Remembering that our old toys actually exist!

Figures, collectables, customs and collecting.
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Skyquake87
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Re: Remembering that our old toys actually exist!

Post by Skyquake87 »

I do like the walls of colour. It looks so cool :) Love the Biege shelf :P

I dug out my Robot Masters! Kind of wish I'd held onto Gigant Bomb and Smokesniper now, but nevermind. I still have...

Lio Convoy!
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I used to have the full on Leader Class toy. Only held onto to it for a bit, as the spinning mane and spring-loaded missile guff where a pain in the arse. I like a missile launcher, but I hate those hair-trigger ones that launch a billion things off at once. Anyway! This lovely wee Robot Masters figure does everything the big lad does, just without the missiles and over tomfoolery. It's a lovely toy and great fun to play with. Lion mode is a bit long in the body, but it's cute enough.

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Delta Seeker and X-Gunner
Awesome Cyberjet fun! Horrible colours, but great fun all the same :) Still love those friction launchers. What an effective and simple gimmick. Love it.

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Nigel and Trevor
I never remember the names of these guys. I used to be really good with Transformer names, but there's some (like nearly all the Micromasters I own) whose names just don't stay in my brain. These two are a lovely smoked clear black plastic and orange terror (Nigel) and a cool camo'd robot jet lad (Trevor). Just cheeky repaints of the flip changing jets which are still exciting to me as they were meant for G2 but didn't come out until Hasbro were scratching around for stuff to pad out RiD. Great wee figures and now with added Takara stupid collect a weapon funtimes!

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Lemon Flavoured Road Rocket
Laser Cycles are cool. Loved these when I had the G2 versions, now supplanted by the cool RiD repaints and this one for Road Rocket :)

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Double Face
Disappointingly, doesn't have two actual faces, but is a nicely tarted up Road Pig. I think it's supposed to be homaging that motorcycle lad from Armada/ Micron Legend, but I don't know. I'm not the TFwiki. I just like the colours!

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Denyer
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Re: Remembering that our old toys actually exist!

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Skyquake87 wrote: Mon Aug 23, 2021 6:52 pmLio Convoy!
Do love this one, he's probably the best of the RMs. If memory serves this is the metallic version? Looks like the same one I've got.
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Clay
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Re: Remembering that our old toys actually exist!

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Denyer wrote: Thu Aug 26, 2021 11:53 am
Skyquake87 wrote: Mon Aug 23, 2021 6:52 pmLio Convoy!
Do love this one, he's probably the best of the RMs. If memory serves this is the metallic version? Looks like the same one I've got.
<squints>

I think that's the regular deco, not the metallic one. Hard to tell without them side by side, though.

I, too, need to dig out my Robotmasters...
Skyquake87 wrote: Mon Aug 23, 2021 6:52 pm I do like the walls of colour. It looks so cool :) Love the Biege shelf :P
I like the effect! And I'd be lying if I said that I didn't just buy a masterpiece Road Rage just solely because of the color complements to Sideswipe, Clampdown, Exhaust, G2 Sideswipe, Jetfire(s), etc.
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Re: Remembering that our old toys actually exist!

Post by Denyer »

Yeah, think you may be right if it's the body that's metallic painted. I know I've owned both at some point -- remember the DVD -- and probably saw more point in moving on the limited edition one.
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Skyquake87
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Re: Remembering that our old toys actually exist!

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Denyer wrote: Thu Aug 26, 2021 11:53 am
Skyquake87 wrote: Mon Aug 23, 2021 6:52 pmLio Convoy!
Do love this one, he's probably the best of the RMs. If memory serves this is the metallic version? Looks like the same one I've got.

...no idea! He doesn't look especially shiny and the box is long gone. I think it's just the regular version.
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Re: Remembering that our old toys actually exist!

Post by Denyer »

Since TR Percy is about to be superseded by the SS86 one, I thought I'd get in early and pick up an example of the one I like more. Lines could do with including a few more "real size" alt modes, IMO.

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Re: Remembering that our old toys actually exist!

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As is the wont of collecting Generations figures these days, you find yourself with duplicates of figures and I've been clearing out all the vehicular ones with ease, but these guys, I might have to keep having fiddled about with them again. Its the Thrilling 30 Beast Wars figures!

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Kingdom has been brilliant for updating the fleshy Beast Wars characters and I was considering moving these on ... but they're actually still awesome figures and hold up well compared to the re-dos Kingdom gave us. Well, I don't own Kingdom Rhinox yet, so can't comment on him, but still.

Rattrap is a really cool Deluxe figure. The engineering and finishing on him is really nice (love the slightly sickly/ oozy brain) and the look in both robot and beast mode is brilliant. The only things I'm not so keen on are the odd choice of translucent plastic for the gun and bomb. Articulation is lacking by today's standards - he is quite difficult to pose and the tail gets in the way - but overall, he's very nice.

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Rhinox is still a stunning piece of work. He's one of those characters that isn't particularly flashy or dynamic, but is very impressive all the same. The Rhino mode is lovely (although I do seem to have trouble with the jaw staying in place) and nicely textured. The robot mode is a leaner take on the show model, but looks brilliant. The pop of bronze and green is really nice and he's got a good amount of articulation to make him decently poseable. Love the action feature of the spinning guns too - shame Hasbro couldn't find the budget to cast them in grey/silver plastic or paint them.

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Waspinator! Still brilliant and easily my favourite version of the character (even though I LOVE the Transmetal toy). It's just really nicely sculpted and designed. The colours are brilliant and as with Rattrap, it's just the limited articulation by today's standards that lets him down a bit. Love the beast mode and the wing flapping feature.

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What a great bunch of toys these are. Handling these again for the first time in a while, it makes me think how good it would have been to have more of the Beast Wars cast done at the time. The plastics, design and sculpts are super nice and the figures feel better in hand than the modern ones. It would have been nice to have at least gotten a Voyager Predacon so Waspinator doesn't feel outmatched!
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Re: Remembering that our old toys actually exist!

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Skyquake87 wrote: Mon Jan 03, 2022 5:43 pmKingdom has been brilliant for updating the fleshy Beast Wars characters and I was considering moving these on ... but they're actually still awesome figures and hold up well compared to the re-dos Kingdom gave us. Well, I don't own Kingdom Rhinox yet, so can't comment on him, but still.
Honestly, I feel no drive at all to replace these with their Kingdom counterparts. It's funny, every other Beast Wars mold in Kingdom turned out good to great (at least visually, for the couple I don't own) and I was super happy to punt Universe Dinobot to some box somewhere. But I have no time for the new Waspinator or Rhinox at all. They just don't have any visual appeal at all.

I'm not even the biggest fan of the old toys. None of them are bad (though my Rhinox has always been a floppy mess around the hips and waist, and really struggles to even stand) but I fully expected Hasbro to best all three of them when we heard they'd be getting redone in Kingdom and it didn't really happen. I do own Kingdom Rattrap and I'm way more likely to pick that one up to fiddle with than the T30 toy, but he's so tiny that he really feels out of place with the rest of the lineup.
Skyquake87 wrote: Mon Jan 03, 2022 5:43 pmLove the action feature of the spinning guns too - shame Hasbro couldn't find the budget to cast them in grey/silver plastic or paint them.
I remember that was the first thing I did with mine right out of the box...a spray of silver on them made a world of difference.
Skyquake87 wrote: Mon Jan 03, 2022 5:43 pmLove the beast mode and the wing flapping feature.
The flappy wings make that toy feel like an actual Beast Wars toy and not a remake with the the sensibilities of a different decade, if that makes sense. I love most of the Kingdom stuff but the total lack of gimmicks just feels weird when we're talking Beast Wars.
Skyquake87 wrote: Mon Jan 03, 2022 5:43 pmIt would have been nice to have at least gotten a Voyager Predacon so Waspinator doesn't feel outmatched!
We did! It's just that it was Sky-Byte.

I've been having fun with a few older toys too!

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Generations Scourge
Abuse in the picture notwithstanding, I do still have a lot of time for this figure. I love that they tried to make some sort of sense out of Scourge, and to make a toy of him that wasn't a shellformer to end all shellformers. The new alt-mode is great, and I like the sharper silhouette the angular wings and legs give it in robot mode. But the engineering was "of it's day", let's say, in all the wrong ways. I always think this is a great toy when I'm looking at it on a shelf, or take it down for a few quick pictures without messing with it too much. But when I actually try to handle it...it's just not as much fun as it should be. The articulation scheme is weird and the transformation is unsatisfying, and that's a real shame because this is one of the best-looking reinventions of a G1 design that's ever been done.

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Takara Legends G2 Megatron
I'll always love this toy because I got asked to play Megatron in the site's Titans Return RPG, and I had no idea what to do with a Headmaster Megatron. I hemmed and hawed for probably a week trying to figure it out before saying "screw it, the head is Beast Wars Megatron". Around a year later Takara put this toy out and made that asspull official canon, so I had to have it.

As an actual toy? Well, this is the best TR Voyager mold by a country mile, for whatever that's worth. Like a lot of older figures, the lack of any waist articulation really hurts it in the poseability department. A Deluxe can sometimes get away with it, but on a figure this big, it's really noticeable. On the other hand, as a pure Transformer it's a lot of fun. Both the jet and the tank are cool and I enjoy transforming it between all three modes.

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Titans Return Blitzwing
So obviously I like this guy too. The stickers leave him a notch or two below Megatron, though. Mine has stolen the sword from the previous Generations Blitzwing, which helps a lot with the "cool" factor.

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Titans Return Octane
Octane is a solid illustration of why the jet/tank mold doesn't have to do much to be the best Voyager from the line. He doesn't do much of anything well, and he just feels cheap in-hand. The entire Prime Wars trilogy gave us a lot of really good Deluxes and Legends, and the bulk of the Voyagers felt pretty cut-rate by comparison.

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Reveal the Shield Lugnut
The poor quality of the TR Voyagers really stood out because five years earlier they were putting out figures like this. The shoulder design is a bit wonky but Lugnut is very poseable. The transformation engineering is awesome, and his bomber mode is super swooshable. It's a really nice reinvention of the Animated character, and figures like this are something I really miss in the more media-driven modern toylines.
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Re: Remembering that our old toys actually exist!

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I've probably found it easier to get sucked in by the Kingdom BW figures because I'd sold nearly all mine! Don't regret it, and its been nice to get new versions of the characters again, and I especially appreciate having slicker versions of Megatron, Blackarachnia and Cheetor (even though he's the weakest of the new moulds I own). I do miss the play features though. Even simple stuff like missile launchers are something I miss.

Crikey, the Titans Return Voyagers were pish weren't they? My main memory of them was all the horrible stickers. And everyone at that scale being a triple changer.

Lugnut and Lockdown crossing over from Animated into the Movie lines was super cool. I loved those figures. I like that the design cues and alt-modes fit so seamlessly into the movie-verse. Looking at how well these turned out makes some of the Prime designs reinterpreted for Legacy look kind of weak-sauce by comparison.
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Re: Remembering that our old toys actually exist!

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Didn't mind the stickers really. The actual triple changers were mostly okay/good (I'm including Springer, Sandstorm, Broadside, Octane, Blitzwing, Doubledealer as part of this era) -- particularly with some upgrade parts -- and the G2 recolour of the voyager Prime works quite nicely minus some jet parts.
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Re: Remembering that our old toys actually exist!

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I used Wingfinger's bot forearms, beast forearms, and wingtips to give Cyberverse Slag some over-the-shoulder spikes. I decided that giving dino bones to a Dinobot works pretty well. That left me with Wingfinger's bot torso and beast head. The instructions suggest using that to make a giant pickaxe-type thing that looks OK, but is too big for most figures to wield.

It took me multiple days to realize I should give it to Volcanicus. I reassembled my PotP Dinobots, put most of Wingfinger in his hand, and promptly remembered why I'd disassembled Volcanicus as he kept toppling forward. Taking Wingfinger out of his hand reduced, but did not eliminate, the tendency to topple.

I gave up on Volcanicus and separated him again. I've long since given up on getting Grimlock's hands to fold out of the wrists. Instead, I use the Voyager and Deluxe Prime Armor to give him Hulk Hands. I put Wingfinger in one of those. He comes close to toppling over, but does stand on his own OK.
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Re: Remembering that our old toys actually exist!

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I've taken Titans Return Sky Shadow and TR Sixshot out of what I think of as a slightly Japanese flavour Earthforce group line-up above my desk... Sixshot is just too big for the character, so he can be a wolf with random stuff on top of a shelf unit, and Sky Shadow because he also doesn't fit, but more-so because he's actually fun. Overlord's fine between CW Bruticus and downsized KO Devastator, but those should be big and tower. Sky Shadow / Black Shadow is basically Thunderwing, isn't he? Not meant to be a base in another continuity, as far as I know, even if this one doubles as a micromaster play set because of the shared engineering.

The appeal boils down to: the simplicity, that if memory serves I got him cheap, the fact that in the new rip off era it's actually a leader-class sized leader-class figure, chunky spiky aesthetic and being half a 40K predator tank / rhino with fold out bits that double as an intentional bulldozer type gimmick, and that you can also do this mobile gun emplacement mode to keep the main pieces together. It's more fun off the shelf than on, and there aren't that many things that tick that box these days.

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Re: Remembering that our old toys actually exist!

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I've had a quick look around the living room and decided that Sky Shadow is by far the most fun Leader-class toy I own. I don't know why, but I like him significantly more than Overlord even though Overlord was the one I was super-excited for at the time. The robot mode is a fun action figure in spite of the size, and the alt-mode makes for a fun mini-playset if you've got a few Headmasters kicking around. Titans Return was a great line and I think he'd probably make my top five figures if I pulled them all out and ranked them.
Denyer wrote: Mon Apr 18, 2022 3:42 pmOverlord's fine between CW Bruticus and downsized KO Devastator, but those should be big and tower. Sky Shadow / Black Shadow is basically Thunderwing, isn't he? Not meant to be a base in another continuity, as far as I know, even if this one doubles as a micromaster play set because of the shared engineering.
How big is Thunderwing meant to be? My enduring image of the guy is someone big enough to have a fist fight with Powermaster Optimus, and they put out a Powermaster Optimus in the same size class a wave or two before Sky Shadow. So the size worked for me, even though the toy never did get repainted into Thunderwing. A Voyager would have been fine too, but the Leader definitely comes closer to how I imagine the characters than the tiny 2010 Deluxe.
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Re: Remembering that our old toys actually exist!

Post by Denyer »

The Marvel UK/US answer to this is PM Prime and Thunderwing are a bit taller than contemporaries, i.e. somewhat elastic but not the twice the height of a deluxe that the Titans Return toy is. I think the old-size movie voyager Nitro Zeus plus the limited edition Thunderwing titanmaster that was released are a fair stand-in, having him in scale with Thrilling 30 or Combiner Wars voyagers.

But keeping a leader Thunderwing the Sky Shadow size, Overlord being bigger and Sixshot being smaller would have been nice. The main point of reference for Overlord over here was the toy catalogue, and I remember the box being pretty massive and I think only seeing them for sale in Jolly Giant. Like the Motorvators the design was extremely chunky and basic for the size and felt like a step backwards in terms of engineering (which was absolutely a consideration as a kid). I seem to recall being extremely disappointed with the selection, ditto most of the Classics reissues which at the time had originals showing up in large numbers at car boot sales and school fayres, and spending a few quid on Chase since the Throttlebots were amongst them. So it was always weird with the fandom going ga-ga for Overlord for years before IDW.

The only things that Sky Shadow might particularly benefit from, IMO, are a waist swivel and some 5mm peg holes to add on more dakka.

Titan/headmasters? I don't recall head-swapping ever being a thing as a kid. The "tiny robot/humanoid" aspect worked into the stories, and I suppose it added a play option to pilot an alt-mode, but powermasters were a fail as well, only the targetmaster concept really interested and even that was a triumph of cool over utility.

What surprised me was that titanmasters were done on deluxe class figures, i.e. so small. Obvious choking hazard.
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Re: Remembering that our old toys actually exist!

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Denyer wrote: Fri Apr 22, 2022 12:00 pm The Marvel UK/US answer to this is PM Prime and Thunderwing are a bit taller than contemporaries, i.e. somewhat elastic but not the twice the height of a deluxe that the Titans Return toy is. I think the old-size movie voyager Nitro Zeus plus the limited edition Thunderwing titanmaster that was released are a fair stand-in, having him in scale with Thrilling 30 or Combiner Wars voyagers.
That's the problem with trying to assign size classes to any of the important Marvel characters...there's no real coherent sense of the characters being a different size. Scorponok is supposed to be colossal, based on how the script treats him a lot of the time...but he's the same size as Shockwave, who's drawn the same height as Triggerhappy, who Scorponok is supposed to dwarf. And Powermaster Prime is the same size as Thunderwing, who is only marginally bigger than Jazz, who is supposed to be significantly smaller than the normal Optimus that fits inside the Powermaster's torso cavity. Having to fit the characters on-panel means everyone got compressed.
Denyer wrote: Fri Apr 22, 2022 12:00 pmSo it was always weird with the fandom going ga-ga for Overlord for years before IDW.
I can understand it. For most of us, Overlord was a strange foreign toy that didn't make it over to our shores. People talked about how cool Deathsaurus or Star Saber were, too...but those toys were very fundamentally Japanese in design where Overlord's styling fits a lot better with the Western line. Victory never would have come out under Hasbro's banner but Overlord feels like much more of a "what might have been". At the end of the day he's still a blocky 1988 Transformer, though. So it's only natural that the hype would outdo the real thing.
Denyer wrote: Fri Apr 22, 2022 12:00 pmTitan/headmasters? I don't recall head-swapping ever being a thing as a kid. The "tiny robot/humanoid" aspect worked into the stories, and I suppose it added a play option to pilot an alt-mode, but powermasters were a fail as well, only the targetmaster concept really interested and even that was a triumph of cool over utility.
The TFU bios sold me on the concept of Headmasters more than the actual fiction or toys ever did. I always enjoyed Budiansky's description of how the Transformer and the Nebulan got along (or didn't) and how that impacted the character's behaviour in robot mode. Young me fell in love with like Squeezeplay, Weirdwolf and Skullgrin even though they never got any real page time to speak of, totally off the backs of those bios.

I never actually owned any Headmasters as a kid, but I feel like that would have kept me from ever mixing and matching. For similar reasons, I never really got excited about the idea of "scrambling" my combiners or having my Pretenders swap shells, though I was aware that it was a possibility.
Denyer wrote: Fri Apr 22, 2022 12:00 pm
What surprised me was that titanmasters were done on deluxe class figures, i.e. so small. Obvious choking hazard.
Yeah, honestly I was shocked when the Deluxe-sized toys in TR turned out to be Headmasters. When we first heard about the line I was certain that only the Voyagers and Leaders to be Headmasters, based on the Voyager Brainstorm we'd gotten the line previous. I'd figured on the Deluxes being Targetmasters or something.

I'm surprised they managed to do such a good job of it at such a small scale.
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Re: Remembering that our old toys actually exist!

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Mmm, bios sold neglected characters in waves before and after. I like the non-Earth mode stuff far more as an adult, because it's connected to that limited body of characterisation, whereas as a kid the later toys feeling too plastic, cheap and oversized for the detail/complexity, or as if the transforming toy was an afterthought to the Pretender shell and rarely if ever a factor in the stories.

We're talking about this elsewhere, but losing detailed bios as a convenience to sell to other territories plus the changing conditions that limited the reach of and willingness to invest in TV, comics, etc don't bode well for nostalgia-based sales in later generations.
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Re: Remembering that our old toys actually exist!

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I was reading a thread about which TF reviewers people like, and one of the posters recommended some one's review of TLK Leader Megatron as a very entertaining takedown. I watched it, and found the review and reviewer rather dull. But, it did inspire me to take my TLK Leader Megs off the shelf for the first time in years.

I like the asymmetrical bot mode deco. The jet mode is great, with no underwing kibble. I like Cybertronian modes that look like plausible vehicles. That is, something that a non-TF sci-fi franchise would have an alien drive/fly around in. This works.

The spring loaded nosecone to cannon gimmick works in both modes. I didn't put the flame effect pieces in the thrusters. because I've given them to Hotlink and Kingdom Megatron.
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Re: Remembering that our old toys actually exist!

Post by Warcry »

I've been appreciating a small guy today: Universe Ravage!

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They've made something like five different versions of the character after this one, and each one has gotten progressively worse. The Device Label one was really good, but suffers from not really having a Soundwave to go with. The Masterpiece was okay, but really fiddly. And then we go progressively further downhill with Fall of Cybertron, Titans Return and finally Siege takes on the character, all the while the Universe one looks better and better by comparison.

Ravage here could use an extra set of joints in the forelegs, but I appreciate that he's not a mess of joints like the MP. He's way too big for the modern Soundwave in tape mode, of course, but I feel like he's a much better fit in robot mode. That's the paradox of the tapes, I guess...he's MP Soundwave-scale in tape mode, but Siege Soundwave-scale in robot mode.

The best part is that he was a random throw-in with Universe Hound, just because they had room in the budget to do something with. Nowadays a toy like this would be sold as a full "Core" figure on its own.
Denyer wrote: Sun Apr 24, 2022 5:39 pmMmm, bios sold neglected characters in waves before and after. I like the non-Earth mode stuff far more as an adult, because it's connected to that limited body of characterisation, whereas as a kid the later toys feeling too plastic, cheap and oversized for the detail/complexity, or as if the transforming toy was an afterthought to the Pretender shell and rarely if ever a factor in the stories.
I always preferred the non-Earth stuff myself. Whether that's a function of that being what was available when I was old enough to start getting the toys, or because young me was inherently drawn to "futuristic" vehicles over real-world ones, I don't know. Titans Return is still my favourite modern toyline, so I suppose some things never change!
Denyer wrote: Sun Apr 24, 2022 5:39 pmWe're talking about this elsewhere, but losing detailed bios as a convenience to sell to other territories plus the changing conditions that limited the reach of and willingness to invest in TV, comics, etc don't bode well for nostalgia-based sales in later generations.
Totally agreed! The bios were a huge selling point and cutting them to save on packaging costs seems like a textbook example of penny wise, pound foolish. I very clearly remember spending as much time reading the backs of the boxes to make sure I got a cool character as I did looking at the toys themselves. If they didn't have those personalities to catch my attention I don't think I'd have given a second look to any toys beyond the big, prominent faces from the cartoon and comics.

It seems like Hasbro has struggled with understanding why people love their characters since around 1986, though.
Tantrum wrote: Sun Apr 24, 2022 10:54 pmTLK Leader Megatron
I've never owned one but it always looked super cool.
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Re: Remembering that our old toys actually exist!

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Warcry wrote: Thu May 05, 2022 4:09 amI always preferred the non-Earth stuff myself. Whether that's a function of that being what was available when I was old enough to start getting the toys, or because young me was inherently drawn to "futuristic" vehicles over real-world ones, I don't know.
It was definitely the other way around personally, recognisable vehicles etc were a huge draw, plus parents in that era tended to view metal parts and realistic designs as better quality and value. The same with LEGO being highly regarded despite cheaper construction toys being around.

As the lines went on, the futuristic stuff was combined with things getting larger and more plasticky, really noticeably as a kid even though I got into TFs more at that age -- the early stuff was still around. Fast forward a few decades and the toys of the era are all *much* smaller in adult hands. Something like Ocular Max Jaguar has the same wow factor experience as original Ravage, it's still fairly simple but large, appropriately detailed and chunky.
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Re: Remembering that our old toys actually exist!

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Like many people, I’ve been trying to figure out what to do with the energon conductors that came with the Buzzworthy Origin Bumblebee. ‘Bee can’t hold them. Wheeljack can’t hold them. Only thing I can do with them is toss them in a box and forget about them.

And while completely forgetting about them(I set them on a table with my figures and just stopped thinking about them), I recently got a Siamese kitten. And as you can guess, he loves to investigate my figures. And chew on my figures. And try to plow through some of them. By some miracle he has yet to knock over Overlord.

And as he’s trying to annoy me by knocking over my stuff, of course he knocks over the notoriously unstable Legends God Ginrai. And of course, him knocking Ginrai over ruined what I’d managed to do to keep him upright. And as I’m trying to remember what I’d done using a couple of pieces of rubber tubing to fit in between the feet and the trailer panels on the backs of his legs.

Which lasted just as long as it took him to knock the figure over again.

So as I’m figuring out exactly where the weak pivot point in the ankles is, and wondering if I can do something to stiffen the joints up… and then it hit me. I could use a dowel to put in and prop it. If I had a dowel. The energon conductors fit the bill nicely, though.
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