Okay screw it. I ordered the first two the other day; I'm in for the set now. Once Silverbolt and the rest are in stock I will get them, and I'll have Superion in my display by March.

One question: is there a way to toon-accurately mount Superion's gun on his arm rather than having him hold it? It's a nitpick but it's an important one to me. I really like how the JuJiang OSKO CW Superion does let you arm-mount the cannon (among many, many other things it does extremely well)

 

So the only bummer for me is I have a paint/mould defect on the Anime Superion head, the right vents on the head have missing paint and the bottom vent is slightly warped. Also a very very small imperfection on the silver paint on the face, like a small crack. Looks like a tiny hair got painted over or something. Not a big deal because I’m going to be using the G1 toon head but just something to be aware of.

 

Those of us here with computers, and hopefully homes should be just fine…

But I am quite worried about the homeless throughout the midwest. It's going to be Mind-Numbingly cold for a couple of days.

 

i just have downthrust left to buy BRAP BRAP!!! ( my uk chav impression   )

 

As I recall, Air Raid and Fireflight arrived in January of 2018, so it's 13 months for the whole set, but I think they squeezed all five Combaticons in the time between. Or were Blast Off and Vortex before the first two Aerialbots?

 

Yes you can mount it just need to remove a wing & Silverbolt's gun from the Superion gun & voila. Sorry bout the lighting I'm no cameraman & it's rolling blackout day.

 

Not loving the nose or the mouth but at least they got the shape of the helmet right.

 

Not sure why they didn't make the first two with the correct heads to begin with, or at least include them with those figures as additional optional accessories.

 

On the other hand, I haven't seen the Toy heads Catapult and Downthrust were originally solicited with in any of these shots, and am wondering when I will be getting my Toy heads option.

 

The two they’ve gone back to offer toon heads for very much look like afterthoughts. Especially Fireflight. I hope someone might design some new ones both for those who want toon heads and those wanting the missing toy ones.

 

Air Raid was in December with FireFlight in January, so yeah, 13 months total for all of the Aerialbots. Blast-off and Vortex were released before them, but they followed it up with Brawl in January, then Swindle a few months later and Onslaught way later.

Don't forget that the designs and prototypes for the first three Combaticons and two Aerialbots were already in the works back when the Zeta crew did work for Toyworld. They were shown back in 2016. So, it's no surprise they got the first 5 out within 6 months or so. The remaining 5 took another year, but I still thank that's really fast. I'm not holding my breath that they'll have another combiner to market that quickly, unless they already have all the design work complete and are prototyping, but there's been no indications of that. My money is more on G2 repaints and potentially a boxset of both combiners, ala Constructor.

 

TBH, I don't think they originally intended to do toon heads. I think it was an afterthought they came up with once they realized FT was doing Aerialbots.

 

That is a face only Vector Sigma could love! I now feel the need to not only get a 3D printer, but learn how to do 3D modeling so that I can make my own versions of these.

Short answer: You're not.

 

Yep, that was why I mentioned they ended up looking like afterthoughts. I like Silverbolt and Slingshot fine. Those were clearly after they changed course. They didn’t have to offer new heads for the existing ones, so I appreciate that, but the end result is a mixed bag.

I think maybe better than Eternally happy Fireflight but only by comparison.... these and my OpenPlay Springer have also made me wish to learn 3D modeling...

 

Right! So TCP is going to get the final aerialbot out of them all, Downthrust, before their stock of Silverbolt/Silver Arrow??? smh

 

Needs some blue on his dome, but that'll do fine for me.

 

Sadly, I don't think you're wrong. It feels like one more thing an aggressively vocal Toon-only contingent has killed off in their insistence to be the only market that should be catered to.

Barring Takara's two recent MP+ Toy deco forays in the last six months (MP-36+ & MP-42 - MP-29+ is still meant to be Toon, hence the Cartoon arm tampos rather than a chest logo or stickers), for a G1 Toy/Hasui MP oriented collector there hasn't been much worth getting outside 3rd party since 2015. Toon enthusiasts got their wish to make the mainline Masterpiece almost entirely Toon focused, and now appear hellbent in demanding any Toy focused 3rd party offering be changed to accommodate them first and foremost. Unchecked, this is going to drive the Toy based collector out of the market and reduce the overall amount of money funding this hobby, limiting future possibilities.

 

That they started with a toy/Studio Ox style and then switched gears halfway through a set is what bums me out. I'd feel less like the call for more cartoon accuracy took something away if they'd just all had smoothed over toon heads from the beginning. But I'm still dumb enough to get the whole set and hope they eventually make some toy heads available. Slingshot might just need some paint or Reprolabels, but Skydive...

You don't know what you've got til it's gone. Or you get half of it and then the other half is replaced and comes with bits to replace the bits you like... Or something.

 

I do agree with the direction of the set. I'm more into the G1 Aerialbot toys than the cartoon versions, so it's really disappointing for them to go full cartoon on the heads at the end, especially when the bodies are still very much toy-inspired. I really hope we get those toy heads but I think the cartoon-accuracy audience has killed any hope of us getting those, and potentially any toy-esque combiners in the future. Because apparently having FansToys, DX9 AND XTB making cartoon-accurate combiners wasn't enough for them...

Still, at least Superion represents the Ox design pretty well, and looks damn good overall.

Over here, it is. We're used to so much lower temperatures. Plus it gets really humid here, and we have no aircon, so it remains constantly hot.  

That seems ridiculously cold, but sure. I much prefer the cold. Easier to warm up than cool down. We don't even get snow this far up in New Zealand though, so at least that'd be something.

I always recommend the Ocean decals. Stickers, dry rubs or water slides - your choice. I prefer the water slides. You can get them on eBay. People like Uncle Billy (johosontony on eBay) sell them. I think baba has them now too.

Nobody knows. There aren't really issues to fit though.

They were still working on them in the middle of last year, so not that long. That being said... they might drop something new sooner rather than later.