Transformers Power of the Primes Leader Class Optimal Optimus (with upgrades): Peak Boss Monkey?

By fan demand, Optimus Primal returns as the newest Autobot leader. A brand new toy where he can stand shoulder to shoulder with Optimus Prime and Rodimus Prime, he even got a convention exclusive black repaint that I won't be covering here even though I am still bitter about the last four Prime Masters being locked behind it. I was excited when this was announced, curious as to how it was going to work given the gimmick of Power of the Primes Leader Class figures. Then I saw it and... oh dear... credit for trying? It had problems, it needed a lot of help to improve it, which is why for this review, not only will I be reviewing the figure but the two DNA Design upgrade kits that came for it, along with one free modification you can do to any copy of the toy.

Transformers Power of the Primes Deluxe Class Punch/ Counterpunch: Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, but as a Transformer... why is it not being used more often?

Time for another delve into the late G1 reimaginings of old characters that even a lot of die-hard fans don't really care about. It's safe to say that at the tail end of G1, Hasbro was trying to make anything it could stick in order to keep the attention of its fanbase. Headmasters, Targetmasters, a six-changer, more cassettes, gimmick, after gimmick, after gimmick, each with what could be seen as less effort than the last. "What do we do with these characters?" "Give them two Targetmasters!" "These Pretenders aren't working well, what do we do?" "Make a combiner out of them!" (I think Monstructer was a Pretender combiner... or was it one of the Micromaster combiners...). Regardless, one of the ideas to come out of it was a double spy, a Transformer that has two robot modes, an Autobot one, and a Decepticon one. Though he had a minor appearance in the G1 cartoon, Punch (the Autobot mode) and Counterpunch (the Decepticon mode) have faded away into obscurity, left to wander around life, sustained only by exclusives when a mould can handle two robot modes, which as you can imagine, didn't happen often. Come 2018, and Hasbro decided to make a brand new mould for him, and releasing him as one of three limited edition toys that represent the three parts of the Prime Wars Trilogy, with the other two being a western, stand-alone release of Takara's Blast Off, and a retooling of Titans Return Twinferno (originally known as Doublecross, though I'll admit the new name is cooler) as the third and final Monsterbot, Repugnus. How well does it hold up though?

Transformers Titans Return Brawn and Power of the Primes Outback: Political views of the day not included

It's rare that I can write these to coincide with something, either due to distribution, or the rapid turnover I'd have to do in order for it to work. It's the reason why the two sites adopt a "When we get to it" policy. But every now and then, the stars align to allow Hailee's Commit to reveal the winning lottery numbers, allowing for good Australian internet, and I can do a perfectly timed review in some form. In this case, Australia Day, a public holiday here that I will gently side skirt the political is it's gotten for the sake of reviewing an Australian G1 Transformer, and the original release of the mold. Brawn and Outback... just be glad I'm not doing what I did for Talk Like a Pirate Day and that Lego Dimensions review...

Transformers; Power of the Primes Leader Class Nemesis Prime: Everyone gets a black repaint!

So following on with our two week theme of the black repaints (kinda), let's look at the original black repaint of the Autobot leader, Nemesis Prime, another surprise of Power of the Primes, but not to the same extent as last week's Rodimus Unicronus was, because there have been many black repaints of Optimus Prime. For a full history of them, you can find them under one of the following names. Black Convoy, Scourge (not the one G1 fans remember), and Nemesis Prime. For now, though, we look at the one that western markets got during the Prime Wars Trilogy. While Japan got Grand Scourge during their version of Combiner Wars, the evil repaint of Optimus Prime was a no show during Combiner Wars and Titans Return. He was going to be a club exclusive during Combiner Wars, but due to Takara's Grand Scourge, was changed to be Toxitron instead, and the toy that inspired his incarnation in Robots in Disguise 2001, Generation 2 Laser Rod Optimus Prime, was the excuse base template for the release of Optimus Prime in Titans Return, using what would eventually be the Octone mould, and even getting a Laser Rod Prime release in one of the box sets. As a result of this oversight, he comes to us now, with an air of overcompensation.

I know this isn't the PotP artwork, it was the best I could find

Transformers; Power of the Primes Leader Class Rodimus Prime and Rodimus Unicronus: The hot head and his emo twin

It's rare that a new release gets a lot of surprises tied to it when it comes to Hasbro Transformers. A new Rodimus Prime in the mainline? Cool! It's been a while cause most of the time we just get Hot Rod. A Rodimus Prime that can also become Hot Rod while the Rodimus stuff becomes the trailer? Great! It's about time they managed to do something like that! A Rodimus toy that does all of that and gets a repaint into an obscure version of Rodimus from a spin-off comic that only die-hard Transformers fans know of, let alone have read... I'm sorry, what was that last one again?

Yes, in their commitment to getting the most out of a mould, not only did we get a Rodimus Prime, but we got a Rodimus Unicronus, facial hair and all. Who are they, you ask. The red one was intended to replace Optimus Prime in G1, but due to backlash from the 86 movie, that... didn't quite happen, so now he's the Autobot equivalent of Luigi, though at least people know who he is, it's more then I can say for characters like Star Saber and Thunderclash. Unicronus on the other hand... is a bit more complicated to explain. While I haven't read Shattered Glass, I have enough of a handle on it to be able to say this. Shattered Glass is the inverse reality. Autobots are evil, Decepticons are good, and this version of Hot Rod backstabbed Optimus, took the power of Unicron for himself, and basically became what Galvatron was in the original G1 show. Are there mistakes in that? Probably, you're better off reading the comics to find out the full details, we're here to review the plastic, so let's get to it after... 7 weeks?! Look, things were a bit chaotic this Christmas period, and not always for the best reasons.

Transformers Generations; Power of the Primes Deluxe Class Cutthroat: How does he cut throats? He hasn't got a knife

Yes, these are the kinds of questions that keep me up at night.

While I know I promised a land shark of a repainted velociraptor, the shark hasn't come in yet and there's not much to say about Cindersaur other then the new head and the bio card confusion. So, I thought I'd talk about another repaint that is a bit more exciting to talk about. Cutthroat, a decent retool of Wave 1's Swoop.

Transformers Power of the Primes Deluxe Class Blot: Who made Dr. Frankenstein's assistant a Transformer?

Finally, a second Terrorcon to review. Hopefully, this doesn't end up like Volcanicus, and the remaining limb bots are impossible to find. While other combiner teams go with a consistent theme to them, the Terrorcons were one of the teams that didn't have a consistency to them other than being monsters. The only other that comes to mind, in terms of Generation 1 Combiners is their Autobot counterpart, the Technobots. We go from a double-headed dragon to a... troll? Ogre? To tell you the truth I honestly don't know what this is supposed to be. I can at least review him, so I will.

Transformers Combiner Wars/ Power of the Primes Jet Mould Bonanza: So. Many. REPAINTS!!!

If Combiner Wars was known for one thing, it was mould reuse. If there was ever a line that milked engineering dry, it was this one. To give an extreme example, let's take the Dead End mould, one introduced in Wave 2 as a part of Menasor. How many times was that mould used? sixteen times when combining Hasbro, Takara, and convention exclusives. So while at first, it might appear that this review is looking at five different toys, we are in fact only looking at two, and at the same time, we're looking at twenty-eight toys. For you can find nine versions of Blast Off, and nineteen versions of the other four. And that's ignoring the fact that all five share almost the exact same engineering so it could be argued that we're looking at the same toy five times out of twenty-eight! If I included a revisit to Vortex here too, we'd be looking at forty different versions of the same basic toy released in three years. Will this get me out of reviewing all the variants of the Arialbot moulds? I hope so. Here is the revisit for Combiner Wars Blast Off (General Retail), the review of Combiner Wars Fellbat and Guyhawk, and Power of the Primes Dreadwind and Blackwing.

Starting in the Jet modes, it's clear who got which mould. For you see, all of these started in Combiner Wars Wave 1, with the Arialbots. Or more accurately, Blast Off, Fellbat and Dreadwind were in wave 1, Guyhawk and Blackwing's variant came in Wave 2. For some reason, they released Wave 1 with Drag Strip, one of the limb-bots of the Decepticon Combiner, Menasor, and Air Raid was in Wave 2, and Wave 2 had Air Raid, one of the Limb bots of the Autobot Combiner, Superion. Now, why is this weird? Because the rest of the Wave 1 Deluxes were the other Autobots needed for Superion, and the rest of Wave 2 were the Decepticons needed to make Menasor (well, in terms of the traditional configurations). You might say that they didn't want to have a wave of Autobots and a wave of Decepticons, but every later wave in the line didn't bother mixing them up. We even got two waves of nothing but Autobots in terms of the Deluxe Class. Now, what separates all of these flyboys? In terms of engineering? Not much. What defines any variations in engineering really comes down to what happens to the wings and tailfins. Arms, Legs, Heads and Cockpits? All exactly the same. Dreadwind and Blackwing have the most variations in engineering due to the requirements of Power of the Primes, but on top of that, there's also a gimmick that the two have that no other variations of the moulds do.

They can combine into a larger jet, which is, unfortunately, more impressive then it really is. All the extra engineering really gives you is two jets barely hanging together thanks to Blackwing only relying on the port meant for the combiner hand in Dreadwind's arm mode. A port not meant to take a lot of weight, and as such it takes no effort to separate the two. I'm also not a fan of how they handled Blackwing's nosecone and head, as they kinda just hang there, breaking the "sleek" look the rest of the jet goes for. What's also annoying is that one of the wings on my copy of Dreadwind doesn't properly connect to the leg assembly, though it's manageable. It still holds in place, it's just at a slight angle.

Now then, Combiner Limb modes (I'm skipping deco until robot modes for now). While these pictures don't have them include their hands or feet, it's because there's nothing extra to talk about with them. Blast Off, Guyhawk and Fellbat all have the Combiner Wars Hand/Foot/Guns, Dreadwind and Blackwing both have Prime armour hands with two thumbs. Seen them before, not much to add on the matter. All five leg modes look like squashed jets, and all five arms look like they're stuck halfway in the transformation process. Blackwing has one of the most awkward leg modes while Dreadwind doesn't even try to hide his robot mode arms. The other three manage to hide them better purely on the basis of their arms not standing out thanks to colour schemes. One annoying problem I noticed though with Fellbat and Guyhawk though is the shape of their heads. They're a tad too long to let the combiner peg assembly they're attached to do a full 360 movement. It's not the end of the world as it's easily worked around, but it is somewhat annoying as there are only a few other toys (to my knowledge) that have that same problem in the line.

To Robot Modes, and while they all share the same engineering to an extent, all five do at least look like different robots. Dreadwind and Blackwing have the advantage of being heavy retools, but if I was reviewing any other variant of the moulds from Combiner Wars, I would not be saying that. A lot of variety in the Combiner Wars versions of the moulds were in the heads and paint jobs. There was very little retooling in the line to help separate characters. As a result, Dreadwind and Blackwing are a nice change of pace, though while I'm more open to them, I probably wouldn't be if I got all the Combiner Wars versions of the moulds. What I find strange though is that while Dreadwind and Blackwing are built off Combiner Wars moulds, their combined modes feel like an afterthought. This is especially true for Blackwing, as all the extra joints needed for the combined jet mode make the combiner limbs look awkward. But at the same time, due to how bad the execution is on the combined jet, it's at least a good sign that the jet and robot modes look good at all. Out of the five though, I prefer Fellbat's robot mode. It's still surprising to me how powerful it looks when most jets go for a leaner look in their robot modes. When Blast Off was confirmed as an Arialbot repaint, most people were mad at it due to the fact that a Blast Off that was accurate to Generation 1 would be a Space shuttle. I honestly don't care either way, though I do stand by the belief of the fighter jet making more sense in the army team. As for Guyhawk, as obnoxious as the colour is, it is accurate to the original toy. There really is a pink Decepticon jet. As a pink Decepticon jet, Guyhawk does look good, though who in their right mind thought a pink jet would be a good disguise?

Should you own one of each of these? It's up to you. Should you own all twenty-eight variations of these moulds? No way! Unless you want them for combiner limbs, you do not need every version of this ever made, and even the combiner limb excuse isn't well justified as that number includes convention repaints and Takara releases. Are they fun toys to mess around with? Yes. Fun enough to buy them that many times? No. Nothing like this is.

Transformers Power of the Primes Leader Class Orion Pax/Optimus Prime: Two toys for the price of one

Optimus Prime combining with his trailer to get stronger is not something new. Powermaster Prime did it (originally), I know off the top of my head that it's something that the Robots in Disguise 2001 toy did along with Armada and Cybertron. one of the toys for Dark of the Moon even did it (I couldn't tell you if he did in the film, other then it's implied that he did). However, there is something that the others haven't really done, and that was introduced Prime's identity before he became a Prime into this formula, Orion Pax. See, the gimmick of the Leader Class Power of the Primes toys was the ability to turn a toy that's roughly Deluxe sized into a Leader Class toy with some extra armour. For some characters, this worked out well. Others... not so much. Apologies Primal, this is one case where Truck is better then Monkey... oh you thought fans complaining about changes was something new in this Fandom? It's been going on longer then I've been alive. Anyway, how well does this hold up? Is this the superior Prime Wars trilogy Prime? Ok, that one I can answer now as yes because it looks the closest to what many fans consider Optimus Prime to look like, but that's beside the point.

Transformers Power of the Primes Lege... um... "Deluxe Class" (?) Battletrap: Can this be considered an upgrade?

While nowadays Hasbro and Takara tend to dedicate an entire year's worth of toys to a gimmick, back in Generation 1 and Generation 2 (it could be said that it was phased out in the Beast Era), gimmicks were given to select few characters, and those could be considered teams for either faction. One of those was the Duocons, two Decepticons that have two alternate modes that combine together to form a robot. The best way to describe them is something like one of the old Power Core Combiners, where once the two pieces are together, spring connections move around to form the "robot". A toy gimmick that limits movement in the toy combined with G1 toy design not letting anything that doesn't need to move to have any movement at all, you can imagine how well G1 Flywheels and Battletrap looked. The thing is though that there isn't a huge amount of love for the Duocons, and many expected Battletrap to get the same treatment Flywheels got, a Titan Master toy by the name of Skytread in Titans Return. Two Legends class toys of two new characters that combine into a new Battletrap? No one was expecting that. Allow me to introduce Battleslash and Roadtrap, today's review subjects.

Transformers Power of the Primes Voyager Class Terrorcon Hun-Gurrr: Behold the evil that is Hunger!

And now for another episode of "Transformers Generation 1 should not be taken as seriously as some people make it out to be". Staring a white and hot pink double headed dragon!

The problem with combiner releases is that you're effectively put into a no-win situation as there are three main ways of release. You can either release the individual bots in a whole wave of toys, having shelves be dominated by basically one character and one faction. You could release the combiners as a gift set that would be hard to sell because many shoppers are easily fooled into thinking 4 $50 toys is cheaper than 1 $200 toy, or you can do what Power of the Primes is doing, and drip feed combiner teams split up between two (or potentially more) waves. It's why you haven't seen a full Volcanicus review yet (the Wave 2 deluxe aren't out on brick and mortar shelves yet). In this case, we have a combiner who gets a torso and an arm in wave 2, and the rest of him in wave 3. Meet the Terrorcons, heralding from that mythical year of 1987, where gimmicks were starting to become more apparent, and ideas started to get crazier. This is the year where we got the Headmasters, Targetmasters, Monsterbots, Horrorcons (triple changing Headmasters that people are still bitter about not coming into the Titans Return line), Duocons (Battletrap will be coming soon), and Six shot. It got weirder from there. While the Technobots were released during Combiner Wars as a gift set (along with a standalone release of Scattershot to form Betatron?), the Terrorcons, their considered counterpart, was nowhere to be seen until this year. As a fan of this team ever since seeing reviews of the third party version of Abominus released by Unique Toys called Ordin (hopefully a review candidate one day, 3P combiners are expensive, especially older ones), I was excited to learn that we were getting a new official one in Power of the Primes. How well does it hold up? Well, a team is only as good as its leader, so let's see how Hun-Gar holds up.

Starting in the dragon mode, Hun-Grr does look like a nice retool of Combiner Wars Silverbolt, in the same vein as how Titans Return Broadside is a retool of the previous wave's Alpha Trion. However, the big problem with Hun-Garr is that he's kind of boring to transform. He puts his mass to good use, but it's obvious what's going to become the robot mode legs and robot mode arms. You basically move a few things away, reveal the robot head, then stand him up by dislocating his dragon mode heads to use as feet... that sounds morbid now that I think about it, though still not as bad as Brainmasters requiring humans to impale themselves on their own legs. For Kids! Getting back to Hun-Gurrr's dragon, the paint details are fine, not much intricacy to them, but the pink does help break apart the sea of white and dark grey. The stickers are also more tasteful here in comparison to someone like Starscream's, with the main ones being protected by sculpting, being recessed a little in the dragon necks/ robo shins. Hunger also has two small stickers on the dragon heads, two Decepticon logos on what will be the robot mode shoulders, including one meant to look like an old rub sign which I find interesting because this is the first character in the line to do that, and finally two on the backs of the front dragon legs meant for torso mode. Unfortunately, these ones are starting to peel off for me. So close! Articulation is lacking in major areas of the dragon mode, mainly in the necks. Due to these being the robot mode legs, they have the articulation needed for the legs and not much else, except for some movement for the heads. It feels limiting at times, mainly for if you want the dragon heads to be further apart without looking at an angle, I wish there was either an inward hinge in the robot thighs or the heads to be on ball joints, rather then the hinges they're currently on. The front legs are also pathetic compared to the back legs/ robot arms, being just one static piece on two hinges for transformation. The tail also doesn't move, which I can live with, I just wish the tail itself was a bit longer because it looks tiny in dragon mode.

Before going into robot mode, a fan mode I have a bit of fun with on this guy is what I call the "Demon crab mode". Flip out the Abominus head, and move the dragon necks to your desire.

To robot mode, and unfortunately, Hun-Gur comes off as an almost basic bot, except for the combiner kibble that makes up his backpack and most of his dragon gut (the front legs fold up into the backpack for robot mode). There isn't much of a flare in his design except for the hot pink accents, and the fact that he has a dragon tail for a chest piece. Articulation is pretty standard for a combiner boss, with the exception being all the foot articulation he gained from the dragon heads leading to ankle tilt in all four directions. Unfortunately, on mine, the shoulder ratchets on his left shoulder feel weaker than the right, and feel like they could pop off at some point due to a small gap that isn't in the right. I'm curious to see how long the shoulder will last because I don't want it to end up like Perceptor's lens arm slider being so tight its a nightmare to move. There are two plugs on the robot arms/ Dragon mode hind legs that are used to plug the combiner feet in as gauntlets (ala Grimlock), and like Grimlock, look stupid in both forms so leave them off.

Someday, you will be mine...

The torso mode for Abominus has some more flare to it compared to the Robot mode, thanks to the hot pink and silver chest piece which even has a place to hide the Terrorcon Enigma in it... and like the Dinobot and Seeker Enigmas in Grimlock and Starscream respectively, its just a bit of molded plastic with some paint on it. The head sculpt is really well done (something I would love to say about Hun-Garr's head, but that one's just pink with some silver for the visor and a hard to see mouth). Most of the dragon mode parts are put to better use here, with the exception being the back claws (you can thank Silverbolt for that), and the tail which, granted, is trying hard to hide the gap made by using the Abominus head, but it it doesn't do a lot to help. To go back to that part about the tail is short, while it works for robot mode, I wish there was a way they could have engineered it so that the tail becomes some sort of spine for Abominus, just to give it some extra flare. The only other noticeable gap in the hole between the robo thighs and the Abominus chest piece, but it's a gap that's very easy to ignore. I can't wait to get the limb-bots on him to see what he looks like in all his glory.

Like with a lot of combiner comparisons, the argument for these Combiner Wars/ Power of the Primes Combiners can be summed up with one question. Do you want to pay potentially $600 or more for a very nice looking, but delicate and complicated to transform combiner? Or would you rather pay around $170 for one that you can play with? These are a lot cheaper and come with the sacrifices of being cheaper. I would love to get Ordin, I would love to get Feral Rex (don't expect a review of that Predaking set anytime soon, if at all), I would love to have thousands to pump into Transformers. I don't, so I settle with these releases. Hun-Gurrr himself is fine for a Voyager, just kind of boring compared to other combiner bosses I personally own. He hasn't got the presence of someone like Motormaster or Grimlock, nor the insanity of someone like Sky-Linx, nor the gravitas of someone like last week's Starscream. He's just kind of there if that makes any sense. I want to love this figure, and he might get better when with the other Terrorcons, but for now he's just boring. See you on the main site for The Greatest Showman, and up next here? How about a monkey with a hoverboard? It's time to let out your inner beast.

Oh, and before people bring it up as spelling errors, the constant name changing of Hun-Gurrr in the review was intentional, a stab at all the times he's been given different names in Transformer history (though no, he hasn't had the name Hunger).

I should also say that there is going to be a bit more variety coming soon, next week's is the start of it, and some later plans include some mini aliens, some opinion pieces, and to start off a new line of reviews, some ink-tastic figures.

Transformers Power of the Primes Voyager Class Starscream: Oh how it pains me to do this

One thing that Power of the Primes has been doing (at least for wave 1 and 2, 3 is breaking the mould) with the Voyager class has been one combiner with a confirmed dedicated team, and a second torso that lets you combine the remaining figures to them. In the case of wave 1, it is Starscream, one of the first Power of the Primes toys announced and... it was not accepted well, at all, still isn't depending on what community you talk to. How well does it hold up on its own? On an objective level? Well...

Starting with the Jet mode, and its clear out of all the three modes this toy has to do, this is the mode that took the biggest hit to make the other modes work. This guy has an awful Jet mode. The jet parts look fine, its when you look at any other angle that doesn't hide things under the jet mode. Starscream suffers hard from Robot under a Jet syndrome, almost nothing is hidden in this jet mode. The only thing hidden is the robot mode thighs, which are inside the gigantic robot mode shins. I'll at least give them credit for not reusing the Combiner Wars Silverbolt mold again, but even Silverbolt could hide his head. In terms of functions this mode has, there isn't much there. The cockpit can open up to plug a Prime Master/ Titan Master in, or the included Seeker Enigma, and there are ports to store the Null Rays and the Combine mode feet (which looks awful anywhere you put them so do yourself a favor and leave those feet off the jet). A landing wheel can unfold from the nose cone for display, and that's about it. What you see is what you get with the jet mode, including all those foil stickers. While I was willing to let Grimlock slide because they're tasteful and not all over the place, on Starscream, they're almost everywhere and it looks awful. They're covering almost all of the wings, the Decepticon badge on the nosecones (the real one and the fake one for robot mode), the mini Autobot stickers on the side to show how many Autobot's he's killed (which apparently makes him one of the most successful Starscream as he's killed 5), the tail fins, above the vents (I don't know what they're actually called), and that's just the ones for Jet mode. On robot mode you have more on his feet, more on his shins, more on the sides of his arms, and two more inside Starscream's signature collar vents. Who's idea was it to put silver stickers on a cream white toy? I hate these stickers with a passion because the amount of times I've gotten a toy that has them decently applied can be counted on one hand! Is it to much to ask for at least a sticker sheet? Or using decent quality stickers?! Anyway, to robot mode!

The robot mode, a few flaws excluded, is a solid Voyager Starscream. A lot of the flaws people have with it in terms of proportions kind of grew on me as I continued to mess around with the toy. Yeah, he's a bit overly bulky due to combiner boss obligations, but it does kind of work when you consider he is the second in command of the Decepticons. The big problem I have with the toy is that I wish the nosecone from the jet folded up a little more, to make the backpack cleaner. The Null Rays as well could also be a bit bigger on his arms, but they do look surprisingly good when used as hand-held weapons. If you wanted to, you could attach them to the combined mode feet and stick them on his arms, but that actually looks worse then when they're stored in jet mode. He has the standard posing points for a voyager (Neck swivel, can look down due to transformation, ratchet shoulders for both outward and rotation due to combiner obligations, bicep swivel, friction for elbows (90 degrees), friction hips forward and back with ratchets for outward and friction knees with 90 degree bends) but missing some extended features like moving ankles. It would be nice to see the other seekers in this style, but that's coming from a Transformer fan who... doesn't have a set of Seekers in any form...

Please note that three of the five robots used here are fan retools of existing moulds and are not official releases. Image was found here http://www.bwtf.com/toyreviews/generations/potp/starscream

Going into the combined mode and... he does make a solid looking combiner torso. It looks powerful and even incorporates some references to the 86 movie and Bayformers. Meet King Starscream, a combiner so full of himself that he makes sure the combined mode head is just a bigger version of his head with a crown. The body design does remind me of Movieverse Starscream and manages to look a little better than it because it looks less like a random pile of parts forming a Dorito with birthing hips. I'll go more into my views on Movieverse screamer soon cause I do have the Studio Series one. In terms of functionality and how well the combined mode works, I want to hold off on that until I see it with Dreadwind, Blackwing and the two mysterious limb bots he may or may not get.

Is he as bad as everyone makes him out to be? Not really. With the exception of the stickers, he doesn't do anything that I haven't seen in several other jetformers. A lot of the hate I've seen has been tied to the "Starscream shouldn't combine!" argument, and, for me personally, I don't care if gimmicks are given to characters who didn't have them, if the gimmick works, doesn't take to much away from the toy, then they could put anything they wanted into characters. There are even some characters that benefit from the new gimmicks (Topspin and Twintwist say hi). Besides, it doesn't retroactively make the character tied to that gimmick since the beginning, and people who wanted a G1 Starscream that doesn't combine to have alternatives (Masterpiece Starscream and its knockoffs along with MakeToys's Meteor come to mind). If there was no other way to get this character, then I'd be saying something different in the case of the combining gimmick. There's going to be a break in content while E3 happens, so the next thing for both sites is going to be a video covering the news from it. Next toy to review in a few weeks though is going to be another Decepticon Voyager, another combiner, but this is one a lot of people have been wanting, myself included. Terrorcon Hun-Gurrr.

Transformers Power of the Primes Wave 1 Pretenders

If someone ever comes up to you and says that Transformers Generation 1 is something that must be taken 100% seriously at all times, tell them that they're being idiots, because there is a lot, and I mean A LOT that it did that was completely silly, even stupid at times. From transforming tricycles to transforming electric train and race car sets, the Action masters which were basically "what if Transformers didn't transform" (I personally like to think of the super poseable statues as MP Action Masters), Ratbat leading the Decepticons in the comics with his carwash of doom, Warpath in medieval times, and the source of today's subjects, the Pretender Transformers to name a few. The Pretender Transformers were Transformers that fit inside Pretender Shells, almost statue-like figures that were only able to move their shoulders on swivels, though the engineering did improve as more figures were made. There were 39 (according to TF Wiki) of these made for international audiences and while some have transcended from Pretender origins to more traditional transformers like Bludgeon, Thunderwing, Landmine and more, many of them have been lost to history alongside many, many, many more Transformers. I'll admit though that I was kind of surprised to learn that they were coming back in the Power of the Primes toyline as the gimmick looked like one that wouldn't leave the 80's. But, here we are, with at least (though many are thinking the line's going to be canceled early because they didn't show more at NY Toy Fair) 12 of the old pretenders being made anew. I'm going to look over all three of the wave 1 Pretenders now as there isn't much to talk about them. As for where the two Wave 2 figures are, not here in Australia yet.

Skullgrin and Liege Maximo

Wave 1 consisted of three characters. Skullgrin of the Decepticons, Cloudburst, and Metalhawk of the Autobots. And right off the bat, these are basically the exact same Pretender Shells, just smaller. They didn't try and improve the engineering of the original Shells, but I don't find that to be a problem as the shells now are a lot smaller, if they were the same size as the original pretenders or scaled around the current size classes I'd be saying something completely different as I'd at least expect elbows and maybe wrist swivels. but for something about a head taller then a Lego Minifigure, I'm ok with the limited mobility. All of them have a weapon that connects to their backs with little friction nubs that you can take off and plug into their hands... and they are comically oversized for them. The only one who can kind of get away with it is Skullgrin and his claw weapon, but Cloudburst and Metalhawk's gigantic guns are so big that they'd probably blow their whole arms off if they tried firing them. There are reasons why they're so big, but I'll come back to those. There's a lot of really nice sculpting and paint details on these three, with my personal favorite in this department being Metalhawk's nice mix of Red, Blue, and Yellow, with lots of silver and even some metallic blue on the gun. However, these are just the shells, and the shells hide secrets.

Cloudburst and Micronus Prime

One thing Power of the Primes is going for is mashing the two major gimmicks of Combiner Wars and Titans Return. And while the influence of Combiner Wars is pretty obvious at this point, the Titans Return influence might not be until you see these three. The Pretender Shells (now known as Decoy Armour) are the replacement of the Titan Master class toys of Titans Return, a class that came with an extra Titan Master head and a little vehicle the Titan Master interacted with. The Decoy armor replaces the vehicle, and the Prime Master replaces the Titan Master. Liege Maximo, the master manipulator, comes with Skullgrin. Micronus Prime, the first Mini-Con, comes with Cloudburst, and Vector Prime, the guardian of space and time, comes with Metalhawk. These three are repaints of Titan Masters but instead of faces on their backs, they have the symbols of the primes they represent on their backs, and I will admit they are cool little symbols. As a result of them being repaints of Titan Masters, they can do everything a Titan Master can do including:

• Ride on or in any of the Titan Master class vehicles
• Ride in or on Titans Return Legends Class figures and Power of the Primes Legends Class figures (yes this does include Skrapnel though I'll explain that one in a few months when I get back to Transformers)
• Ride inside any Titans Return Deluxe, Voyager or Leader Class figure
• Become the head of any Titans Return Deluxe, Voyager or Leader Class figure
• Interact with the base modes of any Titans Return Leader or Titan Class figure
• Plug into Titans Return Overlord's chest (however like when plugging Titan Masters in, the chest can't close around the Prime Masters
• Be eaten by Titans Return Trypticon
• Plugged into any Power of the Primes Deluxe, Voyager or Leader class figure
• Plug into the hands of any Power of the Primes Combiner that come with the Deluxe Class figures
• Plug into the feet of any Power of the Primes Combiner that comes with the Voyager Class figures
• Plug into the Power of the Primes Combiners instead of the Enigmas that come with the Voyager Class figures
• Replace the matrix core of any Matrix of Leadership that comes with any Power of the Primes Leader Class figure

It should, however, be stated that your mileage will vary with each of these. In testing, I almost had Liege Maximo's head stuck in Astrotrain, and some of the PotP hands don't hold the Prime Masters securely. In most of the tests I did do, the Prime Master heads were a little too big for the Titan Master head ports so they were very tight to attach and remove. One nice bit of attention to detail for the Autobot Shells (its harder to spot for Skullgrin) is that the faces of the Prime Masters can be seen in the helmets of the Pretender Shells. The Shells do have a "Targetmaster mode", allowing the shells to become a gun. How you do this? You take the Prime Master out, fold it up and plug it into two ports on the shells' back, fold the weapon piece the shells can hold over, and flip the handle between the legs of the shell down. The Targetmaster mode proportions depended on who was holding the weapon. For some classes, it's huge, for others its tiny.

Metalhawk and Vector Prime

For the price point they're at, they are fine little toys. They're small, basic, great as small pocket money toys for kids, and it is good to see some older collectors get into the new versions without ripping them a new one (Need I say more then Volcanicus?). Do I think they'll make every Pretender in this new style? Probably not. There are at least over 30 of them, and we only have a promise of 11 at most, 12 if we're lucky and they finally drop the charade about who the 13th Prime is (Onyx Prime comes with Predaking, which is why the numbers might sound off for you doing the math). Still, its a neat idea and it does make me wish they'd go and do Micromasters again (I actually have a pitch idea for that if anyone is curious, or a third party company is looking for something to help it stand out). To see the Mega Man 3 review from the main site, check here: https://mediaholicreviews.blogspot.com.au/2018/03/mini-mega-man-marathon-march-mania-mega_21.html and coming up next week is the first Lego Set review... which while originally was going to be the Sanctum Sanctorum, is now potentially going to change, and what it changes into is up to you! By going here: https://www.strawpoll.me/15336306 you can vote for something to potentially take its place.

Transformers Power of the Primes Voyager Class Grimlock: At least its better then Dinoking?

For the next two weeks, and the previous week, I've got a course on which I'll admit is eating into my time, so for now, let's keep things simple, one bot at a time. I promised a Grimlock, so I'm giving a Grimlock! (Besides, it gets my mind off the amount of troubleshooting I've been doing on a new iPod this week cause someone hacked my account last year. "Thanks for the headaches you've been causing me with your spending habits on Clash of Clans under my name you b!*@#)$". $350 in two months? Seriously?).

Starting off with the dino mode, and good news to generation 1 fans, it's designed to look like the G1 Grimlock, in that it looks awful if you try and put it in a more "realistic" T-rex pose. Don't get me wrong, he can do it, but its designed to look better in the old T-rex pose. Standing somewhat straight up, tail dragging along the ground, kids if you don't know this one, look up kids shows from the 80's and 90's, Rugrats for example with Reptar. A few exceptions excluded, its hard to tell that he does more than the Robo-dino transformation, but those few exceptions are large exceptions. The back is a bit of a mess and while the tail tip tries to hide the combiner ports in what will be the robot legs, there's nothing hidden about the ones on the dino legs. It's been a problem people have had with the toy since he was shown off because people really hate the fact that he has Combiner Boss obligations now, and I have seen a few people online not seem to grasp that they can't have a cheap combiner torso with a hundred step transformation process with no parts forming, perfect paint and have three flawless modes. Sacrifices have to be made, and while some are here, they were focusing on getting two modes as perfect as possible, cause most of the cuts were made to the torso mode.

While limited articulation and slightly bulky proportions at times are problems with the dino, most of the hits come in the torso mode for Volcanicus. In terms of engineering, he's not a bad torso (though he has Menasor Legs which I'm not a fan of), but the mass just isn't there to make it look good. The stomach and waist are just too small cause most of the mass is in his shoulders, He needed to parts from, or even be a six bot combiner team to pull off the mass needed for this to work. Granted, it would be more work then a Combiner Wars combiner normally is, but this guy needed it. A Third Party company is putting out an upgrade kit for Volcanicus, which I plan to get and review when I do a dedicated review for Volcanicus. Unlike a lot of people, I do actually like the head sculpt for Volcanicus, there's more originality here then the last few times Dinobots have combined officially, in that it's not just a bigger version of Grimlock's head, while still being inspired by it. It looks intimidating, which for this combiner, works really well. It's also the only combiner torso I have that has a waist swivel, in fact, the only Voyager that comes to mind off the top of my head that has a waist swivel is Titans Return Galvatron (in terms of what's in my collection). I get what they were going for, but it wasn't quite there yet. While in combined mode though, Grimlock (and all the voyagers for the line) come with the combined mode feat, which serves as the way to plug Prime Masters into them. While its great that they have ratcheted ankle tilts and don't need to be hands, they look awful in the other modes for the Voyagers I own (Grimlock and Starscream), so they're probably going to be stored away when not being used as combined mode feet. Grimlock also comes with the "Dinobot Enigma" which has all the cross-play of a Titan and Prime Master, with a lot more paint and nothing else to do other than exist. It doesn't transform, it's just a spare bit of plastic. Looks cool, but it does nothing on its own. You can stick it into Grimlock's dino mouth though.

In robot mode, slightly to blocky chest excluded, this is a really good looking Grimlock. The combiner ports are still an issue, but they don't look as bad in robot mode and even with the blocky chest, he still looks like a tank. The product shots do make it look worse, but in hand, I don't find it that bad. Granted I'd have liked the love handles to tuck in a little bit, but its something I can look past. One problem I do have with him is the same problem for all the Voyagers and Leaders of the line and the Voyagers and Leaders of Titans Return wave 3 and onwards (overall), the stickers. While on my Grimlock, they're not as bad as they could be, they are still of the same quality. See, the stickers Hasbro's been using are a low grade foil sticker, factory applied, and I've had far, far too many of these peel off in play due to being misapplied in the factory, my Blitzwing had a scrunched up sticker on his wing, the weather here can make them peel off faster, just nothing but pain comes from them. Grimlock gets away with them as they're nowhere near Transformation joints and they're quite small, when I get to Starscream though, he didn't survive the sticker process, and will one day feel my wrath as a result. The reason for this though is because the paint is expensive, but that argument can be counted by the unnecessary paint use on the toys in the line, especially the Dinobots. Every bit of gold you see on the Dinobots so far, that's all clear plastic painted gold on the inside. Don't get me wrong, it looks cool, but did we need it for things like tampographed Autobot and Decepticon insignias on the bigger figures? The articulation on Grimlock (to get back on topic though) is quite good for a combiner boss. Double joint elbows, ratchets in the hips, shoulders and knees, a waist swivel, the only thing he's missing is feet articulation, cause he doesn't have actual feet, he just has tail pieces acting as feet.

I swear when I get time again I'll be going back to taken pictures. Alongside the course, a video is currently in production

Is he the Generations Grimlock Transformer fans have been wanting for a long time? Probably not, this fanbase can be fickle at times, to say the least. Granted, I've seen far, far, far worse fanbases. Does he scratch the itch for someone like me who's never had a G1 inspired Grimlock and to poor to invest in the high-end third-party masterpiece figures and have to make do on what the elitists call "lazy, pathetic, worthless pieces of plastic that only show how lazy Hasblow's been getting"? Yeah, yeah it kinda does. Is it flawless? No. Is it as bad as some people have been making it out to be? No, at least to me. He does need that upgrade kit though for Volcanicus, and I'd appreciate someone giving these guys some better weapons. Cause he was meant to go against AoE Grimlock this week, that Grimlock will be next week, and to check out the review of Super Smash Brothers Melee on the main site, check here: https://mediaholicreviews.blogspot.com.au/2018/02/super-smash-brothers-melee-sorry-to.html and coming up next for the main site, Mega Man 1.

Transformers Power of the Primes Deluxe Class Slug vs Platinum Edition Dinobots Unleashed Slug

Before I begin, if you're curious as to my view on the Bayformers movies finally ending (Source: http://news.tfw2005.com/2018/02/16/transformers-cinematic-universe-current-movie-series-rebooted-358641 ), my first thought was https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IUZEtVbJT5c&feature=youtu.be&t=20s. However, thinking of it more, unfortunately, Hasbro has a bad track record for live action movies, so until I see some quality from them (as in genuine quality, not "yeah everyone else hates this but I like it" quality), I'm cautious about what happens next. At least we don't get to see them ruin Unicron.

"Alpha Trion Slag: Uses his strength to stop conflict, not incite it"

Round 2 of the Power of the Primes vs Age of Extinction Dinosaurs. A battle of the Triceratops. Unfortunately, this week has been pretty busy for me, hence going back to the random images found online. Paid employment hunting comes first, sorry. I should also state that yes, I know its an inappropriate word in Europe, but from here on out, I'm calling them Slag. And to get something out of the way, Pteradon does not mean Flying Dinosaur, but rather Flying Reptile. You can thank rushed, unchecked research on that one. With that out of the way, let's get to the review.

Transformers Power of the Primes Deluxe Class; Dinobot Swoop and Transformers Platinum Edition, Dinobots Unleashed: Dinobot Strafe

"Me Swoop wanna know why you have two heads?"
"Me Strafe say two heads are better then one"
"Me Swoop say you try hard"
"Me Strafe say you no try hard enough!"
"Me Swoop no try hard enough?! Me Swoop arm for combiner now!"
"Me Strafe wanna know why you try that again. Weren't you pants for Grimlock last time you try combining?"
"Me Swoop rather not talk about that..."
"At least me Strafe got more than a sword and stupid hand shield"
"At least me Swoop have elbows and not give birth between movies"
"Me Strafe have no idea how it happened either..."

This originally was the title, that I just kept going and going... I like to have fun when writing these.

"Alchemist Swoop: Plants disorienting fear into enemy circuits"

Let us take to the skies with the Dinobots as we continue this mini Dino marathon. But instead of just looking at one Pterosaur, why not look at two? I do have a set of Age of Extinction Dinobots and while I didn't want to compare a Deluxe to a Legends class figure for Slash, I think comparing two deluxe is reasonable wouldn't you say? Let's find out who rules the sky with a head to head battle between Swoop and "Not Swoop" I mean Strafe!

Transformers Power of the Primes Legends Class; Dinobot Slash: Clever girl

"Alpha Trion Slash: Seeks the deepest hidden secrets of the Universe" (I will be posting the special bios on the cards with each of these reviews, not all of them, just the ones I personally get).

Oh be quiet, sometimes the low hanging fruit is too tempting.

It is safe to say that a lot of children like dinosaurs. I know I did growing up, Marissa did, anyone who grew up on Jurrasic Park did, and many more. A lot of people also enjoy robots, again, myself included (that should not come as a shock to anyone at this point). So, it makes complete sense for a toy company in Japan to make robot dinosaurs that small people can ride and that can turn into robots. These would eventually be merged into the Transformers, leading to what people now know as the Dinobots. Every now and then they change up the Dinobots, from Grimstone in Powercore Combiners, to the Age of Extinction Dinos, and most recently, letting the G1 dinos combine and giving them a new member, Slash, an AoE dino made G1 fembot. What better way to kick off this new site than with the new girl on the block?