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GetterDragun wrote:With the influx of reviews as lately, we are starting an official review thread. Also, please sumbit your review to the Vector Sigma Data Base. If the character you are reviewing is not in the DataBase, please post it in the Vector Sigma forum.
Liege Evilmus wrote:GetterDragun wrote:With the influx of reviews as lately, we are starting an official review thread. Also, please sumbit your review to the Vector Sigma Data Base. If the character you are reviewing is not in the DataBase, please post it in the Vector Sigma forum.
Thats a good Idea, but the merging sucks. Here I was in the middle of a discusion about MP Megs, now I'm tripping over some SoundWave crap.
I apreciate the idea, but lack love for the aplication.
Liege Evilmus wrote:GetterDragun wrote:With the influx of reviews as lately, we are starting an official review thread. Also, please sumbit your review to the Vector Sigma Data Base. If the character you are reviewing is not in the DataBase, please post it in the Vector Sigma forum.
Thats a good Idea, but the merging sucks. Here I was in the middle of a discusion about MP Megs, now I'm tripping over some SoundWave crap.
I apreciate the idea, but lack love for the aplication.
Sledge wrote:Liege Evilmus wrote:GetterDragun wrote:With the influx of reviews as lately, we are starting an official review thread. Also, please sumbit your review to the Vector Sigma Data Base. If the character you are reviewing is not in the DataBase, please post it in the Vector Sigma forum.
Thats a good Idea, but the merging sucks. Here I was in the middle of a discusion about MP Megs, now I'm tripping over some SoundWave crap.
I apreciate the idea, but lack love for the aplication.
Isn't this going to get very cluttered very quickly? We've already got discussions about MP Megs and TF:A Soundwave going on, and it's only going to get worse with each new review.
Counterpunch wrote:Awesome. Giving people a look at this is a community service.
Sledge wrote: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.jpg
Sarcastic 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.jpg
Maybe 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.jpg
As 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.jpg
This 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.jpg
You really can achieve some nicely dynamic poses with them.
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y65/1TrueSledge/07.jpg
Ah 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.jpg
By contrast, his fusion cannon looks pretty good.
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y65/1TrueSledge/09.jpg
Yeah, poor situational awareness. I hope the other Animated toys will be a little more alert.
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y65/1TrueSledge/10.jpg
Red hot Prime on Megs action.
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y65/1TrueSledge/11.jpg
Vehicle 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.jpg
My 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.jpg
From 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.jpg
Megatron'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.jpg
Or not.
Please feel free to ask questions if I've missed something out in my rambling style.
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