Combiner Wars Quickslinger

First off, let's just get this out of the way - Quickslinger is a horrible, horrible name.  I know that there were rights issues and all that, but surely someone could've thought of a better name.  Stupid name aside, I managed to snag this guy on Walmart.com before he sold out.  From here on out, he shall be known by his true name.  If you don't know what that name is, you may have stumbled across the wrong blog.

Super Slingshot?

Right out of the box, I had an issue with Slingshot's landing gear.  As evidenced, it will not stay put while in robot mode.  This means that Slingshot is constantly getting hit in the back of head by it.  Being an online exclusive, it's not like I could just return it and get another one.  Everyone was sold out of this guy.  No matter.

Slingshot is a retool of Combiner Wars Firefly, also known as Fireflight.  Chaned from Fireflight, that I can tell are his head, and that's about it.  The new head sculpt closely resembles his animated model.  Everything else about this guy is exactly what you got with Fireflight. 

Here's Slingshot in jet mode.  Other than the color, he's identical to Fireflight.  I think the real reason that everyone snagged Slingshot is so they could have a G1 accurate Superion.  What does that look like?  Glad you asked.

Well, there isn't a helicopter as an arm, but Superion looks pretty much the same.  Still looks pretty rough, however.  I don't care what my kids say.

My Kids Review Combiner Wars Superion

After posting my review of Combiner Wars Superion, I felt a little off.  I condemned the figure, even if the review was short, I think it conveyed just how little I cared for the figure.  Still, I don't want to be one of those guys that just shoot out the negative about figures.  Then again, I'm not a sycophant that immediately loves everything that's released either - I'd like to be fair and balanced.  I also remembered that while adult collectors are kept in mind when new figures are designed and introduced, these are toys meant for kids.  With that in mind, I decided to let me kids have a crack at both playing with and reviewing Superion.  I had each kid spend time with Superion and do whatever they wanted with him.  I didn't try to put any of my ideas about Superion in their  and let them form their own opinions.  Let's see what they have to say.

Aidan - Age 9

Aidan was fairly impressed with Superion.  He spent about 10 minutes playing with him on the coffee table in the living room.  Here's his analysis:
" I like how it's made out of fiver different robots!  When you split his chest open, he looks like a giraffe!"

Giraffe mode

"I like that his ears are made of rubber and that his gun splits apart.  I don't like that his gun won't stay in his hands the right way." 

Olivia - Age 6

Olivia spent about 10 minutes playing with Superion as well.  She ran around the room with him making airplane sounds.  She had a lot to say about Superion, so we'll dive right into that.

Superion's jet mode

"He's so cool!  He can turn into a jet and he can fly so fast!  His gun looks like a rocket!  His antennae let him talk to animals and his colors are so cool!  I don't like how his gun is hard to hold in his hands, and his legs go everywhere.  I also don't like how his arms mess up while I'm flying him."
So far, two kids agree with me on the gun issue.  Wonder if a third kid will agree?

Caroline - Age 3

I had to pry Superion away from Caroline after about 30 minutes because she really enjoyed playing with one of her dad's figures.  She didn't have a lot to say, but what she did blew my mind.

"He turns into a little man, but sometimes he becomes a horse!"  I have no idea how he could turn into a horse, and Caroline couldn't tell me how this happened, either.  Caroline was just adamant that Superion could turn into a horse.  Anyway, Caroline continues: "Your big robot keeps hitting me with his gun and he keeps attacking my favorite toy.  He shoots bad guys in my room, too."

Superion attacking Caroline's favorite toy

Well, that about wraps up my kids reviewing Superion.  I also had the baby play with Superion a bit, but all he did was drool on him, which is what any 8-month-old would do.  It was a blast seeing the kids play with a Transformer without any preconceived notions, just kids playing with a toy.  Seeing all of that actually made me appreciate what Hasbro has done with Superion a little.  I still don't really like the guy, but the kids sure as heck did.

Chainclaw!

Picture from www.botchthecrab.com

This blog is run with a buffer of posts.  I usually like to do about a month or so ahead of time so I can concentrate on real life issues, like the kitchen remodel that I'm working on.  Sometimes I forget just how many posts I have left in the buffer, and that leads to a gap in posts, like last week.  Whoops!  No matter, time to start another run of posts.  What better way to start that with a Pretender!  A Pretender Beast at that!

Chainclaw popped up on eBay not long after my infant son had surgery during my string of cheap finds.  If memory serves, I paid $30 for him shipped, which is a good deal.  I've always wanted Chainclaw since I was a wee 5th grader, but it just never happened for me.  Something about bears just really get me excited.  A robot that transforms into a bear that then hides inside another bear?  Sign me up.

Where the regular Pretender shells have articulation in their arms, the Pretender Beast shells feature no articulation whatsoever.  Chainclaw makes up for the lack of shell articulation with a helmet.  A helmet that makes him look like he belongs in the Masters of The Universe line.  Seriously, it's not hard to imagine He-Man, or Stratos, riding Chainclaw into battle. 

Crack the shell open, and you'll find Chainclaw's inner robot.  He's smaller than the main Pretenders, but he's a good looking bot.  My specimen has stickers that are in great shape, and the dark grey really goes well with the yellow of the main body.  For some reason, Chainclaw's head rotates.  That's something I'd expect from the regular Pretenders, and Carnivac's head did not rotate.  My guess is that the rotating head is to compensate for Chainclaw's tiny, tiny hands.  Figures that can't hold their own weapons in their fists always tend to annoy me.  Certainly there are figures that are the exception - I couldn't imagine a Seeker without the arm cannons, and Bomb-Burst looks magnificent with arm mounted lasers - but when there's only one weapon, it looks funny.

Chainclaw in his "action pose".  This guy is certainly a prototypical G1 brick. 

Fold a couple of pieces, and you have yourself a...bear?  Maybe?  Chainclaw looks more like a dog in this mode. 

Maybe it's a bear.  Whatever.  Here's Chainclaw with his Solid Sonic Energy Blaster attached.  This is one bear-dog that I wouldn't want to cross if I was a Decepticon.  Well, that's two Pretender Beasts down, and two to go.  I wonder if that's what my next vintage post will be about?  Who knows?

Skyhopper

Photo from www.botchthecrab.com

Some days I get good deals, others, I just break down and buy something just because I need something fun.  Nothing says fun more than a base.

 

Skyhopper is a redeco of Storm Cloud from the Air Strike Patrol.  While Storm Cloud had a two-tone color scheme, Sky Hopper features decals on his wings and tail fin.  This adds to the overall look of the jet mode. 

This picture proves that I have a lot of work to do on my black background photography skills.  If you happen to own a Storm Cloud, look at him and imagine it with a white face, green body, and gray legs.

Skyhopper comes with a giant helicopter to pilot.  Because a robot that can turn into a jet needs to pilot a helicopter.  Skyhopper stands in the cockpit, and there is only room for one figure.  The blades rotate and there's enough clearance that Skyhopper isn't hit by the,.  There are gray missile launchers on either side of the chopper and a cannon mounted on the bottom.

The helicopter transforms into a battle station, and it's much more interesting than Groundshaker's.  There's a missile bay and three ramps.  This thing just seems bigger than Groundshaker's battle station.  I really love the amount of space given for other figures to be stationed.

One of the fun things about Micromasters is the play factor.  Since they were designed to compete with Micro Machines, the play sets offered a lot of things to do.  I only own one other Decepticon set, and that's Greasepit, but it still connects well with the helicopter set.  Hopefully I'll be able to add more sets sooner, rather than later.  And no, that isn't me dropping any hints.  Micromasters are nice and all, but I'm kinda just getting them as the mood strikes me.

Combiner Wars Superion

Now that I've gotten Air Raid, it's time to look at the new version of Superion.

I'm using the somewhat classic configuration for Superion, with Alpha Bravo in Sling Shot's spot until Sling Shot is actually released.  Superion certainly looks massive.

The first thing that I don't like: the really long arms.  And I mean really long arms.  Long arms that end in fists that are overly large.  Both are just too out of proportion.  I understand the fact that fists are designed to double as feet, but man, that those fists are just way too big.  It's funny that while the fists are so large, the feet wind up so small.

On the plus side, man is Superion capable of striking some poses.  Still, look at how weird the fists look.

A minor quibble that I have is with the gun.  It doesn't seat well in the fists.  Mine is extremely loose and pretty much just moves to wherever it wants.

I really wish that my G1 Superion could pull off a pose like that. 

Let's just end with a shot of G1 and Combiner Wars Superion.  This was meant to be a really in depth review where I'd talk about what I liked and what I saw as problems with this new line of combiners, but I really can't muster the energy to write about these guys anymore.  I'm apathetic about the line, and I think that what little I wrote shows that.

Combiner Wars Air Raid

So I finally decided to ship Air Raid from my pile of loot at BigBadToyStore.  I actually let him sit there for a bit before I shipped him, really, because I was having way too much fun with my Masterpiece Star Saber.  But, know I have him.  Instead of a full review, we'll make this a quickie since he's just like the rest of the Aerialbot limbs.

Air Raid has perhaps my favorite jet mode out of the limbs.  His wings are moveable and his tail fins are rubber.  One downside to Air Raid, he comes with a comic in place of the collector's card.  I'd rather have the card, to be honest.

Quite a bit of Air Raid should look familiar if you already own Skydive since Air Raid is just a retool of Skydive.  I really like Air Raid's head sculpt.

Poseability is what we've come to expect from the Combiner Wars line, so I'm not going to rehash anything I've already said before.

Still wish he would've come with a collector's card...

Group shot!  I'll talk about Superion in my next post.

Masterpiece Exhaust

As those of you who follow my Facebook page know, I've had some issues getting my Masterpiece Exhaust.  Then again, no one follows my Facebook page.  At any rate, let me relate the long saga of Exhaust.  I pre-ordered him from BBTS as soon as the listing went up, only to discover later that they would not be able to carry him thanks to the fine people at Marlboro Cigarettes.  Everyone, it seemed, was dropping their listings due to the threat of legal action from the weasels at Phillip Morris.  Luckily, Colbey from Random Toy Reviews had a secret supplier that I will not name that he uses to get a lot of his foreign figures from.  He was nice enough to let me know who he uses and I was able to order from them and I was a very happy man.  That is until he was actually released.  I received an email stating that they weren't sure how many they were going to get, or when they'd be able to receive them.  Pins and needles, man, pins and needles.  Luckily, a couple of days before Easter, I was invoiced for shipping, which meant I was getting my Exhaust!  This was good, as I noticed that he was going for way too much on the secondary market.  No way would I pay those kind of prices.  Had I realized what a frenzy would be going on over this figure, I may have ordered a couple of extras.  Good way to pay for more acquisitions...

Photo from TFWiki.net

As with most Japanese figures, I was introduced to Exhaust through the Dreamwave comics and message boards.  I had no knowledge of Marlboor or his history in the line.  I don't think I would ever own an actual Marlboor Diaclone figurem but I am glad to get the Masterpiece figure.

Here's Exhaust right out of the box.  We're not going to go into a lot of detail here because this is really just a repaint of Wheeljack.  The deco for Exhaust isn't spot on to Marlboor Wheeljack, but we all knew that going in.  Changes were made to satisfy the fine tobacco purveyors at Phillip Morris, but they still weren't enough.

Here's an overhead shot showing off the deco.  The chevron on the hood has been altered, and the ones on the green boxes have been eliminated altogether.

As nice as the paint job is on the car, I really love robot mode.  The red really jumps out at you.  Those purple wings are to die for.  And look at those twin mounted missile launchers!  The real star of the show, however, is the head sculpt.

That visor is impossibly cool.  The stoic shape of the mouth, the points on the head, all of that just adds up to awesome.  The head is dead on to the original Marlboor sculpt.  I'm assuming, since I haven't actually seen Marlboor.  Still, it's damn cool.

It's amazing what some different colors can do for a figure.  Yes, Masterpiece Wheeljack was already cool and incredible, but Exhaust just seems to jump right out at you.  Perhaps it has more to do with the fact that there hasn't been a Decepticon release in something like two years!  Come on, Takara, get us more Decepticons already.

Exhaust comes with an Immobilizer as an accessory.  He can hold it in his hand, as well.  It's neat, I suppose.  Certainly G1 accurate.

If you can, find Exhaust.  I wouldn't recommend paying the insane prices he's going for on eBay, but hopefully there are some that can be had at reasonable prices.