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[HeavyArms]

Legacy Evolution Axlegrease,

Legacy Evolution Nemesis Leo Prime.

[Warcry]

It's been a busy week!

Legacy Axlegrease is weird. She's retooled from last year's Junkion tow truck, but she's a car. She uses the Shattered Glass Junkion colour scheme, but she'd not an SG character. She's got the '86 cartoon's "Nancy" Junkion's head, but she's not her. Most of the other remolded parts seem destined for a future Lockdown, but she's not him either. Everything I just typed makes her sound like she should be an absolute mess, but she's actually a nice-looking toy. The colours are great, I appreciate that she comes with seven different accessories, and I love that the figure can transform without being disassembled even though it's a Weaponizer.

I like it but I suspect a lot of people will choose to wait for the inevitable Lockdown even if they like the look of this one.

We've actually got a Beast Wars Croc Megatron kicking around somewhere, but it's in really rough shape and mostly just serves as a toy croc for my son now. This one has much better joints and the automorph works better.

I've always really liked this design, though even as a kid I never really thought of it as Megatron. It's hard to see the toy as a leader of the Predacons when it's just a slightly less-cool retool of Iguanus. But it's a really good generic background Pred goon. I'm glad to finally have one that can stand and that won't transform out of beast mode without being touched!

I didn't pick up Energon Insecticon back when he was new, but I've always been interested in finding one. The Basics were my favourite part of Energon, and I've only ever seen this guy packaged in beast mode, so I was expecting something analogous to Ravage or Strongarm, but a bug.

This is...not that. The bug mode is a nice, chunky rhinoceros beetle that wouldn't look out of place alongside the current batch of G1 Insecticons if you wanted to pretend it was Barrage. But then it transforms in about four steps into a really blocky robot with about six points of articulation. I'd say it feels like an Armada toy, but that's not fair because Armada toys lacked articulation because they were filled with gimmicks. He actually feels like a Rescue Bot or some other such "simplified for very young children" toy. I really like the bug but I'm very surprised by how basic the rest of the package is, considering what was on the pegs at the same time. I'd have thought it would at least have elbows!

I think the Cybertron Optimus Primal toy is actually meant to be the normal Unicron Trilogy Optimus Prime who got turned into a beast on the Jungle Planet for Reasons. But I'd have to think that most of these live on Beast Wars shelves. I never liked the Primal-coloured one, but this brown, black and tan version looks really nice. I appreciate that they did something different with the transformation, because this is the only take on Primal that I've ever seen that has proportional limbs in beast mode as well as fully poseable legs. Most Primals reuse the original's very simple transformation while leaving out the fifty gimmicks that made that simplicity necessary, so it's nice to find a figure that decided to do things a little differently. I'm a big fan of this one.

The surfboard accessory isn't anywhere near as impressive, since it's almost as big as the actual toy and doesn't do much. I understand that they were attempting to reference a couple different 90s toys here but it falls a bit flat in the execution. But I definitely appreciate them keeping the Cyber Key gimmick isolated to a giant accessory so that the core figure can be as good as it is.

I'd love to track down the complementary Megatron one day. Strangely, the shop I got Primal at had five or six or him but zero Megatrons. I totally would have bought that too if I saw one, though I don't think it looks as good as this one.

I've wanted one for a while, but I don't think I've ever come across a Beast Machines Rapticon in person before. And all I've ever found on eBay are broken ones or MISB figures for over $100. The base mold is what it is, and you're either going to hate it for being fiddly and overcomplicated or love it for being a cyborg raptor skeleton made of knives. I fall more into the latter camp, but I can definitely see the flaws. I love the colours on this one, especially in beast mode. It's very distinctive.

[Tantrum]

Bought this weekend:

Leader Toxitron - I opened the box to be sure he hasn't been swapped, but haven't taken him out, yet.

Buzzworthy Dead Ironhide and Prowl - I bought this set, got it home, and realized both faces had sloppy paint apps. Ironhide had a bit too much grey, which smeared on his red helmet. Prowl didn't have enough grey, with the sides of his face being white. This kind of made it look like he was crying, so I was tempted to keep it. But, a proper all grey face makes the sad, dying eyes pop more.

Neither error was that bad; if they were I'd've noticed in store and bought a different copy. But, the horrified looks on their faces is a big part of why I wanted this set, so I exchanged it for a properly painted one.

It should be a no-brainer that if you release 'battle-damaged' figures more people are going to buy them if they can also display as a non-damaged version of the character.

That's easier said than done. Swapping heads wouldn't be a problem. But, the chests would take some doing. Ironhide looks like you could fit a windshield piece there. But, then you have an Ironhide with a cracked windshield, not an undamaged one. Prowl's blast effect port sticks out beyond the chest, so you can't cover it. You'd have to swap the entire hood chest, which would require more disassembly that most people would be comfortable with.

People who want to display non-damaged characters probably already bought the original, non-damaged versions of these figures. At least Ironhide, since I've seen that SS figure all over the place. Sure lots of people missed out on Earthrise Prowl, but that's due to Hasbro making him part of an exclusive two-pack. The real no brainer is to distribute toys so your customers can buy them. Apparently, Hasbro has less than no brains.

Legacy Axlegrease is weird. She's retooled from last year's Junkion tow truck, but she's a car. She uses the Shattered Glass Junkion colour scheme, but she'd not an SG character. She's got the '86 cartoon's "Nancy" Junkion's head, but she's not her. Most of the other remolded parts seem destined for a future Lockdown, but she's not him either. Everything I just typed makes her sound like she should be an absolute mess, but she's actually a nice-looking toy. The colours are great, I appreciate that she comes with seven different accessories, and I love that the figure can transform without being disassembled even though it's a Weaponizer.

I got this figure a couple months ago, and like it more than the original Junkion it was redecoed from. As a blue/purple Decepticon fembot car compatible with the Junkion parts-swapping gimmick, this gives me more of what I want from a Cyberverse Shadow Striker toy than the upcoming Legacy Shadow Striker figure. I just got Buzzworthy Towline and Legacy Crashbar to give me more options. Plus, Crashbar's headsculpt is cool.

I didn't pick up Energon Insecticon back when he was new, but I've always been interested in finding one. The Basics were my favourite part of Energon, and I've only ever seen this guy packaged in beast mode, so I was expecting something analogous to Ravage or Strongarm, but a bug.

This is...not that. The bug mode is a nice, chunky rhinoceros beetle that wouldn't look out of place alongside the current batch of G1 Insecticons if you wanted to pretend it was Barrage. But then it transforms in about four steps into a really blocky robot with about six points of articulation. I'd say it feels like an Armada toy, but that's not fair because Armada toys lacked articulation because they were filled with gimmicks. He actually feels like a Rescue Bot or some other such "simplified for very young children" toy. I really like the bug but I'm very surprised by how basic the rest of the package is, considering what was on the pegs at the same time. I'd have thought it would at least have elbows!

I got this years ago when Christmas Tree Shoppe carried small Transformers. And existed. I always forget the name of the Deluxe Insecticon he homages. Between this guy, Legacy Ransack, and the Chop Shop they did a couple years ago, I'm only one Venom away from a set of homages to figures I never owned in the first place, representing characters I know nothing about. Still, I wouldn't say no to a Legacy Chop Shop. Though, I'd prefer an RiD15 one.

The upcoming Swoop will obviously be blue as well, which I understand the reasons for. But it's definitely not my preference, and every new G1-styled Swoop that's come out at retail since Energon has had the blue chest. Sludge looks great though, bar the anemic selection of accessories.

My ideal Dinobots would probably be Voyager-sized, partly because I don't like them totally dwarfing the rest of the early-years cast but mostly because I don't think I could fit five toys this size into a single shelf in my glass display cases.

I agree about prefering Voyager dinos, though I'd keep Leader Sludge. I know they were all the same size in the G1 toon/toys, but I feel like he should be bigger.

PotP Deluxe Swoop was redone with a red chest as a Selects release. I got mine at a comic shop for regular retail a few years ago. I have no idea how hard he is to get now.

[Denyer]

Forward planning, really. Scope for swappable bits needs to be designed in from the beginning, and usually the extras would be part of the original tooling but blocked off in production.

Don't think it'd be worth doing with most figures, but they're probably going to milk a few seconds of 80s animation forever now even though there are umpteen Datsun and van alternate characters. Have a regular version and a premium one with a few extra parts, rather than a Prime/Brawn/Ironhide/Prowl etc with more diminishing returns after most people who cared got the figures from the first time they did it.

[Skyquake87]

August turned out to be a good month for exciting robots

Legacy Nemesis Leo Prime
Not impressed with the name - couldn't they have gone with Shadow Mane or something marginally more interesting? It's probably right by some animation I've not seen but not very exciting. The toy itself is nice, and the greys/ blacks are nice and I like the teal nail varnish and eyes, but it's not as exciting as Nemesis Primal with it's riot of purple, teal, silver, red and black. I do like this figure though - the normal version was great and this is too. Lion mode looks slightly less derpy in these black colours.

Encore Big Convoy
Tickles me there's a thread asking why Big Convoy isn't as popular as Lio Convoy. In 2019, he got two reissues of his original toy - Big Blue Convoy in the Legends line and this Encore reissue, which has a nice animation accurate paint job. So someone likes the character. I don't normally care about things looking like they did on TV, but the extra spots of paint really brighten the figure up and give a bit of extra life to it. After picking up first Universe Nemesis Prime, then Big Blue Convoy, it's nice to finally own the original, and I can add him to my pile of Beast Wars Neo figures. Hooray!

Toxitron Collection G2 Universe Mirage
Highly amusing and also kind of cool hot pink and lime green version of Mirage, with crocodile design elements. I really like the colours but I do realise why I sold on the Earth mode version of Mirage; the retooling from the Cybertronian mode makes this a somewhat awkward and clunky figure to transform. It's also curiously stiff. The biggest miss remains giving this version of Mirage his shoulder mounted rocket launcher, but no port on either arm to plug it into. I think I'd have preferred the Siege mould done in these colours.

Toxitron Collection G2 Universe Sideswipe
Slightly horrible looking aquamarine blue/ yellow paintjob splattered across the still great Sideswipe mould. Blue and yellow together aren't my favourite colour contrasts, but it just about works here. I would have liked the robot head to have two different colours - the plain blue for the helmet and face look very dull - I notice the waist is a slightly darker shade of blue - it would have been nice to this for the helmet and the lighter shade used for the face, but then - horror of horrors - this wouldn't have exactly matched the concept art and the internet would have moaned like f**k about that.

Toxitron Collection G2 Universe Dead End
I do love that '90s Decepticon logo (both that and the Autobot one first appeared in the 1993 European line right at the tail end of G1, so I can't call it G2) and it looks great on the bonnet of this neon red version of Dead End. Less impressive are the flaming pebble decos on the doors, but whatever. Robot mode looks banging, with the silver and metallic teal paint and the bright yellow splodged into the mix.

Toxitron Collection G2 Universe Laser Cycle
Didn't want to call this Jazz, then? Why not... think of a name! Caliper. There you go. Job done. Took a minute to think that up. Motorcycles still present a challenge to Transformers designers and this isn't a bad a attempt, but it's no fun to transform. I do like what's been attempted though and this isn't a bad figure. I'm not a fan of the rear wheel splitting in half and the halves hanging around the ankles. I'd have liked a Junkion style affair, with the wheel coming off entirely to be a shield, I think. The transparent disc things make for good forearm mounted blade weapons, but there's no way I'll having Caliper here use the front wheel as whatever the heck it's supposed to be. Looks rubbish. The unfortunate spray of yellow on the crotch isn't a great look either...

[Heinrad]

Conceivably they could have swapped out the pinned hinge on Ironhide's chest for one of the hinges like they used on the rear side windows when they fold up into his feet(I watched a review where the reviewer was trying to transform him and popped the window out of the hinge. I thought they were pinned), while Prowl could have just had posts to hold the damaged front end. Given the way they designed the damage deco on him, at that point you'd wind up with him having a splash of silverish paint across his hood.

They did redesign that mold for the nose of his vehicle mode, though. All the Earthrise Datsuns could have the covered headlights replaced if you wanted a more G1 look and a 3D printer, but the nose of the battle damage one looks like the headlights are part of the mold.

To be honest, I think that's the only change I'd really want to the set. Alternate heads. Or at least one for Prowl. Pissed off Ironhide works, weepy Prowl doesn't.

[Heinrad]

“Do I have to?”

“Yes, Bumblebee.” Optimus Prime knocked on the side of the trailer. “Look, recolors aren’t that bad. And they finally gave me a trailer.”

“Yeah, but your recolor puts you in the show colors.”

“It did for you as well.” Prime looked over at Rattrap and Dinobot walked in. “Greetings.”

Rattrap’s optics bugged out. “What th’ slag?”

Prime looked up at Rattrap. “We’re trying our core class recolors. I even got a trailer.”

Bumblebee’s slightly muffled voice came from the trailer. “I’m not in love with this. This is more than a recolor.”

“Face your fears, Bumblebee.”

“It’s not fear, it’s emb-“

At Prime’s mental command, the trailer opened up, the repair drone deploying its arm and radar dish, Roller chirping cheerfully. And revealing Bumblebee.

“-arassing.”

“Why do you got wings?”

“They are obviously not wings, Vermin. They are…. Er….”

Bumblebee shrugged. “I don’t know. I don’t mind not being a beetle, it kind of looks like the vehicle mode they gave me in Devastation. Even the robot mode doesn’t look too bad. Except for these stupid wings.”

Prime nodded in agreement. “I will agree with you there, although part of it may simply be the age of the design. You were in there with Roller. Any ideas how to get him to stay in place?”

“I’ll…. I’ll let Roller show you what he came up with.”

Roller chirped and whistled, the repair drone replying with a deeper tweet, disconnecting itself from its base and locking onto Roller’s weapon hardpoint. Roller then rolled forward onto Prime’s riot shield. He rocked back and forth, chirping happily to himself.

“It’s a nice idea, but there is a problem. That’s part of my trailer hitch.”

Roller chirped and tweeted something less chipper sounding.

Transformers Legacy Evolution core Class Optimus Prime and Bumblebee: Honestly, the real reason I got this set was the recolor of Core class Prime and the trailer. This version of Bumblebee, though…. I like the vehicle mode. Yeah, it’s not a beetle, but it’s a nice callback to his old Classics design. The back of the car folds up nicely into a backpack. I mean, yeah, he’s a bit gangly, but it works. But the rear fenders becoming wings….. it ruins his whole profile.

[HeavyArms]

Toxitron Collection G2 Universe Autobot Jazz

Toxitron Collection G2 Universe Sideswipe

Both were bought from JB Hi-Fi, who has the line exclusively.

[Warcry]

Studio Series 86 Ironhide

I forgot this was a Voyager-class toy, and since I was out buying back-to-school clothes for my son, I didn't realize what I'd paid for it until I got home and glanced at my receipt. Instant buyer's remorse!

If I ignore the fact that I accidentally paid almost $50 for it, it's a solidly above average Deluxe-sized robot. The transformation is cool, the robot looks great, and the engineering is well thought out. Taken as a package, it decisively tramples on every previous attempt to make a figure of the 80s character model, including the Masterpiece. The only big flaw is inherited from the Siege toy that obviously inspired this one's transformation: the window panels on his legs refuse to stay locked into place for more than a few minutes no matter what I do.

I'm not sure I could in good conscience suggest paying retail price for the figure on purpose, but if I'm judging it solely on its merits as a figure, it's a pretty good Transformer.

On an aside, I've always thought that Ironhide was significantly bigger than "average Deluxe height" and I'm surprised that a Voyager-class take on the character isn't a lot bulkier than this. Maybe I'm conflating this guy with Movie Ironhide or those popular third-party Ironhide/Ratchet toys from a decade ago that everyone seemed to have with their Classics? But I've always thought of him as a much bigger guy than this! (The Sunbow scale chart that gets treated as a sacred totem these days seems to suggest that he should be as tall as Inferno and just barely smaller than Soundwave or Blaster, if I'm reading it right.)

[Denyer]

Supposedly bigger. That had definitely disappeared by late era Marvel UK when he was written back in due to the Classic Heroes re-releases.

https://www.tfw2005.com/boards/threads/ ... rt.944568/

[Warcry]

The comics have their own scale issues...



...but I think that's more than understandable considering the medium. It's pretty tough to fit characters of all varying sizes into a single panel in an old-style 80s book that wasn't heavy on splash pages.

That chart you posted what what I was thinking of as well, and it seems to agree with my foggy old memories. He lines up about right vs. a Seeker but he looks half a head too short compared to the other early Autobots they've released lately. If they hadn't bumped him up a price point I probably wouldn't have noticed, because honestly it's "close enough" and looks perfectly fine. I'm not a big stickler for scale anyway, but it's perplexing that the explicitly show-accurate line didn't take advantage of the higher price point to make the figure a bit larger when that seems like it would be more show-accurate. Maybe they prioritized consistent size vs. the Siege toy over that?



vs.



vs.

[Denyer]

I guess they figured taller than the cars was okay. Or that IH is intuitively a bit more short and stocky. Or just that if they can get away with cost-cutting as well as raising the price class they're going to do it.

Shrinking versus Crosshairs is a bit cheeky though.

I generally ignore Marvel US. The Marvel UK era I grew up with generally wasn't too bad for consistency, apart from the PM Prime to Scorponok equivalence, etc.

[HeavyArms]

Studio Series 86-22 Brawn (The Transformers: The Movie),

Studio Series 102BB Optimus Prime (Rise of the Beasts),

Bought both from JB Hi-Fi, as it happens both figures are proving to be a bit hard to find now, although one is a Buzzworthy exclusive which may have rendered it a bit hard to find anyway.

[Clay]

That chart you posted what what I was thinking of as well, and it seems to agree with my foggy old memories. He lines up about right vs. a Seeker but he looks half a head too short compared to the other early Autobots they've released lately. If they hadn't bumped him up a price point I probably wouldn't have noticed, because honestly it's "close enough" and looks perfectly fine. I'm not a big stickler for scale anyway, but it's perplexing that the explicitly show-accurate line didn't take advantage of the higher price point to make the figure a bit larger when that seems like it would be more show-accurate. Maybe they prioritized consistent size vs. the Siege toy over that?

There may be a fair bit of chicanery going on with the Sunbow chart as well. Reminds me of this:

More importantly, your Artfire hasn't turned yellow? Lucky!

[Warcry]

I generally ignore Marvel US. The Marvel UK era I grew up with generally wasn't too bad for consistency, apart from the PM Prime to Scorponok equivalence, etc.

I'm pretty sure this was from the first UK comic I ever read:


I think it's fairer to say that attention to scale (or lack thereof) really depended on the artist in the comics.

More importantly, your Artfire hasn't turned yellow? Lucky!

It actually has. I've noticed with a lot of the recent yellowing victims in my collection that the discoloration is easily visible under natural light, but under artificial lighting most of them still look perfectly fine. Artfire, Sandstorm, Tigatron, Cyclonus and Jhiaxus all look normal when I'm looking at them on the shelf, but if I pick them up and take them to a part of the house that gets a lot of sunlight, it's super obvious. But I took that pic at night using LED lamps for brightness and I can't see the discoloration in it at all.

SG Starscream is the only one who's gotten really bad for me. So far, anyway.

[Denyer]

I'm pretty sure this was from the first UK comic I ever read:

#268 onwards (the issue I started back up with) the only original material was black-and-white five pagers. Annuals were always a grab-bag (text stories in particular). The US title had taken onboard the UK creators which added a bit of consistency.

But yeah, it's still highly situational.

The generations Artfire I've got has been kept well out of direct sunlight with other white plastic figures and there's still yellowing on the boxy part his head sits in. So that's entirely down to poorly chosen plastic formulas. Would be more annoyed if it'd been anywhere near full price.

It's not exactly a new problem that someone in the production chain didn't know/care what they were doing, a cheap G1 Scattershot I got recently has the forearms faded to pink which is an unusual reaction for red plastic.

Should have another G2 trooper and an original movie Starscream on the way.

[HeavyArms]

Studio Series +05 Gamer Edition Cliffjumper (War for Cybertron),

Studio Series +04 Gamer Edition Megatron (War for Cybertron),

Bought from JB Hi-Fi, which as been the only place in my region to consistently stock Studio Series and Legacy Evolution figures.

[Warcry]

Legacy Dead End

Bought this on Tantrum's recommendation, and I'm pretty happy with it. It pairs nicely with Drag Strip, who I've had for a while. Both modes look slick, the robot mode is fun to mess around with, and the transformation is neat. The dual-wielded, scoped pistols are a very dangerous look (is this from the cartoon?) and go a long way towards making Dead End and Drag Strip look like teammates. I know that Hasbro got 3/4 of the way there before giving up on Breakdown to save a penny or two, but I'm talking about Dead End today so I'm not letting that impact my appreciation of the figures that got it right. The feet are all kinds of janky, but beyond that this is a very good figure. As much as I wasn't impressed by the combination style they chose for these Stunticons, it definitely gave the designers a lot of room to make the two arm-bots into a very solid pair of standalone Transformers.

I'd figured that I'd missed out on this and that I'd have to look for the G2 deco from the Toxitron line, but my local Walmart (which did have Toxitron stuff) was also awash with Skullgrins, Pointblanks and Crankcases. I'm pretty sure I snagged the last of either flavour of Dead End. I'm kind of confused about why they're getting multiple cases of last year's toys now after having bare shelves for the better part of a year, but I'm glad I was able to get this guy out of it, at least.

[Tantrum]

Legacy Dead End

Bought this on Tantrum's recommendation, and I'm pretty happy with it. It pairs nicely with Drag Strip, who I've had for a while. Both modes look slick, the robot mode is fun to mess around with, and the transformation is neat. The dual-wielded, scoped pistols are a very dangerous look (is this from the cartoon?) and go a long way towards making Dead End and Drag Strip look like teammates.

I'm glad you like him. As near as I can tell, the dual guns reference the dual-cannons that the G1 Stunticons came with for alt mode armament. No idea if the particular shape of the gun references anything.

Not yet opened, but I just got:
Legacy Trashmaster - I've been liking these new Junkion yous, and enjoying how the head sculpts make them look like total dirtbags. Crashbar's facial hair leads the pack in this department, but this guy's mohawk makes him a strong second place contender. The head shape, especially the jaw, make me think of this guy as Bulkhead from a scuzzier parallel universe.

I haven't been thrilled with the part swapping gimmick, though. I tried to combine parts from Axlegrease, Towline, and Scraphook to homage Cyberverse Shadowstriker, since Legacy Shadowstriker doesn't. It turns out the forearms have different sized tabs, so you can't transform a bot made of an Axlegrease arm and a Towline (or Scraphook) arm. While examining the forearms closely enough to figure this out, I noticed that Axlegrease's tab is slightly T-shaped, meaning it stresses if you pull it out instead of sliding it out. Mine has visible stress marks and may break soon.

What's already broken is one of the tabs between the side windows and doors. I've glued it back on, and it looks like it'll hold, but I'm not happy about it. This happened when I was trying to transform an Axlegrease with one arms and one leg swapped, and it wasn't working. I mentioned how the arms tabs aren't compatible. The tabs on the legs themselves are compatible, but not the engine sections. So, you have to leave at least one of the engine halves out.

This is just the problems trying to swap parts between mold mates. Adding a Crashbar lower leg doesn't work at all, since it's longer than the other mold's lower leg. I may try swapping in both Crashbar legs. They're asymmetrical, so it'll fit the Shadow Striker aesthetic. I'll have to see if it'll still transform.

Buzzworth Predacon and Sandspear - on clearance from US$15 to $10.50.

Legacy Strongarm - I still don't think this mold suits this character very well. But, I don't own this mold, and have given up on Minerva. Plus, it's not like the Warrior or Ultra Bee limb versions of Strongarm are all that great. I almost passed on her because the head sculpt struck me as of. But, I looked at her a long enough to get used to the nose, and bought her. I did pass on Legacy Shadow Striker, though. I do have some standards.

I also passed on Legacy Bludgeon. The colors looked much better in real life than in pictures. But, he seemed kind of spindly for a Voyager. I'm satisfied with the RotF and RiD figures I already have.

[Warcry]

This is just the problems trying to swap parts between mold mates. Adding a Crashbar lower leg doesn't work at all, since it's longer than the other mold's lower leg. I may try swapping in both Crashbar legs. They're asymmetrical, so it'll fit the Shadow Striker aesthetic. I'll have to see if it'll still transform.

They've been doing Weaponizer-adjacent figures for half a decade now and it's astonishing that they haven't figured out how much more appealing they'd be if the engineering was just a bit more uniform so that you could mix/match/combine the different figures more easily. Seems like easy money left on the table.


Super Seven Ultimates Bludgeon

Feedback on this figure has been mixed to a crazy degree. I only unboxed mine a little while ago but it seems like I've dodged most of the issues that I've seen others report. The joints are sufficiently tight, and the scabbards and shield peg on without any issues. The helmets are a bit of a pain, but certainly not as bad as some folks have reported. The biggest issue I've encountered so far is just pure weight. This is a heavy figure, and even more so it's a top-heavy figure, so it doesn't have great balance. A figure stand might not be a terrible idea, just for the extra support.

Articulation isn't great either, but as a no-compromises, nearly 1:1 replica of the 80s figure that's not at all surprising. The helmet, shoulder pads, hip skirts, shield, and scabbard are all bulky and get in each other's way, so you don't always get the greatest range of motion out of the thing even though it's fully articulated. But to be honest, it's a lot more mobile than I'd expected.

My only real gripe right now is that if they could only do one alternate head, this ain't it. I get that the "Alas, Poor Bludgeon" cover is a really memorable bit of G2 iconography. But a decapitated Bludgeon skull should be an accessory with G2 Megatron, not this dude. A head sculpt based on Andy Wildman's art would have been a ton more iconic, in terms of Bludgeon himself and his portrayal in media.

Honestly, this is a seriously niche product but if you're as big of a Bludgeon fan as I am I think you're going to really like it. Especially if you had the original Pretender as a kid like I did. Getting even moderate poseability out of something that my mind's eye is telling me is supposed to be a hollow brick is surprisingly satisfying.

[EDIT]

Took a few shots of Bludgeon. He's very photogenic. Not great for "action" shots, but quite good at standing around looking awesome. Didn't try the alternate head because the ball joint didn't seem very happy to get tugged on.