Transformers War for Cybertron - Kingdom: Huffer

 

My beloved whiny orange and blue semi truck minibot from Generation 1 is finally back and sporting a brand new look. Huffer has not had a decent new mold in quite some time so I was thrilled to hear that he would be getting the deluxe treatment as part of the Transformers War for Cybertron: Kingdom series.

Huffer comes packaged in the now standard WFC type blister box similar to the Siege and Earthrise. There is a small window on the front that allows you to see the figure inside while the rest of the box is covered in some absolutely gorgeous artwork. The back of the box has two images of the figure, one for robot mode and one for vehicle mode. It lets the consumer know that in just 14 steps you can transform the figure between either mode.

Inside the package Huffer is packaged with his easy to follow instructions, a gun and claw type weapon.

I'm an thrilled with the overall look of Huffer. The designers did a great job at capturing his likeness from the old animated Sunbow television series, while still giving him a modern updated look. The colors and sculpting are spot on, even the head sculpt is fantastic. I should note that you can pull out the cab on his back a little to give his head and shoulders a little more clearance if you will. Most of the photos I took were of Huffer straight out of his packaging.

In the old show Huffer was always whining and didn't seem like much of a warrior, but this version if Huffer means business! Back in G1 the majority of the minibot characters weren't packaged with weapons so its nice to see that Huffer is finally well armed. This gun is rather big for a hand gun, so I'm imagining it as a more of a shotgun. He also comes packaged with a claw/shield that attaches to the side of his arm via a 5mm peg. Personally, I don't care for this piece so I'm glad you are able to stow it on the back of the truck's cab in robot mode if you'd like.

At first glance I loved the way his vehicle mode looked, however after messing around with the figure for a bit there are some aspects of the design that I'm not wild about. Certainly though it's an upgrade from past molds/versions of the character.

Taking a look at the front of the truck, the designers nailed the look of the grill, headlights and bumper. The translucent blue windows looks fantastic against the light orange of the body and silver accents. When we get to the rear of the truck is when my excitement starts to wane a little. The smokestacks/robot arms has always been tough to pull off and while these look OK, I'm just not crazy about the fists being exposed. So much of the robot kibble has been successfully tucked away, but the fists are just there. It's not a deal breaker, but I wish the fists could have folded into the smokestacks and been better concealed.

I also found the clearance in the front to be an issue as the wheels were really close to a gray piece that forms part of the shoulders in robot mode. I was able to work this loose a little to where the front wheels had a better range of movement. The back tail end of the truck was great with the "metal" plate for the trailer connection to the molded tail lights that are painted red. The silver wheels also look good, though the tires are pretty slim.

Huffer's gun separates into two halves and can be attached to the rear sides of his truck mode. Snap on the claw/shield to the trailer connector to complete the look. I for one can appreciate all of the accessories being self contained, but with these pieces attached Huffer looks more like a dump truck (even a certain Autobot Throttlebot).

It's comparison time! What good would it be if we didn't look at "new" Huffer alongside "old" Huffer? As you can see there is a quite a size difference between the two, but I always envisioned Huffer as being bigger than some of the other minibots like Bumblebee, Cliffjumper or Beachcomber. The head is obviously modeled after his animation model and not his G1 toy (thank you!) and the colors on Kingdom Huffer a little more muted than on his G1 self. Again, I think this is to match the animation model.

Studio Series Jazz is a fantastic toy, but I'm so backlogged that I doubt I'll get around to giving him his own review. If we're judging the height of each robot by the top of their head, they Jazz is slightly taller...and should be. Scale is always just a controversial subject with Transformers toys - some fans will be OK with this comparison while others will probably say that Huffer is oversized.

I pulled out Earthrise Optimus and WFC Netflix Bumblebee next and I'm loving this scale. Huffer should rightfully be bigger than Bumblebee. He pulled Optimus' trailer at time or two so I think he's the perfect size when compared to Optimus.

Overall I'm thrilled with Huffer. It's hard to choose a favorite as many of the figures in the current War for Cybertron trilogy have been fantastic. Huffer has always been one of my favorite characters so I may be a little biased here, but this is a must buy. He looks great in both modes and has a fun and easy transformation. If you can find him at retail, buy him...you won't be disappointed.

Transformers 3rd Party: Mechanic Studio - MS-02 Engineer (Huffer)

I've stayed away from the 3rd party Transformers scene for awhile now, but every once in awhile I like to dip my toes back in the water so to speak. I've been really intrigued with some of the various legends scale toys that several different companies have been pumping out. While some are better than others, I've liked most of what I've gotten my hands on. I've been sitting on this toy for some time so let's get to it.

I don't know much about the Mechanic Studio company, but they've been producing a lot of the popular Generation One characters. Huffer is one of my favorite minibots so I'm inclined to pick up any new version of the character I run across. In this case, Huffer, known as Engineer, comes in the same packaging as MS-03 Heikew (aka Pipes). I assume this is a cost saving move since the mold is essentially the same? Either way, the box features some nice art on the front. I've heard they have "borrowed" artwork from others in the past and not given the rightful owner proper credit so I hope that isn't the case here. The back of the box shows both toys in their robot and alt modes.

Each side of the box showcases either Engineer or Heikew along with their included little armored dude. I'm still not sure what these are supposed to be or why they are included.

Once Engineer is freed from the plastic tray inside the box you get a fairly cartoon accurate rendition of the Huffer character. The colors are spot on to his animation model, as is the head/face sculpt. The plastic felt pretty good upon first inspection. Paint apps were nicely done as well. Just need a Autobot sticker for his chest to complete his look.

Obviously this is a step up from the original Generation One toy. While it's a fun little toy, it looked nothing like the character's animation model. This annoyed me as a kid so much. I'm glad to have a new, small version of Huffer that looked like his screen counterpart.

One of the included accessories packaged with Engineer is this welding torch...or at least I think that's what it is. Maybe it's an oil applicator...I don't know and frankly I don't care. It's a great looking piece and a nice added touch. I like his it fits around the fist and looks like it's almost integrated into the arm itself. In the first season of the Sunbow cartoon many of the Transformers were notorious for retracting their hand and replacing it with some type of gadget.

I was surprised to see how many different points of articulation this figure had. The head can rotate a full 360 degrees, arms are attached via ball joints and have a good range of motion. Elbows and knees feature hinge joints. I will add that the joints on my figure were incredibly tight upon removing it from the package, especially the arms.

I love the look of Engineer's alt mode. Just like the robot captured the likeness of the character's Sunbow animation look, so does the truck mode. The blue paint used for the windows has a slight metallic sheen and looks great in person. It blends well with the muted orange and with the silver accents. The only negative thing I have to say about this mode is the exposed purple plastic on the smokestacks/arms. From the rear view you can't see these small pieces, but from an angled view they are exposed. Not a deal breaker, but it's there. The wheels rolled nicely along a smooth flat surface. 

Transformation from robot to truck was only a few steps and pretty straight forward. This I found very refreshing because many modern Transformer toys are too difficult for me to figure out without looking at the instructions anymore. This transformation wasn't too far from the original G1 toy.

One thing I do appreciate from the designers is when the weapon or accessory included is worked into the vehicle mode itself. Here you can see Engineer's welding torch fits snugly in the rear center of the truck.

Comparison time! I had the G1 toy near by in my glass cases that house my entire G1 collection. The Titans Return version was within reach as well so I grabbed him for a few comparison shots. Here you can see that Engineer is the bigger figure, but not by too much.

When comparing robot modes Engineer is the clear winner in my book. What about you? Which version do you prefer?

Engineer scales well with the modern deluxe/warrior class in my opinion. The scale of most third party TFs is all over the place, but I think he looks good alongside Combiner Wars Sunstreaker here.

Here we have Engineer side by side with Hot Soldier's version of Ironhide. Scale is obviously off, but who cares?

Overall I was very pleased with Mechanic Studio's effort here. They took a character I loved as a kid and finally gave me and other fans a toy that looked like the character we watched on TV each and every afternoon after school. He was reasonably priced at $20 or so. I haven't purchased anymore of Mechanic Studio's releases, but not because I wasn't impressed. I've really scaled back on my TF purchases outside of Hasbro main releases, but I may look into more of their releases at some point.

Transformers Prime - Beast Hunters: Huffer

Hasbro continued the Transformers Prime story and toy line with Beast Hunters. While many of the core characters got upgraded toys, Hasbro also gave us new toys of non-show characters, such as Huffer.

Huffer is part of the Commander Class, the larger of the two sizes that were under the Cyberverse umbrella. It's the closest to the old Basic size class as we've been given in quite some time.

The Huffer toy itself is a retool/repaint of a fellow Beast Hunters Commander Class toy, Trailcutter. I've always liked the Huffer character so this was an easy buy. 

The character has the familar orange and blue colors those of us from the G1 days will remember, but there really isn't much else about this form of Huffer that harkens back to his original days. The figure itself is a fun little toy. It sports a good range of articulation all around and the paint apps are pretty good. 

The drawbacks of the toy is the mold itself. There is a lot of kibble hanging off the bottom of his arms, the front of the truck (including the plow) just sits on the back of the robot. To me this takes something away form the overlook in robot mode. Then there is his gun. The bright blue gun reminds me of something a mid 90's GI Joe figure would've came with. While it's not spring loaded, the missile does shoot (surprisingly pretty far) when you press the back of the missile while inside the gun.

Huffer's truck mode looks like something out of a Mad Max movie. Gone is the traditional tractor trailer cab, replaced with a armored truck with guns, blades and a plow. I guess I get the two gun barrels mounted on the front of the truck and even the big plow, but the silver blades (or are they fins?) on the corners of the truck's cab? What purpose do they serve?

I almost get an Energon Landquake vibe looking at Huffer in his truck mode. While I don't love the alt mode, I've definately seen far worse over the years. I can't really recommend the figure, but it's not horrible either. Should come pretty cheap on the secondary market should you wish to pick it up for the first time.

Transformers 3rd Party: iGear - Rager MW-02G

A lot of Transformers fans that I've run across have mixed feelings when it comes to the 3rd party Transformers company, iGear.  Many love what they are currently doing, while others still have ill feelings towards the company for their blatant rip offs of the Hasbro & Takara Masterpiece molds.  All that aside I was thrilled to see a few years ago they were tackling upgrading many of the G1 Mini-Bots.  I quickly grabbed the first two figures released, Rager (Huffer) and Spray (Seaspray).  While I particularly liked Rager, his colors were more modeled after his animation self and not the original G1 toy.  I can't say I'm completely surprised then that iGear released Rager again...this time labeled as the 4th Anniversary Edition.

In addition to a new paint job, Rager also gets new packaging.  I loved the original Mini Warriors packaging, this time around however it feels cheap.  For whatever reason they decided to put a fake window on the box showing the toy.  This looks very cheesy.  In fact the whole box looks amateurish in my opinion.

It also didn't help that iGear shipped these boxes in just a bubble envelope.  Cheap skates.

The back of the box is a little better.  You get a faithful G1 looking tech spec card which is a nice touch.  By the time this version of Rager was released the next two Mini Warriors had been released, Hench (Brawn) and UFO (Cosmos).  At the time of this post I've yet to secure either of those.

This has to be the biggest warning I've ever seen on a toy's packaging!  This large warning label is found on the bottom of the box.  Notice the 'Dillinger' logo in the bottom right corner?  I guess those guys can be blamed for the cheap looking box layout.

Enough about the packaging, let's look at the actual toy.

Rager comes packaged inside a small plastic tray with a removable lid.  This might be the best part of the packaging.  You can also see that he comes with the same two pistols that the previous release had.

Now this is what I'm talking about!  I love his darker, richer G1 colors.  In addition to the darker orange and blue, iGear also painted the wheels.  While a small change, it makes a huge difference in truck mode.

Notice the deeper, richer blue color in robot mode?  This is a huge improvement over the original.  So much in fact that I quickly sold off the original to a local friend of mine that missed out on the first release.

I love the fact that he actually has weapons.  I hated that all but one of the original G1 Mini-Bots didn't have weapons.  I know Huffer came off as a whiny jerk in the original cartoon and I can't really see him fighting on the front line, but this new version makes him look less whiny and more tough.  All he needs now is a little Autobot sticker on his chest.

To fully appreciate Rager's new look, let's take a look at him against his original self and then we'll close by comparing him against his G1 toy.

There really is no comparison.  For me the 4th Anniversary Edition is the way to go.  The figure was limited to 500 pieces, but I'm sure if you look in the right places he can still be had for close to what he originally retailed for.

This picture just makes me smile : )