This is a thread for transformers that were so good they shocked you even if you expected them to be bad

For me right of the top of my head it's AOE FOC Grimlock i had no idea he would be as good as he was

 

TR Perceptor & siege Impactor. I never thought they would be bad. I bought when those were on sale curious about how good the toys were. Both are way better than anything I had assumed, especially Perceptor.

 

DOTM Space Case. I didn't buy him because I wanted him. I bought him for his weapon. I was doing a ROTF Megatron project that was about customizing movie inspired weapons for him and I wanted a spear for him like the one he briefly used in the 2007 film. Space Case's trident seemed to me the closest thing to that.

I got him, took the trident out and tried putting it in Voyager Meg's hand. Didn't fit. Then I pondered giving Space Case away or something. All of that changed when I transformed him. Played with his articulation. Then transformed him again. Suddenly, he was awesome to me. Too awesome!

He quickly became top five favourite Decepticons behind Megatron for reasons to this day I still can't explain but man, I am very satisfied with that toy. What a pleasant surprise.

 

WFC Micromasters - they're absolutely rubbish and we all know it, but now I have to have them.

Siege Seekers set - I just love how bright they are lol

 

Siege Red Alert

 

Siege sideswipe bought him to go with cw sunstreaker was surprised of how much fun he is

 

TLK Sqweeks!

Siege Spinister (hated the colors...had no nostalgia for the character or G1 toy...love the Siege figure).

POTP Optimus (awesome bot mode...assumed I would pass on him until I saw him in-store...he turned into an insta-buy).

 

RID Masked Windblade.

She became my Veritech/Valkyrie almost instantly, pushing all of the other similar planes out of the game.

I'd say the Movie Sideswipe (ROTF, red version (Swerve)) is simply great except the leg gimmick that restrict the mouvement (but still cool).

 

Beast Hunters Ratchet
Bought a set of figures for custom fodder, but Ratchet now has a permanent spot in my collection as Dynobot

 

Siege seeker mold. I was expecting it to be the worst voyager of the line and it’s one of the best figures from that line.

 

I'm gonna do it both ways.

CW Scattershot left me breathless when I put him into the combined mode.

T30 Nightbeat I thought would be good but he is trash! all his paint is horribly done with faded yellow and different blues and shitty tolerances.

 

Good: Combiner Wars Warpath

Why? Warpath has a fan mode where he has really long legs, which resembles a robot from a book I read.  

Bad: Siege COMBAT Weaponizers

Meh. I was underwhelmed, considering Cog is probably best, I don't really use Sixgun, and Brunt has QC issues.

 

I bought T30 Tankor on a whim last year and fell in love with the figure despite its terribly inaccurate alt mode.

Siege Barricade too. I thought Prowl looked awful and only bought Barricade because I liked his colors, but he ended up being my favorite Hasbro release of the year.

 

Gen WFC Prime was one of those figures I just dismissed because I wasn't terribly fond of the new take on Prime(especially his head and quite long antenna). Ended up picking him because of a review by Jtmitchell87 and a $5 off TRU coupon. Well anything bad I ever said about the figure just came back and round house kicked me in the nuts. A few minutes in hand and he just blew me away. For about a week I kept fiddling with him or MP Grimlock.

 

POTP Throne
Played with the normal colors, pretty meh... Bought Throne, unexpectedly more fun that imagined  

AOE Voyager Grimlock
Bought for my kid, VERY fun transformation, always feel the urge to buy whole variant or at least the G1 head version

 

SS DOTM Megatron

Now one way or another I was gonna get this figure, but I was expecting it to be average at best thanks to reviews I've seen

In hand it blew me away, after figuring out how the transformation works I can't stop fiddling with it. I love how accurate it is to the film look and how imposing it looks on my shelf.

 

TR Overlord. Had no connection to the character and thought that the pastel shoulder pylons were silly looking from pictures. Got him at steep discount and fell in love with the duocon aspect. Nice poseability, fun transformation, evilest smirk I’ve ever seen, great incorporation of the Titan master gimmick. Shoulders not as obnoxious in person.

 

Kingdom Ultra Magnus. I thought that he would be at best be a worst version of the siege mold with a terrible altmode. But now that I have him in hand I can't put him down. He's just a really fun toy imo, and his alt-mode is pretty good (you can cover up the visible hands with his wrist gauntlets). Also, the headsculpt and lightpiping are fucking glorious.

 

SS86 Kup. I never liked his design much in G1. His robot mode and color scheme were pretty bland and his vehicle mode didn't really look like anything, just a box on wheels. But the SS86 toy has really nice detailing on it that actually makes me really like his truck mode. With the airlock-style door on the back it feels like a utility rover that'd be used for traveling outside the pressurized area on an asteroid/moon base or something.

 

Kingdom Cyclonus. I wasn't a fan of his face in photos but I really like the figure in hand.

Kingdom Megatron. Thought I'd like him more. His robot face lacks character and though I like the dinosaur mode, the transformation is kind of fiddly.

SS86 Jazz. Can't believe how much I like the figure.

SS Cliffjumper. Same as Jazz.