Transformers Legacy: Bomb-Burst

When I learned that Hasbro was making another attempt at bringing the Generation 1 Pretender characters into the Legacy line, I was beside myself with excitement. The G1 Pretenders have always been some of my favorite toys and characters, despite missing out on them when they were originally on retail shelves. When I first started to re-build my G1 collection the Pretenders were the first I went after. I always found the monster like Decepticon Pretenders to be more interesting and the monster vampire, Bomb-Burst, is a great example.

Bomb-Burst is part of the Core Class size of Transformers in the Legacy series. While I would have preferred him to be a deluxe class size, I'll take modern version of these characters however I can get them.

Pulling off a G1 Pretender type shell with modern toy making could be done I suppose, but Hasbro decided to go a different route and basically merge the shell and the inner robot together. Bomb-Burst retains the look of his outer monster vampire shell look, complete with large bat ears, snub nose and sharp teeth. The back of the figure does give you a peek at the inner robot's vehicle mode. I'm not wild about this "backpack", however I can live with it as the rest of the package is pretty awesome.

One of Bomb-Burst's pack in weapons just happens to be a smaller version of his classic sword.

The other included weapons are two blue, arm mounted lasers. On the G1 version these guns were wielded by the inner robot and a part of the robot's alt mode. With the Legacy version these guns double as the bat wings that were originally attached to the shell's shoulders. One side of the guns' fins are painted like wings. These attach to the nose cone "backpack", however said nose cone has to be positioned outward from the body, and well just looks a little odd. Looking straight on its not that bad, but viewing the figure from an angle or the rear you can see the flaw. The nose cone can also store the sword accessory which is a nice touch.

Hasbro nearly nailed the look of the G1 inner robot's alt mode, which you'll see more in some comparison pics below. It's not an exact 1:1, but it retains most of the look. From the maroon cockpit, to the VTOL engines on the top of the aircraft, it's still a jet that is formed by literally folding up a robot. By the way, the sword's hilt makes the gun for the ship's cockpit, wasn't expecting that.

I know that the original G1 toys aren't everyone's cup of tea. Some of them aren't that great and some of the toys haven't aged that well, however some of the designs and characters found in the original 80's series are fantastic. Hasbro found a way to bring one of the more obscure characters into modern form, and while I wish it was larger this is still a great toy. I hope we see more of the Pretenders brought back to life (in either scale), whether that be in the Legacy line or in a future Transformers series. 

You should Play With This Too - A Kickstarter Campaign you must check out

I"m going to take a few moments from reviewing toys, to talk about some new toys in the works that you must simply check out. While this may be new to some of the readers, to many you've probably already heard of a new company called Play With This Too. PWTT for short, is comprised of many former guys from the likes of Hasbro, Mattel, IDW and other companies. Having worked on such popular toy lines as Transformers, G.I. Joe, Star Wars, Masters of the Universe and many other lines, these guys have come up with a new series of action figures they are calling the Lost Protectors.

They just launched a new Kickstarter campaign on Friday, February 27th for their new series of figures and in less than 24 hours, people had pledged nearly 40% of their initial $80,000 goal. Now these guys don't need me to help them achieve their goal(s) as I'm sure they'll hit their marks, but how could I not say something about them when they have, basically, new versions of some of the classic Generation One Pretenders that I so dear love?

One of the first figures in the series is Desolataur...or Skullgrin as I'll refer to him. Now this is an early resin prototype here, but look at just how awesome this thing looks. You can read up on the Kickstarter campaign page to learn more about the figures and the series in general, but I just wanted to share a few pictures and see if those alone will be enough to entice you to check them out.

One of the neat things about these figures are that the pieces will be interchangeable with other figures in the series...or with other 6 inch action figures (to some degree). Think of Hasbro's new Mashers figures, but way better sculpted and with more accessories.

Where as the original G1 Pretenders had smaller transformable robots that hide inside the Pretender shells, these come with what PWTT is calling Tech Drones. These are 3 inch tall figures assembled via 5mm ports or pegs. You can also disassemble the drones and use their parts with the larger figures as weapons or accessories.

If you aren't familiar with how Kickstarter campaigns work, here is an example of how this particular campaign works. If you pledge $55 and the main goal of $80K is met, then you'll receive the awesome Bloodbath figure (aka TF G1 Pretender Bomb-Burst) sometime next February or March. Simple as that.

Or you can pledge $55 and receive the awesome Desolataur figure. I'm currently on the fence over with character to back, as you can only choose one...unless you have a 2nd Kickstarter account I'm assuming.

Now there are other versions of these two figures, some exclusive to this Kickstarter campaign that you can check out as well, but I'm mainly interested in the G1 Transformers themed characters...such as the two above.

Larger, closer look at the pending Desolataur figure

They also have several stretch goals to meet after the initial goal has been met. What is a stretch goal you may ask? Well essentially the more money that is pledged to them, the more items available for purchase will be unlocked. Some of these are new heads or accessory packs that are compatible with the Lost Protectors figures or other similar 6 inch figures. Some of the later stretch goals include new characters such as...

Jetstrike, an obvious homage to TF G1 Pretender Starscream! They even have plans to do the other seekers using this mold!

"Thundercracker and Skywarp"

Check out their version of TF G1 Pretender Grimlock, aka Boneyard. Nice, right? Looks like the Tech Drone even turns into a little T-Rex.

There is so many cool things they have planned...assuming they can get the initial goal met. I for one hope they succeed as I can't wait to see what these look like in person. I'm in the process now of trying to decide at what level I can afford to support. I encourage you to take a few moments and check out the Kickstarter campaign if anything you've seen here intrigues you.