BATTLE BEASTS FOREVER!

Grape Ape and Comrade Ravage. Nobody asked for Nemesis Primal, but my god do the colors pop on him.

 

*insert that one quote here*

 

"As you wish, Council."

 

Didn't need it, but just wanted to see how it would look:

 

Not sure how I feel about this guy…






Warming up to him…

 

Well, who knew that solid plastic and some remolding/retooling of the upper torso would make for such an improvement for a figure released two lines ago. Pretty shady, just like his namesake.


As much as I actually like Siege Mirage, Kingdom really is the better version. Still not without his own flaws, but this Mirage literally feels better.

The lack of clear plastic definitely makes this version feel more sturdy. My Siege copy is still in good shape and normally I’m not that put off by clear plastic, but even I was concerned about breakage for that version. The Kingdom version with the correct and lovely shade of blue solid plastic really adds new life to this mold. And except for one major drawback to the torso remolding, the new chest (even though it’s still faux) looks more toon accurate. And I like that his tail fins now move with his arms instead independently of them.


Faux parts don’t really bother me except when they do. For Siege Mirage, the faux chest acting as the rear “bumper” wasn’t really in the way. It just looked weird, especially for an F1 race car. Kingdom looks so much better. The rear looks so much better. And the remolded tail fins look a lot more accurate for Mirage. Love the now open driver’s seat and a proper “26”. That open cockpit really makes how the intakes sit look better too. For the most part, there’s some really smart remolding going on with this figure.
I kinda liked the engineering on his legs, so I don’t mind that being carried over from Siege. Mirage still poses nicely. Going back to that one major drawback though….., no slot to peg in his shoulder-mounted rocket. Kind of a major design flaw on Hasbro’s part for a character who’s had this kind of look since his inception (at least in the U.S.). There are third party fixes for it, but for now I’m using a workaround. Saw Emgo do this in his review and thought it was a semi-clever solution. Doesn’t look half bad, so I might keep the look.

But, of course there are still other ways to wield his weapon. The rocket launcher doesn’t look too bad being underslung his arm. Didn’t take a picture of it, but you could peg it into his leg also to act as a mortar cannon sort of. I tried it, not bad. Sorry forgot to take a pic though.

That new front airfoil really makes this look so much sleeker. I’m very impressed with how well they redid Mirage. So little seems to have done so much. Really glad I got the set he came in (Grimlock was a nice bonus. That’s a good mold too)!

 

Someday, when I have more time, I will learn to do this. Every once in a while I'll mess with the eyes in Lightroom to give them a light up effect, but I don't know how to do it in Photoshop and I don't have much free time to learn right now.

 

Honestly, if those tabs were done right, and the transformation was a little smoother, Tracks would probably have been one of the best deluxes of the trilogy. As is, he's very sharp, and excels in the cosmetics, just a little fiddly, and not that fun to transform.

 

Not exactly much of an appreciation post here (though I have enjoyed owning Galvatron and BW Megs), but I'm not sure where else to ask and I don't think it quite warrants a thread so here goes:

For those who have Tigatron and Cheetor, how do they compare? Is the former just an upscaled latter with a near-identical transformation? Does Tigatron feel/handle way better due to his increased size?

 

Tigatron is not a straight forward upscale of Cheetor, but they obviously share some heavy similarities in their transformations. He definitely feels more substantial than Cheetor, as well.

 

Tigatron is better. The engineering is similar, but there's differences and Tigatron does everything better than Cheetor

 

Bought this guy on a whim today, and I'm glad I did.

 

Thank you very much!

"All the wisdom and power of Optimus Prime - and much more - are mine!"
From Transformers: The Movie#3 'The Final Battle'

 

Hot Rod haters be like:

 

“Thanks for the Matrix, Ultra Magnus…”

 

beast mode!