Rank 8 - Deluxe Member
Animated Leader Megatron is worth a purchase, I rank him equal with leader Magnus as a good solid toy, he isnt the best figure of the line (Ratchet, Prowl and Lugnut are the best figures of the line) but he is certainly top ten material.
He is also streets ahead of the other 2 crappy toys he has had released thus far.
Looking For: Wreckers Saga TPB Collection (with Requiem)
Rank 8 - Deluxe Member
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.
Collection Count (w/ a 12.42% upsize): 3053
New Family Members: DA-15 Jetwing Prime, DOTM Leader Ironhide, Perfect Effect Reflector, DOTM Shockwave & Skyhammer, eHobby United 3-packs
Current Desires: Japanese BW Optimal Optimus
The Holy Grail: Ultmetal Optimus Prime
Visit the Wonderful World of: The Iacon City Hub-Capital Collection
Rank 8 - Deluxe Member
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.
Looking For: Wreckers Saga TPB Collection (with Requiem)
Rank 1 - New or Inactive
Pop into K-mart Stanhope Gardens one time...Originally Posted by i_amtrunks
Still cannot find any Wave 3 or 4 animated figures.
Rank 9 - Board Staff
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!!
Rank 8 - Deluxe Member
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.
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.
Rank 10 - Admin
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.
Eagerly waiting for Masterpiece Meister
Rank 8 - Multi-Section Mod
+1
Rank 10 - Admin
I wish he has longer legs...
Rank 1 - New or Inactive
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.
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