War for Cybertron: Kingdom/Golden Disk Collection Mutant Tigatron

Looking back on the War For Cybertron Trilogy, now that we're entering the second year of Legacy, it is quite easily apparent that it was a troubled toyline from the very start. How much it was affected by COVID-19 is anyone's guess but the line, as a whole, was an occasionally glorious trainwreck, with little in the way of consistent direction, particularly when the Netflix series is included in its context.

Siege was a toyline that didn't live up to its promise and which ended before it really got started. Its accompanying show didn't feature half the molds or characters available, yet introduced some who weren't represented on the toy shelves. Earthrise was yet another in Hasbro's seemingly interminable series of 'true' G1 reboots, yet half the expected characters wound up in the Studio Series '86 line, while the animated series was a continuation of Siege that had zero connection to the toyline beyond certain specific figures. Kingdom, meanwhile, was seemingly cobbled together from the end of Earthrise and a Beast Wars anniversary toyline which has continued into Legacy without ever properly acknowledging Beast Wars, or its anniversary, and the Netflix show kept the same old Siege CGI for the Autobots and, while it introduced some of the Maximals, most of the Predacons were absent.

So it seems strange that Hasbro chose to further muddy the waters by creating several unrelated boxed sets, all of which featuring either repaints or minimal retools. The Golden Disk Collection would have been an easy pass for me, in its entirety, were it not for Hasbro's decision to make Terrorsaur part of the set rather than a mainstream Kingdom toy. This one was only of mild interest to me, because the original Tigatron figure was unexpectedly good... but, at £32, Mutant Tigatron was a figure I decided I could live without. However, as part of Hasbro's Advent sale in the run-up to Christmas 2022, they dropped his price to just £16... and I found I could no longer resist.

War for Cybertron Trilogy Covert Agent Ravage/Decepticons Forever Ravage

Every so often, even now, a set of TransFormers toys comes along that has the potential to get me excited. Whether it's something new and unique, or simply a repaint into a favourite character, Hasbro sometimes manages transcend the current mediocrity of their products... and this was once such set.

It excited me because I was interested in the Beast Wars Metals Jaguar - the 1999 Japan-only retooling of Transmetals Cheetor into the Tripredacus Agent seen in the three-part Season 2 finale of Mainframe's seminal Beast Wars television series - but the toy, frankly, looks a bit crappy and, these days, tends to be very expensive on the secondary market, with some sellers asking over £350 for the boxed figure.

Hasbro's new version, released in 2021, didn't quite hit all the right notes for me and, at its full asking price of £49, was an easy pass. However, during their Advent Calendar sale, they dropped the price by 50%, and I felt almost obliged to order, just to have a version of such a fantastic reimagining of G1 Ravage, even though the accompanying part of the set would be possibly the fourth copy of the actual G1 Ravage toy that I've owned.

But was it a worthwhile investment, even at half price? Read on, and find out!

War for Cybertron: Kingdom Tigatron

Much as I object to the use of Kingdom - the third and final chapter of the much-vaunted War for Cybertron Trilogy - as a perfunctory 'celebration' of Beast Wars in lieu of a dedicated toyline, I have to confess that I've been at least somewhat impressed by a number of the Beast Wars figures who appeared in the line.

Cheetor, however, was not one of them... poorly proportioned and with a rather sad axe/whip formed from his beast mode tail as his only weapon, he didn't seem that much better than the awful mess of a Universe toy from 2008. Given that the original BW Tigatron was a simple repaint of Cheetor, I wasn't holding out much hope for a Kingdom Tigatron to be much better. When it was announced that he would not only be a unique mold, but a Voyager class figure rather than just another Deluxe, my hopes started creeping back up again. When photos were eventually released, he looked - not to put too fine a point on it - almost like a completely different figure. Sure, the engineering was similar, but the additional size clearly allowed for refinements of the engineering, resulting in a figure that was objectively far better looking in both modes.

Of course, this being a Hasbro release, it wasn't without its fair share of controversy... because he ended up - somehow - being voted Figure of the Year in Hasbro's 2021 Hall of Fame, despite not being (widely) available until late January of this year. While that may have been a promotional coup, generating significant 'buzz' for the figure, many fans resented the inclusion of something only a select few had handled at the time of the awards, having acquired it by questionable means.

Mine arrived mid-January, and I've given myself plenty of time to familiarise myself with it... So let's take a look at Tigatron to see whether or not he truly deserved the award, and if he's as significant an improvement on the Beast Wars original as some of his Kingdom contemporaries.

War for Cybertron: Kingdom Slammer

While I didn't buy Generations Metroplex - essentially the centrepiece of the Thrilling 30 portion, celebrating that anniversary of this toyline - I do own the original, and have always been sufficiently intrigued by his companions that I would sit up and take notice if they ever got independent toys of their own. When Sixgun was given the Weaponiser treatment in the Siege toyline, I somewhat expected Slammer to follow a little sooner than two years later... but, let's face it, much of this War for Cybertron line has been long-delayed supplementary Generations/30th Anniversary material...

As with his Siege comrade, Slammer has been updated into Weaponiser form, though this feature appears to be a less significant part of Kingdom's 'play pattern' due to the introduction of the 'Fossilisers'. Let's see how this affects him, both as an individual toy and as accessories to the others!

War for Cybertron: Kingdom/Golden Disk Collection Terrorsaur

I mentioned in my write-up of Kingdom Airazor that it would be pretty much criminal for Hasbro to fail to produce a Terrorsaur figure having developed such a good remake of the Maximal falcon, so it came as no surprise when he was eventually announced. What was a surprise was that he would be made available as one of Hasbro's much-vaunted 'capsule programme' sets - in this case, the (technically) Amazon-exclusive Golden Disk Collection. Split across four 'chapters' (comprising Road Ranger & Puffer, Jackpot & Sights, Mutant Tigatron and this one), it's basically a bunch of mostly uninspiring (and uninspired) repaints with the exception of Terrorsaur, who is a substantial reworking of the Airazor mold.

This was not unexpected, but the actual execution of the figure was certainly not what I'd hoped to see. So, the big question is, are there any other surprises with this figure, and is it a worthwhile representation of the Predacons' less accident-prone flier?

War for Cybertron: Kingdom/Battle Across Time Collection Skywarp

One of the most frustrating things about being sick and tired of G1 reboots is that, when Hasbro releases a boxed set of two or more TransFormers toys, there's a good chance I'd only be interested in half the set, at most. Such was the case when the 'Battle Across Time Collection' was announced. Comprising two boxed sets - Maximal Grimlock & Autobot Mirage and Maximal Skywarp & Autobot Sideswipe - my interest was piqued by both of the Beast Wars reboot repaints, but I couldn't have cared less for the two Autobots. Upon seeing the final products, my interest in Grimlock was seriously reduced by the uninspiring (not to say incomplete-looking) paint job. Skywarp, meanwhile, was a bit of an oddity from the start. A repaint of Kingdom Airazor (which I really liked) with a head sculpt based more on the character's appearance in the Beast Wars anime than on the original toy (which was named Silverbolt in the west, but categorically not another form of the other Silverbolt)... and I couldn't decide whether I liked it or not.

Of course, that was largely a moot point, considering the somewhat ridiculous cost of either set: £58.99 for the former, £48.99 for the latter, both of which seeming somewhat over the odds for a two pack when the paintwork wasn't exactly extensive. Granted, it's still (objectively) better value than most BotCon toys, which could start at those sorts of prices for a single Deluxe class repaint, but it was more than enough to put me off buying either set, considering I'd then have to dispose of the figures I didn't want.

However, it seems there are more than enough fans who are only interested in the Autobot figures and don't mind selling off the Maximals (Skywarp being, by far, the more common on the secondary market right now). I quick look on eBay identified a handful of UK sellers offering him for around the £20 mark - well below half the cost of the set, which is always a surprise given many sellers' propensity for asking close to the full price of the complete set for just half its contents (or less). A few days later, I got a notification that one seller was willing to knock £2 off, making him about a quid cheaper than a standard, solo-release Deluxe in the Kingdom line, so I figured I might as well.

The only question being, is this semi-'exclusive' figure - rejected by its original owner - a worthwhile addition to my collection, considering it's no longer even a Femme-Bot?

A Missed Marketing Opportunity

Just a short, silly thing from a few days ago...

While I was working on the Kingdom Huffer write-up, my girlfriend bought me a bottle of Irn Bru from one of the local shops and, seeing the two together, observed that they could be related:

It's no Pepsi Optimus Prime, but it's a decent alternative

War for Cybertron: Kingdom Huffer

Most of my earliest TransFormers toys, back when the toyline first launched in the mid-1980s, were Mini Autobots bought with pocket money. I have a clear recollection of buying Cliffjumper first, then Windcharger, and then I'm pretty certain my third Autobot purchase was Huffer, because I found his Budiansky-authored character bio utterly delightful (what can I say, I was a weird and occasionally somewhat grumpy kid!).

So when Huffer was revealed as one of the new Mini Autobot recreations coming out in the Kingdom line, I was initially very much on board. After all, while WfC's new Deluxes tended to be on the small size, and Earthrise Cliffjumper is almost a perfect match for Scout class Reveal the Shield/TF United Windcharger, even if he does compare less favourably with the Legends class Mini Autobots from RtS or the Prime Wars Trilogy.

When the toy was actually revealed, however, I initially decided not to bother after all. Hasbro had essentially taken the engineering from an existing Third Party figure and cut it down to the bare bones, leaving the lower legs hollow and awkward flaps of plastic for feet, then sought to achieve the desired pricepoint by throwing in unnecessary accessories - specifically a riot shield and a shotgun. These were better suited to the concept of Siege than Earthrise and, even then, more appropriate to one of the few Autobot warriors than to a character who was - in the original G1, at least - a Construction Engineer. All of this turned Kingdom Huffer into an easy pass...

...Until I found myself with a £10 voucher which could be used at The Entertainer, amongst other stores. Lacking any other, more constructive use for such a voucher for the time being, I reluctantly spent it on acquiring what had appeared to be a fairly lacklustre figure. Could Kingdom Huffer turn out to be a pleasant surprise..?

The Thrilling Climax

A 'teaser' trailer for the War for Cybertron: Kingdom series on Netflix arrived in the last couple of days and, without any real enthusiasm, I watched it.

Naturally, at just a little over 20 seconds in length, it doesn't offer much, even as a teaser, but it does suggest that most, if not all transformations will continue to happen 'off screen'. There's a bit where Optimus Prime comes under fire in robot mode, and emerges from a cloud of smoke and debris in truck mode after the traditional transformation sound is heard. For that reason alone, I wouldn't bother watching any of its six episodes. But then... he also still has his Cybertronian vehicle mode, so precisely what was the point of Earthrise? And what's the point of the Earthrise toyline - and half of the Kingdom toyline - if the Autobots never adopt their contemporary, terrestrial vehicle disguises?

Hasbro Pulse Fan Fest - April 2021 - New Reveals & Opinions

OK, so clearly there's a bit more to be said about War for Cybertron... I guess it's a positive that the line seemingly is not getting prematurely canned like Power of the Primes...

 

While there wasn't anything TransFormers to report after the pre-show 'Party' last night (unless you count a short gig by The Cybertronic Spree), the Fan Fest proper had a whole - quite substantial (half-hour/forty minute) - section devoted to the brand. Interestingly, they acknowledged that a lot of the stuff they were showing off had already been 'leaked', but that's not to suggest they had nothing new...

This being the first time I've had access to one of these events - the last one, I think, was region-locked - I wasn't quite sure what to expect. I'd actually wondered whether it would even be worth my tuning in, considering everything would be online within minutes of the show anyway... but, much like my spur-of-the-moment decision to take advantage of the evening entertainment at the debut TFNation, I figured it'd be daft to skip it, especially considering I signed up for Pulse Premium, and there were suggestions of exclusives available to preorder for members only.

 

I watched the event live but, obviously, this is now a little delayed due to dinner... and watching a movie over dinner... So, let's take a brief look at what was revealed... no pictures, but they're all now live on Hasbro Pulse and will probably be everywhere very shortly:

 

War for Cybertron: Kingdom Airazor

 (Femme-Bot Friday #77)

It's beginning to look as though there will be very little of interest to me in the final chapter of Hasbro's War for Cybertron line beyond a handful of its Beast Wars remakes. Even those have generally been undersized remakes and, for better or worse, minus many of the play features of the originals. The one area of the toyline where the results have exceeded my expectations is its Femme-Bots, with Blackarachnia being both an early release and a (small) Deluxe class reworking of the Masterpiece figure that ended up being, if not generally better, then at least better value for money.

So, when Airazor was revealed, and looked pretty fantastic, she went straight to the top of my want list. Considering I only acquired the original Beast Wars version comparatively recently (six or seven years ago, I think) and, broadly speaking, still think it's a pretty good toy (even if it's not remotely 'screen accurate'), my main reasons for wanting this are the improved articulation demonstrated by other War for Cybertron toys and a head sculpt more in line with her on-screen appearance.

 

It also came into stock on Hasbro Pulse UK ahead of its arrival in other UK outlets (and we can't all be YouTubers, graced by Zavvi's largesse) so that gave me an excuse to sign up.

However, all of the Kingdom toys I've picked up have come with several significant caveats, so let's find out if Airazor swoops to conquer what I've come to regard as the 'Kingdom Curse'.

War for Cybertron: Kingdom Dinobot

Dinobot was one of those characters who got a really raw deal, both in the original 1996 Beast Wars toyline and pretty much ever since. A pivotal and much-loved character from the TV show, he was saddled with one of the worst-looking toys, that suffered even more due to the line's 'mutant mask' gimmick that was never even referenced in the TV show. So awful was the original toy that my one and only experience of it was Takara Tomy's 2006 Telemocha Series repaint, released for the 10th Anniversary, which had the dubious advantage of a somewhat show-accurate colourscheme. I bought even that version reluctantly, and only because I wanted to have a version of Dinobot to honour his impact in the TV show.

He got a somewhat improved remake in the Universe toyline, back in 2009, but I don't think it ever made it to the UK, because I couldn't find it anywhere - online or in bricks-and-mortar toy shops. It looks substantially better than the original but, even then, my preference would have been for Takara Tomy's Henkei! Henkei! version, as Hasbro's version introduced a weird green and purple combo to his colourscheme.

 

So now, in the wake of the stunning, yet fragile and expensive Masterpiece toy, it falls to Kingdom to produce a more affordable update to the character. Having chosen to do so at the Voyager class pricepoint, let's find out if it's another comparative dud like Optimus Primal, or something special like Blackarachnia...

War for Cybertron: Kingdom Megatron (Beast)

While I always preface these toy posts, it's not often I have to start by explaining why I had a particularly hard time with the write-up... But this toy certainly has some baggage now. This is the toy I referred to in my Hasbro Pulse/Courier Frustration post. The one that was delivered to entirely the wrong location, despite the courier's insistance that it was placed in my hands; the one that Smyths kindly re-sent, only for the original to turn up two weeks later thanks to the dilligence of the local postman.

So, on the one hand, I feel an immense sense of gratitude surrounding this toy, both to the company I bought it from, for their excellent customer service, and to Royal Mail (or a representative thereof), who went above and beyond the call of duty to ensure it reached me when the original courier failed.

But, on the other hand, every time I think about this toy, I am reminded of the frustration and anger I felt, dealing with the courier company and the inadequate process they have for investigating non-delivery complaints. I had been on the fence about this toy, and now occasionally wish I'd never ordered it.

...And that's before taking into account that I will naturally have complex feels about this toy because I already own both the Beast Wars original and the 2006 Beast Wars Reborn set. It's a little frustrating that I have, over the years, developed a habit of writing up 'new and improved' toys before their predecessors.

Kingdom Megatron is certainly new... but is it really improved?

On War for Cybertron - My (Probably) Final Thoughts

Since I'm now highly unlikely to get many other toys from the Kingdom toyline (seen Galvatron, think it's probably shit - I mean, spaceship handguns? Really? - but will reserve judgement till alternate mode photos emerge - ADDENDUM 19/3/21: have now seen the 'leaked' cannon mode images and, yes, it looks like shit), I'll take this opportunity to address one of my gripes about the so-called 'F.O.S.S.I.L. (Fossilized Osteo-Skeletal Shield Integration Loadout) Technology' which supercedes the 'C.O.M.B.A.T. (Cybertronian Omnifunctional Modular Battlefield Assault Tech) System*' pioneered in the Siege toyline.

 

Not that it exists in the first place - on that score, I have reached a state of equanimity.

 

Nor that robots transforming into dinosaur skeletons makes zero sense, particularly when the Beast Machines TV show established that a Cybertronian could develop a full, techno-organic beast mode by scanning a fossil.

 

Nor is my gripe even that someone at Hasbro clearly thought that acronym qualified as a clever and/or amusing pun and doesn't realise (or didn't care) that Osteo-Skeletal is a tautology. Marvel Comics strained credulity with some of their ridiculous acronyms, but the word salad of F.O.S.S.I.L. really takes the cake.

 

My gripe here is that, compared to Siege and Earthrise, this extended, collaborative play gimmick hasn't been evenly applied to all the toys. Optimus Primal has zero ports (despite appearing in the promotional artwork wearing F.O.S.S.I.L. armour), Megatron only two (on the soles of his feet), while Blackarachnia - about the smallest Deluxe in the line - has four (one on each calf, one on the sole of each foot), and Airazor has six (one on each arm, two on each leg) largely due to the intended deployment of her own weapons.

 

On Fiction, Part 5: A New Cartoon

It has been announced that a 'new' TransFormers cartoon is in the works, as a collaboration between Nickelodeon and eOne. I'm currently not sure what to make of this news but, for the most part, it feels broadly positive. Hasbro aren't keeping all their eggs in one basket, and with the Netflix War for Cybertron series set to conclude with Kingdom later this year, and the next live action movie supposedly set for release in the summer of next year, they're clearly looking to maintain brand awareness in the visual media.

War for Cybertron: Kingdom Blackarachnia

(Femme-Bot Friday #75)

A fitting follow-up to Big Firebird's inaugural entry into the 'sort-of-TransFormers-but-not-quite' market, since Beast Wars Blackarachnia was one of the first - if not the first - TransFormers TV show character to have blatant robo-tits, even though her toy was largely androgynous thanks to its original use as the male-coded Tarantulas. The TV show was able to better differentiate between the two Predacon arachnids, and the character designers clearly didn't want any ambiguity around her role as the Femme-Bot Fatale, giving her the proportions of a pin-up.

It's also interesting to see a mainline Blackarachnia toy so soon after the mostly well-received Masterpiece, since that figure's nigh-flawless robot mode came at the expense of a bulbous and hopelessly inaccurate beast mode.

What better way to begin, then, than by looking at how it's done with a Deluxe class toy?

War for Cybertron: Kingdom Optimus Primal

It surely goes to show what a terrible toy blogger I am that this will actually be the first Optimus Primal toy from my collection to get a post on this blog, despite having owned the original, Kenner-branded Beast Wars/Biocombat toy since I discovered it while idly browsing a department store in the mid-90s, and the Beast Wars Reborn version since its release in 2006. Problem is, either I never got round to photographing them, or I somehow lost the images at some point in the distant past. Right now, the original figure is in a cabinet I can't easily access, while the re-release is boxed up and in storage. Whether that works in the Kingdom toy's favour or not remains to be seen...

The original toy is still quite close to my heart, even though I only really bought it for a laugh and, at the time, found the idea of TransFormers turning into animals quite ridiculous. Frankly, I'm finding the G1/Beast Wars crossover that appears to be implied by the first two chapters of the Netflix show just as ridiculous, but at least some of the new toys are looking quite good.

So, as has almost become the tradition with this blog, let's look at the most recent interpretation of the Beast Wars Maximal leader, Optimus Primal.

A Horrifying Thought

Earlier today, I watched a certain YouTuber's review of the upcoming War for Cybertron: Kingdom Blackarachnia figure, in which he mentioned that the Beast Wars characters will be appearing in the eventual third and final chapter of the mind-numbingly bad Netflix series.

I don't know why that hadn't occurred to me beforehand - perhaps I'd subconsciously blocked the deeper ramifications from my mind - but, the moment he said it, I had a terrible realisation... It's going to be shit.

Reflecting on 'Dark Portents'

A little over three years ago, I wrote an opinion piece - Dark Portents - reflecting of the TransFormers brand during Titans Return, just before the shift into Power of the Primes. It occurred to me to go back to that and consider how things actually transpired versus my dread pronouncements on the matter... and then opine a little further on what the future may bring.