Video Review for Transformers Studio Series B-127 from Transformers One

And here I thought the overly early reviews were done. I doubt we'll see this before August.

Recently, I finally got the Core Bee Movie Starscream and he's a nifty little guy. It is a shame that we may never see the easy Skywarp and Thundercracker repaints of this mold.

Is it a new trend to barely paint the new studio series? I found leader aoe prime to be lacking paint. Now que.

Cheetron wrote:Is it a new trend to barely paint the new studio series? I found leader aoe prime to be lacking paint. Now que.

Oh it is far from new. But all that plain, gray plastics with full of intricate details that remains unpainted is sad to see.

-Kanrabat- wrote:

Cheetron wrote:Is it a new trend to barely paint the new studio series? I found leader aoe prime to be lacking paint. Now que.

Oh it is far from new. But all that plain, gray plastics with full of intricate details that remains unpainted is sad to see.

I feel like it would be less noticeable if the gray plastic was instead a more striking vibrant shade. Like a more silvery gray similar to the gray that Takara used on their Legends releases of Broadcast and Super Ginrai compared to the more dull tan-ish gray Hasbro used for the Titans Return releases of Blaster and Powermaster Optimus Prime. While the gray used here isn't as tan-ish, it's still a very dull-looking drab shade that really emphasizes the unpainted-ness of the look.

He looks like a Studio Series Happy Meal toy. What gives with SS not painting anything anymore?

Cheetron wrote:Is it a new trend to barely paint the new studio series? I found leader aoe prime to be lacking paint. Now que.

No, I'd say Studio Series (and really every movie toyline) has always been a little lacking in the stock paint department. The movie bots are much more detailed than designs from other media (which is why I like them!), but there just isn't enough paint budget in a mass produced figure to cover all of that detail. Looking to past Studio Series figures, I think AOE Prime and Que are painted pretty well, especially when you compare them to figures like 07 Ratchet or ROTF Bumblebee. None of the prior Bayverse primes (except the PF) have any flames painted specifically for robot mode, while AOE Prime does.

To compare to past movie toylines, AOE Prime is actually painted much better than the previous take on the design, TLK voyager Prime. The alt mode flames are way more accurate and we actually have the flames painted on the robot mode chest this time!

I do think the plastic shades (particularly the grays) could be improved, though. Sam Smith talked a lot about plastic choices in his time on the team, and I think his absence is felt here when you compare these figures to ones he worked on (DOTM Bumblebee, ROTF Sideways, TLK Hot Rod)

Just watched a recording of the Megacon panel, they're at least aware that people want Dispensor and the Shockwave from the 2007 game! Though Evan said that Dispensor would be a licensing nightmare, which is to be expected. He did talk a lot about doing stuff for anniversaries and such, so I don't know how much obscure bayverse we'll really get in main Studio Series.

Rtron wrote:Just watched a recording of the Megacon panel, they're at least aware that people want Dispensor and the Shockwave from the 2007 game! Though Evan said that Dispensor would be a licensing nightmare, which is to be expected. He did talk a lot about doing stuff for anniversaries and such, so I don't know how much obscure bayverse we'll really get in main Studio Series.

Mention of 2007 game Shockwave was the biggest surprise of all for me. Can't believe they're finally acknowledging the long, long time interest in it.

Emerje

With Hatchet here and my DOTM Sideswipe updated, I got some DOTM highway chase shots!

Neat!

Scale is a big topic of discussion among Transformers fans and while no scale will please everyone, we at least want to know what to expect. So hopefully these images will help some fans. Below we can see our first two Consttucticons against our first two Aerialbots. While one of the Constructicons being a voyager might make you think they are all big deluxes, please remember that the Aerialbots are as tall as the Stuncticons. So everyone in the image is standard deluxe height. The images are from Notrab on Weibo. Please take note that they use heavy contrast in their photography to make the colours and details pop more than they would in hand.

The bot scale works perfectly.
Of course, the vehicle scale would be impossible in any circumstance, but that's okay.

These guys really are looking superb, I honestly never thought I'd own them again since the 80's due to all other version not looking all that great to me. I get hyped for them every time I see a new image!

I'm just dreading their eta as everything on preorder has the same ship date meaning all billed at the same time. lol
I can't remember the last time I bought several bots that close together.

I got my Apelinq over the weekend. I appreciate the retooling they put into this, though I wish they were a bit more creative with the robot head, and that some more paint was used on the gray plastic on the heads. But he is nice.




And here he is with 2 other Apelinqs

The robot head is supposed to belong to Optimus Primal, meaning you're supposed to switch the two heads around since Optimus's wasn't as screen-accurate as it could have been, so they made this head to give him a screen-accurate one while Apelinq gets the less accurate one that came with Optimus.

Sabrblade wrote:The robot head is supposed to belong to Optimus Primal, meaning you're supposed to switch the two heads around since Optimus's wasn't as screen-accurate as it could have been, so they made this head to give him a screen-accurate one while Apelinq gets the less accurate one that came with Optimus.

Even so, not a fan

With both Optimus and Jetfire complete, I got the DNA Design upgrade kit painted up as well to finish Jetpower Optimus Prime!

Great work as always! I will never not love that combination

D-Maximal_Primal wrote:Great work as always! I will never not love that combination

Thank you! The DNA kit really elevates the set, I feel like I finally have that cancelled Unite for the Universe Jetpower Prime I saw on TFWiki all those years ago xD

The fully green guy looks like he's wearing bedtime jammies

The algorithm gods led me to a random video review of the SS leader AoE Optimus.



Of course, the reviewer does not show the transformation. Why would he?

The staff storage on the back is a cool feature, definitely adds more display options. How does the transformation compare to the original deluxe? Is it more complex or smoother?
paper io

Found a spare ROTF Soundwave recently and decided to try painting it in ROTF video game colors! The weapon is a mashup of the one he has in game with his DOTM blasters:

Reminds me of these ROTF redecos:


Transformers Revenge of the Fallen Infiltration Soundwave Gallery

Sabrblade wrote:Reminds me of these ROTF redecos:

Yeah! At one point I had some red details on it that kinda evoked that Gathering at the Nemesis one, but I ended up removing them since they weren't game accurate.

Since SS86 basically ended with the release of Galvatron, I'm going to ask this question here.

Does anyone have any word on when the new SS TTM Megatron is going to be revealed? If his release could be in July, shouldn't we be getting something soon, as in any day now?

Sowndwave76 wrote:Since SS86 basically ended with the release of Galvatron, I'm going to ask this question here.

Does anyone have any word on when the new SS TTM Megatron is going to be revealed? If his release could be in July, shouldn't we be getting something soon, as in any day now?

Probably a Transformers Tuesday stream in April to stay ahead of the leaks.

Emerje

Went to a Meijer a little ways out yesterday and found Studio Series Que! The 86 Jazz reissue and AOTP Red Alert were also there.




Spent just a little time with Que before starting my paint work, and I really like him! Hard to believe I finally have a Que in my collection only about 14 years later xD

Emerje wrote:

Sowndwave76 wrote:Since SS86 basically ended with the release of Galvatron, I'm going to ask this question here.

Does anyone have any word on when the new SS TTM Megatron is going to be revealed? If his release could be in July, shouldn't we be getting something soon, as in any day now?

Probably a Transformers Tuesday stream in April to stay ahead of the leaks.

Emerje

I get it, he’s a much lesser character, but we’ve known about Vortex & others that are 3rd & 4th quarter since what, the beginning of the year?

Sowndwave76 wrote:

Emerje wrote:

Sowndwave76 wrote:Since SS86 basically ended with the release of Galvatron, I'm going to ask this question here.

Does anyone have any word on when the new SS TTM Megatron is going to be revealed? If his release could be in July, shouldn't we be getting something soon, as in any day now?

Probably a Transformers Tuesday stream in April to stay ahead of the leaks.

Emerje

I get it, he’s a much lesser character, but we’ve known about Vortex & others that are 3rd & 4th quarter since what, the beginning of the year?

Vortex, Alchemist Prime, and Crasher from AotP Wave 2 + Onyx Prime from Wave 3 were revealed less than 3 weeks ago, and Onyx isn't even up for preorder yet. Considering they usually alternate between the lines, the Studio Series wave containing Megatron will presumably be the next big reveal.

Nemesis Primal wrote:

Sowndwave76 wrote:

Emerje wrote:

Sowndwave76 wrote:Since SS86 basically ended with the release of Galvatron, I'm going to ask this question here.

Does anyone have any word on when the new SS TTM Megatron is going to be revealed? If his release could be in July, shouldn't we be getting something soon, as in any day now?

Probably a Transformers Tuesday stream in April to stay ahead of the leaks.

Emerje

I get it, he’s a much lesser character, but we’ve known about Vortex & others that are 3rd & 4th quarter since what, the beginning of the year?

Vortex, Alchemist Prime, and Crasher from AotP Wave 2 + Onyx Prime from Wave 3 were revealed less than 3 weeks ago, and Onyx isn't even up for preorder yet. Considering they usually alternate between the lines, the Studio Series wave containing Megatron will presumably be the next big reveal.

Am I forgetting an update? Isn't Onyx wave 2 and there's no leaders for wave 3?

Emerje

Emerje wrote:Am I forgetting an update? Isn't Onyx wave 2 and there's no leaders for wave 3?

Emerje

Onyx is Leader Wave 2, but the Leader waves don't correspond with the greater wave schedule, so he's functionally Wave 3, per the schedule graphic Hasbro showed in the initial AotP reveal. I believe that later release date is the reason why he isn't up for preorder yet.
I could have sworn they made an equivalent graphic for Studio Series too, but I can't find the damn thing now.

Nemesis Primal wrote:

Emerje wrote:Am I forgetting an update? Isn't Onyx wave 2 and there's no leaders for wave 3?

Emerje

Onyx is Leader Wave 2, but the Leader waves don't correspond with the greater wave schedule, so he's functionally Wave 3, per the schedule graphic Hasbro showed in the initial AotP reveal. I believe that later release date is the reason why he isn't up for preorder yet.

Image of Transformers Age of the Primes Legacy of the Thirteen Primes Official Reveal (90).jpg

I could have sworn they made an equivalent graphic for Studio Series too, but I can't find the damn thing now.

Ah, OK, I figured it was something like that, but I thought Onyx would be a summer release, like mid August or something. Weird to have G2 Grimlock and Megatronus carry the line for 2/3 of the year.

Emerje

Nemesis Primal wrote:

Sowndwave76 wrote:

Emerje wrote:

Sowndwave76 wrote:Since SS86 basically ended with the release of Galvatron, I'm going to ask this question here.

Does anyone have any word on when the new SS TTM Megatron is going to be revealed? If his release could be in July, shouldn't we be getting something soon, as in any day now?

Probably a Transformers Tuesday stream in April to stay ahead of the leaks.

Emerje

I get it, he’s a much lesser character, but we’ve known about Vortex & others that are 3rd & 4th quarter since what, the beginning of the year?

Vortex, Alchemist Prime, and Crasher from AotP Wave 2 + Onyx Prime from Wave 3 were revealed less than 3 weeks ago, and Onyx isn't even up for preorder yet. Considering they usually alternate between the lines, the Studio Series wave containing Megatron will presumably be the next big reveal.

If those first three are wave 2, then why is the release date for all of them October? That’s the start of the 4th quarter.
Being revealed early March means that’s basically 7 months early.

Either way, the point is that even if Megatron isn’t due until July, that’s only 3-4 months away. With the popularity of this character, along with how overdue a new mold is, revealing him 5 months early isn’t exactly some crazy idea.

Sowndwave76 wrote:If those first three are wave 2, then why is the release date for all of them October? That’s the start of the 4th quarter.
Being revealed early March means that’s basically 7 months early.

Because Hasbro's preorder dates are almost always an incredibly conservative estimate that Hasbro themselves contradicts and/or set for well after when the figures actually show up at retail. As a current example, AotP Wave 1 has been hitting retail over the course of this month, the graphic the marketing guy showed in the AotP initial reveal said April, and yet Pulse says preorders for the majority of that wave won't ship until May. I know there's multiple figures that I cancelled a preorder on because I found the figure at retail before my preorder even shipped, and I've also received many an email saying a TF preorder suddenly got it's release date moved up and I got the figure "early" (translation: when the designers or leakers said it would be out in the first place). Those dates are merely a guarantee of the latest they should ship it, not when it's intended to release globally.

Also, considering the contents of at least the Studio Series waves got all shuffled around between the leaks and the official reveals, and the TF team in the streams have been saying they're trying to pivot to a new release schedule by next year, I'm willing to bet there's some additional funkiness going on behind the scenes with release dates that could also be contributing to this. The preorder for SS TFOne Elita still says she won't be out until November, and they showed her at Pulsecon last year!

Sowndwave76 wrote:Either way, the point is that even if Megatron isn’t due until July, that’s only 3-4 months away. With the popularity of this character, along with how overdue a new mold is, revealing him 5 months early isn’t exactly some crazy idea.

Two things:
1. Considering they love saving big reveals for big events like SDCC (see SS86 Magnus and Optimus), wanting to save a new figure of the main villain of the franchise rather than reveal him instantly actually tracks with normal Hasbro behavior.
2. While I still can't find that schedule that I swear exists, I did remind myself that the designers said back at the Devastator reveal that Scavenger and Mixmaster are supposed to come out in September, and they are supposed to be the same wave as Megs, which does technically buy them time to reveal that wave later than you would prefer.

Keep in mind that 2025 is already going to be a bit of an anomaly for Studio Series Leader class in general. So far, all previous years through 2023 there were only 3 leader figures per year usually in just 2 wave assortments (with a possible repack wave). 2024 had 4 leader figures not including repacks, and 2025 already has 3 new figures and 2 repacks scheduled before even getting to Megatron.

For whatever reason, Studio Series always had fewer leader figures per year then the main G1 line from Combiner Wars through Legacy, while being closer in numbers on deluxe and voyager classes. Even after adding SS86 and then the GE sublines, this has still held true until recently. Also since Age of the Primes is technically starting in April or Q2, trying to track Studio Series release schedules against Age of Primes for leader class will just not give you much of anything useful.

Well, this just arrived.

The box is so unnecessarily large for the size of prime. so much empty space in there.

I feel like Leaders are going back to how they were in 2018. Back then we had AOE Grimlock and '07 Blackout coincide with Deluxe and Voyager wave 1, but Leader wave 2 (DotM Megatron and RotF Jetfire) coincided with Deluxe and Voyager wave 5 at the beginning of 2019, it was a long wait! Leader wave 3 (DotM OP with trailer) hit about the time of Deluxe and Voyager wave 6, and then another long (but not as long) wait for Leader wave 4 in 2020.

So yeah, we've seen this before. 2019 and 2020 had three Deluxe and Voyagers waves and two Leader waves like we're seeing now. Things went a little crazy during the pandemic, this feels like a reset.

Overcracker wrote:Well, this just arrived.

The box is so unnecessarily large for the size of prime. so much empty space in there.

IMG_0015.jpg

Yeah, that's what happens when the same box needs to be used for the 86 Grimlock reissue.

Emerje

Got AOE Prime in this last week, and he is spectacular! Best Studio Series figure we’ve had in years, easy S tier. He 100% feels like a leader class in-hand, everything feels very solid and the articulation is really nice. You can pull off most poses from the films (even his sword pose when he speaks to the Dinobots!), and the accessories are properly scaled which is nice. The paint is even really solid by Hasbro standards, they picked out way more of the flames than previous mainline AOE/TLK Primes and the gray looks nice.

Very excited to get the Nemesis version next year now!

Nice surprise that my two copies of Scrapper are showing up on Monday, and five other figures start rollin’ in starting on the 3rd…. April is going to be the most expensive month for TF I’ve had in a long minute.

Finished painting up Que! Had a blast, the sculpted detail is really nice (especially on the torso).

The car look "greasy" (It's always hard to have a clean look with a paintbrush) but the bot is pure perfection. The base figure indeed BEG to be painted.

Next year marks the 40th anniversary of the 86 film, so with Studio Series being where that subline lives, it basically takes over most of the line. 2/3 of 2026' main retail line will be 86 figures, including Shockwave, Kranix and the seekers, but there will still be two Bayverse figures and three TFOne figures, one of them being Airachnid. There will also be an extra line of 86 movie anniversary figures, including a rerelease of Hound and another release of 86 Optimus Prime but as a leader set.

Here is the full list, which was reported by JTPrime17.

Deluxe:
Tra Gen Studio Series A Level Dlx Dev Bumblebee
Product Number: G1925

Tra Gen Studio Series A Level Dlx TFone Orion Pax
Product Number: G1926

Tra Gen Studio Series Dlx TF5 Barricade
Product Number: G1928

Tra Gen Studio Series Dlx 86 Windcharger
Product Number: G1927

Tra Gen Studio Series Dlx 86 Sunstreaker
Product Number: G1930

Tra Gen Studio Series Dlx 86 Kranix
Product Number: G2195

Tra Gen Studio Series Dlx 86 Cliffjumper
Product Number: G2197

Tra Gen Studio Series Dlx TFone Thundercracker
Product Number: G2196

Tra Gen Studio Series Dlx TFone Arachnid
Product Number: G1929

Voyager:
Tra Gen Studio Series Voy 86 Skywarp
Product Number: G1931

Tra Gen Studio Series Voy 86 Thundercracker
Product Number: G2192

Tra Gen Studio Series Voy 86 Shockwave
Product Number: G2191

Tra Gen Studio Series Voy TFone Alpha Trion
Product Number: G1932

Leader:

Tra Gen Studio Series LDR 86 Soundwave
Product Number: G1904

Tra Gen Studio Series LDR 86 Astrotrain
Product Number: G2190

Tra Gen Studio Series LDR 86 Snarl
Product Number: G2188

Tra Gen Studio Series LDR TF5 Nemesis Prime
Product Number: G1905

Studio Series 86 40th anniversary Capsule:

Tra Gen SS 86 Anniversary Dlx Hound
Product Number: G2252

Tra Gen SS 86 Anniversary Voy Scourge
Product Number: G2249

Tra Gen SS 86 Anniversary Voy Hot Rod
Product Number: G2254

Tra Gen SS 86 Anniversary LDR Optimus Prime
Product Number: G2250

Selects:
Tra Gen Selects G2 Swoop & Sludge
Product Number: G2264

Man, I was really hoping after a pretty balanced 2025 that 2026 would be good too, but that is bleak. TLK Barricade and Nemesis sound awesome though, the AOE Prime mold is super good so I’ll be happy to see it again.

Hopefully a few more Bayverse listings pop up for 26, we don’t know who the Commander is and it’d be really cool to get DOTM Devcon for that movie’s 15th!

It's pretty crazy to think that the 86 line began with the 35th anniversary of the movie and will still be around to see in the 40th.

Then again...

EvasionModeBumblebee wrote:
DOTM ...15th!

I see a lot of repacks and some redecos in that list. I was hoping for a new Shockwave, but I guess another redeco of the Siege "leader" will have to do.

Of course, Soundwave and Astrotrain will be repacks and maybe even redecos, especially Soundwave. His blue should be a little lighter than what we got with the Legacy "leader." As for Astrotrain, we were already told it would be the Siege mold, so it's an easy pass. I was hoping they would rework the material used for that useless tender into a proper piece to cover the back half of the shuttle.

Leader Optimus? The CC without the trailer?

And still no Megatron.

Interesting lineup, despite all the obvious repacks and repaints.

I'm hoping for a SS86 Bee retool for Cliffjumper and a new mold for SS86 Hound. I'll also be curious if the leader Anniversary Optimus will be the SS86 Commander without trailer?

Rodimus Prime wrote:I see a lot of repacks and some redecos in that list. I was hoping for a new Shockwave, but I guess another redeco of the Siege "leader" will have to do.

Of course, Soundwave and Astrotrain will be repacks and maybe even redecos, especially Soundwave. His blue should be a little lighter than what we got with the Legacy "leader." As for Astrotrain, we were already told it would be the Siege mold, so it's an easy pass. I was hoping they would rework the material used for that useless tender into a proper piece to cover the back half of the shuttle.

Leader Optimus? The CC without the trailer?

And still no Megatron.

Why would there be a megatron when he’s coming out this fall

EvasionModeBumblebee wrote:Man, I was really hoping after a pretty balanced 2025 that 2026 would be good too, but that is bleak.

Evan said that 86 offerings would be scaled back after 2026 so there's always the following year to look forward to other movie releases. I'm content with how it worked out because it means getting most all of G1 finished before moving on and I can safely bow out without worry of missing anything important. I really didn't want to have to hang in there for ten years or more just to finish off a handful of things I wanted, as it was it's felt too long in finally getting Powerglide. I only got back into Transformers in 2020 after seeing how much they've improved in sculpt and articulation since the late 90's to early 2K's. So I'm kind of ready for a stopping point and the end of 2026 sounds like a good time.