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Zob's Thoughts on Titans Return Astrotrain and Blaster and Powermaster Optimus Prime
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Zobovor
Dec 3, 2016, 12:17:32 AM12/3/16
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I've had some interesting adventures with these guys. Sometimes the toy gods smile upon me and bless me with good fortune, and sometimes they enjoy toying with me. Because they're toy gods and that's just what they do.
ASTROTRAIN
I'm already on my second Astrotrain toy in as many days. The first Astrotrain I bought came equipped with two left vertical stabilizers. The hinges are shaped a little differently from each other, and a fin on the wrong side will not fold down all the way without popping off first. Luckily, my store had gotten two cases of Voyagers (I left Alpha Trion on the shelf for somebody else) so I was able to make an exchange today. Crisis averted.
I kind of wish I'd never gotten Sentinel Prime. I only own him because my wife ordered an entire case of Galvatron/Sentinel for me, and once I had him in my hands, I was curious about the toy's design and its eventual use as Astrotrain. I never would have sought it out deliberately.
With that said, my Astrotrain experience is somewhat sullied by the existence of Sentinel Prime, because rather than being a novel toy experience, Astrotrain is just more of the same. From an aesthetic standpoint I certainly like him better, but he doesn't bring anything new to the table. I think I really need to stick to my buying the unnecessary pre-deco versions of toys (though I don't know how I'll fare when I meet up with the Megatron-that-isn't-Blitzwing and the Optimus-Prime-that-isn't-Octane).
Astrotrain is tall. I get that he's a transport so in some ways it makes sense for him to be a bit bigger than most of the Deluxe-class toys that are a big part of the Classics/Generations line. Also, eventually every one of the original six Triple Changers will have a Voyager-class toy when all is said and done (Blitzwing, Octane, Springer, Sandstorm, and Broadside) so there's that.
Hasbro finally learned their lesson, and after two versions of Astrotrain that tried to mimic the white-and-black colors of the Japanese G1 toy, this version is closer to the toy from 1985. In robot mode, he's predominantly light grey with some purple for the legs, wings, and those boffo spring-loaded faux landing wheels on his shoulders. I've said it before, but I'll say it again. This is a feature whose only purpose and function is to make him look a little more like his cartoon animation model, and I love it. Plus, it adds more purple to his robot mode, and more purple is always better.
He has some details on his mid-torso that are colored approximately like the consumer-applied stickers on the Hasbro toy from 1985, and he gets a yellow stripe on the top of his head. It's still a far cry from the look of his animation model, which was predominantly a dark grey, but he still reads correctly as "Astrotrain" in some form, at least. It's possible to transform him so that he has either train feet or space shuttle feet. I believe the rounder, smoother space shuttle feet are the "correct" look, and makes him look a bit like he's wearing saddle shoes. The train feet are more squared-off and robotic, and the cow catcher toes are a little closer to the configuration of the G1 toy.
By accident or design, the stabilizer fins on his back mirror the way the fin ends up on the robot's back in the cartoon. (The cartoon design totally ignored the fact that the stabilizer fin unfolded into his chest shield.) Also, I think his huge shoulder pads are a deliberate callback to the Classics toy from 2006. Wow, was that really ten years ago?
His robot mode is so much better than his vehicle modes. This was a weird and ambitious toy design that just doesn't really feel like Astrotrain at all when you transform it. I guess this could be his Cybertronian configuration, which wouldn't have to confirm to existing train models or space shuttle types. (I had this toy in the car today from when I exchanged it, so after I picked up my four-year-old daughter from daycare I showed her his train mode and asked her what she thought it was. She said it was a plane.)
Darkmoon, whose name seems to be a reference to Transformers 3: Dark of the Moon or something, is identical to the Infinitus figure that came with Sentinel Prime, only it turns into an Astrotrain head now. It would have been better, I think, if they had named his head after some character known to have ties to Astrotrain. Maybe Jero from "The God Gambit," or even Talaria. (That would be a horrifying fate for her... forced to serve as the Headmaster component of a most hated Sky God.)
This is a toy that I'll be keeping in robot mode. I don't think I want to ever transform him again.
AUTOBOT BLASTER
In addition to the misassembled Astrotrain I temporarily got stuck with, I also had problems with my first Blaster. That's right, I'm on Blaster number two as well! On the first one, I could not get his right leg to fold up correctly in boom box mode. The left leg was fine, but for some reason the right leg kept popping apart, over and over and over again. There were so many parts that were required to be aligned together that I really didn't know what the problem was. Maybe the robot shoulder was slightly off-kilter. Maybe it was his knee. I really have no idea. I took a chance and exchanged the toy, hoping that it was an isolated problem and that not an issue endemic to the toy's design.
So, we've gotten a few new versions of Blaster here and there, in varying degrees of authenticity and appropriateness. Maybe the best of these was the Fall of Cybertron version from 2013, whose Data Discs that stored in his chest roughly mirrored the functionality of the cassette toys. The Titans Return edition returns to Blaster's roots and has both a boom box mode and spits out cassette-like things from his chest, yay!
Robot mode is incredibly boxy. It's a design philosophy that looks really good on some characters, but here it's almost a bit too much. (As a random aside, does nobody in the world know how to properly transform G1 Blaster? Every picture I see of him shows him with long, visible metal shoulder axles and obvious gaps in his hips and knees. Surely I am not the only person who figured out that these parts can collapse.)
I was a little worried about the way he was packaged, because I didn't know if the boom box handle could fold down for his robot mode or not. I wish they would not mistransform toys in the package, especially if it uglies them up.
As a Leader-class toy, he's exactly the same height as the original G1 Blaster from 1985, who for the record was a preposterously tall toy by Transformer standards (he towered over almost every other toy in the line; he was actually taller than Devastator). So, he's satisfyingly big in a way that mirrors the G1 toy, but it's still a little weird considering the fictional character is just the size of a regular Transformer. His colors and paint deco are almost slavish callbacks to the G1 toy, right down to the pattern of dots inside the faux speakers on his legs. This is about as close a toy gets to being a G1 toy without just being a Diaclone or Microman reissue.
It's worth mentioning that his hips, knees, shoulders, and elbows are all ratcheting joints, which helps to support a toy of this size, but in some ways it's a little annoying.
Functionality in this mode includes a spring-loaded eject button (on his shoulder, suspiciously in the same place as Soundwave's... hmm) that makes his chest door pop open. Inside of Blaster's body is a little picnic basket that holds his cassettes. And, of course, by "cassettes" I mean "spy tablets." The picnic basket is also spring-loaded so that it deploys as soon as you open his chest. He does come with a spy tablet shaped piece of plastic, I guess so you can enjoy all the fun even if you don't want to make an additional purchase. There's a slot to tuck away his Titan Master mini-figure into the fake tablet, like he's frozen in carbonite, and it's just about the only way that the mini-figure can fit inside Blaster when he's in boom box mode. (I tend to stuff the fake tablet into Fortress Maximus' chest so that Blaster can hold one of the transformable toys like Rewind.)
Like Galvatron, Blaster has a helmet that deploys and swings over top of his Titan Master when it's in head mode. The entire assembly rotates and it's a much more successful head-within-a-head than Galvatron. The regular head looks weird, like a really angry Perceptor, but the helmet is styled like Blaster's original 1985 toy, complete with antennas and Batman mask. The whole helmet is made out of clear plastic and is painted except for the visor. He's got a peg on his shoulder which does nothing on this iteration of the toy, but which I suspect is intended to attach Soundwave's shoulder cannon when this mold is revisited. There's also a peg on his butt that remains unused, which is likewise a probable storage medium for Soundwave's weaponry.
His Titan Master, named Twin Cast (the name for the resurrected Blaster from the Headmasters TV series in Japan was Twincast, a play on his original name of Broadcast), is essentially a tiny Blaster figure, and includes sculpted detail like speakers in the legs and a cassette deck chest. His body and arms and head are red (with a silver painted face) and his legs are all black, so it makes him look like a 1987 Targetmaster partner. He really could use some more paint.
To transform him, the robot arms go out to the sides, the helmet tucks away, and the robot legs unfold until they engulf the very Universe itself. It's so good to know that the secret arcane technique of designing Panelformers (more than meets the panels!) is not a dead art. In this form, he's completely hollow. You could totally store, like, ten Titan Master figures inside him. His boom box configuration doesn't match the G1 toy precisely (his speakers are positively huge, and his handle is only about a third the length of the boom box rather than extending nearly to either end) but it's very clearly recognizable as Blaster. His handheld rifle can plug into his back for storage and, as with the G1 toy, it can be rotated pointing up to approximate a radio antenna.
There is a single mini-peg for a Titan Master to stand on top of him. Apparently, this is the gigantic boom box mode that he could transform into from "Madman's Paradise." You kind of have to fold the handle down in order to let him stand up all the way, though. There are some undocumented design features that allow you to expand the play pattern. He has numerous slots on his back that can accommodate USB cables, and there's also a headphone jack and a port for a double-prong power plug. This hearkens back to the days of the Microman line when the pre-Soundwave toy came with a pair of pretend headphones and included features like a volume knob and an on/off switch. His sculpt is rife with other small details, like tiny unpainted microphones in the upper corners above the speakers. He also has some tiny square-shaped ports, including one prominently located on his belly, whose purpose I am not able to readily identify.
So, he's also got a base mode. It essentially involves exploding the legs, pointing his arms up in the air like he just don't care, and connecting the fake tablet to the handle on top. There are six mini-pegs for Titan Master figures on the two main platforms, but they're just slightly too large. They don't fit inside the peg-holes of Twin Cast or any other mini-figures I own. Kind of reminds me of how the pegs for the Action Masters vehicles could only fit in the feet of figures that came with vehicles (Optimus Prime, Wheeljack) but not the single-pack carded figures (Jazz, Grimlock).
Similar to the Micromaster Stations and Micromaster Bases from 1989-90, every Titans Return toy with a base mode is equipped with universal ramp pieces. That means any toy can connect to any other toy, or even another copy of itself. The available toys are somewhat limited at the moment, but I've been playing around tonight with different ways Blaster can attach to Powermaster Optimus Prime or to Fortress Maximus. You do kind of have to modify Fort Max's base mode and deviate from the official transformation in order to get it to work, but his transformations are so vague and ill-defined anyway that fan interpretations are almost mandatory. (For the record, the ramps on Fort Max's robot arms seem to work the best, but only when the arms are swung down and parallel with the legs. When the arms are above Fort Max's head, the other toys can't reach the ramps. I can't seem to find a use for the ramp in Fort Max's chest at all right now.
This toy was planned from the get-go to be remolded into Soundwave, who based on Internet photos looks equally and alarmingly chunky. It will not be the definitive Soundwave by any stretch of the imagination (the Masterpiece toy will forever hold that title), but we've reached a point now where many characters are getting updates that are inferior to previous versions (Cyclonus, Wheeljack, Hound, etc.) I arguably don't need a Headmaster Soundwave, but I will probably buy the toy when I see it.
POWERMASTER OPTIMUS PRIME
We've gotten plenty of Optimus Prime toys over the years, and several that homage the original G1 toy, but this is the first one that's specifically intended to pay tribute to the Powermaster edition of the character from 1988. After his death in The Transformers: the Movie and his absence from the Transformers mythos for two long years, Optimus Prime was brought back with the ability to combine with his trailer module into a super robot.
A quick anecdote: The first toy from the 1988 assortment I ever got was Hosehead, and while he was a cool toy, I was almost more fascinated with the battle scene on the back of his box, which showcased toys I'd never heard of or seen before. Specifically, there was this great, big Optimus Prime toy, whose artwork showcased a tiny little figure flying away from the cab, shapeshifting in mid-air, and connecting with Prime in robot mode. I had, perhaps naturally, assumed that this was a Headmaster version of Optimus Prime, a gimmick that I was well familiar with since it had been introduced the previous year. I was so enamored with the idea that I was in some ways crestfallen to discover that the new toy I'd been expecting was actually a Powermaster. So, the advent of a Headmaster edition of Optimus Prime is something that I'd anticipated way back in 1988!
The version from Titans Return shares some tooling with Combiner Wars Ultra Magnus, but the two toys have so little in common that I keep forgetting that Optimus isn't an all-new mold. The size and shape of the cab in truck mode feels familiar, the robot feet are the same, and the guns are identical, but aside from that, this might as well be an entirely new toy.
Robot mode is pretty epic. His styling absolutely screams Powermaster Prime, right down to the grey dual blasters on his shoulders, mirroring the smokestacks on the G1 toy, and the more elaborate helmet design with the twin rounded components on either side. The sophisticated-looking engine in the center of his torso hearkens back to the functional Powermaster engine of the 1988 toy, but also seems to pay homage to God Bomber as well (and, yes, there is already a third-party add-on that will turn this toy into Super God Jinrai).
Due to the way the panels wrap all the way around to the insides of the legs, Masterpiece Bumblebee style, he's one of the few Transformers toys who must stand like a cowboy with his legs splayed apart——his design simply cannot accommodate a standing-at-attention pose. He comes with the same handheld guns as Ultra Magnus, and he has the same hands as Magnus, with the opening fingers, to hold them. The guns can connect together, but he lacks the missile pods required to complete the hammer configuration. Something interesting about the guns being different than each other is that it nicely mirrors the original design for Powermaster Optimus Prime (upon which his Marvel Comics character model was based), in which he also carried two different guns rather than the twin weapons of the final Hasbro toy.
Transformation is pretty clever in the way the robot unfolds into a pretty boxy-looking trailer. The original concept for this toy was for the trailer to be entirely closed in on all sides, but some cost-cutting took place and the trailer is now a little more open than originally intended. The large robot helmet swings back like Galvatron and Blaster to reveal a small, rather dorky-looking head with a nose and mouth (Orion Pax, maybe?) and the helmet stows inside the cab section, in the same way that Minimus Ambus fit inside the cab for Ultra Magnus.
The way the robot feet stow away and the way the pelvis folds at a hinge are pretty Ultra Magnusey, but the rest is not. The robot legs include three folding panels each which swing out to form the sides of the trailer, complete with the familiar blue-and-white stripes and large Autobot symbols emblazoned upon each side. The universal ramps present on these panels actually connect to the sides of the toy to lock them in place. The robot arms also include folding panels, which serve the same function as the large plate on the back of G1 Powermaster Prime, to form the roof of the trailer. The front wall of the trailer, behind the cab, is the only missing piece that betrays the illusion.
Like Ultra Magnus, the fronts of the robot legs form ramps for the vehicle mode, so the back of the trailer can open to store smaller Transformers (there's a lot more cargo room than inside the G1 Powermaster toy, but still not quite enough clearance for a Deluxe-scale car). The grey dual cannons attach to the trailer in the prescribed manner, and the handheld guns can plug into the top of the trailer. There are seven places for a Titan Master to stand, either on the top of the cab or the trailer. The mini-figure who forms Prime's head is named Apex; this could be a callback to the Apex Armor that the reissue of Powermaster Prime allegedly wore. He's sculpted to resemble Hi-Q, but his color mapping is way off (red body and arms, and grey head and legs; Hi-Q had a white body and head, red arms and upper legs, and black lower legs).
Naturally, he's also got a base mode. I guess you could invent a base mode out of just about any toy; this configuration doesn't seem to have any dedicated parts that are sculpted specifically for this transformation (you could put Ultra Magnus in the same pose and get a workable base mode out of it). It's basically the robot mode exploded, with the robot arms poking up in the air and the robot legs splayed to either side. He, too, can connect to Fortress Maximus, though his ramps have to be elevated to get it to work.
I can't get over my excitement about this toy. The original Powermaster Optimus Prime was one of my favorite toys from G1, and this is an incredibly loving tribute, to that specific iteration of the character, that I never expected to see.
Zob (now I just need a little Titan Master version of Tommy Kennedy)
ASTROTRAIN
I'm already on my second Astrotrain toy in as many days. The first Astrotrain I bought came equipped with two left vertical stabilizers. The hinges are shaped a little differently from each other, and a fin on the wrong side will not fold down all the way without popping off first. Luckily, my store had gotten two cases of Voyagers (I left Alpha Trion on the shelf for somebody else) so I was able to make an exchange today. Crisis averted.
I kind of wish I'd never gotten Sentinel Prime. I only own him because my wife ordered an entire case of Galvatron/Sentinel for me, and once I had him in my hands, I was curious about the toy's design and its eventual use as Astrotrain. I never would have sought it out deliberately.
With that said, my Astrotrain experience is somewhat sullied by the existence of Sentinel Prime, because rather than being a novel toy experience, Astrotrain is just more of the same. From an aesthetic standpoint I certainly like him better, but he doesn't bring anything new to the table. I think I really need to stick to my buying the unnecessary pre-deco versions of toys (though I don't know how I'll fare when I meet up with the Megatron-that-isn't-Blitzwing and the Optimus-Prime-that-isn't-Octane).
Astrotrain is tall. I get that he's a transport so in some ways it makes sense for him to be a bit bigger than most of the Deluxe-class toys that are a big part of the Classics/Generations line. Also, eventually every one of the original six Triple Changers will have a Voyager-class toy when all is said and done (Blitzwing, Octane, Springer, Sandstorm, and Broadside) so there's that.
Hasbro finally learned their lesson, and after two versions of Astrotrain that tried to mimic the white-and-black colors of the Japanese G1 toy, this version is closer to the toy from 1985. In robot mode, he's predominantly light grey with some purple for the legs, wings, and those boffo spring-loaded faux landing wheels on his shoulders. I've said it before, but I'll say it again. This is a feature whose only purpose and function is to make him look a little more like his cartoon animation model, and I love it. Plus, it adds more purple to his robot mode, and more purple is always better.
He has some details on his mid-torso that are colored approximately like the consumer-applied stickers on the Hasbro toy from 1985, and he gets a yellow stripe on the top of his head. It's still a far cry from the look of his animation model, which was predominantly a dark grey, but he still reads correctly as "Astrotrain" in some form, at least. It's possible to transform him so that he has either train feet or space shuttle feet. I believe the rounder, smoother space shuttle feet are the "correct" look, and makes him look a bit like he's wearing saddle shoes. The train feet are more squared-off and robotic, and the cow catcher toes are a little closer to the configuration of the G1 toy.
By accident or design, the stabilizer fins on his back mirror the way the fin ends up on the robot's back in the cartoon. (The cartoon design totally ignored the fact that the stabilizer fin unfolded into his chest shield.) Also, I think his huge shoulder pads are a deliberate callback to the Classics toy from 2006. Wow, was that really ten years ago?
His robot mode is so much better than his vehicle modes. This was a weird and ambitious toy design that just doesn't really feel like Astrotrain at all when you transform it. I guess this could be his Cybertronian configuration, which wouldn't have to confirm to existing train models or space shuttle types. (I had this toy in the car today from when I exchanged it, so after I picked up my four-year-old daughter from daycare I showed her his train mode and asked her what she thought it was. She said it was a plane.)
Darkmoon, whose name seems to be a reference to Transformers 3: Dark of the Moon or something, is identical to the Infinitus figure that came with Sentinel Prime, only it turns into an Astrotrain head now. It would have been better, I think, if they had named his head after some character known to have ties to Astrotrain. Maybe Jero from "The God Gambit," or even Talaria. (That would be a horrifying fate for her... forced to serve as the Headmaster component of a most hated Sky God.)
This is a toy that I'll be keeping in robot mode. I don't think I want to ever transform him again.
AUTOBOT BLASTER
In addition to the misassembled Astrotrain I temporarily got stuck with, I also had problems with my first Blaster. That's right, I'm on Blaster number two as well! On the first one, I could not get his right leg to fold up correctly in boom box mode. The left leg was fine, but for some reason the right leg kept popping apart, over and over and over again. There were so many parts that were required to be aligned together that I really didn't know what the problem was. Maybe the robot shoulder was slightly off-kilter. Maybe it was his knee. I really have no idea. I took a chance and exchanged the toy, hoping that it was an isolated problem and that not an issue endemic to the toy's design.
So, we've gotten a few new versions of Blaster here and there, in varying degrees of authenticity and appropriateness. Maybe the best of these was the Fall of Cybertron version from 2013, whose Data Discs that stored in his chest roughly mirrored the functionality of the cassette toys. The Titans Return edition returns to Blaster's roots and has both a boom box mode and spits out cassette-like things from his chest, yay!
Robot mode is incredibly boxy. It's a design philosophy that looks really good on some characters, but here it's almost a bit too much. (As a random aside, does nobody in the world know how to properly transform G1 Blaster? Every picture I see of him shows him with long, visible metal shoulder axles and obvious gaps in his hips and knees. Surely I am not the only person who figured out that these parts can collapse.)
I was a little worried about the way he was packaged, because I didn't know if the boom box handle could fold down for his robot mode or not. I wish they would not mistransform toys in the package, especially if it uglies them up.
As a Leader-class toy, he's exactly the same height as the original G1 Blaster from 1985, who for the record was a preposterously tall toy by Transformer standards (he towered over almost every other toy in the line; he was actually taller than Devastator). So, he's satisfyingly big in a way that mirrors the G1 toy, but it's still a little weird considering the fictional character is just the size of a regular Transformer. His colors and paint deco are almost slavish callbacks to the G1 toy, right down to the pattern of dots inside the faux speakers on his legs. This is about as close a toy gets to being a G1 toy without just being a Diaclone or Microman reissue.
It's worth mentioning that his hips, knees, shoulders, and elbows are all ratcheting joints, which helps to support a toy of this size, but in some ways it's a little annoying.
Functionality in this mode includes a spring-loaded eject button (on his shoulder, suspiciously in the same place as Soundwave's... hmm) that makes his chest door pop open. Inside of Blaster's body is a little picnic basket that holds his cassettes. And, of course, by "cassettes" I mean "spy tablets." The picnic basket is also spring-loaded so that it deploys as soon as you open his chest. He does come with a spy tablet shaped piece of plastic, I guess so you can enjoy all the fun even if you don't want to make an additional purchase. There's a slot to tuck away his Titan Master mini-figure into the fake tablet, like he's frozen in carbonite, and it's just about the only way that the mini-figure can fit inside Blaster when he's in boom box mode. (I tend to stuff the fake tablet into Fortress Maximus' chest so that Blaster can hold one of the transformable toys like Rewind.)
Like Galvatron, Blaster has a helmet that deploys and swings over top of his Titan Master when it's in head mode. The entire assembly rotates and it's a much more successful head-within-a-head than Galvatron. The regular head looks weird, like a really angry Perceptor, but the helmet is styled like Blaster's original 1985 toy, complete with antennas and Batman mask. The whole helmet is made out of clear plastic and is painted except for the visor. He's got a peg on his shoulder which does nothing on this iteration of the toy, but which I suspect is intended to attach Soundwave's shoulder cannon when this mold is revisited. There's also a peg on his butt that remains unused, which is likewise a probable storage medium for Soundwave's weaponry.
His Titan Master, named Twin Cast (the name for the resurrected Blaster from the Headmasters TV series in Japan was Twincast, a play on his original name of Broadcast), is essentially a tiny Blaster figure, and includes sculpted detail like speakers in the legs and a cassette deck chest. His body and arms and head are red (with a silver painted face) and his legs are all black, so it makes him look like a 1987 Targetmaster partner. He really could use some more paint.
To transform him, the robot arms go out to the sides, the helmet tucks away, and the robot legs unfold until they engulf the very Universe itself. It's so good to know that the secret arcane technique of designing Panelformers (more than meets the panels!) is not a dead art. In this form, he's completely hollow. You could totally store, like, ten Titan Master figures inside him. His boom box configuration doesn't match the G1 toy precisely (his speakers are positively huge, and his handle is only about a third the length of the boom box rather than extending nearly to either end) but it's very clearly recognizable as Blaster. His handheld rifle can plug into his back for storage and, as with the G1 toy, it can be rotated pointing up to approximate a radio antenna.
There is a single mini-peg for a Titan Master to stand on top of him. Apparently, this is the gigantic boom box mode that he could transform into from "Madman's Paradise." You kind of have to fold the handle down in order to let him stand up all the way, though. There are some undocumented design features that allow you to expand the play pattern. He has numerous slots on his back that can accommodate USB cables, and there's also a headphone jack and a port for a double-prong power plug. This hearkens back to the days of the Microman line when the pre-Soundwave toy came with a pair of pretend headphones and included features like a volume knob and an on/off switch. His sculpt is rife with other small details, like tiny unpainted microphones in the upper corners above the speakers. He also has some tiny square-shaped ports, including one prominently located on his belly, whose purpose I am not able to readily identify.
So, he's also got a base mode. It essentially involves exploding the legs, pointing his arms up in the air like he just don't care, and connecting the fake tablet to the handle on top. There are six mini-pegs for Titan Master figures on the two main platforms, but they're just slightly too large. They don't fit inside the peg-holes of Twin Cast or any other mini-figures I own. Kind of reminds me of how the pegs for the Action Masters vehicles could only fit in the feet of figures that came with vehicles (Optimus Prime, Wheeljack) but not the single-pack carded figures (Jazz, Grimlock).
Similar to the Micromaster Stations and Micromaster Bases from 1989-90, every Titans Return toy with a base mode is equipped with universal ramp pieces. That means any toy can connect to any other toy, or even another copy of itself. The available toys are somewhat limited at the moment, but I've been playing around tonight with different ways Blaster can attach to Powermaster Optimus Prime or to Fortress Maximus. You do kind of have to modify Fort Max's base mode and deviate from the official transformation in order to get it to work, but his transformations are so vague and ill-defined anyway that fan interpretations are almost mandatory. (For the record, the ramps on Fort Max's robot arms seem to work the best, but only when the arms are swung down and parallel with the legs. When the arms are above Fort Max's head, the other toys can't reach the ramps. I can't seem to find a use for the ramp in Fort Max's chest at all right now.
This toy was planned from the get-go to be remolded into Soundwave, who based on Internet photos looks equally and alarmingly chunky. It will not be the definitive Soundwave by any stretch of the imagination (the Masterpiece toy will forever hold that title), but we've reached a point now where many characters are getting updates that are inferior to previous versions (Cyclonus, Wheeljack, Hound, etc.) I arguably don't need a Headmaster Soundwave, but I will probably buy the toy when I see it.
POWERMASTER OPTIMUS PRIME
We've gotten plenty of Optimus Prime toys over the years, and several that homage the original G1 toy, but this is the first one that's specifically intended to pay tribute to the Powermaster edition of the character from 1988. After his death in The Transformers: the Movie and his absence from the Transformers mythos for two long years, Optimus Prime was brought back with the ability to combine with his trailer module into a super robot.
A quick anecdote: The first toy from the 1988 assortment I ever got was Hosehead, and while he was a cool toy, I was almost more fascinated with the battle scene on the back of his box, which showcased toys I'd never heard of or seen before. Specifically, there was this great, big Optimus Prime toy, whose artwork showcased a tiny little figure flying away from the cab, shapeshifting in mid-air, and connecting with Prime in robot mode. I had, perhaps naturally, assumed that this was a Headmaster version of Optimus Prime, a gimmick that I was well familiar with since it had been introduced the previous year. I was so enamored with the idea that I was in some ways crestfallen to discover that the new toy I'd been expecting was actually a Powermaster. So, the advent of a Headmaster edition of Optimus Prime is something that I'd anticipated way back in 1988!
The version from Titans Return shares some tooling with Combiner Wars Ultra Magnus, but the two toys have so little in common that I keep forgetting that Optimus isn't an all-new mold. The size and shape of the cab in truck mode feels familiar, the robot feet are the same, and the guns are identical, but aside from that, this might as well be an entirely new toy.
Robot mode is pretty epic. His styling absolutely screams Powermaster Prime, right down to the grey dual blasters on his shoulders, mirroring the smokestacks on the G1 toy, and the more elaborate helmet design with the twin rounded components on either side. The sophisticated-looking engine in the center of his torso hearkens back to the functional Powermaster engine of the 1988 toy, but also seems to pay homage to God Bomber as well (and, yes, there is already a third-party add-on that will turn this toy into Super God Jinrai).
Due to the way the panels wrap all the way around to the insides of the legs, Masterpiece Bumblebee style, he's one of the few Transformers toys who must stand like a cowboy with his legs splayed apart——his design simply cannot accommodate a standing-at-attention pose. He comes with the same handheld guns as Ultra Magnus, and he has the same hands as Magnus, with the opening fingers, to hold them. The guns can connect together, but he lacks the missile pods required to complete the hammer configuration. Something interesting about the guns being different than each other is that it nicely mirrors the original design for Powermaster Optimus Prime (upon which his Marvel Comics character model was based), in which he also carried two different guns rather than the twin weapons of the final Hasbro toy.
Transformation is pretty clever in the way the robot unfolds into a pretty boxy-looking trailer. The original concept for this toy was for the trailer to be entirely closed in on all sides, but some cost-cutting took place and the trailer is now a little more open than originally intended. The large robot helmet swings back like Galvatron and Blaster to reveal a small, rather dorky-looking head with a nose and mouth (Orion Pax, maybe?) and the helmet stows inside the cab section, in the same way that Minimus Ambus fit inside the cab for Ultra Magnus.
The way the robot feet stow away and the way the pelvis folds at a hinge are pretty Ultra Magnusey, but the rest is not. The robot legs include three folding panels each which swing out to form the sides of the trailer, complete with the familiar blue-and-white stripes and large Autobot symbols emblazoned upon each side. The universal ramps present on these panels actually connect to the sides of the toy to lock them in place. The robot arms also include folding panels, which serve the same function as the large plate on the back of G1 Powermaster Prime, to form the roof of the trailer. The front wall of the trailer, behind the cab, is the only missing piece that betrays the illusion.
Like Ultra Magnus, the fronts of the robot legs form ramps for the vehicle mode, so the back of the trailer can open to store smaller Transformers (there's a lot more cargo room than inside the G1 Powermaster toy, but still not quite enough clearance for a Deluxe-scale car). The grey dual cannons attach to the trailer in the prescribed manner, and the handheld guns can plug into the top of the trailer. There are seven places for a Titan Master to stand, either on the top of the cab or the trailer. The mini-figure who forms Prime's head is named Apex; this could be a callback to the Apex Armor that the reissue of Powermaster Prime allegedly wore. He's sculpted to resemble Hi-Q, but his color mapping is way off (red body and arms, and grey head and legs; Hi-Q had a white body and head, red arms and upper legs, and black lower legs).
Naturally, he's also got a base mode. I guess you could invent a base mode out of just about any toy; this configuration doesn't seem to have any dedicated parts that are sculpted specifically for this transformation (you could put Ultra Magnus in the same pose and get a workable base mode out of it). It's basically the robot mode exploded, with the robot arms poking up in the air and the robot legs splayed to either side. He, too, can connect to Fortress Maximus, though his ramps have to be elevated to get it to work.
I can't get over my excitement about this toy. The original Powermaster Optimus Prime was one of my favorite toys from G1, and this is an incredibly loving tribute, to that specific iteration of the character, that I never expected to see.
Zob (now I just need a little Titan Master version of Tommy Kennedy)
Gustavo Wombat, of the Seattle Wombats
Dec 4, 2016, 4:14:57 AM12/4/16
to
On Friday, December 2, 2016 at 9:17:32 PM UTC-8, Zobovor wrote:
> I've had some interesting adventures with these guys. Sometimes the toy gods smile upon me and bless me with good fortune, and sometimes they enjoy toying with me. Because they're toy gods and that's just what they do.
>
> ASTROTRAIN
>
> I've had some interesting adventures with these guys. Sometimes the toy gods smile upon me and bless me with good fortune, and sometimes they enjoy toying with me. Because they're toy gods and that's just what they do.
>
> ASTROTRAIN
>
> I left Alpha Trion on the shelf for somebody else
I may be the only person who really likes that mold. It doesn't feel like Alpha Trion in any way (if I didn't know he was Alpha Trion, I would never guess), but he's a fun toy.
> I kind of wish I'd never gotten Sentinel Prime. I only own him because my wife ordered an entire case of Galvatron/Sentinel for me, and once I had him in my hands, I was curious about the toy's design and its eventual use as Astrotrain. I never would have sought it out deliberately.
>
> With that said, my Astrotrain experience is somewhat sullied by the existence of Sentinel Prime, because rather than being a novel toy experience, Astrotrain is just more of the same. From an aesthetic standpoint I certainly like him better, but he doesn't bring anything new to the table. I think I really need to stick to my buying the unnecessary pre-deco versions of toys (though I don't know how I'll fare when I meet up with the Megatron-that-isn't-Blitzwing and the Optimus-Prime-that-isn't-Octane).
I really cannot get over how much I like this toy that I really shouldn't. And how shitty the stickers look.
> Hasbro finally learned their lesson, and after two versions of Astrotrain that tried to mimic the white-and-black colors of the Japanese G1 toy, this version is closer to the toy from 1985. In robot mode, he's predominantly light grey with some purple for the legs, wings, and those boffo spring-loaded faux landing wheels on his shoulders. I've said it before, but I'll say it again. This is a feature whose only purpose and function is to make him look a little more like his cartoon animation model, and I love it. Plus, it adds more purple to his robot mode, and more purple is always better.
I might have liked animation colors, but I am getting used to him being a lot lighter. I do wish that some version of the mold had bothered to paint the little windows on the space ship mode.
> His robot mode is so much better than his vehicle modes. This was a weird and ambitious toy design that just doesn't really feel like Astrotrain at all when you transform it. I guess this could be his Cybertronian configuration, which wouldn't have to confirm to existing train models or space shuttle types.
> (I had this toy in the car today from when I exchanged it, so after I picked up my four-year-old daughter from daycare I showed her his train mode and asked her what she thought it was. She said it was a plane.)
> Darkmoon, whose name seems to be a reference to Transformers 3: Dark of the Moon
>or something, is identical to the Infinitus figure that came with Sentinel Prime, only it turns into an Astrotrain head now. It would have been better, I think, if they had named his head after some character known to have ties to Astrotrain. Maybe Jero from "The God Gambit," or even Talaria. (That would be a horrifying fate for her... forced to serve as the Headmaster component of a most hated Sky God.)
> This is a toy that I'll be keeping in robot mode. I don't think I want to ever transform him again.
> AUTOBOT BLASTER
Meh. He's a box.
> His Titan Master, named Twin Cast (the name for the resurrected Blaster from the Headmasters TV series in Japan was Twincast, a play on his original name of Broadcast), is essentially a tiny Blaster figure, and includes sculpted detail like speakers in the legs and a cassette deck chest.
> This toy was planned from the get-go to be remolded into Soundwave, who based on Internet photos looks equally and alarmingly chunky. It will not be the definitive Soundwave by any stretch of the imagination (the Masterpiece toy will forever hold that title), but we've reached a point now where many characters are getting updates that are inferior to previous versions (Cyclonus, Wheeljack, Hound, etc.) I arguably don't need a Headmaster Soundwave, but I will probably buy the toy when I see it.
> POWERMASTER OPTIMUS PRIME
Ok, he's not a bad toy, but I really love the G1 toy, and have accepted all his flaws (two points of articulation!), and this toy has all different flaws.
> The version from Titans Return shares some tooling with Combiner Wars Ultra Magnus, but the two toys have so little in common that I keep forgetting that Optimus isn't an all-new mold. The size and shape of the cab in truck mode feels familiar, the robot feet are the same, and the guns are identical, but aside from that, this might as well be an entirely new toy.
I think you generally undersell the similarity of the molds. They have the same basic transformation, except for folding the trailer around the legs, where they get in the way.
> Robot mode is pretty epic. His styling absolutely screams Powermaster Prime, right down to the grey dual blasters on his shoulders, mirroring the smokestacks on the G1 toy, and the more elaborate helmet design with the twin rounded components on either side. The sophisticated-looking engine in the center of his torso hearkens back to the functional Powermaster engine of the 1988 toy, but also seems to pay homage to God Bomber as well (and, yes, there is already a third-party add-on that will turn this toy into Super God Jinrai).
> Due to the way the panels wrap all the way around to the insides of the legs, Masterpiece Bumblebee style, he's one of the few Transformers toys who must stand like a cowboy with his legs splayed apart——his design simply cannot accommodate a standing-at-attention pose.
> I can't get over my excitement about this toy. The original Powermaster Optimus Prime was one of my favorite toys from G1, and this is an incredibly loving tribute, to that specific iteration of the character, that I never expected to see.
Zobovor
Dec 4, 2016, 1:36:45 PM12/4/16
to
On Sunday, December 4, 2016 at 2:14:57 AM UTC-7, Gustavo Wombat, of the Seattle Wombats wrote:
> I may be the only person who really likes that mold. It doesn't feel like
> Alpha Trion in any way (if I didn't know he was Alpha Trion, I would never
> guess), but he's a fun toy.
It's possible I may suffer from a moment of weakness and snatch him up at some future date when I'm craving something new to buy and there are no must-have toys on the shelves. After dropping $115 on toys in one visit, though, I just didn't feel that urge.
> I may be the only person who really likes that mold. It doesn't feel like
> Alpha Trion in any way (if I didn't know he was Alpha Trion, I would never
> guess), but he's a fun toy.
> I really cannot get over how much I like this toy that I really shouldn't.
> And how shitty the stickers look.
> All of the Voyagers have something to try to bulk up the heads. With
> Astrotrain, it just happens that the original character model has something
> that works.
> I might have liked animation colors, but I am getting used to him being a lot
> lighter. I do wish that some version of the mold had bothered to paint the
> little windows on the space ship mode.
>> I showed her his train mode and asked her what she thought it was. She said
>> it was a plane.)
>
> Planes have wings.
> Titan Masters aren't humans I believe. That said, Jero would be fine. And
> Blitzwing comes with Coach.
>> AUTOBOT BLASTER
>
> Meh. He's a box.
>> I arguably don't need a Headmaster Soundwave, but I will probably buy the
>> toy when I see it.
>
> Speaking of inferior updates...
We've gotten a previous version of Wheeljack, but we never got one that could combine. We got earlier versions of Soundwave, but never one that was a Headmaster. I think that's what we're going to be seeing from this point, going forward... gimmick-driven themes encompassing an entire toy range, with older characters shoehorned into the new gimmick. Maybe we'll get Pretender versions of Optimus Prime and Megatron next. Maybe we'll get Micromaster versions. Maybe they'll do an entire range of spring-loaded, flip-open Jumpstarters, and we'll all be buying new versions of Jazz and Starscream and Bumblebee all over again, just because the toys could do something novel and different.
(Note: I am aware there was already a Jumpstarter version of Starscream.)
> I don't like the shape of the cab on either toy, and the hands don't really
> hold the weapons well.
> I think you generally undersell the similarity of the molds. They have the
> same basic transformation, except for folding the trailer around the legs,
> where they get in the way.
> The gray is almost tan. It's a weird putty color, and reminds me of an old
> IBM computer.
Zob (admits to being extra-forgiving of a toy's inherent flaws when it's a loving G1 tribute)
Gustavo Wombat, of the Seattle Wombats
Dec 5, 2016, 4:11:49 AM12/5/16
to
On Sunday, December 4, 2016 at 10:36:45 AM UTC-8, Zobovor wrote:
> On Sunday, December 4, 2016 at 2:14:57 AM UTC-7, Gustavo Wombat, of the
>
> On Sunday, December 4, 2016 at 2:14:57 AM UTC-7, Gustavo Wombat, of the
>
> > I really cannot get over how much I like this toy that I really shouldn't.
> > And how shitty the stickers look.
>
> Are the stickers factory-applied or do you slap them on yourself? If they're optional, that might improve the toy. (I never put the stickers on Combiner Wars Megatron. Those weird squiggly ones meant to evoke the Walther P-38 styling.)
They are pre-applied. And they are terrible. Also, the one on the plane's nose cone refuses to either hold to the surface of the curve or fall off entirely. It's weird, it just sticks along a small line and doesn't fold at all.
> > And how shitty the stickers look.
>
> Are the stickers factory-applied or do you slap them on yourself? If they're optional, that might improve the toy. (I never put the stickers on Combiner Wars Megatron. Those weird squiggly ones meant to evoke the Walther P-38 styling.)
> > I might have liked animation colors, but I am getting used to him being a lot
> > lighter. I do wish that some version of the mold had bothered to paint the
> > little windows on the space ship mode.
>
> I guess they're unpainted to help them hide better when he's in train mode. He didn't even get painted train wheels, though, and even Sentinel Prime got those!
> >> I showed her his train mode and asked her what she thought it was. She said
> >> it was a plane.)
> >
> > Planes have wings.
>
> Exactly my point! The train mode is still stuck with the vertical stabilizers. There's no way to eliminate them entirely, because of the decision to make the Titan Master cockpit serve double-duty for both vehicle forms.
> > Titan Masters aren't humans I believe. That said, Jero would be fine. And
> > Blitzwing comes with Coach.
>
> I would kind of love that. (Especially if there was some kind of fun meta-reference, like naming him Coach Stephenson after the late voice actor.)
The Decepticons are like a smaller scale version -- they were designed as war machines, and then left on their own. A few, like Megatron, have ambition, but a lot of the rest just don't. Like Blitzwing, who wanted to build defenses for something needed the Coach to give him purpose. Likewise, Shockwave did nothing with Cybertron for millions of years.
The Autobots seem a bit more autonomous. They were built for civilian use, and may have been allowed more independence. Or this may be the corruption the Quintessons mention in "A Killing Jar".
Anyway, Blitzwing's partner is Coach, and I don't care how Hasbro spells it (for instance, they might get every single letter wrong and make it a different number of syllables, for trademark purposes)
> >> AUTOBOT BLASTER
> >
> > Meh. He's a box.
>
> But he's a delicious retro 80's box!
>
> >> I arguably don't need a Headmaster Soundwave, but I will probably buy the
> >> toy when I see it.
> >
> > Speaking of inferior updates...
>
> > I don't like the shape of the cab on either toy, and the hands don't really
> > hold the weapons well.
>
> No, they really don't. You really have to plug the guns into the plates behind his hands, since his fingers are basically useless as far as holding the weapons is concerned.
The Japanese Ginrai release appears to fix both the cab shape and the hands.
> > hold the weapons well.
>
> No, they really don't. You really have to plug the guns into the plates behind his hands, since his fingers are basically useless as far as holding the weapons is concerned.
> > The gray is almost tan. It's a weird putty color, and reminds me of an old
> > IBM computer.
>
> It's authentic to the 1988 Powermaster toy. That's one of the reasons the toy reads as such a great homage to my eyes. They totally nailed the colors.
Zobovor
Dec 9, 2016, 12:46:37 AM12/9/16
to
On Monday, December 5, 2016 at 2:11:49 AM UTC-7, Gustavo Wombat, of the Seattle Wombats wrote:
> The Japanese Ginrai release appears to fix both the cab shape and the hands.
Damn. Day-amn. I love the look of the Takara version. I've never pined for a Japanese toy this much since the Henkei version of Smokescreen.
> The Japanese Ginrai release appears to fix both the cab shape and the hands.
I still love Titans Return Prime, but... wow. I really like the look of the Takara toy so much better.
Zob (and he's even got an Optimus Prime face under the helmet instead of an Orion Pax face!)
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