My review of TF: Animated Battle Begins pack. As the forum cuts pictures off, there's a link to each picture underneath it.
As pretty much everyone is probably aware, the UK has been blessed with the slightly early release of two TF: Animated toys, namely the Optimus Prime and Megatron Battle Begins 2 Pack at Toys R' Us. I went to Gloucester last week to buy this pack, and I now present my findings to you. NOTE: This review would have gone a lot smoother if I hadn't bought Legends class Movie Scorponok, who wanted in on the pictures. Damn stupid little...
Anyhoo, the pack comes with a DVD of the first episode. You'd think they could have at least included all three parts of the first story, but no. On the other hand, this really is just a bonus rather than the main event, so I'll try not to let it bother me. The toys themselves are the Deluxe versions of Cybertron mode Megatron and Earth mode Optimus Prime. Both sport some battle damage, but I don't think it really gets in the way. Let's have a look at them.
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y65/1TrueSledge/01.jpgSarcastic little buggers, aren't they? As you can see, Prime comes with his rocket axe, and Megs has his fusion cannon. Both have ball joints at their elbows, shoulders and hips. Their knees are hinged, and have rotators, Prime's below his knee and Megatron's above his knee. Something I haven't seen noted yet is that both have a "power punch" feature. If you twist their upper bodies a quarter turn to the right, they spring back to deliver a punch (assuming you positioned their arm). Personally, I think this is a pretty lame gimmick that I'd rather had been left out in favour of a posable waist. I've removed the springs from both figures and am looking into whether to just glue their waists in place, or try and leave them with some posability. Not a major problem, but a niggle nonetheless.
Size wise, both of them are Deluxe class, and are about average for that class. For a better idea of size, you can see them here next to Classics Optimus Prime:
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y65/1TrueSledge/02.jpgMaybe a head shorter than Classics Prime. At this point, I should point out that Megatron can be a little tricky to pose. His cannon is really too heavy for the join on his left hip, so he tends to lean unless you pose him carefully. A little nail varnish on that joint will hopefully sort things out. At least on mine, the joints on both figures are a little loose. They'll hold a pose, but they'll fairly easily be knocked off it as well. Also, none of the three figures seems to hear the word "boogly" until it's too late.
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y65/1TrueSledge/03.jpg
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y65/1TrueSledge/04.jpgAs you can see, they don't feel much loyalty to other Transformers, possibly because of their Animated styling. Megatron has the better head posability, with it being possible to rotate his head, and slightly tilt it up and down. Prime's head is on a ball joint, but can't move because his transformation leaves his head locked in by his shoulders. Not a great piece of planning there, Hasbro.
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y65/1TrueSledge/05.jpgThis pose was a pain, as Megatron's cannon threatened to throw him off balance. I did get them into this without blu-takking them down, though, so they're not that bad.
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y65/1TrueSledge/06.jpgYou really can achieve some nicely dynamic poses with them.
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y65/1TrueSledge/07.jpgAh yes. One of Megatron's features is his cannon's ability to become this... sword-thing. It's not very good. It doesn't look like a sword, it doesn't work like a sword. It sucks. But you don't have to use it, so it doesn't matter. Yay!
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y65/1TrueSledge/08.jpgBy contrast, his fusion cannon looks pretty good.
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y65/1TrueSledge/09.jpgYeah, poor situational awareness. I hope the other Animated toys will be a little more alert.
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y65/1TrueSledge/10.jpgRed hot Prime on Megs action.
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y65/1TrueSledge/11.jpgVehicle mode for Prime is really quite nice. As you can see, smaller than Classics Prime's truck mode, but a surprisingly solid truck mode. Megatron's mode suffers a little from "what the hell is it" syndrome, but the twin VTOL engines tie in nicely with the twin rotors of his Earth mode
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y65/1TrueSledge/12.jpgMy main gripe with Megatron is the visible head in vehicle mode. Shouldn't we be beyond this now? At least the red light-piping fits in with the red of his elbows, so this isn't too noticable a problem unless you view him from below... like you might do when playing with a toy aircraft. D'oh!
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y65/1TrueSledge/13-1.jpgFrom behind, Megatron looks fine, whilst Prime suffers from his fists being visible. A fully enclosed cab would have been nice. Also, note the G1-esque colour scheme and the addition of smoke stacks not present on the animation model. Not quite sure why they've added these on, but they do look good so I'm not complaining.
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y65/1TrueSledge/14.jpgMegatron's head a bit more visible here. A shame, but there it is. So, are these guys any good? Overall, yes. I'd give Prime 8 out of 10, losing points for the punch gimmick and the open cab when viewed from behind. Megatron is 7 out of ten, losing points again for the punch gimmick, the visible head and the overly heavy cannon. But they're good toys, and they've got me looking forward to the rest of the line, so I'd recommend them if you see them. And hopefully, they'll be equally happy living here.
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y65/1TrueSledge/15.jpgOr not.
Please feel free to ask questions if I've missed something out in my rambling style.
Not really diggin' Soundwave's head but besides that he looks badass. Animated Jazz is hands down the best Jazz toy yet
(Battle mask on)
(Battle mask off.)
(Holding both axes, the Deluxe's looks better.)
(Axe and water cannon.)
(Axe and water cannon on back)
(Rear view of axe and water cannon)
). Plenty of good things going on here.
" on AMAZON](/images/products/tmb/76ce8e24b09a30c8158cbde7d36bb274.jpg)
