Toy Review - Combiner Wars Computron

I'll add details later but find it hard to believe there isn't a review thread yet.

I give this toy a hearty thumbs up. Of the other CW combiners I have this is easily head and shoulders above the rest as far as quality and finish.

I was going to wait for a sale to pick this guy up but my son (with wifey's help) surprised me with him on Father's Day. Yay me!!

http://i214.photobucket.com/albums/c...823574F52B.jpg
http://i214.photobucket.com/albums/c...7739F29E41.jpg
http://i214.photobucket.com/albums/c...23AC603C78.jpg

The quality control on my Hasbro Computron is really disappointing. While some parts have tight ratcheting joints, the chest section won't stay together and I've resorted to rubber bands to hold him together. By comparison my Unite Warriors stays together fine and locks in place.

While the feet are AWESOME and better that the Takara version his thighs won't stay together and keeps doing the splits.

Maybe it's not fair to compare Hasbro quality with Japanese, or maybe I'm just unlucky with a bad one that escaped QC, but it feels cheap and nasty, and the slightest bump to the table he falls. Not going to trust him with a shelf, as he might not survive a shelf-dive.

Truth be told, I mainly bought him for Scrounge and the nice new feet and hands. I might cannabilise him for those, pack him back into the box and write it off as a bad decision. I couldn't in good conscience try to offload it to some unsuspecting collector....but I'd be curious to know if anyone else has had similar problems.

Mine should arrive Monday so I'll check and let you know

Quote:

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Originally Posted by reillyd

The quality control on my Hasbro Computron is really disappointing. While some parts have tight ratcheting joints, the chest section won't stay together and I've resorted to rubber bands to hold him together. By comparison my Unite Warriors stays together fine and locks in place.

While the feet are AWESOME and better that the Takara version his thighs won't stay together and keeps doing the splits.

Maybe it's not fair to compare Hasbro quality with Japanese, or maybe I'm just unlucky with a bad one that escaped QC, but it feels cheap and nasty, and the slightest bump to the table he falls. Not going to trust him with a shelf, as he might not survive a shelf-dive.

Truth be told, I mainly bought him for Scrounge and the nice new feet and hands. I might cannabilise him for those, pack him back into the box and write it off as a bad decision. I couldn't in good conscience try to offload it to some unsuspecting collector....but I'd be curious to know if anyone else has had similar problems.

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I must have lucked out... I have 0 issues will my version. I even let my kids play with it and its perfect. I am super happy with it.

The feet and fists are awesome!!! :D

Quote:

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Originally Posted by reillyd

The quality control on my Hasbro Computron is really disappointing. While some parts have tight ratcheting joints, the chest section won't stay together

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Ive had that problem too

I didn't even bother to notice as I straight away put my PC-11 on it. Looks a helluva lot better.

Comparison pics with Unite Warriors Computicon

Boxen
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y22...psi3pozm3w.jpg

Scattershot, vehicle mode
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y22...psmwohwc3y.jpg

Scattershot, robot mode
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y22...psjqmnzw07.jpg

Afterburner, vehicle mode
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y22...psa3ugkxrl.jpg

Afterburner, robot mode
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y22...psd00duyv7.jpg

Strafe, vehicle mode
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y22...ps9j2e8jpw.jpg

Strafe, robot mode
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y22...psn2ppl0ck.jpg

Nosecone, vehicle mode
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y22...pszmef1nbg.jpg

Nosecone, robot mode
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y22...psobjxlh6s.jpg

Lightsteed, vehicle mode
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y22...psumbgkh5e.jpg

Lightsteed, robot mode
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y22...psiwwfbbyz.jpg

Computron
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y22...pszmeou323.jpg

Oh god I want them both!! I don't own either set as yet but I adore the look of Hasbro's Strafe and Afterburner! :D Clever how they put the black cockpit on Strafe where the rub-sign was on the original G1 toy. If I could swap Scattershots between the 2 sets I'd buy the Hasbro set in a heartbeat - Much prefer the limbs on the Hasbro set but the unique Computron head + extra molded detail scrapes the Takara set over the edge for me. Just hope Hasbro releases the Technobot limbs individually at some point. :)

Hasbro CW Nosecone looks a little inadequate.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Megatran

Hasbro CW Nosecone looks a little inadequate.

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Just about any CW limb will look inadequate when compared to one of the best, the Rook mold. Doesn't help all the problems with the Brawl mold.

It's really weird that Hasbro didn't give Strafe a gun... and you can't detach the orange barrels from the jet mode like the original toy can (or the Japanese Strafe). I think the Hasbro Strafe is the better of the two, and is a lot more like the original, but the lack of gun is odd, and makes him stand out on the packaging for being unarmed. (unless he's supposed to bend over when he wants to shoot... from the two gun barrels on his back)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by griffin

It's really weird that Hasbro didn't give Strafe a gun... and you can't detach the orange barrels from the jet mode like the original toy can (or the Japanese Strafe). I think the Hasbro Strafe is the better of the two, and is a lot more like the original, but the lack of gun is odd, and makes him stand out on the packaging for being unarmed. (unless he's supposed to bend over when he wants to shoot... from the two gun barrels on his back)

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I gave him one of Afterburner's guns.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Trent

I gave him one of Afterburner's guns.

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I wanted to do that but Afterburner wouldn't allow it, because he doesn't like to share... ;) :p


Seriously though, it shouldn't be necessary... and it is worse than Brawl and Onslaught, who also don't have hand weaponry if you want to keep them looking like their Gen1 versions (with the barrels on their backs)... but at least with them, you can sacrifice their homage to the Gen1 toys by giving them the gun off their backs.

UW Strafe on the other hand is a total share bear. He has his own hand-held gun and the two back mounted guns can detach and also be hand held. He can't possibly hold all 3 guns at once, so he's always got one to spare!

Here are my thoughts about each Technobot...

Scattershot
I honestly think that they're all pretty nice in their own way, so we're spoiled for choice here. :) The original CW Scattershot has a nice toy-accurate all-blue face. The CW gift set Scattershot gives greater diversity in colours and I quite like the metallic blue paint on the visor. It also features the most show-accurate head colours (as the Technobots all had white faces in the cartoon, although one could argue that white approximates silver). The overall colours are more G1 accurate too. UW Scattershot features the most G1 cartoon-accurate colours with a silver face. It also has a retooled chest which makes it look more like Scattershot and also new guns which helps to distinguish it from Silverbolt.

Strafe
This is a tougher choice as both toys are more G1 accurate in different ways. Sculpt-wise CW Strafe is more toy accurate whereas UW Strafe is more show-accurate, and CW Strafe definitely features the more toy-accurate red face (while UW Strafe has a show-accurate head). CW Strafe's alt mode is definitely more G1-accurate, although UW Strafe has more G1-accurate colours. For some odd reason, Hasbro felt the need to give Strafe a maroon chest instead of red and added orange bits to the chest and elbows, whereas UW Strafe sticks to a red chest and has no orange highlights. Granted the orange does help to break up the white and does compliment the colours of the rear mounted guns, so it's not inherently bad - just depends on how much of a stickler you are for G1 accurate colours. As noted by others, CW Strafe's main weakness is its inability to remove the guns and it doesn't come with any other gun to carry in robot mode. The alt mode does have a 5mm peg which can be used to attach anything with a 5mm port onto it (e.g. Scrounge etc.).

Nosecone
UW wins this round, hands down. There isn't even any competition here.

UW Lightspeed/CW Lightsteed
I prefer Lightsteed's more G1 toy-accurate colours (whereas UW Lightspeed's colours are show-accurate), but otherwise I think that Lightspeed was much better executed than Lightsteed. I prefer toy-accurate colours, but mould-wise I prefer the UW figure (which is still my least favourite of the UW Technobots).

Afterburner
Hey, I forgot to add comparison pics in my previous post! (better go back and edit it in :p)
This reminds me of when I compared TakaraTOMY and Hasbro's MP Rodimus Prime -- the Hasbro version is more toy accurate (which I prefer), but has some weird anomalies (what's with the green windscreen and eyes?) and generally more lazy application. The TakaraTOMY version is more show-accurate and a lot more effort was poured into its execution. Interestingly enough, the official transformation for CW Afterburner has the front wheel pointing down which I think looks a lot better. UW Afterburner's official transformation has the wheel pointing up in robot mode, presumably to make it look more G1 accurate, but it ends up looking ungainly. Fortunately it's easy enough to modify by just spinning that front section 180 degrees.

Computron
The new colours on CW giftset Computron's head is much better than the previous one. Replacing the black on the helmet with burgundy really helps to sell it as Computron and look a lot less like Superion. The toy-accurate gold visor looks really nice, although I'm not sold on the pink accents throughout the toy (really, why?). The use of Victorion's feet are much better than UW Computron's, granting it far more stability. The only down side is that the Victorion hands/feet have no apparent other play value other than being gestalt parts (whereas UW Computron's hands/feet become weapons). So it's sacrificed play value for greater stability for the gestalt. UW Computron looks much more G1 accurate with the new head, chest, tummy and groin, as well as the more consistent use of red and burgundy (it only has metallic pink highlights on the chest for his "computing" colours).

Overall: UW is a good execution of a bland concept (cartoon colours) whereas the CW set are a haphazard execution of a better concept (toy colours). Both sets have their strengths and weaknesses so take your pick. :)