Review – Transformers – Titans Return Overlord
Posted in2016 - Titans Return

Review – Transformers – Titans Return Overlord

Overlord may be slightly less familiar to a lot of people because he wasn't a part of any major show continuity in the US. He was the big dog Decepticon in the Japanese series Super God Masterforce, and showed up a bit in some of the other Japanese only G1 shows. His other major role was as the protagonist in the popular IDW comic arc, The Last Stand of the Wreckers. In the original continuity he was a double Power Master. He had two Power Master figures who could slot into his chest behind the panels on his chest. In…
Review – Transformers – Titans Return – Topspin and Twintwist
Posted in2016 - Titans Return

Review – Transformers – Titans Return – Topspin and Twintwist

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. …
Review – Transformers – Titans Return – Kup
Posted in2016 - Titans Return

Review – Transformers – Titans Return – Kup

Ah Kup, a character that seems to be hard to just do right in Toy form while not being kind of boring.  His original G1 toy is best described as "Weird Space Pick Up".  He got an alright update a few years ago in the Generations line where he turned into an old timey Earth Pick Up.  Kup, despite being fairly popular has a few issues that come up when trying to make updates.  First, his alt mode is lame and kind of boring, which isn't particularly marketable.  Second, his character is old and grouchy and thus isn't the best…
Transformers – Review – Titans Return – Broadside
Posted in2016 - Titans Return

Transformers – Review – Titans Return – Broadside

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…
Review – Transformers – Titans Return – Perceptor
Posted in2016 - Titans Return

Review – Transformers – Titans Return – Perceptor

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…
Review – Transformers – Titans Return – Scourge
Posted in2016 - Titans Return

Review – Transformers – Titans Return – Scourge

Scourge, along with Blurr, is part of the first wave of Titans Returns figures that were not originally Headmasters.  Scourge is a bit of a funny character in terms of picking up "new versions", because his character's ability allows him to make clones of himself.  Or maybe it's just that he commands clones of himself, whatever the case, there is a justifiable reason to have many Scourge toys. Unlike Blurr, who is kind of the star of the wave, Scourge is possibly the worst figure of the first wave.  The problems are less with the basic design however.  This Scourge,…
Review – Transformers – Titans Return – Blurr
Posted in2016 - Titans Return

Review – Transformers – Titans Return – Blurr

Like Combiner Wars previously, Titans Return isn't a total homage to only Headmasters.  There aren't a ton of Headmasters to pull from so some character who weren't originally Headmasters get roped into the mix as well.  I'm not super keen on picking up a lot of the non Headmaster Titan Masters, the way I passed on all of the non combining Combiner Wars characters.  Blurr however is a character seriously in need of an updated toy, and this Blurr is a really good representation of the original Blurr, especially compared to the previous Generations Blurr.  The old Blurr is a…