Early this year, Hasbro started a collab line with the NFL. A line of football helmets that transform into football player styled robots. That’s “American Football”, in case the MFL part didn’t make that obvious, though they also recently announced a similar line for Non-American Football (soccer), that turns into a football.
Wait, do they call soccer balls footballs or is it something goofy like the kicky roundy?
(Side note, when I first did this up, I only had Tundra Prime, so if there is weirdness about Steelsmash comments, that is why)
Anyway, the initial line up had four teams, listed first, and there is a recently announced wave 2, of three additional teams. They also all have Transformer-y names.
- The Green Bay Packers – Tundra Prime
- The Kansas City Chiefs – KC-59
- The Dallas Cowboys – Starblitz
- The Pittsburg Steelers – Steelsmash
- The Buffalo Bills – Blizz-Herd
- The San Francisco 49ers – Goldrush
- The Minnesota Vikings – Skolgrin
All of them are the exact same mold, so while I only have two here, pretty much any commentary applies to all of them. They do have different robot heads under their helmets, but otherwise the bodies are the same. Also, if any of those cities are incorrect, then its because I stopped actively following football like 30 years ago.
I had originally pre-ordered the Packers and Steelers color ways, but cancelled the Steelers one for financial reasons. I don’t really care about the Steelers, but it has, IMO, the nicest color scheme of the first wave. But the Packers are my team, and also had a nice color scheme. Plus, so far, he is the only Prime of the line up. Much later I found the first wave on markdown at Walmart, so I ended up getting the Steelers one anyway as well.
So how are they?
Surprisingly pretty decent. Not sure they are “collect them all” decent, though if they ever get 22 of them released you could do a fun little game day display. It would take a lot of space but you could. But also they are all identical aside from colors.
These come packed in robot mode in a neat little “jump catch” pose with the football accessory. The robot mode is nice, they are quite bulky and definitely look like football players. There is a fair amount of kibble hanging off because in the end, these are shell-formers, but it adds bulk that helps with the football player look. They just kind of look like they could be heavy armor pieces or something.
They are also surprisingly poseable despite the large helmet pieces, though still hindered a bit by how stuff the joints are. If I have one big issue with these its that everything is very stiff to move. I suppose the idea is to make them hold a football pose better when displayed. It gets in the way of any sort of regular use. It’s worth noting that Tundra Prime (Packers) is way more stiff than Steelsmash (Steelers), so it may also depend on the base plastic colors. I can say after decades of buying toys, plastic color does make a difference here, because the colors cool differently which can make a difference on tolerancing. Especially in situations like this where it’s the same mold.
It also REALLY gets in the way of the transformation. When you get it, it works well, its clever, its kind of interesting despite how much it fits the normally boring shell former transformation. But its so stiff its hard to get everything lines up. Getting things lines up is also going to be a frustration for anyone who is a casual fan who is just buying their favorite Football team merch.
The helmet, once together, looks nice. There are a few gaps here and there but they kind of fit with the “this is actually an alien robot” concept I suppose. Because of the previously mentioned joint stiffness, I find it’s easier to get everything to fit properly on Steelsmash versus Tundra Prime. Everything has some solid tab in spots once you get things lined up and it holds together well. Honestly, I doubt these really spend much time in helmet mode. The fun part is the robot.
The helmet does have a peg hole on the inside that could potentially allow it to be displayed on a stand, though its deep enough inside that you would need essentially a stick to peg it on. This peg hole is folded up inside the robot chest though, so it serves no other function besides display stand for the helmet.
Also worth noting though, the helmet is not hollow. It does have a cavity where you could probably shove a head and sort of use it as a helmet, but its definitely going to look way oversized. If it were not for the feet, it actually might kind of work as a helmet.
I also wanted to mention there is some parts forming here. The lower half of the face guard is a separate piece and has to be removed for transformation. It does have a slot where it can be attached to the robot back. It doesn’t really have any other use and doesn’t really look like a weapon or anything.
There is a useful accessory though in a small football. This really helps with display to put these in football action poses. The ball itself does not have any pegs, instead the pegs are on the robot’s fists. I both like and hate this. I like that it means a clean looking football. I hate that it means other Transformers can’t really hold the ball. I am sure someone has already made a peg adapter for it though. Also notable though, its not a 5mm peg hole, which is also a bit disappointing, since 5mm is basically the standard for Transformers.
There is no place for the football when the main figure is in helmet mode.
Another sort of, hidden feature accessory, the robot mode helmet is removable. Its also a bit more complicated than it feels like it needs to be. It hinges open, but it also just slides right off. I am also not real sure why this is a feature. Its neat, but the helmet doesn’t fit on other transformers really, because the core head would need to be pretty small. And it just feels like a piece to get lost in the long run.
One last thing probably worth noting, all 7 so far are Autobots. There is an Autobot symbol in the lower chest area. I kind of wish some had been Decepticons, but I guess no NFL team wanted to be the “bad guys”. Maybe they could have done a generic separations across the two NFL Conferences using the AFC and NFC teams.
For a final verdict, especially if you have an interest in football, picking at least one of these up is probably worthwhile. They are nice little Transformers. Even at the actual MSRP, they are a pretty decent value as well, last I checked the MSRP is basically “deluxe” but they are a bit larger and more complex than a standard deluxe figure (though not quite Voyager sized). The paint apps are really nice on most of them as well, the colors really pop and the logos look good.
