Posts tagged with "platinum" - 1
Posted June 16, 2016 at 8:01 am

Transformers Asia Kids Day Platinum Edition Robots in Disguise Premium Grimlock and Bumblebee 2-Pack – Exclusive

You probably haven't seen me talk about many Robots in Disguise toys here, and for a pretty good reason -- I don't really buy many!   I mean, the cartoon's okay, and the toys look okay, but early on, before the toyline hit, it became apparent that I would be more frustrated with the toyline than I would find enjoyment out of it, due to my particular eccentricities.  

You see, it was going to be a pretty small line, as far as "real" toys go (the non one-step or two-step guys), and they were all going to be Deluxe Class-sized.  So I'm sitting there, looking at this coming line-up, realizing that if I was going to start collecting these guys, I was going to have to get used to having a Grimlock (who is very large in the cartoon) who was the same size as every other toy.  And that chafed my bum, I realized I could save myself a lot of storage space and money, and decided that I was cool skipping on it all.  I mean, minus Strongarm, of course, OBVIOUSLY.  Strongarm is great.

But at some point last year, Japan's version of the toyline decided to go balls-out and make everyone a properly-transforming larger Grimlock that's not a one- or two-step toy.   They grabbed Fall of Cybertron Grimlock (who may or may not be the same character depending on who you ask and how you look at things) and then retooled the crap out of it.  New torsos, new robot legs, new shoulders, new fists, new heads -- there was a lot of new stuff to make him look like Robots in Disguise Grimlock instead of "basically G1-style Grimlock" -- and kazam you have a Grimlock who technically solves my Grimlock Problem or, perhaps, my RID collection problem.  

And then Hasbro brought him over, put him in a Platinum Edition set with a redecoed RID Bumblebee, and now Entertainment Earth has him as an exclusive in the United States.  Entertainment Earth also sent me these two to review!  So here I go.

Let's talk about Bumblebee.  If you have a Transformers Prime Vehicon toy (from the RID subline, not the First Edition) then this Bumblebee's going to feel very similar as far as transformation processes go.  The roof folds up on the back of the robot legs, the arms pull out from the sides, and the rear bumper hangs off the back of the head.  There's a sword that stores underneath the car mode.  I got one the regular retail version in the take-home bag for Toy Fair 2015, but this is the PREMIUM EDITION!  Mostly that means he's in a more metallic gold-ish color instead of canary yellow and he has a handful of new paint operations.  There's black on his feet, there's red on his headlights, there's some silver on his sword... it's not a lot added here.  But he's not really the main attraction; Grimlock is.

Fall of Cybertron Grimlock was not a well-received toy, and the retooling present in this version sort of addresses the perceived problems.  His dino hips/robot shoulders accordion out during transformation, and it's incredibly easy to get them so untransformed that you can't remember how to inch them back turn by turn into the way they're supposed to go.  It's one of those things where you wish you could leave a trail of breadcrumbs for yourself to find your way back home, but this is a plastic robot toy's shoulder apparatus, so that's not really possible.  However, the retooling done to make Grimlock into another Grimlock removes the need to untransform the shoulders so much to get him back and forth between robot and dinosaur modes.  All the possibility for over-accordioning his shoulders is there, but so long as you temper yourself, you can probably avoid getting lost in the woods.  

The other thing people didn't like about the toy was how empty he is if you look at him from the bottom in dinosaur mode.  You know that scene in Pete's Dragon where they put a big sheet over the dragon and he runs around and you can see a dragon-shaped sheet and there's nothing underneath it?  No, you don't know that scene, because I'm really old and nobody has watched Pete's Dragon in thirty years.  But the toy is kind of like that, trust me. 

Honestly, that part I don't mind too much.  Like, I'm not gonna be shoving my eyeballs in this toy's underside anyway.  He's gonna stand upright on the shelf, not hanging around lying around on his back, exposing how little robot he has under there.  If you have a bunch of RID Mini-Cons, though, this problem is partly addressed.  There's ports tooled in there for you to fill him up with specific Mini-Cons.  I don't know what they are because, again, I haven't collected much RID.  But it's nice that you can do this if you have the toys available to you.  

The original FOC Grimlock also had electronic lights for when you open up his jaw with a lever behind his head.  This RID retooling has neither the electronics nor the lever to open his jaw, which is sad.  The new dinosaur head does have an opening jaw, however, with both the top of the skull rising a little and the jaw itself hinging down more.  You have to -- gasp -- use your finger, though.

Grimlock still comes with Grimlock's sword and shield.  They don't suit this version of the character very well, but you can pretty easily forget you own them.  I'm sure some other toy could borrow 'em.  

Unlike Platinum Bumblebee's seemingly scant bit of paint, Platinum Grimlock feels covered with it.  Lots of details here and there, from silver and green and charcoal to yellow.  That and the retooling is where all the money went, and it's all very pleasing.  He doesn't look unfinished, and I don't think I see any deco that my mind thinks is missing.  

If Platinum Edition Grimlock/Bumblebee pleases your noodle, you can find him on Entertainment Earth's website for sale!  

Posted February 12, 2013 at 1:11 am
MOON BATTLE


So I guess Hasbro is doing this small line of really fancy redecoes and retools in really fancy shiny metallic packaging, called Platinum Edition or whatevs.  The first two are new versions of Energon Optimus Prime and Omega Supreme as their Aligned continuity family selves, and oy, is their big shiny metallic packaging a mixed bag.  I mean, it's very large and very pretty, but there's the thing with the box art.  They're just color-shifted versions of the original box art, which is from deep in the Horrible Dreamwave era.  I love me some Marcelo Matere, what with him being an amazing artist and all, but it looks like he was drawing that Omega Supreme while Pat Lee was strangling him. And so the otherwise very pretty (and huge-ass) box went in the trash.  S'probably a good thing, anyway.  As said, it was huge, and I don't got storage space for that kinda stuff.  The upcoming Platinum Ultra Magnus packaging (also with Matere art) will be harder to let go. (Have I praised Matere's Animated artwork enough?  Well, in case I haven't, it's amazing.  Just putting that out there, possibly for the 40th time.)

One of these is a cool battleship. The other is half a robot.


Platinum "Year of the Snake" Omega Supreme, as stated earlier, is the Energon Omega Supreme toy.  However, not only is it in more G1-y colors (gray and red and gold) but it also has some major retooling done.  He has both a new head and a new claw arm, both inspired by the War for Cybertron design of the character.  The new claw arm has some articulation, though it's pretty shallow, but it does what it needs to, which is be a huge claw thing.  The head has a flip up visor so you can see his face better, plus the neck area underneath the head is new so that the head can collapse into it for transformation.  The Energon version of the toy had a Headmaster guy, and so there wasn't much clearance for a head that wasn't removable.  No Headmaster guy this time around!  Just Omega Supreme himself.  And so that means there's some vestigial features, like the little translucent cockpit in one shoulder and the big Headmaster guy-shaped hole in the manning tower. Otherwise, Omega Supreme still transforms by ripping in half.  This process gives you a friggin' amazing space battleship and a pretty lame claw-armed train.  The battleship is almost worth the price of admission all by itself.  All of the many cannons on the front end are geared together so that if you rotate one, they all rotate together.  Plus it just looks cool.  The claw-armed train thing... is just that.  The claw-arm isn't even long enough or articulated enough to do anything in this state.  It just grasps the air pointlessly.  Maybe it's now a cannon and not a claw?  I don't know.  Either way, it's not the fun half of the toy.

Energon and Platinum Omega Supreme, mixed and matched


You can shove the train into the ass of the battleship to make a super train thing.  And there's a bunch of other stuff you can do if you got Platinum "Year of the Snake" Optimus Prime as well, but I don't.  Also the electronics are no longer there.  The battery cover is now sealed with one of those triangle-headed screws.  Kind of a bummer. Honestly, I think I prefer the original's colors.  The bright red and yellow with the darker blue was more striking.  This new version's colors are a lot more dull (like Omega Supreme's) and I don't think the translucent yellow parts are particularly attractive.  However, I dumped most of my Energon collection a few years ago except for this guy, so I'm happy to have a version of the toy that can hang out with guys I actually still own.  I'll probably eBay the old one soon enough. Soon there's gonna be a guy twice his size.
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