Zob's Thoughts on Power of the Primes Deluxe-Class Dreadwind, Autobot Jazz, Dinobot "Slug" (Slag), and Dinobot Swoop

[Zobovor]

Today was a very exciting day at work. I got about eight pallets' worth of all-new toys (the semi-annual reset in the toy department is coming soon) and among them were cases of the Power of the Primes in Leader, Voyager, Deluxe, and Legends flavors. No sign of the Prime Masters, unfortunately, so I kind of wonder what's going on there. (And, yes, I took care of all eight pallets, because I'm a human dynamo. Just call me Hector Dialonzo.)

So, when these toys were first unveiled, I decried the new play pattern because I didn't really get it. I think maybe I can understand what they were trying to do now. Titans Return was great, but its design requirements dictated that a) every robot be a Headmaster and b) every transformed mode have a cockpit for the Titan Master to sit in. This was fine, but it put hard limits on elements of the toy designs. For the new toy line, Hasbro wanted to bring back the Combiner Wars play pattern, which would be incompatible with the existing Titans Return play pattern. So, they came up with a compromise.

Just as the Titans Return toy line gave us modern-day Headmasters, Power of the Primes is basically updated Powermasters. The Prime Armor is styled like a gigantic engine. The problem with the old Powermaster toys was that they required a dedicated port to plug the engine in, and the gimmick was designed mainly for the vehicle mode (the engines weren't always accessible when they toys were in robot mode). So, the new engines simply attach to the toys with five-millimeter pegs, which eliminates the need for dedicated ports. The engines are also designed to function as a seat for a Titan Master or Prime Master mini-figure, which solves the problem of incorporating functional cockpits into the designs. This means that the mini-figures can still partner up with even the Combiner Wars toys. Finally, the engines also double as the fist for combiner mode (not a foot, this time) so it still exhibits some semblance of usefulness.

The case assortment was Dreadwind (x2), Jazz (x2), Slag (x2), and Swoop (x2). (Incidentally, the shipping case reads "Prime Wars," ostensibly the early working name for the toy line, rather than Power of the Primes.)

DREADWIND

Originally, Dreadwind was a Decepticon Powermaster, the flying partner of Darkwing. Released in 1988, they could transform to robot mode and also combine with each other in vehicle mode to form the super jet, Dreadwing. He was a typical toy of the era: durable, but not much articulation.

Weirdly, Dreadwind is doing a little dance in his packaging, as if he's scrambling to run away from a gigantic Autobot symbol before it lands on his head or something. I guess they couldn't fit him into the standard-sized bubble.

The new Dreadwind recycles mold elements from the Combiner Wars version of Skydive. Both toys are F-16ish, with dual vertical stabilizer fins instead of the single one on the real F-16 Falcon. Rather than just getting a new head sculpt, though, the toy got a major makeover to turn him into Dreadwind. The jet mode elements are the same (including the wings), and the toys share the same robot biceps and forearms and legs, but the robot head, chest, shoulders, and gun are all new. His weapon is styled directly after the G1 accessory.

Due to the way the toy is designed, Dreadwind's wings are on his legs now instead of folded up on his back. However, in most of his appearances in Marvel Comics, his wings disappeared altogether (I think somebody was interpreting the missiles at the tips of his wings as being connected to his elbows, so that's how he was usually drawn) so this is at least accurate to his media appearance. A slightly bigger design issue is the fact that his chest-mounted cockpit is absent. Granted, Dreadwind isn't an iconic character like Starscream, so minor design changes like this may perhaps be more forgivable. Also, I think it was unavoidable on this toy, at least without making the jet cockpit detachable and giving you the option of plugging it into his chest. His color scheme, along with the rest of his design, ensures that he still looks like himself.

He only comes with one gun, which is unfortunate (the G1 toy came with two, one for each side in jet mode). His engine component, called Prime Armor in this toy line, can plug into the top of the jet when he's in vehicle mode, strongly resembling the transformed engine configuration of Hi-Test, his Powermaster partner (like Dreadwind, it's purple with teal and grey). There is an "engine cover" piece that's removable, and it's molded to look like a small, triple-barreled handheld weapon that Dreadwind can carry.

When he's a robot, the Prime Armor can either be worn on his arm like a shield, or there is also a hidden flip-down panel on his chest, embedded within the Combiner Wars connector peg tumbler, that reveals a peg hole so you can plug it into his chest as well. The Prime Armor can accommodate a Titan Master mini-figure when it's folded up into a Headmaster head, but its real purpose is to plug in a Prime Master, so that one of the Primes can intermix and mingle his powers with Dreadwind's own. (For the record, my collector card is Quintus Dreadwind, who "creates vile and menacing creatures.")

His instructions show how he can combine with Grimlock, Jazz, Slug, and Swoop. My suspicion is that there will eventually be an all-Decepticon combiner group he can belong to, but right now Hasbro wants to demonstrate how you can combine the toys currently on the market (just like with Combiner Wars when Drag Strip was lumped together with the Aerialbots). The side panel of his packaging show cases Starscream, who is arguably the Decepticon he's really meant to combine with. (The artwork obscures who is forming the legs and the other arm, though. One leg might be Sinnertwin?) Incidentally, there is nothing in his instructions about combining with the currently-unreleased Blackwing (Darkwing), so I'm not sure if it will be exclusive to Blackwing's instructions, or whether it will be some sort of undocumented feature.

The Prime Armor plugged into his chest does look completely ridiculous and stupid. However, at least they're trying to play up the intercompatibility of the toys in a way that's modular and removable, and doesn't adversely affect the design of the individual toys. If you don't like the armor, at least you can remove it. (It looks better on some toys than others, definitely.)

It bugs me that he's missing the chest cockpit, but not as much as I thought it would. His head sculpt is great, and it's nice to have a Dreadwind who can actually raise his arms (the original had elbow joints, but his shoulders were frozen in place). I don't even mind that he's a recycled Combiner Wars toy. I think I even proposed once that the Skydive toy would make a good Dreadwind, and I'm glad somebody at Hasbro was thinking the same thing.

Also, I'm really glad that I didn't end up paying hundreds of dollars for the BotCon toy (the redeco of Skyfire). I was so desperate for any new version of the character that it was at the top of my want list for a while. This version is, in my estimate, even more desirable because it was actually designed to look like the character.

JAZZ

The toy is actually marketed as Autobot Jazz, which is fine with me as long as they never call him Agent Meister ever again.

So, I think we've reached the point where Hasbro is getting a little more experimental. They already gave us a really good Special Ops Jazz back during the Reveal the Shield toy line, so I think the thought process was that they wanted to do something a bit different with the character this time. That's my theory, anyway.

As a robot, Jazz looks really cool. The vehicle hood that forms his upper body is curved and swept back and stylish and it makes him look really futuristic. There's a hint of his racing stripe deco on the front of his abdomen (there is a folding panel from his vehicle hood that ends up there) and he's very clearly recognizable as the G1 character. His color mapping is good, though for some reason his fists are white in addition to his forearms. This deserves closer examination, as his fists are actually a separate piece from his forearms, plugged in place with a mushroom peg. The fists don't even rotate, so I think the only reason they're a different color of plastic was because the plan was to make them black, like they're supposed to be. (Well, I guess a dye job wouldn't be too difficult.) He carries a white gun that's painted silver except for the handle.

Also, they did a great job of hiding the Combiner Wars connector peg tumbler. It's still embedded within his chest, but it's almost invisible thanks to the way his vehicle hood folds over to form the chest.

To transform him, his toes tuck in and his lower legs open like a lot of Combiner Wars toys so you can tuck the upper legs inside. His entire upper body is attached to his roof and windshield assembly and is mounted to the body with an elaborate hinge system. In fact, his entire vehicle hood and windshield is a single piece of clear plastic that's painted white, except for the windows and headlights (the headlights are painted blue, but from the inside rather than on the outside). I do like what they did with the multiple folding panels on his hood, which allows his head to tuck away and hide but still gives him the correct uninterrupted racing stripes.

Jazz was originally a Porsche 935, but the new version is closer to a Porsche 962. His vehicle styling is now closer to characters like Triggerbot Backstreet or G2 Color Changers Drench or Tonka GoBots Crasher. It's definitely a different look for the character. I originally posited a theory that this toy was actually a predeco and that the true intended use for this toy had yet to be revealed to us. The toy really doesn't transform in the right way to represent Backstreet or Crasher, though. I guess it could work well enough as Drench in the right colors.

His Powermaster engine can mount to the top of the car near the rear. It's entirely black with a translucent engine cover. His gun can either attach to the same spot, or else can mount to a secondary hole on either side of the canopy. Supposedly, it's designed to attach to his chest in robot mode, but I can't quite figure out how to get it to connect securely. It seems like the thumbs on the combiner fist are supposed to plug into tab-holes on his front bumper, but you have to tuck the thumbs in slightly and it's just not a very secure fit. He can also wear the Prime Armor on his forearm.

The side panel on Jazz's packaging shows him combined with Elita One and Moonracer; I can't tell who has formed the other arm and leg of the combined mode. I would have thought that the female Autobots would get their own combiner and that, eventually, Jazz and Inferno would get enough team members to form their own as well. I know that the Combiner Wars toy line had a few stragglers without a full team (like Cyclonus), so maybe Hasbro's not as worried about giving us five-member combiner teams this time.

My collector card is Alchemist Jazz, who "defeats enemies by spontaneous matter disruption." And, yes, I got the version of Jazz with the abbreviated "Make America Great Again" slogan printed in extremely small Cybertronic text. I don't know if there is a corrected, non-MAGA version planned or not.

This isn't a terrible toy, but the vehicle styling is really decidedly un-Jazzlike. Even with the correct colors and racing stripes, it's so different from what the character usually transforms into that I'm having some trouble accepting it. Obviously, not every new toy has to be a slavish attempt to copy G1, but they've been so consistent about doing it that way lately that this one has got me thrown for a loop.

DINOBOT "SLUG" (SLAG)

Poor Slag likely won't ever be called Slag by Hasbro again. They can't keep calling him Snarl, though, like they did with the Robot Heroes toy line, since they'll be completing the Dinobot team and there's going to be an actual Snarl this time.

This is a really good update of Slag. He strongly resembles the G1 toy in both modes, but has all the articulation you'd expect from a modern-day toy. He's slightly smaller than the G1 version (about five and a half inches tall at the head) but has ball joints at the hips and shoulders, hinged joints at the elbows and knees, and a swivel waist. He even has head articulation now, though the way it's embedded in armor makes it hard to get to. His styling is more Hasbro toy than Sunbow cartoon; he has a black head and face with red eyes, rather than the red helmet and face and blue eyes he did in animation. He also lacks the wings in robot mode that were originally formed by parts of his dinosaur shell that opened. His gun is a good semblance of his G1 handheld weapon.

Transformation is pretty faithful to G1. His fists tuck away, his dinosaur mouth closes, and his knees tuck in. The dinosaur tail is actually cut in half with each half folded up inside his lower legs, rather than the way the G1 toy just dragged it around behind him in robot mode. It's important to tuck in his heel stabilizers or else you won't be able to fold up his knees all the way.

Triceratops mode is, again, sort of a baby version of the G1 toy (not quite six inches in length). The proportions are a little different; his tail is shorter and his head is tiny compared to the size of his body. His frilled crown is flat against his body rather than protruding out, and his horns seem kind of puny. The horns, incidentally, are made of rubbery plastic. They're also red, like the Hasbro toy, rather than the silver of the Diaclone toy (which is what his cartoon animation model was based on). The toy is designed so that you can mount his handheld gun to the dinosaur's chin, or one of its rear legs.

Something really interesting about his design is that his triceratops head and tail, as well as his hips, are made of clear plastic but are painted gold from the inside. This is a nifty way of mirroring the design of the G1 toys (which had vacuum metalized gold components inside the dinosaur head and tail, wrapped in smoky translucent plastic). I like it.

His Prime Armor is made to mount on his back, and he looks cool with a Titan Master on top playing Dino Riders. It's designed with protruding spikes that really adds to the primitive look. For robot mode, the Prime Armor can be worn on his forearm or plugs into the hole in his chest (the dinosaur's lower jaw). Collector card I got was Nexus Slug, who "combines with others to do maximum damage."

I will confess that his arm and leg modes look awfully silly, though this could just be since he's not traditionally a combining character, so I'm not accustomed to it yet. I will say that I've been wanting Generations versions of the Dinobots for a really long time, and it's great to finally get a worthy update for them. Slag is great.

DINOBOT SWOOP

I really think Hasbro was confused over what colors Swoop was going to be. When they unveiled him at HasCon, stock photography of him was red (just like the 1984 toy), but they asked to please ignore those pictures because the final sample on the showroom floor was blue (the color of the Diaclone toy, and the basis of his cartoon animation model). At the time, I'd thought it was evidence of a running change. Now I suspect it's more the result of Hasbro and Takara's decision to move towards a more unified market. Hasbro probably had been planning on selling the red version, but it's likely Takara wanted blue and eventually won that argument. Despite this, all of the artwork and CGI renders on Swoop's toy packaging showcase a red toy despite the final version being blue.

Where Slag is a bit smaller than the G1 toy, the new Swoop is a little bigger. As a robot, he stands about five and a half inches. His head sculpt appears to be modeled after the cartoon design (individual eyes, rather than the Jazz-like visor of the G1 toy) but it's colored more like the toy (a black head with a silver face and red crest, rather than the red head and grey face from the cartoon series). He's also got details like the green stripes on his wrists and the tampographs on his chest that evoke the consumer-applied stickers on the G1 toy.

He carries a sword that is clear plastic but painted entirely red, except for the handle. If they had painted it a semi-translucent color, like the paint used in suncatchers, this might have been a really attractive look.

Transformation isn't too different from the G1 toy. The fists fold in and the arms tuck up against the robot body as best as they're able to, but no longer slide in at the shoulders. The chest becomes the pteranodon beak as you might expect, and the legs fold up at the knees in the usual way. The legs connect together to form a single backpack instead of the individual "humps" on the G1 toy. The wings actually exhibit more articulation in robot mode, since the legs plug into the wings at the base, and thus lose some of their movement.

As a pteranodon, he can stand upright or, after craning his head up, can be positioned on his belly, like the G1 toy. (This version does not have a landing gear.) His wingspan is only just slightly smaller than that of the G1 toy, despite being an overall larger toy. Each wing can pivot up and down on a hinge or can swing forward, and the tips can even point all the way forward like some kind of Beast Wars attack mode. The sword can plug under the beak if you want him to look completely ridiculous. Like Slag, his dinosaur head is made of clear plastic with gold paint on the inside. What's more, he's actually got eyes this time! (The G1 toy didn't have eyes in pteranodon mode at all.) He also has about eight places for a Titan Master or Prime Master to stand on top of him.

He doesn't have his missile launchers, though, or even any place to mount them. Which is funny, considering he's still described as a bombardier on his packaging, and yet he doesn't have any armaments to bombard anybody with.

The Prime Armor he comes with is identical to that of Slag's, with the spiky horns poking out. Adding his Prime Armor allows either a mini-figure to ride him and play How to Train Your Pterodactyl, or you can plug a Prime into him and imbue him with all sorts of random powers. Of these four toys, Swoop is the only one not designed for Prime Armor to connect to his chest. He can wear it on his forearm, and that's it. (Collector card is Alchemist Swoop, who "plants disorienting fear inside enemy circuits.")

Turning him into an arm or a leg involves unhooking his pteranodon head on this weird hinged assembly, a design aspect which I'm not really fond of. I think I would prefer if his head were fully integrated into the toy instead of being attached the way it is. But, I accept that it's necessary for the combined mode. Overall, I really like him. His wings are articulated, finally, and the extra joints mean he's less fragile.



Zob (bought the Leader-class Optimus Prime and Rodimus Prime today as well, and I am now officially out of money for a while)

[Gustavo Wombat, of the Seattle Wombats]

On Tuesday, January 9, 2018 at 11:00:21 PM UTC-8, Zobovor wrote:

> DINOBOT SWOOP

> He doesn't have his missile launchers, though, or even any place to mount them. Which is funny, considering he's still described as a bombardier on his packaging, and yet he doesn't have any armaments to bombard anybody with.

He shits on people. He's a bombardier just like a pigeon is.

[brianj...@gmail.com]

>
> JAZZ

> Jazz was originally a Porsche 935, but the new version is closer to a Porsche 962. This isn't a terrible toy, but the vehicle styling is really decidedly un-Jazzlike. Even with the correct colors and racing stripes, it's so different from what the character usually transforms into that I'm having some trouble accepting it. Obviously, not every new toy has to be a slavish attempt to copy G1, but they've been so consistent about doing it that way lately that this one has got me thrown for a loop.

It's funny how we think this way sometimes. Lockdown would mock us for thinking that we are the center of the universe. We insist Jazz is supposed to be a Porsche 935, Optimus Prime a semi, Bumblebee a (deformed) VW Bug, Laserbeak a (micro)cassette, etc.

But as far as we can tell, Jazz was a Porsche 935 for maybe about 21 years (1984-2006) or so - out of MILLIONS of years of his life. He didn't even get to choose his Porsche mode, Teletraan did. And really, he probably should have updated while on earth, as a bunch of 80s sports cars didn't blend in very well in the far-flung future of 2005.

Which makes me wonder. Were Hot Rod, Kup, Arcee, etc meant to be cybertronic vehicles or 2005-era earth vehicles?

Back to the point. Yes, in our world, calling a non-Porsche un-Jazz-like is accurate. But to Jazz, that would be very narrow minded. Wow, I wonder how different we would have viewed Transformers if for the first year or two the show was set on Cybertron with Cybertron vehicle modes (and toys) and then they came to earth the third year and reformatted. Real life answer - without recognizable alt modes that we loved as kids, Transformers wouldn't have had any significant impact and died out after a year or two.

Last point, apparently Laserbeak _always_ transformed into a microcassette, so he's a bad example above.


SLAG

>
> I will confess that his arm and leg modes look awfully silly, though this could just be since he's not traditionally a combining character, so I'm not accustomed to it yet.

Take a look back at some of the G1 combiner modes and I think you'll appreciate it more. It's certainly better than some of the car mode with a fist at the end (Dragstrip, Dead End) or squished robot mode with a foot (Swindle, Sinnertwin).

>
> DINOBOT SWOOP
>
> I really think Hasbro was confused over what colors Swoop was going to be. When they unveiled him at HasCon, stock photography of him was red (just like the 1984 toy), but they asked to please ignore those pictures because the final sample on the showroom floor was blue (the color of the Diaclone toy, and the basis of his cartoon animation model). At the time, I'd thought it was evidence of a running change. Now I suspect it's more the result of Hasbro and Takara's decision to move towards a more unified market. Hasbro probably had been planning on selling the red version, but it's likely Takara wanted blue and eventually won that argument. Despite this, all of the artwork and CGI renders on Swoop's toy packaging showcase a red toy despite the final version being blue.
>

This is probably right, but I wonder if there is something else at play here. I went to HasCon this year and when they were talking about the Dinos they said a very interesting tidbit, (paraphrasing) "when we went to design the Dinobots we went back to their original Diaclones" - they even had a few Diaclone pictures. I thought it was odd they would do this instead of referencing either the 1985 releases or the cartoon models. What it might mean is that these guys might get recolored in Diaclone schemes (black chested Snarl, blue waisted Grimlock). That way, we all buy blue Swoop now, then when red Swoop is released later and some people prefer the matching decos over toon accuracy they have a leftover blue Swoop so they say they might as well buy the rest of the Diaclone set.

Of course, the Dinobots are *so* recognizable that it would be hard to repaint them and sell them as new characters, and the Diaclone colors aren't super-cool different than the Hasbro colors so they might be a hard sell anyway. So who knows?

What I am sure of, and excited about, are G2 repaints. I just hope that Hasbro remembers the orange Sludge and green Swoop mock-ups from 25 years ago!

[Irrellius Spamticon of the Potato People.]

On Wednesday, January 10, 2018 at 1:00:21 AM UTC-6, Zobovor wrote:

> And, yes, I got the version of Jazz with the abbreviated "Make America Great Again" slogan printed in extremely small Cybertronic text. I don't know if there is a corrected, non-MAGA version planned or not.
>

Not taking sides, but just the fact that there's an Earth-politics essage from any faction on the toy makes me not want him. Of course someday he might be worth a lot, but my toys are for me, not resale. It was declared there will be a non-MAGA Jazz, but we'll see.

> DINOBOT SWOOP
>
> I really think Hasbro was confused over what colors Swoop was going to be. When they unveiled him at HasCon, stock photography of him was red (just like the 1984 toy), but they asked to please ignore those pictures because the final sample on the showroom floor was blue (the color of the Diaclone toy, and the basis of his cartoon animation model). At the time, I'd thought it was evidence of a running change. Now I suspect it's more the result of Hasbro and Takara's decision to move towards a more unified market. Hasbro probably had been planning on selling the red version, but it's likely Takara wanted blue and eventually won that argument. Despite this, all of the artwork and CGI renders on Swoop's toy packaging showcase a red toy despite the final version being blue.
>
> Where Slag is a bit smaller than the G1 toy, the new Swoop is a little bigger. As a robot, he stands about five and a half inches. His head sculpt appears to be modeled after the cartoon design (individual eyes, rather than the Jazz-like visor of the G1 toy) but it's colored more like the toy (a black head with a silver face and red crest, rather than the red head and grey face from the cartoon series). He's also got details like the green stripes on his wrists and the tampographs on his chest that evoke the consumer-applied stickers on the G1 toy.
>
> He carries a sword that is clear plastic but painted entirely red, except for the handle. If they had painted it a semi-translucent color, like the paint used in suncatchers, this might have been a really attractive look.
>
> Transformation isn't too different from the G1 toy. The fists fold in and the arms tuck up against the robot body as best as they're able to, but no longer slide in at the shoulders. The chest becomes the pteranodon beak as you might expect, and the legs fold up at the knees in the usual way. The legs connect together to form a single backpack instead of the individual "humps" on the G1 toy. The wings actually exhibit more articulation in robot mode, since the legs plug into the wings at the base, and thus lose some of their movement.
>

He loses the whole torso motion bit, his dino head just lays on top of his torso in robot mode, no sinking in.

> As a pteranodon, he can stand upright or, after craning his head up, can be positioned on his belly, like the G1 toy.

The tabs on the bottom of his dino feet make me wonder if he was designed to stand upright or not. Of course he looks like his neck is weirdly disjointed in flight mode.

> (This version does not have a landing gear.) His wingspan is only just slightly smaller than that of the G1 toy, despite being an overall larger toy. Each wing can pivot up and down on a hinge or can swing forward, and the tips can even point all the way forward like some kind of Beast Wars attack mode. The sword can plug under the beak if you want him to look completely ridiculous. Like Slag, his dinosaur head is made of clear plastic with gold paint on the inside. What's more, he's actually got eyes this time! (The G1 toy didn't have eyes in pteranodon mode at all.) He also has about eight places for a Titan Master or Prime Master to stand on top of him.
>

My G1 swoop has yellow triangular dino eyes on top of the smoky plastic.I thought all of them did. Every picture, even the blue Diaclone pictures I see has them. Never heard of eyeless Swoop. Faceless, headless, sure, as they broke quite often, but never eyelless.

>
> The Prime Armor he comes with is identical to that of Slag's, with the spiky horns poking out. Adding his Prime Armor allows either a mini-figure to ride him and play How to Train Your Pterodactyl, or you can plug a Prime into him and imbue him with all sorts of random powers. Of these four toys, Swoop is the only one not designed for Prime Armor to connect to his chest.
>

Look again

> He can wear it on his forearm, and that's it.

Tuck his armor thumbs into the sides of the Pterodactyl head. Chest armor, looks absolutely ridiculous.

Also, it's a backpack. Pegs into different slots than the legs do for transformation, but locks the wing position all the same.

>
> Zob (bought the Leader-class Optimus Prime and Rodimus Prime today as well, and I am now officially out of money for a while)

Gonna wait for the dark Rodimus, only interesting Leader I've seen.

[Zobovor]

On Wednesday, January 10, 2018 at 11:33:55 AM UTC-7, Irrellius Spamticon of the Potato People. wrote:

> Not taking sides, but just the fact that there's an Earth-politics message

> from any faction on the toy makes me not want him.

Honestly, it's so little. Tiny. Barely legible, even if it were in English (which it's not). I never would have noticed it on my own.

> My G1 swoop has yellow triangular dino eyes on top of the smoky plastic. I
> thought all of them did.

Ah, my mistake. See, both my G1 Swoop and my unlicensed reissue have got custom stickers slapped over top of the eyes. I was misremembering the reason I'd done that. I think I was mixing his eye situation up with Sludge, because I am clearly old and senile.

> Tuck his armor thumbs into the sides of the Pterodactyl head. Chest armor,
> looks absolutely ridiculous.

His instructions make no mention of this. I feel deceived.


Zob (reset the entire LEGO aisle today, and boy are my arms tired)

[Zobovor]

On Wednesday, January 10, 2018 at 6:02:13 AM UTC-7, brianj...@gmail.com wrote:

> But as far as we can tell, Jazz was a Porsche 935 for maybe about 21 years
> (1984-2006) or so - out of MILLIONS of years of his life.

Well, sure. From an in-universe perspective, it makes sense. It's like when we were talking about Titans Return Krok. It's not fair to assume that he would be stuck in a non-transforming body for his entire career.

Speaking as a consumer, though, it still bothers me.

> Which makes me wonder. Were Hot Rod, Kup, Arcee, etc meant to be cybertronic
> vehicles or 2005-era earth vehicles?

I never could get a straight answer from Floro Dery out of that one. I'm gonna say they were vehicles from Cybertron. I will offer as supporting evidence that the cybertronic version of Beachcomber from Marvel Comics looked a lot like Kup's vehicle mode. We didn't see very many civilian vehicles, but when I think of Marissa Faireborn's spinner from "The Burden Hardest to Bear," it looks nothing like any of the existing movie-era Transformer designs.

> Take a look back at some of the G1 combiner modes and I think you'll
> appreciate it more. It's certainly better than some of the car mode with a
> fist at the end (Dragstrip, Dead End) or squished robot mode with a foot
> (Swindle, Sinnertwin).

I'll have to evaluate the combined form on its own merits after I get the other three Dinobots. Sometimes the "car mode with a fist" works because the combined form looks like a bunch of vehicles mashed up together. I guess if the Dinobot combiner looks like a bunch of robot dinosaurs mashed together, then they did their job correctly.

> I went to HasCon this year and when they were talking about the Dinos they
> said a very interesting tidbit, (paraphrasing) "when we went to design the
> Dinobots we went back to their original Diaclones" - they even had a few
> Diaclone pictures. I thought it was odd they would do this instead of
> referencing either the 1985 releases or the cartoon models.

My first thought is that maybe they're using "Diaclone" as a shorthand for "G1," though you said they had photos of actual pre-Transformers toys onhand, so perhaps not. I like that they're reviewing the entire history of the toys, though, and not just going off the most recent incarnation (like, say, trying to design the Power o' the Primes toy by basing it on Energon Swoop).

> Of course, the Dinobots are *so* recognizable that it would be hard to
> repaint them and sell them as new characters

They would have to get heavy remolds for anything like that to work. I've always said that, now they're branching out into combiner beasts, Swoop would be the good basis for Cutthroat or Wildfly. Slag could become Bristleback with some work. It depends on how determined they are to recycle their assets (well, and whether or not they want to give us Monster Pretenders sans the Pretender part).

> What I am sure of, and excited about, are G2 repaints. I just hope that
> Hasbro remembers the orange Sludge and green Swoop mock-ups from 25 years
> ago!

Something tells me that we'll see G2 Dinobots for certain. Maybe as a boxed set, maybe as HasCon exclusives. For the record, I would want to see blue Grimlock, red Snarl, and green Slag. I know they came in other colors, but those were the "correct" G2 colors in my mind.


Zob (is arbitrary like that)

[Irrellius Spamticon of the Potato People.]

On Wednesday, January 10, 2018 at 6:04:16 PM UTC-6, Zobovor wrote:
> On Wednesday, January 10, 2018 at 11:33:55 AM UTC-7, Irrellius Spamticon of the Potato People. wrote:
>
> > Not taking sides, but just the fact that there's an Earth-politics message
> > from any faction on the toy makes me not want him.
>
> Honestly, it's so little. Tiny. Barely legible, even if it were in English (which it's not). I never would have noticed it on my own.
>

Well, I don't need a less-accurate Jazz, I got the special ops version and this one doesn't look close enough to spend money on. I might pick him up on clearance, but the political messaging has people clamoring for him so I will likely never see him on clearance anywhere.

It looks like the tabs on the armor thumbs s supposed to latch into the front grill of the toy. The armor as executed looks silly from the pics I have seen.

> > My G1 swoop has yellow triangular dino eyes on top of the smoky plastic. I
> > thought all of them did.
>
> Ah, my mistake. See, both my G1 Swoop and my unlicensed reissue have got custom stickers slapped over top of the eyes. I was misremembering the reason I'd done that. I think I was mixing his eye situation up with Sludge, because I am clearly old and senile.
>

Ah yes, my Sludge is quite blind. I always assumed whomever owned him first had rubbed off the eyes.

> > Tuck his armor thumbs into the sides of the Pterodactyl head. Chest armor,
> > looks absolutely ridiculous.
>
> His instructions make no mention of this. I feel deceived.
>
>
> Zob (reset the entire LEGO aisle today, and boy are my arms tired)

I think the armor is severely misused. Swoop can mount the armor on his back, but realistically it should mount on Jazz's back, we cold have the extra stuff be a Jazz Jetpack if we did this right. Swoop gets a backpack, Jazz could use one. Then we could use the same idea for a Sideswipe with a jetpack.

[brianj...@gmail.com]

On Wednesday, January 10, 2018 at 7:20:22 PM UTC-5, Zobovor wrote:
> On Wednesday, January 10, 2018 at 6:02:13 AM UTC-7, brianj...@gmail.com wrote:
>
> > But as far as we can tell, Jazz was a Porsche 935 for maybe about 21 years
> > (1984-2006) or so - out of MILLIONS of years of his life.
>
> Well, sure. From an in-universe perspective, it makes sense. It's like when we were talking about Titans Return Krok. It's not fair to assume that he would be stuck in a non-transforming body for his entire career.
>
> Speaking as a consumer, though, it still bothers me.

I think my tone came out wrong for this one, it sounded funnier/tongue in cheek in my head.

And you're right. Let's say that in More Than Meets the Eye part 1 we had cybertronic versions of not only the vehicle modes but also the robot modes. In essence, we would have had to be re-introduced to the characters again and it might have been a little jarring.

Optimus Prime in particular. Imagine if he had a different robot mode in MTMTE part 1 and in an amazing bit of continuity, that same robot mode was used for when Alpha Trion rebuilt Orion Pax in War Dawn. The moment of Optimus Prime being revealed would have had a different impact on both the audience and the Aerialbots (who might not recognize him!)

Also, I absolutely love that the Action Masters are getting alt modes. Based on the commercial, they all existed before becoming "more alive than ever" so this makes perfect sense. Some had traces of their alt modes already, but I hope there are more similar cases to Krok where the alt mode given makes sense and not just a random repaint.

It's funny how picky we are sometimes. An Action Master with an alt mode is fine, but Hardhead without Duros would be blasphemy. (I still have to reply to that other thread about the Duocons)

>
> > Which makes me wonder. Were Hot Rod, Kup, Arcee, etc meant to be cybertronic
> > vehicles or 2005-era earth vehicles?
>
> I never could get a straight answer from Floro Dery out of that one. I'm gonna say they were vehicles from Cybertron. I will offer as supporting evidence that the cybertronic version of Beachcomber from Marvel Comics looked a lot like Kup's vehicle mode. We didn't see very many civilian vehicles, but when I think of Marissa Faireborn's spinner from "The Burden Hardest to Bear," it looks nothing like any of the existing movie-era Transformer designs.
>

Circumstantial, but it might be the most we have to go on. I think there were civilian vehicles in The Ultimate Weapon and Only Human, but yeah, not a lot. The dedicated passenger seats should be a factor, but didn't Wheeljack have them on Cybertron? That, and they could just be modified designs.

>
> I'll have to evaluate the combined form on its own merits after I get the other three Dinobots. Sometimes the "car mode with a fist" works because the combined form looks like a bunch of vehicles mashed up together. I guess if the Dinobot combiner looks like a bunch of robot dinosaurs mashed together, then they did their job correctly.
>
> > I went to HasCon this year and when they were talking about the Dinos they
> > said a very interesting tidbit, (paraphrasing) "when we went to design the
> > Dinobots we went back to their original Diaclones" - they even had a few
> > Diaclone pictures. I thought it was odd they would do this instead of
> > referencing either the 1985 releases or the cartoon models.
>
> My first thought is that maybe they're using "Diaclone" as a shorthand for "G1," though you said they had photos of actual pre-Transformers toys onhand, so perhaps not.

HasCon was a bit of a mixed bag. There were employees there that were VERY knowledgeable, some that were not, and some that were clearly just "actors/announcers" ie, in crowd riling voice, "has anyone here ever heard of Optimus Prime? How about Megatron? Well here are Peter Cullen and Frank Walker!!!"

The guy talking about the Diaclones was one of the smart ones (and like you said, with pictures), so I put a good amount of stock in that. It's backed up by Generations figures like Crosscut, but Diaclone Dinobots still seems not enough different.

I like that they're reviewing the entire history of the toys, though, and not just going off the most recent incarnation (like, say, trying to design the Power o' the Primes toy by basing it on Energon Swoop).
>
> > Of course, the Dinobots are *so* recognizable that it would be hard to
> > repaint them and sell them as new characters
>
> They would have to get heavy remolds for anything like that to work. I've always said that, now they're branching out into combiner beasts, Swoop would be the good basis for Cutthroat or Wildfly. Slag could become Bristleback with some work. It depends on how determined they are to recycle their assets (well, and whether or not they want to give us Monster Pretenders sans the Pretender part).

I'm very excited for the remolded Dinobots (and the rest of the beasts). Back when Combiner Wars was ending and we were all wondering where the beasts were I started putting together a spreadsheet of the possible ways the Dinobots, Terrorcons, Predacons, Seacons, Pretender Monsters, and even Beast Wars could re-use parts and molds like Combiner Wars did. I got caught up in work at the time so didn't get very far but we are close to finding out!

My point still stands that it's hard to imagine the Diaclone Dinobots color schemes would be used for. Even if you added more spikes and different faces would they pass as Decepticon Dinobots?

I *guess* maybe as an exclusive.

Do you think the Predacons will get Anibot recolors?

>
> > What I am sure of, and excited about, are G2 repaints. I just hope that
> > Hasbro remembers the orange Sludge and green Swoop mock-ups from 25 years
> > ago!
>
> Something tells me that we'll see G2 Dinobots for certain. Maybe as a boxed set, maybe as HasCon exclusives. For the record, I would want to see blue Grimlock, red Snarl, and green Slag. I know they came in other colors, but those were the "correct" G2 colors in my mind.

Well, yeah, nobody wants a teal Grimlock, green Snarl, and red Slag. I have no idea why they were went through running changes like that in G2. The Constructicons too, but nobody else did.

[MWG]

On Wednesday, January 10, 2018 at 1:00:21 AM UTC-6, Zobovor wrote:

> Today was a very exciting day at work. I got about eight pallets' worth of all-new toys (the semi-annual reset in the toy department is coming soon) and among them were cases of the Power of the Primes in Leader, Voyager, Deluxe, and Legends flavors. No sign of the Prime Masters, unfortunately, so I kind of wonder what's going on there. (And, yes, I took care of all eight pallets, because I'm a human dynamo. Just call me Hector Dialonzo.)
>
> So, when these toys were first unveiled, I decried the new play pattern because I didn't really get it. I think maybe I can understand what they were trying to do now. Titans Return was great, but its design requirements dictated that a) every robot be a Headmaster and b) every transformed mode have a cockpit for the Titan Master to sit in. This was fine, but it put hard limits on elements of the toy designs. For the new toy line, Hasbro wanted to bring back the Combiner Wars play pattern, which would be incompatible with the existing Titans Return play pattern. So, they came up with a compromise.
>
> Just as the Titans Return toy line gave us modern-day Headmasters, Power of the Primes is basically updated Powermasters. The Prime Armor is styled like a gigantic engine. The problem with the old Powermaster toys was that they required a dedicated port to plug the engine in, and the gimmick was designed mainly for the vehicle mode (the engines weren't always accessible when they toys were in robot mode). So, the new engines simply attach to the toys with five-millimeter pegs, which eliminates the need for dedicated ports. The engines are also designed to function as a seat for a Titan Master or Prime Master mini-figure, which solves the problem of incorporating functional cockpits into the designs. This means that the mini-figures can still partner up with even the Combiner Wars toys. Finally, the engines also double as the fist for combiner mode (not a foot, this time) so it still exhibits some semblance of usefulness.
>

I actually liked the Powermasters, their gimmick was IMO the least intrusive of the -Master gimmicks. They felt complete even without the partner (OK, technically targetmasters could be also but to replace a partner meant finding a substitute weapon), and they all had realistic vehicle modes. The new gimmick for PoTP brings back CW-style combiners with -Master integration just barely tacked on for deluxes and voyagers (and I would prefer CW hand/foot gun pieces to these "armor" things deluxes have now).

>
> DREADWIND
>
> Originally, Dreadwind was a Decepticon Powermaster, the flying partner of Darkwing. Released in 1988, they could transform to robot mode and also combine with each other in vehicle mode to form the super jet, Dreadwing. He was a typical toy of the era: durable, but not much articulation.
>
> Weirdly, Dreadwind is doing a little dance in his packaging, as if he's scrambling to run away from a gigantic Autobot symbol before it lands on his head or something. I guess they couldn't fit him into the standard-sized bubble.
>
> The new Dreadwind recycles mold elements from the Combiner Wars version of Skydive. Both toys are F-16ish, with dual vertical stabilizer fins instead of the single one on the real F-16 Falcon. Rather than just getting a new head sculpt, though, the toy got a major makeover to turn him into Dreadwind. The jet mode elements are the same (including the wings), and the toys share the same robot biceps and forearms and legs, but the robot head, chest, shoulders, and gun are all new. His weapon is styled directly after the G1 accessory.
>
> Due to the way the toy is designed, Dreadwind's wings are on his legs now instead of folded up on his back. However, in most of his appearances in Marvel Comics, his wings disappeared altogether (I think somebody was interpreting the missiles at the tips of his wings as being connected to his elbows, so that's how he was usually drawn) so this is at least accurate to his media appearance. A slightly bigger design issue is the fact that his chest-mounted cockpit is absent. Granted, Dreadwind isn't an iconic character like Starscream, so minor design changes like this may perhaps be more forgivable. Also, I think it was unavoidable on this toy, at least without making the jet cockpit detachable and giving you the option of plugging it into his chest. His color scheme, along with the rest of his design, ensures that he still looks like himself.
>
> He only comes with one gun, which is unfortunate (the G1 toy came with two, one for each side in jet mode). His engine component, called Prime Armor in this toy line, can plug into the top of the jet when he's in vehicle mode, strongly resembling the transformed engine configuration of Hi-Test, his Powermaster partner (like Dreadwind, it's purple with teal and grey). There is an "engine cover" piece that's removable, and it's molded to look like a small, triple-barreled handheld weapon that Dreadwind can carry.
>
> When he's a robot, the Prime Armor can either be worn on his arm like a shield, or there is also a hidden flip-down panel on his chest, embedded within the Combiner Wars connector peg tumbler, that reveals a peg hole so you can plug it into his chest as well. The Prime Armor can accommodate a Titan Master mini-figure when it's folded up into a Headmaster head, but its real purpose is to plug in a Prime Master, so that one of the Primes can intermix and mingle his powers with Dreadwind's own. (For the record, my collector card is Quintus Dreadwind, who "creates vile and menacing creatures.")
>
> His instructions show how he can combine with Grimlock, Jazz, Slug, and Swoop. My suspicion is that there will eventually be an all-Decepticon combiner group he can belong to, but right now Hasbro wants to demonstrate how you can combine the toys currently on the market (just like with Combiner Wars when Drag Strip was lumped together with the Aerialbots). The side panel of his packaging show cases Starscream, who is arguably the Decepticon he's really meant to combine with. (The artwork obscures who is forming the legs and the other arm, though. One leg might be Sinnertwin?) Incidentally, there is nothing in his instructions about combining with the currently-unreleased Blackwing (Darkwing), so I'm not sure if it will be exclusive to Blackwing's instructions, or whether it will be some sort of undocumented feature.
>
> The Prime Armor plugged into his chest does look completely ridiculous and stupid. However, at least they're trying to play up the intercompatibility of the toys in a way that's modular and removable, and doesn't adversely affect the design of the individual toys. If you don't like the armor, at least you can remove it. (It looks better on some toys than others, definitely.)
>
> It bugs me that he's missing the chest cockpit, but not as much as I thought it would. His head sculpt is great, and it's nice to have a Dreadwind who can actually raise his arms (the original had elbow joints, but his shoulders were frozen in place). I don't even mind that he's a recycled Combiner Wars toy. I think I even proposed once that the Skydive toy would make a good Dreadwind, and I'm glad somebody at Hasbro was thinking the same thing.
>
> Also, I'm really glad that I didn't end up paying hundreds of dollars for the BotCon toy (the redeco of Skyfire). I was so desperate for any new version of the character that it was at the top of my want list for a while. This version is, in my estimate, even more desirable because it was actually designed to look like the character.
>

I actually do have Botcon Dreadwind in a box somewhere as a side-effect of picking up that boxset to get the other seekers that didn't seem to be planned for regular retail at that point. I'm generally pretty much fine with PoTP Dreadwind, not real crazy about the wings being on the legs now but I don't mind not having the cockpit on the chest (not every jet-former should have to have that). This and the upcoming "Black"wing feel like fine updates, even if they aren't completely new molds.

> JAZZ
>
> The toy is actually marketed as Autobot Jazz, which is fine with me as long as they never call him Agent Meister ever again.
>
> So, I think we've reached the point where Hasbro is getting a little more experimental. They already gave us a really good Special Ops Jazz back during the Reveal the Shield toy line, so I think the thought process was that they wanted to do something a bit different with the character this time. That's my theory, anyway.
>
> As a robot, Jazz looks really cool. The vehicle hood that forms his upper body is curved and swept back and stylish and it makes him look really futuristic. There's a hint of his racing stripe deco on the front of his abdomen (there is a folding panel from his vehicle hood that ends up there) and he's very clearly recognizable as the G1 character. His color mapping is good, though for some reason his fists are white in addition to his forearms. This deserves closer examination, as his fists are actually a separate piece from his forearms, plugged in place with a mushroom peg. The fists don't even rotate, so I think the only reason they're a different color of plastic was because the plan was to make them black, like they're supposed to be. (Well, I guess a dye job wouldn't be too difficult.) He carries a white gun that's painted silver except for the handle.
>
> Also, they did a great job of hiding the Combiner Wars connector peg tumbler. It's still embedded within his chest, but it's almost invisible thanks to the way his vehicle hood folds over to form the chest.
>
> To transform him, his toes tuck in and his lower legs open like a lot of Combiner Wars toys so you can tuck the upper legs inside. His entire upper body is attached to his roof and windshield assembly and is mounted to the body with an elaborate hinge system. In fact, his entire vehicle hood and windshield is a single piece of clear plastic that's painted white, except for the windows and headlights (the headlights are painted blue, but from the inside rather than on the outside). I do like what they did with the multiple folding panels on his hood, which allows his head to tuck away and hide but still gives him the correct uninterrupted racing stripes.
>
> Jazz was originally a Porsche 935, but the new version is closer to a Porsche 962. His vehicle styling is now closer to characters like Triggerbot Backstreet or G2 Color Changers Drench or Tonka GoBots Crasher. It's definitely a different look for the character. I originally posited a theory that this toy was actually a predeco and that the true intended use for this toy had yet to be revealed to us. The toy really doesn't transform in the right way to represent Backstreet or Crasher, though. I guess it could work well enough as Drench in the right colors.
>
> His Powermaster engine can mount to the top of the car near the rear. It's entirely black with a translucent engine cover. His gun can either attach to the same spot, or else can mount to a secondary hole on either side of the canopy. Supposedly, it's designed to attach to his chest in robot mode, but I can't quite figure out how to get it to connect securely. It seems like the thumbs on the combiner fist are supposed to plug into tab-holes on his front bumper, but you have to tuck the thumbs in slightly and it's just not a very secure fit. He can also wear the Prime Armor on his forearm.
>
> The side panel on Jazz's packaging shows him combined with Elita One and Moonracer; I can't tell who has formed the other arm and leg of the combined mode. I would have thought that the female Autobots would get their own combiner and that, eventually, Jazz and Inferno would get enough team members to form their own as well. I know that the Combiner Wars toy line had a few stragglers without a full team (like Cyclonus), so maybe Hasbro's not as worried about giving us five-member combiner teams this time.
>
> My collector card is Alchemist Jazz, who "defeats enemies by spontaneous matter disruption." And, yes, I got the version of Jazz with the abbreviated "Make America Great Again" slogan printed in extremely small Cybertronic text. I don't know if there is a corrected, non-MAGA version planned or not.
>
> This isn't a terrible toy, but the vehicle styling is really decidedly un-Jazzlike. Even with the correct colors and racing stripes, it's so different from what the character usually transforms into that I'm having some trouble accepting it. Obviously, not every new toy has to be a slavish attempt to copy G1, but they've been so consistent about doing it that way lately that this one has got me thrown for a loop.
>

He is the only deluxe I have yet to pick up. He looks OK, just not super exciting to me like the others were (of course the other three are getting their first real Classics-style updates, so that helps them IMO).

> DINOBOT "SLUG" (SLAG)
>
> Poor Slag likely won't ever be called Slag by Hasbro again. They can't keep calling him Snarl, though, like they did with the Robot Heroes toy line, since they'll be completing the Dinobot team and there's going to be an actual Snarl this time.
>
> This is a really good update of Slag. He strongly resembles the G1 toy in both modes, but has all the articulation you'd expect from a modern-day toy. He's slightly smaller than the G1 version (about five and a half inches tall at the head) but has ball joints at the hips and shoulders, hinged joints at the elbows and knees, and a swivel waist. He even has head articulation now, though the way it's embedded in armor makes it hard to get to. His styling is more Hasbro toy than Sunbow cartoon; he has a black head and face with red eyes, rather than the red helmet and face and blue eyes he did in animation. He also lacks the wings in robot mode that were originally formed by parts of his dinosaur shell that opened. His gun is a good semblance of his G1 handheld weapon.
>
> Transformation is pretty faithful to G1. His fists tuck away, his dinosaur mouth closes, and his knees tuck in. The dinosaur tail is actually cut in half with each half folded up inside his lower legs, rather than the way the G1 toy just dragged it around behind him in robot mode. It's important to tuck in his heel stabilizers or else you won't be able to fold up his knees all the way.
>
> Triceratops mode is, again, sort of a baby version of the G1 toy (not quite six inches in length). The proportions are a little different; his tail is shorter and his head is tiny compared to the size of his body. His frilled crown is flat against his body rather than protruding out, and his horns seem kind of puny. The horns, incidentally, are made of rubbery plastic. They're also red, like the Hasbro toy, rather than the silver of the Diaclone toy (which is what his cartoon animation model was based on). The toy is designed so that you can mount his handheld gun to the dinosaur's chin, or one of its rear legs.
>
> Something really interesting about his design is that his triceratops head and tail, as well as his hips, are made of clear plastic but are painted gold from the inside. This is a nifty way of mirroring the design of the G1 toys (which had vacuum metalized gold components inside the dinosaur head and tail, wrapped in smoky translucent plastic). I like it.
>
> His Prime Armor is made to mount on his back, and he looks cool with a Titan Master on top playing Dino Riders. It's designed with protruding spikes that really adds to the primitive look. For robot mode, the Prime Armor can be worn on his forearm or plugs into the hole in his chest (the dinosaur's lower jaw). Collector card I got was Nexus Slug, who "combines with others to do maximum damage."
>
> I will confess that his arm and leg modes look awfully silly, though this could just be since he's not traditionally a combining character, so I'm not accustomed to it yet. I will say that I've been wanting Generations versions of the Dinobots for a really long time, and it's great to finally get a worthy update for them. Slag is great.
>

I'm not sure I'll ever put the PoTP Dinobots into combined modes. Slag is nice in both robot and dino mode, but transformation can be a pain, trying to work through getting the tail folded right and connecting the legs to the back of the torso requires a bit of muscle to get those tabs and slots to POP! together. He also can just barely hold Swoop's sword, not much clearance for those 5mm holes in the hands for many weapons.

> DINOBOT SWOOP
>
> I really think Hasbro was confused over what colors Swoop was going to be. When they unveiled him at HasCon, stock photography of him was red (just like the 1984 toy), but they asked to please ignore those pictures because the final sample on the showroom floor was blue (the color of the Diaclone toy, and the basis of his cartoon animation model). At the time, I'd thought it was evidence of a running change. Now I suspect it's more the result of Hasbro and Takara's decision to move towards a more unified market. Hasbro probably had been planning on selling the red version, but it's likely Takara wanted blue and eventually won that argument. Despite this, all of the artwork and CGI renders on Swoop's toy packaging showcase a red toy despite the final version being blue.
>
> Where Slag is a bit smaller than the G1 toy, the new Swoop is a little bigger. As a robot, he stands about five and a half inches. His head sculpt appears to be modeled after the cartoon design (individual eyes, rather than the Jazz-like visor of the G1 toy) but it's colored more like the toy (a black head with a silver face and red crest, rather than the red head and grey face from the cartoon series). He's also got details like the green stripes on his wrists and the tampographs on his chest that evoke the consumer-applied stickers on the G1 toy.
>
> He carries a sword that is clear plastic but painted entirely red, except for the handle. If they had painted it a semi-translucent color, like the paint used in suncatchers, this might have been a really attractive look.
>
> Transformation isn't too different from the G1 toy. The fists fold in and the arms tuck up against the robot body as best as they're able to, but no longer slide in at the shoulders. The chest becomes the pteranodon beak as you might expect, and the legs fold up at the knees in the usual way. The legs connect together to form a single backpack instead of the individual "humps" on the G1 toy. The wings actually exhibit more articulation in robot mode, since the legs plug into the wings at the base, and thus lose some of their movement.
>
> As a pteranodon, he can stand upright or, after craning his head up, can be positioned on his belly, like the G1 toy. (This version does not have a landing gear.) His wingspan is only just slightly smaller than that of the G1 toy, despite being an overall larger toy. Each wing can pivot up and down on a hinge or can swing forward, and the tips can even point all the way forward like some kind of Beast Wars attack mode. The sword can plug under the beak if you want him to look completely ridiculous. Like Slag, his dinosaur head is made of clear plastic with gold paint on the inside. What's more, he's actually got eyes this time! (The G1 toy didn't have eyes in pteranodon mode at all.) He also has about eight places for a Titan Master or Prime Master to stand on top of him.
>
> He doesn't have his missile launchers, though, or even any place to mount them. Which is funny, considering he's still described as a bombardier on his packaging, and yet he doesn't have any armaments to bombard anybody with.
>
> The Prime Armor he comes with is identical to that of Slag's, with the spiky horns poking out. Adding his Prime Armor allows either a mini-figure to ride him and play How to Train Your Pterodactyl, or you can plug a Prime into him and imbue him with all sorts of random powers. Of these four toys, Swoop is the only one not designed for Prime Armor to connect to his chest. He can wear it on his forearm, and that's it. (Collector card is Alchemist Swoop, who "plants disorienting fear inside enemy circuits.")
>
> Turning him into an arm or a leg involves unhooking his pteranodon head on this weird hinged assembly, a design aspect which I'm not really fond of. I think I would prefer if his head were fully integrated into the toy instead of being attached the way it is. But, I accept that it's necessary for the combined mode. Overall, I really like him. His wings are articulated, finally, and the extra joints mean he's less fragile.
>

I wonder if the blue chest might have been to make him look a bit more distinct from Slag on the pegs (thought it is also a nice little homage to the cartoon). The Dinobots aren't known for having a lot of color variety. I would buy a red-chest variant if it happened (especially if the back of the package showed him with the blue chest since this figure's pic on the back features the red chest). The only real viable way to mount the bombs on him in dino mode seems to be to leave the hands unfolded since his wrist ports wind up facing up in dino mode if things are tabbed together right. I do tend to spend more time fiddling with Swoop than any of the other deluxes at the moment.

>
>
> Zob (bought the Leader-class Optimus Prime and Rodimus Prime today as well, and I am now officially out of money for a while)

I've been fairly lucky to get most of this stuff over a couple months, mainly due to Target getting most of this stuff just a bit earlier than Walmart. I still have yet to pick up Optimus, though wave 2 stuff will probably drop fairly soon. I think it is funny and weird that the wave 2 legends were the ONE size Hasbro REFUSED to show us (probably retaliation for the leak) and yet they beat everything else (which we have seen almost all of for wave 2) to being released, even if it is just in Asia currently.

[Zobovor]

On Thursday, January 11, 2018 at 6:35:45 AM UTC-7, brianj...@gmail.com wrote:

> I think there were civilian vehicles in The Ultimate Weapon and Only Human,
> but yeah, not a lot. The dedicated passenger seats should be a factor, but
> didn't Wheeljack have them on Cybertron? That, and they could just be
> modified designs.

The passenger seats in Wheeljack could just have been meant for smaller Transformers like Bumblebee. I don't think that alone is evidence of much.

However, I forgot about Ultra Magnus. He's most definitely an Earth vehicle (or at least the cab section is), and it seems weird for him to get an Earth configuration and nobody else. Shrug.

> My point still stands that it's hard to imagine the Diaclone Dinobots color
> schemes would be used for. Even if you added more spikes and different faces
> would they pass as Decepticon Dinobots?

Dinocons!

I guess they could do versions of them in the Age of Extinction color schemes. Man, what a waste of plastic that would be.

> Do you think the Predacons will get Anibot recolors?

There's no canonical color schemes for them to use for reference, so they would just have to invent something suitably Autobot-ish. I personally don't see it happening. It's a fringe concept that's super-obscure, even for Hasbro.

I will say, though, that if we actually got a Dragon Beast toy, I would buy the hell out of it.


Zob (surprised we never got Combiner Wars Devastator in G2 colors)

[Irrellius Spamticon of the Potato People.]

On Thursday, January 11, 2018 at 5:18:21 PM UTC-6, MWG wrote:
>
> I wonder if the blue chest might have been to make him look a bit more distinct from Slag on the pegs (thought it is also a nice little homage to the cartoon). The Dinobots aren't known for having a lot of color variety. I would buy a red-chest variant if it happened (especially if the back of the package showed him with the blue chest since this figure's pic on the back features the red chest). The only real viable way to mount the bombs on him in dino mode seems to be to leave the hands unfolded since his wrist ports wind up facing up in dino mode if things are tabbed together right. I do tend to spend more time fiddling with Swoop than any of the other deluxes at the moment.
>
> >
> >

Bombs? What bombs?

I plug his sword into the thumb of his backpack because it looks dumb under his chin in dino mode.

I too would buy a red version. I wouldn't mind having two Swoop arms, though who gets eliminated from the combiner I might not build more than once?

[David Connell]

Clearly you'd have to keep the red Swoop as part of Volcanicus - a unified color scheme usually looks better. Make the blue Swoop a spare.

[David Connell]

On Thursday, January 11, 2018 at 7:15:35 PM UTC-5, Zobovor wrote:
> On Thursday, January 11, 2018 at 6:35:45 AM UTC-7, brianj...@gmail.com wrote:
>
> > I think there were civilian vehicles in The Ultimate Weapon and Only Human,
> > but yeah, not a lot. The dedicated passenger seats should be a factor, but
> > didn't Wheeljack have them on Cybertron? That, and they could just be
> > modified designs.
>
> The passenger seats in Wheeljack could just have been meant for smaller Transformers like Bumblebee. I don't think that alone is evidence of much.
>
> However, I forgot about Ultra Magnus. He's most definitely an Earth vehicle (or at least the cab section is), and it seems weird for him to get an Earth configuration and nobody else. Shrug.

Who's to say Magnus and the others arrived at the same time? Perhaps he had been around as a terrestrial car carrier for a while when Hot ROd & co showed up and decided not to assume Earth modes.

>
> > My point still stands that it's hard to imagine the Diaclone Dinobots color
> > schemes would be used for. Even if you added more spikes and different faces
> > would they pass as Decepticon Dinobots?
>
> Dinocons!
>

I'd gladly buy a Destron Dinoforce/Dinoking made from this set, as long as the heads were remolded all `round.

[Irrellius Spamticon of the Potato People.]

On Wednesday, January 10, 2018 at 1:00:21 AM UTC-6, Zobovor wrote:

> DINOBOT "SLUG" (SLAG)

> Triceratops mode is, again, sort of a baby version of the G1 toy (not quite six inches in length). The proportions are a little different; his tail is shorter and his head is tiny compared to the size of his body. His frilled crown is flat against his body rather than protruding out, and his horns seem kind of puny. The horns, incidentally, are made of rubbery plastic. They're also red, like the Hasbro toy, rather than the silver of the Diaclone toy (which is what his cartoon animation model was based on). The toy is designed so that you can mount his handheld gun to the dinosaur's chin, or one of its rear legs.

So I found one today, and I really love it. Mine the horns are a pretty hard plastic, slightly bendy, much like the G1 horns. I like that the gun can attach to the front legs, back legs, or back in dino mode, but I wish he had a sword, and the hand had some kind of cannons on it. Overall I don't know how they could have made the dinosaur himself better.

Also, theres a notch in the front, that is designed so when transforming from robot to dino, you pull the dino head away like you do for combined mode, and there are little tabs on the dino head connector that connect slightly differently to have the dino frill puffed up. This also evens out the little square back panel.It's very obviously designed to do this, which is cool the frill lays down for robot mode. I've seen about 70% of the pics I look at online are mistransformed.

[Zobovor]

On Saturday, January 13, 2018 at 10:25:57 PM UTC-7, Irrellius Spamticon of the Potato People. wrote:

> there are little tabs on the dino head connector that connect slightly
> differently to have the dino frill puffed up.

Hey, you're right. That makes him look at least 23% cooler. Thanks!


Zob

[Gustavo Wombat, of the Seattle Wombats]

Hmm. It rests nicely in a good position, with the frill puffed up, but it doesn't peg into place, it just rests there. Am I doing it right?

Also, if you take a Volcanus foot, peg a Prime Master shell in gun mode onto the back of it, you can make a pretty nice massive cannon for little Slag to carry on his back, with a space for Prime Masters to ride. Can even add a hand for some bulk and it doesn't look bad. It's like a saddle thing for an elephant, but with a massive gun, for a triceratops.

Because the only thing cooler than a robot dinosaur is a robot dinosaur lugging around a gun as big as itself.

[Irrellius Spamticon of the Potato People.]

Also in dino mode: If you unfold the combiner fingers and turn the hand around backwards from what the pictures show, it holds onto Slag's robot feet rather securely.

[jfent...@gmail.com]

So do you have the Grimlock that they show the picture with? Is it really a "Voyager Class" instead of "Deluxe Class" like Jazz, Slug, Swoop, & Dreadwind? Curious how you like them combining.

-Jocelyn

[Zobovor]

Yeah, Grimlock is a Voyager, so he's a little bigger than the other Dinobots. The combined form is okay. Not great, not horrible.


Zob (it will not be the last Grimlock I buy, I suspect... or the best, for that matter)

[jfent...@gmail.com]

OK thank you! Looking to buy the Grimlock and it gets decent reviews. Biggest complaint is the huge awkward tail.

[Irrellius Spamticon of the Potato People.]

TF Expo has a PotP Grimlock crown accessory as one of their exclusives this year.Now I will also have to find a PotP Grimlock. They're supposed to be shipping in wave 3 with HotSpot.

[Zobovor]

On Thursday, June 28, 2018 at 6:35:27 PM UTC-6, Irrellius Spamticon of the Potato People. wrote:

> TF Expo has a PotP Grimlock crown accessory as one of their exclusives this
> year.Now I will also have to find a PotP Grimlock. They're supposed to be
> shipping in wave 3 with HotSpot.

If you mean Inferno, then yes, Grimlock is shipping with him. My Walmart has lots of 'em in stock at the moment.


Zob (may just have to break down and buy Inferno because it's literally been months since I've bought any new Transformers at all)