Remembering that our old toys actually exist!

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Blackjack
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Post by Blackjack »

I've always... not-hated the Energon combiners. I have the Universe reissues doled out in quasi-G1 colours, and I thought they were cool little toys if not exactly GEEWUN, and despite my rather scathing reviews on them back in the day I have grown rather fond of them.

(I can source images from my old reviews! Also realize I need to retake these sometime soon in the future. Maybe rewrite the reviews too someday.)

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Warcry doesn't cover Silverbolt (or Storm Jet, as his original mold is called, I think?) and he basically sucks. He's not a really solid center piece for a combiner, and in robot mode he's got these massive blocks for hands and is generally unattractive all around. Compared to Onslaught (or Barricade, as Warcry had covered above), Silverbolt is really, really weak. I do find Onslaught's Leia buns hilarious, though.

Personally think that the two Aerialbot molds are pretty decent jets and robots (I thought the Air Raid/Airazor (Treadshot in Energon) one is kinda... unattractive in robot mode? I dunno. Really love Fireflight/Sykdive (a.k.a. Sky Shadow), though, from his unasymmetric look to his turbine gloves to those flight goggles.

The Combaticons make better limbs, but Brawl/Blast Off the tank is kind of a crappy ski-feeted robot with an annoying head design. Do love Blast Off's colours, though. Swindle/Vortex the helicopter is a lot more solid, coming with dual-barreled rifles and generally looking the least kibble-tastic in both robot and alternate mode.

Bruticus and Superion themselves aren't that impressive thanks to the sucky hands and feet, but otherwise serviceable as display pieces.

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This inspired me to dig out Fall of Cybertron Bruticus... nope, he's still as crap as he was when I first played with him. He has really nice colours, though. He makes an attractive display piece.

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I also liberated Supreme Class Predaking from where he was hanging out in the living room alongside the other ornaments there. He's a really simple toy, isn't he? Rather fun to fiddle with, but the oversimplification and the general lack of paint (partly due to the idiotic light-up feature) makes him feel a lot less impressive than he can be. The stupid spring-loaded gimmick that forces his dragon head in a reared-up position unless you force the issue is also annoying. Though those orange wings do look really badass.

He is a great, great toy that makes the inner five year old so happy. As a show-accurate representation of the show's Predaking he does it surprisingly well too... as an articulated collector's item? Not so much.
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ganon578
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Post by ganon578 »

Blackjack wrote:I've always... not-hated the Energon combiners. I have the Universe reissues doled out in quasi-G1 colours, and I thought they were cool little toys if not exactly GEEWUN, and despite my rather scathing reviews on them back in the day I have grown rather fond of them.
I'm actually quite fond of my Classics Devastator. The colors are well done (the bright green is and always has been eye-catching) and the Constructicons included are really quite fun. Scavenger is actually an OK toy, even though he has a giant scoop for a hand. He doesn't feel like he's too limited by being the torso, and he doesn't have a giant backpack like Barricade. His feet/toes could use a little work though.
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Blackjack
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Post by Blackjack »

Barricade's backpack is pretty compact, though, and doesn't affect balance all that much. You'd think it would, since it juts out quite a lot to the back, but it really doesn't affect balance.
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Warcry
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Post by Warcry »

Blackjack wrote:Barricade's backpack is pretty compact, though, and doesn't affect balance all that much. You'd think it would, since it juts out quite a lot to the back, but it really doesn't affect balance.
It's basically hollow, so while it's a bit unsightly it doesn't hurt him as much as it could.

And more combiner goodness (?):

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Grimstone! The most sought-after and hyped Power Core Combiner release! The only toy in the line to get the attention of our mostly-G1-crazed fandom for more than a few seconds!

Oh, and also a total piece of garbage! :(

The idea of a styracosaurus Dinobot is an easy sell for me, and I do sort of like Grimstone's core robot even though objectively it's not very good. It's impossible to deny that it's compromised by the combining gimmick, though. And the limbs are very lacklustre, with basically no articulation. The combined mode isn't much to write home about either, though the unified Dinobot colour scheme makes it look pretty cool at least.

Mostly, though, this set makes me wish for a Deluxe class Dinobot that turns into a styracosaurus, ankylosaurus, pachycephalosaurus, parasaurolophus or dimetrodon.
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Blackjack
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Post by Blackjack »

The Power Core Combiners are kind of bad. I have the Combaticons and I'm really sorry I ever got them. (I've just realized the amount of Combaticon toys I have amassed over various lines without even really liking them as characters. Huh.)

(Barring Swindle. Swindle's cool)

The Combaticons came with Bombshock too, who is totally shit and I think I broke his leg. He's probably chilling out in the box of shame. The other PCC dudes aren't so bad... Searchlight and Hugger are mostly inoffensive toys... no big flaws that make me hate them, but have several little ones thanks to their combining gimmick.. Searchlight comes with whirling blades! That in itself was awesome enough. Icepick is probably my favourite out of the ones I own, just by looking pretty badass with those claws and turning into the most mental snowmobile you'll ever see. Icepick is a cool dude (no pun intended) that seems to have the PCC gimmick installed at a later gimmick, and he's awesome for that.

Will dig him out sometime.
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Clay
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Post by Clay »

Here's how my Power Core Combiners are set up:
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I had picked them around the time of release, but boxed them for about three years until I needed something to accent Metroplex's bigness. Upon this re-evaluation, I decided that they're extremely hit-and-miss. I like the construction vehicle set, military vehicle set, and the Mad Max set, but the race car set and plane set are a bit bleh. Same goes for the individual cores. Fire truck, Huffer, and the snow plow are all okay by me, but the helicopter guy is pretty dire.

Would have liked to have found the tank and hovercraft, but it wasn't meant to be.
Warcry wrote:Oh, and also a total piece of garbage! :(
If you would ever like to part with them, let me know! I would like to see for myself. :o

As for the Energon/Superlink combiners, I bought all three of them on release ten (ten!) years ago now, and I still like them greatly. I'll have to dig them out now...
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Thunderwave
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Post by Thunderwave »

Clay wrote: Would have liked to have found the tank and hovercraft, but it wasn't meant to be.
Those two are my favorite of the PCC guys. The plugs on Undertow don't stand out that much with his color scheme. Plus if you mistransform him a little you can get his combiner head out in robot mode. Heavytread hides his arm plugs on the backs of his arms and mostly out of sight. He's looks a bit like Brawl as a combiner torso. It's funny how much better they got as the line went on.

On a similar note, a few other favorites:

Human Alliance Half-Track: Forget the crazy weapon mode, the little buggy and robot modes are where it's at. I liked this coloration over the Sandstorm one, plus it came with a little astronaut.

Dark of the Mood Leader Ironhide: Big, massive, and fitting even with the undersized arm guns. He's also the reason I bought Human Alliance Backfire and Whirl. Their weapon modes fit him nicely (even if you have to tweak Whirl's a little).


Real Gear Robots Booster X10: Basically an updated G1 Laserbeak. The only toy I picked up out of that line because of that fact.
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Warcry
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Post by Warcry »

Clay wrote:If you would ever like to part with them, let me know! I would like to see for myself. :o
All yours if you want 'em. Just shoot me a PM (and don't say I didn't warn you ;) ).
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Tantrum
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Post by Tantrum »

I don't have any PCC sets, but I do have 3 of the torsos: Huffer, Sledge and the F1. I didn't care for the PCC line at first. But, when I bought my mom some perfume for Mother's Day, CVS gave me a $10 coupon. That was enough for Huffer and some jelly beans. I liked Huffer enough to pick up a couple more torso-bots on clearance, but I never got any limbs. I'm not missing out on much, am I?
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Clay
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Post by Clay »

Tantrum wrote:I don't have any PCC sets, but I do have 3 of the torsos: Huffer, Sledge and the F1. I didn't care for the PCC line at first. But, when I bought my mom some perfume for Mother's Day, CVS gave me a $10 coupon. That was enough for Huffer and some jelly beans. I liked Huffer enough to pick up a couple more torso-bots on clearance, but I never got any limbs. I'm not missing out on much, am I?
Not really, no. They were a neat idea, making combiners in such a way that emphasized speed of assembly and auto-transformation. But the little connectors don't always want to stay attached, and not many of the arm drones actually have a decent hand. And of course the little drones aren't robots themselves, and that's half the fun of combiners, innit?

If you want to hunt one done, I'd recommend the Combaticon set. The torso bot is very poor, but the limbs and combined mode work about the best of any of them. It was also in the first wave, so it should be widely and cheaply available now.
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Blackjack
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Post by Blackjack »

Clay wrote:Same goes for the individual cores. Fire truck, Huffer, and the snow plow are all okay by me, but the helicopter guy is pretty dire.

Would have liked to have found the tank and hovercraft, but it wasn't meant to be.
I myself would really like to buy Smolder the firetruck and Undertow the boat. I kind of flip-flopped on Smolder until he eventually disappeared from retail, whereas Undertow never materialized.

The construction set look kinda neat too IMO.
Clay wrote:Not really, no. They were a neat idea, making combiners in such a way that emphasized speed of assembly and auto-transformation. But the little connectors don't always want to stay attached, and not many of the arm drones actually have a decent hand. And of course the little drones aren't robots themselves, and that's half the fun of combiners, innit?
Yeah, this neatly sums up all the problems with the PCCs. I wonder how much better the gestalts would be if they just didn't bother with springs and made the drone limbs just, y'know, transform manually. My main problem is that the auto-transforming feet likes to spring-load back on themselves and topple poor Icepick backwards.
Clay wrote:If you want to hunt one done, I'd recommend the Combaticon set. The torso bot is very poor, but the limbs and combined mode work about the best of any of them. It was also in the first wave, so it should be widely and cheaply available now.
I have the Combaticon set! The torso is indeed very shit. So shit that I have no idea where it is now -- it's not in my box of shame.

The combined mode with Icepick and Huffer do look pretty good, though.
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Blackjack
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Post by Blackjack »

So I have been going on an toy archive binge lately because of this thread, and I stumbled upon my Cybertron Metroplex review. Which has... ridiculously terrible pictures, so I dug Metroplex (or 'Megalo Convoy' if you want to be all Japanese) out of the shelf he's been displayed in for the last three or four years, and is surprised by just how tall he actually is -- I've actually been displaying Metroplex in his 'work' mode to have him fit the shelf he's in. He's a massive, tall toy that's fun! I wished his ankles can bend more so as to support his balance better, but there are so many strong ratchety joints throughout his long leg that it doesn't really matter.

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I'm not a big fan of his hand, though -- it's not really powerful enough to hold his Sparkdrinker (Sparkgrinder? Sparkcrusher? One of them) circular saw-axe thing without the support of his other arm. Here's his weapon with the Cyber Key thing activated. It's supposed to turn his circular buzzsaw into an axe with glowing lights, but that seems ridiculously impractical now isn't it:

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Also good jeez he's got a lot of Minicon ports. I remembered using him as a sort of a base for the Minicons to 'park'.

He's pretty tall and massive, easily dwarfing my Supreme class Predaking and Fall of Cybertron Bruticus (who he's standing in the middle of in his full glory). He's got a pretty m'eh alternate mode that's actually based on a real thing.

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His Minicon is basically Armada Leader-One with Twin Twist's alternate mode. His name is either Drill Bit or Stripmine -- one is Quickmix's similarly drill-based Minicon, but I can't be bothered to look it up. Here's Work-mode Metroplex and the Minicon in alternate mode.

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He's a massive toy -- Predaking's head, not counting his wingspan, reaches his waist and a normal deluxe like Tankor or Ripclaw only reaches his knee.

Yeah, I do like this dude. His arms do feel a bit too short, but other than that I like him. He's just this big dude which I'm sure is dwarfed by his Generations namesake, but I like this Metroplex better because I didn't find out about G1 Metroplex until like a year after I owned this toy.

Thanks to all our Energon Combaticon talk, the Bruticus team got a day out from the shelves too:

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("I WILL TEAR YOU APART!")

They're pretty cool dudes. The panel that Bruticus' head rests on is ridiculously loose, but I think that Onslaught is a pretty solid toy. Most of my opinions on the limbs -- decent but flawed -- still stands, though since they are basic class toys... wait, shit, how big are Menasor and Superion going to be then?

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Bruticus is quite posable and it really surprised me that he's got knee and hip joints. Shame about the feet and the hands, though -- they really bring the rest of Bruticus down.

Here's just a bunch of pictures of the individual Combaticons, which I think is a nicer, less loud version compared to the original Energon Combaticons. The bright orange energon weapon really hurt them, though -- they feel so out of place and all the details (the tanks' radar dish are particularly nice) are all washed out thanks to being cast in bright plastic.
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I'll have to remember to dig out Superion to replace his pictures sometime soon!
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Skyquake87
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Post by Skyquake87 »

hrm...not sure I like those dull colours on those Combaticons. I kind of like the bright colours on the Energon versions.

Metroplex looks interesting, but does look to me like a Transformer in search of an alt mode.

Smoulder and Chopster I sued to own. As a pair they were pretty cool. Smoulder's robot mode was something of an acquired taste though. The legs and shoulders were very kibbly and although posable, these things conspired to make him look a bit odd. Chopster is hilarious though. He turns into a nifty axe that Smoulder can bonk people on the head with. Torso mode is terrble though.
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Warcry
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Post by Warcry »

I don't know if I'm the only one, but Blackjack's pics (the ones he pulled from his reviews) don't show up for me on my home PC...I just see empty grey boxes. I need to view the images in a different window to see them.
Skyquake87 wrote:hrm...not sure I like those dull colours on those Combaticons. I kind of like the bright colours on the Energon versions.
Agreed! They look terribly boring in the ROTF colours. Those toys came out during Hasbro's thankfully-shortlived "everything needs to be realistic!" phase, sadly, and are the worse for it.
Skyquake87 wrote:Metroplex looks interesting, but does look to me like a Transformer in search of an alt mode.
Also agreed! He's got a really cool robot mode but his alt-mode just looks like a robot in the fetal position, with a shovel attached.
Skyquake87 wrote:Smoulder and Chopster I sued to own. As a pair they were pretty cool. Smoulder's robot mode was something of an acquired taste though. The legs and shoulders were very kibbly and although posable, these things conspired to make him look a bit odd. Chopster is hilarious though. He turns into a nifty axe that Smoulder can bonk people on the head with. Torso mode is terrble though.
I never cared for Smolder personally, but Chopster is fantastic! And the blue version that came with that terrible jet Darkstream was even cooler.

Today I've got a couple big ol' planes:

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ROTF Starscream is so close to being a great toy. The first 95% of his F-22 mode is strikingly beautiful, but it's all undone by his big, obvious claws hanging out the back. His transformation is genius and his robot mode is likewise almost perfect, only to be ruined by awkward legs with minimal joints. His "tattoos" are also problematic, because over the years he's been in storage they've been scratched and rubbed off to the point where they look more like dirt than a coherent visual pattern. I really do like him, though. For all the flak ROTF gets for overly complicated designs and frustrating transformations, this is one that the design team did a pretty good job on.

And I could say much the same about Universe Powerglide...so close to being great! A lot of people hate him because he's big and white and not GEEWUN, and I can understand that's not what a lot of fans look for in their throwback toys. But I think he's pretty good! His A-10 mode is really nice, with an imposing silhouette that actually makes it feel like the flying death machine it is in real life rather than the "cute" little plane the TF franchise has usually portrayed it as. The robot mode, unfortunately, needed some work. In particular, the chest doesn't peg together as well as it should and the arms are tiny. Hasbro should have spent more time on that and less on molding in a silly heart as a reference to a terrible cartoon episode.

The colours aren't great either, on any of the versions of Powerglide that got made. But I like this one the best. It has at least a little bit of contrast and life to it, as opposed to the very bland red decos that both Hasbro and Takara tried out later. It could definitely use more, though, and the purple Decepticon redeco was probably the nicest edition of the figure.
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Blackjack
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Post by Blackjack »

Warcry wrote:I don't know if I'm the only one, but Blackjack's pics (the ones he pulled from his reviews) don't show up for me on my home PC...I just see empty grey boxes. I need to view the images in a different window to see them.
That's probably just me trying to source it so that the pictures look smaller. They did look fine when I posted them, but they show up as gray boxes now for me too. So screw it, a quick edit later and they get to be big pictures now!
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Blackjack
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Post by Blackjack »

Freakin' laptop ate my long reply to those two posts!

[Quote=Skyquake87] hrm...not sure I like those dull colours on those Combaticons. I kind of like the bright colours on the Energon versions.[/quote]
[Quote=Warcry]Agreed! They look terribly boring in the ROTF colours. Those toys came out during Hasbro's thankfully-shortlived "everything needs to be realistic!" phase, sadly, and are the worse for it.[/quote]

I do like them! I mean, Brawl and Vortex are kinda boring, but I do quite like sandy Swindle, gray Onslaught and dark brown Blast Off. I think that the Energon team look quite too loud, though that may just be the yellow tank clashing with the rest of the team. I think this bunch of Combaticons are decent looking, if a bit monochromic... though Bruticus is like that in the first place, so hey!

Granted, they look really bland especially now that they're hanging out with Fruit Loop G2 Bruticus, but the Aerialbots are far more boring. When I dig them out tomorrow and get hi-def photographs instead of the embarrassingly grainy ones I'll show you.

[Quote=Skyquake87]Metroplex looks interesting, but does look to me like a Transformer in search of an alt mode.[/quote]
[Quote=Warcry]Also agreed! He's got a really cool robot mode but his alt-mode just looks like a robot in the fetal position, with a shovel attached.[/quote]

To be fair, a realbucket wheel excavator that he's based on doesn't really have a really exact shape beyond box-with-a-wheel-shovel, so...

Still, it is undoubtedly weak, though I'm thankful that they focused more on making the robot mode solid enough to support his weight and height without toppling over instead of making a better-looking alternate mode. I mean, he never gets transformed anyway, so...

[Quote=Warcry]ROTF Starscream[/quote]

I really regretted not getting ROTF Starscream. The Leader class, while wonderful, is too big and out of scale with everyone. The first movie one is awful, though holds a special place in my heart as my first Transformer that built my collection, and DOTM is sorta bad with that massive crotchpiece.

He does look pretty cool!

I always thought that the only real poor Voyager that's overengineered was Mixmaster. Long Haul's a little frustrating but nothing difficult, whereas Demolishor and Fallen have laughably easy transformations.

[Quote=Warcry]And I could say much the same about Universe Powerglide...so close to being great![/quote]

He needs more red! I mean, I don't want him to be entirely red like the bad Walmart repaint, but Powerglide is a nice example of 'everything realistic' Hasbro that ends up producing something nice. Just wished the robot parts, especially his messy torso, get highlighted a bit more. And if he has slightly longer and larger hands.

I don't like him that much, but I don't mind him in my collection.

Do agree that the Decepticon redeco (Storm Cloud? Tailwind?) look pretty beautiful, though. Shame I never stumbled upon it.
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Post by electro girl »

Time after time I always go back to playing with Beast Wars Polar Claw, gotta love him.
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Notabot
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Post by Notabot »

I kind of go in spurts of thinking animal TFs are great and thinking they're really stupid, but one that always makes me smile is Stampy. From the name to the fact that he's a red-eyed rabbit to the fact that he turns into big scissors, he just makes me happy. I don't remember exactly how it happened, but I wound up with two Stampys, and both are boldly displayed and pointed out to people when they come to visit.

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Skyquake87
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Post by Skyquake87 »

I LOVE THIS THREAD!!!!! :D

Polar Claw is ace. Sadly, mine is yellowing :( Boooooo. His only flaw is the spring loaded bat not working quite as it should and er, the attack claw always unravelling. So thats two flaws. Yay me.

COMBATICONS COMBATICONS COMBATICONS! WE ARE MIGHTY AND HAVE LOTS OF GUNS! WE DO SHOOTING AND FIGHTY THINGS!
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Skyquake87
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Post by Skyquake87 »

...COMBATICONS ALSO COME IN A VARIETY OF FRUIT FLAVOURS ... SIX IF YOU INCLUDE BATTLE GAEA BUT SKYQUAKE DOESN'T HAVE THAT ONE, JUST THESE 'COS HE GOT A BIT WEIRD WITH THEM...



...STILL BETTER THAN THAT RUBBBISHY FOC ABOMINATION THOUGH

MIGHTY COMBATICONS!



Also, Stampy looks ace. I did not know he turns into Scissors. That's amazing.
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