Transformers general thread - Toy Robot men based on giant robots based on previously mentioned toys about said robots

[Humble Architect]

Been catching up on the Skybound stuff, for the most part I like that they’re returning Optimus back to his Reagan-era dad personality while retaining the berserker fighting style from the movies.

I personally have always wanted to see the Armada reveal revisited, an Optimus who is at home with the war and doesn’t want it to end because he won’t have purpose.

Armada couldn’t fully show that idea due to being a shitty anime and it being revealed in the last episode, but as I really want to see it again. I think it was Red Alert who said something like “Optimus sure is cheery” which I took as his friendly robot dad personality being an act for the humans. Gary Chalk’s colder delivery also helped in there being something off with Optimus

IDW1 Optimus came close but for him it was a matter of duty, he never wanted to be a Prime or a soldier but he had a job to do.

 

[Anonymus Fluhre]

So all of the decos on Lego Bumblebee are printed. That actually makes him rather cheap as printed pieces tend to drive up costs. The only sticker is for the plaque

 

[The Lawgiver]

The fucking transformers "community" never stops baffling me. Earthrise soundwave is now easy to obtain due to being available as either a 100 something dollar pack in with 2 other decent voyagers and Starscream's (actually megatron's but it came with SS starscream) leader chair and a leader price 4 pack that comes with buzzsaw and one of the 10 dollar studio series cassettes nobody can find at physical retail for some reason scalpers have been hawking for the leader class price of 50-ish dollars, but I keep getting recommended YT videos where people are saying it's "Bad" they did that now after people were griping forever about both the availability of earthrise soundwave and the yellowing issue with several batches.

I was lucky enough to find the Netflix soundwave in a walmart during Christmas a few years back and he hasn't started yellowing yet as far as I can tell (hopefully) but I still kinda want both these two currently available earth soundwaves solely due to the neat variants of deco and also the fact they come with other shit I really want, and have wanted to see for a while. Don't have the kinda money to spend right now on either pack but t kinda pisses me off seeing opinion flip on a dime like this solely because something people like scalpers took advantage of is now easy to find. Might have something to do with the recent hyping of the "value" of these figures by youtube people that's been leading to old beat up armada megatrons being charged for 100 on ebay since rona broke out.

Yeah I know this shits rambly but I'm really out of it tonight and full of thoughts about goofy little robot figures of a cool dude that's a cassette player sometimes.

I personally have always wanted to see the Armada reveal revisited, an Optimus who is at home with the war and doesn’t want it to end because he won’t have purpose.

Armada couldn’t fully show that idea due to being a shitty anime and it being revealed in the last episode, but as I really want to see it again. I think it was Red Alert who said something like “Optimus sure is cheery” which I took as his friendly robot dad personality being an act for the humans. Gary Chalk’s colder delivery also helped in there being something off with Optimus

from what i remember of Armada and seen in clips (been a very long while since I saw it in full) there's SEVERAL blatant tells about optimus kind of having that inner thing about the war going on. It's kind of interesting how they show Megatron react to prime being fucking dead for a while. Writing and some of the dubbing was fucking weird during the unicron trilogy era but it's also the first attempt at actually rebooting g1 proper.
Said it before and 'm gonna say it a thousand times over, I'm always bummed they're never gonna make transformable versions of the sometimes more g1-ish looking cybertron forms of the characters n armada. by cybertron forms mean like when they were on cybertron in flashbacks or when they first land on earth in the first episode.

 

[Humble Architect]

Yeah I’ve been catching up on drama/figs since I’ve been gone.

I ordered a clearance Jhiaxus immediately, cause I’m a Marvelfag but apparently ER Soundwaves started….. leaking? What’s the consensus of the Mark era? Cause Lenny the spic ruined Kingdon, Rhinoxes still clog shelves up here.

And my boy Straxus was gonna be a mainline villian? I saw his Krang/DOTM Megatron concept art, that looked sick.


You have no idea how happy I am that IDW2 crashed and burned, that universe was so fucking gay. No better example than his original body.

 

[The Lawgiver]

You have no idea how happy I am that IDW2 crashed and burned, that universe was so fucking gay. No better example than his original body.

Why the fuck would you make straxus a blatant pre-tool for animated starscream? Every fucking time he's shown up in media he's been some form of cannon tank thing. Like I'm all for new takes on characters or different alt modes but straxus should never be a generic seeker design. Pre-ordered the cel shaded galvatron retool comic anniversary one, think I already said that though. They REALLY dodged a bullet by not making him a skullgrin retool like he seems to be in the poster.

Jhiaxus is perfect save for his weird slightly green plastic crotch and the alt mode being gimped from a scourge variant to a weird rocket so he can be used as a retool for vector prime who's gimped by being a retool instead of a new mold. If I had money and knew he was discounted heavily I'd probably buy a few to try to make customs.

apparently ER Soundwaves started….. leaking?

Leaking? No clue what you mean by that? ER soundwave was fucked over as one of the many "exclusives" during earthrise where they for no discernable reason put him as a netflix promo wave figure despite him not having the same design aesthetic as the other netflix figures. Distribution was god awful and a lot of stock vanished and ended up on ebay mysteriously as many scalped to shit store exclusives do. This year we've got not one but TWO re-releases of it in different box sets. One's just a standard wave release that comes with 3 cassette figures (2 of which previously released 1 a recolor) and the other is a "premium repaint" 3 pack that comes with one cassette as well as ER Megatron and a siege Shockwave minus the armor.

Like in terms of leaks though are we talking the "youtube people get the set early due to it being out without announcement or bought from some factory worker?" kind? Because that's happened with EVERY Soundwave the last 5 years or so lmao.

 

[Humble Architect]

I was looking at the list of figures that have the yellowing problem on the wiki and there was a report that a Soundwave had the chemical that’s causing the yellowing “leak out” which that sounds insane but QC is at an all-time low. Like I hear the new Tidal Wave has joint problems, which Trypticon had……… in 2017.

Jhiaxus has been a favourite of mine since I read one of those massive guidebooks to TF and young me was instantly amazed by that iconic page where a backhands off a chunk of Prime’s face. So finally getting a version of his G2 self is fantastic.

Looking at the Amazon Mayhem Attack Squad boxes, Windsweeper and Breakdown really seem to wear those molds better than Needlenose and Bulkhead.

Disappointed that we finally got a G1 Lockdown and he’s not only deluxe but he’s a Walmart-exclusive repaint. Shameful.

 

[The Lawgiver]

the chemical that’s causing the yellowing “leak out” which that sounds insane

Oh yeah the chemical leakage theory, forgot about that shit last night. Anyways in terms of the joint issue that's happened several times with some batches and not been limited to just the springs with figures. my SG ER Optimus from a few years ago doesn't have springs but one of the pins on the shoulder keeps getting stressed more and more whenever I use it and I missed the reissue this year. Similar thing happened with the elbow of hot shot from the pulse exclusive 2 pack I missed getting when it went on discount and got eaten up by ebay resellers/scalpers. That one's not gonna have a reissue probably given it was limited to "conventions". one.

Speaking of reissues it's weird to me that they've done either announced or unannounced reissues of some figures from the last few years, Siege Optimus specifically I've seen show up as back in stock everywhere online like every few months. Wish they did that with shit like soundwave but the current state's fine too.

Disappointed that we finally got a G1 Lockdown and he’s not only deluxe but he’s a Walmart-exclusive repaint. Shameful.

Said it before myself but it's even worse because of the fact that mold was blatantly intended to be made into lockdown in the first place that shit hurts even more. It's the earth hound shit all over again where the actual character the mold is supposed to be is trapped in some exclusive set while the recolor guy is the standard release figure.

 

[Humble Architect]

Oh yeah the chemical leakage theory, forgot about that shit last night. Anyways in terms of the joint issue that's happened several times with some batches and not been limited to just the springs with figures. my SG ER Optimus from a few years ago doesn't have springs but one of the pins on the shoulder keeps getting stressed more and more whenever I use it and I missed the reissue this year. Similar thing happened with the elbow of hot shot from the pulse exclusive 2 pack I missed getting when it went on discount and got eaten up by ebay resellers/scalpers. That one's not gonna have a reissue probably given it was limited to "conventions". one.

Speaking of reissues it's weird to me that they've done either announced or unannounced reissues of some figures from the last few years, Siege Optimus specifically I've seen show up as back in stock everywhere online like every few months. Wish they did that with shit like soundwave but the current state's fine too.


Said it before myself but it's even worse because of the fact that mold was blatantly intended to be made into lockdown in the first place that shit hurts even more. It's the earth hound shit all over again where the actual character the mold is supposed to be is trapped in some exclusive set while the recolor guy is the standard release figure.

ER Prime has problems? I skipped him back then, I was satisfied with the Siege Prime and ER didn’t have any appeal to me. At least until now, I’m finally gonna have a Marvel Prime on the shelf, cause it’s more than just painting the eyes yellow. That new headsculpt has those less innocent and more tired/seasoned eyes. Plus the Marvel matrix that came with Selects Galvatron.

BBTS has another round of ER Primes up for preorder.

I knew QC was bad and we have to treat these things like video games now but damn, any major QC diseasters? Like I remember the ER fetish for translucent plastic and all the cracking that happened. Whoever decided that stress joints used for base connections should be translucent genuinely deserves to be executed by the TF costume guys at Universal.

That stuff with Hound is funny because Detritus is the one I want, I’m the one guy who isn’t pissed over that.

 

[The Lawgiver]

ER Prime has problems? I skipped him back then, I was satisfied with the Siege Prime and ER didn’t have any appeal to me. At least until now, I’m finally gonna have a Marvel Prime on the shelf, cause it’s more than just painting the eyes yellow. That new headsculpt has those less innocent and more tired/seasoned eyes. Plus the Marvel matrix that came with Selects Galvatron.

I don't know if the issue I had with my shattered glass one was widespread but I saw one or 2 other people complaining about it. The main QC issue with earthrise prime was the plastic on the torso being warped in a way that tilted it to the side a bit due to how the figure was packed. Ironically my g2 color jazz has this issue but I haven't seen anything about that anywhere. I skipped the normal earthrise prime due to how the color scheme was inconsistent up until release where half of his head was metallic blue and the other was matte blue and he had dark metallic blue eyes on blue matte plastic. I DID however get the death scene variant and the Netflix wave one that was a lot closer to g1 prime and had a kinda neat dark glossy blue and grey windshield people were comparing to the marvel comics and g2 toy the same day I found the soundwave a few years back.

Personally I might try to find the extra cel shaded walmart siege prime I forgot to return after realizing someone stole his axe from the package and paint the eyes yellow or orange or something. Was going to get a used one since I remembered they were cheap but prices have apperently recently spiked with sanely priced ones vanishing. Whoops.Knowing how this stuff has been going they're probably going to eventually put out a 2 pack of optimus and megatron in the comic cel shading style but whether they actually use the head they made or not is up in the air given what happened with the miner megatron head they used for g2 arctic megatron instead of just making a g2 megatron style head never showing up again.

 

[Humble Architect]

I got the Netflix Optimus from Takara, the green windows one and that one was very nice. I got him to be Regeneration One Optimus alongside Kingdom Rodimus (still hilarious that Commander Rodimus was more Marvel/Regen than Sunbow) the flat pastel colours and green windows honestly looked better in person.

I had the opportunity to get Netflix ER Prime in person no less but I passed and got Netflix Bee and Elita, I love those two so it turned out alright.

I could see them doing Marvel Megatron, if it’s on the Siege mold that’s a hard pass. SS86 Megatron is just around the corner.

I don’t think they’ll do a Marvel Optimus, them pulling the rare “We’re encouraging a conversion” tells me he’s not in the works.

 

[Anonymus Fluhre]

I rarely have any issues with my figures, though I also don't keep them under harsh light or under the sun, I paint nearly every figure I get. Usually if they don't have matching colours thanks to translucent plastic, and I fix problems before they cause any issues like with ratcheting joints. I also avoid having those effect parts anywhere near my figure as the materials used for that melts plastic after a while. Similar to the old Bludgeon tank treads. I'll be 3rd printing "tires" for any figure using that rubber material for tires because they likely use the same material.

 

[Humble Architect]

I rarely have any issues with my figures, though I also don't keep them under harsh light or under the sun, I paint nearly every figure I get. Usually if they don't have matching colours thanks to translucent plastic, and I fix problems before they cause any issues like with ratcheting joints. I also avoid having those effect parts anywhere near my figure as the materials used for that melts plastic after a while. Similar to the old Bludgeon tank treads. I'll be 3rd printing "tires" for any figure using that rubber material for tires because they likely use the same material.

I’ve been bringing my 40k skills to my figs, usually it’s small fixes, like I went through a phase of sculpting visors/sunglasses onto figures cause I wanted them to resemble their western counterparts. Like a 3P leader-sized Fortress Maximus that I am very proud of turning into his Marvel self, I’ll post it sometime. I sculpted a visor onto the Netflix Siege Magnus, also very proud of that one. Also made some 90s guns for my G2 guys, you know, the Spawn-era vacuum cleaner weapons. Unused vehicle guns from 40k are great for this.

Before I got the burnout, I was planning one of this big fucker displays where it’s a chunk of scenery, a smelting pool specifically, I was gonna use the junker/outdated figures for the recycling victims. Might revisit my notes and designs now that the architect of the six gorillion Scrounges is getting a figure.

I should be grateful to Mark, all those non-G1 characters have greatly reduced the amount of figs/molds that I’d consider buying. Nothing against them but my collection is firmly G1.

 

[Anonymus Fluhre]

Since transformers are large and have wide parts to them an airbrush is a godsend. I probably use it more on those than on W40k minis. The new paints from army painter can do some interesting cell shading. I've been getting into doing more sculpting for figures who have too many waffles that aren't too large. Large ones I'll wait for someone to make those interesting flaps since large ones are either by the hands or the legs.

 

[The Lawgiver]

Also made some 90s guns for my G2 guys, you know, the Spawn-era vacuum cleaner weapons. Unused vehicle guns from 40k are great for this.

Have you ever gotten a used lot of construct bots parts? The weird spinoff transformers from years back that went on discount pretty quickly there's barely any demand for now? The thrusters and some of the weapons from that line make pretty good basis for these kinds of weapons, been thinking of getting some to do a similar thing sometime since they even have 5mm peg hold points on them.

I also avoid having those effect parts anywhere near my figure as the materials used for that melts plastic after a while. Similar to the old Bludgeon tank treads. I'll be 3rd printing "tires" for any figure using that rubber material for tires because they likely use the same material.

IIRC the running theory with that is that it's due to them putting too much or the wrong kind of plasticizer in the treads. It's not only a common thing but it's inconsistent with some figures not being afflicted by the issue. Blast effects I've seen less examples of it actually melting the ports and more destroying the paint near or in the ports which is less bad but still not ideal. Some batches of all versions of Combiner wars megatron are afflicted by the same tread disease as bludgeon, though mine I got used years back and had exposed to the elements of my shelf for years have yet to show symptoms thankfully.

an airbrush is a godsend.

I fucking wish I had the right environment and budget for airbrushing shit the last over a decade of my life but really all I can do is hand brushing and occasional spray painting if the weather decides to stop being fucking humid for a bit and my schedule lines up with that.

 

[Starscream's Loyalty]

Minor TF artist tea: apparently some troon fan artist named chilled *something* is ceasing all art a social media. WHO'D A GUESSED IT? Cutting off your tit's and taking fake testosterone kills all the joy in life! Oh no, so unexpected, guys. Don't feel bad for her. Just another dumb cunt that couldn't accept the fact that she was a tomboy.

 

[Anonymus Fluhre]

Minor TF artist tea: apparently some troon fan artist named chilled *something* is ceasing all art a social media. WHO'D A GUESSED IT? Cutting off your tit's and taking fake testosterone kills all the joy in life! Oh no, so unexpected, guys. Don't feel bad for her. Just another dumb cunt that couldn't accept the fact that she was a tomboy.

No clue who that is, probably not good looking enough to care that they chopped off their breasts and ruined their life. Also, careful now. Some people here don't think tomboys are thing. Mud crickets probably don't exist either.

 

[Humble Architect]

Minor TF artist tea: apparently some troon fan artist named chilled *something* is ceasing all art a social media. WHO'D A GUESSED IT? Cutting off your tit's and taking fake testosterone kills all the joy in life! Oh no, so unexpected, guys. Don't feel bad for her. Just another dumb cunt that couldn't accept the fact that she was a tomboy.

Good, another one purged from something I enjoy.

Have you ever gotten a used lot of construct bots parts? The weird spinoff transformers from years back that went on discount pretty quickly there's barely any demand for now? The thrusters and some of the weapons from that line make pretty good basis for these kinds of weapons, been thinking of getting some to do a similar thing sometime since they even have 5mm peg hold points on them.

I’ll have to look into it, I made a lot of guns when the Hasjews were shorting accessories (Siege Sideswipe) and Siege had the whole “grimdark” theme going on. I remember adding a repaint of AoE Hound’s shotgun, meant for TLK Prime, to my pile of loot cause I thought “this is gonna look great with G2 Sideswipe” it was a better time.

I fucking loved Siege, bestest best sub-line, right up there with Titans Return.

 

[Anonymus Fluhre]

It's nice that Toyhax started doing weapons, but they don't do a good job modernizing anything. I've found better on 3d print sites. Plus they don't always have the right colours.

 

[Space Police]

I fucking loved Siege, bestest best sub-line, right up there with Titans Return.

Siege had some good toys but overall Earthrise was better for having greater mundane realism. Shockwave was excellent, Astrotrain was a good mould (but Galaxy Shuttle is better), and the Micromasters were good (but Earthrise's were better), but many of the Siege toys felt blocky and half-finished.

 

[Humble Architect]

Siege had some good toys but overall Earthrise was better for having greater mundane realism. Shockwave was excellent, Astrotrain was a good mould (but Galaxy Shuttle is better), and the Micromasters were good (but Earthrise's were better), but many of the Siege toys felt blocky and half-finished.

Everything you said is 100% true but……. I believe my Siege figures will live longer and they have more chonk, fuckers are solid. I got most of that line, I’m even a proud owner of a Siege Skywarp.

ER’s translucent plastic pissed me off but I did enjoy its gimmick, the base building was fun, brilliant way to bring back micromaster bases. Scorponok was also worth the wait, best titan.