Alpha OTS

Titanium Magnus seems to get slammed alot on other TF boards. I must have a good one because mine's not loose at all. I just really like the general aesthetics. It's the closest thing to a transforming G1 toon replica as we're likely to see, and I really like that it does it at a deluxe scale with a relative amount of good articulation far beyond what the G1 toy had. I love my little G1 movie display, and Titanium Magnus is a big part of why I like it. Classics deluxe Cyclonus, Classics Legends Wheelie, and Impossible Toys' Exo-suit Spike are going to be the icing on the cake! I just wish Classics Target Springer wasn't so big. Considering it's essentially a custom(and a cheap one when you take that and the good QC into account) the City Commander upgrade kit was definitely worth it. Yeah, the BFG's the weak point, but you really need to see this in person. It takes a Voyager class figure and easily turns it into a Leader class one, and that's without considering the BFG. The way the trailer transforms, the top part is the arm and chest armor, the bottom part the BFG, which is hollow to allow space for the back of the truck. One clever fan did find a decent car trailer mode for the set here, which looks pretty cool, but does so by pulling the top part off the trailer. There's lots of pictures showing some of the other features of the set at that link too. Apparently someone figured out that the BFG can clip to the back, but I can't seem to get mine to do so, and I don't want to force it. Edit: Eh, I found out how the BFG clips. You have to trim some plastic away from the one tab on the back of Magnus.

My City Commander set arrived today. It looks FANTASTIC. In person, it's a very impressive display piece. Plastic quality is very high. Not quite Hasbro quality, but damn close. It's SOLID, which was my chief worry. If it weren't, then the plastic quality might play an issue. As is, it's thick enough that I don't foresee any problems. I had a little bit of trouble getting the leg armor to clip into place, and some of the plastic parts there are a little thinner than elsewhere, so I recommend being careful with it there because of the amount of stress you might have to use to get the leg to clip in. The head joint was pretty tight, and at first I wasn't entirely convinced he could look up and down, but now that I've got it started so to speak, it has a good range of movement. Arm movement is a little restricted due to the nature of the upper and lower arm armor. Most of the leg movement is left pretty much intact, except that you can't put the legs foward into a sitting pose due to the lower torso armor getting in the way(you can see this in the one pic). I can't get either of the normal Magnus guns to clip into their positions behind the upper arm armor. Neither will hold position. BUT, that peg hole is still available on the back of Magnus to peg the truck top gun to like in normal mode, although it doesn't sit as flush. The real good news is that the fists on the armor rotate and more importantly can hold *either* of the normal Magnus guns. I didn't care much for the look of the normal Magnus guns looking like smokestacks behind the upper arm armor anyway. Onto the BFG...... As I feared, it's much too heavy. This is a catch-22. It's heavy because it's thankfully a solid piece, but because it's solid with good QC, it's too heavy for the arm to support. My Magnus arm wasn't loose per se, but even if I tightened it up, the weight of the BFG will eventually be too much for it. I also so far can't find any other peg holes or pegs on it to possibly peg it to the back or elsewhere on Magnus. It's either the BFG or it's half of a truck trailer. There's no useful mid-transformation to make it into something else. This is the bad news. The good news is that, I suspect by design, the armor kneecaps clip solidly into place and provide a rest for the BFG so you can at least have Magnus aim the gun forward(as seen in pic above). Folding the BFG in half so it's in its alternate cannon mode does alleviate the weight issues somewhat, but doesn't look as good, imo. The instructions are really nice, and is something I'd like to see more of. It's an instruction sheet crossed with a comic book, and is pulled off pretty well. It's probably not a good idea for kids, but for us collectors, this is right up our alley. I'm pretty happy with it. It's not a G1 movie Magnus; that title's still held by Titanium Magnus, imo. But it's without a doubt a proper Classics Ultra Magnus.

BBTS confirmed it here: http://tformers.com/transformers-bigbadtoy...10319/news.html I'm probably one of the few who is a bit meh on the news. My WST Grimlock's enough Grimlock for me.

Those fists were the first thing I zoomed in on when the page loaded. If only the real combiner had fists like that. I HATE the "energon" parts in Energon. That they're oddly proportioned makes it worse. Although if they make them appear solid colored like they did on Classics Devastator, it will be an improvement over the original.

And again, they tout the co-op option, but make absolutely no mention of being able to search for co-op games, which is a glaring absence that still infuriates me. I don't like playing deathmatch all that much, and Halo 3 has a GOOD co-op mode, but damn if you can ever find people to play it with you.

Just picked Legends Jazz, Hound and Megatron up today. Jazz is an excellent representation of Jazz for the size and with a surprising amount of articulation to boot. Pictures really don't do him justice, and he looks great in pictures as is! Hound is equally as impressive. Like the Animated Activators, I'm just really impressed at how well they pulled off this line. I just did not expect it to be like this. The only thing I don't like about Megatron is that you can't remove the cannon and put it on his arm, but that's being real nitpicky, I know.

Now that I've had the Tie Bomber for a couple of days, and have transformed him back and forth, I really like him. The ship mode on mine holds together pretty well. That #*&^@* gun that clips to the bottom of the ship has a hair trigger, and I've shot myself in the face with it at least three times so far. Pretty much the front of the ship is the back of the shoulders, the back of the ship is the legs(one leg to a pod), and the arms are pressed against the tie wings. I like that they tried to make the bottom of the legs have more of a transformation than just the back of the ship pods extending downwards. However, the one leg clips together fine. The other I have a heck of a time getting to clip together. When you start, the bottom of the leg is a circular shell which you essentially break apart and then collapse down so it's all closer together to look more like a leg than the circular part of the ship it was. This also creates a support for the leg so it's a fixed length. I really don't like that the back of the pods(bottoms of the leg) pretty much flip up to the backside of the leg but without anything to clip it into place. I also don't like that the pilot section just rests against the back and doesn't have anything to clip it into place either. It's these little things that don't clip in and need to clip in that are the only things I don't like about the figure. The tie wings don't transform at all and don't get enough out of the way. They're attached to the top of the forearm by a balljoint. I've found that swinging them around so the longer part of the wing is above the elbows sometimes looks a little better than the default. At least they're not completely fixed into place. I *just* found out that the fists do twist 360 degrees, but it took quite a bit of effort to get them to turn. Bot mode looks undeniably like a Tie pilot. The detail I like best is the hoses on the chest going upwards to the head. They don't actually connect, but visually, if you look at him from straight on, it looks like the hoses are connected to the front of the head regardless of which way its turned. Apart from the aforementioned heels and pilot section that don't clip to anything, the bot mode's pretty solid otherwise.

There's always hope for the Hanky...errr....Henkei version. heh. I have a feeling they'll chrome the wings though. I'm still bumming about how they ruined....errr, I mean, chromed Galvatron. Although I'm hoping it looks better in hand than it does in online pics. I found the SWTF Tie Bomber today. Also saw Grievous, but passed. I only want the OT molds. He's surprisingly good. The tolerances and pegging on mine all work as intended(I've read elsewhere of people having problems). The transformation's a little more complicated than I expected too. After transforming him, I see the pilot chair, so I start looking for the little tie pilot. Can't find him. Check the plastic tray, and it doesn't look like there was a slot for him. Look at the instructions and packaging, and there's no pictures of him. Search through tfw2005, and unfortunately find out that the SWTF figures that come in CrossOvers packaging don't come with pilots. I think I might free one of the stormtroopers from the Darth Star so somebody can drive this thing. Edit: btw, I shot myself in the face with the #&*^@!@# tie bomber gun at least three times now. The thing has a hair trigger.

The more I look at Dinobot, the legs are definitely mistransformed. There's clearly parts there to allow the "bone cage" to swing out, and I assume, wrap around the leg. Edit: Thinking about it further, it looks like that "dino thigh" becomes the back of the "bot calf". It looks like it's suppose to swing behind the leg, and then the "bone cage" opens up and then clips to the front of the leg so it's visible, just like in the cgi toon. It also looks like the feet are backwards in bot mode. Not that there's any transformation involved, it just looks like the back of the dino foot is meant to be the front of the bot foot.

Ok, they FINALLY do a proper Dinobot mold, but then don't deco him right. What's with all the black? GRRR! His face looks purple in that picture too! PURPLE! I'll cross my fingers and hope that's the flash, but it looks like there's purple elsewhere too. PURPLE!?!?! That said, it does get some big points. First for the rib cage on the chest. The legs look mistransformed. I see bone cages on the inside there that should probably be facing outside. Second it looks like a better Dinobot in robot and alt mode than we've ever gotten before. Also, WHEELIE! My G1 Movie display welcomes him with open arms! Maybe I'll sit him on Grimlock's head? I do wonder if it's a bit mistransformed as he does look a little too stretched there. The G1 Legends figures are really turning out to be seriously cool. I didn't think they'd do them this well.

He's just too obnoxiously large for my tastes. I could forgive the somewhat odd proportions if he were a deluxe.

More pay dirt for my G1 movie display! Exo-Suit Spike from Impossible Toys! It "transforms" too, but it doesn't look like much, not that I care. It's just cool to have a good representation of movie Spike and the Exo-Suit! Given how much I liked their Judge Quintesson, this is automatically bought.

Dragstrip's a pretty logical repaint. Pretty nice, but I'll probably pass. What's with all the white on Megatron? Sigh. You know, it *IS* possible to color it in G1 homage colors and still have it look like a real tank. The colors for that do exist. I'll end up getting it, but I can already see parts I'm going to swap from the old deco to this to create something a little closer to a true G1 homage. That red tip on the fusion cannon has to go for starters. Might even swap the head too.

So Megatron's not going to be in disguise at all again?

I think you nailed that intangible feeling I was having about him. He *does* look a bit too much like Prime in overall shape. Throw a Prime head on there, color the legs blue, and viola.

I always get frustrated that the RM mold didn't have knees. It would have been sooooo simple and made the figure 10x's better easily. It's also a better representation of G1 Toon Screamer, imo.

I'm not much into these Voyager sized classics. I'd be much happier with them at a smaller scale. That just seems to be the type of figures I tend to prefer anymore. Even considering that and looking at Inferno, he's still too basic and without anything that really makes him G1 Inferno to me. Now if FansProject were to make an upgrade kit with wings, ladder and nozzle hand......I may reconsider....

I was dissappointed with SWBF2 for other reasons. They essentially removed the "army" aspect from the game. Before you had the illusion that you were part of a larger force. BF2 with all its "upgrades" and smaller battlefields and troop numbers as a result pretty much excised the "army" from the game. I still much prefer SWBF1, but there's only one or two servers left to play the game on and it runs like crap. Edit: I just found out that my PS3 will auto-resume a dvd I took out in mid-play even if I've watched a pile of movies since then. Caught me pleasantly by surprise.

Cyclonus is just perfect. They nailed him. Needle nose and everything. The targetmaster's just a bonus. I'd be just as happy with him without it. I too wish they would have went as slavish with Galvatron as they did with Cyclonus. I'm a little surprised with Animated Blurr. He *might* be able to stand in as a Classics Blurr. The face doesn't have that "goofy" animated look to it. I'm a little dissappointed in myself that I didn't see the Mach 5 in it like everyone else. It's so obvious now, and I *want* that as a repaint.

Seeing them in motion makes a world of difference, I think.

It's pretty funny that Winston isn't really even in the pan and scan version of Ghostbusters.

I love that deco, but I hate how over-sized that mold is as it ends up accentuating how simple it is. At the Super class, he's just too large. The TakaraTomy/ToysRus Ultra scale version of that mold is the perfect size for that design. Bigger than a deluxe, better in scale with other figures, and it still has the electronics. Unfortunately the TakaraTomy version of E.Galvatron looks like complete crap. It's like they purposefully took the awesome Hasbro Energon Galvatron deco and set out to make it look like a cheap knock off. Yes, it's that awful. Given how they're recoloring molds from other lines for Universe, now's the perfect time for Target or ToysRus to do the Ultra scale Megatron mold in Energon Galvatron colors as an exclusive. Call it Space Galvatron or some such. What I really wish is that Titaniums would have continued for another couple of waves as I think they would have done the simple space cannon we all wanted. The molds were getting better at that point, and Titaniums being the collector's line it was, it was able to be more slavish to the toon models than the normal lines could. As for the Universe Classics deluxe Galvatron, yes he does have legs and feet that you can pull out from the rear treads to angle the back of the tank as you like. I HATE the orange on these little legs, btw. You can also do a four legged mode. Neither look all that good, imo. I've been trying to find a space cannon mode, but it's just too tankish overall to pull it off. This is the closest I could get.

Picked up Galvatron recently. I do like him. Quite a lot actually. However, every negative thing said and shown of him is true. He's a bit too small, the transformation is over-ambitious for the scale, and parts do tend to pop off(especially during the first couple transforms). When I opened mine up, the tank turret wasn't even connected to the tank. The knees are much too high, and the left arm "cap" never sits flush. The head articulation rotates only and isn't capable of looking up or down. The feet look kind of odd and empty. I'll add another negative that hasn't been discussed much. That's that he has a very sculpted and detailed looking right hand, but his left hand is very plain in comparison. I HATE the orange. It would actually look better if it was white The backpack's a bit problematic although I eventually did find a position for it that I was happy with. I like the little feet in the back treads of the backpack extending upwards reminiscent of the same shoulder structures from the toon model. If you fold up the rear center tank flap, the rear tread parts of the back pack have an open area that can then slide onto that flap. It's difficult to tell if it was designed to do this, probably not, but I find that it makes the backpack a bit more manageable and the right arm articulation isn't much affected. Speaking of the right arm, I like that you can leave it as the tank turret if you like. I'm an Alternator fan, so I pretty much like seeing complicated transformations and I also don't tend to handle the figures I have much after finding "the pose". So that he falls apart if not handled gingerly doesn't tend to bother me as much as it does others just as long as he looks good and that's what I like best. He looks good, and it's undeniably Galvatron and not another repainted Megatron. I'd certainly prefer if he were a bit bigger, but my primary need was for a Galvatron to have next to the Titanium movie figures and Classics Rodimus. Actually, he's in perfect scale with Classics Rodimus and the two look really good next to each other as I'm hoping Universe Cyclonus will too. He's a bit too small next to Titanium Rodimus because of his tiny head, but he doesn't look too bad next to Titanium Magnus. Next to Titanium Scourge is a bit weird. The scale should be alright, but Scourge's head is too wide and Galvatron's head is too tiny. Not perfect, but for a transforming Galvatron at the scale I wanted he'll do for me.

That's a cool MP Thundercracker display. Someone knows what they're doing for once. I picked up Activator Ratchet yesterday. Just like the others, he's an excellent representation of the character at a small scale with plenty of ball jointed articulation and a pretty neat auto-transform gimmick to boot. The picture on the back of the package is pretty funny because it accentuates the center vehicle seam so that it looks like there's a huge black line going down the center of the figure. Thankfully that's not the case, with mine at least. I had a chance to pick up Lockdown too, but eh, don't like the character enough. It looked pretty nice though. Now that I have 4 Activators(Bee, Bulkhead, Starscream, Ratchet), the scale problem in the line is impossible to ignore if you have this group of them together. They're all out of scale with each other to varying degrees. Bulkhead of course being the worst, suffering from shrimpism and inversely Bumblebee suffering from gigantism. Screamer and Ratchet don't look too off from each other, I'm guessing this is the "normal" scale for the line. It's going to be interesting to see how the Legends line can be used to make the perfect small scale cast ensemble. I'm already planning on getting Legends Prowl and Bumblebee. Bulkhead looks about the right size in alt mode next to Ratchet's alt mode though.....sometimes.... From the front, Ratchet and Bulkhead don't look too bad together. Oblique angle, the scale's starting to become somewhat problematic. Now the scale's real problematic. And then it gets worse. I'm trying to keep a small Animated foot print on my shelf, and the activators are nailing this niche perfectly. Between this and Legends I'm going to be pretty happy. I'd really like to have a Blitzwing Activator even if it only had one mode and face. I was originally going to pass on almost all of this line, but then the cartoon had to go and have good stories and characterization.

"Because the good guys always win.....even in the 80's!" Heh. Back to Krull, I always liked it but it is NOT a good movie. It looks very dated now, unfortunately. However the glaive is and always shall be cool. (a recent South Park episode had Jesus using the glaive!) A neat part of the story that I always liked was how the Beast tricked the cyclops's people. He gave them the power to see into the future, but the only event they could see was the time of their death. Try to avoid it, and they die an even worse death.