Transformers

Review – Transformers – RiD – Thunderhoof

Thunderhoof has the distinct pleasure of possibly having the first Tractor alt mode in Transformers. There may have been one previously, probably some sort of Minicon if there was one, but I am pretty sure there hasn’t been a Farm Tractor in Transformers history. Plenty of construction vehicles, not so much farm machines.

Thunderhoof’s spirit animal as it may be, is a deer. As such he ends up with some pretty huge majestic antlers on his head in Robot mode. He also, appropriately, has hooved feet. His robot mode is pretty imposing and has a nice design but it’s not without it’s problems. The backside is very bare bones and his legs are very hollow. This makes him pretty ungly when views from rear angles.

The biggest offender is in his legs. As part of the Transformation, his shins have a joint in the middle to allow the lower half to fold up. This joint basically ends up flexing constantly because there isn’t really any way to lock it in place. It almost functions as a second knee joint, in an annoying way.

Part of the reason for all of this hollowness and funky extra joints is the amount of compression that goes on during transformation. Thunderhoof kind of reminds me of the old Lockdown toys in how much larger his robot seems than his vehicle. Thunderhoof is easily one of, if not the tallest Deluxe figure in the Robots in Disguise line, yet his vehicle may be the smallest of the line. Everything neatly and compactly folds up on itself. The vehicle is neat and pretty menacing with it’s giant spiked bit on the front. The spike bit is simply his head hanging off the front, but it’s not super noticeable as his head except from the bottom.

Thunderhoof is a bit of a mixed bag. He’s got a neat design, but he has a lot of little issues that make him pretty finicky as a toy. He’s definitely a good example of why it kind of stinks that there are no Voyager level toys in the Robots in Disguise line. He could have definitely benefited from a larger size and price point allowing for a bit more stability and a larger alternate mode.

Review – Transformers – RiD – Fracture

Aug 3rd, 2017

by Ramen Junkie.

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Fracture is the real turning point for the Decepticons of the Robots in Disguise line. There was a slow build up before hand with Megatron but Fracture was the point where the line really got good.

Fracture’s animal theme, though less obvious than Quillfire and Steeljaw, is a rooster. This mostly presents with his little mohawk deal on his head, though his shoulders also have a sort of random almost feathery look to them. Articulation is really nice on this figure, and he doesn’t have a lot of really bad hollow bits which tend to plague a lot of modern Transformers.

The real shinning bit is his nifty rifle. He has a variety of pegs and handles that allow it to be handles and held in a lot of fun poses. It’s not quite a sniper rifle, though given it’s long barrel and design it’s easy to see that it could be wielded in such a manner. It can also be used a sort of cudgel using the center post. It’s very versatile and add a lot to the play ability of the figure.

Fracture transforms into a decent looking Chopper style Motorcycle. He’s large enough for other Transformers to ride on, however the width of the bike’s body makes it hard to get most figures to properly straddle the seat. It still is a very cool looking alt mode and the Transformation is interesting despite it’s simplicity. The front wheel and topmost center mass do some fun flippy tricks to compact down and form the robot’s torso and backpack. The large rifle also folds in half and attaches as a large exhaust pipe.

Bottom line is that Fracture is a really fun Decepticon for the Robots in Disguise toy line. The robot is neat and pretty dynamic and the vehicle is pretty cool looking and unique. I have no real complaints on this guy.

Transformers – Review – Titans Return – Broadside

Jul 27th, 2017

by Ramen Junkie.

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Broadside is a character that people have been anticipating an update of for a while now, mostly because he was part of the popular Wreckers team int he comics. He’s one of the few members who hasn’t gotten a new toy in ages, though it’s somewhat understandable why he hasn’t. Broadside has two alt modes, one is a jet, one is an aircraft carrier. Working aircraft Carriers in with any level of scale is effectively impossible being possibly the largest vehicles on the planet.

There is a vague attempt to make scale work with Broadside. He includes a set of small aircraft sculpted to resemble the recently released Combiner Wars Aerialbots toys, that can be stuck on the carrier deck using little pegs. This does have the odd effect int hat it means his Headmaster in “reality” would be larger than Superion, but it’s still a neat effort. I plan to paint up my Aerialbots at some point since they are all white plastic.

Talking about small Aerialbots seems like a funny place to start out discussing a figure, they are just accessories after all. The thing is, I prefer to discuss the good points before the bad points, and the mini Aerialbots are the only real good point with poor Broadside. It’s fairly rare that I just flat out don’t like a toy, I try to find some redeeming qualities when possible, but I really just don’t like Broadside, he’s just a big ball of weird design choices and flaws.

So, continuing with the carrier mode. The flat deck essentially consists of a bunch of flippy panels that all sort of but don’t quite mesh together well, which kind of huts the aesthetics of the carrier. It’s also covered in a lot of ill fitting stickers. The stickers aren’t the problem on their own, it’s how poorly they fit and how the sticker detail doesn’t even attempt to match the sculpted detailing on the surfaces they attach to. Then there are the little landing gears on the carrier, which are mostly just used to allow it to sit on a flat surface, except the way they fold up is goofy and they are prone to folding up by mistake when trying to display the carrier. Lastly the goofy wings on the front end of the carrier. These wings sort of exist for the Jet mode, except they look goofy over there, as well in Robot mode. They just are all around poorly executed and get int he way in all three modes than they do help the look.

Moving on to the Jet mode. I will just say, an attempt was made, and leave it there.

On the robot, hid design is almost there, he’s nice and beefy and chunky, except his also just sort of gets int he way of himself. Those previously mentioned Wings just sort of hang off of his shins and get in the way. The carrier panels hanging off of his shoulders get in the way of the arms and shoulders. He’s also back heavy so posing him can be a little difficult as well.

I think my biggest issue with Broadside is mostly just how close he is in almost every area he misses. It just makes him frustrating to interact with in every way because everything about him mostly almost works but not quite. To add insult to injury, he seems to have been shipped alone to a lot of stores, which means he will likely clog up shelves for a while blocking other Voyagers from getting a more widespread release.

Review – Transformers – Titans Return – Perceptor

Jul 20th, 2017

by Ramen Junkie.

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Due to it’s hodge podge origins in various Japanese toy lines, primarily Diaclone and Microman, the Transformers picked up a few less practical alt modes in it’s early days. The most well known is Soundwave’s cassette player. Perceptor is one of those characters with a less conventional (ie not a car or a plane) modes with his Microscope mode. The previous Generations remake of Perceptor changed things a bit giving him a Snow truck alternate mode instead of his traditional Microscope. Titans Return has been all about keeping with the designs of the original toys as much as possible, with updated modern engineering, so Perceptor is once again, a Microscope.

You could argue that he’s actually a sort of medical bay for the Titan Masters however, since the stage of the microscope is designed for a Titan Master to lay in to be examined by the scope. The scope itself is functional as a microscope, though it’s extremely low power and kind of hard to look through due to it’s small size. If you put say, a finger in front of it, you will get an enlarged image of your fingerprint however, which is a nice touch.

The overall design is very reminiscent to the original Perceptor toy from the 80s, though he’s quite a bit smaller, the original figure was somewhere between modern Deluxe and Voyager sizes. His transformation is where a lot of the flaws come through. It’s simple enough, but the sliding mechanism for the microscope feels extremely stiff and prone to breaking. I have not broken one, it just very much feels like a part that could easily BE broken if care isn’t given. There are alsoa lot of unused extra bits on his body for the undocumented Tank Mode

The original Perceptor had an attack mode which amounted to folding him into a square and using the scope as a tank canon. There are definitely vestigial bits for something similar to be done on the Titans Return toy, but the instructions do not show anything about how to properly transform him into a tank. There are extra flip out treads, extra flipping parts on his chest, extra tabs on his legs and shoulders. It’s even a great way to better incorporate the little Titan Master drivers into the mode. It’s just not documented, which is kind of tragic.

Aside from the missing Tank Mode, I really enjoy this figure. I’ve always been partial to Perceptor because of his goofy Microscope mode, though I can see how this may be seen as boring by some people. The microscope actually having some very basic functionality just makes this guy even more interesting and good in my book.

Review – Transformers – RiD – Quillfire

Jul 13th, 2017

by Ramen Junkie.

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Broken Record time again, I just love the unique style and designs of the Robots in Disguise Decepticon line up. Quillfire is no exception, with his porcupine themed robot mode. He also has a very unique squat shape to his design, which just helps give him more character.

Quillfire, unlike Steeljaw, has the benefit of being a late line figure. That is, he came out in wave 3 or 4, and the designers of the figures have had a chance to work out the new kinks that pop up every new Transformers line. The neatest part of his design is probably in his head, which Which despite having a hunched look, has an extra joint added that allows for side to side movement. Given that a lot of recent Transformers have kind of felt like they were cheapening out in places, the neck joint here really feels like a bonus. It’s something that could easily have been removed.

He also has a functioning jaw on his large head, which helps add to the ascetics in a good way. Additionally, despite his stocky design, the pose ability is pretty good. He does unfortunately have a pretty large ugly backpack just sort of hanging off of him, which is kind of meh and though the neck is cool, it is limited compared to your more traditional robot designs.

He is also incredibly brown, which admittedly makes him kind of bland to look at. He has a repaint named Scatterspike which has a very similar color scheme, which doesn’t help matters on his color scheme. Like most of RiD, the Transformation is pretty straight forward without too many steps or flippy panels. He includes two weapons, a hand held gun and a quill knife, both are able to be stored in Vehicle mode.

Despite his boring brown appearance, Quillfire, is a neat and fun little toy. His repaint Scatterspike probably has a slightly more interesting color scheme since it’s a dark shade of Red, if you are only interested in getting the mold once. Then again, the browns are a bit more military looking if that’s your thing. He’s a decent toy, just not much to look at.