I picked up PotP Swoop and
Slug, no Slag, wait no Slug aw
slag it I'm calling him Slag
Much to my wallet's dismay, it seems a new line of Transformers are out. I'm hoping this is just an early gun jump and I get a little more time to recover.
A few friends showed up for funWell well let me start this off with saying just how impressed I am with these two. Hasbro kinda out did themselves with this first wave. It's just the right amount of nice plastic, insane amount of detailing, above average paint work and just fun transformations. Let's talk about the plastic. It just feels nice, dense with just a little bit of flexibility. Doesn't hurt that its cast in a very nice shade of just metallicy enough grey plastic those shows all the detailing off. Both figures have a nice heft to them and they feel good in the hands. Joints are nice and smooth and the ratchets are soft yet firm. Who ever decided to paint the inside of clear plastic with gold needs a raise. It just works, better than expected actually. Looks good and gives that pleasant G1 warmth. Out side of that there isn't a lot of paint, but it's where it needs to be and those metallic green rings on Swoops wrist are a nice added bonus. Both figures have just a few G1 inspired tampos to seal the deal.
Transformations! That's what count with Transformers right? Let's address the prehistoric elephant in the room. Yes all the deluxes are Combiner Wars 2.0, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. You're going find a few things that seem familiar and you're going find a few new tricks that show Hasbro has been paying attention, listening and learning. They are doing a great job of masking the combiner pegs or in the case of Swoop hidden completely (from the front anyway) where Slag has the peg mostly covered by his lower dino jaw.
Now that's how you get a combiner peg out of the wayBoth figures have some clever and complicated trickery going on with the legs. Having four modes will do that to you. Swoop's bot to beast transformation is completely different from his limb configuration. To beast mode is very G1 opposed to his limb modes with isn't really any different than several of the CW limbs. Swoop is kinda like an Aerialbot that drank a glass of dino mutagen. Slag's dino head might as well be Offroad's hood but his leg transformation is starting to approach Masterpiece level of engineering. Think MP figures on a $16 budget. I'm not about spoilers, but just look at this!
I'm not going tell you how, but the tail ends up where his robot thigh is and there is an extra piece in there that does nothing but become a robot heel. Yup, I'm impressed. With all these modes you get a fairly impressive amount of articulation. Yes, Slag's head does turn
Being CW 2.0, we've got some new HFGs (hand/foot/gun). This time around the deluxes come with just the combiner's hands that double as armor/shields. HA/HS just don't have the same ring as HFG. Hmmmm... Harmor? As you know they interact with Prime Masters or Titan Masters. Using TMs is silly fun. After playing around and remembering some of the toys of my youth (Battle Beasts to be specific) I'm very excited for this power up mechanic they have here. As an adult I'll probably never use it, but I can see the play value here. How bout some fun with Harmor and Titan Masters?
Protect yo face with yo face
Me Grimlock, no SHIELD, ME KING!The harmors can be chest mounted, used as an arm mounted shield or held in the hand. They are a lot of fun and the moving finger bits make them seem more dynamic with lots of play options. They are also super dense and hard plastic. Hefty little buggers. The PM integration will be a nice bonus, but using TMs just seems silly, fun, but still silly.
Two heads are better than oneWell I didn't bring all those other dinos out to warm the bench. Unfortunately, I'm lazy and had a bit of a time crunch so I didn't run them all through both modes, but you'll get the idea.
Paint me impressed and very excited for the rest of the Dinobots. They support an impressive amount of detailing with some nice paint apps and tampos. Transformation is a little simple but really works for Dinobots and is sure to delight with just enough new tricks to keep you guessing. This is one of the few times I feel the shoehorned in combining gimmick doesn't detract from the final product. They both are solid and have surprisingly svelte bot modes with spot on dino modes. These pretty much hit every check box for me and is Neo G1 done to perfection. I cannot recommend these guys enough
out of
Bonus pics I took just for Cobotron
Bonus bonus pics I took for those keeping track of the randomized collector cards. Definitely a fun play gimmick, definitely a major pain in the ass for completionist
