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Carnivus Prime, Optimus' chest is a bit of a mess. The windows are a bit too high, at the wrong angle, and have a bit too much of a gap between them. The way they're hinged results in big fat hinges replacing detail present on other figures. And the torso ends up looking a bit blocky due to kibble on the sides.

ZeldaTheSwordsman wrote:Carnivus Prime, Optimus' chest is a bit of a mess. The windows are a bit too high, at the wrong angle, and have a bit too much of a gap between them. The way they're hinged results in big fat hinges replacing detail present on other figures. And the torso ends up looking a bit blocky due to kibble on the sides.

oh god... just.. no. I'm not going through all this again. Let's all just forget about Prime for now. Lookee...Ironhide! Woo!

Looks pretty good. My only experience with movie Ironhide was the DOTM Voyager, which I found to be a fiddly mess with poor articulation in the arms, so as long as they avoid THAT this should be pretty good.

Here’s hoping for a Deluxe Barricade and Voyager Bonecrusher to complete the 07 crew. Sure, the Megatron wouldn’t be correct, but the one we got is even better imo.

Shuttershock wrote:Looks pretty good. My only experience with movie Ironhide was the DOTM Voyager, which I found to be a fiddly mess with poor articulation in the arms, so as long as they avoid THAT this should be pretty good.

Here’s hoping for a Deluxe Barricade and Voyager Bonecrusher to complete the 07 crew. Sure, the Megatron wouldn’t be correct, but the one we got is even better imo.

I’m pretty sure that Bonecrusher was already confirmed

Well Shuttershock, the DOTM Voyager was more concerned with having a big-aft Mechtech gun than anything else . I too am hoping for a Studio Series Barricade and Bonecrusher, that would be wonderful. I'm also hoping for Studio Series versions of Megatron's Movie 1 and DOTM bodies.

Carnivus, I admit Optimus isn't as bad as I first made him out to be, but his chest has some definite visual flaws and mismatches to it. Saying otherwise is like saying G2 Slingshot is unbreakable.

Purely from a fun standpoint, I also wish he had ball-jointed sun visors like ROTF Leader and Battle Blades Optimus had. Because not only did that allow the visors to be positioned in robot mode, it let you give his truck mode angry eyebrows and that's hilarious.

But yes, that Ironhide is smexy. One of the best looking ones we've had, certainly. Not sure which I want more, him or the DotM Leader (for size purposes with Leader Optimus). He looks very fine, that bumper aside (and that may well be a mistransformation), and has the best proportioned and most accurate cannons.

One of my big hopes for the Studio series is a new Leader-class version of THE ETERNAL GLORY OF JETFIRE! As much as I complained about Studio Series Optimus, he's nowhere near the kibbletastic mess that ROTF Leader Jetfire is. He's still cool, but hooo boy was he screwed over by not only having to be designed to combine with Optimus, but also having to have electronics because Hasbro higher-ups were still in their "l34d3r (1455 t0yz mu5t h4ves t3h electroniczorz! 4lw4yz!" phase.

ZeldaTheSwordsman wrote:D-Maximal_Primal, Ironhide's movie 1 toy does not have the cannons permanently on the arms. It would sure be nice if it did, but alas. I know this because I have looked for him on eBay and seen many instances listed sans cannons. Sigh.

I'm curious as to why you prefer 2007 Blackout to Studio Series. He looks crude detail-wise except for the arms, his altmode bits are dealt with far less efficiently, his main rotor doesn't collapse as well, and his feet are completely wrong. Is it because of the Scorponok gear-link gimmick

My bad, I meant his 1st and 2nd movie appearance where his cannons were arm mounted, not like DotM where they were stored on his back and hand held. Same with Blackout. I am not talking about which toys I like best, merely movie look, and sometimes using the toy they got as a reference.

As for Ironhide: I am not sure yet. The bumper is out of place, and the arms seem really shrimpy. I don't like the arms on the DotM voyager, and I prefer the arms on the 2007 voyager the MP uses the proper arms position like the DotM voyager, but actually makes the arms look a proper size, unlike these ones.

Also still really not a fan of the robot mode scale being the set point and how small they have made the Autobots so far. I know it's how things work here but I am allowed not to like it!

Ah, I see. Thank you for clarifying. Although with Blackout, it's not like he had a look besides his movie 1 look considering he died in that one

Scale is one thing that's always been an issue with Transformers and the movie lines have it really bad. So I find it kinda nice that there's a line that tries to address it. As for the small Autobots... I blame that on Blackout and Grimlock's enormous afts combined with the fact that Leader is the largest size class HasTak are willing to use for it (and that Leader-class and Voyager class have shrunk substantially since ROTF).

So I have been messing around with Blackout some more, and for me at least, it is a hard battle between whether Blackout or Grimlock is my favorite leader. Both are awesome in robot mode and extremely accurate, though in Grimlock's case his accurate is much cooler. But Blackout is still iconic and he looks so good. Transformation wise, I think Grimlock is better in that department, seeing as how Blackout is slightly fiddly. But in alt mode, I think Blackout wins. He makes such a giant ass helicoptor he takes up almost all my desk.

So between these 2... it's a hard fight as to which is my favorite. But neither are slouches in any regards and they should both be picked up. Gosh I love these leaders

Well, to be fair, Will..
First, in-scale with those Leader-class figures, Blackout & Grindor would have to be Supreme class. They're substantially taller than Optimus, Megs, and Screamer (look at how Optimus has to climb up onto Grindor to go after his head) and are rather beefy to boot.
Second, the Studio Series is at least supplying a Voyager ROTF Megs, Screamer, and Optimus so the SS Blackout mold has versions of those three in-scale with him.
Third, while SS Blackout isn't in scale with those Leader-class figures, he's still at least less dwarfed by them than his 2007 Voyager counterpart would be XD.

ZeldaTheSwordsman wrote:
Carnivus, I admit Optimus isn't as bad as I first made him out to be, but his chest has some definite visual flaws and mismatches to it.

Yet oddly enough the stomach area is one of the most accurate of all Prime voyager figures. Far more so than the BB mold.
Also weirdly enough while looking for something to use as the sun visors on my Studio Prime I found I somehow actually have the sun visor parts from the RotF Leader figure in my parts box. Ok far too large to use on Studio Prime but where the hell did they come from? I did own that figure but I sure as heck sold it complete so dunno where these ones came from. Must have been in some large haul of TF figures and bits I got a while ago I guess. I'm sure some folk are missing those from their RotF Leader Prime.

ZeldaTheSwordsman wrote:Well, to be fair, Will..
First, in-scale with those Leader-class figures, Blackout & Grindor would have to be Supreme class. They're substantially taller than Optimus, Megs, and Screamer (look at how Optimus has to climb up onto Grindor to go after his head) and are rather beefy to boot.

Blackout's figure size is accurate to this chat that states he is 33 feet though. Which shows all three of the 2007 Decepticons in the Studio series to be correct scale with it.

So this means Grindor is a lot bigger than Blackout? Blackout turns into a Sikorsky MH-53 Pave Low while Grindor turns into a Sikorsky CH-53E Super Stallion which aren't massively different in size though the CH-53E is the bigger of the two (and has 7 rotor blades so Grindor should have 7 but his robot mode is pretty much just Blackouts (presumably upsized a lot) and the fact they're two different helicopters in alt-mode more than likely is because the MH-53 was retired in 2008 and Revenge of the Fallen came out in 2009).

So yeah... nothing's simple with Blackout and Grindor.

I think the size Grindor is shown to be on screen is probably more accurate for them, considering that the MH-53 and its siblings are 88' long (versus, say, Optimus' 30-something foot truck mode) and very bulky, and their robot mode doesn't have gangly arms and bowed, digitigrade legs to keep the height down (unlike Starscream, whose jet mode is 62' long). Blackout's size on screen is harder to judge, I forget at the moment whether he's ever properly in-frame with other characters the way Grindor is.

ZeldaTheSwordsman wrote:I think the size Grindor is shown to be on screen is probably more accurate for them, considering that the MH-53 and its siblings are 88' long (versus, say, Optimus' 30-something foot truck mode) and very bulky, and their robot mode doesn't have gangly arms and bowed, digitigrade legs to keep the height down (unlike Starscream, whose jet mode is 62' long). Blackout's size on screen is harder to judge, I forget at the moment whether he's ever properly in-frame with other characters the way Grindor is.

I could only have a quick look as gotta go out soon but I grabbed some screens from the last battle and while I can't see Blackout standing next to any other TFs, his size compared to nearby buildings has him not looking too large. (sorry for blurryiness, these are taken from a lower quality video I downloaded for reference as my PC has no Blu Ray drive, my PS4 does that for me)

Yeah, that does look a bit on the small side (and also shows that his rotor weapon does not in fact use the blades of his main rotor. It evidently uses his tail rotor blades but re-split in a way a toy can't hope to duplicate without just making a separate "weapon mode" piece). I still say that Grindor's on-screen size makes more sense considering the altmode's size *shrug* On the other hand, it seems that going his on-screen size SS Leader Blackout is in robot mode scale with ROTF Leader Optimus and Movie 1 Leader Megs.

By the way, I don't suppose you happened to have any ROTF Leader Jetfire weapons in that parts box do you?

Anybody in NZ spotted the wave 2 stuff yet? I've been scouring every store I can think of for voyager Megatron.

ZeldaTheSwordsman wrote:By the way, I don't suppose you happened to have any ROTF Leader Jetfire weapons in that parts box do you?

Nope sorry. I did have a few parts for that figure including his cane and a couple jet panels but used them to complete a Jetfire I found at a car boot sale and sold it. Amusingly I did just find the head of The Fallen in the box (never had that figure) so I may just give it to Prime as a trophy.

Pic for you.

Revenge Prime being angry truck because Studio Prime is using his truck bed as a posing platform. (that took a while changing into truck mode again.. and still not quite got it lined up properly, the truck front windows won't stayed fixed properly to the hood tabs, something's not quite right with my smooshing.)

Well, your hopes were not exactly realistic. First off, as I pointed out in that post you quoted, Grindor is substantially bigger than Optimus, Starscream, and Megatron to the point that to be in scale with the ROTF/HFTD Leader-class figures he would have to be Supreme-class. Second, the Leader size class has decidedly shrunk in recent years. Compare a Generations or Movie 4 or 5 Leader-class figure to an ROTF, Movie 1, or Unicron Trilogy Leader-class figure, you'll see what I mean.

However, given how much smaller than Grindor Blackout seems to be on screen, the Studio Series Blackout is in scale with those Leaders by that measure (if being used to represent Blackout at least).

ZeldaTheSwordsman wrote:However, given how much smaller than Grindor Blackout seems to be on screen, the Studio Series Blackout is in scale with those Leaders by that measure (if being used to represent Blackout at least).

Yep. I think out of all the current figures, only Grimlock is out of scale but he's big enough to still dominate the series well and a true scale figure of him (maybe Metro/FortMax size? I dunno since i never bought those generations figures so I'm just estimating from pics) would be very expensive and impractical.

Sabrblade wrote:

william-james88 wrote:

ZeldaTheSwordsman wrote:Well, your hopes were not exactly realistic.

Thats why they are hopes.

Wouldn't they be more like pipe dreams, then?

That made me think of the character Pipes and then wonder if he had a movieverse counterpart and turns out he does (even though even his G1 self barely has any toys).
He's called Blowpipe and the third deco of the rather cool 2007 Dropkick mold but a Walmart exclusive doublepark with a slightly darker Sideways.


I miss playing with that mold actually. I think I'll have to keep a look out at car boot sales for one (I've missed the last two sales cos of other priorties and commitements but hope to go again soon)

Carnivius_Prime wrote:Couple more pics from https://www.facebook.com/Planetiacon.stfu/

Cannons are removable.

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Scale looks good to me.(a lil hard to tell cos of perspective, but at least Ratchet & Ironhide are about on the same level and can see Ironhide is a bit taller and bulkier as he should be)

35226266_1772106799521919_393930345939992576_o.jpg

Quite tidy from the side.

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He looks great next to everyone except Optimus, who is just too small IMO (and the wrong shades, and has a crappy chest, etc).

Any way to compare him to the movie 1 voyager? I'm sure he's shorter, just want to see it.

Spider5800 wrote:
He looks great next to everyone except Optimus, who is just too small IMO (and the wrong shades, and has a crappy chest, etc).

Any way to compare him to the movie 1 voyager? I'm sure he's shorter, just want to see it.

No idea if they even have that figure. Odd one to bring up after dissing the Studio Prime when the 2007 Voyager, while a decent action figure at the time, is the absolute worst for accuracy and truck kibble and chest fakery and such.

Carnivius_Prime wrote:

Spider5800 wrote:
He looks great next to everyone except Optimus, who is just too small IMO (and the wrong shades, and has a crappy chest, etc).

Any way to compare him to the movie 1 voyager? I'm sure he's shorter, just want to see it.

No idea if they even have that figure. Odd one to bring up after dissing the Studio Prime when the 2007 Voyager, while a decent action figure at the time, is the absolute worst for accuracy and truck kibble and chest fakery and such.

I'm talking about comparing movie 1 Ironhide to SS Ironhide, I think you mistook this for me asking to compare the OP's from those lines.