Transformers: Energon & Beyond

[JediTricks]

JT, you have shots of TFA Rodimus, Arcee and Cybertron Ratchet, I hope?

I've seen some on another site but they're not the greatest shots. The toys on the other hand look outstanding!

Absolutely. They were all in hard to shoot locations, but I think I got enough coverage. Yeah, I just looked them over, some dark pictures, but each has 1 good lit shot of bot and alt modes, the darker pics are just more angles and reshoots. I also shot Voyager BB with scuba gizmo.

Working on pics now, and then news.

[Tycho]

So which are the good ROTF figures that meet with your approval, JT?

[JetsAndHeels]

I picked up Leader Prime, Ransack, and Dead End today at Walmart.

Walmart also has new Transformers t-shirts with the autobot logo. I really wanted a decepticon, but I bought one anyway.

[Tycho]

Cool. I'll have to get that Autobot t-shirt.

[JediTricks]

I posted my extensive write-up of the Saturday 2 hour panel, you won't find this much detail on the other sites or nearly as many questions answered:
http://www.actionfigs.com/index.php?...articleid=3097

So which are the good ROTF figures that meet with your approval, JT?

I only own 2, my reviews are posted.

As for what I saw at the show, my impressions are...
Legends:
(I will say first that I don't think any of these are worth their pricepoint cost)
- Sideways looked pretty decent.
- Mudflap seemed alright.
- Springer looked cool, I may actually buy this.
- The Fallen came out pretty ok.
- Megs kinda works.
- Sideswipe looks like a pretty decent interpretation.

Scouts:
- Dirt Boss could be cool, it's iffy.
- Dead End, I messed with this in the play area, it's a boring bot and wonky car, but transformation is pretty decent for a scout.
- Knock Out I suspect is decent, colors could use work though and the head I'm not so sure of (but I don't really like the repaint they showed more than this).
- Ransack seems crazy enough to work, I nearly bought him at TRU on Saturday but the line was too long and I was pretty close to broke.
- Dune Runner looks boss.
- Depthcharge could work, I'm on the fence, seems like kibble could be out of control and transformation simplistic, had in my hand at TRU and put him down before Ransack.
- Reverb (Knock Out's repaint) has a more tolerable deco, but it seems boring, and he's the 'Con while Knock Out is the Autobot despite them looking vice-versa. I can't decide which I like more, if I like either.
- Scalpel looks friggin' crazy! That thing should have been a deluxe, evil microscope TF.
- Blue Autobot repaint of Dead End has better colors IMO, I may get him instead.
- Ejector!!! Toaster-bot, transform and toast out! How can you not love it? And look at his face!
- Brakedown looked good, no pictures allowed, only shown at slideshow.
- Skystalker same. He's got a gerwalk mode! And spring feet to swoop in.
- Scattorshot same, if not as impressive at first blush. I like the idea that these 3 can use Jungle Ironhide's weapons, though it does mean buying Jungle Ironhide.

Deluxes:
- Already ok'ed Sideswipe.
- Ravage looks kinda cool. I played with him for a second in the play area, head doesn't move and transform seems kinda wonky, but design delivers in cat mode.
- Dead End looks really good. I wasn't likely to get Sideways before, but I'm definitely not going to knowing Dead End is on the horizon.
- Blazemaster looks like he could disappoint, but I think the deluxe news chopper might work out.
- Skids and Mudflap (the ice cream truck) might look ultra kibbly and small in bot mode, but the vehicle mode looks to deliver.
- Swerve's red doesn't feel quite right for this car, but ok, and new head looks ok.
- Deluxe Ratchet looked good, better than Voyager version. Again, only shown in panel.
- movie Lockdown looked really cool, a great realization of the animated character in realistic form. No pics allowed.
- Dirge, awesome, very cool new conehead mold. No pics.
- Drift lineart looked good, pretty standard but solid. No pics.

Voyagers:
(a few quick negative notes first, I played with Demolishor in the play zone, he SUUUUUCKS! He's small and has very few parts, moving or otherwise, and his transformation is the pits, and his bot mode is so dumb.
And Starscream looks good-ish from front, the alt mode underside is finally controlled, but the hands and guns sticking out the back ruins it even if the crazy tattoos didn't.)
Ok, so on to likes.
- Stratosphere has a lot of back kibble and is spindly (especially the legs), but looks kinda cool anyway and has mini-Prime.
- Mixmaster could work, the robot mode has a lot of kibble around the arms and the high hips, but detail is interesting in both modes and the gun emplacement mode is kinda cool. The light blue color really hurts my opinion of him though, so I'm not sure yet.
- Tank Megatron looks kinda cool.
- Long Haul looks pretty tough, if a bit kibbly.
- Jungle Attack Ironhide looks cool, different enough and with weapons to probably buy despite being largely same as existing one. Glad I didn't buy any repaints, that's for sure. No pics.
- Bludgeon looked amazing! No pics.

Human Alliances:
- Bumblebee with Sam looks halfway good and halfway too kibbly. But details that you don't get in the deluxe are here, which is good. Car mode is from first movie, which I prefer. Sam looks stupid, but what ya gonna do.
- Barricade with Frenzy looks really cool. Barricade looks much better detailed. Lots of different weapon stations for Frenzy. No pics.
- Skids & Arcee with Mikela looks decent. I won't bother buying either Skids or Arcee in the other sizes now, though I'm not sure I'll buy this set, but it looks way better. Mikela has a big gatling gun to use behind Skids' head. No pics.
- Sideswipe & unknown, this was only a graymodel prototype, but it blew my mind. Gullwing doors, fantastic lines. I hope the final version is as good. I took pics of this, it was in the booth. Nothing was said of it at either panel, and in retrospect I really wish I had asked about it.

Leader Class:
(my opinion on all of the ones in the booth are heavily mixed, but I'll give it a shot.)
- Optimus Prime looks like he kinda works, but has a cheap deco (the doors being semi-unpainted is a tragedy) and those swords are very annoying, can't stow them. I have heard from a couple folks that he's a better sculpt than the first, but not as good a toy due to paint and kibble problems and blocked limbs and features that were "costed out" as Hasbro would say. I also don't like that the try-me has his head flip out from the back, IMO Prime's head always HAS to come straight up, it's a must.
- Jetfire got a LOT of attention in general. The robot mode is very detailed, it was almost easy to forgive the fact that he's wearing that plane as kibble on his back, but alt mode is the same problem, it's a SR-71 with boxy robot parts hanging underneath, and that's a big failure in my book.
- Megatron looks cool in both modes at first blush, but his sculpt is a little softer than it should be, his left arm is stupidly tiny, and his friggin' gimmick (which I played with in the store) is a head-scratcher, and kills head articulation yet again. If I find it on a great price, I may buy it though.
- Starscream, which was only in the panel so no pics, looks downright AMAZING. It's a year away and I cannot wait. The graymodel looked great, tons of detail, lots of play features like revealing weapons, his mouth opens so he can talk, and he even has a button to set off the transformation sound.

Other stuff:
- I played with Sideswipe Gravity Bot, and I hate it say it but it was kinda fun despite having NO articulation. The others impressed me not.
- The new Robot Replicas look better than the old molds, though I doubt I'll buy any.
- I was more impressed with Fast Action Battlers Jolt than regular dlx Jolt.
- FAB Prime is a massive improvement over the first movie mold. This one is pretty much THE Prime for any kids you know (barring experience troubles).
- FAB Long Haul seemed ok.
- If RPM hot wheels-sized cars were a buck cheaper, they'd be pretty darn cool, a lot of good alt modes there.
- R/C RPM Prime looked really good. BB was a little too stylized for me to go thumbs-up. Both controllers talk though, which is pretty rad. If Prime's voice is authentic, it's a win. They're way too small for their $30 pricetags though.
- Power Bot Megatron is kinda neat, does exactly what it needs to, big simple young kids toy, and the kids loved playing with it and BB at the show. Megs looks better though, a kid-stylized but not babyish version. One kid on the last day was absolutely TRASHING the play areas with it, really hammering all the other toys and the little environments, I put up photos under "Let that be your last battlefield" in the misc gallery.


Bottom Line:
- Scouts, first wave doesn't impress me much, but looks ok. Later stuff has more promise.
- Deluxe, first wave is pretty much a flop. Later entries have a little promise, but this line's deluxe feels like a huge letdown compared to most times. A lot of the best stuff is a year away.
- Voyagers is a mixed bag, but even though numbers say it fails, it feels less like a flop than deluxe to me.
- Human Alliance looks like a major win, I really hope it pans out.
- Leaders is a damned shame, the only really exciting one is over a year away.
- There is way too many instances of "costed out" features on all of these, especially Deluxe and Leader. Jetfire is a huge disappointment because he seems cool at first blush but has a massive drawback in kibble for both modes.
- There's some ok other stuff, but everything feels priced too high.

[figrin bran]

I bought Legends Sideswipe and Megs at WM yesterday. While the latter is decent, Sideswipe is a waste. There's no way that he can stand at all in bot mode because the feet are curved towards the back.

I saw that Autobots shirt as well but passed on it since I got a similar and better looking one from Target during the first film.

[JetsAndHeels]

I saw that Autobots shirt as well but passed on it since I got a similar and better looking one from Target during the first film.

Are you referring to the black t-shirt with the smaller autobot logo? I have one of those also.

[Tycho]

JediTricks, thanks for the great review of all the movie products.

You really made me excited for Leader Class Starscream. Geeze I may likely buy 2-3 of those if they're THAT good.

I'm really optimistic about the Human Alliance figures, too. IMO they made good choices. I think I heard that SideSwipe will come with Capt. Lennox, but an even larger Ironhide (if they could do it) would be way cooler to include Lennox with.

I still haven't opened my figures yet, but I'm really feeling torn since I've seen DeadEnd. Sideways is movie-authentic, but I agree with you that DeadEnd's coloration just looks incredible.

[Adam]

I remember hearing the HA Sideswipe comes with Epps...

JT.. Drift was movie styled? That's dissapointing.

[JetsAndHeels]

I picked up The Fallen at Target earlier today.

The only ROTF toy I have opened so far is Leader Prime. My only problem with him was trying to transform him into truck mode. Getting the panels on his chest (the cab) to move correctly was tough. Once that was out of the way, it wasn't too bad.

Overall it is a really, really nice piece. I never got the Leader Prime from the first movie, so it worked out that I waited for this one.