Dave's Transformers Candy Rant

     Punching Pops - Optimus Prime and Megatron 
     Pop Toppers - Optimus Prime and Megatron
     Energon Cube
     Gummy Candy - Cybertron Optimus Prime, Cybertron Megatron, Classics
          Bumblebee

     CAP has come out with a trio of new TF candy varieties, but they're G1
stuff, not movie-related.  Either they will later come out with movie candy
stuff too, or they didn't get the movie license and are simply cashing in
using the G1 license they already have.  I don't know if they're actually
exclusive to Toys R Us, but TRU is probably the best place to look.
     Update 4/28/07: Got their gummy candy too.  Very short review at the
end.  

     Punching Pops - Simplified "Rock'em Sock'em" robots with suckers
sticking out of their heads.  They don't really hit very hard (or at all),
but the thought's nice.  A bit overpriced for what you get, at least at TRU.
Mildly recommended.  $4.99 at TRU.
     Pop Toppers - Pretty standard sucker-saver keychains.  Big hollow heads
that fold closed over a sucker and can clip to a backpack or something.
Still, cheap enough to grab for the novelty.  Recommended.  $1.19 at TRU.
     Energon Cube - A folding cube puzzle thing with candy in two of the
eight smaller cubes.  Doesn't hold together very well.  Uses Dreamwave
posters for its images.  Has magic candy (see below).  Mildly recommended.
$1.99 at TRU.
     Gummy TFs - Very fragile when warm.  Cheap, gooey.  I'm not a fan of
gummy candy in general.  Neutral, but cheap.  99 cents at TRU.

RANTS

     Nutritional Information: The punchers and pop toppers all have the same
strawberry suckers.  40 calories, 10g of carbs, 7g of sugar, on a plastic
stick.  The Energon Cube comes with little hard candy spheres.  13g serving
size (not sure if there's one or two servings in the package, it doesn't say.
Probably two), but 14g of carbs per serving...magic candy!  They're sours of
some sort, based on the citric acid content in the ingredients.  [Later note:
I weighed it, the Energon Cube contains one serving total, split into two
half servings.]
     The gummies are a single serving each, 23g of sugar, 24g of carb
overall.  Goooo.

     Punching Pops: These are packaged in partial clamshells that protect the
sucker and keep the heads in place, but let you otherwise try out the
punching gimmick.  The figures are slightly distorted in proportions, but
otherwise accurate to the G1 versions.
     Each is about 5.5" (14cm) tall.  The torso and legs are all one piece of
rigid plastic (well, two pieces screwed together front to back).  Each arm is
a single piece of rubberized plastic on a shoulder swivel, and a rod extends
through the chest to the fist of each arm.  Pushing in on the rod makes the
arm extend in a punch, with the rubbery plastic letting them avoid having to
put joints on the arm.  It's not exactly a rapid punch, though.  The fists
can punch out by 3/4" (2cm), which isn't enough to get inside the opposing
figure's guard.
     On each abdomen is a button in the shape of the relevant faction symbol,
and if you can somehow punch it, the head pops up on a rod 1/2" (12mm) long.
This feature cannot be tried in-package, and there's no instructions on the
tag, so a casual buyer might think the button is supposed to make the pop
spin and that the toy is broken.
     For use, you grab the legs as a handle and use your thumb to press on
the punching rods.

     Optimus Prime's main body and neck rod are made of bright red plastic,
his arms from bright red rubbery plastic, and his head seems to be made of a
slightly soft dark blue plastic.  He has dark blue paint on fists and boots.
There's silver on the faceplate, forehead, smokestacks, pelvis and thighs.
The eyes and chest windows are painted light blue, and his belt details are
painted yellow.  The Autobot symbol is painted red and white.
     Megatron's plastics are all light gray.  Fists and pelvis are painted
black, eyes are neon green, and details on the sides of the boots are bright
red.  His Decepticon symbol button is painted purple.  Megatron loses the
paint app competition.


     Pop Toppers: Not much to say about these.  Hollow head shapes that fold
open on hinges at the bottom to reveal the top of a sucker.  They can be
easily reused for any sucker small enough to fit inside, and they have
plastic keychain loop hook things for clipping them onto belts or backpacks
or whatever.  The hooks attach at the top rear of the head, so with or
without suckers a hung head will face down a bit.  Both are the G1 versions
of the characters.
     Prime's head is 47mm across, 45mm tall and 40mm deep.  It's made of dark
blue plastic, with silver face, yellow forehead tablet and light blue eyes.
The clip is also dark blue plastic.
     Megatron's head is 35mm across, 37mm tall and 43mm deep.  The plastic is
metallic light gray with swirly bits of included metalflakes, and green
painted eyes.  Smaller, fewer paint apps.  Megatron loses again.
     These are probably getting hung from the curtain rods I use for my
Christmas tree ornaments.  :)


     Energon Cube: Sadly, this is not a Rubik-style cube puzzle.  Rather,
it's one of those folding image cubes, made of eight smaller cubes that can
be folded into either a cube formation or a 2x4 flat, with images visible in
all four possible configurations.  As a cube, it's a little over 2" (53mm) on
a side.  
     Cube 1: This is the way it's packaged.  Two faces have partial images.
One has a 2-face segment of the James Raiz Autobot vs. Decepticon G1 poster
from 2002, pretty much just Optimus and Megatron from shoulders up.  The two
faces above this are clear and have little slide-open doors to unleash the
candy.  Opposite this is a square section of the 2002 G1 Autobots poster,
mostly the right side with Prime and Superion (I think this was Pat Lee).
Between these sides are the center chunks of the Dreamwave "movie" posters of
Prime and Megatron by Pat Lee, the first posters DW put out.
     2x4 1: Fold open so that the movie posters are split and you get two 2x4
images.  One is a poster I don't own, but it seems to be Pat Lee drawing G1
Optimus Prime in front of an oversize Megatron bust profile shot.  The other
side is most of Don Figueroa's Optimuses poster.
     2x4 2: Fold so that the Optimuses poster is hidden.  One side just has
the movie posters split the wrong way, but the other side has a vertical
slice of Pat Lee's 2002 G1 Decepticons poster.
     Cube 2: Fold the top and bottom quarters of the Decepticons image back.
the faces revealed this way are the only ones with complete images.  One
shows a central square cut of Figueroa's Megatrons poster, mainly showing G1
Megatron.  The other side is from the DW G1 cover featuring Jazz, Mirage and
Prowl.  
     The remaining two 2x4 configurations lack any complete images.
     As with a lot of the cheaper cubes of this type, it doesn't really stay
nicely in any particular configuration on its own, it tends to fold out a
bit.  You might want to use a clear rubber band from TF packaging to hold it
shut.  
     The candies come in four colors: red, white, black and bright blue.
They all seem to be the same flavor, a tart strawberry or something akin.

     Gummy TFs: They're gummy candies in the rough form of Cybertron Optimus
Prime, Cybertron Megatron, and Classics Bumblebee.  It wasn't really a very
warm day, and yet Megatron totally melted and Bumblebee partially did.
     http://www.dvandom.com/images/gummyTF1.JPG
     http://www.dvandom.com/images/gummyTF2.JPG
     I'm guessing that Megatron was on the bottom, and directly in contact
with the warm seat.  Since it was ruined anyway, I took a few nibbles of
Megatron, it seems to be vaguely grape-flavored.


     Dave Van Domelen, had to wait until 2 hours after dinner to try the
Energon Cube candy, or it woulda messed up his blood sugar readings.  :)
(The reading was kinda high anyway, sigh.)