Nuking The Cat

When I first learned that we’d be getting new Dinobots in the Power of the Prime line, I was excited…especially upon seeing that they were going to be rooted in their G1 appearances and that it was going to be the full roster. Sure, we’ve gotten Dinobots in the past here and there, but it was never the full set…and when it was, back with the Michael Bay inspired set to coincide with the fourth movie, they were…well…I hate to use this word, but they were Bay-formers, overly c

Did you ever think the Megatron mold from Transformers Energon would make a good remold into Thunderwing? I certainly did. Well, the folks at Garatron must have thought so too, if their Gangs-Of-Devil 01 Thunderstorm is any indication. That being said, it’s not EXACTLY a retool of that earlier mold…and that’s a fair statement to make given how many Third-Party manufacturers take existing Hasbro/Takara engineering and add a few improvements here and there. Sure, there are s

Okay, one final rush to get the remaining Titans Returns toys off my damn review desk. This time, we’re dealing with exclusives…some hard to get, others not so much. But thankfully, they’re mostly repaints, so I can be cheap and just add links to the original reviews while just briefly discussing what sets these new items apart. Starting things off, we’ve got Wonder Fest 2018 Winter TakaraTomy exclusive Black Convoy…or RiD Scourge as he’s known in the west. He’s a recolor

When Go-Bots started falling behind Transformers back in the hey-day of transforming robots duking it out in the toy aisle for a kid’s hard-begged-for cash, Tonka opted to go bigger…making Super Go-Bots, toys akin to their smaller brethren with similar transformations (mostly…I STILL can’t figure out Super Spay-C) but on a larger scale…better fitting in with their main competitors from Cybertron. It’s pretty obvious how this worked out. So, here in the modern age, should we b

How many of you were disappointed in Hasbro’s Titans Return release of Voyager-class Galvatron? Raise your hands. ::Raises hand:: [You know this sort of thing doesn’t work over the internet, right? – Ed.] In my review of the toy, I wasn’t terribly keen on how the headmaster gimmick had been worked into him. That gripe still stands, but now there’s a new one. With the Combiner Wars release of leader-class Ultra Magnus and the Power of the Primes release of leader-class Rodi

While most of the early Transformers were taken from Takara’s Microman and Diaclone toylines, giving them the Masterpiece treatment was pretty easy with minimal fuss. However, some of the toys in the 84 and 85 waves were licensed from other toymakers…most notably Shockwave and Jetfire. With this aspect deflating collectors’ hopes in ever seeing a Masterpiece Shockwave, as usual, third-party companies sprang into action to provide their own versions. The one that caught my

Here it is…the last gasp of Titans Return…but man is it a good one! Here we have two leader class figures that see their origins in the old Japan-Only series Transformers: Super God Masterforce…but only one of them officially made the leap over the Pacific to become an official Hasbro toy, that being the final leader class release (wave 5 for those of you still keeping track) of Overlord. But for those that bought the Siege on Cybertron set, well, then no Titans Return coll

With Wave 1 of Power of the Primes hitting store shelves at the time of this writing, I figured it was time to get off my butt and wrap up our Titans Return reviews! So, here we are with the very late in the coming review of the last combined wave of deluxes…Wave 5, plus Slugslinger. Twin Twist: As you’d expect, he’s a remold of Topspin from Wave 4. Given how good that mold was, I certainly can’t complain about seeing it again so soon. That, and to be honest, for whatever

The explosion of the Third Party Transformers marketplace has in some ways been really surprising. Hasbro’s reaction to it has been almost equally as surprising, allowing it to mostly proliferate…almost with the understanding that there’s no way that they could hit all toys, features or characters that collectors want so why not let someone else do it. We’ve already posted one Third Party product, Fans Project’s Stunticons, and while I own a few others, these I really felt

We continue with our ‘clip show’ reviews here as we continue to make the transition from Titans Return to Power of the Primes…this time with the Big Bad Toy Store exclusive box set: Siege on Cybertron. [Well, it was a BBTS exclusive in the US, I think Toys R Us had it in Canada…and I have no idea with regards to the rest of the world. – Ed.] While like the previous box set, Chaos on Velocitron, there really isn’t anything new here…just interesting repaints of previously rel

The nice thing about a toyline winding down, especially when it comes to Hasbro’s Transformers, is that the final wave or two is rife with repaints. As such, some of the upcoming reviews will be very much like the ‘clip shows’ that pop up from time to time. Sure, I’ll have a few new quips here and there, but a lot of this is going to be repeats from earlier reviews. Don’t worry, links will be included. So as we start to close up shop on Titans Return, let’s take a look at

Next up in our “Toys I’m Probably Too Old For” file are the Walgreens Exclusive Cyber Battalion Autobots. Like our previous review, the RiD Combiner Force Combiners, these are best served as a gateway into Transformers for the ages 5-10 crowd given their large size yet limited articulation. Size-wise, it’s safe to say these guys fall right around Voyager class. When it comes to articulation, well, that’s going to depend on the character…so with that being said, let’s take

I’m a sucker for a lot of things, but there are three that pertain to this review: I’m a sucker for Combiners. I’m a sucker for Stunticons. I’m a sucker for Combiners that stray from the standard Scramble City approach. Each bot here falls under number 1 and with Galvatronus, it’s the only criteria it meets. Menasor, of course, checks off number two and Ultra Bee ticks off that number three. But as for a review for these guys, well, maybe it’s best to say that what you’ll g

For this episode of Masterpiece Theater [So glad PBS has opted not to sue, by the way. – Ed.] we’ve opted to go for something old and something new. [Well, relatively new…given your timely updates. – Ed.] So let’s delve a little deeper into MP-19 Smokescreen and MP-28 Hot Rodimus. For most of what you need to know about Smokescreen, all you have to do is refer back to my review of his mold-mates, MP-17 Prowl and MP-18 Streak (or, since I grabbed the Toys R Us version, MP-06

As I said in my review of the Power Rangers film that was released back in March, upon exiting the film I felt like I HAD to get my mitts on some of the toys. Now, you wouldn’t be able to tell this from the reviews on the site…but I LOVE huge toys. I think I can blame that on Fort Max back in ’87. So, naturally I grabbed the Zord gift pack that was exclusive to Toys R Us…and while I wasn’t disappointed exactly, between the parts-former nature of the toys, the incredibly mi

With the fourth wave of deluxe-class Titans Return figures, we start delving into unnecessary repaint territory. Fortunately, we also get 3 new molds to offset that, so let’s dive in and take a look at a set of figures that has been out for a while now but I’m just getting my lazy keister around to reviewing! Perceptor: Let’s start with the positive…the attention in translating the original G1 toy into something more modern is extremely well done here. Sure, the “tank” mode

While the mass market toys are planned to hit store shelves well in advance of a movie’s opening, the more collector-oriented items tend to wait until the figure is just right and ready to hit shelves. This may end up being more in line with a movie’s release to home video…or just whenever the hell a certain company finally ships the damn things. [Yeah…STILL waiting for that BVS Wonder Woman from Hot Toys dammit! – Ed.] In the instance of the two action figures we’ll be lo

Back in 1996, the Transformers franchise underwent a major shift. As Generation 2 was winding down in 1995, it was put forth that for the 1996 line of toys, the focus would shift to robots that turned into animals, insects and so forth…thus, the Beast Wars were born. Although there was some resistance at first [Oh, the ‘trukk not munky’ days… - Ed.], the quality of both the toys, featuring the most poseable Transformers seen at the time, and the accompanying TV show, one of

In terms of Anime…this is what they call a ‘clip show’. Nearly everything included in the Chaos on Velocitron gift-set is a repaint or slight remold of toys that are already available within the Titans Return toyline…and are all toys that I’ve already reviewed. So, what we’re going to do here is there’s gonna be a bunch of links if you want a more in-depth look at the toy while I’ll offer a bit of commentary on the new decos and then render a final verdict on both the toys a

Voltron is back…whether it’s the Netflix series (which I should really write up some time, but the short version is it’s mostly awesome with only one GLARING problem) or it’s in the toy shelves. Now, when we talk about Voltron toys, we really open ourselves up to a lot of things that can be considered: the original Japanese Popy releases, Matchbox’s Voltrons I (Vehicle Voltron), II (Gladiator Voltron from the unaired English dub of Lightspeed Electroid Albegas), and III (the