Well, that was easier than I thought. The local Woolies had clearly only just put out a new case, so I grabbed all the figures I was missing. And with the prices down to £4.50 each, and a 20% voucher they’re currently giving out, it only cost me about a tenner.

I must admit, I’m very impressed by the likenesses. While I’m not hugely fussed about the two Robots of Death, there’s no doubt they’re spot on with their TV counterparts. It is a bit rubbish how you’re buying the same figure (effectively) twice though. Especially when you look at the Magnus Greel/Mr Sin pack which contains two figures, both detailed, a robot arm, the disintigrator gun, spare head for Magnus Greel, and Mr Sin’s knife. The Silver Voc that comes with just the figure and robot foot looked pretty stingy by comparison.

The Mr Sin figure is ace though. Absolutely spot-on likeness.

And I do love the now-complete Robot. Amusingly, has leg hinges are a bit loose, which combined with him being a bit top-heavy means getting him to stand is a bit fidgety and he ends up looking a bit awkward, which I think is pretty accurate given the giant robot suit the actor had to work in during the episodes themselves

Grrrr. I hate these collect-a-figure things. Marvel Legends were famous for doing them. Basically, each figure in a wave would include a piece of a much larger figure, so by collecting every toy in the wave, you’d have all the bits to put together the final figure.

As a result, I’ve got random bits of Sentinels and Galactus’ legs kicking around the house.

Annoyingly, the classic Dr Who figures are doing the same thing. This time, you get a bit of the robot from Tom Baker’s debut story (cunningly entitled: “Robot”) with each figure. And the problem is that I really love that story and want that figure.

Usually I’m pretty good at resisting these things, however after finding the elusive 6th Doctor figure (probably my favourite of the 3 classic Docs in this wave. Its a great likeness), I find myself now owning most of the bits. And what I’ve got looks really cool.

I don’t even want the Robots of Death figures, but I’m trying to justify them to myself purely for the purposes of getting the giant robot legs. Gah!

Some new pictures of the upcoming City Commander trailer for Classics Ultra Magnus can be seen here

I can’t afford it sadly, but its certainly drool-worthy, and hard to resist for a big Ultra Magnus fan like me.

On a related note, I’m really loving the Universe Classics. Prowl and Sunstreaker have both been released over here, and they’re ace toys. I really love the way that Prowl’s shoulder-mounted missles have been integrated in, instead of left as separate pieces. They’re great updates of the originals.

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Hasbro have updated their site with new pictures of the Animated Ultra Magnus toy (there’s a lot of new info due to Botcon being this weekend).

I’m definitely picking this guy up.   He looks really cool

Well, we’re just over the halfway mark now in Transformers: Animated.

This is easily the best show since Robots in Disguise. While I enjoyed Cybertron, Armada was quite painful for most of its run (surprisingly since the plot was actually good - just badly executed with really annoying kid sidekicks) and Energon I just got bored of and stopped watching by the halfway mark.

However Transformers Animated has a good balance between humour and action. They’ve changed things around in a way that’s probably not been done since Beast Wars, with Optimus Prime being much younger and an academy washout, now running a simple repair team who happen to find the Allspark while on a routine maintenance mission. Its not long before the Decepticons (who haven’t been seem in generations) turn up and attack them, forcing them to crashland on Earth.

This show did two key things which make it a great draw I think. The first was to muck things about. We have a Prime who’s young and not the best commander in the world. The Autobots on Cybertron being run by Ultra Magnus in this continuity (yes!).

The second was to make the Decepticons much more of a threat than they’ve been in years. In this show, we’ve got an unexperienced maintenance team of Autobots. So if even one Decepticon turns up, then they’ll be fought to a standstill. There’s a real sense of them being out of their depth when 2 turn up together, and when Megatron is finally reactivated you know they’re in big trouble. Its a big difference to the classic days when Megatron’s favourite battlecry was “Retreat!”

On a personal note as well, as a UK G1 comics fan, I’ve always loved Ultra Magnus. He was the first “big” Transformer I got as a kid, and as such I’ve always had a soft spot for him. So it was a bit dissappointing to see the character be so ridiculed in the US fandom (which I guess is understandable, as they didn’t get the ongoing Magnus/Galvatron grudge match we did). I loved it when the character was resurrected for Robots in Disguise and thought it was a great updating. However since then, he’s been relegated to being a white Prime repaint in just about every line, and he’s certainly not been a character in the show.

So having him not only back, but now the wise, leader of the Autobots is brilliant. Its another very different interpretation of the character but I love it none-the-less. And he’s got a whacking great hammer. Which he controls thunder and lightning with.

He’s the Autobot Thor! Brilliant!

Annoyingly the toys still aren’t out. There’s a good few must-buys for me from this line. Sadly part-and-parcel of getting sucked into the cartoon is that now I want loads of the toys. I’m going to be skint

Man, its been ages since I posted anything Transformers-y.

TFW2005’s forums have some pictures up of the new animated Grimlock toy.

That’s a “must buy” for me. It looks brilliant

I’ve been enjoying the new cartoon a lot. I was originally dubious as it was such a large departure from the “Unicron Trilogy” style that I’d gotten used to, but its worked really well. I love the re-invention of the younger Optimus Prime, who’s been drummed out of the Autobot academy and found himself leading this ragtag space bridge repair crew. Its really different to what’s been done before and its put a nice fresh spin on things.

Plus, as a UK comics fan, I love the fact that Ultra Magnus is in charge of the Autobots in this version. Can’t wait to see what his new toy is like

Well yesterday I nipped into Toys R Us and saw that they now had a giftset of Blackout and Scorponok. These two Decepticons should be familiar to anyone who’s seen the movie, as Blackout laid waste to the US Army base in the opening scene of the movie, and Scorponok tracked the soldiers who escaped afterwards.

As a result of this fairly cool scene, I’ve been keen to pick up the two of them, so the giftset seemed like a great idea, especially since the box was roughly the size of a Voyager-class, I figured it’d be nice and affordable. Well, shame on me for not checking the price tags more carefully, as the cost was actually £39.99! I was in a hurry though, so wasn’t really watching what I was doing.

Now, since most people reading this won’t really follow Transformers toys, the problem here is that Blackout is a Voyager class toy. Which means he retails for £19.99 (give or take). Scorponok meanwhile is a deluxe, meaning a cost of £9.99.

Yup, Toys R Us suckered me good.

Sadly, I’m one of these strange people who won’t take it back and complain, as I view it as my fault for not checking the price before buying it. That and the set is now the source of a perverse amusement for me, just for the audacity Toys R Us have for stocking it at that price.

As for the toys themselves? Well, fortunately I quite like them. Blackout’s helicoper mode isn’t necessarily as robust as I’d like, but he matches his on-screen appearance well, looks suitably evil, and his some nice gimmicks in his mini-Scorponok he carries with him, and his geared rotor system.

Scorponok should be awful. Only his beast mode appeared on screen, so the designers have had to cobble together a robot mode for him based on what they had. It kind’ve works though. He looks quite monstrous which appeals to me. Again, he’s got a nice gimmick in his gears claws (push him along the ground and they turn, along with a flywheel in his chest), and his tail is nicely articulated. Plus I quite like how the fixed spring-loaded missle in his tail works as a stinger. Simple idea, but it works well.

As an added bonus, Scorponok can be pegged underneath Blackout to be carried into battle, and apparently (though I’ve not tried it yet), in this mode, triggering Blackout’s rotors will also activate Scorponok’s claws. Neat.

Well, hot on the heels of the film’s success, Hasbro h already started previewing its new animated series and toy designs for 2008.

The new aesthetic will take a bit of getting used to, but the toy designs look pretty fun. Plus the opening theme is one of the best in recent years.

Here’s a video that was taken of a recent promo shown at a convention in the States.

And Tformers has a gallery of the new toys:

http://tformers.com/ig.php?mode=album&album=8198&start=0

Looking forward to seeing how it turns out anyway.

I picked up a couple of new additions to my action figure collection the other day. Here, in all their glory are Booster Gold and Supernova from 52, and the Wonder Woman and Donna Troy Infinite Crisis figures. And yup, that’s classics Optimus Prime and Bumblebee lurking in the background.

I must admit to liking the new “posed” style DC has adopted for the Infinite Crisis figures, although you do lose posability which is a shame. Donna’s hair also means she’s permanently looking to the left. They’re really nice new sculpts though.

Now I just need GL wave 3 to be announced and for it to contain an Ion figure.

There’s more good news for fans of Booster Gold as well, as Geoff Johns has announced that rather than being co-writer on Booster’s new book for just the first 6 issues, he’s now going to be co-writing it permanently. Really good news, as this is easily the new book I’m looking forward to most at the moment.