There are some nice features to these figures, but also some shortcomings.

I really dislike Soundwave's nothing alt-mode, because it really is nothing (even the official "Street Lamp" mode is iffy at best), but an attempt at not making him into an Action Master. Starscream looks pretty good, but why were his tetra-jet mode nose-tip & back fin snipped so short & stubby? Poor guy!  

I'm still wondering why the much anticipated Chromia had her combiner bits removed too; there's some questionable removals going on.  

Overall, this line has some good figures, & my complaints are moderate, so I'll probably get most of them anyway, whenever they actually show up in-store.  

 

I'm surprised it took this long to get a good Ironhide figure.

 

Ravage looks like one of those dogs that had a really fluffy coat but the owner shaved it's head and lower legs.

 

These are already available at BBTS, I already preordered mine.

Funnily enough, I haven't gotten my preorder for the first wave of Deluxes yet.

 

Preordered the lot!


Now the wait begins.


And the fear that I’ll have to buy three complete boxes of wave three deluxes to make that camera.

 

Admittedly, I never read (or watched?) that interview, so I was being sarcastic. However, I don’t buy that excuse for a minute. Look at voyager Megatron. He transforms into a tank, rather than a gun, yet, not only is his robot mode not compromised at all, it looks insanely remiscent of his G1 design. It could even be passed as the poor mans version of a Materpiece Megatron. I’m probably being too nit picky (I’ll admit that I’m biased; Soundwave is my favorite Decepticon), but I think they could have done a better job on his alternate mode.

 

I think you could say that about most of the Siege line.

 

Prowl looks like absolute shit with clear wheels. I'll get him but those are getting painted or replaced ASAP.

 

I have to say I'm surprised that no one is selling the Battle Masters in sets of three. I thought with Lionizer in the wave, again that would have been a sure thing. Not that I would be apposed to a second one, or the third one. One could use TR Sawback and start building a nine looking pride. I am miffed about not seeing any pre-orders for the Micro Masters, I'm not too interested in Ravage and Laserbeak.

 

I didn't even notice that until you pointed it out. The optimist in me is holding out hope that it's one of those "Changed between stock photo and release" like Swoop or a running change, while the realist in me is resigning himself to "What we see is what we get".

 

His massive blank hood is not helping him much either.

 

Optimus: “Ironhide, you ready to transform and roll out?”

Ironhide: “Do you have to ask? Let’s go!”

I can’t wait for wave 2!

 

We think he, Refractor and Red Alert are wave 3 deluxe.

 

Still not digging that battle damage. Some of it looks particularly awful, such as on Starscream and Ironhide. I also wish the Micromasters were coming in packs of four and had elbows - the latter still bugs me to no end, especially since we had Minicons almost two decades ago with elbows.

Very tempted by that Ironhide though. We really haven't got enough (non-movie) Ironhides until recently (and the Combiner Wars one sucks, unfortunately), so I'm glad to see him getting more love.

 

I wonder if you could paint a thin layer of black plastidip on those clear wheels to essentially make tires, or if it would disintegrate the plastic or make them too thick.

Anybody ever put plastidip on clear plastic? Or maybe that spray on rubber stuff - flexseal?

 

Is anywhere just selling the individual battle master packs? I just want ravage and laserbeak. Dont want to worry about the rescue patrol

 

I don't have masterpiece soundwave but i don't know if mp cassettes are compatible with this cybertron soundwave...

 

Out of the new releases, I'm starting to forgive Shockwave a bit but Starscream here looks like total shit. And only looks worse as time goes on. A jet character — especially Starscream — is sleek and fast. Starscream in Tetrajet mode looks clunky and slow. In robot mode, he looks ready to shatter to pieces and the exact opposite of sleek with the sheer lack of clean lines. It's even a bit hard to get an idea of the surfaces because there's just too much going on at a time.

Soundwave similarly looks like he got his ass whooped. Like, just lay him on his back or side and he would seem dead because his surfaces are so messed up, he has paint damage and his chest is cracked to hell.

Ironhide, Prowl, Sixgun and the Micromasters still look good. Prowl's vehicle is pretty cool. The upper body is too wide and thighs and knees too skinny, but he will have to do. Hope all these guys get a decent markdown quickly. I'm not positive about such prices for Deluxes and Voyagers.

 

Can't believe I forgot to mention Sixgun. He looks great. Me want.

Flex Seal™ works on anything. Cut the wheel in half and then put it back together with Flex Seal™. Cut Prowl in half and put him back together with Flex Seal™. Or cut a hole in the top of Prowl and put some clear Flex Tape™ over the top to give him a permanently open sun roof.

(But in all seriousness, it'd probably work wonders).

 

Prowl's a bit of a missed opportunity here. WFC:S Sideswipe got a rather wide chest because the alt mode was made to kinda look like a Lambo. But Prowl's alt mode doesn't really look like a Datsun so the chest could be made more narrow and the different front of the alt mode wouldn't change a lot - it's not a realistic vehicle of any kind.

It's not making much sense unless they're planning reshells of some of those figures into their Earth alt modes.