October 2017 is a month of 4s in terms of purchase pattern. 4 figs from The Last Knight. 4 figs from Titans Return. 4 Autobots. 4 Decepticons. A very balanced month.

• The Last Knight Hot Rod, Walmart, $19.99

• The Last Knight Megatron, amazon.com, $26.86

• The Last Knight Nitro, Walmart, $26.86

• The Last Knight Scorn, Walmart, $26.86

• Titans Return Misfire, Target, $15.29

• Titans Return Twin Twist, Target, $15.29

• Titans Return Windblade, Target, $15.29

• Titans Return Repugnus, Target, $4.99

Hot Rod

Last month there was a Hot Rod purchase, and this month there is one as well. The Last Knight Hot Rod is a Walmart exclusvie. His overall motif is similar to Age of Extinction Lockdown. But make no mistake, Hot Rod is a brand new mold. As far as I can tell, the only parts that are shared between the two figures are the lower legs. Everything else are new molds for Hot Rod.

Again, with the exception of the lower legs, it’s as if Hasbro went back to the drawing board and re-designed every single part of the pieces that make up Lockdown. The result is a brand new figure using a new mold that follows the patterns of a previous figure. This effort yielded a superior figure in many regards. In my opinion, Hot Rod looks better in both modes. He feels more solid and robust. But most importantly, the transformation becomes a much more enjoyable process. Hot Rod’s alt mode comes together way better than Lockdown’s. The re-designed parts and pieces fit congruently in ways that Lockdown never did.

Hot Rod’s Lamborghini alt mode is super well done for a mass produced retail deluxe class toy. I’ll let the pics below speak for themselves.

Here is an alt mode comparison between TLK Hot Rod and AoE Lockdown.

Personally I like the paint job on Hot Rod way more than the one on Lockdown. Lockdown should have been painted black or dark grey, instead of this weird brown/grey color.

Hot Rod is a recommended purchase. Don’t brush this off as another simple repaint. This is how Lockdown should have been. If the Studio Series didn’t already release a brand new Lockdown, I could totally see Hasbro repainting this Hot Rod into Lockdown. Fans of movie figures will undoubtedly want Hot Rod in their collection.

Megatron

TLK Megatron is another figure in the line that deserves your hard-earned dollars. This is is the voyager class version of the figure. There is a leader class version of TLK Megatron, but I opted for this one. The leader class has a weird transformation where the front jet nosecone becomes his fusion cannon. I didn’t particularly like that design, so I bought the voyager class figure instead. Leader class Megatron may well be a nice figure too, but I don’t have it so can’t comment.

Megs is back to being a jet in the 5th movie. As a sidebar, Megatron has a different alt mode in each movie. He goes from being a Cybertronian jet in the first movie, to a Cybertronian tank in RotF, then an earth fuel truck in DotM. He comes back as Galvatron in AoE in as an Optimus Prime type semi-trailer truck, then returns in TLK as this Cybertronian jet that’s different from the first movie. His robot mode kinda differs in each movie too. I don’t even remember how he comes back in TLK since I really wasn’t all that invested in the movie.

But let’s get back to this figure. TLK voyager class Megatron has got one of the best transformations that I have seen in a long time. I touched on this topic back in this post. This Megatron looks dramatically different from previous incarnations, perhaps because he was modified to being Galvatron. But whatever the case, I do like TLK voyager class Megatron. Hasbro is obviously going for a knight motif here. The robot mode appears below.

The figure is well proportioned, with nothing looking too oddly out of place. In the pic above, the sword is stored on the back, but he can wield it fine in either hand. The overall color scheme of the figure is very unique, and the paint job is quite good on a whole. The figure is well built. The joints are at just the right tolerance. All parts that need to be locked down from transformation are tabbed in, so what you have here is a solid robot figure with nothing dangling around. Poseability is decent.

Again, the transformation of TLK Megatron is where this figure hits it out of the park. I have seen plenty of robot to jet transformations among the hundreds of TFs that I own, and yet I still find this one totally refreshing. It doesn’t justify it when I describe it in words. The overall motif is that the jet nosecone is on the back and flips forward. The arms go around the back and folds in the opposite direction, ending up towards the rear of the jet. The wings unfold from the legs, and the legs end up kind of on the side and underneath the wings. Yes I know it sounds like we have seen this all before, but believe me when I say that the implementation of this motif is new and invigorating. When all this is coupled with the solid construction that I mentioned already, the result is a figure that is a pure joy to play with. I think I transformed TLK Megatron at least 10 times, and these days that’s a lot for me. I got way too many TFs and I’m usually too busy with other things. Transforming a figure this many times is a testament to its fun factor.

The jet mode can be seen in the above pic. This is a fantastic looking jet mode. Many TF jets suffer from having too much bulk in jet mode, but Megatron looks nice and sleek. Everything also tabs in where it should in this mode. Again, this figure is so well built that you don’t have to worry about anything dangling around. The tolerance on the wings are perfect and you don’t have to worry about them drooping down.

I give TLK voyager class Megatron the highest recommendation possible. He really deserves a separate review on this blog. Maybe someday.

Nitro

I reviewed the excellent Nitro figure here. See that post for my detailed thoughts. Nitro is one of the best figures that TLK has to offer.

Scorn

The last of the TLK figures this month is voyager class Scorn. Many will point out that we got a deluxe class Scorn in AoE. AoE deluxe Scorn is one of the better Dinobots from that movie. I think I bought all the mass retail Dinobots from AoE, and I ended up selling most of them because I thought they were underwhelming. Deluxe Scorn is one of the few that I kept (along with AoE deluxe Snarl).

TLK Scorn ups the figure to voyager class size. They should have done this back in AoE. All Dinobots need to be voyager class or bigger, in my opinion. The robot mode appears below.

I don’t know how movie accurate TLK Scorn is, and I’m not going to check. The one thing that immediately sticks out with me is that the dino tail becomes the left arm. Beast Wars fans may be thrilled with this design choice, but I’m not so sure. AoE is the same way. I guess this is more of personal taste, but I like my robots having both functional arms (Shockwave may be the lone exception here).

TLK Scorn definitely feels beefier than AoE Scorn. The upgrade to voyager class makes a big difference. This Dinobot now has more of a presence when lined up on the shelf with the Autobots proper from the movie line. This figure weighs quite a bit too. He is the heaviest figure this month. All this is very fitting of his Dinobot pedigree.

Poseability of this figure is more limited, mostly because of all the dino kibble. Most fans will probably have this guy in spinosaurus mode anyway, which we will look at now.

In dino mode, this Scorn looks much better than AoE Scorn. Many pieces on the dino are painted silver, such as the jaws, and claws on both the hands and the feet, and the top of the tail. The bigger scale means a more imposing spinosaurus. And speaking of that, TLK Scorn has three rows of spines on the back, versus just one row on AoE Scorn. This is the Scorn that we should have got all along.

There are some negatives with this figure that I need to mention. TLK Scorn is an unsymmetrical transformer, like most motorcycle figures. This means that parts that may be symmetrical in one mode will have unsymmetrical placements in the other mode. In Scorn’s case, the left arm becomes the tail, while the right arm tabs underneath the neck. This may not bother some, but I prefer my figures symmetrical. Transformation is also not the most intuitive. Going from robot to dino, there are arm rotations at the shoulder that need to happen for proper placement. The instructions does point it out, but doing it on the figure is harder than it looks. This is required on both arms. There are tabs and pegs to help you align them, but I found them to be of little help.

Below is a pic of AoE Scorn and TLK Scorn in their spinosaurus modes.

I should point out that TLK Scorn is not simply an upsize of AoE Scorn. TLK Scorn is a brand new mold. As of this writing, I can’t remember if the two molds transform the same way. I’m tempted to say that the overall motif is the same, but mechanics are different.

I give TLK Scorn a weak recommendation. There are some personal preferences that I don’t like, but you may be ok with them. Transformation to dino mode is more frustrating than it should be, but many will probably leave Scorn in this mode anyway. The upsizing alone may be worth the ticket of admission. Movie Dinobots fans should definitely get this, no question.

Misfire

Misfire is a figure that I have long looked forward to. I have G1 Misfire, and I’m always partial to characters that I owned from G1. Titans Return Triggerhappy was released back in December of 2016. Misfire and Triggerhappy came from the same group (both are Decepticon Targetmasters from Season 4). So if they did Triggerhappy, I knew Misfire couldn’t be far behind.

Sure enough, we get Titans Return Misfire this month. What I didn’t know is that they would re-work the Triggerhappy mold and use that as a base for Misfire. And the result is… quite good, actually. I usually don’t like repaints, and this isn’t one. The overall base mold is the same, but there are enough new or modified moldings on top of the existing framework that the new figure created feels distinct from the parent. The jet mode is where you see the most differences. TR Misfire is definitely an homage to the G1 figure, I’ll attest to that. See the pics for yourself.

Still, Misfire is mechanically similar to Triggerhappy, so read the post on Triggerhappy for more detailed thoughts on the figure. I love this mold and all characters that are derived from it. For G1 fans, purchase of Misfire is required.

Twin Twist

Twin Twist is yet another must purchase item for G1 fans this month. His brother Topspin was acquired back in June of 2017. In that post, I gushed on and on about how nice of a figure Topspin is. All that applies to Twin Twist. He is a virtually identical figure, but that’s how it was in G1.

The only mold differences I can detect between Topspin and Twin Twist is that the wings got replaced with tank treads, the 2 front nosecones are swapped for twin drills, and the front cockpit area went from more of a smooth sports car hood to that of a tough truck grill. The chest mold designs didn’t change, but they are swapped mirror images between the brothers.

Buying Twin Twist should be a no-brainer for those that got Topspin. And if you didn’t, do yourself a favor and go get both of these.

Windblade

Windblade sure has been getting a lot of love lately. How many Windblade figures is Hasbro gonna put out there? For a character that is a relative unknown, it’s impressive that she has had a figure made in most of the current TF lines. It all started with Generations Thrilling 30 Windblade. Then Robots in Disguise Windblade (of which there are two separate versions). Now we get a Titans Return Windblade, with a fully functioning Headmaster gimmick. So how does TR Windblade fare with the rest? Let’s take a look. The toy comes packaged in robot mode.

I like the look and appearance of TR Windblade in robot form. I think she looks better than Thrilling 30 Windblade, but not quite as good as RiD Windblade. Paint apps on the figure is good. TR Windblade gets twin long straight swords this time around, instead of the single curved blade with sheath. As a Headmaster she still has her iconic face design. All of this creates the image of a Japanese geisha girl who happens to be samurai, all represented by a giant fembot. And of course TR Windblade still has the iconic twin rotors on her wings. She would not be Windblade without them.

Poseability of TR Windblade is not too shabby. She’s capable of some dynamic poses.

Transformation to jet mode is laughably simple. She uses all the standard jet transformation mechanics. Nose cone folds back, arms the sides, and fold the legs. The only thing that’s kind of original is you have to pull out the waist, but there’s nothing groundbreaking here as far as transformation goes. Head transformation is standard Headmaster fare.

The jet mode does look nice though. The Titan Master sits nicely in the cockpit. The jet looks nice and sleek with no obvious bulk. The colors are unmistakably Windblade. The twin wing rotors are clearly visible. Everything tabs together nicely to form a cohesive whole, with nothing dangling or flopping around.

I definitely like TR Windblade better than Thrilling 30 Windblade. That figure was too much of a floppy mess, so anything more solid is automatically better in my book. I’m not sure how I would rate TR Windblade when compared with RiD Windblade. I like both figures, and each has its pros and cons. RiD Windblade has a better robot mode and a slightly more involved transformation (though not by much), but TR Windblade has better paint apps, better jet mode, and sturdier construction. I would recommend TR Windblade for fans of the character, but don’t expect any originality here.

Repugnus

I can’t close this post until I mention Repugnus. He’s a Titan Master. To this day, I still haven’t opened him. I got him along with all the other TR figs this month, in a single trip at Target. I only got him because I wanted to push the order over $50. Target was doing this deal for 10% off if the Transformer purchase is over $50. And with my Target Red Card, that adds another 5% off. All the prices listed at the top is MSRP. I think with all the discounts, total for this set of 4 TR figs came to around 40 bucks. Not bad.

But yeah, I chose Repugnus because he’s an actual G1 character. Repugnus is another Monsterbot, in the same group as Twinferno. I would later acquire a deluxe class Repugnus. This Titan Master Repugnus will probably stay unopened til Primus knows when.

Here are some group photos of the figs for this month.

Final Grades for the month:

Strong recommendation

• TLK Hot Rod
• TLK Megatron
• TLK Nitro
• TR Misfire
• TR Twin Twist

Weak recommendation

• TLK Scorn
• TR Windblade

No opinion

• TR Repugnus

More to come in later months. Transform and Roll Out.
 

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Before I say goodbye to 2013, it is time to count up the Transformers for December.

• Generations Thrilling 30 Doubledealer, hasbrotoyshop.com, $15.99

• Generations Thrilling 30 Rhinox, hasbrotoyshop.com, $15.99

• Mech Ideas Apex and Geminus, tfsource.com, $69.95

• Crazy Devy CDMW-34, tfsource.com, $28.00

• Mech Ideas W-01 Longblast Upgrade Kit, tfsource.com, $15.95

• ToyWorld Trace, tfsource.com, $64.95

• Generations Thrilling 30 Ratbat, gift from Gemini

• TF Prime RID Vehicon with custom head, gift from Gemini

2013 ended on a good note with all these TFs! This might be the only month where I had more 3rd party items than offical Hasbro or Takara items. Altogether, there were 8 purchases for 7 figures (Apex and Geminus was one purchase, and add-ons I don’t count as figures). 9 items total, 4 official products and 5 3rd party products.

Doubledealer, Rhinox, and Ratbat I have not opened yet, but will soon. It’s kind of a drag that Doubledealer still has the same mechanical problems as Blitzwing. I was hoping Hasbro would get around to fixing it for Doubledealer, but no such luck. As for Rhinox, I am hearing good things about the figure, so I’m optimistic. Ratbat is a repaint of Generations Scourge. That is a fantastic mold, so I expect this to be good as well.

I haven’t opened the two upgrade kits either, but I plan to do that soon. I need to dig out Hercules, then add this Crazy Devy head to it to check out the LED visor. The Longblast Upgrade Kit is designed to work with RTS Special Ops Jazz. I think I will use this kit on my G2 Jazz of the same mold. But I mostly got this kit for the little Shockwave and Megatron guns. I can’t wait to try those guns with other CHUG figures.

I opened Trace as soon as I got him. I really liked Aurora, so I had to get Trace. ToyWorld did not let me down with this Chase homage. I’m very happy with how Trace turned out. He’s bigger than Aurora. In fact, he’s about the size of standard deluxes that Hasbro used to make in years past, while Aurora is that of the deluxes now in store (which are smaller). Check out pics in my last post for some size comparisons. I like how ToyWorld decided to base Trace on the Lamborghini Urus Concept. He looks pretty accurate to the real thing in alt mode. In robot mode, Trace is nicely proportioned, very poseable, and free of mechanical issues. I highly recommend this figure.

I heard good things about Apex and Geminus from Mech Ideas so I had to get them. At only about 70 bucks for 2 third party figures, they were a really good deal. Anyway, I also give these figures the highest possible recommendation. They are easy to transform and extremely fun to play with. They are obivous homages to G1 Jumpstarters Topspin and Twin Twist. If you need some figures to complete your Wreckers, then look no further. Apex and Geminus are durable and nicely detailed. Obviously they don’t have the original G1 auto transformation gimmick, but as adult TransFans we probably don’t much care for that anyway.

The Vehicon with the custom head is a gift from Gemini. This particular head works great with the Vehicon mold. Since this guy now looks different from the others, I think I’ll make him the Vehicon leader. I now have 6 Vehicons total. Getting a Vehicon as a gift for Christmas appears to be a trend lately. Probably won’t continue for 2014 haha.

OK, now let’s look at some statistics for 2013. Here is the break down:

• 26 figures from Transformers Prime
• 20 figures from Generations Fall of Cybertron (FOC)
• 23 figures from Generations Thrilling 30
• 10 Masterpieces
• 10 3rd Party figures
• 1 Power Core Combiner (PCC)

That’s a grand total of 90 figures for the year. It comes to 7.5 figures a month. This is less than 2012. For me that’s probably a good thing, since I have way too many TFs. I think I have been more selective in what I buy.

Also, I see most of my figs come from Generations. That’s great news, since I love CHUG. Also, Masterpieces and 3rd party figs I choose to buy are all G1 inspired. That means most of my figures are G1 derivatives. What else did you expect from a G1 guy? 🙂

And as far as the stats from month to month, I don’t really see a trend of when I buy the most TFs in 2013. Next year this might change, since it will be a movie year.

On a more personal note, I’m a little sad to be saying goodbye to 2013. This year has been good to me, both personally and professionally. I hope this good fortune will continue into 2014. And as for TFs, we know Hasbro will release a whole mess of figures since TF4 will be due out in the summer. Long time readers of this blog knows that I’m not the biggest fan of Michael Bay TFs (notice that for 2013 I did not buy a single movie TF haha). So I’m somewhat skeptical of the kinds of toys that will be put on the shelves. I just hope they don’t disturb the release of Generations.

Oh, and one more thing, I got some big changes planned for this blog in early 2014, so stay tuned. Happy New Year and long live Transformers! Transform and Roll Out!

I usually try to make at least 4 blog posts a month. Look to the lower right in Archives and you will see I’ve been doing that all year. But that trend stopped in July. I certainly did not intend to ignore Transformers Roll Out for so long. I’m still very much into Transformers, and I hunt for figures whenever and wherever I can. But life has a habit of getting in the way. I’ve been busy, mostly the good kind of busy. For the first time in a long time, I feel like my life is moving forward. Still, all this translates to me not having enough time for this blog.

At the very minimum, I need to report my purchases for July. Much like May of this year, I didn’t find any TFs til late in the month. I really was beginning to think July would be a Transformer-less month, then in the final week the figures took me by storm. Here they are.

• Generations Thrilling 30 Sandstorm, amazon.com, $22.99

• Generations Thrilling 30 Trailcutter x 2, Target, $12.99 each
• Generations Thrilling 30 Megatron, Target, $12.99
• Generations Thrilling 30 Orion Pax, Target, $12.99
• Generations Thrilling 30 Bumblebee, Target, $12.99

• Generations Fall of Cybertron Roadbuster, Walmart, $12.97
• Generations Fall of Cybertron Twintwist, Walmart, $12.97
• Generations Fall of Cybertron Topspin, Walmart, $12.97
• Generations Fall of Cybertron Impactor, Walmart, $12.97
• Generations Fall of Cybertron Whirl, Walmart, $12.97

That’s a total of 11 figures for July, all from Generations. So far I only opened Orion Pax and one of the Trailcutters.

I first spotted Sandstorm late in the month on Amazon. I wasted no time getting him. I heard nothing but rave reviews for him, and the recent Hasbro Triple Changers have been awesome. I assumed Sandstorm is a brand new mold. It wasn’t until after I bought him I learned that he’s a rework of Trilling 30 Springer. I say rework because saying repaint feels like such a injustice. The two figures are off the same general mold, but Hasbro made so many differences off the Springer mold that Sandstorm feels like a completely different figure. I haven’t opened Sandstorm yet. But if he’s anything like Springer, I will like him.

On July 25th, I went to a Oakland A’s game with the GF. On the way back from the game, I stopped by Walmart for some snacks since I was seriously hungry. Lo and behold, I find the Generations Wreckers in the toy aisle! They had exactly one set. I must have got there right after they stocked it. Anyway, I grabbed them all with a quickness. The figures are repaints of the FOC Combaticons. These Wreckers will combine into Ruination, though I don’t ever recall Wreckers combining in any continuity. Getting more repaints of this set kind of feels like a waste of money, but the purchase is justified by the fact that these figs all have new head molds that very closely resembles their G1 counterparts. The GF really likes the colors of Roadbuster.

The very next morning, I had a work conference to attend in a nearby city. After the conference was over, I stopped by the Target right next to it. I’m glad I did, because I found all the Thrilling 30 deluxe wave 1 figures. I knew these were coming, but I wasn’t expecting to find them so soon. They had exactly 2 sets. Again, I must have got there right after someone stocked the TF aisle. I grabbed one whole set, plus one extra Trailcutter. I’m partial to Trailbreaker, so can you blame me for getting two Trailcutters? If you live near me, I guess you can. I really like how these Thrilling 30 deluxe figures all come with a comic. The way these deluxe figs are packed looks awesome too! Poor Megatron, he’s the lone Decepticon of the set. In fact, he’s the lone Decepticon for the month!

I should also mention that I passed up several TF Prime Beast Hunter figures this month. I found Skystalker, Target exclusive Darksteel (Grimwing repaint), and Target exclusive Sky Lynx (Skystalker repaint). I almost bought all these guys just for the sake of buying some TFs, but ultimately left them on store shelves. I’m glad I did, because the Generations figs showed up immediately after.

There you have it… my TFs for July 2013. I should have more TFs next month too, since I just had some 3rd party stuff shipped from tfsource. A number of pre-orders are slated to come in next month. I’m keeping my fingers crossed. It will be a good August. Until then, Transform and Roll Out!