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[HeavyArms]

Studio Series Scorponok (Rise of the Beasts).

[Clay]

Overall, the new Lio Convoy's sculpting is really good, and it's a better and more durable figure overall... It's got few, if any, gaps in it like the previous figure (excluding the underbelly).

A year later and I'm playing around with this figure again and discover that his robot head can, in fact, rotate behind a piece that completes the belly side of the cat. D'oh!

Found the toxitron G2 leader Grimlock on clearance today for $35. He's standing next to the G2 Miami Vice Sideswipe who shares a similar color palette. I should dig out a Weirdwolf and Sinnertwin to have a little cadre of yellow and blue/teal figures. Have I mentioned that I increasingly buy things based on color scheme/deco? The full effect of having different figures in "team colors" is strangely pleasing.

[Warcry]

Colour scheme can make such a huge difference on how I perceive a figure!

I got Buzzworthy Skywasp in the mail today. I think the figure technically represents two characters? I think it's Skywasp with the Buzz Saw head, and Parasite with the Waspinator one. The latter is definitely the winner of the two.

I have a Buzz Saw kicking around. I kind of hate it. The yellows are anemic, especially the painted parts with a sickly green coming through in places. Skywasp is SO MUCH COOLER. The black, purple and gold make him a bit "stereotypical Decepticon", but in a good way. With Buzz Saw I'd get hung up on all the little things I didn't like about the mold...the ugly bug legs, the fiddly transformation, the waist joint that gets caught on fifteen other bits if you try to swivel it. Skywasp obviously has the exact same flaws but I ignore them entirely because the colours just pop so well.

I also got the Year of the Dragon Crimsonflame last week. It's not an especially good toy. It's based off of a dragon knight figure from TLK (I think?) retooled into an Asian dragon that turns into a robot based on a Ming Dynasty warrior. The retooling was done well, and the resulting figure looks great, but it doesn't hold together in either mode, and neither mode is much fun to play with. It's an interesting curio but probably the worst dragon Transformer I own.

[Denyer]

In the mail, the toy design version of X-Transbots Overheat aka Dragstrip as found one at a good price that specifically noted the shoulders had been fixed. I do like the recent update, but this hits more nostalgia buttons and I'm wondering about recasting some copies of the head for use on the Legacy ones.


https://i.imgur.com/hWO6ZWv.jpeg

[Tantrum]

In the mail, the toy design version of X-Transbots Overheat aka Dragstrip as found one at a good price that specifically noted the shoulders had been fixed. I do like the recent update, but this hits more nostalgia buttons and I'm wondering about recasting some copies of the head for use on the Legacy ones.

The back of the Legacy head is hollow to function as the seat/cockpit. Are you thinking of making your copies of this head hollow, or just accept the chunk of plastic where a driver should be?

I got Buzzworthy Skywasp in the mail today. I think the figure technically represents two characters? I think it's Skywasp with the Buzz Saw head, and Parasite with the Waspinator one. The latter is definitely the winner of the two.

I have a Buzz Saw kicking around. I kind of hate it. The yellows are anemic, especially the painted parts with a sickly green coming through in places. Skywasp is SO MUCH COOLER. The black, purple and gold make him a bit "stereotypical Decepticon", but in a good way. With Buzz Saw I'd get hung up on all the little things I didn't like about the mold...the ugly bug legs, the fiddly transformation, the waist joint that gets caught on fifteen other bits if you try to swivel it. Skywasp obviously has the exact same flaws but I ignore them entirely because the colours just pop so well.

I also got the Year of the Dragon Crimsonflame last week. It's not an especially good toy. It's based off of a dragon knight figure from TLK (I think?) retooled into an Asian dragon that turns into a robot based on a Ming Dynasty warrior. The retooling was done well, and the resulting figure looks great, but it doesn't hold together in either mode, and neither mode is much fun to play with. It's an interesting curio but probably the worst dragon Transformer I own.

I agree about Skywasp. I saw the green version in store at clearance, and still wasn't interested. But, I'm quite pleased with my Buzzworthy black one. He's with his two black bug box mates, and the Blackarachnia repaint from the first Buzzworthy 4-pack, acting as minions for Black Zarak, the biggest black bug of all.

I have the first two versions of that dragon mold, normal and battle damaged. I'm happy to have both, and like them more than I remember others back when they came out. I'd probably dig the red one, but I'm not interested enough to track one down. If I come across one in a comic shop, I might pick it up.

Kingdom Legends Megatron - from Big Lots for $8, so a bit cheaper than regular retail. I really like him, but the tabs holding the rear of the tank together are stronger than the pegs holding his lower legs together, so the lower legs come off when transforming to bot mode. I think this is a mini version of the Siege or Earthrise Megatron.

I'd've bought one of those if I ever found one that wasn't covered in battle damage or cel shading. Did they ever make a normal one? I was hoping for the MP-36+ treatment, where the bot mode would be decoed like the G1 toy, just with a tank alt mode.

Beast Wars reissue Terrorsaur - from Ollie's for $10, not yet opened.

[Denyer]

It'd just be for display, wouldn't expect it to transform with it on. The figure's large MP car bot scale so the head's a bit large and wide for a deluxe anyway.

There's definitely a bit of the same design mentality that went into X-Transbots Apollyon (Megatron) with this one. The arms switch sides by means of painted metal bars that cross over behind the head. The shoulders however are plastic, so you can see where the weak point is where the two halves are screwed together and slightly misaligned/bulging:


https://i.imgur.com/7hjToDR.jpeg

Definitely in the triumph-of-CAD category rather than a toy, there's far too many bits that if not spotted during the transformation would get in the way and get broken. It's impressively done, though. Very accurately gets the feel of the original toy in each mode. Maybe a little bit of a shame the decoy driver can't peg onto the back of the figure anywhere, but that's a cartoon homage.

[Denyer]

I'd've bought one of those if I ever found one that wasn't covered in battle damage or cel shading. Did they ever make a normal one? I was hoping for the MP-36+ treatment, where the bot mode would be decoed like the G1 toy, just with a tank alt mode.

Takara have announced one:

https://www.kapowtoys.co.uk/product/tra ... eries.html


https://i.imgur.com/GWljqfJ.jpeg

On the MP-36+ point I'm surprised that with the prices they go for there doesn't seem to be a 3P clone/KO.

[Warcry]

I agree about Skywasp. I saw the green version in store at clearance, and still wasn't interested. But, I'm quite pleased with my Buzzworthy black one.

That makes me think...I'm pretty sure I never even saw that Waspinator in person, but I've managed to easily get my hands on both exclusive repaints. I feel like that's not an uncommon thing anymore! The mass retail toy being impossible to find and the allegedly more scarce exclusives being plentiful.

Beast Wars reissue Terrorsaur - from Ollie's for $10, not yet opened.

I have one of these. I love the little Terrorsaur mold, though I understand why some don't. The show model wasn't a particularly great likeness, so it's not necessarily what fans of the character are going to want. I like it a lot better than the lanky Kingdom design though.

Birthday plus eBay has left me with a big influx of new stuff.

Transmetal II Prowl

I still have the one I got as a...teen, I guess? The chrome's beat to hell. That seems to be a common thing with this figure, but the new one only has a few scratches. I always loved this design and I still do, despite a few pretty glaring issues with the wings and owl head not locking into place in robot mode. The figure looks great in robot mode and I've always loved the owl too.

Transmetal II Black Prowl

I did not have this as a kid and I didn't even know it existed until relatively recently. Never really expected to be able to track one down for a reasonable price. It's beautiful.

EarthSpark Nightshade

I don't know the show, but I like the figure. The beast mode looks like something you'd see on the side of a building in Batman: TAS. The robot mode (and a lot of the EarthSpark original designs I've seen) reminds me a lot of MTMTE-original designs, especially Rung. The transformation is pretty cool, the knives storing away in the wings are neat, and overall it seems a significant step up from any of the Cyberverse figures I paid attention to.

Am I one Icebird away from getting all the owls in a single week?

Legacy Detritus

If I didn't already have a Universe Hound that I was fond of, I think I'd have been livid that this guy was a mass retail figure and Earth Hound was relegated to a Sunbow 5-pack. But I do, so I'm not.

It's a good figure. The colour scheme stands out in a good way, and I really like the new weapons. Articulation is as-expected for a modern figure. Overall, I think I like the Cybertronian version of the mold better. But that might just be because of how beautiful Hot Shot is.

Armada Airazor

Been after one of these since Armada. The transformation is a bit more creative than your typical bird-former, and I love that it has two different intermediate modes (pontoon plane-bird and armoured, winged robot). Kind of wish they'd figured out something else to do with the bird feet but otherwise I've always had a lot of time for the TM Airazor mold. The dark colour scheme with a few splashes of red, blue and purple is really fetching on the mold, especially if you've got the white and light-blue chromed original to contrast with it.

Her Minicon, whose name I can't be bothered to look up, is a pretty shoddy little figure. I think it's the third mold from the set that Predacon's pair of Minicons came from. I hated those too.

Armada Rhinox

I got the Fox Kids version of this mold about a year ago. Does that suggest that I'll be getting the original release in the first quarter of 2025? Actually, I just might. It's a good toy that I wouldn't mind owning three times over.

I'm a big fan of this stocky SOB. The coppery-coloured plastic they used for most of the beast mode is pretty unique, and like Airazor it really contrasts nicely with the 90s releases of the mold. The robot mode is big and powerful-looking, the beast mode is solid and the rhino-snowmobile is nice and zany.

His Minicon (Armorhide?) is actually quite good. Lots of personality, and a decent little action gimmick.

And after 21 years, I finally own all of the Armada beasts! It's one of my favourite little subgroups. I feel like these toys do "Universe" better than the actual Universe line did, if that makes any sense. And I say that as one of the few unironic fans of the 2003 Universe stuff.

[HeavyArms]

Studio Series 86 Scrapheap - Bought this a couple ago, in case it became hard to find.

Studio Series Wheeljack (Rise Of The Beasts) - Actually missed out on this one through several restocks, for as much as people seem to dislike this interpretation of Wheeljack, he has been flying off the shelves.

Earthspark Deluxe Optimus Prime - Found this at a toy fair, having never seen it at retail, nor any other toy from wave 2 of Earthspark.

[Heinrad]

Rattrap and Dinobot were looking up, staring at a holo-image before them.

"Well... it looks kinda neat. I guess." Rattrap looked over at Dinobot. "So I give up. Whozit supposed t'be?"

There was a slightly embarrassed cough behind them. "It me."

Rattrap and Dinobot both turned to look - again way way up - at the imposing T-Rex standing behind them.

"It old body. Me did like running over Decepticons. Shooting Decepticons. Cutting up Decepticons. Arguing with Prime. More arguing with Prime while shooting, running over, and cutting up Decepticons."

Rattrap and Dinobot looked at each other again, then back up at Grimlock.

"Is that not what you do now?"

Grimlock nodded. "Me really like chewing on Decepticons, though. Tank not do that."

Transformers War Within TITANIUM series Grimlock: It's amazing what you can find mint in box on eBay. Not that it stopped me from opening it, mind you, and I have to say he's not bad. Yeah, there's no ankle tilt, but his legs are pretty posable. The shoulders really let him down, though. The best you can do is either standing there looking imposing or put him into a squat. Still better than Titanium Ultra Magnus' shoulders, but that wouldn't take a whole lot. At least the ball joint setup lets you try poses, even if Magnus can't really hold them. Grimmy, though.... I thought there were upper arm pivots in there, so if I flip his shoulder pads with the openings facing down, I could do something, but I think that's just part of the molding. And after WW Optimus, I learned my lesson. Just stand him there and don't really fiddle with him.

[Denyer]

Not an official TF but this chibi guy reminded me a lot of the Reverse Convoy reuse of Hero Megatron from the Robotmasters line. Maybe the arm panels could have been done a bit more elegantly and some of the pieces snap together a little more forcefully than you'd like, but they seem more robust than a lot of similar figures. With G2 Megs gun.


https://i.imgur.com/0cykQ4H.jpeg

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71s ... L1500_.jpg

[HeavyArms]

Legacy United Infernac Universe Magneous - Bought from Amazon AU, in pictures I'd seen of the figure I always thought he had strangely proportioned pectorals and then I noticed that they were his wheels.

[Denyer]

Transformers Legacy United Deluxe Class Infernac Universe Magneous Action Figure is what Amazon calls it. Reminds somewhat of movie Ironhide.

Looks better than the stock photo as the chest pieces and hood are in pretty much the same grey as the rest, and the roof stays out of the way on his back in robot mode. But the most noticeable thing is that it doesn't feel completely hollow, which would be particularly odd for a rock. Almost feels worth the 25% off price. Despite the armorizer gimmick and arms etc being removable, out of the box joints feel sturdy enough.

The whole jeep in disguise thing doesn't look too bad as robot mode kibble, being very minimal. I could sort of see a half-credible backstory in which vehicular TFs try to blend in on an uninhabited world, or took a dip in a lava bath, and don't have a burning urge yet to use pebbles and/or resin on the roof portion to disguise it more. You can fold the front wheels and mash the whole thing into something a bit more like the shapeless orbital entry asteroid modes that the live action movie protoforms had, which is more or less what I wanted out of the idea.

[Tantrum]

Earthspark Warrior Jawbreaker on sale for US$9.50, instead of the $15 these normally go for. I see more of a gap in quality between this guy and fellow Warrior Thrash than I do between Thrash and the Deluxes, but I think that speaks more to how good Thrash is than any fault in JB.

He's basically the Grimlock design, where the bot arms become dino legs, bot legs become dino tail, and dino head folds out from the bot back.

JB has next to no forearm hollowness, which would be impressive for any TF. The bot fits are the dino heels, and if you look where they meet, you can see inside the forearm. But, the forearms look solid from all 4 sides. unless, of course, you have the built-in forearm cannon extended. I just wish the giant bot heel flaps each had an extra hinge to cover the bot calf gaps.

The dino looks better than I expected from pics. That may have to so with seeing episodes featuring it since then, so I've gotten used to it. The orange provides a nice contract with his green, grey, and red siblings.

The shoulder brackets tab into the dino forearms in bot mode to keep them steady, but not very well. Posing the bot arms can cause the shoulders to slip out of place. Conversely, the pegs that connect the dino hips to those same brackets are a bit too big, making them more difficult to peg and unpeg than they could be. That's not to say the pegs are too big for the holes, they fit fine, it's just that both could be smaller.

[HeavyArms]

Legacy United Windblade - Bought a replacement after my dog chewed through my first copy of her.

[Skyquake87]

Legacy Evolution Armada Universe Megatron
Couldn't really pass this up at 50% off the RRP at GAME. So, if you're a Transformer with a tracked alt mode, it's the Leader Class price point gets you cheater wheels these days. Sucks to be you, Bludgeon. Anyway, this is a Megatron design for the ages and it's still great. Really nice looking robot and tank mode. I'ts a wee bit shorter and squatter than the original, but all the design grebbling is there. The only advantage this really has over the original toy is knees. The shoulders I wish would lock in place and Hasbro went with a similar design to the Laser Prime mould; a flap concealing articulated shoulders. Objectively are really great figure. Stripping out all the gimmicks and play patterns of what made Armada great in the first place can't help but feel a bit of a miss. I suppose we'd be looking at HasLab prices for that sort of thing these days, so er, no thank you.

[Clay]

I have one of these. I love the little Terrorsaur mold, though I understand why some don't. The show model wasn't a particularly great likeness, so it's not necessarily what fans of the character are going to want. I like it a lot better than the lanky Kingdom design though.

It's almost at the same level as some of the disparities of G1 figures compared to other Beast Wars characters. I think it's the wings on the toy altering the silhouette so much compared to the cleaner design of the show.

Am I one Icebird away from getting all the owls in a single week?

Did this pan out?

Due to some fortunate timing or RNG magic, BBTS put up preorders for the second wave of Legacy figures just after they were officially announced, some of which I ordered, and they were in stock the very next day in limited quantities, which I had shipped.

Legacy Silverbolt's fun. I won't say that he's an essential upgrade since the original was/is so good, but it does some things differently in a clever way. He's actually a little larger, and the wings have a little more motion to them without the missile mechanisms.

Cybertron Starscream's fun, too. He looks fantastic and has a wonderful range of articulation, but he's quite light. Very nearly solves the one major issue I have the design which is the tail fins jutting out laterally behind the figure. Instead of just having them fold down (which would make for a better profile and also be less at risk of breaking if you drop it), the fins just pop out since they're on 5mm ports. Apparently there's a Prime series Starscream in the pipeline as a voyager as well, so that would just leave... Animated? done in this size.

I also got the helicopter rock, or rock helicopter. It's got an appeal to it that the car rock doesn't have for me (maybe the colors?), but the 5mm posts on the blades are molded in such a way that he can't hold them as swords. It's really daffy.

[Warcry]

It's almost at the same level as some of the disparities of G1 figures compared to other Beast Wars characters. I think it's the wings on the toy altering the silhouette so much compared to the cleaner design of the show.

You're right, most of the first-season Beast Wars figures were altered for their character models quite a bit. None of them are on the same level as, say, Ironhide...but Terrorsaur or Dinobot or Rhinox were really streamlined. I wonder why Mainframe didn't do that nearly as much in later seasons?

Did this pan out?

No, but I wasn't really trying that hard.

I have gotten my hands on a few other vintage figures lately, though.

Reissue K-9

I hadn't realized how extensively different this guy was from Wolfang! I honestly just thought it was a few of the dog parts that got changed, but after having it in hand, only about 10% of the figure is unchanged. It honestly feels like the guy who made Wolfang was disappointed with how it turned out, and decided to do a full on second draft of the figure. Whatever inspired it, it was a worthy endeavour because K-9 is a much nicer-looking figure than Wolfang.

Also, because of the heavy remolding, he doesn't share any of the mold deterioration issues that Wolfang did -- his missiles store correctly in robot mode, and no parts pop off of their joints.

Reissue G1 Soundwave (cartoon colours)

I've been trying unsuccessfully to find a reissue Soundwave for the last 20 years. I want to say this is the fourth or fifth one that Hasbro's put out over that time, but I never managed to track any of the others down. Ironically, I wasn't looking for this one at all, since I didn't even know that it existed until I saw it in store.

From a marketing standpoint, I'm really not sure who the target market for old toys in TV show colours is meant to be. Retro toy fans surely would prefer the original decos, and show fans would surely prefer modern, new molds that look more like the character models? Either way, the most recent set of reissues seem to have taken a bit longer to sell through than the last few runs did, and I was able to stumble into a shelf full of Soundwaves entirely by accident!

Soundwave himself is a little bit bland, as most big G1 toys are when they don't have their full set of stickers. And giving a Soundwave toy red eyes is a choice that I'm never going to get onboard with. But he's a fun toy! I can completely understand why this was one of the most beloved figures to come out of the early years of the franchise. Unlike modern takes on the character, the transformation is simple enough that it actually feels worth your trouble to transform it once in a while. By 80s standards he's got great articulation, and obviously the play feature with the tapes is awesome. It occurs to me that I'll need to dig out the Frenzy that I got from Denyer ages ago to go with this guy.

He comes packed with Ravage and Laserbeak, both of whom look really good in these colours. I've never owned either of these figures before, and my first impression is that I like both of them a lot more than I like Soundwave himself. Ravage is amusingly two-dimensional, and Laserbeak is so much better than any of the modern attempts at the character that it is, frankly, astonishing. I absolutely love the little tinfoil turkey!

The only real downer is that, as a cartoon Soundwave set, it really feels a bit incomplete without a cartoon-colours version of the G1 Rumble toy included in the package as well. That's something I don't think they've ever made!

[HeavyArms]

Legacy United Origins Wheeljack - Bought from The Gamesman, a company that has recently started getting into selling Transformers and other action figures.

I think the figure was designed with the car mode in mind, as the vehicle is rather clean while the robot mode wears the car as essentially baggy pants.

[Denyer]

Yeah, even as a mainly comics/toy fan the Cybertronian vehicle mode designs seem pretty cool (the Jazz one appeared in his TFU profile as well) but they were never really sketched out as transformable so it's always going to be a compromise.

And having not picked up the Bumblebee and Jazz already they're probably hard to come by now... guessing Hasbro will probably do a gift set of them eventually.