Dave's Transformers Cyberverse Rant: Warrior Wave 6 Bumblebee (heavy retool with Cybertronian altmode) Megatron (heavy retool with Cybertronian altmode) Starscream (Cybertronian jet) Hammerbyte (robot shark) Stealth Force Hot Rod (black redeco, not reviewed) Permalink: http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Cyberverse/Warrior6 http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Cyberverse/Warrior1 - Bumblebee mold http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Cyberverse/Warrior2 - Megatron mold http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Cyberverse/Warrior3 - Hot Rod mold One straight redeco (same basic colors as the Sharkticon Attack set's redeco of One-Step Hot Rod), two retools (one major, one minor), two new molds. Not horrible for the first wave of the third season. [Later note: Starscream and Hammerbyte are actually wave 7, but a lot of stores got both waves at the same time.] CAPSULES $12 at Walmart. Bumblebee: Original mold was a mild recommendation to avoid, but I decided to see if abandoning all pretense of a car altmode would help this mold. Granted, it keeps the same articulation-killing gimmick, so my hopes weren't HIGH. It turned out slightly better than the original, with a much nicer vehicle mode and a spinning stinger gimmick that actually works. That brings it up to "Neutral" though, so don't get too hopeful. Megatron: Original mold very mildly recommended (and mine broke off at the hip later on), another I figured might be helped by giving up on looking like something in particular. I was wrong. This is actually worse, dropping it down to Neutral. Starscream: Pretty good robot mode, well articulated if a bit stiff- looking. Simple transformation to a good Cybertronian altmode. Another "good for a Warrior" figure, mildly recommended. Hammerbyte: Decent robot mode with a gimmick that only gets in the way a little. Shark mode is decent, with only a few aesthetic issues. Good for a Warrior. Mildly recommended. So, the takeaway is that the new molds are at least worth picking up, if not worth a lot of effort. The retools started from too low of a starting point to redeem them, and I didn't even have hope that the black deco Hot Rod would be worth the time much less the money. RANTS Packaging: Standard form of Warrior blister card, but with the Transformers Bumblebee: Cyberverse Adventures trade dress. As with Earthrise, they seem to have eschewed plastic ties entirely on this class in favor of more form-fitting blister trays. While slightly more environmentally friendly, I guess, they're a recipe for limbs getting torn off. (One-step packages still have ties, because they're still open-faced.) The blisters themselves seem to be a little deeper now, which is good considering the backpack issues some of them have. On the back of the card, they all have Bumblebee in robot mode at the top of the legalese chunk. AUTOBOT: BUMBLEBEE Assortment: E7084 Altmode: Cybertronian hovercar Transformation Difficulty: 8 steps Previous Name Use: Yes Previous Mold Use: Cyberverse Epithet/Gimmick: Sting Shot Function: Courageous Scout Packaging: The lower right corner of the blister insert has a new logo for Cybertronian Mode, showing a half-Earth/half-Cybertron globe in purple and white, surrounded by the words CYBERTRONIAN MODE. They seem to be doing this to make it just a little clearer that these are not pegwarmers from previous waves. Plastic Swaps: The yellow is slightly darker, the gray and black plastics remain the same. Well, those that are still there...no wheels anymore. Paint Apps: All the chest windows and part of the stinger are painted dark metallic blue, and there's script-like patterns done in negative space on the forearms, which are otherwise printed dark metallic blue. The face is silver, the eyes and forehead tablet are bright blue. There's a red Autobot symbol printed on top of the chest. In vehicle mode, they painted all the windows dark metallic blue, and put silver on the struts for the rear outriggers (see mold changes below). While there's molded roof stripes now, they're left unpainted. The painted bright blue headlights are molded details, at least. There's no paint on the front grille, and a sort of pseudo-Prowl black hood paint that connects to a single black stripe interrupted by the engine block. There's black striping on the front and side edges of the spoiler, and a small red Autobot symbol printed on the roof. Mold Changes: Actually, all of the yellow plastic parts are retooled, even ones like the left forearm that could probably have been left alone. Even stuff that looks roughly the same at first glance, like the chest/ windshield, is remolded at least slightly. There's a new robot head, probably intended to be slightly more show-accurate, although I think it merely missed the mark in a different way than the original head. The vehicle mode is now a hover vehicle with no wheels, outriggers on struts in place of the rear wheels, more of a spoiler, and two small cannons poking out of the engine block. It's sleeker than the car version, and longer at 5.75" (14.5cm). Other Notes: The script on his arms looks sort of Cybertronian, but it's not. It also looks kinda like Interlac in places. Given that the new season is making heavy use of the actual Cybertronian font (if not always in a meaningful way...LENAKIYI SOMAN and SALITHS are repeated bits of gibberish in the first episode of Season 3), this isn't some alternate font from the show. So it's just an artist making fake letters that look vaguely Cybertronian. The slightly smaller stinger piece may be part of why, but the spinner gimmick actually works this time, spinning for a few seconds after the arm lifts, rather than stopping almost immediately as on my original Sting Shot Bumblebee. Wow, once it's in vehicle mode, it's really SOLIDLY in vehicle mode. Overall: Robot mode sucks just as bad, although at least the gimmick works as intended now. Nice alien vehicle mode, though. Still not really worth it, they should've done like Starscream and designed a new figure from scratch. DECEPTICON: MEGATRON Assortment: E7087 Altmode: Cybertronian tank Transformation Difficulty: 8 steps Previous Name Use: Yes Previous Mold Use: None Epithet/Gimmick: Fusion Mace Function: Ruthless Leader Packaging: Has the Cybertronian Mode badge. Color Swaps: The thighs, knees, shoulder hinges, gimmick trigger and reset button are now black plastic instead of gray. The mace and the new cannon are black plastic, the rest of the toy is still the same gray. Paint Apps: Similar to the original, assume the same unless otherwise mentioned. The center of the abdomen is left unpainted rather than being very dark gray, but more of the panel lines on the chest and forearms are painted magenta. In vehicle mode, some molded stripes on the front "fenders" are painted red, and there's a red stripe with a thermometer bulb like dot at one end on the cannon. Mold Changes: The boots are changed, the cannon is changed (but still pinned on), and the buttwheel is simply removed. This results in different sides, more of a hovertank than a treaded tank...and it's still rubbish. The arms still stick out the back of the not-a-turret, and the smaller front fenders just make the robot thighs more obvious. Other Notes: The pelvis and hip struts are still painted gray plastic, which means paint lock can still be an issue. My original version Megatron had one hip snap off when I went to transform it after a year on the shelf, and I didn't consider it worth fixing. Overall: Bumblebee managed to upgrade a crappy design via extensive remolding, while retaining the crappy engineering. Megatron was less ambitious, and in turn a lot less successful. This is actually a less attractive toy than the original. DECEPTICON: STARSCREAM Assortment: E7088 Altmode: Cybertronian Jet Transformation Difficulty: 5 steps Previous Name Use: Yes Previous Mold Use: None Epithet/Gimmick: Starseeker Missile Function: Scheming Second-in-Command Packaging: Too tall for the blister, he's in a seated position inside the blister, as if to say "Hey, this one has knees, we're sorry about the last one." It has the Cybertronian Mode badge. Slightly mistransformed to fit in the blister, the jet nose needs to be lifted up onto the backpack, where it forms the gimmick trigger. Robot Mode: Well, it's definitely Starscream, but with rather oversized wings, as if he got implants or something. If you fold this wing prongs down a bit, he looks like he has wings inspired by a luna moth. Fairy Starscream, if everyone claps really loud he WON'T come back to life! (Just kidding, he lives for praise, he'd come back to life for the applause.) His default pose is a little stiff, thanks to his shoulders being swivels. 5" (12.5cm) tall at the top of his head, 5.75" (14.5cm) to the tops of the wingtips. In the usual red, gray, and blue colors with clear orange for the cockpits (real and fake) and "Starseeker Missiles". The back of the torso is red plastic, the arms are dark blue plastic, and clear orange plastic is used as previously mentioned. Everything else is light gray plastic. Much of the torso front is painted red, not quite a match for the plastic, and there's red stripes on the shoulders and wings. The eyes and chin are painted red too. The shoulders and upper arms are painted light gray. The shin triangles and toes are painted metallic blue. The chest intakes and fists are painted dark gray, and the helmet is coated in dark gray before having the face painted light gray. Purple Decepticon symbols are printed on the forwards-facing sides of the wings, above the gimmick hinges. The neck is a highly restricted ball joint, the hips are regular ball joints. The shoulders are swivels, the elbows and knees are hinges. The Starseeker missiles are on spring-loaded hinges and pop up 90 degrees when the true cockpit is pressed inward on the back. This makes it easy to accidentally trigger them when picking up by the torso. The relative lack of upper arm range is partly cheapness and partly keeping them from getting in the way of the gimmick. You can mostly disable the gimmick by pulling the cockpit in back down away from the trigger. The fists can hold 5mm pegs, and there's a 3mm socket in the back of the pelvis. While the "missiles" don't terminate in deliberate 3mm studs, some Siege Fireblasts will fit on the tips. Transformation: Turn the head around 180 degrees, peg the forearms against the wings, pull the true cockpit down, bend the legs all the way back to wrap around the back, and fold down the wingtips. Vehicle Mode: Looks kind of like a Covenant energy sword from HALO. A delta wing slit down the center with the cockpit settled back between the forward prongs. The kneecaps become the intakes for the main thrusters, which are the boots. As often happens with jetformers, the underside is a bit of a mess of robot parts, but turning the head around helps a little. The Starseeker missiles are sagged down a little, pushing against the trigger blocks. The chest and the heel spurs form the supports. 5.5" (14cm) long, roughly delta-shaped with a 4.75" (12cm) wingspan. The nose piece is light gray plastic with clear orange cockpit canopy, and the red painted stripes on the wings extend along the front prongs. No topside Decepticon symbols, although there's spots where smaller ones could go and get covered up in robot mode. The gimmick technically can't trigger in this mode, but accidents happen, and they end up pointing straight down in that case. Overall: I get the feeling that they got to design this one as a toy first and then tell the animators what it should look like, because it works well within the strict limits of Cyberverse Warrior design and budget, unlike all of the really sad attempts at F-15-ish jets previous Cyberverse Starscreams turned into. AUTOBOT: HAMMERBYTE Assortment: E7089 Altmode: Robot Hammerhead Shark Transformation Difficulty: 9 steps Previous Name Use: None Previous Mold Use: None Epithet/Gimmick: Rip Thrash Function: Guardian of the Argon Sea One presumes the sea is merely named for Argon and not made of the element, as it has a boiling point of 87K (not much above liquid nitrogen). Packaging: Nothing notable, other than the package photo/render being accurate, which is not always the case. It doesn't have the Cybertronian Mode badge, probably because there's no other version out there. Robot Mode: A decent-looking and chunky bot with a lower jaw on his chest (like Rhinox), fins on the forearms, and a trident-style helmet crest. On the minus side, there's a big shark head on the back and a tail fin sticking out the back of one boot. He really cries out for a proper trident weapon, too bad Warriors don't do non-integrated weaponry. (I bodged together a decent spear from a dead paintbrush, but didn't feel like going to the effort of making a full trident from scratch for a Warrior toy.) Before I go into anything else, the obvious fail point of most Warriors: the damn gimmick. This one triggers when you press down on the left shoulder, making the shark head flip up over the robot head and the chest jaw snap upwards to complete the look. It's not horrible, and it doesn't require removing any joints, but it IS hair-trigger. So, moderately annoying, but not crippling, putting it in the top quartile of Cyberverse Warrior gimmicks. 5" (12.5cm) tall in light blue, darkish blue, dark gray, and a little yellow. Light blue plastic is used for the forearms, head, chest front, pelvis, and boots. A darkish medium blue plastic is used on the back of the torso and the tailfin. Dark gray plastic makes up the upper arms, shark head, thighs, arm fins, shoulder struts, and internal mechanisms. There's also a second jaw piece on the hammerhead made of dark gray plastic, but it doesn't get used in the gimmick, just in beast mode. A somewhat metallic darkish blue paint is used on the forearm fins, rectangles on the outer faces of the shoulders, diamond-shaped kneepads, pelvis front, and much of the top of the shark head. The face is very light gray (eyes are left unpainted light blue), the helmet trident is bright yellow, and there's some bright yellow details on the pelvis. The teeth of the chest jaw are painted dark gray, a paint also used on the heel fins. A red on white Autobot symbol is printed on the center of the chest. Due to how the transformation works (and the general lower budget of Warrior class), neither the head nor the waist turn. The shoulders are ball joints on the ends of shrugging struts, but as mentioned the left shoulder has to stay shrugged up unless you want the shark head out. Ball joint elbows and hips, no thigh swivels, hinge knees. So, decent articulation for a Warrior, but not up to the level of a Deluxe. The hands can hold 5mm pegs, and there's a 3mm socket in the back of the pelvis. Transformation: This is a bit tricky, because the shark head gimmick CAN'T be triggered or it'll screw things up. The head needs to stay back, and more importantly the jaw needs to stay on the chest. There's a joint that separates the torso from the pelvis, it folds 180 degrees and the legs swing back 90 degrees. Then pull out the tail fin and peg the boots together. Fold the arms in carefully and peg the forearms onto slots on the fronts of the thighs, then rotate the arm fins 180 degrees. The robot head can be stowed between the shoulders or flipped out to be inside the shark head as you prefer...the instructions have an opinion (hard to see, but between the shoulders) but both are equally stable. Finally, the outer parts of the boots swing out on hinges and snap into slots on the upper arms. Doing it in any other order may work, but is a massive hassle. Doing it in the order I described, and being reasonably careful, leads to a nice solid beast mode. Annoyingly, it's TOO solid, and to get the transformation back to robot mode started I either need to carefully pry with a knife at the side panels, or end up with a leg popping off at the hip. Beast Mode: No real attempt is made to hide the robot toes, but it's otherwise a decent robotic hammerhead. The way the boots transform otherwise gives a good sense of streamlining...I guess a Deluxe working from the same basic transformation would try to rotate the shins so that the toes tucked in between the pectoral fins. The pectoral fins don't actually rest on the table in official mode, as the robot toes and helmet trident form a sort of landing gear. 7.5" (19cm) long, with the middle dominated by light blue, and darker blue at front and back. There's not a great match between the blue plastic of the tail and robot back (which forms a sort of trapezium equivalent) and the blue paint on the pectoral fins and hammerhead. No new plastic visible here. There's a red on white Autobot symbol printed on the left side, and thruster details on either side are painted dark gray. Hm, the hammerhead eyes are painted light blue, so I guess it's possible that the robot eyes are painted light blue over light gray paint over light blue plastic. The jaw opens, and the pectoral fins can rotate, that's about it. While the fists on the underside are accessible, they're not too useful as attachment points. The back of pelvis 3mm socket is accessible if you're careful, so flying shark is a thing you can do. Overall: Okay, it has a lot of the corner-cutting the Warrior class is infamous for, but they make it work pretty well overall. The gimmick is too easily triggered for my tastes, but at least it doesn't otherwise infringe on the toy's play value. Worth picking up if you can find it, it doesn't seem to necessarily be in every wave 1 case (some are just BB, Megs, and Hot Rod, near as I can tell). Dave Van Domelen, actually has his backlog cleared, but only because he'd rather not review Hoist until he finds the rest of that wave.