Dave's Robot Heroes Rant: Movie Scenes 1

     Battle of the Fallen
     Battle for the AllSpark (not reviewed)

     Permalink: http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/123/RHB1

     B rather than X, since unlike the previous box sets, this isn't a store
exclusive.  The $10 store exclusives were nice, because even if you had all
the molds, for ten bucks you got color variants and a little piece of
cardstock scenery.  The new box sets are adding vehicle mode molds and
oversized molds, bumping the price but reducing the number of redecos.
Unfortunately, the aesthetic of the vehicle modes is a sort of grafitti-chibi
look that was popular about five years ago or so on toy cars, and is totally
played out.


CAPSULES

     Battle of the Fallen: The Fallen himself is a small "big figure" but
decently made for the size, tank mode Megatron could have used some more
paint on the fireball/smoke trail, Jetpower Prime is okay, and Ironhide is
kinda "wrong" (not wrong enough to seek out for the wrongness, though).
Mildly recommended.  $19.96 at Walmart.
     Battle for the AllSpark: Not purchased.  It reuses the Brawl mold with
no significant paint changes, a more silvery version of the "Megatron with
Mace" mold form 2007, and a new Ratchet mold that has a buzzsaw arm (same
mold as the RotF Series 2 Ratchet but with a different arm), plus non-
articulated Sam with AllSpark, and vehicle modes of Bumblebee, Starscream and
Optimus Prime.  If this had been $10 I might have gotten it, but for $20?  No
way.  


RANTS

     Packaging: Similar to the 2007 exclusive sets, but a little wider and
using the truncated-rectangle shape of big boxes in RotF.  13" (33cm) wide,
5" (13cm) tall, 6" (15cm) deep at the middle with sides 4.25" (10.5cm) wide
and a flat back 7" (17cm) wide.  The window has molded Autobot and Decepticon
symbols on top with "VS" between them.  
     The diorama inside has Egyptian ruins in the background, with pyramids
off to the right and a few pillars standing as sheets of cardboard.  There's
also a sand-patterned box on the right for Jetpower Optimus Prime to stand
on.  A plastic tray of sorts rests between the figures and the cardboard,
covering the cardboard box Prime stands on, mainly to keep things from
sliding around I guess.
     The back of the box has cartoony art of all four figures, giving one
official name to the Prime/Jetfire combo (but not the only one, the Leader
Jetfire's box has another): Jetpower Optimus Prime.  The story copy on the
back reads as follows (that first comma is their error):
     "THE FALLEN has returned to Earth to claim the Matrix, If he can, then
the entire universe will fall to him.  With MEGATRON by his side, he is
nearly invincible.  Luckily, the two most powerful AUTOBOTS on Earth are
ready to stop him!"
     There's a pretty steep dropoff in Autobot power levels, so being the
second most powerful Autobot doesn't say a lot about Ironhide.  :)  And Arcee
might beat him in her combined mode.
     The cosells on the bottom are for the six sets of Series 1.
     Inside the box, from left to right are the Fallen, Megatron, Jetpower
Optimus Prime and Ironhide.  Megatron is in tank mode, shooting at Prime,
while Ironhide in truck mode is rounding a corner to get into the fight.

     Bases: Except for the Fallen, they all sit on molded bases that include
"kicking up dust" shapes...that look weird and incorrect.  The dust clouds
and rooster tails are too abstracted, and it makes it look like they're all
standing in puddles of bubbling hot chocolate (with plenty of milk in it).
In addition to being glued on very securely, each is held by at least one
peg, so simply ripping them off the bases wouldn't be enough, you'd have to
cut away the pegs before painting the areas that are exposed.  Probably not
worth the bother.


DECEPTICON: THE FALLEN

     This is an oversized figure, but not as big as the giant Super-Hero
Squad figures like Sentinels or Fin Fang Foom (although we're supposed to be
getting a big Devastator in the next wave some time)[Later note: Devastator's
set is apparently already out in places, and it looks like he's not a lot
bigger than the Fallen in height, although he's a lot bulkier].  And like
most Heroes line figures, he's smiling...more or less.  While in the usual
Robot Heroes crouch, he's standing up about as straight as the character ever
got in the movie, so it's reasonable to call him about 4" (10.5cm) tall.  His
outstretched right arm is nearly as long as he's tall, too.  Unlike on other
toys, his hands have five fingers and one thumb each.  His feet have six
toes, two each of three "molds"...oddly they're not arranged the same way on
both feet.  On the left foot, the two longest toes are in the front, the
smallest to the sides and the middle-sized ones are heelspurs.  But on the
right foot, the medium and small toes alternate.  His head is sleeker than
most models, missing most of the "whisker" detailing and looking more like a
Giger-style xenomorph.  There's a small peg-hole in his right foot.  He does
not have the connection from the elbows to the waist seen on the movie model
and some of the toys.
     Unlike most Fallen toys, this is made of gloss black plastic, further
enhancing the xenomorph resemblance.  There's gunmetal paint airbrused onto
the spine and head, and carefully painted on the shoulders and thighs.  The
panel lines on the face, forearms and pelvis are painted in orange.  The eyes
and some "muscle bundle" details on the backs of the hands and just above the
knees are painted bright red.  He has a silver Decepticon symbol printed on
his abdomen.  He's not made of gummy plastic, but it's flexible enough to let
you move his legs somewhat despite the lack of joints there. 
     He's stalking forward, his right arm straight and a little out to the
side, left arm akimbo and bent at the elbow.  Both hands are in clawing
positions.  His neck swivel is pointed almost entirely forward so his head
doesn't so much turn as tilt.  The shoulders are the usual swivels.  No other
joints, putting him behind Fin Fang Foom in another respect.
     Fortunately, his big feet mean that even when he's got both arms
reaching straight forward he can stay standing, as much as he looks like he
should topple.


DECEPTICON: MEGATRON

     We've had robot mode and guntank mode in the 2-packs, now the full tank
mode.  Unlike most of the vehicles in Robot Heroes, it's not horribly
deformed or warped, just the same amount of chibi as the robot modes get.
2.5" (6.5cm) long if you don't count the fireball emerging from the cannon,
3.5" (8.5cm) if you do.  The treads are more traditional ovals rather than
the triangular shapes of the guntank version, and it's up on a slight rise
created by shattered roadway.  The churning hot chocolate in front of him is
meant to be the shockwave of firing his main gun.  His robot face is nestled
between the front treads.
     Made entirely of the same swirly gunmetal metalflake plastic as the
guntank Megatron, including the base.  The base is painted mostly tan with
some lighter brown accents on the shockwave bits, the treads are black, the
tip of the fireball coming out of the cannon is a blend of dark yellow
through bright red.  Random bits of the armor are painted silver, and the
eyes are red.  The chunk of roadway is black with yellow lines.
     There's a lot of incongruity in this toy.  For one, he's the only one
that doesn't fit in on a desert scene, thanks to his roadway chunk.  The
fireball coming out of the cannon barrel makes it look vaguely like a flaming
Q-tip.  And, most importantly, the smoketrail of the fireball is unpainted,
so rather than looking like a fireball emerging from between four tines
(Megatron's cannon barrel ends in four slender rods), it looks like his
barrel is suffering from internal explosions and bulging out randomly.
     There is no articulation in this toy, not even an attempt to have the
barrel elevate.  There is a peghole in the underside of his base.


AUTOBOT: JETPOWER OPTIMUS PRIME

     A little bigger than the usual Robot Heroes figure at 2.75" (7cm), this
is Prime after Jolt has ghoulishly slapped pieces of Jetfires corpse all over
him.  The core figure is about the same size as the other Optimus Robot
Heroes, though, it's just that he's bulked up by Jetfire parts He gets to
stand on a base not because he's a wheelfoot or anything, but because all the
jet pieces make him pretty top-heavy.  The base is a little warped, though,
and rocks some.  Thrust cones emerge from his backpack, but the base isn't
painted to reflect this, making it look like he's simply got a pair of
oversized candy corn stuck in his engines.
     Entirely made of very dark brownish gunmetal plastic.  He has dark
metallic blue on his helmet, the center of his back, some abdomen details and
the insides of his thighs.  The chest and the parts of the forearms not
covered by corpse kibble are bright red.  The faceplate, fists, pelvis,
various details on the chest and legs, and the ammo chain on the right arm
are painted silver.  The chest windows and eyes are light blue, the aperture
of his right arm mounted big gun is light neon green, and a silver Autobot
symbol mixed with USAF symbol is on the left top wing piece.  The jet thrusts
have the same red-to-dark-yellow fade as seen on Megatron's fireball.
     He's crouched (of course) and lunging forward onto his right leg.  His
right arm, with the bigger cannon, is bent about 90 degrees and slightly
pointed inward, the left arm is at 90 degrees and a bit more inward.  Both
shoulders are swivels and the head turns, although you pretty much have to
turn the head by grabbing onto the earpiece antennae.
     It could stand a little more silver (for instance, the smokestacks), but
otherwise the main figure is pretty good.  Too bad they cheaped out on
painting the base.  There's a peghole near the rear of the baseplate.


AUTOBOT: IRONHIDE

     Fresh from a guest appearance in Cars, apparently, since his windshield
is warped in an "arching an eyebrow" shape, although at least they didn't
paint eyeballs on it.  He has his cannons deployed on the sides and rests on
a dirt base that's supposed to make it look like he's skidding around a
corner.  
     Made of dark cool gray plastic.  The front and side windows are painted
metallic periwinkle blue.  Silver is used on the smokestacks, the front
quarter of the right side cannon, the very tip of the left side cannon and
some of the chrome at the front end.  The headlights are turquoise, the
taillights are red, the license plate (which is shaped like a widened Autobot
symbol) is white with red Autobot symbol.  The tires are black, the base is
mulk chocolate, slightly lighter on the dust sprays.
     There's no articulation here, but some warping.  The right side cannon
is bent a bit (by intent) and that arching eyebrow thing on the windshield is
kinda weird.  I will probably have to paint eyes on it to make it fully
weird. 

     Dave Van Domelen, finds the "pouncing" Bumblebee car mode in the
AllSpark set to be too much deformation.