DSC_9167
With the recent Toys R US coupons finally expiring, I expanded my search for Wave 2 of the latest main Transformers line - Power of the Primes, and picked up the Wave 2 Voyagers - Elita-1 and Hun-Grr.
I know Elita-1 as one of the first female Transformers, and I believe the very competent companion of Alpha Trion.. or at least that's what she was back in 1988. I'm guessing since then the character has been revisited in the comics, but I'm not a comic guy. So when they announced there would be a version of her in this line, I was quite excited as I don't really remember a figure ever being made of her.
Fem-bots in general are quite infrequent so I do try to get them all, though sadly Hasbro dropped the ball completely on Generations Arcee and Chromia. Combiner Wars had the all female combiner Victorion, and I'm hoping this line will up the ante.
Elita-1 is a remould of the PotP Starscream mould, which, after fiddling with it, seems to be some sort of variation on the Combiner Wars Silverbolt figure. I've only really got a Scattershot to do a comparison to.
The articulation of the figure is acceptable for the price point, but definitely not outstanding, though to be honest waist articulation would be the only thing I'd really like to see added.
I do like the colour scheme, though QC on the paint is.. well typical mass release Hasbro but at least they didn't screw up the paint on the faces. Quality of the plastic is again pretty typical Hasbro, feeling lightweight but not shattering during transformation. Alignment of some tabs isn't the greatest.
Waiting for Takara to do a better job doesn't seem to be a thing this time around, as all previews have shown the figure are pretty much identical this time around, though I'm curious to see if they kept the same low quality stickers with gibberish written on it.
Speaking of gibberish, one sticker says "Ariel Evolved", which makes me wonder if there will not be an Arcee figure this series, as easy and obvious an entry as a limb she might be. The reason I say that is because in Japan, Arcee is actually named Ariel. Given the colour scheme and cryptic sticker, maybe this IS Arcee.
Speaking of combined forms, there is nothing on her instructions that give any indication of the combined form name, or the names of the two remaining limbs (so far, Jazz and Moonracer have been released).
Hun-Grr is another figure I was excited to see. Not so much that I care for the character, but rather, it's the combined form I'm anxiously awaiting - Abominus, the arch-rival of Computron. And because promos showed the entire thing combined, and there is a history of this character, the instruction manual lists out every single component.
Hun-Grr's bot mode and alt mode are.. OK. I mean, they're neat, and are functional, but you certainly can't call them outstanding. All the QC issues I expanded upon above are present here, though for the record Hun-Grr does seem to hold together better than Elita-1.
Torso mode is what I'm most excited about. Other than being the upper body of Abominus, I like how Hasbro has generally replicated the chest plate of the original toy, a problem that was quite the eye sore on Superion, and more notably, on Computron, to the point where I opted to purchase a Perfect Effects set to make things right.
If I had to pick my biggest gripe with Hun-Grr, it's that the antenna on Abominus are a soft rubber, which I'm guessing was done for child safety standards. Unfortunately, one of the antenna was warped during shipping.
I look forward to finishing these sets, and the Dinobot set as well. It's a shame, though, that Hasbro didn't opt to use the Computron hands/feet on these newer releases, as the ones that come with these figures are rather small, and in the case of Abomius, will be different coloured.
Perfect Effects FTW, I guess.
DSC_9167
With the recent Toys R US coupons finally expiring, I expanded my search for Wave 2 of the latest main Transformers line - Power of the Primes, and picked up the Wave 2 Voyagers - Elita-1 and Hun-Grr.
I know Elita-1 as one of the first female Transformers, and I believe the very competent companion of Alpha Trion.. or at least that's what she was back in 1988. I'm guessing since then the character has been revisited in the comics, but I'm not a comic guy. So when they announced there would be a version of her in this line, I was quite excited as I don't really remember a figure ever being made of her.
Fem-bots in general are quite infrequent so I do try to get them all, though sadly Hasbro dropped the ball completely on Generations Arcee and Chromia. Combiner Wars had the all female combiner Victorion, and I'm hoping this line will up the ante.
Elita-1 is a remould of the PotP Starscream mould, which, after fiddling with it, seems to be some sort of variation on the Combiner Wars Silverbolt figure. I've only really got a Scattershot to do a comparison to.
The articulation of the figure is acceptable for the price point, but definitely not outstanding, though to be honest waist articulation would be the only thing I'd really like to see added.
I do like the colour scheme, though QC on the paint is.. well typical mass release Hasbro but at least they didn't screw up the paint on the faces. Quality of the plastic is again pretty typical Hasbro, feeling lightweight but not shattering during transformation. Alignment of some tabs isn't the greatest.
Waiting for Takara to do a better job doesn't seem to be a thing this time around, as all previews have shown the figure are pretty much identical this time around, though I'm curious to see if they kept the same low quality stickers with gibberish written on it.
Speaking of gibberish, one sticker says "Ariel Evolved", which makes me wonder if there will not be an Arcee figure this series, as easy and obvious an entry as a limb she might be. The reason I say that is because in Japan, Arcee is actually named Ariel. Given the colour scheme and cryptic sticker, maybe this IS Arcee.
Speaking of combined forms, there is nothing on her instructions that give any indication of the combined form name, or the names of the two remaining limbs (so far, Jazz and Moonracer have been released).
Hun-Grr is another figure I was excited to see. Not so much that I care for the character, but rather, it's the combined form I'm anxiously awaiting - Abominus, the arch-rival of Computron. And because promos showed the entire thing combined, and there is a history of this character, the instruction manual lists out every single component.
Hun-Grr's bot mode and alt mode are.. OK. I mean, they're neat, and are functional, but you certainly can't call them outstanding. All the QC issues I expanded upon above are present here, though for the record Hun-Grr does seem to hold together better than Elita-1.
Torso mode is what I'm most excited about. Other than being the upper body of Abominus, I like how Hasbro has generally replicated the chest plate of the original toy, a problem that was quite the eye sore on Superion, and more notably, on Computron, to the point where I opted to purchase a Perfect Effects set to make things right.
If I had to pick my biggest gripe with Hun-Grr, it's that the antenna on Abominus are a soft rubber, which I'm guessing was done for child safety standards. Unfortunately, one of the antenna was warped during shipping.
I look forward to finishing these sets, and the Dinobot set as well. It's a shame, though, that Hasbro didn't opt to use the Computron hands/feet on these newer releases, as the ones that come with these figures are rather small, and in the case of Abomius, will be different coloured.
Perfect Effects FTW, I guess.