Dave's Transformers Puzzle Rant

     100 piece series
     50 piece series
     70 piece series with stickers

     It occurred to me after getting the latest set in the mail from Defensis
Prime, I never reviewed the other puzzles, so I shall remedy that now.  

CAPSULES

     100 piece series: 10" wide and 13" high, these feature package art on
the swirly energy first year Armada cardback design.  Not too hard to put
together, suitable for hanging as miniposters.  $2.99 each.  Mildly
recommended.  
     50 piece series: 5" wide by 7" tall, also package art but on new swirly
red and white or purple and white backgrounds.  Backgrounds make them almost
as hard as the 100-piece sets.  $1.00 each, get 'em if you can find 'em
(they're not great, but they're cheap!).
     70 piece series: 13" wide and 10" tall, featuring scenes from the
cartoon and including sticker sheets.  The stickers are NOT "repositionable"
in any special sense, despite the claims on the package.  Much harder puzzles
due to lack of standardized backgrounds.  $3.99 each, I think (I've never
seen 'em in the store, got 'em via Defensis Prime in Wisconsin).
Recommended.  

RANTS

     First, a general note on puzzle preservation.  It's easy enough to find
special glue used to keep puzzles together, and I used it on the 100-piece
and 50-piece puzzles.  However, it makes the puzzle warp as it dries, which
can make it difficult to mount 'em on the wall.  For the 70-piece sets, it
finally hit me to use duct tape on the backs, and for the short term at
least, that seems to work much better.

     100-piece: These were the first puzzles to come out, in boxes 6" square
on front and 2.75" thick (15cm square, 7cm thick).  The boxes need to be cut
open, as the glossy paper used for the front and sides wraps around to the
back a little.  The puzzles all use package art on a background as described
above, with the following ID numbers:
     49316-1: Hot Shot
     49316-2: Megatron
     49316-3: Optimus Prime, Super Mode
     49316-4: Starscream
     Each also has the relevant faction logo in the upper left and the Armada
logo across the bottom.  The pattern of the background made it relatively
easy to construct all the border stuff and then figure out the actual
character from what was left.

     50-piece: So far, I've only seen these at Target, in boxes about the
size of decks of cards (albeit a bit thick): 3.5" high, 2.5" wide, 1" thick
(9cm by 6.5cm by 2.5cm) with an extra tab at the top for hanging on rods.  I
use one of the boxes to store my trading card/stickers.  These are generally
shelved with GIJoe puzzle sets of the same size.  These puzzles also use
trading card/package art with one exception, sine Perceptor didn't get
combined-form package art.  The pieces are significantly smaller than those
in the 100-piece sets, since there's half the pieces but only about a quarter
of the area in the total puzzle.
     Here's the characters by ID number:
     49334-0103: Cyclonus (the lone Decepticon in the set)
     49334-0203: Perceptor (with an Autobot symbol)
     49334-0303: Red Alert
     49334-0404: Smokescreen
     The layouts on these are less consistent than those of the 100-piece
sets.  Each has a swirly background that's either red and white or purple and
white (same pattern), and their names in black letters in the lower left
corner.  Each has their faction symbol in a different corner, with a rather
small Armada logo in the same corner as the faction symbol.  Perceptor's art
is noticeably different in feel, with simpler lines than the other three.

     70-piece: These are in the same type and size of box as the 100-piece
puzzles, but the box claims that "repositionable stickers" are included.
There is indeed a 5" square sheet of stickers in each box, but they're NOT
any sort of special repositionable stickers, they're just regular stickers
like found in the DK stickerbooks.  There is some repetition of stickers
between sheets.
     49315-0103: Demolishor in robot mode catching Prime in truck mode from
episode 2 or 3 (frankly, I don't care enough to rewatch and check).  Tight
focus leads to a varied border that was pretty easy to put together, but also
makes the interior a little harder to figure out.  Has the following
stickers: Megatron (robot), Smokescreen (robot), Starscream (jet), Hot Shot
(car, running away), Carlos on regular skateboard, Blurr (robot), Buzzsaw
(robot, odd purple and yellow color scheme), Hot Shot (robot, package
version), Laserbeak (bird), Demolishor (robot).
     49315-0203: Megatron in some powerup pose with energy radiating all over
the place and appearing to blow his head off.  Oops.  This was REALLY hard to
put together, because the lines are deliberately blurry and the colors washed
out like a watercolor.  Rather impressive looking, aside from the "blow your
own head off" factor.  Sticker sheet is: Cyclonus (robot), Carlos on High
Wire, Optimus Prime (robot, non-super, version from $40 set), Wreckage
(robot), Hot Shot (car, approaching), Cyclonus (copter), Buzzsaw (same as
above), Jetfire (robot), Thundercracker (jet), Hot Shot (robot, package
version).
     49315-0303: Super Mode Prime flanked by Red Alert on his right and Hot
Shot on his left.  A bit blurry blown up to this size, and with a lot of sky
to make things a little tougher.  Moderately difficult.  Sticker sheet is:
Starscream (robot), Grindor (robot), Demolishor (robot, non-package), Red
Alert (robot), Hot Shot (robot, non-package), Perceptor (same art as 50-piece
puzzle), Jolt (copter), Megatron (robot, non-package), Alexis on Sureshock,
Scavenger (robot).
     49315-0403: Regular robot mode Prime standing in front of a bluff and
staring off into the distance as the sun gleams off him.  Lots of sky, and
from the colors I think this is actually his robot mode prior to the
assumption of a Terran vehicle mode, since his forearms are red.  The tighter
focus and larger amount of sky made this a bit tricky.  Stickers are:
Cyclonus (robot), Grindor (robot), Sideways (robot), Cyclonus (copter), Star
Saber, Starscream (robot), Demolishor (robot, package), Laserbeak (bird),
Megatron (robot, different non-package), Optimus Prime Super Mode.
     Overall, I think I like the actual puzzles better than the 100-piece
series, plus of course there's the stickers as an added bonus.  The stickers
don't usually work as things to put ON the puzzles, mind you, especially on
the close-up Demolishor puzzle 0103.  Of course, these puzzles don't seem to
be showing up anywhere but Shop-Ko, which has no branches near me.

     Dave Van Domelen, off to hang the 70-piece puzzles on the walls next to
their comrades....