The Transformers Thread (licensed) Next

[sh9000]

Missing Link Grimlock.

[M'Kyuun]

While my nostalgia for the G1 toys takes a definitive backseat to the appeal of modern toys, I must confess that I've a soft spot for the G1 Dinobots, especially Sludge, the only one I had as a kid. My hope is that the whole team will get made and I'll get my chance to own the version of Sludge as I wish he'd been back in '85. I keep hoping for Prowl to be announced, since TT will get the most bang for their buck from the Fairlady Z bros. Prowl was my first TF figure, and I kinda destroyed him in my misguided attempt to give him leg articulation. A Missing Link version would not only restore my G1 toy, but in an articulated form I wish he'd had when I was a kid.

Edited Sunday at 10:23 AM by M'Kyuun

[lechuck]

Though... alt-mode not looking very attractive and the weapons rack is a stupid idea. Nobody is going pose or display Hot Rod with that, Takara could have just omitted it and save themselves the plastic and money...

Looking better than MPG-20...

Edited Saturday at 12:09 PM by lechuck

[tekering]

9 hours ago, sh9000 said:

That non-transformable figure has incorrect forearms and arm placement.

Oh man, I had the left and right arms reversed.  Good catch! 

[mikeszekely]

They really did just upscale the Studio Series toy.. Yeah, the alt mode is a downgrade from MP-28 (and I really want to see the back of the car, which is kind of unfinished blatant robot knees on the SS86 toy), but the robot mode is a definite upgrade.

[sh9000]

Already preordered Studio Series TFTM Astrotrain and Sunstreaker.

Looking forward to adding Grimlock to the Missing Link collection.

[M'Kyuun]

16 hours ago, sh9000 said:

Already preordered Studio Series TFTM Astrotrain and Sunstreaker.

Looking forward to adding Grimlock to the Missing Link collection.

Where'd you find a PO for SS TFTM Astrotrain? I've been looking for pics and POs with no sign of either. I even checked Tomy's site to no avail. Same for Hasbro Pulse.

My sincere hope is for an all new mold to correct the WFC toy's many issues, but since Hasbro likely won't, I hope they'll at least give the Siege toy a much-needed overhaul to correct the glaring flaws of the original release. Likewise the inevitable Blitzwing.

[mikeszekely]

4 hours ago, M'Kyuun said:

Where'd you find a PO for SS TFTM Astrotrain? I've been looking for pics and POs with no sign of either. I even checked Tomy's site to no avail. Same for Hasbro Pulse.

My sincere hope is for an all new mold to correct the WFC toy's many issues, but since Hasbro likely won't, I hope they'll at least give the Siege toy a much-needed overhaul to correct the glaring flaws of the original release. Likewise the inevitable Blitzwing.

Walmart, I'm guessing. Someone found Walmart's product page for Astrotrain and it got shared. Walmart didn't have it set to "coming soon" or "temporarily unavailable" or whatever, so people were able to create orders even though Hasbro hasn't actually solicited it yet. 

Personally I didn't bother. Walmart has such a bad track record fulfilling preorders even under normal circumstances that I had little faith in "oops we accidentally left this page working" orders actually securing me anything. I'll wait for Pulse/Amazon.

[M'Kyuun]

3 hours ago, mikeszekely said:

Walmart, I'm guessing. Someone found Walmart's product page for Astrotrain and it got shared. Walmart didn't have it set to "coming soon" or "temporarily unavailable" or whatever, so people were able to create orders even though Hasbro hasn't actually solicited it yet. 

Personally I didn't bother. Walmart has such a bad track record fulfilling preorders even under normal circumstances that I had little faith in "oops we accidentally left this page working" orders actually securing me anything. I'll wait for Pulse/Amazon.

Ah, ok. I haven't used Walmart for too many, if any, preorders that I can recall. I'm leery of using Target as well as they've cancelled preorders I've placed more than once which leaves a sour taste. Of late, my local Wally has been getting figures in more plentifully, but SS86 Soundwave remains elusive. I have to wonder if one of the employees is in the know about the demand and scarcity and is taking advantage of their access. Anyway, it is what it is, and I'm curious if he'll get some sort of a toy-deco rerelease, which would be my preference anyway.

I'm assuming it's a rerelease of the Siege figure, perhaps with some minor retooling. I'd prefer a whole new mold that fixes everything that was wrong with the Siege. Guess I'll wait for the official reveal to see what, if any, changes have been made. And too, like you, if the changes are substantial and improve the figure's alt modes considerably, I'll try to secure a PO with Pulse as well, or Amazon failing that.

[sh9000]

11 hours ago, M'Kyuun said:

Where'd you find a PO for SS TFTM Astrotrain? I've been looking for pics and POs with no sign of either. I even checked Tomy's site to no avail. Same for Hasbro Pulse.

Walmart.  I haven't had any issues receiving anything from them so I'll report when I receive Astrotrain.  I also have Studio Series TFTM Thundercracker preordered at Walmart since they listed it cheaper than other stores.  Speaking of cheaper prices, Target currently has a sale on Transformers for 20% off.

[mikeszekely]

Studio Series toys continue to trickle out.  I'm still waiting for the two that you really want to hear about, but for now, here's Voyager-class Transformers One Alpha Trion.

Well, the new Voyager toy definitely has a bit more detail than the Prime Changers version.  The thighs are more accurate, the armor on his chest is colored more correctly (though still missing some details), plus his shoulder pads are asymmetric and one of his horns is broken to better resemble Trion as the heroes found him  It's a case of two steps forward, one step back, though, as the Voyager version is missing the kneecaps on both shins as well as the ankle armor, details that the Prime Changer did have.

His alt mode paws are better hidden, as is his alt mode head, which reduces his backpack to a more screen-accurate (and, again, asymmetric) hump.  Another nice touch is that they  added some of the moss that was growing on him in the film.  It's most noticeable on his back and shoulders, because that's where they took the time to paint it.  Frustratingly, though, if you look you can see some molded on his legs and forearms, too, but the paint budget apparently didn't stretch that far.

Alpha Trion comes with a whip-like accessory, similar to the Prime Changer, except instead of being a painted hard plastic it's a rubbery translucent pink.  Note the spikes on the end- they're removable (actually not attached out of the box), which will come into play later.  It's a dang shame that he doesn't have the cape he had in the movie.

If you need a little refresher, the Prime Changers line of figures that were roughly Deluxe-sized, but a little simpler than a Legacy or Studio Series Deluxe, for $5 less than a Deluxe.  Similar to an Earthspark or Cyberverse Deluxe, which despite their name were also a little simpler and cheaper than the more regular lines.  Why am I bringing this up?  Because Trion here is a Voyager, in an age where Voyagers have gone up to $43, a little over twice the price of a Prime Changer.  So what's that extra cash get you, besides a slightly bigger figure with a bit more detail (where they didn't subtract it)?  Trion's head is on a ball joint like the PC figure, and has similar range.  His shoulders can swivel and move laterally 90 degrees, which is similar to the Prime Changer.  His bicep swivels, his elbow bends 90 degrees, and although he doesn't have a waist swivel his entire forearm swivels just below the elbow... same as the Prime Changer.  His waist swivels (same), and his hips can go slightly over 90 degrees forward, 45 degrees backward, and 90 degrees laterally... which I'll call another draw (Voyager has slightly more range forward, but half the backward range).  His thighs swivel, and his knees bend 90 degrees, so again, same.  And then there's his ankles, which have no pivot at all.  Now, ankle pivots have been pretty standard in various Generations brands since Siege in 2019, and it's become very prevalent in the Studio Series.  I'm inclined to complain when a $25 (now $27) Deluxe doesn't have ankles, it's flat out unacceptable on a toy that costs over $40... especially because the Prime Changers version does have proper ankle pivots!

Trion can hold his whip in either hand.  Although there are some 5mm ports on his butt, shoulders, and the sides of his knees, there's only the handle on the whip so no storage.

So Trion's budget didn't go to a ton of accessories or better articulation... did it go to better engineering?  Not really!  A lot of the transformation is the same as the Prime Changers toy!  In both cases you shift the shin armor over the thigh and bend the foot so it's still flat on the ground, in both cases you turn the forearms inward 90 degrees and plug the shoulders in (though on the Voyager you can at least open the forearm to swivel in the robot hand and swivel out the claws).  In both cases the backpack shifts up.  The Voyager's chest does open up, though, allowing you to fold out the beast head and tuck in the robot head.  In both cases the weapon is plugged on to become the tail.  It is slightly more advance engineering, sure, but the kind you might expect going from a Prime Changer to a Deluxe... and with more partsforming!  All the spikes have to come off of the whip.  The big one goes into the beast forehead, while the smaller ones go into the shoulders and hips.

Despite the slightly more complex engineering, the beast mode suffers many of the same flaws as the Prime Changer.  The beast head is still stuck looking downward.  The insides of the shoulders still plug onto pegs coming out of his armpits, locking them in place and hampering the beast mode articulation.  The rear legs are worse than the Prime Changer... it at least had a joint to bend the bottom of his lower legs into a more digitigrade stance.  The Voyager simply has you bend his toes up, which makes him look a bit awkward to me.  The moss is, again, a nice touch, the translucent pink is more accurate for the tail and horn, and the spikes from the shoulders and hips are also more screen accurate. 

The beast head can open it's mouth, and the tail plugs into a port on a hinge for a bit more articulation there... but with the shoulders and upper arms locked, he's just got a little arm swivel and elbow bend in this mode.  The hips and knees technically have the same range of motion as before, but like I said without the additional digitigrade ankle there's not a lot of posing he can do and remain standing, let alone look decent.

At a Voyager price tag, especially the $7-increased price tag, Alpha Trion's kind of a ripoff.  They made him superficially more screen accurate, but quit painting too soon and left out some details.  The engineering is an improved take on the Prime Changer toy that costs half of what this guy does.  But most unforgivably, he's got worse articulation in the ankles than the previous toy, and that's just not acceptable anymore at this price.  Skip this one.  Even if you've got an interest in the TFOne cast, you can console yourself with the fact that Alpha Trion wasn't even in the film that long.

[mikeszekely]

Still doing Studio Series, we've got Deluxe-class Transformers One Airachnid.

Aesthetically speaking, with the bulk of her design being gray with bits of gunmetal and silver, you could argue that Airachnid is a tad bland.  You could also argue that it looks like the designers (Evan Brooks and Takio Ejima) were working from a photo that someone shrunk on the Y-axis but didn't click the box to keep the proportions.  Despite the proportions and because of the bland colors, Airachnid is actually pretty faithful to her CGI model.  Thicker armor on her thighs, forearms, and shoulders/biceps, kneepads rising off the rotors in her legs, tiny legs with stiletto heels, and a quartet of spider-limbs on her back.

OK, actually it'd be a little more accurate if the heels curled under her "feet," but while that might work for CGI this is still a toy that has to stand.  There's also some molded details on her calves that don't entirely belong and I'm not sure if they're actually necessary.  Speaking of not belonging, she's got a bit of a kibble backpack, but this is a Deluxe, not all of her alt mode is going to fit in her feminine frame.  But hey, the molded and even painted the small purple eyes along the sides of her head.  It'd be cool if her head opened up to reveal even more eyes, like the film, but again, Deluxe.

Airachnid comes with these two guns.  They have a bit of (accurate) paint on the barrels, which is nice.

Airachnid's design is a bit unconventional, and as such doesn't seem to lend itself well to articulation.  Her head is on a ball joint, but the ball is in her chest instead of her head.  She can swivel her head, tilt it sideways a little, and look down a little, but not up.  Her shoulders swivel on ball joints, but the shoulder armor limits lateral movement to only about 45 degrees.  Her elbows are ball joints, so they have to due double duty as a 90 degree bend and the bicep swivel.  No wrist or waist articulation.  Her hips (which are more ball joints) can go 90 degrees forward or backward, but they have maybe 30 degrees of lateral spread (and that's if I'm being charitable).  Her thighs swivel, and her knees bend 90 degrees.  There's another joint below the knee, I suppose a digitigrade ankle, that has a little forward/backward movement.  Once again, though, we have a lack of ankle pivot.  I don't mind that as much here as on Trion, though... for one, her feet are so small that it's not really noticeable that they're not flat.  For two, it's just an easier sin to forgive on a toy that's like $15 dollars less.

Her humanoid body might be lacking in articulation, but she also makes up for it some with the spider limbs.  The upper limbs are connected to her back on hinged ball joints with four additional hinges along their lengths.  The lower limbs are connected via ball joints and have two additional hinges.  She wasn't really built to do the spider-walking that Prime Airachnid was prone to, but with some patience you can position her resting on just the spider limbs.

As far as her guns go, the instructions show that they can plug into her forearms, which is movie-accurate, but she can also hold them in her hands.

What the instructions don't show, exactly, is that you can open her forearm armor and swivel her fists around to reveal more guns!  That is, the instructions do show it, as part of her transformation to alt mode, but not as a gimmick for bot mode.  But there's no reason you can't do it in bot mode!

Speaking of alt modes... flip the fists in, like I just said.  Open the front of her torso, and collapse her face down inside.  When you close her torso, it'll tab into spots on top of her head.  Take her entire backpack and hinge it up and out from her body; the hinges will tab into the back of her head.  Fold the tail out of the backpack, fold out and spread the rotor blades, and turn the end of the tail so that the disc with the rotor blades is facing downward.  The lower spider limbs will scrunch up tight, then swivel 180 degrees on their ball joints before pegging into each other and resting under the tail.  The upper limbs will swivel and fold on their ball joints so that they tab into both the tail and into the lower limbs, with the bulk of the forming a ring around the rotor on the tail.  Double hinges will allow her arms to dislocate from her sides to her back.  Swivel the forearms so they can tab together.  Grab the rotors on her knees, and pull them out so they can hinge down and tab to her toes.  Double hinge her thigh armor out and away from her thighs, then use the ball joints to swing her thighs up.  Turn her thigh swivels 90 degrees, so that her thighs and the the joints line up with the sides of her torso and plug them in, but then also turn a second swivel you exposed when you moved the rotor so you can tuck them into place as well.  Finally, take the thigh armor, swivel it 180 degrees, then use the hinge to stretch it out into the nose of the vehicle.  They should line up so that they tab into her forearms.  All-in-all, this Deluxe has far more complex engineering than Voyager Alpha Trion.

And the alt mode is... well, broad strokes, yes, that's right.  And open nose, guns underneath, cockpit area with two small rotor "wings", and a downward-angled tail with a large rotor.  It's the details that do her in.  The rotor wings should sit tighter to the body, and aside from the guns on the leading edges, don't have an spikes or protrusions.  The guns under the nose should stick out past the nose, which itself shouldn't stretch so far out from the cockpit area.  The nose, cockpit, and tail should blend and taper more seamlessly, but they toy is covered in exposed hinges and joints.  Then there's the rear spider-limbs, which just kind of chill under the tail.  They're not on the CGI (I assume they're meant to form the blades of the large rear rotor in the movie rather than the kibble tail on the toy).  They seem to exist solely to prop up the rear of the vehicle when you set it down.  I think it's fair to say that she's definitely in the ball park, though, and even with the $3 increase in price I'm still inclined to cut her some slack as a Deluxe-class toy in a way that I'm not on a Voyager that costs $8 more than last year.

Not much else to say... the big rotor on the back spins, but the small ones in her wings/knees do not.  The wings have guns molded onto them, plus her wrist guns on the nose, and her pistols, which do not need to be removed for transformation if you had them plugged into her forearms.  Zero partsforming, lets go!

Airachnid certainly has her flaws, and no one is going to mistake this for an MPM toy.  But with decent screen-accuracy and a transformation that punches above the usual Deluxe I can't be too mad at her.  I dare say she's one of the better Transformers One toys in the Studio Series line.  If you're a fan of the movie, the character, or simply Transformers toys that hit a bit different, I think Airachnid is worth checking out.

[M'Kyuun]

I mostly avoided the TFOne toys- to wit the only ones I own are Elita 1, Prime Changers Alpha Trion, Starscream, and Airachnid.  Of the four, Airachnid is my favorite. Her alt mode is odd, but I like it. She's a hard design to make into a toy, especially at deluxe scale, and I think Takara did an excellent job, all things considered. 

Got my copies of SS86 Thundercracker and Windcharger today. I struggled a bit with the leg transformation on TC- I wasn't getting those internal bits to snap into the inner shin in jet mode, and thus the nacelle covers weren't closing fully, and the wings weren't lining up right. I fussed with it for a while, reading and rereading the instructions. Finally, I consulted a random reviewer's transformation vid and I noticed his just clicked nicely into place. So I fussed a bit more with it and finally found the sweet spot. Overall, it's a nice fig. It's still a far cry from the clean F-15 I wish it'd become, but it looks nice and I'm glad they changed up the transformation a little bit from the Classics/WFC figs. I wish they'd been able to rotate his chest bits into that huge hollow area to minimize the jet's side profile, and make the feet snap in flush to the legs instead of having the toes hanging out. I have other niggles as well, but I'll just leave it at that. IMHO, he at least looks marginally better than the latest MP Seeker in jet mode.

Windcharger's not the best of the upscaled deluxe minibots, but I'm glad he's finally here. He's still a good-looking figure, but all that roof kibble doesn't tab very securely at all and with my copy's knee joints being very tight, the feet unfurl almost every time I try to change his pose. Too, as others have pointed out, the mostly hollow interior feet cavities are a bit of an eyesore. Again, despite his flaws, I'm glad, after what seems a very long wait, we finally have him.

[sh9000]

https://www.target.com/p/transformers-studio-series-mtmte-collection-the-transformers-the-movie-deluxe-class-autobot-hound-action-figure/-/A-94744441

[M'Kyuun]

Well, SS MTMTE Hound is yet another PO I had no idea about and missed on Pulse and Target. I really wish Hasbro would send some kind of notification the day before POs go up for members- it's the least they could do since we're paying for the privilege.