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

Combiner Wars Sky Lynx Review

As Combiner Wars enters its death throes, it manages to throw out that most completely left field of character updates- Sky Lynx!

As a toy which was never released over here in the UK, I have always had a fascination with Sky Lynx. When Hasbro announced a Combiner Wars Sky Lynx it seemed like a great chance to tick that one off the bucket list. When they subsequently revealed there was no separate Lynx mode, I could finally empathise with how that poor bloke in Temple of Doom felt when Mola Ram reached into his chest and ripped his heart out.

Sad face.

But how did it actually turn out? Hit the button below to read the review.

Q Transformers QTF05 Ultra Magnus Review (or mini review)

Across the oceans, in far away lands there are people able to walk into shops and buy cool little curio toys for little more than the cost of a Greggs pasty, a packet of Monster Munch and bottle of Cherry Coke.

Imagine that right?

Q Transformers is such a line and appeared in late 2014 having since spanned both the live action movies and Generation One eras of Transformers with toys you can buy for less than a fiver in Japan. Inspired by the original Choro-Q line (Penny Racers to those of us in the West), they are small, super deformed transforming figures designed purely for extreme awesomeness. At least that's how I imagine the pitch went at Takara towers.

Anyway now Q-Transformers QTF05 Ultra Magnus is in my hand how do I feel about it?

Click below to read on

Transformers Masterpiece MP-11T Thundercracker review

If you collect Transformer then chances are you have crossed paths with at least one  of the hundreds of uses of the Masterpiece seeker mold at one point or another in your life. Whether it be the original MP-03 version or the updated, more cartoon accurate MP-11 remold this mold has been around the block several times, popped into the newsagents, grabbed a Racing Post and done another lap for good luck.

Never does it become boring though as each of the original three Seekers was so distinct in personality that you don't feel like you are just buying a cheap repaint - even though that is exactly what you are doing.

MP-11T completes the group finally, and gives us Thundercracker, who has recently evolved from just being one of Megatrons go to henchmen into a character who isn't really a villain and loves Earth soap operas....awesome.

Hit the button below to see the full Masterpiece Thundercracker review

Combiner Wars Ironhide Review



Combiner Wars Ironhide and Prowl - ultimate badasses

Here we go again with another Combiner Wars figure, that is another repaint. It would be funny - if it was funny.
Combiner Wars Ironhide is a repaint of the excellent Off Road, who was retooled into First Aid , so this is our third release of this particular mold.

With a colour scheme based on the Generation One character, but a vehicle mode veering more towards the live action movies, have Hasbro succeeded in fusing all of the right elements into one small, deluxe sized, combining package?

Read on after the jump to find out

Combiner Wars Ultra Magnus Review

Hasbro have continued to whack out toys influenced by IDW with perhaps the strongest example so far - Ultra Magnus. A leader class figure, not only is his design lifted straight from the pages of More Than Meets The Eye ,but it is the first time since Generation 1 that Hasbro have produced an Ultra Magnus toy the way it should be - a car carrier that turns into a giant armoured robot.

Read on to see if Combiner Wars Ultra Magnus can live up to the hopes and dreams of millions of fanbots (like me)

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....

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 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 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

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!

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 Armada Starscream Review

In the early 2000's, Hasbro rebooted the Transformers line with Transformers Armada. It bought fresh takes on classic characters, and a bundle of new ones. The core gimmick here was to take the Micromasters, turn them in minicons and then make them unlock action features with the larger figures.

There was a cartoon which was horrible, and its well worth reading the Tfwiki's write up on it, but the toyline had some really cool figures in it. They were big, chunky and had serious heft to them.

Like almost every iteration of Transformers, Starscream was a character who got an update with a fanciful looking new futuristic jet mode, and a toy that was something akin to a brick.

Now in the 30 Anniversary Generations range, Hasbro have decided to pay homage to Armada and Starscream with an updated deluxe class figure.

Is it any good? Read after the jump to find out.

Transformers Generations Scoop Review

Back in the mid 80's, Hasbro decided to jazz up the Transformers Toy line with the introduction of the Targetmasters.

These were toys who came with weapons that could themselves transform into small robots. Pretty cool idea huh?

The concept has been used since, with various toys such as mini cons and Powercore Combiners, but never have we had legit Targetmasters.
Until  now.

With the 30th Anniversary of the Transformers brand upon us, Hasbro have kicked it a gear with their Generations lines and given us some awesome figures. Amongst them was this gem, Targetmaster Scoop.
I was so happy!

But is he a worthy update of the original toy? Hit the button to 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.

Transformers Generations Starscream Review

I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas? Filled with toys, drink, food, The Snowman, and many fun Christmas festivities.

I got a light tent, as a Christmas present from my mum, and its really helped with taking photos. I need one more light, to diffuse the shadows, but otherwise its really made a different to my photo taking. No more yellow images!

I actually have a back log of far more interesting and newer toys than FOC Starscream, but he is the one Transformer figure that I got for Christmas so he is the one most fresh in my mind.

Masterpiece Bluestreak, Smokescreen, Generations Hoist, Thundercracker, Classic Turtles and a load of other things are all sitting here, waiting to be reviewed. But right now, Starscream is top of the pile by virtue of being the newest.

Generations Starscream was released at the end of last year, in the US. However, Hasbro UK did not feel the later waves of Generations were worthy enough to import to us on these shores – so we initially did not get them over here. Yaaaay.

At some point towards the later part of 2013 Toys R Us appeared to get their hands on some US stock, and it would be great if they could do it more often. This is most probably stuff they could not shift in the US, so was bumped over to us – charming.

This wave includes the aforementioned Starscream, Ultra Magnus, Kickback, Sideswipe and Air Raid – all based on designs from the Fall of Cybertron video game. Which itself is the sequel to War For Cybertron, which offers a slightly different take on the pre earth G1 continuity.

I say this, because by default I take the FOC characters as updates of pre Earth G1, even though Hasbro says they are part of the aligned continuity – which makes them technically part of the Transformers Prime storyline.
But I don’t think many people really take much note of that, as the characters all look, sound and behave far more like their G1 Counterparts than they do Transformers Prime.

Personally, I think the game makers thought of it as G1, whilst Hasbro were trying to shoe horn it into Prime, unnecessarily.

Hit "READ FULL REVIEW" below, to see the full review, after the jump