Transformers: Combiner Wars

 Combiners, the huge Transformers made up of 5 others to become an ultimate weapon of destruction.

So as a childhood "fan" of the Aerialbots, I just had to watch this series of 8 rather short episodes.

It begins with a battle between Menasor and Computron falling from orbit, the Decepticon overcoming the Autobot.  He is taken down hinself though by Autobot reinforcements.  Starscream arrives, reporting to Rodimus of the arrival of the Combiners.

Rodimus considers to use the Enigma to create more Combiners to stop them, as they reveal that both Optimus and Megatron are in exile due to the war they started long ago.  A failed attack by Windblade on the enigma artifact is prevented by a returned Optimus though.  They engage in a duel, bith physical and motivation, Optimus managing to disarm her.  She begs him to help her out, and as he learns that the Council wants to use the Enigma of Combination he looks to Megatron to help them out to destroy the it.  

He agrees to help them out, as he hates Starscream even more then Optimus Prime.  Together, the three of them make way to the Council tower where the fallen Combiners are located, though they do all look differently on the plan to follow.  Observed by the Council, they argue to use the Enigma to control the Combiners themselves and stop Optimus, Windblade and Megatron by the threat of the huge Transformers alone.  Megatron attacks Starscream as the Council retreats inside behind their defences, but they manage to break through the gun systems.  

Devastator arrives on scene, tearing off an arm from Rodimus.  Devastator has revolted against Megatron, refusing to follow his orders anymore.  Victorion arrives to look for the Enigma as well, engaging the Decepticon combiner.  Starscream obtains the Enigma by the vote of the Council to stop the war, reactivating both the deceased Menasor and Computron.  But Starscream being Starscream he immediatly betrays their trust in his evercraving hunt for power, turning all the present Combiners into his ultimate form with him as the core.

But he can't control the power of the Enigma, causing it to overload  and rain devastation on the surrounding city.  Windblade engages him, her inner power awakening in order to face him, awakening Metroplex to hold Starscream, allowing Optimus and Megatron to stop him.

So, a short series, and it was okay to watch.  No Superion though, that was a bit of a pity...

Transformers: Rise of the Beasts

 So, Bumblebee was an enjoyable movie, probably one of the better instalments in the Bayverse series of our beloved Transformers.

So what will this sequel bring, apart from entering the Maximals into the franchise?

The Maximal homeworld is attacked by the planet eating Unicron, spearheaded by the Terrorcons led by Scourge.  He seeks the Transwarp Key, whoch can open portals through space, in order to consume planets faster.  Apelinq, the leader of the Maximals, sacrifices himself to allow the others to escape with the key though, as they flee to Earth.

On Earth, in 1994, an ex-;ilitary Noah struggles to find a job to support his family, and turns to the theft of a car with his friend.  This Porsche 911 turns out to be the Autobot Mirage though (heresy, they litterally made Jazz into Mirage!), while Elena Wallace, an intern at a museum, starts studying an ancient Eagle statue with strange markings on it.  It accidentally breaks, revealing the Transwarp Key and sending out a signal that is detected by the Autobots Optimus Prime, Arcee and Bumblebee.  

But it also attracted the Terrorcons, and a battle ensues leaving Bumblebee deactivated as they steal the key.  However, this turns out to be only half of it, and when Airazor arrives to help them, they learn the other part is hidden somewhere.   Elena deduces from her studies of the eagle statue it must be in Peru, and the Autobots together with Noah and Elena travel there.  They meet up with Wheeljack and go to the ancient temple but find the key is no longer there.  The Terrorcons attack again, Airazor being corrupted by dark energy from Unicron.  They find the other Maximals, and when Airazor is about to betray them, Optimus Primal, the Maximal leader, deactivates her at her request.

A chaotic battle breaks out, and Scourge obtains the two parts, assembling it atop a volcano and opening a portal for Unicron to journey through.  Scourge gravely wounds Mirage in the battle, and he transforms himself into a powered exo-suit for Noah to help him battle Scourge, while Bumblebee is recovered due to a  large pulse of Energon and rushes to the aid of his friends.  Optimus Prime kills Scourge at last, and destroys the key collapsing the portal and banishing Unicron away again.  

In the aftermath, Elena gets credited by discovering ancient ruins, while Noah, who also repaired Mirage, is approached by an organisation called GI Joe to cover his little brother's medical bills and asked to join the agency as an ally...

So, a nice set-up for a crossover movie at the end, and I actually found this an enjoyable movie again right until the exo-suit moment.   This for me was way over it, and a bit of a pity they ran the story that way to have Noah save all, deducting for me a lot of the whole Transformers "power" as they need a human to battle in essence a heap of grunts...

Still, curious if that cross-over ever comes, it seems fun to have Optimus Prime and The Rock duke it out though.

Transformers: War for Cybertron - Kingdom

 Remember that Beast Wars episode where the Ark is found?

Well, this season gives of a vibe of following on that part, as the Maximals and Predacons enter the fray.

 

With the Autobots and the Decepticons now crashed on Earth, they meet unlikely allies from the future: the Maximals led by Optimus Primal and the Predacons led by a Megatron who received his name from his illustrious forefather.  But Optimus Primal reverts to Optimus Prime as Nemesis Prime, with Optimus having no idea who he is talking about.

 

Megatron, still in possession of the Matrix, receives a Golden Disc from Predacon Megatron, a relic he has seen in a vision from Galvatron.  Both factions realise they are looking at their descendants from a far future, where Cybertron has fallen as Prime didn`t manage to return the Allspark.  In the meantime, Airazor who has been captured is tortured by Predacon Megatron, much to the dismay of Dinobot.  As he engages in conversation with Airazor, he starts doubting his loyalties and honour.  

The Autobots and Maximals band together to free Airazor, while Prime sets out to stop "his" Megatron from obtaining the Allspark.  They manage to free their comrade, but the Decepticons have set out to find the Allspark, guided by visions from Megatron.  Dinobot realizes Megatron must be stopped, and sheds his Predacon allegiance, trying to get the Golden Disc and the Matrix from him.  He bests Megatron in combat, but "Beast" Megatron intervenes, but a critically wounded Dinobot manages to escape with the Matrix.  Optimus Prime finds him, returning the Matrix to his chest and thanking the dying Dinobot.

Optimus reaches the Allspark, learning it is dying itself.  The Allspark and Cybertron seemingly share a symbiotic relationship, one cannot sustain itself without the other.  Blackarachnia and Starscream are scheming together to seize control of the Decepticons, as Optimus Prime learns that in order to defeat Megatron, he must loose.  Inside the temple, the old foes face off against each other, and Prime knows this is where Megatron lost the war.  Megatron, who obtained the Matrix again, steps into the temple, but the Matrix rejects him, returning to Optimus Prime of his own accord.

They know they have no time to loose to return to Cybertron, to save both the planet and the Allspark, and prepare the Ark for launch.  But the Nemesis arrives, battering the vessel's shields even with Autobot and Maximal fighters trying to take down it's weapons.  Starscream in the meantime is having visions of Unicron, and that Galvatron is Megatron in the future, turning him into a rambling madman.  As the Ark is about to be destroyed, it suddenly transforms into a giant robot, as Teletraan One had learned in the Dead Universe that this was a moment in time he needed to do this, and had been rerouting systems and energies by himself to do so.  With the Nemesis out of commission and the Decepticons and Predacons captured, the vessel sets course for Cybertron.

On Cybertron, they encounter not only Galvatron, but Nemesis Prime as well.  While Megatron and Galvatron battle the Autobots and Maximals, the two Prime's square off, allowing Bumblebee to sneak off with the Allspark into the temple.  The evil lords seem to get the upperhand, but when Bumblebee places the Allspark in it's holder, sparkghosts of fallen Autobots and Decepticons arrive, including Elita-1 and her team that fell at the end of the second season.  They make Nemesis and Galvatron dissappear, as the Allspark powers up and Cybertron comes back to life.

An uneasy peace is formed between Optimus Prime and Megatron, in order to try and rebuild Cybertron to it's former glory, as Unicron torments Galvatron and Nemesis Prime for their failure...

So, that concludes the War for Cybertron trilogy, and I must say it was great fun to watch, even though it did receive a heap of bad criticism (mostly for not having it's original voice actors).  Never the less, if you are into Transformers, this was worth the watch.

Transformers: War for Cybertron - Earthrise

 The second part of the War for Cybertron trilogy, and finally I got round to watching it.

And let's see how the remaining Autobots handle the fall-out of season 1, with the betrayal of Ultra magnus, and the Battle of the Starbridge that left Cybertron is shambles.

It all starts with an Autobot prison raid on a Decepticon jail, where they are amazed they locking up those of their own kind.   But Shockwave is working on a big plan called Project Nemesis, which will require all the energon of underperforming Decepticons, something Megatron must acknowledge after visiting Sector 12.  The Autobot team is captured by a lure of Starscream, who used the long-dead Steeljaw (btw, that was one of Blaster's cassetes in G1) to send out false messages, and brings them before Megatron for harvesting.

In space, the Ark is boarded by Doubledealer and his mercenaries, where he finds the inert body of Optimus Prime.  They are fixing the ship back up, as he has a deal he can keep the ship if he delivers the passengers to his secretive patron.  

On Cybertron, Elita and her team are about to be killed when suddenly the Decepticons they freed earlier make a break-out attempt, and even in Skythread they find an ally who thinks Megatron is going to far.  On the Ark the Autobots are starting to awaken, and they are brought before a Quintesson.  He claims it was him that freed Cybertron aeons ago, but as he is about to destroy the Autobots, the mercenaries, being doublecrossed, sweep in to free them.  Back on the Ark, they realize that not only does Megatron not have the Allspark, but that they have the actual means to search for it and take off in the vessel.  But on Cybertron, Megatron forces Shockwave to activate Project Nemesis, a gigantic spaceship powered by harvested sparks and sets out to search for the Autobots himself.

 

With the Ark not having enough power and the spacebridges on Cybertron destroyed, they set course to a station where a bridge is seemingly constantly open.  They find a spacestation wedged inside it, and as they board the station are attacked by an enraged Scorponok, the last of his kind that didn`t revolt against the Quintessons.  When Megatron and Optimus Prime engage in a duel, he orders the destruction of the station and they find themselves in a strange  "Dead Universe".  Here they meet some strange visions, Optimus Prime encountering Sky Lynx, who long ago wanted the matrix for himself but has come to terms with his own failure.

Megatron meets Galvatron, who tells him he will help kill Optimus Prime, and he reawakens the old spark of hatred Megatron had when still fighting in the pit.  He engages the Ark, but Sky Lynx sacrifices himself so that the Ark can escape the Dead Universe.  The Nemesis persues, and they find themselves above a blue watery planet where the Allspark should have gone to... Earth.

As on Cybertron the battle rages on with Elita facing Shockwave, resulting in a big explosion engulfing both forces.  As Optimus Prime communes with the Matrix on what he should do, as the mercenaries also exit the Dead Universe, out to destroy both Autobot and Decepticon alike.  Megatron through deceit overpowers Optimus Prime and takes the Matrix from him, as the Ark crashes to an ancient Earth.  It is seen by a Velociraptor... when he suddenly scans the vessel with an optical sensor.

And so the second season of the trilogy ends, and I am eager to start the third for one with that cliffhanger.  If you ask me, the Beast Wars are entering the fray, and that raptor was Dinobot...

War for Cybertron: Siege

 The first series of the new Netflix Transformers trilogy, War for Cybertron, I watched it with anticipation and high expectations!

But alas, not all my boxes have been checked after the sixth episode ended.

Now, this has nothing to do with the fact the first 5 episodes are almost purely talking talking and more talking before the action starts, nor with the animation style that looks like a videogame cutscene.  Heck, I even kinda liked that to be honest.

No, it are the changes to some of the characters that bothered me, the most obvious being loyal Bumblebee, for years Optimus's right hand man, who has been changed not only in a scroundel like energon scavenger, but to make matters worse isn't even an Autobot!

 

 The series itself focusses on the dying days of the Autobot rebellion on Cybertron, and how Megatron is planning to cull them all by making use of the All Spark and reformat them all into Decepticons. In order to prevent this, the Autobots want to hide the All Spark on another planet, and then take their Ark to go in search of it should they manage to get an ancient starport working.

This leads to defections, betrayals and even cold hearted execution of fan favorite Ultra Magnus, and while some are perfectly translated into this reboot (Jetfire for sure!) some other old stars have become totally different in personality, roles and even motivations (Ratchet!!!).

 

So is it a good series?  Yes, but with some serious reservations that hopefully will be tackled in the second season.

Oh well, and otherwise they just have to bring the Dinobots along and save the whole series that way, because Grimlock KING!!!!

2.11.0.0

Bumblebee

The sixth movie in the Transformers franchise, I sat down with Noshi yesterday to have a look at this prequel.

And after the, let's put it politely, garbage of the previous instalments, I didn`t have much hope.

But how wrong was I proven.  Not only is this movie far better in how the characters look and are recognisable like their cartoon counterparts (the opening part alone already!), it`s also just great fun filled with funny jokes and situations.

After fleeing Cybertron, Bumblebee is send to Earth to secure the planet as a rallying point for the Autobots, and he has to prevent the Decepticons from finding and claiming it for themselves (which does rise the question how Blitwing already ended up there).  He gets beaten up in the resulting fight (and it is explained how he loses his voice) and this raises the ire of mankind against the robots as well.

Charlie Watson, an 18 year old girl in 1987, finds a yellow Volkswagen Beetle in her uncle Hank1s scrapyard, and receives it as a present.  This soon turns out to be our beloved Autobot, but with a damaged memory core he can`t remember who he is or why he is here, so she dubs him Bumblebee.  As he slowly remembers, he sends out a signal to the Autobots, but this is intercepted on the moons of Saturn by Decepticons Shatter and Dropkick, as they are executing Cliffjumper (nooooooooo) to learn the whereabouts of the planned rallying point.  They travel to Earth and through deception befriend the Sector 7 agency in locating Bumblebee.

They capture and kill Bumblebee, but Charlie is on time to save him and bring him back, and as Sector 7 also sees the error of their ways, they join forces.  Together they prevent the Decepticons from sending a signal to bring an army to Earth and conquer it.  Bumblebee and Charlie say their goodbye's, and taking on the form of a 1977 Camaro (ugh) Bumblebee reunites with Optimus as the Autobot fugitives reunite...

A good movie for sure, that brings back some redemption to the franchise.  It's also great the robots now aren't just grey metallic masses with unfollowable transformations, but actually look like how we got to know them in our childhoods.

Definitly the best of the series!

Transformers The Last Knight

The latest of the Bay-verse Transformers movies, this is more of the known recipy of explosions, treason and barely plot.

Yet, while this movie was filetted by the critics as the worst so far, I actually enjoyed it more then the previous entry, who only had the Dinobots appearance going for it for me.

Optimus Prime was last seen leaving Earth to look for his maker, and ends up in the clutches of Quintessa over on Cybertron.  She reprograms (enspells sounds so wrong with 20ton robots) him into Nemesis Prime, who is send back to Earth, with the whole of Cybertron in it's wake, to obtain the Staff of Merlin.  This relic, ancient Transformer technology, would suck Earth (which is actually Unicron) dead to restore Cybertron to it's original glory.

Meanwhile on Earth, the Transformers are hunted and destroyed by a new anti Transformer military task force.  Though oddly enough the Autobots are blown to pieces (poor Canopy, we barely knew you), while Decepticons are put in prison... only to be released in negotiations with Megatron?

A fantastic performance by Anthony Hopkins, and his robot butler Cogman (and that awesome looking ww1 tank Transformer) teaches us that they have been amongst us ever since the days of Arthurian legend, and been hiding for centuries amidst us.  What follows is a movie with more car (and submarine!!!) chases then the average Fast and the Furious franchise entry in a race to find the mysterious staff and stop the destruction of Earth.

Now, yeah, that doesn`t sound to "intelligent", but that isn`t why you should watch a Transformer movie after all.  This one felt less "stretched" then it`s predecessor, and had some great humour in it.  Surely, the characters are flat and the Autobots (let alone the Decepticons) play a second role in the whole storyline barring the holy trinity (Optimus, Bumblebee and Megatron), but it`s just that, sheer mindless entertainment.  And on that part, this special effect godzilla scores mightily.

There will be more of them, and quite frankly, I`ll gladly watch them as well.

The Haul Report 97

Welcome everyone to another weekly gathering of toys and stuff for my collections.

And it`s been a varied week, mostly grabbing myself some used thingies in the form of a box from the Troll Trader, on which I also did a small and shaky unboxing video earlier this week:

Now, in said box are mostly a heap of used figures to bump my Slaanesh and Order forces, things to round out units a bit more and such.

The first of those is the old, metal Cauldron of Blood, which will serve as the command for my 1000 points Daughters of Khaine force, though I stil have to look at the armylist, see later on in this post.

Also for Age of Sigmar comes this unit of 10 plastic Chaos Warriors, to form the heavy hitting backbone of the Slaaneshi force.

The 30k Ahriman model is my choice for the Chaos Sorcerer in 40k, I love the sleek lines of this model more then the spiky bits models currently in the range.

These 10 very classic Halberdiers are to expand my Altdorf colour scheme State Troop regiment, as they are easier to line up with the more dynamic basic state troop models.

Another 30k model is this loyalist Terminator captain, who I`ll be painting in the colours of the Emperor's Children to become a proud Lord of Chaos to lead my forces.

And the final set of models from the set can be used in both forces of Slaanesh, as the Deamonettes are an excellent cross-game regiment.

Something totally different to arrive this week is this classic Jazz model, my childhood favorite toy from the Transformers line.  When a buddy of mine reduced his collection, I took the opportunity to add him to mine and placed him in a nice and shiny center position amongst my toys.

I also passed by the Games Workshop this week to pick up the new White Dwarf, and a pot of Lilac paint as I thinnered to hell the previous one (how should I know it was supposed to be a lump inside, I thought it was half dried out).

The final thing I added, and why I have to look over my army lists soonish somewhere, is the new General's Handbook, in which apparently a lot of points values have been changed.  So all my prepared army lists and paint goals are probably not really valid anymore xD.

Well, that`s it for this week, quite a stack yet not the most expensive of hauls I ever did...

Transformers Tiny Turbo Changers blindbag opening

With the Last Knight came a series of blindbags for the Transformers line, and I found some of them in the Intertoys in Geldrop.

Now, I don`t want to just grab at random and end with a couple of doubles, nor do I want to collect the whole series.

So a quick search gave me the bumpcodes for the wave, to be found HERE.  These codes are located at the back (sorry, the picture doesn`t really show them), but slightly to the left above the Hasbro logo, there is a number imprinted on the bags.  About a centimeter further left of this code is a single letter, and that is the model that is in the bag.

So that would mean I picked out the Grimlock (I always loved the Dinobots) and Crosshairs, because, well, my criteria of buying a Transformer is that he is
a) an Autobot
b) usually transforms into a cool car

This is a general rule of thumb, as as a kid I liked for example Superion far over Defensor, though in the new series I bought neither.

Turbo Changers are small 2 - 3 step transforming, rather softish plastic models of about 4 cms in height, and come only with the most basest of paint jobs on them.  Perhaps their biggest attraction is their sort of Chibi style robot forms, like those mono-pose bags that where on sale here about a year ago and just contained small, non transforming, G1 lookalike characters.

The first bag contained indeed Grimlock, in a beige colourstyle compared to the more traditional grey and golds.  The dino looks actually quite nice bar perhaps the "blocky" part of his feet hanging under the T-rex'es maw.

Transforming him is simple, turn around the hindlegs and split the head open, and he is all done, but he looks fine for such a small little fellow.

Crosshairs, the irish sniper in the movie, is perhaps well detailed in his carmode, but it suffers from his non painted windows on this mode imho.

Again he has a simple transformation of putting back the hubcap (which becomes a big block at the backside) and pointing the arms forward, but the seen from the front, and even with the limited paintjob, he looks fine.

These are cute and small models, nothing to fancy and just nice little gimmicks in a collection if you ask me.

And they stand nicely in my toy display cabinet now, Grimlock in his dino mode, while Crosshairs is displayed as a robot.

The Haul Report 95

Hello all, a day later then usual as it was a busy club weekend (both events will be covered later today), and I was on holdiays the past week.

Never the less, I did obtain a small loot, due to a sale going on in the Intertoys stores where I was on vacation.

Combined between the stores of Mierlo and Geldrop, I managed to get some cheap Transformers models (for example, Mirage was 15 instead of 25).

All in all, this left me with the Combiner Wars Mirage, Titan Return Brawn headmaster, and two blindbags which, thanks to the bumpcode, I know are Grimlock and Crosshairs.

Not to shabby for a cheapy...

GoBots: Battle of the Rock Lords

In the same year the excellent Transformers: the Movie came out, 1986, this not so excellent movie of the GoBots also appeared.

While it was actually half a year earlier in theatres, contrary to the Transformers movie this hadn`t spend years in production, and it shows.

Basically a glorified extra long episode of the series, it did spawn it's own toyline featuring robots that changed into... rocks.  that hop along on the surface of their planet...

The film begins when an unidentified asteroid lands on GoBotron, and contains an emmisary looking to enlist the aid of the GoBots in their war against Lord Magmar.  The renegades intercept this message though, and Cy-Kill and his forces move to "aid" Magmar in an effort to steal his superweapon to be.

On the planet, a battle erupts between both sides, and even though Cy-Kill manages to obtain the weapon, it is to powerful for him to control, but Leader-1 defeats him and they are defeated, as the GoBots return to Gobotron.

Now, the GoBots weren`t a rip-off of the Transformers, and the toyline even debuted before the well loved Robots in Disguise, making use of DiaClone models not adapted (well, they where in the future) into the toyline.  The figures where weak compared to some of the bigger Transformers, though they focused on the smaller figures like in the TF line (think the size of original SeaSpray and the likes), and they where cheaper when I was a kid.  Yes, I had quite a few of them, and some, like the top hat wearing limousine, where firm favorites of mine, looking even better then the Transformers, though that was more exception then rule.

But the movie, well, that ranks amongst the weaker toys as well: a hotch potch of badly connected plot points and crappy dialogue.

The Haul Report #18

A bit of a special thingie this week to kick of the Haul Report.

A little thingie I bought with some nudging from my GF... Pirate undies!!!!  press the skullbones and unleash the cannon!!!

Okay, so that might not be true, it was just a cool boxer with the glittering Jolly Roger on it ;-)

I also received the latest (and last, I didn`t renew my subscription anymore) issue of the Transformers Club magazine.  Another nice comic in it and all, but seen over a year, the high price for a european subscription don`t really make it worth the buckos anymore.

I also got some nice bricklinks in this week.  Quinnsville is going ahead greatly, and actually should be completed this week, just one more little parcel with yellow slopes to arrive for that.  But it literally EATS light and dark grey studs as the roads and such are all cobblestone styled.

The GF also found these nice Friends sets, of this year`s actually, in the local supermarket.  I love the range, and this birthday subtheme is great with it`s sweet colours and great animals.  She brought along two for me, so one will be build, and one I`m keeping either for an exchange sometime, or for one of the future raffles I told you about yesterday.

The final score of the week is a classic.  The Lego Battles game puts Pirates against Knights against Spacemen on the classic DS console.  I found this through a Facebook group, and I dusted of my Pikachu DS especially for it (yes, I have a Pokemon DS, I`ll show it one day)...

So a nice and varried haul this week for sure, see you back next sunday for the weekly grabbings...