Yeah, I'm a TF fandom expat myself going on ten years now.
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Transformers |OT| Transform and roll out...
- Thread starter Mike M
- Start date
Tizoc
Member
DeaconKnowledge
Member
What made you leave?
I only ever lurked but on TFW they hate everything. Seibertron was a bit more civilized.
Transformers, G.I.Joe and even He-Man all have fandoms that can be quite....picky and quick to anger over the smallest thing. It's easy for some fans to get into it and that makes them not exactly the most friendly places online to associate at. It can be quite a battleground at times so I don't blame anyone who avoids them, it can be quite a headache.
Whimsical Phil
Ninja School will help you
Yeah, I already had one pop off. Luckily it landed on the table and not somewhere under the couch.
Considering how many alternate continuities there are, even some made for the toys that they sell as special stuff at cons I'm a bit amazed this concept has never been touched on.
Yup, he looks pretty damn awesome. I like he has his guns, I remember how Fox would cut out those parts on TV where as up here in Canada we never got anything cut out....granted the show was called Beasties up here due to some rule on TV about shows not being allowed to have War in the title. Never understood that.
Also there is a mini Waspinator coming out with a new Starscream, I think Wasp is his gun.
Also there is a mini Waspinator coming out with a new Starscream, I think Wasp is his gun.
Who needs a mini one when you can have this magnificent bastard
Generations line is doing total justice to the Beast figures, even though to be fair the originals were pretty damn good.
DeaconKnowledge
Member
To be clear I think Mike M was saying that the first two seasons are on Netflix. You should watch all three seasons.
No no no. I just watched one ;_; inducing cartoon today. Not watching this now. ;_;
I found a box in my room with all my old Beast Wars toys. Oh the nostalgia.
I cracked open a storage bin last night and inside waaaaaaaaas...
Beast Machines!
I stayed up way too late last night taking pictures of them all, I'll try and post some today.
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Generations is amazing. I haven't bought anything in years, but FOC Soundwave, and the G1 triple changers were too amazing to pass up. Need Metroplex so bad...
Beast Machines!
I stayed up way too late last night taking pictures of them all, I'll try and post some today.
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Generations is amazing. I haven't bought anything in years, but FOC Soundwave, and the G1 triple changers were too amazing to pass up. Need Metroplex so bad...
Powerful.
Who needs a mini one when you can have this magnificent bastard
Generations line is doing total justice to the Beast figures, even though to be fair the originals were pretty damn good.
Totally forgot about him.
It's astounding how they can make them look which is so damn near their TV designs.
This is dead on in the sense that the 6-inch Titanium figures were mostly disappointments, but it's probably worth pointing out that the G1 toys were not mostly made of metal. People remember their Optimus Prime being 100% die-cast, but in truth the only metal parts of the toy were his feet and the top of his chest.
In a recent interview, James Roberts (writer of IDW's MTMTE comic) seems pretty convinced there's a Rattrap figure on the way.
I honestly don't know, I literally just signed on one day and was just... Completely fed up. I frequented the Allspark for yeeeeears, and I just got tired of their weird insistence on running a child-friendly site frequented exclusively by 20-something and up guys on the off chance some kid googled Transformers and wound up there. The moderation was shit and inconsistent, too. People bitch about NeoGAF being a fascist state, but the alternative is mostly shit posters posting mostly shit.
TF boards were incredibly cliquey too, so I didn't really feel like jumping ship to another board. Would have been the same shit in a different toilet anyway.
Maybe things have improved in my absence, Idunno.
I actually meant to include that part. People have a lot of false memories about G1, i.e. the people who swear they totally had a blue Bluestreak as a kid, or all the scenes that were in the theatrical release of the 80's movie that were cut from every home release since, etc.
Oh, they don't hate everything. There's a pretty large contingent at TFW that thinks the Bay movies are the greatest things ever made, and God help you if you disagree.
Justice_dp
Member
He a TF thread 
Great idea.
Maybe I will post a few things about my favourite TF product later on IDW RiD and MtmE
Great idea.
Maybe I will post a few things about my favourite TF product later on IDW RiD and MtmE
Barrow Roll
Member
I've worked in a comics and collectibles shop for the last few years and I've lost count of how many times people see a Masterpiece Prime, new or the old one, and swear that it's the same as the one they had as a kid. Rose tinted glasses.
I left the fandom for similar reasons. The majority of fans are entitled, fickle, or just straight up fanboys that can't look at something critically. A lot of fans have a superiority or inferiority complex. Too many look down on others for not getting the Takara releases, too many strict Hasbro buyers trying to justify why their cheaper, sometimes inferior product is better instead of just being happy with what they have.
And as much as I love a lot of stuff the unofficial companies, or "third party" companies are doing, it's getting to the point of ludicrous overlap. Too many companies trying to get a piece of the pie. 3 different companies are making their own Predaking, and that's just insane.
I could go on and on about all the different facets of the fandom that annoy me to no end, but at the end of the day I just decided that it was easier for me to enjoy everything in a bubble, free of all the static and noise.
I think what really precipitated my eventual departure were the people wailing about the fact that the reissue of G1 Optimus had shortened smoke stacks due to toy safety regulations having changed and how if the smokestacks broke off at full length, they were a choking hazard. There were complete sociopaths legitimately arguing that "the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few" as though their "need" for longer smokestacks outweighed the need to not let children die preventable deaths.
I've never been a super-involved fan of any other property, so I don't know if all fandoms are infested with such personalities. Someone once pointed out that such a hobby that would revolve around collecting and categorizing things might possibly be prone to attract some people who fall on various spectrums of developmental disorders, so that may be part of it.
I think it just pertained to the specific pieces they used on G1 and Powermaster Optimus. There'd have been no prohibition on anything designed after the safety rule was modified (I forget what the exact dimensions of the parts needs to be, I know it's some combination of diameter and length, and if the toy is large enough the smokestacks can be long enough that they're no longer choking hazards. Most Optimus toys these days are much larger scale than G1)
Plus most Optimus smokestacks these days are made of bendable rubber, so they're almost impossible to break off into choking-sized pieces. I certainly prefer the longer stacks for the G1 toy, but that just means I buy the Takara ones instead, or buy the fanmade long stack add-ons. Putting children at risk in violation of safety regulations honestly never entered my head as a solution, but I suppose I shouldn't be surprised by the fringe elements of the fandom at this point.
Karakato_001
Neo Member
How could I miss this? Generations did Rhinox and Wasp alot of justice compared to the Cheetor Universe rendition. I'm especially thrilled to see Rhinox's Chain guns of doom. Hope they decide to make more figures from the BW era, would definitely love to pair Wasp with a modern Terrosaur.Who needs a mini one when you can have this magnificent bastard
Generations line is doing total justice to the Beast figures, even though to be fair the originals were pretty damn good.
Barrow Roll
Member
Universe Cheetor, and to a lesser extent, Dinobot were such let downs. I still keep my eyes open for a Henkei Dinobot, but the going price these days is insane.
Alright, here are some pictures I took last night of my Beast Machines line up. If this proves of interest to people, I may crack open my other storage bins and do it again. Im sure as hell not going through all that again for my own benefit, especially for lines that are even larger than Beast Machines.
Anyway, Beast Machines!
This line holds the honor of really getting me back into the franchise. I had been a huge fan of TFs as a kid, but as I grew up the G1 line got more and more weird, and I was spending all my disposable income on video games anyway. I was initially put out by the direction they went with Beast Wars, though I started paying attention again when the Transmetals came out because hey, they were robotic in both modes again.
Then Beast Machines came out, heralding the full-blown return of vehicular Transformers. I was totally on board for that, and since it was a sequel series to Beast Wars, I have it to thank for eventually introducing me to the superior television series. Beast Machines is a really odd duck in the franchise, the toy designs having radically different design philosophies than the lines that came before it (barring the smattering of repaint figures). Coming out in the iMac era of toys, the Maximals had oodles of translucent plastic and non-traditional robot designs, whereas the Vehicons were sometimes scarcely humanoid, without only a few having traditional hands, and all of them having a pseudohead in their alt mode (Taken to an extreme with Megabolt Megatron, whos alt mode was a head.). Also of note is that production of the show began while the toys were still in design phase, which lead to radically different appearances in some cases, and relative sizes between characters were just tossed out the window when it came to the toys.
Initially I was just going to get the ones that looked cool. But then I decided pretty much all the Vehicons looked cool, so I was going to get all the Vehicons. Then I decided that I was going to get the Maximals that looked cool, and somehow that spiraled into me attempting to collect the entire line up. Which lasted for years.
So heres a look at this whole thing
Beast Riders and Deployers were a really weird part of this line, almost like they were attempting to do some sort of Masters of the Universe type vehicles and accessories. The Beast Riders held most any basic-sized figure easily but the Deployers didnt really have any figures that could conceivably use them. The Beast Riders were pretty useless overall, but the Deployers were really neat on their own merits, even if they were an odd duck.
From top to bottom, left to right:
Che/Che Repaint: The Maximal Beast Rider. Looks like a cheetah head. Push down on the snout to make it zoom forward, if the claws are turned forward, theyll spin. Supposedly designed for Cheetor, but really doesnt work for him. The repaint (a running redeco that just randomly replaced the original) kinda matches Night Slash Cheetor, and he kinda fits it if you hunch him over, but meh.
Mechatron/Mechatron Repaint: The Vehicon Beast Rider. Apparently in Megatrons quest to steal all the sparks on Cyberton and purge the planet of organic elements, he unleashed an army of motorized dragon heads? Alright then, whatever. The repaint was another running redeco, and I have no idea what they were going for with it. At least the original red and blue kinda looks like Megatrons dragon mode. Kinda.
Rav: A bird that turns into a double barreled crossbow when you depress its tail. Transformation is quick and reliable. Just fun to fidget with for no reason.
Dillo: An armadillo that turns into a bollo launcher (Pun or typo? You decide) when you press down on its. Hes also got a couple other little non-firing guns that make him a bit more imposing than Rav as kind of a little battle platform thingy.
Mol: Cute little drill bot thingy, turns into a vertically mounted drill that fires a saw blade out its ass. It has a pair of flip out handles that so that someone could conceivably drive this thing, but no figures hands (Those that actually have hands ) actually fit it
Rav repaint: Same as Rav, but now hes Idunno, evil looking. He was originally solicited under a different name, but became a running repaint to the shipping SKU (I think hes been retconed into some comic continuity as Cro or something.)
Dillo repaint: While Rav and Mol got redecos more commonly associated with Decepticon colors, Dillo got repainted as Optimus Prime in armadillo form.
Mol repaint: Looking like a little Constructicon, oddly enough all the Deployers were still good despite the fact that they seemed to have evil redecos.
Dinobots! For some reason, Hasbro ran a concurrent line about how something something the Oracle summoned something something and fuck you, heres some dinosaurs! Dinobots were the first stateside release of a handful of BW Neo figures and a couple redecos. Because why not.
Top to bottom/Left to right
T-Wrecks: Redeco BW Ultra Megatron. I like to keep the mutant head on to differentiate him from Megatrons iconic mug, and because the resulting bat wings on his head if I didnt looks fucking stupid (Mutant heads was perhaps the most questionable gimmick of Beast Wars ). Fun gimmicks, but no hands. Sucks to be him.
Magmatron: The big baddy of Beast Wars Neo saw a stateside release as part of the Dinobots subline (I believe he was a Target exclusive). Landsaur, Seasaur, and Skysaur (Plesiosaurs and pterosaurs arent fucking dinosaurs ) combined to form a single robot, or some sort of hideous dinosaur chimera that looked like an interspecies orgy gone awry (not pictured). OK articulation, not as horribly complicated as one might think.
Airraptor: Airraptor is awesome. Hes fucking Batman, just look at that head. The way his wings form a stylish cape thing Plus he has a cool little gear gimmick where his gun rotates right into his hand as you transform him. His balance isnt great, but hes otherwise my favorite of this bunch.
Triceratron: Stubby little dwarf robot. Dinosaur mode has a nifty play dead mode where his eyes roll back and his tongue sticks out, and you can expose his ribs. Uh huh Tail-as-a-gun isnt great, it barely fits around all the other crap hes got going on his arm, and he cant aim straight to save his life. Like a lot of BW Neo figures, he can be a pain to transform correctly.
Striker: Stegosaurus has a trap mode where his plates and tail-weapon thingy can be made to look like a plant and flower. Apparently this was a tactic used in one episode of BW Neo or something, Idunno. Strikers pretty cool, the native American look works well and is a good use of the bone plates, but the tail weapon is especially stupid and nonsensical in a series full of stupid, nonsensical tail weapons.
Dinotron: Being a retooled BW Dinobot, Dinotron is nowhere near as complex as his other BW Neo brethren, but neither is beast mode nearly as anatomically accurate. Hes basically a green and yellow BW Dinobot, BW Dinobot has been repainted god only knows how many times. Dinotron holds no surprises for you except opening his jaw causes his skull to pop out. For reasons.
Rapticon: To keep the Dinobot line going, Hasbro dipped into vast repository of dinosaur figures from Beast Wars and came up with Transmetal 2 Dinobot. Where all the other figures had been organic looking. Okay then Anyway, its TM2 Dinobot, an iconic if not particularly great action figure. I love the paint job though, its really stellar.
Terranotron: Same deal as Rapticon, only they used TM Terrorsaur (who is also not a dinosaur, BTW). Never did like this figures clownish nose and oversized hands, but his colors are vaguely evocative of Swoop, so hes at least got that going for him.
Spystreak: His weapons-for-hands is pretty cumbersome, but I really do like this figure. The colors take some getting used to, but they grew on me after a while. I always planned on getting a second one to augment Jetstorms aerodrone army, but I never saw a second on the store shelves.
Mirage: Wielder of piasma mine biasters. Kind of an odd man out in the Vehicons as he is the only one that is composed of significant amounts of translucent plastic, and is one of the few figures to have traditional hands.
Motorcycle Drone: It took a while, but Thrust finally got a something that looked like he did in the show. The exhaust missiles are an eyesore, but are useful for propping him up in unicycle mode. His missile launching gimmick is limited to one arm and is kind of problematic because the arm that holds it has these flip out panels that wont stay in place, no matter what.
Tank Drone: Like Thrust, Tankor eventually got something that resembled his shows counterpart, albeit with an outsized cannon. But hes a tank, whos going to complain about a tank having a huge cannon? Cool little figure, would have loved to have seen Tankor in a much larger size class.
Scavenger: This guy is just fidgety fun. Fans came up with a ludicrous number of unofficial modes you can put him in, including but not limited to a base and a Chocobo. His robot head is a practically non-existent, but his vehicle mode is just all kinds of badass. A steam shovel with a rocket pod and gattling gun.
Obsidian: Before I knew this guy was getting promoted to the general of Aerodrones in season 2, I bought 2 to function as drones for Jetstorm. I love this guy, easily one of my favorite molds to come out of the entire line. I love the automated transformation with the gears and everything. Colors or wildly different from the show though.
Silverbolt: At the time, Silverbolt was the single worst Transformer I had ever owned. The silver and purple condor of the show as rendered as this terrible, fire themed bird with fucking arms. Thats like Cheetor having arms in addition to four legs in beast mode. Weirdly, this thing was obviously supposed to be a griffin, but they marketed it as a condor anyway. Why?
Battle Unicorn: Battle Unicorn is so badass, he didnt even need a name when they shipped him. Hes a robot. Hes a unicorn. Hes totally fucking metal. Look at this mother fucker:
Night Viper: A snake Transformer? Impossible? Nope, actually Night viper is incredibly well done. Super articulated legs, awesome scythe weapon, conservative application of translucent plastic, and an unobtrusive snake bite gimmicks. I love this guy, he deserves a redeco or reimagining as a larger figure.
Buzzsaw: Early in in development, Beast Machines was supposedly envisioned as a three way battle between Heroic Maximals, Evil Vehicons, and Noble Predacons. Buzzsaw seems a holdover from that era. Beast mode is kind of cool looking, outside of the goofy spring for an abdomen. Robot mode lacks anything resembling hands and has a goofy spring for an arm.
Hammerstrike: I love Hammerstrike. Skeletal robot shark that transforms into this weird gaunt Neon Genesis Evangelion-looking thing. I recognize that hes not for everyone, but I really like him.
Longhorn: Longhorn is kinda overlooked. Hes a little weird looking and has more organic elements than others, but his bull mode is pretty good and has a working head butt gimmick that doesnt compromise anything else in the figure, and his hooves cleverly become hands clutching weapons in robot mode. Colors are really wonky though.
Quickstrike: Pretty bottom rung. Weirdly proportioned, awkwardly articulated. Switchblade gimmick is the shiznit though, I used it so much I eventually broke it : (
Geckobot: Perhaps he should be an honorary Dinobot, because hes based on a prehistoric gliding lizard whose name I cant recall. Beast mode is pretty organic looking and super colorful. Robot mode is comparatively very lacking, since the only paint application is his face. Weird, gangly arms and strange scissor attack gimmick with the wings.
Snarl: I really want to like Snarl, but hes like everything that was wrong with the Beast era toys. Lame tail weapon. Stand up the cat transformation. Lame gimmicks in his arms ruined his articulation. He *looks* pretty bitchin though, one of the most obviously robotic maximals in the bunch.
Blackarachnia: Considering the design challenges they were working with, they did a really excellent job translating her show appearance into toy form, despite the colors being off. Shes a really well done toy with a clever transformation.
Optimus Primal: Fuck you, this is my favorite version of BM Primal. His gorilla mode is fucking awesome to look at when you push the face up into the snarl position, and he has a more gorilla-esque posture than the other size class versions. He looks nothing like the show, but I think taken on his own, divorced of preconceptions of what any character named Optimus should look like, hes a fine toy.
Skydive: Pretty meh. Beast mode wings dont really have anything holding them in place, theyre just a bunch of pieces you arrange to look like a wing and are easy to jostle apart. Robot mode is super gangly, has a buttplug for a head, and a weird aye-aye middle finger things going on. The scar on his chest over his spark is a pretty cool characteristic, but its never expounded upon in his bio or anything.
Night Slash Cheetor: This was actually the third version of Cheetor released, and they should have just painted this fucker yellow from the start and called it done. If you must own BM Cheetor, this is the only one whos not fundamentally ruined on some level, despite his stealth mode paint job.
Beast Changer: Weird two-tailed blind cave dragon to blue wolfman thingy? They can never make a toy out of that! Im shocked they even bothered to attempt to make a toy out of this guy, even more so that it turned out as well as it did. Obviously a lot more red visible in Noble mode than would be ideal (The wings are removable, BTW), but still, A for effort.
Blastcharge: Blastcharge gets a bad rap, but I love the lug. His vehicle mode is tons of fun to play with, with the rotating turret and the extending front cab that pivots. Transformation to robo Michellen Man is surprisingly involved, and the end result has awesome little shock gimmicks in his legs. His huge, giant, glaring, fatal flaw is the ridiculous turret sticking straight out from his chest in robot mode with no way to fold it down. You can rotate it around so it faces the other way and do it that way, but it results in BC here looking down slightly. Poor guy just cant win.
Megabolt Megatron: Okay, technically he was released as part of the Robots in Disguise line, but we all know he was a BM left over, so I group him with BM. Surprisingly good for a character that basically just turns into his own fucking head, the spider legs make him at least a little more interesting. Robot mode is fairly articulated and fun to play with, but he suffers from weak ball joint knees and is INCREDIBLY BACK HEAVY. He falls down a lot.
Thrust: Go home Thrust, you suck. Seriously, the worst of the Vehicons, hes just awkward and awful and not well designed. He actually only has one arm that shoots a missile, I acquired a duplicate and gave him the other missile arm instead of the ultra-lame grappling arm he had. Its a practical necessity if you want to stand him up in robot mode without resorting to his official tricycle mode.
Strika: I was honestly surprised Strika got her own toy and wasnt just a redeco of Blastcharge/named Blastcharge in the first place. I subsequently bought a second Blastcharge to join my first as her drones. Her colors are off, but shes surprisingly close to the show. Its just that her show wasnt a very compelling design to begin with. The reciprocating cannons gimmick is awesome though.
Sonic Attack Jet: Jetstorm repainted in show accurate colors and called a drone. Hes every bit as great as the original, only now hes blue. I actually like him better
Cheetor: The fucking living embodiment of some poses may require additional support. All the same complaints I had about Snarl above, PLUS it is literally impossible for him to stand up in robot mode, which is why hes chilling on glassware. Look at his tiny little feet with no heels and absurdly long legs. Who designed this thing? I hate him.
Blast Punch Optimus Primal: Yes, his sculpting is more in line with the design from the show, but hes still a far worse figure than the deluxe version. Articulation? Shit. Gimmick? Shit. Coloring? Shit. Difference between beast and robot mode? Shit. Secret addiction to huffing paint?
Megatron: Megatron is shit. They took an amazing figure from the end of Beast Wars and reimagined it into shit. I mean yes, his wings close around him to form a cape, which is good, because it hides all the shit. Gimmick in the neck ruins the articulation in either mode, one of his arms is in the fucking TAIL and is subsequently useless, hes shorter than some of the Basics, and his dragon arms are attached to his wings, not his body. Shit shit shit shit.
Tankor: The one good Mega-sized figure from this line, but damn if he isnt awesome. Show-accuracy be damned, Tankor is awesome on his own. All his gimmicks work as advertised (Love love LOVE the cylon-eye scanning gimmick in his tank mode), none of them intrude on any of the functioning of the figure, and hes just plain evil looking to boot. Love this guy.
Nightscream: The smallest character in the show gets one of the biggest toys in the line. Yeah, that makes sense. He also suffers from having a really unappealing design, and an incredibly inaccurate design in beast mode. But hes a technorganic alien bat from another planet, you might say, you dont know what theyd look like! Fuck you, Nightscream is pretty terrible.
Supreme Cheetor: Arguably the most accurate rendition of Cheetor, hes also ridiculously huge. Unlike his Mega-sized counterpart, he can stand under his own power, but only if you compact his legs in as much as possible. At full, unable-to-stand-without-assistance height, hes like second only to Fortress Maximus (Which I guess would be third to Generations Metroplex now?). Its nuts. Gimmicks in his arms ruin the articulation, so youre really limited in what you can make him do on display, and none of them look good.
Supreme Optimus Primal: Another refugee from the Robots in Disguise line, I keep him with Beast Machines because thats obviously where hes supposed to go! Hes actually really impressive in that they managed to render the Optimus Primal from the show into a toy pretty faithfully in both modes at once. He also has Gary Chaulks voice, fires energy discs from his chest like the show, and has his jetpack. Word of warning though, take out the batteries. If you activate the jetpack noise, it just goes on for like FIVE MINUTES with NO WAY TO TURN IT OFF and it is HIGHLY ANNOYING.
Jetstorm: Ultra Jetstorm is a bit more faithful to the show in vehicle design (albeit far more bulky), but his robot mode is still way off mark (Because doing both would be impossible). Hes also got a vaguely fishy face, and comes with missiles with little shark faces on them. Its enough to make you wonder, if Thrusts vehicle mode had bee-stripes and an insect mandibles, I almost wonder if Jetstorm was initially supposed to be running on the spark of Depth Charge instead of Silverbolt. Kinda makes you think. Anyway, this toy has a lot of flat vac-metal paint, which makes it highly prone to flaking off. Mine was PRISTINE until I put it away and accidentally nicked it last night. Oh well. Deluxe Jetstorm is just a better figure for my money.
Anyway, Beast Machines!
This line holds the honor of really getting me back into the franchise. I had been a huge fan of TFs as a kid, but as I grew up the G1 line got more and more weird, and I was spending all my disposable income on video games anyway. I was initially put out by the direction they went with Beast Wars, though I started paying attention again when the Transmetals came out because hey, they were robotic in both modes again.
Then Beast Machines came out, heralding the full-blown return of vehicular Transformers. I was totally on board for that, and since it was a sequel series to Beast Wars, I have it to thank for eventually introducing me to the superior television series. Beast Machines is a really odd duck in the franchise, the toy designs having radically different design philosophies than the lines that came before it (barring the smattering of repaint figures). Coming out in the iMac era of toys, the Maximals had oodles of translucent plastic and non-traditional robot designs, whereas the Vehicons were sometimes scarcely humanoid, without only a few having traditional hands, and all of them having a pseudohead in their alt mode (Taken to an extreme with Megabolt Megatron, whos alt mode was a head.). Also of note is that production of the show began while the toys were still in design phase, which lead to radically different appearances in some cases, and relative sizes between characters were just tossed out the window when it came to the toys.
Initially I was just going to get the ones that looked cool. But then I decided pretty much all the Vehicons looked cool, so I was going to get all the Vehicons. Then I decided that I was going to get the Maximals that looked cool, and somehow that spiraled into me attempting to collect the entire line up. Which lasted for years.
So heres a look at this whole thing
Beast Riders and Deployers were a really weird part of this line, almost like they were attempting to do some sort of Masters of the Universe type vehicles and accessories. The Beast Riders held most any basic-sized figure easily but the Deployers didnt really have any figures that could conceivably use them. The Beast Riders were pretty useless overall, but the Deployers were really neat on their own merits, even if they were an odd duck.
From top to bottom, left to right:
Che/Che Repaint: The Maximal Beast Rider. Looks like a cheetah head. Push down on the snout to make it zoom forward, if the claws are turned forward, theyll spin. Supposedly designed for Cheetor, but really doesnt work for him. The repaint (a running redeco that just randomly replaced the original) kinda matches Night Slash Cheetor, and he kinda fits it if you hunch him over, but meh.
Mechatron/Mechatron Repaint: The Vehicon Beast Rider. Apparently in Megatrons quest to steal all the sparks on Cyberton and purge the planet of organic elements, he unleashed an army of motorized dragon heads? Alright then, whatever. The repaint was another running redeco, and I have no idea what they were going for with it. At least the original red and blue kinda looks like Megatrons dragon mode. Kinda.
Rav: A bird that turns into a double barreled crossbow when you depress its tail. Transformation is quick and reliable. Just fun to fidget with for no reason.
Dillo: An armadillo that turns into a bollo launcher (Pun or typo? You decide) when you press down on its. Hes also got a couple other little non-firing guns that make him a bit more imposing than Rav as kind of a little battle platform thingy.
Mol: Cute little drill bot thingy, turns into a vertically mounted drill that fires a saw blade out its ass. It has a pair of flip out handles that so that someone could conceivably drive this thing, but no figures hands (Those that actually have hands ) actually fit it
Rav repaint: Same as Rav, but now hes Idunno, evil looking. He was originally solicited under a different name, but became a running repaint to the shipping SKU (I think hes been retconed into some comic continuity as Cro or something.)
Dillo repaint: While Rav and Mol got redecos more commonly associated with Decepticon colors, Dillo got repainted as Optimus Prime in armadillo form.
Mol repaint: Looking like a little Constructicon, oddly enough all the Deployers were still good despite the fact that they seemed to have evil redecos.
Dinobots! For some reason, Hasbro ran a concurrent line about how something something the Oracle summoned something something and fuck you, heres some dinosaurs! Dinobots were the first stateside release of a handful of BW Neo figures and a couple redecos. Because why not.
Top to bottom/Left to right
T-Wrecks: Redeco BW Ultra Megatron. I like to keep the mutant head on to differentiate him from Megatrons iconic mug, and because the resulting bat wings on his head if I didnt looks fucking stupid (Mutant heads was perhaps the most questionable gimmick of Beast Wars ). Fun gimmicks, but no hands. Sucks to be him.
Magmatron: The big baddy of Beast Wars Neo saw a stateside release as part of the Dinobots subline (I believe he was a Target exclusive). Landsaur, Seasaur, and Skysaur (Plesiosaurs and pterosaurs arent fucking dinosaurs ) combined to form a single robot, or some sort of hideous dinosaur chimera that looked like an interspecies orgy gone awry (not pictured). OK articulation, not as horribly complicated as one might think.
Airraptor: Airraptor is awesome. Hes fucking Batman, just look at that head. The way his wings form a stylish cape thing Plus he has a cool little gear gimmick where his gun rotates right into his hand as you transform him. His balance isnt great, but hes otherwise my favorite of this bunch.
Triceratron: Stubby little dwarf robot. Dinosaur mode has a nifty play dead mode where his eyes roll back and his tongue sticks out, and you can expose his ribs. Uh huh Tail-as-a-gun isnt great, it barely fits around all the other crap hes got going on his arm, and he cant aim straight to save his life. Like a lot of BW Neo figures, he can be a pain to transform correctly.
Striker: Stegosaurus has a trap mode where his plates and tail-weapon thingy can be made to look like a plant and flower. Apparently this was a tactic used in one episode of BW Neo or something, Idunno. Strikers pretty cool, the native American look works well and is a good use of the bone plates, but the tail weapon is especially stupid and nonsensical in a series full of stupid, nonsensical tail weapons.
Dinotron: Being a retooled BW Dinobot, Dinotron is nowhere near as complex as his other BW Neo brethren, but neither is beast mode nearly as anatomically accurate. Hes basically a green and yellow BW Dinobot, BW Dinobot has been repainted god only knows how many times. Dinotron holds no surprises for you except opening his jaw causes his skull to pop out. For reasons.
Rapticon: To keep the Dinobot line going, Hasbro dipped into vast repository of dinosaur figures from Beast Wars and came up with Transmetal 2 Dinobot. Where all the other figures had been organic looking. Okay then Anyway, its TM2 Dinobot, an iconic if not particularly great action figure. I love the paint job though, its really stellar.
Terranotron: Same deal as Rapticon, only they used TM Terrorsaur (who is also not a dinosaur, BTW). Never did like this figures clownish nose and oversized hands, but his colors are vaguely evocative of Swoop, so hes at least got that going for him.
Alright, onto the actual figures that made up the line proper. Left to right from the top:
Spystreak: His weapons-for-hands is pretty cumbersome, but I really do like this figure. The colors take some getting used to, but they grew on me after a while. I always planned on getting a second one to augment Jetstorms aerodrone army, but I never saw a second on the store shelves.
Mirage: Wielder of piasma mine biasters. Kind of an odd man out in the Vehicons as he is the only one that is composed of significant amounts of translucent plastic, and is one of the few figures to have traditional hands.
Motorcycle Drone: It took a while, but Thrust finally got a something that looked like he did in the show. The exhaust missiles are an eyesore, but are useful for propping him up in unicycle mode. His missile launching gimmick is limited to one arm and is kind of problematic because the arm that holds it has these flip out panels that wont stay in place, no matter what.
Tank Drone: Like Thrust, Tankor eventually got something that resembled his shows counterpart, albeit with an outsized cannon. But hes a tank, whos going to complain about a tank having a huge cannon? Cool little figure, would have loved to have seen Tankor in a much larger size class.
Scavenger: This guy is just fidgety fun. Fans came up with a ludicrous number of unofficial modes you can put him in, including but not limited to a base and a Chocobo. His robot head is a practically non-existent, but his vehicle mode is just all kinds of badass. A steam shovel with a rocket pod and gattling gun.
Obsidian: Before I knew this guy was getting promoted to the general of Aerodrones in season 2, I bought 2 to function as drones for Jetstorm. I love this guy, easily one of my favorite molds to come out of the entire line. I love the automated transformation with the gears and everything. Colors or wildly different from the show though.
Silverbolt: At the time, Silverbolt was the single worst Transformer I had ever owned. The silver and purple condor of the show as rendered as this terrible, fire themed bird with fucking arms. Thats like Cheetor having arms in addition to four legs in beast mode. Weirdly, this thing was obviously supposed to be a griffin, but they marketed it as a condor anyway. Why?
Battle Unicorn: Battle Unicorn is so badass, he didnt even need a name when they shipped him. Hes a robot. Hes a unicorn. Hes totally fucking metal. Look at this mother fucker:
The only way he could be more metal is if you set him on fucking fire. He was also pretty rare back in the day. Probably because of how metal he was.
Night Viper: A snake Transformer? Impossible? Nope, actually Night viper is incredibly well done. Super articulated legs, awesome scythe weapon, conservative application of translucent plastic, and an unobtrusive snake bite gimmicks. I love this guy, he deserves a redeco or reimagining as a larger figure.
Buzzsaw: Early in in development, Beast Machines was supposedly envisioned as a three way battle between Heroic Maximals, Evil Vehicons, and Noble Predacons. Buzzsaw seems a holdover from that era. Beast mode is kind of cool looking, outside of the goofy spring for an abdomen. Robot mode lacks anything resembling hands and has a goofy spring for an arm.
Hammerstrike: I love Hammerstrike. Skeletal robot shark that transforms into this weird gaunt Neon Genesis Evangelion-looking thing. I recognize that hes not for everyone, but I really like him.
Longhorn: Longhorn is kinda overlooked. Hes a little weird looking and has more organic elements than others, but his bull mode is pretty good and has a working head butt gimmick that doesnt compromise anything else in the figure, and his hooves cleverly become hands clutching weapons in robot mode. Colors are really wonky though.
Quickstrike: Pretty bottom rung. Weirdly proportioned, awkwardly articulated. Switchblade gimmick is the shiznit though, I used it so much I eventually broke it : (
Geckobot: Perhaps he should be an honorary Dinobot, because hes based on a prehistoric gliding lizard whose name I cant recall. Beast mode is pretty organic looking and super colorful. Robot mode is comparatively very lacking, since the only paint application is his face. Weird, gangly arms and strange scissor attack gimmick with the wings.
Snarl: I really want to like Snarl, but hes like everything that was wrong with the Beast era toys. Lame tail weapon. Stand up the cat transformation. Lame gimmicks in his arms ruined his articulation. He *looks* pretty bitchin though, one of the most obviously robotic maximals in the bunch.
Blackarachnia: Considering the design challenges they were working with, they did a really excellent job translating her show appearance into toy form, despite the colors being off. Shes a really well done toy with a clever transformation.
Optimus Primal: Fuck you, this is my favorite version of BM Primal. His gorilla mode is fucking awesome to look at when you push the face up into the snarl position, and he has a more gorilla-esque posture than the other size class versions. He looks nothing like the show, but I think taken on his own, divorced of preconceptions of what any character named Optimus should look like, hes a fine toy.
Skydive: Pretty meh. Beast mode wings dont really have anything holding them in place, theyre just a bunch of pieces you arrange to look like a wing and are easy to jostle apart. Robot mode is super gangly, has a buttplug for a head, and a weird aye-aye middle finger things going on. The scar on his chest over his spark is a pretty cool characteristic, but its never expounded upon in his bio or anything.
For some reason, I have three of him?
Night Slash Cheetor: This was actually the third version of Cheetor released, and they should have just painted this fucker yellow from the start and called it done. If you must own BM Cheetor, this is the only one whos not fundamentally ruined on some level, despite his stealth mode paint job.
Beast Changer: Weird two-tailed blind cave dragon to blue wolfman thingy? They can never make a toy out of that! Im shocked they even bothered to attempt to make a toy out of this guy, even more so that it turned out as well as it did. Obviously a lot more red visible in Noble mode than would be ideal (The wings are removable, BTW), but still, A for effort.
Jetstorm: Despite not looking much of anything like his animated counterpart (Whos vehicle mode and robot mode cannot possibly exist in the same being), Jetstorm is hot shit and is actually the first TF I bought after my return from exile. Awesome vehicle mode, awesome robot mode, awesome hover mode, awesome metallic paint job that doesnt flake like the stuff they used on the Transmetal stuff, surprisingly complex transformation. My one gripe is the soft plastic they used for his head fins are ridiculously prone to warping : ( Hasbro recognizes hes awesome though, he was repainted a bunch over the years.
Blastcharge: Blastcharge gets a bad rap, but I love the lug. His vehicle mode is tons of fun to play with, with the rotating turret and the extending front cab that pivots. Transformation to robo Michellen Man is surprisingly involved, and the end result has awesome little shock gimmicks in his legs. His huge, giant, glaring, fatal flaw is the ridiculous turret sticking straight out from his chest in robot mode with no way to fold it down. You can rotate it around so it faces the other way and do it that way, but it results in BC here looking down slightly. Poor guy just cant win.
Megabolt Megatron: Okay, technically he was released as part of the Robots in Disguise line, but we all know he was a BM left over, so I group him with BM. Surprisingly good for a character that basically just turns into his own fucking head, the spider legs make him at least a little more interesting. Robot mode is fairly articulated and fun to play with, but he suffers from weak ball joint knees and is INCREDIBLY BACK HEAVY. He falls down a lot.
Thrust: Go home Thrust, you suck. Seriously, the worst of the Vehicons, hes just awkward and awful and not well designed. He actually only has one arm that shoots a missile, I acquired a duplicate and gave him the other missile arm instead of the ultra-lame grappling arm he had. Its a practical necessity if you want to stand him up in robot mode without resorting to his official tricycle mode.
Strika: I was honestly surprised Strika got her own toy and wasnt just a redeco of Blastcharge/named Blastcharge in the first place. I subsequently bought a second Blastcharge to join my first as her drones. Her colors are off, but shes surprisingly close to the show. Its just that her show wasnt a very compelling design to begin with. The reciprocating cannons gimmick is awesome though.
Sonic Attack Jet: Jetstorm repainted in show accurate colors and called a drone. Hes every bit as great as the original, only now hes blue. I actually like him better
Rattrap: Rattrap actually was a slight shade of green in the show, so thats where that comes from. Rat mode is actually pretty cool, a life size robotic rat with a gimmick where you move his tail and his head and ears react. Robot mode is pretty repulsive, but he was in the show too. He has a wheeled mode like the show as well, but that was a stupid design, and its a stupid mode.
Cheetor: The fucking living embodiment of some poses may require additional support. All the same complaints I had about Snarl above, PLUS it is literally impossible for him to stand up in robot mode, which is why hes chilling on glassware. Look at his tiny little feet with no heels and absurdly long legs. Who designed this thing? I hate him.
Blast Punch Optimus Primal: Yes, his sculpting is more in line with the design from the show, but hes still a far worse figure than the deluxe version. Articulation? Shit. Gimmick? Shit. Coloring? Shit. Difference between beast and robot mode? Shit. Secret addiction to huffing paint?
You better believe it.
SERIOUSLY, WHY DID THEY DO THAT?
Megatron: Megatron is shit. They took an amazing figure from the end of Beast Wars and reimagined it into shit. I mean yes, his wings close around him to form a cape, which is good, because it hides all the shit. Gimmick in the neck ruins the articulation in either mode, one of his arms is in the fucking TAIL and is subsequently useless, hes shorter than some of the Basics, and his dragon arms are attached to his wings, not his body. Shit shit shit shit.
Tankor: The one good Mega-sized figure from this line, but damn if he isnt awesome. Show-accuracy be damned, Tankor is awesome on his own. All his gimmicks work as advertised (Love love LOVE the cylon-eye scanning gimmick in his tank mode), none of them intrude on any of the functioning of the figure, and hes just plain evil looking to boot. Love this guy.
Primal Prime: How Optimal Optimus should have looked! There were only 10,000 of this bad boy made, and hes a superior deco of one of the best figures from Beast Wars. Hes dense as all hell, and just looks like a robot war gorilla constructed only for war. His flying and ground transport mode all harken from the Transmetal era of Putting wings or wheels on something makes it a vehicle! school of design, so theyre not really worth mentioning.
Nightscream: The smallest character in the show gets one of the biggest toys in the line. Yeah, that makes sense. He also suffers from having a really unappealing design, and an incredibly inaccurate design in beast mode. But hes a technorganic alien bat from another planet, you might say, you dont know what theyd look like! Fuck you, Nightscream is pretty terrible.
Supreme Cheetor: Arguably the most accurate rendition of Cheetor, hes also ridiculously huge. Unlike his Mega-sized counterpart, he can stand under his own power, but only if you compact his legs in as much as possible. At full, unable-to-stand-without-assistance height, hes like second only to Fortress Maximus (Which I guess would be third to Generations Metroplex now?). Its nuts. Gimmicks in his arms ruin the articulation, so youre really limited in what you can make him do on display, and none of them look good.
Supreme Optimus Primal: Another refugee from the Robots in Disguise line, I keep him with Beast Machines because thats obviously where hes supposed to go! Hes actually really impressive in that they managed to render the Optimus Primal from the show into a toy pretty faithfully in both modes at once. He also has Gary Chaulks voice, fires energy discs from his chest like the show, and has his jetpack. Word of warning though, take out the batteries. If you activate the jetpack noise, it just goes on for like FIVE MINUTES with NO WAY TO TURN IT OFF and it is HIGHLY ANNOYING.
Honestly, hes like Masterpiece Beast Machines Optimus Primal before Masterpiece anything was a thing.
Jetstorm: Ultra Jetstorm is a bit more faithful to the show in vehicle design (albeit far more bulky), but his robot mode is still way off mark (Because doing both would be impossible). Hes also got a vaguely fishy face, and comes with missiles with little shark faces on them. Its enough to make you wonder, if Thrusts vehicle mode had bee-stripes and an insect mandibles, I almost wonder if Jetstorm was initially supposed to be running on the spark of Depth Charge instead of Silverbolt. Kinda makes you think. Anyway, this toy has a lot of flat vac-metal paint, which makes it highly prone to flaking off. Mine was PRISTINE until I put it away and accidentally nicked it last night. Oh well. Deluxe Jetstorm is just a better figure for my money.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bq1_6D9QS9Y
needs to be in every Transformers thread ever.
G1 is ok, definitely has my favorite VA cast though a lot of that is probably nostalgia.
I haven't been in deep since then though I think I've seen most of Beast Wars/Machines and a bit of Armada.
needs to be in every Transformers thread ever.
G1 is ok, definitely has my favorite VA cast though a lot of that is probably nostalgia.
I haven't been in deep since then though I think I've seen most of Beast Wars/Machines and a bit of Armada.
Barrow Roll
Member
Totally going to read that entire Beast Machines post once I get home.
Animated has a lot going for it and could have been really great if the quality of the show was consistently as good as their season finales, but a lot the episodes are just pretty mundane. I dig the figures though, hyper stylized and transformable AND show accurate?! Incredible.
Also recently picked up MMC Hexatron and Generations Blitzwing and Sandstorm. Haven't felt this excited to open some TFs in a while!
Animated has a lot going for it and could have been really great if the quality of the show was consistently as good as their season finales, but a lot the episodes are just pretty mundane. I dig the figures though, hyper stylized and transformable AND show accurate?! Incredible.
Also recently picked up MMC Hexatron and Generations Blitzwing and Sandstorm. Haven't felt this excited to open some TFs in a while!
I know! I adored the hell out of the toyline, and I was close to having every last figure. A shame that Hasbro screwed me and others over and cancelled it out of the blue in favor of the ROTF figures.
Was Machines really that bad? Maybe it's good I didn't get to watch it.
Yah, I don't think I have my figures anymore. But I do have the Matrix set and the anniversary movie.
Yeah Beast Machines was that bad. What happened was Dan Dildio (yes the guy screwing up DC) told the new writers not to bother with continuity or even bother to look at what came before. Weapons? Gone. Violence. Toned down. All the characters going from Beast Wars to Machines? Completely changed. They were not at all the same bots you once knew. The whole thing was a train wreck.
One of the biggest issues? Basically the show was about how pure machines were bad.
Optimus goes from courageous leader to religious fanatic who doubts himself.
Cheetor goes from hot tempered but maturing young bot to leader
Black Aracnia goes from total bad ass to the mother figure who is one step away from baking cookies.
Rattrap goes from sarcastic witty ready for a fight to whimpering whining useless hacker on a pair of wheels in robot mode that looks like he's suppose to be a child.
Megatron goes from would be conqueror to actual conqueror who suddenly hates all things beast/organic despite not a touch of this being shown before. What would rubber ducky thing. How would his T Rex head he would affectionately stroke think?!
Rhinox goes from loyal tough guy to traitorous semi new persona who believes Megatron is right.
The writing was horrible. Most of the episodes can be summed up as Maximals running when not using their powers as if they were super heroes.
Yeah, Beast Machines really is the low point of the brand, even moreso than the Bay films, because at least the Bay films resulted in some cool toys. Beast Wars got me into TFs again, but Beast Machines chased me right back out again. I picked up a few Carrobots/RiD figures, but wasn't until the advent of the Binaltech line that I would actively collect them again.
Beast Machines probably wouldn't be as hated if it wasn't a complete character assassination of the Beast Wars cast. A bad brand idea is one thing, but doing that to the characters that Beast Wars had so carefully developed and made you care about was simply unforgivable.
Beast Machines probably wouldn't be as hated if it wasn't a complete character assassination of the Beast Wars cast. A bad brand idea is one thing, but doing that to the characters that Beast Wars had so carefully developed and made you care about was simply unforgivable.
Barrow Roll
Member
Beast Machines up there with the Bay movies? That's the craziest shit I've heard all day. I can understand not liking the direction they went in, but to expect the characters to remain exactly as they were when placed in a new completely fucked scenario is a bit silly.
Barrow Roll
Member
Kiss Players.
The whole thing is very subjective and divisive so I'm really not going to argue with you, but nothing is worse than Kiss Players when it comes to concept and fiction.
That would of been a far better plot imo, especially since the Vox were so damn interesting, even what little we got to see of them.
Barrow Roll
Member
I'm no fan of the BM toys, really only liking some of the Vehicon designs, but I'd still put the show leagues ahead of any of the dreck that came out of Japan before Animated.
By the way, I read the entire post Mike M, I enjoyed it! If you covered other lines I'd probably read them too, but that would probably be very time consuming.
By the way, I read the entire post Mike M, I enjoyed it! If you covered other lines I'd probably read them too, but that would probably be very time consuming.
If that was the actual problem, sure, but it's not. The problem is that they completely redid the characters with no regard for what had come before, and none of the changes were earned in any way. Rhinox and Megatron were the worst offenders, but the entire cast was fucked over in one way or another. If it had been a standalone series with new characters, I don't think it would be as hated as it is, but they decided to disrespect their own source material in the name of a really lame story spread across too many episodes that were full of repetitive filler.
The Unicron Trilogy is also awful, but at least those shows aren't actively sabotaging the best TF fiction produced up to that point.
Rumors are all over the map. It's the same production team as Prime, but some say the new show will be much more kid-focused, some say it will be a continuation off of the Prime story with new characters, some say it's a totally new thing with only vague connections to Prime.
Tizoc
Member
I would love LOVE a TF series that starts as the Final War between the Autobots and Decepticons, that then lead to animated series based on Robots in disguise and More than meets the eye.
Or eff that and just make a More than meets the eye series about the team's adventures in space. 13 episodes of Brainstorm's craziness, Swerve's wackiness, Magnus' hardassness, Rodimus and Drift's broness, Whirl's assholeness & Tailgate's adorableness would be the greatest thing ever ToT.
Or eff that and just make a More than meets the eye series about the team's adventures in space. 13 episodes of Brainstorm's craziness, Swerve's wackiness, Magnus' hardassness, Rodimus and Drift's broness, Whirl's assholeness & Tailgate's adorableness would be the greatest thing ever ToT.
Tizoc
Member
I think in the Q&A/FAQ the best answer to the question 'Why doesn't Megatron just slag Starscream?' would be this:
I hope whatever series comes next provides at least an Animated level shake up of the formula. How about a show with someone else as leader (not saying Rodimus now, but I wouldn't object strenuously), with Optimus being like TF:A Ultra Magnus: Mythical in stature, removed from the ongoing events. What if Megatron were a Lex Luthor type, with a charismatic and benevolent outward persona?
Just... Mix shit up a bit...
Just... Mix shit up a bit...