S.N.D Primo Vitalis Combiner Wars Optimus Prime upgrade kit review

When Don Figueroa decided he wanted to redesign all of the Transformers for IDW's ongoing Transformers series it didn't go well. Marrying the G1 characters with live action movie style hyper detailed designs produced characters that lacked charm or personality and instead look like Rodimus Prime and Springer probably fought them off in one of Daniel's nightmares.

But one design that emerged that fans seemed to take to was Optimus Prime's new form. Mixing G1 with a modern aesthetic but skipping the Bay influence that smotherd the others, it had a certain Gundam quality that made it slightly more palatable.

When Hasbro started knocking out new figures for Combiner Wars, that design felt like it would be the natural choice as Hasbro had been leaning heavily on IDW for inspiration (including a legends sized Optimus that was based on the comics) but they went for something far stranger.

One great guy decided to change that and set about creating a series of epic shapeways upgrade kits to modify Combiner Wars Voyager Optimus Prime and greatly improve him and eventually a third party joined him to produce the subject of today's article - SND's Primo Vitalis upgrade kit.

Continue after the jump to see the review

MECH iDEAS - Demolition Crue DC03 - Gauntlet Review

This started as an article about figures that slipped under the radar, and never got the attention they really deserved. Whilst writing the original article, a chance posting on Facebook reminded this toy existed and then I managed to get hold of one a couple of days later.

Gauntlet started out as a design by a new 3rd party group called Mach 5, who then ironically went bust before releasing a product. An onslaught of repaints of this guy were announced, then the company went under and Mech Ideas took over and released it under their Demolitions Crue brand following on from their Topspin and Twin Twist homages.

Errr...so yeah, somewhere along the line it actually made it out into the world but didn't seem to generate much of a buzz, which is unusual for a figure based on such a popular character as Ironfist from the IDW Transformers comics.

Enough of my rambling, hit the button below to see the full Mech Ideas Gauntlet review

Transformers Generations Brainstorm Review

With Brainstorm being such a central part of the recent Transformers comics, I figured I would go back and review the Voyager figure Hasbro put out late last year.

Based on his appearances in the IDW comic series, but retaining the Headmaster gimmick of the original toy it looked like it was going to be a special toy.

Well is it? Click the button to see the review.

Transformers Generations Combiner Wars Alpha Bravo Review

The final deluxe from the first wave of Combiner Wars toys is Alpha Bravo, a new character who replaces Slingshot as a member of the Aerialbot team.

Instead of just naming this new toy Slingshot, Hasbro decided to come up with a new character and keep the original intact despite the suspiciously Slingshot-esque headsculpt.

You can check out my reviews of the other figures from the wave,  Silverbolt, Firefly, Skydive and Drag Strip by clicking on their names.

To continue on to the Alpha Bravo review, click the button below

Transformers Generations Roadbuster Review

Roadbuster was a toy Hasbro borrowed from another line to fill a gap in its Generation One Transformers line. He never appeared in the cartoon, and only made a handful of appearances in the UK Marvel comic series.
I don't remember ever seeing him available to buy, so as a child I thought he was just a made up character for the comics, in the style of Scrounge.

I think this is the first original toy based on the G1 Roadbuster, since the original figure.

There have been repaints of other figures, but he has never gotten a mold specifically developed for himself. Fittingly, Hasbro have also made it a Voyager figure, given his portrayal as a larger bot.

But is this new toy any good? Or has Hasbro's battles with quality control conspired to strike it down? In the words of Paul Heyman - "that's not a prediction, that's a spoiler"

*Note* I actually wrote most of this review a few months ago, and came back to it today to revise a few things and finally finish it.

Hit the button to read the Transformers Generations Roadbuster review after the jump

Transformers Generations Skids Review

For the last two years, Hasbro has doing some excellent work with its Generations line. Moving a side step away from simply homaging or updating G1 characters, they have been using IDW's work as a template, and giving us spins on the characters more in tune with the comic series.

Springer was the first, if memory serves, and laid down a marker that would be tough to compete with. Since then we have had a growing list of additions to the line which each seem to do a decent job in their own way - yes, even the Bumblebee figure.

There was a growing desire for a new Skids figure, as he made his debut in the fantastic More Than Meets The Eye comic series. Skids have been a character who prior to this had done extremely little in Transformers Generation One fiction, only making brief cameos in the cartoon, and not appearing much in the Marvel comics series.

Even his original toy caused much confusion over his alt mode, with many thinking (including the cartoon shows animators) Skids was a mini van, when he was in fact a tiny sub compact (as the Americans call it) car.

IDW worked their magic, just as they did with Swerve, and took a forgettable character and transformed them into an A list star of the comics, much to the delight of its readers.

Hasbro took this as an opportunity to knock out a toy of Skids which came out at the very end of last year or start of this year but was only available briefly in small quantities. But now he seems to have gotten a re-release in a later wave so I managed to get Amazon to send me one over (by giving them more money than I would usually spend on a Deluxe).

So is he any good? Hit the button below to read on and find out.
I have also decided to try out a new layout, all feedback appreciated!

Transformers Generations Legends Swerve and Flanker

Hasbro completely revamped their Legends class figures last year, with the introduction of the new Generations figures into that scale.

After the Legends class was renamed "Legion", the original name was bought back and applied to a new line of figures that were about the same size and complexity of the old Scout class. Confused? Aren't we all.

Yet again, Hasbro UK chose to let us down by not importing them all into the British Isles, so Toys'R'Us stores up and down the country can still be found stuck trying to shift Optimus Prime and Bumblebee, which were the first two in the new line, followed by Starscream and Megatron (not released here). Swerve and Cosmos came next, and Swerve at least is bigger than the previous 4.

Swerve has arguably been IDW's most successful revamp. In Generation 1, he was a later era minibot, from the Gears mold, but got almost zero exposure in any fiction.

IDW then chose to brilliantly give him his own personality, and he has become a huge fan favourite. So we come to this toy, which is Hasbro's interpretation, of IDW's interpretation of Generation 1 Swerve.

Confused again?

Hit the button below to see more photo's and read the review.

Transformers Generations Whirl Voyager Class Review

Wreck and Rule

With his starring role in IDW's recent comic book series, and rise in popularity, it was a no surprise that Hasbro would eventually give us an update of the character in the Generations line. But was was a surprise, is that there was already a deluxe class version (a repaint of FOC Vortex) released recently, and also how much of an homage to the original toy this is, as opposed to being based on IDW's design as we have seen with other figures recently

So Generations Whirl is an update of his Generation 1 figure. In a twist of irony, just like his Generation 1 figure - Generations Whirl has not been released in the UK.

Same old Hasbro UK.

So after importing the figure, and playing around with it - is it any good?

Hit the button below to see some shiny pictures, and a review.

Perfect Effect PE-DX03 Warden Review

Back in the 80's, Hasbro released a Transformers toy that I could not get my hands on for love nor money. It joined a list that included such mythical figures as Dinobot Swoop, as a toy I knew existed - but had no physical evidence due to it not appearing on UK toy Shelves. This toy was special, as it was the largest Transformer ever created and remained so until Generations Metroplex was released last year, so whats that? A 25 year run or something?
Yes, that toy was Fortress Maximus. Along with Swoop, its still a toy I have never owned - though I have seen it with my own eyes. The prices it commands today are far outside my budget, and this was also the case with the recent reissue, where I just cannot afford to spend £300 or so on a toy.
Much as I would love to, sadly that dream will only be realised by a Lottery win.

For many months, this 3rd party figure drifted under my radar. If by drifting under the radar, I actually mean I saw it and just was not interested at all. But then a funny thing happened, and in the last couple of days of 2013, some new pictures started to crop up online, that made it smash my radar like an 80's Axel Rose in a hotel room.

The end result? I think you can guess where this is going, but with 5 minutes to go before midnight, on New Years Eve, whilst very drunk, I put in a pre-order for Warden and with Kapow Toys. The early bird pricing was just too much to resist, especially whilst being compelled by the demon in the bottle...

Warden is Perfect Effects take on Fortress Maximus, or more specifically the version of Fortress Maximus that appears in IDW's popular line of Transformers comics. If you have read the comics, you know he is in charge of the Autobots top security prison - hence the name "Warden"

Clever, Perfect Effect, clever.

I am not actually sure where to start, the box advertises the figure as being "7 in 1!", so there is a lot to cover.

Better put the kettle on....there's a lot to get through.

Hit the button below, to read the full review, and see all of the photo's, after the jump

Transformers Generations Springer Review

                                                  "Strength is more than physical."

Out in the same wave as Blitzwing is Generations Springer, and he is a wonderful toy.

Hit the button below to continue on with the review

Transformers Generations Trailcutter/Trailbreaker Review

 

I have been eagerly anticipating this figure for years. Ever since the Classics line first appeared on shelves, I had been hoping the day would come when Trailbreaker would get his time in the sun.

Now its finally happened, quite neatly fitting as part of the 30th Anniversary Generations line.

Hit the button to read the review