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Re: Universe2.0/Generations Review Thread

Posted: Sat Dec 26, 2015 7:03 am
by Onslaught Six
That's cool. Maybe you can swap later when the second half of the run with the alternate decos comes in, have we seen what they'll look like yet?
I don't think there's going to be a full wave of different decos; I think it's just Brawl in a more green-ish colour scheme and Onslaught with the brown chest/backpack.
The individual weapons not combining is weird, all you really need is a central weapon with a bunch of 5mm holes including at the barrel, Optimus and Hot Spot do that, but if the weapons could be built out better it'd be more fun.
Bingo. I definitely think Menasor was the first designed now, because the way his weapons are, they're the least compatible with each other.
Amazon will have Onslaught soon, don't panic.
BUT I WANT IT NOOOOW. :(

Re: Universe2.0/Generations Review Thread

Posted: Sat Dec 26, 2015 11:41 am
by JediTricks
Onslaught Six wrote:
That's cool. Maybe you can swap later when the second half of the run with the alternate decos comes in, have we seen what they'll look like yet?
I don't think there's going to be a full wave of different decos; I think it's just Brawl in a more green-ish colour scheme and Onslaught with the brown chest/backpack.
I thought they said something at Botcon about the run having a change for Onslaught and the others, I know the image they showed was different but that was CGI rendered.
Amazon will have Onslaught soon, don't panic.
BUT I WANT IT NOOOOW. :(
Now now, Veruca.

Re: Universe2.0/Generations Review Thread

Posted: Tue Dec 29, 2015 8:16 am
by Onslaught Six
I thought they said something at Botcon about the run having a change for Onslaught and the others, I know the image they showed was different but that was CGI rendered.
Onslaught is supposed to have a running change, between brown backpack and silver backpack, so yes, that's reportedly still happening, and Brawl is apparently More Brown in release than the planned colours were, so there's supposed to be a second run for him--but there is no confirmation that any of the others will be getting anything different. If they were smart, they'd use that time to throw in some Battle Gaea or Car Robots/RID Ruination; kill two birds with one white Blastoff, a red Swindle for variety (we're already getting green with Hound) and maybe something out there like FOC retail neon red/purple for Blastoff? Just ideas.

At the time of Onslaught's reveal, Scattorshot had not been announced, so the big hope was that--like Armada Megatron and G1 Megatron--he would be an entire case by himself, be very plentiful, and each variant would occupy half the case. That does not seem like it's going to happen now.

Re: Universe2.0/Generations Review Thread

Posted: Mon Feb 08, 2016 6:05 pm
by JediTricks
This thread is now 8 years old.

Brawl - tank mode is a green/brown color that seems very un-American but reminds of a villain tank color. The tank turret doesn't rotate, but the cannon does elevate (although it doesn't like to stay in the position it's left). The back of the tank is a bit hollow. The underside has nigh-useless plastic wheels.

Robot mode transformation is unique in some ways, but the legs feel too similar to other CW figures, and the waist situation is just awful no matter what you do with it. The shoulders don't extend out far enough so he's a bit narrow-looking and the shoulders have a bit of clearance issues. His forearms have a terrible elbow point of articulation, bending the forearms forward makes them disappear almost completely.

Leg mode is simple but uses an interesting engineering trick to get to the right height, rotating the tank rear end to the back moves the higher connector hole into position, it's kind of neat.

Arm mode has good ideas but misfires with an unstable forearm segment that comes apart and is hollow, and an upper arm that is a wide gap at the thighs, I think the widest in CW.

The removable cannon becomes an awkward pistol with little detail. The hand/foot has a new sculpt with some different shapes like a twin motor and some gearing, it's a pair of cannons but the underside is hollow with a detail spine in the middel which kills that look a bit; the hand/foot is cast in metallic gray and doesn't sport any silver paint.

Brawl is the first new mold since Rook in wave 3, and while he's not a complete fail, he does come up pretty short in a lot of ways, but gets a pass by simply being something new. Grade: a very generous C-

Re: Universe2.0/Generations Review Thread

Posted: Fri Feb 12, 2016 10:46 am
by JediTricks
Blast Off - see all the stuff I said about Quickslinger? Apply a much nicer dark grey/green color with lavender and purple accents as the deco, which takes it a long way. The deco is like a stealth fighter, and it's just a striking look. The hand/foot weapon is unpainted gray/silver plastic, kinda lame. But his combiner plug is purple, that's a good look. The deco really elevates this otherwise wrongity wrong wrong alt mode figure.


Swindle - vehicle mode is a jeepish slab with a minimal roll bar configuration on top and the slightest hint of seats and a steering wheel. He's so much mustard yellow. The robot fists being the laughable seats should have been painted black to minimize their visual impact in alt mode. The gun pegs closely to the roof and can swivel.

Robot mode transformation is the same as Rook. Robot mode is a broad-chested, broad-shouldered affair that adds purple faux vehicle parts to the chest, but leaves the connector port in mustard yellow which is a shame since it runs right through those purple elements. With the shoulders straight, the figure is VERY bulky, but move the arms and he looks less out of balance. The head is cast in dark gray with purple eyes, the mouth is a slight frown and barely visible.

Leg mode is the vehicle with the front end folded back, it's fine as is or you can raise up the rollbar cockpit to make a bigger knee.

Arm mode is the same as Rook, it looks good, it's solid, a very big shoulderpad look but generally just a nice, big arm. The cockpit however is deformed slightly here (and in bot mode, but it's a backpack so I didn't care as much), it turns out the cockpit shell was designed not for the friction bumps it ultimately got but for a pin, and because of that last-minute change the angle bends the cockpit slightly. It's not a big deal, the cockpit even slips onto tabs on the robot forearms so it's held nicely, but it's odd to see a part deform by a few degrees.

Overall, Swindle is ok if a bit bulky in robot mode and chintzy in vehicle mode. I would have liked more personality in the face, but otherwise this isn't the dud I originally expected.

Re: Universe2.0/Generations Review Thread

Posted: Sat Jul 09, 2016 12:01 pm
by JediTricks
Found all the Titans Return deluxe and voyagers yesterday at TRU, picked up Blurr. Almost bought Gavatron, but that face mask situation doesn't get better in person.

Blurr is an interesting challenge. He's a fun toy, but this is a different play pattern. The shield turning into Hyperfire's sled is a fun trick, but Headmasters never made any sense to me to begin with, is Blurr in that body when he has no head? It always seemed like the desperation move to find ANYTHING to make TFs relevant. And with this Titan Masters figure, there are so many compromises to Blurr that it's hard to know if he feels like himself, the cockpit is small now, the car is no longer wide and low-slung, and he's got the wrong color balance. But he's not bad, and he is the most Blurr-shaped figure ever, it's just such a drastic change for the figures.


Blurr Vehicle Mode...
Pros:
- rolls well
- has the top scanner gizmo prominently
- sleek
- wheels well-hidden
- has basic Blurr vehicle layout and colors
- cockpit seats figure and has detailing

Cons:
- design is high and narrow, not wide and flat
- back end pretty long
- cockpit integration isn't great
- not much color behind the nose
- a few too many seams

Notes:
- Instructions show the chair back sitting fully back in vehicle mode, this leaves the cockpit open in the back, awkwardly filling out that gap space. However, the seat snaps forward against Hyperfire's back in the perfect position to close up that opening, as well as freeing up that weird gap space Blurr's always had.
- peg on either side of cockpit for Titan Master to stand on

Titan Master Hyperfire...
Pros:
- ball-jointed head and shoulders
- has some sculpted and even painted detailing
- using Blurr's shield and gun as a battle sled is cute (shield flips down leg in front to stablize)
- arms lock into place for transformation via tiny tabs
- in head mode, Blurr's antenna sensor thing slides up

Cons:
- Hyperfire face is only painted around the mouth, visor detail totally lost
- screw right in the middle of chest
- Blurr face on back is uncovered, no flip-down shield, just an upside-down giant face on the back
- legs are not separately articulated (though I've heard this figure can be easily cut to do so)

Blurr Robot Mode...
Pros:
- tons of fine sculpted detailing revealed in transformation
- transformation not generic or Combiner Wars-like
- has a lot of the G1 cartoon design
- G1 toy knee design painted on (at ankles)
- knees can bend past 90 degrees
- good overall proportions for a runner
- shield can be hand-held, peg into forearms, or left stored on back
- not much kibble
- good articulation including wrists, ball-jointed neck, waist
- strong joints
- quality facial likeness

Cons:
- not much color, mostly a darker medium blue plastic, not much paint either
- sculpted spot for Autobot logo in chest unpainted, only Autobot logo is on shield
- chest windshield very short for no apparent reason, could have been longer without issue, looks like he's wearing a crop top
- chest windshield shows hollow interior chest
- a bit of kibble under forearms
- friction alone barely keeps head antenna sensor from slipping back in
- feet sculpted at slight angle means can't stand on one foot
- rifle is bland

Notes:
- his techspec card is like the Headmaster design, feels that without Hyperfire he's pretty slow and with Hyperfire he's only 12/20
- Hasbro's got a lot of hollows and cutaways in TFs lately to save on shipping weight, but Blurr doesn't suffer too badly with the ones he has
- my sample the shield sticks to the backpack very tightly on one side, and the neck joint is loose at some angles, but neither feel like dealbreakers

Overall...
Blurr is a pretty decent figure, something different after Combiner Wars, and fits the character pretty well if you can get past the Headmaster gimmick being such a broad change.

Re: Universe2.0/Generations Review Thread

Posted: Sat Jul 09, 2016 2:10 pm
by Onslaught Six
JediTricks wrote:Almost bought Gavatron, but that face mask situation doesn't get better in person.
It really doesn't!

So, I DID get Galvatron. Of the first wave toys, he's the one I wanted the most, because it's been YEARS since there was even a proper Galvatron toy, and there's never been a truly great one. This one comes pretty damn close, and is probably going to be the best go-around we get for a while.

Let's start with the good, and the real reason anyone's going to buy him: The robot mode. One thing TR is doing that I'm loving is, they have a slavish devotion to the old toys and designs. 10 years ago, this kind of thing would have bothered me--if I want the old toy, I'll buy the old toy, right? But buying a 1986 Galvatron in 2016 is not an easy proposition, and the reissues are very expensive (and were never sold at stateside retail). Plus, unlike a lot of the 84-85 bots, for a lot of the TFTM designs, their original designs define them tenfold. With an Optimus or a Megatron or a Jazz or Bumblebee or Soundwave, you can get away with some compromising design elements that don't exactly stick--fake Optimus grills like ClaPrime or the entirely unique design of Classics Megs, you know. But someone like Galvatron, if you take away his abs or his hexagon kneepads or his big orange arm mounted cannon, you're kind of fucked. Thankfully, this devotion to the original works out in Galvatron's favour. He looks like god damn Galvatron. His purple is an almost perfect shade; for my money it's just sliiiightly too toward the red spectrum, but it's not enough that it's a dealbreaker; this guy is definitely legit purple, not a pink or magenta like some of the pics we saw in preview. He also has that washed out grey plastic Hasbro tends to use, which I actually don't usually mind and particularly works on the angular, retro-futurism 80s design of Galvy. The cockpit part looks especially good to me. Where it doesn't work is, well, the head...

Oh, the head! The facemask thing is just awful. It sucks so much that an otherwise 9/10 Galvatron has such a shitty head. The facemask thing isn't even that bad of an idea and at least one hand painted prototype had the regular head painted very nicely, and that helped, but the end result is just not great. It doesn't sit flush against the face at all and it's just too inset as a result. It's a real goddamn shame that the figure is held back by this. Thankfully, well, he's a Headmaster. By DESIGN, his head comes off and can be replaced. As we speak, someone is on Shapeways or 3D printing or working on a new third party add-on head that will fix all of our woes. So that's good.I even saw a photo with Galvatronus' head that didn't look too bad!

Other than that, Galvy is pretty good. I was at first amazed at how hefty and huge he felt, until I compared him against Onslaught and saw they were the same height. Still, he definitely has some more perceived bulk from his huge chest and legs compared to Onslaught or Silverbolt. He actually manages to compare well against CW Ultra Magnus, which is about all I could EVER ask for. City Commanders, baby! Those who complained about hollow figures in CW can rest a little easier. His forearms do have a little hollow spot but it's a fist transformation concede, and that's totally acceptable in my book. His legs are also empty in the back, but they included little panels that fold over it to cover that up if this is a thing that bothers you! How nice!

Articulation wise, Galvatron is basically unmatched. He's got everything you could ever ask for--mid-thigh swivels, rocker ankles, double joint elbows, waist, biceps, everything. The only complaints I could have via articulation are that the facemask gimmick limits the movement of his head, especially laterally. There's a little movement but not much. Semi-thankfully, the facemask can just go back down, and then the head articulation opens up dramatically. Other than that, he has a kibbly piece attached to his waist for the altmodes that doesn't agree with his back kibble if you try to move his waist around, so it's not freely turning unless you move the back kibble out of the way. This is actually fine, but it is notable. He also can't raise his shoulders above, uh, shoulder level without moving his shoulder pads up and out of the way, which looks kinda dumb, and the gigantic fuck off cannon obviously limits elbow articulation on whichever arm you attach it to, but if that's a dealbreaker then you're dumb. Oh, and he has no swivel wrist articulation, but as a consequence of transformation, can fold them into his forearms, so you can get some great fist-shakey action.

Transforming Galvatron is a snap. Neither of his modes are all that complicated, and getting him back to robot is very self-explanatory and intuitive, and everything clasps together good and has tabs or places to snap together and go. I mean, there's one thing I'll get to, but...you'll see. Otherwise though, this is fine. Yes, the cannon legoforms, but there's no way you've going to get Galvatron the way he is without doing that. It's literally the way the thing is designed, even in animation it just pops off from his altmode and goes on his arm. I would definitely give Galvatron to a kid, skill-level wise.

Now, the really bad. Alright, so, it's Galvatron, right? He turns into a garbage heap. His altmode is just a mess of parts that doesn't make any sense, and there's no logical way to get the robot that you see out of the cannon/vehicle that you see in the cartoon. There is a decent enough way to do it that the old toy did, and if it stuck mostly to that, I'd be happy. But it didn't, and here's where they kind of fucked up.

The cannon mode does not sit flush against the ground the way you expect it to. The way the instructions say to put this fiddly little piece in a weird angle and that doesn't help at all, and flattening it down doesn't really help much either. You can sort of angle it so it sits forward, but no matter what you do, the "legs" of the cannon will not even come close to touching the ground. Not gonna happen. I don't understand it at all. It sucks. If the gigantic cockpit for the third jet mode didn't have to be there, there would be no issue and it would be fine. And you know what else? The jet mode sucks too! The legs are just folded up half-assed and it doesn't really work. So the sacrifice for the cannon mode is bullshit to.
Luckily, there is a solution: Just do it halfway! Do the whole thing like the cannon mode but make the front like the jet cockpit. It solves so much and actually looks REALLY cool. I'd rather do this forever than either of the other altmodes, and this makes him look like some kind of almost Metal Gear-ass mobile manned tank unit. It's great.
The only thing I could complain about: The bottom of the cannon "legs" are moulded as treads, but are just painted purple like the rest of the piece. They could have been black which would really help sell that they're tank treads. Doesn't even have to be black-black; it could be the same dark grey they used on his shins or whatever. Very minor thing and I'm not about to dock points or whatever.

Overall, other than the crappy head thing, this is about the best Galvatron you could want. He's scaled well, he's a nice purple, he's well articulated, and even if his two altmodes suck you can make a great one halfway between them. And $25 is a pretty decent price for a toy this size, he's about the same height as my NECA Predators who are the same price and are similarly articulated (but have way better paint and sculpted detail...as they should, they aren't robots that turn into space gun emplacements.)

and [Blurr's] got the wrong color balance. But he's not bad, and he is the most Blurr-shaped figure ever, it's just such a drastic change for the figures.
The colours on Hasbro's versions of him and Scourge are a god damn travesty. Takara's look so much better, it's unbelievable. Both of them are just huge swaths of blue, Takara painted them up like the animation models and they're insanely better off for it. I'm very satisfied with the last Scourge and Blurr, mind you, so it's probably not worth importing to replace them.

Re: Universe2.0/Generations Review Thread

Posted: Mon Jul 11, 2016 9:30 am
by JediTricks
Unfortunately for me, Takara's focus on the cartoon does me no favors as I never liked the amount of white the show used on Blurr. I liked the G1 figure's colors, Hasbro tried for that but missed hard, first by using the wrong plastic, then by skimping on the paint. But it's not disaster, just not ideal.

Sounds like I am better off not having spent full price on Galvatron, yikes.

What about using Crashbash for the head? He's the right color and has a mask shape.

Re: Universe2.0/Generations Review Thread

Posted: Tue Jul 12, 2016 5:41 am
by andersonh1
06 and JT, good reviews for Galvatron and Blurr.

Re: Universe2.0/Generations Review Thread

Posted: Tue Jul 12, 2016 9:07 am
by Dominic
I was actually tempted by Galvatron.....until I started reading reviews.


Blurr and Scourge are somewhat tempting (though not enough for me to make dedicated hunts). The Japanese toys looking better is something that I have come to accept over the last 20 or so years. If I were still collecting the way I was 5 or 6 years ago, I would probably buy a Japanese Scourge and army build the US figure as Sweep troops. Blaster.....not sure I want to spend $50 for it.