Before I go any further, a disclaimer. The content of this article series is purely my opinion, not stated as right, wrong, nor as representative of the general feeling within the collecting community. In fact I doubt I’d find even one collector who would agree with all my choices. With that out of the way, here’s my verdict on Transformers Animated’s top toys in the Legends, Activators, Deluxe, Voyager and Leader classes, as well as best series episode, best transformation, best repaint and original concept feature. In the last few months I finally watched the episodes I had missed first time around and collected every toy mould released within the aforementioned classes, including pretty much every repaint and a number of bootlegs so I hope that qualifies to me to pass some sort of judgement. Here are my results! TF Animated – The Verdict (Part 1) | Source Blog <- CLICK TO READ All the best Maz
Good Blog. Can't say I have like .- any- of the same top picks as you did, but an enjoyable read. I do agree that Wreck-gar is a strongly under-appreciated toy, and is somewhere near the top of Voyagers for me as well.
It's been so long that I forgot about doing the hip mod on Prowl so his leg articulation worked better.
nice read, and well thought out picks, voyager wise, while i love prime, i wouldn't put him at the top either. Not sure what i would pick, Blurr is a pretty good figure, and definitely a contender for my top spot for deluxes as well. Looking forward to part two
Loved your article. Animated was one of my favorite Transformers cartoons. The characters were all just so colorful in personality. I was working on completing my collection for both Animated and Prime, until AOE got in the way. I have Prowl (my favorite Animated character), Jazz, Ratchet, and Blurr. Next on my list will be Elite Bee. There were some in your article that I had forgotten about. Wreck-Gar , Swindle and Starscream are now must haves, along with the Jet Twins and Lockdown.
Maz I know you'll punch me in the face next time we're in the pub but I really think that wreck gar is the worst of the Animated voyagers by some remarkable distance. Although I still like him I ace him next to waspinator at the bottom of the pile. But this thread isn't for who's right or wrong and you still like lots of good toys so I'll let it slide ;-) One day though I'm going to have to show you how to make Prowl work. I know you haven't engaged with him and part of that might be due to taking the time to get to know how his posability works. His feet seem limited but can open up into a world of options if you know how. I totally agree on the activators class though and it's been a pleasure discovering them this year. As you know I wrote them off too and they might have ended up being some of the best animated toys released (high praise) in all I can't think of an overall line as good as animated, as consistent in quality across all the different price point available. Such a gem of a line and a crying shame so many don't appreciate it. Seriously, the deluxe cybertron Prime toy is a figure everyone should experience.
i absolutely LOVE blurr. he's definitely my favorite deluxe and probably one of my favorite figures of the entire line out of a line that had a lot of really good figures.
Good read. One of the hardest things to do with the Animated line is pick a "best of", because the majority of the line was just perfect. I honestly can't recall being disappointed with anything I picked up from the Animated line. But your pick for best Voyager is Wreckgar as a runner up? Sorry dude, I'd go so far as to say he's one of the worst (worst being Lugnut because he should be bigger). That backpack is just plain bad. Still a good figure, but not up to the usual high standards of the other Animated toys. I do think Grimlock is pretty awesome, though. Just never dug that hollow stomach in dino mode. Animated Nemesis Prime is probably my favorite Voyager. But like you said, it's all opinion and I respect your choices.
Nah, Wreck Gar was runner up, my pick for best was Grimlock Nemesis Prime/Black Prime will come in the "Best exclusive" category next week! All the best Maz
the only thing i was truly disappointed with (besides hasbro being stupid and not releasing the end of the line) is the size of sentinel prime.. he was supposed to be optimus's rival in the show, yet he only gets a deluxe figure, it really throws off the scale for a line that was pretty good with scale (except for lugnut). to make the line perfect, i would've made sentinel prime a voyager, had wreck-gar be a deluxe. and i would've thrown in another leader class mold and given that to lugnut.
Sorry, misread the article and didn't finish reading the bottom. I was just floored that Wreckgar was even mentioned at all, lol.
I can't explain it, I guess I was really expecting him to be awful because he gets zero love, and then he was this character oozing...er...character, he stood super firmly in robot mode, had all these bits and pieces that fleshed out his silhouette, and the Takara version snaps together so much better in vehicle mode with fewer gaps (grill especially) and the paint job is so much better than Hasbro's. The swirly grey plastic is covered with shiny silver. I know Takara paint jobs on Animated figures are generally considered to be detrimental to the overall look of the toys, but on WG it looks fantastic. If I was purely using the Hasbro version, I may have gone with Grimlock from Blackout. Because Blackout is brilliant. All the best Maz
Yea, don't get me wrong; I'm not saying Wreckgar is a bad figure by any means. But I guess beauty really is in the eye of the beholder on this one. I just wish his backpack was a little more collapsable and his for lift things were actually articulated instead of spring loaded. Those are the things that really hold him back in my book. I remember when he was being considered to be used as Animated Motormaster for Botcon. I was so...confused about it. On the one hand, if you'd take the lift things off him and give him a proper paint scheme, he'd be a perfect Motormaster. But that backpack! I guess I just have a thing about figures with huge shells like that... Can't wait to see your opinion on the exclusive Animated figures. Did you ever get your hands on the Stunticons, Toxitron, or Cheetor?
Great read Maz. I never knew the Legends were THAT damn good. Im gunna find me a Starsceam. Thats looks KILLER. I 100000000% agree about Blurr. I was lucky to get the Takara and TFA Blurr is one of my all time fav deluxes.
Neat article. I for one like the TFA aesthetic (it took some getting used to, let me tell ya) and the toys are actually pretty fantastic and capture that aesthetic very well. Though I only own a few pieces (Voyager Starscream and Blitzwing are my and my wife's fave molds, though Swindle definitely has his charm), I wish I could collect and own more of the TFA line but don't really have the display space for it.
Yes. So much this. You really cannot go wrong in the line. Even when you do, it's still better then like 80% of the TFs out there now. I actually think Animated is the best line Hasbro has done since G1. BTW, MP is TT. It's the one line I wouldn't want Hasbro to make more figures of either, because I think it would actually diminish the line if they did.
