Hong Kong (and the Asian countries they supply) gets the best of both worlds, with the Hasbro America toys we get here, plus most of the Japanese toys.Quote:
Originally Posted by UltimateGalvatron
Hong Kong (and the Asian countries they supply) gets the best of both worlds, with the Hasbro America toys we get here, plus most of the Japanese toys.Quote:
Originally Posted by UltimateGalvatron
Excellent.Quote:
Originally Posted by griffin
Got my PlayStation Optimus Prime recently. Nice to have what is quite a unique piece... but boy was it not worth the price. Crossing my fingers no more of this 'line' come out now :)
I know when these were announced as TakaraTomy Arts releases, there was a lot of concern along the lines of the old Titanium line - ie that they weren't designed by the regular designers. Megadrive Megatron seemed to skirt around that issue (apart from the feet)... but Prime just reeks of inexperienced designer!
His pauldrons flop about when there's really no reason for them not to be secure... but the chest is by far the worst offender. It doesn't have any kind of locking mechanism - on the main piece and also the flip over autobot logo piece. I know it's a collector item/not to be played with... but picking up the toy shouldn't result in half of it flowing in the wind! The side of the chest that angles back, seems like it wasn't even considered in the overall design. Push them back to where they should be and the frame around his head pushes his head into a tilting position.
In PlayStation mode, it's possible to line up everything nicely (though his legs are more trouble than they should be considering the folding design)... but even then the seams are just way too obvious (something Megatron avoided being black i guess)
Standing still, he does look pretty nice. Together with Megatron, yeah it really stands out now that it would make a lot more sense being a Super Nintendo! But i won't hold that against them, since i imagine Nintendo wouldn't come to the party.
The most redeeming feature imo is the head sculpt which is really great, and strangely enough that's my least liked feature of the Megatron toy!
I was just about to post up a bulk review topic for the six recent JP Fembots thinking that people were buying them but there just wasn't
enough interest for individual reviews, but now that there is one for Blackarachnia, I'll just post these photos and comments here instead.
(I don't want to steal the attention from that new topic by having another one that also covers that toy, and it wouldn't make as much sense just having a topic for five of the six.)
People are still welcome to post up proper review topics for these... I'm just being lazy with some quick comments. :o
- - (FEB 14)
LG10 - Arcee (DLX GEN)
LG11 - Chromia (DLX GEN)
LG12 - Windblade (DLX GEN)
- - (OCT 24)
LG-15 - Nightbird Shadow (remoulded Arcee)
LG-16 - Slipstream (remoulded Windblade)
LG-17 - Blackwidow (remoulded Animated Blackarachnia) Proper review here.
I ended up getting four of the six last week from HLJ, so did up some comparison photos. I have no interest in getting the other two, as they
aren't different enough from the Hasbro versions for me.
(I wanted the Japanese Arcee because it is more cartoon accurate to the character I've known since 1986... almost 30 years now.)
SDCC Arcee - Hasbro GEN Arcee - JP Legends Arcee - Nightbird.
http://www.toycollectors.com.au/blog/d010.jpg
Hasbro GEN Windblad - SDCC Windblade - Slipstream.
http://www.toycollectors.com.au/blog/d011.jpg
Hasbro Animated Blackarachnia - JP Legends Blackarachnia.
Both have one of their chest bits/spider pincers wrong... which I didn't notice until processing the photos. The Animated has its right purple pincer
pointing up, while the Legends one has its left yellow breastplate not plugged in.
http://www.toycollectors.com.au/blog/d012.jpg
The toys in their boxes.
http://www.toycollectors.com.au/coll...ofoz/1511a.jpg
In their alt-mods.
http://www.toycollectors.com.au/coll...ofoz/1511b.jpg
Each of the second trio have new parts to the toy, while Nightbird and Slipstream have new accessories. I was a bit disappointed that
Blackarachnia didn't come with something new.
Slipstream.
I'm not a fan of the Windblade mould, so that was a negative factor with Slipstream, but the new robot chest and colours makes it above average
(compared to below average for the Windblades to me).
The arm guns aren't very secure to slip onto the arms, and don't sit far enough forward on the jet mode.
Nightbird.
A very nice representation of the cartoon Nighbird character, with the backpack being done in black to end up being totally ignored as being part
of the robot mode... so all you really see is the grey (robot) part as if it doesn't have kibble, which is almost an optical illusion to make it look like
the slim slender cartoon bot.
The new weapons are a nice touch, but unfortunately my robot photo above had them side on, so you can't see them properly.
Despite having six weapons now, surprisingly, all six can plug onto the car mode (with the two guns under the car).
Blackarachnia.
Probably the most disappointing of the three newest ones, because it uses an Animated toy as its base, but it is probably the least "Animated" looking
Animated toy, so doesn't stand out that much from the other Fembots.
The robot chestplate that is new to this release is a nice idea, but doesn't work for ruining the spider mode (see the last photo above), for replacing
the small purple pincers of the Animated toy with big yellow cups sticking out the front of the spider mode.
Probably the best feature is the new robot head, because the original Blackarachnia toy was the "beast" robot head that Tarantulas and
Blackarachnia shared... so didn't end up being very cartoon accurate (or having the cartoon be accurate to the toy).
Arcee.
From the first trio of Fembots at the start of the year, but I got one of the reissues that I think HLJ still has in stock.
As noted above already, this toy isn't too different to the Hasbro 2014 Generations toy, but for me this is like the perfect edition Arcee toy, and
didn't mind having both Hasbro and Japanese versions.
It's just so beautiful for being all pink and white, like it just came off the cartoon or comic.