by Wolfman Jake » Thu Apr 26, 2018 12:13 am
- Motto: ""A mountain with a wolf on it stands a little taller."
-Edward Hoagland"
- Weapon: Retractable Mecha-Fangs
I picked up the first two Leader Class figures from the Studio Series line over the last few days. They're both fantastic, in my opinion, and easily the best versions of Grimlock and Blackout respectively from the live action movie franchise.
Blackout is the leader sized figure we've wanted for 11 years. He looks great in robot mode, the paint and detailing is well done. The sculpting is excellent, especially the face. He's nice and bulky, like he should be. The helicopter alt-mode is impressively big. It's a huge freaking toy for a Transformer that isn't a city or other base of operations. I do have some nitpicks, though. It's unfortunate that he's just a little bit "partsformer" with the tail piece having to be unpegged from the back of the helicopter and put onto Blackout's arm, but I don't really see a better way of doing that. It's also a shame that the back half of the helicopter is so hollow from the bottom. I can understand a little to hide Scorponok in there, but is a bigger gap than it needs to me. Speaking of Scorponok, he looks pretty great too. He's nicely scaled, well painted, and has just enough articulation for a mini-figure. It's too bad he doesn't transform, but then again, he never actually did in the movies. Even his Deluxe and Legends/Legion toys from 11 years ago just kind of stood up awkwardly. Perhaps the biggest issue with Blackout is that a lot of the outer shell of the helicopter is made out of panels that don't want to line up and with one another and tab together securely. The plastic seems to be a bit too soft and the tolerances aren't quite up to the task of achieving what was originally designed. Still, Blackout is a must have for anyone's movie collection, despite its flaws.
Grimlock is pretty amazing. We've had a LOT of Grimlocks of all shapes and sizes since Age of Extinction, but this is the first one so far to get the colors COMPLETELY RIGHT! He's a nice dark gray with green "patina" dry-brushing for a very accurate on-screen look in both robot and T-Rex mode. Now, do the rest of the movie Dinobots like this, Hasbro! Please! I found the Transformation to be interesting and not overly confusing or complex. Neither mode is completely without kibble, but what the engineers did to minimize it is truly admirable. I've noticed some people complaining about not every flap or piece in dino mode securely snapping into place. They honestly don't need to, however. Every piece that is unsecured stays in place by friction alone. Even that rubbery flap under the tail holds up well. You can curve the sides upward to give the tail a more natural contour on the bottom, and it stays in place without much effort. Even the fake T-rex head halves at the thickest part of the tail aren't too distracting. In robot mode, Grimlock stands nice and tall over ALL of the others, though, of course, he should be MUCH MUCH taller to be truly screen accurate. The scaling as is still works very well. There's some kibble too in robot mode, most noticeably the dino jaw and little T-Rex arms just having out on the back of Grimlock's left upper arm, but again, they blend well enough, thanks mostly to the paint job. Again, this Grimlock is the one to have for your movie collection. Any other version doesn't even come close.
This brings me to a question for everyone. It seems that Wave 2 will not have any new Leader Class figures. Maybe it'll just be repacks of Grimlock and Blackout for now, or maybe they'll be announced a little later, coming directly after Megatron and Brawl in numeric sequence. At any rate, what can Hasbro and Takara do for future Leader Class characters for the Studio Series line? A redeco of Blackout as Grindor would be obvious, but then what? A new Jetfire mold? Slash? Slug? Strafe? Is there anyone else that needs to be that big compared to most of the rest of the cast? Will we get any more smaller characters, like Scorponok or even smaller? We gotta have the Arcee sisters at some point, as well as Frezny, Ravage, Wheelie, Brains, Laserbeak, and Squeaks. Maybe they'll be little bonus figures that come with other larger characters down the line. Or maybe a bunch of them will be sold together in a special multi-pack? The Studio Series has me really excited again for movie figures. I really hope Hasbro and Takara can keep this up for a while so we can fill out the Transformers casts for the first five movies without any big omissions.
Wolfman Jake - Spendin' the day howlin' away.
