Dave's Transformers Artifact Rant: Alt-Modes wave 1

[Dave Van Domelen]

Dave's Transformers Artifacts Rant: Alt-Modes Wave 1

Nemesis Prime
Prowl

Permalink: http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/Artifacts/Alt-Modes1

I may expand this if I pick up any more boxes. These are blindbox toys,
and I bought four boxes initially and got two copies of each of the two
figures listed above, d'oh. My TRU had them with the regular Transformers
rather than with the other blindbag/blindbox toys, probably because they're
Hasbro products and not made by license with one of the usual blindbox
companies.
This wave is entirely G1 characters with the exception of one redeco, 8
total figures from 5 different molds: Optimus Prime and Nemesis Prime (the
lone not-strictly-G1 figure), the three original Seekers, Megatron, Ultra
Magnus, and Prowl. If a second wave comes out, it'll probably redeco the
Prowl mold as Bluestreak and/or Smokescreen.


CAPSULE

$7 at TRU.

Alt-Modes: Just going to give a line-wide evaluation here, since they're
blind boxes and the only way to know what you're getting will be to go
through a reseller who'll have to charge more. It's a cute gimmick, and the
sort of thing that'd probably cost significantly more through one of the
usual blindbox licensing companies, worth picking up one or two if you see
them on the shelf.


RANTS

Packaging: These come in blind boxes 3.25" (8cm) tall, 2.75" (7cm) wide,
and 2.25" (6cm) deep. The point of purchase display boxes contain 24 blind
boxes, and the collation seems to be symmetric (I grabbed the top layer
middle front four and got doubles of both), so if you see a fresh box I
suggest grabbing from just one side. I also suspect that rather than 3 of
each per box, there may be 2 each of some and 4 each of others.
The box front and top is decorated by line art of the eight characters.
The left side (as the front faces you) has vague instructions for
transformation, the right side has photos of all eight figures in vehicle
mode and a hole so you can theoretically see which one you're getting. I
didn't have a flashlight with me, though, so it wasn't too helpful. The back
and bottom are legalese. Inside, the figure is in a clear plastic bag.
These are made directly by Hasbro, not licensed out to someone like
Funko. No other company has its logo on the box, and the legalese elements
and general trade dress are standard Generations stuff. As of July 22, 2016,
they are not listed on HasbroToyShop.com, and searches of hasbro.com reveal
nothing as well. Sort of a stealth release...there was a little advance
publicity, but they don't seem interested in promoting them on the official
webpages yet.

Common elements: Each toy has two modes. They're packaged in "vehicle"
mode, which is a giant head riding on top of a tiny version of their vehicle
mode, which has wheels and can sort of roll along. Robot mode replaces the
vehicle with a tiny and marionette-floppy robot body...it's possible to get
them to stand on their own in robot mode, but really really unstable.
Each toy has a molded faction symbol on top of their helmet, pulling it
up makes a mechanism spin around to swap vehicle and robot bodies, with the
faceplate hinged to flip out of the way and then spring back down. It
doesn't always exactly get the mode switched, sometimes it's not quite all
the way, sometimes a little too much, once in a while it'll go 360 and return
to the same mode. The tab is not removable, but it is hinged to fold back.
You can also just manually spin the unit forward if it refuses to stop at a
reasonable spot.
The heads are all about 1.5" (4cm) tall not counting the tabs on top of
a strange little flange on the right side of the bottom of the helmet, which
holds an internal gearing piece but is longer than it has to be and has a
slot in back that serves no obvious purpose. It almost looks like that slot
is there so that the toy can attach to a rack or even a larger body. Or it
could just be something that makes factory assembly easier. The
transformation tabs/faction symbols are about 2cm tall. From the packaging,
only Prowl and Ultra Magnus have red tabs, the rest are gray.
Vehicle modes are around 1" (2-3cm) long and roll on little black
wheels. The two I have are quite stable in this mode.
In robot mode, ignoring the tabs again, they're 2.75" (7cm) tall. The
legs swing as a single unit at the hips, and the arms are connected through
the torso by a loose axle, the elbows molded as bent 90 degrees. Not really
articulation so much as transformation joints, and they have to be very loose
to avoid gumming up the autotransform. Unless they're planning to see stands
for these that use those helmet flanges, you can't really display these well
in robot mode. I might drill holes through the tabs and hang them via
Christmas ornament hooks, though.


DECEPTICON: NEMESIS PRIME
Wave: 1
Altmode: Cabover Semitractor
Moldmate: Optimus Prime

Getting a little more mileage out of the Optimus Prime mold, as usual
these days. This is the standard black/silver/red scheme, rather than the
older one that included teal.

Plastics: Gray pulltab, otherwise black. Well, a really dark slightly
metalflake brown, actually. But it looks black under normal room lighting.

Paints: Silver on the faceplate, crest vents, forearms, abdomen, pelvis,
thighs, bumper, grille, headlights, and truck stripes. Dark garnet red on
the eyes, real front windows, and chest front windows. Pretty close to being
all that the figure really needs, but the non-rolling fake wheel pair could
stand to have the hubs painted silver to match the pins holding in the
wheels.

Other Notes: It's actually a pretty good mold and decent paint apps, but
it's not a plastic color that can be dyed into anything else, so I don't
really have any use for a spare (thus I'm handing it off to a local TF fan I
know). It's refreshing to see such sharp paint masks from Hasbro.
This is very much the G1 Optimus Prime in design.

Overall: I have a suspicion this may be one of the easier ones to find
at minimal markup on the secondary market, if you're curious about the
concept but can't find these in stores (i.e. if you read this review after
2016), this'll probably be a decent one to pick up.


AUTOBOT: PROWL
Wave: 1
Altmode: Police Car
Moldmate: None

I'm a little less annoyed at getting doubles of this one, since white
plastic is easy to dye another color. Might go for a blue Bluestreak scheme,
although I'd need to remove some of the paint before dyeing. The standard
bent arm pose is also ideal for "about to flip a table" setups.

Plastics: The pulltab is deep red. The wheels, the underside of the car
and some of the internal strutwork are the same "black" plastic as Nemesis is
made of. Everything else is a slightly pearly white.

Paints: The helmet wings are painted red, a tiny bit sloppy compared to
NP's masking. The faceplate is silver with medium blue eyes. Gloss black
paint is used on both the real and robot chest bumpers and the Japanese
highway patrol hood markings in both modes, plus on the pelvis front and on
the fake windows on the shins. The real windows in vehicle mode are
unpainted, and the headlights and taillights are unpainted. There's a tiny
Autobot symbol molded on the hood, but not painted red. Lack of paint is a
definite problem on this one.

Other Notes: Since the only thing that makes this a definite police car
is the lightbar, and that's not present due to the giant head on top of the
car, redecoing this as Bluestreak would be trivial. The mold is a little
less crisp than the Nemesis Prime mold, but there's still enough detail to
help with painting stuff on yourself (and to make it clear that this is a
chibi 280-Z).

Overall: Cute mold, but really needs more paint.


Dave Van Domelen, waiting until he can find Stripes before reviewing the
Titans Return Legends wave 1, but got a Hyperchanger Megatronus at Ross he
might review while he waits.