Springer was one of the more recognizable characters from the G1 movie and most of Season 3. He is famous for being the first Autobot Triple Changer introduced in G1, for his decent combat and leadership skills, and for hanging around Arcee all the time (much to the displeasure of Hot Rod). He had a decent figure in G1, but since then this character has not had any toy updates to my knowledge (not counting repaints of other molds). Springer received significant screen time in the G1 movie so you think Hasbro would love to cash in on this character, but the leader of the Wreckers is always overlooked by the toy manufacturer for some strange reason.

Fear not, TransFans! FansProject loves you and they are releasing their own version of the famous Autobot Triple Changer. Of course, FansProject is not tied to Hasbro in any way and does not have licensing rights to any of the Hasbro properties, and so they are releasing this as TFX Defender. This will be their first attempt at a stand-alone transforming figure and it’s shaping up to be very promising. Check out the pics below.

These are prototype pics and it’s too bad we don’t see him in his official colors, but already he’s looking promising. Not sure why he’s called Warbot in some of these pics. FansProject website does not mention Warbot at all, but whatever. BBTS just started taking pres for him. At $78.99, this figure is a tad expensive considering he is only about 6″ tall (about Deluxe size). But word is he will have diecast parts and this will be a limited run. I am thinking long and hard about buying this. Actually, I’ve pretty much made up my mind that I will be buying this. This is simply too cool to pass up.

Go Springer! Transform and Roll Out!

On Seibertron.com, there used to be a section called “Before Carly”. The official description of the section went something like this:

“Spike is quite the ladies man. He eventually married Carly, but she was not the only one to have fun in the backseat of Bumblebee.”

This section is really just a picture gallery of hot women in little or no clothing, to be oogled by TransFans, which by the estimation of many is 95% male. To make this section relevant to Transformers (not that hot women need any reason to appear anywhere), Seibertron did two things. First, it is suggested that Spike got his groove on with all the babes in the picture gallery. Evidently he was quite busy before he married Carly as the picture count at one point surpassed 200 (even Wilt Chamberlain would be proud). Second, the women were all given fictitious names that sounded likes names of various Transformers, and it was kind of a game in figuring out which TF the girl’s name were a reference to. It was a shame that this section disappeared. Licensing issues with the images, coupled with the fact that it was hardly ever updated, forced Seibertron to shut down the gallery.

Never fear, TransFans. Hsunami Prime is here to re-instate “Before Carly”, for this one post anyway. Feast your eyes on even more women that had fun in the backseat of Bumblebee below. All names are based on real people’s names that I have seen. The name of the Transformer is written in white below the name of the girl. Hover the mouse over each name to reveal the answer (or hit Ctrl-A). Enjoy!

“Before Carly” rules! Transform and Roll Out!

I usually don’t buy Star Wars Transformers. I’m both a Star Wars fan and a TransFan, so you might think I would be all over these. I don’t have anything against this crossover. It’s just that, in Star Wars, vehicles don’t transform, and in Transformers, no characters transform into Star Wars vehicles. These reasons made it easy for me to ignore this line. Back in 06 I bought some SW TFs, never opened them, put them in storage, and then kinda forgot about them.

However, there are many figures released in this line, and it doesn’t appear to be slowing down. They must be selling pretty well if Hasbro keeps making them. And if they’re selling they can’t be all bad. Moreover, TF customizers have made some pretty good creations with Star Wars TFs. Long time ago I came across an image of a customized Cybertron version Optimus Prime on Seibertron.com. It looked really good and the mold chosen was very fitting of how Prime would look on Cybertron. That Optimus was made using the Commander Cody Clone Turbo Tank figure from the SW line of TFs. It was painted to match Prime’s colors (red body, blue legs) with a customized head mold of Prime. I could totally picture Prime’s Cybertron alt mode as something similar to the Turbo Tank from SW. Unfortunately I can’t find that post anymore, but in the process of googling for it, I came across this equally good cutomized Ultra Magnus, also using the same mold.

And so, I had to get this figure to check it out for myself. This is an awesome figure! I did not expect SW TFs to be of such high quality and I am thoroughly impressed with Commander Cody. Let’s get on with the review.

Front of the package.

Back of the package.

I bought him for $16.95 at Walmart. I think it’s a little pricey, considering that Voyager sized figures only cost a little more (sometimes less) and they are bigger. Maybe Hasbro has to pay licensing fees to George Lucas.

Here is the alt mode. The turbo tank is really solid. It rolls well on a flat surface, and all the parts and pieces come together nicely. In fact, you don’t realize how well everything fits together until you transform it back into this mode from the robot mode. The parts that become the legs, arms, waist, and back all have tabs and grooves to lock the components into place. The tank itself looks accurate to the movie incarnation, except for maybe the color. This figure is kind of a weird gray in alt mode, and I think in the movie the tank is closer to white. The antenna is attached to the back, and the gun to the front. The missile does shoot. To my surprise, that thing fires pretty far! Don’t let that small launcher fool you, this thing packs a punch, and I almost lost the missile twice already from testing the mechanism. The button is kinda small, but you get used to it.

 

As you can see from this shot, the middle wheel on each side can open up. On this side it is the compartment for a small pistol. On the other side it holds missiles (that don’t come out). A nice touch. And I apologize for the bad pic. My photography skills are next to non-existent and my camera is not exactly top of the line.

 

The figure also looks solid in robot mode. He is nicely proportioned and no parts look out of place. The colors in this mode more closely resembles the colors from the movies. I know it’s hard to tell from the pic, but the detail on the figure in bot mode is really nice. The lines on the body, arms, and legs resembles the clone trooper armor very closely. I especially like the head mold. This is exactly the look of the Clone Commander helmets. I like the wings too. It adds a little extra something to his appearance.

 

He’s got a decent level of articulation. The joints at the shoulders, elbows, waits, and knees all bend or rotate fairly well. The only thing is, he’s got a lot of “stuff” on him (wheels, armor, wings) so it can be hard to get him into a specific pose simply because there’s too much in the way. The missile weapon fits nicely into either hand. The antenna is removed from where it is in the alt mode and plugged behind the right shoulder. The connection is a little loose here, but that’s a minor gripe.

 

Check out the wheels on the shoulder. It can be extended out to reveal more missiles. Very cool. He’s also holding the pistol that was mentioned earlier. It’s kinda hard to put the pistol in his hand, but again that’s a minor gripe.

 

Fighting along side Obi-Wan. Go Commander Cody!

The final verdict on this figure is that he’s very, very highly recommended. If all SW TFs are this good, I would definitely buy more.

Maybe the Force be with all Star Wars Transformers. Transform and Roll Out!

Ultra Magnus is one of my favorite G1 characters. There’s a reason why the Autobot Matrix of Leadership was left with him when Prime was on his death bed. UM is both an excellent soldier and capable field commander. Sometimes I wonder what would have happened if he had become leader instead of that punk Hot Rod. Maybe G1 Transformers never would have died and even today we still be in G1 (ok maybe not, but I can dream).

As a toy, UM usually does not get the love he deserves. In almost all toy lines, he is simply a repaint of the Optimus Prime toy in that line (only exception I can think of is TFA, which has a kick-ass UM toy btw). In the Classic line this was as usual the case. Hasbro repainted Prime into white and blue, packaged him along with Skywarp, and released this 2-pack set as a Target Exclusive in early 2007. Don’t get me wrong, I love this mold. Out of all my Prime toys, I rank this mold in the top 3. I just wish that Hasbro gave UM a unique mold, or make tweaks to the Prime mold to make UM stand out a little more.

Enter FansProject. In 2008 they released the TFX-01 City Commander, an armor set for Classic Ultra Magnus. In alt mode, this set is attached as his trailer. In robot mode, the trailer transforms into his armor that is very reminiscent of the G1 character. I won’t go into the details, but this set is perhaps the greatest TF add-on that has ever been produced. The units quickly sold out. It retailed for about $75. I had to ebay mine sometime later at around $110. 🙁

As great as TFX-01 was, it was not perfect. TF fans, being what they are (read: super picky), were quick to point out that the set did not include his missiles, and still did not address the issue of his very un-G1-like gun. In response to this, FansProject released TFX-03, an add-on set to TFX-01 that includes both the missiles and a new gun that is more in tune with the design of UM’s G1 gun. TFX-03 includes a few more items that I will go into detail for this post.

I bought TFX-03 from BigBadToyStore. I’ve never bought anything from them before, so as a first purchase I felt it was safe to try something cheap. TFX-03 retails for $11.99 only, not a bad item to try BBTS with. Cheapest shipping option was about $7 which made the whole thing close to $20.

The item arrived one whole week before Thanksgiving, but I was not home so I picked this up in person at the UPS office the next day. I knew there wouldn’t be much in the add-on, so imagine my surprise when they handed me this box. I placed it next to a soda can so you get a sense of the size.

I started to wonder if this would be something extraordinary, to have it shipped in such a large box. Imagine my disappointment when I got home and opened the box.

I put this next to the same soda can to show how puny this add-on set is. I guess for the price, this is what you get. But why did BBTS have to use such a large box? I think they could have used smaller packaging which would translate to lower shipping costs for their customers. So already my impression of BBTS is not that favorable. But this post is not about BBTS so I’ll stop ranting now.

As far as the packaging goes for TFX-03, I’m a little disappointed. Yeah I know it’s just accessories, but I still feel it should have come in a box. This thing feels like a cheap lunch bag. Some fans have pointed out that they did this so you can store the whole thing in the box of TFX-01. Maybe. But nevertheless I’m still not impressed.

I was out of town for Thanksgiving, but I finally got around to opening this today. Inside the package there is one cardboard that serves as the instructions and all the items inside bubble wrap. The pic below shows all the items.

There are two shoulder launchers, each with 2 missiles. The missiles do not fire at all, but they can be detached. There is the G1-like gun. I should have took pics of this, but the gun can transform as well. In this pic here, it is in cannon mode. It can transform into rifle mode. It’s not a complex transformation by any means, but it still looks kinda cool. The items inside the bag are extra replacement faces for the City Commander. My understanding is that it is hard to swap these faces, and I already like how UM looks, so I’m not even gonna bother with these. But in case you’re curious, there are three faces here. The top face in the bag is like the face for Shadow Commander. The middle face is like the one that is on TFX-01, but I think this one has the eyes painted white. The bottom face has UM’s mouth open. If you want to give City Commander a OMG look (like when Galvatron and the Sweeps are shooting him good) then you use this face.

Here is the alt mode with the missiles mounted. On the set I got, the launchers on the right side stays on ok, but on the left side they do not stay on that well. They are attached to the trailer by these slots that fit over some tabs toward the upper-front area. Just shaking the unit a little will cause the launchers to fall off, but I guess this is the best they can do when originally missiles were not designed for it. Also, the gun cannot be attached in the the alt mode, which is a disappointment.

At this point I should mention that there is a combined set that includes both TFX-01 and TFX-03 in one package, released in 2009. The items of TFX-03 are exactly the same in the combination set, but the trailer/armor is tweaked slightly from TFX-01 to better accommodate the new accessories. For instance, there are holes carved into the side of the enhanced trailer, and to attach the missiles you just use the pegs on the launchers. On the 09 version it is also possible to attach the gun to the trailer. I don’t know how, but the instructions show that it’s possible. The combination set retails for about $88 at BBTS, and that’s certainly a better deal than buying them separately. If I didn’t already have TFX-01, I definitely get this new set. Seems like it is better and cheaper too.

Here is the City Commander is robot mode. The missile launchers fit nicely in this mode. There are holes already punched into the shoulders, so you simply insert the pegs on the launchers. Some people have complained that these are loose and that they easily fall off, but mine seems to be ok. Seems fairly tight to me. He is holding the gun in cannon mode. I don’t think it is possible to hold it in rifle mode in bot mode, there is too much in the way.

Another shot of UM with all his weapons. Come and get some.

These missiles here are actual G1 missiles launchers on the original Ultra Magnus. They can be attached to TFX-01 as well, using the same holes on the shoulders. FansProject sure thought of everything. I purposely left one missile out so you see the custom spring I engineered into the launchers. These US G1 launchers originally did not come with springs so the missiles don’t fire at all, unlike their Japanese counterparts. When I was a kid, I found some springs and put them in. Now they fire at least 10 feet. An achievement I’m still very proud of to this day.

City Commander with original G1 launchers attached.

City Commander with ROTF Leader Class Optimus. With the armor, UM is only a tad smaller. I like to see some Decepticons try to mess with these two.

Well folks, there you have it. My final verdict is that TFX-03 is a good add-on, but a little disappointing due to the reasons I mentioned. If I was rating the 09 version with TFX-03 I might give it a higher recommendation, but as for those of you that already have TFX-01, only get the add-on if you really want the missiles, the gun, or the extra faces.

Transform and Roll Out!

I’m home for Thanksgiving, and so this weekend I have access to some of my old TFs and TF-related items from back in the 80s. One of the oldest items that I still have in my possession is a Diaclone catalog. This catalog came with the Dinobot Slag, or to be more accurate, the Dialcone toy that would eventually become Slag. I was already living in the United States at the time, and my aunt bought me the toy during one of her trips to Asia. I loved the toy of course, but I had no idea that he would eventually become part of the Transformers cast. And so I was pleasantly surprised the first time I saw him in War of the Dinobots and thinking, “Yeah! He’ll be a Tranformer and I already have him!”

All true TransFans know that the Dialcone toys made up the majority of the TF cast in the first two seasons. I’ve had some other Diaclones from those days, but this is the only catalog that survived. As you can see from the scans, this catalog is pretty wrinkled. As a kid, I used to look at this thing day and night, wishing I had every single one of these. Now that I’m a grown man I’m still kinda wishing for the same thing 🙂

Behold the awesomeness of a 80s Japanese catalog and witness these images for yourself below. oh, this catalog reads from left to right (like an American book).

This is the cover. Other than the title, everything’s in English. The Constructicons were to “rescue” and “keep peace” in the Diaclone line? That’s a trip.

I guess the opening pages goes into some back story. I can only read the Kanji, but that alone makes little sense.

Here we have Optimus and all the Autobot cars. In the Diaclone line, I have the red Tracks and red Sunstreaker shown here. Tracks is still in decent shape, but I have no idea what happened to Sunstreaker.

Jumpstarters are featured on the left page. The toys kinda sucked after you get past the gimmick. Also, they did not at all appear in the G1 cartoons, but it’s nice to see them get some love in the War Within series. On the opposite page we see a graphic introducing the combiner toys.

The Constructicons have a very different color scheme in the Diaclone line. Devastator’s head looks different too. The 6 trains combiner team never made it to the TF universe. That’s a shame, but trains are not half as interesting has construction vehicles, so I guess Takara/Hasbro made the right choice.

Pics of the Constructicon toys, and a graphic introducing the Dinobots. Go Dinosaur Robo!

All 5 Dinobots are featured here. Colors in robot mode looks slightly different. Notice Slag’s chest is blue, which is what I had. In the TF version he is red. I’m hoping that the Encore series would re-release all of these. I get them all. Come and think of it, I like to see Encore versions of the Constructicons also.

These “Double Changers” became Omnibots. They were special mail-in only TFs in the Hasbro line that required you to pay money and collect those special Hasbro points on the box. I don’t know anyone that had these, probably because getting them was such a pain in the ass. Plus they were never featured in the cartoons. I don’t think War Within mentioned them either.

This is the back cover. Here we see some Seekers and the Insecticons in their Diaclone colors. Don’t recognize the rest.

I hope everyone had a happy Thanksgiving. Transform and Roll Out!

I’ve always wanted to do a group shot of all my Optimus Primes. I didn’t really have anything to do today, other than watch football, so in between halftimes and timeouts I dug out all my Primes from their various hiding spots and assembled them together for a group photo. During the process, even I became amazed at how many Optimus figures I have, and I don’t even have them all. This just goes to show what a popular character the Autobot Leader really is.

From left to right:
Bottom row: Alternator, 2007 Movie (First Strike Voyager class)
Middle row: Cybertron (Deluxe class), Titanium (War Within 1st version), Hybrid (THS-02), G1 (25th Anniversary Reissue), Classic (Voyager class), TFA (Voyager class)
Top row: ROTF (Leader class), Masterpiece (MP-04), 2007 Movie (Leader class)

Below are some of my un-opened figures of Optimus:

Clockwise from top left:
Classic Optimus Prime and Megatron Ultimate Battle 2-Pack (Deluxe class), Robot Masters (RM-01), Alternity (red), Alternity (silver), G1 (2002 TRU Reissue), Encore (01), G1 (25th Anniversary Reissue)

Here is a pic of the Movie Primes in their alt modes:

From left to right:
2007 Movie (First Strike Voyager class), ROTF (Leader class), 2007 Movie (Leader class)

Dune Runner snuck in there, watching from afar, wishing he could hang with the Primes 🙂

And in the words of Optimus Prime, Transform and Roll Out!

Today I’m doing something special. I have a treat for all you Macross fans out there. I’m posting pics and doing a review of the latest incarnation of the VF-11B from Yamato, this time in all its 1/60 scale glory. Yeah I know, not a Transformer, but I figure it is still a transforming robot so close enough. Plus he’s just too cool for me to not show it off.

I bought this last week from an ebay seller. I wasn’t home when they delivered it, so yesterday I had to go pick this up in person at the post office. This was about $190 shipped, which is slightly less than what most dealers ask for. This was formerly in the $220 to $230 range. The recent price drop from some dealers could be due to the 11C coming out soon, or possibly from the lack of love from fans because this model is often seen as the “fodder” in both Macross Plus and Macross 7. Whatever the case, the VF-11 has always been one of my personal favorites among the Macross fighters, perhaps because that early sequence in Macross Plus where Isamu Dyson kicked some serious rouge Zentradi ass was so memorable. But enough talking, on to the pics and the review.

I’ll start off with some pics of the box. Nothing too special here. This is the usual type of box that all Yamatos come in, with the flip up lid.

Jet Mode

The unit comes packaged in this mode. This is perhaps the most solid of the 3 molds.

I really like how this fighter looks. I think this mold has captured the shape of the 11 from the show perfectly, especially when compared to the 1/72 scale.

At first glance it actually looks like the 1/60 has less detail than the 1/72, but upon closer inspection, you will notice that’s not really the case. The detail on the 1/60 is more subtle when compared to the 1/72, but it is there. The lines the the 1/60 are not colored a dark line like the 1/72, and I think it looks better that way. In fact, the more I look at these, I more I feel as if the 1/60 is the real fighter and the 1/72 is the toy. The shape of the 1/60 is by far more show accurate, in my opinion. The shield in this mode stays on nicely on the 1/60, unlike the 1/72 where it’s constantly falling off. The gun pod is supported on the bottom by placing the gun handle between the arms, much like how the VF-1 Yamatos do it. To do this you have to position the gun and the arms just right, and it can be a little tricky to do. The fast packs also stay on tight, but not to the point where removing them would be difficult. The landing gears have rubber tires which is a really nice touch, though it is kinda hard to get them out. The cockpit can be opened and a pilot figure (probably Isamu) is included to be placed in there. Wings are retractable. Overall, all the pieces in jet mode stick together well and feels as if this is really one cohesive unit.

The above is a pic of the 11B next to ROTF Optimus to give you some idea of his size. It’s definitely smaller than the other 1/60 Macross Plus fighters, like the YF-19 and YF-21, but slightly larger than the 1/60 VF-1. If these scales are accurate, then we can infer that the 11 is one of the smaller fighters in the Macross Universe.

Gerwalk Mode

The Gerwalk is really one of the strengths of this unit. As the pic shows, this mold captured the look of the Gerwalk really well. In fact, this might be the best representation of the Gerwalk I have seen in any of the Macross fighters, whether its Yamato, Bandai, Toynami, or someone else.

Often times, the toy representation of the Gerwalk has legs that don’t quite translate to how the unit looks in the show. There are no such issues here. In the pics above you can see that the legs can be articulated nicely to match the Gerwalk’s birdlike appearance. The only time the Gerwalk has looked this good are on non-transforming models of the Gerwalk. I should point out that you kinda have to position the legs just right to get it in this stance, otherwise he either falls forward, or the jet body is positioned too flat. But its not too hard to do and there’s enough articulation in the legs, knee, and feet to position it however you wish. The arms also have enough articulation to for some good poses.

The transformation from jet to Gerwalk is fairly standard for the post part, but I do want to point out two things. First, the arm mechanism on this unit is much better than the 1/72. The way is swings out is much more robust, and there are grooves in the mechanics that let you know when you’ve gotten it positioned all the way. Second, the way that the rear wing module stays flat with the main jet body is much improved. The rear wing modules would never fall flat, because there is an insertion piece extending from these modules into the main body that locks it into place. This is done as part of the transformation. You can tell they really put a lot of thought into this when they designed this piece.

Battloid Mode

The Battloid is probably the weakest of the 3 modes in my opinion, but it is still a significant improvement over the previous attempts of the VF-11. The first thing I want to point out is how the cockpit shield comes down during transformation to the Battloid.

This shield is hidden behind the cockpit in the main body in the other modes. When it transforms to Battloid, the main cockpit goes under, and the shield slides forward. How cool is that?! I have never seen this on any other Valkyrie! Most of the time you just put this extra shield on, but this mechanism takes it to a whole new level.

The rest of the transformation is pretty standard. Nothing too revolutionary. Here are more pics of the Battloid.

As I’ve said already, this version looks much better and is not so skinny. The arms are still a little skinny in my opinion, but good enough. Compared to some other Valkyries, the articulation in the arms and legs are more limited, but I think there is enough here that you can still get some decent poses if that’s your thing. Getting the unit to stand up straight in this mode is a bit challenging. You kinda have to balance it just right. But I’ve had this for less than 24 hours so maybe I’ll find some trick to it later. The head does swivel 360 degrees, but does not go up and down. I kinda wish it did.

I have some other thoughts that I’ll just throw out in bullet points:
• Getting the gun into either hand can be tricky. There is a tab on the inside palm of the hand that sticks into a slot on the gun handle, then you just position the thumb and fingers over the handle, but I can’t seem to get it to work that well. Maybe its because the thumb and fingers (and also my own fingers) are getting in the way.
• The fast pack can be attached or detached in all 3 modes. The leg parts are attached purely thru magnets like many of the other Yamatos. Very cool
• The knife on the gunpod swings out just like the 1/72. However this knife does look bigger and more menacing. I wish they did some kind of spring pop-out mechanism so it would be show accurate, but this is good enough.
• I don’t know what is the original MSRP for this, but it was at least $200+. The 11 is smaller than other 1/60s (except for the VF-1) and there are no diecast parts at all (the whole thing feels quite light), so at $200+ I don’t think this is good value. I think it should have been around $150.

Overall, I’m very happy with the 1/60 VF-11B. This is the best transforming version of this fighter that has ever been made. If you are anything of a Macross fan, you owe it to yourself to get this. As I’ve said already, I think the price tag is a little high. I’m not gonna say this is worth every penny that I paid, but I will say that I don’t regret paying what I paid. My final verdict is that this is very highly recommended, and if you are a Macross fan and you got cash to spare, go for it!

That’s all for now. Transform and Roll Out!

In an earlier post, I mentioned I am on the hunt for Masterpiece Skywarp. Today around noon I finally found him at the Walmart near my work. There are like 34 sightings on Seibertron by now. I don’t know why Northern California is so slow to get these, but I’m just glad I didn’t miss out on a US Masterpiece Edition. There were close to 2 dozen units of these in the store. The best part… only $55! Everyone else reported $60 so I’m getting a $5 break. Any savings is better than none.

Overall, he is packaged very similar to how MP Starscream was packaged. Check out the pics.

Looks great from the front.
 

I love the side artwork.
 

Conversion Level is only 3?! WTF?! All MPs should automatically be 4.
 

I’m very happy with this find. Another great TF to my collection.

TransFans, get him before he teleports off the shelf. Transform and Roll Out!

I’m normally not a fan of Scout Class figures. I think they’re too small and not worth the value. However the other day I came across this Youtube video by Peaugh. And just so everyone knows, Peaugh is probably THE reviewer for Transformers when it comes to Youtube TF reviews. His status in the TF community is now legendary and I always watch his videos if I’m deciding if I should get a TF figure.

The above video is mostly about Beachcomber. And I’m always excited about G1 characters in any TF toy line. As the video suggests, Beachcomber will appear in ROTF as a repaint of Scout Class Dune Runner. I will be buying Beachcomber as soon as he hits the shelves, but I have no idea how Peaugh gets the figures so early. I don’t think I can wait for Beachcomber, so the next best thing is to buy Dune Runner and check it out for myself, which is exactly what I did.

I’ve had some time to mess this mold now, and I will say that Dune Runner is very cool. He reminds me of Deluxe Landmine from the first movie, but in many ways he is more sturdy. I’ll start with the bot mode since that’s how he’s packaged. I like the overall colors, and he’s nicely proportionate. I think the two guns on this shoulders are very cool, especially for a Scout Class figure. These guns can be adjusted and angled in a number of ways. He’s got a decent level of articulation, he can stand up nicely on his feet, and he holds his poses well. I like his head sculpt too. Most movie figures have this “bug” look that I don’t like, especially in the head design, but I don’t sense that from Dune Runner. If anything, he looks more G1 than ROTF, and in my book that’s a very good thing.

In alt mode, Dune Runner is very nice as well. He is very solid as a dune buggy. The guns in this mode can be angled vertically to make it look like he’s aiming for some Decepticons coming from above. The vehicle mode rolls very nicely on a flat surface. He’s got a fair level of detail in this mode. I’m not sure what is the meaning behind the 0318 painted on the doors. The transformation from bot to buggy is nothing we haven’t seen before and the overall transformation is fairly simple, but keep in mind this is a Scout Class figure, so I’m not exactly looking for originality here.

I do have two minor gripes with this figure. First, from bot to alt mode, it can be hard to get the arms just right to make it fold in. It took me quite a while to figure out the arms are supposed to go exactly. If you don’t get it just right, and side of the buggy won’t line up well and you will see lots of seems on the doors and the roof. The other gripe I have is the price. Sure, at $7.49 he’s very affordable, but considering Deluxe figures only run for $10 and they are twice the size, I expect Scout class figures to be around $5. I guess this is more a complain with Scout Class figures in general and not Dune Runner, but still. If I was very budget conscious, I would not be picking up Scout Class figures. Certainly I would not buy Dune Runner if I already had Landmine (which I do).

But overall, Dune Runner is a very solid mold and I’m glad I picked him up. He is very highly regarded in all the Youtube TF reviews that I have come across, including both SEANxLONG and Optibotimus, in addition to Peaugh. This is the perfect mold to repaint into Beachcomber, because of the dune buggy alt mode, the small size, and the G1-like head sculpt. Dune Runner gets high marks from me and I encourage every TF fan to pick him up. And of course you know I will go out and buy Beachcomber when he appears on day 1.

Here’s to Scout Class figures… Transform and Roll Out!

In a earlier post I mentioned that I must find the 25th Anniversary versions of Insecticons and Perceptor. Yesterday I finally found them at my local TRU. I quickly bought one of each. I know… at $34.99 each they seem a tad expensive, but in the same previous post I went into why I don’t agree. There was still one Perceptor left on the shelve when I left TRU, but no more Insecticons.

Check out the pics below.

I love the artwork and the silver TRU Exclusive sticker on the front. “Decepticon Agents”?! That’s a new one.

“It’s a world where things are not what they seem. It’s a world of heroic Autobots and evil Decepticons who are known as… the Transformers!” They repeated the G1 box descriptions word for word. Awesome!

Both of them with the lid open side by side.

Look at all the details on the Insecticons! They sure don’t make them like this anymore.

Robot, microscope, and… tank! Perceptor kicks ass… or not. He’s a lover not a fighter.

I just noticed that all 3 Insecticons have wheels on the feet in insect mode. Somehow I didn’t think this was weird back in the 80s…

I’m not sure if I will be opening these. In the box they just look too cool and these may be primed to go up in value. We’ll see.

That’s it for now my fellow TransFans. Remember… Transform and Roll Out!