TF:Prime Figure Review Thread

No noses? No problem! Zombiebots? Sure, why not. A confusing new canon that allows loose and contradictory material? And now a new sequel show with an entirely different art style that takes place way in the future!
User avatar
Almighty Unicron
Supreme-Class
Posts: 452
Joined: Sun May 09, 2010 10:25 pm

Re: TF:Prime Figure Review Thread

Post by Almighty Unicron »

JediTricks wrote:Hasbro once sent me a free NERF N-Strike Raider complete with 35-dart drum because I called them when the first one I bought was defective and wouldn't rapid-fire, I didn't have to send anything back and now I have 2 35-dart drum magazines and a backup single-shot-working Raider in case I ever need an extra. Hasbro once had me send back a defective Cybertron figure late in that line's run and sent me a different figure in its place of equal value. If they want it back, they will request it in advance of sending back the product, once they send something to you in replacement unless they've made advance arrangements with you then you aren't under obligation to send anything else back.
Hrm. I should try that the next time we play HVZ at my school. I could always use a new drum.

As for Wheeljack's arm, it looks like the joint can be tapped in if you're good with tools by bracing the arm halves, holding a hard pin or screwdriver or anything that will direct motion directly to the part, and tapping it with a hammer lightly - ramping up the impact until you either get the pin to move or you start to feel the parts may fail. Because the forearm is a pretty thin-walled piece, it may be risky to do much tapping in this area, and because it's using a friction collar around the pin it may get warped or damaged, so a light touch is needed. I can't help more than that unfortunately as it looks like the joint design is a little different from the original Wheeljack figure's arm, the pin boss hole is recessed on BH Wheeljack where it's flush flat on the upper arm with regular Wheeljack. I've had a lot of these kinds of joints shot at slightly the wrong angle or not tapped in all the way over the years, but quality control had been a lot better lately so I haven't experienced it with this exact kind of joint.
This may come as a surprise to you but we barely have any tools in my apartment. I've got a leatherman left over back from the days I was on my highschool robotics program and that's... it. It's weird how that works out.
Image
User avatar
JediTricks
Site Admin
Posts: 3849
Joined: Thu Jul 17, 2008 12:17 pm
Location: LA, CA, USA

Re: TF:Prime Figure Review Thread

Post by JediTricks »

Almighty Unicron wrote:
JediTricks wrote:Hasbro once sent me a free NERF N-Strike Raider complete with 35-dart drum because I called them when the first one I bought was defective and wouldn't rapid-fire, I didn't have to send anything back and now I have 2 35-dart drum magazines and a backup single-shot-working Raider in case I ever need an extra. Hasbro once had me send back a defective Cybertron figure late in that line's run and sent me a different figure in its place of equal value. If they want it back, they will request it in advance of sending back the product, once they send something to you in replacement unless they've made advance arrangements with you then you aren't under obligation to send anything else back.
Hrm. I should try that the next time we play HVZ at my school. I could always use a new drum.
It helps to have a good track record, they had several of my returns on file as being solid already by that point. They don't even make the Raider anymore, replacing it with the Elite Rampage and its "wtf-sized" 25-dart drum mag, and I have heard Elite clips and mags don't work with non-Elite blasters and vice-versa. I just filled up on Elite darts for my regular N-strike clip system blasters, and as usual the Alpha Trooper is the best - it's getting an Elite makeover (with new Elite stronger spring) later this year, that's going to be the HVZ weapon of choice, gonna hear a lot of zombies bitching about it stinging after that. Also the Strongarm is a great cylinder-based sidearm, while the Triad is a nice gun it's not useful for HVZ because the darts fall out the front easily.

This may come as a surprise to you but we barely have any tools in my apartment. I've got a leatherman left over back from the days I was on my highschool robotics program and that's... it. It's weird how that works out.
That is surprising! The Leatherman would be only a fair choice, can't hit it with a hammer but a book might work, too risky for my tastes though... and I once had a philips-head screwdriver embedded into the side of my right index finger.
Image
See, that one's a camcorder, that one's a camera, that one's a phone, and they're doing "Speak no evil, See no evil, Hear no evil", get it?
User avatar
Almighty Unicron
Supreme-Class
Posts: 452
Joined: Sun May 09, 2010 10:25 pm

Re: TF:Prime Figure Review Thread

Post by Almighty Unicron »

JediTricks wrote:
Almighty Unicron wrote:
JediTricks wrote:Hasbro once sent me a free NERF N-Strike Raider complete with 35-dart drum because I called them when the first one I bought was defective and wouldn't rapid-fire, I didn't have to send anything back and now I have 2 35-dart drum magazines and a backup single-shot-working Raider in case I ever need an extra. Hasbro once had me send back a defective Cybertron figure late in that line's run and sent me a different figure in its place of equal value. If they want it back, they will request it in advance of sending back the product, once they send something to you in replacement unless they've made advance arrangements with you then you aren't under obligation to send anything else back.
Hrm. I should try that the next time we play HVZ at my school. I could always use a new drum.
It helps to have a good track record, they had several of my returns on file as being solid already by that point. They don't even make the Raider anymore, replacing it with the Elite Rampage and its "wtf-sized" 25-dart drum mag, and I have heard Elite clips and mags don't work with non-Elite blasters and vice-versa. I just filled up on Elite darts for my regular N-strike clip system blasters, and as usual the Alpha Trooper is the best - it's getting an Elite makeover (with new Elite stronger spring) later this year, that's going to be the HVZ weapon of choice, gonna hear a lot of zombies bitching about it stinging after that. Also the Strongarm is a great cylinder-based sidearm, while the Triad is a nice gun it's not useful for HVZ because the darts fall out the front easily.
I've got a small arsenal: a raider, two rayvens, and a recon if all else fails. I'm a senior in college now which means I only have two more games of HVZ to look forward to (one per semester) so I doubt I'll drop any money on any new blasters unless something really pops out at me. Besides I barely have to fire them these days, I'm far more adept at sneaking past zombies by taking unused routes on my campus.

This may come as a surprise to you but we barely have any tools in my apartment. I've got a leatherman left over back from the days I was on my highschool robotics program and that's... it. It's weird how that works out.
That is surprising! The Leatherman would be only a fair choice, can't hit it with a hammer but a book might work, too risky for my tastes though... and I once had a philips-head screwdriver embedded into the side of my right index finger.
Eh, I live in an apartment building and the handymen come with our maintenance fees. Any time we have a home improvement problem that I can't fix, we call them, so we don't really stock many tools.
Regardless, FedEx says my replacement wheeljack is gonna arrive tomorrow so it's a moot point. If anyone wants a wheeljack with a bum elbow and is willing to cover the shipping from New York I'd be happy to give it to you.
Image
User avatar
Dominic
Supreme-Class
Posts: 9331
Joined: Thu Jul 17, 2008 12:55 pm
Location: Boston
Contact:

Re: TF:Prime Figure Review Thread

Post by Dominic »

Legends scale "Beast Hunters" Prowl:

Lewis picked this up for me (just shy of $8 after taxes....).

I like Prowl, and there is no way that I am buying the inevitable Deluxe figure, as it will probably be using the same lazily designed mould as Smokescreen. (Deluxe Smokescreen has obvious facade parts in robot mode that are clearly visible alongside the "real" parts they are substituting for.)

The robot mode gives me the general impression that this toy was initially designed as an improvement on Knock-out. The legs take definite design cures from the Legends scale Knock-Out mould. And, in Japan, Deluxe Smokescreen is a straight recolour of Knock-Out. (Of course, given how bad the US Smokescreen is, it seems unlikely that Knock-Out will be getting a good toy any time soon.)

All told, Prowl (or Smokescreen if you prefer) is a solid Legneds scale figure. The engineering on the arms makes this toy work fiddling with. The forearms end up as the back of the car mode. The transform has some nice suprises and both modes look good for the price-point/scale. The hammer accessory does not fit/mount in car mode (as far as I can tell). But, it looks good enough on the robot mode. (The canonical name is "Justice Hammer", which is kind of stupid. If the figures were a bit cheaper, I would be looking to buy a Smokescreen to swap in a gun.) The police detailing on my copy (and a few that I saw yesterday) all looks to be cleanly applied.

The packagine describes Prowl as being a technician, which is a similar change made to Wheeljack (from an inventor in G1 to an old soldier in "Prime").



Grade: A/B
I want to give this figure a full "A". But, the fact that Legends class toys now cost as much as they do makes it harder to justify a grade that says "try to find it and buy it when you see it". And, as much as I like it, it is not quite enough to get me back on board for the hobby after Hasbro has burned me so many times on larger and more expensive toys.


Dom
-buy at least one pressing of this mould just for the arms/car back. Seriously.
User avatar
BWprowl
Supreme-Class
Posts: 4145
Joined: Fri Jul 18, 2008 2:15 pm
Location: Shelfwarming, because of Shellforming
Contact:

Re: TF:Prime Figure Review Thread

Post by BWprowl »

Dominic wrote:I like Prowl, and there is no way that I am buying the inevitable Deluxe figure, as it will probably be using the same lazily designed mould as Smokescreen. (Deluxe Smokescreen has obvious facade parts in robot mode that are clearly visible alongside the "real" parts they are substituting for.)

The robot mode gives me the general impression that this toy was initially designed as an improvement on Knock-out. The legs take definite design cures from the Legends scale Knock-Out mould. And, in Japan, Deluxe Smokescreen is a straight recolour of Knock-Out. (Of course, given how bad the US Smokescreen is, it seems unlikely that Knock-Out will be getting a good toy any time soon.)
This is interesting to me. I don't own either mold (or desire to), but I've seen a lot more hate for Knock Out and a lot more love for BH Smokescreen everywhere else. And the BH Smokescreen mold certainly seems to be ahead of the Japanese Knock Out-recolor version in terms of articulation, transformation complexity, and generally looking like Smokescreen. I dunno, have you fiddled with a friend's Smokescreen, is there anything *that bad* about it aside from the fake roof-chest?
Image
User avatar
Dominic
Supreme-Class
Posts: 9331
Joined: Thu Jul 17, 2008 12:55 pm
Location: Boston
Contact:

Re: TF:Prime Figure Review Thread

Post by Dominic »

The facade chest on US Smokescreen irks me something terrible.

There really is no good toy of Knock-Out. The Legends figure is okay. But, it in no way covers for the Deluxe figure.


Dom
User avatar
JediTricks
Site Admin
Posts: 3849
Joined: Thu Jul 17, 2008 12:17 pm
Location: LA, CA, USA

Re: TF:Prime Figure Review Thread

Post by JediTricks »

You can be irked by the facade chest on Dlx Smokescreen all you like, but the reality is that the show design makes it impossible - the fenders would have to shrink, split in half, bend in several new directions, and roll up onto the chest sliding over the hood while staying connected to the torso. The designers could have used the real fenders on the chests, but they'd have been about three times as big as they should be and it'd look nothing like the character. Anyway, you can say a lot of things about Smokescreen, but lazily-designed is NOT one of them.
Image
See, that one's a camcorder, that one's a camera, that one's a phone, and they're doing "Speak no evil, See no evil, Hear no evil", get it?
User avatar
Dominic
Supreme-Class
Posts: 9331
Joined: Thu Jul 17, 2008 12:55 pm
Location: Boston
Contact:

Re: TF:Prime Figure Review Thread

Post by Dominic »

Hasbro controls the design of the characters at every level. They determine what goes in to the control art, which in turn influences both the toys and the animation model.

They could have found another way at an earlier design stage.


Dom
-not allowing for easy passes on this.
User avatar
BWprowl
Supreme-Class
Posts: 4145
Joined: Fri Jul 18, 2008 2:15 pm
Location: Shelfwarming, because of Shellforming
Contact:

Re: TF:Prime Figure Review Thread

Post by BWprowl »

JediTricks wrote:You can be irked by the facade chest on Dlx Smokescreen all you like, but the reality is that the show design makes it impossible - the fenders would have to shrink, split in half, bend in several new directions, and roll up onto the chest sliding over the hood while staying connected to the torso. The designers could have used the real fenders on the chests, but they'd have been about three times as big as they should be and it'd look nothing like the character. Anyway, you can say a lot of things about Smokescreen, but lazily-designed is NOT one of them.
This is a major problem I've had with TF designs lately, particularly from WfC/FoC and Prime (though the Movies had issues here as well), in that there doesn't seem to be a whole lot of teamwork between the fiction people and the toy people to make the designs work across both mediums. Ignoring the fact that I personally feel that TFs should be designed as toys first then have the fiction adapt those designs accordingly, it comes across as a big disconnect when you see stuff like Smokescreen and wonder if the exchange was like:

Toy Guy: "Hey, uh, that design simply isn't going to work in action figure form, we can't make parts just shrink and warp like that in real, physical space. Could you maybe redesign it to be more workable?"
Show Guy: "Fuck you!"

I dunno, it always goes back to that story of the Japanese dude who was one of the lead designers for the first Movie line, and how he didn't even understand how Starscream's head worked *until he saw the movie*. How little was provided for him to work with?

I can almost forgive stuff like the similarly-situationed IDW Bumblebee that's coming out soon, given that whoever designed that version of Bumblebee (Chee? Don?) probably didn't expect it getting a toy anytime soon (even if Don does have a reputation for being able to make new designs for TFs that would totally work as toys). But with something like TFPrime, which they know is going to be the main, flagship arm of the franchise, you'd think they'd know that they'd need designs that could be functionally consistent across all mediums, rather than having to cheat as much as they have (stuff like the unpainted fake wheels on the backs of FE Cliffjumper's legs is utterly ridiculous).

Say what you will about Animated, but its toys didn't cheat nearly as much as TFPrime has (Bumblebee and Sentinel Prime are the only ones that come to mind, and you can only sorta count Bumblebee, since his show model cheats too!).
Image
User avatar
JediTricks
Site Admin
Posts: 3849
Joined: Thu Jul 17, 2008 12:17 pm
Location: LA, CA, USA

Re: TF:Prime Figure Review Thread

Post by JediTricks »

Dominic wrote:Hasbro controls the design of the characters at every level. They determine what goes in to the control art, which in turn influences both the toys and the animation model.

They could have found another way at an earlier design stage.


Dom
-not allowing for easy passes on this.
Hasbro toy allows a lot of creative freedom to the character designers on these sorts of things, the movies and games and this show, I believe. None of the ways they transform on Prime would be possible on a toy, they break laws of physics for the sake of aesthetics and style.

BWprowl wrote:This is a major problem I've had with TF designs lately, particularly from WfC/FoC and Prime (though the Movies had issues here as well), in that there doesn't seem to be a whole lot of teamwork between the fiction people and the toy people to make the designs work across both mediums. Ignoring the fact that I personally feel that TFs should be designed as toys first then have the fiction adapt those designs accordingly, it comes across as a big disconnect when you see stuff like Smokescreen and wonder if the exchange was like:

Toy Guy: "Hey, uh, that design simply isn't going to work in action figure form, we can't make parts just shrink and warp like that in real, physical space. Could you maybe redesign it to be more workable?"
Show Guy: "Fuck you!"
Not at all, Hasbro is glad to have characters designed for the medium rather than try to force the medium to adapt to toy limitations. You want more of the awkward way the characters moved in Energon? No. So each expression of the brand creates its own style to go with that, and then Hasbro adapts the toys to emulate as best as possible.
Say what you will about Animated, but its toys didn't cheat nearly as much as TFPrime has (Bumblebee and Sentinel Prime are the only ones that come to mind, and you can only sorta count Bumblebee, since his show model cheats too!).
That is true, TFA did not cheat nearly as badly. But to be fair, that was sort of the intention, simpler lines, more thought out designs, less extraneous stuff, that was part of the intended style.
Image
See, that one's a camcorder, that one's a camera, that one's a phone, and they're doing "Speak no evil, See no evil, Hear no evil", get it?
Post Reply