Target Exclusive The Fallen...

...did indeed arrive today.

He really is the perfect Halloween toy. He's orange and black. Well, not really black - more of a charcoal gray that borders on brown (at least in fluorescent light). But that orange sure is orange. It's almost neon. Very vivid stuff. The transparent parts - cockpit windows, energy absorption panels, etc, - are also orange. This is good; I couldn't really tell from online pics if they had just left those parts the same transparent red color the original release has.

Of course, like most movie Decepticons, he also looks like the damned devil (see Jetfire). Seriously - horns, claws, glowing eyes, bestial legs with talons (and a forked tail, if you want) - this dude's got it all in terms of demonic aesthetic themes.

I'm also glad I got him because, unlike the oringal mass retail summer release, this exclusive Fallen fits in better with other "Unicron's gimps" toys, such as Titanium The Fallen and Cybertron Sideways. Since they're apparently not going to make a version of this guy that actually looks like his movie appearance, I figure I can at least get the version that fits in best with my collection, you see? So, eventually, he'll join the top shelf with Unicron, Sideways, and MetalFallen.

Anyhow, this is a great toy. The mold itself is not the best of the ROTF Voyagers - and its flaws have been detailed in many other places - but this version is much more visually appealing than the original and really plays up the "fallen" angel/ agent of chaos angle. He really is "burning" with power.

edit: I figured I'd throw in my own take on this guy's story.

Unfortunately, Hasbro has, for now, seemed to accept the idea that the original 13 Transformers -of which the Fallen is one - are multiversal singularities, meaning that through all the different TF multiverses, there's only one each of this baker's dozen. So the guy in Dreamwave's The War Within: The Dark Ages comic is also supposed to the title character from Revenge of the Fallen.

However, I don't care for this idea. Until recently, the whole multiversal singularity bit was reserved for Primus and Unicron (when that was new, a lot of folks really didn't like the idea, but it makes sense to me - they're gods, you know?). Bestowing it on regular-ass transformers (I don't care if they are the TF version of Adam and Eve) didn't jive with me.

Thus, for my personal interpretation, The Fallen from ROTF is a totally different guy from the Fallen in WWi: The Dark Ages. If it's good enough for Optimus, Megatron, and Starscream, it's good enough for the Thirteen.

However, even with that out of the way to possibly simplify things, the various surrounding ROTF (mostly the IDW prequel comic, Defiance) diverges from the movie's take on things so much that things are quite hard to follow. So here's my version, a synthesis of movie, comic, and novel adaptation:

The Allspark creates the Thirteen and reformats a planet into what we know as Cybertron. The Thirteen realize that to maintain the Allspark's power (and thus keep themselves and Cybertron alive), they need to convert stars into fuel for the Cube. The Allspark then creates the 2nd generation Cybertronians - the "Transformers" - to assist in finding stars to power the Allspark. Among this group is Jetfire, Ransack, and some of the existing constructicons.

The Fallen - at this point known as Entropus Prime due to his role as lord of entropy (not very creative, I know) - realizes that he could use the Solar Harvester to power only himself. Moreover, he believes that his brothers' determination not to destroy Earth's Sun (because Earth is home to a sentient race - humans) is a ridiculous notion, as organic creatures are no more than scum. He determines to steal the Matrix of Leadership - which will give him control over the Solar Harvester on Earth (and any other ones) - from his brothers. This decision inevitably leads to war, with many of the Transformers joining the Fallen and becoming the first Decepticons. The other 12 brothers are just as determined not to let their wayward sibling destroy the humans or gain control over the Allspark's power. As such, they defend the Matrix with their lives - six of them fall in battle, and the remaining six (after using the Allspark to create a newborn Prime spark to replace The Fallen - a spark that will in time become Optimus Prime) attempt a desperate gambit that will claim their lives while at the same time imprisoning the Fallen in an interdimensional prison within his own sarcophagus.

The gambit works. The six remaining good Primes are entombed on Earth, their own bodies protecting the Matrix of Leadership. Back on Cybertron, The Fallen's sarcophagus prison is buried beneath the surface. What the good Primes did not foresee is what other forces might be waiting between dimensions, awaiting lost souls like The Fallen...

Human Alliance Skids

Skids came today!

What's funny is that I ordered him after Target exclusive Fallen (who will probably be here tomorrow).

Skids here is a bit unfortunate. Oh, he's a great toy and transformer - in fact, I think I like him better than HA Bumblebee, whose praises I (briefly) sang late this summer. Skids is unfortunate because, even though I really like him, he doesn't have that whole "hey I'm the first of a revolutionary great line" thing going on that HA Bumblebee did. But again, out of the three HA releases, Skids really is the best.

First off, he just looks great. His green is a unique color among Autobot cars (and transformers in general) and really makes him "pop" and stand out in a display, especially next to the all-silver/grey Sideswipe. The level of detail shown here is really nice as well - this look slike a living machine. So even if you don't like the Twins' design (particularly their faces), HA Skids is actually quite nice to look at.

Second is the transformation. It's very fun, even if it cheats a bit. Having the seats become the forearm armor is a nice trick. Yes, he's left with a huge backpack, but unlike the deluxe version's, it's very solid and isn't moving around anywhere. Of course, it also has a funciotn - it can support the Mikaela figure so she can man the gatling cannon above Skids's head (which looks just fine deployed with out a human figure as well).

Third - I don't really feel cheated witht this toy even though I shoudl - he's still pretty much deluxe sized (if a bit more massive than most deluxes). This is due to his car mode being so small in comparison to Bumblebee and Sideswipe. To compensate, Skids comes with a small Human Alliance Arcee, who's something between the legends and scout size classes, even though she's as tall as a deluxe in robot mode. This very simple (asn very off-model) toy is a fun inclusion.

Stuff on the way...

Like I mentioned in the last post, I've ordered Target's exclusive "Burning" Fallen repaint. I've also given up on looking for (even though I'd probably find it tomorrow) Human Alliance Skids and ordered it off of HTS yesterday afternoon after they put it up (finally!). I did manage to save 3 bucks on the shipping, but I'm also irritated that it didn't ship today. I guess the "usually" before "ships in one day" actually means something. So, yeah, I've found something to spend my meager birthday money on. Not that's it's surprising that I'd buy transformers with it.

I'm also considering getting the Target exclusive Animated Shockwave repaint - the purple one - off of ebay. I had a pretty good bid going the other day, but some joker went over what I was willing to spend. I don't want to spend very much on it because, A) it's a repaint I only kind of want adn B) it comes with Activators Bumblebee, which I already have. But now that Battlefield Bumblebee is coming out (with a somewhat nicer color scheme than the original) I may just get that one and get rid of the 2 normal ones.

In more general TF news, the Revenge of the Fallen line has kind of hit its 2009 peak; that is, the entire first half of the line is now on shelves (pretty much). Now, for the first movie line in 2007-2008, this was kid of a bad thing - it meant that the remaining half of the line was to be dominated with repaints and very few new molds (I can list most of the new Allspark Power molds here - Stockade, Landmine, Incinerator, and some legends. I may have missed, like, two).

This will not be the case for ROTF. In a few months (December or January; I'm hoping for the former), we'll be treated to the new half of the line, titled: NEST Global Alliance. And it's very much full of new molds. And guess what? They're actually pretty cool, so it's actually worth getting excited about.

Octoooober!!! OOOOoOOOOooOO!!!

Ok, so the Halloween spirit is alive in me and convinced me to order Target's exclusive repaint of The Fallen. He's totally a Halloween toy (look at all that black and orange! And he looks just like a demon!), and I figured if I ordered him, he'd actually be in my hands before Oct. 31st. The last Target exclusive I ordered online, Deep Space Starscream, wasn't on store shelves for over a month after it arrived at my house.

Been looking all over for Human Alliance Skids/Arcee/Mikaela. It's just starting to hit shelves, and I considered ordering it from TRU (the only online retail source at the moment), but it's not worth it after their 5 dollar price bump, shipping, and taxes. I'm just going to hold out until I find it at a Wal-mart, where I can use a gift card on it.

Anyway, I'm totally going to put up a creepy/spooky/scary transformer display for Halloween. Guaranteed members: Cyb. Sideways, (new) The Fallen, Unicron, ROTF Leader Jetfire, 2007 Leader Megatron, ROTF Ravage, Animated Shockwave, and Titanium Fallen. And probably a few more.

Birthday...the actual day, anyhow

So, my birthday went pretty well. TF wise, the only thing new to pick up in town was an exclusive ROTF Legends class 4-pack at Kmart. I never (or very rarely, actually) buy TFs there because they usually cost more than Walmart/Target and often get them (much) later, but they're the onyl one's selling this set, and unnlike with most TFs, they get their exclusives on shelves fast.

So I picked up a set. All 4 are molds I already own, but only one is intended to be the same character as the first version.

That would be Jetfire. This version of the character is the only one with an actual Autobot symbol; between that and his new colors sheme (a very nice dull silver with black trim and gold details), this is probably supposed to be some divergent-timeline Jetfire from a world where he doesn't die at the end of the movie and formally joins the Autobots. At any rate, I now can display the black version with the rest of the Decepticon movie legends without guilt.

Blades is a repaint of ROTF Springer and the other Autobot of the set. A clear G1 homage in both name and appearance, Blades is mostly white and red with some grey plastc thrown in too. The bot mode is mostly white, with the majority of the red paint only being highly visible in V-22 mode. One thing I should point out is that this mold was designed for Springer, who was intened at one point to be in the movie (he even has a Robot Heroes figurine). One of the Wave 4 deluxe toys, Blazemaster, has many similarities to the Springer design in his bot mode, and I thought that either Springer himself or Blades would be acceptable repaint options for Blazemaster. While no repaints of that mold have surfaced yet, someone at Hasbro was clearly thinking along some of the same lines as me when designing this Legends class Blades repaint. At any rate, it's very appropriate and works well.

Spinister is a Blackout (2007 Movie) repaint, and probably the best looking version of the mold. I own 2 other versions - the 2007 original and the Allspark Power Desert repaint. Actually, if you took the desert version and replaced the tan plastic with the very dark purple (almost black) of Spinister, you'd be able to imagine what Spinister looks like. They have very similar paint apps (purple strips here and there). Overall, it looks like Spinister is sporting the official Decepticon colors and he looks good doing it. Also, Spinister is another G1 homage, although mostly just in name. The G1 version's colors are not very close to this new one.

Lastly, there's Thundercracker, the original reason I bought the set. He's a Seeker repaint of the 2007 movie Starscream mold, and he looks pretty sharp. His colors closely mirror the voyager version (also from the 2007 line). One key difference is the head; this mold has the Starscream head design seen in the movie, whereas the larger Thundercracker has the more G1-looking head mold shared with the G1-style 2007 Starscream and ROTF Skywarp. They did manage to paint the head the same colors as the larger toy's head (black) and ultimately it looks fine. I'd been using the Stealth Starscream repaint as Skywarp for over a year anyway, and he also has the difference in head designs. Not a big deal, I suppose.

In summation, this is one of the few ROTF Legends exclusive sets that actually seemed worth getting to me. None of the repaints are "half-baked" like the Sideswipe and Mudflap in the Walmart Fearswoop set or the Ironhide and (again) Mudflap from the Target Straightaway Shootout set. They're mostly new characters (compared to the original mold releases, anyway), adn the one that's not is clearly different looking from the eariler summer release (Jetfire). THe set will also attract Seeker collectors (like me), aerial mode enthusiasts (like me), and folks excited by the return of Spinister (me, not so much). It's a bit pricey, but worth it if you like legends toys.

Birthday haul: 2009 edition/Leader Jetfire review

Ok, so I still haven't seen Leader class Jetfire on a store shelf. I ordered him, along with Blazemaster, Arcee, Thrust, and Long Haul from Hasbro Toy Store's site late in August and got the box soon after.

I've opened them all as of last Friday (although my birthday is tomorrow), and they're all pretty great.

Jetfire himself, of course, was the big chunk of cash in this set and physically the largest, too. IN fact, his SR-71 alt mode is one of the biggest aircraft transformers I own (or that exist - I don't know if even Cybertron Supreme Starscream is this long). In that regard, this toy is a great example of what can be done with the Leader size class. The robot and combined modes (with ROTF Leader Optimus, of course) are pretty great, too.

However, the toy does have a number of drawbacks. First and foremost is the glaring disparity in alt mode between robot parts and SR-71 parts; basically, the alt mode is a SR-71 with Jetfire attached to the bottom. The effect is very similar to last year's Universe Silverbolt, who also turned into a long, thin aircraft with a block of robot underneath. However, it was much more forgiveable on that toy, even if the effect of Jetfire's undercarriage kibble is somewhat mitigated by his interesting transformation. There's also parts that exist only for the combined mode that are very much in the way in both robot and jet mode, specifically the 2 grey connectors that stick out in front of his shoulders (these connect to Optimus' back) and the abdominal plate/belt for Optimus, which just hangs off of Jetfire's back and gets in the way of stowing his legs in jet mode. Jetfire's also very cheaty when it comes to his transformation. Because there are virtually no shared robot/jet parts, that means that the parts in robto mode that are supposed to come from the SR-71 are totally fake and sort of redundant. The most glaring examples of this are the canopy helmet and the ramjet thighs. I blame most of this (particularly the thighs) on the necessity of combination, as both smaller versions of Jetfire (FAB and Legends) found a way to keep the thighs and the ramjets as the same pieces. Lastly, Transformation to SR-71 mode is not very fun. The "wing" panels above the head that become the root of the plane's neck are not fun to get in place and frequently pop of their ball joints. Also, ramjet sections do not connect very well to the rear fuselage - when you've got one solidly connected, it will come undoned again when you get the other in place. Very annoying. Also, the chines (sharp edges) of the fuselage are pretty sharp for a toy and can cause a bit of pain if you're squeezing the foreward fuselage halves together.

Also, while the ramjet sections are limbs in their own right and very fun to pose (don't forget, in the movie, Optimus flipped them around to use as cannons!), but the joints are very weak and do not support the large engines very well.

Gimmick-wise, Jetfire's ok. He has the same basic Mech Alive feature as ROTF Leader Megatron - slide down a lever on his chest, and internal gears and external armor plating move around (along with the head) while he says, in his very Scottish accent, "Jetfire's my name." However, like with Megatron, this also makes his head loose and difficult to keep in one spot. Luckily, his "whiskers" are posable and just stiff enough to make him look left or right if positioned correctly. His forehead is a fake SR-71 canopy (the real one splts in halve and is part of his arm kibble) with a red light behind the windows; there's another red light inside the chest (on the interior torso block) that's left of center, possibly to represent his spark/heart. It's also red. Both light up whenever the electronics are activated. He has three sounds other than his speech: a swooping aircraft sound (made by pressing a button on the aft fusealge), a nondescrpit mechanical moving sound (next to the swoop button, but typically only accessible in combined mode when panel covering it is in gun mode) and a very nice transformation sound when you transform his torso (in either direction).

He has 3 removable weapons: his gatling gun-shaped missile launcher, his landing gear cane, and the gun formed from his rear fuselage and landing gear for combined mode with Optimus. I think I like the missile launcher the best. It's an out-and-out weapon, and as such doesn't look so obviously kibble-based as the bigger gun does. Plus, he can use it in all three modes, not just one.
The cane is somewhat difficult to keep in place either in hand or as the nose landing gear wheel.

Overall, he's pretty cool. One funny thing about him is the stark difference between his appearance and characterization: he looks just as demonic/evil as ROTF Megatron (more vampiric, really,, but evil all the same) and has no less than 4 Deception symbols, but in the movie (and on the packaging) he's an Autobot. A rather helpful and friendly, if cantankerous, one, too. While the toy might be able to go back and forth between robot and combined mode, in the film Jetfire sacrifices his own life to combine with Prime so that Optimus can have enough power to defeat the Fallen. Pretty stand-up guy, really. But don't give this toy to a little kid. He looks like the damn devil and will be a pain to transform.

It took long enough...

I FINALLY found Animated Cliffjumper yesterday. It was at a Kohl's, of all places. This also unfortunately meant that it was really expensive for what it was - 12 dollars for an 8 dollar toy. However, considering this is the only time I've ever seen this toy, it was worth it. Better than going on ebay and having to pay even more for shipping, anyway. Speaking of ebay, they had 2. I should have bought the other to sell. Oh well.

He is a cool little guy. The new head sculpt looks great, though it limits the side-to-side movement. The car mode looks a bit plain compared to Activator Bumblebee, too (not to mention either Classics or Movie Cliffjumper).




I'm REALLY getting impatient trying to find ROTF Leader Jetfire. There's a lot of other new stuf fthat's supposed to be out now too, but I only found some repaints the other day - none of the four new deluxe molds that're being released.