Transformers: Legacy United Tidal Wave is Something that Exists

And is huge. Unreasonably, impractically huge. Almost too huge to photograph. Hence the crappier than usual photos taken in my kitchen.

Tidal Wave’s wiki picture, a screen capture from the 2004 Transformers video game

As a casual browse of this blog will quickly reveal, I dig giant robots. But not nessecarily the most giant of giant robots. Over the years I've had a fair few of the modern Titan Class Transformers. The biggest of the big boys, without going to HasLab. We're talking toys with robot modes exceeding 18 inches in height. The novelty of these was high at first, but eventually reality set in and it became routine. I started to run out of space, inflation happened, Predaking was pretty awful, and then Hasbro started to run out of characters that justified the pricepoint in either fame or size. Eventually, I donated most of my titans to Toy-Fu, and swore off the pricepoint as something I couldn't justify to myself. Then this one was announced, and I was pulled back in. In much the same way as Armada Optimus Prime. I sold a BotCon boxset to buy this... So I'm glad it doesn't suck.

A composite screenshot of Tidal Wave in animation

But, I'm getting ahead of myself, who is Tidal Wave? Well, he's another character from Transformers: Armada, the fifth such release to appear of late. He was a big, physically powerful, Decepticon famous for chanting his own name. Not exactly a thinker, he was however noteworthy for having naval-themed altmodes, which is rare, and combining with Megatron, which was unprecedented. How big he actually was a bit variable. The famously shoddy cartoon was inconsistent but generally made him on the large side, while comics and video games made him gigantic. The simply-titled Transformers for the PS2 console had him be both an end of level boss, and the level itself. This was awesome. Much later on, Nick Roche would bring the character back for his Sins of the Wreckers comic, where he was similarly huge. And a whale. This was also awesome. The toy was pretty well-regarded too, people liking its transformation and play features, as while he could split into three seperate boats, it was not mandatory for the transformation to do so. Its actually one of my faves, I dunno if its top 3 material, but its definitely A tier for its line. So, I was very pleased to see him back. And I think I would have been happy for him to be simply adapted into the Commander class with functional knees. But they went Titan for him. And they kinda made him a mixed representation in that he's in Cartoon/Japanese-toy purple and huge, rather than Hasbro/Western-toy green and huge. Maybe there's planned repaints, I don't know. But if he's a titan now, surely he can't combine with Megatron any more? He’s lost that along with the Mini-Con gimmicks these remakes all cut? Well, brace yourself.

Something very odd has happened here. They've created a bunch of integrated accessories that Tidal Wave can pass to Megatron/Galvatron. I refer to these collectively as "miniwave", as these are patterned off Tidal Wave's altmodes, with the addition of platform shoes. There's shades of Astrotrain's coal tender with this, or Blitzwing's hulk-hands, but it is much much sillier than either of those. The whole idea of miniwave is so utterly, utterly dumb, I can't quite decide if its just dumb, or so dumb it ends up being awesome again. Given Tidal Wave is now so big that he's socialising with citiformers, no would of begrudged the designers for dropping the Megatron combination. I mean, they've already dropped Mini-Cons. But no. We have Tidal Wave break off bits of himself, in the likenesses of his altmodes, so Megatron can go to the Met Gala in style. On the one hand, it works, and probably better than the original toys at that. It explains Megatron's odd shoulders, its working off the 5mm port system with ratcheted pegs for stability, and Megs' articulation doesn't suffer really. On the other? Well, Tidal Wave is giving up his fingers for this. You end up with some big gaps, although you can work the thumbs into a claw arrangement. Its also worth admitting that "Burning Megatron" wasn't the most dynamic combination in the first place, and you may only do this once. I don't know if we'd honestly have a better toy if they left this gimmick out. Maybe they could have pushed things further and had those parts do more. Like be a partner robot. Or just having Mini-Cons. But this is just such a weird thing to do, I can't help but respect it.

 

The mini-wave pieces also end up playing a part in the base mode, which is also new. Its one step above a fan mode in terms of complexity, in that it looks unintended until you realise that there's dedicated joints in the thighs to allow for it. There's no ramps or such, although its making good use in of the turrets, which use 5mm pegs. The base mode is also the only form you can go to from robot mode without substantial disassembly, Tidal Wave's old party trick being lost in the embiggening process. While not a selling point, I feel this looks OK, in a low-key, just throw it in sort of way. Most base modes tend to be robot yoga anyway, and its not bad by those standards. Better than Titans Return Fort Max, at least. I will however mention that this form does expose certain hollow bits in the torso block, and a transformation joint that likes to separate on my example. 

 

The robot mode by comparison is ideal. It is, as near as makes no difference, perfect. Like most of these modern remakes, gimmicks have been swapped out for articulation, but in so far as mass market toys go, I don't know how you could do better. I mean, he's a big effing guy, he's covered in details and paint, being excellently presented. He moves better than I expected, with a waist joint, articulated skirt armour and ankle tilts. Ankle tilts! The chest guns all move, and can tilt up so they can fire usefully in robot form. Lots of 5mm ports too if you need more. His hands now feature blasters, and are posable in an industrial robotics kinda way. The head rotates, and can unexpectedly look up, although not down. His hips also took me a bit by surprise in that these give enough to look natural, but no more. In what I can only assume is a concession to his weight, the hips are a limited to about 45 degrees forwards and back. EDIT: no, they were just tight. This, combined with the hollowness of his feet, is however as close to an actual flaw the robot mode has. He has an immense presence. He's not trying to be a gymnast. This guy is a juggernaut, no, a dreadnought, striding implacably towards you with no concern for fancy moves or your feeble attacks. If you're not onboard with that, I don't know what I can say to convince you. 

 

Then there's the Dark Fleet modes, yes, modes plural. I did mention that, but that was a few million words ago. Tidal Wave comes apart to form three distinct naval vessels with sci-fi elements, and then be recombined into a very anime space battleship. Following on the original toy, these tend to be a bit simple, with castor wheels on the underside, although obviously larger and more visually pleasing than the source material. Of the three, the battleship segment is the most functional if the weakest in appearance. It looks the least like an actual vehicle, as the head isn't well obscured but its got eight moving turrets, so fair enough. The landing craft or troop carrier is the most scifi, and generally the best looking too, if not having a huge amount going on. EDIT: And a slight tendancy to seperate. Finally, the aircraft carrier is something of a slab, not doing much by itself, but put a couple of core class jets atop and you'd be laughing. I do find the loss of the highly individual play features these previously had to be a bit sad, if not unexpected. I would have fought for that aircraft elevator...

 

Oh, Jesus, this is actually heavy.

 

Ahem. Anyway, putting Tidal Wave into the combined ship form is simple on paper, but there's a lot of mass to manage, not to mention tabs. Once together however the ship is completely solid. Little new is revealed, but it is making the best of what's there, the weaknesses of the battleship being minimised even as the hip joints poke out if the back. The colours make a great deal of sense, the flight deck contrasting nicely with the rest, while the landing craft and battleship match closely. Its got very much the same dreadnought energy as the robot form, which is only more appropriate. This looks like something that would warp in and change an entire battle just by turning up. Perhaps less convincing than say the immediately-preceeding Nemesis, but much much cooler.

As you can probably tell, I rather like Tidal Wave. There's a number of imperfections, but mainly these fall under the heading of personal preference or artistic licence. Its very much what it looks like, a dramatically scaled-up version of the old Giga-Con class toy, which removes gimmickry in favour of articulation and modern engineering. It also goes out of its way to maintain the Megatron combination, which would be harmless and forgettable, if it wasn't so daft. So its harmless and daft instead. If you're an Armada fan, you likely have this already, but if you're not? Well, he's an expensive chap, but he's doing nothing wrong. So if you want something huge and memorable, Tidal Wave is worth considering. And should this end up on deep discount, as Titans can do? Jump on it.

 

This picture is here because I like it.