Backpacks that fit snugly Oddly enough

Also locked in by...
Menasor using the 2 sword guns
Optimus Maximus using Optimus guns

Menasor using all his limbs
Optimus Maximus using Rook as a backpack/ shoulder guns

 

Ahh I see it now. Thought it was another 3P product I didn't know about.

 

I like 'em chunky

 

woke up to see the Takara Legends Grand Maximus and Greatshot news. Amazing how quickly I went from "I 100% definitely need both of those" to "worrafukareyeonaboutman?". They look good, they look fun, but I definitely don't need 'em. I mean, I don't actually think TR Max is that great a toy and suddenly I'm getting caught up in fantasies of buying a super expensive repaint? The fact I'm now paying the mortgage and all bills myself isn't a minor detail, after all.
Anyway, an interesting exercise in managing giddyness, if nothing else.
They do both look really fucking tasty though.

Going from those thoughts to considering Victorion/The Torchbearers really drives home what my CHUG collection is about; representing the characters and important story beats from the IDW comics in toy form. Arguably Victorion is a bit...crap. It's another frigging CW repaint, where we actually get two versions of the same Alpha Bravo/Blades/Vortex mold. It doesn't necessarily use the best figures from the CW line up. The paint job is...curious at best. And that head always just looks weird to me. On the plus side I really liked what they did with the weapons and the combiner hands/feet. But Victorion and Pyra Magma have become important and interesting pieces of John Barber's story, so I wind up dutifully buying them like the easily manipulated chump I am.

I just hope no one from Hasbro's marketing team are browsing the forum today.
"Great, let's repaint CW Groove as Rung and charge $180. He's already said he'd lap it up."
"Hey, should we stick Grand Maximus and Greatshot in the comics?"
"Takara's problem mate, not ours."

 

This dude would fit it...

 

I'd love to see PC-16 Optimus inside CW Ultra Magnus. Now that would be an interesting combo!

 

So I had the wife send that trailbreaker deal I posted the other day in this thread.... SUPER excited to have some alternates/ options in my Classic Autobots combiners. I think Wheel Jack is likely next as he was at $27 on Amazon yesterday and if he gets down any more my boy and I both want him. He looks like he could use some reprolabels though to liven up the all eggshell deco.

 

A change of pace...

 

I seem to remember thinking that the Aerialbots were CW toys that most of the design budget went into, because they stood head and shoulders above the other teams in terms of well thought out design and quality. I think Skydive was probably the first CW deluxe I got and I remember thinking he was the nuts and spending ages playing with him on some autumnal Saturday evening. As ever, memory is a slippery pig and now that I pull Skydive out and have a look at him I think "is that it?". Superion is still the best combiner out of the bunch and Silverbolt's torso form remains impressive.
Maybe it's a result of the high quality of the TR deluxes, that I look back on CW and find it hard to remember what excited me about these guys? That said I'm super grateful to have such updated versions of the 'Special Teams'.

 

Oh, yeah. The CW Aerialbots are the best of the best, IMHO.

 

They look the nuts as a squad

 

Just got Perfect Effect feet for my Optimus Maximus, and to be honest I'm extremely disappointed. How are you supposed to get any Combiner to stand when due to the ankles being ball joints they just tip forward and fall over all the time?

 

A coat or two of Future floor polish on the ball joint should do the trick.

 

I'll give that a go, just annoying given the price of the feet you'd think it'd come a bit tighter.

 

Just realized that Sky Lynx is the only CW Voyager figure that doesn't have a Legends partner. Seems like a weird choice by Hasbro not to give him a targetmaster or something.

 

Have to agree with the superion love one of my favorite figures  

 

G1 Superion is probably my least favorite of the G1 combiners because I found the original toys kinda bland and boring...but the CW version is definitely one of the best, if not THE best, sets in the line. Air Raid is one of my personal favorite Deluxes.

 

Technically wreck gar is a part of Team Sky Reign, just like Viper is part of team Gslvatronus.

 

He was released in the same wave if I'm not mistaken, but other than fan modes he has no official compatibility with Sky Reign, right? Only CW Combiner to do so.

 

He was originally announced as part of Sky Reign, and his packaging still includes the same color banding as the other members of the team.

All signs point to there being *something* he's supposed to do with Sky Reign but nobody's gotten Hasbro to confirm anything so all we have are fan modes.