Unique Toys R-09 Red Destroyer

The moment I learned that Unique Toys were planning to develop Stinger for their line of Masterpiece-analogues, my curiosity was piqued. After all, this was a nonentity who dissolved into a flying cloud of metal cubes rather than transforming. When the first grey prototype images appeared, I was instantly hooked. My experience with Unique Toys products thusfar has been uniformly positive: their engineering has always been clever without being overly complex and their QC has yet to disappoint. However, in terms of screen-accuracy, particularly on their head sculpts, they've never been 100% on the mark, which resulted in some of their more recent figures later being 'fixed' by cheaper knockoffs.

Their strategy for this figure was to cut down on paint applications to reduce the retail price as far as they could, in the hope that people would buy the original rather than wait for a KO, and they teased the release of a Camaro Bumblebee with much the same robot mode as additional motivation - the suggestion being that the reception of Red Destroyer will determine whether the yellow Camaro goes into production. Their paintwork has almost always been considered lacking by fans and, coupled with the eyewatering prices of some figures and inaccuracies in their sculpts, they've given the KO merchants ample room to make improvements in the past. Dialling things back even further seems like the worst decision to me. As it turned out, they revealed images of the Camaro remix within a month of Red Destroyer shipping.

But let's see how Red Destroyer stands as his own product, before anyone has the opportunity to reverse engineer it and produce a cheaper option.

Revenge of the Fallen Ransack

It's often said that aircraft don't make for good vehicle modes for TransFormers toys... and with evidence running from G1 Silverbolt to the very latest incarnation of that same character in the Age of the Primes toyline, and even the Masterpiece version of movie Starscream, it's hard to deny. However, there have been rare treats, such as Generations/Reveal the Shield Lugnut, and Third Party companies have worked wonders with movieverse designs, let alone their own unique creations.

So, where goes Ransack fall on this spectrum of achievements? Buckle up, flybots... we're in for a wild ride!

Studio Series #117 Hatchet

It's at least somewhat rare these days that I buy a figure knowing it's going to be shit. Particularly over the last couple of years, as Hasbro's QC is consistently found to be going down the toilet. When they take seven years to complete a set of characters from a movie that came out fourteen years ago, and balls it up not once (SS Crankcase using the SS Crowbar mold rather than TLK Berserker, despite having identical vehicle modes) but twice (as we're about to find out), one has to wonder if the delayed Hatchet precisely because they knew it was shit.

And, in all honesty, I wasn't really intending to buy Hatchet. As far as I'm concerned, Studio Series has devolved in exactly the same way as every other TransFormers line from Hasbro: its core idea - the most screen-accurate 'bots created using final CGI models as the basis - is no longer the foundation of the line, QC and material quality have taken a nosedive, and paintwork has been reduced significantly.

But... As with the Seekers, I felt a compulsion to complete the Dreads at the same scale and so picked him up at the MCM London Comic Con last month. The basis for the compulsion was largely that, while the original 'Commander class' DotM Hatchet toy was very cool for its size, the jet mode really made no sense. So, let's take a look at Studio Series Hatchet. It can't be that bad, surely?

Masterpiece Movie Series MPM-14 Bonecrusher

Considering its humbly-priced and thoroughly impressive beginnings, the Masterpiece line has grown to become - in my opinion - one of the most egregiously overpriced lines in the TransFormers franchise. This is particularly notable in the Masterpiece Movie subline where, at first glance, many of the figures appear to be only small upgrades on the quality of Leader Class toys circa Revenge of the Fallen.

Such was my opinion, at least, when MPM-13 Blackout emerged four years after the excellent Studio Series figure looking similarly underpainted and, in some ways, substantially less accurate, while MPM-4 Optimus Prime, which appeared a full eight years after the Leader class RotF toy, was marred by ill-fitting parts that didn't sit flush until the improved knockoffs appeared some time later. Similarly, having bought Studio Series Bonecrusher, I sold off my original Deluxe class toy, and the prospect of what looked like a sorely underpainted 'Masterpiece' enlargement just didn't appeal.

So, why do I have this now? Well, there are two reasons. First and foremost, MPM-15 Brawl appeared, looking like a substantial improvement on the rather cool Leader class toy from 2007, which got lost by the courier when I tried to sell it on a few years ago, and I was keen to get some form of replacement for him (albeit possibly a KO because, however good it is, it ain't worth £165!), since that had been the only version of movie Brawl I'd bought. This was enough to somewhat rekindle my interest in MPM, generally. Secondly... Game started selling Bonecrusher at half price sometime last year, and still had it in stock when, having started a new full-time job toward the end of January, my first full-month's paycheck arrived in my bank account at the end of February.

So, does slashing the price by half make this a worthwhile purchase? Stick with me, gentle reader, and we'll find out.

Masterpiece On Clearance - AKA Not An Unboxing Post VII

I learned a few years back that Game carry TransFormers toys and then, toward the end of last year, that they'd reduced the price of MPM-14. In fact, they'd cut the price to half their original price, offering him for just £88.

By and large, I feel that the Masterpiece line has been egregiously overpriced for years now, and the reduced price still felt a little steep. I'm certainly not intending to pay full price for MPM Blackout or Brawl (and may in fact pick up a KO of one or the other... or both)... but I got back into gainful employment back in January, and felt the need to treat myself, so I ordered him on a bit of a whim.

I was at work when it was delivered, and Courtney messaged me to say it had arrived... and that it was a big box, but felt surprisingly light. That didn't bode well, but I have to say, I was pleasantly surprised when I got my hands on him.

Proper write-up to follow soon (hopefully), but here's the box and a meme, just for funsies.

TransFormers Legacy: Evolution Deadeye Duel 2-pack - Kaskade vs. Javelin

(Femme-Bot Friday #87)

It struck me in the afternoon of January 1st that, as of this year - and, more specifically, yesterday - Femme-Bot Friday has been a feature of this blog for ten years. That being the case, I thought it appropriate to try to post something special... which might have been easier if the franchise had offered a greater quantity of worthwhile Femme-Bots. It would have been wonderful to hit FBF#100 for this anniversary, but that could only be achieved by re-posting Femme-Bots that I'd posted about before FBF became a thing.

And, while it would have been ideal to celebrate 10 years since I kicked off this feature with a post about Flame Toys' Arcee model kit, I haven't yet taken sufficient photos for that figure (lack of time, motivation and daylight over the last few months being largely responsible), so we're just going to have to make do with a Legacy: Evolution versus set that - miraculously - pits two unique Femme-Bots against each other. Little did I know, before I started writing all this, but this set actually refers to a specific story in the IDW comics, though the two featured characters don't exactly face off.

Is this unprecedented boxed set worth the investment? Well... That's an especially astute question, given my opinion of Hasbro's current output...

Real Gear Robots Night Beat 7

Real Gear Robots was a bit of an odd moment for me, as a Collector. Cunningly pitched as movie toys, but originally planned as being tangential to the Cybertron/Galaxy Force toyline, it was precisely the sort of thing I'd aim to avoid these days.

I surely can't imagine a similar toyline being popular now, especially given how simplistic and awkward most of them were... but, for whatever reason, I found the first wave or so quite compelling.

 

Unique Toys R-06 Red Dasher

Given his mostly insignificant role in Dark of the Moon and his subsequent off-screen death before Age of Extinction, it might seem strange that I have such a soft spot for a 'character' like Dino/Mirage. Part of it, I suspect, is just that his vehicle mode - a red Ferrari 458 - evokes a certain kind of gamers' nostalgia for me, various Ferraris being staples of many popular arcade and home console games during the 80s and 90s, perhaps the most famous being the Testarossa in Sega's Out Run (or the F40 from Turbo Out Run). While I'm certainly not a 'Car Guy', I will admit to a long-time appreciation of certain sports cars - notably those from Lamborghini and Ferrari - either because they've appeared frequently in videogames or the TransFormers franchise in one form or another.

...And yet, when Hasbro finally released their Studio Series Dino/Mirage back in 2021 (a whole ten years after the film was in cinemas), I didn't bother picking it up. Not because it wasn't a licensed Ferrari - that particular license being owned by another toy manufacturer - nor even because I already have both the Takara Tomy Movie Advanced version and the Alien Attack figure, Firage, but because the whole thing was lacklustre. Typical Hasbro dull red plastic and significant transformation cheats, yet most of the vehicle mode still ended up folded onto the robot's back.

Facing facts, though, the Movie Advanced figure simply isn't a screen-accurate rendition of Dino/Mirage, and the Alien Attack version is a fussy, fragile-feeling little thing whose approximately Deluxe class vehicle mode transforms into a robot mode in a scale that somehow fails to match pretty much anything else, either from Hasbro or other Third Parties...

So, when Unique Toys revealed their take on a (roughly) Masterpiece-scale Dino/Mirage, I was very much on board. Their pattern of basically turning a car inside out - introduced with Peru Kill, refined with DX9's La Hire - made for simple, enjoyable and sturdy transformations and, while their robots have sometimes been accused of lacking the movie CGI's intricate detail, early photos of their Red Dasher looked impressive. Of course, the real question is whether it's as impressive in-hand... So, let's take a look.

Studio Series Core class Concept Art Rumble

Core class looks, for all the world, like it should be a line of pocket-money toys. They're small, they're basic... Similar to the Mini Autobots from Generation 1, but with better articulation. Unfortunately, the £13/£14 UK RRP means they're too expensive to be considered true pocket-money toys... quite apart from being far too expensive for what you're actually getting.

The figure chosen to debut Core class in the Studio Series line was Bumblebee movie Shockwave - a truly baffling choice - which came out four years after the Bumblebee movie, and two years before the Voyager class toy. In some respects, it was also better articulated than the larger version. Some might say that alone made him worth the price - perhaps even better value-for-money than the Voyager - but his 'vehicle' mode was almost identical in structure to the TransFormers Prime version of Shockwave, which wasn't exactly inspiring. There had been no concept art for Shockwave's vehicle mode, theoretically giving the designers carte blanche to create something unique. The other figure in the first wave was Ravage which, arguably, should have been included with SS #83 Soundwave, so it's no surprise that Hasbro would later decide to create more minions for Soundwave, given they're now mining the archives for concept art.

Rumble is an obvious choice, considering his popularity and the frequency of his appearances in the G1 cartoon, and the fact that both he and Frenzy have come along in almost every recent toyline, including War For Cybertron, Studio Series '86 and Legacy, essentially all being Core class, or the closest equivalent in that line... These have all been rather lacklustre, though, so let's find out if the Core class Studio Series Concept Art Rumble breaks this pattern.

MetaGate G-05 Red Fantasy

(Femme-Bot Friday #85)

The Bumblebee movie didn't just bring a new, unprecedented coherence to storytelling in live action TransFormers movies, but a whole new aesthetic. Gone were the overcomplicated, oddly-proportioned Autobots and the insectoid Decepticons seemingly made of needles, knives and random metal shavings; the overabundance of grey and bare metal. The framing of each shot gave characters breathing room, allowing for physical characteristics to shine through, and individual robots were easily distinguishable at a glance, even in the thick of the action. No longer were we, for example, stuck looking at Optimus Prime's armpit as he cut a swathe through legions of Decepticons in the middle of a city, or watching Starscream gob up some lubricant in hyper-sharp, ILM-crafted detail.

Sure, the movie only really featured two Decepticons for the bulk of the story, but what Decepticons they were! Shatter and Dropkick were the ideal - not to say archetypal - pairing of brains and brawn, with the former even convincing the proto-Sector 7 team to work with them, despite representing themselves as "Decepticon Peacekeepers", a flagrantly oxymoronic description if ever there was one. Silver-tongued Shatter was the standout villain, exhibiting intelligence, cunning and a keen mind for strategy, with the dulcet tones of Angela Bassett breathing life into her. To cap it all, both she and Dropkick became Triple Changers, which naturally made it difficult for Hasbro to make toys of them.

To make them viable, Hasbro essentially made two versions of each in as many size classes as possible... The Deluxe class Studio Series car mode Shatter was a clumsy, flimsy mess, but the jet mode toy was excellent, if a little overburdened with vehicle mode parts on its backpack. However, it wasn't long till Third Parties started teasing their plans to make (loosely) Masterpiece scale figures that would actually feature both car and jet modes all in one. Toyworld announced theirs first, back in 2019, but relative newcomers MetaGate - creators of the stunning, triple-changing movieverse Drift, Haiku - were the first to actually ship theirs and, even at first glance, it looked substantially better.

But let's have a closer look and see exactly what kind of dark magic had been brought to bear on this character...

Real Gear Robots Power Up VT6

One of the most common problems with the Real Gear Robots line was that it was a combination of extremely basic engineering and the need to ensure the alternate mode was instantly recognisable as the gadget it was intended to represent. Given that many of the gadgets chosen for the line were either awkwardly shaped, or essentially small boxes with buttons.

Over the years, Hasbro and Takara have come up with some genuinely ingenious ways of transforming rectangular blocks of various thicknesses into reasonable-looking robots but, on balance, I'd say they've probably had more misses than hits.

But which category does Power Up VT6 fall into? Read on, and find out..!

 

Human Alliance Skids & Arcee

OK, by this point, I am reasonably certain that this is actually the last - the very last - Revenge of the Fallen figure in my collection, at least until Studio Series adds something worthwhile from that film. As with Mudflap, this toy had been languishing, largely forgotten, in a box for years. The photos I had taken have been awaiting upload from my computer for more than ten years.

Skids and Mudflap were referred to in RotF as 'the twins', but their Deluxe Class toys were surprisingly different, given the limitations of the size class. They had broadly similar Mech Alive gimmicks, but the specifics of their operation were quite different. Their transformations had similar aspects, but their weapon features were wholly unique. The craziest thing about the Human Alliance versions is that they're even more similar in terms of their underlying engineering, despite the (marginally) larger size versus the Deluxe class toys.

So, let's take a look at this much-maligned character, and see how he fares in this underutilised format.

TransFormers: Waste of the Beasts... AKA Equivocation of the Franchise

I said I was going to see it... So I went to see it.

There were signs that the completed movie wasn't quite so bad as I had expected and/or predicted... Though, even in that, there are caveats. At this point, this whole thing is very much overdue - I saw the movie at the end of June, after all - and I'd started to wonder if I should even bother now. 

I had, of course, read the effusive fan praise that appeared throughout the internet immediately after the movie opened and had taken it with a pinch of salt. I had read spoilers and comparisons between the movie shown in test screenings, months ago, and the final theatrical cut. I had read stories of extensive reshoots and disagreements between teams of Editors over what could be salvaged and made watchable from a movie rumoured to be potentially about four hours long. None of what I saw or read gave me any reason to doubt that Rise of the Beasts was an absolute disaster, for Paramount, for Hasbro, and potentially for Steven Caple Jr.'s future career. Given that it's now been almost five years since the Bumblebee solo movie hit the cinemas, I get the impression that some fans must have been suffering from withdrawal symptoms.

Potential spoilers ahead...

Studio Series #93 Hot Rod

I still haven't watched The Last Knight (and still don't intend to), but I have watched enough clips to know two things: that Hasbro's first attempt at a Hot Rod figure back in 2017 was hopelessly inaccurate, and that the writers couldn't decide whether he was supposed to be French, or just somehow 'stuck' with the accent, considering he frequently uses French idioms in his dialogue (consistently addressing Vivian Wembly as "mademoiselle", introducing himself with "Je m'apelle Hot Rod", etc.).

His design was pretty good, though, carrying just enough of the Diaclone DNA exhibited by the likes of Bumblebee and Jazz in the first film - even more surprising considering how quickly Bay's movies distanced themselves from that aesthetic - while fitting in with the sleeker, increasingly humanoid styling of the later films.

Given that I bought DX9's excellent La Hire more than three years ago, one could be forgiven for wondering why I'd bother with Hasbro's Studio Series update of their figure from The Last Knight's toyline... And, granted, it does seem strange to spend £26 on a Deluxe class figure that I know isn't going to hold a candle to a larger, more intricate, elaborate and accurate Third Party Masterpiece-analogue, that I already own, and for which I paid just £77. SS Hot Rod may be just one third the price, but can a Deluxe class toy, as produced by Hasbro in the 2020s, possibly be even one third as good as La Hire?

Well, there's only one way to find out, isn't there?

Rise of the Beasts: Trailers, Fan Chatter & Toy Musings

I've already made a couple of passing references to my concerns about the upcoming live action movie, TransFormers: Rise of the Beasts, not least due to its long production delays and reshoots, as well as my ambivalence toward the toys thusfar revealed. As we get closer to the movie's intended release date in June, the hype is naturally building. There have been more toy reveals - including confirmation that the two very different styles of toys that have emerged are due to the expected, individual Studio Series releases and a pair of three-packs that will appear in a separate, dedicated Rise of the Beasts toyline - along with the expected early reviews from the usual suspects on YouTube.

The teaser trailer appeared a few months ago, with the message that "For millions of years, our world has transformed... but something else has awakened" and "Power is primal" - both equal parts ominous and utter nonsense - along with piss-poor CGI that fans have been picking apart and rushing to defend, in almost equal measure, ever since. It was followed more recently by a Superbowl teaser that added little of any substance, and which seemed to be pushing the Porsche brand as much as the movie, but the overall impression I've been getting - for quite some time - is that Rise of the Beasts is not Knightverse part 2, but Bayverse version 2.

Real Gear Robots Zoom Out 25X

If you were under the impression that the Real Gear Robots toyline couldn't possibly get any worse than Speed Dial 800... You'd be about right. However, it's a very close-run thing when it comes to the last few I bought. The funniest thing about the line is that, just 15 or so years later, so many of the alternate modes are so out of date, and Zoom Out 25x is saddled with one such example, along with another of the line's terrible names.

Given that there are already digital (photo) cameras and (ancient-style) cellular telephones available in the line, a camcorder feels like another logical addition. It has as much play value in its alternate mode as in its robot mode, and it's certainly the same kind of consumer technology... But is it a worthwhile addition to this strange and short-lived, movie-adjacent toyline?

Studio Series #91 The Fallen

Ostensibly released toward the end of 2022, this figure was rumoured to not be getting a widespread release in the UK, and was almost instantly listed on Hasbro Pulse as 'Sold Out'. Having seemingly missed out there, I bookmarked the figure on Amazon, despite it being priced significantly higher initially, and ended up ordering after Christmas, at a slight discount, using some of the Amazon vouchers I'd received as a gift. Unfortunately, the copy I received was not only headless, but missing the mask accessory, so I had to send it straight back and claim a refund.

By this point, Hasbro Pulse miraculously had stocks again and, given that their standard price was just 90p more than the discounted price I'd just paid on Amazon, I figured I may as well order there... Free delivery as well, thanks to the current Leader class pricepoint, which is always a bonus.

Now, I'm not a fan of The Fallen, per se. Back when I wrote about the original, Voyager class figure from 2009, I described it as "what would happen if you let H.R. Giger design a TransFormer" and as exemplifying "everything that was wrong with the TransFormers movie robots". In retrospect, I have decided that I like the design, in and of itself, but I just don't think it works even as an ancient Cybertronian quasi-deity. The bizarre, monstrous appearance, coupled with the fact that he never transformed in the movie, was a huge missed opportunity within the franchise... but then, introducing a villain like The Fallen in just the second live action movie, only to kill him off so easily at the end, was the quintessential missed opportunity, as well as being, just generally, a terrible mistake on the part of the 'writers'. Perhaps if the writers' strike had been resolved sooner, the movie could have been more coherent, and The Fallen a better-developed and more 'normal'-looking character, with a more significant impact on the franchise rather than just another Scooby-Doo villain of the week...

...But let's not dwell on what might have been... Because here we have Hasbro's latest attempt at creating a toy based on the bonkers CGI, and all we need to know is whether or not it's better than the original.

Human Alliance Barricade & Frenzy

Here's another fine example of me forgetting about a perfectly good toy for far too long... So long, in fact, that I acquired and wrote about the Masterpiece version of the figure more than three years ago, and that was ten years after this toy was released! Worse still, this blog was already in full swing when this toy came out, so I really have no excuses... I wish I knew why I neglected the last three Human Alliance figures in my collection... But, other than the blog getting off to a very slow start, I can't imagine what stopped me.

But let's not dwell on old mistakes and, instead, enjoy the process of revisiting a toy that had been stuck in storage for far too long. I was a massive fan of the Human Alliance concept... still am, in fact, and it's something I hope Hasbro will eventually revisit at some point in the future. Barricade was, in my opinion, one of the most interesting aspects of the first live action movie, being a Decepticon who transformed into a vehicle which, in an ideal world, is intended to reassure people, make them feel safe and protected. Barricade is, of course, the antithesis of that idea... but I don't think they really played into it as much as they could have, and then he disappeared until the third film, then again until his refit in the fifth.

The original Deluxe class toy was very much a product of its time, with all the shortcomings that implies. Let's see how this version of Barricade fares, being not only a product of a different time, but a different and much more advanced toyline.

Real Gear Robots Spyshot 6

All things considered, when Hasbro decided to launch a range of TransFormers toys modelled after real-world electronic devices, my thoughts and feelings tend toward "what took them so long?". Micro Change had been part of the foundation of the brand, back in the early 1980s, but the focus turned more toward vehicles as the line progressed... These toys might have been in development alongside the Cybertron/Galaxy Force line, but it took the 2007 live action movie to shift focus back. By positing that our technological leaps in electronics had been achieved by reverse engineering Megatron, the movie gave these toys some context.

Given the number of electronic devices already in the TransFormers back catalogue, one might have expected a new take on Soundwave or Reflector... but the closest we got to the former was Booster X10 - a clear reference to Laserbeak - and the closest we got to the latter... would be this little fellow.

But, of course, cameras have got substantially smaller since the 1980s, what with the digital revolution, and all... and just 15 years after this toy appeared, many people believe cameras, per se, to have been made redundant by those built into cellphones... So let's take a look at this relic of the past, and see how it works as a TransFormers toy.

 

Real Gear Robots Speed Dial 800

Given the increasing popularity of cellular telephony over the last few decades, it was perhaps inevitable that a toyline like Real Gear Robots would include a compact, hand-held phone as one of its innocuous devices... And, in fact, the concept has even been revisited since, with the 2017 au X TransFormers line of INFOBAR figures, featuring Optimus Prime, Megatron and (of course) Bumblebee, created as a promotion with the Japanese-made devices.

Weird as those are, though, they're not a patch on the abject insanity of the attempt Hasbro had made ten years earlier. Here, I present what must surely be the nadir of the Real Gear Robots line... Read on, if you dare!