Received this in the mail recently.  I give Fun Publications credit where it’s due, they got this out early this year as they said they would.  Let’s see if they can do it again next year.  (I’m not holding my breath.)  Runamuck is made from the Transformers 2010 Generations Wheeljack mold with a new head.  In mold it’s identical to the club exclusive Runabout.  Can’t get my hands on Runabout at the moment, but they will look really nice on a shelf together.

Vehicle Mode

The colors on this toy look great.  The metallic gold stripes on the sides and the spoiler looks really nice.  Grill, headlights, taillights, front turn signals, and hubcaps are all painted and I love the dark tinted windows.

Robot Mode

In robot mode the color scheme adds orange and looks magnificent.  With Over-Run I thought he needed some paint details on his chest since the rub sign is black on black.  I like this much better.  Head sculpt is great, but could have used a little more paint.

Over all it’s a great toy and looks nice.

Thanks for reading!

First off, I want to say that I did not attend Botcon 2012.  I have been reading all the reviews on various sites and am not intending this to be a news post, but my thoughts on the news coming out of Botcon.  I’m skipping over a lot of the new toy info, since it’s all over the web and it’s hard to say much about a toy I’ve only seen in a couple of pictures.

Hasbro

Wheeljack was the 2012 Fan’s Choice Award winner and was inducted into the Transformers Hall of Fame along with Grimlock, Jazz, and Shockwave, all worthy choices for induction.  Of more importance, in my opinion, is that “The Fan’s Choice Award” is being renamed “The Hartman Award” in honor of Jon and Karl Hartman the brothers who started Botcon in 1994.  I suspect that many fans that haven’t been around since the days before Fun Publications and Glen Hallit (or as I like to call them, the good old days that I miss terribly) have no idea of Botcon’s origins.  Without Jon and Karl there could be no Botcon, and I think this is a wonderful way of brining attention to their contribution to the Transformers fandom.  Well done, Hasbro.  (I don’t get to say that very often these days…)

I didn’t see any details about Rescue Bots reported, just that it was mentioned at the Hasbro Panel.  The only new toys in the display cases that I saw are the Mobile Headquarters and Police Headquarters.  Now, it’s certainly possible that we’ll get other toys that just haven’t been shown, but it does seem odd that these are the only two we know about for a line that is apparently continuing.  While the cartoon is clearly meant for young children, it’s pretty well done all things considered, and I must admit I love the traditional non CGI animation.  I hope we’ll see some more toys and that some more characters will appear in the show.

We already saw the seven new Kre-O sets at Toy Fair.  They will apparently not be available until the fall.  I blogged about my thoughts on these a while ago, and I haven’t changed my mind.  I don’t see why they are going to wait nearly a year to release the second series, when series one didn’t sell great to begin with.  (I’m basing that on how many of these things have been clogging the shelves.  Over the Christmas season the shelves were full and they still mostly are.  *Maybe* they were emptied and refilled, but I never saw them empty at any stores and I go to toy stores a lot.)  It would make more sense to me to get these things out now before what little interest there is vanishes.  Series one will probably be on clearance and gone from shelves before we see series two.  It’s too bad because some of the new ones look really nice.  I’m betting stores aren’t even going to want to order them and they’ll end up canceled.

As far as I could tell, all the Bot Shots shown were already announced, though we hadn’t seen the actual toys yet.  I will say that the toys do appear to be selling regardless of the silly concept.  (More about that here.)  Some of the new sculpts are very nice, and since they are pretty cheap and not hard to find, I don’t mind these as much as I thought I would.  There was some new news, as two additional three packs were announced, one with Skyquake, Jetfire, and Powerglide, and one with Brawl, Shockwave, and Super Bot Ironhide.  I guess since all they have to do is sculpt the vehicle and robot onto the existing design they can keep pumping these things out indefinitely.

An online version of the Bot Shots game is coming soon.  Online rock, paper, scissors, sounds like a blast.

It was announced that the Generations line would return in Spring 2013.  Not sure if that includes the first wave of the new mold Optimus Prime, Jazz, and Shockwave (and Bruticus for that matter) or just the new ones.  For the first time we will get Legion and Voyager Generations toys.  New deluxe toys include Kickback, Sideswipe, and Ultra Magnus among others.  The toys look awesome, I’m just not sure why the wait before we get them.  It’s not like the shelves are full of product right now.  Toys are trickling out, and I’m beginning to wonder if they are intentionally reducing the amount of product available between now and the next movie.  I can’t say my wallet minds.

Previously we’ve seen pictures of one of the San Diego Comic Con Transformers and GI Joe exclusive Hiss Tank as Shockwave.  We now know the other two Transformers Exclusives will be a Bruticus box set that looks more like the video game than the general release version and Transformers Prime First Edition Terrorcon Cliffjumper.  He will be remolded and include an additional accessory or two.  Most interestingly the box will be in the shape of the toy’s head made of translucent purple plastic painted (hand painted) red.  Seems like a lot of expense for a box.  Perhaps they are trying to do things the Fun Publications way (god help us all).  The toys look great though.

Hasbro was asked both about the unreleased Animated toys and the Scout class Frenzy and Rumble.  Essentially they said they have the molds, but have no plans to release them.  Someone will have to explain to me how hard it is to make the toys people actually want to buy.  They have a website, it would be nice if they realized that and if the stores don’t want to carry a toy they want to make, they can sell it there.  Doesn’t seem like a very difficult concept to me.

Botcon/Transformers Collectors’ Club

They announced next year’s free membership figure is Transformers Revenge of the Fallen Terradive repainted into Beast Wars Depth Charge.  It’s a good mold choice, as his weapon is a trident.  While Depth Charge never had a trident, it’s still a good connection.  I like the paint job.

There was no announcement of next year’s club exclusive figures.  I am assuming they are being replaced by the subscription service that was announced (but it may be they just haven’t announced them yet).  What this will essentially be is that you pay up front (or in three installments) for all six figures and then they will arrive either one or two per month.  The toys will not have elaborate boxes (HOORAY!).  They are planning enrollment for summer and the figures to start shipping in November.

I have a few issues with this.  While I give the club credit for getting this year’s toys out closer to on time, I have my doubts that they can actually get these toys sent out on schedule.  That isn’t a huge deal, but I don’t understand the logic.  Just sell the damn things all at once.  All this really means is higher shipping costs.

We know that Brian Savage practically has a license to print money, but now he’s just being greedy.  Even I have my limits.  Botcon had 14 different toys.  If we assume that’s the average, they would now be making more than twenty toys per year.  The price gouging (more on that later) is already extreme with the convention set and souvenir toys.  This is getting ridiculous.

As to which figures will be part of the subscription service, they are doing Animated Jazz as Jackpot, Prime First Edition Starscream as Slipstream, Botcon G2 Breakdown as G1 Breakdown, Revenge of the Fallen Lockdown as Circuit, 2010 Optimus Prime as Scourge, and finally, Beast Wars Neo Big Convoy as Ultra Mammoth.  (No, I’m not kidding.)  Jackpot looks nice, but I’m getting sick of Animated toys.  The series is over.  Just let it die.  I do love the colors on Slipstream.  Breakdown is awesome as is Scourge, and much to my surprise the Ultra Mammoth actually looks great.  All the red parts are on the inside of the mammoth, so he’s in blue and white which isn’t a bad color scheme for an animal that lived during the ice age (I believe).  Circuit is a nice idea, based on the UK Action Master, but that Lockdown mold isn’t great.  A racecar like Classics Mirage would have been better for it, but I do like the color scheme.

If the costs are kept reasonable without those awful board game boxes, then it might not be so bad.  I’m just thinking about pricing on the club toys and even without the boxes, you could be looking at $200-$300 for all six toys (of course I could be way off in either direction).  Apparently they did say they understood the cost concerns and are making an effort to keep the cost down.  That seems like a good place to go into the Souvenir toys.

This year’s free attendee figure is a repaint of Generations Darkmount as Shattered Glass “The Bard of Darkmount.”  The name sounds ridiculous.  Plus they keep calling him Straxus.  Tech spec doesn’t say that, it’s not his name.  I don’t have a problem with the name change silly as the one the chose is) but don’t pretend the name on the card means nothing.

There were three Souvenir sets.

The Shattered Glass Junkion 3-pack included Wreck-Gar, Scrap Iron, and Junkheap.  They used all three head molds, which I must give them credit for.  They are done in Insecticon colors.  My only complaint is the hefty $99 price tag (and they cost me a lot more on ebay).  A few years ago, the Scourge 3-pack was $59.  Last year’s stupid Autorooper set was ridiculously overpriced at $90 (as I recall).  Since this one includes three different toys it’s going to be a little more, but they’re just price gouging now.

There was a set of Shattered Glass Octopunch made from the Seaspray mold and Classicverse Spinister made from the 2010 Tomahawk mold.  This was one $89.  I can’t wait to get this set.  I love these two molds and the paint jobs are great.  This is the only set that didn’t sell out, and I can’t for the life of me figure out why.

The third set was 2010 Optimus Prime as Shattered Glass Optimus Prime and 2010 Jazz as Classicverse Kick-Out.  Kick-Out is based on Action Master Kickoff.  Like The Bard of Darkmount, they keep referring to him by the wrong name.  I find it annoying.  Kick-Out certainly looks nice, but they had to have more options than the Prime.  This one was $95.

Lastly, it seems no one attempted to sell third party toys in the dealer room.  However, there were some on display.  I had said in a previous blog that third party toys could not be displayed.  That was apparently incorrect.  Seems kind of stupid that they would allow them to be displayed but not sold.  Makes me wonder if they just lost their nerve to actually do anything about it.

Thanks for reading!

I ordered my Transformers Collector’s Club Subscription Service toys on September 23, 2012 and a mere 272 days, nearly nine months, later I got my first figure.  Yeah, par for the course.

Random thought.  Anyone out there become pregnant and have a baby between ordering and receiving this figure?  Apparently it takes the same amount of time to make this toy as to make a human being.

Seriously…

In fairness to Fun Publications, they claim that this was a screw up on Hasbro’s end (not sure if that was actually at Hasbro or at the factory, but that is essentially the same thing).  That very well might be true.  However, with their past history of almost never meeting a deadline with the club figures, it’s very hard (more like impossible) to give them the benefit of the doubt.  It very well could be the case that it actually wasn’t their fault.

However, having said that, wouldn’t you think they would ship everyone all their figures at once since we’ve been waiting six months?  I mean, we should have gotten the fifth or sixth figure this month, and instead we’re getting the first.  We’ll be paying for next year’s figures before we’ve gotten all of this year’s toys at this rate.  They should have shipped out all figures and given a shipping discount for the screw up.  While it may not have been their screw up, Fun Pub is the seller, and they have a responsibility to their customers, regardless of whose mistake it was.  The buck stops with them.  They should have at least offered people the option of saving shipping costs and getting them all at once.

Unfortunately, this is what I’ve come to expect from Fun Pub, so I am not surprised at all.

On to the toy.

Transformers Collector’s Club Subscription Service Deluxe Scourge

Vehicle Mode: I have to give Fun Pub credit where it’s due.  This is one nice looking toy.  He’s got great paint apps, and the coloring is great, accept for his side windows.  I know the side windows can’t be translucent red, but they should have painted them black.  It’s a minor thing, but it looks odd with the red side windows.

Robot Mode: In robot mode his paint job is even better.  Lots of intricate paint apps, especially on his head.  They really did a great job painting his head.  It looks phenomenal.

I’m not a huge fan of the upside down G2 symbols.  I know the Japanese Car Robots Black Convoy had them, but the USA Scourge didn’t.  I have this feeling that they only did it this way to appeal to fans in Japan, where they are now selling toys via eHobby.  I’m sure there are some fans in the USA who like the use of the upside down G2 symbol, but I just don’t get it.  If they wanted him to be the Japanese version, why isn’t he called Black Convoy?  Also, it should be noted that the Car Robots Black Convoy had the logos on his shoulders.  With this toy in robot mode, the doors hang upside down from his arms making the symbols right side up.  This makes the upside down symbols pointless.  Also, I’m not sure why they did an outline, Car Robots Black Convoy had purple symbols.

To sum up, this is a really beautiful looking toy that I think will be one of the most popular from this year’s subscription service.  Unfortunately, it’s conceptually flawed.  It wants to be both the Japanese and USA version of the original toy at the same time, and ends up being neither.

Thanks for reading!

Transformers Collector’s Club 2013 Membership Figure Deluxe Depth Charge

Depth Charge is the Transformers Collector’s Club 2013 membership figure, and credit where credit is due.  He’s absolutely stunning.  Depth Charge is repainted from the Transformers 2010 Terradive without any mold changes.  This was an excellent choice as his head looks a lot like the original Depth Charge’s.  He also has the perfect weapon for a Depth Charge homage.  As Depth Charge was originally a manta ray, the trident works nicely.

Depth Charge has a fantastic paint scheme, blue, pink, yellow, silver, and gray, just like the original Beast Wars toy.  It would have been kind of nice to have his gray parts in a more metallic silver color, but that’s a small thing.

I can’t deny it, Fun Pub does get the toys right sometimes and they deserve credit when they do.  Having said that, in a move that smacks of greed they sold fully carded versions of Depth Charge at Botcon.  There will be more on that in my Botcon blog, reviewing all toys and merchandise, coming in a week or so.

Thanks for reading!

Transformers Collector’s Club 2013 Subscription Service Deluxe Slipstream

Slipstream looks amazing.  The purple and green looks fantastic.  I really like the new head sculpt, but I wish it had been molded in purple instead of black (which is how the art is on the tech spec).  Slipstream is loosely based (I believe) on the Transformers Animated female Starscream clone.

This is a second excellent figure in the series, but this one doesn’t have the conceptual issues Scourge had.

Previous 2013 Subscription Service Figures:

Transformers Collector’s Club 2013 Subscription Service Deluxe Scourge

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Transformers Collector’s Club 2013 Subscription Service Deluxe Circuit

In vehicle mode, Circuit looks absolutely fantastic.  They did an amazing job painting the car in Circuit’s colors.  I love the colors.  It’s pretty much perfectly painted.

Unfortunately, they put so much effort into making the car look perfect, they must not have been paying attention to how hideous the robot looks.  I mean, this thing is dog ass ugly, and this is coming from someone who loves gaudy G2 toys.  It doesn’t help that I’ve never really liked the mold, but at least it worked in Lockdown’s colors.  The new head mold is not bad, but I have nothing else nice to say about the robot.  Do yourself a favor.  If you’re getting this toy, leave it in vehicle mode and admire how awesome it looks.  Don’t ruin it by transforming it into that horrible thing.

After two excellent figures in the series, there had to be a turkey, but at least the vehicle mode is pretty great.

Transformers Collector’s Club 2013 Subscription Service Deluxe Scourge

Transformers Collector’s Club 2013 Subscription Service Deluxe Slipstream

Thanks for reading!

Fun Publications/Botcon Announces Pricing for Club Subscription Service 2.0/2014

So, I just finished my lunch today, and decided to check out Twitter.  What did I find, you ask?  Fun Publications has announced the pricing for the Subscription Service 2.0.  Last year was $282, plus a charge for each credit card transaction, which means three charges if paying in installments.  Here is the Tweet from the TF Club Twitter account:

“We were able to do some tweaking, got the head tooling price down and with an expected higher demand for the TFSS 2.0… the price is $279.”

Wow.

Just…wow.

Would you like to know my opinion on this?  Well, you probably wouldn’t be reading my blog if you didn’t, so here it is.

Let’s examine this a little.  They make an announcement that they are saving us three bucks as if we should be thanking them for their hard work in doing it, when they charge $3 to process your credit card*.  The least they could have done is say, “Sorry, we really couldn’t do anything to bring the price down.”  Better yet, join this century and realize that it is so 1970’s to charge a fee for using a credit card (or maybe 1980’s too, but you know what I mean).  At least acknowledge that all your work to bring down the price was completely and utterly useless.

(* – Update: This year they are charging $4 per transaction.  Guess we know how they are making up that $3 they dropped the price.)

Let’s examine this a little further.  Back in the Beast Wars days, the pricing structure for retails toys was simple.

2 Basic Toys = 1 Deluxe Toy
1 Deluxe and 1 Basic Toy = One Mega Toy
2 Deluxe Toys = 1 Ultra Toy.

Now, this is very simplistic, and pricing structures have change, but it is a reasonable way to get an idea of how much these toys are costing per figure.  Not perfect, but it will do.

So, for the 2013 Subscription Service we got five Deluxe toys, and one Ultra toy.  So, that works out to $282 divided by seven Deluxes.  That works out to just over $40 for each Deluxe and just over $80 for Ultra Mammoth.

For the record, that price isn’t horrible, if it didn’t also include their ridiculously overpriced shipping.

Let’s look at what has changed this year.  We have five Deluxe toys and one Basic (Scout).  So, that is $279 divide by five and a half Deluxe toys, or just over $50 per Deluxe, and $25 for Rewind.

Wow, I feel like they saved me money.  (That was sarcasm, just to be clear.)

Now, they are including the three Arms Micron partners.  These are model kits with a sticker sheet.  If they were actual Targetmasters or Mini-Cons, it would be different, but they aren’t.  I will give them and extra Basic toy to cover them.  That makes it $279 divided by six Deluxes, or $46.50 per Deluxe and $23.25 for Rewind.

Even if pricing stayed the same per toys, this year’s set should only cost $240, since we’ve gone from an Ultra to a Basic.

Now, we are getting one additional new head this year, 3 this year to two last year (no, they don’t get credit for a new head for Breakdown last year, they already had the molding).  So, essentially, I am to believe that the extra head is costing me $39, and that is AFTER their efforts to bring down pricing.

I feel so grateful for their hard work to save me money.  I do hope Brian Savage will be able to feed his family after taking such a huge hit to his company’s income.  (Again, that was sarcasm.)

I am sure that some people will be quick to jump up and say, “Oh, but we’re getting a seventh figure free!”  That is true.  However, while it seems pretty clear the price of toys has actually gone up, I don’t think it actually has.  It seems far more likely to me that we are actually paying for that seventh toy.

My guess is the seventh toy will be Eject.  I know that certainly isn’t a guarantee, but it certainly seems like a good bet.  If you take that into account, that $39, minus $23.25 for Eject, makes that extra head cost $15.75.  Not sure a new head is worth $15.75, but it is at least a little closer to acceptable.

So, to sum it all up, We aren’t actually getting anything less than we did last year.  They are just trying to convince us that we’re getting a free toy, when in fact we’re paying for it.  Does that make it okay?  No, not in the slightest.  If it is supposed to be free, then it needs to be free.  We’re paying for it.

Of course, if Red Wing (or another deluxe toy that is not tied to one of the already included molds) is the freebie, then this would be a little different.  We’d still be paying for half of the new toy, but it would be a completely different toy and not a repaint, so that would be more palatable.

I guess we’ll find out in…well, considering we don’t have all of last year’s toys yet, it’s best not to speculate on when.

Thanks for reading!

Transformers Collector’s Club 2013 Subscription Service Deluxe Breakdown

Breakdown, like so many Botcon toys in the last year, has assembly problems.  Mine has the same piece in his shoulder on both sides instead of a left and a right.  It still transforms, but the incompetence of Hasbro not being able to properly produce toys, and Fun Pub for selling defective toys needs to stop.  I’m not sure if this is a widespread issue or not, but considering how much we are overpaying for these toys, we have every right to expect better quality control.

The incompetent assembly and quality control aside, Breakdown is awesome.  There is no other way to say it.  The only thing is, they should have done him a long time ago.  After they had the head mold done for the G2 Breakdown, doing the G1 should have been automatic.  It’s unquestionably the best toy so far in this series (I have to give it an edge over Scourge who was a nice toy that was badly executed, but I expect he will be outdone by Ultra Mammoth).

Previous 2013 Subscription Service Figures:

Scourge

Slipstream

Circuit

Thanks for reading!

Transformers Collector’s Club 2013 Subscription Service Deluxe Jackpot

Jackpot is a nice looking toy for the most part.  This mold looks pretty great in black, and the paint apps look pretty great.  The one problem is the new head sculpt.  It’s awful.  He has a square face with a smirk.  It looks absolutely stupid.  While the toy otherwise looks nice, Jackpot leaves me completely underwhelmed.  I don’t see the need for more animated toys.  They already devoted an entire year of Convention toys to them (minus one good and one okay toy).  If they wanted to do some of Starscream’s clones (using the Animated Voyager seeker mold) then that I could see, or maybe do some of the unreleased toys.  I just don’t know why we needed a G1 Action Master as an Animated toy.

Previous 2013 Subscription Service Figures:

Scourge

Slipstream

Circuit

Breakdown

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Transformers Collector’s Club 2013 Subscription Service Ultra Mammoth

First off, yes, I know I forgot to flip down his horns on his robot head.

Ultra Mammoth is without question the best toy in the 2013 Subscription Service line.  This is the fourth toy to use this mold.  First was Beast Wars Neo Big Convoy who was available in Japan.  Then it was repainted into Black Big Convoy.  Later, as part of the first Transformers Universe line he was repainted into Nemesis Prime (who is completely different from Big Black Convoy).

I love his blue and white color scheme in mammoth mode.  There is some red visible on the back of his legs, but it’s not bad.  They did a really nice job on the color scheme.

He looks just awesome in robot mode, though I’ve never liked his elephant gun.   He has a removable matrix in his chest, which I forgot to photograph.  The red, white, and blue works really well on this mold.  I always new he would look great in mammoth mode, but I wasn’t as sure about his robot mode.

Full points to Fun Pub for this one.

So, to sum up the 2012 Subscription Service, we had two really awesome toys in Ultra Mammoth and Breakdown.  Scourge was a very good toy, but had conceptual issues.  Slipstream was pretty good.  Jackpot was just unnecessary, but a decent looking toy.  Circuit’s vehicle mode is okay, but does look lie a cat threw up.  So, I’ll give them 4 wins out of six.  That’s not too bad.  I’m hoping for more from 2014.  (I’m not holding my breath.)

Previous 2013 Subscription Service Figures:

Scourge

Slipstream

Circuit

Breakdown

Jackpot

Thanks for reading!

Transformers Collector’s Club Exclusive Transmutate

When they released Runamuck and Over-Run a few years ago, I really hated Over-Run’s box.  They pictured both toys on the box, but only put Over-run’s name on it.  That was idiotic to me.  If the box is meant for both toys then it should say that.  This time they put both Transmutate and Rampage on the same box with their names and added this at the bottom:

To me this makes a lot more sense.  They want to do a unified box, then do it right.  This time they did.  I hate the boxes anyway, but at least this makes sense.

I really love the First Edition Arcee mold, and these colors are perfect for Transmutate.  I wasn’t really sure I was going to like this one, but I really do.  Even not doing a new head looks okay, though I would have liked it to have a new head.

The only real problem with this toy is the price.  $59 is overpriced, and if so much of the cost is in the box, then they should have just had Hasbro package it on a standard card, or even better just bagged it.

I have to take off the grade for being so terribly overpriced.

Grade: B+

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Transformers Botcon Subscription Service Barricade with Frenzy

Finally the first toy in this year’s Botcon Subscription Service has arrived.  This year it’s only about four months late rather than the six months like it was last year.  The delay is being blamed on production issues.  Last year it was a miscommunication.  Now, for the record, all that may very well be true.  But how many times have items been delayed?  Some club member exclusive figures have been very late, arriving after Botcon.  Sometimes we wait and wait and wait for club store exclusive orders to go up.  Now, most of that isn’t such a big deal.  But last year, we were paying for this year’s figures while still waiting for and paying for last year’s figures.  If they can’t start delivery of figures when advertised, then don’t make people pay for them so far in advance.  I know the argument is that they do orders first to determine quantity, but that clearly isn’t working.  Maybe they need to set a quantity and make them before doing orders like they do for the club store exclusives.  We will not get the last of this year’s figures until after we pay for next year’s if their schedule holds.  Delays happen.  I get that.  But at some point any company has a responsibility to not offer something they cannot deliver on.  The wait of four or six months is not the end of the world.  It is the principle of the thing that bothers me.

Okay, now that that’s over with, let’s get to this awesome toy.

Frenzy

I like the mold choice for Frenzy.  Originally this mold was Micron Sou who came with Arms Micron Swerve (a red Autobot repaint of Breakdown) in Japan.  The only problem is that he has no paint apps accept for a silver Decepticon symbol.  The original came with a sticker sheet.  Even though there were only a few stickers, I would rather they include that than nothing at all.  They make a big deal about including partners with the toys and then don’t bother even giving us a few stickers to make him look like something more than a piece of gray plastic.

Barricade

Barricade is absolutely awesome.  He is a repainted Transformers Prime Beast Hunters Deluxe Prowl.  He did not need a new head as the existing one does look a bit like Barricade, though without that homicidal expression he wore in the movie.  He even has his Decepticon police shield and “to punish and enslave” on his fenders.  The purple, black, and silver look great on this mold.

I have to take off a bit for a lack of paint apps or stickers on Frenzy, and making me wait four months for this, but I do love this toy.

Grade: A-

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Transformers Botcon Subscription Service Fisitron

We waited how long for this piece of crap?

Fisitron

This is crap.  First off, if you are going to do a combiner team, then do the whole team.  Now, if that is what they are planning, then it might not be as bad as it is, but this makes very little sense otherwise.  It’s just not a great mold, and it’s in an uninspired color scheme of a character who means nothing to me.  We know that they had to scrap plans for some of the toys they wanted to do last year, but if this was the best they could come up with it is pretty sad.  Here is a shockingly simple idea.  Maybe we could get, you know, just once, a new character.  Take any toy you want, in any colors you want and create a name and personality.  It’s really not that hard.

Grade: F (Or if we could invent a lower grade, then whatever that is, maybe F——.)

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Transformers Collector’s Club Membership Exclusive Rampage

Well, it’s not the mold I would have chosen, but I really like it.

Literally the only thing wrong with this toy is his head in vehicle mode.  Megatron’s head was shaped to fill the whole and it looked much better.  Other than that, he’s prefect.  The orange, red, and purple look fantastic, and little details like the gold on his vents really look awesome.  I love his head sculpt, and the X on his chest is perfect.

Grade: A+

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Transformers Botcon Subscription Service Thrustinator

Original Mold: Transformers: Beast Wars II Deluxe Dirgegun (Who was heavily remolded from Transformers: Beast Wars Deluxe Waspinator.)

Thrustinator

AWESOME!

I repeat, awesome.  This is one of the best toys Fun Pub has ever made.  The Cyber Beasts are some of my favorite Beast Wars era toys.  This was the perfect mold for a Waspinator/Thrust hybrid.  The new head sculpt looks fantastic and his paint job is amazing.  They really did a wonderful job on the colors.  The paint apps are fantastic, especially on the robotic/Thrust parts.

There was one odd thing.  When I (and others, maybe everyone) took Thrustinator out of the box his insect legs were put on upside down.  While these parts are not meant to be removed, they do come off and are easily flipped around.  Initially I thought this was a factory screw up, but it looks like they might have done it deliberately to fit him better into the box.  I’m honestly not sure which it is.  Obviously this is not as bad as this year’s Scorponok, last year’s Megaplex, Hoist, and Electrons, and Gigatron from a few years back, to say nothing of their frequent part swap errors.  However, if this was intentional, they should have had a sheet of paper in the box saying that they needed to be flipped around.  Better yet, just package him with them unattached.

Remember, these are parts that can come off, but are NOT MEANT TO COME OFF.  I swapped them right away, and while transforming him they kept popping off.  None of my originals ever had the insect legs come off.  Is that mold degradation?  Is it cheap plastic?  Is it that you really aren’t meant to take them off and put them back on?  My guess is that it’s the latter, because the plastic quality seems fine and the mold has only been used once.  It’s not a huge deal, but it’s this kind of thing that makes the high quality of many 3rd party toys preferable to many collectors over Fun Pub’s overpriced offerings.

Grade: A+

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Toy News: Transformers Collector’s Club 2015 Club Membership and Exclusive Toys

This is so fucking depressing.

The Transformers Collector’s Club Membership figure for 2015 is Lio Convoy repainted from the Deluxe Orion Pax mold with a new head.  Here’s a pic.  It’s not bad looking, but do we really need a truck repainted as a lion?

Even worse, the first of two club store exclusives from 2015 is…a repaint of the same toy.  Yes, first the store exclusive toy will be Nova Prime (never heard of him, don’t care to).  Here’s a pic.  Apparently he was seen in some of the IDW comics.  If he was really a big deal, Hasbro would be doing it.  Hasbro has all it’s deluxes toys as part of Combiner Wars next year.  I love combiner wars, but does every single toy have to combine?  No.  Hasbro should have done this, unless of course they knew no one really wanted it and Fun Publications is out of bad ideas.   (The last bit of news will prove that is absolutely not the case, Fun Publications is drowning in bad ideas.)

If they were really so desperate to use the Orion Pax mold, why not do Dying Orion Pax.  Do him in his regular colors with severe battle damage and leaking energon painted on.  Maybe get really fancy and remold a couple of minor parts to show damage.  An homage to Orion Pax’s death and rebirth as Optimus Prime would be awesome (if a bit morbid).  Next year they could do a repaint of the upcoming Chromia as dying Ariel.  They could have given us toys that represent an immensely important moment in the fiction.

Neither Lio Convoy or Nova Prime look like bad toys, they just seem kind of pointless.

That leads us to the last bit of news.

Today the club announced the second store exclusive figure for 2015.  Now, keep in mind that two weeks ago, they announced that today’s reveal would “send shockwaves across the fandoms!!!”  (Yes, they did use three exclamation points.)  First off, if you’re going to use the word “shockwaves” talking about a reveal, that reveal damn well better have to do with Shockwave.  It doesn’t.

What is their “shockwaves across the fandoms” reveal?  A 3/34 inch Marissa Fairborn figure with Afterburner as an accessory.  That’s not a shockwave.  It’s barely a fart, and not even one you can actually hear.

Based on the art that has been revealed, Afterburner appears to be a repainted GI Joe: Retaliation Wheel Blaster Bike which has the incredibly well thought out action feature of being able to launch it’s front wheel like a missile.  This apparently leaves it as a unicycle.  Not to mention, it looks nothing like Afterburner.  If you’re going to do anything Transformers related that does not transform, it has to at least be super accurate.  This is the absolute opposite of that.

What really pisses me off is the choice of Marissa Fairborn for the figure.  She appeared in (according to IMDB.com) seven G1 episodes.  I LOVE the idea of doing 3 3/4 inch action figures of TF human characters, but at least pick some that matter.  How about Spike and Sparkplug?  Hell, skip the vehicle and do a 5 pack (we know how much Fun Publications LOVES multipacks).  Give us Spike, Sparkplug, Carly.  Maybe add Chip and a villain, Dr. Archeville perhaps.  Chip and Archeville didn’t appear in a ton of episodes, but in a set with Spike and Sparkplug, it’s not so glaring.

I don’t so much mind a Marissa Fairborn figure, but there were better choices FOR TRANSFORMERS FANS.  This choice, not to mention the vehicle, is all about being able to market it to BOTH clubs.  I really don’t give two shits about GI Joe.  I joined the TRANSFORMERS COLLECTOR’S CLUB.  And for that I get to buy GI Joe exclusives?

The best thing I can say is that at least it’s better than that idiotic Soundwave as the Cold Slither band truck.

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Transformers Botcon Subscription Service Treadshot with Catgut

Original Mold: Transformers: Generations Deluxe Warpath (Repainted, No Mold Changes) and Arms Micron Kit Jida (Repainted, No Mold Changes)

Catgut

They picked the right Arms Micron mold for Catgut, but doing these without stickers or paint apps (besides the Decepticon logo) really sucks.  Just include the stickers that came with them originally, that’s all they need to do.  Just give us something so they don’t look unfinished.  This is a lazy and cheap way for them to act like they are giving us so much more.  These aren’t that expensive.  The single pack ones from Japan were sold by online retailers in the USA for only $8, so they aren’t adding that much to the cost of the toy, but I’d rather the toys be cheaper and just do away with these things if they aren’t going to paint them or include stickers.  They just look like crap.

Treadshot

Do we really need a transforming homage for ALL the Action Masters?  I mean, were fans really clamoring for this toy?  It’s not a bad toy, not at all, in fact, I really like it.  The black and gray with orange looks great on this mold, and it’s an awesome mold to begin with.  I love the toy, I just don’t see the need for it.  I think doing an homage to important toys and characters is great, but Fun Publications needs to stop just coming up with toy ideas to fit the number of toys they want to make and start making the toys people actually want, or at least be creative about it.  Thrustinator was creative.  This, not so much.  I’m only giving it a decent grade because the toy itself is cool, if pointless.

Grade: B+

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Transformers Botcon Subscription Service Chromedome with Stylor

Original Molds: Transformers: Prime Deluxe Wheeljack (Repainted, New Head) and Arms Micron S.2 (Repainted, No Mold Changes)

Stylor

I cannot believe what my eyes behold!  He has…a paint app!!!!!  Yes, that’s right, Fun Publications actually put a paint app other than the symbol on an Arms Micron partner, painting his face orange like the G1.  I don’t know what’s more amazing, that they put a paint app on him, or that it took them this long to realize they needed to.  It’s not my favorite Arms Micron mold, but it works well enough for Stylor.

Chromedome

He looks incredible in vehicle mode.  They really did a great job on him.  His paint apps are detailed.  He looks really sharp.  There is no roof port for Stylor, which is one of the reasons that they should have picked a different Arms Micron mold that would have worked better on the side of the vehicle.  His head sculpt is fantastic and he looks perfect in robot mode.  They painted his sword blades silver, which looks great.  Unfortunately, his left elbow joint is so loose that he can’t hold his arm up even without holding a weapon.  Given the information that has come to light about Fun Publications cost cutting for exclusives, that could be a contributing factor, but it’s just as likely that it’s Hasbro’s fault, as previous uses of this mold have had somewhat loose elbow joints also, though not to this extent.

Grade: A-

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Transformers: Hero Mashers Basic Rodimus, Heatwave, and Jetfire

Rodimus

Rodimus looks pretty great.  The red, gold, and orange look fantastic.  I like his head sculpt, but the lack of a weapon is unfortunate.

Heatwave

WTF!  They made a Hero Mashers toy out of the Transformers Collector’s Club Heatwave?  This was the fifth membership freebie toy, a repaint of Transformers Energon Deluxe Barricade.  I just don’t get this.  From all the toys they could choose from they choose this?

Jetfire

They did a really nice job on Jetfire.  He could have used a few more paint apps, and I’m not crazy about his non G1 head sculpt, but it still looks pretty good.  He looks neither like Jetfire or Skyfire, but I guess that’s okay.  He, like Rodimus, has no weapon.  Would it have killed them to include that?

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Transformers Botcon Subscription Service Rewind and Eject

To the surprise of absolutely no one with an IQ measured in positive numbers, Eject was the “freebie” toy for the 2014 Subscription Service.  I put it in quotes, as people paid basically the same amount as last year and got two Scouts instead of one Deluxe, so we really didn’t get any bonus toy at all.  It is as close as you can come to false advertising without actually having used false advertising.  It’s a joke is what it is.

Original Mold: Transformers 2010 Scout Rumble (Unreleased in the USA.)

There was huge disappointment when the Transformers 2010 Scout Class Rumble was canceled.  Frenzy and Rumble were released in Japan, but never in the USA.  Unfortunately, instead of releasing Frenzy and Rumble, which a lot of people would have wanted, they gave them a new head to make Rewind and Eject.  There are a number of problem with this.  First off, Rewind and Eject never had piledrivers.  Also, they cut costs by doing both of them with gold details, but Eject (I think it was him, I know it was one of them) should have had silver weapons.  Frankly, I would be a lot less disappointed with these if they had got the colors right.

The other problem is the flawed design of this toy.  The button that deploys the piledrivers are on the rear side of the vehicle, exactly where you would naturally pick up the toy.  I can’t tell you how may times I’ve inadvertently pressed the stupid button.  It doesn’t help that when you are transforming him to tank mode, you naturally would press there to push the back of the tank together.  It’s just a bad design.

Frankly, I’d have rather had Red Wing.

Grade: B

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