Bayformers. Every damn time.

 

In which direction? For me it is always from "let´s give this a try" to "meh" or "baaad"  

 

I get all caught up in the hype, get the toy and my expectations crash and burn.
This last movie I swore, I absolutely promised myself I has learned from my past mistakes. 4 god damn figures later my head hangs in shame.

 

Not interested to What the!?!
I have never liked the theory of robot to animal, but bought a load of them in a bundle second-hand, and the white polar bear with firing bat-leg, excellent! Who thought of that? Now probably in my top ten, if only for utter insanity.

 

Bad to Good: Combiner Wars in general.

Whilst the line was well received by fans, I was initially very dismissive about it. Something about their overall aesthetics didn't quite do it for me, particularly Silverbolt with his lanky appearance. It was not until I saw the Unite Warriors version of the Aerialbots that made me change my opinion about CW.

Although to be honest, I would only get the occasional few figures and only reserve the complete team in the form of UW boxsets.

 

In the past? - Movie figs

Currently? - RID mini-bot deployer thingies.

 

Generations Skybyte was something I wasnt pushed on getting. Then when I did I thought he was a good figure. Much better then I thought.

 

Good to meh to great - MP Wheeljack. He's one of my favorite G1 characters and was so damn pumped for his release. Just didn't feel like anything special when I pulled him out of the box and, of course, was really underwhelmed that he wasn't completely painted in alt mode. His real world deco and forearm kibble fought his G1 likeness to my mind. I've since come around as he's really grown on me with his dead on head sculpt and incredible pose-ability due to his articulation, balance, and joint tolerances. His anti-hypno box and immobilizer only added to my appreciation - Wheeljack's gotta have his gadgets!

 

CW devastator (want to no thanks)

Really looked like a cool, fun, well designed figure when I saw him in pics and peoples reviews. Was anticipating him and almost bought him on vacation. Was able to check him out at a friends place, fiddle around with the individual bots and transform him, and it just wasn't my thing. Lots of hollowness and floppy thighs on a $150+ priced bot set, I just couldn't see many positives outside of a pretty solid combined mode. Even that was floppy at parts and came untabbed at times when moving limbs.

Outside of the nice looking sculpts, I was pretty unimpressed in general and it definitely felt like a $70 figure instead of one going for over double that price. Even if it is a fraction of what the 3P combiners go for, I'd rather have something that I enjoy and have fun transforming. For a hasbro 150+ devastator, I'd pretty much be buying a devastator statue because I'd never be playing with those floppy hollow voyagers outside of the combined mode.

Guess toyworld it is for me. I was pretty disappointed that I just don't want CW devy anymore  

 

Oops, yep I think you're right there! Must admit I had either remembered it wrong or read it wrong previously but knew he'd designed something overnight at that time. Feel free to correct me any time!  

Glad to hear he's winning you over.  

 

I came to post the same thing, although my experience was bad to good because Hasbro sent me some review samples and experiencing them in person changed it for me. I'm all about the US line.

 

Good to TERRIBLE: RiD Cerberus/Bruticus-I was so hyped for this thing at the time and once I had him in hand realized what a turd this thing is

 

Oof, yeah.

 

OK to great: MP Wheeljack

I still think that unlike the other carbots, Wheeljack went through some really nasty changes when he went from sketch (also used for his silhouette reveal) to a working prototype.



See how he went from really nicely proportioned to very big chested and longer and thinner arms and legs?? It went from a 10 in sketches to a 6 in production.

But in hand, all of those concerns die away. It took a while, at first it still bugged me, but eventually I just saw him as he is and not as he could be. I love him to pieces.

 

I think the best and most recent example, from a bad to good standpoint, would be NuRID Jazz. When it was first released, I thought it looked too kibbley and it bothered me he didn't have the traditional Jazz visor. I decided to buy him on a whim, and he was definitely not as bad as I first thought. The biggest thing that won me over was how similar his transformation was to his G1 counterparts. (Bag legs folding up, the chest rising up with the arms folding up underneath).

 

I think part of G1 Wheeljack´s charm is that he was slightly awkward proportions, it goes well with his funky headsculpt and scientist personality (are those ears really an Einstein hairdo?   ). I am also positively surprised by how different the MP mold looks with Exhaust´s head sculpt... the awkwardness is suddenly gone and the mold looks sleek, streamlined and menacing... amazing what a head sculpt alone can accomplish!

 

Good to bad is Beast Machines ultra Jetstorm. I thought in all the photos that toy looked great, in package the toy looked great, & in jet the toy looked great. But once transformed I hated it. I hated his forearms for its a lazy transformation. I hated his back for its imcomplete look. I hated how his jet nose area just wraped up to his butt. Call this guy DillingerStorm.

Bad to good is rotf Sidearm Sideswipe. I avoided him mostly because of regular Swideswipe's feet, even though both are completely different, it's a wierd reason maybe it's an association thing. I buy Sidearm at Ross & was really pleasantly suprised! He's really cool. Because of that toy I went back & bought a rotf Swerve to give that toy a chance & again was plesantly surprised.
But Sidearm has to prop up Swerve.

 

He's definitely won me over now   Lack of a complete paint job can't ruin a mold this brilliant! Context definitely helps, too - he just looks so damn good with Bumblebee and Optimus and he'll only get better once Ironhide arrives. That'll complete what I've always seen as the core of the pre-movie cartoon team.

 

Good to Bad: 75% of all the AOE toys I bought as a newbie collector. I look at them now and wonder what the hell I was thinking. Granted, there are 25% that I do actually like (Drift, the Black Knight Dinobots....).

I'm still trying to figure out why most of the AOE Bee's are more ORANGE than Yellow.  

Bad to Good: MP Bumblebee. I bought the G2 version and really like him. After taking a second look at the actual MP Bee again, I've come to like him enough to add to my MP collection.

 

Bad to Good: AOE Scorn. Saw him in the package all mistransformed and everything, along with being a "new" Dinobot that wasn't one of the original five. But in hand...holy shit is he great. My favorite movie mold, well, ever!

Good to Bad: TFCC Airazor...what a floppy mess she is. And that plastic...I can't even