Euro Beast Hunters

So....

I, um, bought Combiner Wars Devastator.

Yep. Wait! I was able to get him for 20% off, and bought it with money made from selling other transformers, so I'm virtually guilt-free!

And yes, he's huge and pretty friggin' awesome. The limitations don't even really bother me, and the individual bots are way more fun than they should be.

I'll try to put up a review/impressions in a few days (man, am I backed up on doing that kind of thing...), but I just wanted to say that I pulled the trigger and I'm impressed.

And at Home

They've arrived! I'll try to do individual reviews on each of these since there aren't many such reviews online due to their limited distribution.

Also, here's a Galvatronus/Viper pic for good measure:

Victorious!

Edit: ok, at this point we've also been shown hand-painted sample of both Victorion and G2 Superion. I will do an actual run-down once Hasbro shows some official images (not to mention the names of the Victorion components). However, I can now update my Combiner Wars Deluxe Mold Reuse List of Doom:

Fireflight mold: 5x (Fireflight, Slingshot, Blast Off, G2 Fireflight, G2 Slingshot)

Skydive mold: 4x (Skydive, Air Raid, G2 Skydive, G2 Air Raid)

Alpha Bravo mold: 5x (Alpha Bravo, Blades, Vortex, Victorion Twin 1, Victorion Twin 2)

Dragstrip mold: 3x (Dragstrip, Mirage, G2 Dragstrip)

Off-Road mold: 4x (Off-Road, First Aid, Ironhide, Trailbreaker)

Breakdown mold: 5x (Breakdown, Sunstreaker, Wheeljack, Victorion Car 1)

Dead End mold: 6x (Dead End, Wildrider, Streetwise, Prowl, Smokescreen, Victorion Car 2)

Rook mold: 3x (Rook, Swindle, Hound)

Brawl mold: 1x (Brawl)

That's 34 total releases using 9 base molds. I'd say that I hope to never see the Dead End mold again (easily my least favorite so far), but we now know we are dealing with a design team who doesn't want to leave teams incomplete, so you can probably expect a Bluestreak at some point. In the rear of the pack is Brawl with only one use, but you can expect that not to last if the teased shadow combiner from Botcon is in fact Computron - hello, Nosecone. 

I kind of wish that Victorion wasn't using the Dead End mold - either give her the Drag Strip mold or just go whole hog and make a third sportscar mold that we could get Jazz from later (if they are going to do a third wave of new-combiner Autobots, I'd like it to be Bluestreak, Jazz, Ratchet and Sideswipe).

Edit 2: Ok, the TF news from SDCC 2015 is over and done with, including the official pics having now been distributed to various online outlets. So let's take a look!

We'll start with the main event, Victorion!

Yar, there she is. So, we have our first all-female combiner! I have to admit, I'm a bit underwhelmed, but there are some impressive things going on here.

Cons:

- That damned Dead End mold

- TWO of the Alpha Bravo mold

- Very little of in the way of accent colors...the largely two-toned scheme doesn't work here quite like it does on Devastator

- New hands and feet only function as exactly that...don't convert to guns and are only hands OR feet, not both.

- Combiner head is a bit blocky; very noticeable in vehicle mode

- No apparent plans for a normal retail release; sold online as a gift set

Pros:

- All molds received a decent amount of remolding; more than expected, anyway

- damn cool combiner sword made from components' weapons (apparently based on weapons from "Cosmic Rust"?)

- new hands and feet look more like hands and feet; ankles tilt

- while not forming into weapons, feet and hands can still be stowed in vehicle modes

- Unified colors

- Breakdown mold gets another use

- Both copter twins are distinct enough while still believable as twins

- Available in one convenient package; don't have to hunt down components 

Here's a look at the torso core, Pyra Magna:

So, a Hot Spot remold as most expected, but again more remolded than anticipated. New chest, new head, new inner forearms, new ladder terminal/combiner head. I kind of like that they made her head a female version o the Prowl-type, since it's modeled on the Autobot logo in the first place (well, sort of). It works, though. I like the name well enough, too. 

G2 Menasor: I have no plans to get this guy, as I'm pretty happy with my normal Menasor, but I'm glad this was produced for all those that wish the original had seen production. Of course, a G2 Menasor means a G2 Breakdown, so now both of my FP Breakdowns have been officially pushed into obsolescence. I like how Blackjack gets a retroactive G2 scheme and looks like Motormaster's little buddy. Can't say I really like Motormaster's look in bot mode, though.

I DO really like Dragstrip, except for maybe the yellow:

Prett hot, yeah? Might make a decent SG mirage, too. Too bad he won't be available separately. 

We already knew about G2 Superion, and out of that group, I think Air Raid looks the best:

Fireflight, though, looks like barely anything was changed!

I'm sure it's accurate to the original, but man, what a rip.

Surely the worst bit of news had to be the unveiling of "Betatron!" Like the Technobots? Well, I hope you don't like most of them! Betatron is the combined form of the new Scattorshot plus...other existing autobots, with mainly the 84bots in mind. Basically, they pulled the same stunt that they did with Wave 1 Optimus and Cyclonus, except this time they did it with an established combiner core character! To make matters worse, he's another Silverbolt remold (not necessarily the bad part), but his combiner head is literally an unchanged Superion head. 

Well, that's pretty much all the useful info. Some G1 reissues, some G1 reissue reissues, but no Titan Wars stuff. Well, there are three new RiD Legion molds: Windblade, Thunderhoof, Drift, plus a Magnus repaint of Optimus I'll get. No official pics of them yet; I'll update one more time when they are available!

GOTS ME A CYCLONUS Y'ALL