The G1 figure review thread

The originals... ok, not exactly, but the original named "The TransFormers" anyway. Take THAT, Diaclone!
Generation 1, Generation 2 - Removable fists? Check. Unlicensed vehicle modes? Check. Kickass tape deck robot with transforming cassette minions? DOUBLE CHECK!!!
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Onslaught Six
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Re: The G1 figure review thread

Post by Onslaught Six »

And where the hell 'else' would reissue reviews go?
BWprowl wrote:The internet having this many different words to describe nerdy folks is akin to the whole eskimos/ice situation, I would presume.
People spend so much time worrying about whether a figure is "mint" or not that they never stop to consider other flavours.
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Re: The G1 figure review thread

Post by Shockwave »

andersonh1 wrote:Since I just got Universe Onslaught, I dug the original out for comparison and review as well.

G1 Combaticon Leader Onslaught

Originally, Onslaught was the head of the Combaticon sub unit, one of the Decepticon combiner or gestalts. Like just about all of the G1 combiners, the group consisted of four 'limbs' and a larger central figure, which is Onslaught's place in the Combaticons.

Vehicle mode: A very long flatbed truck, with ten wheels, a cab in the front, and what appears to be an anti-aircraft gun mounted on the top. The gun can elevate slightly, but does not rotate. It's removable, and is fastened to the back of the truck via two small pegs. All ten wheels roll, none are fake molded wheels just for appearance. The overall color is a rich dark almost navy blue. The secondary color on the AA gun and in various sticker details is a dark olive green. There is a black camoflage pattern on the truck cab. Both doors have a Decepticon insignia, and the heat-sensitive rubsign is on the cab behind the driver's door.

Transformation: nothing too complicated. The cab splits in the middle and folds to either side to become the arms, while the fists slide out. The head is revealed when this is done. The rear quarter of the truck bed folds onto the middle section, and that section splits and pulls out to form the legs. A small blue 'shield' piece plugs into the upper chest. Stand him up and you're done.

Robot Mode: Still dark blue and olive green, with a silver midsection and black head and hands. The twin cannon barrels stick up from his back. Various stickers provide some detail, though on my original they're all worn. The overall visual effect is a dark bot with no real bright contrasting colors, though the midsection and red optic visor probably stand out the most.

Articulation is limited. The head rotates, and the legs can swing out to the sides, and bend sideways at the knees due to the transformation joints needed for Bruticus. The arms rotate at the shoulder and have nearly 180 degrees of up and down motion, since the fold straight up over the head to form the truck cab, and fold down to the sides to form the arms. Probably middle of the road, or slightly above average articulation for a G1 figure.

I didn't include anything about Bruticus in this review, but as part of a combiner, Onslaught has extra play value beyond his use as an individual figure.

Overall: A sedate and effective color scheme, simple but effective transformation and two good modes add up to a strong G1 figure. It's clearly lacking in detail and articulation by today's standards, but that's the case for a good many older figures. Still a worthwhile addition to anyone's collection.
The original toy catalog shows a third "battle station" mode that connects to Trypticon.
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Re: The G1 figure review thread

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All right, well I rounded out my set of '84 figs at Botcon so I oughta be able to help this thread out a bit. Ok, here goes:

I'll start with the Decepticons and go from there and if you're gonna start there, you gotta start at the top: Megatron.

I think we all know at this point what Megs looks like (Walther P38, shiny robot), so I'll focus more on the overall. The chrome just about everywhere always appealed to me, probably because I like shiny objects. But the chrome and black and red are three colors that really just look fantastic together. The gun site on his arm becoming his fusion cannon easily marks him as the guy with the massive weapon that you don't want to mess with. I mean how else would he lead, right? The stock, scope and silence bits have several points where they connect together that allows them to be reconfigured into several different transformations. It can be it's own separate cannon like a mounted emplacement, or attatched to the back of Megs himself so that he's looking through his own site. On the US version the "bullet" launcher mechanism was left intact, but no bullets included. In all of the Japanese versions the bullets are present. Loading them can be tricky sometimes, but the fired and it's very amusing. They do not have a lot of power to them, I wasn't even able to knock over a Darth Maul 3 3/4inch figure with it at point blank range. Overall, I really liked this figure. It was a good toy with a lot of play value and powerful character to boot. Instant win all around.
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Re: The G1 figure review thread

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What the heck? I'm on a roll so I'll keep going. This one will review the seekers: Starscream, Skywarp, Thundercracker (I'm just doing the '84 set right now and I'll individually review the coneheads later as they have asthetics unique to each character). The original three Decepticon jets, known today as "seekers" were some of my favorites as kid. Jets that turn into robots. It's a concept that was nothing short of awesome unto itself, but growing up an Air Force brat, it was always fun to imagine the planes I saw every day on the base turning into these guys. There are a lot of parts that come off and reattatch for the transformation, but that never bothered me. The main downside of that is that it makes it easy to lose some of the smaller parts. There's also the problem that, with there being so many parts that they might not be 100% compatible depending on which version you have. Example is the Encore Starscream who comes with US reissue launchers, but Japanese reissue missiles. The result are launchers with holes that are too big for the missiles. They still stay in, but they bow out to the sides slightly. Of the three jets, Skywarp's colors are my favorite. The chrome/silver, lavender and black all really contrast and accent each other nicely. Starscream was my second favorite, the red, white and blue is the closest of the three to a real F-15 Strike Eagle and in some bizarre way kind of patriotic. Thundercracker was my least favorite of the three color schemes, but that doesn't mean I didn't like him. He also has red, white and blue, but also with some black. Still looks nice. Of the three characters, his was probably my favorite. His tech specs listed him as "not entirely convinced of the Decepticon cause and only follows Megatron out of fear." I always thought it would be interesting to see that fleshed out somewhere. I finally got that last week when I bought IDW's All Hail Megatron number 12. Go figure. Anyways, they're all three fun toys so go buy them. I dare you.
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Re: The G1 figure review thread

Post by andersonh1 »

I completed my collection of 84 bots a few years ago, though it's a mix of originals and reissues. What a great set of figures, despite the brickiness of some... they made me a fan for life.
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Re: The G1 figure review thread

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andersonh1 wrote:I completed my collection of 84 bots a few years ago, though it's a mix of originals and reissues. What a great set of figures, despite the brickiness of some... they made me a fan for life.
Reissues really do make it a lot easier to comlete the '84 set without totally breaking the bank. At least 75% of my Decepticons were reissues, including Megatron, Starscream, Soundwave, Ravage, Laserbeak and half of buzzsaw. The rest were originals, I actually found a sealed '84 released (ie: no rubsign) Thundercracker for $200. I opened him, put the stickers on and displayed him. But yeah, reissues, good way to complete the set.
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Re: The G1 figure review thread

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More reviewocity!

Soundwave: (and tapes): Soundwave, to me, was one of the coolest toys EVER! It looked just like my parent's walkman (well not just like, but... ah hell, you get the point) and transformed to a robot. And it came with Buzzsaw who was a tape that also transformed and fit into the tape deck compartment. Then there were other tapes that transformed too. And not just into human looking robots, but animals too. Ravage was one of the coolest, being a black panther with silver legs and chrome missiles on the hind faunches. An all around awesome look, although the altmode didn't allow the panther mode to stand all that well sometimes. Buzzsaw and Laserbeak turned into condors with Buzzsaw being gold and Laserbeak being red. They have jet engines on their backs with lasers point to the front on either side of the head. This form allowed for it to be perched on Soundwave's arm. Rumble and Frenzy were the two most human looking robots of the '84 cassetticons and I liked their overall look. Their transform didn't make them the most stable in robot mode (they lean to the back slightly and have winged rocket guns on their backs that make them lean further). They tend to fall backwards at the drop of a hat. But still, they're not bad for their size and still a lot of fun. The whole concept of these six toys just blew my mind. It was awesome and had a lot of play value and remains to this day some of my favorite G1 toys. And the characters were awesome too.

Optimus Prime: A big red truck that turns into a robot. Trailer transforms into the base. And it has an additional little roller thing. That's a lot of awesome to cram into one toy. A little bit of parts-forming with the fists and gun, but not as bad as the Decepticon jets. The cab forms the main robot and the character's red and blue chassis is at this point iconic (Iaconic?). Chest compartment opens up and depending on which version of this you have, might come with a Matrix of Leadership that fist there. I have the 2002 New Year's edition which comes with said matrix. Trailer has a lot of play value, there's a missile launcher, two side stations on either side of the platform for the launcher and a repair arm. Then there's a little car in there that acts as a scout. Which also launches! There's also a gas pump, hose and nozzle so that Prime can refuel the rest of the other Autobots. This is easily the biggest toy of the '84 Autobots and it's easy to see why this one was chosen to function as the leader of the heroic Autobots.
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Re: The G1 figure review thread

Post by andersonh1 »

Shockwave wrote:
andersonh1 wrote:I completed my collection of 84 bots a few years ago, though it's a mix of originals and reissues. What a great set of figures, despite the brickiness of some... they made me a fan for life.
Reissues really do make it a lot easier to comlete the '84 set without totally breaking the bank. At least 75% of my Decepticons were reissues, including Megatron, Starscream, Soundwave, Ravage, Laserbeak and half of buzzsaw. The rest were originals, I actually found a sealed '84 released (ie: no rubsign) Thundercracker for $200. I opened him, put the stickers on and displayed him. But yeah, reissues, good way to complete the set.
The nice thing for me was that reissues began right about the time I took up collecting G1 again. I think it was the 2001 Botcon where I first encountered TFC Jazz and Prowl, and I picked up my first G1 Prowl. I remember being delighted with the find, and also surprised by how small the figure was. It's still one of my favorites.
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Re: The G1 figure review thread

Post by andersonh1 »

Shockwave wrote:More reviewocity!

Soundwave: (and tapes): Soundwave, to me, was one of the coolest toys EVER! It looked just like my parent's walkman (well not just like, but... ah hell, you get the point) and transformed to a robot. And it came with Buzzsaw who was a tape that also transformed and fit into the tape deck compartment. Then there were other tapes that transformed too. And not just into human looking robots, but animals too. Ravage was one of the coolest, being a black panther with silver legs and chrome missiles on the hind faunches. An all around awesome look, although the altmode didn't allow the panther mode to stand all that well sometimes. Buzzsaw and Laserbeak turned into condors with Buzzsaw being gold and Laserbeak being red. They have jet engines on their backs with lasers point to the front on either side of the head. This form allowed for it to be perched on Soundwave's arm. Rumble and Frenzy were the two most human looking robots of the '84 cassetticons and I liked their overall look. Their transform didn't make them the most stable in robot mode (they lean to the back slightly and have winged rocket guns on their backs that make them lean further). They tend to fall backwards at the drop of a hat. But still, they're not bad for their size and still a lot of fun. The whole concept of these six toys just blew my mind. It was awesome and had a lot of play value and remains to this day some of my favorite G1 toys. And the characters were awesome too.

Optimus Prime: A big red truck that turns into a robot. Trailer transforms into the base. And it has an additional little roller thing. That's a lot of awesome to cram into one toy. A little bit of parts-forming with the fists and gun, but not as bad as the Decepticon jets. The cab forms the main robot and the character's red and blue chassis is at this point iconic (Iaconic?). Chest compartment opens up and depending on which version of this you have, might come with a Matrix of Leadership that fist there. I have the 2002 New Year's edition which comes with said matrix. Trailer has a lot of play value, there's a missile launcher, two side stations on either side of the platform for the launcher and a repair arm. Then there's a little car in there that acts as a scout. Which also launches! There's also a gas pump, hose and nozzle so that Prime can refuel the rest of the other Autobots. This is easily the biggest toy of the '84 Autobots and it's easy to see why this one was chosen to function as the leader of the heroic Autobots.
I've got the TFC reissue Soundwave, so it's new and minty. My G1 Prime is a survivor from my childhood so it's not in the best of shape. The shoulder stickers have been replaced, and the shoulders themselves are so worn that the arms won't stay raised. The smokestacks both broke off at some point and had to be glued back on and the chrome has worn away. The trailer is still almost like new, which means of course that it got a lot less play than the figure itself.
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Re: The G1 figure review thread

Post by Onslaught Six »

You can fix Prime's shoulders. Unscrew them and bend the metal pins back, that'll help. I forget what else I did to mine, but when I bought him, the arms were floppy as hell, but now they're at least stable.
BWprowl wrote:The internet having this many different words to describe nerdy folks is akin to the whole eskimos/ice situation, I would presume.
People spend so much time worrying about whether a figure is "mint" or not that they never stop to consider other flavours.
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