Transformers: Energon & Beyond

[JediTricks]

DvD's review of Classics Rodimus links to the REAL car he's based off of, a Japanese 1978 Dome "Zero/P2": http://www.supercarnet.jp/File/File-Japan/File-Dome.htm

How crazy is that??? They added a lot of Hot Rod touches but it's obviously the same car. I knew it had '70s feel!

NOW we are at odds JT.

I mean, really? falls short of the original? I'm willing to debate whether it lives up to current CLASSICS standards, with what I consider to be the most awesomest version of most of the figures to date, but falls short of the original? It's an improvement on the original, at least. And maybe different color combinations could have gone a long way to making it better still, but it moves, it jumps, it swings from branches.

It's flipping awesome. Its fun. and Even thought it's not perfect, it AT LEAST deserves a B. C+? Really?

Actually, I was thinking yesterday I may downgrade him to a straight "C" grade. Yeah, he falls short of the original, it had clean lines in bot mode and pulled off both alt modes nicely, this new one cannot claim that.

[Tycho]

Who manufactures "the Dome?"

Is it pronounced "Dumb" in Japanese? That might explain Hot Rod / Rodimus' personality traits.

And I keep thinking I see Doc Brown (Christopher Lloyd) walk into that picture and say, "When this baby hits 88 miles per hour, you're going to see some serious ...."

Does the Dome have gull-wing doors? Where's Mr. Fusion?

[JediTricks]

It's pronounced "Dohmu" in Japanese, and Dome is the brand, the car is actually the Dome "Zero P2" - I changed my previous post to reflect that. I have no idea how the doors work, I don't think they're gull-wings though - the roof doesn't look right for that - they're either regular doors or maybe swing-wing doors like on the majority of popular Lamborghinis

[figrin bran]

Who manufactures "the Dome?"

Is it pronounced "Dumb" in Japanese? That might explain Hot Rod / Rodimus' personality traits.

Classics Rodimus has a tech spec intelligence score of 9. you can be highly intelligent and yet still be a poor leader.

[JediTricks]

I picked up TF:Classics Megatron yesterday, he's better than I expected really, and I figured out that the pegs on the wings holding the scope in gun mode are minicon hardpoints. Here's my preliminary opinion:

Transformers Classics Megatron - better than I expected, a decent toy that's fun in both modes, total shellmastery transformation though, and he really should be mostly silver instead of flat gray and purple; and those black eyebrows from the crest is a no-no. The gun mode is small but not ridiculously and fits in my hand ok, and it's fairly solid. Transformation moves a lot of significant parts which is cool. Bot mode is somewhat straightforward and the heels aren't quite right to keep him upright well, but he can take some good poses. The wings as kibble is heinous but partly acceptable. Decent, my early grade is: B+

[El Chuxter]

He's nice, but he'd be a lot better (especially for us old fogeys) if the "wings" were totally removeable.

[JediTricks]

That's a toughy, he'd look better without them, but if the wings were legoformable, it'd be embarassing with completely-disposable shell parts.

[Dominic Guglieme]

I saw Classics at the Somerville Target.
I saw the 4 Deluxes, and 2 Voyagers.
Blah. Some of this is me being sour about the lousy distribution on Cybertron (still no recolored Minicons dammit). But, some of this is also that the line is uninspired.

Megatron looks interesting, but the shell-former thing........ Prime....lacks a trailer. Feh. I have nothing against shell-formers, but in this case, at this scale, and with that execution........ And, I do not mind trailer-less Primes, but again, the price-point is a factor. A 10 dollar Prime sans trailer is one thing. A 20 dollar Prime is a different story.

The Deluxes......I do not hate the Astrotrain as much as some people (notably SSG's JediTricks) do, but it is not inspiring. Starscream looks retro. (Though, I have heard reports that this one is floppy.) Bumblebee looks to be the worst, with the jet-ski not even being scaled to the car it is packaged with. (That is right kids, the toy is not even internally scaled to itself!) HotRod/Rodimus looks pretty good though.

[Tycho]

I saw the 20th Anniversary Prime repackaged with the voice chip stand - gosh that voice chip recording sucks! Peter Cullins' is the ONLY Optimus Prime!

He's so much an essential part of the character. If Hasbro couldn't bother him while he's working on Michael Bay's movie, why couldn't they just use his recordings from the '86 movie and the cartoon series?

I'm glad I bought the original release of Prime as I'm not faced with the decision to toss out his display stand.

[JediTricks]

Megs and Prime are both pretty good, Megs is good for a shellformer and is a dandy role-play blaster (I think Megs should have come with an accessory version of the gun, then Prime or Starscream could use it), and Prime is just 10 shades of cool even without his trailer - in fact, I think Prime without the trailer is better in some ways, he's a leaner character, doesn't have some technological crutch to weigh him down with stuff he doesn't need to haul.

When was the last time you got a trailer Prime for $20??? Leaders have been $40 since Armada, I don't remember RiD Prime being under $30, and Primal obviously doesn't have a trailer.

Astrotrain's carded look belies his true failings, they're more about the experience.

Starscream is a tad retro, and more kibbly than the G1 version in some ways, but not a legoformer and not particularly floppy.

Bumblebee is pretty good, it's true the jetski isn't to scale (I believe I'm the one who told you that Dom ) but the vehicle is nice and the bot mode is decent.

Roddy is my favorite, he deserves accolades for being so cool.

DvD gave Roddy & Optimus very strong recommendations.

I saw the 20th Anniversary Prime repackaged with the voice chip stand - gosh that voice chip recording sucks! Peter Cullins' is the ONLY Optimus Prime!

I can accept a Cullen imitation, but the guy they got isn't even that, his read on that thing is mega-blah.