Transformers: Energon & Beyond

[JediTricks]

Check it, loose Cybertron Demolishor & Dlx Prime (from the Armada line), loose Titanium Megatron, and loose Mirage: http://tformers.com/ig.php?mode=albu...ze=800&start=0

And FanToFan has a scan of MP Starscream from a different magazine, more angles: http://fantofan.jp/news/mag/figureking/fk100-3.jpg

Actually JT Prime is getting a BT release. Originally he was to be released as Ginrai, (AKA Powermaster Prime in the US). That was cancelled and he's now coming out as part of the radio drama that is going on in Japan right now. He comes with a mini anime figure (like the BT-A's) and a surf-board weapon. No I'm not making that last part up.

Oh, from the KISS line, right, I saw a picture, wasn't sure if it was confirmed or fanwishery though.

How could you possibly say that Cybertron feels done? Primus is still coming. And personally I am really aniticipating Quickmix too. I refuse to judge him on those poorly Transformed shots we've seen.

Cybertron feels done to me because Primus is not as big a deal to me really, doesn't feel like the impact Unicron did with Armada. As for other figures, except for the new-mold minicons and Deluxe Unicron, I don't know of anything else I want (not that I have a unicron fanship going, just coincidence), I just saw Nemesis Breaker a couple days ago and it didn't get my $20, the Armada repaints are a no-go, plus I don't care for the looks of any of the Gigantions - Metroplex looks "meh", Menasor looks downright awful, and Quickmix doesn't look so appealing either. Unless there's stuff I don't know of or forgot, the line feels like it's wrapped up.

Quickmix has a Hasbro photo: http://tformers.com/ig.php?mode=view...ze=800&start=0
Looks simplistic and unappealling to me, and I hate the colors with all their subtlety of a brick to the face, I don't even like his minicon and I like nearly all the minicons. I'll grant you that Hasbro seems to have the shoulders upside-down, but nothing else looks incorrectly transformed.

As for Metroplex, I completely doubt I'd like the figure, his alt mode is halfassed at best (not as bad as Menasor, but what could be?!? I can't even think of a minicon whose alt mode is lamer), I know it's based on a real thing but only in the most general fashion as his bucket wheel and digger can barely get away from the central part which looks only like a robot bowing down to me. Plus he has hollow pieces on his legs, his arms are WAY too short for the full height mode, and I don't like his colors. If he were a deluxe, I'd consider buying him, if he were a $20 I'd struggle with the thought, at $50 though there's no chance in hell.

[Adam]

You are crazy.


Do you display your Cybetron stuff in vehicle mode? If not, then why does the alt mode even matter?

The arms on Metroplex do not look short at all, and are what I would refer to as proportional to his combat mode. And really the hollow arms and legs comment seems silly to me as they are not very noticible unless you are really close to the thing.

How dare you say my new best friend looks "meh"! That is a lie and you are a liar for saying that.

I was going to post the link to the really good shots of classics Prime, Hot Rod, Starscream and Astrotrain.. but now I'm not gonna.
(They're not hard to find anyways)

[Dominic Guglieme]

The good news: I got Metroplex.
The bad news: My change box (used for discretionary
purchases) is
pretty much empty.

Hookay, a big toy means a big review.

Oddities and musings:
-The toy is packed in a sort of "not quite" mode. The
feet are not set
to either of the 'bot mode options. I actually muddled
my way to
"battle mode" first.
-The instructions and poster were not sealed into a
baggie. This is
odd. They just floated freely in the box. Normally,
I would suspect
tampering. But, as the key and Minicon (the most
theft-tempting items)
were intact, I assume the lack of a baggie is a
factory error.
-Normally, I do not count twist ties. In this case, I
started, and
then gave up. Of course, as many Star Wars collectors
can tell you,
better to many twist-ties to deter theft than too few.


Metroplex, robot modes, and vehicle mode:
That is not a mis-type. This toy has two bot-modes,
and the shifing
from mode to mode is actually quite complex, and
rewarding. For all of
the complaints from some nattering nabobs in the
fandom, this is not a
simple toy by any means. Unless one sets the bar for
complexity at
Alternator levels, this should satisfy the "fiddle
tooth" of most
collectors. Lotsa flippin', shiftin', and foldin' a
goin' on here.
The differences between the two forms are essentially
height and
proportion. The "standard" mode is the shorter, and
bulkier looking of the
two. The "battle" mode is much taller and thinner
looking. (As an
aside, it might have been better if Hasbro labelled
this "reach" mode, as
the toy generally has a "construction" rather than a
"combat" aesthetic.
In both forms, the feet are broad (but not absurdly
so). This makes
engineering sense (to balance the high center of
gravity, and contextual
sense as the broad feet make Metroplex more evocative
of a piece of
construction equipment that is balanced for lifting
heavy loads.
In "battle" mode, "Sparkdrink", (the ax) fits nicely
on the robot's back. While both modes display nicely,
the "battle" mode displays a bit better, and has the
virtue of displaying well at, above, or below
eye-level. And, while admiring this form, one has
many options for poses, as Metroplex has more
articulation than one might expect of a toy
prematurely damned for being simple.
The vehivle mode is a good balance of being
functionally evocative, yet alien. It does not look
like any specific bit of construction equipment, but
clearly conveys a function. The option of keeping the
robot head visible (ala Beast Machines Tankor) only
sweetens the mode.
The Minicon:
Drill bit is not a recolor, or even a retooling of the
old Leader1/Clench/Caliburn mold. It uses simiplar
parts, and engineering elements, but is in fact a new
toy. (Think Generation 1 Prowl compared to Jazz. The
engineering on the two is similar, but with clear and
substantive differences.) The "official" alternate
mode is similar to that "sort of gun" mode Leader1 et
al had. But, it is possible to just ape the old "gun
buggy" mode.
While Drillbit has standard socket compatibility. the
most meaningful interface point between Drillbit and
Metroplex is on the shovel end of Sparkdrink, and uses
a non-standard connection.
Sparkdrinker:
Why the leader of a planet devoted to constuction has an ax named "Sparkdrinker is a mystery. Granted, most of the context for the Gigalonians notes a war, this seems a bit extreme.
In any case, this is a handsome toy. It provides an aesthetically pleasing, and beautifully engineered key-slot. To my knowledge, this is the only key port that is explicitly designed to hold the key without triggering the gimmick. Similar to Armada Demolishor, the key is needed to "prime" the gimmick, and then to fire it. This more than makes up for the rather over-blown complain about the non-spinning bucket-scoop end. Much like the treads on pretty much any tracked character, this is a fixed molded piece. If non-moving treads to no bother you, this should not either. And, at least this *looks* like it moves, rather than obviously being a fixed piece of plastic.
The Minicon attaches nicely to the scoop when Metroplex is in vehicle mode. It looks like the Minicon is supposed to be "softening" up particularly difficult bits of ground during excavations.
The biggest over-all problem with Metroplex is that the figure is out of scale with the rest of the line. (The Japanese packaging shows Metroplex to dwarf most of the other characters, making them look like Minicons.) But, like the non-moving bucket-scoop, this is hardly an unprecedented problem.
Grade: A
-Not a perfect toy, but a worth-while one all the same.

[JediTricks]

You are crazy.
Do you display your Cybetron stuff in vehicle mode? If not, then why does the alt mode even matter?

Yeah, sometimes I do display them in alt mode, and why? Because the name of the line is TRANSFORMERS, not ROBOTS.

The arms on Metroplex do not look short at all, and are what I would refer to as proportional to his combat mode.

Maybe it's the overly-long legs then: http://tformers.net/i/r/Metroplex/MetroplexRFPC.jpg

And really the hollow arms and legs comment seems silly to me as they are not very noticible unless you are really close to the thing.

It was the first thing I noticed about this figure in photos, it bothers me. Empty Robot Syndrome is what cheap garbage at Big Lots suffers from, not Transformers.

I was going to post the link to the really good shots of classics Prime, Hot Rod, Starscream and Astrotrain.. but now I'm not gonna.
(They're not hard to find anyways)

BOOOOOO!!!!! And by the way, they are incredibly hard to find right now, I've never seen the TF forums be more *****y about this before, I'm guessing Hasbro sent out letters of warning BEFORE the fragging pics went up.

-The instructions and poster were not sealed into a
baggie. This is
odd. They just floated freely in the box. Normally,
I would suspect
tampering. But, as the key and Minicon (the most
theft-tempting items)
were intact, I assume the lack of a baggie is a
factory error.

Actually, it's not a random error, DvD had the same thing. Sometimes they just do that, some figures don't come with bagged instructions.

Nice review Dom, won't change my mind about this thing though.



UPDATE: ****in' finally found them pictures of the TF Classics! I sure was mad until I found them, took me a whole hour from when I started this post too. I think they look great, all the comments that Hot Rod is the best are right. I just wish they'd hurry up and get here!

[Adam]

Sorry, it took me less than 5 mins to find them so I didn't think it would take you that long.

If I made you mad, that really wasn't my intent, apologies.

[Dominic Guglieme]

Correction: The ax blade can in fact spin manually, but not automatically. My mistake.

[Adam]

Transformers.com has posted pics of most of the images we saw yesterday, except the secret one. But its ok because they showed us some super clear Megatron pics!

http://www.hasbro.com/transformers/d...2B14A6033C14A1

Also, the Prime repaint is going to be called "Galaxy Force Optimus Prime." I LoL'ed. I am going to pick this one up though, I do like what they did with it, and Prime is worth owning two of.

http://www.tfw2005.com/news/data/upimages/gfprime2.jpg

[Tycho]

Not that Starscream shouldn't always look that good, but his $9.99 jet or whatever it will cost looks a lot like the $90 Masterpiece or whatever that's coming out eventually.

Rodimus a.k.a. really Hot Rod looks really good. I wished this was an Alternator somehow. A Lamborghini Spyder would work I think.

LOL - will Megatron shoot Nerf darts?

[Adam]

Bumble Bee : http://adctalk.com/index.php?showtopic=2015275

[JediTricks]

If I made you mad, that really wasn't my intent, apologies.

I wasn't mad at you, I was mad at the situation. Plus, I said I was mad so astute readers of the post would remember my "Mad" smilie and click the link to the pics.


Lamborghini won't let them do TFs apparently, just like the Germans.


Thanks for the link to Bumblebee, Adam! He looks good in a Mini Cooper/Toyota Yariss/1970s Honda Cvcc sort of way, but the silhouette photo's arm kibble fooled me into think he was Megatron. Will the jet ski be a minicon or what? Looks like it won't transform at all.

The return of Rubsigns is cool, I hope they work better this time though.

Astrotrain looks ok, but a bit plain in bot mode and the junk around the rear end in vehicle mode is too blatantly a bullet train halved.

Megatron looks unbelievably plasticky in both modes, gun mode is such a Nerf gun it's almost embarassing (except no opening to actually fire nerf darts, probably for the best that way). I would like to see the gun have a 3rd mode, a cheap tank or bot-scale field artillery situation. Megs' bot mode can be made or broken with paint, right now it is leaning towards "broken" in my book.

Optimus looks great, that thing on top of vehicle mode seems to serve no purpose from what I can tell, doesn't even seem to be part of bot mode. The headsculpt and proportions look great, but the kibble on the forearms may be too much, I hope not. They better release a trailer for him down the line.

Hot Rod is unquestionably the star, that alt mode looks tremendous with such a great length and curve, very classy and 1970s euro-supercar. Bot mode looks decent if perhaps a bit mature.

Starscream looks very nice in alt mode and cool in bot mode, he's stockier in a classic way as a robot. His guns better be removable so they can go on his forearms.