Transformers: Generation 2 Hooligan is Something That Exists

It is the nature of the "something that exists" series that I use it to talk about my latest purchases without pretext of it being a review. Often much, much later. I am not timely enough, nor enough of a completionist, for my reviews to especially useful. So I do a rambling essay format instead, where the toy is often just a pretext to talk about something, or to grind an axe. Case in point: Transformers Generation 2. We're doing rather well for G2 remakes currently, with the likes of Jhiaxus, the troopers and the Toxitron repaint collection. The latter is however where I feel that G2 is repeatedly stereotyped and disrespected. G2 featured a lot of aggressively bright repaints, yes. G2 toys could resemble the aftermath of a child breakfasting on crayons and red bull, that's a fair observation. And yes, G2 has been used as yet another vector for repaints of over-exposed moulds, stuff that alternates between deep discount and eye-watering after-market prices with little in between. You know what G2 also did? The singularly-wonderful Cyberjets. Yes, we’re doing a retro review today!

To give an idea of how high a regard I have for the Cyberjets, I invite you to consider the following hypothetical. You are a toy designer, and you have been given the task of making a tiny jetformer. Good for you, you're living the dream. Like a good designer, you put together a mood board or something, a collection of references for you to draw inspiration from. Pride of place is given to a picture of the Cyberjets, along such greats as the VF-1J from Macross, an obvious influence on the team. Because leaving them out would be doing it wrong. Generation 2 popularised a number of innovations and quality of life improvements, so the moulds that were purpose built for the line do hold up very well. That's why so many G2 toys went on to have comebacks and late blooming recolours circa 2003ish; not only were these good, they were good in a way that mainline toys often weren't just then, and a lot of people had missed out on them first time around. The Cyberjets were one such group, with light-piped visors, balljoints and pressure launched missiles. And, to bring things finally to today's subject, Hooligan was probably the best of them. He's also the most G2 of the bunch having an orange tiger stripe deco. 

 

The 2021 Kingdom Starscream Toy

Hooligan's jet mode mixes collector-pleasing touches and actual fun. It's based off a proposed variant of the F22-Raptor, a variable geometry or "swing wing" design, with the addition of a toyetic missile launcher in the tail-fin area. The wings go forward and back, inviting air-plane noises and bombing runs. It's colours defy realism, but the mould takes more care of the underside than most, having a very clean undercarriage and foldable landing gear. How does that modern core class seeker mould handle such things? That being this toy's rough modern equivalent, if with more subdued colours? Oh right, faux kibble, arms under the wings and his head sticking out where his landing gear should be. Hooligan utterly beats this. The core class gets it's arse handed to it by a toy a quarter of a century old and the colour palette of a callippo ice lolly, because they were more interested in the look of the robot mode than the jet mode. Back to Hooligan: there's even provisions to store another missile on the underside, my example lacking one. Of course, the counter-argument to that is how the missile just sits on top, but that's not exactly a bug, that's a feature. Seriously, pick any jetformer in roughly the same weight class, and Hooligan will match them. Hell, there's deluxes and voyagers with less basic cleanliness than this. So it does everything it needs to, and a few things that didn’t need to, and it does all of it well. Then we get to the other mode.

Transformation to robot mode is is similarly pleasing. It's another area clearly by influenced by the VF-1J, although asymmetrical with respects to the arms. The process is simple, intuitive, and hassle-free. Hand candy, in other words. Hooligan's robot mode ends up with an odd mix of distinctiveness and anonymity. The Cyberjets don't really have faces so much as visors, while the whole "cockpit becomes body, engines become legs" body plan is pretty typical of jetformers. It's perhaps not a surprise that these moulds ended up on both sides. This is of course balanced out by the colours and the weapon arm, so a Cyberjet has its own identity, especially Hooligan. Posability is an undeniable highlight as every single joint he has is a balljoint, although he would have benefited a bit  from better feet. This is the only thing I consider to be an avoidable flaw while staying within the pricepoint; he’s walking around on his thrusters and there’s no heel spurs, so he’s a bit tippy-toe. On the plus side: he can also take his missile and use it like a club.

 

My point? Only that Generation 2 Hooligan is absolutely great for what it is. The platonic ideal of tiny jetformers. A perfect example of how to simply but elegantly devise a transforming robot toy, without compromising either mode. And its aged like a fine wine. Seriously, if the designers scaled this up to a deluxe, and added ankle tilts, and put it out as part of Legacy, we’d be calling it a toy of the year contender. If you can find him, get yourself a Hooligan. Or one of the repaints, or another Cyberjet, they're all pretty good.

Transformers: Buzzworthy Bumblebee G2 Universe Cybertronian Trooper Is Something That Exists

 And has a very long name.

 

Comic art of the Cybertronian Army, with Jhiaxus bottom-centre, from the wiki.

 

Now, here’s the thing about Transformers, a basic and fundamental thing: the vast majority are individuals. Optimus Prime for example isn't merely a thinking robot, he's a person whom happens to be a robot. And also a truck. While this idea has developed and shifted over the years, your average Transformer had a presumption of personhood from day one. It helps sell the toys. As such, Transformers as a franchise generally avoids tropes like faceless mooks, drones and disposable robots. There were however exceptions even in those early days, the first example being the self-replicating Insecticons, although the Vehicons featured in Transformers: Prime are probably the brands best example. A fandom term for such things is "army builders", where uniform anonymity is largely the point. This leads us to today's subject matter: The G2 Cybertronian Trooper. These were Jhiaxus’ army, and like him, were created from whole cloth for the Marvel comic. They obviously never had a toy before, but here they are as part of the new Armybuilder Boxset. But before we talk about him/them, we need to talk about a completely unrelated character: the G1 Pretender character Skullgrin.

 

The original 1998 Skullgrin toy

For the unfamiliar, a Pretender was a toy where you had a rather simplistic robot, that stored within a much larger figurine, which usually had the vibe of a He-Man character. An often fun idea. These ran for a couple of years, got a few variations, major regional differences, and a few noteworthy comic appearances. There’s been a few updates over the years, but the play pattern has not been attempted again in the mass market. Power of the Primes got pretty close, but those were tiny and not hugely good. Botcon did a few too, but good luck getting them. As a result, whenever you see an attempt to modernise a pretender character, most split the difference between the shell and the inner robot, by basing the robot mode on the shell. See also my write-up on Sky Shadow for further discussion, which was my first article in this format, inceidentally. Skullgrin was a Decepticon whom had a brief movie career, and received two revamps before turning up in Legacy. One was a headswap retool of Darkmount AKA Lord Straxus, a comic-first character we don’t really have time to go into here. The other was the use of his shell by Liege Maximo, Jhiaxus’ boss, and another comic-first character we don’t really have time to go into here. The Legacy version however was purpose designed for Skullgrin, and I suspect the Liege Maximo connection may have played a part in it being adapted into being a G2 Trooper. This presents a problem as, well, Legacy Skullgrin was not hugely good.

 

The 2022 Legacy Skullgrin toy

 

So, let's acknowledge the negatives before going further: the tank mode is hot garbage. Specifically, garbage that arises when the designers try to replicate something simple, and end up missing the point so hard that they end up climbing into their collective bumholes. Needlenose had a similar problem, but perhaps less extreme. The original Skullgrin toy had an extremely basic vehicle form, as many Pretenders did, so the designers merely scaled this up, and sculpted some hands on the guns, to suggest the old transformation. No consideration was given to how this would work, or parts allocated to make it roll. We just have a set of tracks on the rear half of the vehicle, the front seemingly floating there. You'd think the sensible thing to do instead would be, I don't know, put another set of tracks up front? You know, to balance it out? Or maybe wheels like that Darkmount retool? Maybe sculpt some tanky bits while you're at it? Cybertronian alt modes often look like nothing in particular, but most try harder than this. It makes Jhiaxus' jet mode look like genius by comparison. And what's more, the new parts make this problem worse, as you have a tank with a ribcage on top, with odd colours and more gaps. Also, and something I didn't quite realise until photographing the toy, the gunblades are rubbery white plastic with painted handles, which means unavoidable paint chipping. Positives? Well... I suppose we could acknowledge the 5mm port system, and that with 4 weapons, you can mix & match in a way handy for an army builder. But this altform isn't getting a passing grade just for that.

After a somewhat annoying transformation where the treads move on weak armatures to the lower legs, we end up in robot mode. And, to be completely fair, this was an area where Skullgrin did OK, and the Trooper arguably does things better. It's an unusually profound example of a headswap retool, as Skullgrin's rubbery monster bonce has been replaced with something more conventional, along with a new chestplate. This completely changes the character of the toy, and the designers have really leant into the army building thing by including an alternative head. There's a dedicated connector to facilitate swapping between the cranium, with the horns on each having a 3mm peg allowing you to have these positioned how you liked, or indeed exchange the horns. Factor in the aforementioned weapon options, you can definitely have the room to do a mixed squad. Not everything specifically Skullgrin has been removed though, and I think I see another explanation for using that mould. The Troopers had a very 90's/heavy-metal/muscles-&-guns look, and Skullgrin fits in with such things. Maybe they should have painted the skull belt, but the shoulder pads and gunblades are right at home. The fundamentals are also there, with legacy standard articulation and no glaring problems. He also retains a tail, if that's your thing...

My point? Only that the Trooper is something that exists. I have mixed feelings about it. On the one hand, the Trooper is quite compelling as a proof of concept. If Hasbro does want to try an army builder set again, doing it like this guy seems to be the way to go. And I'd be lying if I said the robot form wasn't appealing to me. On the other? The basic toy is based off arguably the most flawed Deception deluxe of modern times, and getting several of these is probably gonna be a nuisance. If somebody is splitting a pack, feel free to grab one like I did, but otherwise? Don't overpay. 

 

Plamo: The 30 Minutes Missions bEXM-33T Volpanova (Tank Version)

We’ve been here before, haven’t we? A 30MM kit where I don’t have a huge amount to say, and was done as a bit of relaxing downtime. This article is a direct sequel to the Volpanova Quad Bike article, and this build came slightly earlier than I intended. I chanced upon it in a shop, around TFNation time, and worked it on either side of the event.

 

As it stands, the tank version is initially pretty similar to the quad bike, to the extent that I expected it have a focused sprue of new parts, but it's not like that. It's exactly as bitty as the last one, and those bits that are shared are the common joint and connector gubbins you basically get in every kit. The similarities and differences in sprue layout prompted me to take a serious look at the instruction sheets of both variants, it would appear that both are on the same mould, just gated off from each other. At least, that's what the numbering and shape implies. Presumably, they've been doing this for a while, and I just didn't notice. Speculation aside, this tank version sits lower to the ground when rolling, and gains a couple of new features. The single eye clips in place in one of three positions, which is nice. There's also a turret/shield accessory with a pivoting gun barrel, although it can feel a bit extraneous.

 

As a project, I decided to go a bit darker and less wet for the weathering. This colour scheme suggests desert use, so I opted for a darker gunmetal, a browner wash, and some Zandri Dust to suggest, well, dust. It’s possible too subtle, but its not bad looking.

All in all, another fun time.

 

 

Kitbash: Deathskull Looted Rhino

 

Imagine the scene. It's the run up to TFNation, and I've decided to scratchbuild a Battlewagon. This process begins with a rummage through the cavernous bitz boxes I have, which will no doubt be a right nuisance to my survivors some day. This search presents a largely complete Rhino APC. I decide against using it in the project as Rhino hulls are on the lighter end of the tank spectrum, but I put it to one side. The battlewagon project continues apace, resulting in a well-received vehicle, and the week directly before TFN comes around. Rather than doing the Ork infantry I've putting off, I decided to work on the Rhino instead. Because I have brainworms. 

 

The idea of Orks nicking other factions' vehicles is a grand old tradition, one that even the often po-faced GW is known to be somewhat supportive of. It's more the stuff of "Narrative Play" these days, but many an excellent conversion starts with this idea. Key to this is the concept of a "counts as" as a rules justification and work around. I.e. you could Orky up a Sentinel, and use it as a Killa Kan. Google that, those tend to be great. Doing up a Rhino like that is a fairly mundane example, and one that can be achieved with relative ease. Put a big shoota on it, rough it up, take off the roof, and you've got a "counts as Trukk". This is how my brain is, I consider such things to be a light and easy change of pace. 

 

Possibly I'm under-selling my efforts, as the Rhino was an eBay rescue in all but name. The previous owner had the idea of merging it with a Gorkamorka era Trukk, and had to rip those bits out. It's not a bad idea, to be fair, but their reach exceeded their grasp. And they built it a bit wonky too. In their defence, they did put in some good bullet holes. After salvaging, the hull lacked the roof hatch and a door, no loss, but also a chunk of the front end and the weapon mounts. I toyed with the idea of building it out, before replacing missing panels with chipboard and gubbins. The gun barrel and three of the exhausts are resin pieces, while the wrecking ball assembly is off a poundshop toy. I'd used the same thing on my recent Battlewagon, but I dressed it differently here, placing a bead on one side of the arm to suggest a spool of cable. It's probably less obviously a wrecking ball than other examples, but I'm pretty sure it's the most durable one I've made. Painting followed in my usual style, with interior left muddy but basic.

 

 

The main thing of note here from a painting/modelling perspective was the use of Mod Podge to add texture, something which I had tried on the Battlewagon, but not as extensively as here. A Rhino features a lot of flat panels, as befits it's function of cheapo battle taxi, but as a subject that can work against me as a painter whom likes drybrushed models washed in gunk. Furthermore, as a vehicle "misappropriated" from an opposing force, a certain degree of wear only makes sense. Modge Podge when applied in rough or stippling manner solves that problem. The stuff seems to have an almost memetic variety of uses, I recommend it to scratchbuilders for adding texture to stuff. It's also useful for sealing and concealing the surface of wooden beads, like on the wrecking ball arm. I need to experiment more, but its looking like PVA glue, but better. Also: shout out to AK Dark Rust Deposits, it's good stuff.

A very pleasing end result, I must say.

 

 

 

Oh! And BTW, I did eventually do some infantry. Well, Warbosses. Perhaps not my best work, but definately table-ready.

Transformers: Rise of Tyranny 2-Pack Miner Megatron is Something That Exists

Bloody hell. It was difficult to just stop writing this one.

A panel from Megatron Origin #4

Recently released as part of an exclusive twin pack, thanks for splitting with me, mate,  Miner Megatron as a concept originated in the comics series Megatron Origin, circa 2007. Said comic does largely what you'd think. It was intended as the origin for Megatron, the original big bad of the Transformers brand. It was penned by Eric Holmes for Dreamwave originally, although IDW scooped it up when they got the licence. Holmes built on some earlier ideas from comic continuity, seemingly drawing on the very influential prose story State Games by James Hill, which featured megs' early days as a gladiator in a declining city state. Holmes added the details that Megatron worked as a miner before he was a gladiator, that the Decepticons grew out of a disaffected underclass, and ended the story with Megatron's first major victory. Later on, James Roberts would greatly expand on this period of Megaron's life with his Chaos Theory story circa 2011, and later still with the More Than Meets The Eye  ongoing series. Roberts added further nuance to this depiction of Megatron, or soft retcons if you're feeling unkind, as the despot renounced the Decepticons and did the whole Magneto-joins-the-X-Men bit for a while. There's a lot of political theory and historical allusions tied up with this take on Megatron, and this undoubtedly has influence on more recent versions, like the one in Earthspark.

A panel from MTMTE #34

Now, I'm glossing over some things above, but its fair to say that this take on Megatron wasn't for everyone, and maybe had a few problems. With several different writers and interested parties involved over several years, the concept of Miner Megatron runs into some unfortunate implications and a bumpy character arc. I think the Alligned continuity and Hasbro lore bibles maybe played a part in that, but I don't know enough about the timeline here to be sure either way. I also have this suspicion that as all three of the writers I've mentioned are British, there may be a cultural lens of some kind being applied that needs to be unpacked, as an obvious connection can be drawn to the Miners Strikes of the 70's and 80's. I almost want to describe this interpretation of Megatron as "Spartacus basically became Lenin and then Stalin in sequence, only to regret the Stalin phase much later on.", because that's the influences I'm recognising as a fellow brit. I've also not mentioned or discussed Functionism, the whole your-vehicle-mode-dictates-your-job-forever-and-ever caste system that Megatron was rebelling against. That was pretty horrific, as was the Decepticon's subsequent application of Technoism to the wider galaxy, aka genocide of organic species. Regardless, if you apply the imagery discussed above to the Decepticons and Megatron, it can be read as "downtrodden masses should remain downtrodden, lest they become militant communists, and the Autobots are warriors for the status quo." . That's not great, as unfortunate implications go, although as suspect the actual intent was more like "If you keep abusing people, they might eventually do it right back to you and everyone else, but worse.". I suppose that's what happens when you have an 80's toy franchise, and attempt to add more shades of grey. You can fumble the execution as creatives cycle in and out.

.A better writer than me needs to take a swing at all this, but its something to think about... 

A sequence of panels from The Transformers #22, Chaos Theory Part 1

Having put politics right in your Transformers: Miner Megatron. Young Megatron. The working class man whom wrote political treatise on the horrible caste system he was born into. The intellectual whom liked poetry and hung around with Impactor. The Megatron whom was mostly OK, until the state took issue with him. Mostly OK until, finally, Whirl beat it out of him. Dammit Whirl. Megatron before the Decepticons. What's he like as a toy? Well, he's a retool of a mould we've seen about ten times now, the Siege Megatron toy. That was a pretty decent voyager, but not top tier. I'd probably say it was "good enough" capturing the essentials of the character, but otherwise having OK articulation and an OK-if-rough-around-the-edges tank mode. As the mould has probably been used more than its merits actually justify, its use once more is probably not a plus for people at exclusive prices, but at least the basics are there. Mind you, it doesn’t feel great. I had the bad luck of getting one with the incorrectly swapped knee joints, something that took the shine off things for me, I do admit, and transforming the thing feels more of a nuisance than it was previously. So, assuming you have a decent one, let's talk about the changes made.

First off, the accessories are new. How new is open to debate, it's possible this one was on the blueprints from the start, but this is the sort of change I like. Adding or otherwise changing accessories adds play value and meaningfully changes the experience. Miner Megs goes full melee, with a pickaxe and drill that combine. I feel these fulfil the brief very well. These are tools first and foremost, although not something you'd want to be hit with, with the drill foreshadowing the fusion cannon, but also putting me in mind of the Impactor connection. The pickaxe has a lovely purple blade on it too, a flash of a colour otherwise absent. Visually, the robot mode gets the natural focus for the retooling, with a very Alex Milne head and a general reworking of the chest. It's a mix of both the Origin and Chaos Theory character models,favouring the latter, cast in dull metallic colours with hazard stripes. The general vibe is one of industrial machinery, which is largely how the Functionists viewed him, or the before picture used in an advert for a personal fitness program. He's not the silver toned tyrant yet, he needs to get some actual armour on him, a new paint job, and the fusion cannon, but you can see that potential. It is perhaps the most successful of the Rise of Tyranny toys for that, which which is why I suspect they might have been planning this from the start. It's not without issues though. While a great look, this retooling has resulted in the shoulders gaining a tab and slot arrangement for storage/integration in tank mode at the cost of two 5mm ports. Said tank mode is... Well... I want to say it's alright. As you might expect, it's a cybertronian drill tank, and it looks like what it is, a military vehicle repurposed to have alleged applications in mining. Mind you, the drill extends outwards far enough to be useful, and thanks to the fact the colours of the accessories match the main body, its more coherent than it might have been. I suppose you aren't really buying this for the altmode, and the axehead just kinda pegs to one side, but they gave it a proper go.

My point? Only that Miner Megatron is something that exists. As you may gather from the immense amount of waffle versus plastic above, I do find this version of Megatron to be  fascinating, and its nice to have a toy of it, especially one this pretty. That said, you are paying a premium for something we've already seen an awful lot of, and maybe the Quality Control is an issue. Don't overpay.

Scratchbuild: Another Ork Battlewagon

 Yes, I sometimes repeat myself.

With the new edition, I inevitably began thinking about modernising my forces. And how certain units seem to have been reshuffled Given my specific cocktail of neurodivergence and neurosis it's very hard to put things like that aside, so once I did those Grot Tanks, I decided to take a swing at doing another battlewagon.

The weird/annoying thing about battlewagons just now is how they interact with the "exactly what's in the box" design philosophy found in the index lists. This is because the kit spent two editions representing 3 distinct variations, one doing the classical 'wagon, one being about the deathrolla, and an unpopular cannon one. (There's also Forgeworld units, but honestly I don't care.) Putting guns on one wasn’t usually viewed as an especially practical option given A) ork marksmanship, and B) how these act as an ork party bus. With this in mind, creating and pricing the unit on the assumption that people would build one with all possible options is daft. Experienced players wouldn't have done that under the previous points systems, as the options are contradictory in purpose to an extent, while beginners would have to look up the difference, and thus likely came across the opinions of the former. So, for this new project I took a "can't beat 'em, join' em" approach. I'd build a wagon with all the guns, and most of the melee options. The Wrecking Ball option is not actually in the kit, I assume that was a concession to kitbashers, so I skipped it. The choice between Firing Ports and Ard Case meanwhile is still largely a matter of side grades and what dakka if any the passengers have. I went for Ard Case as it simplified the build. As to how practical such a battlewagon is, I'm unsure. Putting a lobba, kannon, and 4 big shootas on a single platform means it can unleash 40 odd shots in a single volley. I dunno if that's good on something that carries troops and likes to pancake people. You'd be looking at 14ish S5 hits, which isn't bad, but it's the sorta thing you can get elsewhere. I see this as a tactical battering ram and distraction.

 

 

Having done… frankly too many such modelling projects, this thing went together with relative speed and a lot of hot glue. I decided on a wheeled design fairly early on, first going for eight wheels, and then realising that was far too big even by my loose standards. In terms of techniques and materials used, I’d call this a “pragmatic” scratchbuild. The wheels, weapons, and details like exhausts were pre-existing bits, either plastic or resin. That’s the sort of thing I could try doing myself, and have done, but I have the bits, so why not? The majority of the hull however was more mixed material; bits of toy, flatpackers, chipboard, scrap plastic, and EVA foam. The curved shape comes from what remains of a fork-lift toy. It was then painted in my obsessively rusty style.

I’m very pleased with one. I’ve been grinding away at lot of rusty projects over the last year or so, and it seems to be paying off. I should probably stop putting off the infantry though.

 

 

 

Transformers: Legacy Evolution Armada Universe Optimus Prime is Something That Exists

Goddammit, why is this so good?! Everyone knows that glowing reviews make for dull reading... 

 

The 2002/2003 Armada Optimus Prime toy, Superbase version

Anyways. I'm not going to talk about Armada Prime too much as a character. Partially because Optimus characters tend to follow a well-known archetype, and if you've spent any time at all with Transformers, you won't need that introduction. But also because I'm slightly more of a toy guy in this instance. This version of Prime was a showpiece for his toyline, and also a response to the Optimus of the previous line, Robots in Disguise or Car Robots in its native Japan. Like that toy, it had a super robot mode, was promoted primarily by a low budget anime, which received a rushed dub and a bunch of name changes when brought over. This new Prime, while having a clear lineage to the past versions, took an entirely different approach to the matters of play and transformation. He was stuffed with electronics, with the cab functioning as a wireless controller to the trailer, which had a motorised transformation and too many other things to quickly summarise here. Posability and general complexity were greatly reduced however, especially in comparison to the Beast Era which had only just ended. Armada's overall design philosophy was more like late-G1 and Micromasters, just with a lot more electronics and geared action features. It probably didn't help that Armada Prime was the first actual, no qualifiers, attempt to remake Optimus Prime. Many vocal collectors were put off, although actual children and their parents loved it. At the time, it wasn't for me either, and largely still isn't. I was still getting back into Transformers, and I have the probably autistic trait of not liking noisy toys. So I never rolled the dice on that mould. But I did get the smaller "supercon" release, which favoured articulation, and has aged very well.

The other 2002/2003 Armada Optimus Prime toy, the supercon version, AKA "Bendy Prime".

Now, I could do a mode by mode breakdown, but that's not what's really important here. We've had one deluxe Armada revamp, one voyager, and one leader, so the trend should be fairly obvious at this point. I.e. a toy that evokes those early 2000s pieces, with influences from the animation, but one with a significantly different design philosophy. While mini-cons seem to be coming back for exclusives, they aren't present here, and neither are the vast majority of gimmicks or play features. Rather, you get one or so extremely characterful gimmick, to go with Legacy's general baseline of articulation and 5mm port functions. This makes the resulting toys better as actual transformers and action figures than their source material, if being less fun on the "listable features" level. It's just the numbers, Armada toys had a lot going on, whereas Legacy toys don't usually. Thus, Armada Prime is a decidedly more po-faced and collector-oriented than the original, discarding basically everything vaguely gimmicky in favour of looks and meaningful articulation. Despite that, it did please my inner child immensely, with that joyous feeling of things tabbing solidly into place, clicking of big ratchets, thinking that you don't need instructions, then you actually do, and you think, yeah, I see what they mean now. You know, that "Christmas Morning" feeling when you've been looking forward to something for ages, and it's actually better than you thought it would be. And I admit I was looking forward to this. But I think my enjoyment, and indeed the positive reaction from the fandom, goes beyond it's self-evident merits. This is not merely Armada Prime as we remember him, nor as he actually was. This is something better, and something the 2002 toy could easily have been in the first place.

.

 

As mentioned, the original toy was characterised by having a lot of electronics and a motorised transformation. There's nowt wrong with that as a concept, there is more than one kind of fun after all, but compromises were made. The trailer amounted to a set of panels that stood up to create an immobile set of legs, while the cab was simple and not especially posable. If we consider the tactile act of transforming a toy to be an important part of the experience, and most of the time it is, the original was lacking in execution. It didn't lack for ambition, and it certainly wasn't lacking for creativity, but maybe they looked at the famously fiddly Car Robots moulds and over-corrected? This new toy almost feels like something that could have been made back then, and despite lacking in play features, the amount of fun remains high. This is because, when you get right down to it, having a Prime combine with his trailer to make a bigger robot mode for improved arsekicking is pretty fucking awesome, especially when everything else about the toy is on point. This toy simply feels as good as it looks.

Is this a perfect toy? No, there's a few odd places where omissions become very notable in contrast with the high level of quality otherwise. He has a matrix for example, but the inner robot mode lacks a means to hold it. It's base mode is fine, but like most such things is kinda forgettable. You might want to change the eye colour and there's the occasional hollow bit, but usually in places where it doesn't hurt. But the fact of the matter is that, as far as mass market releases go, it's not being bettered any time soon. Think of it like the average Combiner Wars team right? It's took a while for them to do it, expectation was high, and you can certainly nitpick or get 3rd party add-ons. But even so, they nailed it, and attempts to do the same since have felt like a sidegrade rather than an upgrade. Or however you want to qualify the Legacy Stuntacons. I would not be surprised if something similar happened with this chap.

 

 

My point? Only that Armada Universe Optimus Prime is something that exists. I kinda want to call it Transformer of the Year, but I'll hedge my bets and not do so. Because if they do put something better than this at retail? Goddammit I want that too.