Toy Review - Quintesson Invasion

QUINTESSON INVASION (Cybertron Villains)
Series - Cyberverse
Size/class - Battle
New/remould/redeco - Battle Class Prowl and Shockwave, Quintesson mould is new
Wave - N/A
Released here - ??
Approximate Retail Price - AU$53
Approximate Size - 8cm
Allegiance - Autobot, Decepticon, Quintesson
Alt-mode - Police car, walker tank, nothing
Main Features/Gimmicks - Spinning faces on Quintesson Judge
Main Colours - white, purple, black
Main Accessories - New hats for Prowl and Shockers

Note: Prowl and Shockwave are, AFAIK, the same as their previous Battle Class releases, only minus the Spark Armours and with new hats. Refer to reviews on the Spark Armour releases of these toys, this review will focus on the new Quintesson Judge figure

I was attracted to this toy because the Quintesson Judge toy looked like a good homage to the G1 Quintessons, but having in person I must admit that I'm pretty disappointed. It's not even the difference in style - I know that this isn't G1. And I like the inclusion of the two female faces, and the fact that it was five rotatable faces is very cool. But boy is this Quintesson toy BLAND as excrement! I can't believe that I'm saying this, but it makes Alpha Quintesson look good. :eek:

Yes, I know that Cyberverse Quintesson is more like a G1 Quintesson, but neither this toy nor Alpha Quintesson are G1! So forgetting about G1 for a moment and looking at both Quintesson toys more objectively, I think that - as awful as Alpha Quintesson is - it's the better toy. Reasons include:
* Alpha Quintesson has more articulation. Not much, but more than CYB Quintesson. He can turn on his base, he has articulated arms w/ elbows, and he has tentacles which are poseable like pipe cleaners. CYB Quintesson's articulation is just four tentacles that are on ball and socket joints. Each tentacle is sculpted in hard plastic, so you can't alter their shape like you can with Alpha Quintesson's tentacles.
* Alpha Quintesson has a rolling play gimmick. This makes the tentacles spin around and the claws on his body pinch in and out. Coupled with the weapons at the end of each tentacle - as silly as they look, this toy does look like it means to do harm to you. CYB Quintesson has no rolling gimmick. It's a single "foot" that resembles a podium being surrounded by tentacles. While Alpha Q looks like he wants to slice you up, CYB Quintesson looks like he wants to do something really inappropriate with his hentacles. Hentacles that are prone to falling out. Yeah, he has detachable phalli! :eek:
* Alpha Quintesson has a missile launcher (although the supporting joint is prone to breakage), CYB Quintesson has no weapons or accessories.

Alpha Quintesson is a rubbish toy, don't get me wrong, but CYB Quintesson is much worse. This feels like an oversized Happy Meal toy. Seriously. Happy Meal toys tend to be solid blocks that is slave to a gimmick. CYB Quintesson is basically a solid block that's slave to a gimmick. Seriously, you could release a smaller version of this toy with a Happy Meal and it would NOT look out of place. I know that this is a relatively cheaper toy than Alpha Quintesson -- if we divide the cost of this set by 3, it works out to be about $18 per figure before shipping, whereas I paid $45 for my Alpha Quintesson from Case Fresh (remember them? ;)). But even then, $18 is a hard pill to swallow for what is essentially an super-sized Happy Meal toy.

Overall: skip this toy and save your money for the rumoured/speculated CHUG Quintesson. Hopefully, if that happens, it will look more like a G1 Quintesson. Quintessons are never going to be great toys because... ya know, they're just floating balloons with five faces and tentacles. :p But either give us a Quintesson with some play features or give us one that looks like the G1 Quintessons. Cyberverse's Quintesson gives you neither.

I like Happy Meal toys. :)

https://i.ibb.co/KLwv9cm/83589729-10...50902272-o.jpg
https://i.ibb.co/xLPNRPm/83930265-10...52669696-o.jpg

I'm confused, what did expect from a non-transforming figure? They were never shown doing much other than spinning around to other faces and sentencing mechanoids to death.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by SMHFConvoy

I'm confused, what did expect from a non-transforming figure?

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Something. Anything. I understand that it's not a "Transformer" per se, and I'm not holding this toy up to the same standards as a Transformer, but you know most toys don't transform but aren't this mundane. This is why I've been comparing it with Alpha Quintesson, the only other Quintesson toy in existence. I'm not comparing it with any Transformers. And as I said before, Alpha Quintesson is a terrible toy... but suddenly this Cyberverse Quintesson Judge makes Alpha Q look good?! :eek: :confused:

https://i.ibb.co/Pzsx4Dh/CYB-quintesson.jpg

Since neither of these toys come from Neo-G1 let's disregard G1 and judge them on their merits as toys for Energon and Cyberverse respectively. Alpha Q gives us:
* more paint apps
* 5mm weapon ports embedded throughout the toy, on the body, arms and placental base
* closing visor
* missile launcher
* bendy tentacles which can be removed
* face switching gimmick, activated by trigger on the back
* well articulated arms (even if the rest of the toy is a brick)
* rolling gimmick causes tentacles to spin

Now compare and contrast this with the features on Cyberverse Quintesson, which are:
* face switching gimmick, activated by pressing down on the crown
* tentacles can only move at their "shoulders" which are ball and socket joints. Tentacles are hard plastic and cannot change shape.
And that's it.

I understand that CYB Quintesson is a smaller and cheaper toy, so I'm not expecting them to pack in as many features as they did with Alpha Quintesson. But for $18 (closer to over $20 including currency conversion fees etc.) I would expect more. Give the faces articulated jaws (then they can do the chuckling action). Build better tentacles; why not make them bendy like Alpha Q's? Give this toy more paint ops -- the body is just so monotonously black. Why not make the body/foot a different colour from the tentacles? Why not put wheels on the bottom of the foot to allow the toy to roll? It doesn't need to activate a gimmick, just let give the toy some basic mobility. I'm not saying that Alpha Quintesson is worth $45 either. He's really not. But I cannot see how CYB Quintesson is worth twenty bucks. It has all the engineering of a Happy Meal toy, and those things sell for $2 each. Sure, it's larger than a typical Happy Meal toy, but not exactly 10 times larger (given that it's about 10 times dearer).

Having said all that, I do think that there are some features on CYB Quintesson that are better than Alpha Q, including:
+ 5 faces instead of 3 (and Alpha Q has at least four faces IIRC)
+ greater diversity in the design of the faces
+ the faces are more easily visible -- Alpha Quintesson's faces are always recessed inside the armour; in the cartoon Alpha Q's faces can slide forwards but the toy doesn't feature this

I'm not saying that CYB Quintesson is the worst toy ever, but I don't think it's a $20 action figure.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by GoktimusPrime

It has all the engineering of a Happy Meal toy, and those things sell for $2

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Ok, boomer. Yes back in the 'good old days', 20 or 30 years ago, Happy Meal times used to be pretty good. Sometimes they were even oversized. None of the Transformers toys were the size (height and bulk) of the Quintesson in this pack, let alone have the heft of holding it in your hand. They were also of flimsy (and in recent years, hollow) plastic that just feels cheap. Pictures do not do it justice, you cannot make a toy like this for $2

I like Happy Meal toys, but the Cyberverse ones in recent years (I imported a set from Russia, and another from an eBay seller) and they are craptacular at best. Pale imitations of the actual Cyberverse toys at worst.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by GoktimusPrime

I'm not saying that CYB Quintesson is the worst toy ever, but I don't think it's a $20 action figure.

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Good luck getting it here for $20, too. If you can, you can flip them for double the price. Since we're unlikely to see this one at retail, and its selling for far north of that at online retails ($35 for RK and another $18 for shipping), $20 would be a bargain for this set.

I'm very contented I was able to get this set. If they ever did come out at retail here, I'd army build quintessons,but I'm content that I at least have one.

I will make an ironclad detail to anyone who buys this toy and regrets their purchase. PM me your payment details and I will buy it off you for this mythical $20 price|

Hasbro's obviously going to bring the quintessons into the third season of Cyberverse, they probably should've bundled the mini sharkticons with the quintesson rather than split them across two sets that feature already available figures but then that results in a lost sale (for Hasbro.)

Ok, boomer. Yes back in the 'good old days', 20 or 30 years ago, Happy Meal times used to be pretty good.[/quote]
I'm not comparing it to older Happy Meal Toys. Older Happy Meal TF toys could transform, and some of them had gimmicks on top of that and could combine. I'm just comparing it with most Happy Meal toys which usually just have one gimmick and don't do much else, which is basically what this toy is.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by reillyd

Sometimes they were even oversized. None of the Transformers toys were the size (height and bulk) of the Quintesson in this pack, let alone have the heft of holding it in your hand. They were also of flimsy (and in recent years, hollow) plastic that just feels cheap. Pictures do not do it justice, you cannot make a toy like this for $2

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...never said you could. :confused:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by reillyd

Good luck getting it here for $20, too. If you can, you can flip them for double the price. Since we're unlikely to see this one at retail, and its selling for far north of that at online retails ($35 for RK and another $18 for shipping), $20 would be a bargain for this set.

I'm very contented I was able to get this set. If they ever did come out at retail here, I'd army build quintessons,but I'm content that I at least have one.

I will make an ironclad detail to anyone who buys this toy and regrets their purchase. PM me your payment details and I will buy it off you for this mythical $20 price|

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I never said this either. This is a 3-pack which costs about $53, straight up conversion without factoring in exchange fees, shipping etc.
53 / 3 = 18
Which I just rounded up to $20, and factoring conversion costs it'd be closer to that anyway.

I'm not saying that the set sells for $20, I'm saying that this Quintesson toy is worth ⅓ the price of the 3-pack.
So...
Shockwave = $18
Prowl = $18
Quintesson Judge = $18
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TOTAL = $53

I think that $18~20 is pretty decent for Prowl and Shockwave considering that the Spark Armour toys are retailing for $29. I'd say $18 is about how much a Battle Class toy is worth without their Spark Armour anyway, so yeah, it's a fair price. :) But considering that the Quintesson Judge here also equates to the price of an armour-less Battle Class figure but it does so much less... I don't know.

Unless you disagree with the way that I've just evenly split the cost of the three figures evenly. You could argue that we're really paying for the two Transformers and that the Quintesson Judge is like a big accessory that comes with them (similar to Spike in Exo-Suit with MP Bumblebee). In which case... does/should this Quintesson Judge count as a TF toy then? ;)

I do hope that my 'ok, boomer' joke didn't cause offence. It was intended only as being flippant, not hurtful Goktimus, and I do think you're still seeing the set through the tinted glasses of nostalgia. If it was taken any other way, my sincere apologies.

Any modern toy release is going to seem overpriced when looking back at the 'value' of the past. We frequently pay far more in retail pricing than the value of the plastic, because of the characters or ideals or action features they offer. I just didn't think the comparison with a Happy Meal toy, or the mention of $2, to be a realistic comparison in today's modern market.

In fact, unless we see an Australian release, you're limited to either an online retailer (if they get it), a US or Canadian reshipper, of the e of the bay, in which case you'll be paying substantially more than retail anyway. I suspect most people will enjoy the toy, but after playing with it again and lusting for more quints, I can hand on my heart say that I'd be prepared to pay more than $20 for one, and my offer was earnest (now, or in the future, I will want more).

Quote:

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Originally Posted by reillyd

I do hope that my 'ok, boomer' joke didn't cause offence.

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No worries, Builder. :p No offence taken, especially considering that you're older than me. :p

I see the Quintesson Judge as being like the opposite of Siege Impactor. Impactor is a toy that can appeal to people even if you've never heard of Impactor before. It's a good toy that can stand on its own. The Quintesson Judge holds little to no appeal for anyone who's never heard of a Quintesson before (e.g. a kid who's never been previously exposed to G1). This toy's appeal is dependent on you knowing what a Quintesson is -- Impactor does not depend on such prior knowledge. A good toy sells itself. Heck, when Transformers first came out in 1984/85, none of us knew who the hell any of these characters were. But the toys sold phenomenally well because a good toy sells itself.

Okay, you could make a valid argument that Alpha Quintesson also holds no appeal to people who haven't been exposed to a Quintesson before. The main appeal of that toy is for people who watch the TF Energon cartoon, and there is very limited appeal for people who have been exposed to G1. So yeah, both Quintesson toys don't really hold much independent appeal for people who have no prior attachment or knowledge of these characters, whereas you could happily enjoy Impactor even if you've never read the G1 or IDW comics. But then again, as SMHFConvoy has mentioned... it's a bloody Quintesson. :p I'm not expecting it to hit the same level as Impactor, but as I said before, it would've been nice for this toy to have a few more play features such as flexible tentacles or wheels underneath its base, more paint apps etc.

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Moving away from the Quintesson for a moment and looking at Prowl and Shockwave. There's been no change made to the previous Spark Armour figures other than replacing the Spark Armours with"brain slugs," and therein lies the problem. I really wish that they would've made some changes to make these toys different, especially on Prowl who desperately needs more paint ops. Prowl isn't even really a police car, he's just a white sedan with strobe lights on his roof. There are NO emergency vehicle markings whatsoever on the vehicle - no police markings, no ambulance, no fire chief, no roadside incident response vehicle etc. -- nothing. Is it an unmarked police car with strobe lights on? Who the hell knows. And the rear windows are completely unpainted too -- Prowl looks terribly bland. And given that they've clearly invested little in developing the Quintesson toy, why not direct more funds into making Prowl look better? Heck, painting him up as Bluestreak or Smokescreen would've been better (preferably with the strobe lights removed if they're gonna do that). Shockwave looks fine, but I would've preferred if they varied his colours. Give him a G1 toy darker shade of purple with a black hose or Astro Magnum colours or something.

It just feels like such a lazy set with such minimal effort put into giving us something new. I miss the old days of G1 when Hasbro would bring over a bunch of already existing Japanese transforming robot toys, put them in different packaging and pass them off as a whole new product line. :p ;) :p :D :p

Suffice to say Prowl got the short end of the deal with paint apps.
I would have preferred if they had used the paint budget dedicated to the inside of Shockwave's legs on Prowl instead. Give him two slaps of baby blue to liven up the bot mode a bit more.