Transformers War For Cybertron Kingdom Deluxe Class Waspinator: Scorpion + Spider = Robot Wasp?

 A week late for several reasons, one of which I'll discuss at the end, so I won't waste much time with this intro. For the final Predacon review of the year, it's time to look at the Predacon Punching Bag. The indestructible yet incredibly disposable Waspinator. Try not to read this in a Waspinator voice, though. You'll likely hate yourself for it.

Waspinator in Waszp mode suffers from a similar issue to Scoropnok's scorpion mode, but it feels less egregious here. The bug legs are limited to swivel joints for the sake of the robot mode, limiting what you can do with posing for the beast mode, amplified by the fact that the middle and back legs are moulded together. It makes Waspinator feel more rigid when compared to some of the other Beasts in Kingdom, but it's not as much of an issue as, for example, Scorponok because... well, what are you going to do with a wasp? It would be nice if the legs could move a bit more, at the very least separating the middle and back legs to give some more natural flight poses for those who want to put him on a flight stand. As it stands, all you can move are the pincers and the wings when in this mode. On the wings, though, many have an issue with the plastic colour it was moulded in. To have the bug and bot mode eyes be purple. The wings were also moulded in purple. I honestly don't mind this, as I think the purple wings add a nice bit of extra colour to the bug mode. While a selling point of the Beasts was "realistic animal modes", in practice, a lot of them were stylized in some form or another for the sake of making toys. T-Rex's aren't purple (to our knowledge), spiders don't have golden legs, scorpions aren't purple. Just let him have this; he's the Predacons punching bag; he deserves something nice.

In robot mode, Waspinator feels more like Blackarachnia, in that the robot mode looks very cluttered due to Wasp Mode junk. It's a messy robot mode, but not one you can change because of its iconic design for Waspinator. Granted, it's not entirely accurate. The pair of bug legs on the robot legs are new for this take, as they're generally on the arms. Due to this toy re-imagining tricks from his 2013 toy, there are bug legs on the robot legs at all might be seen as an eyesore compared to the original toy. I'm also not a fan of how they handled the blaster. For the sake of beast mode storage and the fact that spring-loaded shooters are no longer a thing in Transformers, Waspinator's gun just looks like a random bit of wasp he's holding as a classroom pointer. It somewhat looks better with a blast effect (something that would have been nice to include, especially if it looked like his old stinger), but I'm not even sure if it is meant to be blast effect compatible, as the nub on the end of the blaster is a bit smaller then the blast effect posts usually are, making any effect really easy to knock off by mistake. An unintended feature likely caused by a minor quality control defect results in Waspinator's head being effortless to take off. But, it's something that works in this toy's favour, as Waspinator was known to come apart in the show. Now that I say that, I kind of want to see a Weaponizer take on Waspinator now.

Should you get Kingdom Waspinator? Probably not if you have the Generations one. While this one does look good with the other Kingdom Predacons, arguably a lot better than the Generations one does, it doesn't feel very interesting. It's a toned-down version of the Generations one, with a lot of the excitement gone due to the changes in engineering and the inclusion of gimmicks changing in the last eight years. The main reason this took a whole extra week to work on was that he's a mediocre toy to talk about, nothing terrible, but nothing stands out either. Like Dinobot, he's an average figure, but unlike Dinobot, the average toy is perfectly fine. The final review of G.I. Joe Classified is next week, ironic as I may be helping out a Transformers booth at the local Comic-Con that weekend. As much as I want to talk about Cobra Grunts, I think I'll close out the year for them with the last two members of the Cobra Leadership team released so far: Destro and The Baroness.

Transformers War for Cybertron Kingdom Deluxe Class Predacon Scorponok: "What happened here?"

If there is one thing that has been nice about Kingdom, it's the focus on getting the Season 1 Beast Wars characters. Though there is a gap so far in the form of Tarantulus and Inferno, rumour has it that we'll be getting them next year. Unfortunately for all the good figures, some will be worse, though "absolutely terrible" is in the eyes of the beholder. For every Blackarachnia, there's going to be one like today's subject, where the issues come more from how you prioritize elements of Transformers. From Second in Command of the Predacons to nameless cannon fodder, and now to this. This year has not been kind to you, has it Scorponok?

 
I want to start the review of the beast mode with the most significant issue and the cause of the title: the Scorpion legs. I remember when they revealed the Kingdom toy line and talked about the first wave of toys, they said they spent a lot of time getting the tolerances right for Blackarachnia's spider legs. Even though they're ball joints, they're tight and nicely support her weight in spider mode (this even holds true with her Buzzworthy Bumblebee repaint). Scorponok doesn't get that luxury. In comparison, his beast mode is severely compromised, with the legs being the starting point. The legs feel hollow; the ball joints are loose; the scorpion legs themselves don't support the robot's weight. That title goes to the opened up chest with a robot leg stuffed into it. Usually, with Transformers waves, some compromises are made to figures to make others better. That's the perception of the situation, at least. I don't know if that holds here because I can't see where the compromises went too. Scorponok's wave includes a reissue of Earthrise Wheeljack, Fossilizer Wingfinger, and Autobot Tracks, none of which feel like the cause for the compromises. Is it because they knew the legs were never going to support the robot? Maybe. One day I hope to review the original Beast Wars Scorponok as the way it handled robot mass is extremely different. It would have been nice if they could have worked that engineering into the new toy, but that might not have been feasible at a Deluxe budget. There is also a third party one intended for a Legends Class Scale display that might also get a review later to see how well the bot junk is handled. While the underside of the beast mode isn't great, the top is really good. It's why the issues involving legs sting that much more. Once again, the texture work on the plastic is fantastic, adding to the creepy crawly feel of the figure. It's a shame that it's so static, with things like the tail not having a lot of articulation points without taking the other robot leg out of the tail. Overall, not a good beast mode. The positives bring it back a bit, but it feels like a letdown compared to others in the line. Does the robot mode do it better? 

It's complicated. In robot mode, Scorponok falls into a similar situation as Siege and Kingdom Ultra Magnus. He's in scale with other Predacons and has a design based on artwork from the original figure's box. But to some, it doesn't feel right, as evident by the thigh extension upgrades you can buy that make the legs into a glorified stand for the Scorpion. For me, the legs aren't the issue for the robot; it more comes down to the boxed shape of the chest. It's a minor issue, but it does throw off the look quite a bit. The robot is a significant saving grace for this toy. Though it's still not as good as other figures in Kingdom, it doesn't feel as compromised as the scorpion mode does. There are still compromises. The hollow tail looks terrible, you're not getting much of a waist swivel out of him due to the tail, and the head doesn't like to move due to how it's sculpted (which does look nice, by the way). But none of those issues feels like glaring issues compared to the overall look of the figure. The scorpion pincers look great in both modes, and thanks to them needing the robot arms, they're nicely articulate in both modes as well. I also love that he comes with both his twin missiles and the Cyber Bee, both of which effortlessly store in the pincers, though I do wish the missiles weren't hollow as those gaps are hard to ignore.

While I don't think Scorponok's one of the worst in the line, he's undoubtedly one of the worst Beast Wars figures in the line. A large chunk of that comes down to how good the other characters are, which is unfortunate but not unexpected. The good elements do claw back some quality, but it ends up making the figure underwhelming, something that stings even more, when you consider who it is. This would be like getting an underwhelming Starscream, only without the barrage of Seeker repaints that will follow. I kind of wish this got the same treatment Studio Series Hot Rod did, where it was sold at a higher size class for the sake of engineering. It could have been really interesting to see how they handled the robot mass for the Scorpion mode. Again, it's not the worst of the line (that title currently goes to Tracks), but unless you're really into Beast Wars and want an entire team of Season 1 Predacons, I'd say skip it.

Transformers Kingdom Deluxe Class Ractonite: A more cohesive pile of bones

As the days tick on, the end of Kingdom looks to be on the horizon (based on leaks); the Predacon squad is coming along, even if some crucial members are still waiting for a new release. Tarantulas, Terrorsaur, Waspinator and Inferno are still significant holes many people are waiting to fill in the season 1 roster. However, in the meantime, we can still enjoy the Fossilizer gimmick with the second Dinosaur Fossil to join the war effort, Ractonite. Is he better than his wave one companion? Well, yes and no. 

Starting in fossil mode. In terms of general looks, I prefer this dinosaur mode over the Paleotrex mould from the last time I reviewed Fossilizers. The main reason for this is the extra mass in the chest; while it's an ironic complaint, it makes the dinosaur mode not feel as malnourished. While I know it's an odd complaint with a toy that's meant to look like dinosaur bones, but the skeletal aesthetic does handicap the designs overall, it's one of the reasons I'm currently (opinion may change when I get it in hand) not a fan of the wave 3 Fossilizer, Wingfinger. There are more gaps on this one than the Paleotrex mould, mainly in the legs, but the white plastic and the bone design don't make them very noticeable. The gaps blend in well and add to the aesthetic like these are a degrading pile of bones. What does suck, though, is the compromised articulation for the sake of the robot mode. I wish the front legs had ankle tilts, and the inability for the head to turn side to side is a real shame. While it's not an issue exclusive to Ractonite, most of the beasts have had stiff necks, it's hard not to be spoiled by Beast Wars Megatron, and most of the other dinosaur transformers have had enough articulation for it to not feel like a hindrance. The Styracosaurus body shape that this is based on makes it inherently stiffer when compared to someone like Paleotrex (even if Paleotrex's weight distribution is so bad, most of those dynamic poses will result in a face plant). I'm not sure how I feel about the grey paint, though. The white plastic wouldn't have worked on its own, but the grey colour doesn't compliment the plastic either, compared to something like Paleotrex, where the colours are more complimentary. It feels like Ractonite's been playing in the same Cyber Mud that the Siege Figures had on them. 

While the paint doesn't work well for the beast mode, it does work a lot better in the robot mode, a robot mode that in itself is ok? It feels tamer compared to Paleotrex, more reserved, ironic considering one of the arms is coming out of the Styracosaurus' mouth. While Paleotrex is insane looking in his way, Ractonite is more the traditional Beast Era insanity, homaging how Beast Wars designs handled their Beast Mode junk. With the exception of where the front legs go, I could see this being a regular Beast Wars toy if it wasn't going for the living skeleton aesthetic. That said, though, he is a Fossilizer, and part of the gimmick is the ability to break him down and turn him into weapons for other characters. Unfortunately, on my copy, the tolerances for some of the joints and connections aren't great. As a result, many combinations, like the giant bone war hammer, aren't fun to play around with as the connections don't hold together, and the joints struggle to take the weight. It's less of an issue in the robot and beast mode; it's why I'm only covering those (the bone war hammer looks fantastic, though). Articulation is adequate, the parts used for the shoulders are cumbersome and make it impossible for him to do things like a T-Pose, but the rest of the articulation in robot mode is fine. The arms look very gangly thanks to the proportions, something that a torso extension would have helped with, but it is frustrating that he has no hands at all. Even Paleotrex tried to pull off hands.

Ractonite is both a step up and a step down when compared to Paleotrex. I enjoy the extra mass thanks to the thicker bone structure, but as a Fossilizer, he's not as versatile as Paleotrex. He's not as configurable as Paleotrex; there aren't many parts that can be other body parts. I think for that reason alone, Paleotrex is probably better just as a toy, even if visually I prefer Ractonite. While I couldn't cover it today due to COVID Lockdowns, and it currently waiting for me about 20km away, there is a repaint of this figure called Tricranius, lava themed repaint with some minor retooling. It's an interesting looking paint job at least. If you can find him on sale, he's worth a purchase. The good balances out the bad, and if nothing else, he makes for a great army builder for the Predacons. To get back onto schedule, I'll be reviewing an Autobot next Sunday (unfortunately not Rodimus, more Amazon delays). However, a G.I Joe review will be coming sometime soon on a Wednesday. At the very least, I'll see you next time for a review a long time coming. The Good, the Bad, the original and the dead, it's time to review Earthrise Optimus Prime.

Transformers War for Cybertron Kingdom Leader Class Megatron (Beast Mode) and T-Wrecks: Best not to confuse the two purple dinosaurs.

While both came from someone's imagination, one wants to be your friend, and the other will want to kill you on his temporal, semi-religious quest for power.
 
In the pantheon of reboots and alternate universes, if you were to ask a Transformers fan to name a version of Megatron that wasn't the original from the '80s, a common answer would probably be Beast Wars Megatron. Originally a small green Aligator that was the original Megatron in a new body, what many consider to be the true Beast Wars Megatron is the Ultra Class gimmick laden purple T-Rex, thanks to its use in the show. Now a stand-alone character removed from the original Megatron, he quickly became a fan favourite for his mix of serious villain endeavours and cartoony quirks. One moment he could be trying to change time; the next could him brushing his T-Rex head's teeth and having a bath with a rubber duck. His voice also became iconic, with David Kaye giving a stunning performance that gave him a Shakesperian tone and demeanour, as noted by the way he emphasises the word "yes". It comes as no surprise when Kingdom rolls around that the version of Megatron they go for is the original purple T-Rex look, but something a bit more of a surprise was his first repaint, T-Wrecks from Beast Machines's repaint subline Dinobots. Ironically, at least for me, the Jurassic Park themed repaint, Tyranocon Rex, was more predictable than T-Wrecks was. With both here ready to review, how has the 2020s treated the T-Rex with a god complex? I should point out that from this point on, while the official name is Megatron (Beast Mode), I'll be referring to him as Beast Wars Megatron, or BW Megatron/ Megs for short.

While I usually start with the alternate mode for Transformers, there is something that should be mentioned first, as the toys are packaged in robot mode. As a part of the transformation, you need to split the crotch of the robot to get the legs into position for beast mode. The first time doing this, though, is challenging and requires an alarming amount of force that feels like you're going to rip the toy in half. Thankfully, it gets easier with every subsequent transformation, but that one step does knock down the transformation in terms of enjoyment. 

 

Looking at the Beast Mode once you get it there, though I wouldn't call it clean or refined, it is undoubtedly impressive. There are many visible panel lines and distracting gaps, particularly around the neck, but it doesn't ever really feel like a problem when seeing the result. This thing looks mean, deadly like a Jurassic predator should. I love the fact that articulation isn't compromised for the sake of the transformation when it comes to things like the tail and the neck. The tail isn't as moveable as an actual tail, but there's enough to do a convincing tail swing, and the way the neck panels move for the sake of letting the head turn is genius. I didn't notice until I got T-Wrecks into his Dino mode how seamless the robot mode bits integrate into the dinosaur, as Wrecks has these grey hinges for parts of the leg that look bad when compared to Megatron, where the pieces were cast in purple. What was a real shock when it was revealed was the use of rubber (well, rubber-like plastic) skin. Mainline Transformers can't even get rubber tiers, yet here's a leader class T-Rex wholly covered in the stuff while still having lots of beautiful paint to boot. It feels unnecessary but appreciated nonetheless. Like many T-Rex toys that go for the more natural position, Megatron and T-Wrecks are very front heavy. Getting them to stand in beast mode is an issue, but that's not the toy's fault, more so the initial inspiration. Considering as the first two leader class toys of Kingdom was a repack of Earthrise Optimus and Kingdom Ultra Magnus, a retool of the 2019 toy (see that review for my thoughts on him), this feels excessive, like they went above and beyond to make this as good as possible, which I respect. This is the first new mainline BW Megatron toy since 2006, so why not go all in and make the toy worthy of the event?

The event continues when you get to robot mode, primarily because of Megatron himself and not T-Wrecks. While the sculpting is mostly the same between the toys, with the only noticeable difference being different heads (though some versions of BW Megs have the T-Wrecks head), T-Wrecks has far less paint on him and doesn't feel as alive as a result. It makes T-Wrecks feel like a worse deal as you pay more for him than you would most Leader Class toys; due to him being a Target US exclusive, that one toy chain here decided to import directly from Hasbro Asia. The tan on the underside of the T-Rex, the silver and gunmetal on the robot torso, the black paint on the legs, and the faction symbol on the head make BW Megatron look a lot better than T-Wrecks. I cannot even find a faction symbol on T-Wrecks. I don't know if that's a QC issue, or he genuinely doesn't have a Maximal logo. Articulation in the mould is standard for WFC robots, with the only compromises made coming in the form of the arms and hands. Still, the reason for it is more understandable when you consider the fact that one hand is a T-Rex head, and the tail claw dwarfs the other hand. You don't need wrist swivels on this guy. One big problem this toy has, though, is the back. Beast Wars Megatron will always have a messy back, but this feels a bit too messy, thanks mainly to the Dino modes thighs. It's the one part that I wish was better refined, but the issue is that there's nowhere else for them to go with the way the toy was designed. Dinosaur part management was better handled in the Masterpiece toy from what I've seen. While this is far more durable, it's not something like Studio Series Hot Rod or Kingdom Cyclonus, where they look and feel like affordable Masterpiece toys. 

While it might not be a budget Masterpiece, there's no denying that Kingdom BW Megatron is a gorgeous Leader Class toy. Like I said earlier, this feels like an event, something that some designer has wanted to do for a long time, with a few sacrifices as possible—an almost perfect representation of the character in the Generations scale. While it's nice to get him at all, T-Wrecks feels underdone when compared to his general release mould mate, which makes him feel worse than he is due to his exclusive nature. When even the mediocre Beast Wars characters in Kingdom are done with this much care, we could be in for a real treat if the beasts continue to appear on shelves. While the Generation 1 purists might not like it, this looks to be the case, thanks to rumours, leaks and the next live-action movie bringing the Maximals and Predacons to the big screen (something that I don't have a lot of hope for, but "hope for the best, plan for the worst"). Up next for review, the Cobra saboteur, Firefly.

Transformers Generations Selects Transmutate (along with Kingdom Deluxe Class Paleotrex and Netflix Skelivore): "Man, I am tellin' ya, the things coming out of these [repaints] is just getting weirder and weirder."

War for Cybertron; Siege: Vehicles tied to the Titans (and a set of z list repaints) that can be broken down into weapons for other figures in the toyline. Excellent idea, executed mostly well. War for Cybertron; Earthrise: Micromaster buildings that can be broken down and become armour for other figures in the toyline. Cool idea, not as good of execution as Siege, mainly due to the reuse of the same two moulds. War for Cybertron; Kingdom: Dinosaur fossils that become bone weapons for other figures. Well, you have my curiosity, at least, especially when you do repaints for characters like Transmutate. 

While Paleotrex and Skelivore are brand new characters made for the toyline, Transmutate is an... interesting specimen. She was a one-off character in the Beast Wars cartoon. Her stasis pod was damaged in the show's opening, and when she made her debut in and was killed off in the episode, she is the namesake of, she was portrayed as a confused child in the show due to being viewed as incomplete, unfinished due to the pod's damage. Transmutate was terrifying in the show, not just because of her high pitch scream as a defensive measure, but the way she looked and moved in the show combined with the cheap CGI budget the show was known for made her genuinely disturbing to look at. So while the episode itself is excellent, be aware that it comes with some nightmare fuel.

Come on Hasbro, give us a Rampage. You know you want too

 
Transmutate didn't have a transformation back in Beast Wars, but as a part of her being a repaint of Paleotrex, she gets to share his. Paleotrex, Skelivore (a pack-in figure with Megatron in the third Netflix Leader Class Spoiler Box that I will not be reviewing), and Transmutate all transform into Tyrannosaurus fossils. That information, though, comes from TFWiki, and something about that feels wrong to me. While I don't know what these are, I'm almost certain they aren't T-Rex fossils. It's unsettling to see these in a Beast Wars toyline, where all the other Maximals and Predacons are living versions of the animals they transform into. It would be terrifying to see dinosaur fossils running around, let alone turning into giant robots. However, with the sculpting being mostly accurate to actual dinosaur fossils, along with the engineering of the Weaponizers of Siege and Modulators of Earthrise carrying over, these are extremely clean transformations, probably the cleanest out of all the Beast Wars characters. Unfortunately, though, due to the nature of their beast modes, they're not very stable in beast mode. The big heads make them very top-heavy, and while they will stand, I don't know how long the joints will last due to the transformation requiring joints like the hips to be friction plugs and ports. I also wish there was more articulation in the beast modes, things like a neck swivel to let the head turn from left to right, along with some ankle tilts to help get the most out of all the joints in the legs. 

Like the Weaponizers and Modulators, you rip them apart and put them back together into something resembling robot modes to transform these three. Unlike Siege and Earthrise's attempts, though, there's no one way to get to robot mode. The components are more ambiguous, and with some of the later Fossilizers, pieces such as hands aren't defined, relying on any 5mm port or any plug that can take a 5mm port to act as the hands. These give the toys many more playability options, making them the most versatile figures in the toy line, even before getting to the bone weapons gimmick. Below is a picture of three combinations of the toys, each only using the parts you get from one copy of the toy. 

While the playability is excellent, it's hard not to notice how different they look compared to other Beast Wars characters. Due to the bone aesthetic, they feel like zombie robots, which can either be a good or bad thing depending on your personal preference. Regarding the accuracy of Transmutate, due to this being a repaint, it looks nothing like the character does no matter what you do. However, I think this gets the spirit of the character's design, which isn't a guarantee with repaints. I love how they retooled the head, replacing the bone mask Paleotrex and Skelivore have (which in itself is a reference to Optimus Primal's mace, an accessory the original toy had) with the ability to do the scream she's known for in the Beast Wars cartoon. It's a nice touch. I'm not going to go into the bone weapon gimmick as, like the Weaponizers, many combinations can be done with them. The bone weapons do look convincing when they're trying to be melee weapons (like a giant bone axe or bone sword), but less effective when they're trying to be ranged weapons. I think Skelivore pulls off the ranged weapons the best, as the design and colours given to him are meant to represent something like Dark Energon constructs for Megatron. My biggest issue, though, with Skelivore is that the use of transparent plastic makes him far more brittle when compared to Paleotrex and Transmutate. My copy has fragile connections for the Dinosaur feet and shins (which can be but doesn't have to be a wrist swivel in robot mode). 

These three are a lot of fun. It's hard not to be entertained by them, thanks to the parts forming gimmick. Because this mould was built from the ground up for an original character, nothing limits their design. They don't need to look like the titan companions of Siege's weaponized, and they don't need to look like the Micromaster bases of Earthrise so that most pieces can be designed for the gimmick first and the robot/ beast mode second. Though some parts like the crotch are still a bit tedious to find a use for when combining onto other characters, especially when the weapon ports are more limited on Beast Wars characters, there's still enough playability in them to not rely on the ability to become accessories for other characters. Paleotrex and Skelivore are also generic enough to work as great army builders for the Predacons so that you could have a whole army of dinosaur skeletons. Definitely worth the purchase if you can find them. Next week though, it's time to go from some small dinosaurs to big ones and review one toy that's been a long time coming. "Yessss."

Transformers War For Cybertron Kingdom Core Class K3; Vertebreak: Does she count as a Spooky Scary Skeleton?

 Ever since watching the Beast Wars cartoon, there has been something about the pilot episode that has confused me. Ignoring the "it's because of the toys" reason when the Darksyde is searching for compatible alternate modes for the Predacon crew. It finds Dinosaur fossils; why didn't the Dinosaur Predacons turn into fossilized dinosaurs? It was searching for biological alternate modes for the Predacons, and bones are biological material. Why did the computer create a muscle and scale mockup for the bones based on their placement before turning most Predacons onboard into Dinosaurs?

I bring this up because of one of the gimmicks for the War for Cybertron Trilogy. In all three toylines, Siege, Earthrise and Kingdom, specific figures have been designed to be broken apart and reassembled into different configurations, both for Transforming between their alternate and robot modes and the ability to turn into accessories for other figures (to mixed results). For Siege, it was the Weaponizers, Earthrise had the Modulators, and Kingdom has the Fossilizers. "Now you too can give your red and blue truck a giant bone sword!" Though today's subject doesn't get to break apart like her Deluxe sized wave companion Paleotrex, she does get to inherit the Fossilizer aesthetic, giving us a female Transformer that turns into a Dracorex fossil. Meet one of the newest Predacons, Vertebreak!

 
As mentioned above, Vertebreak turns into a Dracorex fossil, and one of the biggest compliments I can give her right off the bat is that the alt mode looks great. Except for the silver screws in the joints, it's pretty hard to tell from a distance that she transforms at all. Thanks to the bone sculpting effortlessly blending the sculpting gaps for the sake of transformation, this toy can easily be passed off as an ordinary dinosaur fossil toy. The only outlier in this is the ball sockets on the ankles, and it makes her look like she's wearing Dinosaur foot-shaped high heals. I appreciate how minimalistic the paint decoration is, keeping to the skeletal design by mixing the black and very dark brown plastic, giving it a simple look that doesn't feel basic. Articulation is fine for the most part. Some of the limbs, like the arms being moulded in, I can live with considering how small the components are. However, it would have been nice to have an actual mouth and not a bit of soft plastic moulded open. 

 

The transformation isn't anything spectacular for a Legends/ Core Class character. Remove the tail, flip out the arms, Dino head in the chest to reveal the robot head, then give her the tail as a... Bone sword? Bone whip? A Predacon version of the Sword of the Creator from Fire Emblem? The tail weapon is nothing to write home about, but it's at least a common use of beast kibble, and it even has well-disguised back storage. It's not as sturdy of a connection as Rattrap's is and will fall off if you knock it, but it will hold reasonably well. The robot mode itself is pretty nice, with some silver and red paint being revealed for the robot to add some extra colour to it. The ball joint articulation is back for everything but the knees, giving you everything other than a wrist and waist swivel. However, her most significant problem is that she's competing with Rattrap as a wave mate, so while she's nice, she feels underwhelming compared to Rattrap as she's far more basic by comparison. 

The core of Vertebreak's problems come back to that last line. "She's far more basic by comparison". There's nothing wrong with the toy itself. It's a nice cheap Transformer with a lot of play value thanks to the straightforward transformation and well-placed joints. But when put side by side with her wave companions, Rattrap and Optimus Prime, nothing stands out about her. She hasn't got the excellent engineering of Rattrap or the brand recognition of Optimus Prime. As a result, she looks like a low effort wave filler by comparison, which is a shame. Vertebreak might not be a spectacular toy, but she is still an enjoyable one and one I do recommend picking up. The original plan was to review Cobra Commander next, and regarding Toybox reviews, he will be the next one covered on the site. However, with all the buzz surrounding the Snyder Cut, I think it might be good to dust off the Main Site and review not only the movie itself but the streaming service I saw the film on, Binge.

Transformers War for Cybertron; Kingdom Deluxe Class Blackarachnia: Yeah, I couldn't find Megatron this week.

He'll come, eventually. The stock has only just started popping up anywhere close to where I live, give it some time.

After the beating I gave to the Arcee mould, along with the criticism of seven different characters all sharing (with varying levels of retooling) the Power of the Primes Moonracer mould, I figured it would at least be fair to review the newest female robot mould. Surprisingly, it's the one that appears to have limited repaint potential... unless they decide to make an army of spiders for Generations Selects. Blackarachnia! To get one thing out of the way first, I didn't cover the Golden Disk Card gimmick with Primal because there isn't much to say, it's a collectable card. Luckily, I could get a set of the Wave 1 cards without needing to trade, but it's hard to care about collectable cards.

 

Starting in the spider mode, objectively, it's not great. The robot mode contorts itself in a way that tries to keep itself clean, but several parts are exposed, such as the knees, shins, feet, and the entirety of the arms. Depending on the angle, you can also see her robot mode head. However, unlike figures like Earthrise Arcee, I don't particularly mind the visible robot parts, as they did make an effort to try and make it work. Beasts will always have some robot mode bits poking out, and considering the daunting task that is trying to turn a humanoid robot into a spider, a creature where there is very little mass for a robot to go. One advantage she has going for her though is that the beast mode is cleaner than her recent Masterpiece counterpart, at least in places. The abdomen (I don't know spider anatomy, this is coming from an unquestioned image search) is a lot cleaner, with more effort to blend the legs into the look. By contrast, though, the shoulders are in a more awkward position, and there's no way to hide them. What also doesn't help is the two sets of eyes on either end of her body, due to the paint detail for what will be the robot mode waist. For the moment, the ball joints for the legs are nice and tight, allowing her to stand in spider mode with no issues. It would have been nice if she had more articulation points on them, but it's not a deal-breaker for me. Like with the relatively recent Masterpiece figure, Blackarachnia's Poison Anchor stores under the body, which works and doesn't break up the look so long as you're looking down at her.
 

Disclaimer, my copy of the toy has a quality control issue, and due to its position, sadly, I have to put a minor NSFW warning (for those who care about those kinds of warnings). The tab connecting her breasts and collar to the rest of the body did snap off on me when trying to turn her from robot to spider mode the first time. On my copy, the pined hinge is strong enough to keep the panel in place in both modes, the tab breaking off hasn't detracted anything from the figure's structural integrity, hence why I'm continuing this review with a "broken toy". Be careful, though, as the cause for mine was the need to use excessive force to separate the two for spider mode. With all of that said though, I love this robot mode. It's nice to have a female transformer that isn't lugging their entire alt mode on their back, as the only spider kibble that can be found here are holdovers from her design in Beast Wars. Like Generation 1 Grimlock (another that will come when I can get him), the spider legs don't feel like alt mode junk, but parts of her design give her a personality. She's also extremely poseable, almost all the standard WFC articulation points, with the only one missing is a waist swivel due to transformation. That being said, my one complaint with articulation in this mode is that I would have liked an extra swivel in the claws so that they could move independently from the swivel in the elbow. As I mentioned last week with Primal, Blackarachnia doesn't do the WFC gimmicks. She has four Weaponizer ports on her (behind her thighs and on the bottom of her toes), limiting the Weaponizer combinations she can do. She also doesn't have any ports to show her being shot by another character. However, her weapon and the spider legs' ends can all accept blast effects to show her attacking an enemy (the legs being an excellent reference to the cartoon.

Except for the broken tab, Kingdom Blackarachnia is a prime example of what I want to see out of Fembot toys. She's a fun transformer, with excellent cohesion between spider and robot modes allowing for a good looking robot without an entire second mode stuck to her back. Supposedly, Tarantulous will be an original mould when he shows up sometime next year, which makes me wonder how they plan to reuse this mould, or if they plan to in the first place. Is she flawless? No, but in my eyes, she's currently the gold standard for female Transformers—more of this, less of Earthrise Arcee.

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.