Video Review of Transformers Studio Series 72 Bumblebee Movie Starscream

Just got back from break! I finally opened the Scavenger I bought months ago, and I thought I would talk about Scavenger first before trying combined mode. Then, of course, this happened.


Holy CRAP, this thing is insane - and this is only the top half! Still need Overload and Skipjack.

EvasionModeBumblebee wrote:With a pretty substantial break until the next live action Studio Series figures, I thought it’d be fun to go through everyone’s top 3 figures from each size class for Studio Series so far. Pictures aren’t required but I figured I’d throw them in to spice things up.

I'll bite, these are always fun.

Deluxe:

1) Jazz - little, fun, shiny, and just a joy to have
2) Jet Shatter - such a fun and accurate mold, and it feels good to play with.
3) Leadfoot - finally have a deluxe toy of him, he is super fun, well engineered, and I love armored NASCAR cars

Honorable mentions: Car Dropkick, 2007 Bumblebee, Stinger, Jeep Bee

Voyager:

1) Rampage - still a great figure, fun to play with, and nice and dense. Mean looking with great paint
2) 2007 Megatron - nice big voyager with a mace, awesome jet mode, and silver. Well done
3) Sentinel Prime - just solid, great use of panels, sculpting it perfect.

Honorable Mentions: RotF Starscream, Mixmaster, Scrapper Bonecrusher

Leader:

1) DotM Prime - this was a long time dream come true, I love that they got the jetpack and armament ring out of the trailer. Perfection.
2) Scavenger - always loved the design, and the toy is such a nice improvement. it's great, I love it.
3) AOE Grimlock - a big, chonky boy. the paint work and detail is to die for. Really fun to mess with.

Honorable mentions: Overload, DotM Megatron, Shockwave, Blackout

What goes around comes around, Bee!




I gotta say, I can't believe I almost missed out on Stinger, thankfully Kroger had one on sale long after it had disappeared from retail. It's a really fun figure; it does lack a little in the accuracy department, but I really appreciate what they tried to do with the figure. Painting it up was really fun! (except where part of one of the shoulder pieces broke off. That's not good.)

For all my complaints about the figure it's a nice version of him botmode wise. The things third party or a repaint couldn't fix is the shoulder joints and the alignment of the car hood/lights. Def not willing to pay more for it than my ko hotrod (£17 vs a £25 figure) that I'm still more than happy with as well as my Takara MP Rod/Rodimus.

I was gonna pass on this, because I already have plenty of Hot Rods but the screen accuracy makes it awful tempting.

Greetings Seibertronians! Fellow Seibertron user and YouTube toy reviewer, Chuckdawg1999, has let us know he's posted a new review! This time, he's turned his focus to one of the highly anticipated releases in the Studio Series line next year; Transformers: The Movie Voyager Class Hot Rod!

In his informative review Chuck even points out a flaw within Hot Rod's instructions, ensuring you don't have any problems when you get your hands on this figure!

We have embedded the review below for your convenience:

chuckdawg1999 wrote:If you're a fan of Hot Rod and/or The Transformers: The Movie, you need to have this figure. This is the best version of Hot Rod.

Hot Rod is among the first figures revealed to celebrate the 35th anniversary of the Transformers animated movie next year. Unlike previous assumptions, the Studio Series 86 figures are not a subline and will be in mixed waves along with figures from the live action movies.

What do you think of this Hot Rod? Are you planning to get him? Let us know in the Energon Pub and stay tuned to Seibertron for all the latest news and reviews!

I have every official mold of G1 Hot Rod (that transforms) and am VERY excited to add this guy to my collection.

My only complaint is the baffling use of yellow plastic in car mode. Hopefully it's something reprolabels can fix. But it's not bad enough for me to take a pass on, that's for sure. But he looks incredible regardless.

Gauntlet101010 wrote:I have every official mold of G1 Hot Rod (that transforms) and am VERY excited to add this guy to my collection.

My only complaint is the baffling use of yellow plastic in car mode. Hopefully it's something reprolabels can fix. But it's not bad enough for me to take a pass on, that's for sure. But he looks incredible regardless.

I really don't understand that decision either... Although imo, the yellow in the knees is worse because it's seen in the robot mode.

Nice review, Chuck!

I haven't been this excited for figures in a long time... Since UW Computron & Abominus, MP Megatron has been about the most recent "peak" for me. And I really appreciate the ER seekers and a couple others from that line.
But Grimlock, Scourge, Hot Rod, and hopefully Slag have me feeling an anticipation and kid-like excitement I haven't felt in what seems like way longer than the 3+ years it's been. I suppose I can throw Galvatron into this mix (assuming he's good), and probably Cyclonus as well.
I'm glad I have MP Starscream on preorder; that's definitely something to look forward to.
But now I've started wondering what it will take in the future to match the figures from this SS86 line.
The bar of expectations has been substantially raised. Especially considering it won't be long before a little deluxe figure costs $25+.

Sowndwave76 wrote:

Gauntlet101010 wrote:I have every official mold of G1 Hot Rod (that transforms) and am VERY excited to add this guy to my collection.

My only complaint is the baffling use of yellow plastic in car mode. Hopefully it's something reprolabels can fix. But it's not bad enough for me to take a pass on, that's for sure. But he looks incredible regardless.

I really don't understand that decision either... Although imo, the yellow in the knees is worse because it's seen in the robot mode.

"Improper" mold planning here, at least the parts gang-molded with the spoiler are small and mostly joints.

I still like my Classics molds, but... can I say that the SS looks too much like the cartoon for me?

Too much like the cartoon? Intriguing is it because you think the deco is bland or other reasons?

Gauntlet101010 wrote:I have every official mold of G1 Hot Rod (that transforms) and am VERY excited to add this guy to my collection.

My only complaint is the baffling use of yellow plastic in car mode. Hopefully it's something reprolabels can fix. But it's not bad enough for me to take a pass on, that's for sure. But he looks incredible regardless.

The explanation for the use of yellow plastic for that hinge is the same as it usually is for odd color placements like that: Our old "friend" mold layout. Sometimes the sprue with the color that would blend runs out of room, so a part gets kicked to a different sprue.

I'm still really disappointed about the faux-parts chest. We've seen from Animated and Titans Return/Legends that Hot Rod's design can easily be done without resorting to that... I was super-hyped for him right up until I realized they'd phoned it in like that, and now I just don't know.

Jelze Bunnycat wrote:

Sowndwave76 wrote:

Gauntlet101010 wrote:I have every official mold of G1 Hot Rod (that transforms) and am VERY excited to add this guy to my collection.

My only complaint is the baffling use of yellow plastic in car mode. Hopefully it's something reprolabels can fix. But it's not bad enough for me to take a pass on, that's for sure. But he looks incredible regardless.

I really don't understand that decision either... Although imo, the yellow in the knees is worse because it's seen in the robot mode.

"Improper" mold planning here, at least the parts gang-molded with the spoiler are small and mostly joints.

I still like my Classics molds, but... can I say that the SS looks too much like the cartoon for me?

Yeah the “mis-colored” parts aren’t really any big deal.
I also still really appreciate the Classics mold, & will never get rid of my Henkel Hot Rod!
Of course you can say that... It’s just an interesting opinion; is the Classics mold your ideal?

ZeroWolf wrote:Too much like the cartoon? Intriguing is it because you think the deco is bland or other reasons?

It's the figure itself, odd as it sounds. It simply looks too perfect.

Jelze Bunnycat wrote:

ZeroWolf wrote:Too much like the cartoon? Intriguing is it because you think the deco is bland or other reasons?

It's the figure itself, odd as it sounds. It simply looks too perfect.

Well, here's a mark against its appearance: It's not magenta. Does that bring it down enough to help?

ZeldaTheSwordsman wrote:

Gauntlet101010 wrote:I have every official mold of G1 Hot Rod (that transforms) and am VERY excited to add this guy to my collection.

My only complaint is the baffling use of yellow plastic in car mode. Hopefully it's something reprolabels can fix. But it's not bad enough for me to take a pass on, that's for sure. But he looks incredible regardless.

The explanation for the use of yellow plastic for that hinge is the same as it usually is for odd color placements like that: Our old "friend" mold layout. Sometimes the sprue with the color that would blend runs out of room, so a part gets kicked to a different sprue.

I'm still really disappointed about the faux-parts chest. We've seen from Animated and Titans Return/Legends that Hot Rod's design can easily be done without resorting to that... I was super-hyped for him right up until I realized they'd phoned it in like that, and now I just don't know.

Animated is a different look that isn't meant to represent the G1 toy/design. TR/Legends has two different chest transformations that will give you a solid torso, or the chest you want with gaps in the torso. I think MP-09 was the only one to be able to pull off a proper hood/chest transformation.

Siege/Earthrise Astrotrain is a nice toy, but it's severily undermined by the line's gimmicks.

So any chances of a new Leader '86 Astrotrain that is a proper "mini MP" with no superflous extra bits for the SS line?

-Kanrabat- wrote:Siege/Earthrise Astrotrain is a nice toy, but it's severily undermined by the line's gimmicks.

So any chances of a new Leader '86 Astrotrain that is a proper "mini MP" with no superflous extra bits for the SS line?

He was in the movie, in a short but important role. He should get a figure.

Rodimus Prime wrote:

-Kanrabat- wrote:Siege/Earthrise Astrotrain is a nice toy, but it's severily undermined by the line's gimmicks.

So any chances of a new Leader '86 Astrotrain that is a proper "mini MP" with no superflous extra bits for the SS line?

He was in the movie, in a short but important role. He should get a figure.

And be big enough to house Titan Devastator!

ZeldaTheSwordsman wrote:

Gauntlet101010 wrote:I have every official mold of G1 Hot Rod (that transforms) and am VERY excited to add this guy to my collection.

My only complaint is the baffling use of yellow plastic in car mode. Hopefully it's something reprolabels can fix. But it's not bad enough for me to take a pass on, that's for sure. But he looks incredible regardless.

The explanation for the use of yellow plastic for that hinge is the same as it usually is for odd color placements like that: Our old "friend" mold layout. Sometimes the sprue with the color that would blend runs out of room, so a part gets kicked to a different sprue.

I'm still really disappointed about the faux-parts chest. We've seen from Animated and Titans Return/Legends that Hot Rod's design can easily be done without resorting to that... I was super-hyped for him right up until I realized they'd phoned it in like that, and now I just don't know.

Neither of those examples prove that you can do specifically the cartoon-style transformation of his hood without faux parts, because neither of those are particularly styled like the cartoon version. As is, cartoon Hot Rod's actual hood in vehicle mode and chest hood in robot mode are genuinely different shapes (robot mode has an angled bend about half-way through that the vehicle mode's doesn't have, as well as different shaping to the edge), so it's kind of impossible to pull it off as accurate in both modes as this figure does without faux parts.

Rodimus Prime wrote:

-Kanrabat- wrote:Siege/Earthrise Astrotrain is a nice toy, but it's severily undermined by the line's gimmicks.

So any chances of a new Leader '86 Astrotrain that is a proper "mini MP" with no superflous extra bits for the SS line?

He was in the movie, in a short but important role. He should get a figure.

Absolutely the most he might possibly get is a clean redeco of the Siege/Earthrise figure. There's no way they're doing a second brand new Leader-class design in 2 years for Astrotrain of all characters.