Transformers Titans Return Deluxe Class Triggerhappy & War For Cybertron Battlemaster Blowpipe: When Transformers wanted to be Star Wars

Before I begin, Happy Birthday to the main reviews site, https://mediaholicreviews.blogspot.com/, which turned 5 years old two days ago!

The Decepticons have always been closely tied to air combat vehicles. From Starscream and his many, many, many, many clones, to flying guns, cassette recorders and cameras, to even the first Live Action movie where the first Transformer we see is an attack helicopter. It's always interesting to see what designs can come from a Decepticon flyer. The weird thing is though, there aren't many well known flying Decepticons that aren't some form of human vehicle. While yes you could include stylized interpretations and characters like the Triple changers as not being human vehicles, but in terms of genuine space planes and helicopters, there isn't much, and fewer still if you take away well-known characters who have had one as one of their incarnations. It's probably the reason why I have a fascination with the Decepticon Targetmaster, from those retrofitted into them like Cyclonus and Scourge, to the original characters like today's subject, Triggerhappy. I was excited to see Triggerhappy in Titans Return, and now that Blowpipe is out for international audiences, it's basically complete now, but how well does this hold up?

News Roundup: Toy Fair News Part 5: Lego

Time to wrap up Toy Fair news. These posts are by all means not all of the reveals, there's just too many to talk about, and most of it doesn't exactly excite me. I mean, I could talk about the Overwatch collectible figures, Marvel Legends and Star Wars figures, but I don't really collect those kinds of things. Not much to talk about with Nerf's Overwatch and Fortnight guns because, at the end of the day, those can be summed up as "Yep, it's a Nerf gun". Even the Monopoly Gamer for Overwatch can be boiled down to "Yep, it's another version of Monopoly". I have got two Lego Sets waiting for reviews that are coming soon though, they should only be a few weeks away. With that said, what was revealed? (Images sourced from https://www.thebrickfan.com/lego-2019-new-york-toy-fair-set-images/ )

News Roundup: Toy Fair News Part 4: War for Cybertron: Siege

Almost done with Transformers... No, I'm not covering Botbots and Masterpiece. I don't collect Botbots because I've heard how addicting they are, nothing positive or negative to say about them other then they're cute collectibles. The MP's? Two are repaints, two I talked about yesterday, and one is Beast Wars Megatron, which looks like a really nice Beast Wars Megatron. Onward to War for Cybertron!

News Roundup: Toy Fair News Part 3: Studio Series

Onward now to the most devicive line, at least in terms of what it's representing, the Studio Series, toys based on the Live Action movies. While I haven't reviewed any of them yet (I have two I'm waiting to cover), I will say this for the line. While I am not a fan overall of the designs used, these are good representations of those versions of the characters, and this is going to be analyzing them as representations of those characters. If you're looking for a beatdown of the movie designs, you're not going to find it here. We all clear about that? Yes? Let's move on.

News Roundup: Toy Fair News Part 2: Cyberverse

As I wait for more info to come out in regards to the Generations Line, let's take a detour to what's turning into a surprise sleeper hit this Toy Fair, Transformers Cyberverse... I'm just as shocked as you to be saying that.

Starting with the Scout Class toys, and while the Optimus Prime toy is nothing exciting (I honestly don't get the point of these half transformed figures. the Scraplet does interest me because no one saw this thing coming (something that I get the feeling is going to be a theme for the next season). While I do wish it was more rounded, it's hard to tell if this is based on a design in the show, or a design inspired by the shows art style, and it does all that it needs to do considering what Scraplets are known for. Hope this thing isn't impossible to find at stores... who am I kidding, it probably will be here...

The two One Step changers we see here are a new Shockwave, and a new Skybite and both of them don't look very good. It's cool to see firing missiles return for Shockwave, but he transforms into nothing, whereas Skybite has a good looking shark mode, but an awkward looking robot mode due to the one step changer requirements. Never personally been a fan of most one step changes, and these don't change that. Next!

Warrior Class Deadlock and... Gnaw?! Unfortunately, there's not much excitement here either. I am not a fan of Deadlocks locked in arms for the sake of the swords, and Gnaw looks like he's an upscale of the Legends Class Gnaw from Titans Return, just with sharper points on him to go with the more angular look of the show. It might not be entirely true due to gimmick engineering, the torso is new after all, but the engineering looks to be the same. It's kinda funny to see that out of all the Decepticons to get a Warrior Class toy, they go for Gnaw.

I'll loop back to the Battle Armour in a moment, but I first want to cover the Ultra and Ultimate class toys, Alpha Trion and Grimlock respectively. Grimlock... No version of Cyberverse Grimlock released so far as toys have been interesting to me. While I like the show's robot design, the t rex mode has always felt off. To me, it's the legs, because while they look fine in robot mode, they're so far away from the body in T-Rex mode that it doesn't look right, especially as they go for the more accurate T rex stance. The tail blade gimmick is also pretty weak as it doesn't do much for any mode.

Alpha Trion though, I'll admit that this does look pretty good. The small guns in the space jet mode are quite pathetic, but the kibble they cause in robot mode does pass off a convincing cape. I can't help but get the feeling that this is going to suffer a lot from Robot under Jet syndrome, though the look of the jet could make the robot junk work. It's hard to tell in these images. Pick up? Maybe if I can get it on sale, cause these are not cheap for what they are.

Now then, the new gimmick for this line, Battle Armour, some figures come with a small vehicle that can be broken up, plugged onto them and they can wear it as armour. It's dumb, really, really dumb, yet I love it. I hope that these can be interchanged to a degree because I'm genuinely considering getting these. There's something I find absurd, yet charming about Optimus Prime wearing The Ark as power armour, or Skybite, a flying shark, wearing a mining drill while Starscream wears a bulldozer. The one I find the most awkward though is Bumblebee wearing a navel battleship. Granted, the Ark is even more rediculous when you think about it, but this is still a car using a navel battleship as a second pair of arms. Broadside didn't take the criticism he got in Titans Return too well. "See you again in 30 ish years Broadside!"

News Roundup: Toy Fair News Part 1: Takara and Wonder Festival 2019, covering two trucks and two bugs.

Well, time for me to burn through my free time trying to keep up with an event happening in a different timezone when most of the new info comes out when I'm asleep. Hurray for trade shows... While most of the new posts coming here are going to be focused on the New York Toy Fair. I figured I might as well quickly cover what happened recently when Takara showed off some new product over at Wonder Festival. For those wanting views on items like Commander Class Jetfire, I'll cover him when I cover the other Siege news from NYTF.

Transformers Titans Return Deluxe Class Hot Rod and War For Cybertron Siege Battlemaster Firedrive: Transforming guns? Well it worked for Megatron

And it's also far easier to justify making toys of because it's hard to confuse these with real guns.
 
So, we've gotten heads that plug into vehicles to become guns, little humanoid robots that lay on their stomachs to become guns, third time's the charm, and Hasbro's finally giving us actual Targetmasters, now branded as Battlemasters because, as you'll see in a few weeks, guns aren't the only weapons being released. I want to try something different this time though, as a way of covering more of these little guys when compared to the Prime Masters. Each Battlemaster will be paired with a review of a larger figure that makes some kind of sense, at least when possible. While some like Pteraxadon are going to be a stretch, the Targetmasters are pretty easy, reviewing them with the characters they originally came with back in Generation 1, and because Firedrive (originally known as Firebolt) came with a re-release of Generation 1 Hot Rod, Titans Return Hot Rod will be the bot he's paired with, mainly for two reasons.

Transformers War for Cybertron; Siege Deluxe Class Skytread: He's like a baby Overlord... only a bit less evil

I say a bit less evil because he's still a Decepticon.

At last, let the Siege begin. A new line, no combiner sacrifices, longer transformation instructions, and a simple gimmick to not interfere with the toys, unless you're not a fan of them not having a lot more holes in them than normal. Welcome to the War for Cybertron Trilogy, and what better way to start of Siege, then with the missing Duocon from Power of the Primes, now no longer needing split personality requirements to be sold as two toys. Skytread, the new, and honestly far more fitting name for Flywheels. There's no Sky high and Tank tread (you try thinking of something better...), new character obligations here though, unlike his partner in split fashion sense, Battletrap though, so how well does this Duocon go as just a Duocon?