So wave 3 of the R.E.D. series showed up at Walmart today so I came home with a couple of new action figures.

BUMBLEBEE

Man, Bumblebee is crazy. He's just so HUGE. He's so wrongly huge. In a world where we're enjoying such attention to Sunbow character scale when it comes to Kingdom and Studio Series, a gigantic Deluxe-sized Bumblebee, taller than Earthrise Ironhide, makes my brain do little flip-flops. Even if they had just made him, like, a head shorter than everybody else maybe it would have been okay. But, nope. No scale for you. Next!

With that said, this is easily the largest G1-style Bumblebee I own now. It's a novelty to get this character as an action figure, since he never got a MegaSCF (he did get a little SCF, but those weren't really poseable). He looks approximately like the G1 cartoon model, with lots of little deviations here and there to add random detail and things. So, definitely not the Takara-level slavish attempt to reproduce the cartoon. But, it's clearly recognizable as the character.

His articulation includes an ab crunch, but it doesn't function well because of the presence of his vehicle cockpit. So, they made the vehicle cockpit removable. It's held in place with a single peg. Of course, with the cockpit off he looks substantially like the G1 character. Other articulation includes a ball-jointed head, shoulders that can pivot out to the sides, bicep swivels, a double-hinged elbow, swiveling and tilting wrists, a waist swivel, ball-jointed hips, a mid-thigh swivel, double-hinged knees, and ankles that both tilt and pivot.

For accessories, he's got a grey pistol, loosely based on the generic gun they gave to Autobots in the show whose toys didn't come with handheld accessories (Wheeljack, Ratchet, etc.) He's got two yellow translucent blast effects, a long one and a short one. He also comes with an energon cube. In addition to his weapon-gripping hands, he also comes with a set of closed fists. Besides the cockpit, the round circle on his back has been interpreted as a spare tire for this version, and that pops off as well.

I guess in ten years' time I'll either still love this toy, or I'll ask myself why ever spent money on it. I really tried to enjoy and love Hero Mashers, for example, but at the end of the day most of those figures were really disappointing. Bumblebee absolutely does not make sense whatsoever in a toy line where he's the same size as Optimus Prime and Megatron, but I've gone on record as loving wrong-sized versions of things, so in some ways I'm tickled by the sheer weirdness of all this.

STARSCREAM

Starscream is a bit less exciting, since we've gotten various versions of him over the years in his coronation gear—the MegaSCF toy, of course, plus the Masterpiece (both the old and the upcoming versions) and the upcoming Studio Series version. It's not a new idea by any stretch of the imagination.

However, it's done well. Without the extra gear, Starscream is six inches tall. He comes in the package with his right wing attached but his left wing off, so he can fit in the box. His shade of grey is arguably too dark. He's not supposed to be white, like the original SCF figure, but he's not nearly this dark, either. Due to the way his elbow joints are constructed, there wasn't enough room for peg-holes in the sides of his arms. So, instead he has pegs poking out of his arms and his arm-guns have holes that accomodate them. It's a weird solution, and the guns tend to fall off a lot.

So, Starscream has an unusual body design in that his jet cockpit is connected to his upper body, but it protrudes down into his pelvis a bit. Past figures have either worked around this by immobilizing the joint completely, or cheating the size of the cockpit so it won't interfere with the movement of the pelvis. This time, they made the cockpit removable. Turn his waist in a way that won't work in three-dimensional space, and the cockpit just gets out of the way, or pops off altogether. It's an inelegant solution, but it's a solution. He's got an ab crunch, but it won't really work unless you take the cockpit off completely. He has the same articulation as Bumblebee, plus back-mounted wings that can swing backwards or pivot out.

He's got two translucent purple blast effects that can fit over the tips of his null rays. All other accessories are in service of his coronation look: the replacement hands making grand and sweeping "my fellow Decepticons, as your new leader I..." gestures; the shoulder pads (there are peg-holes in the backs of his shoulders to hold them in place), the crown (it fits loosely on his head), and the soft goods cape (they have holes in them with reinforced stitching around them, like a parachute, and seem to be designed to slip over his wing mounts). He's sculpted with two grey stabilizer fins stuck to either of his legs, but those can pop off if you don't like them.

I keep buying these things even though they're arguably not a necessary part of my neo-G1 toy line. It's basically Marvel Legends does Transformers, which is great in some ways and kind of pointless in others. But, I'm enjoying these far more than the Hero Mashers, so there's that.

Zob (got no sleep last night and needs a nap)

On Sunday, August 22, 2021 at 5:19:02 PM UTC-6, Zobovor wrote:

<snip>

So I was putting some toys away yesterday (which in itself was a major undertaking, but more on that later) and I need to revise my opinion somewhat. I'd forgotten how precisely R.E.D. Optimus Prime and Megatron and Soundwave were sculpted to resemble the Sunbow cartoon models. With that in mind, the designs for Bumblebee and Starscream are unacceptable. They look like they're not even part of the same toy line.

I'm not sure what happened. Maybe John Warden handled the first wave or two and now they've got somebody else approving concept designs? Or maybe the entire R.E.D. line got handed off to a completely different team for some reason? In any event, it's disappointing. Super7 looks like they're going to be getting the designs correct, at least, but Transformers Ultimates are also $55 a pop, so that's much harder on the wallet. I mean, my Studio Series Slag has shipped and is on the way and was less expensive than that. Just sayin'.

Zob (also, in other news, I have too many toys)

On Monday, August 23, 2021 at 7:45:27 PM UTC-4, Zobovor wrote:
> On Sunday, August 22, 2021 at 5:19:02 PM UTC-6, Zobovor wrote:
>
> <snip>
>
> So I was putting some toys away yesterday (which in itself was a major undertaking, but more on that later) and I need to revise my opinion somewhat.. I'd forgotten how precisely R.E.D. Optimus Prime and Megatron and Soundwave were sculpted to resemble the Sunbow cartoon models. With that in mind, the designs for Bumblebee and Starscream are unacceptable. They look like they're not even part of the same toy line.
>
> I'm not sure what happened. Maybe John Warden handled the first wave or two and now they've got somebody else approving concept designs? Or maybe the entire R.E.D. line got handed off to a completely different team for some reason? In any event, it's disappointing. Super7 looks like they're going to be getting the designs correct, at least, but Transformers Ultimates are also $55 a pop, so that's much harder on the wallet. I mean, my Studio Series Slag has shipped and is on the way and was less expensive than that. Just sayin'.
>
>
> Zob (also, in other news, I have too many toys)

If they don't transform, are not in scale, are not cartoon-accurate, are made of rubbery plastic, and don't represent a significant cost-savings, value for money, or materially improved articulation compared to an equivalent mainline figure, then I am stumped as to who is the target market for this line, and whether it will continue long enough to bring us any never-before-seen-but-greatly-desired rarities and obscurities.

I only own Cheetor and Megatron so far, but I like them less as time goes on (as opposed to other Kingdom/SS86 figures like Primal or Scourge, who are growing on me).

I might feel compelled to buy more of this line if there were some assurance of an impending release of Alpha Trion, Kranix, or Xaaron...

On Monday, August 23, 2021 at 5:54:41 PM UTC-6, Codigo Postal wrote:
> I am stumped as to who is the target market for this line

I think it might be for people who collect Marvel Legends, Star Wars Black Series, etc. and want six-inch robot action figures to go along with their six-inch Jedi and superhero action figures.

> I might feel compelled to buy more of this line if there were some assurance of an impending release of Alpha Trion, Kranix, or Xaaron...

I would love for them to venture into more obscure characters, but it's tough to gauge how well the line is doing, and whether or not it will last long enough to get there. Hasbro does experimental toy lines like this a lot (Built to Rule, Construct Bots, etc.) but they never seem to last more than a year or two.

But, if they're going to deviate from the Sunbow cartoon designs and sculpt the characters to look like these weird amalgam versions of themselves, then I'm substantially less interested in the line continuing.

Zob (Kranix would honestly be amazing, though)