TFARCHIVE FORUMS

Clay wrote:Pfff... If you want the real experience, go put all of them except Tantrum back in their boxes and gradually open them over the next year and a half like I had to do.

Why Tantrum? Just curious...

I think because Tantrum was the first one out.

To be fair, I had a standalone Talon for 6-ish months and I did get to handle Bovis and Leo Dux briefly at AA 2014 so...yeah, I got them over a period of time too

Warcry, be careful as Ratbat's [the KO at least] wings are very brittle. I took the screws off both of mine as they were eating into the plastic and had stress marks. Used glue and they still work ok.

Tetsuro, I had similar packaging from a UK retailer last year to the point where I was wondering if there was anything in the box I was carrying home.

Knightdramon wrote:I think because Tantrum was the first one out.

Ah! Got what he meant now. Yea, I remembered that. From Tantrum to Rampage, that was a brutal wait time.

Let's see... recent stuff I've gotten.

2 or 3 weeks ago: Titan's Return Blurr, Scourge, and Galvatron.
I wasn't sold on Galvatron from the early pictures and when I saw him on the shelf, it was a 'what the hell' purchase. Turns out I rather like him. He's better than I expected (and a lot better than the old Universe version). My only complaint about him is the jet mode is kinda crap.
Blurr and Scourge... they're pretty nice, about as expected.

Earlier in the week: The Wave 2 Titan Master heads, which I haven't gotten around to opening. Felt I had to get them as they randomly showed up at the local TRU and we haven't even seen Wave 1 yet. That and how can you pass on Brawn, cartoon Grimlock, Apeface and Flywheels heads.

Just showed up today: MP Wheeljack and UW Bruticus, also not opened yet (what? I keep being busy). Finally got around to having HLJ ship them out as Wheeljack was closing in on the 2 month auto-ship point. Hopefully I've have time later today or tomorrow to crack them open.

Titans Return Crashbash
Hmmm... think I should have gone for Terri-Bull. Crashbash is alright, but I was hoping for something a bit better than 'alright'. Price tag isn't as awful as I was expecting, so that's something I suppose.

MP12G Generation 2 Sideswipe
Landed a second hand one off of ebay and holy crap, he's ace. I like the silly grimace and the big silly '90s guns and sword. Shame he didn't come with the grenade belts he sports in the comic, but I'll live. Alt mode looks deadly in black with the evil red windows. I approve!

RID Legends Grimlock, Strongarm and Sideswipe
On clearance just about everywhere, the RID Legeneds are actually pretty awesome. Wouldn't pay more than the £4 they're going for though.

Got MakeToys Cupola recently thanks to kgorman79 over at TFW2005.

(Which of course led me to buy my first Titans Return figure - Legends Rewind...)

I am very impressed by the transformation design and general quality - Cupola is a superb G1 Chromedome and delivers multiple 'masterpiece moments.' Stylor is neat, but doesn't hold together brilliantly - his slightly sub-par build quality is the only thing bordering on a let-down but this is far overshadowed by all the greatness of the figure overall!

I sat on the fence with Cupola for ages because of the size - I felt an MP Chromedome should be perhaps a head shorter than MP Soundwave. Now I have him, I can't see him being any smaller and given the Headmaster Juniors were smaller, and PM Prime also gives context, I'm coming around to the idea this is the right scale for an MP Chromedome after all.

As I said, also led me to buy TR Legends Rewind. I actually don't feel compelled to buy many of the TR line figures, and wasn't convinced by Rewind being a tank - and I'm still not. However he is a neat wee figure and Domey needs his Rewind. (I'd like to upgrade to a KFC Rewind one day...)

On a sidenote, a picture I posted of Cupola and TR Rewind titled 'True love' has become my 'top tweet' according to Twitter. That helps restore some of my faith in humanity.

https://twitter.com/ChrisCathrine/statu ... 0394344448

(Also shows what a significant contribution to Transformers James Roberts has made in Rewind & Domey's relationship in MTMTE.)

Knightdramon wrote:Thanks to a member on tfw2005, I am the proud owner of Feral Rex!

Congratulations! He is awesome! Hexatron and Feral Rex vie with MP-21 Bumblebee for my fave Transformer top spot.

Knightdramon wrote:Big, chunky, tab-y. Talon remains simple and effective---I had him two years ago. That sample [among the first in the UK] has since gone to numbat, but the new one is just as good.

Still enjoying him - he's been on display in one form or another ever since arrived in the post. Thanks!

Knightdramon wrote:Leo Dux is both very good and a bit lacking. A bit unsure of how well I am tabing in the lion head in beast mode, and the instructions were useless on the abdomen and tail parts to the point where I just figured that out on my own. Robot mode is decent. One of the legs on mine is a bit wobbly when extended for robot mode.

Leo Dux is the weakest in what is a superb set. Those parts for the chest and tail really annoy me - could have been done better - but for that to be the main complaint I have shows how great the Feral Cons are!

numbat wrote:Congratulations! He is awesome! Hexatron and Feral Rex vie with MP-21 Bumblebee for my fave Transformer top spot.

I have the red Bee (and think I'm going to use him to fill in my long vacant Cliffjumper hole). Haven't had a chance to open him yet.

Yeah, the more I handle Feral Rex, the more in awe I am. Usually combiners are just good in combined mode and everything else is lacking---FR is actually the first one I've handles where I cycle through their modes.

Leo Dux is sadly the weakest but even so, he is HEAVY and chunky. I am surprised at how heavy he is considering his torso is hollow. The lion mode tabbing on the back of his robot mode severely hinders the lion head articulation sadly. Metal ball joints for his mane are epic.

Bumblebee is one of the best MP figures and that's due to his simplicity. He looks great and you don't need to take a day off to fiddle with him. His locking points are plentiful and to the point, nothing tabbing in too hard.

That MT Cupola looks great and you've nailed it with that picture. I have my eyes on MMC but MT is really competing with FT for second place for me.

Paul053 wrote:I have the red Bee (and think I'm going to use him to fill in my long vacant Cliffjumper hole). Haven't had a chance to open him yet.

Sir, you are in for a treat!

Knightdramon wrote:Bumblebee is one of the best MP figures and that's due to his simplicity. He looks great and you don't need to take a day off to fiddle with him. His locking points are plentiful and to the point, nothing tabbing in too hard.

Yup - just perfectly designed. I have huge attachment to G1 Bumblebee - the yellow version was my first Transformer, and I was given the red one as a gift from someone important in my life years ago. I have both yellow and red versions of the MP mould (I use the battle mask face from the yellow release on the red one - I quite like the yellow mohawk and, after all, it is a toy homage so to me it's odd it didn't come with a battle mask itself!).

Knightdramon wrote:That MT Cupola looks great and you've nailed it with that picture. I have my eyes on MMC but MT is really competing with FT for second place for me.

It really is. MMC are undoubtedly my fave 3P company, but MakeToys are clearly very good at what they do as well. I'll certainly consider getting more of their figures in the future (I do have their Armageddon add-on kit for YoS Omega Supreme too). FT are also awesome. While I like my Perfect Effect Warden an awful lot, I'm always a bit frustrated by how it's effectively a parts-former... But they do good add-on kits - they totally sorted UW Mixmaster's cab issue!

Before heading out on vacation, I picked up TR Skullcruncher and TR Hardhead.

I like them both fairly well, and these fall into the category of 'I know nothing of the character, but they look neat.' As mentioned by a few others, Hardhead is neat and simple, but quite a bit of fun. Skullcruncher I really like, but I'm slightly disappointed by the quality on mine; the hips (ball joints) are ridiculously loose. Those can be kind of fixed with some clear nail polish, IIRC?

I really like the play value on these TR figures. It's a shame most kids wouldn't appreciate that these days.

The Takara one is slightly better in that respect, but there's not much in it. And the annoyingly rubbery cockpit flap is a bit more bendy on the Hasbro one.

Really impressed with Brainstorm as well -- even side by side with Blurr it's very much its own figure.

TR Wave 2 Titan Masters: Found these guys at the local TRU at random. I'm much more entertained by this batch then I was the first wave because the little vehicles match up to the alt modes of the original toys. I wanted a few extra heads kicking about for swapping and these will do.

I still haven't seen much in the way of Titans Returns stuff, though apparently the Voyagers, Deluxes and Legends are finally starting to trickle out. Hopefully I'll be able to find a Hardhead or Skullcruncher soon!

I did, however, manage to track down a Beast Wars Buzzclaw at one of the local collectors' shops. The figure is a bit more partsformy than I'd expected (about a third of the beast mode can pop off to serve as accessories in robot mode) but unlike something like Terragator the resulting robot isn't a skeletal mess. Articulation is pretty decent in both modes, a nice surprise considering the era, though I do wish the beast mode had elbow joints.

I do have to say that he's even weaker on the "Fuzor" front than Sky Shadow, and if you didn't know that his alt-mode was supposed to be two animals mashed together you'd probably just assume they pulled a "Seacons" and added a set of bipedal legs for added play value. The whole body is either translucent orange or solid green without too many paint apps, as well, which means it's honestly fairly difficult to tell where the mantis is supposed to end and the lizard is meant to begin. Aside from that conceptual failure, though, I'd say it's a neat little Basic figure and I'm glad I finally tracked one down.

On my way to pick up Cat Biscuits, I had a look around Asda Home and found they have pretty much all Transformers on sale... including the Combiner Wars Combaticons. Who I bought on a whim, because they looked pretty good. Couldn't find me a Vortex, but now have 4/5ths of Bruticus

CW Onslaught
Makes a much better fist of this mould than Hotspot, mainly because I expect Onslaught to turn into a plank on wheels. The colours are excellent! I love them. Unlike Hotspot, Onslaught feels a lot more dense and solid, despite being as gappy as Hotspot. The combiner kibble isn't very convincing as the cannon thingy though.

CW Brawl
Yay! How awesome is this guy? A wee burly little brawler. Nice detailing and a good sculpt. Structurally, his waist is a bit pap as it doesn't seem to tab into anything and just hangs around on a hinge. His too short forearms struggle holding the foot gun at any angle other than dead straight. I like his Oxo cube head and the alt mode is proper ace.

CW Swindle
A little heavy on the detail drizzle, Swindle is nevertheless a pretty funky looking guy. Hard to believe the guts of this are the Rook mold. Robot mode is effortlessly cool. The vehicle mode is cool. I've no idea what its supposed to be, its sort of jeep-y looking in the same way the original toy was. I like the little pouches moulded in along the sides. Thats cool. The only thing I really don't like are the cheap looking rear wheels on those very obvious looking clips.

CW Blast Off
Blast Off being a jet makes a ton more sense in this line up of military might, I approve! As one of the Aerialbot repaint/ new head jobs, he's pretty cool. I miss the face plate in robot mode though.

Partially Assembled Bruticus
Whilst Defensor looked a podgy mess to me, Bruticus wears the bulk a lot better, and looks better proportioned and I think its due to that awesome chest armour thingy. As with Defensor, the weight of the limbs makes the torso lean forward, which is plop, so you have to lean it back a little like he's puffing his chest out. He still looks cool and pretty fierce though. Head looks top as well.

I'm actually really impressed with these guys and have gone and hunted out a Vortex to complete him. They certainly make the FOC Combaticons look very sad indeed. And have made me forget about finding a Skullsmasher. Hooray!

Not Actually A Powermaster Powermaster Optimus Prime!

https://twitter.com/InflatableDalek/sta ... 3909479424

I own Magnus so there weren't many surprises, but the reworking is nice and it's a great little tribute to My Prime. Hell of a crotch though. Hell of a crotch.

It's also weird that the original Magnus version is more like a Power Master with Minimus plugging into his chest than PM Prime is with Hi-Q (no one is calling him Autobot Apex are they?) as his head. They could have gotten away with less of a reworking there! Surely not every toy has to be a Headmaster just because that's the overall gimmick? Magnus didn't have to be a combiner...

The aisle the TF's were in in Smyth's had half the shelves empty for cleaning or refreshing or whatever so the toys themselves were in a hiddly piddly cramped mess, but I could have gotten a Sentinel or a Blaster as well if I'd been a nutter.

Hey, you never said what kind of cat biscuits you got!

I said I was buying cat biscuits?


You can't really appreciate the crotch in front on pictures, the side view makes it more impressive.

inflatable dalek wrote:Not Actually A Powermaster Powermaster Optimus Prime!

Can that silly block of chest armour come off in robot mode? IMO it kind of ruins the look, and the huge alt-mode grille would be a big improvement. I love that Hasbro made this (PM Prime was my Prime too), but the chest really takes away from it actually looking like PM Prime.

I would be tempted by the remolded Takara version if they hadn't lopped his feet off...

Of course you do all realise that I need every single one of you to buy the Takara version so that I can get my Masterpiece God Jinrai, yeah?