The Final Round-Up of Tiny Transformers

If you've seen these kinds of reviews before, you should get an idea of what they're like by now: I cover Transformers or other toys that don't normally have much to say on their own. For example, I would rather put a compilation review on some tiny retro figures from DBZ than I would review them individually. And in this case, I normally cover Legends scale toys or anything comparable that is either without a whole wave to cover or has so little to say on its own. And as I reach closer to 1,000 reviews, I aim to retire this sub series once I reach the milestone for the TF-specific random compilations. So let's wrap things up somewhat with two Titan Masters, a Cyberverse Commander Class figure, two Bot Shots repainted for TFOne, and two Blokees blind box builds!

We'll be going in order of when these toys were made rather than go by line, and that naturally means talking about the Bot Shots duo. Optimus Prime and Megatron come with their color-coded launchers, and they are based on the first versions of the characters we got early in the line. The way the gimmick of the line worked was that you and another player were using these as sort of like a rock-paper-scissors type game, where each toy has to be set with either of the three symbols on their dial (blaster, fist, sword), then rammed into each other to determine which bot is standing or which one manages to transform. If a transformed toy is not on its feet, it still loses. If it is a tie, then you determine the victor by any of the three outcomes: Blaster beats Fist, Fist beats Sword, and Sword beats Blaster. As you're about to see, these toys don't have those symbols.

On their own, they don't match the designs we saw in TF One. Optimus Prime was yet another take on a flat nose cab, only this time with a single window slit, while Megatron was much simpler of a tank design than the more WFC/ROTF look we have here. Also, for some reason, Optimus has solid blue wheels instead of making them black. Megatron at least looks generally fine. 

And for the bot modes, the torsos each have their own vague little details to make them recognizable, but given the presence of screws and the tumblers in their tummies (Tumbler Tummies? Tumblies?), but the heads at least add some kind of idea where they get their aesthetics from. Optimus Prime is clearly based on G1, and while the same could be said for TFOne, it isn't 1:1 for that regard. And as for Megatron, he is definitely closer to the High Moon games. Much rougher in shape than the pacing it took for D-16 to turn evil. Now I know that it's not easy to exactly nail the color palette of a character in this style of design, but once again Megatron manages to do it better than Optimus, whose arms are entirely blue along with the wheels. Maybe if there was black paint added on, they would look better since Megatron at least has the excuse of using his tank treads as arms.

For an example of what their original releases were like, Optimus Prime was mostly grey plastic but had paint apps to break that up. Megatron was much more muted in his shades of grey that almost border on gunmetal. While I prefer the brighter colors on Prime and the color breakup on Megatron, I can at least say that you have options to choose from.ficen all the repaints we got for the Bot Shots line while it lasted. We also had different versions that had them either jump to transform or spin attack. As pocket toys, these are more like curiosities, but they make me miss when Hasbro was trying to have some fun with any side lines that weren't eating up resources or shelf space like the Swapticons are. At least these have their own alt modes and need no stickers to convey fucking faces. And the 2-pack was sadly a bit overpriced but I'm sure it was discounted overtime; and hey, it beats paying a ticket to watch TFOne.

Up next, we have Hardshell from the original Cyberverse line, back when it was a subline meant for pocket-sized play with larger sets meant for them instead of a quick and easy trademark to use for the first Evergreen-inspired cartoon. I almost want to go back and get the old Cyberverse stuff but sadly I'm already filled for shelf space with regular figures. That said, this is the only option we have for ol' Tom Hardy. The insect mode is pretty close to the design all of the Prime Insecticons had in the show, from the general color layout (albeit more saturated and with lavender wings instead of ones colored like gunmetal/purple patina) to the general proportions meant to represent a rhinoceros beetle with a more monstrous touch. I mean, those things are already freaky little bigs, imagine seeing one the size of an M1 Abrams! We even get a bit of jaw articulation as well as ball jointed wings. The only issue with this mode would be the robot arms being visible on the pair of legs most further back, and while it's not a deal breaker for a toy of this scale, it does remind me of the robot legs still being visible for Waspinator's old toy.

For a bug mode size comparison, here we have Hardshell with the G1 Insecticon that loosely inspired him: Bombshell. I always thought Hardshell was a way better name, especially given what else Bombshell is used for at times (probably not as bad as why we don't use Slag anymore), and this is what I love most about Transformers evolution from 1984-the late 2010s at least: showing how much aesthetics have changed between different continuities, resulting in a more dynamic but mode that is almost organic in appearance than the evil Diaclone repurpose-me-do.

Transformation is not as basic as I expected, mostly thanks to the way the front of the altmode rotates before you shift the rest of the body down in an anthropomorphic look, and I especially love how the wings form what resembles samurai armor in a way. The bot mode is pretty accurate in this scale, but once again, the lavender gets in the way of the figure even more than it did in bug mode. I know Hasbro likely went with making the colors more radical for the Beast Hunters line, but I don't think it was needed for someone who hasn't had a toy in the previous line. Maybe if this was part of the 2012 Cyberverse line the wings would have been translucent while the arms would have blended in better with the grey used on the hips or feet or at least used silver paint. Still, the forest green and orange go very well together on a monstrous design, and I appreciate that the back kibble isn't as egregious. Even the head sculpt looks pretty good at this scale. 

Articulation consists of ball joints at the shoulders, elbows, hips, and ankles, with hinges at the knees and maybe the neck. He comes with an arm-mounted missile launcher that looks a bit wonky without the proper elbow articulation, and worse still, with this being the only option for a Hardshell figure, he is about as comparable to his G1 self when he should be bigger than Bulkhead! APC Toys/Gear Factory, do what must be done!

The sole repaint, Bombshock, is basically a G2 equivalent to the deco associated with Hardshell. He was included in a 2-pack with Shockwave for the Predacons Rising line exclusively at Target, and he curiously has a Predacon logo.

Now we go from Beast Hunters to Titans Return, with a pair of tiny dinos in the form of Clobber and Ptero. They're both cast in two colors for their plastic while including a few paint apps here and there, mostly for the faction symbols and eyes. Beyond that, they look pretty cheap compared to most other Titan Master vehicles.

The Titan Masters have the usual minimal color break up, but at least we have some black paint to break up the brown-grey plastic on Clobber's face. Ptero looks like Firedrive with red overalls, and I know this since I own Titans Return Hot Rod. However, their head modes are none other than Grimlock and Swoop! While fans were confused as to why Grimlock was named Clobber, Hasbro explained it was to avoid confusion with the RID2015 character, even though they had G1-styled Grimlock toys in some capacity next to the AOE and RID15 versions. My theory was that the explanation they used was a cover-up for the incoming announcement of the Power of the Primes Dinobots, with these two initially meant to be the partners of pre-POTP figures of Grimlock and Swoop; once Hasbro realized they can sell a combiner out of the whole team as a way to convince non-hardcore collectors (aka anyone less likely to buy the whole G1 Dinobot team), they used the Power of the Primes line as a way to do a final lap approach towards filling in any gaps for specific teams or characters prior lines didn't get to since the very first line began this concept in 2006's Classics line. As for why Grimlock and Swoop were chosen among the others, they're usually more prominent in different lines than other Dinobots normally are, whether it's due to the popularity of both dinosaurs or because they're regularly given various toys in other lines (Animated and Age of Extinction seem obvious, but this also began in the Energon line with the Mega-Dinobot set).

Their chariot modes are pretty basic, with Pteto's almost being redundant since he goes from a flying beast to a jet. Maybe he could be some sort of jet ski thing. At least Clobber goes from dinosaur to dragon.

Being Titan Master accessories, Clobber can turn into a gun while Ptero turns into a crossbow. I paired them up with the SS86 versions of Grimlock and Swoop, but now that I think about it, I should have paired Clobber with Snarl and rename the little partner as Tyrannotron. 

Clobber received the most amount of reuses, most notably originating as Crashbash, aka Squeezeplay. Then it was repainted as Overboard, aka Overkill. Why do the Titan Masters with that dragonsaur accessory have alternate names with Clobber?

Meanwhile, Clobber was repainted as Grimlock in the colors of the actual dude while Ptero was retooled as Rodimus Prime, and he is not only as nicely painted as a Takara Legends figure, but he also has partial die-cast!

And now we go from main Hasbro releases to their best licensee partner, Blokees! Assembling the head and planet form of Unicron each takes less time than a Champion Class, and the larger, chunkier parts make these Galaxy Version blind box builds easier to work with. Both of them have stands of their own, with the head even having a ball joint to work with! Both of them appear to be modeled after the HasLab version of Unicron, though I wouldn't hold your breath for a full body to be made. Still, I like the chomping feature on the planet mode.

Unicron's head has an articulated jaw so he can chew on that shuttle (because it has no display base), and the faceplate can be removed to reveal the same inner workings of the HasLab figure, with articulated eyes and unpainted teeth that are perfectly fine on a smaller, cheaper toy by a different company instead of the super expensive $500 toy from Hasbro.

Both kits have clear plastic versions of themselves that you can buy on their own, all without having to depend on luck or the aftermarket. They're pretty cool on their own, but be careful when assembling him or taking him apart!

Overall, while I don't plan to go all out with Defender or Galaxy versions of the Blokees line, I am at least happy to check out these two for reasonable prices thanks to eBay and Mercari. While I have yet to own a version of Unicron that transforms, these two join the ReAction version as the few pieces of the Chaos Bringer I own in my collection.

Final ranking: ⭐⭐⭐ out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (Bot Shots duo, Titans Return Duo)

⭐⭐⭐ and a half out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (Hardshell, Unicron duo)

Blokees Action Edition Transformers Prime Optimus Prime review

If you've been reading my reviews a while back, then you should know how pleasantly surprised I was with Tarn from the Action Edition line of Blokees Transformers. I already love the Yolopark's for being made of die-cast and representing the movie designs greatly, but the AE line manages to be pretty comparable, only more capable of utilizing play features unlike what we normally got from other lines. You should know I didn't bother getting any of the G1 characters because I feel like I got enough versions of those designs, and TFOne Optimus is an iteration I could care less for; that said, the moment they showed TFP Optimus's gray prototype, I knew I had to get mine ASAP. I never got the Iron Factory version, and I hated the R.E.D. line so much after Knock Out failed that I knew skipping Optimus and Megatron was the right thing to do. Now that Blokees is delivering the goods once more, let's assemble this figure and take a closer look!

Here we have Optimus Prime fully assembled, which took me about 3-4 hours since I had to do this in front of a friend who was curious about this build, on top of the instructions being vague with the orientation of some parts thanks to the print quality being lesser than what Lego instructions used to have. Hell, at the part where you're supposed to attach the limbs and head on the torso, they had a massive rendering error where the layering is entirely out of order. I hope Blokees actually looks through their instructions and doesn't mess up their CG renderings, because model kit instructions messing up is worse than Hasbro instructions messing up. That said, Optimus Prime looks fantastic once fully assembled. I always loved the designs from Transformers Prime, and while I love the First Edition figure from top to bottom (with the PRID version being decent), but this one manages to capture the CG model the best thanks to the proportions and overall lack of inaccuracies usually left from certain engineering limitations. For starters, he had the proper bulk for the forearms, and the feet don't have either the wind vanes on the heels or look like dress shoes. The shoulder pads are also as dense and impenetrable as the forearms, and the lower legs feel more defined without the ridges used over the rear wheels. Further more, we get silver paint for the midriff, thighs, biceps, etc to help those areas pop amongst the red and blue. What surprised me is how much cleaner the back looks thanks to the parts only comprising of the rear cabin panels at a smaller scale along with shorter smokestacks. Less clunky than the admittedly good First Edition and the PRID version's rectangular cape. The blue on the back of the thighs is accurate to the show, but despite what some would believe. Also, a rare sight for an Optimus Prime toy: the double the tires on the legs, and they also spin decently on the pegs. Just an amazing rendition of this design. 

Head sculpt is done just as well, and I love seeing that we have the silver smaller antennae in a way similar to how most Bayverse Prime toys have that. The eyebrows are also painted black, and I currently have the smiling option. Thankfully, it's not the wannabe Dreamworks smile we see the TFOne version do but instead a weary yet proud smile that fits an Optimus like this. Articulation consists of a double ball jointed neck, shoulder rotation, outward arm movement, bicep rotation, single jointed elbows with slightly extra range if you shift the forearm pieces, ball jointed wrists and thumbs, slight rotation and tilt for the upper body as well as an ab crunch, but nothing much if you want to have him rotate fully at the waist, hips are able to move front and back yet require you shift them down in order to have better range, even with the ball jointed waist piece's, in and out leg movement is fine, thighs rotate, knees bend at two points, and the feet are able to swivel, hinge, and pivot somewhat with additional toe-ticulation. Some areas could be more refined, but you can still manage to get a majority of poses right without issues, including this pose based on one of the promo renders. I remember seeing it back in 2010 at my elementary school's music class, but online archives are either lost through time or I'm stuck with these shitty DeviantArt recreations with way more Brony slop than I could tolerate. Maybe the render has Optimus looking to left in a different style of promo art where everyone was standing on the mountain? Who knows.

You have alternate display options to choose from, with Decepticon-labeled shoulders pads allowing you to recreate the Orion Pax three-parter where Optimus lost his memory from reusing the Matrix and was manipulated by Megatron in believing he was still an archivist rather than the Autobot leader he would revert to once his memories were restored. In addition, you can display him with either yelling or stern faces if you want to take the head apart and swap them to your liking. I kind of wish the inside of the mouth was painted black on the yelling face.

One of the surprising additions to this figure are the toy-accurate windows with inner detailing reminiscent of the Powerizer and Weaponizer figures from the PRID line. PRID referring to the Prime: Robots in Disguise line, which was made for mass retail compared to the limited run of the First Edition figures. We usually see G1 toy-accuracy for retools and stuff like Super7, but Blokees going for this route on a modern toy makes me feel so old, especially when the PRID line today is older than m the idea of retro homages in TF toys was in 2012. Also, for the first time in an Optimus Prime figure for this design, we have a Matrix of Leadership implemented within the chest; while the First Edition Deluxe for SDCC 2011 had a wearable Matrix with the toy inside it, and Takara's Arms Micron version of Weaponizer Prime has a Matrix accessory meant to form a sword, Blokees managed to have it as part of the chamber since no other toy of this figure could do that until now. Best of all, it lights up!

Displaying him with his blades and cannons is even better than the usual integration we had with the First Edition; you swap the hands with either weapon of choice, and they look perfectly seamless this way. I also love that Optimus's arms have small panels that can jut out to represent them transforming out of his arms. You have the option to have the blades deployed from the forearms with the ports behind the panels while the hands are still attached, but that was more of a Bayverse approach than in TFP, plus it was an inaccuracy the R.E.D version got wrong. That said, the blades are much longer than I expected them to, though they may be missing a bit of blue? Still, after having just clear blue blades on the First Edition KO I own for some reason, this is even better.

Finally, the Star Saber is included in both silver and clear blue, meaning it can be displayed either glowing with power when held by a Prime or not when it's sheathed on the back (or used by Bumblebee to stab Megatron in the Season 3 finale). I'm so happy you aren't required to swap parts to use either blade, nor are you stuck with just one option. Keep in mind that it is only compatible with the hands used on this Prime, so don't think about giving it to a regular Transformer with 5mm ports.

For some comparisons, here he is with his PRID and First Edition counterparts. I will always love the latter overall (despite being a bootleg) and say the former is decent, but it's great to see Yolopark nail the CG model without needing to transform. I also like that the colors are the right shades without being too dark like on the Takara version of the FE mold or too bright like on the Powerizer. Speaking of, with the toy-accurate chest window option being a thing, I wonder if Blokees plans to do a bonus accessory set featuring clear blue forearms, that 90s Macintosh looking MechTech weapon with no lock (WHY?!), and a Star Saber not named as such probably because it shrank in the laundromat. Yeah, if you find the idea of bootlegging the out-of-production First Edition to be "wrong" and are fine with the PRID version, paint those arms red and get him better weapons.

Here he is next to the APC Toys version of Megatron. If you want Optimus and Megatron to be the same height, then this is the way to go. That said, I would love to have a Megatron to go with this Optimus. 

For a cross-continuity comparison, here he is with SS86 Optimus Prime and Yolopark AMK Pro Optimus Prime. I think the scale.between these three works for me, and while I have no plans for any model kit of G1 Prime, Blokees or Yolopark, I am waiting for an AMK Pro of 2007 Optimus Prime. Oh, and I call them the Cullen trio.

Here he is with the Robot Enhanced Design version of Arcee. She is the best, by which I mean only good, figure to come out of that doomed line, though that says nothing after it ended without any acknowledgement from Hasbro. While.she should be smaller still, this is still a decent scale if you want to pair her with Prime. Knock Out scales better yet my copy suffers from severe QC issues for the hips and the left arm not wanting to stay in place. Oh, and comparing R.E.D. Prime next to the Blokees version is why I am so happy that line died as well as why I will happily accept any other licensee doing non-transforming figures instead of Hasbro doing it in-house.

And finally, here he is with Tarn, the only other Blokees Action Edition figure I own. The DJD leader kind of fits well in the TFP universe better than any version of G1, only with a few tweaks to make his body a little more rounded in some areas. After this, there are plans to make yet another G1 Optimus (yawn) and Autobot Megatron (snore), but if Blokees wants my money, then I recommend they do TFP Megatron, Skyquake/Dreadwing, Predaking, Ultra Magnus, Unicron, and Hardshell. Hell, Beast Hunters Prime would work just as well since he almost never transforms and just flies with a jetpack and wings, Buzz Lightyear style. Back to this Prime, I love almost everything about it. While the torso joints are a bit limited, and the instructions suffer from not being clear enough, I love the way this figure turned out from top to bottom. He looks gorgeous on display, the Matrix and chest window choices are cool, his weapon options are highly versatile, and the removable mouthplate as well as swappable faces make him worth every penny. I highly recommend you get this figure ASAP.

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