'I' On Malaysia

Just in today is Transformers Animated Blitzwing – the one and only ‘Triple Changer’ in the series.  Not counting Shockwave/Longarm in that comment due to it being a ‘Quad Changer’ so a slightly different category (though in that case, it doesn’t appear to change all that much so I’ll reserve judgement on if I’d even think of it as being a ‘Quad Changer’ for now).

The population of Repaintsville grows again as Hasbro rolls out more old molds repainted as other characters under the Universe banner.  Fortunately they are good molds, both of which again originate from the Cybertron line, and both of which were originally Autobot molds.

Dropshot

Taking on the mold from Scattorshot in the Cybertron series, Dropshot changes the colour scheme from grey and blue to brown and green.  In a way, this is a good change in my eyes as this gives the vehicle an air of camouflage to it.  My only concern on the choice of colours is that they’re too bright.  Dark green is fine, brown goes well, but the bright lime green/yellow colouring?  That just looks like it can glow in the dark!

Yet more Cybertron repaints to add to the list of Universe repaints, joining the wave 1 Legends and Wave 2′s Acid Storm.  Almost 50% of the entire line so far has been repaints and once I add Nemesis Prime to the list, then it will be an exact 50/50 split (ignoring the Robot Heroes though).  Kind of a bum steer for long time collectors if you get tired of the same molds over and over again.

Continuing to cash in on the action of having ‘Offscreen’ items alongside Target and Walmart is Toys’R'Us, who previously had exclusives in the forms of Ultra Class Wingblade and Jetstorm, now release Voyager Class Inferno and Mudflap.

These two were released way back in June in America and have never appeared in Malaysia to this day.  I managed to pick them up from probably the largest Toys’R'Us store in Hong Kong at Tsim Sha Tsui Ocean Terminal during my recent holiday there.

Following hot on the heels of Optimus Prime is Wave 3 consisting of Lugnut and everyone’s favourite – Grimlock.  Having watched the speed at which the Voyagers have sold in the shops, I pretty much feel confident that I can say Prime and Grimlock have been the quickest selling figures of this series so far.  Easily beating Starscream, the Deluxe range and the Leaders.  I guess you don’t have to be cheap or big – just be a fan favourite (or a kid favourite I guess).

It has been more than five months since the first wave of Transformers Animated arrived and we finally get waves 2 and 3 at pretty much the same time and not only does wave 3 arrive in the specialist toy shops, but even one of the more upmarket department store chains receives a delivery too…  Makes me wonder if Hasbro Malaysia screwed up a little bit and should have sent these out sooner?  Oh well, can’t complain now can I. 

Leaving wave 3 till the next post, I’ll quickly give a quick review of the single release in this wave of ‘Earth Mode Optimus Prime’.  Can just one item be considered a ‘wave’ or more of a slight ebb?  Are Hasbro just trying to keep interest in the Animated range alive long enough to get the third series of cartoons on the screen (in the US and Canada)?

Trying to save the best of the “Premium” reviews for last didn’t particularly work as Blackout is perhaps one of the better “Premium” releases, but it is also the most annoying for me.

Yes, I was one of those saps that bought the Lawson Exclusive Blackout last December only to find out that it wasn’t an exclusive at all and that I’ve ended up buying a REALLY expensive DVD and Spychanger Optimus Prime (oh, and a pair of pin badges).

One of the first/few/only Deep Space Starscreams available in Malaysia has landed in my hands today courtesy of my local toy shop (Toy Workers) and is probably my most anticipated of the Premium releases besides Premium Barricade (coming up soon) because the original paint job just looked so bland and plasticky (and beige).

Just past the half way stage of this week’s releases and on to the first of the ‘re-releases’.

Premium Ironhide is much the same as old Ironhide but now sports a shinier front end, some ‘spray’ or something on the windows and shinier rims on hs wheels.  There isn’t much to distinguish Premium Ironhide from the original Ironhide to be honest and I’d probably have to agree that the Premium range is shaping up to be ‘what they should have been first time’.

The wait is over!  Transformers Animated are finally here in their boxes and you no longer need to pay 2 or 3 times their retail values to get them out of box with no instructions.  The first wave of Voyager class are here in the form of Cybertron Mode Megatron, Starscream and Bulkhead and whilst they are based on cartoon vehicles as opposed to real world machines that we have been used to recently, they still look as good as if not better than their Movie counterparts and exhibit the same amount of engineering and gimmicks that we have seen on the Movie lines; namely automorph in these cases being Voyager class.