What figure surprised you? Good or bad.
 

As the title says.

Since I have been on a bit of a tear opening figs and actually playing/handling them, I have found some surprises, both good and bad. So. I figured i would ask everyone else what figure(s) surprised them after opening.

My first is ER Optimus Prime, or rather "Alternate Universe" Prime since that is the version I opened.

I was quite surprised how good a figure it is for a mainline release. I mean I saw people talking about how it was a mini masterpiece, but I brushed it off as hyperbole. Boy was I wrong. This is a tremendous toy. The design and transformation are definitely some of the best ever done at regular retail, at least in the past decade. I was truly surprised how good it is as a toy.

Re: What figure surprised you? Good or bad.
 

ER Skylynx was my biggest surprise. It's not like we didn't know what we were getting but it amazed me at how well he was done

Re: What figure surprised you? Good or bad.
 

ER OP is a blast - the only thing that pissed me off (I don't even care about the eyes thing) is the yellow patch missing on his diaper - which the Netflix version solved!
If they could do it in the first place, why didn't they? Because then you won't buy both copies, ofc

For my submit, I'll say I just picked up Kingdom Cyclonus last night

I'm not even that much of a Cyc guy, but I can't deny that this fig is sick as hell - no kibble, great poseability, tons of joints - he's got forward/backward ankle movement!
And he's nice and big, intimidating

I could have gone for a darker purple but that's honestly the worst thing I could say, this figure is amazing

Re: What figure surprised you? Good or bad.
 

Studio Series 31 Megatron. Based on the initial pictures, I hated him, thought the legs looked ridiculous and blocky. In hand, he's one of my favourite studio series figures, and I find myself going back to him frequently to transform. I also think they overall did a better job with him then MPM Megs.

Re: What figure surprised you? Good or bad.
 

Still can't get past the reused leg parts from Siege Prime. The unused hitch part ruins the look. Trailer looks cheap too, and should have had Roller. But yeah, with original legs and a more detailed trailer, it would be a fantastic toy. Torso transformation is great and full of twists.

Re: What figure surprised you? Good or bad.
 

Agreed. He looked cool from pics and I was excited to get him. He far, far surpassed my expectations.

Especially because he has such a relatively small box. His shuttle mode still seemed large. Once you transform him into his full Beasty glory he is HUGE! Just a big bulky delight with piles of articulation and features, excellent deco. The base mode is just icing. A sheer delight, great display piece and tons of fun.

Allison for me. I kind looked at it as a cool toy we never got before. While his transformation is simple, he's squat and tough, and it's simply fun to switch back and forth. It's wonderful.

Re: What figure surprised you? Good or bad.
 

For this one, I'm going to somewhat define "surprise" as surpassing my expectations, at least partly due to not having high anticipation for them on my hunt list. So from my experience this year, I wouldn't be going with ER Optimus, Sky Lynx, Scorponok, Netflix Bee, etc., because I was already hunger for them (like many others). None of these selections are in any order of preference.

Starting with Ramjet from the ER Seeker Elite 2-pack. Was just getting him to fill out my Generations display, but wasn't expecting to enjoy his jet mode's design as much as I did. Guess it was just an aesthetic thing that I hadn't paid much attention to before.

Next, ER Trailbreaker. A generally underrated character as it is, and not having a flashy, sporty alt-mode. He wasn't on my 2020 TF hunt list, but on something of an impulse buy, I got him after a stretch of no TF purchases (and possibly, also frustrations over the delays of the Amazon sets). Ended up liking him a lot more than I expected.

Galactic Odyssey Ratchet. Also wasn't on the hunt list, but became more tempted. Was glad I finally got him.

And in a left-field choice, the Quintesson Judge, largely because I didn't have much expectations for his play value, but I was at least glad we finally got an official G1-based Quint. Plus, I found out the face-spinning gimmick was almost as much fun as Soundwave's eject feature.

Re: What figure surprised you? Good or bad.
 

Geez it's tough. I've been excited about a lot of figures that lived up to the hype (ER Sky Lynx, ER Scorponok, Siege Omega, UW Devastator), so it's hard to think of what surprised me in a positive way...

I would say one slight example is ER Megatron. People seemed to really be harping on this toy, but I really liked it in hand, much better than Siege. The sword could have been better, but that was always a bonus. The gap filling shield for the back, the revised and more G1 looking head sculpt, redone chest and fusion cannon, it really clicked well for me.

So much so that I'm not sure I want to keep the G2 Megs, which I was originally looking forward to pairing with Laser TR Optimus, but it's just the same mold in a different color, not enough difference.

The other one I can think of is MP Optimus 3.0's trailer. I always knew I'd love the MP Optimus 3.0 - finally the heroic proportions of the cartoon and a perfect match with MP Megatron 2.0. And I knew the transformation would be complicated but fun and repeatable, like MP Megs 2.0. But I heard a lot of negative remarks about the price and post-release comments about the trailer adding too much to the price, but honestly, I was shocked and pleasantly surprised at how much fun the trailer is. The number of features was amazing and I could see where the cost went. Leagues better than MP 2.0's trailer, which had already seemed pretty perfect.
The price is still nuts and maybe less paint and reliance on coloured plastic would have been enough for me to reduce the price, but I can definitely see what they were going for.

Re: What figure surprised you? Good or bad.
 

G1 Slapdash! Who knew he was awesome??

Re: What figure surprised you? Good or bad.
 

Well, I remember one time when I walked past one of my shelves, Devastator surprised me by jumping on my back and punching me in the face. I threw him to the ground and said, "WTF is your problem?"

Devastator responds, "All the TFs in this room hate you. You friggen never dust us. I'm the only one who has the balls to say it."

Boy, was that surprising. Now I have to sleep with one eyed open. Discharge, Lube, and Erector are always looking at me funny now. I'm scared. That's very bad.