Transformers

@growcian Yeah, I know this head doesn't match the Plus version.   I actually bought it to use on a possible Shattered Glass Megatron custom.  The additional faces are cool, though, and I do like the light up function, even though I know I'll take the batteries out and never replace them soon.  

I never had G1 Megatron as a kid.  Or Galvatron, for that matter.  I'm not really a fan of the original Megatron, either, which is why I cheaped out on MP-36.  Also, MP-05 Megatron is a fragile piece of junk, so I wasn't sure I wanted to spend $200 on another possible disaster.  

Now I will whine about TF but it's completely unrelated to eBay!

I received this wonderful *cough* message from Amazon today:

 

Item Canceled Hello, Due to a lack of availability, we will not be able to obtain the following item from your order. We've canceled the item and apologize for the inconvenience. If you see a charge for the canceled item, we will refund you within 1-2 business days. If you are still interested in purchasing this item, it may be available from other sellers. Please visit the detail page for this item below. Details Order #XXX-XXXXXXX-XXXXXXX Placed on Thursday, October 3, 2019   View or manage order Transformers Toys Generations War fo... Sold by Amazon.com Services, Inc We hope to see you again soon. Amazon.com This email was sent from a notification-only address that cannot accept incoming email. Please do not reply to this message.

This seems to be a pattern for me. I feel cheated only because Amazon didn't turn this into a clickwar and the web site didn't go down due to the excessive traffic. 😆

I had Backstabber in the same order and he hasn't been canceled by Amazon yet. Maybe I'll get another "surprise" later, heh.

Edited December 23, 2019 by growcian

Why is Amazon canceling orders so early?  BBTS lists the release date for Earthrise as March.  Still, wave 1 should be everywhere.  I'm not worried about finding any of them, and Optimus is sure to ship again in another leader wave.  

So, this is Action Toys Machine Robo: Revenge of Chronos Bike Robo DX.  If you think he looks like Cy-Kill from the Gobots, it's because Bike Robo became Cy-Kill.  Gobots have an interesting history with Transformers, starting as a competing line of robots, Bandai's Machine Robo, licensed by Tonka.  Hasbro eventually bought Tonka.  

As you can imagine, Hasbro is partnered with Takara-Tomy, Bandai's main competitor, so there's not much to be done with Gobots, beyond the occasional homage buried in Transformers.  Hasbro's recent acquisition of the Power Rangers master license doesn't help either, that was Bandai of America's bread and butter.   

Action Toys, however, licensed the rights to Machine Robo: The Revenge of Chronos, and has been releasing modern updated to the vintage toys for a few years.  Most of the toys have been about the size of a Transformers deluxe class figure, although this one is more in line with the Masterpiece cars.  

Bike Robo includes a number of interchangeable faces, three of them based on Cy-Kill from the Hanna-Barbara Gobots cartoon.  

These are great!  The faces are held on with a clever magnet system.  

With a motorcycle alt mode, of course you can sit other figures on him.  

This Arcee is a good stand in for Crasher.  

I like this guy a lot.  If anymore Machine Robo DX figures are released, I'll probably pick them up.

I did pick up the Jet Robo/Leader-1 a few years ago.  the 3rd party deluxe class Opotimus/Giga Raiden from X2 Toys probably doesn't show the size well, but is a decent companion for him.  While Gobots weren't a replacement for Transformers, I did have a number which supplemented my Autobot and Decepticon forces growing up.  Cy-Kill didn't last long, it was a very fragile toy, but Leader-1 was pretty solid.  

Transformers beat Gobots by having the better cartoon and comic book, as well as vastly more impressive, larger toys.  Compared to mini-bots like Bumblebee, Gobots offered far more clever and unique transforming toys.  This wasn't enough to beat Transformers.  While killing Optimus Prime in the 1986 movie was Hasbro's most boneheaded idea, the 1986 Gobots movie added in a new race of transforming alien robots, the Rock Lords.  Yeah, that's right.  Robots that turn into rocks.  It wasn't an idea that rocked.   

I've found Amazon unreliable when purchasing Transformers or toys in general on sale, but I haven't had any issues with pre-orders I've made there.

I ordered a SS Blackout they had on sale, and they sat on my order for three months saying "we need a little longer to ship your order" until it got cancelled due to lack of availablity.   (Read: They didn't want to actually sell any more at the price I bought it for.)

There was some other Transformer something similar happened with, but I don't recall which one.  It also happened again when I ordered a Diamond Select X-Men Rogue figure.  On that one I eventually had to cancel manually, because it was clear after four months they were never going to ship it.

I pre-ordered the Earthrise figures I wanted from BBTS, but that was merely because they got listed first there.

 

Received my MP-47 Hound yesterday.

The soft top piece also has a handle to function as a shield, and spots for most of the accessories.  

As a shield, it's a bit heavy.  

Hologram gun, with "projection cone."

Scuba mask, for getting beat up underwater by Rumble or Frenzy.  

With XTB Trailbreaker.  

I haven't had any issues with cracking hinges or breaking parts, just some very minor paint chipping.  

Oh, hey, it's Shattered Glass Megatron! Well, SSSS Gridman Rikka Takarada, who takes inspiration from SG Megatron.  

I was initially drawn to SSSS Gridman due to the Transformers connection.  It's actually a pretty good show.   

Personally its been a bit quiet on this front due to reasons... But finally managed to get enough effort to grab a piece of roof shilling from the garage for a fake asphalt effect, and little I have acquired about a year ago (and some older stuff, now with more prettyness in terms of image quality)...

First the disappointments I guess..

Namely the Masterpiece Bumblebee/Bumble G2 (Or Goldbug in some variants), and Wheeljack...

models093

When I got goldbug, I had forgotten about the scaling down for takara to allow to use the original megatron molds for the more correct scale.. thus taking the autobot side of things from a 1/25 to something like 1/35 ... I wasnt too fond of the near matchbox scale, nor the very plastic appearance with miss-matched paint.

models097

models098

Because of his car form I had hopes for Wheeljack, but again it was a bit of a let down, and the look was made even more obviously plastic:

models096

models095

models094

From a practical stand point both do give a good enough resemblance to their car and robot forms, but ... when you put something from some years before the masterpiece thing was even a thing, it all falls apart:

models099

So this is my old Binaltech Smokescreen that I dusted off just for comparisons sake.. and it does make me ask the question, "what happened?"

models100

models101

models102

models104

I know that the masterpiece's are of a different design ethos, where stuff predating it was indeed shelf-models that happened to turn into robots, while the MP's have precedence in terms of how they should work... I know people do enjoy even the more recent MP stuff, but still they don't feel like a premium product after the scale down to me anymore.

So naturally in a huff and puff I decided to invest in the most stupid of TF models:

models105

models106

Yes, this is a Kissplayers Convoy / Optimus prime, that I happened to find on Amiami brand new in box.

models107

and despite the silly setting, they did go to the trouble of painting the plastic, giving this thing at least on the surface a much higher sense of quality:

models108

models109

With some touch-up markers and paint this could be made into a pretty decent shelf model too... apart from the obvious tailgate parting line...

models110

models111

models112

models113

models114

On the other hand, the robot form isnt much to write home about, and the plastic materials make unfolding a bit of a precarious affair:

models115

models116

models117

While browsing the used section at AA, I did find this:

models118

models119

For what ir was sold as, I approve of it, and the robot form is nice enough... unfortunately for me, after I had ordered that, they released a "pristine" version of it... but, such is life I guess.

But another highpoint was getting another one of these 1/48 Yamato's :

models120

This DYRL: Hikaru's Skull one, was new in box, so now I can happily display my slightly sunburned one more or less permanently in the strike valkyrie option set ... though the Heavy armor set would be fab, though those are a bit annoying to find... and Im no longer really into the whole YJA thing.. then again.. I does has a 3D printer nows ... hmmmmm...

models122

models121

still pondering how to detail it, do I make it into a Fokker Skull one, by painting the highlights yellow, but that still leaves the blast shield which is painted from the inside, and I don't want to mess with that.

 

@finnleo Takara released a Plus version of Wheeljack, absolutely covered in white paint:  https://news.tfw2005.com/2019/02/22/takara-tomy-masterpiece-mp-20-wheeljack-anime-colors-in-hand-images-383947  Of course, it comes at the loss of much of the other paint detailing.  

The Kiss Players Convoy and Hot Rodimus are 2 of my favorite releases from the Binaltech/Alternators era.  

There have been a few design philosophy changes in regards to the Masterpiece line, going from MP-01 through MP-09 being more one-off designs, to the more cohesive scaled (in robot mode) style starting with MP-10 (Convoy 2.0), and today's overly slavish animation based designs.  I'm sure we'll see another change just in time for Convoy 4.0 in a few years.    

Well, in my opinion the masterpieces up to 9, were scaled to each other in robot form (Im missing Hotrod and Grimlock personally of the big boys, but what photo's I've seen they seem to confirm my assumption. Only have starscream of the jets, but their pretty much the same?), and Optimus/Convoy being originally roughly scaled to the Binaltech series of cars (roughly 1/25, but maybe a little smaller, but the trailer fits the binaltech stuff), so not really separate one-offs in that sense. However, in megatrons case because he needs to be as tall as optimus, his gun form ends up being ridiculously big.. which wouldn't be an issue if he'd been modeled after a Desert Eagle, but as a Walther P38 its really comical.

As far as I know the scaled down megatron retains the original toy's proportions which is accurate scale to a P38.

EDIT, also the smaller scale corresponds to what I recall the original toys being in size.. at least the folding style of them gives me flashbacks from what little I remember.

Also ... im probably as much a Rally Lancia fanboy as a transformers, so I stick with the alitalia livery wheeljack despite its warts .. heh.

Edited January 13, 2020 by finnleo

 

 

 

 

 

MP-04 Convoy with MP-08 Grimlock. 

MP-08 and MP-44 Convoy 3.0.  Grimlock is short, shorter than MP-44.  Not horribly so, but noticeably.  It kind of works as toy scale, as the G1 Prime toy was taller than G1 Grimlock, but it feels off.  It's totally off from the cartoon scale chart, which seems to be Takara's current scale baseline.  I'd be down for a new Grimlock, at about the same height as Optimus.  Slag and Snarl, too.  Swoop could be a little shorter, and Sludge should be huge.  I'm probably going to pick up 3rd party Gigapower's Sludge,  which is pretty big.  

My MP-09 (Hasbro version) is broken, one of the hip joints snapped while attempting to switch from Rodimus to Hot Rod.  The height difference between the 2 form is not that great, the robot mode is about MP-10/44 size.  Hot Rod goes well with MP-01, while Rodimus fits in with the current MP scale.  

MP-04's trailer is totally designed for Alternators/Binaltech.  Apparently, the trailer was designed in 1 day, but it does ape the G1 trailer heavily, so that is believable.  MP-05 was designed in 12 days, which explains why the arm snapped off mine the 2nd day after I got it.  The gun mode is huge, the MP-36 mold is better scaled, I agree.  

@finnleo I totally understand preferring the regular release Wheeljack, the livery really does add to the toy.  

@Tasuke I don't have that specific reissue of Starscream, but I do have Skywarp and Thundercracker with those oversized missiles.  My G1 and reissue collection is in storage right now, but I should track down some replacements one of these days.  

On 1/12/2020 at 9:38 AM, finnleo said:

So naturally in a huff and puff I decided to invest in the most stupid of TF models:

Yes, this is a Kissplayers Convoy / Optimus prime, that I happened to find on Amiami brand new in box.

models109

On the other hand, the robot form isnt much to write home about, and the plastic materials make unfolding a bit of a precarious affair:

models115

I had never seen this one.  I was looking at that vehicle mode and thinking "that looks awesome!"  I don't even like trucks, and I thought that vehicle mode looked super slick.

Then you show the robot mode and you pretty neatly summarize the problems I had with the two Alternators I purchased years ago.  They simply aren't worth ever changing to their robot modes.

I have two: Battle Ravage and whatever trademark stand in name they gave to Shockwave.  Battle Ravage looks incredible in car mode, but awful in robot mode.  The Mazda Shockwave fares quite a bit better.  Indeed, he looks pretty passable in robot mode.  Still, there's just that feel of vehicle kibble everywhere.

And that seems to have been the prototype for the look of all the Bayformer transformers.

That said, the Alternators are pretty impressive.  I'd say they were higher quality than a good number of the actual Masterpiece figures.

 

On 1/14/2020 at 12:51 AM, Galvatim said:

Apparently, the trailer was designed in 1 day,

Which trailer? Since the MP01 came with a "Trailer sold separately" deal, and then there is the one with the MP04, and they are minutely different from one another (rear valance, and the sides are a bit different). But both look wonky because they have to use the same wheels as the main figure, which were already a bit small so they would look more accurate in robot form. hence the back end looks way jacked up.

On 1/14/2020 at 12:51 AM, Galvatim said:

It's totally off from the cartoon scale chart

mm.. well could be wthey started to go off scale at Grimlock then. (been 28 or so years since I last watched an actual episode so am a bit fuzzy on some details) But from what I have personally on my shelf it lines up more or less... If you ignore that MP02 Magnus is just a recolored Convoy, and should be a bit different.

 

On 1/14/2020 at 7:31 PM, Gabriel said:

I had never seen this one.  I was looking at that vehicle mode and thinking "that looks awesome!"  I don't even like trucks, and I thought that vehicle mode looked super slick.

mm, well it is Detroit muscle at its finest... but really this is a very obscure title, that was a radio drama of sorts, I havent even tried listening to the included CD, since the whole kiss-powerup thing seemed a bit .. iffish.

 

Edited January 17, 2020 by finnleo

1 hour ago, finnleo said:

mm, well it is Detroit muscle at its finest... 

Well, I wouldn't want the real thing, but as a toy I think it looks plenty cool.  

3 hours ago, finnleo said:

Which trailer? Since the MP01 came with a "Trailer sold separately" deal, and then there is the one with the MP04, and they are minutely different from one another (rear valance, and the sides are a bit different). But both look wonky because they have to use the same wheels as the main figure, which were already a bit small so they would look more accurate in robot form. hence the back end looks way jacked up.

There's no "sold separately" trailer for MP-01.  I'm sure there's a third party version, but The only trailer Takara released for MP-01 is the MP-04 version.  

30 minutes ago, Galvatim said:

There's no "sold separately" trailer for MP-01.

had to go dig it up, but aparently so, this was by just toys by looking at the fine print:

https://page.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/s703587021

But close enough packaging to mix up me memories.

2 hours ago, Gabriel said:

Well, I wouldn't want the real thing, but as a toy I think it looks plenty cool.

Ah, but therein lies the dilemma, unless the source material wasnt in some way desireable, the miniature probably wouldnt be either.

Awwww yeeaaaaaaahhh...

Pre-order pages up on Big Bad Toy Slow, The Chosen Prime, and Toy Dojo.

I placed my pre-order already.

Now to wait until the release.

Then again, I'm still waiting for Volks USA to tell me I can bring 2B home. I'll have waited 18 months before I hear anything concerning that so waiting for the G1 Combat Potato Chip Cart plastic model kit will seem short by comparison. I hope.

That kit looks great.  I bet we'll see some nice TFTM battle damaged customs show up.  Maybe I'll get one if Flame Toys releases a completed version, like the IDW Prime they're doing.  I still have a bunch of Bandai Star Wars kits left unbuilt.  

My Refraktor exclusive pack came in.  It had been sitting in my Pile of Loot at BBTS for months, and none of my other pre-orders came in.  I think Racing Miku came in a few days after I had to ship Refraktor or lose it.

Anyway, Refraktor came in nice packaging.  Not outstanding, but nice.

In combined camera mode, the toy is pretty neat as a prop.  It would have been a lot better if they had given it a clicky button for "taking pictures."  But the exclusive accessories give the camera that little kick that really helps it out.  

But as separate toys and Transformers?  I think they kind of suck.  My Refraktor will probably stay in camera mode forever.

 

I haven't picked up the Refraktor set, or the regular release version.  Sounds like I should keep it that way.  I've been considering a Masterpiece Reflector, but they all tend to look like the cartoon, not the G1 toy.  

I did find the Astrotrain reissue at Walmart, though.  

$39.99, not too bad.  Classic G1 toy colors.  You can replace him in the box if you cut the tape holding on the inner blister in the right spots.  

The backs of G1 boxes always have such great art.  I love that Road Rage (red Tracks) is just there.  And of course, G1 Jetfire, the VF-1 Valkyrie.  Jetfire will never have a reissue, Bandai owned the mold now, and I can't imagine they're too interested in working with Hasbro.  

Blaster is the next reissue, I'm hoping his cassettes are coming too.  

Wait?  What?  There's an Astrotrain reissue at Walmart?

I need a new PS4 controller anyway.  I might as well go to Walmart and check.

Edit: I got Astrotrain.  It was not a pleasant experience.  It was a reminder why I do all my purchasing online. 

Edited February 1, 2020 by Gabriel

Wow, looks like I'm going to Walmart tomorrow to see if they have an Astrotrain!  Very cool that he came out. 

 

 

Billy

Walmart is never a pleasant experience.  I have Takara's Blaster reissue, so I could skip that one.  Although, the G1 style box would look good next to Soundwave.   Hopefully, we'll get a Blitzwing reissue, too.  

I'm surprised there's no Jazz, Prowl or Sideswipe reissues.  I know Has/Tak has stated the Sunstreaker, Wheeljack, Mirage and Dinobots molds are lost or damaged beyond repair.  

It has been decades since I owned a G1 Astrotrain.  But there's one part of the transformation I don't recall at all.  I remember having to rotate the nosecone of the shuttle into the legs to make the train front face outward for robot and train mode.  But what I don't recall is that in addition to the rotation, there's also a slide hinge which provides clearance for the rotation.  This motion makes that nosecone/train front piece sit higher or lower in train or shuttle mode.  Maybe the joints on my original decades ago were just so loose that the motion happened without me thinking about it.  All I recall is just BAM rotate the shuttle nosecone into the legs and done, not this strange sort of rotate/slide motion.

I like the weight on the reissue.  I like having it.  Right now I have no recollection of what happened to my original G1 Astrotrain, so it's nice to have a new one.

The price was just outright gouging, though.  I could see MAYBE $30 being reasonable.  $40 was ludicrous.  Then again, I paid it, so I guess I'm an idiot.

Yeah, that slide does seem new.  I have to dig out my Takara reissue and compare at some point.  I don't remember the nosecone functioning that way on the Takara.  

As awful as the prices are on these reissues, it's still cheaper than buying a vintage one on eBay.  I know there are other reasons for buying vintage figures, beyond minty fresh display piece, my G1 collection is a mix of both.