TransFormers Go! Hunter Soundwave

Takara Tomy's take on the Beast Hunters extension to TF Prime was a bit of a surprise. Most of the beasts/Predacons were incorporated into their TransFormers Go! TV show, but only a few of the non-beast toys made it into the toyline. Shockwave was one, receiving a far better paint job than the Hasbro/Beast Hunters version, and Soundwave was another. While Hasbro's release seemed to channel an old TransFormers Universe toy, Takara Tomy went a bit more traditional...

One might wonder why I'd pick up another version of TF Prime Soundwave when I already have the original TF Prime Deluxe and Hasbro's Beast Hunters version... but remember I also went and bought the Collectors' Club's Old Snake & Advanced Steath BATs set... and read on.

Street Fighter II X TransFormers Hot Rodimus [Ken]

While I wasn't particularly interesting in obtaining a second iteration of the Titans Return Hot Rod mold, I pretty much had no choice, since that's the mold that was chosen to represent Ken in the Street Fighter II X TransFormers Deluxe class 2-pack.

Or, at least, that's what I thought at first. Upon closer inspection, it turned out that Takara Tomy had used their slightly modified TF Legends Targetmaster Hot Rodimus mold. While I'd already acquired Hot Rod before Hot Rodimus even appeared, I did - briefly - entertain the possibility of picking up Takara Tomy's version as a replacement, as I have the Targetmaster version of G1 Hot Rod, and the translucent plastic flame pattern on his chest, along with the overall better colourscheme, were quite appealing.

In the end, I decided to get the Reprolabels set and make do with Hasbro's offering, so getting my hands on this mold via the Street Fighter II crossover set seemed like an unexpected bonus. He's packaged along with Arcee/Chun Li, and she turned out pretty cool... So, without further ado, let's see what Takara Tomy made of Ken.

Street Fighter II X TransFormers Arcee [Chun Li]

(Femme-Bot Friday #71)

So, having dealt with the Street Fighter II X TransFormers Convoy/Megatron set in one hit, I find myself having to split the second set to properly accommodate the main reason I was interested in either set: Generations/TF Legends Arcee repainted as Chun Li.

It's a bit puzzling that the two sets were made out of toys in different size classes (Arcee and Hot Rodimus being Deluxes), but I guess they felt either that both Ryu and Vega/M. Bison warranted partnering with the Voyager class leaders of the two Cybertronian factions, or at least that Ryu should be partnered with a robot of the same size class, even though he'd generally depicted as being much smaller than Vega/M. Bison in the games.

Still, is that any more strange than including a figure from an older, entirely unrelated line, when three out of the four crossover figures are from Titans Return?

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!

TransFormers Collectors' Club BotCon 2006 (Timelines) Buzzsaw & Laserbeak

The pattern with me and TransFormers toys appears at times to be "the weirder, the better". The Beast Wars figures I picked up tended to be rather strange (Lio Convoy, Mach Kick, Longrack, Break, etc.) and I often appreciate a robot mode more the further it is from standard human proportions.

That said, the Superlink/Energon Shadowhawk/Divebomb mold really ticked my fancy because it managed to do both its avian beast mode and its robot mode in a convincing, innovative way, without wasting the bird's wings as the robot's backpack the way so many other avian TransFormers have.

BotCon 2006's Dawn of Futures Past boxed set was one of the things that got me into the idea of joining the Collectors' Club and possibly, eventually venturing across the pond to a BotCon. While the boxed set was awesome in and of itself, I did also covet a couple of the attendee-exclusive souvenir packs. Since I wrote about the boxed set and one of the attendee figures, Tigatron, almost nine years ago and I still haven't found an affordable Megatron/Waspinator (the former appearing every so often for something in excess of a thousand pounds, while the latter has recently turned up on eBay for over £500), I figure it's about time I wrote about the other bagged pair I currently own...

War for Cybertron: Earthrise Cliffjumper

Considering that G1 Cliffjumper was the first ever TransFormers toy I bought, it was a foregone conclusion that I'd be on the lookout for a decent update. The Classics version took the easy way out and reused the Bumblebee mold - even down to the head sculpt - and that pattern of laziness carried on into the perfunctory Cliffjumper repaint of the original Concept Camaro Bumblebee from the first movie toyline. While Windcharger - my second ever Autobot - has had three new Scout/Legends class molds in the last decade, Cliffjumper's only other appearance in anything approaching his traditional form was in Alternity, while he had a complete makeover for his appearance in TF Prime.

Then, in a baffling albeit welcome move, Hasbro announced a new, unique, G1-style Cliffjumper toy in the Earthrise chunk of the War for Cybertron toyline - without even a hint of a Bumblebee, despite him supposedly having a major role in the IDW comics series, according to their plans. What's more, it looked almost like a simplified version of the MP21 Bumblebee figure. It seemed perfect... but then it became apparent that Cliffjumper would be another of Hasbro's recent pricepoint cheaters - effectly a large Legends class toy with accessories included to bump him up to the new, inflated Deluxe class bracket.

What trickery is this? Let's take a look!

(Worth noting here that my photography will be a bit inconsistent between posts for a while, as I've been experimenting again with the white background for my light tent - newly taken photos will have a white(-ish) background, older drafts will feature the more usual 'black' background)