Tag Archives: transformers generations

Sep 18 2010

Transformers Generations: Autobot Drift by Hasbro

Drift was a strange choice for the Generations line. With so many classic and popular Autobots and Decepticons awaiting their chance at an updated form, it just seems odd to be introducing a brand new character to what is essentially a line of updated classic figures. In fact, the only other Transformers figure to bear the name was a Minicon. Does that make Drift any less welcome? Nope. Mainly because he happens to be one of the coolest designed Autobots I’ve seen in a while.

Drift comes mounted on the new Generations style card in his vehicle mode. The artwork is nice and there’s a cool bio blurb on the back about how he used to fight for the Decepticons. Good thing I open these things, because I ordered my Drift figure from Walmart online. The .97 cent shipping is a great deal, but the cards get totally mangled in the paper shipper envelopes they use.

Drift’s car form is a somewhat generic, but overall nice looking sports car. I like the clear windows, the spoiler and profile are also nice. On the downside Drift’s colors are a pretty blah. He’s mostly white with some red splashes on his sides and red stripes on his hood. He’s also got Asian-style emblems emblazoned on his doors, which I’m not crazy about. This guy could have at least used a little more silver to liven things up. I have to imagine that Hasbro has a repaint of this figure in mind and I’ll be looking forward to it, because a figure this well designed really needed a more interesting paint job.

In robot mode, Drift is just plain cool, thanks to a fairly unique style of transformation and some really neat features. The way his legs fold out of the rear of the car is nothing new, but I absolutely love the way the front quarter panels become his shoulders, along with some snazzy double-hinged plate action. Not only does it look great, but it adds to the arm articulation quite a bit. The way the windshield becomes his chest is also a bit different to what we’ve seen before and it looks nice. Drift also has a great, classic looking head sculpt. His mostly white paint scheme as a car gives way to more of a two tone in his robot form, which I’ll confess looks quite good.

Now, I’ll admit I’m not all that big a fan of swords and knives with my Transformers. But even I cannot deny that the real cool thing about Drift is the way his doors become scabbards with removable tanto knives. I absolutely love the way this feature was designed. Very clever. Drift also comes with a huge two handed sword that stores on his back while he’s in robot form or underneith his auto form. Awesome! Every last detail of this figure’s sculpt and transformation were amazingly well conceived.

Based on the initial news, I wasn’t all that happy that Drift was going to be taking up a precious slot in the Generations line up, but now that I have him in hand, I’ll admit he’s a fantastic figure and well worthy of a seat amongst the other Classics style Autobots. I’ll still be looking out for that repaint, though, and right now I’m thinking that in a repainted form, he’d make a mighty fine Decepticon.

Sep 10 2010

Transformers Generations: Cybertronian Bumblebee by Hasbro

The first wave of Generations figures included two figures from the Transformers video game, The War for Cybertron. These are heavily G1-based reinventions of the characters we all know and love, only in their Cybertronian (ie. Pre-Earth) forms. We already looked at one of these two figures, Optimus Prime, now it’s time to look at the spunky little Autobot warrior, Bumblebee.

 

The War for Cybertron figures come on the same cards as the regular Generations figures. Unlike the other Generations Transformers, however, Prime and Bumblebee are both carded in their robot forms. I’m still loving the artwork on these cards. The back features a cool little bio blurb about Bumblebee being a courier on Cybertron. Oh yeah, my card is bent to shit because it was shipped by Walmart Online in an unprotected mailer bag. That’s not a complaint mind you. At 97 cents for shipping, I’ll happily accept a mangled card.

Bumblebee’s Cybertron from is an egg-like car. It’s a really cool design that looks like something straight out of Tron. The windows are clear, tinted plastic and the car rolls along really nicely. There’s not a lot else to say about this alt form. It’s obviously not the design from the original cartoon series, as that Bumblebee was more like a hovercraft with stubby wings. Still, this is a nice, original design that suits the character really well. Unfortunately converting him into his alt mode is a real bastard. Bumblebee is primarily a shell-former, and even when all his parts are folded in perfectly, I still can’t seem to eliminate all the gaps on his various plates. At least he does lock together pretty well.

Bumblebee’s robot mode is pretty good, although it has a few sticking points. His torso is a little abbreviated, and at certain angles he seems to have the physique of Dr. Robotnick from Sonic the Hedgehog. If you’re scoping him out from behind he looks particularly bulbous because he’s wearing half his car shell as a backpack. I really love the new head sculpt, though. He’s still got the little G1-inspired horns too. I also love the way parts lock around his wheels to form his feet. It’s very clever. The good definitely outweighs the bad here and I think he makes a fine figure.

Bumblebee has two red, translucent retractable energon blades on his arms and he also comes with a blaster pistol that can be stowed away in either his robot or vehicle forms.

You can pick up Bumblebee for around $11.99 at most toy retailers. These have been pretty easy figures to find, at least in my parts. I’m not quite as fond of him as I am the Optimus Prime figure, but he’s still quite a good figure in both design and execution. Thus far, the Generationsline is batting 4 for 4. Now, bring on Soundwave and Megatron!!

 

Aug 13 2010

Transformers War for Cybertron: Optimus Prime by Hasbro

I don’t play a lot of video games these days. Well, at least not nearly as much as I used to back in my game junkie days. But I did pick up War for Cybertron and I played it like crack until I was done and then started it all over again. Besides being a great game, it really brought the characters to life and featured some downright fantastic re-designs of some of my favorite childhood characters. Needless to say, when I found out that some of these designs would be transformed into figures for the Generations line, I was mighty excited. The initial assortment features Optimus Prime and Bumblebee, and today we’re going to look at Prime.

Hasbro opted to include these in the Generations line so you get the exact same style of package as we saw with Thrust. Prime is mounted in his Cybertron truck form. Its a very appealing presentation, but I would have liked something different about the card to make the War for Cybertron figures stand out a bit more. Even a sticker on the bubble might have been nice. Then again, I just rip these things open, so what do I care?



But wait, what’s this? Optimus Prime’s a Deluxe? Yeah, that doesn’t happen too often, and I don’t think it should have happened here. Granted, in the game, Prime wasn’t much taller than his fellow Autobots, but I still think Hasbro should have made this figure a Voyager Class. Not only because Prime is usually taller, but for reasons of the figure’s complexity that we’ll get to in a minute. With the popularity and press about the game, you’d think some Voyager sized toys wouldn’t have been that big risk. I mean, even Sea Spray is a Voyager so… come on!

I love the design of Prime’s truck mode. Its got a retro look to it, what with the curving shape of the front quarter panels and the grill, and yet it still looks futuristic. Its also got no windows, which makes sense, because, afterall, in his natural Cybertron form, why would he have windows? The truck mode locks together really well and rolls along great. There’s a socket on the top that you can peg his gun into, which is great because in the game, all the Autobots packed quite a bit of firepower in their alternate forms.


Transforming Prime is a daunting task, at least the first couple of times. The package lists him as a Level 4 Advanced conversion, and they’re not kidding around. There’s a lot of moving parts on this guy and more than a few double hinged pieces that need to be moved just right to get everything else to work. I can usually work out my Transformers without instructions, especially Deluxes, but I had to glance at Prime’s a few times to get it right. Still, after a few conversions, he’s not so bad. In fact, this is one of the more clever transformations I’ve seen in a while.

In robot mode, Prime is just a fantastic looking figure. In fact, he’s one of my favorite looking Prime figures in quite a while. His head sculpt is classic Prime, but with a few more stylized features, like the longer ear antenna. I like how this design leaves in the chest “windshields” even though they aren’t part of the truck design. The various bits of the truck’s outer shell fall into line nicely to form pieces of armor for his shoulders and non-obtrusive back plating. Its a really elegant design and a really convincing concept of what a pre-Earth Prime should have looked like.

Prime has great articulation, which includes a rotating head, ball joints in the shoulders and hips and hinged elbows and knees. His joints feel pretty loose right out of the package, but he doesn’t have much trouble standing or holding his positions.


Cybertronian Optimus Prime retails for around $11.99, which is about right for Deluxes these days and actually not bad for a figure of this complexity. Actually, he’s an amazing enough figure that I would have probably paid a lot more for him if I had to. I sincerely hope he sells well, because I’d like to see a lot of figures produced from the War for Cybertron game beyond the handful that we’ve seen so far. The early pictures for Soundwave look great. Now bring on the Seekers, Warpath, Ironhide, Sideswipe, etc. etc.

 

Aug 12 2010

Transformers Generations: Thrust by Hasbro

When Hasbro came out with Starscream and Skywarp in the Classics line, I thought they were among some of the best Transformers figures ever produced… and I still do. They took the classic design of the G1 toys and made them into the actual articulated action figures that I always wanted to own as a kid. I’m sure I wasn’t alone in being pissed off that Hasbro decided not to complete the set with Thundercracker. And even when we did get Ramjet later on, Dirge and Thrust were nowhere to be found, unless you lived in Japan or were willing to drop a couple hundred dollars for them on Ebay.

Well, with the Classics line once again renamed (this time as Generations), we are finally getting another Decepticon Seeker here in the States. While I would have preferred Thundercracker to complete my set of the original three, Thrust here is still a very nice pick-up. Let’s take a look…

I like the packaging on the Generations Deluxe figures. Yes, Generations. What used to be Classics and then Universe (Universe 2.0 to many fans) is now Generations. The cards feature unique character art, and the large bubble shows off the figure nicely in its jet mode, although its kind of odd that he’s carded with his VTOL engines mounted under the back wings. The back panel has a photo of Thrust in his robot mode and the usual little bio blurb. There’s a new sticker on the bubble advertising Hasbro’s upcoming TV network, which will be the home of the new Transformers series. Ah, but packaging was made to be ripped open, so let’s get to the figure inside.

Thrust is one great looking jet. The brown and deep crimson colors are extremely close to the original G1 toy and the clear golden cockpit looks striking against the darker colors. The main body of this figure is naturally a reuse of the Ramjet body, with the new wing designs, complete with removable VTOL engine pods. You can also mount Thrust’s rocket launchers under the rear wings if you prefer. Next to Skywarp, Thrust here is now my favorite of the modern Decepticon seeker jet designs.

Converting Thrust to robot form is fairly simple, but I’m not sure I would agree with the package in calling it Easy. Especially not since these are designed for little kids. Either way, he transforms exactly the same way as the other Seekers, until you get to his wings and there you have a couple of options. You can transform him the same as Starscream or Skywarp, or you can remove the VTOLs from his larger wings and mount them on the smaller wings near his feet. Going with this second option gives him a little more clearance for moving his arms.

Either way, Thrust looks awesome in his robot mode. Hasbro did a fine job making this figure resemble its original animated counterpart. As with the other newly designed Seekers, I do wish the missiles weren’t so large. I realize its a safety issue, but I would have preferred they just molded these into non-firing laser cannons to make them smaller and more animation accurate. Still, with a figure this good, I’m just nit picking. Thrust has solid articulation. He can turn his head. He has universal movement in his shoulders and upper legs, and his elbows and knees are hinged. Essentially, he can do all the things I wished my G1 Seekers could do.

Thrust retails at $11.99. The price of the Deluxe figures are slowly creeping up there, but I don’t think they’ve reached unreasonable levels yet. That’s especially the case when you take a look at how much the Henkei Thrust was selling for on Ebay or import toy sites. Either way, I’m really happy with this figure and I’ve got new hope that we may yet still see Dirge and Thundercracker on this side of the Pacific.