Sidenote, I wanna talk about the fact that the two named individuals who are enforcers of Sentinel's regime are characters who are traditionally Decepticons.
Also, while a lot of Autobots are found among the Cogless Miners...there are also Autobots who aren't, like Chromia who wins the race.
I also think it's important that we are shown that the Cybertronians who have Cogs and are full transformers were just as much dupes and just as much outraged to learn the truth as the Miners are. Because, while their position is more privileged, they are ALSO victims of Sentinel's regime.
I think I can kind of see why. Optimus is probably not the kind to take on people from there, who aren't genuinely repentant, while I could see Airarchnid buying her way into the decepticon ranks with intel.
I think I can kind of see why. Optimus is probably not the kind to take on people from there, who aren't genuinely repentant, while I could see Airarchnid buying her way into the decepticon ranks with intel.
I absolutely can imagine Dark Wing crawling his way over to the decepticons and being let in purely so Megatron can make his life miserable giving him the worst jobs in the army.
All right. You think the last Cheetor toy was bad? Time for pretty much the nadir, parring the big one. Folks, it's time for...
Beast Machines Deluxe-class Cheetor
Here's beast mode. And he's so... gangly. I never liked the BM Maximal aesthetic. They're just so ugly, and Cheetor exemplifies this. Can't even do any real good poses with him.
Transformation is special. They managed to simultaneously make it too simple AND too complex! While it's basically stand up, getting the robot head out of the chest and the beast mode head in is very frustrating and difficult. The beast mode head popped off twice transforming him!
This is what you get and my god it's ugly. And can't stand. No, seriously. The balance issues for Cheetor are insane. I've never been able to get him to stand without support. His hands can't hold anything other than the weapon he comes with. His right arm can rotate for 'whip action', but it's pretty bad and simply cripples the right arm. And the 'tail whip' looks like a feather on the end of a bit of string. I honestly hate tails as whips. They never look good to me, and this looks like the worst of them all.
Beast Machines Cheetor is simply horrible. The beast mode is pretty bad. the transformation hits a special kind of suck, and the robot mode can't even fucking stand on its own. His weapon sucks, to boot.
Tomorrow, we leave the Beast Era and go back to the Aligned Continuity. Tomorrow... Deluxe-class Airachnid!
That's because, as a look at the show maximals makes blatant, they were designed by animators with toys a distant afterthought and the animators were too focused on stylization to make them look good, while the toy originals had a different set of designers (and the vehicons had a different aesthetic for story reasons, and by luck their aesthetic wasn't Too Stylized To Be Decent)
I have to agree with RoboRenee. The show Maximals do suck, but the Vehicons are pretty damned cool. And I own a Maximal Buzz Saw and that's a fun little toy.
All right. Back to the Aligned Continuity. This one is undersized, and it's a shame since I really liked this character. It's time for...
Deluxe-class Airachnid
As usual, we start in alternate mode. The helicopter mode... isn't bad. We've seen far worse during this Month of Macabre, but it's honestly pretty small. The canopy can open and show a cockpit inside. We'll get to her weapons in a few moments. The rotor is a bit... not good, but again, we'll get to it.
Transformation is fairly standard. The back splits apart to form legs and... coattails. The arms fold out from the sides. And the head pops up from the nosecone. And you get...
On one side we have an under-engineered, undersized toy with seriously compromised joints... and on the right we have the Legion-class Airachnid.
No, I'm not joking. The Legion-class is far better, than the Deluxe-class. Every joint on the Deluxe-class is compromised. The head can't really turn. The shoulders are limited. The... actually, let's take a look at those 'arms'.
This... this is RIDICULOUS! Those have to be the worst arms that are arms I've ever seen! They don't even qualify as arms. Battletrap's arms are better, and those are simple sculpted details! Oh, and articulation is hampered.
The legs can't really bend. And she's got serious balance issues. Her feet are tiny and she's got stiletto heels. She's almost as bad as BM Cheetor!
As for the accessories... the rotor bends to form her 'stingers, but they're too short to really reach anything. And she's got... these.
I've seen some cool accessories. I've seen some dorky accessories. These... have to be some of the dumbest-looking accessories I've ever seen. They're... well, TJ Omega said they look like tennis rackets, and i can't unsee it. They're just so dumb.
Overall, Airachnid is undersized, poorly-designed, has dumb accessories, and can't pose worth a damn. It's a shame, since she was a cool character in Prime. Airachnid deserved better!
All right, no review tomorrow. Sorry. I'm gonna be a bit busy, but I'll be back Monday with more of the worst!
Target: 2006 is about HARD men, TOUGH men, BUFF men acting SAD and trying not to GET KILLED or KILL THEMSELVES OUT OF DESPAIR AT THEIR CRUSHING, AWESOME FATE.
And I'm back with more of the month of Macabre! This day's review is a special one. It's Elita-One's first toy! How does the First Lady of Transformers fair? Let's find out as I review...
Timelines Elita One
Elita One was released at Botcon 2009. As far as i know this is her first toy. She's a straight redeco of thunderblast from Transformers: Cybertron, released in 2005. I'm using Elita's toy because she's my all-time favorite female Transformer, and my thunderblast toy is broken. Anyway... she's a boat. And honestly, I really like this. Aquatic-themed alternate modes are pretty rare in Transformers, so it's nice to see it done. And this is overall a nice boat mode. Barbie would love it.
Her weapon is a missile launcher, a quantum leap above Airachnid's tennis rackets from last time. This is the default mode. Transformers from the Cybertron line had the CYBER PLANET KEY!!!!! gimmick. Insert a key into a slot and it activates a spring-loaded mechanism. It's similar to Armada, but much better-implemented.
Here it is activated. And again, I like it. Nothing wrong here.
Transformation is... is...
Oh dear sweet Primus she's a shellformer. A horrible shellformer. The only bits that make up her boat mode are the outer edges of her lower legs! So open up the hull, unfold Elita One and you get...
She wears about 90% of the boat mode on her back and it just looks horrible. I suppose if you squint and tilt your head and go into an alternate reality it could look like a cape... but it's not. It's almost the entire boat. It fucks her balance up something fierce. What's worse is, you might think the robot is super-articulated. it's... not. No waist articulation. No meaningful hip swivel. No wrist articulation. She's got a neck joint, universal shoulders, elbow joint and swivel, hips and knees. So that's something.
Here's the back. Just look at that. And no, the little gun there isn't removable. I don't care what the Wiki says. There's a metal pin holding it in place. I mean... if this could detach and Elita could fly on it like a Goblin Glider, that'd be one thing, but no. The pin can be removed and the hull detached, but she can't really stand on it.
Elita One is a horrible shellformer, with horrid balance issues and a bad transformation that isn't really a 'transformation'. Having 90% of the boat hanging off her back is just plain lazy. And it's a shame this is her first toy.
Oh dear sweet Primus she's a shellformer. A horrible shellformer. The only bits that make up her boat mode are the outer edges of her lower legs! So open up the hull, unfold Elita One and you get...
Appropriate (or, well, suitable, appropriate may not be the right word) for Thunderblast given the level of detail animators gave her CG model if the wiki is to be believed?
Appropriate (or, well, suitable, appropriate may not be the right word) for Thunderblast given the level of detail animators gave her CG model if the wiki is to be believed?
Wait, does Thunderblast/Elita have a weird thigh swivel? Her upper legs when in spread boat shell have a weird curvature that isn't present in robot mode.
Wait, does Thunderblast/Elita have a weird thigh swivel? Her upper legs when in spread boat shell have a weird curvature that isn't present in robot mode.
Yes, they used a diagonal cut and swivel to let them bend 90 degrees mid-thigh instead of a hinge, which would have been great (it would have been far more stable for TR or 86 Perceptor, frex) except they didn't give her a normal thigh swivel or ball joint knees, so it would throw her leg shape out of whack if you tried to use it for robot mode articulation.
More importantly, 86 OPTIMUS EEEEEE!
Also got the Stranger Things xover Code Red, who is actually the size of a Voyager unlike Deluxes In Disguise Ironhide and Ratchet, but mainly 86 OPTIMUS! EEEEEE!
He is also really a Leader class +Stuff, but the only other (HasTak) OP that can compare is MP-44, and I absolutely do not have a microgram of buyer's remorse for the big hole blown in my budget. Transformation is only a bit more complicated than, say, WFCE/K, mainly in how many panels the the cab folds away into to go from cube to inverted pyramid, and it's easy to miss the flip out tabs in his feet the first time you go to robot mode and not be able to close his toes down far enough to clear the wheels, but taking a good look at one of the uSpud reviews should demystify any of that. One thing I haven't noticed any of them mention is that there is in fact a slight tab on the bicep and slot in the smoke stacks to fix them into the intended position - it's not very secure, but it can't be, for the sake of passing a drop test (ie not breaking into small/sharp pieces when dropped from ... I forget how high, but it's a child safety thing.) I honestly think they'd have been better as 5mm port accessories as on the TFOne OPs, but that's worth dinging one point off a star at most from an otherwise perfect score In My Holy Opinion.
I do like Code Red a lot too, but it's OP I've been zooming around and transforming back and forth for hours
Oh, and I got a Geocron too. I like him better than the more reddish original (Magneous?) for reasons that are hard to pin down, but strong enough to immediately order two more to match that one scene in Headmasters where three rock monsters are menacing Daniel and Sixshot has to save him despite being, you know, a baddie and all. Pity the scale is so off for TR Sixshot; I might have to scratch up the dosh for the DX-ish size 6p version (by Mechfans Toys I think?) after all...
Wait, does Thunderblast/Elita have a weird thigh swivel? Her upper legs when in spread boat shell have a weird curvature that isn't present in robot mode.
As @Czlyydwr Llrngwl said, she does... but it's completely useless for articulation.
All right. The Unicron Trilogy! It had some highs, some lows. Sadly, one of the lows was... almost the entirety of transformers: Energon. The TV show was dire in ways you could write entire books on. And the toyline was... it wasn't bad, but some of the toys were yeesh.
Here's one of the yeesh ones. Hot Shot has had some good toys, but the majority of them seem to be pretty bad. Here is...
Transformers: Energon hot Shot.
As usual we start with vehicle mode. This is... 'Energon Hot Shot'. No, I'm not joking. It's a redeco of the original mold. And honestly... it's a nice car mode. Nice colors. It's a solid vehicle mode. It's got some neat features, too.
A fully-sculpted and painted engine block! That's a good detail.
I like how the weapons mount on the roof. The holes are recessed, so there's no big holes on the roof. it's a nice touch I wish more car modes did.
Transformation is pretty simple. Pull out the back and fold the roof to form the legs. The entire third of the car swings onto the back and the head unfolds from it. And the doors flip up and the arms emerge from the side. And we get...
Ho, boy. This is... this is not good. Somehow they managed to make every joint compromised. The head unfolds on this stem, so it can't move at all. The ball joints on the arms are positioned in such a way that he can't really use them. And he's got what's known as 'Energon Hips'. Thanks to the gimmick from this toyline, his one leg joint is positioned halfway between his hip and knee, and therefore can't be used for either. As odd as this sounds, it reminds me of this old short from Sesame Street about a mad scientist making a robot, but forgetting proper leg joints.
So, that gimmick? Powerlinx! Basically, the TF: Energon toyline was all about combining. The Autobots of the Deluxe and Voyager-class could turn into either upper or lower bodies and hook together. In theory it's a really cool idea. the more you have, the more play options. In practice... it wasn't the best. Hot Shot was probably the worst.
First off, his shirt mode, as it's known. And... eh? The arms can't really do anything. It's just this big block.
And here is pants mode and... wait. Lemme check... no. I did not pause mid-transformation. That's it. It has all the flaws of the regular robot mode.
Energon Hot Shot has a cool car mode... and that's it. The robot mode is an ugly mess that you can't really pose, and his powerlinx gimmick is poorly-executed. One good mode out of four is pretty bad.
I admit out side of long lost beast era toys I didn't really start collecting until the tail end of Titans return, but my understanding from others is that Armada toys have highs and lows with Amada Prime in particular being a stand out, Cybertron toys are genuinely really good, but Energon toys are generally pretty bad.
