First off, Power Rangers is moving to Hasbro as Bandai and Saban Brands have parted ways. While Super Ninja Steel will still be on air, Hasbro will officially take over PR on April 1, 2019. Later on, Tokumei Sentai Go-Busters will be adapted into Power Rangers Beast Morphers. It seems weird that Go-Busters was skipped in favor of Kyoryuger (which obviously became Dino Charge), since Go-Busters would have been cool to adapt as kind of like a spiritual successor to R.P.M. I can understand that the goofy ToQger is skipped for how overly jokey it is to adapt, though I disagree with Saban’s stance on trains because they’re very popular here in the US. Just ask Thomas. Not to mention we had train Megazords in the past. Anyways, I will be honest and say that I haven’t been watching Power Rangers since Ninja Steel had it’s 2017 hiatus because the show has been going downhill for me. What I do look forward to is seeing if PR will lead to more creativity compared to what we got previously. As for toys, I do hope we get Legacy figures, and have them with the same treatment that Marvel Legends and Star Wars: The Black Series have. Megazords could be with the same engineering that Transformers have, or they can take Sentai mecha molds. Whatever happens would be interesting to see, but I kind of wish Energy Chasers was used instead of Beast Morphers. That would fit in with Jyogher.
Now we go into the reveals, and boy, where do we start? Let’s go with the newly unveiled Studio Series! From leaks to pre-release images and now official images made by Hasbro! These figures are going to be mostly new sculpts while being more accurate compared to previous incarnations, though some are going to be retools. Wave 1 Deluxes are on Hasbro Toy Shop if you're curious to see how those turn out. Recent reviews have pointed out some QC issues, so if you're not willing to go into HTS yet, I recommend waiting for them to show up in stores.
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| All figures are going to have some weird scales despite them being in the same class, but that is because they are meant to be in scale with each other. So Ratchet and Crowbar tower over Bumblebee and Stinger while Bumblebee is smaller than Stinger due to the size of his alt mode. |
-Bumblebee is based on his 1974 Camaro design and is a retool of his TLK Wave 3 figure. I don’t have Wave 3 Bumblebee, but needless to say, I think that this retool looks better than the original version. In that, it looks leaner than previously, especially in the chest. And it is lightyears ahead of the OG version, which while not bad for its time, looks like a knockoff nowadays.
-Next up, we have Ratchet, who isn’t a retool of his DOTM design despite the similarities. This incarnation needs more paint, and I wish that aside from his sawblade, he had his gun, too. I don’t get why Ratchet has no guns in his newer toys. Still is nice to see him in his TF1 deco without having to splash cash on the Movie the Best version. And I do hope that the backpack is able to collapse better since it’d ruin the silhouette of his skinnier bot mode.
-Up next, we have Crowbar. It’s cool to have him be included after years of only having the Legion figure from DOTM. It’s a bit ambitious that he’s being retooled from one of the weaker TLK molds, that being Berserker, who’s five second appearance barely got people excited. Still, I can see this being retooled into a Dreadbot. Come on, Hasbro. Make it happen. For the Decepticon completion!
-And finally for wave 1, we have Stinger. Weird that Hasbro took him lo long to have a release. He was only available as a Takara exclusive, and as a straight repaint of Bumblebee from AOE. The one where he was the 2014 Camaro and not the 1967 version, of course. That also meant that instead of being an Pagani Huayra, he was a camaro in his color scheme. It sucks that a character so heavily promoted by Walmart didn’t have a Deluxe form. It was planned at one point, but still dumb on HasTak’s part. I think the back of his lower legs look weird without anything filling it out, though I suspect it’s for transformation.
-Then we go into the next two characters, that being Jazz and Lockdown! Starting with Jazz, the plucky Autobot is one hell of an improvement of the 2007 version, and it’s great to see him take cues from the Human Alliance version, which was probably the best Movie Jazz figure, albiet, he had to be in scale with Leader Optimus and Human Alliance Bee. I like that this new Jazz has silver paint coated on him, and his weapon is a lot more accurate than either one his first Deluxe had, and he even has lightpiping on him! Now I can have a good Jazz figure in my Movieverse collection, and maybe I can get the POTP version despite that one’s infamous decal.
-And rounding out the initial Deluxes, we have Lockdown! Looking back at the AOE version, it’s funny to have been hyped for that particular version, and while the alt mode looks good (albeit in a weird dark brownish gray), the robot mode is nothing like Lockdown. Sharing the same engineering from Roadbuster wasn’t going to work at all, but the arms, the height, and pretty much the entire robot mode look butchered. Fans got to have a Lockdown that was better than the AOE one, that being the ROTF version, but the Peru Kill was also perfection. I think the wheels being on the inside of the arms are weird, but I am more concerned on him being as tall as a Voyager. Maybe shorter than Prime.
-And speaking of which, here we have Optimus! I’m kind of relieved on some aspects of him, but what I don’t like is his chest. Most Movie Optimus figures have the chest windows closer to each other, and it’s also more achievable with fake pieces like the DOTM or Evasion Primes. The chest here looks double hinged like First Edition Prime has, but the black bar breaks up the look of the chest, making the chest windows look like they’re revealing the Matrix. Hopefully, this can be fixed, but I wish he had silver paint on his rims as well as having a more longer smokestacks. And I do wish the backpack is a bit more broken up to look like his CG model. I still plan on getting him since he might be an easier figure to pose than Battle Blades, but I still think Battle Blades is the superior figure in terms of accuracy and engineering.
-Starscream, on the other hand, looks incredible! Did they either shrink the HFTD Leader, or did they upscale the DOTM Deluxe? Either way, it’s incredibly looking sharp! Fans may remember that wwe got two Voyager molds of Starscream, one released in 2007, which looked too bulky but did have nice cannons, and then there was the ROTF version, which does hold up very well, and like Battle Blade vs Studio Series Prime, I’m torn on which one is better. The old one looks dynamic, and the new one looks more accurate. Only time will tell. The deco is the first Hasbro Starscream to be based on the 2007 appearance, where he had a regular F-22 Raptor appearance. In ROTF and DOTM, he was given tattoos, which are set to appear as a running change, and hopefully, they fulfill that without making the tattoos as stickers like the Power of the Primes figure.
-Then we have Megatron, and boy is he an improvement over his original Voyager, which wasn’t too bad, but it had the weird green, and the alt mode was a shell. This version looks like an improvement over the original, but I think he should be a bit more metallic like the alt mode. Silver Sharpies to the rescue, it seems! Fans may have customized their ROTF Leader or they got the only other redeco of the original Voyager, that being the Movie the Version version. It's going to be interesting to see how this kibbleless bot mode can turn into a mean tank.
-And now we have Brawl! Beforehand, we had him as both a Deluxe, which was alright but it had some terrible shoulder tabs. The Leader was a great version of Movie Brawl, but he is pretty bulky and not as lean as the mean, green fighting machine he was. It’s weird seeing this leaner design after years of seeing the Leader. But it’s an improvement, regardless! Sure, some might prefer if he was a Leader, but this would make Blackout smaller. Still great to see how we finally get a new Blackout!
-And as for the leaders, we have Grimlock and Blackout. This new Grimlock is perfect! He beats the Voyager and is an improvement over the previous Leader! The paintwork is reminiscent of the ToyBiz Sentinel Build a Figure with a patina-style deco that proves the movie accuracy’s superiority compared to the bronze and chrome of the original. Also, the proportions are better! The original version looks inconsistent in the OG version, and he looks frail in botmode. Best part is his head is a lot more accurate! Looks less like Shredder and more like his CG model!
-And next up, we have Blackout! At first, I thought he was smaller since I saw an image of him next to Starscream, who was a Voyager. Then, I saw an image of the Studio Series scale, and Starscream is actually taller than Optimus while slightly shorter than Blackout. I like that we have a mini Scorponok that is reminiscent of the 2007 Voyager. It’s neat to have the big con be released, but I hope he’s colored differently when we get a Grindor running change variant for Prime’s hooks to decapitate!
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| Current upcoming figures (minus Brawl and Megatron) |
Power of the Primes has stuff that we already know about. Legends were released beforehand, Prime Masters are meh (they ruined my boy Bludgeon!). So we’ll talk about the more recently discovered stuff. As for Elita-1, Moonstarr, and Firestar, even without two extra members, I still look forward to seeing how these will turn out together. Elita is a retool of Starscream, which was a crappy Playskool toy, I have to admit, and while this isn’t the definitive Elita-1, I still want to see how it turns out. The combined mode, Elita-Infin1te, is intruiging, and it’s more exciting than Megascream and Volcanicus. Only 3 out of 5 members have been unveiled, so who they will pick to complete Elita-Infin1te will be unknown. Then, we have the new Optimal Optimus and Predaking figures, as part of the Leader and Titan classes, respectively. Optimal Optimus can be in his gorilla mode, but the tank and jet modes are likely removed to accomodate the regular Optimus Primal body, which is sculpted after his Season 1 form. And while it looks very nice, with the head sculpt also as good as the Masterpiece version, it is weird to see the less organic appearance on this version of Optimus as he looked more robotic in his Transmetal form and of course his Optimal form. I say that because I would love to have him next to the Generations versions of Rattrap and Rhinox as well as Universe Dinobot (but not that mess that is trying to be like Cheetor). I might have to get used to that. Regardless, Optimal Optimus and Rodimus Unicronus are the two POTP Leaders I look forward to the most since Optimal diversifies the Generations line's overabundance of G1 nobodies and somebodies while Unicronus is simply gorgeous compared to his original counterpart. Optimus is looks good in his Prime mode, but his Orion Pax and vehicle modes are weak. Rodimus Prime has nice vehicle modes, but his Hot Rod mode is simplistic while his Rodimus mode is pretty inconsistent with the colors. Then we go to Predaking, who is this year's Titan figure. Not only that, but he succeeds Devastator as the Titan combiner of Generations. I have to be honest and say that this figure may be better looking than Devastator since he looks more dynamic, this guy feels just as simplistic as the Devy and the smaller POTP Combiners are. Once again, he has the"G1 but bigger and with knees" engineering aestetic that Hasbro has been pumping out lately. At least the Constructicons felt like new molds that took inspiration from the old toys instead of being the same toys but bigger and sharper. It may sound weird, but think of the Gentle Giant Studios Marvel Secret Wars 12 figures, which are literally oversized versions of the old toys. Plus, two of the members have their combiner pieces exposed from behind, which is nasty looking. While I won't make a huge list regarding why every 3P Predaking in existance is better than this (because fuck having multiple Predakings), I would be more content with the Beast Hunters Voyager (the 2014 version, that is).
e less for. Number one, we already have a War for Cybertron that’s already got G1 esque designs, even though that and FOC were meant to be prequels to Transformers Prime. Number two, once again, we’re getting MORE UNNECESSARY NOSTALGIA!!! Just because G1 turns 35 in 2019, doesn’t mean that you have to force feed it to us more and more, Hasbro. In 2009, there was Universe, Animated, Revenge of the Fallen, and teases of TFP, so the franchise was a bit more diverse at the time. Now with Cyberverse, no new movie, and a more nostalgia obsessed copy and paste of a good game, I doubt there will be any diversity in the TF franchise in terms of universe representation. Sure, there’s Rescue Bots Academy, but that means I will have to do a rewatch of the first show.
But talking about shows, Cyberverse is a G1 reference striptease, yadayadayada, but let’s talk about the new stuff. There was an article made by a newb that makes these seem like they’re the ONLY G1 style toys when Classics and Masterpiece have been around. They did the same thing previously with RID. But unlike RID, these are less than stellar. The gimmick toys are meh. Warriors, minus Shockwave, feel like slightly tweaked versions of the Authentics line, and the Ultimate Prime and Megatron figures don’t look too bad, but Prime has the truck fenders blocking his fists and Megatron seemingly has no elbows. I’m sure fans would want to use a smaller version of Cyberverse Prime as a Classics style Optimus, but the original mold is worlds better than this Playskool nostalgia deceiver! All in all, bar Shockwave and maybe Shadow Striker, I am skipping this line unless Hasbro steps away from making everything generation one forever.
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| Pictured: Crap trying to be like nostalgia. |
