Transformers: Adventure - Psychobat TMC-06

Hasbro and Takara Tomy decided to do a little something with Mini-Cons in their Robot in Disguise (2015) / Adventure series. Instead of just being smaller robots that could aid other Transformers they transformed into various projectile like objects. Think cassettes with Blaster and Soundwave from the original G1 era, the Mini-Con toys interacted with larger Deployer toys such as Fracture. These new Mini-Cons came in various shapes, such as discs, round spheres or torpedos. Psychobat falls in the latter category.

Mini-Cons in the Adventure series came packaged in small window like boxes. Takara Tomy always did package their TFs in cooler packaging than what we received in the West courtesy of Hasbro...at least in my opinion. This packaging allows you to see the actual toy along with the Energon armor bits in the rear.

On the rear of the packaging you get some simple transformation instructions, along with a view of the Energon armor bits and how you can attach them to the figure itself. I believe there is a bio/tech spec of sorts in the blue box, but since I can't read the language this is just an educated guess.

Windra is based on the Robots in Disguise toy Ratbat. Outside of the obvious color change, a clear 5mm port was added. This port allows Psychobat to be attached to other toys or even to be wielded by another Transformer.

In traditional Takara fashion there are more paint applications to the toy than the US version. Psychobat's colors resemble Ratbat's G1 self more so than the toy named Ratbat. Personally I like the light purple more than the maroon that was used on the US release.

Psychobat's alternate mode is a torpedo shape. These type Mini-Cons I feel are the idea versions for the deployer version of Fracture. Not only do these Mini-Cons look great when inserted into the spring loaded launcher, they also seem to launch better.

Like other Mini-Cons, the torpedo shape has an auto-transformation basically. Pull out on each side and you're done. Overall this design does a good job at concealing the robot bits.

The Energon armor bits come attached to a faction shaped symbol. The parts are attached via small plastic sprues. For the older Transformer collectors this harkens back to the days of the original TF toys where accessories had to be removed from little plastic "trees".

In addition to the new deco Psychobat received overseas, so did the color of his Energon weapons.

Some of the Micron/Mini-Con Energon armor bits look good when attached to the toy, but in my opinion this isn't one of those. The armor looks constricting on the toy and doesn't do much in the way of offense like some of the others. I don't care for the armor pieces for any of these Mini-Cons, but if you disagree with me that's alright too.

When the Transformer Adventure Mini-Cons were originally released in Japan they were affordable to import. On the secondary market (at the time of this post) the prices seem to be all over the board, even from Japanese sellers. I used to be a super collector of Mini-Con/Micron toys and that mentality re-surfaced when I learned that the Japanese version of the RID toys would feature different decos. These are fun little toys and I love the new characters and I enjoy them, but your mileage may vary.

Transformers Cyberverse: Sky-Byte & Driller Drive

The Transformers Cyberverse line of toys seemed to start off a little flat in my opinion. The designs of core characters such as Bumblebee took design elements from other iterations of the character, but put a new "kid friendly" spin on things. Initially I dismissed most of the gimmick filled releases and focused more on the Transformers War for Cybertron: Siege series instead.

As later waves of figures begin to hit store shelves, I started to pay the series a little more attention, starting with Shockwave. Suddenly Cyberverse began to at least gain my attention. More and more classic characters were starting to be introduced into the series. While they all had a twist on their look, many of these classic characters were modeled after their Generation 1 (G1) selves that I grew up with.

The most recent wave of Cyberverse toys includes characters from other "universes" such as Cheetor from Beast Wars / Beast Machines appeared, followed by Sky-Byte from the Robots in Disguise universe. When I first saw these images solicated online I didn't know what to think of them. Silly maybe? Out there? Creative? Maybe a little of all of the above? When I finally found the Spark Armor releases at retail I just stared at them. I looked them over and over and before you knew it I was headed to the checkout with several in my hands.

While I never liked the Transmetal 2 Cybershark mold that Sky-Byte's RID toy was based on, I loved the goofy character he was portrayed as in the animation. The more I stared at Sky-Byte in the store the more I became intrigued with this toy. Sky-Byte comes packaged on a blister card and retails for $14.99. Starscream, Prowl and Jetfire are his wave mates.

Hasbro has used so many terms to describe their various size points of Transformer toys that I don't even know what this size toy is called. It's smaller than a standard deluxe scale figure, but a little bigger than the old basic size. For me it's the perfect size of figure to fiddle around with. In fact, he became my desk-bot for several weeks after opening him for this post.

Sky-Byte resembles his Robots in Disguise self pretty good. While not as big or detailed as his original toy, there is no mistake who this character is. This size Spark Armor toys are a little more simplified than some of the other larger releases, but that doesn't mean the toy doesn't pack a punch. The design is simple, but gets the job done. Paint applications are limited, but well applied. Articulation is much better than I anticipated as well. There are hollow parts on the toy, but that is the new norm when it comes to Hasbro.

Transformation into shark mode only takes a handful of steps (10) before you are done. I was able to go between the two forms rather easily without the use of the instructions. In shark mode Sky-Byte resembles a submarine more than a cyber-shark. Actually I love this new look.

One of my pet peeves is when you can see the robot parts or kibble in the alternate mode, especially the robot head. The designers did a good job at concealing most of the robot parts in shark mode. Here on the bottom you can make out the robot's waist and legs, but they are glaringly noticeable. 

Sky-Byte's Spark Armor is Driller Drive. While I've not yet watched any of the Cyberverse animation, I'm going to assume these armor pieces like Driller Drive are not sentient robots and just weapons. My first impression of this piece upon pulling it out of the packaging was it immediately reminded me of Bandai's Machine Robo Mugenbine toys. If you're not familiar with Mugenbine, those were transformable toys that had a core robot that could form a cube and all of the included pieces could be assembled with the core robot to form various animals, vehicles and more.

Sadly the wheels and drill piece on Driller Drive do not move. In fact you can't do much with Driller Drive on it's own other than to use your imagination. However his real purpose is to form a set of battle armor (or Spark armor) for Sky-Byte.

Driller Drive easily separates into a few pieces, mainly the drill piece, each side of the drill vehicle and the center portion. The two side pieces simply attach to the sides of the upper arm, while the center portion folds in half to reveal the battle helmet. This piece fits over top of Sky-Byte to form armor for the chest and back. The drill piece can be wielded using the attached 5mm peg.

While I've only opened one other Spark Armor release, it seems as if the battle helmets all have some sort of theme that matches the main character. In this case the battle helmet has a fish motif...fitting for Sky-Byte. I like the look of the helmet, even though the Sky-Byte's actual face sets back in the helmet and makes it a little hard to see his face.

Here you can see Sky-Byte compared to a Legends class Sharkticon from Titans Return. While the figure is small, it's a fun release. I know the Cyberverse series isn't aimed at me, but this toy has reminded me that it's OK if my Transformer isn't super detailed or super articulated. Toys are meant to be fun and if I was a kid I would be all over this toy as well as others I've seen in the series.

Transformers Robots in Disguise: Drink & Play

The Transformers license has been a popular license and has been used on a plethora of items since the 80's. However a cross branded apple flavored water kids drink is something that I would have never expected to find.

During the mid 2010's when the Transformers: Robots in Disguise cartoon was being aired, I found these kids drinks at my local Food Lion grocery store. Normally I would have snickered at the thought and carried on about my business, however these had a yellow capsule attached (more like embedded) into the bottle and it advertised a toy inside. Wait...what?! Seriously? Well you know I just had to check them out and when I decided to pull the trigger I happened to find them on sale and I was able to find all 5 different character bottles.

These plastic bottles housed 10 fluid ounces of apple flavored spring water. I never tried the water, but one of my daughters did and she said it didn't taste that great. Oh well, we're not here for water...we're here for toys! I originally thought the yellow capsule was just attached to the bottle by the character wrap, but it turned out that the bottle had a concave area where the capsule rested. My only clue as to what the "surprise toy" inside was the little circle on the packaging that showed a small (PVC I suspected) figure of Sideswipe and Strongarm.

To get to the capsule the character wrap around the bottle had to be removed. I started with the Optimus Prime bottle and inside was the female Autobot, Strongarm. These were in fact small PVC figures. This one I actually had to attach the arms to, though I believe the glue must have been weak as the other 4 I opened were intact inside their capsules.

The plastic used was softer than your typical PVC figure. The paint apps were rather sloppy too in certain places, however the fact that some of the figures contained multiple colors was a little surprising to me.

 

The figures themselves stood around 1 1/2 inches tall. Grimlock obviously had more heft than Sideswipe or Strongarm. None of the figures are articulated. I should also mention that inside the capsule was a small "catalog" that also showed pencil toppers being available. Whether or not they were randomly included in these same capsules I don't know.

These are fun little novelty toys and a must for die-hard Transformer RID fans. If you're looking for a set now I would start my search on eBay. I have no idea how long these were on store shelves or if they were offered across the US or released outside of the US.

Displayed with a Legends scale Robots in Disguise Bumblebee

Transformers: Adventure - Windra TMC-05

Hasbro and Takara Tomy decided to do a little something with Mini-Cons in their Robot in Disguise (2015) / Adventure series. Instead of just being smaller robots that could aid other Transformers they transformed into various projectile like objects. Think cassettes with Blaster and Soundwave from the original G1 era, the Mini-Con toys interacted with larger Deployer toys such as Fracture. These new Mini-Cons came in various shapes, such as discs, round spheres or torpedos. Windra falls in the latter category.

Mini-Cons in the Adventure series came packaged in small window like boxes. Takara Tomy always did package their TFs in cooler packaging than what we received in the West courtesy of Hasbro...at least in my opinion. This packaging allows you to see the actual toy along with the Energon armor bits in the rear.

On the rear of the packaging you get some simple transformation instructions, along with a view of the Energon armor bits and how you can attach them to the figure itself. I believe there is a bio/tech spec of sorts in the blue box, but since I can't read the language this is just an educated guess.

Windra is based on the Robots in Disguise toy Dragonus. Outside of the obvious color change, a clear 5mm port was added to the tip of the tail. This allows Windra to be attached to other toys or even be wielded by another Transformer.

In traditional Takara fashion there are more paint applications to the toy than the US version. Whether or not the pink, blue and metallic purple of Windra appeal to you more than the neon green and bronze of Dragonus is up to you. Personally, I love the new colors and was excited to add Windra to my Mini-Con collection.

Windra's alternate mode is a torpedo shape. These type Mini-Cons I feel are the idea versions for the deployer version of Fracture. Not only do these Mini-Cons look great when inserted into the spring loaded launcher, they also seem to launch better.

Like other Mini-Cons, the torpedo shape has an auto-transformation basically. Pull out on each side and you're done. Overall this design does a good job at concealing the robot bits. Flip it over however and you can see the feet and the tail. Look underneath the tail and you can see the dragon head.

The Energon armor bits come attached to a faction shaped symbol. The parts are attached via small plastic sprues. For the older Transformer collectors this harkens back to the days of the original TF toys where accessories had to be removed from little plastic "trees".

As I was getting ready to create this post I realized that when I took these photos (which was awhile ago) I realized that I didn't have any photos with the armor bits attached. I almost scrapped this post entirely since it's "incomplete", but instead I'll just borror a pic from the TF Wiki instead!

I like the little helmet piece and gun that attaches to the back. The wings get axe like pieces while the feet get longer talon attachments. I really like the look of the figure with these Energon attachments and in part reminds me of certain toys from the Transformers Energon line.

When the Transformer Adventure Mini-Cons were originally released in Japan they were affordable to import. On the secondary market (at the time of this post) they can be purchased from Japanese sellers for less than $15 shipped. More than I paid, but not too bad. I used to be a super collector of Mini-Con/Micron toys and that mentality re-surfaced when I learned that the Japanese version of the RID toys would feature different decos. These are fun little toys and I love the new characters and I enjoy them, but your mileage may vary.

Transformers: Adventure - Jeffrey Prime

I think it's fair to say that both the toy series and the animated television show follow up to Transformers Prime took the series in a different direction. Transformers Robots in Disguise (known as Transformers: Adventure in Japan) blazed it's own path with a more cartoony, light hearted approach. While I admit it took awhile for the animated show to appeal to me, I was intrigued by the toys from day one. While it was a departure from the what was then considered the norm, I liked the idea of the Decepticons having animal characteristics and traits. I like different and different doesn't always have to be bad. I was happy to see Hasbro trying something different, like they did with Animated years earlier. It didn't appeal to everyone, but that rarely happens anyhow. Just take G1 vs. Beast Wars or G1 vs. "Bayformers"...you get the picture. Rarely do Transformers fans ever agree on anything.

For the longest time Takara (now Takara Tomy) gave their line of Transformers that extra special detail that made their figures stand out against what pretty much everyone else in the world got. For this reason I and may others would import these figures at a premium versus buying the Hasbro versions at local retail. I ended up importing a good chunk of the Adventures series for this very reason, but even if you didn't care for the changes Takara Tomy made or had the income to import them there would occasionally be that one exclusive that would make (some) people open their wallets. For the longest time it was the black repaint of Convoy/Optimus Prime, but with the Adventures line Takara Tomy teamed up with the retail giant, Toys 'R Us for not only one release, but two different releases of a "new" character, affectionately known as Jeffrey Prime.

Jeffrey Prime as you can see is a take off the Toys 'R Us mascot, Jeffrey the giraffe. Takara Tomy used the deluxe class Optimus Prime mold as the base and gave him the "TRU treatment". He was also given a very cool translucent orange Energon axe weapon. Like with all Japanese Transformers, he was given the designate # TAV-EX noting his exclusivity. Jeffrey Prime was released later in the Adventures series, which you can tell by the Prime of Micron subtitle. Unfortunately I've never been able to find a translation of his profile as pictured on the back of the blister card.

At first I wasn't thrilled with this mold as Optimus Prime. I loved the legends class version of the mold, but the deluxe class took a while before I came to appreciate what it had to offer. Most of my opinion is based on the alt mode, but the robot mode itself is pretty good. 

Like with most modern Transformers the articulation is very good. All the limbs are connected with ball and socket joints, giving him fluid movement. By the time Jeffrey Prime was released this mold had already been used several times by both Hasbro and Takara Tomy, however I didn't notice and mold degradation.

The color scheme used is obviously Toys 'R Us colors, mixed in with yellow for Jeffrey the giraffe. They did a great job on the legs and feet giving it the look of a giraffe. What I didn't notice at first however are his orange spots are actually little stars. My only gripe with this mode is the inclusion of stickers on this red and green shoulders. It would have been nice if those designs could have been tampographed to the actual toy. Stickers are so 80s/90s!

The only accessory packaged with Jeffrey Prime is this large translucent orange Energon axe. This axe was included with several different versions of Optimus Prime and even the Adventure exclusive Nemesis Prime, however those versions didn't include the extension handle to make the axe longer. I like the look personally of the longer axe and I'm glad this extra piece was included.

Previously I mentioned having some issues with the alternate mode of this toy and I think you may be able to see why. The vehicle is missing the rear portion of the cab and exposes the hips of the robot. I can almost see an inch worm when I look at this vehicle from the side! Angled the toy does look a little better, but it's still not one of my favorite toys of Prime.

Here in this mode the stickers used on his shoulders are exposed as well. Thankfully they don't encounter any friction with other pieces of plastic during the transformation so the stickers should hold up for a long time...or at least that's what I'm hoping. I was a little surprised there weren't more paint apps on this toys, especially to the areas of the alt mode like the front bumper, headlights or even the wheels. I think those small changes would have really popped and helped the overall look of the alt mode.

Released around the same time in the Adventure line was an EZ Collection version of Jeffrey Prime, simply known as Toys 'R Us Prime. Outside of the differences in the mold used, there are plenty of similarities between the two toys. The one glaring difference however is the color of the cab. While the deluxe version retained the red of Optimus Prime, the legends version keeps the yellow/orange color throughout. Personally I'll take either version as they both look cool in my book.

In robot mode both toys share more of the same look overall, though there are still some minor paint differences that can be seen. The legends version is missing the white paint on the forearms and some yellow trim to the head. The other changes are based on the mold differences between the two toys.

Overall Jeffrey Prime is a fun toy (both versions) and one that I was glad I decided to import. Prices to this day still aren't too bad, with current listings online hovering in the $35-40 range. I'd say it's for completionists or die hard Toys 'R Us fans only however. Looking back at these photos that I took some time ago is a little bittersweet since TRU stores closed in the US, however it also serves as a good reminder of what once was and evokes plenty of childhood memories.