Transformers Legacy United: Magneous

 

One of the greatest things with the Legacy line of Transformers is the sheer variety of characters, or even new characters such as Magneous. Part of the new Infernac Universe, this rocky character draws references from both the Headmasters cartoon series from Japan as well as the Rock Lords from Gobots lore. The latter is one of the reasons I grabbed this figure. If the word Infernac rings a bell, it's because its from a past Hasbro property, Inhumanoids. While not everything has to connect in some way, I've always thought Inhumanoids was already loosely linked to the world of Transformers thanks to the old Sunbow cartoon with appearances by the report, Hector Ramirez.

At first glance this figure does resemble a Rock Lord character, which I'm sure is something the designers were going for. However it you look a little closer, you can see parts of the alternate form, which is essential a rock on wheels. Magneous is an Amorizer, which means you can deconstruct the figure into smaller pieces that can be attached to other/larger Transformers and used as armor. This is the same concept as Weaponizers and Fossilizers. Now if you are looking for what the armor pieces look like when disassembled, I'm going to disappoint you because I don't care for this feature so I've skipped it.

I love the headsculpt of Magneous, the darker colored face plate and the small yellow eyes. The uneven shards on the forehead are also a nice touch.

Magneous can wield his own parks as weapons. The top of his vehicle mode doubles as a shield for defensive purposes. Offensively he wields a pick axe weapon. I do have to admit that he looks pretty menacing all armed up.

The alternate mode is that of an armored truck. If it weren't for the defined windows on the cab, it would be a little harder to make out what the vehicle mode is. The rocky detail, the shading applied looks fantastic. This makes me think how great a modern, proper Rock Lord character could look.

With the Armorizers not having a traditional transformation and with Magneous being a new character, I can see how not every fan/collector would like this figure. I for one however am impressed and I can't wait to see more characters from the Infernac Universe in the near future.

KO Korner: Double Dragon (Monsterbot Doublecross)

I can't exactly remember when or who I acquired this nice little piece from, but it's one of the few boxed G1 Transformers KOs that I still have in my collection. From what I can tell, this is a Korean release and is obviously based off the Autobot Monsterbot, Doublecross. In small print across the bottom it says Dae Dong Co. The box is made of a very thin/cheap cardboard. The colors are still quite vibrant. The large black front at the top of the box translates to Tususa Ssangyong Robot, however I'm not sure how accurate that is. The diagonal font across the middle reads "Dragon, the son of fire, who fights for justice!" "He came to us to preserve peace on Earth."

The figure comes nestled inside a very cheap plastic tray. This insert is so brittle you have to take the utmost care removing or inserting the figure. The plastic in the bottom of each recessed area is very thin. You can see the figure comes bundled with two accessories the original Doublecross did not come with, a large red sword and a blue shield. I have no idea of these accessories were "borrowed" from another toy release or are unique to this release. The sticker on the shield appears to be some type of unicorn?

Double Dragon comes molded in a very bright huge of blue, red and yellow. The plastic quality is surprisingly better than I expected. It's not oily or too light feeling, but of course not on par with the plastic Hasbro/Takara were using at the time. The only paint apps are a small black blobs of paint on the eye visor, eyes of the dragon heads and nostrils. There are 3 stickers pre-applied to the chest, but the adhesiveness of these is all but gone on my copy.

Once you wield Double Dragon with his weapons, it's a great looking piece. If you prefer a gun, you're in luck has he can also wield Doublecross' original white blaster.

You may have noticed the lack of wings on Double Dragon and those wouldn't be the only changes made. Other than the missing wings, the top half of the robot is molded very closely to that of the original. The front of the shoulders are missing the raised circles and there are some molded details to the abdomen area that are missing (replaced with the sticker). Even the dragon heads are very close to Doublecross. The KO obviously does not contain the sparking gimmick of the original so you won't find that mechanism inside the dragon heads. The trigger fin on the back of Doublecross has also been omitted on the KO.

The major differences in the mold comes in the bottom half. Double Dragon features a set of generic robot legs and does not have the ability to transform at all, thus no dragon legs or tail halves. The upper legs/thighs however do seem to be the same.

Overall I find this KO to be a quirky, charming addition to my G1 KO collection. I wish that it had the ability to transform, but it's unique colors and weapons helps it stand out as a highlight piece. I haven't really sought out this figure on the secondary market so I can't really comment on it's availability or price, but if you are a fan of KOs in general or just a fan of the Doublecross character, I do recommend this toy.

Transformers Legacy Evolution: Dinobot Sludge (Core Class)

   

I've been sitting on this figure since February where I picked it up from a comic shop while I was in Wilmington, NC for a wedding. I'm glad I went ahead and grabbed it because the initial distribution of this wave of Core Class figures in my area was horrible. 

The draw here is that the Dinobots combine. I've never been a fan of this idea (and won't be displaying them this way), but with this combining feature in mind, I do believe we may see these toys released as the Japanese exclusive Dinoforce team. Afterall, those toys did combine (well, the inner Pretender robots did) to form the combiner Dinoking.

I'll start off with saying for a Core Class figure, this isn't a bad representation of the Dinobot, Sludge. It doesn't faithfully re-create the G1 toy on a smaller scale, but you can tell who he's meant to be. Sure, he has dinosaur kibble hanging off his hips and the "wings" he normally has in robot mode aren't attached to his back (they are on the back of his arms), but the sculpt isn't bad. I quite like the head as it looks like the classic character.

Articulation wise the arms do move at the shoulders a full 360 degrees. The legs are attached to the hips with a disc shape joint and allow the legs to move freely, however the dino kibble on his waist will hinder some of the overall leg movement.

Sludge's dinosaur mode (Apatosaurus?) has all sort of issues...where do we start. First of all the tail is almost non-existent. It's more of a stub than a tail. The back legs are also way out of proportion that it throws off the look of the dino. Most of the toy features gray, non-painted plastic. He does feature some silver paint on the upper portion of his back and of course the gold highlights on the back and head. The legs do move, but you're limited in your posting due to short, squatty legs.

If you so choose to combine Sludge with his fellow Dinobots, he does form the lower upper body/waist of the combiner. Getting him combiner ready is fairly easy as you just rotate his arms straight up, fold up the legs and position them on each side of his waist. Doesn't look like much, but once you start attaching some of the other Dinobots it's not a bad design...I just don't like combining Dinobots in my world of Transformers.

Overall I find Sludge to be a charming Core Class figure, but it's not without it's faults. Usually I like to display my Dinobot figures in dinosaur mode, but this is one of those rare cases where I feel like the robot mode is the strongest of the two forms. I think you can pass on this figure (and the rest of the Core Class Dinobots) unless you are a major Dinobot fan or a completionist. There are far better figures in of this price point in the Legacy series.

Nonnef Productions: Transformers Legacy Crankcase Upgrade Kit

I've not been one that has felt the need necessarily to purchase many upgrade kits for my Transformers figures, but when I saw that Nonnef Productions was releasing a kit for Legacy Crankcase I was excited. I thought Hasbro did a pretty good job with the figure, but what made the original G1 toy so special was it's Triggercon gimmick. While this upgrade kit isn't adding spring loaded weapons that flip out, it does give you the look of the original toy, with a modern flair of course.

The kit contains two blue guns, two pegs, two arms, two thigh filler pieces and a set of silver hubcaps. The guns are also available in black if you prefer. 

On the original G1 figure, the guns were embedded into the roof of the car when not deployed. With this upgrade kit attached the guns can be folded back, but obviously are not embedded. You can rotate these forward however to have the same look of the guns deployed on the G1 toy.

The other included part for vehicle mode is a set of 4 silver hubcaps. The front two simply peg into the wheel posts, where as the back two are attached via small glue dots which were also included. All of these parts were easy to assemble and install.

Hasbro did add a small set of faux shoulder mounted blasters to Crankcase, however they were small and just didn't give the same effect as the original G1 toy. Once you've installed this upgrade kit you can simply fold these guns down so they aren't in view.

Once installed you now have a pair of proper shoulder mounted guns that you can fold up and down depending on what look you are trying to pull off. When not deployed, they do hang off the "backpack" of the figure...which does add a little bit of extra weight. I already felt this toy was already a little back heavy, so just be sure to position the legs/feet in a manner to support the weight on the back of the figure, especially if you don't have the guns deployed forward.

The last included piece are two blue thigh fillers. These simply plug into the hollow cavity on the inside of the thighs. I don't usually bother with buying simple kits that only fill in gaps like this, but since it was included with this set I'll gladly add them to the figure.

Overall I felt this was a worthy purchase and a fun and easy upgrade kit to add to Crankcase. I've bought a few kits from Nonnef Productions in the past and they always do great work. Priced at just $8.99, I feel this set really "transforms" Crankcase and makes an already great figure even better. Be sure to check out their site for more awesome kits they have available.

Transformers: Rise of the Beasts - Optimus Prime (Voyager)

It's been a very long time since I've bought any Transformers toys based on the live action movies. It was probably 2007 since the last time I made a movie related purchase so I'm even a little surprised that I have a Rise of the Beasts themed post here on the blog! The marketing efforts at retail for this new movie has been pretty epic thus far and apparently I've gotten sucked in as you can see. Several of the Walmart stores in my area have a large end cap cardboard display, however I've only see the voyager assortment (Optimus Prime & Optimus Primal) once or twice. Maybe this is good news as the figures are selling well?

The Rise of the Beasts packaging shares the open box concept thanks to Hasbro's plastic free packaging initiative. The front right side features large up close artwork of Optimus while the left side features the Transformers logo. The Rise of the Beasts logo resides underneath the figure. The back features two shots of Optimus, robot and vehicle mode. You can see the transformation process can be completed in just 20 steps. The bottom area features multi-language legalese jargon.

Even though I could see a portion of the figure inside the box, it wasn't until I got Optimus out of his cardboard prison that I could truly appreciate the overall design. I've never been a huge fan of the movie designs as it was too much of a departure from what I was accustomed to, however after seeing the first teaser trailer for the Rise of the Beasts movie I was intrigued. Seeing the figure in Walmart only fueled that curiosity I had and I'm glad I took a chance.

Optimus retains most of his iconic look, from the red chest and arms, truck cab windows and grill on the chest to the blue legs. The head sculpt still has that movie look, but has evolved over the years and looks better in my opinion than it did back in 2007. The figure has a pretty clean look and not much kibble. I know some may not like the look of the front wheels folded up on the back, but it doesn't bother me. The only part of the robot mode that I don't care for are the two gray pieces on the back/side of the arms. Small gripe as the rest of the figure is pretty solid.

Optimus comes packaged with a black rife. It's more slim than the rifle his Generation One self carried, but it still gets the job done.

From an articulation stand point, this is a very modern action figure / Transformer. Thanks to a combination of various ball and hinge joints the figure has multiple points of articulation through and through. I'm not the most creative in posing my figures, but I had no issues in coming up with various poses with Optimus...just not good enough to share in this post.

Movie Optimus Prime has seen a few different iterations over the years, but when the series received a "soft reboot" with the Bumblebee movie a few years back, Optimus' vehicle mode went back to a more iconic look with that of a flat nose truck cab. Thankfully that look has carried over to his Rise of the Beasts design, those I do believe there are some tweaks. The top of the cab features gunmetal panels over the blue translucent windows. The headlights have been lowered to the bottom bumper making the grill look a little larger. Looking straight on at the cab I think it has a great look. Once you get to the back, well that's a different story.

I mentioned not caring for the gray pieces that were on the back/side of the arms in robot mode and in vehicle mode they don't look any better. I'm not sure what purpose they serve, but they look like wings of some sort and I just don't care for them.

The robot feet fold up and onto the back of the legs forming the back end of the truck mode. There is a connector for a trailer, however I've yet to hear if a trailer is in the works or not. I'm not sure if the trailer included with Earthrise Optimus Prime would be compatible or not due to the height of the backend of this version of Optimus. The whole backend of the vehicle just looks a little sloppy to me, which is a shame as the front looks pretty great.

Prime's rifle can be stored in vehicle mode by placing the 5mm peg on the rifle into the hitch on the rear of the truck. I do like it when a figure's accessories can be self contained within the figure.

In closing, before I get to the obligatory comparison photos, I was rather pleased with this new version of Optimus Prime. Granted my expectations were fairly low going in, this isn't a bad toy. Is it perfect? No, far from it actually. It could easily use more paint apps for example, but I found this to be a fun movie based toy. I'm not sure where in my collection I'll put him since I've still yet to unpack and set up my Optimus collection, but I am glad I gave the toy a try.