152 insights into my soul

So I liked the look of official MP-36 Masterpiece Megatron, but that thing normally retails for $230 dollars! It looks nice, but not that nice! So I ended up getting one of the knockoffs (Infinite Transformation's IT-01) for like half the price. Now normally I'd be wary of something that's a KO, but since it reviewed better than the original, I figured this would turn out okay. And it did!

Not only was it cheaper, you get more, since this comes with the optional back plate standard to cover all those unsightly open bit in the back, for a nice smooth look from behind. Plus, even though it was the second run, still got the extra LED cannon that had the English voice clips. I got he model-001 light up head as well, but I ended up getting the silver one, which matches the official coloring, but since this is more of a grey to match the cartoon, there is a slight color mismatch.

Anyways, I love all the accessories this guy comes with:



I had the toy when I was a kid, but I bought it for cheap from a classmate in elementary school, so I didn't have all the accessories, like the stock and silencer for gun mode, which you could combine to make a massive tripod mounted cannon. That always looked cool to me in pics, and now I have it. But yeah, he's also seen here with the helmet to control the Prime clone from "A Prime Problem", and the laser sword and gun he uses in this scene from the movie. He also comes with a battle damaged chest plate and face, the key to vector sigma, and his energon mace from the second ep of the cartoon. So you definitely get a lot.

And as I said, it comes with the extra cannon, which also features a nice LED light up feature in addition to the voice clips:



I still think I prefer Maketoys' Despotron overall look better though:



Despotron has some nice bulk to him, befitting the intimidating leader of the Decepticons. Plus, his chest proportions are better, as some people say, MP-36 (and its knock-offs) kinda have "Urkel pants".

Here's a pic of them with Cloud-9 Quakeblast and the official MP-29 Shockwave:



Now, I got the official before the rest, and on its own, it looks nice, but next to the rest of them, he looks scrawny. Shockwave is supposed to be a big, imposing dude. Plus, his eye normally doesn't light up, I had to buy a 3rd party add on kit to get that functionality. Which the lack of a light up eye seems crazy at the prices they charge for him. I think Quakeblast fits the role of "Shockwave" much better, and he ended up being a third of the price:



Light up eye, chest, and gun hand standard, though I wish the led in the gun hand lit up more than just the base.

So, an update to this post, here's a list of G1 Transformers I had as a kid. I bolded the ones that have a recent update, whether 3rd party or the most recent "G1"-ish toylines like Combiner Wars, Titans Return, and Power of the Primes. I count RID and the movies as separate entities. And I have an asterisk next to the ones I have an updated version of:

Diaclone No.1 Countach LP500S (Red Sunstreaker)*
Diaclone No.5 4WD Hi-Luxe Trailbreaker*
Soundwave*
Buzzsaw*
Laserbeak*
Ravage*
Frenzy*
Mirage*
Megatron*
Camshaft
Downshift
Overdrive
Warpath
Bonecrusher*
Hook*
Long Haul*
Mixmaster*
Scavenger*
Scrapper*
Topspin*
Twintwist*
Shrapnel*
Inferno*
Smokescreen*
Astrotrain
Ramjet*
Blaster
Outback
Pipes
Swerve
Tailgate
Wheelie
Ramhorn
Eject
Air Raid
Fireflight
Silverbolt
Skydive
Slingshot
Blast Off
Runabout
Runamuck
Octane
Blurr (non-TM)
Hot Rod (non-TM)
Cyclone (Targetmaster vesion)*
Scourge (Targetmaster version)*
Ultra Magnus
Metroplex
Spectro
Spyglass
Viewfinder
Rollbar
Wideload
Cutthroat (again, not sure why I had just one of the Terrorcons)
Grotusque
Misfire*
Slugslinger*
Triggerhappy*
Guzzle
Backstreet
Crankcase
Ruckus
Quake*
Gunrunner
Free Wheeler
Roadhandler
Swindler
Tailspin
Meltdown
Half-Track
Direct Hit
Powerpunch
Fireshot
Vanquish
Krok*

26 out of 76, so about a third. I'm debating about TR Hot Rod, and Blurr. Maybe TR Octane (though its prolly cheaper to get in the set w/TR Blitzwing, and have all three Decepticon Triplechangers to boot), Legends Astrotrain or one of the 3p options. There's also Fanstoy's version of Reflector, which BBTS does have on sale, but that's still too pricey right now.

I actually regret getting MMC's Reformatted version of Cyclonus. Particularly with Fan Toys/Perfect Fusion's version in development. The FT/Perfect Fusion version has a more G1 aesthetic, and not only does he have the sword of the IDW version, but his Targetmaster partner to boot. Its like the best of both worlds. You know, I didn't get people sucking Fans Toys dick on the 3rd party boards, but between this, their version of Reflector, Jetfire/Skyfire, Dinobots, Insecticons, particularly Shrapnel (which I do have), they put out some high quality stuff. That being said, I wouldn't shit on other companies like some of these posters seem to, all, "Eh, I'll wait for the FT version!" about other 3rd party products that are pretty good!

So one of the many Transformers I've gotten in the past couple of months is Toyword's "Assault", which is their version of Thrust. He's the same size as the Official Takara masterpiece Seekers in plane mode, as seen here with MP-11 Starscream:



However, he, and the rest of Toyworlds versions of the Conehead seekers are taller than the Takara ones. I'd do a comparsion pic, but since the masterpiece seekers are a floppy mess, I'm loathe to transform Starscream into robot mode. Particularly since I got everything nice and lined up in F-15 mode.

But yeah, Toyworld's conehead is a vastly superior product compared to the official seekers mainly because of the chest. In the Takara models, the chest parts are swinging freely all over the place, making it a bitch to try and line things up during the transformation. Assault (and presumably Combustor and Requiem, who are Ramjet and Dirge, respectively) has tabs and pegs and holes to make sure everything is where it needs to be during transformation.

Of course, that's a double edged sword, because those wings are secured pretty tightly in jet mode. The clearance getting the legs out is pretty minimal, so I'm scared I'm going to like snap them off trying to flip them forward for the second step of the transformation from jet to robot.

Which, the robot mode looks good, save for that hideous face (and the faces on the other coneheads aren't much better):



That's the one advantage I'll give to the Takara ones, they have much better looking faces. Well, that, and the clever way they did the arm cannons on the Seekers. The Toyworld models are like the original toys, you unpeg the weapons from the wings in jet mode and re-peg them on the arms in robot mode. The masterpiece seekers have a clever design where the guns are on a hidden little arm so you just do a bit of unfastening and rotating of the arm to move it from wing to arm. Its unnecessary, but when a design can get rid of some partsforming, it gets kudos in my book.

I would like to see Toyworld's take on the normal seekers (Starscream, Thundercracker, and Skywarp) but it would take a bit of re-tooling. For the coneheads, they're able to easily hide the head in the nosecone. But the way the design is, there's no place to put the head for the standard seekers.

So I got my Toyworld Constructor (3rd party Devastator) on Friday. Though disappointingly the Concrete (Mixmaster) figure was missing its chest piece. So I have a support ticket put in to hopefully get a replacement part, since its actually just a single piece that snaps into place.

Its funny, because I only started collecting a few weeks ago, and figured I missed the window for this set. So I had resigned myself to getting just the one based on Mixmaster since he was my favorite of the Constructicons. But then they decided to sell the entire set, along with the add ons for Burden (Long Haul), for cheaper than it would cost to get the other five figures, so I didn't think I should pass this up.

Anyways, I've checked the rest of the figures, and they seem to be fine, so like I said, its interesting of all the figures to have an issue, its the one I already had a spare of. Which is lucky.

Missing parts aside, this really is a great (but not prefect) set.

Pros- I love that these are Masterpiece scale. They're beefier than the MP scale Autobots, but that's to be expected since these are construction vehicles. Of course, because of that, the combined form is ridiculously huge.

Some say the individual figures are "uninspired" but I think the set does an accurate representation of the original figures, just upsized and updated in quality. The vehicle and robot forms are all pretty good. Like Scrapper, Longhaul, Hook, and Mixmaster, the original toys were simple, just flip the cab or rear end around, and there's the legs. It works similarly with these figures, but they actually have individual feet. Its a nice touch.

Bonecrusher and Scavenger are also marvels. The toys had fake tracks, just plastic pieces molded to look like tracks with wheels hidden in the bottom. I mean, it was necessary since you folded the ends out to form the feet. These figures, they actually have working tracks, and do a bit of clever magic to form the feet, which actually match the tracks.

As I said, the combined form is huge, and unlike the original, there's a good bit of articulation. I mean, G1 Devastator could move the arms a bit, but otherwise, it was just 6 robots clipped together as a robot shaped brick.

All in all, combined, robot, or vehicle mode, they look good.

Cons- Lots of partsforming in the combined form. I mean, with the amount of ingenuity they put into the individual forms, its disappointing they couldn't figure out how to form them into Devastator without extra kibble. Other 3rd party Devastator sets manage to do it.

Like the original Constructicons, Scrapper and Mixmaster, who form the legs, attached to Longhaul via a plastic piece that held them together. Now, this had no articulation, just a flat piece of purple plastic. But, at least in Longhaul's dump truck mode, the piece snapped on top of the rear open box bed to form a sort of bomb launcher.

Here, there's this large lower torso/thigh piece for the figures to snap onto, but they serve no other purpose than to be the upper legs. I mean, I know they did it for the articulation, but its silly.

Same for the upper arms and head. Now, the original figures, the lower arms could attach to pegs on Bonecrusher and Scavenger to make a missile launcher. Same for Hook, the head for Devastator could fold down and you could attach a gun to the side to make an "attack mode" for his crane form.

Here, they're just extra kibble. At last Hook can still attach his gun to his crane mode, but its disappointing to not have his head cannon. But that's better than Bonecrusher and Scavenger, who have no way to store their weapons in vehicle modes like the others. So sadly, they lack an "attack" mode like the rest of the team.

Scrapper's attack mode is great. Not only can he attach Devastator's chest piece to his rear to form his flying attack mode (which was always a little silly, because give a vehicle wings doesn't necessarily make it able to fly), he can also attached his gun.

The original Mixmaster's attack mode consisted of attaching Devastator's solar beam rifle, and Mixmaster's gun side by side on top of the vehicle. Concrete can still mount his gun on top of the cab, but the large rifle pegs onto either side. (Since I have two Concretes, I can actually attach two of the big-ass rifles, one on each side) The problem is the gun is too damn big. It looks a little balanced with two of them, but just one looks rather silly.

Hook and Long Haul's attack modes are rather boring, just insert their gun into a hole in the vehicle mode. But yeah, Long Haul's add ons consist of a cover for his rear bed, so in combined form there's not this vacant space on the back, and some lats. Now, since Hook in chest mode is wider than the width of Long Haul, originally his body was basically a T.

Now, to make his chest bulkier and for more support, they added these lat pieces. Unfortunately, like the thighs and forearm, these pieces serve no other purpose. I mean, there's a way to attack those pieces to the top of Burden/Long Haul's cab, but that looks stupid.

The other problem, which isn't limited to his set, is that like a lot of modern 3rd party Transformers, is that transformation can be a doozy. Like I applaud these makers to try and cut down on the kibble, but in the quest to make neat robot and vehicle forms, they've made some of these transformations pretty complex.

Seriously, some of these new Transformers I've collected, its taken me an hour to just transform it from one mode to the other. And then there's the fear of accidentally breaking things, so you're trying to be very careful and taking it slow. And a lot of these instruction booklets are confusing. Like they show diagrams, but they're often unclear, and I end up having to look things up on the internet.

Take Allocator/Hook for example. For a while I thought maybe this figure wasn't constructed correctly, because I couldn't press the forearms into the shoulder piece. Like examining the arms, I didn't see how you could, it was a hinge, so it seemed like there was no movement. But after looking closer with a flashlight, there was a large groove on the inside for the hinge part to slide down in order to make the parts of the arm flush for transformation into vehicle mode.

Heh, the cons section ended up being longer than the pros section, making one think this set is terrible. But like I said, its pretty good, it would be better if there wasn't so much extra kibble.

So that upcoming Transformers Universe looks pretty cool. I love the designs. Obviously, they look cooler in the trailer:



then they would in actual gameplay, but still.

I'm amused in one of the interviewers with the developers saying they were worried that more people would join the Autobot side than the Decepticon side because they're the "good guys". But then they expressed surprised they were more people signing up with the Decepticon faction.

And I'm like, ojv('Man, its obvious!') I'm sure I'm biased, but I want to say the bad guys are always considered cooler than the good guys. Like SWTOR, even though both sides have characters that can be considered good or evil, but from an outside standpoint, because of the movies, the Republic would still be considered "the good guys", and the Sith "the bad guys". And it seems like the Sith are way more popular. I'm guessing its the same way with the Horde in WoW. Like even the Wei/Jin seem like the most popular faction in DW.

I don't even think its that people are kinda nuts and like being bad. Because it seems like there are a good number of Sith and Horde play their characters as relatively nice people. Its just in games oriented towards combat, the evil side will always seems a little tougher, a little more ruthless, more geared towards fighting. So they just seem cooler and more bad-ass. That's not to say the good guys aren't, but I would say the ratio of bad-ass looking characters is lower than that of the bad guys.

But I digress, the character reveals for the game are so slow!! I mean, for the Autobots, they've revealed Meltdown, Frontline, and Catapult, and the Decepticons Duststorm, Conduit, and Shellshock. Searching the media, it looks like the known not officially revealed characters are Showdown, the autobot Monster Truck and Mismatch, the green and purple Decepticon with the missile launchers on his back. From the shadowed pictures in the faction section, it does look like they will be the next to be revealed.

From the leaked game play footage, there are four other characters revealed, though with the quick cuts and small size, its hard to tell who's who. For the Autobots there's Sparkscape and Overclock, and for the Decepticons, there's Diabla and Flatline. People are 95% sure Sparkscape is the silver Autobot with flame trim wielding the flamethrower. I have no idea on Overclock.

As for Diabla, haven't got a good look at presumably her either. But given the Decepticon faction page there's only one other shadowed character that looks feminine, and the outline matches the banner picture of that purple Decepti-Femme on the game intel section of the site, that has to be her. Which people assumed was Flamewar, since the developers said she would be in it (what an obscure character to pick!) But since it seemed like this first release of characters seem all original, I'm guessing this is Diabla. Besides, this game seems to be based on the Prime continuity, and they've already released pictures of her character and her color scheme in that is red and black.

The other Decepticon, Flatline, I think is the big blue Decepticon in the second page of the wallpaper section. I mean, from what I could tell, Flatline is a blue character, and that seems to be the only blue color schemed Decepticon on the site.

So all in all, that leaves 2 Autobots and 2 Decepticons from the initial batch unknown. Interestingly enough, in the trailer above, they have characters who are not in this initial batch- Optimus Prime, Megatron, and what looks like Bumblebee, Jazz, and Barricade. There's also a green Decepticon tank guy. Or at least his robot mode seems like he turns into a tank, because he has what seems like would be a pintle mounted heavy machine gun like on a turret on his shoulder.

In any case, I have seen complaints from people that are all, "no create your own character? No thanks!" Like I know people were annoyed that some of the DW/SW/WO games lacked CAS. And I'm like whatever, so you can't make your own character. But whatever, the majority of people are uncreative anyways, they think they're making something that looks like hot shit, but sorry, your designs just suck. That's why you're not a developer and just a player! Your shit isn't awesome, its just shit. Wow, I'm feeling particularly mean about this. I just get annoyed about seeing people on forums feeling incensed you can't create your own stuff, when in all likelyhood, whatever they made would be prosaic or lame and stupid anyways.

So, after Sherlock, clevemire told me of a challenge he was issued to name 100 things solely from his head, of which he chose Venture Brothers characters. Since I thought that was interesting, I decided to do one for myself, thought I picked an extremely easy one, Transformers characters. I added the caveat that they had to have a toy, and limited myself to the generation 1 toy line, not counting micromasters. I actually reached 100 easily, so then I decided to name as many as I could in 20 minutes. Alas, I only got 160: ( cut for your benefit )

There were things I got stuck on, since I focused on groupings. As seen above, the glaring omissions (in that the rest of the group was there) were the leader of the Protectobots (Hot Spot), the fourth of the first set of Autobot headmasters (Brainstorm) and the third of the second set of Decepticon headmasters (Squeezeplay). Like I said, I coulda named more, since I hadn't even gotten to the Pretenders and Powermasters, but my 20 minutes were up.

TV commentary:

Transformers: Prime- Things I find kinda weird about looking through the Transformers: Prime tag on tumblr is 1) The number of girls who watch Transformers and 2) them referring to this character or that as "hot". Like we finally get to see Predaking's robot mode this episode, and for real, I counted at least 5 separate posts where people were all, "OMG, he's hot!" Its like a giant robot! ( spoiler cut )