Wednesday, February 29, 2012

TFCC Over-Run aka Runabout

Hey guys, here again with a review of the Transformers Collector's Club exclusive

Over-Run aka Runabout

We are gonna be calling him Runabout for the rest of the review because thats the name of the character. The figure has been named Over-Run due to TFCC being unable to licence the name Runabout. Anyway, Runabout is one half of a Decepticon team known as the Battlechargers. Like any of the TFCC exclusives, Runabout is a repaint of a past Transformers figure, this case being Generations Wheeljack, with a new head. The choice to use the Wheeljack body was a very good one. This particular mold is very reminicent of Runabout's G1 figure which was a small car that quickly unfolded into a small robot.


Runabout come packaged in a thick collector's box with artwork featuring Runabout and his running buddy Runamuck on the Statue of Liberty. This artwork is a nod to the issue of the Marvel Comics Transformers that featured the Battlechargers on the cover. Inside the box is a foam insert capable of holding not only Runabout but also Runamuck aswell. There is a special hidden cutout in the foam insert that can be removed leaving an opening for Runamuck. Since Runamuck has yet to be released, I'm using Wheeljack to demonstrate.Runabout also had a biocard you help you understand Runabout better.




As I mentioned earlier, Runabout is a repaint of Generations Wheeljack with a newly sculpted head. His paintjob is metallic black with red detailing. On his chest you can see he has a thermal rubsign like the ones used in the Reveal the Shield line. This is another nod to the G1 figure who had a rubsign in the same place. This guy has 20 points of articulation in the head, shoulders, bicep, doublejointed elbows, wrists, waist, hips, knees, ankles, toes, and heels. His large feet make standing a breeze but the way the heels are articulated may have a negative impact on more dynamic poses. The weapons he comes with are 2 shoulder mounted cannons and a hand blaster, all of which store easily in the vehicle mode. The hand blaster also has a clip that can be placed where the shoulder cannons go so you can substitue either cannon for his blaster.


Vehicle mode is quite a site to behold. Runabout is a gourgious sports car with red tinted windows and a Decepticon logo blazened on his hood to show he dosn't ever play nice. The paint apps are placed on beautifully, even better that some of TFCC's past releases. He also rolls nicely and the wheels feel well alligned.


When looking at Runabout next to Wheeljack and Tracks, you can see what a difference a paintjob can really make. Runabouts paint scheme gives him a unique personality and really sets him apart from his mold mates. Looking at Runabout and Wheeljack together also better shows the different ways they can display thier weapons.


Overall, Runabout is a great addition to any Classics collection, and Club members have a lot to look forward to when his partner in crime Runamuck comes thier way. Runabout is currently sold out at the TFCC store so you'll have to go through other online shops like tfsource.com or bigbadtoystore.com to get a hold of him. Sadly you should expect a very high price point for this guy but he will be very well worth it. Take care all.

Friday, February 24, 2012

Transformers Prime First Edition part 2



Hey guys, figured its time to finish our look at the US releases for the Transformers Prime First Edition series. As you may remember, earlier we looked at the Comic Con exclusives for the TF Prime series. This week we will be taking a look at the 3 figures that made retail at Toys R Us last December. So lets get this started with....

Arcee

I mentioned before that Arcee was my 2nd favorite of the TF Prime figures so far. Her sculpt is beautiful and mostly show accurate. She has enough posability to pull off some awsome action poses and look real good doing them. This version has the blue paintjob that is seen on the Transformers Prime TV show. She is mostly metallic blue and black with silver and metallic rose detailing. One inaccuracy in the figure's paintjob is in her all black forearms. They are supposed to be blue with silver fingers and metallic rose detail much like the rest of her body is. Her biggest flaw is in her scale with the others, shes too tall. Arcee stands taller than the other Autobots even though shes the shortest bot on the TV show. Even with that scale issue, Arcee is a beauty.


Arcee's cycle mode is a pretty sweet looking ride. I like the blue and black colors as opposed to the pink and white of the NYCC version. She rolls very well and the blade weapons do a good job keeping her standing when they are atteched. Arcee also has a kickstand incase youd rather have her without the kickstand.


Compared to the NYCC version, its almost like these are 2 different characters. It's hard to say which one I like best but blue wins out in the end.

Bumblebee

A lot of what I had to say about Bumblebee was covered in the review of the NYCC version. The sculpt is done very well and is articulated enough to get a nice range of poses. This version of Bee is a brighter yellow than the NYCC version with black detailing. He sports thinner stripes this time around but also has some on the roof of his car mode. Best part is that the less cloudy translucent blue plastic used for the windows and eyes enable some very good light piping, those baby blues glow like nobody's business. Another bonus is that if you have both the NYCC and regular versions of FE Bumblebee, you can give both guns to the Bee of your choice and have him dual weild. Not a bad lil reward for getting them both.


Unlike Arcee, the differences between Bumblebee's NYCC and regular versions are rather vague. The differences are noticable, but not nearly as drastic as Arcee's. Fans of the TF movies may be inclined to like the NYCC verson better due to how close the paintjub resembles Bee's movie form. I prefer the regular version though, just cause im bigger on the series than the movies.


Starscream

Ok I saved the best for last. The #1 backstabber of the Transformers Universe happens to have the #1 figure of the US First Edition line. Starsceam's TF Prime figure is as close to perfect as you can get. He looks like he just jumped out of the TV. The biggest knock i can take against him is that his head fin and missles arnt properly colored, and that can be solved with a red marker. He has a whopping 24 points of articulation at the head, shoulder, biceps, elbows, hinged forearms, hinged wrists, waist, hips, thighs, knees, ankles, and wings. Starscream just oozes personality, from his face all the way through his spindaly body and hunched back. He just feels almost alive.


Starscreams jet mode is surprisingly tiny, especially considering how big his robot mode is. It look very good but sadly his legs just sit on the bottom and are easily spotted. Even with that, the jet mode looks very nice and I'm just blown away by how well pulled off ol' Screamer was.


Now while this was all we got in the States for the First Edition series of Transformers Prime, most other contries got Cliffjumper, Bulkhead, Megatron, a Voyager Optimus and a Vehicon drone. It was a sad day when the news broke that Hasbro had no intention on giving us these figures, but hearing that they are going to look into it now gives me some hope. This will complete my look at the US releases for TF Primes's First Edition series, but I'm not done with TF Prime by a longshot. Hasbro has recently released thier mainline for the TF Prime series dubbed "Robots in Disguise", which is a familiar title to long time Transformers fans. Anyway I hope you liked this review and ill catch you guys another time. Later

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Voltron Classics: Red Lion and Lance

Hey guys, back again with a new review. Last week I started a review on the Transformers Prime First Edition figures. Part 2 of that review is still coming, but between then and now, something came in the mail. Something I had to review first, and that something is...

Voltron Classics: Lance and the Red Lion

I am a huge Voltron fan. It was my favorite show growing up, followed by Transformers, TMNT, Thundercats and others like them. So when Mattel announced last year that they were doing a Classics series for Voltron, I was jumping for joy. Ok so enough gushing, lets get to the toys, starting with Lance.


Lance come in a rather large size box with a window that clearly shows him, his alternate head and Lion Key stand, which may leave some people wondering why he is in such a big box and not a simple cardback. Turning the box around reveals that also included is a piece for a very big "collect and connect" Charged Blazing Sword. Three guesses who gets that sword when its completed. The back also shows some of the figures features and a little on his connection to the Red Lion, but we will get more into that later. It's easy to get Lance out of the box and just as easy to put him back inside for storage.


Out of the box, Lance looks really good. His paintjob is spot on with the old cartoon, very bright and vibrant. While I know the little white circles on his shoulders have been the center of a lot of controversy, I'm personally cool with them. Lance has a fair amount of articulation, having all the standard points, but his elbows and knees are a little lacking in thier range of motion. To add variety to his posing options, Lance has two alternate heads, one with and one without his helmet. Using an alternate head for the helmet is a great idea since it would be impossible to make a seperate helmet that looked good on the figure. Now lance dosnt have any weapons included with him, but he can easily use any extra GI Joe or Star Wars weapons you may have handy and given the Star Wars basic figures tend to come with a slew of extra accesories, getting Lance a gun should be rather easy.


Having Lance side to side with the vintage Panosh Place version really shows how far toys have come over the past 30 years. It also helps to illustrate how bad seperate helmets look of 3 3/4" figures. Putting him next to the Trendmasters 3rd Dimension Lance brings out a night and day difference until you get a good look as the face sculpts where there enough similarities to believe these are the same character. Again, seeing them together helps to show that evolution in figure design. Lastly, putting him with 3 3/4" figures from other lines shows how well Lance can fit in "combined world" toy displays. His scale actually goes best with the Star Wars figures, which is great cause I could see him stopping at the Mos Eisely Cantina after a tough mission.


As I mentioned earlier, Lance's box was a bit too big for him alone. Also included was the hilt for the "collect and connect" Charged Blazing Sword meant to be used but the 23" tall Voltron that we will be able to see at the end of the year. Oddly enough, the hilt is actually bigger than lance himself, infact I can hold the thing in my hand like the hilt of a small dagger. This only gets me more excited to see Voltron in all 23" of his glory. But to get to Voltron, we need to start with the Lions.


The Red Lion comes in a nice window box that clearly shows everything this figure has to offer. The back shows a couple of the features the Red Lion has aswell as how the lion works with to the Lance figure. The inner portion of the box comes out and can act as a display background and stand for the Red Lion. Im not sure if Mattel did this on purpose but either way its a nice way to display the lion until we can form Voltron.


Out of the box, the Red Lion look stunningly good. His colors are bright, vivid and mostly show accurate. Sculpt-wise, it looks like a supersized version of the original Matchbox toy from the 80's. Now when i say supersized, I mean SUPERSIZED. The Red Lion is as big as MOTUC's Battle Cat, He-Man can even ride the lion if you want him to. Seeing ths lion in hand will really give you an idea on how big Voltron will really be. Sadly the articulation is a bit lacking. Poor Red here is suffering from both Gestalt and Action Feature Syndrome, meaning his articulation has been hampered by quick transform action features and the fact that he was built to combine into Voltron. He has some posablility but you'll only be able to really hold standing poses and arm mode poses due to the springs in his legs. His only accessory is his Lion Sword, which easily fits into and stays in his mouth.


One of the coolest features of the Red Lion is that Lance can fit inside and man the cockpit. The cockpit is revealed by using the Lion Key included with Lance to open up the Red Lion's back. Lance can then be placed inside the lion and the back can be closed pretty easily. Other 3 3/4" figures can be placed in the cockpit but not all, for example certain other evil fighters wont be able to drive these robots.


When looking at the past forms of the Red Lion, its easy to see that Mattel took a hard look at both the original Matchbox version (mine here being the Trendmasters '97 reissue) and the Toynami Masterpiece edition when they were creating this gigantic new lion. The only thing it has in common with the Panosh Place lion is that they can both hold thier pilots.


Getting the Red Lion into arm mode is a simple task, just fold up the legs and tail, fold out the connection peg and you are all set. The arm mode is emormous, its actually as tall as G1 Predaking, and is barely shorter than the Masterpiece Voltron. It even looks big next to Unicron. Im going to take a wild guess and say that Voltron will be about as tall as G1 Fortress Maximus. Getting Red back into lion mode is easy aswell, there are two buttons on the lion, one on the lions rear and the other just below the neck. Simply pressing these buttons will spring the legs out and you can pose them so he can stand. The tail can be released by opening the hatch it is hidden in. This action feature is nice but I would have preffered better posablitiy to it.

All in all, The Red Lion is an outstanding figure, and so is Lance. Fans of Voltron will be very pleased to have both in thier collections and have a lot to look forward to this year. Lance and the Red Lion are sold out at Mattycollector.com, so you'll have to check eBay or Big Bad Toy Store if you want to get a hold of them now. Anyway, hope you enjoyed this review and ill see you later.