TFA/Animated Comments thread

[STL]

Had a play of Jaydisc's today

I rate Lugnut heaps. I played with Jaydisc's today and it was a treat.Love the automorph as well as the clever use of the mini-con port. Sure, scale is bad but if you didn't watch the cartoon, he'd be very cool. Thinking of him made me rethink the issue of scale entirely. I remembered back to the Cybertron series where b/c I never watched any or much of the show, scale of the toys mattered nothing to me at all. It makes me think that scale is a fiction imposed criteria. As if I had never watched the show, Lugnut's size would not have mattered at all.

Jazz is also another win but very hard to get right in alt mode. Only Golden Phoenix was able to get it right. I'll have to break mine open.

Sentinel Prime though took the cake as easily the best figure of the lot. Great transformation, love the window folds especially. My only annoyance is that the head is exposed underneath.

Swoop has a very unconvincing alt mode. All the Dinobots have disappointed thus far though Grimlock was a purely QC issue for me which has since been remedied. The robot mode for Swoop though is excellent for poseability. That's the toys saving grace as I am a massive fan of good articulation.

I have to say, today went a long way to restoring my interest in Animated. I'd just about given up on the line after the disasters of Blitzwing, Lockdown, Voyager Prime, BB, Slag and so on.

[i_amtrunks]

So glad to hear of the love for Lugnut, It seemed for a while there that he was going to be Animated's Backstop/Saidos, I love the bugger while everyone else either hates him or couldn't care less about him.

Still cannot find any Wave 3 or 4 animated figures.

[Pulse]

Still cannot find any Wave 3 or 4 animated figures.

Pop into K-mart Stanhope Gardens one time...

[Robzy]

Not everyone hated/ignored him! I've mentioned before that I really like Lugnut, it's just that he's so darn small. Or maybe my issue is that Blitzwing is too BIG!!

[Stompy]

Lugnut did not look very appealing in pictures. When I first saw it, I thought it looked like an eggplant with wings or something else altogether unmentionable. But upon getting my mitts on the actual figure itself. It was very solid with a groovy elegant transformation. The cockpit is a little fragile, but thankfully stays clipped together on my figure. The spear and gimmick is nice although I am not too keen ont he giant bombs/hands.

The dinobot trio aren't too bad, they all have flaws though. Grimlock's head is exposed on the underside of his altmode. Granted it is a little hidden, it's still dissapointing for a Voyager Class figure. Nice tribute to the original Grimlock though. Slag/Snarl is pretty solid except for two flaws... The exposed topside of the robot modes head on its back and the legs/waist clip always comes loose making for wonky legs. The chest is also a little large and unruly but otherwise a solid figure. Swoop is skinny I was surprised they managed to make it convert. I must admit that the robot and alt mode looks identical.

Sentinel Prime is pure awesome. I love his conversion, especially how his four wheels join together to make the shoulders and form a rounded torso. Very clever. His legs is bordering on being too small for his torso though, but it's just passable. I'm still not keen on his medieval style weapons though. UGH. Mine have QC issues on the feet in robot mode. One is coloured in black, the other isn't. Is it meant to be coloured in black or left blue?

Roll Out Command Optimus Prime is not bad. The spinny-winny conversion is annoying and the gimmicks make very little to no articulation on the arms. The legs can get tricky to convert for alt mode, as aligning the ratchets on the proper angle so the front wheels can hook on the waist can be very tricky. The lights and sound gimmick is a little limited and hearing the same 3 phrases over and over can get grating. The little lights on the roof of the cab are actual buttons to trigger the lights and sound too, which was not in the manual at all.

[dirge]

Just picked up Underpriced Prime from Big W. The shelf ticket actually read $70 (well 69 something) but he was still scanning as a Cyberstomper (or whatever it was) so I figured I'd nab him before Big W realise.

For $40 this is a decent figure, but not a great one. Considering that TRU have a buttload of the same thing for $99, I'm not complaining. Stompy's comments are generally on the money. The instructions are pretty useless - as is so often the case.

I do like how the weapon transforms, and you can place it in his hand and press a button on the _hand_ to set this gimmick off. This is an overpriced basic in terms of transformation and complexity - and poseability. There are some decent tricks in his leg transformation, at least.

There are a lot of sound gimmicks, some of which are quite cleverly activated (the right arm punch impresses me). I don't like electronics generally, but this toy is actually focussing on the gimmicks fairly well, and not trying to do too much at the same time (like Ultimate Bumblebee's awkward transformation).

For $40 he's worthwhile, purely on the display value in robot mode and sound set. $99 is definitely stretching the friendship.

[blackie]

Just picked up Underpriced Prime from Big W. The shelf ticket actually read $70 (well 69 something) but he was still scanning as a Cyberstomper (or whatever it was) so I figured I'd nab him before Big W realise.

For $40 this is a decent figure, but not a great one. Considering that TRU have a buttload of the same thing for $99, I'm not complaining. Stompy's comments are generally on the money. The instructions are pretty useless - as is so often the case.

I do like how the weapon transforms, and you can place it in his hand and press a button on the _hand_ to set this gimmick off. This is an overpriced basic in terms of transformation and complexity - and poseability. There are some decent tricks in his leg transformation, at least.

There are a lot of sound gimmicks, some of which are quite cleverly activated (the right arm punch impresses me). I don't like electronics generally, but this toy is actually focussing on the gimmicks fairly well, and not trying to do too much at the same time (like Ultimate Bumblebee's awkward transformation).

For $40 he's worthwhile, purely on the display value in robot mode and sound set. $99 is definitely stretching the friendship.

+1

[Kyle]

Sentinel Prime though took the cake as easily the best figure of the lot. Great transformation, love the window folds especially. My only annoyance is that the head is exposed underneath.

I wish he has longer legs...

[SilverDragon]

I got Blackarachnia yesterday.

Her beast mode is quite good, in that it manages to look like a spider within the technorganic/animated aesthetic, and with the ability to transform into a humanoid robot, to boot. I'd prefer the front legs to be more articulated, and the robot hands be hidden somehow-as it is they're sitting on her third pair of legs being obvious. Still, the good far outweighs the bad-it's a good spider mode, the grapnel gimmick works extremely well (and is pretty unique), and the black-purple-gold-red colouration isn't bad in any way.

The transformation is brilliant-you wouldn't believe that the spider could transform into a humanoid robot, but it does.

Robot mode is utterly fantastic. It's quite accurate to the show model, ecept for an extra set of legs on her back, which in any case had to go somewhere. Blackarachnia's quite obviously female, too-I especially like how the spider pedipalps (the little purple fangs near her mouth) define her waist. The gimmick works well here, too-you can even stick the grapnel under her arm and ape Spider Man's web-slinging!

It's very much a homage to all incarnations of Blackarachnia-the head design is from her original/TM2 body, the black and gold is from her original appearence, and the general body is straight out of her BM look. I love this.

The only thing I dislike a bit is the articulation. It's quite good, actually, but after Ratchet and his ability to breakdance, I expected more, but she's a little limited by her arm and leg joints.

Definitely worthwhile.

[jacksplatt11]

So just got Animated Grimlock, really really like it..

It seems pretty cartoon accurate in both modes, but in saying that I haven't watched much TFA so I wouldn't know for sure but it appears very close from what I've seen..

Dino mode is great, the tail is a little bit short and stocky compared to the rest of the body, but when it's made up of the robot mode legs, not much else can be done I guess. Apart from that I love the rest, the massive underbite makes him look friendly and aggressive at the same time, if you can have that..

Transformation is very simple for a voyager, but there isn't anywhere I think that it could be improved, so I'm not really too fussed about that..

Robot mode is great, very powerful looking, and very solid. I love the flame sword gimmick when you turn the wrist, simple but very snazzy, all in all I can't think of anything I would want improved in robot mode...

One small thing, which I guess is a QC issue, some of the joints, particularly dino mode knees/robot mode elbows, are a bit more loose than I would like, but just tightening up some screws fixed that, so overall its no biggie..

So overall, really really like it, but then again, who doesn't like any version of Grimlock