Manic Ramblings and Delirious Ranting
"What about a Transformer? Transformers are cool..." -- overheard at a
Wal-Mart
After weeks of not having time to even think about getting new toys, I
went on a buying frenzy on Tuesday and Wednesday this week, sort of a
combination Christmas/end-of-school celebration. In addition to a G1
Pretender Roadblock that I won off Ebay, I got reissue Grapple & Hoist,
and Energon's Battle Ravage, Strongarm, Skyblast, Energon Saber Team,
Inferno, Hot Shot, and finally Starscream last night (along with 3
recolored Mini-Con teams.) It's been an orgy of Transformer joy, and I'm
very pleased with my first taste of TF:Energon.
BATTLE RAVAGE: This is probably the weakest of the toys I got. He's a bit
awkward and spindly in robot mode, with a low-hanging crotch with a tail
coming out of it. The cat mode, however, is excellent. He's lean, mean,
and mechanical in the same way as the G1 Pretender Beasts -- but unlike
them, he looks slick, and he's fully posable. He could easily pass as a
new version of Pounce or Catilla; in fact I'd love to see him recolored as
Pounce with a retool of the face (then they can massively retool *that*
into Wingspan.) It's been many years since we had fully mechanical
beasts, and those were never at this level of posability. Battle Ravage
and his fellow Terrorcons are extremely welcome in that regard -- so
welcome, in fact, that I hardly even notice the fact that he's yet another
stand-up head-swapper, front legs become arms, back legs become legs.
Oh, and his morningstar tail is really cool. Colorwise, I keep glancing
at him and thinking he's Apeface.
Overall: Not too bad, but not all that terrific either.
STRONGARM: *love* I've long wanted a completely reimagined and
redesigned Combaticon team, based on their animation model robot forms and
with modern posability. Well, if we got it the way I picture it, Swindle
would not be very different at all from Strongarm. He's the right colors,
the right alt.mode, the right size, and just presents the right concept
for the robot mode -- even without the windshield across the chest, which
I always thought was silly. Why put such a vunerable component right in
the center of the torso? Better to do it Strongarm's way, and use the
windshield as toes instead, where nothing's likely to damage it.
Strongarm, when transformed, is wearing a.... uh..... I don't know what,
but it could be a lot of things -- a pie, a UFO, a throw pillow, a Frank
Lloyd Wright building -- on his head. It took me a bit to discover that
you can split it in half to make... uh... two half-pies, I guess. His
other weapon is a rather large cannon with a crane hook... and yes, you
can mount it on his arm as well as his shoulder. His transformation's a
bit basic... flip the hood to form feet, rotate the arms out from
underneath, spin the waist and head to get them in the right spots. I've
never been too fond of wheels where only the outside half is free to
rotate... but it beats having totally frozen wheels, I suppose.
Overall, this is a beautiful little toy -- nothing innovative at all, just
the result of years of TF design distilled down to the good stuff.
SKYBLAST: I've never given much thought to the appearance of my fanfic
characters the Quanticons; I always just said "They look sorta like Strafe
from the Technobots". Well, now I can add "or Energon Skyblast." His
tech jet mode is sweet, and looks great without the huge cannon attached
to it... and okay with it as well. The way his legs fold up and absorb
his arms is creative, if a little counter-intuitive at first. He's also
got a strange underbelly claw grabber thing whose exact purpose I haven't
yet divined.
He's got Skyfire's face, and while I'm sure Zob could tell me ten ways it
differs from the animation model, as far as I'm concerned it's a dead
ringer. He's a nice little homage to his almost-namesake, done up in a
beautiful combo of white with dark red and grey. His two Energon weapon
bits combine to make this really buttkickin' staff/arrow of death thing.
He's lacking knee articulation, sadly, but otherwise he's mostly posable.
Overall, I strongly recommend Skyblast and Strongarm to anyone who might
be having their doubts about Energon.
ENERGON SABER TEAM: Not much to say about these guys. They're cool
remolds of some toys that were already spiffy. My one and only complain
is that they didn't ditch the blue color on them. It just looks out of
place alongside the electric clear gold color; it'd be far more effective
if they'd just left the gold to play against neutral greys and blacks.
They did do this with Wreckage (formerly Runway, the red one, the leader
in the comic), and he definately looks the best as well as having my
favorite mold alterations. Sonar's probably the least interesting; he
basically just gets a couple of little wings tacked onto his side.
Oh, and those names. What the HELL is up with those names? It's like
they drew them out of a hat. Runway is now Wreckage, Sonar is now
Skyboom, and Jetstorm is now Scattor. Why not just leave them the same as
when these molds were the Air Defense Team? The implication is that
they're new characters, but they're all character names that are still on
the shelves in their previous incarnations. Nor do I find it terribly
plausible that this Wreckage is a new form for the old grizzled guy from
the Land Military Team.
That aside, they're a sweet retooling of a team that was already quite
nice.
STARSCREAM: I was *this* close to snagging this guy Tuesday night, but a
mom beat me to him. Oh well, I got him last night instead, and oh was he
worth the wait!
His robot mode is just beautiful. The colors are muted and wonderful --
much more so than the catalogue illustration shows -- and allow the
excellent detailing to really shine, especially the dark translucent sea
green. He's subtle. He conveys mass and seriousness in a way that the
Autobots in Energon don't. They're bright, cheery, and cartoony;
Starscream is dignified and mecha-like. And he wonderfully captures the
cartoon appearance of Armadascream while being a totally different design.
I love these rare occasions when a new toy based on an old character
develops into a new and different character, then gets a new toy that
strongly resembles the new character while being a departure from the old
one. Hasn't happened since Primal started getting new bodies, really.
I am worried about his arms. I had to consult the instructions to find
out how I was supposed to get them out of their folded-up jet mode
position, because they didn't want to budge in any direction without
putting some undue stress on various hinges and levers. Hopefully they'll
be a bit easier to change now that he's been through it once.
His jet mode is nice and sleek and compact, everything that his Armada
form wasn't. His two big guns can clip onto his wings via Mini-Con
hardpoints, but it's rather clumsy looking and spoils the effect of the
jet mode.
In both modes, he's got interesting battle damage, perhaps reflecting his
reported role as an "energon ghost". Bits of his armor are cracked and
torn away, revealing tech lines beneath. It's only done in a few places
and IMO doesn't detract from his overall appearance -- even if the bright
green paint used on the damage point on one wing *is* rather garishly
bright compared to his stealthy colors.
Overall: Oh, he's great. My third recommendation after Strongarm and
Skyblast.
Hot Shot: This is the second time I've gotten a Hot Shot in my hands,
thinking I wouldn't care much for him, and found to my surprise that I
really like him. This Hot Shot is far more detailed than his predecessor,
and in fact he's quite a nice car -- he's got clear headlights, a clear
windshield and open side windows, opening doors (even if they do open,
Prowl-like, onto a mess of robot bits), and an opening hood with a
kinda-engine beneath. Those who despaired at the toy-like Armada Hot Shot
should consider this guy instead.
His transformation's another detailed variant on a tried-and-true old
formula -- the rear of the vehicle extends and splits to become legs; the
hood folds back to reveal the head; the arms unfold from the sides
(underneath the doors). It's simple, with a few creative and clever
twists.
My only gripe in robot mode is his head. He can't turn it, and his face
has a receeding helmet line that looks a bit odd somehow. Nothing
serious.
Hot Shot is where I discovered one of the really fun points of the Energon
line: combining weapons. At one point, I had Hot Shot loaded down with
five guns in one hand, and two Mini-Con swords in the other (and for some
reason this caused me about five minutes of hysterical giggling.) The
multi-pegged and ported weapons can combine with each other and their
users in a nigh-infinate variety of combinations, a play point I've been
wanting ever since the Pretenders first hinted at it. When the line's
done, you'll be able to spend hours finding new ways to stick all these
guns together.
Overall: He's solid. But so is Inferno....
INFERNO: He's a cool little fire truck, though instead of a ladder or hose
extention, he sports a huge missile launcher. Well, actually, the drum
next to it looks like it should be loaded up with pesticides, so maybe he
sprays DTD at his foes. His head is clearly visible in this mode, though
with the face covered by a Tankor-like battle mask thing, it's not that
obvious or intrusive.
Inferno's probably the most kid-friendly of the toys in this batch. Like
Hot Shot, he's got a nice big clear windshield. He's bright, colorful
and a bit chunky, and his transformation is fairly simple; his arms and
legs fold back behind the cab to become the truck body -- very similar in
principle to the original Inferno, in fact. His face looks like it was
designed to emulate the way Don Figurosa draws most of his TFs. He wears
his cannon on one arm; his legs have cool spring moldings inside them
(used in his combination with Hot Shot. Oh! I have yet to try that out,
y'know...) In general he looks like one tough Autobot.
HOT SHOT ON TOP: Ah hah. Well, it's certainly a creative idea... not
sure if I buy it at first go. I give full marks for the creativity of the
tranformations involved, but end result's a bit iffy. HSOT lacks proper
hands, nor can he really walk around much. He can wave his arms around a
bit, but he's got no proper hands. Still, this is only the first wave,
typically the weakest of any TF line, and if they're this good now,
they'll be amazing six months down the road.
INFERNO ON TOP: Hrm, a bit better. He's got real arms, because he just
uses Inferno's. Inferno's legs stick up rather bizarrely into the air
above Inferno's head, presumably as some kind of cannons and stuff. yeah,
Inferno On Top is definately the better version. They go the other route
when they just wanna club somebody to death.
OVERALL: The opening wave of Energon is just amazingly good so far. I
don't think I've ever been this happy with a new TF line right off the
bat; my experience so far is seriously tempting me to get some of the
larger toys that I might have ignored otherwise. Get out there and spend
some dough, folks.
Back to Rob's Pile of Ramblings
Rob's Pile of Transformers: Manic Ramblings
re: Energon Wave 1 - Battle Ravage, Skyblast, Strongarm, Energon Saber team, Hot Shot, Inferno
12/16/03