Toygasm!

[Cliffjumper]

Whoa, nothing all week, then I get five Movie figures at once.

'74 Bumblebee is a bit gawky, isn't he? I'm guessing from other pictures that the shoulders are meant to look like they haven't been locked into place, right?

Barricade isn't bad - he really is the first film equivalent of Sideways, nothing amazing, your archetypal 6/10 figure. No Frenzy with mine, not that I'm particularly gutted about that.

Ratchet I like, actually. A bit blockier than most of the other movie figures, but nowhere near as bad as I was expecting. Nice to have such an intuitive transformation too.

Ironhide's awesome, really good fun. Takes a bit to realise there's no absolutely solid and good-looking configuration for the bonnet halves, but there we go.

I also bought ROTF Leader Prime. Not had much of a go yet, sort of looking and savouring. Hate to say it, though, articulation isn't what I expect from a toy of this size.

[inflatable dalek]

I haven't touched my Bumblebee since I brought it, IIRC I found the automorph thing really irritating on him. I do like Barricade though, the big shoulders are what sell him.

[Cliffjumper]

Hmmm. Started transforming Prime to truck mode a minute after I started the topic. Just finished now. Is there any point in Hasbro actually printing instructions any more? By the time it came to moving the truck wndows out of the chest (something shown not very clearly at all by the instructions... the force needed for some Transformers figures is ****ing terrifying), I just worked back to robot mode and went for it myself. Awesome figure, so-so transformation, abysmal instructions.

On the plus side, I can now put my ROTF Legends Prime in the bin. Or therapeutically destroy it with a sledgehammer.

Bumblebee's automorph bit on his chest is a pain, yeh - I'd hoped the neat extending legs were it, but the chest I just had to sort of mash until it looked about right. Turns out it's only meant to look about right rather than actually right. Huh.

I'd probably like Barricade a lot more if I didn't already have Sideways, TBH - he is marginally cooler than courier-boy, but he's always going to feel like a copy because I got the other one first...

Right, wait for Jolt to arrive, find Leader Brawl & Long Haul, and I think I'm done with this. Maybe a non-Final Battle Jazz, but loose ones always seem to be bloody pictured in car mode. Argh.

[RID Scourge]

'74 Bumblebee is a bit gawky, isn't he? I'm guessing from other pictures that the shoulders are meant to look like they haven't been locked into place, right?

Like everyone else I don't like the automorph gimmick mainly because it doesn't go back in car mode for too long, but apparently that was because I broke it because I tried to do it first instead of some other step.

It's been a while, but I want to say that the instructions said to do it first? Either way they probably should have designed an automorph that looks like it could be done first without any problem (but apparently will break if you don't move part x that doesn't visibly hinder it, but jams it up internally where the owner can't see it).

Otherwise it was a nice little mold. I still say Hasbro totally missed the boat on an obvious Windcharger repaint.

Barricade isn't bad - he really is the first film equivalent of Sideways, nothing amazing, your archetypal 6/10 figure. No Frenzy with mine, not that I'm particularly gutted about that.

I love Barricade and his repaint. Too bad about Frenzy. He's got very little articulation, but I think he's a cute little bug. Probably not worth tracking down if he didn't come with Barricade though.

Ironhide's awesome, really good fun. Takes a bit to realise there's no absolutely solid and good-looking configuration for the bonnet halves, but there we go.

Yeah. I really wish this had been one of the figures that they redesigned because of that one issue instead of just repainting him and slapping different guns on him.

I guess the idea of a human alliance IH got dropped which is a shame as I'd have liked to have seen what they would come up with.

[Cliffjumper]

Leader Op's transformation is getting easier now I'm completely ignoring the instructions. He looks awesome, but I've got to say the initial impression that this is not what a toy of this size and price bracket should be like isn't a particularly unfair one. There's too much kibble and moving parts to make use of what articulation there is, and his arms are too clumsy to even bend at the elbow without panels having to be moved around. And somehow they's managed to make the blades irritating - why oh why couldn't they be sliding?

Really torn over him, to be honest. I kinda love him, and some of the engineering is super-sharp (the transformation is actually brilliant), but with some fairly minor work on the arms it could have been so much better.

The rest of 'em are growing on me big-time. I love Ratchet's chunkiness and, well, simplicity, though I would be a bit bummed if I hadn't only spent about a third of the RRP on him. Same gets Bumblebee through, plsu he can chuck Barricade around...

[Halfshell]

Leader Op's transformation is getting easier now I'm completely ignoring the instructions.

I sometimes wonder if they do it on purpose, like Meccano used to, just to test people's ingenuity.

[Cliffjumper]

The toys have definitely reached the point where a 1" three-colour diagram is adequate to show what's going on. The worst thing about Prime's is that they insist on showing the fiddliest bits with the robot facing though, which makes them indeterminable from everything... just showing the steps in question from the side would have sorted it.

The things are, to me, too damn expensive to chance without instructions for anything halfway complicated. What with the fact you can actually damage Automorph or Mech Alive mechanisms by leaping ahead and doing, and the wildly variable amounts of force required for some parts (while other parts are fragile) it's just not worth it just for the chance to gloat on the internet about how you didn't need to use the things. Of course, I tend to end up not using the things just because they're so badly done, but that's not the point...

[Clay]

So do you see what I mean about Prime being like MP Megatron - both modes are already determined, so it's the transformation that has to be laborious? And that, unlike Megatron, Prime comes off really well?

I know what you mean about the swords getting in the way of the panels on the shoulders. It's hard to pose the arms without the swords deployed. However, I think the rotating/flip out mechanism was probably a lot simpler than making them withdraw into a spring-loaded sheath.

As for the rest of the articulation, I dunno. For every joint that could be added, it'd be another to have to fit back into the truck properly. Some articulated figures would have been neat, though.

[Cliffjumper]

I'm back to loving him again at the moment, TBH. Thinking about it, I want something that looks just like Prime in RotF with the option of transforming him if I fancy it (a la SoC Ideon - it's great the way it splits into the individual mecha, but the robot's enough), and he looks good enough. The articulation is a bit of a pisser (he can't crouch!), but he does look ****ing sexy on the shelf. It's just a shame that they haven't gone that extra yard - I know I'm a broken record, but I've been rather spoilt by SoC, which is generally a case of "right, if we're doing this we might as well do it properly". It's an odd mix, though - I can't see kids going for the thing...

With the swords, I just wish they were removable (as in 'easily removable'; not had a look to see if bits can be unscrewed without destroying anything - even if they can be, it's hardly the point!).

I really like that they haven't cut many other corners, though. A dummy cab could have been crammed into the roof on the backpack, but they've done it properly. Digging Cullen (and the easy to remove or replace batteries that USE A TYPE I CAN BUY IN NORMAL SHOPS!!! WIN!!!!), though. The transformation one is fun and random, if a bit pointless, coming a couple of minutes into a five-minute transformation.

Glad I got him, in the final analysis. I'm pretty chuffed with all the Movie figures I've bought relative to what I paid for them (well, apart from the Legends I impulsively bought a month ago, but then that's my own ****ing fault).

[Pun-3X]

I would just recommend taking the forearms apart and getting the swords out of there. You can indeed do so without much fuss. Personally, I plan on working at the posts--cutting them down and making something I can attach to Prime's arms like accessories.

But seriously, without the swords getting in the way, life with ROTF Prime is much easier.