And thus the great cataloging of my collection continues.
Transformers Universe was… it was…. it was a bloody mess to be honest!
Starting out in 2003, it was intially a way to milk existing moulds. It took figures from G2, Beast Wars, Beast Machines and theUnicron Trilogyand released them as their original characters with new colour schemes, or else repainted them into different characters completely.
Then it moved on to new characters and toys, such as making Micromaster combiners out of classic teams, and limped along for several years, releasing a smattering of figures here and there, even pulling other toys under its umberella that really should be classified under different toylines such as figures from G1, Titanium, Robot Heroes and even Masterpiece.
Then in 2008 they revamped the line, with many new toys of existing G1 characters, picking up where the Classics line left off, making it quite popular until the line came to an end in 2010. Some of the figures were also released under the Takara banner Henkei! Henkei!
Toys and characters from almost every continuity, Micromasters, Targetmasters, Combiners, Autobots, Decepticons, Predacons, Maximals, Mini-Cons, Spychangers, repaints, retools – the line had everything while at the same time specializing in nothing, and making it damn hard to keep track of for collectors.
So check out what I deemed worthy to grab with my personal Transformers Universe collection below!
My Transformers Universe Collection
Universe Autobot Figures
*Item #UNA001: Transformers Universe 25th Anniversary Autobot Optimus Prime (MISB)
And thus the great cataloging of my personal collection continues.
Transformers Robots in Disguise (15) was very much an “Eh – it was ok” entry into the Transformers multiverse. Set in the Aligned Continuity, it was meant to be the sequel toTransformers Prime and run cocurrent to Transformers Rescue Bots. However whilst Prime impressed fans with its ongoing mature storyline, impressive graphics and excellet figures, Robots in Disguise was far more simplistic and considered a downgrade. The cartoon became a The Tick like show where the team battled a differently themed bad guy each week, and the toyline introduced Warrior-class and 1-step changer toys – simplistic toys with simplistic transformations.
Whilst never hated like Kiss Players, Robots in Disguise (15) failed to impress anyone, and will remain a cartoon and toyline that the majority of fans feel ambivelent about. At least we got some better figures from other toylines RID crossed over with such as Adventure and Go!
Transformers Robots In Disguise (15)/Adventure Action Figure List
Autobot Figures
*Item #RID150001: Transformers Robots in Disguise Autobot Mega Optimus Prime
*Item #RID150002: Transformers Robots in Disguise Autobot Optimus Prime
*Item #RID150003: Transformers Robots in Disguise Autobot Drift
*Item #RID150004: Transformers Robots in Disguise Mini-Con Jetstorm
*Item #RID150005: Transformers Robots in Disguise Mini-Con Slipstream
*Item #RID150006: Transformers Robots in Disguise Strongarm
*Item #RID150007: Transformers Robots in Disguise 9 (1-step) Strongarm
*Item #RID150008: Transformers Robots in Disguise Sideswipe
*Item #RID150009: Transformers Robots in Disguise Activator Sideswipe
*Item #RID150010: Transformers Robots in Disguise Mini-Con Great Byte
*Item #RID150011: Transformers Robots in Disguise Twinferno
*Item #RID150012: Transformers Robots in Disguise Bumblebee
*Item #RID150013: Transformers Robots in Disguise Blurr
*Item #RID150014: Transformers Adventure TAV23 Jazz
*Item #RID150015: Transformers Robots in Disguise Stormshot
*Item #RID150016: Transformers Robots in Disguise Windblade
A few years ago Wizards of the Coast, in conjunction with Hasbro, released the Transformers Trading Card Game.
Though the game has come to a close now, it was very popular for quite a while, and WOTC/Hasbro were even kind enough to send me a few different sets to review when the game was at its height. Even if you no longer play the game, the artwork on the cards makes them well worth keeping.
And so it begins, the great cataloging for my personal and ever expanding Transformers Collection!
And what better place to start than where the whole shebang kicked off – G1! Listed sequentially, and with accompanying photographs, here is the G1 Decepticon toys I have amassed over the last 35+ years.
Transformers Generation One Decepticon Collection
(Note: All figures in photographs listed from Top Left to Bottom Right)
It seems like only yesterday fans were swooning over finally getting an updated set of Stunticons in the Combiner Wars and Unite Warriors toy lines. Fan favorites, the Stunticons were the second ever combiner group to be introduced in the G1 Transformers cartoon and their rebellious attitude and sweet alt-modes gave the Autobots a run for their money on the roads. This has lead to them appearing in multiple toylines, from KRE-O to Bot Shots to even Robots in Disguise.
Well the Stunticons are back again – well – two of them anyway, with more along later in the year. Drag Strip was released several months ago and Motormaster – the latest Commander Class figure – has just hit stores here in Australia. So without further ado, lets have a look at Legacy Motormaster & Drag Strip!
Drag Strip
Robot Mode
‘Yes I have a name like a bloke in a dress taking his clothes off – wanna make something of it?’
There is a lot of yellow going on here, like a lot. The faux-engine in his chest and the guns and head break it up a bit, but this here fella is yella through and through I tell ya what! But he still a nice looking figure with good proportions, a very cartoon-accurate countenance and no big ugly combiner peg in his chest. Overall an improvement on what has come before. His articulation is quite good, with ankle-tilts and a decent range of motion in all his limbs.
‘Draw pardner!’
His two pistols can be combined into one double-barreled gun and can also be stored on the backs of his thighs.
Vehicle Mode
NOW the name makes sense
A really beautiful and faithful rendition of the original toy, Drag Strip finally turning into a 6-wheeled racer again rather than a Mirage wannabe. There is very little to fault here and kudos to the designers for making him look sweet as!
The pistols can be added to his vehicle form, giving it a battle mode. Gotta say it is an improvement on the giant cannon that plugged into the back of the G1 toy. Overall this is a really nice figure with an intuitive Transformation and perhaps the nicest official Drag Strip figure we have ever had.
The original Motormaster toy was quite different from his cartoon depiction. The toy had its body made from the trailer so was therefore grey, whilst the entire cab made up Motomaster’s feet. This made the toy a bit comical, although very easy to stand up admittedly, with his feet being the size of Prime’s alt-mode on their own! The cartoon kinda skirted around this by making Motormaster predominantly black, as if he was made up from just the cab like Prime was. This Motormaster comes with a trailer but the robot is made up solely of the cab, though they gave him little fake-cab feet, which are actually pretty cute, if quite odd. The lower legs are disproportionately big compared to the rest of him, but that beautiful face-sculpt more than makes up for it.
Overlord eat your heart out
Motormaster has good range of arm motion, but very little swivel in the neck and the legs are too bulky to do much with. Still very good overall however and more cartoon reminicent than the larger Unite Warriors version.
Vehicle Mode
The King of the Road is back baby!
Now this is what I’ve been waiting for – Motormaster with a trailer! Just like I’ve often felt many Optimus Prime toys have been lacking when they come sans trailer, I was disappointed we got no trailer for any of the Motormaster toys subsequent to the original one. Though it’s not as long as I would have liked, it is an extremely welcome addition and really makes the toy for me. Motormaster doesn’t appear nearly as big as the other Commander-class figures in their alt-modes, but that is due to just how jam-packed with parts the trailer is. This mode is what made me want to go buy the figure, and it has (except for the quibble of length) not disappointed. Plus unlike the original toy the cab can detach too!
‘Suck a fat one Optimus and Ultra Magnus – I can do this now too!’
Base Mode
The original Motormaster toy had a sorta base mode, complete with a ramp for his little roller-drone to drive down. This base mode is by far an improvement on the original, with the entire trailer partsforming into a big gun emplacement. This helps make up for Motormaster’s lack of a rifle. It actually looks pretty sweet in person, and while not as cool as Sky-Lynx‘s shuttle launch bay, looks a lot cooler than Rodimus Prime‘s gun trailer. Given everything the trailer has to do to become both a gun-emplacement and parts for Menasor, the partsforming is forgivable in my opinion. The one silly thing is that Motormaster has to put down the sight in order to actually use the gun.
Between robot mode, truck mode and base mode this is easily the best Motormaster figure we have ever had, and we haven’t even got to the gestalt gimmick yet!
It’s a bit hard to do a review of Menasor at this stage since only two of his five components have been released, but I’ll give it a shot.
Drag Strip Component
Ouch!
While they fully made up the limbs of the original G1 toy, in the cartoon the four smaller Stunticons seemed to simply plug onto pre-existing limbs to give them more bulk, and that is apparently the route they are going with this rendition of the Stunticons. Whilst I appreciate toon-accuracy, I’m not a big fan of this, and poor old Drag Strip has to literally split in half in order for Menasor to use his right elbow. It might be screen-accurate, but personally it’s not my cup of tea.
Motormaster Component
Motormaster himself converts into the upper torso of Menasor, whilst his trailer becomes the chest, hands, feet and, er…., exoskeleton of the rest. Once again partsforming is in play. It’s actually quite cleverly done and this mode, like all the others of Motormaster, consists of lots of tab-slotting which gives a lot of structure stability to the figure. I appreciate how the effect overall differentiates this Menasor from his CW/UW counterpart, who because of the design looked similar to many of his toyline gestalt peers. I will reserve judgement on his good this Menasor is until I get the remaining three Stunticons. The gun turret from the base mode stays separate to Menasor and is useable by him, though it does look a bit odd, with it being so big compared to Motormaster, and so small compared to the combined form.
Both Motormaster and Drag Strip are a significant improvement on their predecessors. Both have smaller robot modes but this is far outweighed by both their visual appearances and the intricacy of their toys. Both have good transformations, and despite the multiple configurations inherent in Motormaster there is never a point where one feels frustrated by the process and all the tabs lock tight and sweet! There is one issue however:
photodegradation
There have been many, many reports of yellowed parts on this first batch of Motormaster. I lucked out that there was only one small panel suffering from it on mine, but there have been reports of much worse from many Aussie TF fans. If you purchase a Motormaster and find many such panels, I suggest you try to swap for another.
As previously stated, I am reserving judgement on their Menasor mode before I fully review that mode. Right now my plan for my Transformatorium is to have, regarding my Stunticons, my Combiner Wars in their combined mode, my Unite Warriors in their robot modes and the Legacy toys in the vehicle modes. Then I have the best of all 3 worlds!
So yeah, Legacy Motormaster and Drag Strip – go pick them up! Just watch for the yellowing, only that dang varmint Stripper should be yeller on his belly.
Got something to say about these figures? Pop it in the comments section below!
Last time we looked at the plethora of new cards to be picked up from the Rise of The Combiner Booster Packs for the Transformers Trading Card Game, along with their abilities and drop rates.
Well as promised, this time we will see the cards in play! As there are already dozens of youtube videos and sites that are showing Combiners facing off against each other, and the only two Combiners I can make so far are Menasor and Dreadwing, I thought we would do something different – a Combiner vs a Titan!
Clash of the Tit… er…. big bots!
It would be a bit unfair to send ol’ Dreadwing up against Metroplex I thought, so I picked Menasor for the battle. I will be looking mainly at how the Stunticons and Menasor perform.If you would like to read more about how the Metroplex character functions, please check out my review of the Metroplex Pack here.
Before starting, it should be noted that I received these cards for review purposes from Hasbro and Wizards of the Coast. Neither company has paid me nor tried to dictate the contents of this review. Bigangrytrev would like to thank both companies for their generosity.
Setting up the board
When setting up to battle with a Combiner, you will of course have all members of that team. There is little point in having 4 Stunticons on the board but leaving Drag Strip at home. All cards are (for Combiners that use 5 characters) 5 stars apiece. Pick three to shove up front and a couple to hang behind. The difference between each Stunticons stats is negligible, though Motormaster is ever so slightly stronger, so I recommend getting him ready to rock.
Making Menasor
Find this Card!
First off, don’t worry about if some of your Stunticons are KO’ed. You can still make them into Menasor.
Unlike the G1 cartoon, to join all your characters together they all need to be in robot mode, even your KO’ed ones.
You need to employ the Stunticon Enigma card. If this has been thrown to the discard pile, don’t worry. Being a green card, it can be retrieved and swapped with one of your own.
Once combined, Menasor will carry over any damage points taken by the individual Stunticons, so try to get him to combine before they get too hurt.
When combined, you will discard all the Utility, Attack and Defense cards your individual bots were sporting, except one from each catagory which can then be applied to Menasor.
Menasor vs Metroplex
Menasor Crush!
They have surprisingly similar stats:
*Both have 25 Stars.
*Metroplex has stats of 6 Attack, 35 Health and 1 Defense.
*Menasor has stats of 6 Attack, 35 Health and 2Defense.
This makes Menasor that slight bit stronger than Metroplex. As incongruous as this seems to any diehard TF fan, one must remember that Metroplex can still flip to his City Mode, as well as deploy his 3 sidekicks (presuming they are not already KO’ed), giving him the edge. So don’t get too cocky when you whip out your Stunticon combiner, you haven’t won yet!
Basic Game
The basic game is hardly worth mentioning here. Given their almost identical stats it’s simply a matter of the opponents taking turns flipping cards until one behemoth dies. Great fun for really young players, but holds little appeal for even those with a modicum of Transformers TCG experience.
Advanced Game
Find this card too!
Gameplay proceeds as usual, with you equipping your characters with different utilities, weapons etc and you and your opponent KO’ing each others cards whilst trying to save your own. A lot of it is skill, a lot of it is down to the luck of the draw. If you find any cards specific to your team however, employ them at once, they can really help!
The trick to using your Combiner Group effectively is using your individual characters in conjunction with each other, balancing their strengths and weaknesses as well as their special abilities in order to do the most damage before combining. For instance Motormaster can protect other characters from non-attack damage, Dead End will give you an extra card and Breakdown can gain you extra attack damage.
I also highly recommendgetting many of your characters into robot form as soon as possible, so when you decide to unleash your Combiner you only have one or two characters max that needs flipping. Keep your eye out for the Stunticon Enigma Card too, if you only have one in your deck and you let it get away that’s it, you may as well let your opponent walk all over you because it’s quite hard to win a game with just the individual characters, since none of them are particularly spectacular.
When playing as Menasor, you get two extra cards right off the bat for combining him. You then get Bold 1, Tough 1 and Pierce1 as well as playing an extra action on each of your turns. This means he can seriously kick Cyberarse, especially if you have the right Action Cards slotted. In fact of the 4 games with friends of Menasor vs Metroplex, Metroplex was only successful in one instance.
So yes, from actual game play I can confirm that the Rise of the Combiner Booster Packs are well worth picking up. I heartily recommend you trade cards with friends so that you can build yourself one of these awesome Combiner Characters as soon as possible!
Got any questions or anything to add? Pop them in the comments section below!
Yes kids, the wait is over! For months now we have been seeing previews of both the new Hero Cards and Battle Cards for Wave 2 of Transformers: Trading Card Game, the wave entitled Rise of the Combiners. People have been anxiously awaiting to get thier hands on these cards to see if they are as good, or even better, than the excellent cards that were released in Wave 1 last year.
Hasbro and Wizards of the Coast have been kind enough to send me a box of the new Booster Packs from Wave 2, in order to review in much the same way I did the Metroplex Pack last year and the Dirge Reveal several weeks ago. Once again, it must be stated that I have not been paid to do this review nor have either company tried to dictate the contents of this blog.www.bigangrytrev.com would like to thank both Hasbro and Wizards of the Coast for the opportunity to examine these cards.
Oh the sweet anticipation of opening!
Now, as you may have noticed from the title of this blog post, this is Part 1 of a review of these booster packs. Why am I doing it over more than one post? Because in recieving a box of the Booster Packs, each box holding 30 packs which in turn contain at least 8 cards, it means I now have over 200 cards on my billiard table (er… I mean gaming table) with at least a hundred of them different! That’s a LOT of cards to look at and a pretty big undertaking! So in Part 1 we will be examining Drop Rates, new types of cards, Combiners and new Hero & Battle Cards. In Part 2 we will look at how they perform in gameplay.
The Packs Themselves
Each Pack contains 7 Battle Cards and 1 Hero Cardor1 Pair of Combiner Character Cards. We will look at the likelihood of doubles near the end of this review.
The Cards Themselves
Note:At the end of each discussion of the new cards I will be popping in their Drop Rate. This is to signify how many times I was able to find these cards from the 30 packs contained within a single box of Booster Packs.
Combiner Cards
So many Combiners to be made!
Whereas Hero Cards have the robot on the front and the alt-mode on the back, Combiner Character Cards come in pairs. On one card you will find the robot mode and the other the alt-mode. On the back of the cards you will find artwork to join together to make the Combiner itself.
Gotta Combin’em all!
There are 5 different Combiners to make from the Booster Packs: Volcanicus, Optimus Maximus, Predaking, Superion and Menasor.
The Stunticons
I was lucky enough to find from the one box all 5 sets of Character Cards in order to make Menasor. I look forward to bringing you a review of just how he goes in actual gameplay. I was also able to form what could be termed a Mini-Combiner:
The Dreadwing PairDreadwing
First revealed exclusively by Ozformers, this pair of Decepticons – Dreadwind and Blackwing(formerly Darkwing) combine to form the Dreadwing Sky Destroyer Jet. This was a smart move on the part of the game makers, as it means you have a greater likelihood of making a Combiner sooner rather than later since he only needs two Character Card pairs instead of 5 or 6.
Drop Rate: Both the side of the box and the official website say the drop rate for Combiner Character Cards is about 50%. When opening multiple packs I was pleasantly surprised to find, for me at least, it surpassed that promise. Out of the 30 packs I opened, 20 of them had Combiner Character Cards. So rather than a drop rate of 50% it was a drop rate of 66%. That’s great considering most Combiners are made up of 5 or 6 different characters you have to collect.
Hero Cards
New Hero Cards
As well as the Combiner Cards, we have the same sort of Hero Cards that were released in Wave 1. There are quite a few new characters getting a showing, and many of the most famous characters, such as Megatron, Bumblebee and Starscream, have been released again but with new artwork and stats
New Hero Cards
I got a mix of characters I had other versions of from Wave 1 along with a good dose of new guys. I was particularly pleased I was able to get Dirge since www.bigangrytrev.com was given the exlusive reveal of Dirge earlier in the year. Some Character Cards have their special abilities blank, such as Novastar and Ruckus. I have yet to figure out exactly why this is and how it will affect their gameplay value.
Drop Rate: Those packs that don’t come with a Combiner Character come with a regular Hero Card. I found the drop rate to be one in every 3 packs, which doesn’t sound great but actually is if you are after the Combiners specifically, which I believe most players will be actively seeking.
Drop rates for Ultra Rare cards are described as 50:1. You’ll note I got a King Starscream which is indeed Ultra Rare. So I got one at a ratio of 30:1 but its entirely possible I could buy 20 more packs without finding another.
Battle Cards
Before we had Battle Cards that came in a few different colours based on their ability to attack and defend, with some cards overlapping. Rise of the Combiners see’s some new categories introduced.
Star Battle Cards
Oh. My. Primus!
This cards are definitely going to be a game changer! Big time! Got a team which only uses up 22 or 23 or the 25 Star allowance. Well now there are Battle Cards that have stars! That means you can put them in as part of your team. Valued at 1 Star apiece, these are perfect for rounding up your team. I can see Bolt of Lightning being very useful but it’s Vandalize, where you can scrap all enemy Weapons, Armour or Utilities, that blows me away! I can’t think of many instances where that wont be invaluable!
Drop Rate: There are 7 Star Battle Cards, in 30 packs I obtained 6 of them.
Enigma Cards
Enigma Cards
So you have all your characters needed to create a Combiner. But you need one more thing – an Enigma Card. There is an Enigma Card for each Combiner. Being Green (discussed shortly), these cards can be rescued from the discard pile which saves a lot of heartache. The Enigma Card is used to make your Combiner Character cards join together, even if some of those characters have been previously KO’ed.
Drop Rate: In 30 packs I was able to get all 5 Enigma’s as well as a couple of spares.
Team Specific Cards
Team Specific Cards
There are specific cards that you can use with each team but no others. They can be placed on only one member of this team. I have yet to see if they can be retroactive – for instance I have a Dinobot Swoop card from Wave 1, but it does not make up the Volcanicus Team. Can I use my Electrified Spikes card on that old Swoop since he is a Dinobot and the card talks about Dinobots, not Volcanicus? Stay tuned for future reviews to find out!
Drop Rate: I was able to find cards for four of the five teams within 30 packs.
Green Battle Cards
If you get a Green Battle Card, it means that you are able to retrieve it from the discard pile. You can only do this with one card per turn. Whilst this sounds good but not game changing, it can be of extreme importance given what some of these cards (such as the Enigma’s) do.
Regular Battle Cards
White Battle Cards
We have a slew of new Battle Cards in already established catagories, so many it would take too long to list them all. Some of them we have already seen in exclusive reveals, such as those made by Lisamaree on the Life with SPROGS site, like Inferno Breath and Surprise Attack. I was a little disappointed to not get a Defensive Driving card but don’t believe it will take me long to obtain one.
Orange Battle CardsBlue Battle Cards
Drop Rate: Well you are guaranteed 7 Battle Cards per pack. I was very heartened that I never got the same two cards in the same pack.
So there ya go, a not-so-short synopsis of the new cards on offer from the Wave 2 Transformers Trading Card Game Rise of the Combiner Booster Packs. I was very pleasantly surprised that I only got two doubles of characters (Dead End and Mirage) out of the 30 packs, which made this undertaking even bigger! Stay tuned for Part 2, where we test these bad bots (now available in selected stores) out with some serious gameplay!
There have been a ton of Transformer gaming apps in recent years on both Android and iPhone; a few have retired and several are still chugging along. In anticipation of the new Bumblebee Movie coming out later this year, we have a new game (currently only available through Apple) based on everyone’s favorite little yellow bot in Transformers Bumblebee Overdrive.
Pretty much every app has been based on either the Movieverse or Generation 1. This is most definitely G1 with a bit of Generations thrown in. And like G1, this game is 80’s arcade all the way baby!
You start the game as Bumblebee and work your way through 4 main stages over and over, gathering crystals and coins in order to unlock new characters. Once you reach a certain points level, you then take on a boss character, the defeat of which will unlock new weapons and bonuses within game.
Lets fight!
The four main stages consist of Highway, Canyon, another Canyon and Decepticon bases.
Highway
Like the run to Brisbane Airport
Lots of innofensive traffic which you need to dodge, the only real enemy you encounter and flying Decepticon Drones that fire off missiles, one hit of which can kill. It is during these highway drives that you can try to earn bonuses from completing events, such as destroying a certain amount of Phone Booths or Fire Hydrants.
Canyon – style 1.
Who takes a sports car that expensive offroading?
Lots of swerving required here. Surprise spike pits pop up, silver mines are laid about, more flying Missile Drones and as you progress Laser Cannons. Ironically the main thing you need to avoid are rock columns, crashing into one kills you instantly.
Canyon – style 2.
Air Time!
Nothing to crash into here, but you are being pursued! Here we get some G1 goodness with you being chased by Stunticons Dead End & Breakdown as well as other G1 Cons Ruckus and Ground Hog. There is also the StunticonOffroad from Combiner Wars and Slice(r) from Timelines thrown in. Taking out these other cars is probably the easiest of the levels, though as it gets harder sometimes you find ones parked in your way as you fight the others.
Subtle hints are provided
Decepticon Bases
Here is the only part of the game where you get to fight as robot mode and a plethora of different dangers get in your way. Laser Canons in different configurations, barriers both physical and electric and purple flying Conheads who resemble the same ones found in Transformers: Devestation. These levels are also the ones were you get to test out the different weapons you have unlocked by defeating bosses, in particular I like the laser beam you get for defeating Acid Storm.
The laser kicks ass!
Bosses
Nearly all G1 based (apart from GenerationsBattleslash) and they are a lot of fun! You only get to fight these when you have reached a certain amount of points. In the classic 80’s arcade style, these bosses throw different energy weapon patterns at you and as long as you avoid the obvious patterns the bosses are easy to defeat. Quite an enjoyable part of the game, it’s a shame that they come along so rarely.
And you only get to fight them once
Character Unlocks
You start as Bumblebee and, much like any toy isle you go down, the easiest other character to get is another version of Bumblebee, this one resembling in part his look from TF: AOE. The other characters to get at this stage are Sideswipe, Arcee and Optimus – Optimus requiring a whopping 500 crystals! When you obtain a character you use your coins to increase their armor and firepower, then use crystals to ungrade them to the next level to start all over again. I just got Arcee this morning and she is quite fun in robot mode since she has two guns, which means double the firepower when you use the upgrades like lasers and homing missiles.
‘Freedom is the right of all sentient beings – as long as they pay through the nose with crystally goodness’
In-Game Purchases
Guess the game companies need to make their money somehow
What app doesn’t have these. Personally I’d never buy even the cheap ones but maybe there is someone out there willing to spend over a hundred bucks on the big pack.
Yeah, good luck selling these!
Is the game worth playing?
In short doses yes. It’s lots of fun! In big doses no. Your finger gets tired after a while and to be honest when I was most of the way to the points total for Battleslash I was hoping I would crash as I had had my fill. Also despite the minor variations you get each run through, having only 4 stages to work through over and over again gets understandingly repetitive.
Will I still be playing this game in a months time?
I doubt it. I’ll unlocked Arcee a few hours ago but no way could I be bothered saving enough crystals for Optimus. Also as mentioned before, the amount of points you need to gain increases exponentially to reach bosses. The first three (Tracer, Quake and Acid Storm) are not too onerous but then suddenly you find Battlelslash to be a whopping 256,000 points and that takes forever to reach.
So should you download it?
If you are a TF fan sure, why not! It’s a bit of cheesy 80’s arcade fun but it really doesn’t have anything to keep you there for the long haul.
Got something to say about this App? Put it in the comments section below!
The Combiner Wars brought back a love of gestalts to the Transformer franchise that other lines like the Power Core Combiners failed to do. Despite the main line having moved onto Titans Return, we expect to see more combiner teams as part of the 2018 Power of the Primes toyline.
The Decepticon combiners characters were – lets face it – always a lot more interesting and popular than the Autobot ones. The likes of Superion and Defensor were there so their Decepticon counterparts had someone to ultimately be beaten by. In recent years, as well as in Combiner Wars, we’ve seen a lot of those Decepticons crop up in other lines. We had Devastator in Revenge of the Fallen, Bruticus in Fall of Cybertron and even Abominus in Beast Hunters. Well now it’s Menasor’s turn with the Stunticons making their debut, both in the cartoon and toyline, as part of the Robots in Disguise Combiner Force franchise.
Now RID(15) has had some pretty damn underwhelming toys. Most figures seem to suffer from cheap construction and overly simplsitc mechanics and transformations. And sadly, the Stunticons continue this trend.
‘We exist to make your G1 toys look good’
Only Motormaster and Drag Strip are present from the original lineup. They are now joined by Slashmark, Heatseeker and Wildbreak. Having Wildbreak instead of Breakdown is kinda forgivable, considering this is the same universe as the Prime cartoon in which Breakdown died several years ago. However having Heatseeker and Slashmark feels lazy. Heatseeker is so close in looks to the Combiner WarsOffroad that Hasbro missed a great opportunity to cement him as a new character in the classic team. Likewise Slashmark is just Heatseeker with blue highlights instead of red. This spot could easily have been filled by Dead End, Wildrider or the other new Stunticon from CW – Blackjack.
All limb characters are sadly simplistic, requiring only 1 or 2 minor moves to go from Vehicle to Robot – both modes looking quite average. Articulation is non-existent. Motormaster however has been a bit better engineered and I quite like his alt-mode, very remincient of RID(01) Ultra Magnus.
‘I gots me a trailer again!’
But like his smaller partners, articulation is a quality sorely lacking in his robot mode.
And speaking of his robot mode, lets take a look at his bonce. Oh they got the square helmet just right but look at the face within…
‘BOO!’
That’s bloody Megatron!WTF?! That’s Megs from the Prime cartoon – my oath it is! Once you realize this, it makes a lot of the similarities in the head and shoulders of Menasor to Magatronus all the more apparent.
Menasor’s combined mode looks ok, though a big gangly. Here we have the only bit of articulation in any of the figures, that being that Menasor can raise his arms (which sorely lack elbows) which allows him to hold his sword up.
‘By the power of Grayskull!’
Now some of these characters have also been released separately to the main group. I’ve seen Heatseeker as a 1-step changer in the shops, though personally I always find them to be poor toys so I passed. But I did grab the Drag Strip/Wildbreak 2-pack.
Now these characters really are no better enginnered here than with the main pack. Also somewhere in the process they have confused the characters. Wildbreak was obviously supposed to be Drag Strip considering he has a Drag Strip’ish alt-mode. My suspicion of this was confirmed when I checked out the instructions.
Caught out
This is really just an unforgivably lazy mistake by the manufacturer. But then these are lazy toys. These figures also have no articulation in robot mode and their vehicle modes, particularly Drag Strip, are very uninspired.
Whilst their combined form of DragBreak looks pretty cool, his static pose does not offer much play value.
“DragBreak – my name sounds like what your Dad used to do at work around mid-morning. But then Wild Strip would make me sound like what your mum did to earn her way through college’
Now I’ve been pretty hard on these toys and it’s hard not to be. However in fairness they are no worse than most of the RID line so one should know what they are getting into with their purchase. The prices are much better too if you are buying for kids – you can get a whole Menasor here for the same cost of two limb characters from CW. Their combined modes have a certain style and unlike many of the other CF figures they actually do combine. But unless like me you are a complete Stunticon nut these toys are an easy pass for your average collector.
Got something to say about these figures? Would love to read it in the comments section below!
