All Transformers: Age of Extinction Toy Reviews

Transformers: Age of Extinction Platinum Edition Shared Exclusive First Edition Leader Optimus Prime with Trailer and Deluxe Sideswipe

Read my reviews of the original First Edition Leader Optimus Prime here and the Masterpiece Optimus Prime (Trailer) here.  I have not previously reviewed this Sideswipe mold.

Optimus Prime

Hasbro took the trailer from MP-10 Masterpiece Optimus Prime and put it on the First Edition Leader Optimus Prime.  They chromed part of his smokestacks and changed the flames from all red to red and yellow.  They also chromed his hubcaps.  The MP-10 trailer has been repainted to match Movie Optimus Prime, with most of the outside of it chromed.  It looks pretty sharp.  I didn’t get a picture of it, but they had to modify the trailer to make it fit on this cab.  They did this by adding a piece under the front of the cab that covers the old connector and give it the one it needs.  They designed it to bolt on to existing screw holes in the trailer with longer screws, thus they did not have to make any mold changes to the trailer.  They made his sword orange and did not paint it, which kind of sucks.  They did not include his shield, which I sort of understand as there is no place to store it in vehicle mode.

Sideswipe

Vehicle Mode: I never did a review of Revenge of the Fallen Sideswipe.  This is a really cool toy in vehicle mode.  The car just looks amazing.  Fans have wanted this mold, originally done in silver, in G1 red for a long time, and I’m glad we finally got it.  I know a lot of people aren’t happy with the new incarnations of old characters, but I think Sideswipe would be more than happy with his vehicle upgrade.

Robot Mode: In robot mode, I like his blade weapons.  They did a good job of giving him wheels for feet like he has in the movies, while still giving him traditional feet so he can be stood up unassisted.  He’s still not the easiest to make stand up, but it’s not as bad as some other toys.  I wish they could have painted his head red and or chest red.

Overall: This is not a bad looking set, especially if you want Optimus in truck mode with the trailer, but the cost is excessive.  It was reported in Toys R Us’s stores at $169.99, though I have yet to see any AOE Platinum toys at TRU.  BBTS had it for $159.99.  It’s hard to figure a reasonable price given that it takes parts of several toys, but it seems really overpriced to me.  I was thinking this one would be $100-$120.  I can’t recommend against it even with the exorbitant price.

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Transformers: Age of Extinction One Step Changers Wave 4 (Megatron, Prowl, Rollbar, Strafe)

One Step Changer Revenge of the Fallen Megatron

I don’t understand this toy.  They went out of their way to do so very few toys that are not in the movie, and we get this one?  If it was based on Megatron’s Dark of the Moon design, then you could argue that he was in the movie, as we see his head in the lab, which was clearly based on his Dark of the Moon design.  However, this toy is based on his Revenge of the Fallen design, so that makes no sense.  Having said all that, it’s a pretty cool toy.  There is not much to his transformation, just a piece on his back that slides and moves some of the panels around.  Not bad for a One Step Changer.

One Step Changer Prowl

Prowl uses the One Step Changer Drift design, which is the best of all One Step Changer transformations.  He looks pretty cool, though the light bar they gave him is a little odd.  Never seen one like that.  I really like his head sculpt.

One Step Changer Rollbar

Rollbar also uses Drift’s transformation.  He could have used a few more paint apps in vehicle mode, but he looks really great in robot mode.  He’s got nice colors and a great head sculpt, though we don’t have anything to compare it to.

One Step Changer Strafe

Strafe, as near as I can tell, is a completely unique mold.  I really like this one.  The simplistic transformation aside, he looks awesome in robot mode.  This might be my favorite Strafe toy.  I kind of like not having the enormous wings and long tails to deal with.

Overall:  Not a bad wave overall.  They are all worth getting.  Mercifully, this would seem to be the last of the AOE One Step Changers.

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Transformers: Movie Advanced (Age of Extinction) Leader Optimus Prime (AD-31)

This is the Japanese remold and repaint of the Age of Extinction Leader Class Optimus Prime.  Please read my review of the original here and the version from the Platinum Edition set here.

This is Takara’s version of Silver Knight Optimus Prime, called Armor Knight Optimus Prime.  That’s a much better name, since I don’t think he turned silver in the movie.  He’s much more accurate to how Optimus looked later in the movie.  His blue plastic and red flames are both metallic, and he looks amazing.  They’ve given him a completely new shield and sword, which look really great.  I love the orange sword.  His forearms have been remolded to show the “knight” tapering, I don’t know what it’s called.  He has a completely new robot chest and in vehicle mode his hubcaps are chromed.  He’s got a blue stripe down the front of his grill.  The coolest change is the new head sculpt.  You can flip up his face and the center of his head and rotate a piece inside so that he has either the mouth of faceplate.  It’s really cool, and such a simple mechanism, it kind of sucks that we don’t get this feature on all movie Optimus Prime toys.

Overall: This one is an absolute must.  At $80, it’s not horribly priced.

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Transformers: Age of Extinction: Walmart Exclusive Construct Bots Dinobot Strafe with Dinobot Riders Bumblebee and Stinger

I have previously reviewed these molds.  Click here for Strafe, and here Bumblebee and Drift.

Bumblebee

Bumblebee is repainted from the regular release version.  He’s lighter yellow and has a black chest, making him look a little bit like the High Octane Bumblebee in robot mode.  Not sure what the three red stripes on his hood are supposed to be.  Claw marks maybe?

Stinger

Stinger is partially a repaint of Drift.  He uses the Drift car body, feet, and arms.  Legs might be from another, I don’t have mine available and the pics I’m looking at online aren’t great.  He does have a Bumblebee head.  Yet another, let’s repaint something (or in this case parts from a bunch of somethings) and call it Stinger.  Disappointing.

Strafe

Strafe’s colors have been changed to blue and orange from blue and light blue.  The blue plastic seems to have some sparkles in it, but they are few and far between.  Really odd looking.  Nothing really special here.

Overall: It’s one of the few Stinger toys we’re going to get, so I guess I can’t completely not recommend it.  Unless you really need Stinger though, you can skip this one.

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So, I’m not really sure what the deal is with this.  BBTS.com had it listed as a “Prize Figure”.  It is essentially a snap together plastic statue.  It’s very cool looking, nicely painted with great mold details.  I really like it, and at $26 it was cheap.  I’m just not sure why it’s called a Prize Figure.  In any case it looks really cool and at that price, you can’t go wrong.

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Transformers: Age of Extinction Platinum Edition Shared Exclusive Autobots United 5-Pack (Bumblebee, Crosshairs, Drift, Hound, Optimus Prime)

These reviews will focus on the new paint jobs.  Read my reviews of the original molds here:(Bumblebee, Crosshairs, Drift, Hound, Optimus Prime.

Bumblebee

In robot mode, the new version has silver toes, silver on the sides of his legs, and silver pistons on his torso.  He has yellow stripes on his thighs and sides of his chest.  He has black striping on his arms and arm cannon.  In vehicle mode he has silver hub caps and silver logos on the sides of the vehicle.  He’s got black on the small triangular windows behind his doors, rear bumper, and rear spoiler.  Also the black striping on his hood and roof are continued onto his trunk (and it is unforgivable this wasn’t done on the original).  They also painted his taillights.

Nice of them to actually finish painting him this time.  The regular version looks like they got 3/4 done and decided it was enough.  He’s a great improvement over the original, but most of that improvement is because of the incompetence with which the original was painted.  His overall coloring stays the same.  This is not the case with some of the others in the set.

Crosshairs

His overall green color has been changed.  I really like it.  In robot mode the new version has green feet silver toes and darker silver on his knees and thighs.  His torso is green with dark silver and red.  He’s got a red Autobot logo on a black patch on his chest.  He’s got blue eyes with silver goggles.  They added black striping on his forearms and red paint apps on his arms, and more black on his shoulders.  In car mode, they changed the black striping patter and continued it on both sides of the vehicle.  His seats and black and his front bumper is now green with a patch of black.  They painted the logo on his hood silver.  They painted his headlights and taillights.

Crosshairs looks phenomenal.  He’s a huge improvement over Hasbro’s half assed retail version.  Hmmm…  Perhaps I’ll start calling them Half-assed-bro.  But I digress.

Drift

Drift looks sweet!  They changed the metallic light blue to a darker richer blue making his two tone color scheme really look nice.  His shoulder and thigh samurai pads are now two tone blue instead of just blue.  His weapons are gray instead of gold.  He has black stripes and a silver vehicle brand logo on his lower torso.  His waist is black as well as his upper arms and he has gold on his right forearm.  His legs are black with more gold paint apps.  His upper chest is also black with some gold apps.  They used darker gold on his face and gave him blue eyes, which looks great.  In vehicle mode his hubcaps match his lighter blue.  Frankly I think the hub caps would have looked better in silver, but it still looks great.  His engine is silver, one of the most idiotic things left out of the original version, and they added the silver logo on the back end of the vehicle.

The overall changes on Drift are not quite as striking as the changes to Crosshairs, but he’s still a huge improvement and looks really great.

Hound

I love what they’ve done with Hound.  Overall he’s more army green than the dark green he was originally, and he now has black camouflage markings.  They added silver paint on his thighs and gave him black hands.  You can’t see it in the photo but one of the strips of ammunition that makes up his arms is red.  Not sure why that is, I would have preferred all the ammo be bronze with silver tips.  He’s got more paint apps on the missiles on his upper arms.  He has silver on the sides of his neck and his helmet.  In vehicle mode they made the metal bars, side mirrors, grill and some other details around the cab black.  On the left side of the vehicle they added a star emblem.

Very nicely done.  If only they had fixed the pegs that connect the weapons, but that would be too much to ask of Half-assed-bro.

Optimus Prime

They did a nice job on Optimus Prime.  His gray plastic is a lighter gray color, but it would have looked better all in silver.  He has silver stripes on his lower legs and thighs and blue on his hips.  His grill and headlights are painted silver and there is a G1 style silver stripe across his chest.  He’s missing the wide silver stripe beside his head that the regular version had.  His fake smokestacks are painted silver.  He uses the faceplate head sculpt and it’s perfectly painted.  He has a much better looking black gun.  His upper shoulders are red and have Autobot logos, and his middle arms are silver.  In robot mode they removed the thick silver stripe in favor of a thinner one.  Looks cool.  Oddly they removed the silver from around his front windows.  I kind of liked that, but my guess is they didn’t want to accentuate his hideous design flaw (the sides and center of the truck front still won’t line up, another unforgivable failure on the part of Half-assed-bro).  The side of the truck now has Autobot logos in the G1 position.  They changed the painting of his small side windows.  Some of his blue plastic is now painted blue.  This is because of other color changes that required changing plastic colors.  This makes the ports on his flat bed red.

Overall he’s very nice, but I’ve lost count of how many of this mold I have.  This one and the heavily chromed one would have been enough.

Overall: This is a really great looking set.  It’s just incredibly overpriced at $125.  $100 would have been reasonable.  What really bothers me is that this is proof that Hasbro KNOWS that they give us crap.  They KNEW that the retail versions were inferior product so they could jack up the price and sell them to us again later.  The only other explanation is that they are completely incompetent and really thought the retail versions were worth what we were paying for them.  While I will grant that Hasbro has shown it’s fair share of incompetence over the years, they do get it right sometimes.  The only conclusion is that sometimes it’s on purpose, and I hope all these overpriced platinum sets sit unsold and end up on clearance.  Stores don’t have them at all yet, which considering this is the time of year they might be able to unload them, is really stupid.  That one might be on Toys R Us.

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Transformers: Age of Extinction Platinum Edition Shared Exclusive Breakout Battle 3-Pack (Rollbar, Vehicon, Optimus Prime)

Someone, I don’t know who, came up with the name “Farmageddon” for this set.  That is so AWESOME!

These reviews will focus on the new paint jobs on Rollbar and Optimus Prime.  Read my reviews of the original molds here: Rollbar and Optimus Prime.

Rollbar

Rollbar, a repaint of generations Skids is painted up like Shane Dyson’s rally car from Age of Extinction.  The mold doesn’t quite work for it.  One of the movie deluxe Skids molds with a new head would have been a better choice, at least in vehicle mode.  Having said that, they did a really nice job painting it, but I’m not sure how accurate it is to the movie.

Vehicon

Dark of the Moon Deluxe Vehicon has been repainted to take the place of one of the Cemetery Wind SUV’s.  I think he’s one of the better deluxe Dark of the Moon molds.  He’s still predominantly black, but the gray has been replaced with blue. Interestingly, they left him with his Mech Tech weapon.  I am a little disappointed that they did not use the 2010 Lockdown mold for the really cool cars that Cemetery Wind was using in the farm attack.  They put the Cemetery wind logo on his hood, which does not photograph very well.  It’s the version without the actual words on it, which is unfortunate.

Optimus Prime

Pictured is the Breakout Battle Optimus Prime (left) with the Movie Advanced Rusty Version Optimus Prime (right).  This is a rare instance where I think Hasbro did something better than Takara.  He looks much better with the black legs and blue head.  In vehicle mode the Japanese version might be a little more accurate, but I really like the red flames on the USA version.  The Japanese version looks too much like Ultra Magnus.

Overall: This is a really great looking set.  It’s just incredibly overpriced at $100.  $60-$70 would have been much more reasonable.  To make matters worse, I *think* Toys R Us is supposed to get this in, but right now Robot Kingdom is the only one who has it, and all of their stuff ships from overseas, so shipping is every expensive.  Fortunately there is only one more of these overpriced platinum sets to come out.

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Transformers: Age of Extinction Platinum Edition Shared Exclusive Dinobots Unleashed 5-Pack (Scorn, Slug, Strafe, Grimlock, Slog)

Hard to believe with is my 800th blog.

These reviews will focus on the new paint jobs.  Read my reviews of the original molds here: Scorn, Slug, Strafe, Grimlock, Slog.  You can read my review of the San Diego Comic Con G1 Dinobots Set here.

A few notes to start.  All the Dinobots are done in dark gray translucent, black, and gray plastic.  They have some chrome and silver paint, both smeared with black plaint to give them a gritty, weathered look.  The translucent dark gray plastic has silver paint smeared on for the same affect.  This is as close to their look in the movie as we are going to get.

Scorn

Really nice looking.  He’s one of my favorite AOE Dinobot molds, and he looks great in these colors.  I love his chromed robot head.  Not sure why they made his spines reddish in color, but it looks pretty good.

Slug

Definitely an improvement on the retail version.  Not sure why they left his back purple.  Gray or black would have looked better.  His dinosaur head looks awesome with the weathered silver chrome.

Strafe

Strafe really looks nice.  His silver wings look amazing with the black paint weathering.

Grimlock

I don’t recall Grimlock having any gold on his head and back in the movie.  Not sure why they couldn’t just go with the silver chrome brushed with black paint like the rest.  Still, he looks really great.

Slog

Be very careful transforming Slog.  This goes for all of them really.  As any collector will tell you, translucent plastic tends to break easier.  The first time I transformed him I broke one side of the base of his dinosaur neck.  It doesn’t prevent his transformation, but I didn’t even push that hard and it broke.  I think the joint was really tight.  Once I got it freed up it seems fine, but be very careful.  This toy should be awesome, but that damn soft plastic flap on his dinosaur chest is still terrible.  I really can’t understand how someone at Hasbro could have been so incompetent as to approve this design.

Overall: This is a really great looking set.  It’s just incredibly overpriced at $120.  $100 would have been more reasonable.  What really sucks is that we can’t get all the Dinobots in a single color scheme.  The Sand Diego Comic Con set was in G1 colors, but didn’t include Slog.  He is coming out from Amazon next month, but we still don’t get Slash and Scorn in those colors.  I know those two weren’t G1 characters, but it would be nice to have them in those colors.  Here we don’t get Snarl and Slash in these colors.  Slog wasn’t in the move and they included him in this set, so if we get him in these colors, why not Snarl and Slash?  This is just another example of Hasbro’s incompetent handling of the Age of Extinction line.

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Transformers: Movie Advanced Deluxe Starscream

When this one originally came out, I did not realize he had new weapons, which might be from another toy.  This does constitute new molding for the toy, so I had to pick it up.

Original Mold: Transformers: Dark of the Moon Deluxe Starscream

Vehicle Mode: Starscream looks better than the original version.  I never really liked the tattooed look.  He looks great in gray with some dark gray camouflaged markings.

Robot Mode: I know I’ve seen those weapons before, and it’s driving me crazy that I can’t remember where.  I am not happy with the way he has to mount the weapons on the sides of his arms, making the fact that they are blade weapons useless.  They should have given him two simple identical guns.  That would have worked much better.

Overall: I wouldn’t bother with this one unless you are a foreign mold completist.  (Yes, I am one.)

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Transformers: Movie Advanced Deluxe Ratchet

When this one originally came out, I did not realize he had a new weapon, a sword, which might be from another toy.  This does constitute new molding for the toy, so I had to pick it up.

Original Mold: Transformers: Dark of the Moon Deluxe Ratchet

Vehicle Mode: They did a nice job repainting Ratchet into more traditional ambulance colors.  He looks really sharp, with great paint apps in vehicle mode.  I wish there was a way to mount the sword under the vehicle, I hate putting swords on the top of a vehicle.  It looks silly.

Robot Mode: Ratchet looks good in robot mode.  I like this mold better than the voyager mold.  Generally I like a larger toy, but this version of Ratchet maintains the same look without being so bulky.

Overall: I wouldn’t bother with this one unless you are a foreign mold completist.  (Yes, I am one.)

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Transformers Artifact of the Week: Transformers: Age of Extinction Optimus Prime G1 and AOE Mini Statues

I don’t know anything about this.  It was cheap, only $5 and I was placing an order with Robot Kingdom, so I grabbed it.  It is now out of stock.

Since it says “Not for Sales” on top, we can conclude this is probably a foreign item, and was likely a give away with a purchase.

Inside there are two small metal statues, just a couple inches tall each.  One is G1 Optimus Prime, the other is AOE Optimus Prime.  A cool item for $5.  I wish I knew how and where it was released.

As always, you can find over 9000 Transformers merchandise items and collectibles at TFMuseum.com.  I have not done an update to the site in a while.  Hopefully I will be doing a major update this winter with more than 1500 more items including a huge number of Age of Extinction items.

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Toys R Us (Japan) Exclusive Transformers: Movie Advanced EZ Collection Clear Optimus Prime

This was a give away at Toys R Us in Japan.  It’s a repaint of Legend (EZ Collection in Japan) G1 Optimus Prime in red, black, and translucent Red.

This toy illustrates one of my biggest complaints about translucent toys.  If you’re going to make them translucent, make them as translucent as possible.  Why the black plastic is not translucent, I don’t know.

There are certain parts that cannot be translucent, as translucent plastic tends to break easily, and parts that will be under stress during transformation need to be opaque, but there are a number of parts on him, most notably his legs, that could have easily been translucent.

Overall: He was only $10, so if you can get him at that price, he’s cool, but he’s really nothing special.

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Amazon.com Exclusive Transformers: Age of Extinction Generation One Voyager Dinobot Slog

Read my review of the retail version of Slog here.  I am just going to talk about his new Generation One paint job.  This Slog is the missing toy from the 2014 SDCC G1 Dinobots Set.  You can read my review of that set here.

Slog looks pretty awesome in G1 colors.  It’s unfortunate that we didn’t get this included with the SDCC set, but at least we got it.  They did a great job coloring him with silver, red, silver chrome, black, and translucent yellow.  He looks perfectly G1.  I am a little disappointed that he is packed in a regular Slog box, not even a sticker to note him as the G1 version.  Hasbro has really phoned the entire AOE line in, and this is just another example of that.  That aside, he is an absolute must for anyone who has the SDCC set.  You simply can’t call that set complete without him.

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Q Transformers Wave 1 and 2 (Optimus Prime, Bumblebee, Lockdown, Crosshairs, Sideswipe, Prowl, Hot Rod, Hotrod, Bumble)

These are pretty cool.  They are tiny, just a couple inches long at most.  Wave 1 is based on Age of Extinction Optimus Prime, Bumblebee, Lockdown, and Crosshairs.  Wave 2 is based on G1 Sideswipe, Prowl, Hot Rod, and Bumblebee (called Bumble in Japan).  Wave 3 includes Alternity Optimus Prime and five more G1 characters and Wave 4 includes three more G1’s and a Nemesis Prime repainted from the Movie Optimus Prime mold.  I hope we will get a G1 Optimus Prime at some point.

There really isn’t a lot to say about these.  I have just a few comments below.

Wave 1

All the vehicle modes are great, especially Crosshairs.  Optimus Prime’s cab kind of extends over the bed, but it doesn’t look bad.  I’m not crazy about Bumblebee’s robot face.  He looks almost like some kind of monster, and not much like his battle helmet.

Wave 2

Sideswipe and Prowl look awesome in vehicle mode.  I do not like Hot Rod.  He should look more futuristic.  At very least he should have a spoiler.  Bumblebee doesn’t look bad, but he should be a VW Bug.  All look amazing in robot mode.

Overall: At about $10 each, less if you buy the sets, they are pretty cheap, certainly cheap enough to make it worth picking up your favorite characters.

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Transformers: Lost Age Prize Figure Bumblebee

So, I’m not really sure what the deal is with this.  BBTS.com had it listed as a “Prize Figure”.  It is essentially a snap together plastic statue.  It’s very cool looking, nicely painted with great mold details.  I really like it and it was cheap.  I’m just not sure why it’s called a Prize Figure.  In any case it looks really cool and at that price, you can’t go wrong.

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Transformers: Age of Extinction Toys R Us Exclusive Kre-O Micro-Changer Collection Two (Blackarachnia, Frostbite, Fuselage, Gears, Runamuck, Scattershot, Seaspray, Skalor, Skimmer, Sunstreaker, Trailbreaker, Wheelie)

Regrettably, this appears to be the last wave of Micro-Changers that won’t suck.  The pictures of the Robots in Disguise Micro-Changers are going away from classic characters and to really stupid ones like Sherrif Optimus Prime, Pirate Starscream.  Yes, you read that right.  It’s really unfortunate as they’ve just started giving us a lot of classic G1 characters like Gears, Seaspray, Sunstreaker, and Trailbreaker that I’ve been waiting forever for, even if many are not being based on G1.

Blackarachnia

Very nicely done.  We really should have got more Beast Wars characters.  I would have loved to have the entire main cast in Micro-Changers.

Frostbite

Frostbite is okay, but nothing really special.

Fuselage

Fuselage, like many of the jets would look a lot better if they had painted some cockpit widows on the back of his robot helmet.

Gears

They did a great job painting Gears torso and legs.  He looks excellent.  His truck mode is as good as any wheeled vehicle mode Micro-Changer, which is to say, it doesn’t completely suck.

Runamuck

I really like Runamuck’s white and orange color scheme.

Scattershot

Scattershot looks more like Jetfire.  He’s nicely painted and I really like his jet mode.

Seaspray

Sadly, they seem to have designed Seaspray’s art after the Transformers 2010 Voyager Seaspray rather than the G1.  I’m not crazy about his vehicle mode, which is also clearly not based on the G1.

Skalor

Well, I thought we had already gotten all six Seacons, but I guess not.  He looks great, and they took the extra step of painting the Monster eyes onto the back of the robot helmet.

Skimmer

they should have done him in red and called him Terrorsor.  He looks okay, but he’s nothing special.

Sunstreaker

Sunstreaker look awesome, I just wish he was more G1 based.

Trailbreaker

Like Sunstreaker, Trailbreaker looks great, but he does not seem to be G1 based.  His art makes him look more like Movie Ironhide.

Wheelie

Wheelie is perfect in robot mode and pretty good in vehicle mode.  Sadly, he’s better than the G1 toy.  Maybe some day w can get a really good G1 Wheelie that doesn’t suck.

Overall: It’s a great set, with some fan favorite G1 characters, even if they aren’t based on G1.

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Transformers: Movie Advanced Deluxe Stinger

Thanks to Takara we finally have a real Stinger toy, as pathetic as it is.  Please read my review of Age of Extinction Deluxe Bumblebee.  I’m only going to talk about the new paint job.

Well, I guess it’s better than nothing.  Hasbro and Takara in their infinite stupidity decided not to make a new mold toy for one of only three villains in the movie.  There was Lockdown, Galvatron, and Stinger.  That’s it.  How can you not make a toy (accept for a crappy One Step Changer and some Legion repaints) of one of the three principal villains?  The level of incompetence necessary to do this is almost unimaginable.  It makes no sense.  Even this one is just a repaint of Bumblebee.  They could have at least given him a new head sculpt.  Hasbro did such a piss poor job on the Age Of Extinction line that the people responsible should be fired (more on that in a future blog).  It would have been so much easier to just make Stinger a Camaro in the movie and then all this could have been avoided.

Anyway…

The toy looks pretty good, and it is a really great mold.  He’s got lots of paint details in robot mode, and the black hood and roof look better than I thought they would.  It just doesn’t look anything like Stinger’s vehicle mode, and at the end of the day that’s the biggest problem with it.

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Transformers: Age of Extinction Toys R Us Exclusive Kre-O Custom Kreons Grimlock, Scorn, Slug, Strafe

I have very little to say about these.  It still annoys me that we have not had Micro-Changers of most core TF characters and gets Custom Kreons instead (not true of this wave, I’m just saying).  They’re nothing special.  These ones never made it to stores in the USA.  I had to get mine from Canada, and I don’t want to talk about what they cost.  The one interesting thing to note, is that if you built them with the gray parts and silver helmets, they are the same approximate colors as in the movie.  Or you can used the colored parts and make them look more like the toys. I didn’t use the chromed helmets as they are really hard to get them off the heads.

These also bring the AOE Kre-O line to an end.  Well, with the exception of the Elite Optimus Prime which some idiotic jackasses decided to only release at a foreign convention and at Canadian TRU stores for one day.  Fucking idiots.

Grimlock

Scorn

Slug

Strafe

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Transformers: Age of Extinction Power Battlers Wave 4 (High Octane Bumblebee, Junkheap, Vehicon)

I’m still not sure if these are Power Battlers or Power Attackers.  I would say that it does not matter anymore, but they have continued this crap with the RID line.  I hate Hasbro.

These are the last items to be released in the main AOE line.  They will be impossible to find.  I had to buy a case to get them.  Junkheap in particular will be hard to find.  He is only shipping in wave 4 cases.  Wave 4 and 4.1 have the other two.  I hate Hasbro.

The only items that remain in the AOE line are the Construct Bots Dino Riders Starscream and Galvatron, but as no Construct Bots were shown at Toyfair, my guess is the line is cancelled, and they never saw production.  Only time will tell if they show up.  It wouldn’t be the first time something showed up later that we assumed was canceled.  I hate Hasbro.

Power Battler High Octane Bumblebee

Bumblebee’s car mode looks pretty great, maybe even better than the deluxe version.  The metallic blue windows really look nice on the black.  I think, if I remember correctly, he should have had a yellow spoiler, but that’s the only problem with it.  His robot mode is quite good also.  His action feature works really great.  Rotate him at the waist and her extends his right arm with the cannon.

Power Battler Junkheap

This one is a must.  Junkheap is great in vehicle mode.  The only issue is that his arms are visible on the top of the cab.  It shouldn’t have been too had to create a panel that covered that.  Still it looks really great.  His robot mode could use a few more paint apps, but he looks pretty good.  Not a fan of the plain gray arms, they should really have been painted white.  This would also have helped with the top of the cab.

Power Battler Vehicon

I don’t think I ever looked at the promotional pics of this wave.  I assumed Vehicon would be an SUV.  It’s nice that we at least got the Rally Fighter in some way, even if it wasn’t the deluxe toy we should have got.  (More on that in my scathing evisceration… err… review… of the Age of Extinction toy line, coming soon.)  The vehicle mode is fantastic.  His robot mode is all right, but has one major design flaw.  His action feature is to put down on the windshield on his back and his right arm with the saw blade raises and spins.  The issue is that the windshield is only held on by two thin pieces of plastic.  It seems extremely likely to break if played with a lot.  My other issue with his robot mode is his head sculpt.  If you look at the box art, he has a fairly normal looking green visor but if you look at the top, it extends back on the sides of his head farther back than his ears would be (if he had ears).  It just looks odd.

Overall: This is a great wave overall if you can find them.  They will likely cost you $100 or more for the three, with Junkheap being the hardest to find and most expensive.  As good as they are, I’m not sure they are really worth the price.

Thanks for reading!

All Transformers: Age of Extinction Toy Reviews

It’s over!  The quest, which began on May 17, 2014, came to an end March 19, 2015 when I received my impossible to find last wave of Power Battlers.  The Age of Extinction is now over, but it’s bad smell will linger.  This was one of the worst Transformers toy lines ever.

(There are two Construct Bots Dino Riders not yet accounts for, but given the likely cancellation of Construct Bots, I’m guessing we’ll never see Starscream and Galvatron.)

A few notes before we get started.  I am only talking about actual main line toys, no store exclusives.  Every TF line has it’s share of store exclusive repacks or repaints from older lines.  Nothing significant there.  The only exclusive that matters in One Step Changer Stinger since he should have been a main line toy.  At the end I will talk a bit about Construct Bots and Kre-O, but they really are an offshoot and not the main line.

I am going to go sub line by sub line, but there are a few overall issues first.

Packaging

The Generations segment of the line has the class (Deluxe, Leader, Voyager) in small letters on the side of the box or bubble.  None of the other toys have a classification explicitly stated on them.  Some sort of do.  One Step Changers and Flip & Change say what they do, but that’s not really a class.  The worst of these is Power Battlers, which in some literature are referred to as Power Attackers.  We don’t even know for sure what the damn line is supposed to be called.  Titan Guardians and Titan Heroes have no way to tell which is which at all, or even that those are the class names.  Even Hasbro, who has shown they can do really stupid things, should be above this level of incompetence.  This has continued into Robots in Disguise.

Younger Kids vs. Older Kids vs. Collectors

This makes sense in principle.  You have a segment of the line for collectors, a segment of the line for older kids, and a segment for younger kids.  The problem is that of 69 toys only 19 of them are Deluxe, Voyager, and Leader making 50 toys aimed at kids and younger kids.  I understand the idea of having toys for younger kids, but every line has always done that while the Deluxe, Voyager, and Leader make up the core of the line.  The three previous movie lines had Legends and Legion, and DotM added the very popular Cyberverse Commander line.  These were all much simpler toys that younger kids could enjoy and many collectors loved.  For the much younger kids, DotM had Activators, Bash Bots, Go-Bots, Revving Robots, and Robo Fighters all under the Robo Power brand name.  This insane shift towards toys for younger kids makes no sense at all, especially for a line based on a PG-13 movie that most of them won’t see for many years.

Then there is the issue of the quantity of toys at each class.  How many kids are going to get all eighteen One Step Changers or all fifteen Power Battlers?  Kids don’t generally buy that many toys, and even at Christmas aren’t likely to get that many.  It makes no sense to make such a big part of the line aimed specially at younger kids.  Add to that, there are characters they put in the One Step Changers and Power Battlers that we didn’t even get in Deluxe, Leader, and Voyager, and it makes even less sense.

I don’t have a problem with the idea of simpler toys.  There were a lot of toys especially from RotF and DotM that I never transformed because I didn’t have the patience.  We did see that toys could be simplified and still detailed in the AOE line.  A lot of the Deluxes and Voyagers were great, but the emphasis on super simplicity is a huge mistake.

They are continuing all these things into Robots in Disguise, but even more extremely.  The Warrior toys aren’t bad, but are not as detailed as AOE Deluxes.  An awful lot of collectors are interested in this line, and the lack of real Deluxes, not to mention the absence of anything remotely resembling Leaders and Voyagers, shows Hasbro’s total lack of understanding of what interests the fans collectors they claim to love.  Sure, they’ve done a decent job on Generations, but to assume collectors have no interest in RID is shortsighted and stupid.

Dinobot Colors

According to this article on ToplessRobot.com this is Hasbro’s explanation for the random and nonsensical colors of the Dinobot toys:

“When it comes to the movie Grimlock toys being predominantly gold versus the gray in the movie, it’s a choice to make the toys pop out a bit more, and to get kids to associate that color with the character, like they associate yellow with Bumblebee and blue/red with Optimus.”

First off, I think the movie colored Grimlock in the Platinum set pops way more than the retail version, but that’s an aesthetic choice, and while I think staying with movie colors always makes the most sense, and they would have looked great, I understand the decision.  As to the rest, it might make sense to try to associate colors with the Dinobots if there was some media with the Dinobots for kids to see those colors.  If there were an Age of Extinction cartoon series with them in these colors, then it would make sense, but there is no reason for kids to associate a color with a character they have never seen and no nothing about.  If you want them to associate, then they need some media, ideally a weekly cartoon, for kids to make the association.  Then when they see the toys on the pegs it makes a connection.  There is NOTHING to connect the Dinobot colors outside the toys hanging on the pegs, so their explanation makes absolutely no sense.  At least with Bumblebee and Optimus Prime, they have those colors associated for many years on other cartoons even if they aren’t based on AOE.  There is no logic behind their explanation.  None at all.

Okay, now on to the toys.  God help us.

Deluxe

The eleven Deluxe toys were overall very good.  Bumblebee, Crosshairs, Drift were all great molds, but unfortunately wouldn’t be properly painted until the Platinum set.  Leave it to Hasbro to intentionally release sub par toys so they can later do them right and overcharge us for them.  They of course did the same for the Dinobots.  Scorn is a particularly good mold, Snarl as well accept for his arms.  The colors on the toys were not at all bad, they just weren’t right.  Overall they did a great job on this series.  The big problem was the toys that were missing.  Having no Deluxe Stinger is unforgivable.  I am aware there is an issue with use of the car design.  So then don’t use the car in the movie, or do a toy that’s close but not exact.  Hell, the Japanese Bumblebee repaint was better than nothing (though it needed a new head).  Other characters we should have had Deluxes for are Junkheap, Rally Fighter Vehicon, Steeljaw, and Shane’s rally car.  I wouldn’t have minded a new mold SUV Vehicon either.  It would have been nice to have a few of the unnamed Decepticons in the movie since the line is so light of Decepticons.  They could have easily done eight to ten more toys in this line.

Leader

Talk about a waste.  One great Optimus Prime and one sort of okay Grimlock (I think the Voyager was better) were all the Leader toys we got.  (Not including the Bumblebee from DotM which a Costco Exclusive and considered a Leader.)  And of course, we got them with better pain jobs later.  At very least we should have had a Leader Galvatron.  I know in the past Hasbro has said that Leader Decepticons haven’t sold well, but let’s look at the Leader Deceptions of the past that didn’t sell and why.

From the first movie we had Megatron, who was never a great toy, not having a real earth alternate mode.  We got Leader Brawl who was an awesome toy, but had no lines in the movie (accept in Cybertronian).  Having no personality, I doubt a lot of people were terribly interested in cannon fodder even though it was a great toy.  Then they repainted Brawl into Dessert Brawl making him even less relevant.  Of course none of these were going to sell.

For Revenge of the Fallen we had Megatron, who again had no real earth alternate mode, and a less relevant repaint of him.  If they were considering Jetfire a Decepticon, that toy was just a piece of crap and one of the most disappointing Transformers ever (and I was really looking forward to it).

For Dark of the Moon, there were no Leader Decepticons.  For the 2010 line we got the Leader Starscream that they didn’t release for DotM.  That was a pretty good toy  If it didn’t sell it was likely because they didn’t release it with the DotM toys like they should have.

This leads to an unmistakable conclusion.  Decepticon Leader toys don’t sell because Hasbro makes lousy Decepticon Leader toys.  The only good ones were Brawl and Starscream, and Brawl was a throw away character, and some people aren’t going to spend Leader money on a toy that is not of a relevant character.  Starscream they released after the line was over for a movie in which he had died.  Decepticon Leaders not selling is due to Hasbro’s failures.

I also think a Leader Hound would have been absolutely awesome with piles of accessories, especially if they could have given him a voice chip with John Goodman screaming, “YOU’RE ALL GONNA DIE!”  I’d have bought three (one in robot mode, one in vehicle mode, and one on my desk so I can push the button all the time).  If any character deserved a Leader class toy it was Hound who had maybe the best scene in the movie as he’s making a last stand protecting the seed and humans all by himself against hoards of Decepticons.  Movie Hound is badass and deserved better.

Voyager

Boy, did they really screw the pooch with the Voyagers.  Optimus Prime was pretty great.  Hound would have been the best toy in the line, but his damn weapons keep falling off because they didn’t design the pegs right.  This is an unconscionable design flaw.  Drift, while a repaint and remold of the one of the best toys in the Dark of the Moon line, and the best helicopter Transformer of all time, but looks nothing like he should.  We would have been better off with a Generations Springer remold so he was at least a Triplechanger.  Galvatron is pretty cool, though much simpler than most Voyager toys.  I really can’t complain about him.  Slog could have been a great toy, but that soft plastic flap that is supposed to make his dinosaur chest and cover his robot head doesn’t stay in place at all.  It is an absolute fail.  Add to all this that we should have had some Voyager cars.  Lockdown at least, and a Crosshairs would have been great.  A Voyager Snarl would have been great too, but then I’m biased because I always loved the Stegosaurus.

Dino Sparkers

Do I really need to say anything about these?  They’re fun for the kids.  I would have no problem with these if not for there being so many One Step Changers and Power Battlers.

Flip & Change / Smash & Change

This line is a bit odd.  The only Smash & Change toy is Optimus Prime.  The rest are Flip & Change.  These, like the Dino Sparkers, are fun for kids, though the cares are not very well designed.  I’m just not sure we really needed five of them.  All three cars have the exact same transformation.  Had they not done Bumblebee and Drift, this would have been a better line.  Grimlock was okay.  Prime wasn’t awful.  The cars just weren’t good at all.

Titan Guardians & Titan Heroes

I understand the existence of the Titan Heroes line.  Hasbro has been making 12 inch toys with little articulation in all their major lines.  It makes sense to do that with Transformers as well, they just don’t translate as well as others do.  As to the Titan Guardians, they seem to be a throwback to the two foot tall robot figures of old.  Not really very good, and a pain in the ass to store.  Again, these would have been fine for the kids line if not for there being so many One Step Changers and Power Battlers.

One Step Changers

There are entirely too many of these crappy things.  Some aren’t bad.  The ones that transform like the Drift car (HO Bumblebee, Prowl, and Rollbar) are pretty cool.  The cars that pop open are awful.  That is Crosshairs, Lockdown, and the only Stinger we got which was impossible to find.  I only ever saw the one I bought in stores.  Some of the Dinobots weren’t awful.  Grimlock, Slash, and Slug sort of unfold heir arms out to the side to transform.  The rest is a mixed bag.  RotF Megatron should never have been made, there was no need.  Galvatron was okay as was Drift.  Bumblebee was awful.  Steeljaw wasn’t much better.  Strafe and Hound weren’t too bad.  Optimus Prime wasn’t terrible.  This line just didn’t need so many toys, especially with so many of them being bad.

We also got a couple of larger One Step Changers.  Mega Bumblebee wasn’t terrible, but really wasn’t necessary.  Were there fewer of the smaller ones, this would be less annoying.  Chomp & Stomp Grimlock is not a toy collectors would enjoy, but kids would love.  Can’t complain about this one.  I would have spent hours playing with it when I was a kid.  It’s toys like this that we should have for younger kids, and not piles of poorly conceived One Step Changers that are terrible because they had to be designed to change in one step.

Power Battlers

Like One Step Changers there are just to many of these.  Plus several of these characters should have had deluxe toys instead.  It’s sort of a mixed bag.  Bumblebee and Crosshairs are incapable of lowering an arm, so they suck.  Strafe and Hound are okay.  Galvatron and Optimus Prime’s action features don’t work very well at all.  Grimlock is awful.  His tail ends in a fist holding his weapon.  Lockdown might be in the running for the worst toy ever.  It looks like he’s drunk and walking on his ankles.  He’s absolute garbage.  I wouldn’t give it to a dog as a chew toy.  Hasbro should be embarrassed to have released a toy this bad.  People should be fired for it.  Okay, I’m done ranting about Lockdown.  Scorn and Snarl look awesome and Drift has a really cool action feature.  Slug looks pretty good too.  Probably the best three toys in the line are the last three that are so hard to get, most people will never have them.  High Octane Bumblebee’s action feature is great and Junkheap is pretty awesome.  Vehicon has an awesome vehicle mode, albeit with a lousy head sculpt and poorly functioning action feature in robot mode.

There are just so many Power Battlers and One Step Changers that should never have been made and had Deluxes instead.  It’s sad, really.

Kre-O Building Sets

Having finally figured out that building sets that have to be disassembled to transform suck, Hasbro did a reasonably god job with these.  The Dinobots were cool and the Kreons are always cool.  The only problem is the Elite Optimus Prime, which was apparently only available at a convention is Asia and at TRU stores in Canada for one day only.  I’m still looking for one.  There was also two sets, the Silver Knight Kreon five pack and Decepticon Replicator Chamber which were never going to be released in the USA, most likely since Kre-O was exclusive to TRU and Stinger (from the replicator set) was exclusive to Walmart and Silver Knight Optimus Prime was exclusive to Target.  This exclusivity crap, especially for a main character like Stinger, was really stupid.

Kre-O Custom Kreons

These things are such a complete waste, especially when we still don’t have Micro-Changers of core TF characters.  Wave 3 never showed up in the USA at all.

Kre-O Micro-Changer Blind Buys

The two waves did include a bunch of G1 characters along with some new random ones.  What really annoys is that we didn’t get any of the core AOE characters.  No Drift.  No Hound.  No Lockdown.  None at all.  It makes no sense.  Wave 2 never showed up in the USA at all.

Kre-O Micro-Changer Combiners

These are all new characters with no fiction.  Some of them are pretty cool, but honestly, I would have preferred some G2 combiners.

Construct Bots Dino Riders

As there were no new Construct Bots shown at Toyfare, I am assuming the line has been canceled.  The Dino Riders were pretty cool.  Unfortunately, they suffer from the same problem as the rest of the line, the underlying design of all of them is the same.  Still, these were cheap and small and pretty cool for what they are.

Construct Bots Dinobot Warriors

I actually really like these.  The vehicles were pretty cool and better designed than previous Construct Bots.  When the Dinobot partner becomes armor and weapons for the robot they look pretty great.  I would not have minded if they had done a few more of these.

Construct Bots Dinobots

Leave it to Hasbro to get it right just before they cancel a line.  The Dinobots was unquestionably the best of the Construct Bots.  They did a great job designing a geared mechanism that was part of their transformation.  I was really disappointed that we never got Slog and Snarl as Construct Bots.  There was a large Grimlock toy, which was okay, but just too large in my opinion.

Overall: There were some great toys in the Age of Extinction line.  There were also some complete crap fests.  There were entirely too many geared towards little kids and not enough Deluxe, Leader, and Voyager toys.  It’s sad that a celebrated brand like Transformers has been so mishandled.  They are making some of the same mistakes with the RID line, ignoring the fact that collectors are interested in the new cartoon and only making toys for kids.  They are doing a half decent job with Generations Combiner Wars, but are making the mistake of using IDW’s awful changes to classic characters rather than staying with the true source material.  They are realizing that to some degree.  The upcoming release of Quickslinger (Slingshot) and Break-Neck (Wildrider) is a good sign.  And to be fair, they are making some good calls such as making Grove a Legend rather than a Deluxe to make him better in scale with his teammates.  So it’s not all bad.  I really hope they have learned some lessons from the mess that was Age of Extinction.  Unfortunately, history indicates they won’t learn enough of them.

You can read all my Age of Extinction reviews and see pictures of all my AOE and TF 2014 merchandise here.

Thanks for reading!