Phil's Universe Legends Wave 1 & 2 Review

[Philip Ayres]

Universe Legends Wave 1


Onslaught www.tfu.info/2008/Decepticon/LegendsOnslaught/onslaught.htm

Onslaught is a recolour of Legends of Cybertron Wave 3 Red Alert. This is the third airing for the mold it previously having been repainted in Classic Wave 1 as Perceptor. Nice grey and purple SWAT team colouring here, name and colours suit the mold.


Red Alert www.tfu.info/2008/Autobot/LegendsRedAlert/redalert.htm

Red Alert is a recolour of Legends of Cybertron Wave 1 Hot Shot. This is the fourth airing for the mold it previously having been repainted in LoC Wave 4 as Excellion/Hot Shot and in Classics Wave 1 as Bumblebee. Surprisingly the white and red work really well on this mold making me want to see the colour scheme on the full size toy.


Starscream www.tfu.info/2008/Decepticon/LegendsUniStarscream/starscream.htm

Starscream is a recolour of Legends of Cybertron Wave 4 Thundercracker. This is the third airing for the mold it previously having been repainted in Classic Wave 2 as Jetfire. Looks great in the Starscream colours !


Universe Legends Wave 2


Jazz www.tfu.info/2008/Autobot/LegendsUniJazz/jazz.htm

New Mold ! Typical white and black colour scheme - only major difference is the solid arms are all white. He's even got the car doors on his back if fixed swept straight back. Ball jointed shoulders & hips, plus a joint on the shoulders as part of the TF to fold the arms back. Knees bend as do ankles.

TF: fold up the chest piece to become the bonnet. Fold the feet in, bring the legs together and fold the lower legs up over the upper legs to become the back of the car. Fold the arms into place as the doors and the rear wheels.

G1 Jazz in car mode, if a little longer than usual due to non retracting/folding body parts. Good toy.


Hound www.tfu.info/2008/Autobot/LegendsHound/hound.htm

G1 Hound look is captured by the robot mode, but the head looks a little odd being set back a bit from the central axis up the body. The tires (green !) on the robot chest get in the way of swinging the arms forward, but they're ball jointed at the shoulder so can be swung to the sides a bit - the arms are likewise set a little far back. Ball jointed shoulders & hips, plus knees bend as do ankles.

TF: V similar to Jazz. Fold the windscreen up so it sticks out of the robot's back then fold up the chest piece to become the bonnet. Fold the arms into place as the underside of where the doors would be. Fold the feet up to form the seats, bring the legs together and fold the lower legs up over the upper legs to become the back of the jeep covering the hands in the process - this was a bit of a struggle with mine.

Jeep is again like the G1 version and similarly to Jazz feels a little stretched out. Not bad toy and nice to have a new version of a character that's had little new version love over the years. Deluxe version expected imminently.


Megatron www.tfu.info/2008/Decepticon/LegendsMegatron/megatron.htm

At some point soon I'm going to write a review extolling the virtues of the G2 Combat Hero Megatron mold. Well here it is shrunk down a bit. And it's *still* good. The gun barrel is in place on his right shoulder and they've gone one better than all the versions of the Combat Hero Mold by painting him green (Hasbro: I want a green camo Combat Hero Megatron. Please make it happen). The arms are fixed from the shoulder down - no elbow but are ball jointed and shrug up a bit at the shoulders, ball jointed hips and bending knees. The head can turn but the gun barrel moves with it. He stands OK with his legs together, but if you examine the bottom of them the default stance is with the legs slightly apart.

TF: Fold the arms back so the hands point backwards. (Nice bit this coming up) Turn the head to his right taking the gun barrel with it. Swing the gun barrel so it's pointing straight up. Fold the lower legs back to cover the upper legs. Fold the chest up, then fold the arms onto the top of the tank to form the sides of the turret. Very CH Megatron in the TF apart from the cleverness with the head & gun.

In vehicle mode it's a fixed turret tank. Looks good.

So overall great in both modes and the ideal size to be used with Universe Spychanger Prime - just slightly bigger. Get this toy.

[Hero]

Awesome review Phil, hopefully there will be a Legends Prime to compliment the Megatron. The Legends assortment is starting to look better and better too, I am looking very much forward to getting this wave.

[Bogatan]

I want to put legends Jazz in his Prentender shell.

Andy

[Bogatan]

Ditto legends Bumblebee when released.

Andy

[legios]

Nov 2, 2008 14:43:16 GMT Philip Ayres said:

Red Alert www.tfu.info/2008/Autobot/LegendsRedAlert/redalert.htm

Red Alert is a recolour of Legends of Cybertron Wave 1 Hot Shot. This is the fourth airing for the mold it previously having been repainted in LoC Wave 4 as Excellion/Hot Shot and in Classics Wave 1 as Bumblebee. Surprisingly the white and red work really well on this mold making me want to see the colour scheme on the full size toy.

They aren't far from doing something somewhat similar - swap the blue deco on Breakaway for red and you would be fairly close. I do agree that the colour scheme looks pretty nifty. Not nifty enough that I have weakened and bought Legends Red Alert but still, pretty nice.

Megatron

At some point soon I'm going to write a review extolling the virtues of the G2 Combat Hero Megatron mold. Well here it is shrunk down a bit. And it's *still* good.
In vehicle mode it's a fixed turret tank. Looks good.

So overall great in both modes and the ideal size to be used with Universe Spychanger Prime - just slightly bigger. Get this toy.

He sounds even better than he looked in pictures - and he looked pretty good. I think of all the Universe Legends this might be the one I keep my eyes open for.

The only thing that saddens me about both that mold and the Combat Hero one is that due to the way they are engineered you can't get any traverse on the turret - t'is the only point of articulation you'd need on a tank - but it is a small price to pay for what is actually a very cleverly engineered toy. Knowing how fond you are of the CH-Megs your recommendation as regards the Legends on carries a lot of weight for me. Might have to think about picking it up.

Karl

[Hero]

So who are Wave 3 again? I thought Bumblebee was part of wave 2.

G2 Megs looks like the best small scale TF toy Hasbro have released this year.

===KEN

[Philip Ayres]

Here's what's in each wave with links to pre-orders at BBTS

Wave 3: Animated Op, Animated BB and Animated Prowl. So there is a BB in there, just not Classics. Has been seen in Argos in UK

Wave 4: Animated Starscream, Bumblebee (Classics), Brawn & Beachcomber

Wave 5: Cosmos, Rodimus, Wheelie & Warpath (pics)

[legios]

Due to a train being delayed this morning I had a half-hour to kill on the way into work, so I dondered into Asda and discovered that the Wave 2 Universe Legends have arrived in Falkirk. Picked myself up a Megatron and I am delighted to report that he is every bit as good as your review suggested Phil. Great humanoid mode, and a really good vehicle mode. I do like the way that the hands blend in as part of the turret bustle when he is in tank mode. For such a small toy the face-sculpt is rather nice as well. The engineering on the head/gun assembly is indeed rather clever.

Good little toy. The only problem is I've gone and left him on my desk at work. I just hope he and Mini-mates Rook Bartley don't end up fighting all night - the mess they could make of my desk in twelve hours doesn't bear thinking about.

Karl

[The Doctor]

MEGATRON ATTACK!

-Ralph

[Philip Ayres]

TFU's Megatron entry is up so I've added it so the uninitiated can see what they're missing