Dave's Transformers Rant: Leaders Wave 1 Optimus Prime Megatron Permalink: http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Movie/Leader1 This may also be a wave-crusher case. Early sightings had only Optimus, and there were more Optimuses than Megatrons at the Target I went to, so there may have been cases with just Prime and cases with one of each. Update 10/26/07: ANOTHER assembly error on Megatron found by alert readers. His hands are put together backwards, the thumb piece is on the pinky side, and vice versa. Fixing this requires removing the metal pin that holds the hands together. Man...when you make a toy that doesn't look much like anything, it really is impossible to get it put together right, innit? CAPSULES Optimus Prime: Solid in both modes, involved but reasonably intuitive transformation. It lacks any real "oh, WOW!" factor, but also lacks any significant "oh, CRAP!" factor. Recommended. $44.99 at Target. Ow. Later put on sale for $40.49, got my receipt adjusted. Even later got dropped to a regular price of $39.99 and then went on sale for $35.99, but it was too late to adjust to that one. Target just can't decide what to charge. Megatron: Decent robot mode, halfway decent transformation. The other half is crap. And the vehicle mode is a loss. Overpriced failure, wait for the Voyager version, or pass on the character entirely in the event the Voyager is equally bad. $44.99 at Target, same price flail. RANTS Packging: As with Cybertron's big guys, the Leader Class is packaged in robot mode rather than vehicle mode. The basic shape is the same as the Voyager boxes, but taller and with a "Try Me!" hole in the front window. 13" (33cm) tall, 10" (25cm) wide and 5.5" (14cm) deep. The interior stabilization is no stronger than on the Voyagers, or not enough stronger in any case, since it's easier to crush these boxes while trying to pick them up one-handed. The front is mostly window, with the logo in the upper left, head shot and name in lower right. In the lower left is a logo for "Advanced Automorph Technology" that "Triggers electronic lights and sounds." Below the character name is the statement that 2 AA batteries are included. The hole in the window lets you press down a lever on the chest to try out the Advanced Automorph function, but they're rigged so that the lever will not stay down (which it should for transformation to vehicle mode). The right (flat) side panel has the usual Automorph Technology boilerplate, plus the Advanced Automorph logo from the front and a picture of the toy's AA feature in action. The bottoms of both have co-sells for Voyager Autobot Ratchet and Deluxe Barricade. The top panel just has logo, name and faction. The rear panel has the usual photos, call-outs, bio note and techspecs. Both are listed as Level 4 "Super Conversion". The co-sell for Megatron is Prime, but Prime's co-sell is Blackout, another suggestion that Megatron is really wave 2. Reminder, there's no official function or motto lines on the box, so I've picked appropriate ones. AUTOBOT: OPTIMUS PRIME Function: Autobot Leader Altmode: Modified Peterbilt 379 Licensor: None Previous Name Use: Pretty much everything but BW and BMac. Package Call-Outs: "Flip down ion blaster launches a projectile!" "Press button for horn and lights!" Motto: "Freedom is the right of all sentient beings." For thousands of years, OPTIMUS PRIME and his AUTOBOTS have traveled through space in search of the AllSpark. For all that time, the AUTOBOT leader has held one goal in mind - to protect the universe from the evil of MEGATRON. For this massive, metal warrior, nothing is more important than freedom; he will sacrifice all for its preservation. He has fought for centuries, modifying his body into an unstoppable war machine, preparing for that day he knows is coming when he and MEGATRON meet for one final battle! STR 10 INT 10 SPD 7 END 10 RNK 10 COUR 10 FRB 10 SKL 9 Avg 9.5 See http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Movie/VoyagerT1 for initial discussion of Prime's vehicle mode. Here's more notes from David Hingtgen: --- Having seen the movie, more pics, and also talked to my dad (379 owner/driver) I have a few more things to offer: 1. The official explanation is that the filming trucks were customized from 2 "mid-80's" Peterbilts. Well the 379 didn't come out until 1987. That could be considered mid-80's, or it could have been so heavily customized with new parts that it now looks like a 379. Many of the parts are identical to a current 379, so who knows. Either way, it's either an early 379, or a late 359 with a ton of 379 parts retrofitted. Trucks are VERY modular, parts often can fit on decade's worth of designs of many models. His rear toolboxes and air cleaner lights, while maybe not 379-specific (though likely) are certainly "modern Peterbilt-only" parts only recently available. 2. The big "chain rack" behind the bunk is called a "headache rack". It is for semis hauling flat-beds, especially those loaded with logs, pipes, or rail. It's to prevent the load from breaking its bindings and puncturing into the bunk during an accident/emergency stop. It's basically a metal cargo net/barrier to protect the cab from the load. Thus, movie Prime should haul neither a van trailer nor a tanker, but a flat-bed with pipers/logs/rails, as a headache rack is only for (and often seen with) flat-bed hauling trucks with a "deadly" load that could puncture the bunk if it got loose. [Reviewer note: the chain rack isn't on this version of the toy, but does appear on the Titanium 3" vehicle mode version, and there was some debate about its purpose in that review.] 3. Just FYI, Prime's headlights are "J-type" headlights. Very retro, but coming back into fashion. Would certainly not be seen in the 80's, or even 90's. But popular 2005+. 4. Truckers never ever call it a "trailer hitch". It's the fifth wheel. (And is the origin of the phrase "Wouldn't want to be a fifth wheel") :) [Reviewer note: I knew this term from Car Wars, but after the whole "longnose and cabover aren't real terms" kerfluffle a while back, I decided to avoid the jargon in my first version of this review. I've since put it in. :)] 5. Prime has a "Texas" front bumper. Very common, just your basic simple rectangle. His tail lights are done in a VERY modern way. --- [Later note: Kris Overstreet adds the following:] Note: leaving aside that Optimus Prime is not a standard truck by any definition, quite a few semis haul many different varieties of trailer during their lifetime. An independent hauler might well have a headache rack just on the off chance that a load will be flatbed or log/pipe trailer. Also - living in a major timber area - headache racks are standard for trucks using log trailers, which fold up over the fifth wheel when not loaded. The shaft connecting the front end of the trailer to the rear axles bends in two and rests on top of the headache rack. Just a side note, that. --- Packaging Notes: Best to open from the top, 4 pieces of tape to cut before you can open the lid and pull out the inner cardboard tray. The instructions and standard catalog are loose on the bottom, with a folded up piece of cardboard under the feet to keep the figure from sinking down under its weight. A single missile is held into the plastic tray supporting the figure, and 6 twist-ties (with cardboard spacers) penetrate the cardboard tray (4 in back, 2 on bottom). The ties use that annoying double twist that's so hard to start undoing (they twist once, then fold over and twist again), but ironically comes apart very quickly once started. Fortunately, that's all the ties, none require undoing the plastic tray. One of the ties is looped around the tab that would keep the Automorph from popping back up. :) There's four rubber bands, one on each of the shoulderpads and one around each kneepad. He's packaged with his rifle arm deployed, but his feet incompletely transformed (with heel spurs out they'd be too long). Robot Mode: 9" (23cm) tall at the head, 9.5" (25cm) if you count the various smokestacks and other kibble sticking up above head level. One pound 7.25 ounces (660g). A complicated mix of light gray (CCCCCC), dark blue (no web equivalent) and bright red (FF0000) plastic, plus clear bright blue (VERY strong UV glow) on the chest window pieces, some abdominal details, the eyes and missile. The tires are black rubberized plastic, and the smokestacks are rubberized light silvery gray. The solid light gray is mainly on the upper arms, hands/wrists, gun, shoulder roots, central torso, collarbone parts, pelvis, thighs, shins, feet, wheel hubs and some of the backpack bits (which is mainly the fuel tanks, the parts on the side below the doors, and some pieces along the sides of the vehicle nose). Dark blue is a bit scattered, not making up the entirety of any piece, but forming parts of the head, forearms, shoulderpads, upper torso, boots and kneecaps. Bright red is part of the forearms, the various wheel fenders, the lower torso flanks, the piece that covers the head in vehicle mode, part of the kneecaps and some of the backpack kibble. Standing out on their own are the ratchet joints on the hips, which are black plastic. Most of the paint apps are in blue, red and gray, matching up various bits. Silver paint is used on the faceplate, cheek guards, forehead, and windshield wipers on the chest. There's also some silver on the smokestacks, but it's not very obvious in this mode. He has gold paint on the center of his abdomen, plus details on his waist and on either side of his knees. There's also a sort of orange-gold airbrush fade under the blue flames on his front fenders (at the ankles). His only Autobot symbol is molded onto his left big toe (part of the grille) and has red outlines. There's black paint on the fifth wheel at the back. The head turns, but the waist does not. The shoulders are universal, ratcheting both ways. There's a smooth swivel right above the ratcheting elbows. The wrists do not turn, but each finger is independently hinged and the thumb is on a ball joint. The hips are universal, ratcheting both ways. There's smooth swivels right above each ratcheting knee. The ankles are fairly stiff ball joints, a little restricted by kibble around the boot bottoms. As an aside, he has secondary elbow joints at mid-forearm from transformation. The rear wheel chunks have a folding joint not shown in the instructions, that let the rearmost wheel on each side fold up out of the way so that the legs can bend. Despite the toy's bulk and cost, there's really just two gimmicks in this mode, and one of them is sort of unintentional. First, by pushing the head down a half centimeter or so and letting go, you can repeat the Automorph sound and light gimmick. Prime's eyes and chest flash with yellow LEDs, and the toy makes a sort of transforming sound (not the G1 sound) followed by zapping sound effects. There's a button next to the head, but it does nothing in this mode, it's only enabled when the head is totally stowed for vehicle mode. Second, he has his gunarm. There's a sliding tab on the bottom chunk of his right forearm, on the side towards his body. It's a bit awkward to get at in some poses. Sliding it foreward makes the main gun flip out (from where it stows against his forearm) and cover his hand so long as the hand is mostly closed. Two smaller barrels also extend from the lower piece as a direct effect of the slider. The gun has a single missile, spring-fired. The gun can be pulled off its connector if it's not around the fist, by pulling straight up. You can stow just his head and get a weird "Staxx"-like figure with his chest becoming a sort of face. This also activates his other gimmick button, which flashes his windows yellow while making a truck horn sound. Transformation: Despite all the shifting bits and panels, it was actually pretty easy to get it from robot mode to vehicle mode. Pull down the rear wheels first to get them out of the way, then transform the chest/head via Automorph and swing the backpack pieces around to the front. After that, you can do either the front or back sections in either order. The arms swing around to become the rear (sleeper) part of the cab, while the boots become the nose. There's a certain amount of massaging necessary to get everything snapped together properly in truck mode, but it's nowhere near the "Big Convoy" level. Automorph: The Advanced Automorph has his cab halves slide apart and his head pop up, accompanied by flashing lights in his chest and various zappy sounds. This one is actually shown in the instructions, redundantly (given that as a Try Me, you probably already know about it). Pulling down on his bumper halves and then rotating them causes the toes of the feet to automorph out. You need to do this right after taking Prime out of the box, since as mentioned earlier, he's not fully transformed in the box. I suppose you could also call the shins/kneecaps Automorphing, but it's kinda iffy. Pushing in on the shin makes the kneecap section move down into position for folding open, pulling the kneecap up makes the shin details pop out. Vehicle Mode: 10.5" (27cm) long, making this about 1:34 scale. This is good, given how most of the Autobot cars and trucks are around this scale too. The wheels are 35mm in diameter and 15mm wide and are all free- rolling. There's a 5mm peghole in the trailer connector spot, so I suppose he could tow Armada Overload or something, but the hole is only 2mm deep. [Update: according to a poster, the vehicle mode is 336" long, for 1:32 scale. Mind you, the proportions of the toy and the actual truck aren't exactly the same.] It generally looks good as a truck with three exceptions. One: there's two gray hinge pieces in the hood which stand out like sore thumbs (and are the same color as his thumbs, to boot). Two: his cab rear section has a big gap down the middle. Three: his arm rifle sticks into that gap, but isn't really concealed at all, most of it sticks out onto the bed. This last one looks the worst, and while it can be removed, there's nowhere to store it other than back there. Also, the trigger isn't blocked, so he can shoot himself in the back. I've heard some say that the gun looks like the tangle of connector wire hanging down in back of a cab...but not really. It'd be nice if he had the headache rack as a removable piece for a shield, it could also partly cover up the gun. I may look into kitbashing something. Anyway, other than that, it looks pretty good. The paint matching works well, and there's only a few obvious seams where the paint doesn't go around the lip of a piece (the blue paint on a gray piece on the side of the sleeper section, the silver paint on the smokestack parts that are red plastic). Oddly, the roof lights are left unpainted clear blue plastic...which isn't lightpiped or connected to the flashing light gimmick, so they look black unless you shin a UV light on 'em. There's black paint on the central "bed" in the rear, the headlights are clear blue (and open in back so light can shine through) and the "energy reserve" cans ahead of the doors are light gray plastic. The rest of the stuff was covered in robot mode. When all properly pegged together, the toy is very stable and rolls smoothly on flat surfaces. Pressing the roof button makes the windows flash yellow and sounds a truck horn. Oh, and here's a cool bit. Rather than having a single battery box on the torso somewhere, each fuel tank along the side holds one battery. His fuel tanks really are his energy source! Overall: It has sound and light, Automorphing, and a gun. But they're all kinda minor. The main thrust of this toy is the size and solid engineering...which is to say, the "real gimmick" is the transformation in general. Solid in both modes, and not given to tipping over in reasonable poses despite the mass. Maybe it lacks the gosh-wow factor of a huge launcher or action gimmick or Armor-Up Mode, but it's definitely a good toy. And they even found a way to keep the long stacks. DECEPTICON: MEGATRON Function: Decepticon Emperor Altmode: Cybertron Jet Licensor: Megatron is a license unto himself Previous Name Use: ALL Package Call-Outs: "Rocket claw becomes chain whip!" "Arms combine to create fusion cannon!" "Press button for lights and sounds!" Motto: "Peace through tyranny." Frozen in Antarctic ice for hundreds of years, MEGATRON is finally free, and his might will make the Earth quake, and the stars fall from the sky. As one of the most dangerous TRANSFORMERS ever to stalk the galaxy, he has no known weakness and only one purpose - to capture the AllSpark and rule the Universe. Nothing, neither the humans' armies or his ancient enemy OPTIMUS PRIME can stand in his way! STR 10 INT 10 SPD 10 END 10 RNK 10 COUR 9 FRB 10 SKL 8 Avg 9.75 Arctic, Antarctic, whatever. Packaging Notes: 7 twist-ties through the cardboard (2 bottom, 5 back). The middle one on the back goes through to hold down the tab that locks the Advanced Automorph. No fiddly just-to-the-plastic ties. There's a rubber band around each claw, to hold them closed. Robot Mode: 9" (23cm) tall, with a truncated wingspan of 8.5" (22cm), although you can pop the wings out if you want. 1 pound 6.5 oz (638g). Note that the black hip pieces seem to have been put on the wrong legs, and from what I'm hearing this is endemic. This causes the figure to damage itself, bending the thin pelvis armor pieces. Fixing this requires removing six screws, only one of which causes a hassle. Because the buttplate battery pack cannot rotate freely (lest the wiring be broken), the screw holding the right hip together is very hard to access. (Hmm, I just performed major surgery on an uninsured patient...does that make this a Transformers/Sicko crossover?) The toy is overwhelmingly made of a very light and slightly metallic gray plastic. The aforementioned hips are black plastic, as are the biceps, wheels, lever and chain links on the whip hand. Some of the spindlier bits (claws, thigh spines, wingtip spines) are made of a soft but not rubbery medium gray plastic. The eye lightpiping, chest and back spines are a clear pinkish red plastic. Finally, the lever and some of the struts on the fusion cannon chunk are white plastic. The main paint colors are a metallic medium blue airbrushed over much of the body, black paint in many of the gaps and tech greebles (and also covering much of the clear chest), and some gold details on various bits. The head is mostly painted metallic blue with a black dace. Neither the head nor the waist turn, both are locked down. The shoulders are ratcheting universal joints, with the ratchets stiff enough to pop the pegs holding the shoulders to the torso. Smooth but stiff upper arm swivels are about halfway down the upper arm. The elbows ratchet, but only have about 45 degrees of range. The wrists are on transformation hinges that give useful motion, and each of the three fingers (well, two mutually opposed thumb and one central finger) is hinged at the base. Hips are universal ratchets, and work a little better once you swap them to intended positions. There's a swivel right below each hip that you will become familiar with if you do the swap trick. :) The knees ratchet two clicks forward or back (22.5 degrees per click). The ankles have spring-loaded joints for automorph, but they're not strong enough to really support much, and the actual support toes are hidden under the moving ones. Oh, and thanks to a transformation joint, his knees sorta bend sideways, but this makes his feet fold up, so it's not really a useful pose joint. The instructions seem almost deliberately vague when it comes to "combining" the arms into fusion cannon mode. The only real guide is the inset picture of the cannon on the back of the box, which shows that the right forearm piece just stays folded out of the way. There's no attempt to make it line up with the left forearm piece, which is what becomes the cannon "barrel". Bits on the claw wrists snap together to keep the arms together, but it's almost pointless to bother, as it looks kinda stupid combined. Better to leave it just a one-armed weapon. Another nuisance is that the prongs of the cannon won't stay deployed, you have to hold back the lever to keep the thing in attack mode. A much better fusion cannon would have come from just letting the vehicle nose piece detach and clip onto the arm! [Later note: Thanks to Loki_Liesmith for pointing out the slider joint on the "barrel" part of the fusion cannon. It lets the thing line up more centrally.] The whip weapon was clearly emasculated late in the process. The right hand is built with a missile root, and it seems intended to launch out when you press the trigger, trailing its cable. But there's no spring, probably because the hand/claw can fall apart into choking-hazard-sized pieces. The chain itself is a series of plastic cylinders with a string running through them, and a lever on the forearm housing can be pulled back to tighten the string, making the weapon thrash around a little. But only a little. Thanks to the ratcheting joints, the arm can't really swing fast enough to make the mace move impressively. I suppose you could wave the entire toy around. Nice effort, at least. The housing opens up to let you store the cable. I'd almost rather the spring from the left arm be put on the right, so he'd have a launching whip and a stable gun. [Later note: This works pretty well, although it won't drag the stowed chain out. The gun chunk is a little floppy without the spring, but if yours is too loose, a little nail polish topcoat will solve it.] [Update: the Japanese release has springs in both arms.] Transformation: The upper body stuff is involved, but reasonably intuitive. The main Automorph that gets the wings transformed is, in fact, pretty nifty. I don't care for the weak pegs holding the arms to the nose section, though, as it makes the front end fall apart easily while trying to wrestle the rest into place. However.... The instructions would have to work REALLY hard to be more useless when it comes to getting the legs transformed. Add in the fact that the leg transformation makes no sense in the first place, and is just stuffing the legs at weird angles under the wings. Automorph: The Advanced Automorph isn't so impressive. Chest panels shift and clear red spines on the back rise up as Megatron screams electronically. Yellow LEDs flash inside the chest, lighting up the clear parts of the chest and the spines (but not the eyes). If you have either arm raised too much when pulling the button down, though, the spines won't move. Pulling back the head and the strut holding the nose of the vehicle mode makes the wings automatically unfold, with tabs inside them making the wingtips flip into position. Bending the knees sideways ("You ever notice that knees don't bend sideways? Let me fix that for you!") makes the feet fold up. Vehicle Mode: Even as a cheaty Cybertronian mode, it doesn't really work. The fact that the entire "real" vehicle mode is made up of only the upper half of the robot and the buttplate doesn't help...the legs are just crammed under the wings as an afterthought. The Legends version does a better job! This flying assembly of spare parts has a wingspan of 12" (31cm) and a length of 13" (33cm). The robot head is barely hidden behind a little flip-up panel. No new colors of plastic or paint are really revealed here, but the fact that there's only airbrushed metallic blue on the central wing pieces and not the outer segments is a lot more obvious once the wings are unfolded. The toy rolls along creakily on four little wheels (that were on the shoulders and elbows in robot mode), but the robot toes scrape along a bit if they don't fold up all the way...which they don't always. On mine, one toe will rise properly, the other droops down a little. The sound gimmick button revealed in vehicle mode (it's under a strut in robot mode) generates a very slightly different version of the scream that the Automorph button makes. In theory the robot mode button can be worked, but the chest panels are blocked and can't rise enough to let the sound trigger in vehicle mode. Overall: Not too happy with this toy, and I hope the Voyager version is better. The vehicle mode isn't worth the bother, but the automorph foot gimmick cripples the robot mode too, so you can't even pretend it's a really elaborate Actionmaster. I don't mind the lack of color contrasts as much as some do, at least, but the package photo does taunt us with extra gold and blue bits not seen on the final product. Don't waste the forty bucks this one costs. Dave Van Domelen, finally done reviewing the pile of toys he got on June 2. Of course, there's still the 6" Titaniums that came in the mail just before that....