Transformers Rise of the Beasts Weaponizer Arcee & Cheetor review

Arcee's appearance in Rise of the Beasts is very cool, as fans got to see her kick ass in a movie more often than her brief appearances in ROTF or her fanwank Geewunification in the Bumblebee movie. I loved her every scene, especially seeing the design come to life in her best look yet. It beats the old MV1 toy that was on side media after being removed, the ROTF drone design that works better as a troop-builder for Arcee rather than actually be THE Arcee, and the Bumblebee movie design is just what Geewun fans would want for their sex doll. But while the Core Class figure was okay, I didn't buy the Beast Combiner in favor of this more screen-accurate figure.

Here we have Arcee in her motorcycle mode along with Cheetor in his beast mode. These two obviously never were in this exact scale, but it is great way for fans to get a cool Arcee figure as well as a Battle Master they probably never got initially. The motorcycle mode probably looks a little rough to some fans who likely want a bit more cohesion and better resemblance to the altmode from the film. The front section looks pretty good, outside from the use of Allspark Blue on the headlights and the windshield. The back section is where is falls apart due to how exposed the arms are. This figure transforms similarly to the Studio Series version, though while that figure had the arms hidden away much better as they also had molded details that better resembled the back section, this figure instead makes them on the back with no proper integration. Which is a shame if you ask me because I'd love to see this be a better-executed bike mode that might be in decent scale with the MPMs even if it is a little over-sized. Cheetor, on the other hand, is the same as the regular Battle Master that was released on its own in terms of sculptwork, though this version has a lighter gray plastic as well as lacking any spots on the legs. If those changes don't bother you, then you won't need the regular version. In fact, only she and Wheeljack come with variants of the already-available single-released Battle Masters since Skullcruncher, Optimus Primal, and Airazor were only available individually while Arrowstripe and Chainclaw were each released with their respective Optimus.

For a vehicle mode size comparison, here she is next to the Studio Series version. The Beast Weaponizer is slightly bigger than the previously made toy, and it does look worse in terms of detailing, as the Core Class figure prioritized the bike mode with the paint apps and molded parts not found on the mainline version. 

Transformation is a almost identical to that of the Core Class figure with a little influence of the Energon Scout Class toy from nearly 2 decades ago. The rear wheels now go up on her back rather than on the shoulders, which is much more screen accurate to the film. No waist swivel is implemented into the toy, though. The robot mode is where the attention is put onto this toy. It's much leaner and better represents how she looks in the movie, thanks to the kibble placement and the sleeker profile. Her arms are also not as blocky as they previously were, going well with the legs not being thin yet deep. The weakest part is definitely the coloring. The gray plastic looks cheap, and she could use some color break-up to make her closer to the CG model. Otherwise, this is the best Arcee's bot mode will be in toy form unless Yolopark or Threezero makes a figure of her.

Her head sculpt is both cheap with the gray plastic and a bit inaccurate with how it looks a bit angular compared to the the final film design where her head is rounder. Regardless, it looks better than her ugly sexdoll face from Bumblebee. Could use some paint though. Her articulation gives her a neck swivel, ball jointed shoulders, elbows, and hips, and hinge knees. Cheetor's legs can fold onto each other while his tail becomes a blade for Arcee to use as a weapon, and it reminds me a bit of how Power Rangers Zords work. The weapon thankfully doesn't weigh her down.

For a size comparison, here she is with her Studio Series counterpart, and I am happy to say she looks better in bot mode than the Core Class figure, what with her not having the blocky arms and awkward proportions. I will once again repeat that Studio Series has better paint apps overall than the mainline figure, so if there was a way to combine elements of them both to make the perfect Arcee, I'd appreciate that. Hell, I'd take a Deluxe ROTB Arcee more than I would an SS-86 Voyager Arcee any day! But while the Core Class figure will scale with the Studio Series line as intended, this Beast Weaponizer is perfect for standing with the MPM figures along with the Ultimate Optimus Primal figure. Stay tuned for his review in the near future; until then, get this Arcee if you see her. She's not perfect, but she's the only Beast Weaponizer I recommend even in spite of her flaws.

Final ranking: ⭐⭐⭐ and a half out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Transformers Studio Series Gamer Edition Megatron review

Megatron in Transformers Prime loved Unicron immensely, while his past self in the Cybertron games (yes, the games are connected to the show) led a revolution towards the caste system after years of being an energon miner named D-16 before becoming a gladiator in Kaon with the name Megatronus taken from a member of the Thirteen. Megatron was once friends with Optimus Prime before their opposing views made them clash with each other, leading to numerous losses and soon their way making its way to Earth. And after 13 years of not having a figure in this design, we have a new Voyager Megatron in our possession, so let's see if he's worth it or not.

Here is Megatron in his tank mode, and it is only able to assume the hover mode instead of deploy tank treads like the old Deluxe. I mean, I guess you could fold them away somewhat, but they aren't supposed to function like that. The tank mode we do have continues the trend of being Cybertronian like the rest of the WFC guys, but while the old Deluxe looked great in vehicle mode, this guy feels unfinished. Between the gaps all around, the fusion cannon looking slapped on rather than being properly integrated, and I cannot help but feel this guy was put with the same kind of lackluster engineering that plagued Barricade, only in vehicle mode rather than bot mode.

You can store the melee weapon on top, and sort of try to give him tank treads, but the result simply won't work at all. Not like it matters since they lack wheels.

For a vehicle mode size comparison, this feels quite all over the place. Prime and Bee seem right, but Megatron seems a bit undersized and Barricade a bit oversized. Had Megatron been a bit bigger than he currently is, I'd appreciate that.

Transformation is fairly easy for a Voyager, as a lot of the parts for the robot mode are just rearranged to make something vaguely resembling a tank rather than how an Earth mode Megatron would work with his tank mode. The only partsforming necessary is the fusion cannon. The robot mode is certainly accurate to the source material, much like Prime and unlike the two Deluxes in the subline. He could be painted in metallic silver, but at least the asymmetrical arms and the red with purple break up the dark gray plastic (which is a decent shade). It should come as no surprise that Megatron's robot mode is the better of the two, as it tried to maintain the G1 aesthetic while being entirely original, thanks to the red being more prominent. Despite the curved nature of the legs, he is standing straight. His fusion cannon looks pretty bad overall. It looks nothing like the old toy's or the game model's, both in girth, detail, and accuracy. It looks like it's reversed! Also no Decepticon insignia on his back.

His head sculpt is well sculpted and painted, down to the tiny crevices in the forehead and the purple in his cheeks. It's small but still a great level of detail that we would probably not get. His  articulation consists of said head moving on a limited ball joint, shoulders that rotate 360 degrees and hinge in and out, double-jointed elbows, bicep swivels in-between them, a waist swivel, hips that move front and back, in and out, swivels above the knees, less than 45 degree knee bends, and ankles that hinge and pivot.

If you really want to, you can swap the right arm with another weapon. Which is not a traditional Megatron thing to do but there you go. He can also hold his mace but only at the bottom of the handle.

For some reason, the top part can come off, but it makes no sense because the hands can't even hold any other part of it like with Prime's axe. Also the head is half-painted so shrug.

For a robot mode size comparison, he is just slightly bigger than Prime when his height should be a head or two taller than he currently is. Barely a difference between this and his old Deluxe.

Despite their faults, the Autobots are the clear winners in the subline, and I fear the quality will be all iver the place past these five.

Now commenting on Megatron's knees, the reason why the range sucks is due to these spikes that are not even crucial to the articulation. They should be angled upwards rather than downwards, but the sculpter forgot that detail and as such, they are stuck like this. You COULD clip them off to restore the articulation, byt you SHOULDN'T have to! This isn't a model kit you can pry parts off from a sprue, this is an action figure that should work out of the box!

This guy could have been so much better, but combining the poor knees with the fusion cannon, lousy altmode, no tank tread option, and small size bump, he isn't worth the full price. If this was the old Deluxe from 2010, exactly unchanged, he'd still suck but I'd be more forgiving given how unrefined older Megatron toys were vs now, but the old Deluxe was worlds better than thus guy in terms of play features and articulation. If you still want the new figure, get it on sale. Otherwise, pass on it.

Final ranking: ⭐⭐ and a half out of⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Transformers Studio Series 86 Brawn review

Brawn is best-known for being the strong Minibot. Literally his name. He's a short guy who can tackle any big task, but let it be said that there's not much else that can be known for his character development. At the very least, Brawn was best known for getting shot near the shoulder, resulting in his sudden death. So much for being a strong Minibot. We had a few versions of Brawn that grew in size for past CHUG lines along much like with Beachcomber, so let's see if this guy follows suit as well.

Here we have Brawn in his vehicle mode, a somewhat chibified SUV that is a made-up model. Much like Beachcomber, the sculpted details are much simpler here than on the earlier WFC Trilogy and Legacy line. The necessities you'd expect are thr front grille, the bumper, and the windows being picked out in silver, yellow, and Allspark Blue, respectively. The rims are painted in silver, but the mushroom pegs ruin the consistency. The proportions are generally accurate, though maybe the sides jut out a little more than the G1 toy did.

The extra wheel is removable, and the gun can peg on top of it if you want to add some artillery. No, I haven't tested that this wheel can be swapped with the ones attached.

For a vehicle mode comparison, here he is along with Kingdom Huffer, Netflix Bumblebee, and Cloutworthy Cliffjumper. You can definitely see the approach Minibots are aiming towards with using no translucent plastic as much as possible, which I don't mind that much. The windows will look less consistent with one another, even between Brawn and CJ.

Transformation is a little more involved than what Inexpected from Brawn. It seemingly transforma the same from the old toy, but the arms are hidden from within the backpack until hinged out while the sides of the SUV sandwich together into much chunkier lower legs. The upper body's method of swiveling the hood away is cool. The robot mode is spot-on to the cartoon, and it matches his stocky, barrel-chested appearance better than past toys, but I would be lying if I liked how it turned out 100%. The arms hang down a bit lower from the rest of the upper body, and they weren't this low in the cartoon. The backpack looks like it could fold up a bit more, but it doesn't. The yellow is much more prominent here than in the vehicle mode, but I hope it doesn't chip off since it is painted. As a result of the leg transformation, I dig how the legs look from the back. But yeah he is like a Ninja Turtle overall.

His head sculpt is spot-on to the cartoon, from the dome head and the silver face. It's generally something the WFC Trilogy, Legacy, amd SS86 lines have done successfully compared to past lines. Especially when this Brawn is a Deluxe instead of a Legends figure. With his pistol in his hand, his articulation is standard for thr line, with a neck swivel that is a bit annoying to move, shoulders that are on ball joints, bicep swivels, elbow bends, waist swivel, hips that move front and back, in and out, thigh swivels, knee bends, and ankle pivots.

Brawn's legs can be mistransformed so he can stand taller and mimic the stilt legs of his old toy. The Hasbro Pulse people showed this on a livestream, too. Maybe he could have beaten the  Decepticons easily with that in the movie.

Surprising absolutely no one, Brawn got a retool where he died and has wounds with blast effects to accompany them. He was in a Target-exclusive 2-pack with an equally-morbid Ratchet.

And here he is with his Minibot fellas once more in bot mode. Everyone looks on-model to the G1 cartoon, and all we need is Gears and Windcharger. The former is rumored to pop up in the next chapter of Legacy after getting scrapped in Kingdom, and I expect the latter to show up in SS86 just because he died in the movie. As for Brawn, he is alright for what he can offer. At this point it's a case of checking boxes while making the figures good enough for what they are. Brawn is not like Jazz or Hot Rod where he is a must-have, as he instead has no major requirements beyond being Brawn. I expect him to be in a 2-pack with Ratchet for the Buzzworthy line, but I'd like to see an Outback.

Final ranking: ⭐⭐⭐ out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Transformers Legacy Evolution Devcon review

Smokescreen's best friend forever is a G1-element, as the name Devcon might be more familiar to other fans who saw the giant quadrupedal Decepticon in Dark of the Moon. We'll wait for a long time to get that guy as a Commander Class toy in Studio Series (thanks, Magnus!) while this guy will go well with Earthrise Smokescreen in any G1 collection. Toy-wise, two failed attempts in the early 2000s as a convention exclusive had him retooled from Beast Machines Mirage and Energon Slugslinger, but we eventually got a toy of him as a retool of the 2011 Generations Scourge figure for the Pirates vs Knights BotCon set in 2014. Now he has a heavier retool than what a repaint and head swap allows with the help of Blurr's mold on his side, and we'll see if that turned out well for today's review!

Here is Devcon in his vehicle mode, a Cybertronic cruiser that is accurate to the animation model. Being a heavy retool of Blurr results in the two blue bots almost having nothing in common, but that was the point of using the speedster as a choice after all. The lack of a cockpit along with silver for the funs and the red boosters make this even more distinct than the norm, and while the arms look more obvious without the added kibble signature of Blurr, the hands are at least hidden away.

For a retool comparison, here he is in-between SS-86 Blurr and Velocitron Speedia 500 Collection Blurr. I like that we are able to get 3 different shells for this guy that become slowly more distinct from one another. That and the different shades of blue between one another, too.

And here he is next to Smokescreen, the Autobot he shared spotlight with in the G1 episode, The Gambler. Devcon staying in his Cybertronian form to contrast his friend's Earth mode is something I like about these two

Transformation is mostly the same as before, but with a few new tricks up its sleeve, literally with the hands flipping out along with the backpack having an additional panel that goes with his red thrusters now that they are a jetpack. Otherwise the torso doesn't do a whole lot with the rest of the transformation being the same as before. The robot mode is not as lean as Blurr now that he has more of a superhero physique that, combined with the predominant blue with the red lower legs and the jetpack, makes him look like Superman. No red crotch so that will trigger the purists. Beyond that, no major parts are reused between him and Blurr apart from the thighs and the feet.

Head sculpt is basically a good guy pre-Scourge aesthetic what with the blue dome and the silver bit on the head. Funny enough, he was retooled from Scourge once, but this heavy retool fits him better. His articulation is a neck swivel, shoulders that move front and back, in and out, bicep swivels, elbow bends, wrist swivels, waist swivel, hips that move front and back, in and out, thigh swivels, knee bends, foot hinging and ankle pivots. The blaster he comes with can be held in his hand as always.

For a robot mode retool comparison, here he is in-between the two Blurrs, and I now realize that the elbow joints are also reused for Devcon. It's crazy seeing how one can turn a very specific character design into a less distinct but still specific look with the retooled parts that are made specifically for Devcon. You wouldn't even know since he looks like an entirely new mold!

And for a look next to his bff, here he is next to Smokescreen once again, this time in robot mode. And it's pretty nice showing the differences between the Diaclone-originating Datsunbot vs the pre-1986 movie cartoon-original character. 

Overall, Devcon is an unexpected but still good addition to the Legacy Evolution line with how much retooling is added to make him that much more special than past releases, especially since he was a one-off character. Apparently, a Slizardo was planned to come included with this guy but there was no room in the budget. Maybe he'll come in a Hasbro Pulse accessory pack that also comes with Lord Gyconi that'll be the price of a Leader Class figure in Hascon 2024 or whatever. Until then, he has to envy Beachcomber's bird.

Final ranking: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐