Tag Archives: transformers

Dec 3 2010

Transformers Energon: Bulkhead and Quickstrike by Hasbro

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Dec 2 2010

Transformers Cybertron: Evac by Hasbro

Ugh, It’s been a long day and I am bone tired, folks. All I want to do tonight is veg out in front of the TV and get caught up on my Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes cartoons. But I didn’t want to miss a day of TF Helicopter Week, so I’m going to make this one quick and dirty. Yeah, Evac probably deserves better, but I don’t have anything else written up yet, so I’ll have to be a little more long winded tomorrow to make up for it. A few days ago when I looked at Tomahawk, I said he didn’t look much like an Autobot to me, because he was a viscious looking black attack chopper.  Well, Evac here is more what I think an Autobot helicopter should look like. Evac isn’t loaded to the gills with armaments. Instead, he’s a rescue chopper. He may not be as useful in a fight as Tomahawk, but I think he better fits in with the spirit of the Autobots.


Evac’s alt mode is a search and rescue helicopter, and as a Voyager Class, he’s a pretty nice sized toy. He’s mostly bright yellow with some white and blue trim, and he has clear windshields. There’s also a nice big Autobot insignia on his grapple winch and the word, RESCUE, stamped on the other side. The broadsides of the helicopter are a bit fugly, but overall the design is awesome as he has the beaked nose under the windshields that gives him such a distinct profile. Evac’s chopper mode also comes with some pretty cool play features. He has folding landing gear, a red button that spins his rotors when you pump it, and a grapple hook that can be automatically retracted when you press the button. As a Cybertron figure, Evac also makes use of a Cyberkey to deploy his missile launchers, so he can at least defend himself while engaging in rescue missions.


Evac has a surprisingly simple transformation, but he still makes for a great looking and very distinctive robot. The design makes good use of many of his helicopter bits. His tail boom splits in half to become wings for his jetpack. His grappling hook can still be used as it ends up on his right forearm. His rotor blades wind up on his left forearm and can be used as a weapon, or you can just pop them off if you want. The chest and head sculpts are especially nicely done. Evac’s head is nicely reminiscent of the 1986 Movie designs.

Evac’s articulation is pretty solid. His head turns; His arms rotate and have lateral movement in the shoulders, and hinges and swivels in the elbows. His legs rotate and have lateral movement in the hips, and have swivels and hinges in the knees.

Evac’s been repainted a couple of times, but sadly I don’t own any of the other versions. I can live without the red, Blades, repaint, but one of these days I plan on hunting down the Springer style Target Exclusive, because it looks downright awesome. It was also clearanced to hell in my neck of the woods, which makes me feel all the more foolish for not having picked it up when I had the chance. Either way, if you don’t have this mold in your collection, I definitely recommend it in one form or another. All of the decos released look great and he’s a really fun toy.

Nov 30 2010

Transformers Helicopter Week: Armada Cyclonus with Crumplezone by Hasbro

Back when the Armada toyline was first coming out, I was positively apeshit for Transformers. I was literally going out two or three times a week to look for the new toys. I was particularly keen on getting Thrust and Cyclonus and after a couple of weeks of fruitless hunting, I finally broke down and bought them on Ebay. That very next day I ducked into a Walgreens for some cold medicine and there they were hanging on the pegs. Not a Target, Walmart, Kmart or Toys R Us withing 50 miles had them, but Walgreens did! I bought them anyway and wound up keeping the others in the package to hang on the wall. Ok, story time is over, let’s look at the figure.

The real point of telling my little story was to explain why I actually have an in-package shot of this older figure. I really liked the Armada cards. The horizontal orientation was pretty cool, the package had the ingenius gimmick of using a collector card to customize the package artwork. The instructions were balled up under the figure and the back panel showed off the toy in both forms and the other figures available in that wave. The only thing I didn’t like about these packages was the tri-lingual text.


Cyclonus’ vehicular mode is an attack chopper and his Minicon, Crumplezone, is a tank. Cyclonus is a bit too chunky to be based on a real helicopter, but I still love this mode. There’s a ton of sculpted detail all throughout the figure and the color scheme works really well. With giant guns underneath and wing mounted missile launchers, he’s pretty well armed too. The chopper mode also has a cool action feature with a trigger placed under the tail boom that spins the rotors when you pull it. The front of the chopper looks a little stubby, but we can fix that by flipping up the cockpit and plugging his Minicon into the front to form a much better looking extended cockpit.

Naturally, all the Minicons could combine with the bigger robots in vehicle mode, but Cyclonus is one of the few Armada figures that had such a cool and beneficial union like this, which actually enhanced his alt form.

Transforming Cyclonus is pretty easy and obvious, but I like the results. In fact, the only thing I don’t like about this figure is his oompa-loompa face. The head sculpt, like a lot of Armada Decepticon figures, is kind of strange and the orange paint doesn’t help. Still, Cyclonus’ robot form is very unique and works well. You can choose to leave his rotors on his back or, as I prefer, you can plug them onto his arm as a weapon. He has Minicon ports on each of his arms, which fire his missiles when activated. And speaking of his Minicon, Crumplezone transforms into a cool little robot too.

Cyclonus’ articulation is pretty decent for an Armada figure, although it is pretty lacking by contemporary standards. His head can only bob up and down, which is part of his transformation. The arms rotate at the shoulders and have hinged elbows. You can get a little lateral movement at the shoulders too. The legs will rotate back a bit and bend back at the knees, but both of these points of articulation are part of his transformation.  Ah, but this look at Armada Cyclonus wouldn’t be complete without taking a peek at the two repaints of the toy.



First, he was repainted as Powerlinx Cyclonus with a green paint job. Were they going for a Springer homage here? Maybe. It looks mighty nice, though, and Hasbro even gave him a wash over the paint that really enhances the appearance in my eyes. Cyclonus was again available as a KayBee Toys Exclusive with a black and grey camo deco, which was also a pretty cool look for the figure. Naturally, both figures got repaints of the Minicon, Crumplezone, as well. Too bad all of these Cyclonus repaints shared the same orange Oompa Loompa face.

But Hasbro still wasn’t done with the mold, as they re-released it yet again, this time with a bit of retooling, as Buzzsaw in the Cybertron lineup. Buzzsaw featured a new cockpit and worked with a Cyberkey instead of a Minicon. He also had a crazy yellow, white and purple paint job. Buzzsaw also got a brand new headsculpt, which was a big improvement over Cyclonus’ mug.


Like many Armada toys, Cyclonus goes for a more toyish and less realistic approach. Some newer fans who are used to the likes of Classicsand the Bayformers may not take to it all that well, but I still love these guys. Cyclonus is a really well designed and very fun figure. I think the Powerlinx version remains my favorite of the re-decos, but they’re all still pretty cool.

Nov 29 2010

Transformers Helicopter Week Begins: The Hunt for the Decepticons: Tomahawk by Hasbro

Yes, folks, not only am I taking a look at the new(ish) HftD Deluxe figure, Tomahawk, but I’m using the occasion to kick off helicopter week. Let’s face it, helicopters are cool, and when they turn into gi-normous robots, well, that’s just like smothering them with an extra heaping of awesome sauce. So all week, I’ll be featuring Transformers that get their kicks beating their rotors and spewing death from above. -FF

Lately, I’ve been buying up a hell of a lot of Animated and Generations figures, but today I’m going to throw a bit of loving behind The Hunt for the Decepticons line with the new Autobot attack helicopter, Tomahawk. I’m a big helicopter buff, so Transformers that turn into helicopters usually get extra points from me, but they still need to work well in their robot forms, which I don’t think is as easy to do as a car or a jet or a tank. So I always have a lot of appreciation for the figures that can get it right.

Yep, we’ve seen this packaging before. It’s not my favorite deco, but it’s cool. I’m used to it now. But I think Hasbro can cram a few more stickers on the bubble schilling their websites. I mean, I can still see the figure.



I loooove Tomahawk’s attack chopper mode. Between the black coloring and the heavy armaments, he looks almost too vicious to be an Autobot, which makes me wonder whether we’ll see Tomahawk repainted as a ‘Con one of these days. So, how about them armaments? He’s got two firing rocket launchers mounted on his wing, along with two clusters of bombs and miniguns mounted on the tips. There’s also a small sensor package under the cockpit that pivots from side to side. Yeah, I usually imagine Autobot choppers as rescue helicopters, but this guy is out to seriously slag some Decepticons. The cockpit screen is tinted yellow, and he’s got some gold and gray in the mix, along with silver Autobot emblems on his wings. Tomahawk holds together really well and features folding landing gear and spinning rotor blades. This is one seriously awesome helicopter mode with a heck of a lot of detail for a Deluxe Class toy.

Tomahawk’s chopper mode is so good, naturally his robot mode has got to suck big time, right? Not this time. Tomahawk has a nice, clean humanoid robot form with the cockpit forming his chest, similar to the design often used with jet Transformers, and the intakes forming his shoulders. The blades and wings position nicely on his back with his miniguns and bombs facing forward for added firepower. You actually have some leeway with how you want to position these wings. His missile launchers are removed from the wings and attached to hardpoints on his arms, using the same type of clips seen on Generations Darkmount. Overall, he still looks very much like a Decepticon in robot form, although his head sculpt definitely says Autobot to me. It’s just rather reminsicent of a flight helmet with a visor. Aesthetically, Tomahawk is one of those figures that feels like a hybrid between the Bayformers and the Generations, but why try to pigeon hole the guy when he looks so awesome!

The articulation on thsi figure is fantastic. Tomahawk has a ball jointed neck. His arms feature ball joints in the shoulders and hinges with swivels in the elbows. His legs are ball jointed in the hips and feature two sets of hinged knees, giving him those bird-like legs that appear in many of the Bayformer toy designs. He stands very well on his own and you can pose him in a lot of cool ways.

For me, the HftD figures have been the least interesting Transformers toys on the pegs right now, but Tomahawk has definitely made me sit up and take a second look at this line. He’s an outstanding figure in just about every way and he’s loads of fun to play with. Don’t hesitate to pick him up when you find him, and you won’t be disappointed.

Nov 25 2010

Transformers Generations: Red Alert by Hasbro

Happy Turkey Day, everybody. I’m off spending Thanksgiving with family but I wanted to drop in with an update before heading off to the festivities. I grappled with the idea of posting some long winded and sappy prose about all the things I’m thankful for, and believe me there’s a lot, but then I realized I’m always thankful for a new Transformer, so here’s a look at the Autobot’s Security Chief from the Generations line. -FF.

You may have noticed that when I did my Transformers Classics week I left out the Lambor Brothers, better known as Sideswipe and Sunstreaker. While this exclusion had a lot to do with me running out of time, it was also influenced by the fact that I knew I had a new figure based on this mold coming my way. Back in the day, Red Alert was a repaint of Sideswipe, so it’s only natural he gets the same treatment now.
Red Alert comes packaged in his vehicle mode on the standard Generations style card. While Red Alert’s gun stores under his vehicle mode, Hasbro chose to mount it in the bubble beside the vehicle. You can also see that Red Alert has the clear windshields from the Sunstreaker mold, rather than the painted windshields from Sideswipe. I know some folks don’t like to see their robot’s kibble through clear windshields, but I prefer this style to Sideswipe’s painted windshield. The back of the card has the usual biographic blurb, which is cool since it comes pretty close to admitting that Red Alert is paranoid and borderline crazy, which is always what I remembered about the character the most.



Hasbro did a fine job on Red Alert’s repaint. He’s sculpted in white with a red deco on his underside and clear plastic headlights. The only real structural difference with the toy is the added lightbar on the roof. Yep, he’s still got the removable engine component that both Sideswipe and Sunstreaker have. I really dig the Fire Rescue lettering on the doors and the hood deco is fantastic too. It’s not a perfect recreation of the original toy, but the inspiration is definitely there and I like it. Red Alert’s also got a new license plate that reads 05 Alert. As already mentioned, the windshield and windows are now clear and I love the way the Autobot insignia shows through from the top of the dash.

In robot mode, Red Alert’s new deco still looks awesome. The limbs are now red and grey and the red inserts on his thighs look really nice. The head sculpt is exactly the same as Sideswipe’s, which is accurate to the original toy. I’m going to be a real nitpicker and say that I would have preferred if Hasbro went ahead and colored his helmet red like the cartoon version of the character, but the black still looks nice. The only real downside here is that Red Alert’s engine piece won’t clip on his back in robot mode because of his lightbar.

Red Alert’s articulation is excellent. His head is ball jointed. His arms have ball joints on the shoulders, double hinged elbows and swivels in the biceps and wrists. His legs are ball jointed at the hips and ankles and hinged at the elbows. Like the Lambor brother’s he’s a fun action figure to play around with when he’s in bot form.

The only reason I can see to not pick up Red Alert is if you really are dead set against repaints or just don’t have any fondness or nostalgia for the character. Red wasn’t exactly one of my favorite Autobots in the G1 continuity, but he became fairly prominant in the cartoon and I still have fond memories of owning the original figure as a kid. Of course, it doesn’t hurt that he’s based on one of the better molds in the Universe 2.0lineup, and that’s saying quite a lot. As Generations continues the heritage of updated figures for G1 characters, Red Alert here is a homerun.

Nov 22 2010

Transformers Generations: War For Cybertron Soundwave by Hasbro

If you aren’t a Transformers fan and you still managed to muscle through the last week here, I’m afraid I don’t have any good news for you. While I’m going to specify another theme for this week, it’s still going to be mostly about Transformers. I’ve still got a few on my shelf that I need to get to and through the course of this week I’m going to have a whole bunch more rolling in. I’ll try to break things up midweek with something different, but I won’t make any promises. -FF

So, I got sick and tired of waiting for Soundwave to show up on the pegs so I broke down and ordered him online. I seriously had a nightmare that I missed him at retail and the only way he could be had was on Ebay for $50. No joke. These are the things I have angst about. I actually got him quite a few days ago, but every time I sit down to start writing up a post on him I wind up staring slackjawed in wonder at what an amazingly gorgeous figure he is. And just when I think I can’t love him any more, I stand him up next to Universe 2.0 Ravage or some of the Seekers or Galvatron and Cyclonus, and I just fall in love all over again. If you don’t feel like reading a lot of sappy gushing over a little piece of plastic, you can quit now, because that’s all you’re going to get here today.

Awww yeah, War For Cybetron Soundwave even makes the mediocre Generations card look awesome. Amazingly, this is one of the few times I’ve ordered a carded Transformer from Walmart’s website and it didn’t arrive with the card all beat to hell. He comes packaged in robot mode, so you can see him in all his Soundwave glory. If ever I was going to buy an extra Transformer to keep carded, this would be that figure. The reverse panel shows off photos of the toy in both forms and has a little blurb about the character, but he’s Soundwave, what more do you need to know about him?


Even though he comes in robot form, I’m going to start with Soundwave’s vehicle mode. Yep, if you haven’t played War For Cybertron yet, you may be surprised to see that Soundwave now transforms into a vehicle even though his robot form is pretty close to the original G1 version. I don’t know what you would compare his vehicle form to on Earth, because it sort of looks like an angular blob on wheels. I guess it’s like a little van, but with huge ramming teeth on the front and weapons mounted on the sides. The “tape door” has been reworked into his front windscreen, which can be opened and used to store his two weapons. And yep, they still look like a pair of batteries. The alt mode works beautifully. It’s more fun than a tape deck and it sure beats that stupid Cybertron “tower” mode shown in the More than Meets the Eye miniseries.

Moving on to Soundwave’s robot mode. Ahhh. Let me take a minute. Mmmm. Oh yeah. That’s good robot. He’s so damn amazing. The headsculpt is pure G1 Soundwave. It looks great, although I’m puzzled as to why Hasbro dropped a lightpiping plug into his head when his visor is painted. That’s ok, though. His angular shoulders are dead sexy and his chest opens up just like old Soundwave. His blue and grey deco is exactly what you would expect, although I love the only added gold is around his tape door as if to really rub our faces into the fanwank “tape door.” Simply awesome. As with the original G1 toy, you can plug one of his guns into his shoulder and the other can be held in either hand.

Soundwave is a solid figure with excellent articulation. His head is ball jointed. His arms are ball jointed at the shoulders, swivels in the biceps and wrists and hinged elbows. His legs are ball jointed at the hips, hinged at the knees and ball jointed again at the ankles. He stands great and he’s tons of fun to play around with and pose.

Ok, I do have one criticism to lay on Soundwave’s door. Hasbro should have found some way to incorporate Universe 2.0 Ravage into his design. I guess he’s too small for that, but that’s ok, Ravage still looks great standing next to him. I suppose I could have asked that he be a bigger figure, but then I love having all of my Classic themed Transformers figures in one size, and Deluxe just works fine. Soundwave here just reminds me that it’s such a sweet time to be a Transformers fan and collector. And with awesome forthcoming figures like Kup, Wreck Gar and Scourge and Laser Rod Optimus, we’ve got some great months ahead of us, that is until the new movie line comes along and… well… you know.

Nov 19 2010

Transformers Universe 2.0: Targetmaster Cyclonus with Nightstick by Hasbro

It’s Friday, and that means it’s Transformers Classics week is just about up. I’ve got time to throw in one more figure before calling it quits so let’s take a look at the only Targetmaster to be released in the line so far: Cyclonus with Nightstick. He’s definitely a figure that needed an update badly as the original toy was pretty rough, at least in his robot mode. He was one of those new designs from the 86 movie with a rounder, more organic look that just could not be done justice in the old toy line. I know I had plenty of fun playing with him as a kid, but now it’s tough to look back at his original toy without cringing. How did the Universe 2.0 version treat us? Let’s find out…

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Cyclonus came carded in his space cruiser mode, so let’s start there. The roots of the ship design are certainly on display here, but it’s clear that a lot of sacrifices had to be made in order to help the transformation along. It’s not quite as sleek as the original toy design. You get a lot of disjointed hinging and segmentation and that retracting nose cone is particularly unsightly. The back half of the body doesn’t lock together and when viewed from the back it’s just downright f’ugly. That all having been said, I think they did the best with what they had, and if sacrifices had to be made, I’m glad they did it in the alt mode and not the robot mode. On the upside, Cyclonus has a hinged set of front landing gear and a socket in the top so you can plug in Nightstick and give him some extra firepower.

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The conversion process is pretty simple and yet very clever. I really like the way the entire nosecone assembly folds away into the torso. The engineering in the legs is very cool as well. He’s lots of fun to transform and not at all overly complicated.

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In contrast to the alt mode, Cyclonus’ robot form is excellent and very close to his animated counterpart. He hits all the points of the character’s great design elements. I love that Hasbro managed to remain faithful to the sleeker and more organic contours of the 86 movie look, which is something the G1 toys could never properly replicate. On the downside, I’m not sure what Hasbro was thinking for the colors here. The blue seems way too dark and the bare grey plastic doesn’t look that great. It’s passable enough for the wings, but the unpainted face just looks cheap and unfinished. That’s a shame because the sculpt of the portrait is great and the light piping in the eyes is particularly effective.

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Cyclonus has all the articulation you could want in an action figure. His head rotates. His arms rotate at the shoulder, have some lateral movement in the biceps, as well as hinged and swivel elbows. His legs are ball jointed at the hips, hinged at the knees and ankles and have swivels in the biceps. One of the greatest things about these updates is that we finally get these characters as fully realized action figures and Cyclonus sure is fun to pose and mess around with.

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Nightstick is Cyclonus’ little Nebulon buddy who transforms into a gun/cannon. I loved this idea back in the day and I’m happy to see Hasbro begin including these in the retro-line. It’s a pretty simple transformation, but his robot form looks pretty good for a guy this size. His articulation is actually pretty good too, even if most of it is just there to accomodate his transformation. For some reason, Cyclonus only has a peg hole in his right hand.

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Remember what I said about Astrotrain? Well it applies here too. If you don’t have Cyclonus and are looking to pick him up, spend the extra money and get the Henkei version. The colors are excellent and a toy this good really deserves the better paint job, than the unfinished grey parts on this Hasbro version. He’s not as bad a color variation as Astrotrain, though, so that’s saying something. You could also check out the Rodimus and Cyclonus two-pack that Hasbro did as it’s intended to be more a more cartoon accurate deco. Either way, Cyclonus is one of my favorite of all the Classics inspired figures. He looks amazing, has great articulation and is so much fun to play around with. If you don’t have him, get him.

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And that wraps it up for Transformers Classics week. I didn’t quite get to all the figures I wanted to get to, but I had a pretty good run at it. I was considering extending through to Saturday just to get a few more posts in, but I’ve got other toys piling up, [Some of which are more Transformers… yay! -FF] so I’m going to just move on and revisit the ones I missed at some point in the coming weeks.

Nov 18 2010

Transformers Classics: Grimlock by Hasbro

No doubt top on the list of many a fan’s wishlist for the Classics line was Grimlock. Hasbro did right by us all by getting him out of the way sooner rather than later. Afterall, considering how insanely popular he is among the fandom, Grimlock and the Dinobots haven’t gotten a lot of love throughout the years. [No, the Universe Dinobots don’t count, because true Dinobots shouldn’t look like real dinosaurs, they should look like robot dinosaurs. -FF] So, I wanted to make sure I gave Grimlock here his props during Classics Week.

Me, Grimlock think me should have been biggerer.

Yeah, I agree. Generations seems to be shunning the larger sized toys in favor of being a Deluxe Class only property [I’m still unclear whether Grapple will be in Generations or Hunt for the Decepticons packaging -FF], but back in the days of Classics and Universe 2.0, we did get some of the larger size toys. I really think Grimlock would have made a great Voyager Class. It’s not that I think the sculpt or the aesthetics of the figure would have been that much improved, but he should have been able to stand at least as tall as Optimus Prime.

That having been said, I think Hasbro did an amazing job upgrading Grimlock’s dino mode. There’s a little more rounding to the sculpt, but not enough to give him too much of an organic look. The head is awesome and the mouth opens up nice and wide so he can chomp on Decepticon fools or eat Minicons like popcorn. There’s also a ton of sculpted panel lines and other details all over his body. The biggest departure here from his original mode is the back-mounted missile launcher, which can be taken off if you’d like a more old-school look. The colors are excellent and faithful to the original. He looks like he has some wash over his primary grey color and the gold is great looking. The amount of articulation in the tail alone is pretty respecable too. Grimlock’s dino mode is just a great looking and really fun toy.

Transforming Grimlock is surprisingly different than his original version, and I’m wondering if Hasbro did the figure a disservice by over complicating things, or inexplicably trying to get away from the old style conversion. Normally, I wouldn’t care, but it effects the design of the figure with the head splitting apart to become the feet. I think that by keeping the original style of conversion, [Which was subsequently used for the Animated Grimlock. -FF], would have resulted in a much better homage to the G1 toy. How about it, Grimlock?

Me, Grimlock have teeth for toes! Why? Why have teeth for toes?

I have no idea, Grimlock. The new conversion just seems needlessly complex and fidgity, but it goes pretty quick if you know what you’r doing. Unfortunately, it also results in removing the tail, which the figure can hold as some kind of sword/bludgeon weapon. I absolutely hate when parts are removed from Transformers to make them work and then turned into shitty afterthought weapons to make it seem like a good idea.

Me, Grimlock not like holding own ass.

Nobody does, Grimlock. So let’s cast the tail aside and look at the figure. It’s not bad. It definitely shares some design elements with the original toy and the animated, but it also deviates a bit too much for my taste. The gold chest is nice effort, but that huge red orb in his chest was a strange choice. I already commented on the head splitting into the feet. If it were any other figure, it would be fine, but I don’t like it on my G1 inspired Grimlock. The shoulders suffer from the same backward assembly as my Ironhide and Ratchet, showing off the ugly screws. The head sculpt is excellent, though, and the light piping works really well on this figure.

His articulation is good, with rotating shoulders that have some lateral movement and hinged elbows. His head turns, but is very tight on my figure. His hips are ball jointed and his knees are hinged. You can get some decent poses out of him.

Honestly, I wish Hasbro had taken a different route with this figure and stuck more with the original look. They could have kept the original transformation while still adding articulation and updating the sculpt and I would have been much happier. On the other hand, he’s a really nice looking and fun figure on his own right. He’s definitely worth hunting down and buying, especially since this character hasn’t really received his due over the years.

Nov 18 2010

Transformers Universe 2.0 Ironhide and Ratchet by Hasbro

Even as a wee G1 lad, it was tough to wrap my head around what the hell was going on with Ironhide and Ratchet’s robot modes. I can remember seeing these guys on the shelves and wanting them so bad because I loved the characters so much. But then there were those pictures on the box. Could the figures really look like that? How is that possible? Is that really supposed to be their faces? I was never about to risk a chance to get a new Transformer on such a gamble, but one Christmas, my uncle got my the pair of them, and so I finally found out for myself that yes, these guys were all sorts of jacked up.

So, needless to say a lot of us have been waiting for these figures to get a proper update in the G1 style for a very long time. It took Universe 2.0 to do what seemed to be not such a big deal: Turn a van SUV into a decent robot. After all, Hasbro has been able to make passable Transformers out of motorcycles, a biplane, and even a goddamn toaster. How hard could it be to get these guys right? Well, the U2.0 releases come a lot close to getting the job done. These figures still have numerous issues, and I definitely think Hasbro could have done better. Let’s see what we got…

Ironhide and Ratchet are both the exact same figure, save for different head sculpts and coloring, so I’m going to start with Ironhide and then just cover the differences seen in Ratchet.

Ok, so Ironhide isn’t quite a van, he’s more of an SUV. That’s close enough to me and this alt form would be awesome, if it weren’t for the web of cracks and seams running all over his broadsides or a few other noteworthy problems. Ok, this alt form could never have been awesome. The seaming is unsightly as all hell and makes me reconsider my disdain for shell-former designs. I also don’t like the mix between clear windows and painted ones, it looks terrible. Some nice touches include the rambar on the front and “OREGON” on the rear license plate. The original G1 Ironhide figure had a great van mode and horrible robot mode, here we have the reverse. I guess we can’t have both.

Transforming Ironhide is a bitch and a half. There’s a lot of stuff you have to pack into his torso and just about every time I convert him, I’m afraid I’m going to break something. I also find it impossible to convert him without him pulling apart into two halves, so I just consider that part of the transformation, it’s just easier that way.

Ironhide’s robot mode is a mixed bag to say the least. The best thing about him is that he’s finally a humanoid. His head sculpt is also very G1 accurate. I know some don’t dig the powder blue face paint, but it doesn’t really bother me at all. The plate that moves up behind his windshield chest is a brilliant little gimmick and looks great. It feature excellent sculpting and an Autobot insignia. Ironhide is also a pretty stable figure that stands and poses well. So what’s the bad stuff? His shoulders are backwards and show off his unsightly screws. There’s also a problem with his transformation that causes his head to be looking down. There’s apparently a way to fix this by taking the figure apart, but it hasn’t bothered me enough to try. There isn’t a lot of paintwork on this figure, he’s mostly red with some black and grey, but that’s how he should be.

So, let’s take a quick look at Ratchet. The only structural difference in his ambulance mode is the lightbar stuck on top, all the other changes are found in the color scheme. The white and red works really well and I don’t mind the painted windows quite as much on Ratchet as I did with Ironhide. The seaming is still ugly as hell, though. If the license plate reads “H3L PU2” which I can only come away with as meaning Help You Too or perhaps it’s a plea to support Bono. I don’t know.

In robot mode, we see that Ratchet has a nice new head sculpt, which again is a very good likeness of the G1 character. Like Ironhide, Ratchet has the same plate that comes up behind his windshield chest, this time painted black but with the same Autobot insignia. He unfortunately suffers from the same reversed shoulder pieces, showing off his awesome unfinished screws. Apart from that, his deco works really nicely. I’m not a big fan of figures molded in white plastic, but Ratchet seems to be an exception. He just pops.

Both figures have weapons that can store underneith their SUV modes, between their rear wheels. These weaposn can be converted into a gatling gun looking weapon or a small bladed energon dagger.

Despite the shitty vehicle modes and a bunch of issues with the robot modes, I still can’t bring myself to dislike these figures. Granted, they spend ZERO time displayed in their alt forms. I’m just happy enough to have G1 versions of the characters in somewhat decent robot modes. If you’re fans of these characters or are looking to complete your updated Autobot ranks, I defintely recommend picking them up. If you don’t give a crap about Ironhide and Ratchet, than I would definitely skip this pair.

Nov 17 2010

Transformers Universe 2.0: Rodimus Prime by Hasbro

I am not a big fan of Rodimus Prime. Hot Rod was ok. Every kids series needs a young, cocky, hell-for-leather guy that the kids can relate to as he learns life’s lessons about being responsible. Rodimus, on the other hand, was just a whiney douchebag who didn’t deserve to lead the Autobots. I mean, seriously, Matrix, you got Ultra Magnus standing there, who’s name alone should qualify him for the job[Not to mention he’s Robert F*cking Stack!! -FF] but instead we give it to the kid. The figure, on the other hand, has always been pretty cool, so let’s see how Rodimus fared in his Universe 2.0 update…


Roddy’s vehicle mode is as close to perfect as I could hope to see. Yeah, he doesn’t have his trailer, but he’s a Deluxe, so I wasn’t expecting it. The colors are perfect and the flame decos are beautifully applied. Very sharp and nice looking. The silver on the engine, wheels and side piping really looks great. I also love that his windshield is translucent. It looks much better than if it were painted. Rodimus’ gun stores under him, between his back wheels. You can plug his flame missile in to make it look like he’s spewing fire out of his exhaust. Nice. The vehicle holds together beautifully and rolls along really well.

In robot form, Rodimus looks mighty good. His design is very close to the original G1 character and the colors are still pretty much spot on perfect. The flames on his chest are applied with precision, as is the paint on his face. The light piping is also really effective on this figure giving him nice glowy blue eyes. So, yeah he looks great, but, there are a bunch of little issues that nag me about this guy. The sculpted engine piece on his chest runs up a little too high and obscures the bottom of his face a bit. I’m not sure if this is making the head look too small, but it does seem smaller than it should be.

I also have some issues with his articulation. The head rotates. His shoulders roate, and offer a very little bit of lateral movement. I absolutely HATE his elbow joints, which are just hinged on the end and look terrible. His legs at the hips have universal movement, but the plates that hang off his hips interfere with these joints a lot. Finally, his knees and ankles are hinged. You can definitely get Rodimus into some nice poses, but a little better design would have gone a long way with improving his articulation.

I think the reason I am so picky about this figure is because it really is so close to being perfect in a lot of ways. The headsculpt is almost perfect, but it needs to be bigger. The articulation is good, but the elbow joints are an abomination. It seems like almost every up has a down. Still, he’s a fine figure and well worth picking up, even if you’re like me and aren’t a fan of the character. Afterall, Galvatron needs somebody to kick around.