Seibertron.com Energon Pub Forums

[DMSL]

Transformers ROTF Leader Class Optimus Prime Video Review:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rLy061kyr4

[thedistinctroom]

Please check out my youtube reviews.

Megahouse Palm Action Orguss NIKICK
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJCJSwCEAG0


Megahouse Palm Action Orguss ORGUSS
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SvnDGaW0TMM


Transformers - Battlestars: Return Of Convoy SKY GARRY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8zCPF6LgROk

[Supreme Convoy]

Finally found a Disney Label Mickey and I love the toy!

Obviously not a lot of playability but it's a fun novelty as I love Transformers (obviously) and Disney.

[shonenfan4]

I love the Mickey driver gimmick of this toy, and I agree this is a display piece mainly. Good review.

[Convotron]

Yeah, I saw a video review of the Disney Label Mickey Mouse/Optimus Prime and it was very limited for articulation. But I would want to simply display it in alt mode or in a neutral bot mode.

It's unpopular but I like the Mickey and Donald products. I know people say Disney is evil but the cartoons were a part of my childhood just as Transformers was. Putting them together isn't so bad in my mind, especially in such a limited fashion. It's not as if Disney has invaded Cybertron.

Yet.

I kid.

Transform and roll out. Ha ha!

[DMSL]

Transformers ROTF Leader Class Jetfire Review:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PURvVPSFMvA

[DMSL]

12" Sideshow Indiana Jones Video Review:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbsXBUYdIXk

I know it's not a TF but still a nice figure.

B-)

[Convotron]

Review for RotF Voyager Stratosphere



Here's a figure that I've become a big fan of.

Design: Stratosphere's alt mode is that of a hybrid military transport plane. It takes features from some different real life models to create its own design.

I really like the look of the alt mode. I gravitate towards bigger/bulkier/chunkier vehicle designs and a military transport plane is one of the biggest! Despite the large nature of the vehicle, there is a sleekness to its design that is appealing to the eye.

Stratosphere's robot mode is in line with the live action movie aesthetic. This means there are more overt mechanical design elements and body type is not the typical bipedal humanoid design seen in most Transformers lines.

The two points of criticism I initially had when seeing the figure in promo photos was that I felt the feet were ridiculously large and that the orange plastic of the arms were far too bright, too "plastic" and "toy-ish", which I think negate the intent of the realistic designs of the live action movie characters.

Fortunately, both points of apprehension were reduced significantly when I had the chance to examine the figure in person. The arms are cast in a darker red-orange colour and the feet, while still as large as they were in the photos, make sense in the design.

Consider that the robot is composed of the parts of a large military transport plane. As many others have said, the feet make sense in that they are required to provide stability for such a large object.

Looking at the robot mode, I honestly love it. The digitigrade legs evoke a similar appearance of large flightless birds like the ostrich and emu. This is a good thing in my opinion because such large birds are deceptively swift for their seemingly awkward proportions. Stratosphere's thighs look substantial, the sense great mechanical strength hinted at by the pairs of pistons just above the knees. The lower legs look almost coiled, with sculpted detailing that implies literal coils to enhance this sense.

The arms are very reminiscent of construction machinery, like that of the large cranes that work on tall buildings. The dark red-orange also add to the sense of design ancestry in industrial machinery. The Mech-Alive gimmick is in the form of gears in the bicep and forearm regions, which move when the double hinged elbows are moved. I find this to be a nice gimmick as it reinforces the idea of powerful construction machinery for the arms.

The torso is composed of the main body of the plane alt mode. We see Automorph in action when the front section is split open as the arms are moved out of their housed position during transformation. The details of the internal components of the chest also look nicely sculpted.

The head is very unique. Like most other Movie Transformers, the face is not a basic anthropomorphic design as seen in most Transformers lines. However, it is more recognizably human than most other Movie Transformers. There's a nice balance of the alien, mechanical, and humanistic features. I also really like the silver paint on the face along with the dark red-orange stripes down the cheeks. The paint stripes mimic the colour of plastic of the arms, which is good for design continuity.

There is back kibble but it is partly due to the storage bay gimmick, which I'll touch upon in the features section. The wings also are at the back.

Overall, the robot mode design looks very cool. Due to the details of the figure, it gives a sense of epic scale. Even though it's a Voyager class figure, when I look at it on my desk, it looks big! Despite its awkward features and body styling, there's a sense of subtle mobility in sleekness that comes from, oddly enough, the legs as well as the wings on the back. He kind of looks like a giant mecha rocket skier or skater and can be posed to look the part even better.

Paint/Colour: The figure is composed mainly of a dark grey plastic for the majority of the body in alt mode. The turbines have orange trim, not as dark as the red-orange of the arms in robot mode but are reminiscent of the shade of orange used for industrial and military machinery. The wings have silver paint trim, there are winged Autobot symbols on the wings, which resemble the Elite Guard symbol of TFA. The rear stabilizers have grey Autobot symbols on a black background, which I think is a great way to keep visual interest in repeated motif.

The cockpit windows are clear blue plastic and the light piping for the head uses the same plastic. The face is painted in silver with dark red-orange stripes on the cheeks, the sides and back of the head are a black plastic. The top of the head is silver paint over clear blue plastic.

The robot arms are primarily a dark red-orange plastic with beige shoulders, dark grey elbow hinge components, and clear blue plastic for the Mech-Alive gears in the arms.

The thighs are beige with black and dark orange paint detailing the piston sculpts above the knees. The lower legs are a dark grey plastic, darker than the plane body.

Transformation Process: The transformation design is fairly basic. Stratosphere is a bit of a shellformer but a large part of this is the feet so that isn't really kibble. Everything moves fairly well, there's a bit of flexing that needs to be done to maneuver some slight tabs out of indentations but nothing major. It's a fun but simple transformation process.

Playability/Articulation: The figure has a fair degree of articulation. The legs are very stable due to the feet. The hips are hinged to allow movement side to side and front to back. The knees, as such, are hinged in two places due to the digitigrade leg design. The angles are hinged as well. No ball joints but there are enough hinged connection points to allow a good range of motion, similar to Classics Ironhide/Ratchet's shoulders, which I think is a good design alternative to ball joints.

There is no waist articulation due to the torso pegging into the pelvic component.

The arms are hinged and pegged in at the shoulders, similar to the hips, to allow side to side movement as well as 360 degrees of rotation. The elbows are double hinged. The wrists are hinged to allow side to side movement but no rotation. The hands are articulated, allowing Stratosphere to grip a variety of objects.

The head is pegged in so it allows rotational movement.

The wings are hinged so that you can move them up and down to position them as you like.

Features/Accessories: The accessory for this figure is a small Optimus Prime. For some reason, the diminutive OP is largely blue in colour. It has basic transformation and can be housed in Stratosphere's rear storage bay in alt mode. It's a fun little accessory and references OP's aerial introduction in RotF.

Problems: The main problem I see is the back kibble. I personally do not mind it as it is a result of the design of the storage bay for mini OP. I like the gimmick so I can forgive the back kibble.

A more minor problem is the lack of a weapon accessory. The early stage of development showed a space shuttle accessory that could peg into the top of the plane in alt mode and then be used as a gun in robot mode. The peg hole is still present in the figure so even without the shuttle, one could try to find a suitable replacement or kitbash one out of other parts. I've used Universe Cyclonus' Nightstick Targetmaster and it fits perfectly. It looks great wielded by Stratosphere, though it doesn't blend in in alt mode.

Another minor issue is that the figure is riddled with sculpted work yet the lack of paint apps overall obscure the details. Now this is a common issue I see in the movie line figures were the alt modes get more paint app attention than the robot modes. However, even Stratosphere's alt mode is missing some details because the plane body has many gorgeous lines and panel work that are swallowed up by the vast amount of grey plastic.

Overall: I'm a G1 fan at heart but I'm also a student of industrial and mechanical design. I, like many others, had trepidation when the first live action movie came out but I think there are many design features that can be appreciated by those who like seeing mechanical features in Transformers as well as serve the purpose of adding believability for the average movie goer who isn't knowledgeable about Transformers in general.

The honest truth is that if you do not like the movie designs, you're not likely going to like Stratosphere.

If you do like giving things a fair shot, you may come to really like the figure as I do. It's a fun figure with a truly unique design. It's chock full of details that enhance its appearance, even without paint apps. It has a lot of articulation and so it can be a great display piece.

I've only owned Stratosphere for a few days but it has quickly risen to the top of my list of favourite figures.

[Convotron]

Review for RotF Human Alliance Bumblebee w/Sam Witwicky



Check on the rep, yep, second to none.

I've recently picked up HA BB and right off the bat, I'll say that I'm extremely happy with this figure.

Design: The alt mode is good, as usual with the movie line toys. It does suffer from showing a lot of robot kibble on the underside but considering the complexity of this figure's design as well as the character model it's based off of, it's understandable.

The robot mode is wonderful. It has a close likeness to the character model. The main weak point is that when viewed from the side, there's a noticeable gap between the "spinal" area and the roof component of the car. It, unfortunately, gives an impression of hollowness in the torso. Despite that, the figure has solid construction and has a heft to it that I didn't expect from its appearance.

My one criticism is that the legs do appear to be backwards. The thigh panels are backwards and the dark grey "robot leg parts" are facing outwards with the orange-yellow "car parts" facing inwards. This is the reverse of the character model and also exposes screw heads to the viewer.

I've used a "leg mod" to make the appearance closer to the character model and also to better conceal the screw heads during normal viewing of the toy. I'll go further into this mod in the last section of this review.

Paint/Colour: The paint application on my figure is flawless. All the lines are clean, no smudging or bleeding of paint. The one flaw I see is that the colour of the figure is more orange-yellow than yellow-orange. Also, there are parts of the plastic, which are not very dense and allow light through, which I don't like.

The orange-yellow and black combination works for the main colour scheme. Metallic silver and dark greys for the "robot parts" work very well for breaking up the bright orange-yellow dominated figure. The aquamarine blue of the transparent plastic used for the light piping and windows is great for bringing a touch of coolness to the otherwise very warm colour scheme. The red on the rear brake lights and the small Autobot symbol on BB's forehead give nice little punches of contrast to the orange-yellow.

Transformation Process: The transformation design is very much a close relative to the Binaltech/Alternators/Alternity toy lines. I look at the HA line as kind of an American cousin to the Takara based aforementioned lines. Two design choices of the missile holders that double as the bottom support for the driver and passenger doors in alt mode and the way that the doors can be pulled back slightly to allow upward angling are reminiscent of some common design features of BT/Alts/Alternity.

HA BB's transformation process is involved but not difficult. It does require precise movement of parts but I find it has a better overall design for the "average person" than BT/Alts, which are a bit complex for some, but takes a back seat to the level of transformation design in Alternity Convoy and Megatron.

Overall, I love the transformation design. I've had HA BB for over a day and I've transformed him several times. It's good fun for those who enjoy the transforming process!

Playability/Articulation: The figure has great potential for play due to a great range of articulation, though it's a toy of a level of design that is more suited to a "collector".

The shoulders can rotate 360 degrees and swivel at the side nearly 180 degrees(the sculpted shoulder armour restricts full range of side swivel).

The upper arm is cut at the bicep to allow full rotation. The elbows swivel.

The right forearm/hand is the character's cannon, which can be folded back for transformation. The left hand is "normal" with an articulated thumb and the three fingers are a single molded piece, also articulated. Both are on a swivel joint.

The waist rotates 360 degrees.

The hips swivel far enough out to the sides to allow BB to do the splits. They also rotate fully.

There is a joint in a cut just above the knee to allow full rotation.

The lower legs have multiple points of swivel joints. The knees are double hinged, there is a swivel joint at the calf(it's there for transformation purposes but can be used for assisting in the posing of the figure), and the ankles are hinged.

My main criticism in articulation is that the ankles could have used ball joints to further improve posing potential. Otherwise the figure has a good variety of swivel joints to allow a great range of motion.

Features/Accessories: The features of the figure are a "battle mask" that can slide down over BB's face, a spring loaded cannon that is his right arm, and Sam Witwicky, who can be positioned on multiple points on the figure in robot mode and also be seated within the alt mode.

The cannon arm has been criticized for a lack of a hand but I don't mind it. I like the asymmetrical design of having one weapon-arm and one normal-arm.

The battle mask's main flaw is that it feels a little flimsy and it never quite rests securely. I always get the feeling it's drooping a bit over BB's eyes like an ill-fitting hat.

The Sam Witwicky figure is great! My figure doesn't have a look of mild surprise, more of a doped out expression. He's not a photo perfect replica of Shia LaBeouf but it's a serviceable likeness.

The figure is something that Hasbro could have skimped on but I think they did a good job with it. It has a very good sculpt, the proportions are fine, and there are some very nice points of articulation. The shoulders and hips are combination swivel/rotational joints. The knees are hinged and the torso is jointed at the bottom of the ribcage to allow rotation and slight bending. The head rotates.

The figure has peg holes on the bottom of both heels and the center of its back, between the shoulder blades. These are for allowing the figure to peg onto the two seats of the car, which are located on the backs of BB's forearms in robot mode. There's also a platform inside the roof component of the car that can be used for Sam to stand in the "back" of BB in robot mode and man a little rocket module weapon.

Overall, the features are good but the Sam Witwicky accessory is the winner. It turned out to be much better than I expected.

Overall: Overall, I think this is a wonderful figure of the movie line.

It combines the aesthetic of the movie style character designs with elements of the mechanical design from the Binaltech/Alternators/Alternity line. These two things are a natural pairing and a perfect fit.

The flaws of the figure are minor and nothing that detracts from the positive points of this figure.

Modifications: As mentioned in the "Design" portion of this review, the legs appear reversed. I've linked a photo comparing the character model with a modded HA BB, which highlights the points on the legs that are "corrected" in the mod:



Credit goes to len_d69 from the TFW2005 forum, who also created a thread detailing the mod, which is where I found the information. You can check it out here.

Also in that thread, a photo of a prototype of the HA BB mold shows the more correct looking leg alignment:



The mod itself is easy. If you look at the pelvic component of HA BB, you'll see that it is composed of two parts. A front half and a back half. The back half is secured by two screws. Remove the screws and switch the front and back halves. You'll leave the legs in the same position.

Afterwards, you need to rotate the lower body so that the front of the pelvis is front facing. However, you need to rotate the legs at the hips to make sure that the thigh plates are facing the same direction s the front pelvis plate. This is because there's a piece of plastic on the upper thighs that would restrict lower body rotation if the legs aren't rotated first.

Once you have the lower body facing the front as it should, simply rotate the lower legs at the cut knee joint and voila, you have an HA BB with properly aligned thigh plates and the proper orientation of the robot leg parts on the inside of the legs and the car parts on the outside of the legs.

The thread at TFW2005 has better steps and pictures to illustrate the process so I suggest checking it out if you're interested in the mod.

Additionally, I'm working on a slight mod to the battle mask. Since it's so loose on my figure's head, I'm building up layers of super glue on the "tab" portions of the mask to hopefully allow it to grip the grooves on the helmet better. I've used a similar process on RotF Silverbolt's tiny peg for torso locking, which worked wonderfully, so I'm hoping this same process will improve the battle mask on my HA BB.

Update: I did the battle mask mod and it works like a charm. Simply by adding a bit of super glue in a couple of layers, I've built up extra material over the tabs that normally slide in the grooves of the helmet. This resulted in tightening up the mask's placement and now the mask slides rather than "falls" down over the face. I can also push it back up and it'll rest securely and not inadvertently droop over BB's eyes.

[Rial Vestro]

I just got Human Alliance Side Swipe today after realizeing that I had extra money after buying my new camera, memory card for new camera, a tripod, and a birthday present for my nephew's 2'nd birthday this Thursday. I didn't think I was going to be able to afford him after all that and when I realized I still had $50 left over I went back in the store and grabed the last one Wal Mart had.

Now I gotta say this is my second Human Alliance figure and I'm being increasingly less impressed with them. I of course bought Bumblebee just to have a Bumblebee toy. But Side Swipe I've been wanting to get because he is one of verry few movie designs that I actully like. Others include Optimus Prime, Barricade, Sideways, and well, that's it really. Aside from actully likeing his robot mode I love the look of his vehicle mode. However it seems Human Alliance toys are really only good in vehicle mode.

While the robot mode looks nice it has HORRIFIC back kibble that in way stays in place. Epps, doesn't even fit in the seat on the shoulder the way it shows on the instructions. I eventually got him in there after I realized his knees need to bend which the instructions show his legs out straight. I found several bits on the toy that move or at least look like they should move but either don't actully move or don't seem to serve a perpus. Because of the way his arms store in vehicle mode his lower arms have gigantic holes in them and the upper arms don't come out passed his chest piece with kind of limits all his avalible shoulder movements. Even the wheels on his feet are greatly screwed up. He's definatly built to be display only if you can pose him so the holes in his arms don't show. If you wanted to use his tires like he moves in the movie you can't, there's no way to kick up the heel spers in robot mode to allow the tires to rotate. In fact there is 1 out of 3 (per foot) heel sper that seems to have no use in actully holding him up but insted seems to be there to prevent his wheels from rolling in robot mode. That's the sper that rather than kicking up kicks straight down. The other two spers are on a piece that allso keeps the wheel locked in place and it can be raised up and moved out of the way.

Now in vehicle mode, I could not even get Epps in the damn car without first lifting up the roof because there was no way to get his big fat head clear of it even putting the legs in first like I do for Sam. There's no way to go head first either because Epps' legs actully go into Side Swipe's upper leg and they have to go first.

The Transformation of Side Swipe is a pain. His swords are made of a soft rubber and if it wasn't for that this thing would not transform at all. Even with that I dare to transform it more for fear of bending the swords out of shape. The really bad part is I think he'd look better and function better with hard plastic swords and they'd only have to make them a half an inch shorter, if that, to clear everything. Or better yet, detachable swords, that'd make all the problems go away... at least with the transformation.

Anyway I'm perfectly happy to keep these things in Vehicle mode and never touch them again allthough Bumblebee was alot more fun to play with when I use to keep him on my desk.



BTW this will be the last Human Aliance toy I buy. If they make Ironhide, which they should, or I ever see Skids and Mudflap, I will not buy them. I just don't like any of them enough to buy a toy brand that really seems to suck from what I've seen so far. And another part of the reason I bought them was of course because seeing a Transformer with an interior is so rare but I think the delux Side Swipe might of been a better buy.