Crossover time! Iguanus makes a surprise appearance in the Generations line as part of the Core Class size while the Exosuit returns once more after previously being accessories to Core Class Bumblebee and then Leader Class Slag (the latter including Daniel). Many were not expecting them to pop up in any way, shape, or form after what has been a pretty busy trilogy of WFC, then Studio Series 86, and now Legacy combined with Buzzworthy Bumblebee, yet these two refuse to be drowned out in spite of being pocket-sized Transformers. Now it's time to see what these two are all about with Legacy giving us the only Core Class figure in the series so far to not be a repaint or a repack, and what may be the best version or Exosuit Spike yet!
Here is Iguanus in-hand, depicting himself as a more refined take of his G1 toy, which is the inner robot's alternate mode. While the original toy looked kind of nondescriptive, this guy at least tries to make the most out of the Core Class engineering with more parts to make the figure look better in vehicle mode at the best of its ability. If anything, we get the integration of the robot mode shell as seen with the arms, legs, and the tail on the back. It's a little weirdly done with the way the parts result in Iguanus doing a weird yoga pose, but it at least has more substance than the old toy.
The weapon can be placed on the top if you want some weird cannon accessory for more firepower of some kind.
Transformation is surprisingly more involved than I expected, from the way the wheels moved around on the back to the waist swivel combined with the rotation of the lower legs and the ankle pivots. The robot mode captures the Pretender shell nicely, but without the toyetic look that made it look stationary by comparison. The figure is designed to look more robotic this time around, owing to the new look he has. New to the robot mode are the wheels on the back, which help him look more like a proper Transformer. More bronze is revealed in this mode.
Head sculpt is okay, it may use some paint apps here and there apart from the yellow eyes but it does the job alright apart with the sculpted details. His articulation consists of ball joints for the head, shoulders, elbows, hips, knees, and ankles with a normal waist swivel. His nondescript weapon can be held with a 3mm handle. A little weird here and there but he is awesome.
Let's quickly go over Skywarp. This guy is a repaint of last year's Starscream in the beautiful black, silver, and purple color combo. He looks better than Starscream, obviously. While his ball joints are a little looser and one horizontal tailfin comes off a little too easily, he is just about perfect...
...yet one glaring issue arises. His null-rays are inexplicably replaced with a fork weapon! If you want to, you can buy 3D printed black or purple null rays for Skywarp from TF Lab here.
With the first wave of Core Class figures completed as I bring in Hot Rod (who was previously released in Kingdom), you can tell how unique this trio is: Skywarp's a repaint, Hot Rod's a transitional toy, and Iguanus is a new mold made for Legacy in mind the most. Now what if I told you there's a bit of play pattern with these three?
The combined sword has Hot Rod's sword as the blade, Iguanus's...thing as the hilt and Skywarp's fork as the handle. The resulting sword looks a little unwieldy in terms of coherency, but it is otherwise something I didn't expect even though Hot Rod had the sword in his box art. So yeah, these Core guys are great, even if one has a slightly underpainted face, another is missing null rays, and Hot Rod is cool despite being a little clunky.
Here is Exosuit Spike Witwicky in the transport mode, which is pretty unique from G1 but I'll admit doesn't have much in terms of describing what it's actually supposed to be. It's basically the suit faceplanting and with the wheels helping it roll while the forearms are now thrusters. At the very least, the dome can swivel while the head can't look up. It rolls decently, too.
For a transport mode comparison, here he is with the other offerings that came with SS86 Slaug and Core Class Bumblebee in the Buzzworthy line. You can tell that the former is just a proposed figure attempting the mode while the other does have the altmode though not exactly 1:1 to how it should be in the series. Also, the colors are much more accurate on the
Transformation is quite involved, actually, especially with the way the arms work, You have to make sure the wheels are in the back while the arms are repositioned to look as though he's bending them at the elbows at 90 degrees, as part of the design. Thankfully, no annoying quality control issues exist as we saw with the Masterpiece version that came with the first version of Bumblebee. The mech mode is undeniable in terms of who it's supposed to represent, and the paint apps that one would expect are there and help make the toy look a little less like it's associated with the colors of a bathroom. The chest looks like a goofy C-3PO face while the back has some surprise sculpted details like the thrusters on the back. Also there is a reason why there is a lever in the back.
Head sculpt is nondescript though they tried at this scale. At least the hair is painted. His articulation is a little different than the others. His head is on a swivel from that lever, the shoulders move front and back from transformation as well as in and out on hinges instead of ball joints, elbow bends, forearm swivels, alternate weapon modes for the forearms with those effect pieces, ball-jointed hips and knees.
For a size comparison, here he is with the other Exosuits and Netflix WFC Bumblebee. I'm quite happy with how these this guy turned out! While I wasn't a big fan of the Exosuit in general, this Core Class figure changes my mind if you ask me. And Spike will look awesome with Bumblebee.
Final ranking: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (for each figure covered)
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