Robots In Disguise 2015 (Part 6) - Legion Class Wave 2

Impatience and enthusiasm together make for a dangerous combination. Having burned through whatever wave 1 and 2 Robots In Disguise figures there were available on shelves in the UK in about a week, I turned to eBay US to grab the Legion Class Sideswipe and Grimlock from wave 2 that the UK did not have yet. In addition to that, watching the first three episodes of the RID show online in lower-than-premium quality instead of on my HDTV shows just how far I'll go to get my fix of this excellent new series. And it is excellent, so far.

ROTF Human Alliance Shadow Blade Sideswipe

A couple of years ago, a purchase like Human Alliance Shadow Blade Sideswipe - basically a black repaint of the screen accurate silver version - was unthinkable. This was a road I went down for on-screen characters only and the mass of HA repaints didn't appeal, even the HA moulds I didn't yet have weren't interesting. Fast forward to 2014/15 and my love for the ROTF/DOTM Human Alliance figures has blossomed once again and I'm within finishing distance of completing what is turning out for me to be the most successful Transformers sub-line of big hits. 

Robots In Disguise 2015 (Part 5) - Warrior Class Optimus Prime

After multiple Argos "customer views" and the promise of finding the last currently available RID 2015 Warrior Class figure in the UK - Optimus Prime - a random trip to a local Sainsbury's resulted in a lucky find. Apparently Sainsbury's now have the wave 2 Warrior Class Drift and Optimus in stock, making it the best store to start a RID collection from. I've now got every Legion and Warrior Class figure from RID 2015 (Grimlock and Sideswipe Legion en route), all Legions were great and the Warriors on the whole have been really good fun, if not the best feeling figures in Hasbro's illustrious history and requiring some adjustment time to appreciate. So how does Prime compare?

Straight Outta Rodion!

Some of the best Transformers fiction...scratch that...THE best Transformers fiction I have ever encountered can be found in the pages of IDW's More Than Meets The Eye monthly comic, written by the oft-mentioned James Roberts. Of those amazing tales, the stories that take place in Cybertron's pre-war past have captured my imagination and allowed my mind to race with possibilities and side-stories not yet told. I was especially in love with the general feel, atmosphere and Roberts's construction of the social picture of Shadowplay-era Rodion where Chromedome and Prowl plied their "scrupulous" trade. Shadowplay, Chaos Theory and the recent Elegant Chaos storyline have inspired me to dig out TFCC Chromedome once more, as he is blatantly IDW-inspired, and pose him with Prowl...just not the Prowl you might have imagined, but at least he's nailing that MTMTE #10 cover A look! Those in the know will know what I'm going for here...

Robots In Disguise 2015 - Justice for Steeljaw

I have so far been enormously happy with every Transformers Robots In Disguise 2015 toy I have bought of the Warrior and Legion class variety released by Hasbro. I have also had the privilege of being able to buy them in local stores in the UK, a pleasure from the distant past! However, one figure fell below my expectations and my sore review of it has put others off buying it, that figure is Warrior Class Steeljaw, so far the only really proper Decepticon release in the line (not counting the One Step changers and the like). As some predicted, I have since gone back to the figure and spent more time appreciating it, not believing that a line that has thus far delivered simple designs but effective Transformers could fail so badly. It also helped that friends pointed out he did have more articulation than I gave it credit for. Here, then, is justice for Steeljaw.

DX9 D-05 Chigurh - Pictorial

It is astonishing just how prolific DX9/Unique Toys have been recently. They're burning through Not-Terrorcons at a rate of 1 per month and could well have Ordin (Abominus) completed by May. Their War in Pocket line is putting stuff out regularly and there was Invisible, Phantom and now their take on a Masterpiece style Astrotrain - "Chigurh". I wonder if based on the V For Vendetta quote on the back of Invisible's packaging, the inspiration for naming their Astrotrain "Chigurh" comes from the incredibly villainous Anton Chigurh from No Country For Old Men, played by Javier Bardem. Anyway, despite losing one of my lamps for photography, I've done my best to put out a gallery for this show-stopping figure. You know when you've seen Chigurh, Anton or otherwise.

Robots In Disguise 2015 (Part 4) - Legion and Warrior Class Wave 1

There's no stopping it! I spent all day looking forward to leaving work and beginning my hunt for more RID figures in Argos, TRU and Sainsbury's. The Argos catalogue features RID Warrior class Drift and Bumblebee as separate listings but the 3rd Warrior Class listing just says "Assortment" so it's a crapshoot. Optimus Prime is pictured but Argos only had Strongarm, so the search for Prime continues. At TRU I picked up all the remaining Legion Class RID wave 1 I needed; Optimus Prime, Strongarm and Steeljaw, along with the Warrior Class Steeljaw. I may also have cheekily scanned the symbol from 3-step Grimlock into my RID app without buying the figure. No purchase necessary! So what's the verdict on the figures I bought?

Robots In Disguise 2015 (Part 3) - Mobile App

So you've just bought 5 new for 2015 Transformers Robots In Disguise figures and you have to admit they're extremely simplified versions of what used to pass for a deluxe. The show looks good but the toys are more money for less toy, the mobile/tablet app is clearly for children and those of us who are more collector than people who play with toys will continue to plum for Generations, Masterpiece, Combiner Wars and 3rd Party for a fix of new toys. Wrong, that RID crap grows on you, man. These new Transformers are fun, they become more enjoyable with every day and that damn app is actually created to appeal to those who crave organisation, completion and purpose in their collecting. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. So here I am, desperate to buy and experience more RID 2015, playing the app on my iPhone regularly over the last 2 days, continuously scanning in my Warrior class figures. Oops. Anyway, here's a quick look at the app, and I mean quick.

Robots In Disguise 2015 (Part 2) - Warrior Class Wave 1

Yesterday, I wrote the first part of my look at the new Hasbro Transformers toy line for 2015, "Robots In Disguise". Despite dodgy first impressions of Warrior Class Drift and Bumblebee, the very next day I had gone to Sainsbury's and bought Warrior Class Strongarm and Grimlock, both of which are ever so slightly more interesting than the typical heroic fancy car-bots.

GigaPower HQ03 Guttur - Production Sample Review

It's been in the works for a very long time and a significant number of collectors didn't even believe it was ever going to see release, but the time has nearly come for new 3rd party company GigaPower's HQ03 "Guttur" to take centre stage. GigaPower's shot at a line of Masterpiece Transformers Dinobot-inspired figures begins with their interpretation of Desert Warrior Snarl. GP will offer this figure in metallic colours and also with chrome finish for a later release version. My own preference, even from the first line-art drawings of Guttur, has been to collect the FansToys Iron Dibots but I'm at the stage now where I believe putting one hundred collectors in a room will result in 50 of them choosing Guttur and GP's vision.

Robots In Disguise 2015 (Part 1) - Warrior and Legion Class Wave 1

2015 sees the launch of a new Transformers cartoon and mainstream toy line. Robots In Disguise seems to pick up where Transformers prime left off, with Bumblebee leading a small group of Autobots on Earth against a horde of escaped Decepticon prisoners. The toys appear very reminiscent of Transformers Animated, as does the series, but overall the aesthetic and engineering of the figures appears considerably simplified. I haven't been able to resist picking up Transformers that are actually sold in the UK somewhere other than TRU and the show appeals to me, so here we are. Let's have a look at Warrior class Bumblebee and Autobot Drift, as well as Legion class Bumblebee.

GigaPower Guttur - Extended Pictorial

A few more pictures of this beast, now with all the fantastic array of accessories utilised. Apologies for the lack of details and opinion, but there has to be something to come back for in the review, right?

GigaPower Guttur - Basic Pictorial

Let's stick to the facts. This is GigaPower's first figure, a 3rd party Dinobot Snarl called "Guttur". The review is coming soon, but for now it's enough to know that events unfolded in such a way that GigaPower's Guttur ended up in a sort of unofficial competition with FansToys Sever (another MP-scaled Snarl), neither of which have hit the market yet but test shots and samples are in the hands of reviewers (obviously) and comparisons have begun. Guttur is bigger than the FansToys Dinobots and seems to follow a toy aesthetic, however in hand I think it has a lot in common with MP-8 Grimlock. That's as much of an opinion as I'll let on for now, the full review on TFSquare One will have all accessories featured and size comparisons with the usual suspects, as well as discussing known issues with the samples versus final production. I just want to get some photos out there first, though. Enjoy.

MMC Felisaber - Teaser Pictorial

The full TFSource article review on Mastermind Creations Reformatted R-07 Felisaber is coming, but here are just a handful of photographs featuring the gorgeous bugger. Sixth 'member' of Feral Rex, and clearly based on the Pretender Beast Catilla, Felisaber is a Tigris re-tool that can act as a standalone or become the left arm of Feral Rex, relegating Talon in entirety to the back of the combiner for "Perfect Combination". For now, it's nice to be reminded again of MMC's outstanding build quality and presentation, Felisaber is top drawer right out of the box, insanely posable and a joy to handle. I can't believe this is it, the last Feralcon. Enjoy.

Unique Toys O-03 Fenrir - Pictorial UPDATED

Unique Toys are not wasting time, at all. Hot on the heels of their Rippersnapper (Alberich) comes the third of their 3rd Party Terrorcons, the homage to Sinnertwin, designated O-03 Fenrir. The figure takes its name, like the other two Ordin figures so far, from Norse mythology. Fenrir was the giant monstrous wolf described by Icelandic writer Snorri Sturluson (I've been to his monument!) in his famous Edda. Sinnertwin is no wolf, but I can kinda see how they've locked themselves into a limited number of choices based on the mythology surrounding their Not-Abominus. The full TFSource article review for Fenrir will be up in a couple of weeks, but for now enjoy the pictorial of this production sample. Just to let you know where I'm at, I thought Alberich was great and then I got Troll. I thought Troll was awesome until I got Fenrir. This is the benchmark in  he group so far, it's tremendous. Pictures were done literally minutes after un-boxing so please forgive any mis-transformation of minor kibble.