Dave's Titanium Series Transformers Rant: 3" Assortment 1 War Within Optimus Prime Beast Wars Megatron Starscream (G1) Unicron (G1) Autobot Jazz (Alternators Meister) Side Swipe (Alternators) Optimus Primal (BW) Megatron (Cybertron) Autobot Starship Ark (Cross-time) Updated 8/4/06 with WW Prime. The Titanium Series (an offshoot of the Micromachines brand) has been around for a while as a way to sell little die-cast Star Wars vehicles, but Hasbro has been expanding it lately, including Battlestar Galactica and Transformers. The regular Titaniums are $5 and mostly made of die-cast metal. The first assortment is split into three packaging waves, all of which hit stores about the same time. Wave 1 is the first three on the list above, Wave 2 is the first six, and Wave 3 is the last six...lots of overlap. CAPSULES War Within Optimus Prime: Cool design, good colors, horrible pose. Mildly recommended. $4.97 at Wal-Mart. Beast Wars Megatron: Indifferent paint job, bad pose that hinders what joints it has. Avoid. $4.99 at TRU. Starscream: Decent mold, okay paint job, not much pose. Mildly recommended. $4.99 at TRU. Unicron: Bowling for Energon! Indifferent paint job, but pose and sculpt are a bit better than I'd expected. Mildly recommended. $4.99 at TRU. Autobot Jazz: Decent mold, pose and paint job. One of the better ones in the wave. Recommended. $4.99 at TRU. Side Swipe: Good mold, pose and okay paint. Recommended. $4.99 at TRU. Optimus Primal: Looks decent, but has weird pre-posing that makes the points of articulation kinda useless. Neutral. $4.99 at K-Mart. Megatron: Decent mold, decent pose, decent in general. Ugly colors, but that's not the fault of the Titanium designers. Mildly recommended. $4.99 at K-Mart. Autobot Starship Ark: Doesn't really look like any version of the Ark, but it's a nice and clearly Cybertronian ship. The base needs work, though. Recommended. $4.99 at K-Mart. RANTS Packaging: The shape of these is the standard Titanium Series lozenge bubble, 9" (23cm) tall including the hook, 3.5" (9cm) wide at its widest, and 2.5" (6.5cm) thick at its thickest. The shape is like a gel capsule (like NyQuil) flattened on one side and at each end. The back is a card, the front is a clear blister with cardstock inside the edges. The center of the blister is left open as an egg-shaped bubble to show the toy. There's a raised part at the top with the "Titanium Series Die-Cast" logo, and another at the bottom with the Transformers logo. The outer area of the blister has a paper piece with a design that's sort of a warped version of the character art on it, eyes glowing right below the Titanium Series logo (the Ark being an eyeless exception, of course). On the card back, the bottom third is black with the various logos and legalese, with the top being the techspecs. It has a red background fading towards orange at the edges, an orange line work picture of the toy at the top, a stripped-down techspec in the middle, and a bio note at the bottom of the section. The techspecs omit Rank and Skill, but have the other six specs. The bio notes are in small orange letters on dark red background, which is about as easy to read as you'd expect. The cardback is actually two thin pieces of cardstock glued together, with the edges of the blister glued BETWEEN the layers, which makes it a pain to open without shredding. Even cutting it open is a bit tricky until you get the hang of it. I find it best to start at the top right where there's a small gap, slid down the right, across the bottom, up the left, and then across the top. Inside the package, there's a black and white burst pattern behind the character, and a faction symbol stand behind the figure so that they don't need to print different backgrounds. However, there are only Autobot and Decepticon stands, no Maximal, Predacon or other factions represented. A rubber band secures the top of the stand, but the figure itself holds down the bottom. The stands are about 2.5" (6.5cm) tall and 7mm thick (well, they're hollow, but stand that high from the tabletop). They're made of clear plastic with the symbol molded to the inside part, with paint also on the inside. The outer surface is therefore simply unpainted clear plastic. Some stands have a peg 3.2mm in diameter in the upper left quadrant (all of my Wave 2 figures did, none of my Wave 3-only figures did). All of the figures in this wave have a single peg hole in their right leg to fit here, except for Starscream and the Ark, whose flight bases have such holes. Starscream's is stable enough to do without a peg, the Ark's not so much. One problem with the Titanium packaging is that it's kinda hard to tell the lines apart if someone stocks them all together. You pretty much have to dig through the entire rack to see, especially since the line name is at the bottom of the package, rather than the top. Fortunately, it looks like Titanium TFs will be stocked apart from Star Wars and BSG ones at most stores. But it'd pay to check the SW pegs anyway, to be safe. Wave 3 came with little folded up half-oval catalogs at the bottom of the package. Once unfolded, one side has photos of several of the earlier figures (BW Megatron, Starscream, Unicron, WWI Prime), while the other has the cover, an ad for other Titaniums, and the checklist for the first several assortments all mixed together. 3": Optimus Prime, Unicron, Side Swipe, Autobot Jazz, Megatron, Grimlock, Autobot Starship Ark, Beast Wars Megatron, Smokescreen, Starscream, Bumblebee, Scorponok, Predaking, War Within Optimus Prime, Beast Wars Optimus Primal. 6" Cybertron Heroes: Megatron (shown in both modes), War Within Optimus Prime, Jetfire, Thundercracker, Optimal Optimus, Scourge. The Dreamwave Crouch: This bears mentioning on its own. One of the more lampoonable aspects of Pat Lee's art and the general Dreamwave "House Style" was that characters kept being depicted in a crouch or squat, with their shins right up in your face and their pelvises several miles away. The overall effect is intended to be dynamic, but ends up making it look like the character is horribly constipated. Unfortunately, the Crouch has infested the Titanium Series design process. Not every figure has it, but all too many. Partly Metal, Partly Real: Or plastic. While advertised as being die-cast metal, only part of each toy is metal, usually the torso and maybe parts of the limbs. When in doubt, I used the lip test (metal parts will feel colder, the lips are more sensitive to temperature than fingertips). Yes, you may now make a Transformers: Kiss joke at my expense. AUTOBOT: WAR WITHIN OPTIMUS PRIME GRAVITAS and the members of the CHAMBER OF THE ANCIENTS have spoken. It has been determined that the fate of the AUTOBOTS will rest upon the shoulders of an archivist named OPTRONIX. He is given the leadership name of OPTIMUS PRIME once the power of THE AUTOBOTS MATRIX is bestowed onto him and provides the leadership his race needs in their most desperate hour. STR 10 INT 10 SPD 6 END 8 COUR 10 FRB 10 Avg 9 One twist-tie holds it in the blister, with arms raised and gun in hand. The baseplate has a peg. Height: 2" (5cm), although he has a BAD case of the Crouch. Parts: Torso and most of the boots are metal. The wheels on the outside of the boots, and all other parts are plastic. I think all the plastic parts are dark blue, but there's such heavy paint coverage in some places it's hard to say for sure without cutting. Paints: The upper torso and shoulders are red, the forearms, abdomen, thighs, faceplate, forehead and most of the gun (except the peg) are silver. The shoudler wheels and boot wheels are painted black. There's yellow accents on the shoulders and blue (either metallic, or thin enough to let the underlying silver show through) bits on the pelvis and thighs. The bumper bits on the chest are silver. The eyes do not seem to be painted. There's a black wash on pretty much all painted parts. Pose: Like I said, major Crouch. Like, he'd be almost twice as tall standing up straight. Feet planted far apart, hunched over. Right arm is bent 90 degrees, left arm bent slightly. Right hand in gun-holding pose, left hand in a sort of half-reaching, half-pointing gesture. There are swivels on the neck, waist, shoulders and wrists (the wrists may be paintlocked on yours as they were on mine). Accessory: The gun is removable, and is 4.5cm long, painted silver with black wash. Don's name is not on the gun at this size (it's molded into the 6" version's gun). Overall: It looks like he's trying to catch his breath, especially if you put his left hand on his knee. It's cool to have a figure based on a comics-only character, especially one designed by fan-made-good Don Figueroa, but they didn't really do the character justice. PREDACON: BEAST WARS MEGATRON MEGATRON is a rogue member of the dreaded PREDACONS, a race of TRANSFORMERS that emerged from the smoldering ruins of the defeated DECEPTICONS. He possesses the prized Golden Disk, an artifact that will guide his group of PREDACONS to a planet ripe with the ENERGON they so desperately need. STR 10 INT 9 SPD 9 END 10 COUR 10 FRB 9 Avg 9.5 One twist-tie holds him into the blister. He's posed with both arms raised, with a rubber band holding the arms that way. Height: 2" (5cm) at the head. Parts: Torso, pelvis and upper legs are a chunk of metal. Arms, head and lower legs are made of pale lavender plastic which reacts slightly with UV. Paint: Torso and upper legs solid black, pelvis purple. Backpack (part of the torso metal) lavenger with green sides and yellow center. Green paint on various parts of the shoulders, claw hand, dinohead hand and the rest of that arm. Red eyes (both dino and robot) and dino tongue. White dino teeth and rear leg claws. Silver helmet, purple face. Faint black wash on lower legs and left arm. The purple paint reacts strongly to UV. Pose: Swivel shoulders, head, and dino head "wrist". Dino jaws open. The left arm is permanently bent, and neither arm is really posed in a good way. Combined with a mild case of the Crouch, it's hard to get him in a pose that isn't bad. Accessories: None. Overall: Not a good toy, no. I may try painting up the torso a bit to make it look more show-accurate, but make no mistake, it's a salvage job. Not a toy you want to get for its own merits. DECEPTICON: STARSCREAM The treacherous second in command of the DECEPTICONS and leader of the DECEPTICON Sky Command, STARSCREAM is a name feared by all who hear it. He plots constantly to usurp his leader MEGATRON, but his native cowardice and lack of subtlety prevent him from succeeding. Still, his powerful Null-Ray blasts, which cripple any electrical system they hit, command instant respect. STR 7 INT 7 SPD 9 END 7 COUR 8 FRB 7 Avg 7.5 Hm, native cowardice merits Courage 8? Suuure. A combination of one twist-tie and a rubber band hold him in the package, and his pistol is just held in by the blister. I had to cut the band before I could open the tie. Height: 2.25" (5.5cm) figure only, 3" (7.5cm) including the thrust base. Parts: Arms, head, wings, thrust base and pistol are light gray plastic (base is rigid plastic, the rest are soft, only the soft plastic reacts to UV), everything else is metal. Paint: Pretty close to G1-accurate, if lacking most of the yellow on the legs. The forearms/hands are dark blue, as are the feet, kneecaps and shins. The torso is red with light and dark gray cockpit and silver chest turbines in black recesses. The scoops on either side of the head have silver inside with three yellow dots. The head is black with silver face and "ear" details, plus yellow eyes. The red stripes are present on the wings, but oddly the molded Decepticon symbols on the wings are painted medium blue. Pose: Arms swivel at the shoulders, and that seems to be it. The head may be turnable, but I'd need to pull out needlenose pliers to test that out, and don't feel like getting plier marks on the head. The right hand is in a "HALT!" pose, and the left arm is bent at the elbow with a hand that can hold a gun. The left leg is raised and bent, and the figure is not posed so that it can stand without its thrust base. However, no Crouch in evidence. Accessories: A small pistol (20mm long, light gray plastic) and a thrust base with 4.3mm diameter pegs for the feet and a peg hole in the bottom to connect to the Decepticon symbol base. The thrust base has a blue wash to look like cloudy exhaust. Overall: Looks decent, although it's more statue-like than most of the set. And he has fan-nipples. Still, if you like Starscream, you may want to snag this one. UNICRON (no affiliation, but has a Decepticon base) The scourge of the TRANSFORMERS race, the almighty UNICRON can move through space and across dimensions at will. He is completely dedicated to a life of destruction and will remove all obstacles, including whole planets, that stand in his way of universal domination. STR 10 INT 10 SPD 10 END 10 COUR 10 FRB 10 Avg 10 Two twist-ties, waist and left leg/arm. Horrible wing pose in package, it doesn't have to look like that. Note, this is definitely the G1 version, not Armada/Energon. Height: 2.25" (6cm) tall, although he has a bad case of Crouch. Wingspan about 3.5" (8.5cm). Parts: Torso is one metal piece, pelvis and legs together are another metal piece. Head, arms and wings are slightly yellowish orange plastic. Several of the plastic parts feel sticky. Paint: Silver paint on collar, face, hands, planet he's holding, pelvis, lower legs. Orange paint on parts of the torso, and the thighs. Black wash over most parts, giving a sort of Ben Grimm look. The eyes are green. Pose: Head, waist, shoulders and forearms swivel (the last joint lets you turn the hands as part of the entire forearm). The wings also swivel so you can position them to look non-stupid once you pose the arms. Yeah, the wings are attached to the shoulders, not to the back, but I suppose it would be pose-limiting if they tried a back attachment. [Later note: I have been rather snippily corrected here, they're supposed to connect to the shoulders on the G1 version.] The waist joint helps act against his Crouch, and you can get some nice "reaching out to seize the planet" poses. I think I'll paint the planet so it's more distinct from his hand. Oh, and a bowling pose is also possible. And kinda funny. Maybe I'll paint the planet black. Accessories: None. The planet is part of his hand mold. Overall: Mediocre paint job, and the sticky plastic is rather offputting, but the toy isn't the horrorshow I expected from the early pictures. AUTOBOT: AUTOBOT JAZZ AUTOBOT JAZZ fell in love with Earth the first time he heard the music. His huge databank of Earth culture has made him the right hand man to OPTIMUS PRIME, as well as the ideal choice for many of the most dangerous undercover assignments. A courageous, cool and capable warrior and spy, he i always the first to volunteer for any mission. STR 5 INT 9 SPD 7 END 7 COUR 9 FRB 5 Avg 7 A tie around the waist and a rubber band linking his arms around through the blister. His pistol is just in the blister. A note on the name. "Jazz" alone is apparently no longer a trademark Hasbro can hold, and they moved to Autobot Jazz for the Heroes of Cybertron incarnation. However, when they made him for Alternators, he got renamed Meister, possibly because there is a car called the Jazz that isn't made by Mazda, and hey wanted to steer clear of any licensing hassles. However, this toy is apparently not covered by those agreements, since it's the robot mode of Meister (albeit with some G1 color scheme additions). Height: 2.25" (5.5cm). Parts: Torso, pelvis and lower legs are metal. Backpack, arms and thighs are white plastic (strong UV reaction). Head, hands, knees and gun are black plastic. The tires on the feet are black plastic (but do not spin). Paint: Extensive white paint on the metal parts, with details in black, silver and blue. Red Autobot symbols on the shoulders, silver and black on the window wings, silver face and knee/shin details. Pale metallic blue on the thighs. There's a blue band on the chest, red strips along the bottom of the airdam, and stripes of red, blue and light blue on the feet. Yes, they've put aspects of G1 Jazz's paint job onto Meister. Pose: Head, shoulders, wrists and mid-shins swivel. Both arms are bent, with the right hand being in a gun-holding pose and the left in a beer- holding pose. Serious Crouch, but the way the shins swivel helps a little. Accessories: Black plastic muffler gun, a bit stretched out and not immediately recognizable as itself. 25mm long. Overall: One of the better paint jobs, although doing a straight Meister would have been pretty simple. The weird posing choices aren't as harmful to it as in some of the others. Worth getting. AUTOBOT: SIDE SWIPE A skilled warrior who relishes a fight to the finish, SID SWIPE does not hesitate to use underhanded tactics when that is what is required to win. Quantum reflex processors give him incredible reflexes, and an array of short and medium range weapons make him a formidable opponent in any environment. He takes pride in the fact that unlike most AUTOBOTS, he can fly for short distances using his rocket backpack. STR 7 INT 7 SPD 7 END 7 COUR 10 FRB 3 Avg 6.83 Fireblast 3 ain't so formidable. Same tie/band combo as Jazz. The separated name is how they did it on the Alternators toy. Size: 2.25" (6cm) tall. Parts: Torso, pelvis and lower legs are metal. Head, shoulderpads, hands and the wheels on the boots are black plastic. Arms and thighs are dark gray (33333) plastic. The pistol is a gunmetal plastic, or one of the other plastic colors completely painted over. Paint: White helmet crest and face (UV reactive), with blue eyes. Extensive red paint on vehicle body pieces, silver paint on the hubcaps, headlights, windshield and pelvis. A lot of black paint on the lower torso and the shins, with dark gray paint on the feet. Autobot symbol printed on the chest. There's a bit of a chip off his left boot. Pose: Head, shoulders and wrists swivel. No joints in the legs, despite similarity to Jazz otherwise. Right arm is bent at the elbow and has a hand posed to hold his gun, left arm is almost straight and ends in a fist. No Crouch to speak of. Accessories: Pistol, 28mm long, vaguely resembles his engine gun, but longer. Overall: The alterations made to the legs for this sculpt fix the problems the real Alternator has. A bit dull in color scheme, but at least that plays against the weaknesses of the line. Worth getting. MAXIMAL: OPTIMUS PRIMAL Forced by fate into a role he never wished for himself, OPTIMUS PRIMAL led a ragtag group of scientists and warriors in a desperate battle against a marooned gang of madmen and killers led by the PREDACON criminal MEGATRON. Trapped and alone, the MAXIMAL leader fought to defend the primitive world on which they had crashed, and to prevent the insane machinations of a villain that would eventually become the most dangerous enemy ever to blight the history of CYBERTRON. STR 10 INT 9 SPD 8 END 10 COUR 10 FRB 7 Avg 9 One twist-tie around the waist holds Primal in place, his swords are held solely by the blister. Mine came with a pegless base. Height: 2.25" (5.5cm) at the head, a little higher counting the shoulder missiles. Parts: The torso and thighs are metal, the rest are very dark gray (333333) plastic. Paint: The head is mostly painted medium blue (helmet) and very light gray (face and helmet tablet) with orange eyes. There's very light gray on the thighs and upper arms, very dark gray paint on most of the torso, slightly lighter gray (666666) details on the chest, silver on the sword blades, and little orange details all over. Pose: Ick. Not the Crouch, but bad in its own way. The right arm is pre-posed so that it really only works when raised in a parrying position, the sword held more or less horizontal, thus making two points of articulation pointless (pun intended). The shoulders and wrists swivel and the head turns, although it's difficult to get it to do so. The point where the left arm is glued together above the elbow feels like it should be a swivel, but it's NOT. You will rip it apart if you try too hard. There's a sort of joint at the waist, but it doesn't seem intended to move...and even if it did, the backpack would mostly block it. Accessories: Two swords. Each is 2.25" (5.5cm) long and can be removed from the hands. They do not, however, store along the sides of the backpack as with the original "Apetimus" toy. Overall: Looks okay in one pose, might as well not have articulation. Like his counterpart, Beast Wars Megatron, only get if you're a completist or want to use it as a repainting project. DECEPTICON: MEGATRON Mighty founder and leader of the DECEPTICONS, MEGATRON is bent on conquest. Without mercy, without weakness, without pity. He longs to destroy OPTIMUS PRIME and ever last AUTOBOT before turning CYBERTRON into a mobile war world at the heart of a galaxy-spanning empire. Determined to possess the Planet Keys held by the lost TRANSFORMERS worlds, he will not hesitate to spend the lives of his troops to annihilate anyone who opposes him in his goals. STR 10 INT 10 SPD 10 END 10 COUR 10 FRB 10 Avg 10 This is the Cybertron version of Megatron. One twist-tie around the waist, no ties around the gun. Mine came with a pegless base. Height: 2" (5cm), would be taller if not for The Crouch. Parts: The upper torso and the lower legs are metal, everything else is plastic. The arms and hands are orange (FF9900) plastic, the head, backpack and combined pelvis/ thigh sections are very light gray (lighter than CCCCCC) plastic. The gun and head are fully painted, so I'm not sure what color plastic they are, but I'm guessing very light gray. Paint: The head and gun are mostly silver, with black on the tire, very light gray on the face, purple (000099) on the horns, and a bit of aqua (33FF99) on the forehead. There's black and purple on the shoulders, purple on the forearm armor chunks, light gray on most of the torso, aqua and orange details all over, silver on the shins, black toes...you know, the utter mess that is Cybertron Megatron's color scheme. Pose: A bit of a Crouch. Swivels at the shoulders, neck and wrists. The waist has a little wiggle in it, but does not seem intended to actually move Accessories: His gun, which is to scale and can be held in the right hand only. There's no way to store it elsewhere, though. Overall: Well, it's got an ugly color scheme, but that's part and parcel of the character. Otherwise, a decent figure. AUTOBOT: AUTOBOT STARSHIP ARK Model: Vanguard Class deep space interceptor Crew: 300 Engines: 4 Hyperfuel Intake Accelerators Weapons: Particle Combustion Cannons Destroyed By: Fortress Maximus Fuel Cell Life: More than 4 million years This legendary ship looms large in the history of the TRANSFORMERS. Originally constructed to destroy an asteroid that threatened CYBERTRON, it became the home base first of the MAXIMALS and then the AUTOBOTS on Earth. Over the long history of the war, the ARK changed hands many times, featuring as the crux upon which many a battle turned, before its ultimate destruction. This is the style of entry used for regular Titanium line ships, with no techspecs. Note that this version of the Ark does not quite look like any previous one, bearing a strong resemblance to the late-1970s toy called the StarBird (http://www.bugeyedmonster.com/toys/starbird/), as well as to the excape ships from the original Transformers movie. The techspec bio places it in the Beast Wars/G1 continuity, but being destroyed by Fortress Maximus is a reference to the Transformers Generation 2 comic, issue 2 (and it didn't really look like this toy in that comic). So I consider this something of a cross-time version of the Ark. Held in place by two rubber bands on the ship, the stand is just held in by the blister. Mine came with a pegless base. Length: 2.75" (7cm) Wingspan: 2.25" (5.5cm) Parts: The front quarter of the ship and the wings are yellow-orange (FF9900) plastic, the main fuselage is metal. The flight stand is clear colorless plastic. Paint: The orange paint on the metal part is somewhat brighter than the plastic next to it. There's little silver and black details on the front section, silver and black on the top rear fuselage and main engine, and silver wingtips. Autobot symbols are printed on the tops of both wings. Pose: None. It's a ship. There's no fold-down landing gear or other movable parts, and the front section is connected via a rivet post, so you can't detach the front and crash-land it on the planet Junk. [Later correction: you can actually pull the front off, it pegs onto a plastic piece that is riveted to the metal fuselage. But this is a safety thing, not a for-play joint. I'd have liked it if the front end came off and still looked like it had a proper back end.] Accessories: Flight stand. Really should have a pegged base, so I'll be trading bases with one of my Wave 2 figures, but will balance on its own without a peg. Unfortunately, even with a borrowed pegged-base, it's not exactly snug. Mine wobbles significantly. However, if you have any old 3.75" GIJoe foot-peg bases sitting around, they work great. Overall: Well, it's cool to have a toy of the Ark, even if it doesn't look like the Ark from the cartoon or the comics. Would have been nice if the base were better, though. Of course, those who object to Titaniums on the grounds of not transforming might want to pick this up, since it's not SUPPOSED TO transform. :) Dave Van Domelen, had a really good shopping trip today, but still needs War Within Prime.