Transformers Power of the Primes Elita-1 review

 Elita-1 is one of those characters that doesn't pop up as often, and don't count on her to make an entirely new incarnation apart from Animated Blackarachnia or her brief appearance in Revenge of the Fallen. If anything, Arcee and Chromia have been much more popular. Obviously, Chromia was not as frequent in new universes as Arcee, but she did at least pop up in a new cartoon without becoming a new character (basically, she showed up in Cyberverse with her IDW design). That being said, Hasbro has given the G1 iteration a few toys of the character, first in the form of a Cybertron Thunderblast repaint and recently in the Netflix WFC line. In-between those two was a Voyager Class figure in the Power of the Primes line. Yes, it's kind of hesitant to revisit that line after not only having the superior War for Cybertron series but also the Titans Return series, which I think is the best Prime Wars line. Regardless, it is something we can look back on to see what did and didn't work. Does Elita-1 work well?

Here is Elita-1 in her jet mode. From the top, I like the design of it, as it feels very unique for her and quite fitting for the character design. The parts that are an honest-to-Primus portion of a jet work well enough. I especially love the colors used, especially when they make for a nice balance between looking feminine and badass at the same time. The sculpted details that are there are pretty lacking compared to the stuff we'd get in the WFC Trilogy, but most of the details are in the form of stickers. I hate them. The chrome stickers clash badly on the plastic, and they don't stay on as well as they do fit in a decently aligned place. I'd wish to have a Reprolabel set that makes the jet mode better but the one we have doesn't look as good. These stickers are neat in concept but poor in execution.

The undercarriage is where the altmode doesn't work all that well. People complained about how the shortened arms and folded up legs are not hidden with the Siege Seeker mold, but this is even worse! The feet look kind of slapdash on the undercarriage, but the arms do not contribute to the transformation and basically lay there. On top of that, the head is just facing the back. If this was the Aero-Bot figure from the Playskool Gobots line, it'd be acceptable since the main purpose would be the fun chunkiness as well as lights and sounds. But this is a collector's item, and even if it was a mass-released one, it failed to be good with the aerodynamics even compared to Silverbolt from the Combiner Wars line.

Here she is next to Earthrise Starscream, a character that shared the same figure Elita-1 has. I like how different the designs are from one another; while Starscream is more traditional as part of the WFC trilogy making new figures of G1 guys, Elita's instead a new, sleek design that I feel would look even better if she had no brick underneath her. The differences in how the wings, thrusters, and fuselage look makes them distinct overall, though I have to admit that while it's a bit lame that the Earthrise Seeker mold borrows the transformation of its decade and a half older counterpart from the Classics line, at least the undercarriage is nowhere near as awful as it is here. It even gets worse if you add the robot feet.

Transformation is very basic. You just straighten the legs, tab in the gap cover for the inner part of where the knees hinge, shift the fuselage off the front, and swivel the wings around. If this was from Armada or Energon, it'd be perfectly fine, but as far as the engineering is concerned when compared to Voyagers made around the time it was made, it's even simpler than Motormaster. The resulting robot mode is actually not quite bad. While the design is bulkier than the norm for her, It fits well along with the likes of RID15 Strongarm. They're quite fitting for a character who could lead her fembot team, especially when they help her stand out compared to the other fembots. The colors are once again a strong highlight of the figure, and the kibble itself is perfectly fine here. The backpack is distracting for Starscream since he had a faux chest, but it works a little better for Elita-1 (but only a little because of how under-engineered the figure is). The figure has stickers for the forearms, shoulders, and part of the chest. Only the Autobot insignia stickers look fine.

Head sculpt is very nicely done. The Prime Wars trilogy began to do a better job with capturing the look of the characters made in the line than before, and the design it has is better than the G1 version. Even if her forehead looks like Shockwave's chest. Her articulation is pretty average for a figure of the line, with a head that is on a ball joint, shoulders that move front and back on ratchets as well as in and out on ratchets, bicep swivels, elbow bends, hips that move front and back, in and out, thigh swivels, and knee bends. Her articulation is way less than most figures in the line. Her shoulder spikes can be used as guns, and you can place the feet on the wings for some stupid reason. Yeah her weapon choices suck.

As far as reuses are concerned, this figure barely had any repaints. And honestly, that's fine with me. Starscream came first, and he is definitely worse than Elita-1 in plenty of aspects. The proportions on him looked RIDICULOUS! The attempt to mix the Popeye aesthetics with the normal G1 design made it look worse than the normal G1 design, and the stickers being chrome silver on white plastic looked even worse than with Elita-1. Also, LOOK AT HOW LONG THOSE NULLRAY POSTS ARE ON THE SHOULDERS. I did not lose any sleep over this guy having no Seeker repaints because man did he look stupid! I don't care if his torso looked like Moviescream with the Coronation head, this is really pathetic!

For a size comparison, here she is in-between Earthrise Starscream and Optimus Prime (who is the Netflix version) and the WFC Netflix Elita-1 figure who is a retool of Arcee. She is taller than the Air Commander and likely taller than Optimus Prime. It's kind of amusing but it makes sense given how she serves as a torso for a combiner. I have to say that while the POTP figure may not be as accurate to the cartoon as the WFC Netflix figure tries to be, I honestly prefer this design or at least the concept of it. It's much more unique and she doesn't have to be too skinny.

The transformation into the torso mode is certainly more involved, which is weird because one would expect the normal robot transformation to be as involved. The arms become the thighs a la Superion, but now the backpack is used in becoming a chest similar to that f Movie Starscream. In fact, this was why the toy began as Starscream since it was meant to homage that version of the character. And that may explain why the feet are done up like that. As for Elita-1...well, with a certain number of figures I guess she can be called Elita-Inf1nite, but let's be honest and say it doesn't fit her. The robot mode works better for her than it does for Starscream, but the torso mode proved that the two were designed with certain modes in mind. Now, new to the POTP teams are the feet, which are better than the Combiner Wars versions due to them having ankle pivots as well as a height boost. The hands of the figures that are legs can be used as heels. Oh, and the Enigma of Combination can be stored on the chest. It's basically a shell version of a Titan/Prime Master.

Head sculpt is also nicely done, and it's even better than the original version! Her articulation is the same as before, but with the added improvements of double-jointed elbows, wrist swivels, slight finger articulation, and ankle pivots as well as swivels for the 5mm ports. Now I don't think I mentioned this but I don't think I want to get the other fembots because the Moonracer mold sucks. I don't want to buy 4 repaints of it just to make a fembot combiner. I already own Siege Chromia and don't like her much. As for Elita-1 herself, she makes for an interesting purchase even in spite of her flaws. If you see her for a cheap price, get her. Otherwise, wait for Legacy to solve the issue.

Final ranking: ⭐⭐⭐ out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Transformers Cyberverse Deluxe Slug review

Cyberverse surprised fans with the late but welcome inclusion of the Dinobots, and while their personalities are different from the G1 incarnations (which is honestly fine by me since it's its own universe), I'd rather have these guys and a female Swoop over the G1 incarnations being poorly written in the Netflix WFC series. If anything, I dug seeing how Slug was depicted in the show given how he doesn't just feel like Grimlock with a different name and a Triceratops. So with all that covered, we've now gotten him with merchandise representation, with Sludge having an Ultra and Snarl having a Warrior figure (Swoop is only a crash combiner piece). The previous addition was Cheetor, who died in Season 3, but now we have another Dinobot to join Grimlock, so let's see how Slug turned out!

Here is Slug in his triceratops mode. It's quite a stylized take on the old G1 design, which makes sense given how Cyberverse works with that sort of approach. If anything, I dig the colors that he has. The sculpt work is good for a stylized bot, but the gold combined with the dark gray and rich red makes him look nice for a basic Deluxe. The translucent red horns are especially lovely when it comes to how the plastic is used for those pieces only to make it feel a little more powered up. The gray is much better than on Grimlock's as we'll get to in a moment, and the gold doesn't look faded and pops more because of how it's plastic.

The side profile has some small gaps here and there, and you can see some parts that block the joints for the articulation, but at least it's okay for this figure since he is a Deluxe from Cyberverse and has a beast mode where posing isn't easy.

The weapons can combine and be stored on the back of the beast mode, which I think works well for the cannon since it's almost like an added artillery mode. The ax...not so much, even if it does have a 3mm peg for the attack mode. For a size comparison, here he is with Cyberverse Grimlock. You can see how obviously different the two beast modes are, and even if Grimlock is smaller, he doesn't look too small next to Slug. More importantly, the colors used on the two are different overall. Grimlock has a lighter gray and his yellow details are all painted on, which means he could go for an extra coat of paint. Sadly, the lighter gray plastic on Grimlock means that parts of him are prone to photodegradation. His forearms and the parts near the legs have yellowed, which is more noticeable under sunlight. Guess this means I gotta paint Grimlock in the same colors as Slug's gray...

Transformation for Slug is a little more creative for the G1 concept. Normally, the rump becomes the legs, the forelegs become the arms, and the triceratops head tucks in the back, and you're done. Here, they went a few creative steps, from the use of a waist swivel AND a dino head swivel to accompany the chest transformation, we even get a fake lower mouth to complete the look in a way the real one can't. It's a pretty neat transformation that I feel surpasses the Studio Series 86 version just for its creativity. The resulting robot mode isn't 100% accurate to the show, which I do believe is from Hasbro toy designers and Boulder Media having different concept art provided to one another in order to meet the deadline of the new TV movies once they found out that there was more demand for retailers with selling more Cyberverse toys as they didn't initially plan on putting out a new Transformers show until 2022-3 due to the Nickelodeon deal. So as a result, Slug, while still looking good, doesn't quite capture the character design in terms of coloring. Like the shins and shoulders should be gray. At least the robot mode is still nonetheless able to resemble the design as closely as it could, albeit being a little chunkier. There are two 5mm ports on the back for weapon storage, which I didn't even notice until making the review. Oops.

Head sculpt is the biggest inaccuracy to the character design, much like with Thunderhowl's masked face. The outer parts of the top should protrude more, while he never had a visor in the series. Still, he at least looks like how a Slag would look, even if it's not 1:1 to the cartoon. His articulation is pretty much consistent with every Deluxe figure made since Siege. Head is on a ball joint, shoulders move front and back, in and out, there are no bicep swivels, but the forearms do swivel. There is a waist swivel, the hips move front and back, in and out, the thighs swivel, the knees bend, and the ankles pivot.

The accessories are usable this time for the robot mode in proper glory, with the axe now feeling more like a hatchet, and his gun with a unique blast effect piece (thinking about it, the Cyberverse blast effect pieces are both unique from the Siege ones and may not be as compatible). I feel tempted to give the cannon to Grimlock, but it fits well with Slug, too. The lack of bicep swivels does make his posing options a little hampered.

For a robot mode comparison, here he is with his king, Grimlock. Once again, I think Slug looks better due to the plastic colors, though I will admit that Grimlock, with having 2 years of screentime on the show, does grant him the more accurate toy. Still hate how parts of him yellowed. I feel tempted to get Warrior Snarl and Ultra Sludge, even if their quality would be worse than Slug's (Sludge, especially). And that does the proper wrap-up to the Deluxe line of Cyberverse characters. Now that the series itself is ending, I'm sad to see their take on the Deluxes disappear after Slug and Cheetor completed the collection. No Build-a-Figure pieces as with the third wave, and fewer characters to choose from. I'd love to have seen Windblade, Shadowstriker, Sky-Byte, Slipstream, Wild Wheel, Perceptor, Jetfire, Strika, Clobber, Lockdown, Dead End, among other characters. You may notice I mentioned more Decepticons than Autobots, and, well, look at the last image! Such a heavy bias, and I'd say worse than the balance between Bots and Cons in the RID15 Warrior line-up. Either way, Slug's a nice figure to have, even if he is the last of the Cyberverse Deluxe line-up. Let's hope the next cartoon can deliver good toys as well as a good show.

Final ranking: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Power Rangers Lightning Collection Blue Space Ranger vs Psycho Silver review

I'm kind of surprised at how sparse the attention towards the Lightning Collection is on my end. That and how much I decided to skip. Ignoring any roleplay items and the Megazord coming soon, I skipped 2 figures in 2019, 10 in 2020, and 20 this year. I'm still waiting for Wave 10 as well as the Cog 2-pack but most of the 2022 releases will be skipped (mainly the Ninjetti and monster stuff as well as the repeat of In Space Blue). Speaking of, we've already got one as well as the return of the Psycho Ranger tooling now colored silver. This moment of events from In Space was fascinating, since not only did Zhane disguise himself as a fake Psycho Ranger, but the whole team pretended to be Blue Rangers in order to trick Psycho Blue and the rest of his team into utter confusion until he was killed. And while it'd be neat to kill 2 birds with one stone to include regular Silver, it'd make sense to recreate this iconic moment. Now let's get into the review!

Here is the Blue Space Ranger in-hand. As you can see, he's basically the same as we have seen with the previous Red and Black Space Rangers covered in the past.  Same color lay-out, same details, just that the Red is replaced with Blue. As far as quality control is concerned, I have no severe issues apart from the alignment of the white paint apps under the butterfly joints. Apart from that, nothing out of the ordinary or missing otherwise.

Helmet looks pretty accurate to how it should look, though the lack of a sculpted visor does make it feel a little more basic reminiscent of the bootlegs. What is it with In Space being bootlegged as much as Dino Thunder and SPD? Anyways, the paint apps are mostly placed well wit ha slight misalignment here and there but nothing that'll piss me off like on the occasional mess up. Articulation is the same as with every normal Lightning Collection figure: he has a ball joint at one part of the neck and a hinge at the other, butterfly joints, shoulders that move front and back as well as in and out, swivels at the biceps and double-jointed elbows, wrist swivels, hands that hinge in and out, and both a diaphragm joint as well as an ab crunch. Hips move front and back as well as in and out, thighs swivel, knees bend at two points, boots swivel, and the feet hinge up and down as pivot at the ankles.

As far as the accessories of the Blue Space Ranger are concerned, you get the typical effect piece, a civilian head in the form of TJ Johnson, the Astro Axe, the Astro Blaster, a right fist, and a left karate chop hand.

The display options on this guy are great as always, and the likeness to the Selwyn Ward is pretty solid if you ask me. I'm sure some people are still upset that he can't have the gun separate in two pieces or combine with the axe, but I don't care.

This guy is being re-released (a little too soon, I might add), so basically in trade of the Psycho Silver Ranger you get the Astro Glider. Which is pretty basic compared to the other Lightning Collection vehicles so far. Like, 2020 at least gave us the Omega Unicycle and 2022 is said to give us the Wild Force Rider, so this may be the weakest of the vehicles in the Lightning Collection so far. Also, here he is for a comparison with the Legacy Collection and Bandai 5 inch counterparts. Same points as with Red, Black, and Yellow.

For a comparison between him and his allies, you can basically tell that the main differences include the main coloring of the suits. And the visors. And the weapons. And how well the squares are painted on the chest. I think Black's is the worst when placed next to everyone else.

And here is the Silver Psycho Ranger. It's nice to see this use of the figure again after not buying a new repaint of it for so long. Once again, this tooling is found in a multipack, with Blue and Green being the only ones to have standalone releases in the form of retail exclusives. I'm sure we'll eventually get a normal release of Black, Yellow, and Pink in some capacity someday. But yeah, the shade of silver used on him looks great, and it makes him look more premium than the other versions of the Psycho design.

Head sculpt is the same as before but with silver paint, and the same can be said for the articulation of the figure apart from the chest armor hindering some movement.

His accessories include a civilian head for Zhane, an evil version of his Super Silverizer, and two of the traditional alternate hands of a Psycho Ranger.

The display options are a little more unique for this guy since Zhane is the only Psycho Ranger to come with an alternate head, which has a good likeness to the actor Justin Nimmo. As for a comparison with his Bandai Legacy counterpart, it's the same as before: they're both good in their own rights, but Hasbro's is easier to get.

And here are the other Psychos in one shot that I own so far. These are the NFT Rangers, but don't say that to the fans because they hated the black and gold Megazord (I don't care because I am not interested in a repaint of a mold I'm not sure I'd get right now).

 And that covers the 2-pack! I'm quite happy with how this one turned out. It's great to get another Space Ranger and further reach the completion of a team with TJ, and it's also nice to have another Pyscho Ranger after not getting another one yet since Green last year. Also, both look great with their alternate heads on the figures.

This set is also great to own if you're a fan of the episode where there were 5 Blue Space Rangers as well as the Silver Psycho Ranger thrown into the mix. It makes me excited to get the Pink Space Ranger (even with her incorrect shoulder details that the PR fans had a meltdown over) and the real Silver Space Ranger (hopefully he'll be as easy to get as Dino Thunder White and MMPR Black). At first, it might not be as exciting to get this set since the figures generally have the same beats as the rest of the Space and Psycho teams.

But then I realized that I'd rather kill 2 birds with one stone than have copies of two MMPR girls when I'd be more interested in getting the more desirable Scorpina and Zeo Pink. Maybe someday. But otherwise, get this set if you must. Complete your teams. You won't regret it. I'm happy to wait for this set than get the Metallics, honestly.

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