I'm probably the only one that thinks this should have been a smaller but wider deluxe, making it feel like a true powerhouse next to the core pretenders while still looking like it fits. It baffles me how they screwed up not just the tank but the robot mode as well, especially for a guy that's all about the later.

They should have taken the same transformation scheme as SS Rotf Megatron but simplified and made a tank like this. Some may have a problem with the robot skull on front, but if you ask me that's metal af.

 

Just not buying it...the only message that we can give to Hasbro  

 

Jesus Christ.

 

I still like his reviews more than Prime vs Prime, who is just obnoxious, so I prefer giving him views rather than that guy. But yeah these days, unless you are the first to come out with a review, you don't get any views at all.

Show me ANY case where toy prices went DOWN. Any case.
Legos were expensive for my parents when I was a kid and they are expensive for me now when I have a well paying job. The prices always rise with inflation. And in case you did not notice we are living through the mother of all economic crisis, what's with the energy costs rising, the war, and the chinese being also starting to get riled up we can expect some slowdown and blockades from that direction too. Not a great time for our hobby.

But I'll take this Skullgrin over the tiny (Straxus was too small even for a Deluxe at the time) Generations toy. Speaking of which can't wait to see the Galvatron remold to Straxus!

 

That bothers me too! I mean, obviously it's so common that I don't get annoyed, but part of me always notices it.

I mean, at least then he would have looked like a robot lying down with an extra set of treads.  

I think the only thing that makes this "tank" mode almost decent is that it's almost accurate to the G1 alt-mode (which was pretty terrible), so we can give it some half-hearted points for that (though that's the only accurate thing about this figure). Most of the first-wave Pretenders had weak alt-modes, but I'd say Skullgrin's is one of the worst.

If the next Optimus Prime had non-rolling ornamental wheels, and then had little tiny wheels inserted into holes in the bottoms of his fake wheels... then yes, I would have a problem with every part of that.  

I think that many of us give treads on this scale a pass if they don't function like real treads (because articulated treads are rather complex) while with simple wheels, that's less forgivable. And also, many of us feel that little wheels inserted into non-functioning treads to preserve the rolling functionality are not an improvement, and can sometimes be an aesthetic eyesore... much like poorly-placed screw-holes, or giant hollow gaps. I think that's pretty easy to understand, right?

I haven't pulled any figures out to make comparisons, but I'm willing to bet that the Generations Skullgrin will look substantially bigger than this figure if you put them side-by-side.

Obviously Straxus/Skullgrin would have made an awesome Voyager+ figure, but the figure is not that small. Compared to this Skullgrin, who is at best an average-sized WFC/SS86 deluxe, I don't think the scale will be what you're expecting. Obviously this guy's blocky limbs look a little more substantial than the spindly Bayverse-ness of the previous Skullgrin, but even so...

zmog

 

Shame it could never happen thanks to the different companies.

 

I think you don't really know what bike I'm talking about. There's an obscure series of MegaBlocks sets called "REAP-X" dedicated to vehicles reverse-engineered from Covenant tech by the eponymous military branch. The Siege Bike is a tank tread (Why is a treaded vehicle reverse-enginered from hovering Covenant machines?) with a side-mounted autocannon. That vehicle includes no visible steering system unlike the First Order chainsaw bikes, which, at least, have a hover rear capable, perhaps, of adjusting the direction of its propulsion.

 

I don’t get the hate for tank treads that split. No reason that can’t work in fiction, as there could easily be a locking mechanism on the treads and wheels to let them split and hold in place during and after transformation.

 

Maybe, it's just a weird character flaw of mine.

 

Nanotech! Or any other made up thing

Somehow beast wars skin pieces seal together in alt modes

 

It's not hate... it just looks a bit off... a broken chain that feels visually and mechanically counterintuitive. Of course we can imagine some kind of mechanism that locks the treads, and then releases the couplings on the specific links needed in transformation... but it's just one step further that your brain needs to adjust for. Not a big deal.

I never liked Beast Wars either.  

I like made-up explanations for things when they feel "right". I'm an oldschool TF nerd, who really prefers the industrial mechanical aesthetics of early G1, so anything "nanotech" really chafes me. Spontaneous reformatting, quasi-organic junk, obvious design cheats, etc...

I like it when Transformers are defined by their mechanical nature, rather than using "nano magic" to circumvent those limits or traits.

Mass-shifting is probably the main goofy physics trope of Transformers I've grudgingly accepted. But I can do broken treads too.  

zmog

 

I LOVE Pretenders. I REALLY do. And I wanted to get this figure BADLY. But then this review came out.

The rubbery plastic gunswords are bad enough, but using the same rubbery plastic for an integral part of the transformation is a no go for me. And no one can tell me they didn't have the budget to put in a couple of mini wheels under the figure.

25 bucks for a Transformer made out of rubbery, bendy, plastic parts? No. I'm not going to do it. No matter HOW badly I wanted this figure. Buying figures like this just tells Hasbro we're OK with it and they'll start making it the norm and not the exception.

Maybe when/if he goes on sale/clearance.

 

Chefatron's review shows it's the same gummy rubbery plastic as the gun swords. And worse they're held in by friction nubs and when he was transforming it that gummy rubbery plastic disconnected from the hard plastic parts.

How long until that connection literally wears down or melts?

 

Not to cast aspersions but I noticed that part was so "easy" to pop off that Chef had to use his other thumb to brace the skeleton to do so, sure the longevity is a worry but deliberately popping it off for effect after it transformed fine first attempt, instead of it being a totally natural accident in the course of conversion seems a bit of a desperate clickbait-y move to me.
In fact, for me, the move towards pops off/pops back on over snaps off/figure is now busted is one of the ones I applaud Hasbro for.

 

I mean the fact that everyone on the Ark can immediately transform into an alt mode having only been given a scan of one by a tiny satellite plus the obvious morphing many transformations have are practically that same nano magic so it's been there since the start.

 

It’s ironically even smaller than that one.

 

You fools, he was Pretending to turn into a tank the entire time!

 

Ah. I see. However, while the back story of it being reverse engineered is a s stupid as the design of the First Order Treadspeeder, the Treadspeeder is just a dumb design that makes no sense in the world it exists in.
It's purely a toy gimmick and it makes the First Order look like it is run by bafoons.

 

Not entirely true. The cartoon took a lot of shortcuts (like TFs looking exactly the same on Cybertron, including their Earth-mode kibble), and also the instant reformatting with a "magic beam" that all seems to take place inside of 5 minutes... and even for the 80s it was pretty stupid.

Marvel G1 comics, which predated the toon, and were written by the man who basically invented Transformers as we know it, told that story a bit differently. The Autobots and Decepticons were all extensively physically rebuilt to superficially imitate earth alt-modes based on probe data that was collected over an indefinite period of time (it should be added, this is because the Ark's computer misidentified cars as being a similar mechanical life form).

The physical, mechanical element persisted in the Marvel canon for a long time. Ratchet's bio describes his tool-and-die skills, meaning that he was an expert at hand-crafting custom parts. There was no magic "nano-beam". The Dinobots for example were shown undergoing an extensive assembly-line refit to simulate Earth dinosaurs. Changing your alt-mode was a big deal, and required time and resources, and even then the disguise was only "skin deep" (it was observed by a human early on that Bumblebee had no pedals or other functional internal car parts).

Also, Energon wasn't a thing. Transformers ran on fossil fuel systems (though they had to be converted so that TFs could actually metabolize it safely).

The only real "mystical" technology in those early issues was the Autobot Matrix (which also precedes its appearance in the 86 movie).

So when we're talking about what was there from the start, it's not as simple and as clean cut as you say. The G1 toon was not the start.  

zmog

 

Used to watch him alot. Stopped right around the time he started sorting through his studio series. Was looking foward to other content he talked about doing when toys started being demonetized. Never happened. And when i tried asking where he was getting his stuff, got no answer(why cant i get these toys early too?)