ROTF Review Thread

[Shockwave]

Well I just can't seem to justify the purchase of Chromia individually and being the organized obsessive that I am I just can't bring myself to get an incomplete combiner. I may have to go to ebay for this one.

[Onslaught Six]

Eh.

Incidentally I have no idea where I put my Chromia and I'm not that concerned.

[JediTricks]

I'll admit to being curious about Chromia or Arcee, because despite the really odd long torsos, they have a resemblance to BM Thrust in robot mode, so that's kinda a good thing, yeah?

They have NOTHING in common with Thrust in person, aside from alt mode. Thrust was a lean, clean, solid design. These chicks have nothing of the sort going on thanks to bizarre concept designs for the characters taking away all cohesion of their midsections. I still think Chromia and Arcee have some interesting concepts and applications even, but the end result is so poor that it's impossible to say anything good beyond "interesting idea, poor execution" and to strongly advise checking them out before buying.

If I go with either, though, it'll probably be Arcee, because of what JT just pointed out, and also because given the choice of dark blue or pink, I'm goin' pink for a toy like this any day of the week.

Arcee is the better choice of the 2, but the pink is very very strong, I can't imagine why that'd be a good thing in your book.

It is kinda odd that there hasn't been an image of the combined mode of these three, though, isn't it? I mean, you'd think that'd be a selling point. It'd at least give kids and incentive to buy Chromia, who's horribly shelfwarming 'round hereabouts.

At the Botcon and SDCC panels, it seems like Hasbro doesn't want to use it as a selling point, that they left the design in there but with it removed from the movie, they're not even remotely impressed with it and are only mentioning it due to fan fascination. Still, it is indeed odd we haven't seen something from Japan if nothing else since Takaratomy has their own marketing.

Just watched Peaugh's review of Arcee, and can not understand for the life of me just what that thing's supposed to be.

I can forgive a lot in the name of weirdness, but Arcee just doesn't look like any kinda functional toy at all. Like, She-Transmutate, maybe.

You have to really get a look at what they were designed to be in the movie to understand that the toys are indeed just emulating Bay & co's designs:
http://tformers.com/ig.php?mode=view&al ... 00&start=0
http://tformers.com/ig.php?mode=view&al ... 00&start=0
http://www.seibertron.com/transformers/ ... led/16577/
http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Image:ROTF-Arceethree.jpg

Now that you know, you can see where the problem lies, it's with the designs, not the toys (although Chromia's toy is pretty damned sloppy). With both, you can kind of work them into better unicycle-bots, Arcee definitely gets the better there as she's got a solid torso to begin with.

[138 Scourge]

Arcee is the better choice of the 2, but the pink is very very strong, I can't imagine why that'd be a good thing in your book.

I couldn't say either. The heart wants what it wants. It's likely my love of bright, ridiculous colors mixing with liking the contrast of a heavily-armed robot war machine being painted pink.

Or maybe I'm just warped, I dunno.

And while I can see what's going on in that pic where Arcee's spine or whatever's all curved around and the like, I don't see how they thought it'd make a good toy. She's got her wheel on the ground, and is all bent over to the one side? Articulation that let it bend over there if one wanted, maybe, but to make that the default position, that doesn't make too terribly much sense to me.

[Onslaught Six]

I found that Rampage kitbash tutorial I was talking about ages ago.

http://mattbooker.info/2009/06/16/rampage-part-1/

The first part tells you nothing, but keep going and it explains.

[andersonh1]

Legends class - The Fallen

I've been busy spending my hobby money elsewhere over the last few months, and I've been generally uninspired by ROTF product, so up to this point I haven't bought a Transformer since Universe Treadbolt two months ago. But I finally reversed the trend and picked up the legends version of The Fallen, a figure I've only come across in one local retailer so far. The Fallen appeals to me as a character, even if the movie version isn't really the same character as the comics version we got a few years back.

Vehicle mode - very arbitrary "Cybertronian Destroyer" or some such thing. Like just about any Transformer with a non-real world vehicle mode, it is what it is only because Hasbro says so. Despite that, the vehicle just about works. There's a tiny cockpit at the front, and the overall vehicle is a narrow at the front, wide at the back, almost wedge-shaped "space plane". The dark charcoal and red "vents" are an effective color scheme. I like it.

Transformation - fold the cockpit up against the robot's back, fold the legs away from the side of the plane (the chest area) and down to form legs. The arms fold out to the side. It's worth noting that the arms peg together to hold them in place in vehicle mode, and the legs clip over spurs on the waist, so it's not just friction holding the plane together.

Robot mode - let's face it, this is the selling point of the figure. Visually, the Fallen reminds me of the alien from the Alien movies, and I imagine that's deliberate. For such a small figure, the detailing is fairly strong, and a good representation of the movie character. Joints include the ankles, hips, shoulders and neck. No elbows or knees. Despite that, a pretty good range of poses are available.

I'll be the first to admit that most Legends class figures have a sculpt that suffers from the small size of the toy. Many of them look blocky and simplified. The Fallen doesn't suffer as much from that trend due to the lithe and organic shapes that make up the figure's profile. It translates well to the smaller size, far better than many other characters do.

Overall, even though Legends are really too expensive at $5 each, the Fallen is not a bad purchase. If you like the character but don't want to drop $20 on the Voyager class version, this isn't a bad substitute.

[Shockwave]

Ok, just got done fiddling with ROTF Leader Prime. Took me a total of an hour to get transformed and *hangs head* ... had... to.. read the directions. In the end, they wound up telling me what I wanted to know which was what to do with the chest pieces. If they'd actually been photos it would have been more apparent, but I had to read them like three times to figure out how what it was suggesting that the pieces do. I really wish they would just use photos of the toys instead of this drawing crap that's been sucking since wave two of G1. In spite of all of this I like this Prime better than movie 1 Premium edition. The alt mode is more true to the actual vehicle (which I can say having seen the real thing in person) and the robot mode is more accurate to the movie design as well. All in all I like it.

[Onslaught Six]

'Hate' Prime's transformation, and after seeing Buster Prime, I really wish I'd shelled out to get him instead.

Seriously, it feels like you're breaking his chest.

[Shockwave]

It really does, although that's my only complaint with it. Now that I know that's how it's "supposed" to work, it doesn't bother me that much.

[Onslaught Six]

Still bothers me--because it's not intuitive. I got Jolt and had him figured out in five minutes. He's easy. We need more like that.