Dec 14 2010

Transformers Generations: Blurr by Hasbro

[Sorry, folks. This was supposed to go up yesterday, but I wound up drinking myself into oblivion throughout most of the evening, so it’s getting posted a little late. I’m hoping the edit wasn’t too bad, but if it is, just blame the hangover. -FF]

Oh, Hasbro, I just can’t decide. Is Generations Blurr one of the coolest figures to come out in a while? Or is he a horrible missed opportunity? I just don’t know. There’s so much right with this figure’s execution, and yet so much that’s wrong with it just on principle alone. I’ve had this guy in my collection for quite a few weeks, and only now I’m realizing why it really took me so long to get around to posting him. I just can’t decide whether I love him or hate him.

Let’s get the preliminaries out of the way. Oh, look, Generations packaging. I may not love the styling of these cards, but the switchover toReveal The Shield’s packaging, which looks just like the Hunt for the Decepticons stuff, won’t be an improvement. But these are Transformers, and Hasbro could wrap them in old newspapers and I would still buy them. Blurr comes packaged in his car mode and, what’s this? Oh my God, it’s a flipping repaint of Drift. Oh yes, Drift was a great figure and an incredible mold, but how can Blurr stand the indignity of getting repainted from such a smug, douchebag like Drift. It bothers the hell out of me. Luckily, if you haven’t made a habit of reading any Transformers comics lately, it shouldn’t bother you at all, because you aren’t familiar with the dark depths of Drift’s douchebaggery.

Blurr’s car form looks great, there’s no doubt about it. Hasbro did a fine job repainting it in G1 Blurr’s color scheme and it’s a huge improvement over Drift’s drab colors and pretentious Asian symbols. There are a few minor issues with the white paint apps, but nothing too bad. That having been said, this auto form just doesn’t say Blurr to me. Hasbro has nailed so many of the otherClassics/Universre/Generations alt modes, that I think they could have done better for Blurr, which leads me to just a bit more bitterness over the fact that he’s a Drift repaint. I wasn’t expecting anything totally futuristic like the original toy, but even given that he was destined to be an Earth vehicle, I think there could have been a better compromise here.

A lot of my ambivalence extends to his robot mode too. The design looks awesome and the mold looks so much better in these colors. But is it Blurr? I can deal with the body, but even though Hasbro went all out and resculpted the head, it isn’t the slam-dunk likeness that they’ve achieved on so many of the other figures in this line, which is crazy since Blurr had a pretty distinctive looking head in the original movie and cartoon. I dare say when Hasbro resculpted Armada Blurr’s head (for the old Universe line) to look more like the G1 character, I think they may have had more success than this.

What I do really like love adore here is the ingenious way Hasbro took Drift’s sword and dagger gimmicks and made it work for Blurr with guns. Blurr has a nice long sniper rifle that he can wear on his back, or under his car mode. He can even hold it in both hands. The doors still hang off his hips and convert to holsters, this time for two pistols. The pistols can then be fitted to the rifle, either to make it look like a more powerful weapon, triple barrelled weapon, or as a bipod so it can be fired in a prone position. That’s really cool.

It’s a topsy turvy world. I hate Drift, but I love his figure. I love Blurr, but I’m not terribly keen on this being his figure. It’s a superb mold and a great toy, and I definitely like the Blurr version better because of the new paint job and the guns, but I just think Hasbro could have done better for Blurr in this line. Now, he has grown on me a lot since I first got him, and I’m hoping he continues to do so, especially once I have Kup to stand next to him. If you don’t own this mold yet, I’d recommend him over Drift for the better colors and the fact that even if this isn’t a perfect Blurr homage, Drift is still a douchebag so Blurr wins.

Dec 9 2010

Transformers Animated: Snarl by Hasbro

Why is it that Hasbro can’t give us a full set of proper Dinobots in any of the modern continuities? In Energon we got that crappy Grimlock and Swoop combiner. Prior to that we got those terrible Walmart Universe two-packs. Now, in Animated we got Snarl, Swoop and Grimlock, but no Slag or Sludge. Well, that sad fact has nothing to do with the particular figure we’re looking at today, Deluxe Class Snarl from Animated, but alas I’m not terribly fond of this figure, so I thought I might as well start with a bitch-fest and keep it going.

You get the standard Deluxe carded package with Snarl carded in his dino mode. First problem: He’s a Deluxe. I don’t think the Dinobots should ever be produced smaller than the Voyager Class. Maybe Swoop… maybe. Now, keep in mind, I’m not saying I’d want to see this figure produced larger, but I think if they started off as a Voyager, it would have been a better designed figure. I guess it makes sense that Grimlock is the leader so he’s bigger, but Snarl is just waaaay too small to be a proper Dinobot in my eyes. At the very least, he should have been a much beefier Deluxe.

Apart from his size, I actually don’t have a lot of issues with Snarl’s dino mode. Yeah, the top of his head is obviously peeping out the middle of his back, but that doesn’t bother me all that much. At least you can’t see his face. This dino is that crazy mix of angles and contours that matches Grimlock fairly well. His legs have some decent movement too making him a pretty fun little Dino. He has a silly little spring loaded flame-armor gimmick that pops out of his shoulders, but it’s not much to write home about. The coloring is pretty good. As with Grimlock, Snarl’s deco mostly makes use of gray colored plastic with a fair amount of black thrown in. The gray is notably darker than Grimlocks, but it’s close enough. You also get some of that lovely gold paint.

I am rather torn on the dino head. The translucent red horns are cool, but I don’t like the beak. It looks like he’s been dipping his nose into the… wait for it… JAM! There it is. The huge exposed screwhead in the side of the face doesn’t help and the gray paint on the crest that surrounds his face was pretty scuffed up right out of the package. And then there’s the robot mode…

Ugh. Where to begin. Well, I’ll start by throwing out a compliment. This bot mode matches the Animated aesthetic quite nicely. As for the rest? Well, let’s start with his size. Putting aside what I said about Dinobots shouldn’t be Deluxes in my eyes, this guy is even short for a Deluxe. He makes up for his height a bit with his stocky frame, but still… he’s shorter than Bumblebee for crying out loud! I do like the fact that his dino head forms his chest, that’s very Beast Wars-y of them, but it sticks out really far and totally obscures his face if you’re looking dead on at him. I wouldn’t want to walk around with that albatross hanging off the front of me.

His head sculpt has personality in spades, I love it, but I literally had to fold down his whole dino-head-chest, just to get a shot of it. It’s also sunken in the center of that raised ring. It feels like you should be able to grab the head and pull it up, but nope. That’s the only position and as far out as it comes.

The articulation is decent enough, but his stocky build gets in the way of a lot of pose-ability. There’s not a lot of range of motion in those elbows and no lateral movement in the shoulders. He can get a pretty wide stance thanks to the ball joints in his hips, but the hips themselves always come un-tabbed when I’m playing with him, and that gets annoying.

Snarl comes with an energon club, which is basically just an elongated blob of translucent orange plastic. I actually kind of like it, because it’s a futuristic energy-based weapon based on basically the most primitive weapon design you can imagine. For some reason that just makes me smile. Afterall, he’s a Dinobot, so his weapons should be based on cave man weapons, right?

Am I being too hard on this little guy? Am I missing out in the fun and whimsical spirit of TF: Animated? Maybe. Overall, I think Animated Grimlock turned out so well, Hasbro missed an opportunity to follow through on the others in a similar manner. I don’t hate this figure. I’ve certainly spent ten bucks in worse ways. But he just has a bunch of nagging issues that keep him from being solid. I suppose there’s still a chance for more Dinobots in the Generations line, and yeah we still have those Dinobot Power Core Combiners coming, but it’s just not the same. Maybe I’m just going to have to hunt down the original G1 Dinobot toys again and get my satisfaction that way.

*This Feature was updated with new photos on 6/12/16.

Dec 8 2010

Transformers Animated: Autobot Jazz by Hasbro

I’ve been going a little nuts snapping up Deluxe Class figures from the Transformers Animated line. I guess I decided I should get them before they disappear from retailers all together, which seems to be happening everywhere now. Jazz was one of the last figures I thought I would pick up, because the photos of the toy didn’t impress me at all. Turns out, though, he really surprised me and has quickly become one of my favorites.

Standard TF Animated package. The bio blurb claims Jazz is a ninja, which would explain why he has the weapons he has. I only recall seeing him once on the show, but then there are a lot of episodes I haven’t seen. He comes packaged in vehicle mode, so let’s start there.

Jazz’s car mode is a perfect blend between G1 homage and new super-stylized design. It’s what I would call future-retro. I never really got the full flavor of this car design from the product images, and it’s so much better in person with some really cool details. The fins with tail lights in the back and the elongated sideview mirrors are my favorite points of interest, and the overall contours of the body are just so damn distinctive. Also, check out the exhaust pipes on the sides, those pull out to become his weapons in robot mode!

I’m not usually a big fan of painted windows on my Transformers, but the black looks really good here, as it’s glossy and actually not all scratched up right out of the package. Those giant translucent blue headlamps are great, the hood striping is sharp, and I love the Cybertron Defense Force style Autobot insignia on the hood. The only issue with the coloring on my figure is a weird yellowish patch on the driver side, just above the front bumper.

Transforming Jazz isn’t all that complex, but it does do some clever things, like folding the front wheels so they’re diagonally tucked under his chest. Overall, the conversion process is like a simplified version of the Classics/Universe 2.0 Prowl, only much better executed. Basically, what we have here is a stylized version of the iconic G1 Autobot Car with the bumper making up the chest.

The head sculpt is cool, with a very elongated face, some simple gray and black paint, and a blue visor.

Jazz has great articulation. His head is ball jointed. His arms have ball joints and swivels on his shoulders and hinged elbows. His legs have ball joints in his hips and hinges in the knees. It doesn’t sound like a lot of individual points, but it works out just fine and makes for a fun and pose-able figure.

One of my favorite things about Jazz is the ingenuity of his weapons. Pull out the end pieces of his exhaust pipes and you get two pairs of nun-chucks, each joined with a short piece of string. The way the weapons clip together and store on the vehicle in plain sight is just really neat. I didn’t even know they were there when I got the figure out and started transforming him. I always love when the weapons are designed to store in the auto mode, but this design is particularly great.

So, Animated Jazz was a really nice surprise. I hadn’t planned to pick him up at all, but I’m gradually learning to appreciate what the Animated toys have to offer, particularly among the Deluxes. These are some solid and super fun figures with clever engineering and do an amazing job of capturing the super stylized look of the Animated characters. But just to show that the door swings both ways, next time we’ll look at an Animated Deluxe figure that left me rather cold.

Dec 7 2010

GI JOE 25th Anniversary Comic Pack: Scrap-Iron and Wild Bill by Hasbro

The last time I was in Marshall’s hunting Joes, I was able to pick up one of the GI JOE Comic Packs that still eluded me. They had quite a few I still want, but I’ll be back for those. I was originally planning on leaving this pack sealed as I have a few Joe comic packs hanging on my wall, but the horrible stubborness of the Marshall’s price tag made me change my mind. That’s ok, though, since I really did want to get at the figures… well, one of the figures. I already have the single carded Wild Bill from the 25A Collection, and while this one is certainly different, I was most excited to get me a new Scrap Iron for my collection.

Hasbro’s comic pack packaging is some of the best action figure packaging mankind has yet invented. Whether it be GI JOE, Star Wars, or Marvel, it’s just brilliant. The presentation is awesome, you get two figures, and you get a nice comic book reprint to read too. I rarely ever think twice about tearing open packages to get at my toys, but ripping these things open always gives me pause. It’s amazing that these are the same guys that took the comic book out of the Marvel Legends figures when they took it over from Toy Biz. Anyway, I would have thought that Scrap-Iron and Wild Bill were an unlikely of pairings, but there they are trying to kick the shit out of each other right on the front of the comic.

Let’s get Wild Bill out of the way first. You know what was always so cool about Wild Bill? He came with the Dragonfly chopper. Take away his ride, and he’s pretty, meh. Throw in the fact that I have no Dragonfly chopper to put him in, and he becomes even more pointless. I guess I could dig out my Spy Troops Desert Attack Chopper, but it’s just not the same. Besides, his holsters are so damn big, I doubt he could fit into a cockpit if I had one to put him in. Toss in the fact that this is just a repaint of the same figure I bought carded many years back and he really is totally superfluous. He better keep wearing that yellow vest and cowboy hat, because with that blue outfit, one of the Joes is bound to shoot him by mistake.

To make matters worse, the quality on this figure is not good. Besides the cheesy and uneven white paint used for his pistols and belt buckle, the hinges on his left knee are totally shot, making him difficult to stand up even on his figure stand, and the seams in his legs are pulling away. Maybe I just got a bad one. On the plus side, his colors do match the comic pretty well, if that’s your bag, and I love the fact that he comes with both a flight helmet and his Cavalry hat. He also came with a figure stand, which is definitely cool since I forgot Hasbro put them in these packs.

And then there’s Scrap-Iron. I can’t really explain the fondness I had for this figure as a kid. He must have had a really kick ass moment on the cartoon that I can’t remember now. Or, maybe it was because he came with a big missile launcher. Either way, I really loved my Scrap-Iron figure and whenever I played with my Joes he got invited to partake in all of Cobra’s reindeer games. This update is really spot-on and they didn’t wreck his colors for the comic book like they did with Wild Bill. The head sculpt is excellent, and he’s got all sorts of little scars painted on his face too. His vest is removable and he has clips on his leg to attach a dagger, although he didn’t come with one.

He did, however, come with an automatic pistol and his trademark armor-busting mobile missile launcher. [The strands of cat hair seen in the picture didn’t come with it, I had to add those. -FF] The launcher is pretty close to how I remember the original toy. It has a stand, a corded control box, and the two red missiles just lay inside the launcher. Scrap-Iron also comes with his own figure stand.

The included comic isn’t a classic reprint, but rather a new original book by Larry Hama. It’s kind of cool to see that Hasbro went through the trouble to create something new and original like this, but honestly, it’s not all that great. There’s no story, it’s just a drawn out set-piece action sequence with Scrap-Iron trying to take down a Dragonfly with Wild Bill and Airborne on board while Dial Tone, Scarlet and Snake Eyes duke it out with some HISS tanks. What it lacks in story, though it makes up for in style as all the story is told through radio communications, which is kind of cool. There’s also a couple of classic moments like Wild Bill blasting a missile off target with his six-shooters at nearly point blank range. So, yeah, the comic is always a nice bonus, but I didn’t get the same nostalgia and enjoyment I got out of reading the reprints from the Classic Comic Packs.

I always thought it was a dirty move for Hasbro to include Scrap-Iron with a shitty recolor of Wild Bill. But finding this pack on clearance, I was able to overcome my principles and finally add one of my favorite Cobras to my 25th Anniversary Collection. It was $6.99, which was definitely worth the price, even if Wild Bill gets tossed into a bottomless storage tote or becomes a plaything for FigureFeline. It’s the kind of deal that I remember back when Hasbro was putting out those Valor vs Venom 2-packs for around the same price. They weren’t the best figures, but how can you complain about getting two figures with accessories for seven bucks, eh?

Dec 6 2010

Transformers Generations: Dirge by Hasbro

Thank you, Hasbro, for finally allowing me to complete my G1 Coneheads! With the recent releases of Thrust and now Dirge, at least one of my trios of Seekers is at last complete. I’m not going to get too long winded in my look at Dirge, because let’s be honest, I’ve looked at variations and repaints of this mold five times already. But thanks to an amazing paint job, Dirge turned out to be a really excellent figure, and definitely worth a look. And as Dirge himself would likely say, “Death comes to those who don’t buy my figure.”

Yep. Standard Generations card. Hasbro didn’t do so great a job securing my figure into his bubble because my Dirge arrived with his legs half transformed. No worries, though, there was no damage to the figure. The back of the card features the standard bio-blurb, which in Dirge’s case is really well written.

Ok, so we’ve seen this mold before and before that and before that. The between the Coneheads is found in the wing configuration and the color scheme. The brown wings and blue body is still a strange combination, but by this time it’s pretty iconic. The red and white stripes are ok, but it’s the Decepticon logos on the wings that I really like. Dirge has the same basic missile launchers as Thrust and they can be unpegged from his wings for Transformation and repegged onto Dirge’s arms in robot mode.

In robot mode, Dirge’s wings on his legs are the most unsightly of the three Coneheads, just because you’re looking at the underside, but that’s ok. The black and blue color scheme on this figure looks great and the overall. And I really dig the little Decepticon logo on his chest to the point that I really wish the other Coneheads had it too.The high gloss on the finish is really sharp and makes him stand out even when next to the awesomeness of Thrust’s coloring. Poor Ramjet really looks pretty drab standing next to these guys.

Articulation is the same as the other Coneheads. You get a bit of rotation in the head. The arms rotate and have lateral movement in the shoulders and the elbows are hinged. The legs have universal movement in the hips and the knees are hinged. Dirge’s stubby little wings are positioned on double hinged arms so you can move them out of the way when attempting to pose his arms to blast away at Autobot fools.

And there you have Dirge and the Coneheads. If you don’t love these guys, I don’t know what to say. They do exactly what theClassics/Universe/Generations line sets out to do: Take classic designs and characters and update them with better sculpts and articulation. I love this mold and these figures to death simply because they are the exact figures I wanted when I was a kid and wishing that my G1 Seekers could actually move anything but their arms at the shoulders. They look great, they are pretty simple to transform and they are loads of fun.

Now give me Thundercracker, goddammit!!!

Dec 5 2010

GI JOE Rise of Cobra: Nano-Viper, Night Adder and “Paris Pursuit” Baroness by Hasbro

I had a really long and hard week, so on Friday I treated myself with a trip to Marshall’s to pick through their Joe figures. I passed on a lot of the Rise of Cobra figures when they were going strong, but that was mostly because the pegs at Walmart were so choked with the first waves that I rarely ever saw the later releases. It doesn’t hurt either that Marshall’s is selling these for about $2-3 less than they were originally. It’s not quite the steal that there 25th Anniversary Joes are, but still good enough to get me to pick up more. I opted for three Cobra figures, so let’s check them out.

Standard Rise of Cobra packages. Shitty movie, great toy packages. I liked this look a lot. The character artwork wasn’t always the best, but the logo looked cool, and the bubbles showed off the figure and accessories well.

Let’s start with The Baroness. This Paris Pursuit version is good, but it doesn’t replace the first ROC version as my favorite. This one depicts her in her trenchcoat, which is sculpted into the figure above the belt, and sculpted with soft plastic from the belt down, bellowing outward. It looks very nice, but it also severely inhibits the articulation from the waist down and limits the figure’s poseability. You can easily modify the figure by cutting the back of the lower coat and making it removable. This makes the figure look like she’s just wearing a vest and frees up her legs for complete poseability, so you can have the best of both worlds. I liked the first Baroness’ head sculpt a little better too and the fact that you could peg her weapons onto her hips was awesome. So, all in all, this Baroness is very nice, but not a figure I absolutely needed to own.

The Baroness comes with a load of weapons. There’s the giant missile launcher, which is good for tossing in the garbage. And then there’s a cadre of small arms. Whatcha need all them guns for, Baroness? You only got the two arms! She also comes with a personalized figure stand.

Next up is the Nano-Viper. While I think the movie Vipers are pretty poor “updates” to the originals, taken on their own I don’t think they’re too bad. At first glance, I thought that this Nano Viper was just the regular Neo-Viper with his chest plate and helmet painted neon green and some added shoulder and shin armor, but there are a lot more subtle variations in the sculpt. The oddest thing about the Nano-Viper is the inclusion of the neon tentacles, which I believe is a recolored piece from one of the 25th Anniversary DVD packs. I have no idea what Hasbro was going for when they included this as an accessory. He comes all tangled in it on the card. It can actually peg into the figure stand too, but like I said, I just find it bewildering.

In addition to the tentacles, The Nano Viper comes with a dagger, a handgun that fits in his holster, an assault rifle, and a figure stand. Cool beans.

Last, but certainly not least, is the Night Adder. This a really cool figure and as a Cobra Security Officer, it actually fills a gap in the Cobra ranks that I don’t recall ever being released before. He’s a masked dude in a combat vest, who I can imagine patrols the Cobra compounds looking for Joes to feed to his dog. I can’t place the head on this guy, but I’m sure we’ve seen it before, since it obviously has two vestigial peg holes that were used to attach a visor. The vest is really well done, complete with ammo and pouches, but alas, nowhere to carry his combat knife or extra pistol.

Night Adder comes with a combat shotgun, a pistol, a combat knife, his watchdog on a leash, and a figure stand.

So, I’m glad to get a second crack at some of these figures. Sure, I loathed the movie right down to its celluloid core, but I’ll give credit to the figures. With the exception of those ridiculous impact armor figures, this line gave up some solid efforts. In fact, I think I’ll go back later in the week and pick up some more.

Dec 3 2010

Transformers Revenge of the Fallen: Grindor by Hasbro

It’s been a fun little ride this week looking at some of the whirlybird bots in my collection. There were a few more I wanted to get to, but I’m ready to move on to other things, as the toys are piling up. So, I thought we’d look at just one more tonight with Revenge of the Fallen’sGrindor. Grindor is a repaint of the Voyager Class Blackout figure that was released in the first movie lineup. I didn’t buy a lot of toys from the first movie, so I missed out on Blackout and wound up settling for his grey cousin, who bewilderingly showed up in the second movie just long enough to pick up Sam’s car and deliver it to Megatron. Yeah.

As a helicopter, Grindor is ok. The right side panel on mine doesn’t peg in like it’s supposed to, which is a constant irritant. There’s also the Scorponok cage, but more on that in a minute. He doesn’t feature a lot of exciting colors or paint apps, but his grey and black motif are pretty good for a military vehicle. There’s a black button on the back of the tail boom that spins the rotors when pumped. Grindor carries a flip down cage under his tail boom that can hold the little Scorponok figure. Theoretically, you can press a button to deploy him, but the catch is weak and Scorponok usually just deploys whenever he damn well feels like it. There’s not much to say about Scorponok. He’s a little PVC figure with a spring loaded tail. If you’re looking for realism, then next to Tomahawk, Grindor is certainly the most realistic helicopter, but you could argue that also makes him a tad boring.

It says a lot about Grindor’s transformation that you can literally just take the entire top and back of the helicopter off and still have the robot figure intact. In fact, he’s a lot better without all the alt mode chopper kibble. Of course, I find removing a quarter of the alt mode an unacceptable prospect in good Transformer design. It also doesn’t help that some of his bits fall off when I transform him.

At his core, Grindor’s robot mode is pretty good and bears a decent resemblance to Blackout’s movie design, albeit a bit chunkier and simpler. I like the way the nose of the chopper splits apart to reveal the head and chest, while keeping his sensor globe and cannon in useable positions. His shoulders also get some missiles and the chevrons on his shoulder armor look nice. Ah, but unfortunately, he still has a quarter of a helicopter hanging off his back and while some Transformers can pull that off, Grindor’s backpack is just too bulky and obtrusive and the tail drags on the ground behind him.

Grindor’s articulation is pretty good. His head turns, his shoulders have universal movement plus swivels and his elbows and wrists are hinged. His legs have universal movement in the hips and hinged knees. Keep in mind, though, if you leave all the chopper kibble on his back, you won’t get much use out of his leg joints. Blah!

Despite all his flaws, I really don’t hate Grindor. He’s an ok looking figure and I’m probably giving him a bit of a pass because he is a helicopter, afterall. Still, if you’re one of those collectors that tend to be down on the movie figures, Grindor here isn’t going to win you over.

And that wraps it up for Transformers Helicopter Week. I thought I would get a third entry in tonight, looking at Revenge of the Fallen’sBlazemaster, but then I didn’t want to end the week on a down note by looking at such a shitty figure, so maybe I’ll save him for a future Shitty Transformers Week when I’m feeling in a particularly black mood. Anyway, I’ll be back tomorrow with business as usual, meaning I’ll try to slip something else in over the weekend before I get back to looking at more Transformers.

Dec 3 2010

Transformers Energon: Bulkhead and Quickstrike by Hasbro

It’s hard to believe it’s been a week already, and yet it’s Friday and I’ve still got a few more transformable choppers that I wanted to get to. Today we’re looking at a few more Autobots, this time from the Energon line. Bulkhead and his repaint Quickstrike. I can’t remember what size class Bulkhead came in, but I’m thinking he was probably an Ultra because he does have electronics and when you combine him with his booster pack, he’s pretty friggin huge. Don’t ask me what the electronics do, though, because it’s been ages since I’ve had working batteries in this thing. It is noteworthy, though, that all of his electronics are in the booster, so Hasbro could, theoretically, pack the figure alone in a future Voyager Class re-release and they’d be doing new fans a favor.

Let’s start out with Bulkhead in his super-duper alt mode. It’s an attack helicopter sitting on top of a huge set of booster rockets. Yeah, as the first part of his name suggests, this guy has a lot of bulk to him. Granted, strapping a helicopter to that jet-propelled weapons platform kind of defeats the purpose of being a helicopter in the first place, but it’s formidable looking to say the least.

Releaving Bulkhead of his booster platform, we can get a better idea of how awesome his chopper mode is. He’s got two retractable landing gear, and a third on the tail that spins the rotors when you pull it like a trigger. He’s got a nice, embossed Autobot insignia behind his cockpit, and no less than four firing missile launchers mounted on his wings. [Take out the missiles before transforming him, lest you want to spend ten minutes fishing them out from behind the sofa like I had to! -FF] It’s a very solid helicopter, and the colors are no doubt an homage to G1 Springer. I guess my only complaint here is that his arms above his wings don’t actually peg into anything, but the ratchet joints give you a good idea of how they’re supposed to sit, and they certainly don’t flop around or anything.

Before getting to Bulkhead’s robot mode, it’s worth noting that his booster platform can transform into a two-legged weapons drone. I guess this thing could stomp around and blast Decepticon fools on its own, or Bulkhead could operate it like a cannon. Either way it’s a pretty cool bonus, and almost as big as the Bulkhead figure itself.

Transforming Bulkhead isn’t terribly difficult, although there’s a lot of fidgity bits to get right, like flipping his legs around, flipping up his missile launchers, etc. But when you’re done, you are rewarded with one seriously awesome looking Autobot. I really love everything about this guy. His proportions are great, the way his missile launchers hang off his hips is cool and you can even flip his fists so that he has cannons for hands. The tail boom that hangs off his back doesn’t get in the way at all, and you can even remove his rotor blade assembly and he can hold it in his hand like a weapon. Oh yeah, Bulkhead also has a huge handlebar mustache! Remember in the 1986 movie when all of the sudden Transformers started showing up with sculpted facial hair? Well, Bulkhead is obviously hip to that style.

Of course, Bulkhead can also make use of his booster pack by wearing it like a backpack. There are all sorts of permutations to do with it, you can even turn the thrusters into giant claws, but my favorite just has it positioned like a jetpack with the two laser cannons pointing forward. Yeah, he’s very backheavy in this mode, but he can actually stand up and support it if you try hard enough.

Bulkhead has excellent articulation. His head rotates, his arms have universal movement in the shoulders, swivels in the biceps and hinges in the elbows. His legs have universal movement in the hips and hinged knees. His ankles have lateral hinges so that his feet can stay flat even in a wide stance.

Hasbro waisted no time in repainted Bulkhead in Energon as Quickstrike. At the time, I wasn’t really a completist anymore, not like I was with Armada, but clearly I liked this mold and the repaint enough to drop some money on Quickstrike too. It’s a really nice and very high quality repaint. I really like the black and silver and the way it compliments the red in his helicopter mode and the white looks nice on the tailboom too, although I’m not a big fan of the Chinese lettering. But in robot mode, this new color scheme is just unbelievably great looking. The red and black looks striking and the silver on his legs, cockpit and face really makes the figure come together. It’s a little tougher to make out Quickstrike’s mustache, though, since it isn’t painted a different coller than his face.

I really recommend owning this mold if you don’t already. It’s a great Transformer and a really fun toy, with lots of different play options and features. If you only have it in you to buy one, I’d actually recommend Quickstrike over Bulkhead, just because the paint deco looks so nice and the quality of the paint job is really far superior to what I’m used to finding on these toys. On the other hand, if you are a big Springer fan, than Bulkhead might scratch your itch better than Quickstrike. Either way, you should definitely try to hunt down one of them for your collection.

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.

Dec 1 2010

Transformers Universe: Whirl by Hasbro

Back before Universe became the new Classics, which has since become Generations, the Universe brand was a sub-line of mostly horrible repaints of a lot of Transformers molds that we could probably have done without seeing again so soon. Don’t get me wrong, every now and then a gem from yesteryear showed up in one of these boxes, but for every one of those there were at least a couple of RiD orBeast Machines toys that should have stayed buried a little while longer. Some of the more interesting Universe toys, at least to me, stretched all the way back to the Machine Wars figures, and that’s where we get today’s Transformer chopper, Whirl.

The Whirl mold was originally released as Machine Wars Sandstorm. This new Universe version was one of the few examples where theUniverse paintjob was not worse than the original. He’s generally got a blue camo motif with some nice looking yellow translucent parts for the cockpit and the blades. His alt mode is rather distinctive, as he has twin tail booms, landing skids and some pretty good sized missile launchers on his broadsides, which can deploy outwards. There really aren’t any play features on the chopper mode, although the missile launchers have hair triggers and they really fly pretty far. There’s not a lot of clearance between the rotors and the tail fin and the rotors on my toy have already started to droop so that they don’t clear the fin anymore.

The Machine Wars toys have a lot more in common with late G1 figures than anything else. That’s a good thing if you’re after some nostalgia, but if you’re used to the complexity and high level of articulation in today’s Transformers, than Whirl is going to seem pretty prehistoric to you. His transformation is simple yet satisfying. His robot mode is pretty decent looking and his missile launchers come off to become his hand guns. The only thing about Whirl’s bot mode that really bothers me is the opening in front of his head that leads into his cockpit.

Pretty much all of Whirl’s articulation comes from his transformation process. His shoulders have lateral movement, but cannot even rotate, although he does have hinged elbows. His legs rotate front and back at the hips and his knees bend forward and back. That’s it, folks, his head doesn’t even turn!

The Machine Wars toys were my favorite part of the Universe line up. They were new to me because I was on a Transformers hiatus while these toys were originally on the shelves and the Universe repaints gave me a chance to rediscover them. They’re not for everyone, and Whirl really isn’t the most fun Transformer out there, but if you have an open mind and want a nice piece of Transformers history to display on your shelf, you could do worse than hunting him down.

FigureFan Zero

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