Happy New Year! Welcome to my first post in 2020. Yes I know it’s been more than 3 months since I posted anything, but I gotta make a post to kick off the new decade.

To kick off the new year right, I am doing another quick review of a figure that’s just released, with the original G1 figure of inspiration. My last such review was for Storm Cloud and Visper (Whisper). Today, I am reviewing Crosshairs.

Crosshairs was one of my favorite Targetmasters from G1. Why you may ask? Well, I had the figure, that’s why. I received G1 Crosshairs as a gift from my cousin for my birthday. I still have the figure to this day, in fairly good shape too. But to be fair, the G1 figure was pretty good for its time. G1 Crosshairs looks good in both modes, has solid construction, and has a Targetmaster figure that is unlike most other similar figures at the time. Crosshair’s Targetmaster partner is called Pinpointer, and he is supposed to be more of a rocket launcher than a pistol. This means he actually requires folding at the waist and at the feel to form the weapon! Yeah 2 whole steps from robot to gun! That’s unheard of for G1.

Crosshairs is now upgraded in the War For Cybertron Siege line. It’s a repaint of the Ironhide and Ratchet figure, but I feel this mold can represent Crosshairs quite well. Below are some pics in the box.

Siege Crosshairs holds poses quite well.

Classic A-Stance.

Ready for some action.

Ready for more action.

Standing around looking cool. Notice the rifle weapon can be attached over the shoulder.

Head mold is modeled after G1 season 4 animation, not the toy.

Siege Crosshairs is about the same size as G1 Crosshairs. When compared side by side, you can see that HasTak took great care to reference the G1 character. A lot of the details is modeled as close to G1 as possible, especially in the legs. Pics below.

For reference, here are some solo pics of G1 Crosshairs in robot mode, with Pinpointer as weapon and robot.

Siege Crosshairs is built well. I detect no construction issues on my copy. All joint are at the right level of tolerance. Pieces tab into place where they should with no problems.

Transformation to vehicle mode is pretty simple. It’s exactly the same as Ironhide and Ratchet, so I won’t describe it too much. In short, flip down the chest piece, fold in the head, then flip the chest piece back up. Raise the arms over the head and combine as one. Rotate the entire chest assembly 180, so that the arms are now pointing in the same direction as the legs. Flip open the lower leg covers, then combine the legs. Position the figure so that the arms are over the legs, and close the leg covers over the arms. Snap the covers together. That’s pretty much covers the transformation.

I like the look of Siege Crosshairs in alt mode. The vehicle shape doesn’t resemble G1 Crosshairs all that much, but I think this alt mode is more fitting of what Crosshairs should have. G1 Crosshairs has an alt mode more like a Cybertronian sports car, while Siege Crosshairs is more like a Cybertronian mobile combat vehicle. As a weapons supervisor, the latter makes more sense to me.

Below are the 2 in alt mode, side by side.

Again, I really like the look of Crosshairs using this mold in Siege.

Alt mode with no weapon attachment.

Alt mode with weapon attachment.

Alt mode rear view.

My only gripe about WFC Siege Crosshairs is that he’s not a Targetmaster. Maybe a third party will release an accessory to make it Targetmaster. Smells like a perfect job for Dr Wu.

I recommend WFC Siege Crosshairs with no reservation. Transform and Roll Out.

Once again, I got a bunch of mostly unrelated Decepticons lying about. I’m gathering a bunch of them together for a feature.

WFC Siege Brunt

I consider myself pretty hardcore G1, and even I had to look up Brunt. In G1, he was a figure that came with Trypticon. Kind of like Six-Gun and Metroplex. However, in G1, Brunt is a tank that transforms into some gun towers for Trypticon. He does not have a robot mode. So it’s a bit debatable if you can even call Brunt an independent figure. But Hasbro did create a profile for him and here we are.

In War For Cybertron Siege, Brunt is upgraded to a modern Cybertronian interpretation. And this figure ain’t too shabby. He gets a full-fledged robot mode. And the original tank mode is still intact. But more importantly, Burnt is what they now call a “Weaponizer” figure in Siege. What this means is that he can separate into bits, and the individual parts can be used as weapons for other figures. It’s kind of a gimmicky feature. Not groundbreaking in my opinion, but marginally cool. Though this does make Brunt very much a parts-former. When transforming from robot to tank, the arms, legs, main gun, and back panel all needs to be removed and reattached. Yikes! The right arm on my copy is also a bit too loose in the elbow.

Still, I like Burnt. Both modes look good. I like the color scheme. The newly designed head mold works great for the character, and the parts-forming transformation actually feels kinda fun. Recommended.

WFC Siege Refraktor

Here is a figure that many hardcore G1 purists like myself have been waiting for. Focus your camera lenses on: Refraktor! Yes all G1 nerds will immediately recognize this as Reflector. I’m assuming the name change was required for trademark reasons.

I have seen the original Diaclone toys in a Diaclone catalog. But they were Japanese only. In the US, I believe these G1 Reflectors were only available through Hasbro’s mail order at the time, using Robots Points that you cut out of the G1 packaging. And they were still in Diaclone colors and not the show colors.

There has been several modern efforts at updating Reflectors. Hasbro has made Mini-Con Reflectors that came packed with Skrapnel, but these Reflectors are hardly G1 accurate. I know there has been a legend size Reflector figure, but those were convention exclusives. And they were simply repaints of Combiner Wars Shockwave, which stunk of Hasbro laziness. There has been many third party efforts as well. But they are not massively accessible, and I’m told none of them are that good. Each set has its issues.

Enter WFC Siege Refractor. This is the most show accurate physical manifestation of an official Refraktor that we have seen to date! This is a brand new mold, designed to be the character. The overall shape and colors of the robot mode screams Reflector. And yes, when you have 3 of them, they will combine to form a camera! G1 TransFans, Hasbro loves you. As of this writing, I only have 2 Refraktors. I got a third one in my Roller’s Stash at The Chosen Prime. I’ll form the camera when I ship the stash. I am told the camera comes together really well.

Build and construction of the figure is extremely solid. No loose bits or dangling parts. All pieces tab in where they should. Joints are of the right tension.

Each Refraktor also has an individual alt mode, that I’m guessing is supposed to be some kind of flying Cybertronian craft. Reminds me a bit of some versions of Shockwave’s alt mode. This mode feels like an afterthought, made up so toy buyers who know nothing about G1’s history don’t feel cheated when buying Refraktor. But you and I know better. The 3 as 1 camera alt mode is where the true action is.

For those of you that remember me saying how lame Reflectors are, this makes them a bit less lame. They almost earned themselves a seat at the cool kids table.

If you’re G1 guy, you already made up your mind that you’re buying 3 Refraktors. And if you’re not a G1 guy, buy them anyway.

Generations Thrilling 30 Skywarp

This Skywarp was purchased back in February of 2014. That was more than 5 years ago. Sometimes I can’t believe how quickly time flies. If I didn’t document the purchase, I would have thought this was only 2 or 3 years ago.

Generations Thrilling 30 Skywarp is based on designs from the Fall of Cybertron game. So he does fit in fairly well with WFC Siege. Though a Skywarp is planned for WFC Siege (as an Amazon exclusive).

This is a solid Skywarp figure. I have written about this mold elsewhere, so I won’t repeat them here. Though, playing with Skywarp after all these years, he does feel dated when compared to the WFC Siege line of figures. TFs as a whole are constantly getting better. And sometimes I need to remind myself of that fact by going back to older figures. It’s a bit like looking at your own children. Sometimes you don’t realize how much they have grown, until you go back and look at old but still recent pictures.

Studio Series Starscream

The last figure here is Studio Series Starscream. I started going into SS figures starting with my last post. Starscream was part of the first wave of SS figures released.

I like this Starscream. Overall, he feels like an up-sized version of Dark of the Moon deluxe Starscream. That figure came around before I started documenting my TF purchases on this blog. And I don’t think I ever featured that figure in anything. I think the closes I came to featuring it somewhere is in this post. Look carefully at the only picture that he’s in. It looks like Skywarp, but it’s really Starscream! Gemini and his wife took a deluxe store DotM Starscream, repainted it like Skywarp, and put it in this Japanese packaging for DotM Skywarp. To my knowledge, a retail deluxe DotM Skywarp was never released in the States. This has got to be one of the best Christmas presents I ever received! I really need to dig out this figure and give it a proper review.

Anyways, back to SS Starscream. This figure is voyager class. That’s a more appropriate size for someone like Starscream. The robot mode appears very close to his movie design. He’s fairly stable when standing on 2 legs on a flat surface. The feet is a feat in engineering (pun intended) considering his overall shape. Starscream has virtually no kibble on the back, which is saying something for the movie seekers. Starscream comes with a weapon that can be attached on either arm, when the hand is flipped in. In jet mode, Starscream looks great. Again, very little kibble on the underside of the jet, and that’s to be commended. There’s some kibble on the wings, but in my opinion it’s not at all distracting. Landing gears flip out easily. The weapon pegs in nicely and securely on the rear of the jet, behind the thrusters.

Again, the transformation scheme is identical to the DotM deluxe figure. SS Starscream is in my opinion the best movie Starscream made to date. The RotF Leader class figure was very good too, but this SS figure is more playable.

I recommend all the figures here.

Other related posts:

• Random Decepticon Pic
• Decepticon Power!

Decepticons… Transform and Roll Out.
 

I have a treat for you all today! Recently, I acquired Storm Cloud and Visper, two Micromasters in one package from the War For Cybertron: Siege line. These two are modern updates to two G1 Micromaster characters from the Air Strike Patrol, of which I do have! I will be able to show them side by side.

Storm Cloud kept his name, but Whisper is now Visper. OK Hasbro you’re so creative. Let’s get on with the review.

Robot mode.

Storm Cloud, G1 and Siege.

G1 Whisper and Siege Visper.

As for the robot modes, there is no comparison here. The new Siege Micromasters look way better than their G1 counterparts in robot mode. The G1 guys have no articulation other being able to raise their arms. The Siege guys actually has some decent articulation for toys of this size. Siege Storm Cloud can bend at the hips, knees, arms, and elbows. Visper has all that minus the elbow articulation. No head, waist, or feet articulation on either of the Siege guys.

Hasbro really did the G1 old schoolers a favor and modeled the new characters as faithfully as possible to the G1 characters of origin. Check out the body and head molds of Storm Cloud and Visper. The designs are almost carbon copies of how they were in G1. Smashing.

Storm Cloud and Visper are both solid figures. I detect no weaknesses in the constitution of either fig. Visper can be a tad back heavy if you choose to pose him with knees bent.

And looking at the pics just now, I see that Storm Cloud and Visper (Whisper) are inverted in their color schemes. Storm Cloud has a black body with purple limbs, while Visper (Whisper) has a purple body with black limbs. I never realized this in G1.

Transformation to jet mode is obviously going to be on the simple side here. But the transformation paradigm does differ from G1, and Storm Cloud and Visper do not transform in the same way. Both figs feature a cockpit shift and extend out mechanism from the back, like G1 Aerialbot limb figures. Visper tucks the legs under the front cockpit, while Storm Cloud does the splits and rotate the legs under the wings. Arms stay tucked on the sides for Visper. Storm Cloud has the arms rotated behind while the elbows bend up. Wings fold out from the back for both figs.

Storm Cloud jet mode, G1 and Siege.

G1 Whisper and Siege Visper, jet mode.

For the jet modes, I’m gonna give the edge to the new kids as well. Siege Storm Cloud and Visper look sleeker in their jet modes when compared to their G1 counterparts. But the G1 guys have their charms too in jet mode. In jet mode I find the Siege guys to only be slightly superior, unlike the robot mode where Siege killed it by a wide margin.

Both Siege Storm Cloud and Visper come together well in jet mode. Everything tabs into place where it should to form a cohesive unit. Tabbing everything in perfectly is a bit tougher on Storm Cloud, because the legs need to tab onto the arms and wings, and they’re all moving parts. It’s a tad difficult, but nowhere near impossible.

Siege Micromasters feature this gimmick where the two Micromasters can come together and form weapons for other robots in the Siege line sized deluxe or bigger. So in a way, Siege Micromasters are also kind of like Targetmasters. It’s kind of a lame gimmick if you ask me, but whatever. For Visper and Storm Cloud, the instructions just show you to connect the two once you got each properly transformed. But it’s missing one very important detail: there is a peg on the rear of Visper in jet mode that needs to be rotated out. I didn’t know this, and spent several minutes looking at how these two are supposed to connect. A pic of the peg is below.

The combined jet looks pretty cool. Much better than the PotP Dreadwing combination.

This is supposed to be a weapon. I’m gonna guess this is more like a sword. Here I have Titans Return Blitzwing holding it.

Overall, I like Siege Storm Cloud and Visper. Some will say the original G1s are better, but don’t believe it. At least not for these 2. I have some other Siege Micromasters that are disappointing, but Storm Cloud and Visper are worth your money. Get them.

Transform and Roll Out.

 

It is that time of year again! St Patrick’s day is upon us, and that means another feature of my green Transformers.

As a rule, I always use green TFs that I have not used in a previous St Patrick’s Day post. Every TF needs their 15 minutes. I actually found quite a few TFs to feature this year.

Back row standing, left to right:

• Titans Return Sixshot – upper chest mostly green, so he qualifies
• Ocular Max Artifex – 3rd party MP Hoist
• MakeToys Ironwill – 3rd party MP Hardhead

Front row in alt mode, left to right”

• War For Cybertron Siege Hound – excellent Hound figure from the Siege line
• Combiner Wars Hound – not the best Hound, but ok
• Studio Series World War II Bumblebee – interesting fig, but not that good
• Titans Return Brawn – great modern update of Brawn
• Titans Return Skullsmasher – modern update of Skullcruncher, ok fig with some construction issues
• Robots in Disguise Grimlock – this is the voyager fig that I first saw in Shanghai; I bought later from Entertainment Earth, and quite frankly, he sucks; glad I did not pay high prices in Shanghai to get this

Unlike many previous years, March Madness has not started before this year’s St Patrick’s Day. In fact, the Selection Committee will release the bracket sometime today. UCLA will not be selected this year. Woe is me.

Here are links to previous St Patrick’s Day posts:

2018
2015
2013
2012
2011

Have a safe and happy St Patrick’s Day everyone. And let March Madness begin! Transform and Roll Out.