Dave's Titans Return Rant: Chaos on Velocitron

[Dave Van Domelen]

Dave's Transformers Rant: Titans Return Chaos on Velocitron

Quickswitch (Six Shot with new faceplate, redeco)
Laser Prime (Voyager Optimus Prime redeco)
Nautica (Blurr retool)
Fastclash (Fastlane homage, new mold)
Rodimus Prime (Titan Master)

Permalink: http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Gen/Velocitron

Note, none of the three partnered Titan Masters got names, so I will
supply my own fan names for them, so there.

https://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Gen/LSixshot - Six Shot mold
https://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Gen/VROptimus - Optimus Prime mold
https://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Gen/DeluxeR1 - Blurr mold


CAPSULE

$99 exclusive to Toys R Us, but unlike many of their exclusives it's
available from them online, which is how I got mine, although by the time you
read this it'll probably not be in stock anymore.
I'm doing separate Capsules because a lot of people are parting these
out and selling Nautica or Fastclash singly at a markup to people who only
want those characters.

Quickswitch: Original mold was recommended. This is a pretty good redo,
and the robot can be made to look more like the G1 character with simple
realignment of parts.
Laser Optimus Prime: Original mold was mildly recommended. This is a
fairly good homage to G2 Laser Prime, and if you haven't gotten the Optimus
Prime and Diac set this might be worth picking up from someone who's parted
out a set to sell the Nautica.
Nautica: Original mold was strongly recommended. The colors aren't
quite right, but they managed to evoke the character pretty well despite
that. Probably not worth the $40-65 I'm seeing on eBay, though. (Seriously,
"64.99 or Best Offer" dude, at that point might as well buy the whole set!)
Fastclash: This is an update of a G1 toy that does too good a job of
looking like the original. On the other hand, it's only a Legend sized
figure, and they want all four clones to use the same body, so it's fairly
clever in that sense. Not enough to buy a $100 set that's otherwise redecos
and slight remolds, though.
Rodimus Prime: Nice idea to do die cast metal, but the paint job is
really sloppy. Not really worth trying to get separately.

Set Overall: Mostly redeco, but fairly good figures to use as bases. If
you can be patient and not buy the originals of the two big molds, it's
worthwhile to get. Still, it's $100 worth of toys ($45 + $25 + $15 + $10 +
$5) for $100, so no price break or anything.


RANT

Packaging: The box is the same size as the Combiner Wars box sets, and
like them comes with an 11" by 14" art print of the box front art. Unlike
the CW sets, the print uses the back for techspecs and bio notes, so I
couldn't frame this and add it to my wall until I'd copied the info. The bio
notes list official functions, and on the three partnered figures do split
the specs up into Bulk/Titan Master numbers, but they do not list names for
the Titan Masters, as mentioned above. It's all in four languages (English,
Spanish, French, Portuguese), so not a lot of room for details.
The composition of the front art and the print is a bit wonky, with the
shadow under Fastclash making it look like he's even with Nautica and
therefore less than half her height, despite the toys being closer to
two-thirds. In the blurry background, Quickswitch's tank mode (yeah, not
thinking that's the best one for racing) is huge...based on the extreme
one-point perspective it's got to be significantly taller than Optimus
Prime's robot mode. Since there's no real canon on Fastclash or Quickswitch
that must be stuck to, would it have killed the artist to make the characters
scale properly to their toys?
In addition to the art, the front has the usual side call-out with the
five figures, showing each in robot mode and one altmode (truck for Laser
Prime, tank for Quickswitch). The upper left corner points out the included
art print. The back of the box has larger versions of the photos from the
front, pretty much burying the lead that Prime is a triple-changer and
Quickswitch is six-changer. In fact, there is no indication anywhere on the
package that anyone has more than one altmode. The "photos" are actually
renders, of course, and they incorrectly show the planned but not executed
retool on Quickswitch's helmet.
An interesting point on the trade dress. There's a special logo for the
set, the Speed techspec symbol (running stick figure) inside a techy circle
that evokes a Cyber Planet Key shape. The left side of the box shows four
such symbols, one for each techspec line. While at the moment there's only
one other box set announced, the use of four symbols suggests they do plan to
give us all four Clone updates, one per set (the next one has Wingspan's
update, IIRC).
The top panel has linked circles with each character, declaring their
size class and name. There's one of each class: Titan Master (Rodimus
Prime), Legends (Fastclash), Deluxe (Autobot Nautica), Voyager (Laser Prime),
and Leader (Quickswitch). There's also words wrapping around Rodimus's
circle proclaiming in all four languages that he has die cast parts.
The instructions are bagged along with a Combiner Wars style trading
card of the box art with just the Generations logo on back. Quickswitch's
instructions are one bit sheet, essentially the same as Six Shot's
instructions sheet but with red instead of purple and the face changed (plus
correct names, the Chaos on Velocitron name and logo, etc). Laser Prime gets
one side of the other sheet, with the other three toys sharing the other
side.
Inside is a single large blister tray with all the stuff attached with
"sock ties" plus one rattan string.

There's an overall storylet for the set: "Immeasurable power awaits on
Velocitron, where the fastest bots race for an immeasurable prize: temporary
dominion over the speed of anything the weilder chooses: bots, vehicles,
planets, or even time itself. The AUTOBOTS cannot let this power fall into
the sinister hands of the DECEPTICONS. They win a critical victory when
RODIMUS PRIME crosses the finish line first. But when the race is over, the
true battle begins. The AUTOBOTS brace for a firefight as chaos erupts on
Velocitron!"


AUTOBOT: QUICKSWITCH
Assortment: Chaos on Velocitron
Titan Master: Unnamed (fan name: Tenchokon)
Altmode: Very
Transformation Difficulty: Many
Previous Name Use: G1
Previous Mold Use: Gen
Weapon: Dual Blasters
Function: Assault Warrior
Motto: "Am I freaking you out?"

QUICKSWITCH shifts modes so chaotically that any DECEPTICON nearby
becomes lost in a dizzy vortex of confusion.

B: STR 7 SPD 7 INT 7 FRB 7
T: STR +4 SPD +5 INT +5 FRB +3

Packaging: One thick rattan string and one plastic tie hole the truck
mode into the group blister. Each rifle is held by a single tie, and the
Titan Master is held by a single tie. The wolf-jaw-vent is folded down to
avoid poking into the box. The robot toes are folded out and pointed
forwards as brushcutters or something, in keeping with the instructions,
something I'd failed to notice on Six Shot (but they're on his instructions
too). Of course, you can keep the front flat on Six Shot to give the two
slightly different truck modes.
The render picture shows not only a new helmet that the toy didn't get,
it has the ribcage circles unpainted, while the toy painted over them.

Color Swaps: Too many sprues that aren't unified, so I'm going to just
go through the colors that are there. A slightly greenish medium blue (less
green than on Six Shot) is used for the upper arms, shoulder tops, armor
skirt pieces, wings, boot cores, helmet shell, wolf neck/head, and most of
the Titan Master. Red plastic makes up the thighs of the Titan Master, the
rifles, the thighs and knees, the toes, the heel spurs, the jet's landing
skid, the upper arm tread hinges, all the little wheels, the chest wings, and
the wolf lower jaw. The chest front and torso core are medium gray. All the
clear plastic parts from Six Shot are now clear blue. Very light gray
plastic is used on the forearms, fists, "spats" (jet nose), robot faceplate
(it's totally painted over), and the upper arm tank treads. The wheels are
black plastic.

Paint Apps: Loads of very light gray paint, a decent match to the
plastic: pelvis front, parts of the truck deck, most of the wolf neck
(leaving a bit on either side unpainted blue for contrast). Somewhat thick
red paint covers the rest of the wold head, all of the robot helmet, the
entire faceplate piece (other colors are painted over it), the hubs
of the tires, the interiors of the tires (odd of them to put paint there, but
it looks good), and some bits on the collarbone area. There's a little
medium gray paint over the clear circles on the ribcage and the lower end of
the chest not-a-door. The truck windshield, robot face, and wolf eyes are
painted yellow. The robot eyes are painted bright blue, a color also used on
the sides of the spats. The upper arm tank treads and the forearm tank
treads are painted gloss black.
There's some stickers in the upper arm indentations, a slightly askew
Autobot symbol sticker on the center of the chest and one on each wing, and
some silver/red stripes on the truck hood around the supercharger bump.

Mold Changes: Only the faceplate was changed. It has a full "hero"
face, and the headband is molded with a different symbol. It seems to be a
reference the the helmet remold we didn't get, a sort of V with a bar through
it. It's not a Japanese character, in any case.

Other Notes: Here's a few things I did to make the toy both more
distinct from Six Shot in robot mode, and also look more like G1
Quickswitch's robot mode: Keep the chest fins hidden away, fold the wings
straight down, rotate the shoulder tops so the wheels face backwards.

Overall: The red paint is a bit gloppy in places and seems vulnerable to
chipping, but otherwise it's a pretty good toy. Not good enough to buy a
Leader class toy twice unless you're pretty financially secure, though.


AUTOBOT: LASER PRIME
Assortment: Chaos on Velocitron
Titan Master: unnamed (fan name: Laserfire)
Altmodes: Jet, Tanker Truck
Transformation Difficulty: 23 steps
Previous Name Use: None as "Laser Prime" specifically
Previous Mold Use: Gen
Weapon: Inferno Rifle, Energon Sword
Function: Mission Leader
Motto: "I take nothing lightly, but light takes everything with me."

With the DECEPTICONS closing in, LASER PRIME uses his Laserport System
to open a portal the AUTOBOTS use to escape Velocitron and evade the
Decepticons.

B: STR 10 SPD 10 INT 10 FRB 9
T: STR +4 SPD +5 INT +5 FRB +3

While the bio doesn't confirm that this is just Optimus Prime in special
mission gear, the "OPTIMUS PRIME" stickers on his chest suggest it's him. Or
a major fanboy.
Also, way to suck the drama out of the situation, Laser Prime. "Oh,
I'll just gate us out of here. Later, Decepticrumbs!"

Packaging: Two ties on truck mode, two on the sword, one on the rifle,
and one on the Titan Master. The "photo" shows some green on the tank
stickers, but the actual stickers don't have any green, so either they
decided to suppress the whole "burning down the forest" look, or the renders
assumed a blue tabletop.

Color Swaps: As with Quickswitch, it's not a simple swap. Most of the
toy is medium-light plastic, though. The clear plastic is blue. The torso
core, collar area, fists, wheels, rifle, and tank shell pieces are black
plastic. The forearms are red. The faceplate, head-flanking bits, abdomen,
toes, and shins are light blue plastic.

Paint Apps: The shins are totally coated in gloss black plastic, with
red kneecaps. Red paint is also found on the upper surfaces of the biceps,
and the cage-like bits on the boots (tank sides). The cab roof is painted
gloss black, and the truck nose has black airbrushed at the rear part of it.
The grille and front bumper are silver, as is most of the length of each
smokestack. The faceplate and helmet tablet are silver, the eyes and front
windows are a slightly darker and faintly metalflake blue paint. The abdomen
may be painted light blue rather than light blue plastic, it looks a little
less sharp, but there's no way for me to scrape away any paint from a hidden
area. The pelvis front and the bits of the abdomen not on the button are
painted gray, a pretty good match to the plastic.
The sides of the tank are covered in metallic stickers that reference
the G2 Laser Prime's stickers, with Optimus shooting a big flame burst. But
there's no burning forest. The robot chest has red stickers on the fake
windows, with "OPTIMUS" on one window and "PRIME" on the other. The jet's
windows are also stickers. They seem slightly better-attached than usual for
Titans Return, at least.

Mold Changes: None that I noticed.

Other Notes: While messing with this, I discovered something that's hard
to see in the instructions: the middle tail fin splits in two to lay flat
under the wings in robot mode. (I've added a note about it to the original's
review.)

Overall: Pretty good homage to Laser Optimus Prime, although the blue is
a little too light and it's missing colors on the front of the shoulders.


AUTOBOT: AUTOBOT NAUTICA
Assortment: Chaos on Velocitron
Titan Master: unnamed (fan name: Wrench)
Altmode: Hoverspeeder
Transformation Difficulty: 17 steps
Previous Name Use: None
Previous Mold Use: Gen
Weapon: Quantum Bolter
Function: Quantum Mechanic
Motto: "Brainstorm is an ass!"

AUTOBOT NAUTICA engineers faster-than-light engines. When the
Decepticons are closing in, she gives the AUTOBOTS a super-charged escape
boost.

B: STR 8 SPD 7 INT 10 FRB 6
T: STR +4 SPD +5 INT +5 FRB +3

Given their somewhat rocky friendship in the comics, it's ironic that
Nautica and Brainstorm both use versions of the Blurr mold with new shoulders
and heads.

Packaging: Two ties on the vehicle mode, one on the rifle, one on the
Titan Master. The renders make it look like her lightest color is white, but
the toy is more of a very pale lavender on those bits.

Color Swaps: Well, Blurr was kinda monochrome, the clear plastic is a
darker blue on Nautica, otherwise the blue plastic is split into two main
shades. The shoulders, forearms, shield, pelvis, boots, rifle, Titan Master
head and limbs are magenta plastic. The rest is made of a very pale lavender
plastic, including the toes and the various hinges. The new shoulder pieces
are pale lavender (but completely painted over), as is the Titan Master
torso. Oddly, the faceplate seems to be black plastic.

Paint Apps: A "heather" purple paint that's slightly darker than the
magenta plastic is used on the chest, Nautica's helmet, and most of the
surface of the new shoulder pieces. The hoverfans, the abdomen/chairback,
boot-mounted thrusters, helmet "eyebrows" and tablet, and stripes around the
vehicle mode are bright yellow. There's light gray bits on the winglets and
the bottoms of the thrusters, plus the face. The lower shins are painted
gloss dark blue, while the shoulder thrusters are painted dark gray. The
eyes are painted dark gloss blue, and she has pink lipstick. Because the
windshield is too dark for putting an Autobot symbol on the inside, they
printed one on the outside...where it ends up upside down in vehicle mode.

Mold Changes: The faceplate is new, as are plug-in winglets with
hoverfans that attach to the shoulders via existing mold parts (and cover the
Titan Master pegs there). Blurr can wear the winglets, although they're not
the right color, obviously.

Other Notes: Only comes with the small rifle, not the seat-rifle. And
yes, Trent Troop has already made a comic-accurate wrench available on his
Shapeways store...and yes, I got one. (Had to shave down the handle a bit to
get it to fit, black acrylate tends to come out with some bumps.)
While a clear visor wasn't really feasible with how they make these, you
can fake her antenna by sticking one of Wrench's arms out a bit in head
mode. However, you still can't really get comic-accurate without repainting,
since in the comics her purple is more towards the blue end, and there should
be a lot of light gray/silver instead of the very pale lavender. Maybe these
are the colors she wears to festival, like the Combiner Hunters decos of
Windblade and Chromia. :)

Overall: Still a good mold, and fairly appropriate for this purpose, but
I wish they'd gotten the colors closer to the comics.


AUTOBOT: FASTCLASH
Assortment: Chaos on Velocitron
Titan Master: None
Altmode: Race Car (sort of)
Transformation Difficulty: 7 steps
Previous Name Use: None
Previous Mold Use: None
Titan Master Ability: N/A
Weapon: None
Function: Escape Decoy
Motto: "I'm faster than anyone smarter than me, and smarter than anyone
faster."

FASTCLASH is the ultimate AUTOBOT decoy and escape artist, breezing by
in battle and leaving DECEPTICONS in pursuit in tangles of road-wreckage.

STR 6 SPD 8 INT 10 FRB 7

Given that his altmode looks like a robot lying down, to be a successful
decoy he must have some sort of holographic disguise system. Hey, if I don't
have a Titan Master I can name, I can at least headcanon him a power.

Packaging: Two ties on the vehicle mode.

Robot Mode: Looks a lot like the G1 toy, although the gray is lighter
and less brownish, and there's wheels on the boots. While missing a few
stickers, the colors are about the same otherwise. A boxy bot with minimal
vehicle kibble, really just the wheels and the spoiler stuck to the back of
his head.
3.75" (9.5cm) tall, a little shorter than the G1 robot mode, in red,
very light gray, and black for the most part. The head, torso, arms, pelvis,
hips, and feet are red plastic, although the shoulder struts and hips seem to
be a slightly different shade. The thighs and boots are very light gray
plastic, the wheels and spoiler are black plastic.
Light gray paint that's a little brighter than the plastic is used on
the face, the fists (which I'm pretty sure are red plastic underneath), and a
stripe across the chest that's meant to evoke the gray plastic on Fastlane's
chest (the relevant pieces are red plastic on this toy, and not really
paintable due to scraping issues). The visor on the face is painted metallic
light blue. There's silver paint on the bottom of the shins, and silver and
red paint on the headlight details on the bottom outer edges of the boots.
Rather than go with the dual rubsigns of Fastlane, Fastclash has a silver
square on his abdomen with a black Autobot symbol, and the center of his
chest has a silver boardered black box that has a pale orange rubsign-evoking
car symbol that's the same as the one on Fastlane. The wheel hubs are
silver, and the sticker pattern from Fastlane is printed in red, black, and
silver on Fastclash's spoiler.
The head turns, but is blocked a bit by the spoiler stuck between the
wheels. Shoulders, elbows, and hips are ball joints. The wrists bend inward
for transformation. There's thigh swivels right below the hips, hinge knees,
and hinge ankles with a little useful range. You can also use the
transformation hinges for the shoulders to bring the arms closer together if
you want him to steal Laser Prime's sword and use it two-handed.
The hands can hold 5mm pegs, and there's a pair of 3mm peg holes in the
small of the back. I'm guessing those are for Cloudraker's wings.
No weapons. I suppose when your job is to run away, you don't need to
actually shoot...and his headcanon holographic disguise could fake some
lasers. The spoiler is pegged in place, but unlike Fastlane it has the peg
hole on the spoiler, so Fastclash can't hold it as a weapon.

Transformation: Fold the fists into the forearms, swing the straight
arms in front of the chest parallel to each other. Peg the boots together,
point the toes down. Rotate the head 180 degrees and adjust the spoiler.
Fiddle with specifics until all four wheels are on the table at once.
Roughly the same as Fastlane, but without the leg-shortening step.

Vehicle Mode: Well, it basically looks like a robot lying down with arms
in front of its chest. Unlike Fastlane, however, it's a four-wheeled vehicle
and lacks any weapon attachment points in this mode (unless you leave the
fists out). And yes, Trent has made weapons for Fastclash too. It looks
okay with the fists out, due to the shape of the backs of the fists.
At 4" (10cm) long, it's only barely shorter than Fastlane, although
noticeably less wide even without guns stuck to the front end. Colors about
the same, although now the spoiler is more obvious.
It rolls very nicely despite the rear wheels being snap-on. Those 3mm
peg holes can be used for "stunt jumping" flight stand purposes, although
they're a little wider than 3mm and so would be a bit loose.
Fastclash has a signficant extra feature that Fastlane lacks, however.
If you fold up the center of Fastclash's chest, it reveals a seat for Titan
Masters. The Titan Master heel spur goes in a notch on the robot pelvis.
Titan Masters with nonstandard faceplates (like Blurr's, or some of the
custom ones) won't have room for their butt, though. This does make the ad
hoc looking vehicle mode more acceptable, at least, and gives Rodimus Prime
something to do other than cling to the side of someone's vehicle mode.

Undocumented Feature: There's transformation hinges that neither mode
needs, letting the legs spread apart. Additionally, the spoiler pops off to
reveal a 5mm peg. I am told this is due to wanting to use as much of the
mold as possible for the other three Clones, but I was able to make a sort of
claw weapon mode. And from that I found a sort of pseudo-Scrapmetal mode for
it, for some Cybertron nostalgia:

http://www.dvandom.com/images/fastclashscrap.JPG

Overall: I was ill-disposed towards this toy going in, but now that I've
played with it I find myself liking it. If the clones were sold separately,
I'd enthusiastically buy them all, but they're not enough on their own to
sell a $100 box set.


AUTOBOT: RODIMUS PRIME
Assortment: Chaos on Velocitron
Titan Master: is one
Altmode: Head
Transformation Difficulty: 1 step
Previous Name Use: G1, Titanium, Gen (TRU exclusive)
Previous Mold Use: None
Titan Master Ability: Dominion over speed
Function: Titan Master
Motto: "I feel the need, the need for SPEED!"

RODIMUS PRIME gains immeasurable power, but with a price: he must become
a Titan Master and unite with another bot in order to wield it. RODIMUS
PRIME elects to carry the power himself, taking a smaller size and ensuring
it will be used only by an AUTOBOT worthy of its magnitude.

T: STR +4 SPD +5 INT +5 FRB +3

VAST COSMIC POWER, itty bitty living space.

Packaging: One tie holds it into Titan Master Row on the blister.

Robot Mode: It's the Firebolt mold, more or less, but the faceplate and
torso pieces are die cast metal. The swank factor of this is mostly
cancelled out by the sloppy paint job on the metal parts. The head, arms,
and boots are red plastic, the thighs are yellow-orange plastic. The torso
is painted red (a bit dull compared to the plastic), with yellow-orange and
yellow paint on the chest to evoke the flame patterns. The boots are dipped
in gloss black paint.
The shoulder joints are very stiff, probably due to the paint on the
shoulder balls.

Transformation: Standard Titan Master "bend over" transformation.

Head Mode: Based on the more "grown up" Rodimus Prime design of G1. The
faceplate piece is metal dipped in very light gray paint, then the other
details are painted on. The helmet is the same red as the Titan Master
torso, with duller maroon paint on the crest and earcaps. The eyes are very
sloppily painted deep blue, and the helmet tablet is silver.

Overall: Eh, unless the painting quality goes up significantly, I'm not
really looking forward to the die-cast Titan Masters of future sets.


Dave Van Domelen, supposes the movie toys will need to be reviewed.
Eventually. Some of them.

[Shin Hibiki]

dva...@eyrie.org (Dave Van Domelen) wrote:

>And yes, Trent has made weapons for Fastclash too.

Links, please?

- Shin Hibiki, eBayed two figures from the set

----
The race ain't over yet, baby
It's only just begun
They thought they had it won, baby
But soon we'll have 'em on the run

[Zobovor]

On Sunday, April 16, 2017 at 10:06:00 PM UTC-6, Shin Hibiki wrote:

> Links, please?

I found one. Not sure if it's the same one mentioned in the review:

https://www.shapeways.com/product/C52BT7RSD/titans-return-fastclash-weapons


Zob (might actually have to get these)

[Dave Van Domelen]

https://www.shapeways.com/shops/trentsworkshop?section=5mm+Accessories&s=0

Kinda mixed in there. He's also been making 2mm peg stuff like more
planes for Broadside, Waruder and Diaclone drivers, etc:

https://www.shapeways.com/shops/trentsworkshop?section=35mm+Miniatures%2FTitanscale+Minis&s=0


Dave Van Domelen, got some Diaclones and the Spike/Daniel exosuit in the
same order as Nautica's wrench.

[Shin Hibiki]

dva...@eyrie.org (Dave Van Domelen) wrote:

>https://www.shapeways.com/shops/trentsworkshop?section=5mm+Accessories&s=0
>
> Kinda mixed in there. He's also been making 2mm peg stuff like more
>planes for Broadside, Waruder and Diaclone drivers, etc:

Sweet, thanks for the links, everybody. Now I'm totally going
to go bankrupt.

- Shin Hibiki