AOE Figure Review Thread

Money, violence, sex, computer graphics, scatalogical humor, racism, robots designed to be rednecks but given European accents, and maybe another sequel to the saga... what's not to love? TF m1, Revenge of the Fallen, Dark of the Moon and now Age of Extinction.
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JediTricks
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Re: AOE Figure Review Thread

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BWprowl wrote:Every pic I've seen of Strafe has it so his Dino heads point down towards each other on his chest in Bot mode, forming neat-looking outer shoulderpads. Incidentally, this design element is the best technical reason I can think of for him having two heads, though I suppose the same look could be achieved by having a single head split, though they might end up too thin in that case. At any rate, I'm inclined to think the two-heads thing is primarily a simple case of "because it's cool", and I really have no problem with it.

Anyway, I really want to find this guy. That Robot Mode is simply too cool looking to pass up.
The jointing suggests that is what they intended, having the heads lay flat against the chest forming a "V" up to the shoulders (and past), but there aren't any hard stops to say where and the packaging can't decide if it's mouths-open or mouths-closed (I prefer mouths-open because it shows more of the chest detail underneath and looks less like 2 pelicans slapped against him) or even if it's up on his shoulders like parrots in one shot, IIRC.

They could have achieved that same look with one head by having the mouth open the opposite way as well, but I like your idea of a head-split to achieve that - thinner would be better, these aren't the worst bulk but they do stick out some. Of course, why do they have to have the head across the chest at all?

When did a robotic pteranondon become not cool enough on its own?
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Re: AOE Figure Review Thread

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JediTricks wrote:When did a robotic pteranondon become not cool enough on its own?
THANK YOU!!! O6 and I kinda went several rounds on this on facebook. His contention is that it's ok because, shit, you've already fallen down the batshit crazy rabbit hole with "Giant robot dinosaur" anyway so is one with two heads really that much further down the rabbit hole? My point is, no it's not, so that then begs the question: why do it? what's the advantage, or the homage, or what functional reason would there be for that? I can't think of any, so the only logical conclusion I came to was that they changed it just for the sake of changing it. Which is bullshit.

See, this is what pisses me off consistently about Hollywood. They just want to change everything to the point of being unrecognizable just for the fucking sake of it. You know when Kevin Smith was writing the Superman movie? Well the reason he quit was because the director kept making changes like he couldn't fly, and he wasn't bulletproof and he wasn't an alien and oh, the guy also wanted a giant spider in it. Guess what? We got that movie anyway, it's Wild Wild West!! Yeah. That was that director's vision of Superman! Go ahead and let that bake your noodle for a bit. Now think about Not Swoop with his two heads and wonder why some people are pissed. If you're going to homage something, do it right or don't bother, just go off and do your own batshit crazy thing.
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Re: AOE Figure Review Thread

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Shockwave wrote:
JediTricks wrote:When did a robotic pteranondon become not cool enough on its own?
THANK YOU!!! O6 and I kinda went several rounds on this on facebook. His contention is that it's ok because, shit, you've already fallen down the batshit crazy rabbit hole with "Giant robot dinosaur" anyway so is one with two heads really that much further down the rabbit hole? My point is, no it's not, so that then begs the question: why do it? what's the advantage, or the homage, or what functional reason would there be for that? I can't think of any, so the only logical conclusion I came to was that they changed it just for the sake of changing it. Which is bullshit.
Exactly. The internal logic of the Dinobots gets tossed out the window because "more crazy= more, and more = better " thinking that only leads to fatigue. The reason a robotic pteranodon is cool is because it's a FLYING ROBOT DINOSAUR. The reason a 2-headed robotic pteranodon is not better is because it's now a FLYING ROBOT NONSENSE. The story's internal logic originally was meant to carry the audience from one outlandish idea to the next; but when you have a needless break in logic simply to put a cool thing in, you're not taking the audience anywhere, you're just jerking them around. The audience may not consciously think about it, but it'll still feel out of place and drag on the back of their minds.

The line dividing sci-fi from fantasy is some semblance of logic in the former and less in the latter; Transformers' Dinobots were sci-fi instead of fantasy due to their origin, the reason they're not just ANYTHING that's big and scary and can destroy is because they're robotic versions of something we already know existed and could be big and scary and powerful - dinosaurs. Transformers had monsters and dragons and all sorts of sillinesses, but there's a reason the Dinobots are enduring characters in pop culture over the Terrorcons isn't an accident and it isn't even because they're "first!" The Dinobots are both recognizable as mechanical representations and Earth-based creatures, the logic is thin but it's there. When there's no internal logic, when anything can happen the stakes are lower because ANYTHING can happen.
See, this is what pisses me off consistently about Hollywood. They just want to change everything to the point of being unrecognizable just for the fucking sake of it. You know when Kevin Smith was writing the Superman movie? Well the reason he quit was because the director kept making changes like he couldn't fly, and he wasn't bulletproof and he wasn't an alien and oh, the guy also wanted a giant spider in it. Guess what? We got that movie anyway, it's Wild Wild West!! Yeah. That was that director's vision of Superman! Go ahead and let that bake your noodle for a bit. Now think about Not Swoop with his two heads and wonder why some people are pissed. If you're going to homage something, do it right or don't bother, just go off and do your own batshit crazy thing.
It wasn't the director who was making changes to the Superman movie, it was producer Jon Peters, and he later admitted he wanted to add those things (and more, like a "space dog" pet - not Krypto - that was marketable) because he didn't really care about Superman, he wanted to sell a product and make it "more Star Wars".

Hollywood right now is addicted to using existing properties. Corporate risk assessment says marketing a new idea isn't as safe as marketing something from the existing pop culture - people are familiar with Transformers or Superman or Mission Impossible or Star Trek or GI Joe enough to trade on that familiarity. But "ya gotta jazz it up to play to Peoria", that's how they see it, make a recognizable movie for simpletons, sell popcorn and toys to the rubes, they don't give the audience a lick of credit. JJ Abrams admitted he wasn't originally a Trek fan, he liked Star Wars, so he ends up making a Star Wars movie out of Trek because that's what he knows and that's what studios think might sell more tickets and toys; he "hot rods" the Enterprise without caring what made it tick in the first place, just "bigger, more exciting". And Abrams is hardly alone, the example on Superman Lives had "Star Wars it up", lots of movies in this summer blockbuster genre do, the last Superman movie "Man of Steel" had Superman not stopping crimes or becoming his own man, it just cut out all the "Superman" stuff that made Superman a hero in order to have more battles. But without understanding that Star Wars was more than shiny things and a generic hero's journey action flick plot, you just get more imitations that try to cover up their shortcomings with flash.

Bay is exceptionally guilty of that. He's a music video director, he gets visuals and pacing, but doesn't understand characters and story, so he covers it up with gimmicks and effects and explosions. But the more movies he makes, the more he stuffs his films with them until audiences are bored by those. So the only thing he knows how to do is cram more "cool factor" into the next one, regardless of the existing internal logic.
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Re: AOE Figure Review Thread

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Strafe (The pterodactyl)

I'm more excited for this guy than some of the others here (except Prowl) and unlike some others, I have no problems with the dual heads. Rule of cool, screw it.

First, a note on the packaging. I opened mine and he fell right out of the bubble; not a single twist tie or plastic tabby thing in sight. Kinda strange.

Robot Mode: I liked this a lot more once I figured out his legs unfolded from how they were packaged. I got him out and was shocked at how much stubbier and shorter he was than I'd remembered seeing. Once I compared to box pics I figured out my idiocy.

86 has a long-standing hatred of "sideways hands," as in, any TF where the arms bend inward at the elbow and doesn't have wrist articulation. He claims it limits poses; I say you just have to be creative. Unfortunately, this is one case where I sort of agree--I can't see a way to make him holding the crossbow look good. Thankfully, he looks cool with his swords, so I don't care! His head is kind of "knighty" and I'm guessing this is a theme amongst the Dinobots. Neat!

The rubbery tails are a bummer, at least how they're pre-posed, but I managed to twist them around his legs and that looks kinda cool. Also, given the choice of "swooped to the side" or "straight down," I think I'd choose the former, since with the latter, the tails would eventually be raised up in his beast mode.

I love, love, love his huge wingspan, it makes the toy feel way more massive than he actually is. JT complained a bit about how the beast mode heads don't really have a specific place to go; this bothered me until the idea of the heads being semi-sentient or at least active (kind of like BW Megs' beast mode head in S1, sometimes) and suddenly he became hilarious and awesome. Imagine him quipping some snarky comeback at Grimlock, and then the heads laugh or screech in agreement. Imagine him locked up with a Decepticon and suddenly the heads leap out and bite him, holding him down while Strafe stabs the shit out of him. That's awesome.

Toransuform! Unfortunately, Strafe suffers from "jet TF syndrome." Fiddle with the legs a little, peg the arms underneath the wings, move the heads (cockpit) around, and you're done. Simple enough to learn and execute, I guess, so that's a good point.

Beast mode: Pretty good...from above. The heads don't extend as far out as I'd like, and there's not quite a good pose for him to be "standing" in. I guess he's kinda fun for flying poses and that stuff, though, and I'm sure he'd look cool with one of Prowl's fancy Japanese stands.

All in all: Get him if you're excited for him. I'm not disappointed in his robot mode at all, and the two heads don't bother me in the least.

Slug (The triceratops)

These names are stupid.

Slug comes packaged in dino mode, which is welcome; I really don't like when they do robot mode packaging, takes away a lot of the magic of TFs. He doesn't really have anywhere to store his swords, except two gaping holes in the sides of his belly, but that looks...strange. Maybe they could work like a kind of jousting side blade or some shit; or kind of like the blades on the Liger Zero from Zoids. Either way, there's no way to store them that isn't obvious, so.

He's articulated decently and is a pretty good scale; he's shorter than my Battle Blade Bumblebee from 2010 but significantly taller, and encountering an animal as big as a car is still pretty fucking big. The whole gimmick with the Dinobots in TF4 seems to be Autobots riding them into battle, so I figured I'd actually give it a shot, and surprisingly it works pretty well. Here's ROTF Sideswipe riding him:
https://twitter.com/OnslaughtSix/status ... 04/photo/1

It doesn't work as well with some larger figures, though, like BBBB. His legs are just too long.

Toransuform! Fairly intuitive. The back panel thing with his beast tail doesn't seem to have anywhere to go; I can't decide if I like it more hanging down or folded up. His beast front legs don't seem to have anywhere specific either, I just turned them around until they looked good to me. Turning him back to dino mode is actually a lot less painful than it needs to be, the only major "this part needs to hook to that part but it doesn't want to" bit being some tabs on his lower legs designed to peg to his back plate thing, and that's kind of not required so much. Even with the new "kid-friendly" lines freeing up Generations/standard Deluxes to be "more complex," I'm finding that they really aren't that hard to do, which is a welcome change from the last movie lines.

Robot mode! I gotta say, I wasn't expecting his chest to be so scrawny--big triceratops dude, I figured he would be just as bulky, kinda like Guiledart. Once again, his head is knighty, this one kind of resembling certain jousting helmets (furthering my joust comparison above). He's super well articulated, with lots of solid cool dynamic poses available, like holding back a sword and being about to swoosh forward. Definitely like him.

At full height he's about the same size as ROTF Sideswipe, and head-to-head he's a little taller than Strafe. His weapons are alright; they're definitely unique sword designs so that's cool. I also dig his colours--the massive amounts of colours on the Dinobots in this toyline are a super welcome change from some of the past Movie toylines. I'd like to see you guys argue that somehow a purple robot Triceratops is incredulous, though. ;)

Slug is definitely a buy, everything about him is solid. I can't say he's worth $15 on his own, but no Deluxe is--there are many toys from years past that I would have passed on if they were $5 more, but that's just how the industry is so I can only compare him to his peers. This is a toy that can stand strong with most of the other Movie toys or even Generations, if you're that kind of guy. If all the Dinobots are as good as he is, I'm going to find myself a broke man, and if he's a sign of the rest of the AoE toys, then I want more. He's everywhere right now, so go grab him if you've been waiting.
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: AOE Figure Review Thread

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Silver Knight Optimus Prime: Sigh.... I got the Target exclusive two pack with FoC Grimlock. As such, I now have an AoE Optimus Prime. I still hate the movie designs, but let's put that aside for a moment. As a toy, it's not bad. It's got a pretty simple transformation, very intuitive and everything pegs together in both modes. The paint job is CHROME!!! EPIC CHROME EVERYWHERE!!! We'll even put chrome on top of chrome, with a side of chrome. I have a fever and the only cure is MORE CHROME!! Seriously, this is one shiny toy. Literally every silver part on this toy is chrome and the other colors are painted over it so that it's still chromy and shiny. Personally, I like it! I actually do like chrome so I guess if I had to get stuck with a movie bot, this would probably be the one to go with. As a toy, he's pretty fun to fiddle with, I really don't have any complaints with it aside from it being a moviebot. Also, the sword he comes with is one of the original Predacon swords. Not sure which one because I don't have Predaking.
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Re: AOE Figure Review Thread

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I looked at the Power Attacker Strafe, and it has the figure set up the way mine is, with the heads in a V pattern and the mouths open.
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Re: AOE Figure Review Thread

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Saw the one step flip changer $19.99 AOE Lockdown toy at a local Target store a few days ago. I loved the sculpt & huge ultra size. Too bad it had almost no poseabilty. The only poseabilty I saw was in the arms. Needless to say,I didn't but this toy.
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Re: AOE Figure Review Thread

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Shockwave wrote:Silver Knight Optimus Prime: Sigh.... I got the Target exclusive two pack with FoC Grimlock. As such, I now have an AoE Optimus Prime. I still hate the movie designs, but let's put that aside for a moment. As a toy, it's not bad. It's got a pretty simple transformation, very intuitive and everything pegs together in both modes. The paint job is CHROME!!! EPIC CHROME EVERYWHERE!!! We'll even put chrome on top of chrome, with a side of chrome. I have a fever and the only cure is MORE CHROME!! Seriously, this is one shiny toy. Literally every silver part on this toy is chrome and the other colors are painted over it so that it's still chromy and shiny. Personally, I like it! I actually do like chrome so I guess if I had to get stuck with a movie bot, this would probably be the one to go with. As a toy, he's pretty fun to fiddle with, I really don't have any complaints with it aside from it being a moviebot. Also, the sword he comes with is one of the original Predacon swords. Not sure which one because I don't have Predaking.
For what it's worth, that's not actually an AoE Prime, it's the Deluxe Optimus Prime mold from back in DOTM. I'm actually rather fond of it myself, mainly for getting a decently-accurate Movie Prime design out of a Deluxe figure and not even using fake chest-windows to do it.
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Re: AOE Figure Review Thread

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BWprowl wrote:
Shockwave wrote:Silver Knight Optimus Prime: Sigh.... I got the Target exclusive two pack with FoC Grimlock. As such, I now have an AoE Optimus Prime. I still hate the movie designs, but let's put that aside for a moment. As a toy, it's not bad. It's got a pretty simple transformation, very intuitive and everything pegs together in both modes. The paint job is CHROME!!! EPIC CHROME EVERYWHERE!!! We'll even put chrome on top of chrome, with a side of chrome. I have a fever and the only cure is MORE CHROME!! Seriously, this is one shiny toy. Literally every silver part on this toy is chrome and the other colors are painted over it so that it's still chromy and shiny. Personally, I like it! I actually do like chrome so I guess if I had to get stuck with a movie bot, this would probably be the one to go with. As a toy, he's pretty fun to fiddle with, I really don't have any complaints with it aside from it being a moviebot. Also, the sword he comes with is one of the original Predacon swords. Not sure which one because I don't have Predaking.
For what it's worth, that's not actually an AoE Prime, it's the Deluxe Optimus Prime mold from back in DOTM. I'm actually rather fond of it myself, mainly for getting a decently-accurate Movie Prime design out of a Deluxe figure and not even using fake chest-windows to do it.
Oh ok. I do have one problem with it, it won't stand. Unless I'm doing the feet wrong but I don't see anything to stabilize them in the back. So with that backpack thing, he just flops backwards in bot mode. So I either have MoviePrime floppy bot mode or glitterball mode.
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Re: AOE Figure Review Thread

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Tigermegatron wrote:Saw the one step flip changer $19.99 AOE Lockdown toy at a local Target store a few days ago. I loved the sculpt & huge ultra size. Too bad it had almost no poseabilty. The only poseabilty I saw was in the arms. Needless to say,I didn't but this toy.
Peaugh reamed that figure hard, and he's usually a generous sort.

Shockwave wrote:Oh ok. I do have one problem with it, it won't stand. Unless I'm doing the feet wrong but I don't see anything to stabilize them in the back. So with that backpack thing, he just flops backwards in bot mode. So I either have MoviePrime floppy bot mode or glitterball mode.
I just transformed the DOTM figure, and it confirmed what I remembered: you have to make him stand with his knees bent backwards a little, so the thighs are almost parallel to the kneepads. Alternately, if you don't mind it dangling loosely, you can transform the backpack so the cab is facing down, that will lower the center of gravity enough to be able to take more dynamic poses. But it's still pretty limited thanks to teeny tiny heelspurs that aren't quite level.
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