Toy Review - Platinum Edition Breakout Battle

[MayzaPrime]

So Griffin when you review them do you get to keep them?

Cause that would be cool

[Sky Shadow]

Griff - you can click down Rollbar's toes to make him more stable.

[BigTransformerTrev]

A pretty cool set but since I already have these 3 molds I'll be giving it a pass unless I find it in a clearance sale

So Griffin when you review them do you get to keep them?

Cause that would be cool

I was wondering too, but I presume he would since they have now been taken out of the box and played with. Perks to running the longest serving TF fansite eh

[griffin]

I've been begging them for a few years now to review upcoming toys, either by loaning them to me (to post back) or have someone in Sydney do the reviews from their office.

This year at Toyfair THEY actually resurrected the idea - not me. I didn't object, but told them that if they were for me to keep, I wouldn't be comfortable with too many... and only send ones they really want promoted that I can "earn" by putting in a lot of time and effort promoting here and globally.
(they need value for money and we're only a "small" site in terms of public marketing, so there's a limit to how many items they can just give away for free like this, by interstate courier, which is why I don't want to be greedy - I want them to get as much or more back, to warrant the occasional toy to review in the future)
Furthermore, any non-review items offered (or thrown in a package as a bonus) that I didn't want or need, I've rejected, or promised to give away for free... I will not get free stuff just so that I can sell it, as that isn't right. And so far, I've only kept one item for myself that wasn't sent for me to review (Construct-Bots AOE Hound).

[Paulbot]

In earlier promo photos I'd not noticed that it came with a barn from Prime to park in. It's a nice, and rather rare, touch to include diorama set pieces in the set.

[MayzaPrime]

Griffin, I for one will be buying this set thanks to your review...



I think it is a great idea that Hasbro Aus are sending you stuff to review.

[BigTransformerTrev]

I've been begging them for a few years now to review upcoming toys, either by loaning them to me (to post back) or have someone in Sydney do the reviews from their office.

This year at Toyfair THEY actually resurrected the idea - not me. I didn't object, but told them that if they were for me to keep, I wouldn't be comfortable with too many... and only send ones they really want promoted that I can "earn" by putting in a lot of time and effort promoting here and globally.
(they need value for money and we're only a "small" site in terms of public marketing, so there's a limit to how many items they can just give away for free like this, by interstate courier, which is why I don't want to be greedy - I want them to get as much or more back, to warrant the occasional toy to review in the future)
Furthermore, any non-review items offered (or thrown in a package as a bonus) that I didn't want or need, I've rejected, or promised to give away for free... I will not get free stuff just so that I can sell it, as that isn't right. And so far, I've only kept one item for myself that wasn't sent for me to review (Construct-Bots AOE Hound).

I wouldn't stress mate. It's very noble and above board the way you are handling the situation but considering the huge amount of money you spend on hasbo products each year, the pittance it would cost this giant company to part with the odd toy that they manufacture by the tens of thousands, then add on top of that the website you maintain that talks about their products I think you are in the green

[griffin]

I just don't want people to get the wrong idea, thinking that I'm chasing up free stuff from anyone I can. Anything that I've recently been reviewing (toys & licensed items) was offered without me asking for it... and even before these ones, items I've been offered or sent, almost all have been given away in competitions.
I even offered to pay for upcoming toys from Hasbro, but since it wasn't possible, I said to only send items they want promoted. That way neither of us is seen to be taking advantage of the other.

[griffin]

It is fascinating to track these two reviews on other fan sites, so that I can see what other fans think of these toys... to see that almost all other sites are posting up one or the other set (as news), but not both. And oddly enough, Seibertron didn't feature either set. Usually both of the big two global fansites copy each other with their news pages.

Another reason I'm tracking the reception of these two sets is that if I did a good enough job promoting these two sets, I might be allowed to review the Dinobot 5-pack... so fingers crossed.

Until then, I might do some more feature reviews of new toys I've bought, as extra "payment" for the donated ones.

[griffin]

The Japanese Rusty Optimus toy finally arrived today, so here are the comparison photos I promised.



Most of the photos I had seen previously online of the Japanese one were the robot mode, which had me preferring the Hasbro version... but now
that I have had it in truck mode, the paintwork makes the Japanese one look slightly better in truck mode (it actually looks like an abandoned
junkyard truck, compared to the Hasbro version just looking dusty).



The Hasbro one still looks better in robot mode (to me), but neither capture the red and blue you can see through the dirt of Optimus in the
movie in robot mode. Since these are parts that are mostly hidden in truck mode, I don't see why either version didn't put some "weathered" blue or
red on those parts.
It's not like they spent all their money on painting the whole exterior of the cab, because the Japanese version has splotches of the pinkish-red "rust"
on the robot parts (which actually works against it for not looking like rust or weathering), while the Hasbro version has more of the brown "dirt"
painted on its robot parts.
Side by side though, the Japanese one is just way too white to be considered the "Movie-accurate" Optimus toy. It actually looks more like an
Ultra Magnus redeco Optimus toy.
As such, if I had to choose one, I'd probably prefer the Hasbro version... because it has the better robot mode (the mode I display the toys in), it
has a plausible vehicle mode deco that they replicated well with paint (being dusty instead of rusted), and it comes with a cardboard diorama
tray for display.

Anyway, the rest of the photos for others to make up their minds with.

The images on the back of the box made the Hasbro one look whiter.


On the front of each, the same artwork is used for Optimus, although, the Japanese one looks like it might be the Silver Knight artwork since it is so
white. You can still see hints of blue on the Hasbro box art.


It's amazing to think that that is all paint covering both of them.


I couldn't get my Japanese one to transform properly, as you can see in the photo above, a little tab kept getting pushed up on the roof of the cab.
When I looked for the reason, I found that the front middle panel of the cab was not glued together properly, so it stuck out just a millimetre. It
might not seem like much, but that tiny difference can affect the whole alignment of larger parts, which you then do see as significant (like the
BotCon Scorponok shoulders). Below is the part that wasn't glued in far enough, making it press against the robot neck inside the cab in Vehicle
mode. The only thing I could do is sand down a little off the front of that part, so it could then slide in next to the robot neck, instead of pushing it
up through the roof of the cab.


With it fixed, I could go back to taking photos of the Vehicle mode.

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The paint method of both appear to be different as well. Either the Hasbro one was brushed on, or the resolution of their spray was finer, because the
Japanese paint deco looked like one of those bad reprints of a 1980s comic.
From a distance it looks really nice, but close up it looks really bad.

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Robot mode.
The Japanese version uses the face-plate head, while the Hasbro one uses the mouth head... which could be an element of personal preference to
collectors choosing one or the other.
(I also think that the blue robot eyes on the Japanese version is too bright, as the Hasbro one has slightly darker eyes... while the other two Red
Optimus toys have black eyes)

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The colors of the Japanese version in robot mode keeps reminding me of the limited edition version of the Dual Model Kit - http://tfwiki.net/wiki/File:DOTM-DMK...lorVersion.jpg
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