TF Views

Great TF molds,but ruined by limited poseabilty/engineering/size/colors.

Obviously to play fair,lets eliminate the 1980's G-1 toys from this list. Lets try to select newer TF toys That got released from Generation 2 towards The 2013 Newer TF toys.

Here's my short list below:

1- Armada tidalwave was a awesome mold,it just needed better colors,some type of Robot Head joint. 360 degree rotate joints somewhere in the legs. Bending backward knee joints were needed.

2- Armada bigger Megatron,The upper robot mode had plenty of joints. The lower half of the robot modes needed key joints like walking hips joints,Bending backward knee joints.

3- Energon super/leader sized Megatron/Galvatron,Awesome sculpt,it just needed more key necessary joints in certain areas on the toy. like Rotate robot wrist joints/maybe poseable fingers. Ball jointed head joint. 360 degree rotate swivel joints in the waist & legs.

4- Rotf leader sized Megatron,Awesome powerful beautiful sculpt in both modes. it just desperately needed a elbow+wrist+fingers joints in the tank turrent/arm. 360 degree swivel waist joint. more rotate movement in the robot head joint.

5- Generations Thunderwing needed to be Ultra sized. So the minicon sized robot could fit into the robot chest cavity like the 1988 toy had.

6- Various Classics toys were made in the wrong size scale. 2.0 Cyclonus & 2.0 Galvatron needed to be voyager or 8 Inch Ulra size. 1.0 Grimlock should have been Voyager size. 2.0 Silverbolt,Onslaught & Powerglide should have all been deluxe size so galvatron,cyclonus & octane could be ultra sized.

7- I felt 25th universe BW deluxe megatron should have been Voyager size.

8- Alternators,Most of them in the first year or two had great sculpts but were ruined by limited joints & limited range of movement in the joints

9- A big chunk of the Beastwars Neo toys were awesome new sculpts. Sadly most of the newer mold especially on the maximals side had brick beast modes with almost zero joints.

10- A decent chunk of the 2005 Cybertron toy lines toys were ruined by the cyber key gimmick. as the gimmick was exspensive & cut into the poseabilty budget. Most of the Beast-bots had less poserabilty than the BW/BM beast-bots. Leobreaker needed a 360 degree swivel waist joint,360 swivel joints in the legs,maybe a ball jointed head. Primus wasn't as poseable as Armada Unicron was.

Every time I think I finally can spare some time and brain space to get back to participating here, life pulls me back into the muck.

So here’s my 2 cents on this thread before I vanish again…

Tigermegatron wrote:
1- Armada …..

Agreed on the first 3 on your list. Armada and Energon had quite a few decent molds, but on the whole, the entirety of those lines seemed to have taken a few steps backwards in articulation. I’m assuming that Takara at the time was prioritising gimmicks over poseability in the entirety of the trilogy.

Tigermegatron wrote:
4- Rotf leader sized Megatron,Awesome powerful beautiful sculpt in both modes. it just desperately needed a elbow+wrist+fingers joints in the tank turrent/arm. 360 degree swivel waist joint. more rotate movement in the robot head joint.

Agreed again, especially on the waist and head. Those areas missing articulation on the figure really hinders poseability and it just doesn’t feel like a Megatron when the figure is just standing there with the cannon aimed forward.

Tigermegatron wrote:
5- Generations Thunderwing needed to be Ultra sized. So the minicon sized robot could fit into the robot chest cavity like the 1988 toy had.

6- Various Classics toys were made in the wrong size scale. 2.0 Cyclonus & 2.0 Galvatron needed to be voyager or 8 Inch Ulra size. 1.0 Grimlock should have been Voyager size. 2.0 Silverbolt,Onslaught & Powerglide should have all been deluxe size so galvatron,cyclonus & octane could be ultra sized.

I generally disagree with your opinion that certain toys would be better simply by being bigger, but in these cases, I partially agree with you. “Partially”, because I get what Hasbro was trying to do by standardising them all as deluxe class, and I don’t necessarily think that the moulds were botched because of the size (except Galvatron). But on the other hand, you are right that those figures would benefit aesthetically if they scaled better with the rest of the Classics/Generations/whatever line.

Octane… was just a mess. Larger scale of the same mess would have been worse, imo. But if it were to take advantage of size to accommodate better engineering overall, then, yes, I’d be in on that.

I would have liked a larger Thunderwing with room for that chest cavity gimmick too.

Tigermegatron wrote:
10- A decent chunk of the 2005 Cybertron toy lines toys were ruined by the cyber key gimmick. as the gimmick was exspensive & cut into the poseabilty budget. Most of the Beast-bots had less poserabilty than the BW/BM beast-bots. Leobreaker needed a 360 degree swivel waist joint,360 swivel joints in the legs, maybe a ball jointed head. Primus wasn't as poseable as Armada Unicron was.

As above, I think gimmicks were the focus for the trilogy figures.


Ok, so, some figures that I can think of…

RID Optimus Prime.
In this case, it’s not so much articulation as it is engineering. I’m referring to the thin waist piece made of flimsy white plastic that you have to extend out when combining Prime with his armour or with Ultra Magnus. The waist just feels like it’s going to break under the weight of the upper body over time, if I kept it displayed in combined form. I really would’ve like it in die-cast metal instead.

FOC Bruticus (Retail version).
Colours botched it. We all know that.
And while some people think the mould is general crap, I tend to be more forgiving with combiners’ designs, seeing as how much more complex they are to do.

I thought Bruty had some clever bits for one of Hasbro’s few (or is it first?) attempt at a fully integrated combiner with no additional parts. Nonetheless, it could’ve benefitted from a larger sized Onslaught to make room for better design and general proportions in combined form.

And Vortex. That one was just total fail for me. The alt mode was too fat (even compared to the CGI reference), the robot had a lousy placement of the rotor, and the limb modes were a mess. And the skittles flavours of strawberry, grape and lemon were plain awful.


Generally, I also get disappointed when any figure of deluxe or larger scale doesn’t have neck rotation. It just hurts any attempts to pose and display the figures.

annhell wrote:Every time I think I finally can spare some time and brain space to get back to participating here, life pulls me back into the muck.

So here’s my 2 cents on this thread before I vanish again…

Tigermegatron wrote:
1- Armada …..

Agreed on the first 3 on your list. Armada and Energon had quite a few decent molds, but on the whole, the entirety of those lines seemed to have taken a few steps backwards in articulation. I’m assuming that Takara at the time was prioritising gimmicks over poseability in the entirety of the trilogy.

Tigermegatron wrote:
4- Rotf leader sized Megatron,Awesome powerful beautiful sculpt in both modes. it just desperately needed a elbow+wrist+fingers joints in the tank turrent/arm. 360 degree swivel waist joint. more rotate movement in the robot head joint.

Agreed again, especially on the waist and head. Those areas missing articulation on the figure really hinders poseability and it just doesn’t feel like a Megatron when the figure is just standing there with the cannon aimed forward.

Tigermegatron wrote:
5- Generations Thunderwing needed to be Ultra sized. So the minicon sized robot could fit into the robot chest cavity like the 1988 toy had.

6- Various Classics toys were made in the wrong size scale. 2.0 Cyclonus & 2.0 Galvatron needed to be voyager or 8 Inch Ulra size. 1.0 Grimlock should have been Voyager size. 2.0 Silverbolt,Onslaught & Powerglide should have all been deluxe size so galvatron,cyclonus & octane could be ultra sized.

I generally disagree with your opinion that certain toys would be better simply by being bigger, but in these cases, I partially agree with you. “Partially”, because I get what Hasbro was trying to do by standardising them all as deluxe class, and I don’t necessarily think that the moulds were botched because of the size (except Galvatron). But on the other hand, you are right that those figures would benefit aesthetically if they scaled better with the rest of the Classics/Generations/whatever line.

Octane… was just a mess. Larger scale of the same mess would have been worse, imo. But if it were to take advantage of size to accommodate better engineering overall, then, yes, I’d be in on that.

I would have liked a larger Thunderwing with room for that chest cavity gimmick too.

Tigermegatron wrote:
10- A decent chunk of the 2005 Cybertron toy lines toys were ruined by the cyber key gimmick. as the gimmick was exspensive & cut into the poseabilty budget. Most of the Beast-bots had less poserabilty than the BW/BM beast-bots. Leobreaker needed a 360 degree swivel waist joint,360 swivel joints in the legs, maybe a ball jointed head. Primus wasn't as poseable as Armada Unicron was.

As above, I think gimmicks were the focus for the trilogy figures.


Ok, so, some figures that I can think of…

RID Optimus Prime.
In this case, it’s not so much articulation as it is engineering. I’m referring to the thin waist piece made of flimsy white plastic that you have to extend out when combining Prime with his armour or with Ultra Magnus. The waist just feels like it’s going to break under the weight of the upper body over time, if I kept it displayed in combined form. I really would’ve like it in die-cast metal instead.

FOC Bruticus (Retail version).
Colours botched it. We all know that.
And while some people think the mould is general crap, I tend to be more forgiving with combiners’ designs, seeing as how much more complex they are to do.

I thought Bruty had some clever bits for one of Hasbro’s few (or is it first?) attempt at a fully integrated combiner with no additional parts. Nonetheless, it could’ve benefitted from a larger sized Onslaught to make room for better design and general proportions in combined form.

And Vortex. That one was just total fail for me. The alt mode was too fat (even compared to the CGI reference), the robot had a lousy placement of the rotor, and the limb modes were a mess. And the skittles flavours of strawberry, grape and lemon were plain awful.


Generally, I also get disappointed when any figure of deluxe or larger scale doesn’t have neck rotation. It just hurts any attempts to pose and display the figures.

To be fair,Over 90% of the Energon TF toys were super poseable.

I still can't believe Takara/Hasbro colored that FOC Bruticus mold almost 6 times total & yet they have yet to do a 1985 color scheme. is it so hard to color vortex grey,blastoff dark chocolate,Onslaught blue with gold decals.

deluxes are inferior to voyagers,ultras,leaders, because deluxes are more compact,use less parts,thinner plastic & less budget. Had 2.0 Cyclonus,Galvatron,Scourge & Octane been Voyagers or 8 inch Ultra's they would of had thicker plastic,less compact,more parts & a higher budget.

2.0 Powerglide & 2.0 Silverbolt didn't need the 8 inch ultra sized toys,as both had basic sized transformations,both were under sculpted. Powerglide is a low command rank soldier,he barely deserved a deluxe sized toy,I would have given him a basic toy. Silverbolt deserved a deluxe sized toy not a over sized 8 inch ultra toy. had silverbolt & powerglide been at their proper deluxe sized toys,this would have freed up two 8 inch ultra toy slots for Galvatron & Cyclonus to use.

2.0 Onslaught didn't need a 8 inch Ultra sized toy. his 1985 toy/media was the equivelant of today's deluxe sized toy. This 8 inch Ultra toy slot could have been used for 2.0 Galvatron or 2.0 Octane.

I have to say Foc Grimlock. Awesome sculpt, looks just like in the game, but he's got that giant t-Rex head hanging off his back in bot mode. Same problem with TFP Predaking.