difficult to get were before they started using the Buzzworthy Bumblebee branding, like Thrust and Runabout.

Thrust, Redwing, Leadfoot...all were hard for me (Still don't have Leadfoot) despite their Target exclusivity. What sucks most is that I am in NYC which is filled with Targets (predominantly small to medium format stores), yet often don't see any of these pop up locally compared to a heartland store where they might sit until being clearanced out. It's infuriatiing, but not as bad as dealing with Walmart who don't even have one store here.

[JB0]

4 hours ago, mikeszekely said:

I mean, I can only speak to my local Targets, but despite my desperate scrambling to preorder figures the minute they were available due to FOMO, I've seen pretty much every Buzzworthy release in stores, with more than a few turning into shelfwarmers... I mean hype for the Origins figures drove some kind of initial surge, but they seemed to restock and wind up on clearance, and Kup, toy-colored Dinobot, Towline, and all the N.E.S.T repaints were definite shelfwarmers.  Oh, and to this day I can still walk into Burlington or Ollies and pick up $6 Silverstreaks that Target wrote off).  The only Target exclusives that seemed genuinely difficult to get were before they started using the Buzzworthy Bumblebee branding, like Thrust and Runabout.

The ones in my area dedicate minimal shelf space to Transformers, and don't even regularly stock the little space available.

[Radioguy]

3 hours ago, JB0 said:

The ones in my area dedicate minimal shelf space to Transformers, and don't even regularly stock the little space available.

My primary store had oddly dropped Core, Deluxe, and Voyager class from the planogram, and finally stocked Leader class (always had a tag, but never stocked). Given how many less Leaders there are, I can't say I'm happy overall.

If I had a car and hit all local stores weekly (not happening), I'd still probably end up with 60% of a years Target TF offerings, and probably still no MPs.

[mikeszekely]

4 hours ago, Radioguy said:

But, still a Target 4-pk, yeah?

5-pack.  And no, I asked for clarification and was told "fan channel."  So Pulse, but also stuff like BBTS, Entertainment Earth, etc.  It will NOT be sold at Target (or Walmart).

My source also suggests that this will be the first of four of these multipacks.  That source said not to expect major changes, that the impetus behind these sets is to give people a chance to get some figures that are harder to find now.  But another source (not sure if as trustworthy, so take with a grain of salt) said that Trailbreaker at least will have a more cartoon-accurate deco.  It's possible but unconfirmed that the translucent plastics will be replaced with colored plastic and painted windows.

4 hours ago, Radioguy said:

Thrust, Redwing, Leadfoot...all were hard for me

All pre-Buzzworthy.  And Redwing... really?  He was never stocked at stores, he was a Target.com exclusive, and was available for a very long time.  The only real barrier to getting him was that you needed a Target Red Card.  I know a lot of people were complaining that they didn't want to apply for a credit (or debit) card just to get him, but as a relatively frequent Target shopper myself it was a non-issue.

4 hours ago, JB0 said:

The ones in my area dedicate minimal shelf space to Transformers, and don't even regularly stock the little space available.

Define "minimal".  I think one four foot section is standard.  Around here, that's several pegs that have to include all the Cores and Deluxes from Studio Series and Legacy, all the smaller Earthspark toys (Warrior, Deluxe, those stupid flipchangers) and all the smaller ROTB toys.  Top shelf is Voyagers, (SS, Legacy) and larger Earthspark toys.  Then there's a shelf for Leaders (SS, Legacy) and some ROTB stuff like the masks.  Bottom shelf fluctuates, sometimes it's multipacks (like I think it's currently for the troop builder pack), sometimes it's for Commanders (I distinctly remember a spot for Motormaster that was never stocked), and other random bigger boxes like the RC Optimus and the Jada Metals.  Occasionally the shelves will be invaded by whatever overstock they have of the toys on the next four foot section, but the pegs are usually safe.  The problem here isn't really a lack of space, or that the shelves aren't being stocked.  It's that the stock that was put out doesn't sell.  I was at my local Target the other day and found a Shrapnel (which I'd wanted a second of for customization) behind a couple of Crosscuts... both of those figures were released in Evolution wave 2.  Voyagers were almost entirely Nemesis Leo from wave 3, and Leaders were limited to Blitzwings (which could be leftovers from wave 2, but IIRC were package refreshed in another wave).  One the Studio Series side, you have your choice of Arcees, SS86 or Bumblebee, Galvatron in the Voyagers, and Sludge.  All of which were released in 2022.

And for the record, I'm in a pretty small town area.  We're one county east of Pittsburgh, population hovering just above 30,000 and declining according to the last census.  My house is in a plan built behind a dairy farm.

1 hour ago, Radioguy said:

My primary store had oddly dropped Core, Deluxe, and Voyager class from the planogram, and finally stocked Leader class (always had a tag, but never stocked). Given how many less Leaders there are, I can't say I'm happy overall.

No pegs?  Or are they just full of stuff like those stupid ROTB toys with the Deluxe-ish sized but super simple figures that come with an animal that turns into armor?  Either way,  that's weird.

1 hour ago, Radioguy said:

and probably still no MPs.

I remember my Target having a spot for Blackout, but hasn't actually stocked anything MP since Starscream, who shelfwarmed so hard they marked him down at least half off.

[Radioguy]

2 hours ago, mikeszekely said:

5-pack.  And no, I asked for clarification and was told "fan channel."  So Pulse, but also stuff like BBTS, Entertainment Earth, etc.  It will NOT be sold at Target (or Walmart).

Ugh. I'm not premium on Pulse, so I expect missing out. Might have a chance on EE, I suppose.

2 hours ago, mikeszekely said:

My source also suggests that this will be the first of four of these multipacks.  That source said not to expect major changes, that the impetus behind these sets is to give people a chance to get some figures that are harder to find now.  But another source (not sure if as trustworthy, so take with a grain of salt) said that Trailbreaker at least will have a more cartoon-accurate deco.  It's possible but unconfirmed that the translucent plastics will be replaced with colored plastic and painted windows.

I'm fine with the initial purpose, but, seeing recent the G1 Hound WM reissue, I fear that last bit sounds likely.

2 hours ago, mikeszekely said:

All pre-Buzzworthy.  And Redwing... really?  He was never stocked at stores, he was a Target.com exclusive, and was available for a very long time.  The only real barrier to getting him was that you needed a Target Red Card.  I know a lot of people were complaining that they didn't want to apply for a credit (or debit) card just to get him, but as a relatively frequent Target shopper myself it was a non-issue.

Well, I wasn't such a cardholder then. Have been since, and at a time when both he and Leadfoot still had pages and periodic stock appearing. When I got an order in  in time, they were always cancelled.

2 hours ago, mikeszekely said:

Bottom shelf fluctuates, sometimes it's multipacks (like I think it's currently for the troop builder pack), sometimes it's for Commanders (I distinctly remember a spot for Motormaster that was never stocked), and other random bigger boxes like the RC Optimus and the Jada Metals.  Occasionally the shelves will be invaded by whatever overstock they have of the toys on the next four foot section, but the pegs are usually safe.

Corporate speech calls that "flex". Flexing stock into spots for other items (so no empty shelves appear) often seems the most important thing in the minds of Target employees these days.

2 hours ago, mikeszekely said:

No pegs?  Or are they just full of stuff like those stupid ROTB toys with the Deluxe-ish sized but super simple figures that come with an animal that turns into armor?  Either way,  that's weird.

Plenty. Just that flexing in effect again. Before, it was on the Leader shelf, but now it's the pegs. Thing is, I can see that leading to more complaints from buyers saying they saw different prices when they picked an item. Flexing a shelf seems more defensible than intentionally stocking a peg you don't change a price tag on, but it happens all the time.

2 hours ago, mikeszekely said:

I remember my Target having a spot for Blackout, but hasn't actually stocked anything MP since Starscream, who shelfwarmed so hard they marked him down at least half off.

I'd seen a MP shelf tag a handful of times at a couple local "big" (medium) sized stores, but they only put them up when they get a few pieces, and pull it when OOS, and I always seem to get there in-between.

Oh, and I've recently noticed a couple of those locals that had a collectibles section where MPs and other things like SHMA, NECA, or Gundam kits would be have gotten rid of the signs and flexed in electronics overstock. Very worrying.

Here I was hoping we'd get HMR or DX in those spots one day.

[JB0]

9 hours ago, mikeszekely said:

Define "minimal".  I think one four foot section is standard.  Around here, that's several pegs that have to include all the Cores and Deluxes from Studio Series and Legacy, all the smaller Earthspark toys (Warrior, Deluxe, those stupid flipchangers) and all the smaller ROTB toys.  Top shelf is Voyagers, (SS, Legacy) and larger Earthspark toys.  Then there's a shelf for Leaders (SS, Legacy) and some ROTB stuff like the masks.  Bottom shelf fluctuates, sometimes it's multipacks (like I think it's currently for the troop builder pack), sometimes it's for Commanders (I distinctly remember a spot for Motormaster that was never stocked), and other random bigger boxes like the RC Optimus and the Jada Metals.  Occasionally the shelves will be invaded by whatever overstock they have of the toys on the next four foot section, but the pegs are usually safe.  The problem here isn't really a lack of space, or that the shelves aren't being stocked.  It's that the stock that was put out doesn't sell. 

Similar general shelf layout, but the stocking is more or less "a bunch of empty pegs and shelf spots punctuated by Power Rangers, DC Comics, Earthspark, or Reflections"

 

They actually expanded the number of pegs dedicated to Reflections figures a few months back. Which, okay, it is better than empty pegs, but it is also worse than anything else.

[mikeszekely]

Man, I'd love to have more info on that Autobot multipack to share... but the discussion in certain parts of the internet has devolved into a 30 pages of heated debate over the term "partial" for some reason at the board that shan't be named.  It's so bad that, even though I didn't contribute any posts to that nonsense, I'm still feeling like I need to get off the internet for awhile and touch grass.  But before I venture out into the cold, how about a quick review?  Because I've got Studio Series Core-class Mohawk sitting on my desk here.

Mohawk's interesting in that someone somewhere put a lot of effort into creating a character with a certain look and personality that was basically a disposable throwaway with a whopping minute and a half of total screen time in The Last Knight.  And... I'm not sure how well this figure captures that personality.  I think a lot of that is coming down to the small budget that Core-class figures get.  Like, the broad strokes are there.  He's got the bug eyes, and wide mouth.  He's even got some gold paint on his teeth.  He's got tires near his shoulders, but not on them.  There's splashes of green paint.  It looks like they tried to mold some details, like the blades on his forearms and the knives on his legs, but much like his namesake mohawk they're molded as details on fin-shaped bits of plastic rather than having any individual separation, which causes that detail to be lost.  The overall result is a little more fish-like than I remember him actually appearing.  Meanwhile, other details like the chains he wore, the Decepticon badges in his teeth, the cans of spray paint taped to his chest, and the baby doll head on his right hip are simply absent.

He's not looking great from behind.  I don't think you get a very clear look at his back in the film, but he's missing the exhaust pipes, and he's filled with hollow gaps and large hinges.

Mohawk's sole accessory is this knife.  He doesn't really live long enough in the film to use a weapon, but given the knives he had strapped to his legs it seems appropriate.

Mohawk's head swivels, and due to his transformation you can kind of tilt it up, but not down.  His mouth opens.  His shoulders are hinged ball joints for rotation, 90 degrees of lateral movement, and a bit of a shrug.  Elbows are also hinged ball joints that can technically bend up to 180 degrees, but the ball is also his bicep swivel and the hinge is above it.  No wrist or waist articulation.  His hips are more ball joints, capable of swiveling and moving laterally 90 degrees.  In what's probably my biggest issue with his articulation, he lacks any articulation at his actual knee joint.  Instead, he only has a hinge at the lower digitigrade joint (which is technically an ankle!); it can bend a little forward (the direction that joint should bend on a living digitigrade animal), and back so far you'd think the designers thought it's actually a knee.  Then he's got ball joints at the foot that can swivel and tilt down a little but nothing really upward.  And, while they do have some pivot, they pivot the wrong way.

Mohawk can hold his knife in either hand.  Or, you can use the large notch in the blade to grab onto a peg on his butt, allowing him to store the knife on his back.

Hasbro's been cranking out a few bikes lately in both the Core (Bouldercrash, Arcee) and Deluxe scale (Arcee, Prowl), and they tend to do the same thing.  Arms stretch out to form the top and seat of the bike, body and legs sort of crumple up to form everything underneath.  It's kind of refreshing, then, that Mohawk does the opposite.  I mean, sure, his body stays underneath, but it's his arm doing the scrunching.  Then you invert his hips and fold the legs up and over, with his feet pegging together to form the seat.

My first thought was that Mohawk isn't the prettiest bike mode.  And no, the toy isn't exactly screen-accurate; for one thing, the bike in the film only had one headlight.  However, the bike used in the film, a Confederate Motorcycles P51 Combat Fighter, is a pretty unusual (and rare, only 60-ish were ever produced) motorcycle with a chassis carved from a single block of aluminum, and believe it or not Mohawk's honestly a bit closer than you might expect to pulling it off.  It's nice to see some paint was thoughtfully applied to the alt mode, with the aforementioned headlights being picked out in white, red brakes, black shocks, painted handlebars, and a gold chain on the rear tire.

Once side of thee bike has a tab near the bottom that lets you store the knife.  If you have him balanced just right, you can turn the bike so that the knife side is on the back and lean the bike so that the knife holds it upright.  Other than that, the wheels spin freely but the front doesn't turn or anything.

Mohawk is a pretty basic figure that lacks a lot of details from the movie.  However, as a pretty small guy in the films Core-class is about as big as Hasbro could make him and keep him relatively in scale (although, if you want to go smaller, Dr. Wu apparently made a Mohawk figure half this size).  He's got a lot fewer issues than a lot of the other recent Core-class figures I've looked at, a novel transformation, and a bike mode that looks passably like the film.  Honestly, I kind of like him.  I mean, he could definitely be better, but what you get here seems fair for the $10 asking price.  I think I'm going to give this guy a recommend.

[lechuck]

MPG line further expanding – MPG-07 Trainbot Ginoh due out in September.
https://www.taghobby.com/archives/759133
https://hobby.dengeki.com/news/2192872/

This is a repaint and slight body tweak of MPG-01 Shouki with a new head and outer train bits to transform into an official real world maintenance train. Additionally the shield/chest part has been revised to resemble the original Diaclone rendition. Of biggest interest (and for me also perhaps biggest irritation) should be the completely new "maintenance box" accessory, which not only can be used in robot or train mode, but is actually a new waist piece for Raiden seemingly to fix the proportional issues.

[mikeszekely]

Quick question, how many of you guys read new posts here whenever they happen to be, vs how many of you guys read at school/work/whatever and don't really check-in on weekends?  I have some content I'm working on, and I debating on whether to start tomorrow and run through the weekend or just post Monday-to-Friday next week.

 

[Scyla]

7 hours ago, mikeszekely said:

Quick question, how many of you guys read new posts here whenever they happen to be, vs how many of you guys read at school/work/whatever and don't really check-in on weekends?  I have some content I'm working on, and I debating on whether to start tomorrow and run through the weekend or just post Monday-to-Friday next week.

 

I'm usually checking these boards on the weekends but I notices much less traffic (i.e. new posts) on Saturday and especially Sunday. 
So if you want more impact I would say the Monday to Friday is the way to go.

16 hours ago, lechuck said:

MPG line further expanding – MPG-07 Trainbot Ginoh due out in September.
https://www.taghobby.com/archives/759133
https://hobby.dengeki.com/news/2192872/

This is a repaint and slight body tweak of MPG-01 Shouki with a new head and outer train bits to transform into an official real world maintenance train. Additionally the shield/chest part has been revised to resemble the original Diaclone rendition. Of biggest interest (and for me also perhaps biggest irritation) should be the completely new "maintenance box" accessory, which not only can be used in robot or train mode, but is actually a new waist piece for Raiden seemingly to fix the proportional issues.

*snip*

I would say it fixes some of the issues. I’m a bit frustrated that it doesn’t seem to be included with regular Kaen which will be released next month since the toy is already a heavy parts former so why not go all the way.

However, this whole set is already a huge disappointment for me, so I don’t think this will do much for my enjoyment of the set anyway. Maybe a 3rd party company will give MPG Raiden a new skeleton (like New Age Devastator for example) that will fix more issues once Kaen is released but we will see.

[edit:] The real question is: why doesn’t Kaen form more of Raiden's torso anyway, instead of consisting of 95% hip kibble?

Edited January 12 by Scyla

[mark-1s]

9 hours ago, mikeszekely said:

Quick question, how many of you guys read new posts here whenever they happen to be, vs how many of you guys read at school/work/whatever and don't really check-in on weekends?  I have some content I'm working on, and I debating on whether to start tomorrow and run through the weekend or just post Monday-to-Friday next week.

 

Monday to Friday for me. I occasionally pop my head in on the weekends, but much less frequently.

[Old_Nash_II]

Waiting for this Prime

[lechuck]

22 hours ago, Scyla said:

I would say it fixes some of the issues. I’m a bit frustrated that it doesn’t seem to be included with regular Kaen which will be released next month since the toy is already a heavy parts former so why not go all the way.

However, this whole set is already a huge disappointment for me, so I don’t think this will do much for my enjoyment of the set anyway. Maybe a 3rd party company will give MPG Raiden a new skeleton (like New Age Devastator for example) that will fix more issues once Kaen is released but we will see.

[edit:] The real question is: why doesn’t Kaen form more of Raiden's torso anyway, instead of consisting of 95% hip kibble?

Yeah, that is what I meant with "big irritation" in my posting – seems like Takara is only now finally conceding that there are proportional issues with Raiden. Although I am interested in the waist piece, I just can't warrant buying MPG-07 for it. If a KO company offers this accessory part, I will pick it up.

[mikeszekely]

Monday to Friday it is (although I hope to get it done earlier starting tomorrow).  And we're opening with a brand new line, one based on the almost-certainly-not-releasing-this-year new video game, Transformers: Reactivate.  And although they're being sold in two-packs, I want to give each figure a good look on its own, so one at a time, starting with Optimus Prime.

The packaging lacks any of the usual "class" info, as the figures aren't being sold separately, but standing a little taller than Earthrise or any of the Studio Series options, Reactivate Prime is comfortably Voyager-sized.  He's not simply half a head taller, either.  There's a bulk to him.

Aesthetically, you have all the hallmark G1-inspired detail (that got carried over into the Cyberverse evergreen design); primarily red on the top, blue on the bottom and head.  Two antenna ears, forehead crest, and mouth plate.  Truck windows for a chest, truck grill for abs.  Smokestacks on the shoulders and vents on the shins.  That said, you have to acknowledge the movie influences, too.  Every surface, including his mask, has to have extra greebles.  He's also got silver/gray hands instead of my preferred blue.

Wheels and, happily, something that could be fuel tanks are visible on the sides of his legs.  Actually hollow spaces are minimized; there's some if you know where to look, like the insides of his biceps, but flaps cover his calves and his thighs are totally filled in.  He's got a bit of a backpack, with some neat little booster things.  It'd be nice if those cages under them could have gone somewhere.

I did dig for game art to compare with.  The designers did a pretty good job!  The details and colors are pretty accurate; the boosters on his back are even in the game.  It'd be nice if his backpack was a little cleaner, with more red instead of unpaintable gray (on a part that actually could have been red plastic, no less), and maybe a few more details like this ankle guards could have some silver paint.  He's also missing some panels that partially cover the wheels on the sides of his legs. 

These are Prime's accessories in the set; a rifle that is easily the best G1 cartoon-accurate rifle Hasbro has done for a Voyager-scale figure, but with a weirdly short handle, an energon axe, and the Matrix of Leadership.

Prime's head is on a ball joint, and he can look up and down, tilt his head sideways, and turn his head.  His shoulders rotate and move laterally 90 degrees.  His biceps and wrists swivel, and his elbows bend 90 degrees.  His waist swivel gets caught up on those cages on his backpack, but you'll get a good 45 in either direction before you hit that point.  His hips go 90 degrees sideways, a little more than that forward, and a little less than that backward.  His thighs swivel, and his knees bend over 90 degrees.  No up/down tilt on his feet, but his ankles pivot over 90 degrees.

Prime's axe has a hollow base with a 5mm port; simply plug it into either fist, then orient that fist however you want the axe to go.  Likewise, Prime holds his rifle by plugging the handle into his fists, but as I noted it's kind of short, and his grip is a bit more tenuous than I'd like.

The Matrix is pretty much the old Earthrise mold we've seen time and again.  Prime's chest windows open up, you plug the Matrix in place, and then close him back up.  The boosters on Prime's backpack have 5mm ports that allow you to store his rifle and axe.  Since he's not a mainline WfC/Legacy toy, he doesn't have a ton of other ports, but there is one on the side of each leg and one under each of his feet.

Prime's transformation isn't complicated.  It actually reminds me a little of an old friend, Classics Optimus Prime.  Like that figure, you have to unfold panels from his forearms to make up a portion of the sides of the cab, and part of the backpack comes up and over to form the roof.  Other elements, like lifting the chest and unfolding the truck's actual grill from inside is more like Earthrise Prime.  All-in-all, it's not difficult and will make sense the first time you do it, but getting all the panels of the cab to line up just right can be mildly annoying.

It's an interesting truck mode.  The red cab over engine design with a pair of smokestacks on the back is instantly recognizable as Optimus Prime to the G1 crowd, but with a massive, scratched-up bumper, shuttered (but unpainted) side windows,, and extra armor tacked on.  This is a Prime that's seen some things.  The leg transformation is a bit different than you usually get, which results in his feet sitting like a bump behind the cab and his knees making the rear of the truck.  There's no hitch, though, nor even a port, so he cannot pull any of the various trailers that have released with Primes over the last few years.

The truck mode is pretty decently accurate, right down to the tops of his shins and knees being visible on the back of the truck.  My biggest complaints about his alt mode is that there's details that are molded onto the figure, like the shutters on the side windows and the vents on the roof, that are correct but lost in the plastic due to not being painted.  

Prime's weapons are stored in alt mode by plugging them into the 5mm ports on the sides of his legs, now near the back of the truck.

While Prime's was probably the best of them, the Gamer Edition figures have been some of the worst figures under the Studio Series banner.  And while the Reactivate figures aren't part of the Studio Series brand, I can't help but think of the Gamer Edition figures as figures for a new game are coming out.  A fear that's been on the back of my mind since the Reactivate packs were announced was that they might be as bad as the GE stuff.  Fortunately, they're not.  Reactivate Prime doesn't reinvent the wheel, but he's a very sold, adequately-articulated figure (that doesn't reuse Siege Prime's legs again).  That might not necessarily make for the most exciting Optimus figure, but it does make for a very good one.  One that, I wonder, might share some engineering with the supposed Studio Series 86 Optimus?  Regardless, Prime is a toy I'd strongly recommend if they sold him on his own.  But maybe you want to tune in tomorrow to see how the other half of his two-pack fares?

[mikeszekely]

Legacy United Gears.

Considering that I have very few Transformers left on preorder, we already know what the wave 2 figures are going to be, and now images are starting to leak, I'm guessing wave 2 will be officially announced at tomorrow's Transformers Tuesday livestream.

[M'Kyuun]

25 minutes ago, mikeszekely said:

Legacy United Gears.

Considering that I have very few Transformers left on preorder, we already know what the wave 2 figures are going to be, and now images are starting to leak, I'm guessing wave 2 will be officially announced at tomorrow's Transformers Tuesday livestream.

What time is the fanstream? I didn't receive an email.

[mikeszekely]

25 minutes ago, M'Kyuun said:

What time is the fanstream? I didn't receive an email.

10:00am Pacific.  So just after lunch for me.

[Scyla]

On 1/13/2024 at 2:00 PM, lechuck said:

Yeah, that is what I meant with "big irritation" in my posting – seems like Takara is only now finally conceding that there are proportional issues with Raiden. Although I am interested in the waist piece, I just can't warrant buying MPG-07 for it. If a KO company offers this accessory part, I will pick it up.

Given that the ab extension is colored to match the standard Kaen colors I could imagine that MPG-07 will be a standalone release to celebrate the Dr. Yellow train. Given that the other Diaclone trains are mostly not real trains and/or would require extensive remolds I don’t know if Takara will release a full set of Trainbots in alternative, diaclone colors.

Anyhow, I got a few Transformers I bought last year that were sitting in a warehouse until now. Here is the good, the bad and the ugly:

The good: Nemesis Leo Prime. I really enjoyed this figure. So much so that he is probably my favorite Transformer I bought in 2023. I also got the MP version that is a terrible toy and several magnitudes worse compared to this mainline toy. Sure the lion legs as arm kibble will never not be awkward but he has such a nice transformation besides that. Love how the robot chest panels get inverted and fold into the chest and how the spike on the shoulder spike becomes the lion's tail. And the alt mode is an awesome and realistic toy lion.

The bad: MPG Seizan. He is a remold of Suiken with a different train shell and a new head. Out of the box he is not as loose and flimsy as the other arm bot and I like the head sculpt with the faceplate. In the past I often said that these are awesome trains but I'll stop giving Takara credit for that since out of the 5 Trainbots I have none can roll on their set of tracks. I know model scale trains can be super expensive but if you are a train collector I would rather go that route. Terrible, parts forming, kibble ridden, robot mode. An unimaginative shellformer with a terrible arm mode: the Trainbots are the worst toys I bought in a long while and the arms are worse than the rest.

The ugly: FoC Gamer Edition Cliffjumper. This toy is just awkward: awkward proportions with his missing lower abdomen, awkward tolerances with his backpack constantly popping off when you want to transform him to his awkward transformation were nothing really comes together. I especially question the decision 

[M'Kyuun]

10 hours ago, mikeszekely said:

10:00am Pacific.  So just after lunch for me.

Thanks, Mike. I may end up missing this one, as I have to take my mother-in-law to an appointment at 9, and upon return, my pup will surely need to go out, and he's not always quick in getting about his business given his second-long attention span. Never knew what a pain raising a dog from a puppy was- never again.

My saving grace, however, is that any POs arising from the stream usually don't go live until an hour or two later, so I'll hopefully still get the opportunity to get them, especially if Gears or Origins Wheeljack are included. Zero interest in Armada Tidal Wave, who's apparently the star of the show today.

[mikeszekely]

Might as well get this going before Hasbro does their thing.  Time to look at Optimus' packed-in partner, Reactivate Soundwave.

Soundwave is the smaller of the two, and there's temptation to simply say he's a Deluxe and Prime's a Voyager.  But as I noted yesterday, Prime was a fairly large, fairly solid Voyager, perhaps not quite pushing into Leader territory but certainly impressing me more than say, Legacy United Animated Prime or Thundertron.  I think that applies to Soundwave, too.  Yes, he's shorter than some proper Voyager Soundwave's like Studio Series Bumblebee Soundwave or the retooled-Siege Netflix Soundwave, but not by as much as you might expect.  He's a good head taller than your average Deluxe carbot, and without being overly-simplistic like previous large-Deluxes like Siege Ironhide or SS86 Perceptor.

Reactivate Soundwave lacks the chonk of Bumblebee Soundwave or the boxiness of G1 Soundwave, but I'm happy to say that in-hand his leaner build still seems proportional.  Early photos looked kind of stretched out, and I'm starting to think that they were literally stretched vertically.  As with Prime, he's got his share of "we're not making an '80s cartoon on a budget so lets add some greebly details!", but also like Prime he's very recognizably Soundwave with a head shaped like the Decepticon badge, shoulder cannon, a flat chest rimmed in gold, and even some molded and painted details on his shoulders and pelvis that hearken back to his G1 design.

Also like Prime, Soundwave feels pretty solid in hand, with wheels helping to fill in his calves, although there's some waffling on the insides of his arms and thighs if you know to look for it.  Soundwave's rear is dominated by a fairly substantial backpack, but I don't hate it.  Given Soundwave's traditional role I can imagine him carrying radio and communication gear in it, kind of like a WWII soldier with SRC-300 backpacks.  Ultimately, I think my only real gripe with Soundwave is the use of black plastic on parts that aren't traditionally black, like his biceps, hands, thighs, and feet.

So, how accurate is Soundwave to the game's concept art?  Not too shabby.  Turns out that some of the black, like his fingers, biceps, parts of his torso, and shins, are colored that way in the game, and Hasbro even took the time to paint some (but not all) of the red accents, and it looks like the wheels in the calves is also game-accurate.  The game art does make me wish Hasbro had used a brighter blue plastic, though, as it'd help differentiate the black and blue parts.  Not so much backpack here, though, and I can't help but notice that his thighs and feet are supposed to be silver.  Of course Hasbro pinned those parts, so repainting them yourself won't be an easy fix.

Soundwave's accessories are his shoulder cannon and his signature rifle.  The rifle looks fine.  The shoulder cannon has plenty of molded detail, but it's lacking the black and red accents seen in the game art.

Soundwave's head is on a ball joint for swiveling and looking up a good bit, but he's got fairly limited downward and sideways tilts.  His shoulders are ball joints, not my favorite thing in the word but they do swivel and move laterally slightly more than 90 degrees.  His biceps swivel, his elbows bend a hair over 90 degrees, and his wrists swivel.  The presence of his backpack in no way hampers his waist swivel, and if you untab his waist you can bend his back a bit.  He can barely move his hips backward at all, and his lateral movement falls a little short of 90 degrees, but he makes up for it by being able to kick forward something like 140 degrees, enough that he can get his foot higher than his head.  His thighs swivel, and his knees bend probably about 120 degrees.  Like Prime, his feet lack any up/down tilt, but he's got about 45 degrees of ankle pivot.

Soundwave's rifle can plug into either fist.  His shoulder cannon plugs into a dedicated 5mm port near his head, and is hinged so you can aim it down or tilt it up a bit.  The peg on the cannon is 5mm, so technically he can hold it in his fists, and technically his rifle can plug into his shoulder cannon port (though, lacking a hinge of it's own, would be permanently aimed 30 degrees down).  While there is a 5mm port under each foot for effects parts (not included), the only other port on him is on the corner of his backpack.  This does at least give him a place to store his rifle when he's not carrying it.

Alas, his chest does NOT open.  I think, given a bigger budget, it theoretically could have, but I can see how it'd have taken engineering that's probably outside the scope of this toy's budget.

You could probably guess from the backpack, but Soundave's a bit of a shell former.  His chest does form the hood of his alt mode, with the windshield double-hinging from behind it, but the backpack makes up the entire roof, rear, and a good chunk of the sides.  His arms tuck under the backpack shell, and the flaps they're on fill in the doors.  The front wheels and fenders fold out of his torso, and his legs by spin 180 and you tab them together before opening the flaps on the side of his legs, then folding the tires of his his calves.  Then it's just a matter of using the hinges in his torso to smush his legs up and fiddling with the fenders and leg flaps so that everything lines up properly.

Cyberverse fans should be pretty familiar with Soundwave's evergreen-inspired truck mode.  He's even got the same chest-hood, flared fenders, and carries his shoulder cannon on the roof the same as Cyberverse Soundwave.  Reactivate Soundwave is a bit less cartoony than the evergreen design, though.  G1 purists like myself are always going to want a Soundwave that turns into a tape deck, but honestly I do think this mode works for a more modern take.

And, yeah, it's looking pretty good against the concept art.  The tow hitch on the toy could be more obvious, and I wish they'd painted that bit of blue on the rear fenders that came from the leg flap so that it matched the entire fender.  Although you can't really see the rear in the concept art, I think paint on the bumper and taillights might have been nice, too.  My only other note would be that the antenna is missing all the blue and silver seen in the concept art.  Budgets, man.

Soundwave rolls without issue, as long as his legs are packed in tight enough and the front fenders are aligned properly.  The 5mm peg hole allows the cannon to swivel, and it's still go the hinges for aiming.  His rifle can plug into the same 5mm port on his backpack that it did in bot mode, which is now on the rear behind the antenna.  The instructions have it laying across the back, but again it's a 5mm port so you can swivel it.  It's better aiming behind him, though, as the antenna gets in the way of it aiming forward.

Soundwave was a pleasant surprise for me.  Yeah, Optimus is the star of the pack, and he's good in a you-figured-he-would-be way.  But my initial reaction to the reveals of these packs was that I'd be buying for Optimus and kind of stuck with Soundwave.  In hand, though, he's much better than I expected and one of my favorite Soundwave figures so far, similar to the Cyberverse Deluxe but better IMHO across the board.  If he were sold by himself as a Deluxe-class toy I'd recommend him on his own, and the fact that he comes with such a great Optimus toy makes buying a pack that costs as much as a Deluxe and Voyager combined an easy pill to swallow.  Do yourself a favor and pick this pair up.

[mikeszekely]

Seems I was given the wrong info. There's no stream, and nothing being revealed today. The info that we thought was going to be for a Transformers Tuesday stream was really just a roundabout way of saying that Tidal Wave preorders went up at 1:00pm EST/10:00am Pacific. Sorry. But yeah... your can preorder Tidal Wave on Pulse now, if you want.

Edited January 16 by mikeszekely

[Scyla]

Thank you for looking up and sharing the game models @mikeszekely. This line looks like an absolute winner. 
 

I would love to get the Starscream mold as Skywarp (love the Animated look) and a Nemesis Prime repaint. Seems unlikely but one can hope.

[Black Valkyrie]

 

Not bad for Soundwave Reactivate alt mode.   I always had an issue with SW variations alt mode after G1 and IMO I was thinking for awhile the VF-19S from Mac7 really fits . 

 

[mikeszekely]

If there's one character besides Optimus Prime that Hasbro can bank on, it's Bumblebee.  So today we'll look at the "star" of the second Reactivate pack.

Bumblebee tends to run small, even when he's a Deluxe, but Reactivate Bee is one of the taller Bumblebees in my collection.  He's basically the same height as Reactivate Soundwave, in that gray area between tall Deluxe and short Voyager.

I'm not sure how I feel about his robot mode.  While door wings have become a fairly common feature on Bumblebee in the post-Bayverse world, the hood chest definitely recalls the live-action movies and Prime more than his evergreen Cyberverse design.  But there's a certain roundness to him that hearkens back to G1.  There's something about his head, too, that's more than simply G1 with a chin strap.  It's almost like if G1 Bumblebee "grew up."  He's a bit taller and stronger, a bit more mature.

I have to point out here that after the fairly normal, symmetric Optimus and Soundwave that Bumblebee is starting the trend of asymmetric black "battle damage."  It's subtle on Bee.  One of his door wings has black on it, one doesn't.  One of his forearms has a little black around his wrist, the other has a line going up to his elbow.  One of his shins is uniformly black, one has some yellow poking through at the knee.  That's about it.

Compared to a lot of recent figures Bee's not too gappy, what wit the wheels in his calves, but there are some gaps in his backpack.  The undersides of his forearms are also pretty hollow, though there's actually a reason for it.  My favorite feature, though, are his heel spurs.  I'm not sure how clear it is from the photos, but they're molded in the shape of Animated Bumblebee's stingers.  It's a cute little Easter egg.

Compared to Prime and Soundwave, Bee's a bit further from the game model.  His head's ok, though it could use a bit more black.  I don't really have an issue with his thighs, abs, pelvis, and biceps.  His shoulders are in the ballpark, but the tips of his shoulder pads stick out farther than on the game model, and the lights are buried in the pads instead of sticking up.  Likewise, his forearms are close, but they have points near the elbow that the game model doesn't.  His shins aren't quite as close, though if I squint I guess I can imagine the black paint on his shins as the gray recessed areas on the animation, and simply ignore that the wheels on the toy are visible where they seem to be enclosed in the game.  The game model clearly has smaller, more "normal" feet, though, lacking the mechanical detail and stinger heels the toy has.  But the biggest difference is in the chest.  As noted, on the toy it's definitely the front of his alt mode, with the black across the bottom coming from his bumper.  If you look at the game's model the colors seem right, but a closer look shows that the chest isn't his hood and the black band isn't his bumper.  In the game, his chest is his roof, and the black band is the armor over his windshield.  That makes the game's design closer to Bee's evergreen design than the toy.

In any case, Bumblebee comes with these two machine pistols.  They remind me of a Cybertronian stockless Skorpion machine pistol, with 5mm port handles at the back and magazines at the front.

Bee's head is on a ball joint that swivels and can look up nearly 90 degrees, but has limited downward tilt and nothing to the side.  His shoulders rotate and can move laterally 90 degrees.  His elbows are ball joints that bend 90 degrees and make up for his lack of dedicated bicep swivels.  Bee lacks wrist or waist swivels.  His hips are ball joints, and while they can do 90 degrees laterally his limited by his pelvis and backpack to only about 60 degrees forward and backward.  His thighs swivel, and his knees bend 90 degrees.  His ankles are more ball joints, with limited up/down tilt but 60-ish degrees of pivot plus the ability to swivel.

Bee can hold his pistols in his hands, or the tabs on the bottom of the handles allow them to be plugged into slots next to his shoulders.  The only other storage is the hollows on the backs of his forearms.  You can plug the tabs on the handles into his forearms, with the barrels pointing up toward his elbows.  Looks kind of awkward, if you ask me, but it's specifically called out in his instructions, and it'll have another use later.

Bee's chest is his hood, Bee's rear windows and spoiler are his back, and his roof and side windows are kind of scrunched in between, so the first step in transforming Bee is to pull his chest away, then start stretching the car back out.  His pelvis swings up and under and his legs scrunch up, with the wheels on the sides unfurling and wheels in his calves folding out to take their place as the rear wheels.  With his legs in place you twist and shove his arms under the hood, shut the door wings, then bring the unfurled wheels up tot the front.

When I first saw this design my thought was, "so Bumblebee's a dune buggy now?"  Looking at him more closely, I don't think he actually is a dune buggy.  There's a jacked engine and a new spoiler, big tires on a lifted suspension, a roll cage over the cabin, armor on the bumper and grill, and some extra lights, but underneath it all I can sort of see something like a non-licensed, legally-distinct Beetle under it all.  It's likely in keeping with Prime's own armored-up truck mode and the game's theme of humans and Transformers teaming up to deal with an alien invasion of Earth.  

We can't see the back, though there doesn't seem to be a spoiler poking out back there, but from this angle I think Bee's looking fairly accurate in alt mode.  The extra armor matches, along with the lights, tires, and suspension.  The toy's got the hood scoop.  The differences mostly seem to be exactly where and how the black paint is applied, but "pretty close" might simply be "close enough" for Hasbro.  The only real difference I'm focusing on is the front of the hood, between the scoop and the bumper armor.  It's smooth on the car in the game, but pitted with mechanical details and a raised Autobot insignia.  Curiously, this detail is present on his chest in bot mode, but in hindsight his chest is smooth in the game, too, so it's a weird detail on the toy.

Bee can use the tabs on his guns to plug into slots that are on his hood if you want to arm up his car mode.  They're designed, though, to stay in the backs of his forearms when his arms are tucked in for transformation, storing out of sight under the car.

Ultimately, I don't really have an issue with Bumblebee's design, or even how the toy differs from the game model.  His articulation is a bit worse than Prime or Soundwave, but even that's not my real issue.  My real issue is that something seems to have been lost between the engineers designing the figure and the actual manufacturing.  I mean, it's no problem to get the top of the car transformed.  His feet fold in and his legs scrunch up smoothly enough, with the rear wheels tabbing to the sides of the spoiler.  But they don't lock into place in any other way, and you start to look at him and see one foot sitting just a bit angled while the other is flat, and one shin seems turned inward ever so slightly.  You stuff his arms into place and they seem like they fit but they don't secure into place in any way, and you can't help but noticed that his shoulders aren't quite aligned the same way and one elbow is sticking up a bit compared to the other.  You close the door wings, but both sides keep popping out.  Maybe they'll stay in place when you tab in the front fenders.  Nope!  Not only are the doors not staying tabbed in, but the fenders don't want to, either.  You kind of force them to stay put by closing the bumper on them, but it only helps a little.  Then you noticed little tabs on his arms.  Do they go in somewhere?  The instructions don't indicate that, but you wiggle his arms and eventually manage to wedge the tabs into hollows that may or may not be for those tabs in the black armatures that the front fenders are connected to.  Not only did it not help, it seems to have made it worse as the doors aren't just popping out, they're sticking out even further.  I can't help but think that all it'd have taken to have fixed this is for there to have been definite slots and tabs for securing the legs and arms properly in place.

I'm not sure what ultimately happened here.  I don't think Bumblebee is a bad figure; certainly, he's better than his Gamer Edition counterpart, or several of the myriad live-action Studio Series figures.  But he's lacking a little in articulation, and his engineering seems less polished than Prime or Soundwave, as if some bean counter at Hasbro was like, "it's good enough, who cares, it's Bumblebee so kids will buy it anyway."  On his own, I think he's something Bumblebee fans might appreciate, or something that'd be cool to have representing some kind of media.  But with no game due to developing more or less starting over on a different engine (which, in my experience, doesn't bode well for the game ever being released), I'm not sure Bumblebee can stand alone as a one-off figure.

[mikeszekely]

On 1/6/2024 at 10:06 PM, mikeszekely said:

Heads up.  You guys remember the Target-exclusive Buzzworthy Hound that was supposed to come out (before Detritus)?  Apparently Target decided to cancel some of their exclusives when some of the previous ones didn't sell too well.  Well, the good news is that Hound's not dead!  The bad news is that he's now going to be part of a multipack along with Jazz, Wheeljack, Sunstreaker, and Trailbreaker, and I have no indication how (if at all) the other four are going to differ from their WfC/SS86 releases.  The listing is "Gen Selects Autobot Multipack", so while nothing's been stated to me definitively yet I'm thinking it might wind up a Pulse exclusive.

Like me, you might have been wondering what differences, if any, the guys that aren't Hound might have from their original Earthrise/SS86 releases.  One leaker with a spotty track record was saying they'd have Siege-style battle damage.  Another was saying that they wouldn't have clear plastic, they'd have painted windows and a cartoonier deco.  I didn't mention either here because I wanted to hear from a more reliable source.  But... this is apparently the Trailbreaker that's going in the set, and sure enough he's got painted blue windows and a more faded gray that's more like the MP than the Earthrise black.

Based on that, I guess I'd expect blue painted windows on the other three, which is good for people whose Jazz cracked.  I expect it'll also mean no red on Wheeljack's feet, better yellow matching on Sunstreaker, and more black on Sunstreaker's shoulders and shins.

Speaking of Sunstreaker, remember when he was in the Bumblebee movie?  Me neither, because he wasn't.  That didn't stop Hasbro from making a Studio Series toy, though, due in the spring wave (along with 86 Swoop).