DOTM MechTech was good because all the weapons had 2 distinct modes, which is not always the case with Prime Powerizers.
I think they're honestly not worth the plastic. Some are interesting, like DotM Soundwave's gun/radar dish, and Ratchet's saw blade, but over all, I would've rather had the larger deluxes, with weapons that are incorporated into the figure. The ones from the DotM voyagers weren't terrible, since they're actually part of the figure in both modes. But overall, I think it was a waste.
I think it's a cool idea but too many compromises were made for the sake of adding it to EVERY FIGURE (especially DOTM). I think it worked for the Voyager line and up because the weapons scaled better (or for the most part, incorporated into the alt mode) but it just looked ridiculous on the deluxes. Then they just went completely overboard with the TFPrime Voyagers. No way to lock the gimmick out? You gotta be kidding me . Plus it adds a whole new meaning to kibble for other figures (like RID Bulkhead)
While some MechTech are OK, I honestly prefer spring loaded weapons or simple and stowable guns and swords soooo muhc more that I went with "I HATE IT".
Personally, I think it's a stupid gimmick. I prefer what TT is doing with the microns. The weapons are more accurate (for the voyager figures, anyway) and I think they're more fun. If the MechTech weapons would lock into place without me having to modify them, I probably wouldn't hate them as much.
The only ones that work at all are those that go from a gun to a melee weapon. The majority of them go from "block that doesn't look like anything, to a gun," or if we're lucky "sorta-a-gun to sorta-a-gun." Even a good Mechtech weapon that goes from Gun-to-gun just seems... needless. And those are few and far between. So needless to say, all the RiD ones but Magnus are awful. What I DO appreciate is the fact that the gimmick made 5mm posts pretty much universal in movie figures and gave them more ports in vehicle mode to boot. The fact that happened as a direct result of the Mechtech gimmick can't be ignored.
The DOTM Mechtech weapons were alright, I guess. The TFP Powerizer weapons are literally the worst gimmick in the history of Transformers.
It works for some figures: DOTM Voyager Megatron DOTM Voyager Shockwave Prime RID Voyager Megatron Other figures I'm not very fond of the gimmick: Prime RID Voyager Optimus Prime For the most part I'd rather they went back to designing less cumbersome weapons.
I REALLY like weapon to look realistic and be nicely detailed. I was surprised at how much I actually liked some of the MechTech weapons, as I thought that I would hate them. Obviously they should all have the ability to lock into place. Aside from that I generally liked them though. If you call the new Prime Voyager weapons "MechTech" though... those are the worst things ever. Absolutely hideous with stupid gimmicks. The light up feature is an OK idea, but the execution is terrible. The couldn't have done a worse job integrating the battery cases, and they just stick out like a sore thumb. So if you are only calling MechTech weapons those that were specifically designated as such with the DoTM toys... pretty good. If you include the Prime Voyager weapons as MechTech... not so much.
some in DOTM were pretty cool (the ones that locked anyway) Prid has messed up the voyagers as the weapons look like crap when not held into the deployed position.
I know this is an old thread but it was either this or make a new one. I've just been going through my DOTM and Prime figures. I HATE MECHTECH I'd have preferred the portion of the budget for the figures that was dedicated to this have gone to making the actual figure more substantial. The DOTM ones were bad, the Prime ones were worse. I'm just looking at a bunch of the prime ones. http://www.tfu.info/2012/Decepticon/Starscream/gun.jpg http://www.tfu.info/2012/Decepticon/Dreadwing/gun.jpg http://www.tfu.info/2012/Autobot/OptimusPrime/gun.jpg WTF IS THIS?? Who's dumb ass idea was this? Thankfully Mech-Tech seems to be dead.
the DOTM ones should've locked or been static weapons. seriously, the molding on those things is impressive but it's so pointless for them to not lock. i would take two non-transforming crankcase guns over one mechtech version anyday, that was a kick ass rifle.
In a lot of cases, Mechtech Weapons sucked, Even a few of the Mechtech guns that managed to lock into their extended modes tended to suck. Here's just a few examples of the bad ones: Starscream and Darksteel's weapons could combine into.... bladed.... things that tended to decouple if you looked at them wrong (chintzy goddamn snap-lock paired with Springs that were too strong) Mudflap's Axe-gun seemed a bit useless when one realizes that the Goddamn heads of the axe are on either side of the barrel (hey, lets just neuter our only ranged weapon while we hack away at our enemies with it, no need to use this big-ass fist we're designed to have) Similarly, Sideswipe's Sword-Gun seems a bit... dumb when one considers the blades that swivel on Sideswipe's wrists can cleave a robot in twine, Coupled with the fact that the Sword-Gun's spring and gear system was unreliable since the blade wasn't actually attached to the geared axle that actuated it. Jolt's Gun barely even tried when it came to metamorphosing. It went from a gun.... to an even longer gun.... the only difference being that the outer shell of the smaller gun formed the barrel of the longer gun. Topspin's Claw-Gun was a forgettable piece of shit, too. Guy was covered in little removable guns and comes equipped with a weapon whose gimmick had you get up close and personal with the target to try and grab him before he slagged ya. A few of the Prime Voyager weapons (which featured a similar gimmick) were shit, too. All that engineering to make an LED light up when you activated the weapon... And here I wanted weapons for my transformers, not cheap shitty torches. There were a few good standouts for the gimmick though: Air Raid's gun-Shield was nice since it blended in with his Altmode quite nicely (RADAR dish) Skids' Gun went from a small gun to two barrels of fun (with a nice paint job, to boot) Roadbuster's Chainsaw Gun looks good even when disengaged (and gets even more fun when engaged. REEEEN-REEEN, mother truckers!) Bumblebee's gun is a good old generic blaster when disengaged, becoming a handy Big-Barrel blaster when engaged. Voyager Sentinel's Gun locked and made a damn good BFG (even when the figure it came off was an ugly shell-forming piece of shit) Crankcase's Clawgun had enough Snag-action to make Mortal Kombat's Scorpion Shout "GET OVER HERE!" And PRiD Ultra Magnus' HammerGun was functional and awesome (and a cool throwback to Animated Ultra Magnus)
Very few were good, but they were generally the specialized ones like Shockwave's gun or Megatron's tank (or fusion cannon, in the Prime line). Every other one just fell flat for me. Maybe if they felt more individualized to the character I'd like them more, but for 90% of them they felt like nothing more than they were- a cheap gimmick that adds nothing to the figure but is used to attract sales
I like the actual MechTech weapons, for the most part. Or I'm at least neutral towards them. Crankcase's gun with hidden extendo-claw is nice, although a tad oversized. I like Lazerbeak's, especially combined into a single ludicrously oversized monster gun. To be honest, I can't think of a DotM MechTech weapon that I really hated. In all fairness, I skipped a lot of the DotM line. Now the Prime RiD "Powerizer" weapons, those are a whole different story. There is not a single one that I've cared for. I hear good things about Magnus's, but I don't own him so there's no personal experience. Megatron's is at least vaguely show-accurate, and I kinda like how Bulkhead's spins despite not remotely liking the weapon otherwise. Starscream's is just a mess that doesn't even remotely work and is so loosely jointed that it can't even point straight. Thundertron's is being dismantled and I'm trying to find a suitable handle to glue over the hilt so he can have a proper sword that befits a pirate. So yeah. DotM Mechtech is decent, Prime Powerizers are horrid.
I'm mostly ambivalent as they come out of the package. If you want some real fun, however, take that deluxe Bumblebee gun, remove the spring, and add super glue to the gears. Make sure to keep transforming the gun while the glue is drying on the gears. The result? A cool, transforming weapon that locks in place and has a nice tightness while doing so. Bonus points: one thing I did while the glue was drying was stop moving the gun at certain points in the transformation. The result was these points become "stops" of sorts during the transformation process. I'd like to think that the Joker would be proud of me for buying a $5 figure at Family Dollar and a $1 bottle of super glue to entertain myself.
