Transformers

Review – Transformers – Titans Return – Hardhead

Of all the Headmasters, Hardhead is one that’s really been hurting for an update for a good while. There was a repaint of the old SWAT truck Onslaught that looks nothing like Hardhead. Not much else other than the original toy. Part of the travesty of his lack of an update is that Hardhead was a major player during the early runs of IDW’s Transformers comics, back during the time they were on Earth. He was one of the core handful of Autobots on earth, though he wasn’t a headmaster in that storyline. That was back before Hasbro constantly made direct nods, or any reference really, to the IDW books. These days the two run together pretty heavily both in general plot and design queues.

We almost got an updated Hardhead a few years ago as a remold of Generations Warpath. Occasionally leaks or mistakes are made, around the time of Generations Warpath, there were instructions being leaked, with alternative heads, one was Warpath as Hardhead. It would have been a pretty good use of the mold too, they have similar vehicle modes and transformations, the turret chest doesn’t quite match but it would have been forgivable.

All that’s moot now though, we have a real update to a pretty popular character. It’s one of the better Titans Returns figures for sure as well. The design is right out of the comic and essentially is an update to the original with modern engineering. Plus he’s a headmaster again.

Part of what makes this figure one of the best is the overall solid playability of both modes. A lot of this comes from the large cannon. It moves up and down, springs up to rotate, in robot mode, it can convert to be a shoulder canon, it’s removable, it opens up and converts into a seat for a Titan Master. It’s even removable to be held or attached in other ways. This seems a bit mundane on paper but it really makes both modes a lot more interesting since it can be adjusted for a lot of variety in poses.

It helps that the robot mode is also really solid despite the simple transformation. He’s well articulated without any major hindering factors. He doesn’t seem to be plagued by any of the looseness issues on joints or the head attachment that other figures in this line seem to have.

It feels a bit like cheating talking about a toy that has no major issues, but sometimes it happens, and Titans Return Hardhead is one of those times. He’s just a good solid figure all around.

Review – Transformers – Titans Return – Skullcruncher (Skullsmasher)

Jan 5th, 2017

by Ramen Junkie.

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For the titans Returns line, Hasbro has opted to revisit the Headmasters gimmick of G1. There are some other nods to the Target Masters and Power Masters, but the actual gimmick is heads that come off and turn into smaller robots that interact with the larger vehicles. In the original run of Headmasters, there were 7 original toys, Skullcruncher, Mindwipe, Weirdwolf, Chromedome, Hardhead, Highbrow and Brainstorm. Thankfully, for the updated designs, they dove right in nd gave us all 7, across the first two haves (one figure being a store exclusive). There are also some other characters who were not originally Headmasters thrown in for filler.

Today I’m going to start off on these original 7 with Skullcruncher. All three of the original Decepticon Headmasters were animals, Skullcruncher being a robotic Crocodile. I wanted to start with Skullcruncher because while he has some neat tricks and a fun design, he’s got a lot of flaws that really make him one of the weaker toys in the line.

I’m going to start with the good points. The crocodile mode is really nicely sized. Granted a chunk of the length is the tail bit which parts forms into a gun, but fully stretched out he is easily 10″ long. There isn’t a ton of leg articulation, though that’s kind of to be expected for a crocodile, his tail and head and flex side to side a bit giving him some expressiveness in beast mode. The mouth of the croc opens up as well.

The Transformation is pretty basic but the neck and shoulders form up in a neat way to form the front croc legs, which earns Skullcruncher a few points for being interesting. Basically the shoulders flip up and land at an angle while the croc head folds over and pegs it all into place.

Unfortunately, he kind of falls apart a bit in robot mode. The basic robot is all right and he has one of the more interesting looking faces on his Titan Master, but his hips are extremely loose. Like, he’s going to just do the splits and fall over loose. I have heard of numerous reports of this issue across the board on this figure so I can’t say my toy is a 1 off problem. The hips have also gotten much looser over time, I can barely keep him standing now where originally it was loose but doable.

Each of these figures has a cockpit for the Titan Master in their vehicle/beast mode as well. Skullcruncher loses out again, for some reason his cockpit uses a flimsy rubbery flap for it’s cover, something none of the other figures (so far) do. The others all have hard plastic. The soft plastic is tricky to get open and is easily, accidentally pushed down into the cavity. I’m not entirely sure why they went with this weird other plastic for the cockpit cover, the location and set up doesn’t have any need for it.

On one last side note, he has a pretty neat Crocodile man mode than can be made halfway through transformation.

All in all, Titans Return Skullcruncher is a nice looking update to an old figure, but it’s a severely flawed toy in a lot of ways that feel like they would have been easily fixable with a bit more design work by Hasbro.

Review – Transformers – Movie – Jazz

Jun 7th, 2007

by Ramen Junkie.

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There have been a lot of rehashed Transformers characters since G1. Prime, Megatron, Starscream, Ironhide, Mirage, Prowl, they all top a list of popular G1 characters that have seen their share of remakes over the years. Some of these made sense such as pretty much any of the Starscreams. Others were kind of odd such as Energon’s formula car Prowl.

Still, there are those characters that were both popular and important to the show that haven’t had such a treatment. Soundwave comes to mind. He was Megatron’s right hand man. He’s gotten what? That Cybertron stealth bomber? Then there’s one of Prime’s close advisors, Jazz. Heck, the only main character important enough to deserve a remake is Bumblebee. Technically speaking, we haven’t gotten a new Jazz since G1. Due to copyright issues the Alternators version of “Jazz” was named “Meister”. Granted Meister is Jazz’s Japanese name but it’s not quite the same.

Thankfully, Hasbro has gotten several of their old trademarks back (or use a loophole such as “Autobot Jazz”). And they are pushing them out in force with the movie. Not only are we getting a new Bumblebee but a new Jazz as well. While Bumblebee doesn’t much resemble his G1 self, Jazz isn’t too much of a stretch. The original Jazz was a sporty Porsche 935. This new Jazz is the slick new Pontiac Solstice. While it would have been nice if the movie version was a Mazda RX-8 like his Alternators counterpart, the Solstice has a body style that’s not too far off from either the 935 or the RX-8. The sleek stylish curves work well for the stylish urban character of Jazz. Rumors has it there’s a G1 styles repaint in the pipeline as well and it looks really good on this car. The parent company of Porsche and Volkswagen (the same company BTW) won’t let their vehicles be used for “war machines” and in this case, Hasbro has compensated well (Bumblebee less so but that’s for another day).

Like his G1 counterpart, and like many of the toys in the movie line, Jazz’s transformation involves the hood forming the chest of the robot with the rear forming the feet. I’ve always felt that this visual style works well for Transformers but almost every toy in the line, especially the deluxe class, use it and it actually comes off as a bit boring. Jazz is one that deserves it the most though of the entire line and he pulls it off the best. It’s pretty much the only visual cue that matches him to his G1 counterpart however. The head, arms, legs are all alien movie designs. The irregular and rather odd style takes a bit of getting used to, especially after the more streamlined designs of Cybertron but it actually works pretty well. The arms are the worst part of this toy. His hands are these tiny claw things that just sort of jut out from between two flat panels. The forearms have no real solid substance to it and he doesn’t even actually hold his weapon.

The weapon is a bit of an oddity. It’s clearly designed to be a sniper rifle of some sort but it’s labeled as a sword. Yeah, sword. There’s nothing sword-like about a long tube with a sight marker on the end of it. The way it attaches to his arm however it could be either. Perhaps it’s meant to represent some sort of light saber type weapon but if that’s the case I can’t imagine why they didn’t make it out of colored plastic. We’ll never know the truth until the movie is released. The weapon is also designed to attach to the spoiler in vehicle mode as some sort of huge cannon/jet thing but the effect is nothing short of ridiculous.

To help support the sword theory, the trunk detaches and becomes a shield. The robot looks much better with it simply attached to his back however.

Of all of the movie toys, I have anticipated getting this one the most and it actually ended up meeting most of my expectations. The arms and hands could use some work but they fit with the movie design style. I really like Jazz a lot and recommend him quite a bit. If you’re collecting movie toys he’s worth picking up. If you’re unsure on the designs you might consider Jazz for testing the waters a bit.

Review – Transformers – Cybertron – Soundwave

Jan 29th, 2007

by Ramen Junkie.

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Ah yes, Soundwave. One of the few G1 transformers that has been hardly ever remade but really probably deserved to be. We’ve had a ton of Megatron’s and Starscreams but Soundwave has had what, that Beast Wars bat that turned into an Alligator? I’ve always thought Soundwave was cooler than Starscream personally, and who is more deserving of a remake than Megatron’s right hand man?

Of course the original Soundwave was a cassette deck. So how do you remake him? Cd Player? MP3 Player? Stereo system maybe? The newer lines haven’t really used the idea of mass displacement. It’s really kind of a lame concept anyway. How about we turn him into a jet of some sort then? Megatron has become a jet and the Decepticons are known as being flying types. But what kind of jet? What’s a good jet that just screams “Soundwave”? Why a stealth bomber of course. A jet designed to be invisible to Radar and fly at the speed of sound.

Well, this Soundwave mostly turns into a bomber. It’s actually a bit slippy on the robot kibble and design department. It’s more like “Soundwave folded in half” really. Unfortunately it looks like complete crap. The transformation is ahorrendous mess as well. Nothing fits properly together and returning this toy to bomber mode is about as complicated as Big “Don’t even think about turning me back into a mammoth” Convoy. The toy loses some serious points for this.

The bomber also includes three large bombs. Two fit under his wings and the third fits in a panels on his underside. The one in the panel can be “dropped” by inserting the Cyber Planet Key.

Still, this wouldn’t be much of a remake if it didn’t look anything like Soundwave is supposed to look would it? Can a stealth bomber really turn into a robot resembling a cassette player’s robot mode. The answer is… sort of.

The general idea is certainly there, most importantly the head and chest area. The previously mentioned bomb door becomes the chest, it’s still opened by the Cyber Planet Key to release the bomb housed inside. Best of all, the bomb is a Transformer too. All three of them are to some extent. The primary bomb turns into Laserbeak, the two secondary bombs become weapons for Soundwave.

Otherwise the Robot mode actually has fairly little resembleance to his G1 counterpart. He is a lot skinnier all around than G1 Soundwave for starters. However, what his robot mode does have going for it is a lot of Vampiric styling. Especially with the wings and all around jagged edges. This works well with his name, Soundwave, since Vampires are supposed to turn into bats. Someone was certainly thinking when they designed this toy.

So as an overall opinion, it’s a nice toy really, and not too bad of a Soundwave. However a better update more akin to G1 would be better suited if yopu’re looking to fill the SOundwave hole in your Classics collection. Also the frustrating transformation is a downside to anyone who actually likes to transform thier Transformers. There’s actually an MP3 player transformer resembling Soundwave being released in Japan that fits much better into the Soundwave as a Classics design mold but it’s got real electronics in it making it slightly cost prohibitive to the casual collector. Anyway, Avoid this toy unless you want to keep it in robot mode forever, if that’s the case it’s got some interesting style going for it that makes it an allright Soundwave figure.

Review – Transformers – Cybertron – Crosswise and Smokescreen

Jan 12th, 2007

by Ramen Junkie.

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It seems to me that Hasbro was strongly considering the upcoming classics line near the end of Cybertron. We got Blurr, we got Breakdown GTS, and we got Smokescreen, right at the tail end. It’s actually fairly rare for Hasbro to release a G1 homage recolor and actually get the name correct. We’re lucky that Smokescreen wasn’t named Ironhide or Silverstreak really.

But no, this color scheme belongs undisputedly to G1 Smokescreen, and the appropriate name was assigned. Still, that’s only one hurdle for Hasbro to overcome. The other is mold. This deco could have easily been applied to a repaint of Repugnus and called Smokescreen.

But no, once again, we get an appropriate alternate mode. Smokescreen is a repaint of Cybertron Crosswise. Crosswise isn’t exactly a Datsun 280ZX but he does closely resemble the Bugatti Veyron and looks sporty enough to be an update of our old G1 buddy.

What makes things even better, is Crosswise, upon his release was loved by G1 fans for his “hood as a chest” transformation. Even better, he has little flip up shoulder launchers. Crosswise isn’t an exact update, but he does all around resemble one of the G1 Autobot cars in the family of Smokescreen and Jazz.

So it works really well when he’s repainted as one of said cars. The original Crosswise color scheme works very nicely as well. The sleek black makes this Autobot come off as fit for espionage and skirting the edge of what’s good. Still, he’s not quite sinister looking enough to come off as being a Decepticon at all, since for the most part Black Transformers are evil.

Still, the mold is not without it’s flaws. The transformation is slightly confusing and complicated. I almost always end up popping one of the large rear wheel “spike” pieces off while trying ot get his arms to work and my Smokescreen has never quite fit back together solidly in vehicle mode. He’s got a lot of little panels and such that need to fit just right. He’s a bit reminiscent of the RiD Autobot Brothers in this respect.

It is a good molt though, and certainly a refreshing change from the brickish Autobots we’ve had from the past several lines. I’d have to say he’s worth picking up in both color schemes, but if you’re just looking for a G1 hook up to go with your Classics, Smokescreen is the way to go.