Masterpiece MP03 Starscream

After repainting MP01 Convoy into MP02 'Ultra' Magnus, cheapening the 'Masterpiece' branding, and thereby disappointing legions of fans with yet another straight white repaint, Takara Tomy really had to create something stunning for MP03. It wasn't long before the first sketches made their way onto the internet, and Masterpiece Starscream was the centre of much speculation. How big would it be? Would it have the same extent of die-cast metal parts? How would Takara Tomy create a convincing F-15 and a cartoon-accurate robot?

DotM Definitely Out...

Took myself off to one of the nearest branches of Toys'R'Us today, since the Dark of the Moon toyline was supposedly launched in the UK yesterday. For the first two films, the TransFormers toyline took pride of place in the main display area at the front of the store. This time... it was Lego.

Dark of the Moon has a small block in one of the smaller shelf units at the front - you know, where they tend to put the special offers, clearance items and cheap crap - with the designated TransFormers shelf space up the back occupied by Iron Man action figures and some old Animated stuff (Shockwave and Wreck-Gar).

A closer look at the small block at the front of the shop revealed three Voyagers (Prime, Megatron, Ironhide) and a host of Deluxes (Skids, Starscream, Crankcase, Roadbuster... possibly the new Barricade and Jolt (not 100% certain of those)... Oh, and another Bumblebee), along with some Legends and Activators, which I didn't pay much attention to, but I do remember seeing the white repaint of Barricade.

Not a great deal of interest to me, but I did pick up Voyagers Megatron and Ironhide...

And here's a quick size comparison with the original Voyager Ironhide:

Quite significantly smaller, ain't it? In all honesty, it feels more like a large Deluxe than a Voyager. Disappointing... but transformation is far better. On the downside, arm articulation isn't half as good.

More to follow, obviously... but I should really catch up on older Movie stuff first...

A Taste of Things To Come

'Nuff said.

(OK, I found him by chance in the Brent Cross branch of Toys'R'Us and, despite never really intending to pick up this particular Masterpiece, the fact that it's had an official UK release, and for a mere £60, was enough to change my mind about him... I'll be going through my other Masterpieces first - Starscream, Megatron, UK Skywarp - but Grimlock will appear sooner or later...)

Content Update #2

Almost all of the older, crappy, 'grey-towel' photos have now been replaced:

• Binaltech Argent Meister
• Timelines Nightbeat

The comparison photos, between G1 'HeadMaster Junior' Nightbeat and the Collectors' Club update will have to wait... G1 Nightbeat is still in storage. Till he's out again, the crappy old photos will remain...

Opinion: Current and Upcoming Toylines: PCC/Dark of the Moon

It occurs to me to jot down a few thoughts on some of the newer toylines/sublines in the TransFormers family for anyone out there who has the slightest interest in my thoughts on such matters... There probably won't be a great deal of these posts, and it's really only occurred to me this evening, while watching reviews of some of the DotM toys...

Robots in Disguise Ultra Magnus

It's a very sad fact that, outside of Robots in Disguise, every version of Ultra Magnus has been nothing more than Optimus Prime painted white. OK, fine, G1 set the precedent on that one, but at least it had the super robot armour as standard... most other versions have been literally just a white version of Prime. There was one completely different iteration of Ultra Magnus in the extended Armada line, but he was just a repaint of Overload and, like Overload, attached to Armada's Supermode Prime, rather than really being a proper robot in his own right.

That's one of the reasons I like the RiD version so much: it's a completely different mold from RiD Prime, it's a car-carrier... and the full robot mode is a combination of the cab and the trailer - a far better homage to G1 than any other (official) Ultra Magnus so far...