First Look at New Smash to Change Earthspark Toys Coming in 2025

These look nice, more like traditional one step Changers.

While we know there will be a new kid oriented line coming to shelves this year with Cyberworld, Earthspark has some new toys too and fellow Seibertronian Chuckdawg1999 has reviews of them for us. Those include Smash Changers Megatron, Optimus Prime, Bumblebee and Thrash along with Tacticon Starscream.

chuckdawg1999 wrote:It's funny that at what is probably the end of the line for EarthSpark we get something close to traditional One-Step changers. Smash Changers work the same way as a spring-loaded One-Step changer but all the transformations are activated by pressing down firmly on the rear of the vehicle. Of the four I enjoyed Megatron and Thrash the most, but all of them would make for fun desk toys.

chuckdawg1999 wrote:It took me long enough to get this guy!

Looks like Earthspark is going out with a bang as Hasbro will be releasing 2 new molds for their deluxe line up: Soundwave and Hashtag. While Hashtag does look similar to the Takara warrior upgrade, it is a new mold. The similarity is only due to the fact that the toys represent the same character in their new truck alt mode. Soundwave is a nice blend of the G1 character and his Cybertron self. This comes to us from In Demand toys, let us know what you think.

Typical of E.S, #'s face is uncanny and creepy. Soundwave look good enough, but his "bell-bottom pants" look weird and rad at the same time.

This makes me want buy it to make a groovy-soul Soundwave custom.

I wonder who will get them first, Japan or America.

And neither of these will actually be sold in stores because brick-and-mortar stores have just given up on EarthSpark as the excess of 2022/2023 toys continue to clog the shelves going unsold.

Nice see Soundwave in the deluxe scale.

Still haven't found a Thrash to go with my Twitch. These both look good, but I have to wonder if they'll even be available anywhere.

-Kanrabat- wrote:Typical of E.S, #'s face is uncanny and creepy. Soundwave look good enough, but his "bell-bottom pants" look weird and rad at the same time.

This makes me want buy it to make a groovy-soul Soundwave custom.

look at Soundwave's knees, his lower legs have been turned to fit in the packaging

william-james88 wrote:

-Kanrabat- wrote:Typical of E.S, #'s face is uncanny and creepy. Soundwave look good enough, but his "bell-bottom pants" look weird and rad at the same time.

This makes me want buy it to make a groovy-soul Soundwave custom.

look at Soundwave's knees, his lower legs have been turned to fit in the packaging

Oh yeah. So in the right way his legs will really look like bell-bottoms.
Nice.

I'll get both. Most of the brand-new (i.e. not recycled from Cyberverse) EarthSpark Deluxe molds have been surprisingly well engineered for a toon line, haven't bothered getting toys from the "kiddy" lines since Prime.

Not sure if Cyberworld can beat EarthSpark.

Soundwave looks cool.

Hashtag, not sure on yet

Earthspark is a toyline that just keeps on truckin. While we had the first wave of Smash Changers released in 2025, there will be a second wave with a release date of May. This wave repackages Bumblebee and Optimus Prime but also has Twitch and Jawbreaker which are brand new toys. There is no image of them yet, all we have is a listing of the second wave on Entertainment Earth:

Transformers EarthSpark 1-Step Smash Changers Wave 2 Set:

Transformers action figure converts from toy car to robot mode in 1 easy, exciting step! Tap the toy on a flat surface in car mode to see it pop up into robot mode. Each robot stands about 4-inches tall.

Set includes 4 individually packaged toys:
1x TRA EARTHSPARK 1 STEP SMASH OPTIMUS
1x TRA EARTHSPARK 1 STEP SMASH BB
1x TRA EARTHSPARK 1 STEP SMASH TWITCH
1x TRA EARTHSPARK 1 STEP SMASH JAWBREAKER
(subject to change). Ages 6 and up.

Interested in seeing what the designers can come up for Twitch & Jawbreaker.

I didn't realize that was still on.

FFS, why?

Earthspark still has some gems to give us this year. Fans were excited for the new Soundwave deluxe but there was still question about the alt mode. Well, turns out it looks great too. Unlike many other plane transformers, this stealth bomber is very flat and has a nice wingspan. The Images from Omega The Real on Twitter also show waist articulation and the size, which is the standard deluxe size in the line.

Let us know what you think of this soundwave!

I really dig this Soundwave design. I may well try to pick this figure up! Great alt-mode with one hell of a wingspan!

~ Grim

Obviously not squeaky clean on the underside, but for a deluxe, it pull it off very, very well.

I'll keep an eye out for that Soundwave in case I ever sees it in store.

The plane underside is pretty terrible, but otherwise it looks really good. The wing-boots looks kinda cool.

Soundwave looks great! That wingspan would be impressive at any price point.
Emerje

As a stealth aircraft fan I'll probably pick up this Soundwave. Seeing the undercarriage the one thing I'd wish for is that the feet rotated to cover up the hands. It would slightly improve his stealth geometry and decrease his radar cross section.

Has Soundwave hit store shelves?

Nemesis Destron wrote:Has Soundwave hit store shelves?

Allegedly. By which I mean I've seen a small number of people posting in-hand photos of the figure and sounding like they purchased him from a store, so I would think so, but I haven't been to Target in a while yet to see for myself (all my Walmarts have given up on stocking any new EarthSpark toys released after 2023, so I would think Target would be the best bet to find Deluxe Soundwave).

Apparently he is popping up around here, I hope I find him soon, he is a cool looking mold.

Sabrblade wrote:

Nemesis Destron wrote:Has Soundwave hit store shelves?

Allegedly. By which I mean I've seen a small number of people posting in-hand photos of the figure and sounding like they purchased him from a store, so I would think so, but I haven't been to Target in a while yet to see for myself (all my Walmarts have given up on stocking any new EarthSpark toys released after 2023, so I would think Target would be the best bet to find Deluxe Soundwave).

Yeah, I've seen at least one post on Reddit. My store has reduced Earthspark to only Cyber-Combiners which had been on clearance a few months ago, and at some point this year got a package refresh in white.



Emerje

While a staple of the 80s and 90s, the glow in the dark gimmick has not been used much with Transformers. While there have been some examples, it's been sporadic and minimal to the point where Hasbro never released a glow in the dark Transformers figure outside of the crossover line. UNTIL NOW!
Yup, not only is the Earthspark toyline still around but it will be breaking new ground with the brand by giving us a Glow in the Dark Megatron toy. All we have is this image here below of Cyberglow Megatron. It is a glow in the dark version of the deluxe Megatron toy, and the image comes to us from In Demand Toys.

https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=724 ... 2086644534

D-Maximal_Primal wrote:Apparently he is popping up around here, I hope I find him soon, he is a cool looking mold.

I'm happy to hear this and it's a cool looking figure indeed!!! Now I'll definitly hold from paying more than $50 right now on eBay...'nuff said!!!

It feels like earthspark just got removed from shelves. Now hasbro brings them back for a higher price in new packaging? I'll admit, glow in dark megs could be a buy, but after seeing the rest of the regular pickings on another website, no thanks. I passed on earthspark the first time, here comes round 2

I wonder which parts of Mr McGloomface is glow-in-dah-dark?

Glow in the Dark is indeed awesome stuff. But NOT awesome enough to trick me into buying an Earthspark Megatron figure...

-Kanrabat- wrote:I wonder which parts of Mr McGloomface is glow-in-dah-dark?

That's the question I'm asking myself, almost as much of a question as why didn't we get a ghost Starscream instead? That would be neat and collectors would eat it up.

RodimusPrimeUkraine1 wrote:

-Kanrabat- wrote:I wonder which parts of Mr McGloomface is glow-in-dah-dark?

That's the question I'm asking myself, almost as much of a question as why didn't we get a ghost Starscream instead? That would be neat and collectors would eat it up.

Yeah, THAT.
A GITD Starscream would make perfect sense as a ghost.

Oh, also, a Rocklord. A glowing Rocklord would be dope.

-Kanrabat- wrote:

RodimusPrimeUkraine1 wrote:

-Kanrabat- wrote:I wonder which parts of Mr McGloomface is glow-in-dah-dark?

That's the question I'm asking myself, almost as much of a question as why didn't we get a ghost Starscream instead? That would be neat and collectors would eat it up.

Yeah, THAT.
A GITD Starscream would make perfect sense as a ghost.

Moreso for a toy of G1 Starscream, not EarthSpark Starscream.

Sabrblade wrote:

-Kanrabat- wrote:

RodimusPrimeUkraine1 wrote:

-Kanrabat- wrote:I wonder which parts of Mr McGloomface is glow-in-dah-dark?

That's the question I'm asking myself, almost as much of a question as why didn't we get a ghost Starscream instead? That would be neat and collectors would eat it up.

Yeah, THAT.
A GITD Starscream would make perfect sense as a ghost.

Moreso for a toy of G1 Starscream, not EarthSpark Starscream.

Obviously.

-Kanrabat- wrote:

Sabrblade wrote:

-Kanrabat- wrote:

RodimusPrimeUkraine1 wrote:

-Kanrabat- wrote:I wonder which parts of Mr McGloomface is glow-in-dah-dark?

That's the question I'm asking myself, almost as much of a question as why didn't we get a ghost Starscream instead? That would be neat and collectors would eat it up.

Yeah, THAT.
A GITD Starscream would make perfect sense as a ghost.

Moreso for a toy of G1 Starscream, not EarthSpark Starscream.

Obviously.

You guys realize it doesn't have to be literally called "ghost Starscream", right? Hasbro can come up with some bullcrap explanation (or not, they didn't for megs) and leave it to fans to see the obvious.

Well after getting Aftermath I didn't think the lightning would strike twice for me through this lame line but it did and I found Soundwave after a short hunt indeed! The figure is as cool as the reviews so for anyone on the retail hunt in the West I hope you score soon...'nuff said!!!

Because I find some "religious" things present in Earthspark to be revulsive, I swore that I'd never, ever buy any toy from this line, especially the deluxes.

However, morality has a price, and 10$CAN (around 7.50$US) a deluxe seems to be it.
So I bought a few.



I will post my impression on each of them as I open and try them. I may not post pictures of the individual toys as I go because y'all already seen them.


First, I went with Bumblebee. The overall feel of the figure do not feel too cheap and the paint is solid. The overall design of the bot is not the greatest Bee, but he's fine enough. However, his gun is WAY too tight in his hand. Removing it pop off the hand from the arm every single time. As for the transformation, what the Hell is that roof panels accordion? There's no tolerance at all for the thing to pass the head while unfolding without having the whole thing pop off the hinge. At least, everything pop back in easily. The overall car mode is stupid. half the car is nice, then there's this HUGE block at the rear that makes no sense aerodynamically. Orange at the back, yellow in the middle, and orange at the front is a "flaw" but I like that.

Final verdict, ES deluxe Bee is just average. 5/10.

I'll open the rest later one at a time.

Today, I did deluxe Megatron, Aftermath and Nightshade.

Megatron: He got a nice bot mode, despite having a face that seems completely depressed. However, he does have a truly unforgiving flaw: The wing kibbles on his arms are so loose, his arm cannon can only randomly spin around instead of posing correctly. His transformation is fine but the obvious hands and arms under the plane's wings ruins the vehicle mode. Fortunately, no tolerance issues otherwise.
Final verdict: 4/10.

Aftermath: The bot is amazing looking, there's no obvious hollow bits anywhere and the vehicle looks amazing. His transformation was fun and challenging to figure out, but there's some force that is required to move some things around, like the shoulder joints and to peg things in. That was a bit scary. Overall, he's a pretty solid figure, worth having a Generations update as a voyager (if it ever happen.)
Final verdict: 9/10.

Nightshade: The bot looks fantastic, appart the obligatory void behind the legs. His transformation is original and it was fun to figure out. The resulting "owl totem" mode is way, way better than anticipated. Also, no tolerance issues whatsoever, and he got some brilliant weapon storage.
Final verdict: 10/10.

Regarding Megatron, some have felt that they actually preferred the Warrior over the Deluxe.

Sabrblade wrote:Regarding Megatron, some have felt that they actually preferred the Warrior over the Deluxe.

I never got the deluxe but have been quite happy with the Warrior. I really like the weapon gimmick.

Sabrblade wrote:Regarding Megatron, some have felt that they actually preferred the Warrior over the Deluxe.

I forgot that I previously bought Warrior Elita-1 and Megs.
Warrior Megs is indeed way better than the deluxe despite the hollow bits. He can wear his cannon-blade on his arm without any problems. Also, it is quite ironic that despite the fact that Warrior Megs just fold his arms to make the vehicle's wings, they manage to be more "hidden" than the deluxe's.

Finally Twitch and Trash.

Twitch: The bot mode looks great and it have god-like light-piping. However, the transformation was a nightmare. I was stumped so I had to look up the instructions. Even then, it was hard to figure out that 3 tabs must be tabbed all at once. All because of intolerant tolerances, fiddliness, and the fact that when a side is all tabbed in at last, and you start the other side, the first side gets undone. So annoying. All for a vehicle that is rather "meh".

Final verdict: 4/10.

Trash: The bot look nice, but some baffling design choices made the FRONT of the bot full of hollow bits. Like, what? The transformation wasn't so intuitive so I had to rely on the instructions. The bike is nice enough, but my the big hollows in front of the bike, making the head of the bot perfectly visible from the sides? Also, that weapon storage should have been better.
Final verdict: 5/10.


All in all, for the full price of the stellar Aftermath and Nightshade, I could try Bee, Megs, Twitch, and Trash "for free." Luckily because I would have been pissed if I had to pay full price for those.

Thrash (not trash) is another one where the Warrior is a lot better than the Deluxe. It's light weight, but has a nice transformation and a sidecar.

Emerje

Emerje wrote:Thrash (not trash) is another one where the Warrior is a lot better than the Deluxe. It's light weight, but has a nice transformation and a sidecar.

Emerje

Both for him and Twitch, I will hunt down their Warrior version if I can find them for cheap.

Emerje wrote:Thrash (not trash) is another one where the Warrior is a lot better than the Deluxe. It's light weight, but has a nice transformation and a sidecar.

Emerje

Thrash and Megs are both where I agree that the warrior is the better toy. I would also throw in Jawbreaker, I prefer his warrior to his deluxe as well. His deluxe kinda pisses me off, which is a shame cause he is my favorite from the show.

Also, Nightshade = They

Apparently Glow Megs will have a glow-in-the-dark mace and NOT include the fusion cannon. Which means vehicle mode will look incomplete.

chuckdawg1999 wrote:Apparently Glow Megs will have a glow-in-the-dark mace and NOT include the fusion cannon. Which means vehicle mode will look incomplete.

Wow. That's really, really dumb. Unless he use the club as his tank cannon? Just a 5mm hole at the end would be enough to do the trick.

-Kanrabat- wrote:

chuckdawg1999 wrote:Apparently Glow Megs will have a glow-in-the-dark mace and NOT include the fusion cannon. Which means vehicle mode will look incomplete.

Wow. That's really, really dumb. Unless he use the club as his tank cannon? Just a 5mm hole at the end would be enough to do the trick.

Tank?



It's the engines/boosters on the sides that he'll be missing. I'm guessing he'll have his ball and chain instead. People always call it a mace, but a mace is basically a club, there's no chain.

Emerje

Emerje wrote:Tank?
Emerje

Woops.
I'm so used for Megs being a tank, I forgot the very deluxe I recently bought.
Eh, this proves how memorable Deluxe ES Megs is.