Transformers: Energon & Beyond

[Chaddymac]

Ah, I suspected you already posted info about these when I asked you to in the Just Found LA thread.

TM Rattrap really is a mistake, did they recolor that thing at all? The only saving grace would be to have the backpack actually rotate around and the wheels removable as shields (that'd just be for cool factor). The original Rattrap figure is pretty awful though, not only was he a basic rather than a deluxe but he was an auto-changer.

I think Hasbro said they're releasing new versions of BW Primal and Megs with Cyber Keys this year, that may also be 10th anniv pieces.

I am hoping to track down SW:TF Vader today, but I'm not gonna buy Grievous until I find him on sale or something.

I did indeed!

FYI, the Transmutate part that features the lower torso and his right leg (I think it comes with Rhinox)--the leg does not rotate. It will brake off. Mine is hanging on by a thread.

Hasbro should have warned us. He, she, it looks cool, but they definitely skimped.

[JediTricks]

Transmutate is a statue?!? Well, that seals it, no way in Unicron's 5th belly am I buying these things!

[darthvyn]

well i picked up sunstreaker the other day... not much to say, except that he looks even cooler than sideswipe. i wish i had dead-end, though, cuz that translucent red plastic looks HOT.

[El Chuxter]

vynnie, you should've really told me what Alternators you needed several months ago. Dead End was clearanced out all over the place around here.

[Chaddymac]

Transmutate is a statue?!? Well, that seals it, no way in Unicron's 5th belly am I buying these things!

well, not a complete statue. she-he-it has 5 joints if you count the neck as 2. And I'm going to mod the leg I broke. It won't take much to give it articulation...it was a clean break.

[figrin bran]

i would be shot down so quickly if i posted this suggestion in any other thread but what if they made 3" titanium SW transformers like the japanese world's smallest transformers? maybe with the lower price point they would be better received? or maybe not.

[Tycho]

i would be shot down so quickly if i posted this suggestion in any other thread but what if they made 3" titanium SW transformers like the japanese world's smallest transformers? maybe with the lower price point they would be better received? or maybe not.

Not. The size is small right now as it is. The organic SW characters are too robotic (Obi-Wan, Anakin) and making the scale even smaller would make this sin even worse. Plus you're re-writing SW to say that these characters can either turn into their ships or pilot "RoboTech" versions of themselves that they can harness the Force through. It might work that way for General Grievous, possibly Darth Vader, but that wasn't in line with who Luke and Obi-Wan were, etc.

If they made Transformers large enough to hold the organic 3 3/4" figures in their cockpits, that might be a different story. I remember the Voltron line from the mid-80's where the SW-sized figures actually fit in the lions that formed Voltron. I had the Castle playset, everything. Going there it might actually work, but we're looking at either a much larger price point, or cheaper molds and less Transforming creativity. Unfortunately, this isn't the market for this sort of thing.

[darthvyn]

vynnie, you should've really told me what Alternators you needed several months ago. Dead End was clearanced out all over the place around here.

D'OH!!!!

eh, maybe i'll ebay him... i'm still hunting for the newest guys, anyway...

well, if you see him anywhere, gimme a holla.

[JediTricks]

well, not a complete statue. she-he-it has 5 joints if you count the neck as 2. And I'm going to mod the leg I broke. It won't take much to give it articulation...it was a clean break.

Hmm, weird. I read more about it too, why make 1 leg articulated and the other not?

i would be shot down so quickly if i posted this suggestion in any other thread but what if they made 3" titanium SW transformers like the japanese world's smallest transformers? maybe with the lower price point they would be better received? or maybe not.

It's an interesting idea, but I don't think Hasbro's Titanium Series division has the chops to sculpt something so complicated, even if it didn't transform, so far their work has been pretty soft when not based on other division's molds. If they did pull off regular Titanium Series Transformers (not based on SW) though, they'd be popular as hell so long as they were articulated and looked right (if they transformed they'd be the next Alternators ).

[JediTricks]

Found me a TF bonanza yesterday, the newest TF:CY Deluxes and later SW:TF Darth Vader/Vader's TIE Advanced x1. I put comments on Vader in the SW:TF forum, but the bottom line is that he's alright, not fantastic but kinda cool.

Strangely, Brimstone had a tri-lingo Earth Map while his case-mates had the regular English-only version. The tri-lingo map looks dreadful with all that tiny text.


TF:CY Thunderblast - for some reason, I can't get her other name, Chromia, out of my head.

The alt mode is pretty decent, it's an impeller-driven boat, basically a big jet-ski... with missiles and torpedoes and a deck-mounted machine gun... if it were driven by Bratz dolls. Yes, the colorscheme is purple, silver, translucent orange, and pink, plus a small-ish painted Decepticon logo behind the gun. The boat seems like it'd be a thick boat if it were real, and compared to other deluxes it looks smaller but actually ain't. There is no bot-mode kibble, so the hull is complete and smooth. If the seats are in scale, then the missile launcher box on top is MASSIVE, holding 4 30-foot-long missiles (except that they're pretend, only the warheads are actually there). The missile box can rotate and tilt up and down, and it is removable; the machine gun on the deck can rotate but is not removable; and the clear orange torpedoes peg onto holders on either side of the boat.

The gimmick is odd, insert the key into the missile box and the top pops open while the warhead face drops down, all of which reveals a short cannon which can spring-fire a torpedo. It's a little odd to see a big weapon turn into a slightly smaller but larger-bore weapon, but I do like the way it does so.

Transformation is a shellmaster and borders on embarassing, it's on par with Beast Machines Megatron but doesn't feel quite as insulting. Open the boat hull though and you feel like you're a border agent who just found an illegal immigrant, there's a robot huddled under there. The rest is unfolding the legs, then hinge down the backpack shell cape (which the instructions do a poor job of explaining).

Bot mode is a slender she-bot with long legs and high-heeled boots. Garish orangey-gold, silver, and bluish-gray are added to the main colors; the only translucent orange now is her light-piped eyes. Thunderblast's head is believable as a female but not exclusively so; her bot-bust is big and ends in a matrix-shaped chestplate with pink paint in the center. Her articulation is standard neck, ball-jointed shoulders, upper-bicep swivel, double-hinge elbows, standard waist, ball-jointed hips, and hinged knees - there's also a mid-thigh diagonal-cut joint which can be used, but it's more a transformation joint. The arm joints can do a lot, but her cape limits how she can be posed while still standing so poses are a mixed bag. Her cape won't allow the missiles to remain pegged onto her back, but her missile-box gun can be. Her gun pegs into her forearm and has a tab which slips between her open hand (either arm), and thankfully it doesn't look too big - until you put the torpedo into it in gimmick mode.

Overall, Thunderblast is kinda interesting, I kinda like her and she will appeal to some, but most fans will rightfully knock it for its weaknesses. If they had done all this as a Basic, it would have been a little easier to accept; as-is, I like the figure but can't recommend it.


TF:CY Brimstone - Bot mode is a pterosaur, not the first we've gotten of these but a somewhat different take, accenting the head and integrating the wings better, the look comes off sleeker than it deserves really. The details are all mechanical but do good work suggesting organic, the 'front' of the body has vented intakes, the neck has hoses, stuff like that; the only stuff that seems like bot kibble are the top of the bot head sticking out the top of the ptero's body, and the bot waist which is sideways and the lower part of the front of the body - the bot leg that makes up the underside to tail of the ptero also is kibbly but kinda works. The head is a little thick for my tastes but it does allow for a mean character, the jaw is short and is lined with short teeth. The wings have a good span and are flat with a solid design, even a little claw sculpted to the front. Articulation includes the jaw, head hinge, neck rotation and up-and-down movement, the wings can flap up and down, the claws are hinged some, and the legs have a couple different limited ball joints which can be configured however you'd like to allow different movements (the "hips" are also articulated so they can move from the wings). Aside from the translucent smoke for the wings which looks good, the colors really screw up this alt mod, we've got light tan which is mega-plain and downplays the sculpted details, some purple accents, and awful neon yellow plastic which makes up nearly half the bod - talk about a horrible clash of colors - there's also a small painted 'Con logo on the right wing.

Key gimmick is pretty cool even though it's a hair-trigger, insert key and out of each wing pops a large blade, the blade is smoke-trans plastic and the leading edge is painted the same metallic as the front of the wing tip, so they conceal nicely. The blades stick out about as far as the head in alt mode, but in bot mode they're the very front of the figure so they're much more imposing.

Transformation is quite simple, really just pull up the head, reposition the arms, and pull down and reposition the legs - only the leg reveal is of much interest, I do like how they pulled it off.

Bot mode is lanky until you get to the wide upper body and wings, giving the figure a tall look. No new detail is added, which is a shame because without the dino head the front of the chest becomes very plain. The yellow head has a small black "mug's" face with narrow red slit eyes. Brimstone's articulation is standard head, ball-jointed shoulders and elbows, hinged thumbs, palms, and claw-sets, rotating lower torso, ball-jointed hips, rotation upper thighs, and hinged knees - the shoulders are on a joint separate from the wings so you can move the wings but keep the arms in their location. The claws aren't too big, but they are big enough to look mean, I haven't figured out how I want them posed yet.

All in all, I like Brimstone more than I thought I would, his colors are a crime against the sighted, and there should be more detail in the bot mode's chest and the transformation is simple, but he's pretty cool.


TF:CY Crosswise - this is a very cool alt mode. I don't like the grill, it makes the car look less sporty but at least they downplayed its rounded shape and added a detail in the front, and other than the grill this thing has remarkable smooth-yet-fast rounded lines; there is no bot kibble at all. It really looks fantastic, except for seeing the bot's arms behind the windshield and the key slot on the back, this is all realistic sportscar (they changed the lines a tiny bit from the Bugatti Veyron to avoid licensing I guess). The car has a very low ride and the plastic wheels don't roll on smooth tabletop, though they do on my wristpad. Mine holds together very nicely and aligns well, at first a tiny bit of the roof in the back and the hood where it meets the windshield were tough to get properly aligned but after a few passes they now cooperate. The pistol accessory can be plugged into the back to look like more engine and a tall, narrow spoiler - plug in the missile and you get a dark green translucent flame - this looks good but I slightly prefer the sleeker lines of the car without. The colors are very nice, all black plastic with silver accents, translucent dark green windows, a little red paint, and an Autobot logo on the hood - except for the faction logo this is a very clean look... marred by them painting the trans-green headlights opaque gold for no reason (they did the same thing with Override).

The key gimmick is extremely cool, insert the key and twin rocket launchers rotate out from the engine compartment very fast. The black launchers aren't big but have great shape and nice detail, the 4 rockets in each aren't removable but are painted gold. In alt mode when everything's properly aligned, the launchers sit on top of the roof so clean it looks like the popped straight up out of the cabin, and the gimmick works even when the gun accessory is attached. In bot mode, the launchers flip over the shoulders which is great too.

Transformation feels almost baffling at first, especially with such a large instruction sheet and how to get the rear halves of the car sides off the doors (the instructions tell you to tilt in the doors, but don't explain how to do this without breaking it since there are several tabs in play). Once you get that stuff figured out, the rest becomes clever and the transformation is alright. Transformation back to alt mode is a little more frustrating with how the arms get into the car mode and how the rest of the car has to line up around that in order.

Bot mode feels like classic Transformers, and not just because of the hood-chest, but also the helmeted head, classic-styled face and waist, and wider body. Crosswise gets away with having emptiness under the hood-chest because there's a central column and plenty of filled in space in the back, so it looks decent even when other TFs weren't able to get away with this. A little more gold is added to the colors, the helmet has a gold top, silver face, and a translucent green visor and "lights" at the top. Although the upper body especially is wide, the proportions feel good The figure should seem kibbly with the doors on the shoulders, the roof & windshield on the left forearm, and the rear halves of the car off the backpack with the running boards up in the air, but somehow it gets away with this too as the roof hinges around to become a non-removable shield, the doors on the shoulders are a bit kibbly but can be positioned around some (the instructions say to have them horizontal but I like 'em better vertical with the windows facing back), and the running boards seem like they belong AND can be rotated to pointing forward aside the hips to become guns - there's even gun-detail sculpting on the inside of 'em. Articulation is decent, there's standard head, the neck can lean back to look up, and ball-jointed shoulders, elbows, hips, and knees - plus the inside of the shoulders are hinged, the feet and heelspurs are positionable, and there's also articulation for the kibble.

All in all, I really like Crosswise, he's not quite Red Alert but he's definitely up there. If the shield were removable and the running boards could be held as rifles, he's be even more awesome, and transforming back to car mode could be better, yet he's still quite the cool customer. He's good enough that I'll buy any reasonably-colored repaint, and I'll definitely recommend him.