WE HAVE MOVED!

Thank you to everyone who has visited this blog over the years and taken the time to read the articles within, but it is now time to make the jump to a new, better website. So please follow us at www.toyboxsoapbox.com where you will continue to find not only the same Transformers reviews, but also even more content.

Hope to see you there :)

Review: Titans Return Clones two pack - Cloudraker and Wingspan

The world must be ending. Surely this can be the only explanation for why the toy gods have finally seen fit to bestow upon us modern updates on the Generation 1 Autobot and Decepticon clones.

But wait, there's a catch - Hasbro have made them incredibly tough to buy. Well, two of them anyway that are only available in tough to find box sets on the other side of the planet. So that leaves us with the other two, Cloudraker and Wingspan, released as a stand alone two pack this is absolutely how all four of them should have been done. Mostly because I am still bitter for not being able to get the others.

So do new these Clone figures justify repeated refreshing of Amazon.com in the hope one of the other box sets will drop into stock? Continue after the jump to find out.

Short Controlled Bursts: SDCC 2017 trailer wrap up

It's the most wonderful time of the year. Nope, not the snowy, selection box eating one - it's SDCC 2017 time. For those of us who hopelessly in love with pop culture and everything that is fun in the world, San Diego Comic con is a second Christmas. Throwing out gifts in the form of toy, comic and movie reveals to wet the appetite and make you want to throw money at the screen.

Recent years have seen movie companies use it as an opportunity to pump out new trailers to an eager world and 2017 wasn't going to fail on that point. Things started off disappointingly with the complete lack of a Jurassic World 2 trailer, but I put aside my misery to resurrect an old feature I used to write, "Short, Controlled Bursts", as a way to take a quick wander through the various trailers currently causing Youtube to meltdown. Links are provided to save you having to seek them out...I am considerate like that.

Review: Titans Return Misfire

Misfire hails from the late 80's era of Transformers when the franchise took a sharp turn into super futuristic sci-fi. Not that Aliens style military sci-fi that touched all our hearts with it's Pulse Rifles, quotable lines and sweet ass Reebok's, but way more imaginative stuff that could have been mistaken for a video game shoot-em-up.

Originally designated a Targetmaster, Misfire has dropped the transforming robot gun and earned a transforming robot head for his new, heavily G1 influenced toy as part of the Titans Return line.

But is it as awesome as it looks? Has Titans Return hit a new peak?

Continue after the jump to find out

Micro Review: Shadow Fisher SF-M03 & SF-M04 upgrade kits for Masterpiece Ironhide and Ratchet

We can't say as Transformers fans that we don't have companies catering to our many whims. If third parties aren't adjusting colour schemes or details on their own figures to suit feedback, they have their ears to the ground ready to fix whatever we don't like about official figures. Shadow Fisher are a company that appear to specialise in just such upgradery, following their impressive Combiner Wars Devastator upgrade kit with a new set designed to ease the gripe many folks seemed to have with the hip panels Masterpiece Ironhide and Ratchet dared to wear like a Rob Liefeld pouch fest.

Read on to find out whether or not they truly add the finishing touch to an already cracking pair of figures.

Review: Toyworld TW-M08 Wavebreak

If Optimus Prime is a blockbuster movie, Seaspray is the obscure Argentinian shoe lace making documentary that Mark Kermode tries to convince you is more worthy of your time.

Weird, non militarised, carrying a weight problem and fond of romancing the occasional "Tlalakan" he's something of an oddity amongst a line of robots focused on war. Seaspray occupies a different space in Transformers for me, he's just wonderfully at odds with so much of the Transformers mythos. So I was easily swayed into buying my first ever Toyworld figure when they released Wavebreak, their take on the first Masterpiece style version of the character.

Exciting eh? Maybe not, but continue after the jump to see the full article.

MechFansToys 07 Galvontron review

​"Behold - Galvontron". Wait, that's not how it goes. 

Third parties are leaning ever closer to Hasbro's trademarked names without ever jabbing their flag right in the face, and Galvontron is comically close to the character it's intended to be - Galvatron. Mechfanstoys like to prove they don't discriminate when it comes to knocking off toys, this time pinching a fellow third parties figure in the form of DX9's Tyrant. But making it better.

Does better mean different enough to not feel shady? Read on to find out.

Perfect Effect PC-15 Legends Super Ginrai upgrade kit review

Perfect Effect carved out a pretty decent niche as the go to guys for upgrade kits during Combiner Wars and now they've set their sights on Titans Returns which will please many people who hate keeping hold of money. like myself. Their latest attempt to aggrandise a figure falls on Takara's Marmite flavoured bot - Legends Super Ginrai. Or Hasbro's Powermaster Optimus Prime. It works on both so go with whatever you fancy. 

Continue after the jump to see the full review

Titans Return Broadside Review

Generation One Broadside is a toy I vividly remember getting and not for a good reason. A rare example of a Transformer purchase where I felt I'd made the wrong call and instantly regretted, but was seduced by being able to get something new and the gamble didn't pay off.

30 odd years later would those feelings remain with an updated toy in the Titans Return toyline?

Continue on after the jump to see the full review and find out

Titans Return Perceptor Review

Titans Return Perceptor review...sighted

In the early 80's Takara released a line of toys called "Micro Change" which was centered around 1:1 scale objects. Hasbro would later fold many of the toys from it into its Transformers line with many several of the franchises most iconic characters being drawn from it. A micro cassette recorder would later go on to be Soundwave, Megatron was pulled from one of the gun toys, a camera would split into three bots to become Reflector and so on and so on.

Hasbro continued to rummage around in Takara's toolbox and found the Microscope robot from Micro Change who would then be reborn as Perceptor - the Autobots science guy.

Now, 30 something years later Hasbro have returned to the character in the Titans Return line with a brand new figure that feels for all the world that it wants to take on a journey back into the past.

Continue on after the jump to see the full review

Maketoys MTRM-09 Downbeat review

Maketoys MTRM-09 Downbeat

The Masterpiece Jazz wars were always an inevitability and the only question was - when?

Unquestionably one of the most iconic and popular Transformers it's amazing it's taken this long. Good news is, it seems in 2017 we are about be inundated with claims to the throne from a variety of companies. Toyworld have got one imminently due for reason, Maketoys have just released one Fanstoys have teased one, Hova is allegedly still happening and Generation Toys  released a modern IDW themed take at the tail end of last year....so there's a lot of choice competing for that coveted dusty spot on your shelves.

Downbeat is the first Jazz of 2017 and Maketoys next entry in their excellent RE:Master line that sees them put their signature anime robot style on to Masterpiece style figures. It's also a figure I largely ignored until about a week before it was released, at which point it became something I needed more than food and water.

So does it live up to the hype?

Continue on after the jump to see the full review

Titans Return Legends Sharkticon Gnaw review

I am starting to think we've moved into some bizarre alternate timeline. Away from all the political strife and weirdness like Wayne Rooney breaking Manchester United's all time scoring record, Hasbro have continued to sprinkle Titans Return with obscure characters we never thought we'd see get updated figures or at least not so close to their vintage counterparts.

Triggerhappy is the toy equivalent of Carlos Alberto's glorious goal against Italy in the World Cup Final, Hardhead, shades of Maradonna's non punchy goal against England, Twinferno is Michael Owen racing through the entire Argentinian side in France, Wolfwire the majestic controlled finish of  Bergkamp vs Argentina, Skullmasher the time bending Poborski lob over a hapless Portuguese keeper in Euro 96. Only Getaway has been a bit of a Baggio-esque USA 94 penalty miss.

Now, we have a brand new Sharkticon toy. Leaked as a potential release a few years back in the Generations line, Gnaw has finally rocked up in the midst of one of the most fun periods for collectors in many years.

But is it worth the wait?

Continue on after the jump to see the full review

Beelzeboss Spiritual Leadership Combiner Wars Optimus Prime upgrade kit review

Am I seeing things? Is this real? Beelzeboss Spiritual Leadership kit has actually been released...as is sat on my desk?

Announced mid way through 2015, if memory serves, this upgrade kit for Combiner Wars Optimus Prime caught my attention with how it dealt with that toys myriad problems. New clothes, better proportions and a simple installation process all offered something that seemed enticing even at a price that was almost twice the cost of the actual figure. It even has a funny, cult like name to boot.

So now it's here does it live up to that promise?

To see the full article click the button below and continue past the jump

Transformers Legends LG-35 Super Ginrai review

As a self confessed Powermaster Optimus Prime fanboy as soon as Takara announced Legends LG-35 Super Ginrai was coming, it instantly became my most wanted toy ever in history this month.

I've obsessed over every picture, every snippet of information and every bit of speculation and rumour no matter how bonkers. I needed it. And now, away from the death dealing, society crushing year that was 2016 - I actually have the toy in my hands. I feel drunk without having drunk the faintest tipple.

So now I have it in my sweaty palms, is it everything I hoped it would be? At import prices does it live it to all of the hopes and dreams I placed on it? Are the feet really that weird?

Find out the answers to all those questions and more in the review!

Continue after the jump to see the review