Transformers: Generations GDO Cyber Series Cyber Battalion and Cyber Commander (Bumblebee, Grimlock, Megatron, Optimus Prime, Starscream)

Hasbro GDO (Global Development Organization) has struck again with more toys that are not released in the USA.  They suck.  Hasbro GDO sucks to be clear, not the toys.  Intentionally making toys that we aren’t getting in the USA is worse than doing it through stupidity, which has happened more times than I can count.  The Cyber Series Cyber Battalion toys (7 Inch) seem to be based on Legends toys similar to the upsized Legends toys from the end of the Transformers Prime Beast Hunters line.  However, unlike those, these seem a lot more detailed, and I’m not sure they are all exact replicas of Legend in a larger size.  The Cyber Commanders (11 Inch) seem more original, especially the Optimus Prime.

Cyber Battalion Bumblebee

Bumblebee appears based mainly on a Prime or Movie Legends toy, but with a G1 head.  It’s not the best of them, but it’s not too bad.  I do very much like his head sculpt.  Unfortunately, he suffers from Hasbro’s tendency to paint only the front of vehicles while leaving the back unpainted.  This is unfortunate, as Hasbro has taken many great toys and turned them to crap by not painting them properly.

Cyber Battalion Grimlock

I kind of love Grimlock.  In color he’s based on Age of Extinction Grimlock, but in design he’s more like G1.  He looks pretty great in both modes, though oddly when standing in dinosaur mode, his tail doesn’t touch the ground.

Cyber Battalion Megatron

Megatron is one of the only toys to come with a weapon, which is sort of a must him being a tank.  I really like this toy.  It might be loosely based on the Generations Legends Megatron (the one that came with Chop Shop).  My only complaint about this toy is that all the gray plastic should have been painted silver.

Cyber Battalion Optimus Prime

Optimus Prime is the closest to being an exact upsized Legend, but he looks great.  They did a beautiful job of painting him.  The silver hubcaps look great.  I love his head sculpt.

Cyber Battalion Starscream

Starscream, like Megatron, seems to be based on his more recent Legends incarnation, and is the only toy besides Megatron to have weapons.  This toy has the perfect color scheme with great painted details.  He has a little bit of a flaw in the design of his feet.  They flip down when he transforms to robot, but they do not lock into place.  On a flat surface, he’s fine, but if he is tipped forward just a little bit, he will fall forward at his ankle joint.

Cyber Commander Bumblebee

The 11 Inch Bumblebee looks great.  I love the exhaust piping on his vehicle sides.  Unfortunately, as with the smaller toy, they didn’t paint the back of the vehicle at all.  In robot mode he doesn’t look bad, but the gray torso seems out of place.  It should have some yellow on it.

Cyber Commander Optimus Prime

Optimus Prime looks great.  I love the mold.  This is a really great and unique Optimus Prime toy (unless I’m not thinking of what it’s based on, which is certainly possible).  I think he just needed a few more paint details in vehicle mode.  They should have painted his headlights and hub caps as well as his taillights.

Overall: These toys, with the exception of the two Bumblebees, are really nice, and the Bumblebees aren’t terrible.  They are simple, 5 to 8 steps to transform, so some collectors will not be interested in them, but I really like them.  They are unfortunately not easy to get.  The big online stores got them in a while ago, but most sold out pretty quick, and there don’t seem to be any on ebay.  I found them from a smaller online store.  They cost me around $200 for the set of seven, which isn’t bad considering they are not available at retail in the USA.  The previous Generations GDO series that ended up as Toys R Us exclusives in the USA, but I don’t think there is enough interest in these for that to happen.  However, unlike the previous series, these are also apparently available in Latin American countries.  Not sure if that means there are more out there or not, but at least they are available in this hemisphere.

Thanks for reading!

Transformers: Robots in Disguise (2015) Tiny Titans Series 3 (Bulkhead, Clampdown, Devastator, Fracture, Galvatron, Grimlock Inferno, Kickback, Megatron, Optimus prime, Roadbuster, Sideswipe)

Series 1 Review

Series 2 Review

Series 3 Review

If Bulkhead had just a few more paint apps he would be great.

Clampdown is a bizarre character design, be he doesn’t look half bad.

Properly painted, Devastator would be really great.  As is, he’s okay.

Fracture looks pretty cool, though he needed a few more paint apps.

Galvatron is pretty good, but like all the others, needs more paint apps.

Grimlock doesn’t look much like RID Grimlock, but he’s got better paint apps than most.

Inferno’s molding is nice, but I don’t know why they bothered to paint him at all.

Why the hell is Kickback purple?  I know these things are gang molded, but how hard is it to put toys with the same base color together?

While the card says Megatron, I think it’s meant to be Megatronus, though it doesn’t really look like him.  If it’s not supposed to be Megatronus, then I’m not sure what incarnation of Megatron he is supposed to be.  If he is supposed to be Megatronus, as with Kickback, he shouldn’t be purple.

Robots in Disguise Optimus Prime is pretty nicely molded, but again, and I hate to be a broken record, he needs paint apps.

Great molding on Roadbuster, and he’s got better paint apps than most.

Sideswipe is probably the best of the series.  He’s got great molding, and his paint apps are sufficient.

Overall: I don’t understand why Hasbro would intentionally make toys that look like crap.  These are cheap little figures, and if it was just them that would be one thing, but they don’t paint the real toys either.  I don’t now what the cost difference is between a piece of crap and a properly painted toy, but it can’t be enough to make this reasonable.

Thanks for reading!

Transformers: Platinum Edition One Shall Stand, One Shall Fall (Optimus Prime & Megatron)

As it happens, I have never done full reviews of these molds, so this is as good an opportunity as any.

Megatron

Vehicle: It’s kind of amazing that they actually re-released this toy.  The original version of the mold came out in 2006 as part of the Classics line.  It wasn’t quite properly colored for G1 Megatron.  In fact, they made it look like a Nerf gun, and I’m sure that wasn’t an accident.  It’s a decent mold and likely the last gun Megatron we’re ever going to see.  That’s a real shame, but what can you do?  This version looks better in gun mode than the original.  Predominantly in red with black it looks really cool.  While I understand (but loathe) the orange tip of the barrel, the orange tip on the scope is idiotic and pointless.  Whatever lawyer made them do that is a dick.

Robot:  The best version of the mold was the original Japanese version that was done in true G1 Megatron colors.  I think I’d like it better if they had made his forearms silver instead of red, but overall this a is pretty cool toy.

Optimus Prime

Vehicle Mode: This is just sad.  This is one of the best Optimus Prime molds ever.  Post G1 there is this and Masterpiece MP-12.  I think I would take this one over Masterpiece MP-1.  This mold has been released a number of times both as Optimus Prime and not as Optimus Prime.  There are some really nice paint jobs on this toy.  Unfortunately this is not one of them.  I love translucent Transformers, but making those two panels in translucent blue on the front and sides of his vehicle just looks stupid.  I have the Japanese Crystal Convoy version of this toy and it looks incredible.  Had they done something like that, then this would be something really special.  This is not that.

Robot Mode: While the vehicle mode coloring sucks, he looks pretty great in robot mode.

Overall: At $75 for two voyager toys, this set is overpriced.  What is really sad is that they decided to celebrate Transformers: The Movie with Megatron in not Megatron colors, and a ridiculous repaint of Optimus Prime.  They should have done them both fully (or at least as fully as they can, some parts have to be opaque) in translucent plastic in classic G1 colors.  That would have been amazing.  As is, these molds haven’t been available in a while, Megatron in particular.  So if you need the molds, it’s worth getting.  I can’t exactly recommend to skip an Optimus Prime and Megatron set, but if ever I was going to, this would be it.

Thanks for reading!

Kabaya Transformers: Block Wars (Bumblebee, Megatron, Optimus Prime, Starscream)

Strangely, these Block Wars toys seem to be based on the GDO Cyber Series Cyber Commander and Cyber Battalion toys.  They only became available in the USA as Universal Studios exclusives a few months ago.  As GDO toys they were not available in the USA when they came out.  I finally found a set with a great deal of looking.  You can read my reviews of them here.

Optimus Prime

Optimus Prime looks pretty great in robot mode, and I’m very impressed with his vehicle mode.  It is clearly based on the Cyber Commander toy, but that toy, a very unique vehicle mode for Optimus Prime.

Bumblebee

Bumblebee looks pretty cool, though his face sticker looks kind of odd for Bumblebee’s face.

Megatron

I really like Megatron’s tank mode, but like Bumblebee, he had a really odd looking face.  I would have preferred more silver and less blue on him, or maybe black instead of the blue.

Starscream

Starscream is definitely my favorite.  He looks awesome in both modes.  His colors and molding look great.

Combined Mode

For some unfathomable reason, these toys are made to combine into a single robot.  This makes absolutely no sense.  Why would Optimus Prime and Bumblebee combine with Megatron and Starscream?  They can also combine to form other odd looking vehicles by using two or three toys.  I didn’t bother take pics of these as they seemed pretty silly.

Overall: It’s not a bad set, though it could have done without the combining.  It’s just kind of odd they based them on a series of toys that is damn near impossible to find.

Thanks for reading!

Transformers: Generations: Alt-Modes Series 1 (Megatron, Nemesis Prime, Optimus Prime, Prowl, Skywarp, Starscream, Thundercracker, Ultra Magnus)

When I first saw these reported at Toy Fair, I thought it was some kind of joke.  Hasbro might have achieved a new level of stupid with these Alt-Modes.  What these are is a large head with an Autobot or Decepticon logo on top.  If you pull the logo up it makes them “transform” and I use that word loosely.  They go from tiny vehicle with enormous head on top to tiny body with an enormous head.  I could barely make them stand up in robot mode as the legs are not held in place.  They just flip down and fold up when the internal mechanism spins around, so there is no ratcheting to hold them in place, and the weight of the head makes them fall right over unless you can balance them just so.  They really suck.  The transformations sometimes get stuck, especially the Megatron.  The molding and painting of the faces isn’t bad, but not much else to say about them.  Unfortunately, there will be a series two, but hopefully that will be it.

Thanks for reading!

It’s over people.  Our long national nightmare is at an end.  This must be what Europe felt like when the Black Death stopped wiping out whole towns.  Yes, I just compared Fun Publications to a rat borne disease that killed 50 million people.  Seems accurate to me.  (Too soon?)

I know this is many months late.  There are a few reasons I waited so long to write this, chiefly among them being, that nobody really cares.  Since it is New Years Eve, a brief recap of the year seems in order.  The main reason this review took so long was that it took me forever to track down all of this year’s toys.  (Much more on that later).  Second, once I did have the toys, I kept putting it off because I had more important stuff going on.  Frankly, 2016 has sucked balls in so many ways that bitching about Fun Publications wasn’t super high on my priority list.  I’m till going to do it of course.

For me personally, 2016 started off with falling and tearing up my leg in January.  Spent three months on my ass.  (I spent six months off my feet after foot surgery last year, so I was really over that crap before I fell.)  The year ended with a root canal two days ago.  The bill hurts more than the tooth.  In between the Red Sox were swept out of the playoffs.  There was lots of other crap, but that hits the lowest points.

In the larger view of the world, we had a string of celebrity deaths that defies belief.  Professor Snape will be remembered…always.  Detectives Fish and Harris turned in their badges.  (Look it up, I’m old.)  The Goblin King sings no more.  Senator Stern is gone, “Hail Hydra”.  “The Greatest” left us, as did Willy Wonka (the good one).  Ensign Chekov was taken far too young.  And millions of voices cried out in terror, as we lost Admiral Akbar, R2-D2, and our princess.  There were a lot more, but frankly I’m getting depressed, so I’ll leave it at that.

It seemed like every day some terrible thing was happening in the world, and then we got the cherry on top of the diarrhea sundae.  We elected a sniveling, racist, sexist, misogynistic, loud mouth, incompetent, pile of dog shit who got rich by going bankrupt and not paying taxes president.  As expected the Electoral Cowards failed to do anything about that.  (Read my obituary for America if you care.  You probably don’t.)

We were well and truly fucked by 2016, and 2017 isn’t going to be better.  I know people talk about hope and a better year, but the world is likely to go completely to hell over the next four years.  In aircraft lingo, put your head between your knees and kiss your ass goodbye, because 2017 is coming for that last ounce of hope you have.  The Cubs would win the world series in a year that was so bad, that it’s hard to care.  I think that if that and the election are not the first two signs of the apocalypse, I’m not sure what is.

But, to bring it back around to Botcon and Transformers, at least one good thing did happen in 2016.  In the middle of the madness, the death, the impending collapse of modern society, and the election of a moron, there was one shining wondrous event.  Hasbro pulled the Transformers license from Fun Publications.

The above letter is one of my most treasured possessions.  It was given out at Botcon by Hasbro, saying in a lot of nice language, that Hasbro has finally rescued us from our twelve year nightmare as Fun Publications will no longer be annually raping our wallets.  In the words of Tiny Tim, God bless us, everyone!

Unfortunately, while it was originally announced that they would also lose the GI Joe license, which would be a fitting punishment for sullying the name of Transformers for the last twelve years, they wormed their way back in and will continue to screw over that fandom.  I really don’t give a shit, I just wanted them to suffer.  One reason I’m doing this New Years eve was that this day was supposed to mark the end.  However, whether due to Hasbro not getting the GI Joe crossover toys and last Subscription service toys done, or Fun Publications incompetence, none of that stuff has shipped, so we will have to continue to deal with these fools for a few more months.

I would be lying if I said that I wasn’t holding my breath on this.  Fun Publications slithered back into GI Joe, so I will remain cautious about celebrating too much.

One thing we are unlikely to get an answer to is why.  Why did Hasbro pull the license?  Were they sick of Fun Publications making their flagship brand look like a joke?  Did they decide that it was a poor reflection on Hasbro that the toys were often of poor quality and in many cases actually defective?  Could it be more about their shared universe and shared convention?  It is unlikely we will ever know for sure.  Personally, I would like to think Hasbro realized what a mistake they made giving Fun Publications the license to begin with, but that’s more wishful thinking than anything else.

It should be said that not everything about Botcon under Fun Publications was bad.  There were some good toys, though all were way overpriced.  I can’t say I didn’t enjoy the few times I went.  I found this picture of a friend of mine with me and Peter Cullen from 2009.  My friend prefers to remain anonymous.

Botcon under Fun Publications was never as good as it was in 1995, 1997-2002, and 2004, and the future is very uncertain.  We have no idea what we will get from Hascon.  Personally, the most important thing is the dealer room.  The primary reason I go to cons is to look for things for my collection.  For all we know the only thing Hascon will give us is a Hasbro store.  I’m hoping it’s not like that.  I am planning to go in 2017 as it’s close enough to me to make the trip even if it ends up sucking.  We’ll have to see if Hasbro can do this right.  I am remaining skeptical.

I had a lot of things I thought about for this blog post.  I considered doing a retrospective of every crappy, awful, underhanded thing that Fun Publications has done over the years, and maybe I still will at some point, but if you want to read about all that now, all my reviews and posts about Botcon are listed at the end of this review.

For all he crap they’ve done, I think we sometimes forget those who were hurt the most by Fun Publications, and that’s the Transformers themselves.  How embarrassing must it have been for them to be represented by that pathetic company?  So, Fun Publications, here are a few messages from some of the Transformers.  They truly are from the heart… err… fuel pump.

Reviews of the merchandise are after the toys, and links to all my previous Botcon reviews are after that.

Airazor

Previous Mold Reviews: Generations Windblade, Legends Slipstream

Airazor is repainted from Slipstream who was a remold of Windblade.  Windblade is one of the worst toys of the last ten years.  Since we already got a Botcon Airazor this toy was completely unnecessary.  It does have a pretty great paint job, but the mold is just so awful.  You can read my previous reviews linked about for details.  It would have made a lot more sense to do a limb for Magnaboss.  (More on Magnaboss below.)  This toy is all the worse for issues with it’s availability.  (More on that in my Megatron review below.)

Grade: D

Flash Sentry & Reflector

Previous Mold Reviews: Generations Shockwave, Generations G2 Shockwave

Reflector is not the worst idea they ever had.  There was apparently a plan to have the three of them combine into a camera, but that is not included in the instructions.  Robot mode looks decent.  Vehicle mode has nothing to do with Reflector.  Flash Sentry might have looked better with some more paint apps.  Maybe the silver around his chest like Reflector has would look better.  Flash Sentry was an exclusive to people buying the Golden Ticket package, but they were selling them for $240 I think.  I made a deal for mine before the con with someone attending with a GT package and paid less.  For rarity, I guess it was worth what I paid, but it’s just not a great toy, and certainly not worth $240.

Flash Sentry Grade: C

Reflector Grade: B

Megatron

Previous Mold Use: Robots in Disguise (2001) Megatron and Galvatron (With a New Head)

I don’t have a review of this mold, so I’ll do that now.  It’s crap.  I hated this toy when it came out, and I hate it even more now.  The new head sculpt is pretty good.  His dragon mode is okay as is his robot mode, but the rest of his modes look like you’ve folded up a dragon until it vaguely resembles something else.  This version of the toy has five modes, dragon, robot, jet, some vehicle looking thing, and hand.  Yes, it turns into a hand.  The sixth mode he original had was a bat, but that doesn’t work with this one as his head can’t form the bat head anymore.  I did put it in bat mode above for reference.  When the original Megatron toy was remolded into Galvatron they gave him a bunch of other stupid looking modes.  This one can probably turn into some of those too, but I don’t care.  Turning into a hand is possibly the dumbest alternate mode ever.  It does have the advantage of being able to do this.

Can’t tell what that is supposed to be?  Perhaps this will help.

He turns into a bird…of a sort.  A flipped bird you might say.  That’s really appropriate as this toy was Fun Publications ultimate fuck you to the fandom.  At Botcon only 850 Megatrons and 750 Airazors were made available.  They then sold out and started selling for insane prices on eBay.  Problem is, this limit was artificial.  A portion, I’m not sure exactly how many, of these toys were sold by Roll Out Roll Call in England.  That’s how I got mine through a friend of a friend at a pretty big markup, though less than the eBay insanity.  Essentially Fun Publications fucked over everyone who buys their crap on their site after the con.  (“Con” being the operative word.)  Airazor was the toy nobody wanted, so they were able to pawn off a ton of them with the Megatron that some people actually wanted.  I’m sure this was done because they didn’t want to get stuck with the Airazors.  Seems like they shouldn’t be producing toys they don’t think they will sell, but that would be logical and Fun Publications doesn’t really do logic.

This toy sucks so badly that it doesn’t even deserve an F, so I’m making up a new grade, the worst grade possible.

Grade: BS (No, it’s not “Bull Shit”.  It’s “Brian Savage”.)

Ratchet

Previous Mold Reviews: Generations Off Road, Generations First Aid, Generations Ironhide, Unite Warriors First Aid, Generations Trailbreaker, Botcon Grabuge, Unite Warriors Zombie War Breakdown, Unite Warriors Trailbreaker, Unite Warriors Ratchet

Ratchet was this years custom class toy.  What am I going to say about an unpainted toy?  They apparently had a bunch of rare sticker sheets for him, probably in an attempt to get people to buy a bunch of them.  They only reason I bought Unite Warriors Lynxmaster was to get an actual Ratchet.  This was, technically, the first release of the Ratchet head sculpt.  It was not new for Botcon, but included in the original mold.

Grade: D

Terrorsaur

Previous Mold Reviews: Generations Air Raid, Generations G2 Air Raid, Unite Warriors Curse Armada Thrust, Generations Strafe, Generations Guyhawk

Terrorsaur is one of the really great toys we got this year.  He has an amazing head sculpt and I love the paintjob.  He was this year’s freebie toy and is well worth picking up.  They should have included him in the box set and scraped Tarantulas.  (More on that below.)  For some unknown reason, Terrorsaur did not include a combiner accessory.

Grade: A-

General Cicadacon

Previous Mold Reviews: Generations Skydive, Generations G2 Skydive, Unite Warriors Ghost Starscream, Botcon Windsweeper, Generations Fellbat

Cicadacon is nicely painted in vehicle mode.  I love the art on his wings.  In robot mode he is mainly red and silver with a little black.  He could have used a few more paint apps.  Not a terrible toy, but the whole concept of putting two random characters with the three members of Tripredacus to make a combiner is a bit silly.  That said, this toy isn’t bad in and of itself.

Grade: B

General Ramhorn

Previous Mold Reviews: Generations Brawl, Generations G2 Brawl, Unite Warriors Brawl, Generations Nosecone, Generations Drillhorn, Generations Ironbison

The intended vehicle mode, which is Brawl turned backwards sucks.  It looks a little better turned around, but that’s not the official mode.  Ramhorn’s paint apps are okay.  Head sculpt looks a little small.  It’s not a great toy.

Grade: C

General Sea Clamp

Previous Mold Reviews: Generations Silverbolt, Generations Cyclonus, Generations Scattershot (1), Generations G2 Silverbolt, Unite Warriors Cyclonus, Generations Scattershot (2), Unite Warriors Scattershot

Sea Clamp highlights a major problem with this year’s toys.  The instruction books suck.  One reason is that they printed them on cheap paper.  More importantly, you need to turn Sea Clamp’s enormous head just so to transform him, but the instructions just use Silverbolt’s instructions.  They didn’t alter any of them for the new toy molding.  Jet mode is pretty nicely painted, robot mode is really plain.  I don’t like the knew head sculpt at all.

Grade: D

Tarantulas

Previous Mold Reviews: Generations Rook, Unite Warriors Wandering Roller, Botcon Impactor, Unite Warriors Nosecone

Did we really need another Tarantulas?  No, we didn’t.  The paint job is wonderful, and the new head sculpt is perfect.  Buy why?  Really, why?  Terrorsaur should have been in the box set and replaced Tarantulas.  It does look nice, so I can’t grade it too harshly.

Grade: B

Ravage and Tigatron

Previous Mold Reviews: Generations Breakdown, Generations Sunstreaker, Generations Wheeljack, Generations G2 Breakdown, Generations Jumpstream, Unite Warriors Lightspeed, Unite Warriors Wheeljack

Ravage and Tigatron are based on a mold that I never really liked.  The hips suck.  Both the robot and car modes are really well painted.  There is only one little problem, the head sculpt.  Or should I say the face sculpt, as he really has no head, just a face.

The mock up for this head sculpt looked great, so great in fact that Fun Publications kept using it when this toy went into the online store so people buying it wouldn’t know what crap they were getting.  This is truly awful.

Grade: F

Predacus

Predacus, renamed from Tripredacus since that would be stupid or a five member combiner isn’t horrible.  The color scheme isn’t bad with the three red generals and Ravage and Tarantulas both in dark colors.  The head sculpt looks okay.  However, a friend of mine noticed something I didn’t about the head sculpt.  I don’t have a picture, but it’s really poorly molded.  The back of the head looks slightly misshapen.  It just screams cheap crap, which I’m sure it was.  I bet They made the cheapest mold possible and it shows.

Grade: C

Unit-3

Previous Mold Reviews: Generations Dead End, Generations Brake-Neck, Generations Streetwise, Generations Prowl, Unite Warriors Streetwise, Generations Smokescreen, Generations G2 Dead End, Generations G2 Brake-Neck, Generations Dust Up, Botcon Bluestreak, Generations Lightspeed

No one is more shocked than me, but Unit-3, who is based on the McDonald’s Under 3 toy, is the best toy from Botcon 2016.  He is beautiful.  The paint apps look amazing.  But of course, there was a problem, greed.  At Botcon, the four souvenirs were available singly for the first time and Tigatron and Unit-3 were $49 each.  A sticker set was available with one of the trading card sets (for $5) to make “Magnaboss” (more on him below).  However, when they went on the website, the two toys were now a set with the sticker sheets for $120.  At this point they aren’t even trying to hide their price gouging.  What a fucking joke.  $22 for twenty-five cents worth of stickers that you also get when you buy the trading cards.  I fucking hate Fun Publications so much.  They suck all the fun out of collecting Transformers.  What a dick move.  I would give this toy an A+ if not for that.

Grade: A-

Magnaboss

So, as I said above, Tigatron and Unit-3 are meant to be part of Magnaboss.  The stickers they sold are to put on retail Combiner Wars Prowl, Ironhide, and Silverbolt (the three members in name of Magnaboss).  Pics are below, but they look like crap.  Here is, in my opinion, what they should have done if they wanted to do Magnaboss, which they should have.  First, eliminate Tarantulas and replace him with Terrorsaur in the box set.  I’d also change Predacus’s colors to look like the toys since he would look kind of silly in all red with one black toy, but whatever.  In place of Terrorsaur, you can do the same jet painted like as an eagle as Silverbolt for the freebie.  You can even reuse the beak art on the jet nose.  Keep Tigatron.  Rename Unit-3 to Prowl.  It’s the right mold and he’s painted as a lion.  Keep him as an homage to the McDonald’s Under 3 toy.  That’s fine.  He may not look perfectly like Prowl, but he looks great.  Then you eliminate the stupid Megatron and Airazor and replace them with Ironhide, a red and gray repaint of Motormaster, and another deluxe.  Who could that be?  Any Maximal.  Transmetal Rattrap would be my pick, but maybe you go to someone from the toy line that didn’t have a toy at all.  Razorbeast maybe.  If they wanted, they could even repaint Off Road in red and gray as Ironhide and paint Motormaster as Rhinox.  That would work too.  They had lots of options.  But alas, this is what we got.  Anyway, here are the pics, they aren’t even worth giving a grade.

Merchandise

Trading Cards

Jumbo Autograph Card

Uncut Trading Card Sheets

Transformers: Animated Storybook

Comic General Admission Cover

Comic Primus Cover

Timelines #9

I give them credit.  It was a dumb idea to skip number the book, but they got a printed version of #9 out.  Better late than never.

Cap

Flashlight Key Chain

Lithographs

Glass

Box Set Pin

First Day Pin

Golden Ticket Pin

I still need one of these.  Last year’s too.

Hot Rod Pin

Golden Ticket Print

Hot Rod Print (Unsigned and Signed)

Megatron’s Rubber Ducky (Convention and Online Store Versions)

T-Shirt

Shot Glasses

Sunglasses

Well, that about does it for my last (yay!) Botcon review.  There will still be some reviews to come as they have another subscription service and those GI Joe crossover toys coming out.  Her are links to all my previous Botcon reviews:

Blog #963: Toy Reviews: Botcon 2015 Toys & Merchandise

Blog #884: Botcon 2015 Box Set Preview and Stupid Things Fun Pub Has Done Again

Blog #696: Toy Reviews: Botcon 2014 Comic Book and Program

Blog #695: Toy Reviews: Botcon 2014 Deluxe Pirate Cannonball

Blog #694: Toy Reviews: Botcon 2014 Deluxe Knight Devcon

Blog #693: Toy Reviews: Botcon 2014 Deluxe Pirate Ferak with Tornado

Blog #692: Toy Reviews: Botcon 2014 Voyager Knight Ginrai

Blog #691: Toy Reviews: Botcon 2014 Custom Class Deluxe Knight Primal Prime

Blog #690: Toy Reviews: Botcon 2014 Ultra Pirate Headmaster Scorponok with Olin Zarak

Blog #689: Toy News: Botcon’s Deplorable Quality Control Continues, But Are They Doing It On Purpose?

Blog #675: Toy Reviews: Botcon 2014 Autograph Cards & Oversize Autograph Cards

Blog #674: Toy Reviews: Botcon 2014 Deluxe Knight Apelinq

Blog #673: Toy Reviews: Botcon 2014 Voyager Knight Alpha Trizer

Blog #672: Toy Reviews: Botcon 2014 Deluxe Pirate Brimstone

Blog #671: Toy Reviews: Botcon 2014 Deluxe Knight Flareup

Blog #670: Toy Reviews: Botcon 2014 Deluxe Flamewar

Blog #669: Toy Reviews: Botcon 2014 Kre-O Set (G2 Breakdown, Shattered Glass Rodimus, Axalon Rattrap, Fractal, Landshark, Gigatron)

Blog #668: Toy Reviews: Botcon 2014 Deluxe Pirate Hunter

Blog #667: Toy Reviews: Botcon 2014 Deluxe Dread Pirate Crew

Blog #666: Toy Reviews: Botcon 2014

Blog #657: Toy News: Botcon Toy Reveals

Blog #656: Toy News: Thirty Party Toy Ban Enforced at Botcon, No One Cares

Blog #627: Botcon Rumor: Souvenir Toys

Blog #576 Toy Preview: Botcon 2014 Voyager Ginrai Prototype

Blog #573 Transformers Artifact of the Week: Botcon 2013 Golden Ticket Exclusive Autographed Print

Blog #569 Toy News: Is the Botcon Third Party Toys Ban Lifted?

Blog #565 Toy Preview: Botcon 2014 Ultra Scorponok Prototype

Blog #561 Toy Preview: Botcon 2014 Deluxe Devcon Prototype

Blog #558 Blog #558: Toy Preview: Botcon 2014 Deluxe Ferak Prototype

Blog #550 Toy Review: Botcon 2014 Cannonball

Blog #530 Transformers Artifact of the Week: Botcon 2009 First Issue Sticker

Blog #426 Toy Reviews: Botcon 2013 Machine Wars: Termination Kre-O Set (Obsidian, Strika, Hoist, Megaplex, Skywarp)

Blog #425 Toy Review: Botcon 2013 Starscream & Depth Charge

Blog #424 Toy Reviews: Botcon 2013 Hoist & Electrons

Blog #423 Toy Reviews: Botcon 2013 Strika & Blastcharge

Blog #422 Toy Reviews: Botcon 2013 Skywarp & Thundercracker

Blog #421 Toy Reviews: Botcon 2013 Rainmakers (Bitstream, Hotlink, Sunstorm)

Blog #420 Toy Review: Botcon 2013 Mirage

Blog #419 Toy Review: Botcon 2013 Megaplex

Blog #418 Toy Review: Botcon 2013 Sandstorm

Blog #417 Toy Review: Botcon 2013 Obsidian

Blog #416 Botcon 2013 Toys and Merchandise Reviews and News From Botcon and SDCC

Blog #342 Toy Review: Toy Reviews: Botcon 2013 Machine Wars Termination Box Set Preview

Blog #139: Toy Review: Botcon 2012 Gigatron

Blog #138: Toy Review: Botcon 2012 Treadshot

Blog #137: Toy Review: Botcon 2012 Tracks

Blog #136: Toy Review: Botcon 2012 Ultra Magnus

Blog #135: Toy Review: Botcon 2012 Soundwave

Blog #134: Toy Review: Botcon 2012 Metalhawk

Blog #129: Toy Review: Botcon 2012 Spinister

Blog #126: Toy Review: Botcon 2012 Optimus Prime

Blog #125: Toy Review: Botcon 2012 Octopunch

Blog #122: Toy Review: Botcon 2012 Kick-Over

Blog #121: Toy Review: Botcon 2012 Junkions (Wreck-Gar, Junkheap, and Scrap Iron)

Blog #119: Toy Review: Botcon 2012 The Bard of Darkmount

Blog #110: Toy Review: Botcon 2012 Soundwave Headband

Blog #109: My Thoughts on Botcon 2012

Blog #90: Toy News: Hasbro Bans Third Party Art at Botcon…Or Do They?

Blog #87: Toy News: Hasbro Bans Third Party Toys at Botcon

Blog #56: Toy Review: Botcon 2012 Metalhawk

Blog #55: Toy Reviews: TF United Stepper, KO Bumblebee Combiner, Botcon 2012 Toys

Thanks for reading!

Transformers Masterpiece Die-Cast Megatron Gun Accessory

With the Hasbro Asia’s reissue of Masterpiece Shockwave, they included a die-cast Megatron gun.  It’s kind of cool, but honestly, if you’re going to make Megatron in gun mode, then either have him with all his extensions or none of them.  Including the barrel and scope without the stock seems silly.  Yes, I realize that would have made it difficult to have Shockwave hold it, but I would rather have it look right.

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Transformers Collector’s Club GI Joe Ninja Force / Transformers G2 Box Set

The Transformers Collector’s Club GI Joe Ninja Farce…sorry…typo…Force / Transformers G2 Box Set is supposed to be based on the issues of the GI Joe comic that set up the Transformers Generation 2 Comic, though the set does not come with a comic, which would have kind of made sense.  Let’s start with the box.

First off, beneath the Transformers Logo it should of said “Generation 2” in small letters.  That’s minor.  What’s not minor, is that there are three bio cards for the GI Joe characters on the back of the box.  There are no Tech Specs for Megatron or Ratbat.  What a joke.  I know that Fun Publications is all about GI Joe, and Transformers was just about making money, but at least pretend you give a shit.  The set does not even include instructions for Megatron and Ratbat.  What total crap.

The three figures included are Cobra Commander, Ninja Force Scarlet, and Dr. Sidney Biggles-Jones.  Cobra Commander came with the Megatron gun from the first SDCC TF/GI Joe crossover set.  As I recall, that toy was able to hold the gun.  It does not fit correctly into either of this figures hands.  Scarlet comes with a pair of claws, which are too big for her hands.  Kind of stupid to include accessories that a toy can’t use.  As to the figures themselves, I don’t care.

They included the gun Megatron from the SDCC set.  Not sure why you would include two Megatrons in the set, and since Cobra Commander can’t hold it, it really seems pointless.  Black Cat is based on Blackcat, a character appearing in one of the German Transformers comic books.  Having nothing to do with the G2 comic on which this set is based, I don’t know why it was included.  It would have been way better if they had been able to do a real toy of Blackcat, but it is something we didn’t have, even if 90% of fans don’t even know it existed.  That includes me.  They repainted Blaster from the SDCC set and called him Toaster.  Shattered Glass Blaster would have at least made a small amount of sense.  G2 Blaster would have worked.  He also has no connection to this set.  They included his cassettes from the SDDC set, but failed to paint them.  Maybe they are meant to be actual toast.  I don’t know.  Now on to something that doesn’t completely suck.

Read my original reviews of Megatron and Warpath.

Megatron looks pretty great.  I do not know why he would be translucent, but since I do love translucent toys, I can mostly overlook that.  It’s too bad they couldn’t have gone for silver plastic instead of gray (even blue would have been better), but he still looks pretty great.  A friend of mine pointed something out to me.  As you can se in the photos, he has camouflage paint apps that are the same as the upcoming Subscription Service Megatron.  That one also has a G2 symbol, and this explains why.  They used the same paint apps on both toys.  It kind of sucks that in order to get one right, the other one will be wrong.  Still, I do like this toy.  It would get a higher grade with Tech Specs and Instructions.

Grade: B+

Also included in this set is a repaint of Masterpiece Ratbat.  According to the GI Joe comic archive on YoJoe.com, Ratbat never appeared in the GI Joe/G2 comic crossover, making his inclusion in this set a shameless attempt to get people to buy it just to get this mold that was previously only available with Masterpiece Soundblaster in Japan.  You can get Masterpiece Soundblaster with Ratbat on eBay for less that $200.  Take it from me, that is a way better value than $129 for this set, plus that will at least have Ratbat in the correct colors, and you get one of the best toy molds of the last decade in Soundblaster.  Not sure what this color scheme for Ratbat is based on, probably just an attempt to make him look G2.

Grade: C+

Overall: Megatron is pretty great, and if Blackcat means something to you or you need Masterpiece Ratbat and don’t care about his colors, then I suppose this set is worth something to you.  At $129, it is way overpriced.

Thanks for reading!

Transformers: Generation One Gashapon BitFig Series 1 (Jazz, Megatron, Optimus Prime, Starscream)

These Gashapon (vending machine) were released in Japan.  They are pretty cool.  They are small, a little more than an inch tall, but for their size they are nicely detailed and painted.  I really hope we get more of these.

Thanks for reading!

Transformers: Generations: Titans Return Voyager Megatron & Doomshot

There are a few things I need to say about the Titans Return line.

First off, the trading cards.  Hasbro made a big deal that they were doing real trading cards and not just a picture with no meaningful back.  I guess they tried, but in the then end, they failed miserably.  The cards suck.  There are only four ratings instead of the eight that nearly all other tech specs have had for 30 years (when we’ve actually had tech specs).  There is no quote or function, and the only bio is a couple lines on the back of the package, they didn’t even bother to put it on the card.  Hasbro fails again.  What else is new?

Secondly, what the fuck is it with Hasbro that they need to focus on only one theme at a time?  Why are we getting Targetmasters and Powermasters as Headmasters?  It makes no sense.  Worse yet, the two Targetmaster converts, Blurr and Scourge, both have awful paint jobs (or I should say, barely any paint jobs at all).  They put all the work into the real Headmasters and just mailed it in on the Targetmasters that they shouldn’t have been doing in the first place.  As usual, they half ass everything, just like with Combiner Wars, where they ended the line without doing Terrorcons, Predacons, Seacons, Monster Pretenders, G2 Protectobots, and G2 Constructicons (in both colors).  I mean, they still could do those as box sets next year, but I’m not going to hold my breath.

Thirdly, the Titan Masters.  Why can’t they be consistent?  Apeface, Brawn, Nightbeat, and Terri-Bull are named for the actual characters they are the heads for instead of the actual heads they represent.  Clobber and Skytread could theoretically be the Headmasters for Grimlock and Flywheels.  This makes no sense.  Pick one way of doing it.  It would make far more sense to name them for the Headmaster and not the character they partner with, as we are only getting the Headmaster.  Related to that, it really sucks that we aren’t going to get any real versions of the Headmaster Juniors or Headmaster Horrorcons.

Finally, the Headmasters are freaking tiny.  G1 Headmasters were way better than these, and had the ratings meter on the chest gimmick that they didn’t even try to reproduce.  Another thing that sucks is that the heads of the Headmasters are articulated.  This makes it so that the larger robot heads are articulated, but also makes it hard when plugging them in to Titan Masters vehicles.  G1 Headmasters were so much better, but that’s true of most G1 toys.

Anyway, on to the review.

Doomshot

Titan Master: I love Megatron’s head sculpt.  Doomshot could have used a couple of paint apps.

Megatron

Vehicle Modes: Now that I have Megatron in hand, I am super excited for Blitzwing.  You can clearly see this toy was designed to be Blitzwing and was then altered to be Megatron.  He has two major flaws.  One is that there is no cockpit for the Titan Master in either mode.  He basically sits on top of the vehicle.  All the other Headmasters (unless I’m forgetting one) have a cockpit that fully encloses the Titan Master in vehicle mode.  This really bugs really me.  Of course, he would be so much better if he wasn’t a Headmaster, and then this wouldn’t be an issue.  His tank mode is otherwise pretty perfect, though I would have preferred he had a regular long turret than the small one with his fusion cannon on top.  It looks great with the cannon, but it doesn’t really look like a tank.  His jet mode has the other major flaw.  His tank treads fold in half under his wings in jet mode.  When you fold them over there is an oddly shaped peg on the back end of the tread that the front that you’re folding over pegs onto.  The peg is too small, and they don’t peg in well.  They mostly stay in place, but it really bugs me when things don’t peg in place.  Otherwise his jet mode is perfect.

I did encounter one issue with transforming him from robot to tank mode.  You open panels on the back of Megatron’s legs to fold in his feet and then fold his lower legs up to cover his thighs.  It appeared that his legs were properly transformed, but I couldn’t peg the treads to the side of his legs.  The ports didn’t line up with the tabs.  I realized that there is a tab inside his knees that pegs into his thighs.  However, it’s easy to miss that they aren’t pegged in and you can still close the cover over his legs.  Took a bit of force to get that lined up and tabbed in.  That’s a minor thing though.

Robot Mode: They did a remarkable job hiding Megatron’s jet parts in robot mode.  The only thing you can see are his rear stabilizers folded up on the sides of his legs.  I don’t so much mind the tank turret behind his head, but I suppose you could flip the turret around and you wouldn’t se it.  The only thing that I wish they had put a little more work into is hiding the tank treads behind his forearms.  I feel like there must have been some way to design them to at least slide inward a little so they don’t stick out so far.  It’s not terrible, but as is often the case with Hasbro, it could be better.  Interestingly, his fusion cannon is gray plastic painted black, so it’s shiny.  This looks great.  I’m not sure if this was intentional so it did have that shiny look or not.  He does have other black plastic, so I suppose they could have avoided painting it.  Hasbro gets credit on that one.  As with most of the Voyager Titan Masters, Megatron has pieces that flip up beside his head to make his head not look so small.  I’m not sure it doesn’t look better with them left down.

Overall: Megatron, the flaws aside, is awesome.  This is an absolute must, and a much better toy than the Combiner Wars Leader Class Megatron.  We are getting a G2 Laser Optimus Prime toy in an upcoming box set, so I’m betting that one of the other sets will include this toy in a G2 deco.  I’ll be looking forward to that.

Thanks for reading!

Thoughts on the New Toys Revealed at Toy Fair 2017

First off, I should say that I was not at Toy Fair.  All the info in this post comes from the major Transformers sites’ reports from Toy Fair.  I have no new info.  I also didn’t bother to gather Hasbro’s official photos as they are everywhere, so you shouldn’t have any trouble finding them.

Titans Return

Wave 5 of Titans Return was officially announced.  I cannot find any definitive info one way or the other on whether this is the final wave of Titans Returns toys.  It has fewer new toys at most classes than previous waves, but it might be that this is because we likely won’t see wave five until after The Last Knight toys debut on April 24th, and that this summer more full waves will be coming out.  (Trypticon is schedule for this summer.)  I don’t think Power of the Primes is set to debut until 2018, so there is a big gap in there without new Generation toys.  It could be that more is set to be announced at San Diego Comic Con, though there is speculation that Hasbro will forego SDCC in favor of Hascon this fall.  Who knows.  I hope this isn’t the last wave for Titans Return.  There are plenty of more toys I’d like to see.

Deluxe: Twintwist (from Topspin), Windblade (from Highbrow, heavily remolded)

I think everyone assumed we would be getting Twintwist, but Windblade is a bit of a surprise.  The only characterization we have for Windblade is bad IDW comics and the really awful Combiner Wars cartoon.  Why do they keep making Windblade toys?  At least in Robots in Disguise she’s a great character.

Leader: Overlord

Holy crap.  I really wasn’t expecting this.  I can’t even convey how excited I am for this one, and he looks amazing.  Unfortunately, he will only come with one Titan Master, but reportedly there are two different ones in the mold.  I figure both will come with the Japanese version.  I am curious if this toy was Hasbro’s idea, or if it was Takara’s, and Hasbro just decided to release it here.  He’s not the only Japanese character getting a USA release this year.  I hope this is a trend and we get a new Star Saber and Victory Leo in Power of the Primes.

Legends: Cosmos, Seaspray

I was psyched to see Seaspray.  I would love a new Cosmos, but unfortunately, this is just a repack of the one we got a few years ago.  At least we get a trading card.

Multipacks: Chaos on Velocitron (TRU Exclusive), Siege on Cybertron (BBTS Exclusive)

This was not unexpected.  Hasbro went all out with box sets for Combiner Wars (though still no G2 Defensor, Terrorcons, Predacons, or Seacons, dammit) so it’s not a surprise they are continuing them.  Chaos on Velocitron will include Laser Optimus Prime (from Voyager Optimus Prime), Deluxe Nautica (from Deluxe Blurr), Fastlane, Leader Quickswitch (from Leader Sixshot), and Titan Master Rodimus Prime.  This is a really great set.  The G2 Optimus Prime looks awesome.  Nautica looks cool, but is an IDW character, so I’m not that excited.  I’ll come back to Fastlane.  Quickswitch looks great, and is not a straight repaint, he seems to have some remolding.  Obviously he won’t look much like Quickswitch, but it’s nice to get him anyway.

Siege on Cybertron includes Pounce, Metalhawk (from Deluxe Triggerhappy), Tidalwave (from Leader Overboard), Magnus Prime (Japanese Ginrai), and Titan Master Thunderwing.  I’ll come back to Pounce.  Metalhawk looks awesome as does Tidalwave.  The real surprise hear is that we are getting the Japanese Ginrai now called Magnus Prime.  Why they couldn’t have just released that as Optimus Prime instead of the one they did, I don’t know.

It should be noted that the sets may not end up being the same price.  Chaos on Velocitron includes a Leader, a Voyager, a Deluxe, a Clone, and a Titan Master.  Siege on Cybertron includes 2 Leaders, a Deluxe, a Clone, and a Titan Master.  This could be good news.  If they don’t all have to have the same price points, it expands the toys we could be getting.

Update: As Matt pointed out in the comments, Tidalwave is a Voyager.  I got it stuck in my head that he was a Leader, so you can ignore the above paragraph.

As to Fastlane and Pounce, these are completely new molds.  They are smaller than deluxe toys, but larger than legends.  It was reported that they are planning Cloudraker and Wingspan and that they would also be in box sets.  So this begs the question, what else are we going to see in the other box sets?  I would bet we would get a G2 Voyager Megatron to go with the G2 Laser Optimus Prime.  Godbomber to go with Magnus Prime seems a sure thing.  I would be shocked if we don’t get those two.  Assuming there is no Wave 6 for them, I would think that Misfire and Slugslinger would be strong possibilities.  There are a variety of molds they could be made from.  Of course we also have the large Autobot Targetmasters, Pointblank, Crosshairs, and Sureshot.  Since Quake is being made from Hardhead, who has a completely different alternate mode, I think that Needlenose and Spinister are possible, as there are molds that could be used.  There does not seem to be any molds to use for Landfill, Quickmix, and Scoop, so they would seem unlikely.   I’m still holding out hope for an Alligatorcon from Skullcruncher, but that’s probably a long shot.  If Wave 5 is the last wave of Titans Return, then perhaps we will get a new mold for Springer and Sandstorm in the box sets.  We got them both a few years ago, but it would be really lousy to not have them in the Titans Return line, as we got the other four Triplechangers.  The fact that we got Blitzwing, who was also released a few years ago gives me some hope, though that Blitzwing toy sucked, while Springer and Sandstorm were pretty good.

Titan Masters: Ramhorn

Ramhorn, unlike the other cassettes, is not a cell phone.  That automatically makes him the best cassette in the Titans Return line.  Apparently Takara had a number of ideas for additional Headmaster only characters that were never used, and Ramhorn is based on one of those.  That’s pretty cool.

Voyager: Blitzwing (from Megatron), Octone (from Optimus Prime)

Yes, his name is Octone, unfortunately.  I am no less psyched to be getting him.  He will be a million times better than the Transformers Universe toy they called Tankor.  As I previously mentioned, the last Blitzwing sucked, so a new one is most welcome.

Robots in Disguise

Activator Combiners: Soundwave & Laserbeak

Crash Combiners: Optimus Prime & Strongarm (Primestrong) (Repaint)

Legion: Heatseaker

One Step Changers: Blurr, Sideswipe (New Mold)

Team Combiners: Ultra Bee, Menasor, Galvatronus

Warriors: Thermidor

There was not a lot of new RID stuff announced, and most of it was repaints.  The only really significant announcement was the Team Combiners box sets.  They look okay, but they aren’t really that exciting.

The Last Knight

AllSpark Tech Figures: Barricade, Bumblebee, Drift, Hound

AllSpark Tech Starter Packs: Optimus Prime, Optimus Prime (Shadow Spark), Squeeks

These have a gimmick that works with an AllSpark cube that goes into their chests.  The cube only comes in the Starter packs.  The technology is that the cubes activate different sound effects for each toy, and are activated by different movements of the toy.  I suppose it’s a cool idea, but I don’t see the logic in having some toys come with a  cube and some without.  Seems pretty silly to have to swap out the cubes to make the different toys work.  Not excited.

Deluxe (Repaints): Slash, Slug, Strafe

Deluxe (New Molds): Barricade, Berserker, Bumblebee, Squeeks, Steelbane

Deluxe (Remolds): Bumblebee, Crosshairs, Drift

Okay, so this is interesting.  It feels like Hasbro is going cheap with this movie series, which makes the price increase suck all the more.  The new molds look pretty great.  The repaints are, well, repaints of okay toys.  The remolds are pretty interesting.  While we will in one of the later waves get a new mold Bumblebee there are no new toys planned for Crosshairs and Drift.  The three remolds are all Age of Extinction toys with new car parts.  In the case of Drift, the new parts make him a whole new model car.

Leader: Grimlock, Megatron, Optimus Prime, Shadow Spark Optimus Prime (Asia Exclusive)

So, it appears that Megatron is the only new Leader Class toy we’re getting.  Grimlock and Optimus Prime are repaints of the Age of Extinction toys, as is the Asia exclusive Shadow Spark Optimus Prime.  This is kind of sad.  We aren’t even getting a new mold Leader Optimus Prime?  I mean, I love the AOE Leader toy, but a new one would be nice.  Megatron looks amazing as a jet.  I am pissed that the Shadow Spark deco is for Asia only.  I will have to get one of those as the paint job looks amazing.

Update: So, we may not be getting a Leader Grimlock repaint.  I was sure I saw it listed, but it could have been in error.  Hasbro does not make it easy to know what’s coming out.

Legion: Barricade, Bumblebee, Crosshairs, Drift, Grimlock, Megatron, Optimus Prime

I only saw a few pics of the Legion toys, but it looks like they are mostly repaints of previous Legion figures.  Info on one site said there would be nine Legion toys, but I could only find seven announced.  It’s hard to tell how accurate that list is, as it also only listed six Deluxe figures.

Knight Armor Turbo Changer: Grimlock, Hound, Megatron

These are Three-Step Changers with an armor gimmick.  The listing I mentioned above listed 5 Knight Armor toys, and Bumblebee and Optimus Prime are conspicuously absent.  I would expect those to be the other two.

Masterpiece: Bumblebee

I am pretty sure this is a repaint of the Dark of the Moon Leader Bumblebee.

Mega Turbo Changers: Dragonstorm

Dragonstorm is a One Step Changer three headed dragon.  I’m really curious how this one will be.  It looks really cool in dragon mode, and it’s a OSC, so you can only expect to so much.

Radio Control: Squeeks

Well, after BB8, we should have known this was coming.

Role Play Helmets & Masks: Bumblebee, Megatron, Optimus Prime

I can’t believe a lot of people are going to pay $80 for the Optimus Prime helmet.  I may wait for clearance on this one, and I have both the Gary Chalk and Peter Cullen versions of the first movie helmet, so I’m out of my mind and not willing still not sure I can bring myself to sped $80 on it.

Tiny Turbo Changers

These are fully transformable toys that come blind bagged.  There is only one assortment that we know of, and I’m not sure if a character list is out.  These are, I believe, Mini-Con size.

Titan Changers: Bumblebee, Megatron, Optimus Prime

So this is interesting.  These are transforming twelve inch toys.  These were first done for Robots in Disguise.  What is interesting is that there were no regular twelve inch Titan Heroes on the list.  Perhaps Hasbro has decided not to bother with the non transforming ones.

Turbo Changers: Barricade, Bumblebee, Hound, Megatron, Optimus Prime

Turbo Changers are One Step Changers.  The list I mentioned earlier said there would be seven of these, so there could be two more.

Voyager: Grimlock, Optimus Prime, Hound, Megatron, Scorn, Steelbane

Grimlock is the only repaint in the Voyager line.  The rest are all new molds.  And yet, we are only getting remolds of Crosshairs and Drift.  I don’t get it.  The new Scorn and Steelbane look great.  I don’t really like Hound’s new vehicle mode.  The new Optimus Prime looks good.

Thanks for reading!

Here we go again!

3/23/17: Transformers: The Last Knight (I love that title) comes out on June 23rd.  We don’t have to wait that long for the toys.  The official US release date for Wave 1 is April 24th (I’m taking that day off work).  Not much to say at this juncture, though fro the most part I’m loving what I’ve seen of the toys.  A few too many repaints, but we always get that.  Below is a list of all toys that are currently announced.  I will of course be updating that and eventually adding links to reviews.  If you have any info on new toys that is not accurate below, let me know.  Hasbro doesn’t exactly make it easy and sometimes I see conflicting information.  Just releasing a list would be way too convenient.  That’s all for now.  Updates as new information comes in, and expect reviews to start the week of April 24th.

4/17/17: I picked up my first Transformers: The Last Knight merchandise.  A t-shirt, poster, and USB hub was given out at the Imax fan event.  I was able to get them pretty reasonably on eBay.

4/24/17: Well, that sucked.  Toys R Us apparently took it upon themselves to declare April 24th as the official release date for The Last Knight Toys.  You can find my thoughts on that: Transformers: The Last Knight Toy Release Day: How Toys R Us Stole Christmas.  Needless to say it sucks.  All I ended up finding was Wave 1 Deluxes, Voyagers, and Knight Armor Turbo Changers.  I should have One Step Turbo Changers later in the week (I ordered them online).  Hoping that Legion and Tiny Turbo Changers show up in store the end of the week.  I am going to try to get some of the reviews up tonight.

4/25/17: If you read my post yesterday titled, Transformers: The Last Knight Toy Release Day: How Toys R Us Stole Christmas, then you should definitely read my follow up post, Transformers: The Last Knight Toy Release Day: How Toys R Us Stole Christmas 2: The Shadow Conspiracy (Starring Hasbro as Jar Jar Binks!).

4/27/17: Well, I’ve posted reviews of most of the first wave of Last Knight Toys, Wave 1 Knight Armor Turbo Changers, Wave 1 One Step Turbo Changers, Wave 1 Deluxes, and Wave 1 Voyagers. I will have Wave 1 Legion and Series 1 Tiny Turbo Changers tomorrow.  I am, to put it mildly, unimpressed.  Other than Voyager Optimus Prime, and Deluxe Barricade, there is not much to here worth buying.  Deluxe Barricade isn’t bad, but has some flaws.  It feels like Hasbro isn’t even trying.  Anyway.  I expect to have Legion and Tiny Turbo Changer reviews up this weekend.  The only thing I haven’t found for toys that should be out is the Titan Changers, which are out in other countries, so they should be showing up soon.  There is some other merchandise out there.  Some Toys R Us stores have Optimus Prime and Bumblebee shield and sword sets, but I have yet to find them.  There is also a fleece blanket reported at Walmart, but I can’t find that either.  This movie better be amazing, because so far the toys and merchandise sucks.  However, Hasbro did reveal Masterpiece movie Optimus Prime, and he looks amazing.  I’m glad they went with his look from the first three movies.  I love the look of Optimus in AOE and TLK, but I prefer the original Movie version.

4/30/17: I’ve added link s before to reviews of Legion Wave 1 and Tiny Turbo Changers Series 1.  The Legion is a disaster.  Absolute crap.  I also found the Bumblebee and Optimus Prime shield and sword sets as well as the Optimus Prime Battle Blaster Sword.  Pics and reviews linked below.  I’m still on the hunt for the fleece blanket at Walmart.

5/5/17: I found and interesting T-Shirt at Toys R Us.  It may or may not be related to the Toys R Us Mission to Cybetron sub line of The Last Knight Toys.  You can read that blog here.  I also found the Transformers: The Last Knight Schick Hydro razors.  I hadn’t heard about this promotion until a friend sent me a picture of the display.  I’ve only seen them at Walgreens, and not every store I went to had them.  You can read my blog about them here.  Additionally a catalog photo has the toys is Tiny Turbo Changers Series 2.  It’s not clear who all of them are but we have a general list.  See below.

TOYS

AllSpark Tech Figures

Barricade
Bumblebee
Drift
Hound

AllSpark Tech Starter Packs

Optimus Prime
Optimus Prime (ShadowSpark)
Squeeks

Combiners

Infernocus

Deluxe

Barricade (Wave 1)
Berserker (Wave 1)
Bumblebee (Wave 1)
Slash (Wave 1)
Drift (Wave 2)
Slug (Wave 2)
Squeeks (Wave 2)
Steelbane (Wave 2)
Bumblebee (New Mold) (Wave 3)
Crosshairs (Wave 3)
Strafe (Wave 3)
Unknown (Wave 3)
Megatron
Skullitron

Knight Armor Turbo Changer

Bumblebee (Wave 1)
Grimlock (Wave 1)
Optimus Prime (Wave 1)
Hound
Megatron

Leader

Dragonstorm
Megatron
Optimus Prime

Leader (Asia)

Optimus Prime (Shadow Spark)

Legion

Barricade (Wave 1)
Bumblebee (Wave 1)
Grimlock (Wave 1)
Optimus Prime (Wave 1)
Crosshairs
Drift
Dragonstorm
Hound
Megatron

Masterpiece

Bumblebee (Wave 1)
Optimus Prime (Wave 2)
Barricade

Mega Turbo Changers

Dragonstorm

One Step Turbo Changers

Barricade (Wave 1)
Bumblebee (Wave 1)
Hound (Wave 1)
Optimus Prime (Wave 1)
Drift
Grimlock
Megatron
Berserker
Cogman

Radio Control

Squeeks

Role Play Toys

Bumblebee Cannon
Bumblebee Deluxe Role Play Set
Bumblebee Mask
Bumblebee Sword & Shield Battle Pack
Megatron Mask
Optimus Prime Battle Blaster Sword
Optimus Prime Deluxe Role Play Set
Optimus Prime Helmet
Optimus Prime Sword & Shield Battle Pack
Squeeks Mask

Tiny Turbo Changers

Blackout (Series 1)
Bumblebee (Series 1)
Bumblebee (Knight Strike) (Series 1)
Crosshairs (Series 1)
Grimlock (Series 1)
Grimlock (Shadow Armor) (Series 1)
Hound (Series 1)
Lockdown (Series 1)
Optimus Prime (Series 1)
Sideswipe (Series 1)
Soundwave (Series 1)
Starscream (Series 1)
Barricade (Series 2)
Berserker (Series 2)
Blackout (Repaint) (Series 2)
Bumblebee (Repaint/Remold?) (Series 2)
Cogman? (Series 2)
Drift (Series 2)
Hot Rod (Series 2)
Megatron (Series 2)
Optimus Prime (Repaint?) (Series 2)
Shockwave (Series 2)
Squeeks (Series 2)
Thundercracker? (Series 2)
Titan Changers

Bumblebee (Wave 1)
Optimus Prime (Wave 1)
Megatron (Wave 2)

Voyager

Grimlock (Wave 1)
Optimus Prime (Wave 1)
Bumblebee
Hound
Megatron
Scorn
Steelbane
Nitro

MERCHANDISE

Clothing

Imax Event T-Shirt

Electronics

Imax Event USB Hub

Posters

Imax Event Poster

Razors & Accessories

Schick Hydro Disposable Razor 3-Pack – Optimus Prime
Schick Hydro Razor – Bumblebee
Schick Hydro Razor – Optimus Prime
Schick Hydro Razor Replacement Blades – Bumblebee
Schick Hydro Razor Replacement Blades – Optimus Prime
Shave Gel – Optimus Prime

Transformers Masterpiece Megatron

Regardless of anything negative I say about this toy, it is a million times better than MP-05 Megatron.  Still not perfect, but an amazing improvement.

Megatron comes with three additional faces.  These are his angry and happy faces.

Megatron looks great in gun mode.  Unfortunately, he is still bigger than a real Walther P-38.  He’s not as big as MP-05, but it’s still too big.  I suppose this is probably the best they can do to give him an accurate robot mode, but I really wish it was actual size.  Other than that he looks amazing.

Unfortunately he has one major design flaw.  When you put on his black barrel and take it off it wears the  paint off the end of the gray barrel.  I don’t know how they could screw this up.  Inside the black barrel there should have been a peg to go inside the gray barrel to secure it.  Instead (or in addition) it’s the opposite.  I only put it on and took it off once and the paint wear was noticeable.  It’s pretty unforgivable to allow this to hit the market with this problem.  Takara is usually better than this.

His accessories can combine into a free standing cannon like the G1 toy.  Neat feature.

Megatron looks awesome in robot mode.  He it perfect.  One of the reasons I can forgive his super sized gun mode is that he really looks amazing in robot mode.  He can even flip his turret down at his side to face forward.

In the episode A Prime Problem, Megatron makes a clone of Optimus Prime that he controls with this helmet.

One of Megatron’s most iconic weapons is the mace.  He wielded it in More Than Meets The Eye in his battle with Optimus Prime on the dam.  In addition to the small chain, he also include a more sold jointed chain that can attach the mace.

Megatron comes with a die cast Key to Vector Sigma.

Megatron’s extended barrel and scope can be configured into a shoulder mounted cannon.  I can’t recall the origin of this, but I know I’ve seen it somewhere.

These are my favorite of his accessories.  Megatron comes with the sword he used in the battle of Autobot City against Optimus Prime as well as a battle damaged chest and face and the gun with which he killed Optimus Prime.  It is unfortunate that there is no battle damaged version of MP-10 Optimus Prime to fully recreate that iconic scene.

One thing I didn’t mention earlier is Megatron’s transformation.  It is complex, and frankly, I doubt I could ever do it without the instructions.  The instructions even try to hide it by listing 15 steps, but each step includes multiple steps.  I counted them up.  Transforming him takes 107 steps.  I am fairly certain that makes him the most complicated Transformers ever.

Overall: I know there are three different MP scale third party Megatrons that have come out.  I don’t have any of them, and I always prefer the official stuff, but with him being so complicated, so expensive, and with the flaws he has, you may wish to consider one of the third party Megatrons instead of this one.  They most likely have their own problems, but I don’t know.  Still, he will look amazing standing on your shelf, just don’t torture yourself by transforming him a lot.

Thanks for reading!

Botcon 2016 Club Subscription Service 5.0 Shipment 2 (Pretender Megatron and Pretender Optimus Prime)

Pretender Megatron & Spacewarp

Spacewarp

“Awesome” is not a word often I use to describe a Fun Publications toy unless it’s followed by another word like “failure”.  But in this case, I have to use it.  Spacewarp is awesome.  The paint job on Spacewarp is incredible (another word I don’t usually use when describing Fun Publications toys unless is followed by “mess”).  They really put a lot into painting a really small toy.  She’s beautiful.  Spacewarp is based on a canceled toy from Transformers Universe that would have been repainted from Armada Jetfire.  That design was later altered to be Fun Publications Astrotrain.

Grade: A+

Pretender Megatron

There is a surprising amount of good things in this set.  Unfortunately, Megatron’s Pretender shell is not one of them.  On the good side, they actually got, not just a G1 one mold, but a Japanese G1 mold.  Too bad they didn’t do that sooner.  Unfortunately, it’s just Cerebros’s Pretender shell from Grand Maximus, but it’s still a big deal that they got even that.  Unfortunately they decided to paint it as G1 Megatron.  The paintjob is excellent.  It certainly is in G1 Megatron colors.  Unfortunately, it looks about as much like G1 Megatron as it would if they had repainted G1 Carnivac’s Pretender shell in G1 Megatron colors.  Nothing about this toy says Megatron.  This is like repainting G1 Bumblebee as Ironhide.  You can get the colors right, but that doesn’t mean it makes any sense.  Now, if they had repainted this as Optimus Prime that would have worked.  It at least has a mouthplate like Optimus Prime.  That would have worked.  Heck, for the same reason it would have worked to paint him as Soundwave.

You might notice that, as has been normal practice at Fun Publications, he has been changed from the original promotional mockup images.  The paint changes are minor, and not a big deal.  What is a big deal is his weapons.  He was shown to come with the weapons that originally came with Grand Maximus for Cerebros’s Pretender shell.  Instead he comes with a black version of Titans Return Voyager Optimus Prime’s sword and a black version of Titans Return Voyager Sentinel Prime/Astrotrain’s gun.  They’re fine weapons to go with the shell, but they aren’t what we were told we were getting.  Par for the course.

There is also the issue of how Megatron fits inside the shell, but we’ll get to that later.

Megatron’s paint job is based on the unreleased repaint of Generations 2 Hero Megatron.  As such, his G2 logo is appropriate.  It is pretty faithful to the original paintjob, the only exception being his gun, which should have been painted green.  It’s nowhere near as cool as the green translucent G2 Megatron.  It’s a fine repaint, and the arctic camouflage looks pretty great.

I assume this piece is a new mold.  It is to help fit Megatron and Spacewarp into the shell.  It is designed to look like the gun that came with G1 Megatron.  Okay, points there, though it would have been better If Megatron could actually use it as a gun, which he can’t.  It clips onto his chest, and Spacewarp pegs onto the front.  Then it fits into slots inside the shell.  This is necessary since Cerebros was fairly big and Megatron wouldn’t really fill up the space inside the shell.  Unfortunately, the two little pegs on top of the accessory that Spacewarp pegs into are too small to hold him in place.  He falls off as soon as you tip him forward.  It’s useless for keeping Spacewarp in place inside the shell, completely failing to do what it was designed to do.  That is what I would call an “awesome failure” and an “incredible mess”.  (See what I did there.)

Also, it should be noted that the instructions for this toy are a joke.  There are no instructions for putting Megatron in the shell, just for putting Cerebros in the shell, which is completely useless.  Megatron’s instructions say Combiner Wars, while Optimus Prime’s say Timelines.  They just stopped trying at some point.

Grade: C+

Pretender Optimus Prime & Hi-Q

Hi-Q

Hi-Q’s paint job is not quite as detailed as Spacewarp’s, but it’s still pretty great.  They did a great job painting his robot mode to look like Hi-Q.  In jet mode they went with simple striping on thee wings, but it looks great.  Very cool.

Grade: B+

Pretender Optimus Prime

Read my review of Oilmaster.

All the Oilmasters I’ve seen seem to have the same defect.  One leg is not glued on right.  That is not the case with Optimus Prime, so it has that going for it at least.  One other thing that he has going for him is that he is actually painted in the same color scheme as the toy the mold was based on, which is a huge improvement over Oilmaster.  However, there is nothing about this shell that says Optimus Prime.  What they should have done is paint him to look like Optimus Primal wearing G1 Optimus Prime colored armor.  How awesome would that have been?  After all these years truck and monkey could have become one.  They could have called him Primal Optimus Prime.  Oh well, another opportunity lost.  He comes with a tan repaint of Generations Deluxe Orion Pax’s gun.  That has some design inspiration from G1 Optimus Prime’s gun.  That’s the most Optimus Prime thing about the shell.  Having said that, it’s not a bad paintjob.

Optimus Prime’s paint job is G2 inspired and looks amazing.  The new head sculpt is perfect.  There is only one problem.  His paint job is G2 inspired, but he has a G1  Autobot logo.  How do you screw that up?  Megatron has a G2 paintjob and a G2 logo.  How they messed that up, I don’t know.

Grade: B

Overall: This is not a bad set, but has a few flaws that just don’t make any sense.  I kind of wonder if the paintjob on Optimus Prime’s Pretender shell would have been different if they hadn’t lost the license, and were able to use it again with this color scheme.

Well, it’s almost over.  Just one more Fun Publications set to go.  I’m still betting the freebie toy is Nightbird.  I guess we’ll find out in a month or so when I review the last Fun Publications Transformer!

Two little Indians playing with a gun.  One got shot and then there was one. – Ten Little Indians

Thanks for reading!

Transformers: The Last Knight Knight Armor Turbo Changers Wave 2 (Megatron)

Transformers: Age of Extinction Toy Reviews

Megatron

I love the jet mode.  Obviously this version isn’t as detailed as the upcoming Voyager and Leader toys, but it’s a great design.  His robot mode looks the part of a knight.  When you put his helmet on he looks like a Viking.  That is infinitely preferable to his face sculpt.  I hate the teeth.  He looks pretty ridiculous.

Overall: The Transformers: The Last Knight toyline continues with all the grace of an ogre trying to do ballet.  I still hold up hope for some of the upcoming toys, but when I found this on the shelf, I sighed in frustration because I found it.  Usually I only do that when I don’t find what I’m looking for.

Thanks for reading!

Transformers: The Last Knight One Step Turbo Changers Wave 2 (Berserker, Grimlock, Megatron)

Transformers: Age of Extinction Toy Reviews

Berserker

Berserker looks great in vehicle mode, though he doesn’t really resemble the SUV that he is supposed to be.  He looks more like a pickup truck with an extended cab and spoiler.  I like it though.  He has decent paint apps in robot mode.  He has the bent up legs that I hate, but the way he is designed he stands up fine.

Grimlock

Read my review of the original release of this mold here.  I like that they are at least doing The Last Knight Grimlock toys in the movie accurate colors, something we never got from any of the Age of Extinction Grimlocks (at least in the USA).

Megatron

Megatron is supposed to be a One Step Changer who transformers in three steps minimum, four steps if you want to get technical.  Before the single step transformation, you need to fold up his wings.  I would argue that is two steps, but you could, I guess, call it one.  Then you do his “one step” transformation.  Then you have to flip down his feet for the third (or fourth) step.  His jet mode doesn’t look bad.  I’m not at all crazy about the look of his robot mode, but I’m hoping the Voyager and Leader toys higher level of detail will make it look better.

Overall: Grimlock might be worth getting just because he is in the right colors.  I think the new molds are worth it.  This wave is definitely better than wave one, but I am yet to be excited about any The Last Knight toy, and that is really depressing.

Thanks for reading!

Transformers: The Last Knight Sonic Drive-In Stickers

Transformers: Age of Extinction Toy Reviews

The Sonic Drive-In stickers are roughly standard trading card size. They come in packs of 6. There are 8 different pack designs, but the only difference just seems to be the art on the pack. The contents seem to be 6 random cards just like regular packs of trading cards. There is Autobot Symbol, Decepticon Symbol, Optimus Prime, Bumblebee, Crosshairs, Grimlock, Megatron, and Barricade. I finally managed to track down a quantity of the packs, but I do no yet have a sealed set of packs as I had to keep opening them for the single stickers.

I have no idea just how many stickers there are in the set. I have found a total of 31 different stickers, 9 foil (one per character) and 22 white. The breakdown is very odd. For Bumblebee, Drift, Grimlock, and Optimus Prime, I’ve found three different white stickers (different art of the character) and one foil sticker that uses the same art as one of the white stickers. Sqweeks is different. I’ve also found three different white stickers, but his foil sticker has completely different art. I’ve found two different white stickers for Barricade, Crosshairs, and Megatron, as well as one foil sticker of each using the art from one of the white stickers. Hound is the real odd man out. I’ve only found one white sticker of Hound and a foil sticker with the same art. It’s hard to take a guess at how many different stickers there are total. This could be all of them. All stickers are pictured below. If you have any different ones, please send me scans or photos, and if they are available for sale or trade let me know. I have tons of duplicates.

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Transformers: The Last Knight Titan Changers Wave 2 (Megatron)

Transformers: Age of Extinction Toy Reviews

Megatron

Megatron looks okay in robot mode. He’s not awful. He looks a little better in jet mode, but not much. Yeah, he’s just kind of there. The RID Titan Changers were better toys. It feels like Hasbro really isn’t trying with the TLK Titan Changers.

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Transformers Jollibee (Philippines) Exclusives, Cybertron Jetfire, Movie Barricade & Megatron, Revenge of the Fallen Ironhide

Jollibee is a McDonald’s-ish fast food restaurant chain in the Philippines. They have had several series of Transformers exclusive toys in the past, four each for Transformers: Cybertron, Transformers, and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. I have finally managed to get my hands on a few of them. I’m still looking for the rest.

Jetfire

Jetfire is not a great toy. He is pretty flimsy, especially in vehicle mode. I managed to get his arms to stay in the up position under his wings for the picture, but as soon as I picked him up, they fell back down. His legs to not clip in under the jet, so they just sort of hang there. That aside, he doesn’t look terrible in jet mode. He is better in much robot mode. His jet nose pegs into his waist so he stays together in robot mode. Not sure why they thought of it for his robot mode, but not in vehicle mode.

Barricade

Barricade actually looks pretty great in police car mode. When I tried to transform him one of his arms cracked, but managed to stay on. The joints are not well designed. I decided not to risk transforming him, but I doubt he looks great in robot mode.

Megatron

Megatron looks okay in vehicle mode except for his open back forming the top of the jet. He’s not too bad in robot mode. Not great either.

Ironhide

Ironhide’s base is actually a launcher. The spring is pretty strong, but he only jumps about six inches. His truck mode looks pretty great. His robot mode, not so much.

Thanks for reading!

Transformers: The Last Knight Toys R Us Exclusive Mission to Cybertron Deluxe Megatron

Transformers: The Last Knight Toy Reviews

Megatron is a repaint of Generations Deluxe Megatron with a new head. You can read my reviews of the previous uses of this mold: Generations Megatron, Generations Dreadwing, Calvin Johnson Edition Generations Megatron, and Botcon Krok.

Megatron

When I first heard about this toy, I really wasn’t sure about it being repainted for this line, but the new head sculpt is pretty good. I love the color scheme, purple, gold, and dark gray, it really looks great, even if it has nothing to do with Megatron’s colors in the movie.

Thanks for reading!