Toy Review - Siege Battlemasters

[Ode to a Grasshopper]

SINGE



Singe, of course, was one of Spinister's Nebulan Targetmaster partners in G1. As Siege Spinister comes with no Targetmasters of his own, Singe has been released separately. He's basically a repaint of Firedrive, and a rather mundane one at that, being predominantly black and gunmetal grey with a metallic blue face. It also means that he lacks the more distinctive features of G1 Singe, like the War Machine style shoulder cannons. The overall palette is too monotonous and I think that it would've helped to have some grey or silver and more metallic blue to break up the black. The dark gunmetal grey, while quite nice, is too close to black to give a good contrast.



I personally would've preferred if Hasbro just did what they did with Generations Scoop and just included two simple 1988 style Targetmasters. Being much simpler Targetmasters they would be much cheaper to make and wouldn't need to be sold separately - they're basically just solid mould guns with flip out barrels and handles. Scoop showed us that this is cheap enough to do at a Deluxe Class price point. Just repainting Scoop's Targetmasters (as they did for Combiner Wars Spinister) to save more money would be preferrable IMO. The thing with repainting existing Siege Battlemasters is that they're styled like the 1987 Targetmasters, not 1988. They're also more expensive and likely not feasible to include a pair of them as bonus accessories. As a 1988 Targetmaster character, Spinister doesn't need fancier 1987-style Targetmasters. And if you include two of them that can combine, then I think collectors will easily forgive the simpler designs.

Overall: Not really worth it unless you want to give Spinister his Targetmaster weapon and you're willing to shell out extra bucks for the purchase of an additional Battle Master on top of the Deluxe that you've already bought. :/ IMO toys like Generations Scoop was much better value for money -- one single Deluxe Class purchase gave you a Deluxe figure with two Targetmasters.

OK, so, having just gotten Spinister today, and not having Transformed him yet, but having put him with robot-mode Quake with a newly-opened Aimless, I'm now sort-of of the opposite view re. Targetmaster partners - Spinister's guns look about right, while Aimless looks too damn big and clunky. I'm planning on picking up Singe, but I'll actually probably just give him to my Slugslinger, G1-inaccuracy be damned. For the updated Double-Targetmasters I like the static dual guns - I want some for Quake as well now.
At some point I'll just pick up an old G1 Misfire and give Aimless to him, but for now I'm going with Siege Targetmasters for 1987 Targetmasters, and Something Else for the Double Targetmasters.
Not sure how I'd feel if the simpler Scoop-y Targetmasters had been the case - suspect they would have still been too large for my tastes.

[Ode to a Grasshopper]

Sort-of a necro-bump/rehashing old figures, but I sort of feel like I need to express my appreciation...Siege Blowpipe looks really good with Titans Return Triggerhappy.