Thursday, February 14, 2013

Linkfest - G1 Recreations

Toy Fair showed us a great upcoming line up of toys coming out months from now but time to focus on the more immediate future with lots of new Beast Hunters and 3rd part offering in the pipeline along with a few interesting tie in products. More Beast Hunters products are starting to hit shelves so lots of reviews to look at for them. On the third party front we have a look at a not Stunticons line-up, review of not Shockwave, not Jumpstarters, not Fall of Cybertron Omega Supreme and more. Masterpiece Soundwave is out so a review for him. New not toy products include a expensive coin set from New Zealand and a Optimus Hockey Jersey. Basically as the links and reviews show, the next year is going to be a wallet buster.

Causality not Stunticons - T-Bone
From Fansproject, their next series is the not Stunticons of CA-09 Car Crash, CA-10 T-Bone, CA-11 Down Force and CA-12 Last Chance. Apparently they are designed to merge into not Menasor but have not seen that gestalt form or what these four look like in appendage mode. Even if don't merge, each looks like be great additions to a collection. The average prices is $60 with Car Crash out in February, T-Bone in March and no dates on the rest.

Transformers Snow Structure
For the Asahikawa, Japan's snow festival held last week, the city along with Takara created this 65 feet high x 426 feet wide x 131 feet deep snow structure entirely out of snow using a crew of 250 with 6000 truckloads of snow from around the area. Hit the link for a few more images of the structure.

New Zealand Mint Transformers Coins
Available for pre-order are these 1oz silver coins depicting Megatron and Optimus Prime. The cost is not cheap with a the set costing $278.73 for release in April. The back of the coins are a head effigy of Queen Elizabeth II. Each coin is actual New Zealand currency with a $2 value if choose to spend as regular change and not a collectible silver piece.

Optimus Prime Hockey Jersey
Hit the link above if interested in $120 red and grey hockey jersey with giant Autobot logo in center with 84 number (for 1984, first year of Transformers).

3rd Party Upcoming Releases - Nemesis Trailer | Aurora and Hardbone | War Lord | War Hawk | Motobot Aranea
Hit the links for stuff that 3rd party makes are prepping. From BTS Toys, Reboot Nemesis Base trailer is an add-on for Generations Nemesis Prime that has same features as the classic G1 trailer with repair arm and roller. TW-T02 Aurora (not Throttlebots Searchlight) and TW-H01 Hardbone (not G1 Hardhead) are two next releases from Toy World set for February 19 release. If remember right Toy World intends for their Throttlebots to combine but so far no official images have been released to show a combined mode. War Lord (not Rhino) and War Hawk (not Dive Bomb) are part of Unique Toy's Beasticons line that yep, will be a combiner. War Hawk would make you think Predacon but the addition of Rhino suggests they are going in their own G1 inspired direction. No price or release date. Perfect Effects is prepping their Airachnid homage with PE-DX02 Motobot Aranea that has her spider like appendages and motorcycle alt mode. No price or release date.

Beast Hunters Abominus Combiner
While not on display at Toy Fair, it seems that Hasbro is considering a Cyberverse sized combiner Abominus for the Beast Hunters line for fall 2013 release. Derived of Twinstrike, Hun-Gurr, Rippersnapper, Blight, and Windrazer, it really does look like a smaller re-creation of the G1 combiner.

Masterpiece Line Update - With the latest release of MP-13 Soundwave (review below), Takara has revealed the next few G1 chracters getting the Masterpiece treatment. Next in the pipeline is the already announced MP-15 Ravage & Rumble, already announced MP-16 Frenzy & Rumble and new additions MP-17 Prowl, MP-18 Smokescreen, and MP-19 Bluestreak (likely all three have same mold with different paint jobs and head sculp). Also coming is MP-12T Tigertrack with is a repaint of MP-12 Sideswipe. No images yet of the new vehicle additions to the MP line. The cassettes are coming in early Spring with the vehicles in mid-summer. On a related note, the current MP Soundwave with his 5 cassettes are getting a stateside release late August. No work on price or if a Toys R Us exclusive. Also getting a stateside release will be Masterpiece Acid Storm (MP Starscream repaint) but again no price or from what retailer.

Is it Conceivable? - Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5
This five part series from TFSource looks at the possibility to being able to have a "complete" collection of Transformers considering the many obstacles put up over the years with re-issues, repaints, regional versions, different packaging, errors, and more. Even if not interesting in reading the posts, worth looking at just for the awesome images of collections and Transformers from years past.

Beast Hunters Video Reviews - Voyager Predaking | Voyager Optimus Prime | Deluxe Bulkhead | Deluxe Starscream | Deluxe Wheeljack | Cyberverse Optimus Prime | Cyberverse Predaking | Cyberverse Twinstrike | Cyberverse Smokescreen | Cyberverse Airachnid | Dark Energon Prime and Megatron
Hit the links for a bunch of new reviews of Beast Hunters toys that are starting to show up and more retail stores. While the deluxes tend to be modified versions of existing TF Prime toys, the voyagers are new molds. Dark Energon is the TF Prime 1st Edition wave with new paint jobs that are Toys R Us and BigBadToyStore.com exclusives.

Masterpiece Soundwave Review
Out now the latest Masterpiece figure from Takara. This is a re-creation of Generation One Soundwave with his classic cassette deck alt mode. The set includes Masterpiece Laserbeak who has new transformation sequence and improved articulation in same size cassette and look. The end result is the usual top notch addition you expect from the Masterpiece line. The cost isn't cheap with a $190 price tag. A gallery of images is here and here. The papercraft mentioned in review is here.

FT-03 Quake Wave (Not Shockwave) Review
3rd party maker FanToys have released their latest creation which is an update of Generations One Shockwave that keeps his over all look and alt mode but with more cartoon accurate paint job, more detail and articulation. It isn't cheap at $150 but my love of anything Masterpiece (even if not official) made it an must get for me. Check out review below to see if agree. I think the website capturedprey.com still has some. I ordered mine for first time but have not received it due to another item still on pre-order so no opinion (yet) on their quality of service but have not heard anything bad. A gallery of this figure is here. Another video review is also here.

Mech Ideas Demolition Crue Review
The video below is the first creations from new 3rd party maker Mech Ideas that updates Generation 1 Top Spin and Twin Twist. The original toys were "Jumpstarters" which just folded in half to form their alt mode. These versions are full fledge TFs with lots of articulation and detail. The set of Apex and Geminus is $70 and supposed to be out in March. A gallery of the toys can be found here.

Planet X Genesis (not Omega Supreme) Review
Below is the video review for not Cybertron Omega Supreme, the first offering from new 3rd party maker Planet X. This huge nearly two foot tall figure costs arond $300 and expected to come out in the next month. While the robot mode is sweet, the vehicle mode is crap (due to High Moon Studio's design, not Planet X) so personally I can't justify the high cost to buy. Still it is worth checking out in case tempting or just to see such an ambitious first product from this company that makes me look forward to what else they are planning. A gallery of the figure can be found here.

3rd Party Repaint Review - MT-02P Battle Sentinel SG SP | KM-07 Warper
MakeToys' MT-02P Battle Sentinel SG is a 3rd Party add-on for Bot Con's 2012 "Shattered Glass" Optimus Prime figure. It acts as a cab or connects to Prime for a pretty sweet looking figure. The average cost is around $105. Mastermind Creations' KM-07 is their Hearts of Steel version of Skywarp. Identical to other seekers with the usual sweet paint job, detail, and crappy alt mode (from the comic mini-series so not MC's fault). Believe his price is in the $90 range. Both out now.

Xovergen Trailer Force Review
Speaking of Prime trailer add-ons, this is a new one from Benscollectables that re-creates Generation One Power Master Optimus Prime (aka God Ginrai in Japan) using Classics Optimus Prime as the base figure (not included). The result is a pretty awesome looking homage but not sure if worth the average $180 price tag. Out now. Gallery of images here.

Kre-O Micro Changers Devastator Review
Below is a review of the Kre-O Devastator combiner that should be hitting store shelves soon. If it sticks with the $10 price point, might be a fun buy. Other sets are teased but so far this is the only review released for the Kre-O combiners from ProtoRetro.

2 comments:

  1. Xovergen's Trailerforce is worth every penny of the $170 I paid shipped for it. It's not perfect, but neither is all the other OP add on sets and I believe I own a variation of all of them.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I don't know why omega isn't worth the money, not only does he have the alt mode from the game but also his traditional tank and rocket mode. So if you don't like his mouse from the game you can go with the g1 mode.

    ReplyDelete

 
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