Phil's Transformer Reviews

Thursday, 16 June 2011

Dark of the Moon Cyberverse Commander Powerglide

When pictures emerged from the 2011 toyfair one of the things that drew the most attention was Cyberverse Commander Powerglide. It appears some people weren't 100% happy with Universe Ultra Powerglide. I'll give you that the initial version was the wrong colour but it's been repainted twice (once each in Japan and the USA) in the correct colours. People moaned it was too large (they moaned that Universe Legends Warpath and Cosmos were too small) and wanted a new version at deluxes size. I'll bet they'll be upset that this one's too small as well! I thought it a bit odd that the Movie line was going for an obvious G1 reference so early on, it's almost as if there wasn't enough confidence in the Movie product. As it turns out this seems to be what people want: he sold out within hours of being advertised at Big Bad Toy Store and on the only two occasions I've seen Cyberverse Wave 2 on the shelves the Powerglides (1 per case of 6) were gone. (OK, I found some in sealed crates in an overhead rack in Swindon's Tescos)

Cyberverse Powerglide has got the look of Minibot Powerglide down to a tee: Purpley red all over with grey arms, upper legs & weapons. He's got bending ankles, ball jointed knees & hips, turning inner shoulders & ball jointed outer shoulders, bending elbows & wrists that bend in. He comes with two hand weapons formed from the vehicle's missiles. One is a pair of missiles connected by a 3mm bar to a third missile, the other is a cluster of four missiles folded together and held by a peg. If I have one complaint about the robot it concerns the shoulders & the body: The shoulders are attached to panels that peg on to the body but the peg connection isn't the strongest and they can easily come off.

Transformation: Fold the feet into the front of the legs. Fold the head down into the chest bringing the nosecone into place with it. Fold the waist down and back. Unpeg the shoulders & fold them down so the panels stick out to the sides. Rotate each shoulder panel by 180 degrees. Fold the shoulder panels down & bring them together. Fold the hands into the forearms. Swing the arms down so they point forward along the plane's body. Fold the arms up and swing the wings round & peg them onto the body of the jet. Bend the legs at the knee & hip and bring them forward onto the back of the jet body to form the engines. Fold both missile units out and attach to the slots under the wing tips, with the peg fitting into a hole in the folded up arms.

Vehicle mode is a pretty good A-10 Thunderbolt which is what it should be. Purpley red all over save for the arms, stored under the wings, and the missiles. There's some lovely detail on the toy including a chin gun, moulded cannons under the wings and three sets of fold down landing gear. The plane isn't without it's problems: it's back heavy and tends to tip backwards if left on it's landing gear and the wings don't attack that securely to the body.

Not a bad Powerglide at all, and probably the best of the first six Cyberverse commanders.

Dark of the Moon Cyberverse Commander Green A-10

Powerglide has a repaint scheduled. The purple/red is swapped for green and the grey of the waist & shoulder panel hinges becomes bronzey orange. I don't know it's name, who it's for or when it's due - all we have is that picture from Botcon.

Sunday, 29 May 2011

Dark of the Moon Cyberverse Commander & Action Set Optimus Prime

Cyberverse Commander Optimus Prime

Cyberverse takes the two smallest sizes of Transformers, the Legends and Scouts, and renames them as Legion & Commander using them nearly exclusively as smaller versions of larger toys. The Deluxe toys become Legions, the larger toys become commanders. Over the entire line the hands are molded with 3mm c-clips to use with a new 3mm standard of weapons handle.

Cyberverse Optimus Prime comes in robot mode but as per usual we'll start with the vehicle mode. As per usual with Movie Primes, he's a long nosed truck, mainly red but with a blue cab and flame details. The truck feels elongated overall, with the cab in particular feeling too long. The flatbed at the back of the cab has a 3mm bar mounted at about the point where the trailer hitch would be: the bar is set so it runs front to back. There's another longer bar running along the back of the cab. Either can be used to attack weapons with c-clips, but the one of the flatbed is used here with the jet pack supplied with him which gives the truck cab wings and engines like a jet plane. I'm told this comes from the films but I think it looks very, very silly. On the top of the pack are a pair of 3mm holes which can be used to mount Optimus' twin guns on to give him some firepower in vehicle mode.

Transformation: Pull the nose of the truck forward. Fold the sides of the rear of the truck cab out and forward till they're flush against the sides of the front of the cab. Fold the front of the vehicle down to form the legs, rotate at the waist 180 degrees and peg in under the cab. Push the waist forward. Fold the top of the rear of the cab down revealing the head. Separate the flatbed down the middle and fold up onto the robot's back. Unfold the arms.

Prime's robot mode is nearly the same height as my RTS Windcharger but considerably less bulky: his shoulders come out as far as Windcharger's chest does. The height is achieved using an extension to the legs: I think this makes him look too tall and the robot works better with the extension retracted. The blue in robotmode is confined to the chest, with the red on the lower parts of the limbs and black/painted silver upper limb pieces. His articulation included ball jointed shoulders & hips plus bending elbows & ankles. In theory his waist turns on a ball joint, but the stability of the toy relies on the waist being pegged in properly when it faces front. Unfortunately it's a little hard at times to get the small connector into the slightly smaller hole!

His hands in this mode are 3mm c-clips allowing him to hold his weapons or hold onto 3mm bars on the other toys. I understand why the Scouts in Energon all had 5mm peg hole hands but a peg hole that size then dictates the size of the arm and thus the hand. I've liked many of the Scout class toys but always felt the Basic class used previously and slightly smaller was better. The Commanders feel more like a return to that scale. Prime's jet pack, using a different c-clip, attaches to the trailer hitch 3mm bar and looks far better in robot mode. Once again the weapons can be mounted on the backpack. With the jet pack removed you can still mount the guns on him courtesy of a 3mm hole on each side of his back, formed from the underside of the flatbed whose halves don't quite mesh together in this mode due to the trailer hitch sticking out of his bottom.

Overall: I'm not 100% keen on the aesthetic of Movie Primes. The vehicle mode looks too long and I don't like the way the flatbed halves don't mesh together. The main thing wrong with this toy is the price: It's not a £9 toy. £7 maybe. If you want an Optimus Prime try and skip this one: the action set version looks much better value for money.

Optimus Prime is a "get used to it" toy. It was sold as a preview toy in the USA with a pair of 3D glasses, is packed 3 per case of 6 in the first wave of Cyberverse Commanders, returns in the second wave, is repainted with new weapons in the third wave *and* is included as a minor repaint with a new transforming trailer piece in one of the second wave Cyberverse Action Sets.

Cyberverse Action Set Optimus Prime

Now when you think Optimus Prime, you think truck: a cab towing a trailer. Yet in recent years trailer less Prime cabs have become more and more common. Combat Hero Optimus Prime doesn't have one but he has got a massive cannon on his flatbed. It's not until 2002's Armada Supercon that the floodgates really open following which Energon 2-Pack, Universe Spychanger, Masterpiece, Robotmasters, both Classics Voyager & deluxe and Reveal the Shield deluxe come with no trailer. In addition no version of Movie or Animated Optimus has ever had a trailer till now. So when it was announced that in Dark of the Moon Prime would have a trailer many people were pleased.

The Cyberverse Action Set takes the Cyberverse Commander Optimus Prime as it's base. Prime looses the jetpack and the pair of guns for this release, and has his deco simplified with no flames and bright plastic colours. But essentially it's the same commander toy so your decision on whether to buy the Commander or not hinges on how much you like the accessories and whether you want to help clear the shelves of a substantially overpacked toy.

The new trailer is mainly silver with pale blue edges and front. A wheel array is under the rear but only one of the two wheel pairs turn. Connection is via a c-clip under the front of the trailer, but the C-clip is fixed in place, unlike those seen on many modern weapons, so the trailer is fixed in it's orientation to the cab. Fixing this would have been simple but I can see that may have made things more difficult later. On the front of the trailer is a 3mm bar for added on weapons. There's a long clip and a bar on the rear of the trailer which will let him just about tow Bumblebee's APC. On the roof is a 5mm peg hole for Mechtech and other weapons and a 5mm peg. Sadly the peg isn't a Minicon port, that would have been nice. Most of the roof of the trailer will pull away (eventually) allowing you to see that there's a missile launcher and missile on the underside which can then be pegged into the 5mm peg hole which has remained in the remaining roof pieces.

The Trailers two alternate modes are far better defined than Bumblebee's APC's base modes were. Transformation starts with removing the roof/missile launcher and un-hitching the trailer. Separate the middle of the trailer and fold down to the sides. Unpeg the grey arms and swing the sides of the trailer out to the sides. Fold the panel the arms are connected down under the trailer so they point down. Fold the side panels of the truck out to the sides and back do they point away and forward from the front of the trailer and their fronts slot into the front of the trailed. Fold the wheels out from under the back of the trailer to form a ramp leading down from the now raised platform. Peg the missile launcher into the 5mm peg hole.

The Base mode you get is a ramp (yeah!) with a V shaped section of Wall sticking out behind it. You'll need to swing the cannon out to the sides to get some higher vehicles onto the platform and only shorter ones will fit due to the space at the rear of the platform being taken up by the support for the missile launcher. The platform deck has 4 3mm halls for Cyberverse weapons.

The second alternate mode for the trailer is a power up for the Cyberverse Commander Prime. Fold the ramp so it points down at an angle of 90 degrees from the ramp. Unhook the trailer sides. Remove the missile launcher and fold it's support back. Raise the front of the trailer up. Stand on the wheel assembly. Clip the trailer hitch on Prime's back into the c-clip on the transformer trailer. Slide each foot into the clips on the wheel base. Fold the arms forward and rotate the black pieces so the 5mm holes are on top. Slide Prime's hands over the handles then turn the trailer sides down so that the Autobot Symbol faces the right way up.

Prime's Assault Vehicle Mode isn't a proper robot formed from a combined cab and trailer like Ultra Magnus or Powermaster Optimus Prime, more like a person in a mech suit like the Power Loader in Aliens. Both sets of arms move well together which is better than on some similar toys I've seen where as soon as the figure is holding on it immobilises both sets of arms. The right arm ends in a claw while the left has a double barrelled cannon. There's a 5mm peg hole on the top of each and another peg hole on each "foot". There's a 3mm bar on each shoulder and another one on the top of the 3 barrelled launcher above the robot's head.

Just adding a trailer to Prime would be enough to please some people, but to get a base and an OK power up out of it as well is a good effort. I don't feet either mode is quite perfect: the base isn't as good as Bumblebee's APC Base and there are better power ups to robot out there. But still for the size it's a nice toy and there's a feeling that the more Cyberverse pieces you have that you can connect together, the better.

Saturday, 28 May 2011

Dark of the Moon Cyberverse Action Set Bumblebee

I have not gone out of my way to own Movie Legends Bumblebee's but have ended up with two different moulds in two packs which I've bought for other toys. Movie 1 Legends Bumblebee with Battle Damage came with the superb Scorponok while ROTF NEST Bumblebee came with Shadow Striker aka EVIL Universe Wheelie. Truth be told I've not exactly bought this set for the Cyberverse Legion Bumblebee either. A new mold, Bumblebee's third movie legends version, it looks like the Camero used in the film.

Transformation is easy: the doors and front wheels pull out to form arms, the bonnet folds forward to become the chest, the legs unfold and the feet fold down.

As you mignt be able to tell from that, his articulation has had a major upgrade from the ROTF model with bending ankles & knees, ball jointed hips & outer shoulders plus inner shoulders that swing back. His left hand has a c-clip shape moulded into it for him told hold Cyberverse weapons. He's presently stood in front of me touting Ironhide's combined blaster. Bumblebee comes with a V shaped jetpack that clips round his back. Sadly he can't wear it in car mode.

But it's not the figure you want me to talk about is it?

Bumblebee comes with what's labelled as an Mobile Battle Bunker. Once you transform it into vehicle mode, it's a green APC towing a grey trailer. There's space on the trailer and the roof for a Cyberverse vehicle: Ironhide's sitting on the back of mine with Barricade riding on the roof. On the front of the vehicle is a 3mm bar and matching clip: you could connect two of these nose to nose, have him towed by Optimus Prime's trailer or mount weapons on the front. Littered over the vehicle are a number of 3mm peg holes, three on each side and two on the top, for Cyberverse weapons to be plugged into. I've got Prime's Blasters plugged into my roof holes and still have room for Barricade. The instructions show Bumblebee's jet pack attached to the top of the vehicle but I can't find any way to properly attach it so have stored it under the trailer where it fits nicely. He comes with one weapon you can peg in to the holes: a missile. When not in use the missile is also stored under the trailer. If you get the balance right Bumblebee can just about hold it. The missile fits into a launcher formed by folding the upper car deck up & forward then swinging the car plates down 180 degrees. The launcher then sits over the front of the vehicle, and a 3mm bar is exposed on it's stem.

By folding out the missile launcher, then folding the ramp onto the back of the APC and facing the cannon backwards a mobile armoured missile platform can be formed.

For his official base mode one remove any added and stored weapons from the APC mode. Turn the vehicle onto it's roof, then turn the trailer so the top faces up. Fold the trailer down to form a ramp. Split the cab of the APC in two down the middle and fold to the sides. Raise the towers out of the APC cab halves.

Basically it's a ramp. We like ramps. And as a bonus it's a ramp with a launcher! At the top of the ramp is a platform and at the back of the platform is a little black lever that when pressed raises the platform catapulting any vehicle on it down the ramp. The towers each have a 5mm peg hole in the top of them allowing additional larger Mechtech weapons to be mounted there. The 3mm bar and c-clip connector have ended up on either side of the base mode allowing it to be attached to any of the other Cyberverse bases. However due to the way the back of the base is made from the opened out APC cab it should be possible to connect a pair of these bases back to back to form a larger structure. If I've one complaint about the base mode then it concerns the towers: They're obviously 6 barrelled Gattling Guns and my inclination is to fold either them forward or swing the cab halves forward so they point in that direction.

Base Mode 2 is formed by taking Base Mode 1 and folding the missile launcher out from underneath it, up the back of the base and pointing it forward over the ramp. Bumblebee or another Cyberverse figure can then stand behind the base and hold the missile launcher using the 3mm bar handles at the rear of the launcher.

This set is top stuff, especially when you get a few other Cyberverse sets to link it up to. Because the set includes a Legends/Legion size toy, the accompanying base is larger and more substantial than the bases that come with the Commander figures in the wave 2 Action Sets. If you're going to own the Cyberverse bases you need at least one of these to form part of it.

Saturday, 9 April 2011

UN-20 United Rumble & Frenzy and Reveal The Shield Demolition Rumble

Transformers United Rumble & Frenzy

Since the original Rumble and Frenzy are repaints of each other, the mold being a repurposed Microchange toy that was sold previously in both colour variants, we readily accept that you can do one as the repaint of the other. However I'm struggling to think of many other occasions that two toys made from the same mould were packed together. Build Typhoon and Build Cyclone are heavy remoulds of each other that featured in the Car Robots Build King boxset, and similarly there's two of each limb type in boxsets of the Superlink combiners (Bruticus, Buildron and Superion) and their later western repaints for Classics & Universe 2/Revenge of the Fallen. Robotmasters Skywarp and Thundercracker are packaged together, but are repaints of Starscream which was previously available.

Rumble and Frenzy come in robot mode so we'll start by transforming them into their vehicle mode. Remove the weapons. Fold each arm down to the sides. Fold the chest plate up past the head. Straighten the legs, peg them together and fold the waist up 90 degrees till it won't move any further forward. Fold the feet forward 90 degrees and then fold the heel spurs into the feet. Fold the legs up a further 90 degrees plugging the tabs in the feet into the slots on the underside of the folded back chest plate. Fold the pile drivers, under each arm, up on to the top of each shoulder. Swing the arm round 90 degrees at the bicep and retract the ends of the pile drivers. Fold each forearm and wrist in, pegging the underside of each hand together, drawing the arms in to form the sides of the tank and slipping a tab on the end of the combined hands into a tab under the back of the tank. Clip the guns into each side of the tank turret.

You usually associate Rumble & Frenzy with being tapes, but if they had to be a vehicle I suppose a tank is a good one allowing them to incorporate the weapons from robot mode and giving them a base reminiscent of the shape of the cassettes they used to be. The tank mode is a dual barrelled anti aircraft vehicle similar to those used for Energon Blight/Kickback. I've heard it suggested that they might be either a Japanese Type-87 self-propelled anti-aircraft gun or a Russian Zsu or 9K22 Tunguska

It's Transformers Tank Test Time!

Does the turret turn ? Yes a full 360 degrees plus the gun & grenade launcher unit on the front of the turret swings out to each side.

Do the guns elevate? Yes, courtesy of the ball joint that each C-clip is attached to, they both elevate independently.

100% pass!

Having the silver painted gun barrels attached by c-clips gives you the option of customising the tank's weaponry. From my stack of C-clip weapons I think (unsurprisingly) Darkmount(Straxus) has the best weapons to lend to these two but as ever Tomahawk's missile launchers work well while the Rumble/Frenzy guns look good attached to Tomahawk's wing tips. There's an additional 3mm bar behind the turret to add weapons onto plus each a bar on the side of the base of each gun barrel. The side gun barrels themselves can be used as 3mm bars albeit that any attached weapon will be a little loose and the same is true for the grenade launchers and small central gun barrel. There are a pair of genuine 3mm bars hidden under the back of the tank but these aren't wonderfully accessible. As ever the tracks are moulded stationary with movement provided by wheels embedded in the tracks. Colourwise this mode is mainly black for Rumble and dark blue for Frenzy with some red/light blue respectively and silver paint applied to the gun barrels and some panelling. A close examination of the tank reveals the familiar tape robot chest forming the back of the tank body.

Now we need to transform his back to a robot. Pull the hands out of the back of the tank and fold the tank treads out to the sides. Fold the legs & waist down. Fold the feet down and the heel spurs out. Fold the rear of the tank down over the robot's head to form the chest. Push the arms up at the shoulders - his right shoulder on my Rumble is difficult to lock into place, but my Frenzy is fine. Fold the tank treads sticking out the top of the arms back. Fold the tank treads sticking out the front of the arm out to the sides. Point the gun barrels on the back up.

The original Rumble & Frenzy have several distinguishing features: their small cube like heads, tape like chest, monochromatic colour scheme and weapons that can be mounted either on the back or arms. The new scout design includes all of these. The head is a mix of the original and the cartoon heads, which were quite similar to start with. The chest is a similar design too with the tape holes on each side and lines crossing the chest between them. As for the colours, the following are used on each toy, which are a pretty good match to the originals:

	United Rumble	United Frenzy
Upper Legs, Shoulders & Turret Base*	Red	Blue
Lower Limbs, Chest & Head*	Red	Blue
Tank Treads, Elbows & Waist	Black	Dark Blue

* The colours on these pieces are subtly different.
The RTS version bellow shows these are different sprues.

As transformed the gun barrels end up on the robot's back reminding you of the back mounted guns the original have. As we mentioned above the gun barrels are attached with C-clips so they can easily be removed and clipped onto the 3mm bars on the back of each arm's hand making them resemble the arm mounted weapons of the original tape robots. The bar on the back of the turret is now behind the robot's head so you can use that for mounting extra weapons.

Articulation is good: the foot bends in the middle, the ankle bends forward, knee, hip, neck & shoulder joints are all ball joints, there's a bicep swivel, the elbow bend as does the wrists. The waist bends in the middle as part of the transformation and that may or may not be of use to you here.

Rumble and Frenzy were, in the cartoon, known for turning their arms into pile drivers, an ability probably sourced from Rumble's tech spec where he can produce Earthquakes via a completely different means. However the pile driver gimmick, previously seen on Alternators Rumble, now makes it way onto both Rumble & Frenzy. A small amount of transformation is involved: fold the tank tread, hanging off the back of the shoulder, up onto the top of the shoulder. Straighten the arms and then swing each arm through 180 degrees do that the robot arm points up. Bend the elbow and the wrist on the robot arms so they're hidden behind what is now his shoulder. The pile drivers that are now hang down from the shoulders are functional: press the silver panel in the side of the arm to deploy the pile driver in a punching action.

I like this pair of toys: they're obviously who they're meant to be, they incorporate a gimmick, the figures aren't bad, the vehicles, while small, work well and there's good use of the C-Clip system. I was a little unsure at paying Japanese Voyager price for 2 scouts (£30 after postage and a narrow escape from a CUTA action) but that's looking like a very good buy: reported as being sold out on the day of release, I've seen the Rumble & Frenzy set, a mere two weeks later, going for TWICE that on eBay. Why? See Reveal The Shield Rumble bellow.

Frenzy & Rumble were released as UN-20 on Friday 24th March in Japan, along with Scourge, Wheeljack and "Generation 2" Optimus Prime.

Reveal The Shield Demolition Rumble

Rumble is Red, Frenzy is Blue. I don't think you can argue this from a toy point of view: look at the original Rumble & Frenzy and you'll see that's true. Frenzy's only subsequent toy releases are a reuse of the name as a purple G2 Gobot and a drone in the Bayverse movies. Rumble meanwhile reinforces the argument by being consistently Red (and black) as Alternators Rumble and Robot Heroes Rumble. The argument's sole weak point comes from the 1980s cartoon which, due to production errors, consistently colours Rumble as blue and Frenzy, when he appears, as red. Unfortunately since the Cartoon was watched by a lot of fans, especially in the USA, an incurable schism has emerged in Transformers fandom on this matter. As a UK fan brought up on the toys (where Rumble is Red) and comics (where Rumble is Red) who hardly ever saw the cartoon, I'm firmly on the "Rumble is Red" side of the argument.

Having seen that a United version of Rumble & Frenzy was to be released it was inevitable a Hasbro version would follow. And sure enough pictures of Demolition Rumble emerged showing a blue toy, and all but confirming that there's a cartoon fan working on the Hasbro toy range at the moment (see also: RTS Jazz's speakers & Generations Wheeljack's single shoulder missile). I'll repeat the table from above with a new column:

	United Rumble	United Frenzy	Reveal The Shield Demolition Rumble
Upper Legs, Shoulders & Turret Base	Red	Blue	Light Blue
Lower Limbs, Chest & Head	Red	Blue	Dark Blue/Purple
Tank Treads, Elbows & Waist	Black	Light Blue	Black

(Compare United Frenzy & RTS Demolition Rumble here and here)

In addition the guns, previously silver in Japan, are now painted gold. To me this further points towards the toy actually being Frenzy rather than Rumble. Frenzy was initially sold with Laserbeak in 1984 where both toys were packed with silver weapons, but in 1986 he was repacked with Ratbat where both toys had gold weapons. Rumble is not known to have a gold weapons variation.

All in all a bit of a mess on the naming front for Hasbro, although the toy looks a good Frenzy.

The plan was that Demolition Rumble was to ship in the second Reveal The Shield scout wave with Bodyblock, a repaint of Breacher & Downshift, a repaint of Hubcap, along with repacks of Windcharger & Chopsaw. Unfortunately the Reveal the Shield Scout line was cancelled in the USA before Wave 1, which introduced Windcharger, made it to mass retail. The cancellation seems to be down to Hasbro trying to squeeze too much new product in before the launch of the Dark of the Moon line in May. RTS Scout Wave 1 has shipped to the UK, leading to an unfamiliar situation with US fans trying to get UK fans to buy product for them instead of the other way round. RTS Scout Wave 2 hasn't been seen in the UK yet, in fact it's only appearance is in http://bbs.actoys.net/read.php?tid-573188.html>these photos taken in China from which we know carded samples exist. My advice, if you should see any of these, is to buy them on sight! So the lack of a Hasbro Rumble has sent the fans scurrying for the Takara one causing the price to rocket!

Saturday, 26 March 2011

PCC Waterlog & Undertow

Waterlog is the Minicon packed with Undertow, the Power Core commander speedboat.

Robot Mode:

Waterlog's robot mode is mainly clear green with a bronzey colour used for the arms and upper legs. Both colours of plastic are also used on Undertow. Connected to his back are a pair of wings which can be folded forward or back. Projecting up from the back are a pair of gun barrels. Put these two together and it looks like he's wearing a flight pack or, given the nature of this set, some form of aqua speeder. The water connection of the toy is emphasised by the diving mask and breathing apparatus that he's moulded as wearing. His Minicon socket is in his chest and there's a peg in the middle of his back. He's got ball jointed shoulders and bending hips.

Vehicle Weapons Mode:

From robot mode bend the legs back at the hips & the knees pegging the heel spurs into the base of the gun barrels. peg the port on chest onto a Minicon connector. Nice added gun emplacement, and as a bonus also serves as a vehicle mode producing something not dissimilar to Targetmaster Slugslinger.

Robot Weapons Mode:

From robot mode bend the knees right the way back then fold the legs forward at the hip till the bottom of the feet are along the line of his back. For taste, fold the wings up or down. Use the Minicon peg as a gun handle. Decent gun mode reminiscent of several dual barrelled Targetmasters. However the face is visible pointing upwards and the legs aren't secured. You're meant to plug the pegs on the side of the legs into the robot's hands but they just don't reach. A revolving waist, connected to the head, and holes for the heelspurs on the chest, as seen on Airlift, would have fixed both of these issues no problem.

Robot Armour Mode:

Vehicle Weapons mode, with the guns pointing down. Yes it means he has two..... things hanging down from the front of the chest but otherwise it's a decent piece of armour.

Overall:

Decent Minicon, but a little tweak using technology seen on another PCC Minicon would have made it so much better. I'm a little surprised that it's not been used for a United campaign Targetmaster yet.

At the time of writing Waterlog is expected to be the final Power Core Minicon.

Power Core Combiners Undertow

Undertow is a catamaran attack boat, mainly black, with a light blue grey engine and cabin structure, gold like plastic weapons and a clear green cockpit canopy. To each side of the boat is a moulded 4 barrelled chain gun. On the top of the engine is a single Minicon port that can be used to mount Waterlog, his partner, or any other Minicon.

Transformation: Fold back the panels on the rear of the outer sides of the hulls. Fold each hull out to the sides and fold back behind the boat. Fold the front of each hull back of the rear of each hull to form the robot's legs and fold down the feet. Fold the sides of the engine down to form the arms, swinging each chain gun forward 180 degrees. Fold the canopy down to form the chest plate.

In robot mode the grey/blue takes over as the primary colour with the black being confined to the legs. Nice head with a green dome covering the eyes and upper front of the head. Decent articulation: bending knees, hips that turn and fold to the sides, rotating head, ball jointed shoulders, bending upper elbows and ball jointed lower elbows. Fists are 5mm peg holes so no problem holding weapons mode here. Chain guns now swung out under the arms. A single minicon port is found on his chest. There's just something about this robot mode which isn't right. It's hard to explain but I think each leg looks like it should be on the other side! Just something about the lines and the details.

Transformation to torso mode: Pull the chest plate out, fold the shoulders forward and the power core connector blocks to the side. Pull the chest itself forward, then fold the head backwards into the robot's back folding the chest with it which locks onto what was the small robot's back. Bend the arm right back at each elbow, then swing the lower arm round the back of the upper arm. Fold up and place the 5mm fist hole over the shoulder post. Bend the legs out to the sides at the hips and then back down above the knees. Turn each lower leg round 180 degrees and fold down the Power Core Connector blocks from the legs. Unpeg the front of the legs and move it so it sits about 1cm further up the leg

Undertow's drone commander mode is dominated by the head - a gold painted old fashioned diver's helmet, similar to An Action Man Deep See Diver which was around when I was a child. The exposed panels on it are clear green plastic powered by a light pipe in the top of the head. Slung over his shoulders are the chain guns from vehicle mode. Unfortunately the rest of the toy is thin & skeletal, and this look isn't doing anything for me here. The shoulders turn as do the head and the hip while the knees bend.

Yeah it works as a toy. But I'm afraid that, apart from the combined robot mode head, there's little to excite me here. Sorry.

Saturday, 19 March 2011

Generation Warpath

Generations Warpath

Poor Warpath. He's not had much fortune with his re-imagined versions. First we get Movie Warpath, a repaint that you look at and thing "Why have they called that Warpath when Warpath's a tank?" until it hits you that the missile in the chest is kinda like Warpath's gun barrel. Then we get Universe Legends Warpath, a doubly cursed toy in that it was released in tinsy tiny numbers just before the second film came out (I can see two carded on eBay for £15 each. £15 for a Legend ? ? ? ?) and that a section of molding on the toy stops the turret from spinning meaning it's pointing backwards in robot mode. So when a new Generations version was announced we were all pleased.... until we realised that he'd be in the last wave of Generations toys before the 2011 movie came out and everyone's limited availability alert sounded again. I have one pre ordered. But when I spotted an eBay auction for one, a month ahead of release and at a reasonable price I jumped on it.

My first thought on seeing Warpath straight out of the box was "You're a bit small". The Tank mode has a footprint of 10.5cm x 8.5cm and is coloured a burgundy red, with a small amount of grey plastic and some silver highlights, especially on the treads.

It's time for the Transformers Tank Test!

Does the turret turn? Yes, a full 360 degrees and I didn't even have to saw anything off this time.

Does the barrel elevate? Yes!

100% pass for Generations Warpath.

I've seen Warpath described as an H tank, which I guess means the treads on either side and not much in the middle. That's a tad unfair. Yes the body of the tank begins 1cm further back than the front of the treads, but from there it stretches all the rest of the way back. Each side of the vehicle is actually formed from two treads, each with a wheel embedded in the underside and a small gap between the font and the back tread, very similar to the look employed for Universe Legends Warpath except that the slope forward (assuming you corrected your Legends version) is less pronounced on the Generations version. The front treads are rock solid in relation to the rest of the toy, but the back ones can be pushed down on if you pick the toy up. There's a tab on each that fits into a slot in the body and the slot has no restraint along the bottom of it. Each rear tread has a screw hole on the top near the front. I'd hoped these would be 5mm holes so I could plug some of my cache of 5mm peg weapons into the tank but alas it's not. They are however 4mm holes which although less used than the larger diameter does allow you to plug in the guns for Topspin, Twin Twist, Hot Rod, Classics Rodimus and thus Fansproject Sidearm and Targetroid Hot Flame.

The hatch on the turret opens revealing the robot's face within the turret. Yes you could raise the head up, turn it round and push it back in so the rear of the head is facing up but it's a tight, tight fit going in that way round and you'll be looking for a screwdriver to lever it out again. The turret has two additional weapons attached to it: To your left (from the front) is a dark grey missile launcher which fires a single burgundy missile, most of which sticks out the back of the launcher. To your right is a four barrelled grenade launcher array. Both weapons can be folded out to the sides or inwards closer to the turret. It a shame that these are attached weapons: a c-clip would have allowed the same motion and made them removable so they could be used on other toys or clipped onto the 3mm bars that Warpath has, two on each side of the vehicle, mounted on top of each tread portion.

Transformation: Pull back on the turret rotating it back 180 degrees so it's upside down and pointing out the back of the toy having brought much of the top of the middle of the tank with it. Fold both parts of what was in front of the turret forwards and then bring the turret back forward, using the joint in the middle of the robot's back, not the one on the waist that you used before. For each forward tread, pull it's base slightly out to the side, pulling it off it's tab. Fold the back of the tread forward bringing them so the base of the tread faces out the front of the tank. Separate the front of the tank in two to form them legs. Rotate each leg in 90 degrees at the thigh, then fold the tank tread foot back locking on to the end of the leg. Fold the rear treads down 90 degrees. Look at the top of each tread, now on the back of the toy, and open the door you find there, under the 3mm bar, out to the side. Fold the tank tread forward 180 degrees to form the lower arm. Fold the fists out. Close the arm doors. Fold the turret weapons up towards the body so they're not restricting the arms. Open the turret hatch and fold the nose up. Push the gun barrel back into the turret.

Warpath's robot mode is 13cm high by 8.5cm wide, the same as the vehicle mode. The robot retains the "tank treads as feet" look from original Warpath, but now makes them separate feet with fully articulated legs. The upper body formed from the turret and head out for the turret hatch are also from the older toy and while the arms look like they're a deviation from the original design with the added articulation, you'll find that the original's arms are also formed from the rear portion of the tank treads with the actual tread as the underside of the arms like here.

Articulation isn't bad: the feet tilt a little backwards and forwards, the knees bend, there's a thigh swivel and ball jointed hips. No waist but the head turns although it's a little hard to get a decent grip on it due to the turret hatch raised behind the head. The shoulders turn and swing out to sides, there's a low bicep swivel and a bending elbow that will bend a full 90 degrees but moves very stiffly for the last 20 or so of them. His hands are closed fists with 5mm peg holes - RESULT! I see you RTS Optimus Prime and your stress marked open hands that won't properly grip half my weapons. A 3mm bar has ended up over the front of each lower leg and the top of each wrist allowing the robot mode to be tooled up too. When the arms are raised there's a curious gap at the top of the wrists. This does allow you to place weapons inside the forearm, like Generations Wheeljack's Wrenches/Guns or RTS Tracks' missiles, and have them protrude from the front of the wrist above the hand. The 4mm screw holes have ended up on the back of shoulder so you can use that to store weapons on or mount shoulder cannons in this mode.

For a bit of fun you can get a different leg transformation out of the toy: Detach the foot from the leg and fold the front of the leg in. Rotate each leg out to the sides 90 degrees at the waist and peg together. Yes you loose all the leg articulation but the tank treads out to the sides of the feet look quite interesting.

When it comes down to it, Generations Warpath reminds me of Universe Legends Warpath, but upscaled. Yes there's some tweaks in the transformation here and there with the feet and the arms but essentially these two are the same toy at a different scale with the barrel retreating into the turret, rear treads becoming the arms and front treads & tank body becoming the legs. That's no bad thing as Legends Warpath is my probably favourite toy of that size and the changes made to the transformation are nice little tweaks that take advantage of the larger size to get more articulation for the robot.

Top toy, love him to bits.

Warpath is due to be released in the USA in late March/early April 2011 in a Generations case which probably won't be available for long due to the Dark of the Moon toys hitting in May. He is not scheduled to be released in the UK, and has no Japanese release scheduled due to United ending in March. If you want one of these, don't hesitate: buy one as soon as you're able to as my feeling is availability will be limited. Yes Hasbro have said at Toyfair that Generations will continue through 2011 but at this moment in time there's not much sign of that happening.

Future Repaints

Warpath's Instructions show an alternate head sculpt which looks a lot like Headmaster Hardhead so I think a green version of this is on the horizon somewhere.

Tuesday, 15 March 2011

Generations Wheeljack

Now 1984 Wheeljack & Tracks aren't two toys I'd normally link, except in the sense of "Wheeljack and Tracks are two Generation 1 Transformer toys with no repaints" and even that is a little suspect given the red European Tracks variant. But there we go: Tracks is repainted as Wheeljack (or possibly the reverse: Universe Sideswipe was produced before but released after Universe Sunstreaker).

Looking at the pictures we have for pre-orders we know this much: Wheeljack is Tracks, but moulded in white with a new head and the legs turned the other way round. The front of the car - heel spurs on Tracks, now the feet - are remoulded, as are the missiles which become tools for Wheeljack to hold while the gun becomes Wheeljack's shoulder cannon, yet more evidence of the cartoon bias shown this year: The original Wheeljack toy has two. I'll just have to steel the gun from Tracks for the other one, it looks rubbish there anyway. For more cartoon bias see also: Speakers on Jazz and the blue Rumble scout toy amongst others.

I'll come back and have another look at Wheeljack when I have him in hand.

Which I now do. The deco on the car mode is fabulous, with Track's blue being swapped for the whitest plastic I've seen on a Transformers toy for many a year with green & red stripes very similar to the Alitalia racing colours seen on the original Wheeljack. The front of the car is considerably longer gaining a narrow projecting edge at the bottom which extends about 7-8 mm in front of the car. The rear of the car now features a spoiler, and if you go back to Track's you'll find a rounded rectangle panel occupying the spot on the rear of the car where the spoiler now sits, secured by a pin that passes through it from the back of the car.

Transformation to robot mode is *nearly* identical except for the waist doesn't get turned. The front of the car become the feet, rather than the heel spurs and the former rather flat feet are now the heel spurs with the front wheels, now attached to the sides of Wheeljack's ankles, folded down beside them.

The most prominent remoulded feature of the robot mode is the head. We get a spot on likeness of Wheeljack's cartoon appearance featuring lightpiped eyes and ears. The fold out wing tips are remolded to resemble Wheeljack's wings. These are now painted silver as is the inside of the door panel serving as a wing giving the illusion of a longer, silver wing piece. Track's gun now becomes Wheeljack's single shoulder cannon and because it doesn't suit Tracks I've stolen his gun to act as Wheeljack's second cannon :-). Track's missiles are completely remoulded with just the C-clip remaining. We now get a silver barrelled handle of 5mm width allowing Wheeljack to hold them as a wrench. However each wrench now feature not one but two 3mm bars: one on the side of the shaft and one on the top next the c-clip but at right angles to it. If the opening on the clip had been in the same orientation as the bar on the end you could have combined them together as a staff. As it is I think they are meant to be used as weapons: There's some indentations on the c-clip end of the wrench making me think that perhaps they're meant to also serve as gun barrels. Wheeljack can store the wrenches when he's not using them: there's a 3mm bar located to the outside of each knee allowing them to sit inside the leg panels or be positioned pointing over the side of the knee as a gun barrel. Wheeljack's an inventor, I can see him trying out knee mounted guns. Turning Wheeljack round you'll see that the panels making up Track's leg fronts are completely gone replaced with a much simpler and plain design that allows the knees to bend in that direction where they were previously locked off by Track's knee pads. They no longer bend the other way thanks to a remoulded slider on the lower leg which also doesn't come up so far making Wheeljack's height a little short than Tracks. Most of the exposed white pieces remain the same colour but the joints that connect the wheels to the shoulders and the wings to the body are now a bright green plastic. I don't know if some minor remoulding has taken place or if it's just that the tolerances are out but I can no longer fold the wheels onto the front of Wheeljack's shoulders like I could with Tracks.

Top, top repaint/remould. I'm putting this as an early entry for toy of the year. It just works far better as Wheeljack than Tracks. That then makes me think is Wheeljack actually the original and Tracks the repaint/remould. I'm forced to conclude that Wheeljack must have come first. The mold suits both his modes better. The missile gun is more Wheeljack than Tracks. The odd shaped ankle with the bar out the side serves a function on Wheeljack but not Tracks. The Tracks feet work better as heel spurs. Yup, as far as I can see Wheeljack is the original.

Wheeljack is a Wave 7 Transformers Generations toy, packed with Thundercracker as well as Kup & Scourge which are carried over from the previous wave. He's due to be carried over into the next Generations wave which introduces Warpath. He is scheduled to be released in Japan at the end of March as Transformers United toy UN-22 alongside the Rumble & Frenzy 2-pack, Scourge & Generation 2 Optimus Prime.