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electro girl
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Post by electro girl »

Would you be so pleasent as to let me see your pics first so I can decide?
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A Chinese cartoon where the robots turn into blingwads!
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numbat
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Post by numbat »

Here's one of them (used in a thread with a poll where people completely trashed my view that his colours are better than Bonecrusher, lol!).

Image

I'll have to search for the others, and attach them later (I don't think I ever processed them so they'll still be with the usual string of digits cameras give photos...).

New sale thread added with a range of Transformers including Masterpiece, Botcon, CHUG, RID, Movies etc.

Looking for MP-11T Thundercracker and MP-9 Rodimus v2 (Takara version with as few QC issues as possible).


Check out my new sale thread now!

Also items on eBay.
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Post by numbat »

Here's one of them (used in a thread with a poll where people completely trashed my view that his colours are better than Bonecrusher, lol!).

Image

I'll have to search for the others, and attach them later (I don't think I ever processed them so they'll still be with the usual string of digits cameras give photos...).

New sale thread added with a range of Transformers including Masterpiece, Botcon, CHUG, RID, Movies etc.

Looking for MP-11T Thundercracker and MP-9 Rodimus v2 (Takara version with as few QC issues as possible).


Check out my new sale thread now!

Also items on eBay.
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Post by Detective Barricade »

Am I seeing double, Numbat? I would say that a Leader Bonecrusher wouldn't be a good idea, but a Voyager would rock! Who knows? Maybe he'll be back in Revenge of the Fallen!
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Post by Detective Barricade »

It appears you lack a pic of the box art... You're in luck! I got him and Bumblebee the other day, and I still have the cardboard insert! You can use it if you like, or provide your own.
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Blackjack's review of Booster x10 mark 2 - [proofed, has photos]

Post by Blackjack »

Been reading the reviews I did in the early days. They are so poorly writen, short and not sarcastic enough. :D Well, I did those in less than two minutes, and when I was a Transformer noob, so I fell kinda guilty about it. Besides, reviewing the animated series takes too much work. So, without further ado... Blackjack's review of Booster x10, mark 2! I feel that Booster is the most error ridden review, without any mention to the earpiece.
________________

Name: Booster x10
Allegiance: Decepticon
Function: Propaganda; imitation of Laserbeak
Subgroup: Real Gear Robots

Photos, quote and bio is already in my former review.

The Real Gears are the new alternatives of the former Scout and Minicon three-packs introduced in Armada, Energon and Cybertron. They transform into electrical household appliances such as cameras and video game consoles. Supposedly some toys about to be released at the end of Cybertron line, but was withheld to provide more toys for the movie line.

Many of the toys feature visual homages to G1 Transformers that also transform into household objects. This little bird I am reviewing is called Booster x10. Why x10? I dunno. Maybe he boosts other Decepticons ten times? Maybe he is number ten in production? Maybe he has ten weapons? Maybe Hasbro just trademarked freaky names?

Sarcasm aside, there is no transformer previously known as Booster or Booster x10. But for the purposes of this review, I call him Booster, so don't go complaining "His name is Booster x10, get it right, you nOOb!" Please.

Oh, before we forget, Booster is a direct homage to G1 Laserbeak, in colour and appearance. This mold is repainted in white as Autobot Night Beat 7. Why 'Night Beat 7' when they can use plain old Nightbeat? His bio describes Booster as a completely different character. Instead of being a coward, artistic, or talkative bird, Booster is mischievous. He is able to change sound waves (no puns intended), making 'an ambulance sound like a dog barking.' In his sick sense of humour, he changes conversations in humans just to see what happens.

Presumably the Real Gears are created by the Allspark during the final battle or during sector 7 experiments.

ALTERNATE MODES

Yes, alternate modes. With an 'S', you read that right. Booster's alternate mode splits into two during transformation. As a homage to Laserbeak and his master Soundwave, Booster transforms into the updated version of the tape deck-a MP3 player. And a sleek one at that.

Fact: the nokia phone that is supposed to be mutated by the Allspark (not to be confused with Real Gear Speed Dial 700) was originally conceived to be an iPod. However, Steve Jobs wouldn't allow it. Ah, the complications of today's media...

Booster's head is visible on the screen, but then, there's nowhere else to put it. Other than that, no kibble can be seen. This, along with the game boy mold, are the only ones I actually like.

The weapon 'turns', well, actually multi functions as an ear piece. With a rubber cord to hang it in your ear. Never knew that until someone told me. Actually quite comfortable. But the size is a bit too big fer me.

And that's it. No ejecting minions, no secondary battle mode, no flashbulbs, no action features. But the ear piece is kinda cute.

BIRDIE MODE

And we get the robot mode, which is a bird. If we classify Transformers in those fancy scientific names, Booster would be something like 'cassetticus avianus minoris', while Laserbeak is 'cassetticus avianus majoris', Buzzsaw is 'cassetticus avianus secondaris', Squawktalk is 'cassetticus avianus gestaltus'. Sorry, been cramming Biology.

Seriously now. This is a nice cute little bird mode. Rather detailed, unlike some other Real Gears. The head is painted fully, unlike his Animated cousin. Booster's legs are movable ever so slightly too. His wings are not too bad either.

Red is the main color, with black and a hint of yellow, hinting at his Laserbeak and Buzzsaw origins. The 'ear piece' can be attached to the selection pad, forming a single-barreled gun. The gun is not boxy like G1
Laserbeak.

Overall, a 'meh' from me. Trying to look like Laserbeak, but not having a boxy body fails. Buy it only if you really really need a Laserbeak, but trust me. The Animated or Cybertron Laserbeak (that comes with Soundwave) is much worth your buck.

Durability 6/10 survived a coupla falls, but the joints on the wings might break.
Fun 6/10 unlike some other Real Gears, Booster is actually fun to fiddle with. Hey, he's Laserbeak.
Price
1/10 way to expensive when you can get something better for that.
Transformation 2/10 Easy peasy,
Overall 4/10 Not a figure I would recommend, but Booster is one of the better Real Gear robots. Definitely better than the likes of Meantime and Power Up. Not one that you should hunt, especially if you have Nightbeat7. Avoid if you can, but I've seen worse.
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Post by Treadshot A1 »

I'm glad i saved my cash instead...
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Post by Treadshot A1 »

Blackjack wrote:"His name is Booster x10, get it right, you nOOb!" Please.

First Snag, Now Booster? WTF?! :p

You do realise bascally every RGR is a homage to a G1 cassetticon?
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Post by Treadshot A1 »

numbat wrote:Here's one of them (used in a thread with a poll where people completely trashed my view that his colours are better than Bonecrusher, lol!).
Hey, are you saying that i think JC colours are s***? Ever heard of an 'antonym'?
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Post by Detective Barricade »

No, his name is Laserbeak. Get it right, n00b!:lol:
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Post by Blackjack »

I thought it was Buzzsaw:p
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Post by Blackjack »

Pics!
1) Robot mode
2) With bludgeon weapon
3) the Barricade gang.
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Post by Treadshot A1 »

Buzzsaw's gold n00b! Get it right!
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Post by Treadshot A1 »

ROBOT REPLICAS, PEOPLE!
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Post by Blackjack »

Pictures, first is the vehicle, the other three robot mode with the energon weapons mixed and matched.

You gotta love this guy. If I had the materials, I would kitbash it into Hound.
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Animated Bumblebee review (2) [proofed]

Post by Detective Barricade »

Name: Bumblebee
Function: Autobot Speedster
Sub-Group: Animated Deluxe class

"Enough talk. It’s time for action!"

The youngest robot on the crew, Bumblebee is what some - especially Autobot Ratchet - would call over-eager. It’s not his fault he prefers action over talk. Talk is just, you know, boring. Especially when you could be racing at top speed into a fight, or boosting into the air to launch a few well-placed energy stingers at an enemy. Nothing scares Bumblebee, not even Megatron.

Alright, I want to know who wrote this bio. Do they even watch the show? Big difference between Bumblebee in the Movie and in Animated. Movie Bumblebee was mostly mute, no thanks to Megatron crushing his voice transmitter. Animated Bumblebee won’t shut up! As for the “not even Megatron scares him” part, to quote Yoda, “You will be. You will be...” OK, now that that’s out of the system, let’s get on to reviewing the figure!

Alternate Mode:

Bumblebee becomes an exact duplicate of Chief Fanzone’s car, which is based on a sports coupe. And it’s cute! Not much gives away his disguise here. He’s even got a trunk for small, female human replicas, fuzzy cube thingies, air fresheners, and even a custom car horn! (Actually, it’s space for the torso to rotate into, but the piece on the back can move up to allow a few small objects to be stored in there). As with most car-formers, the robot parts make no attempt to be disguised as anything other than robot parts.

The few colors on ‘Bee include yellow primarily, with a black stripe running down the left side. The windows and all other translucent pieces are blue. There are also three different shades of silver: very light silver for the headlights, darker silver for the Autobot symbols, and a silver-grey for his face, hubs, and details on the boosters. And a red siren light of the sort that would be placed on top of a car used by an undercover officer. And no, it doesn’t come off.

Just a couple of gimmicks here. In either mode, you can stick a pair of boosters into peg holes in the rear windows, as seen in the episodes “Nanosec” and “Velocity”. They fit in there very, very tightly, and can even help release those panels during transformation. In robot mode, ‘Bee has a pair of energy stingers that can be put together for stronger electrical blasts. They need to be put together for vehicle. There’s a few problems with them, though. The first, in the show, the stingers rotate in place of his hands and sit where his hands usually are. Since this is virtually impossible to do with today’s limitations, they fold out a different way, and thus look odd. Speaking of which, the stingers don’t fold all the way in, despite space being designed to fit them. Yet another thing Hasbro dropped the ball on... There are two small pieces of excess plastic just beside the hinge that can be trimmed to allow them to fold completely away.

Robot Mode:

To transform Bumblebee, just watch an episode of Transformers Animated. Other than sticking the boosters on to assist with the first step, the figure follows the stock footage very closely. Getting the feet to separate can be slightly tricky, but that’s the way it should be. It means that there’s no fear of the vehicle coming apart literally at the seams!

In robot mode, ‘Bee looks absolutely adorable! (In a childish sense). Though the stripe now runs down the wrong side, it couldn’t be helped as the waist turns 180 degrees for transformation. What could’ve been helped though is the stripe being continued down his leg. Very little kibble to get in the way, and he’s got what’s called anti-kibble: the chest is fake. It doesn’t form any part of the roof in vehicle! And the screw that helps hold his waist together ends up in an... unfortunate place...

Due to all the twists and turns of transformation, Bumblebee has quite an assortment of points of articulation. The head, shoulders, hips, and toes are all on ball joints. When ball joints work well, like on this figure, they’re one of the best methods of giving some movement to a figure! Moving right along, there are two joints in each arm not counting the hand, the waist and shins swivel, and the knee bends back and forward. He also has some pretty good balance, rivaling that of Prowl or Jazz!

Marks out of ten for the following:

Transformation: 4 Transforms just like on the show! The boosters really help as well!
Durability: 9 Don’t let the cheap KO color fool you. This plastic is tough and scrappy! (OK maybe not scrappy)
Fun: 10 As if the monkeys had a chance...
Price: 9 $10USD If you like the character, this is a steal! If not, at least it’s not a big waste of money.
Overall: 9 He may be small and scrappy, but he’s too adorable to pass up!
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Post by Treadshot A1 »

Have you ever dropped him from 2.xx metres straight down onto tiles? His car windshield is so easy to totally remove. Ball joints.
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Post by Treadshot A1 »

Blackjack wrote:Pictures, first is the vehicle, the other three robot mode with the energon weapons mixed and matched.

You gotta love this guy. If I had the materials, I would kitbash it into Hound.
Have u ever read the thread in the kitbashing forum that has your name on it? It only requires paint and a brush. Seriously. Water may help. If you can't afford that, how'd u get crosshairs?!

Any chance we could see teh second pic in non blurr form?
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Universe Silverbolt [proofed]

Post by Transformer Kamen »

Strength: 6 Intelligence: 8 Speed: 9 Endurance: 8 Rank: 8 Courage: 8 Fireblast: 9 Skill: 5

Name: Silverbolt
Function: Aerialbot Commander
Subgroup: Transformers Universe Ultra Vehicles
Extra Equip: 2 1.5V AAA or R03 size batteries (included)

As the leader of a group of Autobot warriors known as the Aerialbots, Silverbolt shoulders a great deal of responsibility. He is a careful planner who never risks the lives of any of his men, unless it is absolutely necessary. All his care, however, hides a deeply insecure nature. Optimus Prime actually put Silverbolt in such a stressful position largely to distract him from his paralyzing fear of heights; a weakness he hopes the other Aerialbots never discover. He is a capable leader nonetheless, and has honed the Aerialbots into one of the finest Autobot units in the universe.

Newer fans of Tranformers may hear the name Silverbolt think first of a noble (if dopey) bird-dog. Older fans, however, will call to mind the stalwart commander of the premier Autobot gestalt team first appearing in the classic G1 episode “The Key to Vector Sigma”. Although not a regular character, Silverbolt and his Aerialbots stared in several episodes of the cartoon. This version of the character appeals to me in particular as the G2 repaint was one of my first Transformer figures. Now Silverbolt returns without his team, but in a size class that towers over his team but isn’t quite superion enough to look their combined form in the eye.

Alternate Mode:

Originally a “low flying” supersonic cargo jet that was modified (in the cartoon) to resemble a Concord jet liner, Silverbolt's Classics 2.0 update has him as a generic “fighter jet”. However, he retains his signature narrow, triangular profile. The detail put into the figure is impressive. Intakes, individual plating, spoilers, machine gun grooves, it’s all there. Even the nearly requisite undercarriage junk is streamlined and grooved to the point that is almost a non-issue. Almost. The figure has a large amount of junk, and no amount of detailing can make it look like it belongs. Silverbolt is not helped by the obvious nature of his junk either; the robot chest and arms are easily seen from any angle but the front, and a gaping hole in the rear of the jet reveals his robot head’s hiding place. Some of this is necessary and unavoidable, but after seeing the classic Seekers and, particularly, Jetfire, Silverbolt seems a bit of a throwback, even his G1 figure didn’t have quite this much undercarriage junk.

The main color of the figure is a bluish white and steel grey with darker grey highlighting some of the edges. Translucent blue plastic covers the cockpit windows, and appears along with translucent white and opaque orange on the thrusters. Black is used as a decal on the figure’s neck, writing “Bolt-25", and on both wing tips, writing “25" in the center of a silver Air-Force insignia (both are references to the 25th anniversary line due out in 2009--thanks to Nevermore for finding that info). Gold and safety orange peek out from the undercarriage, and the same shade of orange also colors the landing gear.

As an Ultra class figure, Silverbolt has plenty of gimmicks. We’ll start with the mundane and work our way up. Like nearly all jet figures, Silverbolt has retractable landing gear, which do roll, though not extremely well, but are fine for display. Silverbolt comes with a rifle (which bears a striking resemblance to his G1 weapon) and an orange missile. The rifle’s peg fits snugly in a hole beneath the plane’s cockpit. I think it looks kinda goofy there, but it offers a nice storage option. The missile does fire and travels a decent distance.

Now, then, on to the real gimmicks!

Silverbolt comes armed with several electronic features and the batteries to power them. All of his sounds are activated by pressing the maroon button between his thrusters. He has three distinct sounds that rotate in a specific order. The first is a machine gun sound that is accompanied by green LEDs that flash on both sides of the plane’s neck. Hold the button down and the sound and lights will continue until the button is released. The second press activates a short jet “swooshing” sound. A third and final press flashes the orange LEDs in each thruster port and sounds off a short thruster activation sound. I’m not a fan of this kind of thing, but it doesn’t detract from the figure, and I suppose it helps justify the Ultra price point.

Overall, Silverbolt’s vehicle mode is a nice update from his G1 mold, but considering the other transforming planes on the market, he doesn’t offer anything particularly great.

Silverbolt, maximize!

Ahem.

Silverbolt’s robot mode is just as detailed as his vehicle mode, if not more so. He is actually sculpted to give the impression of multiple layers, especially in the chest, which seems to be designed to allude to the chest piece of G1 Superion. In perhaps another nod to G1, Silverbolt appears very blocky and has almost no curves; however, his limbs are long (especially his fingers!), nearly gangly, particularly his legs, another nod to both his G1 figure and the stilt-like limbs the Superion toy ran around on. He retains the cockpit on his back and the wings behind his arms, though the orientations are reversed. A good show all around.

On of the few transformers to do so, Silverbolt’s color scheme is completely different from his alt mode. Maroon takes the lead, augmented by silver and grey, with gold throw in for good measure. Interesting fact, the color scheme matches almost exactly with G1 Silverbolt; however, this figure’s colors are dull shades. Although he does have worn appearance, the choice for subdued colors seems odd in light of the trend to give Autobots bright color schemes.

Despite the rampant nostalgia, the figure’s articulation is thankfully modern. Ratchets dominate his major joints, and bicep and thigh swivels grant him a wider range. His head is pinned, and, due to his transformation, his waist is stationary. For those concerned, the planes wings do restrict his limb rotation but only to keep them (and his head) from moving in a complete circle; he can still strike some dynamic poses, regardless. However, the plane pieces do make the figure top heavy, but not horribly so. His balance also suffers a bit because his heels don’t extend out very far, and one of mine likes to swing back into his foot of its own accord.

The gimmicks from his alt mode are modified slightly. Pressing the button on his back activates the machine gun sound, complete with the flashing LEDs on the plane’s cockpit. And that’s it. The button will activate no other sounds. However, when Silverbolt’s hips are extended or retracted the classic transforming sound will play and all LEDs will flash, including two green displays in his eyes. Once again, I’m not impressed, but he still has his gun and firing missile, so whatever.

Like his alt mode, solid, but nothing super impressive.

Transformation: Nowhere near the level 3 conversion the box proclaims, yet not as annoyingly simple as some other large figures. 3/10

Durability: His heels seem a little tender. Otherwise, no problems. 9/10

Fun: I like the character, so I’m a little bias. On the whole, though, I do think he’s a fun toy 8/10

Price: $25 USD Usually out of my price point, but Silverbolt (and Onslaught) are a special case. Still, I do feel a that I wanted a little bit more for the price. 4/10

Overall: A mixed bag. The figure is mechanically sound, but doesn’t offer much to justify either the size or the price, aside from electronic gimmicks, which are a dubious reason at best. As a Deluxe or a Voyager, I would recommend Silverbolt wholeheartedly. As an Ultra, I recommend you decide how much you like G1 Silverbolt before putting the money down for this update. 6/10 (+points for being Silverbolt)
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Post by Transformer Kamen »

1) Vanilla alt mode
2) + gun
3) Compare with G2 Silverbolt
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