Phil's *UPDATED* Classics Reviews

[Philip Ayres]

Some of my Classics reviews need updating to take into account repaints that have been done. Starscream & Ramjet have already been done so in here I'm going to put the rest. Format is, as always, original review first (which in these cases is almsot certainly untouched) followed by repaints with links to pictures where I've been able to find them.

I'm not going to do these in one go, just adding to it as and when.

To complete the Movie dlx repaint series we start with Mirage.

[Philip Ayres]

Mirage

Mirage is back and as benefits a line of G1 Homage's he's a racing car. Now Mirage has been done many times - whenever there's a racing car they call him Mirage. Not all of them have looked like G1 Mirage though, and not all the racing cars have had the Mirage colour scheme. Indeed the Machine Wars Flipchanger version cried out for years to be done in the blue & white colour scheme and when it was done it fulfilled all my Mirage needs and in my opinion could be considered a definitive new version.

Classics Mirage is a very low racing car, no real clearance off the floor. Instead of the open cockpit of most previous versions it's a one with an all enclosing wind shield. The blue and white colour scheme is spot on, and covered in slogans for fictional firms including Witicky Sparkplugs - a reference to the father in the G1 cartoon and comic, Lithonian Drivetrain - Lithone is the planet destroyed in the opening sequence of Transformers the Movie and F.P. Racing - can't think what that's about. He's numbered 26 like the original toy and the RM repaint. The rear spoiler can be moved up and down but that's about it for movement on the vehicle mode.

To transform Mirage start by pulling off his front spoiler - this becomes his gun. Turn the car over - the rear of the car is the legs folded up in an S shape running from the hips in the middle of the car to the end where the first knee joint is, back through to the middle of the car where the 2nd is and using the shell of the back as the lower legs. Unfold this - pulling on the back of the car should do it. The spoiler now forms the feet. Pull the front of the car up slightly and rotate at the waist. The arms unfold from the middle of the car, the hands from the forearms and twist at the bicep so the fist hole is at the front on the hand. Find the shoulder section - it's what the arms are connected to - and fold that down. Fold the nose down revealing the head, and give Mirage his gun.

Mirage's resulting robot is very tall and very thin - he's almost Barbie like with a tinsy tiny waist. His feet are very large and will help keep his balance however extreme the pose. Both arms and legs have 2 mid joints so the lower sections can fold back along the upper. That makes him one of the few TFs legitimately able to kneel down, and he can also bring his gun back up alongside his head. Both shoulders and hips are ball jointed, as mentioned before he's got a bicep joint on each arm plus a waist and his head turn. His head is original Mirage to a T, with the edition of blue lightpipe eyes. He has a certain amount of backpack kibble - the cabin with the front wheels rising over his head but these look OK and to some extent ape the original with wheels on his shoulders. The gun is formed from the front spoiler with some of the underside of the nose. It aught to look awful, but instead gives him a sort of energy crossbow. The handle for the gun isn't the standard size of peg, and isn't even the same size as Rodimus' Gun. A bit poor I'm afraid. But that's about the worst thing I can say about this toy !

I wanted to dislike this toy because I thought the RM one was pretty near perfect and a definitive successor to the original. But I don't, it's great. One of the most poseable TFs together my RM Lije shall now be retired.

Mirage was released in Japan as Henkei toy C-04 Ligier with a more accurate G1 Mirage deco including a chromed spoiler & front wings.

Mirage

You'll need to make a choice about this toy - I'll give you some help to understand the why behind this toy. G1 Mirage has the ability to create holographic illusions as seen in the comic and TV series. Clear Blue is Hasbro's Star Wars line shorthand for a holographic variant. However the Bio makes mention of an Invisibility mode (as also seen in the cartoon). So which is it then ?

Either way all parts are now cast in Clear blue plastic. He looks great - can I have one please ?

Fracture

Fracture is a wave 2 Wal*Mart and ASDA deluxe repaint Movie exclusive - and the only one of the range not to have a mould sourced from the Cybertron range. I can't place what the inspiration is behind the colours on this toy - I have a friend who reckons it's Crasher from the Gobots. The repaint version maybe (TFU.info have a Gobots section) but I can't get that to tie in with the 1980 date printed in Transformers generations 2009 v2.

The sides of the car and the front wing are black, with a white spoiler, nose and stripes down the car separating the black from a red centre.

TF'ing the car shows us how this was done - blue & grey plastic has become black, while black and white have stayed the same colour and the red is painted on.

A nice repaint - I can't say for certain if the paint scheme is original but it looks decent here.

Dragstrip

G1 Dragstrip and Mirage are on the whole similar toys - even if Dragstrip does have six wheels - so it's not to great a leap to repaint a Mirage into Dragstrip as Hasbro did for this special edition exclusive to HasbroToyShop.com in 2008. Black stays black, grey becomes black and everything else turns yellow with some purple paint on the head completing the picture. Dragstrip comes in a lovely black & white presentation box.

Electro Disruptor Ligier

Electro Disruptor Ligier was an exclusive available in Japan by redeeming a token in Transformers Generations 2009 volume 1. This toy swaps blue for black and casts all the rest of the parts in clear plastic with the nose wings and spoiler chromed like the Japanese Henkei Ligier.

Another great recolour - shame it's so expensive. Why don't we get nice clear recolours in the UK

[Philip Ayres]

Bumblebee

For a character who was so prominent in G1 Cartoon and Comic Bumblebee hasn't had much recent love in the main toy line after a start that beat everyone else. He was a Minibot, a Throttelbot - as Goldbug, a Classic Pretender, an Action Master, a G2 Minibot and a Gobot/Spychanger. Since then he's just been reissued and PVC'd - although his Japanese name Bumble was used for the combined Perceptor form of the Japanese Street Action minicon team.

Bumblebee's new vehicle mode is a modern car vaguely reminiscent of a VW beetle. There's some white detailing round the back, and a pale grey spoiler which covers the rear window. This can be removed but it exposes his face peeking through. He comes with a Wave Crusher jet ski on a trailer that can be towed behind him - Jet Ski not removable from trailer. There's an Autobot rubsign on the vehicle's roof.

To TF to robot mode: Slightly wiggle both doors away from the pegs. Turn the rear wheels but not as if they were going along on the ground, in such a way as the top is going into the car and the bottom is coming out - you'll end up in the wheels being inside the car and the arms - which were inside - being outside the car. Rotate the door panels round the wrists till they're on the outside of the arms - the same side as the little raised bit sticking out the elbow. Turn the door panel round at the wrist until the little peg sticking out the inside of the door is on top of the raised bit at the elbow and then lock into place. Pull the back of the car down, and then fold the roof of the car forward to form the robot chest. There's a black panel visible beneath the rear wind screen - fold this forward to form the top of the body and the neck, then fold the head forward. (it's important to remember to fold the head back before you fold the panel back when reversing the TF) Fold the seats down - yes seats - to cover the upper legs, fold the bonnet forward and then fold the lower legs up through the gap to form the feet.

The resulting robot has features of many of the previous Bumblebee's - the Cartoon/Comic head is present along with the signature roof as chest, front of the car flat on the ground as feet. He's got Goldbug's hood behind his head and the wheels inside the shoulder remind of the classic pretender - who had wheels outside of his shoulder. He is blessed in the articulation dept: Ankles as part of the TF, knees, ball jointed hips, elbows and shoulders, plus the TF joint at the shoulder which allows for the arms to swing out a bit, and a ball jointed neck.

The wave crusher also transforms - split the trailer in 2 and pull out to the side as wings - a very stiff joint on mine. Then rotate till the wheels point down beneath the jet ski. The Wave Crusher then locks into Bumblebee's hood as a jetpack - quite a nice touch as the AM version had a hellipack.

Overall ? best deluxe toy this year. Near perfect upgrade of a classic and neglected character. Haven't got anything bad to say about it apart from the seats occasionally getting in the way in robot mode and the lack of a gun. Buy this toy.

Bumblebee was released in Japan as Henkei toy C-02. This makes the grey forearms yellow, the leg fronts black, removes the white stripes from the car and gold chromes a portion of the the bonnet.

Cliffjumper

Cliffjumper is a simple colour swap with some additional paint applications. All yellow becomes red, as do all the previously grey pieces. The black on the hands, upper arms shoulders/reverse of the wheels and crotch becomes a grey nearly identical to the grey on Bumblebee. The glass becomes smokey, and the headlights are painted. There's a lot of silver detailing on the car bodywork which is a departure from the G1 colour scheme as is the grey on the arms - while black would have looked more like the G1 original I can understand the desire to differentiate from Bumblebee.. Cliffjumper's Wavecrusher doesn't fit on him as a jet pack as well as Bumblebee's does - mixing and matching has shown it's the wave crusher at fault somehow as Bumblebee's is fine on Cliffjumper, but vice versa is unstable again. There's no remoulding on the toy - slightly modifying the head to give it a larger base would have made it more authentic for Cliffjumper.

Cliffjumper was not released as a Henkei toy in Japan.

Bugbite

Bugbite takes his name from an E-Hobby version of G1 Bumblebee availible in an off white car body. Essentially the same colour swap has been applkied to Bumblebee - off white for yellow with the grey becoming black. The car is covered in purple patterning, almost like a tatoo.

Semi odd release - even for a convention - as there are a few more things you can do with a Bumblebee mould - see bellow. But it's got a vague G1 provenance so ...

Bumblebee

This version of Classics Bumblebee was an exclusive to Wal*Mart inn the US and came packiaged in a box with Premium Movie Bumblebee and Animated Bumblebee.

This swaps the grey on the wrists for yellow, makes the white stripes black and swaps the clear windscreen for a clear blue one. It's an improvemnt on the original toy and not too far removed from the Henkei one.

More Repaints ?

Repaints ? You could do a gold Goldbug (with a new blue head) or a gold G2 Bumblebee version, a Black evil version or even a G2 Hubcap version before you get into the weird foreign colour variants.

[Philip Ayres]

Rodimus

Wave 1 of Transformers Classics have arrived courtesy of a UK eBay seller. Reviews of all 4 will follow over the next few days. Each toy has a lovely embossed Autobot or Decepticon symbol on the plastic bubble - a nice touch, and one that's sure to produce a few mispackaged variants.

Rodimus is the classics version of the G1 Hotrod character. It's the latest G1 character reincarnated in the first wave of classics - most of the others are original Autobots or Decepticons, with Astrotrain a 2nd year character while Hot Rod is a 1986 movie toy, and not a Diaclone or Microchange reuse. Hot Rod reappears with a Targetmaster a year after his original release, and then as Hot Rodimus with Star Convoy Hot Rod then falls into a 10 year long period of disuse before resurfacing as a repaint in Car Robots/RID, Armada & Cybertron, a reimagined form in Energon and a tiny version is World's Smallest Transformers as well as several other Japanese PVC versions.

The car itself is obviously Hot Rod - the basic colour is dead on, even if the fin is slightly off colour being orange instead of yellow. The fire detail is present on the bonnet along with the engine block and the long sloped window, while the silver pipe detail is down the sides of the car. The rear of the car puts me more in mind of Sideswipe rather than Hot Rod. There's space under the back of the car to store his missile launcher, and you can attach the blue flame missile in the stored mode to make it appear as if there's a flame jet from the rear of the vehicle.

Rodimus has an attack mode: Slightly pull the sides of the back of the car away from the central bit attached to the fin, and then fold this section onto the top of the car and the wind screen. The instructions don't show this but I think it looks better if you rotate the sides of the fins as you go - the fin is in 3 pieces with the sides able to rotate forwards or back if there's enough space - so the basic shape of the fins is pointing backwards still. The stored missile launcher is now on top of the car facing forward reminding you of some of the Targetmaster vehicles. I could swear I could remember a toy which had an automatic flip up feature like this where the back folds on top of the roof. I may be thinking of C Override or Nitro Convoy though. The missile's range is about 1m.

To Transform into Robot Mode you first go to my version of the attack mode by slightly pulling the sides of the back of the car away from the central bit attached to the fin, and then fold this section onto the top of the car and the wind screen while rotating the sides of the fins so they still point backwards. Pull the sides of the car at the front out to form the arms, and fold the hands out from the inside of the arms. Fold the front of the car under the car to form the robot chest and reveal the head. Pull the rear wheels out to the sides by about 5mm and fold down the panels just below the robot chest to reveal the upper legs and lock the wheels in place. Fold the feet down from the back of the car, and fold the heel spurs out from the back of them. Fold each leg out to the side to straighten them - there's an odd sideways joint below the hip and then fold down at the hips extending the sides of the upper legs to the sides of the legs slightly. Slide the upper body forward a couple of mm at the waist. Rotate the entire back/fin panel like G1 Hotrod so the fin points down and you're done.

His articulation consists of ankles, a rotating joint below the knee, knee, hip, shoulders, elbow and neck. Unless the panels at the side of the upper leg are folded to the sides this will limit the joints at the knee. This in turn means the legs can't be fully straightened under the waist and looks a little odd. It also means the legs have an odd habit of swinging sideways.

The robot mode looks like a slightly chunkier and squarer version of the original G1 Hot Rod. Almost everything is in the right places here apart from the engine block - previously the back of the head - now forms Hot Rod's collar. The hands can hold the missile launcher, but the peg for that and the hand size is slightly smaller than the standard 5mm pegs used in the last few years. The left arm has an additional feature that folds out from under where the hand is - the cardback claims it's a communicator but it looks more like the buzzsaw Hot Rod uses in the movie. The head has a lightpipe using the same purple blue plastic from the windscreen.

Apart from the minor gripe about the upper legs this is a good toy and a decent upgrade of the original character. My feeling is though it suffers slightly in comparison with its cohorts though.

Not seeing many repainting opportunities here except going down the dark Hot Rod route. As such - and given that Hot Rod is a later G1 character it seems a slightly odd choice for an earlier wave when doing for example Sideswipe would have given you an earlier and more obvious G1 car plus an easy repaint.

Rodimus was issued as part of the Henkei line in Japan as toy C-05. Here his flames are painted gold, with an orange painted bonnet (under the flames) and a gold chromed spoiler. There's some nice comparison pictures at EBI Labs

Shattered Glass Rodimus

Shattered Glass Rodimus - available at Botcon 2008 - takes the original Rodimus mould and swaps red for black and grey for orange. New purple with silver edged flame details are added taking up a larger area than before.

Essentially this is the Dark Rodimus repaint predicted when I first reviewed the toy and very similar to the e-Hobby version from 2001

Henkei Wildrider

Henkei wildrider is An exclusive item from the "Chara Hobby 2008" show in Japan on August 30th, 2008.

Wildrider is very very similar to the Botcon Shattered Glass Rodimus. The flame decals are smaller, more the size of the standard release Rodimus, and coloured only silver bar the Decepticon logo on the bonnet. The clear plastic is coloured red and the spoiler is chromed silver.

Yeah, they're pretty similar. Of the two I think this one edes it for me but neither is cheap to get !

[Philip Ayres]

Grimlock

Finally have a Grimlock !

Now to me Grimlock is an iconic character. I think they got it right first time with Grimlock - See TFU.info - and subsequent versions have struggled to measure up to the original. How does this one compare ?

The first thing that occurs about the beast mode is "why on earth is there a massive great missile launcher on his back ?" Closer inspection reveals the missile launcher looks a lot like the hand gun that Classic Pretender Grimlock has - See TFU.info again The dinosaur itself is a T-Rex, but is more of a modern horizontal T-Rex than a traditional upright T-Rex like G1 Grimlock was. You can get a reasonable standing traditional pose out of him though. Main colour is grey with some black plastic and gold detailing mixed in. The dinosaur is reminiscent of Beast Wars Transmetal Megatron - it's the head, and the jointed tail though this one only moves from side to side and not up and down as well like TM Megs - a tail that bent up/down as well would allow Grimlock to assume a more classic T -Rex pose. He's got a pair of front claws ball jointed at their shoulder, hips that move back and forth and swing out to the sides, a bicep joint below the hip, a forward and a backward knee joint and ankles as well as the 4 pivoting points on the tail - it is possible to bend the tail all the way round and make it point forwards. The jaw opens, and the eyes are lightpiped in red from a panel on the top of his head. It's a nice dinosaur mode but it's more BW TM Megs than G1 Grimlock I think.

The TF is interesting - a little different from what you're expecting perhaps. Remove the gun, and pull off the tail by lifting it up where it joins the body. Pull on Grimlock's dino head to extend the dino neck. Fold the head up, the lower jaw down and bring the forearms forward. Separate the front of the dinosaur in two in a line from the base of the neck to the end of the dino head - this forms the robot's legs with the dino head becoming the feet, a big departure and one I've not seen elsewhere in the TF line. Fold back the panels round the hips. Under one of the dinosaur hips is a gold panel - rotate at just above the robot waist so this panel is facing forward. There's a bit of black plastic containing the head, rotate this so the head's facing forward and the large sticking up bit of black plastic is facing away from the gold panel. The gold panel swings round 180 degrees on the front of the chest - so left top becomes right bottom and the red detailing on it swaps sides. Bring the leg at the back round to the side of the dinosaur that's on *your* right to form his left arm. Fold the large black panel down his back, and then fold the little tower for the gun back beside it. Lock the remaining dino leg in place as the 2nd arm. Fold down the black plastic panels at the side of the heads and pose the arms - the dino feet may need some folding back. The gun goes in one hand and the tail as a whip in the other and you're done.....

..... except that somehow something's gone very wrong in the shoulder region. The panel origami for getting the robot arms from the dino legs works but doesn't lock into place by itself, and the black panels that fold down should also click in place but don't. Oh dear. And while we're on a moaning streak let's talk about the legs - the just look wrong, like he's wearing some huge rubber boots with wide tops like some super heroes I could mention. The feet are stable but standing on the teeth isn't going to do them any long term good. An extra joint at the waist and folding down so the widest bit of the neck became the base of the feet would have done the trick and made it look much more like G1 Grimlock. The head as feet might have worked if we could have lost the extensive armour round the lower leg caused by the dino neck.

Now at least they've got the gold chest right - but they've missed a trick here by changing it so it's now got a clear red circle to one side because that says to me it's crying out to be a spark crystal - see TM2, BW Neo and Beast machines reviews - with either an Autobot or the BM Dinobot symbol.

The head is at last a masterpiece on this toy - I think this could be the best light pipe I've ever seen with his visor lighting up red.

Articulation - ankles via the joint for the mouth, fore and aft at the knees but they're fare too high for any significant poseability, ball jointed knees, no waist but there's an off centre swivel joint that's part of the TF half way up the body. Shoulders move back and forth and swing out to the sides, there's a bicep joint and the elbows swing forward, but the elbows are mounted very low on the arms. The head turns from side to side - however since the black plastic of the top of the shoulders and neck isn't properly secured frequent that turns with the head.

Weapons are the dino mode cannon/missile launcher and tail. We said earlier the cannon looks like the Pretender Classic gun and that's even down to the sword blade down one side. Unfortunately said blade doesn't have a corresponding handle unlike the Pretender Classic version. I don't think even Wing Sabre's handles can come to our rescue this time as the blade will be in and odd position pointing in. I just don't do tails as whips, never liked it on the TM Megatron, don't like it here. Both weapons can be stored at the same time on his back using the connectors for beast mode. I'm disappointed by the weapons as I think G1 Grimlock's sword and double barrelled gun are iconic weapons for the character - the launcher is secondary. I'd have preferred the classics version to be packed with replicas of those - a sword could have easily been concealed between the legs. However both Cybertron Scrapametal and Wing Sabre have swords - Scrapmetal's while smaller is Clear Red and Classics Prime has a double barrelled gun which suits Grimlock - very G2 comic.

Overall - I can't remember the last time I found a toy with this many issues. This is the fourth robo dinosaur Grimlock - Original (and G2), Classic Pretender, Energon and Classic - the rest have been bio dinosaurs. I don't think any of them have measured up to the original. If they took that entirely in plastic, added some articulation to the hips, waist and elbows, and made the weapons concealable they'd have a sure fire hit in their hands. As it is here they've experimented, and ended up with something that hasn't quite worked as a toy, but still is much better than the previous Energon Grimlock - and I really didn't like that (See My Review)

So..... Adequate. But could have been so much better and we somehow expected more given the high standard of some of the other classics.

Grimlock was available in the Henkei range as toy C-03. The grey was lightened all over the toy, the red was brighter and the neck covered in a mixture of gold and silver chrome.

Grimlock

Grimlock next emerges in 2008 as a Botcon exclusive toy. The colour scheme is, overall, similar to the original with a much darker grey, orange clear plastic and green & purple paint meant to evoke the Generation 1 Transformers toy Trypticon.

Overkill

Overkill started out as a similar looking toy built at one of the Botcon customise sessions a few years ago. The version released to the masses via Hasbrotoyshop.com has most of the grey changed to white except for the legs, arms, lower jaw, beast back panel & turret and robot chest. These are moulded in blue as are all parts previously black. The clear plastic becomes yellow.

The dinosaur mode for the toy resembles the G1 Decepticon Tape Overkill who hasn't previously had a robot mode. Gradually the Decepticon tapes are all getting them - Rumble & Grenzy had already, Ravage, Buzzsaw & Laserbeak got theirs in Beast Wars and Ratbat & Overkill received theirs in Universe.

[Philip Ayres]

Classics Deluxe Optimus Prime

As always it's nice to walk into a UK store and buy a toy. I'd not been too keen on importing the Ultimate Battle pack with Optimus & Megatron in it but to just buy it off the shelf is a different matter. Both of these toys were once rumoured to be carded dlx toys, but their design ethic incorporating and action feature is totally different from the other 6 original deluxe moulds.

Both come packaged in robot mode so to make a change we'll start there.

Optimus Prime is your basic G1 Optimus Prime design. Or a cheap rip off there off. The colours on the whole toy is too pale and plasticy for a start. The head is too long and stretched out for Prime - the eyes especially which are picked out in a pinkish lilac lightpipe. The knees look like an unnecessary copyright dodging add on here. His hands have headlights on the reverse of them. And don't get me started on the action feature - I showed the back of the box to Liz in the car, said "Oh look disco dancing Prime !" and she was greatly amused. A push in crank handle at the back causes Prime's upper body - everything north of the grill on the front to spin round. It's poor for so many reasons but here's two to be going on with: You can't lock the upper body in place so it just wobbles around, Prime shouldn't have a joint there, it would be more appropriate below the grill. On the plus side..... well the detail in the legs is quite nice. The articulation - knees, swivel below hip, ball jointed hip, universal jointed shoulder, bicep, elbow and neck + action feature mid chest - is adequate enough. The cab has moulded seats inside which looks good. The gun is very nice - transforming to mount on the truck it looks a little like those machine guns with the round cartridge underneath. An oddity on the toy has Prime's wheels sticking out the sides of his chest.

The TF is relatively standard Prime with a few funnies: Remove the gun and then lock the legs together, bend the feet down and then pull the waist down and forwards - this releases the sides of his lower torso which fold down with the wheels - so Prime has sort of ended up in a sitting position. Rotate Prime's body just below the grill 180 degrees - this joint has been previously locked by the body sides with the wheels attached. Fold the fists inwards, bend the elbows, fold the shoulders back and then rotate the arms sideways to lock into the sides of the vehicle. Rotate head 180 degrees and fold down. Take the gun, pull down on the handle so it ends up under the middle of the gun. Fold back the base and peg into Prime's legs

The resulting Truck is about as rough an approximation of G1 Prime as the RM version is. But a bit bigger. Proportionately it's longer - there's no way of collapsing the legs, and with the waist projecting from the back of the cab that adds to the length. Unfortunately this arrangement isn't very stable either, mine flexes quite a bit at all the joints - forward of the waist, hips and knees. There's the back of the head sticking out the top of the cab. Hmmmm. The gun once again is nice - rotating around half way up it's length it looks like a machine gun nicked from another toy.

One day Hasbro will do a G1 Prime Cab right - hopeful the same day they do it with a Trailer that turns into an articulated version of the Power Master form armour. This isn't the G1 Prime replica you want. The gun is the best thing on it and that's not even a G1 accurate one.

To the great surprise of many Optimus Prime and Megatron did later show up as individually carded items in TRU UK nearly a year after the Classics line ended !

Universe Special Edition Optimus Prime

Optimus Prime was later re-released as an exclusive Universe Special edition toy through Hasbrotoyshop.com. This is essentially a smartening up of the existing deco and if it weren't for the new packaging would just be considered a paint variant of the existing toy.

[Philip Ayres]

Megatron

As always it's nice to walk into a UK store and buy a toy. I'd not been too keen on importing the Ultimate Battle pack with Optimus & Megatron in it but to just buy it off the shelf is a different matter. Both of these toys were once rumoured to be carded dlx toys, but their design ethic incorporating and action feature is totally different from the other 6 original deluxe moulds.

Megatron is a recreation of the G2 tank Megatron, and as such it's the first Classics toy not to be from G1. It makes sense as a deluxe sized Gun Megs wouldn't be holdable. The design is broadly similar to the previous versions with the front of the tank forming the chest, the sides of the turret the arms and the back of the tank the legs. Most of the visible tank armour is green, with some a sort of sandy olive. I've tried to resist the urge to say "This should have been Combat hero Megatron in green" but I'm afraid I can't. It needs to be made !

Let's get the action feature out the way first as it's by far the worst thing about this toy - the right arm ends in a stub and attached to the side is an attachment with the gun barrel at one end and a fold out claw in the other. There's a clear red button on the arm - if you extend the arm in front of him and crank the button the attachment spins round. Truly awful. Ending the arm in a hand and making the tank barrel/turret centre a clip on/holdable weapon would have made for a much better toy. This apart the figure isn't bad at all - lots of moulded detail in the toy makes it aesthetically different to G2 Megs while being similar. Since G2 Megs was a big plastic toy with lots of smooth panels I can cope with this here. The articulation is excellent - similar to Prime's - with bendable ankles and knees, swivel below the hips, ball jointed hips, a waist, shoulders that move backwards & forwards and swing to the sides, bicep, elbow on the lest arm and neck. The ankles enable you to get some superb walking poses out of the toy. I've read some stuff online about Megs having his feet on backwards - I can see the point the people are making but I'm not sure they're right. The feet look fine in robot mode, just a little odd when TFing to tank. The head is noticeably Megatron - no real complaints there unlike Prime - and he's gifted with bright red lightpipe eyes. The hand gun is interesting - vaguely resembling previous G2 Megs guns this one features a fold out stock - a first for a TF toy ?

The TF is reasonably simple - remove the gun, clip the legs together, fold feet & heel spur together and bend back. Bend the waist back so the legs are the rear of the tank. Bend both arms back 90 degrees, and rotate the left at the bicep so the hole in the armour is facing down. On the other arm fold so the crank faces down, the gun barrel point backwards along the tank and the claw is folded over the top of the base of the gun barrel. Fold both arms up onto the other shoulder and peg into place both on the tank and together. Fold down the gun stock, peg into the turret and rotate the turret to face forwards - this has been previously limited by the shoulders clipping into the sides of the tank.

Tank mode isn't bad - it's a tank - but it's a tank with the benefit of a raising and lowering gun barrel and a rotating turret beating several other TF tanks. I mentioned previously the feet stick out the back a bit - we'll have a go at fixing this later I think. One brief dismantle and reassembly later....... yes it is possible to fix the feet: There's 2 screws in each leg that need to come out. The legs then need to be separated in 2 as much as possible - on one of my legs the kneecap was glued together but I had enough space down the bottom to lever the foot off. The feet need to be swapped to the other leg and turned round - they aren't the same shape on each side and the inner edge of the old foot won't go along the outer side - so you'll need both legs unscrewed at once. Huge improvement in tank mode - yes the gun turret will still turn the full way even though it looks like it will catch on the newly raised back - the larger pieces recess into the tank body and the smaller pieces sit on top of them. In robot mode the feet are now the heel spurs and vice versa so this gives the robot higher boots at the front. I'm indifferent to the improvement here but the changes to the tank mode make it worth doing.

Overall - not bad. Eliminate the gimmick and replace with another hand and a removable cannon and there'd be few complaints I think. Possibly a Bludgeon repaint to be had here ?

To the great surprise of many Optimus Prime and Megatron did later show up as individually carded items in TRU UK nearly a year after the Classics line ended !

Megatron

Megatron was later re-released as an exclusive Universe Special edition toy through Hasbrotoyshop.com. Unlike his compatriot Optimus Prime, Megatron has his paint colours changed extensively. Green is swapped for an off white meant to resemble the silver of original Megatron. Grey becomes black or red (mainly red on the arm joints) and the beige turns to grey. Robot mode of course now looks like the original Megatron and the tank mode works surprisingly well. Nobody had done a tank coloured like original Megatron before and seeing how well this one works it's a bit of a surprise.

Future Repaints

It's not my favourite Megatron Tank mould (G2 Combat Hero) but there might be some mileage left in doing the above mentioned Bludgeon version or in purple as Archforce.

[Philip Ayres]

Optimus Prime

Classic Optimus Prime is a re imagining of the G1 Optimus Cab. The basic body shape is similar, but with an aerodynamic cab top, longer cab and slanted front windows. Other than that in looks very similar to original Op. The cab feels nice and chunky, and as an estimate is a similar size to the Powermaster Optimus cab.

To Transform start by folding back the blue panels under the back of the cab revealing the upper legs. Fold the legs down under the cab, fold the feet out and fold the knee caps up. Remove the smoke stacks. Pull the sides of the cabs out from the side of the front grill and fold out to the sides. Fold the sides of the back of the cab out forward. Straighten, fold and bend the arms out do the blue panels on the shoulders and the yellow strips on the forearms are facing forward. The cab side halves fold under the arms and along the outer edge of the arms. Pull the cab roof back and fold up the head. Fold the front wheels in under the grill and rotate the cab from the windows upward round 180 degrees. Fold the cab top onto his back. Take the smoke stacks, and fold the bits out within the smokestacks. Fold them together, and fold the handle out the back of the gun.

The resultant robot looks very similar to original Optimus Prime, the main difference being sloped windows. His neck can turn, shoulders move forward and back, swing to the sides, rotate at the bicep and bend at the elbow. He swivels at the waist, has universal joints on the hips, a swivel above the knee and bends at the knee. You can pose him well, he's comfortably kneeling on the table beside me. He does look a little small - more the size of an old Mega than the previous Cybertron Voyagers. He's a good inch or so taller than the Armada Optimus.

Op's forearms have the holes that take the smokestacks - these are just large enough to take the small posts from the Robotmaster missile launchers.

The cab roof - now on his back - can be swivelled so the flat edge is at the top. The hand gun can be opened up and clipped into the back pack, which then can fold forward to position twin cannons over the shoulders.

The cab roof can also TF into a hand gun: Fold the sides down till they lock together, fold the top back and fold out the gun barrel. It doesn't look like a typical TF gun but it works as an extra weapon.

Classics Optimus is a nice stylised toy. But for some reason I'm not feeling that it's as special as it could be for it's price point.

In addition to being available at the Voyage price point Optimus Prime was also released in a twin pack with his recolour Ultra Magnus - this set wasn't available in the UK or the US.

Classics Voyager Optimus Prime was released as C-01 Henkei Convoy in Japan. This release removes some of the white striping, darkens the red plastic, makes the grey more silver and chromes the front grill.

Ultra Magnus

Both the toys in the Battle for Autobot City pack - exclusive to Target in the US and Woolworths in the UK - are much as you'd expect - Magnus is mainly white in both forms, Skywarp Black with Purple Highlights.

Magnus Truck mode is something of a departure featuring pale blue truck base - white on all previous UMs. There's some further blue highlighting, as well as clear blue windows (and lightpipe eyes in robot mode). The exhaust pipes/gun are still black as - when you transform to robot mode - are his hands, both of which are rather odd looking and out of place, should both have been white. His face plate is Silver - blue would have been better - and the head is painted white which jars with the rest of the cast white. Of the Prime repainted white as Magnus figures - Original, Laser Rod, Armada Supercon and Masterpiece - this is probably sort of mid table (my fave's the Supercon version)

Seeing as the original versions of these would have set you back £30, the £20 Woolworths were asking for the set is a good deal.

In addition to being available in this exclusive two pack, Ultra Magnus was also released in a twin pack with his recolour Ultra Magnus - this set wasn't available in the UK or the US.

Shattered Glass Optimus Prime

For the Shattered Glass set in Botcon 2008 the theme of alternate universe evil Autobots good Decepticons was taken. The bad Optimus Prime swaps red for purple, the blue & grey for a darker grey and the clear blue for a clear yellow orange. Lots of damage deco is added - like a cracked window transfer - and he includes inscribed on him the motto "Till All Are Gone", a play on words on the motto heard in the original & best Transformers Movie.

It's an interesting and different Prime repaint.

Nemesis Prime

I think you can guess what this involves ;-) Red becomes black, blue becomes a dark grey blue and the grey becomes a little darker. It's a classic evil Prime repaint which was an exclusive at San Diego Comic Con in 2008 and later sold through HasbroToyShop.com.

A version of this toy frequently surfaces on eBay with red windows. I believe this to be a Japanese exclusive of some description.

[The Doctor]

I really like the Deluxe Prime/Megs 2-pack. Fun toys.

-Ralph

[Philip Ayres]

Jetfire

Woo. Jetfire's here and he's bought some friends too .....

Jetfire is an early G1 toy - I think he's officially year 2 even though the box back shows the year one picture. The toy has some history - it's the first toy imported from another toy line - in this case Robotech - and this caused it not to be sold in Japan. This maybe why the toy is dramatically redesigned for the comic & cartoon, and renamed Skyfire for the cartoon. Jetfire was never re-released, and the name disappears till it was used with a different colour scheme for a repaint G2 swing wing Cyberjet Hooligan, and then repeatedly in Armada/Energon/Cybertron. The Jetfire deco finally appeared on the Hooligan mold in the Japanese Robotmasters line as R-Blade.

Jetfire is a white swing wing jet fighter with red and black detailing - all present and correct so far. There's something nice about new shiny white plastic ! The Jet mode is an amalgamation of previous Jetfires - the front is meant to resemble the comic/cartoon version but doesn't - it looks like the front of Sixshot's jet mode upside down with a squared off cockpit a little way back. Level with and to the sides of the cockpit is a pair of guns that can be adjusted up or down. From the cockpit back it's essentially the original Jetfire design. The wings do indeed swing from fully back to pointing forwards with 2 notched positions - one half way to the side, and another fully to the side. Turning the jet over we have an obvious pair of arms and legs at the back under the wings and in the middle respectively. The arms end in hands which don't fold away or disguise at all. There's landing gear under the cockpit and about 2/3 of the way back on what would be the robot knees. Overall a quite attractive jet.

Like the original Jetfire this one comes with armour. The armour snaps on using a peg and clip arrangement - think Headmaster head - there's a missile launcher which goes on the sides of the under carriage under each wing on what is the robot's arms and a dual thruster back pack which mounts on the top of the jet - the tail find fold down to allow this. Said Jetpack is in the style of the original Robotech jet with 2 separate thrusters rather than the big combined thruster of the comic/cartoon. The jet nozzles at the end have some poseability. In a further homage (rip off? you decide) to the Robotech line you can TF's the thrusters into the thruster/gun combinations seen on certain Robotech toys - pull back on the mid section of the thruster and a gun flips up folding out as far as the front of the cockpit. Both missile launchers and jet pack can be mounted either way round, though sadly you can get the missile launchers into the slots for the jetpack. To add to his firepower in this mode store each half of his gun in a robot fist so there's a gun barrel beside each missile launcher. Jetfire can be transformed with or without his extra weapons on.

To Transform him to robot mode start by folding the landing gear in then unpeg the arms from the legs on the underside of the toy. Where the shoulder for the arm is there's a black connector - the connection to the arm is lower down the jet than the connection to the body. Fold this hinge up, forwards and down so the connection to the arm is further up the jet than the connection to the body - it's obvious when you see it ! Pull the tail section out from the legs, the pull down on the legs and fold the feet out. Pull the cockpit canopy up and forward, then bend the nose down toward the robot chest. The nose separates in two and folds into the gap where the side guns were. Lock into the robot chest and fold the flap at the top down in front of the neck. Turn the head round, and concertina the tail section onto the robot's back. Pose wings - I like them raised up. Combine gun halves and place in hand.

The resulting robot screams G1 Jetfire to you - full marks. We've got everything in the right place and the visored head with posable guns to the side. But wait - this head is just a helmet that can be removed to reveal Jetfire's robot face with blue eyed lightpipe. He's no slouch in the articulation dept: swivel below the knee, knee that bends back only. bend just below the hip, swivel to the sides at the hip, shoulders that move to the front, and to the sides, elbow that bends forward, swivel below the elbow, wrist and neck plus what you get from the helmet guns and the wings. Backpack and missile launchers can be attached in this mode, and when the guns are deployed from the backpack they can be folded down over the shoulders as cannons.

Overall

fabulous toy. Lots in it play wise, far better value than Op or Megs. Lots of fun to be had with this so buy one.

Jetfire was released in Japan as Henkei toy C-06 Skyfire.

Dreadwind

Dreadwind was a Botcon exclusive in 2007 - the notorious year of the missing Classics jet. Dreadwind reuses the Jetfire mould an helps us learn which pieces are moulded with which. Wings, missile launcher body, hands, feet, landing gear, elbow joints and hand, helmet & backpack guns are all grey - formerly black. Backpack & missile launcher tips are now purple (used to be red). Also the same purple are the forearms and lower legs (previously white) with the rest of the white remaining a similar colour. Clear plastic becomes a slightly different shade of blue. He gains a new head - in white with paint apps - that looks like the original Dreadwind - but keeps Jetfire's helmet.

Another good repaint, looking very like the G1 original.

Treadbolt

The original Treadbolt was released in 1990 as part of the Micromaster Air Patrol with Blaze Master, Eagle Eye and Sky High. Although not close to Jetfire's physical form - Sky High is closer - this repaint has inherited the original Treadbolt's colours. Hands & feet along with the missile launchers and backpack guns become grey, lower legs, landing gear, forearms, elbow joint, missile launcher tips, backpack & helmet become a dark blue/black. Upper arms & legs become an olivey gold. The remaining white - jet body and robot chest - becomes dark blue - with the clear plastic becoming a dull orange colour.

Another good repaint for this mould - two out of two so far !

[The Doctor]

I did not know of the Treadbolt repaint!

-Ralph

[Bogatan]

Its funny to me that I keep preferring the Classic/Universe repaints. So far Jetfire, Optimus Prime, Powerglide, Silverbolt, Starscream, Grimlock, Rodimus and Prowl are my least favourite versions of there respective moulds. Mirage is close to being on that list too, but the Botcon version is a bit naff.

Andy

[legios]

Treadbolt is a really nice repaint actually. I sadly do not own him(but I suspect I will end up keeping an eye out come AA), but I think that the blue and yellow/gold scheme works very well on him. (And given his partial descent from a USN aircraft the fact that it is somewhat similar to the Blue Angels scheme is nicely appropriate).

Mirage is one of those rare classics toys that I think hasn't been terribly well served. I really only think that the Fracture version is much cop. The original does nothing for me and the other repaints just look a bit bland.

Karl

[Bogatan]

Crasher or whatever it was renamed to isn't bad and dragstrip should have looked better than it ended up, 2 clear versions both look ok but as you say bland. Such a shame a it is a fantastic toy.

The only one I think is better is Hound and I just dont see that getting to many repaints unless i ends up in the movie line as Swindle or some such thing. On the other hand Ironhide and Prowl get repaint after repaint.

Edit: back to the Jetfire mould I very much would like to get Skyfire and Treadbolt too one day.

Andy

[Philip Ayres]

(not counting different overseas versions of the same character) Ironhide's had one repaint, Prowl's had 2 and Sunstreaker's had 2 plus another en route. However Hound was released later than all of these. I'm sure He'll be back at some point. Only one new mould released concurrently or later than Hound has had any sort of repaint and that's as a *VERY* limited Japanese exclusive (Henkei Strafe)

[Philip Ayres]

Jun 13, 2009 14:40:42 GMT Philip Ayres said:

Bumblebee

For a character who was so prominent in G1 Cartoon and Comic Bumblebee hasn't had much recent love in the main toy line after a start that beat everyone else. He was a Minibot, a Throttelbot - as Goldbug, a Classic Pretender, an Action Master, a G2 Minibot and a Gobot/Spychanger. Since then he's just been reissued and PVC'd - although his Japanese name Bumble was used for the combined Perceptor form of the Japanese Street Action minicon team.

Bumblebee's new vehicle mode is a modern car vaguely reminiscent of a VW beetle. There's some white detailing round the back, and a pale grey spoiler which covers the rear window. This can be removed but it exposes his face peeking through. He comes with a Wave Crusher jet ski on a trailer that can be towed behind him - Jet Ski not removable from trailer. There's an Autobot rubsign on the vehicle's roof.

To TF to robot mode: Slightly wiggle both doors away from the pegs. Turn the rear wheels but not as if they were going along on the ground, in such a way as the top is going into the car and the bottom is coming out - you'll end up in the wheels being inside the car and the arms - which were inside - being outside the car. Rotate the door panels round the wrists till they're on the outside of the arms - the same side as the little raised bit sticking out the elbow. Turn the door panel round at the wrist until the little peg sticking out the inside of the door is on top of the raised bit at the elbow and then lock into place. Pull the back of the car down, and then fold the roof of the car forward to form the robot chest. There's a black panel visible beneath the rear wind screen - fold this forward to form the top of the body and the neck, then fold the head forward. (it's important to remember to fold the head back before you fold the panel back when reversing the TF) Fold the seats down - yes seats - to cover the upper legs, fold the bonnet forward and then fold the lower legs up through the gap to form the feet.

The resulting robot has features of many of the previous Bumblebee's - the Cartoon/Comic head is present along with the signature roof as chest, front of the car flat on the ground as feet. He's got Goldbug's hood behind his head and the wheels inside the shoulder remind of the classic pretender - who had wheels outside of his shoulder. He is blessed in the articulation dept: Ankles as part of the TF, knees, ball jointed hips, elbows and shoulders, plus the TF joint at the shoulder which allows for the arms to swing out a bit, and a ball jointed neck.

The wave crusher also transforms - split the trailer in 2 and pull out to the side as wings - a very stiff joint on mine. Then rotate till the wheels point down beneath the jet ski. The Wave Crusher then locks into Bumblebee's hood as a jetpack - quite a nice touch as the AM version had a hellipack.

Overall ? best deluxe toy this year. Near perfect upgrade of a classic and neglected character. Haven't got anything bad to say about it apart from the seats occasionally getting in the way in robot mode and the lack of a gun. Buy this toy.

Bumblebee was released in Japan as Henkei toy C-02. This makes the grey forearms yellow, the leg fronts black, removes the white stripes from the car and gold chromes a portion of the the bonnet.

Cliffjumper

Cliffjumper is a simple colour swap with some additional paint applications. All yellow becomes red, as do all the previously grey pieces. The black on the hands, upper arms shoulders/reverse of the wheels and crotch becomes a grey nearly identical to the grey on Bumblebee. The glass becomes smokey, and the headlights are painted. There's a lot of silver detailing on the car bodywork which is a departure from the G1 colour scheme as is the grey on the arms - while black would have looked more like the G1 original I can understand the desire to differentiate from Bumblebee.. Cliffjumper's Wavecrusher doesn't fit on him as a jet pack as well as Bumblebee's does - mixing and matching has shown it's the wave crusher at fault somehow as Bumblebee's is fine on Cliffjumper, but vice versa is unstable again. There's no remoulding on the toy - slightly modifying the head to give it a larger base would have made it more authentic for Cliffjumper.

Cliffjumper was not released as a Henkei toy in Japan.

Bugbite

Bugbite takes his name from an E-Hobby version of G1 Bumblebee availible in an off white car body. Essentially the same colour swap has been applkied to Bumblebee - off white for yellow with the grey becoming black. The car is covered in purple patterning, almost like a tatoo.

Semi odd release - even for a convention - as there are a few more things you can do with a Bumblebee mould - see bellow. But it's got a vague G1 provenance so ...

Bumblebee

This version of Classics Bumblebee was an exclusive to Wal*Mart inn the US and came packiaged in a box with Premium Movie Bumblebee and Animated Bumblebee.

This swaps the grey on the wrists for yellow, makes the white stripes black and swaps the clear windscreen for a clear blue one. It's an improvemnt on the original toy and not too far removed from the Henkei one.

More Repaints ?

Repaints ? You could do a gold Goldbug (with a new blue head) or a gold G2 Bumblebee version, a Black evil version or even a G2 Hubcap version before you get into the weird foreign colour variants.

United Bumblebee

I like that recent Transformers toylines have acknowledged that certain toys are probably as good as they're going to get and bring them back for minor repaints as that character rather than making a new obscure repaint. Classics Bumblebee is one of those toys, and back he comes again. This time he's taking his que form Generation 2 Bumblebee, Transformers United Bumblebee almost produces a new version of Goldbug by covering all the surfaces of the vehicle in metallic gold paint.

Hmmm, shiny!

United Bumblebee was sold as Transformers United toy UN-07.

Reveal The Shield Bumblebee

Bumblebee returns in the west just after United Bumblebee came out, as Reveal The Shield Bumblebee.

Similar to the earlier Wal*Mart Bumblebee, the RTS Bumblebee has a yellow & black colour scheme derived from Movie Bumblebee. We loose the coloured panelling towards the back on each side but now have thick stripes, each about a quarter of the width of the roof, stretching back over the toy. The yellow on the toy is a very orangey yellow, nearly the same colour used on RTS Grapple with they grey cast in the same colour and the windscreen & headlights now being a clear blue. The seats are now coloured silver again which makes the upper legs in robot mode look odd.

A bit disappointed to be honest. I thought this was going to be the answer to all my Bumblebee needs. @hasbro: Bumblebee is YELLOW not ORANGE. Make me a Classics Bumblebee in yellow, with no black or white paint/stripes and black seats. Thank you.

Philip is off to eBayland to buy a Legacy of Bumblebee set.

[blueshift]

You can always remove the white paint with paint thinner. I don't think hasbro WOULD release an all-yellow Bumblebee, it would be too plain on the shelves. Personally I welcome Bumblebees in different colour shades, it makes it more interesting to have multiple versions.

United Bumblebee is really beautiful, I was impressed with how Takara handled the metallic paint. Just makes me even more sad that they didn't make him Goldbug