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Re: Thoughts on Studio Series so far?
Having bought the whole wave 1 so far, here are my full thoughts.
Blackout: Could be bigger in robot mode but honestly outside of the lack of wrist articulation, I love the figure. Rear panels on one side are a little finicky in vehicle mode but otherwise no issues.
Grimlock: Best movie Grimlock. He is a good size, the paint is great and no quality issues on mine. I can live with the club hand as most his AOE art had it. Only thing I dislike is that he does not come with his mace.
Starscream: Upscaled DOTM deluxe with additional molding details, an accurate paint job with proper weapon and wrist articulation. Why has it take n this long to get a Starscream from the movie line with rotating wrists. Slight loose joints in the knees that does not affect the figure.
Optimus Prime: Paints good, colors in general look great and there is a lot of detail in the figure. Love the swords and use of transformation from Evasion Prime and First Edition Prime. Needs his gun and the torso still seems to wide. He is smaller then most voyagers it seems. No real quality issues but the shoulder is loose enough that he cannot hold the large gun from the voyager DOTM Prime (Yes that big cannon that was also packaged with the walmart deluxe version).
Ratchet: DOTM Deluxe 2.0. Same general engineering but slightly smaller figure with more molding detail. Weapon could be better and mine had looser hips but can still stand. I do wish the roof rack would collapse better though.
Crowbar: Dread 3.0. As Pascal said, not a very inspired transformation. Pretty much the same as Berserker with some tweaks. Interesting enough almost everything except the crotch and parts of the vehicle shell have been reworked. With that reworking, he can actually hold his vehicle mode unlike Berserker. No real quality issues.
Stinger: Entirely new mold. Great looking vehicle mode but feels very small. I enjoyed the transformation and he is a big improvement over the AOE version in every way but size. No real quality issues but I wouldn't mind slightly tighter joints.
Bumblebee: I shall call him Mini-Bee. Same general engineering (MPM3 Inspired) as TLK Bee (New version, not AOE) with some tweaks to fit the old alt mode (And a reworked gun arm. Works on a peg at the elbow rather then trying to pull of a mushroom peg). Although some molded parts look the same, nothing was reused as this guy is much smaller then TLK Bumbleebee. Quality issues: The early release from EB Games had a loose right elbow, car doors, and the infamous car roof falling off. The one I picked up at Walmart however had 0 issues. Joints could always be a little tighter but nothing falls off or moves unless you move it or shake him. As of 4 transformations I have yet to have the roof come off.
All in all, I am pretty happy with them. The backdrops are nice to have and they are some of the better detailed versions we have had over the years. You can tell some of them like Blackout, Crowbar, Grimlock and Prime have had time invested in them to try to create more accurate figures. I like that outside Grimlock they are all roughly the correct robot mode scale but I would have to recommend getting them on sale. Going through EBGames I got the Leaders at $62.99 a piece thanks to my Platinum Membership and feel with the paint, quality, and added backdrops, they were worth the extra $3 over recent Prime Wars Trilogy leaders (My Sixshot has loose knees and one was assembled backwards, Rodimus has loose knees. List goes on).
Voyagers at $35.99 weren't bad but I would still wait for $30 and under. Deluxes at 26.99 however, I would recommend waiting until there is a sale for close to $20 and lower.
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