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Transformers

Review – Transformers – G1 – Rodimus Prime

I’m sure I’ve mentioned this before and chances are you already know, but a while back, Hasbro re-released several of the old G1 toys in commemorative packaging with, unfortunately, commemorative pricing. They ran 30 to 40 dollars each and were exclusive to Toys R Us. A few people bought it, but most didn’t. They made it to clearance and the occasionally discount clearinghouse store.

That’s why I picked up Rodimus, sort of. Unlike Perceptor or the Incecticons, I wasn’t interested in him at 40 dollars. But for 8 bucks, I figure, how can one go wrong. Well, it’s possible you can.

Let’s make a positive upswing for a second. I like Rodimus Prime’s vehicle mode. There is something really classy about a supped up RV with flames and huge pipes. Seriously, who came up with this design, it’s brilliant. Vacationing in style.

It’s also huge. He dwarfs the Autobot cars and is pretty large even when compared to modern deluxes. The whole thing is pretty solid and the 6 rubber tires are really cool. This mode is the reason to buy Rodimus.

The robot mode is pretty lame unfortunately. Granted I’m all about Articulation and proportions but I can be flexible. I’ve also recently picked up G1 Smokescreen and he’s got a really slick robot mode. Rodimus is way too tall and his limited articulation (shoulders only) make for a very boring toy. His shoulders also end up set a bit low on his body making the ugliness shine through even more.

The legs all end up under the trailer anyway, so it’s not like they could not have easily remedied the “too tall” thing. Sixty to Seventy percent of the body is legs. I’m not saying Hasbro should have remolded this toy for the re-release, I’m just commenting on the original design here. I guess the point of the toy being tall was to help him stand out as the leader of the Autobots.

When in robot mode, his trailer/camper back becomes a gun emplacement. The height is adjustable so shorter Transformers cam operate it just as easily as Rodimus can. It also includes a pair of attachable shield panels to help protect the user from incoming fire. My only real complaint with the gun base is that 1, you can’t open it while it’s attached to the Rodimus car and the turret doesn’t rotate at the base, just at the top, which is better than nothing. Otherwise it’s pretty slick.

So overall, Rodimus is still a decent toy. The robot mode leaves much to be desired but the Gun Base and vehicle mode are really nice. He’s probably not worth the original steep price, but if you can get him cheap, you might consider it. Still he’s likely to be a bit bland for anyone who is not a G1 enthusiast.

Legacy Shadowstrip

My Transformers purchases these days has slowed to an absolute molasses drip. There is a lot of “cool” stuff being put out, but I often already have “good enough” versions of these characters and the prices are getting a bit too much for my taste. I do still pick some up occasionally. One that’s been nagging at me a bit was the new Menasor in Transformers Legacy. The Stunticons are my favorite combiner team and up there on my favorite Transformers. I really like the Combiner Wars version of the team, though it’s not perfect. The new version is designed to much more closely resemble the jankey way it was animated in the original cartoon. Which means that Motormaster and his trailer just turn into a giant robot, that you can strap some deluxe sized Stunticons to.

I don’t object to this concept, but I also really, do not need another Menasor.

Then they put out this sub-line called “Velocitron” which included this random G2 Recolor of Drag Strip. He even got a new name of Shadowstrip. I can kind of get behind the “justification” for a second Menasor if it’s G2 colored. Especially because the non Combiner Wars aspect would kind of match with the G2 Bruticus I have from the War For Cybertron line (Different design styles for G2 recolors).

Now, there isn’t any guarantee or announcement they will ever complete this set, but a lot of people have also been praising Legacy Drag Strip as a solid Transformer, and the colors are nice, so even if Shadowstrip ends up being alone is his G2ness, I can live with that, he is a pretty neat little figure with some fresh gimmicks on his transformation.

I have some slight beef with his guns being the same, they would have been opposites in the previous world of not cost cutting at every turn, but I can live with it. You could technically stack them with each other infinitely too if you wanted. The split in half part for his combined mode is also hard to do without a tool. Maybe Motormaster has tabs or something that facilitate splitting them apart. Maybe I am missing something, but as it is, I have to use a screw driver or something to push the release tab.

Studio Series – Rampage

The second in the multipart, multiyear release of figure from Hasbro to produce an accurate Revenge of the Fallen Devastator is Studio Series Rampage. The first release was Studio Series Scrapmetal, who was a pretty good all around transformer, and sort of an original character for Studio Series, who didn’t get a release in the original Revenge of the Fallen line. Rampage here is a little different though, he was a leg for the old Devastator that didn’t have individual robot modes and he got a single packed Deluxe release that didn’t come with a limb mode.

Rampage is also notable as one of the few Constructicons with actual screen time in the movie beyond becoming part of the whole. He kidnaps Sam’s parents in Paris (or wherever) because a bulldozer driving through a European city isn’t conspicuous AT ALL. Later he shows up again to pogo around the desert in a death match against Bumbebee, who rips the spine out of Ravage and beats Rampage to death with it.

The Pogo mode is the most interesting aspect of this guy really. He doesn’t have any sort of traditional legs at all, not even optional ones, just a monopod leg and a stand for the toy to keep itself upright. His bod does have a few joints to let it compress and look sort of springy, but his neck and head are kind of limited and he can’t really crouch too much without looking weird.

He also has two huge claw arms, but the articulation is really limited. All of the joints are pretty much fingers or near the shoulder, so the longest part just sticks out all weird and straight looking.

Other problems? Oh yeah. On mine, he head pops off super easy, partially due to the way it ball sockets on to the join sort of in the back. He also had some trad bits that hang off his arms to emulate the character’s whips in the movie, but there isn’t enough joints or length to make them look particularly cool in any poses. Especially with the limited arm articulation.

Rampage does have a lot of nice little details all over his body, he looks cool, he just, doesn’t DO much. He looks like he will make a pretty amazing Devastator leg one day. Fortunately, from what we have seen so far of the other Devastator limbs, he looks like he is going to be the most compromised and weakest design, so it can only really go up from here. As a stand alone toy, Rampage is pretty weak unfortunately.

Studio Series – Scrapmetal

So, for the most part, the Michael Bay Transformers movies are pretty trash. Mostly for the shitty plots, but Revenge of the Fallen is particularly bad. One thing it did have that was pretty cool though was Devastator. In general, I do like the Bayverse/Movieveerse designs, and the take on Devastator was pretty interesting. Though the Revenge of the Fallen toy line was full of some of the most complex Transformers ever produced, the only full on Devastator is produced was Legends scaled. There were individual figures of most of the components that had robots and vehicles, and there was a large combined figure that only had parts that turned into vehicles, no robots.

Hasbro has decided to remedy that with Studio Series, by putting out a new Devastator, across eight figures, that all have robot modes and vehicle modes. There were 6 components to the previous version with vehicles only and Seven in the Legends sized one, which added a vehicle to create the pelvis and back. This new iteration is taking things a bit farther, following the pattern from the Legends sized version, but splitting one of the arms into two separate toys.

Scrapmetal is one of those two arm characters. He’s technically the only “new” character of the set, since Hightower (the crane) has almost made up the arm on the previous toys. This figure more or less forms the hand.

Scapmetal turns into a small excavator. The primary driver in Studio Series is robot mode scale so the excavator is pretty small, but there are some small er versions of this particular vehicle out there. The vehicle is a little small compared to old style Deluxes but looks alright next to other Studio Series. The transformation doesn’t allow the top to rotate independently of the treads unfortunately.

Transformation is pretty straight forward but has a few neat little tricks. There’s some fun asymmetry to the way the arms fold in together to form the top part of the vehicle mode. The legs pretty much just collapse and fold up underneath. He has a little removable shield thing that mostly exists to cover a few gaps in the vehicle mode, which is a little cheaty.

The robot is pretty normal as well, at least for Movie Constructicon standards. The other initial release is Rampage who stands on a single Pogo Leg, but other highlights of the Constructicons include Hightower, who turns into a sort of Velociraptor, and Demolishor who is a pair of arms on giant wheels.

One neat little bit if you want to fancy him up a bit, his legs have the option of working as “normal knees” or can knock back and become Digigrade legs. Probably the main disappointment is that there isn’t really anything fun his crane arm can do in robot mode. You can swing it up between his legs like a huge phallus but that’s not super useful really. He also has a lot of neat little extra detail. The biggest stand out is the treading detail inside his back, that doesn’t serve any purpose in either mode. I imagine in the combined form it will be more visible for some added detailing.

Scrapmetal really has me excited for the test of this team. He looks like he’ll probably be comparably sized to the old Revenge of the Fallen Devastator, but with a lot more detail and more functional articulation. I also kind of like that these are being released over time, since it gives me a chance to spread out what is essentially a $200 purchase over a couple of years.

Studio Series – Bumblebee (VW)

The latest Transformers Movie, Bumblebee, takes things back more to the original roots of Transformers.  It features G1 versions of a lot of the characters and the main character, Bumblebee, takes the form of a Volkswagen Beetle like he had in the original 80s cartoon.  The movie isn’t getting it’s own toyline but is instead being looped in with the Studio Series line.  The first figure from the new films is Bumblebee himself though in many cases, Dropkick from the followup wave is also showing up with him.

The new Bee reminds me a lot of Studio Series Jazz in that he is really tiny in both modes.  This feels a lot more appropriate given it’s Bumblebee, who was one of the smallest Autobots in the original G1 series.  It does make the $20 price point for deluxe Transformers a little hard to swallow but he has a few little parts that help make it feel more worthwhile.  The robot is pretty nice, though he has a huge backpack that feels like it should collapse on itself a bit more, but doesn’t really seem to without pushing the plastic beyond what feels comfortable.  The legs also are a little funny in that they feel like they should peg together better but don’t seem to. 

The design itself is very reminiscent of the old Camero Bumblebee design from the last few Michael Bay Transformers movies.  The way the layered chest lays and the panels fall on his legs and the door wings sit on his back, these elements are all very Movie Bumblebee.  The Door wings aren’t very accurate to the film though, where the doors seem to do some mass shifting and point downward instead of becoming wings. 

I mentioned he comes with some extras to help offset his cost.  Specifically, he has an alternative face plate for his “Battle Mask” look and a swap-able arm piece for his arm cannon.  There’s also a blade weapon which can attach to the side of any of the three forearm pieces.  These sort of swap out parts aren’t a real common things for Transformers.  Having them, it’s kind of clear why.  The canon arm falls off a lot more easily than the standard hand arm and the Mask face falls off if you look at it funny.  These are definitely parts which will become lost over time by some.

The transformation is pretty straightforward in it’s execution, though fairly complex.  Its a pain to get everything to massage together properly, partially I think because it’s such a small figure.  The legs and back piece are particularly problematic and I can’t see anything obviously out of place like the hidden peg on the underside of Jazz’s roof that just made everything sit right in place once engaged.

The VW Beetle looks alright aside from things not quite sitting together properly.  The vehicle does feel a little funny because the G1 Bumblebee, was very much a stylized chibified VW.  This Bee feels too long, though I’m sure he’s not for a real Beetle.

Cutting to the chase here, I think that Studio Series Bumblebee is alright, but I kind of wonder what the wider audience is for him.  He’s too complex and finicky for kids, and there are plenty of simpler options out there.  He doesn’t really mesh well for collectors.  I don’t have it but I suspect the pricier Masterpiece Movie Bee does everything slightly better and he probably looks better.  I suppose if you’re in the middle like me and don’t really need a super classy Bee but don’t want something overly simplified this version does the job, but if you want a perfect VW Movie Bee, you’re probably better off looking elsewhere.