By virtue of sitting at the top of my big bin o’ loose transformers, it’s Ultra Magnus’s turn to get a review. This time, it’s a Titanium series Ultra Magnus (G1 Ultra Magnus will have to wait until another day!)
In his vehicle mode, Ultra Magnus is about what you’d expect from a Titanium figure, which is to say, lots of visible robot parts, an inability to roll smoothly, and generally just not that fun. That’s okay, though, because Titanium figures aren’t really meant to be played with. It’s very similar structurally to the G1 toy, except the trailer doesn’t come off, all of the red parts are gone except the missile tips, and the proportions just seem… off. When did Ultramag lose his red? He seems to be stuck as the white and blue guy these days. There’s not much else to say about this mode, other than it doesn’t fit nicely on the base provided (it’s not intended to) and doesn’t have anywhere suitable for storing his rifle. Read the rest…
Soundwave: superior. Lack of reappearances in later episodes of the show: inferior.
Yeah, I love Soundwave. I don’t know why (probably the voice), but he was the character that stuck in my head the most from G1. I never had a G1 Soundwave, or any of the homages in later series. I picked up the Classics Soundwave when it was at Toys R Us, which is close enough for me. But this review isn’t about that, it’s about Animated Soundwave! Unlike his previous incarnations, Soundwave turns into a station wagon rather than a tape deck or whatever else he’s been over the years. He’s a pretty solid little car, and rolls well despite the low clearance (although I find that he’s not always rolling on all four wheels). I think it’s fair to break out the dreaded descriptor neon for his paint job, with electric blue detailing against a dark blue body. Actually, maybe argon is a better choice for that, but I don’t think it’ll catch on. He’s got a pattern of electric blue creating a vaguely cassette spool-like design on the doors, a power symbol (IEC 5009, to be precise) on the roof, and in gold on the front bumper he’s got a duplicate of the original Soundwave’s control buttons. All he really needs is an eject button. There is also unpainted detail molded into the back window of two more cassette spools with a bar graph in between. Read the rest…
OK, now for another xmas gift, this time from my lovely wife. It’s time to rock out with… Laserbeak?! Yeah, I’m reviewing Laserbeak separately from his packagemate Soundwave. This’ll be a quick one, for a simple toy.
His guitar mode is pretty straightforward. It’s molded entirely in black plastic, with a splash of red. There’s not a whole lot of features here, although you can adjust where the headstock sits on the neck (yes, I had to look those names up, I’m not a musician). There are a couple of pegs on the body that fit into Soundwave’s arms, and he can also be mounted on Soundwave’s roof in vehicle mode, which looks silly. Read the rest…
Hey! It’s one of my very, very few Transformer toys that doesn’t have bi/trilingual packaging. That’s because this one was a lovely xmas gift from my wife’s relatives in the US. It’s interesting that you guys get the character bio on the card, rather than on the instruction sheet down there (I really wish it was on the instruction sheet for all of them, because it’s easier to hang on to that than on to the card or box). But hey, enough about the packaging, it’s time to talk about the TickSentinel Prime! (Feel free to hum the Tick’s theme song while you read this. I’m humming it while I type.)
Scale is not Sentinel’s friend here. He’s about the same size as all the wheeled deluxes, which means he’s either really small or everyone else is really big. Still, it’s a nice vehicle design, and at this time of year, a suitable one around here (I have yet to find a way to convince him to clear the road in front of my apartment - Hasbro, this would make a great gimmick for a future toy!). It captures the Animated design quite well, feels fairly solid, and has nearly no robot kibble showing. It’s a fun altmode, with a good roll to it, a plow that can be angled like a real snowplow would, and a mounting point so that you can store his weapons on the roof (which, admittedly, doesn’t really look very good). You can even sort-of kind-of get a V shaped plow by splitting the plow, if that’s your kind of thing. Read the rest…
What the heck, I’ve opened a few new toys this month, so I might as well start reviewing again. Since he’s closest at hand, Starscream gets the honors.
I opened the box months ago, but never took him off the tray until today (loose toys are harder to store, and I don’t have any shelves). I took him out, after a minute or so of fiddling with him I figured out what the rattling noise in the box was - his head came off. It popped back on easy enough. Some of the flaps move around, and you can lower the landing gear and roll him around the desk. His missile launchers can be swung around to fire forward, but they don’t do his ground clearance any favours. Clearly, he shouldn’t be firing those things on the runway. I was a bit skeptical of the blue and red Starscream colour scheme, but honestly, I think it works well on this mold. Something more show-accurate would be nice, and I’d like to see some of the (inevitable) redecos that are happening for it, but I just can’t picture it looking as good in G1 colours. There’s nowhere on here wanting for another paint application, although the mauve paint behind the cockpit on mine is a bit sloppy. Overall, it’s a solid jet, with less undercarriage kibble than I’d expected, and I love the forward swept wings.
I decided to bring another Movie Scout with me this week to work, so this today’s review is going to be Warpath. Shockingly enough, he’s an Autobot, but I guess he’s a libertarian or something.
Out of the box, you’ve got an odd little red and black humvee thing, but with huge tyres that make me want to say “dune buggy”. Overall, it’s a nice colour scheme, and thankfully the Allspark blue is toned down enough that I can tolerate it. He rolls nice, there’s plenty of detailing, and he’s even got a spare tyre. It’s just over half the size of his actual tyres, but who’s counting? He’s got a very solid feel to him, and definitely feels like he’d be plenty fun just as is. This is a good thing, as he’s got no play features in this mode other than rolling around, keyport in the back be darned. Read the rest…
Go big or go home! Wait, no, nevermind. This week’s desktop guardian is Movie Scout Armorhide (I will refrain from calling him Armourhide, no matter how much I want to).
Like all of the Movie Scouts, Armorhide is a redeco, in this case of Cybertron Armorhide (who dreamed that one up?). His altmode is a teensy weensy flatnosed semi truck with a tow truck attachment on the back. he’s got a nice black and yellow colour scheme that I think is going to look nice alongside Stealth Bumblebee when I get around to opening him up. He seems nicely proportioned, and is well detailed in vehicle mode, but I do have a bit of a beef with how flexible his back end is. The arm joints aren’t loose, necessarily, but there’s nothing but the friction in the ball joints keeping him from bending. It’s particularly troublesome when putting the gun/tow truck attachment in. Inserting his key into the back of the cab (this requires removing the tow truck attachment) will open the front of the truck up, and eight non-firing missiles stick out. Read the rest…
Okay, now it’s time to review the fastest thing on wheels, Deluxe Animated Bumblebee. You’d think after the movie toyline pimped ‘Bee out, I’d be sick of him, but, uh, yeah. I’m not. It looks like he’s not going to get the endless new versions this time around, too. But I bloody well better get a Wasp and Cliffjumper, because I’m a redeco junkie.
Out of the box, Bumblebee is a sporty little compact, done up in the yellow and black colours you’d expect. The yellow isn’t too bright, which is nice, but I’d have liked it if the paint apps for the headlights were a little brighter. They just blend in, to the point where I’d almost think they weren’t there. It’s a nice, simple deco, and the light on the roof is a nice touch (I hope they have a change of heart and remove it from later uses of the mould, especially ones that don’t give it a paint app of its own). The colour does appear a bit uneven on the bits that are painted yellow (because they’re made of translucent plastic for the windows) versus the parts that are moulded yellow. In vehicle mode, you can attach the Sumdac turbo boosters to the rear windows (those peg holes are well placed, and blend in nicely when not in use, I find) for some added fun. Read the rest…
Oh my goodness. How did I let it slip for so long? Oh, right. “I’m busy today. I’ll do a review tomorrow, so it’s okay if I play SimCity or watch an old Animated episode.” Anyways, this week’s toy on my desk is Voyager Megatron from Animated.
This first Megatron toy in the Animated line turns into Megatron’s original altmode, the Cybertronic jet seen in that one scene in the pilot, to stand with Cybertron Mode Optimus Prime. He’s mostly black, with a fair dose of grey and translucent red. His fusion cannon is mounted so that it fires aft, presumably to deal with that backstabbing Starscream. It is, naturally, quite aggressive, and being a spacecraft completely free of anything remotely resembling aerodynamics. It also appears to have VTOL fans, for no other reason than they need to parallel similar constructions on his earth mode. I can’t shake a feeling that it should be flying backwards, probably because of that fusion cannon and the flow of the lines of the craft, but apparently that’s just wrong. Overall, I’d say that he’s got a nicer looking Cybertronic jet mode than his 2007 film counterpart. Read the rest…
Alright, protoforms, listen up. It’s time to do a review on Animated Ratchet, so tune your sensors in, ’cause he’s not gonna let me do this twice.
In vehicle mode, Ratched is… disappointingly tiny. He’s about the same size as Bumblebee, and that just isn’t right. Ambulances should be a bit bigger than a puny yellow compact. But moving past that, he’s actually pretty nice in vehicle mode. He’s got sleek lines, fairly complete paint applications in the necessary red and white scheme, and pretty good proportions. Like all of the Animated figures, he’s definitely got the Animated style down pat, so it’s a fairly simplistic/cartoony vehicle mode, but that suits me just fine. Read the rest…
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