Transformers

Transformers – Studio Series – Black Out

As sort of a last hurrah for the Michal Bay Transformers series, which is effectively done, Hasbro has been doing a sort of “greatest hits” line themed around the movies called Studio Series. It’s not a bunch of re-releases though, it’s new molds of most of the figures, with an emphasis on Robot Mode Scale. It’s also a way for Hasbro to give us better versions of a lot of characters who aren’t named Bumblebee or Optimus Prime. Often in the case of movie toys, for the sake of spoilers, toy companies end up working from pre production art and general descriptions or stills. They need to have the toys out when the movie releases, so they are working on the toys before the final movie vision is in place. So in the end, things don’t always end up being a perfect representation. Studio Series goes back to fix some of these issues.

The original Black Out toy from the first movie way back in 2007, isn’t really a bad toy, or a bad iteration of the character. His main offense is that he’s kind of too small. Black Out is one of the largest characters across all of the movies, and his Voyager toy isn’t awful, but it doesn’t really give off the proper huge vibes he deserves. For Studio Series, Blackout gets a Leader sized toy. The only other Leader Class figure so far is Grimlock from Age of Extinction.

He is definitely a nice size for Studio series at this scale, though he is actually quite a bit smaller than Leader figures from the Generations lines (Currently Power of the Primes) and even previous movie figures. Leader Class Blackout is noticeably smaller than Leader Class Starscream from the previous movie lines, for example. If you’re a real stickler for scale, Blackout is still going to be too small to go with a lot of the previous movie Transformers.

Blackout is still a pretty nice looking Transformer though. He is full of the little greebley bits that really made the live action style what it was during the Bay era. There are a surprising amount of little tab places on the fold over parts as well, particularly in his arms and shoulders. The whole robot doesn’t really look solid, but it is. I have had a little bit of trouble with one leg popping off the mushroom peg joint when turning it, it goes back on, but it’s kind of an issue. All of the little bits hanging off everywhere also tend to hinder articulation a lot. He has plenty of joints, but he can’t really use all of them. He also is pretty back heavy due to his backpack, which doesn’t help when trying to balance any poses. Probably the last major gripe about his little claw hands, which have no way or rotating them to do anything besides look like little flippers hanging off his arms. He has thumbs and everything, but the greebles and lack of wrists just makes them useless.

One final note of worry on the robot mode, the flat part of the feet are made up of two panels that later make up the sides of the helicopter tail. I seriously worry that these panels will end up scraped up and nasty looking after being used as feet, over time.

Transformation leans back into the complexity of the early movie lines as well, which will be a turn off for some people, and probably most kids. There is a lot of “do this in this order” and “position this just right” going on with panels and whatnot that need to properly mush together. It’s not a real hard transformation, it just can be tricky in getting everything massaged into place. Also, I found the joint holding the pelvis and back together on mine to be extremely tight. I knew it needed to separate and flip up, but it required enough force to free it that it made me uncomfortable pulling on it and I was worried it might break.

The helicopter itself is very nice, it’s appropriately large as well, almost 12 inches long. Like his 2007 version, Blackout includes a small Scorponok figure and like the 2007 figure, the Scorponok can be inserted into the tail area of Blackout’s vehicle. There isn’t really much else to the helicopter, there isn’t any spring loaded helicopter gimmick or missile launchers, it’s just a nice looking military chopper.

Ultimately, I feel like Blackout is a pretty cool sort of display piece, maybe not a super great toy. He looks really good in both modes, but the joint issues and complex transformation make his playability kind of weak. Also, the price tag of Leader class figures at $50 USD frankly. This is more of a personal complaint with the latest trends of Transformers pricing though.

Review – Transformers – Titans Return – Topspin and Twintwist

Oct 12th, 2017

by Ramen Junkie.

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Where Combiner Wars did it’s duty by giving us remakes of all of the original Combiner Transformers, it also used that opportunity to repaint all of those molds into different versions of the original G1 Autobots. Titans Return has been moving into a lot more interesting territory. There’s a lot more updates of Targetmasters, Movie bots and in this case, Jumpstarters. Topspin and Twintwist were a pair of very similar G1 bots that had one specific gimmick. Pull them back, and a motor would speed the vehicle along and eventually it would pop up and land on it’s robot feet. The entire transformation was literally “fold in half at the waist”.

Topspin got sort of an update with the movie line, he appeared in Dark of the Moon as one of the Wreckers, as a blue Lowes NASCAR. His toy even got a gray colored repaint that kind of worked as his buddy Twintwist. This iteration had pretty much nothing in common with his namesake aside from a vaguely Blue and White color theme. The original jumpstarters are more of a turquoise than a blue.

Titans Return has given us a proper update to this pair. Topspin came first but Twintwist is a straight remold of the Topspin mold. The new mold isn’t an exact replica of the original space ship/tank thingy, but it’s close enough, and the originals were kind of misshapen anyway to help accommodate the auto transform gimmick. The transformation is also an actual transformation now, and naturally a lot more complicated. It’s still reminiscent of the original. The bulky back end becomes the legs with the sides becoming the arms and the end result looks pretty close to the original robot with better proportions as well.

Like a lot of Transformers lines, the later figures tend to be get better all around, and Topspin is no exception. He’s definitely one of if not the best mold in the line. The closest rival is Triggerhappy. A lot is helped by the way his transformation does a good job of hiding a lot of the hollow bits that have been prevalent lately. He also does a lot of interesting twists and flips that help him feel like he actually has a complex transformation. Something else lacking in a lot of figures lately. Particularly of note is his arms, which do this neat open up and collapse in on the shoulder and hand, often it’s a trick done on one end or the other, not both.

Both vehicles do a great job of lending itself to the Titan Master gimmick. The space ship design is perfect for a cockpit for the small robot to sit in and pilot. The little drill tank of Twintwist is a great vehicle for these little guys as well. Neither was originally a Headmaster but the gimmick fits well.

Topspin and Twintwist are definitely a top notch toys for the Titans Return line. Twintwist is slightly weaker than his mold originator Topspin. The guns don’t work as well in the tank mold and the tank dreads kind of just hang off and look ugly in robot mode vs Topspin’s wings. There’s been a lot of hits in this line but this mold one of the best. It’s a solid update of a unique and interesting G1 design with a modern appeal layered on top.

Review – Transformers – RiD – Scorponok

Sep 28th, 2017

by Ramen Junkie.

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Possibly the last of these fun little animal Decepticons we’re going to see is Scorponok. There’s also a Toys R Us purple colored repaint of this figure called Paralon, who actually really resembles Beast Wars Scoponok, but this review primarily covers the normal brown colored mass released version. Scorponok’s animal motif is, a scorpion.

In fact, he simply IS a scorpion in his alt mode. While the other Decepticons all turn into vehicles with animal like themes in robot and beast mode, Scorponok just turns into robot and a scorpion. Straight out Beast Wars style. He has a really unique style going for him as well, and a very unique Transformation. The scorpion mode gives him some really obvious choices for hands, but Scorponok eschews that with a clever trick.

His scorpion claws slide up his arms to become a pair of huge shoulder pauldrons. No parts forming here, but they are essentially lose pieces at one point. The effect is neat for sure, but the connections tend to be a little lose on the shoulder joint. Given their large size they catch anything passing by and easily leverage out of their joint to become crooked or loose. The end result also means his claws have no real joints in Scorpion mode, which is kind of a lame trade off since Scorpion claws are one of the more versatile and fun joints in scorpion toys. Who doesn’t live a big set of vicious working pincers?

He also has a ton of fun character in his face and overall design. His little face with it’s little robot mustache makes him look pretty interesting. He also has a set of spindly legs that work well despite their small size and his upper body girth. He also completed his sandy sort of Persian motif with a scimitar weapon. The sword can be held in robot and scorpion mode as a giant stinger.

Overall, Scorponok isn’t the coolest Decepticon in the line, but he’s still a fun little toy. He does feel a little small overall, which is probably his biggest downside. The Paralon repaint kind of fits the name Scorponok a bit better, if you are looking at getting only one, but I find the brown color scheme works better for the figure overall.

Review – Transformers – Combiner Wars – Computron (Technobot Giftset)

Sep 14th, 2017

by Ramen Junkie.

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Combiner Wars was definitely an interesting take on the line. The need for every figure to be a robot and a vehicle and an arm or a leg really made for some pretty similar designs across the board. All of the most well known combiners, Superion, Menasor, Bruticus, Defensor, ended up with a release in the main line. Devastator got a massive Titan Class boxed set release as well. One vehicle combiner missing from the mainline was Computron. Instead of individual releases, Computron came available at the tail end of the line as a boxed set only, though he consists of repaints of previously released figures.

The boxed set for Computron consists of 7 figures, 5 forming the core combiner and one Legends class partner, like all of the other releases, who happens to also include another even smaller partner toy of it’s own. Unlike the other 4 known combiners, Computron is a straight update of his normal 5 members, no stand ins like Rook of Alpha Bravo. It’s also worth noting that there was also a Japanese boxed set released around the same time that costs around the same price. There are a lot of different design choices in which molds are used and both sets contain unique new remold versions of Strafe. I do not own the Japanese version but there are pluses and minuses to each design choice and a lot of what it comes down to is a preference of G1 cartoon vs G1 toy aesthetics.

Lightspeed

I want to start with Lightspeed since he’s probably the most boring of all of the figures in this set. Not really so much because of his design, but because he’s a repaint of the Streetwise/Prowl mold which is itself a remold of the Breakdown/Wildrider mold. Basically, this mold has been used a ton throughout this entire line and so it’s starting to feel a little tired. On the plus side, it’s one of the better molds in the line. He has a nice range of pose ability, his transformation is a little more interesting all around and it works well as both an arm and a leg.

The overall shape fits pretty well as an update to G1 Lightspeed as well. The original toy was a bit more orange in color however. This color works pretty well though and homages closer to the cartoon color pallet.

Nosecone

Next up we have Nosecone. Probably the weakest figure in the entire set, primarily due to the choice in base mold. The original Nosecone was a drill tank thing. Rather than take the Takara route of extensively remolding Rook, Hasbro’s Nosecone is simply a repaint of Brawl from the Combaticon set with a new drill bit turret.

A lot of Nosecones flaws are simply due to using the Brawl mold, which is the weakest in the line. He is so close to being pretty good though, at least in robot mode. The waist joint however is very poorly designed, things accordion together to connect the legs to the torso, but the accordion action isn’t quite a solid as it wants to be or should be. He does have a pretty nice paint job in robot mode as well which helps. The paint apps are more designed to homage the original toy than the original cartoon.

Where things fall apart is the vehicle. The intended design is to position the turret out what is the back of the original tank. The problem is this means the bottom of the feel are really obviously exposed in all of their hollow glory. You’re better off just positioning the drill facing forward the way Brawn’s turret sits and calling it a day. It’s mildly less accurate but looks a heck of a lot better.

Strafe

Strafe is kind of the polar opposite of Nosecone and Lightspeed. Where both of those were straight repaints, Strafe is an extensive remold of the Air Raid mold. Where Air Raid turns into an F-14 fighter jet, Strafe has an entirely new front half and a completely different wing assembly on the legs. The only real noticeable bits that are the same are the robot parts and the rear tail fins. As such he shares the same basic transformation that all of the Aerialbots used with the clam-shell leg mechanism and the arms folded to the sides and the nosecone backpack. All of the Aerialbots are solid figures however, which translates into a nice plus for Strafe.

Unlike his Aerialbot counterparts, Strafe’s “funky space ship” alt mode allows him to wear his bulky undercarriage much more well. He isn’t trying to be a sleek jet, so the body bulk and complete lack of aerodynamics become much more excusable.

Afterburner

Afterburner is the pseudo new mold of this set. The motorcycle mold in Combiner Wars showed up originally in Takara’s Defensor set for Groove. There has been rumor and speculation that the US release received Rook in place of Groove because of safety issues involving the clear plastic canopy, due to scale issues of the motorcycle, and possibly just because the mold is a little large for a standard deluxe and this didn’t fit price wise. Eventually Groove did get a limited release in the states through several online retailers. Afterburner however is the most reliable way to get the mold in the US, though Afterburner is also a remold and not just a straight repaint of Groove.

I can see why he might have failed standard safety tests, that window backpack just sort of hangs off of the top of the figure and clear plastic tends to be more brittle than the standard plastic used in most figures. On the other hand, here we are, with a regular mass release version of the mold. The speculation that he’s too large is feasible as well, he is definitely taller and bulkier than most of the Combiner Wars deluxes. The scale issue, at least in Afterburner’s case, kind of falls away however. Groove is a police motorcycle, thus would be much smaller than his fellow Protectobots. Afterburner is a space motorcycle. Who says he isn’t a giant space motorcycle. Especially when all of his friends are giant robots.

Scattorshot

Scattorshot is a repaint of the much more muted color pallet, mass released, Scattorshot who is a remold of the Aerialbot torso, Silverbolt. The mass release version of the figure was very bland and mostly red, and formed the torso for “Beta-tron”. I’m not sure why he ended up with two releases, my only real assumption is they weren’t sure Computron would actually get a release. The boxed set version has a lot more white spots of color and different shades of red, which really helps make the mold look a lot less… beta, in design.

This mold is one of the better torsos in the line, but the individual robot is a little funky looking with it’s huge boots. It does work for Scattorshot though, the original toy also had some kind of funky proportions going on with his body. The funky space wings really help to make him seem different than Silverbolt as well, which is nice.

The vehicle gets a new node piece in the form of a giant cannon, in addition to the previously mentioned space wings. There are enough little greebly bits added to the vehicle to help him stand out even more from Silverbolt. The torso, doesn’t fare quite as well however, as it very much resembles Superion’s torso.

Scrounge and Cybaxx (Boltax)

Because there were little “helper” transformers in the Legends scale for each of the other combiners, Computron also includes a repaint of Generations Cosmos and Payload in the form of Scrounge and Boltax. Both are relatively obscure G1 comic characters, both of which were originally yellow gold colored. The original Scrounge seems to turn into some sort of wheel thing, so Cosmos’ flying saucer works pretty well there. Boltax doesn’t really have an original alt mode, his association here is more on the “smart guy” side of the Technobots theme. He was sort of an omniscient librarian in his original form.

The new head on the Cosmos mold is a nice little touch, it would have been really simple and easy to just make him a repaint. Given that this is an older mold from an older line, the interactivity with the larger Computron is pretty weak. Where Menasor and Defensor got new chest pieces and Superion and Bruticus got guns, Scrounge sort of becomes a shield that loose bolts onto existing pegs and Boltax turns into an undersized targetmaster style gun (just like Payload). Well, undersized for Computron, less so for any of the individual robots.

Computron

So, being apart of Combiner Wars, and the combiner Computron, these figures all merge together to form one giant robot. He’s actually got quite a bit going for him in his combined form, compared to the other combiners in the line. Despite some of the individual flaws, all of these figures are good limbs. Couple this with the Silverbolt/Scattorshot torso and you end up with a pretty solid combined robot.

What also helps make this set is that he also includes a new set of hand/foot pieces. The individual releases all came with various hand/foot bits that could be either a hand or a foot. They were also a bit undersized for the combined robots, especially for the feet. Computron here has two dedicated feet that are much larger than the previous hand/foot gun pieces, and two nicely sculpted left and right fists. The Hand/Foot Guns all were also designed to work as a left or right hand. These pieces really help him look more beefy and properly proportioned in his combined form.

His color scheme is a little hodge podgey, though the tones are all sort of in the same general pallet and there is a lot of colors across the limbs that helps everything feel a bit more blended. He also benefits from the boxed set benefit of budget, because he has a bit more paint apps across the board, which helps make him look really nice.

Overall, Computron is a really great complete package of a combiner. He’s probably my favorite of the 5 combiner sets that I own (Superion, Bruticus, Defensor, Menasor, and Computron). The techno spacey Cybertronian theme of all of the vehicles helps these guys stand out in a sea of Earth modes and help hide some of the bulky-ness flaws of the Combiner Wars line. You also get an entire set instead of having to hunt down individual robots, which makes things a lot easier.

Review – Transformers – RiD – Bisk

Sep 7th, 2017

by Ramen Junkie.

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I have yet to actually watch any of the Transformers Robots in Disguise show, but very early on one of the designs showed off was for a character named Bisk. Everyone hoped Bisk would get a toy but early indicators where we had one Decepticon for a dozen Autobots, it didn’t seem likely. Thankfully things changed and we ended up with our crazy Lobster Man Transformer. He’s even gotten a repaint named Thermidor.

Bisk, has the pleasure of having a Lobster for his animal theme. He definitely takes this theme above and beyond with his lobster head and giant Lobster Claw hands. Even his vehicle mode kibble hanging off of his back works since it sort of looks like a lobster shell. I can fully understand how this zany looking robot would not work for some people, he certainly stands out with other Transformers, especially non RiD Decepticons, but he certainly has a ton of character from this look.

This character even goes a bit deeper than expected with his Vehicle Mode. Transformers Robots In Disguise is a sort of sequel to the previous series, Transformers Prime. It shares a general design ascetic and the plot is a sort of follow up to the previous series, though the tone of these two shows is quite different. Bisk’s vehicle very much resembles the Vehicon Drones that were ever present in Transformers Prime. He’s not an exact match but the overall shape is there. His guns even mount on the front headlights the way the old Vehicon guns do.

His guns also work in robot mode via the same pegs, mounting on top of his lobster claws. The claws are particularly interesting, the arm joints aren’t quite traditional joints for up and down and rotation, but there are essentially two different elbow joins next to each other, which allows for his claws to work both in a vertical and horizontal orientation. It really helps add to the range of poses he can make using his big ol’ claws.

Overall, though the aesthetic won’t work for everyone, Bisk is a pretty fantastic addition to the Robots in Disguise line up. He looks nice in both modes, the Transformation is pretty straight forward and he just oozes character. He’s nicely poseable too, which is always a good feature.