Transformers Venting thread!

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Originally Posted by Jellico

I have no love for the Movieverse but with Siege so late I have been buying some. I had Drift, Cogman, and Crosshairs sitting on the table as cars and it hit me.

Their alt modes are just sexy in a way the Generations cars aren't and it probably comes down to being licensed.

Worse we will probably never see a licensed Generations figure. Grrr.

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I found it especially pleasing with regard to the amount of aircraft Transformers that were either directly licensed or near approximations

F-22 Raptor (Starscream and other seeker repaints)
F-35 Lightning II-ish (Breakaway, Thrust)
Harrier-ish (Dirge, Jetblade)
Mig 29 (Dreadwind, Overcast, Fearswoop)
V-22 Osprey (Incinerator)
CH-53 Stallion (Blackout, Grindor, Evac)
Su-47 Berkut-ish (Terradive, Space Case)
Eurofighter Typhoon-ish (Hatchet)
A-10 Warthog (Powerglide)
Albatros D.III (Ransack, ROTF Divebomb)
SR-71 Blackbird (Jetfire)
Boeing E-767 (Air Raid)
Su-37 Terminator-ish (TF07 Divebomb - a repaint of a Cybertron figure to be fair)

Then there were a few figures that looked realistic but were entirely fictional (as opposed to near approximations) - the helicopter Tomahawk transforms into, the jet that Nitro Zeus transforms into, and the cargo plane that Stratosphere turns into.

Basically, the aviation nerd in me was very happy... but also bitter at the same time that we never got a toy from the F-18 Hornet based generic seeker character in the ROTF video game.

Real vehicles have a mythology all of their own which the Transformer piggybacks on. The only way the Seekers could have been cooler was to be F14s and Bandai beat them to it. Countach were on every boy's wall from the mid 70s. A real squared off semi could evoke the trucker ethos in a way that streamlined Classics Prime never could.

I would argue the best fantasy alt modes had similar mythologies. Do I need to say more than "dinosaur "? Rocket base with a gigantic tank? A living city? Working mythologies compared to the forgettable monstrous chimeras we got later.

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Originally Posted by Jellico

Real vehicles have a mythology all of their own which the Transformer piggybacks on. The only way the Seekers could have been cooler was to be F14s and Bandai beat them to it. Countach were on every boy's wall from the mid 70s. A real squared off semi could evoke the trucker ethos in a way that streamlined Classics Prime never could.

I would argue the best fantasy alt modes had similar mythologies. Do I need to say more than "dinosaur "? Rocket base with a gigantic tank? A living city? Working mythologies compared to the forgettable monstrous chimeras we got later.

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How good would the F-14 Seekers have been? My head may have exploded back then.

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Originally Posted by Jellico

Countach were on every boy's wall from the mid 70s.

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Still my dream car to this day!

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Originally Posted by Raider

Still my dream car to this day!

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Still on my wall today ;)

Yeah, I had those posters too.

Interestingly enough, apparently the Countach was a horrible car to drive.

It looks great and goes really fast in a straight line, and that's about it for the good points. Bad points include a really uncomfortable interior, almost no rear visibility and poor steering...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AtQPjgzV1kA

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Originally Posted by Tober

Yeah, I had those posters too.

Interestingly enough, apparently the Countach was a horrible car to drive.

It looks great and goes really fast in a straight line, and that's about it for the good points. Bad points include a really uncomfortable interior, almost no rear visibility and poor steering...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AtQPjgzV1kA

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I watched this YouTube video of a modern review of the car. It was amazing how terrible it was to drive, its layout and interior. But I don't care about any of that!

I still have my Countach poster as well. It stills looks futuristic decades later.

The Countach has been ruined for me by a recent episode of The Grand Tour. The Italians in the '80s were not amazing engineers.

My Classics Jetfire has started yellowing. :( I already have Generations Jetfire and I intend to get Siege Jetfire, so I'm not sure if it's worth replacing Classics Jetfire. I do like the Classics Jetfire toy so I don't want to be without one; if I choose to get another one I would sell my current one (obviously at a cheaper price).

Hhrrmmm... might wait until after I get Siege Jetfire to see how I feel... having a 3rd CHUG Jetfire might negate my desire to replace my Classics one. <rubs chin>

P.S.: Speaking of Jetfire, apparently Harmony Gold's Macross licence expires in 2021. Anyone reckon this would allow Hasbro to acquire it and finally do things like...
* Make a new toy-accurate Jetfire toy
* Obtain a new Macross VF-1S mould and repackage/repaint it as Jetfire
* Reissue G1 Jetfire if the mould still exists
<rubs chin again>

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Originally Posted by GoktimusPrime

My Classics Jetfire has started yellowing. :( I already have Generations Jetfire and I intend to get Siege Jetfire, so I'm not sure if it's worth replacing Classics Jetfire. I do like the Classics Jetfire toy so I don't want to be without one; if I choose to get another one I would sell my current one (obviously at a cheaper price).

Hhrrmmm... might wait until after I get Siege Jetfire to see how I feel... having a 3rd CHUG Jetfire might negate my desire to replace my Classics one. <rubs chin>

P.S.: Speaking of Jetfire, apparently Harmony Gold's Macross licence expires in 2021. Anyone reckon this would allow Hasbro to acquire it and finally do things like...
* Make a new toy-accurate Jetfire toy
* Obtain a new Macross VF-1S mould and repackage/repaint it as Jetfire
* Reissue G1 Jetfire if the mould still exists
<rubs chin again>

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I'd love a new G1 toy style Jetfire (to be completely clear, something better than the T30 version). I actively dislike the fat bloated whale looking Skyfire inspired versions.

Now that we don’t have TRU where at retail will we see Titans Big W has gotten some but in small numbers, apparently toyworld got Predaking but I never saw him. And let’s not even bother with Myers

So where will us Aussies get our Titans
I was going to preorder Omega but everywhere is sold out already which is annoying. In 6 months we will be looking at paying $300+ for him if he’s anything like Metroplex

Hasbro Australia sells stock to Amazon Australia so Predaking was listed there (but it was still cheaper to buy it from the US Amazon)... so Omega Supreme should show up there. If not, Amazon America will have it.

I just ordered Siege Omega Supreme (and Jetfire) off Mighty Ape.
Never ordered from them before so I hope that they prove to be reliable.

I just ordered and received through them with something else. Not Transformers specialists, but above and beyond customer service.

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Originally Posted by Jellico

Not Transformers specialists, but above and beyond customer service.

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Agreed, Mighty Ape refunded me with minimal hassle for a set of defective Platinum Coneheads.

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Originally Posted by Jellico

I just ordered and received through them with something else. Not Transformers specialists, but above and beyond customer service.

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Originally Posted by Tha_Phantom

Agreed, Mighty Ape refunded me with minimal hassle for a set of defective Platinum Coneheads.

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Good to hear, fellas. :) I've just become really wary of unfamiliar online stores (especially those in Australia*) after having been burnt thrice. :(

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*Yeah, I know that Mighty Ape are Kiwis. Australasia. :)

They are tricky(in a good way). Eg. I had to explain the difference between Wave 1 and 2 of Siege. They seem to be very reliant on what their suppliers tell them.
And they are relatively expensive so they won't be my first port of call.

But that customer experience. Really really good. I have to call them out and you have to consider them on that alone.

The US Target website doesn't post to shipping forwarders like Shopmate. :(

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Target.com doesn?t ship to international freight forwarders or addresses outside the United States.

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I ordered the Target exclusive SS-31 Battle Damaged Megatron the other day, and found out the next day that the order was cancelled... after chasing up a reason, I was directed to fine print buried very deep in the shipping conditions (quoted above). Shopping at a number of US retailers in the past (including Walmart and TRU) I've never come across that before, and don't know why Target have that sort of restriction, as it would impact on their potential sales (like their exclusive items).
I really hate having to ask US friends to receive and ship toys to me, as I can't really return the favour.

Was so pissed on Saturday! We booked tickets months in advance for a kids Transformers Interactive Stageshow at Panthers Penrith. On the day drove 2 1/2 hours to get there, and as we were checking into our hotel 90 minutes before showtime the announcement came over social media that the show had been cancelled!. :mad::eek::mad:

Why? Because despite shocking weather and gale-force winds having been predicted and talked about every night on weather reports for a full week beforehand, these idiots still decided to fly the actors in from Melbourne that morning for an 11am show. Ludicrous! And no there wasn't other shows that they had to do in Melb which prevented them coming earlier as all the equipment had been at Penrith for days. It was simply that the venue didn't want to have to shell out for accommodation for the 'talent' (D-grade actors in transformer costumes) on the Friday night. :rolleyes:

So many kids and parents disappointed - my son was heartbroken! :( All that build up and travelling and so on just to have his show snatched away at the 11th hour. And the venue never admitted fault which was extra insulting. I know other Ozformer members found themselves in the same boat as us and there was a lot of outrage on social media (before Panthers started deleting the posts from angry parents).

This takes toy swapping to a new level of super-villainy.

https://twitter.com/yarnolj/status/1168280407709814789

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Originally Posted by DELTAprime

This takes toy swapping to a new level of super-villainy.

https://twitter.com/yarnolj/status/1168280407709814789

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WTF WHY

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Originally Posted by DELTAprime

This takes toy swapping to a new level of super-villainy.

https://twitter.com/yarnolj/status/1168280407709814789

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Oh my word, this is a whole new level. I'm worried about the world being held to ransom in a few years if this supervillain amps up his game...

SO. MANY. QUESTIONS.

First and foremost, did the villain paint that Nightbeat into Refraktor colours IN ORDER to do that swap?

(And seriously, this is a crime against customising just as much as a crime against retail).

I have never seen anything remotely like this. Boxes damaged and contents missing - sure - but altered and returned? Never! There was that story about people switching the voice boxes of Barbie and Action Man but that sounds like more fun.

So what are we calling this guy, Frakbeat? I kind of want him to be canon now. Like, he's an Autobot who desperately wants to be a suave secret agent, but he's awful at it and his best idea was to repaint himself and pretend to be Reflector to infiltrate the Decepticon base. All the Decepticons see through the 'disguise' right away but don't know what to do about him, because he's so obvious they can't bring themselves to think that he's serious, they all assume he's trying to get captured as part of some insanely convoluted scheme, so they've convinced themselves the smart thing to do it play along with him, even though he keeps injuring them by jumping into their arms and turning into a car in an attempt to be a camera. Megatron's been away for a couple of weeks, when he gets back nobody will admit anything's weird because they're not sure who they can trust, so he starts trying to work out what the scheme is as well, by the time the Autobots come looking for Frakbeat a Decepticon civil war has broken out between fifteen different factions even though there's only twelve Decepticons there and Shockwave's holding himself at gunpoint because he's convinced he's going to betray himself.

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Originally Posted by Miss Kitty Fantastico

So what are we calling this guy, Frakbeat? I kind of want him to be canon now. Like, he's an Autobot who desperately wants to be a suave secret agent, but he's awful at it and his best idea was to repaint himself and pretend to be Reflector to infiltrate the Decepticon base. All the Decepticons see through the 'disguise' right away but don't know what to do about him, because he's so obvious they can't bring themselves to think that he's serious, they all assume he's trying to get captured as part of some insanely convoluted scheme, so they've convinced themselves the smart thing to do it play along with him, even though he keeps injuring them by jumping into their arms and turning into a car in an attempt to be a camera. Megatron's been away for a couple of weeks, when he gets back nobody will admit anything's weird because they're not sure who they can trust, so he starts trying to work out what the scheme is as well, by the time the Autobots come looking for Frakbeat a Decepticon civil war has broken out between fifteen different factions even though there's only twelve Decepticons there and Shockwave's holding himself at gunpoint because he's convinced he's going to betray himself.

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Instant headcanon :D

So bummed. Found a way to access walgreens for a siege ratchet, when I go to get the link its gone from the site. Bummed. Takara doesn't seem to have plans for him. So bummed.

The 25th Anniversary Unicron that I recently got had the wrong planet kibble (shell parts), which was from the Generations Platinum Edition Unicron toy. I contacted the seller who said that the Pt Ed toy had been long sold, but he gave me the name of that buyer. So I contacted him and confirmed that his Pt Ed Unicron has 25th Anniv kibble, so we've posted our respective kibble to each other.

All sorted now, but was pretty weird for a while! I did manage to take some photos of this Unicron with mismatching parts which I'll probably post later for the lolz. ;)

I had occasion to pose a Tf1 Bumblebee next to a Studio Series WW2 Bumblebee today... WW2 Bee seemed almost commander size in comparison

Minor irritation, but stores that sell opened returns/store damaged items at full price as if they're brand new annoy me.
Case in point:

https://i.imgur.com/a7JrpTV.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/LCuO1Zj.jpg

Who in their right mind could look at this and go "yeah this is suitable for sale", it should be marked down if they intend on selling it.
The customers obviously don't want it as this is the only Transformer of note in the store and has been there like this for a month or two.
On the plus side, at least it's the correct toy in the box. Kmart in Minto NSW for anyone that's curious.

That's pretty bad form. Sheesh.

My Vent. I bought Rung, for uh, I don't know why... He was cute? I don't read Tf comics anymore and I have no idea who or what he is. Never mind, I am sure Tf wiki can help me out with a quick character description and what he is.

Sadly no. It has a paragraph about someone not remembering his name and says he is the ship's spyche doctor or something. However from Gok's review in the Battlemasters review thread there is more to Rung than just that. But without having to read the whole damn page on him (which I am not gonna do), I can't tell why he is significant.

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Originally Posted by Tetsuwan Convoy

That's pretty bad form. Sheesh.

My Vent. I bought Rung, for uh, I don't know why... He was cute? I don't read Tf comics anymore and I have no idea who or what he is. Never mind, I am sure Tf wiki can help me out with a quick character description and what he is.

Sadly no. It has a paragraph about someone not remembering his name and says he is the ship's spyche doctor or something. However from Gok's review in the Battlemasters review thread there is more to Rung than just that. But without having to read the whole damn page on him (which I am not gonna do), I can't tell why he is significant.

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Big spoilers for the MTMTE/Lost Light Comic, in the last issues it was revealed

spoiler Rung is Primus in the IDW comic universe but due to complicated reasons to explain quickly everybody has forgotten that, including himself. He transforms into a device that created the Matrix of Leadership end spoiler

He was very popular character in the James Roberts comics but if you're not a fan / haven't read those.

Many people freely discuss this spoiler these days, captioning photos of the toy with it, and I wish they didn't.

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Originally Posted by Tetsuwan Convoy

Sadly no. It has a paragraph about someone not remembering his name and says he is the ship's spyche doctor or something. However from Gok's review in the Battlemasters review thread there is more to Rung than just that. But without having to read the whole damn page on him (which I am not gonna do), I can't tell why he is significant.

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He's god. He was originally Primus, a member of a pantheon of 5 gods known as the Guiding Hand which was comprised of:
* Primus = god of life and light
* Solomus = god of wisdom
* Epistemus = god of knowledge
* Adaptus = god of transformation
* Mortilus = god of death

Primus/Rung transforms into a Matrix forge -- yeah, he created the Matrix. After the God War, Primus ended up being rendered "permanently forgettable." Primus also forgot who he was and became a psychiatrist & psychologist known as Rung (his name being a reference to Carl Jung (yeah, I know :rolleyes:)). Rung would eventually remember who he was, but then he transformed into his alt mode and forged twelve Matrices and (along with his friends) saved the day. Forging 12 Matrices caused Rung to disintegrate and soon everyone, including his friends, forgot that he ever existed.

Btw, how far along is the Japanese translation of the IDW comics? When I was last in Japan in 2017 I picked up a copy and it was 7 years behind. If they haven't picked up the pace then Japan may not catch up this Primus/Rung story until 2025. :eek:

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Many people freely discuss this spoiler these days,

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And some go further, giving plot spoilers too :rolleyes:

The first few issues of the MTMTE and RID series were recently translated and published in Japan. Cool covers.

https://news.tfw2005.com/2019/08/10/...-covers-394352

It'd be nice if people could try and measure toys properly for reviews. I've been looking at review threads for some Legends/Scout Class toys to compare it with Earthrise Cliffjumper's estimated height of 8.89cm [Google], and I'm seeing some different review threads for retools/repaints of the same mould with different heights reported by different thread authors. :eek: :confused: I'm talking about differences as much as two centimetres, which for an action figure is pretty big. This is kinda like saying that someone is 1.9m tall (like griffin) when they're actually only 1.7m tall (like me :p). I know that we're not working with rocket science here and measurements don't have to be super exact, but uh... if we could try to even get it right to the nearest centimetre... that'd be great.

e.g. if one person were to measure a toy at 8.89cm and someone else measured it at 9.13cm... both can just round it off to 9cm.

P.S.: yes, I know that I can just measure these toys for myself, but it's late and I just wanted to have a quick look before going to bed... it'd be nice if the info on review threads were more accurate for quick referencing. Cheers.

So you spent the time to trawl the internet for a bit of super unimportant info and then typed up a massive reply instead of going and grabbing your own figure to measure?

That is a level of laziness that almost approaches my own. Where you lose points is the complaining part. I wouldn’t have been bothered to complain. I would have just gone to bed.

If I want to know the height of a Transformers I go to Dave Van Domelen's reviews. He's usually pretty consistent in listing the height of the robots (and length of vehicle). I've been reading his reviews for 20 years and I think he even stills posts them to A.T.T.!

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Originally Posted by Paulbot

Big spoilers for the MTMTE/Lost Light Comic, in the last issues it was revealed.....

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Originally Posted by GoktimusPrime

Btw, how far along is the Japanese translation of the IDW comics? When I was last in Japan in 2017 I picked up a copy and it was 7 years behind. If they haven't picked up the pace then Japan may not catch up this Primus/Rung story until 2025. :eek:

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Ah, OK, thanks for the exposition guys. AT least I know I can rely on this pplace for good info :D

As for the JP IDW comics, I have no idea. After my teen-early 20s splurge of comics, I haven't gotten back into getting them and haven't bothered reading any English comics since some issues of the Sonic The Hedgehog comic I used to get. I don't even know where to go looking for comics locally :) That's how out of touch I am at the moment. :rolleyes:

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Originally Posted by Tetsuwan Convoy

I don't even know where to go looking for comics locally :)

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Says the person living in a country that uses more paper to print comic books than toilet paper [Schodt]. ;) Try any bookstore which are practically everywhere. I came across my Japanese IDW comic at a little bookshop in a train station. And second hand comics are dirt cheap over there.