Dave's Transformers Legacy Rant: Deluxe Wave 3

Skullgrin (Cybertronian Tank)
Autobot Pointblank with Autobot Peacemaker (Cybertronian Racecar,
Targetmaster)
Crankcase (Off-Road Vehicle)
Dead End (Sports Car)

Permalink: http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Legacy/Deluxe3

Almost all new molds this time. Crankcase is one of those "reuses a few
pieces and some basic engineering" retools, this time of the Skids mold.

https://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Legacy/Deluxe1 - Skids mold

CAPSULES

$22-25 price point, I got them from more than one place.

Skullgrin: Good blend of shell and inner robot and a lot of effort put
into a "because we say so" altmode, but it does tend to have parts pop off a
little too easily. I wanna say it's recommended, but the large number of
small problems bring it down to only mildly recommended.

Autobot Pointblank with Autobot Peacemaker: This feels like it needed
some more real-world testing rather than purely in-computer testing, it has a
lot of problems that feel less like QC issues and more like even Lego-level
tolerances wouldn't be good enough. Mildly recommended.

Crankcase: Significantly different from Skids, it fixes an issue with
the vehicle mode while introducing a new issue to the robot mode. Looks
good, some interesting bits, recommended.

Dead End: Something of a crapshoot...the design is complicated enough
that any QC issues will push it from challenging into frustrating. I think
we're back to "designers didn't do enough real life testing" territory here.
Mildly recommended, although if you have Menasor you're getting this anyway.

RANTS

Packaging: Same as the previous two waves of Legacy Deluxes. Not sure
if it's a new thing for this wave or I just missed it earlier, but the ties
are secured in back by plastic discs now, probably to make it harder for them
to rattle loose through the open box front.

DECEPTICON: SKULLGRIN
Assortment: F3029
Altmode: Cybertronian Tank
Transformation Difficulty: 20 steps
Previous Name Use: G1, Gen, Gen:PotP
Previous Mold Use: None
Function: Siege Warrior
Special Unit: Pretender
Origin Universe: G1
Signature Weapon: Bladed Blasters - Double as blasters for ranged laser
explosions and swords for precision strikes

Skullgrin is a destructive menace on the battlefield. He won't stop his
attack until everything is completely destroyed.

STR 9 INT 9 SPD 4 FRB 8

Same stats as G1.

Packaging: Four ties on the robot, with the backpack cannon behind the
tray coming off in the process of getting the robot out. All the horns are
held closed by a rubber band. The bladed blasters are wrapped up in tissue
and taped behind the angled side of the tray.
The renders on the box don't quite match the toy, several pieces are
different colors (ankle pieces are magenta on the render, connector in the
middle of the cannon turret is gray).

Robot Mode: This is basically G1 Skullgrin's inner robot wearing the
four-horned and two-tusked head, shoulderpads, and belt of the outer shell.
It helps that the colors line up about the same for inner robot and shell in
G1. He does have a tail, and since it's part of the turret piece it can wag
a little if you wag the guns too. Or remove them. The undersides of the
forearms are hollow, but taking the guns off the back and putting them in
sockets on the undersides of the forearms covers up that issue.
5.25" (13cm) tall in a mix of medium gray, dark magenta, and white, plus
some gunmetal. Rubbery white plastic is used for the skull and all four
horns, the shoulder spikes (but not the knee spikes), and the gunblades.
Rigid white plastic is used for the neck, the pelvis back, the back halves of
the hip sockets, the small hip pads that complete the belt, the ankle joints,
and some struts inside the torso and boots. Medium gray plastic forms the
core of the head (and the socket for the neck joint), the torso front, the
forearms, the fists, and the boot/foot shells. Dark magenta plastic is found
on the upper arms, back, turret/tail piece, main cannons, pelvis front,
thighs, and some of the internal knee bits. The fronts of the hips sockets
are painted over, I think they're gray plastic, but I didn't want to scrape
any paint off to be sure.
There's white paint on the shoulderpads, the fronts of the hip sockets,
and the skull belt buckle. There's dark magenta paint (a little darker and
less glossy than the plastic) on much of the chest, and on the tops of the
toes. Most of each gunblade (all but the pets and the blade) is painted
gunmetal, the barrels of the main guns are painted gunmetal, and the tread
pieces on the backs of the boots are pretty much dipped in gunmetal The eyes
are bright red, and a purple Decepticon symbol is printed on the sternum (a
silver outline would have helped, it's not very visible). Oh, based on UV,
there's two distinct types of dark maroon plastic, with one type being mostly
on the shoulderpads, backplate, cannons, and tail.
The neck is a ball joint, but lifting it up too much looks weird. The
waist rotates smoothly, although it can only be turned so far before the tail
is knocked askew and any back cannons with it. Universal joint shoulders,
bicep swivels, hinge elbows that can go almost to 45 degrees acute. The
wrists do NOT turn, but they're only snapped in place and if you try to make
them turn they will pop out. They have hinges for transformation, but those
aren't in a very useful direction. Universal joint hips, but the hip pad
bits keep them from spreading more than about 45 degrees out to the sides.
Upper thigh swivels, hinge knees, sideways-to-stay-flat ankle hinges. The
main horns can swing inward for transformation, but this can also be used to
adjust the style, and the rear horns fold down out of the way if you'd rather
just two horns.
Soooo many 5mm sockets. Fists, forearm undersides, shoulder outer
faces, two on the back of each boot, one under each toe. The turret piece on
the back attaches to a 5mm peg on the back via a socket, there's a socket on
either side (and it can hold either the main cannons or the gunblades), and
one on the tail. There's also a 5mm socket on the top of the back, although
it's somewhat blocked by the turret.
The main guns are mirror images of each other, 2.75" (7cm) long with a
5mm peg near the back. The same side of the rear chunk that has the peg also
has two 5mm sockets, one in front and one in back, plus there's a 5mm socket
on the outer face, and the barrel muzzle is 5mm in diameter.
The gunblades are identical, with finger guards pretty close to the
pegs, so only figures with relatively thin fingers can hold them as swords.
However, the crosspiece on the non-guard side is a 5mm peg that lets them be
held as guns as well, with 3mm socket barrels (a lot of those showing up
lately, it seems). 2.75" (7cm) long, and in addition to the traditional gun
and sword grips they look good on the underside of the forearm as bladed
tonfas, plus they can be stored on the turret thanks to the extra sockets on
the main guns.

Transformation: The G1 inner robot had a three step transformation, and
that included plugging the guns into the sides. This does the same thing in
twenty steps, some of which are pretty involved. I was able to figure it out
without the instructions, but it was tricky in places. Getting the torso
unfolded and the head throught was probably the most difficult part (both the
front and back of the chest open up, and the head needs to be turned around
180 degrees in addition to the horns being folded in and down), although a
subtle step required bending the whole pelvis at the waist (a joint NOT
available in robot mode) to shorten things just enough for the tank treads
from the boot backs to swing all the way to the back and connect around the
arms. While technically you can move the weapons around freely, there's
little tabs on the boots that go into slots on the gunblade barrels. They
don't hold all that securely, but I suppose it's the thought that counts.
Going back to robot mode resulted in tearing off the legs at the knees a
couple of times, since there's so many stiff joints inside the knee area and
the whole thing is just snapped in place rather than pinned.

Altmode: I suppose you could call this a halftrack since it only has
treads in back, but it has...nothing...in front. No wheels, no skids, no
treads. Hover in front and treads in back? All hovertank and the treads are
just aesthetic? I mean, yeah, it's an improvement over G1, but the first set
of Pretenders were the epitome of "Because We Say So" altmodes in G1. It's a
jet because we stuck on wings. It's a tank because it has cannons. And so
forth. This at least tries something a little more, even if it ends up
incoherent.
Whatever it is, it's 5.75" (14.5cm) long with the turret near the back
end, and proportionally more gray than robot mode. The white plastic of the
ankle joints and waist shows through in places where the render has dark
magenta or gray. The gunblades are more or less integral to the mode, as
antipersonnel blades or something, and some round thing details on the hilts
might be intended as VTOL fans. Technically there's nothing visible in this
mode that wasn't at least sort of visible in robot mode, although from
underneath there's a lot of white plastic that was hidden inside the boots
before.
While it's really just pegs, the turret does turn all the way around and
the guns independently elevate to about 45 degrees up. The boot back sockets
are now on the rear treads, with the front sockets reserved for the
gunblades. The underside has a lot of sockets available, those on the fists,
forearms, and toes, although there's not a lot of room for stuff there. The
main guns can kinda go under the toes, but upside down with hollow sides
showing. An extra gun borrowed from somewhere else can go onto the tail
socket on top of the turret.

Dave Van Domelen <dvandom@eyrie.org> wrote:
> Dave's Transformers Legacy Rant: Deluxe Wave 3
>
> Skullgrin (Cybertronian Tank)
> Autobot Pointblank with Autobot Peacemaker (Cybertronian Racecar,
> Targetmaster)
> Crankcase (Off-Road Vehicle)
> Dead End (Sports Car)
>
> Permalink: http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Legacy/Deluxe3
>
> Almost all new molds this time. Crankcase is one of those "reuses a few
> pieces and some basic engineering" retools, this time of the Skids mold.
>
> https://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Legacy/Deluxe1 - Skids mold
>
>
> CAPSULES
>
> $22-25 price point, I got them from more than one place.
>
> Skullgrin: Good blend of shell and inner robot and a lot of effort put
> into a "because we say so" altmode, but it does tend to have parts pop off a
> little too easily. I wanna say it's recommended, but the large number of
> small problems bring it down to only mildly recommended.

There are a lot of things I like about this toy. But the parts popping off
really drags it down.

Still, there are a lot of interesting steps in the transformation that we
have never seen together, and a few steps that feel new. I don’t think he’s
great, but he’s an interesting puzzle at least.

> Autobot Pointblank with Autobot Peacemaker: This feels like it needed
> some more real-world testing rather than purely in-computer testing, it has a
> lot of problems that feel less like QC issues and more like even Lego-level
> tolerances wouldn't be good enough. Mildly recommended.

I really wanted to like this toy. Those chunks hanging from the sides on
ball joints just will not stay attached during transformation, and every
part seems to need some other part to move first to have enough room for
transformation.

It’s so close to being good. And fails so badly.

> Crankcase: Significantly different from Skids, it fixes an issue with
> the vehicle mode while introducing a new issue to the robot mode. Looks
> good, some interesting bits, recommended.

Hmm. I might pick him up, I was skipping him as being just another Skids.