Generations Selects Legacy: Evolution Antagony

Femme-Bot Friday #90

These days, even now I'm back in full-time work, impulse buys of TransFormers toys are few and far between, because my abiding impression is that overall quality has dropped substantially versus toys from a few years ago. Where a new figure is a remake of an earlier Generations toy - especially something like the Kingdom Waspinator mold feeling like a cheap knockoff of the 30th Anniversary toy - I'm even less inclined to pick up the newer version.

However, Legacy Inferno was the first new toy of the Beast Wars character since the 1997 original, which I've never owned, and Antagony was a BotCon 1998 exclusive repaint as a Femme-Bot, which I've also never owned... The new toy appeared to be such a hopeless simplification of the original, losing most of its impressive features, so Inferno was among the majority of Legacy toys that I skipped.

And yet... when I happened upon Generations Selects Legacy: Evolution Antagony - ostensibly a limited edition repaint by Hasbro themselves - at a branch of Game inside a Sports Direct in Eastbourne, that old impulse arose. Could this be another case of buyer's remorse? Let's take a look...

Galaxy Force Backgild

There were very few Galaxy Force toys that I didn't bother buying - even fewer that I didn't eventually buy the Cybertron version of - but the underachieving Scout class half-track vehicle, Backpack (aka Scattorshot) was one of them. This original form was a nice idea, and even followed the G1/Diaclone pattern of being a robot with his vehicle mode's front end as his chest, but the toy was too small and its robot mode wasn't very well articulated.

But when the TV show called for three of the Autobots to get upgraded forms, he was one of the lucky few, becoming Backgild (or Cybertron Defence Scattorshot), a Voyager class toy which, while broadly in the same Military vein, was a huge improvement in just about every way.

TransFormers Collectors' Club BotCon 2007 (Timelines) Alpha Trion

Galaxy Force Vector Prime was one of those TransFormers toys that, even for its era, had a simplistic transformation, but which transcended this shortcoming through the sheer detail and the extravagant intricacy of its sculpting. The fact that he was an 'ancient Cybertronian' meant that he was effectively an alternate universe Alpha Trion analogue from the outset, so it seemed inevitable that, sooner or later, he would be repainted as G1 Alpha Trion.

What is perhaps a little strange is that BotCon got there first, releasing Alpha Trion as an accompanying figure to their Games of Deception boxed set from BotCon 2007, despite the character not actually featuring in the included comic...

...Because the whole thing was part of the Collectors' Club's own game of deception: the reveal of Alpha Trion was held over for their ongoing multiversal Timelines story in the bimonthly magazine... and was (spoiler warning!) one of the first Shattered Glass characters introduced! Of course, since then, Hasbro has release Alpha Trion toys with almost monotonous regularity, and in a variety of forms.

So, let's take a look at this primary repaint, and see how well it works as this deceptively familiar character...

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.

Studio Series #83 Soundwave (& Ravage)

The arrival of a Cybertronian Starscream in the Studio Series toyline, based on the brief appearance of the Seekers and Coneheads in the Bumblebee movie, certainly got people excited for the prospect of more toys based on the robots seen in that short CGI sequence.

From my point of view, while Starscream himself was a huge disappointment - firmly putting me off buying the Thundercracker repaint, even if they do subsequently produce a Skywarp repaint as well - the next round of Cybertronian toys made for a very refreshing change from the ugly, blocky simplicity of the War for Cybertron: Siege line... But that's not to say the Studio Series figures weren't without their controversies.

Because, while a certain amount of suspension of disbelief is pretty much prerequisite when it comes to the concept of alien robots transforming into vehicles - even alien vehicles - some folks felt that Soundwave stretched credulity. But could he truly be the straw that broke the donkey's back?

Cybertron Crumplezone

Much like Ransack/Gasket, Crumplezone/Landbullet was a toy I decided I didn't want or need - on import, at least - until I experienced the figure as pre-Beast Wars Optimus Primal in the Dawn of Future's Past boxed set from BotCon 2006. As its own figure, This toy looked ugly and poorly-proportioned, with a hideous pairing of muted, military green and eye-searingly bright acidic green, and the vehicle mode wasn't particularly exciting.

However, DoFP Optimus Primal worked really well, and showed me what a fun toy he was, so I ended up buying the Hasbro version on the cheap. Being one of the larger Cybertron/Galaxy Force figures, he features some electronics, but is that enough to redeem such a terrible colourscheme on so ugly a toy?

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.

Studio Series #72 Starscream

Given that the Cybertron sequence in Travis Knight's Bumblebee-centric live action movie was comparatively short, it's spawned an awful lot of products... from the high-spec action figures created by 3A to the Studio Series toy made for the Cybertronian form of Cliffjumper, based on the briefly-glimpsed vehicle mode of B-127 himself, even though he was on screen for only about a minute. There have even been hints of Third Party offerings of some of the character seen in this sequence, so it clearly fired the imagination of many in the movie's audience.

Probably the highlight of this new take on the TransFormers' homeworld was the striking appearance of the Seekers. Taking its cue from the cartoon, there was a veritable rainbow legion of them, almost all of whom were nameless cannon-fodder. Even so, they were exceptionally well-designed: instantly recogniseable, even when in motion, and given an excellent new take on what has been an absolute millstone since the cartoon's pilot episode first aired, the Tetrajet.

And, of course, Hasbro are canny enough to know that making a toy of this design would be a worthwhile endeavour, not least because of its repaint potential. Since Starscream is the only named Seeker to have appeared in any of the movies, it seems only natural that he should be released as the first iteration of the Knightverse Tetrajet.

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 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.

TransFormers Animated Shockwave

It's not often that I have to contemplate adding a spoiler warning to a toy post, but I'd like to think that, by now, TransFormers Animated has been seen in its entirety by everyone who actually wants to watch it, and so the story spoiler inherent in this toy is thereby no longer likely to affect anyone's enjoyment of that show.

 

Essentially, Shockwave had a small but pivotal role in the show, with far-reaching consequences for several other characters, thanks to the very interesting spin the show's writers put on the G1 stalwart. Not content with having him follow tradition and be the de facto Decepticon commander on Cybertron, in Megatron's absence, they made him a spy, infiltrating Autobot Boot Camp and, from there, Cybertron Intelligence, thanks to abilities which allowed him to adopt an Autobot disguise, known as Longarm, with its own unique robot and vehicle modes.

 

Naturally, this was more successful in the cartoon than it could ever be in three-dimensional plastic, but the TF Animated toyline performed some minor miracles with its engineering in some cases, so it's really just a question of whether or not Shockwave is one of the better attempts.

Studio Series #65 Blitzwing

Probably the one clip from the trailer for Travis Knight's Bumblebee solo movie that got the most attention and generated the most excitement was the transformation of a jet into a red and grey Seeker-style robot that many people conjectured would be Starscream. Knight himself dashed such hopes when questioned, announcing that this robot was named 'Blitzwing' - a great nod to another G1 character, but not necessarily the most appropriate name, given that he didn't also turn into a tank. Then again, he was only on screen for about five minutes before getting blown up so, in the grand scheme of things, I don't think that's particularly significant. I mean, chances are, the name was one of several put forward by Hasbro, and no-one really put that much thought into the selection.

Given the small cast of robot characters in the movie, it's no surprise that they'd all be added to the Studio Series roster, with Bumblebee, Dropkick and Shatter each receiving two releases within the line (and even more for Bumblebee, if you include the special boxed sets). Blitzwing is the last of these, and only the second Voyager class figure from the film, the first (naturally) having been Optimus Prime - another character who probably only had about five minutes of total screen time.

With such a small role in the movie, one could be forgiven for having low expectations of the Blitzwing toy, but just being a Voyager - considering the more prominent Decepticons each became a pair of Deluxes - was a strong positive in my books... So let's take a look.

TransFormers Animated Wreck-Gar

While the robot characters in TransFormers Animated weren't particularly plentiful, what they lacked in numbers, they more than made up for in personality. The small cast seemed to have been perfectly selected for what they were able to add to the storytelling potential of their situation.

A prime example of this would be Wreck-Gar, who was given an entirely new origin story - no longer leader of the Junkions, a race of transforming (and partsforming) robots which evolved separately from those of Cybertron - he was, instead, the innocent creation of Sari Sumdac's AllSpark key. Introduced with no idea of his own identity, his occasional appearances served to develop his character, though I seem to recall his fate was left very open-ended.

Galaxy Force Dark Ligerjack

There's something a little bit sad about Galaxy Force Ligerjack. Obviously the character is one who, having been defeated in battle, obtained an upgraded form - supposedly through the power of the key, according to the cartoon, though that's not a feature reflected in the toys - but also the toy itself is only part of what it should have been. Designed from the start to combine with Galaxy Convoy or Master Megatron/Galvatron as a new arm, his original design included fingers and thumbs for this additional mode, and the key gimmicks were rather more extensive. Evidently too costly for the final toy, these additional features were removed, leaving gaping holes and rendering the arm form a bit useless.

My reason for not buying standard Ligerjack was mainly that I disliked his colourscheme... so, naturally, when the 'Dark' version was announced, it made it onto my want list immediately.

Universe 'Standoff Beneath the Streets' Springer vs. Ratbat

Hasbro used to release quite a few multipacks of TransFormers toys, but I didn't tend to pay much attention to them. Either I already had one of the figures in the set in one form or another, or at least one of them was crap (witness the sheer number of multipacks that included a variation of the awful Armada Sideswipe mold).

However, when the 'Standoff Beneath the Streets' set turned up, it seemed like a good deal: two great figures from the Cybertron/Galaxy Force toyline repainted as G1 characters in a set which - I gather - paid homage to a particular IDW storyline. The only downside was that one of the characters, Springer, was traditionally a Triple Changer, but the mold used was not. 2007's BotCon Springer gave him a single, ground-based vehicle mode, Hasbro were now giving him his helicopter mode via the GF Live Convoy mold.

But, for me, the main event was the first re-use of the Noisemaze mold - one of the most interesting figures in the Galaxy Force line.

TransFormers Cloud Starscream

I don't know a great deal about TransFormers Cloud, not least because the toys - by and large - didn't interest me. Most were pretty dull repaints, with the occasional new head sculpt, but only two tickled my fancy: Hellwarp - a repaint of the Generations Sky-Byte mold in Skywarp colours - and this one, Starscream.

Neither were priority figures when they first appeared, but when the Bumblebee movie turned up, featuring a character named Blitzwing, who transformed into a jet coloured suspiciously like Starscream, the latter figure got bumped up the list since it occurred to me - thanks to my weird way of thinking - that he could function both as Cloud Starscream and a Generations version of Bumblebee movie Blitzwing (even though he never transformed into a tank, or gave any indication of being a triple-changer in his brief appearance).

Of course, I already own both Generations Blitzwing and Generations Doubledealer - the latter's head sculpt being reused here - so let's see what makes Cloud Starcream unique...

Studio Series #56 Shockwave

While I've not liked all the designs of the robots in the live action movies - particularly the randomly spiky Cybertronian forms of the Bay movies - there's no denying how striking they are, and how imposing they managed to appear in the films. Given that some Decepticons didn't even transform on-screen, they could have been given just about any alternate mode imaginable.

One such character was Dark of the Moon's distinctly non-traditional interpretation of Shockwave. Gone was the logically-minded custodian of the remnants of Decepticon Cybertron and, in his place, we got a fairly generic, virtually mute metal monster with a honkin' great cannon on one arm (and the wrong arm, at that) and an enormous, city-munching robo-phallic tentacle monster for a 'pet'. Pretty much the only things the production artists got right were the head (cyclopean, albeit heavily embellished versus the G1 character) and the power cable for his gun arm.

Not that I'd expect a movie bot to transform into an enormous space gun but, given that Shockwave's appearance in the game of the very first movie had him transform into both a helicopter and a howitzer, there's already precedent for something out of the ordinary... And yet the original toy just had him turn into a spiky tank... Now, about five years later, Shockwave has been granted a Studio Series makeover - packaged as a Leader class figure, no less - so let's see what sort of improvements Hasbro have made...

Street Fighter II X TransFormers Convoy [Ryu] vs Megatron [Vega]

Considering I already have three iterations of the Generations Blitzwing mold, I decided I wouldn't bother with the Titans Return remake, either as Megatron (the form it was first released in) or as Blitzwing. Conversely, while the Optimus Prime version of the Octane mold was of no interest to me, I've ended up with not only TR Octane (in fact the first and only contemporary Octane in my collection!), but the Tokyo Toy Show 2017 Nemesis Prime/Black Convoy version as well.

All of which is to say that, of these two Street Fighter II crossover repaints, only one was entirely new to me... but the idea was certainly bonkers enough to get my attention, and I ordered both of the Street Fighter II X Transformers boxed sets as soon as they became available.

If you've ever wondered how an arcade beat-'em-up would translate into TransFormers toys, read on!

Revenge of the Fallen (Walmart Exclusive) Skywarp

Back when I wrote about the original live action movie toyline's take on Thundercracker, I noted that my Seeker OCD would likely, eventually, lead to me buying the Walmart exclusive Skywarp version despite the fact that just about every other version released since has been a vast improvement in almost every way conceivable.

Cut to earlier this month and, while I've seen this particular Skywarp turn up on eBay quite often in the intervening years, it's either been ridiculously overpriced, or missing parts (most frequently one or both of the rear stabiliser wings). It's only been in the last couple of months that the prices of a MISB version have returned to a 'normal' price (being in the region of about £30), but one caught my eye - unboxed, but complete - for about half that... and then the seller offered an extra couple of quid off, so I felt obliged to pick it up.

But this mold is now about twelve years old... Was it really worth even the reduced price?

Studio Series #33 Bonecrusher

Bonecrusher appeared in the original movie's toyline as a Deluxe and in the smaller, simpler size classes only... and, in retrospect, Hasbro admitted that this had been a miscalculation on their part. The figure was actually pretty good - I really enjoyed it and thought robot mode turned out rather well despite its small size and simplistic design.

The original toy got a few repaints, none of which seemed worth bothering with, but it's taken over ten years for Hasbro/Takara Tomy to come up with a new version in a more appropriate size class... and I can't help but think it's mostly due to the explosion of Third Party movie figures, not least the amazing-looking Steel Claw from TF Dream Factory, which is effectively a Masterpiece-scale take on Bonecrusher.

Tempted as I was, I elected to take the vastly cheaper option of Hasbro's Studio Series Bonecrusher, since it's widely regarded as a huge improvement on the old Deluxe... Though I have to admit I was a little underwhelmed...