February in a even year is a month that is typically loaded with TF purchases. This was the case in 2012 and 2014. 2016 follows this trend. Focus your optics on all the figures below.

• Robots in Disguise Fracture, Toys R Us, $16.99

• Combiner Wars Vortex, Target, $15.29

• Combiner Wars Swindle, Target, $15.29

• Combiner Wars Brawl, Target, $15.29

• Combiner Wars Blast Off, Target, $15.29

• Combiner Wars Onslaught, capturedprey.com, $24

• Combiner Wars Smokescreen, Target, $15.29

• Combiner Wars Trailbreaker, Target, $15.29

• Combiner Wars Hound, Target, $15.29

• Combiner Wars Wheeljack, Target, $15.29

• Combiner Wars Pipes, capturedprey.com, $10

• Combiner Wars Chop Shop, capturedprey.com, $12

• Combiner Wars Buzzsaw, capturedprey.com, $12

• Masterpiece Ironhide, amiami.com, ¥7490 (about $65.37)

• Warbotron Fierce Attack, capturedprey.com, $100

As the first order of business, let’s get the lone Robots in Disguise fig out of the way. I’ve said many times already that I’m not a big fan of RiD offerings, but Fracture is not too shabby. I found him when me and the wife took a long Valentines weekend trip to Santa Barbara. He was located at a Toys R Us, not in Santa Barbara, but at a nearby town. I don’t watch the RiD show, so I generally don’t buy the RiD toys based on any knowledge or impressions of the character. I look strictly at the toy. Fracture got my attention because I have never seen him before this, and he genuinely looked like a solid fig in the box. The alt mode also looked interesting. The figure does not disappoint. Both modes are solid, and the figure is well built. No figure in RiD is ever difficult to transform, and Fracture is no exception. But I do like some of the transforming mechanisms implemented here. Hasbro and Takara has in recent years really improved upon motorcycle Transformers. In years past, the robot mode would either look too skinny, or the motorcycle mode would look too fat. Fracture shares none of these faults. I also like the kick-ass rifle he comes with. Fracture is definitely one of the better figs in the RiD line. Recommended.

February is a return to Combiner Wars figures, and this sub-category accounts for most of the figs this month. Last year we saw the Aerialbots, Stunticons, Protectobots, and some random Autobot cars reworked in CW fashion. The Constructicons got a awesome unique set all on their own in the CW lineup. This leaves the Combaticons as the only combiner team before the G1 Movie to not receive Combiner War treatment. I mentioned so many times that Combaticons are my favorite combiner team that I’m starting to sound like a broken record, so needless to say I was very excited about CW Combaticons.

I found the 4 limb Combaticons on the same Valentines trip (but at Target). Onslaught was bought online. In the end, I wasn’t too surprised by what’s produced. 3 of the figs are reworks of existing molds. Blast Off is repainted from Quickslinger (Slingshot), Vortex is cloned from Alpha Bravo, and Onslaught is reworked from Hot Spot. Blast Off and Vortex are pure repaints from pre-existing figs without any kind of mold changes.

Warning! I am going into rant mode. Skip to bottom to avoid the rant.

Blast Off – there is no excuse for Blast Off. His head design is nothing like Slingshot’s, but that’s what we have in this toy. You might think Hasbro is just being lazy here (which they are), but there is a Japanese version of this figure where Blast Off is in a new distinct mold. That figure transforms into a space shuttle and has the right head mold. I don’t understand Hasbro’s decisions sometimes. I know they like to produce molds that can be repainted numerous times to be a variety of figures, so they do the work once and make money repeatedly afterwards. I totally get that. But a true Blast Off is already produced! So why not just bring that over?! Their stupidity dumbfounds me. Some fans have made an argument that a jet fighter better fits into what should comprise of the Combaticons, and that a jet scales better than a shuttle. That argument is sound. But the head mold is still an issue. Hasbro could have at least took the head off of the Japanese mold and stuck it on the US figure.

Vortex – I should have realized this sooner, but Alpha Bravo’s head is exactly like that of Vortex. So this mold was always meant to be Vortex. Hasbro tactically released Alpha Bravo first so G1 chumps like me would buy both figures; I bought Alpha Bravo because he was a new mold at the time, and then I bought Vortex because he comes from the famous Combaticons. If the order was reversed, I would have ignored Alpha Bravo altogether. This seems to be Hasbro’s strategy recently. Some other recent examples include releasing Titans Return Sentinel Prime before Astrotrain, and Robots in Disguise Paralon before Scorponok. Notice the more famous character of the same mold is released last, while other less famous or even newly made up characters are released first. Damn you Hasbro! This is such a cheap trick that I feel stupid for not recognizing it sooner. I need to be more vigilant on what Hasbro plans to produce.

End of rant

As for Onslaught, he’s a tweak off of Hot Spot. Hasbro made enough differences here that Onslaught feels like a distinct figure. He’s fine enough on his own in alt mode and robot mode, but he suffers from the same issues that Hot Spot has in combined form. As the gestalt’s center, this figure in combined mode has issues with weight distribution and figure cohesiveness. CW Silverbolt is still the best mold for a standard CW gestalt.

The new molds for the Combaticons are Swindle and Brawl. I like them. Both figs are good modern updates and accurately capture Swindle and Brawl in their G1 persona. Of course Hasbro would waste no time repainting these molds. In fact, Swindle would be repainted into Hound in this same month (more on this later). And I believe Brawl is reworked into Nosecone of the CW Technobots.

Like I said, this CW Combaticons team is pretty much what I expected. They repainted these figures so many times now that it wouldn’t be hard to envision any combiner team in these molds. Unless you are partial to Combaticons like me, there isn’t a whole lot of good reasons to buy this set. Just get Swindle and Brawl if you feel you need the new molds. Below are some pics of Combaticons.

The next 4 CW figs are Smokescreen, Trailbreaker, Hound, and Wheeljack. These are ALL repaints. What can I say? I’m a sucker for G1 characters. I buy them in almost any form that Hasbro will make them. Smokescreen is an exact repaint of Prowl, but this is okay since that’s how it was back in G1. Trailbreaker and Hound are cloned from Ironhide and Swindle, respectively, but with new head molds. Wheeljack, while technically a repaint, is the most reworked mold here. In addition to the new head mold, he gets some molding differences in alt mode that makes him feel quite different from Sunstreaker. I won’t go in depth for this group since they’re so similar to figures that have already come before them. Below are pics of this Combiner Wars foursome, not combined.

It’s a good thing these Combiner Wars repaints stopped here. If Hasbro really wanted to, they could do another foursome: Bluestreak from Smokescreen, Sideswipe from Sunstreaker, Hoist from Trailbreaker, and Ratchet from First Aid. I should stop writing here. Don’t want to give Hasbro any more ideas.

Now let’s take a look at the legend size CW figs this month: Pipes, Chop Shop, and Buzzsaw. In G1, Pipes is a Minibot that appeared in Season 3. He might have had cartoon appearances, but I honestly don’t know since Season 3 was so forgettable. I am kinda partial to the character though, because I had the G1 toy. I got him at Lucky, of all places. Mom took me shopping for groceries and she was kind enough to buy it for me. So yeah, that’s why I even bought CW Pipes. Pipes is the 4th character of this mold (after Optimus Prime, Nemesis Prime, and Huffer). Normally that would be a total skip, but I added Pipes to my collection out of pure nostalgia. Chop Shop was a Deluxe Insecticon during G1. His toy appeared in Season 2, but he never made an animated appearance. CW Chop Shop is a repaint of Skrapnel (Shrapnel). In G1 he was not a repaint of anything. I probably could have skipped this purchase as well, but these little bugs are just too cool. Buzzsaw is a brand new mold. Buzzsaw needs on introduction, but everyone just thinks of him as that repaint of Laserbeak. So here is another example of releasing the less known character first, like stated in my rant above. Damn you Hasbro! CW Buzzsaw is a triple changer. He still has his iconic condor mode. For modern day standards, the tape cassette mode is now replaced by a tablet mode. And he gets a new vehicle mode that’s like a car or armored truck kind of thing. Overall, Buzzsaw is a neat little figure, but not a must-buy by any means. Actually, none of these legend figs are must-buys by any stretch of the imagination. Below is a pic of the three of them.

Next on the agenda is a figure that many of us, including myself, have been waiting for: Masterpiece Ironhide! If you are a G1 fan, then you know that Ironhide is one of the most iconic Autobots, behind perhaps only Optimus Prime and Bumblebee. You would also know that in G1, his toy did not really have a robot mode. His cartoon robot mode appearance is something totally made up by the animation creators (same goes for Ratchet, his ambulance repaint). I am glad to report that MP Ironhide is an awesome figure! Both robot and alt mode are faithfully reproduced from the show. Check out a pic of the very cartoon accurate robot mode below!

Now that is Ironhide! Takara has outdone themselves with this figure. I can’t get over how good he looks; it’s like he stepped straight out of the cartoon. Transformation wise, this figure hits it out of the park. He comes packaged in alt mode (see below), and as of this writing I only transformed him once to robot mode. But I remember the transformation being pure genius. Difficulty is just right too for a MP fig. There’s enough complexity going on to satisfy the most hardcore of TransFans, and at the same time not overly difficult or frustrating. In fact this figure is fun to transform. And that’s saying a lot considering both modes look so good. Below is a pic of the back of Ironhide. He’s so kibble free too! Check it out.

In the pic above he’s wearing the rocket boost backpack. If I took that off, he would look even more kibble free. Construction of the figure is perfect. All joints and transformation points are just the right amount of tightness. He also comes with accessories galore. And he comes with a tray to hold those accessories when they’re not in use. The shape of the tray kind of resembles the base of his G1 robot mode. That’s too cool! See the pics below.

MP Ironhide scales nicely with other MPs. Below is a pic of him next to MP Optimus Prime, Streak (aka Bluestreak), Wheeljack, G2 Bumble (aka Bumblebee), and Invisible (aka Mirage).

I can’t recommend MP Ironhide enough. All G1 TransFans need this in their collection. No excuses.

Last but not least, the only 3rd party figure this month is Fierce Attack. This is Warbotron’s homage to Onslaught. That makes this the 2nd Onslaught figure this month. I’m not sure if I have ever bought two of the same character in a single month (not counting if I buy doubles of the same thing)! As of this writing, I haven’t had the chance to spend that much time with Fierce Attack. I transformed him once from alt mode to robot mode, and that’s it. But what I can say is that I like both modes. He’s well built and I don’t detect any obvious weaknesses in construction. Poseability is somewhat limited, but I need to spend more time with the figure to fully verify that assertion. I will report more on Fierce Attack after I get all 5 Warbotron Combaticons. I really liked Sly Strike (Swindle) and Whirlwind (Vortex), and I like what I see so far on Fierce Attack. Below is a pic.

Whew! Last was a long post. I didn’t know there were so many TFs this month until I counted them up. Here are the stats breakdown for the month:

• 1 fig from Robots in Disguise
• 12 figs from Combiner Wars
• 1 Masterpiece fig
• 1 3rd party fig

I am obviously buying way too many Combiner Wars figures. A lot of them are repaints too. By my count, out of the 15 figures total, 9 of them are repaints! That’s way too many. The repaints outnumber the non-repaints 3 to 2. The only non-repaints are Fracture, Swindle, Brawl, Buzzsaw, Ironhide, and Fierce Attack. I seriously need to be more selective about which TFs I buy. I see myself selling some of these figures in the near future. Not because they’re bad, but because I really don’t need repaints of the same thing.

Until next time… Transform and Roll Out.

The “active” TFs on my shelf have changed somewhat from the last time I did a post like this. So here they are. Most of the figs on the shelf are new for this post. Some are the same as last time, with some of them in a different mode.

Same pic, different angle.

From left to right
Top shelf, back row: FOC Blaster (with Steeljaw inside), FOC Omega Supreme, FOC Air Raid (on Omega’s shoulder), FOC Grimlock, TFP Beast Hunters Optimus Prime
Top shelf, front row: Generations Springer, FOC Starscream, FansProject Car Crash, FansProject T-Bone, TFP Rumble, TFP Beast Hunters Smokescreen
Middle shelf: TFP Breakdown, TFP Dreadwing, TFP Shockwave, TFP Beast Hunters Starscream, TFP Jet Vehicon General
Bottom shelf: TFP Beast Hunters Soundwave, MP Soundwave (with Laserbeak insde), FOC Soundblaster (with Buzzsaw inside)

All these TFs are excellent. There’s not a single one on here that I would not recommend.

I believe all the figures on here are 2013 purchases, with the exception of Breakdown and Dreadwing (which were late 2012). The middle shelf appears to be a TF Prime Decepticon shelf, and the bottom shelf is a turning into a Soundwave exclusive shelf. Maybe I should add a few more Soundwave figs here.

The most recent acquisition displayed here is Springer. I have only transformed him from robot to car, but I can already say that he’s AWESOME! I can’t wait to do the heli mode next. He must be reviewed and I intend to do one.

Transform and Roll Out.

I don’t know why, but May 2013 seemed like a long month. Yes there are 31 days in the month, but it’s hard to imagine one extra day making a big difference (unless of course you talk to those in retail). More often than not, a month seems to fly by these days. Yet something about this past May feels different… can’t quite put my finger on it though.

And now I’m wondering if there are months on Cybertron. That’s an idea worth exploring. But on to more pressing business. These are my TF acquisitions for this May.

• Transformers Prime Beast Hunters Shockwave, Kmart, $21.99

• Transformers Prime Beast Hunters Optimus Prime, Walmart, $18.97

• Masterpiece Rumble and Jaguar (MP-15), hlj.com, about $35
• Masterpiece Frenzy and Buzzsaw (MP-16), hlj.com, about $35

• Generations Springer, Walmart, $22.99

• Transformers Prime Arms Micron Silas Breakdown (AM-24), amiami.com, about $50

• Transformers Prime Arms Micron Unicron (AM-19), amiami.com, about $65

• Transformers Prime Arms Micron Smokescreen (AM-26), amiami.com, about $13

All the above adds up to 10 figures for the month. 5 from TF Prime, 4 Masterpieces, and 1 Generations fig. Not a bad haul for May. Though only 2 of the figures were found in store by me (Shockwave and OP). The 4 MPs were online purchases. Springer, Silas Breakdown, Unicron, and Smokescreen were successfully located by my friend Gemini.

It should be noted I did not make a single TF purchase in the first half of May. So I was really beginning to think that this month would be like last month where I only got 1 TF. Then on May 17th I find Shockwave. On May 19th I decided to get BH Optimus. I’ve seen this figure plenty of times before, but was hoping to find him cheaper. I got sick of waiting so on this day I bought it. Then the MP figs show up later that week from hlj. And on Memorial Day weekend, Gemini hands me all the TFs he found for me. All these figures bunched up toward the end to make May a good month for TFs.

As of this writing, I have only opened the three US figures. Shockwave is pretty cool, though some aspects of his construction could have been better. On my figure, the right arm keeps falling off at the shoulder. A little nail polish seems to fix the issue, but this shouldn’t have been a problem to begin with. I also don’t like the position of the ratchet increments on the hip joints. The beast armor is worthless. But other than these issues, he’s an excellent fig. Both modes look great, transformation is fun and easy, he’s plenty articulated, and the design and colors are pure Shockwave.

I highly recommend Beast Hunters Optimus, like all the other reviews I have seen. Both modes are awesome and I detect no construction issues. Articulation is superb, and the alt mode comes together well. The major complaint among the TF fandom about this figure (which I agree with) is the ugly head mold, but some 3rd party is coming out with a custom head which should address this. Some fans also gripe about the green windows and sword, but that doesn’t bug me too much.

Springer is pure awesomeness! All TransFans have nothing but praises for him. For this reason, I opened him with such a quickness that I forgot to take pics of him when he was still unopened in the box. I haven’t transformed him yet, but I’m totally digging the robot mode. For those that don’t know, this Springer is modeled after Nick Roche’s version from Last Stand of the Wreckers (a brilliant TF graphic novel BTW). Many fans already project this fig to be TF of the year. I’ll transform him soon and see how much I agree with that assessment, but that many fans can’t be wrong so I know I’ll be pleased to say the least.

As for the 7 Takara TFs, I plan to open them all.

In unrelated news, this past Sunday I attended Fanime 2013. In a earlier post I said I will cover the event, but I really didn’t take any pics this time, so I guess I won’t. This was the first anime con for me in several years. The big draw these days appear to be all the cos-players. I estimate between 30 to 40% of all attendees are in costume. Shopping doesn’t seem like it’s as big as before. Sales of anime DVDs and Blurays have really dwindled. I guess it’s a sign of the times.

BotCon 2013 is next month. I probably will not go, but you never know. Til next time, Transform and Roll Out.

The first month of the new year is already over. So far in 2013 it feels like I did nothing but work. Not really a good way to start the year, but it could be worse. My start to 2012 was really crappy, for personal reasons that I won’t mention here. So I guess, in a way, anything’s better. Uneventful, but better. Sometimes no news is good news.

But let’s now get to what’s really important: my TFs for the month. There were a total of 10 purchases this month. This is drastically different from how 2012 started, where I only found 1 TF worth buying for the entire month (PCC Heavytread). So here’s another way that 2013 is off to a better start!

• Fall of Cybertron Ultra Magnus, Toys R Us, $15.99

• PCC Steelshot, Toys R Us, $9.99

• Masterpiece Red Alert, amiami.com, about $57 shipped

• Fall of Cybertron Soundblaster with Buzzsaw, Toys R Us, $11.99

• Fall of Cybertron Sideswipe, amazon.com, $14.99

• TF Prime Beast Hunters Wheeljack, Toys R Us, $4.99
• TF Prime Beast Hunters Lazerback, Toys R Us, $15.99
• TF Prime Beast Hunters Soundwave with Ravage, Toys R Us, $15.99

• Fall of Cybertron Kickback, amazon.com, $14.99
• Fall of Cybertron Air Raid, amazon.com, $14.99

That is a total of 10 purchases for 12 figures. 1 Masterpiece, 1 PCC, 6 Generations FOC, and 4 TF Prime. Not bad for a full month.

I gave MP Red Alert a quick review. Check that post for my thoughts on the figure. Or better yet, just buy it now. I’ll just mention here real quick that I think I got an awesome price for the figure.

For the Generations FOC figures, I opened Ultra Magnus, Sideswipe, and Soundblaster. Ultra Magnus is cool, with a new head mold. The colors on this figure are undoubtedly Ultra Magnus. Actually, I think I like this mold better as Ultra Magnus. I like the Prime figure too, but I think War for Cybertron Optimus is better. And I always felt that Magnus got gypped throughout TF history by being the Prime repaint. So in this TF Universe I like to use the WFC figure as Prime, and have Magnus use this new mold. Sideswipe is cool too. For the longest time I didn’t even know this is a repaint of the Jazz figure. Sideswipe still has all the same weaknesses that I mentioned for the Jazz mold, which are the long arms and the hole in the chest. But for some reason, the arms don’t look as long on Sideswipe. The chest cavity is still an issue though.

Soundblaster is basically just a darker version of Soundwave of the same mold. Both colors have their charm, so I can’t decide which one I like better. Buzzsaw is a straight up repaint of Laserbeak. The two toys are identical in every way other than the colors. However, on my figure, it does seem like the launching mechanism of Soundblaster is a bit better than Soundwave. I only tried Soundblaster ejecting Buzzsaw, but that works well every time. I should try Soundblaster with other discs and see how well that fares. The $11.99 price tag is because I had $11 worth of Toys R Us dollars, he’s usually $22.99 there.

You may wonder why I’m buying a PCC in 2013. They weren’t even all that cool back in 2010 and 2011, when they were released. I’m buying them now because of these Mobine Missile Launcher Sets made by MakeToys. I think they look really cool, and I will probably buy this jungle set to use with my PCCs. Maybe get the marine type too. Anyway, I got Steelshot because this mold is featured in one of the pics for the set. I’m positive I could have got this figure last year for $5 at Ross, so I am kicking myself a little for paying full price now. Still, PCCs have gone way up if you believe Amazon prices. So I think I’m still lucky to find one at MSRP. Steelshot is an ok figure. Not the best figure by PCC standards, but not the worst either.

The only TF Prime Beast Hunter figure I opened so far is Wheeljack. He’s just a slight remold of the first deluxe Wheeljack figure. I like the weapon on the new figure, but if you already have the first Wheeljack then you will want to consider if you like this figure enough to get something so similar. Again, the $4.99 price is because of some more Toys R Us dollars. The other 2 Beast Hunter figures I will open later.

Air Raid and Kickback arrived from amazon just this evening. I barely had time to take these pics. I’m sure I’ll like Air Raid since I found the Shockwave mold so impressive. I had no idea he would be Air Raid though. When I first saw the figure back in this post, I thought he would make a better Strafe. The jet looks high-tech, and the head mold more resembles Strafe. As Fireflight he fits too, I guess. And on amazon he’s also listed as Fireflight. Now I have the package in hand, I see they made him Air Raid. I still say this head mold is a better fit for Strafe. I bet a customizer out there is already making him Strafe. Kickback looks cool. I love the Insecticons. I’m looking forward to opening this figure. Oh yeah, amazon listed this figure simply as Insecticon. They can’t get any of these names right.

So that’s it, my TFs in January of 2013. I also made a whole bunch of pre-orders this month for 3rd party items, but that will be for another time, when they arrive. Until then… Transform and Roll Out!