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Transformers: Age of Extinction Evolution Optimus Prime

This set is part of the Thrilling Thirty.  Who gives a shit?  Yes, I will be complaining about this until the last toy in this series has been released, and then on until the end of time.

Transformers: Age of Extinction Evolution Classics Voyager Optimus Prime

This mold does look beautiful with the silver chrome.  This is one of the best molds from the past ten years, maybe of all time.  It is better than the new Voyager Optimus Prime coming out next year.

Transformers: Age of Extinction Evolution AOE Voyager Optimus Prime

I was kind of disappointed that this was not chromed, but it looks really great.  Kind of nice that they finally gave this one a paint job that makes it look like a movie Optimus Prime.

Overall: It’s Optimus Prime, this one is a must have, though Toys R Us, as they often do, has raised the price.  When the Grimlock Evolution set I believe it was $39.99.  No they are both $44.99.  Toys R Us has done this a lot in recent years, releasing a toy and then upping the price.  They’ve done this on Masterpiece toys on multiple occasions.  It really sucks.

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Transformers: Age of Extinction Universal Studios Exclusive Kre-O Kreon 4-Pack (Optimus Prime, Evac, Megatron, Bumblebee)

I have very little to say about these.  They are all cool looking, but nothing special.

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Transformers: Age of Extinction Target Exclusive Platinum Edition Leader Class Silver Knight Optimus Prime

If you read my original review of the mold, you’ll know that I really like it a lot.  It’s a pretty great toy, though I do see why some people didn’t like it.  This repaint is nice, but I’ve got a few issues.  First off, what’s with the black face?  His face should have been silver or blue.  That just looks out of place.  I do love the translucent blue weapons, they look much better than the yellow did on the original.  He could have used a few more paint apps in vehicle mode.

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Transformers: Age of Extinction Target Exclusive One Step Changer 6-Pack (Silver Knight Optimus Prime, Drift, Bumblebee, Slug, Grimlock, Lockdown)

It has to be said that the packaging for this is unimaginably enormous.  Just look at it.  The package is nearly twice as high as it needs to be.  It should have been half the size.

Unfortunately I can find no differences on Lockdown, Grimlock, and Bumblebee from the single carded version.  Would it have really been so hard to change something?

This is the first time we’ve seen Slug.  I did find a paint change on Drift, and the Silver Knight Optimus Prime is obviously a repaint.  Slug, Drift, and Silver Knight Optimus Prime are reviewed below.

Drift

The 6-Pack version of Drift has his engine painted.  It’s a small change, but I think it makes it look really nice.  I have yet to see a single pack Drift with a painted engine.

Silver Knight Optimus Prime

It’s yet another Silver Knight version of Optimus Prime.  If they had just had one completely unique Silver Knight Optimus Prime toy that wasn’t just a repaint, it would have been nice.

Slug

One Step Changer Slug really isn’t anything to write home about.  He’s cool, I like his robot mode, maybe even more than I like the deluxe toy.  I love the dinosaur face on him.

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Transformers: Age of Extinction Titan Heroes Wave 2 Lockdown

Titan Heroes Optimus Prime

I think it would have looked better with his face rather than his mask, but it’s not like that would make it transform.  Great for the kids, but that’s all.

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Transformers: Age of Extinction Voyager Drift

Vehicle Mode: I had just started blogging when Dark of the Moon toys were coming out, so I didn’t do any detailed reviews, but Skyhammer is in my opinion the best helicopter alternate mode Transformer toy ever.  It is an awesome toy, and even though I’m not completely happy with it being used here, it is a great mold.  He has been repainted in Drift colors and has a new set of swords that can be attached to the existing ports on his wings.  The helicopter mode is fantastic.

Robot Mode: I really like the coloring on his robot mode.  His head seems a little small, likely because his head ornamentation is a problem when fitting it in the space for Skyhammer’s head.  The best feature of the toy is how his main rotor folds around his upper body, preventing the rotors flopping around on his back or being used as a crappy weapon as on most helicopter Transformers.

Overall: The real problem with this toy is that it should never have been made.  Drift is a Triplechanger, but was not given a Triplechanger toy.  This sucks epically.  They would have been better off taking Generations Springer, remolding the car to make it look at least sort of like the car mode and then he also has the helicopter mode.  Of course, actually doing a proper Triplechanger would have made actual sense, but this is Hasbro we’re talking about.

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Transformers: Age of Extinction Voyager Dinobot Slog

Dinosaur Mode: Slog looks amazing in dinosaur mode, but he has two enormous, massive, colossal design flaws.  First off, he has a flap of soft plastic that hangs from the bottom of his neck.  It’s meant to cover his robot head.  Unfortunately, the instructions don’t really tell you how it’s supposed to stay in place, and I can’t get it to stay.  It’s really unfortunate, as it should have been easy enough to give it more shape so that it didn’t have to be folded and resist staying in place.  The second flaw is that his dinosaur front half doesn’t seem to connect or lock into place with the back half.  He stands fine, but if you pick him up by the front or back the other side basically flops free.  It might be that there are solutions to this, but the instructions are deplorable.

Robot Mode: On the other hand, in robot mode he looks completely awesome.  I love the head sculpt and the black, gray, and red look great.  He’s just fantastic.

Overall: It’s too bad that he has such awful flaws, because if he didn’t, this would be one of the best molds in the line.

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Transformers Battle Masters Soundwave and Grimlock

These things are crap.  You can read my review of the Fight Night play set for more details on these steaming piles of dung that do not look anything like the characters they are named for.

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Transformers: Age of Extinction Walmart Exclusive One Step Changer Stinger

Finally we have a Stinger toy that isn’t just a repaint.  Sadly, it is looking more and more like this will be the only Stinger toy we will see.

How depressing.  Stinger is not a bad toy.  His vehicle mode is very cool and pretty accurate.  His robot mode has a lot of molded detail.  The only problem is that he’s a One Step Changer.  This would not be as much of a problem if we were getting a real Stinger toy, but as of now that does not seem likely.  It seems that he is packed into One Step Changer Series 2 Cases that Walmart is getting in, unlike most exclusives that are shipped in their own cases.  This could make him hard to find, but also explains how some of these shoed up at Target a while ago.

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Transformers: Age of Extinction Costco Exclusive Leader Bumblebee

It is kind of lousy that the third and final Age of Extinction Leader class toy was a repaint of Dark of the Moon Leader Bumblebee without his weapon and he’s a Costco exclusive to boot.  It’s a decent Bumblebee toy.  Nothing all that special, but at $27 it’s not bad.  If you don’t have a Costco membership, you can order this from Costco.com with a 5% fee for not being a member and $8 shipping.  Still not bad.  What disappoints me most about this toy is that it is not a Leader Hound, which we absolutely should have gotten.  Hasbro has done such a deplorable job on the Age of Extinction line.

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Transformers Artifact of Week: Transformers Age of Extinction Blu-Ray/DVD Promotion Kit

This is a promotional kit (or POP kit, but I don’t know what POP stands for) for the Blu-Ray and DVD release of Transformers: Age of Extinction.  It’s pretty cool.

My kit was not complete.  A full kit includes 3 posters, 1 pennant banner (or triangle banner if you prefer), 1 bag of balloons, and 20 button pins.

Poster

I don’t know the dimensions, but the poster is pretty big.  It’s a very cool shot of Optimus Prime picking himself back up leaning on his sword.

Pennant Banner

This is very cool.  I actually bought a second one of these to put up somewhere.  One side of each pennant is Optimus Prime and the other is Cade Yeager with his alien gun.

Balloons

The balloons come in silver, gold, and blue, and all have the logo and Blu-Ray/DVD release date on them.

Button Pin

I ended up buying one almost complete and one partial kit, so I have almost 40 of these things.

Overall: This is cool if you can get it cheap.  I wouldn’t spend a lot on it though.

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Transformers: Age of Extinction Kre-O Silver Knight Autobots 5-Pack

This set was announced at Botcon, but has not materialized at stores in the USA yet.  I am assuming this one will end up as a foreign exclusive.  Kre-O is exclusive to Toys R Us in the USA.  Silver Knight Optimus Prime is exclusive to Target.  This makes releasing it in the USA at least problematic and at most impossible.  So, I broke down and got one from Malaysia.  With my luck it will show up here on clearance.

This set is pretty simple.  It contains all 5 Autobots from the movie, Drift, Hound, Bumblebee, and Crosshairs, as well as Optimus Prime in a Silver Knight deco.  Interestingly, they all include swords or axes, but no guns at all.  Not sure why they did that.  It’s a cool set, but unless you’re a completist, it’s probably not worth the cost.

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Transformers: Age of Extinction Kre-O Decepticon Replicator

This set has never been announced for release in the USA, and first appeared in a Malaysian (I think) toy catalog.  I am assuming this one will end up as a foreign exclusive.  Kre-O is exclusive to Toys R Us in the USA.  Stinger is exclusive to Walmart.  This makes releasing it in the USA at least problematic and at most impossible.  So, I broke down and got one from Malaysia (this was also available at a show in Japan, I think).  With my luck it will show up here on clearance.

The set includes five Kreons,  Optimus Prime, Nemesis Prime, a human scientist, Bumblebee, and Stinger.  They’re pretty cool.  This is likely the only way to get Kreon Stinger.

As to the building set, it’s nothing special.  It has one view screen with a gun turret on top and the replicator chamber, which you can put Stinger inside and spin him around.

Kind of a let down.  I would have liked to see more from the replicator chamber, maybe lights would have helped.

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Transformers: Age of Extinction One Step Changers Wave 3 (Helicopter Drift, High Octane Bumblebee, Galvatron, Slug, Steeljaw, Grimlock)

One Step Changer Helicopter Drift

Drift’s helicopter mode is awesome.  They did a great job on it, lots of nice molded detail, and a great overall design.  His robot mode has the same problem as most helicopter Transformers.  His rotors don’t fold and just sit on his back.  I understand what they were going for.  They wanted the blades to resemble his swords sheathed on his back, but they are just two long for it to look right.

One Step Changer High Octane Bumblebee

High Octane Bumblebee uses the same design as One Step Changer Drift (Car).  He looks really cool, and I really like this design.  They should have used this design for a lot more of these toys.

One Step Changer Galvatron

Galvatron is my favorite of the wave.  He’s really blocky in robot mode, but that’s not a big deal to me.  He has a great head sculpt and doesn’t have a hole in his chest.  His truck mode is fantastic.

One Step Changer Slug

I previously reviewed Slug as part of the Target Exclusive One Step Changer Silver Knight 6-Pack.

One Step Changer Steeljaw

Steeljaw looks okay in both modes, but he would look better in the movie colors.  There is a Steeljaw coming in Robots in Disguise, a truck that turns into a wolf like humanoid robot.  I kind of think this was there way of getting the character out there before RID toys come out next year.

Overall:  Not a bad wave overall.  I really like Bumblebee and Galvatron.  Drift has a great vehicle mode.  Steeljaw and Slug are just okay.

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Transformers: Age of Extinction Power Battler Wave 3 (Grimlock, Lockdown, Galvatron, Optimus Prime, Slug, Snarl)

I’m still not sure if these are Power Battlers or Power Attackers.  I hate Hasbro.

Power Battler Grimlock

His tail ends in a fist holding a weapon.  Other than that glaringly stupid design element, he looks pretty good in dinosaur mode.  His robot mode is okay, but his right arm is terrible.  His action feature is his fist spinning with his weapon in it.  The weapon is badly designed.  Each end can slide out to make the shaft longer, if you’re spinning it, it’s fine.  But if you’re not spinning it, there is nothing to lock them in place.  So when it’s not spinning the end on top stays in the short shaft position and the one on the bottom in the long position.  They should have been able to look in either position.

Power Battler Lockdown

I don’t know what someone was on when they designed this piece of crap, but it had to be pretty good stuff.  His idiotically designed legs make it look like he’s trying to do the mambo or is too drunk to walk upright.  His arms are okay, and the missile racks on his back look cool.  You squeeze his legs together to make the missile tilt down and fire.  His car mode doesn’t fit together very well.

Power Battler Megatron

I really like Megatron in both modes.  He has a couple of little issues.  In truck mode the front panel doesn’t quite latch on properly.  Also, the gold disk in his chest sticks out the bottom of the vehicle.  It just barely touches the ground when he’s set on his wheels, but it should have had more clearance.  In robot mode, you push on his back and the disc spins and extends into a gun.

Power Battler Optimus Prime

Optimus Prime looks really great in both modes.  Unfortunately his action feature is awful.  If you squeeze his legs together, his shoulders pivot out 90 degrees.  His chest tips forward pulling another set of arms over his head holding a sword.  Not only is it stupid that he has a second set of arms, but it just doesn’t work very well.

Power Battler Slug

Slug is pretty cool.  He’s got nice paint apps and looks great in both modes.  This is one of few that I don’t have any problems with.

Power Battler Snarl

Snarl might be the best Power Battler yet.  He looks amazing in both modes.  His robot head sculpt is really cool. Action feature is a lever on his back that makes some of the spikes on his back flip out on arms sort of like a scorpion’s sting.  He’s absolutely the best of the wave.

Overall: Snarl is a must.  Galvatron and Slug are pretty good.  Optimus Prime is okay.  Grimlock and Lockdown are terrible.  I am so happy there is only one more wave of these things.

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Transformers: Age of Extinction Platinum Edition Shared Exclusive Leader Optimus Prime & Grimlock 2-Pack

Read my reviews of the original Leader Optimus Prime and Grimlock toys.

Optimus Prime

I really like the new paint job on Leader Optimus Prime.  It’s darker blue and has a lot more chrome on his chest, head, weapon, and smokestacks.  I really like the blue sword as well.

Grimlock

Grimlock looks much better in silver, bronze, green, and blue than he did in his original colors.  This is a really well done repaint.

Overall: This is not a bad looking set, but the cost is ridiculous.  When it first appeared on Toys R Us’s web site it was $109.99.  It then came out on HasbroToyShop.com for $99.99 and suddenly the price was reduced on TRU.  Each toys retailed at $44.99, so this set is overpriced.  Back in 2009 stores had piles of unsold multipacks like this that had been priced more than the retail of the toys in the set.  When for 2010 and DotM, the box sets were more moderately priced, at or a little less than the individual toys would have been, and they seemed to sell a lot better, you would think would have learned their lesson, but apparently not.  Also, I’m a little annoyed at Hasbro’s willingness to throw the “Platinum Edition” name on things.  Some of the early Platinum Edition Toys were something special, older molds in super fancy boxes.  Now it’s just an excuse to bump up the price of a toy.

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Transformers: Age of Extinction Amazon.com Blu-Ray with Exclusive Optimus Prime & Grimlock Statue

I really wanted this when it was announced, but $75 was a bit pricey.  It went on sale for $30 last week and I grabbed one.

The Blu-Ray is the standard version, no special box or extras.  It includes an awesome statue of Optimus Prime riding Grimlock.

It is amazingly detailed, a really beautiful piece.  Grimlock looks fantastic in predominantly gunmetal gray.  Optimus Prime is nicely detailed and painted.  His shield and sword look great.  It is a statue, so no articulation.

Overall: At $30, this is a must.  Not sure if they are still available at that price, but if they are you definitely want to pick this up.

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Transformers: Age of Extinction Deluxe Hot Shot

Hot Spot is repainted from Transformers: Age of Extinction Deluxe Crosshairs.  Read my review of Crosshairs here.

Well, for some idiotic reason they decided to repaint Crosshairs in blue and name him Hot Shot.  I mean, of course this is a much better idea than giving us Bumblebee as Stinger.  (That was sarcasm, for the record.)  Hell, even if it was just a red repaint of Bumblebee like the one scheduled to come out in Japan) I’d rather have Stinger than this.  Since they made such an effort not to make toys that were not in the movie, this one makes no sense at all.

As to Hot Shot, he’s okay.  They didn’t give him a lot of paint apps, accept on his head.  The white helmet looks lousy, and his red face has a few too many layers of paint on it.  I don’t usually care about things like that, but it’s really noticeable.

Overall: For completists only.

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Transformers: Age of Extinction Deluxe Snarl

Dinosaur Mode: Snarl looks fantastic in Stegosaurus mode.  The plates on his back are awesome, and even though I’m not crazy about the color choice, it does look really cool on this mold.  He does have a design flaw.  His weapon sits between his large spikes, connecting in a slot formed by the two sides coming together.  The problem is that it doesn’t stay completely together and leaves his weapon loose.  This was not a problem on the superior San Diego Comic Con 2014 G1 version of this toy.  My guess is that the layer of chrome made all the connections tighter.  It is unfortunate that they did not fix such a glaring flaw on this toy.

Robot Mode: His robot mode looks really cool, but looks can be deceiving.  The plates behind his head make moving his arms, with his tail halves on the back, difficult.  The biggest problem is the idiotic design of his arms.  With his arms at his side, his hands sit parallel to the ground as opposed to his fists pointing at the ground like most toys do with their arms at their side.  This makes him look okay holding his weapons, but it’s not even worth putting his arms out in front of him as that will point his fists up.  It’s absurd.  I’m not too crazy about his head sculpt.

Overall: I can’t really argue against him, even with the flaws, as Snarl has always my favorite G1 Dinobot, and the Stegosaurus was my favorite dinosaur when I was a kid.  He does look awesome in dinosaur mode.

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Transformers: Age of Extinction Deluxe Bumblebee

Bumblebee is repacked from the Evolutions Bumblebee without any changes that I can find.  It’s the exact same toy.  Pics are below, but I’ve already reviewed him here.  If you already have the Evolutions Bumblebee, you only need this if you are a completist and need the unique card back and instruction book.  (So naturally, I got him.)

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