Tranformers: Generations – Windblade

Windblade was a hard lady to track down.  I finally had to breakdown and get her off of Amazon.  I am in the toy hobby for the hunt as much as the toys themselves, but I figured with Windblade being a Fan’s Choice figure, as well as being the rare female Transformer, I should get her while the deal was good.  That and with enough other stuff for Christmas presents, I was able to get free shipping.  Always a bonus.

Windblade’s vehicle mode is a jet. An Autobot jet is not too common, but we see them from time to time. She looks like Hasbro took some cues from Prime’s Starscream. She has her legs standing tall there on the jet’s back. Not a very good design in that respect. Nothing I hate more than a “robot in disguise” that has body parts hanging out there for everyone to see.  She is pretty tricky to transform.  To get the wings locked into place, there are a lot of parts that need to be just right.  And that is on both sides, so you may get one side into place, and then it will pop loose while you are working on the other side.   Keep at it, you will eventually get it to work right.   After all of the work, there are some things that are just a bit off.  Sitting on the table, the jet listed to one side.   I don’t know if it was a part that was not transformed just right, or some thing with the overall design.   The tail also has a problem staying together, and tends to splay open at the top (see above picture).

Not that the jet is all bad.  The overall appearance of the jet is pretty cool.  The VTOL turbines rotate, and there is a front landing gear that moves up and down. Both nice touches.

I think she shines in robot mode.   She is a tough looking lady.  If she looked like Starscream in vehicle mode, she looks like Arcee in robot mode.  Yup, I think Windblade is the love child of Starscream and Arcee.

Not only did Windblade come with a sword, but it has a sheath.  We have seen quite a few swords being carried by a large number of Cybertonians, but there are very few that have a sheath to go with it.

The blade she carries is pretty fierce looking.  To give it more power apparently, there is a little turbine down by the hilt.  Guess this this the whole “Windblade” thing.

Overall, I think Windblade is a much better robot than she is a jet.  The jet has a little bit of a wonky sit, where it looks like it is listing a bit.  There are some really tricky parts to transform, so it will be really hard for kids to change her.  In robot mode, the only problem I had was with her high heels folding into her foot.  That does make play and posing her a little more difficult.    A fine figure.  Now I have to go back and read her comic and find out what she is all about.

Transformers: Age of Extinction – Target 2-pack – Silver Knight Optimus Prime and Grimlock

I am not always a huge fan of the 2-packs that come out in stores.   Sometimes they are just repaints, and other times they are to get us to rebuy figures we already have in order to get “that other” figure.  Well, this two pack falls into the first category.  An old Optimus and an old Grimlock, recolored to be packaged and sold again.  This time around though, it has two things going for this 2-pack.  1. Lots of chrome, and 2. An excellent repaint of Grimlock to match his G1 color scheme.  So, I had to pick up this set.

Optimus Prime:

 

This version of Optimus was ironically enough, a Walmart exclusive the last time around.  He certainly didn’t have this much chrome going for him that time around.  There have been a bunch of toys starting to show up with the Silver Knight title.   I don’t know if Optimus is going to be making quite an entrance for the finale of the movie, but it looks like that may be the way we are going to be going here.  I am pretty sure that we will not see him revery back to his Dark of the Moon truck, after seeing the new truck.  Just another way to get a little more money out of us.  I do thin we will actually get a good version of the Silver Knight a little later this summer.

The only change for this version are his sword, which is pretty weak.  It is seriously lacking details, and it is too big.

As good as he looks, chromed out in his robot mode, he really looks good in his vehicle mode.  The transformation is pretty easy and fun, with a few tricks in the legs to shorten them up.

Overall, this is a good version of Optimus.  I am not a huge fan of the Deluxe versions of Optimus.  He really needs to be in the Voyager Class to fit into scale with the other team members.

One thing to watch out for:

The first 2-pack I brought home had an Optimus with 2 left hands. I had to take it back to the store to get a replacement. No flipping these hands around.

Grimlock:

Truth be told, I was way more interested in Grimlock than I was in Optimus.   I was really excited to see the Fall of Cybertron Grimlock with the G1 color scheme.  I knew this was going to be a good figure to get my hands on.

The silver of the new Grimlock is a lot lighter to resemble the old color.  He also has on the red bike shorts as well as the colors down the front of his legs.  It is clear Hasbro went to a lot more trouble getting this new Grimlock ready than they spent of Optimus.   I guess that is what we would expect, since Grimlock is the new character in the newest movie.

He really looks like the G1 Grimlock when he is in T-Rex mode.  I think the only drawback of this version is his stumpy tail.  He has the button on the back of his neck that allows for a light-up mouth (batteries included).

This is a very good version of Grimlock.  Grimlock fans will definitely want to get their hands on this 2-pack.  Optimus is not the best one out there, but this version of Grimlock more than makes up for it.

Transformers: Age of Extinction – High Octane Bumblebee and Crosshairs

We are going to get away from the Dinobots for a bit here and look at a few of the vehicles.   Bumblebee, who we knew would have to be back, being a crowd favorite and all, and a new player, Crosshairs.

High Octane Bumblebee:

Bumblebee has been around from the start.  A fan favorite, he often has to step in and save the day to some extent, usually saving some humans or another.   It will be interesting to see how his job changes as he doesn’t have Sam to protect any more.

He has a huge amount of the car on his upper body.  Somehow he manages to stay slim like the scout he is.  There is a lot about him that still looks the same from the previous movies.  It is nice to see him not just reissued as a repainted version of a previous movie’s character.  The only drawback I have with him is the flick-fire missile on his arm.  We don’t need him to fire something (Crosshairs doesn’t, nor do any of the Dinobots).  The interest of the toy line is the fact that robots transform into vehicles, not that they fire little missiles.  In the case of Optimus Prime, they did a pretty good job of hiding the missile and the trigger, so that worked.  This one is not even removable.  If you take off the missile, he still has the launcher sticking out there.

One of the places I was most worried about was his back.   When I saw him in package, there was a lot of car’s top hanging down around his legs.  I was really worried that it was going to be left as one giant piece, and really mess with the overall design.  Thankfully, it was just the way he was packaged, so he would fit in the proper size bubble.   His roof folds over itself into a pretty tight backpack.

Finally Bee gets the Camaro treatment he was always meant to have.  I have nothing against the new Camaro design, I just know the writers of the first movie really wanted to go with this version of the Camaro when he was found by Sam, but there would be no way a kid would be able to own one of the most desired Camaros out there.  Flat black with a touch of yellow highlights.  He is lookin’ mean, and a great color choice for a scout.

Crosshairs:

Crosshairs has a very interesting face.  It looks like goggles on his head.  My overall impression of him in robot mode is that he is fine.   Nothing too special about him.   The shoulders are a little high, making it rather hard for him to see what is going on to the sides.    I do like that he comes with three guns.   He has this two-handed machine gun type weapon.  No, he can’t hold it with both hands.   He also comes with two smaller hand guns.  They fit into holes behind his side flairs.  Speaking of the side flairs, I am not impressed.  I am actually a lot worried about them. They are made of a rubber type material that folds from the car’s body and attaches into slots on his chest.  It looks like he is supposed to have these softer flairs that move when he moves.  I think it might be a Matrix kind of thing.

Here is the real problem with Crosshairs:

I thought we were done witht his lazy design garbage.  The hood of the car just sticks out back there.  I can’t imagine why they wouldn’t put a better hinge there to allow the hood to fold all the way up to Crosshair’s back.  Grrr!  Not to mention that the side flairs, from the side, look like the side of the car.  This is some pretty lazy designing.

When Crosshairs is transformed into vehicle mode, good things happen.  He looks so nice in vehicle mode. That is a sweet Corvette.  The colors work well together.   His transformation is a little tricky.  Again, they say, “Reverse direction to change to vehicle mode.”  I can’t imagine kids being able to follow those direction going backwards.

So, better in vehicle mode… until you put him next to another vehicle:

Why is he so stinkin’ HUGE!?!?!  He is about 50% too big sitting next to Bee.   In robot mode, they look good together.  What happened making him in vehicle mode?   They did it again, and messed with the overall design. Don’ they put these into computers or something?

Even next to Optimus he is too big.  Ah well.  He will probably spend is days in robot mode anyway.  I don’t like the rubber pieces being twisted up under the body.  I just don’t like the thought of them getting damaged.

 

Overall, a good start to the vehicles.  I assume we will get to see a lot more new vehicles as we continue toward the opening of the movie.  I already found Drift, waiting in the wings for his spotlight.  More to come…

Transformers: Age of Extinction – Evasion Mode Optimus Prime (Voyager)

T4 Optimus with the G1 counterpart.   It is neat to see how Hasbro actually look color cues from the original Optimus for this Evasion mode version.

Evasion Mode Optimus comes with a gun that has a spring powered projectile.  Pretty nice since we seem to keep ending up with flick fire missiles, or guns that transform. This one is nice and simple.

He is definitely the movie version of Optimus.   He seems to be a thinned down version with out the giant front hood of the regular version of Optimus we have seen through the previous three movies… and later in this one.   I don’t see why they couldn’t use this design from the start.  it works well.

The gun sits a little tall when he is holding it.  It looks like they made a gun with a handle, and then realized the handle has to be round to be held in the hand, so they added an extra piece to the bottom.

The back stock gets in the way of it being held any lower as well.  A few things wrong with a gun is not a huge deal for me.  I like the overall appearance of it.

This guy can pose.  He has a lot of good movement all over his body that allows for very dynamic poses.

I think it really does have a lot to do with a slimmer design.  They didn’t have to try and hide the giant truck hood somewhere, and Hasbro was able to work on better articulation.

Here it is… truck mode.  A G1 homage to the original design of Optimus.  Why couldn’t we have had this all along?  This is great.  The colors are right on too.  Speaking of colors, it is funny, since they painted him up just right, but it is wrong for the movie.  Guess they didn’t want to go with the busted-up look we will see.

How is that for a comparison?  Pretty nice look to the new version.  It is funny how close they are in scale, when in robot mode, the T4 version of Optimus is a head and a half taller.

And the problem.  Transforming Optimus for the first time, this part broke off.  I didn’t even given any pressure, and the pieces snapped at the smallest section.  It is partially the nose of the truck, and the rest is part of the hood.   It  looked to be a clear piece that was painted, to allow for clear windows in the front.  Again with problem clear parts.  Any major problems I have had with brittle parts have come from clear pieces.

I have since glued it back together.  Hopefully it will be all right.

 

Overall, I am happy with the design.  I am not very happy that the front end broke off the guy, but hopefully the glue will set it right.   Up next… more Dinobots.

Optimus Prime (wait, there’s more to the Prime line?)

 

Happy 4 years of this blog.  It has been so fun.  Lots of great stuff coming up.  Today, let’s look at The Man!

I thought we were all done here with Transformers: Prime.   We are on the gear-up to Transformers 4.   Well, there are at least two more figures coming out for all you Prime fans.  A new version of the big Optimus, and a new Predaking.  I picked up the Optimus, and he is HUGE compared to the last version of Optimus.

As you can see, he is a head and shoulders taller than the last new designed Optimus.   He comes with the sword and a shield, and a rocket launcher.   I am not super excited about any of the accessories.  The sword is the same as the last version, but with less paint app.  Actually, no paint app.  The last version has a silver hilt.  This one is all green plastic.  It looks pretty small in Optimus’ hand.

 

A Little Hollow:

This version of Optimus is a little hollow compared to the last version, and really hollow compared to Version 1.  The biggest place for the space is in his back.  There just isn’t anything back there.   This looks like a design cue directly from the Commander Class Optimus.  With that version, it is okay.  He is small, and we don’t expect as much from that scale.   This looks like a cop-out.   Not only that, but it takes away from what should be a hefty figure.

Speaking of heft.  Did you see the size of his legs?  They are giant, which is a good thing.  But, they are giant toward the inside, so they bump together.  In this case they should have taken the cue from the Commander Class figure, and put the wheel wells on a different part of the body, so they legs wouldn’t get snagged on one another.

The truck mode is pretty good.  It is again, just like the Commander class truck, but bigger.  The wheels are pretty cool on it.   They are black and silver, and the design is really nice.   The back part looks to be a cage. Once again, it is not big enough to carry anyone in.  That would have been a great design detail, if Optimus could catch and transport a Predacon.

My other hollow area problem.  Really?  Right there on the cab, you are going to leave it wide open?  What a detraction from the great overall look of the truck.  Ah, well.

I am thinking that Hasbro had to cut a few corners on the design of the figure to give us a figure that is SO large, and still at the $20 price point that the rest of the Voyager Class figures have been sitting at in this line.

Overall, I like this figure.   We have some issues with the hollow body parts.  It makes a LOT of noise transforming (clicking joints).  The overall look is great, and his size is amazing.  After taking him out of the box, I couldn’t believe he fit in the same size box as the rest of the Voyager Class figures.

Up next… maybe some Marvel, or maybe some Turtles.  We will see what I am in the mood for.  Either way, I am happy with my recent finds.