Brief thoughts on a few new toys

[Gustavo Wombat]

I needed cat litter, and paper towels, so I braved a trip to Target despite a badly pinched nerve. Perhaps driving was a mistake, since I couldn't turn my head, but the cats were making their displeasure with the litter box known. Cleaning a litter box with a pinched nerve is no fun.

Litter box in the guest bathroom's bathtub is an excellent strategy, by the way. Very easy to clean the cats' displeasure.

Anyway...

TF:Prime Maxi-Scout (Mini-Deluxe?) Hot Shot loks more like RTS/Generations Tracks than any version of Hot Shot we ever got. I like the mold a lot, and the color matching on the blue is much better than the yellow, but he doesn't really scream Hot Shot to me.

Vehicle mode is clearly Tracks. Robot mode is a blue Bumblebee with a grim face and slide down goggles that make him look like little Anakin Skywalker.

It's a bit disappointing that he comes with the same weapons as Bumblebee. I liked that DOTM mixed up he weapons on redecos, to make them slightly different, and I was hoping that would continue.

TF:Prime Maxi-Scout Knockout. Eesh. It's ironic I guess that a character who thinks he is so beautiful gets a toy that has such an ugly paint job. Also, the back window is primer color, along with much of the car. I wish they wouldn't mix translucent and opaque windows, and I wish they would bother painting all the windows. Make the windows match. It's like having the wheels be different colors or something, it's just wrong.

Hot Shot also suffers from that with the rear side windows, which are painted black, despite being on a piece of translucent blue plastic. Fuckers just fucking with me.

Knockout also has arms comprised of his roof, doors and side windows, similar to Cliffjumper's. And hands protruding backwards from the windshield into the passenger cabin. And holes in the windshield for the stress spots of the socket of that ball joint.

And a shoulder pad that keeps popping off.

So far, I do not like this toy.


TF:Prime Maxi-Scout Ratchet is quite the shell former. It mostly works, and he has great articulation in robot mode. The daggers are made out of very rubbery plastic, which I hate, but they do a nice job of extending directly from the arm when you fold the hands down.


Also, there was a DOTM Cyberverse Shockwave at the Ross in Northgate, if anyone is looking. I was hoping for the Junkeon guy from RTS/Generations.

[Zobovor]

On May 13, 12:23 am, Gustavo Wombat <GustavoWom...@yahoo.com> wrote:

> Litter box in the guest bathroom's bathtub is an excellent strategy, by the way. Very easy to clean the cats' displeasure.

That's assuming they restrict their displeasure to the bathtub. I
have official feline complaint centers set up in the middle of the
living room, the middle of the den, the corner of my bedroom, and,
occasionally, the kitchen counter. I did not elect the locations of
these complaint centers, incidentally; the cats chose them for me.

The good news is that we're down to only five of the furry little
demons now, and two of them get a senior citizen discount so they're
probably going to check out in the next few years. (There's a fine
line between being cruel and being practical. The fewer bladders
there are in the house at this point, the better.)

> TF:Prime Maxi-Scout (Mini-Deluxe?) Hot Shot loks more like RTS/Generations Tracks than any version of Hot Shot we ever got. I like the mold a lot, and the color matching on the blue is much better than the yellow, but he doesn't really scream Hot Shot to me.

The problem with Hot Shot is that when he was originally introduced,
he basically stole Bumblebee's schtick. He was yellow and energetic
and youthful. To reintroduce him now when Bumblebee has become such a
prominent character seems kind of pointless. They might as well throw
Cheetor back into the mix while they're at it.

What they should have done, honestly, is released in him black with a
gold flame pattern and marketed the toy as an update of the *original*
Hot Shot from Robots in Disguise. I might have bought that toy. (And
then they could have done a redeco as G2 Blowout, which I *definitely*
would have bought.)

I didn't get what you meant by Maxi-Scout at first, but having gotten
a look at the toys at Target yesterday, I can see what you mean now.
They're super-tiny.

> TF:Prime Maxi-Scout Knockout.  Eesh. It's ironic I guess that a character who thinks he is so beautiful gets a toy that has such an ugly paint job.

Yeah, that's a seriously ghastly toy.

> Make the windows match. It's like having the wheels be different colors or something, it's just wrong.

I know this bothers you a lot. I think my strongest pet peeve, at
least when it comes to vehicle mode design, is faux wheels. Like the
ones on Motormaster or Throttlebot Rollbar (spare tire) or Micromaster
Takedown (obscure, I know) or the Armored Convoy that came with Action
Master Optimus Prime or Universe Tankor/Octane. It's even worse when
they're not properly painted to match the real working wheels. The
worst offender is probably Triggerbot Backstreet, a toy I don't own
but whose rear wheels were STICKERS. That's just plain lazy.

> Hot Shot also suffers from that with the rear side windows, which are painted black, despite being on a piece of translucent blue plastic. Fuckers just fucking with me.

I don't think we can say with certainty that people at Hasbro aren't
entirely above screwing around with the fandom every once in a while.
You're vocal enough about this that it's entirely within the realm of
possibility that somebody's doing it just to mess with you. It's a
sick and twisted mind game that they like to play. I think they used
to do it to me because they knew that if they released a toy I
absolutely hated, I would feel forced to buy it so I could write a
long, angry rant about it. (SEE: Armada Predacon; SEE ALSO: Barnyard
Brawl Mixmaster). Diabolical, I tells ya.


Zob

[Gustavo Wombat]

On Monday, May 21, 2012 5:26:47 PM UTC-7, Zobovor wrote:
> On May 13, 12:23 am, Gustavo Wombat <GustavoWom...@yahoo.com> wrote:

> > TF:Prime Maxi-Scout (Mini-Deluxe?) Hot Shot loks more like RTS/Generations Tracks than any version of Hot Shot we ever got. I like the mold a lot, and the color matching on the blue is much better than the yellow, but he doesn't really scream Hot Shot to me.
>
> The problem with Hot Shot is that when he was originally introduced,
> he basically stole Bumblebee's schtick. He was yellow and energetic
> and youthful. To reintroduce him now when Bumblebee has become such a
> prominent character seems kind of pointless. They might as well throw
> Cheetor back into the mix while they're at it.

He was yellow in Armada and Energon, but he's been other colors as well.

Hot Shot has been light blue, in Cybertron and Animated, with brick red robot bits. His Energon Energon form was silver.

Had they made him the lighter blue, and given him a lot of red robot bits, it would have gone a long way to making him resemble at least some other version of the character. If they are going to keep dragging this character back, they should give him a distinctive look.

Also, Bumblebee, Hot Shot and Cheetor all have distinctive personalities.

Bumblebee is a scout and an accomplished warrior (Movieverse, Prime). Or a sociopath incapable of ever feeling remorse (Animated).

Hot Shot is a young, untested warrior, bristling with arrogance and a need for approval.

Cheetor is stupid.

Ok, Cheetor fits the Hot Shot mold, fine. But, still, Hot Shot and Bumblebee are distinctive enough characters that they can both live in the same universe. And you could probably stick G1 Bumblebee in there, and no one would get them confused.

> What they should have done, honestly, is released in him black with a
> gold flame pattern and marketed the toy as an update of the *original*
> Hot Shot from Robots in Disguise. I might have bought that toy. (And
> then they could have done a redeco as G2 Blowout, which I *definitely*
> would have bought.)

A RID Hot Shot deco would have been great. And then a G2 Go-Bots Megatron homage...

> I didn't get what you meant by Maxi-Scout at first, but having gotten
> a look at the toys at Target yesterday, I can see what you mean now.
> They're super-tiny.

They're not just tiny, they're expensive!

> > TF:Prime Maxi-Scout Knockout.  Eesh. It's ironic I guess that a character who thinks he is so beautiful gets a toy that has such an ugly paint job.
>
> Yeah, that's a seriously ghastly toy.
>
> > Make the windows match. It's like having the wheels be different colors or something, it's just wrong.
>
> I know this bothers you a lot. I think my strongest pet peeve, at
> least when it comes to vehicle mode design, is faux wheels. Like the
> ones on Motormaster or Throttlebot Rollbar (spare tire) or Micromaster
> Takedown (obscure, I know) or the Armored Convoy that came with Action
> Master Optimus Prime or Universe Tankor/Octane. It's even worse when
> they're not properly painted to match the real working wheels.

See? Wheels different colors! (And not working)

> The
> worst offender is probably Triggerbot Backstreet, a toy I don't own
> but whose rear wheels were STICKERS. That's just plain lazy.
>
> > Hot Shot also suffers from that with the rear side windows, which are painted black, despite being on a piece of translucent blue plastic. Fuckers just fucking with me.
>
> I don't think we can say with certainty that people at Hasbro aren't
> entirely above screwing around with the fandom every once in a while.
> You're vocal enough about this that it's entirely within the realm of
> possibility that somebody's doing it just to mess with you. It's a
> sick and twisted mind game that they like to play. I think they used
> to do it to me because they knew that if they released a toy I
> absolutely hated, I would feel forced to buy it so I could write a
> long, angry rant about it. (SEE: Armada Predacon; SEE ALSO: Barnyard
> Brawl Mixmaster). Diabolical, I tells ya.

You bought Mixmaster just to get Hoist.

They've somehow gotten me to buy the Cybertron LeoBreaker mold 5 times, despite the mold being mediocre. I don't know how they do it.

And countless grey blob Megatrons.

[SteveD]

On Mon, 21 May 2012 17:26:47 -0700 (PDT), Zobovor <zm...@aol.com> wrote:

>The problem with Hot Shot is that when he was originally introduced,
>he basically stole Bumblebee's schtick. He was yellow and energetic
>and youthful. To reintroduce him now when Bumblebee has become such a
>prominent character seems kind of pointless. They might as well throw
>Cheetor back into the mix while they're at it.

Am I the only one who'd be interested to see a Bumblebee/Hotshot/Cheetor
team-up in an episode? Their respective groups run into each other, they
realise they're all similar, they get together and perform epic pranks or
just hang out.

If only to have the local Ratchet-equivalent say "_Three_ of them?"


-SteveD