Dave's Movie Transformers Rant: Legends Wave 1 Bumblebee (Classic) Barricade Autobot Jazz Autobot Ratchet Permalink: http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Movie/Legend1 The Legends class is back, I don't know yet if they're going to be limited to smaller chains as with the original, or more widely accessible, but it might be telling that I found these at Alco, a chain that mainly exists in places that Wal-Mart doesn't. In any case, given my history of hassle in getting this size class, I sucked it up and paid the overprice that Alco just shifted to (the Cybertron ones on the pegs were still $4.99). Warning...disappointment ahead. CAPSULES Bumblebee: Kinda bland transformation and robot mode, somewhat flawed vehicle mode. Very mildly recommended. $6.99 at Alco. Barricade: Odd robot mode, decent transformation and very good vehicle mode. Only one of the lot really worth getting. Recommended. $6.99 at Alco. Autobot Jazz: Iffy robot mode, somewhat annoying transformation, sad vehicle mode. Neutral. $6.99 at Alco. Autobot Ratchet: So-so robot mode, novel if limiting transformation, so-so vehicle mode. Mildly recommended. $6.99 at Alco. RANTS Packaging: Same size blister cards as all previous Legends, but done up in the new movie toy style. The blisters are sort of a side-truncated dome, with the relevatn faction symbol molded into the flat part on the right side. The cards themselves have the corroded-looking red and gray patterns, with the faction symbol in the upper left being appropriate to the toy. Note that the new Decepticon logo is subtly different, with 4-sided eyes instead of triangular ones. At the very top of the card front is the admonition that these are for ages 5+, and the assortment number (81366) and individual P/N (81367 through 81371, I'm reviewing them in the order of their P/N). Behind the toy on the card front is a big robotic pupil and iris in silvers and grays, with a slightly fisheye-distorted city view in the middle. All are packaged in robot mode, held to the tray by 4 twist-ties. The cardstock insert between tray and outer blister has the character name and faction on the front (and a faint "TRANSFORMERS.COM" along the bottom edge), faction symbol on the left, legalese on the bottom, and "Legends Class" on the chopped off lower right corner. The bottom is folded over, and the folded up part facing the robot's feet has an ad for the Transformers Collectors' Club. At the top of the cardback is the conversion level, 2 for all of these. They're labeled "Quick Conversion" (compared to "Easy Conversion" for level 1). Below this is the techspec chunk. Photo of robot mode on the left, photo of vehicle mode in the lower right of the block. Middle right of the block has the techspec numbers, and the upper right has "Series 7", the name and faction. We had 4 series of Cybertron, 2 series of Classics recolors (not that I've ever seen any Series 6 in stores). Below the statblock is the instructions, 6-8 panels of line art with pink highlighting. To the right of the instructions is the vehicle licensing statement...like Alternators, each of these toys is licensed where possible, and all of this wave is. Mostly GM. Finally, at the very bottom are the various other ownership statements and logos: Hasbro, Tomy, Paramount and Dreamworks. Note that there are no personality blurbs or bio notes, but the vehicle modes are identified by brand. The techspec bars are the same bead strings seen on the Protoforms' packaging. Interestingly, all four are the same scale, which is slightly larger than Hot Wheels scale. Like, maybe a couple millimeters longer than the same vehicle mode would be as a Hot Wheels car. And they all have four free-rolling wheels, none of this fake wheel jazz that so many previous Legends toys have had. AUTOBOT: BUMBLEBEE Altmode: Classic Camaro Licensor: GM STR 6 INT 8 SPD 6 END 5 RNK 5 COUR 10 FRB 3 SKL 9 Avg 6.625 Packaged not quite in robot mode, the shoulder wings are supposed to be angled backwards, but flat-packing doesn't allow that. Robot Mode: 3" (7.5cm) tall. The shoulder joints, thighs and wheels are black plastic, the rest is yellow. The eyes are painted metallic blue, and a sort of 70s mustache is painted on in silver. There's a small silver Autobot symbol on the collar area, slightly overflowing the space left for it and generally hard to see on the yellow background. There's also metallic blue on the kneecap area. The shoulders and hips are restricted ball joints that are basically swivels with a little wiggle room. There's elbow-like hinges right below the shoulders, but they work more like new shoulder hinges. Transformation: Pretty much Hot Rod Patrol Micromaster transformation. Hood folds down to chest, doors and front fenders to arms, rear pulls down and splits into legs. Vehicle Mode: 3" (7.7cm) long, it's an early 70s Camaro in yellow plastic with black plastic wheels, metallic blue windows and some black stripes. The grille and headlights are silver. There's some robot bits visible, like hte feet, but the main problem is the shoulder joints sticking out behind the front wheels. Ugly. The rear window is not painted, just has the stripes from the trunk running up over the window. Otherwise, not bad. It even has little rear view mirrors, and rolls freely. Overall: Eh. Middle of the road. Decent representation in both modes, if uninspired. DECEPTICON: BARRICADE Altmode: Saleen S281 Police Car Licensor: Saleen Inc. STR 8 INT 5 SPD 8 END 6 RNK 5 COUR 5 FRB 5 SKL 4 Avg 5.75 Robot Mode: 3" (7.5cm) tall at the head, but permanently crouched and has wings sticking out the back, so looks much taller. All black plastic, with metallic purple paint on the "hands". The hands are like claws formed into drills or something, it's kinda odd. The face is painted in a mix of metallic purple and silver, with red eyes. Between the ball shoulders and the transformation strut hinge the shoulders are on, the otherwise unjointed arms have a good range of motion, although this is marred a little by the fact the shoulder connect about at the midpoint of the arm. The hips are ball joints, and the knees are hinges, but the lets can't fully straighten. On the plus side, this means he doesn't have big gaps in his rear fender to accomodate the legs, but it also means he's stuck in a perma-crouch. However, his ankles are ball joints, which lets this odd arrangement work surprisingly well. Transformation: Kinda tricky, especially trom vehicle to robot, as it seemed like everything needs to move simultaneously to work. It all locks together a little too well in that sense. Also, getting the feet in under the lightbar can be a little frustrating the first few times. The arms form almost the entire sides. Vehicle Mode: 3" (7.6cm) long police car, continuing the Transformers tradition of making cop cars out of high end sports cars. Well, okay, a little Googling shows that this isn't *that* high end, maybe $56,000 for the base car. The hood vents mark it as at least a Supercharged variant. A little more poking tells me that this is actually a Ford Mustang with a hot-rodding conversion kit Saleen makes. Everything's black plastic, with white paint on the doors, red and blue solid on the flasher, silver "POLICE" on doors and spoiler, and silver Decepticon logo on the center of the hood (making this the only one with a visible faction symbol in vehicle mode). The brushguard (update: it's a pushbar, my bad) on front is a removable piece, as I accidentally found out. Fortunately, I didn't drop this into the Carpet Of Toy Eating. Anyway, nicest of the four vehicle modes, it has no robot kibble or weird gaps and only a few odd seams. Overall: It takes some chances in the design, but they mostly pay off. Best looking vehicle mode of the lot, and generally good for Legends in general. And a fairly satisfying robot mode, too. Really, the only one of this wave you should make any effort to find. AUTOBOT: AUTOBOT JAZZ (yeah, they still have to do that) Altmode: Pontiac Solstice Licensor: GM STR 6 INT 6 SPD 9 END 7 RNK 8 COUR 9 FRB 6 SKL 5 Avg 7 The spoiler popped off when I first tried transforming it, and flew somewhere in my apartment more than a meter away...so I'm not likely to find it again for a loooong time. Hopefully it didn't go in the garbage. Robot Mode: 3" (7.5cm) tall. The thighs, feet and wheels are black plastic, the rest is silvery gray plastic. The visor is metallic blue, there's a black Autobot symbol on the groin, and gold kneecaps. The fake headlights on the chest are half yellow, and there's a red bit that's probably supposed to be an Autobot symbol hood ornament. The shoulders are swivels a la Spychanger arms...in fact, the arms are pretty much Spychanger all the way. The hips are ball joints, the knees swivel on their long axis for transformation. He can also bow at mid-torso due to the transformation joint there. Spindly arms hidden by doors, oversized legs, chest that pops off way too easily, and he has high heels. Eh. Transformation: The rear axles lock it in its current mode, so they have to be pulled out all the way to let the torso swing in or out. The reason I lost the spoiler is because there isn't enough excessive force in the world to make it transform if the axle halves aren't pulled out, and my hand slipped and sent the merely-pegged-on spoiler flying who-knows-where. The chest swings up to become the second front of the car which happens to be sitting on top of the rear windows, and the legs twist around and snap together as the actual front end. Vehicle Mode: Ugh. His robot chest, which turns into the front end of the vehicle in the full sized version, makes the rear windows here. Very obvious out of place kibble. There's also a weird "cowcatcher" effect due to the robot heeels sticking out at the front. Anyway, 3" (7.5cm) long without the spoiler, probably a millimeter longer if it had the spoiler. Black plastic tires, the rest is slightly metallic silvery gray plastic. The front window and front grille are painted black, but the side windows are unpainted. The fake front grille would look a little less bad in the rear window position if it were painted as in the prototypes. The headlights are unpainted, but the foglamp parts are yellow. There's red on the taillights and license plate, plus red and yellow details on the robot chest sitting up top. I don't think there was paint on the spoiler. Weakest vehicle mode of the lot. Overall: Really, almost nothing to like about this one. Even if they re-release it in G1 colors (as the Deluxe version will be), I wouldn't recommend wasting money on this one. Not even if you find it for the "correct" price of four bucks. AUTOBOT: AUTOBOT RATCHET Altmode: Hummer H2 Licensor: GM STR 4 INT 9 SPD 6 END 9 RNK 5 COUR 10 FRB 3 SKL 10 Avg 7 Robot Mode: He's...green. I suppose they wanted him to not look too much like Bumblebee, but honestly. The toes, some of the joints, and the wheels are black plastic, the rest is a slightly yellowish green. The chest is molded to look like an H2's front end, and is painted black. The face is partly silver with the eyes left unpainted within that. There's a red and white Autobot symbol printed on the abdomen. The shoulders are ball joints restricted to much they're really just swivels. And...that's it. The legs aren't even really connected to the hips, much less jointed. I suppose the transformation swivel for the front end can let him swing his hips a little for a taunting dance. Transformation: He does the splits, with the legs coming up around 180 degrees to form the rear of the H2. The toes can fold up about 45 degrees, which is kinda pointless. Why? Because they're still visible in vehicle mode, and even without folding the don't scrape the ground in vehicle mode. The upper body swings around upside down and the arms hug in to form the bottom of the front end. Certainly an odd transformation. Vehicle Mode: 3" (7.5cm) long, and despite being a really blocky emergency-modified H2 it still has plenty of weird seams and visible robot bits. The wheels and rooftop spare tire are black plastic, as are several visible robot bits, the rest is that weird green. A red pulse-line pattern is painted along each side, the windows are metallic blue, and there's black-painted details on the roof, front end and rear sides. The headlights are silver. The wheel on the top is a separate piece and can be rotated, but doesn't spin freely. From behind there's a big open gap, and a lot of the front end is too open as the robot arm bits are visible. The connection between front and back halves is a bit wobbly, no peg to lock it down. So-so mode overall, but not as bad as Jazz. Overall: Decent if underpainted statue in robot mode, interesting transformation, not very good vehicle mode. Marginal buy, and really just for the novelty of the transform. Dave Van Domelen, notes that thanks to the local sales tax rate, the four of them cost exactly $30.00 together. About $20 too much for the value he got. Sigh.