Title says it all. These pics are nothing new by now, but I’m so looking forward so these upcoming MP figs that I have to make a post. I first reported news of these figures back in this post. Looks like MP-17 will be Prowl, and MP-18 will be Bluestreak and not Smokescreen like I reported. It makes sense to do these 2 first, since Smokescreen didn’t come around til season 2 in G1.

I’m wondering if they will call MP-18 as Bluestreak or Silverstreak. Though I don’t really care as long as he gets released. Transform and Roll Out.

This week I will be receiving 2 figures from FansProject, T-Bone and Car Crash. These are obvious homages to G1 Stunticons. Growing up, this was the favorite combiner team for most of my friends. And for good reasons. They are all high-end sports cars (with the exception of Motormaster). They are all kick-ass rebels, even choosing to ignore Megatron’s orders from time to time. And Menasor could possibly be the most powerful combiner in G1. In the cartoons, I don’t remember him losing any fights to any of the other combined gestalts.

Since Hasbro will not give us proper CHUG remakes to this fan-favorite combiner team, it is once again up to FansProject to step up to the plate. I will be receiving T-Bone (Wildrider) and Car Crash (Breakdown) very soon, and I look forward to checking them out for myself. I’ll make another post when I get them, but for now, check out these pics below.

On completely unrelated news, March Madness 2013 is currently going on. I watched as many games as I could have starting this past Thursday. First 2 rounds are now over (I know, they renamed it Round 2 and 3, but these new names just don’t work for me) and we’re down to the Sweet 16 as I write this. The obvious Cinderella that is getting everyone’s attention is FGCU, or Florida Gulf Coast Univerisy, a 15 seed! Has a 15 seed ever made it to the Sweet 16? I honestly don’t know. They took down goliath Georgetown and up and coming San Diego St to get here. Safe to say that no one’s heard of FGCU til this weekend, not counting the locals. Congrats to the Eagles!

But on a more personal note, my bracket is still in good shape! For my Final Four, I picked Louisville, Ohio St, Florida, and Indiana. All 4 schools are still alive in the tournament. I can’t even remember the last time I did this well. Last year, I picked Missouri to win it all and they were bounced in the 1st Round! The year before that, I can’t remember who I picked, but I remember not doing too well. The thing that sticks out from that year is UCLA winning in Round 1 against Michigan St, but then losing to Florida in Round 2. I remember following the scores on my phone for that Florida game. The Ex wanted to go to Whole Foods so we did. I let her do her thing while I just followed the game on my phone. UCLA did even worse this year by making a Round 1 Exit. That hurts my Bruin pride, but I didn’t project them to go far anyway, since Florida was waiting for them in Round 2. And besides, I got a real shot at winning the office pool. Currently I’m in 2nd place, but I have the most potential points left. I won’t say what is my pick to win it all in fear of jinxing it, but right now they sure look like the team to beat.

Long live March Madness! Transform and Roll Out!

This is so good it’s illegal to not share and post! The next two Autobot Masterpiece figures are Prowl and Smokescreen, MP-17 and MP-18 respectively. I was thoroughly impressed with Sideswipe and Red Alert. And immediately I wanted more MPs of the Autobot cars. That dream is coming true is summer! June 2013 to be precise. Let’s hope that release date does not change. Or better yet, get pushed ahead of schedule!

For full details, click on the banner above. Unfortunately, there are no pics at this time. Hopefully some will surface soon.

Transform and Roll Out!

Shock to the system! It looks like the fear I mentioned in my last post was quite unfounded. I went to a different TRU today and found me some Fall of Cybertron Shockwaves!

There were only 6 FOC figures total, but 3 of them were Shockwave! Totally shocking! I never thought I would see him outnumber the 2 Primes and 1 Jazz that were there. But whatever. I’m happy to find some before my pre-order arrives. I grabbed 2 of them, one for me and one for my buddy Gemini. Left 1 Shockwave on the shelve for another lucky TransFan.

I will have another Shockwave when my order from TFS arrives. Earlier in the year I mentioned I stopped buying multiples of the same figure. Guess there goes that rule. Oh well. I have a feeling Shockwave will have some good value later on. Might be a good idea to keep more than 1 around.

“Clarity of thought before rashness of action.” Go Shockwave! Transform and Roll Out.

At lunch today I went to TRU. I made my way to the TF aisle like I usually do, and was surprised to see a whole bunch of people crowding the space. I saw some guys hovered over a specific section of rack space, and so I look in that direction. To my surprise, I see that TRU already has Fall of Cybertron figures!

I knew these figures were coming since there are tons of reviews on YouTube already. Not to mention that many online dealers have them in stock. I just didn’t expect my TRU to have them so soon. I visited TRU to find TF Prime figures, but was pleasantly surprised to see FOC figs nonetheless.

However, my concern was realized when I saw that there is not a single Shockwave on the racks! Out of the 3 Wave 1 FOC figs, Shockwave is the most sought after. My feeling is this is the figure that will be very difficult to find, similar to TF Prime Vehicon (which to this day I still have not found).

I made a comment on Pax Cybertron about my concern for Shockwave. And so, last night I made a order at TFSource for all 3 of the Wave 1 FOC figures. Set for all 3 is $47.95. That comes to about $16 per fig. TRU has each of these at $14.99. After taxes, it will be more than $16 per fig (CA state tax is pretty painful). So by buying from TFSource, I’m actually getting a better deal (no taxes and free ship). But the real reason I made the order was to lock in Shockwave. I knew he would be hard to find, and so far that seems to be the case.

Anyway, I left Prime and Jazz on the racks. The 3 FOC Wave 1 figs are part of my current stack at TFSource, along with TF Prime Voyager Breakdown and the green Giant set. As soon as Giant comes in, I will get them all! Can’t wait!

And as for the other dudes that were in the aisle, none of them bought anything. Some commented on the high price tag. Some were probably just looking for Shockwave. Some of the other individuals there, like moms and kids, were probably just there by accident and not looking for FOC. It was just weird that so many people were at that aisle at the time.

The Fall of Cybertron has begun! Transform and Roll Out!

Happy Friday the 13th! You might think you will be plagued by some bad luck and run into some freaky stuff, but the only horrors you can potentially experience today is if you don’t act quickly on these Amazon Exclusive TFs, and they run out!

G2 Bruticus

First up is a G2 redeco of the upcoming Fall of Cybertron Bruticus figure. This team of 5 Combatcions combines to form the mighty Bruticus.

Apparently there are three versions of this set. There is the standard mass retail set that I covered in this post. Then there is the San Diego Comic Con Exclusive G1 colored set. Now Amazon is offering a G2 colored set. Hasbro sure knows how to milk it. Long time readers know that I have repeatedly mentioned that the Combaticons are my favorite combiner group, both in this post and in this post. And for that reason alone, I’ll probably buy all 3 sets. Will Hasbro put out a 4th redeco? Wouldn’t surprise me.

Click here to order your G2 Bruticus from Amazon. Pre-order went up last Friday morning, then it stopped after a few hours. It finally went up again yesterday, which is when I got mine. Gets yours while they last!

Optimus Prime Jetwing Movie Deco

This is a redeco of a Optimus Prime figure that was previously only available in Japan. I think MSRP of the Japanese version was something in the range of $250. I thought of buying it then, but the price was too much of a turnoff. Glad I waited, since this is like half as cheap!

Many fans consider the Japanese version of this to be the best transformable Movie Optimus Prime figure made. I think the base figure is from the ROTF leader mold, but it’s modified slightly to accommodate the Jetwing. This redeco does look a little different from the Japanese version. Personally, I like the G1 blue stripes on the wings, but not sure if I’m feeling the gold and blue on the Jetwing guns. Still, the only other Jetwing OP I have is a tiny commander-sized figure. So I don’t mind finally getting a leader-sized one.

Get the Amazon Jetwing Optimus Prime here.

Get yours now before they’re gone! Transform and Roll Out!

I am a big fan of War For Cybertron. Later this year, perhaps around fall, the sequel Fall of Cybertron will be released. But what’s even better is that there will be figures from FOC! Just like WFC, figures from the sequel will be released in the Generations line.

The following pics are previews of all the deluxe figures planned for FOC. While we only got 5 figures from WFC (Optimus, Megatron, Bumblebee, Soundwave, Cliffjumper), we’re gonna get so much more for FOC! That’s right TransFans. Hasbro loves you. They’re even doing a combiner team that really combines! No release dates are given yet, but most likely the 1st wave will hit store shelves around the same time as the game. Fall of 2012 will be the Fall of Cybertron! Hey, that makes me wonder if there are seasons on Cybertron.

All pics are courtesy of the Transformers Facebook page.

Jazz

Optimus Prime

Shockwave

Blast Off

Brawl

Onslaught

Swindle

Vortex

Bruticus

Kickback

Starscream

Sideswipe

Ultra Magnus

Fireflight

Fireflight doesn’t look right to me. I think this figure makes a better Strafe, with that head mold, alt mode, and the colors. But I like Aerialbots too, so I can live with it.

I don’t know about you, but I’m getting all of them. Transform and Roll Out!

Title of the post says it all. It has only been about 3 months since the release of the movie. Personally I thought the movie was pretty good. The GF didn’t like it one bit.

Now I maintain the position that only crappy movies get a quick home release. And that’s what makes DOTM so hard to classify. According to Wikipedia, DOTM is one of the most successful movies ever financially. It grossed $1.18 billion worldwide, and is the 5th highest grossing film of all time. However, critical reception was mostly negative and is usually not liked by anyone outside the hardcore Transformer fandom. I guess the quick home release makes sense if viewed from that perspective.

One of the very first post that I did when I started this blog was the release of Revenge of the Fallen. I definitely liked that one the least out of the three. Read that post to see my thoughts. Even Michael Bay himself has admitted that “Transformers 2 was crap.” Overall, DOTM corrected many of the flaws found in ROTF. DOTM cut out most of the juvenile non-sense, with the exception of that Asian character played by Ken Jeong. Story was more coherent. Bringing Cybertron to Earth is a worthy homage to the Ultimate Doom story arc in G1. Sentinel betraying the Autobots is an unexpected twist. In recent stories, Optimus’ predecessor has been less than perfect and the movie really explores that concept. I think Leonard Nimoy is destined to voice villains in the TF franchise. The acting was your standard Michael Bay cheese, but with so many big names in the cast it doesn’t get that bad. I liked Patrick Dempsey’s role. Good thing McDreamy and Josh Duhamel were there to keep the GF interested with their good looks or she might have fell asleep. But yeah, I liked DOTM, but the first film was still the best.

DOTM wrapped up things pretty good. I can’t think of any loose ends. All the baddies you expect to be killed off are terminated in spectacular fashion by the Autobots, or in some cases humans. I think this means we have seen the last of the Bay TFs. Shia LaBeouf has stated very clearly he’s not doing any more. That’s probably just as well. I think my interest for this trilogy has run its course and it’s time for something new. I like to see a new director take over and steer TFs more toward their G1 roots. J.J.Abrams perhaps? Every franchise he touches turns to gold.

But Michael Bay sure walks away a rich man. I don’t know how much of a cut he had in the 3 films and related merchandising, but he’s gotta be one of the wealthiest men alive in Hollywood today. That’s some good fortune for a director whose craft is questionable at best. He’s got TransFans to thank for this.

So am I gonna get the Blu-Ray? I don’t know. I like to get it on sale. A few months back I finally got ROTF on sale for about $10 at Amazon. I guess if I see one now for around $15 I’ll buy it, but if not I’ll keep looking.

The Bay TF movies have been fun, but I think I’m done with this franchise and I’m ready for another live-action reboot. I wonder what Hasbro has in stored for us besides TF Prime. One can only wonder… Transform and Roll Out!

As many of you already know, TFC Toys is making their own Constructicon Set called Hercules. The first figure released in the series is Exgraver (aka Scavenger), already available for some time now. I missed out on the first shipment of Exgraver since I was still on the fence over its $100 price tag, but good reviews of the figure has left me no choice but to buy. And so I pre-ordered Exgraver and now I’m waiting for the 2nd shipment to arrive. As of this writing, Heavylabor (aka Long Haul) is also available for pre-order.

If any of you are wondering how Hercules will look combined, below is a pic. Thanks to my friend Gemini for providing the pic.

I’m getting excited just looking at this. Hercules is gonna be huge! As far as scale goes, the only other fig that I recognize in the pic is Alternity Bumblebee, in the lower right. From that I can get a sense of how towering this gestault will truly be.

I don’t have Exgraver in hand, but if he’s as good as everyone claims he is, then Hercules should be a high-quality figure. Scrapper and Mixmaster appears to be the last 2 molds that TFC will produce. Their alt modes also appear in the pic and each fig is shaping up nicely I must say.

But let me point out again that it is $100 per figure! Hercules is a $600 investment. I’m already committed to Exgraver so I guess I’m in for the Long Haul (pun intended). That’s some crazy spending for a bunch of toys. But I’ll get over it. Transform and Roll Out!

Here we have another Gemini custom. This is the DOTM deluxe Sideswipe figure. I thought about buying this figure when he first hit the shelves back in May. This is a new movie-verse Sideswipe mold and I like how he’s a convertible this time. But the dull grey paint job just did not do it for me. Check out these pics on Seibertron to see what I mean.

Once again Gemini felt the need to correct this. And so he took this figure and painted him silver all over. The result is quite remarkable. This is Sideswipe as he was meant to appear. Check out pics below.

The last pic above shows off DOTM Sideswipe (center) with DOTM Walmart exclusive blue Sideswipe (left) and HFTD Sidearm Sideswipe (right). Don’t mess with DOTM Sideswipe in all his silver blingin’ glory!

In related news, it appears there will be a repainted version of this figure as Dark Steel. He’s looking pretty good and I will get this if/when he hits the shelves. I’m digging the color scheme, and using a new head mold is always a welcome feature. I included some pics below but you can see all the pics here.

As TransFans we all knew it was only a matter of time before Hasbro started repainting all the DOTM figs. It would be interesting to see what else they decide to repaint. And hopefully they will continue to make new molds too. The movies may have ended, but they toys don’t have to stop. Transform and Roll Out!