The Transformers Thread (licensed) Next

[mikeszekely]

Oh, found these on reddit.

EDIT: Technically Studio Series Widowmaker has also leaked, and she looks pretty decent for a Bayformer (she actually uses a lot of the car parts in her body, and the orange McLaren 12c alt mode is swish), but I don't think most of you care about Bayverse stuff.

Edited Sunday at 03:54 AM by mikeszekely

[mikeszekely]

Aside from his fusion cannon and back cannon, he comes with the laser sword from the movie and a pistol that looks like his cartoon alt mode rather than the pistol he murdered Prime with.  Both can be stored on his back in bot mode.  Not sure where the official storage in tank mode is, but I'm sure it's there somewhere.

 

[M'Kyuun]

I have to commend Takara, as this their most convincing effort thus far at producing a G1 Megs bot that turns into a relatively believable modern tank. However, the turret is a bit of a letdown, as it does nothing to disguise the fact that it's a giant pistol scope pinched between two arms, and that's a shame given how well the lower half turned out. Honestly, I'd have happily paid the commander price for the additional engineering to make that turret look more believable. Additionally, the pistol barrel sticking out of the scope isn't winning any credibility points either and it just looks tacky. It feels like 90% of their effort was spent on getting the body and legs to form a convincing tank base, and then they just kinda gave up when it came to the turret, recycling the same old technique used before with zero regard for pesky realism.

The dark grey color of the legs is a bit of an odd choice, as well as the color of his waist skirts. Seems like Mark or Evan would be all over that to correct them, but I have a feeling what we're seeing is pretty close to final.

I like the chunky proportions of Megs; overall, they really nailed the G1 aesthetic and that was likely the priority over all. To that end, I'd say they succeeded.

Unless Hasbro let this slip accidentally on purpose, this is quite a coup, as I'm sure internal anticipation was high to reveal this on a fanstream. Genie's outta the bottle now, though.

Edited Sunday at 04:10 AM by M'Kyuun

[Chronocidal]

Huh.. yeah, that shin color is an odd choice, especially when his hips are already a better color of plastic.

[M'Kyuun]

2 minutes ago, Chronocidal said:

Huh.. yeah, that shin color is an odd choice, especially when his hips are already a better color of plastic.

I'm having a tough time determining if they're black or a gunmetal color, but it looks gunmetal along with the scope/fusion cannon, both of which should be unquestionably black. I hope there's a 3P add-on kit featuring a transforming scope that folds so as to present a corresponding grey upper turret surface, perhaps with hatch cover detail, and the back halves of the scope rotate and swing around to fill out and give a better shape to the back of the turret. As is, it just doesn't look very good, certainly not up to the standard we've come to expect.

[mikeszekely]

10 minutes ago, M'Kyuun said:

but I have a feeling what we're seeing is pretty close to final.

Yeah, word is that Megatron's already reached port in the US.

11 minutes ago, M'Kyuun said:

Unless Hasbro let this slip accidentally on purpose, this is quite a coup, as I'm sure internal anticipation was high to reveal this on a fanstream. Genie's outta the bottle now, though.

I don't think Hasbro leaked it, I think they were planning on officially revealing it on the 10th.  It's just far enough along that regardless of whatever wave Hasbro was saving it for copies have made it out of the factory in a less-than-legal manner.

[M'Kyuun]

1 minute ago, mikeszekely said:

Yeah, word is that Megatron's already reached port in the US.

I don't think Hasbro leaked it, I think they were planning on officially revealing it on the 10th.  It's just far enough along that regardless of whatever wave Hasbro was saving it for copies have made it out of the factory in a less-than-legal manner.

Yeah. While it's nice to see it, I'm patient enough to wait for official revelation at Hasbro's discretion, as I enjoy the anticipation and excitement of the designers and marketers who present these things after pouring a lot of work into them. This, we all know, was a big deal, and I kinda wish the leakers had just let it be. Alas, it's all about viewer numbers these days and less about integrity or respect for the company.

[sh9000]

Megatron looks good in robot mode.

I'll use the fusion cannon and smaller Megatron gun from DK-59.

[mikeszekely]

46 minutes ago, sh9000 said:

Megatron looks good in robot mode.

I'll use the fusion cannon and smaller Megatron gun from DK-59.

I'm getting the DK-59 kit and a KO SS86 Prime to make into Skybound Prime, but I'll note that if you're* fine with the pistol 86 Megatron comes with and don't really want/need the Optimus parts and Megatron arm DNA is also (pre) selling just the fusion cannon for about $6.

(*The plural you, as in everyone reading this post, not you specifically @sh9000, who I expect is still in for the whole kit.)

[Black Valkyrie]

 

Interesting, I hope the price is reasonable. 

 

[sh9000]

https://fb.watch/zY3acWEjdN/?mibextid=wwXlfr

Megatron transformation.

Edited Sunday at 02:02 PM by sh9000

[26662]

12 hours ago, M'Kyuun said:

The dark grey color of the legs is a bit of an odd choice, as well as the color of his waist skirts. Seems like Mark or Evan would be all over that to correct them, but I have a feeling what we're seeing is pretty close to final.

Skirt color seems reasonable if I understand your point.  Using the same grey as the thighs would have left the figure with dark-grey T-shaped “twig and berries.”  The jokes would write themselves.

[mikeszekely]

1 hour ago, 26662 said:

Skirt color seems reasonable if I understand your point.  Using the same grey as the thighs would have left the figure with dark-grey T-shaped “twig and berries.”  The jokes would write themselves.

Yeah, the hip skirts are fine.  It's supposed to be his black pelvis, but the flaps on the front move with the thigh, like 86 Optimus.

[Negotiator]

Impressive.  Face looks good too.  

[sh9000]

https://www.walmart.com/ip/TRA-GEN-STUDIO-SERIES-LDR-86-MEGATRON/14904023810

https://www.walmart.com/ip/TRA-GEN-STUDIO-SERIES-LDR-86-GRIMLOCK/14947820505

[sh9000]

Silverbolt.

 

[Black Valkyrie]

 

 

 

[Negotiator]

When does Megatron go for PO everywhere else?

[mikeszekely]

11 minutes ago, Negotiator said:

When does Megatron go for PO everywhere else?

No official word yet.  I've heard June 10th (which would be like a Transformers Tuesday, maybe with a livestream?), but I've also seen June 11th and June 16th as potential dates from Entertainment Earth's cryptic clues on the drop zone calendar.  Soon as I know something more definite I'll let you guys know.

[Hikuro]

I think I'll preorder it. I'm really impressed with his Robot mode....vehicle mode, I mean it's okay, fairly heavy retool of Megatronus though isn't he? Either case, I'll order him as the replacement of my .......15+ year old Hegemon(?)

[sh9000]

Preordered Megatron and Grimlock reissue yesterday.  The Walmart listings are now taken down.

[mikeszekely]

4 hours ago, Hikuro said:

fairly heavy retool of Megatronus though isn't he?

Nope!  Before Megatron was revealed I'd have bet that was the case, but I'm happy to report that's not the case.  They have similarities in that they're both tanks, both form their turrets from their arms and arm cannons with their back cannons making the barrel, and both have their chests end up at the front of the tank and legs (mostly) at the back.  But that's about it.  Near as I can tell, they have no shared parts.   Transformation is quite different, too.  Megatron's is sort of laying on his front, with his chest flipped up over his head.  His legs rotate 180 degrees to form the rear treads, but the front of the treads are (mostly) his backpack.  For Megatron, his waist detaches and double hinges so the bottom of his spine and the top of his pelvis are on the bottom of the tank.  His head folds in and his chest flips up to form the front of the tank with the top of his torso.  His back also opens up, and the joints that move the arms unfurl from inside his back.  His shins combiner wars up over his thighs with his feet, which kind of tuck into the back of the tank, and his lower legs split, unfold, and wrap around the sides to form the entirety of the treads.  IMHO, it's a more clever and interesting transformation, even if the turret still winds up looking kind of crappy.

Anywho... kinda forgot about these Amazon-exclusive repaints until they showed up on my porch.  They're a continuation of Amazon's previous exclusive capsules, in that they're a mix of Wreckers and Mayhem Attack Squad guys (with a little IDW comic stuff thrown in).

In the first set, representing the Mayhem Attack Squad, we've got Carnivac.  Carnivac himself is a straight repaint of Titans Return Weirdwolf, but he does come with some new accessories.  Namely, we have a shorter tail sword, a brand new gun that's modeled after the G1 toy, and a new face.  Now, there's a part of me that wants to say that Hasbro is pretty lazy here, reusing TR Weirdwolf for Carnivac just because they're both wolves when the G1 toys were nothing alike.  Fact is, it actually does kind of work, though.  As a Pretender, Carnivac didn't have the most detailed toy.  In broad strokes, purple on the top with brown legs is correct.  His chest is painted brown where the wolf's lower jaw sat (ala Slag).  My biggest complaints are actually going to wind up being that his shoulders are too tall, he doesn't have the top of the wolf's head behind his bot head (again, ala Slag), and he has blue forearms and hands, which...

...is a concession to his alt mode, where blue forelimbs are now accurate.  Though he still has molded eyes, he's got a painted visor like the G1 toy.  His lower jaw and chest are accurately brown, too bad there isn't more of it on his back.  There is some brown on his hips and thighs, which isn't accurate here but a concession to his bot mode.  Most of the rest of his leg is blue; purple would have been better, and at first glance since it's covered in bot mode you might think there's no reason it couldn't have been, but a closer look tells me that those parts were on the same sprue as his forelimbs.  The blue tail (which I believe is actually cast in purple plastic and painted blue) is accurate.

Since he's repainted from Weirdwolf, Carnivac has to be a Headmaster instead of a Pretender.  And we can see that while the face attached is new, the Titan Master carrying it on his back is the same.

As a late G1 toy with a bad gimmick and no presence in the Sunbow cartoon or the Japanese sequels, Carnivac is a pretty D-list character (unless you were a fan of the Marvel comics).   In that sense, it's a blessing to get any Carnivac, even if it's a repaint rather than a new mold.  I just wish Hasbro would stop dipping into the dated, ball joint-heavy Prime Wars well.

Carnivac's Wrecker opponent is Fisitron, aka Ironfist.  Presumably, what with the Marvel character, Hasbro went with the more trademarkable Fisitron, a name which comes from his appearance in IDW's Last Stand of the Wreckers miniseries, where it was basically his screenname on the Cybertronian-equivalent of a r/Wreckers subreddit.  With that in mind, you might be thinking, "Wasn't G1 Ironfist a sort of ugly butterscotch color?  Why's he mostly gray here?"  And the answer is, again, Last Stand of the Wreckers, where he kept the butterscotch shoulders, biceps, and pelvis but went with a light gray for his torso and lower legs.  So my only real complaint, color-wise, is that his hands should be blue.

Fisitron is a retool of Earthrise Hound/Detritus, who was already a retool of Siege Hound.  While he is mostly Earthrise Hound, aside from a new head he's sporting a brand new backpack as well.  And while he doesn't have the red eyes and headlights, or the big wheels under his chest or on his thighs that the G1 toy has, the mold does work surprisingly well for an IDW Ironfist.  Again, my only real complaint would be Hound's bumper and winch.

The backpack isn't the only thing new.  He comes with this squarish bit, a yellow rifle, and a round bit.  As a retool of a Siege toy there's lot of ports where you can mound the accessories on their own.  However, the rifle fits inside the square bit with the barrel poking out, and the circle plugs on top of it, recreating the accessory of the G1 toy.

Again, the bumper and which aren't doing Fisitron any favors, but with the new roof (which has a part that folds out of the backpack over his legs) goes a long way toward selling the idea that Fisitron is a Humvee and not a Jeep.

Just like the G1 toy, the (combined) accessory plugs into the roof.  It lacks the gimmicks of the G1 toy, though, so the barrel doesn't pump and the ammo drum doesn't spin (unless you spin it yourself... it is just a 5mm peg).

I'm sure there's a handful of G1 purists who had Ironfist as a kid and wish that Fisitron were more accurate to the original toy, but again we're talking about a character who had really no appearance in any Transformers fiction until Last Stand of the Wreckers.  What's more, Last Stand of the Wreckers is one of the most popular stories that IDW published, so for the majority of Transformers fans who even know who Ironfist is in the first place the IDW version is the definitive version.

End of the day, though, these are both two extremely D-list late-G1 characters (in Ironfist's case, so late that he was repacked unchanged for G2).  Fans of the old Marvel comics might want the set for Carnivac, and IDW fans (like me) will enjoy Fisitron, but the majority can probably ignore this set.

As for the other set, we open with Mayhem Attack Squad member Spinister.  Now, the original Siege release was already in accurate G1 toy colors, and mostly accurate to his appearances in IDW comics (save for later when his head was colored light gray with a purple mask).  This new version is pretty similar, save for the blues below the belt and on his mask being darker and, his rotor and hands swapped for a darker gray (almost black), and his arms switching from pink to blue.  Near as I can tell, it's based on his Transformers Universe profile in the Marvel The Transformers #65, but throughout the late Marvel run he was colored fairly inconsistently.

The G1 toy was a double Targetmaster, a gimmick that was omitted from the Siege figure.  Hasbro is rectifying that now; aside from colors the only difference between this Spinister and the Siege one is that he comes with repaints of the Targetmaster buddies that came with Needlenose and Windsweeper.

Spinister has a very cool transformation that uses just one of his legs to make the cockpit while tucking the other up underneath and using his feet to form the wings.  If you missed him the first time, he's definitely a toy worth checking out.  If you didn't miss him, though?  I mean, I strongly prefer the original colors, and I'm not super into the Targetmaster gimmick in general.  But even if you were gung-ho on making sure Spinister has his Targetmaster pals, well, Singe was released as a standalone Battlemaster during Siege, and Hairsplitter (renamed "Shrute") came with Siege Skywarp in Amazon-exclusive Decepticon Phantomstrike Squadron pack.  So if it were Spinister and his guns alone I'd say (again, unless you missed the Siege release) that he'd be an even easier pass than Carnivac and Fisitron, except...

...his opponent is Topspin, a Diaclone repaint of Titans Return Topspin.  Who, aside from the Diaclone deco, is unchanged from the original toy.

But here's the thing... we all know that Topspin goes with Twin Twist.  And there's definitely some of us who picked up the Diaclone deco of Twin Twist when Amazon released him in their earlier Wreckers collection.  People who thought, "man, I really hope they do a Diaclone Topspin to go with him."  Well, it's that dang monkey's paw... you can have your Diaclone Topspin, but you gotta pay double and take a Spinister you don't really want or need, too.

It's a dang shame, too, because, yeah, he's got too many ball joints and lacks the ankles that have become standard in the post-Siege world, and yeah being a Titans Returns figure means he's a Headmaster now, but is still a pretty cool mold, so it's hard to say no to him.  I liked the regular deco, but I also dig this Diaclone deco.  Man...

Whether you're talking about the original releases or the Diaclone decos, Topspin and Twin Twist just belong together as a pair.  So, I'm forced to rule thusly: if you don't have Siege Spinister, you should get this set for Spinister.  If you do have Spinister already, then it's up to Twin Twist.  Did you get the Diaclone version of him?  Well, then you're obligated to get this set for Topspin, whether you want Spinster or not.  The only way I can tell you to pass on this set entirely is if you already have Spinster and you're passing on BOTH of the Diaclone Jumpstarters.

[M'Kyuun]

On 6/1/2025 at 9:17 PM, sh9000 said:

Silverbolt.

 

Wow is right as in "Wow, could Takara & Hasbro top themselves and create some of the most egregiously terrible aircraft modes ever??!! You bet they can!" Wish these guys were better, but they're all equally awful. For those who pine for obnoxiously bad aircraft modes and blocky bots, Hasbro has you covered.

On 6/1/2025 at 9:52 PM, Black Valkyrie said:

 

 

 

I've always liked Transformers and Zoids, and this should appeal to me, but it doesn't. Neither the shoehorning of Optimus, once again, into an odd crossover nor the execution really speaks to me. Great for those to whom it does and have wished for this. 

Edited yesterday at 02:01 PM by M'Kyuun

[sh9000]

Megatron next to Romulus.

[sh9000]

Reflector and Thundercracker.

[Hikuro]

7 hours ago, sh9000 said:

Megatron next to Romulus.

I dig either or. There's design cues and stylings that would work well on SS86 Megatron from Romulus, at the same time, there's stuff that's on Romulus that's forgotten somehow on Megatron. 

[M'Kyuun]

13 hours ago, sh9000 said:

Megatron next to Romulus.

That's a rather jarring size difference! That said, I'll take Romulus all day long over the SS86 fig, as he presents accurately, has excellent articulation, and can turn into a proper Walther P38ish pistol, which is what separates a proper G1 Megatron from every wannabe G1 Megatron that doesn't.

Don't get me wrong, as I like what Takara has done with exception of the tank's carelessly realized turret which, IMHO, spoils all the effort put into the tank's well-done base. Moreover, at nigh $60, one is not wrong to expect a little more from a leader class toy and that more couldn't have been done to make that turret more believable within that budget. Anyway, I intend to get him, but I do certainly hope the third-party upgrade kit makers come up with some nifty fixes to address that particular glaring wart. 

[mikeszekely]

While Takara is doing Transformers Wild King in Japan and Hasbro is getting Transformers Cyberworld ready to go in the West, it seems Transformers Earthspark still has a few dying gasps left.  I found this out at my local Target today, when I went it not particularly expecting to find any new toys but leaving with a pair of new Deluxes, the first of which is Hashtag.

Hashtag kind of threw me, at first.  I remember her being kind of blocky and bulky, but the figure here seems a lot more curvy and, dare I say, feminine.  Well, turns out I'd only watched the first season of the show, which honestly I didn't care for much which is why I never noticed that there were two more seasons on Paramount Plus, with the last episodes releasing just this past October.  Apparently Hashtag scans a new alt mode in season 2, and this figure is based on that design.

To that end, the sculpt is pretty good for a Deluxe, with just a bit more arm kibble and a backpack that you wouldn't see in the show.  Like many Deluxe-class figures from the Earthspark and prior Cyberverse toy lines it's really some odd paint choices that are her real problem.  She has molded triangles and stripes on her knees that are left unpainted that should properly be blue and gunmetal & yellow, respectively, and her collar is painted silver but not her neck.  The treads on her feet aren't painted.  But weirdly, they painted the bottom of her chest blue as if there should be a window there, but her entire chest should be solid purple.  Likewise, her pelvis is black, but it should be the same purple as her waist.

Hashtag comes with a pair of accessories.  First, she has a small pistol.  Second, she has something like a pickaxe.  I don't recall either accessory in the cartoon, but to be fair I've come to realize I've only seen about half the available episodes.

Hashtag's head is on a ball joint that can swivel and look down slightly, but lacks upward and sideways tilt.  Her shoulders are ball joints that swivel and give her about 75 degrees of lateral spread, but her shoulder and backpack kibble kind of limit the outward movement when her arms are raised, almost like Hot Rod shoulders.  No dedicated bicep swivel, but her ball-jointed elbows allow for swivel in addition to 90 degrees of bend.  No wrist or waist articulation.  Her hips are ball joints that can go a little over 90 degrees forward, a little under 90 degrees laterally, and about 45 degrees backward before kibble gets in the way.  Her thighs swivel, and her knees bend 90 degrees.  Her feet are on ball joints so they can swivel, tilt up and down a little, and pivot a bit under 45 degrees.  She can hold her pistol, no problem.  The handle of the pickaxe does allow her to hold it as such, but there's another 5mm port on the side that lets her hold it more like a crossbow.

She can also stow her weapons in bot mode.  For the pistol, you have to lift up her backpack and fold out the flap inside.  A tab on top of the pistol plugs into that flap, then you can tuck everything back up.  Once you do, you'll notice a 3mm port on the bottom of her backpack that fits nicely with a 3mm peg on the pickaxe's handle.

Transformation is simple, but effective.  The backs of her arms open and her hands fold in.  Her shoulder pads swivel up and line up with her arms, then her shoulders scrunch up so her arms tuck in against her body.  the front of the truck hinges off the top of the backpack and slots in between her shoulder pads, and you also need to fold out the inner flap of the backpack before you tuck the roof against the arms.  Her feet spin 180 degrees then fold flat, then her lower legs fold around just below the knee back over the sides of her thighs, tucking into the edges of her arms.  That flap from her backpack fits between her legs to finish out the bed of the truck.

And, yeah, truck.  I thought she was a surveillance van, but since she'd originally copied one of GHOST's vans and GHOST is apparently disbanded after the events of the first season, I guess Hashtag rescanned a civilian truck.  My frist thought was that she looks pretty decent, aside from some kibbly hinges on her tail.  I mean, she's even got gold paint on her rims, painted headlights and marker lights on the front, and painted taillights on the rear.  Alas, her rims should be silver, not gold.  The black "grill" on the nose shouldn't be painted, it should be purple.  The bumper bits below the marker lights should be gunmetal, and she should have silver door handles, running boards, and silver around the light blue stripe on the sides of the bed.

Her pistol stows in alt mode exactly like it does in bot mode; lift the flap on the top of the bed, jam the tab on the pistol up into the underside of it, then push it back down into place.  With the bed back in place you can use the 5mm peg on the handle of the pickaxe to plug it into a 5mm port on the bed.  A tab on the bed will also fit into a slot on the pickaxe, to keep it lined up.  I guess it's supposed to be like a two hook?

Hashtag, like all the Earthspark Deluxes, is a step down in quality and engineering from what we're used to in the War For Cybertron/Legacy/Age of the Primes lines, sure.  I'd be remiss if I didn't point out that, despite being called "Deluxes," they're a little cheaper than the mainline Deluxes.  And while I didn't care much for the plot of Earthrise and its wasted potential, it did give us this menagerie of new characters.  As someone who picked up Twitch, Thrash, and Nightshade during the initial build-a-figure waves when I had higher hopes for the show, I'm not sorry to see the line die but I am happy to get a complete set of Deluxe-class Maltos before it ended.  What's more, despite a little kibble and a few color inaccuracies, I think Hashtag is actually the best of the five by a wide margin.  I suppose, if you haven't bothered with the other four, there isn't much point in buying Hashtag unless you just really want another fembot in your collection.  But if you were hoping to get all five of the new Terran Transformers living on the Malto's farm, I can confidently say that Hashtag was worth the wait.

Hashtag isn't my favorite Earthspark Deluxe, though...

[sh9000]