Toy Review - Generations Combiners & group reviews/comments

[griffin]

He hates the new kids showing off...

[Bidoofdude]

Nice to hear they're good toys from someone who has the most. You could always get the Takara set Griffin, especially since it has Slingshot as well.

[griffin]

Finally got around to combining them, and even though they were a little more complicated than the Gen1 combiners to prepare for combining, they are still above average to me (the individual toys are still the best element of these combiners though).

The Optimus as a core (which will be Motormaster) was the weaker of the two in both transformation and when transformed... and definitely needs the required chest-panel Legends toy.

I like the spring-loaded sockets, that lock in the limbs... but can make it a bit tricky to release them if too much kibble is in the way and you have fat man-child fingers.

Articulation is reduced, but still more than expected, based on the requirements of engineering "triple-changer" toys and how limited the original Combiners were with articulation. The legs have hips and knee joints, while the arms have shoulder, elbow and wrist joints. Depending on the Deluxe toy you use as an arm though, there can be some limitations on elbow movement (like Alpha Bravo who has the robot arms getting in the way).

One complaint I have is the antenna on Superion's head. Not sure if it is necessary to have them made from rubber, but because they are so soft, I can't get them to point straight up (there is too much resistance from the swivel hinge to go all the way to the "12 o'clock" position).

Powerglide feels forced as a weapon, looking more like a fan-made afterthought to the toy. It looks wrong on its own and when held by Superion. I guess when they decided to have a Legends toy for Menasor to be sold separately, the question would be asked why a Legends toy wasn't also paired up with Superion. Unfortunately we are likely to see the same thing from Groove for Defensor... a bittersweet way of keeping the character included in the Protectobots team.


With some other random toys I had on the bench - Leader size Jetfire, DMK-03 Optimus, Gen1 Superion and Gen1 Aerialbots.


Among other Gen1 combiners and Fortress Maximus.


It was after looking at these two photos that something just didn't look right with the new "Superion"... and then I realised what it was - the legs are the wrong way around. On the original Superion the jet kibble is at the back, but on the new Superion the jet kibble is on the front... and when I turned around the legs (yes, I know one leg is Dragstrip, but until wave 2 comes out, this fills in for Airraid which will have the same kibble issue anyway) the black panel at the back of Superion's knee is in the way of the limb kibble. So if you want a Gen1 styled Superion, you need to move the jet nosecone back (unhook it), or move Dragstrip's car front as far down as you can.
The problem now is that Superion has reversed knees, because they can't bend back anymore due to the kibble. But if you are just wanting to display it, it might be okay for the Gen1 fans.



If I get bored later I might recombine the limbs to Optimus and take some more photos... but I think enough people have already posted photos to not see a point to a repeat.
The real fun will be when Motormaster and the second wave of Deluxes comes out... and fans like me will spend hours playing with the two teams in different modes and combining them.

[prjkt]

I can second on the hours of messing around.... swapping arm to leg, leg to arm, swapping torsos... great line

[Omega Metro]

Not overly excited about the CW stuff.
Why does Dragstrip look like a Flamenco Dancer crying tears of blood?
Superions thighs are just way too skinny and blocky.
And those screws on the deluxes are very annoying to look at.

[Bumbleb33]

Popped open Firefly and Alpha Bravo last night, I was so impressed by their simplistic but enjoyable designs and their joint tolerances are fantastic.

I have to date only had an opportunity to combine 2 limbs (arms) and Vgr OP which my GF dubbed Protein Prime. As he is now he looks remarkably like those guys that go to the gym every day and only workout their upper body so they end up with chicken leg syndrome.

I am loving where this line is going and I cannot wait to get home to bust open Dragstrip and Skydive.

[SuspectimusPrime]

I have to date only had an opportunity to combine 2 limbs (arms) and Vgr OP which my GF dubbed Protein Prime. As he is now he looks remarkably like those guys that go to the gym every day and only workout their upper body so they end up with chicken leg syndrome.

We should give the poor guy some time to work things through. He's over-compensating now because he's spent too many undergrad Fri/Sat nights on nacho/beer dinner dates on the couch with his Xbox. He'll get there.

[G1Optimal]

About alpha bravos arms/hands in arm mode i just bend the forward at the elbows and rotate the shoulders back till the bend arms are near his tail finns

[Sutton]

I got Superion thinking he'd be a good stand-in until a decent 3rd party version came along (the TFC version was just...shit). But he's so solid and fun, I might just stick with him and be done with it. Especially if we can add Slingshot later. Plus, there's an addon kit on the way that gives better feet and hands.

The thighs for Superion look extremely lanky in photos, but for some reason they don't look anywhere near as bad in person.

Today I also opened up the Microblaze Onslaught upgrade kit for FoC Bruticus, and although that's an impressive kit with an excellent end result, I can tell you which toy I had the most fun assembling...!

Bravo, Hasbro.

[morg176]

I got the cw figures bombshell, powerglide and alpha bravo today at kiama toyworld.
Bomshell is fantastic in its simplicity, design and paint apps. Powerglide is very g1 accurate and has a beautiful face sculpt, it also holds together well after uou fiddle with the tail.

Alpha bravo, im still undecided. It holds together well but seems lacking somehow.
My ab figure has a remarkably loose rotor fitting, has a lot of wobble in it which I am no happy about at all. It would be better if it was a rotor joint with two or more removeable swords that could be used as weapons.
One thingabout ab is that it could be easily retooled into a shuttle, a submarine or a train to name a few. Alot of potential perhaps.

Ill buy skydive next me thinks

Still a big improvement in tf toys. Keep it coming hasbro.