the vynsane asylum

23, 37, 45, its all middle of the pack. He isnt Ironhide, but he is decent.

TRANSFORMERS ARE DOOMED!!!

Chux, why do you go on about how stupid and poorly made the Star Wars Transformers are if you think you're going to love them.

TRU is having a buy 2, get 1 free sale on Transformers. I picked up Undermine and Armorhide, so for the freebie and chose Clocker even though I already have the GF version (Clocker's stability problems are caused by poorer tolerances in Hasbro manufacturing, as opposed to changes; also, Clocker's base plastic color is orange where GF Skids' is the white which looks better). I also found Mudflap and Leobreaker at Target, but I passed on Leobreaker after reading some poor reviews and seeing the cooler-looking Dark Leobreaker Hasbro is going to come out with later in this line.

I'll say more in a little while, here are my brief opinions:

Undermine surprised me, I expected little but he's a pretty fun figure if a little strange. His base design would make a good deluxe with some additions.

Armorhide is really neat, a fairly unique transformation and just nifty all around. His design too would make a good deluxe.

Mudflap is only alright, he feels more like a clever oversized Minicon than a regular transformer, and I really wish the things under his arms were more weaponized and removable.

I just picked up Sunstreaker and Skids today. They are still in the packaging so I'll post a later date when I get around to ripping them open. ( Although Sun is just a repaint of Sideswipe, so nothing new to report there except the facial likeness to the original G1)

i also saw the SW Trannies. I almost snagged a Darth Vader/TIE X1 but since I was already getting two Alternators, Vader had to stay on the shelf.

PS. JediTricks! Welcome to the reststop!! It'll be cool talking about TF and other toys like the olden days. I miss your analytical breakdowns of any and all toys on the market.

sw trannies. man, now even robots have "shim"s...

At $15 a pop, those SW Trannies are the most overpriced pieces of crap <b>EVER</b>.

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by vynsane</i>
<br />sw trannies. man, now even robots have "shim"s...
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></font id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">


Well Shims do go from one sex to the other, kind of like tucking your cock between your legs, but permanently. God, I am gonna go puke.

that's what i was getting at... "trannies..." transvestites...

we should just call any transvestites we ever encounter again decepticons.

KH, if you go up to Salem Ave in Roanoke, you'll see lots of decepticons.

I'll pass. Thanks though

Don't you work with a Decepticon KH?

Yes,its unfortunate. I would like to transform it to a bloody pulp.

vynnie, I don't want to hear you bitching a few months from now the way you're complaining about Dead End now. [:)] (I am still watching for him, but I doubt I'll see him again.) And I figure you'll want Skids, him being a Scion in addition to the coolest damn pacifist Autobot scientist ever. Want me to pick one up if I find an extra? He's shipping with older figures (as well as Sunstreaker, who looks like an old Decepticharge unless you look closely), so he may be tougher to find than most.

i've actually got a good bead on a dead end on ebay...

i got sunstreaker, he's hella cool. i'll keep on the lookout myself, but if i come up fruitless, i'll know who to contact.

For those of you not checking the other site:

Found me a TF bonanza yesterday, the newest TF:CY Deluxes and later SW:TF Darth Vader/Vader's TIE Advanced x1. I put comments on Vader in the SW:TF forum, but the bottom line is that he's alright, not fantastic but kinda cool.

Strangely, Brimstone had a tri-lingo Earth Map while his case-mates had the regular English-only version. The tri-lingo map looks dreadful with all that tiny text.

<b>TF:CY Thunderblast</b> - for some reason, I can't get her other name, Chromia, out of my head. Moo.

The alt mode is pretty decent, it's an impeller-driven boat, basically a big jet-ski... with missiles and torpedoes and a deck-mounted machine gun... if it were driven by Bratz dolls. Yes, the colorscheme is purple, silver, translucent orange, and pink, plus a small-ish painted Decepticon logo behind the gun. The boat seems like it'd be a thick boat if it were real, and compared to other deluxes it looks smaller but actually ain't. There is no bot-mode kibble, so the hull is complete and smooth. If the seats are in scale, then the missile launcher box on top is MASSIVE, holding 4 30-foot-long missiles (except that they're pretend, only the warheads are actually there). The missile box can rotate and tilt up and down, and it is removable; the machine gun on the deck can rotate but is not removable; and the clear orange torpedoes peg onto holders on either side of the boat.

Moo.

The gimmick is odd, insert the key into the missile box and the top pops open while the warhead face drops down, all of which reveals a short cannon which can spring-fire a torpedo. It's a little odd to see a big weapon turn into a slightly smaller but larger-bore weapon, but I do like the way it does so.

Transformation is a shellmaster and borders on embarassing, it's on par with Beast Machines Megatron but doesn't feel quite as insulting. Open the boat hull though and you feel like you're a border agent who just found an illegal immigrant, there's a robot huddled under there. The rest is unfolding the legs, then hinge down the backpack shell cape (which the instructions do a poor job of explaining).

You're not even reading this, are you? Bot mode is a slender she-bot with long legs and high-heeled boots. Garish orangey-gold, silver, and bluish-gray are added to the main colors; the only translucent orange now is her light-piped eyes. Thunderblast's head is believable as a female but not exclusively so; her bot-bust is big and ends in a matrix-shaped chestplate with pink paint in the center. Her articulation is standard neck, ball-jointed shoulders, upper-bicep swivel, double-hinge elbows, standard waist, ball-jointed hips, and hinged knees - there's also a mid-thigh diagonal-cut joint which can be used, but it's more a transformation joint. Moo. The arm joints can do a lot, but her cape limits how she can be posed while still standing so poses are a mixed bag. Her cape won't allow the missiles to remain pegged onto her back, but her missile-box gun can be. Her gun pegs into her forearm and has a tab which slips between her open hand (either arm), and thankfully it doesn't look too big - until you put the torpedo into it in gimmick mode.

Overall, Thunderblast is kinda interesting, I kinda like her and she will appeal to some, but most fans will rightfully knock it for its weaknesses. Moo, moo. If they had done all this as a Basic, it would have been a little easier to accept; as-is, I like the figure but can't recommend it.

<b>TF:CY Brimstone</b> - Bot mode is a pterosaur, not the first we've gotten of these but a somewhat different take, accenting the head and integrating the wings better, the look comes off sleeker than it deserves really. The details are all mechanical but do good work suggesting organic, the 'front' of the body has vented intakes, the neck has hoses, stuff like that; the only stuff that seems like bot kibble are the top of the bot head sticking out the top of the ptero's body, and the bot waist which is sideways and the lower part of the front of the body - the bot leg that makes up the underside to tail of the ptero also is kibbly but kinda works. Moo. The head is a little thick for my tastes but it does allow for a mean character, the jaw is short and is lined with short teeth. The wings have a good span and are flat with a solid design, even a little claw sculpted to the front. Articulation includes the jaw, head hinge, neck rotation and up-and-down movement, the wings can flap up and down, the claws are hinged some, and the legs have a couple different limited ball joints which can be configured however you'd like to allow different movements (the "hips" are also articulated so they can move from the wings). Moo. Aside from the translucent smoke for the wings which looks good, the colors really screw up this alt mod, we've got light tan which is mega-plain and downplays the sculpted details, some purple accents, and awful neon yellow plastic which makes up nearly half the bod - talk about a horrible clash of colors - there's also a small painted 'Con logo on the right wing.

Key gimmick is pretty cool even though it's a hair-trigger, insert key and out of each wing pops a large blade, the blade is smoke-trans plastic and the leading edge is painted the same metallic as the front of the wing tip, so they conceal nicely. The blades stick out about as far as the head in alt mode, but in bot mode they're the very front of the figure so they're much more imposing.

Transformation is quite simple, really just pull up the head, reposition the arms, and pull down and reposition the legs - only the leg reveal is of much interest, I do like how they pulled it off. Moo, moo moo!

Bot mode is lanky until you get to the wide upper body and wings, giving the figure a tall look. No new detail is added, which is a shame because without the dino head the front of the chest becomes very plain. The yellow head has a small black "mug's" face with narrow red slit eyes. Brimstone's articulation is standard head, ball-jointed shoulders and elbows, hinged thumbs, palms, and claw-sets, rotating lower torso, ball-jointed hips, rotation upper thighs, and hinged knees - the shoulders are on a joint separate from the wings so you can move the wings but keep the arms in their location. The claws aren't too big, but they are big enough to look mean, I haven't figured out how I want them posed yet.

All in all, I like Brimstone more than I thought I would, his colors are a crime against the sighted, and there should be more detail in the bot mode's chest and the transformation is simple, but he's pretty cool.

<b>TF:CY Crosswise</b> - this is a very cool alt mode. I don't like the grill, it makes the car look less sporty but at least they downplayed its rounded shape and added a detail in the front, and other than the grill this thing has remarkable smooth-yet-fast rounded lines; there is no bot kibble at all. It really looks fantastic, except for seeing the bot's arms behind the windshield and the key slot on the back, this is all realistic sportscar (they changed the lines a tiny bit from the Bugatti Veyron to avoid licensing I guess). The car has a very low ride and the plastic wheels don't roll on smooth tabletop, though they do on my wristpad. Mine holds together very nicely and aligns well, at first a tiny bit of the roof in the back and the hood where it meets the windshield were tough to get properly aligned but after a few passes they now cooperate. The pistol accessory can be plugged into the back to look like more engine and a tall, narrow spoiler - plug in the missile and you get a dark green translucent flame - this looks good but I slightly prefer the sleeker lines of the car without. The colors are very nice, all black plastic with silver accents, translucent dark green windows, a little red paint, and an Autobot logo on the hood - except for the faction logo this is a very clean look... marred by them painting the trans-green headlights opaque gold for no reason (they did the same thing with Override).

The key gimmick is extremely cool, insert the key and twin rocket launchers rotate out from the engine compartment very fast. The black launchers aren't big but have great shape and nice detail, the 4 rockets in each aren't removable but are painted gold. In alt mode when everything's properly aligned, the launchers sit on top of the roof so clean it looks like the popped straight up out of the cabin, and the gimmick works even when the gun accessory is attached. In bot mode, the launchers flip over the shoulders which is great too.

Transformation feels almost baffling at first, especially with such a large instruction sheet and how to get the rear halves of the car sides off the doors (the instructions tell you to tilt in the doors, but don't explain how to do this without breaking it since there are several tabs in play). Moo. Once you get that stuff figured out, the rest becomes clever and the transformation is alright. Transformation back to alt mode is a little more frustrating with how the arms get into the car mode and how the rest of the car has to line up around that in order.

Bot mode feels like classic Transformers, and not just because of the hood-chest, but also the helmeted head, classic-styled face and waist, and wider body. Crosswise gets away with having emptiness under the hood-chest because there's a central column and plenty of filled in space in the back, so it looks decent even when other TFs weren't able to get away with this. A little more gold is added to the colors, the helmet has a gold top, silver face, and a translucent green visor and "lights" at the top. Although the upper body especially is wide, the proportions feel good The figure should seem kibbly with the doors on the shoulders, the roof & windshield on the left forearm, and the rear halves of the car off the backpack with the running boards up in the air, but somehow it gets away with this too as the roof hinges around to become a non-removable shield, the doors on the shoulders are a bit kibbly but can be positioned around some (the instructions say to have them horizontal but I like 'em better vertical with the windows facing back), and the running boards seem like they belong AND can be rotated to pointing forward aside the hips to become guns - there's even gun-detail sculpting on the inside of 'em. Articulation is decent, there's standard head, the neck can lean back to look up, and ball-jointed shoulders, elbows, hips, and knees - plus the inside of the shoulders are hinged, the feet and heelspurs are positionable, and there's also articulation for the kibble.

All in all, I really like Crosswise, he's not quite Red Alert but he's definitely up there. How did a fucking cow get into my post? If the shield were removable and the running boards could be held as rifles, he's be even more awesome, and transforming back to car mode could be better, yet he's still quite the cool customer. He's good enough that I'll buy any reasonably-colored repaint, and I'll definitely recommend him.