Tag Archives: transformers

May 24 2023

Transformers Legacy Evolution: Scraphook by Hasbro

I have pulled waaay back on collecting Transformers, mainly because Hasbro has been drifting away from the G1 stuff in favor of other eras. And that’s fine! They’ve given me most of what I’ve wanted in terms of G1 remakes, and it’s time to spread some of that love to the collectors who are nostalgic for the Unicron Trilogy stuff. Plus, it saves me money so it’s a Win-Win. But, I do have a backlog of convertorobots that I have not checked out on FFZ, and I’m going to try to give them the spotlight here and there, even if some of them are pretty dated by now. I especially want to get to those Legacy Stunticons! But today I’m keeping it small and simple with a new Deluxe Class Junkion!

The Legacy packaging is kind of a mixed bag to me. It’s a lot more eye catching than some of the previous lines’ packaging, but it starts to melt my retinas if I look at it too long. I also have no idea what this Evolution stuff is all about. We’re still on the windowless packaging, and instead of a fully enclosed box part of the toy is open to the air so kids can put their sticky, disgusting fingers all over the toy before you buy it. I should note that Scraphook is an unusual figure in that he’s somewhat similar to the Weaponizers that we got during the Siege line. He does transform, but he’s also meant to be taken apart and mixed and matched with other toys. That’s probably fun for the kids, but it’s really not my bag. Anyway, let’s start with the alt mode.

Scraphook’s vehicle mode looks like a tow truck from a Mad Max film, and I am totally down with that! He’s got a delightfully drab deco of rust brown and dark gray, with a little orange to spice things up. The windows are all reinforced with armored vents, the front has some vicious looking ramming blades, the engine is exposed through the hood, there are some bitchin exhaust pipes on the back, and he’s got a spiked tire on the back, along with his big tow hook. Everything about this truck is just too cool!

Oddly enough, Scraphook’s alt mode struck me as being really small when I got him, but comparing it to some other Deluxes showed me that it really isn’t the case. I’ll do some comparisons at the end with another Deluxe Autobot tow truck, Hoist. Scraphook doesn’t actually come with any weapons to plug into his vehicle mode, but there are plenty of ports if you want to borrow some guns from another figure. All in all, this is just a great sculpt and a super fun vehicle that’s perfect for a Junkion.

Before transforming Scraphook, you have to strip him of some of his parts, and some more traditional Transformers fans may not be happy about that. But he’s not really a parts-former, because all of the stuff that comes off is just kind of extras. The parts include his two sets of exhaust pipes, his tow hook, his spiked tire, and his engine, which splits into two parts. You can omit all of these pieces and still transform Scraphook into his bot mode, but his robot mode is definitely enhanced by these extra bits.

And here he is all transformed and looking pretty damn good… and small! I may have been mistaken about thinking his alt mode was small, but his robot mode actually is pretty tiny for a Deluxe. Here, I’ve attached his exhaust pipes to his shoulders, put his spiked wheel on his left arm, attached his tow hook to the back, and we’ll get to the engine block pieces in a bit. Now, I really dig this robot mode a lot and just like his alt mode, it makes for a great looking Junkion. The robot mode casts off some of that rust brown and shows a lot more orange, which makes the figure pop a lot more in this mode. My only nitpick of the design is the long flat feet are kind of weird when viewed from the side or back. I do wish these folded up and tabbed into the backs of the lower legs. I think that would have looked a lot better. And keep in mind, there are sockets all over this guy, so what you do with those extra pieces is up to you. This is just my preferred look for him.

Scraphook has some pretty good poseability and thanks to some nice ankle rockers, he can keep those big slabs of feet flat on the ground in wide stances. My figure does have some issues with his elbows, which are simple friction hinges that love to pop off and are extremely loose. I can get his arms to stay bent for a while, but they will eventually flop down if given enough time. I’m not sure if this is a problem with my figure or the design in general, but at $25, it shouldn’t be an issue.

Hasbro went all out on the head sculpt for this guy. He’s got a rounded brown “helmet” with a pronounced mohawk-like crest in the middle I also dig that he’s got a plate bolted over his left eye. Scraphook also has some sculpted facial hair in the form of a mustache and goatee, which became all the rage after Transformers: The Movie. I’ve never been a huge fan of that, but it kind of fits with the Junkions, I guess. The face paint is dark gray instead of the silver we’re used to seeing, which is also pretty fitting for a Junkion. All in all, this portrait has a ton of personality and I love it!

The two pieces of his engine become handguns, which is pretty cool. Or you can socket these on his body in various places. Not bad!

And as I mentioned earlier, Scraphook is designed to come apart at the shoulders and knees. You can use this to mix and match with other compatible figures in either robot or vehicle modes. Like I said, this gimmick isn’t really my bag, but it’s probably fun for the kiddos. The connections stay put pretty well when fiddling with him in alt mode, but they did separate a few times while I was transforming him.

I like Scraphook, but I fall just short of loving him. He gets major points for great looking alt and robot modes, but his robot mode is way too small for a $25 Deluxe. Add to that the issues with the shoulders, and he just feels grossly overpriced. It’s also a shame that he doesn’t display well with the Studio Series Junkions, but having a tow truck about half the size of a motorcycle is a bummer. Yeah, I know. Transformers scaling has always been wonky, and that’s true. These are also from two completely different lines, so there’s no reason they should be able to cohabitate on the shelves, but with a design this cool it would have been nice to see him in that larger scale. Maybe I will pick up Crashbar to at least have another Junkion that scales well with him as a bot. This guy is also being remolded and repainted into what I believe will be the first Decepticon Junkion, so that may be worth a look too!

Mar 31 2023

Transformers: Legacy Evolution Shrapnel by Hasbro

Last year, Hasbro gave us Kickback and the promise of getting the Insecticon band back together with new versions. I absolutely adore the Insecticons, and so this made me happy. Then Kickback came out and I absolutely loved him, and that made me happy. But as the old saying goes, fool me once! Because the last time Hasbro did the Insecticons, they started strong and we ended up with a team that didn’t really look like they belonged together. I was worried the same thing would happen here, and so I waited with baited breath for the second release, and here he is. Let’s check out Shrapnel.

We’ve seen the Legacy packaging before, and while I admit it’s rather eye catching in all it’s crazy colors, it doesn’t really scream Transformers to me. All I need in my Transformers packaging is a grid pattern, and either some purple or red to denote faction. Also, what’s this Evolution business? I still don’t know. Hasbro is still refusing to put plastic windows on the boxes, because of saving the planet or whatever, but I get my Transformers online, so there aren’t any kids to put their sticky fingers on my toy or wipe boogers on them. Now the Amazon employees do that. I am pleased to see that somehow Hasbro secured Shrapnel’s name again, as last time I think he was called Skrapnel. Also, the packaged shot showcases the thing about this figure that triggers me the most. Can you guess what it is?

Here’s Shrapnel’s beetle mode and it’s pretty good! But let’s get that one thing that triggers me out of the way first. Somewhere along the way, Hasbro decided to not paint the antenna-slash-pincers silver like it is in the solicitation photos. Instead they left them bare gray and it looks positively awful. I understand that if you read the fine print on the package it actually states that final production appearance may vary, but it still pisses me off, particularly when you look at the price hikes on these little Deluxes. I will give Hasbro credit on two points: First, it’s not a fully enclosed box so at least you can see what you’re getting if you buy him in the store. Secondly, they actually reflect the change in the official package shot online. Of course, I pre-ordered, so the first whiff I got of the change was when I took him out of the shipping box and looked at him.

Other than all of that bitching, I think the alt-mode here is fine. It locks together well and I like how the pincers will open and close without revealing the robot head. The translucent yellow chest plate with the silver plastic behind it and the Decepticon logo stamped on top looks fantastic. Plus, you get that most regal of all Decepticon colors: Black and purple. I also appreciate the use of gloss black paint on the body, as it resembles the diecast of the original toy. There’s some nice silver, red, and blue trim here and there and if it weren’t for that gray plastic, this little bug bot would be a total home run.

Shrapnel comes with two weapons, and you can peg them into his back to weaponize the beetle mode. And look, the G1-inspired gun is actually painted silver, making the ugly gray pincers stand out even more. Yeah, I know. I should get over it. Let’s get him transformed into his robot mode.

Hasbro didn’t muck up the rather simple transformation design from the original figures. Sure, it’s a bit more complex, but it’s still in the spirit of the original toy and it’s still quick, easy, and comfy. Like the beetle mode, Shrapnel’s robot form is a pitch perfect homage to the G1 toy only with better proportions and more articulation. Hey, did I mention how bad the pincers look without silver paint? Oh yeah. I did. Everything else here is just superbly done. You get most of the same beautiful colors on display in his bug mode, and that wonderful yellow chest plate is front and center. I could complain that the upper legs aren’t painted silver too, but that really doesn’t bother me at all. Just the pincers. See… I’m reasonable! From the back, he’s pretty well filled out, except for the hollow upper legs and backs of the pincers.

The head sculpt is also spot on perfect from his big red visor to his silver painted face. You had the silver paint out, Hasbro. It was on the table. You just had to use some more of it on those pincers, dammit!

The two guns are pretty cool, but I’ll mainly just be displaying him with the G1-inspired silver weapon. The purple one can be combined with it a couple of different ways, which is fun, but I don’t like how either of them look enough to go with it.

So, I was really pissed when I opened this figure and saw the pincers, but you probably get that from having read the same complaint over and over again. What I did not expect to happen was to get past it, but get past it I eventually did. At some point the rest of the figure’s merits won me over and I was willing to let it go. And since, Hasbro did something different with Kickback’s wings instead of painting them silver, the two figures do pair up pretty well and look great together. So all that’s left is to see what Hasbro is going to do with Bombshell. If they paint his head cannon silver it’ll make Shrapnel look worse, so I guess the only thing to do is to embrace the gray plastic. We’ll see. But for now, I’m actually really happy with these two, although I won’t be retiring my third party bug bots by Bad Cube any time soon.

Mar 20 2023

Transformers (Studio Series 86) Sludge by Hasbro

How about we start the week with some Transformers, eh? Seems like a little while since I checked back in with Hasbro’s Change-o-Bots! With Hasbro’s reveal that Snarl is coming, it has occurred to me that I am not current on reviewing the previous giant metal dinosaur convertobots. I have checked out Grimlock and Slag (SLAG, I SAYS!), so let’s get caught up with the last of the original Dinobot trio and have a look at Sludge!

The packaging has changed a bit since Slag’s release. The window is gone and Sludge comes in a fully enclosed box with some fantastic character art on the front showing Sludge battling it out with some Sharkticons in his dinosaur mode. It’s kind of interesting that they went with the dino mode on the front, seeing as how the window boxes used to show off the figure in the robot mode. Either way, this works fine. Also worth mentioning is that Sludge does not come with a companion figure. Grimlock came with a semi-articulated Wheelie and Slag came with Daniel in his Exo-Suit. And that’s fine, because I didn’t particularly care for either of those figures and they quickly got pitched into the dreaded Tote of Forgotten Accessories. But naturally Hasbro used the plastic saved here to include swords for everybody, right? No! No, they didn’t. Let’s start with Sludge’s dino mode.

Naturally, Sludge’s alt mode is still a Brontosaurus, or whatever they call this type of dinosaur nowadays. Them science types have been up to a lot of revisionist history since I was in school. Straightaway, I’m going to say that I think Sludge has the best looking alt mode of any of the Studio Series Dinobots so far. They’ve all been good, but Grimlock had some proportion issues and Slag had a bit of a patchwork look to him, but Sludge here is mostly comprised of a really nice and well-rounded shell. He’s got a lot of dark gray with some silver panels making up his hump and tail, a little red showing near his hind legs, and some beautiful satin gold paint on his back, undercarriage and finally his head. Slag let me down a bit with that cream colored plastic they used for his cowl, but all the coloring on Sludge just looks fantastic. The panel lining on Sludge’s hide is especially nice, with all sorts of cybernetic bits and bobs. Almost every inch of this guy has some detail to take in.

The head sculpt is also superb. There’s so much personality in that snap-dragon of a head! I dig the narrow blue eyes, and the nasty looking serrated teeth. With the past Dinobots, I have lamented Hasbro abandoning the translucent yellow plastic of the G1 toys, but I honestly don’t miss it here. I think the satin gold used for the head and upper neck just looks so beautiful in its place. You also get a decent amount of articulation here with not only the hinged jaw and side to side rotation, but the ability for the head to look down. The legs rotate where they connect to the body and have hinges midway down, giving him just enough poseability that I would expect.

I guess if I had to nitpick something with Sludge’s dino mode, it would be the seam on his back can be a bit tough to keep closed, and even when it is closed up, it’s designed to still look like there’s a bit of a gap there. His belly hangs really low to the ground too because of his golden bot-mode toes being down there. But that’s not a big deal. There’s a compartment under there to store his weapon, since unlike Slag, it isn’t incorporated into his dino mode. And while I’m still nitpicking, last time I commented about how I thought Slag’s transformation was a bit needlessly complex. The original Dinobot designs had some elegant engineering, which I would argue could be modernized without messing with them all that much. Sludge here still feels like they went out of their way to make his transformation more complex. Now, I know that some people expect more complex engineering with the bigger and more expensive figures, so that’s not necessarily going to be a sticking point for a lot of people. And to be fair it isn’t really that big of one for me either. After a few goes, I was able to do the transformation without any difficulty.

Getting Sludge converted, reveals a robot mode that is as faithful as the previous two Studio Series Dinobot releases. Sludge is an absolute tank of a robot, very befitting of the original design. In fact, I’d say this one cleans up the best as far as modernizations go. The proportions are all smoothed out, and his wings are a more full and robust than the G1 toy. There’s some impressive packing going on in the lower legs, but I am glad they left the tail sections on the outside of the legs, as it beefs them up. Unfortunately, Sludge does still have the weird elbow hinges, where the hinges are all the way to the front. There’s something about that design that doesn’t sit right with me, but it’s certainly not a deal-breaker. The backside is just a solid slab of robot, with the dino head and neck hanging straight down. It looks very nice and finished, making for a solid and highly playable figure. As for the coloring, it’s all most of what we saw in the dinosaur mode, only with more red revealed in the torso. This is just a fantastic looking figure all the way around!

The portraits have been great in this group so far, and Sludge is no exception His “helmet” is black with the two little angled slats on each side and a large silver coffin-shaped plate on his forehead. The silver paint looks good, but mine has some wear on the forehead plate, giving him an unintentionally weathered look. His blue eyes came out really nice, and makes me wish there was some light piping on these. I also love the bold and crisp Autobot emblem stamped on his chest.

I’ve already established that there’s no sword, which continues to be a huge oversight by Hasbro, leaving third parties to pick up the slack. Sludge does, however, come with a gun and it’s pretty damn nice. It’s cast in black plastic with some gold paint on the barrel and ont he scope.

I’m pretty sure I said this last time, but it still confounds me that Takara never produced a full set of Masterpiece Dinobots. Grimlock’s MP figure went through a whole bunch of releases and seemed like he was always in demand. I can’t imagine that Slag and Sludge would have done any worse. Then Power of the Primes came along and gave us some nice looking versions, which were way too small and sacrificed way too much for what I thought was a terrible and unnecessary combiner mode. So, thank Primus for these Studio Series releases. Sludge marks the first time since G2 that we got a solid set of this trio from Hasbro based on the original designs, and I am extremely pleased with how they all came out. They are appropriately sized, look great in both modes, and having all three together on the shelf makes for an absolutely awesome display! Now bring on Snarl and Swoop!

Nov 30 2022

Transformers (Studio Series 86) Rumble by Hasbro

My schedule is really tight this week, and I wasn’t sure I was going to make it back here at all after Monday, but I was hankering to open up a new toy, and I just managed to squeeze in enough time this afternoon to shoot Studio Series Rumble. I haven’t really been collecting any of the Core Class figures, but I absolutely had to grab Rumble to see how well he would go with my Earthrise Soundwave!

Good God, I hate this packaging! Either go with a fully enclosed box, or go back to plastic windows, Hasbro! It’s bad enough that I have to risk getting a robot with boogers and candy residue stuck on it, but in a moment you’ll see my new reason to hate this packaging. So, I had this guy on pre-order through an online retailer, but I just so happened to stumble upon Rumble at the store while doing some food shopping. This was the only one they had and the box was smashed, but I decided I would get him anyway and cancel the pre-order later. Then I got home and opened him…

And this is what I saw! Now I’m going to assume that one of his Thruster Guns wasn’t actually stolen, but rather it just fell out of the sleeve and right out of the package BECAUSE IT HAS NO GODDAMN WINDOW TO KEEP THE SHIT IN IT!!! Now, this is not a huge deal, because I do still have the pre-order in place, but still… this is some serious bullshit. If having plastic windows on packaging means the world has to drown in its own seas of chemical soup so I can get my toys with all their accessories, then so be it! But this shit has got to stop, Hasbro. If you aren’t going to enclose the box, you need to secure the accessories better. Anyway, let’s get Rumble clipped off the backing and check him out.

I should take this opportunity to point out how much I absolutely love Rumble in the Sunbow cartoon. He had more personality than a lot of the other Decepticons, and a spectacular Napoleon complex to make up for his small size. On that note, it’s with the highest of praise that I say how great this little figure turned out. The sculpt is fantastic, particularly the circuitry on his chest that mimics the original toy very nicely. You also get a surprisingly diverse color palate for such a small figure. In addition to the two-tone blue and purple plastic, you get some off-white for the feet, some metallic purple accents, and even some red and yellow panels in the legs. The head sculpt is also just about perfect. I don’t know why, but I love how puffy his cheeks look. It’s like he’s pondering on something stupid to say. You want me to nitpick something? OK, I wish the feet were painted silver. Maybe I’ll try out a Sharpie on them, since I’ll eventually have two of these little buggers. Articulation is surprisingly good too, although the lack of elbows is a little disappointing.

If you are lucky enough to get both Thruster Guns, they can be worn on his back, or pegged to his forearms, just like the original G1 figure. Like the feet, I would have loved to see these painted silver, but with all the rest of the coloring on the figure, I can see why that didn’t cost out.

Of course, you also get the attachable pile drivers, which are absolutely fantastic. To put them on, you just fold in Rumble’s fists and socket them in. The pistons don’t actually move, but boy does he look great with these things equipped.

The transformation here is about what I expected. It’s nothing groundbreaking, but it does make for a decent cassette tape, and thank Primus for that! He doesn’t turn into a data chip or a PDA, or a chunky disk. It gives me a little sadistic pleasure that a lot of kids are going to have no idea what the hell this is supposed to be. Meanwhile I’m still over here using one of these ancient beauties to load Zaxxon on my Atari 400 computer!

And his cassette mode does indeed fit into Earthrise Soundwave. It’s a tad snug, but it works! Let’s check out some comparison shots with the other recent cassette releases!

I think Rumble is a huge improvement over Eject, as far as cassette to robots go. I don’t want to hate on Eject, because I actually like his translucent blue parts a lot, but these two don’t really match up all that well.

And here’s Soundwave’s menagerie when you pair up Rumble with Earthrise Leaserbeak and Ravage. Laserbeak still impresses the hell out of me, and he looks great next to Rumble. Ravage? Eh. There’s some impressive engineering going on there, but I honestly like the original G1 toy better than this update.

Rumble is without a doubt the breakout hit of the year for me. OK, maybe he’s not the best Transformers figure I got this year, but he certainly is the best official toy treatment of the guy since his original G1 release. And I’d dare say that he’s made me a lot happier than some of the more bigger and more expensive bots I got recently. He’s ridiculously fun to play with, and he looks amazing beside Big Daddy Soundwave. It’s too bad the experience had to be dampened by Hasbro’s shit packaging, but hopefully the next one I get will have all the parts in there. Lesson learned, if you are buying him at the store, check in there for the guns!

Aug 12 2022

Transformers Legacy: Kickback by Hasbro

Well, it looks like a Hasbro trifecta this week, as I’ve gone from Marvel Legends to GI JOE Classified, and now to Transformers Legacy. But hey, I do collect an awful lot of Hasbro properties, so that’s bound to happen from time to time. Today I’m dipping back into Hasbro’s new(ish) line called Legacy, which has been keeping a lot of the G1 love rolling, and this time it’s with a brand new version of an old favorite Insecticon of mine!

Here he is in the rather colorful Legacy packaging…. We last saw Kickback released in the Titan Returns line as a Legends Class in about five years ago. HOLY CRAP, THAT WAS FIVE YEARS AGO!?! He was the final release in that Insecticon trio, and while I liked that figure a lot, Hasbro took too long to release all three and by the time we got to Kickback, they all had annoying differences in their colors and aesthetics. When I finally got to put them on the shelf together and they just didn’t feel like a cohesive team. Later that same year, I picked up Bad Cube’s unofficial Insecticon Trinity, known as the Evil Bug Corps. Soon thereafter Hasbro’s little bugs went into a tote and I haven’t seen them since. But I absolutely adore the Insecticons ever since they made their first appearance in the old cartoon, and I’m ready to see Hasbro take another crack at these bug bots, so let’s start with Kickback and his cyber-locust mode.

Just from handling this guy, you don’t have to see the robot mode, to tell that Hasbro remained VERY faithful to the design and engineering of the original toy. That could be good or bad, depending on your opinion of overly simple transformations. For me, one of the reasons I Loved the G1 Kickback figure so much was that he looked exactly like his Sunbow animated counterpart, he actually had decent articulation and felt like a real action figure, and he was quick to get from robot to bug and back, which made playing with him a lot of fun. And all that certainly applies here! Sure, the way his legs work has been tweaked, but in spirit everything here is the same as the original. The deco is simple and gorgeous, and black and purple one-two punch to the eyeballs is to die for, and the added yellow brings it to new heights. And while his yellow chest plate is perfectly visible on his back here, I’ll wait to talk about it until we get him transformed.

The only thing I am torn on here are those wings. Oh, they look really nice with their intricate sculpted patterns set upon clear plastic canvases. But, I really miss the silver, because it’s just such an iconic part of the original toy. The chrome present on the original toy is very noticeably absent here. I’ve decided that it’s not a deal breaker for me, and that’s probably just because these do look so nice. The gun storage, on the other hand, is such a wonderful bonus on this update. It plugs right up into his undercarriage and adds some nice firepower to locust mode. If you’re a fan of asymmetry, you can also mount it on either leg.

Kickback also comes with two energy sword-gun-things, which are designed to tab into his wings in the locust mode. These are cast in translucent purple plastic and they’re OK. I’ll never complain about some nice bonus accessories, but I’m never going to display him with them, so they’re pretty much lost on me. Actually, I’ll probably loan them out to other figures. Maybe two of the Legacy Stunticons. But, yeah I wish Hasbro had saved the plastic to give us two sets of wings and the ability to swap them out for two different display options. That would have been really cool. Let’s move on to his robot mode…

Awww, yeah! It takes only a few seconds to get him into robot mode, and what a killer mode it is! Kickback is a tad on the stout side, but apart from that this is just a beautiful homage to his original G1 toy. He has actual fists now, instead of claws cobbled from his insect legs, and while I didn’t realize it in time for most of these pictures, he actually has ankle tilts hidden up in them feets. But what I absolutely have to uncontrollably gush over is that yellow chest plate. It’s yellow-tinted clear plastic over what I assume is a silver painted plate under it, and it creates a gorgeous radiant glow, like he’s practically pulsating with energon. Holy shit, it’s just gorgeous, and I can’t wait to see Bombshell and Shrapnel get the same treatment. I imagine the only people who could gripe about the execution here is that it doesn’t open up as an homage to the diaclone pilot compartment from the original toy. The Decepticon insignia on his upper chest looks great, and I dig the addition of some red panels and yellow striping on his lower legs. Kickback even looks all closed up and polished from the back! What an amazing robot mode!

And the head sculpt is pure money! Hasbro went with the Sunbow style face, as opposed to that of the G1 toy, and I’m always happier when they go this route! He’s got some beautiful silver paint on his face and forehead, and his black “helmet” is flanked by his glorious yellow bug antenna. Yes, there’s a little silver overspray at the top of his bright red visor, but thanks to his pronounced brow, you have to get down low to really notice it. Thankfully, the rest of the paint is fine, but sometimes I worry about these silver faces exposed to the elements with no window to protect them in the packaging. I’ve been lucky so far, but I do buy most of these online and sight unseen, so it’s always a gamble now.

Kickback comes with a wonderful update to his original Electrothermic Blast Tube weapon, which is mostly silver, but also has some metallic purple on the muzzle and on the drum-style magazine. It’s a great looking gun and a very distinctive design!

And the sword-gun-thingies that we saw attached to his locust mode, can also be wielded as weapons in his robot mode. You can attach these to his arms as guns, or he can wield them like energon swords. Again, these are cool bonus accessories, but I don’t plan on using them. I would have much preferred Hasbro include some Energon Cubes instead of these.

Here are some comparison shots of Legacy Kickback with the Commemorative Collection G1 Reissue figure, and boy do I think he represents well! He’s a little bit bigger in locust mode and A LOT bigger in robot mode. Sure, the legacy version is missing a little of the pop from the stickers on the G1 toy, but still an absolutely great representation of one of my favorite G1 figures.

A few petty nitpicks aside, I am absolutely thrilled with how great Legacy Kickback came out. This is just another example of me retiring an older Transformers figure in favor of a newer update. He’s so much fun to zip in and out of locust mode, and to just play around with on my downtime. He’ll likely be on my desk for a while, before finding a home on the display shelves. Yeah, I may buy a second Kickback and have a go at coloring those wings, but we’ll see if the clear set grows on me. My only hope now is that Hasbro doesn’t wait a a couple years to finish the trio off, and that Bombshell and Shrapnel both show up with the same style chests, and an overall cohesive look for the team!

Jul 15 2022

Transformers (Studio Series 86): Wreck-Gar and Junkheap by Hasbro

Sorry about missing Wednesday, but the lingering symptoms of Covid mixed with being back at work is wearing me out at night. And since I didn’t make it back for my usual midweek review, I thought I’d double up for today with a look at two more Studio Series Transformers. I’ve had Wreck-Gar kicking around and waiting to be opened for about a year, which absolutely blows my mind with how fast time is going! And since I just had Junkheap hit my doorstep last week, let’s just have a look at them both in one go!

I only have a boxed shot of Wreck-Gar, but both figures are in the fairly similar Studio Series packaging, and even share similar character art. The big difference in packaging is that Junkheap does not have the window, so your figure is exposed to the filthy peanut butter encrusted fingers of any toddler that decides to wander by and touch the toy you’re going to buy. How is that fair? That little shit can’t afford this toy? Anyway, I got mine from Amazon, so hopefully it just sat in a casepack until it was ready to ship out. Wreck-Gar is a prime example of how collecting Transformers can be frustrating to me, because it feels like I’m constantly replacing figures with improved versions. He was released in Reveal The Shield back in 2011, Power of the Primes in 2018, and in between those, I even picked up a third party version by DX9 Toys in 2017. The 2018 release is the only one I still own, and he’ll probably be going bye-bye after I’m done with this review. Let’s start with Wreck-Gar and his alt mode!

So, I’m not terribly pleased with this motorcycle mode, but I don’t really hate it either. It’s pretty damn ugly, but then he is a Junkion, so I guess I can kind of forgive that. I think my biggest problem is that it looks worse than the original G1 toy’s alt mode. It’s very possible that I don’t have all the parts lined up properly, but then this was a pretty frustrating transformation, and just wasn’t worth the end result. I do like the colors, as they match the traditional animated look of the motorcycle pretty well. The studs on the wheels are cool, as are the big spikes jutting off the sides, and the dual blasters under the windshield. There’s some nice detail on the console gauges, although the handlebars on my toy are warped. You can store his weapon by pegging it into the back of the bike, but I think it looks kind of goofy back there. Finally, you get a pair of fold out kick-stands to keep Wreck-Gar sitting upright.

If you have a f’ugly alt mode, than you pretty much have to have a great robot mode, and it’s clear here that the motorcycle was sacrificed for the robot. This figure looks fantastic, and certainly outclasses any of the previous releases that have passed through my collection, even that expensive third-party figure, which in fairness was a remold/repaint of the Gobot Leader Cy-Kill. The proportions here are excellent, and yes, I even like his Popeye-style forearms! The placement of the bike’s saddlebags on his hips is perfect for him to store extra bits or maybe some Energon Goodies. The spikes protruding from his knees and forearms provide places to put his wheels. I like to counter-balance them with one on each side, so one on the right knee, and the other on the left forearm as a shield. The bulbous gas tank from the motorcycle fills in his back, making this figure look just as solid from behind as he does from the front. And you have to love those nipple cannons, and the fact that they’re ball jointed and can be aimed independently, which is just delightfully creepy.

The head sculpt here is right on the money. I liked the Power of the Primes portrait as well, but that head was way too small for the body. Here we get a bigger and bolder noggin with all the personality of the animated design. The faked out front of the motorcycle makes for a great looking “helmet” and the facial features are sharp and well fleshed out. I’ve still never completely reconciled with the introduction of facial “hair” on my Transformers, but I have to admit, it looks great here. The red eye paint is very clean with some sharp black outlines.

Wreck-Gar comes with his pinwheel of death, which is a lot better than previous versions of this curious weapon. I really dig the way he looks with the weapon in one hand and the wheel shield on the opposing arm. Let’s move on to Junkheap…

I won’t spend a whole lot of time with Junkheap, as he is basically just a remold and repaint of Wreck-Gar. The motorcycle has additional side plates, and the piece under the windshield section has been remolded to omit the nipple cannons and just have some pipes angling out from the center. The pylons holding the front wheel are also new sculpts. The windshield area is more squared off this time and lacks the swooshes on the sides. I would have thought the added side plates would improve the look, but I think this one actually looks worse than Wreck-Gar’s alt mode. They also add a little more frustration to the transformation. The deco shares some common strokes with Wreck-Gar, mainly in the brown and orange, but it adds more gray to the mix, making him not as bright and vibrant, but it’s still a good looking deco. The transparent windscreen is also now tinted blue.

And just like Wreck-Gar, the robot mode here is absolutely fantastic! The changes I mentioned in the motorcycle mode are reflected here on the chest and arms. It’s honestly a lot more different than I would have expected, even if all of those changes are confined to the upper body. You can still position his wheels in the same manner as Wreck-Gar, but I like to keep both of Junkheap’s wheels on his legs, because of the options you now have with those side plates on the arms.

The side plates can reside on the shoulders, or be swing down to the forearms. While both look good, I prefer to keep the right plate up on the shoulder and have the left plate on the forearm, as it can serve as either a shield or a blaster. Either way, it just adds to the options you have to customize the look of this guy and make him all the bit more different than Wreck-Gar.

As with Wreck-Gar, Hasbro did a really nice job on this head sculpt. Since the “helmet” is supposed to be a mass-shifted front of the bike, it looks more squared off here. I also dig the shock absorber horns that protrude from the sides. These are ball jointed so you can adjust them to be rather expressive. The face features some sharp details and the oversized goggles are painted red.

Junkheap comes with the exact same Death Pinwheel as Wreck-Gar. I actually wouldn’t have minded a new weapon here, but considering all the other changes, it’s fine.

While I certainly do wish the motorcycle modes were a little tighter and looked a bit better, the robot modes here are more than enough to win me over. That is how I display most of these anyway, and I don’t see myself transforming these guys a lot in the future. I think these are some absolutely great looking robots. They’re big, hefty, and fun to play with, and I think Hasbro did just enough in the remolding to make them each stand on their own. I probably wouldn’t mind seeing a third Junkion created from this mold, and I’ll confess I was even tempted to pick up a second Junkheap, just to give Wreck-Gar a pair of them to fight with. But for now, I’m thrilled to add these Junkions to my 86 Movie shelf!

May 18 2022

Transformers Legacy: Dragstrip by Hasbro

Lately collecting Transformers for me has become a cycle of conflict. It goes something like this. Oh no, they’re doing him again. We just got him and I don’t need to buy another. Oh, but look at how much better he looks than the last one. Oh, and it’s actually been five to ten years since we last got him. Huh, seems like it was more recent. Oh, what the hell, I’ll buy him anyway because he really is a big improvement. Transformers is the only line I collect, where it feels like I’m constantly upgrading to a better version of an existing character, and yet I’m a sucker for convertorobots, so I usually do it.

And here we go again, because it’s Dragstrip! A character that last saw release in aptly named Combiner Wars back around 2015. And while it feels like that was just yesterday, it really was quite a while ago. As with Hasbro’s last crack at the Stunticons, Dragstrip and the other limbs are Deluxes, but this time it looks like Motormaster will be a Commander Class, which I think is the new Leader Class. That classification makes sense, since those figures have been getting smaller, but coming with more stuff. And, unlike the Combiner Wars version, this Motormaster will have a trailer. Anyway, we’ve seen the Legacy packaging before. I dig the deco, but I’ll continue to complain about the toy being exposed to the elements, not to mention the disgusting booger-mining fingers of children. Just put them in closed boxes, Hasbro. Let’s start with the alt-mode…

Nice! One of my many issues with CW Dragstrip was that the mold was obviously intended to double as Mirage. And so, while we did get an F-1 racer, it wasn’t really the Dragstrip I knew from the G1 toy or the Sunbow cartoon. This version fixes that very well, most notably giving him his distinctive double wheels on the front and the exposed engine on the back. The vehicle is very compact and boxy, and I absolutely love it. I particularly dig what they did with the front scoop, giving him what looks a bit like a cow-catcher on a locomotive, perfect for ramming Autobots off the road!

The colors here are also spectacular! Hasbro took the basic yellow and red stripes from the original toy, but added in some of the brownish-gold from the Sunbow animated model. Toss in the beautiful silver paint on the engine, and the black wheels, and you’ve got a striking color scheme, that manages to pay respects to both G1 versions that I love so much! The large Decepticon insignia on the front is a great touch as well!

Dragstrip comes with a pair of guns, which can be pegged into the holes on the top sides of the vehicle if you like to weaponize your racecars!

Transforming Dragstrip is just complex enough to be satisfying, but not annoying. The result is an absolutely stellar looking robot mode, which again pays respects to the character’s roots. Gone is the f’ugly combiner port chest, and in its place is the open cockpit with the silver exposed engine block, just like the toy and Sunbow versions. Other great call-outs are the spoilers making up the feet, and the position of the wheels, with the backs landing on his lower legs, and the double fronts on his shoulders. Here, Hasbro went with the Sunbow look of having the shoulder wheels line up front to back, rather than on top of each other like the toy. He even has the shoulder ridges, which remind me of the ridges armor sometimes had to prevent decapitation in battle. Even from the back, he’s pretty damn clean and tight.

The head sculpt is a welcome departure from whatever the hell it was that we got with the Combiner Wars figure. While, I eventually warmed up to that figure, I never stopped hating the portrait. Here, we get a very Sunbow looking head sculpt, featuring the bold red visor, red plates on the sides of the “helmet” as well as the little “ears” jutting out the sides.

The color scheme in robot mode is pretty much identical to the alt mode. It’s dominated by thes ame bright yellow and brown-gold accents. I do like how the red stripes land on his arms. Really, the only thing missing here is a little Decepticon insignia near his left shoulder. Indeed, there’s no faction symbol in this mode at all, but I suppose that can be easily fixed with a repro-sticker.

As we saw while looking at the alt-mode, Dragstrip comes with a pair of pistols, which can be combined into one gun, as well as wielded separately. It definitely references the Sunbow gun over the original toy’s, particularly with the inclusion of the scope. The guns look OK when combined, but it does give them two sets of grips, which is a bit weird. I will likely display him with just one pistol and set the other aside, or peg it into his back for storage. The black and purple deco on the guns is excellent!

Almost everything about CW Dragstrip felt like a compromise, whereas the Legacy version is 100% its own thing, and I absolutely love that! Hasbro executed this figure with style and precision, and apart from the bot mode missing a faction symbol, I can’t find anything bad to say about him! Indeed, it’s especially interesting how there’s virtually nothing about him that advertises the figure as doubling as a Combiner limb. No obvious ports or connectors, no extra parts, nothing! Only a tiny graphic on the box suggests he’s part of a Combiner team, and I suspect that’s because all the Combiner stuff will be found in Motormaster.

Apr 13 2022

Transformers Legacy: Blaster & Eject by Hasbro

The hot newness around the Transformers world is the Legacy series, but it really just seems to be a continuation of the previous lines, with a heavy lean in to the old favorite Generation 1 designs and a smattering of Beast Wars here and there. And in keeping with their sometimes irritating habit of recent redos, Hasbro is taking another crack at everyone’s favorite Autobot boombox, Blaster!

I say recent redos, but to be fair we last saw Blaster about five years ago in the Titans Return line, and it was about four years before that when he was released in Generations. Now, I wouldn’t call three Blasters in the course of about a decade overkill, but there are still other characters who are overdue for their time in the spotlight. Now correct me if I’m wrong, but didn’t I see this figure released in Kingdom packaging as well? To be honest, it’s getting hard for me to keep track of some of Hasbro’s releases these days. Anywho, Blaster comes in the colorful new packaging we last saw with Skids, and there’s still a big open window so kids can stick their disgusting little peanut butter fingers all over my toy. Also billed in this package is Eject, which is thankfully a cassette tape and not a Headmaster head, like we got with Twin Cast. Let’s check out the alt modes…

For a long while, Hasbro seemed to be ashamed of the old tape player modes. That was especially the case with Soundwave, but Hasbro seems to have gotten over it, as the last Blaster we got was a boombox, and so is this one. And because we aren’t dealing with any third base mode, this one looks pretty damn good. You get the red body with gray side speakers, a yellow tape door, and a carry bar up top. There are some non-working knobs, and a row of buttons, which can be pressed to open the tape door. There’s not much happening on the flipside, although as you can see, I have a few pieces that aren’t aligned perfectly, which just goes to show this is a fairly forgiving transformation. Colors aside, this looks a lot like the Emerson boombox I used to record songs off the radio with when I was a kid!

The tape deck is pretty small, but I still think it scales pretty well with the Netflix War For Cyberton Soundwave release. A figure, which I never got around to reviewing, but here’s a comparison, nonetheless. Personally, I think they look good together.

As I mentioned earlier, the tape door is spring loaded, and pops open when you press the row of buttons under it. At which point you can pull out Eject in his cassette mode. Eject is mostly cast in this beautiful blue transparent plastic, with some gray parts and gold trim. They didn’t really go overboard with any cassette tape markings, but you can clearly see the two tape reels as part of the sculpt. I wan’t a big fan of the days when Hasbro was turning the cassettes into bombs or data pads, or data discs. It’s nice to see them as cassettes again. The flipside isn’t very polished, and if you’re a goofball like i am and don’t turn the head around, you can see Eject peeking back at you. Let’s check out his robot mode, before getting back to Blaster.

Eject is a pretty cool little guy, and while some may have issue with the use of translucent plastic, I actually like it a lot. It looks gorgeous with the gold paint, and Eject’s proportions aren’t too bad for a little cassette bot. And thanks to some ball joints and rotating hinges, he’s got plenty of articulation too.

Blaster’s transformation is a bit more complex than his old G1 toy, but the principle is pretty much the same. The robot mode is clean and well-proportioned and looks great. You still get the tape door on his chest, the speakers on his lower legs, and I dig the way the carry bar splits and locks into the outside of his legs. Those hollow forearms are a shame, but nothing that’s going to ruin the toy for me, and he even looks surprisingly polished from the back, and includes a whole slew of ports back there so he can store his gun and a bunch of other stuff. They even hit a homerun with the head sculpt here.

Hasbro sculpted Blaster’s right hand so that he has a pointing index finger to allow him to push his own buttons and eject a tape while in robot mode. Seriously, can these guys not just activate eject internally? Why they gotta push their own buttons? Either way, it’s worth mentioning that Blaster has some serious ankle tilts, to keep them feets flat on the floor even in dynamic wide stances, and I sure do appreciate that!

Blaster comes with his very distinctive sniper-rifle style gun. There are plenty of Transformers out there who could get away with any old weapon design, but you can’t mess with this design. It just wouldn’t be Blaster without it!

And if you were playing with Transformers back in the 80’s, you know what a triumph it is to have a Blaster and a Soundwave that actually scale well together. Blaster is just a tad taller than that Netflix Soundwave. Just enough to keep with tradition, but not enough to make it awkward when you want to have them fight. And boy do they look fantastic together!

What’s one of the things that bug me the most about Transformers in the last ten years or so? Hasbro puts out a figure and I really like it. Then four or five years later, they put out a new version and it makes the previous figure, the one I was perfectly happy with, look like poop. That’s probably why my Transformers toys are the only aspect of my collection that I purge with some regularity. There are some older favorites that I keep, but even though the Titans Return Blaster is a distinctive figure with its own charms, now that this new Blaster has come along, I really have no need to keep him in the collection anymore.

Apr 1 2022

Transformers Legacy: Skids by Hasbro

What’s this? A new main line of Transformers? Well, at least that’s my assumption, that Legacy will be replacing the Trilogy of Siege, Earthrise, and Kingdom as the new Generations line, and what better character to launch this Legacy series than… Oh, it’s Skids. Ok, then…

Well, I do like the art design! Or perhaps it would be more accurate to say, I like it better than what we’ve been getting. The character art has been phenomenal, but some derivation of the boring black package with generic font Transformers running up the side has been with us for a while. This is colorful and trippy and while the Legacy logo doesn’t really scream Transformers brand to me, I can get behind this. Unfortunately, like the packaging we saw in my Buzzworthy Bumblebee review, Hasbro has stopped using plastic windows to save the planet and now leaves the toy exposed to the elements, as well as the sticky fingers of children. I would much rather they just use a completely enclosed box, but whatever. Let’s start with Skids alt mode.

Ah, the Honda City Turbo. It’s a car I never heard of before meeting Skids, and one that I haven’t heard of since. I should go on record here by saying that I’ve never been a fan of Skids. He was kind of a non-entity in the Sunbow cartoon. Indeed, off-hand I can only remember him being in two episodes: Quest for Survival and Triple Takeover. Both are great episodes, but certainly not because Skids happened to be in them. His toy was released too late to be part of the original Class of 84 Autobots, but too early to be included with the hot newness of the 1985 roster. I do distinctly remember finding him in Sears and my Dad saying, “oh, a new Transformer?” You want him? And I said nah, and wound up getting something else instead. At the time, there was just nothing about him that made him desirable to me and he was one of the only Autobots in the 1984-85 line up that I never owned.

Skids is a box on wheels, and certainly doesn’t share the stylish contours of the vintage Datsuns or sexy Lamborghinis. But with that being said, this is a fantastic new version of the original car form. Hasbro didn’t go too far off the page with this one, keeping the same midnight blue body and the same red and white striping on the sides. The front grill is gray with yellow headlamps, and there’s an Autobot emblem on the hood. The windshield and front windows are tinted blue, and you get lots of nice sculpted detail, including quad exhaust, a gas cap, and the screen on the front and back bumpers. The back is a little bland, but all in all, this is a nice alt mode for what it is.

Skids comes with a few weapons, and these can be attached using any of the three ports (one up top, and two on the sides), if you want to weaponize this mode.

Transforming Skids is pretty intuitive and the resulting robot looks surprisingly nice. The front bumper chest and door-wings has always been my favorite look for an Autobot, and Skids wears them quite well. Yeah, the chest is sharply squared off, and reminds me a bit of Armada Red Alert, but I ain’t hating it. The rest of the figure is nicely proportioned, and adds some more red to the deco, both down on his feet, and smack dab in the middle of his robot cod piece. And when viewed from behind, he’s all closed up and polished to a shine.

The head sculpt is very close to what I remember the original toy looking like, although I’m remembering him with yellow eyes instead of blue. The silver face paint looks sharp, and he wears a slight expression of disapproval on his lips, like he just saw that Spike’s report card and he got a C- in Algebra.

For an Autobot who’s primary function is a theoretician, Skids does come with a lot of weapons. You get two silver blasters, one is a stout single barrel pistol, and the other is a dual barreled gun, which can combine together to form a pretty formidable looking piece of hardware.

You also get what I think is supposed to be some kind of Energon Ax, which can also combine with the guns in a number of ways to make, well… I don’t know what. The ax replaces the rocket launcher that came with the original toy, and I’m cool with that!

The only reason I picked up Skids was because he was a new figure in a new line, and I was excited. But in reality, Legacy appears to just be an extension of what we’ve been getting in the War For Cybertron stuff, which is pretty much what I’m looking for in my Transformers anyway. Change the packaging all you want, Hasbro, but you’ve been batting a thousand with your Generations Transformers lately, and I don’t want to see that change. As for the figure itself, Skids if great! I’m legitimately surprised at how happy I am with this pick up, and he’s going to look fantastic on my Autobot shelf!

Mar 25 2022

Buzzworthy Bumblebee: Origin Bumblebee by Hasbro

While I have been focusing exclusively on the Generations-style stuff, Hasbro has been maintaining a few different lines of their profitable change-o-bots, one of those being this Buzzworthy Bumblebee series. I don’t get it. At first, I thought this was a tie-in for some streaming cartoon directed at the younger Transformers fans, but apparently that’s not the case. So, yeah… I really don’t get it and the stupid name inexplicably makes me angry, so I’ve been largely ignoring it. That is until I saw they did a version of Bumblebee based on his Cybertronian appearance in the first episode of the More Than Meets The Eye mini-series.

Well, the packaging design is nice! We get a bright yellow box, with the Transformers logo in black, and some various shots of Bumblebee on the side. What I don’t like here is the lack of a plastic window over the toy. Yes, I understand it’s an environmental thing, but I don’t like the idea that kids can come along and stick boogers on my action figure. DAMN KIDS… STAY OUT OF THE TOY AISLE… YOU THINK TOYS ARE FOR KIDS? GO PLAY YOUR FORTCRAFTING APP!!! I would much rather Hasbro just used a completely enclosed box. If I’m willing to spend $200 on a Titan Class figure and not get to see it until I open it, I think I’d be OK taking a gamble on a $20 Deluxe Class, knowing a kid didn’t touch it with his peanut butter fingers. But, enough complaining… let’s start with the alt mode!

Wow, this is a pretty cool little representation of Bumblebee’s Cybertron mode in the Sunbow style and one that I would have loved to have as a kid. It’s sleek and smooth, with stubby wings and a single blue windshield. It kind of looks like what you would get if you took his Earth mode, removed the wheels and squished it. Come to think of it, it was pretty damn convenient that Cybertron’s alt modes each had a suitable Earth mode counterpart.

Yes, it certainly has a mess of seams from the transformation, but that doesn’t bother me too much. Some of them mix well with the existing panel lines in the sculpt, and to be fair, the network of seams signify that a decent amount of thought and engineering went into this little toy, rather than just go for a lazy shell-former. And while you can’t tell yet, I was particularly impressed that the hood section with the Autobot emblem actually becomes the chest in robot mode, rather than being entirely faked out. Overall, the toy locks together pretty well, and I couldn’t be more pleased!

There are three sockets on the vehicle to plug weapons into, but since I’m a fan of symmetry, I just plugged Bumblebee’s gun into the one on the top.

And here he is in robot mode, and I have to say the transformation is pretty clever, fairly intuitive, and not at all too finicky. As I’m sure I’ve said before, my favorite thing to do with new Transformers is to try to figure them out without looking at the instructions. I wasn’t sure that was going to work here, but I made it happen. And yes, we have a fair amount of ugly kibble on those lower legs. I’m not a fan of it, but I can certainly understand that it had to go somewhere, and to be fair, that’s pretty much all of it. He wears the vehicle roof on his back, like a lot of Autobot cars, and just like in the cartoon, the chest piece is stylized to have the VW windows we’re used to seeing on Bumblebee, despite him not taking on that alt mode yet.

The head sculpt is excellent! I think I actually like this one a bit more than the one we got on the War For Cybertron figure, although that one isn’t too bad either. Here we get a little smirk and a fatter, more stylized helmet. This one just screams a little more Sunbow style to me!

Bumblebee comes with a pistol and a jetpack. The jetpack was initially shown off in silver, and I would have preferred it, but what we got is just black plastic. I guess it matches his deco better.

And you also get some of the conductor rods that Bumblebee and Wheeljack were scavenging in the beginning of the first episode. These are a pretty cool bonus accessory, although honestly it doesn’t look like there is enough energy in them to last a quartrex.

In terms of size, in robot mode this figure comes up at almost the exact same height as the War For Cybertron Volkswagen version. His vehicle mode, on the other hand, is a wee bit bigger.

All in all, this is a fun little figure, and one that I didn’t think we’d ever see realized. Despite all the Bumblebee figures Hasbro produces, he’s gotten the short end of the stick when it comes to Cybertron alt modes, and I’m glad they chose this one when they finally got around to doing one. I passed this one up on the pegs a couple times, before eventually grabbing him one day when I couldn’t find anything else and didn’t want to go home empty handed. And I’m mighty glad I did!