Toy Review Archives

[The Reverend]

robot w Push-Button. hehe. Had to go outside. Going back out there to see if I can get him with Push-Button in "cane" mode.

[The Reverend]

There.

[Auntie Slag]

Nice pics. I like Maineframe's gun, very Grimlock-esque! Many peeople manage to screw up photo's something awful but yours are spot on.

[The Reverend]

I noticed that my old Brawn review (man, I wrote that years ago) had lost some text when it was pasted to the html, so I went ahead and corrected it here so that it can be reposted.

**********************

Name: Brawn
Faction: Autobot
Function: Demolitions

"Might over microchips"

"To Brawn Earth is essentially a hostile environment - and he loves it. Strong, rugged, agile - the most macho of all Autobots. Delights in challenges. Sorry for those not as tough as himself. Second strongest Autobot - can lift 190,000 pounds and knock down a small building with one punch. High resistence to artillery fire. Vulnerable to attack by electromagnetic waves."

Alternate Mode:
A small safari-type Jeep/truckster with ripped, heavy-tread tires. Black front window and some nice detailing on the sides. A non-removable spare tire rides atop his roof, and he has a chrome front grill and yellowish bumper. Super-deformed, yes, but appealing to the eye.

Robot Mode:
Transforming Brawn is easy; flip down the fenders to form the legs, pull out the door panels and rotate them towards the front of the vehicle, then extract the arms from their hiding place beneath where the door panels were and stand the robot upright. Almost lanky in appearance due to his long legs, and possessing a pair of gleaming metallic "claws" of sorts for arms. Brawn's blocky appearance implies strength and it's not hard to imagine him storming onto the battlefield to punch the hell out of everyone, despite the fact that he's pretty short. His face is reminiscent of Maximillian from "The Black Hole", and he bears a small Autobot symbol on his chest. No real feet to speak of, so standing him can be a little tricky.

Transformation: 2/10. Easily figured out without the instructions.
Durability: 7/10. Small, compact construction has few weak points. My Brawn has lost his arms, but I believe this was a modification by the prior owner.
Fun: 7/10. The little guy is fun to throw in the mix and have him, say, punch the hell out of Soundwave's toe! Sure, he's not packing as many options and gimmicks as his larger brethren, but he's still worth his weight.
Price: 3/10. Under $20 on Ebay.
Overall: 7/10. One of the better mini-Autobots in many ways, lacking the "Happy Meal toy" look of later mini-bots.

[Cliffjumper]

Okay, there are two possible explanations here.

1) I keep consistently somehow getting totally different toys to everyone else, because hardly any of what's written seems to apply to the Hasbro Masterpiece Skywarp I bought.

2) Most of you have ridiculously low standards of what makes a good toy and will rave at length about the latest design abortion you've stumped up money for before it's bumped into a storage box by a repaint of Cybertron Downshift or whichever ROTF Scout you've been told to like this week.

The Hasbro MP Skywarp is badly made, with dull, cheap plastic exacerbating the usual preposterously over-engineered Takara design philosophy (because it's not a good figure if bits don't ping off when you transform it, right? And who cares if there's a simpler way to get a robot from a jet, let's make the chest pointlessly complex!). It looks like an unfinished prototype what with all the tree marks. He has two giant lumps of F-15 fuselage jutting off his hips because they overspent on that ridiculous chest and didn't have enough money to make the robot mode Not Look Shit from anything other than dead-on the front. It comes with a pilot figure that's just a lump of black plastic which you might as well have stolen from an Airfix kit, and a plastic stand with a post that's just to wide to easily attach the figure to. Most of the leg articulation is written off by poor design of the feet and top-heavy construction.

Masterpiece? The Classics one pisses all over this piece of crap.

[Paul053]

Isn't he just a repaint?

Okay, there are two possible explanations here.

1) I keep consistently somehow getting totally different toys to everyone else, because hardly any of what's written seems to apply to the Hasbro Masterpiece Skywarp I bought.

2) Most of you have ridiculously low standards of what makes a good toy and will rave at length about the latest design abortion you've stumped up money for before it's bumped into a storage box by a repaint of Cybertron Downshift or whichever ROTF Scout you've been told to like this week.

Can I add another one?
He is the first MP figure some people have ever owned (like myself) and with that amount of money, he HAS TO BE good.

He has two giant lumps of F-15 fuselage jutting off his hips ................... Most of the leg articulation is written off by poor design of the feet and top-heavy construction.

Agree. I really, really don't like his legs. It made him almost impossible to pose anything but in the risk of breaking them.

Here is my overall point of him from my review.
Overall: 8 - Should a figure so expensive like this have a perfect score here and is problem free? Theoretically yes. But unfortunately it is not there yet but close. I really want to give it a 10 due to his cost. But the legs, the super tight landing gears, and the loosing and falling off small parts do draw the point down. Does he worth $60? I don't know. Do I satisfy with him? Oh yes. He really has great jet mode and a good robot mode.

[Detective Barricade]

Okay, there are two possible explanations here.

1) I keep consistently somehow getting totally different toys to everyone else, because hardly any of what's written seems to apply to the Hasbro Masterpiece Skywarp I bought.

2) Most of you have ridiculously low standards of what makes a good toy and will rave at length about the latest design abortion you've stumped up money for before it's bumped into a storage box by a repaint of Cybertron Downshift or whichever ROTF Scout you've been told to like this week.

The Hasbro MP Skywarp is badly made, with dull, cheap plastic exacerbating the usual preposterously over-engineered Takara design philosophy (because it's not a good figure if bits don't ping off when you transform it, right? And who cares if there's a simpler way to get a robot from a jet, let's make the chest pointlessly complex!). It looks like an unfinished prototype what with all the tree marks. He has two giant lumps of F-15 fuselage jutting off his hips because they overspent on that ridiculous chest and didn't have enough money to make the robot mode Not Look Shit from anything other than dead-on the front. It comes with a pilot figure that's just a lump of black plastic which you might as well have stolen from an Airfix kit, and a plastic stand with a post that's just to wide to easily attach the figure to. Most of the leg articulation is written off by poor design of the feet and top-heavy construction.

Masterpiece? The Classics one pisses all over this piece of crap.

Have you considered an 'all of the above' option? I probably fall into that category.

[ElectricGecko]

Nice! Just picked this up and so seriously wanted to review it until I noticed that you already did. Dang. Do you need pics for this? I could get you those.

[Savannahtron]

Write one anyway! I love to read different people's reviews.

[Halfshell]

I lurved my Takara MP Skywarp (though I'd go a long way short of calling him perfect... he was still overdesigned and ludicrously delicate) and was sad when I sold him.

I was quite excited by the notion of picking up a budget replacement for him when I snaffled the Hasbro version. He hasn't even made it out of the packaging yet, he looks so dreadful. And I feel cheated by the price, even at a quarter of what I paid for the original.

So yeah. Toy that wasn't perfect but I loved... new release of... so naff it can't even convince me to open it.

Probably a good thing, I wouldn't be surprised if the packaging was the only thing holding it together. It just looks cheap. Takara's version is hidden away in the packaging so you don't see the toy until after you've opened it and didn't look cheap. Hasbro actually display theirs in the box and it looks awful. How does that make any sense?

[Detective Barricade]

I lurved my Takara MP Skywarp (though I'd go a long way short of calling him perfect... he was still overdesigned and ludicrously delicate) and was sad when I sold him.

I was quite excited by the notion of picking up a budget replacement for him when I snaffled the Hasbro version. He hasn't even made it out of the packaging yet, he looks so dreadful. And I feel cheated by the price, even at a quarter of what I paid for the original.

So yeah. Toy that wasn't perfect but I loved... new release of... so naff it can't even convince me to open it.

Probably a good thing, I wouldn't be surprised if the packaging was the only thing holding it together. It just looks cheap. Takara's version is hidden away in the packaging so you don't see the toy until after you've opened it and didn't look cheap. Hasbro actually display theirs in the box and it looks awful. How does that make any sense?

Uh, so one can pick the one that looks the least awful?

I think I'll knock a couple of points off the overall score. I still think it's very nice, but now a perfect score seems a little too generous.

[Detective Barricade]

So long as it's a significantly different opinion to this, a second review of it can't hurt.

As for pics, sure go ahead! May be best to post 'em here and the photo submission thread to be safe.

[Paul053]

I think I'll knock a couple of points off the overall score. I still think it's very nice, but now a perfect score seems a little too generous.

Back you up. I think he (Skywarp) deserve it. But just like you, I think he is nice and I still like him a lot.

[Savannahtron]

I like the figure, never owned Starscream, or the Takara MPs, but I do like it. Does the Takara one come with die cast or something distinguishing other than paint? Having seen recent Japanese versus US releases of stuff, the plastic they are using is virtually the same, versus 10 years ago was much more noticeable with the plastic differences (i.e. Fire Convoy Japanese release versus US).

[Detective Barricade]

The Takara Skywarp and Thundercracker have different faces. All three Seekers seem to use very similar 'neutral' faces, but Starscream has a smirking alternate face whereas Skywarp and Thundercracker have different 'scowling' alternate faces. And, uh...that's about it. The mold itself has a little die-cast in it, but it's all structural IIRC.

[ElectricGecko]

I'll put the pics up. As for the review, I think this one pretty much summed it up. I'd just be doing another positive review on top of an already positive review. I might have a few different opinions, but I know the site's wanting to cut down on the redundant reviews, so... I don't know.

[Paul053]

Got it today. He is worth the wait (well, I never thought about importing the Japanese version anyway).

[ElectricGecko]

Here's some photos. I also have better pics of all the individual bots and their robot modes, but I'm not sure whether that's overkill or not.

Any thoughts?

[Cliffjumper]

How about a few shots showing off the combined mode's dynamic range of articulation? Or some side-on shots to show off the excellent way his head's mounted like one of those flowerbaskets you only really see at rural pubs and hotels now ("Hag!").

[Cliffjumper]

How is the overall mark 8 when everything else is a 9 or 10?

This is why this place needs a 'Design' rating - none of the marks really cover the basics of whether something looks shit or not.