This set is kind of a weird combination of obvious cost-cutting and molds that they probably can't use for anything else ever again.

Amusingly, the 18-pack is packaged as if it were a 16-pack that somebody then added two extra "exclusive figures" as an afterthought. What, as opposed to the Nano Metalfigs that you can find in vending machines, the ones the dentist gives out as prizes, etc.? They're ALL exclusives. The whole set is a Walmart exclusive. It's silly.

This set contains six Autobots, seven Decepticons, four Maximals, and one Predacon.

Optimus Prime is different from the first release in that this one has his energon axe deployed. It's a new sculpt, with him now in a staggered, battle-ready stance. It honestly makes sense to include him again since he's easily the most well-known Transformers character, and character appeal is going to sell more of these sets than trying to offer robots who haven't been in the series yet. The paint job is still fairly minimalist—he could have used additional paint applications for his left hand, smokestacks, fuel tanks on his legs, etc. but didn't get them.

They call him Bumblebee, but it's actually the Cliffjumper figure from series one in yellow and black. So, I guess this could be Pretender Bumblebee (who infamously had a Cliffjumper head sculpt) or Worlds Collide Bumblebee, or Blow-Out, or Hubcap, or whoever you want it to be. Aise from the missing paint for his side windows, though, there are no missing colors that jump out at me, so that's nice.

Beast Wars Megatron is the only Beast Wars era bad guy in the set. He's got his T. rex head and tail resting against his legs, probably so nothing bends or breaks off. He's painted metallic purple from head to toe, with only his black helmet and some black on his chest breaking up the sea of purple. His robot eyes and dino eyes are painted red. I think the Titanium Series Robot Masters figure was done much better, but of course you're only paying like $1.10 apiece for the Jada figures instead of the three or four dollars the Titanium Series sold for.

At two inches tall, Nemesis Prime is a reuse of the Optimus Prime figure from series one. He's black with red chest windows, and a silver pelvis and upper legs. He has a silver Decepticon symbol on his left shoulder. At least they didn't sell it in white and call it Ultra Magnus. We've had quite enough of that.

Optimus Primal is 1.75" tall. He's in a cool action pose, using his right arm blaster, and he's painted entirely a metallic dark grey except for some paint hits on his chest and arms and legs. His helmet is blue with red eyes. His sculpt is a little weird because he's got that "hump" behind his head (the back of the gorilla's head when he transforms) and his robot head extends all the way back to meet the hump, so there's no gap.

Wheeljack is the same figure offered from series one, but this time he's painted with gunmetal parts instead of grey. It would have been cool if they'd done Slicer or somebody instead of Wheeljack again.

Scorponok is almost certainly the smallest version of the Decepticon Headmaster ever. He's purple and green as one might expect, and he's carrying his shield-claw thing as if it were a gun. He could have used just a few more paint applications to really bring out the details (he really needs his orange antennas on either side of his head) but he's certainly not awful.

Battletrap sure is an unusual and unexpected choice of character. He's such a complete unknown that this really surprises me. The figure seems to be based on the U.S. cartoon model for the character, mostly blue with red windows on his feet and a grey helicopter cockpit on his chest, with more grey helicopter parts on his back. He's adorable, and it's fun to see some unsung characters getting some love.

Rhinox is doing a power squat and looks nice and powerful. He's a good mix of tan and light metallic green and really captures the look of the CGI character even at this tiny scale. They even did little gold paint hits on his helmet. I don't even really like the character that much, but this figure really shines.

Airazor seems angry, with her little fists balled up into a "put up your dukes" kind of pose. She's off-black with gold, not brown as you might expect, but it doesn't read as incorrect to my eyes.

Surprise, Soundblaster is just Soundwave again only in black. Red cassette door window, gold trim, the whole shebang.

Nova Storm is a yellow version of the Starscream/Thundercracker figure from wave one, with his hands on his hips. He's yellow from head to toe, with a black painted helmet and an orange cockpit. I guess they were going for the cartoon colors as seen in "Divide and Conquer." Well, whatever saves them money on paint operations, I guess.

Cheetor is entirely gold except for some blue on his legs and shoulders and face. He has a few perfunctory cheetah spots on his chest. I'm sure we can expect to see this figure reused as Tigatron if there's a series three.

Mirage is pretty good, and even though he only uses blue and white, they managed to evoke his basic look with minimal color mapping. He really could have used some silver for his gun and shoulder cannon, but I'm sure they have a strict budget for these things.

Redwing is, I think, the first ancillary merchandise of the character who was introduced as a Target exclusive during Siege. He uses the Skywarp mold from series one, where he's up on one leg and rocketing away. He's metallic red except for a black helmet, black smoke exhaust, silver upper legs, and an orange cockpit. The packaging shows him with a silver body, but the final production version didn't get that.

Acid Storm is like Nova Storm only in green. He also uses the hands-on-his-hips mold, but is notably a different green than Scorponok or Rhinox.

"Cliffjumper" is really the Bumblebee figure from series one, only in red and grey. Not sure what the thought process was here. I guess this could be Ladybug, if you want it to be. Years ago, this really would be a Cliffjumper figure, because every Cliffjumper was just a red Bumblebee.

Spin-Out is the Sunstreaker figure from series one, also in red. Completely red, actually, except for the silver engine, black head, and black forearms. Now I wonder if they'll do Tigertrack or Deep Cover or somebody for series three. It would make sense, certainly.

These are fun figures to collect. I find them more satisfying (and easier to find at retail) than the Tiny Titans they were selling a few years ago, which had even fewer paint applications than these do. Now I need to remember what box I put my first batch of figurines in, though...

Zob (are they with the Super7 Ultimates? I'm not sure...)

On Friday, October 21, 2022 at 2:49:20 PM UTC-5, Zobovor wrote:
> This set is kind of a weird combination of obvious cost-cutting and molds that they probably can't use for anything else ever again.
>
> Amusingly, the 18-pack is packaged as if it were a 16-pack that somebody then added two extra "exclusive figures" as an afterthought. What, as opposed to the Nano Metalfigs that you can find in vending machines, the ones the dentist gives out as prizes, etc.? They're ALL exclusives. The whole set is a Walmart exclusive. It's silly.
>
> This set contains six Autobots, seven Decepticons, four Maximals, and one Predacon.
>
> Optimus Prime is different from the first release in that this one has his energon axe deployed. It's a new sculpt, with him now in a staggered, battle-ready stance. It honestly makes sense to include him again since he's easily the most well-known Transformers character, and character appeal is going to sell more of these sets than trying to offer robots who haven't been in the series yet. The paint job is still fairly minimalist—he could have used additional paint applications for his left hand, smokestacks, fuel tanks on his legs, etc. but didn't get them.
>
> They call him Bumblebee, but it's actually the Cliffjumper figure from series one in yellow and black. So, I guess this could be Pretender Bumblebee (who infamously had a Cliffjumper head sculpt) or Worlds Collide Bumblebee, or Blow-Out, or Hubcap, or whoever you want it to be. Aise from the missing paint for his side windows, though, there are no missing colors that jump out at me, so that's nice.
>
> Beast Wars Megatron is the only Beast Wars era bad guy in the set. He's got his T. rex head and tail resting against his legs, probably so nothing bends or breaks off. He's painted metallic purple from head to toe, with only his black helmet and some black on his chest breaking up the sea of purple. His robot eyes and dino eyes are painted red. I think the Titanium Series Robot Masters figure was done much better, but of course you're only paying like $1.10 apiece for the Jada figures instead of the three or four dollars the Titanium Series sold for.
>
> At two inches tall, Nemesis Prime is a reuse of the Optimus Prime figure from series one. He's black with red chest windows, and a silver pelvis and upper legs. He has a silver Decepticon symbol on his left shoulder. At least they didn't sell it in white and call it Ultra Magnus. We've had quite enough of that.
>
> Optimus Primal is 1.75" tall. He's in a cool action pose, using his right arm blaster, and he's painted entirely a metallic dark grey except for some paint hits on his chest and arms and legs. His helmet is blue with red eyes. His sculpt is a little weird because he's got that "hump" behind his head (the back of the gorilla's head when he transforms) and his robot head extends all the way back to meet the hump, so there's no gap.
>
> Wheeljack is the same figure offered from series one, but this time he's painted with gunmetal parts instead of grey. It would have been cool if they'd done Slicer or somebody instead of Wheeljack again.
>
> Scorponok is almost certainly the smallest version of the Decepticon Headmaster ever. He's purple and green as one might expect, and he's carrying his shield-claw thing as if it were a gun. He could have used just a few more paint applications to really bring out the details (he really needs his orange antennas on either side of his head) but he's certainly not awful.
>
> Battletrap sure is an unusual and unexpected choice of character. He's such a complete unknown that this really surprises me. The figure seems to be based on the U.S. cartoon model for the character, mostly blue with red windows on his feet and a grey helicopter cockpit on his chest, with more grey helicopter parts on his back. He's adorable, and it's fun to see some unsung characters getting some love.
>
> Rhinox is doing a power squat and looks nice and powerful. He's a good mix of tan and light metallic green and really captures the look of the CGI character even at this tiny scale. They even did little gold paint hits on his helmet. I don't even really like the character that much, but this figure really shines.
>
> Airazor seems angry, with her little fists balled up into a "put up your dukes" kind of pose. She's off-black with gold, not brown as you might expect, but it doesn't read as incorrect to my eyes.
>
> Surprise, Soundblaster is just Soundwave again only in black. Red cassette door window, gold trim, the whole shebang.
>
> Nova Storm is a yellow version of the Starscream/Thundercracker figure from wave one, with his hands on his hips. He's yellow from head to toe, with a black painted helmet and an orange cockpit. I guess they were going for the cartoon colors as seen in "Divide and Conquer." Well, whatever saves them money on paint operations, I guess.
>
> Cheetor is entirely gold except for some blue on his legs and shoulders and face. He has a few perfunctory cheetah spots on his chest. I'm sure we can expect to see this figure reused as Tigatron if there's a series three.
>
> Mirage is pretty good, and even though he only uses blue and white, they managed to evoke his basic look with minimal color mapping. He really could have used some silver for his gun and shoulder cannon, but I'm sure they have a strict budget for these things.
>
> Redwing is, I think, the first ancillary merchandise of the character who was introduced as a Target exclusive during Siege. He uses the Skywarp mold from series one, where he's up on one leg and rocketing away. He's metallic red except for a black helmet, black smoke exhaust, silver upper legs, and an orange cockpit. The packaging shows him with a silver body, but the final production version didn't get that.
>
> Acid Storm is like Nova Storm only in green. He also uses the hands-on-his-hips mold, but is notably a different green than Scorponok or Rhinox.
>
> "Cliffjumper" is really the Bumblebee figure from series one, only in red and grey. Not sure what the thought process was here. I guess this could be Ladybug, if you want it to be. Years ago, this really would be a Cliffjumper figure, because every Cliffjumper was just a red Bumblebee.
>
> Spin-Out is the Sunstreaker figure from series one, also in red. Completely red, actually, except for the silver engine, black head, and black forearms. Now I wonder if they'll do Tigertrack or Deep Cover or somebody for series three. It would make sense, certainly.
>
> These are fun figures to collect. I find them more satisfying (and easier to find at retail) than the Tiny Titans they were selling a few years ago, which had even fewer paint applications than these do. Now I need to remember what box I put my first batch of figurines in, though...
>
>
> Zob (are they with the Super7 Ultimates? I'm not sure...)

So they repainted Cliffjumper as Bumblebee and they repainted Bumblebee as Cliffjumper?

I can't wait for all the kids to get tired of these and resell them back and we'll sit on a ton of them forever. I can't move the Marvel or Minecraft sets at $7.99 and those aren't supposed to transform so I can imagine how long Transformers sets will linger.

On Saturday, October 22, 2022 at 8:16:02 AM UTC-6, Ob1k...@att.net wrote:

> So they repainted Cliffjumper as Bumblebee and they repainted Bumblebee as Cliffjumper?

Yeah. I'm really not sure what the intent was here. Maybe it was a mistake, and somebody couldn't tell the figure sculpts apart. Or, maybe they deliberately wanted to do yellow Cliffjumper and red Bumblebee as a tribute to the G1 toys, but they goofed on the names. We may never know for sure.
> I can't wait for all the kids to get tired of these and resell them back and we'll sit on a ton of them forever.

Oh, and *I'm* the one who's being too negative? Physician, heal thyself, as one of those Micromasters once said!

I think they have a lot of customizing potential, certainly. You can't really chop them up and modify them as easily as the PVC figures, but if you're content to slap a new paint job on these, there are a lot of character possibilities.

Zob (and they're made of a tough alloy, so they don't bend like pewter pieces, which I like)

On 10/21/2022 12:49 PM, Zobovor wrote:
> Mirage is pretty good, and even though he only uses blue and white, they managed to evoke his basic look with minimal color mapping. He really could have used some silver for his gun and shoulder cannon, but I'm sure they have a strict budget for these things.

Feh. I basically bought this set just for that one figure. Mirage was my
first Transformers and he's kinda special to me. I wish he had been
included in the first set so I could skip this one.