Siege Voyager and Studio Series 38 Optimus Prime Review

So, I’ve done a couple of reviews on my favourite faction’s leader, Megatron, perhaps it’s time to look a the opposition. He’s had a new toy released recently, tied with a very successful take on the Transformers franchise. Probably one of the most successful ones in recent years.

Actually, I think this is a good way to try something new. DOUBLE REVIEW AND COMPARISON. Let’s have a lot at the two most recent takes on the optimal one. Considering these are probably the best takes on their respective franchises for some time.

So here we have two takes on the classic Optimus Prime G1 mode, one obviously taking far more cues than the other. Siege Prime is essentially how your ageing brain remembers what your original G1 prime looked like. He does a great job or taking the G1 design and updating it enough to be a fully self-contained robot with modern toy making technology being used to great advantage. He’s also got great proportions, especially in contracts to the other faction leader. Siege Megatron looks like a big bulky bruiser, all upper body strength with his wide barrel-chest, like a wrestler or heavyweight boxer. Prime meanwhile, has a more Mixed Martial Arts frame. The strength is all there, but more evened out. The colours are lovely and vibrant, even accounting for the Siege “battle damage”. And honestly, that head sculpt is the best I’ve seen on pretty much any Prime toy for years. He also has just the right amount of detailing to keep him interesting, unlike some Siege figures where it’s like someone went a bit overboard with the dremmel, such as Shockwave.

As for the rest of his looks, his head sculpt is the quintessential Prime head. It’s just perfect. I can see someone having problems with the short smokestacks, but honestly, you should be used to that by now. The arm kibble is a little annoying, but I’ve seen worse ways to handle it on non-Masterpiece figures and it doesn’t get in the way of his articulation, which like all Siege figures, is fantastic. Full waist, knee, ankle, arm and swivels all over. Accessories wise he comes with his gun and a pretty cool transforming shield/axe. And since he’s a Siege guy he has all the ports for the liens weapons or weaponizers like Sixgun. So you can make Gunimus Prime.

Studio Series 38 Prime (now SS38 because I can’t be arsed typing the full name constantly) besides the obvious aesthetic differences, does have one advantage over its Siege counterpart. A higher budget. Since the SS voyagers cost more than other voyager sized toys, they get a bit more to work with. Not necessarily in terms of paint, as this version of Optimus he has a lot more separate parts, a more involved transformation and, and a more sculpted, mechanical detail. And it works wonderfully.

This is what the movies should have been all along if you ask me. Now that’s not to say the other movies designs are bad (well some are) but a lot of them never really felt like their characters. The more skeletal version of prime never really worked for me, mainly cos it took them a long time to work in toy form. Even then the best versions of them always leave a little something to be desired, as the Evasion Mode Optimus from Age of Extinction, while cool still felt off to me. This guy? Oh boy, does he look cool, if a little busy. There is a lot of sculpted detail here. Not as much as some voyagers, but it’s enough to make me think that this could work in a live-action setting, which is entire;y the point. Hell, it even has similar arm kibble to the Siege guy.

He does have a lot more moving parts to him but still has pretty much the exact same amount articulation as the Siege guy. However, since he’s mainly made of panels, stuff gets in the way of each other a lot more than on the Siege guy, especially around the waist. The backpack, while not as noticeable as on Siege Prime, does actually get in the way of his legs backwards motion as well.

Speaking of the legs, they look skinnier than the Siege’s, they’ve got roughly the same mass because of the wheels. They’re essentially “constructed” from the rear of the truck, rather than being a solid piece with flipping wheels ala other Prime. It’s quite a feat of engineering actually but does make him feel a little less solid in that area.

And that head sculpt! Like, I said the Siege guy has THE quintessential Prime head, but this one is just so bloody nice. With sculpted vents, nice bits of silver detail on his “cheeks” and even has parts of the side picked out as robot-ears. I honestly can’t decide which is better.

Wait, SS38 has longer smokestacks. WINNER.

All joking aside I really do like him. In terms of aesthetics, I’m not a huge fan of the duller colours used compared to the more cartoony Siege prime, but it works in this context.

Accessories wise he comes with a gun. It’s a nice gun. I like it. But there’s not much more I can say about it. It feels more like an actual gun made to look like Optimus’ Ion Blaster. Good, but maybe a smidge generic.

It might just be me, but he also feels a little more anime-esque, and as such looks are really good next to Maketoys Rioter Despotron I last reviewed.

Now the transformations on both these guys are fun. They’re both more involved than you think…and I gotta say I prefer Siege’s. It’s relatively simple yes, but it’s fluid. Nothing gets in the way of anything else, and it’s fun. SS38’s has some of the same steps, but you kinda disassemble the whole thing and put it back together to form the truck. It’s not a bad one and is as I said, far more involved than the Siege’s, but it’s more widely because of that, and it’s easy for parts to bump into each other.

Still, when you get right down to it, it becomes a bloody good looking truck.

These both look great. But let’s face it, the Siege guy is trying to convince you it’s a space truck. I mean yeah you have that hover mode, but it’s a G1 cartoon truck with extra headlights. It’s a good truck mode, but if you want a more realistic one, the Studio Series has it in spades. All those panels that get in the way in bot mod and make the transformation a bit of a faff make one excellent looking truck.

So honestly I like both of these guys. Despite their similarities, I don’t feel daft for owning two flat nose G1 styled voyagers. They bring enough differences to the table that I can enjoy both of them. If I had to choose, the Siege guy would edge it slightly for me due to the brighter colours, and slightly less annoying transformation. But I’m glad I have both. They’re equally good at doing their own thing despite both being very much the Robot Dad we all love.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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?

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.

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.

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.

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!

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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