Dave's TRU Exclusive PRiD Rant: Legion Two-Packs Optimus Prime vs. Megatronus Bumblebee vs. Underbite Permalink: http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/PRiD/LegionTRU1 These are $11.99 two-packs with a somewhat spoilery theme, given that they were released in August 2015 and the U.S broadcast of the cartoon hadn't even shown Megatronus in full frame yet (or named him, although he did show up and get named in the app game earlier). Plus a lot of the redecos for the assortment (which included other size classes) implied power up armor for the Autobots. http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/PRiD/Legion1 - Optimus, BB molds http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/PRiD/Legion3 - Underbite mold CAPSULES Optimus Prime vs. Megatronus: Optimus mold was originally recommended, this is a somewhat odd redeco that just doesn't really work for me. Too much like a "tried for Ultra Magnus and missed" for my taste. Megatronus is new, but presumably will be available separately later. It's pretty good, but not enough to carry the set on its own. Mildly recommended. Bumblebee vs. Underbite: Bumblebee mold was originally recommended, although with two redecos out there (Night Ops and this) it's starting to wear thin. Underbite mold was originally recommended, and it amuses me that this tweaked color scheme is essentially Eva-01 from Neon Genesis Evangelion. Get in the Chompazoid, Shinji! Mildly recommended unless you don't have either original, then recommended. RANTS Packaging: Wide blister cards with the characters in their not-vehicle modes, Autobot on the left and Decepticon on the right. Everyone gets new art, which presumably represents how they will look in the cartoon rather than how the toy looks (Optimus Prime is a particularly bad mismatch). The blisters have TRU exclusive stickers on the front, and the code circle logo has been tweaked to add the phrase "CLASH of the TRANSFORMERS" along the upper half, with "ROBOTS in DISGUISE" still along the bottom half. The blister cards are 8.5" (21.5cm) wide, 6.75" (17cm) tall, and the blisters are 1.5" (4cm) deep. As with the single-packs, the vehicle mode is pictured on a card insert at the front of the blister. Only having to present the legalese once on the cardback leaves a bit more room for photos of the toys, but the instructions continue to be folded sheets inside the blister (a single sheet for both, not two sheets). The back side of the instructions sheet is another ad for the game, and indicates that scanning each figure not only unlocks that figure in the game, but also unlocks a weapon (i.e. an axe for Optimus, a sword or staff for Megatronus). This doesn't seem to be the case, though, as scanning them just got me the characters and some Ultra Sparks. Interstingly, either someone tweaked the contrast really badly on the photos of Bumblebee, or the prototype used a much darker gray plastic than the eventual production model. The new art for Bumblebee and Optimus Prime shows them clearly wearing power up armor, something that the redecos try to evoke, but not very well thanks to not being retools. Set 1: Optimus Prime vs. Megatronus AUTOBOT: OPTIMUS PRIME Assortment: B2490 Altmode: Tractor-trailer App Game Name: Legion Clash Optimus Prime Transformation Difficulty: 5 steps Previous Name Use: Yes Previous Mold Use: PRiD Function: Returned Leader Motto: "It turns out death is more like going away to college." Packaging: Two sock-ties hold the robot into the blister. Color Swaps: Blue and black become a very dark slightly metallic brown that looks black under room lighting. Red becomes a sort of translucent pearly white. Paint Apps: Some bright red on the chest and shoulders, but nowhere near enough to match the card art. Some bits on the forearms are bright blue. The chest window and real window are painted very dark metalflake brown (good match to the plastic), as are the fists. Silver paint on the thighs and "pants cuffs", with the thighs being dipped so the paint is all the way around. The head is dipped in metalflake blue paint, with a silver faceplate. Pretty bland in vehicle mode, could stand to at least have silver on the grille and smokestacks. Other Notes: It's not trying to be Ultra Magnus, but neither does it really look like the armored up version on the card art (Mega Optimus Prime seems to be closer to that). Overall: A bit of a swing and a miss here. Using Bumblebee-redeco's gray instead of pearly white would have avoided the "is that Magnus?" issue while implying an armor-up and not looking like other Optimus redecos like the Nightwatch style. DECEPTICON: MEGATRONUS Assortment: B2490 Altmode: Tank App Game Name: Legion Megatronus Transformation Difficulty: 5 steps Previous Name Use: None Previous Mold Use: None Function: Fallen Prime Motto: "No, I'm not on fire. Why do you ask?" Note, while this is the first toy called Megatronus (tied with the Mega class TRU exclusive, anyway), the official continuity says that this is a version of The Fallen. Packaging: Two ties hold the robot into the blister. Robot Mode: Hey, a weapon! The first PRiD Legion class toy to come with a 3mm peg weapon...although it's kinda necessary for the whole tank deal. The robot is pretty flat, reminiscent of Legion Sideswipe, but a little sturdier. This is a rather different interpretation of the character than previous ones, although it keeps the tank mode and "Decepticon symbol is based on his face" aspects of the original comics Fallen. The tank treads are mostly on the boots, but part of each tread forms the shoulderpads. Oddly, the tank barrel has a bayonet. The proportions are standard Super Robot, with the waist being well above the halfway point, the boots being longer than the thighs, and the head tiny. 3.25" (8cm) tall, a mix of black, Decepticon Purple, and silver. Purple plastic is used on the back, shoulder struts, pelvis, thighs, and the wheels on the shoulders and boots. The rest of the toy is black. There's silver paint on the faceplate, pecs, forearms, bayonet blade, and "spats" on the feet. There's decently matching purple paint on several chest details, the barrel of the cannon, and the shins. The eyes are somewhat sloppily painted red. The code circle is on the front of the right shoulder. The shoulders are ball joints with hinges between shoulderpad and arm that are mainly useful for transformation. No elbows. The waist turns smoothly, the hips are ball joints. The knees only bend sideways for transformation. The hands can hold 3mm pegs, and there are 3mm peg holes on each forearm, plus one on the back. The turret has a 3mm peg and can be held in either hand, but it looks better on the forearm. Transformation: Slightly partsformery thanks to the turret pegging on, although you could leave it on the back of the robot mode if you want to avoid partsforming. Pretty clever otherwise. You can ALMOST transform it without spinning the waist 180 degrees, but then the rear wheels end up on top rather than bottom, oops. Instructions? Oh, right, those exist. There's little tabs on the forearms meant to help you get the arms out from inside the treads for transformation back to robot mode, but my fingers are too big (and my nails too short) to make that work. Vehicle Mode: A Tron tank with a bayonet, basically. Standard (for Megatrons for a while now) H-tank styling, with the robot head sitting in the gap between treads. The robot toes just stick up atop the treads, something I think the Mega version avoids. The chassis is 2" (5cm) long and wide, but with the cannon pokine out at the front the vehicle is 2.75" (7cm) long total. If you assume it's at least big enough for a person to sit inside the turret, it's around 1:400 scale, possibly closer to the 1:700 scale used for model warships. Of course, I find the idea of a 30 meter long supertank with a bayonet 10 meters or so long amusing. The turret can turn about 45 degrees to either side of forward before the robot toes block it. If you put it on backwards, kneecap spikes restrict it to about 30 degrees to either side of straight back. Side flank arcs are about 45 degrees wide each, with "directly to the side" at the forward extreme. The wheels are rough to create a slightly rumbly ride, but it rolls okay. Overall: A decent design, although the robot toes do hurt the vehicle mode. While it has the usual problems of color mismatch (part of the tread is purple, for instance), it looks pretty good at the usual Hasbro paint budget levels anyway. Set overall: If you're impatient or worry that there will be no single-pack Megatronus, it's worth getting for completists. The Optimus Prime is pretty weak, though, and while Megatronus is nice, I wouldn't say it's worth $12 on its own. Set 2: Bumblebee vs. Underbite AUTOBOT: BUMBLEBEE Assortment: B2491 Altmode: Sports Car App Game Name: Legion Clash Bumblebee Transformation Difficulty: 5 steps Previous Name Use: Yes Previous Mold Use: PRiD Function: Squad Leader Motto: "I think I'm getting the hang of this." Packaging: A whopping four ties hold the robot in the blister. Color Swaps: Black stays black, yellow becomes a light silvery gray. Paint Apps: A lot of yellow paint: helmet, thighs (completely dipped), molded arm parts on the insides of the car panels. The face is painted silver, with metalflake bright blue eyes. The metalflake bright blue is all over the toy, forming a stripe pattern on the vehicle mode that is different from the usual rally stripes, plus the headlights. The front and side windows are painted gunmetal, but the rear window is unpainted. The little bit of the side windows that is near the robot wrists is also unpainted. (Original version had all windows fully painted.) [Later note: I did some touchups on this and Night Ops Bumblebee, http://www.dvandom.com/kitbash/PRiDbees.JPG (I missed the upper parts of the wing windows, but have since fixed that).] Other Notes: Mine has kinda loose shoulders, and the paint borders at the bottom of the thighs are sloppy. While they couldn't remold the head to match the helmet seen on the card ard, using silvery plastic does at least evoke an armor-up. There's a Warrior class toy in this general redeco scheme as part of the TRU exclusive line, but I wasn't about to pay $17 for it. Overall: Yes, it's Yet Another Bumblebee Redeco, but it's a color scheme not usually found in them. (Can't say never...the Daredevil Squad Bumblebee K-Mart exclusive from 2011 was also silvery gray.) DECEPTICON: UNDERBITE Assortment: B2491 Altmode: Chompazoid/Cybertronian ground vehicle App Game Name: Legion Clash Underbite Transformation Difficulty: 5 steps Previous Name Use: PRiD Previous Mold Use: PRiD Function: Chonmpazoid Motto: "Neo Tokyo 3 sounds TASTY...." Packaging: Bowing to the inevitable, a mere one tie makes a desultory attempt at containing that which cannot be contained. Well, that and the shape of the toy makes it easier for the blister to be enough on its own. Color Swaps: None. Well, the purple is a LITTLE more vibrant, but that could just be normal batch variations. Paint Apps: Unlike the original, the claws are unpainted, and the bottoms of the forepaws are also unpainted (instead, there's metalflake red on the front "shoulders"). The eyes are still red, the teeth still silver, and the cockpit of vehicle mode still black. But what really sets this apart is the use of Constructicon Green on the snout, shoulders, fenders, and flanks. As noted earlier, this really gives it the feel of Eva-01 from Neon Genesis Evangelion. So if you don't want to drop the big bucks for the Eva-01 version Masterpiece Optimus Prime, you can still get your crossover amusement with this far cheaper set. Other Notes: The unpainted claws do hurt a bit, I may go back and paint the ones on mine. And maybe the black of the jaw, which is missing here. Overall: It's only slightly different from the original, which is still on the pegs most places. So unless you find the Evangelion riff sufficiently amusing, it's not really different enough to drop the money on. Set Overall: Well, both are redecos in this set (yeah, Megatronus could be considered a predeco, since there will be a single-pack non-exclusive version), but they're at least moderately interesting redecos.