Tag Archives: dark of the moon

Jun 14 2011

Transformers Dark of the Moon: Cyberverse Optimus Prime by Hasbro

There sure are a lot of new Transformers in the toy aisles right now, and yet I seem to be addicted to buying nothing but these Cyberverse figures. It’s pretty strange since I all but ignored the Legends Class in the past. I guess I just really dig being able to take home a couple new Transformers from my weekly grocery run to Walmart without breaking the bank. This time around I picked up the Autobots’ Big Bot himself, Optimus Prime. Let’s check him out…

Optimus Prime is a Commander figure, so he’s from the slightly larger and more complex assortment in the line. We’ve already seen this packaging before when we looked at Ironhide. I still like it a lot, although the bio blurb on the back is kind of disappointing. The figure comes mounted in his robot mode and thanks to the half cylinder style of bubble, you can easily get the figure out and back in if you want. It’s a pretty cool way to deliver a collector friendly package on a cheap cardback. I should point out here that this figure is also available in a Limited Edition and packaged with a set of 3D Glasses.

As usual, I’m going to start out in vehicle mode. This version of Prime is just the cab, although you can get what is basically the same figure with the trailer in the larger assortment set. The cab is a pretty good miniaturized version of the Prime’s truck mode as seen in the live action movies. The proportions suffer a little bit, with the hood of the cab a bit longer than it should be, but the rest looks fine. The cab holds its form nicely, but the robot kibble hanging off the undercarriage scrapes on the ground preventing the toy from rolling as well as it should. There’s a weapon pod that fits on to the back of the cab, which is made up from the parts that will form Prime’s jetpack and guns in his robot mode. It looks surprisingly good.

And then there’s the robot mode. If you’re looking for a mini version of the Prime from the Michael Bay movies, than I don’t think this is going to satisfy you. On the other hand, it’s still a really cool take on Prime. It actually looks more like the old Power Master Prime to me, although there’s a little Energon Prime in there as well, particularly in the way he wears some of his wheels as a backpack. The sculpt is really well done and the coloring is great. He has a removable jetpack, which looks great on him, but definitely makes him back heavy. Prime could have been greatly improved by a pair of heel spurs to keep him up. Still, his occasional tendency to topple over doesn’t ruin the toy. His two guns socket right into his hands. Articulation is very good for such a tiny figure. Prime has ball joints in his shoulders and hips and hinged elbows and knees.

As a Commander figure, Prime retails at just under eight bucks. I’m still trying to wrap my head around the price point on these guys. Yeah, it seems a little steep, but like Ironhide, this really is a well designed and nicely crafted little toy. It feels like too much to pay when it’s hanging on the peg, but once I’ve got them open I tend to feel as if the price is justified, even though the Deluxes are just a few dollars more. I honestly thought that Ironhide might have been a fluke, but now that I own two of these Cyberverse Commander figures, I’m still just as impressed. Shall we try for three? Next time, we’ll look at Cyberverse Powerglide and see if Hasbro can keep it going.

Jun 8 2011

Transformers Dark of the Moon: Cyberverse Ratchet and Crowbar

The last time I looked at the Cyberverse figures, I was a little befuddled about the differences in size and complexity. Now that the local retailers have put out more product I can see that there are two assortments of figures: The Commanders and Legions. With the Legions figures finally available around these parts, I picked up two of them to look at today. One familiar and one brand new.

The packaging on these guys is like a scaled down version of the Commander figures’ packages. You still get that half tube that displays the figure very nicely in his robot mode and mounted on a DotM cardback. It’s simple but attractive and let me say yet again how much more I like this package deco than the ones used on the previous two films. The large insignia on the lower right side clearly shows off whether the figure is a Decepticon or Autobot. They’re packaged as robots, but let’s start off with their vehicle modes.

Ratchet is a nice tiny approximation of his larger versions. In fact, the only thing that really bugs me about his ambulance mode are the large hinges on the front of the doors. Ok, I hate the radioactive green color too, but that’s more a style issue than anything else. And I’ll venture to say I like it better than the puke green used on previous versions. He still has the roof rack with the spare tire and there’s a remarkable amount of sculpted detail in the front bumper for such a little guy.

Transforming Ratchet is really easy and the resulting bot is once again quite faithful to his larger versions, albeit with the wheels and bumper that make up his chest not turned upside down. The head sculpt is excellent for its size and with ball jointed hips and rotating shoulders and balljoints in his elbows, he has a decent amount of articulation, albeit not as good as the Commander figures. I’m not blown away by Ratchet, but he’s a solid toy for his size and fun to fiddle about with.

Crowbar gets instant props for being a Decepticon car. The package actually calls him a police car but there’s no evidence of that on the toy itself. He doesn’t have any police markings or lightbars. I guess he could be an undercover cruiser. Whatever the case, the car is all black with just a few gray bits. I would have preferred the Decepticon logo on the hood, rather than reversed and offset on the roof, but that’s ok. Crowbar’s car mode does have a fair amount of seaming on it, but all in all it looks ok and holds together very well.

Transforming Crowbar is a little tough to get started because everything locks together so well. Most of the time, I just wind up pulling the ball joints out and reassembling him, but if you’re more careful and precise that isn’t necessary. His convesion is a lot more clever and impressive than Ratchet’s and the result is a very cool looking figure. His feet and legs are particularly well done, despite being mistransformed in the package. The sculpted detail on his head and torso are paritcularly well done and there’s a lot more interesting coloring going on in robot mode too.

The Legion figures retail at just under five bucks, which isn’t what I would call cheap for such small toys, but I’m not going to complain too much either. These guys are very well designed and beautifully sculpted. They also have a lot more play value than one might expect to find in such small figures. Crowbar is definitely my favorite of the pair, but Ratchet is no slouch either.

May 25 2011

Transformers Dark of the Moon: Cyberverse Starscream Orbital Assault Carrier

Last time we looked at one of the single carded figures from Hasbro’s new Cyberverse line of Transformers, but this time we’re going to delve into what this line is all about… The larger sets. Cyberverse is all about making Transformers small enough to interact with transforming playsets (for lack of a better word… I guess they’re actually more like vehicles) much like some of the old G1 Micromasters did. It’s a great idea that revisits a really cool element of the Transformers, while still maintaining the core gimmick… things transforming into other things. These larger sets come with a Cyberverse figure and their larger interactive piece. So let’s check out Starscream and his Orbital Assault Carrier.

The set comes in a window box that strikes me as being somewhat similar in size and configuration as the Human Alliance toys. The artwork features the cool new Dark of the Moon deco and boasts that the contents are a “3-in-1 action set!” Starscream comes mounted in his robot mode with his Orbital Assault thingy taking up most of the interior’s real estate. The toys are set against an illustrated insert of a cityscape burning in typical Michael Bay fashion. The insert can also be taken out and folded into a cool diorama background in the same way Habsro has been doing it for some of their other lines. I don’t think the background suits these toys all that well, but it’s cool enough that I’ll probably save it for some other figures. Also included in the package is a missile and a folded instruciton sheet.

Let’s start with Starscream. Remember how I gushed about Ironhide and how awesome he was for such a little figure? Well, I won’t be doing that with Starscream. He’s not terrible. He’s certainly better than the Legends Starscreams, but he’s nowhere near Ironhide in terms of ingenuity of design. I don’t know if Hasbro is including dumbed-down figures with the larger sets as cost, but I guess I’ll find out as I pick up more of the Cyberverse toys. It could also be the difference between the so-called Commander figures and the Legion figures. It’s all pretty confusing. Either way, if I bought this Starscream on a single card for eight bucks, I would have been severely pissed off.

Starscream’s Raptor mode is about what I expected, very kibbletastic. The top of the jet looks ok, but look at it from any other angle and you can see all the robo-baggage he’s carrying underneith. He also does not hold together very well at all. On the up side, Hasbro did a decent job reproducing all his tatts. In robot mode, things are only slightly better. He looks ok, but the panel that folds up to become his back doesn’t want to stay folded up, as it doesn’t lock into anywhere. He lacks the intricate details of Ironhide and just looks kind of bland. If Ironhide looked like a Deluxe toy shrunk down, Starscream here looks more like a Legends toy enlarged a bit. He’s serviceable, but not impressive, although he really doesn’t look like he belongs in the same line of figures as Ironhide.

So, I’m guessing Hasbro through most of their efforts into the Orbital Assault Carrier, as it’s actually pretty neat. As the box proclaims, it does indeed have three modes and all of them are solid enough, which isn’t always the case with triple changers. Starscream can also interact with each mode in a different way.

The in-package mode is the Assault Drone, which is just a big flying weapons platform. There’s a harness underneith that opens up and you can put Starscream in his Raptor mode in there, but he doesn’t really fit into place all that well and just winds up getting knocked around. It seems like they could have had some pegs or clips or some better way to secure him inside the harness.

Next up is the Carrier mode. This is the one I was most interested in, as it’s basically a little airborne aircraft carrier that Starscream can land on. It looks ok, although once again, despite a number of sockets on the flattop, Starscream doesn’t really lock onto it in any way. If you get him just right you can get his landing gear into the slots, but he’ll still slide off without much coaxing.

Last up is the Battle Station mode, which is the one for Starscream’s robot mode. It’s a weapons platform with a place for Starscream to stand when he’s in robot mode. It actually looks like some kind of crazy throne with armaments. I’m not sure how it works in battle, but it looks good and it makes Starscream look a lot more formidable than when he’s standing on his own.

This set was about fifteen bucks at Walmart. Not a bad deal considering the single carded Cyberverse figures sell for about half that. Does it sound like I was disappointed in this set? Well, I think it would be more accurate to say I was disappointed with the Starscream figure, and that’s probably mostly because I opened it right after opening Ironhide. Starscream is actually pretty close to what I expected out of these figures, but then Ironhide raised the bar a lot higher. The Orbital Assault Carrier is actually pretty cool, but I do wish that Starscream interacted with it a bit better. Nonetheless, I think the overall concept works ok, and I’m not deterred from picking up more of these sets.

May 24 2011

Transformers Dark of the Moon: Cyberverse Ironhide by Hasbro

Hasbro surprised us all back during Toyfair when they revealed a new subline for the Dark of the Moon toys. It’s called Cyberverse and it’s a brand new class, falling somewhere between the Legends and Scout classes in terms of size and complexity. The purpose of the new size seems to be interactivity with transforming playsets, but today we’re going to start by looking at one of the stand alone figures in this new assortment. Let’s check out Cyberverse Ironhide.

Ironhide comes carded in his robot mode under a big cylindrical bubble. I still really like the deco on the Dark of the Moon packages. It’s such an improvement over the Revenge of the Fallen artwork. The back panel has a little bio of Ironhide along with photos of the toy and his tech specs. If you’re a MOC collector, these should hold up really well, although probably not as easy to store as the more traditional carded figures. Either way, I love the look here.

Even though Ironhide is packaged in his robot mode, I’m going to start with a look at his alt mode. He’s still a GMC Pick Up and for such a little guy, this is one great looking and amazingly detailed truck. He has about the same amount of robot kibble in his undercarriage as the Voyager Ironhide toy from the previous movies. He locks together fairly well and there’s not an excessive amount of seams, although there is a slight gap in the hood to allow for the way those panels slant together during transformation. I’m particularly impressed by the detail work in the grill that is not only meticulously sculpted but even has a painted GMC logo and the Road Armor logos on the bumper. That’s crazy detail, right there! Because of the nature of his vehicle form Ironhide has very few paint apps to speak of. His stacks are painted silver and you have some more silver paintwork on the grill and that’s about it. I’d say this alt mode would be perfectly acceptable as a slightly larger Scout class toy, so it’s all the more impressive here.

The Cyberverse figures also manage to mimic some of the MechTech weapon gimmickry of their larger cousins, and Ironhide here is a great example of that. He comes with two cannons, which can combine into a larger weapon. There are three sockets on the truck where these can be placed, with one on each door and the third on the roof. There’s also a clip in the truck bed. This kind of versatility with the weapon gives this little truck plenty of play and display options.

Transforming Ironhide is pretty simple, but what you get is simply amazing. Hasbro has managed to take all the character and personality of the Voyager toy and shrink it down to this little guy. He looks amazing, and I don’t mean for a Transformer this size. No, I really am blown away by how faithful the design remains to the larger toys. Once again, the MechTech style weapon gives some options for play and display. You can mount the two weapons to his arms, or you can have Ironhide hold the larger combined weapon, or peg that into either of his arms.

Ironhide’s robot mode has solid articulation with ball joints in the shoulders and upper legs, hinged elbows and knees, swivels in the elbows, and hinges in the ankles. The shoulders, however, are at a strange angle, which keeps his arms from doing what I’d like them to, but you can still get some nice poses from him. The only thing that bugs me is his head doesn’t turn. Of course, his ball joints are prone to popping off, particularly the arms, but it’s not as chronic a condition as I’ve seen with some of the larger Revenge of the Fallen toys.

Ironhide cost just under eight bucks, which may make some collectors wince, since he’s smaller than a Scout and yet he’s priced about the same. It doesn’t even seem like all that long ago when we could pick up Deluxes for just a buck or two more. Whether a toy this small is worth the price tag is up to you. Personally, I think for the amount of sculpt and engineering that went into this little guy, the price is not unwarranted. Besides, it places him right around the same range as a standard 3 3/4″ action figure. I was damned curious to check out these new Cyberverse toys, and I’ve got to say if Hasbro can keep up this level of engineering, I’m going to be buying a lot of them. And that’s coming from someone who rarely bought any of the Legends class figures.

Next time, we’ll check out one of the larger Cyberverse sets.

May 20 2011

Transformers Dark of the Moon: Megatron by Hasbro

The Dark of the Moon figures have hit retailers full force this week and Hasbro is bringing the big guns. There’s a bewildering amount of toys for the line, although, if you’ve been in Target recently it looks like Disney’s Cars 2 won the marketing battle for the most real estate. I resisted the urge to fill a cart with Transformers today and instead just picked up the one figure I was looking forward to most in the initial assortment… Megatron. Why Megatron? He’s gotten the short end of the transforming stick in the first two movies, so I was really excited to finally see him getting a legitimate alt mode, instead of just something that looks like an HR Giger inspired horseshoe crab with a gun on it. Ok, let’s check him out.

Here’s my first look at the new DotM packaging. OMG, why does the box seem so tiny? Well, we’ll get to that in a bit. The artwork is a big difference from the last two movies, and I like it a lot. It just makes more sense to have a dark space motif on my Transformers packages instead of a bunch of hieroglyphics. As a Voyager Class, Megatron comes in a window box and packaged in his robot mode. His bio is now on the side of the package and the back panel shows photos of the toy in both modes as well as the character’s specs. There’s a Try Me hole cut out in the window that lets you see how the Mech Tech weapon converts. But don’t let the Try Me thing fool you, the toy does not feature any electronics.

Despite being packaged in his robot mode, I’m actually going to start by looking at Megsy’s vehicle mode. He’s a grimey looking tanker truck, which is an alt mode I never would have thought would suit Megatron very well, but in this case I kind of like it. For some reason, I just like the idea of both Prime and Megatron being trucks. But before getting into the truck itself, let’s talk size and scale. Megatron is tiny. Check out a picture of him besides another Voyager toy, the original Movie Ironhide, and a Revenge of the Fallen Deluxe, Bumblebee.

Not only is he way too small to be in scale with Voyager Ironhide, but he’s even way too small against a Deluxe car from the last movie. Now, I tend to be pretty leniant with scale in Transformers, since Takara and Hasbro have played fast and loose with scale ever since the G1 days, but DotM Megatron just seems way too small. He should have been a Leader Class, and that would have at least made him displayable besides some of the Autobots from the last two movies. Ok, so we are discussing three separate lines, and just because the first movies’ toys synched so well with Revenge of the Fallen doesn’t mean DotM toys should do the same. Just be prepared for the surprise that Megatron is, relatively speaking, a damn small toy.

That all having been said, I do like his truck mode a lot. He’s a nasty grey and green color with some paint app rust spots here and there. There’s some excellent detail work on the grill, including the Mack Truck logo and he holds together well and rolls along nicely. I’m not entirely sure why one of the windshields pops out further than the other, but it is depicted that way in the product images, so it’s obviously intentional. Megsy’s alt mode also has a soft plastic molded tarp that can be placed over the rear end of his tanker, which looks pretty cool. The Mech Tech weapon forms the front half of his tank. It can be removed and plugged into the socket on the roof of his cab to give him some extra firepower.

Transforming Megatron is a little tricky, thanks to a few shifts mostly involving his upper legs. Once you get the hang of those moves, the rest is very simple. In fact, he’s laughably easy to transform for a movieverse Voyager. Nonetheless, what you get when you’re done is the cleanest, most symetrical and most humanoid looking Megatron Bayformer we’ve seen. In fact, he looks great and what little truck kibble is here is all neatly tucked away. The Mech Tech weapons plugs into his arm as a fusion cannon, which doesn’t look that much like a fusion cannon unless you activate its Mech Tech feature. The problem is that the weapon only stays transformed when you keep the button pressed in. The tarp that covers part of Megatron’s tank forms a cloak in his robot mode with an extra bit that hooks on to form a hood. It looks pretty cool on him, and the hood serves to hide some of the right half of his face, which is battle damaged. I’m overall pretty happy with the way this guy looks and his articulation. Too bad the scale issue is still very much there when he’s in robot mode.

In defense of Megsy’s size, I don’t have any other DotM figures to compare him with. I don’t know that Voyager Prime looked about the same size, so that’s something. He’ll probably be fine alongside the Deluxe figures in robot mode, but the vehicle modes are still going to be way out of wack.

Along with Megatron’s diminished size, comes a diminished price tag. I’m used to paying about $20-23 for Voyager class Transformers, but the DotM Voyagers were only $18 each at Walmart. Not bad considering they’re brand new and not even on special or anything. I expect the price to go up a few bucks in the coming weeks. Either way, Megatron’s size and complexity make him something of a disappointment. He just feels too much like a stand alone figure that doesn’t fit into any of the previously released classes. I do like his truck mode, and I do like his robot mode, though, so he isn’t a total loss, and he’s a decent enough toy for the money.