Dave's Titanium Series Rant: 6" Wave 1 War Within Optimus Prime Pseudo-G2 Megatron I type this paragraph before even opening the packages. The initial reaction to the concept of these toys was overwhelmingly positive. A transforming War Within Optimus Prime! With metal parts! It seemed too good to be true! Then pictures of the Megatron started showing up, and the enthusiasm started to dampen. And when the actual toys hit stores, you could hardly avoid the "Primus, these SUCK!" comments. Even assuming that maybe the toys were being unfairly compared to unrealistic expectations, the specific comments on the toys made it clear that these...weren't working out well. That these might be toys to leave in the package, which for me means to leave it on the shelf at the store. But I decided I wasn't going to ruin my record, so I picked 'em both up when I saw 'em. I hope to not only give an untainted-by-high-expectations review, but also some tips on fixing any problems I find...if they can be fixed. On the first part, it should help that I don't hold die cast parts in overly high esteem to begin with. They ain't magic. CAPSULES Optimus Prime: Looks good in both modes, but unstable and prone to falling apart. The better of the two, though. $14.99 at Toys R Us. Megatron: Okay robot mode, weak vehicle mode, lots of loose bits and fall-apart-ness. Some problems are fixable, others are not. $14.99 at Toys R Us. I don't recommend either of them unless you plan to leave them in the package, though. They look nice in-box, but even Prime, the better of the two, has serious issues of stability and fragility. As an experienced customizer, I've managed to compensate for the problems enough that I don't feel much buyer's remorse, but I can't in good conscience advocate buying these if you're not a kitbasher or someone who leaves toys in the box. Mixing big metal parts with tiny plastic connectors is a really stupid idea. I'm afraid to even put these in storage, they'll probably shatter unless I take them apart and wrap each piece in foam (restoring them to original packaging won't work, even the profusion of twist-ties didn't keep parts from popping apart). I really hope the later ones are better. RANTS Packaging: They did not try to use the same packaging as the $15 Star Wars Titaniums, probably a good thing. The robot modes wouldn't have fit, and I expect they'd really want to show these in robot mode in the store, since neither has a "real" altmode. The boxes are inverted keystones. The back side is perpendicular to the top and bottom sides, but the front, right and left all slope gently inwards. As a result, the top is about 6" (15cm) wide and 3.5" (9cm) deep, while the bottom is 8" (20cm) wide and 5" (13cm) deep. The box is 9" (23cm) tall. Most of the front and a little of the top are clear, the rest of the sides are cardboard. Like the 3" Titanium packaging, the top and sides of the box are decorated to look like parts of the toy inside, but somewhat abstracted. The front has a picture (heavily photoshopped) of the vehicle mode, the Titanium Series logo and claims of a display stand and die cast metal. The Transformers logo is actually inside the package, between blister shell pieces. The back has pictures of the vehicle mode (top center), a closeup of the head and shoulders (left) and a picture of the robot mode of the other character (right). The techspecs and bio note are below the vehicle picture. Open the bottom of the box by slitting three pieces of tape. Trying to open any other side will be rather difficult, and I suspect the reputation this packaging has gotten for difficulty comes from people trying to open the top. A half-oval catalog (as seen with the last wave of 3" assortment 1) and two-color instructions are inside, between the box bottom and the corrugated cardboard base tray. Twist-ties hold the figure into a plastic tray (3 for Prime, 3 for Megatron). Undo these ties AND cut the tape holding the three plastic tabs keeping the tray in place (like an Alternator blister), and the whole thing will pull out. Don't try to just remove the figure from the blister, the twist-ties are in deep cracks and you'll have a much easier time removing the figure once the plastic tray is removed from the cardboard tray. Especially since the ties tend to be double-twisted...once outside the cardboard, once more between cardboard and plastic! And there's more ties just to the plastic (5 for Prime, 5 for Megatron...Megs is really bound up by his ties, to keep his shoulders together). I'll also note it's easier to CUT the dratted things once the blister is separated from the cardboard tray. Ah, crud. Prime's right thigh came loose and fell out somewhere. Oops, false alarm. The hip popped off when I flexed the tray, and the thigh retracted into the boot. Heh. Man, it's hard to get back on. Both of these figures were designed in concept by Don Figueroa, but then engineered by the people in the Galoob branch. Some think this may be part of a hedge on Hasbro's part to get its engineering tasks spread out in case Takara/Tomy implodes or otherwise becomes unreliable. The upshot, though, is that as with Star Wars TFs, there's a "breaking in" period to worry about, as the engineers may make stuff that works fine in prototype stage but fails in production. The extensive use of die cast metal (which Autobot Prime of the AllSpark says is ZAMAC, a Zinc/Aluminum/Magnesium/Copper alloy) adds challenges to the process as well...what might have worked in an all-plastic toy isn't necessarily going to work with ZAMAC all over the place. Bases: Each figure comes with a gunmetal plastic base done up like a section of Cybertronian "ground". There's no pegs or anything, they're just something to stand on. They're about 5" (12cm) wide and 3.5" (9cm) deep. Each has a slot at the front where a nameplate plugs in. The nameplates are 1.5" (4cm) tall, with a molded faction symbol dominating them, and a spot for a name sticker at the bottom. They don't really stay in place well on their own, but a bit of poster putty helps a lot. Some have suggested that the nameplate pieces be used as part of convention badges next year...while kinda cool in principle, the name sticker area is too small to make for a readable badge. The bases are too small for the vehicle modes to be displayed on them unless you remove the nameplates. Minor note: I think the black washes used on both figures may be rub-off-able, as my fingers got blackened after handling them. Or it might be the instructions, not sure. AUTOBOT: OPTIMUS PRIME Unique Feature: Inherited Matrix from the late Sentinel 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. Although Optronix is initially reluctant to accept this great responsibility, he begins to understand the devastating risks at stake for the entire Transformers race. Optronix is given the leadership name of Optimus Prime once the power of The Matrix is bestowed onto him. It is a sign that he must lead the Autobots away from Cybertron, not only to escape the war with the Decepticons, but also to escape the self-destructive war that exists within them. After a colossal battle with Megatron that spans the boundaries of both time and space, Optimus discovers the power within himself to step up and provide the leadership his race needs in their most desperate hour. STR 10 INT 10 SPD 6 END 8 RNK 10 COUR 8 FRB 7 SKL 8 Avg 8.375 Prime is packaged with his gun in his left hand, although his picture on Megatron's box shows him holding it in the right. Weight: 11.75oz (334g) Main Weakness: The shoulders are held on with an unpinned joint that pops off at the slightest provocation. This would be an issue even if the toy was made of all plastic. I expect it was part of the safety considerations, as a pin would simply make such a heavy toy break at a non-joint location, but this does seriously hamper the toy in both modes. Robot Mode: 5.75" (14cm) tall at the head. The hands, shoulders, upper arms, head and toes are made of blue plastic. The thighs and knees are made of very light gray plastic. The tires are hard black plastic, and the "light bar" thing atop the cockpit on his back is made of very dark blue plastic. The rifle is gunmetal plastic, or some other color of plastic painted gunmetal. The rifle is notable for having "DON" molded into the tech greebling on one side. Figueroa says he put it in as a gag (the greebling on the opposite side looks similar, but not exactly like his name), and they decided to leave it in. All other parts not mentioned are made of ZAMAC with paint on them: red on toros, shoulderpads and backplate, light gray on forearms and pelvis, dark blue on the boots. There's also silver paint on the forearm pipes and bumper, plus some on the abdomen and pelvis. [Later correction: this is actually unpainted shiny ZAMAC metal.] There's yellow accents on both shoulders and shoulderpads, and on the headlights. The pelvis, armorskirt and thighs have metallic blue paint on them. The faceplate and forehead tablet are silver. The eyes are a light blue, and I think it's the same light metallic blue as on the vehicle windows. There's a black paint wash over most of the metal pieces as well. Finally, on a nitpicky level, there seem to be bits of red plastic inside the pegholes on the inner right boot, to help the metal pegs on the inner left boot stay in place in vehicle mode. There's also some of this red plastic on the backpack piece so that the pegholes there have half-plastic sides for flexibility. Poseability is good, but the massiveness of the metal parts hurts things a lot. The head turns, but the waist doesn't (the transformation joint is blocked by the front wheels). The shoulders are swivels, there's an upper arm swivel on each arm, and an elbow hinge that looks like it wants to be a ratchet. The wrists do not turn, and the fists themselves don't stay out very well. The hips are ball joints, but moving them too far makes the pop off, and it's a devil of a time getting them back on. There's a swivel just below each hip, and a stiff knee hinge. There are joints in the feet, but the weight of the figure means the feet pretty much have to be flat. Putting the rifle in the hand is easier if you turn the gun so that the narrow side of the grip goes in first, then point it forward once seated. Transformation: Fairly simple in concept, but getting the pegs on the arms and back to line up (even with the half-plastic holes on the sides of the cockpit) generally results in multiple shoulder dislocations. The legs, by contrast, are fairly easy to transform. However the sliding post waist transformation joint feels like it's a part just waiting to snap. Vehicle Mode: Well, this is pretty much what Don drew in the War Within comic. 5" (13cm) long, it's a sort of futuristic semitractor with two big wheels up front and four smaller wheels in back. The exhaust pipe sections are pretty much the robot arms with little disguising, but that does fit the aesthetic that War Within vehicles were meant to be functional, not disguises. The rifle slots into the back of the cab and points backwards. Stability is so-so. The whole thing seems to depend on a few small pegs in the shoulders and forearms, and they don't always stay together. The cab can sag apart easily, especially when picking the toy up. It does roll well on the hard plastic wheels, though. And the robot fists on mine stay inside the arms, although I've heard of cases where they don't. Repair Suggestions: Filing down the hips a bit so that they fit inside the armor skirt better may be useful. You will also need to do some paint touchup, mine had obvious paint chipping on most of the metal parts, even ones that don't move (i.e. paint chipped in assembly). The hip and knee joints on mine were stiff enough, but if yours are too loose, the hips can be unscrewed so that you can put a layer of nailpolish topcoat on the knee parts and hip balls to make them less floppy. There isn't really a simple solution to the shoulder joints, though. I suppose you could drill through the blue outer bits and insert a pin of your own, but that's in the "advanced kitbashing" department. The altmode is nice enough that I don't advocate just gluing the shoulders together, though. Overall: To give the designers some credit, it does look like they gave a decent amount of thought to the problems posed by die cast metal parts. Unfortunately, the measures they took were insufficient to the task. However, I can stand mine up in a not-totally-boring pose and it will stay there, even on my wobbly computer desk. And once you get used to the flaws, most of them can be worked around. Still, it's probably one accidental drop away from an unfixable break. DECEPTICON: MEGATRON Unique Feature: previously defeated Sentinel Prime MEGATRON does not suffer fools gladly. Yet here he is, forced by the power of the Matrix to obey the commands of a simpering braggard in a hood, and a fleshling not less! Still, Megatron is nothing, if not patient. Let that shrill simpleton Cobra Commander (R) collect his trinkets and treasures. MEGATRON will watch, and wait his time to strike. His chance is given him, shockingly, by the Autobots (R), whose cooperation with G.I. Joe (R) has smashed Cobra's outer defenses. Feeding his own warriors into the furnace of Cobra Commander's insane tactics, MEGATRON holds one desire at the forefront of his mind - he will see his tormentor dead and the Matrix in his hand before the AUTOBOTS arrive. STR 10 INT 9 SPD 5 END 9 RNK 10 COUR 10 FRB 8 SKL 7 Avg 8.5 Looks like different people wrote the two profiles. Megatron's is full of capitalizations and trademark symbols, while Prime's lacks this sort of thing. Except for The Matrix, which is just "the Matrix" here. Weird grammar and inconsistent style is as shown on the package. Weight: 11.5 oz (330g) Main Weakness: So many to choose from. But I think the pelvis is the main problem. It doesn't peg together well, and the pieces are held onto the lower torso by two tiny CLIPS of light gray plastic. These clips are pieces I wouldn't trust to hold a Mini-Con together, much less a third of a kilo of metal. Robot Mode: 5.75" (14.5cm) tall at the head. The head and guns are made of medium gray plastic. The backpack, main gun mount, fists, toes and pelvis are black plastic. The insides of the forearms, the shoulder joint and some other hidden or concealed bits are purple plastic. The shoulder harness area and the tiny clips mentioned above are light gray plastic. The metal parts of the arms are painted very light gray, as are some little bits in the collarbone area. The face is silver with red eyes. The majority of the front torso is painted dark gray with a bit of airbrushed-like lightening down the middle. The outer torso and thigh sides are painted metallic purple. The boots are dark gunmetal, and the treads are dark gray on the thighs and boots. There's also a little dark gray around the wrist joints on the forearm side. A silver and purple Decepticon symbol is printed on the right pec, and there's a yellow detail on the left. Yellow bits also adorn the abdomen. There's faction symbols on the arms, see vehicle mode for more on those. The head turns, and the waist wiggles a little. The shoulders are a combination of rods and joints that still end up being more or less just swivels. The upper arms wiggle loosely in their sockets, but don't actually turn. The elbows are ball joints, but the sockets are just pinchpoints on two sides rather than proper cups. This results in very floppy joints. The wrists look like ball joints, but they're really pinned hinges so the fists can't turn, they just fold for transformation. The hips are ball joints that are so restricted that they're really just swivels. Trying to spread the legs just pops the joints apart (assuming you hold the pelvis together tightly while doing so. There's no thigh swivels, and the knees bend about 20 degrees, if that. The toes are just flip-down decorations, offering no support at all, and folding back into the shins at the slightest provocation. The tank's main gun is mounted on the right shoulder, and can swing to aim forward, but not far enough to point along the arm. The left shoulder has the tank's machine gun on a swivel. The face mold is okay, but the chin looks weird. And he has a backpack that's obvious vehicle kibble, it doesn't even try to look integrated. The heels lack spurs, and are rounded treads, so it takes very little to knock the toy over backwards. And given that this is definitely a toy that's one fall away from shattered hips (Megatron shoulda drunk more milk), that's a serious issue. And the toes offer no support, so leaning him forward doesn't help either. Still, it passes the "wobbly computer desk" test, at least, but only in a boring straight-legged pose. Then again, just about any attempt to pose the hips makes the tiny clips pop off, that's probably the only pose you'll have enough patience for anyway. Transformation: The legs are pretty simple, but the arms turning into the turret takes a LOT of massaging and bashing at balking joints. There's pegs that need to be aligned, but the inflexibility of the metal makes it harder to get everything to line up at once. Getting one thing in place often takes something else out of position, so it takes a lot of massaging to get it all together. Even then, not all of the connections are very solid, such as the pegs holding the legs in place. Vehicle Mode: Don has said in interviews that he started with the Maus tank (http://www.achtungpanzer.com/pz7.htm) when designing this, but it's clear he moved pretty far beyond that starting point. The actual result reminds me more of Grand Slam the cassette TF from G1, very blocky/boxy and with treads that are just a step beyond drawn-on. It has the usual tiny wheels on the tread undersides to roll along on. The lower section is a brick 3.5" (9cm) long and 2.75" (7cm) wide. The non-turning turret is 2.5" (6cm) long and 2" (5cm) wide, with a 2" (5cm) long main gun and a 1" (2.5cm) long machinegun on a pintel mount. The turret is painted very light gray with some black wash. A black Decepticon symbol is on the center of the left side, and three Autobot symbol "kill stickers" are behind it on that side. There's also a black Decepticon symbol on the right side of the turret, with two kill stickers behind that. Most of the bottom section is very dark gunmetal, with some metallic purple on the front deck and a bit of silver on the tread mechanism. The headlights are yellow, and there's a silver M on the front ramplate. Yeah, tanks don't need ramplates, and it's not a brushcutter wither, but the way the hips unfold give the tank a sort of bumper. The middle front deck is medium gray, and both guns are also medium gray. Part of the robot fist kibble is visible in the back. Stability, once you actually get the turret properly pegged together, is okay. It doesn't fall apart on its own, but if you lift it by the turret the fists will pop out of their holes. The main gun only elevates, and the machine gun swivels. Repair suggestions: The ball joints can be stiffened by the usual superglue or nail polish tricks, but Autobus Prime suggests taking little bits of foam sheet and placing them inside the sockets instead. I've done this sort of thing with the swivel on my cell phone case, and it works pretty well for a while, but does wear out. You fill the hole behind the ball joint with foam so that you get more surface pressing against the ball. It won't be really stiff, but it's enough to let the arm stay bent and not flop back down. On a more radical level, just glue the pelvis together. The tank mode is no great loss, and you're almost guaranteed to snap one of those little clips sooner or later. The hip pegs are as strong as you could reasonably expect (so nail-polishing them won't help), it's just that the weight of everything else and the fact that the hip joints are effectively swivels means nothing but a glue bond can keep the pelvis together. A slightly less radical hip fix involves taking fine wire and lashing together the parts the clips normally hold. It probably still won't transform properly, but it's more reversible than glue. Overall: Well, they tried, but the whole pelvis section was just doomed from the start. I don't think we've seen such a bad point failure source in a Transformer since the o-rings of the Laser Rods. Dave Van Domelen, notes that the instructions are clear, but not really necessary. Anyone with the patience to deal with these in the first place can probably figure out the transformations easily enough.