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Transformers |OT| Transform and roll out...

yami4ct

Member
My biggest qualm with Combiner Wars so far are the consistent repaints. I get the cost and the need for repaints, but its kinda jarring at this point. Sky Lynx should be coming out this year along with Bruticus instead of Optimus Maximus(?) and the original Optimus Prime voyager.

If I was browsing and came across Scattershot, I would think it was just a Silverbolt with some third party addons; but maybe I just need clearer pics of it.

And aside from colors the re-tooling on Victorion isn't enough to distinguish . Bruticus looks distinguished.

Although I do love that Victorion has ankle pivots.

I get the complaint, but for the main (Non Sky Lynx, Optimus, Galvatronus, etc), I feel like the remolds have been amazing enough to distinguish them. That's for me anyway. Offroad into First Aid is incredibly different. Almost every body panel has been touched. Break Down into Streetwise is a little less, but I feel each character is distinguished enough for me. Same for the Victorion choices. The colors, heads, weapons and other remolds go far enough to make them their own characters.

Scattershot I feel is impressive mainly on the vehicle mode. The way the entire front end of the jet has been changed so the gun can be used like Scattershot's weird cannon plane is awesome. The wing differences give them a different feel as well. The bot mold could have used a few extra touches, maybe in the shoulder armor or chest, but the head sculpt makes him feel far enough for me.

I agree on the Autobot repaints, though. Those feel incredibly cheap and most don't capture the intended character. I'm not buying those for that reason.

Also, Bruticus is listed as "early 2016" which means he'll hit late this year. You'll be able to buy him this holiday season if history is to go by. I think the problem right now is Titan Wars seems to be coming early-mid next year and Hasbro is unable or unwilling to show it. Most of these molds aside from Bruticus feel like end of line filler molds, which I guess is what they totally are.
 
Finally got Apollyon. Overall, I'm really happy with it. Probably not gonna get a better representation of G1 Megatron. Takara doesn't seem like they want to touch a gun Megatron again, ever.

I do think the leg joints are a bit loose though. There's not much resistance at all until I can tilt him backwards onto his butt. That's troubling. You'd generally expect strong ratchet joints for the legs, since those parts are going to be supporting the entire figure.

Arm and shoulder joints feel okay, because I've got the big fusion cannon on him in a pose where he's pointing it straight forward, and it hasn't drooped yet. That's always the big danger with something like this, where you have a large mass attached to one arm. The shoulder joint would be the part to give out, but that hasn't been the case so far.

They did give Apollyon individual joints on his fingers, and I'm not sure how I feel about that. On one hand, it does give him way more articulation, so you can have the hand posed in an open grasp, or closed in a fist, or anything in between. However, they feel really loose. Masterpiece Optimus Prime has the fingers connected together as one big piece, which allows for less posing but also feels really tight and solid. Trade-offs to deal with in either design.
 

MattKeil

BIGTIME TV MOGUL #2
Victorion's color scheme is an absolute disaster. I hope the negative reactions push Hasbro to at least add another highlight color or maybe tone the eye-searing red and green down to a more Perceptor-level burgundy and teal. The colors in the original comic appearance were much more muted and less "we chose these colors in 1995." All they're missing is tiger stripe decals. You G2 freaks are getting Superion and Menasor, leave Victorion alone!
 

Toxi

Banned
Victorion's color scheme is an absolute disaster. I hope the negative reactions push Hasbro to at least add another highlight color or maybe tone the eye-searing red and green down to a more Perceptor-level burgundy and teal. The colors in the original comic appearance were much more muted and less "we chose these colors in 1995." All they're missing is tiger stripe decals. You G2 freaks are getting Superion and Menasor, leave Victorion alone!
Oh it can't be that ba-JESUS CHRIST MY EYES

I don't even know what else to say, it's actually painful to look at.
 

Savitar

Member
It's the green that ruins it.

But it definitely doesn't help that the toys really really REALLY feel like it's just the original characters with new paint. I know it makes things affordable but....it really comes off half assed here.
 

MattKeil

BIGTIME TV MOGUL #2
I fully expected it to just be new heads but that paint job is just incomprehensible. The colors clash (or something) so hard they practically vibrate. I was really hoping for a cool new combiner character and team, but that color scheme is going to relegate this to a one-off. I really hope Hasbro reconsiders their choice here.
 

Xis

Member
It's the green that ruins it.

But it definitely doesn't help that the toys really really REALLY feel like it's just the original characters with new paint. I know it makes things affordable but....it really comes off half assed here.

I dunno, I kinda like the scheme. I also think the bold colors go a long way towards making them look like new characters.
 

Savitar

Member
Hasbro will probably think this means buyers don't like female characters if it's not bought.

And does anyone like G2 color schemes?!
 

yami4ct

Member
Hasbro will probably think this means buyers don't like female characters if it's not bought.

And does anyone like G2 color schemes?!

I do and also

I wish I had waited for G2 Superion; I love the bright colors, the original is so drab in comparison.

Bright colors are a nice change. Not everything has to be done in realistic military tones. Sometimes silly color schemes are cool. I adore G2 bruticus for instance. I like Victorion as a Combiner. It's her individual bots I'm iffy on. I do hear she looks much better in person. A friend of mine saw her and absolutely loves the individual bots, particularly the helicopters.
 

Toxi

Banned
Bright colors are a nice change. Not everything has to be done in realistic military tones. Sometimes silly color schemes are cool. I adore G2 bruticus for instance. I like Victorion as a Combiner. It's her individual bots I'm iffy on. I do hear she looks much better in person. A friend of mine saw her and absolutely loves the individual bots, particularly the helicopters.
The photo definitely doesn't help matters with how much light is getting reflected. Red is one of those colors that always looks terrible under bright light.
 

yami4ct

Member
The photo definitely doesn't help matters with how much light is getting reflected.

Did you check out the slide photos? I actually think they look quite good there.

EDIT:

Just saw stock photos are up for her

image41.jpg


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Really dig the cohesive combined colors and the weapon gimmick is fantastic. Also love the Hot Spot remold. The sports cars look a bit iffy, but I think those are some of the weakest of the CW line so it isn't really the remold's fault.

EDIT 2:

Just read she's MSRP $100. Hmmm. I was hoping the box sets would come with a bit of a discount. Makes her less tempting, but I still might grab her.
 

MattKeil

BIGTIME TV MOGUL #2
Those are the photos I was referring to. They don't help at all. I own just about every combiner ever made but I don't know if I can spend $100 on a giant Christmas M&M. Tremendous disappointment. Love the sword, though.
 
Frankly think it looks awful, they barely did anything to the molds to make them look sorta unique. They mostly all just look like head swaps with that awful paint job slapped on, not much work put into it. At least they could have done like the other combiners so far and done some original figs for the set, isntead it's completely retools, and it feels lazy.

Only aspect I like is the head design of the combined form, and the weapon combining gimmick. The new feet/hands are a big upgrade that should be made available for all the combiners I think. The feet used so far for the combiners has been so bad and tiny looking.
 

yami4ct

Member
Frankly think it looks awful, they barely did anything to the molds to make them look sorta unique. They mostly all just look like head swaps with that awful paint job slapped on, not much work put into it. At least they could have done like the other combiners so far and done some original figs for the set, isntead it's completely retools, and it feels lazy.

Only aspect I like is the head design of the combined form, and the weapon combining gimmick. The new feet/hands are a big upgrade that should be made available for all the combiners I think. The feet used so far for the combiners has been so bad and tiny looking.

They did quite a bit. The car bots both have new chest plates. The Alpha Bravo mold has new arms and one has new thighs. Hotspot has new hands as well as a redone ladder compartment to account for a non splitting head. They're actually surprisingly big remolds for an exclusive set.

Also, we knew from the beginning the Fan Built combiner would be all repaints/remolds. I'm not sure why anyone would expect anything else.

The best part is that the fans voted for the color scheme.

Wait, really? I missed that one. Doing all these as discrete votes was kind of a dumb idea to begin with. Even once they knew the molds, there's no way the majority of fans would have a clue what the colors would look like. I would much prefer them do more general poll and then let a designer figure out how to actually make it look good.
 

sol_bad

Member
Does anyone know if the Habro Masterpiece Starscream will be the same as the TakaraTomy Masterpiece Starscream?
Should be a nice saving if it is.
 
Victarion is the very definition of a mixed bag. It has some amazing stuff (the combined form looks extremely cohesive and well proportioned, the combining weapons are awesome) and some stuff that's hard to think how it could get greenlit (two virtually identical bots for the legs? green and red?). I suppose one could buy it, paint it a decent color (black goes with everything) and pick and paint your favorite CW limb for a different leg...
 

Tizoc

Member
Robots in Disguise cartoon got renewed for a 2nd season, which production of started months ago I hear.
It should start airing on CN in a couple of weeks.
 

Cheerilee

Member
Robots in Disguise cartoon got renewed for a 2nd season, which production of started months ago I hear.
It should start airing on CN in a couple of weeks.

Shame it's not a better show. I kind of dragged myself along until the mid-season event, at which point I was surprised and impressed, but five minutes after the episode ended I realized it was kind of worthless and I only got excited by comparison to the previous episodes. And then the show went back to it's usual routine for the next episode.

Hard to believe this is the sequel to Transformers Prime. So underwhelming.
 

Tizoc

Member
^Noice.

Shame it's not a better show. I kind of dragged myself along until the mid-season event, at which point I was surprised and impressed, but five minutes after the episode ended I realized it was kind of worthless and I only got excited by comparison to the previous episodes. And then the show went back to it's usual routine for the next episode.

Hard to believe this is the sequel to Transformers Prime. So underwhelming.

I'd have to agree, the colors and animation are great, but the plot left soooooo much to be desired.

Whatever is the next TF animated series after RiD, should be about the wacky advenutres of Hot Rod and co. as they travel through space to find...something, in fact they should in one ep. focus on wtf they're traveling through space for!

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Fine I want a MTMTE inspired TF cartoon, but who wouldn't!
 

yami4ct

Member
Roche is doing another Wreckers series! I didn't think I could love the IDW-verse any more. LSOTW was my favorite TF comic of all time prior to MTMTE.
 

Tizoc

Member
Does anyone know if James Roberts' 2 issues in this TPB
http://www.amazon.com/dp/1613770901/?tag=neogaf0e-20
Are collected in any other book?

Roche is doing another Wreckers series! I didn't think I could love the IDW-verse any more. LSOTW was my favorite TF comic of all time prior to MTMTE.

Oh wow got any more info on that? Hope we'll get to see what Impactor and Springer are up to. Springer's face can't be that messed up for so long :p
 

aparisi2274

Member
Has anyone found Devaststor in stores yet? Toys R Us site keeps saying that store pick up is available, but when I do a store search with a 25mi radius, nothing comes back. Just curious if anyone has spotted him in stores

EDIT: Yes, I know of the one in San Jose CA that was spotted a few weeks back.
 
FansToys has finally announced their reissue of Quakewave (third party Masterpiece Shockwave). This was long out of production and going for huge amounts on Ebay, since it didn't look like Takara was going to put out a Masterpiece Shockwave anytime soon.

Preorders are open now at BBTS and other sites. There's three versions actually: the standard with G1 cartoon colors, a darker version that's more accurate to the G1 toy, and a transparent one that's sold out already.
 

Savitar

Member
THEY'RE BACK AT LAST!
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giphy.gif

I was wondering what the deal with them was.

Seemed so odd that they got introduced so early and not much was done with them as time went on.

Also please have someone get rid of Grimlock, or keep him dumber than the animated version. Less of him the better.
 

yami4ct

Member
Cross posting from Action-Figure Gaf

I got the Protectobots in the mail today and I had to talk about them because they're so cool.


Starting with the individual bots and they're easily my favorite complete set released so far. Blades and First Aid feel like the real intended uses of their molds. They both have a ton of personality. First Aid in particular is such an impressive remold. Almost every body panel for the car has been touched. The toy shares a chest and skeleton with Offroad, but that's about it. It's one of the most extensive remolds I've seen. I wish they had done something with Blades' missiles as a rescue helicopter with weapons seems silly, but Hot Spot is a firetruck with guns so that's a theme with the whole group, haha.

Rook and Hot Spot are the two new molds of the group and they are both so cool. I'm glad the fandom is accepting Rook more than Alpha Bravo because that figure is great. He fits right in with the group and it makes sense to take the car sized police bike out. Hot Spot is easily the best combiner core yet. The vehicle mode is cool and the robot is even cooler. He does suffer with feeling quite a bit more fragile than the past combiner cores. It definitely feels like the ladder connection could be delicate and the way the knees works is odd. He also has the same hip problems ever core has had. One ratchet click out is too wide spread and default is completely legs together straight. Overall, though, he's just so cool these problems go away.


Onto his combined mode and he gets even better. The transformation of Hot Spot is just so inventive and cool. I like the way the back of Hot Spot is the front of Defensor. He also has a ton of personality. The head sculpt is so spot on and I love the hockey goalie proportions. He's just so cool.

If I had a couple problems, the first would be his top heaviness causes him to lean forward. Going back one click on the hip fixes this on mine, but it could be better. Also, his combined gun is terrible. I've settled on leaving them uncombined and underslung on his arms. I like to think of them as water guns that help his rescue missions.

Defensor is easily the best in the series. The only one that has a chance to beat it is Takara's Bruticus if it comes with their own shuttle Blast Off mold as has been hinted at. He's just so damn cool. I honestly can't really think of a complaint that really detracts. If you like Transformers, you should have this set.

TL:DR

Defensor is freaking cool and every TF fan should own him.
 

yami4ct

Member
I was iffy on the idea of CW Defensor at first. G1 Defensor barely did anything so I don't really care about the character and being 3/5 remolds didn't help. How that I have him, I see how wrong that was. The remolds look great and Defensor himself is just so cool.
 
Defensor is neat, the uber thighs are really annoying though, odd how no one gets it right. Superion has those tiny thighs, Defensor is just too big.

Otherwise it's mostly all good except for Blades, which is such a lazy repaint. Rescue chopper with huge missiles attached to it? At least Victorian remolds put new arms to remove the missiles from it.
 

yami4ct

Member
Blades is a weird one. I think his deco and head sculpt are amazing, but those missiles stick out like sore thumbs. With as much work as they put into Offroad to First Aid, you would've thought they could've at least remolded the missiles as well. Well, Hotspot is a Fire Engine with guns, so I guess it's just a theme for the group. Haha.
 
Hot spot at least works in that they put hoses on the guns so they disguise like water cannons. Blades is perfect helicopter type for a rescue chopper, but they left the missiles on from Alpha Bravo..... but then removed them for Victorian.
 

Whimsical Phil

Ninja School will help you
Has anyone found Devaststor in stores yet? Toys R Us site keeps saying that store pick up is available, but when I do a store search with a 25mi radius, nothing comes back. Just curious if anyone has spotted him in stores

EDIT: Yes, I know of the one in San Jose CA that was spotted a few weeks back.

I stopped by the Pleasanton, CA TRU earlier this afternoon and they had two Devastators. When I left, they had one. :p
 

Recall

Member
Watching the G1 movie with my Son and I've always wondered did they ever cover the period between season 2 and the movie either in comic or animated form?

Did Hot Rod, Ultra Magnus, Springer etc ever get an official backstory? Cheers.
 

Cheerilee

Member
Watching the G1 movie with my Son and I've always wondered did they ever cover the period between season 2 and the movie either in comic or animated form?

Did Hot Rod, Ultra Magnus, Springer etc ever get an official backstory? Cheers.

No, not really. The G1 comic was a different continuity. A different universe. There was no timeskip in the comics, or a Transformers the Movie. Although the G1 comics did say that all of the different universes exist together in a connected "multiverse", and (in the comics) a Galvatron from a universe similar to (but not quite) the G1 cartoon universe once crossed over to the G1 comic universe and stirred up some trouble.

Beast Wars was set hundreds of years after the G1 cartoon (loosely) and had (as an example) a guest appearance from Starscream's Ghost.

It's just assumed that in the 20 years between season 2 and the movie, 20 years worth of half-hour adventures were had, leading up to the big one in the movie. We're never going to know what happened during those years, and any attempt to do so probably won't do it justice.

The G1 cartoon fizzled out after season 4. Unless you want to dig into the Japanese sequels that Shout Factory recently released over here, that's the end of the G1 cartoon.
 

Recall

Member
I have all the Takara DVDs that Metrodome released years ago here in the UK, Super god Masterforce, Headmasters, Victory. I'm shocked IDW didn't do something with this lost period between season 2 and the movie especially since it's a period with no constraints allowing even the wildest of stories. Oh well, cheers guys.
 

MattKeil

BIGTIME TV MOGUL #2
Blades is a weird one. I think his deco and head sculpt are amazing, but those missiles stick out like sore thumbs. With as much work as they put into Offroad to First Aid, you would've thought they could've at least remolded the missiles as well. Well, Hotspot is a Fire Engine with guns, so I guess it's just a theme for the group. Haha.

It's not like Blades being heavily armed is inaccurate.

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Plus he's a violent psychopath, so it kind of fits the character. The mold exists for Blades, after all. Alpha Bravo is the lazy repaint, conceptually speaking. He just came out first.
 
I have all the Takara DVDs that Metrodome released years ago here in the UK, Super god Masterforce, Headmasters, Victory. I'm shocked IDW didn't do something with this lost period between season 2 and the movie especially since it's a period with no constraints allowing even the wildest of stories. Oh well, cheers guys.

I think the closest you'll be able to get to this is the Japanese Scramble City special. As far as I know it's set after season 2, focuses on the construction of Autobot City (from the movie) and features Ultra Magnus.

Only part one of this story was ever actually shown (I don't know if part 2 was even made), but yeah, it is pretty crazy that nobody ever took advantage of the time lapse between S2 and the movie.
 
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