Why would you want a ratchet that isn't an ambulance and visually would have no visible cues of Ratchet in robot mode besides his head? The whole obsession of getting all the 84/85 bots out of the CW molds is so weird to me, since none of them look ANYTHING like themselves in robot mode. I mean, I don't need slavish recreations like Siege is focusing on for the most part, but at the same time, Streetwise with Prowl's head isn't Prowl to me. It's just part of a low-effort filler wave. see, that is my second biggest gripe with him after size is that his alt mode IS straight G1, just with some stupid kibble bolted on to make him "Cybertronion", but it just looks like weird stuff strapped to his normal earth mode, leaving him looking to Earthen to be Cybertronian but too Cybertronian to be Earthen. height maybe, (and weight almost assuredly with the higher quality builds) but he doesn't have nearly as much 'presence' to me as those other guys. He just looks so much smaller and less dynamic, he seems narrower and punier. A large part of that I think is the adherence to Sunbow proportions, larger shoulders and lower legs would help him look more dynamic.... I mean, somewhere I saw an alt mode comparison and he was SOOOO small compared to the other voyagers, he looked more scaled to the old Scout class.
I still think "Cybertronian modes for everyone" was not the best idea. With Megatron/Soundwave/Shockwave/Weaponizers they'd look the same either way, The Autobots mostly resemble their Earth vehicles, and then with the Seeker mold.... It's hard not to be pissed off at that, when it could have turned into this instead.
I can’t deny that he lacks presence if posed in the standard A stance . But given the articulation that he comes with , if you could ever get a action base for it , he would stand out in most of the iconic poses he’s known for. Which is actually it’s only flaw ... god damn it why can’t hasbro give us a universal peg hole in bot mode for that . And I do agree he is slimmer than the other primes , which is completely up to individual tastes. I think it’s fine , because the proportions are good . As for alt mode , I would agree he’s a little smaller, but not too significantly compared to the other primes .
ok, that's weird ~ I thought I was crazy when I saw your top pic and they look almost the same, but then in your bottom pick where the Classics mold has the wind vane and stacks, he looks noticeably larger, and I think it's because of how the windows sit in relation to the top of the vehicle mode (they sit much higher on Classics, which makes the version with the wind vane on look much taller then it does without where their roofs line up.). Either way, this seems much less dramatic then the other image I saw (maybe in the review thread) where his truck mode looked like 3/4s the size of Classics. (since they're relatively close to the same height I just figured he compressed a lot more into truck mode)
I have Megs and Skytread and they are nice solid figures. I can't wait for Ironhide and Ratchet as all previous version have been lackluster. That said, I'm skipping most of this line. I'm not a fan of Cybertron vehicles and I have all of these figures on my classics shelf. Those figures are bigger and remind me more of their G1 counterparts. I also find it absolutely comical that Hasbro is selling Magnus and Shockwave at Leader price points. Magnus maybe, but that Shockwave is smaller than most Voyagers and the parts he comes with are mostly throwaways.
I keep telling people, Shockwave is actually worth it more than Magnus is, while Shockwave is easily a Voyager plus a deluxe Weaponizer worth of parts that can be given to anyone, Magnus is just the core robot and armor that sits uselessly when not attached to Magnus’s core.
They're still both at least $10 overpriced. They are essentially the equivalent of Energon Ultras, which were $25 back in the day. With inflation and increased labor costs, I could get to $40 for these, but $50 for glorified Voyagers, especially one that comes with a bunch of parts 90% of us are gonna bin straight away is just silly.
How many molds used the Breakdown mold? How many molds used the Ironhide mold? How many molds used the Hotspot mold? How many molds used the Air Raid mold? We'd be here all day. Titans Return was an huge improvement.
I only own the first two Autobot MicroMasters sets and I'm not buying anything else in that scale range. The plastic is thin and fragile. I'm afraid to transform either Race Car for fear of breaking them. The ball joints are loose on all four. I can't transform three of them without a leg popping off. I loved the original ones. I own a lot of smaller Hasbro toys from recent years like the Legends MiniBots and the BotBots. Almost all of them have great plastic and are really durable. Soft plastic on ball joints is literally the only plastic issue on any BotBot that I own. The most expensive ones are $3 a pop. MicroMasters are just not much more complex than a BotBots and work out to $5 Each. They should be of better quality, not worse. I was going to get the Voyager Optimus, but the Studio Series 38 Optimus looks better in both modes to me for the same price. If Omega Supreme has good reviews I'll bite on him for Christmas. I think that'll be it for me and Siege tho. MicroMasters were the things I was most excited about and they flushed my interest with their QC.
I don't think it's a mixed bag but rather a line ending with another line to take its place after the yr. You have to remember that these are trilogy lines. All with 1 focus so the figures stream seamlessly in another.
In my book none f the CW Autobots count. Aside from MAYBE Trailbreaker who they actually put some work into those were just low-effort filler waves with a bunch of molds that look nothing like the characters they are supposed to represent aside from heads and colors. Streetwise with Prowls head does not equal Prowl. and when you don't even remold off the light bar, you sure haven't achieved Smokescreen. Aside from the horrendous distribution. I really loved that line (Especially the Legends versions) aside from some of the big misses in character selection (mostly the Horrorcons: in a line that is based around Headmasters with all the Voyagers being Triplechangers, how the crap do you not redo the Headmaster Triplechangers??? especially when both have fairly obvious repaint/mold potential {Grimlock and Primal}) The Leaders especially were gold. and so many great obscure characters. Happy as i was they did the Jumpstarters and Perceptor (except sad as i they never hit retail), wish they'd hit the Autobot Targetmasters too...
Not as much "presence" as what? Classics mold with weird stretched pelvis and silhouette spoiled by overly large forearm kibble... Or the ape with fake chest windows and tiiiiiny head that is CW OP? Those molds didn't age well at all. TR Laser Prime is still good in comparison, but that's not a G1 Prime. It's absolutely more dynamic and proportional than Classics. Quite a lot of wrong with this statement. Prime - First Voy G1 styled Prime that is not hampered by any gimmicks since a very long time. Leader PoTP one doesn't count since it's not to scale with CHUGs. Megatron - same thing. CW Megatron is not to scale and TR one is a bad Blitzwing cosplay and a headmaster. Hound - same, CW was years ago. Prowl - same and CW mold isn't even similar to Prowl's look save for the head sculpt. Soundwave - again, same. TR Soundwave doesn't scale with CHUG line, also a headmaster. Chromia - same, also T30 mold works only as niche IDW Chromia.