Search tag: "generations"

Deluxe Warpath here is kind of like a weird footnote in my brain. He was so barely on my radar I still don't really register him existing, despite having gotten him in the mail 36 hours ago. I suppose my anticipation factor for him was pretty low. He's just Warpath! I got a new toy of him in the last batch of Generation 1 retreads. And, well, he's just Warpath.

He punctuates his speech with "POW!" and "KABLAMEE!" That's his entire personality, right there.

So, yeah, it's a Warpath. He looks a lot like Warpath! He still has the turret chest with the barrel poking out and the treads on his arms and feet. He's dark red and silver. He's Warpath! This version did borrow the trick from the previous Warpath, the Legends Class toy, with the collapsing tank barrel. It pushes into his chest in robot mode, and it's engineered that so when it's extended in tank mode, it can articulate up at an angle.

People seem to dislike Warpath not being a real tank. He's an "H-tank," which means he's a tank that doesn't look like a rectangle from the top, but instead a smaller rectangle with four "legs," each housing a set of treads. On this matter I don't really care. H-tanks are a staple of Transformers by now, and while some dislike them, I tolerate them if only for the variety they bring to tank alternate modes. Hell, I got Rumble and Frenzy just last week, and they were also tanks. I'm happy that Warpath's tank mode has a different silhouette. It also allows a better visual upgrade to his original form, with the treads on both his arms and feet. I dislike when Transformer toys break treads cleanly in half during transformation, so splitting the treads up into smaller, self-contained chunks to begin with avoids this.

In tank mode, in addition to the barrel articulation, his turret can also rotate. This is a feature I'm always happy to see in Transformer tanks, and usually it requires the turret to stay on the robot mode's back, unintegrated into the rest of its robot mode form. Not Warpath! It turns, plus it manages to fold down into and become the robot mode torso. There's also a spring-loaded missile launcher on his right shoulder. This is notable because spring-loaded weaponry seems to have been kinda slowly budgeted-out of Deluxe Class toys in recent years as prices remain the roughly the same and production costs continue to skyrocket.

I was disappointed to learn that the missile launcher and the non-functioning weapon on his other shoulder weren't "c joint" snap-on accessories. They really look like they should be! But at least Warpath has places on his arms and legs that you can snap other guy's "c joint" accessories onto him.

His color scheme's a little boring. I mean, yeah, it's exactly like the original Warpath's, but I kind of wish he had a brighter accent color somewhere. He does have bits of gold, but it's hard to distinguish those parts from the silver, since it's a very desaturated gold. As a nod to his sole personality trait, as I mentioned above, tampographed on either side of his tank mode are "K4-90W" and "Z0W-333."

I sound kind of down on the toy, but I'm really not, over all. He looks great in robot mode and I enjoy his big treaded stompy feet. The fun of a robot mode is a very important attribute that can help me overlook minor disappointments elsewhere. He's a much better Warpath than the one I already had, but I think I would have preferred a toy of a guy I didn't already have as Generations' last hurrah.

Speaking of which, the head in Warpath's instructions belongs to Hardhead. Guess what old toy they'll be wanting me to replace now!

Tagged: generations, warpath

Today I found Junkheap at Target. Two Junkheaps, in fact! And they're buy-two-for-$11.99 or so, so I got one for Graham as well. That's a $6 Junkheap!

And so Junkheap joins Wreck-Gar and Scrapheap. Junkheap's name is probably meant to be "Junkyard," which is a name Hasbro owns and belongs to a pre-existing Junkion, but this is probably one of those things where Hasbro decided that "Junkyard" is "a G.I. Joe name" and gave him an alternate. I'm thinking that's why they recently put out G.I. Joe Shockwave as "Shockblast," even though they owned the "Shockwave" trademark at the time. "Shockwave" is "a Transformers name."

Junkheap is undoubtedly supposed to be the Transformer-previously-known-as-Junkyard, though there seem to have been some speedbumps along the way, even other than the name. He's got a pretty similar color scheme and color placement, to be sure, but what clinches it isthe head he got in the instructions. It had Junkyard's upturned-corkscrew horns, as well as his shades and general helmet shape. However, somewhere between the instruction art's creation and the toy's release, Junkheap's horns are now these tiny indistinct nubs. A safety problem? Who knows. But it makes him look less like Junkyard. Also, that mustache. That doesn't help either.

Scrapheap's brown, gray, and red color scheme was kind of dull, and Junkheap's colors are similar. They're much brighter, but not in an interesting way. Maybe I just don't like Junkion colors, which are kind of limited to the area of the spectrum between "rust" and "mustard." My brain just wants there to be a vibrant blue somewhere to balance it all out. Alas, it is not to be.

Tagged: generations, wreck-gar, scrapheap, junkheap

A Reprolabels "upgrade" set for Drift is one of those things I didn't know I wanted until I learned of its existence. I'd never considered that Drift's toy might be missing some deco from Guido's original design. And some of that deco is actually pretty nice, like the red that ran along the skirt of the car and, to a lesser extent, on his spoiler and hood. Plus there's all the tiny bits of gold tucked away in his torso and face.

Oh, right, and those sculpted windows in the back corners, maybe they could use some color.

So, yeah, I'm happy this set exists. Adding some color to the robot mode greebles behind his roof-kibble chest also helps, and bringing out the details around his exhaust pipes is appreciated.

Though it's not all gravy. The set provides three potential stickers to line all his swords. Problem is, his swords are very rubbery plastic, and on the super long "must only use this sword in the most dire of circumstances" sword, that rubberiness is very evident.

Stickering this sword is not a good idea.

Well, you could probably manage it if you never stow the sword ever. If you keep it either in one of his fists or kept to the side, nothing will ever go wrong. But once you try to stow the thing, it inevitably bends in on itself, and then the thing wrinkles up like it's been badly shrinkwrapped. Yikes. I will probably remove the long sword's stickers, now that I've photographed them.

Also the long-sword stickers are like a quarter of an inch too short for the blade anyway, so oh well.

If you want to see Drift pre-stickers, here's a link to my original review.

Tagged: drift, generations, reprolabels

No, seriously, I have no idea where they are. They were in an odd spot in the old house before the move, since they didn't really go with any existing display and there were just four of them, and so now I have no idea where in my basement of bins they would be. Hrn.

This came up today because I got the new Fall of Cybertron Optimus Prime today, and he's a replacement for my old War for Cybertron Prime. I thought maybe I'd photograph them together or something. Nope!

If I never find that WFC Prime, it's not a HUGE loss. I mean, first of all, obviously, he's been replaced. He's now nonessential. And gaddangit, I prefer his replacement. WFC Prime was a mess of parts and it always kinda annoyed me. It wasn't nearly as aggravating as his contemporary WFC Bumblebee, but Jesus, man. The new HOC Prime is delightfully simple. I enjoy him.

He's pretty straightforward to transform. Like a stereotypical Prime, he folds his arms up against the sides of his chest and his legs fold back behind him. No surprises.

FOC Prime is the size of a modern Deluxe Class toy. He's Prime RID Bumblebee's height. Taller than Cliffjumper, shorter than Wheeljack. (He's also the same height and mass as Beast Wars Dinobot, if we want a more historical comparison.) But those of you yearning for the sizes of Deluxes of Armada through Cybertron, I think oil prices have kind of ruined that for the mo'.

I'm bringing this guy with me to San Diego Comic-Con. When I (god willing) get my Bruticus, he'll need someone to stomp into the ground. At least then his relative smallness will be a feature.

Tagged: generations, optimus prime, fall of cybertron

A question that repeats in my brain is "why the hell does this jazz exist the last one was the best ever pretty sure." RTS Jazz was a great mold, and pretty definitively Jazz, and probably couldn't be topped for "G1 Jazz toy" until a Masterpiece comes out at some point, and maybe not even then.

Of course, the answer I have to shove back in that question's face is, "Fall of Cybertron Jazz isn't G1 Jazz." I mean, sure, this design has been repurposed AS G1 Jazz in the current IDW comics, and it looks more like a G1 Jazz than a design from the universe he's intended to be from, but it's still the case. This is the "Aligned" continuity Jazz, the universe Transformers Prime is located in, as well as the War for Cybertron/Fall of Cybertron video games. This is the Jazz who was Orion Pax's best friend before the war. Organizationally, he'd go on my Prime shelf. He's technically a new character.

But still, comparisons still battle in my mind, not unlike when I got Prime Wheeljack not so long after G1 Wheeljack. And then, y'know, the size. RTS Jazz was a pretty friggin' huge Deluxe, and FOC Jazz is a pretty small Deluxe. He's no Scout, but he's definitely less massive. And while RTS Jazz's transformation is pretty standard and been-there-done-that, FOC Jazz is streamlined even more. His entire car mode roof and rear is pretty much a shell that Automorphs onto his back, with his legs tucking underneath. The only manual transforming you really have to do is folding down his feet and rotating his arms at the elbow.

Things I do really like, however: He's blue! The Jazz of my childhood was white and blue, thanks in part to the Marvel Comics coloring practices of the times, as well as the Pretender and Action Master toys. And so a Jazz with blues instead of blacks hits me right in the nostalgia.

And, yeah, he's fairly simple, but at least he's not goddamn WFC Bumblebee. That toy should die in a fire.

Tagged: generations, jazz, fall of cybertron