Dave's Transformers Titans Return Rant: Arcee and Grotusque sets

[Dave Van Domelen]

Dave's Transformers Titans Return Rant: 2017 Convention Exclusives

Arcee with Leinad and Ultra Magnus (Blurr retool)
Grotusque with Fengul and Scorponok (Twinferno retool)

Permalink: http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Gen/2017ConEx

These two contain leftovers from the cancelled $100 box sets that would
have followed Chaos on Velocitron and Siege on Cybertron, with the remaining
two Clones released as a Walgreens exclusive. At this time, I don't know if
the Voyager and Leader figures for the other two sets had been decided on,
much less designed, but the lack of leftover Titan Master names from the
Trypticon Crunch box suggests they didn't get far enough for trademarks. (I
do suspect Overlord would have been retooled for one, and there's that
Godbomber mold in Japan that could have been imported for the other set.)

Getting them was enough of a hassle that this review is more for the
sake of completeness than anything else, because it's not like these will be
sitting on shelves anywhere. In fact, the packaging makes them hard to sell
by any means other than online or "wait in line at a convention". Arcee's
allotment on HasbroToyShop opened up right after I went to class and sold out
just before my class was over, so I had to wait for the Toys R Us wave, which
ended up being a pre-order cycle lasting longer than a month and requiring a
re-pre-order due to Paypal refusing to let something hang that long.
Grotusque at least hit HTS when I was in my office and I got it there. A TRU
release was hinted at, but has not yet materialized.


CAPSULES

$25 if you can actually get them from a retailer, otherwise whatever the
market will bear, I guess.

Arcee with Leinad and Ultra Magnus: An extensively reused base mold, but
a good one. Sadly, this is easily the weakest version, with significant
aesthetic issues in vehicle mode. Recommended, but not if you have to pay
much over $25.

Grotusque with Fengul and Scorponok: Original mold was mildly
recommended due in large part to issues with the beast mode hips. Not sure
if the hips were fixed or I'm just better at dealing with them now. Suffers
some from not quite fitting the base mold, but nowhere as badly as Arcee.
Mildly recommended.


RANTS

Packaging: As noted above, these boxes are pretty shelf-hostile. There
is literally no indication what is inside them, and the only differences are
the assortment number and the UPC. Black cardboard boxes 10" (25cm) wide, 7"
(18cm) tall, and 2.5" (6.5cm) deep. The front has the "Autobot shooting
star" logo in white, taking up the left half of the box. Blank top, left,
and bottom edges. The right edge has the Transformers logo in white. The
back has utterly generic legalese promising 1 toy made up of 3 figures, 2
accessories, 2 collector cards, and instructions.
Slitting the tape and undoing two tabs opens the box up, revealing
plenty more detail and a sort of display setup. The front of the box has the
collector cards taped behind a plastic shield (they apparently decided the
glue wasn't trustworthy) with the character names below them. The set's
techspec icon logo is next to the name of the metal Titan Master (gears in a
helmet silhouette for Intelligence, a bullet leaving a barrel for Fireblast).
Lifting the front also reveals white line pseudo-blueprint art of each
figure on panels inside. The Deluxe and their Titan Master are on the left,
the metal bodied Titan Master is on the right. The bottom panel has the
Titans Return logo on the inside.
The blueprint panels fold open to reveal blister trays on their reverse,
containing the relevant figures. This is not really meant to be reusable,
once the figures are removed they won't stay in the trays on their own.
Behind the Deluxe's tray is the instruction sheet. The blister trays have
the names of the Deluxe and the metal Titan Master molded somewhat blurrily
into them.
The inside back of the box has the Deluxe's card art reproduced at a
larger size. A panel to the left has line art of three Titan Master heads
(Blaster's with helmet, Cerebros, Sentinel Prime in both cases). The right
tryptich panel has the Transformers logo in red.
Note that the card art does not look like a cropped section of a group
shot in either case. Arcee is vaulting over what appears to be a
Constructicon in hers, while Grotusque's shows him transforming through
several steps. Scorponok and Ultra Magnus have the same art, just
recolored. Appropriate given that they have identical molds save for the
faceplates (specifically, Fangry's). The Deluxes also have the unusual
situation of using landscape art on their cards, but the metal Titan Masters
use the more common portrait orientation. Interestingly, the landscape cards
have the wrong set of corners truncated...if you stack them face-up with
other Titans Returns cards, they'll have corners sticking out of the stack.
They need to be face-down to line up.
Not only are the instructions the slightly clearer late-Titans Return
style, they include full bio notes for all the characters (in four
languages), and establish that the metal-bodied Titan Masters are officially
Super Titan Masters.


AUTOBOT: ARCEE
Assortment: C3542
Titan Masters: Leinad, Ultra Magnus
Altmode: Cybertronian Sportscar
Transformation Difficulty:
Previous Name Use: Energon, Prime, Gen, RotF
Previous Mold Use: Gen
Weapon: Twin pistols
Titan Master Powers: Leinad - Healer, Ultra Magnus - Ultimate Intelligence
Boost
Function: Guardian
Motto: "I'm the best there is at what I do, and what I do ain't pretty."

ARCEE is a ferocious AUTOBOT warrior, skilled in hand-to-hand combat.
Her greatest strength is protecting those closest to her, fighting
relentlessly to defend both AUTOBOTS and humans no matter the cost.
LEINAD is a healer, capable of mending severe armor damages. When he
unites with ARCEE, she gains a powerful systems repair boost that allows her
to heal near-fatal battle wounds. Arcee fights like she is invincible. With
LEINAD, she might actually be invincible.
ULTRA MAGNUS is the embodiment of courage and sacrifice. When the super
TITAN MASTER unites with other bots, he gives them a super intelligence boost
capable of outsmarting even the most menacing of DECEPTICONS to command with
the noble vision of a Prime. [I feel like that last sentence kind of got
away from the writer.]

Arcee: STR 7 SPD 5 INT 8 FRB 7
Leinad: STR +2 SPD +3 INT +5 FRB +3
Ultra Magnus: STR +5 SPD +3 INT +10 FRB +3

I'll use the original Blurr as the point of reference, rather than later
tweaks like Nautica.

Packaging: 10 ties on the figure, with a rubber band keeping her head
on. Her hood shield is attached to her left forearm, rather than on her back.
Each pistol is held in by one tie. Two ties hold Ultra Magnus in on his
side.

Color Swaps: Since Blurr is almost all one color, here's just a regular
listing. Pink plastic on the shoulders, forearms, the fender bits on the
forearms, pelvis, boots, shield (other than the skid for its sled mode),
faceplate, and pistols. The chest window is clear rose plastic. Everything
else is white plastic, including the biceps, toes, and hinges on the
forearms.
Ultra Magnus is all white plastic except for the metal torso and
faceplate. His expression is fairly serious, but the seam that runs all the
way across at his mouth makes him look a little silly, like a Muppet version
of himself.

Paint Apps: Quite a lot, in order to get the pink/white balance correct.
Significant pink paint (decent match) on the top and back of the torso, plus
on the faceplate's earcups (yes, they're pink plastic, but painted all over
in white and then again in pink), borders of the windshield and the tips of
the toes. The faceplate is dipped in white, and there's white paint on the
tops of the shoulderpads, the forearms, a lot of the surface of each boot,
the front end of the vehicle, parts of the chest windshield and a stripe at
the top of the shield. Bright blue paint on the eyes, forehead dot, and
headlights. Dark gray paint on the thrusters, rear bumper, and the vaguely
Autobot-Symbol-shaped detail on the belly button. The new pistols are
covered in dark gray except for the bit that goes into the hands. The face
itself is painted a very pale pink, and they resisted the temptation to give
her lipstick. Leinad's entire head is painted silver, but since the dome
parts don't really scrap against anything you might be able to repaint it
with a face if you want to be weird. His shins are dark gray.
Ultra Magnus has white paint on his torso. The little head has bright
blue paint on the face and helmet crest, and red eyes. The Ultra Magnus
faceplate has blue on the helmet, silver for the face, antennae, and helmet
tablet. The eyes are light blue.

Mold Changes: The faceplate is new, obviously. The shoulders are
remolded to evoke Arcee's G1 backpack. The shield has been replaced
entirely. The new one retains the same connectors (so the two could trade
shields), but is shorter and wider. The skid as been moved back but still
functions for the sled mode. The underside now has two 5mm peg holes for
holding the pistols in vehicle mode or stowed in robot mode (they also act as
weapons in sled mode). The sled gives Ultra Magnus something to ride around
in when Arcee is in vehicle mode slaughtering Decepticons with her bare hands
or using her folded out headlight segments as cestuses.
The rifle is replaced by a pair of small (32mm long) pistols with 5mm by
2.7mm rectangular grips that fit perfectly into the slot in Overlord's chest.
I suspect this is intentional, to let they fit into Titan Master heel spur
slots found on other toys. They don't store on her hips or really anywhere
else, though. (The paint on the pistols is sloppy at its edge, but the edge
is usually inside a hand or peg hole.)

Other Notes: Leinad is a retool of Blurr's Titan Master Hyperfire with a
new head and faceplate (important note: Hyperfire's torso is NOT STANDARD,
and while Arcee and Blurr can swap faceplates, you can't swap in faceplates
from other torso designs), while Ultra Magnus is based on Fangry but with the
same metal torso as Rodimus and Thunderwing. Leinad is basically Daniel in
his exo-suit, a reference to how in Headmasters Rebirth, Daniel became
Arcee's Headmaster. Oh, and notice how his power of "Healing" is not the
"nice nurse come to help" that might have been expected...it's a "turn Arcee
into an unkillable berserker, bub" power.
The vehicle mode doesn't just look like a pink Blurr, which is good on
that count. Unfortunately, the new shoulders end up leaving the sides of the
vehicle kinda gappy with obvious robot arms visible on each side. Of all the
"Turn Blurr into someone else" toys, this is really the only one where I'd
say the vehicle mode doesn't work. Especially since I still have
pre-linewide-gimmick Arcee set out on my Titans Return table display. (And
Pink Assassin, who is going after Ravage. And way too many Windblades.)

Overall: A decent robot mode for Arcee, but a fairly weak vehicle mode.
If you already have or can get a pre-CW Generations Arcee (which might be
cheaper on the secondary market at this point), I'd go with that instead.
This is nice, but not scalper-price nice.


AUTOBOT: GROTUSQUE
Assortment: C3541
Titan Masters: Fengul, Scorponok
Altmode: Monsterbot
Transformation Difficulty:
Previous Name Use: G1
Previous Mold Use: Gen
Weapon: Twin Vaporators
Titan Master Powers: Fengul - Optics Scorch, Scorponok - Ultimate Fireblast
Boost (a very bad idea for an Autobot to let on his shoulders, tho)
Function: Military Strategist
Motto: "If it ain't fun to do, it ain't worth doing."

GROTUSQUE cracks a joke as easy as he cracks a mirror. The military
strategist is a top-notch fighter who can't help but laugh at everything,
including his frightening and repulsive appearance.
When FENGUL unifies with GROTUSQUE, he gives him an optics scorch boost
that temporarily blinds and disables his enemies. Together they make the
perfect pair, scarring bots with their equally repulsive appearances.
Cruel and malicious Super Titan Master SCORPONOK unleashes a
fusion-powereed anti-gravity super fireblast boost to leave enemies stranded
in despair and isolation beyond the reach of medical assistance. [Um, he
emos you to death? Also, yes, the two bio notes are inconsistent on how to
capitalized Super Titan Master.]

Grotusque: STR 7 SPD 4 INT 10 FRB 8
Fengul: STR +4 SPD +1 INT +5 FRB +3
Scorponok: STR +3 SPD +5 INT +2 FRB +10

This is a retool more on the level of the Galaga Brothers, so I'll
review it as if it were a new mold. The legs are the same mold as Twinferno,
as are the wings, the clear belly plate, and the guns. The torso uses a lot
of the same elements, but is a new tooling. Fengul gets a new faceplate and
head.

Packaging: Six ties on the robot mode, with the head held on by a rubber
band. The beast rear feet are folded inward to fit, but need to be folded
back to act as heel spurs. One tie on the double gun, two on Scorponok.

Robot Mode: Fairly close to the G1 toy, although in somewhat less bright
colors more in keeping with the G1 comics appearances. The chest isn't all
blue, however, because the transformation design puts the beast's lower jaw
there, and the G1 toy has a magneta lower jaw on the beast mode. There's
beast claws hanging off the forearms, and they're prone to being popped off
if you're not careful.
5.5" (14cm) tall in a mix of dark magneta, light gray, medium gray, and
a bit of slightly desaturated medium blue. Calling the plastic colors is
hard because so many pieces are dipped entirely in paint. Medium gray
plastic is used on the faceplate, Fengul's torso, the hinge at the top of the
sternum, the blue chestplate and probably its attached lower jaw, the
shoulderpads, the pelvis skirt armor, the feet, the beast claws on the
forearms, hip joints, and the top section of the beast head that's a backpack
in this mode. The belly panel and wings are clear magneta plastic. The
biceps, fists, thighs, flaps on the shoulderpads, Fengul's arms and boots,
and the hinge holding the backpack are very light gray plastic. The boots,
forearms, rifles, most of the torso, and Fengul's thighs are dark magenta
plastic.
Light gray paint is used on the shoulderpads and most of the faceplate,
and the rifles are dipped in it save for places that have to peg together
(looks pretty sloppy when they aren't connected). The wings are dipped in
medium gray paint, and the face is painted medium gray over the light gray.
Medium desaturated blue paint coats the larger chestplate, and is also found
on the robot eyes and the kneecaps. The pelvis skirt armor uses two shades
of magenta paint, the darker shade in the middle third. The darker magenta
is also used on the beast claws on the forearms. There's red on vents on the
tops of the shoulderpad fronts and backs (although in robot mode those are
usually covered by the wings). The right shoulderpad has a yellow rectangle
painted on it, while the left has an Autobot symbol printed over all the
details in a weird-looking effect. A bright aqua triangle is painted in the
center of the chest, and there's a bit of it in the vent on top of the
helmet.
Standard Titan Master neck joint, no waist (although the skirt is hinged
to get out of the way of the legs). The shoulders are universal joints with
hinged flaps at the top of the shoulderpads to let the arms lift all the way
up. Upper arm swivels, hinge elbows. The wrists bend inward on
transformation joints. Universal joint hips, upper thigh swivels, hinge
knees. The ankles rotate, and the beast feet sticking out the back act as
adjustable heel spurs as they are hinged. The wings are hinged to fold
back. The belly compartment is hinged to open, but the chestplate blocks it
in this mode.
The fists can hold 5mm pegs, and there are the same 5mm peg holes in the
wings as on Twinferno. The mounting points on the back for the guns are
blocked by the new beast head, but it has slots on either side to let you
mount the guns there (not terribly stable, but clearly intentional). The
pelvis is part of a retooled piece, but it retains the 3mm flight base peg
hole in the back.

Transformation: Obviously, the legs transform the same way as on
Twinferno. The fists fold into the forearms and claws fold out in a way that
requires reversing the arm so it bends the other way at the elbow. The Titan
Master must be removed, and the bulk of the beast head folds up into its
spot, with the blue chestplate folding up to form the throat and lower jaw.

Beast Mode: Other than the lack of the sparking gimmick, this looks
pretty close to the G1 beast mode, just with better articulation and
balance. The foreclaws are the main weak point, which looks more like an
afterthought. The back detailing is very similar to on Twinferno, but the
slots for mounting the dual cannon are more recessed and there's a hinge
added for the beast head backpack bit. The 2mm pegs remain in place, if you
want to mount the guns on the wings or the sides of the head (they can only
fit on the sides of the head with their mutual connectors up, which doesn't
look so good).
5.75" (14.5cm) from snout to tail tip, 4.5" (11cm) wingspan. The light
gray is muted a bit in this mode, although the robot fists make for big
chunks of light gray on the beast forelimbs. The now-revealed furry lower
legs are a slightly lighter gray plastic, although that may be an artifact of
them being made of softer "joint" plastic than the thighs they hide in for
robot mode. There's some of the lighter dark magenta paint on the sides of
the hips in stripes that are on the soles of the feet in robot mode. The
beast eyes are medium blue, and some vent details on the sides of the neck
are also painted that color.
The lower jaw is hinged. The forelimbs have the same articulation as in
robot mode. The new rear hips are hinges, as are the knees. The toes fold
down for transformation, but it's not a useful joint in this mode. While the
figure can be put in a quadrupedal pose, the head cannot look up.
Only the wing 5mm holes remain accessible. A new 3mm peg hole is
revealed in the belly, the old one is now on the top of the tail root. As
noted earlier, there's a pair of 2mm pegs on the back between the wings, and
there's non-standard slots on the back and the sides of the head for the
rifles.

Titan Masters: Fengul is a retool of Daburu with a new head and new
faceplate, Scorponok has the same mold as Ultra Magnus except for the
faceplate.
Fengul's head is more of a saber toothed tiger than the lion head on
Daburu, and it and his colors are reportedly based on Beastformer Platinum
Tiger (Saber Sword Tiger in the Battle Beasts release). His head is painted
pale yellow with white fangs, the inner faces of his arms and the fronts of
his boots are painted bright aqua.
Scorponok has very light tan paint on the torso and the top of the
helmet (but not the sides), and a silver face. The limbs are violet plastic
that matches G1 Scorponok, rather than any plastic color seen in the rest of
this set. All he really needs to match the color scheme of G1 Lord Zarak
would be a red visor. The faceplate is dipped in dark gray paint, with
silver face, and orange paint on the goggles and antennae.

Now all three Monsterbots are available in Titans Return, albeit not at
the same scale: http://www.dvandom.com/images/TRMonsterbots.JPG (this picture
also shows alternate gun storage in robot modes for both Twinferno and
Grotusque).

Overall: Better than Twinferno in some ways, worse in others. This one
has not yet (as of the initial posting of this review in mid-November 2017)
gone up on Toys R Us's website, but I'd say it's marginally worth $25 for the
set if you can get it.


Dave Van Domelen, getting around to finishing this review because he
found the Walgreens Clones set today.