Dave's Transformers Keychain Rant: Movie Keychains

     Optimus Prime
     Bumblebee

     Permalink: http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Artifacts/Keychain2

     Basic Fun is finally gearing up into movie merchandize, with a couple of
PVC-like keychains.  Mind you, these definitely fall into the "keychain in
name only" category, where they slap a ring onto it in order to be in
compliance with licensing agreements, but it's really not a good thing to try
to put keys on.
     Anyway, I found these in with the regular TF toys at TRU, rather than in
a separate gewgaws and gimcracks section.

CAPSULES

     Optimus Prime: Decent "PVC" style of figure, although you might wait to
try to find it a little cheaper.  Mildly recommended.  $3.99 at Toys R Us.
     Bumblebee: Pose a little wonkier than Prime's, but about the same stuff
applies otherwise.  Mildly recommended.  $3.99 at Toys R Us.


RANTS

     Packaging: Standard movie color scheme and logos, but not the usual
blister style.  Instead, the card actually wraps around a cylindrical front
blister (picture a slice taken vertically down a cylinder off-center, so the
center of curvature of the round face is well behind the flat face).  The
front fold-over flap is mostly just border along the edges, leaving the usual
irregular quarter-circle shape of movie toy blisters open.  Both have Prime's
face in the lower right corner, as if they were too cheap to get the rights
to use more than one piece of art.
     The package backs are identical for both, showing the two standing side
by side with the following copy above them:
     "The AUTOBOTS and DECEPTICONS are about to unleash their war on earth
[sic] and the fate of humankind hangs in the balance.  OPTIMUS PRIME and
BUMBLEBEE are movable and poseable, with 8 points of articulation - head,
arms, legs and waist!"
     To be more accurate, hips and knees, not just "legs".  Oh, and these are
listed for "Ages 5+".  They don't have the "non-converting" label that some
other non-transforming movie toys have.
     Slitting the right side tape lets you get at the blister and open it in
whatever way you prefer.  Nothing about this package inspires me to save it,
so I'm just tearing mine open.  :)  No twist-ties or rubber bands.

     Commonalities: They're both about 3.5" (9cm) tall and made of rubbery
silver plastic.  Imprinted on the bottom of the left foot is the Transformers
logo, on the bottom of hte right is the trademark info.
     Each has a turning head, turning waist, swivel shoulders, swivel hips
and hinge knees.  The hips are a "V-joint" sort of thing, so the legs rise up
and out.  Both have eyelets stuck into the middle of their back for attaching
the keychains, which are of the springy sorta-carabiner ring end variety.
When hung from the chain, the figures lean slightly forward, but the big feet
mean the centers of mass are pretty far below the connection point.
     Both would, I think, be improved by a black wash or something.  The
silver is just too overwhelming in places, what with all the molded details
of the movie designs.  They have enough paint apps as it stands to make this
one omission stand out.

     Optimus Prime: His armor pieces are mainly painted in blue and red  with
flame patterns, but he also has black wheels and some gold details (oddly,
the treads of his ankle wheels are gold, not black).  Right arm is almost
straignt, left arm is bent a little, both hands are fists.  The long stacks
on either side of the head make it a bit tricky to get good grip and turn the
head. 

     Bumblebee: Being as tall as Prime makes him look a little out of scale
here.  This is the 2009 Camaro version, with yellow armor bits, black tires
and red taillights on the small of his back.  Coulda used eyes, but I guess
all the yellow bits made for too many paint apps already.  Unlike Prime's
more static pose, his default position has his right arm lifted and curled,
and his left arm akimbo as if he's ready to grab for a sidearm.  He gets to
have the door wings molded on, but they couldn't spare a black paint app to
paint the windows.

     Overall: Good molded detail, but in need of paint.  Definitely worth
picking up if you like doing customizing, though, since there's plenty of
details to make painting easier.