Seibertron.com Energon Pub Forums

Every two weeks, Seibertron.com brings you a Top 5 list related to all things Transformers written by me, your fellow editor. These are my opinions (just like movie or game reviews hosted by sites are still just the opinion of one person) so what matters most is what you guys think of the topic or list, and I hope to see your own lists or comments on omissions and ranking. Let's have fun! All previous lists can be found here.

Top 5 Most Annoying Transformers Toys

This list was strongly influenced by the community's opinion found in this thread. The idea with this list is that the idea of a difficult toy can mean different things to different people. The most common are how frustrating a toy can be to transform and how complex a toy is and those are very different. So, we will be splitting these lists on difficulty into 2. This first one is about those annoyingly hard Transformers that have one or several steps in the transformation that you get stuck on. The instructions won't help you here, you just have to find the right angle, or something along those lines. Of course, complex transformers can also be annoyingly difficult so there can and will be some overlap but for now, we are mainly looking at those really annoying Transformers toys.


5. Transformers War For Cybertron Cybertronian Bumblebee

Unless his arms are rotated just right, his front end just doesn't close up properly, and the rear of the shell is tricky to line up sometimes.

Here's what member MGrotusque had to say about the transformation:

I hated that BB transformation. I smashed the thing out of frustration. I got it to a point the last time i transformed it and lost track of what step i was doing and couldn't get is sorted again.
I SMASHED it good

4. Transformers Revenge of the Fallen Leader Optimus Prime

This is a phenominal toy, no doubt. The detail and parts count is astounding and you could never see this repeated at the same price point today. However, inorder to achieve such a massive robot mode from a tight truck mode, there is no slack anywhere. Everything must be put just right with no margin of error. And there are some moments where you must ensure that at least three seperate parts all connect to different places at the same. You must not go over some steps or else you will be forced to go back and undo what you have done since. There is also the two very annoying gimmicks to this toy which will haunt you as you transform him: the electronics that light up his head and make him talk will go off whenever hi head is moved AND the spring swords will just keep undoing themselves. Both these things will keep happening over and over and over and over ...




3. Transformers Revenge of the Fallen Leader Jetfire

It is so odd that Hasbro could have an amazingly designed leader class Transformer like the Optimus Prime above and such a total failure like Jetfire in the same line (and even with a possibility to combine them together). What is very annoying about this toy is how it is an overly simple design with a whole robot hiding under a jet. However, because the jet is made up of a bunch of panels, reverting to alt mode is far too time consuming for a very unsatisfying end result. I am certain this is one of the least transformed toys out there.
Now that I have said what is particularly annoying about this figure, I will leave you with these wise words from RK_Striker_JK_5:

ROTF jetfire is not only frustrating, it's just a horrible transformation and toy overall. Almost the entire robot body is slung underneath. It's a load of **(%$#$^* and a waste of money.

2. Star Wars Transformers Darth Vader Death Star

I cannot thank RK_Striker_JK_5 for sending me this toy so I could experience it for myself. He was pretty sure it would make this list and he wasn't wrong. This is THE panel former for all ages. It makes Jetfire look like a piece of cake. I tried doing it without the instructions but kept having one or two pannels misaligned. This was the best I could do before having to use the instructions:



Even with the instructions, this guy is a hassle. This is a perfect Transformer to show the difference between a difficult transformation and an annoying one. He isn't that difficult but the fact that his alt mode is a globe which i made up of panels that must fit perfectly together from all sides at the same time makes it beyond annoying to play with.




1. Alternity Seeker Mold

This toy has a gorgeous car mode and a rather cool robot mode. It has a big problem though: getting from one mode to the next. It just isn't fun. The automorph gimmick doesnt really work everything is super tight and very small and fiddly. And worst of all, the die cast doors keep falling off. They are heavier than every other part and either get in the way or fall off while the serve nothing in the robot mode (aside from a side skirt, maybe). They double the time it would otherwise take to transform this toy and make you rethink if you will ever transform it again.









Honourable mentions: Here is a list of other Transformers that came up in the discussion of annoying toys, listing the parts about them that are the most frustrating.

Generations Springer's car windows
Binaltech Grimlock's doors
Unhooking MP 05 Megatron's arms
Linking up RTS Wreck Gar's alt mode
ROTF Mixmaster's arms
RotF Rampage
Animated Voyager Seeker's legs

william-james88 wrote:Honourable mentions: Here is a list of other Transformers that came up in the discussion of annoying toys, listing the parts about them that are the most frustrating.

Generations Springer's car windows
Binaltech Grimlock's doors
Unhooking MP 05 Megatron's arms
Linking up RTS Wreck Gar's alt mode
ROTF Mixmaster's arms
RotF Rampage
Animated Voyager Seeker's legs

My Springer's toy really does have a lot of hassle when converting to car mode. Also, a toy I think (IMO) should've made the list is Prime: Beast Hunters Voyager Class Ultra Magnus (and maybe the OP he was retooled from). If don't don't push his legs into just the right position, the panels on the sides of the truck mode, the ones that fold on his back, will not plug into place at certain parts. Or it may just be my toy. Doesn't matter to me, I think it's one of the most beautiful ones in my collection.

people find the animated seeker's LEGS to be annoying? it's all the auto-morphing that makes cramming everything into the vehicle mode a pain for me.

Springer's vehicle windows are fine, it's the bits that cover up the wheels in copter mode that kill me. Going from truck mode to any other mode is a pain because they sit in there so tight. It's a flaw on otherwise my favorite toy.

Also, speaking of triple-changers. No generations Blitzwing? I actually kind of like that toy since I sanded down his pegs, but deer primus on high that guy's a fiddly nightmare out of the box.

His shoulders don't peg in anywhere,and if you never told me he had a face flipping gimmick, I'd have never known because even after sanding down the bar, it refuses to work.

yeah i had trouble with death star vader to close i got is perfect sphere but top of death star is not pinned in correctly everythnig else but top,.

cybertron bumblebee i had no trouble but movie optimus prime and leader jet fire yes troublemsom for single transfromation and combined mode,.

alternate seekers i wouldnt know i dont own any that series

Binaltech Grimlock's doors aren't to bad. Step 1 in the transformation:Remove doors. Final step:Put doors back on.

Urgh, Jetfire. I'm usually all for RotF's complex transformations, but Jetfire's an absolute chore. I had to mod the toy to transform it, which took 40+ minutes the first time (requiring online help), and the damn thing doesn't even look good in robot or jet mode.

Darth Vader/Death Star was one of those toys that I hoped to own when I first got into Transformers. I guess I dodged a bullet by never getting around to buying him.

Animated Voyager Seeker's legs

My god. I recently sold Starscream, and trying to get him into jet mode for that was just depressing. I kept fearing something would go horribly wrong and I'd have to refund the seller...


Something unmentioned, this set right here:

I swear, this set's theme is "unfun." They weren't kidding with that ADVANCED Level.

I think animated prowl deserves a mention. I only have the samurai prowl version of the mold so I don't know if this holds true to the original version or not, but his legs are so fiddly and you have to align them just right in order to not have the back wheel scrape against the arms. And it's nearly impossible to get the waist in to place because it's just on a ball joint with no indicator of where to stop, and you're are going to pop off the legs. There's no way around it. Sometimes it's better to remove the legs before transformation because the hinge that forms his shin is so tight and hard to work with the incredibly loose ball joints. I see why they did this for robot mode, but if they had been a bit tighter it would've helped everything.

I won't hear a word against my homeboy ROTF Rampage. He is B E A U T I F U L !

In all seriousness though, whilst he's definitely challenging I wouldn't call him "annoying" per se. Once you "get" it, he's actually pretty fun, and the transformation is fairly ingenious; the bulldozer effectively turns inside out to transform, and the tread-whips are awesome.

One toy that is a surprising pain in the arse to transform is Animated Ratchet. He's not complicated at all, but the way his legs are engineered and toleranced makes his transformation the most mind-bogglingly horrible thing I have ever experienced as a Transformers fan. If you don't have his legs together and his knee hinges angled just right, when you clip on the back of the ambulance, the whole back end of the vehicle will just pop apart. And to make matters worse, the split mushroom caps that make up his thigh swivels pop off ALL THE TIME.

Animated Ratchet, IMO, is the embodiment of my belief that complexity and fiddlyness actually have nothing to do with each other.

An honourable mention goes to RID Ultra Magnus. Getting him into car carrier mode is a royal pain. He gets off the hook a bit though as he has to form power armour for Optimus Prime, and considering how some other "power mushroom" figures have turned out he's actually very well engineered. Granted he has calves a mile long and he struggles to stand up, but he LOOKS awesome in all modes.

The worst ones for me: ROTF Rampage and Mixmaster, ROTF Arcee mold and 2007 Barricade. Barricade has a simple transformation, but nothing aligns! His stupid gimmick keeps going off and I can't get his legs to go into the slot on the roof. Absolutely terrible toy.

Optimusprime809 wrote:The worst ones for me: ROTF Rampage and Mixmaster, ROTF Arcee mold and 2007 Barricade. Barricade has a simple transformation, but nothing aligns! His stupid gimmick keeps going off and I can't get his legs to go into the slot on the roof. Absolutely terrible toy.

I have '07 Barricade and felt the same actually. It is very hard to get lined up and legs compacted to transform correctly to layer it all together. RotF Starscream causes me a bit of an issue as well when it comes to get it lined up and I am usually unable to get the missiles pegged in on the wings once he is in jet mode. DotM Starscream I feel is simpler to transform for sure, but I hate how cramped the transformation process is. It's satisfying to me because of how tight it is, but looks jumbled if you aren't careful.

I feel like complication to transform is a staple of the Bayverse toys in a lot of ways. AoE didn't have this too much with the ones I got of it though. That would be Galvatron and Lockdown respectively.

I personally think the Transformers ROTF line was the best, unlike the cheap kid figures where getting now. People complian about the smallest things from the figure's. Thier movie line figures they are suppose to be complex to transform like in the movie.

I haven't fiddled with with the Original Movie Leader Megatron but I remember that one being frustrating as all hell. Getting those feet to line up under the wings.

Plus there's Masterpiece Megatron which is both fiddly and fragile.

That's a pretty harsh critique of ROTF jetfire I think. The robot mode looks really nice, they managed to combine him pretty well with ROTF prime, and the jet mode is huge and pretty cool looking from the top. I can't imagine him being engineered much better than he is, for still being a general release leader figure.

DOTM Deluxe Barricade comes to mind right away, along with generations deluxe galvatron

The only toy I have ever actually thrown at a wall is RoTF Skids. Those feet. Those damn feet. If you do not memorize the exact orientation of all the joints in the feet and lower legs before transforming it, you will NEVER get it back to vehicle mode. I swear, I had to return it and get a fresh one so I could see where the problem was. It turned out to be a joint that I couldn't tell was there the first time since I hadn't made a special point of memorizing it and it wasn't visible in robot mode, IIRC.

A few years ago I was going through boxes of old TF's and came across Energon Dreadwing. I could not for the life of me figure the damn thing out after all that time. I didn't know where the box with the instructions was (or which box it was, more like) so I had to go online and download a scan of them (I think I actually had to use the ones for Mirage).

That's certainly one of the most annoying experiences I've had with a TF.

honorable mention: RiD (01) Megatron. Too many official modes, and still more unofficial ones due to Hasbro using the Galvatron retool for their release of Megs. Good luck remembering all that when you want a particular mode. "I wanted giant hand, but could only remember elephant!"

Dark of the Moon Skids is a headache to me. His backpack falls in half every time I transform it and his arms always fall off, and I can't them to work for vehicle mode. It makes transforming him harder than it should be, and downright annoying.

Prime Beast Hunters voyager (the first one) Predaking is another that bugs me. His dragon mode and his dragon launchers do not like me in the slightest. that thing's beast mode is so fiddly and the robot mode screwed up by I think a backwards rear dragon leg that I don't transform him. His dragon mode head is permanently damaged by Transformation with several parts being bent out of wack too. I keep him solely in dragon mode. Can't tell you the last time I transformed a Prime Predacon of any sorts

I never understood why people keep complaining about poor Cybertronian Bumblebee. He's fun and intuitive to transform and I never had any problems.

ROTF Jetfire is not too bad too.

ROTF Optimus however can go to HELL. Mine still havent recovered from last July's Montreal Comiccon. I participated with Will at a panel to demonstrate Optimus toys. I transformed him from truck to bot and it was a challenge. Back home I threw it on the shelf, slumped on it's back until I decided to recombine him with Jetfire. It's still there. On it's back. alone. Untouched.

Finally, hell yeah the Alternity seeker mold. GARBAGE. To the list, add the loose and unlockable multipart legs. Fokker cant stand straight. Sigh.

One that I always found annoying was that Devastator toy from one of the Bay movies where the individual vehicles couldn't transform into robots.

MP 05 should have been on the top 5 based on the feedback from the fandom. As I haven't ever transformed my MP-05, the only heartbreak I experienced from him was "cosmic rust". Though could the language barrier be also a reason why there are so many breakage in him? Or is his manual just a piece of sh#t?

The instruction manuals these days aren't what we should call an epitome of accuracy

About Jetfire, I don't own one but when it was released, from what I saw in and out package, his jet mode looks absolutely delicious but if y'all say that the entire chunk of his body has just been slapped under the fuselage, then that is the limitation of the base design (just like original G1 Aerialbots, Dreadwind, Darkwing) of a jet.

The best jet mode is still the original one by Kawamori aka the G1 Jetfire despite what? 30 years? The Seekers G1 seekers though great looking as a jet and in front in robot mode, well we all know what a mess it was to parts form. The henkei's on the other hand rectified it.

But being a jet really limits how much you can avoid the "slap the body underneath" route.

Beast Wars Rhinox, the original deluxe mold. I *hated* that thing and still do. I can't think of kibble more obnoxious and in the way of an otherwise okay robot mode. I actually smashed it out of hate. Didn't help that he had the awful, awful mask. I know the toys came before the mainframe cgi models but the super-angry face and bright green doesn't help him at all.

Thank God for voyager chug Rhinox.

Dunno if it count, but allow me to nominate TITANT RETURN CHROMEDOME.
The figure is amazing looking in bot modes and the transformation is simple eno...
...
This is a modded Combiner Wars figure with the connector gimmick replaced with the Heandmaster gimmick. Can't help but feel annoyed by that. No, really. Literally (and I mean LITERALLY, not "figuratively") fill the chest cavity with a head/connector and I could combine it as a leg or arm on any CW combiner.

I wanted something NEW goddammit.

But being a jet really limits how much you can avoid the "slap the body underneath" route.

Well, that's true, but compare this:

to this:

Voyager Starscream isn't perfect (his hands stick out refusing to hide away), but he's far more streamlined and jet-like, whereas Jetfire is blatantly a robot slapped underneath a jet. The color difference makes it look even worse.




Hell, the Legends toy does it a lot better since Jetfire actually becomes the Blackbird instead of just hiding under it.

Noideaforaname wrote:

But being a jet really limits how much you can avoid the "slap the body underneath" route.

Well, that's true, but compare this:

to this:

Voyager Starscream isn't perfect (his hands stick out refusing to hide away), but he's far more streamlined and jet-like, whereas Jetfire is blatantly a robot slapped underneath a jet. The color difference makes it look even worse.




Hell, the Legends toy does it a lot better since Jetfire actually becomes the Blackbird instead of just hiding under it.

That SR71 makes me giddy! Depends on the actual structure of the base figure you can't compare a Raptor and an SR71. But the main body is still slapped under the fuselage regardless.