Toy Review - Generations IDW Waspinator

[Verno]

I (finally) got my hands on this figure, thanks to gdmetro. I gladly cancelled my pre-order of him with BBTS yesterday afternoon.

I've been longingly staring at pictures of Generations Waspy for many a month now, and can say he's just as nice in the flesh (plastic).

I can look past the robotic kibble being visible in beast-mode. I mean, honestly, there is literally nowhere else to put the robot arms and legs.

The robot-mode is a masterpiece. People have often commented about a want for up-sized 'Masterpiece' Beast Wars figures, but if you can get this much detail into a deluxe toy, why would you need a 'Masterpiece' version?

The piece of absolute beauty for me is the mechanism for splitting the wasp head and displaying the sternum in robot-mode. That's just superb.

A mechanism to 'lock' the wings in an upright positing would have been nice, as well as being able to divide the larger and smaller wings, but they look good regardless.

I'm extremely pleased with him. I think Hasbro/Takara should be continuing to release updated/reimagined Beast Wars toys of the original 14 characters. 3 down, 11 to go!

[Zommael]

I'm extremely pleased with him. I think Hasbro/Takara should be continuing to release updated/reimagined Beast Wars toys of the original 14 characters. 3 down, 11 to go!

It's actually 5 down, arguably 7. They've made toys of Rhinox, Rattrap, and Waspinator in Generations. Then there's Cheetor and Dinobot in Universe. The arguably seven comes from Megatron and Optimus Primal getting new toys as part of the 10th anniversary a long while ago, and they're arguable because they were designed to be "Cybertron compatible" so as to fit into the mainline at the time. They also released screen accurate remolds of OP and Megs shortly afterward. So yeah, either 5 or 7 of 14. I'd certainly like to see modern versions of dragon Megatron and Optimal Optimus, though.

Waspinator kicks all kinds of ass. And he has planzzzz, yezzzzz....

[Verno]

It's actually 5 down, arguably 7. They've made toys of Rhinox, Rattrap, and Waspinator in Generations. Then there's Cheetor and Dinobot in Universe. The arguably seven comes from Megatron and Optimus Primal getting new toys as part of the 10th anniversary a long while ago, and they're arguable because they were designed to be "Cybertron compatible" so as to fit into the mainline at the time. They also released screen accurate remolds of OP and Megs shortly afterward. So yeah, either 5 or 7 of 14. I'd certainly like to see modern versions of dragon Megatron and Optimal Optimus, though.

Waspinator kicks all kinds of ass. And he has planzzzz, yezzzzz....

Let's not sell ourselves short here.

3 down. 11 to go.

[Zommael]

Let's not sell ourselves short here.

3 down. 11 to go.

I very much doubt Hasbro will make another version of Dinobot or Cheetor. Nor would I want them to, when there are other figures I want made.

[Ravagecat]

Got sick of waiting for the Hasbro release so found a HK dealer selling the Takara version for a reasonable price. Look forward to getting this Buzz-bot

[Zommael]

Got sick of waiting for the Hasbro release so found a HK dealer selling the Takara version for a reasonable price. Look forward to getting this Buzz-bot

My version is the Takara version. It's all kinds of awesome. Especially good for leaving around the house to scare the girlfriend with.

[Verno]

I very much doubt Hasbro will make another version of Dinobot or Cheetor. Nor would I want them to, when there are other figures I want made.

Stay positive. They need doing right.

[Zommael]

Stay positive. They need doing right.

I quite like the Universe Dinobot. But I do take your point. Maybe they could do updated versions of the Transmetal or TM2 forms, or even BM for Cheetor, rather than trying again for the original forms. Admittedly that wouldn't give us a completely perfect first season cast, but it would avoid those who've bought some of the earlier releases ending up with doubles of the exact same character.

[Verno]

I quite like the Universe Dinobot. But I do take your point. Maybe they could do updated versions of the Transmetal or TM2 forms, or even BM for Cheetor, rather than trying again for the original forms. Admittedly that wouldn't give us a completely perfect first season cast, but it would avoid those who've bought some of the earlier releases ending up with doubles of the exact same character.

Dinobot is ok. I have the Henkei versions of both he and Cheetor, but ultimately he's too small.

As for Cheetor, both modes suffer from the same thing - the gimmick. The jaw opening mechanism is far too cumbersome for such a small, thin figure. Doing away with that would be a great start for that mold, but there is still quite a bit wrong with it.

The point of these Generations figures was to get as close to screen accurate as possible, at least in robot mode. Cheetor and Dinobot were never designed to be that.