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.

[mikeszekely]

Ok, now that TFOne is out of the way... it's G1 the rest of the week, baby!  We're bouncing back to Age of the Primes first, and it's Deluxe-class Sureshot.

Why start with Sureshot?  He's barely even G1, but I want to save the best stuff for last.  He was barely in "The Rebirth," and even in The Headmasters he was a bit player.  He arguably has the most fiction in the Marvel G1 comic.  Fortunately, his appearance across all three late G1 mediums is pretty much the same (his JG1 head was a bit closer to the toy, with little ears and regular eyes instead of shades), which makes it pretty easy to point out that he looks pretty good, for the most part.  He had more of a pelvis in his fictional appearances, which kind of makes me wish they'd done his hips a bit differently, and his shins have a ton of greebles that I could have done without, but his head and torso are pretty spot-on (for US G1) and the colors are all in the right places.

Hasbro did move his tires from the sides of his legs to his calves.  While this is arguably not US G1 accurate or toy accurate, I think this vibes ok with The Headmasters.  Now, I couldn't find a good image of his backside in the cartoons/comics, but based on the G1 toy, the back is where things are getting different.  There are wheels on his back still, but they're higher up on his back where the G1 toy's were basically on his butt.  The G1 toy also had a backpack made from his engine and spoiler, but what we have on the AOTP toy is a backpack that's his alt mode's nose.  The spoiler's still there, but it's moved to his shoulders.  I'm not sure it was the best choice.

As a Targetmaster, Sureshot comes with a gun that looks about right.  The barrels fold back, then the whole thing uncurls to reveal Sureshot's partner, Spoilsport.  Aside from having a black face instead of a red one he looks about right, but like Peacemaker he has no articulation, plus his back side is super hollow.  And to be honest, I don't know how I feel about that.  One the one hand, I've never been a big fan of the Targetmaster concept.  I mean, all of the -masters are kind of dumb in US G1, but the JG1 idea that the actual Transformers are the heads and they just drive vehicles that turn into larger robot bodies for them to pilot kind of worked.  Especially because the Headmasters all have little cockpits for their heads to ride in.  But the Targetmasters need to be a gun for the robot to shoot, but also a gun to plug into a port on the alt mode.  And if they're going to be guns all the time, who cares how bad the robot mode is?  But at the same time, we had a pretty decently-articulated Targetmaster in Nightstick all the way back in 2008.

But I digress.  Sureshot's head is on a ball joint with very limited ability to look down or tilt sideways, but it swivels and he can look straight up 90 degrees.  His shoulders swivel and move laterally 90 degrees.  His biceps swivel, and his elbows bend a little more than 90 degrees.  No wrist articulation, but his waist swivels.  His hips go 90 degrees forward, and just shy of that backward due to his backpack getting in the way, not the joint itself.  His hips spread laterally over 90 degrees.  His thighs swivel, but only about 45 degrees out, and his knees bend 90 degrees.  His feet have a very slight downward tilt, tons of upward tilt, and about 45 degrees of ankle pivot.

Sureshot can hold Spoilsport in either hand, plus he's got 5mm ports on his forearms, under his feet, on the outside of his knees, on the back of his legs just below the tires, and on his back.  Technically on the backs of his shoulders, too, because his spoiler is just plugged in.  Despite all those ports, storage for Spoilsport is achieved by plugging notches in his heels onto two small tabs on Sureshot's backpack.  I'll also note that unlike Peacemaker, Spoilsport does not an extra 5mm port on the back.  It's my guess that Peacemaker had it because they originally wanted to include the JG1 gimmick where the Targetmaster attached to the wrist instead of being held, and retained it even after Pointblank was reworked due to being over budget.  Then they didn't even bother trying to include the gimmick here.

And they probably figured early that they wouldn't have the budget for such a gimmick because Sureshot has a very ambitious transformation.  Swivel his forearms so the holes on them are facing forward, and rotate his waist 180 degrees.  Use the hinges inside his torso to pull his head, chest, and shoulders away from his back.  As you do, you'll need to rotate the stuff you're pulling away, then use the hinges to line up the bottom of his chest with the top of his back.  Make sure when you do that the orange part of the armature with the two tabs is flat inside his chest.  Turn his head 180 degrees and pull it down a little, then his shoulder untabs from his side and starts to swing outward.  As you do, the shoulder assembly will also fold back, with the desired result being the tops of both shoulders tabbing into the top of his chest with the spoiler lined up, then you can tilt his head up into the space between his shoulders.  Fold his feet up so that they tab into his shins, fold out the wheels on his calves and get them out of the way, then combiner wars-style shift his lower legs up over his thighs.  Now you can bend the waist back, so the legs tab into what's turning out to be the underside of the vehicle.  Bend his elbows 90 degrees so that notches near his wrists plug into tabs on his heels, then you can plug the wheels into the 5mm ports on his forearms.  Finally, take his backpack wheels and swing them around so the nose of the vehicle is in place.

The resulting car is a bit sleeker than the G1 toy, and the raised detail on his hood is red instead of orange, but both of those things seem to match his character models.  Rather than just having exposed hinges he's got a molded red grill.  There's a bit more orange on the nose, as the front spoiler and axle are one.  He's got his spoiler, but there's no engine, no real space for one, between the wings, and rather than having his forearms curl up on top of his biceps to form the top of the rear, his shoulders are the top of the rear and his forearms just dangle on the back of the car.  They don't even bother to hide is wrists!  I think changing his arm transformation might have been necessary to slim the car down; the G1 toy's cockpit sticks up much further than this version's does, and there's at least molded venting on his forearms.  But, I really wish they'd have designed his hands to fold into his (largely hollow) forearms so they wouldn't be visible, and I wish instead of limply plugging the halves of his spoiler into his shoulders that they'd given him a proper engine/spoiler (though, it couldn't have been a backpack... maybe it could have been tucked into his chest?).

In any case, he rolls without issue.  There are 5mm ports alone the sides of the car, but Spoilsport is meant to plug into the 5mm port on the hood in front of the cockpit.  Which, again, it's kind of dumb that Spoilsport needs to be a gun for Sureshot's robot mode but also a gun for Sureshot's alt mode... like why even have a gun that transforms?

Credit where it's due, this is an ambitious figure with a brand new mold for a character that hasn't had a new toy in nearly 40 years, and while I have some gripes and wish they could have executed some things a bit better, Sureshot's a pretty good figure overall, definitely a big improvement over the retooled Siege Ironhide that was poor Crosshairs.  What's more (although you do have to go back a little before Siege to Titans Return and Thrilling 30), he's the last of the '87 Targetmasters to get an update, with just Quickmix and Landfill to round out the '88 cast left to go (though I'd like a Stepper/Ricochet from the SS86 Jazz mold, please).  Unless you're a strict Season 1/2/3 (or stricter season 1/2/Movie) collector only, Sureshot's worth a look.

[Alex GS]

On 1/9/2026 at 8:52 PM, sh9000 said:

Missing Link Grimlock.

There is always some or lots of toys that when you were a kid you didn't have the opportunity to have cause several reasons, for me G1 Grimlock is one of those toys so I put down my Preorder immediately, there is something about that golden chrome and design that make it look so classic and timeless, literally all the G1 dinobots have this original awesome classic look, I hope they release each one of them, I will be happy to POd all of them like this one, and yes a re-release of MP Grimlock or MPG I would be so happy to POd as well   

[lechuck]

[Scyla]

15 hours ago, mikeszekely said:

Ok, now that TFOne is out of the way... it's G1 the rest of the week, baby!  We're bouncing back to Age of the Primes first, and it's Deluxe-class Sureshot.

Why start with Sureshot?  He's barely even G1, but I want to save the best stuff for last.  He was barely in "The Rebirth," and even in The Headmasters he was a bit player.  He arguably has the most fiction in the Marvel G1 comic.  Fortunately, his appearance across all three late G1 mediums is pretty much the same (his JG1 head was a bit closer to the toy, with little ears and regular eyes instead of shades), which makes it pretty easy to point out that he looks pretty good, for the most part.  He had more of a pelvis in his fictional appearances, which kind of makes me wish they'd done his hips a bit differently, and his shins have a ton of greebles that I could have done without, but his head and torso are pretty spot-on (for US G1) and the colors are all in the right places.

Hasbro did move his tires from the sides of his legs to his calves.  While this is arguably not US G1 accurate or toy accurate, I think this vibes ok with The Headmasters.  Now, I couldn't find a good image of his backside in the cartoons/comics, but based on the G1 toy, the back is where things are getting different.  There are wheels on his back still, but they're higher up on his back where the G1 toy's were basically on his butt.  The G1 toy also had a backpack made from his engine and spoiler, but what we have on the AOTP toy is a backpack that's his alt mode's nose.  The spoiler's still there, but it's moved to his shoulders.  I'm not sure it was the best choice.

As a Targetmaster, Sureshot comes with a gun that looks about right.  The barrels fold back, then the whole thing uncurls to reveal Sureshot's partner, Spoilsport.  Aside from having a black face instead of a red one he looks about right, but like Peacemaker he has no articulation, plus his back side is super hollow.  And to be honest, I don't know how I feel about that.  One the one hand, I've never been a big fan of the Targetmaster concept.  I mean, all of the -masters are kind of dumb in US G1, but the JG1 idea that the actual Transformers are the heads and they just drive vehicles that turn into larger robot bodies for them to pilot kind of worked.  Especially because the Headmasters all have little cockpits for their heads to ride in.  But the Targetmasters need to be a gun for the robot to shoot, but also a gun to plug into a port on the alt mode.  And if they're going to be guns all the time, who cares how bad the robot mode is?  But at the same time, we had a pretty decently-articulated Targetmaster in Nightstick all the way back in 2008.

But I digress.  Sureshot's head is on a ball joint with very limited ability to look down or tilt sideways, but it swivels and he can look straight up 90 degrees.  His shoulders swivel and move laterally 90 degrees.  His biceps swivel, and his elbows bend a little more than 90 degrees.  No wrist articulation, but his waist swivels.  His hips go 90 degrees forward, and just shy of that backward due to his backpack getting in the way, not the joint itself.  His hips spread laterally over 90 degrees.  His thighs swivel, but only about 45 degrees out, and his knees bend 90 degrees.  His feet have a very slight downward tilt, tons of upward tilt, and about 45 degrees of ankle pivot.

Sureshot can hold Spoilsport in either hand, plus he's got 5mm ports on his forearms, under his feet, on the outside of his knees, on the back of his legs just below the tires, and on his back.  Technically on the backs of his shoulders, too, because his spoiler is just plugged in.  Despite all those ports, storage for Spoilsport is achieved by plugging notches in his heels onto two small tabs on Sureshot's backpack.  I'll also note that unlike Peacemaker, Spoilsport does not an extra 5mm port on the back.  It's my guess that Peacemaker had it because they originally wanted to include the JG1 gimmick where the Targetmaster attached to the wrist instead of being held, and retained it even after Pointblank was reworked due to being over budget.  Then they didn't even bother trying to include the gimmick here.

And they probably figured early that they wouldn't have the budget for such a gimmick because Sureshot has a very ambitious transformation.  Swivel his forearms so the holes on them are facing forward, and rotate his waist 180 degrees.  Use the hinges inside his torso to pull his head, chest, and shoulders away from his back.  As you do, you'll need to rotate the stuff you're pulling away, then use the hinges to line up the bottom of his chest with the top of his back.  Make sure when you do that the orange part of the armature with the two tabs is flat inside his chest.  Turn his head 180 degrees and pull it down a little, then his shoulder untabs from his side and starts to swing outward.  As you do, the shoulder assembly will also fold back, with the desired result being the tops of both shoulders tabbing into the top of his chest with the spoiler lined up, then you can tilt his head up into the space between his shoulders.  Fold his feet up so that they tab into his shins, fold out the wheels on his calves and get them out of the way, then combiner wars-style shift his lower legs up over his thighs.  Now you can bend the waist back, so the legs tab into what's turning out to be the underside of the vehicle.  Bend his elbows 90 degrees so that notches near his wrists plug into tabs on his heels, then you can plug the wheels into the 5mm ports on his forearms.  Finally, take his backpack wheels and swing them around so the nose of the vehicle is in place.

The resulting car is a bit sleeker than the G1 toy, and the raised detail on his hood is red instead of orange, but both of those things seem to match his character models.  Rather than just having exposed hinges he's got a molded red grill.  There's a bit more orange on the nose, as the front spoiler and axle are one.  He's got his spoiler, but there's no engine, no real space for one, between the wings, and rather than having his forearms curl up on top of his biceps to form the top of the rear, his shoulders are the top of the rear and his forearms just dangle on the back of the car.  They don't even bother to hide is wrists!  I think changing his arm transformation might have been necessary to slim the car down; the G1 toy's cockpit sticks up much further than this version's does, and there's at least molded venting on his forearms.  But, I really wish they'd have designed his hands to fold into his (largely hollow) forearms so they wouldn't be visible, and I wish instead of limply plugging the halves of his spoiler into his shoulders that they'd given him a proper engine/spoiler (though, it couldn't have been a backpack... maybe it could have been tucked into his chest?).

In any case, he rolls without issue.  There are 5mm ports alone the sides of the car, but Spoilsport is meant to plug into the 5mm port on the hood in front of the cockpit.  Which, again, it's kind of dumb that Spoilsport needs to be a gun for Sureshot's robot mode but also a gun for Sureshot's alt mode... like why even have a gun that transforms?

Credit where it's due, this is an ambitious figure with a brand new mold for a character that hasn't had a new toy in nearly 40 years, and while I have some gripes and wish they could have executed some things a bit better, Sureshot's a pretty good figure overall, definitely a big improvement over the retooled Siege Ironhide that was poor Crosshairs.  What's more (although you do have to go back a little before Siege to Titans Return and Thrilling 30), he's the last of the '87 Targetmasters to get an update, with just Quickmix and Landfill to round out the '88 cast left to go (though I'd like a Stepper/Ricochet from the SS86 Jazz mold, please).  Unless you're a strict Season 1/2/3 (or stricter season 1/2/Movie) collector only, Sureshot's worth a look.

Nice review. I wished Habro would give us finally updated Powermasters. I would be super excited about a Commander class Powermaster Prime, Titan class Overlord, Leader class Dreadwind and Darkwing or any of the other Powermasters.

Maybe I just need to go for the G1 toys but they are expensive since I would want them in their boxes since that was what was on the shelve of the toy stores when I was a kid.

[mikeszekely]

At last, we're down the last figure in the first 2026 wave of Age of the Primes, the one you guys are actually waiting for... Deluxe-class Blast Off.

Combiner Wars gave us not one, but TWO takes on Blast Off, and pretty much from the draw Age of the Primes Blast Off shows them both up.  The design is much more G1 cartoon-accurate, with the purple bib, flared forearms, purple booster feet, etc.  He's even got the silver eyes and purple forehead of the animation model (to my personal dismay, but a boon to those seeking strict adherence to Sunbow).  What's more, despite largely sharing his engineering with Vortex, the fact that he doesn't have a ton of helicopter tail hanging awkwardly from the back of his arms makes him feel cleaner and more solid than his fellow arm.

Looking at my photos, you might surmise that my biggest grip with Blast Off is his colors... like, why are his shins and torso brown instead of gray?  The simple answer is that, much like my review of Magic Square's Blast Off, my phone's software seems to have blown out the colors.  Magic Square's isn't as light in hand as my pictures made him, and AOTP Blass Off is a darker brown with a brown-tinted gray, not a reddish brown with a gray-tinted brown.  Maybe someday I'll get a better camera and light box, but that seems like overkill for reviews that are really just forum posts.  Instead I'll just nitpick that he doesn't have a tail on his back (given that the tail is actually pegged into his leg, all we needed was a slot on his back to partsform it to!), and that the tiny molded wheels near his ankles aren't bigger, up higher, and gray.

Blast Off comes with a pair of guns that are, I guess, fine.  I mean, they're cartoon accurate enough, aside from the fact that there's two instead of just one.

So Blast Off's head is on a ball joint for swiveling but fairly limited tilt in any direction.  His shoulders rotate and move 90 degrees laterally.  His biceps swivel, his elbows bend 90 degrees, and his wrists swivel.  His waist swivels, and his hips can move 90 degrees forward, backward, and laterally.  His thighs swivel, and his knees bend 90 degrees.  His toes have some downward tilt, and his ankles can pivot nearly 90 degrees.

His grip on his pistols is a tad loose for my liking.  The problem seems to be his fist holes are a little large.  There are also 5mm ports available on his forearms, on the wings on the sides of his legs, in the boosters on his heels, and in the boosters on his toes, and his guns plug into the ports on his wings and arms snuggly.

His transformation is pretty simply, and very similar to Vortex.  Push his head into the empty space behind it.  Turn his wrists 90 degrees inward, then turn his biceps 90 degrees outwards so all the shuttle bits line up, then his shoulders use flaps to break away from his torso and fold up over his head, where they'll tab together.  Double hinge the top of the cockpit from his back over his forearms and the front half is done.  For the rear, tab his legs together, open his shins up, and collapse his legs over his thighs.  Fold his toes down, then fold out his wings and vertical stabilizer and you're done.

It may be simple, it may borrow a lot of engineering from Vortex, but Blast Off's shuttle mode is pretty good.  The shape is right, and as I've mentioned previously four engine bells instead of five is cartoon accurate.  The only thing I can really criticize is that the purple from his arms near the front of the shuttle should run all the way back along the lower half of the fuselage all the way to about where the Decepticon badges are on his wings.  That would make the sides of the robot mode purple, though, and perhaps more importantly, it'd leave a lot more purple on the side Bruticus' arm than you might expect.  I suspect the main reason, though, is they ran out of budget for paint.

Blast Off's guns plug into the 5mm ports under his wings in this mode, so a desire for symmetry likely explains why he has two guns instead of just the one.  His fists are actually still available under the nose as well, but the fit is so loose that they keep falling out on my copy.  Plus, they stand out a bit there, which means that the flip-out front landing gear in Blast Off's chest won't reach the ground.

I keep mentioning that while Blast Off doesn't share any parts with Vortex, he shares a lot of the same engineering as Vortex.  And while I liked that Vortex had a lot of cartoon elements like his forearm guns and the nacelles on his shoulders, the inelegant way they handled the tail boom on his arms made him a little mid in my book.  Blast Off, by contrast, is very good, right up there with Brawl for me and quite possibly the best post-Siege combiner arm Hasbro's delivered.  Honestly, I think he's a pretty good toy and a solid representation of the character even without the combining element, so he gets a strong recommend from me.