The Transformers thread (shows, comics, toys, all things TF)

[Baby Punisher]

that scene starts at about 1:52 (after the title sequence and the bit with the early humanoids)

I don't get it. Can you please explain to me what I'm watching? I watched the entire clip and saw nothing shocking.

 

[The Nemesis]

I don't get it. Can you please explain to me what I'm watching? I watched the entire clip and saw nothing shocking.

Dinobot contemplates suicide in that opening segment. The way he's holding the sword is heavily evocative of someone committing seppuku (though it's somewhat clumsily done because he's doing it with a full-sized sword instead of a short-sword or dagger.)

It also gives a heavy dose of foreshadowing because as he's thinking, the birds fly outside his window in a "missing man" formation, as the Maximals do at the end of the episode during his funeral.

Obviously the fact that he ends up dying makes this a dramatic episode, but for a show that was rated for kids (I think it was K7 or whatever the 2nd lowest general/for-kids rating was) to be showing a character thinking about killing themselves in a fit of existential crisis and shame was suuuuuper dark.

 

[Baby Punisher]

Ah ok. Not knowing the story line I was confused as to what was going on. That is heavy for a kids show

 

[The Nemesis]

Lucked into a haul of the PoP stuff I was missing at a different walmart than my usual stop. Picked up Grimlock, Starscream, Jazz, and Vector Prime. So I have everything I would want from wave 1 now except Slash.

I'm hoping to start cleaning up my shelf tomorrow evening, so maybe I'll have pictures of lots of stuff by then.

 

[The Nemesis]

We've officially hit the part where I might need you guys to stage an intervention. I had to go to my local walmart on the way home from a hockey game tonight to pick up some milk and I ended up wandering over to the toy section.

And that's how I walked out of the store with a jug of milk in one hand and the PoP Rodimus Prime quad-changer.

I can stop any time I want. I just don't want to right now.

 

[The Nemesis]

Didn't get to the actual Transformer shelf of my cleaning effort today. So that's my project for tomorrow evening, including pictures and writeups on the various things I've spent way too much money on in the last few months

Meanwhile, I discovered something that's kind of a kick in the nuts for collectors:

Each Power of the Primes figure comes with a trading card. that card has in its upper right corner the symbol of one of the Prime Masters. That symbol is not set for any given character's card. That means there are 12 different variants for each character that comes with a card. So, for example, I just opened the Dreadwind figure I got and it has Solus Prime's symbol in the corner and a writeup on the back that explains what Solus Prime's power is supposed to represent for Dreadwind. But someone else who buys a Dreadwind could get a Megatronus version card, or Liege Maximo, or Vector Prime, or whatever.

So you just know that's going to push some OCD collector to buy the same figure 12 times over just so they can have every variant of the card. Or be a huge dick and open up packages in stores so they can swipe cards out and complete their set.

If Hasbro were cool at all, they should have some redemption program where you can submit proof of purchase from a certain number of figures and be able to mail away for the complete set of cards or something.

EDIT: opened up my Jazz figure. Its card has "Amalgamous Jazz" on the back. In a bit of inexplicable weirdness, Amalgamous Prime is not one of the Prime Master figures listed for release in the line. Near as I can tell, the 12 are supposed to be based on 12 members of "The Thirteen" from the aligned continuity (the missing one is Optimus himself): They are:

• Prima (the "warrior of light" and embodiment of good for Transformers. No release listed)
  
• Vector Prime (master of space and time. Available as a Prime Master figure in wave 1)
  
• Alpha Trion (Scribe and recordkeeper of the Primes. Available as a Prime Master figure in wave 2)
  
• Solus Prime (master artificer and forge of Cybertronian artifacts. Available as a Prime Master figure in wave 3)
  
• Micronus Prime (master of power enhancement and mini-cons/micromasters. Available as a Prime Master in wave 1)
  
• Alchemist Prime (master of elemental power and the natural universe. Available as a Prime Master figure in wave 2)
  
• Nexus Prime (Patron of combiners. No release listed)
  
• Onyx Prime (Patron of bestial Transformers. Apparently available with the eventual Titan Class Predaking gift set)
  
• Amalgamous Prime (master of transformation and shapechanging. No release listed)
  
• Quintus Prime (master of science and discovery. Available as a Prime Master figure in wave 3)
  
• Liege Maximo (The trickster/manipulator. Available as a Prime Master in wave 1)
  
• Megatronus (the "warrior of darkness" and embodiment of evil for Transformers. Available as a Prime Master figure in wave 3)

There's no indication anywhere if any later figures or special setups will come with or release Prima, Nexus Prime, or Amalgamous Prime)

Worth noting that each Prime Master figure also doubles as a mythology nod to old G1 Pretenders figures, as they come with "Decoy armor" shells that replicate the Pretender shell of a classic character:

• Vector Prime (Metalhawk)
  
• Alpha Trion (Landmine)
  
• Solus Prime (Octopunch)
  
• Micronus (Cloudburst)
  
• Alchemist Prime (Submarauder)
  
• Quintus Prime (Bludgeon)
  
• Liege Maximo (Skullgrin)
  
• Megatronus (Bomb-Burst)

 

[The Nemesis]

My one early review for Power of the Primes and all the recent lines in general:

the instructions are garbage. Dark, fuzzy pics with dark "highlights" printed on dark backgrounds and no real explanation of what you're supposed to do. I'm about 50/50 so far in terms of whether or not I need to consult a youtube review for a figure to be able to transform it because I can't understand the pack-in sheet. Also it folds up in a skinny little accordion style that is impossible to properly put back together. I miss the ones that folded both directions and collapsed into squares instead.

I can't imagine being an excited kid trying to decipher this nonsense. Probably would end with breaking something. It's a good thing that so many joints and hinges are designed to be detachable to prevent permanent breakage.

 

[The Nemesis]

Oh my god I forgot how slow it is cleaning most figures if they get a good amount of dust stuck on them... I'm going to be at this a while

 

[The Nemesis]

Well, it only took me the better part of 3 afternoons/evenings but I think I've finally cleaned everything. Now I just need to rearrange my shelf setup so I can actually get some of the bigger stuff (Fort Max) up there.

also I don't think I'm taking Devastator apart again. That was a harrowing experience detaching Hook from his mounted setup on top of Long Haul. I can see stress marks in a couple of the tabs. Plus I think the shoulder clasp that holds Scrapper in place isn't clamping down properly anymore. good thing there's like 3 other anchor points on the body and with the chestplate to keep it all together.

But it means I will have pictures/reviews of stuff tomorrow for sure.*


*barring unforeseen circumstances or it taking a long time to actually put things back on the shelves where they belong.

 

[The Nemesis]

Yeah, I way overestimated how easily I'd be able to reassemble my stuff and clear out to get good photos for reviews. My hope still is to get it done this week, especially after my first batch of photos turned out like crap because of the terrible lighting on my desk.

Meanwhile, 3 things:

1) Holy balls is it hard to find all the PoP line in Canada. I still haven't tracked down Slash or Optimus/Orion Pax. And now that wave 2 is coming out, I'm worried it's going to get more difficult without paying gougey eBay/Amazon marketplace prices (or risking eBay chinese knockoffs)

2) I appreciate to some extent the amount of figures in the lineup that come with a combiner gimmick, but it's a little dumb now that they're releasing combinable bots with no real intent on them fitting a particular themed combine team/set. Jazz turns into a limb, but there aren't enough combiner car style Autobots to make it work (particularly no torso-bot. Hell, wave 1 even had Beachcomber and Windcharger in it, but as the smallest non-mini figures, which means no gimmickry at all). Starscream can form a torso/core (which even has a really sweet head modeled after him wearing the crown from his Movie coronation, but there are only 2 other 'con jets in this line (Dreadwind and Darkwing) and the Titans Return/Combiner wars releases of the other seekers don't have optional limb modes. Why would you not have made it so that Starscream could combine with Thundercracker and Skywarp? And Elita-1 gets a figure (albeit a somewhat disappointing retool of the wave 1 Starscream figure), but there are only 2 other fembots in the whole trilogy of Prime Wars lines (Moonracer and Firestar..erm "Novastar") if you set aside the Victorion giftset, meaning you don't even get enough characters to make a classic female Autobot combiner when reasonably they could've made Arcee and Chromia figures to finish off the batch. Its almost as annoying as releasing 1 insecticon per Prime Wars line, meaning I bought Shrapnel with no way to go back in time and get Bombshell or Kickback without paying collector/scalper markups. (Or Chop Shop, which would be an awesome addition except that his figure is just the same Shrapnel fig with a different head and paintjob)

3) But for all that I'm ragging on the PoP line..... GIFTSET PREDAKING!!!!

Also I'm mildly geeking out for wave 2 including Battleslash and Roadtrap as legends figs. They're a random, mean-nothing character with no importance to hte brand, but I have a G1 duocon Battletrap figure that I got as a little kid, so seeing the opportunity to get a sweet new tech version makes me happy. Kind of like what I wanted with Topspin and Twintwist before I realized it was too late to find them at reasonable prices.

 

[SoundwaveIsCharisma]

Yeah, I way overestimated how easily I'd be able to reassemble my stuff and clear out to get good photos for reviews. My hope still is to get it done this week, especially after my first batch of photos turned out like crap because of the terrible lighting on my desk.

Meanwhile, 3 things:

1) Holy balls is it hard to find all the PoP line in Canada. I still haven't tracked down Slash or Optimus/Orion Pax. And now that wave 2 is coming out, I'm worried it's going to get more difficult without paying gougey eBay/Amazon marketplace prices (or risking eBay chinese knockoffs)

2) I appreciate to some extent the amount of figures in the lineup that come with a combiner gimmick, but it's a little dumb now that they're releasing combinable bots with no real intent on them fitting a particular themed combine team/set. Jazz turns into a limb, but there aren't enough combiner car style Autobots to make it work (particularly no torso-bot. Hell, wave 1 even had Beachcomber and Windcharger in it, but as the smallest non-mini figures, which means no gimmickry at all). Starscream can form a torso/core (which even has a really sweet head modeled after him wearing the crown from his Movie coronation, but there are only 2 other 'con jets in this line (Dreadwind and Darkwing) and the Titans Return/Combiner wars releases of the other seekers don't have optional limb modes. Why would you not have made it so that Starscream could combine with Thundercracker and Skywarp? And Elita-1 gets a figure (albeit a somewhat disappointing retool of the wave 1 Starscream figure), but there are only 2 other fembots in the whole trilogy of Prime Wars lines (Moonracer and Firestar..erm "Novastar") if you set aside the Victorion giftset, meaning you don't even get enough characters to make a classic female Autobot combiner when reasonably they could've made Arcee and Chromia figures to finish off the batch. Its almost as annoying as releasing 1 insecticon per Prime Wars line, meaning I bought Shrapnel with no way to go back in time and get Bombshell or Kickback without paying collector/scalper markups. (Or Chop Shop, which would be an awesome addition except that his figure is just the same Shrapnel fig with a different head and paintjob)

3) But for all that I'm ragging on the PoP line..... GIFTSET PREDAKING!!!!

Also I'm mildly geeking out for wave 2 including Battleslash and Roadtrap as legends figs. They're a random, mean-nothing character with no importance to hte brand, but I have a G1 duocon Battletrap figure that I got as a little kid, so seeing the opportunity to get a sweet new tech version makes me happy. Kind of like what I wanted with Topspin and Twintwist before I realized it was too late to find them at reasonable prices.

Any word on the release date of Predaking?

 

[The Nemesis]

Any word on the release date of Predaking?

All the tf wiki has listed is "2018"

Like the other big ticket items from previous lines (devastator, Fort max, trypticon) it doesn't appear to be tied to a specific wave of figures in the rest of the line.

 

[The Nemesis]

Found out the boutique toy store/collector's store in town has some Optimus/Orion Pax figures. $10 markup over Wal-Mart prices, but I guess I can't afford to be picky given how hard it is to find the damn things.

They also have the first Wave 2 fig I've seen so far: the Rodimus repaint "Rodimus Unicronus" which has a black and purple Decepticon paintjob and a remolded head with an eeeevil goatee. It's meant to be a Unicron-corrupted Rodimus, but also mostly takes its design cues from the "evil Autobot" Hot Rod/Rodimus from the Shattered Glass universe (a star trek style 'mirror universe' where every character is essentially the opposite of his main universe version. So the Decepticons are the heroes, teh Autobots are evil. Optimus is a warmongering dictator, Megatron is a freedom fighter, Starscream is undyingly loyal, Jazz is a goon who talks like Mr T, Grimlock is an intelligent evil scientist who talks in a stuffy british-ish accent, etc).

Also found out they have a bunch of Titans Returns Kickback figs, so now I can get 2 of the 3 insecticons. Just need to find a combiner wars bombshell for a not-ridiculous amount of money.

Still no Slash though.

Probably going back to spend more money that I shouldn't in order to get them. Good thing my birthday is coming up and I can get some cash to recoup on my purchases


EDIT: I did make one TF-related purchase today though: An $8 set of cosmetics brushes from the drugs/make-up department at Wal-Mart.

They're fantastic for cleaning/dusting figures.

 

[The Nemesis]

Went back to the boutique store and walked out with pop Optimus and titans return kickback. Most of the other stuff they had was old shelfwarmers from titans return. And half the aerialbots but not silverbolt.

Or a boxless, instructionless computron for $115.

When I get home tonight I'm going to set up for pictures again with better lighting. And I have tomorrow free so that should let me work on stuff to post here.

I'm just thankful I don't want the Rodimus repaint or several other wave 2 and 3 figs so I can stop hemorrhaging cash to buy toys i set on a shelf

 

[cupcrazyman]

The Toys That Made Us ( Netflix) is having a Transformers Episode sometime this year.

 

[The Nemesis]

As I work on re-taking pictures of all my recent acquisitions and setting up my shelf again, I noticed something:

I complained earlier about how it feels like the PoP combiners that are part of the Voyager class of figure (ie the ones big enough to form combiner torsos) seem like a random assortment given the availability of other figures in the line. Particularly things like Elita-1 and Starscream being combiner torsos but lacking enough thematically appropriate limb bots in the Deluxe class to make a sensible whole. And that in fact there aren't enough revealed figures to even make whole combiners out of every Voyager figure released. It turns out that on the sides of deluxe class figures' packaging they show an image of the combiner that I presume is supposed to be the one you build with this particular bot. For example, Jazz shows "Elita-Inf1nite" on the side, and Dreadwind shows the Starscream combiner (it doesn't have a separate name, I guess?) So that means that I suppose there is a determined arrangement of bots to combine, that I would guess is:

1) Grimlock (Volcanicus) - the Dinobots (Slag, Swoop, Sludge, and Snarl)
2) Hun-Gurr (Abominus) - the Terrorcons (Rippersnapper, Blot, Cutthroat, and Sinnertwin)
3) Elita-1 (Elita-Inf1nite) - Jazz, Moonracer, Novastar, ???
4) Starscream (???) - Dreadwind, Darkwing, ???, ???
5) Inferno (???) - All unknown

The only issue here is that this would require 7 additional deluxe figures to be released, and they're only doing 3 or 4 per wave, and assuming that the TFwiki's listing of Novastar as wave 4 is an error (I've seen images that show her carded with other wave 3 figures) there's been no guarantee yet that there would be a wave 4 release at all, and filling all the slots would require a 5th wave still. That said, each of the other Prime Wars series went to 6 waves of deluxe figs, so there's plenty of space.

Ideally if there were 6 waves, and we assume Novastar is wave 4 and that wave 3 is only 3 figures, I'd love to see the following to round out the sets:

Elita - Chromia, replace Jazz with Arcee
Starscream - Dirge, Thrust (Skywarp and Thundercracker were released as non-combining models in Titan Wars. In fact, each of them got a small Legends Class release and a Voyager-sized one as well.)
Inferno - use Jazz here instead of with Elita, Red Alert, Grapple, Hoist (I would've preferred Prowl and Hound, but they were part of the Combiner Wars lines, so instead Inferno gets the bots he was released with in the 80s.) I suppose Ratchet would be cool though since he was never officially released in Combiner Wars except as a convention mod class exclusive.

That would be 7 new bots, filling 3 additional slots in wave 4, plus 3 slots in a wave 5. They could then still have 1 wave 5 slot and a wave 6 to do 4-5 more bots, enough to make one more full combiner (though there would likely also be 3 more Voyager torso-capable figure slots to release in the interim, which would complicate matters.

Also I want to see an Evolution Megatron in wave 4+ because this line doesn't have a Megs and that's ridiculous, and I'm not shelling out $100+ for Combiner Wars megs or $90+ for hte Titans Return Megs that's just a Blitzwing repaint. The question becomes what to make the evolution of. Small Megs that becomes Galvatron would make the most sense, but be less iconic since Megatron should be scaled to size with Prime. Small galvatron that becomes Megs would make no sense. And I don't think they've ever had an Orion Pax style pre-Megatron design that would make sense as the mini bot.

 

[The Nemesis]

Just as a holdover while I work, I wanted to share this example of the scope of Fort Max.

He stands about 23 inches tall from ground to the tips of the pointy horns on his head. Here's a shot with some size comparisons: a Masterpiece Optimus (~ 1 foot tall), a G1 original Optimus (~6.25 inches) and a Smallest Optimus (~2.25 inches), as well as a standard can of pop (a shade under 5 inches)

Forgive the harsh lighting. I can't really set the lamps to a proper position because Max is too damn tall

 

[Baby Punisher]

The Toys That Made Us ( Netflix) is having a Transformers Episode sometime this year.

I was so angry they didn't make one in the first run. How could they leave Transformers out.

I never had Predaking.

 

[The Nemesis]

I never had Predaking either, but then I never had any of the classic combiner sets (only pieces. Hot Spot, Swindle, and Blot. Not even enough to make a single frankenstein-y scramble city combiner)

I have a good # of pics now, so I'm going to likely need a day or two to write things up and resize the images to be usable. And then I'm never doing a giant mass of reviews like this again. If more happen it'll be one or two at a time.

 

[The Nemesis]

So apparently during the G2 heyday of crazy colors (like the yellow constructicons, black Optimus Prime, purple/green Megatron, and the wonky fluorescent colored combaticons) This was almost a thing (and apparently would've been a second G2 release of Grimlock after the cobalt blue one):

ye gods we dodged a bullet on that one.

 

[The Nemesis]

I swear to god that I'm going to get reviews and pictures up. I have all the pictures, I just need to resize them. and writing the reviews is taking forever.

I just wanted to note that I managed to snag a Slash figure finally. Amazon.ca has 1 or 2 still in stock for $13 and eligible for free shipping if you hit the $$ threshold or have prime. So anyone looking for one might want to act fast because the next cheapest option on their marketplace is $50.

 

[Brodeur]

The Toys That Made Us ( Netflix) is having a Transformers Episode sometime this year.

Nice, I'll be on the lookout for that. With Toys R' Us closing (soon), I dropped by and bought a Starscream which I never had as a kid.

 

[The Nemesis]

I still haven't seen any signs of wave 2 in Canada yet.

I want my snarl figure dammit

 

[The Nemesis]

My Slash (and beachcomber which I also ordered) should be here tomorrow, so today I'm going to try to finish up my other writeups so I can just take new pics tomorrow and start posting things.

Also found while looking at tf wiki that there's going to be a wreck-gar figure exclusive to walgreens at some point. No word on how it will be distributed in Canada. There will also be a Nemesis Prime figure which will probably be little more than a repaint of the evolutions Optimus that's' already out. I guess it'll be the big class figure for wave 4 (which at this point had no other figures identified other than Firestar)

 

[The Nemesis]

Review work has been postponed slightly while I had to travel up to Kelowna for family stuff for a week. Once I get settled in by tomorrow I should be able to resume work on the las handful of review writeups so I can post. I also have to rethink my picture posting strategy to work with hf's guidelines because I have like 50 individual images as of now. I'l probably combine them into a single per-figure collage.

What I wanted to note is that it apears wave 2 is trickling onto Canadian shelves. The walmart here in Kelowna had a single Elita-1 nestled in amongst as batch of wave 1 stuff (prime masters, legends figures not named slash, Starscreams, and 1 lonely Slag figure.)