Dave's Transformers Rant: Robot Replicas Wave 1 Bumblebee Megatron Barricade Permalink: http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Movie/Replica1 Robot Replicas are an attempt to have a more movie-accurate robot mode toy while retaining poseability (as opposed to the 3" Titaniums or the Unleashed figures, which are movie-accurate at the expense of articulation). They use Revoltech joints, but are larger than Revoltech scale (see http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Japan/RM21-Rev19 for my review of Revoltech G1 Optimus Prime). They depart from other movie toys in a number of other ways, and it seems like $11 is their base price, putting them outside the usual Scout/ Deluxe/Mega/etc. structure (Wal-Mart reportedly wants $10.96, so it's not just K-Mart overcharge). CAPSULES Bumblebee: A bit dull, but most of his problems could be fixed with a little more paint. Mildly recommended. $10.99 at K-Mart. Megatron: Good sculpt, but serious problems with upper body joints hurting the appearance, and another dull paint job. Very mildly recommended, mainly if you're willing to put up with its limitations. $10.99 at K-Mart. Barricade: Ack, pfui. Hideously twisted dwarf version of the character. Has a nifty weapon, but that's really his only good point. Mild recommendation to avoid. $10.99 at K-Mart. RANTS Packaging: While roughly the size of Deluxe blister cards, and with similarly truncated backing cards, these have a noticeably different style. The blister, for starters, is more or less rectangular, albeit with some corners truncated and the edges beveled. A relevant faction symbol is molded into the top of the blister, and "ROBOT REPLICAS" is molded into the front (along the right edge), painted in white. (A quick symbolism digression: the classic Autobot symbol has six-sided eyes and the classic Decepticon symbol has three-sided eyes. The movie versions have five and four sides respectively. A more pretentious analyst could draw the conclusion that it's supposed to represent the two sides being less distinct in their way of seeing things in the movie than in previous versions, the greater similarity of the eyes heralding a greater similarity in outlook. But I'm not that pretentious, nooooo.) The figure is posed in an action position inside, held in by rubber bands rather than twist-ties, no doubt to allow the clearest possible view of the toy (easiest to just cut the bands rather than trying to undo them). Each also has a swappable limb packaged next to it in the blister. Around the bottom third of the blister is a card insert, with the blister itself raised in front of the card. The top and most of the right edge of the blister is glued to the cardback, while the left side and a little tab on the right are taped behind the card. The bottom is glued to the card in the same way as in other movie blistercard packages. The front of the card features a full-front image of the character in action against a cityscape backdrop, with the name sideways along the right edge. This gives them a much different shelf-appearance than most movie toys. The card insert has the standard red and black background with gray logo, though. The right side of the card insert shows the weapon accessory, although it's not always quite the same as what's inside. There's the blurb, "Includes Interchangeable (insert name of weapon)!" accompanying the picture. The left side has the following blurb: "ROBOT REPLICAS: Fully posable and movie accurate to the finest detail, Robot Replicas bring TRANSFORMERS to life like never before." And yes, they spell it "posable" rather than "poseable". Not, as some have pointed out, is "poseable" really a dictionary word in any case. A tiny disclaimer at the bottom of the front of the card insert says, "Product does not convert." The card insert says the toy is not for children under 3 years, while the top of the cardback front says "Ages 4+", so it's left as an exercise for the reader to determine whether to give this to a 3 year old. The back of the card has the logo at top and a bust shot of the character from the movie. On the middle right is a photo of the toy with weapon accessory attached, although there's evidence that these pictures are A) heavily enhanced, and B) of original mockups rather than production toys. There's a call-out unique to each figure naming their weapon, and then the blurb "Fully posable figure!" (And yes, I keep typing "poseable" and then having to go back and fix it.) The bio note is to the left of the picture, but there's no techspecs or other info. Along the bottom are "clean" shots of all three cardback front pictures as co-sells. These come with the second catalog, but no other paperwork. The "front cover" of the catalog features Ultimate Bumblebee, but looks to be just the packaging art, no photo of the actual toy. Or if it's a photo, it's 'shopped within in inch of its life. The inside pages have the voice changer helmet, the Starscream Barrel Roll Blaster, Leader Optimus Prime, Voyager Starscream, Deluxe Jazz, Cyber-Slammers Prime, Robot Replicas Barricade, Cyber-Stompin' Bumblebee, Beatmix Bumblebee, and the computer game. The back has pretty much the same assortment of "artifacts" as the first catalog. General Notes: There seem to be a number of commonalities among all three, so rather than say them again and again in the individual reviews, I'll put 'em all together here. If any in future waves deviate from these, it'll be noted, otherwise assume they conform to this. First off, as mentioned in the intro, these are Revoltechs, down to the style of universal joint with the cross on the core piece. This is odd, given that there's no mention of Kaiyodo on the package anywhere, just Hasbro. In each of them, the shoulders and knees use slightly upsized versions of the Revoltech universal joint. The hips and ankles are universal joints, but not quite Revoltechs (i.e. not swappable), although Barricade's ankles come close. The waists are very restricted ball joints with only a little wiggle room. The heads are on ball joints and can be popped off and swapped. The elbows are hinges that bend inward instead of forward, so they can put their hands/fists on their hips. The forearms are attached by pegs, and usually can turn at that point. There's no wrists or upper arm swivels, so the arms are rather restricted. The Revoltech knees and almost- Revoltech ankles give the legs plenty of range, though. The nature of the joints gives them a certain amount of swappability. The heads and forearms swap trivially, and the lower legs swap with some effort. However, they're not all the same scale, so it can look odd. Still, each can use any of the others weapons easily, or their regular forearms. Why aren't they even kinda to scale? As far as I can tell, they're designed to have the same total mass. Since Barricade is bulkier, he also has to be shorter. Since Bumblebee's weapon is small, he gets to be larger. Near as I can tell, they're all about 115 grams, give or take a gram. All made from soft plastic, all having the same or similar joints, equivalent number of paint applications, etc...I guess it really does just come down to mass. It's worth noting that while the figures are bigger than Revoltechs, the cross-marked Revoltech joints are the same size. The pegs are a little different, but I just swapped lower legs between Optimus Prime (G1) and Barricade. Barricade is, BTW, the only one of the three the right size to try this without having one leg longer than the other. The heads don't swap with Revoltechs, though, as the ball joints are molded into the torso for the Replicas. [Update: Actually, the pegs aren't quite the same size, so you have to do a bit of forcing to get a Revoltech piece onto a Robot Replicas peg.] In the "Weapon" field below the name, I'll list first the name shown on the side of the blister and then the name given on the back, if they differ. AUTOBOT: BUMBLEBEE Weapon: Cannon Arm/Plasma Ejection Cannon Licensor: GM Eager and friendly, BUMBLEBEE nevertheless developed a solitary nature after the injury that left him mostly mute. It is a welcome surprise to discover on meeting Sam that he can actually communicate with humans through their music. Of course, now that he's made friends on Earth, he's got to fight to keep them alive long enough to actually enjoy the friendship. If the DECEPTICONS want to harm the humans under his protection, they'll have to go through him - and his plasma cannon - first. Two rubber bands crossed in back. Dimensions: 5.25" (13cm) tall at the head. Maximum arm span is 6.25" (16cm), as he can hold his arms straight out. Sculpt: A little mushy in places, especially the chest, but once you look past the blandness of the paint job, it looks pretty good. It has the best "hero" proportions of the three. The head feels a little wide, but otherwise looks well-balanced. Nice big feet to support a variety of poses. Plastics: Medium cool gray. That's it. The harder plastic, the softer plastic, the joint plastic, all pretty much the same thing. Paint Applications: Kinda disappointing, considering how these Replicas are supposed to be so movie-accurate. Oh, I suppose the paint apps are more extensive than on the Deluxe transforming toys, but given how there's only one color of plastic, they kinda have to be. Yellow dominates, of course, with black on the chest stripes, ankle wheels and car windows. There's silver details all about, including on the majority of the face, plus metallic light blue bits here and there. There's a few pale gold accents (including the eyes), and the head has a red Autobot symbol and blue helmet dots. The license plate on the pelvis is printed on, at least. This really needs more black paint. Not just on specific details like the wheels on the back, but an extensive black wash would help bring out a lot of the details. [Update: http://www.dvandom.com/kitbash/rrbb1.JPG I put black in the nooks and crannies, gunmetal brushed over the gray, yellow highlights, black wheels, neon blue on the gun barrels, and general edging.] Articulation: Standard, except his forearms are molded so that they can't turn on the connection peg. He gets the most mileage of the three out of the other joints, though. His door wings are not articulated, although the plastic is soft so they can be bent around. Weapon: Pretty simple, it's just a forearm morph cannon. It can go on either arm, but is meant for the right arm. Only slightly longer than the forearm it replaces. Overall: Dull, but competent. A black wash and some more paint details could make it a lot better, and it's a decent starting point. If you want to get a Robot Replica to check out the line, go for this one. DECEPTICON: MEGATRON Weapon: Fusion Cannon Licensor: None (duh) Despite being a cruel tyrant, MEGATRON managed to win the allegiance of many of the TRANSFORMERS with his fiery diatribes on the great destiny that awaited them among the stars. He spoke of a grand army of mighty machines, empowered by the awesome energies of the AllSpark, sweeping across the galaxy, conquering all before them. He spoke of a new golden age for CYBERTRON in which the machine world would be the mobile capitol [sic] at the heart of an interstellar empire. Those who followed him would taste power, and be rewarded with ultimate authority over billions of lives, while those who opposed him would cease functioning. Note: the picture on the package back has the original face, although the other art uses the correct final face design. Also, "capitol" applies to the building, and "capital" to the city, hence the [sic]...although I suppose Cybertron could be considered a planet-sized building in some ways. Two rubber bands crossed in back. Fusion cannon's a bit warped. Dimensions: 5.25" (13.5cm) tall. The arms can't rise to the sides at all due to kibble, but each arm is a gangly 3.5" (9cm) long. Sculpt: Well, it tries to look big by having a tiny head, at least, but that just makes him look even weirder next to Bumblebee...not only is he not the same scale, he's not even the same perspective! Decent detailing, at least, and about the only Megatron toy with hands that don't look lame. The head sculpt holds detail nicely, and it's clear that this is the final design for the face, with more human-like features. Plastics: Both the harder and softer plastics are a light blue-gray. The joints use black plastic. Paint Applications: A LOT of silver paint, blending in with the light blue plastic in places. A few black parts, either joint-matching or recesses, but like Bumblebee could really benefit from a black wash. The eyes and a few small accents are gold. [Update: http://www.dvandom.com/kitbash/rrmegatron.JPG Now it has a black wash. :) And some shiny added.] Articulation: Standard. The elbow direction looks particularly bad on him, though, and his shoulder bulk really impedes motion at that joint. He does a good "gonna smack ya" pose, though. Still, the bulked shoulders and the sideways-only elbows are a HUGE strike against an otherwise pretty good mold. On the other hand, the lack of bulk around the hips gives them a wider range, and he can stand on one leg with the other raised in either a punting or dancing pose, depending on how macho you think Megatron is. (He's *daaaaaancing!*) Weapon: Likely the closest we're gonna get to a movie-accurate cannon, it's a fused version of the two forearms with various spiny details splayed around. It replaces both forearms and is mostly made of rigid plastic with rubbery spiny bits painted silver. Sadly, the rubbery bits are all mangled and deformed in shipping. You might be able to straighten it out with hot water, but if this is the type of soft plastic with a "relaxation point", it's above the temperature of my hot water heater. 3.5" (9cm) long. Overall: Adding an upper arm swivel and a black wash would make this a really good toy. Sadly, as it stands, it has significant flaws, and the joint one isn't trivially fixed. If you just want to attach the weapon and give up on the arm articulation, though, it's okay. DECEPTICON: BARRICADE Weapon: Blade Wheel Arm Licensor: None (guess they decided not enough distinctive Saleen stuff was visible to require it) BARRICADE was always a cruel, manipulative monster. Under the influence of MEGATRON, he has become a sophisticated liar and talented infiltrator. Despite his brutal nature, he has the ability to deceive others into trusting him just long enough to make the ultimate betrayal serve his purposes perfectly. He enjoys the utter destruction of faith so cripping to many beings that they never again believe in the honesty of another. On every world he has visited, he has learned the most effective way to crush the spirit of the local creatures, and left an impressive collection of annihilated dreams in his wake. Keeeeeen. Too bad that never really comes across in the movie, but it's a nice villainous characterization. Same two crossed rubber bands as the other two, with weapon held in by the blister. The tops of his shoulders go through holes in the blister, and you really don't even need the rubber bands to keep this one in place. Dimensions: 4.75" (12cm) tall at the head, but he looks MUCH shorter, thanks to a squat set of proportions and shorter limbs. Seriously, he looks like a dwarf version of Barricade. The big shoulderpads formed by his rear wheels only make it worse, as do his comparatively tiny feet. Sculpt: And it doesn't stop with the squatty body. The head just looks too big for it, and his limb pieces are all swollen and bulked out in bizarre directions. This is not the lean killing machine from the movie, it's some sort of failed attempt at chibification. Oh, it has plenty of sculpted details, but...it just feels so wrong. Plastics: The joints are a pale lavender, the rest is black. Paint Applications: Well, this one doesn't need a black paint wash, at least. :) Lots of silver, including a sort of airbrush fade on the forearms. Some dark gold in places as well. There's bits of red on the eyes and turn signals, and a lot of printed apps. The Decepticon police shields are printed in blue and white on the shoulderpads, and the upper arm doors are white with "POLICE" in a sort of shiny black to silver fade pattern. There's almost no paint on the backside...a silver or gray drybrush effect would be nice to bring out some of the details. Articulation: Standard, but the weird shape of his thighs causes some problems. Also, he has the smallest feet by a large margin, and is a lot more likely to tip over. Especially since he's so top-heavy. Weapon: Notable for having a ball joint built into it. It's supposed to be the forearm wheels joined together with spikes coming out between them as a spiny spinner of doom. But it's a little overpainted, with the inner wheel piece painted silver. Also, the hand built into the piece is unpainted, so unless you look closely it looks like just random junk. Anyway, the spinner of doom is on a ball joint and can be rotated or angled a bit, but is not free-spinning. The ball is the same size as the type used for heads in this line, so you can mount a head on the strut, or put the spinner on Megatron's shoulders (Bumblebee and Barricade both have wing-things on their backs that block it). Overall: I could talk about some of the possible little fixes, like paint on the weapon arm hand, or making the thighs longer and thinner, but the fact is that the total package is a mess. You'd have to pretty much fix every single part in at least some small way to make a good toy out of this. Sorry, all the Barricade fans out there, but this is a toy to avoid. Dave Van Domelen, may take a black wash to the first two soon.