Animated Review Thread

[Onslaught Six]

Dom
-is amazed O6 seems to be agreeing about the movie.

I watched it with my girlfriend again the other day and it occured to me just how hacky and iffy a lot of it really is. The scenes with the TFs in them are pretty much great, but it takes 'forever' to get to them and you have to deal with a lot of really crappy stuff through it. And I'm going to contradict myself by saying even the TF scenes aren't the best we've ever seen. Sure, they 'look' impressive but the fight scenes are hard to follow unless you've seen them as many times as I have.

[Dominic]

Hey JT, you seen this?

Dom

[138 Scourge]

I...probably still like the movie toys. They haven't gone in the "sell off" bin, anyhow. But, I can tell you, I was pretty well done with the whole line for a few months before Animated toys finally came out. Which is odd...I mean, Cybertron, Energon, and Armada had more or less the same aesthetic for years, and I was okay with those.

But anyway! The Animated aesthetic is one that, like CrossRook, I'm in love with. The designs are relatively streamlined, and stylized out the wazoo, and man, the overall look, way different than what we've already had. So far, I've only been able to pick up...hmmm...

...seven of 'em, but almost none of 'em have disappointed (Hi, Lockdown!).

Also, three of the Happy Meal toys. Things I do for this line, I tell ya.

[BWprowl]

I'm also in the "I love this Aesthetic" boat. I've wanted this sort of style applied to TF for YEARS, so I was overjoyed when that first pic of Prime that everyone hated popped up. I've got every toy from the first two waves, sans Deluxe Bumblebee (got the Activator instead) and Cybertron Mode Megatron (waiting on the Leader version), and I'll systematically review them in the coming days, but for now I'll just say that I've been VERY impressed with these things. Getting designs of this nature to be show-accurate and still transform properly is a darn neat trick, and while some aren't as terrific as others (Grimlock in particular disappoints mainly because the other toys in his size-class work so well), they're all really impressive pieces of work in my opinion. Like I said, gimme a coupla days, and I'll write up a bunch of reviews.

On the cartoon: I was impressed with the premier 'movie', but I wasn't really sure until the season one finale, when things really got cookin'. And even then, I was still in the "This show is good, but really just on its own sort of standards" mindset. Then "A Bridge too Close". Bam! This is the best TF show since Beast Wars. Period.

[CrossRook]

Well I just got all of Deluxe wave 3 yesterday, so here's some quicky reviews.

Jazz: Awesome car, simple transformation, great robot mode. A
Snarl: Pretty cool triceratops, unpainted weapon, cool transformation scheme (he like stands up, but in a more complex way). His teeny head and odd chest placement take some points away, as does the simplistic poseability. C+
Oil Slick: Exactly that. Slick. Nice toy. A
Soundwave: Rocks. Hard. A

[138 Scourge]

Man...if I could only find those.

And not to be a pendantic pain in the behind, but Snarl's a Triceratops. Just sayin'.

[138 Scourge]

Man...if I could only find those.

Oh, snap! Looks like I can. Okay, Soundwave!

This character was really entertaining in the show. I loved him absorbing dose after dose of Sari's key magic to upgrade himself into this crazy thing. The sad part about the cartoon, of course, is no Laserbeak. Still, can't have everything, and I'd rather he be in the toy and not the show instead of vice versa.

Vehicle Mode: Soundwave's got a kinda Sciony thing going on. At any rate, it's a blocky vehicle that's essentially a rectangle on wheels. Perfect for the Soundwave upgrade. While he's largely dark blue and gold (as it should be), the neon detailing along the sides and hubcaps of the van add some visual variety. Plus it's a cute touch that said neon stuff makes for a cassette-like pattern along the sides of the van..adding to the visual homages to the G1 Soundwave. Laserbeak can clip onto the roof here in either mode, even though it would seem to ruin the idea of Soundwave being "disguised" (one could, of course, argue that the neon does the same thing).

Transformation! Simple enough...once you've done it a couple times. I was completely at a loss the first time, though.

Robot Mode: From a small, boxy van you get a big, boxy robot. Soundwave's robot mode is actually kinda simple. Big barrel chest, smallish head, big ol' go-rilla arms that reach down to his knees, and teeny-tiny waist and thighs. Yet, it...works, somehow. Despite the strange proportions, the headsculpt and decor on his chest scream out at you "Yyyep, I'm Soundwave", and he's gotta have bonus points for having his tires double as arm-mounted speakers. Then there's Laserbeak...who actually kinda reminds me of Booster, the Real Gear Homage. He's neat looking, but lacks articulation (Booster had a couple points, anyhow), an other than looking cool, he doesn't do much. He will snap into Sounwave's hand for a nice "Laserbeak, report!" pose, or onto his back in guitar mode for storage, and, of course, you can have Soundwave holding him in guitar mode, which, while kinda tricky to pose, looks just awesome when you get it. Helpful hint: the huge knees are helpful here. He's pretty poseable, but the big kinda bulky sections can get in each other's way. His aesthetic seems a little different, less smooth than the other Animated figures, but that could be due to his boxiness, or, y'know, chalk it up to his crazy orgins. His size, though...He's smaller in bot mode than Prowl or Ratchet, which is funny, considering his bulk.

Bio: Soundwave hopes the Autobots are ready, because he's about to rock them like they've never been rocked before. Seriously. The bio goes over more of his powers and like that, but that last bit really says it all. Also, his quote is "You ain't heard nothin' yet", which sounds a lot more like Cybertron Soundwave to me, but whadda I know, anyhow.

Overall: Eh, he's no Cybertron Soundwave. Some issues with the poseability, and how useful an accessory Laserbeak really is, keep me from going completely ape over this guy. but, he is a really cool Soundwave homage, and a great character from a fun episode of the show. I do wish he'd gotten the Voyager treatment, it seems like there's a lot they could have done with improving him at that size, between posability and making Laserbeak even more rad. Stil, he's an evil robot revolutionary that loves to rock, and that's gotta be a good thing. B+, largely for being such a fun-looking figure, and being cool to fiddle with.

[CrossRook]

D'oh! Fixed that little mistake. And glad to see you're enjoying Soundwave as much as I am Scourge.

[ChaosDeathSaurer]

<nitpicky snobby fanboy> My only real issue with the Animated Starscream toys is that they're all blue. His show model has NO blue on it, and they insist on making him blue. Just call him Thundercracker if you're gonna do that. Oh wait, they have a Thundercracker. </nsf>

[JediTricks]

Hey JT, you seen this?

Seen what? The show? Just the pilot. The toys? I have Prowl & Lockdown so far, passed on all the rest of waves 1 and 2. Something else? I dunno, it's hard for me to follow what you mean and stuff as I'm skimming threads at best, super busy this week.