Cybertron Sideways

 

Soundwave

 

Studio Series Optimus Prime  

 

Edited an old picture and liked the way it turned out

 

Presumably him for the foreseeable future

 

It's the Thrilling 30 Orion Pax from a few years back. Fantastic figure, if a bit small.

 

I haven't had a chance to take any pictures yet, but today goes to Studio Series Starscream, Thundercracker, and TLK Nitro Zeus. They look amazeballs together!

 

It's Thrilling 30 Orion Pax. He's IDW's design of Orion Pax

As for today, Beachcomber:

 

Fans Hobby MB-04Gunfighter II for today:

 

What gun is that from

 

The studio series got me all into the movie stuff for the moment so I busted out this guy and tried being creative. I've always really liked this figure.

 

Power of the Primes Dinobots for today.

 

Today? Robot John Goodman.

 

Iron Factory's Tactitcal Assault Squad (their Legends Datsun triplets) has an assortment of 5mm weapons that come with it that work perfectly with their larger Cousins.

 

I think I kind of romanticised Snarl when I was a kid. He featured in my favourite episode of 'Dinobt Hunt!', the Stegosaurus was my favourite dino when I was wee (don't ask me why), and he was the only one of the four UK released Dinobots I didn't see. At least until 1987.

As a toy, he's a tricky one. On one hand he's kind of magnificent, with that split gold tail behind his shoulders making him like kind of regal. For me that's always been the defining characteristic of the bot mode. That and the odd 'crown' of the bot mode. And that's where it gets tricky, because otherwise this is probably the least handsome and well-designed of the G1 Dinobots. A tiny head on a massively oversized chest with stubby arms, and itsy-bitsy waist. It's not great.

And maybe much of that poor design is just compromise for such an excellent stegosaurus mode. All that beautiful vac metalised gold can distract from the excellent basic design. Maybe it's a small thing that impresses no-one else, but I love the raised lower leg, pronounced hump and low angled tail. The mind's eye makes this guy lumber. He looks like he's carrying all that weight with some effort. The only thing that looks a little weird is those big red eyes.

When I first saw the photos of PotP Snarl I was sure I was looking at the weak link. He looked like a throwback to the simpler Combiner Wars days, with his blocky chest and weak, gappy pelvis. Every subsequent picture I saw cemented the thought in my head. So I was in for a very pleasant surprise when I got this guy out the box and found him to be pretty damn good. The chest seems to balance out with the legs and he makes so much more sense. Yes, the pelvis is still pretty weak and his shoulders seem incredibly empty. But that headsculpt is optimum Dinobot grim handsomeness. His combiner port seems to have got lucky by evoking the G1 Diaclone pilot cockpit. Nice touch.

Like Sludge, PotP Snarl has a much less dynamic dino mode than his G1 counterpart. It’s longer, flatter and so much less powerful looking. With its bronze-gold plastic, it can't help but look poorer than the old boy, but that feels like an unfair comparison. But it's the dino head where this mode fall down for me. It just looks...wrong. I mean, the eyes look a bit better and moodier, but otherwise it just looks like someone stamped on a sausage.

 

Also the most lovable because he got corrodia gravis and they put him in a real Stegosaurus and it was sad. And all because the animators (mostly) forgot to draw him in the movie. Those bastards!

Anyway. A little playable deskbot for me today.

“Aqua Man? Never heard of him.”

 

Last night I took these shots, as it is still Takara's Bumblebee for me:

 

My newest purchase, Studio Series Stinger for today.  

 

"Stop saying quest"