And my Barney is only 27 miles away from my home! Will be delivered in less than 6 hours

 

do you have a Twitter so i can follow your work there? also, i see you're local, yay Seattle, glad it's finally warming up!

 

Question: has anyone tried to gently heat the stock hands and simply bend them to give them more of a curve?
I don't have the figure yet so am unable to check the feasibility of this idea.

 

I surely will, no matter what the others did  

 

I'm pretty sure plastic doesn't work like that.

 

It does in most cases, it depends by the type of plastic and the size/volume of the parts you need to bend. The one commonly used for modern TF toys works exactly like that.

The only issue is that you need a great amount of heat, like from a lighter, and there is a high risk to burn it and/or turn it black due to the smoke if you do that with flames.

The best solution is to use a heat gun for few seconds, or a hair dryer for some minutes, and then you can bend it easily and once cooled the piece will stay like that.
Another method is literally to boil the piece in a metal saucepan by keeping it suspended from the bottom with a string. Zero risks to burn it.

Also, the faster you cool it down the less you risk that the piece goes back to his original shape. I usually try to get the pieces stuck in the new shape with some tape and toothpicks and then put them in the refrigerator as fast as i can.

Never tried with such small parts (and i boiled a bigger piece just once) but i did that successfully with weapons or parts ALMOST as small and thin using a heat gun, so i'm almost sure it will work.

That's why i bought two Dinobots.

 

First is just art. They're all stylized and hardly accurate to the real life animals

Second is based on outdated source material

While I agree that they're a bit too flat to fit in the robot chest, they're not too long. See previous comparisons to the up to date raptor hand anatomy.

So we have curvature / bend Vs length

Original:
- correct length
- flat AF

Yours:
- too small / short
- good curl

I still prefer anatomically correct hands Vs curly hands. Especially since you can curl them up slightly yourself

But hey, to each their own. As you can see, feedbacks been stellar except for minor me

 

I think you should have your dinobot exactly the way you like it! You do you brother man!

having said that I’m fairly convinced we all got it wrong and raptors looked like birds

 

So we all know how Optimus Prime works. The big guy. Wise, noble, and deeply respected by his troops. The grand archetype of ‘the hero’. Optimus Primal, instead, was a middle management dude who had absolutely no control over his subordinates and was not someone you’d be likely to describe as wise. Heroic for sure, but this was a guy that had to learn through his fuck ups. It was as refreshing as the rest of the best bits of Beast Wars, and Transformers: Animated certainly leaned on this Optimus.

And of course, many of those fuck ups he had to learn through were born from dealing with an unruly, if not outright mutinous crew. It was another inspired touch that set this new cartoon apart from the old. Even Rodimus didn’t get this much grief! As a flawed and inexperienced leader, learning how best to navigate through increasingly complex situations, I always found myself empathising with Rodimus a lot more than Optimus, and that is perhaps even truer with Optimus Primal. Rarely have I felt for a leader as much as I’ve felt for this guy.

Thirty-nine. I was thirty-nine before I got my hands on the classic ‘munky’ Optimus Primal. In a funny way that’s quite a good thing. with so many of the figures I had as a kid that I still I enjoy today I’m given to wonder if I can actually be objective. No such problem here. I have no nostalgia for this toy whatsoever.

So I’m very relieved to find out that this is a brilliant figure, certainly one of the best from the original Beast Wars line, in my occasionally humble opinion. The ‘bot mode is immense. Stocky and beautifully proportioned. And the articulation! I come from a time when articulation was often just a by-product of the transformation sequence, but this guy has bicep and hip swivel. Much of the beast kibble is beautifully integrated, with the ‘shoulder pads’ actually really adding something to the bot mode that wouldn’t be there if it weren’t for the kibble. I even like the rather goofy ‘action features’ like the popping shoulder cannons.

The only thing that rings a little odd for me is that 100% G1 Optimus Prime headsculpt. I know; I’m being unfair. It was designed to be an update of G1 Optimus and it was only when the cartoon went in another direction that any problems occurred. I mean, it’s a fantastic headsculpt. It’s just that I wanted something that looked like it’d had snuck out of my TV.

That said, I love how very different the ape mode looks to the animation model. The face sculpt manages to be both cartoonish and well detailed. The transformation to beast mode from robot mode is possibly too simple. He spins his leg round, folds his chest up for the ape head then leans over a bit. However it looks bloody great, and that’s the main thing, right?

So, I’m not going to tickle your trout here; I think Optimus Primal is going to be the BW update in Kingdom to beat. Cheetor sucked, Blackarachnia was good but had QC issues, Megatron was great but perhaps a little over-ambitious. But Primal? Well, whatever flaws he might have are pretty trivial AND he manages to be the best of both worlds. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

So I don’t need to tell you, dear reader, that this isn’t our first punt at a Generations Optimus Primal. You may remember a certain fan vote in Power of the Primes and an incredibly compromised take on ‘Optimal Optimus’ that satisfied few within the fandom. In short, it sucked. Not least because of the staggeringly crap inner robot. Something better was needed.

And it feels like the design team knew that too, because this guy really hits the sweet spot. in robot mode this guy achieves ‘cartoon accuracy’ in ways that only a few other toys in the WfC trilogy really have. Much like those other examples, like Springer, Shockwave, Grapple, or ER Optimus, Optimus Primal feels like he stepped right off the screen.

And, beyond ‘just’ looking the part, he’s an absolute joy to play with too. Sometimes I sense that some folk too much emphasis is put on articulation. Every time I read ‘G1 with knees’ I find it hard not to think that all the benefits of articulation are being dismissed with quip. But I think primal here really puts forward the case for why articulation matters. I have spent so much time playing with this toy. I’m constantly picking him up, moving him around, popping him into some other dramatic pose, and all because I can. and it’s fun. I’m going to remember playing with this guy much more than I will Warpath.

He’s not perfect. One cannot ignore the big hole at the top of his chest (I can fit the tip of my pinky in there), and the incredibly faithful headsculpt highlight for me how goofy the animation model is (those lips, man!) but I appreciate that last one may be a highly subjective issue.

So, the robot’s good. That’s nice, right? We needed something like that after the woeful PotP version. Well, my friend, I don’t want to be so glib to denigrate the robot as being a mere apéritif before the main course, but I’d be lying out both side of my mouth if I told you I felt otherwise.

This has snuck up on me. I was not expecting to enjoy this so much. When I saw the first images of this mode I thought ‘that’s cool’ and moved on quickly. But as soon as I had him in hand and transformed him into the ape mode it was love.

And one of the reasons for that is that this mode isn’t cartoon accurate in the least. It barely even evokes the cartoon design any more than the most generic-looking ape design could. It is doing the absolute least it possibly can to satisfy that now much-maligned criteria and I could not be happier. Instead of having something that struggles to ‘get it right’, it feels we got something where the design time got to indulge thier imaginations.

Ok, listen. I’m a little in love with this ape mode. I was almost reluctant to transform him back to ‘bot mode for some of the photos. It was like that time when I was five and I got some trainers I really liked and I didn’t want to take them off to go to bed. Can’t we just stay like this forever? I don’t think I’ve played with a Transformer this much since Siege Shockwave. And much liek that Shockwave I just keep finding excellent, dramatic new poses for him and want to rush to the light box.

But enough gushing, let’s focus in on what’s really so superb about this mode.

Oddly, my enthusiasm doesn’t really start until I get him off all fours. Once he’s standing on his two legs he suddenly becomes so expressive. From his hunched back, to his super articulate arms (nobody throws a convincing punch like this guy), to the ankle tilt and toe curl . There’s something so…real about the way this guy distributes his weight in any pose that all my previous complaints about being able to see panels on beast modes fly straight out of my head. And that face! That surly, distinctly un-heroic face! With it’s evil burning red eyes! Perhaps more than anything else, it’s the eyes that say ‘fuck the rules and do what works’. This is what I want from my Generations toys; something understands the importance of the past, and weary nostalgia, but isn’t handcuffed to it in some painfully literal sense.

I’m doing Cyclonus next week. I’ve not really played with him much as yet. I’m a busy man. If he’s anywhere as good as Primal I know that it’s going to be the Voyager class that’s the one to look out for in Kingdom. This bodes well for Dinobot, Tigatron, and Rhinox. I have to admit, for the first time I’m actually feeling optimistic about the way this line is going.

 

Got my Barney ten minutes ago and i'm too excited to take pictures.

So:
-He's smaller than i expected.
Not too much (he looks good with my older beasts, like t30 Rhinox and Optimus Mammoth, also known as Elephantimus Prime or Encore Big Convoy), and he's a snack in beast mode.
I couldn't wish for a better tyrannosaur... Except that, of course, he's purple.
But the T-Wrecks and JP crossover repaints will solve this problem.

-He's a lot more solid than i expected.
Plastics are "g1" bw solid. You could actually play with it.
I could've actually played with it as a kid, and i was the kind of kid who's idea of "play" meant "BOOM BOOM CRASH *throws the toy against the wall with considerable strenght* I KILLED YOU!"
Yeah, i was sort of a sociopath as a kid.

-The "rubbery" skin isn't that much rubbery.
It's more like soft PVC or something like, i've been tricked by the reviews where it looked like if it was a lot more bendable.
Yet, it's flexible enough even if it doesn't add any "realistic sensation" at touch. No complains.

-There are some easily fixable issues.
First of all, as already seen in all the reviews on yt and most of the comments on this thread, the "soft" panels on his tail are hard to move when transformed. Should be enough to shave them a little bit with a blade.
Second, as already seen in some reviews on yt and some comments on this thread, all the clips that hold the pieces together in both modes are hard as f**k. Not a big deal, once shaved a little with a nail file they shouldn't give any more problems.

-There is an issue that's harder to fix.
His backpack is nearly impossible to get out of that hole in the cardboard without a pair of scissors. If you heard some italian blasphemies coming with the wind from far away ten minutes ago, that was me trying to not break his dino thighs to get him out of that f**king hole without breaking nor cutting anything. I don't know how i did it but i managed to save both his backpack and the cardboard in the process.

Not giving my opinion about his general look because right now i don't give a damn thing about the show, i'm just too happy to have a thing that comes straight out of my childhood dreams. Can't wait to see him in red.

In conclusion: i've chosen to give up on my idea to get a second copy of it and 2 copies of both the repaints.

Instead, i'm gonna get THREE of each.

Spoiler

i had an orgasm when i got him out of the box and another one when i transformed him in beast mode

Soon i'm gonna shoot some pics. I just have to clean myself find some time

 

Hm, while it was a little tricky, I got him out of the box hole just fine.

Allow me to help you out with some juicy pictures:

 

Your help is gladly accepted  

 

I think you just recreated a lot of our childhood 'chopper' third mode from the original toy. Most characters got a Transmetal figure with a vehicle mode and you could have the original Dinobot figure join in on that by angling his tail up in beast mode, opening it up and spinning it. It looked crazy as hell.

 

So, i was about to post these pics, joking about the fact that he's cosplaying, when i realized something.

Transformers are the most advanced cosplayers of the universe.

So now he's a robot that's cosplaying a tyrannosaur that's cosplaying a carnotaur.

He's cosmatryoshking?

 

Looking real good so far! Can’t wait to see the trailer.

 

So, we'll see the rest of the wave soon? I can't wait to see the beasts...

 

Same I really want to see how Rhinox and Scorponok look. Hopefully Hasbro does their last minute photoshoot before the whole wave 3 leaks  

 

Nice

 

Oh oh oh,

I think I have a custom Idea. As a huge animated fan, tell me what you're thinking:


+

=

?

I could see inferno turning into armour or the jetpack for Prime