It is now April 15th. Yes I am still doing the whole Shelter in Place thing. But more importantly, I wanted to give an update on how I’m doing with my Transformers Challenge that I outlined in the last post.

I was only able to complete 3 out of the 5 that I set out to do. A bit less than I hoped for, but a 60% completion rate is better than 0.

Fans Toys Roadking

Roadking is successfully transformed into truck mode. Pic below.

From an engineering perspective, this is a really impressive piece. Roadking (aka Motormaster) is only a bit taller than the MP-10 in robot mode, but this truck is equal in size to the MP-10 in alt mode with the trailer! That’s some awesome mass-shifting going on there. Lots of panels collapse onto itself in Roadking’s robot mode, and for alt mode they expand out and form the trailer.

I would say this is a challenging piece, but not impossible. On my next transform I will probably need the instructions again. But I feel like this process can be committed to memory if done repeatedly. At this point I am undecided as to if I would call this a fun transformation. I enjoyed the overall process, but lining up the panels in alt mode is more chore than pleasure.

Masterpiece Sunstreaker

Here is a figure that I had fun transforming back to alt mode. Sunstreaker is looking super sexy in his awesome Lamborghini Countach!

For this transformation back to alt mode, I resorted to using the instructions. But that was more because I didn’t want to accidentally break something (which I’ve done from time to time). Without the instructions, I probably could have figured this out in reasonable time.

Going back to alt mode felt about the same as going to robot mode in terms of difficulty. There are some really small pieces on this figure which makes for an intricate transformation. Engineering wise, Sunstreaker is probably the most impressive official MP Carbot made to date. Definitely a lot going on for a toy this size. One side mirror popped off during my transform back to car mode, and getting it back on took some effort. Other than that, the conversion process is a joy. I intend to transform Sunstreaker more in the future, because it’s fun and challenging. I would say his twin brother Sideswipe is still the better piece as far as being the perfect balance of toy and collector’s item, but Sunstreaker is the more accomplished figure in terms of TF engineering.

Fans Toys Rouge

You could almost say you’ve been to hell and back if you have successfully transformed Fans Toys Rouge. With much sweat and tears, I got this MP style Arcee back to her robot mode.

Looking at the instructions is a must for doing this piece. However, the instructions only show how to go from robot to car. Sure, just “reverse steps to go back” like what all instructions say. That is way easier said than done for something as frustrating as FT Arcee. There a bunch of pieces held together by thin plastic and metal poles. All these pieces move and rotate around these poles, so during transformation Arcee is one hot mess. There is one waist hinge that seems like it would totally break off if you bend her the wrong way. The instructions proved to be only marginally useful. I had to look at another transformation video of FT Rouge going from car to robot. Thank you Chosen Prime for putting that vid together.

The positive about this figure is that Arcee looks absolutely beautiful in both modes. I have no complaints about the appearance of either robot or car mode. She looks like she stepped straight out of the G1 movie. Fans Toys is really all about show accuracy and Rouge is no exception. FT engineers are to be commended for coming up with a figure that looks so good and so accurate in both modes, while the transformation requires no cheating (ex: parts-forming, fake parts, etc). But this figure is not fun at all. It is highly unlikely that I will ever transform Rouge back to car again.

At this point I still got about 3 weeks of Shelter in Place remaining, if plans don’t change. I will get to Megatron and Gewalt in later weeks.

Stay strong and stay home my fellow TransFans. We can beat this pandemic together. Transform and Roll Out (again, not literally out).
 

Here in the San Francisco Bay Area, the coronavirus pandemic has forced most of the local counties to adopt a Shelter in Place order. Everyone needs to “Shelter From Home”. In other words, only go out for essential activities, and stay home otherwise. All food establishments are in to-go only mode. Most other businesses are closed. Social Distancing has become the norm. Initially this order was only to go til April 7th, but now it looks like it will extend to May 1st at the minimum.

I have been working from home full-time since St Patrick’s Day. My wife has been working from home for even longer than that. I am busy doing real work at home, all the while trying to entertain a 2-year-old baby who’s stuck at home with us full time since her daycare is closed from the isolation order. It has been tough.

When you have a 2-year-old, life is always busy. I don’t have that much free time on my hands anymore. But when I do, I need to find different ways to pass the time as going outside is a non-option. I stumbled on this article suggesting 10 Transformers-related activities to beat the self-isolation blues. I am inspired by #8 and #9, and came up with my own challenge. I will select 5 MP-style Transformers that’s been lying around and untouched for some time (or never), and get them transformed! I am selecting these 5 below.

#1 Masterpiece Megatron (MP-36)

MP-36 Megatron is a Transformer that I’ve had since May of 2017, and to this day I still have not transformed him! This may be the only figure in my entire collection that I have opened but not transformed. Now, nearly 3 years later, I will attempt to get him to that awesome Walther P38. This might take a while, but it will be fun.

#2 Fans Toys Roadking

I got Fans Toys’ homage to Motormaster in January of this year. I still haven’t opened him, right up til before writing this blog entry. In preparation for this, I got him opened just now. The pic above is him posed with his sword and gun, in robot mode. I will get him to truck mode.

#3 Masterpiece Sunstreaker (MP-39)

MP-39 Sunstreaker is probably the most demanding piece in the entire MP Carbot lineup. I got him back in January of 2018. I opened him pretty soon after he arrived, and got him transformed to robot. He’s been stuck in robot ever since then. Now after 2 years later, I will transform him back to that superb Lamborghini Countach. Since I’ve gone through this once, I am mentally prepared to give my transforming senses a workout. It wasn’t easy going from car to robot, and I anticipate that going backwards will be even tougher.

#4 Fans Toys Rouge

I bought Fans Toys Rouge in May of 2019, about a year ago. I opened her pretty quick. She’s packed in robot mode, and I got her transformed to alt mode fairly soon after opening the figure. But I remember the transformation process being a nightmare. This is not a fun transformation at all. If I compiled a list of top frustrating figures to transform, FT Rouge would top the list. And because of that, Rouge stayed in alt mode all this time. Don’t get the wrong, both modes are fantastic. I salute Fans Toys’ engineers for making a figure that looks true to Arcee in both modes while requiring no parts-forming or puzzle-forming. But damn, the conversion process is not for the faint of heart. I’m hoping that going back to robot will be easier. We’ll see.

#5 DX9 Gewalt

DX9 Gewalt is another figure I acquired in January of 2018. Currently, most fans agree this is the best MP-style Blitzwing on the market. Gewalt is packed in tank mode. I transformed him to jet mode pretty soon after I got him, then transformed him to robot mode. He’s stayed in robot mode all this time. The transformation is not impossible, but definitely challenging. I will attempt to do the reverse transformations from memory, but most likely I will resort to looking at instructions or online videos.

There you have it. My self-imposed Transformer challenge for this Shelter From Home episode. I will attempt to get this challenge done by April 15th. Yes, I know that some of you out there reading this think you can do all this in less than a day. If you really can, then I congratulate you on all the free time you have on your hands. I am not so fortunate. Despite being sheltered at home, I still have a full-time job, and a 2-year-old to tend to. Time is not my friend.

What kind of Transformers related activities are you doing during this difficult time? Feel free to comment below.

Stay safe and stay healthy everyone. We will beat this pandemic together. Transform and Roll Out (again, not literally go out).
 

November 2015 is back to buying only a handful of Transformers. The 3 figures appear below.

• Age of Extinction Chainsaw Thrash Vehicon, Ross, $5.99

• Combiner Wars Battle Core Optimus Prime, Target, $24.99

• Combiner Wars Motormaster, Target, $24.99

Chainsaw Thrash Vehicon is yet another budget impulse buy. I was semi-impressed with Spinning Grinder Galvatron, and at $5.99 there’s no real reason to be conservative. The TF Movie universe took a cue from TF Prime and adopted the concept of a drone robot army made up of Vehicons. In AoE, Vehicons are man-made Transformers used by Cemetery Wind, as opposed to the non-sentient but self-operating drones in TF Prime. As far as I know, there is not a Generations version of Vehicon in the AoE toys, so this Chainsaw Thrash Vehicon will have to do. I like this figure. His alt mode is unique. I don’t know of any other TF (official or otherwise) that transforms into a Rally Fighter. In robot mode, the chainsaw gimmick is semi entertaining, but adds only marginal value for the adult collector. Kids of today would probably enjoy the gimmick for a good 10 minutes before their super short attention span turns them elsewhere. Transformation is painfully simple. Overall, this Vehicon is a nice distraction on a dry TF month, but not a required purchase by any means.

Battle Core Optimus Prime and Motormaster are repaints of each other. In fact, they are repaints of my purchases from January and March of 2015, respectively. By now, most fans are aware of the hip problems that earlier versions of these figures have. This is why I bought Motormaster again. As for Battle Core Optimus, I got him only because I like his head mold so much more over the standard Optimus fig. So the million dollar question is: are the new figs better than the old ones? Yes and no. In robot mode, the figure now looks better when standing in a neutral pose. And in combined form, the fixed ratchets help to stabilize the gestalt in the legs and hips. This is the biggest improvement in the new figures. However, the truck mode does not come together as nicely. This figure compacts itself quite a bit when going to alt mode, and the slight ratchet tweak somehow made it much more difficult to collapse all the pieces and panels properly. This is the case with both Battle Core OP and Motormaster, so I’m convinced this phenomenon is present on all the new figures (I did not detect this on the older figures). Also, they still did not fix the poorly fitted connection pegs located on the chest (for Rodimus or Blackjack). So is it worth it to buy these figs again? I dunno. If you really must have a more stable combined mode, then go for it. Otherwise, I would suggest you save your money if you already have the older figures.

We are almost at the end of 2015. One more month to go, then onto 2016.

Transform and Roll Out.

March of 2015 continues with more figures of Combiner Wars. Only 2 CW figs here, but they both happen to be trucks. This is what I call Truck Month (built Transformer tough).

• Combiner Wars Huffer, amazon.com, $10.99

• Combiner Wars Motormaster, hasbrotoyshop.com, $21.79

Huffer is a character that I never cared for while growing up. He’s a total whiner, and is quick to point out the absurdities of any situation. Why Optimus chose him to be one of the original 18 Autobots aboard the Ark is beyond me. Still, Huffer has been around all this time, so it’s finally good to have a figure of him in my CHUG line. In fact, not counting this Power Core Combiners Huffer, this is my only Huffer figure. This fig is a repaint of Generations Thrilling 30 Optimus Prime, so I won’t mention it too much. I know, Huffer gets no love. Hasbro only sees fit to produce Huffer figures when they’re convenient repaints.

Motormaster IS a character I cared for while growing up. Being the leader of the bad-ass Stunticons, you can’t help but like him. He forms the body of the mighty Menasor. I believe this is the first time after G1 Hasbro has made a Motormaster that can combine with other figures to form Menasor. I already talked about how this figure is individually with the Optimus Prime repaint in a previous post. Some differences for Motormaster include the colors, a different head mold, and he comes with sword weapons instead of the Optimus guns. In combined mode, this figure also has the problem with hips that I mentioned before. With Optimus, I didn’t really care that he has the problem, because Optimus is not usually a combiner. But with Motormaster, I see this as a big problem. Also, Blackjack (a CW legend size figure that will come later) is supposed to fit onto Menasor’s chest. The connection for Blackjack is very poorly fitted. As a result, Blackjack does not combine that well. I’ll mention this again when I go into Blackjack. But overall, I like Motormaster in truck mode. In robot and combined forms, the figure suffers from the leg and hips issue. Hasbro will reproduce a fixed version of this figure much later. I will again re-visit this, when I present the fixed version of Motormaster.

This is the first time in a LONG time that I have made 4 posts in my blog in one month. Yay! Blogging back on track. Transform and Roll Out!

As promised, here are more pics of Transform Mission Menasor.

This is a new unknown company in a market where third party products are totally saturated. It remains to be seen if they can compete adequately with the current existing players. I am eager to see color pics of their products. I will of course post those pics as soon as they surface somewhere.

I am really hoping that Transform Mission will do the Stunticons justice. Don’t get me wrong. The existing offerings of our favorite Decepticon racers aren’t too shabby, but none of them are perfect. The FansProject Intimidator set is great in combined form, but I find issues with them individually. The limb pieces are small and too tough to transform for their size, while Diesel (Motormaster) is way too complicated to be any fun. The Hasbro Combiner Wars set has the opposite problem. They are fun to play with individually, but the combined form leaves much to be desired. I am hoping Transform Mission will rectify all these problems and give us the perfect Stunticons.

Transform and Roll Out.

It’s been a while since I did a post about what’s on my shelf. So I’m doing one today.

Same pic, different angle.

From left to right

Lower shelf: Thrilling 30 Rhinox, Thrilling 30 Rattrap, Mastermind Creations Felisaber

I especially like the three gestalts on the top shelf. Feral Rex and Giant have been featured elsewhere before in this blog so I won’t go into detail again. Combiner Wars Menasor is Hasbro’s official update of the Stunticons in combined form. Compared to Fans Project’s Intimidator, Menasor has it’s pros and cons. Individually I like the Hasbro figures better. They are larger, sturdier, easier to transform, and more fun to play with. However in combined form, FP has the better looking Menasor. Intimidator also stays together better than Combiner Wars Menasor, as the Hasbro figure feels like it could quickly fall apart. However I should point out that the Hasbro figures feel more like a true combiner. The leg components are not simply adding on top of Motormaster’s legs, like in FP’s offering.

Poor Rattrap and Rhinox. They are the only good guys here. Technically they are not Autobots, so I don’t have a single Autobot in this post. Decepticons forever!

Transform and Roll Out.

Continuing with the tradition of this blog, I will still document what I am buying each month. I am now back-posting what I bought per month since the start of 2014.

• Mastermind Creations Fortis, tfsource.com, $89.99

• Generations Thrilling 30 Dreading, Target, $17.99

• FansProject Diesel, tfsource.com, $119.95

I have opened all of these. Fortis (not Headstrong) is almost exactly like Bovis, which I was not expecting. I thought MMC would do more to distinguish between the 2 figures which forms the legs of Predaking. Dreadwing is a redeco of Generations Thrilling 30 Megatron. Only differences between these 2 figs are the paint job and the head mold.

Diesel (not Motormaster) is a complicated piece to say the least. He’s packaged in truck mode like you see in the pic above. In the pics below, I have him transformed to his robot mode, with and without armor.

And for course the real reason we hardcore collectors all get this figure is so we can form the mighty Intimidator (not Menasor)!

Intimidator looks totally kick-ass when combined! The limb components were bought in March and August of last year.

So that’s 3 figures for the month, two 3rd party figs and one generations figs. Not a bad way to start the new year.

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!