Transformers DOTM: Decepticon Vortex (Takara Tomy)

QUICK INFO: 

Name: Decepticon Vortex (DD-06)

Line: Transformers Dark of the Moon (Takara Tomy)
MSRP: unknown (yen)
Year: 2011

Bio:

Vortex is the aerial soldier of Decepticon.  As he has ruthless and brutal nature, his ultimate pleasure is the chop up the Autobot he captures.

Strength:  4  Intelligence:  9  Speed:  6  Endurance:  5

Rank:  6  Courage:  7  Fireblast:  7  Skill:  8

Vortex is one of two exclusive Dark of the Moon deluxe figures (Air Raid was the other) that was announced for the Japanese market only.  When images first surfaced on the internet a lot of people immediately spotted the G1 Combaticon Vortex resemblance.  Most online retailers quickly sold out their pre-orders shortly after they went live.  Is it worth tracking this figure down?  Read on...

 

Decepticon Vortex is a repaint/retool of the Hunt for the Decepticons Tomahawk.  This was one of the better new molds released in the HFTD line so I was thrilled to see it being reused.  You may have also noticed that Vortex sports a new head sculpt as well.  The MechTech gimmick is present as well, but we'll look at that later.  Most of the Japanese versions of the DOTM toys come packaged with a type of gaming card.  Not sure how all of that works, but as a card collector it is a nice bonus.








Even though Vortex ranks in with a 10 in intelligence one may not know that based on his simple bio.  To me the bio makes him out to be...well, stupid.  Another carry over from G1 Vortex is that his gun isn't just any gun...it's a glue gun!  I love when they pay attention to the small details such as this.














Vortex is a beautiful shade of gray with splashes of purple and turquoise.  I'm not sure what real life helicopter he is modeled after, but it is one of the more realistic combat helicopters I've seen used in the Transformers line recently.  The plastic used for the propellers is fairly rigid letting them spin freely.  Right out of the package the propellers are straight and stiff and I hope they stay that way.  I hate saggy propellers!





The designers did a pretty good job hiding a lot of the robot kibble.  You can see two ports underneath the "wings" on each side.  Tomahawk came with 2 missile launchers.  Vortex only has his MechTech glue gun which can be attached in either of these ports.

I love the robot mode and how well all of the colors come together.  The helicopter's tail fins form a nice bladed weapon mounted on his right forearm.

 

The MechTech glue gun is OK.  I'm not a huge fan of the gimmick, but at least the weapon works better than the last one I got (Walmart exclusive Optimus Prime deluxe).  When you pull back the lever the sides of the gun extend to make the gun larger.  The lever sadly doesn't lock into place however.  Boo.

Armed and ready!

 

The included card is part of some type of collectible card game.  Most of the DOTM toys in Japan come packaged with an exclusive card.  I think there is a stand alone card game as well.

Included with the card is a clear translucent overlay with the MechTech weapon.  It reminds me of the smaller cards that came packaged with the Iron Man 2 action figures.

Lay the translucent piece over the card and now your Transformer is armed with that MechTech weapon.  The instructions show you can use this overlay on any character's card.

Dark of the Moon on the movie front was awesome.  Hands down the best of the trilogy.  On the toy front I've been impressed with a few, but underwhelmed overall.  While there are a few jewels to be had most of the domestically released toys just aren't worth my hard earned money.  Vortex however is an exception.  I jumped on one of those early pre-orders from the fine folks at Captured Prey and I don't regret my purchase what so ever.  This figure is fantastic...whether you plan to display him on your Classics/Generations Decepticon shelf or as your first DOTM toy.  Don't let the movie packaging throw you off.  It's a great toy that just happens to be stuck in movie-verse packaging.  If you can score him for $30-35 pull the trigger.  I don't know how readily available he'll be long term so if you have the chance to pick him up do it.

LEGO #7049 Alien Striker (Alien Conquest)

QUICK INFO:

Name: Alien Striker #7049

Line: LEGO Alien Conquest

Year: July 2011

Price: $4.99

LEGO sure doesn't seem to be running out of ideas for new themes.  When I was growing up it seemed so much simpler.  You had the Town/City theme, Castle and Space themes.  Now there are a smattering of different themes to choose from.  I generally don't pay many of them much attention other than a passing glance at the store, but I picked up the Alien Striker set on impulse and I have to say the whole alien invasion theme here works and is really cool.

For 5 bucks you get 2 great minifigures and a decent little vehicle.  With only 42 total pieces you'll have this set built in just a few minutes.

The minifigures are great!  The ADU (Alien Defense Unit) sports a helmet sculpt I haven't seen used in the past.  The visor fits down inside a recessed area so it doesn't flip up like on most of the helmets.  The included blaster weapon is a welcomed sight.  The ADU agent has one of the heads allowing you to display 2 different faces..."concerned" or "aggressive".  The alien figure...well...is awesome.  I liked the bug eyed alien figures that were in some of the Space Police sets and this fat head alien is just as cool.  I also love the shade of neon green used here.



I guess you call this little vehicle the Striker or Alien Striker.  It's essentially a small one seat skiff.  Nothing fancy, but it gets the job done.



The one thing that keeps me from buying more LEGO sets is the price.  Let's face it LEGO toys aren't cheap and they rarely get clearanced.  If I can't find a good sale I usually pass over.  However it's refreshing to find cheaper sets such as this one that gives you a good bit of bang for your buck.  $5 for an entertaining toy is a good deal in my book.  I hope this theme catches on as I'd love to see what else they may have planned.

Wizards of the Coast Transformers: Energon Wars 3D Battle-Card Game

When Hasbro bought the Wizards of the Coast trading card company they got into the collectible trading card game market using their Transformers and G.I. Joe properties.  I thought the Joe cards/game were really well done, but the idea of cards that you punch out pieces to build robots to play the game just doesn't work for me.  I bought one pack in early 2007 before the first live action Transformers movie was released.  I didn't care for the gimmick so I just filed the cards away and forget about them.

Recently I've been seeing the Energon Wars packs in the $.99 discount bin @ my local Target stores so I grabbed a pack to see if anything changed.  It looks like they implemented a few new game play ideas, but the premise is the same.  Let's take a look inside one of these thick trading card packs.

From what I can tell the packs come in 2 varieties - G1 Starscream (pictured above) and G1 Inferno.

The aforementioned Inferno graces the folded up instruction booklet.

When playing the game the objective is to eliminate your opponent's HP.  First player to do so wins.  Each player starts off using their vehicular mode.  There are 3 possible attacks to choose from - red, green or blue. Each character comes with it's on stat card that lists the HP for each form as well as it's attacks.

 

Each player has small tokens that correspond to the colors of the attacks.  Each player chooses one color/attack and reveals them at the same time.  On your player's stat card is an attack color.  If this color matches the color attack your opponent selected then damage is done to your character.  The stat card will tell you how much damage you received.  The game is played in rounds until someone's HP reaches 0.

 
#1 Blurr (uncommon)

The number in the upper left corner is that form's HP.  Listed in the middle are the color coded attacks and the damage they do.  The points in the lower right corner are only used in multi-figure battles.


 
#1 Blurr

The Transformers come on 2 cards.  These double sided cards feature the vehicular parts on one side while the robot parts are on the other side.  Once you punch them out you can assemble either the vehicle or robot mode.

 
#21 Ramjet (common)

 
 
#21 Ramjet

If you know anything about Transformers you'll notice that not all of the characters in the game are of their Generation One (G1) form.  Blurr is taken from the Cybertron series while Ramjet is from the Classics line.  There are a total of 26 characters with random levels of scarcity.

AUTOBOTS:  Blurr (uncommon), Cheetor (common), Classic Bumblebee (rare), Grimlock (rare), Hot Rod (uncommon), Inferno (rare), Optimus Primal (rare), Prowl (uncommon), Side Swipe (uncommon), Skids (common), Trailbreaker (common), Warpath (common), Whirl (rare)

DECEPTICONS:  Blackjack (common), Blitzwing (uncommon), Classic Bonecrusher (rare), Classic Starscream (rare), Cruellock (common), Predacon Megatron (rare), Quickstrike (rare), Ramjet (common), Rampage (common), Ravage (uncommon), Sky Lynx (uncommon), Skywarp (uncommon), Vortex (uncommon)

Some of the character selections are really surprising.  Hasbro pulled from a lot of different Transformers series such as Beast Wars, Armada, Energon, Cybertron and Classics.  For example:  Cheetor is the Beast Wars Transmetal 2 version, Side Swipe is the horrible Armada version, Skids I have no idea!  For the Decepticons Blackjack is also a mystery to me as to what series he is from.  Blitzwing looks more like the G1 Targetmaster Quake to me.  Cruellock is from Energon.  Nice to see Quickstrike from Beast Wars included.  Sky Lynx I believe was a Mini-Con from the Cybertron line.

For more info and pictures of the characters visit http://www.wizards.com/transformers/

Since I'm more of a card collector than I am a collectible card player I don't plan on assembling these cards.  Besides, it'll be easier to store them un-assembled.  I'm guessing these didn't go over or sell very well since packs can now be had for $.99 each.  It's a novel idea I suppose, but the execution falls really short.

Transformers 2006 Dairycon Exclusive Flatfoot

QUICK INFO:
Name: Flatfoot
Line: Dairycon Exclusive
Year: 2006
Price: unknown

Function:  Law Enforcement

" Thank you for your cooperation. "

A no-nonsense, strictly by-the-book fellow. Has the entire Cybertronian Codex committed to memory. One of the very few Transformers who hates change. Commands respect in any situation. In vehicle mode, lights and sirens cause disorientation in his enemies. Armed with a semi-automatic laser pistol and a CO2 shotgun. In beast-mode, sensors allow him unprecedented ability to track his opponents. Eyes can fire 9mm lazer bullets. In robot-mode, equipped with an electromagnetic shield, and energon-cuffs.

Profile: "Freeze, lawbreaker!" are usually the first words out of Flatfoot's mouth. A no-nonsense, strictly by-the-book fellow. Has the entire Cybertonain Codex committed to memory. A true law-man's law-man. Despite this, Flatfoot is, by all accounts, an enigma. He is one of the very few Transformers who hates change. This can most likely be attributed to his forced 'transformation' from a vehicle alt mode (a changeform style which, ironically, was stolen by Bailjumper to commit crimes at The Leader's discretion) to his current Beast form. Refusing further change until his vehicle form is restored, Flatfoot prefers to remain in his animal mode. As a former Autobot Patrolman (and rumored member of the Cobalt Sentries) he continues to serve the cause and protect in his role as advisor to Bunny Convoy, offering advice and wisdom when needed. Unflappable calm. When others lose their way, Flatfoot is there to steer them back in the right direction. Commands respect in any situation.

Abilities: Sensors pick up the weakest radio transmission. Constantly tuned in to the police bands so that he can rapidly deploy to the trouble spots. In vehicle mode, lights and sirens cause disorientation in his enemies. Armed with a semi-automatic laser pistol and a CO2 shotgun. In beast-mode, sensors allow him unprecedented ability to track his opponents. Eyes can fire 9mm lazer bullets. In robot-mode, equipped with an electromagnetic shield, and energon-cuffs.

Weaknesses: Sometimes overlooks the big picture in his efforts to enforce the smallest rule. Easily upset by human youth, especially in their wild defiance of any authority. Has been vandalized more than once while giving a lecture to inner-city ruffians. He once stopped mid-speech to find that he was up on blocks with his engine and tires missing. Flatfoot doesn't feel he can best serve the cause in his current beast configuration. He longs for his previous vehicle-mode. Is resentful for having been maximized; this interferes with his normally even-handed judgement.

Strength: 8 Intelligence: 4 Speed: 7 Endurance: 7

Rank: 5 Courage: 9 Firepower: 7 Skill: 6

I am a fan of most of the creative and awesome exclusive creations that come out of the annual Dairycon Transformers convention...with the Spychangers being some of my favorite. The thing about these exclusives are they are severely limited and hard to come across on the secondary market. I don't remember when I got Flatfoot, but I do remember being extremely excited about adding my 3rd Dairycon Spychanger to my collection.

Flatfoot came packaged in a small mystery box. What I mean by that is you didn't know which Flatfoot figure you were getting. Was it the repainted Robots in Disguise Prowl 2 Spychanger toy or the lame McDonald's Beast Wars Happy Meal toy of Panther? Thankfully I knew which figure I was getting! 

The small box held an inner tray that slid out to reveal the toy inside. In this case (thankfully) it was the Spychanger version!

Flatfoot is a simple "redeco" of the RID toy Prowl 2. I'll admit that I'm really biased when it comes to the Spychanger toys as I love them all and I think they are all worthy of owning. The Dairycon people really outdid themselves with this particular toy. The new stickers they made for the hood, doors, windows and rear spoiler are excellent. If I didn't know better I might think this was a mass produced toy. Most of the toy in vehicle mode is unchanged besides the new stickers.

I love the Dairycon cow logo on the police shield! It just gives the toy even more character.

I was glad to see they chose to keep the gun as part of the toy. One of the best things about the last few Spychanger toys Hasbro made were the molds that allowed the weapon to be stowed underneath the vehicle...as with this mold. If you are familiar with these toys then there isn't much new here, except the paint added to the robot's face.

Awesome! The blue paint wasn't as carefully applied as the red, but I'm not complaining. This is another great touch they added to an already cool toy. The blue/red eyes on this toy reminded me of one of the Playskool Go-Bots toys, Cop-Bot as he too had light bar colored eyes.

I keep browsing the various Transformers message boards and occasionally eBay looking for one of the last of the Dairycon exclusive Spychangers (Bailjumper from 2005), but so far no luck what so ever.  If I ever find myself in Wisconsin around the time of a Dairycon convention being held I will find away to attend as I find their humor, stories and exclusives toys very entertaining.