Dave's Transformers Titanium Series Rant: Assortment 3 Rodimus (G1 Targetmaster) Thundercracker (G1 Starscream recolor) Galvatron (G1) Battle Damaged Optimus Prime (G1 Prime recolor) Okay, I'm being arbitrary in sticking these together and not with waves 4 and 5 in what I call Assortment 2. They do differ qualitative in that they have recolors, though. Rodimus and Thundercracker ship together (along with older figures) as wave 6, Galvatron and BD Prime are wave 7. Permalink: http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Artifacts/3Titanium3 As of January 12, 2007, I've seen all four, but left Prime on the shelf. It's just a paint tweak, after all. CAPSULES Rodimus: Suffers from "designed to only look good in one pose" syndrome, but otherwise pretty good. Recommended. $5.99 at Hastings Media. Thundercracker: Original mold was mildly recommended. No improvements on the shape, but the colors look a lot better, and the lack of painted detail on the chest vents makes a positive difference. Recommended if you don't have Starscream, mildly recommended if you do. $5.99 at Hastings Media. Galvatron: Kinda weird pose, bad color matching between paint and plastic, some mold issues. Mildly recommended. $5.88 at Wal-Mart (they boosted all their 3" Titanium prices at the new year) Battle Damaged Optimus Prime: Don't plan to get it. Original mold was mildly recommended. New paint apps not that impressive. RANTS Still no pegs on the bases, although of course Thundercracker still has a peg-hole on his thrust pillar. Packaging: Standard 3" Titanium bubbles, P/N's end in 1700 for Rodimus and 1800 for Thundercracker. Both came with the old catalog, so they're not listed on the checklist. Rodimus is held in by one twist-tie and no rubber bands, Thundercracker by a twist-tie and a rubber band. Both have guns held in just by the blister. AUTOBOT: RODIMUS Among the youngest of the AUTOBOT warriors on Earth, RODIMUS finds himself more at home among the humans than he does among his fellow robots. A reckless, carefree attitude translates into a love for risk, that is as passionate during a simple street race as it is during the fiercest battle. Despite his behavior, however, his immature attitude masks a wisdom beyond his years and a strength greater than even he is aware of. STR 10 INT 10 SPD 9 END 10 COUR 7 FRB 10 Avg 9.33 Height: 2.5" (6cm). Parts: Torso and boots/feet are metal. The head, arms and pelvis/thighs piece are bright red (FF0000) plastic. The hands and back wing look to be completely painted over, I'd guess they're red plastic as well to let the entire figure go in one pressing. The red plastic glows a teeny bit under UV. Paints: The back wing is bright yellow (FFFF00), as are the flames on the chest. This paint glows a bit under UV. Most of the torso and boots are painted red, a decent match for the plastic, if shinier. The thighs and hands are painted orange (a bit brighter than FF6600) that glows strongly under UV. The border around the chest flames is also this orange. The face and arm pipes are painted silver, the feet are black, and the eyes are bright blue (00CCFF) that glows under UV. There's a red Autobot symbol printed in the appropriate place on the abdomen. Pose: Knees bent, but arms almost straight. The right hand is posed to hold the pistol, the left is open. It looks kinda odd, but seems to be designed to look good when the right arm is pointed out with the gun, the waist is turned 30-45 degrees to the left, and the left arm is out slightly to the rear, for a "draw and fire" pose. Standard six points of articulation (swivel neck, waist, shoulders, wrists). Accessory: 2.0cm long double-barrelled pistol made of soft silver plastic. It's based on his Targetmaster partner, Firebolt, although a bit elongated and narrowed. Overall: I'm not too keen on posing that's designed to only look good in one position...why bother with joints if deviating from the intended pose looks dumb? Still, it does look good in its intended pose, and using Firebolt was a nice touch. DECEPTICON: THUNDERCRACKER Previous Mold Use: Starscream Previous Mold Review: http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Artifacts/3Titanium1 Contemptuous of anything that cannot fly, THUNDERCRACKER delights in the terror of those he views as lesser beings. Very few things give him quite as much pleasure as watching through his crosshairs as his incendiary rounds chew up the earth behind a fleeing ground target. Though he has his doubts about the DECEPTICON cause, which can sometimes lead to him being less than totally dedicated to a mission, his passion for terror is unmatched. He is a tool that MEGATRON uses often, and wisely. STR 7 INT 7 SPD 9 END 7 COUR 5 FRB 8 Avg 7.17 Height: Same as Starscream. Parts: Metal torso and boots. The head, wings and arms are a metalflake blue (0066CC) that glows some under UV. The pelvis and thigh chunk is a slightly metallic light gray (999999). I think the hands are black plastic, but it could be paint. There's some flecks of something UV-glowy all over the toy, possibly packing material from an intermediate stage of manufacturing. Or lint. Paints: The forearms, chest vents, toes, boot details and a bit atop the cockpit are black. The thighs and boots are metallic blue, matching well with the blue plastic, if a bit darker. The face, kneecaps, codpiece and wrist details are painted silver. Much of the torso is a slightly duller silver, including the scoops flanking the head. The cockpit is painted gold, and there's bits of red on the pelvis. The wing stripes are red and white. The molded Decepticon symbols on the backs of the wings are painted dark purple (6633FF), but the ones on the front are unpainted. Pose: Same as Starscream, just shoulders and wrists with ease, and head with effort. The waist wiggles a bit, that's it. Accessories: Same as Starscream, but the gun is made of gunmetal plastic and the thrust base is light warm gray (CCCCCC-level, but warm, and glows a bit under UV) painted with brown smoke effect. He's a polluter. Overall: Looks very good, better than Starscream. DECEPTICON: GALVATRON Rebuilt by the power of UNICRON from the scrap of the dying MEGATRON, GALVATRON is every bit as ruthless and terrible as the original DECEPTICON leader. His core programming is a dark and rotten mass of evil, and his every thought is of conquest. As a mobile particle beam cannon, he has enough firepower to lay waste to entire cities. As a robot, no AUTOBOT is his equal in sheer power. STR 10 INT 9 SPD 9 END 10 COUR 9 FRB 9 Avg 9.33 Yeah, they just took his G1 techspec numbers and rounded up the fractional ones. That Fireblast of 9 doesn't quite cash the checks his bio note is writing, does it? Oh, and this one still has the original catalog too. Height: 2.25" (6cm) tall. Parts: The head, arms, hands, cannon, backpack and pelvis/thigh piece are all made of a reddish violet (990099) plastic that glows faintly under UV. The torso and boots are metal. Paint: The torso is painted a slightly bluer violet (9933FF) that glows brightly under UV. The boots are painted light gray (CCCCCC) with black toes and tops and a red "gem" at the top of each boot. The belt is black and light gray with red buckle, the abdomen is light gray with red "abs". The somewhat chin-recessed face is light gray with black chin and blue eyes. The shoulderpads are black with red and light gray tips. The backpack hook is molded badly and painted light gray. The collar is painted silver. A white and purple Decepticon symbol is printed on the chest. Pose: He has been described as "dancing", and I suppose I can see that. His legs are in a weird bowlegged sort of pose, his left arm is bent at the elbow, and his right hand is in a sort of karate chop pose. Neck, waist, shoulders and wrists are all swivels. Accessory: The Particle Cannon (violet plastic, with light gray paint on the rear part and yellow-orange paint on the barrel) is detachable from the forearm. The whole thing is 4cm long, and is attached to the arm in-package. Overall: The mold is iffy, the pose so-so, the colors don't really match between plastic and paint. Eh. Dave Van Domelen, needs to find something to do with all these useless pegless bases.