The Energon Pub

I have mostly missed out on the Bayformers toys. I did see some of the Bay flicks in the theatre with friends but at the time didn't get into Transformers. (I was in that silly phase of choosing girls over hobbies lol) Since I became a fan in 2015 I have not seen any Bayformers toys in stores. With the new TLK figures I am wondering what great figures I have missed out on.

Please tell me what your favorites are and what I have been missing out on!

the best movie figures so far, in my opinion, are:

-AoE Voyager Class Evasion Mode Optimus Prime
Probably one of the best voyager class toy of all the movie lines. Solid, without any kibble, higly poseable and if you get the Takara version, with nice paint apps. If you search, there are a couple of variants with the mouthplate instead of the regular face, but if you'd be able to get only one movie toy, I'd reccomend this one.

-DotM Leader Class Sentinel Prime
Very beautiful leader class figure, it doesn't have a kibble too big, and the panels are functioning for the character design. Really nice weapons and movement range. I liked the "knight" theme for the design, when it was still an hybrid with more mechanical design from the first 2 movies, instead of the whole "armored knight" they went with the next movies.

-DotM Voyager Class Megatron
Probably the best Megatron figure so far, nice transforming and finally a movie-accurate Megatron (where the leader and voyager from RotF failed to deliver a good-looking head)
My only complaint about the figure is that he didn't came with his shotgun, but it's something they resolved including the shotgun with the AoE Voyager Optimus Prime

-HFTD Leader Starscream
Really liked the design and the motion range of the robot mode, but the altmode is a bit sacrificated in order to deliver a solid robot mode. If you don't mind losing a bit of articulation, the DotM Deluxe Starscream is also a great figure

-RotF Leader Optimus Prime
one of the masterpieces of the movie lines. Another toy that could go for the "if you could buy only one bayformer figure wich one do you choose?" It may be a little complex to transform, but the design is really solid (maybe just a little big the kibble)

-DotM deluxe Bumblebee
even if the HFTD Battle Ops Bumblebee got more gimmicks, and a more complex transformation, I think the DotM is better proportioned and more similar to how Bumblebee looks on screen.

-DotM Voyager Skyhammer
even if the character doesn't appear on the movies, it's one of the best voyager figures available, I highly reccomend getting him.

There are some other figures, probably I'll add them tomorrow.

I really really like Evasion Mode Optimus Prime. As for the ones from the lines before age of extinction, I have written 2 top 5 lists, one for the best toys of characters on screen and one for the best characters off screen. These are the best, to me, and I recomend them all very highly:

https://www.seibertron.com/transformers ... ogy/36158/

https://www.seibertron.com/transformers ... ogy/36261/

Overcracker wrote:Hunt for the deceptions fixed his feet for and easier time standing, but even the 2007 version is pretty good, and has a great vehicle mode.

What 2007 version?

Dark of the moon Leader class Optimus Prime:
Ostensibly the best figure from the movies, just got a re-release by takara as MB-11, for their 10th anniversary Movie the Best Line.

Dark of the Moon Human Aliiance Soundwave:
Just the car mode makes this one to be considered. I don't like his robot mode at all however. But the Mercedes alt mode will be 80% of the reason to get it.

Dark of the moon has a few good molds.

Leader Class Prime is cool, but just so people are not confused, it's Revenge of the Fallen Leader Class Prime, there was no leader Prime in Dark of the Moon, they had an Ultimate Prime instead. And Human Alliance Soundwave was also reissued in the MB line so he is available now for whoever has the cash for a takara import
Cary just took a pic of him too, cant wait to get mine in the mail:

Overcracker wrote:As for Prime, the leader mold was retooled and used for Jetwing Prime and Striker Prime by Takara in Dark of the Moon. I like the Jetwing retool more than the original RotF version. And it's that retool Takara Is using for their MB-11 release.

But yes, Hasbro did not release the leader mold in Dark of the Moon.

Ah, I see, you were talking about the Takara one, right. Sorry about that, I always think of Hasbro by default, and its true there was some retooling. But the MB version is different from that one though, the MB one has the articulated hands that the DOTM jetwing one didnt so its even further retooled

Landmine

Are we just counting the actual movie cast? Because there were a LOT of cool "off-screen" toys, particularly from the RotF era. Skystalker, Mindwipe, Lockdown, Ransack, Highbrow, Bludgeon, Hailstorm, Terradive, Hubcap, Brimstone, Ejector, Dirt Boss...


Legends/Cyberverse has a lot of surprises, too, if you don't mind the simplicity. Devastator and the 3 Dreads (Crowbar, Crankcase, and Hatchet) are my top picks.


Of the "main" Movieverse figures, my personal faves are the Constructicons (Mixmaster, Rampage, Long Haul, and Demolishor), though they do have some craaaaazy transformations.

I'll not repeat what the other said. So, let me just add that if you love crazy bot with mind-bending transformations, get about anything from the Revenge Of the Fallen (ROTF) and Hunt of the Decepticon (HFTD) lines. Most are quite good and very challenging to transform. So challenging that it created the trend to simplify and then oversimplify the transformation in subsequent lines.

Premium Barricade. Still one of my favourite all-time vehicle modes of any TF. Overall there are better TFs, but I still love that vehicle.

That Starscream is amazing but it costs so much. (I am a sucker for that clear orange plastic, it works so well with the black and silver) Ironhide and Barricade look really sweet too.

I think I may have to go back and re-watch the bay flicks just to get a look at these characters. I will admit I didn't see the 4th movie yet. I'm not the biggest bay movie fan but the move figures look realistic which is awesome. Reminds me of the models I built as a kid.

Poor Deluxe Barricade almost every image of the poor guy make him look horrible - people don't lift the hips and straighten the legs they don't push the chest under his neck so instead of a tiny chest gap you get his huge chasm and they also tend to make his arms look as horrible as possible by not flipping the should plates around 180 on their ball joint.

Personally I sometimes prefer having his shins rotated around he stands a bit better like that I feel.



You can see here the neck has not been lifted up :



The neck has enough give to allow the side panels to slide in under his neck mount and they should be touching his beard and much closer to but not touching the mounting hinge at the back.



He's actually way nicer than the DOTM one if you transform the poor guy properly - I rather like the recon grey one myself.

I like Banzai-Tron and Bludgeon from the "not actually in the movies, but done in that style" line they had going for a while. I like Bludgeon for nostalgia reasons, but prefer the colors and deco on Banzai-Tron a little better.

Add my vote to Evasion Mode Prime, G1 Cab that turns into movie robot, pretty cool.

I also really like DOTM's voyager OP. Very stylized robot mode that barely looks like it would be a transforming toy, but it totally is.

I like movie Galvatron but can see why it might be way too shellformer for some people. But given how he transforms in the movie, not much else they could do for a physical product.

RAR wrote:Personally I sometimes prefer having his shins rotated around he stands a bit better like that I feel.



He's actually way nicer than the DOTM one if you transform the poor guy properly - I rather like the recon grey one myself.

I never thought of rotating his shins around. That looks really cool . Reminds me of an evil Prowl.

The DOTM Barricade is odd. It's more articulated, has better defined hands, an actual weapon and is overall more detailed. However, it's noticeably smaller and getting the feet to line up and pack into the vehicle mode has always been a hassle for me, too complex for the size.

I'm looking forward to the Last Knight Barricade and am actually please he looks different enough to be considered a new character.

Adding DOTM Crankcase and the other Last Knight Dread(name escapes me) and that's 5 unique Deluxe Decepticon police car molds. There's also a few repaints as well as the (repainted, Target Exclusive) ROTF Police Helicopter Tailwhip and you've got quite the Decepticon Police force. All they really need now is a Police Motorcycle...

(Upon consideration G2 Roadpig/Rid Axer or Ransack GTS/Gasket Police Type could fill that role too. tfu.info is awesome.).

Movie 2007 Dropkick is a good figure for a scout and one of my favorites. Technically he is a decepticon drone but the fact that his entire vehicle is painted to look like a big symbol is a unique sight






HFTD Battle Blades Optimus Prime from 2010 is also great, amazing poseability for a Voyager but he can be tricky to transform for a bay-former his category
So i prefer keeping mine in robot mode.

A little OCD correction. Movie '07 Dropkick is a deluxe, not a scout.

But speaking of scouts, HFTD Brimstone is AMAZING. Great bot mode and a perfect, perfect motorbike mode.

Someone might have mentioned it earlier, but 2007 deluxe class landmine. His alt-mode is both relatively unique, and it looks freakin great. His bot mode looks pretty cool too, and, as a nice little (albeit useless) feature, his robot hands form the alt-mode seats, which is cool. Usually figures of his size class don't have seats.

Also, revenge of the fallen scout class dirtboss. Has a nice little compact forklift mode, fast transformation, and while he is sort of a shellformer, it just works. Also, the life forks being integrated into bot mode as weapons is awesome.

Dark of the moon deluxe barricade is pretty neat too, with a fairly cool looking bot mode and a nice, compact, shiny police car altmode. Those are just the ones I have that I can recall being fond of, I might add more to the list if I'm up for it.

Overcracker wrote:Now that I own MB-11, I can say he is a top notch figure. Really large, but really cool.

He's really the ultimate movie Prime.

At least until the Masterpiece comes out sometime this year.

Emerje

Overcracker wrote:Unless they come up with something insanely better, I think I may just skip the MP.

-Kanrabat- wrote:A little OCD correction. Movie '07 Dropkick is a deluxe, not a scout.

I called him a scout because thats what i prefer classifying infantry type robots as.

Rogue-Primal wrote:

-Kanrabat- wrote:A little OCD correction. Movie '07 Dropkick is a deluxe, not a scout.

I called him a scout because thats what i prefer classifying infantry type robots as.

Still, try to use the correct terms because it will be confusing. It's like I'll call a random bot a "voyager" just because the character love to travel.
I'll call my cat a dog because he love to follow me around.
And why not call a veggie pizza a salad while we're at it?

-Kanrabat- wrote:

Rogue-Primal wrote:

-Kanrabat- wrote:A little OCD correction. Movie '07 Dropkick is a deluxe, not a scout.

I called him a scout because thats what i prefer classifying infantry type robots as.

Still, try to use the correct terms because it will be confusing. It's like I'll call a random bot a "voyager" just because the character love to to travel

I understand what you are suggesting but to each to their own i guess