I do love how good the Hot Toys figures look but I am always terrified to pose them dynamically as you risk breaking either the outfit at the joints like your Spidey or my Batman or you risk breaking the skin like on my Wonder Woman.

For static poses they are amazing but stuff like the 6" figures will always out-pose them when the poses are more dynamic.

 

Busy busy busy with house stuff even though I'm off for half term. Plasterer has been in and done all rooms bar one and we're having a carpet and a laminate floor currently fitted. It's looking.... Wait for it.... Transformed. Still a way to go decorating wise, but we only need to do a coat of 50/50 paint and water in two rooms then move furniture and we'll be in!

 

Agreed. Which is why I've also got this guy.  

 

(Clever) Girl Gang


If I could find some robowings in the right style I'd quite fancy making one of the taller gals an Archaeopteryx (Soar?) but for now it's Slash, Smash, Strafe ('cuz she has a gun and established Dinoname re-assignment a go-go), and Sever!

 

Good luck dude!

You are sincerely welcome  

 

Can we get more 3P Cybertron please. 12 year old me is squee'ing inside. I doubt we will see anymore Cybertron from Maketoys, they seem to be on the downhill slope



Also managed to bag a few steals on Ebay. Armada Red Alert, Starscream and Megatron for £44. Offft. Just Powerlink Hot Shot and Overload to find and Armada is complete!!

 

Yeah, I am waiting for the Marvel Select version, the standard PS4 Spidey figure looked awful and I suspect your one there is quite pricey

 

Poor Wee (Lizard) Man, just stuck waiting on the final parts needed to be completed...


He's so very nearly there but not quite, at least his stock weapon bit matches more now.

 

A village fête, yesterday.

Because the base is only 1x2 feet in size it's always going to be limited in application, but a carefully angled photo can limit this. I suspect a good backdrop to put behind it will also help. Sadly the spray glue is not nearly strong enough to hold the weed bushes in place, so I need to find a solution. Epoxy is overkill and superglue will dissolve the whole thing, so I might need to see if plain pva will work.

Anyway, decided not to use this pic for the Smokescreen review. It's a bonus.

 

Good luck!!!

Ah Smokescreen! Another character underutilised in the comics. To the old school Tf comics fan, only Tracks rivals Smokescreen in the 'stunningly beautiful Diaclone era carbot that never got a moment in the spotlight' stakes.

As much as I adored Bluestreak, Smokescreen had a more rugged charm. The much loved Datsun model with added sports car decal, a chunkier fender and a hot new spoiler. A la 280ZX 'Turbo'. The idea of a sleek supercar like Bluestreak is super cool, but what about one souped up? To a kid that thrilled to the likes of Mad Max and Smokey and the Bandit, of course I was going to love Smokescreen.

So it's a bit of a pity that the animation model gave him a super dorky 'fat cowl'. Like, I get you want to differentiate from Prowl and Bluestreak as much as you can, but that is not a great solution. I remember looking at pictures of Smokescreen, as drawn by Jeff Anderson, in Target:2006 and wincing, and being forever grateful to Will Simpson for going off model in 'Devastation Derby'.

And if I've given the impression that Smokescreen did nothing in the comics, then I've misled you. He got some action in 1986, being a featured character in the aforementioned 'Devastation Derby', where he memorably squashes Sparkplug with his 'facsimile construct', and getting some good moments in 'Target:2006'. He even gets some great moments in 'legacy of Unicron', wracked with survivor's guilt for letting Inferno sacrifice himself.

So what's my beef? Well, I kinda have to admit to having an incredible soft spot for the '85 cars, or at least the five introduced in TF:UK#53. 'Rock'n'Roll Out' is, quite rightfully, remembered as a cheesey story, with it's Bruce Springsteen locum. Bu the thing is...that cheese doesn't hit until the second part. That first part, with the 'rebirth' of those five warriors was totally awesome, in the most literal sense. It was an excellent bit of world building that made you feel more connected to the mythology of the story.

AND this was the first time I'd seen new characters introduced. I'd always felt like I was getting into stuff late, particularly Transformers, but here I was...getting in on the ground floor on a new set of characters. It was incredibly exciting. So yeah, I always get a little huffy when I think about how these guys never got their moment in the spotlight.

I've talked twice before about what a design classic yer G1 Datsun 'bot is. And it's so good it can bear the burden of a third repaint/retool. And with the new colour scheme it really gets to shine once more. Smokescreen is an absolutely lovely looking toy. The minor retools and that deco do more than enough to distinguish it from it's brethren, making me all the more bitter about the stupid animation model. I can honestly look at this figure, even the facesculpt, and not feel like I'm looking at Prowl or Bluestreak. So with him being such a stunner, it's kind of a pity that Smokescreen is the most beat up looking of my three Datsuns.

So what's really interesting, to me at least, about WfC Smokescreen is the new headsculpt (it's new to me. I'm still waiting on Barricade turning up). Maybe I'm reading too much into it and my bias is leaking everywhere, but it feels like they've tried to honour the G1 animation model whilst trying to make it look much less dorky. A for effort, definitely, but it does still wind up looking a bit...weird! It looks a bit overworked round the jawline. Somehow, and I'm not quite sure how, it still manages to be an incredibly handsome looking figure. Even if that sour expression feels poorly suited to the character.

Any Smokescreen update is a tricky one to get right. Do you stay true to the toys and get the numbers on the chest, or do you go with the character model and go for Autobot insignia? It feels like you're doomed either way. Personally, I'm pretty happy with how they've handled this, but then I'm a big fan of this mould and the fact his clear wheels have been rendered near opaque does a lot to win me over.

It's funny, isn't it, how there's certain situations where we're happy to be rinsed. Personally, I'm delighted to have got all three of my essential Seekers and my Datsun bros redos all in one line, even though they've made me pay over the odds for three of the figures. But it's 'appropriate' and it really is what I wanted for my collection. As far as further fleecing goes, I guess I've got the Coneheads to look forward to!

 

He’s been lurking in the background but now its time for Mindwipe. Well Sigma L.

I really like this figure but damn do I wish his wings were attached too his back and not his arms. They weigh them down too much. The right shoulder ball joint is already loose and getting floppy. It also really limits the movement. His back is also kind of convex as it’s where the headmaster sits. However I really dig the general design apart from those faults. The vampire influence really works for him and the Bat mode is amazing i like the speakers for blasting out hypnotic chants and the coffin style headmaster cockpit is superb. I never got the Titans return version but I never felt like I needed it.

 

HOLY FUCK!
CYBERVERSE RACK'N'RUIN?!?!?!?!?!?!?! (AKA TCV-40) Hasbro, in the words of Hall and Oates, you make my dreams come true! Sure it's not the TF:UK G1 looking thing i'd wish for, but I'll fucking take it. Whatd'yerreckon @Seeaich ?

 

Right, you are really starting to **** me off with these pretender creations.

Please stop posting them because every time I see them I am reminded how badly hasbro did with them by not finishing them off. They must be so cheap to produce, very easy to retool between each one, and a nice way to homage the original figures. Even micromasters are having a better showing...

 

Good luck!

I see me some sun ra and shellac so I'm in. I'm only recently realised that Albini produced Fred Schneider's 'just fred' album (I'm a big b52s fan). Kinda makes sense in some ways, but it kinda blew my mind at first.

(reference for the curious!)

 

Good luck! Hope you can relax a little bit.

Dayum, that's unfortunate. I agree he's not worth full price. Except for a chest that keeps sliding forwards because there's no locking for it and the clips for the front treads in alt mode getting horribly bent because it's not good at transforming, mine's been fine. At least you were able to get some of your money back, but that sucks, especially how much you were looking forward to it.

 

Thx for the destressers means a lot also @Seeaich what pretender is the purple thing

 

Finally, some Siege! Can you believe this is the first review I've done in which is on an actually up to date toy? And one that has only been released this month, at that! Topical! Timely! Cutting edge! I am the Woodward and Bernstein of plastic robo-men ramblings, so come with me as I smash this story wide open.

Er.... do I even remember Smokescreen? Sort of. More than Bluestreak, at least, as he had a minor role in the Legacy of Unicron in the G1 Marvel comic, being yeeted out of a spaceship windscreen by his mate Inferno. Considering this was in 1988 and their toys had already been supplanted it was good to give them a bit of a turn, at least. I certainly don't remember his sporadic cartoon appearances, as season 2 has always been something of a blind spot with me, and he didn't return for season 3 at all, despite not being an official casualty of the movie. So I guess he's always had a bit of bad luck in terms of media appearances, much like Bluestreak.

I've got mixed feelings about Smokescreen as a character. On the one hand I always found his design somewhat off-putting, with the NASCAR stylings and the tacky red-white-'n'-blue paint scheme, often in pale and washed out hues. Tacky, basically. Tacky and cheap, especially compared to Prowl's tidy cop uniform or Bluestreak's elegant grey business suit. This is the kind of look that usually makes me run a mile, and indeed, it took until this very week for me to own a Smokescreen. Well, an Autobot one at any rate. But on the other hand, his role within the Autobots as a diversionary tactician and professional bastard is something else. I love everything about it, from the use of dirty tricks over boring old firepower, to the fact that he's Optimus Prime's main informant on the other Autobots.

That's something that deserves further exploration, isn't it? While Bluestreak is friendly to everyone around him, Smokescreen has everyone being friendly to him, and then uses this to report to his boss what's going on in the ranks, since no-one's going to be strait with Optimus himself. Do the other Autobots know that Smokescreen tattles on them behind their backs? What would they think if they found out? Would it damage Optimus's authority? But yeah, we never really got to explore that side of him. A shame.

But back to his deco. Siege manages to do wonders here. The blue is bluer, the red is redder, and the white is thinner out to a classy stripe to separate the other two colours. Rather than a washed-out faded sweater and jeans, this is Smokescreen in his sexy phase, smooth and rounded without any of that extra bulk that his G1 self's chunky bumper gave him. He still has that extra padding around the chin, as seen in his original character model, but it's not quite as dumpy, so that's a step up. Neither are the shoulder guns, and thank god they were included, because without them the robot mode's shoulder line is incredibly flat and boring. The silhouette is greatly improved by having massive cannons on either side of his head, though I doubt it does much good for his hearing.

Since this is technically part of Generations Selects, there was little to no onus to slap on a layer of battle damage, which I guess I have mixed feelings about. I've enjoyed the silver scratches where they showed up, but there is something to be said for Smokescreen to be looking so pristine. He's got many years ahead of him to get scuffed up, so let's just enjoy it while it lasts.

I was surprised when I got him into car mode that there were barely any 5mm ports or effect part nubbins to be found on his chassis. It helps to keep his lines smooth and sexy, but I have become somewhat accustomed to being able to slap a few extra massive cannons onto Siege bots, so being stuck with the standard 5mm port on the roof is a little miserly. But hot damn, did I mention smooth and sexy? He's smooth and sexy.

The biggest shame is that Smokeydokey has been relegated to Selects. The bright colour scheme, the heroic stature, the straightforward transformation means that this would be a great hero character in the hands of a child, but few will even be aware that he exists. That's a poor show, but then again, being one of four uses of the same mould I guess I can understand why they couldn't all be on shop shelves. But really... Smokescreen's the fun one. He deserves to be played with. Or yeeted out of a windscreen I guess.

 

I may purchase in support of the character but a tank?!
Twin cockpit Cybrtronian Mini-Jet or GTFO! Also squinting real hard it seems possible they may lack the ol' Hammer n' Anvil to boot?
The Siamese-silhouetted hole in my soul remains heartbreakingly present.
Still NEATO though, yeah?

Be prepared to avert your eyes in a Chinese International Postage journey's time, 'cause I promised @MyTea Boc a full group shot once they were all in the altogether! It's that or the 'Mute' button, I'm afraid!

My mini-take on 'Con Wave 2 Pretender crew member Iguanus!

Meaning I'll have POTP versions of all the G1 Pretenders barring Thunderwing and Vroom (I dun gone and run out of Primes!).

 

Oh shit

 

This afternoon got a composition 300 words