Studio Series Bonecrusher

Before the first live-action Transformer movie came out the trailers made it look fantastic, which is the job of the trailer. One of the stand out moments in the trailer was a mean-looking robot rollerblading down a highway, into a bus and then launching himself at Optimus Prime. That robot was revealed to be Bonecrusher, and what you saw in the trailer was pretty much all he did. Well other than demonstrate that the movie-verse Optimus Prime was a face obsessed psychopath. What little personality we got of Bonecrusher was revealed in his bio and it became a short-lived meme. He hates things. Everything. Being alive. Being killed. The bands that you like. EVERYTHING.

Basically, what we have here is Grouchy Smurf as a Transformer.

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The original movie Bonecrusher toy was one of the more successful Decepticons. I mean, that’s damning it with faint praise as pretty much every single 2007 movie toy was various degrees of crap, but it seemed to work even if it was way too small. But this guy knocks it out of the water. While he’s roughly the same height but has more mass and looks far closer to the movie character model. Honestly, I know a lot of his schtick is that he hates what he looks like, but he has a unique look among the Cons.

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In bot mode he’s got a good amount of articulation. Leg swivel, ankle tilts, full 360 at the hips and good spread. He doesn’t have any wrist swivel, but he does rotate at the elbow, which helps him avoid the dreaded gorilla curl, and due to transformation, he can even get an inward curl at his shoulders. Hell, even his fork is pretty well articulated able to stretch over his head. Pretty handy when cleaning.

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There are only really two bits in bot mode I’m not fond of. The first being the head articulation. Due to his design, Bonercrusher’s bonce is sunk into his chest, and his “neck” is just pinned on and barely moves left or right. As shown in these pics his head can tilt so he’s still expressive, but I feel a ball joint there would have done the same thing and allowed a bit more movement? Then again I’m not a toy designer.

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The other part is the obvious vehicle kibble that means I have no idea if I should keep his arms pegged into, or disconnect it as in most of the pics, I think I like the latter, but it does make him feel a little less solid.

Speaking of awkward segues, his alt-mode is very solid.

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Bonecrusher transforms into a buffalo mine clearing vehicle. A vehicle about 99% of people didn’t know existed until the movie. They’re designed to be able to withstand land mines and IEDs and the tall, yet solid build is carried over to Bonecrusher here. It’s a fairly accurate representation too, though the arm is about three times longer than the real vehicle. It is also very beige. The transformation itself seems a bit more complicated than it is at first but overall is fun to do back and forth

The only real articulation here is the Form, which has all the same range of motion as the bot-mode.

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Overall I like Bonecrusher. Some problem’s sure but nothing major and he looks great. The only really annoying thing is that he doesn’t come with any Con symbols in bot mode. Repro-labels to the rescue again.

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Studio Series Thundercracker

So, anybody remember Toys R Us? OK daft question. But does anybody remember what the last Toys R Us exclusive Transformer was? This guy, Studios Series Thundercracker. He arrived just in time to be heavily discounted in the Toys R Us bankruptcy, like literally less than a month later. He became kind of a hot ticket in the US for a bit. Here in the UK? We just looked on at another toy we weren’t gonna get. However, it seems that The Entertainer picked up a load of excess Toys R Us stock as they bunged them in their shops for £17.49. So here we are with a movie Thundercracker who isn’t a repaint of Starscream!

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So yeah he’s a repaint of the really good The Last Knight Nitro Zeus, with all the decent if limited articulation intact. The always fun Thew reviewed him a while ago so I’d recommend checking out his review of it for the info on the original here. So what do we get with the Thundercracker version? A new head-sculpt loosely based on movie Starscream’s, some more paint applications, and an arguably better colour scheme. Nitro Zeus was one of only three toys I got from the Last Knight line and he is one of my favourite movie toys.

So why don’t I like Thundercracker as much as the original?

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Honestly? I think it does come down to his colour choices in some ways. Nitro Zeus may have a rather dull grey and black pallet, but the shade of grey used is weirdly vibrant. He pops a bit, plus his Shockwave fanboy eye with the yellow monocle helps. Thundercracker is very dark in colour. The flash in my camera makes him look far more vibrant than he actually is. He has some Decepticon badges on his wings which are black, but they blend with the blue way too much.   There’s also seems to be degradation in the toy mould, or the type of plastic used for him seems more slippery” than Nitro Zeus’, because all his tabs and tolerances are noticeably looser. For example, his ankles while able to support his weight, were more prone to tipping over if not balanced exactly right. I sorted that out with a quick screw tightening, but there’s also his arm cannon, which likes to slip out a little if you compress it. Not much of an issue as I keep it out for display, but it’s just an example of how he doesn’t feel as solid as Zeus in either mode. His left shoulder pad almost always pops off during transformation and his nosecone un-tabs a lot easier than Nitro’s ever did.

Moving on to the only new piece of the toy, the head-sculpt. It’s supposedly based on an early head for Starscream, less bird and more spider. In fact, to me, it looks like someone took Movie Starscream and Beast Wars Tarantulas and mashed them together. I keep flip flopping on if it works or not.

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As with Nitro Zeus (yeah a running theme huh?), his head also detaches as it is Titan Master compatible, a holdover from an earlier script where the movie character and headmaster Cogman would have taken over Nitro Zeus body at some point. It’s not much use, but hey can be fun for fiddling with your spare Titan Masters and possibly for customs.

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Transformation to jet mode is still fun but hindered a little by the lesser tolerances, and the jet mode itself is fine, but the problems with the blue are exacerbated. There’s some nice G1-esque red and silver on the wings but this really could have used a lighter shade of blue. It would just pop more.

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Honestly, I don’t have much more to say on the guy. He’s a good mould made slightly worse due to tolerance issues and a too dark paint job. I like him, but I’m glad I didn’t pay full price for him.

But hey if they do this in Skywarp colours I am so in!

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Comics

So before I started this blog, I did the odd photo-comic, called Robot Revolt. I plan on doing more but I figured I’d put my first lot up. There are 11 in total and they feature some characters that have popped up in my eyes. Please take note a lot of these came up before I figured out how to do decent speech bubbles. But I can’t be arsed remaking them so here we go!

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#9 (Please note this was written well before Voltron lost it’s shit in the final season.)rr9p1rr9p2rr9p3rr9p4

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Iron Factory If EX-31 Dubhe, aka TINY TARN.

It probably seems obvious to some of you that I’m more of a Decepticon fan than Autobot, and with that, I come across as fanboyish over many characters. That said, I am nowhere near as bad as some members, or characters, including IDW’s Tarn, a fanboy who was so dedicated to Megatron he became the leader of a team of living weapons whose only use was to scare the ever-loving bejeezus out of any Decepticon who even thought about of not toeing the line. That was until Megatron became an Autobot, then Tarn went a bit mad, suicidal and then tried to kill the former Decepticon leader. He was promptly ripped apart by anti-matter cos he killed Ravage.

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There are currently only two Tarn toys out, the other being Mastermind Creations Kultur, which is expensive, so here comes Iron Factory to give us a smaller more affordable of Tarn. And there was much rejoicing. Until the QC issues started turning up, but we’ll get to that.

So, Tarn’s robot mode is gorgeous, lovely colours all around, far more vibrant than MMC’s offering and with a great amount of articulation.  All this in a package small enough to be of no threat to anyone.

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One of thing things that caught people’s attention when Tarn was his face, being a stylised Decepticon symbol, it’s done quite well here, though this and my previous copy (again more on that later) did have some marks on it from where it had been cut off a sprue. Still quite nice, and also is part of a nice feature of this guy.

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Underneath the mask, you have a fairly seeker-esque head, which is accurate to the comic, and while my camera doesn’t pick it up very well, there’s even some moulded damage under his left eye, again accurate to the comics. Quite frankly the amount of detail on something at this scale is astonishing.

But that’s not all, along with the mask, you get two sets of extra hands for Tarn one of which allows you to HOLD HIS MASK.

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I really like these opening hands. Along with his great articulation, Tarn can pull off some expressive poses. Such as the “MINE IS AN EVIL LAUGH.”

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The “HUNT THEM DOWN LIKE THE DOGS THEY ARE!”

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And the always fun “I’m not mad, just disappointed that you pissed on the carpet.” Well known to dog owners everywhere.

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He also comes with a set of open hand’s that allow him to hold weapons compatible with 5mm ports. Like his double fusion cannon

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Tarn’s vehicle mode is a tiny adorable tank of death.

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As with some other Iron Factory toys, the vehicle has no wheels, which is fine. Oh, he also turns into the central unit of the Deception Justice Division combiner that Iron Factory is doing with his teammates, but since I probably won’t be buying them I’m not going to bother. It’s a shame that the transformation is where this guy comes apart a bit, almost literally. It’s quite fiddly for his size and you must line up some things just right. I especially find getting his fusions cannons in place a bit of a chore, since you have to clip them between their legs, but they don’t like sitting flush easily. I end up dismantling the cannons to make it much easier. But this isn’t where things go wrong. Oh no, it’s only on probably his most important part!

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So, you can see those two purple struts that Tarn’s arms are attached to, those are made of flexible plastic. Probably a good idea in theory, but it’s also where the arm joints are. This is a problem for two reasons. The first is that, as Peaugh pointed out in his video review if you follow the steps in the transformation as presented in the instructions, it feels like you apply far more pressure than the plastic can take at the 90-degree bend, causing stress marks. Better to rotate them while they remain locked in by the tank modes front treads and chest plate in robot mode.

The second and my personal favourite problem is that there are a lot of reports of the joints for the arm rotation being WAY too tight. As hinted at, this is my second Tiny Tarn, and it is precisely for this problem. The first had some big stress marks due to the transformation, but his left arm became so goddamn tight after opening him, doing a single 360-degree rotation damn gave HUGE stress marks on the bit that plugs into the arm. One more rotation for a test and I just knew that any more would break the damn thing off. Other problems include the hold the ball joint is in breaking at the plastic seam, necessitating a replacement, as this was a gift from my wife I didn’t want to get a refund.

However, there is a relatively easy solution, again promoted by Peaugh, shock oil. It’s a lubricant that people use for lubricating the parts on remote control cars. I picked up a bottle for a couple of quid at my local hobby shop. And hoo boy does it make a difference. Both my arm joint on my second Tarn were tight, but a dab on either side of the joint, and on the hinges on his shoulders for good measure, and voila! Fixed. Now I can move his arms without fear of breakage and they still hold the pose. As a bit of help, here’s the shock oil I got so you know what to look for if you have concerns.

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So, essentially, what we have is a brilliant robot, with a fiddly transformation to a cute tank with the added risk of breaking the thing when using it as intended. This is a big step down from Iron Factory’s usual quality. I still like their stuff, but I’m hoping these QC issues don’t come up on their future releases. Anyway, off to the collection Tarn goes!

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War for Cybertron Siege Leader Shockwave Review

Shockwave is one of my favourite Transformers characters that has transcended whatever version of the franchise he has been in…except for his initial G1 cartoon incarnation where he did nothing but fail to hit anyone in million years of war. That’s kind of bad for a guy who turns into a gun. This might explain why since then he’s taken on a few different forms including satellite, helicopter, car and god knows how many made-up tanks in the years afterwards. It was only with the Combiner Wars Legends and Masterpiece toys that we got official gun Shockwaves, a hole that was filled by 3rd party companies for years. But if you didn’t want a tiny Shockwave or what is essentially a really expensive transforming display piece, you were out of luck. That is until Siege came around and let everyone know that Shockwave is back in his original G1 form!

Sort of.

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So yeah, looking at old Mecha-Shiva up there you may be forgiven for being confused by my opening paragraph of this review. All that guff is armour, as in the Siege toyline, Shockwave is basically the Decepticon’s answer to Ultra Magnus. I don’t own Magnus myself preferring my Combiner Wars IDW version (yes, I own about 8 different versions of Shockwave, what’s your point?), but he’s a call back to his original G1 form, as in he’s a white Optimus with armour attachments to make the “proper” robot mode. Shockwave is kind of the reverse, his proper robot mode is his unarmoured state, but the armour can bulk him up in his two other modes, as well as having a third use. But more on that later.

As for armoured up Shockwave himself? I like it more than I thought. Yeah, it’s daft with its two extra gun arms, massive shoulder pads and gun toes, but I can kinda see a Shockwave of the scientific bent using it to help him keep up with the strong bots.

That said this is the guy who’s fought the entire team of Dinobots to a standstill by himself in more than one continuity, so make of that what you will.

Articulation wise he’s got it out the arse, wrist swivel on all the arms, decent elbows, raised articulation, and a good range of motion on his arms, thigh rotation, good knees and a minor ankle tilt. You can pull off some ludicrous poses with this guy, making him good fun to play with.

But things get a little bit more sensible when you force him to strip.

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Now here we go, this is the G1 mass retail Shockwave we’ve been wanting for ages…I assume? Anyway, this is a bloody good Shockwave, if a little small. He’s essentially Voyager size, the armour taking him up to Leader class. But unlike Ultra Magnus who becomes his “proper” robot mode with the armour, Shockwave would have been perfectly fine without, so I can see why people are miffed about paying Leader prices for a Voyager sized figure, even if he is a good one. I was fine with it when I ordered him but seeing how small he is without the armour and how he stacks up next to my other leader class CHUG toy’s, it is a bit shit.

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And I gotta say I love the colour of plastic this guy has. One of the reasons I went for a Cloud 9 Quakeblast for my Masterpiece Shockwave was the darker purple he sported and not the lighter shade of the official or Quakewave. Also, it was about half the price. This dark purple really works for me, as does the glorious yellow light piping on his eye, and the bit of silver and black on his hose and eye give him just enough colouring to not be boring. All this in a Shockwave I can transform back and forth without worrying I’m gonna break the damn thing like I do with Quakblast, who while a solid toy, is now a fancy paperweight.

Speaking of paperweights…

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The second of the three uses for his armour is this armed surfboard thingy. I like to pretend it’s a drone for helping him in the land. It is named Juan.

I have nothing else to add to this so let’s get on to his alt-mode shall we?

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Hang on, something ain’t right here…

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There we go.

Jokes aside, I never got why we can’t call Shockwave a space laser anymore, even though he is blatantly is one. It’s the same as with Sixshot and his “submarine mode.” It sucks, but well, we’re not actually losing anything with it so there ya go. As the “gun” he’s a pretty decent representation, with the hose having plenty of places to peg in, those the designated place is the handle. It works a bit better as a ship, as the handle, or perhaps bridge, is too small for anyone save a baby or some kind of small simian (a macaque perhaps?) to use as a weapon.

Oh, but remember I mentioned that the surfboard was the armours second use of three? Well here’s the third.

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I really like this fully kitted out battleship mode. The detailing on it makes it is sublime and the hints of silver the gun barrels really helps them pop. Hell, little details like the missile pods on Shockwave’s feet at the rear make this feel like some sort of giant end boss battleship or the flagship of some alien space armada. Well, that and the massive laser cannon barrel on the front. This is a gunship in every sense of the word.

So, while it is a bit naff to have a good voyager Shockwave at a leader price, I think the extra just about make up for it. Your mileage may vary of course, but he really works for me and I think he would make an excellent addition to your Siege collection.

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War for Cybetron Siege: Deluxe Hound Review

So, the first review of 2019! I had a couple to look at but asked twitter what they would like to see. And they chose fan favourite Hound from the Siege line! So, let’s talk about Hound the character…

Uhm he got saved from drowning in the first arc of the G1 cartoon and people made a gif of him that made it look like he was having sex with his rescuer, Spike Witwicky. That is literally all I can remember him doing.

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So, whenever people say Hound is their favourite character, I’m like, “what character?” Hound is one of those guys whose personality starts and ends with his toy bio. “He is good at fighting and likes Earth.” And unlike a lot of other G1 season 1 bots, he never really got much character development after that in any other media. I mean, even the comic where he was the leader of a squad of Autobots that got their arses kicked by Cyclonus was named after another character. Says a lot.

Least the toy is good though!

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Almost every Hound in history has turned into a variation of a jeep, and we see this is no different here. Except, everything in the Siege line is set on Cybertron so he turns into a SPACE JEEP. A nice blocky design and a plethora of weapons storage ports. I really like it, mainly because it looks like a Warthog from Halo if you squint.

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His transformation would seem to be a case of “unfold legs, push chest down to reveal head” and it is until you get about halfway done. But his feet are actually created from holding the sides of the jeep in half to create the legs, leading to him having both his front and back wheels on his legs and nothing handing off his hood-chest or getting in the way of his arms.

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With that, you get a very good traditional G1 robot mode, with some sci-fi greebles. The paint is top-notch, especially the silver stars.  The Siege battle damage also works really well for him. Honestly though? I think he could have done with being a lighter shade of green, something not a dark or dull, possibly similar to the CW toy.  Something to make him pop a little more.

As seems to be a running theme in the Siege line, his articulation is right impressive for a deluxe, with the major bases covered. Hip swivel, good knees, a useable ankle tilt. He’s pretty good.

What else can I say?

I like his gun has a hopper which has a dedicated place for it in his car mode?

Honestly, it should come as no surprise I’m more of a Decepticon guy than Autobot. The majority of the G1 cartoon Con’s had distinct personalities which made me gravitate towards them and a lot of my memories are tied up in those, like how Starscream was a backstabbing git, or Soundwave was probably the only competent one out of the lot of them and so forth. The Autobots though? There were 19 Autobots on the Ark in the first episode of the cartoon. And about 9 personalities between them.  Hound was one of those guys who got the 1 personality left over after the first eight got used up. He was a “nice guy” who would sit in the background while other people got the spotlight.

So basically, this is a good toy that is attached to a popular character despite him doing bugger all significant in every form of media he’s been in and doesn’t have anything else to make him stand out. Like a recent IDW personality re-imagining or a signature episode, or a particularly cool colour scheme. He was just there, letting others do the heavy lifting in the cartoon designed to sell toys.  I mean if I have fonder memories of bleeding Punch/Counterpunch and his ONE SCENE in the cartoon, something isn’t right.

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Top Ten Transformers of 2018

As is the tradition for many Transformers reviewers it’s time for my Top 10 Transformers of the last twelve months. Don’t have much more of a lead into this so let’s get it done.

10) Studios Series Revenge Of The Fallen Megatron

The studio series surprised me a bit this year. I’ve never been a huge fan of the movie designs mainly because they never translated well into plastic (with some exceptions) and I especially found this the case with Megatron. Then the Last Knight came out and showed “hey here’s how we do a GOOD Megatron movie toy” and then decided to take that ethos and try and put it towards the older designs, and they succeeded.  It’s a bit annoying that it took so long to get a good toy out of this design, but here he is, with great sculpting, a fun transformation, and a great robot mode despite it being ugly as all sin.

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9) Studio Series Blackout.

This guy was bought on a whim when it looked like I was never going to get the Amazon Exclusive Nemesis Prime, and honestly? Worth it. He’s not perfect, a lot of things don’t want to tab in, my first one straight up broke a leg within a day (and was replaced with no quibble) and the way his hands sit and can’t rotate is a drag, but he just has a great presence in either mode. He’s one of the quintessential Decepticon thugs. Big, dumb, unsubtle, and I feel his introduction in the movie was a brilliantly shot and directed action piece that was never again matched. At least until they booted Bay and gave Travis Knight the reins (seriously go see Bumblebee, it’s bloody fantastic). Plus he comes with tiny pet Scorpion who is adorable and makes me think he’s one of those huge hulking biker guys who have a pet chihuahua and spoil the thing.

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8) Siege Megatron

Honestly, at first, I thought this guy would be higher on the list, but when doing these top ten lists I tend to take my personal feelings outside of the actual toy into consideration. If it was just on how good of a toy he is, he’d be in the top five. Great look in both modes,  fun accessories, brilliant transformation. The way his head doesn’t lock-in in bot mode was a bit of a letdown, and the battle damage, while not as obtrusive as I worried it might be, makes me wish he had a “clean” version. I’m sure Hasbro won’t miss that trick and release him again at some point though. Hopefully in eye destroying green and purple, but he’ll do for now.

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7) Studios Series Starscream

Oh, you have no idea how much I wanted a good movie Starscream toy that wasn’t covered in shit tribal tattoos. He was probably the only movie design I really liked straight away. I dunno, chicken walker legs do it for me. I’m sure you have a weird fetish as well. Anyway, the ROTF Leader is a good toy, but not particularly fun to transform back and forth. But this guy, woof. OK yes, in a lot of ways he is just the Dark of the Moon deluxe sized up, but that was a great toy. Besides, Hasbro might as well make some money from the people who buy the stuff from Chinese KO companies who take their moulds and up-size them.

I’m sure that comment will get me some hate from the “THIRD PARTY OR NUTHIN!” crowd.

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6) Amazon Exclusive Power of the Primes Nemesis Prime

Yes, Nemesis the Hedgehog was certain to get a place here. It’s shallow but a black repaint will almost always do it for me, even more so if there’s purple (though I’ve yet to buy Rodimus Unicronus, mainly cos the name is stupid). Getting this guy was a hassle, so much so I cancelled my order and ended up buying Blackout from Amazon instead. And yes, he did become available less than two weeks later. Typical. Still managed to snag him. Loving the references to a good chunk of the different versions of the character and how having all the weapons included. His alt mode is a bit daft, but the bot mode more than makes up for it. Plus, the Nemesis Pax concept is cute if a bit left field.

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5) Iron Factory Lord Scorpion Comic Version

While not my first Iron Factory figure, Lord Scorpion is definitely the one that convinced me this is one of the best third-party companies out there. He just exudes quality in almost every aspect and is a big improvement over their Overlord. Almost everything has a place in all three modes, unlike with Evil lord you had to put like a quarter of his stuff aside, now it’s just the gun, which is something even some official toys struggle with (look at Titans Return Hardhead/Quake and tell me that weapon storage is more than a last  minute botch job). The amount of detail and articulation this guy has at this scale is great and he’s just so solid. A majority of my third-party purchases have been ropey, usually needing a part replaced or an entire figure returning (looking at you Mastermind Creations Boreas). No such problem with this guy. Honestly, I’m keeping an eye on Iron Factory’s other offerings based him alone.

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4) Titans Return Nautica.

OK this is one of those toys who’s here kinda more for what she means to me, rather than how good the toy is (which is still fantastic.) See she was available only in the ridiculously expensive Chaos on Velocitron set, which never turned up in the UK at retail because Toys R Us was busy imploding. Initially released for around £175 on specialist sites and then it would go on the aftermarket for upwards of £250. So yeah, no chance of getting it. However, a few months ago we got fellow TFW2005 user Payres (https://twitter.com/philip_ayres/) spotting them in Home Bargains. For £30.

Cue the entire Transformers UK community going apeshit.

What followed was instances of people going out of their way to buy multiples of this for others, passing them on at cost plus shipping. Oh yeah you had a few scalpers, and may they burn in hell for it, but the majority of it was people just helping others getting fun toys for their mates. I was unable to procure any for a few friends, but they managed to source them elsewhere. Plus my wife bought me my set for Christmas.

Anyway, I really wanted the set for Nautica who is made from the excellent Titans Return Blurr mould…which I don’t own because I don’t like Blurr. I do own the Brainstorm version though and it’s a great toy. Plus, she’s one of my favourite characters from More than Meets the Eye/Lost Light, the first comic series I collected from start to finish, so it’s great to have an actual physical toy of her.

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3) Titans Return Grotusque

This is my favourite of the Titans Return Monsterbot mould. The colours are eye-achingly brilliant. The beast mode is pure unadulterated 80’s toy bullshit (seriously the fuck is this guy supposed to be, a rejected Godzilla design?) but with good articulation and nice Easter eggs. But again this is more about the story behind the toy. This guy was an New York Comic Con and Hasbro Toy Shop exclusive and sold out almost immediately. He then became a Toys R Us exclusive. However, when they went under he started getting discounted heavily. Meanwhile, all us guys in the UK were all “Eh another toy we’re not getting.”

And then the absolute heroine that is JenApparently (https://twitter.com/jenapparently) was all like “OH FUCK THAT SHIT!” and spotted a tonne at a store near her. She’s got a lot of UK friends and made it known that she was willing to buy a load, and pass them on for nothing but cost. Then Toy-Fu (https://twitter.com/toyfu332) was all like “Hey send them to me and people can get them at TFNation or I can post them to peeps who can’t make it.”

And thus, a load of people got a toy they never would have been able to get, and it brought a few friends closer together. Shit like this is why I love this fandom.

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2) Special Edition Combiner Wars/Power of the Primes Blast Off.

I’ve never hit a pre-order harder for a toy than for Blast Off. The Combaticons are my favourite Combiner team. They’re basically the Decepticon Special Forces, but it took them so long to get a decent toy. When the Combiner Wars versions came out, I paid for them all in one go and was quite happy with the original Blast Off being a jet. True he didn’t have the right head and was made from probably the worst aerialbot mode, but hey, it was still a decent toy, all things said and done.

And then this guy got released.

I love the more “Cybetronian” space mode and the perfect robot mode. Oh sure if you’re one of those scale obsessed people, a space shuttle as one of the smallest part of a combiner team is a bit daft. But frankly, if you care that much about scale Transformers is not the hobby for you. Bung in a simple yet fun transformation and you get the best version of this guy. I still have the original as his own separate dude, but this is the version I’d save in a fire.

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1) Maketoys Rioter Despotron

Oh this guy, this guy! Bought on a whim and on recommendation from EvoChanger (https://twitter.com/evochanger). And frankly? He undersold it. Rioter Despotron is brilliant in all aspects. Looks fantastic in both modes, has a fun, complex, yet not complicated transformation and is so fucking poseable it hurts. Honestly, the only minor niggle I have is that he has ONE bit of parts forming, and even that is bloody easy to do. With this toy, Maketoys became my favourite third-party company.

I can see where he wouldn’t be to everyone’s taste, but let’s just say if I was a mecha anime antagonist (cos no way I’d be the main character) I’d want my mech to look exactly like this. He captures the essence of what a leader of the bad guys should be, powerful yet composed. He looks like he could beat the absolute crap out of you and look good doing it. Plus, he has the simplest, yet brilliant weapon storage ever. His sword stores inside his gun barrel/scope. Why the hell has nobody thought of that before? I seriously should not be this excited about that, but I am! Buy him.

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Transformers War For Cybertron Siege Voyager Megatron Review (seriously Hasbro choose shorter line names next time)

So, for the last couple of weeks I’ve been wondering which toy to review next. I wanted to review a Megatron toy but had a choice between either MakeToys Rioter Despotron, or Hasbro’s new Siege voyager class Megatron. Eventually, I just asked Twitter and the results came back in favour of Siege Megs, so here we are!

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Siege Megatron is the latest toy of Robo-Stalin from G1, and let’s not mince words here, he’s the best mass retail version of old Buckethead around. The Titans Return had its charm but was always meant for Blitzwing, and the Combiner Wars lader figure certain had some things going for it. But this guy has it all, great articulation, great alt mode and…well just LOOK at him.

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Siege Megs carries the look of the original Decepticon leader well and he looks dangerous. Part of this is down to the battle damage that the Siege line uses. I’m in two minds on it. On the one hand on his legs which become the out armour of his tank mode, it looks good. On the chest? Not so much. In fact, you can see I’ve placed a silver backed reprolabel over his normal logo. This was because on mine the logo was off centre enough to be noticeable and seem to have scratches rather than paint applications. Others I’ve seen pictures of don’t seem to have that, though my Siege Optimus does. Guess it’s just random.

Megatron comes with two accessories, his standard fusion cannon and a massive hunk of metal that he claims is a sword. It’s reminiscent of his sword from Fall of Cybertron…except with a sniper scope. The reason for this will become clear.

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Megatron’s articulation is some of the best the character has gotten from a normal retail voyager. Ankle tilt, waist rotation, though still to name a few, and it all allows him to pose quite well. One thing with the ankle title is that you can lock the feet in place if not using it, but for some reason, my right foot requires me to slide the foot off its clip, then lock it in place if I’ve used it. The left is fine, however. I assume this is some sort of clearance issue but just be aware as I’ve seen others with the same minor issue. Other blemishes include the way head just sits on a plate of plastic in bot mode and doesn’t peg otherwise lock in anywhere for example. However, the plastic tolerances keep it in place enough to get the job done. Minor niggles like that aside it’s an excellent bot mode.

As a Siege toy, Megatron also comes with weapon ports all over his body, meaning you can kit him out with the various weapon micromasters and weaponizers in the line. Or with anything that has a five-millimetre peg really.

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Alt mode meanwhile, hoo boy. I know a lot of people have issues with H-tanks but the transformation leaves us with one of the best. You’d assume that such a simple vehicle would have a similarly simply transformation, but the way the thighs rotate and collapse in on themselves and how the arms become a fully rotating turret in a completely different way to other tank Megatron really shines. This is always where the scope on the sword comes in to play. After doing the transformation you rotate the blades down and underneath it becomes the actual fusion cannon for the tank. As weapons storage and implementation goes it’s bloody brilliant. Honestly, while the Combiner Wars leader tank is maybe more detailed and nice looking, but this guy still ends up being my favourite for all the great ideas

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And of course, a good chunk of the weapon ports from the bot mode carry over too.

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All in all, Siege Megatron is so far the definitive voyager version of G1 Megs, and beats the recent leader toy by a mile. Now all I need for them is to release it in G2 neon green I can die happy.

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Studio Series Dropkick Review

So, with the Bumblebee movie due to drop within a few weeks,  and looking like it’ll be bloody good (but then didn’t we say that about the first movie and its sequels), the toys have started dropping. Most of these are in lines that are catering to the younger audience that the movie is aiming for, rather than whatever the hell audience the other movies were trying to hit. These means a good chunk of the toys are simpler designs. But luckily, we have the Studio Series where the older collectors can get more complex and screen accurate version of the characters, and the first Decepticon from the Bumblebee movie in this line is Dropkick, one of three triple changers featured in the film.

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Dropkick the toy is noticeably not a triple changer, or even very screen accurate. I think I know why, the lines that have triple changers tend to be G1 inspired, so you can take a tank, which is essentially a block with a turret, and then stick some wings on it to make it a jet and no one will call you out on it.

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Meanwhile, the more “alien” robot modes, including g the far more G1-esque designs of the Bumblebee movie, combined with the actual licensed vehicle of the movies don’t translate well into plastic. So, while we won’t ever get a triple changing Dropkick, that does mean Hasbro and Takara can try and sell twice as many toys of him.

Robot mode Dropkick seems very evocative of two other Transformers to me, essentially G1 Whirl and movie Blackout. The alt-mode is Whirl, while the design is vaguely reminiscent of Blackout in how the engines end up on his shoulders and how he handles his rather obtrusive arm kibble, while the grey-blue colour seems to be reminiscent of both.

The one thing that he didn’t get from his parents was their size.

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Dropkick is bloody TINY. Like ridiculously so. He is apparently a deluxe and while he is as tall as some of them, he is also very slim in almost every as aspect, and due to this, he is also very light. When I first posted impressions about him, I said he felt flimsy. He’s not, the robot mode is actually quite solid and holds together well, save his engine kibble and alt-mode landing gear, as neither of them pegs in or otherwise secure anywhere in robot mode. But my brain having been deprived of enough sleep for most of the week, interpreted this as flimsy. In reality, he just feels so slight it is kind of off-putting as there’s no heft to him. I mean not every bot has to be a big chunky bastard, but they need something to make it feel like I won’t accidentally throw them to the ceiling just by picking them up. For comparison, here are some other deluxe class bots for comparison, including a movie-based helicopter.

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Articulation wise he’s average, he has an almost 180-degree knee bend, thigh swivel, and full range of motion in his shoulders and hips. His arms can bend up to 90 degrees and no further, and he has no waist swivel. He’s perfectly serviceable and can get some cool poses, yet he is lacking compared to a lot of recent deluxe bots.

However, when you get to transforming him, you can see where the budget went for this guy. The transformation is a blast and incredibly involved for such a small toy. One a first go it’s a little bit fiddly, mainly because you end up doing a lot more than you expect to do. For example, you see his cockpit chest? So, you’d expect it to be a typical “tuck head away in the cockpit and build the robot around that” sort of deal like with most jet and chopper Transformers. This is still true to a degree, but you also flip his entire torso and leg assembly 180 degrees while unfolding the legs and arms before snapping everything together (though this can take a couple of attempts for everything to stick). It’s fun and quite impressive once you get it down, and the result is a very nice rendition of a Cobra….

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As I was saying, he transforms into a very nice rendition of a Bell AH1 SuperCobra, aka the best-named attack helicopter of all time. The colours work a lot better here and you get to see a lot more details, including the nice skull and crossbones logo…which seems to replace any form of Decepticon badge, something that has popped up in other Studio Series releases. His guns store as missile pods on his side and in this mode a front-mounted mini-gun comes in to play. The rotors don’t spin freely, but that’s not a deal-breaker for me. This is my favourite mode but it still feels criminally undersized. Part of the idea with the Studio Series scale is that they’re supposed to be in scale with each other. And even though most of his form goes to stretch his length, he is still pretty much dwarfed by most car bots. I can live with that, as dealing with scale issues is something you have to learn to accept in Transformers lest you go mad with trying to figure out how the hell G1 Broadside works, but I know some people take umbrage with stuff like this.

Good news is that he works with G1 Bumblebee if you’re so inclined!

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All in all, Dropkick is OK. His transformation and alt-mode are great, but if you’re like me keep your Transformers in robot mode 90% of the time, this may feel like a little bit of a letdown in that area. I think this would have worked much better as a Voyager figure where he would have had a bigger budget and probably would give him more mass. At least the lack of Con symbol can be easily rectified thanks to Reprolabels!

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