Dave's Age of Extinction Rant: Walmart Exclusives Wave 1 Grimlock (TFP Rippersnapper redeco) Decepticon Stinger (TFP Legion class Knock Out redeco) Decepticon Stinger (DotM Legion Class Mirage redeco) and Dinobot Slug (Guiledart/Triceradon redeco) Optimus Prime (RotF Legion Class Optimus Prime redeco) and Grimlock (Cruellock/Doomlock redeco) Permalink: http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/AoE/Walmart1 Walmart got its AoE exclusives out later than Target, but still sooner than the usual "wait until the year after the movie when interest is flagging and there's no more movie characters left to produce" scheme stores had been using for store exclusives. Not reviewed are two more single-pack Legion figures (Bumblebee and Optimus Prime), one more $15 two-pack (Bumblebee Legion with a blue redeco of pre-rubsign BW Terrorsaur as Strafe), and a $25 three-pack (Bumblebee, Stinger, regular deco of AoE Strafe). http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Prime/Legion7 - Rippersnapper (small Grimlock) http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Prime/Legion2 - Mirage (Stinger) http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Prime/EnergonDriller - Knock Out (two-pack Stinger) http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Japan/NeoD2930 - Guiledart (Slug) http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/RotF/Legends1 - Optimus Prime http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Energon/Basic2 - Cruellock (two-pack Grimlock) CAPSULES The first two are $5.96, the second two are $14.96. Walmart exclusive. Stinger: Original mold was mildly recommended. This looks okay, although feels a bit ripoffy to be at the usual Legion price without any weapon included. Mildly recommended, but only if you want some Stinger drones and don't want to wait to see if they do a Deluxe. Grimlock: Original mold was neutral and I already have several copies of it, so even getting this was an exercise in extreme optimism that they managed to slightly retool it to fix the head problem. And while I can't be sure it's actually a retool, this is my only copy of the mold where the robot head doesn't pop off with minimal provocation. Mildly recommended. Stinger & Slug: Original mold for Stinger didn't get a separate review, but was considered a drag on the set I got it with. Original BWNeo mold for Slug was mildly recommended, I never bought (or at least never reviewed) the various Triceradon releases of the mold. At least it's only $15 for a so-so Deluxe and a meh Legion. Mildly recommended. [Later note: I did get one of the Triceradon decos of Guiledart, the G1 Dinobot scheme, but I never bothered to review it.] Optimus Prime & Grimlock: Optimus Prime original mold was mildly recommended. Grimlock original mold was recommended, making it my favorite original mold of all of these, depressingly. Why couldn't Walmart have picked better molds for the redecos? They didn't get daring with the Optimus toy, but the extensive deco of Cruellock works pretty well for Grimlock, and Optimus can ride Grimlock. Recommended. RANTS Packaging: Well, we finally get an "official" Legion class packaging for AoE. The cards are 7" (18cm) tall and a little over 4" (10.5cm) wide, with a general trade dress similar to the Deluxes. The front of the card has painted-style art of the character's primary mode (dino for Grimlock, otherwise robots), with a Walmart exclusive sticker at the center top. The blister insert just has the name, faction symbol, and recommended age on front, plus legalese on bottom. The cardbacks show photos of both modes, a note about how many steps the transformation takes, and multilingual legalese. No bio notes or cosells. Instructions are folded up in the bottom of the blister. They're all packaged in robot mode. The two-packs are in window boxes 11" (28cm) wide, 5.5" (14cm) tall in front, 8" (20cm) tall in back, and 2.5" (6.5cm) deep. The hangtab part of the box has a "swinging punches at each other" art of Stinger and a yellow mirrorflop of Stinger meant to be Bumblebee, and it's on all the boxes. The front of the box has cut-out images of the primary modes of the characters in movie models at the bottom of the windows (dino mode for dinos, bot mode for non-dinos). The back of the box has photos of both modes of each toy (and the usual ignoring of Guiledart's corpse mode), the transformation step claims, and multilingual legalese. More legalese on the bottom, no bio notes or cosells. Dinos are packaged in dino mode, Legends in robot mode. The three-pack is in a larger window box with Strafe in dino mode on a shelf above bot-mode Stinger and Bumblebee. I didn't bother taking measurements in the store, and I don't really need another identical or nearly identical Strafe, so I'm not buying that one. There's no series or number on any of these. In all cases, the instructions sheets are printed newly for these, with multilingual warnings about parts being designed to pop off. The actual number of steps in the instructions doesn't always match the claim on the package (i.e. Legion class Grimlock claims 4 steps on the cardback, but 11 in the instructions). DECEPTICON: DECEPTICON STINGER Altmode: Sportscar Transformation Difficulty: 6 steps Previous Name Use: None Previous Mold Use: TFP Function: Stylish Cannon Fodder Packaging: Two sock-ties hold the figure in the blister. No weapons or other accessories. The deco on the doors in the package photo is not the deco on the doors of the actual toy. The package shows a sort of three-spike spray along the sides, rather than the solid band of the toy. Plastic Colors: The wheels, pelvis, and shoulder struts are black plastic. The rest of the toy is red plastic. Paint Apps: In vehicle mode, there's a white Decepticon symbol printed on the hood ornament position. Otherwise, all the paint in this mode is gloss black. Front grille, a sort of "Immortus's Helmet" pattern on the hood, solid band along the sides from the bottom to about 2/3 of the way up the side, from wheel to wheel (rising slightly), and on the front and side windows. Annoyingly, the rear windows are unpainted. Additional paint apps in robot mode add more gloss black on the tops of the feet, on the helmet crest, two vertical stripes on the face, and completely covering the thighs. The eyes are painted yellow, and the top fronts of the thighs are painted silver. Mold Changes: None that I noticed. Other Notes: No weapon or accessory. Still has the original mold's tendency to fall over backwards in robot mode, since the stable angle for the ankles leads to the center of mass being a little too far back. Overall: Well, it's closer to show-accurate for Knock Out than the actual single-pack version of KO, and even without user repainting it's decent for an AoE toy, paint-wise. Since they decided not to bother making a dedicated Stinger toy for the waves coming out while the movie was actually in theaters, this is an okay placeholder. Plus, of course, since Stinger is supposed to be a faceless minion, getting a bunch of them is cheaper this way. DINOBOT: GRIMLOCK Altmode: Dinosaur Transformation Difficulty: 4 steps Previous Name Use: Yes Previous Mold Use: TFP Function: Plot Device Packaging: Two sock-ties hold the figure in the blister, no accessories. Plastic Colors: Entirely made out of coppery plastic, the shade all the Grimlock toys use, even though the movie didn't. Paint Apps: In robot mode, the chest piece is dipped in gloss black paint, and then pectoral molding is painted silver to evoke the jaws on the chest of the real AoE Grimlock. The tab at the sternum is also painted black. The face and the three helmet crests are painted silver, and the sides of the helmet and chin block are painted gloss black. There's more silver on the pelvis, and on the outsides of the boots (the facings of the beast head that are snapped together). The robot eyes are light blue, and a small red Autobot symbol is printed on the chest. The crest along the back is painted gloss black, with some silver vent details at the back. The face is silver with light blue eyes. A probably unintentional seam of silver runs along the top of the head. Mold Changes: None I can find, but it does seem to hold together better in both modes than any of the other versions I have. After several transformations, it has yet to pop apart. Other Notes: Unsurprisingly, no mention is made in the instructions of the combiner mode. But it works just fine, and is more stable there than my other Rippersnapper-mold figures. "Some poses may require additional support." Yeah, like the pose used on the cardback, which puts the center of mass well ahead of the feet. Overall: It doesn't really look like any sort of real dinosaur, much less Grimlock, but either they finally tweaked the mold to fix its worst problem, or I got really lucky this time. STINGER & SLUG set Packaging: The dino Slug and robot Stinger are just held into the blister by tray segment pieces snapped into place on top of them, not even any tape. The instructions are a single sheet placed behind the inner cardboard tray, with Slug on one side and Stinger on the other. DECEPTICON: DECEPTICON STINGER Altmode: Sportscar Transformation Difficulty: 6 Previous Name Use: None (well, the one above) Previous Mold Use: DotM Function: Stylish Cannon Fodder Plastic Colors: Black plastic on the wheels, lower legs, and shoulder struts. Otherwise red. Paint Apps: The headlights and windshields are very light gray. There's black stripes angled apart on the hood, stripes parallel on the roof, and stripes along the bottom edges of the sides. A black Decepticon symbol is printed on the hood in the hood ornament position. No paint on the exposed engine. Robot mode adds very light gray on the face, black eyes, and black abdomen/pelvis. Very weird, they didn't even try to match Stinger's face colors, and this face mold might actually have gotten closer than the Knock Out mold allowed. Mold Changes: None that I noticed. This is the DotM Mirage retool of RotF Sideways Cyberverse, with hands capable of holding 3mm pegs. Of course, no weapons were included for him, sigh. Other Notes: While neither Legion figure is really a good fit for Stinger, this is the less-good one. Between the peg legs and the massive arms, it doesn't really feel anything like a Bumblebee knockoff/upgrade. Of course, there is a certain irony in using this mold for yet another movie character who doesn't seem likely to get a proper toy of its own (Mirage's real version never really made it out in America, although it did get a limited release Speed Stars toy, and a Sideways redeco as Dino in Japan). Overall: Eh, if this were sold separately, I'd say skip it. But since it's in a $15 set with a Deluxe-sized toy, consider it an accessory for Slug to fire missiles at. DINOBOT: DINOBOT SLUG Altmode: Triceratops Transformation Difficulty: 8 Steps Previous Name Use: AoE Previous Mold Use: BWNeo, BW, Uni, RiD Function: Giant Purple People Beater Plastic Colors: It feels like a first year Transformers Universe toy, what with all the purple. Pretty much all of the beast parts are purple, including the tongue. The robot head is also purple, but the torso, upper arms, left forearm, missiles, shoulder spikes, inner thighs, and shins are all black plastic. The grip and trigger of the tail gun are also black plastic. Paint Apps: Beast mode is fairly, well, AoE-like in terms of paint. A black burst pattern on the back that extends a little onto the tail, red horns and some red patterning on the frill, blue eyes, white rear kneecaps. They didn't bother painting the tongue. Robot mode adds white on the face, right chest, and abdomen. The left chest is red, and there's a bit of red on the forehead. The eyes are painted blue. The spark crystal on the gun is printed over with an Autobot symbol. Mold Changes: While I somehow managed to not buy any of the three Triceradons (or if I did, I never reviewed them), this does seem to be the Triceradon mold, complete with Dinobot spark crystal. Other Notes: It's important to note that this is a Beast Wars Neo mold. BWNeo is pretty much where shellformers took off as a common design element...as bad as Car Robots/RiD got with shellformers, that series was just following BWNeo's example. So this is a stumpy robot with a huge amount of beast kibble hanging off it and blocking articulation. Amusingly, it's not even the oldest recycled mold in this set...that honor goes to two-pack Strafe, which uses the original Terrorsaur mold from 1996. Most of the Destron dinos in BWNeo had a "camouflage mode," which in Guiledart's case was disguising himself as his own predator-ravaged corpse. The "dead mode" gimmick where you stick out the tongue and open up a panel on one side remains, but with no paint on the ribs or tongue, it's less obvious. The eyes go from blue to black, though, so it does still subtly suggest a dead bot. And the instructions call for making the eyes roll back for robot mode...transferring the spark from dino head to robot head, perhaps? The spikes sticking up from the shoulderpad just happen to have 3mm peg holes molded into them. Forward compatibility by accident! This is just as much of a fiddly shellformer as Guiledart, especially in dealing with the flank/belly shell pieces, but I've clearly had my shellformer scale recalibrated in the past 15 years, as I didn't find this to be nearly as annoying to transform as I did Guiledart. Oh, and while the instructions don't actually mention it, you can keep the missiles stored in the back chunk in beast mode. Just needs a little fiddling about to get things in place around them. Overall: It's not as good a design as AoE Slug's mold, but on the plus side it lacks the Bayformer aesthetic as well. An interesting curiousity if you never picked up an earlier version of the mold. Two-Pack Overall: On the one hand, it's the only one with a Deluxe-sized figure plus a Legion class for $15, with the rest using Scouts as the big figure. On the other hand, neither mold is all that great. Worth picking up if you're trying to army-build as many different Dinobot molds as you can get, and not really a ripoff, but if your store doesn't get any in stock it's not a great loss. OPTIMUS PRIME & GRIMLOCK set Packaging: Same style as the other two-pack. Grimlock has the robot face forward and looking out of the dino neck, rather than turned backwards. AUTOBOT: OPTIMUS PRIME Altmode: Truck Transformation Difficulty: 6 steps Previous Name Use: Yes Previous Mold Use: RotF Function: Autobot Leader Plastic Colors: The upper arms, pelvis, and wheels are black plastic. The rest of the toy is medium silvery gray plastic, but they did a good job of using paint to make it look like there was blue plastic. Paint Apps: In vehicle mode, the nose is painted gloss red with blue flames. The rear fenders and the front window borders are also gloss red. The front and side windows are silver, as is the visor over the windshield. The cab sides and the roof are painted dull darkish blue. Robot mode adds blue and silver on the helmet, red and silver abdomen, and blue shins. A small red Autobot symbol is printed on the left thigh, so this Optimus Prime got his cutie mark. Checking against the original, the only difference this time is the addition of red to the abdomen. And maybe the gray plastic is a little darker now, but that could be batch variation. Mold Changes: None that I noticed. The original had no weapons, this was just before they introduced the 3mm peg idea for the size class. Other Notes: Robot mode still doesn't really look that Optimus-y in colors, but I suppose in the years since the original came out I've gotten more accustomed to Optimus abuse. And the red on the abdomen does help a little. While it has no knees, it can ride the Grimlock it was packed with reasonably well. Overall: Not much different from the original use of the mold, but a good inclusion with Grimlock. (Note, if you really want this mold, missed it in 2009, and don't want the whole set, the single-pack Walmart exclusive in this wave is the same mold and only slightly different paint.) DINOBOT: GRIMLOCK Altmode: Dinosaur Transformation Difficulty: 4 steps Previous Name Use: Previous Mold Use: Energon Function: Stompy Stompy Plastic Colors: Several pieces are dipped in copper paint, so I'm guessing that they're black plastic. The shoulderpads, hip pads and sections of the torso core are copper plastic. All the parts that were clear on the original (weapon, Energon star, claws) are light silvery gray. Everything else seems to be black plastic of various kinds. The hinges inside the tail for automorph are also silvery gray, although my original review doesn't tell me if they were clear on Cruellock and I don't feel like digging around in boxes to check. :) Paint Apps: Copper paint completely covering the calf pieces and robot head, lots of it on the beast head and along the back and the top of the tail. The beast head has silver eyebrows and blue eyes, the robot head has silver faceplate and crest plus blue eyes. There's also a bit of silver on the abdomen. No Autobot symbol I can find. Mold Changes: They glued the energon star in place, and omitted the spark crystal underneath it. I do not recommend popping the star off, as it may not stay on very well once unglued. I might paint mine before gluing it back on. Other Notes: Oddly, despite there being storage for it in the tail, the gun/hilt piece of the weapon is packaged in the blister rather than stored in beast mode. Overall: Not as good a color scheme as Doomlock, but a pretty good use of a pretty good mold. Set Overall: Well, for $15 you get to have an Optimus riding Grimlock without it being Construct-Bots. And while this pairing wasn't designed to go together, Prime's toes fit nicely under Grimlock's armpits to let him stay on. Dave Van Domelen, on to Sky-Byte!