Ever since the Generations line, Hasbro has been putting out some damn fine homages to the old G1 Minibots via their Legends Class figures. Personally, I’d like to see a few of these released as Deluxes, but I’m still happy to take what we get. Enter Seaspray! The last time we saw an official figure of this guy was back in the Reveal the Shield line of 2010. That was a pretty cool figure, but apart from the hovercraft alt mode, it didn’t make an attempt to recapture the glory of the G1 design. Perhaps as a result, Seaspray has received a fair bit of attention from the Third Party convertorobot makers. I never picked up any of those, so I’m anxious to see how Hasbro’s new official crack at the character turned out. Also, I command that everyone read this review out loud in Seaspray’s ridiculous gargling voice.

Oh, now he’s Seaspray. Last time he was Sea Spray. I gather that might have something to do with the copyright. Another interesting point is that the character art on the card shows him in his alt mode. Either I’m not very observant or this is the first time they’ve done this. Either way, it’s some pretty bitchin’ art of the little Minibot tearing through the waves. I dig it. And as long as we’re on the subject of his alt mode, let’s go ahead and start there…

This little blue, white, and yellow hovercraft is a great homage to the original toy and derives its deco almost entirely from colored plastic. Indeed, apart from the black painted windows and some tampo detailing on the top, it gets by with almost no paint at all. There’s also not a whole lot of sculpted detail present, but you do get some little doors on the sides that give a good idea of the intended scale here. I wouldn’t say it’s a terribly attractive alt mode, but it definitely works for what it is.

The box on the top is removable and since it forms Seaspray’s weapon in robot mode, I’m guessing that’s the purpose it serves here as well. What kind of weapon it is, I’m not sure. It looks like it could be some kind of heat gun, or maybe it opens up to reveal a rocket pack.

What does open up is Seaspray’s back area to reveal a pilot seat for a Titan Master. I’m still impressed that Hasbro has been able to engineer these little guys with room for the little bots. I put Convex in there, just because he’s mostly black and easier to see against Seaspray’s white compartment.

In terms of scale, Seaspray follows the standard G1 toy logic that if you’re a Minibot, you’re alt mode is the same size as all the other Minibots, whether you’re a giant hovercraft, an A-10 Warthog, or a compact sports car. Needless to say, I’m fine with this and I think Seaspray looks great next to the myriad of other Minibots that have been released in the Legends Class assortment.

Transforming Seaspray is a wee bit more complex than I expected, but it’s not terribly difficult. The resulting robot mode is a very solid homage to the original toy. He has a very squared off and boxy torso, which I happen to dig a lot. He still wears his propeller stalks on his shoulders with the props pointing behind him. He’s also got a pretty impressive amount of articulation for such a little guy. But let’s deal with a couple of the elephants in the room…

DEM FEETS! Seaspray is sporting some enormous feet. I mean, they’re big! How big are they? They’re so big they had to turn them sideways for him to fit in the package. That’s not a joke. Look at the in-package picture, they really did have to turn them sideways. These giant clodhoppers should bother me, but surprisingly they don’t. I think they go well with his big slab of a chest. What does irk me a little are his arms, which could have been a little bigger, especially in relation to his feet and chest. They’re not as bad as Bumblebee’s disproportionate meathooks, but I would have liked a little more bulk there.

The head is an interesting choice, as it favors the original toy over the Sunbow animation model. Instead of individual eyes, he’s just got a visor band running across the top of his mouth plate. It looks fine, but given a choice, I’ll almost always take Sunbow over the original toy. Also, check out those gorgeous tampos on his chest. That’s some quality work, Hasbro, and I hope we see more of it.

The weapon that I mentioned in his alt mode tabs into the slots behind his hands. It’s a rather unconventional looking weapon, but I like it a lot. Although if you pose him the right way with it, it almost looks like he’s carrying a pizza. In any event, it’s a treat to get it since so many of the other Legends Class Minibots don’t come with guns any more.

And in case you forgot what his predecessor looked like, here he is with Voyager Class Sea Spray. Oh yeah, and Seaspray will fit inside his bigger namesake’s cargo area, but it’s a mighty tight fit!

I thought Seaspray was going to be really tough to find, but Primus has been smiling down on me when it comes to Legends Class figures lately. Not only did I find Brawn really easily, but Seaspray here practically fell right into my lap as well. I really liked the previous Voyager version as its own figure, but it really wasn’t Seaspray to me, and that’s where this figure succeeds brilliantly, despite a few design choices that might rub people the wrong way. Even still, I’d proudly display him besides Brawn as two of the best Minibot updates so far, and I’d probably throw Powerglide and Cosmos in there as well. If you’ve got ten bucks burning a hole in your pocket and you love your Minibots, I can’t recommend him enough, but then I say that about almost all the Legends Class figures.

Well, be still my energon pumping heart, today makes two Transformers Thursdays in a row that I actually have some new bots to look at. In fact, I should be covered for a little while now so the drought is officially over! Today I’m checking out Legends Class Brawn, another figure that I had to grab off of Ebay because these never show up around here. And then when I feared the deal might not be sound, my buddy came through with one for me as well. Either way I was covered, and in the end I wound up with two. Now, the downside of having to go second-hand on these is that both were shipped to me loose, so I have no in-package shot for you, but we all know what it looks like by now, so let’s jump right in to Brawn’s alt mode…

True to his original G1 form, Brawn takes the form of a green off-road vehicle, and this is a pretty solid one at that. There isn’t a whole lot of sculpted detail here, but you do get a spare tire on the rear of the roof. More importantly, the coloring on this little 4×4 is especially nice for a Legends Class. The pretty metallic green is joined by some black painted windows, and yellow bits peeking out from the sides and the front, all of which keeps his deco very faithful to the original toy. You also get some lovely silver on the front bumper and a tiny Autobot insignia on the hood. And so in the end, this vehicle may be a little modernized, but there’s no denying who this is supposed to be.

I was never a big fan of Brawn as a character, he always struck me as a jerk and even a bit of a bully in the original cartoon, but I loved his G1 figure for all its quirkiness and everything about this alt mode does that figure proud!

Despite being a Legends Class, Brawn can actually open up and take on a Titan Master driver! Here’s where things can get weird, because Hasbro already released a Titan Master pack with head robot named Brawn that transformed into Brawn’s head. So, yes, you can actually have Brawn driving himself around. That’s some weird and crazy Inception shit right there. What really cooks my noodle is that both of these figures had to be in production at the same time, as they’re both clearly designed for Titans Return, so why did Hasbro even bother making the Titan Master Brawn if they knew they were also making a proper Legends Class version of him. It really makes no sense.

Anywho… Transforming Brawn is as simple as it gets and it’s basically the same thing as a lot of the old school Minibots. I find that to be really refreshing and I wish Hasbro would embrace this kind of simplicity for the smaller figures more often. All you do is pull the arms out of the sides and fold the legs out of the back. OK, so Brawn cheats a little bit because you have to take off the the piece of the vehicle with the spare tire, but it’s hard to argue with the results, because Brawn looks absolutely fantastic.

I mean, just look at this little guy! I adore the fact that the structure of his blocky yellow torso is practically pulled directly from the original toy! He’s got some great proportions and all around a very clean and tidy robot mode. The only real kibble on him are his wheels and they look great on his shoulders and lower legs. Hasbro also saw fit to take away those unwieldy chromed metal meat hooks that the original toy called arms and instead give him proper sculpted fists with silver paint. Even from the back this little dude looks pretty good.

The head sculpt is also excellent. He features his trademark domed “helmet” with a face that sports a superb likeness to the animated Sunbow design. His face is painted with more of that lovely silver paint and his blue eyes are crisp. Brawn can also turn his head, which is something that can’t always be taken for granted with these Legends figures. Hasbro stamped another Autobot emblem on his chest and even broke out the blue paint expressly for that one little panel below it. Classy!

You have a few options as to what to do with the tire piece. You can have him hold it like a gun, as it does have those three sculpted emitters on it. He also has peg holes in the sides of his forearms so he can wear it like a shield. Personally, I don’t think it works all that convincingly as a gun or shield. Then again, that could be because I’m a middle aged guy that lacks the imagination and wonder of the child this toy was aimed at. Thankfully, you do have a third option…

Yup, just peg it right on his back. It really doesn’t add a lot more bulk to his backpack and in all honesty it looks like it was meant to go there anyway.

As far as I’m concerned, Brawn is a perfect modern update to the old toy and definitely ranks in among my favorite Transformers this year. Yes, I’d actually like to see more of the Minibot characters get the Deluxe Class makeover, but when the figure is this good, I’ll take what I can get. And it’s great figures like this one that makes me wonder why Hasbro can’t just take a crack at updating all the Minibots together in a timely manner. They’ve had some real hits with this one and Powerglide and even Generations Cosmos is a figure that still holds up very well. Sure, the last Bumblebee wasn’t so great, but I guess they can’t all be gems.

In case you hadn’t noticed, my last two Transformers Thursdays have been leading up to today, as I’ve been saving my most anticipated figure in this assortment for last: Gnaw the Sharkticon! First introduced in Transformers: The Movie, this ravenous horde of cybernetic beasties served as a form of execution for all who were condemned to death by The Quintessons. That sounds pretty bad ass, until you realize that the Sharkticons are a bunch of dumpy, goofy-looking dummies. Nonetheless, they were certainly something new and different and for whatever reason I thought they were cool. Unfortunately, they also came out at that weird time for me where I was still watching The Transformers cartoon, I definitely saw the movie, but I wasn’t really getting that many of the toys anymore. I kind of still wanted them, but my Christmas and Birthday gift requests were leaning more toward video games than toys. Which means that this Legends Class release is actually the first time I ever owned a Sharkticon. Am I excited? You betcha!

I’ve got something to say about Hasbro’s choice of size here, but first, can we just talk for a moment about that card art, because… HOLY SHIT LOOK AT THAT CARD ART! The bat-shit crazy, cracked-out green eyes, the massive teeth, the sharp claws. That particular flavor of nightmare fuel is not what I think about when I think about these guys. Kudos to whoever drew that, because it makes me see the Sharkticons in a whole new light. Now, about the size. When I first saw pictures of the toy, I was excited. Then I heard it was a Legends Class and I was really disappointed. Now I have the figure in hand and I’m realizing that it was a perfectly acceptable decision to go the Legends route. I’ll still argue that he’s a tad too small, but not so much so that I can’t accept him being in scale with the Deluxe figures. I’d also argue that the smaller size makes him more ideal for army building, but then I’ve had a hell of a time just getting my hands on one. Normally, I start my change-o-bot reviews with the alt modes, but let’s go with the robot mode this time…

I’ll just come right out and say it… I absolutely love this robot mode, but do I have a few complaints? Sure. The arms hanging off the backs of the feet is a textbook example of unsightly kibble. I kind of get the idea that the designer just threw up his hands and said, “Screw it… I got nowhere to go with them!” One might argue that they serve a function as heel spurs, but Gnaw already has those. I’ll also add that I wish the row of teeth in front of his head didn’t come up quite so high because it obscures his face quite a bit. But, with those gripes aside, I think this guy looks fantastic. The design manages to capture the familiar look of the G1 movie aesthetic and even smooth out the proportions a bit so he doesn’t look quite so ungainly. There are some lovely sculpted panel lines and detailing, and while a good deal of the coloring here is in the plastic as opposed to paint apps, the coloring is spot on perfect, right down to the bizarre choices of pink and blue used in the original toy, only more sparingly here. If I can get a couple extra Gnaws, I may try to color his teeth with a silver marker, but otherwise, I love the deco.

OK, so from the back, things aren’t as great. The top half of the alt mode is peeping back at you and looks like he’s going to wave. You also get some hollow areas and unfinished screws. Obviously, the Legends Class is held back a bit by budget and size, so let’s just say that it’s best not to look at Gnaw from the back.

Moving on to better things, the head sculpt is a wonderful update to the original toy. It’s not nearly as goofy looking. I always loved the shape of the Sharkticons’ “helmet” and they did a great job painting the eyes.

Like the original toy, Gnaw has a little spiked flail that he can wield in either hand and serves as his tail in his alt mode. And with that skillfully interjected segue, let’s turn to his alt mode. The transformation here has some cool and unexpected things going on and the result speaks for itself.

Yup, the “shark” mode represents pretty damn well, offering only a few things for me to nitpick. I don’t really care for the way his robot hands are exposed behind his feet and I wish that seam running down his face closed up a little better. Or perhaps I should say, I wish it stayed closed up a little better. Otherwise, I really love what we got here. The deco here shows off some more purple, and I can’t say enough great things about the plastic they used for his eyes. So much about this figure just feels so much more “premium” than your average Legends Class release, and that’s coming from someone who tends to really enjoy this Class quite a bit. The plastic looks and feels great, the colors pop, and even with some notable drawbacks in the design, the end result succeeds brilliantly.

I honestly didn’t know what I was going to think about Gnaw once I got him opened up. I wanted him to be great, but part of me was still wishing they had designed him as a Deluxe Class figure. Now, I’m not going to lie, part of me still wishes they had gone that route, but mostly because I’m curious as to what they would have done given a little more complexity of design. Truth be told, I’m totally satisfied with what we got in this little package and I’m going to do my best to try to track down as many of these little buggers as I can without paying scalper prices. The Sharkticon is an update that was long overdue, and Titans Return seems to be the perfect venue to revisit a lot of those overdue updates.

I cheated y’all out of last week’s Transformers Thursday because of holiday madness, so let’s bring it back home this week with a new Titans Return figure. This time I’m going back to the Legends Class to look at a certain Autobot that fans either love to hate, or hate to love… I can’t remember which.

So, what do you say? Let’s look at Wheelie today!

Of course, Legends is the smallest of the classes, unless you count the tiny Titan Masters and their little vehicles. The package is the same format that we last saw with Rewind, and I like the character art here even if it misleadingly suggests that there might be a slingshot in here somewhere. If you want that, you’ll have to rob it from the last release of Wheelie, a figure that I never bothered to pick up. And I’m glad I didn’t, because that one was a remolded Deluxe and I think this brand new Legends Class suits him better. Let’s bust him out and have a look at his alt mode first!

Wheelie’s vehicle mode is a little futuristic car, which certainly works for me! At least in theory. In practice, I could not get all the panels to lock together the way they should. The tabs are all there, it’s easy to see what’s supposed to be happening, but the tabs that are supposed to connect the arms to the hips kept popping out. I went in there with a razor and did a little shaving and he’ll hold together pretty well now, but I still get some gaps in those seams.

Looking past that issue, everything else is great here. The orange and yellow plastic is bright and snappy and it really suits the character. Toss in some of that lovely silver that Hasbro’s been using lately and this vehicle mode pops beautifully. There’s not a ton of sculpted detail here, but that fits because he’s supposed to look smooth and sleek. You do, however, get a few sculpted panel lines and some grills on the front and sides.

The canopy and the back each hinge upward and open to reveal a compartment for the driver. Wheelie’s head is not a Titan Master, but you can still take one from another figure and put him inside just like the Deluxe Class figures and that impresses the hell out of me. I grabbed Hyperfire here to demonstrate. I believe the Takara version will be coming with a Titan Master, just not one that can function as Wheelie’s head.

Wheelie has a couple of ports on his sides, but he doesn’t come with any weapons, so you’ll have to borrow that too if you want to weaponize his vehicle mode. Once again, I made use of Blurr to give him a side gun. I like the way Blurr’s rifle matches the silver accents on the car.

Give Wheelie a gun, because killing is fun!

Wheelie’s transformation is pretty cool, especially the way the driver compartment shrinks down and folds up into the chest. While I had some nits to pick with the vehicle mode and its troublesome gaps, I’ve got nothing but love for this little bot mode. He’s nicely proportioned and just looks fantastic. There’s some wonderful little touches on him too like the sculpted springs inside his hollow thighs. If only the budget had allowed Hasbro to paint those silver to make them stand out more. I may have to take a Gundam marker to them.

From the back, he looks a tad unfinished, but not bad at all. His arm kibble is a little more apparent here and it can get in the way sometimes, but it’s nothing that really bothers me. I really dig the way the quarter panels and wheels of the car fold in to fill out his lower legs.

Titans Return has given us some great head sculpts and Wheelie here is no exception. The bucket-style “helmet” is a good match for the characters G1 animated counterpart and the silver paint on the face and blue in the eyes looks great. The strategically placed Autobot emblem on the chest is also appreciated.

As is often the case with these Legends Class figures, you get a lot of ball joints for articulation. Shoulders, elbows, hips, knees are all ball jointed and the head can rotate. Wheelie is undoubtedly a fun little figure to play with and pretty well balanced too!

I sure as hell wasn’t screaming for a new Wheelie figure, but now that I have this little fellow in hand, I’m mighty glad Hasbro made him. Despite being the smaller class, he scales perfectly with the Generations and Titans Return Deluxes and he brings me another step closer to filling out my Sunbow Season 3 Autobots. I’d argue that this is one of the best Legends Class figures we’ve had in a while, and that’s saying something, because most of them have been damn good. Now, if only I could find that Legends Kickback for a decent price and complete my Insecticons, I’ll be a happy camper.

Well, I’ve done two days of horror figures for the week before Halloween, but today is Transformers Thursday and unless I want to run my feature on Mindwipe again, I got nothing both Halloweeny and Transformery to look at. Thinking back, I should have picked up Wheelie for today because he’s orange and slightly pumpkin shaped. But hindsight is 20-20, so instead, let’s check out Legends Class Rewind!

I find this packaging to be almost indistinguishable from the Combiner Wars Legends figures. Still not a huge fan of the design here, but I’m just going to shred it, so it’s no big deal. I will say that I dig the character art, especially since it isn’t a goofy picture of the character’s head flying off or docking. The sticker on the bubble tells me in four different languages that he’s compatible with something, but not what. Flip it over and I find that he does indeed work with the Leader Class Blaster because he’s a cassette… right? RIGHT??? Well, no.

OK, Hasbro, so you call this mode a “Spy Tablet.” I want to follow you on this. It’s the 21st century. Nobody uses cassettes anymore, so you don’t want to have the cassettes turn into cassettes. Tablets are a thing now, so you think, “let’s do that!” …But we’re also going to make the tablet’s screen look like a cassette for absolutely no logical reason at all. Well, here’s an idea. If you’re going to print a cassette tape on the screen of the shitty “Spy Tablet” mode… JUST MAKE THE GOD DAMN ALT MODE A CASSETTE!!!! I mean, seriously, for the love of Primus… what’s the point? Not to mention this thing looks more like a micro cassette recorder to me than any kind of phone or tablet. And not to kick an alt mode when its down, but the stickers on these look like crap and are already starting to peel off. I could end my rant right now, but I’m not going to.

Because, nothing about this alt mode makes sense to me. I think if I were eight years old, I’d be less confused about getting a toy that turned into a cassette. Especially since my parents are going to have to explain what that is on the sticker anyway. Not to mention the fact that he’s still designed to go into a portable stereo alt mode. And now I’m thinking about how happy I am they didn’t make Blaster transform into an iPod docking station. Also… HIS NAME IS REWIND!!! Hell, if I had a kid, I’d rather have to explain to him what a cassette tape was than have to explain that and why there’s a picture of a cassette on the screen of a data tablet… that’s named Rewind. Jeez! Who knew a slab of plastic could get me so upset? But, I’d seriously rather they just went with a straight out slab of plastic and called it a Data Slug mode. Or, here’s an idea… some kind of digital video camera.

If I had to say one good thing about this mode, the designers were clever enough to make it so that he can store his gun by tucking it in the side. That’s pretty cool. Well, at least he has another mode…

The tank mode! This isn’t exactly appropriate for Rewind as I know him, and as far as alt modes go, it’s pretty weak. It’s a tank in the most abstract sense of the word. At least the red and silver paint looks pretty sharp. Still, at least this is something I would be able to play with as a kid. There’s a port on the side of the turret that can take another weapon and there are tiny pegs on the top of the turret where you can stand some little head robots. All in all, it’s OK for a tacked on second alt mode, and frankly much better than the first.

Luckily the robot mode is here to save the day and make me quit my childish bitching over a toy designed for eight year olds. Yeah, his arms are a little beefy in general, and his forearms in particular are a bit ugly, as the right one looks finished and the left one is all hollowed out. Y’all know by now I’m not a big fan of this bare gray plastic, but in small amounts like this it doesn’t bother me so much and at least the red, silver, and yellow paint apps smarten him up quite a bit.

I also kind of dig that you can see a good part of the cassette sticker on the back, so I can delude myself into believing he turns into one. He does have hollow leg syndrome, but on a Legends Class toy, that’s to be expected.

The little head sculpt is fantastic, and they even sculpted on the little camera beside his visor. I wish they had painted it, but that will be an easy fix with a Gundam Marker. Yup, this is undoubtedly Rewind to me and i really dig this robot mode. Overall, there’s a good range of articulation here and that, combined with how solid he is, makes him a fun figure to play around with.

Rewind can hold his gun in either hand, or you can plug it into his forearm. That’s pretty cool.

Reunited and it feels so good!

I’ve been avoiding buying any of the so-called cassettes, simply because the animal ones look pretty lame. Keep in mind, that may change, because they’re pretty cheap and I’m a hopeless Transformers addict. But, I picked up this one simply because he’s Rewind and I needed him to put next to my Chromedome and finally reunite these two bots. He was a character I cared nothing about in the G1 continuity, but he sure as hell gave me the feels in MTMTE. And so shitty alt modes be damned, I’m glad I bought this guy because he’s a great little figure and he and Chromedome look great together!