Takara Transformers Generations Legends Arcee

This was supposed to be a Combiner Wars Breakdown review, but then the Postman bought Arcee to my door much sooner than I was expecting.

Boy, is she pretty in  Pink. Ha, right now that one is finally out of my system, ahem, here we go with Takaras take on Generations Arcee,
Whilst Arcee has had copious figures over the years, non of them were of her Generation incarnation which despite featuring prominently in the Movie and 3rd season of the cartoon, never received an toy.

When Hasbro announced this toy, it felt like a near 30 itch had finally been scratched, so why did I go for the Takara version and not the much cheaper Hasbro toy?
Any time someone buys a Takara figure it always comes back to the paint job, right?

The Hasbro figure had some extra black bits, to try and tie it in with IDW (I think?), and the ones on her side made he look like she was carrying a walkman with the headphone cable running up her side.

Arcees figure is so G1 it hurts, so when pictures of Takaras try surfaced, complete with super accurate G1 colour scheme - I knew that was the version I was buying.

But was it worth breaking my own strict rules on how much I will spend on a deluxe figure? Hit the button below to see the full Transformers Legends Arcee review.

Combiner Wars Dead End Review

When Combiner Wars was first announced, and the individual figures shown, Dead End was not the one I thought looked the best - but it was the one I most wanted in my hands.

Sounds creepy.

His first real update since the original Generation 1 toy, it comes as part of the hit Combiner Wars line, but does it live up to the standards set by the first wave?

To see the Dead End review, hit the button below.

Full disclosure: I am writing this review listening to Omar's "There's Nothing Like this". Wonder what happened to that guy? That is a wikipedia research project for a day at work next week....

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

DC Collectibles The New Batman Adventures - Batman Review

I have always said, that if DC make updated figures based on Batman the Animated Series, with better articulation - I would buy them all. It is my favourite cartoon series of all time, and I love every facet of it, I adore it and wish I could climb through the TV and live in that world.

So DC Collectibles called my bluff, and announced a large looking line of characters from the show, who look just like they do on the screen.

The first wave featured mostly figures based on the redesigns from the New Batman Adventures, so I decided to skip them as I prefer the original designs and figured I would save some money. In fact, I didn't realise this line was even out until I saw that amazing looking Batmobile at New York Toyfair.

Fate conspired for me to find this figure in a comic shop at the weekend, where I buckled whilst my wallet wept for me tumbling down the Rabbit hole.

Click the button below to read the 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.

Microblaze Creations MBC002 Military Titans Review

In the midst of a renaissance for combining Transformers, there is one forgotten toy who has sadly drifted to the back of everyone's shelves.

Bruticus was released in 2012 and was a long awaited return to the world of Combiners for Hasbro. Sadly, they chose to release it during a time they were cutting costs so the end result was at best bloody rubbish.
It felt cheap, all of the team members suffered in different ways and Onslaught was a poorly thought out Deluxe class toy when he really needed to be Voyager.

So it sucked, and despite 8 million repaints it did not really capture the fans imagination.
What a shame it was.

So here we are now, in 2015, and Hasbro has returned to combiners with the acclaimed Combiner Wars toyline - and have gotten everything right so far.

Dragging Bruticus destroyed carcass back into the limelight, Microblaze Creations is a new 3rd party company who have decided they needed to fix the Combaticons set.
So did they give us the Bruticus we need, or the one we deserve.

Well, sort of both - so click the button below to read 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 Combiner Wars Firefly Review

We are really cracking on with Combiner Wars, and next up is Firefly - the artist formerly known as Fireflight.
I found myself locked in a battle with my own inner fanboy to not to title this review: Transformers Combiner Wars Fireflight review.

You can check out the review of Fireflys sort of mold mate Skydive, Aerialbot Leader Silverbolt or the lonesome Stunticon from the first wave Dragstrip

Transformers Generations Combiner Wars Skydive Review

My review of the first wave of Combiner Wars figures continues, this time with Aerialbot grey jet guy - Skydive.

You can check out the Voyager Silverbolt review here and the Deluxe Drag Strip review by clicking here

Hit the button below to see the Skydive review

Transformers MP-22 Masterpiece Ultra Magnus Review

takara transformers mp-22 ultra magnus

YES! YES! YES!

Quoting Daniel Bryan probably sums up how I felt when this figure was officially announced last year. Takara had been doing a cracking job with the various Masterpiece Autobot cars, Soundwave and Optimus Prime - but I didn't really ever expect them to do an Ultra Magnus.

Or rather I did, but I was expecting it to be a white Optimus Prime.

So now we are in 2015, 10 years after the fictional date Ultra Magnus showed up in Transformers Movie, and we have a legit Masterpiece Ultra Magnus, with trailer and all.

This after we got a figure of Spike in his Exo-Suit with Bumblebee. Someone at Takara must love that 86 movie.

So is it good? Worth the wait? Hit the button below to see the full Masterpiece Ultra Magnus review

Transformers Masterpiece Ratbat KO Review

Takara pulled something of a fast one by releasing a Masterpiece Ratbat, and including a rather large Soundblaster accessory with it.

The price of Ratbat sky rocketed on the secondary market, even though in this day and age it was inevitable a 3rd party company would knock off the mold at some point given their prolificness with Masterpiece figures.

Normally I do not bother with KO's as it is always at the back of my mind that they are not legit, but I really wanted a Ratbat to go with Soundwave and his other tape minions.

This will only be a short review, mainly focusing on the issues affecting the knock off, where those pesky pirates just could not get it quite right.

Does this knock off do a good job?

Hit the button below to find out

*edit* I am not sure why the text formatting seems to have gone a bit mad?

Transformers Generations Combiner Wars Silverbolt Review

As soon as Combiner Wars was announced I was completely sold. New versions of the original Generation One combiners, with a retail cost for the set equivalent to roughly what one third party figure would cost?
How could anyone say no.

I can't remember a line since I got back into collecting that I have been more excited for. The figures all look great, and just like their G1 counterparts, especially in the case of Silverbolt who looks like the G1 cartoon animation bought to life.

I have already reviewed Combiner Wars Dragstrip , and now it is time for Silverbolt, who is probably the most anticipated figure in the entire line so far.

Hit the button below to read the review and see more photos.

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 Combiner Wars Drag Strip Review

Just popped in to check the lights were turned off....

It has been quite a while since I updated this blog, I have been to Mexico, got through my birthday (I was drunk, in the aforementioned Mexico) and it has also been Christmas.

Now all of that is out of the way, I thought it time to bring it back to life - especially with the huge pile of toys I got over the Christmas period.

Chief among them was most of the first wave of Hasbros new Combiner Wars Transformers sub line. Of all the things I have gotten, this was my most anticipated as it is the G1 Combiners reborn!


Let's start off with the lone Decepticon Stunticon from the first wave - Generations Drag strip

X-Transbots Survivalist Ollie Review (Masterpiece Wheelie)

                        
A beautiful homage to Generation One Wheelie, X-Transbots Ollie has been designed to fill that tiny Wheelie shaped space on collectors Masterpiece shelf.

Back in 1986, Hasbro released Transformers the Movie, introducing many new characters, whilst horrifically killing off many beloved ones in a moment they would later come to regard as a bit of a misstep. Surprisingly kids did not take too well to seeing characters they were fond of brutally murdered and then have fire coming out of their mouths (RIP Prowl).

Wheelie has never truly had a decent toy with his Generation One figure being terrible, homages coming with a small legends figure that turned into an Earth car, and a confusing (but awesome) repaint of the RTS Jazz mold.

X-Transbots are a 3rd party company that have previously bought us the knock off of Jizai Toys Powerglide and more recently a quite cool looking Huffer.

Now with X-Transbots Wheelie, they have stepped up their game and bought us a Masterpiece scale version of the character that has a near uncanny resemblance to the character model - which is no small feat.

To read the X-Transbots Masterpiece Wheelie review hit the button below

Transformers MP-20 Masterpiece Wheeljack Review

I will start this by saying that I cannot believe that this figure actually exists. Wheeljack was always one of my favourite Auotbots, and his car mode was one of the ones I liked the most - and I am not a big car person.

But Wheeljack just looked cool.

Takara may have soft rebooted their Masterpiece line, and knocked out the Lamborghini duo of Sideswipe and Red Alert, and then the Datsun trio featuring Prowl, Bluestreak and Smokescreen - but a licensed Lancia Stratos? Without an easy repaint? Nah, it would never happen.

Only, it did.

So to read the review, and find out just how glorious Wheeljack is - hit the button below

Transformers Generations Jetfire Review

Before nude pictures of celebrities were being leaked onto the Internet, a similar fate befell Hasbro's then unannounced Generations Jetfire.

As you would expect, the Internet oooh'd and ahhh'd with admiration, and it became one of the most hotly anticipated figures in living memory.

There were a couple of reasons for this, first among them was that it was the first leader class figure we had seen in a few years. Second, and most importantly it was a brand new Jetfire figure that was based on his cartoon robot mode, and toy jet mode.

Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat???!!!! Mind blown.

In the original Transformers cartoon, Jetfire was called Skyfire and was found by the Decepticons buried in ice. Freed from his prison, he joined them due to his old friend Starscream (what could possibly go wrong), but soon realised his error and became essentially a giant Taxi for the Autobots.

His animation model was completely made up, and based on the toy that was released as Jetfire, and was a Robotech/Macross toy that Hasbro licensed to fill out the line.

Not confusing at all.

So now this new Jetfire is here, and I finally managed to get my hands on it despite it not being released in the UK (thanks again Hasbro UK!), did the toy live up to all that promise?

Hit the button to find out

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!

Mastermind Creations Tigris Review

Time flies, when you are waiting for robotic Animals that not only turn into robots, but merge to form a gigantic robot.

I *think* the Feralcons were initially announced about two years ago. I know I got Bovis last November, which was already on the back of heavy delays with the set, and they were supposed to be released I think monthly after that.

So here we are in October 2014, and the final member of the main team has finally found his way to freedom from the factory. MMC named him Tigris, but most of us know him as Rampage the Generation 1 Predacon, and Predakings usual right arm.

Now that Tigris is finallyhere, is he as good as the other Feralcons? How did Feral Rex turn out?



Hit the jump to find out.

TFC Hercules Review - Exgraver and Neckbreaker

Time for part 3 of my review of TFC's first combiner - Hercules.

Originally this was intended to be a review for Mastermind Creations Tigris, but the lighting Gods decided otherwise, and took out another of my photo box lamps. So I am down to one, and did not think it would be wise to continue with a spooky Goosebumps look to the photo's.
You want to see Tigris in all his glory, and it is well worth it. Hopefully it will be done before the end of this week, depending on the speed of Amazon.

Back to Hercules, next up are the fine two component, Exgraver and Neckbreaker, who are analogues to Generation Ones Scavenger and Bonecrusher respectively.

Exgraver was the very first figure from the set to be shown, and also released so it will be interesting to see how he stacks up.

To read my thoughts, hit the jump

TFC Hercules Review - Heavy Labor and Dr Crank

Part 2 of my review of TFC's Hercules combining team continues with Heavy Labor (Long Haul) and Dr Crank (Hook). As an Englishman, it annoys me to have to spell "Labour" with the Americanised spelling...no, just no!

Anyway, these are the next two Herc bots on my list to review.

Forming the torso of Hercules (Devastator) how do they stack up today?

Hit the button below to read the retroish review

TFC Hercules Review - Structor and MadBlender

It is funny to think now, that there was once a time, only a couple of years ago, when Transformers fans thought we would never see decent combiners again.

Not only have we had an avalanche of 3rd party attempts, from many different companies covering almost every conceivable base, but now Hasbro has taken notice and is developing a theme called "Combiner Wars" which will see new toys of the Aerial Bots and Stunticons based on the original G1 teams and featuring in the IDW comics.

It is a glorious time to be a fan of combiners, and I am very much looking forward to Hasbro's figures as they are far more affordable than the 3rd party equivalents.

So where did it all start? What was the catalyst for this change in thinking, that would propel almost an entire market by itself and start something of a toys arms race?

A strong case could be made for the starting point being TFC's Hercules series of figures. Based on the original G1 Constructicons, they are voyager sized figures that do combine into a much larger gestalt.

Awesome. 

It was the first full set of combining figures, and how successful was it? Well here we are a couple of years later, and after picking it up off my shelf and dusting it down, I thought I would take a look back at this set to see how the figures stand up now.

I will start with Structor and Mad Blender as they form the legs, and work my way up.

Hit the button to continue on to the reviews and pictures.

Micro Yamaguchi Revoltech Revolmini Solid Snake Review

 

I don't usually bother with Revoltech figures. As much as they are wonderfully sculpted and detailed, I do not like how the articulation works with them.

I have the Optimus Prime and Megatron figures that were produced, based on the Dreamwave comics designs, but despite being very poseable, the articulation always seems very awkward.

back in February I was pre-ordering Masterpiece Wheeljack on Anime Export when I spotted a new Solid Snake figure listed based on the original PlayStation game.

I had to order it, despite my reservations about Revoltech figures.

Year ago I had the Macfarlane toys Snake and Meryl figures, but the head sculpt on Solid Snake was derpy to say the least.

So how does this Revoltech figure stack up? Has it changed my opinion on Revoltech figures? Or have I flushed some money down the drain?

Hit the button below to see more photos and find out

Keiths Fantasy Club BoxBomber Review

It was inevitable that once a Masterpiece Soundwave was announced, a 3rd party toy company would appear to bring us the cassettes that were not slated for release.

So step forward Keiths Fantasy Club, or KFC- though not to be confused with the worlds leading provider of fried chicken. Keith has bought us some cool figures in the last year, with a few different cassettes, various versions of Perceptor and more recently the amazing looking Citizen Stack and Sencho Barbossa.

Citizen Stack is a figure I would dearly love to have, even just for a brief time, but alas it is out of my price range at the momenr. I really need a lottery win as I really want to add it to my collection and take lots of pictures of it :(
It looks like such a fun toy. Another one is KFC's take on Slamdance, the Autobot combiner cassettes which I really do need to find. Clearly I like Keith's designs more than I thought.

Anyway, back to the topic at hand and that is Bird Bomber. Based on the later G1 Cassette toys of Squawktalk and Beastbox who combined to form Squawkbox, KFC have produced a couple of figures that Takara are very unlikely to ever bother with.
So this is a great way to fill that burning gap on your Masterpiece shelf (said no one ever about Squawkbox), or more aptly just give you more play value from Soundwave.

The original Squawkbox was released in 1988, as the Transformers brand was slowing right down in terms of popularity and as such they did not appear in any of the cartoon series or even the original comics. Instead, their fictional appearances have been limited to brief cameos in IDW's various series.

So not a character everyone is crying out for then? Well, no not really, they are not one of the first names (or even one of the top 50) anyone thinks of when asked to name Transformers characters but they were cool tools, with an interesting combining gimmick. So actually, they are pretty cool.

KFC have had a dubious reputation for quality control in the past, but that is always going to be a peril of doing cassette size figures due to their tiny size. But lets see how these guys stand up.

Hit the button to see the pictures and read the review

Mastermind Creations Talon Review

I believe this figure was first revealed, and put up for pre-order, almost two years ago. Originally slated to be the first Feral Con released, he was delayed several times due to revisions and various other issues, and slipped back to being the 4th figure from the set to make it into fans hands.

Feral Rex is now just one member short of being completely, ready to dominate your shelves and finally give your wallet a little breather.

So after the long wait, does the figure live up to the hopes and dreams of many a collector?

Hit the jump to find out.