Transformers: Energon & Beyond

I FINALLY found the new legions (the answer to your question is yes, Chux) last Sunday at the Walmart in my parents' town. Got Evac, Breakdown, Mirage, and Soundwave.

On a side note, I find it interesting that one Walmart (the one here in my town) can have little to no new toys, and get virtually nothing new in for weeks at a time, while another Walmart (the one in my parents' town) has twice the number of toy aisles and has full pegs. Distribution is quite tricky at times.

Anyway, I gotta say the wait for these guys was frustrating, but now that I have them in hand I'm pleased. I was a bit concerned with Evac, as some guys on TFW were having qc issues with theirs, but mine is just fine. Mirage is cool, but being a Sideways repaint, there isn't much surprise there. Breakdown is very nifty. I like his uniqueness, and for a legion he's quite solid. Soundwave is the same as his dotm predecessor, just with a different paintjob and another one of those gummy bear weapons.

I also got deluxe Hot Shot and Breakdown at another Walmart last week. Haven't opened either yet.

The hunt continues for Voyager Starscream and Bulkhead. A friend of mine texted me the other night to inform me that the TRU near him (an hour and a half away from me) had both but were $27 each before tax.

I'm not even sure I should bother looking for Vehicon at this point. From what I'm reading on TFW, people are going nuts for that figure.
I can wait it out..or one of you kind west-coasters could help me out. :)

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Originally Posted by JetsAndHeels

I'm not even sure I should bother looking for Vehicon at this point. From what I'm reading on TFW, people are going nuts for that figure.
I can wait it out..or one of you kind west-coasters could help me out. :)

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I'll try but I have struck out on Vehicon soooooo many times already. He is only one per case in wave 3 and doesn't seem to be in wave 4 so hopefully he'll be in wave 5 but wave 4 is quite underwhelming and might clog up pegs (BB repaint, Wheeljack repaint).

I picked up Commander class Dreadwing at Target today. I guess that's my consolation prize for seeing wave 3 remnants at every store I go to.

JT, if you like Legion Arcee that much, you ought to get Legion Cliffjumper

Today was a good day!!

A buddy of mine texted me this afternoon to let me know a nearby Walmart had the new voyagers in. He got the Bulkhead, but left the Starscream for me. He hid it in a nice location in the store for me.

When I returned home from getting Starscream, I figured I would give my local Walmart another try. They had received the new voyagers as well, and Bulkhead came home with me.

That crosses 2 important items off my want list. Now to try and track down a Vehicon.

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Originally Posted by El Chuxter

I'm not trying to be a smartarse, but I'm really not sure if you typed it wrong or not: did they rename the Legends line as "Legion"?

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Yeah, since DOTM they've been called Legion and are part of the Cyberverse line so they have more 3mm rail-clip & peg system integration.

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Originally Posted by JetsAndHeels

On a side note, I find it interesting that one Walmart (the one here in my town) can have little to no new toys, and get virtually nothing new in for weeks at a time, while another Walmart (the one in my parents' town) has twice the number of toy aisles and has full pegs. Distribution is quite tricky at times.

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WM has really spotty distribution, they choose by prior store sales I think but then don't give much room to grow new customer base at the others.

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Anyway, I gotta say the wait for these guys was frustrating, but now that I have them in hand I'm pleased. I was a bit concerned with Evac, as some guys on TFW were having qc issues with theirs, but mine is just fine. Mirage is cool, but being a Sideways repaint, there isn't much surprise there. Breakdown is very nifty. I like his uniqueness, and for a legion he's quite solid. Soundwave is the same as his dotm predecessor, just with a different paintjob and another one of those gummy bear weapons.

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Evac have QC issues beyond the rusty pins I first detailed, or was that the QC issue?

I'm so surprised you and Dave van Domelen like Breakdown, I just don't see it with his robot mode.

Soundwave has been remolded with additional 3mm holes, right?

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I also got deluxe Hot Shot and Breakdown at another Walmart last week. Haven't opened either yet.

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Breakdown? You don't mean the Legion, as you just mentioned him, so you mean someone else? The Voyager Breakdown isn't out yet, right?

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The hunt continues for Voyager Starscream and Bulkhead. A friend of mine texted me the other night to inform me that the TRU near him (an hour and a half away from me) had both but were $27 each before tax.

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Same here, too much for those molds.

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I'm not even sure I should bother looking for Vehicon at this point. From what I'm reading on TFW, people are going nuts for that figure.
I can wait it out..or one of you kind west-coasters could help me out. :)

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I haven't found him yet, 1 per case, seen instances of multiple cases being raided for army-building. I hate Hasbro for this f'up. I'm already looking for myself and some friends on that fig, so help would come late in the roster, but I'll keep in mind just in case I hit the motherload.

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Originally Posted by figrin bran

I'll try but I have struck out on Vehicon soooooo many times already. He is only one per case in wave 3 and doesn't seem to be in wave 4 so hopefully he'll be in wave 5 but wave 4 is quite underwhelming and might clog up pegs (BB repaint, Wheeljack repaint).

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Yeah, this line is a disaster, but I want that Vehicon even if they did screw up royal with his distribution. And the air Vehicon is going to be the same thing, I bet.

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I picked up Commander class Dreadwing at Target today. I guess that's my consolation prize for seeing wave 3 remnants at every store I go to.

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Thoughts on that figure? You still haven't posted your previous hauls' thoughts either. :p

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JT, if you like Legion Arcee that much, you ought to get Legion Cliffjumper

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I don't think so, I like Arcee mainly for being in scale with the deluxes and for being adequate, the permanent roof split on L Cliff looks pretty unacceptable in my book.

BBTS just posted a revision case with 2 Vehicons: http://www.bigbadtoystore.com/bbts/p...l&utm_content=

JT, I don't know why I said deluxe Breakdown..I meant Hot Shot. All this hunting for Vehicon is aging me quickly. :)

I'm also thrilled to hear that the revision case will have 2 vehicons. Also notice there is not a single Bumblebee either. That may be a first.

JT, I have a whole pile of stuff waiting to be opened...Voyager Bulkhead and Screamer, the SW deleted scene figures (minus Mon Cal pilot which I never found). That's why the delay.

I did open up Dreadwing, however, A solid offering for the Cyberverse commander line though the paint apps on his face are rather poor which in turn makes the sculpt look poor. Also, the colors aren't show accurate and instead of navy blue, the figure should be closer to Beast Wars Depth Charge's royal blue. Articulation is pretty good and the kibble in plane mode is kept to a minimum though that's largely a function of having fewer parts to work with.

Btw, JT, I bought Hot Shot and it seems I like it more than you do. The paint apps really sold it for me and as for that mold, it's rather simplistic but I like it better than FE BB's mold actually. On the FE, I have a tough time getting all the chest panels aligned and to me, it's just better designed on the RID mold. That being said, I'm still not getting the deluxe BB ;)

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Originally Posted by Chaddymac

BBTS just posted a revision case with 2 Vehicons: http://www.bigbadtoystore.com/bbts/p...l&utm_content=

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FINALLY! It's going to be half a year but they finally got around to addressing 2 problems at once. Way to phone it in but at least they finally picked up that phone. :p

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Originally Posted by JetsAndHeels

JT, I don't know why I said deluxe Breakdown..I meant Hot Shot. All this hunting for Vehicon is aging me quickly. :)

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You mentioned Dlx Hot Shot and Breakdown, so are you sure you didn't get someone ELSE? I do hear ya on the Vehicon hunt, it's really a bummer expending so much energy for it.

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Originally Posted by figrin bran

JT, I have a whole pile of stuff waiting to be opened...Voyager Bulkhead and Screamer, the SW deleted scene figures (minus Mon Cal pilot which I never found). That's why the delay.

I did open up Dreadwing, however, A solid offering for the Cyberverse commander line though the paint apps on his face are rather poor which in turn makes the sculpt look poor. Also, the colors aren't show accurate and instead of navy blue, the figure should be closer to Beast Wars Depth Charge's royal blue. Articulation is pretty good and the kibble in plane mode is kept to a minimum though that's largely a function of having fewer parts to work with.

Btw, JT, I bought Hot Shot and it seems I like it more than you do. The paint apps really sold it for me and as for that mold, it's rather simplistic but I like it better than FE BB's mold actually. On the FE, I have a tough time getting all the chest panels aligned and to me, it's just better designed on the RID mold. That being said, I'm still not getting the deluxe BB ;)

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Ah, ok, so you have too much stuff, I'm cryin'. ;) I'll keep an eye out for the Mon Cal Pilot, I saw him a week and a half ago so it's possible it may happen again.

Sucks about bad paint on Dreadwing's face, why do they do that stuff? Odd about his color being not close enough to purple.

I like Hot Shot, I just really don't like the mold's problems of which there are many. I can't compare it to FE BB though (although I could, it's the only FE on HasbroToyShop available right now). But both FE and RID look too wide, too simple. I am surprised to hear you think the RID is better though, it has that kibble panel behind the head, the head panel itself flops forward, the back kibble is loose, and there's a lot of gappiness from the side - seems like positioning would be a step up. :p

JT, the other deluxe I got was Knockout (the red car). Don't know why I got confused on those guys.

The search for Vehicon continues. Hit up a couple places while the wife and I were up in Virginia this weekend...still no dice.

So, on the advice of the TF fan group, I bought RID Cliffjumper from amazon - everyone said he's so much better than FE except for the arms, and I was feeling like I needed a new TF.

RID CLIFFJUMPER IS A TERRIBLE FIGURE!

What the hell is wrong with those people who recommended this one? He's not a figure, he's a facade of a character, a 3-dimensional standee. He's panels on the front, gaps and windows in the middle, and a lot more panels on the back; his legs are just hollows; his arms aren't even hollows, they're just junk placed near other junk pretending to be half an arm. His back and his arms come apart at nothing more than a strong gaze. Vehicle mode is covered in seams that constantly need massaging back into place. His chest is a total phoney and doesn't even match the sculpting and paint quality of the limbs and head. And he's SHORT! His vehicle mode's fairly long for the line but then it all collapses down to make a rather mediocre robot made up of dangling slices. They even got the paint on his shoulders reversed, making the "horn" red and the "collar" gray. But at least they gave him a weird huge club/gun instead of his wrist blasters, gee thanks.

Lame. D + plus at best.


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So then, while Cliff was in the mail, I found Knockout, and despite some poor reviews here and there, I picked him up.

RID Knock Out is surprisingly not terrible.

Vehicle mode is small, and the paint really doesn't look right on its own or as the character even though it's not as inaccurate as it looks. The paint is quite cheap and spartan, leaving out the back window and the entire rear tail light area. The sculpt is nice though, minus the sloppy 5mm holes on either rear fender. The wheels are snapped in instead of pinned, so they don't roll as smoothly. The weapon looks needless attached to the side of the car. The vehicle is quite solid though.

The transformation is a bit convoluted around the arms because of all the folding and rotating out of the way and such, the instructions make it so painfully complicated that it's easy to get lost using them; the truth is that you're just pulling them out, rotating them around the shoulders, rotating the forearms around elbows, then closing them down, but there's a lot of joints and things seem confusing the way it's sculpted. Hasbro's instructions are entirely wrong, they have the vehicle fenders in the wrong place despite them having hinges and notches to go in the right place, and they don't mention the middle of the hood folds forward, they don't close the forearms down all the way, they don't close the hips, so it's just best to ignore Hasbro on this one entirely.

Robot mode is taller than Bumblebee, impressive considering how small vehicle mode was, but that height comes at a cost: from the front, the figure is recognizably Knock Out, from the back he's however fairly skeletal and a tad gappy. That said, with everything done the way Takara envisioned, the figure is quite solid except at the fender/shoulders which have purchase but aren't that difficult to dislodge. Head sculpt is pretty good, quite recognizable and sporting a smirk, light-piped pink eyes. The body is lanky and low on kibble, the forearms using the roof to fill out to meet the elbow works better than it should, but as much as it's recognizable, it's also entirely missing the point of the character in terms of sleek shapes and such. The back has the wheels and a spine with 2 5mm peg holes for his electro-staff weapon. The mediocrity of the vehicle paint robs KO of so much of his color, and the base color was too bright to begin with, but leaving out the yellow for the wheels and the yellow ribs on black collar was a real shame - this figure could have looked slick with that stuff, it's sculpted to at least suggest that stuff. I like the robot mode in some ways, but it does have some gapping and odd design issues.

Articulation is fair: restricted ball-jointed head (turns about 45 degrees but only up about 5 degrees); ball-jointed shoulders; swivel biceps; hinged elbows; restricted ball-jointed wrists (can act as a swivel basically); ball-jointed hips; swivel thighs; hinged knees; ball-jointed and hinged toes that move really oddly. Also, the shoulders are on struts that can rotate from transformation, moving the wheels on the back with it; the shoulders have hinged kibble, and the crotch plate can move a couple degrees to get more out of the hips. Articulation is a bit restrictive, yet has a lot of ways to be expressive and exciting. The windows on the forearms are from the character model unfortunately, they can be flexed to move the elbow but only flat against the shoulder, then you can rotate the bicep after that, it's not obvious at first. You can give him a little extra height by flattening the hood-chest some, but this leaves the neck plate a bit floppy.

Accessory is a lance with an electro-fork at one end with an electro-blast coming out, but they didn't bother painting it so it's just the wrong look. It comes up to his chin in height. There isn't much to get excited about, it fits in both hands at one time and can be separated into 2 rather uninspiring half-weapons.

Overall, Knock Out has personality, but suffers horrendous budgetary problems that hurt what's here, and the feeling that the designers came up with a cut-rate version of a better mold to fit the size/pricepoint. Grade: C + plus, points for character and likeability, but points off for bad deco and skeletal back and mediocre accessory.

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Originally Posted by JetsAndHeels

JT, the other deluxe I got was Knockout (the red car). Don't know why I got confused on those guys.

The search for Vehicon continues. Hit up a couple places while the wife and I were up in Virginia this weekend...still no dice.

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Excellent, excellent. Sorry you didn't get the Vehicon, I feel your pain as I did a run today for him and also came up gooseegg.