With the second Robots in Disguise cartoon and line winding down in 2018,
Hasbro turned to an entirely new continuity (albeit with a lot of the usual
characters), focusing on an attempt at "evergreen" character designs that
could be used on merch and small chain toys for years to come. Like Robots
in Disguise 2.0, the emphasis is on toys more appropriate to the actual
"kids" target market (as opposed to the more adult-focused Generations
toys). As usual, boldfaced names got Strongly Recommended ratings, those in
italics got worse than Neutral. A lot of italics in this line....
Note, while there's actual new toys and a movie slated for later in 2021, I'm
pretty much done with Cyberverse. I really doubt any of the upcoming toys
will be any better than "okay for Cyberverse." I almost entirely skipped the
Battle Call gimmick (finally picked up a Wildwheel on sale, regretted it).
This hollow and gimmick-ridden line can go away now, kthxbye.
The first of the size class labels being revived for Cyberverse, these are
about the size of the old Scout Class, but they don't fully transform. They
go between robot mode and a transitional form, reminiscent of the
kinda-transforming Actionmaster Elites from the early 90s in Europe.
(Ironically, there's no Legion class in Cyberverse, given that Cyberverse was
first used as a line name for Legion and Commander class toys.) $8 price
point, give or take.
- Wave 1: Bumblebee (legs turn into part of a
car), Grimlock (dino head covers up robot head...a trick Warrior class RiD15
Grimlock could do too), Megatron (legs turn into tank treads), and
Starscream (makes a sort of gerwalk mode). Really, if you must try
out the concept, Grimlock is so-so (and might be mildly recommended if it
were $5 instead of $8), but avoid Bumblebee like the plague.
- Wave 2: Windblade (another gerwalk, with pop-out wing
blades), Optimus Prime (truck with head and arms sticking out),
Slipstream (Starscream redeco, not reviewed, presumably not better
than Starscream though).
- Wave 3: Shadowstriker (robot luge), Ratchet
(cartaur).
- Wave 4: Scraplet (doesn't really transform, it just
bends at the waist), retool of Optimus Prime with an axe instead of a rifle
(not reviewed).
- Wave 5: Ramjet (almost a jet), Dead End (another
cartaur), new packaging reship of the axe Optimus. According to TFWiki this
is actually wave 6, with wave 5 being a retooled Bumblebee I don't recall
ever seeing and definitely don't want.
Same basic idea as in RiD2015...and in fact the entire first wave is just
redecos of RiD toys. Still at the $10 price point and sold in vehicle mode.
- Wave 1: Bumblebee (redeco of RiD's Patrol Bumblebee), Soundwave (redeco
of RiD), Blurr (redeco of RiD). The deco changes are fairly slight, I won't
be picking up any of these. Status: Seen 'em, didn't buy (I have two of the
molds already and don't want another BB). And while Blurr did show up in the
cartoon, I kinda doubt he'll be getting more toys....
- Wave 2: Megatron (tank), Optimus Prime (truck), Starscream (jet), reship
of Bumblebee. I only got Starscream, which was decent, especially compared
to Scout, but that's faint praise. No review.
- Wave 2.5: Running change brought in Prowl. Didn't get it.
- Wave 3: Reships of Optimus Prime and Megatron, with Hot Rod (sports car
with spinning blade weapon) and Wheeljack (race car).
- Wheeljack is actually more of a two or three step transformation, and the
vehicle mode is decent, the robot mode as brickish as most. The weapon
almost launches a missile, its "Gravity Cannon" uses the "marble shooter"
style of trigger to push a missile to pop out several centimeters, but it
can't actually leave the launcher. To fit inside the vehicle mode, the head
is rather squished and warped, plus the paint job utterly obscures the whole
"Lemmy" facial hair that the package art shows. (Well, more of a full beard
with a white chin bit, but I like the idea of him having Lemmy's beard.)
Part of the mustache is painted silver like his face, and the chin is black,
the result looks like a regular helmet...kinda disappointing, but
user-fixable. The ears are really small, suffering the most from the
squeezing.
- Wave 4: Shockwave, Sky-Byte, reships of Prowl.
- Shockwave: Turns out that it IS possible to mistransform a one-step
Transformer. The altmode for this is a cannon-less version of his usual
crawler mode, which ends up looking more like a purple frog with a Shockwave
chest for a head. Technically it has six legs, since the robot boots are
underneath the body. If you just lift up the body the robot arms fold out
and it looks like it's transformed...but set it down and it'll automatically
collapse back into crawler mode. Properly transforming it requires pushing
the hind legs together like scissors, which locks it in robot position. A
second step is recommended, folding the forelegs down so they're not as
obvious. The result is a decent-looking Shockwave standing in front of a lot
of kibble. The only articulation is shoulder swivels, and the blaster left
hand is the tip of a non-firing missile (same principle as Wheeljack's, it's
a Cyberjet-style push-forwards-to-fire thing that won't leave the launcher).
The backpack kibble makes it difficult to fire forwards, though, unless you
leave the forelimbs up. Nothing locks the altmode in place, just gravity and
springs holding things down...picking it up tends to partially transform it.
The Warrior Shockwave is actually decent, not much point picking this one up
except for the weirdness value or completionism. (This isn't a "neutral or
worse" review, more of a "would be very mildly recommended but why bother
when there's better stuff out there of this character?")
- Spin Fin Attack Sky-Byte: It looks okay if chunky in shark mode, and has
a clever gearing mechanism that makes the two spinny bits on the tail spin
opposite directions (the Spin Fin Attack). Read the instructions before
transforming. If you just mess with it, the gears can get stripped and
the head won't stay up in robot mode. Robot has decent arm articulation and
a shark head for a right hand. Marginal value, better off getting Battle
Class.
- Wave ??: Yeah, they're just dribbling one or two new molds out at a time
with piles of old molds. This may just be an assortment for the Walmart
holiday impulse buy bins, adding Dual Boom Jazz to a bunch of older stuff,
not just the Bumblebee and Hot Rod that Jazz has as cosells.
- Dual Boom Jazz: Technically two-step, with a second step to very
poorly pop the shoulder cannons out. The "one step" is pushing down on some
black exhaust pipes, which makes it unfold and stand up on its own, in
theory. Or fall over backwards after transforming, because the spring is
strong. Mine was very poorly assembled, with misaligned feet and cannons
that don't fold all the way out. The arms can move at the shoulders, but
it's hard to get a grip on the arms well enough to untab them. Still, even
if it had been assembled perfectly, it's a pretty weak design.
- Whirlwind Slash Bludgeon: Another that showed up solo mixed with reships,
this has the same Cyberverse Adventures trade dress as the Deluxes. Has a
separate sword accessory hidden by the picture part of the card. Looks
decent, transformation is a little hard to get going at first. The gimmick
is just that the left wrist is on a pin that can be pulled out a bit to make
it loose, so you can flick the blade and make it spin around a bit. No
springs or gears, just a deliberately floppy wrist. Other than the spinny
left wrist, the only articulation is the elbow hinges. Tank mode is similar
to his RiD15 version, with dual cannons and a spot between them for the
sword. The robot arms don't completely tuck into the tread sides, and
there's no little wheels hidden under the treads, so it just slides around.
Better than average for a One-Step, barely makes it into Mildly Recommended.
- Autobot Whirl: This was supposedly part of the same wave as Bludgeon, but
I've only seen Bludgeon with Repugnus. I did see it a couple months later
with repackaged BB and Wheeljack, and picked it up. Looks decent in both
modes, and it's more of a 3-4 step transformation. Unlike most helicopters
that make a V out of the rotors for robot mode, this uses folding rather than
rotation, so you're guaranteed the show-accurate look and stability. The
motion gimmick is that the left claw opens up when you slide a button
forwards. The right arm just ends in a stump. Decent paint, and not too
badly warped to fit the simplified transformation. It's been rather a long
time since the last G1-homage Whirl toy, and this one is not bad for ten
bucks.
- Gruesome Chomp Repugnus: Ships with Bludgeon. This has been a really
good few years for Repugnus, this is his third toy in recent years.
Unfortunately, due to having a monster mode rather than vehicle, he's a
really poor fit for the packaging, and looks quite bad on the shelf. Full
review as part of the Repugnus Revenge review below.
- Stealth Force Bumblebee is supposed to ship with Repugnus. Eventually
saw it, passed on it.
- Mega Chop Ratchet: Blades that pop out to the sides of the arms are
unimpressive and refuse to stay locked in place, almost the entire vehicle
shell hangs behind the robot. It's a decent mold for a hover ambulance in
vehicle mode, but a major fail as a toy, even by one-step standards.
- Megatron X: A black with magenta energy lines hovertank with a turning
turret and a two-step transformation. Might be the final Cyberverse
One-Step, but in that case it goes out a reasonably high note. Definitely
worth picking up, although it does have a bit of a hollow knockoffy feel
during transformation.
- Sharkticon Attack: Redeco of 1-Step Hot Rod,
with three tiny transforming Sharkticons. I also review the original Hot Rod
while I'm at it.
- Repugnus Revenge: Redeco of 1-Step Repugnus as a
Decepticon, with three tiny transforming "Pesticons" that are Tiny Turbo
Changer versions of Repugnus. Review includes the regular release Repugnus
as well.
Roughly equivalent to the RiD Warriors, but with more resources devoted to
various action gimmicks. $15 price point.
- Wave 1: Bumblebee (sportscar), Optimus Prime
(semitractor), Starscream (jet), Shockwave (crab-walker bot altmode).
- Wave 2: Megatron (tank), Acid Storm (Starscream
redeco, not reviewed), Windblade (VTOL-fan jet), reship of Optimus Prime.
- Battle Base Optimus Prime: Sold as Warrior
Class, even though it's $30 and in an Ultimate size box. This is a repeat of
the wave 1 Optimus, with a trailer that turns into a good base...for other
toy lines. It's pretty useless for Cyberverse toys. Nice for Siege,
though.
- Wave 3: Prowl (police cruiser), Soundwave (armored
truck), Hot Rod (Cybertronian sports car). Soundwave is the best of
the wave.
- Wave 4: Deadlock (sportscar), Gnaw
(Sharkticon, feels like a knockoff of Generations Gnaw).
- Wave 5: Jetfire (jet), Drift (sportscar),
Bumblebee (retool with new head, hands and weapon gimmick, not reviewed).
- Wave 6 (and 7): Bumblebee (extensive retool, an
improvement but not enough of one), Megatron (moderate retool,
actually got worse), Starscream (Cybertronian jet), Hammerbyte (robot shark),
Stealth Force Hot Shot (redeco, not reviewed). (Later note: TFWiki
originally had this all as wave 6 plus Cybertronian Optimus Prime, but it's
since separated these into waves 6 and 7, with Optimus the only new figure in
wave 8.)
- Wave 8: Optimus Prime (Cybertronian mode), plus
reships.
- Sinister Seekers: Four redecos of Cybertronian
Starscream: Thrust, Skywarp, Thundercracker, and a ghost-ish Starscream.
- Wave 9: Snarl (Ankylosaur) and reships.
- Wave 10: Dead End (sportscar) and reships.
At the $15 price point, these are the low end of the "Spark Armor" gimmick
used in year two. Each figure comes with a vehicle partner that breaks apart
into Spark Armor to enhance the main figure. Each main figure is slightly
bigger than a Scout, but is fully transforming and decently articulated. The
scale mismatches between the two vehicles is sometimes comical.
- Wave 1: Jetfire (jet) with Tank Cannon (tank),
Sky-Byte (shark) with Driller Drive (drill tank), Prowl (police car) with
Cosmic Patrol (spaceship), Starscream (jet) with Demolition Destroyer
(bulldozer).
- Wave 2: Ratchet (ambulance) with Blizzard Breaker
(snowmobile), Shockwave (crabwalker) with Solar Shot (killsat).
- Quintesson Invasion: Prowl and Shockwave without
Spark Armor partners (and without some paint in Shockwave's case), but with
Quintesson "headcrab" control yokes, and a Quintesson Judge. $30 set, not
really worth it unless you don't already have Prowl and Shockwave.
After a few years of disappointing Warriors, they decided to make a $20 class
with slightly better quality and less of a gimmick dependence (clear effect
parts for weapons rather than motion gimmicks). The first eight figures each
included a piece needed to build Maccadam, but later Deluxes dropped the
"Build-A-Figure" thing (and repackaged versions of the first eight also
dropped it).
- Wave 1: Optimus Prime, Bumblebee, Megatron,
Shockwave. Kinda disappointing overall. It's like they tried to do
Siege-level Deluxes but without the materials, engineering, or budget.
- Wave 2: Hot Rod, Grimlock. Review also includes
Arcee, Thunderhowl, and the Maccadam build-a-figure.
- Wave 3: Arcee, originally part of wave 2 but split off to ship as a
running change months later.
- Wave 4: Thunderhowl, also originally part of wave 2, but delayed
the better part of a year...not worth the wait.
- "Wave 5": Prowl (police car), Starscream
(Cybertronian jet), Soundwave (armored SUV). No build-a-figure, just more
Fire Blast bits. Generally felt like it needed another few rounds of
playtesting.
- "Wave 6": Cheetor (cheetah) and new-packaging
re-releases of Grimlock, Soundwave, and Thunderhowl.
- "Wave 7": Dinobot Slug (Triceratops) and more
new-packaging re-releases.
Another revived class name, these are about Voyager sized, with some sort of
action gimmick. $20 price point, in the sort of open-faced packaging the
Hyperchangers had.
- Wave 1: Starscream (jet with non-launching
missile pods that just sort of blossom), Bumblebee (sportscar with
non-launching missiles on launchers that fold out), and Grimlock (mecha T.rex
with fire blast that emerges from the mouth while flames shoot out of the
spine). All gimmicks are non-firing. While the transformations are more
complex, the articulation is at Hyperchanger level for Starscream and
Bumblebee, but at Cyber Battalion level for Grimlock.
- Wave 2: Shockwave (still a crab walker), Shadow
Striker (car, new female character, not reviewed). Shadow Striker isn't just
a Bumblebee reshell, but seems to share a lot of engineering with him.
- Wave 3: Optimus Prime (new mold) and Slipstream (new mold).
- BasH Attack Optimus Prime has good arm articulation and the head turns,
but the only leg articulation is that the hips are hinged to spread the
legs. Slightly interesting variation on transformation to a cabover
tractor. The gimmick involves shoving the legs forwards to shorten the
vehicle mode and make a bit Autobot symbol energy shield slide out and up
over the grille. Not very impressive, and the slider mechanism prevents
better leg articulation. There are a few good Ultras, this is not one of
them. Avoid.
- Slipstream uses no parts from Starscream, and has a much more
show-accurate vehicle mode with only minor gearing between the tail fins for
the gimmick. The robot mode is, unfortunately, the usual brick with
shoulders and elbows, but it looks okay. The jet mode's nose end doesn't
stay in place very well, but it's otherwise solid. The gimmick makes a sort
of propellor thing spring out from the wings and spin a little...not even
remotely as impressive in action as they probably hoped, but at least it
stows fairly well and doesn't actually HURT anything, unlike a lot of
Cyberverse gimmicks. If you fold down the nose of the jet in robot mode, you
can get the gimmick to pop out and it looks like Slipstream is wearing a
helicopter backpack. Very mildly recommended.
- Wave 4: Laser Beam Blast Alpha Trion (spaceship) and reships. His
function is "Wise Mentor". Alpha Trion is a brick even by the standards of
Ultra design, and it can't even be blamed on his gimmick, which is totally
contained within the cloak/wings and their hinges (when the hinges are bent,
energy blast pieces flip out). The legs have so-so articulation needed by
the transformation, but the thigh swivels kept popping out during
transformation and the panels that form the nose of the spaceship (a rather
flat nose) pop off with almost no force applied. The ship mode isn't even
particularly good. The arms lift to the sides and bend at the elbows. While
the cloak can be folded into ship mode and pop out the energy blasts for the
robot mode, they just point down and the wings can't be swung up to point at
anyone. I guess Alpha Trion is just doomed to get crappy toys with
disappointing gimmicks. Avoid even if on clearance.
- Wave 5: Clobber (tank), Hot Rod (sports car, really
bricky in bot mode), Bumblebee (sports car, probably won't get). The new
gimmick is spring-loaded clear plastic "Energon Armor" that pops out.
- Wave 6: Rack'n'Ruin replaces Clobber. Saw the wave in
person, decided to pass on Hot Rod and Bumblebee, but got Rack'n'Ruin.
- Ultra Nezha and brick set Wind Blade: Part of the
Cyberverse/Nezha crossover in China, imported.
- Wave Something: Thunderhowl, seems to ship with more of Hot Rod. I
started writing a proper review, but couldn't make myself slog through it.
This is a toy that initially looks like it should be decent, but it just ends
up cutting too many corners and demonstrating a loss of institutional
knowledge. Seriously, they should know how to make a decent wolf by now, rip
off old designs if necessary. This is an embarrassingly bad transformation
that tries to cover up its worst sins with the cape, but that ends up just
making it look like a wolf-headed robot crouching down. While the beast mode
is reasonably solid, they didn't bother to make the hips lock in place (a
simple ridge molded into one of the pieces would have been enough), so the
legs just fall to disjointed chaos at the slightest attempt at posing. The
energon armor gimmick requires removing several parts of the robot to work at
all, which is all sorts of fail. No matter how good this may look to you on
the shelf, avoid this toy.
- Skullcruncher: Robot alligator and junkyard
dog for Iaconus's interior. Surprisingly good, which is to say nothing about
it is actively bad. Definitely worth grabbing at Ross if you see it there.
- Dino Combiners: $25 price point, two slightly larger Crash Combiner type
brick figures can combine into a larger brick figure. Lots of hollows and
cheap-feeling plastic, and a general impression that they didn't really put a
lot of effort into these. Slugtron (Slug and Megatron) and Bumbleswoop
(Bumblebee and Swoop). I picked them up in the hopes that they were better
than they looked (they aren't) and the whim of wanting to swap sets to get
MegaBee (which isn't worth the bother). If you were a big fan of the Crash
Combiners in RiD15, you might like these slightly bigger versions of the
concept, but if anything they feel like a slightly worse and more finicky
version of the design.
- Energon Armor Ramjet: Function - Mencaing Seeker. Fortunately, the armor
isn't too hair-triggered, because it doesn't go all the way into place
anyway, so it looks half-applied unless you hold it down manually.
Articulation is actually decent (although the left shoulder triggers the
armor), but the huge wings on the boots render the hips and knees less
useful. Detaching the thruster cowlings to combine into a sort of pugil
stick/boffer is clever, and he does have the standard Seeker arm cannons.
The vehicle mode is weirdly proportioned, though, with the vertical tails
pretty far forwards. Undocumented feature: the thrusters can also be held as
pistols without combining them, although the one with the handle is harder to
get into the fist properly. Overall, not really worth $20, but that's true
of almost all the Ultra Class. If it pops up at Ross (as Clobber and
Skullcruncher have), though, it's worth that much.
- Energon Armor Dinobot Sludge: Function - Rough Dinobot Ally. Pretty good
articulation in robot mode, if floppy. The back is supposed to lock closed,
but the tabs don't stay put, the joint has to slide up just a little more
than the tabs allow. The tail becomes a lance weapon, with a couple of extra
pegs that don't seem to be used for anything since the shaft fits well in the
robot fist. Dino mode is pretty good for a Cyberverse figure, although only
the legs and jaw have any articulation. Definitely worth Ross prices (where
I got mine), maybe not Target prices.
$25 price point, a Warrior-sized figure with a Spark Armor partner that
transforms into armor rather than part-former-ing.
- Wave 1: Optimus Prime (truck) with Sky Turbine
(Starscream-ish jet), Megatron (tank) with Chopper Cut (helicopter),
Bumblebee (sportscar) with Ocean Storm (battleship).
- Wave 2: More of a running change to wave 1, adds in a shortpacked Cheetor
with a retool of Ocean Storm. Review in with Wave 1.
- Grimlock with Trash Crash: Wave 2 or three? Eh, a
singleton last gasp. Some interesting ideas, but poor execution.
Leader-sized, but with simpler transformations and a lower $30 price point.
- Wave 1: Optimus Prime (semitractor), Megatron
(tank).
- Wave 2: Bumblebee (sportscar) with reships. Do not own, do not plan to
own, even on clearance, it looked really bad on the shelf.
- Wave 3: Grimlock (robot T.rex) with reships.
- Spark Armor Optimus Prime with Ark Power: A
$50 Spark Armor set, basically a new Ultimate-scale Optimus mold with a
wildly out of scale Ark that becomes his armor. Nice idea, stereotypically
bad Cyberverse implementation.
- Wave 4: Energon Armor here too. They finally made a crappy Shockwave,
won't be getting this one. The Optimus Prime in this wave also looks very
bad and bricklike. Guess I'm passing on this entire wave...a pity, the
earlier Ultimates were more hit than miss.
- Wave 5: Iaconus: Lies down to become a city, sort of.
Actually a really bad triple-changer:
- Wave 6: Autobot Hot Rod (sports car with energon armor and a staff),
Volcanicus (not an actual combiner, it has the combined robot mode that can
transform into a dragon). This was eventually a Ross exclusive around here,
I picked up Volcanicus but left Hot Rod on the shelf.
- Volcanicus comes with a little assembly required because he had to fit
into a rather slim box. The arms have decent articulation, as do the wings,
but as with most of the large figures in Cyberverse the legs are bricks.
Transforming requires a LOT of force to get the spin-wind-up gimmick in the
knees to load up, and the automatic spin-changing gimmick pretty much
requires that looking at the dragon mode funny will make the head duck down
and reveal the robot head. I paid $15, and that's about what it's worth.
- Smash Changer Optimus Prime: A refugee
from the pushed-back Rise of the Beasts toy line, it's supposed to be an
advanced auto-transforming gimmick...and I just couldn't get it to work
reliably. Maybe one in ten times worked the way it was supposed to.
Hopefully the rest of the Smash Changers work better. Don't bother with this
toy, though.
Not sure if there'll be more than one of these, but there will be at least
one. They feature elements that are scaled to work with Scout and One-Step
toys.
- Optimus Prime Playset: The Warrior Optimus Prime (maybe with minor
redeco) with a trailer that opens up as a playset. Not actually part of the
release wave. Sold as part of Walmart's Bumblebee movie display, I ended up
getting one but never felt like reviewing it. Decent trailer works well with
Siege Micromasters and Battle Masters, at least.
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