My Incoherent Nonsense About TF RID(2?) Warrior Class Grimlock and Bumblebee

[ultra.m...@hotmail.com]

So I was at Target last night and I found a bunch of stupid EZ transform
crap that was related to the new RID toyline. Those were an obvious pass.
As I was giving up on finding anything worthy of buying I stumbled upon
Warrior class Grimlock mixed in with the TMNT toys. I then found Warrior
Class Bumblebee hidden behind some Spider-Man stuff.

When I got them home I immediately ripped them out of their packaging, which
was kind of annoying to accomplish with the stupid clothes tag thingies.
Those are dumb. Anyway, I started with Bumbelbee because Gustavo thinks he is
the bee's knees! or... was that Grimlock? Anyway. Despite what everyone else
has said here I think the transformation is kind of cool... except that to
hide Bumblebee's head you just... cover it up. No cool gimmick or whatever,
just flip the back area over his head. Done. I feel like that's a little cheap.
Everything else is good though. He comes packaged in robot mode and getting
him into his alt-mode is about 10 steps, and even after those are complete I
had to do a bit of massaging to get everything to fit together nice and flush.
Dumb! Hasbro should be more awesome at, like, building toys. Especially ones
of the transforming variety. It's not like they've been doing this for decades
or anything...

Grimlock! I like him. I mean... his legs in dino mode are kind of lame and
far aparty (I created that word! Trandemarked! MINE!!! Patent pending...).
But!! I love this transformation even more than Bumbelbee's and I don't even
care that he should have gotten the sword. Seriously, who said "Grimlock
with a sword? Nope." Fire him/her. Fire that person now. Obviously they don't
know Grimlock. And the other person who was all like "Ok, then give his
sword to Bumblbee." also needs a good firing. Dumb. DUMB!!

Uh... is there anything else? Hmm... nope.

Thanks for reading. :-D

Overall I like that they're not EZ crappy toys. Yay. Looking forward to cartoon.

[Zobovor]

On Tuesday, December 30, 2014 11:17:51 AM UTC-7, ultra.m...@hotmail.com wrote:

> When I got them home I immediately ripped them out of their packaging, which
> was kind of annoying to accomplish with the stupid clothes tag thingies.
> Those are dumb.

Everybody is calling these "clothing tags" or "sock ties" which doesn't seem to be correct. Those kinds of tags are made of rigid plastic. The ties currently used in Transformers packaging are stretchy! They're the next evolution of the clear stretchy rubber bands. I love them! You can pull toys out of the packaging so easily! No more metal twisty ties, no more stupid rattan ties.

> Grimlock! I like him. I mean... his legs in dino mode are kind of lame and
> far aparty (I created that word! Trandemarked! MINE!!! Patent pending...).

ROBOTS IN DISGUISE Grimlock(R)! With Lame and Far Aparty(tm) Legs! (Collect them all.)

> Thanks for reading. :-D

If I only buy one of these toys, I suspect it will be Grimlock. I hate, hate, haaaaaate that he's the wrong color. Grimlock is not green. Every time they produce a Transformer in the wrong colors, they rob him of his identity a little bit at a time. Sometimes a Transformer's color scheme is the ONLY THING that separates him from being another character. You don't make Starscream black-and-purple; you don't make Bumblebee red. Grimlock is not green. Thank you, and good night.


Zob

[elde...@gmail.com]

On Tuesday, December 30, 2014 5:20:04 PM UTC-8, Zobovor wrote:
> you don't make Bumblebee red. Grimlock is not green. Thank you, and good night.

Unless he's Bumblejumper! *Troll face*

[Gustavo Wombat, of the Seattle Wombats]

On Tuesday, December 30, 2014 10:17:51 AM UTC-8, ultra.m...@hotmail.com wrote:
> Anyway, I started with Bumbelbee because Gustavo thinks he is
> the bee's knees!

Not the bee's knees, but the best of the bunch. Mr. Van Domelan puts him behind Grimlock and Strongarm, partly because of some problems with heel spurs that mine doesn't seem to have. I've had no problems getting mine to stand.

> Anyway. Despite what everyone else
> has said here I think the transformation is kind of cool... except that to
> hide Bumblebee's head you just... cover it up. No cool gimmick or whatever,
> just flip the back area over his head. Done. I feel like that's a little cheap.

I don't know. There are lots of Transformers where they are staring at the road, or something, which always was a pet peeve of mine.

The head is very small, and the face sculpt is poor -- generally unexpressive. If the head folded forward before being hidden, I think they could have given him a larger head with a more expressive face. The face looks like a lifeless mask.

> Everything else is good though.

To get him above mediocre for me I would want:
- a better face sculpt
- rotating wrists (more important for sword weilding characters than gun weilding characters, so replacing the sword with a gun would also be fine)
- a better cod piece (there are square holes in it, which keep making me think I have it backwards)
- ground clearance in vehicle mode
- painted tail lights

I would also ditch the translucent blue windows and poorly color matched yellow paint for solid yellow plastic and painted sparkly blue windows. Bumblebee is the only one of the first wave to have translucent blue windows, and it hurts him a bit.

I do hope we get a redeco of him as the classic character MURDERBEE!, with an appropriately remolded head.
http://www.tfu.info/2011/Autobot/CyberfireBumblebee/bumblebee.htm

Look at that face. Gaze into the face of evil!

Ahem.

It's a lot easier to get black paint and plastic to match, so the translucent windows would be fine.

> He comes packaged in robot mode and getting
> him into his alt-mode is about 10 steps, and even after those are complete I
> had to do a bit of massaging to get everything to fit together nice and flush.

The panel massage irritates me.

> Dumb! Hasbro should be more awesome at, like, building toys. Especially ones
> of the transforming variety. It's not like they've been doing this for decades
> or anything...

I can forgive a little panel massage here and there, and the more I transform Bumblebee, the less panel massage I end up doing, so there is something I am learning.

I really cannot forgive a lack of ground clearance. They do it all the time, and it just kind of sucks each and every time.

> Grimlock! I like him.

Grimlock doesn't capture the character archetype at all for me.

Bumblebee doesn't look like the classic Bumblebee, but since the 2007 movie, we have been getting Bumblebee as a muscle car (Movies, Prime, IDW inspired Generations), so at this point, NewRID Bumblebee looks like *a* Bumblebee.

But Grimlock just isn't any version of the character we know. The robot face seems too intelligent, for one thing, and he doesn't have the classic color scheme. He looks like some other character who happens to transform into a robotic T-Rex.

Actually, not even a T-Rex, since he doesn't pose like a modern interpretation of a T-Rex. He looks more like a Godzilla, like Doom-Lock and Cruel-Lock from Energon.

And the sculpt sort of seems more like a Rescue Bots toy than something for the older kids line. I suspect that is going to be something that I see a lot in this line, and will either fall in love with (like Animated) or just continue to dislike.

> I mean... his legs in dino mode are kind of lame and
> far aparty (I created that word! Trandemarked! MINE!!! Patent pending...).

Those are good, child bearing hips.

> But!! I love this transformation even more than Bumbelbee's and I don't even
> care that he should have gotten the sword. Seriously, who said "Grimlock
> with a sword? Nope." Fire him/her. Fire that person now. Obviously they don't
> know Grimlock.

I think this character needs a mace, rather than a sword. Plus, a sword always felt out of place with G1 Grimlock, since he wasn't elegant or nimble enough for swordplay. But, a big club...

> And the other person who was all like "Ok, then give his
> sword to Bumblbee." also needs a good firing. Dumb. DUMB!!

Bumblebee with a sword is odd. Melee weapons on Transformers always seem odd though. Sure, we know that it is because their armor is much more advanced than their laser guns, but it still seems odd.

[Irrellius Spamticon of the Potato People.]

On Wednesday, December 31, 2014 3:31:42 AM UTC-6, Gustavo Wombat, of the Seattle Wombats wrote:
>
> > Grimlock! I like him.
>
> Grimlock doesn't capture the character archetype at all for me.
>

> But Grimlock just isn't any version of the character we know. The robot face seems too intelligent, for one thing, and he doesn't have the classic color scheme. He looks like some other character who happens to transform into a robotic T-Rex.
>

You can swing the little t-rex arms out in robot mode, and suddenly he's got 4 arms. maybe he uses them for surgery as the team's medic! (that would be hilariously bad)

[ultra.m...@hotmail.com]

On Wednesday, December 31, 2014 1:31:42 AM UTC-8, Gustavo Wombat, of the Seattle Wombats wrote:
> On Tuesday, December 30, 2014 10:17:51 AM UTC-8, ultra.m...@hotmail.com wrote:
> > Anyway, I started with Bumbelbee because Gustavo thinks he is
> > the bee's knees!
>
> Not the bee's knees, but the best of the bunch. Mr. Van Domelan puts him behind Grimlock and Strongarm, partly because of some problems with heel spurs that mine doesn't seem to have. I've had no problems getting mine to stand.

Oh. Also, I don't have any spur issues either. Mine stands ok as well.

> The head is very small, and the face sculpt is poor

Sure the head is small, but isn't that a problem with Grimlock too?
isn't that a line-wide issue? I can't fault Bumblebee for something
they all have in common.

> I really cannot forgive a lack of ground clearance. They do it all the time, and it just kind of sucks each and every time.

Agreed! Bumblebee can't roll and it sucks!!

> Grimlock doesn't capture the character archetype at all for me.
>
> Bumblebee doesn't look like the classic Bumblebee, but since the 2007 movie, we have been getting Bumblebee as a muscle car (Movies, Prime, IDW inspired Generations), so at this point, NewRID Bumblebee looks like *a* Bumblebee.
>
> But Grimlock just isn't any version of the character we know. The robot face seems too intelligent, for one thing, and he doesn't have the classic color scheme. He looks like some other character who happens to transform into a robotic T-Rex.

True. This version of Grimlock isn't like any we've seen before and I
am of the opinion that he just may turn out to be one of the most
interesting Autobots in the cartoon series. The lack of a real bio for these
characters doesn't give me much to go on. I think this one has lost his
memories? I think he was once a Decepticon? Whenever they get around to
telling us his story I'll be watching with anticipation.

> And the sculpt sort of seems more like a Rescue Bots toy than something for the older kids line. I suspect that is going to be something that I see a lot in this line, and will either fall in love with (like Animated) or just continue to dislike.

You're right. I didn't even notice that before.

> I think this character needs a mace, rather than a sword. Plus, a sword always felt out of place with G1 Grimlock, since he wasn't elegant or nimble enough for swordplay. But, a big club...

Yeah, but if he turns out to be less clumsy than Bulkhead in this series I can totally see him swinging a sword.

[Zobovor]

On Tuesday, December 30, 2014 6:20:04 PM UTC-7, Zobovor wrote:

> ROBOTS IN DISGUISE Grimlock(R)! With Lame and Far Aparty(tm) Legs!

I had actually typed ALT + 0174 to get the ASCII version of the circle-R to appear. Same with ALT + 0153 for the little TM symbol. It looked better before Google undid the formatting. I hate that they do that now. They killed the joke.

> Grimlock is not green.

I actually saw the toy today for the first time and I was even *more* bothered by the fact that he's got a mouth in robot mode!


Zob

[Gustavo Wombat]

<ultra.m...@hotmail.com> wrote:
> On Wednesday, December 31, 2014 1:31:42 AM UTC-8, Gustavo Wombat, of the
> Seattle Wombats wrote:
>> On Tuesday, December 30, 2014 10:17:51 AM UTC-8, ultra.m...@hotmail.com wrote:

>> The head is very small, and the face sculpt is poor
>
> Sure the head is small, but isn't that a problem with Grimlock too?
> isn't that a line-wide issue? I can't fault Bumblebee for something
> they all have in common.

I may have a more finely honed sense of outrage than you. I can hold it
against each and every toy.

Also, I have kind of written off Grimlock as being not worth the bother. I
might be getting more and more Zob-like in demanding new versions of
characters show some fidelity to previous versions. I'm not all G1, yet,
but I will get there.

> True. This version of Grimlock isn't like any we've seen before and I
> am of the opinion that he just may turn out to be one of the most
> interesting Autobots in the cartoon series. The lack of a real bio for these
> characters doesn't give me much to go on. I think this one has lost his
> memories? I think he was once a Decepticon? Whenever they get around to
> telling us his story I'll be watching with anticipation.

And to me, that's an opportunity to create a whole new character, rather
than mushing that new character into Grimlock -- especially since future
versions of Grimlock (even a G1 Grimlock) may now borrow elements of this
new character.

It's like littering.

--
I wish I was a mole in the ground.

[banzait...@gmail.com]

> And to me, that's an opportunity to create a whole new character, rather
> than mushing that new character into Grimlock -- especially since future
> versions of Grimlock (even a G1 Grimlock) may now borrow elements of this
> new character.

Hasbro has created a handful of "household names" in the franchise, so they will continue to beat us over the head with them to sell more toys. Most soccer moms now know that there are transformers named Optimus Prime, Bumblebee, and Grimlock. There are probably a couple others.
It seems Hasbro has given up on creating new franchise characters. Had they kept pushing characters like Cheetor and Hot Shot, I think they could have created some really significant brand recognition with those names. Instead, it will be more of the same for the foreseeable future. Expect to see at least 10 different bumblebee toys this year ;-(

-Banzaitron

[Irrellius Spamticon of the Potato People.]

I expect ten new Bumblebee toys per month...

This new series might develop Strongarm and Steeljaw into new characters, but Bumblebee and Sideswipe are clearly the main cast. Sideswipe's "hair" looks so dumb.

[Irrellius Spamticon of the Potato People.]

If you half transform Grimlock so he's got the dinosaur tail, robot arms, and Trex head on, suddenly he's the wish-dragon from Dragonball Z.

[banzait...@gmail.com]

> My Incoherent Nonsense About TF RID(2?)

Hmm. I thought we agreed upon RID 2.0?

-Banzaitron

[Zobovor]

On Saturday, January 3, 2015 6:43:13 PM UTC-7, banzait...@gmail.com wrote:

> Hmm. I thought we agreed upon RID 2.0?

RiD2 is easier to type. Also, there's a nomenclature precedent in the collecting community (the second "Power of the Force" assortment of Star Wars toys is called PotF2 by pretty much everybody).


Zob

[Gustavo Wombat, of the Seattle Wombats]

It's definitely not RID 2.0, since it is not an improved version of the original RID. It's a new version of TF:Prime. (Universe 2.0 made sense, because it that really was just another version of Universe, this time with new molds)

OtherRID, NewRID, etc would all be fine. RID2 is sort of like Prowl2 -- ugly, but functional.

[Onslaught Six]

Is there a reason why RID15 is out of the question?

[banzait...@gmail.com]

On Thursday, January 8, 2015 7:52:53 AM UTC-6, Onslaught Six wrote:
> Is there a reason why RID15 is out of the question?

Um, where the hell have you been for the past 3 years?

-Banzaitron

[Zobovor]

On Thursday, January 8, 2015 at 6:52:53 AM UTC-7, Onslaught Six wrote:

> Is there a reason why RID15 is out of the question?

Well, the fact that there haven't been fourteen previous toy lines called "Robots in Disguise," for starters.

Welcome back, by the way. (Did you get let out for good behavior?)


Zob...

[Onslaught Six]

Wow, Google Groups on mobile apparently does not allow me to get quotes without doing it manually.

I've been around. Doing music, dealing with on and off unemployment, and other stuff. Doesn't help that a lot of the non-Generations toys have been things I haven't cared about.

[Onslaught Six]

No, but the last Prime toyline before Beast Hunters was called Robots In Disguise, so calling this "RID2" isn't a great name either.

[I. R. Caughn]

Isn't it supposed to be the Star Saber? Looks close enough to a dumbed-down version of the animation model to me.

I mean, theoretically, there won't be any proper Primes around to wield it in the new series, so *somebody's* gotta inherit it. The guy that used it to impale Megatron seems as good a choice as any.

J (also agrees that Bumblebee is the best of the first wave Autobots... but it's definitely an uninspiring introduction to the line... the very definition of "bare bones")