Top 5 Most Underrated Transformers Toys

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 Underrated Transformers Toys

Two weeks ago we had a list of toys that I feel people like more than they should or don't hate enough (I realize just now how terrible that sounds, like who am I the King of England?). Well now it is your turn to have a go at what I like and what I feel should get much more love. These are toys I find quite underrated. Either due to being compared to other toys coming out at the same time and thus seeing them as less than they are or simply forgotten and no longer cared for. Well, I care for them and I will gladly tell you why. Hopefully you can see where I am coming from. Of course, please let me know which toys you feel alone in the world for loving. Now let's get to it, my top 5 most underrated Transformers toys!

5. Transformers Generations Combiner Wars Motormaster Gallery/Menasor

There is a trend in the fandom where everything is criticized when it comes out to eventually be accepted and even sometimes loved within a collection. Take Voyager Animated Megatron, a toy which was ripped to shreds by fans when it first came out but which slowly gathered a fan following to the point where it became sacriligious to call it one of the worst toys of all time (something I still firmly beleive). I personally feel that Hasro's Combiner Wars Menasor will one day be fondly remembered and even sought after. It may even be that at the time of you reading this far into the future, him being on this list would sound crazy. But for now, this is seen as the weakest combiner of the bunch and while I am not sure if I agree or not, I don't think he is a bad toy. Quite the contrary, I think Combiner Wars Menasor is as good as any other Combiner from the line. I think he looks very imposing, especially with the legs straightened out, and he has the best weapon of the bunch by far. I especially love the Motormaster component, which is the most underrated aspect to this combiner. I am so impressed with how great he looks as a truck, torso and robot. Each form has very distinctive detail, unique from the other modes and yet he is a nice compact truck that hides the robot mode kibble especially well. I even like how effective the back of the cab is at making it be the robot legs in plain site ala Optimus, and yet it looking like a nice solid truck cab. The articulation is great, and the reveal of both the standard robot head and combiner head is both smart and effective. I think Combiner Wars Motormaster is a proud homage to the original, in a very neo G1 way which is now becoming more and more rare. And that follows onto Menasor, which makes for a big mean combiner, worthy of being an adaptation to the character we saw onscreen as children. These molds existing also means we finally got an actual G2 Menasor toy and if you need any more selling on that Motormaster mold, just check out that insane G2 redeco. Hasbro went all out. I am still not fond of that breakdown mold though.












4. Transformers Generations Jetfire

Oh man, this guy is the perfect example of Style over Substance. That can be both seen as a positive and a negative, hence the debate and him ending up here. I mean, think about it for a second, there is a whole thread about the debate of whether or not he feels like a KO, people out there hate this toy's guts. And people out there also hate Tim Burton's films which usually have incredible style while being uneven products at the same time. You might find the comparison weird, but what I mean to say is that while the final product of Generations Leader Jetfire might not be the best Transformer toy, due to him having a simple transformation, a fake cockpit chest, wearing a jet on his back, and having hollow limbs, he looks amazing! There are few transformers outside the animated line to have this much style. He looks amazing in both modes and has this sleek yet immensely powerful look to him with a beautiful sci fi edge which definitely sets him apart from most other Transformers designs (the sterile white look adds to that big time). For years, Takara was giving premium chrome deco on its versions of toys, hearkening back to the metal look of the G1 days. And now it was our turn to get the chrome on the more affordable figures and people rallied against it. Why?! People were paying double to get the little bit of chrome on the Takara seekers (I did) and now they wanted to pay a bunch to get the version that didn't have the chrome? On the pieces that could be detached when displayed in a classics shelf? But back to the mask, it’s another small wonder people don't give enough credit to. Unlike the previous voyager version, the mask here is small, compact and not invasive to the figure, making his head proportional to his body with it on or off so that it can be both used for a classics collection, with his mask off, or a stand alone awesome looking transformers figure with his mask on.

And come on guys, a Macross Valkyrie of this size would cost you anywhere between 200-300$. You get this guy for about 50$!! So yes, definitely underrated.










3. Prime Robots in Disguise Voyager Optimus Prime mold

I love Beast Hunters Ultra Magnus. It is easily the best voyager to come out of the Beast Hunters line and one of the best Voyagers of the entire Prime era. But while Ultra Magnus is liked well enough for being show accurate and having some fun extra playability options, I also happen to love this toy for its mold, which is the same one shared by RID Optimus, and that is not a shared sentiment. The Prime First Edition Optimus Prime is always placed well above the RID Optimus Prime mold (as seen in this poll) making the later more of a consolation prize to those who didn’t get him either because of its bizarre distribution or the higher price tag. But this isn’t a Bulkhead or Cliffjumper scenario, the RID mold of Prime Optimus Prime is actually far better mold than people give it credit too. I, like many others, love when a robot mode integrates a bunch of the alt mode and this mold does it really well, and even better than the First Edition version. Most of the truck parts come into play in robot mode but in a different fashion. The truck nose becomes the forearms, the truck roof becomes the shoulders, the lower legs transform beautifully using the back of the truck cab and this was the first Prime mold larger than the cyberverse toy to actually have the truck's windshield become Optimus' chest piece. I wouldn’t have it any other way, would you?


Transformers Prime Beast Hunters Ultra Magnus Gallery




Transformers Prime: Robots In Disguise Dark Energon Optimus Prime Gallery


Transformers Adventures Ultra Magnus Gallery


2. G1 Tantrum

This guy simply gets made fun of too much when he is actually one of the best toys Predaking is made of. Sure, at first look, he seems a bit dorky and funny looking but as an actual G1 transformers toy, he is hard to beat. Let's start with the robot mode which gets all the complaints. Unlike the others, he has articulated arms and forearms that have a huge range for a G1 toy. It let him do some pretty terrific poses with his weapons. He might look funny with his head stuck under his alt mode head but that actually gives him an amazing advantage of having a larger more proportioned head when comparing to the others. It also gives him a great Viking look. Also, by being carved under his alt mode head, it is the least obvious and visible head of the entire gang when they are in their alt mode. And speaking of the alt mode, wow. This is one of the best beast modes I have ever seen in any Transformers line. Its powerful looking, and fierce, especially when you mount the cannons in his back. He isn't the leader, but I sure wouldn't know that from the toys. He, along with some of his predacon brethren, execute a very impressive yet simple transformation that has none of his robot limbs double for alt mode limbs. And yet, on him, there is no robot kibble present when in beast mode and this is done without the use of a shell, which Beast Wars toys constantly relied upon, and even they usually used the same limbs for both modes. Everything seems to be where it should be on this mecha bull which has very good proportions giving it an imposing and massive appearance that no third party company was ever able to convey properly.








1. Transformers Alternators Decepticharge

Do you think this is a lame pick for number 1? Did you think other toys are more deserving of this spot? Do you think it's a poor choice for number 1? If you answered "yes" to any of those, then that shows how underrated this figure is and how it deserves the number 1 spot. It's not outright hated like any of the ones above but at least that keeps those in the conversation with people like me defending them. But Decepticharge? Nobody cares. There are a bunch of reasons for this, one of the main reasons being that the Alternators toyline he came from is not fondly remembered. I still think it is awesome that we had scaled licensed model cars that had detailed interiors that could fool others into thinking that they didn't transform. That was the idea behind the Diaclone line at the very beginning and it’s fun to see that idea brought back with improved engineering. Many of the toys were very difficult and had a similar transformation and final look with a bunch of car kibble hanging around the robot. However, Decepticharge, and his moldmate Windcharger, were an exception to this. They did not have random and unused kibble all over the place hanging off them. The doors for instance rest flush against the legs and the hood becomes detailing across the robot’s back. While every part of the car is used to make the robot, giving a beautiful look that the robot is truly made of parts of the car, there is also some robot mode detail that is not seen in car mode and it is achieved by turning over some segments of the car inside out. This method helps give brand new detail while minimizing kibble (this technique was used extensively for Titanium Fire Convoy and AOE Voyager Optimus and Hound with great effect across the board), and it hides away car details which would be odd or distracting, like the car seats. So we get this lean robot, with great proportions and excellent articulation that is simultaneously made up entirely of car parts (steering wheel and all) while also having hidden disguised robot detail inside. The perfect car mode is both a disguise and the robot’s components (unlike most movie toys for instance where the alt mode disguise becomes just a shell). This is the gold standard for a Transformer. This is how it started in the Diaclone line, before Generation One even existed, and it has been perfected with this toy.
With all this good stuff, the reason no one cares for him is probably because he has no official fiction linked to him (unlike his mold mate Windcharger or that toy's binaltech version, Overide). Off the top of my head, I cannot think of any other Transformers toy that does not have a single line of official description about him. While that means that he isn't a reference to any existing character or even a new character (since he hasn't appeared anywhere since), I find it amazing to have a Transformers toy who begins and ends with the fact that he is a transformers toy and nothing else. Even his name is probably just a placeholder (Decepticon redeco of Windcharger) due to not finding any other suitable or available names within the allotted production cycle. And I find that in itself awesome. A new character in a line about the definitive version of G1 toys (this was before the MP line released like clockwork). But back to him having no fiction by Hasbro, it might lose anyone's interest, but I find that also to be a plus to this toy and a reason to not forget him. The principle of fiction developed by Hasbro in the Transformers brand was always made with the end goal of selling toys and thus was always ancillary to the toys. However, for G1, G2 and Beast Wars, once the fiction brought you to the toys, you could discover a bunch of other toys that existed just to be toys and that had no fiction to rely on. Decepticharge brings us back to those days in a line that was all about referencing older characters. He was just a toy (a great one at that) for us fans of transforming toys and not a reference to anything else. There was no other purpose than to appreciate him as a toy, the initial form of this hobby, and I look upon this fondly. His origin is any you want to give him (he already has unofficial origin stories too).
Him being so underrated is great news to all of you reading this. It means you have a great chance at acquiring a great transformers toy at a cheap price. I hope you can give him a shot!












Honourable mentions: I find that Deluxe Universe Galvatron gets way too much hate. I agree that he is small and frustrating, but he packs so much into that package that I can't help but be very impressed by the toy. Also, a lot of the Beast Machine toys are given flack for not being show accurate but some of those are amazing toys none the less. Especially Mega Tankor with his many non intrusive gimmicks and fun transformation between two good looking modes (which both have their own scanning light piping).