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A sequel to the 2018 Bumblebee movie, part of the soft reboot of the live
action franchise. As with other recent movie toy lines, there's a split
between Studio Series and more gimmick-focused toys, which in this case are
called Beast Alliance. The Studio Series toys will stay with the rest of
their line. Note, some of the Nitro line
from Bumblebee is getting re-released in new packaging for the "Autobots
Unite" subline, but I will not be getting those.
Bolded names got Strongly Recommended, while italic indicates a
rating of neutral or worse.
Battle Masters, but they turn into beasts rather than robots. $6-7 price
point. Not all of the ideas work, but the class shows promise.
- Wave 1: Rhinox (minigun), Cheetor (sword or claw
thing), and Skullcruncher (cannon).
- Wave 2: Optimus Primal (cannon) plus reships.
Similar to Core Class, but with simpler transformations and maybe a bit
taller. $10-11 price point, and they feel a bit overpriced, lacking elbows
(and often knees) and generally feeling kinda cheap.
- Wave 1: Rhinox (rhino), Optimus Prime (8-wheel
truck), Bumblebee (Off-road Camaro).
- Wave 2: Autobot Mirage (Porsche), Scourge (evil truck). The wave seemed
to actually come out in two chunks, first just Mirage, then just Scourge,
packed in with wave 1.
- Autobot Mirage: Altmode is not licensed, so it's about as close to a
Porsche as most of the recent Jazz toys. Reasonably well-painted altmode,
only one glaring bit of plastic color mismatch on the rear fenders.
Transformation is pretty good once you get the hang of it (order of operation
really matters), and the robot mode has a lot of stuff hidden behind its back
but at least has seven points of articulation. Sort of. The knees are a bit
wonky and really just transformation joints. The weapon gimmick is that the
left forearm flips around to become a cannon with a 5mm socket barrel. The
face doesn't look much like the movie model, but the card art includes a
battle mask that really didn't get used in the movie either (if it did, it
was during a chaotic battle scene and I missed it). Not too bad for a $10-11
toy, and it's not like we're getting a lot of Mirage toys despite him being
the main human-interaction character this time. Note, they painted over the
boundary between front and rear windows, but the paint is easily scraped off
with a pen knife, which improves the looks
noticeably.
- Scourge: Generally about as bad as I've come to expect from this class,
but not without some good points. I like it better than Beast Combiner
Scourge, I'd almost say it's worth picking up on its own merits rather than
just being "not bad for a Beast Alliance toy."
- Cons - Very lacking in paint, especially on the head. Truck mode very
obviously has the robot arms just sticking out behind the cab. Even less
articulation than most, with just shoulders, waist, hips, and a hinge for the
blade on the right arm. Trying to rotate the forearm to see if there's a
joint there is likely to pop the entire shoulder root off. And since the
left claw looks like it's backwards, that's a thing you might be tempted to
try.
- Pros - Very solid vehicle mode. Some clever transformation bits that
keep the vehicle mode locked together (although this does mean my usual "what
instructions?" attitude almost broke something...hint, rotate the smokestacks
to point forwards first). All six wheels are real and black. While it's not
painted, there's a molded Terrorcon symbol on the grille which ends up on the
robot chest. Lots of molded chains.
A new (and more expensive) take on the One-Step concept, with plastic springs
that flex to snap it into one more or the other. Aesthetics are...not good.
These might not be Beast Alliance, they lack the branding, but I'll leave
them here for now. And you should leave them on the shelf, they are bad.
$15-18 price point.
- Wave 1: Nightbird (sportscar), Bumblebee (Camaro),
Cheetor (cheetah). All very bad, but Cheetor might be bad enough to be
worth getting (on clearance).
Basically an improved Battle Changer (these have elbows) paired with a Beast
Battle Master. $17 price point. Decent class.
- Wave 1: Optimus Primal (gorilla) with Arrowstripe
(tiger to bow), Optimus Prime (semitractor cab) with Chainclaw (wolf to
chainsaw).
- Wave 2: Wheeljack (VW microbus) with Rhinox
(redeco of singlepack). Includes review of Target exclusive Predacon
Scorponok with Sandspear (scorpion and scorpion).
- Unknown Release: Arcee (motorcycle) with Cheetor (redeco of singlepack).
Originally listed as wave 2, now tentatively wave 3.
Very similar to Cyberverse's Battle Class and Elite Class, these have one
beast turning into armor for the robot mode of another figure. Not an
inherently bad idea, I just don't think they're gonna get the budget to turn
the ideas into GOOD toys.
- Wave 1: Bumblebee (Camaro) with Snarlsaber
(panther), Arcee (bad motorcycle) with Silverfang (wolf), Optimus
Primal (gorilla) with Skullcruncher (croc).
- Wave 2: Scourge (evil truck) with Predacon Scoponok (scorpion).
- Keeping in mind that the Beast Combiners designs are low on articulation,
high on hollowness, gaps, and questionable altmodes, this set is okay.
Scorponok does not form armor as smoothly as they seem to have hoped and it's
a bit of a struggle to get it back into scorpion mode. The truck mode for
Scourge has bit obvious robot arms on the back end and large gaps in the
grille where the upper legs swing out. The robot mode does at least have a
little articulation (ball joint and hinge shoulders, ball left wrist, ball
hips, hinge knees). While it's a weak field for competition, this is near
the top of the four out so far.
In theory, slamming these down on a table will make them automatically
transform. Expensive and the mechanism doesn't always work, I don't suggest
getting these.
- Wave 1: Repackaged Optimus Prime (meh), Optimus Primal (gorilla).
- Optimus Primal - The good news is that the gimmick actually works on this
one, and works reliably. At worst you need to press down on the feet again
to finish the transformation, but a firm press rather than a tap generally
gets it to go all the way. The expected news is that it's an utter brick,
the neck turns and the arms can lift a little to the sides in robot mode, no
articulation at all in gorilla mode. And the gorilla mode pose is a little
awkward, with the hind legs being proportionally too long. The fists can
hold 5mm pegs in the same way Rescue Bots can, since the arms can't lift up
to point a gun. The robot mode looks disturbing from behind due to the
gorilla head seeming to bud out of the back. Worth $34? Ehhh, I'm not
entirely sure this will long survive play by the kind of little kid who'd be
enthralled by the gimmick, but at least it does work.
- Wave 2: Rhinox.
- Scourge: Target exclusive.
Sitting between Studio Series and the "Beast Alliance" figures above are
Deluxes at the level of Earthrise or Cyberverse Deluxes. These are
explicitly not Beast Alliance.
- Wave 1: Airazor (hawk), Bumblebee (offroad Camaro), Cheetor (cheetah).
- Wave 2: Autobot Mirage (Porsche), Nightbird (sportscar), Wheeljack (VW
Microbus).
- Buzzworthy Jungle Mission 3-Pack: Cheetor, Nightbird,
and Wheeljack, apparently identical or nearly identical to the single-pack
versions.
- Buzzworthy Jungle Mission 3-Pack: Airazor, Bumblebee, and Autobot
Mirage. So, basically the other three Deluxes as another three-pack.
Assuming the same deal as the first pack (no significant differences with
single-packs) I'll probably pick this up too. Especially if it's also $55.
Decent quality, comparable to Studio Series Voyagers. As disappointing as
some of the Beast Alliance toys may be, they seem to have gotten the Voyagers
right.
These have a gimmick that lets a beast head other bits that pop out in robot
mode, plus light and sound stuff.
- Wave 1: Optimus Prime (truck and lion beast
head on the chest), Bumblebee (offroad Camaro with eagle head chest
and wings). Both are bad, but Bumblebee is by far worse than Prime. My BB
was defective (sound and light gimmick broken), which gave me an excuse to
return it and not get a replacement.
Oh, clever and fiendish...I have no interest in masks and not much in
roleplay blasters anymore, but these transform into robots! Also lumped in
with them are the Titan Changers.
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