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[Warcry]

The robotapes come up to about Prowl's bumper, so about the average size of a 3P minibot. Which is obviously a bit bigger than they should be, but that's life. I'm happier with them being this size than the ridiculously tiny versions that fit into MO Soundwave's chest.

I don't mind the MP cassettes being tiny as much as I mind them just not being very good toys. They're delicate and not very poseable. I think they all look great other than Ravage, but if I wanted a Ravage figure to play with it certainly wouldn't be the MP.

G1 Rodimus Prime and Stalker: I think the winnebago mode is the better of the three parts of Rodimus with the robot mode the worst as the figure has next to no articulation outside of moving his arms up and down.

I don't think I've transformed my reissue Rodimus Prime since 2004, and I'm someone who's constantly transforming his figures. The robot mode is just so, so disappointing.

As Tantrum said, the Dinobots don't suffer from the combiner mechanic as they've simply slotted out the diaclone cockpits for the gestalt joints (in Grimlock's case, the combiner head gets stored there). So, it's to use or ignore as one pleases.

The small Dinobots don't suffer, sure, but I don't think you can say that about Grimlock. The elephantiasis he's contracted in his tail and dino legs are really noticeable.

Swoop has yet to break into three pieces, so yeah, he's pretty different from the original.

Fair enough. I was thinking more about looks, though.

Though I wouldn't be surprised at all if the clear plastic beak turns out to be super brittle as the years go by, either.

I don't see any conceits for making Cutthroat out of him as they transform very similarly. Basically he just needs an extra pair of dangly legs and not fold his robot legs up as a backpack, and bingo.

I realized the other day that you can actually transform Swoop into "Cutthroat mode". All of the engineering is already there, since it's needed for his combiner leg mode. But you're right, they both basically transform the same from the knees up. Even their proportions are very similar. So that's probably not why they made him less G1 than the rest of the team.

[ganon578]

After all the reports of PotP Wave 2 hitting Walmarts here in the States, I swung by a couple in my area (I'm don't think most around me even got Wave 1) and found Snarl, Sludge, and Darkwing/Blackwing. Pretty happy that I was able to complete the 6 Dinobots and the Dreadwing combo at retail.

Snarl and Sludge are pretty fun, chunky dinos like the others, with stout dino modes and pretty decent robot modes. They both stand a touch funny IMO, due to the knees. They both seem to be quite spot on for modern G1-y types. Oddly, the Prime Armor piece that came with Snarl has a gold peg instead of black. He's the only dinobot with this.

Darkwing is pretty neat all around, and I like him better than Dreadwind. Haven't had the chance to put them together yet (got Darkwing on the way to work), so I will do that when I am home. The only think that irks me is the top tailfins are rubber, which have bent in packaging.

I saw Rippersnapper, Moonracer, Tailgate, and the Duocons too. All of which I passed on. I think I'm going to skip Abominus altogether, and the fem-racers don't appeal to me. They look nice, just no connection to the characters or toys. Tailgate looks a bit better than Windcharger, but I couldn't find the budget to get him. Might bite on the Duocons later though.

[Skyquake87]

So, POTP Deluxe Wave 1 has been hitting Smyths... but couldn't find any at the two branches I can easily get to. One had them in and sold out within a day (really?!) and the other just hasn't had them. I did see Voyager Starscream and Grimlock, both of which looked so awful they were an easy pass.

I did find the wave 1 Prime Masters in a branch of Asda living and picked up Liege Maximo who is Skullgrin, so let's not pretend he's not. So, it's pretty neat. I like the colours and the sculpt, and the £6.99 price tag feels less painful for this guy than the Titan Masters did, but it is a bit lacking. The little guy turning into a nugget (which looks like a face, soooo... why not just carry on making robot faces?) is fine, but not really as much fun as being a head and properly interacting with a larger figure. The shell is neat and I really like it, but you're not convincing anyone with that silly 'rake' mode. Or is it one of those silly 'bear claws' so you can have pulled pork? I think I like it, but it doesn't really scream Transformer toy,beacuse it doesn't really transform and it feels a bit like what it is - a half baked Pretender. Or one that's shrunk in the wash.

Aaand from the ridiculous to the sublime (well, sublimely ridiculous) with Beast Wars Neo Survive Vs Killer Punch! I honestly never thought I'd have the slightest chance of picking these guys up. Aftermarket prices are generally crackers, either buying individually or in this spiffy versus two-pack, but I managed to luck out on an ebay listing (in the UK no less) and landed a set that's clearly been enjoyed by the previous owner. These are excellent.

Killer Punch is everything I'd hoped - ridiculous, very angry looking and able to shoot his dino mode head off. He also has a rather fearsome looking blade weapon. Having loads of versions of the Guiledart mould off of which this is based, the clumsy clusterf**k that is the transformation doesn't bother me and words cannot adequately describe the deep joy this daft looking dinosaur has brought me.

As great as Killer Punch is, the real surprise is how excellent Survive is. Having owned Polar Claw, I wasn't expecting much. The toy is mired by the necessity of it's play gimmicks, but done up as a black bear, suddenly the mould just feels right. Like this is how the toy was meant to be. The odd choices of colour for the robot mode parts (red on the head, yellow for the legs and hands) are a bit jarring, and it's a shame they couldn't have gone with a more sympathetic gunmetal colour. The bat looks funny too, with its black/grey wings and yellow body. I've found myself messing about with Survive a lot more than I thought I would. And hats off to Takara for hitting on the really obvious idea of having a 'vs' set featuring two decent sized figures. Good stuff!

[HeavyArms]

RID 2015 Starscream - Wasn't really planning on buying this guy, but it was a bit of a 'why not' situation.

POTP Liege Maximo and Skullgrin.

POTP Skrapnel - This figure completes my Generations era Insecticons.

[ganon578]

Added a few more to the collection over the past week:

PotP Battleslash & Roadtrap: I feel the same as what others have said here, pretty good all around, but not astonishing. The combined mode is fun, and I also wish the two vehicles could link together. Otherwise, this is really an over-priced Deluxe.

PotP Tailgate: I like this guy much better than Windcharger. Better looks and colors, and I like the alt mode coloration more. Kudos to Hasbro for giving him 'sunroof' panels.

[Heinrad]

Seeing as the local Wal-Mart has yet to really jump on the POTP bandwagon(either that, or people are desperate for anything that's not RiD or TLK around here), they did surprise me by marking down the remaining TLK Deluxes to a more reasonable price.

Autobot Squeeks: I have to admit, it's a neat little figure. The fact he comes with a Movieverse equivalent of a MARB/Battle Deck is surprising.

[HeavyArms]

RID 2015 Twinferno - I wasn't certain about this guy but he wasn't at full price when I bought him, so he's not too bad.

BW Bonecrusher.

BW Dinobot & Dinobot 2.

The Beast Wars figures were bought from a couple of eBay sellers.

[Warcry]

Somehow a regular airmail package from Japan can get here in only six business days, so I've got Takara Legends G2 Megatron, Pounce and Wingspan.

The Clones are smaller than I expected. With all the talk of them not being able to fit in a normal price point I expected them to be half way between Legends and Deluxe, but they're actually only a hair bigger than Brawn, Beachcomber and the like. Probably about the same size as the Scouts (or whatever we called them) back in the Energon and Cybertron days. They're pretty simple too.

The beast modes are kind of perfunctory, but that's what the characters are meant to look like so I don't suppose that's really too big of a problem. I do wish the robot arms integrated a bit better, though. The robot modes are nicely articulated for their size, and they do a great job of looking like clones from the front as long as you can ignore the small amount of wing kibble on Wingspan's legs. From the back, obviously not so much, but I think they pull it off a lot better than the originals did.

Deco-wise, I'm not put off by the purple in person like I worried I would be when I looked at the pics. I'm still more used to the pink highlights that the original toys had, but the purple looks good. I do wish the cat and bird logos on their chests were rubsigns instead of plain paint apps, though.

Overall, I like them but they're really not worth all the hype that they got due to the Hasbro versions being so hard to find.

Megatron is just fantastic. The mold was great as Blitzwing, but between the G2 deco and the new tooling that Megatron got, he really looks like his own figure. And with the addition of a shoulder cannon courtesy of TR Quake (who didn't want to look like a Hardhead copy anyway) he quickly becomes a very good representation of one of my favourite Megatron designs. The paint job is glorious to the point of excess and I'm not even sure what my favourite part of it is, though right now I'm leaning towards the bonkers teal tank treads. And the fit and finish are a lot better than they were on Blitzwing. The joints are a lot smoother and every mode pops together just a bit more firmly. Everything about the figure just works. He's easily the best TR Voyager I've got, and he may even beat out Generations Sandstorm as my favourite Triplechanger. He's that good!

What's not good, though, is the little Savage/Noble TM vehicle he comes with. It's molded from a single colour with no paint apps outside of the heads and one tiny Decepticon symbol, it's just so blah and boring. And considering how wild the actual BM character model looks, it's really surprising that Takara didn't do a bit more with him. I was actually really looking forward to this little guy but he's probably going to wind up rattling around a spare parts bin.

[Clay]

Killer Punch is everything I'd hoped - ridiculous, very angry looking and able to shoot his dino mode head off. He also has a rather fearsome looking blade weapon. Having loads of versions of the Guiledart mould off of which this is based, the clumsy clusterf**k that is the transformation doesn't bother me and words cannot adequately describe the deep joy this daft looking dinosaur has brought me.

Yay, Killer Punch! I picked up mine back in 2006 or so when they were merely rare and not atrociously expensive. It remains my favorite purple styracosaurus . I'm still kind of irked at myself for not snagging one of the purple Guiledarts that were sold as Slug for Age of Extinction filler, though. It would have made a nice complement. (Although after looking up pictures of the deco to refresh my memory, I remember why I passed.)

As for myself, the movie 5 stuff went on clearance, so I got a voyager Megatron and a deluxe Drift. Megatron is... competent? Everything folds up cleanly for both modes, and there's very little kibble, but... I dunno. It lacks personality, maybe? I don't like the head. It doesn't seem very Megatron-y, transformer-y, or even movie-y, for that matter. He looks like an Ultron knockoff, honestly.

Drift is neat enough. I still have the movie 4 figure, but I was intrigued about the remolding done for this version. Not merely as simple as swapping the car chassis parts, the remolding actually reverses the orientation of the robot to the car, and his head's now at the back instead of the front. It's pretty clever! He's not something I'd recommend by itself since some of the weapon storage for the robot mode seems to have been dropped (leaving the first version strictly better), but it's neat what can be done with altering an existing design.

They also had four Steelbanes left with the clearance hammer fell, so I bought them all for use as gifts. If you haven't got a Steelbane, you're missing out.

[Tetsuro]

When it comes to the massive catalog of G1 toys, at least the western releases, Doubleheader was easily somewhere in the bottom section of my "most wanted" list. So when I saw one being auctioned off domestically, I ignored it at first, but then I thought, what the hell, I could bid like €15 for it, and if I don't win, it's no big deal, and if I do, well, I got a cheap Doubleheader.

Which I now do. For €8.

Which wasn't my attitude with Bludgeon who, despite being incomplete, I was willing to compete over. Which is why I was surprised that absolutely nobody contested my top bid at the time, resulting in me getting him for just €7 - which is less than what I paid for Doubleheader!

[Warcry]

Nice score!

As a kid I don't think I ever quite got over the disappointment of Bludgeon not having a sword, but he's definitely one of the nicer Pretenders. In general, the second year's worth were a significant step up from the original set. They feel much more like normal Transformers who just happen to come with shells, instead of being horribly compromised by the gimmick and "transforming" into a folded robot.

[Tantrum]

I found TLK Grimlock and Optimus on clearance at Walmart today, US$13 each. I almost didn't get Grimlock. I was checking the form taped to a peg to see when the new stuff was coming in, when a kid grabbed Grimlock and wandered off. His parents must've said no, because he put it back a minute later. They also had Scorn, who I already have. If he's still $13 next time I'm there, I may get him for a donation.

PotP Alchemist Prime/Submurauder I found him at a comic shop, so there was a bit of a premium. They also had Vector Prime, Hungrr, and Elita-1, but with the price difference ($35 Voyagers) and all-sales-are-final policy, I figured I'd wait for those to show up at regular retail. I splurged on AP because I wanted to use his Prime-Master mode as Chromedome's head to make a TR Rorschach. I posted pics here, but it doesn't seem like many people got the reference.

[Denyer]

I splurged on AP because I wanted to use his Prime-Master mode as Chromedome's head to make a TR Rorschach. I posted pics here, but it doesn't seem like many people got the reference.

Been a long, long time since I got to use that smiley...

[Skyquake87]

...my favourite bit is the response at the bottom of the thread;

"Ah, I only watched it once. Wasnt really to keen on the movie."

[Clay]

I splurged on AP because I wanted to use his Prime-Master mode as Chromedome's head to make a TR Rorschach. I posted pics here, but it doesn't seem like many people got the reference.

He needs the hat and coat, obviously.

As for myself, I got a box today containing the Takara legends target/headmaster Windblade, the clone sets, and another misfire because I broke the wing on the first one and couldn't fix it well enough that it wouldn't bother me.

Windblade is neat, and dramatically simpler than the first generations figure, even if the hands are just sticking out of the jet. Not sure what the thought process was to include her in the line, but hey, it works.

The clones are cute. I would've preferred the toy colors of the hasbro versions, but these were a fraction of the price. I think these may be first generations figures that are actually less complicated than their G1 counterparts. Also, they really are just inner-pretender robots without shells, aren't they? I actually kind of like the "robot-folded-over-now-it's-a-spaceship" vibe of the first batch of pretenders, but I think the clones very neatly cover all variations that really need attention. Ground vehicle, jet thing, quadruped animal, robot chicken... they're all there. That said, had I not had the originals as a kid, I don't think I'd have anything to really recommend about them. Most of the generations stuff has been neat and new in its own right, but these are (and were) a bit too... lackluster, really. But whatevs, I like them.

[HeavyArms]

POTP Micronus & Cloudburst as well as Beachcomber.

[Heinrad]

With the arrival of my tax refund, I decided to go looking for one figure in particular that I wanted to get. And because my local Wal-Mart seems incapable of stocking more than five figures(2 Prime Masters, 1 RiD Bumblebee, 1 RiD Soundwave, 1 POTP Optimus Prime), so I drove an hour and a half and got......

POTP Evolution Black Rodimus: Yeah, I know the name is actually Rodimus Unicronus, but I ran Black Rodimus in the RPG years ago for a short time, and damnit, I'm gonna call him Black Rodimus. I'm also glad I made the decision last year to go with the Takara TR Hot Rod instead of the POTP Rodimus. The space Winnebego works, but Black Hot Rod does not hang together well at all in vehicle mode, and from the reviews I've seen, the regular version has the same problems. He's a little gappy in spots. And the stickers on the....uh....trailer, I guess? could be lined up a little better. They aren't rubbing, but they aren't lined up quite right on the edge that they're on.

Those nitpicky things aside, he is a neat figure. Certainly a different look, and I love the design that replaces the flame pattern. Now, if I could find some light sabers for Hot Rod and Black Rodimus........

[Skyquake87]

POTP Dreadwing
I really like Dreadwind and Darkwing from off of the old comics, so was quite excited to hear they were getting an outing as part of Power Of The Primes. That excitement has dwindled having learnt they were going to be Combiner Wars retools and so it is, that having one in hand, I'm less than enthusiastic. I think I've actually got mould fatigue! Nice thought this is, with the additional tooling and colours, it is just another CW Jet limb-bot. So the fun factor is definitely mitigated. I like the Prime Armour fist thingy though. That's a huge improvement over the hand/foot guns. And, if nothing else, my CW Cyclonus looks like he'll have some chums to form a gestalt, so that's nice (crosses fingers for Needlenose and Windsweeper).

[Denyer]

But it does combine with another CW limb bot to form the super jet, which is a unique bit of nostalgia... still quite pumped for that.

[Tantrum]

He needs the hat and coat, obviously.

I found a grapnel gun from my actual Rorschach figure, and it fits in Chromedome's hand OK, though C can't grip the trigger. I was trying to figure out what to do with Chromedome's weapons and Stylor, when I realized the non-seat weapon is the same mold as Blurr's.

I'm pretty satsified with those TLK Voyagers I mentioned, especially Grimlock. He's more fun to transform than the Leader, his jaw works, and his dino back kibble makes a great seat for Legends Optimus. Even with the jet backpack, he maintains his balance. The odd handle on TLK Gimlock's mace works really well stuck in the hole in Volcanicus' thumb, so it looks like V is actually gripping the mace by its shaft.

I found TLK Slash on clearance. I like the color scheme better than the AoE version and, since I bought 2 PotP Slashes to flush out Volcanicus, it somehow made sense to me to have two movie Slashes, as well. I also found Slag, but his grey and gold looks worse than the purple, so I skipped him.

RiD Menasor was a few bucks off, and got me a $12 coupon which I used on RiD Windblade. Menasor looks good, but it's hard to flip his hands out of Dragstrip and guy who isn't Dead End. I haven't opened Windblade yet, but I doubt I'll be disappointed in a figure that was basically free.