Opening Salvo
Well I’m back for one more week. Some of the movie toys have officially hit so I got some news on those. As always I’ll have my blend of news, humor, and opinions. It’s time to Transform!
Toys: What I got, what they got, and some news too
Before we begin just a moment to send my thought and prayers out to Jeff Jarret who recently lost his wife. His loss is even worse when you realize that she died on the eight-year anniversary of the passing of Owen Hart, Jeff’s partner and friend. God bless you good sir.
I imagine that at the BBTS warehouse there is a special section closed off with red velvet ropes. That is my personal section where all of my Pile of Loot items are placed until it’s time to ship. Well sitting there right now next to my Shoeformers is my 15†interactive R2-D2. I’m waiting for the chess set to get in before I have everything ship. I was thinking about visiting Hasbro Toy Shop since they have a 25% off promotion and, have all the newer 6†Titaniums in stock. Well I went, flip through about 10 pages of movie crap, last page all the new Titaniums; sold out. Darn it! On a much more positive note a quick run to my local TRU graced me with a Classics Grimlock. I honestly thought I would have to pay a premium for this guy on E-bay but there he was. I must say he is a most impressive figure. I was touched by a pang of sadness once I realized I now own all of the Classic line with the exception of one or two Mini-Con sets; but those don’t count.
Like I mentioned above some of the movie toys have hit the shelves. Hasbro decided to lift the June 2nd street date on Deluxe figures. They must’ve found out about all the stores stocking early to fill shelf space. Well we have our first production error, apparently the head on Swindle doesn’t raise or “Pop-Up†as far as it should so the figure looks more like a battle droid from Star Wars. I’m sorry I need a moment to snicker quietly to myself. Also an image of a repainted Speed Dial 800 was discovered on the official Hasbro site. Apparently he is now a Decepticon and is causing some debate on the net about the time on his phone, 3:35. During the same trip that netted me Grimlock I noticed that the only movie figures my TRU had on their shelves were the Protoforms, and those were in the Power Ranger Isle. I was smiling while I wrote that last line. Listings for a Leader class Starscream and a Voyager class Bonecrusher have appeared online. Correct me if I’m wrong but aren’t all the main characters supposed to get figures released in all size classes? To go with those listings an image of Leader class Brawl surfaced since he is featured on the back of Ultimate Bumblebees’ box. Although not confirmed Hobby Link Japan has a listing for a Voyager sized movie figure named Prowl. This will either be a repaint of Barricade or a placeholder name since he is listed as a Decepticon. We might be seeing one more Real Gear figure since in a recent interview Josh Duhmel mentioned that there was an Apple I-Pod robot in the movie. Most fans believe though he was confused and meant Frenzy. For our final bit of movie news it has been confirmed that the Autobots and Decepticons are going to have their classic eye colors. Autobots will have blue eyes while Decepticons will be red. I could make a joke about staring longingly into a Transformers eyes but I’ll let it go.
Michael Bay is pushing to have the movie release date pushed up one day to July 3rd. Frankly I was kinda hoping to see the movie pushed back to the 3rd of never. BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAH… oh come on, that was funny.
It has been rumored for many weeks, and now I’m happy to confirm it. Alternator Rodimus will be a San Diego Comic Con exclusive. It is unknown at this time if he will be sold at Hasbro Toy Shop or if he will see a mass release outside the US. There is some grumbling online due to people remembering the problems last year with Nemesis Prime. I’m not too worried since there are still plenty of Nemesis’ available online. Hmm, combine this news with the fact that Titanium Rodimus Prime will be repainted as Menasor for SDCC and I see a pattern developing.
Justitoys have released drawings of their MP Megatron stock and silencer kit. It will be able to form his fusion cannon as has been rumored. I still haven’t gotten my MP Megs and sweat about a bucket a day over him.
The Pros and Cons of Being a Transformer Fan: End of the line: Classics Edition
Before we begin if you would like to see what I originally intended for this weeks commentary check out my MySpace page here.
Well it’s official. Transformer Classics is now officially dead. I hate to be a pessimist but I don’t think they’ll be making a comeback after the movie line runs its course. Lets take a look now at some of the real standouts of the line.
Best Voyager not named Jetfire
Optimus Prime- I was thinking about being controversial and picking Megatron but I just couldn’t do it. This is the best incarnation of the character without an MP in front of it. If you don’t own him you really should, top notch all the way.
Best Deluxe Autobot
Rodimus- This was a tough call and I know some of you are scratching your heads since this class included the best Grimlock in over twenty years but what it came down to was likeness to the original toy and the fact that Grimlock has some issues with parts pegging into place properly. Rodimus is a solid figure all around and Hasbro really went the extra mile to include his fold out saw blade as seen in TF: The Movie. Including Energon Rodimus’ gun was also a nice touch.
Best Deluxe Decepticon
Astrotrain- Well if you weren’t ready to have me committed over Rodimus this has you calling for the double-breasted jacket that ties in the back. Yes Starscream is great but there have been plenty of Screamers out there that improved upon his G1 mold and Classics Starscream is no different. What makes Astrotrain so special is that this figure is LIGHTYEARS better than his G1 counterpart while still retaining all of the nuances that made Astrotrain so popular. Designing triple changers isn’t easy, and making each mode unique is damn near impossible but the design team at Hasbro pulled it off. Plus his train mode allowed me to make a few phallic jokes I haven’t been able to use in years.
Incase you are wondering yes I’m ignoring the Mini-Cons and Devastator on purpose. Lets just chock those up to Hasbro being Hasbro shall we?
Surfing The Space Bridges
I’m assuming that you’ve all bought whatever movie figures you wanted that were available. So are ya happy? Any problems you would want to share? Besides Jetfire, what were some of your favorite Classic figures? Post-away dear readers.
The World Around Transformers
Just a quick note for the Macross fans out there. The 1/60 scale Gumma Ivanov will include its own personal stand. I didn’t realize it but this bad boy is going to be huge. I do believe the Valk is from Macross 7 and the less said about that one the better.
Sixty-Second Review
Target Exclusive Ultra Magnus/Skywarp set
MSRP:$19.99 but going for more on Ebay now.
Usually when the fans find out that an Optimus Prime figure is going to be re-released and repainted into Ultra Magnus they complain over the lack of a new mold. When it was announced that this was being done for the Classics line the complaints were far and few between. Why? Well, as I’ve stated above the Classic Prime mold is the best outside of the MP line and because Magnus was going to come with a repainted Starscream as Skywarp.
I’ve figured out why Skywarp was included in the set and will be the first repaint of the MP Starscream figure. It’s because he was the first Transformer awakened on Earth by Tele-Tran1, pretty cool if you ask me. Ultra Magnus is the same figure as Prime and features all the same gimmicks. One thing I tried and it worked was that the double-barreled shotgun could peg onto his back, you just have to pull the wind vane harness out a tad.
Skywarp is full of awesomeness much like Starscream. Give a redneck something sparkly and you can keep us busy for hours; offer a Transfan a black repaint and you got yourself a sale. I actually feel that the Skywarp color scheme works better for the mold than Starscreams’ colors did. Don’t ask me why, it’s just one of those things.
Normally I wouldn’t call a repaint set a must have but seeing as how both these figures are really well done and play a role in the story for this years Bot-Con I will. I feel post Bot-Con the set will be selling on E-bay for significantly more due to collectors looking to have a complete Seeker set. On Elohims Energon Cube scale I give the Ultra Magnus/Skywarp set eight cubes.
Parting Shots
Alessandro has been a busy bee with all the reviews he has been doing. Check out all of his recent work right here. Mike should be back next week so I’ll see you in two.
The King of the Fanboys,
Charles
