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

Hasbro have confirmed that Pipes and Slammer have been moved to an upcoming wave 5 of Kingdom, alongside a Blaster and Eject 2-pack.

I am here for all three of these.

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Todd

And yet still no sign of Polar Claw.

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lorcan_nagle

Martin Smith wrote:

And yet still no sign of Polar Claw.

His toy was never put into production, there’s a number of characters in the promo art that was shared and were dropped form the lineup, like him and Gears.

They work two years in advance on designing and pre-production, so to make it into the production art, they must have had enough to go forward with, especially as Kingdom Rhinox clearly shares tooling with him.

I just don’t get why they’d do so much work on it, essentially publicly imply its existence and then drop it entirely when the theme of the next series is “random characters from past continuities”.

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lorcan_nagle

I assume it’s some sort of budget/scheduling/projected sales thing? Hopefully we’ll see him and Gears show up somewhere down the line, especially if Inferno and Tarantulas are getting Beast Wars-style toys in Legacy

Yeah, that’s the thing. How were they not the first things revealed for Legacy? They’re not even on the leaked retailer stock lists. They just seem to have binned them off.

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lorcan_nagle

Go through all the pictures in the post.

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Mutant Tigatron

Here three months(!) earlier than the pre-order page said it would be released, here’s the orange version of Tigatron.

It’s a pretty simple but solid mould. Nice easy transformation that goes from a tiger mode with about as much articulation as you could reasonably expect…

to quite a nice robot mode.

Weirdly, there’s a fairly different paint scheme shown on the box (but not the promo art photos) which has some slightly more interesting placements of green – the hands, the 5mm ports on the back of the feet and the gun barrel, but none on the crotch piece. I think the green as produced is probably the better choice overall, but some of those others would have helped to make it pop more.

I do love the colour scheme overall. The mutant head is interesting but I think actually I would have preferred the normL head on him.

There are some odd choices here though. The tail weapon fits into his beast mode, obvs, but his gun – based on the original Cheetor/Tigatron mould’s “gut gun” – can just plug into the tiger belly in a weird, pointless way and that’s it. It’s barrel is removable, though I’ve no idea why – the post and port aren’t that universal 5mm size so it’s not customisable or anything. I’m not really sure what the 5mm ports on the heel are for either, apart from maybe to let you use the tail to help flip out the feet in transformation. Presumably you could plug some fossiliser stuff in there, but I don’t know how good that’d look, hidden behind the legs, even by the standards of the gimmick generally.

So it’s more of a fun curio than a brilliant figure. Glad I got it though.

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Todd, lorcan_nagle

Meanwhile regular Tigatron is down as being released sometime next year on the Smyths website, and no sign of Pipes, Slammer and Blaster at all.

Yeah, it’s so weird this repaint came out so early and before the normal version of Tigatron. They’ve said the Blaster wave won’t have pre-orders, so presumably it’ll only show up online when it’s in physical shops too, whenever that might be.

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lorcan_nagle

GI Joe Classified is one of the greatest salvage jobs in toy history, it has to be said. Given the lead time on these sorts of lines is claimed to be about two years, they managed to pivot away from the messy launch into largely what people actually want (6” updates of the classic character designs that add slight modernisations along with greater detail) really quickly.

It has led to some oddities though, such as the fact that, across the space of about 18 months (possibly even just a year) they’ve put three and a half different Roadblock figures. First the ugly, busy one based on his ‘86 redesign with the Fortnite-esque prong gun. Then an odd urban merc style design with bandana and incongruous beard, followed by a toned down revision of the first figure. And then finally Heavy Artillery Roadblock, which is just an update of his original design from ‘83.

Of course this one is a store exclusive (to Amazon and Hasbro Pulse) which sold out pretty quickly initially (Pulse UK quietly restocked in December, thankfully), but you can’t really blame Hasbro for going that route. Would retailers have accepted yet another Roadblock so quickly when they’re still trying to shift the first and third versions? It’s a bit strange Hasbro would do this, as a friend of mine terms them, “apology figure” so quick, but hey, I’m not complaining.

Anyway, this is, as with most of the upcoming figures, just the original design done justice in the larger scale. Orange combat trousers? Check. Green camo vest? Check. Big gun? Check. This is probably the only real change, with Roadblock’s historic “50 Cal” (his trademark catchphrase in the comic) replaced with a modern minigun. It’s a good choice, as it’s drum-fed, meaning there’s no need to do an ammo belt accessory, which are always a pain in the arse. It’s suitably massive for Roadblock too.

Marvin’s got a great face sculpt and paint apps – one of the consistent highlights in the line. He comes with a helmet and while it fits properly, he looks a little odd wearing it – you can’t cover that classic bald head, man! Build-wise, the joints all started to feel a little loose after first being moved and I’m getting increasingly sceptical about the longevity of Classified’s “drop-hip” articulation, but there’s no major issues.

It may have taken them four goes, but Hasbro have totally nailed the character of Roadblock. That they’ve bothered to is as encouraging as it is surprising and leaves me ever more keen to see where the line goes in the near future. After the stuff already up for pre-order (like Alley Vipers, Spirit and Storm Shadow), supposedly Zarana and Stalker – two of my favourite characters – are due. I really can’t wait to see how they turn out.

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Todd, lorcan_nagle, JRCarter

Body massage!

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Todd, lorcan_nagle

JRCarter wrote:

Body massage!

uhhhhhh…. what the hell?

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Todd, JRCarter

https://www.youloveit.com/dolls/2295-barbie-signature-ida-b-wells-doll.html

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njerry

I haven’t posted about robot purchases in ages, so gonna break these up by subline

Studio Series 86

Hot Rod is… well, one of the best Transformers of recent years.  and I say this with no hyperbole, this is a magnificent piece of engineering that transforms from a fantastic representation of the robot mode’s animation model to a fantastic representation of the car mode’s animation model.  Poseability is a bit beyond the War for Cybertron standard thanks to double-jointed knees and a foot hinge as well as the now-standard ankle tilt.  

Transformation is quite complex, there are a lot of panels and the actual hood of the car hidden inside the body and the legs, and you basically unfold the bits hidden in the chest, hide the head in the space, flip some bits around and then you’ve got a futuristic 2005 car.  It’s all very impressive, but it comes at a cost.  And I meant literally, this thing was €40 retail in Dublin, and comes in at a standard Voyager price point on Hasbro Pulse in the US (which is €30 or so here).

To ameliorate the cost a bit, he’s laden down with accessories and features – a pair of toy-accurate guns, a buzzsaw that can be attached to a post hidden behind one of his hands to replicate the bit in the movie where Hot Rod saves Kup from the octopus thing on Quintessa, while the other hand has a blowtorch like he used to repair Kup afterwards hidden behind it.  There’s also a Matrix of Leadership, and effect parts for the Matrix and Hot Rod’s guns/exhausts.

This is a very nice figure and a very nice package.  but maybe not worth the higher asking price outside the US?  That’s a judgement call for sure.

Scourge is the same price point as Hot Rod, but instead of a complex deluxe-sized figure full of features, this is a larger, more simple toy.  Even compared to the Titans Return toy the transformation feels simpler – the shoulder assemblies  are on hinges – you pull these down to the wrists clip into points on the heels, fold in the toes, detach the flat of the back and head from the chest and fold them down so they cover the ankles, and then fold the wings in so they cover the robot mass.  
It looks great in both modes, but there is a definite feeling that if they stretch the budget for a wave across all the figures in each respective size class, then Scourge lost out so Hot Rod could win big.  There’s nothing wrong with the toy per se, but it feels so simple compared to Hot Rod. Fits in really well beside Kindgom Cyclonus and Galvatron though. 

I bought Kup largely because he came with that energon goodie dispenser.  But he’s also a pretty decent figure.  I skipped the Titans Return version of the character as I have the Generations one, but Mark got the Legends one and I feel like there’s an evolutionary through-line between these three versions of the character.  As with the rest of the toyine, this one attempts to capture the essence of the animation design in both modes, which is a very tall order in this case.  
There’s a lot of weird twisting and turning, panels that rotate, and a step in the transformation where you open up the shins, turn the leg slightly at the knee and then close it up to change the angle it sits at in order to get it into position for “truck” mode, while maintaining the smaller torso and long limbed look of robot mode with a neat little backpack.  There’s a couple of panels folded up on the back of his legs, but other than that it’s a fine job.

As well as the aforementioned energon goodie dispenser, Kup comes with a rifle, and the other big gimmick is that you can remove his arms and legs to recreate the scene in the movie where he’s dismembered by that robot squid, who is handily featured on the diorama display in the box.  A bit of a step down from Hot Rod, but you gotta work with the source material.
Overall, Kup is a decent figure, but not essential.  If you want a version of the toy that hews close to the G1 character and have the Titans Return or Legends one, you can probably stick with it unless you really like the looks of this one. 

Blurr by comparison is the least essential of these figures.  He feels very much like a minor reworking of the Titans Return/Legends version, but with an integrated head and the car mode nose is a built in piece instead of a removable shield.  For accessories and features he’s got an animation-accurate rifle, a welding torch like he uses while repairing the Autobot shuttle on Planet Junk which clips onto his hand instead of deploying out of him like Hot Rod, and that’s it.  It’s not a bad toy, but like, far less essential as an upgrade to prior versions of the toy than other SS86 figures.

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Bruce, Todd

I was just thinking of picking up Scourge (well, the Sweep redeco) tomorrow. Also feeling a bit of FOMO on Hot Rod, though he’s getting a second run but seemingly without all the accessories, which sucks.

Also thinking I might need to bite the bullet and order Classified Snake Eyes and Timber now before I miss out, rather than holding out for it on sale (like the RAM Cycle seems to be everywhere).

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lorcan_nagle

I heard Hot Rod was getting reissued in the new Studio Series packaging, but not that he was gonna be without accessories.

I’ve not seen confirmation on him missing the accessories, but they’re not visible through the new smaller window and are conspicuously absent from the back of box pictures.

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lorcan_nagle

The only new packaging toy I’ve gotten so far is Origin Bumblebee and you can’t see any of his accessories through the tiny open space. But they are all shown on the back of the box…

This is the back of the new packaged version. The fact that he’s posed with his weapons rather than the Matrix bits would suggest they’ve been removed.

Those are the exact same images on the back of the original box, so there’s some hope, at least.

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lorcan_nagle

I picked up a Sweep this morning from Smyths. Bit of a hassle with an employee. Found it easy enough – it’s the only new product in the shrivelled remains of their TF range and so the only well stocked thing apart from shelf-warmers like the Netflix spoiler packs. Two facings of it on separate shelves. No ticket on one, ticket on the other for a different Studio Series figure discounted from £35 to 30. No ticket for the Sweep anywhere to be seen (nor for many other things there, including a stray Quintesson judge that was hanging around). So I took it to the till, it goes through at £35, I say it’s marked at £30. Show a member of staff, he scans it on his PDA thing. “Says £35 online”.

“But we’re not online, we’re in a shop and the only price ticket anywhere near it says £30. None of these labels say £35 for anything.”

He gets shirty with me for disputing the divine proclamation of “online” and basically starts walking off. I ask to see a supervisor, who does see my point and discounts it to £30.

Really glad he did, as this figure is not worth £35. Ridiculous that this is £10 more than the far superior Cyclonus. The design isn’t amazing to start with – too much panel fitting for the vehicle mode and the wings are too kibbley in robot mode. No idea if I’ve got the underside vehicle panels in place or if they’re supposed to be more flush.

But the QC is terrible. Splotchy paint apps on various parts, the inside of the open hand isn’t fully painted and worst of all, the slot on one of the arms into which the tab from the leg fits to keep them together for vehicle mode hasn’t been moulded properly. It’s meant to be a -0- shape, which a screw in the 0. But after spending ages trying to align the limbs properly, I realised one of the – parts is just filled solid. I think there’s still enough room to get all the vehicle parts to fit together, but it doesn’t have a very convincing connection, if there’s even meant to be one.

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Todd, lorcan_nagle

Picked up this new Lego set at the start of the year as I just couldn’t resist it.

We finished building it today. It’s a fun build with some nice little mechanics for stuff like the spring, some nice use of Lego pieces for bits like the bridge, and obviously the bricks lend themselves well to the pixel checkerboard style. Although there’s a lot of fiddly building as each block of brown and orange is two single-square flat Lego pieces stuck together.

Still, it’s worth it as the end result looks great.

Tempted to try and build a Chemical Plant Zone extension with some of the bits from my big box of leftover Lego.

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Bruce, Todd, lorcan_nagle, Martin Smith

Interesting that Sonic gets to be a proper Lego mini-figure while Mario is stuck being an expensive Lego-ish figure.

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lorcan_nagle

Yeah it’s odd that they haven’t done a proper Mario minifigure.

This Sonic minifig is nice, with a couple of decent minor improvements over the previous one from Lego Dimensions.

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lorcan_nagle

Kingdom:

Skorponok… I really want to say I love this guy, but while there’s quite a lot to like here, pretty much everything is balanced out with something meh.  So it looks the part really well, I love the missiles and cyberbee inside the claws, the organic textures, the weird transformation… Lots of cool stuff.  But the transformation is awkward, and you wind up with bits of the robot legs hanging under the torso and if you don’t position the scorpion legs just so they tend to slide to the sides and the leg kibble scrapes the ground. It’s hard to get the hip assembly to properly fit into the torso, the scorpion legs just hang around the back in robot mode, and the proportions are weird in robot mode unless you don’t correctly tab the hips into the torso… I like him, but it’s more because I like Beast Wars than the toy being excellent.

Wingfinger is the final Fossiliser toy, and another mixed bag.  Unlike Skorponok I really like this one, so the flaws are surmountable at least.  The best point is the robot mode which I think looks really cool, it’s nice and sleek and has a feeling of speed and grace as opposed to Ractonite’s bulky power and Paleotrex’s freakiness.  My big problem is with the dinosaur skull part. In robot mode it’s a shield/gun thing and it’s hard to mount it properly in his hand, and in skeleton mode it looks goofy.  But yeah, really good figure and deeply discounted where it’s still in stock now, so go for it!

Galvatron is an improvement on the Titans Return figure, and I’m one of the people who liked that in the first place.  Proportion wise he’s this weird, slightly dumpy figure but it’s more bulk than flab, if you know what I mean.  It doesn’t quite fit the character art but is still pretty good.  And the elbow weapon mount is on the side of the arm this time, so that’s a major plus. My Galvatron is one of the misassembled ones, which is annoying but minor, I might fix him some day.
Transformation is far more complex than you’d expect with a huge amount of folding and unfolding of the chest and flipping around and extending of bits and you still wind up with a cannon mode that looks like every other Galvatron cannon mode. I see why they did it this way, especially the lengths they go through to hide his head, but it also feels very extra.   For accessories he comes with the particle cannon, still pretty hecking big but not as oversized as the Titans Return one.  He’s also got a couple of rifles that look like his ship from the movie which are nice to have but unessential, and a matrix on a piece of plastic molded to look like a chain which can fit around his neck or notch into a slot on his chest do it can stay in place in cannon mode like that one scene in the movie.  In a nice touch the Matrix is removable from the ‘chain’ as well.

Overall Galvatron is another really good addition to the line.  Easily the best mainline Galvatron toy to date and it’s gonna be hard to top.  For people who are down on the battle damage from STE GE it is here, but it’s a lighter blue/purple and applied like a highlight rather than a patina of scratching. He’s getting a reissue in Legacy and apparently won’t have them there, and might just be issued from the start with proper shoulders too?   

Rodimus Prime is the figure I’ve had the least amount of time from here, I picked him up from Smyth’s after the price dropped to €70.  And well, he’s Studio Series 86 Hot Rod, but moreso.  The robot?  Looks like Hot Rod but is bigger and has a little bit more poseability.  Transformation?  Very similar but with some more bits and pieces. He’s a very good figure, scales well beside, say Galvatron and the last two Optimus Primes, has the same weapon effects as Sky Lynx but in blue, it’s a decent package overall.

He definitely doesn’t feel like he’s worth over 100 quid though.  Like SS86 Hot Rod the plastic budget is going on part count and accessories here, so it feels like less of a toy than Jetfire or Sky Lynx, made worse by an increase in the RRP here.  The trailer especially feels like a big wodge of plastic in the box to make up space, even though it has some cool features. It just doesn’t feel as important to have for the figure as, say a trailer packed in with Optimus Prime.  It might have worked better as a not-shit version of PotP Rodimus?  Like car turns into Hot Rod and combines with trailer to form Rodimus Prime?  

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Martin Smith, Todd

[lorcan_nagle]

Oh, I forgot to say, amusingly after all the talk here of whether Rodimus would have shoulder clearance issues, the big challenge to posing is his arm exhaust pipes/cannons, which prevent a lot of lateral elbow movement.

• This reply was modified 2 years, 11 months ago by lorcan_nagle.

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Martin Smith, Todd

I totally agree about Scorponock. Glad I’ve got him, but he’s not amazing. A repaint (with his mutant head from the original toy) as Botcon Sandstorm has been revealed/leaked (I never even know which it is half the time now) and it’s a nice colour scheme, but I don’t think the mould’s good enough to warrant having twice.

I’m definitely going to try and get Galvatron in his Legacy refresh. The misassembled shoulders and the battle damage paint apps were the main things putting me off, so with both of those fixed, it’s a no-brainer.

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lorcan_nagle

Golden Disc Collection/Kingdom Terrorsaur

He’s… well, to be honest, he’s kinda what you’d expect from the pictures. Bit too bulky underneath in beast mode and too bulky on the back in robot mode, which is an oddly impressive combination of problems, really. Ignoring the legs, it’s like you’ve just got two different toys slapped together back to back. Seems to be an issue with the outer panel on his left wing not staying attached as securely as the other (I’ve seen other people mention it already on Twitter) and having a close look, it seems the connecting “plug” bit from the main wing part doesn’t have the moulded tab on that wing. Not a huge issue. Nice head sculpts though. Decent enough figure, but a shame Terrorsaur wasn’t deemed worthy of an original mould that could sort some of these issues rather than a retool of Airazor.

Classified Snake-Eyes and Timber: Alpha Commandos.

I’ve still no idea what Alpha Commandos are supposed to be, but these are cool. Great representation of the original Snake Eyes design, as I’ve come to expect from Classified now they’re got their head on straight. Loads of guns (I assume to fill out the mould). His silencer is detachable, has its own holster thing (very hand given how loseable it seems) and can attach to either the pistol or the Uzi. The real surprise is Timber though. When I first saw the set, I resented a bit having to pay the higher price point and get Timber, who I didn’t have much interest in, just to get the good Snake Eyes. But Timber’s a great piece. Loads of articulation, fantastic detailing and paint apps. Alternate head option, which has me really tempted to make a hunting trophy style mount to hold the one not in use.

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lorcan_nagle

Apparently I’m not getting my Terrorsaur until March. Sadface

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Todd

lorcan_nagle wrote:

Apparently I’m not getting my Terrorsaur until March. Sadface

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lorcan_nagle

Snapped this up on a whim.

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Bruce, Todd, njerry, Dave, Martin Smith

That’s a lot of cape.

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Todd, Dave, Andrew, Uncle Retrospective

McFarlane Toys, based on a McFarlane drawing.

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Todd, Dave

Got a notification from BBTS that my Generations Selects Transmutate had reached the time limit for being in my pile ‘o’ loot, so I pulled the trigger on shipping it and Artfire. Was thinking about getting some cheap STE GE Micromasters (because the basemode stuff in Earthrise has been calling me) but wouldn’t have had the time for the order to be processed before they auto-shipped Transmutate

Well hello Sunbow style Gung-Ho. Much nicer than the first version. He’s part of a sub-line of retro deco repaints (/minor retools – he’s got a new vest and holsters and I think head) that includes a repaint of Baroness in all black outfit, Destro with eyebrows and Lady Jaye with too much make-up.

Also Stalker was revealed (the leaks were correct but no Zarana (yet?)).

I’m hoping it’s just the bright background making him look so drab. Hopefully the actual figure will be a little less flat that this render.

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JRCarter, lorcan_nagle, Todd

Martin Smith wrote:

Well hello Sunbow style Gung-Ho.

Don’t forget to bring your sandwiches!

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JRCarter

I tell you what, as a Transformers fan, it’s easy to take for granted the huge wealth of resources available for the line: TFWiki, TFU.info, dozens more fan-sites. Hard to remember that not every toyline has that. I’m going through some old Action Man stuff from the 90s, trying to sort accessories, get product names etc and there’s just barely anything to work with online. I’m mostly having to guy by boxed listings on eBay. Even the Action Man fan community, such as it exists, is no help because they only really care about the Palitoy era and dismiss just completely dismiss all the 90s stuff out of hand.

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lorcan_nagle

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Rocket, lorcan_nagle

For some reason, it didn’t occur to me that these retro repaint Classified figures would be on 80s style cards, even though Hasbro does this a lot now. This new Baroness looks pretty good. Pretty amusing that it’s turned up in shops before they’ve done a preview of the finished figure though.

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Rocket, JRCarter, Todd, lorcan_nagle

Got an update from Amazon that I should have Terrorsaur next week. Now if my Transmutate and Artfire would actually leave the Fedex depot in Newark they’ve been in for at least a week I’d be happy…

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Martin Smith, Todd

Some photos from Fan First Friday earlier

Studio series Bee Movie Arcee

Ironhide

SS86 Junkyard

Sludge

Legacy Walmart exclusives
Sandstorm

Nightprowler

Buzzsaw

Beast Wars reissues
Skorponok

Tigatron

RED
Knockout

Ultra Magnus

Buzzworthy Bumblebee

B-127, a redeco of the SS Bee Movie one with his battle mask retracted

Kup, a redeco of the SS86 figure with a more cartoon-accurate colour scheme

Cliffjumper, a redeco of the Earthrise one, again with more cartoon accurate colours

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Todd

They named a Cheetor repaint after an AC/DC song?

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Todd

I think Buzzsaw’s the only thing there I’m particularly interested in. Nightprowler’s colours are nice, but with the same head in the same colour, it just feel too much like Cheetor.

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lorcan_nagle

JRCarter wrote:

They named a Cheetor repaint after an AC/DC song?

I guess? The name was going to be used for a redeco of Beast Wars Cheetor in these colours in 2003, but it was cancelled.

Martin Smith wrote:

I think Buzzsaw’s the only thing there I’m particularly interested in. Nightprowler’s colours are nice, but with the same head in the same colour, it just feel too much like Cheetor.

Sludge is making me a little more interested in replacing my PotP Dinobots with the SS86 ones, and I’m a little bit tempted by the Junkions, but other than that, eh. I like the colours on the Legacy repaints but not enough to buy them.

Sludge left me a bit cold really. A bit too heavy of sculpted details for an animation based design and just… oddly dull. I felt the same way about Grimlock too and Slag I wasn’t impressed by the unpainted face. Having missed the boat on those two also has me less bothered by Sludge. I’d maybe be interested in Swoop and/or Snarl.

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lorcan_nagle

Martin Smith wrote:

Sludge left me a bit cold really. A bit too heavy of sculpted details for an animation based design and just… oddly dull. I felt the same way about Grimlock too and Slag I wasn’t impressed by the unpainted face. Having missed the boat on those two also has me less bothered by Sludge. I’d maybe be interested in Swoop and/or Snarl.

A lot of the appeal is when the designer pulled up Grimlock, Slug and Sludge together in dino mode and there was a lot of heft there. Grimlock seems to be sold out everywhere so it’s probably going to remain a fanciful idea rather than an actual plan.

Here’s the story behind Sun-Man, the groundbreaking Black action figure that’s joining the ‘Masters of the Universe’ franchise

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Todd, lorcan_nagle

My Terrorsaur shipped and Artfire and Transmutate arrived yesterday. Good times.

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Todd, njerry

lorcan_nagle wrote:

My Terrorsaur shipped and Artfire and Transmutate arrived yesterday. Good times.

You were naked when posted that, weren’t you?

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lorcan_nagle

Todd wrote:

lorcan_nagle wrote:

My Terrorsaur shipped and Artfire and Transmutate arrived yesterday. Good times.

You were naked when posted that, weren’t you?

I don’t need to answer your questions

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Uncle Retrospective, Todd

lorcan_nagle wrote:

Todd wrote:

lorcan_nagle wrote:

My Terrorsaur shipped and Artfire and Transmutate arrived yesterday. Good times.

You were naked when posted that, weren’t you?

I don’t need to answer your questions

You’re still naked, aren’t you?

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lorcan_nagle

I bought a Marvel Legends Thena this week. Sort of a panic buy, I guess you could say. I’m thinking of doing some custom figures, saw Thena, thought a couple of parts might be useful, saw that the Eternals figures are starting to disappear from stock, especially Thena, who wasn’t part of the main wave, so threw £22 for her. Which is a fair price for a 6″ figure these days, but more than I’d hoped to be spending on custom fodder. But it looks so good.

The face anyway, which is a really good likeness of Angelina Jolie. I think the face-print tech Hasbro use on their 6″ figures now is brilliant, but it can still be a bit hit and miss with likenesses (as opposed to GI Joe Classified, where it’s much more successful because it’s not trying to look recognisable as a real person). But this is dead on. Unfortunately, the head’s one of the weakest parts of the figure as a whole, because the glorious hair sculpt really limits its movement and because for some reason it often ends up siting slightly further forward than is natural, so looks a bit odd.

The actual worst bit of it is the feet though, which are well articulated, but weirdly angled somehow, like her feet are dropping inwards. It makes it incredibly hard to get them to a position where she can actually stand up. There’s a, erm, drapey bit from the waist, which has a little tab to fit in a recess in the waist, but that absolutely doesn’t work, so it ends up floating around all over the place.  There’s no neck or waist articulation, which is disappointing given they’re standard in Classified. I think if I’d bought this figure for its intended purpose, I’d be a bit disappointed with it. Hopefully, it’ll be useful for parts, but given the price of it, I’m a little hesitant to start disassembling it and potentially ruining its resale value.

 

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lorcan_nagle

Up for pre-order now, at the princely sum of ninety american monies: Transformers x GI Joe Crossover Megatron and Baroness

It’s taken over 30 years, but they’ve finally done a Transformer that turns into a vehicle GI Joe figures can sit in. It’s an easy pass for me, but it looks kinda cool

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JRCarter, Todd

Yeah, it’s kind of impressive, but not for me.

I did pre-order Stalker, Tomax and Xamot though. They all look great, moreso than they did in the renders shown last month. Stalker’s uniform colours aren’t nearly as muddy. Unfortunately, the RRP’s gone up £2. And weirdly, they’re out before all the stuff that was revealed and put up for pre-order back at Pulsecon.

Some other upcoming Classifieds were shown off as renders, including Zarana, who looks great.

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JRCarter, Todd, lorcan_nagle

Zarana!

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JRCarter, lorcan_nagle

[lorcan_nagle]

Just when I thought I was done with Studio Series 86 and Kingdom, they pull me back in

I skipped Titans Return Perceptor, but the Reveal the Shield one is really showing its age, so I decided to nab the Studio Series 86 one.  And he’s pretty good.  The robot mode is your typical boxy man-shape and he’s got all the usual poseability for a modern Transformer.  His gun is a bit tiny, but that’s OK.  Especially as it turns out the old iGear set I got of comic-accurate weapons for Kup and Perceptor fit his hands pretty well.

Transformation is a pretty standard moving around of bits until you get a thing that looks like a microscope made out of robot parts.   There’s a nice innovative bit where the shoulder panels flip inwards to lock the microscope barrel into place but other than that there’s not much to it.  There’s some level of magnification going on with the clear plastic at either end of the barrel but I wouldn’t try to actually look at anything through it. “Tank” mode involves twisting the legs around and awkwardly clipping them into small tabs on the arms and then tilting the microscope barrel upwards, and if you’re feeling saucy attach the gun to a 5mm port on the side of the barrell. it looks a lot like the G1 toy’s tank mode, which is to say it’s a big slab with what can be argued is a gun.  Overall, pretty decent, even with the fiver Studio Series tax attached.

As much as we’ve had these other “break bots apart to make weapons and equipment for the rest of the line” gimmicks, Hasbro can’t seem to get away from Weaponisers, and as such we get Slammer, the third and final of Metroplex’s little mates.  And he’s a tasty one.  Robot mode is quite blocky, but not too bulky.  It’s an original design as Slammer was a tower that turned into a tank in G1.  The look and feel here is very nice, with a mix of a couple of greys and black providing a pleasant colour scheme, the head design is suitably militaristic and the tank treads and frame as a backpack works really well.

Tank mode is a very good replication of the original.  There’s not much going on here, the gun is fixed forward and while there are wheels underneath they don’t exactly roll very well.  There’s an interesting and slightly frustrating part of the transform though.  When you’re putting the legs in place to make the back of the tank hull, you need to fold the feet out to the full 90 degree ankle tilt or you won’t be able to fit the arms in place to form the turret and this isn’t made very clear in the instructions.  But it looks really good and while I’ve not lined them up together I figure he’ll look well beside recent Autobot tanks like Warpath and Impactor, and also with Metroplex and his other pals.  Speaking of there’s also a tower mode that does attach to Generations Metroplex, it’s not listed in the instructions but it was shown on a stream so they did do it on purpose.

The broken into weapons bits are pretty cool too.  In a touch that I feel is specifically to pander to me, the sides of the legs and the tops of the shoulders have detail that resembles Macross-style missile pods, and they look awesome by my reckoning.    The chainsword made form the tank treads is another wonderful touch.

Pipes is a toy that I had as a kid so even though he has very few animation and comic appearances, so I’ve got a bit of nostalgia going in as well as the squished by Overlord memes (and I may have dug my Titans Return Overlord out to so some squishing).  He’s a pretty straight-up redeco of Huffer, and while the G1 Pipes was Huffer but backwards, this one is Huffer, but with bits to make him look like he’s Huffer backwards, sorta.  Basically the truck cab is on a rotating joint so the back of it is behind Pipes’ head, while the front is behind Huffer’s.  Am I even making sense?

Aside from that the big difference is that Pipes comes with a pair of… well, pipes that can be attached to his arms like in his character art, or carried as guns.  There’s a slight modification to Pipes’ forearms so these can be attached to his wrists in truck mode to extend the smokestacks, but they look pretty ridiculous like that.  As much as I like this guy and Huffer I’m glad I declined to nab Road Rage and Puffer because you do not need four of this mold.  Unless you do, I’m not the toy cops.

Hey, remember when Kingdom was all about Beast Wars guys?  Well Tigatron is the last of those, and completes the series 1 Axalon crew.  And Martin’s talked about the Golden Disk version. I largely agree.  The Cheetor figure is pretty good, this is an oversized and slightly improved Cheetor.  The changes to the character design work really well, I especially love the face and the partially dirty colouration that matches real Siberian Tigers.  It’s a shame Cheetor didn’t come with a guts gun like Tigatron does.

So Blaster was one of the last major G1 characters I didn’t have a Generations figure of, so he and Eject were a welcome release.  And this is another really good set.  Robot mode is another very standard body with few frills, but you know, that’s accurate to the character design and the original toy.  His right hand is moulded with an extended index finger (much like STE GE and Netflix Soundwave had for their left hands) that can be posed pressing on the spring release for his tape door.  Gonna shout out the electro-scrambler rifle here too because it’s a nice big gun, in an age where a lot of Transformer weapons are comparatively small.

Speaking of small, the tape deck is not particularly big.  Which is fine, but  when the alt mode is an iconic type of music player and here it’s more like a 1:3 or 1:4 scale model.  It still looks cool, and the transformation has some interesting moments even though it’s pretty simple and very similar to the G1 toy’s transformation in principle.  I think the way the arms are compacted in might be unique to Blaster, in fact.  Eject is a nice addition to the set as well.  Unlike the recent tapes for Soundwave, he can’t form a shield, but really, how many times were you gonna do that?  (disclosure, I did it a few times after I had like a half-dozen tapes because it was fun to just cover Soundwave in them).  On the upside, he’s really poseable thanks to double hinges in his shoulders and hips, and ball joints in his elbows and knees – moreso than Rumble, Frenzy and Knok. He’s also got 5mm ports on either arm that form the spools in tape mode, which is a very nice touch.  he is mostly clear plastic though, so I’m expecting him to disintegrate in 10-15 years.

• This reply was modified 2 years, 9 months ago by lorcan_nagle.
• This reply was modified 2 years, 9 months ago by lorcan_nagle.

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lorcan_nagle

Hello:

I said before about these
statues and figurines in the big LCS. They are usually in these glass displays something like this:

I wouldn’t mind this because of the detail, but they do cost a very pretty penny each and since they don’t move, after a while… So it may not be worth buying up 10 of them if you have about $1K to spare.

Still looks nice, especially the Wolverine at the bottom.

Those are not “toys”, they are sculpted figures along the lines of Hummel or Lladro figurines. They are intended to be collected and displayed in cabinets or on shelves, not to be played with.

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Todd

njerry wrote:

Those are not “toys”, they are sculpted figures along the lines of Hummel or Lladro figurines. They are intended to be collected and displayed in cabinets or on shelves, not to be played with.

I know. The display in the house. Almost like a nice painting to add to the house’s ambience…

Really for some wholesome fun, I just play one of those really vivid video games on the PC.
I get to be one of the Avengers or a Tomb Raider. Role playing.

As for these toys upthread, they are very nice but I’d be hesitant to even take them out of
the box as that would affect the reselling value should it go up later on as a collector’s item.

Al…

So it turns out I’m an idiot and Stalker, Tomax and Xamot are all out May 2023 not this year. Which makes far more sense than them coming out before the Pulsecon reveals.

Still, a release date over a year away is kind of crazy. And yet Tomax (but not Xamot) has already sold out on Hasbro Pulse.

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lorcan_nagle

Well this is annoying.

I rearranged my shelves the other day and while I was there, decided to remove a few TFs that I’m going to sell on. CHUG Scourge, RTS Cyclonus, TR Galvatron and the movie line Crasher repaint of Classics Mirage (called Fracture). Mostly because I have or am going to get better examples of the characters. The latter because I was never that impressed with the mould but also because my Mirage one basically shattered last time I touched it (while also looking at listing it on eBay) and I wanted shot of it before that potentially happened to this one. It’s already started discolouring like Mirage did.

So I’m looking at Fracture, checking prices etc and I see a note on the TFWiki that there were loads of KOs of it a while back. I start looking into that, to make sure mine isn’t it and in the process of that, look at it more closely than I have in a while and, well, yep, almost certainly a KO. I mean, there’s a flaw in the plastic in one place where there clearly wasn’t enough poured into the mould. I surely couldn’t have missed that before but given I bought it carded (though I can’t remember if it was sealed or not) I wouldn’t have possibly thought it was a KO. There’s also a bit there’s supposed to have ridges that’s smooth, a cutout for a peg that shouldn’t be there and I guess it explains the terrible paint apps on the face. Probably not the fact that the waist keeps separating, I’m chalking that up to the mould just being shit, because I think it happened to Mirage too.

So I’ve still listed it on eBay, but being very clear about it probably being a KO and so putting a conservative price on it. Which is especially annoying because the only ones that have been up for sale recently went for quite a lot (admittedly carded ones). This one TF mould just keeps screwing me over.

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lorcan_nagle

Martin Smith wrote:

So it turns out I’m an idiot and Stalker

So, uh… Who are you stalking?

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Todd, lorcan_nagle, Martin Smith

Anonymous wrote:

Martin Smith wrote:

So it turns out I’m an idiot and Stalker

So, uh… Who are you stalking?

Lonzo Wilkinson.

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Todd, lorcan_nagle

Odds and sods:

After the big lockdown ended, Smyths in Dublin’s shelves had a bunch of stuff that had either been assumed to have sold out, like Omega Supreme and Jetfire, or had been assumed to have missed distribution over here, like Netflix Nemesis Prime. I wasn’t willing to pay full price for Omega or Nemesis, and while the former sold out before a sale or price reduction came along, the latter is still shelfwarming and had had a couple of price drops in short order.

So what did I get for my €70 €60 €50? It’s a very mixed bag… er box. The main figure is a repaint of SGE GE Optimus Prime in the usual Nemesis Prime black, greys and teal. This is still a very nice figure, and hasn’t deteriorated much despite a couple of other uses of the mould between here and then. Also in there is Earthrise Prime’s trailers in similar colours. While STE GE Prime’s gun is enclosed, his axe is not, Instead most of PotP Nemesis Prime’s accessories – a pair of giant guns that resemble G1 Powermaster Prime’s shoulder cannons, a Dark Star Saber, and a minicon that transforms from a vast, predatory bird into another sword.

These weapons are all scaled for a Leader rather than Voyager class toy and are pretty gigantic when mounted on him (I might donate one of the swords to Abonimus to give him a weapon). Plus, the cannons have two 5mm posts side-by-side, making them hard to look good mounted on Nemesis. There’s also a repaint of Slitherfang, the snake/ramp/shield Battle Master from Earthrise, and a couple of energon cubes hidden in a lump of play-doh.

It’s a decent set, but really not worth full price. I’d been planning to sell on my STE GE Prime and had my eye on this to keep the mold in my collection, so I would have liked the axe to remain in the set as it’s a very nice piece of engineering, but other than that minor niggle it’s a decent set. The Megatron/Skellivore set is also €50 now and I’m kinda tempted to get it, but I still have two STE GE Megatrons…

As always, I’ve gotten some exclusives recently too

Covert Agent Ravage is an extensive reworking of Kingdom Cheetor, an exceedingly accurate rendition of the Beast Wars character design. Now, while Ravage was awesome in Beast Wars when he showed up, he was a fairly simple CGI model that mostly postured or shot at people with his pistols. It’s easy to make an action figure out of that, and really stopped at that, but this one does transform into a panther in a method vaguely similar to Cheetor, but he’s different enough to be… different. One touch I really like is that there are two slots in the back that the panther mode forelegs slot into, and they get filled in by the robot mode’s arms during transformation. He comes with a pair of guns based on the CG character design too, and while they’re pretty cool you can’t really fit the WfC weapon effects into them. It feels like that gimmick is starting to fade away when it wouldn’t be a huge amount of effort to keep weapon barrels compatible with them.

Also in this set is a reissue of G1 Ravage, and he’s kinda cool. This one has the tape decals tampoed on both sides of the body – a first for G1 Ravage. This is the first time I’ve owned a G1 tape bot, and also the only G1 toy currently in my collection. I basically played around with him and then put him back in the box, as opposed to going into the tubs of figures I rotate through display, this isn’t a vector for a new money sink, I hope. The final part of the set is a cardboard diorama of the cockpit of Ravage’s Transwarp Cruiser from The Agenda, with a slot that the tape mode can fit into like in the show (again). It’s a novelty, but a fun one.

I got Road Rage because I had no interest in replacing my Reveal the Shield Tracks with the Kingdom version, and I liked her character in the current comics so why not pick her up? Not to mince words, this mold has problems. While she looks good in both modes, the leg transformation has this whole elaborate thing where the outer panel flips around 180 degrees, but it’s very hard to do because the ankles want to clip through the leg, and the rotational joints are very loose, meaning it’s very easy for the figure to fall over. Also it’s really hard to get everything to line up in car mode, and a chunk of the car kibble is painted clear plastic, meaning you’ve got to be incredibly careful or something’s gonna break.

All that said, when everything works, she looks really nice in robot, car and jetcar modes. Her colours are really nice and the weapons look cool, if a bit small. The problem is that because she’s a Target exclusive, while she was offered to specialist shops over here she’s more expensive than normal Deluxes. She’s more recommendable at a standard retail price of €20-22, but when she’s selling at €30? Ehhhhhh. Worth noting that she’s still on the shelves of Forbidden Planet over here while a lot of other exclusives and Generations Selects figures have sold out.

I was quite surprised when Dublin City Comics texted me to say Origin Bumblebee had come in, I’d added him to my want list as a longshot, but there he was – and he made it to Forbidden Planet and Big Bang too, so nice job, European distributors! Anyway, this is a figure that looks quite a bit like Netflix Bumblebee in robot mode – a lot of kibble wrapped around the ankles and a big backpack (though not removable this time), and with an extensive amount of unfolding of panels you get an alt mode that’s based on the one seen in episode 1 of the cartoon.

And also like Netflix Bumblebee, this is a really good figure on its own merits. There’s a feeling of third party bots or more recent masterpieces here with all the panels unfolding and clipping in place, but not as awkward. Accessory-wise there’s a bit of a mixed bag. We get a little gun, nice and suitable for Bumblebee in a way that the gigantic weapon set with the Netflix one isn’t, and then a jetpack like Bumblebee used in an episode of the cartoon (I assumed this was just a reissue of the one with the Centurion Drone, but it’s not!), which is cool, and is compatible with weapon effects like Sky Lynx’s and Omega Supreme’s so you can get a nice jet effect going… But It doesn’t fit too easily on Netflix Bumblebee’s back, and he’s closer to the character design that wore the pack. A minor quibble but it is what it is (and it looks cool on Earthrise Optimus Prime’s back so that’s good.) And then there’s the 5 inanimate carbon rods conductors, as seen scavenged by Bumblebee and Wheeljack in episode 1 of the cartoon. These are kinda cool again, but even though they’re 5mm thick, because of the cotton bud-looking protuberances on either end, the only figures who can hold them in their hands are the ones with poseable fingers like Earthrise Prime (again), SS86 Hot Rod, Kingdom Rodimus or whoever, or have a posed-open hand like a lot of the classics and Thrilling 30s bots.

I had given up pretty much all hope of getting the 10th Anniversary Prime set (well, the one we all wanted, Hades Megatron is cool and all but eh), and then I walked into Forbidden planet and there it was on the shelf one day! And since then I haven’t done much with it. I’m not a huge fan of the foil stickers, thinking I might scan them in and make waterslide decals out of them, and I haven’t built the weapon kits yet. So with that out of the way, I can see why Hasbro declined to release Breakdown as a retail figure. It’s not that he’s bad, but he feels unfinished, and he’s a strange size, and transformation is weird. I need to break him out and play with him a bit more – for whatever reason they day I got this set I opened it, fiddles around with the bots, and put them back in the box which went up on a shelf instead of spending time on my desk like most Transformers purchases do. Even so, I’m very glad to have gotten two of the big gaps in my Prime cast collection filled, I’ve only got to find Shockwave, Darksteel, and maybe Skyquake if I’m feeling saucy now.

I’d a bit more experience with the Air Vehicon, the other part of this set. I’d helped Mark get possibly the last of the silver Air Vehicons in stock at HLJ almost 10 years ago and have played around with his one. And this is one of the prototypes of recent Takara behaviour – taking an existing toy and fiddling with it to make something else. See Galaxy Convoy, Super Megatron, the Seacons… In this case it’s not as extensive – mostly changing the shoulders and thighs to remove the wheels and add the wing assemblies to the shoulders, and then some changes to the silhouette of the jetcar.

I’m gonna say the changes to the car Vehicon toy don’t ruin this one, but they don’t necessarily improve it. The big problem is the wings, which take up a lot of space and make it harder to put them in decent poses. The retools also remove the clip points where you could attach the PRiD Vehicon’s gun. On that note, the Arms Micron that comes with both this and the Japanese version of the regular Vehicon has to be handheld, which isn’t bad but it removes a cool little show-accurate feature.

I largely agree with what Martin said about Terrorsaur upthread. He suffers from being a redeco of Airazor, which is a great toy but not quite Terrorsaur. And much like the Takara extensive redecoes after the fact he works pretty good but not as good as a ground-up figure might. Talking about the good, the new detail on the toy is great, the robot mode head sculpt is phenomenal, a wonderful capturing of the character’s sneering haughty nature, similarly the Pteranodon head if a great balance of the cartoon character model and what we think the actual dinosaur head looks like, similarly the new wings are great. There’s a ton of additional parts for the robot mode to change up the look as well, and as a result Terrorsaur is a little bit taller than Airazor, even if not as tall as he should be if you’re doing exact scale.

The bad? Aside from the inherent limitations of the retool, there’s some QC issues here, concentrated on the wings – there’s a very common problem with the connecting points between the innermost wing parts and the middle sections where they’re put in backwards. Easy to fix, but I had to fix it and I think I put a stress mark on one wing. Also the outermost wing sections fall off very easily. Not a huge problem again but I should get around to putting some glue or clear nail polish in there. And like, I paid a premium for a Deluxe figure, I’d be more accepting of these issues if he was a retail release. Accessory-wise he comes with a gun (another one that’s not compatible with the weapon effects, bah!), a golden disk (which immediately was given to Dinobot to do that pose from Code of Hero), and a pair of little barb things that are meant to do into the forearms where Airazor’s missiles, which are packed in a little paper bag taped to the back of the card inlay in the box, so some people have missed them in the box, like some other Kingdom accessories.

Overall I’ve been quite hard on the figure here but he does look pretty good in robot mode, and like Airazor looks great from various angles (but not all) in beast mode. And once Inferno and Tarantulas (hopefully) come out in Legacy that’s the entirety of the Beast Wars series 1 cast in good, modern figures.

Generations Selects has been kinda quiet for Kingdom, but I did get Transmutate, once again going for the Beast Wars TV cast. They’re a redeco of Paleotrex in a bronzes and pale blues, with a new head/mace piece. The utter wierdness of the Fossilisers totally suits Transmutate, especially Paleotrex’s mould as like I said upthread, this thing looks cursed. Now I need a Silverbolt and a Rampage to fight over them

I got Artfire partially because I got Ricochet when Generations Selects started out and I’m a sucker to complete teams even if they are as obscure as the manga-only Japanese Targetmasters, and partially because I skipped Kingdom Inferno on account of getting the Universe one not too long ago. This is basically the same toy as Earthrise Grapple, but with a ladder instead of the crane, and instead of the claw thing with Grapple, there are fold-out wings on the headpiece and a little hose/gun thing that goes on the side of the headpiece in robot mode and can be mounted on the front of the ladder like a hose would be on some fire engines. There’s a pair of fire hoses that peg into the sides of the legs, but unless you wanted to use the 5mm ports there for weaponiser/fossiliser bits, they may as well have been molded on detail.

The set also comes with a targetmaster, another redeco of STE GE Firedrive, and two pairs of weapon effects – the muzzle flash-looking ones that came with Firedrive and his various redecoes, and the more energy beam looking ones that came with Aimless et al, all in clear blue. So there’s nothing original in this set, just new colours. And oh boy, those colours. I love the white chest/red and black limbs look, it’s really nice. I quite liked the Grapple figure but I think I like this one better, a mix of the slight improvements to the design to forestall damage, the colours, and the accessories just work better.

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Todd, Martin Smith

Today I learned that companies that make scale models of cars also do humans to go with them – drivers (especially F1 drivers), pit crews, mechanics but also car show booth babes, glamour mag models posing on bonnets and random passers-by, including people taking selfies of themselves in front of your flash car.

A random (tame) example:

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Todd, lorcan_nagle

Legacy Blitzwing photos leaked:

Really like that robot mode, the altmodes are both flawed. Hopefully he’ll look better in-hand

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JRCarter, Todd

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lorcan_nagle

Pics have leaked of a box for Shattered Glass Blaster and Rewind- just a redeco of the Kingdom/Legacy figure and Legacy Motormaster. Presumably the toys will be previewed on Tuesday’s livestream

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Todd

Hasbro Screwed The Super Soaker’s Inventor Out Of Millions

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Todd

I care not a solitary jot about Star Wars and I don’t know why there’s loads of characters dressed like Boba Fett now (and to be clear, don’t want to know) but this figure I got for custom fodder is pretty cool.

Supposedly it’s meant to be Katee Sackhoff off BSG but it only really looks like her from a few angles. It’s got a weird gaze and expression too, from most angles. But still, it’s a nice figure.

I felt the same way about a Power Rangers Lightning Collection figure I picked up for similar purposes a few weeks ago. It was from PR In Space, which I have zero nostalgia for (I don’t think I even saw any of it back in the day) but it’s such a cool figure I had to fight the urge to keep it as is and get the full set.

Oh, also, I picked up a GI Joe Classified Alley Viper last week. By “picked up” I mean a pre-order from last year was fulfilled and by “a”, I mean three.

I’ve only opened one though and I’m a bit under whelmed by it. Lots of little finnicky, fiddly issues that stop it being as cool and imposing as I’d hoped it’d be.  Not sure yet if I’m going to open the other two or just stash them to sell down the line.

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Todd, lorcan_nagle

[lorcan_nagle]

Legacy Wildrider

• This reply was modified 2 years, 8 months ago by lorcan_nagle.

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JRCarter, Todd

Legacy Blitzwing diorama photos

Not sure about those Hulk Hands.

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Todd

The Hulk hands are a very weird choice and it feels like they’re mainly there just to justify him being in the size category he is.

Someone on Twitter pointed out the postholes all over Wildrider and that he’s probably going to combine by just plugging onto a limb in car mode, ala the G1 cartoon, which is surely going to look terrible.

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Todd, lorcan_nagle

Martin Smith wrote:

The Hulk hands are a very weird choice and it feels like they’re mainly there just to justify him being in the size category he is.

Someone on Twitter pointed out the postholes all over Wildrider and that he’s probably going to combine by just plugging onto a limb in car mode, ala the G1 cartoon, which is surely going to look terrible.

Yeah, Drag Strip splits in the middle for combining, and given Motormaster is Commander Class my guess is his trailer will unfold into Menasor’s torso and arms, with the truck becoming the chest and the cars latching on, like a bunch of third party Menasors have done.

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Legacy Motormaster revealed!

Looks like the Stunticon arm and legbots work differently – the arms split and the legs flip one end out to form a toe, so this Menasor won’t be a full scramble city-style combiner

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Todd

Yeah. The engineering on the Menasor modes is really impressive. I’m not sure I like the aesthetic it ends up making, but it’s a cool bit of design work.

Really love the look of that new Tarantulas. And Knock-out too, actually. Not a character I know or care much about, but he looks great in the neo-G1 style.

Little on the fence about Jhiaxus. That alt mode is a brick.

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lorcan_nagle

[lorcan_nagle]

The rest of Legacy wave 2:

Knock Out

Tarantulas

Elita-One


You can optionally extend her backpack sides to make shoulder kibble.

Jhiaxus:

A Reissue of STE GE Soundwave without the battle damage

Some Motormaster details

The robot mode is scaled to match Earthrise Optimus Prime
That two-barrel gun in base mode can transform into a rifle for Menasor by folding away some detail parts and unfolding a handle
The transformation from robot to chest mode is apparently intricate and interesting
The leg and arm bots are indeed not cross-compatible, so Wildrider doesn’t split in two. You clip the arm bots into the frame and that pushes in a latch, then you unfold the elbow joint and the car splits. For Wildrider the front of the car folds up 90 degrees and then you lock it into the back of the leg. There’s a hollow middle in the leg that fills in with a pair of panels that are pushed closed as you press in the leg, and the detail on it matches the underside of the car.

A shot of the entire wave:

Also, Shattered Glass Ultra Magnus

And the set includes a normal Ultra/Delta Magnus head

I’m definitely in for Tarantulas, Jhiaxus and Blitzwing. Like Arcee and Bulkhead I’ve no interest in the Knock Out mould as that character but might get a redeco. Elita-One is a maybe, I still like the PotP one. I’m getting more tempted by the Stunticons.

• This reply was modified 2 years, 8 months ago by lorcan_nagle.

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Martin Smith, Todd

I hear that Elita-One is getting redecoed into Minerva so I’ll probably wait for her

Martin Smith wrote:

Supposedly it’s meant to be Katee Sackhoff

It is. She did both the voice in animated and in live action in Mandalorian
https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Bo-Katan_Kryze

Titan Class Cybertron Metroplex.

This is an easy skip for me between having no space for Titans in my house (and if I did, I’d be prioritising the G1 ones), especially as the retail price is a whopping two hundred monies. Still, I hope doing new versions of Unicron Trilogy figures works out for Hasro just to keep the lines a bit more diverse.

lorcan_nagle wrote:

This is an easy skip for me between having no space for Titans in my house (and if I did, I’d be prioritising the G1 ones), especially as the retail price is a whopping two hundred monies

Yeah, same. It’s not a design that I have any nostalgia for and while the giant saw blade staff is cool, not much else of it does anything for me.

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Todd, lorcan_nagle

lorcan_nagle wrote:

Legacy Blitzwing diorama photos

Not sure about those Hulk Hands.

I saw this on Instagram. It looks like the Hulk hands are just accessories.

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Todd wrote:

I saw this on Instagram. It looks like the Hulk hands are just accessories.

Oh yeah, they are. I just don’t like them too much as part of the package. Like Martin said, they’re just there to justify a Leader pricepoint on a figure a little bigger than a Voyager.

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Todd

I’ve had a fantastic time building this Lego set with the kids over the past couple of weeks.

So many fantastic touches – the console itself is great, with a really authentic feel (down to the cartridge loading ker-clunk) but it’s the revolving scrolling mechanism inside the TV that’s the crowning glory of the whole thing. Really brilliantly done.

 

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lorcan_nagle, Todd, Bruce

This is apparently a Generations Selects Cyclonus in toy colours, with Nightstick as a Targetmaster partner

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Todd

And he’s up for pre-order on Hasbro Pulse now

It’s incredible: he’s both beautiful and ugly at the same time. Love those blue sections.

There was a GI Joe stream today and I’ve ended up pre-ordering 5 figures (for February next year – earlier than the last set of pre-orders, oddly): two Crimson Guards, Tiger Force Recondo, Dusty and Zarana. They’ve all turned out really well from the renders they showed a few months ago, especially the face sculpt on Recondo. Zarana even has two hair options (unfortunately neither is gopping pink like the comics. Tiger Force Bazooka looks good too, but I’m holding out for the “proper” version.

They revealed some new figures as well and there’s some interesting choices. A Blue Ninja pack, which is a pair of repaints of the weird Red Ninja they did and Akiko from the Snake Eyes movie wave, with new heads and cool masks. A Tiger Force Duke, which seems to be another attempt to get a more classic palatable Duke out there. He comes with a Tiger Force RAM Cycle though, which is a bit of a hindrance (and I imagine not going to go down well with all the retailers that had to slash the first RAM Cycle down to under half price to shift it). And then a new Sgt Slaughter, which a) looks like it just stepped out of the cartoon and b) is quite funny because there’s some upstart famous-in-their-own-head (and I want to assume “anti-woke” – it’s got that kind of vibe) “doing it right” competitor line at the moment that’s squatting on the Action Force name, by some guy called Vala, which also did a Sgt Slaughter figure recently as a way to steal Joe’s thunder and play for validity with hardcore Joe collectors. And this just completely takes that out at the knees.

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Todd, lorcan_nagle

The next set of Amazon exclusives are called Wreck and Rule and are Wrecker themed, unsurprisingly. Each one comes with a piece hat forms the Wrecker Hammer when joined together.

The first release is an Impactor redeco and Spindle, a new character made from a Paleotrex redeco

I’m not really feeling the Impactor deco and I already have one I’m perfectly happy with. So this is really paying $50 or so for Spindle and I don’t know if I wanna spend that much. Especially as I’ll be paying about €100 the week before it for a Macross figure I’ve pre-ordered.

Apparently, the rest of the collection has been leaked, and it’s gonna be the following:

-Titans Return Top Spin and Twin Twist in Diaclone colours
-Springer
-Bulkhead
-Leadfoot (as a redeco of Mirage) and a mammoth-styled fossiliser, presumably a Ractonite redeco.

I nearly bought a Siege (or Earthrise, I dunno – the one with the Autobot symbol) Impactor on Sunday, when I was at the NEC Toy Fair, but didn’t like the alt mode enough to go for it. This still doesn’t win me over. Especially as I don’t like Fossilisers and I don’t remember a Wreckers hammer particularly. I mean there’s one in that logo they sometimes use, but beyond that….

If the Springer is a nicer deco of the Siege one, I might go for that. Leadfoot would be tempting, but probably not with a fossiliser bulking it up.

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lorcan_nagle

Leadfoot and Master Dominus. I may have just pre-ordered this set to get Leadfoot

Leadfoot looks great but not “£57 because of some random Power Ranger homage skeleton guy” great. I really don’t get the logic behind these pairings. Both the Wreckers and the Fossilisers would probably sell better paired up with their own sub-groups instead of mixed up like this.

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Todd, lorcan_nagle

Hey, Master Dominus might be a Dancouga reference!

Did you see that Impactor’s quietly gone up from £49.99 to £56.99 today as well?