Transformers Cybertron Crumplezone & Ransack review

Crumplezone and Ransack are like Team Rocket mixed with Dumb and Dumber; neither of them really know how to work that competently, though they are similar to George and Lenny from Of Mice and Men where Ransack's the smarter one. Not smart enough, but still to the point he can be a schemer. That said, they still make for a decently hard-to-tackle duo if their opponent isn't from Velocitron; even Crumply can go faster than the fastest Transformer outside of his homeworld. Another thing worth mentioning for him specifically is that he shares the title of "first Transformer I ever owned" alongside Optimus Prime from the same line! As for Ransack, he is a recent purchase since I wanted to have these two in my collection. Let's see how well they hold up!

Here we have the Velocitron duo in their vehicle modes. Crumplezone turns into some kind of 3-wheeled car with a single seat in the cockpit, and clear blue wheels that compliment the white and two shades of green better than I thought. Ransack is a Tron cycle, which is typical for Hasbro to copy yet he manages to stand out for being more alien in design on top of using lots of red. I don't have any issues with either mode, since both have this futuristic look that makes me want to zip them through the floors with how sharp and fast they look. That said, Ransack's rear wheel assembly is upside down, making it lift from the rear somewhat. It doesn't affect him since it's not detrimental to the toy, but it isn't easy to fix because of the pins and size. Some can tell that the legs of Crumplezone aren't even concealed, but considering this is an alien vehicle and not an Earth one, he isn't focused on being a robot in disguise.

Crumplezone's attack mode has the Cyber Key deploy the thrusters forwards to make missile launchers. While my copy is aged somewhat, I know that the weight of the cannons makes them hard to deploy seamlessly. That and combined with the pegs they snap onto wearing down if you detach these, and they kind of droop a bit. On the flip side, the winglets give him a race car spoiler look.

As for Ransack, you can have the cannon barrels deploy for a sneak attack, and it is in this mode where you may notice the wheel assembly being upside down as I alluded to earlier. If this had been assembled right, then it wouldn't point downwards like it is right now. Oddly, his Cyber Key border lacks silver paint when that is normally kept on other toys.

The transformation for Crumplezone is pretty easy, but for a Voyager made in 2005, the chunkiness and satisfying ratchet joints he has makes up for that. It's kind of cool how the front wheel folds under the cockpit so we can have a tapered V-shaped chest. Speaking of, the robot mode is appropriately bulky and hefty for a guy like him. The huge forearms help complete that look, and they contrast the undersized legs. Normally, weird proportions will be a make or break thing for some TFs, but it works so perfectly for a dude who's a dumb bruiser. I even like that his pre-Bulkhead jaw is articulated, and while the whites, three tones of green, and bits of blue and gold may seemingly not work on some robots, it somehow compliments Crumplezone more than it would anyone else. And hey, if you think the backpack is clunky, then at least you can pretend it's a jetpack.

Transforming Ransack is sort of like any other cycle bot, from the rear becoming the legs to the arms making up the middle portion, but the front wheel rotates 90 degrees. Doesn't serve much of a purpose but it does something. As for this guy's robot mode, it's about what one would expect from a cycleformer, especially at this scale. The arms stick out more from the rest of the body due to the shoulders, while the rear wheel halves get in the way of said arms somewhat. Beyond that, he looks fine, though I'm surprised this character wasn't retooled from Legacy Arcee for a modern toy. Do keep in mind that the forearms are painted black on red plastic.

Articulation for both is similar yet different due to the budgets of each size class. Both have neck swivels, but Crumplezone has swivels for the shoulders, biceps, forearms, waist, and upper legs. He also has ratchets for outward arm movement as well as the knees, and the hips are fairly universal. As for Ransack, the shoulders are also on swivels with hinges for the rest of the arms, and while the waist rotates, it is limited. The elbows and knees are on ball joints. Their Cyber Key gimmicks work in bot mode, and now we have a double barrel gun for Ransack and shoulder cannons for Crumplezone. It should be worth mentioning that everytime you insert the key, electronic sounds play.

As far as Crumplezone's reuses are concerned, his Dark retool is 80% altered from the old toy. The new color scheme is wicked and fiery, almost fitting for a Halloween repaint better than the Universe Snow Cat figure. The colors on the head especially have a bit of a Frankenstein's monster look.

As for Optimus Primal, he reuses the old style of tooling from Crumplezone, but keep in mind that he lacks any electronics. It's a surprise that the deco from Optimus Primal fits this mold better than expected. 

Takara had a special repaint for Ransack based on a Japanese police deco, which is repurposed later as a new character for the New Legends series. Not much else to say about this but it could work for an Autobot version of Ransack.

The GTS version of Ransack makes him black with white and gold here and there, which almost makes him based on Animated Prowl before Animated was even a thing if not for the green.

Much like Optimus Primal, Rattrap received a special repaint, with both of them in the Dawn's of Future Past 5-pack also included with similarly themed versions of Cheetor, Rhinox (both of them based on figures I reviewed earlier), and Dynobot (repainted from the Armada Hoist mold I should get at some point). The rear wheel assembly is correct on him this time, and he has a Golden Disk-themed Cyber Key.

Though not an official repaint, Ransack has had a custom repaint made by Shawn D. Tessmann, who was the head of the BotCon Customization Class back then. The was canonized in one of the FunPub story lines where she was nearly caught the crossfire between Vector Prime and Ramjet. She may not be a true Hasbro-approved toy, but the fan club magazine did provide instructions on how to make your very own. Just replace all opaque red with lavender and you are all set.

Lat's close things off with a random size comparison, that including Masterpiece Bluestreak. Maybe I should have put them with some modern Cybertron figures, but oh well. Overall, Crumplezone is one of the best examples of balancing chunky fun with good articulation and engineering that the modern main line could never top. Yeah the gimmick is a bit too heavy for the strings, but it is manageable to work with. As for Ransack, he is fine but not exactly a Scout figure I would recommend 100%. You mostly get him to accompany Crumplezone.

Final ranking: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ and a half out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (Crumplezone)

⭐⭐⭐ out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (Ransack)

Transformers Power Core Combiners Smolder & Chopster review

An evil fire truck is extremely rare for Transformers, and it's even rarer for it to not be named Inferno or Sentinel Prime. Such a character hails from the infamous Power Core Combiners line, and his name is Smolder! I know what some people are thinking: "Surge, of all of the old lines you revisited, why go for PCC?!" My answer is this: I know the line sucked for the small size, crappy drones, and some figures either being shite or having fragility issues, but there were still a few gems worth keeping. On top of that, I was revisiting the Cyber Missions web series from 2010, and I'd rather rewatch its crappy CGI than deal with Cyberworld's writers begging to go "how do you do, fellow meme lovers?". Anyways, Smolder was in one of the episodes as an enemy of Bumblebee and Ratchet, and it ended with both he and Minicon Chopster getting EMP'd. I once had Searchlight and Backwind from the same line, and they sucked ass. Let's see if these two are worth keeping. 

Here we have Smolder in his vehicle mode. Chopster is pegged on top as his cannon. This fire emergency brush truck is fairly genericized and thus could be any American model with a purpose like the one Smolder fools people into thinking he has. The sculpted details and paint apps are very good for a figure of this size, and I love the flaming Decepticon insignias on the back. Smolder makes for a clunky cannon on top, but for a Minicon who's partnered with a Decepticon, why would he care? Not so cool is the back bring hollow with the head and the baby blue ports in clear view. 

Transformation is closer to how some carbots would turn into their robot modes: the front becomes the legs while unfolding 180, and the rear becomes the arms. Chopster's a case of straightening the legs out and folding the barrel away. The resulting robot mode looks appropriately monstrous and bulky for a Decepticon who turns into a fire truck. Some may find that the arms stick out way more than normal, and while you can tuck them in closer to the body, you lose arm articulation so leave them out for a Decepticon like him. Once again, the colors of the bot mode look pretty fitting for a Decepticon, but I am not a big fan of the baby blue posts for a figure like this; I know it's part of the gimmick and so kids can mess understand where the pegs go, but it would have worked better if they were safety orange; yeah it would still look gaudy, but at least it fits the fire truck motif somewhat. Worse still, the ones near the legs stick out awkwardly. Sucks those things ruin an otherwise cool design. As for Chopster, on one hand, I like the fact that he is everything piping and has a deranged smile on his face. On the other hand, fragility concerns be damned if this thing wears down. So far, nothing has cracked or broken on my copy.

Articulation consists of a ball jointed head, shoulder rotation, outward arm.movement, double jointed elbows (hinge and ball joint combo), ball jointed hips, thigh swivels, and hinged knees. Chopster can turn into a fire axe, which is said to be Smolder's favorite mode in Cyber Missions. Did you know he was going to be named Kick-Axe? Anyways, torso mode for Smolder is almost comparable to a T, with very wide shoulders as well as thighs that are pretty close to each other. Chopster's armor mode isn't that great either.

Smolder was later repainted as Stakeout, who is now an Autobot with an ambulance mode and has matching blues between the pegs and parts of himself. He has a pair of repainted drones each from the Combaticons (tank and APC drone) and the Aerialbots (helicopter and jet). Despite these military vehicles, they call themselves the Protectobots. Oh and you can see how rough the torso mode looks on the mold. The head is cool though. 

For a thematically appropriate Studio Series size comparison, here he is between Ratchet and Bumblebee. While he was much larger in the series, not even the shrinkflation of current Transformers can help Smolder scale with these two. Sucks but at least the toy is still cool for the most part. Torso mode is weak and the alt mode is gappy from the back, but the plastic quality is good and his main modes still look good in general. I would like to see a whole new mold that is larger than this and trades in the combiner crap in favor of better engineering and articulation. If only Hasbro can do that, but they would rather do a dead Wheeljack & Windcharger set to milk dry ass 1986 movie. 

Final ranking: ⭐⭐⭐ out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

S.H.Figuarts Dragon Ball Z Great Saiyaman review

Everyone knows that Gohan has his own differences from his father, mostly in being somewhat of a pacifist as well as being much more dedicated to his studies thanks to his mother's demands. However, even after he once reached his peak potential during the Cell Games, things wouldn't end for the biracial Saiyan's journeys. Nearly a decade later, he was still living with his mother, Chi-Chi, while younger brother Goten would be in the family; he didn't train as much and wasn't as strong as he used to despite being able to compete with Goku and Vegeta. While trying to hide his Saiyan abilities from his classmates and a suspicious Videl in Satan City, he decided to turn to Bulma for help in making a disguise as a crime fighter. From there, he came up with the identity of the "Great Saiyaman". He did reveal his identity to Videl by mistake (either by being tricked into explaining how he left class for the manga or attempting to return a pterodactyl baby to its parents in the anime), and that got him into the returning World Martial Arts Tournament. While the usual shenanigans occur with trying to keep his identity concealed, it did at least put him in the test of seeing who else could truly surpass Gohan's strength after the Great Saiyaman saga. That said, could this Figuart be as worthy as the dude himself despite going for crazy aftermarket money? Let's find out!

Here we have Saiyaman set up as normal Gohan. This is a near young adult version of the character for anyone wondering how late he entered in high school (not to mention Japanese high schools working differently from other countries). While some would likely choose purple for Gohan as a color to associate him due to his training with Piccolo or orange for familial heritage, green makes sense for a disguise mostly to keep himself and his family from being under watch by the public. There is a small bit of shading at the center of the outfit, and while not much else is used for paint beyond the belt and the toes, at least the plastic is fairly matte without being too shiny other than the black spandex. The proportions are a little thinner than usual for a Saiyan, but that is due to his lack of training since the Cell Games ended in addition to his build being comparable to when Goku was in the Piccolo Jr Saga. Honestly, in a sea of orange and purple for this character, a bit of green helps 

Head sculpt is great for an older Gohan, and while some may find key details slightly off, this and the Super Hero version are some of the few options we have unless you count the version from early in Figuart history with the wonky joint cuts. I wish the figure had alternate face plates to work with but then again, there is a reason why we only get this expression as we'll get to. The articulation is mainly the same as Goku's and most DBZ Saiyan's, so forgive me if I reuse the text from his dad's review. Gohan has a double ball jointed neck, ball joints for the shoulders with a small bit of gaps for range similar to a McFarlane figure's rotator cuffs, while the biceps swivel and the elbows bend at two points. The wrists rotate at the base where they connect to the arms and the ball jointed ends allow for easier part-swapping. The joint overall can work where the wrists can hinge in and out or up and down. There are two ball joints for the diaphragm and abdomen, hips can kick front and back with added pieces to complete the look of the clothing, in addition to doing the splits without them intruding on the pieces. You have a small bit of thigh rotation as well as double-jointed knees, while the feet can rotate, hinge, and pivot with added toe-ticulation.

The reason why we have no swappable faceplates for the normal heads is because we have four different options to choose from in terms of hair color and headgear. The Super Saiyan head is another rare instance of a DBZ Saiyan coming with both regular and powered up heads, with the only other one to my knowledge being Future Trunks. In these pics here, we have a pair of gestural hands which makes me think of the MMPR Red Ranger pose. Another set helps for one of the Saiyaman poses, with these hands in the second pic having the pegs facing the same direction as his palms without using too much of the wrist joints. Speaking of, the complete Saiyaman look includes a piece for the cape that replaces the back panel, and said cape is a plastic one with no points of articulation like on Piccolo or Tuxedo Mask. The helmet he has isn't missing any details and is nicely painted, but if the antennae break or get lost, you have a spare set just in case (kind of like how some Masterpiece Autobot Cars from G1 have spare mirror pieces). The cape not being poseable would be fine if it could stay on a little more securely, but it is possible to keep it tabbed in there better. Annoyingly, there is a slight molding error on the left side of the visor, which sucks but at least I got this for way cheaper than any other listing online.

In addition to all those accessories I mentioned, he also has a set of hands meant for this pose specifically, and while the left hand should be a fist, I thought of using the splayed open left hand to demonstrate he comes with a pair of those. Maybe he could be promoting the $5 foot long if those were a thing still. This is also a good opportunity to show the only alternate faceplate he comes with (or more appropriately, a mouthplate): a neutral expression to go with the helmet. His final alternate head is that of one with shades and a bandana, complete with an expression that says "I don't care if Trunks thinks my costume is lame, I get to date a hot chick near the end of DBZ!"; that said, a neutral expression would be nice to have for this option.

Overall, Saiyaman is a Figuart I highly recommend people get if they want to collect any of the big hits from the line. On top of being a less common look for the series, you have a variety of accessories to display him with, with the use of heads instead of swappable faceplates being genius for a costumed Gohan. Plus, it's one of the few options for an older version of the character, with most versions we get of him set between the Frieza and Cell Saga. I don't know if we will get a reissue of this figure anytime soon, but if we do, can we please have a Videl to go with him? Other than 3 versions of Bulma, 2 versions of Androids 18, and Android 21 as well as Kefla (but not the separate Kale and Caulifla), we don't have Figuarts of the wives of Goku and Gohan (and I'm not counting that young Chi-Chi because that outfit should only be used for an older version of herself). Until Tamashii gets to completing the cast, good luck getting this for cheap!

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

Marvel Legends Legendary Riders Ghost Rider (Johnny Blaze) review

Last year, I already took a look at a version of Ghost Rider in the form of the retro-carded release, which was alright for its time yet it could be better than it already was. It didn't come with a bike since Hasbro doesn't want to splurge out the budget for a $20 release, so I had to look for a spare bike or wait for the perfect version of the character to pop up on my shelf. Also, for anyone wondering: the Ghost Rider, aka Johnny Blaze, was given a deal by Mephisto to serve him while saving his surrogate father. Now the stunt biker must fulfill the tasks of an antihero while bound by Zarathos, the Spirit of Vengeance. Ghost Rider, at least the Johnny Blaze version, would later appear as part of the Avengers of the Supernatural as well as represent the Heroes for Hire and Midnight Suns while also having successors such as Daniel Ketch and Robbie Reyes. With all that said, let's take a look at this blue and red penance starer is worth getting or not.

Here we have Ghost Rider in-hand. He reuses the Vulcan body as expected, and while the blue itself is a little light, it is fairly accurate to the old Johnny Blaze version of the character. Not much for deco is used beyond the rectangle on the torso and the trim used for the collar as well as the stripes for the sides of the arms and legs, but very little variety is included. Some shading would help since the figure could pop even better. Not much else to say about this figure since it's a mashup of reuse and standard effort, but I will say that the figure isn't all shiny plastic. Even the boots look mostly fine and are not black like I expected. So far from rad but not too bad.

Head sculpt looks great with the translucent flame piece molded on the skull with a wash applied. The eye holes could use more black paint while the jaw needs to articulate. Speaking of, articulation consists of a ball and hinge combo, shoulder rotation, outward arm movement, bicep rotation, double jointed elbows, wrist rotation and hinges (either in and out or up and down depending on the hand), butterfly joints, ab crunch, waist rotation, ball jointed hips, thigh rotation, double jointed knees, boot rotation, and ankles that hinge as well as pivot. In addition to coming with the same flaming chain whip found on many Hasbro Ghost Riders, we also have an alternate flaming head with the skull colored black, which almost makes me want to see if this glows in some UV blacklight. In addition to the weapon holding hands, he has a left hand moreso for holding the skull, which looks even better than the one on his face in terms of detailing yet is nowhere near as frightening...

...and that segways us into the motorcycle he comes with. It's in two shades of red with some deco for the headlight as well as the speedometer and license plate, and while they may not seem noticeable at first, the tires are clear plastic which makes me wish more of that was used for the Hell Cycle. A wash would also help accentuate the sculpt since it could pop even better. The skull I showed you earlier can be stored on the back via the fork attached to the rear fender.

Removing it lets you use the five fire effect parts, which look cool on him but could stay on better, honestly. The renders show the fifth fire piece sitting behind Ghost Rider while the fork is attached, but it's not possible to do that so it may be a rendering error. He can ride on it no problem though it could be a little bit bigger. Maybe increasing the size could raise the price up to $80 and that's as bad as paying for Mephisto himself! So where do I stand with Ghost Rider? For the most part, I think he turned out fine, but he is far from perfect like some figures Hasbro put out of late that are able to tick a check without issue on a wishlist. He's very classic-inspired, so anyone more familiar with the leather black and rust will find this look unusual, but you can do much worse. Just pay lower than the MSRP and you should be fine. Hell, as needless as this will be to some, I'm happier with this than I would be with the Maximum line, and on a positive note, the joints are not gummy as hell!

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

Yolopark AMK Pro Transformers Age of Extinction Drift review

It's that time again, as we have yet another Yolopark AMK PRO review to look at! We've seen a couple of characters from Rise of the Beasts with one design from The Last Knight and another from Revenge of the Fallen, and we have some Age of Extinction rep to go over. I'm sure you've already heard the usual complaints about the designs of the robots, which I could understand more coming from OG Bayverse trilogy fans than I would already disgruntled Geewunners, but I'd argue that the decrease in budget for Transformers as a whole, combined with rising prices, made the AOE line so unsatisfying to revisit compared to any other movie line, and it doesn't help that Hasbro made the kiddy line more of a priority. That said, non-transforming versions of figures are always a great thing to have when modern Hasbro can only do them in Studio Series (or not, because a new Drift was canceled, thanks clowns); while I would love to have seen a Human Alliance-quality Drift without needing to go 3P, Yolopark hasn't disappointed me with their figures, and getting a Drift as nice as ROTB Mirage is always a win. With all that said, we don't need to stall any further, so let's talk about another AMK PRO I missed out on!

Here we have Drift fully assembled, and while the smaller size makes attaching some parts a little more difficult to work with than I had with the similarly scaled Mirage, the assembly isn't as difficult or complex as with either TLK Optimus Prime or any of the Action Edition Blokees sets. Do keep in mind that Drift not only has asymmetrical arms, but he also has certain pieces that are meant to articulate for better range (such as the thigh panels or the faux wheel pieces on the ankles). I have to warn that the pegs for the legs and the ball sockets for the arms are much tighter than I'm comfortable with, and you'll see what later down the review. That said, the accuracy one should expect with the line is all present, nothing major missing other than the Bugatti logo (which is a tacky DRIFT text which would be better left blank). Unlike most toys of Drift, the figure is neither a normal shade of blue or black; he's a metallic navy blue dark enough so that it helps the blue highlights pop better while matching the car's paint in the film. We even get a few mesh-like paint apps to accentuate the robot mode in addition to some katakana fitting for a robot influenced by Japanese history. Of the five AOE Autobots (and by extension, Lockdown), this is the the second most "human" looking design from the movie; if not for the front of the Veyron on his chest and the wheels, he could easily pass off as a greebly Shogunzord with how sleek and kibble-free he is. I don't mind it for someone like him, though a lot of transforming toys are stuck with the proportions not matching the CG model or having the car shell folded up on a backpack. Speaking of backpack, the swords are stored on the back with a thin enough sheath that won't keep the figure from having the aesthetics compromised or ditching pegs that would ruin the swords' appearances. They rely on the weight of the blades to keep them from flopping around, though the friction could be a little tighter. Helps complete the signature blade backpack silhouette (bladepack?), especially without the swords relying on easy-to-miss tabs or 5mm pegs with varying degrees of tightness. 

Head sculpt is just as stoic and wise as the character in the movie, and I love that the helmet and the headgear are all painted intricately so nothing looks too solid or cheap. I'm sure people whined about the gold face on Drift because of the AsIaN sTeReOtYpEs, yet by their logic, Armada Demolishor having either a black or brown face (depending on the media) is also bad. Or how about the way their precious G1 Arcee having a white face like most of her looks like bare skin with a bikini and it leaves her half naked? Anyways, kudos to the goatee being painted. Articulation consists of a ball jointed neck, ball joints for moving the arms around, butterfly joints, outward arm hinges, bicep rotation, double jointed elbows, ball jointed wrists, diaphragm articulation, waist rotation, double-jointed hips, outward leg movement, thigh rotation, double jointed knees, and ankles that hinge, pivot (if you move the wheels out of the way), and toe-ticulation. The swords can either be held in the articulated hands or the molded weapon-holding hands, which may be more secure.

We have a plethora of alternate hands to go over, with the options you have including ones with finger articulation, full fists, weapon-holding hands, and splayed open hands. The latter pair is great for citing haikus or meditating. At first, I thought the alternate hands were a bit unneeded since Mirage didn't come with them, but them I remember Drift needed a few more accessories since he has no cannons. Maybe making the daggers as weapons would be cool like a toy throwback?

For some size comparisons, here he is next to Mirage from Rise of the Beasts and his sensei, Optimus Prime. While the Transformers were briefly smaller than their latter-day counterparts, if the scale of the prequel robots were in-line with the main Bayverse movies, then this would be accurate between the two. That said, maybe the Porsche 964 was smaller than the Veyron? While we're here, Mirage's design fits in well with the AOE/TLK designs more than I expected, between the lack of noticeable vehicle parts beyond the wheels and the overall humanoid proportions. I bet reboot truthers would be triggered if the bot mode was the same while being tweaked to be Jazz. And of course, with Optimus Prime, he looks spectacular if out of scale (Drift should be a head shorter more or less).

That said, I need to spread the word regarding a design flaw that affected my copy: the shoulder joint broke on the right arm. How it broke was due to the front of the shoulder piece being molded on the part attached to the bicep swivel joint, rather than having the shoulder halves use equal real estate for the joint before sandwiching over the swivel. I know why they designed it the way they did for the shoulder pads to articulate on hinges, but it's a huge issue when all of the pressure is applied on the front side. Not helping is that the joints are much tighter than they should be, almost as if some WD-40 or filing the ball joints and potentially the peg for the outward shoulder movement is needed. Also, my copy's right arm has a random silver screw used instead of the black ones commonly found on this figure. Maybe it was a poor batch? In any case, I hope I can get the piece replaced soon, because I know this is so-far the only report of the shoulders breaking. I also hope I can find a way to modify the shoulders so moving just the arm won't require having to hold it by the shoulder (because sometimes one would have the habit of posing it by grabbing the forearm). So while Drift is great in general, be weary if this issue is actually widespread.

Final ranking: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (if this breakage isn't widespread)