Transformers: Energon & Beyond

[JediTricks]

Haw, that's awesome! Especially since TRU's jacked up the price on Classics to $12.99 at some stores. When DA stashed that one at Target Pasadena for me, when it rang up it was $8.99, they hadn't put up signs yet for the sale.

Anyway, glad to hear you got it. What's your opinion of the actual toy?

[figrin bran]

JT, that's what they get for not knowing their merchandise!

i was fortunate enough to find Grimlock today and so i'm opening him and Mirage right now.

edit: i accidently fired off Grimlock's rocket and now i can't find it. oh well, it's alright...that weapon on his back in alt mode is lame anyways. overall, i think it wasn't as well done as 10th anniversary BW megatron. among other issues, the shoulders are too large and the tail should be longer.

Mirage, on the other hand, is perhaps the sleeper of the classics line thus far. i don't like the skinny waist and so i just leave the front fins (the "electro disruptor weapon") on to cover it up.

[seanmcfripp]

I found Jetfire, Mirage, and Grimlock last week, and after a few days of tinkering and noodling with them, I'll give my two cent review for anyone that's still on the fence.


Jetfire
I'll just come right out and say that it's one of my favorite toys of all time, hands down. I know, I know, you're probably saying "Whoa, slow down there fella, you guys just met, and you already got in the sack together. Now you're talking marriage? Stop with the crazy talk." Maybe it's puppy love, but I don't care. As a toy collector, this thing scratches me right where I itch. Of course I still have plenty to gripe about, but overall this is the best I've felt about plunking down $20 for a toy in a while. For the sake of helping others make a decision, I'll focus on some of Jetfire's more questionable aspects:

- Battle Helmet: The helmet sucks. The design is spot on (very accurate to Stormbringer), but it's just WAY too big. If Jetfire was a stand alone toy outside of the Transformers line, the helmet probably wouldn't look so bad. But when you put him in with the rest of the Classics, or any other TF from the last two years, his noggin looks ridiculous. On the other hand, he looks fantasic without the helmet, so no big loss really. The gun/antannae look of the helmet is probably more iconic, but his helmet-less look totally does it for me. You can even leave the helmet off in jet mode, and the gaps normally occupied by the gun stalks look just fine.

- Fairy Wings: If you follow Hasbro's instructions to get Jetfire into robot mode, he ends up looking a bit mothy. Don't get me wrong, he looks about as close as you could get to a 3-D Stormbringer version, but having the wings up contributes to the form of a figure that already borders on being fat and stumpy. Luckily, the wings can be positioned in a number of ways, so you can pick their orientation. I prefer them to be one "click" up from the fully retracted position.

- Articulation: No "bicep" or "thigh" rotation, which isn't too horribly terribly awful, but it is a pain. I can live with no bicep cut because his primary weapon doesn't really require a two-handed pose, but the lack of thigh cuts is almost a deal breaker. He looks fine in a neutral standing pose, but the minute you go for something more dynamic, he starts looking weird and stumpy. I think the problem is the funky pseudo-ball joints at the hips, where two ratchety joints are combined to do the work of one ball joint. The top joint goes 90 degrees out, but then another joint is situated just below that goes 90 degrees forward or backwards, a design choice which basically "shortens" the appearance of the length of the thigh when the the leg is moved forward or backward. So, like I said, he looks well proportioned in a standing pose, but a bit short and stumpy in most other poses. Again, it's not the worst thing in the world, but it's just enough to make you mad.

- Chest locking into place: Hmm, I actually don't have this problem. There are two little pegs on the bottom of the cockpit that match up nicely with two little slots on the main body. It by no means "locks" into place, but it isn't exactly falling out of place either. For me to say it's a problem, it'd have to be like Energon Superion, where Stormjet's shallow peg vs. deep socket issue caused lots of floppiness. Jetfire is tight and sturdy in my opinion.

Those few issues aside, it's a fantastic toy. The flip-out cannons are a particularly nice touch. I like gimmicky play features like this when they're subtle and efficiently executed. The forearm missile launchers are also nicely understated, yet just as effective as some of the more clunky and unwieldy spring loaded BFGs we've seen over the years. Jetfire's a keeper.


Mirage
I can't really say a bad thing about Mirage, and he ties Megatron for second place as my favorite Classic so far, Jetfire being number one. I absolutely love the propotions of his robot mode. I like when a designer gets a good feel for a TF's character, takes the best lines from the alt mode, then runs with it when creating the robot form. Mirage looks totally swanky, and it's fantastic. I can assure you, the waist is not an issue, and he holds together nicely. Articulation is top notch. I wish the head moved side to side a little smoother, and I'd have liked the wheels on his back to be less kibbley, but all in all, Mirage is solid.


Grimlock
I think I'm in the minority when I say Grimlock is the weakest Classics entry so far. There's a lot about him that tries to be right, but so much ends up being wrong and poorly executed, which is quite frustrating. Here's the dirty laundry list:

- Paint wash: All of the other classics have a clean, crisp finish, yet for some reason, Grimlock has this funky black wash paint application. To make matters worse, it only covers about a third of his body, which makes the clean parts stand out in a bad way. Grimmy stands out in the Classics crowd, and I don't like it.

- Dino head feet: I can appreciate a designer going for something new, or adding a new twist to an outdated transformation design, but I don't like when a design choice compromises the impression left by a character's physical appearance. One of the defining physical characteristics of G1 Grimlock's robot form for me are his big stompy lower legs, something totally lost with the new Classics version. Instead of looking grounded and impenetrable, he now leaves me with an impression of being nimble and almost fragile, at least below the knees. It's an interesting look and design, but not one that's appropriate for Grimlock. I wish whoever worked on the Alternators version of Grimmy had maybe had a hand in designing the Classics version. I love Alt Grimlock's big stompy legs.

- Deluxe size: Grimlock should have been a Mega, and as a Deluxe, he's way too small.

- Weapon: Besides having dinosaur alt modes, I always thought the red sword theme nicely tied the Dinobots together as a team. Melee weapons seem to fit the Dinobot combat MO, so for me, their swords are the most iconic of all their weapons. Needless to say, I'm disappointed that Classics Grimmy doesn't have a sword. The bayonet is a nice try, but no cigar. Score another one for Alt Grimlock.

- Shoulder tabs/hip lock: He's not exactly the most sturdy TF I've ever handled. The shoulder tabs that are supposed to lock everything into place are mis-aligned. Everyone seems to be griping about it, so I don't think you can blame isolated QC incidents. The hips don't lock in any meaningful way in dino mode, which is also frustrating.

There are just too many problems with Grimlock for me to recommend him. I want more Grimlock in my Grimlock, and I'm just not getting it with this version.

[JediTricks]

On Jetfire, one of the things that's come to annoy me is the choice of stops on the side-ratcheting hips, the only choices allotted are straight down or ridiculously wide - it seems like the designers have been goofing a lot on ratchet points the last 5 years or so.


All fair points about Grimlock, especially that he should have been a Mega. He's not my least-favorite figure in the line, Astrotrain and both 2pack molds have less to offer and Starscream is lacking as well, but they should have done Grimmy a lot better. And your point about the head-feet, that's the first argument I've seen about that aspect that feels completely true, others have been more dubious, but he DOES need big stompy feet. I get the feeling that the wide kibble on the leg could have been those big stompy feet if the designers had more toy to work with.

[figrin bran]

i wouldn't say Grimlock was the most disappointing but it is disappointing nonetheless. among the issues that have been raised already, i wish they would've not put in that stalk on which to mount the weapon in dino mode.

still, i would love to see more Dinobots in the classics line. i believe there's a pteranodon toy in the Cybertron line so why not repaint that one as Swoop? of course i say that blindly without having really examined that toy and deciding whether it's really worth repainting. however, they can't do worse for dinosaur TF's than the kibblefest that is BW Dinobot in alt mode.

[seanmcfripp]

On Jetfire, one of the things that's come to annoy me is the choice of stops on the side-ratcheting hips, the only choices allotted are straight down or ridiculously wide - it seems like the designers have been goofing a lot on ratchet points the last 5 years or so.

I'm right there with you on the poorly oriented ratchet stops on TFs over the last few years, but Jetfire's seem ok to me. Energon Shockblast is a good example of what you're talking about, or Energon Bulkhead. Even Classics Megs suffers a bit, but fortunately is offest by a good range of neck articulation. You can achieve a nice neutral pose by bumping one of the legs out a "click", and cocking the head slightly to make him look balanced and level. Trouble is that most TFs don't have decent neck joints to pull it off, Megs is the exception.

Here's a pic of Jetfire in a nice neutral pose, each leg looks to be one "click" outward:
http://www.seibertron.com/toys/fulls...ize=1&image=67

My Jetfire holds that pose without any problem as well. Maybe yours is different for some reason.

[Tycho]

Jetfire looks sweet!

[JediTricks]

I think it's funny that we all think Jetfire's helmet head is too big when if he were a human it'd be way underscaled.

i wouldn't say Grimlock was the most disappointing but it is disappointing nonetheless. among the issues that have been raised already, i wish they would've not put in that stalk on which to mount the weapon in dino mode.

That's a pretty common complaint, I wouldn't mind it if it could fold away, but alas...

still, i would love to see more Dinobots in the classics line. i believe there's a pteranodon toy in the Cybertron line so why not repaint that one as Swoop? of course i say that blindly without having really examined that toy and deciding whether it's really worth repainting. however, they can't do worse for dinosaur TF's than the kibblefest that is BW Dinobot in alt mode.

TF:CY Brimstone is alright, the weird yellow is no good but the figure is decent - needs a better paintjob though, especially to fill in a few areas that are a tad plain. The sculpt almost fits the aesthetic too, but he's bigger than Grimlock which wouldn't work.

Here's a pic of Jetfire in a nice neutral pose, each leg looks to be one "click" outward:
http://www.seibertron.com/toys/fulls...ize=1&image=67

My Jetfire holds that pose without any problem as well. Maybe yours is different for some reason.

That's only a half-click though, and I loathe leaving joints in partway spots because it damages the joint and is prone to moving to the next spot over unexpectedly, which can cause the figure to fall down... and I really don't want to have to replace this figure down the road, gonna be hard as hell to track down in a few years I suspect.

[figrin bran]

TF:CY Brimstone is alright, the weird yellow is no good but the figure is decent - needs a better paintjob though, especially to fill in a few areas that are a tad plain. The sculpt almost fits the aesthetic too, but he's bigger than Grimlock which wouldn't work.

that's right, brimstone's the name. i wouldn't mind the size differential...after all, i've got a giant manta ray (BW Depth Charge) and a giant tiger with wings (BW Tigerhawk) in my collection. not to mention a rat (Transmetal Rattrap) that's just as big as a rhino or cheetah.

[DarkArtist]

I picked up the Optimus Prime vs Megatron 2 pack the other day from TRU. Big Optimus fan so seeing a decent Prime was cool, have him posed with my original GI Optimus and the new Titanium version along with my Takara World's smallest Optimus. Here hoping that Santa comes down the chimney and drops off a 20th Anniversary DVD Prime.