I just transformed...

[evenstaves]

Buzzworthy Origins Jazz, man I really like this fig
86 Jazz is probably even better, but the widely-reported clear-plastic splitting car-roof on his back had me almost instantly relegating him to “display case only” - so for this Jazz, it’s a bit more fun to monkey around with him
Had a devil of a time finding one without any paint QAs visible from the “bust-only” cutout in the box; why they decided that his “fake car hood” chest needed to be painted clear-plastic is beyond me
Transformation is pretty basic shellforming with the CW-style compressing shins - I’m hesitant to peg either accessory into the roof peg (clear plastic split) or even the rear (painted grey feet, possible paint chipping) - the grap hook pegs nicely into his gut port, and I kind of just wedge the gun inbetween the shin plates with the barrel pointing up towards the pegged-in grap hook, works well enough and keeps the vehicle silhouette
Again, I like the figure, just got to be careful about potential for damage, is it sad that Hasbarp has me in this state?

Evo core Thundercracker, don’t know if I ever covered his earlier mold-mates but just to quickly call out that it’s really impressive to me how they pulled off this transformation at the core level - the “big pivot” is so well done, if you were 1st-timing the mold & trying to deduce how to commence the transformation, cracking that rib cage open would NEVER have been my first go-to
Similar to the ER seekers, I really wish their heads/faces weren’t so bald-faced bland & expressionless - I think nobody would flip the table if they at least gave Starscream a smirk

ROTB gun-imals Rhinox & Skullcruncher, not much to say but I like em - the croco-cannon is the Gatoraider we’ve been waiting for to give to TR Krok
Also I love sitting the rhino up on his butt with all his feet folded in & touching, reminds me of the “calm & meditating” Rhinox from the blind fart episode

Evo Shrapnel, haha I guess it’s to be expected but the more G1 accurate it is, that transformation is pretty damn basic
Beautiful figure though - the paint is gorgeous, headsculpt is on point, weapons combination gimmick is stupid but it can be ignored
Turning his head is a bit of a task - not a lot of room to grip & twist inbetween his big bug horns, and the head itself is pretty smooth, can’t get a great grip; inclination is to grab the helmet’s mohawk crest, but it’s fully painted black, I’d be nervous to put a
ton of pressure on it, and careful not to use one’s nails in such a tight space

[VicRav]

Transformed SS86 Snarl. As usual these SS86 Dinobots continue to look and feel great in hand. The transformation is good. In dino mode my copy has a terribly placed autobot logo on his head, the vertical alignment between the two sides is off by almost 2 mm - I will have to do something about that at some point.

[SLIZZARD]

Originally Posted by VicRav

Transformed SS86 Snarl. As usual these SS86 Dinobots continue to look and feel great in hand. The transformation is good. In dino mode my copy has a terribly placed autobot logo on his head, the vertical alignment between the two sides is off by almost 2 mm - I will have to do something about that at some point.

I really wish they made the head and feet painted gold like the rest of the figure. Instead it's a yellowish gold plastic that's a different colour from his spikes. He does not match with the rest of my set

[Marcotron]

I got a 5.99 Repugnus from Winners, and it's my current desk toy. I can't stop flipping this thing over. It's such a stupid little toy, but the 1 step change is fun.
I miss my old Repugnus. He was the only monster-bot/sparkabot I remember having as a kid.

[CyberDragon10K]

Buzzworthy Silverstreak and Origins Jazz.

Literally my first experience with the ER datsun mould. I'm curious which big chunk of clear plastic tends to break more often (guessing the legs?). Joints are decently stiff. Had to use a 5 mm drill bit to bore out some flash on his right fist for the gun. He compacts into himself well enough for alt. mode but the shoulder cannons are so tinny. I imagine people go for the eBay 3D printed shoulder rockets to make them presentable?

Origins Jazz is super stiff. The fists are a touch loose on their swivel (they swing past the locking point a bit, either way). The grappling hook is neat, but just reminds me I never figured out how to get a 3D printed one I bought from JRC Designs to work with the SS86 Jazz. Alt. mode is neat, although locking down the clear canopy is a bit concerning.

Happy overall with them for both being marked down from full MSRP.

[evenstaves]

Evo core Grimlock, no bot elbows, no dino jaw (unforgivable!), and the combiner leg is a stupid block
But the bot mode is … passable, even if it sacrifices too much for all the functions is has to perform - and I don’t completely hate the dino mode, looks nice enough amongst the other core dinos
When Snarl comes out I’ll see if both can be reasonably fan-moded into better combiner legs; Grimlock can kind of stretch out to (just bot mode, standing up *groan*), maybe can accomplish something similar with the stego and possibly salvage the combiner’s worst aspect
But come on 3rd party, this guy NEEDS an articulated dino jaw!

Evo core NemesisPrime, axe is cool and distinguishes him nicely from Kingdom/Legacy core OP, even if mine has some bad mold flash on one side
(of course, that new Pulse 2-pack OP now comes with his own axe, so Nemmy’s gonna lose his distinguishing feature, natch)
(Maybe once the 2-pack is in hand, I’ll cannibalize Kingdom/Legacy’s blaster for NP to wield)

Velocitron Road Rocket, was gonna pass but found it for cheap @ TreasureHunt
Getting this after Ariel & Flamewar, I guess it’s OK enough
Transformation to bike is still complicated enough that I probably never would have figured it out sans instructions, which I can appreciate
The energon shuriken is still stupid tho

Velocitron Burn Out, after Skids & Crankcase, bit disappointing to see Skids’ weird wheel shoulders again, considering Crankcase’s are a bit better (not much, admittedly)
Also found this guy @ TreasureHunt, he’s missing his energon axe - weird how the stupid added bit has me missing it, it does look pretty cool w Skids
The new head is a nice preview for Crosscut, who I don’t have yet; maybe I’ll steal his wheels to replace Crosscut’s reds, as I’ve heard some have done

Velocitron Shadowstrip, this deco is dead sexy
Super pumped that the recent G2 subline revealed G2 DeadEnd, so reasonably safe to assume we’re getting all Legacy Stunticons in G2, helps rationalize that I probably overpaid for this guy

Evo Beachcomber, I’m surprised but this guy is actually really good!
Nice rubber tires, no clip wheels
Whole figure feels nice & thick, almost heavy, deceptively so
He’s got wrist swivels, where you’d think he wouldn’t, given the gauntlet’s nature that extends out underneath the fists, could have easily just been solid forearm stumps
I was one of those “the POTP is fine” guys, but this one is nice enough to be the new representation, POTP can just be “someone’s vehicle” now
Worried about that little parakeet, it’s really small and all rubber, I can see it getting lost easily

Evo Devcon, little disappointed with this one
Right out the gate, my copy from EB had two big QAs on his silver painted face - one came right off, the other is stuck right in the paint, a permanent beauty mark under the right eye, and given the whole “Evo wave 3 deluxe hard to find” aspect, wonder if I’ll have the opportunity to find a better face
Transformation is heavily retooled from 86 Blurr, made more simplistic (for better or worse), he’s just a “legs fold up at the knees, backpack flips over to cover the head” guy now, but with 86 Blurr’s hand swivel inside the gauntlets

Evo Twincast, I wish the smirk face had been Kingdom/Legacy/SG Blaster’s default face, adds the personality that I like
Also, getting Rewind is cool, but he’s like 50% clear plastic - I’d buy a little Selects cassette multipack, to get Rewind & Eject in full opaque plastic (may as well toss in Steeljaw & Ramhorn?)

ROTB “mainline” voyager Optimus Primal, maybe it’s sunk cost talking but I like this guy better than the recently announced SS
Also I grabbed a pair of ROTB gun-imal Primals, to be his dual hand-cannons - which serves the dual purpose of giving him a little munky family, a la Perfect Effect’s PC-19 Gorira Jr’s

[evenstaves]

Sorry forgot the big one! Legacy Motormaster
Finally got a copy of this guy, luckily it appears to be one that avoided the whole “bleaching” aspect documented in TFW threads
I would say he is “pretty OK” - as a bot he’s got the box head and technically has truck-cab feet, but they’re really short for what they should be, and are more like hooves
His arms are coated in white paint, which makes me a bit worried at times - and the “weapons” he comes with are pretty lame: lame dinky little sword, lame fold-up cannon (I’m sure this is Hasbarp playing along with 3rd party to scrum up “proper” accessories)
Was able to no-instructions the transformation from truck to bot, and separated the trailer apart into its various combiner bits easily enough - but I have to admit, I could NOT get the inner bot into “combiner chest” mode without checking instructions, there’s some precise finnickry in there
Overall he’s OK - definitely worthy of the commander class price point, even if it sets an unfortunate precedent for future commanders to be “all the rest of the combiner torso-bots”
gonna have to get that DNA kit to proper weapons him (also the combiner chest as the front of the trailer is a bit shameless)
Also footnote, it’s embarrassing how much empty space is in that commander class box - should take a note from Xmas OP, but of course the imperative is to maintain box sizes per size class (wouldn’t want em to think it shouldn’t cost $150+)

[evenstaves]

Originally Posted by evenstaves

Evo Devcon, little disappointed with this one
Right out the gate, my copy from EB had two big QAs on his silver painted face - one came right off, the other is stuck right in the paint, a permanent beauty mark under the right eye, and given the whole ?Evo wave 3 deluxe hard to find? aspect, wonder if I?ll have the opportunity to find a better face
Transformation is heavily retooled from 86 Blurr, made more simplistic (for better or worse), he?s just a ?legs fold up at the knees, backpack flips over to cover the head? guy now, but with 86 Blurr?s hand swivel inside the gauntlets

Just messing around with Devcon again and realized something that’s probably why he rubs me the wrong way - his neck is one of those “coming out the jaw” joints! Which is to say, when in profile, the neck is molded to the head as such, that it comes down from the “front” of the head, rather than the back or even the middle - this mean when you tilt his head, it’s tilting from the chin and not (say) the base of the skull

I hate when they do this, makes posing the head impossible cause it sits stupidly on most angles

[evenstaves]

Evo Needlenose, this guy is pretty OK, nice & tall - took me a few tries to find a copy with decent yellow face paint, and even this one’s not perfect, but it’s like an ER Snapdragon scenario, gotta pick the least worst and run with it
Shame about those hollow calves, but I suppose the way they have the transformation, couldn’t work otherwise (or maybe?)
Zigzag is absolutely coated in paint, every peg, every port - to the point where I worry everytime I peg him into anything; looks nice, but the functionality demands should have been black plastic

Evo AnimatedProwl, the best Animated rep yet by far! I could give a crap that he’s not exactly like the old Animated deluxe Prowl, it’s a great CHUG attempt
With that said, his hands look pretty fragile, the mechanic on his big fat throwing stars is easy to “jump the gears” and f*ck up, and boy is that ever a folded-up pair of legs under the bike chassis
All said though, he kicks Legacy Bulkhead’s *ss that’s for sure

[evenstaves]

Evo Axlegrease, right off the bat the copy that came in via EB, her pink visor has a big paint ding on the right side, god damn it
It's not like I'm gonna find many more of this! ARGH
Anyways she is super cool regardless, her two new handcannons that form the "back window" of the car, can be glammed up with the "wingy" tailpipe parts, helps to distinguish her from Scraphook
One thing that's bugging me a bit about this mold (same w Scraphook too), is the forearms have got like NO space when tucking in during transformation - and the elbow joints just pop the forearms right off, they're not pinned or anything
Also some of the panel ports are showing stress lines after one conversion, which is a bit concerning
This a fun figure as far as depicting females with non-traditional "hourglass" body types goes; the face is def feminine but the body is all business, and has those big honking clompers for feet, haha awesome - I really like this figure; wish the couple grievances I have with my copy weren't present

Evo Armada OP, I've got to say, as someone who has no skin in the game re: didn't buy much if any UT figures, this figure is really cool - the little inner bot OP is still pretty large/thick and imposing (despite his crotch wanting to split apart, natch), and honestly the mode I was planning to mainly display, as one of the Bendy Primes IS one of the few UTs I did pick up back in the day - but dude, the combined form is so f*ckin nice, and my copy seems to have no major QAs to speak of, which really helps
Sucks that the inner bot can't waist swivel, but I suppose its impossible given everything this guy has to perform
Had a bit of trouble shuffling the trailer's big shin blocks to the sides during transformation, hopefully gets easier with more attempts
And a little bit nervous about stuffing the inner bot's painted chest grill parts into the big trailer backpack during combination, seems like a possible hotspot for paint scratch
But this figure rules, one of the best commander classes so far imo
Now I for sure have to get Armada Megs, so this guy can have a suitable nemesis