February 2018 is another month where the repaints outnumber the new molds, much like May of 2017. I suppose it’s my own fault for willingly buying figures that I know are retreads and retools, but Hasbro and Takara keeps inventing new ways to sucker me in. Woe is me.
- Titans Return Slugslinger, Amazon seller, $22.99
- Legends Blurr (LG25), bbts.com, $39.99
- Power of the Primes Hun-Gurrr, Target, $24.99
- Titans Return Overlord, Amazon seller, $36.00
- Fans Toys Sovereign, bbts.com, $154.99
Slugslinger
To be fair, Slugslinger is a good retool of the Triggerhappy and Misfire mold. Read those posts and see that I gushed on and on about how cool these figs are. Slugslinger reworks both of these molds by adding new molds for the head, jet nose cones, and wings. In the end, he does feel like a new figure, and so the purchase is more justified. G1-ers will know that this trio makes the original 3 Decepticon Targetmasters from Season 4. For me, that’s reason enough to buy Slugslinger to complete the set.
Slugslinger is hard to find. Not sure if this is due to Hasbro’s weird distribution patterns or him being a possible store exclusive. Whatever the reason, I resorted to buying Slugslinger from an independent seller on Amazon. At a slight markup of $22.99, I bought with haste. And that was smart, because I have not seen this figure anywhere in store before or after the purchase. Prices on Amazon hovered around my purchase price for a while. But as of this writing, it costs about $40 to get Slugslinger. Glad I got in when I did.
Oh yeah, I also have Metalhawk. So Slugslinger is my 4th figure of this mold. Damn you Hasbro.
Blurr
And speaking of being the 4th figure of a mold, Legends Blurr is also my 4th figure of its mold (after Titans Return Blurr, Walgreens exclusive Brainstorm, and Toys R Us exclusive Arcee). The colors for the American Titans Return Blurr just don’t do it for me. It’s not even remotely close to his G1 colors. I usually don’t buy a Japanese release purely for the colors, but in this case I had to make an exception.
Figure wise, Legends Blurr is just like his American counterpart. Read my post on TR Blurr for my thoughts on this fig.
Hun-Gurrr
Hun-Gurrr is yet another retool. I don’t even know how many figs of this mold I have now. Off the top of my head, there’s Silverbolt, Cyclonus, and Scattershot. So Hun-Gurrr is at least the 4th fig of this scheme. Damn you Hasbro, double damn you.
However I should point out that Hun-Gurrr is an excellent rework off this mold. I did a review of all the PotP Terrorcons, read it for my detailed thoughts. But to summarize, Hun-Gurrr is great in all 3 modes, and super stable as the body of Abominus. Totally worth the repeat purchase.
Overlord
Overlord is yet another retread, but at least I know for sure I only have one other fig of this mold. That would be Sky Shadow. Read that review for my full thoughts on this fig. Sky Shadow is a “prepaint” to Overlord.
To be fair, this mold was always meant for Overlord, because of the separating mechanism. And there are quite a bit of mold differences between Overlord and Sky Shadow. But is buying both figs justified? I would say no, since neither characters are all that famous. If you want to buy one of these for the character, then get Overlord, as he does make some impact in the comics. But I personally like the look and colors of this fig better on Sky Shadow. So it’s your call.
Overlord is another figure where I bought from an independent Amazon seller this month. Much like Slugslinger, I never saw Overlord in store. But unlike Slugslinger, price for Overlord keeps going down! I thought I got a good deal at $36, but as of this writing you can get one on Amazon for $28! TF prices are like stocks, I swear. They go up, down, sideways, and no TF insider or outsider has any freakin’ clue how it’s gonna go.
Sovereign
Finally we have a completely new figure this month, and it comes from every TF fanboy’s favorite 3P company, Fans Toys! Ladies and gents I give you: Sovereign!
Sovereign comes packed in robot mode. G1-ers will undoubtedly recognize him as Galvatron, the Decepticon leader re-formatted from Megatron by Unicron in the G1 Movie. And let me say this with no uncertainty: this is the ultimate MP interpretation of Galvatron that any company has made to date. Titans Return Galvatron is a pretty good figure for CHUG scale, and Sovereign is an even better figure for MP scale. Below is a pic I took of Sovereign when I got some nice rub-on faction decals, but it’s worth re-posting here since he looks so awesome.
Now is that Galvatron or is that Galvatron? Look at that robot mode. Fan Toys always study an animation model down to it’s tiniest detail and produce a figure that is faithful to that appearance. The G1 toy looked nothing like it’s animation counterpart. And it’s anyone’s guess if HasTak will officially bring out a MP Galvatron. If you need a MP scale Galvatron in your collection, look no further than Sovereign.
Transformation to alt mode is on the complicated side. I only did it one time, and I used the instructions. I did not need it on the reverse transformation back to robot, because I did that not too long after the first transformation to cannon. However, if I am to transform Sovereign again to alt mode, I’m not sure if I can do it from memory. There are some tricky details to the overall scheme that is both ingenious and challenging. But it is so satisfying. Check out pics of the cannon mode below if you’re not convinced.
Sovereign is such a well built figure too. There are no loose bits in either mode. All joints are nice, tight, and clicky, the way I like them. I don’t detect any build issues on my copy. My Sovereign comes from the 2nd run, so whatever issues they had with the figure were ironed out in this run.
I don’t remember much about the accessories as I write this, but Sovereign does come with a solid orange cannon (as opposed to the clear orange one as shown in all my pics). Neither one has any LED lights, unfortunately. Also included is the Autobot Matrix of Leadership with gangster chain attached. He can wear it around his neck with the Matrix on his chest, just like in the movie. That Galvatron, he’s so bling.
Below is a pic of Sovereign with some other figures (KBB MP-10V Optimus Prime, PotP Rippersnapper, MakeToys Contactshot), so you can see how they scale.
There are other MP scale Galvatrons out there now, but Sovereign is still the best, IMO.
Do yourself a favor and incorporate Sovereign into your collection if you haven’t already. You know you want to.
That’s it for this repaint-heavy month. Lots more to come. Transform and roll out.
