Transformers Power of the Primes: Alpha Trion w/ Landmine

Wave 2 of the Transformers Power of the Primes Prime Masters finally hit local retail in my area and I quickly snatched up the only two new figures in the wave. I was so quick to make the purchase that I overlooked a glaring flaw in the Landmine Pretender armor. More on that in a bit.

I have thoroughly enjoyed the Prime Master line thus far for several reasons. 1) The cheap $4.99 USD price point and 2) I actually enjoyed the Pretender toys from the Generation One line. Landmine here is one of my favorite Autobot Pretenders so I was excited to see that he would be getting the Prime Master treatment.

Alright, so let's address the glaring flaw right off the bat. Do you see the problem? The Landmine armor has two right arms. I can't believe I didn't notice this in the store. Again, I was so excited (and surprised) to find anything new at Target that I snatched him up. Usually I'm grabbing all of the same figure and closely scrutinizing them all to find the figure with the best paint apps. Well this time Landmine was all alone on the peg and now I know why!

Two right arms aside, the toy is just as impressive as the previous Prime Master I reviewed, Metalhawk. The level of detail put into the Pretender armor is amazing. While limited, the paint apps are also applied quite nicely. The designers did a great job at capturing the likeness of the original G1 figure, of course with modern updates. I find these little $5 toys a lot of fun and they are some of my favorite modern Transformers.

 

To remove or place the Prime Master figure inside the armor, you simply fold down the front portion. I kind of wish the armor opened up like the original G1 Pretender armor, but it still gets the job done. The Prime Master figure fits snuggly inside the armor.

The Prime Master figure itself is basically a Titan Master figure from the previous Transformers series, only with the robot head/face replaced with a Cybertronian symbol featuring one of the 12 original Primes. In this case, this is Alpha Trion. 

For added play value, the armor can also transform in a gun for larger Transformers to wield similar to a Targetmaster. As I was typing this post, I realized I failed to photograph the weapon mode. However keep reading as you'll see what it looks like if G1 Landmine were to "wield himself".

Before we get to the G1 comparison pictures, let's take a look at how Landmine stacks up against Metalhawk. Side by side you should be able to see that the same base mold was used for both figures, however there are plenty of different sculpting differences used to help create two unique characters. The arms and legs are basically unchanged, but the torso and chest sections have been modified to resemble their G1 counterparts.

I was amazed when I pulled out my G1 Landmine from his glass display case and put them side by side as the similarities are spot on. From the small designs on the gray utility belt to the red section on the armor's abdomen, you can tell the designs took the time to add in charm from the original toy. This is obviously a nice touch for older fans such as myself and one of the reasons I've enjoyed these new "pretenders" as much as I have.

As aforementioned, you can combine the Prime Master figure with the armor to form a larger fun. The armor features a 5mm peg that most Transformers can wield, even the original G1 Pretenders! While I display mine in their robot form, this is a nice added feature that I'm sure enhances the play value for the younger fans.

I currently own all of the Prime Master figures as I just found wave 3 a few days ago as of the date of this post, however I have a bad tendency of taking my sweet time opening new toys...for some reason. However I eagerly await my next opportunity to open and photograph the next Prime Master. Perhaps the next one will be a Decepticon?

For G1 fans, even if they didn't like the Pretender concept or the toys themselves, this is fantastic to see Hasbro and Takara Tomy digging deeper into the Transformers lore and history and giving new toys to characters seldom used. Even if you aren't a G1 fan or didn't grow up during that time frame, these little toys offer a great deal of detail packed into a small toy and offers different wants to play and interact with other Transformers toys.

Transformers Generations: Megatron & Chop Shop

As part of Hasbro's "Thrilling 30" celebration of the Transformers Brand in 2014, several Legend sized two packs were released under the Generations banner. On the Decepticon front, Megatron was paired with the unusual choice of the Insecticon Chop Shop.

Click on any of the pictures for a larger view

I have always enjoyed this scale of Transformers so I was already on board, but the inclusion of Chop Shop really caught my attention. While the Deluxe Insecticon toys from the G1 era were never high on my list, I've always held an affinity for Chop Shop. Perhaps its because it was the only Deluxe Insecticon toy I owned growing up. None the less this new, smaller version of the character had to be mine.

Megatron himself is a retool/redeco of the Autobot Warparth. While the mold is OK, it does tend to fit Megatron better than Warpath. The tank barrel does sit on the side of the arm similar to Megatron's original fusion cannon, but its a little too thin for my taste. I also don't care for the different gray colors used. The lower half of the tank / legs are more of a silver gray, while the tanks turret / robot's thighs and legs are molded in a different shade of gray plastic. Then the armored bits on the arms have been painted a light gray. The colors don't mesh very well, especially in tank mode. His robot mode is passable with a new head sculpt. These colors issues were fixed with the Japanese Takara Tomy release.

My reason for buying this toy is this little guy. Chop Shop is a little bigger than your average Mini-Con figure. His arms and beetle mandibles are movable, but due to his transformation that is about the extent of his articulation.

The sculpting on this figure is great. I particularly love his head sculpt as it is a dead ringer for the G1 toy. The colors are spot on and he retains a good bit of his G1 likeness, minus the gray peg found on his chest.

This version of Chop Shop is basically a quadruple changer if you will. In addition to his two standard modes, he can also transform into armor for Megatron in his tank mode as well as a Targetmaster-esque weapon. Or does he form a shield?

Starscream was released in the same series and packaged with a new version of Beast Wars Waspinator. Fitting that Hasbro would give the fans a new Starscream to go with a new Megatron. The added smaller figures were just a bonus.

Transformers Power of the Primes: Vector Prime w/ Metalhawk

When Hasbro first leaked the images of their Prime Master toys online my heart leaped for joy. You see, it wasn't that I was excited about the Prime Masters themselves, but the fact that they are essentially Pretenders.

The Pretenders are one of the few "gimmicks" if you will from the original 80's Generation One toyline that hasn't been revisted in modern Transformers...that is until now. If the idea of having small Pretender armor suits for the Prime Masters wasn't cool enough, Hasbro (and Takara Tomy) decided to treat us North Americans with the first official non-Japanese release of the Pretender character, Metalhawk.

If you don't know who he is, pause your reading and open another browser window and Google Metalhawk and read up on him. It's OK, I'll wait.

Are you back? Yes? Good! Now that you know a little of the character, let's look at this highly anticipated toy from the packaging down to the figure itself...and perhaps a few photos with his G1 namesake.

The packaging for the Prime Masters basically takes the place of the Titan Master packaging from the previous Titans Return series. You've got a nice character artwork on the top of the card with the black vertical bar on the right side with the large red block letter Transformers modern logo.

The back of the card shows how the toy essentially works, that it can contain the Prime Master, Vector Prime while also being able to trasform into a weapon. Like with most modern Transformers, the cool bios aren't printed on the packaging.

Out of the package Metalhawk is awesome. He's small, only a few inches tall, but he packs a punch for such as small toy. The level of detail in the mold is truly impressive. The designers did a good job at capturing the likeness of Metalhawk's armor. From the large crest on his helmet, to the ornmate look of his chest armor.

It may be hard to see, but unlike the original Pretenders, these don't have a human(oid) face, but a hole for the Prime Master head. It's very hard to see the tiny robot head inside, but upclose you can see it. While I would have preferred an actual face (human or robot doesn't matter), I'm so tickled with this toy that I can give them a pass.

The armor only has two points of articulation. His arms can rotate a full 360 degrees. This is pretty much identical to the G1 Pretenders so that shouldn't come a surprise to long time Transformers fans and collectors.

The front half of the armor simply folds down forward, revealing the Prime Master figure inside...in this case Vector Prime. The tiny robot fits snuggly in the armor, but comes out with a little effort. I almost wish the original G1 Pretenders opened up to reveal the robot inside in this fashion.

The small Prime Master figure scales well with the "pretender" armor. The Prime Master features all the same points of articulation that the Titan Master figures had.

The Prime Master figures are essentially Titan Master figures, without a head mode. Instead they transform into a spark (or is it a vessel containing the actual spark inside?) of one of the 12 legendary Prime characters. 

To be honest I'm not too sure how I feel about these at this point in time. This is my first exposure to a Prime Master figure. While I don't mind the concept, the actual toy just seems odd. I mean, all I see is a faceless Headmaster / Titan Master.

To add to the actual play value of the toy, the Pretender armor can also transform into a weapon. In this case Metalhawk converts into a gun, similiar to a Targetmaster. Sice it's just the armor laid down on his chest with a gun barrel, but I can appreciate this extra mode. There is a peg in between the feet that rotates out to let a larger Transformer wield the weapon. I believe it's a standard 5 mm peg so most modern Transformers should be able to hold these.

 

The original Generation One Metalhawk toy is highly sought after by many collectors, but thankfully I've had this guy in my Transformers collection for a very long time. I couldn't wait to pull him out of the glass cabinet to compare against this new, smaller version. As you can see, he's pretty spot on.

I wish his helmet crest had been painted red like the original, but dang it if they didn't nail just about every other aspect of the character. There are some small differences here and there, but overall I couldn't be happier with the final outcome.

I was really surprised to see that the peg on the Prime Master armor snuggly fit into the peg hole on G1 Metalhawk's hand. Yes, he can wield himself in battle!! I love it!

I have been super impressed thus far with the Transformers Power of the Primes line. So far many of the modern upgrades these classic characters have received are excellent. I picked up the other two Prime Masters in this wave with Metalhawk (Micronus w/ Cloudburst & Liege Maximo w/ Skullgrin) and I cannot wait to see which other classic Pretender characters get this treatment. 

If you are a fan of the other original Pretenders I simply can't see how you would not enjoy this figure. From the intricate detailing, to the homage itself, Hasbro has a huge winner on their hands with Vector Prime and Metalhawk.

Transformers Power of the Primes: Dreadwind

The third and final chapter of the Prime Wars trilogy, Power of the Primes is nearly here. I say nearly because of the street date for the new toys is December 15th...however some lucky people started to find them at their local Target stores in late November.

Right before Thanksgiving the wife and I were at a Target gathering pictures and ideas for our daughters Christmas lists. Several aisles down from the action figures I found Dreadwind just sitting on a shelf. I scooped him up quickly as I was excited to finally find something new at local retail I wanted to buy. Personally I'm sick of seeing all those horrible movie toys on the shelves!

The packaging for the Power of the Primes figures may seem familiar. It shares the same overall design that started back with Combiner Wars and then carried over to Titans Return. Transformers is written in the same large red block letters down the right side of the packaging, the same as the previous Prime Wars trilogy lines as well as the movie toys *shudder*. I love the large new character art on the front of the card.

On the left side of the cardboard insert inside the blister bubble features some new art of Starscream as a combiner. Just like early Combiner War images, both factions are shown to comprise a larger combiner. In this case you have Dreadwind as an arm for Starscream, along with the Autobots Jazz, Dinobot Swoop and Dinobot Slug. Weird, but cool art none the less.

If this mold looks familiar to you, it should as it was first used in Combiner Wars as Aerialbot Skydive. Hasbro did a great job retooling this mold to make it look like the iconic G1 Powermaster. The colors are pretty spot on and the tampographed designs on the wings look good. I really wasn't sure when I first saw the images of him online if those were stickers or not. The mold doesn't appear to show any signs of "mold rot". The wings, arms and legs all seem firm.

Transformation from jet to robot is pretty much the same as with previous versions of this mold. I do have to say that while I liked the Titans Return line, it's refreshing to see a Transformer with a normal sized robot head again.

Speaking of the head, what a great sculpt. Again, the designs did a good job capturing the likeness of his G1 self.

 

Unlike his G1 self, this version of Dreadwind only comes with one blaster. It's a teal color versus the original dark gray, but its a great looking gun so I can't knock it too much. 

Dreadwind still sports a good amount of articulation in both his arms and legs. I'm not the best with coming up w/ dynamic poses and such for action figures, but hopefully you get the picture.

The gimmick in Power of the Primes are the Prime Masters. These are essential retool Titan Masters (or Headmasters if you will) that interact with the Legion, Deluxe, Voyager and Leader classes. Each deluxe figure comes with a combiner hand that can double has chest armor. In Dreadwind's case, there is a teal piece of plastic that covers the cavity the Prime Master will fit into. The picture on the right shows a Titan Master figure inserted as I've yet to acquire my first Prime Master.

From a straight on view you really can't tell the armor has been attached to his chest, but from an angeled or side view it appears that Dreadwind is carrying a Baby Bjorn! Personally I don't care for this look and don't plan on displaying any of my Power of the Prime toys with this "armor" attached.

I should have taken a picture of the combiner hand piece as it's been changed since the Combiner War days. Now there are two semi-articulated thumbs. Yes, each hand has two thumbs. They attach via a ball joint so I guess you could pop off the back thumb if it bothers you that much (raises his hand!).

This combiner hand / armor piece can also attach to the top of Dreadwind in his vehicle mode. If this doesn't remind you of the G2 Decepticon seeker jets with their bulky electronic pack I don't know what will! If you look carefully, you'll see both thumbs spread out on each side.

Lastly, Dreadwind's blaster can be mounted under either wing or you can use the same port on the top of the jet the armor piece uses and mount the gun there. I don't mind it underneath the wing, but he really needs two guns if you're going to do that in my opinion.

Hasbro continues the trend of including small cardboard cards of the characters, but this time there are 12 different versions of the cards for each character! Each Prime Master is represented, in this case Megatronus. This will make it very difficult for some collectors (such as myself) that love the cards. This will also make it rather challenging for me to catalog all of these different card images as a part of the Transformers Bio Card Database. I'm gonna need plenty of help from the fandom and fellow collectors if I'm going to fill this area out.

All in all I'm very impressed with my first exposure to Hasbro's newest Transformers outing. Of course I'm axious to see what kind of changes Takara Tomy make to both the toys and the packaging, but this is a very sold release by Hasbro. It seems the MSRP has risen a few dollars to $16.99 USD with these deluxes, but as long as Hasbro delivers a good product I'm OK with the price.

Transformers Power of the Primes: Beachcomber

My look at Hasbro's newest line of Transformers, Power of the Primes rolls on with the Autobot geologist, Beachcomber.

The packaging is your (now) standard far for this size/price point (MSRP is still $9.99) with character art on the top and a black bar down the side; featuring the Transformers name in large, bold red letters.

The really isn't much of a bio anymore, which is really sad, so the back of the packaging is pretty bland. We do get two product shots of the toy as well as a blurb that a Prime Master figure can actually sit inside Beachcomber's vehicle mode.

The original Generation 1 toy of Beachcomber was always a favorite of mine growing up. Originally a minibot, this updated version does a great job capturing all of the features that made the original toy so great. After having a few on hands moments with this mold and I can honestly say there isn't much I'd change. The porportions all seem good, colors are spot on and the level of articulation for such a small robot is impressive. 

Beachcomber features both ball joints as well as swivel joints so you have the freedom to pose him in many different ways. He doesn't have a waist swivel due to his transformation, but I think most will be pleased overall with the articulation.

Transformation to his vehicle mode is straight forward and pretty easy to pull off. Other than the rollbar cage, he pretty much transformers just as his G1 toy. Flip up the legs to form the front part of the dune buggy, collapse the body to hide the head, fold up the pieces of the rollbar cage and snap the arms on each side.

Beachcomber's vehicle mode looks fantastic. From the rigid tires to the suspension and the exposed engine, he has a much more authentic looking dine buggy mode when compared to his original G1 toy. I don't care for how the front wheels look with the exposed blue plastic in the center, but the rest is so great I can overlook this.

Some may not care for the exposed "hole" on the back of the vehicle. Since it's on the back it doesn't bother me, but it would be nice if there was a small door or something that covered this cavity.

The underside if the vehicle does a pretty good job at hiding his robot bits. Yes, you see his hands exposed, but that really doesn't bother me.

Comparison time! As you can see there is no doubt the designers wanted to keep to the original toy as much as possible. The color of the blue plastic is spot on, though the gray plastic is a shade lighter. The Power of the Primes figure is larger, but that is to accompany a Prime Master (or Titan Master) figure. I do apologize that I forgot to photograph this feature. My only grip when looking at these two side by side is that I wish the rollbar cage was black to match the G1 toy. Other than that, I love the homage.

All of my praise carries over to the robot mode as well. From the chest, to the duplicated detail of the stickers on the G1 toy. The designers nailed it. Beachcomber's headscuplt is great. I love the squared "hood" around his head and the silver visor. The one area that was changed was he was given a proper nose and mouth whereas the G1 toy had more of a mouth plate. Mix in the increased articulation and you've got yourself a great Transformer.

Most of the first wave of Power of the Prime toys are starting to hit brick and mortar stores now. Walmart stores currently have "stocking stuffer" displays that contain the first wave of scout class figures (Slash, Windcharger and Skrapnel) and I believe Amazon.com will start shipping/selling the toys on the 15th of December. If you are a fan of the G1 line, Hasbro has done a great job updating many of the classic characters including Beachcomber. He's a solid A in my book.