The Energon Pub

Carnivius_Prime wrote:Nah. Don't like it. Also the weapons storing just below the knees looks pretty poor and isn't really very practical either for walking or drawing the weapon. The head sculpt is alright but looks like they're going for more of a vampire bat face than actual humanoid skull and I can't say I'm a fan. Was trying to think what it is about the colours that bug me but I think it's just that seemingly random purple on the 'eyes' of the chest armour. It's bizarre and doesn't really fit. The similar areas on RotF Bludgeon were just black and so didn't jar so much. And his eyes are purple too so are they all eyes? And then having the alt-mode's version of that chest armour end up on his butt...so does he have eyes on his butt? Sorry the whole figure just seems extremely dumbed down from what is one of my fave Transformer figures of all time. And that's me done. Nice review though and great picture quality.

You know I always appreciate your legth and well thought out comments. Also, its crazy how picture quality improves exponentially when using natural light. Any blurry shot was simply because I couldnt get the right focus (which is harder to do when not using flash). More to come with a Twinferno review in the evening.

As for the purple, I know it was never in those areas but purple has been part of his colour pallet in he past and it didnt look out fo place for me. Its the decepticon colour and I welcome it if done right, which I feel is the case here, since it works well with the white skull and gets replicated as the eyes of the other skull. I like how full the colours here are. Esepecially on those forearms. Also, while the weapon might be lower than his thighs, it works with his reach.

Terrsolpix wrote:Oh, and since these 2 are retool/decos, is there any obvious mold degradation?

None that I could tell. Though The only parts reused from Megatronus (aside from unseen structural skeleton) is the legs.

Terrsolpix wrote:

kurthy wrote:No pictures of him next to Blastwave?

From what I can tell, a lot of people skipped him since he's just a palette swapped Bludgeon.

Yeah precicely. I saw no point in getting him and thus do not have any comparison pics. I feel I am not alone in not having bought him.

william-james88 wrote:You know I always appreciate your legth and well thought out comments.

Not sure if sarcastic cos I don't consider anything I say to be well thought out. OVER thought yes but not well thought.

Also, while the weapon might be lower than his thighs, it works with his reach.

If I wore a large sword or gun down just under my knees rather than on my hips or back there's less chance of me being able to grab the handle of either weapon while moving (particularly if running into battle and needing to switch weapon like say if my gun ran out of ammo and I wanted to quickly grab the sword in a quick motion) and certainly trying to pull it out while keeping the legs moving could result in a trip and fall.
This actually bugged me about the Wolfwire mold when trying to repaint it into Carnivac cos he too has 5mm ports on either side of the knees rather than his hips so trying to store his weapons these looks silly and clumsy. SO much so I'm very tempted to carve those off and somehow attach them with small hinges to the hips if they can stil fit in right or at least a sensible place in wolf mode.

I have to say I can respect the appeal of a more simplistic Bludgeon for this RID line but I just don't feel it was executed as well as it could have. Certainly not with the same level of thought, clever touches and care that went into the RotF figure with touches like the rubber tank treads draping similar to samurai armour's similar pieces or the mechanism in his turret that stores his smaller sword or the way you can store both swords in robot mode on the same hip, or how the upper arms and legs show robot mode 'bones' spreading that skeletal look of his trademark face skull around the body a bit. I won't say the RotF mold is perfect, no Transformer I've ever seen has been, but there's just a 'beauty' to its design in both modes that I admire so much and I don't get much of that from this RID figure which again probably wasn't going for that and I like that it is obviously inspired by the general design of the RotF toy but like a budget version. Budgeon... hm..that's very similar to Budgens, a cheap small supermarket chain here in the UK.

Still, if I ever come across this figure heavily discounted in a store I MAY still buy it, even just as a disciple for RotF Bluddy?

"And now my student, I shall teach you the ways of Metallikato..."

william-james88 wrote:

Terrsolpix wrote:

kurthy wrote:No pictures of him next to Blastwave?

From what I can tell, a lot of people skipped him since he's just a palette swapped Bludgeon.

Yeah precicely. I saw no point in getting him and thus do not have any comparison pics. I feel I am not alone in not having bought him.

I must be one of the rare few that bought him. I get all the new characters for my 9 year old. They may not go on my shelves, but they are usually fun to play with (or steal the weapons).

I short,

That's okay, it's how tall you are on the inside that really matters!

Warrior Bludgeon is lots of fun and gets the job done

Cool, Hopefully this one will show up in stores, fortunately RID seems to get better distro than the lines I'm more interested... Watch this guy be an exception... Already passed on the predeco.

Black Hat wrote:The colours look...wrong somehow. Dunno if it's just the camera, but somehow he looks a bit wrong. Like, the orange reminds me of burger cheese. The toy suffers a lot from RIDitis though. His legs are annoyingly hollow and so is his head. But by far my biggest problem is the size. I could overlook the other two issues and have him as my CHUG Bludgeon if he were Voyager scaled (yes I know RID doesn't have Voyagers, a crying shame IMO as the designs are great) but as a Deluxe he's just too small.

THAT SAID, I might track him down and redeco him into Banzai-Tron at some point. He does look like a lot of fun, and as a toy his flaws are mostly overlookable.

Well he isnt supposed to replace the previous ROTF voyager as a classics Bludgeon. That one already works super well and plus we just got another voyager Bludgeon last year through the TFSS. Just like the Cyberverse one fits for a different collection, so does this one. Its more of an animated take on the character and it would be super cool to pose him fithing Animated Deluxe Prime or Prowl for instance.

Also, the advantage of using natural light is that the colours you see are as close as possible to the actual colours. So yes, his orange is like that. Although the kraft slices I usually use for my hamburgers are more on the yellow side. But hey, we are on different continents so who knows

Carnivius_Prime wrote:

william-james88 wrote:You know I always appreciate your legth and well thought out comments.

Not sure if sarcastic cos I don't consider anything I say to be well thought out. OVER thought yes but not well thought.

No sarcasm from me. If I was sarcastic, you`d know it, I am pretty obvious

Carnivius_Prime wrote:I have to say I can respect the appeal of a more simplistic Bludgeon for this RID line but I just don't feel it was executed as well as it could have. Certainly not with the same level of thought, clever touches and care that went into the RotF figure

As I wrote above, this isnt meant to replace that figure, just be a fun take on the character in a different aesthetic. If it was as great as that previous figure, then there would be no longer any point in owning it and that would be a sad day.

william-james88 wrote:

Black Hat wrote:The colours look...wrong somehow. Dunno if it's just the camera, but somehow he looks a bit wrong. Like, the orange reminds me of burger cheese. The toy suffers a lot from RIDitis though. His legs are annoyingly hollow and so is his head. But by far my biggest problem is the size. I could overlook the other two issues and have him as my CHUG Bludgeon if he were Voyager scaled (yes I know RID doesn't have Voyagers, a crying shame IMO as the designs are great) but as a Deluxe he's just too small.

THAT SAID, I might track him down and redeco him into Banzai-Tron at some point. He does look like a lot of fun, and as a toy his flaws are mostly overlookable.

Well he isnt supposed to replace the previous ROTF voyager as a classics Bludgeon. That one already works super well and plus we just got another voyager Bludgeon last year through the TFSS. Just like the Cyberverse one fits for a different collection, so does this one. Its more of an animated take on the character and it would be super cool to pose him fithing Animated Deluxe Prime or Prowl for instance.

That's... that's friggin' perfect. As if I didn't have enough reasons to get Animated figures -- and I had way, way more than enough reasons -- now they have a BLUDGEON to fight!!

Yes! Thank you for this amazing pictorial of my mini me!

Mere moments after Scotty found Optimus Prime and Hi-Test, our gracious and glorious overlord Seibertron himself found the Transformers Robots In Disguise Activator Soundwave and Lazerbeak! This version of the beloved boombox is the latest in the ever-expanding line of RID Soundwave toys, and is selling for $19.99!

Twinferno is exactly what every collector feared when we first saw the Robots in Disguise line. He is overly simplistic, feels cheap and sports few details.

He truly feels like a toy for younger kids. The sad thing is that there is almost nothing ingenious about him. Certain kids toys can be fun to transform with their quick changing gimmick like Rescuebot, but Twinferno wouln't really offer anything fun to anyone. Any kid wanting a more streamlined transformer is much better off getting an Optimus Prime or Bumblebee from the Robots in Disguise line.





The simple transformation is one of my biggest griefs about this toy. All you have to do is bring in his legs and have him raise his arms. You then just put the wings and cockpit down and that's it. What blows is that this is very indicative in the design where you end up with a spaceship that has two dragon heads sprouting out of it. At least if it had those heads concealed it would make for a more interesting transformer but here it's just all the robot mode elements again. It's not that different to when you lift a Superman figure's arms in the air and call that a flight mode.





The deco isn't great either, it has way too much of that neon salmon that looks like those stickers distributed around Halloween to prevent kids from getting run over.





And it just feels so cheap. The quality control fails too with the left foot not being able to peg in correctly due to a far too narrow hole. They are dumb feet anyway, it's the kind of step that adds nothing. All you do is slightly compress the foot for the alt mode. The robot foot is still clearly visible so he might as well have had the feet be part of the same leg piece like some cyber trim toys of old. At least that way the foot would not keep falling off when you tried transforming him properly. And yes, since his foot can't be straightened out, stability problems might ensue.



The way they handle the fire breathing dragon heads is also a head scratcher.





Notice how the underside of the dragon head has a peg? I figured it was to secure the flames when they are in his mouth. But it doesn't fit that way so all those peg holes are good for is holding the flames UNDER the dragon jaws. They still fit in the mouth, but upside down, so what you see is the hollowed out side of the flames.





I think my biggest beef of all with this toy is that the fans who believe this line is junk clogging up shelves now have a mascot. The only saving grace here, aside from the nice looking dragon heads, is that he is an autobot and does not tarnish the wonderful reputation of the Robots in Disguise Decepticon toys.

I'm looking at RiD "Blastwave", and the sculpting seems identical to Bludgeon. Even da face....

DeathReviews wrote:I'm looking at RiD "Blastwave", and the sculpting seems identical to Bludgeon. Even da face....

Well... yeah. They're redecos of each other. Same tooling, different colors.

Sabrblade wrote:

DeathReviews wrote:I'm looking at RiD "Blastwave", and the sculpting seems identical to Bludgeon. Even da face....

Well... yeah. They're redecos of each other. Same tooling, different colors.

They went cheap on at least giving Blastwave a new face

Man, that's really disappointing. Twinferno was looking so cool too...

A few minor tweaks and they could have had a Dragon mode and a jet mode and a robot mode.

At least his head can be hidden in vehicle mode.

william-james88 wrote:When it comes to Thermidor, this review, and images found within, will mostly be comparing him to Bisk. I'd love to review the toy as new but in reality he is similar to Bisk in every way aside from the head and deco. For those who do not own this mold, it is simply perfect. The alt mose is original, the robot mode has great personality with alt mode integration. It's a fun transformation that is not at all bothersome and both intuitive and creative. The real difference here is the deco and the head. The head has very features, he actually has pupils for a change.












The deco for the eyes works rather well. The paint may be sloppy depending on your copy, especially in the lower mandibles. The amount of paint apps between both is almost the same but Thermidore wins out with having his whole abdominal area painted silver while Bisk's is left unpainted. Also, I always appreciate when the rims are painted which is the case here so no need to wait for the Takara version here (not that it would happen).



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I recomend this toy to any fan of the Bisk mold and to those who have not experienced this mold yet, as well to those who want a nice representation of the character found in the show. I am happy with my purchase and there isn't much more I could ask for.

Eh? where did you get him?(Thermindor) coz Kapow doesn't have him yet

anywhoo...Chefatron already has a vid review of him up

Stuartmaximus wrote:Eh? where did you get him?(Thermindor) coz Kapow doesn't have him yet

I got him at my local toysrus in Montreal, Canada.

Ouch. RiD toys already tend to look sorta "kiddie" (especially compared to the greeble-covered TR line and Movieverse), but Twinferno manages to do that even harder.

On the flip side, Thermidor/Bisk looks really nice and could probably get away paling around with Prime bots, like Ripclaw and Rumble or whoever.


Bludgeon... is weirdly in between. I dunno, can't not compare him to the RotF version, which admittedly is like comparing an NES sprite to the full drawing in the instruction manual.

Oh boy, Twinferno looks a mess. I know this gets thrown about a lot with poorly done toys but he really does remind me of a knockoff. Well, not a knockoff but one of those technically original off-brands that exist to trick parents into buying them for their unfortunate children. You know, Converters, Zybots, M.A.R.S Converters etc. Between the complete lack of detail, the atrocious colour choices and the really basic transformation he just looks so, so bad.

Thermidor on the other hand (claw?) looks amazing. That mold looks even sexier in blue.

You guys know what I find pretty nuts? We currently have 0 clue as to what is next for RID Warriors. Usually we know at least one or two waves taht are still to come but right now, I own the latest wave and I have no clue if there will even be another.

Well, Combiner Force Menasor is on amazon. Wanted to buy him, but I'm waiting on a few comics and Ultra bee to hit before I get them all.

I actually like how Twinferno looks. the colors, the look, it works for me. But I am a bit easier to please.

Bludgeon is still a must, still need to get to his wave to buy him.

I am also wondering about a lack of new figures, but I'm sure SDCC will have something

I wonder how many folks who originally passed on Blastwave will now want him after seeing that he's a bounty hunter who uses Cybertronian sign language to communicate.

Sabrblade wrote:I wonder how many folks who originally passed on Blastwave will now want him after seeing that he's a bounty hunter who uses Cybertronian sign language to communicate.

But he's using the wrong mold and has the wrong headsculpt, thats just too bad.

william-james88 wrote:

Sabrblade wrote:I wonder how many folks who originally passed on Blastwave will now want him after seeing that he's a bounty hunter who uses Cybertronian sign language to communicate.

But he's using the wrong mold and has the wrong headsculpt, thats just too bad.

Wait until he appears as a Bludgeon look-a-like in the cartoon, then we'll talk

It endears me enough to him to want him.

And lol, now is when we're starting to talk about toy/cartoon inaccuracy?

william-james88 wrote:You guys know what I find pretty nuts? We currently have 0 clue as to what is next for RID Warriors. Usually we know at least one or two waves taht are still to come but right now, I own the latest wave and I have no clue if there will even be another.

This happened once before with this line, I think just before NYCC last year? It's really ever since info on a whole year's worth of Generations products got leaked that we stopped learning about new products as early as we used to. Other than some of the shots of "Tribute" line products, there's very little period which we both know about and are waiting for release.