Asia market exclusives

[Onslaught Six]

Fuh Publications working with eHobby is not going to have any effect here because there are (if I understand this correctly) no eHobby exclusives.

Elaborate? Unless you mean just in this round of toys, and not in general.

[Dominic]

I meant this round of toys. I would imagine there are future e-Hobby figures planned.

Dom

[Dominic]

Well, it looks like Thundercracker and Motorhead/Master/Breath might be getting a US release, if we assume that reports on AllSpark about a Wal-Mart exclusive pack are true. They will be sold with a G2 recolour of Jazz (which I am kind of obligated to get) and a recolour of RTS Prime. The whole thing will probably cost about as much as it would cost to import the case's worth of Legends from Asia.

Of course, I will still need that Silver/Bluestreak though.

Dom
-notes that Jazz and 'Streak are official figures of characters that I have customized, so....

[BWprowl]

Well, it looks like Thundercracker and Motorhead/Master/Breath might be getting a US release, if we assume that reports on AllSpark about a Wal-Mart exclusive pack are true. They will be sold with a G2 recolour of Jazz (which I am kind of obligated to get) and a recolour of RTS Prime. The whole thing will probably cost about as much as it would cost to import the case's worth of Legends from Asia.

Generations Jazz, or the older Legends mold? I'd be kind of interested in the former, though I'd much prefer to buy that mold again were it someone who...wasn't Jazz (like, say Ricochet). Who the heck are they recoloring the RTS Prime into though? *corsses fingers* Please be Laser Magnus!

[Onslaught Six]

http://www.allspark.com/content/view/10296/20/

Looks like...kind of similar to Laser Magnus?

Actually, no, wait, it's this:
http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Image:CombatHeroPrime.jpg

[BWprowl]

http://www.allspark.com/content/view/10296/20/

Looks like...kind of similar to Laser Magnus?

Actually, no, wait, it's this:
http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Image:CombatHeroPrime.jpg

Huh, that's kind of a cool homage, actually, and incidentally bears a bit of a resemblance to Diaclone Powered Convoy. Now I wouldn't mind seeing it done as the regular flavor Hero Prime to square off against the purple Tank Megatron from United (which I still need to buy at some point). They could even call him Sureshot, for diversity's sake!

Man, that Jazz redeco is really...not G2 at all though, is it? A pity, the look they've gone with doesn't really interest me, and the Legends and an admittedy kind of cool RTS Prime redeco aren't enough to sell me on their own. Plus I kind of hate shopping at Wal-Mart these days.

[Dominic]

From what I have heard yesterday, BBTS ain't getting these. To make matters worse, TFSource has sold through on complete sets of the Legends figures and on single (apparently short-packed) Bluestreaks.

Bluestreak is running $20+ on eBay.

I was looking forward to Bluestreak, and kind of like the character. But, no way in hell am I paying $20 for a Legend, even if I already have a custom of it.


Dom
-hoping for a US release...

[Dominic]

I picked up a few of the "Asia Exclusives" yesterday.

Wheelie (robot/car):
Wheelie is a head and weapon swap of from RTS Jazz. The joint tolerances, including the robots chest, feels tighter than on the Jazz figure. Unfortunately, this makes it a little more difficult to line up the sections of the car's hood that fill in the hole where the robots head sinks/rises. Despite the tighter joint tolerances on the figure itself, the c-clips on the speakers are actually looser. (I could not get them to reliably stay clipped in to place on the flipping sections of the car's side windows.) The sling-shot acessory looks terrible. Even putting aside the "knock-off blue" colouring of the plastic, the moulding itself looks bad. It looks only vaguely like a sling-shot and has an visually superfluous pet on the side . The peg lets the sling-shot peg into the car's underside and lets the figure hold the sling-shot like a half-assed gun, similar to the vaguely moulded dual purpose accessories common in lines like "MicroMan".

The new head/face moulding is actually better than the Jazz moulding. And, this is the only official release of the mould that I can think of where the car's back windows are actually painted.

The character profile lists Wheelie as being brain-damaged due to his isolation on a remote planet.

This is probably not worth picking up unless you are a fan of Wheelie or have some need to get this mould.

Grade: C

-----------------------------------
Legends figures:

All 4 of the Legends figures are slightly retooled and backed with c-clip compatible weapons. For the most part, the swappable weapons do not integrate well with the vehicle modes. But, they also add options for customizing figures. All of the weapons plug tightly in to the robots's hands and vehicle plug-holes. They are unlikely to pop out once in, but I can see little kids having trouble making them fit. The cards include tech specs and profiles. Oddly, the backs of the cards also have a huge amount of dead space. The dead space lends the packaging even more of a "Chinatown bootleg" feel than the line already has. Hasbro's graphics department needs to tighten up. They only managed to use 50% of the space on the back of the package, despite that space being at a premium. At the very least, they could have used a larger font on the profile text.


Blue/Silverstreak (robot/car): To be honest, I am not even sure what this toy's official name is. (And, if you go by IDW, Silverstreak and Bluestreak are arguably different guys, so a case could be made that it matters.) The colouring is close to TFU Silverstreak, but is not exact. (The upper arms on this figure are grey, rather than the red of the TFU figure's upper arms.) The base for this figure is the Japanese Silverstreak that came out last year, not the US Prowl, as evidenced by the fact that the roof does not have an obvious hole to plug in a lightbar or a gun. The arms (sides of the car) have been retooled to allow for the gun to plug in to the sides of the vehicle. The gun strongly resembles G1 Blue Streak's gun. Grade: A

Hoist (robot/SUV): This is easily the weakest of the lot. Despite G1 Trailbreaker and Hoist sharing some moulding, the two toys looked significantly different. Legends Hoist is a straight recolour of Trailbreaker, and fails to evoke Hoist beyond the colouring. It is a better toy than the RiD Hoist (recoloured from X-Brawn) about 10 years ago. But, it is a lousy Hoist figure. The gun looks like it might have been designed to evoke G1 Hoist's weaons. But, it is hard to tell at that scale the gun was moulded at. Grade: C

Motor Master/Head/Breath (robot/truck): The official toy name is Motorbreath. But, it clearly evokes Motor Master (the name from G1 and Animated). This is a straight recolour of Legends Optimus Prime, with a plug-hold added to the top of the truck (back of the robot's head) to hold the sword. The sword is (pun intended) double-edged. It makes less visual sense on the vehicle mode than the guns, (which sort of make sense in the context of TF). But, it evokes the sword that Motor Master used in G1, which helps to make this figure more than a recolour of Optimus Prime (which is what most Motor-whatever figures have been over the years). Grade: B

Thundercracker (robot/fighter jet): This is a really solid figure. Aside from the massive cheat involved in the robot mode's chest (the facade chest cockpit) that puts Thundercracker below Silver/Blue Streak, this is a solidly designed figure. Even with the compromises made at this scale, it is still much better than the original Decepticon jet mould used for G1 Thundercracker. This set includes two plug-in guns that are moulded to resemble the weapons included with "Generations" Thundercracker and other toys cast from that mould. (I have heard tell of a Starscream being released with the modified moulding, but have yet to find a copy.) Grade: B


Dom
-so many customizing options....assuming that these figures are reasonably easy to find.

[Dominic]

I meant to post this a few days ago.

Lewis found copies of Hotspot and Megatron for Zab last week. I did not see the figures out of package. But, I got a good look at both of them in package.


Hotspot: (robot/firetruck)
This is a head-swap of the "Universe" Inferno toy, which is a huge mark in its favour. The new head/face look solid. If I did not know better, I would think that they were planned for this mould at the beginning. Unless there are any plastic tolerance issues (which would not be obvious unless I handled the toy), this is a solid figure. My only real gripe is that it uses the block-fist hand moulding from Inferno rather than the open hand moulding of Grapple. But, depending on how the moulding trays break down, it may not have been practical/possible to use the newer hands even with the head-swap.

David Willis has pointed out that swapping the head from Hotspot on to "Time Lines" Pyro/Spark would make for a more comie accurate Pyro. (Of course, in the same breath, Willis admits to being too lazy/untalented to paint the moutpiece gold, rather than silver.) If somebody happens to have an extra "Time Lines Pyro, and they have the skill to paint the face plate correctly, this would be a quick and easy custom.

The moulding alone is enough to make Hotspot a toy that I want. (Apparently, they are scarce.) If you do not have Inferno or any other pressing of this mould, Hotspot is definitely worth buying, even with the block-fists. If you do have other pressings of this mould, the new head sculpt is good enough to make it worth considering.


Megatron: (robot/tank)
Megatron is one of those character. You know the sort. Despite having been around since 1984 and being pretty important to the franchise, Megatron rarely gets any truly good figures. I will say it, Most Megatron figures suck. Putting aside the Beast Megatron figures, (which technically represent a different character), there really are not many good G1/G2 Megatron toys. G2 Megatgron was a solid effort for 20 years ago. And, if we stretch the point to include UT Megatron, (which is valid according to IDW), things look a bit more favourable. RiD Megatron is not a bad figure, despite being Megatron by virtue of a post-hoc decision by Hasbro. But, that still leaves the G1 figure, the "Classics" figures and some lack-luster Galvatrons.

And, now we can add the "(not an) import" Megatron to the roll call of shame.

While not quite as offensively bad as 2012's "Time Lines" Overlord, (which this figure shares moulding with), it has one of Overlord's most glaring problems. The head sculpt looks completely wrong on the body it has been attached to. The body was designed as a Bayformer. it was released, arguably twice, as part of the movie line. Putting a TFU style head sculpt on this body makes the figure look like the sort of half-assed custom figure that I kid would attempt (and probably end up sorry for). I am not sure if this Megatron will share the other problem that the Overlord figure had, specifically the face scraping against the inside of the body when the toy is in tank mode.

I was thinking about grabbing Megatron for customizing purposes. But, there is no way in hell that I am going to make a custom from a figure that looks more home-made than something that I would actually be making at home.


Dom
-wonders in Fun Publications is going to have any half-assed Wreckers this year....

[Tigermegatron]

I meant to post this a few days ago.

Lewis found copies of Hotspot and Megatron for Zab last week. I did not see the figures out of package. But, I got a good look at both of them in package.


Hotspot: (robot/firetruck)
This is a head-swap of the "Universe" Inferno toy, which is a huge mark in its favour. The new head/face look solid. If I did not know better, I would think that they were planned for this mould at the beginning. Unless there are any plastic tolerance issues (which would not be obvious unless I handled the toy), this is a solid figure. My only real gripe is that it uses the block-fist hand moulding from Inferno rather than the open hand moulding of Grapple. But, depending on how the moulding trays break down, it may not have been practical/possible to use the newer hands even with the head-swap.

David Willis has pointed out that swapping the head from Hotspot on to "Time Lines" Pyro/Spark would make for a more comie accurate Pyro. (Of course, in the same breath, Willis admits to being too lazy/untalented to paint the moutpiece gold, rather than silver.) If somebody happens to have an extra "Time Lines Pyro, and they have the skill to paint the face plate correctly, this would be a quick and easy custom.

The moulding alone is enough to make Hotspot a toy that I want. (Apparently, they are scarce.) If you do not have Inferno or any other pressing of this mould, Hotspot is definitely worth buying, even with the block-fists. If you do have other pressings of this mould, the new head sculpt is good enough to make it worth considering.


Megatron: (robot/tank)
Megatron is one of those character. You know the sort. Despite having been around since 1984 and being pretty important to the franchise, Megatron rarely gets any truly good figures. I will say it, Most Megatron figures suck. Putting aside the Beast Megatron figures, (which technically represent a different character), there really are not many good G1/G2 Megatron toys. G2 Megatgron was a solid effort for 20 years ago. And, if we stretch the point to include UT Megatron, (which is valid according to IDW), things look a bit more favourable. RiD Megatron is not a bad figure, despite being Megatron by virtue of a post-hoc decision by Hasbro. But, that still leaves the G1 figure, the "Classics" figures and some lack-luster Galvatrons.

And, now we can add the "(not an) import" Megatron to the roll call of shame.

While not quite as offensively bad as 2012's "Time Lines" Overlord, (which this figure shares moulding with), it has one of Overlord's most glaring problems. The head sculpt looks completely wrong on the body it has been attached to. The body was designed as a Bayformer. it was released, arguably twice, as part of the movie line. Putting a TFU style head sculpt on this body makes the figure look like the sort of half-assed custom figure that I kid would attempt (and probably end up sorry for). I am not sure if this Megatron will share the other problem that the Overlord figure had, specifically the face scraping against the inside of the body when the toy is in tank mode.

I was thinking about grabbing Megatron for customizing purposes. But, there is no way in hell that I am going to make a custom from a figure that looks more home-made than something that I would actually be making at home.


Dom
-wonders in Fun Publications is going to have any half-assed Wreckers this year....

I love the Hotspot recolor & remolded head. but I just can't justify owning 3 of this mold,I already own inferno & grapple. I don't need nor want a 3rd one in my TF collection. Anyways Hotspot is less iconic & more obsecure compared to inferno & grapple.

Their's also the thing where I hate it when Hasbro makes non-combining newer/repaints for the old school 1980's combiners toys. please just give me new molds/repaints for the combiners.

As far as Megatron goes,I sorta agree with you. That GDO TRU Megatron toy doesn't match the bulky designs of the G-2 Megatron toy/comic designs. the G-2 head on that body look out of place & doesn't match the body designs.

I think both megatron & optimus get so many toys,that most of them are mediocre & just not worth buying. on a year average both megatron & optimus get at least 3 to 4 new molds in different toy sizes,only one out of Four is worthy of buying.

I'd rate the 1984 Megatron & Optimus toys as beyond decent & great toys for their time. the PMOP toy I'd rate worse than the 1984 optimus toy. the action masters toys were just terrible. G-2 had a decent laser optimus & decent huge green tank megatron sculpt. the G-2 hero toys were pure garbage.