Your 5 *LEAST* Favorite TF toys

[Philip Ayres]

Wot the title says. Stick to TFs rather than TFing toys or it'll be filled up with MMPR and Gobots - and hating Gobots will make Nick angry. There's 5 needed forcing you to include at least one toy that isn't a G2 Powermaster.

[Shockprowl]

I've had a good think over-night. Found it hard to come up with 5. But there's a couple that really stick in my mind.

Armada Optimus Prime. This was my first purchase back in the world of TFs since R.i.D. Prowl, missed Beast Wars completely. I saw the return of the 'blocky' style and thought YES AT LAST! Got Op and Megs. Megatron I thought was ok, always fancied him as a tank, even though now I realise he could have been much improved. The truck part of Optimus was okay, but the real disapointment was the super-robot combined form. Crap crap crap! Awefull electronics, but over all just poor design and no poseability. Big disapointment.

That's it for now, I'll keep thinking...

[kayevcee]

I don't mind people hating Gobots, but like Nigel and his Action Masters I don't get people dismissing them out of hand just because they come in a card that doesn't say "TRANSFORMERS" at the top. There are some really fun and innovative designs among them, but some genuine horrors as well.

Anyway, worst TFs... in no particular order this time because I don't spend as much time contemplating the ones I don't like...

WAIT! Number 1 with the bullet (how could I forget):
Energon Treadbolt. Aside from being a repaint of the Single Worst Mould Ever Made By Hasbro, it single-handedly killed the Energon line in Britain and was put in a case with a figure who was designed to combine with another figure that I for one never saw in this country because in order for shops to get any in they had to sell all the Treadbolts first.

Armada Optimus Prime: a classic example of "sacrificing good design for gimmick incorporation" and even the untrained eye could see where bits were taken off the design to reduce costs (only one knee becoming a gun turret, for example). Also, the gimmick rarely worked.

Movie Leader Megatron: it's a bad sign when a character is released in four versions, all of which transform significantly differently and the only one that really gets it right is the £2.99 legend. The design is completely botched to keep the gimmick in (and it's not that exciting a gimmick, either), the finished product is flat out wrong (according to Some Dude On Youtube who emailed Hasbro to ask, the spring was actually intended to be in the other forearm), the vehicle mode looks pants AND doesn't hold together, and finally the sound chip is crap. All these problems are magnified when you compare him to the fun and feature-packed Optimus Prime and Brawl figures- it's like they're not from the same line.

Armada Smokescreen: there were a number of possible Armada candidates for this post, but Smokescreen wins it. He doesn't have a unique gimmick like Sideways or an awesome Mini-con like Hot Shot, both of whom are also utterly awful. He has very limited articulation and a mediocre gimmick that causes him to topple over, activated by a below-average Mini-con.

Any year 1-3 Action Master: sorry, Nigel. Partners and vehicles aside, I just don't rate them at all. The Transformer-character-that-doesn't-transform aspect is merely one thread in a tapestry of disappointment. The only other Hasbro action figures I had at the time were Action Force (one Lady Jaye -it was the only one they had left- for a vehicle a mate got me for my birthday) and by comparison their articulation and detailing was very limited. Limbs popped off unnervingly easily (my Optimus Prime was a double amputee when I took him out of the box), paint chipped off and shoulders and knees went slack within a few weeks of purchase. Most of them couldn't stand up with their partners in weapon mode unless their feet were pegged to a platform, and only a handful of vehicles had the pegs.

The reason I exclude the year 4s is because in the ones I've encountered, most if not all of the quality problems are gone (limbs don't go slack/fall off, paint is more resilient), they have better integrated partners and the Exo Suit vehicles are a bit more interesting. Also, I'm a sucker for motorisation.

-Nick

[The Doctor]

Longtooth.

-Ralph

[Shockprowl]

You made me remember another I dislike, Nick. Armada Scavenger, the original paint scheme of Treadbolt. a) it is indeed a useless, poor mold, but b) the mostest reason why I dislike him is that he's coloured as a Constructicon, he looks like a Constructicon, but he has an Autobot insignia! I hate it when they change stuff like that. That awefull Laserbeak camera/gun Autobot is another example. Some things are CANON, and shouldn't be changed!


Ian




(should canon have two 'n's in the middle?)

[kayevcee]

I wish it did, sometimes.

-Nick

[legios]

shockprowl said:

(should canon have two 'n's in the middle?)

Depends on which word you are looking for. If you mean "Canon" - meaning accepted as a true part of Christian holy scripture then it's one 'n'. If you mean "Cannon" - large caliber gun for shooting stuff out of then it's two 'n's'. :-)

Oh, and to put it on topic:-

Five Worst toys:-

1) Armada Optimus Prime: A more dissapointing toy I am hard pressed to think of. Standard humanoid mode crippled by mediocre gimmicks, and a combined mode that looks either like a torso balanced on a tent or a mechanoid wearing dungarees.

2) Metalhawk: I adore the character, but having seen the toy in the plastic-and-metal I have to say that it is one of the ugliest Transformers I can recall

3) Energon Scavenger: It took them a year to sell a wave's worth of the toy in one colour scheme. So they release it again in another scheme. And it wasn't a particularly good toy either. Transforming from brick-like vehicle to brick-like robot made it deeply uninspiring. I remember seeing the Energon one enter stores and shelf-warm on a shelf above the Armada one which was still shelfwarming at half the price.

4) Bulletbike - barely transformed, had barely any sculpt to speak of to it's humanoid mode, and a gimmick that didn't work properly most of the time.

5) Live Action Movie Megatron - It wasn't a design that particularly inspired me in the film, but the toy was far worse. The humanoid form didn't seem like it had a huge amount of play value, and the vehicle mode.... looked even more like a hybrid between White Base and a Covenant warship from "Halo". And as Nick observes, but all logic they were all assemble with the gimmick put together wrong....

Karl

[Nigel]

I was thinking, aww, how could anyone have least favourite Transformers, they all have saving graces. But Nick made some good points about Treadbolt. Another point is, it came so soon after Scavenger; I'm not a big fan of repaints at the best of times, but in that case it was so quick, it really did take the p**s.

As for Scavenger himself, yes he was an Autobot that looked like a Decepticon, but there was a reason for it. He was a double agent after all. (Canon only has two 'n's in the middle if it's the bang-bang kind. Or if it's Paul.)


Like I say, I find they all have their saving graces. (I like Armada Prime, for instance, for its unique - repaints aside - action feature and it's other modes are quite nice.) But then there is Injector. What a sorry excuse for a Fuzor. Ridiculous looking head in robot mode and silly sticking out back legs in beast mode.

I might think of others, but at the moment I'm still struggling to come up with my top 5, never mind the bottom 5.

[Shockprowl]

legios said:

shockprowl said:

(should canon have two 'n's in the middle?)

Depends on which word you are looking for. If you mean "Canon" - meaning accepted as a true part of Christian holy scripture then it's one 'n'. If you mean "Cannon" - large caliber gun for shooting stuff out of then it's two 'n's'. :-)

Karl

Ah! I get Nick's joke now! (I'm pretty, but a bit slow...) Fanks!

Ian

EDIT: And I did spell it right! Hurrah!

[Nigel]

legios said:

4) Bulletbike - barely transformed, had barely any sculpt to speak of to it's humanoid mode, and a gimmick that didn't work properly most of the time.

Oddly, I like Bulletbike: he is the zenith of "so bad it's good".

I am warming to the idea of movie Megatron in my bottom 5.

[Philip Ayres]

It shhould be pointed out that in the US Treadbolt was a very limited edition only in very early cases of that size. Also Scavenger in the UK shipped solid cased - there was nothing else to buy/

I like Armada Scavenger. It's a fun toy.

[Bogatan]

Form my own collection top of the worst list
Armada Prime. I paid £10 and it was £10 too much so so bad words fail me. If only I'd got the Powerlinx one I wou8ld like the colours.

Armada Sideswipe ok I dont own it but I got stuck with Treadshot. In my opinion its so much worse than the G2 Powermasters. I do have to admit to never having opened the box because I didnt want to have to touch it.

More later

Andy

[Shockprowl]

The Armada Sideswipe is a very dodgy mold. I can't put him in my worsts list, but I got Cybertron Runamuck (looks more like Runabout, and indeed that's what I call him) a while back. The mold iteslf is very disapointing, but the head sculpt just about saves it from my list. I like my Battlechargers you see. Wish they'da done a grey coloured one. Just to have the pair.

[Philip Ayres]

There are lots of disapointing Armada toys. But several real gems too - Supercon Op and Hoist spring to mind.

[Shockprowl]

I actually really like the Seekers form Armada, and not just 'cos there's all three. The articulation isn't the greatest, but their size and weaponary make them seem very imposing.

[dyrl]

Ok - I am clearly a wierdo...

I LOVED the G2 Powermasters. Meanstreak and Bulletbike were two of my favorites. They were just so conspicuosly retarded and ugly that they were just screaming to be worshiped as a comic duo. Staxx was great too - just for the name.

I really enjoyed Armada Scavenger for the bulk. I think that he's one of the few Armada toys I considered worthy of a smile. His vehicle mode radiated G2 terra-former goodness and I liked his menacing tread arms. Sure, the legs were immobile - but his waste spun, his head was movable and his shoulders, elbows and fingers had articulation. He was a brawny fun terra-forming machine.

Armada Prime - complete and utter pants - agree with that. Supercon Prime was very nifty however...

But in general - it's hard for me to pin down a "worse of the worse" batch...really..

this is largely because there are whole swaths of TF I can't stand. The Energon Autobots; up to and including playschool color Omega Supreme... just about everything from Armada was ultimately retardedly thought out...

Oh - and the Movie transformers: all of them except Leader Optimus Prime just don't do it for me. Particularly Leader Megatron (for reasons extensively noted above) - but also Supreme Bumblebee (what a terrible, terrible toy!)

In fact, the whole Movie line was just not given very much care. It was obviously rushed. I think they worked hard on Optimus Prime's leader form and then just rushed the rest...

Star Convoy stinks Lots of TFs stink...

dyrl