Post by Onix Solo on Apr 1, 2012 14:56:50 GMT -5
So, I've got the complete first and second wave of TF Prime RID figures and I thought I'd give you my honest opinions and impressions of these guys, and let you know whether or not you should bother getting them. So, here we go.
Transformers Prime RID Deluxe/Revealers
Revealer, the new Automorph
Before I get into the individual figures, I wanted to cover the main gimmick of the Deluxe class line, known as Revealers. What is the gimmick? Well, in the best case it is simply spring-loaded heads, but in the most extreme case it is basically automorph. Apparently whoever made the decisions at Hasbro that killed off the First Edition line was a fan of both Automorph and Mechtech, because they are both more or less back, and in the very same line this time. 5 out of the 6 deluxe figures have the Revealers gimmick. Wheeljack is the only one not to have the gimmick, the rest sport it in one fashion or another, Soundwave being the least involved, and Bumblebee having the most involved. I will cover their individual degrees of the Revealer gimmick with the individual figures write up.
Size Reduction
As with DotM which saw a significant decrease in the size and bulk of figures, Prime figures also follow the trend of significantly downsized figures. It is hardly noticeable in package, or when they are standing amongst themselves, but pull down a figure from before 2011 and you notice the significance. Luckily, despite this downsizing, most of the figure, unlike DotM, are solid figures worth adding to your collection.
Cliffjumper: Vehicle Mode
So, I figure I will start from the least impressive, and work my way up. Cliffjumper was a character I was really looking forward to, both in the show and figure form. I'm a man who loves good old fashion American muscle, and Cliffs vehicle mode made me instantly love him. Unfortunately he was short lived in the show, but I still looked forward to the figure. Muscle car Transformers are far and few in between. Cliffjumper's vehicle mode does not disappoint.
Cliffjumper's vehicle mode is everything you expect from the red muscle car. It is sufficiently show accurate. That said, it is unfortunately one of the smaller vehicle modes out of the PRID line. There is barely any visible robot kibble unless you look underneath him. Only his feet can be seen slightly from under the car when it is sitting on its wheels.
The one thing I don't like about many of the PRID figures is that their weapons don't store anywhere to be hidden away in vehicle mode. Cliff is no exception. Cliffjumper's hammer/machine gun can peg into either a hole on the top of the vehicle, or on the side of the vehicle. It is supposed to simulate a chain gun of sorts, but it is quite large, and I don't think he ever even had a weapon come out in vehicle mode, let alone one that looked like this.
Cliffjumper: Robot Mode
Cliffjumper's transformation is quite simple, disappointingly so. Basically the top of the car fold up onto his back, the sides fold up into his arms, and you flip out his legs to stand him up. Cliffjumper's revealer gimmick is tied into his shoulders, and when you bring down his shoulders to his side, it gears up his head. It is quite smooth, and unlike Automorph of the 2007 movie line, it doesn't feel like the gears are going to eventually break. This is because this is a severely less involved auto-transformation gimmick than the past.
Cliffjumper's robot mode has many of the visual cues from the character model, but for some reason or another I am just underwhelmed with his robot mode. His arms are the biggest eye sore on this guy. They mainly are the front paneling and door fold into themselves to make a "wrist". It works to an extent, but it looks sloppy, and his forearms are quite long. His elbows are horrible visually, and aren't the best functionally. His legs have plenty of pose-ability and compared to images of the first edition, they are quite more accurate to the show model. The biggest problem with them is the calves are completely hollow from behind. I feel they could have came up with a way to put the back tires bits into the void to fill it up and get them off the side of his legs.
Cliffjumper's weapon can function either as a hammer, which is very gravity-hammer like, or as the chain gun. Either way, the weapon is nothing like what we've seen him use in the show. All the other figures in this like come with weapons that try and mimmick their on-screen weapons, why they didn't do the same with Cliff is beyond me. The hammers is a weapon at least, but it isn't anything special.
Cliffjumper is the shortest of the PRID figures. Both modes have a smallness to them that diminishes the muscle vibe Cliffjumper was supposed to embody.
Cliffjumper: Verdict
Cliffjumper is easily a passable figure, and if you have deep pockets I think it would be far more satisfying to hunt down the First Edition version, which looks to have a more involved transformation, and who's fists actually switches round to have his 3-barreled blasters from the show. Despite the PRID versions more accurate visuals, it just doesn't live up to this incarnation of Cliffjumper.
Soundwave: Vehicle Mode
Soundwave is next on the list. Soundwave is another figure I really was looking forward to. A Transformer styled after a predator drone is just a cool concept, and it makes perfect sense for an updated Soundwave as Megatron intel specialist.
Soundwaves vehicle mode works very well. It really has the very thin and razor-sharp aesthetic that Prime Soundwave sports, and it is exactly what you expect from a flying vehicle mode. He has front landing gear to hold the front of the vehicle up, and "laserbeak" plugs into the bottom of Soundwave and forms the rear fins under his vehicle mode. There isn't much to complain about it this mode, though it could look smoother in some areas but it is necessary for robot mode.
Soundwave: Robot Mode
Soundwaves transformation is simple, but it doesn't really disappoint like Cliffjumpers did. Basically, you swing the wing bask tot he back of the drone mode, swivel out the elbows and flip out the wrist/hands from under the the wing. Next, split the front, fold out the feet, and swivel back the knees to form his signature chicken-leg stance. Flip up "laserbeak's" wings into the crevasses between the shoulders and torso, and go to the back and open the panel that is made up of the thruster and rear fins. This activates his revealer gimmick, which basically his head springs forward. Fold in the thruster and close it again. You've transformed Soundwave.
Soundwaves Robot mode is very accurate, and I really like it visually. "Laserbeak" stores on his chest just like in the toon, and he looks a lot better with it plugged in. He definitely has that thin, lanky look to him. Compared to the other PRID deluxes, he is the tallest, barely. You may be wondering why Soundwave falls second on this list, being it is organized least to most impressive. It's basically because, while I love him visually, he is a brick when it comes to possibility. This is especially the instance with his legs, which are mostly just stuck in position. His arms aren't so bad, but there are a few angles he can't pull off.
"Laserbeak" can perch on Soundwave's arms
Soudwave doesn't come with a weapon (I don't think he has every fired a shot) but instead comes with "laserbeak". Why do I keep putting it in quotes, well, I refuse to call this Laserbeak. It's more of an accessory, and extension of Soundwave than it is another entity. It's really a cheap excuse to put the "comes with Laserbeak" bullet on the package. It's never been refereed to as such, and has always been just a surveillance drone for Soundwave. Also, I always thought it looked much more Ratbat inspired.
These two are supposed to be the same character?
Size wise, like I said, along side of the PRID figures he is slightly taller that all the others. Comparatively with deluxes from the past, he is smaller, as can be seen with Generations Soundwave, in both height, and thickness.
Soundwave: Verdict
The verdict is that you should definitely get this if you are a Prime fan. It is a great looking figure on the shelf. He may not be the most pose-able figure but it doesn't stop him from being awesome. This should tell you that it only get's better from here.
More to come later in the week!
Transformers Prime RID Deluxe/Revealers
Revealer, the new Automorph
Before I get into the individual figures, I wanted to cover the main gimmick of the Deluxe class line, known as Revealers. What is the gimmick? Well, in the best case it is simply spring-loaded heads, but in the most extreme case it is basically automorph. Apparently whoever made the decisions at Hasbro that killed off the First Edition line was a fan of both Automorph and Mechtech, because they are both more or less back, and in the very same line this time. 5 out of the 6 deluxe figures have the Revealers gimmick. Wheeljack is the only one not to have the gimmick, the rest sport it in one fashion or another, Soundwave being the least involved, and Bumblebee having the most involved. I will cover their individual degrees of the Revealer gimmick with the individual figures write up.
Size Reduction
As with DotM which saw a significant decrease in the size and bulk of figures, Prime figures also follow the trend of significantly downsized figures. It is hardly noticeable in package, or when they are standing amongst themselves, but pull down a figure from before 2011 and you notice the significance. Luckily, despite this downsizing, most of the figure, unlike DotM, are solid figures worth adding to your collection.
Cliffjumper: Vehicle Mode
So, I figure I will start from the least impressive, and work my way up. Cliffjumper was a character I was really looking forward to, both in the show and figure form. I'm a man who loves good old fashion American muscle, and Cliffs vehicle mode made me instantly love him. Unfortunately he was short lived in the show, but I still looked forward to the figure. Muscle car Transformers are far and few in between. Cliffjumper's vehicle mode does not disappoint.
Cliffjumper's vehicle mode is everything you expect from the red muscle car. It is sufficiently show accurate. That said, it is unfortunately one of the smaller vehicle modes out of the PRID line. There is barely any visible robot kibble unless you look underneath him. Only his feet can be seen slightly from under the car when it is sitting on its wheels.
The one thing I don't like about many of the PRID figures is that their weapons don't store anywhere to be hidden away in vehicle mode. Cliff is no exception. Cliffjumper's hammer/machine gun can peg into either a hole on the top of the vehicle, or on the side of the vehicle. It is supposed to simulate a chain gun of sorts, but it is quite large, and I don't think he ever even had a weapon come out in vehicle mode, let alone one that looked like this.
Cliffjumper: Robot Mode
Cliffjumper's transformation is quite simple, disappointingly so. Basically the top of the car fold up onto his back, the sides fold up into his arms, and you flip out his legs to stand him up. Cliffjumper's revealer gimmick is tied into his shoulders, and when you bring down his shoulders to his side, it gears up his head. It is quite smooth, and unlike Automorph of the 2007 movie line, it doesn't feel like the gears are going to eventually break. This is because this is a severely less involved auto-transformation gimmick than the past.
Cliffjumper's robot mode has many of the visual cues from the character model, but for some reason or another I am just underwhelmed with his robot mode. His arms are the biggest eye sore on this guy. They mainly are the front paneling and door fold into themselves to make a "wrist". It works to an extent, but it looks sloppy, and his forearms are quite long. His elbows are horrible visually, and aren't the best functionally. His legs have plenty of pose-ability and compared to images of the first edition, they are quite more accurate to the show model. The biggest problem with them is the calves are completely hollow from behind. I feel they could have came up with a way to put the back tires bits into the void to fill it up and get them off the side of his legs.
Cliffjumper's weapon can function either as a hammer, which is very gravity-hammer like, or as the chain gun. Either way, the weapon is nothing like what we've seen him use in the show. All the other figures in this like come with weapons that try and mimmick their on-screen weapons, why they didn't do the same with Cliff is beyond me. The hammers is a weapon at least, but it isn't anything special.
Cliffjumper is the shortest of the PRID figures. Both modes have a smallness to them that diminishes the muscle vibe Cliffjumper was supposed to embody.
Cliffjumper: Verdict
Cliffjumper is easily a passable figure, and if you have deep pockets I think it would be far more satisfying to hunt down the First Edition version, which looks to have a more involved transformation, and who's fists actually switches round to have his 3-barreled blasters from the show. Despite the PRID versions more accurate visuals, it just doesn't live up to this incarnation of Cliffjumper.
Soundwave: Vehicle Mode
Soundwave is next on the list. Soundwave is another figure I really was looking forward to. A Transformer styled after a predator drone is just a cool concept, and it makes perfect sense for an updated Soundwave as Megatron intel specialist.
Soundwaves vehicle mode works very well. It really has the very thin and razor-sharp aesthetic that Prime Soundwave sports, and it is exactly what you expect from a flying vehicle mode. He has front landing gear to hold the front of the vehicle up, and "laserbeak" plugs into the bottom of Soundwave and forms the rear fins under his vehicle mode. There isn't much to complain about it this mode, though it could look smoother in some areas but it is necessary for robot mode.
Soundwave: Robot Mode
Soundwaves transformation is simple, but it doesn't really disappoint like Cliffjumpers did. Basically, you swing the wing bask tot he back of the drone mode, swivel out the elbows and flip out the wrist/hands from under the the wing. Next, split the front, fold out the feet, and swivel back the knees to form his signature chicken-leg stance. Flip up "laserbeak's" wings into the crevasses between the shoulders and torso, and go to the back and open the panel that is made up of the thruster and rear fins. This activates his revealer gimmick, which basically his head springs forward. Fold in the thruster and close it again. You've transformed Soundwave.
Soundwaves Robot mode is very accurate, and I really like it visually. "Laserbeak" stores on his chest just like in the toon, and he looks a lot better with it plugged in. He definitely has that thin, lanky look to him. Compared to the other PRID deluxes, he is the tallest, barely. You may be wondering why Soundwave falls second on this list, being it is organized least to most impressive. It's basically because, while I love him visually, he is a brick when it comes to possibility. This is especially the instance with his legs, which are mostly just stuck in position. His arms aren't so bad, but there are a few angles he can't pull off.
"Laserbeak" can perch on Soundwave's arms
Soudwave doesn't come with a weapon (I don't think he has every fired a shot) but instead comes with "laserbeak". Why do I keep putting it in quotes, well, I refuse to call this Laserbeak. It's more of an accessory, and extension of Soundwave than it is another entity. It's really a cheap excuse to put the "comes with Laserbeak" bullet on the package. It's never been refereed to as such, and has always been just a surveillance drone for Soundwave. Also, I always thought it looked much more Ratbat inspired.
These two are supposed to be the same character?
Size wise, like I said, along side of the PRID figures he is slightly taller that all the others. Comparatively with deluxes from the past, he is smaller, as can be seen with Generations Soundwave, in both height, and thickness.
Soundwave: Verdict
The verdict is that you should definitely get this if you are a Prime fan. It is a great looking figure on the shelf. He may not be the most pose-able figure but it doesn't stop him from being awesome. This should tell you that it only get's better from here.
More to come later in the week!