TF Views

Classics/Henkei Grinlock: (t-rex/robot)
This review is based more heavily on the "Henkei" figure, as that is the version I have handled more extensively, though there does not seem to be any meaningful difference, (beyind the obvious chroming), between the two.

The dinosaur mode is about 8 inches from nose to tail, and just under 4 inches at the hip. The arms are about as functional as a the arms on a real t-rex are assumed to have been. The legs rotate at the hips and hace several other joints. These funtion both in the transform and the robot mode. The robot's gold chest panel is on the left side of the dinosaur, while the dinosaur mode's right is more consistent with the greys that dominate the toy.

The dinosaur mode's head has an articulated jaw, and can tilt up and down. However, the head cannot turn, owing to elements needed for the transform.

There is a hinged turret to hold Grimlock's on the dinosaur's back. Leaving the gun off allows this piece to be partly folded down.

The tail is gracefully articulate, balancine engineering and aesthetic needs well.


The robot stands about 6 inches high. Changes in the character's design from the original mold are very apparent in this form. As before, the dinosaur's legs become the robot's arms. But, aside from some aesthetic touches, the robot mode is much different. The robot's legs cinsist of the dinosaur's head, neck and chest, rather that the dinosaur's tail. The tail becomes a sort of prehensile, and rather cumbersome, club.


The results are mixed. Grimlock's design has a (sadly and increasingly common) flaw that a number of recent toys have had, parts that do not integrate cleanly inorganic both modes. Grimlock is hardly the worst offender in this respect, but the problem is intrusive enough to warrant mention.


Grade: B/C Worth getting, but flawed in ways an updated design should not be.

The results are mixed. Grimlock's design has a (sadly and increasingly common) flaw that a number of recent toys have had, parts that do not integrate cleanly inorganic both modes. Grimlock is hardly the worst offender in this respect, but the problem is intrusive enough to warrant mention.

What did you mean by this? That the accessories do not integrate well? I always appreciated that the removal of the tail is completely optional, and that the gun can remain in the same place in both modes. Aside from the misengineered shoulders and poorly-balanced feet, I'm very fond of that mould, and thoroughly enjoy it as Overkill too. The rex mode is significantly improved if you shift the rex hips down to put the legs below the body, making him far less squat.

Legends class G2 Megatron

I bought this guy months ago, but I'm finally getting around to opening and reviewing him. I don't have the original G2 Megatron tank, so I don't know how faithful this is, but it seems pretty close.

Robot mode- like all Legends class figures, it's only about 3" tall. Primarily a dark olive green with purple camoflage... yeah, I don't know where that would help disguise him, but that's G2 for you. Legs and belly area are dark grey, along with the shoulder cannon. The hands and face are silver, making them instantly stand out as the only real bright spots of color. Eyes are red, and there's a purple G1 Decepticon insignia on the chest.

Articulation - shoulders have a good range of motion thanks to the transformation joints. The head turns, and both thighs and knees bend. You can't get any terribly dynamic poses out of the figure, but it's no brick.

Transformation - the head rotates sideways, then folds down into the front of the tank. The arms become the turret, and the legs fold up to become the rear. The turret doesn't rotate, and there's a small gap between the front and back treads, but at this small size it doesn't matter. It's a nice looking, compact little tank.

Overall - a very good cut down version of G2 Megatron, with colors that aren't quite as garish as the original. A great use of the Legends size class to remake an older figure. Would have been cool to have the G2 Decepticon logo on it, but I doubt we'll see those again.

Wal-Mart exclusive Ultra Powerglide...

...otherwise known as the one with the accurate paint job. Makes me glad I didn't order the Henkei version, since this finally came out domestically. Found it on clearance for $15, making it an even nicer buy.

The mold is identical to the original. The joints feel a bit more stiff and so transformation takes a bit more effort. The wing tabs are still the weak point on this mold. There are rectangular tabs on the side of the engines where the wings are supposed to attach to form shoulders, but it doesn't work very well. On both versions that I own, the wing simply won't position correctly, and if it does it slips right off the tab at the slightest provocation. Generally speaking however, this version seems a little more stable than the original, probably due to a different plastic.

Visually, it's mostly red with white upper legs, arms and hands, and face, just like the original. The Autobot insignia on the chest is silver. There is black trim here and there. While I vastly prefer the red version, the sculpted panel lines and rivets don't show up as well as they do on the off-white original figure, but it's a trade-off that's worth making.

Sounds are the same. Same three sounds in plane mode, machine-gun only in robot mode, and both versions of the G1 transformation sound triggered by a button on the abdomen halfway through the change. Very nice.

Overall, I'd call this exclusive an improvement, simply because I enjoy the more accurate G1 color scheme.

The problem with Powerglide's original colour scheme is that he looked too much like Jetfire. Or 'Star Saber.'

Onslaught Six wrote:The problem with Powerglide's original colour scheme is that he looked too much like Jetfire. Or 'Star Saber.'

It's not a bad color scheme at all, and does in fact look pretty good. It just isn't authentic.

No, really, it's that it was too similar to Jetfire in general. Being the Hugeass White Autobot Jet Guy is one of Jetfire's big defining features, and once Powerglide takes over all those, he becomes less interesting by default. Why get him when I already have a hugeass white Autobot jet guy? It's when he's a hugeass red Autobot jet guy that he becomes awesome. I guess.

Onslaught Six wrote:No, really, it's that it was too similar to Jetfire in general. Being the Hugeass White Autobot Jet Guy is one of Jetfire's big defining features, and once Powerglide takes over all those, he becomes less interesting by default. Why get him when I already have a hugeass white Autobot jet guy? It's when he's a hugeass red Autobot jet guy that he becomes awesome. I guess.

I never looked at Powerglide and thought "Jetfire". He doesn't look anything like Jetfire, and having a Classics Jetfire probably helps offset that visual image as well. Not that I don't get your point, I just never saw it the same way.

It's more a question of uniqueness and redundancy. Hasbro's classic "Too many tanks!" argument.

I already posted my Drift review in the Drift thread, so here's my take on the other 3...

TF:Gen WfC Bumblebee is fascinating. Bot mode is pretty BB-esque, though it has quite a bit of bustle in the back kibble panel. They took some liberties with the source material, but tried to stay as true as they could, including sculpted cues. He's a little tubbier as a figure, but somehow manages to make it work out. A lot of interesting ideas are found, and what they turn into later is quite clever. Decent articulation, the backpack gets in the way of the waist and hips a little, and the transformation side-hinge thighs can be a bit annoying, and the hands rotate diagonally, but mostly decent. There is a fold-out hot pink blade in each forearm, and a slightly bee-themed pistol, dark dark gray with a yellow front, and it can be stowed in the backpack shell.

Transformation is fascinating, there are more ideas here than possibly any previous deluxe, lots of folding and sliding and flipping around, lots of clever sculpting and paint that suggests one thing then leads organically to something else. It is also very complex, and I suspect anybody new to TF (or hasn't been in it for a while) will find this exceptionally confusing. For the well-initiated, I think this will be a hotly debated
TF scheme. There's one bit that is made overly frustrating from the instructions, where the forearms peg into the shoulders, the instructions leave this done too late so it's hard to access, and they don't seem to mention that rotating the hands makes this much easier, good job as ever, Hasbro instruction monkeys. Once you get past that, it's just a bit of panel massaging and you've got a solid cybertronian car. Transformation back is a little daunting since it's hard to remember where to start (you can start with the shell or the legs), but it all feels more natural from there, and going back and forth afterwards I found much easier than I imagined.

Alt mode is really nifty, it unifies ideas together in a very Tron-esque fashion, and looks good doing it. The yellow painted elements don't quite match the cast ones, but it's close enough for me. A few odd hot pink accents give it an electro-zip style, though it makes the Autobot logo on the car nose/bot chest hard to see. There are also some boss holes for screws and pins, but not too bad. I love the fact that it's wide, not enough TF cars are wide, this is a good Cybertronian VW Beetle. No kibble and it rolls well on a mousepad or something with a little friction. The middle and top and car windows are black opaque plastic, while the side and rear windows are dark smoke translucent. There are a few panels that leave a little gap at alignment, but nothing I'd consider major. BB's pistol stores inside the rear of the car the same as in bot mode, it works well. Unusually for a BB figure, the alt mode is a decent-sized deluxe, a little shorter front to back but wider and a decent tapering height.

All in all, I really like this WfC Bumblebee figure a lot, and I'd probably buy the repaint. It's got a lot of charm and has a very interesting transformation. I suspect this is a figure that will appeal to only certain tastes and not every collector will dig it, but it will work smartly for those who dig such things.


WfC Optimus Prime doesn't quite live up to BB there. He's a smaller scale bot since he's a deluxe the same height as BB, the most telling aspect is the tiny head on Prime. Out of the package, he's got mistransformed shoulders and a bunch of kibble, and his chest isn't gelling too well. Once you get all the stuff into its pace, the figure still has a bit too much kibble even when it's design touches, several panels on limbs that don't lock down and should, and I don't really know how the backpack panel should rest. There's also this feeling to me that it's Prime as a facade, like a robot wearing Prime's elements but it's all a bit too big for him - the forearms and lower legs are fat, the chest is big, the belt is thick, but the upper arms, thighs, waist, and head aren't The head is Prime though, an angry anime Prime with tall ears and cold eyes - the eyes are blue translucent, but because the light-pipe doesn't catch ambient light for crap due to size and positioning, it works only when you jam a light down on the top of his head, and otherwise it looks the same color as the tiny head around it). The chest reminds me of movie 1 protoform Prime. Although well-articulated, posing is a challenge because holding him dislodges lower leg and shoulder kibble panels, and drops the shoulders on their transformation joints, and the feet are jointed too far back so there's not enough heel to work with. There's also the hips being limited by the belt, while the belt is designed to flip up to allow full range for the legs, I don't feel it's that necessary except for sitting poses as the belt is far forward allowing around 30 degrees of motion to the hips - and careful with that belt, it occasionally likes to take vacations from its simple friction hinge. Prime sports a long blaster rifle, not his classic G1 version, this is a little more Gundamy and also a little simpler in sculpt than I am used to, but it does fold up and pop onto his back - a cool feature, but it easily dislodges and springs open, flinging itself away from the storage in both modes. Colors are standard red, blue, silvery gray plastics, but instead of yellow they used the electro hot pink again. The Autobot logos on either shoulder contrast better on Prime than on BB's yellow, but the simple tampos here remind me of a few prior Prime figures where the logos have no sculpting to make them special so they just look like an afterthought.

Transformation has some clever stuff going on, some sliding in the legs and things I didn't expect, but relies too heavily on panels, and even worse for me, requires moving parts only at a specific time or else they get in the way of something else down the line. It gets pretty complex with all the moving limbs and panels, and not in a fun way. It also breaks one of the rules I consider important - Optimus Prime's face should never be face-down in alt mode, and certainly not having his painted chin a few millimeters away from a surface when truck mode is set down, that's a no! That said, I do find the way the panels cover the front and sides to be a bit interesting, I like the pipes, and dig the belt turning into the bumper the way it does (even if it is far too close to the ground). Of course, I have to wonder why Hasbro would go to the trouble of paying to design, tool up, paint, and assemble the flip-around kneecaps that turn into tail lights if they're going to let the clowns who make the instructions throw all that money and effort out the window by ignoring it.

Alt mode is a cybertronian truck, it's a bit art deco, and conforms well to deluxe pricepoint sizing. The truck is a tad generic really but gets a few style points for trying to stay smooth and panel-y. The rear half tries to hide the robot thighs folded over as an engine, but it's not getting that job done. I sorta like this truck, the big front wheels offset by 2 sets of smaller rear wheels, the silver star hubcaps with red rims, the small silver grille in the front leading into the bumper, the big pips out the midsection, the separate front fenders, that all works. I was confused as to the lack of windows for the cabin though, I saw the small recessed silver bot chest and at first didn't get that it's supposed to be the windows, the game design it turns out uses that area and the area above it as the windows which stands out better, but Hasbro's bot design kills that, so it's a truck with REALLY small windows that can't see to the side at all, some disguise! I suspect the windows (or lack thereof) might work better at Voyager class, and some of the other elements feel like they could have worked better there as well, but I suspect this was always meant to be a deluxe. The folded up gun can be stowed on top of the "engine block", but not only does it stick up in the air a bit, but the peg is loose and the gun automorphs itself into the air quite often, so for stowing it sucks.

All in all, this is a mixed bag that I'm not sure I could recommend. A little bit works in bot mode, more in alt mode, but what doesn't work in both really doesn't work, and the same can I guess be said for the transformation as well. The scale isn't a good fit to the character, leaving robot mode disproportionate and the vehicle mode somewhat simple. And finally, there's the underwhelming blaster weapon. I think this will be a sliding scale between mild interest and frustration for most collectors.


Thrust is good, I didn't realize this wasn't the Games of Deception version but a Japanese retool, I like this better since it's got movable VTOL thrusters (oddly packaged on the tail halves here) and the original null ray cannons, and the chrome cockpit looks good. The tails have the same odd slight downward slope of the previous Starscream molds. The removable VTOL engines have spinning fans inside, though they don't move all that great, it's cool that they tried. I wish they had gotten the engines to sit closer against the wings, but that's not a big deal, and the shape of the wings and the engines and the paint all hearken back to the G1 character (both toy and show). Like Ramjet, the robot face is totally visible on the underside of the fuselage. Watch out for the paint as best you can, I saw another with the white parts far less evenly applied, and mine has a white splotch on the inside of 1 of the tails. All of the ones I've seen so far have swirls on the left side of the red plastic of the back and the legs, the metallic mix in the dye having been not fully mixed in injection, nothing a collector can do about that.

Bot mode is good, the colors work pretty well in both modes, not as loud as the Japanese version, although this one's white face doesn't show the yellow eyes all that well. It's mainly the same Starscream mold variant, the chromed cockpit doesn't come through as cleanly because it's a screw section showing, so it's blurry. The wings look good, but they have to be flipped around up high instead of left low like the G1 figure (or risk breaking the hinge, it can be done but only through play in the moving parts). Just like the others of this mold, the null-ray cannons ram into the wings when left on the arms. The crotch on mine separates a little on its own, I don't remember this on previous versions but I wouldn't be surprised to find it there and I just forgot.

All in all, a decent figure, I may like it more than Ramjet and Starscream, but probably not as much as Skywarp.