Post Pictures of your Transformers, Let's see 40 years worth of Transformers!

[CrockAlley]

40th Anniversary photoshoot: Energon

More photos behind the spoiler:

Spoiler: More pictures

 

[unluckiness]

We need blast effect port-compatible dollar bills

 

[LBD "Nytetrayn"]

I can see the size for the price being an annoyance. It's a tiny cassette and a "make up for the price" accessory. I wish they'd at least had two sightly smaller speakers instead of one weirdly large one. Even Frumble came with four accessories (and better articulation overall, although of course the transformation etc are different enough that they're not really comparable).

But we did cross that bridge with at least those two cassettes already, so I guess I'm gritting my teeth and bearing it. And Steeljaw himself isn't bad looking anyway.

Having it in hand, I'm not sure how much smaller they could really have made those speakers. From the front, they look huge, sure, but the back where it tapers down is a pretty close fit to Blaster's hand.

I and others I talk to, would have prefered if he was more articulated, and wasn't a parts former. I want something better then Seige Ravage, rather then him being the inspiration.

From what I've seen of Ravage, I feel like this one is better...

There's an intruder in the bat cave and they aren't a Bat, a Night or a Robin, better call the Joker to deal with the pest!

On it!

Oh, wait, that was the Riddler. Eh, hard to tell the difference sometimes...

 

[lastmaximal]

Oh, in this movie definitely. Both villains seemed to be trying to be the, or a, Joker. Like, it's 90s Jim Carrey, they knew what they wanted. But I was not expecting that from Tommy Lee Jones, whom I REALLY wanted a heavier Two-Face from. Certainly not the movie for THAT, of course, but kid me knew nothing about Schumacher or his style.

Having it in hand, I'm not sure how much smaller they could really have made those speakers. From the front, they look huge, sure, but the back where it tapers down is a pretty close fit to Blaster's hand.

I'll be getting mine in hand soon, and I can form a more properly informed opinion then. The partsforming I'm not crazy about, and reviews suggest a tight fit in the compartment anyway so that might be something I skip doing.

It's occurring to me that Steeljaw and Ramhorn are probably going to come with one speaker each, which... Shrug. I do wonder how they'll differentiate Perceptor. Battle damage? Opaque plastic?

Cynically wondering if there'll be ANOTHER Blaster with three cassettes down the line, but outside Studio Series so they can use the toy head. (You know what. Give me a Skids retool as Broadblast, with opaque Rewind, Rosanna, and Flip Sides...)

 

[Shadewing]

Oh, in this movie definitely. Both villains seemed to be trying to be the, or a, Joker. Like, it's 90s Jim Carrey, they knew what they wanted. But I was not expecting that from Tommy Lee Jones, whom I REALLY wanted a heavier Two-Face from. Certainly not the movie for THAT, of course, but kid me knew nothing about Schumacher or his style.

Has NO one ever watched the 60's series? WB wanted a lighter movie afer the controversies of Batman Returns, and Shumacher tried to balance what he wanted to so (an indepth character peice) vs what the Studio wanted (family friendly) vs test audiances wanted (less talky more punchy) So we get something that tries to explore Bruce as a character, with villians that are CLEARLY modeled after the 60s series, with Carrey's Riddle not being much different then Gorshwin's, and frankly one of the few performances that shows that TLJ isn't a robot, and enough action scenes to please audiences of the era. Then the studio doubles down on this direction for the next movie with a lot of stuff being out of his hands, yet he still gets demonized.

 

[lastmaximal]

Easy, friend.

I actually did watch and enjoy some of the 60s series in late 80s reruns as a kid, yes. I didn't know at the time that this was what Schumacher was emulating (indeed, I knew nothing about the change at all other than that there was a new director and new Batman).

I enjoyed both of these movies too, although even then it felt a bit thin and fluffy (would find out much later that apparently they'd cut out a big chunk of Bruce character work from Forever). But the look was shiny and slick and colorful, and I thought this was peak Nicole Kidman before rediscovering her in Moulin Rouge. But I do stand by how even at the time I felt wacky Two-Face was a letdown. (I did also like both soundtracks.)

I researched both Schumacher films after reading the Chris Sims/David Uzumeri reviews that did make explicit the Batman 66 vibe, and I agree with their call that B&R has as one of its high points an actual wholesome and sincere Bruce Wayne (in his scenes with bedridden Alfred).

I didn't mean to malign Schumacher here, although I do see why it would come off like that after decades of that discourse.

 

[lastmaximal]

40th Anniversary photoshoot: Energon

I will never not love this trilogy.

At the time Armada was a HARD reset of all expectations, going from complex (if maddening) engineering and an occasionally lean and lithe aesthetic to all chunky all the time. Dave van Domelen iirc mentioned it feeling like going back to late G1 and carving out a divergent evolutionary path from there, with limited use of ball joints, more pinned universal joints, and a tighter integration of play features paired with simpler transformations.

But while I was very lukewarm on that for Armada (the cartoon did not help much, again another culture shock going from RID2001 to the messier dub), the bits and bobs of nostalgia combined with fascinating new ideas (Demolishor is an absolute standout, Megatron was a walking action feature factory, and I LOVED Mini-Cons and would follow them forever) kept me coming back.

Then Energon upped the ante on everything, from super cool early-wave filler redecos like Ultra Magnus and Rapid Run (forgot Demolishor was later) to great new Omnicon and Terrorcon molds to the rest of the line's blend of nostalgia and novelty. And all these cool new designs carried the line so strongly I didn't even need to watch the absolute mess of a dub (in both shows' cases, at the time just finding out where to download episodes was enough work that it was easy to quit them).

Can't wait for the Cybertron pics!

 

[Darth_Prime]

So I can’t get power yet after the hurricane but FedEx can deliver Transformers to me. Weird.

 

[Superomegaprime]

So I can’t get power yet after the hurricane but FedEx can deliver Transformers to me. Weird.

Maybe they can help restore the power, if not, at least they can entertain you

 

[Darth_Prime]

My wife wasn’t thrilled when the delivery showed up.

 

[LordGigaIce]

PRiD Ultra Magnus makes for a pretty good Zeta Prime. Not so much IDW Zeta, but he certainly has some similarity to WFC and TF One Zeta.

"Why?"
"For the power of Cybertron!"

And another sort of Sentinel and Zeta...

 

[Sabrblade]

And another sort of Sentinel and Zeta...

All I see in these pics are Sentinel and Dillo.

 

[LordGigaIce]

All I see in these pics are Sentinel and Dillo.

The repair bay module on Sentinel's ML figure is called the "Zeta Module" according to the packaging and instructions.

 

[LordGigaIce]

 

[LBD "Nytetrayn"]

I'll be getting mine in hand soon, and I can form a more properly informed opinion then. The partsforming I'm not crazy about, and reviews suggest a tight fit in the compartment anyway so that might be something I skip doing.

Yeah, there's a certain way to do it, and even doing it that way, it's pretty snug. I mostly just keep Eject in there, and peg Steeljaw and his backpack into holes on Blaster's back (they fit perfectly).

I do transform him to cassette mode, though, but aside from on-the-back-of-the-boombox storage and the fan mode I showed above, keeping the wings pegged in allows you to basically prop him up, instead of leaving him laying on his side all the time.

In fact, I almost never unplug it, except for the aforementioned alt Blaster storage solution.

I'll try to post more pictures later.

 

[lastmaximal]

I'm ready for another Micromaster 10-pack with it all being cassettes. It may be less than 10 since some of these are Core class now.

Rewind, Flip Sides, Rosanna, Blockrock.
Core Nightstalker, Core Enemy.

 

[Shadewing]

I'm ready for another Micromaster 10-pack with it all being cassettes. It may be less than 10 since some of these are Core class now.

Rewind, Flip Sides, Rosanna, Blockrock.
Core Nightstalker, Core Enemy.

Sunder, Howlback, Garble, SG Steeljaw.

 

[CrockAlley]

Dinoking. The simple addition of wrist swivels improve this mold so much. The feet are also a huge plus.

More photos behind the spoiler:

Spoiler: More pictures

The new hand piece works better for the tail here than the older piece.

 

[CrockAlley]

I was surprised that every figure has a new head sculpt.

(Forgive the two posts in a row. The last post was just over the 20-picture limit, so I had to do a second post.)

More photos behind the spoiler:

Spoiler: More pictures

 

[Shadewing]

Even with the upgrade kit I got, I still think I prefer Dinoking just a bit more. Though If an upgrade kit comes out for him I might grab it, since I don't care for how they do the Ankylo's arm here. Also put off by the Pteradon having just a chunk of arm as a weapon. Yes Ankylo does as well, but its a bit less blantent imo. Overall I prefer Dinoking's color balance since I always felt Volcanicu's one red leg threw him off when he's mostly grey/silver otherwise.