Got all the Prime Masters and Legends last week and Deluxes and Voyagers today. Some thoughts and observations.
- Prime Masters with their pretender shells are brilliant little figures and I didn't know I'd like them so much. I find them a lot more fun that Titan Masters. I find PMs have a lot of play options for their small size. I want playsets and vehicles for their scale
A size somewhere between FortMax's and Overlord's base modes.
- Windcharger and Beachcomber are wonderfully chunky. I wish Windcharger's windshield wasn't as opaque so I could see the titan/prime master inside. Seeing a TM/PM riding inside Beachcomber's rollcage is really fun. It made me realize a that while you can put a TM/PM inside Legends class vehicle modes, you often can't really see them at all once they're inside.
- The Dinobots are great. Slash is a great addition to the team. Slug is solid and stiff with no problems so far. Grimlock's chunky tail doesn't bother me that much and his robot mode is fantastic. What does bother me is that Swoop's legs don't tab together properly, which affects both his combiner limb modes.
- Dreadwind is very good. The only thing I've noticed is that the back of the legs don't tab into anything when in alt mode so it doesn't feel super solid. I don't know if it was the same with the Combiner Wars Aerialbot that shares the mold. It's not flimsy or anything, it just doesn't click into anything like the other CW jets I have. I hope the mechanism of hinging the wings onto the legs means HasTak will be producing conehead versions of the mold. No idea how they're going to make a conehead head on top of the combiner peg, though.
- Jazz is decent. He's big but feels light. I'm glad it's a new mold and that they're trying something new for combiner Deluxes, but the painted transparent hood and top are finicky and trying to tab the arms or the lower body make some other part pop out. The way the hood and top tab together in car mode never fits right and requires more force than I'm comfortable with to push the tabs in. I've seen the pictures of the cracked hood around the shoulder. Yikes. The legs tab in together really great and solidly so at least there's that. Combiner leg mode wasn't super stable the first time I tried him so Grimlock and Starscream keep falling forward. Switching him to arm mode improved their standing.
- For Starscream I wasn't sure about his robot mode when I first saw him but I'm starting to like it. His Popeye shape is kinda charming. Getting all the legs and wings and flaps parts lined up in combiner torso mode is fussy, but generally I like the look of it. The guy from Geekstuff Store managed to snap off one of the air intake flaps while unpegging it when transforming from jet to robot, so I've got to keep an eye on that. The stickers don't bother me too much so far. The back wing assembly gives me the impression that I should be able to push it in so that the peg above where it rotates can plug into the port but it doesn't.
- I wish there were ports on the side of the combiner feet. I always want more ports. Feet pegs are super stiff on Grimlock's and okay on Starscream's.
- I wish the enigmas of combination did more than just be a block, but I still like being able to plug it in different ways.
- I haven't gotten any Leaders yet and I'm not sure if I will. I already have a TM Leader OP and the transformation is close enough for me to not be interested. That and the Orion Pax's truck mode is too messy. I've got too many Hotrods already so I was thinking of skipping Rodimus Prime and getting Rodimus Unicronus. I love how he looks like Lemmy from Motorhead, even if I'm not really a fan.
That's it!
