In case you hadn’t noticed, Transformers Thursday has a Legends Class thang going on right now. I consider it a soothing balm to counteract the irritating diaper rash of that Bayformer marathon that I did. I’m also using these guys as a cleansing enema to wash out all the memory of Age of Extinction that remains like the red meat rotting away in my colon. Hey, this intro has gone to a scary and disgusting place, let’s check out Starscream and Waspinator!

Packaging! Seen it already! Starscream comes carded in his robot mode and Waspinator in his little buggy mode. Love the character art. This is how to design packaging, Hasbro! Notice it doesn’t look like that minimalist crap you’ve got on the shelves now! Let’s start with Starscream’s alt mode

I’m not sure if Hasbro was going for a specific model of jet here. It kind of looks like a cross between his original F-15 Eagle and more recent F-22 Raptor modes. Either way, it works for me. The sculpt isn’t overly encumbered with detail, but it gets by particularly thanks to the snappy red and white deco and the Decepticon insignia printed on his wings. The hole in his back is kind of ugly, but it’s obviously there so that Waspinator can ride on his back either in bug or blaster mode. I dig the way Starscream’s null ray cannons mount under his wings and he actually has a folding landing gear under his nose. Nice!

Transforming Starscream is very quick and easy but it still manages to pull off some impressive things. For starters, the wings position nicely on his back so that the Decepticon emblems are facing out and it’s pretty cool how his arm cannons don’t have to be detached for the transformation. I also like how nothing on his robot mode is faked out.

Overall, I think the robot mode here is fantastic. Yes, the shoulder intakes are rather underdeveloped and he’s a tad chunky in the middle, but I’m really nitpicking on what is an otherwise great looking figure. The tiny head sculpts in this line have been surprisingly detailed and Starscream’s may be the best I’ve seen yet. How did they pack that much personality and detail into such a teeny tiny noggin? The articulation is a tad more limited than the other Legends I’ve looked at, but he’s still got plenty of playability. You get ball joints in the shoulders, elbows, and hips, and hinges in the knees. Not bad for such a little guy. He can also wield his arm cannons as guns.

Starscream’s Targetmaster buddy is Waspinator and he is hands down my favorite of these little guys so far. The bug mode is excellent and Hasbro crammed a ridiculous amount of detail into this tiny sculpt. I particularly love the cybernetic elements on the wings. I think his robot mode is a little better than what I’ve seen with Roller and Blazemaster, mainly because the wasp head actually folds down to form his chest and his arms are quite well defined. And again, look at that tiny head… that’s certainly a good likeness to the Beast Wars character packed into something smaller than the head of a nail.

Waspinator’s blaster mode is OK. It’s basically a wasp with his back morphed into a gun barrel. It’s probably on par with Blazemaster’s gun mode but it’s quite large for the Legends Class figures. Starscream can wield it OK, but I think it works better if you give it to a Deluxe or Voyager Class figure.

Hot damn, I’m still loving this Legends line! Everything about these guys feels like they’re made with extra love. Starscream is an excellent little figure and I’m certainly going to go all in when Hasbro finally gets the Thundercracker and Skywarp repaints onto the pegs. I’m so glad I came to these little figures so late in the game because right now they’re giving me a port in the storm while the shelves are full of AoE toys that I don’t want to get involved in. Next Thursday… Megatron!

It’s Transformers Thursday again and today I’m looking at my second Legends Class figure from the Generations line. Prime and Bumblebee were my first two forays into these little guys and it’s safe to say that I am now I’m hooked.

The packaging is similar to what we saw last Thursday. Again, I’ll say that I love the G1-style grid pattern and the great character artwork. This kind of deco grabs my attention when passing through the toy aisles every single time, even if I know I’m all caught up on the figures that are out. It just kindles that warm and fuzzy feeling down in my nethers. Bumblebee comes packaged in his robot mode and his Targetmaster buddy, Blazemaster comes in his tiny helicopter mode. Let’s start with Bumblebee in his alt mode.

Bee’s vehicle mode is a compact yellow sports car, which I think is supposed to be his IDW mode before he became the generic Camero knock-off. Or is that after? In case you can’t tell, I tend to read the Transformers comics that don’t prominently feature Bumblebee. Either way this is a perfectly fine “we don’t have the VW Beetle license or the Chevy Camero license for this toy so let’s just make him a generic car” alt mode. It’s still totally in character with how I think of Bumblebee and maybe even a little reminiscent of the Classics alt mode.

I’m usually not a fan of this yellow swirly plastic, but when used in small quantities like this, I don’t have a big problem with it. The black painted windows look good and there are even some red stripes on the hood and silver paint hits for the bumper and lights. It’s crazy, but this tiny car mode actually has more varied paint apps than Deluxe Bumblebee from the TF: Prime line. Why does it seem like Hasbro gives these little guys so much more love?

Bumblebee’s transformation is pretty fascinating for such a little figure and even manages to pull off a head reveal that works better than half that MechTech shit Hasbro used to use on the bigger figures. I’m particularly impressed by the way the sides of the car pack into his forearms and auto-morph his hands. The head sculpt is fantastic, right down to his iconic little horns, and the face is very neatly painted. I also dig the way his spoiler lands behind his head.

The end result is a remarkably well proportioned and great little homage to the War for Cybertron Bumblebee. Seriously, just look at this little guy! He’s definitely one of my favorite Bumblebee figures to come out in a long time. Even the articulation on this guy is great. You get ball joints in the shoulders, elbows, and hips and hinges in the knees. The only thing missing is head articulation, but his noggin is so tiny, I can easily forgive that.

Bumblebee’s Targetmaster unfortunately bears the name of one of the worst Deluxe Transformers I’ve ever had the displeasure of owning: Blazemaster. He’s a little blue helicopter and not a great one at that. In this case it feels as if Hasbro sacrificed the alt mode for a better gun mode, which makes him the opposite of Optimus Prime’s Roller. His robot mode is pretty piss-poor too, but maybe I’m expecting just a little too much from these tiny guys. Either way, I think it would have been so much cooler if they went for the Armada Hot Rod reference and painted this guy red and called him Jolt.

Blazemaster’s gun mode actually works pretty well with Bumblebee. It’s still pretty big, but it looks like he can actually wield it, unlike Prime with Roller. I dig the way you can detach the blades and put them on Bee’s other arm or even mount them on his back.

Legends Bumblebee is the kind of toy that I want to stuff in my pocket and take with me to play with on my downtime throughout the day. If I owned this as a kid, it would have been taken away from me at school. Hell, I’ll probably end up bringing it to work and it’ll get taken away from me at a Financials Meeting because I won’t stop playing with it. I never would have guessed that I’d be so impressed with these little Legends toys, but so far Optimus and Bumblebee have really scratched my itch. Next week, we’ll keep the Legends ball rolling and maybe check out a Decepticon!