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Post by Philip Ayres on Jul 22, 2014 20:07:28 GMT
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Post by Bogatan on Jul 22, 2014 20:49:34 GMT
I hadn't seen that before. It really nice, infact thats an improvement on the original, the new head (that has a recognisable face on it) is better and it actually works as Drift. So at least one decent version of the character.
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Post by Bogatan on Jul 23, 2014 19:02:32 GMT
5 Shockwave - A good solid toy. It's great that the laser hand is removable and can be fitted to either arm. It's a feature I loved about TM Megatron and works a treat here too.the face is nicely Shockwave like and theres also the homage of the cable from the back to the arm. Tank mode is from the little I recall of the one time I transformed it is okay, better than a lot of the random cybertronian modes movie toys got.
4. Powerglide - a very good update of powerglide with a movie sheen.
3. Guzzle - much like Poewerglide but with the additional LSOTW styling thrown in.
2 Darksteel - Botcon is to blame for addicting me to Pre beast mode type homages and Darksteel is excellent. I already liked the movie Sideswipe design. Looking up Darksteels name as I always think of it as Quicstrike, is the first time I have realised that Darksteel is based on a new DOTM mould. Probably should have noticed that, but haven't had examples of both moulds together or even handled with in a short period of time.
1. Year of the Dragon Optimus Prime - No I haven't gone mad. By a very strict criteria this is a brilliant toy. First of all the smaller robot is a pretty good voyager sized Prime, its very simplified, but aside from the lower arms it makes a reasonable stab at a screen accurate movie Prime, with good enough range of movement. So simpler child friendly toy.
Vehicle mode is absolutely fine and has a trailer. Looks good
The trailer is the more complex part of the set, lots of panels and parts need aligning to get the trailer right and its an oddly hard toy to combine with the smaller prime. For someone like me this is a good thing as I like a challenge with my transformations at least once in a while.
So in one set theres a simple toy and a more complex one as kids get older or just want a challenge. Good again, a toy this large shouldn't be to simple.
Combined mode is basically Powermaster or Armada Prime in movie style, thers no articulation as such in the lower body, but arms have decent range considering the exosuit design. The wings can be posed and make a good imposing impression. Then theres the giant electronics pack come missile launcher. Surprisingly fun and adds to the value for money.
Then we come to the year of the dragon bit. First, the trailer looks fantastic, that alone is good enough, but what I really like is that the colours aren't random, once in Ultimate mode, the red and blue have a far more G1 feel to them than any other movie Prime. It just much more fun than the very drab grey regular version.
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Post by Philip Ayres on Jul 24, 2014 6:33:51 GMT
Thursday Teaser:
This coming week in the metropolis it's time to swap, mix and match!
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Post by Shockprowl on Jul 24, 2014 7:26:22 GMT
Powerlinx?
DARK OF THE MOON:
5. Powerglide. Really nice movie-style update.
4. Roadbuster. The best of the Autobot cars this time round. Two nice modes, and great rocket launchers in robot mode.
3. Hatchet. I love this little guy! One of the very few movie toys I've kept. Robo-beast mode is alot of fun. His transformation is brilliant! The way the rear legs fold out... Shame the large front legs just hang there in jet mode though! Makes a good Ravage in my mind. Better than ROTF which basically transformed into a poo.
2. Shockwave. A great movieversing of a G1 character. Possibly the best. So obviously Shockwave, great alieny design. Shame he was so poorly used in the film itself. Again, one of the few I've kept.
1. Crankcase. Bit of a surprise to me this getting my no.1 spot. But I love this figure. Nice alt mode, decent transformation, and then a wonder evil ghoulish robot mode! Brilliant Decepticon! I often think of him as MotorMaster. And again one of only 10 movie toys I've kept.
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Post by Philip Ayres on Jul 24, 2014 7:39:15 GMT
You're thinking along the right lines there.....
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Post by Shockprowl on Jul 24, 2014 7:52:13 GMT
Powercore?
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kayevcee
Fusilateral Quintro Combiner
The Weather Wizard
Posts: 5,527
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Post by kayevcee on Jul 24, 2014 8:22:10 GMT
Scramble city limb-figures? They could attach to Metroplex as well as their central figures.
-Nick
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Post by legios on Jul 24, 2014 8:23:57 GMT
a reasonable stab at a screen accurate movie Prime One could observe that this marks a rarity as it is usually Murder Prime who is doing the stabbing... :-) Karl
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Post by Philip Ayres on Jul 25, 2014 5:53:54 GMT
Week 64: Scramble City/Special Team LimbsThursday Teaser: This coming week in the metropolis it's time to swap, mix and match! Scramble city limb-figures? They could attach to Metroplex as well as their central figures. -Nick Nick is indeed correct: Scramble City/Special Team limbs is our theme this week. Looks a decent choice too after last night's news. Any robot that forms a limb (Arm/Leg) of a Scramble City/Special Team combiner is allowed. The combiners in question are: 1986
Superion Menasor Defensor Bruticus
1987
Computron Abominus
1988
Piranacon and any of their subsequent repaints. Do not vote for the leaders, which we'll do later, or the combined robots, which we did in Week 43.
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kayevcee
Fusilateral Quintro Combiner
The Weather Wizard
Posts: 5,527
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Post by kayevcee on Jul 25, 2014 10:34:22 GMT
Well, I called this one so I'd better come up with some answers, eh?
I'm not sure if I can enumerate just five favourites, so I think I'll make my list out of one figure per team from my five favourite teams.
Defensor: First Aid, although anybody (except Groove) could have taken this slot. First Aid was the one I played with most as a kid- well proportioned in robot mode, nice looking vehicle that rolls well, nifty weapons and works well as an arm or a leg.
Bruticus: Blast Off, who narrowly edges out Vortex because he's a spaceship and I love spaceships. Ball jointed shoulders give him a lot more posability than most Scramble City figures and he looks the part in every mode. Only really works as an arm though.
Computron: Another hard one to decide, but I think I'm going to go with Nosecone. I picked one up from a flea market in 1990-odd, and I've always liked his unusual vehicle mode and funky transformation. When I finally got his weapons I liked them too.
God Neptune: Scylla. All the weirdness of Tentakil's crazy land-squid-monster-thingie mode, with the added bonus of her being a lady space pirate who's in love with Claw Jaw/Scuba. The lipstick isn't really her colour, but the effort is appreciated.
TFCC Piranacon Seawing: insane colours even by this team's standards, a really fun manta-ray-on-legs design and a slightly stumpy but workable robot mode. Works as a limb or a targetmaster.
As for the rest, none of the Stunticons really stand out (only Drag Strip is really different and he never stood up properly when I had him as a kid which gets him serious penalty points), the Terrorcons all have wee stumpy arms and the Aerialbots are all the same AND have wee stumpy arms (apart from Slingshot, who's a douche). Nice planes/monsters/supercars, not generally great robots.
-Nick
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Post by Philip Ayres on Jul 25, 2014 13:00:45 GMT
Really I ought to just name the Seacons in this order: 5) Seawing4) Skalor3) Overbite2) Tentakil1) NautilatorBecause, let's face it, the weapons mode and animal forms give them the jump over the rest of the limbs. However there's something about them that means I can't quite say that yes, they're my favourites. Is it that they're blank slates, or there's something not quite there about the robots? Either way I'm not emotionally attached to these moulds in the way I am to some of the others even though I know, in all probability, that they're technically the best. So... Honourable mentions to: www.tfu.info/1987/Autobot/Afterburner/afterburner.htm & Strafe and Cutthroat & RippersnapperTop 5 Scramble City Limbs 5) First AidIt's a decent solid little ambulance and robot. Could do with being able to attach the dual cannon over his head though. 4) SinnertwinFab beast. Wonderful stumpy arms and a superb small gun. 3) BLOTBecause I watched the Star Dub You Tube video. EVERYONE LOVE BLOT 2) NoseconeThe second limb bot I has when younger, got by my mother from a jumble sale. He just rocks. Fab drill tank, fab robot, and like Nick I had to wait years to get the weapons. The only caveat is a regular one with this mode: the drill doesn't spin :-( 1) BrawlThe first limb bot I had when I was younger, and as good as you got that first year. Simple, but hits the spot. The only extra I could want is a raising tank barrel. I have every easy to get version of Brawl and have built a Bruticus with just Brawl limbs :-)
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Post by legios on Jul 25, 2014 18:57:38 GMT
Week 64: Scramble City/Special Team Limbs
SCRAMBLE POWAH! ONN!
SC Combiners...second generaton combiner technology... This has been quite fun to think about over the course of the day. Refreshingly this will be another list where I have owned a large proportion of the toys on it.
5. Brawl: A word like "Combaticon" and I guess sooner or later everyone is going to think "there should be a tank", and Brawl is that tank and a fine tank he is indeed. His vehicle mode is pretty simple - the solid lines of a Leopard tank, with a turret that can be traversed (amazing how many subsequent Transformer toys forget that the first thing a child does with a toy tank - after making clanking noises - is traverse the turret). His humanoid mode is fantastic, chunky and solid with a massive chest and big slabs of arms. Brawl looks every bit the kind of 'bot who might decide an opponent is not worth the ammunition and give them an epic thrashing with his fists instead at the slightest provocation. I have a great affection for Brawl and, as we shall see, he isn't even my favourite Combaticon...
4. Swindle: Swindle makes it onto the list on the strength of character. The fact that he was one of the Special Teams toys which I owned as a youngster is certainly part of the appeal, but the little sketch we got of his character really sold him to me. I love the idea of a Decepticon arms-dealer spiving his way around the Universe, trying to stay on the right side of his customers, and on the down-low from local law enforcement. (If you've seen the film "Lord of War", that is pretty much how Swindle seems to me, complete with the slightly sarcastic unreliable narration going continually in his own head. He was a fun little toy, but part of the appeal of having him in my collection was imagining the other Decepticons wondering why Soundwave kept him around - not realising that Soundwave felt that as long as he could see what Swindle was doing, he could at least minimise the accidental damage he did to the cause.
3. Blot: What is Blot... I don't know, he appears to be some kind of hybrid gorilla-nosemonster-thing. But what he is, is great fun to play with. Another of the Scramble City/Special Team limbs I had as a kid, Blot was always good fun to fiddle with - he had a simple, odd but enjoyable transformation and his...thing mode was a lot of fun to play with (woebetide an Autobot get caught in vehicle mode, because his bonnet would get a solid rythmn beaten out on it by Blot's massive arms). A toy that gave me a lot of joy when I was a youngster. And then he went onto be a Youtube star and prove what I always knew, Blot is great.
2. Fireflight: None of the other Aerialbots made it onto my list, but this is not because I am particularly poorly disposed to them, more that some of the other teams have members I like much more. Fireflight makes it on here because of his alt-mode. Growing up next to an RAF base and attending airshows there from when I could walk it is fair to say that the sound of jet noise has always rung in my ears. And of those sounds one of my favourite was made by the twin Rolls Royce Spey engines of the RAF's F4 Phantoms. Fireflight's choice of an F-4 as his alt-mode therefore pretty much made him a shoe-in for second place. (Sorry Fireflight, if you wanted the top-spot you'd have had to come in the form of an English Electric Lightning or somesuch)
1. Blast Off: I grew up with the initial Shuttle Mania, and before that with glimpses of the Dyna-soar and of all the hypersonic airliners and the space-planes that we would have by the turn of the century in books borrowed from libraries and things. So the fact that Blast Off had a space-plane altmode pretty much sold him to me the minute he appeared on the peg (three months and some hard saving later I was actually in a position to buy him). Love the vehicle mode, love the transformation. His accessories are great - the little carbine, and the two long-barrelled guns that plug into the rear of the spaceplane mode. Also looks absolutely solid in his humanoid mode which made him fit in really well amongst my sparse Decepticons.
Karl
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Post by Shockprowl on Jul 25, 2014 19:00:56 GMT
SCRAMBLE CITY LIMBS!!!!!
EXCELLENT! Need to give it some thought.... But very on topic, Big Phil!
Are you a Precog' or something?!?!
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Post by Philip Ayres on Jul 25, 2014 19:07:23 GMT
Starting to wonder.....
I nearly changed it to the other remaining part in our scramble city trilogy of polls
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Post by Bogatan on Jul 25, 2014 20:04:08 GMT
Week 64: Scramble City/Special Team Limbs
5. Deadend - I don't know why Dead end makes the list, but for some reason he was my favourite stunticon as a kid.
4. Afterburner, very odd toy, but its a good change from the norm. Robot mode looks great and the bike is fun, also has a great range of guns, including one of my favourite hand guns in the whole of G1.
3. Strafe - The only later series limb I got as a kid, though my brother had Afterburner, I think I picked well. Laser guns in both modes look awesome. Spaceship mode was sleek (unless you lost the guns at which point it became very silly looking). Robot mode full of character.
2. First Aid - Probably should be number one, especially since I've been getting to like the character in MTMTE, but isn't, because, favouritism. Solid in both modes with decent articulation for the day, amazing how just being able to bend the knees in the right direction added so much fun. Topped off with giant guns because all ambulances need giant guns.
1. Streetwise - One of my earliest transformers and survived about a decade of regular play, not as solid as some of the other limb bots, but its always been one of my favourite robot modes. A police car with giant lasers on isn't quite as funny as a heavily armed ambulance, but still amuses me. In truth is probably the weakest of the four protectorbots as either a leg or arm, but when you only have two robots to attach to Hotspot for an eternity (well 3 months, but I was 5 or 6) you don't notice so much. And when it came time to (briefly) put my toys away in my early teens it was Streetwise and Gears that remained on watch. Because, Favouritism.
Bubbling under:
Blot - could have made the list based purely on the much missed Star Dub videos, but I thought the actual toy should have some involvement on the selection process. Not that the toy is bad.
Aerialbots, so similar its hard to pick one over the others. All are good, just dont stand out much to me.
Brawl - I don't have any real attachment to Brawl, but I can't deny that Brawl is a rock solid toy, Tank mode looks like a tank and even the underside doesnt really look like theres a robot in there. Robot mode likewise is solid and it makes a good limb.
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Post by Shockprowl on Jul 31, 2014 18:03:32 GMT
SPECIAL TEAM LIMBS!!!!!
I love the Special Teams. After them, although I liked and grew to like many of the toys/characters, Headmasters etc didn't hit home quite like the earlier G1 toys for me. And the Special Teams were the last of the Transformers toys where I felt that 'vehicles transforming into robots' wonder about. The more futuristic designs of the years after the Special Teams didn't have that. Having said that, I do love the Terrocons!
Team-wise I loved the switch of Decepticon cars and Autobot jets. And then the two teams with different types of vehicles in, and the monsters!
5. Firstaid. Very nice transformer all round. Wish my Ambulance had cannons like that!
4. Dead End. My first limb. His personality, like all of the Stunticons, is a lot of fun. I love how Dead End is fatalistic and vain! As a toy, I love his transformation, and he's the first I saw of the trademark ridiculously huge cannons in limb vehicle mode!
3. Skydive. My favorite Aerialbot, the only one I owned as a child. Really nice toy, but again it's his personality which brought him into my top 5, 'would rather read about jets than be one', brilliant.
2. Blot. Everyone likes Blot I think! But there's no surprise why. As a character he is a lot of fun, and as a toy his creature mode, with the huge arms and weird general design, is a winner. I display mine more forward, like an ape.
1. Streetwise. Another great toy, fairly unique design as the car limbs go. And another great personality! I especially like his ability to adapt and his function of 'Interceptor' intrigues me.
Roll on Combiner Wars!
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Post by Philip Ayres on Jul 31, 2014 20:38:33 GMT
Team-wise I loved the switch of Decepticon cars and Autobot jets. As I've said many times I feel that the first combiner teams should have been representative of the main vehicles on each side and not from the opposite side. No tease this week, as tomorrow is the first Friday of the month. But I think this week's vote should be a good one.
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Post by Shockprowl on Jul 31, 2014 22:14:15 GMT
I think that our dream, Big Phil, of the '84ers as Special Team members is the stuff of repaints. It was fun that the alt modes were switched for the Special Teams. Shuck it up a bit.
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Post by Philip Ayres on Aug 1, 2014 6:42:24 GMT
Week 65: 1999 ToysYour top 5 toys from 1999 please! This is the year that the US line is cut back to allow Hasbro to concentrate on episode 1 but still produces Transmetal IIs and Fox Kids. The UK & Europe gets Transmetals & Fuzors and Japan gets BW Neo! See www.tfu.info/year/99index.htm for help
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Post by Philip Ayres on Aug 1, 2014 8:12:47 GMT
Bubbling under from the US we have Stinkbomb (superb basic), TMII Prowl, TMII Dinobot & TMII Cheetor - two of my first ever trades. From Japan we have .... well most of the Neo Line: Sharpedge (superb upgrade), Stampy, Break, Bazooka, Deadend & Sling (all fab Basics), Corahda & Saberback. From Metals we have the made of unobtainium Ravage. Very narrowly, and almost unfairly, missing out we have Guiledart & LongrackTop 5 time: 5) KillerpunchGuiledart is good. His remould, never released in the west, is better. 4) MagmatronA triocon ? Three monsters merger to form the Destron leader. Complicted but fab toy. 3) Dragon MegatronSuperb, looks fabulous, but oh so fragile wings. 2) TigerhawkLoved Tigerhawk from the moment I saw him. Amazing in the plastic. Wonderful to play with. The last truely great Ultra. 1) Big ConvoyYes it's a shell former. But look at that robot! Oh my goodnees, the detail on it. First Prime with opening chest and Matrix. HUGE gun. Missiles. Just love it to bits. Broke one, bit chipped off the ball socket for one of the beast head pieces, got another.
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Post by Marc Graham on Aug 1, 2014 8:16:06 GMT
Not the greatest year
1. Tigerhawk - awesome 2. Ravage - great repaint 3. Transmetal II Cheetor 4. Ramulus - just whacky 5. Optimus Minor - just because
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Post by Bogatan on Aug 1, 2014 12:51:51 GMT
Week 65: 1999
Still dont like TMIIs all that much even megatron is a little too something for me to really like. Never owned Tigerhawk, at all not even a car boot sale junker, this annoying me at the moment as I just finished watching Beast Wars and hes the only show character that I don't own (well transmutate too)
5. Ramulus Having said I don't like TMII I remembered theres Ramulus who is amazing
4. Magmatron - still haven't owned a complete one but my junker is enough to tell me its great.
3. Longrack - Just glorious.
2. Ravage - as I have written elsewhere on this list, takes a Cheetor mould that looks all kinds of not quite right to me and makes it look great.
1. Heinrad - it's well,.. it's got everything. Clock, goggles, giant robots balls, bag and saki that transform into a gun. Also great that a relatively cute animal mode transforms into quite tough looking robot with optional goggles.
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Post by legios on Aug 3, 2014 18:49:27 GMT
Week 65: 1999 Toys
Bubbling Under: Break - it is a Penguin, what's not to love? Tigerhawk - a great fun toy which is for some reason rather underappreciated, packed full of great play features. Heinrad - transforms from Tanuki to Shinto Priest Robot and Back...there is a wonderful understated, very japanese, irreverence that went into the creation of Heinrad which does make me rather endeared to the little tyke.
5. Magmatron: Aggravatingly complex, and ill-matched with a cartoon which chose to go down the demographics a bit in search of an audience, but a very clever piece of design which also looks superb. Fantastic set of dinosaur modes, which combine to form a very striking humanoid form.
4. Longrack: Beast Wars had given us many fierce and dangerous animal modes - tigers, cheetahs, bears, rhinos. Then along comes BW Neo and offers us up...a giraffe. The absurdity of the alt-mode is one of the first great joys of this toy. The next is the fact that the giraffe mode is so well executed - even if it didn't transform it would be a really good giraffe toy. Then you add on the quirky humanoid mode with the fun extendo-arm gimmick and you are really cooking with gas.
3. TM2 Megatron: Dragons, one of the classic monsters (or if you come from Wales, a national symbol) there are few better creatures that Megatron could have reached for in seeking a new Alt-mode. Visually incredibly arresting and a triumph of design, this is an astoundingly good-looking toy.
2. Stampy: Our second rabbit of Beast Wars. Stampy is not afraid to be on this list, not at all, it is just that he has a butterfly stuck in his stomach that is all... This toy is all about the character - his beast mode has wonderful wide eyes which give him a terribly startled look, and he can sit on the shelf in a typical wabbbit pose. The transformation is simple and fun and once again his humanoid mode has a real distinct sense of character to him. The only Transformer toy I took on holiday with me as an (alleged) adult, and still one of my all-time favourite Beast Wars toys.
1. Big Convoy: A glorious toy. Shell-former, yes. But he transforms from a solid block of mammothy awesomeness to a really impressive humanoid mode. The Big Cannon is a fantastic weapon, he comes with built-in tonfa for giving an epic smacking about to Destron Bandits and is very well supplied with joints. The fact that he comes with a removable Energon Matrix is just the icing on a very flavourful cake. Wonderful toy.
Karl
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Post by blueshift on Aug 3, 2014 19:54:07 GMT
Bubbling Under: Break - it is a Penguin, what's not to love? Well, the transformation. "Okay, take this robot and just stuff it into the penguin!"
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Post by Philip Ayres on Aug 3, 2014 19:55:30 GMT
It's a valid method of transformation
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Post by blueshift on Aug 3, 2014 19:59:01 GMT
I think it is more that his transformation really was more 'roll up the robot into a ball of balljoints and hope for the best as you squeeze the door on the penguin shut. As opposed to say, a guy like Sideburn who was also a total shellformer but only had one way he could really go.
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Post by Shockprowl on Aug 3, 2014 20:04:00 GMT
1999 TOYS.
I don't know much about this era, having missed it all first time round, and only much later becoming interested in the toys.
5. Big Convoy. Never owned one, never seen one in the flesh, but from what I've seen of him on a PC screen, and what my Cyber-chumbs have said about him, he really does look a pretty awesome beast-former. And as the Mighty and Wise Karlos has said about, it's great to see Maximals transforming into non-fierce and dangerous animal modes. Although having said that I wouldn't want to be chased down the street by a Mammoth...
4. Sling. Perhaps not an obvious toy for a top 5 of 1999, and I should say I own the purple version and my putting Sling as number 4 is purely based on my experience of that version. This is a great mold, a great fun Transformer, with the shield and the fun beast mode. Guess what I call my purple version?
3. Longrack. Considered for the top spot for a minute there. Again as Karlos said, a non-fierce animal mode. HE'S A GIRAFFE!!!! Brilliant stuff. Fun transformer, and Piglet adores him.
2. Magmatron. Only encountered this chap not very long ago when I read The Gathering. At the time of reading I didn't even realise he was an actual Transformers toy! Well I went straight on-line and got one. Such a unique and wonderful Transformer. Difficult to transform, yes, but the overall result is ingenious. One of my favorite of all my Transformers.
1. Owl Prowl. Yes yes, I've chosen a Prowl as my number one, big surprise! But... BUT... They made Prowl and OWL!!! When first I heard I did not approve! No, the Lion from Magnaboss was far more worthy of Prowl. But then I thought about it a bit, and you know what? THE OWL IS BETTER THAN THE LION! It's a better Transformer for one thing, and it's actually a great fit for the character. Great techspecs, great power of telekinesis. Fab toy. And a fab Prowl. (Grey version is slightly better than the black version overall, but there's something really cool about the black version).
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Post by Philip Ayres on Aug 3, 2014 21:04:22 GMT
And, if you read his tech spec, Prowl the Owl is almost certainly G1 Prowl!
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Post by Shockprowl on Aug 3, 2014 21:47:23 GMT
Totals!
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