Universe2.0/Generations Review Thread

[Onslaught Six]

Quick Windblade review:

Robot mode's good. I can see what some have said about her being backheavy, but arranging the wings in a certain way helps alleviate it, and I actually use the sheath as a big counterweight. I wish it stayed in better though. She could use with some better feet articulation or something, especially regarding the transformation--they just kinda hang there, especially during the transformation. Sword is cool, I love the purple-to-clear. The transformation can be finicky, at first I thought it wasn't really well-defined until I popped out the instructions and saw the shouldery joints could move further than I thought they could, and then some of the wing stuff kinda fell into place. But even then, the legs and hands don't even "go" anywhere, they just hang there like, "Whatever!" The altmode is kinda cool conceptually but the problems with the legs make the back end look real dumb.

But Windblade represents something bigger; it represents fans getting what they democratically asked for, and it represents an increase in female representation in TF. I have zero doubt that the fandom collectively saying to Hasbro, "WE WANT A NEW FEMALE CHARACTER!" didn't immediately make them go, "Oh hey, you want females? Maybe we should make Arcee and Chromia and shit." I mean, they would've had to get started at the same time, and are released in the wave afterwards, so y'know.

If you like Windblade in the comics, she's a good representation of that. (I'd hope so, anyway, it was a Hasbro design first.) If you like female TFs, she's a pretty decent one. If you're just interested in wholly great toys, there's better ones in the line than that. (I would put Rattrap above Windblade right now, for example.)

[BWprowl]

I greatly want Windblade and Chromia (okay, mostly Chromia). Arcee I'm going back and forth on, but I'll probably cave and get her too.

[Shockwave]

I think I found a problem with my copy of RB, the foot ratchet is misassembled. Not a huge problem to fix, but still. Between this and Thundercracker, this is the second time in two years that I've had to remove a pin and reverse a part.

[138 Scourge]

Arcee and Chromia I'm interested in. I wanted Windblade at first, but some of the reviews have really put me off.

[JediTricks]

I think I found a problem with my copy of RB, the foot ratchet is misassembled. Not a huge problem to fix, but still. Between this and Thundercracker, this is the second time in two years that I've had to remove a pin and reverse a part.

Return him, get another one, I had the same problem and couldn't get the pin out, it was a bitch.

[Onslaught Six]

Roadbuster does sound like he's had a LOT of QC issues, more than the normal amount. Who ships with him, Skybyte? Has anyone had a lot of problems with him? (JT excluded since he always gets shitty QC. )

[JediTricks]

JT excluded because he's not buying Sky Byte.

The reason Choadfucker is having so many QC issues is at the design end, not manufacturing. My guess is that there's a failure to take into account the cheaper new materials being used for some parts, the load-bearing shoulder design is a biggie there. Also, the feet problems are due to designing a part that's NEARLY symmetrical but not, so it assembles backwards or forwards the same but doesn't behave the same afterwards.

[Onslaught Six]

Nightbeat:

I was talking to 86 over work the other night and we were talking about some of the older homage figures in the line's history--we were mostly talking about the old Universe Roadbuster from 2008, and stuff like Energon Dreadwing and Universe Springer. Just not great versions of historic, important characters, made from inappropriate moulds and poor choices all around. Nightbeat's a character who has repeatedly kind of gotten that shaft. Now he's getting it again, but this one looked reasonable enough to pick up, and I didn't own the mould yet, so what the hey!

Let's start with the good: Nightbeat reasonably looks like a Nightbeat should. The dude's defining features as a character are typically his head and his big yellow cheest, and...well, okay, this gets one of those right. Given that all the yellow paint on him kinda turns into this weird green shade, it's probably better off that they didn't try to cover his chest in yellow, but still. His head's a good one, though, looking about as much as Nightbeat as you would want--I can even make out a faint smile on it. I'm using his alternate shoulder transform, officially introduced by the Goshooter repaint in Japan (and boy, does THAT look cool--too bad it's a super expensive exclusive!) which is basically to just leave the shoulders untransformed. This has the side effect of giving him big huge panels that hang off his arms, but it has the effect of kinda giving him a trenchcoat look--like AOE Crosshairs, but not shitty--which particularly works for Nightbeat's "detective" schtick.

As far as transformation goes, it's relatively simple. One thing I got tripped up on was that I never realized the panels with his back windshield were attached to his shins, and could move around, which led to a frustrating 20 minutes as I tried to fit one leg together to transform it. Also, on mine, this piece was a lot harder to move on one side, until I moved it back and forth a LOT. So, watch for that. Other than that, it's really simple and easy to do, and everything locks into place really well, in both modes--the exception being the hood panel on the back in Robot Mode. There's a slot that's used for a different purpose in both modes, with the hood piece obviously designed to tab into the slot in Robot Mode, but it only sorta works, and falls out some of the time. A little disappointing, but also not that big of a deal.

His car mode is pretty good. It's a faux-New Camaro, obviously, since this is a Bumblebee retool. But since it's obviously got some modifications, it works out to be kind of its own thing, and I could easily see there being a motif across various Headmasters of being cool muscle cars. He made me want to bring down my Movie Big Daddy, for some reason. It's a cool-looking car that doesn't have quite all the same dumb parts that make me not like the newer Camaros. The paintapp (or tampo?) on the doors is well done and crisp.

Now, for all the bad stuff. First off, his gun...thing, SUCKS. Probably the worst TF weapon in recent memory. I don't even know what it's supposed to be. Some kind of laser weapon? Swords? What the fuck is this thing? It's stupid, is what it is. It's also the only thing on Nightbeat with any yellow plastic, which makes it contrast really poorly against the figure--I already mentioned it above, but all the yellow paint on him is pretty low-quality and ends up looking like a greenish tint. This is kind of okay though, except against the yellow plastic it looks really bad. So I'm kinda glad it's contained to the shitty weapon. Also, the yellow stripe on the bottom of the car mode is interrupted in a place or two--pretty unfortunate. He also has a lot of unpainted details, but the worst part is, some of these details are clearly meant to evoke parts of his car mode...parts that are blatantly on the robot parts! He has some unpainted fake wheels under his feet, when the sides of the legs have wheels too. The front of his feet is clearly supposed to be tail lights or something, when that's clearly on his knees! His chest is designed like it's the car hood, and his waist has what might be headlights, despite those being on his shoulders! It's crazy, it's like someone gave zero fucks about it when even conceiving of it. Thankfully, most of these are unpainted, and can safely be ignored or you can pretend they're something else. Also, his left knee is VERY loose. He can stand just fine, but picking him up makes it droop back. I tried to fix it with some non-permanent solutions (TP, paper, etc.) but they all fell out. So, that's a thing on mine.

Overall, I dunno if Nightbeat is necessarily worth $15+. He's worth $10, I'd say. Maybe $15 if you REALLY like Nightbeat, and have some extra guns for him. As soon as BBTS gets in Arcee and Chromia, I'm having them ship my pile of loot with them, Crosscut and Skids, so I'll have a ton of guns to go around.

[andersonh1]

Universe Skrapnel and Reflector

Pretty nice little set. Skrapnel isn't all that different in size from the original. Proportions and sculpting are better, though I miss the clear chest cockpit and chrome antennae. Two insect legs jut off the robot arms, but the other four fold out from the back. The transformation involves folding and swiveling rather than telescoping. It's a nice update to the old design, and though I poked fun at the name a few weeks ago, Skrapnel is better than Insecticon, I have to admit.

Arms fold underneath the insect torso, the robot legs form the insect abdomen, insect legs fold out from underneath, and mandibles close. Some of the pieces just stay in place due to the tightness of the ball joints from what I can tell, so time might end up rendering this thing a bit floppy. There are some pegs and slots, but they're tiny and hard to match up. There is a hole mid insect body where Reflector can plug in.

Reflector: Not much articulation, as you might expect from a figure this size. Arms move at the shoulders and that's it. But not only does he turn into a fun little camera (basically by laying the robot down on his belly), but he also unfolds into a gun very much like the original Shrapnel's grenade launcher. It's the shape of the arms that really evokes the old weapon. The robot sculpt appears to be based primarily on Viewfinder of the old Reflector trio. The circular detail/lens in his abdomen is the major giveaway, but the face, shoulders and other details are pretty similar too.


I'd love a box set of all these tiny little figures that come in these $10 sets. So far, they've been my favorite part of each set.

[Onslaught Six]

Some quick Brainstorm thoughts as I think of them:

-Robot mode is one of the more impressive ones in recent memory. The only articulation he's really "missing" are some proper wrists and maybe waist, although his ball jointed head gives plenty of room for cool poses, and his biceps make his lack of wrists less annoying.
-Transformation scheme is like, half and half, y'know? It's very much fold-legs-around-and-fold-arms-in-half-call-it-done. On the other hand, there's no panel massaging, nothing particularly finicky and nothing that just hangs without clipping. Still, this kind of transformation shouldn't go above Deluxe level at best.
-Vehicle mode almost feels tacked on. Spacey jet thing. But it's a Headmaster dude, and literally all of them turned into crap like that. So!
-Obviously his lack of briefcase is the biggest bullshit, but I guess people who don't read MTMTE would be confused. Then again, I'm not sure there's that many people left out of the Venn diagram of "People who like Brainstorm" and "People who read MTMTE."
--Headmasters are usually very disappointing but this ones ages to not be! His arms form the entire sides of the head, which is pretty unique. I hope we get at least one more Headmaster in the next year and he's compatible with Brainstorm.
-of note, his Headmaster doesn't seem to be named in either the packaging or the instructions. Also, the tech specs that the Headmaster reveals don't really match the box ones.
-I like his guns but I wish he could properly hold two on one hand, one on top and one on bottom.
-He is designed in such a way that there are VERY few paint apps, which is not necessarily a bad thing. He still looks plenty detailed and has lots of variation in his colour scheme. His Autobot tampos look almost as good as silvery stickers!

Overall I would say Brainstorm is essential for your Lost Light crew, but if you don't care about Brainstorm or MTMTE you might be a little disappointed in the transforming aspects.