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Thoughts on Rise of the Beasts Wheeljack and Nightbird
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Irrellius Spamticon
Mar 30, 2023, 10:48:55 AM3/30/23
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So they're out but they're not. People are buying the Buzzworthy 3 packs and splitting them up and selling each for the price of the whole pack
One of our shop regulars found a 3 pack, and he only wanted that silly looking Cheetor that's a cross between his Beast Wars and Rise of the Beasts self. It's silly in a fun way though, people seem to enjoy it.
Anyway he sold off the Wheeljack and Nightbird for store credit, because he's paying down his layaway on Generations Metroplex to add to his IDW comics collection. I ended up getting both figures for around $40
First thing, it's nice that the 3 pack has individual instruction sheets for each figure. It's the yellow Buzzworthy instructions, so it's not like they won't have to redesign for the mainline or Studio incarnations.
So Wheeljack, is a van, he's got TV-Pablo tampographed on the side and it's specifically tampoed to look like it's wearing off, so in ten years we won't know what's factory done or what's play wear. His vehicle mode is all white and brown plastic except his windshield, roof, and front doors are transparent blue plastic painted. I can guess the doors will get scratched up fast with people transforming him. They have white paint, tan paint, white plastic and tan plastic all matching pretty well or maybe we give it extra leeway for being an old junker van. His van wasn't intuitive to f together at first, until you just keep pulling his undercarriage down between the wheels, and suddenly everything locks together very well.
His legs are the back of the vehicle, his shoulders the front wheel, and I give this toy credit for less fake parts than an average movie toy, though he does have fake headlights on his thighs that are larger versions of the smaller headlights on his front bumper. Also I wish they did something to hide the kneecaps on the back of the van. Overall it's a great shaped van, and I can't wait to see someone customize it into a tye-dye hippie van from the 70s
The robot mode has the head pop up behind the front grill, and the roof and doors slide down the back. Folding the doors is the hardest part of the transformation followed closely by figuring out how to get the toes out from under the roof without bending things too much. H root face has big goggles and almost as large lips The head has a lot of detail as the goggles are a separate piece and you can see his eyes. The eyes have light piping that also shine through as small point of light in the large goggles. He has 1 gun that almost seems an afterthought. It can plug in to one of the 2 roof ports 1of these are on the back in robot mode, but otherwise no 5mm ports on the legs or arms.
Nightbird is all tan and dark grey plastics. The tan just looks bad here. I hope these toys don't develop GPS. I wouldn't mind it on the car quarter panels and the robot arms and legs, but on the car hood it's just off. Right out of the box the gray front grill has a stress mark circle in the center from where it's bolted to the tan hood.
The cool thing is it has these claw accessories and a sword. Each claw attache to the rear of the vehicle, and the sword connects across the top as a spoiler. It's not using 5mm ports on the back of the car though, it's using half circle 5mm ports. I kind of wish the sword handle was a more flat look to be a slightly less obvious sword hilt.
The front half transformation is similar to a lot of recent Jazz or Prowl transformations, but the legs in the back have a lot of tricks with the thigh rotations and the side skirt panels. The back wheels end up on large heels with small kickstand like toes on the front.
In robot mode she has 5mm ports on the wrists next to the hands. both claw connect to each other to form a 5mm claw that mounts on the wrist to get an X-23 style Wolverine claw, and the sword is a sword. Now you can see the shoulderpads and knees have some purple highlights.
So they were fun toys, both well made designs and definitely of Studio Series quality. I just question all the toys in this line having brownish goldish plastic. Is this plastic much cheaper?
One of our shop regulars found a 3 pack, and he only wanted that silly looking Cheetor that's a cross between his Beast Wars and Rise of the Beasts self. It's silly in a fun way though, people seem to enjoy it.
Anyway he sold off the Wheeljack and Nightbird for store credit, because he's paying down his layaway on Generations Metroplex to add to his IDW comics collection. I ended up getting both figures for around $40
First thing, it's nice that the 3 pack has individual instruction sheets for each figure. It's the yellow Buzzworthy instructions, so it's not like they won't have to redesign for the mainline or Studio incarnations.
So Wheeljack, is a van, he's got TV-Pablo tampographed on the side and it's specifically tampoed to look like it's wearing off, so in ten years we won't know what's factory done or what's play wear. His vehicle mode is all white and brown plastic except his windshield, roof, and front doors are transparent blue plastic painted. I can guess the doors will get scratched up fast with people transforming him. They have white paint, tan paint, white plastic and tan plastic all matching pretty well or maybe we give it extra leeway for being an old junker van. His van wasn't intuitive to f together at first, until you just keep pulling his undercarriage down between the wheels, and suddenly everything locks together very well.
His legs are the back of the vehicle, his shoulders the front wheel, and I give this toy credit for less fake parts than an average movie toy, though he does have fake headlights on his thighs that are larger versions of the smaller headlights on his front bumper. Also I wish they did something to hide the kneecaps on the back of the van. Overall it's a great shaped van, and I can't wait to see someone customize it into a tye-dye hippie van from the 70s
The robot mode has the head pop up behind the front grill, and the roof and doors slide down the back. Folding the doors is the hardest part of the transformation followed closely by figuring out how to get the toes out from under the roof without bending things too much. H root face has big goggles and almost as large lips The head has a lot of detail as the goggles are a separate piece and you can see his eyes. The eyes have light piping that also shine through as small point of light in the large goggles. He has 1 gun that almost seems an afterthought. It can plug in to one of the 2 roof ports 1of these are on the back in robot mode, but otherwise no 5mm ports on the legs or arms.
Nightbird is all tan and dark grey plastics. The tan just looks bad here. I hope these toys don't develop GPS. I wouldn't mind it on the car quarter panels and the robot arms and legs, but on the car hood it's just off. Right out of the box the gray front grill has a stress mark circle in the center from where it's bolted to the tan hood.
The cool thing is it has these claw accessories and a sword. Each claw attache to the rear of the vehicle, and the sword connects across the top as a spoiler. It's not using 5mm ports on the back of the car though, it's using half circle 5mm ports. I kind of wish the sword handle was a more flat look to be a slightly less obvious sword hilt.
The front half transformation is similar to a lot of recent Jazz or Prowl transformations, but the legs in the back have a lot of tricks with the thigh rotations and the side skirt panels. The back wheels end up on large heels with small kickstand like toes on the front.
In robot mode she has 5mm ports on the wrists next to the hands. both claw connect to each other to form a 5mm claw that mounts on the wrist to get an X-23 style Wolverine claw, and the sword is a sword. Now you can see the shoulderpads and knees have some purple highlights.
So they were fun toys, both well made designs and definitely of Studio Series quality. I just question all the toys in this line having brownish goldish plastic. Is this plastic much cheaper?
Zobovor
Mar 31, 2023, 8:40:16 AM3/31/23
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On Thursday, March 30, 2023 at 8:48:55 AM UTC-6, Irrellius Spamticon wrote:
> So Wheeljack, is a van, his vehicle mode is all white and brown plastic
Zob (watch this space in 2033 for details!)
> So Wheeljack, is a van, his vehicle mode is all white and brown plastic
> Nightbird is all tan and dark grey plastics. The tan just looks bad here. I hope these toys don't develop GPS.
> I just question all the toys in this line having brownish goldish plastic. Is this plastic much cheaper?
My understanding is that the cost of plastics across the board has risen significantly. But, I think this brownish plastic was Hasbro's solution for the GPS problem, because it's not supposed to crumble into peanut brittle the way the other stuff has done, historically. Of course, it's a matter of the plastic breaking down chemically over time (I used to transform my Pretender Roadblock all the time when I first got him, and it wasn't until a decade later that I learned how fragile he was). So, we may not know for sure for another ten years or so!
Zob (watch this space in 2033 for details!)
Irrellius Spamticon
Apr 3, 2023, 12:35:22 AM4/3/23
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