The Toy Thread

Topic

But mainly me waffling about Transformers.

Speaking of, the first War For Cybertron: Earthrise figures are being previewed

Leader Optimus Prime:

Grapple

Ironworks, being sold at a Deluxe price point, the name comes from one of the old micromaster bases – the one with the crane that turned into a gun turret and radar. Here we’ve got robot, Micromaster base and parts mode, so presumably works similar to the Weaponisers

Micromaster Hot Rod Patrol:

Also mentioned are the Micromaster Military Patrol and a Deluxe Cliffjumper

Replies

Talking of Megatron, I also picked up his recent SS86 release.

After being fairly down on this figure ever since the preview images started to appear, I’m going to eat my words to some extent – because now that I have him in-hand, a lot of the problems aren’t as bad as they seemed from the pics. The blue shins, the overly wide and boxy chest, the Decepticon logo – they all look better in-hand than they did in the official photos.

I still don’t love the tank alt mode – not (only) because it’s not a gun, but because the tank itself is pretty wonky on the top. The off-centre turret, the cannon-arms section and the way the whole top assembly “hovers” above the base all feel a bit shoddy.

Having said that, the transformation is quite fun and ingenious (and intuitive – after transforming into the tank with instructions, I easily got him back to bot mode without them) and the way the treads fold into the legs is proper Transformers magic.

A couple of the problems I had with him are somewhat fixable, too – weirdly, the stubby Fusion Cannon looks better-proportioned if you flip it around the wrong way!

One thing you can’t fix is the scale though – I know he’s designed to match the recent SS86 Optimus, but they both feel like a separate class of their own now, especially when you have Megatron next to the current latest versions of Soundwave, Starscream and Shockwave. I guess the new releases of those characters will probably also scale them up, but it feels like an unnecessary escalation.

Ultimately, this figure still comes in third place to my other two G1 Megatrons – Newage’s Romulus and MP36 – and not only because of the poor alt mode; the robot mode proportions are also slightly off to my eyes (I guess because it’s modeled on the chunky animation model). But SS86 is definitely not as bad as I first thought (and it’s certainly an improvement over the overly square and boxy Siege version) so together they make a decent trio.

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Todd, Andrew

Final figure arrived today.

Now to open them and put them together.

 

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Andrew, Uncle Retrospective, Martin Smith, Todd, lorcan_nagle

I figure SS86 Megatron will stay in robot mode since even if he did change into a gun there’s not really a way to have that giant gun interact with the other figures.

My last two Constructicons arrived on Friday and they are decent – Mixmaster in particular has a pretty satisfying transformation, including the shift to Devastator’s leg. The way Devastator’s arms have shoulder joints built into the two individual Constructicons themselves is really cool.

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Uncle Retrospective, Dave, Todd

::hits the gong of celebration::

::chokes on a resulting cloud of dust::

Phantom Rider Marvel Legend figure! Finally a Western character gets an ML after over 20 years!

He’s right there next to popular character Green Dude.

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Dave, Todd, lorcan_nagle

You can’t fool us, that’s just Moon Knight in a hat.

That’s a cool figure though, very striking looking.

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Todd, Martin Smith

Dave wrote:

You can’t fool us, that’s just Moon Knight in a hat.

That’s a cool figure though, very striking looking.

He’s got a new hat!

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Todd, Andrew, Dave, Martin Smith

Dave wrote:

You can’t fool us, that’s just Moon Knight in a hat.

That’s a cool figure though, very striking looking.

Ha, it is a bit, isn’t it.

I would not have guessed that of all the Western characters, Phantom Rider would get a figure first. I figured it’d have been Rawhide Kid, if anyone.

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Todd, lorcan_nagle, lorcan_nagle, Dave

I picked up the first wave of McFarlane’s new Mortal Kombat Klassic figures recently.

Unfortunately they’re a bit disappointing especially compared to Jada’s recent fantastic SFII figures. The sculpts look okay (except for Katana who is incredibly flat and detail-free, with stuff like her boots simply painted onto a smooth leg) but the articulation is very limited and they don’t come with any spare heads or effects pieces – the best we get is a couple of weapons (Scorpion’s spear, Kitana’s fans) and the figures that don’t have weapons have a swappable pair of hands. They’re also about a fiver more expensive each than the SFII figures are.

The ninjas look pretty good though.

I had thought about collecting the MK1 and MK2 roster now that Jada’s SFII line is almost complete, but I don’t think I’ll bother as these are pretty poor value and quite limited as figures, and the lack of effects pieces for characters like Sub-Zero is a massive oversight. Plus some of them (like Kitana) are limited figures which means a full set might end up hard to track down.

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Todd

They do look a bit ropey. Which is my general reaction to most McFarlane stuff, to be honest. I noticed they’re doing a TMNT line soon and honestly, given the amount of companies with a TMNT license you’d be forgiven for thinking it had entered the public domain.

Meanwhile, I’ve been politely ignoring the Jada SF figures but, for some reason, seeing Balrog at NYCC has piqued my interest in the line. Which is odd, given I have no special affection for Balrog, but he looks really cool. I might pick up one of the earlier releases (maybe Vega, I’ve always loved his design).

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Dave

The Jada SFII toys are really good I think, especially for the price. Some of the standout figures for me are Blanka, Dhalsim, Bison and Cammy but they’re all decent. Vega is a nice one if you’re going for that first.

There are some special P2 variant colours knocking around for some figures that have extra effects pieces too – Star Action Figures has the Dhalsim and Bison figures that both coming with flame/psycho effects and flaming bodies that are pretty cool. Mine just arrived the other day.

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Martin Smith

Also, I see Hasbro have announced a Skybound Optimus Prime figure, which is just SS86 Optimus with a new head and a new Megatron arm (with a cannon that’s a lot nicer than we got with SS86 Megatron!).

Looks nice but will be pricey at around $80/£65, and that’s without the trailer and accessories that the regular Optimus comes with.

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Todd, Andrew

These, on the other hand, are fantastic.

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lorcan_nagle

I was at the local mall today and the main shop that stocks TF had the SS86 Grimlock, but also the G2 Dinobot two-pack – I bought G2 Grimlock a few months ago because I thought I’d totally missed out on regular grey Grimlock and would instead settle for G2.

Now that they’re doing this reissue I had to choose – get proper Grimlock and pursue the other Dinobots as they come out, or get the two pack and go all in on G2 Dinobots.

I went with SS86 Grimlock.

(Being honest, I have kind of gotten used to the blue Grimlock and think that the full multicoloured set would look pretty sweet!)

Maybe I’ll give the G2 one to one of my wife’s second cousin’s son who’s both a TF and Dinosaur fan.

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Dave

Dave wrote:

These, on the other hand, are fantastic.

Like a vast predatory bird.

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lorcan_nagle

Andrew wrote:

I was at the local mall today and the main shop that stocks TF had the SS86 Grimlock, but also the G2 Dinobot two-pack – I bought G2 Grimlock a few months ago because I thought I’d totally missed out on regular grey Grimlock and would instead settle for G2.

Now that they’re doing this reissue I had to choose – get proper Grimlock and pursue the other Dinobots as they come out, or get the two pack and go all in on G2 Dinobots.

I went with SS86 Grimlock.

(Being honest, I have kind of gotten used to the blue Grimlock and think that the full multicoloured set would look pretty sweet!)

Maybe I’ll give the G2 one to one of my wife’s second cousin’s son who’s both a TF and Dinosaur fan.

I got SS86 Grimlock recently as well as finding an SS86 Sludge. I think there’s a rerelease coming for Snarl soon too.