Jul 3 2015

GI JOE 25th Anniversary Dreadnoks by Hasbro

This Friday I’m putting the Sigma 6 line on hold to check out some 25th Anniversary stuff, which still happens to be my all time favorite line of modern JOEs. Completing my team of the original three Dreadnoks, however, was a real pain in my ass. The first two, Torch and Ripper, came in a Comic 2-Pack that was easy enough to score, but Buzzer came single carded and I could not find him anywhere. Even on the secondary market he was going for more than I wanted to spend on a lone JOE figure. Eventually, I bit the bullet, paid what I had to and added him to my collection. He’s hung in my Toy Closet ever since waiting for a time for me to open him up and take a look at all three. Well, grab your grape soda and chocy donuts, because that time is now!

Buzzer comes on a gorgeous card with foil lettering and that always amazing character art. I’m rarely tempted to collect a line MoC, but if I had the extra money and the wallspace to hang them, this 25th Anni. line would be the one I would do it for. I almost hate to open this guy up, but dammit, my Dreadnoks need to be together! Not to be outdone, Torch and Ripper came as a pair in a Comic Pack, and sadly I don’t have an in-package shot to show you. Suffice it to say the presentation was flawless, complete with a reprint of GI JOE #30 as the backdrop. Let’s go ahead and start with Buzzer because I’ve been waiting a year or so to take the time and open him…

Easily the most conservative looking of these three bastards, Buzzer dons a button down khaki shirt, blue pants and combat boots. His more mainstream look supports his backstory, although for some reason he thought it necessary to reinforce that one shoulder with a piece of plate armor and slap an elbow guard on his right arm. The detail on Buzzer’s outfit is fantastic. You get some grenades sculpted onto his shoulder strap and belt and skulls sculpted onto his boots. But it’s the tiny silver skull and crossbones belt buckle on this guy that really impresses me.

The portrait includes Buzzer’s silver sunglasses and his ponytail with some really nice sculpting on his hair and a little bit of paint for his tiny beard.
You’d have to be batshit crazy to go into a warzone with a gasoline tank strapped to your back, but Buzzer doesn’t care and he needs extra fuel for his only weapon, a custom chainsaw.

This chainsaw remains one of my favorite GI JOE accessories of all time. It’s so lovingly crafted with so much detail and the flame deco on it is just icing on the cake. With a grip on the back and a side grab bar, Buzzer can wield it quite convincingly, which sadly wasn’t always the case with these 25th Anni. figures and their accessories.

Moving on to Ripper, here we’re getting to what looks like an extra in a Mad Max movie. He sports a cut-off camo shirt with a sculpted combat knife on his shoulder strap and a pair of grenades clipped to his shirt. His right arm is bared to show a beautifully sharp tampo tattoo. Like Buzzer’s belt buckle, Ripper has a little skull hanging from a chain on his belt, which is such an awesome little detail. The sculpt below the waist is the same we saw with Buzzer, but with black boots and the skulls picked out with some silver paint.

Ripper’s stocky meathead includes a full beard and a full head of hair styled into a mohawk. He has a pair of red punk glasses and a grimace that says he wants to murder you and possibly eat one or two of your internal organs.

Ripper comes with an elaborate backpack and “jaws of life” rig, which I presume is for prying open vault doors or the cockpits of JOE vehicles, rather than saving lives. In theory, it’s a nice piece of kit, complete with a hose running from the hand unit to the backpack and you can store the hand unit on the backpack. It’s still not a favorite of mine, just because it’s so specialized and that hose is so unwieldy. The hose is so long that it’s obtrusive and it pops out all the time when I pose him.

Fortunately, Ripper also comes with one of my favorite JOE accessories: That iconic Dreadnok rifle with curved bayonet. Man, I love this thing! I’ve always been a bit unsure about who this was intended for. It comes right in the middle of the tray and it looks like it’s positioned to favor Torch rather than Buzzer.

And that brings us to Torch, who he is easily my favorite sculpt of the three figures. We’ve left Mad Max territory and gone to full on contemporary biker thug. Torch’s biker jacket is possibly one of the best executed outfits I can remember Hasbro ever doing in this scale. It’s sculpted separately and attached to the figure’s bare chested body and it looks amazing. The chains on the shoulders and the buckles on the front straps are neatly painted in silver and the back of the jacket is tampo’d with his gang emblem and “Melbourne Maulers.” It’s almost a shame to put his backpack on him and cover up that beautiful piece of work.

The head sculpt here is pretty great too, with copious sideburns leading into his mustache, dark glasses, and a red bandanna. Torch even has a tiny tattoo tampo’d on his left forearm. Hasbro put so much love and detail into these guys!

As his name suggests, Torch’s weapon of choice is a blowtorch, with a tank on his back. Jeez, don’t stand next to Torch or Buzzer when the bullets start flying! Unfortunately, a few things conspire to make Torch’s torch not so great. The plastic hose that connect the torch to the backpack is rather restrictive and his right hand isn’t sculpted to grip the handle very well. Getting him to hold this thing can be a chore. Fortunately, I have a spare one of those Dreadnok rifles to give him. There’s also a holster on his leg where you can clip the torch when it isn’t use.

Articulation on all three of these figures is identical. You get rotating hinges in the shoulders, elbows, and ankles. The wrists swivel and the knees have double hinges. There are ball joints in the torsos and in the necks. While it all sounds good on paper, the 25th Anniversary figures have become notorious for some poor articulation designs. It’s virtually impossible to get these figures to hold rifles across their chests with both hands and the forearms are pegged in to allow the swivel and they frequently pop out. It’s an unfortunate set of circumstances that mar some otherwise great sculpts.

With the Dreadnoks always being a favorite of mine, it’s great to finally have this trio together and on my JOE shelf. Considering how much I love the 25th Anni. line, it’s no small compliment when I say that I think these three are among the best this line has to offer. They capture everything I loved about the original characters, give them some highly detailed gear and made them lots of fun to play with. It’s a pity I’ll never pony up for that 25th Zaranna figure, but at some point I’ll still have to double back and pick up that Dreadnok 7-pack that Hasbro did a while back.

Jun 5 2015

GI JOE 25th Anniversary Comic Pack: Tomax and Xamot by Hasbro

As promised, I’m going to be spreading some GI JOE love around FFZ this Summer, so look for this kind of thing popping up every Friday until I run out of stuff in my closet or just lose interest and move on. The main thrust of GI JOE Friday is going to be Sigma 6, but I plan on peppering it with some 25th and 50th Anniversary stuff just to mix things up. Also, because I realize a lot of people hate Sigma 6. Anywho, today I decided to go with the 25th Anniversary Collection’s release of Tomax and Xamot!

Ah, The 25th Anniversary Comic Pack! How I adored you! Unlike the vintage-style JOE Comic 3-Packs from Hasbro, these 25th releases came with only two figures, but that made it a perfect venue to get The Crimson Twins out in this new format. Doubly so when you consider they were originally released as a 2-pack way back when. I can still remember when this deadly duo was released in 1985. I was first introduced to them as part of the Sunbow mini-series, Pyramids of Darkness, which was definitely the weakest of these mini-series for me, but made up for it by introducing Extensive Enterprises. These guys were like nothing in GI JOE before and who didn’t fall instantly in love with their elite troopers, The Crimson Guard? I can still remember finding the twins 2-pack at the mall and successfully begging my father to get them for me. There was a time when Tomax, Xamot, and hooded Cobra Commander were the upper echelons of my Cobra Command leading an army of (well, actually I only had two) Crimson Guards, leaving Destro and Baroness to take their boring old Cobra Troops and fend for themselves. I freaking loved these guys!!

Oh, and f’ck me for not getting on board and ordering that Doc. What the hell was I thinking?

I think a big part of the appeal for me here is the uniforms. Yeah, I thought it was cool how they mirrored each other, but more importantly they were just neat designs. The Twins were kind of like superhero villains the way they would appear all chill in their business suits in one scene and then be charging into battle in their costumes in the next. The sculpts on these guys are quite well done. The cobra-style knee and thigh armor is superb and I like how the shoulder armor is hinged and removable. It stays on pretty well too. And naturally they have to have make each other wear the silver codpieces, because if one gets kicked in the balls the other one feels it! You also get a nicely detailed combat knife and pistol, each sculpted onto the belt. To top it all off, you get some beautifully vibrant colors. The Cobra blue with the silver armor and red sash and accents makes for a fantastic deco. God, I love these uniforms!

The portraits follow the same mirrored pattern as their costumes. It’s the same basic sculpt only with the facial scars on opposite cheeks. They also have the same strands of hair dropping down over the forehead, only on opposite sides. That always gives me a chuckle. Do they actually style it that way? Also, my loose Tomax has some weird black speckling around his mouth. My carded set doesn’t, but that’s not for opening, it’s for hanging on the wall and looking at.

Articulation on these guys is pretty standard from what we got in the 25th Anniversary figures. The arms have rotating hinges in the shoulders, hinges in the elbows. and swivels in the wrists. The legs are ball jointed at the hips, have double hinged knees, and rotating hinges in the ankles. You get a ball joint in the torso and another in the neck. It’s a far cry from the more modern JOES that have come out since, but it’s certainly serviceable. And fortunately, these guys don’t share the problem of arms popping out like some of the figures in this line do.

Tomax and Xamot come with their signature weapons, which is something like a laser sub-machine gun. Obviously, they’re the same weapon because… twins! These feel a little oversized to me, but I still dig them well enough. They can comfortably grip them in either hand and witha litttle work you can get them to hold the weapon in both hands. You also get the standard 25th Anniversary Cobra figure stands, with the sculpted Cobra emblems and the personalized name plates. The only thing missing here is the zip line, which I recall coming with the original vintage two-pack.

Yes, opening up this pack instantly transported me back to the glory days of 1985 when it was such an amazing time to be a JOE collector. We had brand new teams appear, like The Crimson Twins and The Dreadnoks, and the line was going into such creative and interesting new territory. The 25th Anniversary versions of these guys really scratched an itch and the fact that I found the 25th Crimson Guard figures to be relatively plentiful meant that I could finally have a little squad of these guys to go with my Tomax and Xamot. Ah, good times! Now, I really want to pick up a pair of Cobra Ferrets for these guys to drive around on.

May 14 2015

Transformers Combiner Wars: Dead End by Hasbro

Howdy, folks, and welcome to Transformers Thursday! Yeah, last week I ran into some complications with content because my studio was ripped apart, so I’m trying to play a little catch up this week. Today I’m opening up the very last Stunticon, or at least the last one until Wildrider (or whatever they’re calling him) comes along. I saved Dead End for last because next to Motormaster, he was my favorite Stunticon as a kid. What abritrary reason made me choose him over four other relatively personality-less cartoon robot cars? I couldn’t tell you, but I’m sure it was well-reasoned. This being the case, I’m coming into this figure with some high expectations, so you better not disappoint me Hasbro!!! Hang on, while I take a fortifying sip of Jameson. Ahhhh. Good stuff. Let’s look at the package…

Yes, it’s the same packaging we’ve been seeing all along and it’s growing on me, especially since there’s a free comic book in there. I haven’t mentioned it before, but I really dig the way they do a data sheet on the character on the back cover of the comic. I’ve really got nothing else to add at this point. Dead End is packaged in his robot mode, but we’re going to start with his alt mode, because that’s just how I roll.

So, straightaway I’ll say that Dead End takes the top spot as my favorite of all these Stunticon alt modes. Yeah, Breakdown was the closest to his original G1 alt mode, but this here is on snazzy looking car. He’s a little more rounded out than his original G1 namesake, but the maroon body, black painted windows, and the off center racing stripe all conspire to warm my GeeWun-loving heart. Sure, he wears his Decepticon emblem on his hood instead of the door, but I’m Ok with that and the grey on the side panels give him a little modern zing. I do, however, wish the hood emblem was straight. It looks like they tampo’d it on an angle to line up with the contours of the hood, but the result is really aggrevating my OCD. Ah, but even that can’t mar what is an otherwise beautiful little evil sports car.

Dead End features three weapon ports, one on top and one on each side just behind the front wheels. You can use these to weaponize him up by pegging in his… ah, exhaust pipe. Yeah, other than the combiner part, this grey pipe is all you get. I suppose it looks kind of OK pegged into the side, but, no… not really. We’ll circle back to that pipe when we get to the robot mode.

Transforming Dead End is as simple as these Deluxes tend to get and the engineering doesn’t really hold any surprises. In fact, he actually has a lot in common with Breakdown, particularly in the way he has a chest flap that closes down to partially cover the combiner port. The way the windshield and front of the car folds onto his back is also similar, but Dead End got the better end of this deal. Instead of the ugly inside crater of the car shell showing, Dead End’s backpack shows off the hood of the car. As far as car kibble backpacks go, this is about as stylish as you can get. I also really dig the head sculpt on this guy. It’s a great looking portrait for a ‘Con and I’m glad to see he got the Sunbow style mouthplate.

The deco in robot mode features a lot of the same maroon and gold, although you do get a good amount of dark gray plastic thrown into the mix. While Dead End is far from traditional Decepticon colors, I think the dark deco works really well for him and I love the tiny little Decepticon emblem on his chest. It looks like it belongs there, whereas the other Stunticon faction emblems look like they were stock on as an afterthought.

As much as I find this bot mode to be pure love, I still have a few little quibbles. The elbows use that annoying style of hinge that attaches at the end of the two halves of the limb. I call it “hollow elbow” and while there is probably absolutely no reason why a robot couldn’t function like this, I just think it looks weird. You also get a grey socket thing sticking on the inside of his right leg that looks rather conspicuously out of place. It’s there to attach the foot or hand in combiner mode and it does just come off if you don’t want it there. I did think the short lower legs would bother me on this figure, but they really don’t at all.

Dead End’s choice of weapon is an odd one indeed, because it’s basically just an exhaust pipe. Normally I prefer my Transformers to have guns, swords and axes will do in a pinch, but just giving him a big pipe? I’m not sure how I feel about that. On the one hand, I suppose going into battle with nothing but a giant pipe is kind of bad ass and represents a certain degree of thuggery befitting of a ‘Con. On the other hand, it seems like a really stupid thing to do when 95% of the other robots out there are going to have guns and the other 5% probably have swords. Anyway, Dead End can wield it like a club, or there’s a peg on the side so he can wield it like a PR-24 police baton.

Even with some minor gripes, Dead End is easily my favorite of the Deluxe Stunticons. That’s not to say the others are bad. I’ve actually enjoyed these guys quite a bit. Yeah, I was a little iffy on Dragstrip at first, but he’s grown on me a lot. I expected to hate Breakdown, but he’s actually pretty cool. Really, that just leaves Offroad as the odd bot out, and that’s not because he’s a bad figure, but mainly just because I see him as an imposter. Next Transformers Thursday I will revisit the Stunticons for one last time to take a look at their combined form, Menasor. At the risk of spoilers, I’ll just say this… writing that piece is going to require a lot of Jameson. Meaning I’ll need some booze to get through it. Because Menasor sucks.

Apr 30 2015

Transformers Combiner Wars: Offroad by Hasbro

It’s Thursday again, and that means I get to open up a new Transformer and yup, it’s another Stunticon! I’ve been pretty happy with these guy so far and now I’ve only got two left to open before I can cobble them all together into Menasor. Which Stunticon is it going to be today? Why, Offroad of course! Ah, Offroad. As a kid he was my very favorite of all the… HEY! Wait a minute… who the hell is Offroad? Yes, friends, just like the Aerialbots had their very own imposter in the form of a helicopter named Alpha Bravo, the Stunticons that I know and love have their own ringer and he’s a Pick Up Truck named Offroad. Where the Primus is Wildrider? He’s supposedly still coming. In the meantime, Offroad arrives on the scene with a mold that can be better refashioned into members of other combiner teams. This displeased me up until I found out that we’d still be getting Wildrider, so let me take in a breath of tolerance and see what this guy’s all about.

Offroad comes packaged in his robot mode with his weapon and combiner part beside him, all plastered in front of a lovely free comic book. At least the back of the package has a blurb about Offroad that admits he’s the newest member of the team, not like some Poochie that they tried to retcon in without thinking we would know about it. But hey, he’s a Decepticon car and by my very nature I love Decepticon cars. That philosophy hasn’t failed me since Hasbro decided to repaint Armada Sideswipe into Oil Slick. *shudder* Anyway, this is case where my outlook is still fairly optimistic. Let’s start with his alt mode.

This is certainly not a bad looking little truck. The detail in the front grill, headlights, and bumper is pretty good and I really like the wheels. It’s also worth mentioning that with his charcoal colored body and red painted windows, Hasbro did their best to give him G1 Wildrider’s colors. Hell, he even sports the same off center Decepticon logo on his hood. Still, Offroad manages to bust out on his own a bit with those red color splashes on his doors. The alt mode holds together quite tightly and rolls along great.

Offroad features no less than four ports to peg in his weapon, two on the sides and two on the truck bed, but considering he comes with an axe, none of them do all that much in terms of weaponizing him. I guess the axe shaft kind of looks like an exhaust pipe, but given the positions of the peg holes, that doesn’t help much. There’s also a tab so you can attach the combiner part, which doesn’t look as great as it did with Breakdown, but I can still get behind it.

Transforming Offroad is about as simple as it gets for a Deluxe Class toy. The only real clever thing here is the way his legs extend outward. Otherwise, the arms pulling out from the sides and the bed of the truck becoming the legs is pretty standard stuff. He is a little mis-transformed in the package as his backpack does drop down a little bit to put the wheels right on the back of his shoulders. Looking at him from behind doesn’t leave much to the imagination.

While Hasbro tried to pay respects to Wildrider with Offroad’s coloring in car mode, the robot mode abandons any further homages. Still, this is a pretty solid robot mode. The exposed combiner port on his chest doesn’t bother me nearly as much as it does on Dragstrip and he’s got some neat things going for him. The car door armor on his shoulders is well placed and I really dig the sculpted and painted springs on his lower legs. The backpack also feels more natural than Breakdowns does, despite it being clearly visible from the front. It gives me a little bit of a Huffer or Pipes vibe the way it forms a hood.

And then there’s the head sculpt, which on its own merits is quite good, but it still feels out of place to me on one of these figures. It doesn’t shout Stunticon to me and I’m not a big fan of the green painted face, despite the fact that the sculpt of that face is quite good. Every time I look at this noggin I feel like I’m looking at a Cybertron figure. Is that a bad thing? Not necessarily, but again, it just seems strange on a Combiner Wars figure in 2015. Of course, this could all just be the booze talking. I’m on my third Maker’s Mark since I started writing.

Articulation on these figures has been pretty good and Offroad is no exception. You get ball joints in the shoulders and some oddly strong ratcheting hinges in the elbows. The legs are ball jointed at the hips and feature hinges in the knees and swivels in the thighs. The neck is ball jointed and you do get a swivel in the hip. Offroad is not super-articulated by any means, but he is just limber enough to make him fun to play around with.

Offroad comes with an axe, which I find to be rather disappointing because I tend to like at least one gun with my Convertobots. I suppose I could have him hold the combiner part as some kind of quad-barreled gun, but that just doesn’t do it for me.

Call me a foolish old GeeWunner, but I think I would have liked Offroad more if he weren’t masquerading as one of my beloved Stunticons. There is nothing inherently bad about this figure and I have a feeling I’ll warm up to him a little more once I get a proper Combiner Wars Wildrider to replace him. That having been said, this team is shaping up pretty nicely and I have only one more to open before I can get my combining thang on. I’ll also note here that I totally approve of what I’ve seen of the way Hasbro has resculpted and repainted this figure to be First Aid, so there’s another reason that Offroad does not deserve my scorn. He’s not my favorite of the Stunticons so far, but he ain’t bad either!

Apr 16 2015

Transformers Combiner Wars: Air Raid by Hasbro

If it’s Thursday it must be Transformers time and today I’m ripping into a Hasbro’s second wave of Deluxes from their Combiner Wars line. Hasbro made the maddening decision to mix up the waves by including one Stunticon in the first case and one Aerialbot in the second and that means while I was mainly after the Stunticons here, the convenience of getting them all in one shot meant I had to pick up Air Raid. You may have expected me to jump right into the Stunticons, but I’m actually going to get Air Raid out of the way first. I’ve avoided buying any of the Hasbro Aerialbots in favor of Takara’s Unite Warriors version, but this will give me a little idea of whether that was the right choice or if I should just bite the bullet and pick up the Hasbro versions that are all available now.

What’s this? A comic pack??? I honestly had no idea that Hasbro was going to be incorporating the comics into the Combiner Wars Deluxes, but I’m beside myself with joy that they are doing this. Here all along I was thinking that this delightful duo of comic and toy was getting retired with the Generations line. Needless to say that while I’m still not overly smitten with the packaging deco of this series, tossing in the comic as character art makes up for a multitude of sins. You could wrap the figure in a paper back and as long as there was a comic included, I’d be happy. Air Raid comes packaged in his robot mode, but as usual I’m going to start with his jet mode.

Air Raid’s alt mode is what I believe to be an F-14 Tomcat and I sincerely hope someone will correct me if I’m wrong. With his black paint job, striped wings, and Autobot emblems on the wings, I think he looks pretty close to his G1 namesake, even if the model of aircraft may have changed. In fact, apart from his tail fins being a little too close together, I’ve got no complaints. Sure, he’s a jet with a brick of robot kibble hanging under him, but that is as much part of the homage as anything and I love it. Yes, I will concede a little disappointment that the entire story of this figure’s engineering can pretty much be summed up by flipping the jet over and seeing the robot with his arms and legs tucked in, but there’s enough here tugging at my nostalgia strings to make me very happy with this alt mode. Of course, newer fans who cut their teeth on the more complex Deluxe Transformers of recent years and expect more expertly crafted alt modes may find their mileage varies.

About the only thing disappointing to me about Air Raid’s jet mode is the lack of any fun modular weapons. He is pegged under the wings and on the sides to take weapons, and yes you can peg his double gun into any one of those, but the result is a rather lopsided looking jet. It sure would have been cool if the gun pulled apart to form two guns to mount under the wings or on the sides of the undercarriage. Ah, well. There is a peg on the top of the jet’s back where you can mount the gun and make it look a little balanced, but I’m not a fan of the giant cannon mounted on the back of my F-??. It just doesn’t work for me.

As peeking under the jet suggests, Air Raid’s transformation is as simple as pulling the arms out, unfolding the legs, flipping the jet up into a backpack, turning the head around. You can do it in just a few seconds, which definitely adds to the playability. As a kid, I always enjoyed being able to change my bots back and forth quickly.

In robot mode, Air Raid is superb update to the old G1 toy. And yes, once again that entails having a robot with a jet on his back. I wouldn’t have it any other way! The proportions on this guy are just perfect and the way the combiner port on his chest is hidden in plain sight works beautifully. For whatever reason, I wasn’t a big fan of it on Dragstrip, but I love it here. You even get the same intakes on his chest that the G1 toy had, only here a little more pronounced and stylized. Even the head sculpt here is pure G1 love. Like all of these Combiner Wars Deluxes, Air Raid is a pretty good sized figure. In fact, he’s not all that much smaller than TFC’s take on the character.

One of my early complaints about the official pictures of these guys was the lack of paint apps, but in hand I have absolutely no problems with Air Raid’s deco. The red and white deco is another great homage to the G1 character and the white plastic Hasbro is using here looks and feels great. The extra bits of red and gold are more than enough to carry the day. I only wish they had tampo’d the Autobot symbol on his chest instead of putting a tiny one on his shoulder.

Air Raid’s solid articulation makes for a very fun action figure. You get ball joints in the shoulders, hips, and neck. The elbows and knees are hinged, and he can rotate just below the waist. It’s not mind blowing poseability, but it gives me just what I need. He’s a solid and chunky figure too with great balance.

The accessories include the aforementioned double barreled gun and a combiner part. The gun works much better in robot mode as you can have him hold it in either hand or just mount it to one of his arms. Some paint apps would have been nice, but we all know how that goes these days, right? The combiner part isn’t so useful in robot mode, but we’ll see it again when I finally get some more of these figures and combine them into Superion.

While new fans may wonder what all the fuss is about, I think Air Raid is one of my favorite Deluxes to come around in a while. He’s the perfect update to the old G1 character and toy, taking everything that makes me nostalgic for that design and crafting it into a modern action figure. He’s fun to play with and transform and it’s nice to finally have some Aerialbots that are in scale with my other Deluxes. So did Air Raid win me over to the Hasbro route? Will I be cancelling my Takara Unite Warriors Superion? It’s still too early to tell. Air Raid has certainly impressed me enough that I want to get more and in the end it may just be my eagerness to get all the Aerialbots that leads me down the Hasbro path.

Dec 26 2014

Transformers Generations: Crosscut (IDW Comic Pack) by Hasbro

Well, I hope you all had a great Christmas, Toyhounds. I don’t want to be a scrooge, but I’m glad it’s over and I’m anxious for things to start returning to normal. Since I took the day off yesterday, I decided to bump Transformers Thursday to today and we are going to be opening up a certain Autobot that Santa Primus left for me under the tree. It’s Crosscut and he’s a repaint of Skids. Ho Ho Ho!

Is there a more beautiful sight to behold than an action figure packaged with a comic book? I think not. If this had been a thing back when I was a kid, I might have grown up with a better outlook on the world and life in general. I’m just glad I lived to see it happen. Crosscut is one of Hasbro’s “Thrilling Thirty” to celebrate the 30th Anniversary of Transformers. I’ve lost track of where they are with these, but 2014 is just about gone so there can’t be too many more of these left for me to open. I’m a little apprehensive about what 2015 holds for Tranformers. I don’t see myself buying many of the Combiner Wars stuff, other than the Legends Class figures, so I’m going to be sad to see all this IDW stuff disappear from the pegs. But I digress… he comes packaged in robot mode, but let’s start with his car mode.

If you missed my review of Skids, you should know that I really liked that figure a lot and so I was eager to pick up this remold-repaint. The car mode is an adorable and unassuming little compact that in no way suggests the kick-ass looking warrior bot that you’re going to get out of it. Still, as much as I still dig this mold, the Crosscut version is pretty bland when compared to the original Skids release. Gone is that beautiful blue plastic and in its place is this swirly gray crap that Hasbro likes to use. Cars are meant to be shiny and this bare plastic just doesn’t work that well for the alt mode. The red and white striping on Skids’ sides is replaced by a black stripe and some red scoops. There’s also a lot of new paint to be found on the grill, but I’ll deal with that after we get him transformed.

Crosscut features the same ports on his sides, just in front of the rear wheels, so you can attach his weapons to his car mode. All in all, this isn’t a terrible looking car. If I try hard enough I can get a little G1 Camshaft vibe off of him, but based on coloring alone, I much prefer the Skids release.

Transforming Crosscut into robot mode isn’t too bad, it’s getting him back into car mode that I find a little daunting. Nonetheless, the robot mode on this guy is just a thing of beauty. I love the proportions, particularly since the transformation is so well engineered that it almost looks like the toy uses mass shifting to get such a long and lean bot mode out of such a compact little car. You also have some very classic Autobot design elements at work here, what with the front of the car forming the chest, the wheels on the shoulders, and the door wings angling up from the back. Of course, the mold is still not without some issues. The car kibble on the sides of the legs is rather ungainly and the figure does have a habit of falling backwards if you don’t get his stance just right. This is one Transformer that is sorely in need of some heel spurs.

Like Skids, Crosscut is bristling with weaponry. You get those awesome rocket packs on his shoulders and a pair of shoulder cannon reminiscent of the old G1 Datsuns. He also has dual cannon slung under each of his forearms and these can be angled up for firing, but I prefer them positioned under his arms. It’s odd that his bio should call out that this guy isn’t known for his accomplishments in battle, seeing as how he looks like a walking death machine.

So what’s new? Well, Crosscut does feature a brand new head sculpt, complete with mouth plate and a cool “helmet.” Other than that, the new deco features the same gray plastic we saw in car mode with some snazzy metallic gold paint on his feet, hands, helmet, and shoulders. The gray plastic works for me much better in robot mode than in car mode. The front grill and bumper is now black with some more metallic red and yellow headlamps, which goes a long way to differentiate him from Skids. Honestly, the only issue I have with his deco in bot mode is that the head sculpt uses the bare gray plastic for his face and part of his helmet. I really wish these parts had been painted, especially the mouth plate.

Crosscut’s articulation looks good on paper, but like Skids, he doesn’t feature a lot of mobility in the shoulders. The jointing is there, but the sculpt does its best to interfere. Conversely, his leg articulation is great, but it’s hard to make use of it without Crosscut toppling backwards. The end result is a figure that looks really good standing on the shelf, and can be really frustrating when trying to get great poses out of him.

Crosscut comes with black versions of Skids two weapons. One is a rifle, the other looks like a beefy pistol with a drum magazine and they can be combined into one big gun. Taken together, this is one of my favorite Transformers weapons in recent memory, so I don’t mind getting another, but it’s also very character specific for Skids, so it feels rather out of place getting it again for another character.

All in all, Crosscut is a nice second run at a mold that is admittedly problematic, but one that I love nonetheless. The aesthetics here just scream classic Autobot sexiness to me and I can’t get over how much I dig those rocket packs in the shoulders. The deco works better for me in robot mode than it does in car mode, but I don’t think either are necessarily better than what we got with Skids. I don’t know that Crosscut is a “must-have” figure, especially for collectors that already own the mold, but he is the only one in this wave that I sought out to buy and that’s just because I dig Skids so much.

Oct 30 2014

Transformers Generations: Dreadwing (IDW Comic Pack) by Hasbro

Yes, it is indeed Transformers Thursday again and today I’m checking out the last figure I have from the Skids/Goldfire/Waspinator/Dreadwing wave. Dreadwing is a repaint of Stealth Bomber Megatron from what I believe was the last wave of comic packs. It’s a figure that I thought was pretty neat, but I was never sold on it as being Megatron. Nope, not even after having read the comic. If you want to start out in the proper context you can find that review HERE. And, holy shit, has it really been over a year since that figure came out??? Where does the time go? Anyway, I’m hoping that a new name, a fresh coat of paint, and some tweaks to the mold might make this release go down easier.

As always the concept behind these IDW Comic Pack’s is a thing of beauty. The figure comes packaged in his robot mode with a G1 inspired card and a reprint comic book serving as the character art. I can sum up this whole idea in one word: Yum! Besides being based off the IDW portrayal of the character, Dreadwing is also an homage to the Generation 2 toy, a tactical bomber bundled with a smaller jet named Smokescreen. I never did own that G2 toy, but at one point I owned the sexy black Japanese Beast Wars repaint of BB with Starscream, and I still own the Universe repaint of Dreadwing and Smokejumper, which is a far less interesting deco, but still a wonderful set of toys. Anyway, let’s kick things off with Dreadwing’s alt mode.

This stealth bomber alt mode looked good great before and still looks great here. If it’s your first time with the mold, you may find that getting all the panels to line up properly can be a bit of a chore as some of the tabs are prone to popping out unless you have everything positioned absolutely perfectly. Yes, there are a lot of seams running through the aircraft’s hull, but I find that it works well as panel lining and isn’t as terribly unsightly as it would be if it were on a car alt mode. There’s a tiny flip down landing gear on the front, but the aircraft really doesn’t need it to stand up properly.

While I think the black deco on the Megatron looked really good and certainly more appropriate, I can’t help but favor the purple and silver of this G2-inspired deco. It’s actually not as garish as some of the G2 decos, for that was a time when I’m convinced Hasbro design teams were getting high by huffing the fumes of neon highlighter markers. The deco is further enhanced by the bright red paint on the windows and the awesome G2-style Decepticon insignia neatly printed on either side of the cockpit area. Even the tips of the wings, where the translucent red plastic shows through the cracks, looks cool to me. It’s like this guy is pulsating with Energon.

I find transforming this mold to be a fidgety affair, thanks mostly to the flipping involved with the torso hings, but he’s much easier going into robot mode than the other way around. Parts-former alert! You do have to detach his wing tips, as they become the two halves of his arm cannon. His robot mode features a wide upper body with really broad shoulders and not much of a waist. Nonetheless, I think he looks great as long as he’s posed with a wide stance. I really dig the jet intakes on his shoulders and the way the cockpit splits to form his torso. Hasbro also graced this guy with a brand new head sculpt that is a perfect love letter to the original G2 toy. The high gloss paint on his new noggin looks great, I only wish that plate behind his head didn’t inhibit the light piping for his red visor. I did manage to get it to pop in few photos, but it wasn’t as easy as it could have been. Oh well, it’s still a fabulous portrait.

In robot mode, Dreadwing’s deco pays an even stronger homage to the G2 toy’s coloring. You get the same purple, silver, and red only now with an extra dose of mint blue-green in the limbs. The crazy decos of the 90’s are usually love it or hate it affairs. Personally, I have a lot of fondness for the Transformers decos, but not so much when they applied this sort of thing to the GI Joe line. Either way, I think this figure’s colors are gorgeous.

Dreadwing features some great articulation. The shoulders are ball jointed, the elbows are hinged, and he has swivels in the biceps. His legs are ball jointed at the hips, hinged at the knees, and have swivels in the thighs. He also has a ball joint in the neck. The only thing I find conspicuously absent is a swivel at the waist. I should also note that the joints on my figure are unusually tight, which makes for a pleasant surprise.

I’m still on the fence over this mold’s arm cannon. Sometimes I dig it a lot and sometimes I think it looks like a forced use of kibble and takes away from the symmetry of the figure. I will say that I like it better on this figure because it isn’t trying to be a misguided homage to Megatron’s fusion cannon. In the end, I wish there was a way you could peg the two halves on his back just to get it out of the way when not using it as a cannon. Nonetheless, I will likely end up displaying the figure with the arm cannon attached.

If I were buying these IDW Comic Packs individually, instead of as entire waves, I certainly would have been happy to pass on the Megatron in favor of Dreadwing. I think it’s a great mold and while I think both figures look good, I’m much happier seeing this figure characterized as Dreadwing rather than Megatron. But hey, that’s just me. I don’t think you can really go wrong picking up either version and I’m certainly not sorry about having the Megatron in my collection.

And that wraps up what has been a pretty solid wave of Deluxes with two great original figures (Waspinator and Skids), a damn fine repaint (Dreadwing) and a mediocre repaint (Goldfire) that at least improved on the original release. On a side note, I am once again fresh out of new Transformers and you know what that means? Yup, next week I’ll be digging my sweaty mitts into a storage tote and feeling around for an older figure to review. Actually, it might not be random this time, as I’m thinking of sending another box of Transformers to my nephew so I may dig out some figures that I’m read to let go and give them a proper send off on FFZ before I pack them up. But fear not, I should have the current wave of IDW Deluxes in a couple of weeks, along with MP-14 Red Alert, so the interlude shouldn’t last too long.

Oct 23 2014

Transformers Generations: Waspinator (IDW Comic Pack) by Hasbro

It’s Transformers Thursday again and I’m still chipping away at my last wave of IDW Comic Packs. There were two figures in this wave that I was really excited to get: The first was Skids and the second was good old Waspinator here. I’m still not a steady reader of IDW’s Robots in Disguise comic, but at some point I will get to reading my stack of RiD TPBs. I promise! I haven’t been terribly impressed with the half dozen or so issues that I have read, but then it’s kind of been eclipsed by the brilliance of More Than Meets The Eye. One thing I will applaud about the comic is IDW’s willingness to bring characters from other continuities into the fold. Sure, we got a straight up Beast Wars version of Rhinox in Generations, but he was a Voyager and as far as Deluxes go, right now it seems that Hasbro is predicating the releases in this size assortment as part of the comic packs, at least where the Generations toys are concerned.

And there’s nothing wrong with that because as I’m so fond of pointing out, I think any kind of action figure comic pack is just amazing. Ok, so yeah it’s a little odd to see Waspinator on a G1-inspired cardback, but this isn’t the first time we’ve seen Beast Wars figures in the Classics-Universe-Generations lines. Anyway, I’ve gushed on and on about my infatuation with the presentation of the Generations Comic Pack long enough in the past and so let’s just move on to the figure. I’m going to buck the trend here and I’m actually going to start with Waspinator’s robot mode.

So, perfection isn’t a word I throw around a lot when talking about action figures, and I’m going to come just short of doing it here today. But damn, if this Waspinator figure doesn’t come close. There are minor nits to pick, the exposed hollow portion of the wasp butt between the legs is a little unsightly, but when you consider what a complex and difficult character design this is to reproduce at a Deluxe Class level, I’m willing to overlook whatever minor blemishes there may be. I love the way the wasp head splits to form the chest and even the bug leg kibble feels like it belongs there rather then getting in the way. I couldn’t even begin to imagine how I would sit down and design a transforming figure like this one, and that makes it all the more impressive to me. So, how could I possibly improve on this figure? Give him a sound chip that says, “Wazzzpinator has planzzzzz.”

The head sculpt is poetry in plastic. It has a remarkable amount of depth to it, particularly around the mandibles. I love the white plastic light piping in the eyes. I don’t recall seeing white plastic light piping on any previous Transformers, but it sure looks great here. Alas, there is a little chipping to the yellow paint on my Waspy’s noggin, but I don’t think it’s going to bother me enough to make me try for a better one.

If I have one significant gripe, it comes in the articulation, but not in the individual points. No, my only real issue is with how loose the joints are on this guy, particularly in the hips. If I put him in too wide of a stance, he’s likely to buckle and do the splits. It’s nothing that a little nail polish won’t fix, but still worth pointing out. As to the rest of the articulation, Waspinator features ball joints a plenty which not only gives him great articulation, but also makes for a nice nod back to the Beast Wars figures where ball joints started appearing as the order of the day.

Waspinator comes with one accessory and that’s his little handgun that transforms from his wasp stinger. The barrel is made of the same milky translucent plastic that they used for the light piping in his eyes. It looks cool enough and he can hold it well in either hand. You can also store it by pegging it into his wasp butt.

With how good Waspinator’s robot mode is I was expecting the beast mode to be a terrible afterthought. I was pleasantly surprised. Sure, it’s apparent that the designers went for the robot mode first and the wasp second, but it’s still a remarkably solid alt mode. Not only can he stand perfectly on his insect legs, supporting the full weight of his body, but the engineering includes a plethora of tabs and slots and pegs to secure this mode together quite nicely. Everything has an obvious and intentional place to go and it’s all intuitive enough that I didn’t even have to look at the instructions once. And you’ve just got to love the way his gun becomes his stinger.

Yes, he’s rather blocky under the wasp head, yes you can see through parts of him from the side, and yes, you can see his robot arms and hands pretty clearly, but I’m willing to forgive all of that for the sake of having such a great robot mode.

I didn’t talk a lot about the deco in robot mode, but it remains pretty much the same in both modes, so let’s discuss it here. You get the same two tones of green, the beautiful and bright yellow striped butt, and touches of brown for the legs, antenna, and other bits. I also really dig the paint they used for his huge compound eyes. Oh yeah, you get a perfect little Predacon insignia stamped on his back. The translucent wings include sculpted veins and look pretty good and by working the button on his back you can make them flap. I didn’t really need that gimmick in the toy, but then it really doesn’t hurt anything either. The wings are still connected with ball joints so you can angle them in a variety of ways.

Waspinator was easily one of my favorite characters in the Beast Wars series because he always made me laugh, and that shouldn’t be discounted. Comic relief characters are hard to do properly, particularly in a series aimed at kids. Just ask Jar Jar Binks! But Waspinator worked. He was endearing and he was the one Predacon I always felt bad for even though he was a bad guy. He was just trying to get by and could never get a break. It’s no surprise I had high hopes for this figure to turn out well and I’m so pleased that Hasbro did such a great job on him. Primus knows that Hasbro has put out some amazing figures this year in the Generations line, but Waspinator is definitely vying for the top spot as one of my favorite Deluxes this year. How about that? Never in a million years did I think I’d be raving about a Generations figure of Waspinator.

Oct 16 2014

Transformers Generations: Goldfire (IDW Comic Pack) by Hasbro

It’s Transformers Thursday again and after a Masterpiece inspired detour last week, I’m back to checking out the last wave of Generations figures I picked up. I started with Skids, the one I wanted the most out of this wave and now I’ll check out the one that I had to choke down to get him… It’s Goldfire. He’s a repaint of the IDW Comic Pack Bumblebee and despite his copyright-challenged new name, in a roundabout way, he is intended to be an homage to Goldbug.

And there’s that great packaging fortified with 100% comic book goodness. I’ve opted not to read this one all the way through, as I’m pretty sure it’s a reprint of an issue of Robots in Disguise, and I’ve only read the first six issues of that book. I’m not in a rush to get back to it, but in case I do eventually, I didn’t want any spoilers. I do know that this is the issue where a wrecked Bumblebee gets an overhaul into Goldfire, although he’s not actually named in this issue so I’m not sure if he still goes by Bumblebee, Goldfire, or Goldbug. Either way let’s check out the figure and we’ll start with the alt mode…

Golfire’s car mode is a muscle car that is quite clearly inspired by the Chevy Camero that Bumblebee adopted in the Bay movies. I love the styling on this car, as it borrows from vintage and modern designs and the contours just looks amazing. There’s something about the way the hood swells really does it for me and I also dig the split spoiler in the back. One issue I still have with this mold is the faked out chest for the robot mode leaves zero clearance underneath so the car doesn’t roll as well as it should.

There aren’t a ton of paint apps, but the gold plastic looks so much better to me than the crappy yellow used on this mold the last time around. You get some black striping, silver and black on the front, and some black and red on the tail end. That’s it. The windows are clear tinted blue plastic, and Hasbro opted to not paint the rear window this time, which I think actually looks better, even if it doesn’t make a lot of sense. On the downside, the door pieces are cast in the same clear plastic as the windows and painted over and the gold paint on was already showing a few chips and scratches inside the package.

Goldfire comes with repaints of the same two weapons that came with Bumblebee and you can still peg these onto the sides of the car to weaponize him in his alt mode.

I was pretty indecisive over this mold’s robot mode when I looked at the original Bumblebee release. I think I came down in favor of it last time, but it hasn’t exactly been growing on me a lot. I actually have no problem at all with most of the figure, but it’s those shoulders that drive me nuts. The designers were definitely inspired by Bayformer Bumblebee what with the doors becoming wings and I think it looks OK right up until I start moving his arms. I just don’t like that the whole assembly is tied to the arm movement. If those pieces locked into place as shoulder armor and the shoulder joint was located inside and independent, I would have been totally on board with this guy.

The only new sculpting on this guy is found in the head. Goldfire sports a faceplate and his eyes are painted rather than light piped. It’s a decent enough sculpt that matches the comic art quite well, and it’s very nicely painted.

I’ve already talked about how the deco is much improved and obviously that carries over to the robot mode. Here you get the same gold plastic with black paint apps as in vehicle mode, but you also get some additional blue showing up int he feet, legs and biceps. It’s an odd color mix for the gold, but somehow it works. I also really dig the way the blue translucent plastic on the door wings looks with some light coming through it.

Goldfire’s two weapons can be held in both hands to be wielded akimbo, or you can put them together to make one big cannon. The Bumblebee figure was able to have the two halves peg into his forearms, but the pegs are too loose on this one and they keep falling out.

So, I still find myself waffling on this mold. The car mode looks great and the deco is much improved, but the robot mode still gives me pause. It looks fantastic standing on the shelf, but it loses some favor with me when I pick it up and play with it. The best thing I can say is that after having been forced to buy it to get the other figures in this wave at a good price, I’m not as displeased with the figure as I thought I would be. The new deco alone makes it an improvement over the original Bumblebee release, but that’s still not a ringing endorsement of this guy. Next Thursday, I’ll check out the other repaint in this wave… Dreadwing!

Oct 2 2014

Transformers Generations: Autobot Skids (IDW Comic Pack) by Hasbro

It’s Transformers Thursday and I worked late into the night to spare you all another Armada figure! Yes, I had some ~~new~~ newish figures arrive in the mail yesterday afternoon and I jumped on the opportunity to get one of these guys ready to go for today’s feature. Skids is from a couple waves ago, but he’s been eluding me for a long while now and I’ve been reluctant to pay scalper prices for him because of many reports that he isn’t all that exceptional. But he’s Skids and I needed him for my Classics/Generations shelf, so I was willing to take a chance. Fortunately an online retailer surprised me and put this wave back up for order a couple weeks back and I was able to pick him up with the rest of the assortment.

Oh god, how I love these comic packs! The presentation is just so superb… from the old school Transformers logo and grid pattern on the card to the way it cleverly uses an actual comic book for the packaging art. Hasbro has used this style with great success for everything from Marvel to GI Joe and Star Wars. I wish they’d bring all of it back because I can’t get enough of it. Also, I gotta say for a figure that I’ve heard a lot of negative things about, he sure looks fine to me in the package. Let me bust this guy open and check him out. But first, I’m going to light up a Hoyo De Monterrey Excalibur Cigarillo and enjoy the comic book. Be back in a few.

And BACK! Yeah, this is More Than Meets The Eye #22, so I’ve already read it. In fact, I believe this is the last issue in Volume 5 of the TPB with Volume 6 not due out for a couple of more months. It’s still a great read, but that goes without saying as I’m on record that MTMTE is not only my favorite piece of Transformers fiction, but one of the best comics I’ve ever read. For those still not blessed with the experience, this issue is a nice way to dip your toe in and get the flavor as it showcases some of the great humor, dialogue and characterization. Although I’m not really sure why they chose it as Skids’ comic because he’s not at all central to the issue. Anywho… let’s start off with Skids’ alt mode.

Gone are the old days of being a mini-van! Skids’ auto mode is a cute and compact blue sports car and not a bad one at that. The first thing that strikes me about him is the deco and that’s worth pointing out because the color and paintwork on Hasbro’s Deluxes these days hasn’t always been the best. Skids bucks that trend with a vibrant blue plastic as the base coloring of the figure and some bright red and white paint to jazz things up. The windows may appear to be painted black, but they’re actually just a really dark tinted clear plastic. The front grill is picked out with some additional gray paint and some gold hits as well and there’s a tiny Autobot emblem stamped right where the hood ornament might go. This car is defintely pleasing to the eye. Just compare Skids’ auto mode to the IDW version of Bumblebee and look at the difference in overall quality and appearance.

Skids does have his share of seams from the transformation, but nothing too bad. It was a little tough for me to close all the gaps and tighten it all up when going into car mode on the first go around. The transformation here is very clever and feels very fresh, but it’s one of those designs that requires you to lock everything up at the end and while there’s certainly a tab for everything to hold it in place, making it happen just right requires precision transformation skills. On the other hand, going to robot mode is pretty intuitive.

There are sockets located just in front of each of Skids’ rear wheels that allow you to peg in his extra weapons. I always enjoy this option. Any time that I can’t store the weapons under the car, I like to have the ability to weaponize the hell out of it. Skids actually looks pretty decent with his guns hanging off his sides. So far so good, we’ve already had a peek at his robot mode, let’s check it out for reals!

So my initial reaction is one of pure love. Skids is a wonderfully intricate design and a fantastic reproduction of his comic character art. The way he wears the front of his car mode instantly reminds me of IDW Trailcutter and Hoist, which ain’t a bad thing at all. But there’s so much else going on with him. To be more specific, he’s positively bristling with weapons! He’s got rocket packs in his shoulders, two double barreled cannon angling up on either side of his head and two more sets of double barreled guns on his arms that can be slung below his fists or worn in a split fashion. So cool!

And check out that portrait! It’s a great likeness to his IDW counterpart. The odd thing here is that he’s decked out on the back of his noggin for light piping, but his eyes appear to be painted over. And yet they have an eerie piercing quality about them. It’s pretty nice work.

As solid as the deco is in car mode, it’s in robot mode that it really shines. Skids carries over all of that brilliant blue plastic and shows off some more of that striking red paint. I’m extremely impressed with the paint apps that went into each of his individual rocket hatches. This stuff may sound like nothing to crow about, but with how stingy Hasbro has been with paint lately, I really want to call it out when it looks this good.

Ok, so with all that having been said, I can certainly see some issues. First and foremost his shoulder articulation is at odds with all his car kibble. His shoulders bump up against the roof and door parts on his back. I can still get a full rotation out of the shoulders by shifting things around, but there’s almost no lateral shoulder articulation. The articulation is there, but the sculpt won’t allow it. He is an amnesiac. I suppose I could just pretend he forgot how his shoulders work.

Two other points worth mentioning occur down south in his legs. First off, those plates that jut off the backs of his lower legs are rather unsightly when viewed from the side. Also, Skids is in dire need of a set of heel spurs. He doesn’t look like he’s back heavy, and yet he’s constantly falling backward. I really dig the way his wheels fold down to form his feet, because you don’t see that a lot, but it’s clear that his footsies aren’t up to the task of holding him vertical. I mention these two things together because if Hasbro had been able to engineer a swivel into those lower leg parts they could have angled downward and solved both problems. I know, it’s easy to say but something like that isn’t simple or cheap to execute. I’m imagine it wouldn’t cost out for a Deluxe. It looks as if they already maxed the budget on this guy with sculpt and paint.

The last thing to talk about is Skids guns, which combine together to form a big rifle. I love the design on these things, especially the pistol, which looks like it has a drum magazine. They look great when combined and they have multiple pegs so you can attach them to any like sized port. I think the pistol works well for my Generations Swerve, at least until I get around to buying that third-party “My First Blaster” for him.

And so, I was tempering myself for disappointment, but in the end, I’m really not seeing why this guy gets such a bad rap by some. Granted, I’ve been told that I’m really forgiving when it comes to my assessment of Hasbro’s Deluxe Transformers and I would tend to agree with that criticism. Anyone who is an articulation whore, and there’s nothing wrong with that, will certainly be frustrated by Skids’ arms, but I really dig the engineering of his transformation and looking at him up on my shelf, I think he’s one of the better looking Deluxes in my Classics/Generations lineup. At one point, I almost laid down $25 for him and in retrospect I probably would have been OK with that. Of course, it was better to get him for $15 as part of the wave assortment.

Next Thursday I’m going to detour to check out Masterpiece Wheeljack and after that I’ll come back to this Generations wave and start looking at the rest of them.

FigureFan Zero

Action Figure Reviews, Toys & Collectibles…

Tag Archives: comic packs

GI JOE 25th Anniversary Dreadnoks by Hasbro

GI JOE 25th Anniversary Comic Pack: Tomax and Xamot by Hasbro

Transformers Combiner Wars: Dead End by Hasbro

Transformers Combiner Wars: Offroad by Hasbro

Transformers Combiner Wars: Air Raid by Hasbro

Transformers Generations: Crosscut (IDW Comic Pack) by Hasbro

Transformers Generations: Dreadwing (IDW Comic Pack) by Hasbro

Transformers Generations: Waspinator (IDW Comic Pack) by Hasbro

Transformers Generations: Goldfire (IDW Comic Pack) by Hasbro

Transformers Generations: Autobot Skids (IDW Comic Pack) by Hasbro

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this: