Dave's Authentics Rant: Bravo Wave 1 Optimus Prime (Semitractor) Bumblebee (Sportscar) Megatron (Tank, sort of) Starscream (Jet, sort of) Permalink: http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Gen/Bravo1 CAPSULES $5-6 price point. Optimus Prime: So-so robot mode, kinda weirdly proportioned truck mode. Neutral. Bumblebee: Um, they tried something new with the transformation, so I guess I do have one good thing to say about this? Car mode is weirdly proportioned. Worst robot mode of the lot by a large margin, though. Avoid. Seriously. At least Rallnox had the excuse of being a buck or free with meal. Megatron: Decent robot mode, so-so tank mode that really just looks like arms on top of a tank chassis. Very mildly recommended. Sadly, that makes it the best of the lot. Starscream: Okay robot mode, jet mode that didn't even seem to be trying. With a little modification it would be an okay Actionmaster. Neutral. RANT Okay, history time. For the last several years, the Dollar General and Family Dollar chains (and probably some others of their ilk) have been carrying repackaged and sometimes slightly redecoed versions of Legion figures from Classics or early Generations. Usually the same four characters in the assortment I'm reviewing, sometimes redecos (Ultra Magnus, Cliffjumper, Skywarp) and sometimes bringing in the often-reused TF:Prime Rippersnapper mold as Grimlock. Hasbro's big push for 2018 is to create "Evergreen" designs that can be used over and over in merchandise and small chain toy lines. While the main lines will continue to create new interpretations and use more obscure characters, the Evergreen lines will tend to stick to the same half a dozen or so characters with stable general designs. How long this will actually last is anyone's guess, of course. As part of this Evergreen push, they've introduced the Authentics line, which definitely qualifies for "methinks she doth protest too much" status. They're made cheaply to sell through retailers with higher markups while still being low-priced. Less paint, less articulation, etc. The Bravo assortment replaces the old Legions on the pegs, while being a little bit bigger. The Alpha assortment is similar to Cyber Battalion toys (and may be intended to replace those), with slightly better articulation and paint than Alpha, and larger size. So far, as of the writing of this review in April 2018, I've seen the Bravo first wave at both Dollar General and Family Dollar, although in neither case was a complete set on the pegs...they often get partial cases, or have two or three nearby stores split a case, as with Walgreens. Haven't seen any Alpha. Family Dollar wanted 25 cents more than Dollar General, but that may be purely local. I'm guessing that they might have started up a new design team for these, because A) they use a lot of design elements I haven't really seen much in other toys this size, and B) they're all pretty bad, hopefully the team will get better with time. But right now, recycled Armada Mini-Cons would make for better $5 toys than these things. Packaging: Blister cards, with the outer blister conforming to the toy inside rather than being a consistent flat or textured face. All are packaged in robot mode, with blister inserts showing the vehicle mode. The general trade dress is Generations-like, with a blueprint-style background to the card fronts. Each card has its own character's art in the upper left, but since the goal is to have a common set of resources that can be reused all over the place, it's not as surprising to see them in individualized packaging like that. The cardbacks have grayscale pictures of both modes, an epithet for the character in four languages, the number of steps for transformation (not very many), and the usual legalese. The grayscale backs are definitely a cost-cutting measure. No ties or strings, the character is held in place just by the two blister halves. If they have accessories (like Megatron's cannon) they are simply attached to the figure rather than separately. [Later note: I neglected to say how big the cards are. At 6.75" (17cm) tall and 4.5" (11.5cm) wide, they're noticeably bigger than the Legion cards they're replacing.] Instructions are folded up inside the blister on the underside. The instructions are small sheets with line art and both light gray and the faction's accent color (red or purple) to highlight the active part. There's no character information on the packaging or the instructions other than the epithet. I'm going to leave out the "previous name use" line I usually include, because pretty much every Authentics toy is going to be one where the TFU.info listing has several screens' worth for the name. Similarly, there's no real reason to mention the packaging, since there's no real differences. AUTOBOT: OPTIMUS PRIME Assortment: E1163 Altmode: Semitractor Transformation Difficulty: 4 steps Previous Mold Use: None Epithet: Heroic AUTOBOT Leader Robot Mode: Well, it does look like Optimus Prime should, albeit with a big backpack and front bumper chunks stuck to the fists. Did actually get some paint, although not enough on the arms to distract from the lack of elbows. 4.5" (11.5cm) tall in more or less the usual Optimus Prime colors. The arms, torso front, and backpack are red plastic. The head and boots are dark blue plastic, as is a connection point inside the backpack. The wheels (one on each arm, two on each boot) are black plastic. Shoulder struts, backpack strut, torso back, and thighs are slightly metallic light gray plastic. The abdomen and pelvis front are painted dull silver, as are the faceplate and helmet crest front. And the bumpers on the fists. The chest windows and eyes are painted bright blue. There's black paint on the kneecaps and down the centers of the shins. A molded Autobot symbol on the left shoulder front is painted slightly deeper red with white borders. The neck is a restricted ball joint. The shoulders, hips, and knees are regular ball joints. No elbows or waist. The feet lack enough heel support to deal with the backpack. The hands in principle hold 5mm pegs, but not only are they a little tight, there's a sort of structural wedge inside the fist that narrows the hole after only a few millimeters. Transformation: Lift the arms over the head and join together with the shoulder struts collapsing inward, then fold the backpack up to complete the cab. The legs bend double at the knees to make the back end. Vehicle Mode: Something of a stretch semitractor, it doesn't really look like it's meant to have a trailer. There's ladders molded into the sides to give the impression of being a huge truck, and tiny doors as well. Weird design. 4" (10cm) long, mostly red and blue. All of the gray plastic is hidden, with the cab being all red plastic and the rear all blue, plus black wheels. The grille and front bumper are painted dull silver, the windows in front are bright blue but there's no paint on the side windows. There's another molded Autobot symbol at the rear of the driver's side of the cabin, painted deeper red and white. The shin paint is visible in this mode. No paint on the stubby smokestacks. The snap-on wheels roll okay. Overall: This really feels like a knockoff or maybe a cake-topper sort of toy. I mean, it's not HORRIBLE, but unless the designers get their acts together, I can't see the Authentics line being worth getting, based on how they treat the headliner character. AUTOBOT: BUMBLEBEE Assortment: E1164 Altmode: Sportscar Transformation Difficulty: 3 steps Previous Mold Use: None Epithet: Brave AUTOBOT Scout Robot Mode: The new Evergreen design has elements reminiscent of the Thrilling 30 design, but a more friendly big-eyed face (sort of a Rescue Bots feel, but not the way Rescue Bots specifically does BB). 4.25" (11cm) tall, in yellow and black. Other than the snap-on wheels and shoulder struts, which are black, the rest of the toy is done in shiny yellow plastic. Gloss black paint on the chest's fake windows and on the thigh fronts, plus on the real windows that end up on the toes. The face is painted dull silver with bright blue eyes. The molded Autobot symbol on the chest is painted red with unpainted borders. The head is on a restricted ball joint, the shoulders are ball joints on the ends of shrugging struts. That's it. The thighs are part of the same plastic as the torso (with big hollows on the sides), and the transformation joints at mid-shin utterly fail as knees. Really bad articulation. The hands were clearly intended to hold 5mm pegs, but they ended up a little too small...really have to force regular pegs in, although the slightly narrower long pegs on some things will work. Transformation: Arms snug up against the sides, weird ball joints (made of black plastic) let the legs bend at mid-shin and then snap inward to connect up the front end. Vehicle Mode: It's like a stretched version of the Classics Bumblebee, with too-small wheels too close to the corners. Oddly, the side windows are actually open, which I suppose saves paint. I found one good thing about that, it gives Trypticon's teeth something to grip. 3.75" (9.5cm) long, all yellow except for the wheels, windshield (painted gloss black), headlights (painted bright blue) and small grille (painted dull silver). A non-molded red Autobot symbol is printed on the driver's side door, just under the side mirror. Overall: Ugh. I've literally got fast food toy Bumblebees better than this. Just...no. Ick. DECEPTICON: MEGATRON Assortment: E1165 Altmode: Tank Transformation Difficulty: 6 steps Previous Mold Use: None Epithet: Evil DECEPTICON Leader Robot Mode: It's a little flat in the sense of front to back depth, but it's definitely a recognizable Megatron robot that looks like it should turn into a tank, while still having several design elements of the G1 gun. Nice execution of the classic Bucket Head helmet, tank treads on the torso sides, obvious deck pieces on the shins, etc. There's a molded Decepticon symbol in the center of the chest. There's some slots in the treads on the chest that look like they might have been intended for wheels, but the wheels were budgeted out of the design long enough ago (if they were ever intended) that there's no signs of places inside for axles to sit. 4.5" (11.5cm) tall, mostly light gray and black with some bits of red. The forearms and feet are black plastic, everything else is light gray plastic. Matte black paint on the chest and boot treads, gloss black paint on the front of the pelvis and some details on the shins. The face is painted dull silver with red eyes. There's red piping on the abdomen, and red buttons on the pelvis front. The head is on a restricted ball joint, no waist. Shoulders, elbows, hips, and knees are all ball joints. The ankles don't have useful articulation, their transformation joints bend the wrong way. Again, the fists are almost 5mm, and reportedly some people have gotten pegs to go in fine on theirs, so we're probably looking at really cheap tolerances. There's 2.4mm peg holes on the sides and undersides of the forearms, used for attaching the cannon. Not close enough to 3mm or 2mm to chalk it up to QC, they clearly just had no idea that there was a reason to make sure these pegs were compatible with anything else in the world. I wonder if these were designed in-computer with no firm committment to the actual size at production. The cannon is a little over 2.5" (6.5cm) long, a single piece of unpainted light gray plastic. It has 2.4mm pegs on either side near the back. It's meant to attach to the outer facing of a forearm in robot mode, with the underside pegs used for tank mode. It's also possible to get the 2.4mm pegs into the stress slots on the shoulders. No way to attach to the back, though. Transformation: The feet fold out so that the legs can bend double and form the front of the tank, the arms swing behind the back and peg together around the gun. No matter which you do first, you will be wrong...everything has to simultaneously negotiation around the rest of the stuff. There's no real locking, just a few places there tabs rest. They could have used the feet to peg the front to the back, but nope. The result is pretty floppy. Vehicle Mode: I think of this as more of an Actionmaster Elite, since the vehicle mode is kind of...iffy. The feet form big plates on the sides, and the "turret" is really obviously just the forearms stuck together. I mean, if the tops of the forearms faced each other rather than the bottoms, then the sloping of the fists would look at least sort of like the front of a turret. The robot head just sort of pokes out the back end of the tank, but that's only the third or fourth biggest visual issue. The tread chassis is 3" (7.5cm) long. All the red is hidden in this mode, but there's a molded Decepticon symbol on the bottom of one of the feet that is painted purple, and it's on the left side of the vehicle now. There's also some vent details molded on the undersides of the feet in a game attempt to make them feel like legitimate parts of the vehicle mode. The black paint on just the treads (not the wheels) is very neatly applies...for all this line's faults, sloppy paint is rarely an issue. The "turret" can't really turn, although there's a few degrees of wiggle room to either side. The pegging attachment does let the barrel elevate to about 30 degrees. No wheels, so it just sort of drags along the table. Really, no particular reason to leave this in vehicle mode, it's enough to look like it should transform without actually testing that claim. Overall: The least bad of the lot. If you want to get an Authentic just to say you have one, this is the one to get. DECEPTICON: STARSCREAM Assortment: E1166 Altmode: Jet Transformation Difficulty: 6 steps Previous Mold Use: None Epithet: Scheming DECEPTICON Air Commander Robot Mode: While all of Starscream's bodies have been jets, there's still a pretty wide range of designs within that, and the Evergreen design seems determined to grab bits and pieces from a lot of his past bodies. The head is the more angular Unicron Trilogy look, the chest turbines are closer to War for Cybertron or maybe Armada. His null rays peg onto the forearms, but are designed to leave very little gap against the shoulders so that when he has straight arms it looks like they could be attached to the upper arms too. The tail fins are attached at mid-calf rather than down by the ankles. The main visual flaw is that there's a chunk of fuselage top on the wing piece, so the wings look like they're riding too high up. 4.25" (10.5cm) tall at the head, the wings rise up a bit higher. Mostly light gray with some red, black, and blue, plus a sort of dull copper cockpit. The entire toy is made of light gray plastic, slightly but noticeably lighter than Megatron's. Red paint is used for the pelvis front and the fronts of the fake-intakes chest parts, and the main case of sloppy paint I noticed in mine was at the border of the red paint and the abdomen area. The red eyes are also poorly masked. The helmet is painted black, the cockpit windows on the chest are painted dull copper, and the toes are painted slightly dull medium blue. There's red stripes on the wings, and a molded Decepticon symbol painted purple, on the wing behind the right shoulder. There's also a tiny non-molded Decepticon symbol printed in purple at the top of the sternum. Hm, on closer inspection, I think they dipped the helmet in black and then painted the face gray...the UV response of the face is much dimmer than that of the rest of the figure (the eyes light up nicely under UV). The head turns, the waist does not. The shoulders are on struts that slump for transformation, and which SHOULD lock into position for robot mode, but they didn't mold in any tabs to do that. So the arms come out of alignment really easily. Ball joints also for elbows, hips, and knees. His fists don't even come close to holding a 5mm peg, or even a slightly narrower long peg. They must have had problems with the fists cracking open, and added more plastic in the inside. The null rays attach to the outer faces of the forearms using pegs that are just a little bit smaller than Megatron's. Megatron can borrow these and they'll be slightly loose in their holes, and Megatron's cannon can be forced into Starscream's forearms if you want to risk stress marks. There's a 2.4mm peg hole on the back of each wing, mostly intended for vehicle mode. There is technically a 3mm hole in the back of the pelvis, but it's only about 1mm deep and is meant as a guide hole for the wing chunk. Transformation: Tab the legs together and fold the wings down to sort of lock onto tabs on the backs of the boots. Shrug the arms down to the sides and remove the guns, they don't really lock in place. Put the guns onto the wings, which if they'd been thinking ahead better could have been used to keep the arms snug, but there's too much of a gap. Push the head down turtle-style and swing the nosecone up. Going back to robot mode, it's a bit tricky getting the head back up all the way. Also, the wing pack has a tab that's supposed to hold it in place, but it's more of a guide than an actual connector. Vehicle Mode: The G1 character turned into an F-15, this is more of a WTF-15. The proportions are weird by any standard, the feet just sort of stick out behind the tail fins, the cockpit is smooshed flat, and the arms are just sort of there under the wings (worse than usual for jets). Nothing new visible, and I really don't want to take any more time on this pile of parts. If Megatron is an Actionmaster Elite, Starscream failed to get into the elite cadre. Overall: Mostly decent robot mode, laughably bad vehicle mode. I'm tempted to cut away part of the wing chunk so that the robot mode looks better, and never transform it again. Dave Van Domelen, now to review some toys designed by people who knew what they were doing.