TF Views

Well, "Combiner Wars" was almost fun while my interest lasted.

Price bumps and such are killing it for me. SDCC Devastator does a good job of accenting some of what is wrong with the mass retail toy. And, Lewis Brooks told me that his Hotspot's legs cannot support the figure's weight. He fears it may be a design (rather than a random quality control) issue. On top of that, Blades' profile goes on about how Blades likes melee combat, and the figure does not have a single melee weapon.

Japan is marketing their products differently for a harder-core fan, I guess they don't have faith that Hasbro's add-in characters will sell their products to their customers. Why wouldn't they go down that path?

By "harder-core" you mean "backwards looking GeeWunner that is afraid of new things"?


I sort of hope I find Cyclonus and the limbs I want to use for that set) before the price bump. But, if not I will not be overly sorry.

Hot Spot and Cyclonus arrived via BBTS yesterday.

Defensor: Get this set. Seriously. So far, this is the best combiner set in Combiner Wars. Hot Spot's torso mode provides a combiner that is proportionate all around with no spindly legs or legs that don't lock together right and he doesn't look squat like Menasor. And the limb bots are fun too. Rook is a particular favorite of mine, his weapons peg into the front of his fists rather than the top. The result is that he can wear the combiner hands like boxing gloves, which I find kind of funny. Blades is literally Airwolf (since that helicopter was turned into a rescue copter after the show) and First Aid and Streetwise are different enough from their Stunticon counterparts that you don't feel like you're buying the same toys over and over again. Also, all the bots have enough red blue and white to make Defensor look and feel like a unified unit rather than the mish mash robot Frankenstein that is Menasor. And the individual bots are pretty good unto themselves as well. I could certainly see Hot Spot being repainted/remolded into Onslaught for Bruticus and I look forward to seeing that as well.

Cyclonus. You guys are not going to like him. He has Jetfire's hallow wing syndrome. He also has the weak feet problem that Silverbolt has. He isn't all bad though. The good is the new tooling is actually pretty nice, and the paint really brings out the detail. The new head looks pretty decent. Even the Galvatron mode looks good. I also like the little wings that peg into the jet sides, they add some versatility in the way you can display him. He can have them on his arms, hold them like weapons, or not be anywhere at all. Overall I would say it's a good figure to get if you don't already have Universe Cyclonus or you really want a combiner Galvatron. Other than that, there might not be much motivation to get this.

I'm really disappointed that Devvy is significantly smaller than Metroplex. I was hoping they'd be almost the same size so I could display them together.

I'm actually disappointed that they aren't just deluxe size figures, so they would actually be in scale with other combiners. Devy isn't supposed to be the same size as Metroplex. At least not if you think about it realistically. Metroplex is a city for guys the size of the individual Constructicons so even in their combined form they shouldn't be as tall as bot mode Metroplex.

Actually, I'm kind of surprised they aren't the same size in the comic. The fiction has always had touble depicting larger figures to scale with each other.

I've been thinking I might get CW Cyclonus if the price is right, I like the Silverbolt underlying design but the sculpting is only ok.

As for Devastator's size, there's a lot more parts involved so it's not surprising he's not as big as Metroplex, but he still looks plenty big. The individual bots look worse every time I see them though.

I am tempted by Cyclonus, but want to see one in person first.

Ideal combination would be Cyclonus, the new merge limbs, either Sunstreaker or Mirage and possibly Bombshell.

For Cyclonus as the core, I'd probably use Skydive as he looks pleasingly evil enough, and then probably Offroad, Slingshot, and let's say Alpha Bravo to give variety. Rook is too heroic. And yeah, Bombshell as weapon.

Cyclonus is supposed to be the core of a cross-faction combiner, making a heroic looking 'bot like Rook consistent. I am also going for new character limbs. (For similar reasons, I am considering Viper instead of Bombshell. Viper is a new character, and would add another faction, Cobra, to the mix.)

Dominic wrote:Cyclonus is supposed to be the core of a cross-faction combiner, making a heroic looking 'bot like Rook consistent. I am also going for new character limbs. (For similar reasons, I am considering Viper instead of Bombshell. Viper is a new character, and would add another faction, Cobra, to the mix.)

I don't think Cyclonus is supposed to be cross faction. The combined form is referred to as "Galvatronus" which leads me to think it's pretty solidly in 'Con territory.

Dominic wrote:Cyclonus is supposed to be the core of a cross-faction combiner, making a heroic looking 'bot like Rook consistent. I am also going for new character limbs. (For similar reasons, I am considering Viper instead of Bombshell. Viper is a new character, and would add another faction, Cobra, to the mix.)

He's not a cross-faction combiner, Cyclonus/Galvatronus mind-controls all bots regardless of faction to combine with him to "unleash chaos across the universe", that's different from being cross-faction.