Post by Hellhound on Jun 17, 2007 20:23:17 GMT
Righto, ages ago (October ’06 in fact) I reviewed wave 1 of TF: Classics. That little article seemed to go down quite well (though not as well as… sorry, this is a family board isn’t it?) so having found myself with a nascent Movie toy collection, I thought I’d get my pen out for a bit of exercise (figuratively speaking).
Protoform Starscream
Packaging:
Deluxe size Movie figures all come in the same packaging, the now traditional plastic bubble on card so beloved of Hasbro. I won’t go into too much detail, as by now most of us have picked up one or two Movie toys. All I’d say is Hasbro seem to be (slowly) moving to Takara-esque packaging, i.e. you can take the toy out of the bubble without ripping the packaging to shreds. This is achieved by only gluing the top edge of the bubble to the card. The other three edges are attached via tabs folded over the rear of the card & tapped down with selotape. There also seem to be fewer twist-ties used in this series of figures, which is always a good thing. The bubble is moulded as a quarter sphere and has a moulded Decepticon (or Autobot) symbol on it.
Toy:
‘Scream comes packaged in bot mode. In fact, the bot mode doesn’t really look like much of a transformer, rather it looks like a fairly non-descript action figure. One of the few clues is a little kibble on the robots back, some of which looks like a cockpit. The toy is moulded in bronze plastic and has various tech details picked out in red, silver & in the case of the turbines on his chest (one of the few visual references to traditional ‘Scream design) black. The figure looks pretty menacing, having broad shoulders, narrowing to a thin waist. Overall the designers seem to have opted for a sleek, fast aesthetic, with lots of sharp, angular lines, nothing much techno-organic here. Apart from ‘Screams face which is insectoid in nature and fantastically sculpted. There even seem to be some little teeth, aaah.
Transformation to ‘comet’ mode is fairly straight forward, & I don’t want to go into it here. However, Hasbro have no doubt caused many a Saturday afternoon to be spent in frustration. The toy comes packaged in bot mode… so the instructions start with the toy in ‘comet’ mode. The ‘comet’ looks like a cross between a plane & a fish. The front of the vehicle is quite bulbous, & is formed by the chest of the robot. Here we can see the turbines, and the cockpit is apparent. As we move to the rear of the craft, the toy narrows, representing the tail of a real comet. There are a few fins and small wings dotted around the comet, again echoing the look of a modern jet, but because of their stunted size they also give ‘Scream a distinctly fishy look. ‘Scream comes armed with a gun (which fires a missile) which can be attached to the ‘comet’ mode along with a short plastic flame, which I suppose is supposed to look like exhaust or something. It’s not entirely effective, but is a pretty nice idea.
Overall, Starscream has a great ‘bot mode, which is let down by a pretty average ‘vehicle’ mode. 8/10
Protoform Optimus Prime
Where ‘Scream is angular & sleek, his Autobot counterpart is fluid & organic in aesthetic. Prime is moulded in grey, with details picked out in silver and red. There are two, large ‘windows’ on his chest, these are coloured blue. Again, there is kibble on the rear of the toy & again the bot mode screams generic action figure rather than Transformer. This is not a bad thing however, as Prime features a whooping 17 points of articulation (neck, shoulders, biceps, elbows, chest, waist, hips, thighs, knees and ankles).As well as the prominent ‘windows’ Prime has a very traditional Prime head, in marked contrast to ‘Scream. Prime also has two black blobs on each leg, these are I assume supposed to echo wheels and he also has a simian air, as his feet look like, well, feet & have six digits on each foot.
‘Comet’ mode is fairly rounded and is designed to echo the truck that Prime will one day become. As well as the ‘windows’ Prime also has a ‘grill’ & 2 ‘headlights’ at the front of the comet. I find this toy less visually appealing than ‘Scream, probably because he is grey, which is a shame as there is a wealth of moulded detail all over the toy. Like ‘Scream, Prime’s gun can be squirreled away within the ‘comet’ mode and there is a small piece of fake plastic flame to attach to the toy.
A better robot than ‘Scream, but a weaker ‘vehicle’ there’s not much to choose between the two if you can only afford to buy one. 8/10
More tomorrow...
Protoform Starscream
Packaging:
Deluxe size Movie figures all come in the same packaging, the now traditional plastic bubble on card so beloved of Hasbro. I won’t go into too much detail, as by now most of us have picked up one or two Movie toys. All I’d say is Hasbro seem to be (slowly) moving to Takara-esque packaging, i.e. you can take the toy out of the bubble without ripping the packaging to shreds. This is achieved by only gluing the top edge of the bubble to the card. The other three edges are attached via tabs folded over the rear of the card & tapped down with selotape. There also seem to be fewer twist-ties used in this series of figures, which is always a good thing. The bubble is moulded as a quarter sphere and has a moulded Decepticon (or Autobot) symbol on it.
Toy:
‘Scream comes packaged in bot mode. In fact, the bot mode doesn’t really look like much of a transformer, rather it looks like a fairly non-descript action figure. One of the few clues is a little kibble on the robots back, some of which looks like a cockpit. The toy is moulded in bronze plastic and has various tech details picked out in red, silver & in the case of the turbines on his chest (one of the few visual references to traditional ‘Scream design) black. The figure looks pretty menacing, having broad shoulders, narrowing to a thin waist. Overall the designers seem to have opted for a sleek, fast aesthetic, with lots of sharp, angular lines, nothing much techno-organic here. Apart from ‘Screams face which is insectoid in nature and fantastically sculpted. There even seem to be some little teeth, aaah.
Transformation to ‘comet’ mode is fairly straight forward, & I don’t want to go into it here. However, Hasbro have no doubt caused many a Saturday afternoon to be spent in frustration. The toy comes packaged in bot mode… so the instructions start with the toy in ‘comet’ mode. The ‘comet’ looks like a cross between a plane & a fish. The front of the vehicle is quite bulbous, & is formed by the chest of the robot. Here we can see the turbines, and the cockpit is apparent. As we move to the rear of the craft, the toy narrows, representing the tail of a real comet. There are a few fins and small wings dotted around the comet, again echoing the look of a modern jet, but because of their stunted size they also give ‘Scream a distinctly fishy look. ‘Scream comes armed with a gun (which fires a missile) which can be attached to the ‘comet’ mode along with a short plastic flame, which I suppose is supposed to look like exhaust or something. It’s not entirely effective, but is a pretty nice idea.
Overall, Starscream has a great ‘bot mode, which is let down by a pretty average ‘vehicle’ mode. 8/10
Protoform Optimus Prime
Where ‘Scream is angular & sleek, his Autobot counterpart is fluid & organic in aesthetic. Prime is moulded in grey, with details picked out in silver and red. There are two, large ‘windows’ on his chest, these are coloured blue. Again, there is kibble on the rear of the toy & again the bot mode screams generic action figure rather than Transformer. This is not a bad thing however, as Prime features a whooping 17 points of articulation (neck, shoulders, biceps, elbows, chest, waist, hips, thighs, knees and ankles).As well as the prominent ‘windows’ Prime has a very traditional Prime head, in marked contrast to ‘Scream. Prime also has two black blobs on each leg, these are I assume supposed to echo wheels and he also has a simian air, as his feet look like, well, feet & have six digits on each foot.
‘Comet’ mode is fairly rounded and is designed to echo the truck that Prime will one day become. As well as the ‘windows’ Prime also has a ‘grill’ & 2 ‘headlights’ at the front of the comet. I find this toy less visually appealing than ‘Scream, probably because he is grey, which is a shame as there is a wealth of moulded detail all over the toy. Like ‘Scream, Prime’s gun can be squirreled away within the ‘comet’ mode and there is a small piece of fake plastic flame to attach to the toy.
A better robot than ‘Scream, but a weaker ‘vehicle’ there’s not much to choose between the two if you can only afford to buy one. 8/10
More tomorrow...
