Toy Review - Platinum Edition Seeker Squadron (Dirge, Ramjet, Thrust)

[GoktimusPrime]

Series - Platinum Edition
Size/class - Seekers
Wave - N/A
New/remould/redeco – Reissues
Released here - August 2015
Approximate Retail Price - $199
Approximate Size - 14cm
Allegiance - Decepticons
Alt-mode - Modified F-15 Eagles
Main Features/Gimmicks – Transforms from fighter jet to robot and back!
Main Colours – Dirge: blue, Ramjet: white, Thrust: maroon

Quick thoughts:

* Weapons and wings peg in loosely. Possibly due to some mould degradation. It's not terrible, but it's noticeable. Likely to fall off during play, but they'll hold fine for display. My Ramjet's cockpit is quite loose and is prone to swinging forward slightly in robot mode. My G1 Ramjet does this too, but of course, he's 30 years old. And it took years of regular play and transforming before he started having that problem; my Plat. Ed. Ramjet has this problem straight out of the box! Although this problem can be easily countered if you flip the nosecone up to give Ramjet the "conehead" look, but if you flip it down (which is actually G1 toy-accurate), then the cockpit rocks forward. It's probable that this may be an isolated problem though.

* The plastic quality on the fists is poor. All six fists had stress marks on them as soon as I plugged them onto the arms. I've decided to display my Plat Ed. Seekers in jet mode and my original G1s in robot mode. Yeah, you know that the plastic quality is shoddy when I have more faith in fists that are 30 years older than these reissues.

* Notable changes from G1: The stripes on Dirge's wings are silver instead of white, which actually looks nicer than on the original G1 figure (and previous reissues). Not surprisingly, Thrust's launchers have no launching mechanism. They can only hold the missiles in place. Still... it's much better than the alternative.

* The profile text is sooo simple and brief! They read like lyrics from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles theme song.
♪Dirge fights with fear, Thrust is a big loud mouth, and Ramjet crashes into enemies (COWABUNGAAAAA!)
Platinum Edition Decepticon Seekers
Platinum Edition Decepticon Seekers
Platinum Edition Decepticon Seekers
Over priced re-issues, now at Myer!♭
Also, the toys are hilariously mistransformed in robot mode on the back of the box.

Overall:
On one hand, I would say that this set clearly isn't worth the full $199 asking price. But on the other hand, reissues of Decepticon jets who aren't Starscream are rare, especially for Ramjet and Thrust as this is the first time that those two Jets have ever been reissued for regular retail! (they were previously reissued in 2001 as a Japanese convention exclusive set) So I can certainly understand the demand for these toys, but I would strongly recommend avoiding paying full RRP for this set, especially given the QC issues.


Photos










Note the white stripe on G1 Dirge (L) vs the silver stripe on Platinum Edition Dirge (R)

[5FDP]

As much as I wanted these guys, $200 is a bit rich. I think I'll stick with my Generations versions.

[GoktimusPrime]

I used a discount voucher and paid about $165 (or $55 per Seeker), which is still too much, but meh. #impatiencetax

[Bidoofdude]

What do the instructions say on the whole conehead vs traditional thing with the head transformation?

[GoktimusPrime]

What do the instructions say on the whole conehead vs traditional thing with the head transformation?

Original transformation. The box art obviously shows it with the conehead, as does the photography on the back of the box... although the toys are just mistransformed in those photos (wings as well). But the instructions are true to the original G1 toys with the nosecones down.

The G1 cartoon/comics made them coneheads to help further differentiate the 2nd year jets from the first year ones, but they also shortened the length of the nosecones and removed the original helmets' crest and cheek guards (making the noses the actual helmets, much like cowls). This doesn't quite have the same effect on the toys because the nosecones are significantly longer, and of course, you can't conceal or get rid of the original helmet features. Other post-G1 Coneheads have done certain things to make the noses shorter as robot heads (e.g. CHUGUR), or even using faux coneheads (e.g. Armada, Movieverse). If TakaraTOMY ever made MP Coneheads, they would also need to similarly find methods of making the robot head cones shorter than on the jet mode.

Obviously it's up to the individual collector as to how they want to transform their toys, but I personally prefer them with the nosecones down, since it's more G1 toy-accurate and I think it looks better since the toys' heads were never designed to be coneheads (thus unable to be shorter or conceal other head/helmet elements).

[Sinnertwin]

I used a discount voucher and paid about $165 (or $55 per Seeker), which is still too much, but meh. #impatiencetax

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