Tag Archives: cybertron

Nov 7 2013

Transformers Cybertron: Menasor by Hasbro

Today I’m getting back to business as usual for Transformers Thursday with a genuinely random figure. I just walked into the Toy Closet, opened a drawer, and the first figure I put my hand on was Menasor from the Cybertron line. I seem to recall he was one of those instances where the name appeared in some retailers’ inventory system before the toy was actually announced or shown. I’m not sure if the character had been on the show at that point or not, since I never got far watching it. As a result, I was hoping for a combiner or some kind of proper homage to the Stunticons. Of course, what we got was something very different. As usual, there’s no packaging to talk about, so let’s jump straight to Menasor’s alt mode.

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One of my favorite things about the Energon and Cybertron lines were some of the imaginative and purely fictional vehicle designs and Menasor certainly fits that category. What is he supposed to be? I have no idea. I think the original package called him an Assault Dozer, which certainly fits the design. He looks like a cross between a construction vehicle and a battle tank. If this thing is rolling towards you, you can probably assume that shit is about to go down. He’s very alien looking, rolls along on four sets of tank treads and sports two forward pylons with an energon drill on one and a claw on the other. For an Ultra Class figure, this guy is a very simple toy. Roll him forward and his drill spins, and that’s about all he has to offer. He does have electronics, but the batteries in mine are long since dead and I can’t remember what they did. You need only look at him to figure out that he’s basically a robot lying down with his arms held out over his head and his legs folded up. This will no doubt irk many collectors, but it doesn’t bother me.

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But simple or no, Menasor’s alt mode is a beast of a war machine. As with most of this era of Transformers, he’s just loaded with sculpted detail. You get panel lines, textured vents, hatches, and little mechanical doo-dads all over the place. The paintwork also compliments the sculpt quite nicely. I’m particularly fond of the painted scratched metal on the areas near his drill and claw. It seems like a minor thing, but I love that Hasbro bothered to add such a detail and it remains some of the best paint work I’ve seen on a Hasbro Transformer. Autobots can charge this guy in waves and Menasor would probably just shrug them off and keep lumbering forward.

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If you buy your Transformers for their clever engineering and puzzle-like configurations, Menasor will disappoint. As his alt mode suggests, transforming him is a simple as stretching out his legs, connecting his pelvis together, positioning his arms, and folding down the plates that hide his head. Remember Cybertron Metroplex? We looked at him a month or so ago and the engineering here is fairly close. In fact, you can even see some similarities in the way the two toys’ alt modes are set up. Quite frankly, there are Cyberverse figures with transformations that are far more complex than this guy. Does that mean he’s got a bad robot mode? Nope, but he’s definitely not your average looking Transformer.

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Yes, I love this guy’s robot mode, but there’s something about it that just doesn’t feel like a Transformers figure. I lot of it has to do with his face, which sports a very, very Japanese aesthetic. Yeah, I know all these guys are designed in Japan, but I just look at his mug and I think it belongs more on a Megazord or something. Or maybe not. Truth be told, I wouldn’t know a Megazord if it stepped on me. Moving on…

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Menasor’s body is an amazing sculpt packed with all the little details that were present on his Assault Dozer mode. What’s even better is he’s loaded with paint apps. There’s more paint applications on this guy than we usually get in a whole wave of current Deluxes. The little vents are painted gold, there’s blue piping on his arms, and red points scattered around to really make him pop. Toss in the crisp Decepticon insignia on his chest and the flashy translucent blue energon parts and it’s hard to argue that this guy is both distinctive and beautiful.

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What he isn’t is well-proportioned, but that’s Ok. Menasor’s arms are made up of the front pylons of his Assault Dozer mode, which means he’s got a really long reach and no hands. Instead he’s got a giant claw and a drill. He’s not made for mingling at Decepticon social functions, he’s made for f’cking up Autobots. He’s also got a pair of guns on his chest that can pivot forward into firing position. If you’re an Autobot attacking this guy chances are you’re either going to get pulverized by his energon drill or snapped in half by his calw. Either way, you can probably kiss your Spark goodbye.

Menasor came with a Mini-Con called Heavy Load. I tend to keep the Mini-Cons that were originally bundled with a figure stuck on that figure so I don’t lose them, but Heavy Load wasn’t attached to Menasor. I emptied the whole drawer where Menasor was living, but I couldn’t find him. I went through all the bagged Mini-Con teams that were sold separately and he wasn’t in any of those. I was pretty bummed that I lost him because he’s actually an original sculpt and not just a repaint packed in. Then I suddenly remembered… he’s living in Menasor’s chest!

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Yeah, just another reason that Menasor is an odd figure. His chest opens and Heavy Load can chill out in there while in his robot mode!

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Heavy Load is a tiny Bulldozer-slash-Dump Truck. He’s a pretty simple little guy and he shares the same basic plastic coloring as Menasor. His transformation is pretty clever for such a little figure, but his robot mode looks good. He’s got pretty long arms like his daddy and his articulation is as good as you can expect from a Mini-Con pipsqueak. Menasor has a Mini-Con port on his claw arm and if you attach Heavy Load to it and slide him forward, the spike inside the claw extends outward. It’s not the most exciting Mini-Con gimmick around, but that’s why he spends most of the time living in Menasor’s torso.

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Menasor is quirky and weird and in no way is he a good example of clever Transformers engineering. And yet every time I take him out of his drawer I fall in love with him all over again. He has an imaginative design and there’s a whole lot of love invested in his sculpting and paint that make him stand out as something special, even when I stand him next to the current figures on my shelf. But best of all he’s just a fun and great looking toy. He’s not going to be every TransFans cup of tea, but he’s a cool and, dare I say, menacing Decepticon to have tearing his way through a squad of Autobot Deluxes. Or better yet, pit him against a bunch of Legion Class Cyberverse figures. In fact, I may go do that right now…

Oct 17 2013

Transformers Energon: Megatron by Hasbro

Last time on Transformers Thursday, I slagged Cybertron Soundwave something fierce. I don’t like picking on Transformers, so this week I thought I’d feature one that is among the favorites in my collection. Energon was a very hit-or-miss collection of figures and nothing shows that off better than the leaders of the Autobots and Decepticons themselves. Energon Prime was probably one of the most questionable toy versions of Prime to ever come out, while his rival, Megatron is 100% bad-ass wrapped in awesome. Now, I personally don’t hate Energon Prime as much as most people, but that’s a feature for another day. Today is Megsy’s turn.

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Megatron’s alt mode is a glorious gunship that looks like it would be just as much at home cruising through space as it would be hovering over a Fleshling city and laying waste to it. This is arguably one of my favorite original alt mode designs to come out of Transformers in quite some time. Granted, I do believe that when he’s not a gun, Megs usually works best as a tank, but Hasbro decided to roll the dice on creativity here and I think they won big.

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I get a bit of a Klingon Bird of Prey vibe off this ship, probably because of the crooked wings and the forward extended bridge, but it’s still a wonderfully original design. He’s got two massive engine pylons slung under the wings and guns all over the place. The base plastic is a mix of grey and pearlescent grey and I really dig the large sculpted and painted Decepticon insignia on the wings. The deco is rounded out with some black, blue and gold, and a lot of translucent teal plastic. The Gunship can rest proudly on three rather large sets of landing gear. I love the look of this toy so much, even if this thing wasn’t a transformer, I’d still want this beauty in my collection.

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You also get an extra attack mode which is executed simply by lifting the top plates of the wings up. It’s an auto-transform that extends the wing guns out a little more and reveals additional front and aft guns on each wing.

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Megatron also comes with a tank drone, which can attach to the back of the gunship mode. I like the idea, but the execution is only so-so. I think it would have been much cooler to have the tank attach to the bottom so he could deploy it like a drop ship, but I can’t deny that it ups the ante on Megatron’s wow factor when mounted on his back, not to mention adding a big ass cannon to his armaments.

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The tank itself is designed to look like Armada Megatron’s alt mode and it’s a nicely sculpted piece. Neither the turret or the gun can move, but it does roll along on wheels, features a flip up targeting screen and can fire a missile from the cannon. And considering it’s about the size of a Deluxe Transformer, it’s a rather nice bonus.

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Considering how great Megatron’s alt mode is, his transformation is extremely simple and when you’re done you get an equally impressive robot mode. This guy is like a love letter to the G1 days. He’s big and boxy and while he has a good amount of articulation on paper, in reality he’s at his best when he’s just standing there looking impressive. The two giant cannons that raise up from his shoulders can be angled forward to blast at his enemies, and you can do a lot of adjustments to the wings to make them to your liking. They can fold all the way back to give him a cleaner front profile, you can deploy the wing weapons if you want, heck you can even rotate the entire wing assembly 180 degrees if it suits your fancy. Some may argue that his lower legs are too bulky, but I think that’s just part of his retro charm for me.

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The head sculpt on this guy is pure love, but if you’re thinking it looks like someone other than Megatron, you’d be right. From the portrait to the design of the chest and even the legs, this is clearly intended to be Galvatron and was subsequently repainted in purple and released as such. The coloring here is designed to match the G1 Galvatron toy, while the repaint matches the animated version of the character.

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The biggest issue with Megatron’s articulation is that all of his joints are strong ratchets, so they will lock at certain intervals and don’t provide any subtlety in their movement. Nonetheless, his arms will still rotate at the shoulders and bend at the elbows. His legs have universal movement at the hips and his knees will also bend. There’s no torso articulation, but Megatron can turn his head.

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Megatron’s tank drone can clip to his arm to form a sort of fusion cannon. It’s a nice idea, it definitely adds play value to the toy, but aesthetically, I don’t think it works too well at all. I should note that he also came with a sword that could attach to the drone, but it wasn’t in the drawer with my other Cybertron toys, so I’m not sure where it’s gotten to.

If you can spot any dust on this figure in the pictures, it’s because he is always on display. While the bulk of my Transformers collection have been cleaned and put away into my carefully sorted filing cabinets, you will always find this figure on one of my shelves, somewhere. Sometimes he’s in Gunship mode, sometimes he’s in robot mode, but he’ll never get put away because I do indeed love him that much. He’s also far too great looking a rival for Energon Prime, so I will usually pair him up with the powered up Cybertron version of Optimus Prime. One of my biggest regrets of my last Great Toy Purge was selling off the Galvatron repaint of this guy. While still awesome as Megatron, he was obviously designed with Galvatron in mind and he looks fantastic in the purple. I think at the time, I was keeping originals and selling off repaints, which would explain the lunacy of that decision. Either way, this toy is a must-have mold for any modern Transformers collector, or if space is a concern for you, he was also available in a smaller Deluxe Class 2-pack with a similarly scaled down Optimus Prime.

Oct 10 2013

Transformers Cybertron: Soundwave by Hasbro

With the recent releases of Soundwave in the Fall of Cybertron and Masterpiece lines, it’s worth remembering the long stretch when the character got almost no love from Hasbro. A lot of this probably had to do with the dilemma of what to do about his outdated alt mode and how to incorporate his tape feature into an updated alt mode. Well, back in the Cybertron line, the folks at Hasbro finally stepped up and gave it a try by turning Soundwave into a futuristic jet bomber and having Laserbeak turn into a bomb. While the idea is sound enough, the figure itself is an abomination on many fronts. I don’t usually like to slag on my beloved Transformers, but I thought it was an opportune time to parade this guy out. No package shot, so let’s just check out his alt mode.

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Like I said, Soundwave is now a jet. Hey, he was once a missile carrier truck, so I’m willing to give Hasbro a pass on the choice of alt mode here. I think this is supposed to be loosely based on an F-117A Stealth Fighter in that it’s basically wedge shaped and has some fins at the back, but we’ll just call him a Cybertron jet and be done with it.  I’ll start off by saying, there are some high points to this toy. The blue plastic they used here is very nice, and some of the gold paintwork on it is absolutely gorgeous. I like the translucent purple used for the cockpit and there is also a crazy amount of detail sculpted into the wings and such. The little spikes on the nose cone are a nice touch too. All good stuff, but it’s not enough to save this guy.

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The overall design here wouldn’t be so bad if it weren’t for the fact that he’s just plain ugly. It’s blatantly obvious that the top half of the jet is made up of his contorted robot legs and there are so many gaps and hinges and spaces, that it just doesn’t work for me. And I never understood the point of that stupid design on the top behind the cockpit. It looks like some kind of crop circle. Of course, the real reason I hate this alt mode is because it’s so difficult to get everything to fit together just right. Get the feet plugged into the nose and the cockpit pops up. Peg the cockpit in and the feet pop out. You need to have everything absolutely correct to within a micron of tolerance and then maybe, just maybe, this alt mode will hold together like it should. And even at that point, what you’ve got is still pretty damn ugly.

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The gimmick for the alt mode is if you put a Cyberkey into the slot on the back, Soundwave’s bomb door will open and he will drop one of his bombs. One of those bombs is Laserbeak. We’ll get to him in a bit. It’s not a bad concept in that at least it still allows Soundwave to deploy a minion and it kind of reminds me of Nick Roche’s Decepticons that turn into bombs in my beloved More Than Meets The Eye comic. Ok, so the alt mode isn’t terribly good. Surely, that’s because Soundwave’s robot mode is absolutely fantastic… right? RIGHT??

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Oh boy. So, it’s hard to miss the Soundwave homages here. The head sculpt is a pretty cool modern update to the guy we all know and love. He’s got a big tape door on his chest, which can hold the Laserbeak bomb. The coloring is certainly G1 Soundwave, at least to a point. At the same time, those huge wings really work against the homage to the extreme. I think this figure could have been saved if it weren’t for a whole host of really poor design choices and laziness.

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So first, you’ve got those giant wings. They are totally immobile and get in the way of posing. A couple extra hinges could have helped these along. Maybe packed them away into a backpack or at least gave them some movement so they weren’t in the way all the time. But in truth they’re the least of this guy’s worries. Both arms have huge pieces of jet kibble hanging off of them. The right arm is cursed with the nose of the jet, while the left arm has the cockpit. There is no way to position these so that they aren’t just cumbersome dead weight and they are always hitting against the wings when I try to pose him. . Last up, he’s got tiny little legs that are in no way up to the challenge of holding all that upper body bulk. The knees are heavy ratcheting joints, but the hip joints are week and floppy as all hell, so unless you have Soundwave’s legs standing straight and at full attention, he’s going to want to do the splits and collapse.

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And then there’s Laserbeak and while it’s crazy to say it, the truth is he’s the shining ray of light in this otherwise terrible figure. His bomb alt mode is basically just a black hexagonal cylinder with red paint apps on the sides and his transformation just has him fold out into his little bird mode, which is pretty damn good for what it is. It even sort of foreshadows the Dark of the Moon Laserbeak design with VTOL engines in the wings. Everything about Laserbeak works well and I’d argue he’s even better modern update than the disc Laserbeak that came with Generation Soundwave. There are a few places where Laserbeak can peg into Soundwaves arms, but because all of the shit hanging off him, you’re better off just trying to stand him on his arm. He’s also designed to peg into Soundwave’s wings and perch up there, but I think it looks rather dumb.

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Oh, did I mention that the peg that locks Soundwave’s right shoulder down snapped the very day I took him out of the box? Yeah. That happened. The crazy thing about Cybertron Soundwave is that I can remember wanting to get him so badly. I don’t know if it was just the fact that he was finally a new Soundwave, or the online pictures didn’t make him seem so bad. Maybe it was because I just love the Cybertron line so much. Either way, I hunted for him all over before finally finding him at a Walmart like 30 miles from my home. I couldn’t wait to get him home and, suffice it to say, he was a huge let down. He’s one of the few Transformers in my collection that tempted me to throw him against a wall in disgust. There are some good ideas here, but so much went horribly wrong in the end. To be honest, now that I’ve dug him out, I’m not sure he’ll be returning to my collection. I look at him and just see a waste of space.

May 2 2013

Transformers Cybertron: Vector Prime by Hasbro

I had fun looking at Cybertron Metroplex last week, so I thought I’d pull out another one of my favorite Cybertron figures that has hitherto escaped being featured on FigureFan Zero. He’s Vector Prime and holy shit was I excited when I saw the pre-production photos of this guy. I thought he was one of the most gorgeous Transformers ever made. This guy reminds me a lot of the movie style designs that were appearing in the later episodes of the Sunbow cartoon. There’s no in-package shot, so let’s just go right to his alt mode.

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Hells yeah! Vector Prime is a bitchin space cruiser. One of the things I love most about this design is that his transformation is bewilderingly simple, and yet the alt mode works incredibly well. The ship rests nicely on the bulky backside, complete with wheels, and he’s got some cool guns slung under there as well. There’s also a firing missile concealed in the nose of the ship.

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There’s so much sculpted detail on this ship that it’s easy to get lost in the clutter. The surface of the ship’s hull is littered, and I mean LITTERED, with exposed gears and while Hasbro did paint some panels of these with a nice gold application, I really wish I had the customizing skills to have at the rest. A little paint and a lot of time and patience would make Vector Prime’s alt mode even more amazing. But even as he stands now, it’s hard to think of another Transformer that got this much attention to detail in the sculpt. One day, I may at least have a go at panel lining him. Damn, do I love the design of this toy!

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In addition to the crazy detail in the sculpt and the snazzy paint apps, Vector Prime makes good use of translucent blue plastic for the windshield, tiny wings, and some sensor devices on his undercarriage. And then there are the solar panel wings on the sides. They look great in the clear blue, but the plastic is very soft and these things are ridiculously prone to warping. I made the mistake of putting mine lose in a storage tote a couple of years back and when I took him out they looked like they were beyond hope. A lot of effort with a hair dryer brought them back close to their original state, but these things are not to be trifled with!

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Another cool feature of Vector Prime is the way he incorporates his minicon, Safeguard. Most minicons just do their own thing and you can stick them onto the larger robots for power ups, but I always thought there was missed potential to better incorporate them into the designs of the bigger robot’s alt modes. Hasbro did a pretty good job with figures like Cyclonus and Thrust, but then didn’t seem to bother with others. With Vector Prime, there’s an actual indentation where Safeguard plugs in to give Vector Prime a huge cannon. Nice!

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As already mentioned, Vector Prime’s transformation is as easy as it gets. You just fold his legs out, position his arms, fold the front half of the ship into a backpack, and turn the head to face forward. It’s ridiculously simple, and yet the robot mode is a thing of beauty. He has one of my favorite headsculpts of any Transformer from the period and all that great sculpted detail from his alt mode carries over beautifully into his robot mode. The angled shoulder armor looks great, and the backpack isn’t too bulky. The solar panels fold neatly to his sides, and I even dig the way the hull plates slide ever so slightly back to better reveal his fists. I also really love that huge round compartment in his chest. The whole figure hits that sweet spot of late Sunbow aesthetic when there was more of an outer space orientation to the show and we got to see a lot of older Cybertronians that we didn’t see earlier.

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Did I forget to mention that Vector Prime has a translucent blue sword that stores conveniently in his backpack? He does!

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Let’s not depart without saying something about Safeguard, because he’s on my A-list of cool minicons. His alt mode is a little spaceship with a very large gun. As already mentioned, he incorporates nicely into Vector’s alt mode and can quickly detach to fly off on his own. Because most of his alt mode is one big cannon, he can conveniently attach to either of Vector’s arms to give some added fire power. I kind of wish, Hasbro had given him a post to fit in Vector’s hand because then he would have been a proper Target Master. He can also store away by attaching to Vector’s backpack.

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Safeguard sort of mimics Vector’s transformation. He’s definitely one of the better looking minicons in robot mode. He could use a few more paint apps on his torso, but otherwise he looks great and has nice articulation for a minicon. His arms rotate at the shoulders and have ball joints in the elbows. His legs rotate at the hips and have hinged knees.

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Vector Prime is pure Transformer love. Hasbro went crazy with him and it shows. I’m always happy to get another space-faring alt mode, and the robot mode’s design is both beautiful and bad ass. There’s a ton of clever elements to the design of this figure, and yet the transformation isn’t one of them. But he’s a great example of how you don’t necessarily need an over engineered transformation to make an amazing figure.  He’s one of my all-time favorites, and he can usually be found standing on display with my Classics collection. The mold has been brought out a few more times since his original 2005 release. At the ’07 Botcon he was repainted into the glorious Alpha Trion. It was a great use for the mold and it is a strikingly beautiful figure. I’d love to add him to my collection someday, but not enough to blow $450-500 on him. He was rolled out again in 2009 in a rather unfortunately f’ugly repaint as part of the Universe 2.0 collection. If he’s missing from your shelves and you don’t want to splurge on the Botcon exclusive, I recommend going with the original release. You can still pick him up for at or below his original MSRP of about $20-25, and he’s worth every damn penny.

Apr 27 2013

Transformers Cybertron: Metroplex by Hasbro

I don’t know about y’all, but I’m pretty damned psyched to get my hands on the new Metroplex that Hasbro showed off at Toy Fair this year. It’s a brand new size called a Titan Class and it will supposedly stand about two feet tall and feature both city and battle station modes, and yes it’ll be just a smidge taller than that certain huge combining robot that Mattel offered up last year. But talk about bad timing. Hey Hasbro, why do you want to go and take the piss out of Takara’s Encore Fort Max by upstaging what was the largest official Transformer of all time by a couple of inches? Anyway, I’m not here to debate the politics of the decision, nor am I suggesting that G1 Fort Max is any less amazing for it. Instead we’re here to take a look at the last big Metroplex figure that Hasbro delivered back in 2006 as part of their Cybertron line. While he’s got some issues, I like this figure a lot. He’s one of those select favorites that rarely ever gets rotated out of my active display. I don’t have an in-package shot, so let’s just go ahead and start with his alt mode.

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Metroplex is a… ahh… hmm. Well, he’s supposed to be a giant alien excavator, which sort of flies in the face of the fact that Metroplex, by his very name, should at least have some kind of city mode. Sure, it’s big and powerful looking, but it also feels like the alt mode is a second thought and if you look at it long enough, it’s easy to see that it’s more or less just a robot on all fours. Obviously, this was the biggest sticking point for fans accepting this version of Metroplex into their hearts. I don’t have a problem with a Transformer excavator, but I’m not sure it needed to be named Metroplex. I try to remind myself that the Cybertron toys were heavily tied into the cartoon series, but no matter how much alcohol is involved, my attempts to consume that particular fiction have all failed. Apparently, this Metroplex comes from the Giant Planet where Transformers grow to be really big and everyone seems overly obsessed with the unending task of building massive cities on top of old ones. Hey, at least there’s a city tie-in somewhere, right?

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With all that having been said, Metroplex’s alt mode is still kind of fun and fairly impressive looking, even if some of it doesn’t make sense. Based on the position of the digging wheel, the cockpit seems to be facing the wrong way. Of course, it works to slightly modify it into a crawling death machine with a giant chomping claw. Eat your heart out Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors… this is f’cking armed force on steroids! Yeah, well… it’s Metroplex’s robot modes that make me keep him on the shelf and out of the storage totes. Wait, did you say robot modes, plural? I did indeed. Metroplex has two robot modes, which I believe were referred to as work mode and combat mode. They’re fairly similar, but one is significantly taller than the other. Let’s start with the smaller of the two.

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Metroplex’s work mode is one big and chunky bot, supported by a marvelous system of heavy ratcheting joints. The joints are so ridiculously strong and noisy, that he practically makes that iconic G1 transforming noise just from the ratcheting joints alone. I’ve long forgotten what the official modes for Metroplex look like, but I do like using his cockpit head for his work mode. It’s a little nod to Omega Supreme and it also makes him look like one of the old Starriors figures from Tomy (Note to self: Do some Vintage Vault features with Starriors!). Sure, he’s got huge feet, but apart from that I really dig this guy’s proportions and overall aesthetic. There isn’t much of a G1 Metroplex homage at work here, but that’s ok with me, because not everything needs to be a nod back to something else for me to like it. The coloring is great, and the quality and finish of the white plastic used here is really nice. His deco is rounded out by a pair of sharp little Autobot insignia on his shoulders.

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Changing Metroplex into his battle mode involves some nifty engineering that unfolds the legs and the torso. In fact, it’s far more clever than what’s involved changing him from his alt mode. You do indeed get a much taller robot, and while the arms are more or less the same, there are enough changes here to make him stand out from his previous mode. Here’s where I like to roll out the true head, and therein lies the biggest G1 homage on the figure. I just love this dude’s head sculpt. He’s got the antenna on each side, similar to G1 Plexy and some cool light piping in the eyes. He also looks like he just stepped on a Decepticon and now needs to scrape it off the bottom of his foot.

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You may have noticed that a big part of Metroplex’s alt mode is conspicuously missing from from both his robot modes. Yes, the excavating arm detaches and actually turns into his weapon: A weapon that is gloriously named, Sparkdrinker. I think Sparkdrinker is supposed to be an axe, but it looks more like a mace to me. Inserting the Cyber Key causes the digger wheel to expand a bit. It’s not a terribly dramatic conversion, but I don’t care because as a weapon Sparkdrinker is both ridiculous and beautiful. It’s not terribly graceful or easy for him to wield, but if he hits you with it, you will most certainly die.

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The last thing worth mentioning here is Metroplex’s minicon, Drillbit. I love minicons, and I really do miss them. Drillbit is one of my all-time favorite minicons, probably right behind Leader-1. He has a great looking robot mode, and a pretty cool little drill tank mode. He can also clip on to Metroplex’s arms and make a convincing looking gun, or a drill weapon that basically drills into your face as he punches you. Awesome!

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And that, my friends, is 2006 Metroplex. I’m not terribly in tune with the ebb and flow of the Transformers community, but I get the sense that this guy isn’t terribly well revered and I think that’s ridiculous. He’s a huge, fun toy with great poseability and I never get tired of playing around with him or having my Classics Decepticons try to attack him en masse and fail miserably. I love his sculpt and deco and he just looks so majestic sitting there on my shelf. Granted, if you’re looking for a G1 homage, this isn’t it, but he’s a fantastic toy all on his own.

Dec 14 2012

Transformers Cybertron: Unicron by Hasbro

We’re dipping our toes back into the Transformers pool today to look at a figure that is not from my new receivings pile, but from out of a tote in my closet. Yesterday, I was chatting with one of my fellow toy collector friends and we were talking about Gaia Unicron, when the subject branched out to Unicron in general. I lamented about how I sold my Armada and Energon Unicrons and that I never got to pick up the Amazon exclusive reissue. Well, eventually today’s figure came up and I commented that I picked him up back in the day, but was never motivated enough to open him because I didn’t see the merit of having a Deluxe Class Unicron. I was immediately assailed by a treatise on how cool a figure he is, which ended in with the simple directive, “Open that shit up!” So I did.

It’s been a long time since I’ve seen the Cybertron packaging and overall I think it was pretty cool and the design holds up quite well. Unfortunately, I was a little drunk when challenged to open up Unicron and I dove right in before taking any in-packaged shots. I’d steal someone else’s picture, but y’all are more than capable of doing that yourselves via the googles. I was still quite the completest back in the days of the Unicron Trilogy toys and that meant even though this version of Unicron confused the hell out of me, I still bought it. Despite the fact that I owned all the DVD’s, there wasn’t enough alcohol in the world to get me through watching the Unicron Trilogy cartoons, so I just wrote this figure off as some point of the continuity that I wasn’t hip to. In any event, Unicron comes carded in his Cybertonian mode, which is most decidedly not a giant planet-gobbling moon. And that seems wrong to me on every level.


Out of the package, and we see that Unicron is a small Cybertonian tank. My instincts tell me to drop it on the floor and back away in horror, but truth be told, I’m really intrigued by the creativity of this design. Like all the toys from the Cybertron line, Unicron is loaded with awesome sculpted detail right down to the tiny panel lines and circuitry patterns on his armor. Besides looking rather badass, I can’t deny that if Unicron were a Cybertonian tank, this is exactly what he would look like. He has the same orange coloring and his rounded chassis is certainly reminiscent of the hemispheres of his planetary form. He’s still got the skeletal-like spines coming off of his sides, a pair of pincers on the front, and even a jagged opening hatch that looks similar to his planetary mode’s mouth. Part of me wants to see this mode in a different paint job, so I could be less biased, but then there is genuinely so much of Unicron in the design, I don’t think it would work as a different character. You win, Cybertron Unicron alt mode… well played.

Tank Unicron’s main armament is his firing missile cannon, which can be raised and lowered and moves ever so slightly from side to side. He also sports a nice little ball jointed gun. However, being a Cybertron toy, Unicron also comes with his own Cyber Key, which activates his hidden power up weapon. I rarely had much use for the Cyber Key features, but Unicron’s is especially cool because it opens the mouth hatch and reveals a three-barreled assault cannon. Yep… cool!

Transforming Unicron to his robot mode isn’t too bad, but there are a lot of ball joints supporting plates that have a habit of popping off. I also quickly learned to do myself a favor and remove all of the spines before even attempting to convert him. But that’s nothing compared to the task of changing him back into his tank mode. Study the configuration under the vehicle mode carefully, because if you don’t know what you’re doing transforming him is an exercise in tears and recriminations that will likely haunt your dreams for many nights to come.


In robot mode, Unicron looks all kinds of awesome. Just like his tank mode, there are all plenty of nods to the Unicron design that we all know and love. The shoulder designs are lifted directly from Armada Unicron, as are his pointy feet. But the dead giveaway is his head sculpt, which is pretty close to the horned planet gobbler of old, only with a more rictus grin. His missile cannon is placed on his right shoulder, which makes it still perfectly functional as a weapon in robot mode. The hidden Cyber Key-activated hatch makes up his chest, also allowing that weapon to be accessible while in robot mode. You can clip his spines back onto his leg armor to further the classical Unicron look, but they also make really cool weapons when placed into his hands.

The downside of Unicron’s robot mode is the ball joints in his hips and the hinges in his legs have difficulty supporting his upper bulk. He’s prone to fall backwards and those giant wheels on his backpack don’t help things any either. Another issue is while the armor plates on his legs do tab into place, the tabs don’t hold and the armor tends to fall away from his legs when I’m playing around with him, standing him, looking at him, or sneezing while two rooms away.


In the end, I’ve got to confess that this is a very cool figure. The tank and robot modes are both beautiful and very reminiscent of Unicron’s more familiar appearance. The Cybertron toys were always great for their detailed sculpts and wildly imaginative designs, and Unicron here is a perfect example of that. The fiddly nature of the transformation definitely requires patience, and I can’t help but wonder how this figure would have turned out if he were a Voyager or an Ultra Class. I think the transformation would have worked better, but more importantly it would have been easier for me get behind this figure as Unicron if he were bigger. He’s so detailed and complex that I think the mold would have worked fine in the larger scale without much tweaking and I rather think the end result would have been glorious.

Cybertron Unicron can still be had on the secondary market for cheap if you know where to hunt for him. On the other hand, if you want to get fancy, the mold was reissued by Takara in Japan earlier this year as Ark Unicron. The Takara reissues usually feature better paintjobs, but that comes with a price. While the Cybertron version shouldn’t set you back for more than $15 on Ebay, the Takara reissue will be closer to $45 at specialty e-tailers. That’s a lot of energon to fork over for a Deluxe, even if it is Unicron.

Mar 24 2012

Transformers Cybertron: Mudflap by Hasbro

And now that we’ve had our little segue into Beast Machines, its back to the Unicron Trilogy for a look at another Cybertron toy. In an effort to give the Decepticons a little more loving this week, we’ll check out Mudflap. Its one of the great and unfortunate paradoxes of being a Decepticon that while you’re hardwired to kill, destroy, and enslave, its still trendy to be a construction vehicle. Obviously we have to lay blame at the Constructicons doorstep, and that’s why we have figures like Mudflap. While other Decepticons get to be tanks and assault jets, he’s a boom crane.

Yes, a boom crane. What’s worse than a Decepticon having to suffer through life as a boom crane? How about being a powder-blue boom crane? By the way, I like to say boom crane. As far as boom crane’s go, Mudflap is a decent looking toy. He’s segmented into three parts, each with two pairs of wheels, and he even has the stability legs on each side of his middle to hold him in place while he’s lifting heavy stuff. They’re just molded on, but a nice touch nonetheless. He has a translucent windshield, which is always a plus for me, and pretty good sculpted detail, including vents and even sculpted, painted wires on the sides of his crane arm. The crane can raise and extend, has a simulated working piston, and the crane turret turns 360 degrees. If this guy looks familiar to you, its because he’s got a very similar powder-blue color scheme to the Energon Basic Class figure Duststorm. Duststorm was also a boom crane and one of the component robots that merged to form Constructicon Maximus. Its a small world.
Mudflap has a pretty crappy CyberKey gimmick that basically flips a green Energon sword out of the front of his boom crane. Its ridiculously long, and apart from using it to stab other vehicles like a scorpion tail, I really don’t see the point.
Transforming Mudflap is probably not what you would expect. There’s some crazy stuff going on here and when you’re done you get a lot of unfortunate boom crane arm kibble. At his core, Mudflap is a solid looking robot with an absolutely spectacular head sculpt. Seriously, this is one of my all time favorite headsculpts. Its just so sharp and detailed, and very G1-ish. I like the way he has a pair of wheels on each of his arms and legs, and the way the additional wheels form the little wings on his back. But despite his solid, symmetrical body its hard to ignore he has a giant crane hanging off his left arm, and the crane’s turret hanging off his right arm.
A secondary CyberKey gimmick deploys a missile launcher from the turret on his right arm, but it still looks rather ungainly. As for the left arm, there’s nothing hiding that thing, and deploying his Energon sword makes it even worse. I’m not one for Transformers designed with parts that you take off, but in this case I’d make an exception. If that crane could have been pulled off and repegged onto his back or something, Mudflap would have been a thousand times better.
And so, alas poor Mudflap. Its a shame that Hasbro produced such a cool looking figure with such an obvious, and probably easily fixed, fatal flaw. Something as simple as making the crane removable would have gone so far to help this guy along. Everytime I see him with that crane arm, I think of him having to go through life with the Cybertronian equivalent of a crippling disfigurement. Still, if you have a particular fetish for Decepticon construction vehicles, he may warrant an addition to your collection. Back in the day, it was enough that he was a new Transformer, so I bought him. Nowadays, I would likely have left him on the shelf.

[And that’s a wrap for Transformers Week. I enjoyed doing this week a lot more than I had any right to enjoy a week that was made up solely as filler because I didn’t have anything new to write about. Rest assured, I’ll be doing this again during the next dry spell. There are plenty more totes full of random Transformers in the closet to choose from! This is also a wrap for me for the weekend. I’ll be back Monday with some DC figures to look at. In the meantime, have a great weekend. -FF]
Mar 23 2012

Transformers Cybertron: Cybertron Defense Scattorshot by Hasbro

[I’m sick as a dog today. I may have destroyed my immune system with alcohol last weekend and some horrific bug took the opportunity to invade. Either way, the show must go on, so I’m crawling out of bed long enough for today’s contribution. If it seems a little truncated, than you know why. Then again, today’s figure is so awesome, it practically speaks for itself. -FF]

So, let’s keep the Cybertron Defense trend rolling with Scattorshot. Red Alert did pretty well getting upgraded from a large rescue SUV to a missile carrier, but Scattorshot really hit the upgrade lottery, going from a tiny little Scout Class bugger to a big mobile rocket launcher.
Once again, we’ve got another fantastic sculpt and a really cool vehicle design. He’s an armored, tracked military vehicle with a 22-pack rocket launcher mounted on his back. The sculpted detail is impressive, with tons of panel lines, hatches, vents, etc. The missile turret can raise and lower and rotate 360 degrees. Each side of the vehicle has two Minicon ports, and Scattorshot’s rifle is slotted so that it can be mounted on any of these, giving him a bit more firepower. The coloring here isn’t exactly authentic military, but I do like it. The main body of the vehicle is a nice shade of blue, with black treads. You get silver accents on the broadsides and front, a little gold detailing, and grey turret.
Scattorshot is packed with two CyberKey gimmicks. Each one causes half of the missile launcher to spring open and reveal a friggin arsenal. The left side has a dual missile launcher and a translucent yellow targeting reticule. The right side reveals a giant cannon. I love the fact that activating these extra weapons doesn’t impede his 22-rockets. This guy has a ton of firepower!
Transforming Scattorshot is extremely easy, but that doesn’t take away from his robot mode, because he is one amazing looking figure. He’s got a really clean symmetrical profile and his rocket launchers wind up as functional arm weapons, both of which can still be enhanced with the CyberKey gimmick. He’s a remarkably sturdy and solid figure and loads of fun to play around with.  My only complaint here is I’m not crazy about the ugly ochre colored plastic used for his head.
Scattorshot features great articulation. You get universal movement in the shoulders, hinged elbows, swivel biceps, universal movment in the hips, swivel at the waist, and hinges in the knees. He’s got some satsifying ratchet joints and holds his poses really well.
As far as I’m concerned, Scattorshot is a “must have” figure for any Transformer collection. He’s a super cool looking military vehicle with excellent CyberKey gimmicks and a very simple transformation. But its Scattorshot’s robot mode that makes him one of my favorites. He’s such a solid, great looking figure with enough firepower to take on an entire Decepticon legion. Hasbro obviously recognized the awesomeness of this mold as they re-released it three more times, as Overload, Dropshot, and the Botcon Exclusive, Flak. In retrospect, I should have picked up Dropshot. The coloring isn’t all that great, but the mold does work really well as a Decepticon.
Dec 2 2010

Transformers Cybertron: Evac by Hasbro

Ugh, It’s been a long day and I am bone tired, folks. All I want to do tonight is veg out in front of the TV and get caught up on my Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes cartoons. But I didn’t want to miss a day of TF Helicopter Week, so I’m going to make this one quick and dirty. Yeah, Evac probably deserves better, but I don’t have anything else written up yet, so I’ll have to be a little more long winded tomorrow to make up for it. A few days ago when I looked at Tomahawk, I said he didn’t look much like an Autobot to me, because he was a viscious looking black attack chopper.  Well, Evac here is more what I think an Autobot helicopter should look like. Evac isn’t loaded to the gills with armaments. Instead, he’s a rescue chopper. He may not be as useful in a fight as Tomahawk, but I think he better fits in with the spirit of the Autobots.


Evac’s alt mode is a search and rescue helicopter, and as a Voyager Class, he’s a pretty nice sized toy. He’s mostly bright yellow with some white and blue trim, and he has clear windshields. There’s also a nice big Autobot insignia on his grapple winch and the word, RESCUE, stamped on the other side. The broadsides of the helicopter are a bit fugly, but overall the design is awesome as he has the beaked nose under the windshields that gives him such a distinct profile. Evac’s chopper mode also comes with some pretty cool play features. He has folding landing gear, a red button that spins his rotors when you pump it, and a grapple hook that can be automatically retracted when you press the button. As a Cybertron figure, Evac also makes use of a Cyberkey to deploy his missile launchers, so he can at least defend himself while engaging in rescue missions.


Evac has a surprisingly simple transformation, but he still makes for a great looking and very distinctive robot. The design makes good use of many of his helicopter bits. His tail boom splits in half to become wings for his jetpack. His grappling hook can still be used as it ends up on his right forearm. His rotor blades wind up on his left forearm and can be used as a weapon, or you can just pop them off if you want. The chest and head sculpts are especially nicely done. Evac’s head is nicely reminiscent of the 1986 Movie designs.

Evac’s articulation is pretty solid. His head turns; His arms rotate and have lateral movement in the shoulders, and hinges and swivels in the elbows. His legs rotate and have lateral movement in the hips, and have swivels and hinges in the knees.

Evac’s been repainted a couple of times, but sadly I don’t own any of the other versions. I can live without the red, Blades, repaint, but one of these days I plan on hunting down the Springer style Target Exclusive, because it looks downright awesome. It was also clearanced to hell in my neck of the woods, which makes me feel all the more foolish for not having picked it up when I had the chance. Either way, if you don’t have this mold in your collection, I definitely recommend it in one form or another. All of the decos released look great and he’s a really fun toy.