Universe2.0/Generations Review Thread

[Shockwave]

Thunderwing's does have a really nice paint deco, especially in bot mode. The green on his chest is sort of metallic without being too shiny and the gold "conduit" parts really bring out the details sculpted into the figure. This really easily could have been one of those toys that has a lot of detail lost in the lack of paint, but that really didn't happen. All of the details are painted as if they were all molded that way with a specific purpose in mind. Which they probably were.

What's the repaint going to be? Another Banzaitron?

[138 Scourge]

Well, no official word as yet, but the rumor is Black Shadow. Because if you look at the head and chest remold in the instructions, it apparently strongly resembles that fella. Seems like an odd choice, obscure Japanese character and all, but he is certainly qualified to be done as a Thunderwing repaint.

[Onslaught Six]

One has to wonder if that's Takara mandate--"Okay, we let you have your...weird Straxus fellow and that Drift-chan guy. Now give us Black Shadow."

[Dominic]

I doubt very much that Takara mandated anything. Thunderwing is about as obscure as Black Shadow. (Aside from fans of the old comics, who really knows, let alone cares, about Thunderwing?) Both have a built in fan base, and both can be sold at mass retail.

Dom
-likely to grind a few up in customizing.

[JediTricks]

I doubt very much that Takara mandated anything. Thunderwing is about as obscure as Black Shadow. (Aside from fans of the old comics, who really knows, let alone cares, about Thunderwing?) Both have a built in fan base, and both can be sold at mass retail.

More importantly, both original figures were based on the same mold: http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Black_Shadow#Toys

If I see Thunderpants for $9, I'll buy him, but I'm still worried about the cheap look of the base plastic, and the simplistic transformation.

[Dominic]

I have little enough interest in the toy on its own. But, it appeals as custom fodder, so I might grab one.

Thunderwing is one of those characters that I have very specific associations with, not unlike Bludgeon. I would want something more evocative of the old comics because that is the *only* reason I would want Thunderwing.

In contrast, I really like "Classics" Mirage, despite that character model not showing up anywhere but in terribel fan club comic because the toy nicely evokes a character I happen to like in general terms. Along similar lines, TFU Sunstreaker showing up in AHM was just like adding cake (AHM) to frosting (Sunstreaker). I had a good toy of a character I liked in the first place...that looked like the character as depicted in a great comic.

[Shockwave]

That's the only reason I was interested in Thunderwing (well the primary one anyway) and it's why I like the toy. It effectively represents that version of the character.

[Dominic]

I suppose it is where you set the bar. In the case of Thunderwing, I want a toy that looks like the character as drawn by Senior, or *maybe* Delbo. Those issues of the comic are the *only* reason I like Thunderwing, so I accept less variance. In the case of characters like Sunstreaker of Mirage, I like the character across a wide range of iterations, and will accept a more generalized representation. (And as stated above, even then, I was giddy about Sunstreaker showing up in AHM.)

On the other hand, if I ever find a copy of this figure, I might decided I like it enough to buy anyway.


Dom
-swears Hasbro is taking lessons from Mattel on distributing toys in the way most likely to annoy collectors.

[138 Scourge]

Instructions? What're those?

Nah, I never start with the instructions, I try to figure 'em out blindly the first time, and if I get stuck or want to double-check if something's right, then I'll go to the instructions. So therein lies my problem, I guess. Still, I have more fun treating the toys as a puzzle to solve at first, then as a toy or display thing later. Plus, y'know, as many used toys as I've bought, kind of got into the habit of going that route.

I hate seeing fans bash a figure over that sort of thing. It's not the toy's fault that you didn't solve the puzzle right.

I wouldn't say I bashed the figure, I just said that dude was hard was all. And hell, even the cardback'll tell you that.

Soooo...Thunderwing. Neat enough-looking jet mode, I don't think he'll be in it very often, though. It doesn't go full-on "Cybertronian Starship" or whatever, the thing looks enough like a real-ish earth jet that it can pass as a future plane or something. Experimental model, I dunno. At least it does from the top, once you look at the bottom of the plane you've got all this alien kibble and a couple arms just clearly sittin' there. There's a little bit of a fake seat and controls thing happening inside the cockpit, which is a nice detail. The "recon drone" feature is sort of worthless, I think. It leaves the main jet with half a nosecone, and the drone thing just isn't impressive looking. I like that they tried doing a callback to Thunderwing's Pretender features, but the end result's just kind of "eh". Doubt I'll be using that feature much. The two guns with their firing missiles can fit on the wings, or be held in Thunderwing's exposed hands, where they make the hands and arms less obvious, but either way they seem to come out irritatingly easy. Also, I'm pretty sure that these missiles will be in a future edition of the "Things that always accidentally shoot you" thread.

Transformation's pretty simple, as has been said, but going back to jet mode actually takes a little doing, mainly in figuring out how to fit the legs back inside the chest compartment, and getting said compartment to close while keeping the pointy knee bits on the outside. But nothing you need the instructions for or anything.

Now robot mode, that's where the appeal's at. While I kind of wish this guy could have been a Voyager, he still manages to look big and imposing, if a bit chunky, even at the smaller scale. The deco's pretty nice, the off-white of the plane gets set off by a couple shades of green and the blue on his wings. Like Shocky said, the gold on the pipe bits is nice, too, makes 'em stand out pretty well. The wings are pretty much the jet mold folded up on his back, but for the most part it folds together flat and just ends up looking like, well, an armored cape, I guess. The different layers of folded jet look pretty good, anyway. The nosecone just sort of sticks up on Thunderwing's back, but it's not too distracting from the front, even less so if you pull the drone thing off the nosecone here. The face, though...the toy actually does have that jagged-line mouth, though it's not open in the goofy grin the boxart has, so that's something. Like Dom, I would've preferred the toothy grimace Senior drew him with, but it's not a dealbreaker. The lightpiping on his eyes actually works pretty well, even with the bigass nosecone behind him his eyes light up pretty well. And if a final nice touch, the hands are sculpted about half-open, so he can hold his weapons, or you can dig out one of the Matrix toys and have him hanging on to that.

Overall, I like this toy, but I'm not blown away by it. If you leave out the fact that he's this character, the toy's just sort of average. It just takes a really familiar seeming path from okay jet mode to pretty cool robot mode. Definitely worth it if you're crazy for Marvel's late G1 stuff, but without that draw I don't know if I'd go nuts looking for this guy.

Also, yes, I know, I bitched about Bumblebee being hard to transform, and now I'm bitching about Thunderwing being too easy. I'll try to make up my damn mind.

[Shockwave]

But in all fairness Bumblebee (and subsequently Cliffjumper as well) is hard to transform. And it's not really so much that it's hard to figure out, it's just hard to get the pieces to do what they're actually suppose to do.