Transformers Studio Series Elita-One review

Like with a lot of characters in Transformers One, Elita-1 was forged without a transformation cog. She was an Energon miner whose sole purpose was to supervise the rest of her cogless bots. While she maintained a spotless record in hopes of being promoted, it wasn't until the "less-than-perfect" Orion Pax got her fired and was reduced to working in waste management. From there, she grew into being more of a corporate Hollywood girl boss cliche somewhat like Princess Peach in the 2023 Mario movie, being mostly dismissive towards any of the quirky and relatable types who would eventually become more like the status quo versions of themselves. I bet the way Elita-1's lines were written would lend themselves to the eventual fan cam with motion sickness-inducing edits. That being said, she was decently tolerable after Pax told everyone to roll out, in addition to respecting him bit by bit compared to Bee and Deez. And hey, it's also better than her role in the shitty Netflix WFC trilogy. So let's see if the toy's any good!

Here we have Elita-1 in her Cybertronian motorcycle mode. While making fembots as cycles is nothing new, this is at least reminiscent of her altmode in Revenge of the Fallen. The design isn't quite Tron-like, though compared to the design used for T30 Chromia, there is nowhere for a human to ride on her. In fact, this looks to be wholly new compared to Optimus, Bee, Megs, and Screamer, who feel like rehashes from prior figures. I'd expect this to be closer to someone like Cybertron Ransack or Beast Machines Thrust, but no! Her unique design is greatly appreciative in a time where Transformers creativity is sucked out by the Evergreen aesthetic as corporate-approved as her role in the movie.

The side profile does have a bit of robot kibble visible, but those shoulders are indeed accurate to the design. Thankfully, that saved the engineers some practicality, though the wheels don't really roll that great.

The jetpack she comes with can peg into the back of you want to fill it in. And while you can fold the peghole away it is at least able to complete the look somewhat. It also has a bit of paint on an otherwise flat grey plastic. The gun can tab on the side with a foldable handle. Kinda.

For an altmode size comparison, here she is alongside Optimus Prime, Megatron, and Bumblebee. I'm not sure if the scale is right or not (and I doubt they were as concerned for scale as they were with recycling B-tier animated movie tropes), though this can be stemmed from Hasbro wanting to make all the figures seen here as Deluxes. It makes sense with the Beelita duo, but despite what Hasbro said in making Prime and Megs Deluxes, $25 for a Deluxe barely counts as affordable in mid-2020 standards compared to 2-packs we used to get. I'm referring to the faction leader sets sold in Classics, Animated, and Prime; sure, those figures weren't the best, yet for $20, you got affordable versions of Optimus and Megatron from three different continuities (the first two examples having play features), a DVD featuring episodes from their respective shows (or for Classics, a Unicron Trilogy clip show), and a trio of humans exclusive to the Prime set.

Setting aside the rant I made that has little to do with Elita-1, one funny thing about this figure is that the head could be lifted up for an intentional mistransformation whenever she is flipped over. Kind of reminds me of Energon Ironhide but with the inconvenience of looking like she was hit by an EMP.

Transformation is mostly panel heavy with the legs, which are the more involved part of the toy than the upper body. In fact, while the rear wheels folding in half to fit in the chest is a cool idea, there needs to be much better tolerances to keep her from flopping around without any good tabs. At least the backpack folds up fine. The resulting robot mode looks accurate to the character model (assuming there aren't any outdated aspects pulled from any concept art). I like that she has a pretty slender build that fits her the best compared to the other characters. I will have to take points off for how cheap she feels. I already talked about her floppy chest (no not like that), I swear that the panels for the legs and the forearms give me mid-2010s quality vibes. Not helping is that her hands are etched onto the panels, making them appear nonexistent from the side. Also, her ankles feel sticky likely do sub-par molding used on the ball joints. Her heel spurs pop off like on AOE Optimus, but while his are easier to attach back on an otherwise robust figure, hers are much smaller and don't like staying in place that great. It sucks too since I almost want to really like this figure outside of my opinions on her character, but either the budget & quality being scaled back or Hasbro not caring too much about Transformers One anymore (much like the audience numbers after seeing how over hyped it was for a mid movie) compromised this figure greatly.

Her head sculpt is still accurate to the character design, and thankfully has some etched details that are easier to spot even without a wash or a coat of paint. Her eyes still lack pupils like a lot of Studio Series versions of the cast. With her blaster in hand, her articulation consists of ball joints at the neck, shoulders, elbows, hips, and ankles (the latter not giving her the best range), swivels for the waist and thighs, and hinges for the knees. There technically is a double joint but it is suited for straightening her legs for transformation.

The jetpack is not only able to attach onto her back without issue, but it also utilizes tabs meant for the backs of Optimus, Megatron, and B-127 where little slots lie for their own compatibility. I always appreciate it when there is a bit of compatibility between both figures, even if the development on these figures has a much smaller time gap than that of DOTM Megatron and Evasion Optimus Prime in regards to the latter's shotgun.

Though they may appear similar  in sculpt, Elita's blaster is detailed differently from Bee's and has no hole in the circular area. Also, we have a bit of deco which is appreciative.

For a bot mode size comparison, here she is alongside the other members of the not-so-kooky quartet that went from pretend panicking on that train to being mostly in line with their established personalities. They match up with the scales shown when they were cogless and before Orion became a Prime and D-16 took the -us from Megatronus. With these being the final forms Prime and Megs took, they would have to be Voyager scale. As for Elita, I think she's just as mid as her character in the movie. I would have forgiven the forearm panels and maybe the thin plastic if it weren't for how easy it is for her to untab or fall apart. The jetpack compatibility is nice, but if one didn't feel compelled with the figures we got before, what would make them want to hunt down Elita? If it weren't for the shit show known as Devastation Optimus Prime, this would have been the worst figure of the whole 2025 line-up.

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

Transformers Studio Series 86 Mixmaster review (+ Complete Devastator)

Mixmaster is just about as basic as you can get with any Constructicon for personalities. They either are koo koo crazy or hate their jobs, but this dude at least has a bit of a mad alchemist vibe going on. Some people say he has a verbal quirk kind of like with Shrapnel, but that really isn't the case. What can be said about him is that he finally completes the team, and therefore keeps Devastator on both feet as the year gets closer to its end. It's time to see if SS86 Mixmaster is worth the wait!

Here we have him in his altmode. It's a pretty standard cement mixer, but it is a little wider from the front while it remains narrow in the back. Whether or not this works depends on how accurate it should be. Not like it matters since the Constructicons, outside of being the first combiner, don't really have much going for them to truly determine what makes their altmodes accurate or not.

That being said, the fact that it's a rear discharge model instead of a front discharge one works better for the aesthetics, something that made the Combiner Wars version look confusing. In general, it now looks like it can drive forwards properly.

For a size comparison, here we have him with the other teammates once more. The pic was reused from the Scavenger post for anyone wondering. Nice to have all of them together at once, even if the scale is mid.

Transformation is a more involved version of how his old toy transformed, with the front section becoming the lower legs, the sides becoming the arms, and the cement drum becoming the backpack this time around. It does at least use its chest as a flap to cover the head while in altmode. That and the cement mixer tip can be hidden within the drum. The resulting robot mode is about as blocky and chunky as I would expect. While there is a decent amount of sculpted details and an even smaller dose of paint apps, we could use a bit of color break up for a pretty basic toy. Those lower legs may be cartoon accurate, but they could use less green. What Mixmaster could also use is far less color mismatching between the purple on the waist and thighs versus the purple on the torso. Same goes for the green in the upper arms versus the rest of his green, even if it's less noticeable. I know he's going to be displayed as a leg, but could there be proper consistency?? I kind of wish those nubs on the top of his built in awning were more prominent, just to represent those missiles that didn't work properly in the old toy from removing the springs. Otherwise, not much else to say about a cement truck that's doing a headstand as a rectangular robot.

His head sculpt has the Decepticon-shape to it like with Soundwave, though he not only has a regular face, but he can't really turn his head that easily since it's recessed inside the cavity. Articulation consists of a ball jointed head, swivels at the arms, biceps, and thighs, hinges for the shoulders in and out as well as the elbows, knees, and ankles, and his hips are universal. With his gun in his hand, I wanted to use the ankle joint intended for Devastator as torso articulation since he lacks a waist swivel.

It's funny how both he and Scrapper have this kind of joint yet neither of them can do the fusion dance pose where they could touch each others fingers while tilting towards each other.

Here are all 6 of them together. Once again, great to have them all together, and all without waiting for the next year to get a remaining member (cough Legacy Breakdown, cough all other members of Bruticus).

Oh and you can use Devastator's wing bra halves on Scrapper to homage the G1 toy. Looks goofy like G1 usually is but moving on.

Should be worth mentioning that the drum mixer is removable since it comes that way out of the box. Also his leg mode was always better than Scrapper since he looked like a proper lower leg that could be reminiscent of the Megazords made after him. Delta Squad Megazord comes to mind. 

And now it's time to assemble these guys once and for all. I already mentioned this from my Long Hook 2-pack review, but for a tl;dr, they do not use the skeleton frame found on Legacy Menasor and AOTP Superion. Instead, we have all 6 each forming the general components of Devastator, with some help via the partsforming forearms and chest plate as well as the waist and thighs that Long Haul attaches to.

Devastator is not all that different from the CW version we got a decade ago, though that is to his overall benefit given how not much is needed to change his look if you're really going to be as Geewun accurate as possible. As far as I can tell, the size is obviously going to be different since the previous version was a Titan and this is shorter than even last year's Tidal Wave. The sculptwork is much heavier on the CW version, while the proportions here are blockier and not as lean as what we had before. Whether or not you consider this to be an upgrade or downgrade from what we previously had is up to you, but keep in mind that while the bots are smaller, the total cost to complete him is much higher than what the CW Devastator cost back in 2015. Also no my bedroom walls are not pink, the damn color correction is tweaking on me. As mentioned before, his back kibble sticks out a lot more than usual, though thankfully it isn't any lower or else we would make dumpy truck jokes.

The head sculpt is already great, and the slurge is still irreplaceable for Devastator, but let me ask you a question: what do you get when you mix a joke Good Thew made in his Combiner Wars Devy review and almost every Transformers figure we got for Studio Series 2025 and Age of the Primes? Year of No Light-Piping 2. His articulation consists of a neck swivel, shoulders that rotate front and back as well as in and out, rotation at the elbows and hinges below them, wrist rotation as well as conjoined finger hinges, a waist swivel, ratchets for the hips moving front and back yet regular swivel hinges moving in and out, thigh swivels, and ratchets for the knees as well as the ankles. Thankfully, Scrapper won't crap out on anyone like his cheap ass did for Combiner Wars.

Here he is next to Legacy Menasor, and the scale here is decent enough to have Devastator tower over a dude made up of cars and a truck. Some will complain that he is now too short next to Siege Omega Supreme but ffs we just got him reissued, and now you're telling me we need to make him the exact same height as this Devastator we just got?! FUCK NAW, BABY

And here he is under the enemy scrotum, just to show who's the best Devastator both in TF fiction and in my collection. While Mixmaster is probably my favorite out of the six Constructicons due to his fun transformation and him being the best leg mode, completing this version of Devastator felt less exciting than the ROTF version due to how samey the cast felt in addition to the fear of not being able to get as easily due to the online shopping scalpers bullshitting everything. While the ROTF versions had their flaws, I always prefer unique designs and fun transformations over these Geewun Green Ones. I still recommend getting Devastator if you never got the Combiner Wars version, but don't expect too much if you prefer the various third party versions that are hard to keep track of, be it CHUG or MP scale.

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

⭐⭐⭐ out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (Devastator as a whole)

Transformers Studio Series 86 Scavenger review

The final two Constructicons are finally here to complete SS86 Devastator. We already took a look at so-so Voyager, a mediocre Deluxe, and our first stab at a Commander Class set serving as a two-pack. We just have one Deluxe left, and one Voyager afterwards just before we wrap up the subgroup completely. This time, we will be taking a look at Scavenger, who turns into a right arm and has not much else going on in his bio beyond him being as pitiful as Long Haul. Anyways, I felt that Bonecrusher from a few waves ago was pretty mediocre, but can the same be said for his brother in literal arms? It's time to scassemble for this review and find out!

Here we have Scavenger in his excavator mode. It looks just about how I expected it to appear, with a few sculpts details here and there and purple applied onto the windows and treads. The arm mode is literally the alt mode with something sticking out from the front, though the shade of green is different because not only is color correcting these Constructicons annoying at times, but I find the shade of green used in the second pic should be the one chosen by HasTak instead.

The shovel arm can articulate at the base at the middle, and at the bucket. The gun can peg at the side, but we once again lack tiny rolling wheels for the treads. While those barely worked on prior tank bots and the like, it leaves me wondering where exactly the budget is going into these figures by not including them. And worse still because of the different plastic types used to cooperate with the leg joints, what will become the thigh joints is a different shade of purple than the rest.

For an alt mode size comparison, here we have all of the Constructicons together at last. Scale is wonky, but that's to expected with the G1 series as a whole. Some could say a similar issue is at play with the ROTF Constructicons, though I'd argue they are in better scale for the most part (it all depends on how big the cockpits are next to each other).

Transformation is pretty simple, though the cockpit does get in the way a bit while forming part of the upper body. Otherwise, it's about as straightforward and basic as what Bonecrusher has. His proportions are just as weird as his fellow arm bot, but for different reasons. Legs are about comparable, but they do stick out more than they naturally would on a different Transformer and his arms are stumpy and blocky (with the hands painted green rather than being molded in the same color, which might be from the sprue tree). His upper body and lower body are connected by a very synched waist, making him look like he has an extremely broad upper torso and hips that don't lie in a way similar to the recent Ultimate Miles Morales. I know that the original was that clunky, and this at least is slightly more filled in than. the CW version, but it still feels pretty half baked in comparison. The silver torso but with the emblem is nice.

Head sculpt is a real gob box, with a mouthplate on top of another mouthplate as if the designers ran out of ideas for this square head.  His articulation consists of ball joints at the neck, shoulders, elbows, and hips, while the thighs are on swivels and the knees plus the ankles on hinges. His gun is said to be sculpted after the Combiner Wars version, down to it's similarity to an animation error, but it's the least of this toy's worries.

Here we have all 6 Constructicons together at last. I won't get into the list in this much detail, but I do think that from worst to best, Scavenger is at the bottom, while Bonecrusher is above him, followed right after by Scrapper, the Long Hook duo, and Mixmaster. If you're not interested in completing Devastator and want at least one Constructicon, don't let it be Scavenger. That being said, he is still the worst of the set, and you're better off leaving him as an arm.

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