TF Views

We haven't played this game in a few weeks...


Love: Ultra Magnus: Because for real, this is the best Ultra Magnus toy we're likely to get, if you don't count the third-party stuff. Hasbro, if you want to do something to prove me wrong here, by all means go for it. You get a really fairly realistic looking alt. mode that turns into a fairly cartoony looking robot, which is a pretty impressive feat, I love the Animated aesthetic that just hides inside the vehicle. You almost get two vehicle modes, with those retractable cannons up in front, and the fold-down guns in the back (that don't exactly retract, but it's close). And come to think of it, those almost give you two robot modes, though, admittedly, it's not as distinct a difference as in the vehicle mode. Usually I'm not a fan of the sounds being in a toy, lights I like but not so much sounds, but this guy's sounds don't bother me as much. A couple different weaponry noises, the classic Transformation sound, both of those are okay, no biggie but not bad. But the toy doing a pretty decent impression of Robert Stack? That is gold right there. Especially with one of his phrases telling Optimus not to be a hero. I enjoy the articulated face, as well, it's fun to make Magnus talk. Now, if only one could switch the sound off temporarily, just to make like a ventriloquist dummy. And then there's the bigass hammer, which is a fun accessory right there. Overall, a solid, solid toy.

Hate Ummm. This one's gonna be tough for me since I was so nuts for this line. But, even though I like the toy, I'm gonna say...Prowl. And there's a lot to like about Prowl, but cripes. You guys ever managed to transform him without one or both legs falling off? Which is a shame, because other than that he's a really well-designed toy that looks great in both modes, but it just gets frustrating trying to get him from one form to the other without him falling apart.

I only bought five Animated figures: Soundwave, Blackarachnia, Swoop and Shockwave (the purple version that came with Bumblebee). I'm the exact opposite of Scourge in that the aesthetic just didn't appeal to me at all, even though I did enjoy the show despite the way the characters looked.

Love: Soundwave. The Scion-like vehicle looks good, and had a nicely complex transformation. The robot mode has some nice visual callbacks to Soundwave's old cassette player mode. Laserbeak as an electric guitar (that's out of scale with the vehicle) is silly but too much fun not to like anyway. This is a great Transformer. Two good modes, good transformation, nice homage and fun accessory.

Hate: eh, most of the line. I just don't like the general visual style, even if the engineering was very good by all accounts. Probably the worst was the $50 version of Optimus Prime, which thanks to Animated's very flat, detail-light style, just looks like a lot of plain plastic. The figure looks unfinished and bad.

That's funny, I think I only got five of them too: Blackarachnia, Ratchet, Lockdown, Shockwave and Grimlock. I even generally liked the cartoon designs most of the time but the toys, every time I got one, was horribly disappointing.

Loved: Shockwave. Four modes, great disguise, he's everything you could expect. My only issue was the soft, rubbery plastic they used for his hands--I always feel like the ball joints are going to tear off.

Hated: Grimlock. Disappointing transformation, weird robot proportions, and his head I just didn't like. Grimlock isn't Trap-Jaw, Wayatt. Plus he's 'devoid' of any cool (but non-intrusive) gimmicks--why can't his fucking sword go in his mouth to be fire breath?

Hey, I'll balance it out. I'm absolutely nuts for the Animated line. Ive got almost the whole cast in toy form on the bottom shelf of my display, and I don't think they're gonna be going anywhere anytime soon.

Love: Starscream. I was never really a big fan of Starscreams, but between Animated and the movie's Reign of Starscream, I grew pretty attached to these versions of the characters. Animated's is a special brand of Tom Kenny-voiced delightful, and this toy REALLY captures that character. This is something all of Animated did well, but Starscream's terrific. He's very expressive, with his arm and body posability, and his literally glowing smirk just sells the whole personality. And he's got little shark faces on his missiles! And he's basically a big flipchanger, and I'm a sucker for those.

Hate: Snarl. I can never fucking transform this guy's torso just right like it wants me to.

I never got Starscream *because* of that dumb-looking smirk. I much preferred the closed-mouthed smirk we saw on protos. Plus he ruined all the Seekers, then. And we never even got all of *those* either! Argh!

Onslaught Six wrote:I never got Starscream *because* of that dumb-looking smirk. I much preferred the closed-mouthed smirk we saw on protos. Plus he ruined all the Seekers, then. And we never even got all of *those* either! Argh!

I dunno, I didn't mind said smirk. It suited Starscream, gave the toy some appropriate personality, and I'm okay with that. Skywarp would have been a lot better with a more worried expression, but for guys like Sunstorm or Ramjet (I would've loved that toy, if there'd been one), it worked well enough. Never got Starscream, either, though. Sunstorm's good enough for me. Someday I might pick up Skywarp and Starscream just to even out the sides on the Animated shelves, but for now, one Seeker's good enough.

Another round!

Love!: Wreck Gar! You know what was neat? That Weird Al show I was at last week? Right before playing "Dare to Be Stupid", a little clip of Ratchet yelling at Wreck-Gar and Wreck-Gar responding "I'm Wreck-Gar! I Dare to be Stupid!" played on a big screen on stage. And got big cheers, too. It made me revisit this guy, he's one of my favorite Animated toys. Wreck-Gar's the shelliest shellformer to shellform since G1 Scourge, but he gets away with it. The whole robot hides out in the truck's cargo area, the cab of the truck hides in the backpack that the cargo thing becomes. It's a really clever way of working his transformation out, and gives us a nicely poseable robot. The arms for the truck (I don't know what the real name for 'em is) just sort of dangle off the back of his backpack in robot mode, but they do provide stability for crazy ass poses. Can most robots do the crane technique from Karate Kid? Wreck-Gar totally can. Then the overall design has so many bits that just make him look more like a cartoon come to life. The uneven lines on the truck grille, the goofy look on the face, hell, the fact that his head's a TV. These bits are amazing. He's about the guiltiest Animated toy of being "Playskool", but that makes him look more "cartoon" so I love him.

Hate: Um, yeah, probably Snarl, too. And for the same reason Prowl listed, that dino head is just not gonna transform right in robot mode no matter what. But even that hate is tempered with love because he's a goddamn robot dinosaur, and he's actually a different Dinobot than Swoop or Grimlock. That's worth a lot to me right there.

Love: Blackarachnia. This was the first animated figure that I bought. The transformation is a variation of the Beast Machines version, while the head visually references TM2 Blackarachnia. The claw on a string weapon is fun. My only real complaint is the way the spider mandibles tend to pop off in bot mode.

Hate: Same as before. But just to pick on a figure that annoyed me, Blitzwing has some major flaws. The original G1 figure did a great job of going between robot and two different vehicle modes, but unbelievably, the animated version cannot manage to apply twenty years of innovation towards improving the original design. Instead we get a bad tank and a plane with tank parts hanging off of it. I'd love an updated Blitzwing, but TFA Blitzwing isn't that update, not by a long shot.

I hate all the deluxe & basic animated toys.

I love all the leader sized & about 70% of the voyager sized animated toys.

out of all the animated toys. I feel that ultra magnus & leader sized megatron are the best of the lot

Loved Shockwave and Jazz.

Hated Bumblebee. (The roof bits on the legs were just terrible.)


Dom
-holds Shockwave to be the best faction switcher ever.

I was super selective with Animated, didn't dig the pilot episode and the first few and tried to stay away, but the toys really caught my attention and hung in there for me, I bought only stuff that I really found appealing.

Love: Blurr, sleek and different yet still somehow quite animated. Ultra Magimmicks! Shockwave-Longarm, a true robot in disguise!. Almost every figure I have.

Hate: Sunstorm, at $5 for the set, that figure still was a disappointment, the mold just is too sloppy and the alt mode is junk.