Fellow Seibertronian primalxconvoy got his hands on Takara Transformers TAV 50 Hyper Surge Prime and wrote a quick review for us to highlight some points that may not be apparent at first glance. If anyone is interested in this toy, this is a great read to be aware of some problems in order to set your expectations, since this is intended for kids afterall. The short review is interspersed with relevant images from alfes's gallery.
I got this toy the other day. Here are some observations:
- No Autobot symbols in lorry mode (I used Repros for mine).
- No upper arm swivel, which is strange as his upper thighs do. This means that his posability is limited.
- The regular head swivels a bit, but the super mode visor DOES NOT. This means that he cannot look around in super mode.
- The arms, although engineered to have tabs, don't tab together in Alt mode very well.
- the clear sword blade and hilt are detachable, and feature a special peg which fits into only this prime's hands. Not sure why.
- No painted wheels, which is odd for Takara.
- The molded Autobot symbol on the eagle is both unpainted and obscured by the eagle head in super mode, meaning that Optimus has no clear faction symbol on display while in this mode.
- The cab comes unattached in the box, and simply hangs off the attached area. It's tempting to want to pull it down further, causing it to come off.
- the same for the wings, as they appear to fold, but don't.
In conclusion, the toy is perhaps more durable and easier to transform that the previous iteration of super mode Prime, but it's got less details and paint apps.
Re: Quick Written Review of Takara Tomy Transformers Adventure TAV 50 Hyper Surge Optimus Prime (1801418)
Posted by SG Roadbuster on June 28th, 2016 @ 10:29am CDT
no bicep swivels, the alt mode looks like shite. if i get this, it'll be when it hits clearance. same as I did with Ultimate Beast Hunters Optimus (snagged him for 25 bucks at a Marshall's I did)
Re: Quick Written Review of Takara Tomy Transformers Adventure TAV 50 Hyper Surge Optimus Prime (1802021)
Posted by D-Maximal_Primal on June 29th, 2016 @ 11:04pm CDT
Dengeki Hobby has updated their pre-orders with some new stock images of TAV-53 Hyper Surge Sideswipe and TAV-54 Scorponok! The new images show off the newly painted figures in all their glory. Sideswipe comes with the minicon Windstrike as well. Check out the images below and let us know what you think in the comments section.
Re: Quick Written Review of Takara Tomy Transformers Adventure TAV 50 Hyper Surge Optimus Prime (1802024)
Posted by Decepticon Stryker on June 29th, 2016 @ 11:17pm CDT
Love the paint job on Scorponok. Of course, being from Takara that's pretty much a gven.
Re: Quick Written Review of Takara Tomy Transformers Adventure TAV 50 Hyper Surge Optimus Prime (1802037)
Posted by Emerje on June 30th, 2016 @ 12:45am CDT
Orders are up for these guys at the usual Japanese retailers. Shame the exchange rate is no longer in our favor and I've got some $300 into August already. I'm ordering Scorponok off HLJ so I can cancel later if need be.
BTW, bigger pictures of Scorponok on HLJ.
tkt86285_0_1467247865.jpg
tkt86285_1_1467247866.jpg
tkt86285_2_1467247866.jpg
Emerje
Re: Quick Written Review of Takara Tomy Transformers Adventure TAV 50 Hyper Surge Optimus Prime (1802071)
Posted by Optimizzy on June 30th, 2016 @ 8:52am CDT
I like that Scorponok.
Re: Quick Written Review of Takara Tomy Transformers Adventure TAV 50 Hyper Surge Optimus Prime (1802086)
Posted by Sigma Magnus on June 30th, 2016 @ 9:56am CDT
What, no boxing gloves?
Re: Quick Written Review of Takara Tomy Transformers Adventure TAV 50 Hyper Surge Optimus Prime (1802090)
Posted by Sabrblade on June 30th, 2016 @ 10:02am CDT
Though closer to the show deco than Hasbro's, Scorponok's black should be more green.
Re: Quick Written Review of Takara Tomy Transformers Adventure TAV 50 Hyper Surge Optimus Prime (1802119)
Posted by MGrotusque on June 30th, 2016 @ 12:50pm CDT
I do like that Scorponok. The browns and yellows are interesting colors for transformers and finally a figure where chicken legs actually work awesomely in bot mode.
Re: Quick Written Review of Takara Tomy Transformers Adventure TAV 50 Hyper Surge Optimus Prime (1802203)
Posted by Emerje on June 30th, 2016 @ 5:00pm CDT
Sabrblade wrote:Though closer to the show deco than Hasbro's, Scorponok's black should be more green.
Take a closer look, the figure is definitely green, not black.
Emerje
Re: Quick Written Review of Takara Tomy Transformers Adventure TAV 50 Hyper Surge Optimus Prime (1802823)
Posted by william-james88 on July 2nd, 2016 @ 7:59pm CDT
I placed an order for TAV-33 because a good deal came up and in anticipation I was searching for reviews demonstarting his new features. But there are none in English. This was the best I could find and I wish it were longer.
Re: Quick Written Review of Takara Tomy Transformers Adventure TAV 50 Hyper Surge Optimus Prime (1802872)
Posted by chuckdawg1999 on July 2nd, 2016 @ 11:26pm CDT
william-james88 wrote:I placed an order for TAV-33 because a good deal came up and in anticipation I was searching for reviews demonstarting his new features. But there are none in English. This was the best I could find and I wish it were longer.
I'll get to it, but regular giant Prime left a real bad taste in my mouth.
Re: Quick Written Review of Takara Tomy Transformers Adventure TAV 50 Hyper Surge Optimus Prime (1803777)
Posted by Va'al on July 7th, 2016 @ 5:53am CDT
Via another of our site sponsors, BigBadToyStore, we have a look at some more upcoming Takara Tomy Transformers Adventure figures, as we breach number 60 in the line with TAV 58 Sideswipe with Windstrike, TAV 59 Ratchet, TAV 60 Bisk, TAV 61 God Optimus Prime (Power Surge for Hasbro, as seen here), and TAV 62 being another mystery character, just like TAV 57. Check out the images mirrored below!
Re: Quick Written Review of Takara Tomy Transformers Adventure TAV 50 Hyper Surge Optimus Prime (1803782)
Posted by Kurona on July 7th, 2016 @ 6:54am CDT
Now THAT is a Ratchet. So getting him.
Re: Quick Written Review of Takara Tomy Transformers Adventure TAV 50 Hyper Surge Optimus Prime (1803783)
Posted by william-james88 on July 7th, 2016 @ 6:58am CDT
That Ratchet is far from being a decent improvement over the Hasbro one. The Alt modes are just as bland, here's the Hasbro one.
Quite dissapointed with this.
Re: Quick Written Review of Takara Tomy Transformers Adventure TAV 50 Hyper Surge Optimus Prime (1803797)
Posted by kurthy on July 7th, 2016 @ 9:14am CDT
Is it just me or does Birk look a lot like the same engineering as Prime Vehicon? Looks very similar except the forearms.
Re: Quick Written Review of Takara Tomy Transformers Adventure TAV 50 Hyper Surge Optimus Prime (1803815)
Posted by Sabrblade on July 7th, 2016 @ 11:42am CDT
Wait, is Takara doing two releases of the Power Surge OP mold?
Re: Quick Written Review of Takara Tomy Transformers Adventure TAV 50 Hyper Surge Optimus Prime (1803816)
Posted by william-james88 on July 7th, 2016 @ 11:44am CDT
Sabrblade wrote:Wait, is Takara doing two releases of the Power Surge OP mold?
Yes. With different accessories (and maybe deco). TAV 61 and TAV 50 are 2 different releases of th same mold. I may go edit that in the news post to make it more clear.
Re: Quick Written Review of Takara Tomy Transformers Adventure TAV 50 Hyper Surge Optimus Prime (1803837)
Posted by Emerje on July 7th, 2016 @ 2:34pm CDT
I was going to say, that's a "level-up" from the original and nothing like the Hasbro version. Hard to tell if the image is grayscale or painted that way.
Emerje
Re: Quick Written Review of Takara Tomy Transformers Adventure TAV 50 Hyper Surge Optimus Prime (1804171)
Posted by carytheone on July 9th, 2016 @ 7:56am CDT
Re: Quick Written Review of Takara Tomy Transformers Adventure TAV 50 Hyper Surge Optimus Prime (1804538)
Posted by william-james88 on July 11th, 2016 @ 6:39am CDT
TAV 50 Hyper Surge Optimus has been out for a little while now and yet hasn't had much coverage. This is probably due to him being more for a younger audience and even more because the Hasbro version was out at the same time and doesn't require importing for the west. However, we were able to find a fun stop motion video of this toy from youheidx. This video shows the play-ability aspect of this toy in its Takara premium deco. Enjoy!