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Re: AOE Figure Review Thread

Posted: Fri Jun 27, 2014 7:52 pm
by Onslaught Six
Construct-Bots Lockdown: This is from the $6-a-pop bagged line. Went to the store for an unrelated thing, found a $20 bill on the ground in the parking lot, decided I absolutely needed more money in my life, and hurried into the store. Don't judge me, I'm very poor. Since there wasn't anything in the mainline there that I wanted (despite AoE and Generations being $10, they were absolutely out of everything except Slug...Slag...whatever, the triceratops guy.) so I decided I'd take a hit on more of this fiddly little line. If I didn't like it, $6 is no big loss. If I did, great!

Thankfully, I do like him! He's very easy to put together, maybe 10 steps altogether, super intuitive once you see which part is which. His robot mode is fiddly and fun and has a huge-ass gun, although I half wish he had some elbows to speak of. Not that much of a dealbreaker though when he's got solid enough legs. I do wish he had some neck articulation though. For $6, I can't complain much, especially when these guys are pretty much the cheapest possible thing in the entire TF line right now.

As far as colours go, he's got a lot of black, a little grey and a bit of neon green, which spices things up and goes a little ways in making him feel more like regular ol' Lockdown. A little more purple wouldn't be missed; these things honestly could go for a bit more painted detail than they have. His chest, for example, has a lot of neat greeblies moulded in, but they get drowned out in the black plastic (which is also sparkly, for some reason?). Again, he was only $6, so I'm not sure how much more they can squeeze out of these things and keep them at that scale--and considering their size, they wouldn't be worth it even at $7 or $8.

Transformation is simple enough; if I have one complaint it's that his Decepticon symbol just Legoforms from his robot chest to the back of the car. You can't even leave it on in theory because it sticks out so much that it makes the car ride up in the front. (I guess you can just leave it on the back on the car.) Unlike Breakdown, everything clicks together and has a place to go, and everything works much harder to try actually resembling a real vehicle. I will say that everything kind of pegs together a little too well. The first few times, I had problems separating his backpack from the arms, and the arms from his legs. Still, I guess that's a better problem to have than it not fitting together at all, right?

I will say this: For an intergalactic bounty hunter killer whatever, he's super cute. His face isn't, but his general size and proportions make him kind of adorable. He's almost chibified. This also applies to his vehicle mode, which is a super cute little car. The whole aesthetic with the neon green and the gun on top of the vehicle also gives him a little bit of a G2 vibe, which is something I am 100% okay with.

In terms of size, he's like a small-ish Basic from the days of old; he's a little smaller than someone like Airazor used to be. I guess a better reference point would be someone like the G1 Combaticons; he's really about the same size as guys like Brawl and Swindle, and it would actually be pretty cool to see someone attempt a full gestalt out of these. (They seem made for it!)

If you're into these things, they just seem like they keep getting better, and I hope the line doesn't die a quick death after AoE, because I'd love to actually keep buying these. $6 is definitely not a bad price in this economy.

Re: AOE Figure Review Thread

Posted: Sat Jun 28, 2014 9:46 am
by JediTricks
I didn't like the Kreoforming Autobot sigil on Dino Riders (that's the $6 line) Drift, but really there's no reason it HAS to be on the figure at all, they don't wear their faction logos like that in general.

Glad to hear Construct-bots keeps finding an audience, and I hope it keeps going and getting better too, I know there's some real love for it on the design team.

Found money is found money.

Re: AOE Figure Review Thread

Posted: Thu Jul 17, 2014 1:29 am
by Tigermegatron
Still haven't seen AOE Generations Voyager Hound in stores yet. It's probably going to be the hardest toy to find out of the whole entire line.

Re: AOE Figure Review Thread

Posted: Tue Aug 26, 2014 4:55 pm
by JediTricks
Lockdown (deluxe) - This figure is interesting on its own. As the character, this figure isn't terribly impressive since it's a bit slight (the legs are too short for the character) and the weapon is the same length as the bot mode so gunface is a bit too much; but as a TF it's not bad.

Alt mode is fairly nice, you feel the cheapness from how the panels don't quite come together nicely and how it weighs so little, but the tail lights are painted and the rear calipers are painted, the nose emblem isn't painted in detail but the gold shield is raised. Lamborghini Aventador for reals, not fattened up and altered to avoid licensing? Not bad.

Transformation has a lot of panels moving around and the instructions are a bit too convoluted, making it seem even more difficult than it is, but it's not a shellmaster too badly. It does tangle a bit going back to alt mode though.

Bot mode has big shoulders and tapers down from there, his build looks more like a grunt than a leader, although he does have ape arms which doesn't really fit the design either. I like the chest using actual parts of the car, even if it's not as complex as the movie and from a few back angles it's hollow. Giant gun looks a bit too ridiculous as gunface, but holds well in the hands. The forearms are actually attached to the vehicle panels like they're raised out of the panel, it's a bit cheap looking from some angles and gets hung up on other panels, but it's not terrible. Articulation is good but a bit loose.

So, not perfect, maybe not great, but not bad either.

RotB Figure Review Thread

Posted: Sun Mar 12, 2023 12:15 pm
by Sparky Prime
Studio Series Voyager Class Cheetor

I really like the design of this figure. The head kind of reminds me of the Transtech concept art for Cheetor, and the body somewhat of Beast Machines Cheetor. The robot mode is pretty solid with a wide range of articulation. The beast mode is a little disappointing. The way he transforms, the beast mode neck slots into his shoulders, which prevents them from moving and there's no effort to hide the robot mode hands. The beast mode paws stick out of the knuckles, sorta like Wolverine's claws. I also wish the beast mode head had better articulation. It can rotate around and the jaw can move but that's about it. So really, the beast mode is very limited in how it can pose.

The colors on this figure are a little odd. I'm guessing they didn't make him yellow with black spots because they didn't want two figures in the line with primarily those colors, and Bumblebee is more popular. The brown spots kinda reminds me of TM2 Cheetor. The orange is ok, but yellow would have been better. Like so many figures these days, the paint applications are a little lacking, there's a lot of great details that don't stand out because they weren't painted.

Re: RotB Figure Review Thread

Posted: Tue May 02, 2023 6:05 pm
by Sparky Prime
Studio Series Deluxe Class Airazor

This figure uses the same engineering as Kingdom Airazor, so in many ways it feels like the same figure. But it is a new sculpt, and despite both being Deluxe figures, this version is actually somewhat larger than the Kingdom version. I wish the toes had articulation, with how large the feet are, it'd be cool if they could grasp. Honestly not much to say about this figure with how similar it is to the Kingdom version. I'm a little curious to see how accurate this figure will be to the actual movie though, since we have yet to see Airazor in robot mode in any of the promotional stuff.

Edit: And it doesn't matter.... Not only does Airazor never transform in the film, it seems they didn't even develop concept art for it.

Re: RotB Figure Review Thread

Posted: Sun Sep 10, 2023 4:19 am
by Sparky Prime
Studio Series Voyager Class Rhinox
If Rhinox had a techno-organic form in Beast Machines, I kinda think this design would work well for that.

A Rhinox figure that has better articulation than a brick in beast mode! The front legs can move at the shoulders and sort of the elbow... You have to rotate the forearm around to get the joint to bend in the right direction, rather than how it is intended to be, but hey, it's something. Plus the feet are on ball joints. The back legs can bend at the robot mode knees, and the feet move up and down. He can also open his mouth, and the tail can move up and down. So yeah, not a ton of pose-ability, but it is more articulation than most Rhinox figures have in beast mode. The one downside I have with the beast mode is the open area beneath the figure. They use the robot mode chest for the sides/stomach of the rhino mode, which doesn't leave anything for the rhino's chest area.

Transformation is fairly easy, but the panels to swap the rhino feet for the robot hands have a tendency to pop off easily, as do the shoulder armor bits.

Robot mode... The knees are a little loose on my figure which can make standing him a little tricky, but it's not bad. He only comes with a hammer for a weapon. Kinda think they could have incorporated it to fill in the beast mode a bit or something, but it just pegs into his back. The one disappointment for this mode to me is a lack of paint. The figure is largely gray, which is fine for the rhino mode, but it makes the robot mode a bit boring. Little bit of silver and brown highlights, and that's about it. I'm thinking of doing some painting on this figure.

Re: AOE Figure Review Thread

Posted: Sun Sep 10, 2023 8:57 am
by andersonh1
I noticed a number of years back that paint aps had been reduced on Transformers in general. I figured it was a cost-cutting decision of some sort. Sometimes it works, sometimes it really doesn't.

Re: AOE Figure Review Thread

Posted: Sun Oct 01, 2023 1:57 pm
by Sparky Prime
So I did some work on Rhinox and Cheetor...

Image

Cheetor I'd planned on painting all the orange to yellow, but decided that'd be too much work. Thankfully, just painting the spots black, and adding more of them, I think did a lot to improved the overall look of the figure. Hasbro also didn't paint a lot of the parts that are meant to be a dark metal, which also really helps the details pop.

Rhinox, similarly, I was planning on doing more but ended up deciding to keep it minimal. Despite not being accurate to the film (I think? barely even saw his robot mode in the film), I used his cartoon colors for his head and hands. The silver highlights Hasbro used on the head just kept reminding me of when Megatron turned him into a Predacon and this isn't an evil Rhinox.

Edit: I've also painted my Studio Series Airazor. Pretty sure the creators of this film based her beast mode on a golden eagle, so I've painted her mostly a darker shade of brown and gold highlights. I have to say, the gold contrasts very nicely against the brown.

Image

Re: RotB Figure Review Thread

Posted: Sun Oct 22, 2023 9:00 pm
by Sparky Prime
Studio Series Leader Class Optimus Primal

The beast mode is highly posable. I'm surprised they even gave him finger articulation. It's also very accurate to the film, aside from a few things for transformation. In some ways, the transformation reminds me a bit of Transmetal Optimus Primal. The hands swap around, as does the head, the back covers the robot mode chest in beast mode and flips over to cover the beast mode chest in robot mode, and the legs unfold somewhat. The robot mode suffers a little from the transformation, unlike the other Maximals where it seems the beast mode suffers... On Primal, the back panels kinda stack on top of itself a little, giving him a bit of a hunch back. And the beast mode feet just hang off the back of his legs. Other than that, robot mode is pretty good. Still has a lot of articulation. The battle mask is open around the mouth, similarly to the Beast Wars cartoon. We never saw his mask like this in the film, but I like that Hasbro went with this design rather than the full mask. It just feels a little bit more like Primal. Otherwise, it's fairly accurate to the film. Accessories - He comes with two swords he has in the film, and the Transwarp key. He also comes with some chain-like pieces (which isn't used in the film) and an axe that looks to be based on the axe Optimus Prime has in the film.

Unlike the other ROTB Studio Series Maximals, I don't feel he needs as much in terms of additional paint apps. In his robot mode, I've painted his stomach behind the abs details, allowing said details to stand out more, and the antenna on the sides of his head.

Overall, I think this is a great figure. I think it's the best of the Studio Series Maximals.