Brr-icy's Transformers Reviews

It's been a while since I did one of these, These are some of the ones I picked up at the con this year

First up, Badcube Wardog. Made in the Masterpiece scale and really nailing the aesthetic. The tank mode matches the G1 pretty much dead on, even with the extra silver painted detail. I like that they added the silver to the back of the tank like the original.

The transformation I felt was rather over complicated, Especially in the shoulders. The bot mode is pretty cartoon accurate. This one came with the Reprolabels set applied, I really like the shield and gun, while not accurate, they're a neat addition.

Fanstoys just released their version of Perceptor called "Tesla" The Microscope mode is very accurate as well, They did make the dials on the side of the arms a lot smaller. I do like that they put the diecast in the feet. With the hints I got of the labels, it's going to be a good one.

G1 Perceptor was one of the more poseable figures, but without the outward motion on the shoulders a lot of it was lost. The original figure had a faceplate instead of a mouth. The weapons are even the same.

Lastly, Maketoys were selling their version of Chromedome "Cupola" for $120 at the show, had to get it. I was on the fence about getting him because of the size, but looking at the cartoon, he's scaled correctly. Since the driver is a robot instead of a human it makes sense. The guns on the new one have a rotating handle so they can be short or long. They did a great job matching the colours on him,

The headmaster is much more articulated than the original. I do like the sculpt of the original more than the new one, but there's gotta be a bit of compromise to make the head mode look as good as it does.

I will have to say I was pleasantly surprised by Maketoy's take on the character, it's their best figure yet I think. The transformation is pretty fluid, a couple tiny snags, but nothing frustrating. The end result is dead on the cartoon too. He has great articulation, Unfortunately he has ankle tilts ;) . I do like the way they did the hands to hold the guns, instead of the peg in palm, there's a slot and rail in the back of the hand. The figure is insanely well detailed, not too much, not too little. Rubber wheels, and a Diecast skeleton underneath. The Headmaster stats display is just a paint app under the panel, but at least it's there.

Finally completed my Predators at TFcon this year with Skyquake.

Stalker I got a few months back from Specimen_17 in the group. He turns into a missile truck. The colours are very bright, like most of the European pieces, more so than most of G2 actually. He's about voyager sized.

Like the smaller jets, Stalker has the gold launcher and green missiles. His and Skyquake's have no cap on the back of the missiles like the small jets do for some reason. I'm still missing a couple of those gold launchers, but they'll come. He actually has a pretty decent transformation. I was pleasantly surprised. there's a space on top of the missile that you can insert the gimmick piece from the smaller jets to see the weaknesses of the Turbomasters.

Skyquake is the Predator leader, he's pretty big, I would say a bit bigger than leader class. The rear of the jet houses the gimmick like Stalker's missile, only difference is, it's gold. GPS reigns there, not worth using the gimmick on him. He has rotating bomb bays on each wing, and places to stick a ton of missiles to him (he comes with 14 or 15) plus the launcher. Retractable landing gear, and the nice green Decepticon windows.

In robot mode he towers over most Transformers. Also coming with a gold unusable launcher. not a lot of articulation, but a commanding presence nonetheless. I love the face sculpts of these two, very ominous. You can see the bomb bays on the wings here. Pretty excited I found him, I spent the entire con looking for him, and after I had given up, a friend got a hold of me telling me he'd found one, incomplete, but GPS free and all the little body parts that go missing were there.

I've grown quite fond of the Predators, and they make a nice shelf. Might have to squeeze a couple more in there before it's done, but it looks good for now.

A couple more that I picked up at the show this year. Fansproject Knight and Toyworld Devilstar, or Sixknight and Astrotrain respectively.

Devilstar was a TFsource/TFcon exclusive redeco in cartoon accurate colours. I had wanted this since I saw the black and white original deco. I haven't really liked any other molds for Astrotrain since G1. The much loved classics mold wasn't anywhere near good enough for my liking. In train mode, he's pretty accurate, other than they take the boosters off the back of the train that the cartoon had, makes a more accurate train though. The wheels all move and the connector works as it would on a real train.

The exclusive included these diecast tracks to display the train on if you're so inclined.

I really love both alt modes on him, very well thought out, kind of a fiddly transformation, and it's sometimes hard to line a couple things up, but the end results are worth it, no shuttle fronts on the sides of the train, or train fronts covering the entire wing of the shuttle lol. I would have liked a different coloured window, but this will do. The only thing the shuttle has is retractable landing gear. There is some kibble on the underside of the wings.

In bot mode, they nail it, there's a bit of train detail on the back of the legs, but that doesn't detract from the figure for me. The head features a removable visor as well. Mrsprucieboy on the Google+ Transformers group showed me that the legs have a couple extra steps that were missed in the instructions, it brings the knees to the middle of the shins instead of more to the front like the opening pic. The front panels on the legs lock in this configuration too.

Now onto Sixknight. This is one character I didn't see anyone attempting any time soon. I'm glad that FP took the time to make the mold. He was a mercenary type character in Masterforce. In puma mode, they really went for robotic looking, decently poseable, but definitely not a worthy disguise.

I love that they included G1 accurate guns as well as the fold up ones. The jet mode is more rounded than the original's blocky look. Not sure which I like better, but I am quite fond of that mode on the original.

They both turn into a space gun, the little fold up guns slide nicely into the front of the new one, it also has a trigger, unlike the vintage.

In boat mode, they took the most liberties I think. The vintage one was a hydrofoil, while the new one is an actual boat. I do like the angled guns on it though. This is one of my favorite modes on the new one too.

In drill tank mode. The original had a chromed drill, that gives a bonus point there I think. The new one is a much more low to the ground tank, I think it looks a lot more menacing. You can't see them as good, but there is a tank tread on the back half of the new one's tank mode too. It's pretty convincing.

In bot mode, there's no real comparison, the new one is very well proportioned, and has a lot more posability. The fold up guns peg onto his hips as well. That said, the vintage one pulls off this mold much better than Quickswitch. I didn't even bother with the Madlaw version of the new mold. The new one has slide down sunglasses as well. While just a little small, he sits proudly on my MP shelf.

Hope you enjoyed this brief look at these two figures.

I thought I would take a moment out of the reviews to give a shout out to and thank some of the people that have helped me along the way in my collecting journey. I've taken a few pics to go along with it. In no particular order, and in no way a complete list of figures from the bigger helpers:

We'll start with Hyperoptic. He's been a good friend for years, and over those years has helped me with a ton of figures, from finding them, to securing sweet deals on others, he even made my photo signatures and helped me learn some stuff about photography. These aren't even close to all of the figures he's helped with. We met through TFW's G1 appreciation thread IIRC.

Nefud has helped in innumerable ways. From a figure here, to assistance with a custom there. There was a point that we were sending at least one box each way every month for a while there. All because I needed a helmet for my Liokaiser, some friendships are made in strange ways.

Heroic Decepticon, I don't even remember how we got started talking, I think it was through a custom he commissioned. He helped me get these three great additions to my collection. Great guy to talk to and I'm glad I got to know him.

Megamus has been a huge help to my collection, and continues to do so, From a good deal here, to helping me find and secure stuff that otherwise I wouldn't have been able to. It's a lot of fun being on the podcast with him and the guys occasionally. I haven't had a lot of time for that lately, but sometime I'll get back on there.

Crackerboy I met because I wanted to carpool with someone to TFcon a few years back, we started doing dual orders to save on shipping since he was local. When he needed a hand selling his collection, I helped him out, and got a bunch of stuff I needed from him then. We still dual order MPs and such, he just doesn't collect G1 anymore, more vicariously through me now I think.

Artfire2000, from parts I've been searching for for a long time, to Grand Maximus, he's become a pretty significant help over the last year with wrapping up my collection. There's more to come, we'll have to wait and see.

Dew/Ohmyprimus has been a good friend over the last few years, I am pretty sure it was my unrelenting search for a Sonic Bomber that got us to talking.

Puma...I don't even know where to start lol. He's helped me with a ton of stuff over the last couple years. I know the small guns for Victory Leo were how we started talking. He broke up the semi complete one he had on ebay to sell those to me. He got me started on my papers hunt...not sure whether to thank him or not for that, hahaha.

Demerge, I remember seeing the parts for Snapdragon in his sales thread for dirt cheap, little did I know that it was a lure to get me hooked into buying most of his childhood collection. It only took a little while to find the rest like Ironfist and Clench here. There's a ton more stuff from G2 to more common US releases in my collection from him.

Vectorsigma2, before I sold my collection to fund my wedding, I would have to say about 75% of it was from him. Once I started recollecting, he sold me my first Japanese G1 figure, Overlord. There's still a ton from him in my collection, just can't remember all of them right now.

Billprestonesq helped me secure these two great figures. I think I started talking to him about another Greatshot that wasn't in as good of condition as this one. I remember getting the Deathsaurus and the box was covered in tape, thanks to HD's post about Zippo fluid, I managed to get all of the tape off without hurting the box.

There's a lot more people that have been friends or helped over the years, in different ways: Maz, Venksta, Iamratchet, HeraldofUnicron, Spurt Renoylds, Erector, Weirdwolf, Kuma Style, Unicron Nemesis, Specimen_17, Protoman, redrog359, Superquad7, Jerrytitus, Cobra Zartan, CZ Hazard, Sportinmortin, both TFland guys, Flywheels, Slayback, Space Bunny, TheShape, Turboedguy, uzitheklown, etc etc etc.

Offline friends like Mike that comes over for beers and helps me set up the cities or other epic shots. and helped with setting up the collection when I moved here.

Deltastar, don't even know what to say other than thanks.

Jeff, who's become my local "con buddy" on top of hanging out around here. We spent a good week or so moving my collection to this house.

The Aussies, Tan and Tone, he bought a lot of my first collection, and this year came up for TFcon, hopefully next year too.

TFcon friends, there's just way too many to list here. Dan, Ian, Ian, Chris, Andrew, Steve, Fez, Andy, Otis, Beechy, Alex, Newt, the list goes on.

And last but definitely not least, my wife for putting up with all this crap in the house and me running upstairs to take random pics of things. Plus all the birthday and Christmas presents.

Thanks

Been a while since I did a US released set of figures, so I might as well do one or two.

Most of these I got from throw-ins in lots, Barring Cosmos and Beachcomber who I got from local guys. This year of Minibots has the biggest variety of all the years. My personal favorites from the three years of minis is here.

First up, we have Cosmos, he's a UFO, very compact with an interesting choice of colours.

Like most Minibots, his transformation is pretty simple. Pull legs out fold down, fold feet and arms up and pull out the head. The resulting robot is pretty tubby, but in a good way.

Powerglide is a red A-10 Warthog. They've been making new toys of him pretty frequently lately for some reason.

His transformation is interesting for a minibot, slide the legs out, fold and rotate the wings, then rotate the head and pull out the arms

Beachcomber is a dune buggy, I really like that they went the extra mile in adding some different coloured plastics to the vehicle mode, really makes it pop. He has rubber tires like the first year cars as well

He's super simple to transform, flip out legs and head, and pull out shoulders. He is one of my favorite minibots though.

Seaspray makes up the water member of the group with a hovercraft alt mode. There are wheels on the bottom and the propellers spin.

His transformation is pretty easy too, pull out legs and rotate the feet and propeller section. I am really quite fond of this figure.

Finally, we have Warpath. He's a tank, the turret spins and there are wheels on the bottom, other than that, not a lot going on. You can lift his head to open the driver's area I guess.

His transformation is different, but not too intense. Pull out legs, then shoulders, rotate feet and turret, slide turret back and flip up his head. He has a very unconventional bot mode with the turret sticking out of his chest

Neat little figures, not very expensive either.

These guys are a different breed altogether, I would mark them as the pioneers of "sticking parts where they don't belong" or as people call it now, weapon storage.

Sure, things like the Headmasters and such utilized their weapons in alt mode before this, but these are the first I can remember that are more akin to TF Prime's Bulkhead where you just stick his wrecking ball to the back of the truck and call it "stored." The Autobots are called Lightformers and the Decepticons Trakkons.

Don't get me wrong, I really like these guys, well most of them...But their weapons are pretty outlandish. They all have a gimmick that if you turn or push something on the weapons, lasers light up along the inside as you look through them, done by mirrors and a slot on top of the weapon.

We'll start with the only one I don't like that much, mainly in bot mode, we'll get to why in a minute. In jet mode, Deftwing is a Harrier jet, a little stubby, but very well done, there's no kibble on the underside of the fuselage, the wings have the arms there, so there is some kibble. They follow the traditional Pink vs Green window scheme of the Euro line. All in all, a nice looking jet mode.

Then this happens, right on there, no attempt to hide it or blend it, it's just there, whomp!

His transformation makes for a different bot mode, but not in a good way. It's like they did the top half, got to the waist, and gave up. I find it interesting that these four don't have any insignias on them at all.

The weapon is held by two hands, and it's so oversized that it comes with it's own stand.

The second Autobot from the sets is Ironfist, he's one of my favorite European figures, I really like how he looks in both modes. He's a Hummer in vehicle mode, Maybe a desert version? Looks neat anyways, and they got the proportions for the truck mode right.

And instead of the traditional 50 cal. machine gun, we get a 6000 cal. Oversized, but it does rotate.

His transformation wasn't what I was expecting when I picked him up, it's pretty straightforward, but still interesting.

With his gun...

The air Decepticon is Fearswoop. He's an F22, I didn't bother taking an unarmed jet mode pic as it's not as intrusive as the others. Or that's an excuse for I already had these three pics and didn't want to take any more, your choice. Mine has a broken gun, they should match each other. I'll get around to fixing it one day.

He has a very "Cyberjet"-esque transformation. One thing I adore about the European releases is their headsculpts, they just look dangerous, I guess it offsets the very firmly early 90's colours. The first three were all from Demerge's childhood collection. It's been a blast restoring them to their former glory, and even if a couple aren't perfect, they will be as close as I can get them one day.

You guessed it, armed with a mobile turret.

The final one of this quartet that arrived today, Calcar. I picked him up with the help of Puma, the weapon I got off of a TFW member. cultureatus. This guy seems to be pretty scarce. He's a futuristic buggy type car.

His gun is also a little more refined as well with it hanging more off the back like a pick up truck bed than plopped in a hole on the roof.

He has one of those transformations that gives you a little surprise, I was pretty intrigued by what they had chosen to do with the chest. I find it interesting that the Trakkons both have the sword motif going on, Fearswoop has it as the insignia on the wings, and seen here on the hood.

With his crazy huge gun. I like to rag on the guns, but they were a neat addition. Something different in a time of spring loaded or otherwise missile launchers everywhere, someone's gotta have some freakin' lasers!

I actually have the boxes for both the jets, but I appear to have forgotten to take pictures of them.

These guys came in the same lot as Calcar did last week. I was a big fan of the Brainmasters in Japan, and these guys were a great addition to the crew.

They have a bit brighter colour scheme than their Japanese counterparts, whom I reviewed earlier here: Brainmasters. This is mainly a comparison between the two. They came out in Europe minus the parts to make Road Caesar. While the combined mode isn't the best, it's unfortunate since it removes some functionality much like the Rescue force. At least these guys come with all the members and can combine if you get a hold of the parts.

Gripper is the black redeco of Blacker, for these guys they mainly changed the chests and face's colours for both the Brainmaster and the main figure. They also added a blue canopy to Gripper.

In bot mode, the colour change is much more pronounced, it's hard to tell, but the black and white are also slightly different colours. I hope I can find the labels for these guys as it seems they're slightly different than the Victory ones. I probably can make their abdomen stickers from left over Reprolabels just to break up the sea of peach.

Flame is the redeco of Laster, he gets a pink chest instead of black, in car mode, it's not as obvious. The wheels are also teal instead of dark blue.

It's hard to see, but the yellow is also slightly different on the car body. the swords are gang molded with the chest parts, so it's pink now too.

Lightspeed is the redeco of Braver, and I'm not sure if he's supposed to be a homage to the Technobot or not. The car labels and windows have had their colours changed as well as the rims.

He's had the most extensive redeco of the trio with all the yellow and like the others, he got a new chest colour. My favorite car growing up was the Ferrarri F-40, so this guy is a treat.

I found thest guys to be a fantastic addition to my collection, and if you like the Brainmaster molds and want to have them uncombined as well as combined without buying multiples, these are for you.

Finally got my hands on the vintage versions of these guys last week. I thought I would give the most comprehensive review I could of the three different versions of them,

Twincast is a "rebuilt" Blaster in Headmasters, after his and Soundwave's battle. The tape door has been modified to hold two tapes, and there's been some tech detail added to it. They are; left to right: Ehobby, Vintage, and Encore.

The differences on the Ehobby are a different mold for the door and foil printed stickers instead of paper. The Encore is very pronounced. All the labels are now tampos and they added a couple red bars to the thighs.

You can see the finger hole in the vintage's chest plate to help you get any stuck cassettes out.

In bot mode, the only added detail that's different is the face and eyes have been painted differently on the Encore. The plastic quality on the Encore is severely lacking vs the other two though.

The vintage Twincast came with Steeljaw. He had an extra sticker in the corner that revealed Scorponok's weaknesses when put into Twincast behind the red window on his chest.

Ehobby Twincast came with Flipsides, who has both Scorponok and Fort Max's weaknesses displayed depending on which way you put her into Twincast or Soundblaster.

Encore Twincast came with Nightstalker, who is a repaint of Steeljaw with Ravage's guns, and Stripes, who is a tiger repaint of Ravage with Steeljaw's guns that have a bigger peg on them to fit him better.

I really like the tiger deco and the black on Nightstalker looks pretty badass.

Soundblaster is the "rebuilt" version of Soundwave. He's also got a double layer deck with tech detail on it. He came in; left to right: Bookstyle, Vintage, and Encore. The labels on the vintage piece are blue while the Bookstyle one has purple. Like Twincast, the Encore has tampos instead of labels and lesser plastic quality

You can kind of see the different silver on the Encore, looks kinda translucent. The bookstyle had pretty bad paint on mine, just kind of flaked off his feet. The Encore also has a different paint scheme on the face. I tried to get a pic of Buzzsaw showing Fort Max's weaknesses on it.

The vintage Buzzsaw that came with Soundblaster had a different head mold compared to the Soundwave version, giving him a small mohawk. I like it, gives him a sinister look i think. I didn't bother taking pics of the tapes that came with the booksty;e since it's just a straight reissue of Ravage and Buzzsaw with the weakness sticker over the tape reels.

Encore Soundblaster came with two of the best ideas for reissue repaints. Enemy was a tape stuck to the side of an AM radio originally. There was also a head for him that was a voice changer. The second tape is Wingthing, a repaint of Ratbat to be a cassette version of Soundwave's Actionmaster partner.

I really like the colours of these two. Enemy has the stickers tampoed on like the larger figure. Wingthing is very Halloween-esque.

There was also another blue version of Blaster, MC-21 or Microchange blue Blaster. most of the mold for the Microchange versions of them are different though, where the Transformers versions have molded switches and knobs, the Microchage has actual working ones. The chest plate is also different, having Takara written on it, and a plug for the cassette he came with to turn him into a working radio. The stickers are also a different colour than the regular ones.

Hope you enjoyed this review, I know the reissues have made these guys pretty common, but they weren't always.

Well, these are so bad, they're good. Glad I love the alt modes, because that's where they will stay.

These four make the Firecon's molds look good. They are also built around a gimmick, this time a pull back that when you insert the guns into the alt mode, they release. Interesting, but not really worth the sacrifice.

Bulletbike is a motorcycle.. The gimmick is activated by the hole in the sidecar. The bike mode isn't that bad, it's actually pretty good, especially for how old it is, the paint on the mirrors is interesting since it's not solid, it's kind of spattered on there. The transformation is pretty unique, I doubt we'll ever see another bike former do the same.

And that's where the goodness ends. The bot mode has no articulation, like not even able to point the guns forward, and it looks terrible. I picked this guy up from Sportinmortin on TFW just after I got Staxx.

Staxx came from Demerge a while back, part of a "sample" from the lot I picked up recently that I got a while ago. His truck mode is pretty good. The rest of them's gimmick is done from the one side of the vehicle mode. I love how they actually integrated his guns fully into the vehicle mode.

And then this happens. There's not a lot to be said for him, other than sorry. He does have arm articulation, too bad it's fused with his head, bonus is that he's always looking the way he's shooting. Him and Bulletbike make up the Decepticon side of this set.

First on the Autobot side is Ironhide. I'm still missing his guns, but he looks alright, unfortunately they screwed up his windows and made them green like the Decepticons of the day. Neat looking alt mode though.

Johnny-5 is still alive! Seriously, what were they thinking? I got this guy today from Specimen_17, while the figure is terrible, it's great to have the set, He actually has arm articulation!

I love Meanstreak's alt mode, very Rotorstorm-like colours, and the fading white paint work. Very firmly European G1, these guys were released in G2 though. I got the body for him from Demerge and the guns from Specimen_17. This is my second time with him, the first I got as a gift, and passed the gift along when he left.

And we're back to why, why did they do this to him? He doesn't even stand straight, I had to prop up the front of his feet so he wasn't leaning forwards. He does get the ability to mount his guns on the shouder though. Good thing too since he can't aim forward.

As much as I rag on these guys, they're kind of neat. In a quirky, ironic way. The alt modes are nice, and the gimmick does what it's supposed to. There's just one major draw back, the bot modes. I'm glad I got them though.

The final year of minibots, all of them remolds of the 84 set, but they did get pretty creative with it. Wheelie was already reviewed with the rest of his 86 movie brethren.

Firstly, we have Hubcap, a remold of Cliffjumper, without the spoiler on the car mode. I got him in a huge lot years ago, he was actually the only minibot I had for quite a while.

He also sports a new head sculpt.

Outback is a remold of Brawn, he sports a new gun and a winch on the vehicle mode. Him and Swerve got hooked up by Turboedguy,

In bot mode, he sports new arms and a new torso/head. A marked improvement to Brawn's mold

Pipes is a remold of Huffer, he gets a new front end to the truck and new pipes

In bot mode, his new pipes make his arms different, and the head and chest has been remolded to transform in reverse to Huffer. I thought this was a neat idea.

Swerve is a remold of Gears, the truck mode is unchanged.

In bot mode, he has a new chest plate and head.

Lastly, there was Tailgate, he was a remold of Windcharger.

He also has a remolded chest and head like the others in the group. I picked him and Pipes up at tfcon this year to replace the Encore set's final two pieces.

Been a couple months since I had the time to write something on here. Got a few MPs and 3p Mps.

First up is the Maketoys version of Reflector. He goes for the cartoon look which based all of them on the look of Viewfinder, two without the lens opening on the chest. The original toy had three different bot modes which were never featured outside the toy.

In camera mode, he is more purple than the original toy, which is accurate to the cartoon. Reprolabels did a fantastic job with this set, even making the camera grips three dimensional. The biggest gripe I have with the Maketoys one is that parts fall off, from the white pieces on the feet to the faces. He does come with alternate faces, but he never seemed like the emotional type of bot, so they stay in the box for me.

Fanstoys Grenadier is their version of Bombshell, The bot mode is amazing. They have released both this one with the purple chest area and a gray one. This one comes with a clear or solid yellow chest. This also has the new Reprolabels set on it as well.

In bug mode, the Fanstoys one comes together very solidly, very happy with him other than the damage from transit, but they are fixing it even if it wasn't their fault. The bug mode is super accurate to the cartoon and original toy.

This month saw the release of Masterpiece Tracks, with a very divided fandom receiving it. I like it for what it is, but I dislike it's flaws, the backpack. I just don't find it as fun of a toy as the other MPs, nor as solid. While it may be the worst car bot to me, it's still the worst out of the best, if that makes any sense. It's not that I hate it, it was just not what I've come to expect when fiddling with a car MP. Does it look good on a shelf? Yes. Is it a figure I'll get down off the shelf to mess with? No.

The car modes are beautiful. The blue paint on the MP just shines. The transformation has a couple cool twists, but the amount of frustrating panel massaging and tabbing that was nicely absent from the other car modes and very reminiscent of the movie bots that I loathed.

They both have the flight mode, the Masterpiece version looks great, and perfectly matches the cartoon. He was my favorite car bot from G1. The MP also came with a flight stand, mini Blaster and a Raoul figure.

Lastly, MMC's version of the Pretender Catilla. He's a remold of their Rampage figure. This also has a Reprolabels set applied, the little eye band really pops on the animal head.

In cat mode, he is an ok representation of the original, closer to classics than an MP for sure though.

It also comes with a helmet for the cat mode that is a throwback to the Pretender shell. Not sure why it has those pointy bits on the back, but they're there. The gun is also pretty spot on the original.

Got this big bastard the other day. I couldn't do the review before I got the Reprolabels set for it.

Kailin did a great job on this set. Makes the figures really pop by adding some of the details that were missing from it. I was set on skipping him until I saw the set.

The crane mode is pretty close to the original, with the dual cabs and six wheels. The original had a swiveling crane cab and an extending shaft, which the CW one just has the raising crane.

In bot mode, he's much more cartoon accurate than the original toy, one thing that really confused me was that the CW ones all have ankle tilts, when some of them don't have elbows, but the Perfect Effect set will fix that if I get it.

Scavenger is pretty cool, He's missing the top section swivel, but other than that, he has all the articulation in the crane that the original had. The transformation has some neat twists, you can really tell Hasui designed them.

In bot mode, he's the best looking Scavenger figure we've gotten I think. I really like the head sculpts on these figures, plus the red eyes being a separate part.

Bonecrusher gains a closed cabin from the original with slightly more articulation in the bucket.

In bot mode, everything ends up where it's supposed to be. I am very happy with the end result, wonder what they would be like if they had had a bigger budget to work with.

Mixmaster is the odd one out when it comes to the alt modes, he's a totally different kind of cement mixer. I think that might be a downside of listening to the fans that complained about scale haha.

The robot mode on the other hand, is pretty accurate, and I think I could live with just a cab over the other end of the mixing truck since the actual front doesn't look too much like a cab anyways. I didn't bother grabbing the missiles for the G1 figure though there should be a pair above his head.

Scrapper is pretty nice as well, He also gains the closed cab like Bonecrusher, and there's one more part of articulation in the bucket thanks to the transformation. I love all the little lights that were added with the Reprolabels set, they were a pain to apply, but they look good once done.

Scrapper utilizes the shin peeling like MP Sideswipe for his, which was a nice surprise. i like that a lot of the G1 details are painted on as well, with what's missing being added with the labels set.

Long Haul is huge, the vehicle mode looses a lot of it's "Big Green Block" look once you add the labels with the sides of the bucket and all the lights and caution stripes.

In bot mode, he's a lot bulkier than the original, but at least with the labels it kind of makes his legs seem less blocky. He does have the combined mode crotch hanging off his ass, but that's it for the individual members.

The original had a bunch of parts to combine, like the head, waist, and leg connectors. they do lose their "attack modes" but they do gain the ability to use each part as a weapon including the two sides of the wing. There's only three add on parts for the Combiner Wars Devastator. the forearms and chest wing. If you're not too fussed about the elbows on the two figures (or are getting the Perfect Effect set/Takara version with them) he's pretty good. I like the looks of it behind the MPs, covering the club foot.

Pretty certain my MP collection is going to have to move in the next couple months. Not sure where though.

After a long hiatus, I felt like I wanted to post something. I have a couple other things to post soon too. I picked the last of these up just a week or so ago finally completing my set of sparking figures.

These guys are a candy coloured set of four. two of the original molds did not get reused in this line. Cindersaur and Guzzle, which is unfortunate, I would have liked to see a jolly rancher looking tank haha.

We'll start with the Autobots. Fizzle's repaint is named Blaze and is translucent blue with green bits.

He gets nifty new labels with the G2 symbol and some hazard stripes. This is probably my favorite mold out of them all.

In bot mode, he's very green. there's not a lot to his transformation, but it's effective in getting the look they were going for.

Sizzle's repaint shares the same name and is an apple green translucent plastic with the G2 logo and flame stickers on the rear.

He has a very blue underbelly in bot mode. I don't know why I enjoy the purple wheels so much.

Sparkstalker goes by the same name and is a translucent pinkish red. He gets some shiny new wing stickers and the rubsign area filled with a G2 con symbol.

In bot mode, he's just as bad as the rest of the firecons, but the translucent face and green accents really pop.

Flamefeather is the final of the four that got released, he's a nice translucent orange with purple and green accents.

In bot mode he looks great. The stickers on his wings are the main stickers that they added for this release.

I love how the purple and green tie both sides of the team together.

Finally getting the set all together was a mission and a half, after four years, it's finally done.

Top: Europe
Middle: Japan
Bottom: USA

Japan and USA version comparison: Autobots Decepticons

Suffice to say, I've been really looking forward to these guys, I got them in combination from Random Toy Reviews and Megatoyfan. They were in the works for a while, but they are finally home. They are a redeco of Monstructor with different shells.

We'll start with Goryu and go in numerical order. Goryu is the leader of the Dinoforce in Victory. They are the Destron comic relief, as they go around causing trouble and end up losing every time.

The box is very classic G1 with the character art on the left and the window to showcase the toy. I really love the look of them in their boxes.

The shell for him is a |T-rex, and all of the shells can hold the combiner kibble and their pistols on the back. They all turn into strange little robotic monsters.

To transform him, you just flip the legs and head out, the arms you can reposition to your liking, as long as your liking is bent or unbent at elbow. He forms the leg of Dinoking.

Gairyu is next in line,

the ankylosaurus shell looks pretty neat. These do have the same issue as Monstructor with the shells getting sticky, luckily a friend mentioned that they can be cleaned with baby wipes, so off to the store I go.

His transformation is basically unfold legs, flip head. I really like the colours for this set, the white, blue, and green really pulls it all together, unlike the mishmash of colours on Monstructor, who unfortunately suffers from GPS. One day I'll get him, just not yet. He forms the arm of Dinoking

Kakuryu is the dumbest of the group, and probably the funniest in the group in the anime.

His triceretops shell has the horns lined up in a straight line, kind of strange, but I won't argue with it, it looks neat.

Transformation to bot mode is basically just flip the legs and head out. Curiously he is shown holding Rairyu's gun on the artwork. He's the chest of the combined mode.

Doryu is the next one on the list. His alt mode is shown pretty bad ass in the artwork, too bad not so much in the toy.

His shell is a stegosaurus. Not sure what his alt mode is, but it's kind of interesting. Werewolf robot or something? He's the other leg of Dinoking.

in bot mode, the contrast between the deep blue and the white is stunning, 2/3 of these guys are unused, so they kind of lack the detail that the stickers would provide, but the clean look suits them at their size.

Yokuryu is the Pteradon of the group, with a moving neck so he could fit in the box nicely.

He is a small bird type monster, looks pretty good, and one of the more convincing alt modes of the group.

In bot mode, he also has the nice blue on him. He forms the other arm of the combined mode.

Rairyu is the final member of the team. Shown here holding Kakyuru's gun.

The shell comes with the tail removed in the box so it will fit. He forms the crotch and abs of the combined mode.

The black and white kind of makes him look like a police bot or something. Pretty nice.

And finally, Dinoking. I really like the combination on him, for his size it's pretty intricate and had a couple twists I wasn't expecting like the chest flipping up for Rairyu to peg into the chest of Kakuryu and the slide in fists.

He looks right at home with the rest of the Decepticons from his line. I need to get the Crossformers replaced later, but other than that, looks good for me.

I recently traded my Landcross reissue and Plastique Freak was kind enough to let me keep my reissue to do this review before I shipped it.

In combined mode, you can see that the blue is darker on the reissue, the accessories are slightly grey and there are red chrome circles on the chest plate. There are numerous other differences on the individual bots that we'll get into now.

Mach I have the Chinese and Japanese vintage pieces, so I'll toss them both in, some refer to the Chinese versions as a reissue, but with how close they were released to the originals, I think of them as their release. The reissue is on the left, with the Chinese in the middle and Japanese on the right.

You can see that the reissue has gray thighs/sides and an autobot logo on the side of the vertical stabilizer along with having pins in the figure's shoulders instead of screws. The only differences from the Chinese version to the Japanese is the paint is slightly lighter on my copy, (might be a QC problem.) and that the blue is between the reissue and vintage shades. The reissue also has a more detailed face with the eyes being painted separately.

You can see the stamps here, the reissue and Chinese share a made in China stamp while the Japanese one is made in Taiwan.

Tackle is the only other one that I have the Chinese version for. He's pretty much identical to the Japanese one with only the stamp difference. The reissue has lighter orange, gray thigh pieces, and lacks the window detail on the side of the cap while it does gain a tampoed Autobot logo on the hood instead.

In bot mode the only differences is the stickers, and the face paint again, which is a trend for the whole reissue set along with the pins instead of screws for the shoulders.

Waver has a lighter blue for windows, tampoed bot logo, and gray connector bits and thighs.

In bot mode, the face paint and stickers are different as well.

Wing has a black canopy and a tampoed bot logo on the vertical stabilizer. The gray has also been turned silver.

In robot mode, besides the regular gray thighs and facepaint, they've painted his chest and done away with the sticker.

Tacker looses his very fitting olive green for a forest green shade, the gray is also darker as is the gray on the painted treads. Autobot logo added just in case you forgot they were.

In bot mode, there's only really the facepaint and shoulder pins.

Dash has black windows, gray thighs, darker red, and a bot tampo added to his roof.

he gets the typical face paint change, and new labels.

Hope this quick review helps when trying to identify whether it is a reissue or vintage.

So I finally broke down and bought the last of these "things" I am happy to say I didn't spend any money on two of them haha, I specifically wanted bad condition versions of these since these are the worst figures from 1985 in my opinion.

F1 Dasher is the first of the three, he turns into a Cybertronian race type vehicle. All three of these have a pull back and go feature on them, and a spot to put the Diaclone drivers in the top of them left over from their previous release.

His transformation is pretty simple, but not too bad for a figure his size. The biggest drawback is the sticker faces, like who the hell decided that? His head is supposed to be chrome, but like I said, bad condition. But hey, at least his feet are in the right place...

The second is the Sky Dasher, he turns into a Cybertronian jet thing with the carried over mount for the driver on the back.

He kind of does a jumping jack into bot mode, again with the sticker face, this time his feet are in the middle of his shins. These figures are very susceptible to chrome wear, they get pretty expensive without any wear.

The final one in the trio is the Drill Dasher, his alt mode is pretty sweet at least. I really like the wedge shape it has and I wonder what it would look like if it was a more full sized vehicle.

In bot mode, he looks like a reject from Coneheads. Not a lot to the transformation, coiuld have added one more step to make the drill go somewhere else, but they didn't. His feet are on his heels...

Unless you're a completionest, or like weird and really dumb looking figures, don't bother. But they're the last of the mail away figures I needed to complete my 85 set. Hope you had a laugh looking at how terrible they were.

Been a long time since I had something to post on here. Pretty excited to finally "have" these two.

The reason for the quotes is that there was some customizing going on to finalize them in my collection. They are space pirates in Victory. These two have been some of the most difficult for me to track down, and the final two I needed to finish Victory. We'll start with Blue Bacchus, the only part that isn't a stand in at the moment is the shell. I'm pretty sure that I have a MIB one lined up for later, so this will do for now.

Blue Bacchus is a remold of Crossblades (seen here with his subgroup mates: http://brr-icy.blogspot.ca/2014/02/mega-pretenders-thunderwing-vroom-and.html ) The only parts that were remolded for this release was the head, thighs, and chest of the shell. The rest is the same as Crossblades. The stickers also have a different colourscheme, but mine is sporting what it could of Crossblade's Reprolabels. He is much more robotic than his mold mate on the shell as well.

The small bot turns into a small jet. I don't see the dragster that it's said crossblades turned into and will refuse to believe it.

The shell retains the "helicopter with army boots" mode that Crossblades had. I really prefer this colourscheme over the drab colours though.

The helicopter and jet combine into a larger helicopter and is actually quite nice other than the army boots hanging off the back.

Black Shadow is almost all legit, just the small gun is a repro. He arrived today, I am more than pleased with owning him as I haven't even seen one in person before. I really like the colours on him. I thought about editing the pic to get rid of the slight discolouration, but decided against it. He is a remold of Thunderwing, with only the chestplate/head remolded to be more robotic.

The small bot turns into a jet like Bacchus' Pretty neat little thing for it's size.

The shell also turns into a jet, not too bad, but has a bird feel like Thunderwing's bigger jet mode as well.

But combined, the jet mode really shines. Probably the best looking of the Pretenders by far. Both him and Thunderwing, but there's just something about black and red that pops.

Later on when I get the legit pieces, I'll revisit this, but as it stands, hope you enjoyed a look at these two rare pieces. Repro parts are available on ebay from spurtreynolds1984.

I finally constructed the last piece I needed for this review, I had been missing a Sixturbo rifle for the vintage one for a while so I made one as close as possible for now.

Not the easiest piece to find, I need to move the police sticker around I think, not sure.

Circuit is the F1 racer of the group. Like most of the Sixteam combiner reissues, he has paint where the vintage has stickers. I do like the little Auto Bot sticker on the vintage one. The red on the front spoiler is missing on the vintage.

The red at the back of the car is a sticker on the vintage where it was painted on the vintage. The vintage has a darker gray and blue face while the reissue gains a silver belt.

Discharge, yes, Discharge... haha. Where do they get those names? He's a red firetruck. The vintage has stickers on his lights, front window, and sides of the truck. Where the reissue has silver paint on the sides plus a bot logo on the side.

In bot mode, he's got some big feet. The reissue gets a silver face and details, where the vintage has blue, the red is also a shade lighter.

Glide is the only Micromaster motorcycle. I really like the mold. the bike is pretty accurate. In bike mode the front lights and window are stickers on the vintage while they are paint on the reissue with paint on the pipes and a bot logo on the side.

The bot mode is pretty well done for a bike, probably in my top three for bike Transformers with how it looks.

Neo-Wheel is the Lamborghini of the crew. Some of the windows are stickers on the vintage, and they added a bot logo to the reissue. The yellow is also a darker shade on the original.

In bot mode it looks like legs are separated on the vintage, that's just it being loose, I need to replace it one day, might just do the whole set and call it a day. The reissue gains a few paint apps, swapped the silver for gold on the crotch, silver abdomen, and a gold head crest.

Road Police is the police car of the group, his windows are stickers on the side, and the police sticker should be on the back of the car, I haven't moved it.

The bot mode is awesome. I love the little police hat on him. The vintage has a yellow crotch and face, while the reissue has a black crotch, fronts of arms, and silver abdomen, face, and... suspenders

Sireen is the ambulance of the group, He's one of the neater micros in my opinion. The windows, headlights, and ambulance sides are all stickers.

In bot mode, his transformation is different than most, it leaves the head a bit obscured, but still good, the face on the vintage is yellow while it's silver on the reissue. The side of the chest also gains the silver.

We'll go over the differences on the combiner parts in a minute.

Finally, Sixturbo. The blue on the vintage combiner parts is darker. and the thighs, gun, feet, and chest wings have stickers on the vintage where the reissue is painted. He's probably the least proportionate of the six teams combined, but I really like him individually.

Just got this guy in the mail, it was my birthday present to myself. I was pretty excited to get my hands on him.

My wife's brothers had him as a kid, but unfortunately when I went down there, they couldn't find it. When he popped up in the BST, I had to get him, especially when my wife showed me this picture of her as a baby with a Skywarp her brothers said was bought in Mexico when they were younger.

I'm really curious where that Ratchet came from, if it was a South American variant or just a regular Hasbro release, I guess I will never know.

The box wasn't even listed in the sale, it's hard enough to find a Skywarp, so I was pretty excited when the seller said he had the box, no matter how rough it is. I did a bit of TLC on it before taking the pic, but it's pretty close to how it came. I'm waiting on a bubble to get here so I can put him in it for a better pic. You can see the IGA logo and that most of the writing is in Spanish.

On the back it still sports the 84 fight scene artwork, but it's missing the techs and the bio is in spanish.

You can see the major differences here with the purple hard plastic nosecone that matches the pics on the box of the figure kind of like the Canadian Slag, which is another reason why I had to get him. I really like the look of the purple nosecone, it breaks up the black a little better. The landing gear are all black plastic instead of metal on both the front and the heels.

I don't know if it's just my copy, but the plastic's finish isn't quite as glossy as a regular Skywarp, and the mold lines are a lot messier on him. I did notice that the wings are the solid type like a prerub Skywarp, but the pegs on the wings are long instead of short. The launchers are also a lot stronger than a regular version's as well. All in all, I'm pleased with him.

He can live with #16 Megs and Metrotitan for a while until I decide to rearrange, but I think he'll stay in jet mode to get a nicer view of the purple.

Haven't done one of these in a while. These are some of my favorite recent purchases.

I took a chance on Omnigonix Spinout and I wasn't disappointed. The vehicle mode is pretty spot on, front and back. The only thing I would like to see different is the two stage lights inside the headlights like Sideswipe's. Very well detailed, better paint than my Sideswipe.

His transformation is so clean, up until you get to the head, it almost feels like that was designed by someone else. I might try to give it a slight mod to get it to sit back a little farther. In bot mode, he's got great articulation. I can't help but notice that the render was different on the shoulders as well. Joints are tight minus the outward swing for the hips, a couple drops of future in there fixed that up. He's much better than the reviews led me to believe.

Between the two currently released Hound 3rd party figures, I liked the Maketoys Gundog better as it seems to fit in with the rest of the MPs with the real world accuracy and the amount of detail. FT's is great, just personal preference on them I think. I was pretty impressed with him having the gas can, spare tire, and mounted guns as extra accessories too.

In bot mode he is really well put together, a bunch of diecast and really smooth but tight joints. The gun is spot on the vintage one as well. Mine has the Reprolabels set applied to it, which make it a bit more toy likethan he was on release. The figure has great articulation as well. All the MP figures I've gotten from Maketoys have been great. I'm pretty excited for more releases, and if it wasn't for that "leaked" Takara Megatron, I probably would have their iteration right now.

MMC Sphinx is an amazing figure, from the well thought out and incredibly smart transformation, to the rubber wheels and diecast. He also comes with a little racer to go in the driver's seat, but that's stored away. This is another figure with the Reprolabels set applied. I really like having the sets for the racing MPs because of the livery being more prominent.

In bot mode, it's really hard not to like him, from the great articulation, to the perfect proportions, he's really well done. There's not much else to say about him that hasn't been said. He's good, and deserves a spot on anyone's shelf.

I was pretty hesitant to buy KFC Crash Hog, I got the two pack with Dumpyard, He's pretty nice though, the only issue I have with him are the amount of parts that are removable or parts forming. Some are fine like the axe being made out of the front forks of the bike, but those spikes, mirrors, and brake levers are constantly falling off on me. In bike mode, He looks like he jumped right out of the movie, and with Dumpyard to ride, He almost did.

In bot mode, he looks incredible as well, which makes me forgive the parts forming. The face is spot on, you now when you handle a figure and you can almost hear the voice coming from it because it looks so close to the animation? This is one of those cases (besides loving Monty Python, that might have a slight impact there, that was also one of the reasons I finally broke down and got him)

Beside the vintage figure, he looks much more accurate in general. I am not sure how they got that animation model from that toy, but I digress, the transformation is actually pretty close to the way the vintage transforms, with the chest moving up, legs around in basically the same spots. the biggest difference is the arms going into the front of the legs instead of forming the forks. I am amazed at how many accessories the set came with from a bunch of guns, to the axe, to the "talk some tv" TV and the big green box that he beats like a drum in the film.

Takara Ironhide is the only official MP in this set of reviews, I was going to go all 3rd party, but I wanted to get him in here. The van is spot on and licenced by Nissan. The guns can store underneath by the rear wheels, and he comes with eight hundred and fifty seven accessories (not pictured) I like that they even put teh little throwback to the Diaclone face on the gray plastic under the window.

This figure's transformation is pure sorcery. The fact that the entire roof, the driver's windows, and 2/3 of the rear of the car are folded up nicely inside his torso is mind boggling. There are a few panels in the legs that hide the wheels and side stripes of the van. The only "issue" I see from people is the side hip panels, but they don't really bother me at all considering the rest of the figure. In the accessories, they also included his sled and the rocket launcher/gun that's mounted on it like the G1 figure's. He also has interchangable faces, I usually keep him on the flight stand that came with Tracks using the jetpack he had for a whole minute or two in the show.

Hope you enjoyed these, and if you see something in my collection that you want a quick look at, just let me know and I'll see what I can do.

"Upgrades" Part 11...some 3rd Party Masterpieces

Large Predators: Skyquake and Stalker.

"Upgrades" Part 12: Sixknight and Astrotrain

A Shout Out

1985 Minibots Powerglide, Warpath, Seaspray, Cosmos, and Beachcomber

Lightformers and Trakkons: Deftwing, Ironfist, Fearswoop, and Calcar

European Motorvators and Their Japanese Cousins

Twincasts and Soundblasters Review and Comparison

Euro "Power Masters" Bulletbike, Staxx, Ironhide, and Meanstreak.

1986 Minibots: Hubcap, Outback, Pipes, Swerve, and Tailgatest

"Upgrades" Part 13

"Upgrades" Part 14 Combiner Wars Devastator

G2 European Firecons and Sparkabots.

Victory Dinoking

Victory Landcross Comparison

The Not so Nice Mail-Away Powerdashers

Victory Crossformers: Blue Bacchus and Black Shadow

Operation Combination Sixturbo Comparison

IGA Plasticos (Mexican) Skywarp

"Upgrades" Part 15: A few 3p and an MP