However, there was one more splurge I had to go for: The Wreckers.
Yep. They've been sighted more and more frequently and locally over the past couple of weeks, and I had the opportunity to find them today. It worked out pretty well, too - I found all five at the first and only store I checked at (one reason I wanted to go ahead and get them was being worried about finding all five, especially with how Impactor is likely to be scalper bait). It was a pretty expensive splurge, but thankfully not as much as I paid for the original Combaticons versions of the molds back in November, thanks to Walmart having deluxes on sale for $13 instead of $15.
I have to say, the Wreckers are pretty cool for what they are. If you know the FoC Combaticon molds, you know their flaws and limitations, but if you can or already have gotten over those (and I pretty much have), the new Wreckers versions bring a lot to the table.
Firstly, there's HOLY CRAP WRECKERS COMBINER Ruinations. This is possibly the greatest plastic nod to a joke in a Transformers comic, specifically when Rotorstorm tried to intimidate Overlord in Last Stand of the Wreckers by announcing, "Wreckers! Combine!," knowing full well that they had no such ability (actually, no Autobots had that ability in IDW continuity at that point). More to the point, this is a NEW Autobot combiner that has never existed, so we're not just dealing with another rehash of Superion. I'm sure this if because Hasbro didn't feel like the Combaticons couldn't be feasibly remolded into any other existing Autobot combiner team, but I'm not complaining. To cap it all off, "Ruination's" head is really that of "Emirate" (a misnomer) Xaaron from the Marvel and IDW comics, who was historically associated with the Wreckers and Impactor in particular. So that's pretty cool. I mean, it's hard to imagine Xaaron hanging out in Impactor's torso and occasionally tearing up the battlefield, but then again, that's what imagination's for.
Secondly, the remolding! All of the Wreckers, of course, got new head molds. They all look great, especially Impactor (who, as I'm sure you know, has never had a toy until now!). Whirl is probably my second favorite, though he could use his antenna on the right side that he typically sports. Topspin, uniquely, gets a second remolded part in that the panel his 5mm port is molded into is now hinged (the port itself is new, too) to lift up - Blast Off can't do this.
Thirdly, the WEAPONS. Holy crap, you get an arsenal here. On top of the weapons from the original versions of the molds, each Wrecker gets his own unique new, big weapon with some kind of action feature. Impactor gets a nice cannon that shoots his trademark harpoon (and it combines with the Onlaught-style twin cannon in such a way as to simulate a harpoon hand), if with a hair-trigger. Topspin gets a DotM Rachet-style rifle with swing-out circular saw (the rifle's barrel is pretty big!). Twin Twist gets a weapon with his spinning drill bits on the front and a small cannon on tip (the trigger for the drills). Roadblock gets and interesting gun with three opening barrels (?). It looks pretty cool. Lastly, Whirl gets a nice, big multi-barreled gun in which said barrels and be pushed forward and spin as they do so. One big problem with all of these, though, is very inconsistent handle tolerances. Some weapons can barely plug into the others at all. All the original weapons work together just fine, but try sticking Whirl's swords onto the sides of his gun. At least on my copy, they just flop down in their ports. Not cool. Luckily, there are enough ways to mount weapons that you can work around this, but still, it's aggravating. I may have to lather some posts or ports up with nail polish.
So, there you have it - my last major TF purchase for myself, or, at least, that's the plan. I'm posting the list of others I want below:
Transformers: Prime: Beast Hunters
·
Cyberverse Legion class (~$5) [$30]
o
Bluestreak
– Jan ‘14
o
Rippersnapper (white/teal aquatic dragon) – out
soon
o
Windrazor (green/tan dragon with large wings on
arms) – out soon
o
Blight (blue/light blue/yellow dragon) – out
soon
o
Air Vehicon (purple/silver flying car- Aug ‘13
o
Ace Vehicon (white repaint of Air Vehicon w/
orange gun) – Jan ‘14
·
Cyberverse Commander class (~$9) [$27]
o
Ultra Magnus (blue/red/silver truck with opaque
hammer) – Jan ‘14
o
Bludgeon (green/orange tank with skull head) –
Jan ‘14
o
Unicron Megatron (Bronze repaint of Megatron
w/purple sword – Jan ‘14)
Transformers: Generations
·
Legends class (~$10 2-packs) [$50]
o
Optimus Prime & Roller (Red truck with
smaller blue truck) – out now
o
Megatron & Chop Shop (Grey tank w/reddish
beetle) –out late summer/early fall ‘13
o
Starscream & Waspinator (Grey/red/blue jet
w/green wasp) - out late summer/early
fall ‘13
o
Swerve & Flanker (red/white truck w/black
jet) – Oct ‘13
o
Tailgate & Groundpounder (white/teal sports
car w/blue/silver bulldozer) – Jan ‘14
·
Deluxe class (~$15) [$105]
o
Orion Pax (wave 5 young Optimus; red/blue sci-fi
truck w/comic) – Aug ‘13
o
Megatron (wave 5 black stealth bomber w/comic) -
Aug ’13
o
Thundercracker (wave 6 blue/silver sci-fi jet
w/comic) – Sept ‘13
o
Waspinator (wave 7 larger green/yellow wasp
w/comic ) – Jan ‘14
o
Armada Starscream (wave 8 red/black/yellow w/clear
swords) – Mar ‘14
o
Mini-con 3-pack (names unknown; wave 8 green/black set of tank, jet,
helicopter that combine) – Mar ‘14
o
Skywarp (wave 8 black/purple/grey sci-fi jet) –
Mar ‘14
·
Voyager class (~$20)
o
Rhinox (green/grey/gold rhinoceros from Beast
Wars show) – Jan ‘14
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