Received my motherlode of online exclusive TF's on Friday. Oh, come on. That's what they are. At least for now.
Grapple - No, I won't call him "Solar Storm Grappel", whatever the frick that means. Nice. Solid. Unsurprising. Very orange. No weapons, other than "I smack you with my crane arm". But satisfying nonetheless.
Wheeljack - A beaut. Finally, Hasbro went with WHITE white, and not that off-whiteness they tend to go with. Wheeljack is a solid little figure, very nice and stocky and well-decoed. Surprisingly, his joints are a lot tighter than my Tracks. Definitely recommended.
Thundercracker - Faith rewarded. You know exactly what you're getting here, so... what else do you want to know? Solid construction, but apparently bad QC on the helmet painting. Mine is unpainted in places, and my friend reported that the entire top half of his figure's head was missing the paint. What the hell, you guys should be able to paint this mold in your sleep by this point! But at last... it's over.
Warpath - I think he's my favorite of the bunch. A solid, dynamic sculpt, beautiful deco (let's see more of that dark metallic paint, please) and a just-right transformation. Apparently there's some complaint he's an H-tank? Screw that noise, it's not much of one and your reward is a kickass robot, blocky and tough and poseable. And the head transformation is inspired... you'll see.
Do you NEED a new Warpath toy? Probably not, but you'll definitely want this one. Highly recommended.
Heavytread with Groundspike - Heavytread is a GREAT figure. Definitely one of the best PCC's. Solid, fun robot mode, nice tank mode, and one of the best-looking, best-working combined modes in the line. I've given him tanks for arms, hummers for legs, and can't bring myself to transform him back because he looks so AWESOME. Groundspike... BROKE. His limbs all flew off when popping him out of the bubble (as Minicons' are wont to do these days) but when I tried reattaching his leg, his hip-joint snapped off. And of course, now they're out of stock at HTS, so a return probably isn't in the cards. A friend is trying plastic glue to fix it, I'll report on whether he was successful.
Skyhammer with Airlift - Reasonably well-executed, but not quite as solid as Heavytread. An interesting transformation, different enough from the other jet mold to be worth it. And hey, his Mini-con's still in one piece.
Undertow with Waterlog - A fairly sleek, modern pontoon ski-boat (not sure what else to call it) gives way to a sort of boring robot mode (Having his face obscured by semi-transparent plastic may have seemed like a good idea at the time, but didn't work out too well). And a surprisingly steampunk combined mode, with a gold retro diver's helmet for a head and gold gatling guns on the shoulders. The combiner head's a little small, but different and fun, adding character to a figure that otherwise needs some. And the Mini-con's probably the best of the three, so that helps.
