Dave's Titanium Series Rant: 6" Series Wave 9 Prowl (War Within) Grimlock (War Within) Permalink: http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Artifacts/6Ti9 When Titanium Transformers got cancelled, there were two new molds ready to go, as well as several in late prototype form. Prowl and Grimlock were the new molds, and were initially intended to ship with Soundblaster (black Soundwave G1 recolor) and Primal Prime (Optimal Optimus recolor), but that didn't happen. However, Toys R Us has taken the two new molds as store exclusives, bumping the price to $19.99, so at least we have a shot at them. The "local" TRU (a hour's drive away) didn't have 'em out yet when I went in early September, and someone had bought all the Grimlocks by the time I visited again in early October, so I guess I have to hope these eventually become available online (TRU's website has Grimlock listed as "temporarily unavailable"). I refuse to pay eBay markup on top of the $5 bump in price, though. Update 10/25/08: Yay, they restocked! Review bits to be added here and there for the next few days. However, they boosted the price by a buck in the intervening month. CAPSULES Prowl: At the original Titanium 6" pricepoint I'd be fairly enthusiastic about recommending this one. It's well-engineered for a Titanium, and while the robot mode looks a bit wonky, it has a decent transformation and nice vehicle mode. But the 33% boost in price is significant, and I can only mildly recommend this. $19.99 at TRU. Grimlock: As with Prowl, it'd be pretty good at $15, but is rather overpriced now. Good robot mode, simplistic transformation, so-so vehicle mode. Mildly recommended. $20.99 at TRU. RANT Packaging: Same as previous waves, but with an "only at TOYS R US" sticker on the front window. Prowl's co-sell is Soundblaster (Soundwave in black and silver with clear red chest), Grimlock's is Primal Prime (red and blue version of Optimal Optimus). "War Within" is printed under the Transformers logo in the upper left. AUTOBOT: PROWL Unique feature: Highly advanced logic circuits. The most single-minded of all the AUTOBOTS, PROWL is sometimes referred to as "the commander's SHARKTICON" because of the way he seizes a problem and refuses to let go until it is solved. He rivals even SHOCKWAVE in the fields of cryptography, logistics and strategic planning. In fact, the two of them will occasionally engage in complex shadow wars that rage just beneath the surface of an ongoing battle, logical games designed more to frustrate and confound each other than secure victory for their sides. PROWL believes that there is a reason for all things. He struggles to understand the perspective even of his enemies, believing that if he can discern the logical underpinnings of the DECEPTICON cause, he can devise a strategy for final victory. Though he is often torn by emotions that conflict with his logic, he has difficulty understanding how others can be so ruled by feeling and instinct. He believes that all creatures behave according to some complex arithmetic, and that if he could only work it out, he could bring peace to the universe. STR 7 INT 9 SPD 7 END 9 RNK 9 COUR 9 FRB 4 SKL 9 Avg 7.875 I suspect it's more complex than mere arithmetic. :) Three twist-ties go through the card back for the chest and waist, but four more for the limbs go through only the blister. However, the blister is only held in by folded tabs, no tape to cut. A single rubber band holds the shoulder cannons to the blister. Main Weakness: Kinda oddly proportioned robot mode. No glaring engineering flaws, though. Robot Mode: 5.5" (14cm) tall at the head, 6.25" (16cm) at the shoulder missile pods. The pods stick way up on black struts rather than flanking the head as in G1 "Earth mode" Prowl or Classics Prowl. Some consider this a major flaw, but I kinda like it. It makes more sense to get the backblast of your own missiles away from your face, plus he can hide behind barriers and pop up the launchers to fire. On the other hand, his 4.75" (12cm) shoulderspan is a bit extreme, and he can't even get his hands close to each other. I guess he'd sympathize with a T.rex. Also, while the launchers are supposed to peg into slots on the back of the torso, it's rather loose, and I *do* count that as a flaw. And he has a big gap in his chest in front of his face, although I'll grudgingly admit that there's no real way to have filled it without totally changing the transformation of the torso. If you flip the head down and nothing else, though, it makes a decent police drone. Still, despite the proportion issues, the distribution of metal is good. Only a little in the chest, and a lot in the boots, so it's pretty stable. The central chest and three facings of the boots are made of metal. The upper arms, forearms, fists, hip ratchets and missile pod cores (the parts painted silver) are cool gray plastic. I think the head is made of white plastic, it has a different UV glow than the white paint, but I can't take it apart to check. I did take the missile pods apart. :) The shin armor is clear blue plastic. Everything else, including the instep sides of the boots and the toes, is black plastic. The wings on the missile pods are a softer black plastic. The front and top of the "right torso" and "left torso" chest bits are painted mostly white, as are most of the wings on the missile pods and the center of the abdomen. There's also white stripes on the shoulders and forearms. The metal bits are mainly painted black, and the underside half of each forearm is also mostly black. There's lots of silver bits, including the grille, headlights, missile pod cores, face, shoulder lights, abdomen flanks, belt bits, piping on the shins, details behind the clear blue shinplates. There's alternating red and blue accents in several places (abdomen, shoulders, chest, wingtips, some stuff on the back mainly meant for vehicle mode). The helmet antennae and the missile tips are also red, while the eyes are blue. The center of the helmet crest is golden yellow. A silver and black five pointed star at a slant and superimposed on an oval with a red Autobot symbol in the center is on the left chest. The head turns smoothly, if not easily. The waist is on an 8 point ratchet. The shoulders are universal, with 8 point soft ratchet for the swivel and a smooth hinge. There's no upper arm swivel, but the entire shoulder chunk can swing backwards on a transformation hinge to give a bit more range of arm motion. Smooth hinge elbow, smooth swivel just below the elbow. The closed fist (which has no peg hole) can wiggle a little. The hips are universal ratchets, with 12 point ratchet out to the sides (3 clicks to horizontal, where it stops) and 8 point ratchet forward and back. The mid-thigh swivels are 8 point ratchets. The knees are hinged to have two stable positions: straight and bent 45 degrees from straight. The toes move, but the feet are so huge that it really doesn't make a difference. Undocumented feature: you can flip the shoulder weapons under and forward on their struts and then position the arms so that the weapons look like pistols instead. http://www.dvandom.com/images/wwiprowlpistol.JPG Transformation: Legs telescope shorter, snap together, waist twists 180 degrees. Head folds down into chest, chest lifts up. The missile pod struts peg onto the legs, the torso side pieces pull away from the center and the arms just sort of straighten and get shorter. The toes point down to reveal more red and blue flashers. An odd combination of complexity and simplicity, really. I wish they'd made it so that the forearms could peg onto something, though. And having the missile point at the fists is one of those "Head-Punch Luthor" design decisions. Vehicle Mode: Well, this is a War Within toy, so it's not really anything. Sort of a hovercar thing with outrigger pods (i.e. the robot arms). 5" (13cm) long, 5.75" (14.5cm) wingspan, with the main body being 3.75" (9.5cm) wide. The outrigger struts are black plastic, everything else was visible already in robot mode A lot of the silver parts join up in this mode. For instance, the silver pods on the shoulders connect up to the ones on the torso sides. The shinguards connect into a single clear blue canopy, and additional red and blue flashers are visible behind it on pieces of the toes that aren't visible in robot mode. At the very rear are molded thrust fans painted silver, plus red-painted tail lights. It's worth noting that now all blue details are to the starboard side and all red details to the port side (there's two places where there's red and blue right next to each other on just one side of the centerline, but they still obey that rule relative to each other). In robot mode it's a little mixed up. No real articulation. The missile pods can swivel up to fire over the outrigger pods, although the wings are attached to them so Prowl would end up nosing down. All the metal pieces are on the centerline, symmetrically arranged, so it's reasonably stable. The exposed missile pod struts on the sides of the center bit are a bit ugly, though. Overall: Somewhat oddly proportioned robot mode, decent transformation for a Titanium, mostly nice-looking vehicle mode that tends to shoot itself. Not really worth $20, though. AUTOBOT: GRIMLOCK Unique Feature: Tragic programming flaw resulting in speech impediment GRIMLOCK fights not because he believes in the AUTOBOT ideal of peace and freedom, but because he knows what MEGATRON really is. He was there at the beginning of the DECEPTICON movement, mudguard deep in the spilled oil on the arena floor. He knows what it is to feel the electron-surge of total victory over his foes. His coolant too has sung as he pressed his blade against the torso of a helpless opponent. But to GRIMLOCK, no weakness is worthy of respect, least of all that weakness that disguises itself as strength. Where is the satisfaction of crushing those who cannot defend themselves, or slaughtering a building full of unarmed innocents? How does madness like that prove one's strength? Better to die fighting against an enemy so powerful that defeat is almost certain. Better still to turn that enemy back and drive him broken before you. To someday see MEGATRON so broken - that is why GRIMLOCK fights. STR 10 INT 7 SPD 3 END 10 RNK 9 COUR 10 FRB 8 SKL 10 Avg 8.375 The package photo shows the faceplate painted pale gold, but it's unpainted on the actual toy. The sword is held in the right hand, horizontally across the body. Oddly, the instructions have been folded four times, then unfolded twice (i.e. it's folded into quarters but there's creases for two more folds). The blister is also held in by folded tabs rather than tape. One twist-tie all the way through to the inner card, and then seven more just to the blister (forearms, knees, ankles, sword). The rifle is held in by a rubber band, and another band keeps the chest down. The ankle ties are actually threaded through the feet, and a bit of a pain to remove. Major Weakness: Nothing, unless you count the weak transformation. But even that's comparable to G1 Optimus Prime. Robot Mode: 6" (15cm) tall at the head, add maybe a centimeter more for the wing smokestacks or gunbarrels or whatever they're supposed to be. The upper arms are tank treads, and there's more treads on the outsides of the boots. He has wings reminiscent of the G1 T.rex mode, with those smoketacks taking the place of the dino arms. He comes with a rifle and a sword, neither of which is "energized". The chest and the lower legs are metal, a decent balance in terms of stability. The head, fists and thighs are black plastic. The central torso is a yellow-orange plastic reminiscent of Optimal Optimus. The pelvis piece is a faintly swirly red plastic. The tank treads and little roller wheels are dark gunmetal. Everything else is medium gunmetal gray plastic, with some minor variation between bits. There's red paint on the visor, a few chest details, the kneecaps and a few other details relevant to the vehicle mode. The pectoral "vents" are painted yellow. The chest is painted yellow-orange in a so-so match to the plastic of that color, and the boots are mostly painted gunmetal. There's some yellow-orange paint details on the "belt" and shins as well. There's black paint on the abdomen and pelvis, plus a little on the shins and the calves. There's a few bits of pale gold on the tread centers, but not on the face (as earlier mentioned). The head turns smoothly, the waist turns on a soft 8 point ratchet. The shoulders are a bit odd...the tread housings are on 8 point ratchets, but a second shoulder swivel raises up smoothly inside the housing. There's no lift-to-the-sides articulation, and the arms pop off their pegs fairly easily if you try it. There's a stiff 8 point ratchet swivel on the upper arms, and double hinge elbows. The wrists turn smoothly. Universal ratchet hips (8 points forward and back, 12 points to the sides). There's 8 point ratcheting swivels mid-thigh, although they're hard to notice since there's smooth swivels below the knees. The knees are 16 point ratchet hinges, but only go three clicks before stopping. There's a little articulation on the ankles on the transformation joints, but it's ratcheting and of limited use. The rifle only has a single barrel, not the double of his G1 rocket gun. It has a peg on the back, on a hinge joint, that can plug into a hole on his back for storage. The gunmetal gray sword has two holes in it that fit onto pegs on the left boot tread. Transformation: Arms pack into upper arms, chest lifts up, wings fold into a cab, legs shorten, treads on legs flip around, toes point. Pretty simple. The weapons can store in the same places here as in robot mode, with the rifle becoming another smokestack. The cab just rests on the robot mode, there's no peg to keep it steady. Vehicle Mode: 6.25" (16cm) long, it's sort of an armored semitractor with tank treads. Of course, because it doesn't have anything real to look like (unlike G1 Prime), it mainly looks like a robot lying down with a cab bolted to its back, especially since the red butt and black legs aren't covered up at all. The top of the cab is mostly open, I suppose you could have a Mini-Con or a smaller Legend drive it. There's sort of turbine engine details on the rear section, the calves of robot mode fitted out with details that suggest spinning engine bits. The turbine blades are painted black. The vision slits on the cab are painted red. The front end doesn't really stay together well, due to the lack of pegs and the fact that the chest-swings-up joints are smooth (some of the only non-ratcheted joints on the toy). Overall: Nice robot mode, pretty weak vehicle mode. At $21, though, it's pretty much just for completists and big War Within fans. Dave Van Domelen, never did see Titanium Ultra Magnus in stores, even after trading for one.