Ah so the large plastic case came in the slipcase? I feel slightly robbed. It was slightly cheaper than I;ve seen elsewhere though, possible re-release or cheaper becase the case was lost.

Eh good either way

 

It might just be the different distance but your front cover seems to have a tighter margin with less case plastic showing at the opening side than @Lothar Hex's, though of course them covers can slip about in their sleeves sometimes as well.  

 

The entire first generation. Minus Headmasters, Super God Masterforce, Victory, and Zone.  

 

But with pics from three of those on the back cover. 

 

I took kid C1 to Edinburgh’s National Museum for the robots exhibition. More sciencey than movies but TFs still conspicuous by their absence. (except for a £13 metal earth Megatron in the gift shop.

 

Thanks for the prompt, looks like AE have mine waiting to ship though I’ve had no email. So yours should get sent very soon  

 

So, anybody remember Toys R Us? OK daft question. But does anybody remember what the last Toys R Us exclusive Transformer was? This guy, Studios Series Thundercracker. He arrived just in time to be heavily discounted in the Toys R Us bankruptcy, like literally less than a month later. He became kind of a hot ticket in the US for a bit. Here in the UK? We just looked on at another toy we weren’t gonna get. However, it seems that The Entertainer picked up a load of excess Toys R Us stock as they bunged them in their shops for £17.49. So here we are with a movie Thundercracker who isn’t a repaint of Starscream!



So yeah he’s a repaint of the really good The Last Knight Nitro Zeus, with all the decent if limited articulation intact. The always fun Thew reviewed him a while ago so I’d recommend checking out his review of it for the info on the original here. So what do we get with the Thundercracker version? A new head-sculpt loosely based on movie Starscream’s, some more paint applications, and an arguably better colour scheme. Nitro Zeus was one of only three toys I got from the Last Knight line and he is one of my favourite movie toys.

So why don’t I like Thundercracker as much as the original?



Honestly? I think it does come down to his colour choices in some ways. Nitro Zeus may have a rather dull grey and black pallet, but the shade of grey used is weirdly vibrant He pops a bit, plus his Shockwave fanboy eye with the yellow monocle helps. Thundercracker is very dark in colour. The flash in my camera makes him look far more vibrant than he actually is. He has some Decepticon badges on his wings which are black, but they blend with the blue way too much. There’s also seems to be degradation in the toy mould, or the type of plastic used for him seems more slippery” than Nitro Zeus’, because all his tabs and tolerances are noticeably looser. For example, his ankles while able to support his weight, were more prone to tipping over if not balanced exactly right. I sorted that out with a quick screw tightening, but there’s also his arm cannon, which likes to slip out a little if you compress it. Not much of an issue as I keep it out for display, but it’s just an example of how he doesn’t feel as solid as Zeus in either mode. His left shoulder pad almost always pops off during transformation and his nosecone un-tabs a lot easier than Nitro’s ever did.

Moving on to the only new piece of the toy, the head-sculpt. It’s supposedly based on an early head for Starscream, less bird and more spider. In fact, to me, it looks like someone took Movie Starscream and Beast Wars Tarantulas and mashed them together. I keep flip flopping on if it works or not.



As with Nitro Zeus (yeah a running theme huh?), his head also detaches as it is Titan Master compatible, a holdover from an earlier script where the movie character and headmaster Cogman would have taken over Nitro Zeus body at some point. It’s not much use, but hey can be fun for fiddling with your spare Titan Masters and possibly for customs.



Transformation to jet mode is still fun but hindered a little by the lesser tolerances, and the jet mode itself is fine, but the problems with the blue are exacerbated. There’s some nice G1-esque red and silver on the wings but this really could have used a lighter shade of blue. It would just pop more.



Honestly, I don’t have much more to say on the guy. He’s a good mould made slightly worse due to tolerance issues and a too dark paint job. I like him, but I’m glad I didn’t pay full price for him.

But hey if they do this in Skywarp colours I am so in!

 

Looking at the hell dogs that came with my Peru kill I think it might actually be the UT version and not the BSL KO. It was sold as the UT version but I bought it off eBay without any packaging for a steal (£25) so just assumed it was the KO at that price - but on watching bens comparison video, the dog I have is not the black and brown colouration that came with the KO, it is silver and brown!? Not that it really bothers me because I am happy either way but I guess I potentially got even more of a bargain!



Transformation was fairly intuitive as others have said and the Lamborghini mode is proper gorgeous. Here are a couple of pics with the OSKOAOE lockdown and SS lockdown.



and in pursuit of bumblebee...

 

"QUERY: WHO NEEDS HANDS?"

"CONCLUSION: APPENDAGES OVERRATED."

Also Grey Market Overlords all up in Smyths? I can wait 'em out in case of discount.

 

I got my tracking info from AmiAmi on Saturday!

I've come to the conclusion that ships like the Phoenix mean more to me as an adult collector as I never had one as a kid, so if somebody can now make an X Bomber that's big enough to incorporate fully combining Dai X vehicles that'd fill another gap.

 

Ant-Man pushes an Ant-Pram.

 

Bugly's got Radiconned!

 

okay, so at this point I think its safe to assume Hasbro UK are going to miss the February estimate of release for the new studio series figures.

Dammit, it's not kapow's fault but it genuinely does mean I might go elsewhere in the future just so I can get it sooner

 

Meanwhile pink mech squats over fountain like a bidet?

 

Well I lucked out and found a place that had the siege wave one leaders, still need Optimus, I suspect my local A1 shop might get them in next week but even they don't know. Are the Voyagers even out at general retail yet?

 

MOSC

MB version

 

Yep, Prime and Megs have hit Smyths and UK small retailers but not The Entertainer AFAIK.